DO NOT MOVE THE LAPTOP...

Sooo my laptop charger doesn't always work in my laptop anymore. I don't know if it's the laptop or the actual charger and I refuse to spend the money to replace the charger if it still won't work.  And it's seriously pissing me off. 


I finally, tonight ,got it to hit all the right spots and start charging again and now i seem to have a laptop that i can't move... at all. If the dogs come near it and brush up against the cord i could lose the connection, like i did this weekend. Which means that i am back to surfing the web on a 7inch notebook that i use to do quickbooks for a friends business. Have you ever tried to use a 7" screen? When you already wear glasses to see??

 GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH


So now I am trying to write as much as I can while I can. Which means the book is taking precedence over the blog. So life, lets see where it's been going. I am still working at my job, 40 hours a week - still taking training classes along with being on the phone and the pay is still crap.

 I am having a hard time living on it.

i am counting down the days until my daughter gets married - 12- and until my besties come down to my beach house for our annual Oscar's Weekend Extravaganza - 18! Fun , friends and lots of drinking games...

Rainbow Shots

My new drinking fountain...

Battleshots... yes!

I will be trying to make this for fun and games over oscar's weekend. But we'll be doing shots of beer - we are way too old to be doing real shots to this extent. LOL

Yes I am excited about the wedding too, but I don't share a lot about her life on here - so sorry, no details. 

So now I try to get enough sleep since I'm getting up at 5:30 ish and i love staying up for Jimmy Fallon or Craig Ferguson. I usually end up stretching out on the couch to "relax" and falling asleep for a few minutes before I get up and go to bed. Sometimes it's 10:30, sometimes it's 11 but I am tired.

 I set four alarms so I don't over sleep and I manage to get to work 15 minutes early every day.

So as long as I can keep my laptop charged I will be posting a lot more blogs. They are all sketched out and I just need to finish them and post.

Hoping your January and February have been fun and full of love. 

  

I've been a bad blogger...

I know ... random much? Ha! I do so love this picture tho. Me sainted gran-da would be tellin' me "Now that's how you drink The Guinness me love" 

So where have i been?   Training non stop at the new job working all kinds of funky hours. Then there was Christmas, and the loss of some wonderful people who all passed away too soon.

Travels home for the holidays and visits from friends and family here. Sometimes when I get home at night my brain is so fried it's all I can do to talk to the dogs. BUT i noticed the change in my moods, the need to express being stymied. I bought journals and never wrote in them. I took pictures I never shared. I spent way too much time on facebook or watching Investigation discovery channel or NCIS and found myself numbing out instead of focusing on what was good and important.

Broke , as usual, I found myself wondering how I could be so poor when I was working 40 hours a week and when I was on unemployment I could make ends meet. It's a sad state of affairs and one that can be changed... but only I have the power to do that. After 2 years of not working a secure steady job I have now found one, but the joy of living at the beach means that the pay is 50% less. 


I haven't been writing when i should because my free time, my muse if you will,has been replaced by reality. But if you're lucky enough to live at the beach, you're lucky enough... and I seemed to forget that for a few weeks.


So I'm back and I have an overflowing brain of things to write. The book is still simmering and is on my goal list. Life is still a beautiful, wild, lovely state of affairs and I've finally kicked my own ass enough to be able to realize that again...every day. 


And so I write. 

Happy Thanksgiving and catch up time...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Wow it has been way too long since I blogged. I apologize. In the past 20 days, I got hired at and started 2 jobs. I left the one at KMart because the 2nd job I started is at a bank and is full time, more money and has excellent benefits. Based on the openness of my blog and the world today in general, I will simply refer to my new job as ... The Bank... What's funny, or great, is that the day after I asked a friend to say special prayers for me to find the right job, I got the call for an interview from the Bank and subsequently got the job!  

Yes, I do believe in the power of prayer. I also believe in angels, ghosts, Karma and Divine Intervention. I am a mixed up bag of spirituality.

I've gone thru 2 weeks of training and Wednesday was my first full day on the phones alone. All went great and I am loving the job, meeting some great new friends and walking almost 3 miles a day getting around the work site. Yes the call center is that big! 11 more days on the phones then back into training for 6 weeks. Christmas parties and Secret Santa's and pig in's, my own cubicle... I have missed the business world! I also like the job security. 

Last weekend Mom and Dad came down to their beach house and brought my daughter Kelly and her fiance' DaShaun with them. The kid and DaShaun stayed with me and it was so good to see them. it had been 3 month since I had last seen the kid - tho we do talk every day- and I MISSED HER!  Mom surprised me with a fabulous early family Thanksgiving last Sunday and it was so great. Today, I spent the holiday alone and didn't even care... because I had last Sunday! 

Today I appreciated the day off, slept in until 8:30am (i have been getting up at 5am during the week)  and made a great meatloaf, asparagus w/ hollandaise sauce, a baked potato and crescent rolls.

mmmmmm cheese soup on the meatloaf!

I finally get paid next Friday - 3 weeks worth - and man will it be good to have money. Right now I have about 10 bucks in my bank account and I drive 30 miles a day back and forth to work so I am in a bit of a panic. BUT everything happens for a reason and If I had extra money in the bank right now I would be black Thursday shopping tonight... I do not need to be doing that! 

So many things to be thankful for...but that's for another blog tomorrow. 

For those of you who celebrate it (believe it or not I have a lot of readers who aren't from the US) I hope your Thanksgiving's were filled with friends, family, laughter, love and good food. 

I hope you take a moment, or hopefully longer, to truly reflect on all that you have in your life to be thankful for. Please remember to appreciate all that you can while you can, because life can be fleeting. Don't wait to say what you feel and love who you want because you've got to start living your life every day! 

"and today there was joy. Joy for life and all the beautiful people and experiences involved. I hope that all you dear hearts were able to feel that joy all around." ~Jamie Windsong Kasper

xoxoxoxox

  

around and around...

UGH! Can you belive the Phillies LOST??  It sucks because now I have to wait until Spring for more Phillies ball. And do not even get me started on the Eagles. Oh well there's always the Flyers. such is the life of a Philly sports fan. You win some... you lose a lot. LOL


Still in limbo here in slower lower, as I wait for the PA DMV to copy and mail me my PA drivers license. I can't start working at the one job I got at Cracker Barrel, until I have that license in my hand. Once I get the license I have to go to social security and get my replacement card as well. But that will only take an hour or so. So I float - with no money coming in and a feeling of nervousness at my situation. Spinning around and around in that catch-22 circle. I hope the person who stole my purse is still enjoying it. Because I sure as hell am still cleaning up the mess they made.


(For those of you too young or not from the US who may question what a "Catch-22" situation is or what Catch -22 means:A Catch-22, coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22, is a logical paradox arising from a situation in which an individual needs something that can only be acquired by not being in that very situation; therefore, the acquisition of this thing becomes logically impossible. A real life example of this - much easier to understand would be -A man tries to get a job with a company, but they won't hire him because he has no work experience in that field. He cannot gain work experience because he cannot get a job in that field without experience. ~copied from Wikipedia - Catch-22)


It amaze me how one act can have such a ripple affect on so much of my life. And instead of utilizing my time off, I sit around and do nothing - or surf the web for other jobs. I have so much to get done in my house that I should be doing but haven't gotten off my ass to do them yet.  Which in turn makes me feel more useless and annoyed. another Catch-22 if you will... but one I can solve by getting over myself and becoming productive. I swear PROCRASTINATION should have been my middle name. Why put it off for tomorrow that which you can do the next day...LOL or something to that effect.


 I know that part of this is the PTSD rearing it's ugly head. Part of it's stress from the money situation and pure laziness as well. But really, what good is it doing me to dwell? To use this as an excuse to simply exist instead of live and thrive?


Here is my positive, moving forward affirmation and to do list for today-


Only I can control my actions and only I can change them. I refuse to stress about things that I have no control over - the license, the job, the money.... Instead I will only concentrate on that which I can accomplish. By doing that, I will then be able embrace the positive feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.  


So here is my promise to myself for today. I feel if I put it on the blog, I will be held more accountable for it. Tonight before I go to bed I will let you know what I have actually done. Even more accountability...


Today I have decided to work myself ragged. When I fall into bed tonight I will be exhausted from the sheer volume of everything I have accomplished today.

•  I will clean my house today, including scrubbing the floors and getting into those corners and under the furniture.(this is really something is should do 2x a week because of the dog hair and I haven't done it since last week) 
•  I will finish painting the hallway today and then paint the cabinets and around the light fixture in the bathroom. All of which will be the same bleach linen color so it will be logical transition from one to the other. 
• When that's complete, I will head out to the screened in porch and vacuum it before it rains, so I can enjoy it more when the weather is cool.(ugh - cobwebs and spiders abound... this will be a tough one to accomplish)
•  I will eat a decent meal today - not a can of tuna or a handful of crackers. (yes - even tho I may be overweight, I do not eat enough. Sounds silly I know but when I am stressed I don't eat. )
• I will call the DMV in Harrisburg and see what is going on with my license replacement.
• I will call Cracker Barrel and explain to then that once again I will not be able to start the job because my license has not arrived yet (this one is the hardest on the list for me to complete...makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it)

So there is my list. This is how I have learned (God bless you life coach Andrea Owen) to stop listening to those negative gremlins in my mind and get my head out of my own butt and get things done. Okay peeps - it's time to kick ass! Wish me luck!

Randomly ramblin...

I spent the whole weekend and most of Monday behind the sewing machine doing those Eagles numbers and as always my mind wanders down the garden path.

 Here are some of the things that I found as I wandered and some life updates as well...


~Only 8 more days until my birthday! 48 this year... GAH!

I did not think I would be where I am at this age. I think that is a good thing. I own a house at the beach. I will be working a job I can leave at the job place and not take home with me. I am happy and content and thank God every day when I wake up.

~I will be celebrating my birthday alone for the first time this year. No friends or family to party at the Blarney.

I will miss each and every one of them too. But i refuse to let that get me down - see above...I am a lucky girl!


~Chewy, the new dog, or as I like to call him "Special Ed" is adapting well. He is now a full fledged member of the family for both me and Jack.

He's crazy, but in a good way, and really, how else would a pet I own behave? Plus he's a stone cold love bug who likes to snuggle so it's a win/win.




~Fall has arrived and down here at the beach it's been 60's during the day and 40's at night. It energizes me, this beautiful weather does.

I decorated for Halloween and sometimes just stand in my living room and full out grin from ear to ear at my beautiful house. Well probably more than sometimes...


~That said - it is supposed to be in the high 70's and full out sunny this weekend. One of the benefits (and there are many) of living at the beach is

I can go to the beach on a warm October day when every one else thinks beach season is done.


~I found out today, that I can't officially start working until I get my license in the mail. So now my start date will be next Wednesday instead of today. 

I am looking at it as a kind of spontaneous vacation. A week to do what I want before I start working every night and weekend. So today I am vegging (still trying to catch up after an all night sewing session I pulled), and cleaning. Then the rest of the week will be outside work, painting and reading and writing. Sounds like a damn good week to me.


My Phillies are trying to win the games that will get them to the World Series. October ball, it doesn't get much more exciting if you're a fan. And God knows I am a fan.

It probably goes without saying, that I Believe!Phil's are going all the way this year and I can't wait to see it!


Well thanks for joining me as I ramble along again... remember to count your blessings, hug those you love and appreciate everything life offers you - the good and the bad- because it's what makes us who we are! Wishing you smiles and peace~Stacey

ok so here's what I've been doing...

I wish i could say it was an exotic vacation that has kept me from writing a new blog. Or an exotic man, LOL = ) but alas , nothing as fun as either of those possibilities. Crunch time w/ the sports jersey's i do on the side for my friend. Here's what i have been working on at home and the shop for the past week...

 Eagles 1960 throwback jerseys! See that name Plate that says anyname?? Yep that's what I have been sewing. Along with numbers for the regular jerseys. These throwbacks are gorgeous by the way - hope you'll keep checking back for new posts. I promise one is coming up soon. Working on "30 things i learned the hard way" and "Embrace your life today... don't wait for if only's"


Make today Fantastic! ~Stacey