Mad at Blogger

It won't update changes that I've made to my profile and it is so slow to update posts. Irritating. Not much has been going on, so not much to write about. This weekend my big plans are to clean out a closet or two, and that's about it. Brent and I have been making weekly trips to Home Depot to look at paint colors. I think next month we are going to paint the bedroom and have a garage sale. We are having a hard time deciding on a color. Even though it is a girl I am anti most girly colors, especially pink. I am leaning towards painting the room a really light green, almost white, and Brent is leaning towards a darker color. The room is already dark as it is. So we'll see what we end up with. Hopefully next weekend we will meet up with our friends Lenabelle and EJ for dinner. We have been trying to get together for a while now, and our schedules never work out. The distance doesn't help either. Since the gas prices have been going up we have really been cutting down on our driving. I will not make a trip unless I absolutley have to.

Land O Lakes hot chocolate is the absolute best hot chocolate ever made. It puts Swiss Miss to shame. My Mother-in-law got us a huge box from Sam's with all different flavors in it, and I am almost out. It is the closes thing to coffee that I will drink right now. That was random, I know, but it had to be said.

So, did anyone else watch Lost last night?



I love that show. The beginning was so weird! Trent had some great details on his site that I never would have caught. That is what that show is all about, paying attention to all the small details that somehow bring everything together.

I have been spending too much time on this blog today while I'm at work. I'm supposed to be working! Being here in itself is work. Dealing with this place is almost unbearable. But anyway. I don't want to talk about work and I don't want to talk about the baby because I feel like lately those 2 subjects are all that I talk about. They are always first and foremost on my mind.

5 months...

Crazy evangelicals are saying that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans because of the upcoming Decadence Parade that was to be held there. Basically saying that God would rather kill thousands of innocent people, children and animals then to let homosexuals gather and have some fun. You can read what the psychos have to say HERE

I wonder what the crazies will have to say now that another category 5 is heading right for Texas?

borrowed from Athens

I love this!



I kind of like this one too but Brent thinks it a little much

My Guilty Pleasure...

I have to admit it - I am hooked on this show. It started about a month ago. Damn that MTV, running a marathon one Saturday. Before that, I had never seen an episode. I thought it was so stupid. Why would I want to watch a bunch of spoiled rich brats, and I thought it was probably really scripted. But that Saturday I found myself watching one episode after another, and then watching it on Tuesday nights. I realized how hooked I was when this weekend I went to Blockbuster and rented the entire first season, and watched it in 1 day. I also watched all of the bonus features, the cast interviews, all of it. Don't think less of me. It's a really good show. I love the backstabbing, the love triangles, the jealousy. It is so high school and maybe I just miss that. Brent doesn't get it, but I just think it's because he had kind of a boring high school experience, especially when it came to girlfriends. There was never any drama. I had lots of drama, so maybe that's why I can relate more.

Junk Comments...

Spammers are amazing in their ability to find a way to clog up EVERYTHING. I am going to have to turn on the word verification for comments now, because I am starting to receive junk comments as soon as I post something. I delete them but it is just annoying.

I like when certain people tell you they will call you back and then never do. You know who you are.

To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?
That's right. Horse shows.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?
When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the widow at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Stress

I know, I know, I'm posting like crazy lately and you can hardly keep up. I guess I've had a lot on my mind. Let me tell you a story about what is going on in my life.

It all begins back in April. I'm about to finish school, we've been saving money like crazy, and things are good. We decide now would be a great time to have a baby. Next thing you know, boom, I'm pregnant. Sounds cool right? No.

In July, our A/C unit decides to die, and it costs a LOT of money to replace. Then other miscellaneous appliances around the house decide that now would be the best time to take a crap on us. Bye bye money.

Then I tell work the good news that I am pregnant. They tell me that's great, but how will it affect us? I find out that my wonderful "family owned" company does not pay for a maternity leave, so I have to apply for short-term disability coverage. I do that, and last night I get a letter in the mail telling me that they have decided to reject me because I am pregnant. So, no money on my maternity leave. Great.

A couple of weeks ago, my manager calls me in her office for a review. The good news, I'm getting a raise. The bad news, it is a crappy raise that will barely cover the rising gas prices. But I take it okay because I figure who's going to complain about a raise? I mention something about how much time I get for maternity leave and she looks puzzled, tells me she'll ask the "Human Resources" person. P.S. We don't really have a "Human Resources" person, it's just the owner's secretary. The real Human Resource person quit a long time ago and we haven't had one since.

Next thing I know, I'm getting called into the "Human Resource" person's office, along with my manager. I am told that the company has no maternity leave policy, and after 4 weeks of being off of work, I will recieve a termination letter at home. Mind you, the company is "Family owned and operated." Also, the "Human Resource" person has 2 kids herself. They tell me, "don't worry, it's just a formality," and "you'll still have your same pay and hire date when you come back." However, I could possibly lose my benefits, or at the very least there will be a lapse in coverage. And what happens if I get put on bed rest before the baby is born? The clock starts ticking the first day I am out, and if 4 weeks go by before I have the baby, too bad, I am terminated. Just what every new mother wants to worry about, not having benefits.

As you can imagine, I am racking my brain for a solution to this problem. Then a great idea comes to me! When we bought the house, we got talked into paying for this optional Borrower Protection Plan. It's about $39 a month. The mortgage guy assured us that in any event that we couldn't pay our mortgage, this handy "protection" would cover us and everything would be fine. So now I think, great! I can just use my Borrower Protection plan to skip a couple mortgage payments when I go out on leave. Problem solved, right? No. I look through the piles of paperwork, and in there it says that pregnancy is not covered. So then I think, well, I am technically getting terminated from my job, maybe it will cover that. No. Since I am being terminated for missing work (even for a medical reason & under doctor's orders), it is technically my fault and they don't cover that. So, I guess I would have to be dismembered, or hit by a bus, and then they might let me skip a payment or two, as long as it wasn't my fault that any of those things happened.

SO, does anyone have any ideas for how to make money from home? Home prostitution is out, for obvious reasons. I couldn't do that with a baby in the house! How about telemarketing, or phone work, 900 number stuff? Any ideas let me know.

Some people who read this used to work at the same "Family owned and operated" company that I still do. To those people, please do not mention any of this to other people that still work there, namely a girl whose name is also a season of the year.

My name is Alissa, and I spill stuff on myself.

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.


P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.

Memories...

Ever hear a song you had forgotten about, and it immediately brings up memories that you'd put away? Maybe they are not so good memories? I was messing around on Itunes and Matthew Sweet just popped in my head. His album "In Reverse" is really good and I had totally forgotten about it. I downloaded it and listened to some songs, and my head just started spinning. Someone I used to know was a huge music person and had tons of CD's of people and bands I'd never listened or sometimes even heard of, and this was one of those. That got me thinking...

D was really short, my husband is really tall. D liked to dance and goof around like that, my husband not so much. D would eat just about anything I put in front of him, my husband is beyond picky. D had a huge CD collection and would listen to so many different kinds of music. Sometimes it would bug me because he would hear a song once and then run out and buy the CD, and a lot of times the CD would suck. And my husband is not really into opening up to new music and sometimes thinks I'm nuts for what I listen to. D was health conscious and very into his body and working out. Me and the husband, well, let's just say we could work out a lot more. D was focused on finishing school and enjoyed going. My husband hates school, to put it mildly (even though he has started a class this semester!). D wrote me the most beautiful and sincere 4 page front-and-back love letter I have ever gotten, and showered me with cards and notes and little presents. My husband has tried his hand at writing, and I've gotten my fair share of cards from him, but he finds it hard to express himself. D wasn't so much into the sports, and my husband loves sports.

In all the things that D lacked, my husband has, and vice versa. And maybe the biggest difference between them is that I don't think I was ever in love with D, and I fell completely in love with my husband. D was a great friend and great on paper, but I am pretty sure he was gay.

This is the first chance I've been able to sit and write for a while. I am would really like to change a lot of things on this blog, but I don't have time to try to figure out how to do it. I hate the template, it is really boring, but I html code is really hard to figure out and I'm afraid I'll make one wrong move and lose the whole thing.

I am in a ranting mood today. First of all, we found out last Wednesday that we are having a girl. We were more than happy with that news. Brent was even a little relieved to be having a daughter rather than a son for our first child. What got me a little upset was some people's reactions when I told them. A few people had the nerve to come right out and ask me if I was disappointed. When I said no, they asked me if Brent was disappointed. Why the hell would we be disappointed?? Just because men are always supposed to want boys? I know that some guys are like that, but I still wouldn't come out and ask someone if they were disappointed in their child, especially when it is something we obviously can't control. I know that people didn't mean it to be offensive, but after the 3rd time hearing it I was over it. I always thought that I would want a boy as a first child because it seemed like boys were easier, less to worry about. When I found out I was pregnant, I began to change my mind. Girls are more fun to shop for, and there's a good chance she'll be a helper when we decide to have another one. I've also been told I'm going to be "huge." Thanks.

Another thing upsetting me is all the news about the hurricane. It hurts my heart to think about what these people are going through. It overwhelms me when I try to think about it. I can't even pretend to know what is like. It's like a car accident you can't help but look at, I keep reading things on it and watching the news. But when I hear about the anarchy that is going on, the looting, the shooting, the carjacking...it is so infuriating. These people are begging for their lives, and yet due to the complete lack of conscience of a few people, they are delaying their own rescue. I don't know if that sentence made sense, but you get the point. Starting fires, shooting rescue helicopters, holding up supply vehicles at gunpoint...what the hell? I can understand looting food and baby items, necessities, but today on CNN.com I saw a picture of a guy floating a garbage pail full of stolen beer. They have absolutely no concept of right and wrong. They are trying to evacuate sick people from hospitals and people are shooting at the helicopters and medics, like it's a sport. If someone is waving a gun around, the police and military should have the right to shoot them on the spot. I know we are going to hear about innocent people getting murdered by stray gunfire from these crazies. It's like they don't know how to live in a civilized world. They see an opportunity to get crazy and they take it. I know they say that tragedies like this bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. And this is one of those cases I guess. Unfortunatley, I am reading a lot more stories about the bad.

Okay, I'm not so sure I want to post this now since I seem really grumpy. I guess I am grumpy. Work usually makes me that way. To lighten the mood go to www.pinkisthenewblog.com and read about the wonderful world of celebrities and their silliness. Or go to www.http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/ and be entertained.