Honoring My Polish Heritage

Where can I buy this?  I want this.  Anyone who has 'Jaime' on his or her Christmas list - take note!!

A Throw Back....

These are my two girls who are no longer with me.  This picture was taken on the day we got Samantha.  Gretchen had been an only dog for about half a year.   Samantha had no problem warming up to Gretchen, but Gretchen kept looking at us with a "I didn't sign off on this" look.   They were the odd couple, but in the end, they were the best of friends - to each other and to me.   I miss them so much!

O Christmas Tree

I find having a real Christmas tree very similar to living in Chicago - I had a childhood without it and didn't feel deprived at all, but now that I've experienced it, I will never go back to the other way of life.

Anyhow.   Christmas season is upon us!!  My favorite part of it is gift wrapping.  Just sayin'.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I've noticed a lot of people list Thanksgiving as their favorite holiday.  Maybe it's because a) I'm not a turkey and 2) I've never had to cook one, but I totally agree!  It's nice, quiet, low pressure, and delicious. And, for the first time in a long time, I will have the day off work afterward without having to take a vacation day.   That is something for which I am truly thankful.

Anyhow - I am on board with having Thanksgiving as a favorite holiday.  I am thankful for you, dear blog readers, amongst many other things.  Have a great Thanksgiving, all!

Classmates.com

All this talk about Alumni Junction in my previous post raised a question for me - does anyone out there actually use classmates.com?  I don't know of anyone.  I am sure it is a reputable business.  I remember seeing a headline from The Onion which went something like "No One Has The Heart to Tell the Classmates.com People About Facebook".  I think that pretty much said it all.  Does anyone use it?  How does it compare against facebook?  Is there anything better or worthwhile about it?  I think it was, at one point, a great idea, but even if it has some selling points on facebook, it loses out on lack of participants alone.   One can reach many more old classmates on facebook.

Anyhow.  I am not trying to trash classmates.com because I know nothing about it (semi-disclaimer).  I am just curious if that's pretty much a universal sentiment....

An Angle....

So recently, I read a post by another blogger (I don't have it handy :-() about how hard it is to find an identity for one's blog - does one blog about a certain topic, or just topics as they come to mind?  Does one's blog have to be about something?  What is this blog about?  (I somehow, in some weird way, think of the 'what are we?' relationship talk when I think about this matter...I imagine myself asking my blog 'what, exactly, are you about?').  Anyhow.  As my long-term readers know, I have explored this identity crisis for my blog for a long time.  I have never really come to a conclusion...until now.  After 3+years....

Drumroll, please....

This blog is about personal relationships (not necessarily romantic) and human behavior.  Not every post, obviously, will be on this track - but I will try to have at least one a week on these matters.

Drop The Charges!

So, since I am single, a lot of my non-single friends like to try to set me up.  Today, I was at a good friend's house.  She mentioned that she thought one of her fiance's friends was a great guy and perhaps he and I might hit it off.  Her fiance was hanging out with him at said moment.

Later in the day, her fiance walked through the door.

My friend:  Hey honey, how's Derek doing?  (She winks in my direction.)
Fiance:  Oh, he's great.  He's really happy he was able to get the charges lessened....

In case you are wondering - no, it is not possible for that to mean anything else than what one might think it does.

Have my friends dropped the bar on their standards for me?  I was told that, despite this, he's a great guy, and he'll be at their wedding, so I'll definitely get to meet him!!

Translation

So one of my good friends is on a dating site.  She recently received an email that went something like this:

Hi there! How is your day going? You have some great pictures on your
profile. How recent are they?
Well I hope your week is going well...


She was wondering what 'great pictures....how recent are they?' means.  We both translated this to mean 'did you gain weight since they have been taken?'


Please let us know of what you might think said email means.

Bad Grammar

This amused me. 

Rough Day

My 15 year-old puppy Samantha passed yesterday.  She fought until the very end.   She went to join her big sister, Gretchen, who we lost 3 years ago.  I always felt bad because Samantha was in the hospital when we lost Gretchen, so when Sam came home, Gretchen was mysteriously gone.  I feel like she must have always been confused about where she went.  Samantha was very tough - I think the first picture captures that well - she ripped into that Christmas present like it was her job.  In her final days she needed room service - as shown by the second picture.  Poor girl.  She was suffering at the end, but she lived a good life.  We just all have to miss her forever now.

RIP.

Kangoooo!!

Has anyone seen this workout craze?  I guess it's called Kangoo jumps...or the shoes are called Kangoo jumps...I'm not really sure.  I saw it happening at my dance studio - that's all I know.  I can't mock it too much:

a)  It looks like a pretty good workout and
2)  It looks like a lot of fun

However, it also doesn't look like something for the clumsy/anxious/accident prone - I'm not going to lie, I saw some slipping and falling.  However, if these ridiculous shoes and classes are decently cheap, I wouldn't mind trying this crazy absurd workout tactic.  Anyone else out there tried this?  Did you like it?  Did you stay on your feet?  Your thoughts?

Bad Crazy Vs. Good Crazy

So, as some of my regular readers know, I like to follow the antics of Paula Abdul on occasion for my own personal entertainment.  Recently, she was interviewed in Glamour magazine.   If you will - a tiny excerpt:

Do look for a way past "no".  My first audition to become a Laker Girl was a cattle call and no one even saw me.  i got cut immediately, but I sneaked into another room, changed my leotard, put on brighter tights and changed my hair.  Then I went back in and used my middle name - and I got it!

Needless to say - I find this story a little crazy - but GOOD crazy.  Perhaps there's a fine line between bad crazy and good crazy.  And this woman toes said line quite often.  However, I enjoy something about this story - in fact, I might feel a twinge inspired.  The next time I don't get a job or something of the like, maybe I'll send in a resume under another name.  Rock on, Ms. Abdul!

What's The Deal With Alumni Junction?

So I periodically get emails from 'Alumni Junction' that my high school classmates have posted messages for me on their site.  It is specific classmates by name that I remember, but either a) it's someone I've never spoke to, so I highly doubt he or she is contacting me or b) it's someone who could contact me on facebook, so why is he or she writing me on a random site instead?

Anyhow.  I keep getting these emails.  I went to their site.  I know these 'messages from my classmates' must by lies.  I attempted to login - I clicked 'forgot password'.  It emailed me my 'password'.  Let's just say I'm, for better or worse, too much of a creature of habit - this is not a password I'd choose.  I found it odd that it sent me a password, instead of telling me to create a login/account.  As I started to think about it, I had no recollection of ever being at the site and creating an account (not that it is something so noteworthy that it'd stick out in my mind, but still).

I know there is some kind of sham here.  I am not sure what, exactly, and I do not want this blog to be sued for libel.  So, I do not have any hard evidence, nor am I making a direct accusation, but something seems off.  Does anyone know anything about alumni junction?  I did a brief google and I found someone discussing, on his own blog, in relation to his upcoming high school reunion, that he directly spoke to someone who 'posted a message to him on alumni junction' and she directly told him that she had not.   Your thoughts?  Anyone have more information?  Any alumni junction users out there?