Ooooohhhhhhh

I haven't posted all week. Actually the first part of the week I just procrastinated, and then I got sick a couple of days ago (thanks FH, love ya anyway). Ohhhhhhhhhh I am sooooooooo miserable. We both have (mostly) dry coughs, and a little congestion, and I feel like I have been beaten up. Seriously, my ribs hurt. SO.BAD.

I'm gonna go take some nighttime cold medicine now and see if I can get a decent night's sleep.

Happy Friday to all

I had a phone interview today with a dermatology/cosmetic surgery center. The lady was really nice. It lasted about 40 minutes, and she wants to meet me next Wed. They are hiring for different positions-receptionist, billing, supervisor, etc. It sounds like something I'd really be interested in. I just hope it doesn't pay something ridiculous like $8/hr.!

It's been snowing lightly here for the last couple of days, nothing major. We almost have my car dug out of the snow. Wonder if it'll start! Guess I should try it tomorrow.

No big plans for the weekend, just getting my nails done tomorrow morning, then coming home to do chores.

I'm watching When Harry Met Sally-LOVE that movie!
"I'll have what she's having..."

Up all night...

Sleep all day! I wish (remember that song?)

I was up almost all night again until 4:00, then I laid down and just could NOT go to sleep. I think I slept a total of 2 hours. I was verrry tempted to stay in bed this morning but I still was not very sleepy so I got up at 7:30. I have an interview at 1:45 today so hopefully I won't be sleepy then. Yikes. We also may go to a movie tonight since my future hubby has free tickets-hopefully I can stay awake! Now let's see if we can agree on what movie to see! He wants to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets (problem is I never saw the 1st one)and I want to see Definitely, Maybe.

I should just get busy and do some cleaning around here for a few hours instead of playing around on the computer. Yeah, right.

It snowed overnight, but not very much, only about an inch or so, YAY.

I don't think I've mentioned my cat before, but she is my baby and I've had her for 8 years. We are completely smitten with each other (so call me crazy cat lady, I don't care, neener neener!)
I think she is 9 years old. She is a beautiful white cat with a few dark grey markings and a grey tail, and her name is Sophie.

She has developed some disturbing health issues in the last 3 years or so. She started licking her sides and tummy incessantly, until almost all the hair was gone, and recently, she started chewing on 2 of her paws until they bled. :( We ran up some vet bills having her tested for the licking problem (of course they can't figure out if it's allergies or behavioral) and then we had to have her paws all bandaged up, which she just LOVED, almost as much as she loved wearing the plastic collar lampshade thing around her head. The paw problem started over the summer. We thought they had healed, but a couple of months later she started up again, so we have had the plastic lampshade on her for the past month, because she just cannot leave.her.feet.ALONE.

So, last night, as a test, I took off the collar for an extended period of time (instead of just the usual time limit of about 30 min. per day) and watched her like a hawk, and she actually left her feet alone. She did start in on them a couple of times but luckily we caught her and she stopped, and so we left it off overnight and she seems to be okay. The only thing is that she has practically been licking and grooming non-stop since last night, so we are trying to figure out if this is because she is making up for lost time while having the collar on, or if it's a health or behavioral issue. *sigh* I'm so crazy about her and I don't understand why she has to have these problems, but all I can do is take care of her. She's my sunshine.

Ta for now!

I love chocolate

Mmmm, I just had a glass of chocolate milk...YUMMM.



Whenever I have time off work, I get into this not so healthy pattern of either staying waaaaay too late, or getting up in the middle of the night and getting on the computer. Now, let me explain...I do have a hard time going to sleep sometimes, and sometimes I have a hard time STAYING asleep due to my bad back-it gets to hurting so much that I HAVE to get out of bed; however, I have got to break this somehow, because I get all off schedule and am always feeling unrested. Hopefully we will get a new mattress soon, and that should help a lot with my back. Also, if I would get busy and lose some poundage, that would help in all KINDS of ways.

Anyhoo, I got up at 11:45 today because I was up most of the night (plus my tummy didn't feel good). I knew I had to get busy making calls and such to commence job hunting and filing for unemployment, but it took me forever to get around to it. I tried calling unemployment a couple of times but was on hold forever (ok 45 minutes, but it FELT like forever). Finally got through and went through about 15 minutes of automated questions, then talked to a nice lady named Mavis who finished everything up. She sounded like a truck-stop waitress (not that there's anything wrong with that-it's just a description!) :) She asked why I was terminated from my job. I told her that I had been accused of "violating sales ethics" and she said "I hate that (insert bank name here)! I do NOT trust them!" Too funny. Here's who she actually reminded me of: Good ole' Maxine!

Maxine..I mean, Mavis, told me she believes that I will have NO problem qualifying for unemployment. Of course I have to wait for someone else from unemployment to call me for an official phone interview, and from there they will determine if I qualify for benefits, so I will not count on anything until it actually happens.

I also received a call from an agency today in response to my cover letter and resume that I emailed to them yesterday, so I have an interview with them tomorrow for a job as a medical billing assistant, sooooo, we shall see.

On a side note, I'm beginning to wonder if anyone has even seen my blog. I think I've done everything right as far as making sure it shows up in searches, etc. Oh well, I'll give it some more time. Meanwhile it's good for me to kinda use as a diary/journal. I'm beginning to realize how easy it is to forget the details of daily life, the little things that happen, so this blogging is a good experiment for me.

This is me lately: Sick, I know. Heh.

This'll be short...

Cuz' there's nothin' to report...HA! I made a rhyme. *sigh*

Guess we get one more day of good weather, then a storm (or 2 or 3) coming in until Sunday, boo! So I'll be wishing I was HERE:




Instead of in the middle of:


How many days till summer?????

So I finally

took down my Christmas tree. Yeah, I know it's February! Sshhh!!

It looks so sad in here now. No pretty tree and twinkling lights.

So starting tomorrow I hafta start job hunting again, although I am going to try to salvage the job offer that fell through. Maybe I'll spell out the gory details later but for now just know that it had something to do with my bad back and bum knee...and it's a DESK job, for gawd's sake! That just doesn't sound right, does it?

Well, for now I am going to finish watching "Sixteen Candles" (can you believe I've never seen it??!!)

RANT FORTHCOMING

"When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window."

Yeah, RIGHT. The joke's on me. I guess when he closes a door, he DOES open a window, then....he slams it shut on your fingers.

At least that's what happened to me. Ok, at least that's what I FEEL happened to me (I don't mean to be disrepectful-but geez, can't I get a break???)

I may not be thinking rationally right now...but my new job fell through. I guess I should think "it wasn't meant to be" but at this moment I am too upset and angry.

I was SUPPOSED to work for a department of the hospital here in Tahoe-a decent paying job with tons of room and opportunity for growth, but noooooo. That apparently was too.much.to.ASK. There aren't many decent jobs up here. Now I might have to get a job at one of the hotels or casinos with crappy hours and even crappier pay, with people puffing smoke in my face. I moved here from LA almost 3 years ago. I was making about $42,000.00/yr down there, and up here I can't even get to $22,000.00/yr. How freaking humiliating is that!

I just don't know what I have done in my life to deserve the shit that gets piled on me sometimes. I had to start working full-time at 18, never got to go to college...but I've almost always had decent jobs...until now.

Yeah yeah yeah-I'm grateful I wasn't born in Iraq, I have family and friends, I have a great fiance, a cat who I adore and who adores me, a roof over my head, a paid off car, I'm fat but basically healthy other than a very bad back and knee, I'm pretty (and vain, I know, so bite me!)...but...still...you know? I seriously need a winning lotto ticket. Hope I can remember to buy one tomorrow.

So we went to dinner...

at Rojo's, a local barbecue/pasta/karaoke place. All the locals here rave about it (and so do tourists-probably because they're all caught up in "oooh it's Tahoe, it MUST be good!"). It's been around in Tahoe forever, something like 50 (?) yrs. Anyway....I have to say, it's highly overrated. These people need to get out more!

It was okay, and the barbecue beef sandwiches we both had were good. The beef was very tender and the french roll it was served on was nice and soft. It's just that the place had such a build-up from everyone who recommended it that the reality was kind of a let-down. It's kind of a dive (ok, it's REALLY a dive!) and could really use a make-over...make that an EXTREME make-over! Oh well, it was a pleasant dinner, even if it was freezing because they sat us near a window.

It was good to get home tonight, because it was 25 degrees out there, bbrrrrrr!

I have SO much I need to do around here in the next few days and I am so unorganized. Anyone else have this problem? We live in a studio apartment and it is so stuffed with...stuff! It's really sad, because most of my stuff is still in storage in L.A. I have this vision of getting this place all nice and organized, but I am just not gifted in the organizational/domestic arts, and I would be too embarrassed to have anyone come help me. Oh well, at least it's clean, it's just cluttered.

Off to bed now!

Ice...

Is NOT nice! I have been outside for the last 1 1/2 hrs. CHOPPING ICE, so that I could have a non-slippery path from my front door to the car without falling on the ice rink out there and busting my ass or knee. I didn't get it all, but I did clear out a great deal of it. Of course after you chop the hell out of it, you have to get rid of it, which means you gotta shovel but not put it where it's going to be in the way of another car or apartment. In this case it meant chopping it, flinging it onto our "porch" (if you can call it that) and then shoveling it onto a pile of snow about 6 ft. high in the side yard. Now I'm too freakin' tired to go and do the laundry, which was the main reason I needed to clear that path so that I could carry the clothes and stuff back and forth without slipping. I have GOT to get out of here!

Me and the man are supposed to go out to celebrate Valentine's Day tonight, since we have bowling tomorrow. I'm not sure where we're going, but I feel like having a steak, YUMMM. With the way I'm feeling after all that ice chopping though, dinner is about the only kind of celebrating I think I'll be doing tonight. Dayum!

I'm glad the little beagle won the Westminster dog show. Sooooooo cute!

Helloooooo, is anybody out there?

I didn't do much of anything yesterday except put away groceries from Sunday. I have a really bad lower back which was in more pain than usual so I just took it easy.

Hopefully I start my new job in 2 weeks. Too bad that I have all this time off but no money to hop on Southwest and fly down to OC to visit my BFF. Dangit!

I think I'll make some cookies tomorrow. That should make it all better, right? Right!
Ok, so I know cookies won't REALLY make it better *sigh* but I might make 'em anyway.

Easy like Sunday morning...

Today we're off to go "down the hill" (meaning down to Carson City) to make our Costco and WalMart runs. The Wal Marts here are SUPER Wal Marts, which mean they have grocery stores, not just a small grocery section. Their prices are usually fantastical, and I get to browse around all the other sections of the store first. :) Of course Costco is always fun too, but damn, we never seem to get out of there for under $100.00. Boooo! :(

Yay, I get to eat at Panda Express today, which may not seem like a big deal (and yes I am quite aware it's not authentic Chinese food, but there's not even a decent fast food Chinese place here-a couple of grocery stores have Chinese food, but it.is.GROSS.) but there is no Panda up here (Lake Tahoe) and not even any good real Chinese restaurants. We suffer from a deplorable lack of good chain restaurants, regular restaurants, and fast food. Waaaah! There are a lot of restaurants here, but not very much variety. You'd think, with being a tourist town, there would be much more to choose from, but noooooo! Not even El Pollo Loco, Yoshinoya, Del Taco, Jack in the Box, TGI Friday's, Red Robin, or just about anything else you can think of. Not even any one of a kind, hole in the wall Mexican, Chinese or Italian places-well, maybe they exist, but they're well-hidden, for sure. Gotta go to Carson City or Reno for those.



We have to go to PetCo, too, to return a big azz bag of cat litter. It's called "Yesterday's News" and is made of tiny rolled-up newspaper pellets (!) and it was supposed to be better for my cat, as regular litter seems to get stuck in her paws, but it's kinda gross and it stinks, because it doesn't clump and it's hard to clean out, so we're back to regular clumping litter and I just have to clean her paws every day with a soft brush. I like going to PetCo on Sundays because it's cat adoption day and I get to visit the little angels, but it makes me kinda sad because I can't adopt one. My cat is an ONLY cat, and just hates other animals, except when she watches them on TV. No, she really turns into a little violent demon around other cats and dogs-it's horrible. It's hard to understand, because she is so loving with me and the future hubs, and she loves humans...but animals are another story for her! We get raccoons here on our patio frequently, and they come right up to the window and she tries to "box" with them! You can almost hear them laughing at her.

Almost forgot...

Happy birthday to my little bro, Danny! I know you won't see this, but I'm thinking of you and hope you had a great day and that everything works out for you in Santa Barbara ! Love you!

"When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window. "

Well, I finally heard from my employer yesterday. Seems they finally decided to terminate my employment since I allegedly violated sales ethics. What a laugh-I wouldn't even know how to violate them. Anyway, it's all for the best, because I HATED that job...and I already have another lined up, one that pays more and I won't have to have any face to face customer contact, WOOOOOHOOOOOO! I just get more and more irritated with the general public these days. I will finally have a job again where I can sit at my cubicle and do my job and not have to kiss up to customers and "sell sell sell!!!" Oh, interesting, yesterday was Friday and they terminated my employment as of Wed. Is that legal? Of course they screwed up my final paycheck and shorted me a week.

I'm relieved to be outta there, but not happy about the way it happened. It's not a nice thing to have your integrity questioned, especially when you've done nothing wrong. They also terminated another teller, along with our branch manager. I'm not sure if there were other victims. What a mess!

I finished my dad's scrapbook a few days ago. I have got to get it fed-exed out to him. I just keep thinking there might be something more I could add in the way of stickers or something, but I just looked at it again today and it looks pretty damn good for being my first scrapbook project. I really love the way the family pages came out.

Not that I should have had this for lunch...but I couldn't resist stopping at KFC for some chicken strips. Mmm mmm good!



I'm meeting a friend at Starbucks this evening after she gets off work. It would be sooooooo much better if it was Coffee Bean instead!



Oh well, at least it'll be free, since I have about eight $5 Starbucks gift cards that I received from work for my "great customer service", ha. May as well use the damn cards even though the company doesn't want me anymore! Hummph. Onward and upward!

It's Friday again

Not much going on here, just waiting to hear from my current (or maybe NOT current!) employer to see if they have reached a decision to let me go or to keep my "wonderful" (NOT!) job with them. I have an idea what's going on but have not heard anything official yet. Nice that they value my time like this!

So I'll just keep relaxing and watching my cooking shows and shopping channels. I love cooking shows, even though I am not really a cook. The Food Network is awesome. I just LOVE me some Paula Deen!


Once in a while I do get a little ambitious and attempt something, but I'm not really the cook in the family-I mean, I can cook spaghetti and chicken, basic stuff, but I guess I'm not a CHEF. :)

Hopefully I'll be going out with the girls from my (possibly former?) office tonight just to hang out here at a restaurant/tavern called Rojo's (pronounced Ro-Joe's, not Ro-hoes, hee). I've never been there but a lot of locals hang out there and it's been a Lake Tahoe fixture for YEARS.

Have a great Friday!

It's Thurzzzzday

Not much going on here, still at home. Gonna clean the bathroom (YUCK!), take a shower, then go bowling tonight with the future hubby (we belong to a league-he is OBSESSED with bowling).

I have my own bowling ball. It's bubble-gum swirly PINK. hehe. It's the purdiest one in the league.


Doesn't make me bowl any better, but I like it. Now I need my own SHOES and BAG. I like this bag:


I can't find any shoes I really like though. They're all kinda stoopid looking, but the ones at the bowling alley are the worst. They look like freakin' CLOWN shoes! These are a couple I'm thinking about:


I'm a complete amateur. I just started bowling a few months ago, but the boy has been bowling since he was EIGHT. When I first knew him and found out that he bowls, these are the images that came to mind:



Seriously...I could NOT stop laughing as I imagined Fred..I mean, the future hubby, tip-toeing down the lane.

Ta ta for now!

Wednesday Schmednesday!

It's Wed. and I've spent the last several days at home, since last Thurs., which would normally be a nice thing; however, the reason for my staying home is because I have been placed on (paid) administrative leave, along with a co-worker, while the bank we work for conducts an investigation. Did we embezzle money? Did we compromise customer's accounts? Did we break into the safe deposit boxes and steal the customer's jewels and money? HELL no! What is the big sin we have been accused of? We have been accused of entering sales referrals that weren't rightfully ours into the system so we would get credit for them.

For those who don't know, banking has evolved into quite the cutthroat business of SALES...meaning, you, the poor innocent customer coming in on your lunch hour to deposit your check, make a car payment, etc., are to be bombarded with sales pitches "Would you like to apply for a credit card? What do you mean you don't need any more credit cards? Well how about a personal line of credit? What about a home equity? I see you don't have a savings (checking, car loan, CD, insert whatever) with us, let's get you started on one today! Oh, you don't have time? I'll have a banker call you! Oh, you'd rather not? Well, ok..." And if we, the paean bank employees do NOT succeed in bullying a large percentage of customers into signing up for something, or at least getting their permission to have someone call them to follow-up and try to sell them something, well, we face the pleasant prospect of having our manager belittle us and tell us how disappointed they are, along with the prospect down the road of losing our jobs if we don't meet our NUMBERS.

If we do get the customer to sign up for something, then we get credit for a "sales referral". We are given a minimum of 81 to meet per quarter, but of course there's a catch: for each customer, we can get a maximum of THREE credits, sooooo, if they actually end up opening a dozen different accounts, we only get credit for three. Yes, that's right folks-THREE. Since many people do end up signing on for more than three, we lose out and it's even more difficult to meet the requirements.

Anyway, they (the powers that be) believe that myself and my coworker have entered some referrals in which we did not actually TALK to the customer (it counts as a valid referral only if you actually spoke to the customer and convinced them to open an account). This supposedly took place in December. The customers in question did open accounts, but the fact that they all work for the same employer has made Big Brother suspicious. We have allegedly violated the company's precious "code of ethics". They believe that we did not talk to the customers, and that in fact we somehow obtained the customer information (for tracking purposes) in some underhanded manner. This is almost hilarious for 2 reasons:

1.) I wouldn't know how to get the information
2.) I am not a salesperson by nature-it's like nail on a chalkboard to me-and have not been meeting the minimum numbers lately, which leads to:
3.) Wouldn't you think that my numbers would be much higher, or at least at the minimum requirement? Why would I risk my job when fudging sales referral numbers would not even be close to helping me make the minimum???!!!

I have heard nothing from my employer as of today, so if they wanna pay me to stay at home, FINE. Plus, I had an interview yesterday and was offered a job today for MORE MONEY and it does NOT involve sales, YAY! They have to do their background check and all that so hopefully I start around the 25th. I am not saying anything to my current employer. If they wanna pay me to sit around, fine.


If they call me back to work, I'll act like everything is fine till all is finalized with the new job; if they DON'T call me back and just let me go at the end of this top-secret investigation (ooooh, BIG.SCARY.INVESTIGATION!) then at least I already have something lined up-and, if for some reason that doesn't work out, I'll find something else. So there!

Snowy Sunday

We were pretty much snowed-in today (well, I guess it was YESTERDAY, actually). My fiance went out around 7:30 a.m. to run a quick errand, and next thing I knew it was 9:00 and he woke me up to help get his jeep unstuck from the ice. It got stuck when he tried to turn in to our parking space, and he had already spent an hour shoveling and trying to get it out.


Turned out his front tires were stuck on a pile of ice that we could not break up. A guy who had a pick-up with a plow shovel on the front (our street does not get plowed by a real snow-plow, only these pick-ups that push the snow around)...anyway, he stopped to help and ended up hooking up some rope thing-y or other and pulling the jeep out. My fiance ended up having to park a few blocks away in a casino parking lot and walked home. :(

Later we had to go to the store (we needed Super Bowl snacks, d'oh!...and some other necessities) so he had to walk BACK to the casino to get the jeep and come back to get me. We went to Safeway. There is a bank in there (the same one I work for, but a different location) and it's open on Sundays 11-5, but looks like nobody made it in today, because it was CLOSED. Ha, bet the manager loved THAT.

Soooo, we got our snacks and shampoo and soda. I had seen a recipe for a dip made out of cream cheese, chili, cheddar cheese and onions, so I wanted to get the ingredients to try that. I made that when we got home and had it with Tostitos and...I have to say it was pretty tasty!




We watched the game-well, really we just had the TV on mostly for the commercials, of which we only really liked 2 or 3. I think it's pretty funny that since the Justin Timberlake/Janet Jackson fiasco, it seems like they only book "older" bands now for the half-time show. I have to wonder if even half of those crazy people who storm out onto the field even know who Tom Petty is.

While the game was on I mainly worked on a scrap-book that I've been making for my dad. It has all his newspaper clippings and pics from when he played football and baseball in high school back in the mid 1940s. He doesn't know I have those clippings. He thought they were lost after he and my mom divorced in the early '80s, but my mom recently found them so I am making this as a surprise for him. I also included a pic of him and his mom when he was around 10, a pic of him around age 11 or 12, a pic of his mom, dad, older sister and baby brother which I think was taken around 1940-42 (?) and one pic each of myself and my two brothers when I was 7, and they were 2 and 3 yrs old. My dad re-married after he and my mom split up, and I am sure he doesn't even have ONE pic of us kids (his mail-order bride wouldn't allow it, I'm sure-and my dad has always been somewhat of a wimp).

Anyway I have to say I am really pleased with the way it turned out, especially the family pic pages. I found some really nice papers and ribbons and stickers, etc. at a scrap-book store here. I have never done a scrapbook before but I think it came out pretty nice. It's expensive, though. I think I spent over $100.00 on it! Yipes. It was supposed to be his Christmas present but it took longer than I expected. Oh well, it can be a combo Christmas/b-day gift. He'll be 79 on March 2nd, so I think he'll really like this. He'll be surprised for sure, since he thought his high school things were lost long ago.

Happy Friday to you!

Greetings, and welcome to my maiden voyage into the world of blogging! I'm not sure how this is going to go, but may as well try it, eh?

First of all, in regards to the name of my blog-I used to (USED TO, how sad!) live in LA, and my hands-down favorite coffee place is Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (can you say ice-blended mocha?!), of which there are NONE in my area. The closest one in NV is in Vegas, about 400 mi. away, and there are none in Northern CA either. I literally live on the border of NV and CA. Of course there are scads of Starbucks everywhere you look. When I lived in LA, I used to visit my BFF in Covina on the weekends and we'd go to Coffee Bean. I am so sad!

On to cupcakes-I love those damn things-I'd eat them every day-luckily I am too lazy to bake and there are no cupcake shops here. :( That's probably a good thing, since I do NOT need to be eating cupcakes on a regular basis.

Last, but not least, I loooooove cats, especially MINE. Her name is Sophie. I know many people don't get that and don't like cats (they're too aloof, independent, etc.) but we share a special bond. She is as devoted to me as any dog could be. She is happy when I come home, and she loves to climb onto my shoulder and just hang there and sleep while I am on the computer, and she loves to sleep with me.

Soooo, I live in Lake Tahoe now, on the South Shore side. I moved here in 2005 to be with my fiance. He's awesome and treats me like the queen I am. :)

I moved here because he hates LA. I, on the other hand, hate Tahoe-with.a.PASSION. Oh, yes, it's pretty, and the summers aren't too hot, BUT...the winter brings that evil substance known as snow, which is pretty to look at but not to live with. It's no fun to slosh through 3-4 feet (or more!) of wet, slushy snow, and to have to watch every step you take, so as not to slip on the ice. I already have a very bad back and a torn meniscus in my knee, so I really cannot afford to take a tumble! Also, I only have a 2000 Nissan Sentra, which is not a snow car, so I can only drive it if the boy puts the chains on. He has a Jeep with all weather tires, so usually he ends up driving me to and from work.

The other thing is that there is absolutely NOTHING to do here, at least for me. I am not athletic. I do not ski, snowboard, fish, bike, boat or any of that, partly because with my knee and back I just can't do it, and partly because it is so expensive to live here that there would be no money for those activities anyway. Basically this town is a tourist trap on top of a mountain. It's about 25 mi. to the nearest civilized town, which would be Carson City. That's where we have to go to do our Costco and Walmart runs, and if we need to go to a mall, the closest is in Reno, about 60 mi. away. Going the other way, back into CA, there is Sacramento, which is about 100 mi. away, but the driving conditions are atrocious in the winter.

I also am just too far from my family (in Bakersfield) and friends (in LA and OC). I really can't take road trips because I have this teeny tiny problem of not being able to stay awake when I drive. Even going to Carson City and Reno it's difficult for me to stay awake, unless I pop an excedrin!

So anyway, when I found a couple of blogs written by So. CA girls (via the Knot), I was sooooooo happy. It sort of alleviates a little of the homesickness when I read about their lives and adventures there.

That's all for now, folks. I am heading to bed now as I have a nail appt. in the morning.

Ta ta for now!