This One Time, In Jail

So here's a story not a whole lot of people know. I have been arrested. And not just the cute little "follow me over here to this desk and we have to officially book you". No, my arrest was down and dirty. Seriously. It was a horrible experience and I have Vietnam-like flashbacks about it still. There are so many things about this story that are frustrating. Including the way I was treated, the reason for the arrest and how the whole thing even started. Hold on to your hats... here we go.

February, 2005. I am sitting on the couch in my home in SmallAssTown, Missouri. It's dark, maybe around 8:00 pm. There's snow and ice outside. Suddenly my roommate and I hear a loud crash. I got up, glanced out the door, didn't see anything and we went back to watching tv. 20 minutes later we hear a car on the highway below our yard slam on the brakes and slide a long ways down the road. We get up, flip on the porch light and that's when we see (thanks to the car's headlights) a huge tree has fallen across the road and this guy almost hit it. Obviously, this is a problem that should be reported so that the tree can be removed from the road and people won't drive into it in the dark. So my roommate volunteers to make the call because she knows I hate talking on the phone. She calls the county sheriffs office, reports the issue and location. End of story.

Next morning, I am in bed. Sleeping in baggy shorts and a holy t-shirt. I am awakened by a loud pounding at the door. I answer the door with Medusa hair. A police officer is there and he asks for me. I say "I'm me". And he immediately places me under arrest. He made me step out onto the porch, he turned me around and cuffed my arms behind my back. He did follow me back into the house to step into some shoes, but that's all I got to do. I didn't get to change clothes, brush my hair or teeth, or even grab a coat (remember there's snow and ice on the ground). By this time my roommate was up and she was trying to talk to the cop to find out what I had done, where he was taking me and how to get me out. All he said was I had a warrant out for an FTA (failure to appear at a court date) and he was taking me to the County Jail and she could follow him up there to see how to bail me out. Then he walked my handcuffed, barely-dressed self out to the car and shoved me in the back seat just like you see on tv.

I forgot to mention.... I have been sobbing and crying since this all started.

We have a 20 minute drive to the station. Although he did read me my rights before putting me in the car, he has not said a word since. I'm still crying. We get to the station, he takes me into where prisoners go (not the office area) and sat me down on a concrete bench in a holding cell. He did not close the cell door, but I am still handcuffed. I don't know if any of you have ever been handcuffed behind your back, but it's not comfortable. Especially when you are sitting down. And remember, I'm wearing pajama shorts on a concrete bench in February. I'm freaking freezing. Shivering violently. And sobbing. Lots of sobbing.

After letting me sit there by myself for about 10 minutes, another officer comes in and leads me to the counter across the room. They finally decide they can take the handcuffs off of me and give me a lecture about not trying to make a move. Now maybe you don't know me... but I've never been in trouble. I mean, I'm afraid to talk loudly in libraries because it's against the rules. So obviously I have no record. There's no reason for them to think they should be afraid of me in any way. It was actually almost funny. But I didn't laugh. I was still crying.

They finally explain why I'm here. In 1998 (seven years prior) I failed to appear in court. I blinked. Umm... why would I have had a court date? I know nothing of this. Well, it's because in 1996 (nine years prior) I wrote a $15 check that bounced at the little local grocery store in SmallAssTown, Mo. The light sorta goes on for me at this point, because I do remember the issue with the bounced check. I remember it because when it bounced (which was a complete accident) the store posted the check beside the cash register for all the world to see. And my mom spotted it. In 1996 she saw my bad check posted at the cash register and she immediately drove over to my house and dragged my ass up to the store so she could witness me paying for the check. And I did pay for it. The original $15 and a $25 fee. I handed the cash to the chick behind the register. My mom stood there and witnessed it. When I asked for the check, she took it down off the register but said she couldn't give it to me because she wasn't sure if that was the correct policy and the boss wasn't there for her to ask. I had never bounced a check before, so I didn't know. The clerk said she would write it down, tell her boss the next day and they would tear up the check.

Guess what? Obviously that didn't happen. I now know I should have been given the check so I could have destroyed it. But they kept the check and obviously turned it in months later to the prosecuting attorney. Or whatever they do. So in 1998 the court got around to being concerned about my check and scheduled me to appear in court. Except they forgot to tell me. Because I never received any notice about it at all. I didn't show. A warrant was issued. In 2005, my roommate called the sheriff's office to report a tree had fallen across the road. When they tried to verify the address and asked her for her name, she gave them my name. Simply because I was the property owner and my name would tell them exactly where I lived and the tree was located. When they ran my name, they found my warrant.

So, back at jail. They've finally taken the handcuffs off and explained what's going on. My sobbing has dwindled down to silent tears. My roommate has been next door for the past 45 minutes trying to bail me out. I get mug shots taken. In my pajama's. With bed head and a tear-streaked face. Then they photographed all of my tattoos and fingerprinted me. The old-fashioned way with ink and paper. Then they put me in the drunk tank, with the door open, so I could sit down while I waited to be bailed out. It took another hour before my roommate sprung me. And $250, which I had to immediately give her back. The whole thing sucked. I still don't understand why I was treated so badly. I got a court date, appeared on time, was told by the assigned attorney to agree with everything he said, stood in front of the judge while the attorney explained how I am guilty. I was sentenced to 6 months unsupervised probation and had to pay court costs, plus $15 for the check that bounced and $25 for the bounced check fee. Again. Fun, huh?

Now honestly, this was 5 years ago. I'm mostly over it. And I had no problem with my probation of course. After I completed the 6 months with no issue it became a sealed record that I don't ever have to tell anyone about (as far as job applications). So, no big deal, right? Well it does make an entertaining story now. And I can usually freak people out by announcing that I've been handcuffed and mugshotted. Because I'm so not the type. But the whole experience did affect me. And I lost out on a job because of it. About a month after the court date I graduated college and had a good lead on a job with a company that supports banking software. I knew someone inside, I got an interview... and because it was all currently going on I had to admit to being on probation for passing hot checks. Not really what a company that works with banks wants to hear. I was so upset.

Anyway, that's my horrible story about how a technically innocent person spent some time in the big house.

Holy Schnike

It's been a while since I've updated this place. I feel really bad about that. I have been so busy keeping up with my Rosey's 365 Photos Project daily blog that I have neglected this one. I realize now I did the whole thing wrong. I should have just done my "photo a day" action here on this blog since it's my oldest child. But I didn't. So I am just gonna have to learn to pay attention to both blogs at once.

Today I leave you with a youtube video of 100 of the greatest movie insults (according to the guy who created the video). It reminded of me of so many great old movies and actually prompted me to look up a few I was unfamiliar with. Enjoy.

** WARNING ** - THIS VIDEO CONTAINS VERY VULGAR, HORRIBLE LANGUAGE -

Adventures In Food

Yesterday Scott and I decided to try out the Vietnamese Restaurant in town, Bambu. I loved the "feel" of the place. The decor and soft lighting worked well together and the whole place was very clean and structured. We had the crab rangoons and egg rolls as appetizers and were both very pleased with them. Because we watch a lot of Anthony Bourdain, we both ordered a Boba tea to drink (pictured above) and they were very interesting. Boba tea is a sweet flavored, smoothie type drink which contains large tapioca pearls. Good flavor on the drink, but the "pearls" ended up being too annoying after the novelty of the whole thing wore off. Next time we go, I'll just get a diet soda.

I was very surprised to find that the menu was not nearly as strange as I expected. There were basically two types of dishes you could choose from, various meats over vermicelli and various meats over rice.

I ordered the Chom Cha Thi Nuong - shredded pork, bbq pork and a pork & egg pancake served with rice, a carrot medley and a side of fish sauce. The bbq pork had a sweet glaze on it and I poured the fish sauce over the rice and mixed it together with the shredded pork. Very delicious.



Scott ordered the house specialty, the Bon Bo Hue soup. The description said it was spicy beef noodle soup and the broth came from cooked beef bones. It also said it contained beef, oxtail and pig knuckles. He thought it was a great chance to be adventurous and I encouraged him to order it. He was a little skeptical of the pig knuckle, but I helped convince him that with the meat pieces all diced up and mixed together he'd never even know. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. The meat was not diced into small pieces at all. In fact, in the center of his bowl was an entire huge pig knuckle. Just sitting there staring at him. Combine that with the unique (ie kinda gross) smell and he didn't manage to eat very much of it. But I totally applaud the effort. And it looked cool.



We both decided we would definitely eat there again, But I'm pretty sure Scott will simply order one of the rice dishes next time. I love trying new things and enjoyed the whole experience immensely. I highly recommend this place to anyone who likes food adventures.

An Open Letter To My Checkbook

Dear Checkbook,
Why do you enjoy making me anxious? Are you trying to get me to cry? Because if you are, it's working. I remember just last month when you were full to the brim with all of my gooey tax return goodness. We were so happy then. We went shopping together and drove wherever we wanted without worrying about gas prices. I paid off some bills completely and sent in the rest a few weeks early. Those were great times.

But now I look at you and I just can't believe what I'm seeing. There's an emptiness surrounding you that I can't explain. Just last month we paid all of our bills early together. Now we'll be paying everything a week late. How did this happen? Is it because I've been frequently visiting Ebay? Is that what's hurting you? I promise I will stop. I have to stop. I can't stand to see you this way. Especially since I only have 8 days of work left before my job ends. I know that as a dislocated worker I will be able to provide you with some unemployment money, but it's going to be such a difference I'm just not sure it's going to be enough for you. I know it won't be enough.

We have to stick together, Checkbook. I won't be able to survive the job hunt without you. Please pull yourself together. Show me the error of my ways. Show me the places and things that hurt you unnecessarily. And promise me you'll hold on as long as possible. Promise me you'll learn to both stretch yourself and limit yourself all at the same time. I will do the same for you. It's the only way we're going to be able to enjoy having this upcoming free time. I mean, what's the fun in not having to go to work if you can't afford to go fishing?

Love,
Kristy

Poetic Dreams

Poetic Dreams

Looking at the screen
Watching myself type
Hoping I can find the words
To create some sort of hype

In my dreams I’m famous
Wealthy as can be
Writing for a living
So happy and free

But then when I awaken
I remember that’s not true
So I put my dreams behind me
And pretend that I’m not blue

In my life I’m happy
Not too much keeps me down
But I know that I’d be better off
If I could just make some damn money writing these poems.

Cool Art

These are the only two paintings I own. I bought the one on the right in 2008 and the one on the left in 2009. And this year I plan on buying another if I get the chance. They are space themed paintings, but that's not what's cool about them. What's cool about them is that they are spray paint paintings. And I watched them being created both times. The artist was on his knees, a can of spray paint in each hand, using pages from a newspaper to create the mountains you see. Each painting takes approx. 6 - 8 minutes from blank white canvas to finished project. And it's an amazing process to watch. All the paintings he cranks out just seem to be random space scenes. None of them really look like any of the others (as far as all having moons, or all having waterfalls, etc.) and have different color schemes. The two times I've seen him in action has been at the annual fall crafts fair in Sprindale, AR. And both times there was a huge crowd around him buying the paintings before he finished them. I got each of these by hollering out "the next one is mine" and paying for them before any paint even went down.

Now, I do love the two paintings that I have. But the guy paints a lot of pictures that are way more detailed and colorful than these. His name is Carey Huckabey and he's known on the interwebz as the "6th Street Spray Paint Artist" in Austin, TX. I have found a few youtube videos of him, but none of them are very clear or easy to see. This was the best one I could find and when he finishes the painting and picks it up, you can see it's either paper or posterboard. The ones I own are painted on some sort of glossy plywoodish (new word) board. Oh, and I should also mention that my dad made me the beautiful frames. Here's the video - watch me!

The Jello Gelatin Disaster

It all started innocently enough. My nephew Charlie recently started following a Weight Watcher's point plan diet and to be supportive I promised him I'd bring down a large supply of Jello for him. Jello's perfect for a diet because it fills your belly without many calories and all you need to make it is water. So saturday I stopped by the local Wal-Mart and loaded up my cart with 12 boxes of Jello in various flavors and a few other things I thought he would enjoy and would be useful. Then I proudly delivered the goods to him and he was very excited. But after a few mintues we discovered I had made a mistake. I had bought regular Jello gelatin instead of sugar-free Jello. And where sugar-free Jello is only 1 Weight Watcher's point for the entire box, regular Jello (the kind I bought) is 8 points for the entire box. Way too many wasted points. So guess who's going back to Wal-Mart to return some Jello? That's right, I made my mom. No not really. I went back to Wal-Mart to exchange my 11 boxes (we opened one before we realized the mistake) for 11 boxes of sugar-free. And I learned a very valuable lesson... I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.

So here's what happened. Back in the old days, A few short years ago, when you walked into Wal-Mart with a return, the greeter at the doors would put a pink sticker on the item or the bag to let the Customer Service Desk know that he did see you walk in the door with it. Now they have an inventory scan gun called something that I can't remember. Dang, sidetracked. I worked at a Wal-Mart Distribution Center for 7 years in Bentonville, Arkansas and I can't remember what we called these freaking guns. Gah. Anyway, so now they have to scan each UPC code and print out a little sticker to put on each item. So the old man at the door grabbed my bag of 11 boxes and started scanning and tagging. Not only was he very slow, but he ran out of room on his little table to place the stickered vs. non-stickered boxes of Jello. So it took some extra time while he juggled them and moved them around over and over again. But finally he prevailed and I had a bag full of stickered items. Off to the service desk.

Silly me. I had assumed that basically I was gonna dump the Jello boxes out on the service desk counter and then run back to the Jello aisle and grab 11 boxes of sugar-free Jello, bring them back to the service desk for verification and then walk out the door. I was wrong. At the service desk they told me they needed my receipt. Luckily I still had it in my purse because I hadn't entered the amount into my checkbook yet. Then they went through the process of writing up a defective tag FOR EACH BOX. Now Jello is not expensive to begin with, but the ones I bought were the Great Value brand and were $0.38 apiece. So finally we had a seperate tag on each box of Jello. And she's ringing up the total so she can hand me my money back. I guess they don't do exchanges anymore, only returns. I don't know. In the meantime, because all of this has been such a lengthy process I'm bored and begin making idle chit chat with the service desk clerk.

"I'm really sorry about this. I know returning Jello is a little unusual. I just grabbed the wrong kind accidentally."
"Oh that's okay, people return food all the time. We'll just throw these away with all the rest"
"Excuse me?"
"We have to throw this Jello away. Ever since 9/11 we aren't allowed to re-shelve food items of any kind."
"Excuse me?"
"Yep, it's all going in the trash."
"I could have thrown it away and saved myself these last 20 minutes. Heck, I would have eaten the Jello myself. I could have donated it to someone who has little kids. I know plenty of peope who would have eaten that. I can't believe it's getting thrown away."
"Yep, that's our policy. Here's your $4.67."

I pocketed the money and hung my head as I walked to the gelatin aisle to pick out 11 shiney new boxes of sugar-free Jello. I can't believe they throw all food returns away. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that Jello. I mean, I understand that food can be tampered with, but.... crazy. And I do realize that by returning it and getting my money back I didn't have to spend additional money to buy the right items. But still the whole thing just really bugged me. The $4.67 was not that big of a deal. I wish I would have given the regular Jello to someone. What a crazy policy.

Ramblings... I Has Them

And off we go.

I love to lolspeak online. I don't know why, I just do. But I do not lolspeak irl. Very often.

I seem to be funnier and much more popular online than in person. If I could do everything online I could rule the world.

I'm reading a book called The Urban Hermit and it's strangely inspirational. I keep wondering if I would be able to ignore being hungry for so many days that it just faded away. As a professional fat ass it's something I've never endured for more than a few hours. But this book has me thinking about it.

When you find yourself absolutely pissed off at someone who honestly did nothing wrong, what do you do? I'm mad because I don't like a decision this person made and the affect it had on me... but this person had every right to make that decision and I'm quite sure is better off for it. There was no reason whatsoever for this person to even wonder about how it would affect anyone other than themselves. But I'm pissed to the point of being distant and cranky and they deserve to know why. Or at least I think they do. Yet I also know it's not fair of me to whine about helping themselves and not considering me.

I sure wish I could write had the courage to write like Heather Armstrong.

Last night I had a dream that I was on an accidental roadtrip (driver got us lost after a wrong turn) with a co-worker that I cannot stand and a friend that I rarely talk to. In the dream I liked the co-worker and I woke up pretty pissed off about it.

I'm completely torn on the subject of whether social networking is a positive or a negative. I believe that sites such as Facebook and the ability to text, etc. are great for keeping up with distant family members or reconnecting with old friends. It's amazing that we can instantly communicate with each other to relay news about someone's medical condition or reminders of an upcoming birthday party. And I am addicted to the internet, Facebook, text messaging and emails. But I also get sick to death of it all. I believe it's sometimes a bad thing that we don't get a break away from people. I think it causes teens to have more problems and drama than teens normally had before the age of technology. Now bickering, name calling, jealousy, etc. can continue 24/7. Back in my day kids only had to worry about stuff during the school day or at the basketball games. Once you went home you had no idea who your friends were talking to or who was secretly dating who. Today's saturation of information causes a lot of problems between people. I also think it's neat to get a bit of insight into your co-workers and learn that some of them have the same hobbies as you. Then again, it's easy to change your opinion about people once you discover they are hippies or sadists or whatever. And regardless of whether you still like them or not, who the hell wants to see all of their zodiac quizzes and pet pictures. There are times when I'm having a blast playing cards with friends and then see a Facebook update that someone else I enjoy hanging with is at the movies and I find myself kind of jealous that I'm not at the movie with them. WHY? Without this instant communication I would never have known and I'm perfectly happy where I'm already at. There's just as many bad things about constantly being in touch as there are good. I'm still torn.

I find it very frustrating that I don't have a specialty. There is not one thing I know more about than other things. That I'm aware of anyway. It's like I'm sort of a jack-of-all-trades. I dabble in everything that strikes my fancy. And I guess that makes me a fairly decent "all around" type of gal... but it also means I don't focus on one thing long enough to be an expert at anything.

I love doing jigsaw puzzles and I've been itching to do one for quite a while now but I know the cat won't allow one to be on the kitchen table. That sux. I haven't put together a puzzle in a couple of years. For the record, I hate the beginning part where you have to flip over all the peices.

I feel better now. Thanks for listening world. And by world I mean you three people that read this.

Hoar Frost (or Hoarfrost)

Whether it's all one word or two seperate ones seems to depend on who you ask. But no matter what it's called, it's beautiful. This morning, everything in the Springfield area was covered with hoar frost. Unfortunately I go to work before it's light enough to take pictures, so when the sun came up enough to reveal nature's beauty this morning I could only take pictures of what I found near the building.

We do have an overgrown empty lot behind us which looked pretty cool.



And one of the trees still had some leaves on it that showed up nicely.



There are also some cute little pine trees near the front door.



The funny part about seeing the hoar frost this morning is that yesterday morning I had never heard of it before and hadn't ever paid attention to it. But last night, I was catching up on one of my favorite blogs ( The Lope ) and he had posted pictures from a hoar frost in his area on January 31st. I thought it was so pretty and then boom! here it is in front of me today.

It's Funny How Unaware I Can Sometimes Be

Lately I have been abnormally grumpy, especially at work. And since my bestest work buddy got fired back in October (major downsizing in my office) and then my next-in-line work buddy decided to change shifts so that I no longer see her, I've just gotten grumpier and grumpier. Actually, I'm not sure grumpy is even an acurate description of it. I'm pretty much an ass lately.

One of the things I'm being an ass about is the fact that my few remaining co-workers are getting on my damn nerves. Before I go on, let me assure you... I do like these people. Or at least 99% of these people. They are perfectly nice, normal co-workers and I don't have any issues with them. Except for the 1% that I don't like of course. I think my main problem is that aside from all the extra work and the fear of losing my job... I just don't have any friends left here. And by friends I mean people who hang out at my house, invite me over to their house, and know me well enough that we can spend hours not talking about work. I don't have anyone to bitch to when I've had a bad call (or 10). No one to take breaks with or go to lunch with. You get the picture.

So anyway, my point is that I'm grouchy with the people that are left. Not on purpose, but grouchy nonetheless. And when one of them gets off a call and says "That guy sucked" or "She was a moron" (YES, we totally talk shit about you after we get off the phone) it just pisses me off that they are disturbing me by talking out loud. I roll my eyes. Why do they think I give a rat's ass about their phone calls? Who made them think we all needed to be disturbed while they attempted to be funny? See.... I told you I'm an ass these days.

I'm confessing this because today I realized that even though I dont' want to hear them, I am guilty of doing the same thing after every other phone call. And I feel bad for being so hateful to them (I've only been hateful in my mind, I don't say anything to them) and then I do the exact same thing I don't want them to do.

And I guess I just need the world to know that this is not Charlie's fault because he didn't want to be downsized... but you can totally blame Kim. She didn't have to change shifts and leave me pissed off and all alone.

Holy Shit, I Am Not Alone

"I've always avoided fights. I make jokes instead. I tell people what they want to hear to avoid a confrontation. I pretend to want things I don't want, and I pretend not to want things I do want. No one gets hurt. Except me. The lines are so crossed and blurred at this point that I don't know what I want. I just know I want it to be easy."

Okay, can anyone tell me where the above quote came from? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? If you answered that it's from my personal journal, you are almost correct. Because if I actually kept a journal then I do believe those exact words would be in it. But I don't. And those words? Those words are actually from a library book I'm reading called "Girl's Poker Night" by Jill A. Davis. Finding them, those words, was amazing. Because they describe me. Perfectly. And even though they were spoken by a fictional character it was a relief to know I'm not the only idiot that's built this way.

Why Are Things So Difficult Sometimes?

How can you only have seven people working in an office and not be able to organize a “pizza day”? I seriously do not understand. Local joint selling pizzas half price this week to all employees at our company and people here can’t agree to just order 4 large pizzas and split the price. Instead, apparently we are supposed to all tell one of the girls what pizza we want and give her the money and she will call in everyone’s order tomorrow. WTF? Why would I want to order my own large pizza? Other coworker says “It’s because we all want different things”. But there are only seven of us. And I know that myself and at least 2 other people aren’t that picky. We’ll eat basically any type of crust or toppings. Which brings me back to how can ordering 4 large pizzas and splitting the price be a problem?

Then I hear them discussing that the best time to call it in would be at 11:00 so that it could arrive between 11:30 and 12:00. I guess no one cares that my scheduled lunchtime is at 11:00. I guess it’s a good thing I had already decided I wasn’t going to participate in an office lunch by ordering my own large pizza. Does any of this really make sense? Gah!

Learning To Love Nurses

You all know that I work in the health care industry doing technical support. This means that I spend most of my day talking to nurses (not all day because we do get calls from the business offices and admin offices also). Obviously, I don't have a great deal of medical knowledge and the nurses usually don't have a great deal of technical knowledge. And that normally causes a communication problem. They are in a hurry, they don't want to take the extra time to explain their problem but yet I can't help them if I don't know what the problem is. And when they do try to explain the explanation is filled with "that thingymabob isn't working" or "I click on that one little picture in the corner". It gets frustrating. It's my job to fix their issue and the more questions I ask the madder the nurse gets and the more confused I get. I stay frustrated with nurses a lot.

But it is still a medical environment and even though I’m merely technical support there are times when the medical side of my workplace reaches out and slaps me in the face. I can’t give you too many stories because I don’t want any sort of trouble if someone I work with finds this blog and thinks I’m giving too many details. HIPPA violations are serious business around here. But you do get the occasional calls like an ER doctor screaming about a critical condition patient on the table and the imaging system used to view x-rays is not working. Things of that nature. And when you get those calls it can really rattle you to the core.

My day started off that way unfortunately. My first call of the day started out normal enough. One of the nurses from Psych Med was having an issue logging into her primary software and while I was in the process of troubleshooting I suddenly heard some shouting in the background. It was a patient who was confused/upset about where she woke up apparently and she wanted everyone to know it. The screaming escalated in a few short seconds and immediately the nurse on the phone with me asked me to hold please and she set the phone down to try and help with the patient. This meant for the next 5 or 6 minutes I sat there and listened to the screaming and pleading and pain and sobbing of someone while several nurses tried to restrain her and calm her down. It was very unnerving and made me realize how special you have to be to work in nursing or any similar fields. I would have sat down and cried had I been there. I was darn near crying just sitting here listening to it. I finally decided to hang up, the nurse could call back when things settled down. One reason is because it was painful to listen to. It made me sad. The other reason is that I almost felt like I was eavesdropping on something I shouldn’t be hearing. There was a real pain and sadness in the sobbing and I just didn’t feel right hearing it. The whole thing really rattled me. What a humbling way to start the day. Today I will have more patience for the nurses that call me. I am very grateful for what they do and how they handle their jobs. They are truly heroes.

I Really Don't Understand People

I work at a computer helpdesk for a health care organization and answer calls all day long about software and hardware issues. Some of these calls are from people who are at home and are using our remote portal website to login to the system from home and either check their email or do some work. When we get these calls from remote users the first thing we determine is if they have a company owned laptop that we built and sent home with them or if they are just using their own personal computer to connect. Obviously we are responsible for making sure the remote portal is working, their login and password is working, and once they are connected we support everything on our side of the network that they are doing. If they are using a company owned laptop that we sent them home with, then we are also responsible for figuring out what settings on the laptop may be causing the problem they are having. If they can't use our pc to connect to their home wireless, for example, that's our problem and we need to work on resolving it. However, if they are using their own personal pc we are not at all responsible for anything at all that happens prior to logging in to the remote portal. Your laptop won't find your own network? Not my problem. It's your pc and your network, you figure it out. Call Dell. Call your ISP. Call your dad. I don't care because I am not responsible for your stuff.

The reason we operate like this is simple. One, we are being paid by our company to answer the phone for issues affecting the production of our co-workers. The fact that you can't get to www.google.com on your home pc is not something I am getting paid to take care of. It's a waste of company time and money. Second, we simply can't be responsible for perhaps accidentally messing up your pc. I'm sitting in a cubicle in town. I can't see anything about your pc. I don't know what version of Windows you're running. I don't know how your husband setup your wireless router or who your ISP is. I am clueless. So when I get a call like I did this morning I usually just explain that because it's a personal pc and the issue has nothing to do with connecting to our system remotely then I am unable to help. The lady that I told this to this morning, however, did not take kindly to it at all. AT ALL.

She called in because she is continously getting a pop-up dialog box saying that her Adobe Updater has failed to install the latest update. We went through several minutes of conversation involving me explaining that Adobe had nothing to do with connecting remotely, so the message was more than likely related to settings on her personal pc. She accepted that but still wanted to know if I could help her. I explained I could not because I knew nothing about how her computer was configured. She stated that she had called in before and someone had helped her get rid of this message. A) Fucking Whoopty Do, Goody For You. And B) Too bad you can't remember what they did you moron.

Of course, I did not say either of those things and I apologized once again but kindly declined to help her. I did suggest that maybe her user account didn't have enough rights to let the install complete and that whoever set up her pc might be able to give her administrator rights to see if that took care of the problem. But then she wanted to know if I could just tell her how to get into the task manager and do that herself. Uh... NO. It's not done in task manager and for the 4th time WE DO NOT WORK ON PERSONAL PC'S BECAUSE WE CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCIDENTALLY MESSING SOMETHING UP. At which point she said "Well what if I just call back and someone else answers the phone and they help me?"

My response? "That's a great idea, you should do that." CLICK. Yep, I hung up on her. Which I never do with customers. It got that bad. I don't understand people. Oh well, only thing left to do is hope she doesn't remember my name. Because if she does, I'll be hearing from the boss in no time. Sigh.

Trying Something New

So I have decided to start a project in 2010. A project that will hopefully teach me something about myself and test my ability to commit to something on a daily basis for the next 365 days. Starting tomorrow I am beginning a "365 Days of Photos Project". If you think you may be interested in doing something similar, you can learn a bit more about how it works HERE. It doesn't have to start on the first day of the year, you can start it on Feb. 6th or September 15th, whatever you want. Just make sure you do it for an entire year from that date.

In order to make it a simpler and cleaner looking project I have decided to create a sister blog to this one where all my photos can be displayed back to back with nothing else interferring with them - Rosey's 365 Photos Project. I have posted a permanent link to the site at the top left of this page. Obviously I will be taking photos every day but don't expect a photo to be posted every day. I spend a lot of weekends visiting family members who don't have internet service and then there are just other days where life may just get in the way. But I will try my hardest to post at least 5 times a week.

Anyway, it's mostly a project for me but I do hope you guys check it out and see how my year is going.

Proof That I Am Getting Old

Sigh. I don't want to. I have been avoiding it so well for so long now. But I've been noticing... I'm slowly getting old. There have been little hints that seemed to have indicated it over the past year. I've started cooking and baking more, I briefly thought about raising a garden this summer, I find myself buying cookbooks, I have to keep talking myself out of buying a sewing machine, etc. But during this extended Christmas weekend, it became painfully obvious that despite my best efforts I am unable to avoid becoming old. It is sneaking up on me whether I like it or not. Here's how I know.

8 things that prove I'm finally getting old:

8. I asked for kitchen items and bedding from my parents
7. All the Christmas money I received is being used on bills
6. I left a few gifts unwrapped because I got tired of spending money on boxes, bags and wrapping paper
5. I attended a holiday party and kept walking over to turn the music down
4. I actually cooked several items for the Christmas dinner at Grandma's
3. I brought a cooler full of ice and my own set of bowls with lids to my Mom's Christmas dinner so I could take home leftovers easily
2. At the party I hid my bottle of Parrot Bay coconut rum after discovering people were helping themselves to it and drinking it straight from the bottle
1. I wasn't able to drink at the party because I have GERD and my heartburn was too severe

The Holidays

It's Christmas time once again. Yet another holiday where I have to somehow find a way to balance my two seperate lives and make everyone happy, including myself. Strangely enough, this holiday is easier to manage than Thanksgiving is. Which is weird because Christmas is much more important. But luckily we celebrate Christmas at my mom's house on Christmas Eve so I can get there early in the morning and devote all day and night to the Henderson clan. Tricky part is always Christmas morning. I gotta get up early and sneak off to the Beeson family events without openly admitting that's where I'm going. Some years it's easier than others. But in the end it does manage to all work out and I get to spend plenty of time with all of the people I love, even if they can never be all together with me at once.

I love them all so much. All of my half siblings, my nieces and nephews, 3 sets of grandparents, Mom & Dad, my father, my cousins and Aunts & Uncles. Even though I have to divide my time and plan every minute and avoid talking about "the other people"... it's all worth it in the end because no matter where I'm at the people I'm with are glad that I'm there. And they love me as much as I love them.

And with that being said, I'm cutting out of work 10 minutes early and starting my vacation NOW!!!

Merry Christmas everyone.

I Have A Fear of Canned Biscuits

It's true, I'm scared of canned biscuits. Or more specifically, I'm scared of opening the canned biscuits. Weird huh? I have googled it and it turns out I'm not the only one who has this irrational fear. But that doesn't make it any less embarassing. I guess it's the anticipation that gets to me. Kind of like when someone threatens to pop a balloon. The loud noise doesn't scare me, but the anticipation of not knowing when the loud noise will occur makes me anxious. I guess that's the best way to describe it. I'm not really scared of canned biscuits... they just make me anxious. I'm anxious about canned biscuits. Crap, that doesn't make it sound any better at all.

Today is the "Thriller"est day of them all

27 years ago today, Dec. 1, 1982, was the day that Michael Jackson released a little album called "Thriller". Man, that means I am old. I was 12 when the album dropped. And when I say album, I literally mean a vinyl record. Remember those things? Digital music is so clean and convenient but I gotta be honest... I miss the sound of static from a needle on a record. Seriously. But not as much as I miss Michael Jackson. Not just the Michael Jackson that died earlier this year, but the Michael Jackson who used to create music and videos and perfomances that would stop you in your tracks. And the Thriller album is where he first established himself as the "King of Pop". I can actually remember almost every scene of his "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Thriller" videos. They are 3 of the best videos ever made. Best videos ever made.

Woah, I almost had a Kanye moment there. Lol. Anyway, I know most people these days aren't fans of Michael. But if you grew up in the middle of the Thriller phenomenom, you'd have a much better understanding. The album flipped open to reveal a picture of Michael lying down in a white suit, propped up on his elbow looking into the camera sorta shyly and petting a baby tiger. I pinned the actual record jacket open on my wall like it was a centerfold. I still love that picture. Crap, now I gotta go find an image of it to post here.

In the meantime, watch the Thriller video. It seriously is a huge piece of musical history.

The American Music Awards (live blog)

Another awards show. Woot! I love these things. This one started off with Janet Jackson doing an 8 minute performance of some of her biggest hits. I love her dance moves, though I will say her outfit was a bit too baggy tonight. But she's a joy to watch. I once drove from Missouri to Denver, CO just to watch Janet in concert and then turn around and drive home. I wish she would come out with a new album.

Okay, looks like Paula Abdul is hosting the show? When she first started speaking the mic wasn't working but they quickly got that fixed. She's only been speaking a few minutes, but so far she doesn't sound like she's either drunk or high like she sometimes does. We'll see if that lasts. She just announced the Black Eyed Peas have won the first award of the night.

Rascall Flatts win for the 4th year in a row. Then Daughtery performs. Now Shakira is on stage. I don't care for the song that much, but I like the performance. Does that make sense? Lol.

Now honestly there's a bunch of boring stuff going on. Some chicks speaking Spanish, Keith Urban singing a song, blah, blah, blah.

REBA! Reba is talking. I love Reba. She gets to introduce Kelly Clarkson, who she is great friends with in real life. I bet it's no coincedence that she is introducing Kelly. I believe they became friends after doing a CMT Crossroads together. And if you didn't see it, you should. In fact, I love almost all of the Crossroads specials they do.

Now Snoop Dogg is on stage, making a joke about getting high. Go figure. Lol. They are announcing the Pop/Rock Female artist and the award goes to... Taylor Swift. Anyone surprised? I'm not. Taylor Swift is going to take over the world.

Ooh, Jay Z is on. Gotta stop typing and listen. Ah, that was amazing. Great song made greater by the absence of Kanye West. Jay Z can do no wrong. And he's dressed so snazzy. I really like Alicia Keys also, she has an awesome voice. But I do have to say that in the outfit she's wearing tonight she looks like she has the chest of a 12 year old boy.

Black Eyed Peas doing their thing. The kind of music they do is very hard to repeat live because of all the mixing that goes into it. But they do really good live perfomances.

Of course Michael Jackson wins Soul/RB Male. They announce it's his 22nd AMA award. Jermaine Jackson accepted the award on his behalf. I always was and always will be a huge fan of Michael. I have no issue with the fact that he won this award (even though everyone knows it's only because he's no longer with us). But I am tired of seeing Jermaine. Nobody ever saw Jermaine until after Michael passed away, now suddenly he's everywhere talking about how much he and his family loved Michael. I'm sick of seeing it. It's just my opinion, but I feel like he and a few other Jackson family members are using Michael's death as a way of getting publicity and money. Of course, I don't believe that of Janet. I've always been a fan of hers and she has her own celebrity that is not based on Michael at all.

Another Keith Urban moment that I don't care about. It's not that I don't like country music, because I do. But I've never been a fan of Urban. Now that he's done, moving on to Rhianna. Quite a flashy production going on with her performance. Metal and spikes everywhere. Which doesn't bother me, but her outfit kind of does. I don't care for the stripey jumpsuit. But maybe it's just me. The song was good. The lights shining from her spikey shoulder pads was a pretty cool effect. She's definitely changed her persona from when she first burst on the scene years ago. She started out so bubbly and innocent and has slowly showed us that she can actually be sort of edgy and dark. And guess what? I am pretty sure I prefer the edgy dark side of her.

Okay, back to country. Rascall Flatts introduces Carrie Underwood. I like this chick. Now I must admit that when she won American Idol I was actually voting for Bo Bice. But obviously I was wrong and I will openly admit it. Carrie is awesome and I really enjoy her songs and seeing her perform. She's really spicing up the country genre. Especially with the outfit she's wearing tonight. Lol. I'm glad Carrie won Idol and I'm glad she has proven herself as a true celebrity. Her success is not based on her winning, it's based on the fact that she makes good musical choices and sings her freaking heart out. Amazing voice.

Oh boy, Lady Gaga is taking the stage now. This should be interesting. Yep, it's interesting already. You know I gotta give her credit... whether you enjoy her or you don't enjoy her you are garaunteed never to forget her. She leaves an impression on you and that's a definite way to achieve fame. So far it's a fairly normal performance (if you ignore the outfits her and her dancers are wearing), not nearly as crazy as some of her other stuff I've seen. Oh no, I spoke too soon. Now she's smashing through a pane of glass with her microphone stand so she can sit and play a burning piano. You know, like you do. I'm impressed, that's real fire with real smoke. And I'm sure she's got real hairspray on, scary. Now she's breaking bottles of liquid on the keyboard. Seriously, there's always a show when Gaga is around. You will never be bored watching her. Ooooh, fireballs are now shooting forth from the piano. Okay, song is over and no one got burned. A success!

Man, there are so many commercials. I'm waiting to see Adam Lambert and it's taking forever. After the break it's Mary J. Blige. You know, Mary is one of those fantastic artists that for some reason just doesn't get much mainstream recognition. Seriously, the woman is amazing but she's not someone that most people are familiar with. Her R&B status seems to somehow keep her off of the Top 40 stations most of the time and I think that's a shame. I highly recommend everyone pay a bit more attention to Miss Blige. She's a legend. Seriously.

Now it's time to find out who won the T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist Award which is determined by the fans who are voting via text during the show. The winner is... Gloriana? I'm ashamed to admit I've never heard of her, or them, or whatever. Okay, it's apparently a "them" because it's a group. A country group. Who just stated that they've been on tour with Taylor Swift, so I guess that explains it. I'm wasn't joking earlier when I said Taylor could rule the world. Everything she touches turns to gold.

Uh... wtf? Jennifer Lopez is doing a song. Why? I have no problem with Jennifer per se, but I don't consider her a music artist. And I also am not one of those people who thinks she's beautiful. Would I like to look like her instead of me? Hellz yeah. But she's nothing spectacular. And she's only a fair singer. Of course, she can act out her songs really well. In my opinion, that whole thing was pointless. But I'm sure someone somewhere enjoyed it.

Whitney Houston. Wow. Didn't think she'd ever make it back to singing. She looks a bit different, but then again she's quite a bit older and has been through some rough stuff. There were some moist eyes during her song. Not mine though, while Whitney was on I was busy taking video of Takara (our cat) nodding off while sitting up. It was so cute, her head would fall back and she'd wake up, sit back up and then fall asleep all over again. Okay, guess I better get back to paying attention to the TV.

Favorite Country Female Artist. I love all 3 of the nominees, but I'm gonna guess Taylor will win. Yep, called it.

Now, the moment of truth. Favorite Pop/Rock Male goes to... Michael Jackson. He now has 23 AMA awards which has just broken the record for the most AMA awards won by any one artist. I am not upset he won this award, it's to be expected. But I am a huge fan of Eminem and I also love me some T.I. So I was gonna be happy no matter what. Oh great, Jermaine again.

Alicia Keys sings next. This is the first time I've heard this song. It doesn't stand out as awesome, but I'm sure it will grow on me. NOW WE'RE TALKING. Eminem is on the stage. I know most people will think badly of me, but I love this man. He's an absolute musical genius. Are his lyrics appropriate for most people? No. But he knows how to use his shitty life to make himself successful. The guy can spit like no other. Seriously the tempo and cadence of his rhymes is just mindblowing to me. I love it, I don't care what words are coming out as long as he's the one rapping them. I don't care for 50 Cent as much, but he did alright tonight.

Now Timbaland and Nelly Furtado mix a little bit of Thriller into their performance. But then, that's what Timbaland does. Mix it up baby! Speaking of mixing it up, Green Day hasn't really mixed it up at all (awesome segway, wasn't it?) but they are still cranking out the hits after 8 albums. That's some major staying power. I love the song "21 Guns".

Alright, moving on to Rap/Hip Hop Male. Eminem, Jay-Z, and T.I. are all on my list of favorites. I was hoping Em would win it, but I'm not at all surprised that Jay-Z did. His newest album "Blueprint 3" is amazing. Wonder when I'm finally going to get to see Adam Lambert?

Oh look, it's little Ryan Seacrest. He gets to announce the Artist of the Year. Bet it's Michael, whaddayabet? I would be happy with Eminem, Michael or Taylor. And I really like Kings of Leon, I just don't quite think they deserve this one yet. Okay, the winner is... Taylor Swift. Wow, I'm surprised. Not at all disappointed. Just completely surprised. She's so gracious and humble during her acceptance speeches. What a sweetheart.

OMG. It's finally time for Adam. Debuting his first single. Hope it's good. Um, starting off a bit slow and scary. Now it's kicked in and is not at all what I expected. Oh crap, this is not what I wanted to see. I am disappointed. He's grinding his junk into everyone and the whole thing is too vulgar to me. And remember, I love Eminem so I am not delicate. But this is gross. Seriously. He looks weird, the song is weird and the vulgarity is way over the top. Poor Adam. He's got such potential to be somebody, but I'm not sure he's on the right path at the moment. He can still scream, of course, but I don't know if that's gonna be enough to save him from what I'm offically calling a failure.

Show over, unfortunately ending on a bad performance in my opinion. I can't wait to see how my review of Adam compares to all the gossip blogs and entertainment news writers. In fact, I think I'll go look that up now. Peace out!