Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: addiction, Blackberry, cell phone, e-mail, freedom, funny, lisp, President, speech, withdrawl
I cannot conceive of being without my Blackberry. I finally purchased it last month and already I’m addicted, hence the term Crackberry! I can totally relate to President Obama’s begging and pleading with the Secret Service to allow him to keep his Crackberry, I think that I would be lost without it, but it’s too painful to even think about that possibility.
I mention this because my Blackberry device allows me so much freedom. I was able to take an overnight business trip to Seattle last week and I did not have to pack my laptop because I was able to retrieve all of my e-mails via this amazing device. It’s also very handy in meetings. I can access the Internet and the information that I need to share with my clients via my Blackberry. It’s truly a genius set-up and I wish I had gotten to know it sooner.
There is one drawback to being so connected and here it is. Last week while I was in a meeting I noticed that I missed a call from BFF J. Soon after the missed call there came a text message from her. The message stated “Did you know that Ron Widen has a lateral lisp?” This message may leave many people wondering who Ron Widen is and what the heck does him having a lateral lisp have to do with anything? However, you must realize that BFF J knows that this particular speech impediment is one that I can mimic as though I was born with the problem, and when I do it, it sends people into hysterics (I’m going straight to you-know-where for that!)…..and just an FYI, Ron Widen is our Democrat state Senator (and he’s not my favorite, nor my choice). So upon reading this text message, while in a meeting where my attention was to be directed at the speaker, I bust out laughing…….which I then tried to disguise as an out of control cough and then I excused myself.
So it’s as though I’m having to learn the fine art of self-control all over again. Even though I can access information and e-mails 24/7 it doesn’t mean that I have to. MFH keeps reminding me of that fact when the message indicator goes off in the middle of the night. What’s worse is when I set it on the headboard and it vibrates; but that’s only happened once and MFH got so excited (and you can guess what happened next!). Needless to say I have had to ban the Blackberry from our bedroom.
So there are benefits and there are drawbacks but when weighed out the benefits have it, hands down. It’s just too convenient to be connected and available all the time……unless I don’t want to be available, in which case I would have to actually turn off the phone and then there would be this ugly withdrawl and syptoms could include tremors, night sweats and I may even throw up…….so I guess I’ll just keep using…..my Blackberry!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blog, blogging, disappointed, disappointment, panty, perverts, readers, words
I’ve been blogging for a few months now. It’s working, it’s very therapeutic and that was the intention. But what I enjoy most about my wordpress blog is that they have a lot of information behind the scenes for the person who administers the blog. There are lots of tools to change the look of the site, settings to add content, and of course I could have a plethora of pages if needed. The best back stage feature however is the blog stats page.
On a daily basis I can go into the stats and find out how many people viewed my site, where they came from, what search terms they used that got them to my blog, etc. So far there have been 36 postings with 193 tags to draw people to read the posts, and there have been 24 comments made on my various posts. For whatever reason the busiest day for traffic was December 1, 2008, I think that it had something to do with the OSU vs. UO Civil War game but I’m not sure since the tag lines that brought people to the site were all over the place!
The reason I’m sharing this with you, my loyal readers, is that I had to alert you to the fact that there has been one outstanding word that has attracted readers to my blog and has me asking “Who reads this stuff? Are they surprised by what they read when they get here and are they horribly disappointed?” I can only hypothesize that the same person is not using this one word to get to my blog which leads me to be a little more concerned with our society then I used to be. Here’s the word: Panty.
That’s right; almost daily I can see that someone has typed in the search word panty and is directed to my blog. I know that our society is a bit perverted but PANTY? Geez, I write one little post about Victoria’s Secret underwear giving women rashes and now people searching the web using the word panty are directed to my blog! Whatever floats your boat. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised though, when I originally told BroRy about my blog and the name that I had chosen for it the first thought that came to his mind was that this was some sort of strangely named porn site! Maybe I should change the name to I’m Surrounded by Perverts!!
**As a side note, after I finished the above post I used my spell checker to repair any misspellings. The funny thing is that it doesn’t recognize the word panty!**
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: aging, Billy Idol, crush, David Letterman, Facebook, idol worship, MTV, rock, teenagers
I started thinking about this earlier today when I noticed that my daughter had become a fan of Joe Jonas on her Facebook page, and that made me smile. He’s such a wholesome looking young man. Nothing like Billy.
It was a different time almost 25 years ago……holy shit, it was that long ago. MTV was actually music television and videos rolled 24/7. That’s when it happened. Idol worshipping began with “Flesh for Fantasy” and “Rebel Yell”. Billy Idol had the bad boy persona down to an art form and I was all over it! Then Rolling Stone came out with a Centerfold of the bad man wearing a leather thong. It pictured him from behind, glancing over his shoulder with his magically famous sneer and I thought I would pass out at the site of those perfect butt cheeks staring at me, daring me to slap them. The image was almost more than I could handle at 14, and just thinking about it again makes me a little weak-kneed! (Dad if you’re reading this, I’m sorry)
Billy Idol
During his rise to fame Billy Idol made an appearance as a guest on late Night with David Letterman. You could have knocked me over with a feather…….the site of Billy Idol, wearing all leather, including the leather vest WITH NO SHIRT UNDERNEATH; and the way he sat in the chair, slouched down like it was no big deal to be on Dave’s show….he was uber cool! Then he did it, he took his hand and rubbed his chest with it…………..
Bad Boy Billy
When I finally came back to consciousness, Dave was asking Billy about drugs. Apparently there were pills on the street with names of Billy Idol songs. He said something like “I understand there are street pills known as white weddings…” and Billy’s response was typical. With that give-a-shit sneer he simply responded “Yeah”. Then Dave said “You must be a very proud young man!” and I thought that was very disrespectful of Dave to say, he was obviously making fun of the man I worshipped and that was wrong.
Then came Money, Money (like moanie, moanie) and my Idol worship ended. I hated that song, I still hate that song. I’m not sure why but I think that part of it was that deep down I knew that Billy Idol singing a cover tune would be the end of his career, and I was pretty much right.
25 years is a long time and Billy is showing serious signs of aging. I would like to think that it’s just aging but there’s no doubt that years of hard living and drug use have taken their toll on him. I have to wonder what FD will think of her teenage crush in 25 years. Of course her “idol” is wholesome and wears a chastity belt…..so he’ll probably age gracefully. But me? Nope, I had to choose the bad boy of 80’s rock, and look at him now 
Yikes, Billy Now
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bad smell, college, friends, geeks, odor, offensive, personal hygiene, pungent, radio, scent, smell, stinky
This morning I was reminded of an incident that took place while I was in college. I was friends with a large group of very diverse people and we were all involved with the local college radio station. I was the News Director and had a couple of shows. One was a talk show the other a mid-day “All-request Friday” show. There were several other executive postions that were filled by other students and of course we filled all of the on-air slots as well. If you know anything about college radio then you know that it’s usually pretty raw, unscripted and not exactly professional, and the students that are involved are usually not the most professional either.
Most of the executive positions were filled by vote and all of the station members were given the opportunity to nominate and vote for the best person to hold various duties. We weren’t paid we just got the glory and recognition of being local radio personalities and we thought we were pretty cool. In reality I think that we were the most eclectic mix of mismatched students to walk the school campus and many of us were pretty geeky. I’m not saying that I was geeky (of course not), just that there were quite a few people associated with the radio station that would be considered “geeks”. (Kind of like the audio/visual club geeks from high school…..get it? They transitioned well into college radio!)
So during my Sophomore year there was only one person who wanted and was nominated for the more complex position of Station Manager. His name was Mike. Mike was a really nice guy and he was perfect for the job. He had “High School Audio/Visual Club” written all over him and he was not only flattered that we would nominate him and vote him in but he was also extremely proud to take on the role of Station Manager (and we were way to nice to tell him that he only got the job because no one else wanted it).
As nice and as hard-working and as wonderful as Mike was he had one fatal flaw……he may have had more but this was the only one we saw, or rather smelled because it was so overwhelming that it was hard not to notice. He smelled, BAD. The problem was that Mike was a smoker and I was also convinced that he wasn’t a friend of the laundromat. Oh, and he wore the same jeans jacket every day, and maybe the same jeans but no one ever asked so we’re not positive about his pants. Combine the smell of smoke with the smell of a daily worn jeans jacket that may never have seen a washing machine and you have a recipe for disaster. The real problem was that while we could smell this pungent odor, he could not.
It truly was an offensive odor and since no one ever said anything about it, I thought that I must have super human smell ability! Then one evening while I was sitting around with a group of friends from the station the “Mike Smells Talk” occurred. Mike wasn’t there so it was a great opportunity to get it out in the open. We all sat in disbelief as each one of us ripped on Mike about how horrible he smelled. Everyone went on and on with stories that included having to be in the sound room with him (a small 5X5 room) for hours, to leaving meetings early and coming up with lies in an effort to get away from him. He was clueless! So we devised a plan whereby my friend Janelle would take Mike aside and tell him as kindly as possible that he needed to do something about his odiferousness (my made up word). They were really good friends and I’m pretty sure that he wanted to be more than just her friend so Janelle was the best person for the job, hands down.
She reported back a few days later that her conversation with Mike had been a fabulous success. She gave him great suggestions as to how to get cleaned up and stay clean. She was comprehensive in her conversation to include what detergent to use, how to do laundry, how not to smoke in confined places etc. She was thorough and Mike took it all very well. She convinced him that this was not anything that had been publicly discussed (lie) and that talking to him was all her idea (lie X 2).
Mike’s transformation was noticeable. The following week is was apparent that he had taken Janelle’s advice. He smelled “decent”, had bought new cologne, was non offensive and we were all very pleased with our friend…..but that was short lived. Eventually the odor returned and our group rallied Janelle to the rescue one more time but it was in vain. She felt that she had done all that she could and aside from offering to do his laundry for him none of us could come up with another option, Mr. Stinky was back and more pungent than ever, with the new scent of Polo to attempt to mask what could never be contained.
I swear to you, I can still recall that smell and that was 18 years ago. After reading what I’ve written I have to wonder whatever happened to Mike; what did he do after college? What career path did he follow? Did he marry and have little Mr. Stinkies? Most importantly did he ever clean up his act for good, start doing laundry on a regular basis and give up smoking forever?? Fear has trapped me from finding the answers to my questions……the fear that I may smell that smell again if I go looking, and it’s really not worth knowing!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: dark, divorce, friends, happiness, honor, light, love, marriage, new life, results
Hi all, I know that you’re dying to find out what the results of the poll are. In all honesty there’s no real surprise and here they are:
The Question was posed: When is the appropriate time to remove the exterior Christmas lights?
50% Believe that it should be by the 12th Day of Christmas
38% Believe it to be between Christmas and New Years
and 13% Opted for “Other” citing that it should be done in January, by the 31st or by Epiphany
We had 0 votes for “by Valentine’s day” (thank you) and we had 0 votes for leaving them up “year round” (thank you again, it’s nice to know that I don’t have any white trash reading my blog).
Now, on to today’s story. So this morning after my walk with BFD I came home and gave my husband a big kiss and hug and let him know how much I loved him! I should do that everyday but sometimes “life” gets in the way and I don’t always think about it. This morning was different. Half way through our walk I thought about getting home and hugging him as quickly as possible and here’s why. BFD has some dysfunction in her marriage and I don’t want to take sides but it’s hard not to when you hear her side, so I choose hers and the entire walk was spent talking about her husband and their issues.
I’m not going to go into details about her relationship, that’s not my story, that would be hers. I mention this scenario this morning because so much of what she said to me and so much of what she described reminded me of my horrible first marriage to Dumbass. The behavior that her husband is exhibiting, the maniacal way he’s spinning situations, the constant lies and denial, and his addictive personality made my stomach churn. I kept telling her that I knew how she felt and I meant it.
It brought back so many bad memories but it also made me realize what I have today. I would never compare MFH with Dumbass, there is no comparison. It’s been over 3 years since my emotional departure from Dumbass and I cannot ever imagine that I stayed in that relationship for as long as I did. To think back on some of the majorly fucked up (sorry, that’s the only word to describe it….I tried to think of others but they couldn’t hold a candle to that one) crap that he pulled on me makes me sick. I used to blame myself because I was pissed that I stuck it out for so long but today I’m just proud that I got out when I did.
It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, believe me I know but it’s also darkest before the dawn. It’s so hard to see that when your world is currently dark though. MFH has reminded me often that had it not been for me “sticking it out” we never may have met when we did. After a year and a half of marriage to a wonderful, honest, caring man I think that I may be taking him for granted. I expect that he’ll take care of certain things and he does. I expect that he’ll work hard, and he does. I expect that he’ll selflessly love me and my children, and he does. I live in a whole other world than the one I was in three years ago, this ones very bright.
So how do you tell someone that it’s okay to “walk toward the light” so to speak? In other words, I want to shake my friend and say “Don’t you hear yourself? You’re miserable, divorce him!!” She doesn’t need him, in fact he’s kind of a sponge. But then since I’ve been through a successful divorce maybe I’m biased. Maybe I’m the wrong person to talk to because I’m so quick to yell “GET RID OF HIM! DIVORCE THE DUMB SHIT!” Either way that’s kind of what I did, just more tactfully, kind of 
So I came home from our walk with a heavy heart; hurting for my friend and hungering for the arms of my fabulous husband. And now I realize that I should make yet another New Years Resolution, but this is one I’ll keep: I resolve to tell my husband daily (okay a more realistic time-frame may be weekly) how much he is appreciated and loved. (BTW MFH, if you’re reading this it doesn’t apply to “Flag Football”!!!! read blog post from 11/17/08 )
And now I must work!
I’m pretty sure that it’s beyond the generally accepted time frame for exterior Christmas illumination but maybe I’m wrong? What do you think??
Let me know, cuz’ it’s driving me nuts!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: attitude, career, economy, housing market, job, job loss, life, money, real estate, work
So BFF J and I had a bit of a heart to heart this afternoon. It seems that earlier today she received her “pink slip”. This was not altogether unexpected as she’s been working on contract for a large trucking company, and we all know how well trucking companies are doing in this less than stellar economy. She’s not too upset about it though and I envy her for that. Most people haven’t been as smart as she and her husband when it comes to finances and she doesn’t have to work so she’s among the lucky few. I spent some time crying the blues about the real estate market too. The funny thing is that I’m still working, I’m just not making money!
So when I started selling real estate in 2003 the housing market was actually pretty slow, by “normal” standards. It gradually improved and by 2005 I could hardly keep up with the work load. I was a complete idealist, I was in the business to help people make their dreams of home ownership come true. I know that sounds sappy and Saccharine but it really is the truth. In the height of the market, somewhere between 2004-2005, I was writing a crazy amount of contracts on homes for clients that would stand in line or draw lottery numbers or even over-pay for a house! Nowadays I’m fortunate to write one contract a month (for a buyer) and I’m lucky to see an offer on a home. Oddly enough I’m working less but netting about the same and here’s why: in a boom only about 25-50% of my offers were accepted and today they all get accepted because everyone knows how rare it is to actually see an offer.
The gradual downward progression from optimism to pessimism usually doesn’t happen overnight and mine has been no exception. I think that it really began with my first sale related to a divorce. Prior to that all of the sellers that I had worked with were either relocating and/or moving on up….happy reasons to move! Shortly after the first divorce clients, the second followed and then the “downsizers”; clients that were looking to downsize their existing home and get something smaller, for a variety of reasons but usually financial. Then came the “job loss” clients. We were still in a decent financial market, housing prices were stabilizing and I could still help these people get out with equity……..they were the lucky ones. The “job loss” clients were followed all too closely by the “short sellers”, which is where I find myself today.
The “short sellers” are the most depressing group of clients that I could ever hope to NOT work with yet this is where I find myself today. See, the “short sellers” have NOTHING (for the most part) and many of them are in divorce…..the ultimate double whammy! These are people that (more than likely) at some point had equity in their home but the problem is that the market has dropped so dramatically that their homes are no longer worth what they owe on them. AND to make matters worse, for a variety of reasons they cannot afford to stay in their home.
Do you see my decline? So I went from helping people live the co-called American Dream to helping people throw it away, get rid of it, destroy it, and pretty much trash it. Don’t get me wrong, many of these people have made very bad choices that got them into the bad situations they’re in, but many of them are still making those same bad choices and they just want a free ride.
So therein lies my dilemma, my sour attitude toward a career and business that was once my passion has affected my mental state to the point where I do not want to be a Realtor anymore. To make matters worse, I’m not the only one. There are a tremendous amount of Realtors getting out of the market and I can understand why! To a certain extent I’ve reached survival mode, which sucks. I do not work well in survival mode because it’s all about making money and making money is not my passion, that’s just a bonus
So BFF J and I are trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. She sees her pink slip as the golden ticket to finding her passion and an open gate to several self-fulfilling opportunities (my words, not hers). I see the down market and my steadily worsening attitude as an invitation to begin anew, attempt a new adventure……….or I could crawl into a hole hoping that when things get better someone might come and take me back to the party. Well, one can dream and one can survive. Either way I know that wherever we land it’s where we’re suppose to be…………right?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bad, bad business, behavior, good, humor, ironic, irony, karma, predatory business, revenge, rude
I believe in karma, the idea that what you put out into the universe is what you will also get back. I have to believe it because I’ve seen karma come back to bite people in the butt and I’ve also seen karma come back to bite people that really may not have earned it. Of course there’s also good karma. One of my favorite sayings is “The best revenge is success (or living well)”. That’s a form of karma, right??
I think that one of my best karma stories has to do with a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless to protect her identity). Several years ago this friend and I were pretty close. It’s unfortunate but our friendship took a downturn during my divorce. The funny thing is that you really find out who your real friends are when you go through hard times. She acted as though divorce was contagious, and now that I think about it, it was! There were quite a few people I knew that followed in my footsteps. Now I’m getting off track………….
Anyway, this friend had a great sense of humor. She also had an uncanny knack for impersonating people and was especially good at impersonating a deaf person. Trust me, I knew that it was not politically correct but she was amazingly good at it and every once in a while when she poured the impersonation on I would roll on the floor with laughter. I feel a little bad telling this story because it is horribly politically incorrect but hind site is 20/20 and I can tell you now that I would not find any humor in it today. You guessed it, karma came through. My friend was diagnosed with a tumor on the eustacian tube in one of her ears. Fortunately it was benign and through surgery the tumor was removed. Here’s the downside, it was considered brain surgery and the recovery was very lengthy but worse, she lost all hearing in that ear. To the best of my knowledge she hasn’t performed that impersonation since then and even if she did, it wouldn’t be funny.
I also can’t help but think that in some way the crappy economy is due to karma. So much greed and so many bad spending habits by so many people (forget the corporations, that goes without saying) has led to financial ruin. I’ve seen a lot of it right within my own industry. When real estate was hot there were a lot of Realtors and mortgage brokers that took advantage of buyers and sellers. Some of you may be happy to hear that I know quite a few of these people who are now loosing their own houses and their businesses…..and for the most part, they deserve it. Now that’s irony, brokers loosing their own home after predatory and unethical practices screwed over their clients that were buying a home….it’s almost funny!
Here’s one more example. CAM told me this story about how she had gone to the gas station to fill up her car. There were no other cars in front of hers and instead of pulling forward she stopped at the first pump. There was a guy who pulled in right behind her and couldn’t get around her car to get to the first pump (which was the pump she should have gone to in the first place). Before she even began to pump her gas he came over to her and asked if she would please move her car forward, she refused. The gas attendant came over and the two men explained that it would nice if she could pull forward so that this gentleman could fill up too. She still refused and proceeded to fill up her car. Both men walked away in a huff. She ended her story by saying to me “Can you believe how rude they were?”, I was stunned. This woman professes to be a “born-again” Christian. Did she not learn that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you? She must have missed church that Sunday. CAM got a two-fer, she chose to piss off two people for the price of one and how did karma respond to this? After a number of other jaw dropping incidents I have chosen not to have her in my life and subsequently she doesn’t get to see her grandchildren.
So the moral of the story is just that: put out good, get good. Put out bad, get bad. It’s pretty simple but it bears repeating and it’s a good life lesson for the new year. May karma be kind to you and your family in 2009!
