Friday, July 27, 2007

so excited . . . . then not

I was very excited about a concert that is happening in September. A local radio station has an annual fall festival and this year they're featuring Smashing Pumpkins. I was thrilled! I never got to see them in the 90's and they're one of those bands that I always wanted to see. They also said that there would be a special guest.
Now, last year they'd announced Avenged Sevenfold with a special guest. The special guest turned out to be Muse. In my mind, the special guest was even better than the first announced band. So I thought this year would be the same. I know Incubus will be in Phoenix one day before, so I thought they could come here again. I started making all sorts of combinations in my head. Smashing Pumpkins with Incubus, Smashing Pumpkins with The White Stripes, Smashing Pumpkins with any band I've ever wanted to see. Then I found out who the special guest will be. It's Cypress Hill. Eh. I felt so let down. Knowing that they'll be there cancelled out my excitement for seeing the Pumpkins. I seriously don't even want to go anymore. Forgive me if you're a Cypress Hill fan, but I have an image of their fans as sort of like thugs or something. I have no desire to attend a concert where fights are going to break out or I could potentially be shot.
So we're not going. Now I'm torn between Incubus in Phoenix (Sept 15) or The Cure in Los Angeles (Oct 14). Both? :p

feeling: it's so *%&#! hot here
listening to: Blaqk Audio (Stiff Kittens)

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

on the phone

You know where I've been these past few days? Here. On the phone. It seems that I've had a lot of things to take care of and the only way it can be done is by calling places. Then I'm left on hold for 75 hours straight. I wish I could say that I've been chit chatting and catching up with friends, but that it not the case.

- We have a package cable/internet/phone service. It's a good deal because it's less expensive that way. On the sucky side, it's always going down. That means all three things stop working at once. I have to call them on my cell phone and wait for them to tell me "It's not like we do it on purpose". Also, the service could be out for HOURS every day but as long as it is not in 24 consecutive hours, no credits are given. Nice.

- I haven't written about this, but I had credit issues for a LONG while. I did sooooo much to get good credit after ruining it in college only to have someone use my ss#. Somebody had used it to get a mortgage, some credit cards and a car loan. Unfortunately for that person, it was financed through the bank that I worked for. Duh! It took a while to get that all sorted. Everything is off my credit report now and instead I have a couple of my mom's accounts. The reason . . . we have the same name. I find it ridiculous first of all because I would've opened those accounts as a kid and secondly because they didn't ask for a ss#. I was on the phone with department store credit offices explaining that I am not my mom. I think it is all taken care of now. My credit score is now considered "EXCELLENT" but I know it'll be higher once this clears.

- When we got our alarm system, we were offered some really good promos and now they're not going into effect. We were offered three free months and a low fee and are now being charged (at one month) with a higher fee than we were quoted. We called. The salesman that made us this offer is no longer there so they keep passing the buck to see what they can do. We keep getting promised a return call but so far we've called about a million times and they've called us back zero times.

- The exterminators . . . ugh, this is a long story and deserves a post of it's own.

For now, I have to make a few more calls. At least these are more pleasant (school, dentist and such). -sigh- Am I the only one that hates being on the phone so much?

feeling: loving this rainy weather
listening to: some Noggin song "Beside the seaside"

Thursday, July 19, 2007

the spoiler

I have a confession to make . . . I read THE spoiler. You all know what I'm talking about. Well, only the crucial parts, who dies and who kills them. At first I thought it might be a fake. I was curious and started digging around and found the exact same info in various websites. I don't think it ruined the book for me. In fact, I want to read it even more now. I would've gone to the end once I got the book anyway. I'm like that. I won't tell you all what happens unless you want me to. Also, I haven't written the name of the book or main character on here purposely. I don't want google searches turning up here (people like me). All I can say is that I was pretty sad at the outcome. Are any of you going to the midnight book celebrations?
What do you all think of the distributors who mailed out the copies early? Could they have been paid off? Are they really that dumb?

feeling: anxious
listening to: Travis (Sing)

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

my baby in school

Back when I started this blog Alec looked like this . . .




In fact, this picture was taken one day after I made my first post. Aww . . my baby! Today was his first day of school. He was so excited and I was a wreck. I got home and thought, "ok, now what?" It was so quiet and I had no idea what to do with myself. There was no one to feed, no one saying "mama, mama, mama", no one here except for me. He only goes for three hours two days a week, so I think I'm going to be doing quite a share of volunteering. Between his and Brianna's classroom, I should be pretty busy.
Here he is today in his new classroom looking through the dress-up clothes.





feeling: super duper old
listening to: U2 (Staring at The Sun)

Monday, July 16, 2007

back to school

Brianna went back to school today. She's now a 3rd grader and I am officially uncool. Last year we lived walking distance from her school. This year, she'll be riding the bus. I supposed technically, it's still walking distance, but come on, I live in Arizona. It would mean we'd practically get heat stroke by the time we get to school.
Anyway, I decided that I would take her today. I'd walk her to class and all that good stuff. We get there and there is not a single parking space anywhere near the school. Cars were parked for BLOCKS! I felt like parking at our old rental house and just walking from there. I was driving around thinking surely somebody must be leaving soon but people were busy video taping their kids getting out of the car. Uh-huh, PEOPLE WERE TAPING THEIR KIDS GETTING OUT OF THE CAR. And these weren't little kindergarten age kids like this is their first day of school ever. No, these were kids right about Brianna's age who were at this same school last year. I thought I was seeing wrong or maybe there was just one set of parents like this then I saw about five more video cameras. These parents were just smiling and filming their kids walking. Walking. Those poor kids looked so embarrassed.
Ok, so maybe I'm a bad mom. I only take pictures on the first day. I didn't film Brianna's first steps ever as a third grader. Next year I'm going to out-do all these people and have a freakin' press conference at the school. Paparazzi and helicopters flying over.
Tomorrow is the first day for the pre-k class Alec is in. There I can understand video cameras. I'll be the mom that'll only let go of her kid to take pictures in between sobs. I'll let you all know how that goes.

feeling: bored with my hair
listening to: Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (Face Down)

Friday, July 13, 2007

more misunderstood lyrics

A few days ago, Rodrigo was walking around singing an old Aerosmith song . . .

- Rodrigo: There goes my old girlfriend. There's another diamond ring. And all those knick knack promises I guess they don't . . .
- me (interrupting him) What? Knick knack promises?
- Rodrigo: yeah, knick knack promises (continues singing) I guess they don't mean a thing
- me: No! It's "late night" promises
- Rodrigo: Oh, I thought it was knick knack. (laughs) I guess late night makes sense.

I was relieved that I wasn't the only one that heard silly things. I wrote about my hearing the wrong lyrics before. So anyway, I heard about these new shows that were about knowing song lyrics. Right away I think I should be on because I rock. (in my own mind) We watched one of them. The one with the dancing girls dressed like bees. I guess this one is The Singing Bee. I was pleased to see that I would've won. Well, I at least knew all those lyrics. So I've been walking around proud thinking that I am no longer singing the wrong lyrics to anymore songs. Then I find out about the Killers. Ugh! You know that song "Somebody Told Me"? Well, this is what I've heard all along . . . .

- Somebody told me that you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had in Fairview. When I realized you, it's not confidential . . .

What it really says
- Somebody told me that you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year. It's not confidential . . . .

-sigh- I really need to go to an ear doctor.

feeling: I can't believe how HOT it is
listening to: Amy Winehouse (Rehab)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

back to normal

The kiddies are back and that means that everything is back to normal around here. Back to busy. Next Monday is back to school (year-round calendar) so we're busy getting ready for that.

While they were gone, I expected that we'd be more of a party mood. Instead, we did a lot of shopping and lots of things we needed to do around the house. We had dinner out almost every day. My only criteria was to go to a place where they hadn't even heard of kids' menus.

Anyway, I'm such a dork that the whole time they were gone, I had this earworm of a song that Alec likes. He's only heard it a few times but he's like hypotized by it. I had it stuck in my head for DAYS! Listen here. That show isn't even on the air yet and I already know one of their songs.

Oh, so let me tell you . . . for the whole year that we've been living here, we were unaware of an awesome shopping center. We went on the 4th and there's a Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, M.A.C., Crate and Barrel, Anthropologie, and of course the whole reason that Rodrigo accepted to go . . . an Apple store. I felt so dumb for not finding out about this place sooner. We shopped at our leisure not worrying about kids knocking things over or anything.

So we're leaving again now. I have some giant school supply lists that I have to tackle.

Tomorrow is my birthday, people! For the first time in a long time, this isn't a bad thing.

feeling: happy, busy
listening to: that Yo Gabba Gabba song

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

enjoy the silence

You know how teenagers sometimes throw parties when their parents are away? I feel like one of those teenagers right now. Except my kids are away. My parents and nephew came yesterday, picked up my kiddies and they're off to SoCal. Let me tell you, my mom is crazy for Disneyland. She absolutely LOVES going there. So she's taking the grandkids for the 4th of July. Uh, better her than me. I think it's funny because it's just her and my dad at home now. They could take a nice vacation just the two of them. Instead, they opt for Disney with the kids. Odd.
So now I'm here by myself. Rodrigo is at work and this house is soooooooo quiet. Ahh...... The only time it's like this is when they're asleep. Right now I was able to be in the bathroom for as long as I wanted without hearing "mama, mama, mama" or pounding on the door.
So, we have all sorts of things planned. Is it horrible that we planned things for when the kids aren't here? Rodrigo and I are meeting for lunch, going to the movies, heading to some serious shopping, going out to dinner and of course tomorrow, sleeping in late. We'd go out clubbing or something if we weren't so old. :P

feeling: Ahhhhhhhh
listening to: NOTHING!