Some random ramblings

I have a number of thoughts swimming around my head, so I thought I would put them down, in no particular order. Here goes.

I think this holiday season people are less rude and crazy. Am I the only one seeing this? Maybe it just seems that way because I am in a better place emotionally and I am doing my best to be kinder and more observant. But so far, I don't think I have witnessed a single rude act (traffic not withstanding). In fact, people seem friendlier than I remember.
I know that people saying "Happy Holidays" bothers some of my Christian friends. Me? Not so much. It is a holiday season after all, and there are Jewish people out there shopping for Hanukkah gifts. On the other hand, I have never forgotten when one of my Jewish friends from college actually scolded me for sending her a Christmas card. I was not trying to offend her; I simply wanted to send her a card as I did all my other friends, and as a poor college student, I did not have the extra money to get her a different card. I no longer send any Jewish friends cards, however.
I am not doing so well holding to a budget this Christmas. I know my kid gets way more than she needs, but I just can't help myself. I still hope that one year I can convince my siblings to stop exchanging gifts and spend money on charity. Normally I do the latter anyway, but this year, I had to forgo my donations to usual charities (other than the giving tree and a gift for a child via Jordan's school). Yes, I realize I could have just spent less on gifts for Jordan and still made donations. Sigh. Sorry, Dave. I know how disappointed you would be.
I am continually (or is that continuously) disappointed by the poor customer service and seeming incompetence from too many people in many different businesses. And I can't help feeling a tinge of bitterness because these people have jobs, and I don't.
And speaking of jobs, why is it when you have a phone interview, the interviewer cannot take the time to shoot you an email telling you thanks but no thanks? I think I deserve that.
And to one of the schools I want to sub for: I got over that you did not return my phone call from two or three weeks ago when I asked a simple question. But since I personally dropped off my resume and cover letter over a week ago and the teachers standing there said they could really use subs, how hard would it be for someone to call or email me, just to let me know what the next steps are?
I am really struggling with my health insurance decision. Do I pay about $340/month for good health care (no eye and dental), or do I spend about 30 percent of that per month but then have crappy insurance that could end up costing us 1000s of dollars if I need anything more than routine care?
I will miss Fred Honsberger. I cannot believe he passed away this week, at such a young age. I had no idea his health was that bad. Just Sunday he wrote a comment on his Facebook page about how he was taking vacation time, and that there was nothing wrong with him.
To Ryan Clark: I have never begrudged any athlete or movie, TV, or musical star from making millions. But don't disrespect the fans. They have every right to be disappointed by the Steelers abysmal performance. If it weren't for the fans paying money for seat licenses, tickets, and merchandise, most of you would not have jobs.
I subbed the same class three days this week, and I really felt as if this class were mine. They are a good class. One kid, after asking me my age and my refusing to tell him, asked if I was 26. I told him I liked that way of thinking. Then another kid, clearly a charmer, said I looked as if I were 16.
A teacher this week also made my day. She told me that she thanks the Lord for me, and how lucky they are to have me sub. She even stopped another teacher walking by to get her to agree. It was such a nice thing to say. If only I could sub there four days a week and make enough to pay our bills. That would be my Christmas wish.
During the Christmas concert at school this week, I actually felt love for the kids. All of them. To me it sounds crazy, considering that some of those kids are so disrespectful to me. But for several moments, that is how I felt. I wanted to hug every one of them.

And on that note, I will end my latest ramblings.

Let's build something together!

That is one of my favorite slogan's (Or is that a tagline? Over a year removed from a design firm, and I can no longer remember). It belongs to Lowe's, although I am more of a Home Depot gal. But suffice it to say if someone handed me a $5,000 gift card to Home Depot (or Lowe's), I would be ecstatic. If I had $10,000 to spend, you could hear my shouts of joy from miles away. The things I could do with that money. Well, the things I could have Brian do with that money anyway. I love walking around Home Depot and admiring the fancy bathroom sinks and tubs. I look at the lighting and think about where I would put each fixture. I touch textured and colorful tiles and wistfully look at the fancy kitchen cabinets. I admire the various carpet styles and blinds. I look at the fancy front-loading washer and wonder what it must be like to have a steam dryer. I even look longingly at the vacuum cleaners because I can no longer buy a replacement filter for my eight year old mo...

Summer in review

This summer I made it a point to try to take at least one pic of Jordan whenever we went somewhere, which most often was a park. I wanted to capture all the great, fun things we did this summer, knowing that it was probably going to be my last summer not working for quite some time. So here goes. I have expressed my love of Frick Park, particularly Blue Slide Park, in other posts ; it really is one of our favorites. And this summer marked the first one I did not feel the need to follow J around like a little puppy dog. I actually let her run around and explore, though, admittedly, I would panic if more than three minutes went by and I had not seen her. In the pics above, J is at the end of the blue slide, and then hanging several feet above concrete (which scared the crap out of me). We also visited another section of Frick Park, the area on the corner of Braddock and Forbes, a few times. There is not as much to do as Blue Slide, but we go there to mix things up a bit. In the p...

If only I had taken pictures of my detoured drive

When I moved to the Burgh just over 14 years ago, I had a lot of anxiety about getting from "here" to "there." I found the city, which is triangular, and even some of the suburbs quite confusing. On top of that, a lot of the signs were of little help. Clearly they were put up by either natives who had no need for directions or people with a sick sense of humor who thought it would be funny to put signs in random places, leaving off important roads. At some point, I got over that fear of driving to a new building downtown. I don't recall when it happened, but eventually I just figured most of the city out; and when I had to head to a new place, I just drove around, no longer with a feeling of dread, knowing I would eventually get there. But on Sunday morning, that awful, long-ago feeling returned, thanks to the closure of the outbound Fort Pitt Tunnels. I had to pick my mother up from the airport, so there was no avoiding it. (For some reason, my family think...

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