Can I have my money back?

So one thing I hate about election time is the damn phone calls. I loathe being called by a recording to explain why I should or should not vote for candidate x, y, or z. I especially loathe it when the voicemail (it's always voicemail, I rarely pick up my home phone) is just a recording of how bad the other candidate is. It goes to my whole hatred of attack ads. I could not care less what candidate x is or is not doing. Tell me what YOU are doing. I think after this election I'm not going to vote for any candidate whose campaign includes phone calls. I'm going to make a list of which candidates call and leave me voicemails and I'm not going to vote for them. They may be the only candidate who is pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-puppies and kitties on the ballot but I will not vote for them because they've pissed me off. (obviously it is too late for this election because I didn't keep track of the 4 different candidates who called the past two weeks. FOUR candidates for a freakin' primary election - although since I didn't keep track it could actually be the same candidate who I got called about 4 times... either way, there were 4 voicemails at home).

I was thinking about this whole stance yesterday before hopping in the shower and it made me wonder... if I had donated money to a candidate who then called with one of those recorded messages could I ask for my money back? Can you ask for your money back once you've donated it to someone? I think I should be able to. "You've pissed me off, I'm no longer supporting you... give me my $20 back!" I like that idea. :)

We Are Family

While waiting for the bus after the Blue October concert tonight a guy came up to the woman and her daughter who were also waiting for a bus. He says to them, "You're family, where can I find a family bar?" She didn't get it. I didn't bother to explain what he meant by family. I really didn't want to get involved in a conversation with random bus people. But he kept asking her where are the family bars. Finally I pointed out that he wanted Capitol Hill and started reciting all the different bars depending on what he was looking for. We finally established Madison Pub was what he was really looking for and he went on his merry way. In retrospect I'm totally cracking up at myself... "Well if you're into the leather scene there's the Eagle or The Cuff, but if you're looking to dance there's RPlace or Neighbors but if you want..." All three people were looking at me like I was nuts but I can't help it... Also, the lady and her kid were not family they were just a lady and her kid. (I think he thought they were a couple)

ODing on Blue October

Remember a week or two ago I mentioned how much I think I love Blue October and was going to acquire more tunes by them? Oh sure you do... think back... :) Well I did! I was out with Stephen like two weeks ago and I picked up their double CD Foiled For the Last Time. Since I bought it all the way through Election day I've been listening to it as I fall asleep at night and as I get up in the AM. I had to foresake Adam Corolla in the morning because every commercial break had stupid election ads and it would just make me mad and I would turn off the radio anyway. I'm developing a pretty hardcore set of songs that I LOVE by them that I can listen to on repeat for days and be happy... on that list: You Make Me Smile (c'mon how awesome is that for a song title in general.), Sound of Pulling Heaven Down and She's My Ride Home. All in all good CDs I'm going to have to acquire more.

Totally unrelated sometimes I hate people. In general. None specifically. Ok well one specifically. Ok well I don't HATE him but he massively irritates me. It's a work person not a non work person so don't get paranoid Stephen. :)

2 Things I want today...

Today (only today) I only want 2 things from people.

1 - Invest your money wisely. I have just received a retirement enrollment form and the person has requested the money market fund for 100% of her retirement contribution. The money market? That's like 3 or 4% interest. You may as well shove your money in a mattress and you'll have the same effect. Inflation is going to eat that up. Why even bother? There are life cycle funds that will invest wisely for you based on your projected retirement date. Even that's better than the money market. Seriously.

2 - Women should comb their hair. I don't get why they don't. Do they think it looks pretty? And I'm not speaking of dread locks which I think are atrocious but I do get that they are a statement. I mean just regular hair. So many women walk around with rats nests in the back of their hair like they are toddlers who have been lying on their pillow rubbing their head back and forth. I don't get it. I was just in the bathroom and this girl very carefully applied make up so her face would be pretty but her hair was pulled back in this unkempt, trashy ponytail. Think back to when you were a little girl (for those of you that were girls or Michelle, think about when we worked at GS camp). Remember how you'd try to avoid getting your hair combed so you would have this weird spazzy ponytail that just looked unkempt. That's what her hair looked like. I'm cool with the "messy" ponytail or bun you see but at least the part around the head is nice and combed back... not just rats nest ponytail. (And I'm not lumping girls with curly hair into this because I know they have a special set of challenges with their curls. This is my want for girls with relatively straight or only wavy hair.)

I don't think I'm asking for too much, right? :)

What to say...

Remember my friend who died suddenly last year? They are putting together a memory book for her son. I'm struggling with what to say. I hate this kind of thing. I am not that type of person. But even moreso I feel sad that the person putting together the project had to come around and ask because she needs more memories. Somehow that is even sadder to me. Time has passed. People get busy. The funeral was a packed house (and honestly the saddest funeral I've ever been to. When my sister died that was sad in one way personal to me, but this was sad in a whole other way. Perhaps because my sister didn't die suddenly. She'd been sick for a very long time.) and so I know people feel about this. Maybe they're like me and just staring at the monitor trying to make the words come.

I'm a grown up dammit!

Whenever I don't do something I'm scheduled to do I get all weird about it. Like no matter what I should do the task. Tonight I skipped belly dancing. I skipped it in part because I didn't feel like going. The other part is that I'm really uncomfortable doing things in front of the group and she always has us do one or two things in front of the group. If I were comfortable doing the moves it might not be so bad, but I never feel ready to dance in front of the others and I have to do it. I feel like I sound like a petulant child. Waaahhh I don't wanna... I don't wanna... I don't wanna... But in reality, I'm a grown up. If I don't want to do some things, I don't have to, you know? (Of course part of the whole force myself to do things is that I know I'm lazy... So sometimes I have to force myself to do things because I know I'm going to be lazy and not do anything.) But nothing bad is going to happen if I skip class. Nobody is going to judge me. There is no cosmic score sheet I'm now in the red on.

March is again the volunteer month from hell. I'll be selling cookies at 4 different site sales. I have the Firefighter Stair Climb on the 4th. I decided to volunteer for the Big Climb on the 18th and then just in case I had nothing else to do, I'm pouring beer again at brewfest on the 24th. Of course these are all annual gigs so it isn't anything new. (Well the Big Climb is new but it is the same as the Firefighter Stair Climb except it is regular people in regular clothes not fireboys in firesuits.)

I had the best dinner tonight! I had a hamburger on a bun! And french fries! It was awesome. :)

There's a new law being looked at here in Washington. They're considering letting dogs into public places if the shop/restaurant/bar says it is okay. I can't believe how against this I am. I know I have dog issues because I'm surrounded by jackass owners. Between the barker across the hall and the damn owners who don't clean up the poo when they are supposed to I'm about done with dog owners. And the reality is, the guys who will be bringing their dogs into the bars or restaurants... they are the owners who don't control their dogs to begin with. These are the folks whose dogs are not on leashes and who don't respond to voice command. Or the dogs who bite people or other dogs and then the owners demand to know what YOU did to provoke them. It is infuriating. I know there are plenty of good, responsible owners, but damn the bad ones that I'm surrounded by really REALLY poison me against dogs. Of course, to me, the other part of why the law is stupid is that not everybody likes dogs... They shouldn't be forced upon people who may not want to deal with them. (Which one cafe owner commented on. She said if the law were to be passed, she wouldn't change her rules. She accepts that some dog owners may decide to not patronize her shop anymore but at the same time she wants to be more supportive of ALL her customers.)

I really like the new Mac/PC commercial about new Vista where you have to verify almost everything that you do. It makes me chuckle.

I do not like how when I'm using tabbed browsing in IE7, I can't use the tab key or the alt-tab like I'm used to to jump from tab to tab.