I HATE Tornado Season

Okay, I know this is going to sound petty, but I was really irritated last night. I was watching 7th Heaven (yes, I watch 7th Heaven) – which is down to its final episodes EVER and what should happen, but it get’s interrupted by Fox News because of a tornado. Now, I know that this information was important to people in its path, but the guy who just kept telling you the same information over and over (I think I referred to him at one point as a “Weatherman Wannabe”). I was annoyed. I wanted to see what was happening on 7th Heaven. I’ve even emailed the local station to see if it will be re-broadcast. But, like I said, I did understand that this information was important to some people.

But here is where I got REALLY annoyed. Later in the evening, after the storm had pretty much died down, I was watching Medium on NBC and stupid Mike Morgan kept interrupting the show to give more updates. Now this is why I was really annoyed – he didn’t give these updated during commercials. They weren’t even critical, just an update to what had already happened (which could have been covered during the 10 o’clock news). And it never failed, you’d watch 10 minutes of commercials and as soon as it was time to go back to the show, he would break in, spend 10 minutes telling you information that wasn’t even important, and by time they’d get back to the show, it was almost time to go to commercials again.

Maybe Grant Johnston and I wouldn’t make a good match. I don’t think he would appreciate my view on this matter. Oh, well. Like that was ever going to happen anyway.

Sometimes A Girl Just Can't Get A Break!

I’m trying to be good. I don’t go out to eat much at all (generally lunch once a week with Jenn and maybe a fast food run through if I get desperate). I’ve not been “shopping” in a long time. I have only spent $29 on stuff to wear since December (that’s 1 pair of shoes and two shirts). I pay all my bills on time. I have seen VERY few movies (4 I think, and one was free) since the first of the year. I have been very careful in my spending. I’ve put everything extra in my savings account for emergencies (including my tax refund). I have made every attempt to not add to any debt that I already have. I’ve been GOOD!!! Why is it then that I am still being punished! If it’s not paying to remove a varmint from my attic, it’s my car. Most recently it’s my car. I do everything required to keep my car in good running condition, but it never fails. Since February, I’ve replaced spark plugs, rotors, and effective today, a catalytic converter. Oh, and it couldn’t be the cheaper and easier to replace catalytic converter. NOOOOO, it has to be the expensive one that is harder to get to. 30 minutes labor verses 4 hours. I feel like I need to start my own Save Karyn website. I’m on the verge of having as much debt that she did and very little of mine was on fun stuff! I’m just PRAYING nothing major happens at my house any time soon or I’m screwed!

The Truth About Hiccups

So I found this article on MSN today and thought it was very educational...
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Hi Bill,
Why do we get hiccups? And can we cure them? (Can't--hiccup--stop--hiccup--hiccupping--hiccup!) --Diaphragm Hammer

Dear (heek!) Diaphragm Hammer,

Notice how often you swallow. Try making tally marks on a piece of paper while you're watching a TV show, for example. Most of us swallow every few seconds. Even when we're nowhere near food or something to drink, we're gulping away. Your mouth is continuously producing saliva, and it has to end up somewhere. So, down it goes. Meanwhile, as you may realize, you have to keep breathing. If you don't, well, you'll probably miss the rest of this column.

We humans breathe through our nose or mouth. For a short way, the air moves down or up the same passage that we use for swallowing--our throat*. We have a muscular trapdoor in our throat that keeps the stuff intended for our stomach from going down our trachea, the windpipe connected to our lungs. This vital valve is our good ol' epiglottis*. To keep inhaled air from going down your esophagus (your stomach tube), and to keep food and saliva from going down your trachea, your epiglottis is working all the time. It's a swinging door that's always moving and always closing pretty hard one way or the other.

Because all of this action is connected to breathing, your diaphragm* (the big breathing muscle below your lungs) gets into the act, as well. You can't be inhaling or exhaling and swallowing at the same time, even if you breathe through your nose. The diaphragm can't be pulling air down or pushing air up while saliva or food is coming down your throat. All of the actions of all these muscles have to be coordinated by your brain.

Also in your throat, you'll find your voice box, or larynx*. On top of the larynx is a somewhat different expandable and contractible gizmo called the glottis. It's a long, narrow, muscular opening that lets only air pass over your vocal chords. (Both epiglottis and glottis come from the Latin word for "tongue.")

Once in a while, often when you find yourself eating a bit too quickly, your brain sends conflicting signals to your diaphragm and epiglottis: "Close the esophagus and open the trachea--no, wait. I mean, pull the diaphragm and open the--hold it--I mean the food tube--no, the windpipe. Wait. Now, swallow and breathe. Yikes!" Once in a while your diaphragm contracts and forces air through your glottis, and you feel a bump and often hear that "heek" sound. That's when you have the hiccups.

Your nerve fibers have produced too many charged calcium ions near the muscles of your glottis and your diaphragm. They spasm; your brain triggers your nervous system to send a correcting signal, but it's too late or not quite of the right strength, and you hiccup again. Often there's an imbalance that is like a resonance. The signals build up and let go at regular intervals, like a sign flapping in a breeze.The way to stop the hiccups seems to be to provide a new clear signal to your body--either a signal for swallowing or breathing. That's why for some people, it helps to hold a breath. For others, swallowing several sips of water in succession does the trick. You have to clear or overwhelm the confusing diaphragm-glottal-epiglottal noise. You can do it. Just swallow; I mean, hold your breath. Hiccup--I mean...
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Hiccups can be quite a nusense sometimes. I once almost got kicked out if a Bible Class in college (by Lindsy's neighbor) because I had the hiccups. He told me to make them stop or leave (uh, don't you think I would if I could?). It is pretty funny when you think of all the ways people use to get rid of hiccups. Here are just a few I've tried:

1) Eat a spoon full of sugar. This is what my mom always told us to do. Actually, I think this was Mary Poppins' idea, and it was to make the medicine go down, but I wasn't telling my mom that.

2) Drink a glass of water upside down. Yes, it can be done. I'm actually quite good at it, but it takes talent and practice.

3) Have them scared out of you. I got paid in ice cream once to scare our intern, Kody, when he had the hiccups (not by him, by another secretary). He jumped and screamed like a girl!

4) Lay on the floor and put several heavy books on your stomach and raise them using your diaphram until your hiccups go away.

5) Distract yourself. Focusing on something else is the best way to get them to go away.

Whatcha got?

Give Me A Break!

Post Office Man
Over my lunch hour, I ran to the post office to mail a package. Big mistake, since everyone was trying to mail in their taxes. I’m standing in line waiting to use the do-it-yourself machine (which was a long wait). I finally get up there, and start going through the process. Now, let me say that I have done this SEVERAL times before, so I knew what I was doing.

All of sudden I had this feeling of someone looking over my shoulder. I was reading through the “does your package…” list when I hear this man say, “it’s none of these”. How the heck does he know what is in my package in the first place. But more important, can we say “PERSONAL SPACE?” There was absolutely no reason for that man to be standing so close and he was seriously invading not only my personal space, but my comfort zone as well! I felt like I was in Poland all over again. Matter of fact, he was so close that when I went to pick up my package, I hit him with my elbow and dropped my box. To this man I would like to again say “DUDE! BACK UP!”

Lady in Car Who Needed A Chill Pill
On my way back to work, there was this lady in the car behind me. She was tailing me really close, so I was trying to be cautious and not to stop too fast. There wasn’t much I could do because there was a trash truck in front of me. Knowing that I was getting close to my turn and strongly sensing that she was already in such a hurry, I turned on my turn signal a little sooner than I needed to and started slowing down. When I finally stopped to turn, she throws her hands up in the air as in to say “what are you doing idiot!” Hey, lady, don’t throw your hand in the air at me, I gave you plenty of warning I was about to turn, why didn’t you just change lanes when you had the chance and go around me?

Phone Book Advertising Sales Guy
There is this man that has been coming by our office A LOT lately trying to get us to run advertising in his phone book. He’s bugged me in the past when he just worked for Fiest, but now Fiest has bought out another phone book and he’s doing double duty and being double annoying. He stopped by two weeks ago when I was out sick for the day. He stopped by again the next day. I told him I would have to run it by my boss and I told him he would be out the rest of the week. But in addition, I really didn’t think it was something we would do. He then came by again on Friday (uh, I told you I wouldn’t have an answer for you yet). Then I was out sick the first two days of last week, and he came by then too. And today, I was in a meeting and he came by yet AGAIN. GO AWAY!!!

Someone needs to warn this man that when you bug me too much and don’t take no for an answer, I get irritated and I’m bound to tell you exactly what I think. Despite rumors, I’m really not a mean person, but I do have personal space issues.

The Great Paint Caper

Well, this weekend didn’t exactly go as planned. I was thinking about going to Missouri to FINALLY get to see baby Zaine, but because I’ve been sick and craziness with their schedule, we decided to postpone the trip for a couple of weeks. Since I now had a free weekend and a gift card to Lowes, I decided to finally finish painting my kitchen (you know, that project I started back in February!)

If you recall from previous posts, there was an issue with the color I originally chose. I liked the color, but it was not quite the right shade of blue. So Friday night, I went to Lowe’s in search of a different shade of blue. I found a paint sample that looked like it was what I wanted – at least under their light (you know where I’m going with this, don’t you.) So I get the paint and head home. By time I got home, the paint dab on the top of the can had dried and it was not looking like the right color AT ALL. I tried not to panic. I just rolled a small amount on the wall and decided to let it dry over night and see what it looked like in the morning.

Saturday morning, I got up and went into the kitchen. DEFINITELY the wrong color! I called Lowe’s and they said to bring it back in and maybe they could adjust the color. After several attempts, it became obvious it was not going to be the right color. I took my new “custom designed” paint home and started trying to work on Plan B.

I really didn’t have the money to be spending on paint, but at the same time, I REALLY wanted to get the kitchen done. It was getting on my nerves. So I decided to ignore my rule about not using the credit card and went looking for new paint. I honestly went to every paint store in Edmond. One of the places I went, the guy offered to take the bowl I was using to try to match the paint and see what he could come up with. By this point I was about ready to take him up on the offer. I decided to go back to Home Depot in hopes of maybe miraculously finding the right color. My hopes weren’t high since I had already looked through ever paint sample they had when I was originally started this process, but I really wanted to finish my painting and didn’t want to put it off another week.

I walked into Home Depot and start looking at different colors. My best bet was looking like a color from the Disney collecting, when I found it. Granted it’s hard to tell under their lights, but to the best of my knowledge, it looked like I had maybe found the perfect color. Not exact, but so much closer than what I had used originally and I was happy with that. I don’t know if they were out of that sample the last time or if it was a new one…frankly I didn’t care, because I had it now the there was light at the end of the tunnel.

When I got home and started putting it on the walls, it was definitely the right color. I was so happy! I spent the rest of my Saturday painting my kitchen and was actually done at a pretty decent hour.

Sunday evening, I went to start taking the tape off. I had to use a knife to cut through the edges since the paint stuck to the tape. When I started taking it off, to my horror, the paint and seeped through the edges and now there was blue pain on my ceiling and cabinets. This was the ONE thing I was trying to avoid which is why I taped everything so well. I’m now going to have to go back over the edges of my white cabinets and white ceiling with Kilz to cover up the blue and then repaint the trim. I’m starting to wonder if I’m ever going to be done.

So, what did I do with the gallon of paint I now can’t use? Well, when I was rinsing out the roller, I noticed that it was actually a pretty color when it was lightened, so my mom might mix it with a can of white and paint her bedroom. She wants to redo it anyway.

I still have a door to the pantry and baseboards to paint, but I’m hoping to have that all done really soon and when I do, I will post an after picture.

Missing Shoes

I’m so frustrated. I was getting ready to leave for church Sunday morning and went to get my only pair of white dress shoes, and much to my disappointment, they were GONE. I tried searching my closet because they had to be there and should be easy to find because I keep them in a shoe box, but they were no where to be found. Since I was running late for church by this point, I just put on a different skirt and found a different pair of shoes.

When I got home from church, I had a “hunt” of my own…not for eggs but for my shoes! They had to be there somewhere. I hadn’t worn them since last summer and when I moved, I packed all of my shoe boxes together. And they’re in a shoe box. They can’t be that hard to miss. Since I’ve already unpacked all of my boxes (not necessarily put everything away yet, but they’re all unpacked) I was at a loss. I checked my suitcases, I checked under my bed. I checked my closet AGAIN, and I checked the closet in the spare room. No where to be found.

There are only two places that I haven’t checked yet…the holiday decoration boxes and the garage sale box. If they are in either of those two places, someone else put them there. I can’t imagine that they fell out in the moving process because surely I would have found them in one of my many trips back to the house. And if by some mishap they ended up with Jeana’s stuff, she would have noticed by now because we have a little bit of a size difference when it comes to our shoes.

So if you find a pair of short heeled, white open-toed sandals running around without an owner, please bring them home. They’re too young to be out running around on their own (even in shoe life). Thank you!

Road Rage is the Least of My Problems

Today I am suffering from a serious case of Road Rage. I went to go run errands during my lunch hour. One of those errands, the most important I mind you, was finding some place to drop off my ONG bill. Normally I mail it, but I had to wait to pay this one till my roommate got paid this month and it is due Monday. So I get online to find an ONG drop location. Homeland was the closest, so I went there first. Can I just say I hate Homeland (but that's a whole other post). Anyway, there were way too many people in line and a sign that said something about it taking their bill pay service five days…blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I left to go find a drop box location.

I couldn’t remember most of the drop off locations from the website, but did notice that you could drop it off at various bank locations (now I thought the website said BankOne, but we’ll come back to that in a little bit). I knew where all the banks were on Bryant, so I decided to try to find a BankOne. No luck. So this begins my search for a BankOne location. I some how remembered the address for the one on Broadway, so I started heading that way. Here is where the road rage comes into play.

Traffic was already bad when I was heading to Homeland, but it was even worse up by UCO. HOLY COW, I think every human being who has today off was in their car today. It was ridicules, plus I was running out of time to get back to work. I found myself wanting to pound my hands on the horn and just yell at everyone to get out of my way. I don’t like crowds, they make me Closter phobic, so I think bumper to bumper traffic has the same effect on me. My frustrations were irrational because everyone was in bumper to bumper traffic, but I just wanted breathing room and driving space. I just wanted the cars to part like the Red Sea!

I was finally able to find my way out of the abyss of cars and head for 1515 S. Broadway. Since I wasn’t exactly sure where this was, I was still a little frustrated with the number of vehicles because it’s hard to look for an address – on a building mind you – with a SUV on your tail. After a parking lot turn around, I finally made it to 1515 S. Broadway…or at least what used to be 1515 S. Broadway. It had been torn down – recently. Bulldozers were still there clearing the debris. Ugh!!!! I’m now late to work and still haven’t found any place to drop off my ONG payment. I gave up, came back to work, begged for a stamp (did I mention I have not a dime in my wallet…I never made it to an ATM), and I am now praying that my payment isn’t late!

But here is where the story gets oh so much better…when I got back to the office, I started writing my blog post. I went to add a link to BankOne and noticed that it had changed to Chase. I saw plenty of Chase locations while I was out. I was also curious if maybe I had remembered the address correctly for the place that had been torn down, so I went back to the ONG website. The address was correct, the bank wasn’t. I was supposed to be looking for a Bank of Oklahoma, not a BankOne! So I drove all over town, looking for the wrong bank which happened to be a bank that doesn’t even exist anymore! I give up!!!

Random Pictures

There really hasn't been anything exciting going on in my life lately (never thought I would miss the raccoons). Everything else going on either isn't worth posting or shouldn't be posted, but since I felt the need to post something (plus I'm bored) I decided to post some pictures I found on my computer.

This would be my family group from camp about three years ago. I'd point everyone out, but I don't remember some of the kids names (oops). This was a pretty cool family though. I had great co-leaders. This would be the only time all year I ever get called "mom". Of course a couple of these kids I would have gladly given up for adoption! Can I just say that I am so glad that I"m no longer a teenager!

This is my friend, Rachel, dressed like an Oompa Loompa (how do you spell that) at a Halloween party Lindsy and I organized two years ago. She and Carol are counting candy. Lindsy and I had all these people and we didn't know what to do with them, so we sent them out trick-or-treating. The team with the most candy won a prize. This party was much more successsful than last years. I think after last year, we're taking a break from hosting Halloween Parties (right, Lindsy?) =o)

This is more pictures of baby Zaine. Isn't he the cutest!!! I'm still waiting to get to see him in person, so these are going to have to do till then.


This is from the Rattle Snake festival in Mangum last year. I think it's coming up here soon, and NO, I will not be attending again. That was a once in a lifetime experience. It wasn't only the snakes that scared me. ;o)

This is my last Christmas tree. I didn't get to put one up last year because I was still unpacking from my move. I'm looking forward to decorating this year!!!!

This is from our float trip a few years ago (2002 I think). I I added the caption after we got this picture back. I love float trips. =o)

And finally, one of my favorites. I feel like saying this quite often.