Category Archives: life lessons

I Love My Network

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On the other side of the sea...
Image by Tonyç via Flickr

I have the greatest bunch of friends.  More importantly, I have a great bunch of friends that are also solopreneurs and run businesses of their own.  This means that if I ever need to bounce business ideas or challenges off someone, I have a great team to do that with.

I’m so thankful for the fact that I know, without a doubt that I’m never alone.  This is something that I wish for anyone, whether you own  a business or what.  May you always have a team to support you in whatever you do.

Today I met one of my friends for lunch.  There was a lot of catching up since it had been nearly two months since we’d last talked (brief emails and text messages on NYE don’t count).  I loved hearing where she was in her business and what she was focusing on for this year.

It was great to be able to share in her successes and support her when she needed it. I think she’s going to do some amazing things this year and I can’t wait to share that with her as well.

I also really enjoyed being able to share what I’m going through right now (this feeling of being pulled in different directions and not knowing what to focus on) and getting her input.  I think, through her insight, I finally get it.

I really feel like I know what I need to do now.  I can finally stop avoiding setting some goals and gaining some focus.  Sadly, I seem to be so quick to play the part of the ostrich and stick my head in the sand waiting for something to come to me.  And to top it all off, I’m excited again.  This is most definitely a good thing.

So if you’ve got something that’s been bugging you, take a moment and ask your friends for their input.  Ask for help if you need to.  Stop fighting it and just open yourself up to receive.  You never know what might come of it.

So what’s been bugging you or keeping you up at night?  What would you like to share?

I Fought the Dyson…

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And I won!!! Oh happy day!

Look how good this baby looks now!

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And look at all the crap I pulled out from it. No wonder it wasn’t picking up half the crap I spent the good money for it to pick up!
I Fought the Dyson and I WON!!

Life lesson: Just because your vacuum can pick anything up, doesn’t mean it should pick up anything!

Get the First Aid Kit Ready, ‘Cuz Mama’s Gonna Cook

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Those are the very words that just came from my husband’s mouth.  This would be quite funny, as I’m a pretty decent cook and baker, but sadly, I have the wounds to support this statement.  Let me recap for you…

Thanksgiving Day

  • I broke one of the Reidel wine glasses because I wasn’t thinking, plain and simply.  I put a stoneware casserole dish on top of the glass in the drainer, so it really wasn’t a surprise – though that didn’t mean I didn’t curse.
  • I dropped half a dozen eggs on the floor.  Mind you, I needed each and every one of those eggs.  Luckily, since it was for cooking later and they’d need to be broken anyway, I salvaged the cracked ones.
  • I was opened a can for the corn casserole and thought it would be smart to put the trash into the can and sliced my finger something fierce.
  • I went into the one and only pantry (apartment living sometimes sucks!) and was looking for my can of creamed corn for the casserole and managed to knock over the fish sauce and spill it all over me.  Thankfully, I was wearing an apron.

Friday

  • I helped my friend out in her shop.  It was my job to mix the dry oil sprays.  I managed to get scented oil into my wounded and unbandaged finger (that I sliced just yesterday – see above).  Not related to cooking, but still hurt like a mutha!

Saturday

  • All was good since I didn’t cook at all.

Sunday/Today

  • Spilled grease all over my own work space in the kitchen.
  • Nearly dropped the dirty frying pan…on me!
  • Noticed the handle to the can opener might be too near the fire.  I pick it up, meant to smell it to see if it smelled like it was melting and burnt my lip!!  Seriously, it’s a nasty burn.

There were other various incidents this weekend, but to be honest, it’s all just one big injury-filled blur to me.  So yeah, since I plan on making some cookies to ship to my dad this year, I think I might be better off if we do dig out that emergency kit.  Or maybe I should just cheat and buy the pre-made cookie rolls from William Sonoma and call it a day.

Talk About a Stupid Mistake

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So yesterday I went to the grocery store to pick up some veggies for my caccitori and to pick up some meat for dinners this week.  When I got home, I immediately went to town chopping the veggies since the chicken had been in the crockpot for a bit already.

Turns out I totally forgot about putting the meat away until I went looking in the bag for the tomato.  So basically, my raw chicken and my pork had been without refrigeration for about 4 hours.  It was still quite cold, but I’m assuming I need to throw it away, right?  This is right up there with the don’t thaw the meat on the counter, right? (which, I should mention…I do fairly regularly).

So toss it?

Life Lesson: Car Rental Schmar Rental

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Guess what? Turns out there’s a serious difference in the daily rate between booking a car for a week and booking a car for 1 day and 16 hours. I’ve done Hotwire before for our car rentals and I’ve gotten some great rates. This time though, there’s not much of a rate difference between Hotwire and the standard travel sites.

I guess I learned that there’s a difference between with how far out you should book your car even if you’re using a discount service. I figured that like the hotels, they’d rather have the room (in this case the car) booked, than unbooked and thus, give you a bargain on Hotwire. Turns out that’s not the case. If I’d booked our car a few weeks back, when we first started making our plans, I’d be saving about half the price.

Who knew?!? Well, probably everyone else but me. Oh well, it’s all about visiting and hanging out with my long time friend. And um…drinking wine.

Some Things I’ve Learned This Weekend

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This is a pretty quick and non-BlogHer related post, but now that I’m home and setttled in a bit, I realized that I’ve learned a couple of things this weekend.  In no particular order…

  • It seems as though I’m allergic to something in our home (besides our cat).  Every time I go away, my throat clears up and I lose the post-nasal crap.  So there’s something in our apartment that just doesn’t agree with me.
  • As much as I love being around other women…I really only like being around supportive and positive women.  There was some jealousy and negativity in the air this weekend and it was palpable, and downright uncomfortable.
  • I really and truly can and will talk to anyone about anything.  Anywhere.
  • I like initiating contact with strangers – especially when I meet some great people (waves hello to my new friends!!!)
  • Traveling is tiring.  Even though I got a good 7-8 hours of sleep a night, I’m freakin’ wiped out exhausted today.  Like the kind of exhausted where I can barely think clearly.  What’s up with that.
  • I can surprisingly travel lighter with swag than with a suitcase full of clothes.  Who knew?!?
  • Even when you stop the mail, they still deliver the crap.  What’s up with that?!?!
  • As much as I love having the bed all to myself, I miss my boys and my husband.
  • I hate unpacking.  And even when I tell myself I’m packing light (I only packed an extra sweater, otherwise, I wore everything – one outfit for each day – once) it’s still too much shit.
  • I believe my eye lash curler is what has been setting off the TSA luggage search these past few flights.  It’s the only common thing (outside of regular make-up and a brush) that I had with me in my small, checked bag, that I didn’t have with me the last time I traveled.  Guess I won’t be bringing that with me any more.
  • Raisinets does not a lunch make.  And well, sadly, American chocolate sucks and I just need to stop eating it.  It’s just not worth the calories since it really isn’t even satisfying or tasty.
  • I am SO thankful that the ONLY thing on my agenda tomorrow is that I have to pick the hubs up from the airport.

On now, I’m off to veg or sleep or whatever comes first…

Stupid Citibank

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I’m so worked up right now.  I’ve been a Citibank credit card holder since ’88.  I have perfect credit. No, really, last I checked my Fico was through the roof good.  I’ve also noticed that each month that I’ve gone to pay my Citibank card my due date has changed.  And not by just a day or two.  We’re talking, over the past year or so, it’s changed by weeks!

I used to be due mid-month, by the 13th.  Then suddenly I’m due by the 7th.  Then the 5th.  Then the 3rd. I’m sure you see where this is going.  Today, the 3rd, I go to pay my bill and it was due by the 2nd!!!!  What.the.fuck?!?!  Basically, I’ve been paying late fees for the past however many months because they keep changing my damn due date and I keep missing it by one day.

So today I called up and asked WTF.  Of course, I get the run around that the dates will always change because of Leap Year and how many days are in each month.  To which I reply, yeah, sure, it will change one or two days each month, but not by TWO WEEKS!  I pointed out that I’ve been with them since ’88 and that they’ve gotten a small fortune from me due to these damn changes.  Not to mention that they’re charging me 18.99% (lucky for me I rarely carry a balance on this card).  And come on, even my rent has a grace period of a couple of days and isn’t considered late on the 2nd.

Of course once I mentioned how long I’ve been with them, she was suddenly and quite magically able to assign me a specific due date and drop my rate down to 9%.  Funny how that works.  I mean she didn’t even need to think about it or check into anything, she was just able to slice it in half just like that. What a scam!

I’d read that credit card companies were doing this date changing thing now hoping to earn some money in late fees.  It just pisses me off.  I guess I’ll just go back to only using the Amex and making sure that we only use the Citibank card as a last resort.  If it wasn’t for the fact that I like having one credit card in my name only (you never know) and that I’ve been with them for 20 years, I’d just dump them all together.

The lesson here, go with the assumption that anything that’s due to a credit card company nowadays needs to be in their hands BY the first of the month.  Regardless of what the due date actually is.

The Crazy Shit That is My Life

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Let’s see, where do I start.  This is going to sound a tad disjointed, but bear with me.  You see, I’ve been taking more and more steps towards being more green.  As part of that movement, I’ve switched to more natural deodorants – no, don’t worry, this won’t be about stinky arm pits.

My favorite deodorants are from the LUSH line.  They not only smell great, they work and well, they’re natural (or at least more natural and aluminum-free).  Only problem, they also get a bit crumbly.  So as you’re wiping the pits, pieces crumble off and onto the floor.

I also feel the need to remind you that it’s been HOT out here lately.  And you’ve heard me mention it before (and will probably here me mention it again and again to come), we don’t have central air.  We do have a window/wall unit, but really, it only makes the living room cooler.  The rest of the apartment remains mere degrees cooler than the outside.  And well, when it’s 95+ outside and 85+ inside, it makes household chores a bit daunting.

Needless to say, I have vacuumed the carpets since before we left our on vacation a couple weeks back.  It’s on the list of things to do, but really, I have to wake up early (as does the hubs – therein lies my challenge) to beat the heat and well, that hasn’t happened just yet.

Bear with me here, I’m getting to the point of my story…

So this morning, I was getting dressed and putting on my shorts, when something got into my eye.  Apparently, I must’ve flicked a deodorant crumb up into my eye as I raised my foot to get into the leg of the shorts.  Don’t ask, I’ve no idea how I’d be able to do that.  Thing is, I did.

I got the fleck out.  I’ve washed my eye again and again.  But you know, my right eye is still tearing up (it’s now about over four hours later!) and well, it still burns and itches a bit.  I guess I probably scratched my eye a bit.  It’s not enough to go to the doctor though.  Hell, if I poke around, we probably have eyedrops left over from the last time the hubs scratched his eye in his sleep.

Oh well, shit happens.  And of course it’s the crazy sort of shit that seems to happen to me with some annoying frequency.

Here’s hoping you’ve had a better day thus far!

Life Lesson: Don’t Rush the Season

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Logically by now, we should all know this.  But really, how exciting is it to see the first fruit of the season?  Walking through the farmer’s market, I get so excited when the first strawberries appear or the first peaches.  The other day at the grocery store, it was the first of those crazy addictive mini watermelons.  So of course I had to grab one and officially start my summer addiction.

Sadly, it sucked.  It wasn’t sweet.  It was all mealy and dry.  It was a major pain in the ass to even slice up.  Not fun and not tasty.  Not to mention, a totally waste of $3!  Such a disappointment.  During the summer, I blow through two of these babies a month for like 3-4 months.  They’re that good!

My lesson: don’t rush the season.  Luckily, I can take advantage of the farmers markets and taste most of my fruit before I buy.  I can walk away when that peach tastes more like nothing than like peaches.  Don’t believe the hype.  Just because things are in the store (and might even be priced decently), don’t waste your money if it’s not yet the right season.

Life Lesson: A Shopping Bag Mishap

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I’ve often wondered just how difficult it is to put items in a bag. You know, sometimes the baggers put the gallon of milk and the bread in the same bag. Or only put one item per bag. Or stack everything on your eggs. You get the idea.

Today I ran out to Costco to pick up some basics like vitamins and razor blades. While there I figured I’ll pick up a spinach salad for dinner. I went in with my own cloth bag to make things easier. Or so I thought it would be.

I watched the guy try to put all the boxes in the bag before the smaller stuff. You know, ‘cuz boxes you can hold pretty easily, but five small bottles of vitamins might not be quite so easy to hold onto. So I asked that he put the smaller items in first and not to worry about the boxes of cereals and Fiber One bars. He looked at me like I was speaking Greek. I should have just taken over the bagging then and there.

I mean me, I would have put the salad in first – one, it’s large and about the width of the bag itself and two, it’s nice and flat. But no, he decided that the salad should just be squeezed in, in between the boxes – making not only a tight, uneven bag (since he went away from the width and put things in sideways), but plenty of space in the bottom with all the vitamin bottles jangling about. Whatever, I headed out the door.

I come home and pull up the salad to put in the fridge and BLAMMO! salad explodes all over the counter, the bag and the floor. One of the dressing also popped open and exploded on the floor. My dog is having a field day eating the bacon bits and the cheese. Me, I’m cursing up a storm.

Luckily, between the Dyson and the dog, things are cleaned up. But I have to say, I’m pissed! One, that was our dinner and now, well, the dog has eaten about half of it (minus the spinach itself of course). And two, it cost me $9! I guess we’ll behaving either sandwiches or soup with our salad tonight.

*sigh*

The lesson here…pack your own bags. Especially if you bring your own bags with you – that “my bag is larger and sturdier and can carry more than your plastic sack” concept just seems to throw those baggers for a loop.