Category Archives: life

Is Anyone Else Overwhelmed by Passwords & Secret Questions?

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I downloaded my new ringtone yesterday.  Thing is, I wasn’t able to access it.  So while I was able to purchase it, I couldn’t find it anywhere on my phone.  So today I tried to see what was up online. Only, um I can’t recall the login info.  Of course I managed to get myself locked out of the account.  Again.

Tthe account, while my phone, is all under my husband’s name since it’s all bundled in with the phone, internet and dish, and I can’t follow up with anything.  Or at least I can’t access anything without the main account password.  Which of course, brings us back to square one…I can’t recall what that might be and they can’t give any hints (like mother’s maiden name, city born, pet, etc).

I’m over all these passwords.  Especially when I can’t pick the questions myself like on my student loan account.  They ask questions that I don’t care about and are just plain asinine…favorite food or drink?  Hello, doesn’t that change depending on your mood?  And let’s face it, my favorite food or drink at 21 will surely be something different than my favorite food or drink at 40…pizza and beer vs a filet mignon and a merlot or a well made martini or cadillac margarita?

The other day I accessed our joint banking account and was once again asked to pick my security questions and answers.  All I can say is that I sure hope my husband remembers our basic relationship history or well, he’s screwed and won’t be able to get into our account.  That’s just wrong.  If you’re going to ask for security questions and answers, at least let us create them ourselves so they make sense.

Is anyone else over all these stupid passwords and security questions or am I just getting old?

Going Through a Breakup? Know Someone Who Is?

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If you’ve recently gone through a break up or know someone who has (feel free to forward this message to him or her), have I got some good news for you!

A good friend of mine and fellow LWL gal, Lisa Steadman, author of “Its a Breakup, Not a Breakdown” wants to help you work through your breakup.  If you’ve just been through a breakup and you’re ready to move on and rock your recovery she’s got an amazing program to help you work through it all starting TOMORROW.

We did an interview with her back in August about recovering from a breakup.

Here’s all the info directly from Lisa:

Are you in need of a Boo-hoo Crew? Have your friends completely given up on you and your breakup recovery? Or do you feel so isolated following your breakup that you haven’t even asked for help?

Help is here! I’ve got a handful of spaces left in my next 4 week Rock Star Recovery tele-course beginning Tuesday, September 23.

Together, we’ll discover:

  • How to kick start your recovery, regardless of how hopeless you feel right now
  • How to completely cut your ex out of your life and let the healing begin
  • How to stop obsessing about what went wrong or what could have been
  • How to create a future that’s more exciting and loving than your past
  • Simple steps you can take every day to rock your recovery

When you sign up to become a breakup rock star, you’ll enjoy:

  • 4 weekly group telecalls, complete with live Q& A at the end of each session (and mp3s in case you miss the call)  – Tuesday, September 23 6:30-8pm Pacific  – Tuesday, September 30 6:30-8pm Pacific  – Tuesday, October 7 6:30-8pm Pacific  – Tuesday, October 14 6:30-8pm Pacific
  • Up to 4 email exchanges per week with me, your personal guide from Boohoo! to Woohoo!
  • Weekly tasks to ensure breakup recovery success
  • Weekly breakup survival tip, emailed directly to you

Click here for details. Space is limited! The cost to participate is $197.

Click here to listen to a preview of what will be covered in the 4-week course.

This Post Isn’t About Fathers, Family or Strokes

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Apparently, discussing family medical issues is not such the hot topic…my visits are way, way down since I’ve been blogging about this.  Guess I should find something else to talk about 😉

So here we go, totally unrelated to fathers, strokes or even families…how ’bout some random thoughts?

* I sat down today to watch the Coco Chanel story on Lifetime.  Can’t say it was all that exciting.  I’d have expected much more out of a 3 hour movie.  I will say that now I’m quite curious about what her life was really like.  I think I’ll be checking out a biography on her.

* I love minestrone soup and Progresso makes a damn fine one.  Unfortunately, they either don’t sell all too well at my local Pavillions, or they sell out on a regular basis.  Either way, they  never have any in stock.  The other day I found some cans, but they were 50% less sodium.  Man, that stuff tastes like shit.  Even when you add back the missing salt, it still tastes like crap.  Not cool.

* I should’ve spent today confirming my Ireland reservations.  Instead, I watched the stupid Coco story and took a very long, very uncomfortable nap.  The kind of nap that you only half-slept through, all while having funky dreams and fighting to open your eyes.  Very uncomfortable indeed.

* I still haven’t slip covered the couch because I need the hubs to help me move the couch so I can get behind it.  And well, if I’m going to move it far enough away from the wall to get behind it, then I may as well vacuum while I’m back there.  So of course, I can’t do that late at night once the hubs gets home, when it’s cooler.

* Next weekend I have an invitation to my friend’s Baptism (and possibly the baby’s 1st birthday as well) and book club all three hours apart.  Now, in theory, this is doable.  But, travel time alone (assuming no traffic and well, in LA, that’s never a guarantee) is two hours.  So now I have to figure out how best to handle this.  There is a brunch prior to the actual service, but we were hoping on skipping that since it’s so early.  Now, we just might have to do the brunch instead of the service.

* I want an iPod.  I have a Shuffle, and it works just fine for going to the gym since I make playlists to work out to.  But it sucks on airplanes because you can’t see what you’re listening to and you don’t know what’s next.  Not nearly as convenient. So now I’m thinking that I’d like a new iPod in time for Ireland.  Any idea how to justify this as a business expense?

* I have a small biz meetup tonight.  I’m actually looking forward to it since there will be someone there from Constant Contact. I figure I’ll grab a card and pass it along to the LWL group and maybe they can speak at one of our events (or at least at one of the OC events since they couldn’t come up and get in on tonight’s opportunity).  I have no idea what to wear.  It’s late enough (7:30) that there’s no need to look biz-like.  But really, I’m not in the mood to do the whole hair, make-up and wardobe thing…must be that awful nap.

* I’m refusing to buy any more shampoo, conditioner, soap or lotion, until I finish up the bags and bags of the travel size products I’ve either purchased or taken from hotels. Of course, I’m not liking any of the conditioners, so I might still need to keep some good conditioner, like some Terax Crema, on hand.

* I need to tighten the screws on my chair.  I don’t know where my little, handy phillips thinga-majiggy is.  I think the hubs borrowed it and never gave it back.

* I dyed my hair myself last night to save some money.  Big mistake.  It’s now too dark. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken Pamela Anderson’s advice and left the crap on my head for 45 minutes.  Face it, she’s a platinum blonde, what does she know?!?!  But hey, I did a decent job of cleaning up the rug…you can barely see my drop spots.

It Was Indeed a Stroke (or two)

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We finally have some answers.  My dad has his MRI yesterday and they can no confirm that he not only had one, but two recent strokes.  My dad also said something about a “stroke since February” but I don’t know if that refers to this second one or not since I got the impression that this second was was very recent.  The challenges of being out of state, you’re left with only your parents to tell you what the doctors said…frustrating.

I have a feeling it probably all came about because he wasn’t on blood thinners.  Back in January, the blood thinners were giving him nasty headaches.  For some reason only the doctors can know, instead of switching brands or formulas, they just stopped with them all together.  Needless to say, he’s back on them again now and they won’t send him home until the blood actually thins – plus they’re waiting on his paperwork from the other hospital.

He sounds so much better today compared to even yesterday.  His thoughts are much clearer and his speech sounds stronger now.  He said the I don’t need to head out there, so that’s a bit of a load off.  It doesn’t stop the worrying, but it feels good just knowing that he doesn’t need me there.

I’m still going to hang low and not make many plans or get too involved in anything just yet.  I think I’m handling things fine and then I feel the twinges of the migraines, I feel the tension of the jaw, I realize that I don’t want to talk to anyone.  I just need some time to process all of this some more.   Plus I still have Ireland to arrange and finalize.

Thank you everyone for your support.  Considering I’m not talking to my “real life” friends much, it’s nice knowing that I can still talk about things.

He Seems to be Doing Fine

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I just got off the phone with my dad.  There’s still no confirmation or ruling out that he had another stroke.  But I can hear in his voice that it’s a little slurry.  He doesn’t know all too much about what happened before he got to the hospital and he doesn’t seem to know much about his current status.   He said that he may go home tomorrow, but since he’s yet to have his MRI, I doubt they’d send him home without a before and after MRI (unless they’e want him out ASAP since he’s on Medicare).

I reminded him to ask his nurses to help him to get me on his HIPPA clearance and he said he’d talk to them about it.  Though his last nurses said it wasn’t important and didn’t do it last time claiming that he told them who I was and to talk to me.  Worse case, I’ll ask his neighbor to help him with that once he gets home.  I’m also thinking that I’ll laminate a card that says “in case of emergency, please call my name & info” and mention that they have permission to call and release info.

I’m wondering when and if I should head out there.  It’s not just the time and expense, it’s also the fact that I can’t actually stay at his place (it gives me horrific sinus infections).  And this time around, he doesn’t need me to set anything up short of making some legal documents.  I had planned to head out there in December.

Man, taking care of aging parents long distance is tough work.

In the meantime, I’m canceling my upcoming workshop.  I haven’t yet sent out any advertising or solicitation for it, and well, since it’s in 2 weeks there’s no way of knowing I won’t have to fly back east.  I’d hate to have to cancel and deal with refunds while I was working on taking care of him.  Just too much of a hassle right now.

Until then, I’m off to do laundry and not much else.  I just don’t want to have to wrap my brain around something else right now.  I think today calls for a chick flick!

I’m an 8-Hour Kinda Gal

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I’m talking about sleep here…and any less than that and I’m just useless.  Thing is, I’ve gotten so used to going to bed late to spend time with the hubs (and to get those Irish B&B responses first thing in their morning) I can’t always get my 8 hours in.

Take today for example.  I had a SCORE event to attend downtown at the LA Athletic Club.  Basically, it was the CEO of See’s chocolates speaking about his successes in business with a bunch of Warren Buffet quotes thrown in for value.  The presentation itself didn’t really do all that much for me, but I did enjoy the Warren Buffet quotes.  I figure I can put them to good use in an upcoming article or newsletter piece.  And well, it’s See’s, so we did get some candy.

But now, I’m exhausted.  The kind of xhausted where it hurts to even keep my eyes open.  Must have something to do with the tossing and turning from midnight to 3:00 and not really falling asleep until after the hubs came to bed around 3:30am.  Five hours just doesn’t cut it.

Times like this it reminds me that moms are amazing creatures.  They can go days, weeks, months, hell, years without a decent night sleep and survive just fine.  Me, I’m a miserable, whiney wreck that can barely function.  Which of course reminds me yet again why we’re child-free – LOL

Off to nap a bit.  Catch you all later where I’ll be well-rested and all ready to wow myself with my amazing copy-writing skills!  It could happen.

What’s It Worth To Ya?

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My bloggie-twitter friend Karen over at Verbatim wrote this great post forever-ago on what she feels it’s worth spending money and what isn’t in her life. I thought it makes a great topic.  As I’m planning a pretty big expense with our upcoming trip, I’m starting to give serious thought to each and every purchase right now.

For example, I plan on forgoing my hair appointment, opting to dye it myself (my hair stylist won’t be too pleased) because the dog also needs to get groomed.  I just can’t see spending the money on both of us at the same time – especially since I just bought that damn collar for him.

Another example, even though it’s spa week this week, I just can’t bring myself to splurge on a facial for $50.  My skin has still not completely cleared up and I see the derm in a week or so (I think, well it’s soon anyway), so it’s almost a waste of money when I’ll just have to pay to visit him and possibly buy more meds.

Final example…pedicures.  I love me some pedicures.  Thing is, I love me the all out, deluxe pedicures and well, they cost quite a bit more.  So to make this expense more bearable, I tend to do my own toes every other time.  This way I’m only forking over the big bucks half the time.

What Do I Splurge On

  • good sheets – but I always try to get them on sale
  • good foundation – it really makes a difference in how it looks, feels and lasts
  • good eyeliner – again, it makes a difference
  • good lipstick – see above
  • nice purse – I love expensive pretty purses, but I restrain myself to 1 purchase every 1-3 years
  • computer & electronics – we’re a Mac house and we love it
  • hair products – I know what I like and I know what works for my curly hair and it’s not the drugstore stuff
  • tea – I absolutely love tea and can definitely taste the difference between quality loose tea and bagged stuff from the grocery store
  • shoes – I’ve learned the hard way that sometimes, paying more for something, like shoes, just pays off in the end (and no, I’m not talking talking Manolos here, just definitely not Payless or Target)

What I Won’t Splurge On

  • clothes – I just can’t bring myself to spend more than $30 for a pair of jeans
  • mascara – I rarely wear makeup and well you need to toss the mascara every 2-3 months so it’s just not worth it
  • books – while I love books, I try to always check the library and used bookstores first before buying
  • music – we get a lot of promo and advance copies, so I don’t think I’ve bought a full album in ages
  • movies – we don’t go out to the movies much and when we do we either hit the matinee, the discount theater or use a voucher or coupon.  We also rent through Netflix
  • car – I admit it, I love my Hyundai.  It looks good, it drives well and it does everything I need a car to do for a fraction of the cost.  Mind you, I’ve craved an Audi since I was a teen, but I just can’t really see me ever paying those prices for one.

These lists are by no means conclusive.  Some things, like travel and food fall into both categories – for example, I don’t have a problem with more store-brand foodstuffs and can just as easily stay someplace  budget over some place luxe…it just depends.

So what are some of the things you’re willing to splurge on?

I’m Getting a New Stove!!!

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Such excitement here in LA Blogger Gal land.  We’ve been without a working oven since the spring.  And yes, our landlord has known.  And no, he didn’t put it off until now.

You see, we have no air conditioning here in our apartment (we use a wall unit in the living room which ONLY reaches the living room) and a gas stove.  So needless to say, from about late April until mid-October, it can get hot here in LA and even hotter in our apartment (even with the AC we’re typically in the mid-80’s inside).  So hot, that even boiling water raises the temperature in the kitchen a good 5-10 degrees causing me to sweat while cooking – yummy!  So really, there was no rush for the landlord to bring in the new stove (and we told him as much back in the spring).

But now…the weather is cooling.  Mind you, we still have some hot days ahead of us, without a doubt.  But as it stands now, the days have been very pleasant and the evenings downright cool.  So happy days are here again, and I get a new (not brand new, the landlords’ old one which is probably a good 10+ years newer than our last one – and not that crazy gold color) stove.

I think tonight we’ll be having something that requires being baked.  Pizza maybe?  And later this week(or maybe even today since I’ll have to go to the store to buy a pizza)  I’ll be making some muffins in celebration.  Woohoo!!

Face It, I’m Getting Older

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I was watching the VMAs earlier and realized that lord help me, but I’m getting older.  I didn’t recognize half the performers.  I thought most of the nominated songs sounded like crap.  Hell, I tend to think that most music out there today sounds like crap (makes me a fun date for a concert – Speaking of…Squeeze show is on Friday..woohoo!).  And well, I just didn’t get half the outfits or the odd hairstyles.  I did happen to love the host Russell Brand (but I also noticed no one else in the audience seemed to enjoy his humor or his politics or thoughts on promise rings).

And don’t even get me started on the guy who kept grabbing his crotch.  What the fuck was that all about?!?!  I mean what civilized human would do such a thing?  In public?  On an internationally televised broadcast???  And who the hell wears a hoodie to an awards show when you’re actually up for an award or two?!?!

Maybe I shouldn’t have been watching a Cribs marathon leading up to the VMAs.  Maybe I shouldn’t have gone out to eat at some trendy new place on Sunset where all the women were wearing far too much eye make-up and the men were wearing more product than I was.

I guess we should just face it…I’m at that point where I’m becoming my mother (or in my case, my grandmother since she’s the one that raised me when my mom passed).  I never would have seen that one coming looking into my future.  So very sad.

So what sort of thing drives you crazy nowadays that never used to?  Are you any closer to becoming your parents?

Just Some Thoughts on Palin as VP

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I’ll admit it.  I’m not the most politically aware, and I’m certainly not the most politically active. But when I feel strongly about something, well, I just can’t help it.  And right now, my biggest issue with Sarah Palin (who I actually accidentally called “Sarah Plain” as in Sarah Plain and Tall, the other night *yikes*) is the fact that she has a newborn child at home (don’t even get me started on the fact that she’s not leaving him at home or backstage where it’s quieter so he can sleep).  And not just any newborn, but a newborn child with special needs.

A little background on me…I spent three years in my former, pre-blogger, post-teaching life working with children and adults with disabilities.  In particular, most of my clients were in residental facilities (many of which no longer had any parental or familial involvment).  While I don’t know the challenges of raising a child with disabilities firsthand, I do know the challenge of teaching a child with disabilities as well as working with parents and caregivers to help them work with their clients and children. In fact, I was the person that was consulted for training and behavioral therapy and modification as well as treatment.

It’s hard work.  Really hard work.  The kind of work that doesn’t go away.  I mean, everything you do, every plan you make, every single decision involves and revolves around that individual, that family member with special needs.  There’s no escaping it.  There’s no avoiding it (short of putting that individual in a residential facility of sorts).  And from what I understand working closely with parents, it’s even more invasive, more pervasive when it comes to raising that newborn with special needs – especially when it comes to language and communication skills.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t think this is the right time for Sarah Palin to run for VP.  Let this child grow and develop before taking on such an all emcompasing task as oh, running as the second in charge of the US.  Try again in a few years maybe.  But now is not the time.  Something will have to give in her life (and the fact that there’s yet another new baby on the way makes that household even more insane – has nothing to do with family values, I’m talking strictly about the actual family dynamics of the household since I’m assuming the teenage daughter will still live at home with her newborn and her parents for a few more years).

I have not raised a family member with special needs.  I am not a mom (outside of being a loving mom to my pets).  But I am someone that has direct experience and has had direct influence in the treatment and behaviors of individuals with special needs.  I know quite a bit about this subject.  But if you want to hear from someone with real experience, both as a mom to not one, but two children with special needs, as well as a career woman, then check out Penelope Trunk’s thoughts on this issue.  It might help to put a little perspective on the issue.

Now back to my regularly scheduled blog about random and mundane thoughts and activities and well, nothing that’s regularly scheduled at all…