Insomnia sucks, to be honest.
Normal, so I am told, for a mom who has a child who is just now sleeping through the night to suffer from insomnia… the body adapts to the lack of sleep and now does not know how to process it… sleep training for the mommy is next I think…
I was watching the State of the Union Address while talking to a friend last night… after a while I blurted out… “Who is the ole bobblehead dude behind the prez?”
She paused, I could hear the surprise in her voice at the same time as I detected a rising giggle in voice… “Umm… that’s the Vice President.”
I snorted and laughed, loudly, “Oh drat. That just shows how much attention I pay…”
I felt dumb. But then was reminded that when all of that political stuff was going on… I was pregnant and then delivering a kidlet… I mean… I know who the president is! That’s gotta count for something, right?
I am wondering if you feel the same ache that I feel
I am wondering if your heart calls out for me in the middle of the night
I am wondering if you dream of me
I am wondering if you feel anything…
Since posting my last message about friendships that have moved on, ended, halted, or been otherwise stalled… I’ve been contacted by three people off my list!! Wonderful!! 
One of whom is just one of the sweetest women I know!
C’mon guys, keep it going!!!!!! My virtual door is ALWAYS open!!!
I think that it is very sad when a friendship comes to an end. This is one of the reasons that I make every effort possible to maintain a good friendship with people I have been involved (romantically) with.
Sometimes I fail to keep that friendship going - generally because the other person has little to no interest in maintaining the friendship.
That saddens me.
Right now I can think of several wonderful friends who have passed through my life… for one reason or another we no longer speak and have lost contact… how upsetting!! There are so many things that each friendship offers. I guess we simply outgrow the need for certain people in our lives.
Here are just a few… off the top of my head…
Toni, I miss you. A lot. I really do! :) Seriously, you know how to find me…
Mark, I miss you. Even 15 years later.
Jon, I miss you; despite everything.
Jessie, I miss you.
Josette, I miss you.
Lori, I miss you.
Heather, I miss you.
Amanda, I miss you.
Michael, I miss you.
Chris, I miss you.
Rick, I miss you.
Through the marvel that is Facebook I have been able to reconnect with several previously lost friends and it has been wonderful. I have even… get this!! Been able to reconnect with my very first boyfriend!!!! It has been about 15 years since we last saw each other!! So far it has been really nice talking to him again. We have both gone through a lot since we last saw each other. Ah, being an adult can really suck sometimes. Oh for the long lazy summer days spent lounging at the beach.
If you are a long-lost friend of mine, please get back in touch. As always, I can be found via dallasgeekychick@yahoo.com …
I have used paypal on and off for a good many years; rarely encountering a problem with them. I’ve sent money for various reasons and I’ve received money for various reasons.
I needed to repay a kindness and a debt to the Ultimate Geek Of The Universe and found myself foiled by the US Postal Service. The check did not arrive. Of course it may still arrive at some point, but it did not arrive within the 3-5 days it should have taken to travel the 30 miles.
At this point I was miffed but figured I would just Paypal over the money, get it done today type of thing.
So I merrily did just that. Somehow it went through as an echeck, even though I specified that my debit card be used. Fine, we just wait a few days. I blissfully though that things would be fine and there was no reason to check on the transaction.
Then I get told that the echeck has been canceled! Argh! So I open the email account associated with my Paypal account and see that there is an email requesting that I call their customer resolution center because my account has been flagged for several reasons… blah blah, they think there’s another account with my information (and it has a negative balance)… blah blah, they think I’m up to no good with my money transactions from around the world.
Argh!
Fine. I call.
Within two seconds of the call starting it becomes painfully obvious to me that the call center is not in the USA, or any other English-speaking country in the world.
I then have to explain V.E.R.Y..S.L.O.W.L.Y. why I am calling and what I need them to fix for me. The woman is clueless. Absolutely clueless.
After a good 10 minutes of frustration on my end I find out more information about an account they believe is linked to mine with a negative balance. After several more minutes of frustration I am able to confirm that the negative balance account is NOT my account. I have never lived in the part of Dallas they claim I did, the address on the account is not mine. The name is not mine. W.T.F.
Fine.
And then we move onto the next issue… they now claim that they don’t have enough information to verify my identity. Erm, okay… I just verified that the account I am calling about was mine. Fine. I provide more information. But I cannot provide a landline number. I do not have a landline. I only have a mobile number. This is not acceptable, I am told, because my account has been flagged for possible illegal activity. A legit person/business would have a landline the clueless woman tells me. Erm, okay… so I ask if there is ANY other way to verify that I am not doing illegal activities or money laundering, and that I am really the person I say that I am.
She says “We can send you a letter to your physical address with information you need to enter into your account to verify.”
ARGH! That will take up to two weeks. TWO. WEEKS!
Until then I cannot make good on a debt (the most important part to me!!), cannot access funds in my account, cannot receive money either!!
I’ve resent the $’s using non-digital ways, so that’ll be taken care of. But I still hate Paypal.
Bastards.
I am going to set up an account with someone else, somewhere else… so I can continue to get payments…
Banana Cookies are fantastic… warm and fresh from the oven… mmmm chewy and soft and fluffy and little pieces of delicious heaven…
I have to toot my own horn here…
I. Can. Cook!!!!
I made the BEST lamb stew last night!
I made the BEST roasted lamb two nights ago!
I made the BEST beef stroganoff three nights ago!
I made the BEST beef stew four nights ago!
I made the BEST white wine chicken several nights ago!
I have made the BEST bread pudding several times this month!
I have made the BEST apple pie twice this month!
Even my sometimes picky offspring is devouring the food I’m cooking!
Tonight I am repeating the beef stroganoff because 1. it was THAT good… and 2. i have leftover stuff for it!
I might throw a banana pudding together too…
And I wanted to bake butter cookies for the boy…
Yay for cooking with geeks!
I grew up in South Africa towards the end of the apartheid era. I remember my father making me watch the live television coverage of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. I told him that I didn’t want to watch it, but he said that I had to - it was history in the making (this part I was fine with), and that it meant that “we” had lost control of the country.
I never could understand why my parents, and other adults around me, had such disdain and pure disgust for people with darker skin.
My schools were segregated until I was in high school, when laws were put into place to make it illegal to segregate schools - I remember there being such commotion and such a fuss when, as my geography teacher put it, “three of THEM” joined our classes. I remember sitting at my desk feeling such a terrible feeling in my chest… feeling it because of his words, the way in which he said those words… with such disgust that his life was being forced to change by the world…
I am a firm believer in that a word is only offensive when the meaning and emotion behind it takes on a life of its own. He made those words offensive…
My small group of semi-outcast/geeky friends and I welcomed the two girls who were non-white into our circle and were subjected to so much in the way of negative comments from our fellow students, and even several teachers.
My oldest cousin was mugged in Durban today while bar-hopping. Her words on Facebook just tore at me, I really had hope that South Africa was a country changed or at least in the process of changing… the words of her friends responding were just as harsh. She said “So freaking tired of these marmite monsters. They need to be vanished from this planet.” - the rest of her words are so terrible I will not repeat them.
She was not physically hurt, she is just angry - this is understandable… but are the nasty words that spewed forth from her hands understandable?
One of her friends said “Sorry you were affirmative action shopped.”
There were worse comments… I choose not to repeat them.
This is the generation raised after the end of apartheid? This is the generation raised in The New South Africa?
This is the world that my relatives want me to raise my son in?
I know that it’s possible to grow up in that kind of environment and not take on those feelings of hatred and disdain for humans with darker skin. Somehow I emerged from that country without the same feelings and negativity passed around me by my friends and family; however, I do not want my son to be raised like that.
I like living in a country where my friend Michelle (with her Korean mom, and white dad) has children with a black man… and her kids aren’t mocked or tormented… Michelle is not judged for her choices…
I have friends of every colour and I don’t see the colour as a defining or restricting factor in our relationships!
When I go to the mall with my friend LaDonnava we don’t get judged by those around us because our skin tones are pretty much polar opposites… When I have dated a non-white man I have not been judged openly and in a violent manner by those around us…
If I lived in South Africa again I would be… we would be…
Seeing those words from my cousin just brought back a flood of memories that upset me a lot. I can remember being about 7 or so and wanting to hug the child of one of my father’s employees… my parents yelled at me and told me “they’re dirty, that’s not nice at all to hug them.”
On a hot summer’s afternoon my parents would not let my father’s employee’s children swim in the pool with us, no matter how much I begged my mother.
When I told my mother, before I had my son, that I wanted to adopt a child from South Africa she said to me “Ugh, but the child would be black!”
Recently, I have heard my mother, sister, brother, and friends who still live in South Africa say things that just prove to me that while things may be changing on some level… there is a long long way to go before the hearts and minds of the average South African is changed.
How can we be the change when people around us are so unwilling to accept it?
How can people still feel this way… it is almost 2010… and people are still thinking so backwards.
Is there something wrong with me that I take so much offense to it?
I’m so upset… I have so much more to write… guess I’ll end it now before… well before I break out my ugly words…