A sneak peek-down

Not sure what happened but I will look into it. .

Ticket number 000000001X

Don’t kill me

I am an obsessive compulsive person, and I love myself.
I am an obsessive compulsive person, and I love myself.
I am an obsessive compulsive person, and I love myself.
I am an obsessive compulsive person, and I love myself.

Sometimes I forget to buy dog food, check my hair before I walk out the door, blink while staring at the computer or even put in both contacts each morning. I know this about myself and honestly I am okay with it because I wouldn’t like me any other way.

Now that you are caught up. I have to lay some very important news on you. Are you ready? Take three deep breaths and attempt to count to 28, I will wait. . .

I really want to start video blogging.

I think I would be more interesting if I gave everyone 2 minutes of “jen” every day and apparently all the cool kids are doing it. I mean I won’t need any pricey equipment, I already have the digital camera and it can make videos and I am hoping that my new obsession will get my far far far away friends to think about doing the same as well. (yes Gina I am talking about you). So I think this will be my new project in the next couple days, go about setting it up and providing all the links incase you guys are all interested in starting up your own video blog. Don’t worry I will try to set it up in here so you don’t have yet another justjen page to memorize/add to favorites/visit everyday.

Okay back to your regularly scheduled web viewing thanks again for stopping in.

Addicted?

(shrugs) I wouldn’t consider myself addicted to blogging. But who knows it could be a part of the denial process that I live in. I like to write, because I like to think that someone in Haiti –or any other obscure place- is sitting at their computer pretending that I am in the most interesting person in the world. I know I am not but I feel as though I am some what interesting to some body out there. Maybe?

I find myself reading other folks blogs, as I have discussed in the past, not to steal their ideas or their themes but to get myself more interested in writing more. I wonder if my blog is linked in someone’s “favorites” and I think that must be truly an honor. I have some blogs in my favorites that I truly do enjoy and when you get a forward from me that is most likely where they come from.

It is hard to believe that there are as many folks out in the world that have internet access and that sit and do the same thing I do. Then I hit “next blog” on the top part of the screen and find that spell check apparently isn’t on every computer. I am not saying that I am a spell check snob but come on people. Your blog is supposed to reflect you. Are you really that rushed in your life that you must post a blog about what boots you are wearing to TGIF tonight but you can’t do a second glance before you hit save to realize that you added an extra o to boot or you put poot instead of boot?

Maybe I am this big critical monster and it only rears its ugly little beady eyed self in the distant realms of my imagination. Or maybe I just expect so much more from people than I will actually fully get in life. There are many times a day that I reflect on the nonsense that is Idiocracy. Americans will soon just be a community surrounded in trash sucking lard out of KFC buckets. Gosh that really does scare me. I find myself having conversations with friends about the breeding epidemic of the world. The intelligent have postponed their breeding until later in life while the not so smart have already bred multiple times. Not that I should compare childrearing to the event of animal breeding and I know reading back that is what it seems I am doing and you can consider me a horrible person for it and take me off your favorites list but it truly does concern me.

More thought should go into having children than into the act itself. It makes me sad to see some of my friends in the same age range that want nothing more than to have their own perfect children watch with sad eyes as teenage mothers are able to pop out one every nine months. One could state that “if they were so smart they too would have started earlier” but when it comes down to it these friends wanted to be done with school, have the extra money in the bank and maybe dump that old rental and actually own a home before bringing a child into the world and by the time they came to that point in their lives making a baby wasn’t so easy anymore. I am not saying what is right and what is wrong. I am not reflection of an ideal “breeder” I have more self destructive, selfish and internal issues then the latest woman’s journal. I just wish there was a change in the way people think about things. I wish that each person would just reflect a little more about the things they do every day. I wish that that people realized consequences of life were still out there.

I am sorry for the not so “perky” blog today I just feel like I have a lot on my plate these days and it still helps to push it off in here. I will try harder to be a better person tomorrow. Now let me go grab a smoke and maybe a coffee.

ReBlogging

Yes this is a trashy thing to do but it was so funny I had to do it.
Gosh I have said that line one too many times.

Caucus for Wings and Vodka

My name is Mike, and tonight I'm asking you to link to my blog. I believe that my blog, more than any of the other blogs, has what it takes to get this community headed in the right direction.

My blog understands the plight of the average law student, and knows what it means to struggle. My blog came from a very poor family, a family much poorer than that of any of the other blogs, so poor that it could barely afford a counter, let alone a fancy comment system.

My blog was against the war in Iraq, even though, for political reasons, it wasn't able to come out and say that until after the war was over. But rest assured that if my blog had been able to keep a lower profile, say, in Vermont, that it would have spoken out sooner. Additionally, I should mention that it came from a poor family.

Finally, I would like to point out that my blog has never taken, and will never take, special interest money. And I'm not saying this just because it hasn't been offered. Rather, I say this because money is not important to my blog. My blog values other things, like hope, and values. And hope.

So, in conclusion, I would like to again ask for your support tonight. Together, we can change America. Or at least Iowa. Or if not Iowa, then together we can change this font. Because that is something I cannot do alone. Thank you.

When you weren’t looking I snuck in your closet. It was comfortable in there and the dogs couldn’t find me. They looked and looked but I was quiet and didn’t make a peep. Did you notice? I didn’t organize your ties or even stack your shoes and I made sure that I didn’t sit on your favorite shirt, I just sat and listened to my heart beat and the slow trickle of my breath leave my lips. It was dark in the closet but it smelled like you and that made me happy.

Later that day I put you clothes in the dryer and I made sure to open the door before the buzzer went off. They weren’t dry yet so I ran them again, when they were done I folded them and put them away. Did you notice? I ran the soft cloth through my fingers and I remembered where we were when you wore each item I folded and it made me smile. I snuck in the room and put them away I did a very good job to not wake you, you didn’t even turn over when the door slightly creaked.

I thought of you today, I said your name under my breath and I looked at the sky and smiled. Did you notice? It seems like we are both just along for the ride and we are lucky to run into each other as often as we do. I miss the days before today and the days before last December, the days when we were together more than we were apart. I miss those days. Do you think they ever think of me? The way things used to be when you were here and I was there and we were together? The days that seemed to drag on for ever and the nights that seemed faster than the blink of an eye. Those were some great days. The weather was cooler and the sun set before our eyes. Do you think we should put up a reward for those days? Do you think they would come back to us?

Maybe thinking is what gets us in this mess. If we would just sit back and accept today for today and accept me as me and you as you we wouldn’t miss something we no longer knew. But not knowing wouldn’t make us who we are today. So, I will cherish those times that I miss, the laugh lines, the moments that have gone by and smile knowing that there are new days on their way, days that will bring more cheer than the old days ever could. Those days will be great days, those days I will sit in the closet and wrinkle your shirts, those days I will toss the clothes in the drawers and not let it get to me that your socks weren’t matched up, those days I will let the dogs find me, those days I will be with you.

Wedding and life issues

So I find a need for an outlet to vent and alas here is where I turn. Lance and my wedding invites arrived last week and with much excitement they were perfect, as Lance and I discussed final touches we discovered with the new rate change in stamps we would have to purchase two separate stamps to ensure that our invitations were delivered. Sadly we were hoping to go with just the wedding stamps but those are no longer an option and with the weight of the invites being just at 1 oz we needed to go with the new 58 cent stamp. There is currently no 58 cent in print right now so we are still back to the discussion of whether to go with the 41 cent wedding stamp and the blue horn stamp or another option and when it comes down to it, nothing says wedding like a big horned animal. I shrug and move on.

I had been emailing my travel agent to get some additional information. The same travel agent that’s name is printed on my RSVP cards, only to find out Monday he is no longer with the company, another shrug of confusion. Do I send out the same invites with a miss printed RSVP? Do I order new ones and sink $50 back into more paper? What does a girl do? I think I will just add a little card stating that there is a new contact and call it a day, but really couldn’t things go my way completely with one project? Is it really too much to ask? In my quest for a solution the other day I did stumble upon some very cute envelope seals to which I ordered and was surprised when I received an email from the owner of the company asking if I would prefer to ship my items at the $1.00 rate instead of the $5.99 rate I was originally charged. I quickly responded “of course” and instantly received an additional email stating that the change had been made and the seals will be shipped out the following day. Score for the “make jen happy” way of life. So if you need any wedding stuff or things along those lines seriously check out this site "Paper and More" good people with nice items that actually answer emails, hard to find now a days.

In the long run of things besides work, school and the daily grind things really aren’t that horrible. I had a wonderful weekend with Lance traveling around the eastern most point of North Carolina to which you can read more about on our wedding website www.MorganKregerWedding.com which we have been trying to update as much as possible.

I miss my friends though. I wish I had more free time to plan and do things. I feel as though things are just more consuming this semester and for that I am sorry that I haven’t reached out to every one more than I have. I am looking forward to dinner with two of my favorite girls tonight and that will bring me some light to get through the rest of the week.

Well I better get back to doing some work, I have to take the VW to the dealership today for it’s 10,000 mile scheduled maintenance (don’t even ask how much that costs-rolls eyes) and see if I can find the bottom to the stack of work I have pilling up on my desk.

Have a wonderful day!

Dear ESPN

So several of you know that I am a “hard to upset” type of girl and I really let most things in my life roll off my back but I was really upset about ESPN’s coverage of the dog fighting “scandal” going on and I decided to write an email to some folks as ESPN. I also have decided to post it here because that is how upset I was about the whole situation. Now you ask have they contacted me back? HA! Did I ever think they would? No. . I do know better sometimes.

May 29th, 2007

Dear ESPN,


I am writing to express my feelings of the news coverage on the pit bull fighting that you felt so necessary to cover on one of your programs last night. I was sitting at one of my favorite dinner spots enjoying conversation to look up to see the horrid playing video loop of the fighting pit bulls. As an active member animal rights groups as well as a pit bull owner, animal lover and decent human it was extremely heartrending to have those images flash across the screen. I understand that pit bull fighting is still an event that takes place in the shadows of America and although many places have done all they can to rid the states of this type of animal murder it still occurs to this day. My question is did ESPN really feel so strongly to force these images into the homes of America that they had to air this revolting video over and over again? I completely agree that whom ever was responsible should be tried and punished for this crime but was it appropriate for ESPN to air the footage?

I hope that you receive many more emails, letters and calls to the same effect as mine and I truly hope that some where on your staff you have people that questioned the airing of this broadcast. The airing of that video was completely uncalled for and as the anger, resentment and complete distain for your program caused me to lower my eyes and walk quickly to the restaurant manager and inform him of what was being shown in his establishment. As I walked to the manager I noticed the questioning faces of the children that were also watching the images flash across the screen. Do you really think that parents of America wanted to have to explain to their children why these two dogs were destroying each other over dinner? The manager was also extremely upset about the video and quickly changed the channels of his televisions and apologized to me.

I understand that ESPN covers stories of athletes as they should, but did the video really need to be played to the extent that it was? Could you have not waited until the hours where children may not be present with their parents in front of televisions? I know and understand that there are many choices on cable to watch and that if I was offended I should have changed the channel and had I been in my own home I would have done so with out missing a breath. But my point is that ESPN is commonly broadcast in many sports bars, restaurants and common venues. Did you consider any of this prior to airing this program? There are probably a million other ways that you could have shown or implied the severity of this event with out forcing the public to have to endure even a second of that video.

The showing of this video was completely unnecessary. I personally feel that ESPN was out of line and mitigating showing this would almost be as justified as slaughter houses getting web cams so that they can show the households of America how their meat is processed from an animal to a cut of meat. Hopefully most Americans know of the horrors of Pit Bull fighting, cock fighting, animal slaughters, murders, and other such heart wrenching events but knowing about them and coming to face with them in their homes, places of business and favorite venues is completely superfluous.

I truly hope that in the future decisions to air such offensive materials are more thought through.


Thank you for your time,

Thursday pretending to be a Friday

I have dropped the just, did you notice? Does anyone notice anymore? I occasionally sit down and find myself wondering why I continue to write in here, and then I realize that I enjoy entertaining myself and that some days just sitting in front of my computer and doing something for myself makes me feel very “Carrie” from Sex in the City and then I smile and long to sit at my desk and smoke whilst gazing out a window at a crowded street in my (imaginary) fancy manolo high heels and. . . . .Sorry a tangent. Lance would throw the orange flag on that one and call it a “run on” sentence foul. Then I would pout and the game would go on.

I really have nothing clever to write about today. I could bore you with my days events or I could make up an elaborate story how I was crowned the Princess of Echo Glen and I ruled that today would be “pretty pretty princess day” and all those that I deem worthy are highly encouraged to go to Claire’s in the mall and spend $6.99 on a tiara and sit at their desks and wear them today. But that really wouldn’t be much of an interesting story either and the dragon slaying segment really does go on much longer than one would expect.

Today is Thursday, I guess I could refocus on my title and explain why I decided to call this Thursday a Friday and why I will not call tomorrow Thursday. Tomorrow I will be going with Lance to Greenville, NC. Yes Lance and I on a road trip, together in the same car, just the two of us. Please pull yourself up and get back in your chair it really wasn’t that surprising, okay maybe a little, but breath deep and the stars will go away.

Lance is applying for a couple PA Programs in the state of North Carolina in his eternal search for an education. Now I strongly encourage this perusal. I am actually quite fond of intelligent men, or mute men, I can’t remember which right now. Both make me feel smashingly wonderful and occasionally pretty enough to be a “Trophy Wife” yes I digress.

School.

So Lance is applying to Wake Forest to which I have half of Winston Salem secretly praying that he gets into, and he is also applying to Eastern Carolina University which I secretly have the other half of Winston (parts of Washington, and a sprinkle of folks in Florida) praying he doesn’t get into.

Why am I evil? Well in this case because Lance is my favorite of all guy folks and I really don’t want him to have to move away, and me being my Father’s daughter, don’t really like change. Could I bust my hump and get my schooling taken care of and possibly move with Lance? Er. . . maybe, but I would have to give up on sleep, my remaining sanity, possibly my horse, shiny new car, and a job that surreptitiously I enjoy. In the long run of “Lance and Jen” would moving away benefit us as a relationship? Or would it cause more hardship on us?

I am not a fortune teller and I really can’t say. But it is something that I have found myself overly consumed with these days, and Lance and I are working on me getting passed this and on to happy things. Like eating Cotton Candy for dinner, which I still haven’t been able get away with. Yes, Gina I know you would let me eat cotton candy for dinner that is why I love you.

So there is a dim light into the world of Jen. See it really wasn’t that interesting maybe the dragon slaying story would have amused you more? (Shrugs) it might have amused me more to write it as well.

On a completely separate note the Horse Rescue Group that I volunteer with is hosting a silent auction on the site I created for them www.userltriad.org and I actually handed over the keys to the shiny webpage to another volunteer and allowed her access to all my secret web toys and she did a wonderful job putting the page together and adding pretty pretty photos so I wanted to brag on her a little and maybe encourage folks that haven’t been on the site to go check it out. USERL does great things for horses and we need several more rescues in this cruel world that make a difference as much as they do.

Okay on with your Friday.

Just ...............um..

Our Invitations have arrived!!

So I know I have been “planning” Lance and my wedding for going on a year and a half now, or at least talked about planning, planned it in my head, rehearsed all the details in my sleep but I am getting excited now with the fact that the invites came in the mail yesterday. Yes, I already have my dress and yes my mom has booked the location but having a silly little paper in my hand with the dates and our names printed on them makes it seem ever the more real.

The invitation opening yesterday was done with baited breath and yes I admit a tear or two in my eye, because of that horrible sand storm that I had to fight through to walk in the apartment (I swear). But they are exactly what we wanted, we haven’t located a single misspelled word nor a number out of line and we were even super impressed with the difference in pictures from the invites to the cards that made us very happy. Today I will go and see if we need to get extra special postage for them or if we can simply order the postage we designed online for them. Sure it is a little extra but I think it ties the whole package up in a very Martha Stewart way, and come on deep down inside who doesn’t just adore Martha Stewart? The lady served time, was released and it wasn’t like she missed a beat, well besides that whole running Kmart into the ground while she was incarcerated.

Well I thought when I started to write that I could be more creative than this and I would go on for days about the greatness and this small amount of cheer that was brought into my un-cheerful last couple of weeks but alas I was wrong so this is all you get. Hope you enjoyed it, like a white chocolate from Godiva that slowly melts in your mouth. (drools) sorry guess I was a little hungrier than I thought this morning. Okay off to chug the rest of my coffee.

Just interesting

Monday, again!? It seems like two days over a weekend is just not enough for me. I am going to start a petition to enforce a mandatory work week of 4 days and a weekend of 3. How far will this actually get me? Who knows but it is nice to have dreams.

I had a pretty darn great weekend though, so I really shouldn’t complain that much. I was able to go on a date Friday night with my love. We went to my favorite Friday bar with my work buddies, he actually suggested it, and I was pleased. We were well received at the bar and played nice for an hour or so before we met the bottom of our bud light bottles, said our goodbyes and headed out to the sunny parking lot.

We decided earlier in the week that we had wanted to see Pirates and we got to the theater ten minutes before the next showing, how perfect was that timing? We snuggled up in the reclining seats and endured the three hour movie, it was good, but very drawn out. I lost the plot many times and at some points thought I had fallen asleep and they started the movie again. I would probably need to watch it again when it comes out on DVD to get the jest of it all. I will look forward to the fourth as well but possibly will pass on the theater viewing.

Saturday was a lazy-ish day. I was able to get most of my homework done, start some laundry, then packed up and headed out to Charlotte to hang out with my lovely friend Melissa and her gaggle of interesting friends. The first couple hours were great. I got to be Melissa’s Barbie doll and wear her fabulous new clothes from bebe and some killer jeans that even got to come home with me (giggle). We rode over to Melissa’s friend Amy’s home, had a glass or two of wine waiting for the guest of honor Amy to come home and hop in the stretch Navigator with us and head downtown for dinner. Once there I got to meet Melissa’s circle of interesting friends and had more yummy wine and actually had some really nice conversation with the friends before we sat down to dinner. Dinner went great, dancing was interesting, taking a cab home was even more fun (sarcasm here). All and all the highlights were hanging out with Melissa, Tammy and meeting some new people. We made it home and when it comes down to it, isn’t that all that really matters? I will post some pics as soon as I get them from Melissa because you really can’t miss how great she looked.

Thank you Melissa for always welcoming me into your home as always it was great to hang out with you. I love how great the new home looks and I actually like the fact you are with out a fridge, I think it is great. Lol. . . . here is to many more lazy Sundays and early dinners at Moes.