Moving, Injuries, Broken Appliances, aka: My Weekend.

Ok, so as most of you know, I have moved into my new home. Its been a process and a slightly stressful one at that. But, it’s all a little bit better now. Unfortunately, with the whole house deal, there’s a bunch of added stress, like re-doing a bedroom, and unpacking and all kinds of fun crap.

I officially moved in on Friday, since the weather this weekend was absolutely great, I used most of Saturday to get some yard work done. And by yard work, I mean actual WORK. I had to dismantle a few flowerbeds, my mother used bricks…so I had to move all these heavy bricks from one end of my yard to the other, in the process I smashed my middle finger between two of them and its probably deformed for life now. But on the bright side, my deformed thumb (broken when I was 12 and it was never set, so it bends really weird) will have a friend. Ok, its probably not REALLY deformed, but it does look weird, and will probably have a perma-bruise for a while (which also matches the perma-bruise on my left ankle/leg). So after the brick incident I decided that I’d just rake some more damn leaves and cut the grass.

The day ended injury free, well if you don’t count that I watched C-SPAN more that day than I have in the past 10 months! Of course stayed up way too late to see the vote on the worst piece of legislation, in the history of our country. And its this night that I realize that I have just moved into Representative Jim Oberstar’s district. FML!! He’s one of the Minnesota politicians I hate the most! (He’s right behind Franken and Klobuchar) Once he’s up for re-election, I’ll be devoting a lot of time and energy into making sure he isn’t re-elected for a 942nd term.

Then Sunday came. My morning was great, nice sunny day, warm weather, good coffee. Then I had to go to my sisters bridal shower. On my way there I got a call, “can you pick up a case of water? We forgot to get some.” Fine, so I walk through the local grocery store in pointy toed 2.5″ heels, not a problem, but since I’m a genius and have really good planning skills, I forgot to grab a cart. Instead of walking 60 miles back to the front of the store I decide it just makes more sense to just grab the water (24-16.8 ounce bottles, mind you) and go because at this rate I was on my way to being late. So I’m carrying the water all the way to the front of the store. Pay for the water and the cashier says, “Do you need some help carrying this out?” Of course I say no, cuz I’m in a hurry and I just saw the boy, who would be carrying my water, go to help an old lady get something off a high shelf. So I walk out of the store and next to the doors is a youth hockey team selling tickets to a pancake breakfast, the boys see me, carrying the 7,000 pounds of water and ask, “Would you like to buy a ticket to our pancake breakfast?” I’m nearly winded, keep walking and say, “No thanks” Then proceed to my car which was 8 parking spots from the front of the store. (yes, I counted)

I finally get to the bridal shower and realize now I have two options, make 2 trips to the car (because my gift was heavy, the water is heavy and I can’t carry both) or I use the empty laundry basket in my trunk and carry all my stuff in at once. I chose the latter. Thankfully my cousin was walking in at the same time with her baby, and helped me carry the basket. Everything else went fine, ate a ton of food, chatting with relatives and my sisters friends and then the gift opening…*sigh*. So I’m sitting on the floor talking to my cousin and playing with her baby, I had my cup of punch between my legs and my blackberry in hand, I wasn’t being rude but we were waiting for a text from our other cousin and had it handy. Well something happened, still not sure of the exact details as my mind went a little blank, but some how my blackberry ended up in my cup. YAY! I pull my phone out, grab the cup and dart for the kitchen. I dry it off the best I can, check to see how much of it was actually submerged, tested a few things, sent a text, a tweet and made a quick call….all worked fine. In all the panic, my sisters friend grabs my blackberry dismantles it and before I know it, its sitting in a bag of rice. Grams already had it ready. (Gramps spilled a whole cup of coffee on Grams phone a few weeks ago, so she knew what to do)

THENNNN, last night, I’m doing some laundry and some how wreck the dryer. The broken knob was part of the problem, and me pushing trying to make it work is probably what actually broke it…*sigh*. Ok its not really wrecked but the thingy that the knob turns to turn the dryer on has fallen into the dark abyss. So I take off the cover (yes, I unplugged it) and stick my little fingers through the sharp metal hole to find the thingy. Something broke so I can’t put it back where it belongs. The dryer is less than a year old, and in my 3 days of living here I’ve managed to make it inoperable! Or so I thought. Since Im like a female McGyver, I figured I could use some duct tape to keep the thing in place for a bit. Then I found a tool, I don’t know the name of it, so I’m not even going to try, that will keep it from sinking back in and help with turning it (like a super human pair of pliers.) Yay! Dryer works!

Fast-forward to Monday morning. My blackberry kinda works, the screen flickers so I’ve been very reluctant to use it. Although everyone assures me its fine. I could get a new one for $50, but at this rate, I need to make sure I can back up all my information before proceeding with this process. But right now, I’m looking at my “to-do” list and thinking, HOLY CRAP! I could be almost done with the damn list if my phone was working!! F%&#!! So I’ve spent most of my morning hunting down email addresses and having email convos (which take FOREVER!) en lieu of a 3 minute phone conversation. Awesome.

Lets just hope that the worst of it is over. Happy Monday!

New Music Monday!!

Ok, its been a few weeks since I’ve had a chance to write one of these posts. Well this installment includes two awesome women. Adele and Lenka.

I fell in love with Adele months ago with her first single, Chasing Pavements, from her debut album, 19. She’s a young british songstress with more emotion behind her music than most you’re going to hear on the radio today. Her album, 19, has sold more than 2.2 million copies worldwide and topped out at #10 on the Billboard charts. The song, Hometown Glory, was written by Adele when she was just 16 years old, the now 21 year old singer continues to amaze me every time I listen to her music. Here are a few of my favorite tracks:

The other artist, Lenka, was born in Wales, but raised in Sydney, is another great vocalist. Her catchy lyrics and amazing arrangements are what really caught my attention. Here are a few of my favorite tracks from her self-titled debut album:

Have a great Monday!

Guilty until proven innocent. Yep, even you.

So yesterday I was so mad that I can quite honestly say that I have NEVER been that angry in my entire LIFE!! And after calming down and viewing the situation (and no, I will not be elaborating on the situation, because well…you don’t need to know EVERYTHING about my life, you nosy bastards!) a little bit more objectively, I realized that I need to readjust my “circle of trust”. For the most part, I have a great core group of people around me. THE BEST of the BEST! And I don’t say that lightly. And after the great people purge a few months ago, its been even better.

There are a few people who I include in my “circle” because we’ve been good friends for a looooooong time, or because I feel as though they’re trust worthy and all around good. But its been brought to my attention this week, that even the people I have trusted with my life can and will betray that trust. And its unfortunate that it had to happen. But it was an important lesson to learn. And as pissed as I still am about it, I know I’ll get over it. Its too bad that I had to lose what was once a great friend because of it, but I don’t take that level of betrayal lightly.

Now all that being said, I’m sure I’m going to alienate a bunch of people, but at this rate, I could care less. So today, during the whole, “hey lets paint a room in the new house” fiasco, I had plenty of time to think about a few things. And I know I’ve mentioned this topic on my blog before, but some people have absolutely no idea what it means to be a friend. None. And trust? Pahhhleeze. I’ve found very few people I know are capable of the level of trust I require. And when I look at my twitter interactions, there are MAYBE 10-15 people I trust enough to call them a “friend”. Now if they’re all able to live up to the standard I have in my head, that’s a totally different subject, and frankly, I don’t even know if I’m willing to test it out anymore. Its pretty terrible that one friend could ultimately ruin it for everyone else. But when you’re betrayed by one of your closest and dearest friends, well, I say that there’s very little hope for the rest of you.

I know, totally throwing the baby out with the bath water but at this point I’m done giving people the benefit of the doubt. Everyone is guilty until proven innocent. And maybe that’s a bit on the cynical side, but I think its time that I stop hoping that people are as good as I want them to be, and just expect everyone to be a big fat idiot until proven otherwise. That may be the smartest way to operate.

The Man-Cave

So Saturday was a big ol’ adventure. It was moving day for my parents who haven’t moved anything in like 20 years. But that wasn’t the fun part. Wait, yes it was. My family is a freaking hilarious! That being said, it was a day of severe mixed emotions, we were moving my parents into my grandparents house, and it was oddly emotional. I know, weird right? I wasn’t even aware that I had emotions, guess you learn something new every day.

Moving on, after all of the moving and non-sense, we were hanging out by the garage and my dad says, “Hey, lets go check out the man-cave”. If you don’t know this story, here it is: My dad’s BFF, Dan, lives literally 5 houses down from my parents new house. He recently remodeled his house to add an attached garage, but he left the old garage up behind the new one. Instead of using it for storage or something, he turned it into his “man cave”. I had only heard of this place, never seen it. So when he had the opportunity to check it out, of course I was excited to see what the hype was all about.

Here is the only picture I took of the place. It was taken from my blackberry so it kinda sucks:

What you can’t see, and what I think is the most impressive thing in the whole place, yes, even aside from all the amazing artwork and pictures he has, is a wall, yes, a whole wall, of CD’s. They’re all organized alphabetically, of course, and what threw me is his method: Artists are placed based on their last name, bands are placed based on the first word of the band name. So Jethro Tull, under “J”, Van Morrison, “M”. I was confused at first, even said, “Dan, your organization kinda sucks…I expected more of you.” To which he replied, “No no, you’re just looking at it wrong.” Once he explained his method, it made complete sense.

In the corner to the left of the bear on the wall (yes, he killed it) is a wood burning stove. I’m sitting on an amazingly comfy leather couch, to the right of me is a full fridge, filled with beer and soda, and a freezer filled with pizza and a pizza oven and microwave. He willingly admits that his TV is a little small, but he will be upgrading after Christmas. There are also two dart board with proper markings on the floor. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. And all the guys were definitely inspired by this “work of man-art” (not my word…I believe it was Jake who coined that phrase).

I’m really just posting this because it’s pretty freaking cool.

Holy crap!!

Ok so the next two weeks are gonna be busy. And by busy I don’t mean like fake busy, I mean like I’m going to be so busy I may just be a super crabby bitch. Or not. It could really go either way.

If you’ve been following the blog, you know that I’ll be moving soon. Well its worked out that I can move a few weeks earlier than I had planned. Unfortunately, 3 weeks earlier means 3 weeks I don’t have to putz around and pack at a slow pace. Instead I will be in panic mode packing up my house. If you don’t know me, I’ll fill you in on a little secret, I HATE PACKING/MOVING and all that it encompasses! Its like the bane of my existence and I don’t know how I’ve done it so many times without just going insane. So my packing routine usually goes like this, first week or two I pack unnecessary crap (extra linens and shit I don’t use) and everything is in boxes all nice and neat. Then I move onto other things, pictures, shoes, non-essential clothes…also neat and tidy. Then the last 2 weeks are “Holy shit I still need to pack ALL THIS CRAP?!” and I start throwing my stuff into boxes at random trying just to get it done. Then I spend the rest of the time cleaning like a madwoman, because lets face it, I am too cheap to not get every single dime of my damage deposit back. Then comes the fun part, moving. At least that requires little to no thought. Put boxes in truck, drive, move boxes into new place. Unpacking…yeah, that’s usually a slow process. I’ve been known to avoid unpacking for as long as possible, hell the the last time I moved I still had unopened boxes from my previous move.

But the move will be good. I get to be a real grown-up and shop at home depot and fix crap. Ok lets be realistic, I will paint a few walls and hire someone to install new carpet and re-tile a bathroom. BUT I get to shop for that stuff, so that’s pretty awesome! No more renting a place with ugly carpet or tile, now if its ugly it’ll be because I wanted it to be! I do need to find someone who knows how and wants to remove a bunch of wallpaper…my mother watches too much HGTV and probably needs an intervention, but that’s another story. So all in all, I’m excited to move, but the process sucks. I wish I had a lot more money and I’d just pay someone to do it for me. Maybe someone wants to pack for me in exchange for some tacos? Give me a call if you’re interested!

In other news, I’ll be moving my blog, again. But this time will be the final time I hope. I’ve found someone who’s willing and able to help me with the process and basically handle all the stuff I don’t know how to do. So that’s awesome. I don’t know when that will be happening, we’re still working out the details and such, but I will keep you guys posted.

And sometime in the next 2 weeks I’ll be celebrating my birthday (its actually on the 30th but no plans have been made). UGH. I’ll be 28 this year, and I don’t know why, but its bugging me. 28 isn’t “old” in any respect and I am willing to admit that, but I feel like it is. My dad has always said I’m an old soul, and I tend to believe him because lets face it, I act like a 60 year old woman some days. But really, I don’t know why this birthday is such a big deal, there’s no logical reason why it should be, but *sigh* it kinda is. I will have to try and figure out why and get back to you guys.

Well that’s a quick update on me. I don’t know if I’ll have much time to update the blog as much as I normally do within the next few weeks but I will try. Even if its just something of very little substance. But in any case, if you happen to feel, “OMG, Candice is bitchier than usual” feeling, you’ll know why. Its not you, its me….who has a problem with you. Ok i’m kidding, that’s just a great line for breaking up with someone. Anyway, just so you know, starting Monday (like all things), things may or may not get a little dicey with my mood, just putting that out there. So don’t intentionally try to piss me off cuz I will hunt you down and punch you in the face.

Teenage mothers. A rant.

This video ended up being a bit longer than I intended but I ran out of time yesterday and am running out of time today, so instead of wasting hours editing it, I just left it as is.

Anyway, as I mention in the video, this topic came up in a discussion on twitter the other night and I felt my views on the subject needed to be expressed.

Basic human rights?

Over the past few weeks and months pundits, bloggers, activists and the like, have changed the words “human right” to suit their needs. Just toss it onto any “catch phrase” and you got yourself a cause! It started with the gay marriage debate, and has moved to the health care debate in the United States, now, Finland is telling the world that broadband internet access is a basic human right? Really??

I want you to check out this website: Sexual Warfare: Rape in the Democratic Congo.

Now please explain to me why we’re talking about how the internet, marriage and free health care is a RIGHT? Not only are they extremely trivial in the grand scheme of things, NONE of them are a right! Under any circumstances! I wish you moronic leftists would pull your heads out of your Utopian asses and realize that health care, internet access, and gay marriage is NOT and never will be on the same level as the atrocities that face MILLIONS of people around the world,(ie hunger/starvation, genocide, rape, and genital mutilation.) To equate the rape and murder of women and babies to being asked to pay for medical services is the worst kind of human rights violations. You’re only desensitizing people to the real atrocities that occur every single day, and you expect me to respect you? I’m sorry, but I just can’t. You people make me sick. Your peace, love, unity mantra is just for show, you follow trends and ride the coat tails of real people trying to do good just to further your cause. Think about the women and children who are being raped at this very moment before you try to convince me that the right to marry whoever you want is a basic human right. *BITCHSLAP*

Me, Dad and Zappa.

I remember being about 4 or 5 years old and listening to Frank Zappa. My dad, the biggest musical influence in my life, was and still is a huge Frank Zappa fan. I remember thinking that his music was so weird, the lyrics creeped me out, but the SOUND was so recognizable and his voice…mesmerizing. He would have friends over, playing records and occasionally we’d start playing the “Candice, who sings this song” game. He’d take it easy on me, usually playing Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Zappa and others, and his friends thought it was cute/funny that this little girl could tell the difference. The truth is, even at that young age, it was easy to distinguish between them (as it should be, IMO). It also helped that my dad had the most fascinating stories about the concerts he attended and we’d listen to a record/tape/cd and talk about the music, the stories of the bands and my dad’s experience with them, it all helped me fall in love with rock music and all music in general.

I remember being 7 or 8 and getting into a discussion about the genius of Zappa and incorporating a full SYMPHONY in a rock song and how I should never ever refer to Classical music as “stupid or dumb”, which I did, only ONCE, and he lectured me for hours about the importance of classical music and how it is the very foundation of most great rock music, and it would increase my awareness of the music if I listened to more of it, which I did. Dad made it clear that I don’t always have to agree with the message of a song to appreciate the music, and I think that’s one thing that will always stick with me. Back then, my dad and his BFF Danny (they’d both kill me if they knew I referred to them that way…no kidding.) would sit and talk about music for hours, and I would sit on the floor like I was in the most fascinating lecture in the history of the world. When Zappa came on, it was like I was in another world sometimes, dad would ask me to try to ignore the words and just LISTEN to the music. It was a very surreal experience for a child, but one that I will never forget. The most amazing thing about it was, dad never ever forced the music on me, its like it just drew me in…like a vacuum. I couldn’t avoid it, and still can’t.

I also remember when Dad found out that Zappa had Pancreatic Cancer and the day Frank Zappa died. My dad was heart broken. One of his idols was gone. And it reignited his interest, and mine, in his music. I was 12 years old listening to Frank Zappa (what parent allows that? Have you read his lyrics?? LOL), of course, he was mixed in with The New Kids on the Block and MC Hammer but dad supported ALL of my musical interests throughout the years. (well, we have to exclude the issues we had with country music, Journey, Puff Daddy and Hootie…if you don’t know that story…they were all banned from the house-ok, not really, but we couldn’t listen too loudly when dad was around cuz he said it made his ears BLEED, he would knock on my bedroom door and yell, “No more HOOTIE/JOURNEY/Puff Daddy–who I think is really my dad’s archenemy.)

Over the years, my taste in music has become more refined. I like a band/artist for various reasons, how the music makes me feel, how well its composed, how much I like the sound, etc. Dad and I don’t always agree on what’s “good”. But he never judges, unless its something silly, like my obsession with Jack Johnson, dad just doesn’t get it. But if I come across a new band or artist I like, I usually mention it to dad and we’ll listen and discuss the band, what we like, what we don’t. Its really an amazing relationship I have with him. Granted there were times in our lives (like when I was an evil teenager) when we didn’t quite see eye to eye, but it was the music that we shared that really gave us our great bond. And I can’t help but wonder if it would have been the same without the music of Frank Zappa.






I decided to add a couple videos that I came across today on YouTube. Enjoy!! I sure did!

Tales of a Chapstick Addict.

Of course if you read my blog, you know I clearly have some addiction issues, for those that don’t, don’t worry my addictions are relatively benign (coffee, blackberry and sleeping-for the most part). Well its that time of year where my addiction to chapstick becomes a necessity. This is the story of how I became so addicted to it and how I overcame this evil addiction (kinda).

I think it started way back in middle school, probably about 7th grade, to be exact. At that point, my parents still wouldn’t allow me to wear makeup, which was ok with me, most of my friends didn’t wear make up. We were a good bunch of kids, but we were soon to discover the most evil thing in the world…Lip Smacker flavored/scented lip balm. Sure, it seems safe, cute little lip balms, all different flavors and scents and they were about $1, so its not like making our parents buy us a bunch was going to break the bank. (Although as soon as my 2 younger sisters found out about it, my lip balm collection wasn’t growing as much as I would like it). So we’d go to school and share, yes…SHARE our newest “flavors” with our friends. We’d put it on all day, at volleyball/basketball/track practice, after lunch, in class, it was a full blown addiction. This behavior continued into high school…same deal…only most of my friends and I were allowed to actually wear make up but the one constant, the lip smacker lip balm.

I did have multiple favorites, bubble gum, this sparkly vanilla(which still is a fav) but I also had to progress from uber girly to the practical. See, I live in Minnesota, and in the winter, it gets very cold and very dry, and a scented/flavored lip balm doesnt always cut it. So I had a vast collection of ChapStick and the best of them all (well for helping with chapped, cracked lips) Carmex. These were especially important and necessary when I started snowboarding, when I’d often be outside, in the freezing cold for 4-8 hours at a time (yes, we went in to eat and warm up…but on a good day, we’d be out there for hours!) Without any sort of lip protection, my lips would feel like they were about to fall off! Of course when snowboarding, I discovered that keeping my chapstick in my outer jacket pocket would cause it to freeze and make it nearly impossible to apply, so I discovered that keeping it in my inside pants pocket was the best place for it. And in the summer I had to make sure I had an adequate level of SPF on my lips because I worked on the river, and if you’ve never had sunburned lips, its extremely painful. Not only did I have a stick of chapstick on me at all times, I also had a few in my bag o’ snowboarding gear, my purse, my backpack, my gym bag, my car, my parents cars, my bedroom, I literally had chipstick/lip balm everywhere!

This trend continued into my twenties, various chapsticks, lip balms, glosses, etc. It wasn’t until I was 24/25, that I realized how bad it was. I was at a friends house and she asked if I had any lip gloss. I rummaged through my purse to find twelve, yes TWELVE different kinds of sticks, balms, glosses. I was almost embarrassed. No one needs to have THAT many in her purse at any given time, EVER. And to make matters worse her boyfriend started calling me Chap. (a very unflattering nick name…obviously.) So I started making it a point to only take the necessities with me when I left the house. Those include, a regular chapstick, a gloss and which ever colored gloss I was wearing that night. (PS: clearly I don’t do lipstick…not a fan) And that’s where I am now, for the most part.

All that being said, I will occasionally be standing in line at walmart/target or the grocery store and see a new chapstick/lip balm that I haven’t tried yet and feel compelled to buy it. I don’t spend a lot of money on these things, max $5 (except for the Mentha Lip Shine from Bath and Body works, one of my absolute favs), especially considering that they’re very easily lost, but I have been known to spend an hour or more looking for a specific one. And anyone who isn’t an addict wouldn’t even consider doing such a thing. I have a small cosmetics bag that is FULL of various sticks, glosses, balms, etc, but in my everyday purse, I only have 3.

One of these days I might really try to overcome this hording activity, but really, its not hurting anyone (yes, I know, that’s what they all say), and frankly, for 6 months of the year, my chapstick collection is absolutely necessary!

Bathtub blogging?

So I thought that maybe sleep deprived bathtub blogging would be a good idea. Now that I’ve committed to actually testing that theory I’ve come to the conclusion that perhaps Rev. Run is the only one who should be sharing deep thoughts with the world via a blackberry while in a bathtub.

Seriously.