Before bed I make my stand...

I just have a few things to say before I go to bed tonight.

I am SO lucky to have the parents I have.
I am SO lucky to have the best friend that I have.
I know that things can get better, even if I can't see it right now.
I know that people support and love me.
I can't give up on myself or my future.
I can't stop trying to better myself.






oh yeah... and I read this today... if you have a chance read it. PLEASE do NOT leave me hate messages. This is for casual reading and interesting to say the least. I WILL delete your comments if you are rude or offensive, trust me in this.
http://frwest.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-than-100-reasons-to-vote-against.html

woooohoooo!

Phillies WIN!!!
Phillies WIN!!!!
PHILLIES WIN!!!

PA represent!

I accept!

Time for writer's workshop! Mama Kat does a fine job of creating thought provoking writings every week, so here we are!

This week I choose #5- You've been hired as a writer for "Late Show with David Letterman." Your first assignment is to come up with a witty, nonpolitical Top Ten list for him to read on air.

The Top 10 Things I Do at Work... Besides Work!
10) Read my horoscope in the newspaper
9) Daydream about being somewhere else
8) Figure out what I'm going to have for dinner
7) Clean out my purse
6) Pretend I'm working while doing a sodoku puzzle
5) Quickly get up from my desk and hurry into the other room like I have something very important to do very suddenly.
4) Write disgruntled letters to the owner of the company that I never send
3) Chat with my co-worker (who sits about 8 ft. from me) online about all the annoying things happening around us
2) Check my email and print out all the Border's coupons I get on company letterhead (oooo classy!)
1) BLOG!

I'm chosing to accept it, because I should!

I've decided to jump on the Mama Kat bandwagon and start doing one of the weekly prompts. I'm picking #4... write about a Scrabble game that takes an ugly turn for the worst. It's not an actual happening to me... but trust me when I say, this is a true story....

(NOTE: the dialogue contained herein is a rough translation as there is no universal Cat->English dictionary currently available.)

Bubbles laid on the couch catching the late morning rays of sunshine dancing in the window. Fall was approaching, and with it, colder weather, so she and her companion, Jasper spent more of their days inside now staring at the newly snow covered mountains or, if their owners weren't there, playing Scrabble.

Scrabble doesn't come easy to cats; they aren't the best spellers and, let's face it, even WITH thumbs those tiles are hard to pick up. Yet, Bubbles and Jasper had played for years and with time comes skill. Still and often they would bicker about the correct spelling of words, but who doesn't during a Scrabble game?

As Bubbles lay purring in the sun Jasper was on the prowl and ready to play a serious game of Scrabble. As Jasper swatted at Bubbles' twitching tail she woke and grumbled, "what do you want? Don't you see how happy I am laying in the sun?" "Oh get over it, let's play Scrabble!" Jasper quipped, "The humans are gone and it's been almost all summer since we've played!" Bubbles stretched out as she stood and washed her face. "Ok, but it's your turn to get the board out from under the bed."

She watched as Jasper bounded off towards the bedrooms to headbutt the box from under the master bed. Being old pros at this, by the time Bubbles reached the bedroom, Jasper was just finishing pulling all the pieces out of the box. "Wooz turn ish it to go firrsh?" Jasper said with his mouth full of tiles for the bag. "Mine, remember you lead off last time with 'burdz'?" "Oh yeah!," Jasper laughed as he tossed the last tile into the bag, "that was a hard start!"

The two cats took turns drawing their letters and carefully placing them on the holder in front of them. After their letters were drawn Bubbles hunched down to take a closer look at what she had to start with. "Well," she thought, "I'm definitely going to win this one with letters like these!" and quietly started off the game with n-o-m-z. "Good one!" said Jasper as he took a look at his letters. He gave out a little sigh of a purr and resigned to playing the only vowels he had to put c-h-e-e off of the "z" creating "cheez." Turns went back and forth and as it always does, the board filled up and became challenging pretty quickly. Unlike human brains, kitty brains love odd letters like "x", "z", and "q". These are always in high demand and valued even more by kitties than their human counterparts.

After 45 minutes Bubbles was far in the lead and instead of worrying in between turns, she took the time to give herself mini baths and polish her beautiful dark fur. Jasper, on the other hand, didn't like the predicament he was in and fretted and hissed at his letters between turns.

They were down to the final 20 or so letters left and as Bubbles cleaned her tail, unknown to her, the tension was reaching it's peak. "WILL YOU QUIT THAT??" hissed Jasper. Bubbles' fur stood up on end as she jumped up ready to attack. "What the hell is your problem Jasper? You've never cared this much about a game before, what's the big deal today?" "YOU are the big deal! Sitting there like a queen, cleaning your fur, acting like you are better than me! What's YOUR problem huh Bubbles??" Bubbles didn't even know what to say to this so she swatted Jasper in the face for the first time in their lives. "'Sitting like a queen indeed!' You can take your stupid letters and go play by yourself in the litter box for all I care! I'm finished here!" She went to run out of the room past Jasper but he was as fast as she was and, with outstretched claws, lunged at her neck as she went by. It was a flurry of fur and claws. Hissing and fitts filled the house as the tumbling fight made it's way down the hall, down the stairs, and into the living room. Jasper had the upperpaw for most of the fight but he came on fast and strong and was starting to wear out. Bubbles wasn't as strong but the old girl had some fight left in her and she was going to see it out until the end.

Suddenly, and they both heard it, there was a car in the driveway. Jasper lept to his feet and up to the bedroom yelling "STALL STALL STALL!!" all the way up. Bubble's didn't have time to fix her mangled fur but planted herself right in the doorway. As soon as the door opened up and the humans walked in there she was, purring and rubbing against the legs of both humans trying to get bast this furry blockade. "Meow? Meow? Meow?" she called up to them, "please think I'm hungry and go into the kitchen with me!" she thought. It worked, "ok sweetie, let's get you some food! Where's Jasper, is he hungry too? Jasper!! Come here my sweet little boy!!" The humans called as they followed Bubbles to the kitchen. Suddenly Jasper showed up at the door of the kitchen too and Bubbles knew that he had, at the very least, shoved everything under the bed until it could be put away more completely. After filling their food bowls the humans went up to change into the pajamas that the cats so loved to snuggle up to them in. Just as Jasper and Bubbles were about to claim their spots on the couch they heard from the bedroom, "What is this Scrabble tile doing in my slipper??" They looked at each other and laughed a laugh that only a kitty could understand. All was forgiven because the joke was on the humans.

THE END

My year in review....

You may be saying to yourself, Taylor, it's not the new year yet, how could you possibly do a year in review?? Well my uninformed friend, yesterday marked my one year anniversary since I packed up 2 suitcases and moved to Colorado. What a year it's been! I can't believe how fast it went. In this time I've had 4 jobs (one temporary, 2 part time, one full time), bought a car, moved twice (within Boulder and then to Westminster), had countless visitors come to see me, and have totally lived up my fair share of free tickets to events through my work.

I've kept all my ticket stubs in my checkbook since I've moved here... I've taken them out today to start over, let's see how many I've accumulated!

Colorado Rapids (soccer)- 5
Colorado Avalanche (hockey)- 10
Denver Nuggets (basketball)- 13
Colorado Rockies (baseball)- 10
Colorado Mammoth (lacrosse)- 1
Concerts and shows - 10 + both days of the Mile High Music Festival
Avenue Q
John Mellencamp
Eddie Izzard
Blues Traveler/Live/Collective Soul
Sheryl Crow
The Peking Acrobats
Bon Jovi
Billy Joel
Van Halen
The Nutcracker

If you're adding all this up, that equals 51 days of events! That's one for every week I've been here... well minus one, unless you include the Av's game I'm going to tonight! Yay! I think that's pretty impressive especially if you consider that all of the Nuggets, Av's, Rapids and Mammoth games were FREE!!

Anyway... everyone at work is at the LDI convention in Las Vegas except me, the shop guys, and the ladies in accounting. LAME! This morning and early afternoon have been pretty crazy for us but I don't mind. What I hate is the fact that I was invited to go in March and then I was told that I wasn't going! What a bunch of shit. Pair that with evyerthing else that's been going on here lately and if I didn't know better......

Hey everyone look!! We got grapefruits at work today!! Thanks Uncle Stan for getting us fruits that are completely impractical to eat at your desk... or anywhere that doesn't have extensive knifeware for that matter!! See our office gets a new fruit every Wednesday during the month of October. Peaches, Pears, bannanas, now grapefruits... we were doing ok until now. What's next week Uncle Stan... whole pineapples??!? Honestly...

.

My first Cheers and Jeers!!! (here)

I think it's finally time for some CHEERS AND JEERS!!!
For those of you new to Taylor's world of blogging allow me to bring you up to speed... every week or so I make a list of recent cheers and jeers, often crowning a cheers of the week and jeers of the week, followed with runners up.

Now... on with the show!

WINNERS!
Cheers of the week goes to.... BEN! Without Ben there is no way my party would have come together the way it did. From decorating to running to WalMart to just helping with... everything!! I appreciate it SO much!!

Jeers of the week goes to... THE PEOPLE WHO SAID THEY WERE COMING AND DIDN'T COME!! I was really disappointed in the people who backed out at the last second including the one I talked to just a few hours before the party started and said they were coming... lame

RUNNERS UP!
Cheers to all who came to the party. I had a great time and it seemed like everyone else did too!
Cheers to my food... it was pretty rockin'
Jeers to my roommates for being complete ass wipes in general
Cheers to rainy weather that made me feel not guilty about coming home from work and crawling right into bed.
Jeers to the lady who set her dog on fire after tieing him up... there is no excuse or explaination for that type of cruelty.
Jeers to the BoSox for losing it last night.
Cheers and Jeers to whoever brought Krispy Kremes to work this morning. It tasted great, but made me feel mucho guilty.
Cheers to seeing my family in just a little over a month.
Jeers to being too poor to see them more often.

Well, that's this week's version. Look for me next week, same bat time, same bat place!

mmmmwha!

I throw one hell of a party

So last night was my awesome Halloween party. Despite the fact that SEVERAL people who said they were going to come (not "oh I might show up" a full on "yeah I'll be there") didn't, those who were there had a good time. There was a brief moment pre-party when I started acting crazy like my mother throwing a party, but I stopped it, thank god because that's one part of my mother I don't need to inherit. She gets so stressed out about her party that she can't calm down and actually enjoy the party once it starts.

I had all the food/cooking finished before noon and then just had everything else to do, including carving my jacko-kitty

I of course got all sorts of cool lighting equipment to make my house look awesome.

I also had a strobe and blacklight in the landing between the first floor and the basement. I also had a smoke machine which first tripped the breaker and then set off all the smoke alarms in the house despite having taken the batteries out of them....

My house looked so awesome, even from the outside, that we had kids coming to the door to look inside. Ben let some in to look around, but when a little girl came to my front door with a ZIPLOCK BAGGIE and said "trick or treat" I had to put the cabash on that shit. I told her the grownups were having a party, this is not trick or treat night. I'm sorry, but when I'm drinking beers, the last thing I want is little kids running around my house thinking they can get some free candy outta me.

We really did have a good time. Ben helped me set up all day (I don't know what I would have done if he wasn't there!!) Courtney and Matt were the first to arrive and then Steph came after she got off work. Susan and Keith finished out the group a little later. It wasn't a big party, but it was fun and I made some great food. The cupcakes were a HUGE hit and Courtney couldn't stop eating the pretzle hershey kiss things I made! (I finished them off this morning for breakfast). Thanks to everyone for coming and having a good time.

Costume breakdown (becuase, duh, it's a Halloween party!)
I was an 80's glam cat complete with fingerless gloves, leg warmers, and ginormous hair.
Ben was the ice cream man that you wouldn't let your kids get ice cream from!
Courtney and Matt were Peter and Louis Griffin from Family Guy
Steph was... someone who just got off work from the post office
Susan and Keith were a 1920's Flapper/Gangster couple (very hot)

Well, here are some more pictures, but I need to get ready to head to the bar to watch game 7 of the Red Sox/Tampa Bay series since TBS doesn't come in with bunny ears. Until next time... GO SOX!!!

SPIDER CAT, SPIDER CAT.....

Just because I hate my roommates doesn't mean we can't be friends....

RIGHT???

My roommates, as I said in a previous post, threw a kegger on Friday night. Here is what the house still looks like as of 8pm Sunday night...

KITCHEN

KITCHEN PT. 2

BASEMENT

CLOSE UP OF THE BOTTOM OF THE TABLE... I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS AROUND THE LEGS!!!

OTHER SIDE OF THE BASEMENT

Be glad you can't smell it. I just don't understand how they can just let it sit like this all weekend!! I might be able to understand if they had to work all weekend maybe. It's just ridiculous! I asked D to turn down his music/movie/video game (whatever it was) last night around 7 because I was watching a movie in my room and the bass from his room was so loud and it was driving me nuts!! He was like, "come on, it's only 7:00." I told him that I was watching a movie and the bass from his room was really annoying. He might have turned it down, but it didn't seem like it.

If my place still looks like this he's not getting utilities from me this month. I'm having a party on Saturday and if I have to clean up after them just to have my part, you can bet there's going to be hell to pay. Fuck them.

You know what that sound is??

It's your future... and it's empty....

That's how I feel today, well, I guess it's leftover from yesterday. While I sit in my bedroom listening to my roommates play Halo as loud as possible, I am reminded that my life, as it stands now, is completely and utterly pathetic. Not only am I not going anywhere (figuratively speaking) I'm not respected by anyone. Not anyone. Not my boss, not my coworkers, not my friends or family. I am a receptionist. I spent thousands of dollars and 5 years of my life to earn 2 degrees for what? To answer phones and sell people lamps and gel in a warehouse office. Lame lame lame lame lame. The only enviable part of my life is that I get free tickets to major sporting events through work. Yeah, but is it worth it? Is my life so awful that I have to supplement it by going to as many free events as possible?? Yup, sure is.

I'm so frustrated lately with the people around me. Here's a list of things I wish, based off of my recent bad experiences with the human race:
I wish:
~people would take responsibility for their mistakes
~those same people would take moves to correct the mistakes
~managers would talk to their employees about issues, not to other people. This isn't fucking high school
~people would clean up after themselves, ask when they want to use other people's things, and put them back where they got them.
~that people would RESPECT other people's point of view not belittle or corner them because of it.
~people were seen for the ass kissing liars they are.

If you are reading this, you probably don't have anything to do with any of these. Most of this refers to work or roommates.

My roommates threw a kegger last night and trust me when I say I didn't want to have anything to do with that. I stayed at Steph's and we drank some wine, watched a movie and just chilled out. I was in heaven in a quite house with a comfy bed to sleep in, knowing I wasn't going to have to deal with roommates or loud music or any of the other bull shit that comes with going home. Thanks Steph!! You're a lifesaver.

I DID get to go to the Av's home opener on Thursday night. It was awesome!! Even though they lost it was still a great game. We really thought it was going to go into overtime but alas it did not and we went home losers. I bought an awesome jersey that was on sale and I wore it all night! Maybe I'll have the chance to get some players to sign it this season or something.

I went to JoAnn Fabrics today to try and find some shit to make my Halloween costume. I guess I don't know what I want to be yet. I pretty much just wondered around for an hour and a half. I bought a few patterns I liked (they were on sale for .99!) so I have some options. I did buy some yarn to knit a new scarf. I like knitting, it'll keep my busy when the weather is shitty, like it is this weekend.

Being broke sucks.
Hating your job sucks.
Feeling stuck sucks.
My roommates suck.


PS- I'm having a Halloween party next Saturday night so if you are around, come on over!

And another one bites the dust hey hey...

So that's 9 employees that have quit OS in the 9 months I've been there. Averaging one a month, way to go! Shouldn't someone, somewhere, in upper-management land be asking some questions?? Like, why are people who have been there for 20+ years leaving all of a sudden?? Why does a company of just 18 employees turn over completely in just over a year? I know that answer!!! Geez, seriously, why isn't anyone curious or puzzled by why we keep bringing in new employees but our business isn't growing?? Who knows, Maybe that person quit too....

Riddle me this... my computer automatically spell checks everything I type no matter where I type it which is pretty cool. However, when I write in this blog it suddenly doesn't understand contractions... If I'm in a word document or an email, it doesn't yell about contractions at all... strange things are happening.

So it's official... well, several things:

~The RED SOX are going to the division finals~

~I'm registered to vote in Colorado~

~I have a COLORADO license now! (my first one outside of PA)~

~Free pitchers of beer aren't always the blessing they seem~

~Mashed potatoes from the KFC are always good, no matter what~

Hockey season officially starts this week!! Horray!! I'm pretty sure I'm going to get to go to the Av's opener but it's not official yet. Pre-season basketball starts this week so I'm pretty amped at seeing Rocky (the Nugget's mascot) back for more fun filled antics! Oh yeah, and the basketball game or whatever...


I was talking to my mom and dad tonight and was bitching about my job. I think mom finally gets it that it's not just me that hates it there once I told her my boss just quit. Mom says "why don't you just quit?" Don't get me wrong, I love my mom to death, but she doesn't quite understand what it's like now a days only making 18k a year... It doesn't seem to go very far after rent, car, gas, groceries... you know, the things you need on a daily basis. I told her that wouldn't be a very smart idea, she agreed but encouraged me to keep looking... don't worry Ma, I'm looking every single day... every fucking day. It's like a bad habit.

Hey, maybe now that I'm back to blogging I'll bring back weekly cheers and jeers... that'll be fun!! Maybe next time... I'm due for some much needed sleep!

Until next time my friends...

Groceries and Toilet paper rolls

Ahhh... Groceries. There are few things in life that are as sweet as looking in your cabinets and having OPTIONS!!! Before today my choices looked something like: should I eat rice, instant potatoes, mac and cheese, top roman, or... a can of gravy. Now, thanks to my monthly cash bonus, I have groceries! For the next week I'll have my pick of different types of hot pockes, lean cuisines, stew (which is in the crockpot right now!), or any other many exciting things that now grace my kitchen. The only thing I don't like about grocery shopping is "the stalker". You know who it is, it might even be you. There you are, minding your own business in the cereal isle, and somone stops right next to you like they want the exact same cearel you do. You exchange side glances, maybe even the "what's up" head nod and one of you moves on. Before you know it, that same person is right next to you while your deciding what type of pasta sauce you want. Now it's just weird. By the time you get to the frozen section this guy is my arch rival. There's no way I'm moving my cart so he can get into the glass door next to me. Now it's a race to the register, who can get out first?? Luckily I am a checkout PRO! The ladies at the register love me. I put all my fresh stuff together, meat together, frozen together, boxes and cans together. This allows me to win every time. What is up with that guy???

On a random note, last weekend I went camping. I left on Thursday and came back Sunday evening. It was lovely and wonderful and fun, but when I came home the toilet paper holder in my bathroom was gone. I looked all over thinking that my roommate dropped it and was to lazy to pick it up (trust me, not a stretch). Maybe he trew it away with the last empty roll... nope, not in the trash... hmmmm..... So I don't see my roommate often, so today I finally see him and I ask him, dude, where's the toilet paper holder?? His response: Oh, It's in my car. YOUR CAR?? WTF?? I didn't even want to ask why it was in his car.

I hate my roommates...just in case I didn't mention it here before....

Go Rapids!! Oh... wait...

After a napfilled day (as predicted in my earlier post) Ben and I headed out to the Rapids game. It was a nice chilly fall night... too bad the Rapids didn't show up to play!! Houston got a goal in the first 2 minutes of the game! Of course we came back and had a goal shortly after that, but not to be outdone, before 10 minutes of the game had gone by we were down 1-2. The game ended 1-3... lame.

Saturday Night Live starts in a few minutes, and I swear If they only bust on McCain again I'm going to be pissed. They always say they make fun of everyone equally, but I beg to differ. I don't mind if it's equal, but come on.

I guess that's just to show you our liberal out of wack media...

Back to blogging...

So Amy has a blog now outside of Myspace. I had a xanga back in the day, then she got one which we both stopped using. Then Amy started blogging on myspace, but I didn't like doing that so I didn't. Well now she got a real blog so now I need to jump on this bandwagon... I mean really, Amy is so cool, how could I NOT copy her every move?? I love you, please don't hurt me...

I'm kinda hung over today, about to take a nap actually. Steph and I went to the last pre-season Av's game last night. They lost a horrible loss to the Blackhawks 3-7 but it was fun and there were 2 really good fights. Let's face it, the only reason anyone watches hockey is for the fights. After the game Steph had to go home because she had to work in the morning, but I, being the night owl that I am, and being that it was only 9:30pm went to Old Chicago's for some beers. I had a good time hanging out with the other Old C crew who I am getting to know since I tend to frequent the Grant St. location pretty often. Had 3 beers, watched the end of the BoSox game and then went to head home. Let me tell ya, those 3 beers must have been magic becuase I NEVER feel drunk after just 3 beers but let me just say I probably shouldn't have driven home last night. Oh well, noone got hurt (except my liver) and all is well.

Got up and went to the bike aution this morning with Ben. It was pretty fun and Ben bought 2 bikes. I wanted this cool black and pink bike with flames but it sold for over $200.... I can't even pay my bills, and a $200 bike wasn't going to fix that so off it went to someone else.

Alright, well here's to keeping the blog spirit going! Chao!