Kids These Days

Tonight we went to a community theater production of "Forever Plaid". I had never seen it before....didn't even know what it was about. Hubby and I had a good time...the show was cute. Not great - it was Community Theater after all - but it was fun. We brought our own wine and popcorn, saw some old friends, and enjoyed the show and the music. There was, however, one thing I did not like. Someone brought their toddler. Why do people do that? Why do they think it's okay to bring an 18 month old to an adult production and keep them up until at least 10:00? And why do they think everyone else in the theater wants to hear their child babbling away during the most sentimental scene in the show? The little girl was actually pretty well-behaved. She didn't cry, scream or run around. But she obviously had no interest in the show, and her parents spent the whole night appeasing her, feeding her, walking her, and doing whatever was humanly possible to keep her quiet. Do they think she's just so darn cute that no one else will mind? Well.......I did. And I paid for my ticket to be there. I'm sure there were other young couples there who had paid a babysitter so they could go out for an adult evening, and instead they had to listen to someone else's child. ugh! We had a Dad come into our office today with his little boy who was about 3. Dad was getting some maps and tourbooks and the little boy wanted something too, so my boss gave him a Disney brochure. Dad says, "say thank-you" and the little boy would not. Dad repeated it a few times and the little boy just ignored him. Finally, Dad said, "If you don't say thank-you, we will give the book back." I thought - Oh boy - Dad's setting himself up. To my surprise, he followed through. Dad took the book and gave it back, which of course made the little boy start screaming. Dad picked him up and carried him outside. Despite the fact that it made us uncomfortable, and I think it made my boss feel kind of bad that her nice gesture turned into a fiasco, I think Dad did the right thing. He made a threat, and he followed through. What was great was - a few minutes later the door opens and it's Dad and son. Dad says, "I think he had a change of heart" and the little boy said, "thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you". That must have been SOME discussion in the car! The little boy got his book........and a very good lesson from a very smart Dad.

Friday Fill-in

1. Please feel free to use your manners. 2. When I use my bread-maker to make home-made bread I can't help sniffing it occasionally. 3. My favorite thing to cook is crepes. 4. Time spent enjoying the outdoors with my hubby is something I can't get enough of. 5. That's the thing I love most about my family is our closeness. 6. Rude and ignorant people always makes me think to myself, what the heck? 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to working on a special secret Christmas project, tomorrow my plans include working in the morning and going to see a community theater presentation of "Forever Plaid", and Sunday, Hubby and I are taking our niece to the movies to see "Madagascar 2" (37% more penguins!) for her birthday. THINGS I'M GRATEFUL FOR TODAY: 1. Penguins! 2. That I finished my special secret Christmas project before the deadline. 3. That I'm safe and warm. 4. That it's time for bed....I'm tired! 5. That I dont' have to get up until 7:30 tomorrow morning.

How Can One Baby Be So Cute?

Yesterday was my babysitting day. Always a pleasure. Every week when I see Emily she is doing something new. This week she was just popping out with words all over the place. Every time I said something, she would repeat the last word of my sentence. "Emmy, are you sitting in that box?" She'd reply, "Box". She said Elmo, Big Bird, stairs, buttons, dish, up, down, duck, dog, etc. It was amazing that she figured out what words meant and could repeat them so quickly. She did keep me running back and forth yesterday. She loves to press the buttons on the tv. She knows to press the button to turn the TV on and then she presses a button for "touch focus" and the tv makes these red and blue and green lines going up and down the screen. She was fascinated by it. At one point I just let her go for it because, frankly, I was tired of getting up and re-directing her away from the TV. It was funny that she'd push the ON button, push the focus button, then just stand there and watch it like she was watching a show. Besides the buttons on the tv, her next favorite thing is climbing on the couch. I don't know of her mommy and daddy let her do that, but I don't.....mostly because I don't want her falling off and knocking out a tooth on my watch! So every time she'd start climbing, I'd be up and moving her away from the couch. She has endless energy....I don't! She did a couple of funny things yesterday. She actually played hide and seek with me with her rubber ducky. I'd very obviously hide it behind me and say "where's the duck?" and she'd go find it. At one point, I hid it under her blanket and she went over and whipped the blanket off to find the duck. Then she decided SHE would hide it, only she didn't really get that you had to put the duck UNDER the blanket. She just put it on top......but then laughed hysterically when she whipped the blanket up and there was the duck!! I was sitting on the floor at one point and she had her back to me. As she walked away from me, I'd grab her back and pull her in for some kisses until she was laughing. Then I'd put her down and she'd take a few steps and I'd snatch her back. I did that four or five times.....then I let her walk away without snatching her back. After six or seven steps she realized I was not going to grab her so she glanced behind her to see if I was still there. When she saw that I was.....she walked backwards toward me until she was close enough for me to grab her! It's such a pleasure to play with her. She's 15 months old and everything is new and exciting and fun. Sometimes I just look at her with a funny face and she cracks up laughing. Too bad you can't do that with adults without them thinking you're weird!

I'm Complaining

I do this every year and it does absolutely no good. I complain because Christmas starts too early. You all know how it works.....the decorations and things in the stores BEFORE Halloween, the advertising on the TV at the same time. Of course everyone knows why the retailers do it. It's a fact that the earlier people start spending money, the more they spend. It makes sense. You start early and get all your shopping "done". Then you see that one cool thing for somebody. Even though you already bought them a gift, you can't resist buying them this item. And then if you bought that one something extra, you really should get something extra for the others.........and on and on it goes. The other problem in my area is the traffic. Yesterday was Veteran's Day and the schools were off. Some companies were out of work, others weren't. But the stores were packed with people trying to get a head-start on their Christmas shopping. And it'll just get worse and worse from here. I feel bad for the lonely Thanksgiving holiday. A lot of people forget about it. But I think it's the best holiday. No rushing around buying presents, no craziness with the kids. Just a nice holiday to be with your family and eat a nice meal. I sincerely hope it stays just the way it is. I nice quiet holiday. I never want to see it get all hyped up like Christmas has become. My five things to be thankful for today: 1. I am thankful for Thanksgiving! 2. I am thankful that I have family close by so we can all be together for Thanksgiving. 3. I am thankful that I had yesterday off and was able to go visit my sister. 4. I am thankful that I get to babysit my grand-daughter today. 5. I am thankful that so far, everyone in my family still has jobs and are able to survive in the difficult economy.

Update

So I wrote an email to the company that was selling the item on Ebay:

I received your email stating I have won my auction on Ebay for item #260309742884. I read in your instructions that items can only be shipped to the billing address on my credit card. I've had a problem in the past having packages shipped to my house. I live in a locked condo, and if no one is home UPS or other shippers cannot leave the package on the doorstep. I have been having my packages shipped to my husband's work address so someone will be there to receive it. The only way I can have packages sent to the house is through regular USPS mail because we have big locked mail boxes where they can leave it. Please advise if you ship it UPS or USPS. If it's UPS or other similar shipping company it will have to be sent via my husband's work address.

The answer I got:

Thank you for contacting us. The item will be shipped by FedEx. When using a credit card to pay for the item we will only ship to the credit cards billing address due to fraud. If you have a paypal account you can add your husbands work address to this account and then we can send it there. If you do not and would like it send to your husbands work address you will need to select one of the other payment methods. Postal money order walmart money order, Western union wire, bank to bank transfer. We are not held by the credit cards rules when paying with one of these alternate methods and we can ship the item any where you would like it sent. If you have any questions on this please let me know.

So I decided to go the Paypal route. I had to go in and add my husband's work address as a "gift address" in order for them to be able to send it there. The only other problem I had was that they still had my previous name - from before I got married 2 1/2 years ago - and there was no way I could change it. Supposedly, the name on the card has to match the card number. But Paypal accepted the payment so we'll see what happens.

Things I am thankful for today:

1. That an extra cup of tea got rid of my headache this morning.

2. That I was really busy at work and the time flew by.

3. That the only mistake I made at work today was not my fault.

4. That I got to visit my brother and his family yesterday.

5. That tomorrow is Veteran's Day and we have the day off. (even though I don't get paid for it......which doesn't sound very thankful....sorry!)

Here we go again

After touting the joys of internet shopping, I may have hit a snag. If you read my blog about UPS you'll know that I went through hell with them trying to get a part delivered for our computer. As a result, I decided to have everything I ordered online sent to Hubby's work so there would be someone there to receive it.

Today I bid on an item on Ebay and won the auction. The item is a Christmas gift for a family member. Once again, I figured I would have it delivered to Hubby's workplace. But when I read the instructions, the vendor had written that the shipping address had to match the billing address of the credit card used! Or, if I used Paypal, it could only be shipped to the address on the Paypal account. DAMN!!

I sent an email to the vendor, explaining the situation and asking if they could make an exception and send it to a different address. I'm hoping I'll get a response tomorrow. If they won't, my only recourse might be to send a bank check via snail mail and wait for it to be cashed, then they'll send me my item. It will take a lot longer, but I'm not in any rush. Christmas is still a few weeks away!

But all this "red tape" made me think of how easy things used to be. If you needed something, you walked over to the General Store and got it. If you couldn't pay for it right away they would put it on your tab. No need to show ID, or have your check approved, or have your credit card denied.

I noticed the same thing when I went to the RMV the other day. Hubby's car somehow lost its license plate so I had to go get a new one. I had the little form all filled out and my $4 for a new plate ready. I thought it would be a simple thing to order it. As it turns out, I spent about 15 minutes at the counter while the woman did things on her computer, then she had to issue me a new registration with new little stickers since all the numbers had to match and she had to give me a cardboard temporary plate as well as a temporary registration for THAT so I'd have something on the car until the new plate was mailed to me! Crazy, huh? I'm sure the people who drove those first Model-T's had no license, no registration, no fees, no excise tax, etc. They just got in and drove. Life was so simple then.

Now when I look out at the traffic congesting my streets, and think about the horrible economy we live in because so many people over-extended themselves with mortgages and credit, I wonder what it would have been like back then. Probably physically more difficult, but I bet those people lived with a lot less stress.

**** It cracks me up that Hubby noticed that the picture I used of the old car DOES have a license plate attached to the front of it!! I guess I didn't pick a car that was old enough. According to my research the first license plates were issued @1903. Massachusetts (of course) was the first to issue "state license plates". **************

Open Mic

Hubby is a musician and loves to get up and sing and perform. I am quite the opposite....the opposite of a musician being ...uhm....I don't know what you'd call me but I'm definitely non-musical. But Hubby loves for me to get up and sing with him, so I've been going to open mics with him and singing....totally against my better judgement. In a couple of weeks we are going to be a "feature" at an open mic. The feature gets to sing for about a 1/2 hour instead of just being allowed the usual two songs that the regular open mic people get. That means we have to have about 6-8 songs prepared.

We've been practicing, but not enough for me. Hubby would be happy to get up there and "wing" it....but I can't do that. I have to practice over and over again because I don't have the natural ability to know when to come in with the next line of lyrics, etc.

Tonight we sang two of the songs we've been preparing for the feature. We did okay. We stumbled a bit through the second one, mostly because we had just finished actually writing it this afternoon!! If I can, I'll get Hubby to practice with me every night now until November 18. I need it.

Five things I'm thankful for today:

1. A hubby who wants me to sing with him even though I stink.

2. A hubby who willingly makes apple pies while I'm at work.

3. A hubby who left the kitchen nice and clean after he finished making his apple pies.

4. A hubby who is going through his coin collection to chose just the right coin to bring to my niece tomorrow because he knows it will make her happy. (he usually brings her a nice seashell or a pretty rock)

5. A hubby who willingly went grocery shopping with me this afternoon even though it's a Saturday and the traffice was intolerable. He also carried in all the heavy bags.