a must giveaway to share

Sticking with the sleep is my favorite thing in the world (yes, I'm selfish and it does top world peace), I feel the need to share a link to a contest from Mom Start.  It's a chance to win one Select Sleep Number Comfort Bed from Select Comfort.

I mean, you could win this...

Need I say more?  Go enter here.

I'm very skilled at saying the wrong thing...

Another week's writing workshop from Mama Kat.  This week I chose to go with Prompt 5.) Describe a moment when you put your foot in your mouth.

There really are so many options for me to choose from in my life.  I have a tendency to simply say whatever pops into my head at any given moment.  The lovely censor that most of us possess, the one that says, "Uh...wait, you really don't want to call your friend a filthy bastard" tends to sporadically disappear within the confines of my brain, leaving me to say whatever I want.  Sometimes it's good, but usually it's just an UH-OH.

It's mostly prevelant when I'm upset about something.  Of course, I think that's when most of us are at our most vulnerable when it comes to what we say.  There's a reason the saying "walk away before (I) say something (I) regret" exists.

I was no different the day this story occurred.  Luckily, it happened with friends who know me, which makes it a bit easier if not a tad more humiliating (as years later it still comes up in conversation).

I used to be a supervisor in a bank.  Despite all of the issues I had with the place, I left with some great friends.  One of my friends, Jason, was this really cool, adorable African American dude working to support his girllfriend and baby-on-the-way.   I added the race information because it comes into play, not because I walked around like the guy from the Office saying horrible things like, "This is my black friend, Jason." 

Jason and I often had long discussions while he was working in drive-thru and I was doing my supervisory stuff in my "office" near drive-thru.  We hung out outside of work, my mom often cooked him dinner (where he was such a suck up, always complimenting her and encouraging her to make her strange concoctions, which she tried to pass off as stew), and I have never had any ill-will towards Jay.  I wish all guys bould be like him for he is awesome.

And that's actually how this foot-in-the-mouth moment came.  I was having major issues with my boyfriend of the time, who had decided the best answer to his cheating on me was for us to get married.  I'm not sure how he made that leap, but I've decided to blame it on his Republicanism (sorry to any sane Republicans left out there).  I was explaining the latest conversation I had with the boyfriend the night before to Jay because he was so sweet and great with his girlfriend and surely knew what was wrong with this lunatic I dated (outside insane as an answer).  By the end of the conversation, which was mostly me talking to him about how evil the boyfriend was rather than an actual back-and-forth conversation, I was so worked up (as I am prone to do as a true drama queen) that I threw my hands up in the air and said very loudly, "I hate your race!" 

Jay looked at me with a bemused look.  For a second, I was like, "All men stick together..." inner voice drifting away as realization hit and replaced everything with "OhmygodwhatdidIjustsay!"

I turned bright red, reached for his hand and started repeating over and over, "Gender.  Gender!   I meant gender!" 

Jay and another co-worker started to laugh hysterically because I was so appalled with myself.  Continuing in my drama-queen-fashion, I managed to spend the rest of the day bemoaning my own idiocy and becoming that white girl who is like, "I'm not racist, I totally know black people and stuff" and that's never good.

Fun times.  Sadly, for a foot-in-the-mouth moment, it does make me smile.  Not about my inner Rush Limbaugh fighting to escape (EW!), but how well Jay knew me and how he totally didn't blink an eye.  We're not as close as we once were seeing as life happens, his baby was born and we all moved onto other places, but I have these great memories of our friendship and the random laughter (usually at my expense) that ensued.

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 378

http://subliminal.lunanina.com/

Week 378

1. Hell ::
heaven
2. Scott ::
  my brother
3. Dominion ::
one day I will rule the land
4. Stunt ::
  I fall all the time (but not on purpose or for money)
5. Cougar ::
  what's wrong with liking younger guys?
6. Columbia ::
  Good college
7. Gasp ::
  overused in books
8. Cancerous ::
 cigarettes
9. Bitty ::
  BOM
10. Quit ::
  I wish I knew how to quit you.

who doesn't want happy sleeping time - giveaway link

I'm the first to own that i'm a crazy giveaway entering fool.  Maybe it's because I'm so poor at the moment that as a girl who loves shopping this is the next best thing.  That said, I usually don't blog about most of them because it's not really what I want this journal to be about.  So I keep the ones to a minimum, to the ones that I think are super-dooper cool for beyond twitter and such.  (Aka:  warning my lovely twitter people- intermixed with my random thoughts are often giveaway tweets!)

Today is one of those giveaways I want to share because it's one that I think anyone could enjoy.




One2Try is running a giveaway to win a True Silver Mattress Pad by Select Comfort.

Go check it out and sign up.  I can't speak for the rest of you, but sleep is my favorite thing.  And that means I love great bed products. 

Good luck!  But not too much luck, I still want a fighting chance!

words

we heart it

Unconscious Mutterings Week # 377

http://subliminal.lunanina.com/

Week # 377

1. Drug ::
pain
2. Questions ::
answers
3. Active ::
must work out tonight
4. Facts ::
science
5. Amount ::
portion
6. Supervise ::
authority
7. Ingredients ::
recipe
8. Dentist ::
ouch
9. Meal ::
calories
10. Packaging ::
sending mail

an important cause...

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition

Be sure to take a minute and go sign Jamie Oliver's petition to improve the food provided to children within schools.  I'm not a parent, personally, but I can't imagine anyone who thinks it's okay for their children to have pizza for breakfast and to have french fries considered a "vegetable" by the federal standards.

As someone who spent a large portion of her life struggling with her own weight and learning to eat healthy (It's still something I'm working on), I know how important it is to get ingrained with proper eating ideas early on and just how hard it is to work your own way through it.  And I say this as someone who grew up without the types of lunches that seem to run abundant in schools nowadays.  I definitely suggest tuning into an episode of the show - it's eye-opening - but at least, take a minute and make your voice heard.

life is a learning experience...

My response to this week's writer's workshop at Sleep is for the Weak.  I chose prompt # 3:  What new skill would you love to learn, or have you learnt something new recently that you can share with us?

I think about this sort of thing a lot lately.  It was a big thing right after the movie, The Bucket List, came out - accomplishing all those things we put off, but really want to do.  I created a life list.  But it fell into the background like things tend to do when I'm busy, crazy, and lazy.  A strange combination, but a perpetual state for me at times. 

And then my mother passed away unexpectedly last year.  She was awake at night, talking to me about random stuff, and the next morning she was dead.  No warning, no nothing.  And part of my whole grieving process has been a sadness for her because I know she didn't accomplish all that she wanted.  Logically, I know that most of us will never accomplish everything we want.  We aren't granted the infinite amount of time to conquer the dreams our minds can think up.  But we can do some of it.  We can make ourselves happy and try new things and live each day like it's the last.

Over the past six months, my life list has come back to forefront of things.  I've started being more open and more courageous and mostly, more willing to fail.  It's part of why I never did number eight on my life list - learn the guitar - because I was afraid I'd be so bad.  It's funny this prompt appears now when I'm in the midst of what I've been calling my "year of me." A time to focus on myself and not feel bad about it, a time to learn who I am and who I want to be and the journey to get from here to there.  The chance to start learning all those things I've always put off for another day.

One thing I still want to learn:  I have not conquered number eight - learn the guitar yet.  I really do want to learn how to play.

One thing I've learned recently that I can share:  there are no guarantees in life and we only get one chance at this thing - might as well be happy while we're at it.

a letter to a reality star who will likely never see this...

My response to this week's Mama Kat's writing prompts.  I went with prompt # 2: Write a letter to a reality star of your choice.  This was quite an easy choice for me.  I thought it would be harder as I do love quite a few reality shows (guilty pleasure out the wazoo!), but I decided to go with the first person who popped into my head.  And I'm glad that I did.



**

Dear Tori Spelling:


I have to admit that I prejudged you and hated you solely based on the character of Donna Martin from 90210 for a very long time. Don’t get me wrong. I watched and chanted “Donna Martin graduates!” right along with the rest of my obsessed teenage friends, but I really hated your character and was unable to distinguish you from Donna. I wish I could tell you that I’ve grown up a lot since then, no longer a teenager who can’t see past the role, but between you and me, the only reason I like Rob Pattison is because he’s Edward Cullen. It’s like the opposite of how I felt about you, except now I’m in my thirties and I just seem demented.

I’ll also admit to being one of the people who thought you only got the role (and subsequent Lifetime movie roles that either annoyed me or made me laugh) because your father was Aaron Spelling. I figured it was so easy for you and couldn’t care less when Donna Martin, and you in a way, finally went away from my television screen. I felt, irrationally, that you deserved it. I also felt, less irrationally, that I was quite sick of 90210 after a billion seasons and it was time for it to go away. There is only so long I can pretend to care about Dylan McKay’s sideburns.

I say all of this to apologize because I think you are awesome and if it weren’t for your reality show with your husband, I would never have known this. I’ve read both your books. I love Stori Telling because it just felt like a conversation you were having with the reader. I enjoyed Mommywood, even though I’m not a mother and have no interest in such mother-type things. And, of course, I watch your show whenever it’s on, whether I’ve already seen it or not, to a point where my friends who have known me a long time say things like, “I thought you hated her?” I have to go into this lengthy explanation of how I was wrong and who knew such a thing was even possible??? While I know the books and the show only represent a portion of who you are, I think it does prove that you are a very cool lady. You’re snarky, don’t take yourself too seriously, love shopping, and just keep trying to be who you are despite how everyone judges you. In fact, you and your friends remind me of me and my friends when we get together. It’s just a different backdrop and sadly, I can’t afford the very awesome purses and shoes that you get.

Anyway, this was sort of an apology-slash-you’re-awesome letter. And I’m sorry your mother is buckets of crazy. If it’s any consolation, I think all parents are buckets of crazy to some extent. I mean, my mother was obsessed with reading cookbooks but never cooking, and while I was little when my dad died, he was overly into sports to the point that he would scream at the television when *golf* was on. I mean, really, golf?

Your fan,

Mare

P.S. – How crazy is Shannen Doherty for real? Your book spoke a little bit to what she was like in the 90210 days, but I’d hate to misjudge her too as crazykakes unnecessarily. Honestly, I just want the dirt.

Book Review: Eating Animals

This book works for double whammy for both the Read Your Name Challenge (M-A-R-E) and the Non-Fiction Five (Book 2/5)...

Title:  Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer 

Summary:  Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between carnivore and vegetarian. As he became a husband and a father, he kept returning to two questions: Why do we eat animals? And would we eat them if we knew how they got on our dinner plates?

Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, and his own undercover detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales justify a brutal ignorance. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, huge bestsellers, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told--and the stories we now need to tell.

My Review:  I read this book, coming off having seen the movie, Food, Inc, searching out more information on what is really going on with the current meat industry. I heard Jonathan Safran Foer on NPR talking about this and decided to give it a go.I think this is a must read for everyone. The author makes no attempts to turn people into vegetarians/vegans and he spends a huge portion of time getting accounts from many different perspectives, including small farm owners. The reason it's a must read is that he shares a lot of information that most of us don't know - or don't care to know - about what goes on with the animals we eat. It's not that we eat animals, though he is admittedly a vegetarian, but the way they are treated in factory farms and the way it effects our environment (it causes a lot more pollution than cars on the roads).

There were quite a few unpleasant moments in the book, but I think they are necessary. And I have to say that this book has made me rethink my own way of viewing meat - not only slowly cutting meat out of my diet, but becoming an advocate for alternative ways to provide meat for people that don't involve horrible suffering for the animals.

While I truly recommend this book, I must warn that it has gruesome bits, especially for animal lovers.

Overall: 5 stars

a cool contest from Broken Teepee

Cool giveway going on over at Broken Teepee.   It's a $100.00 gift certificate to ATGStores.com, which I'll admit that I had never heard of before reading this entry at BT.  But isn't that one of of the great things of the internet?  discovery of new wonderful shops and toys.

Spring giveaway from MisfitSalon...

 

Great site with great book reviews.  I'm not sure it's a surprise that I'm a huge bibliophile and follow many book blogs, always on the look out for new reads to add to my book collection.  I want to have one of those old movie huge libraries one day.

Also, be sure to check out MisfitSalon's current giveaway to celebrate spring. Free books, my friends. Free books and fun reviews.

Unconscious Mutterings - Week # 375

http://subliminal.lunanina.com/

1. Philanthropy ::
  something I need to do more of
2. Said ::
  used with dialogue
3. Blanks ::
I often draw blanks when trying to remember things
4. Tapas ::
  just a fun word
5. Orgasm ::
  ecstasy
6. Movement ::
activism
7. Detention ::
  bad, bad, bad
8. Restaurant ::
prefer to-go to avoid people
9. Weird ::
  me
10. Sniffle ::
  stupid sinuses

Book Review: Game Change

I had signed up for the Non-Fiction Five challenge a little while ago and it seems to be serendipity because most of the books that have come in from the library in the past few weeks have been nonfiction books.  Let's start with book one, a hot book of the year that goes behind the 2008 Presidential Race.  Yes, that book.

Title: Game Change by John Heilemann & Mark Halperin

Summary:  In 2008, the presidential election became blockbuster entertainment. Everyone was watching as the race for the White House unfolded like something from the realm of fiction. The meteoric rise and historic triumph of Barack Obama. The shocking fall of the House of Clinton—and the improbable resurrection of Hillary as Obama's partner and America's face to the world. The mercurial performance of John McCain and the mesmerizing emergence of Sarah Palin. But despite the wall-to-wall media coverage of this spellbinding drama, remarkably little of the real story behind the headlines has yet been told.

In Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, two of the country's leading political reporters, use their unrivaled access to pull back the curtain on the Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Palin campaigns. How did Obama convince himself that, despite the thinness of his résumé, he could somehow beat the odds to become the nation's first African American president? How did the tumultuous relationship between the Clintons shape—and warp—Hillary's supposedly unstoppable bid? What was behind her husband's furious outbursts and devastating political miscalculations? Why did McCain make the novice governor of Alaska his running mate? And was Palin merely painfully out of her depth—or troubled in more serious ways?

My Review:  I am an admitted political nerd/junkie, so I know that probably affects my outlook on this book. But I loved it. It's like a mix of Gossip Girl meets the 2008 Presidential Election and I found the whole thing fascinating. And after reading it, I think it's a great book that could appeal to anyone, just for the sheer humanness of the whole thing. The psychology going on with the candidates and their messages.

It's broken up into three parts. Part one was the democratic primary, the largest section of the book, which is no real surprise as the the whole primary season was so different than anything my generation had ever witnessed. Part two is the Republican primary, which is the shortest section of the book, because aside from John McCain's "surprise comeback" there wasn't much to the Republican primary. The final section was the general election and focused a lot on Sarah Palin being chosen and how not only the Obama campaign would have to deal with it, but how the McCain camp would have to "handle" her.

Highly entertaining at parts. Highly enlightening...and mostly, for the most part, Each of those portrayed was exactly how I felt they came across in public.

Overall:  5 stars