The other day I cried.  Why?

At 2:30am one day Premium (which is apparently necessary recommended for my CX-7) was $3.99/gal.

8.5 hours later at 11:00am, Premium at the very same gas station was listed at $4.03/gal.

2 days later, $4.05/gal.  When I saw this is when the tears started flowing.

I didn’t even check the price on my way home tonight, I’m so terrified of seeing another increase.

I’m not so sure if I’l be any of us will be able to take much more of this, and I sure as hell am regretting not buying a Prius.. it would have been so much better for my wallet the environment.

Technorati Tags: gas prices, gasoline, car, automobile, hybrid

Does everyone remember the Charlie Brown Christmas special? You know it… Charlie Brown was in charge of purchasing the Christmas tree, and he came home with this pathetic, piddly little thing.

Well, like the sad little Christmas tree that Charlie Brown brought back to the Peanuts gang, Blimpie salads are beyond disappointing. The grilled chicken salad was a sad little creation consisting of CONDIMENTS, a few very tiny and quite bland pieces of chicken and nothing else. NOTHING. I kid you not.

The description of the grilled chicken salad on the website reads:

Grilled and flavorful chicken pattie sliced into strips then served on a bed of fresh crisp lettuce.

Yeah… okay.

Here’s what we received:

Now what does that look like to you? Does it look like a salad, or does it look like condiments?… and ridiculously unappetizing looking condiments, for that matter. There was nothing “fresh” about it.

The salad is supposed to look like an actual salad and contain actual salad greens and not just shredded condiment lettuce, as per the Blimpie’s website and even the signage located within the store.

I don’t know if this was an error on the lone clerk’s part, if it’s just that particular location (in which case I would revoke their franchise license because of the disgusting interpretation of Blimpie recipes), or if there is such a discrepancy between the advertised salad and the actual recipe and guidelines provided by Kahala. Still, you would expect that you might not get something exactly as glorious and appetizing as what you see in an advertisement, you’d still expect a salad to be a SALAD and not a jumble of just whatever happens to be lying around.

Oh, and when I asked the clerk if I could have cucumbers in the salad, she said “No, we don’t have cucumbers.” Mmk.. kinda strange, but I guess that’s just not on the ingredients list. Whatever.

See, I was ordering this for my dad, and when I saw how gross the salad was, I didn’t think anything of it (well, I questioned his judgement regarding foodstuffs), because I assumed that he’d gotten it before. Apparently, the only reason why he ordered it at all was because he’d seen signs advertising the salad, so he decided to try it for the first time. Silly me, I figured he’d eaten this unappetizing concoction of not-so-fresh condiments before (because if he’d known the salad was so gross, why would he request it?), so I just went ahead and paid. You can be sure that he was beyond pissed to find that his order was damn near inedible. The only thing that cheered him up that day was that the Giants beat Green Bay for the chance at Super Bowl XLII. (Go Giants! WOOO!)

Alll of this leads me to believe that quite possibly it was just the clerk’s error, or that this particular location’s franchisee is a cheap [bleep] who doesn’t quite “get” the whole customer relationship thing. Kahala, if you’d like to know which location is degrading your reputation with these abominations that are intended to pass as salads, please don’t hesitate to contact me, and based on the feedback you provide, I’ll update my blog to note that this was an individual clerk/individual franchisee issue and not something that should reflect on the franchise as a whole. Otherwise, please provide an explanation, not to me, but to ALL your customers and potential customers, as to WHY the salad was served up that way.

So, in conclusion, I highly suggest that before ordering a salad at Blimpie, ask to see a sample salad, or visually confirm WHICH lettuce will be used.. then make your decision.

Technorati Tags: salad, gross food, Blimpie, subs, Kahala Corp

Yesterday when I was at the gym with my cousin (because I’m sticking to my New Year’s resolution of getting healthier and into better shape, DUH), we were having a little bit of trouble (being the non-gym-goers that we are) figuring out some of those circuit exercise machines.  Here’s the thing… the last time I actually worked out in the gym before 3 days ago was about 7 years ago when I was still in middle school.  I used to go  with my parents every once in a while, and one of them was usually on hand to tell me how to use a machine.  Oh, and 7 years ago, that particular gym we used to go to didn’t have the fancy circuit machines… it was more of a treadmills, free weights and mats-for-crunches type of place.  (read: not so much “Health Club” but a barebones “gym”)

Anywho, for some reason we were going about it as if we had our thumbs up our butts… but honestly I attribute that more towards our being slightly discomfited… a normal reaction in any situation where you’re unsure of what you’re doing.  Having witnessed our giggly, and obviously pained attempts at not looking like complete morons, this somewhat disheveled looking slightly-older-than-middle-aged man with a mullet haircut and a furry mustachioed face cut into our conversation to explain the machines to us and gripe that most of the personal trainers “don’t know their shit.”  He was obviously attempting to be friendly, and it was  nice of him to give us some pointers.  We thanked him and went about toning our muscles.  But he started talking, and when he finished, we thanked him again for his help.  Then he started talking again, and we thanked him again.  Then, while I was on some machine that works out your back muscles, he came over and started talking about the machine, and he then he touched  and rubbed a spot right in the middle of my back while explaining that if you squeeze right there when you’re bringing your arms back that you’ll really feel it.

Now, I could really care less about this guy being a chatterbox despite how many times the conversation sooo obviously was at an end… but… isn’t there some sort of gym etiquette against touching a stranger who’s not in any sort of danger of getting hurt if you’re not that person’s personal trainer and by whom you’ve so obviously already been dismissed?  Did that make sense at all?  I don’t know, it was just weird to me.  It’s not like I reacted like “WTF yO why are you touching me?!?” (No, I was gracious, made sure my discomfort at his level of comfort with me didn’t register on my face and then I thanked him for his help, because well,  he had seemed genuinely friendly and eager to help us out) but the question did cross my mind: How would other people react to being touched and slightly rubbed, even slightly, but on purpose (obviously) by a total and complete stranger?  Anyway, he started talking again about something or other, and we thanked him again and he went on his way…. finally.

Uhh, and then let’s see… tonight at the gym there was a very loud and belligerent man who was on his cell phone from the time I got there to when I left an hour and 15 minutes later… trust me– I didn’t have my iPod with me so I was forced, along with all the others who didn’t have their mp3 players or headphones for their DS’s, to listen to his angry ramblings to the poor sop on the other end of the line unless I started to daydream or managed to tune him out.  From what I understand, this man had been in a fight with someone at that very gym either earlier today or the day prior, and there’s some woman he pities but at the same time hates, and that he’s having problems with someone who works with him… and I’m pretty sure that’s the same person he had the fight with at the gym. 

What bordered on hilarious to me was that this guy didn’t seem to realize just how loud he was being.  The floor is, of course, open, and instead of maybe stepping outside of the gym to carry on his phone conversation, he moved to a corner of the floor.  That obviously doesn’t do anything to lower the actual decibel level of one’s voice unless he/she purposely does so, and if anything, it almost seemed to make his voice reverberate throughout the room.  It’s amazing really, because considering the large size of the room, with the background music playing, weights clanking together and the whirring all the machines make, along with all laughter, conversations, and the, uh, human noises, his voice was still loud, clear and dominated over all other sounds.  Some people…. 

In other news, I’m happy to say that working out is already doing wonders for me.  I’m not as much of a B-word, I’ve had more energy, and my mood has generally gone from “Bleh I think I’ll stay in the house.” to “Yay! Let’s go for a walk and then let’s sing songs about rainbows and kitties and sunshine!”  Okay, so maybe not soooo chipper, but there’s definitely a decrease in moodiness.  And to think, it only took the National Body Challenge to make me finally get off my butt, stop just talking about working out, and actually get into the gym!  I’ve also started limiting my intake of caca junk foods and sugary drinks and increasing my intake of healthy foods and water.  Yes, my friends, I’m definitely on my way to living a healthier, happier life!  And of course, a healthier, happier, more active me will allow me to set a good example for littleQ to live a healthy, happy, active life 

Oh, you might want to check out the fitness DVD giveaway I’m hosting at MamaDivas.com.  Check it out.. you can enter until midnight EST on January 15, 2008

Technorati Tags: weird people, annoying people, gym etiquette, workout, gym, health club, etiquette, exercise, cell phone etiquette

I forgot to mention that I switched green tea ROCKS over to a different host… because the host it was on (netfirms, cough) totally sucks butt.  At Netfirms, customer service is pretty much NON-EXISTENT, but you’re in luck as long as you’re looking for a SALESPERSON (so you can buy hosting services and not get the advertised 24/7 support when you need it!) and you’re definitely in luck if you’re NOT looking for help from tech support, or any sort of support for that matter!

.. Maybe you’ll be luckier than I was today, but don’t expect even the sales rep to be nice to you.. I mean, I hope the sales rep you get is friendly, but I’m just saying, don’t count on it- the one salesperson I finally got through to via live-chat was super-not-nice-or-helpful, and apparently it’s his job to TYPE LIKE THIS TO CUSTOMERS WHO ARE SIMPLY ASKING WHEN THE DATABASES WILL BE FUNCTIONING NORMALLY AGAIN AND IF HE COULD POSSIBLY LET YOU KNOW BECAUSE NOBODY IS PICKING UP THE PHONES, AND THERE’S NO NOTICE OF SUCH AN OUTAGE ON THE SITE, NOR WAS AN EMAIL SENT OUT REGARDING IT!  Well excuse the shit out of me if I’m just trying to get an answer out of SOMEONE from the company about the issue.  Yes, Yonathon (if that is your real name, seriously), I’m talking to you. 

Jeez I wasn’t even mad, or rude, for that matter, at least not until he yelled at me in the TEXT chat.  I just wanted an answer as to when the database issues would be fixed.  A simple, “I’m sorry, but we really don’t know” would have been better than simply ignoring my question and then proceeding to USE CAPS TO YELL AT ME VIA LIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE CHAT THAT THIS WAS SALES .  Yelling at current customer in the sales chat?  Not the best thing for you to do.  Paying customers like me don’t like to be treated like boils on your bottom, especially because I didn’t start the chat with some rude smart-alecky remark about how much you must hate your life because your company sucks.  Besides, I think I have a right to get a straight and honest reason for WHY the damn databases aren’t working.

I still have one site hosted with this craptastically crappy host Netfirms, but I’ll be moving that one very, very soon.  It experienced the same problems that green tea ROCKS did, but I didn’t move it yet.  It’s fine right now, but this isn’t an issue of just uptime or just databases or just whatever.  This is about the whole package-> and halfway decent customer service is part of that package.  I know I’m just one single blogger in the humongous world wide web, and I’m not asking you to kiss my ass, but you could at least instruct your amazingly rude salespeople to be nice to customers.  Oh, and answer the damn customer service phone lines once in a while.  With all the money you make ripping customers off, Netfirms, you’d think you’d at least be able to keep the customer service lines manned, 24/7, as is stated on your website.  Why is it that the few times I have tried to call, I ended up waiting forever and not talking to anyone at all?

I know you’re not so expensive, and that’s mo-fo-ing great, but you know what?  The other host I use offers cheap plans too, and sometimes I get irritated with disruptions in service, but at least every time I have a problem the customer service reps are NICE to me.  They don’t type in ALL CAPS TO SHOW ME WHAT BIG STRONG MORE-IMPORTANT-THAN-YOU MEN THEY ARE.  Niceness goes a long way.  It really does.  I bet you never heard the saying, “You’ll catch more bees with honey than vinegar.”  Well, either you never heard it, or you must think it doesn’t apply here.

..Well, it serves me right for succumbing to their lure without doing a little bit of research first.  You’d think they’d work hard show you how GREAT it would be to stay with them and pay the regular prices after that deal expires.  The deal actually ended for me months ago, and in retrospect, I guess that’s why I never really  let the little issues bother me before: because it was practically free.  It’s a whole different ball game once you’re paying monthly, and when it’s free or close to it you tend to ignore the fact that you can never get straight answers from anyone in the company, or the fact that the databases will randomly go down, or that your sites will randomly go offline, and then magically reappear.  If they were nice and apologetic about it, and maybe acted like I was at least somewhat valuable as a customer, I would have overlooked those, and well, I wouldn’t be writing this entry.  So if you caught a deal and you were using them practically free, Netfirms is fine, but if you have to pay their regular rates, they’re NOT a good company to work with.

I didn’t check around for feedback before I was pulled in by the $10 for a year sale, and when I did go looking for other customers’ experiences, I felt so stupid for not doing so beforehand; but I didn’t cancel my account, because I decided to simply make the best of the situation.

I’ve had itty bitty problems before, but I did not throw myself a pity party over them.  Do you want to know why?  In addition to the fact that for the first year it was only $10, I also didn’t bother calling in, ever, figuring that these issues (random downtime, databases not connecting, pockets of ultra-slow connection speeds, mod-rewrite in Wordpress NON-existent) would work themselves out.  And whatever, because, it was practically free.  Not calling in is probably part of the reason why I stayed with this host that I do not recommend (cough netfirms) for so long, because if I had actually gotten through to a customer service rep every time I tried to call, I probably would have been treated incredibly shabbily at least 50% of the time, and I probably would have canceled my practically gratis account anyway.

Netfirms is not the biggest hellhole of a company that you can deal with, but they definitely need to improve their customer service, and pronto, or else it won’t just be my piddly little account they’ll be losing.  I’m not saying that the customer always has to be right, but you should at least treat them with a little bit of respect when they call in regarding the quality of the product they are currently paying for… all those horrible testimonials aren’t exactly helping to increase my confidence in this company, either.

Moral of the story?  Do your homework before buying hosting.  Oh, and if you plan on using Wordpress on your host, make sure you can use clean urls on that host (if you want those, and who doesn’t!  They’re search engine friendly!), because you sure as hell can’t do that on Netfirms unless you mess with the .htaccess file and you add /index.php/ into the permalink structure, which really is not a big deal, but I know that many bloggers out there don’t even know what an .htaccess file is, let alone what would go in it. 

Netfirms gets a big thumbs down from me and, apparently, a lot of other people (check out the links I added above to read everything from tiny complaints to complete HORROR stories about them.. and it’s all pretty much related to horrible customer service). 

If not for their inability to provide even a semblance of quality customer service, then I wouldn’t have switched.  Seriously, sometimes it’s as simple as being nice and at least pretending like you want to help a (paying) customer who wasn’t being rude or argumentative in the first place.

Maybe Yonathon the rude sales rep was on the rag, or maybe he got kicked in the balls earlier in the day, I don’t know, but as I told him/her at the end of the conversation when he/she got rude, right before I Xed out the window: “You shouldn’t get a blogger angry,”   (yeah, I know, SUPER FREAKING corny) because what happens is, that blogger will post all about how much Netfirms sucks, using such keywords as SUCKS and BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE and CRAPTASTIC, and that post is just bound to show up in someone’s search for feedback about Netfirms, and you know what?  This post just may make that person think twice before buying anything from your company, just to save himself from the potential aggravation of dealing with you and the headaches that go with it.

Here’s a list of the sites I linked to from this post that show feedback regarding Netfirms:

• http://www.flashdev.ca/article/netfirms-sucks/
• http://www.sandyofftopic.com/category/netfirms/
• http://www.vistainter.com/reviews/N/netfirms.com/
• http://www.oshawapilot.ca/?s=netfirms
• http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/270/RipOff0270323.htm
• http://drupal.org/node/131507
• http://www.free-webhosts.com/reviews/NetFirms.php

Technorati Tags: hosting, webhost, web host, netfirms, sucks, netfirms sucks, crappy customer service, CRAPTASTIC, worst customer service, bad web hosting, horrible

I’m actually quite upset about this, because I’m still feeling crappy, congested and sick. (But littleQ isn’t sick, so that’s good!) But that’s no excuse! I’ve failed NaBloPoMo! … and only by like half an hour!

Woe is me…..

Now I’ve just got to make sure I get my novel to 50,000 words by the 30th, or else I’ll really feel like a failure

Technorati Tags: nanowrimo, nablopomo, feeling sick

It’s no surprise that right when the Indian summer came to an end, I got sick.  It was unusually warm right up until the very beginning of November, and a few days after it suddenly got chilly I woke up with gross phlegm stuck in my throat, which has seen fit to go on ahead and keep manufacturing more and more and more.  I’ve also started coughing a little bit, which I hope doesn’t persist.

littleQ has caught whatever the hell it is I have, which I was hoping he wouldn’t, considering I haven’t been feeling 100% for a few days now, but my poor baby woke up at about 6AM this morning and vomited on the bed , so it’s off to the doctor for us both on Monday if we’re still feeling icky by then (or sooner if he starts feeling worse.. I hope not…).   I hope it’s not Strep =\  Right now littleQ is sleeping, so hopefully when he wakes up he’ll be his usual loud, rowdy and bubbly self.

Anyone else out there with a ridiculous immune system that decides to take a little break at the change of season, EVERY season?  Seriously!  I would move our little family to Florida if I wasn’t so in love with the fact that NYC so kicks ass (LOL) and doesn’t get crazy hurricanes (well not usually, at least).  But I guess the hurricane issue would only be a problem if we lived near the coast, right? 

Ah whatever it doesn’t matter I highly doubt we’ll ever move out of New York, and mrQ doesn’t even want to move out of the city.  He’s acknowledged that it could be an option, but it would have to be somewhere relatively close to the boundary.  I grew up on Long Island, so really, I don’t have that weird aversion I’ve noticed some people get about moving to the ‘burbs.  As far as our nabe, it’s actually somewhat suburban-ish… but that changes if you go about 5 blocks one way.  Really - there’s this main road somewhat near our house that acts as a boundary… and you can tell the difference right away.  Silly city.

Technorati Tags: sick, illness, autumn, fall, change of seasons

Here’s a little tidbit of disturbing news for ya: The National Children’s Museum’s Chief Operating Officer is busted for child pornography.

What the f***?

The Time Out Kids Blog asks:

What’s your reaction to this story? Should Singer get the max? Did he deserve to lose his job? Do children’s museums need stricter background checks?

I answer:

My reaction is, well, he sounds like a messed up dude. He’s 49-year-old father of two, described by a neighbor as “perfectly nice”.. bet nobody ever guessed what his secret hobby was. He should get the max penalty that he can get for this offense. Yes, he deserves to lose his job.. it’s a CHILDREN’S museum for chrissakes… even if it’s been closed since ‘04 and isn’t opening till 2012. What else would they do… let him keep his job and hope that by 2012 everyone’s forgotten about his secret hobby? As far as background checks go, I think every job where a person will be working with children or people of ANY age for that matter in a trusting environment like a museum needs a nice, strict background check… as strict as they come.

Of course then the following question must be asked: what do you do for those people who fall through the cracks? The people who haven’t been convicted and so don’t have records that prove their depraved ways?

Technorati Tags: National Children’s Museum, Children’s Museum Chief Operating Officer, perverted people

I was making meatloaf for dinner tonight, but I didn’t have enough beef, so I added a whole ish-load of tofu, as well as basil, and some previously canned Chinese mushrooms I had leftover from when I made Cha Gio the other night.  I didn’t really follow any recipe, because well, I usually don’t need a recipe for meatloaf.  I suppose I should have looked one up though, you know, before I added all that tofu, before I kneaded in all that basil I probably shouldn’t have added and before I mixed in those Chinese mushrooms that just didn’t go with the Worcestershire or the ketchup.

I tried it with bread, and it tasted yucky.  I tried it with rice, and it wasn’t as yucky, but still quite gross.  So, though I feel kinda bad about it,  in the end it went in the garbage.  It’s a good thing we had some leftover Ziti from my mom.

Technorati Tags: recipes, meatloaf, food disaster

Life is what you make of it, so if something sucks, deal with it, do something to change it, or, better yet, just go cry in a hole somewhere (more…)

Was it just me, or did anyone else’s nose swell and balloon out to the size of decent sized tomato complete with a matching hue while you were pregnant?

I don’t know exactly when it started, if my nose even went through various stages of plumpness or if one day it simply decided to distend itself, but by the time the beginning of my 10th (and I say TENTH because it lasts 10 months! =P) month rolled around, my nose pretty much dominated my face.  If you attempted to look at my eyes, my lips or at pretty much anything else in that vicinity, your eyes would, without fail, be drawn to the swollen mass of redness that was my nose.

While girlishly applying foundation to my face one day, my eyes zoned into my nose.  I remember squinting at my compact mirror, muttering something to myself about there not being enough light in the bedroom, and hoisting myself up off my thirty-something week pregnant butt to the bathroom.  According to my mother, her nose had simply inflated while she was pregnant with me, and so while I had been expecting it, I didn’t think it would be as pronounced as she described.  Boy, was that wishful thinking.

Now, the bathroom mirror does not lie.  It can’t, the light in there is far, far too bright.  Photographs (usually)  don’t lie either, and that’s why you will not find a close up of my fair visage (lol) from anytime during my pregnancy.  In retrospect, it was beyond silly of me, but for the first half of my pregnancy with littleQ I did not want my face to be the focal point of any photograph because I thought that it would look too swollen, then when the second half of my pregnancy rolled around, my face (my nose especially) really was swollen.

I cringe when I look at photographs from my baby shower, because, well, my nose, it wudn’t too purdy.  But I’ll also smile, because  I kinda do miss those days.  The sense of anticipation and new purpose that pregnancy gave me was amazing.  Simply knowing that I was carrying an itty-bitty life inside my tummy was just awe-inspiring.

Post-labor photographs show that my nose actually started to go down almost immediately.  By the time littleQ was 2 months old, my nose was returned to it’s original size.  Let’s face it though, after giving birth, our bodies are just different from how they used to be.

*This post was inspired by the CHBM Collaboration #49 - “When I was Pregnant…”*

Technorati Tags: infant, baby, mom, mommy, mother, motherhood, pregnancy, swollen, swollen nose, When I was Pregnant, chbm

Yesterday we went shopping for littleQ’s Halloween costume.  Yes, it was crowded, filled to the brim with screaming little monsters children and their stressed-out looking parents, but the picking of and the procuring of the actual costume was surprisingly (well I thought so) painless.

The line to pay however… that was a different story.

It never ceases to amaze me when these big chain party and Halloween stores (well, many, but not all) have more than 20 people on line to pay, and yet only have 1 out of 5 registers open with who seems the slowest and most inefficient cashier they have.   … And all this happens while at least 2 other "sales associates" are not doing something productive, like getting costumes for customers; they roam around the store pretending to work by systematically taking down and rearranging the same displays (which happen to be within 5 feet of each other) over and over and over again.  Yes, I saw you.

Why?!?!?  Where is your manager?!?!??!

Oh, and a quick note to the loud, audibly offensive man who cut the line:  You suck, and what sucks even more about you is the appalling way in which you maneuvered your potty-mouthed pre-pubescent daughters to slip in front of that poor woman who shook her head and pretty much stared painful, painful daggers in your direction while you pretended not to notice, because you knew that nobody was going to say anything to them or you, for fear of having their ears assailed by high-pitched, pseudo-toughguy accented excuses.  Yes, we saw, as did about 10 other people both in front of and behind the woman, all of whom just didn’t want to add to the stress that chain party stores like to put on their customers by not effectively allocating their staff by engaging in any sort of confrontation with you.

Anyhoooooo…

Guess what littleQ is going to be for Halloween?  It’s soooo awesome =) … too bad mrQ and I aren’t going to be dressing up, then we could go as an awesome family of ninjas.

Technorati Tags: Halloween, costume, party store, costume store, line cutters, annoying people, ninja

This morning I was angry and frustrated to the point of tears.

Remember I mentioned a work at home job that I was training for? Umm.. actually I don’t think I did.. I think it was included in one of the posts that I lost when I was updating and tweaking my blog.

Part of the training necessary for the position includes this telephone portion which basically includes going through a mock session. You also have to be in front of the computer. Two of these sessions are required, and I had both of them scheduled for today.

Now littleQ is not even two years old yet, so one can only imagine the amount of noise that this child is capable of. When he is awake, it is nonstop, whether it’s him babbling, laughing, whining or crying. For this reason, I specifically told mrQ that he would have to watch littleQ during so-and-so hours, and he would have to distract littleQ in another room and not the same room I was in, which of course is where the computer is.

Err… to make a long story short, I had to cut short one appointment, and I canceled the other (each session was scheduled at a different time, but with only one hour in between) for this part of the training… which I’m pretty sure has killed any confidence that my prospective employer had in my ability to do this job and not flake out. Yeah I’m about 99% sure my chances have flown out the window.

OH was I angry. I have to admit, a few tears of frustration did make their way down my cheeks, but I just sucked it up. What are you supposed to do, you know? Fighting… well more often than not that just leads to more fighting.

While I do feel it was super annoying of him to just sit there giving me the evil eye while letting littleQ climb my leg (and keep in mind he was almost screaming at this point because he didn’t understand that I was not on the phone with Grandma, and no, he could not babble incoherently to the nice lady who was assigned to my training for this session), mrQ was very, very sleepy (he doesn’t work the conventional "9-5")…. so whatever… I understand….

If you’ve read up to this point you’re wondering to yourself, "Well where is the connection to Sliding Doors?"

Okay so do you know about that movie? You know, the one with Gwyneth Paltrow? The one where they show two different paths of her life… all depending on her missing/catching a train…?

Anyhow.. I ended up taking littleQ to the park. Since mrQ obviously can’t take care of him while he’s asleep, and I had to cancel my appointments, I said to myself, it’s so nice outside, why should littleQ and I stay inside while I sulk? If I’m going to sulk I might as well go to the park so that littleQ can have some fun…. I’ll just sulk there.

As is customary in the park, I struck up a conversation with another mom, and she told me about a mommy and me playgroup that meets at one of the churches (there are FOUR Catholic churches within walking distance of our house) in the neighborhood. I couldn’t have been happier to find out about this.

See, I was really quite despondent because I honestly didn’t think there was a mommy and me class or playgroup in this general vicinity… no where super close at least. I was actually about to sign littleQ up for a Gymboree class, and in essence obligating myself to drive 30 minutes each way, for a SINGLE 45 minute class, just to get to one that wouldn’t require crossing a bridge and paying a toll to get to.. OR I could have signed up for in Manhattan.. but nah. Now that’s really a non-issue as there’s one right here woohoo!

So…. if I had gone through with the training sessions, I would most definitely have that position.

But I didn’t, and I found out about this amazing opportunity for littleQ to make friends with babies and toddlers around his age and for me to meet and socialize with other moms. I really can’t fathom how I would have found out about it otherwise… It’s possible that I would have found out about it, but I don’t even go to that church, and I honestly am not friends with even one other mom in our neighborhood who has a toddler age child.. so chances would have been quite slim (near nonexistent, actually).

So, while it would have been a truly wonderful opportunity to have that job, I really didn’t need it, and I think that between these two, the latter is much more rewarding for littleQ.. and as far as our priorities are concerned in this case… well.. how do I feel now about how it’s all turned out? … it’s all good. So a big thanks to my husband for being annoying this morning =P

One door closes, and another one opens.. to quote the first person who ever said that.

Okay, okay, so this really doesn’t have much in common with Sliding Doors… but you get the point, right?

Technorati Tags: opportunity, sliding doors, fate, chance, life, path, mommy and me, playgroup, baby, babies, toddler

I’m currently training for a new job, and during training we have homework.  Right now I’m doing that homework.  No, it’s not hard, but Futurama is on Adult Swim right now, and it is distracting me.  Mucho.  Mucho mucho.

It’s the episode where Leela and Fry get stung by these giant bees and the whole time Leela is tripping, completely unaware that she is.  Meanwhile, she thinks Fry has died, but that’s just in her mind, because she’s really unconscious and just dreaming…… yada yada yada… yes I’ve seen this episode about 2 or 3 times already.

Ay.

Oh, I don’t think I mentioned this.. but this new job is a work at home position, and that’s niiiiice

Technorati Tags: work at home, futurama, adult swim, distraction, procrastination

I was tweaking my website and playing around with a few things… but instead of backing up both the structure and the data of my MySQL database, I only saved the structure.  Fortunately, I had just backed up my database a few days ago… but I still lost a few entries that I hadn’t posted using Windows Live Writer…. ::sigh::

Technorati Tags: wordpress, blog

I’m somewhat unsure of what the next step I should take is. Doesn’t it just irk you to no end when you feel that everything’s just about falling into place, but then something comes up…. and knocks your carefully laid out plans and designs into the deep well you just spent what seems like forever climbing out of.

Jeez.. oh well. There’s nothing to do but start climbing all over again… and this time take precautions to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

On a super duper note, my cousins and I met Tila Nguyen aka Tila Tequila in Chelsea today. I swear, for the less than 3 minutes we were with her, taking photos with her with our cameraphones (actually just my cousin’s, as my silly phone was taking wayyy to long to restart.. stupid motoQ) so we could go brag to our significant others about how we met her and they did NOT, we acted like a bunch of little kids, she probably thought we were silly lol. Tila, if you ever read this, I’m the one who said my husband loves you.

Technorati Tags: life, manhattan, nyc, Tila Tequila, Tila Nguyen