Unemployed, But Still Fabulous

Well, it's happened. As of 10:00 Monday morning, I'm officially out of a job. It sucks, but I think we're coping well. I've got a month's worth of pay still to come from my job, I filed my unemployment claim, and between that and temping and freelance work, I think we'll be okay until something more substantial comes along, as long as we forgo extras. Plus we've still got student loan money and a hefty tax refund coming our way. We may be shivering in the dark to save on utilities, but as long as we can make the house payment and eat well, we're pretty happy. If you like, you can read more about our coping strategy over at The Bauhaushold Report a bit later today.

At least there's been plenty to cheer me up. A supportive and understanding husband, love and support from friends and family, a brand-new grandnephew, and lots of naps have done plenty to keep my spirits high. In a stroke of fortuitousness (there's my $3 word for the day), as I was packing up my desk on Monday I received a package from a friend that was full of all kinds of inspirational and comforting goodies, including a big ol' bag of chocolates. Well-timed, indeed.

And as if that's not enough, Molly & Andy over at The Bumbles Blog gave me some love in the form of the award you see over at the left. Now it's up to me to spread the love by passing it on to my own Fab Five. For reasons unknown, also included in this meme is the requirement to list 5 personal addictions. I'm guessing the meme-makers were going for the frivolous kind, not AA-style confessionals. So here goes:

1. Pandora. I've almost always got it running in the background. In fact, I'm listening to my Abba station right now. Which leads me to...

2. Abba. Really, is there a better pick-me-up than cranking up "Dancing Queen" and dancing like nobody's watching? I can't think of any. But I can think of a close second, and that would be...

3. I Can Has Cheez Burger? Serious stress-relief, right there. And on that note, I also can't get enough of...

4. Cute Overload. I defy you to stay grumpy or sad after a visit to that blog.

5. And finally, even though it's come and gone and I've had a love-hate relationship with them over the years, TWoP still keeps me coming back for more. I just can't resist the snark.

And now to pay it forward, I hereby bestow the Fabulous Blog award, should they choose to accept it, upon the following:

The Splintered Mind - Douglas Cootey's humorous accounts of living with ADHD and Depression inspire me as much as they make me smile.

Conditional Axe - Jeff Stolarcyk is a humorous geek. In other words, he's my people.

Lurking Rhythmically - Erin Palette makes emo fun. She's also hella talented.

The Kim Challenge - I first became a fan of Kim through her Daily Special and Pretty Imperfect web series over at the late, great Elastic Waist. Reading her daily struggles with food, body image and unemployment is like reading about myself. Only funnier and in better shape and living in a real city.

Blogging Away Debt - Teresa's financial struggles and amazing progress at paying down her family's credit card debt has been a huge inspiration in my life. Fabulous, indeed.

Now go. Read. Love.

Monday Memeage: Blog Meme Deluxe

This is an old meme I found trolling Google.

Ten Favorites

Favorite Color: Depends.
Favorite Food: Also depends. If I can pick an entire ethnic group's cooking, I'd have to go with Asian.
Favorite Month: October.
Favorite Song: Depends some more. I'm not really one for committing to favorites.
Favorite Movie: Standby answer: Empire Strikes Back
Favorite Sport: Thumb wrestling
Favorite Season: Autumn
Favorite Day of the week: Saturday
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Half Baked
Favorite Time of Day: Bedtime

9 CURRENTS

Current Mood: Hungry
Current Taste: Lotiony
Current Clothes: Gray trousers, polka dot shirt, pink cardigan, black mary janes
Current Desktop: The Bauhaus building in Dauchau, Germany. Also, messy.



Current Toenail Color: chipped, mostly bare and in desperate need of a pedi
Current Time: 11:25 AM
Current Surroundings: Work cubby
Current Thoughts: I'm hungry. Man, this meme is long. My back hurts. Oh, hey, my foot's asleep. I'm hungry.

8 FIRSTS

First Best Friend: Meredith...something. I called her Mer-mer. I was two.
First Kiss: Dusty Rhodes in the bowling alley nursery. Unless you mean adult kiss, then it's my husband at the end of our third date.
First Screen Name: harley_quinn
First Pet: Patches (cat), Prissy (miniature poodle) and Ginger (German Shepherd) were all around when I was born. The first animal that was entirely my responsibility, not a fish, and not a family pet was my budgie, Polly, handed down from my grandma when I was nine. She died tragically the same day my grandma did. :(
First Piercing: My ears, on my thirteenth birthday, were my first and only piercing.
First Crush: Luke Skywalker
First CD: Uh... heck if I know. First one I can recall buying was Sarah McLachlan's Surfacing.

7 LASTS

Last Cigarette: I tried a cigarette once. Once was enough.
Last Drink: Sam Adams Boston Lager, last night after supper.
Last Car Ride: To work this morning.
Last Kiss: Last night at bedtime.
Last Movie Seen: Cloverfield
Last Phone Call: My husband, with a grocery list.
Last CD Played: Muse - Black Holes & Revelations

6 HAVE YOU EVERS

Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Guy/Girl Friends: I married my best friend. But we weren't friends yet when we started going out, so that probably doesn't count. So then, no, but I did crush on a couple of them pretty hard.
Have You Ever Broken the Law: Who's asking?
Have You Ever Been Arrested: No.
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: Yes.
Have You Ever Been on TV: Yes.
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: No.

5 THINGS

Thing You're Wearing: My wedding ring.
Thing You've Done Today: Pilates.
Thing You Can Hear Right Now: The electronic hum of a dozen or so computers and printers, and occasional key tapping. My boss digging through his stuff.
Thing You Can't Live Without: God.
Thing You Do When You're Bored: Dream up stories to amuse myself. Fidget.

4 PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY

My apartment
My gym
My car
My office

3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO

My husband
Tess
Lisa

2 CHOICES

Black or White: Black
Hot or Cold: Depends on the weather.

1 THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:

Finish my novel.

Monday Memeage: Random Album Meme

Via Lurking Rhythmically:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result as a comment in this post. Also, pass it along in your own journal because it's more amusing that way.



Of the band name and album title, I approve. Of the cover art, not so much. Although I do like the ponderousness of it all.

Tag! You're it!

Monday Memeage: Ten Top-Five Television Lists

Picked up from Fenchurche:

Note: These aren't so much "favorites" as they are "shows my Monday-morning-fog-wrapped-brain is capable of remembering."

Back in the Day: 5 TV Shows You Loved As A Kid
1. The Muppet Show
2. You Can't Do That On Television
3. Danger Mouse
4. Moonlighting
5. Miami Vice


Who Would You Do?: 5 TV Characters You Would...Well, It's Self-Explanatory

1. Spike
2. Wesley Windham-Pryce
3. Mal Reynolds
4. Dean Winchester
5. Dean Cain's Clark Kent


What? No, No, I Don't Watch That...: 5 Guilty Pleasure TV Shows

1. Crowned--What? There's nothing else on!
2. Moment of Truth--see above, and also, my remote was broken and I was knitting and the cat was on my lap.
3. Big Brother. This used to not be a guilty pleasure. Blame the Donatos that I can't hold my head up about still caring about this show.
4. Any celebrity "reality" show on VH-1.
5. America's Next Top Model--also not really a "guilty pleasure," but the loopier and more desperate Tyra gets, the harder it is not to be embarrassed that I watch this show. Add to that, Saliesha. Bleah.



Wow: 5 TV Moments You Still Remember (And Probably Won't Forget)

1. Lois Lane's de-glasses-ing of Clark Kent, right after he proposed to her - Lois & Clark
2. Dave & Maddie's furniture-breaking roll on the floor - Moonlighting
3. Nine kissing Rose to absorb her Tardis energy, and then getting killed by it - Doctor Who
4. The Post-Modern Prometheus dancing at a Cher concert - The X-Files
5. Claire waking up on the autopsy table with her chest flayed open - Heroes

I left out the entire Whedonverse because there's just too much to narrow it down. "Can we rest?" House-demolition sex. End-of-musical kissing. Sending Angel to hell. Wesley shooting his dad. The introduction of Illyria. Willow flaying Warren. Angel locking the lawyers in with Darla and Dru. Mal kicking the hench-guy into the jet engine. "Big Damn Heroes, Sir!" I could go on. And on and on and on.


"Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs": 5 TV Theme Songs You Know (and Love) By Heart

1. The Facts of Life
2. Duck Tales
3. The Muppet Show
4. Green Acres
5. Animaniacs


Eh: 5 Shows You Just Can't Get Into

1. Any incarnation of Stargate.
2. Flash Gordon
3. House
4. Reaper
5. Project Runway


The Starting Line-Up: 5 Channels You Go To First When You Sit Down to Watch TV

1. Food Network
2. HGTV
3. TLC
4. Travel Channel
5. BBC-America


This Is An Environment of Welcoming, and You Should Just Get the Hell Out Of Here: 5 TV Characters You Could Do Without

1. Maya - Heroes
2. Fred Burkel - Angel
3. Agent Diana Fowley - X-Files
4. Agent Monica Rayes - X-Files
5. Dr. Polaski - Star Trek: TNG


That's What She Said: 5 Quotes That Still Resonate

Again, I'm having to work really hard to think of quotes that don't come from the Whedonverse, and within said 'verse, there are too many to pick from. That said:

1. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood. Blood screaming inside you to work its will.
2. Love makes you do the wacky.
3. "I've got a cramp." "In your pants?"
4. I mock you with my monkey pants!
5. Go monkey! Choose monkey!


Gimme More: 5 Shows You Can Never Get Enough Of

1. Buffy (obviously)
2. Angel
3. Firefly
4. Farscape
5. Star Trek

10 Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't

Per Scalzi's request:

1. Had a gerbil give birth in my hand

2. Broke into a parking garage to have a romantic picnic on the top level because it had a spectacular view

3. Got thrown out of a parking garage by security

4. Managed a rock band

5. Almost killed myself on a trampoline

6. Caught a peeping tom watching me and my then-fiance through the window while we made out

7. Had my feet stalked by a foot fetishist

8. Been a first-round interviewer and backstage PA for a beauty pageant

9. Performed data entry for a televangelist

10. Made the front page of the local paper for getting my leg stuck in a public pool (I also once got stuck on a public water slide. Clearly, I have water park issues.)

What ten things have YOU done?

Middle Name Meme

A Cowboy's Wife tagged me for this meme. Sure, why not? I'll play.

First, the rules:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Muse is my favorite band of the moment. I plan to get around to writing a mini-review of their latest album one of these days.

A tiny spider jumped on me when I was driving to work yesterday. Miraculously, I managed not to crash the car in the spastic convulsions that followed.

Rice is not a Zone-favorable grain, but that doesn't keep me from eating it. Mmmm, rice.

I'm usually too wishy-washy to pick a favorite anything. It was really hard for me to declare a favorite band up there. This is why my Blogger profile doesn't list any favorites.

Elizabeth is expecting. After the miscarriages last year they didn't want it mentioned until enough time passed to be sure, but she's almost four months along now and there's a heartbeat and everything. I'm going to be an auntie again! Yay!

I'm also too wishy-washy to pick people to tag. If you want to do the meme, then consider yourself tagged.

Thursday Thirteen: The "Nerdier Than Thou" Edition

Look, ma! I'm participating!

Thirteen Things you might not already know about why Jean's a giant nerd: 1…. I was first chair alto sax in high school, from the day I finally won it in 9th grade until I graduated, much to the relief of the second chair. 2…. I can also play the harmonica, although I'm no John Popper. 3…. I didn't eat my first sushi until about two years ago, when my husband took me to a sushi restaurant when we first started dating. I didn't know how to eat half of it, and I couldn't handle the chopsticks, and even though I'm pretty sure I embarrassed him, he was very patient with me and had a good sense of humor about it, thereby increasing my already growing suspicion that this was the guy for me. My love for both Husband and sushi has continued to blossom to this day. 4…. I once thought I was a fairly hard-core Trekker. Then I attended my first (and only) Star Trek convention and learned that I was but a lowly padawan (wrong universe, but you get my meaning). Since then, I've grown kinda "meh" about Trek, although I still have a warm, squishy place in my heart for the original series, TNG and DS9. 5…. Speaking of me being a giant nerd, I only stood in line for four hours for the first midnight showing of The Phantom Menace, yet somehow I still got interviewed by a local TV news reporter doing a story on the crazed fans. I mean, other people stood in line for like a month. I don't think four hours made me that crazed. 6…. Except that it would have been more like four days if the theater management hadn't barred us from the premises. 7…. I didn't visit a foreign country until I was twenty-five. 8…. I didn't visit another one after that until my honeymoon last year. 9…. I used to be completely obsessed with the Joker. To that effect, I even built a fairly popular (by those days' standards of popularity, which were definitely not today's standards) fan site about him. 10…. But that's nothing compared to the nerd points I racked up in Buffy fandom, in which I attended two fan conventions, wrote several novels' worth of fan fiction, wrote several academic papers, one of which I even submitted to Slayage for consideration, collected action figures, built web sites, moderated discussion forums, and spent countless hours on IM debating the shows' intricacies with fellow fans. 11…. I still have a sizeable Star Wars toy collection. I wanted to decorate our kitchen with it. Husband said please no. 12…. At the end of the month I'm dragging Husband with me to attend the Buffy Sing-a-long, and I'm so excited I just might pee my pants. 13…. And I'm not even going to get into my whole Phantom of the Opera phase. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. The Rock Chick 2. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants