Regarding Haiti

I think it’s really great that everyone is pulling together in light of the recent disaster in Haiti.

I also think it is incredibly sad that it takes a disaster for everyone to pull together.

It took an attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, a hurricane in 2005, an earthquake in 2010.

Maybe, and I know this is asking a lot, we could try to work as a TEAM… all the time. CRAZY concept, I know, but hear me out. Maybe if we  joined forces ALL the time, the world would be a slightly nicer place to live. Maybe international relations would be better, and even here, in AMERICA, we’d have less tension among ourselves.

And you know what, that actually goes for everyone, even on a small scale. I see half of my family only when we’re at a FUNERAL. Maybe it’s human nature. I don’t know. What I do know is this:

It truly sickens me that it takes a disaster for people to come together.

Think about it.

Hooray!

I have many things to say hooray about this evening.

I finally got my new mattress (and, with the box spring, it’s VERY high).

The Surprise 50th Birthday party for my mom was tonight. I was SUPER nervous that she was going to be PISSED because she stated very clearly several times that she did NOT want a party, especially not a surprise party.

Lucky for me, I was pretty much off the hook in the blame department beacuse I wasn’t really involved (much to my dismay) in the planning and it most certainly was not my idea.

But, she came in and was very surprised and very happy… so the evening went very well.

Mike’s parents got me the papers to fill out in order to get my passport so that we can go to St. Martin next summer (because they are renewing their wedding vows there), and I am SUPER excited for that.

I received more birthday cards/presents today…(among which were a gift card to one of my favorite stores, money to go towards my new computer/passport, a beautiful frame for my newly decorated room, and another book by Jennifer Weiner)… which definitely made me smile : ]

AND… I went to the Drive-In movies in Pleasant Valley last night. That was definitely an experience. I’d done it before, but not since I was very young. It was a double feature: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Terminator. We only stayed for the first movie because it started at 9 pm and the theater was about an hour and a half away from home and I had to work this morning. What a disgusting sentence.. but I’m sleep deprived so… we’ll blame that.

Disaster

I decided to redo my room for my birthday.

When I was younger, I inherited some beautiful solid maple furniture from my Grandfather and his second wife before they moved to Florida. Full bedroom set; head & foot boards, tall dresser, long dresser w/ giant mirror, 2 bedside tables… It’s beautiful, except it’s SUPER heavy. I think I strained my back pretty badly moving all the furniture in preparation for painting.

I also live in a fairly old house. The walls are real plaster, not drywall (which actually sucks because it makes it pretty impossible to hang anything in the walls without either tearing a hung of plaster off with the adhesive hooks that “won’t wreck your walls”, or creating a giant hole wherever you decide to try to put a nail.) So I’ve been filling all the holes and missing chunks.(About to go sand the walls after this)

I’m also trying to remove the border print that was up (White with green leaves… and I’m doing a blue and brown theme so that doesn’t go at all). I expected removing the border print would be a pain in the ass because it’s been up for a very long time. I sprayed one wall with a water/fabric softener mixture and the border print on that wall peeled off in one giant strip, perfectly. Did I get my hopes up? You bet. But I shouldn’t have. The remaining 3 walls would absolutely not cooperate. I did the first wall by myself in maybe 10 mintues. The other 3 walls? 4 people working on them, ALL day, and there’s STILL border print in one corner and glue on the rest of the walls. And we tried EVERYTHING, fabric softener, vinegar both white and apple, soaking the print with a sponge.

Needless to say, last night after working an 8 hour day and then working on my bedroom with nothing but problems, I was getting pretty tired and frustrated, and I definitely sat down, cried, and told myself that it was a stupid idea.

I’m SO looking forward to doing this all over again when Mike and I buy our house.

Anyway, I’m crossing my fingers that I can get the walls painted and the carpet out by the end of the day without another break down. Home Improvement sucks (until it’s done).

Advice: Wallpaper is overrated and unless you know you want to keep it forever, don’t even bother. Just paint.

My Super Stressful Night

So let me tell you about my night.

First, I discovered that a good portion of the video project my team and I were presenting today, was missing.

Only one team member showed up to help me with it.

Neither of us had our camera’s and had to run around asking people to borrow theirs. Finally, my wife let us borrow hers (bless her).

A little while later, I realized we did not have the cord to transfer the pictures onto the computer, so I asked my wife to please bring her cord to me.

She did, and told me that it looked like my headlights were on.

That was a big “oh shit” because by that time I had already been there for at least 3 hours.

Yep, my battery was dead. Security gave me a jump start and I left it running for a while.

A little while later, we went outside, only to find out that it was POURING. I left my windows open. Excellent.

We finally finished our video presentation and began working on our Flash projects. I had finished mine but could not get it to load onto my website. I also could not get it to load onto the DVD.

It was about 2am when Alex and I decided we really needed coffee, so we went to the 24hour Dunkin Donuts nearby.

When we got back, all the computers had automatically shut down for weekly maintenance. All our files were locked and anything on the computer was being erased.

We decided to wait it out to see if the computers would unlock so we could re-start everything. While we were waiting, Alex spilled her coffee, from which she had about 2 sips. What a mess that was!

Finally at about 3:45, I decided I was going home because the computers were still locked and I really needed to sleep.

I got home at 4am, and finally fell asleep around 4:45. Then I had to get up at 8 and go back!

Oi! But, it’s over… and it’s not funny YET, but I’m sure it will be in a few hours.