Frustration with...

...Facebook. Yes, as many of you know, my Facebook/e-mail account was hacking into the day after Thanksgiving. You might have received some e-mail scam that said it was from me (but wasn't) asking for money. Anyway, I notified Facebook the day I found out (the day AFTER Thanksgiving). I changed my Facebook password and let them know about the scam. Almost one month later they notified me that I had been part of scam (D'uh, I'd figured that out already) by deactivating my Facebook account. I had to notify them that I wanted to reactivate the account by e-mailing them some information (nothing sensitive). That was seven days ago and I still can't log into my Facebook account. UGGGHHHH!!!

Anyway, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Hope everyone had a good one. Ours was low key (they always are since it's just my sister, my mom and myself). To be honest I'm more excited that I had two days off work but dread going back the week between Christmas and New Year's because there is usually nothing for me to do. At least a three-four of the staff is on vacation (our offices in Canada and Australia actually just close down that week) so there is nobody there to support. It's going to be a long, long week four day week. I do get next Monday off for New Year's Day! Whoo-hooo!!!!!

Happy New Year everyone!

How About Some Cheese With Those Crackers

Everybody has some. Those songs you would never admit to liking but will sing at the top of lungs in the car when nobody is with you. Yes, I'm talking about those cheesy songs you are ashamed to love. There are tons of them out there but it seems as if the 70s and 80s produced a lot of them. Well today I'm going to admit to five cheesy songs that I love. Here we go...

5. Don't Mean Nothing by Richard Marx. I actually got to see him perform live on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno back in the 90s. Actually he almost ran my sister and I down with his car after the show but I won't hold that against him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8E_dkESwzg

4. Hold On by Wilson Phillips. Okay, so when you're in your early 20s and on your own for the first time and you think your life is miserable, this song can mean a lot to you.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/219016/1010156

3. Can't Fight This Feeling by REO Speedwagon. Oh the unrequited love of high school in the 1980s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Fb8XbpWMM

2. Pretty much any song by ABBA. With the new popularity of Mamma Mia, ABBA has had a resurgence but cheese is still cheese. One of my favorites is one of their lesser know songs, Does Your Mother Know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o1DlaQw8Rc

1. Any song from Air Supply. They are the Royalty of cheese. Yes, I own their Greatest Hits CD (and have some of their songs on my MP3 player) and probably know the words to most of their songs. If I had to pick a favorite it would be Making Love Out of Nothing at All (warning: the video is just as cheesy as the song so if you are lactose intolerant, I don't recommend that you watch).
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1wsvu_air-supply-making-love-out-of-nothi_music

I have one honorable mention. I really don't like this song but I made a mix CD in September for a road trip with my sister and put this song on it just for her. It's Escape/The Pina Colada song by Rupert Holmes. It's pretty cheesy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVdhZwK7cS8

Now I know you have a collection of favorite cheesy songs so don't judge me.

Enjoy!

Bah! Humbug!

I'm going to be honest, every year I dislike the "Christmas season" more and more. To me Christmas has become brash and commercialized and even tacky. I feel as if the season is forced upon me and I don't like that. I don't like having to listen to Feliz Navidad everywhere I go BEFORE Thanksgiving and I don't understand why people feel the need to celebrate this holiday for four weeks by putting up decorations the minute the Thanksgiving turkey is cleared from the table.

I know why I feel like this. Christmas as an adult isn't the same as Christmas as a child. As an adult I have a small family and although I love my mom and sister more than anything else in the world, I miss my dad and the childhood Christmases spent with my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. I do miss my extended family.

But I think somewhere our society has changed Christmas and it's all about excess. Christmas is one day but for some reason we have to celebrate it for at least four weeks? We don't do that with any other holiday. Thank goodness we don't have to endure four weeks of Valentine decorations everywhere we go. But with Christmas it just seems like there is too much, too much of everything and for me that isn't the meaning of Christmas.

Christmas has definitely changed since I was a kid. I used to love to watch those holiday TV shows like Santa Claus is Coming to Town and The Year Without a Santa Claus. But they used to be scheduled closer to Christmas. Did you know that they have already shown Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Yep, you missed it already. Also there was the time off school. That was the best. Now, as an adult, if you don't save some of your vacation time you end of up working, sometimes even on Christmas Eve. And I don't know about you but NOTHING happens at work the week between Christmas and New Years.

Here's what I love about Christmas. I love that I get to spend time with my family and friends. I love that I get time off work (my company gives us two days of holiday - I'll take whatever I can get). I love that maybe in some little way I can make a difference in the life of a person who may not be as blessed as I am. For Christians this is the time to celebrate the birth of our Savior. It's not about four weeks of lights, decorations, music or spending money leading up to Christmas. And it makes me sad because it feels like the meaning of Christmas has really, really changed.

Welcome to the World Gemma

That last thought I had Monday night before falling asleep was about my friend Nancy and how in two weeks her life was going to change forever because in two weeks her baby was due. Nancy is single and had in vitro. I felt blessed because she asked me to be in the delivery room with her and her mother when she had the baby...in two weeks.

Tuesday morning I get out the shower, getting ready to go to work, when the phone rings. Nancy's at the hospital. Her water broke and she was having contractions. The baby was coming...two weeks early.

I'm pretty sure that at this point in my life I'm not going to get to experience child birth first hand so I felt pretty honored to be there when Gemma Dorothy Strouse came into the world at 12:3o p.m. on Tuesday, November 30 at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches long.

Mommy and baby are doing just great but looking back it all seems surreal! Thank you Nancy, for letting me be a part of this wonderful moment!