Thought Soup

I'm going to coin that...anyway, I would like to share my soup with you:

I'm thinking about not voting for President.  I do not like either candidate for the major parties and I don't think our state allows us to vote for any other than them (BTW, there are more than 2 people running...look it up.  You can start here to get the names.  I haven't actually looked up what their platforms are, so I may not even vote for one of them even if they were on the ballot...ha). 

I just found out that my upcoming sleep study costs over $4000 without insurance.  That sure took the sting out of the $250 that I will have to pay (my deductible, apparently).

I need to find a way to make more money.  I want to be chipping away more at our debt.

I wish thinking about losing weight didn't make me hungry(ier).  Husband wants to try Insanity, but I was told that you basically need to be in P90X shape to even start Insanity.  Awesome.  And diets...I have never been on one and don't want to.  I've seen how they fail and I know they would fail for me, too.  I want to focus on portion control and eating the right amount at the right time of day, not cutting certain food/drinks out of my life completely.  I like salad, but to make your own you have to buy so much stuff and I am unable to eat it all quickly enough before it goes bad.

I would kind of like to start walking our neighborhood, but I don't feel like that's a safe idea.  I feel like our neighborhood is safe, but then I remember it's Tulsa and bad stuff can happen even in good neighborhoods.

Pretty sure we have a dead squirrel in the attic.  It smells like it, at least.  It's so bad.  I'd love to go get it out of there so it stops smelling, but Jon thinks (and probably rightfully so) that opening the door to the attic will just release the smell into the garage and into the house directly.  I wish I knew how long the smell will last.  It might be worth 2 days of gut-wrenching gross as opposed to 3 weeks of musty, light spray of death.  Sorry.  I hope you aren't reading this over lunch.

Where do adults meet friends?  I don't feel like I have many in town and I don't really know where to meet people without being weird.  I had lots of friends in college, then they all moved away (and I guess I did, too).  I like talking to them and keeping up, but sometimes I just want someone to go to dinner with me.  Coworkers are always weird because you spend all day with them, so you probably don't really want to hang out with them at night.  I feel alienated because I don't have kids, so all of my friends with kids have different schedules and needs than I do.  And I have the dogs, so I'm not exactly living fancy free either.  And while I have Jon, we work very different hours than each other, so "double dates" or whatever aren't really an option, either.  PLEASE NOTE that I do NOT wish I wasn't married, didn't have our dogs, or that my friends were single and/or without children.  I don't want our family to be an island - I would like to be in a chain of islands.  :^)

Speaking of children - we still aren't ready for them.  I had thought it was because we didn't feel financial secure enough for them (and I still feel this way), but I was recently told that kids don't really change anything.  If you had $20 left in your bank before, you'll have $20 left in your bank after.  And though we haven't had children, we have felt this effect in our lives already, too.  The more money you make, the more you spend.  This simple statement made me realize that it's not just the money part keeping us from having kids right now.  We both just don't want them right now.  And maybe it turns out that we don't have kids.  I think I might be okay with that.  Disclaimer #2:  These are all "mights" and "maybes" right now.  Apparently these are strong words, so don't take it that we are saying we will absolutely never ever ever have kids....that's not what I'm saying.  Do know that we are not attempting to multiply anytime soon, though.  I think everyone knows that, though, and that's not the tear-inducing statement...we won't go there unless we decide for 100% sure.

Mmmm...that was some good soup, wasn't it?  All gone!

My favorite video right now

Tell me you're not smiling right now.

Feel good music

I've gone through quite a transition with my music selections over the years.  It started out with whatever my brother listened to, so I could be like him.  Then, I went alternative rock...the darker the better (this may have been still following my brother's footsteps...don't really remember).  Then I went only Christian.  Smooth transition...ha... Anyway, after that (AKA now), I'm pretty open to any (although I don't really listen to Christian music anymore...and like 10 songs EVER of country).  All that to say that I may be shifting again to "feel good" music.  Positive or "no point" music is speaking to my soul.  I recently bought some headphones for work and they came with a "free $10 worth of downloaded songs" card, so I've been making a list of songs I want.  So far:

White Stripes "7 Nation Army"
Black Keys "Howlin' For You"
Black Keys "Gold on the Ceiling"
Katy Perry "Wide Awake"
Kelly Clarkson "Stronger"
AWOLnation "Sail"
Train "Hey Soul Sister"
Carly Rae Jepsen "Call Me Maybe"
Taio Cruz "Dynamite"

I'm pretty famous within my small circle of closest friends for making the most random mixes for CDs.  I did one once with Moby, America, Weezer, etc.  I think it freaks most listeners out, but they're all songs I like, so it makes sense to me!

Even with this variety, my husband has expanded my tastes even further...don't tell him, but I kinda like some Jason Mraz songs.  And They Might Be Giants is so silly they're fun.


And then my BFFs at Think Geek came up with this!

 Then there's Low Strung that does beautiful acoustic covers of famous songs using only cellos.  It's so rich and deep sounding.  It makes my inner band nerd squeal with glee.  Further ecclecticity.  I would ask if I'm normal, but seeing as I don't really have a big audience, that seems silly.  And it would make me sad if I asked and no one answered, you know?

So, with that, I'm gonna go listen to more feel good music.  Sorry if I work with you and you hear me singing.  ;-)

Open Carry/Abortion/Voting

I'm sure I have your attention now...controversy!  Yay!  I don't really like controversy, but I do like to have an opinion on things and I was raised to share - what can I say...so, right into it, shall we dive?:

*splash*

How will open carry law make guns more accessible? The latter part of that sentence seems to be an argument of people against open carry.  (BTW, we need catchy nicknames for both sides of this debate...)  If you're a criminal and you want a gun, you have one.  If you're a crazy and you want a gun, you have one. If you're a normal person who wants a gun for protection only, you have one.  It seems to me the only difference with open carry is that the "cards are on the table," if you so desire, but you can still conceal if you wish.

As I was writing this, I realized how similar this issue is to abortion.  Many Pro-Choicers say that a choice doesn't mean a decision.  Just because they want the option of an abortion, doesn't mean they will abort if they get pregnant.  Isn't this kind of the same logic as the open carry law?  Just because people have a choice to open carry, doesn't mean they will. 

You can even extend this into voting.  Every citizen of the US has the right to vote (except for felons and the like, as someone just pointed out to me)...but do they?  Of course not.  After a quick glance over some sites my ol' bud Google suggested, it doesn't seem federal voter participation has ever been over 70% (Tops out at 60-something, actually).  And lately it's been around 50%.  AND we're talking federal...state and local numbers are even more dismal.

Generally speaking, more Republicans/Conservatives favor open carry laws, more Democrats/Liberals favor Pro-Choice, and yet both support voting (duh).  Can each side just concede the logic in these small statements?  Just these statements, not the issues at hand...there are way more points to these issues that I clearly didn't bring up...and that was on purpose.  I'm just asking that you don't try to refute an issue with illogic.  Open carry will not make guns more readily available.  Pro-Choice does not mean you will abort all pregnancies.  And just because you have the right to vote, doesn't mean you will.

July 20th in my life

This started out as a FB status update, but got way too long pretty quickly, so it's going on here now!  Yay!

Jon and I have been dating for 5 years today. Sometimes it seems crazy that it's been that long and other times it seems crazy that it's "only" been that long. After realizing today is my 19th anniversary of pierced ears, 5 years doesn't seem that long...haha. Thank you for singing my praises and forgiving my shortcomings. I'd say I love you very much, but you hate that because love does not vary by degrees - you either love someone or you don't. So, I'll go ahead and state the obvious - I love you.  I'm pretty good at writing long, sappy, heart-warming letters, but after time they become white noise.  For this reason, I stop now.

Big hug.  Big kiss.