2010 Holiday Decorations, and a New Addition!

I'm not really great at decorating. (I am, apparently, fabulous at watching The Fresh Prince reruns.) Dressing up the square wall mounted DVD case as a giant giftbox was an idea I still feel I have rights to boast over. Being neither a crafty person nor a fan of Christmas, I think I set the bar with this. I suppose it's been done before but not by me! It took me roughly an hour, I dropped scissors on my feet twice, and it's very "patchwork." 

 Everyone remembers Elkton John, yes?

Now there's "Rack Hudson," or "Antler Lambert," for younger folk.
They hang out together on the shelf above our television.

  

I don't have a lot of space to put random decorations, so these guys are on my bookshelf. They're not my preferred style of decoration but Matt likes things like this. I am amused by the copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula behind them.

Kids Vs Adults : Getting Sick

Getting sick as an adult is an absolute curse. The older we are, the less capable we become. We simply can't deal with it. At the first sign of a sniffle we go into panic mode.

I haven't had health insurance since I graduated college. The prospect of paying for healthcare out of pocket has gained the same status on my mental shelf of "DEAR GOD, NO, ANYTHING BUT THAT" as car accidents and month-long vacations with my family. At the first sign of a sniffle I completely freak out. I dust off the multivitamin bottles I haven't touched since the last time I felt a tickle and start taking 3000mg of Vitamin C at a time, in an attempt to beat it to the punch. I forget the back-stock of decongestants stacked on top of the fridge and have Matt bring home half the pharmacy. I break out the Neti Pot (yes, the Neti Pot).

Some adults skip panicking and just go into denial. "I'm not sick. I can't be sick, so I'm not sick," and they show up to work with tissues and Advil Cold & Sinus and leave their will to live at home. Then everyone else avoids that person and sprays their most recent location with half a can of Lysol.

We weren't like this as children, though. Do you remember what it was like being sick as a child? You got to stay home, watch TV, eat whatever you wanted, play the same Disney VHS over and over again. At age seven, I'd zip up and down the house with a 101 degree fever singing songs from All Dogs Go to Heaven. Now when I get sick, I build a nest on my couch that would put a reed warbler into a jealous rage. As a kid I became a miniature Rembrant; being sick meant I could draw all freaking day. Now I barely have the drive to shower, much less tap into my creative energies.

I've been sick for almost a week now. On day four, when I decided I was no longer dealing with a "common cold" and could possibly be facing a "tiny inconvenient plague" I visited a nearby CVS Minute Clinic and paid $79 to receive the advice "Drink lots of water and blow your nose often." Somewhere between passing out at random intervals and finding chunks of my nose on the floor due to excessive blowing, I did this:

Sorry it's so big, I'm still getting used to how Blogger resizes things.

Paraphrasing Turkeys

I'm not really a holiday person. I think there are a lot of people out there like me. I'm just not related to them. This year my Naples, Italy born mother managed to cancel and reestablish an American holiday within a span of two hours.

Sorry for the shitty art.

The Squeaky Wheel

In light of my recent "professional" experience, I called my school's career center to spread the warning, since that was how the fellow found me.

Me: Hi, my name is .. and I was recently hired by someone who found my resume on the career center website.
Her: Oh that's great! :D :D :D
Me: .. Aheheh. One second.
Her: ..
Me: It was one of the most awful experiences. Ever.

So I told her everything, because what do I have to lose? She told me she would be taking action and a few days later called me to inform me that not only did she restrict his access (meaning he can't prey on look for my school's student resumes anymore.

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I used to be very shy when I was younger, and then as time went on I started moving in the opposite direction. When my mouth started getting me into trouble, I slid back, and now have found a happy medium. But I'm never afraid to stand up for myself. No one should be. People are right. The squeaky wheel gets the oil!



Edit 1/5/11: 


Today I did a search on my school's career center site and THIS company was the first result. I clicked and found that their profile page is running around their secondary name, which means that they either a) had a second account all along or b) created a new account after finding their primary one being banned.

Also, they accessed my resume on 12/14/10, which is more than two weeks after they didn't-but-did-fire me. I called my school once again to give them a heads up and complain all over again. I learned that apparently two of the women at the company had done a presentation for eco-friendly jobs at my college. I assume it is Blonde Girl and HR Bitch, as those are the only two females that have understandable accents.

Less than half an hour later they called to say the secondary company name is now blocked, and the career center director actually plans on visiting the company.

We'll see.