things is changing!

25 days in to the new year. First I just have to say that the AZ Cardinals are in the Super Bowl! OMG, who ever thought this would happen? Now you know I'm not in to sports but do enjoy a good game if it's the home team and they're in the playoffs. I watched the last 3 games as if I'd been a life long fan. I naturally root for our home teams but the Cardinals haven't always given any of us a lot to root for. I watched the first two games alone at home and wow, Larry Fitzgerald is my new hero. That man is a graceful swan! And a touchdown machine. I watched the last playoff game at Jackie's and we were all glued to the set and hooting and hollering like we were actually there in person. I missed the last touchdown because I was in the bathroom and I heard them all screaming and I ran out there and we were all hugging and jumping around. I learned what a 2 point conversion is (shut up, we can't all be sports savy) and that interception and turnover are interchangeable terms. I feel even more well rounded person now!

Next, we have a new president and one I actually voted for. That's never happend. What an amazing time we are living in. I caught some of the inauguration at work but didn't get to actually see the swearing in portion. Here's hoping all the hope we're putting in to our new president is deserved. But lets face it, he couldn't possible screw things up as bad as the last administation!

Economically, everything sucks. I'm doing okay alone but am grateful that I have a stable job/income and also lucky that I've seen much harder times before and know what I am capable of and how little I need to survive. Many of my friends are struggling and some have been laid off or are very close to being laid off. We still manage to have fun together (for free) and in the end I think that's the most important thing.

I'm still here. Just me and my dog. Going with the flow and liking it. I've gotten out of my head and wow, it's nice out here! Work is good and I love my employees. My assistant manager is totally a saint and don't know how I ever got along without him. Overall I am pretty grateful for the state of life right now. I know, it's boring to read here when I'm not complaining! I'm falling asleep just typing this!

forgot to post pics

Jackie got her first ever speeding ticket....92mph

yes, I'm 30 today

sunning and pooling before more partying

anytime I think I look great I stand next to Jackie and then not so much!

hey look at me I'm 30!!!

11 of us total. 5 more than last year. we had a lot of fun

I never posted my vegas pics. I had such a great bday in vegas. was sick as a dog but still managed to have fun. I was determined no nausea was going to ruin my weekend. enjoy.

Endings

For those of you who don't already know, Chad and I broke up in November. A very hard decision. But it was amicable. We didn't break up on hard terms or because of anger or any specific incident. I don't really want to discuss such a personal thing here but felt that I needed to address it since he has been the biggest part of my life the last 9 years. We are still in contact and getting along. I hope it stays that way. Of course I still love him and always will.

Other than that life has been normal. Work and friends keeping my mind occupied. Strange being in my house alone but I am doing well. Chloe and I go for walks. I am going out more and enjoying all my friends. Xmas was hard but I knew it would be. Its done now and I hope next year it won't be so sad. I don't see how it could possibly be.

I hope everyone is doing well and having a great holiday. I have lots of hope for 2009.

nice girls finish last too!

Goosebumps I tell you!
Took these from my seat. That's Jordan up front... very cute.

Some of the girls that went with me. Corina and Stefanie.
corina took this pic. she had seperate seats on the floor and they moved mid floor in the middle of the concert for 3 songs. I didn't take too many pics cause my camera doesn't do well in the dark and it doesn't zoom in well either. My videos on the other hand are so freaking awesome! That is until my memory card filled up and I couldn't take anymore.
stage is behind me but they had some fog machine going so you can't see it.

I did not win my contest. Nope. Some girl who posted 20 comments won. I posted 500+ comments and I lost. I was robbed. Really just fucked in the goat ass robbed. That's how I felt. I waited until 4:30 in the afternoon the day of the concert only to hear some girl named Jennifer take my prize from me. I went in to the arena pretty bummed but by the time New Kids hit the stage I was over it and so excited. They put on a terrific show. I sang along to all the songs and danced and felt like I was a preteen again. I got goosebumps when they came out. I couldn't stop screaming! There was a super creep behind me with his mom or maybe it was his wife. I don't know but he was the oldest guy there who didn't bring his daughter and knew all the lyrics even better than I did and every chance he got he'd scream out "yeah, you guys rock, yeah, you're so awesome!" Kinda scary but he was just there the same reason the rest of us 20,000 girls were so I can't really fault him. We tried our best to get backstage after teh concert but the security were very uncaring and unimpressed with our pleas and in the end escorted us out of the arena.

The next day I told everyone and they all agreed that I got royally screwed out of what will probably be my only opportunity to meet NKOTB. My dear friend Kristian actually emailed the DJ, Chino, at the radio station:

Hi Chino....

I have a friend that busted her butt posting on your blog for the chance to see the New Kids backstage....She clearly had a majority of posts...but it looks like you chose from your page rather from the actual posts to your blog? Maybe this was an oversight She emailed you prior asking for clarification and you said to keep doing what she was doing....and she did....and someone else won.

Do you think you could do some secondary kind of NICE thing by possibly just calling her before the show and mentioning her effort? I would mean the world to her since she is still going to the concert but isn't going to be able to see them back stage.

Nothing came of it so he wrote Chino again:

Hey...I just want you to know that just a few extra minutes of your day could have made a huge difference in someone's life.

Friends of Joana's, along with me, went back to your blog. The "winner" had 20 some posts....Joana had over 500 posts. We can't figure out the rules and how the 'winner' won...but please, if you would, call her just to acknowledge all her work on your blog. If you look, you would have had relatively few posts and energy spent on it at all if it weren't for her.

Yea, it may all seem very juvenile, but what would it hurt to give her some credit as well as making a faithful listener just a little bit happy?

That apparently did the trick because Chino actually did call me and said "wow, you have some pretty great friends chewing me out over here." I told him that I did not put Kris up to it and he said he was sorry that I wasn't chosen the winner but that it wasn't about quantity and that it was completely random and he wasn't even involved in the picking of the winner. Seems silly to me to put your name on it and not pick the winner but I guess it's just a job to him and he does what he's told. My name is on a bunch of shit at work that I don't necessarily endorse or care about so I assume it's the same thing for Chino. He promised me that if I went in and posted a comment on the new blog I would for sure be the winner for the 8x10 autographed photo of the entire group. I did and he did. He called me and put me on the radio and eveything. He posted me as teh official winner on his web page and everything. See far left and also top center of the page.

The next day I drove my happy ass down to the radio station and the receptionist couldn't find my photograph. Lucky for me Chino was just showing up for work and walked by. Corina got his attention and he came over and I thanked him. He knew where my photo was and he handed it over to me personally. He apologized again and was very nice about the whole thing.

It was a silly contest but I took it very seriously. I don't normally care about celebrities like I do in this case. They were a huge part of my adolescence. My first concert. They were everything to me when I was 12 and now they making another impact on my quiet little life again.

confessions of a NKOTB fanatic

This is only a tiny sampling of what I had.


my 7th grade year book photo. had to represent! I loved Joe.

That's New Kids on the Block to you. Just my favorite band and obsession from my early teen years, that's all. Heading in to the 90's this country was hungry for a break from big hair and giant shoulder pads and a group of 5 young singers would come to show us relief. Truly I don't think I was ever so obessessed with anything as I was with NKOTB. I owned tons of merchandise and video taped every appearance they made, which in those days actually had to be done by hand, in real time, gasp. My friends and I were boy crazy and loved cheesy bubble gum pop music. It was a good time to be alive. They disbanded in 1994 or so and by that time I had moved on to alternative music and grunge clothing as most of my cohorts had. In my heart they remained but in secret. Many reunions were rumored but never amounted to much until this last April. They came together again and released a new album and are coming to my hometown tomorrow for a show. I bought my tickets the minute they went on sale. I bought 4 tickets and tomorrow night we are going to be blockheads again. I don't really talk to most of my old friends from back in my youth but one of the girls is coming with me. Wendy and I recently started hanging out again and I am happy to be sharing this with her. I've known her since 5th grade. we lost touch late in high school and then Karin reintroduced us a few months ago and as soon as I told her I bought a ticket for her she flipped! We are so excited. So, the radio station is giving out tickets left adn right and they are also giving out passes to see them in the sound check for a meet and greet. HOLY COW, I need to meet New Kids! clearly. I've never met a celebrity and in general don't really care about many of them. I mean not enough to want to meet them but NKOTB is a different story. They were there in my formative years. That doesn't go away. So the contest on KISS FM is to comment on one of the DJ's blogs about which new kid is the hottest and why. The each comment is a chance to win the sound check passes. Well hell, I can comment. So I did. told all the girls to also. Then I noticed several people left several comments and read a comment from teh DJ himself that said something like "I've got peopel watching this closely to see who really wants this the most" and bam boom that did it for me. I started commenting over and over and over and over again. I have barely left my computer since Thursday night at 5. So far I have left over 400 comments out of 916 and there have been a few girls who have tried to go head to head with me. I have a strategy. The one girl who was my competition all day Friday all of sudden stopped posting. Then two other girls showed up and started posting but I never stopped. I posted up old pictures of me with all my old NKOTB stuff, new pictures of Chloe and other random stuff. I wrote poems, songs, haikus etc. BAsically whatever came to my mind I commented about it. I even made up a brother who antagonized me and I would retaliate against him in funny ways. Most of what I said was true. Old memories of the first NKOTB concert I went to in 1991. These other amateurs were cutting and pasting from other sites. No originality, no heart. Although I started posting pics from google I always put in a cute saying or thought to go with them. When I couldn't post comment I had the girls login and post for me. My eyes hurt. my fingers are absolute jello. my neck and lower back ache. I hope I win. Now nothing is guaranteed. But I am hopeful that I am the very clear winner in wanting it the most. Either way I'm going to the show but damn I'd love to meet them in person. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

the vortex is getting worse

not sure if I've ever mentioned our vortex. basically, there is a big black void where air waves and sound waves and all sorts of frequencies and signals come to die. it starts at our community mailbox, approx 100 yards away. not sure where it ends but most of the time if i'm on my cell phone and I'm driving home past the mailbox I can almost pin point the exact moment where my call will drop. when we moved in we discovered that the ceiling fan in the living room would turn on by itself at usually the same time each weekend or in the middle of the night. Either the lights or the fan or both at random dimness and fan speeds. nothing completely out of the ordinary but now I'm noticing other things that seem to be associated, or at least unexplained and therefore related until explained! the TV in the living room skips out audio every few minutes for a second to five seconds sometimes. I told Chad to ask the TV repairman about it when he came out a few months ago and the idiot (not Chad, the repairman) told us to call the cable company. I think he thought that we didn't know the diference in censorship from the networks and poor audio output. oh well i guess. now the garage door has stopped responding to both Chad's and my clickers and also the pin pad on the outside of the house. It still opens from the inside of the garage. Besides the fact that my cordless phones only ring every 10 calls or so (I miss a lot of calls) now one of them drops calls at random, usualy when I check voicemail. I have never heard of a land line dropping calls. Even back in the 80's when we had some of the primitive cordless phones with the metal antenna's that everyone would eventually break did they ever drop a call. Very very very annoying! Several light bulbs have gone out and when I replace them they still don't work. And as if that wasn't weird enough my computer (and I think Chad's) drops the internet connection. Today it's (oh there it goes again "local area network cable unplugged") been happening a lot. Last night I plugged my camera in to charge for 2 hours before I went out and not only did it not charge but wouldn't work again until this morning. The battery was so dead. Deader than a door nail. The guy who lived here before us was an electrician and did a lot of his own work on the house so that could have a lot to do with it but I still say it's the vortex. It's getting much worse. If it's not a vortex than we're sitting on top of some indian barial ground. Anyone know a good witch doctor?

kids say the darndest things

Did some shopping today. nothing fancy, just groceries. while walking through the produce section I witnessed a kid, maybe 6 years old, put his butt on some potatoes and fart. His mother didn't seem to notice (or worse, didn't care) and he was quite pleased with himself. Then later in the bread aisle I heard a little girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old, tell her mother "I know where daddy hides cigarettes!" I was turning out of that aisle and didn't get to hear mom's reaction. But I bet it was good. Earlier in the week I had this mother and her brat of son in my store. I don't know what she did to piss him off but he threw one of the ugliest tantrums I've ever seen. He was crying and carrying on and then proceeded to hit his mother repeatedly and yell at her "you make me angry!" over and over again at the top of his lungs. All little reminders of why I am glad I don't have children.
Got through rush last week. The week prior my assistant manager quit. long story short some customer called her a bitch and she got mad when I didn't reprimand the customer. There's a lot more to it than that but basically that was her last straw and she quit. So Corina and I handled rush without her. It was our best rush ever. I hired some phenomenal temps and we kicked some serious butt together. Everyone was in sync with everyone else. Customers got what they needed when they needed it and in the end, my 63 hour work wee was very fulfilling. Now, I have to train a new assistant and I have this great candidate that is a temp. He can do it all and also with a big smile on his face. He even caught a shop lifter on Wednesday. The only problem is that he has a parole officer he has to see every Tuesday night for the next 10 weeks. That means if I want him to work for me I have to quit working for Weight Watchers on Tuesdays (which I am sad about) so I can close the store. But I think he may be worth it. I don't know what he went to jail for and really, as long as it's not theft, I don't care. I mean if he was some crazy killer or something he wouldn't be out so whatever. I am not allowed to ask him. I'll have Corina do it for me.

Oh and just a last note. I got a $65 check from the county because the judge dismissed my ticket. Pretty sweet.

'it figures' is my middle name

Went to traffic school weekend before last and paid my debt to society. $120 for four hours of traffic jeopardy and a silly video where this old guy took out another driver with a harpoon in a bout of road rage! Last Tuesday was my court date. Very interesting how they the court system works. Six different city courts all lined up in rooms and when you walk in you get to see all the other jerks who messed up and got caught by the popo. Probably 50 people in there waiting to see the judge. Some of these people were in jeans and tank tops and I remember thinking 'is that seriously how you dress to go meet a judge, jackass?' Most of them walked right up and either pleaded guilty and assessed a fine or they pled not guily and got another court date. Everything from DUI to Boating DUI and one kid had window tint that was too dark (been there, done that, paid that $40 fine) and he woulda had to pay $125 if he hadn't fixed it. Two different kids under 21 for DUI. One guy had aggrevated driving and no license or registration and was drunk and he didn't even speak english. Prime example of why it is sometimes a good idea to block the borders. His fine was $450 for just one his violations. So I finally get called up and when I get up to show the judge my proof of insurance he says to me "good afternoon miss krackuh" and I say "uh, no, it's miss cracker' and he says "what's that?" and I say "my last name is cracker, not krackuh, the officer spelled my name wrong." He asked to see my license then handed it back to me and told me he was dismissing my ticket. Didn't even bother with my proof of insurance. Both charges dropped. WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?! Seriously couldn't have planned that if I had tried. Everyone in the court room was like "oh man, no fair, she's so lucky" Don't get me wrong I am tickled pink that I "beat" the system but the system beat my by getting my $120 and four hours on a Saturday! Now if I do get stopped again I can't go to traffic school to excuse the ticket cause I've already been. I asked my friend Joe, who's an ex-NYPD cop, what are the chances they throw my ticket out for the error in my name? He said probably wouldn't happen. He said if this was the 80's then yes but now days they don't care if they made a mistake. Apparently he was wrong. Had I just bothered to ask the police department directly I probably could've avoided traffic school and court. But knowing my luck they would've had me take my ticket in so they could issue a corrected one so ,really, there would've been no winning for me. Still I had to try. So I wrote my traffic school instructor an email:



I was in your class this past Saturday. I had court today for my proof of insurance violation and the judge ended up throwing out the ticket because the officer wrote my ticket out to Romanian Krackuh instead of Cracker. So if I do happen to get another ticket in the next two years my free pass has now gone out the window, right? I guess if I had known that this was a possibility I wouldn't have taken the course. Had I not taken the course and then shown up to court and he didn't throw it out then the judge would have made me pay the ticket and I would now have points on my license. I even stayed after I got my certificate to ask you about my name on my ticket but then figured you turn in the citation number and not the name. Any input?

A few days later he wrote back:

Yes, you are right. We just send in the citation number. Unfortunately this is the dilemma that everyone is faced with, when they receive a traffic citation. Either go to court in the hope of winning your case or just go to driving school and not asses (he spelled asses not assess, ...hahahah.....sorry) any moving violation points. Alot of times it is better to just go to school. The fee you pay for school is cheaper than paying for a traffic violation. In your case, if the judge would have found you to be at fault. You would have spent at least 200 to 400 dollars in fines. Plus the points added to your record. Sorry for the late response. If you have any more questions feel free to write back.

What does he care? He already got his $120. So anyway it just figures. I mean it really does. This sort of thing always happens to me. I know I should be happy but really it's just another reminder of how much the universe likes to kick you when you're down.