World of Suzy

Top 5

2008-10-14T08:06:00.001-07:00

New websites that I've found that I LOVE!

5. GymboPlace.com
This is an awesome site for those who love Gymboree, like me. There are forums, chats & mommies like me selling their clothing & getting to know each other. So fun!

4. IPburger.com
Always know your IP address, useful for logging into Ebay, Paypal & other places that track your IP, and can then follow your movement around the internet. Scary, I know, but they do.

3. Auctiva.com
FREE (yes, FREE) auction-hosting website that allows you to create professional looking auctions for Ebay, but unlike Turbo Lister, your identity is kept private from Ebay. And, did I mention it's free???

2. Hotchickswithdouchebags.com
Switching gears a bit here, but this site is soooooo funny! A bit sexist with a huge dose of snark makes it fun to visit. The appropriately named DB1 and his band of 'Bag Hunters roam the internet for pictures that have hot chicks posing with a guy who is a complete douche. If you want to know what a douche is, visit the site, but basically, it's guy who wears Axe body spray, Ed Hardy hats, makes obnoxious hand gestures, has even more obnoxious tatoos & thinks he's God's gift to women, when in reality, not so much.

1. Dlisted.com
The tag line for this site is "Be afraid, be very afraid" and celebrities should do just that. Fear MK & his take-no-prisoners approach to celebrity gossip! No one is safe-if you put your mug in the public eye, expect it to be snarked on at this website. Even Clara, the 105 year old virgin made the site as the "Hot Slut of the Day"! Check it out to laugh, snark & keep up on the latest celebrity gossip!

Kickin it Old School

2008-10-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Classic 80s movie, "Revenge of the Nerds" & their awesome rap:

I'm SO over this...

2008-10-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've finally adjusted to unemployed life. I recently bought Oprah's magazine (I know, I know, but it said "Make Changes in Your Life" on the cover & I thought "What the heck) and I read an article on "How not to be the victim" when you are in a difficult situation. The author talked about making your peace with your life in order to move on & included a short blurb about a Holocaust survivor in which he explained how when he was imprisoned, instead of thinking "Why me?" he began to think "How can I use this experience to make my life better?".

That was IT for me & my self-pity. If a Holocaust survivor can use a horrible, demeaning & awful experience in a positive way, then SURELY I can too. I mean, I'm not being persecuted for my beliefs, I'm merely unemployed. In the grand scheme of things, big whoop. Now, I'm not wallowing in self-pity-before, I was all "Why me?"-and now, I'm looking at the long-term effects. I've been able to eat lunch with my daughter, volunteer at her school & pick her up every day; these are the things she will remember. And when I retire from teaching after 27 years, I'll look back and see this period of time as a small blip on the radar. It's only a few months & I am collecting unemployment (thank goodness), so I'm ending my self-pity as of NOW.

Have you heard?

2008-09-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

New England Patriot's quarterback Tom Brady injured his knee & might be out for the rest of the season...and that because of this, the world as we know it MAY be coming to an end?
Brett Favre got traded in the off-season and started his first game with the New York Jets yesterday?

YOU DIDN'T? Well, then you must be living under a rock because these two stories were EVERYWHERE last night...Sportscenter dedicated almost 15 minutes of its broadcast to tell us these lovely tidbits...and then only showed 2 (!) more teams' highlights, the Cowboys & the Eagles. I didn't get to see Steeler highlights until this morning...sheesh!

Now, I know that Tom Brady & Brett Favre are amazing football players, but COME ON!! And tell me, admit it: the fact that Brady hurt his knee gives you just a little bit of joy and/or schadenfreude? I know, I'm heartless, but I loathe the Patriots, so I am relishing this just a bit...

Top 5 Things I LIKE about being unemployed...

2008-09-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m still unemployed (not a big shock, right?), so here’s how I’m making the best of it…by trying to find the positive side of not working…so here’s my TOP 5 for today..
5. Afternoon naps Now, I’m not talking about a big fat 3-hour nap during the day or sleeping the day away, but a 45-minute “cat nap” around noon? Awesome.
4. Not having to “dance for the man” As a teacher, I was on a very strict schedule & I had to please 150 students + the administration on a daily basis, but now? I’m the boss of me.
3. Reading books I finally read Angels & Demons by Dan Brown & have just bought 5 new books from Amazon.com, which is an absolute luxury, considering I didn’t have time to read the paper when I was working.
2. Being a full-time mom I get to drop off & pick up my daughter at kindergarten, which I know she appreciates & I enjoy. The past two years have been crazy, so this is a welcome relief from the insanity.
1. Having the time to do some “soul-searching” I have the time to figure out why this is happening and make my sense of it all. I never, NEVER thought I would be in this situation, but I’m coming to terms with it (hence the list). I am working on my website, my Ebay business & other things that I couldn’t do while I was working full time, so that’s definitely a positive.

Oh, and the bi-monthly unemployment check is nice too…

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s “Top 5 Things that SUCK about being unemployed”…

Project Runway

2008-08-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

I love tv and my TiVo and am absolutely giddy when "Project Runway" comes on. I love the drama, the designs, Michael Kors, TIM GUNN and just the whole crew. Well, if you don't watch it (you must!), on Wednesday's show the designers were assigned drag queens & had to design an outfit for them to wear in a show. The results were hilarious (as always) and led to my "Top 5 Funniest Quotes from Project Runway":

5. "I keep thinking it's a sad, molting gray chicken"-Michael Kors on Keith's dress

4. "The belt hides the 'candy'...it's a real lifesaver"-RuPaul (guest judge) & Nina Garcia on Paul's outfit

3. "If I would've put sequins on the dress, it would've been too gaudy"-Clueless Daniel (uh, it's for a drag queen show, the gaudier the better, honey)

2. "The dress looks like 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' Under the Sea"-Michael Kors on Jerrell's dress

1. "It looks like a pterydactyl out of a gay 'Jurassic Park'"-Tim Gunn on Blayne's outfit

I love Tim Gun...I want to have lunch with him and just hang out...maybe go to a museum...he uses words like "caucus" as a verb, as in "You have 30 minutes to caucus with your client"...LOVE!

Grrrrrr.....

2008-08-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

I had a VERY frustrating morning...I took my daughter to school & then went to the Unemployment Office (yes, I admit it, I'm on the dole) b/c there was a problem with my bi-weekly check, namely that I haven't received it and I'm broke. So I get there about 8:30 and when I sign in, the guy at the desk tells me "They are in a staff meeting, but should be out shortly." And there were 20 people in the waiting room already-that should've been Sign #1 that this was gonna be awhile. But I thought "Well if I don't get this taken care of today, I might have to wait even longer for my check and then, well that would be bad."

Anywho, TWO HOURS later, someone calls my name & I go back to her desk & begin explaining that I haven't received my check. I can see my account on the screen and the lovely lady says "Let me go talk to someone. I'll be right back". Uh, okay. Then she returns & asks, "Have you found a job yet?" to which I want to say, "No, because if I had, I wouldn't have been able to spend TWO FREAKING HOURS waiting in this office", but what I really say is a polite, "No." She leaves, the returns & says, "Well we took the stop off your account...I don't know why it was put there in the first place...we have a new computer system & it's been messing things up." Great. Can I get that in writing so I can tell the car loan people why my payment is late?! So this entire encounter took less than 5 minutes...so 2 hours of waiting led to 5 minutes of face time...but at least the problem was fixed & I should get my check by Saturday.

So I am thoroughly annoyed at this point-and I stop at Sonic on the way home & get a slush & French Toast sticks b/c I eat when I'm stressed-and I get home & kvetch to my husband about my ordeal, then turn on the Olympics on TiVo & there's a story about an amputee swimmer. Natalie du Toit from South Africa lost her leg in an accident & made the Olympics. She is so positive & upbeat about life & simply says that struggles make us stronger & life can be difficult, but you have to be positive. Ugh. Now I feel like a jerk for raging about the Unemployment office. She overcame the loss of a limb to become an Olympian, the least I can do is shut my pie-hole and wait for 2 hours-it's not like I got a whole lot going on these days...

Home Cooking?

2008-08-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

How do you say "Home Cooking" in Chinese? The American girls' gymnasts were ROBBED the last few nights! Ugh! Again, I am obsessed with the Olympics and I feel soooo bad for Alicia & Nastia because they screwed out of the medals they deserved. And how cute was Bela Karolyi when he cried? My heart breaks for them...

I found a freelance job, but it sucked because this person wanted me to write 17 500-word articles TODAY and was going to pay me less than $20. Um, no. That's exploitation, imho. I'm working on getting my website up and running and will be posting Ebooks soon (hopefully later this week).

This morning, my husband asked our daughter, "If Daddy wakes you up, don't go back to sleep again" and she replied, "I am". HAH! But she got off to school today and I dropped her off in front of school for the first time and I was a little nervous, but she did great!

Okay, more later-I need to go pick her up at school. If I don't get in the car pick-up line by 2:50, then she has to wait forever, and I don't want that!

Olympic Gold?

2008-08-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

I am obsessed with the Olympics & have been staying up late every night to watch Michael Phelps, Nastia Luikin, Shawn Johnson and the rest achieve success. I started to think about how hard they trained (Phelps spends 5 hours a day in the pool + eats 8000 calories/day!) and the dedication it takes to achieve that kind of success. They get accolades-gold or silver medals, endorsements, worldwide coverage, etc. I have worked my entire life to be a teacher and have endured difficulties, have gone into debt with student loans, and I was rewarded with two years of teaching high school. But now, through no choice of my own, I am not teaching. Someone else made the decision to take my dedication & hard work and throw it away and now I'm trying to take that negative and turn it into a positive. I spent 6 months trying to find another teaching job, went on 4 interviews, and...nothing. I thought that I was defined by my job-it inspired me and gave me a reason to get out of bed in the morning-but now that the j0b is gone, I'm trying to find a new identity.

One positive aspect is that I get to take my daughter to school every day and pick her up from Kindergarten. I know she loves that and so do I-and she looked sooooo cute today going to school in her Petite Mademoiselle Gymboree outfit. :)

I'm trying to get my website www.tessybugsboutique.com up and running and develop Ebooks on how to make money on Ebay selling children's clothes, something I've wanted to do for a while but I just haven't had the time. So another positive is that I have the time to explore avenues I've wanted to for a while...I just wish I made more money off of it, but hopefully I will soon.

I've got a freelance job to work on, so I'll holla at ya later. :)

Suzy