Kristabella: Full of Snark Since 1977

Posted By Kristabella on October 19, 2010

I’ve been busy, people. I have barely been home in the last two months. In fact, the weekend before last was the first weekend I was spending at my own house since LABOR DAY! That’s like a month and a half! And then I spent most of my day at the Apple store because of a possessed iPhone.

It’s a known fact that I spread myself too thin. While I can be the laziest person known to man, I also am willing to give up my lazy time to hang out with the people that I love.

That’s what I did this past weekend. Skyler turned five last Tuesday, so I drove up to her house on Friday evening after work to go to her birthday party that she was having with her friends. She’s so grown up and has two boyfriends in her class. SO CUTE!

On Saturday morning, I woke up early (earlier than I get up for work, FYI) and got ready to go sit outside and watch Skyler play soccer. She had two games, so I was outside in the chilly fall morning for two hours watching her run around on a soccer field. She even scored a goal! That was before she decided she just wanted to stand in the net and play goalie, even though there are no goalies in the U6 soccer league. Apparently two games is one too many for five year olds because she was D-O-N-E, DONE with that soccer nonsense about halfway through the second game.

After soccer, I drove from my brother’s house to my mom’s house for party number two – a combo birthday for Skyler and Gram. Most of the family was coming, including a little baby that I hadn’t seen in awhile. Can you believe she’s four months old already?

It was a grand old time. There were excellent appetizers and then we ordered pizza for dinner. I stuffed myself silly.

But at some point, oh about 5 PM, I kind of lost my shit. See, I live by myself. I like that. I like having time alone sometimes. I also like to spend time on Saturdays watching college football, especially now since Sarah and Laurie convinced me to write weekly recaps over on Draft Day Suit.

So I took a break. I went into the TV room to relax and watch some football. And then, because it is a small house and there were a lot of people in it, I didn’t get to spend enough time by myself. And then there were a lot of people around and it was loud and I lost it. I yelled and threw a bit of a fit and tried to find a spot to regroup, alone, and basically failed.

I decided I should go home. On top of my crabby mood, I wanted to watch the Ohio State/Wisconsin game, which was on cable, which my mom doesn’t have. Finally, about an hour later, after cake and ice cream and goodbyes, I was on my way home. Sitting in traffic. Which did a lot for my mood, as I’m sure you could imagine.

On my way home, I felt bad. I shouldn’t have lost it and gotten so angry. But, you know what? We all have bad days. We women, especially, have those kinds of days, when good ol’ Aunt Flo stops by for a visit. Combine that with being exhausted and just wanting 10 minutes of quiet, and well, you can see why I lost it.

I started to feel guilty on my drive home. I thought about how selfish I was being because I wanted to be by myself, when it was a family gathering. That I can suck it up for ONE DAY and not be all by myself and enjoy the company of others. But then I talked myself out of that. I had just spent a majority of the weekend with others, doing things for others, so I was the opposite of selfish. I do a lot for my family. I don’t mind it at all. I love that my nieces and nephews love me to pieces and that I am a big part of their lives. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

But I also like my life. I like quiet evenings on my couch with my stupid cats. I like spending winter weekends inside, in my PJs, just watching TV and catching up on my DVR. I need these days. They help keep me sane. They help me not spread myself too thin. And they help me keep it all together. They help me be the best person I can be, to everyone in my life.

Is it just normal to feel guilty when these kinds of things happen? Are we expected to be perfect at all times? How do you handle those stressful times?

And don’t even get me started on the fact that I immediately beat myself up, because if I can’t handle a day like that, how will I ever be able to handle being a mom, especially if I end up being a single mom?

/pityparty

:::

Oh, happy birthday to my blog! She turned four today! I think I will give her a shot, a beer and a piece of cake!

Category: A Dash of the Crazy, A Day in the Life of Me, All in the Family, Feeeelings | 20 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on October 18, 2010

I have a lot of friends that are foodies and love to make delicious things. It’s nice, because they share a lot of tasty recipes. Which is good for me because then I’m not eating the same five things all the time.

But I am not a foodie. Nor a chef. I am a strict recipe follower. I will only ever add something that someone else may have suggested in the comments of a recipe. Sometimes, I’ll get adventurous and add spinach or black beans to something to give me more fiber. I don’t experiment. But I can follow a recipe like no one’s business! Look! I freaking made challah! And I’m not even Jewish!

So keeping this all in mind, I wanted to tell you a funny story about my grocery shopping escapades.

Back awhile ago, I happened to innocently ask some online foodie friends about kosher salt and where one would find it in the grocery store. Because, as I told them, I LOOKED in the spice aisle by all the other salt, and it wasn’t there. So I asked them where else it could be.

They laughed and laughed and laughed. (In fact, they still bring it up. Note to self, stop sharing so much.) They sent me links to what it looks like, like I was a God damned idiot. I told them, “One, I am not blind. And two, I swear, hand to God, it was not where all the other spices were, not by the salt. I DID NOT SEE A BOX LIKE THAT PHOTO!”

A few weeks later, I was trolling through the grocery store and I saw the kosher salt. It was on the BOTTOM shelf in the Jewish food aisle. (I should have known. My grocery store is in a heavily Jewish neighborhood.) It was not easy to find, AT ALL! Also, I get that it’s kosher, but it doesn’t need to be by the matzah. Non-Jews use it too!

I will have you know that the kosher salt? Now by the other salt and spices, WHERE IT SHOULD BE!

Fast forward to last week. I was doing my weekly grocery shopping and I got to two items on my list – ricotta cheese and frozen hash brown potatoes. Two relatively common ingredients, right?

So I went to look for the ricotta by the sour cream and cottage cheese in the refrigerated section. No luck. So I tried the regular cheese aisle. Nope, not there. Then I tried by the refrigerated other Italian items (i.e. pre-cooked ravioli, sauces, etc.) NO. WHERE WAS THE DAMN RICOTTA?

Finally, a light bulb went off. I thought “it must be in the fancy cheese section!” So off I went to the complete other side of the store to look for my ricotta.

What I found was no ricotta. Well, there was exactly ONE container and it was like HUGE (way more than I needed) and it was whole-milk ricotta, and I was looking for part-skim. ONE CONTAINER! In the whole store! WTDF?

I said fuck it and decided to go get the last item on my list, the hash browns. “This will be easy to find,” I told myself! “They are in the freezer section! By the other potatoes! I could get some tater tots at the same time if I want!”

I was wrong. I walked up and down the two frozen food aisles about 13 times looking for frozen potatoes. I tried by the breakfast stuff, the vegetables. And then I walked up and down slowly a few more times just to make sure. This was not going to be a repeat of the kosher salt incident! I was going to find the damned hash browns!

They were NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!

“How could this be,” I asked myself. “There has to be fucking French fries in this store. This is Chicago. We like French fries and other deep-fried things!”

I then decided to walk every dam aisle again, thinking I missed some secret, hidden frozen food case. Clearly, I did not. This store is just fucking stupid.

So after work the next night I had to make yet another trip to the grocery store. This time I went to the Brand! New! store that just opened in my neighborhood. I walked in the door and went to the first frozen food aisle and saw this:

Then I turned around and saw I was also in the cheese aisle. And I found not one, not 5, but about 10 different kinds of ricotta cheese!

And that was the night new grocery store won my heart.

Category: A Day in the Life of Me, Land of Random, Mmmm Food | 19 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on October 13, 2010

So I haven’t written here in awhile. Mostly because I am lazy. I’m sorry, I’m way behind on my DVR. There are so many recordings I need to watch and my couch is very comfortable and not super conducive to writing. Well, it is, but it’s much more conducive to me laying on it with the DVR remote in my hand.

And I have good reason to catch up on all this TV! See, we’re not supposed to have satellite dishes on the condo building. So I’m in violation of something something. But! They are getting DirectTV for the whole building! For more than what I pay now for Dish Network. So, my options are to pay $75 for TV (THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY! Even for someone like me who watches a lot of TV. And I mean a lot!) or get cable. But cable isn’t any cheaper. I think we are now eligible for UVerse in my neighborhood. Maybe that is the way to go? Anyone know if it is cheaper than $75/month?

Anyway, that wasn’t what this rant was going to be about, actually. This rant was also about the new internet service in my building. See, our condo board is not interested in figuring out why PEOPLE STEAL MAIL (four of my birthday cards, with money in them, went missing. FOUR!), but have spent time figuring out how to get us a good deal on internet and TV. And while I am thankful for this, it is also an inconvenience when you switch internet providers and then your wireless router JUST STOPS WORKING! After like TWO WEEKS! Yeah! So much for the increased speeds! I don’t get to experience them because I have to stay tethered to my desk! And my desk chair is uncomfortable! And I want to use my laptop on my LAP in front of the TV! I do not think that is too much to ask!

So before this, I had AT&T. I know a lot of people hate AT&T, especially for their DSL. I had their DSL service or 5 years and never once had a problem. I’ve had this local-based internet company for two weeks, and shit don’t work. This is not worth it.

I called them to complain. Their solution? “Well, we will get back to you in 24-28 hours with either a fix or an update.” WTDF? It’s 2010! Shouldn’t you be able to fix that shit over the phone?

So I’m hoping to have it fixed soon. Otherwise I will need to go find a really long cable so I can still use my computer on the couch. Because I’m pretty sure I threw the last one away, after my old laptop’s wireless adapter shit the bed.

And normally I’d just be fine using my phone, but the 3G service in my house kind of sucks lately. And also, I had to get a new phone over the weekend. What’s that you say? Didn’t I just get this phone a mere three months ago? Yes. Yes I did.

But sometime on Friday night, my phone became possessed. Some ghost was fucking with me and kept pushing the power button on the phone, therefore shutting off the screen. And then sometimes, for shits and giggles, this ghost would hold the button down and try to turn the phone totally off. This would generally happen when I was IN THE MIDDLE OF TYPING SOMETHING! It was so damn annoying.

Saturday morning was no better. So I finally decided to head to the Apple Store. I got an appointment at the Genius Bar for later that evening at 6 PM. My only hope was that one, it would be fixed that day because I am addicted to my phone and two, that it wouldn’t cost me anything.

Of course when I got to the Apple Store, my phone was fine. Thankfully it performed on cue and acted possessed when the Apple man tried to get the serial number. So he knew I wasn’t making shit up. And then for fun, it just wouldn’t turn back on. Possessed iPhone FTW!

Apple man suited me up with a new phone and I was on my merry way. (Seriously, the service in the Apple Store was super impressive. Made me happy!)

And I didn’t even have to tell them that I may have dropped my phone in the toilet two weeks prior.

Whoops.

Category: Rants & Rants, Technology Fail, Whine & Cheese | 7 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on October 6, 2010

In case you haven’t heard, Delta sucks. Do not fly Delta. If you do, mark my words, you will regret it.

Actually, that’s probably a little hasty. I have had two successful trips on Delta in the last 12 months. Once to Atlanta last December and then to NYC in August to BlogHer. My August experience wasn’t perfect, but that was mostly because I was one of the first flights out of the day and I don’t think the people working the check-in counter had had their coffee yet.

(And I will say, fly Delta Shuttle to LaGuardia because they are in this small little terminal and it is just them and you’ll be in and out so fast you’ll forget you’re flying into New York City.)

Anyway, as I mentioned in my previous post, I spent the weekend in Minnesota. It was kind of last minute. My friend Lori from Arizona sent me an email about a month ago and was like “I’m going to be in MN and Mike (her hubby) is going to come up for the weekend with me and you should totally fly up to meet us because MN is a lot closer to Chicago than AZ!” And I was like “FUCK YEAH! I’m so there!”

So the thing is, I’m out of vacation time for the year. Because I was poop sick and had to use all my sick days and two vacation days to stay home and pretty much be chained to my toilet. You’re welcome co-workers! I stayed home and didn’t give you c diff! It’s highly contagious! I should get a free vacation day because I’m SO NICE!

Since I had no vacation time, the plan was to go up there Friday after work and come back Sunday evening, since it is such a short flight. Since I work near O’Hare, it is easiest to fly out of there at a reasonable time and not miss any work. It was a perfect plan!

But then I remembered that O’Hare is a nightmare on a Tuesday afternoon. On a Friday evening, it was going to be insane. So before I left the office on Friday I said to my cubemate “wish me good travel mojo! I don’t have time for delays this weekend!”

Dear self, NEVER SAY THAT AGAIN. EVER.

So I got to the airport. The security line was a little long, but I had plenty of time. I stopped to get some apple juice (my go-to airport drink) and went to chill at my gate. My flight was supposed to leave at 6:10. As soon as I sat down, they announced there was a slight delay due to some mechanical issue. Slight delay became a longer delay. Longer delay became cancellation. CANCELLATION! And while, yes, I’m glad they canceled it, rather than put us up in the air in a broken plane, I was still very mad about the cancellation!

The gate agents were very helpful. They worked to get everyone on another flight that night. I got put on a United flight that was leaving at 8:10. So I was only going to be 2 hours delayed. But it killed all the plans I had for seeing some of my friends that evening. But all was not lost, since I was going to get there! And on Friday night!

The trip was awesome. I had such a great time with my friends. We can just sit around and do nothing and we can have a good time. I got to see the Twins new OUTDOOR ballpark, meet new babies, see another toddler that is no longer a baby and is now my BFF because I’m the crazy adult who will tickle you and act like a kid!

Sunday was a nice relaxing day. My friend Julie and I had a great brunch, went shopping and got our nails done. On the way to the nail salon, I got like three missed calls on my phone from some 800 number. I ignored it because I don’t answer calls from people I don’t know (or people I don’t like). After the third missed call, I called the number to see who it was. It was Delta. I knew it couldn’t be good.

So I immediately checked my email. My 5:15 flight had been canceled. CANCELED. AGAIN! And they had so kindly re-booked me on a flight on Monday morning at 9 AM. That went through CLEVELAND. It got me back to Chicago in more time than it would have taken me to drive. Clearly this was unacceptable. And I called Delta and told them just this.

The woman on the phone was very nice. She said she could confirm me on the last seat on the last flight of the night at 9:30. I said “I’ll take it!” because I needed to be at work Monday morning.

I spent the afternoon on Julie’s couch, watching football, drinking a beer and writing blog posts. I even caught about 45 minutes of the Bears debacle before leaving for the airport.

I got to the airport in plenty of time. I went and sat at my gate and found a plug to charge my phone. I was ready to be in the air at 9:30.

Oh silly me, I should have known better by now! Our flight was delayed! Because we had no crew! They were on a flight to Minneapolis from Philadelphia! So we would leave once they finally got there. Which they were hoping was soon!

Soon is a relative term in the airline industry. Because I think 30 minutes is soon. They think “still today” is soon. The crew finally got there a little after 10 and we finally boarded and took off a little before 11. Which means we landed at almost midnight. Only 2 hours later than we would have gotten in.

I got home about 12:45. Because I had to take a cab. My car was at the work parking garage, close to the airport, but I didn’t know if I could get in and out of there after midnight, so I didn’t even want to risk it. I wanted to get home and pass out from exhaustion, preferably still in my clothes. Because changing would have been too much work.

Throughout all of this, I made sure to let Delta know my feelings about them on Twitter.

Delta is very responsive on Twitter. But as I’ve found in my multiple dealing with them, their response is always “sorry, let me know if there is anything I can assist you with.”

And unless you can assist me with your airline not fucking sucking, then stop wasting my time.

Thus ends your PSA for the day. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Category: A Day in the Life of Me, Rants & Rants, Travel | 16 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on October 3, 2010

So, apparently I decided to take a little blogging break. It wasn’t intentional, but after I made the decision last week to just take a break, I felt more at ease and less stressed. I don’t know why. I don’t know why I feel like I ever HAVE to write here. (I mean, minus my agreement with my ad network which says I should blog a few times a week.) But I just wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t feeling myself. I was just in a funk. And I thought this would help get me out of the funk, taking a week off of not even thinking about blogging.

What I also knew would help? This weekend that I was spending in Minnesota with some of my very best friends. Friends that I don’t get to see enough. Friends who all lived in the same state as me (California) for five years. Friends who I still wish lived so close. Friends who get me, who I can be myself with. Friends who are good for the soul.

We’ve been through a lot together. They are now all married. They have kids. They are pregnant. But spending time with them just leads to a lot of laughing and good times.

My problem is that spending the weekend with two pregnant ladies also convinced me that I was eating for two. I was a little shocked at how tight my pants were this morning.

I also learned that pregnancy is contagious.

This did nothing to quell my baby fever, nor my desire to be pregnant. I mean, I’ll make such a cute pregnant lady, won’t I?

Category: A Dash of the Crazy, A Day in the Life of Me, Gotta Have Friends | 13 Comments »
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