Saturday, August 1, 2009

The Magical Five - Revisited

***Warning: this is a bit lovey-dovey and may make you puke a little in your mouth. You've been warned.***


About 3 years ago I wrote a little blog on myspace that I soon forgot about. I was going through my old blogs on myspace a few days ago and discovered that I had written this:



Current mood: relaxed

Clicks. Butterflies. Laughter. Comfort. Trust.

My ideal relationship will have these 5 things.


After I read it, I smiled. Because 3 years later, I have found my "ideal relationship". Don't get me wrong, it is by no means perfect, but it has all 5 of these things.

Clicks: From almost the moment we met, there was an instant connection. It didn't take long for us to become inseparable. There is no way to describe it other than, well, we clicked (see also, chemistry).

Butterflies: Of course butterflies don't come as easily as they did in the beginning of the relationship, but, believe it or not, he still gives them to me. Every once in a while, when I least expect it, the butterflies start fluttering. And they are better than the first butterflies.

Laughter: We laugh a lot. At ourselves, at each other, at other people, it doesn't matter. We laugh. The inner child in both of us comes out a lot. And it's so much fun.

Comfort: It's hard to still get butterflies with someone and also feel comfortable. But when it happens, it's great! Plus, we've lived together for almost a year now and well, if you're not comfortable, it's not going to be pretty. Sometimes one of us gets TOO comfortable but I won't get into that.

Trust: Well, without trust, there is nothing. I remind myself almost daily, how lucky and fortunate I am. It's not easy. To put so much love and faith and yourself into one person. It's a huge risk but a risk with so many rewards when it's right.

So there you go. When I wrote about my magical 5, it seemed so unattainable. Almost like I was asking for too much. But it happened so effortlessly, without warning, and really, when I wasn't even looking!

And how funny is it that I've been so busy enjoying the magic that I didn't even realize until now that I had reached what I thought was unattainable.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Walmart

I don't understand why companies and agencies do their annual budget the way they do. I especially don't understand two things:

1) Why aren't fiscal years the same as regular years? Why do they have to go July 1 - June 30?

and,

2) Why, if you don't spend money budgeted for the fiscal year, does it go away come the new fiscal year? Why can't whatever wasn't spent rollover into the new fiscal year?

Anyway, these questions came up for me recently because the group home I manage desperately needed a new TV. I think in the time I've been working there we had received 3 donated TVs and well, it was time for a new one. Turns out our recreation budget had some unused $900 in it and it was going to "go away" if we didn't spend it before July 1. New TV is a go!

Only problem: the powers that be wanted me to purchase one of those old school TVs that have an ass. One of them had seen these TVs at Walmart and said I should go get one at Walmart.

Walmart.

My grandmother worked for Walmart years ago and weren't very nice to her. I hate Walmart.

But when bosses "suggest" something most of the time it means "do it". So I took their $900 and off to Walmart I went in search of a TV with some ass.

Turns out those TVs are now considered old school and are extinct. My friendly TV helper informed me they no longer carried those TVs and she was pretty sure it was going to be hard to find a new one. Oh shoot, I have to buy a flat-screen TV.

I bought a Vizio 32" TV for $378. I thought that was crazy cheap. After picking out a wall mount and DVD player, I still had a few hundred bucks to spend. I picked up a few movies, some board games, a basketball and a football, and of course, arts and crafts stuff. I thought I'd done pretty good with $900.

I was wrong. I'd done pretty good with $714.

My issue with all this? I spent a good hour and a half at Walmart and realized that they have a lot of great stuff for really great prices.

Crap. I saw all kinds of stuff that I could use for both the home I manage and the home I live in.

In these tough economic times and my never-ending quest for a good deal, I may have to reconsider my position on Walmart.