Hurry! Go Get Gas!

Is everyone in your life freaking out about gas right now? I had two co-workers, Boss and GrannyP (she's new, I'll have to tell ya all about her later) come up to me and tell me that I "better run get gas, it's going up to $5.00 tonight."


really? really? really? You're telling me that it's going to go up $1.50 in a matter of a few hours?


Oh alright, I'll go get gas. I mean, since I am leaving and driving 6 hours right after work.... I kinda need it anyway.


While I'm at the gas station, Ben calls "You need to fill up. Gas is going up like crazy. Oh, and everytime you see a gas station on the way home, you need to stop and fill up." Seriously babe? EVERY SINGLE GAS STATION? Thanks, but no thanks.

So I'm paying a lovely $3.89 a gallon to fill up my baby and my mom calls "have ya heard is gas is going up?"

SERIOUSLY?!?!?!!? I'M GETTING GAS PEOPLE!!!


My question is this: Why is gas going up so quickly, when the gas company/station has already paid for the gas that is in the pumps at the time? And wait.... has the storm even hit yet? Do we know if the pipelines have been damaged? Oh, and aren't we supposed to have something like 65,000 gallons of gas on reserve for situations like this??? Call me crazy, but someone is making mad money off this. And it really pisses me off.




Hope you're tanks are full of gas, and you have a wonderful weekend. To everyone in Texas and in Ike's path - be careful. I'm saying a prayer for you!

Perceptions

There is this commercial on the radio that is put on by one of the local churches here in the area. The commercial is pretty much alway the same - it's the pastor of the church telling some story, or giving a token of advice. The story is always ended w/ a moral. They are usually pretty cheesy, but this morning it was actually pretty insightful and it got me thinking. Here's the story and the pastor's words of wisdom:


A young man and woman were engaged to be married. The night before the wedding the young man looked at his fiancee and said "honey, when we get married is it ok if I still date other women? And sleep with other women? Is it ok if I'm out at the bars every night getting drunk?" The woman looked at him shockingly while he said "I will still love you and that will just give you that many more reasons to forgive me."

Christians often take this approach with God. They say "Lord, now that I am yours, is it ok for me to sin all that I want - anytime I want? I will still love you and that will just give you that many more reasons for you to be able to forgive me." It is very common for us to think "what can I get away with and still go to heaven?" Just as you would never go into a marriage looking for loopholes and ways to dishonor your spouse, you should also never look at your relationship with the Lord in that way either.

What a good point! Way to go Rick Kershaw!

I'm so uncreative at the moment that I can't even come up with a good title! AGH! What is wrong with me! I think I just have so many things going through my head right now that I can't even think straight. Between finishing up my work from my old position and starting work for my new one - I can't seem to figure out how I'm gonna make it all fit. I'm only working 4 days this week since Ben and I are heading off to DC on Thursday night so that doesn't leave a lot of time to get it all done! Oh, did I mention I have to give up my big office to go be in the sales pit... aka a cubicle? I've got to start cleaning everything out from in here and taking it home with me. I will miss the large amount of space that my office provides, but more than that I will miss my door. I don't close it very often but it's comforting knowing that when I want some privacy, I can close it.

side-note: the lady in the office next time mine has downloaded "solider boy" as her ringtone for when her 13 year old son calls her. She doesn't understand the concept of turning down the ring volume, so about every 15-30 mins I get to her "YOUUUUU CRANK THAT SOLIDER BOY..." blaring from her phone. She has some other ringtone for her husband, and something different for her mom - argh



Sunday morning Becky and I got up at the crack of dawn and headed out to Millington. Okay, it was actually 6:00am but on a Sunday, that's the crack of dawn! She and I had volunteered to help out at the Memphis in May triathlon. Since I've done a few marathon/ half marathons before I know what that is all about, but I've never been to a triathlon before so that was new ground to me. I was impressed and intrigued all that the same time. This was an olympic distance event, so the participants swam .93 miles, biked 24.8 miles and ran 6.2 miles. Impressive huh? I couldn't do it.... not right now. I've always been interested in doing a triathlon, but I've gotta get serious about running again before I can commit to something like that. Not to mention the cost that goes into just being able to participate. Do you have any idea how much a decent bike can cost? Anywhere from $1000 and up! Then you've gotta get the right shoes, and tires, and swimming gear! Surely a wetsuit can't be too expensive huh? Anyway - I may never actually get around to doing one of these, but it's fun to think about.

As I've mentioned before, Ben and I are going up to DC this weekend to visit his family. They were very generous and gave us some money to help with the cost of our plane tickets. This was something they just offered to do without us ever asking, and obviously it is very much appreciated. I mentioned to Ben a few weeks ago that I wanted to get them a little gift as a thank you - not only to thank them for the money but also just to thank them for letting me visit and have me in their home for 4 days. If you know Ben at all, you can probably predict what his response was "we're not getting them anything. me being home is a gift enough." I very much disagree with this statement so yesterday afternoon I got him to go downtown with me to find them a gift. I have been thinking that I would make them a Memphis basket with various items from here. Memphis is known for their incredible BBQ, rock - n- roll, the blues,and of course - Elvis - so I thought this would be fun and easy. WRONG! Everything I picked up Ben said "oh they wouldn't like that..... they don't use cookbooks......oh here, let's get them this magnet that says 'i got porked in memphis'..... here, get my mom this snowman(from the 75% off christmas basket) she loves snowmen." So needless to say I was super frustrated by the end of shopping trip. We ended up with a bottle of BBKings BBQ sauce, a magnet that says "Memphis" and a bar of soup with a C on it - it's their last name initial. Yes, I'm aware that the soap makes no sense, but it's the ONLY thing Ben liked that I was semi-ok with. I spent my lunch break today trying to find other items to go in the basket. I ended up with a picture frame in which I will frame a picture of Ben and I (who wouldn't want that), a cookbook about Grilling, and some Rendezvous BBQ rub. It's still all pretty random, but I'll make it work the best I could. I just don't have time to go back downtown and go through the gift shops again. I love him a lot but sometimes I just wanna kick him! Do you think all of those things are completely ridiculous? If so, any suggestions? I've never been to his parents house so I'm really kind of clueless as to what to get!

blogging - bloggers - blogged

Who ever knew that this world of blogging could easily become so addicting? I find myself sitting here at my computer everyday, scouring the blogs of people I do not know. Many of them I don't even know where they live.... It's like I've become addicted to the lives of these mystery people and I just have (not literally) to know what's going on in their world. It's not that their lives are that much more exciting than mine, but I find myself checking various blogs all day to see if they've updated. And it is inevitable that I will look over at their list of blogs they frequent, and I will find another one that interest me thus making my list of daily blogs even longer. It also amazes me as I read these other blogs at how much they have to talk about! So maybe their lives are more interesting than mine. The most exciting thing that has happened to me today is I got my oil changed. Whoopty doo, right?

But I was thinking today about the actual blogs that I read - some of them are mom-blogs; mom's writing about the various adventures they go through from day to day and telling cute stories about their kids. Others are wedding blogs, or blogs about cooking and photography. Now, I clearly don't have any children or and I'm not getting married anytime soon, but I still enjoy reading these. I can't relate at all but it doesn't matter - for some reason I keep coming back. Does that make me weird? I also like reading blogs about people that actually are in the same place in life as I am. It's reassuring to see other people my age (or older) struggling with the same things I struggle with, and it's refreshing and encouraging to see them come out on top - it gives me a sense of "yes, I to can do this!"

You're probably thinking "wow, Mindy. get a life!" But until I have a job where I'm not stuck in front of a computer all day, I will live vicariously through the lives of others :)

The hardest word in the english language... "NO!"

Why is this such a hard word for me to say? Is it because I have this condition where I feel like I have to make people happy? Or I'm afraid I'm going to hurt someone's feelings? I'm envious of people that have the ability to put their happiness before others. I think sometimes I can't say no, because I don't really have a reason for not doing it other than " i just don't want to", and I feel like if I come up with a reason then that person is going to know I'm lying to them. Let's take babysitting for example. I have a few families that I babysit for. No matter how many times I tell them that weekends are difficult and I prefer not to babysit then, they still ask. So when they ask me to babysit on the one free Saturday night that I have all month, inside I'm screaming "NOO!!!" but all that comes out is "sure, I'm free that night." It's almost as if I think they will know that I'm lying and just sitting at home on the couch if I say "oh, I'm sorry. I'm not gonna be able to."

I am 100% without a doubt a people pleaser. I'm always worried about how I'm going to make someone feel, or if they are going to be mad if I do something or don't do something.... but why?! Why can't I just say "Nope. That won't work for me." or "This is what I'm doing. Take it or leave it." I agree to do something, then dread it for months, weeks, days or hours..... the whole time thinking "I should just call and say I can't do it." Ben got frustrated with me the other day and said "I'm sick of you committing to something, then complaining about 'having' to do it!" He's right (Yes, I said it) - no one is making me do these things that make me miserable, I'm agreeing to them! What is wrong with me?!

Guys and girls think differently on this matter. Guys can just say it like it is to each other and no one gets their feelings hurt! "no man - I really don't want to do that. " Girls... we have to tip-toe around each other because inevitably the other girl is gonna be mad or get her feelings hurt. So what do we do to avoid this? We agree to do it when we'd rather cut our finger off!

I hope one day very soon I will make "no" a part of my regular vocabulary.