Two weeks...

So it's two weeks til Christmas! Is anyone else feeling particularly rushed right now? I have done very little shopping, I've completed not one Christmas card (don't worry it's in the mail, you'll get it by New Year's) and I still have a mountain of Christmas cookies to bake! I swear I barely blinked and it was November, then that flew by and we're already two weeks into December.

I have accomplished one thing. I've gotten Christmas pictures of my niece! She turned six months old today! Pretty impressive for a baby they thought wouldn't make it a few months ago. And how is she you may ask? She is fabulous. As the following picture will attest to:



Cutest baby ever! She is doing so well, it brings tears to my eyes. Major milestones this week are she's eating out of a bottle now and almost rolling over. Still lots of work to be done, but she's come along way. Major props to Grandma(my mama) for loving her and encouraging her when her doctors said she may die and not to resuscitate if she did (bastards!), her therapists for coming by weekly to help her along, and all the doctor's, nurse's and medical professionals who gave us hope when hope was almost gone. And not to sound like a cheesy actor at an awards show but thanks to God for all he's given.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

Twilight....

Ok so I must admit to being lame. This is a tough day for me. Julie is not often lame but I had a lame moment. I went and saw Twilight on opening day. No I was not one of the cracked out teens standing in line for a 2am showing but I did go. And what's worse is I left work early to go. Let me give you a little background.

If you didn't know Julie has a new job. BTW - LOVE MY JOB! It's crazy coming to work and enjoying what you do. Anyways when I was offered said job, I was told that all the ladies in the office were nuts over the Twilight series (thanks to me pushing it on them as it was pushed on me by CW) so they were going to close the office early on that Friday and have a group outing to see the movie! Seriously I love my job.

So here's the lame part, we sent someone over to the theater early to buy tickets. Then we devised a plan to cut out of a conference call early so we could make sure to get a good seat. About an hour before the show started I left to hold seats for the rest of the office. All of this for a teen vampire movie! Really Julie? Really? Aren't you 30?

Anyways this really all comes down to one thing. The movie was not the greatest. I raved about the book. I am personally responsible for half the females in my hotel reading the series. The movie fell really short. I'm lame and let down. Not cool. There is one bright spot. I am not the lamest of the lame. Two of the other ladies in my office have already seen it again with plans to return a third time. Once was enough thank you, I'll just wait for the DVD release.

Will you be my black friend?

I'm flipping through GQ (I know it's a guys magazine but really there is more to it than half naked pictures of Megan Fox) today and I came across an article titled "Will you be my black friend" so of course I have to stop and read it. The jist of the article was a white guy who realized that he's world was well extremely white. Actually I love the way he describes it:

"I thought: Jesus Christ, there are a lot of white people in this room. I’ve always thought of the whiteness of my adult life as a temporary condition. Like somehow all these white people have been foisted on me; pretty soon it’ll change; it’s probably my wife’s fault. But it’s time to acknowledge that I’ve become a character in a Wes Anderson movie. I wear white tennis sneakers from the ’70s. I listen to ambient music. I have dinner parties where I serve Spanish rosé and this softer version of mozzarella that has a lovely, almost liquid center that you can only get at the Italian import store. I do yoga, and I get excited when it’s ramp season. Sometimes I’d really like to punch myself in the face."

So when faced with a problem what do you do but find a way to fix it. His way of correcting the problem was to post an ad on craigslist entitled "Will you be my black friend?" Creative thinking but not the best way to go about making a friend, perhaps one of the best ways to get punched in the face though. Anyways the article actually goes on to talk about the racial estrangement that is America. Whites to whites, blacks to blacks, asians to asians and so on and so forth. And the fact that we're ok with it. So it got me to thinking, what the hell has this country come to? We're ok with segregation now? Is it ok now because we're doing it ourselves? Just because it's my choice it's ok to stay with my own "kind" now. That's bull people!

Now I count myself as one of the lucky ones. I have friends of all colors, shapes, sizes, orientations and ethnicity's. But what about my friends friends? I realized that I was some of my white friends (and Asian friends and Mexican friend) only black friend and technically I'm only half black! So really you have one half black friend? This does not make you very culturally diverse my friend. Take into account that I'm not nearly "black" enough for most black folks and you're screwed. Now don't get me wrong I'm not advocating going out and counting your black friends. And really would I prefer that when you look at me you just see Julie and not black Julie, of course but lets be real people (except you Steve I actually like that you refer to me as your hot black friend or Brian who refers to me as Chocolate Luscious) As a whole we're a prejudiced country, we see things in shades of black, white, red, yellow and brown. This is how we were raised and its a hard thing to break. As I was growing up I was always aware that my friends were usually two separate groups coexisting along side one another but never really touching. There was always my black friends and my white friends and while I was friends with them both, I could never be friends with them both at the same time and the same place. That's not the way it should be! When I have children (soon God willing cause I'm not getting any younger) I want them to be able to have a diverse group of friends and not worry that the groups don't mix. I want my kids to be able to listen to Kanye West and Tim McGraw and Michael Buble and not have people look at them crazy. Believe me it happens, people do not understand when a black chick karaokes Garth Brooks "Friends in Low Places". They should be able to enjoy a soft mozzarella without being thought pretentious and be able to wear Bass Weejuns (what are these anyway) and not accused or trying to emulate white. This is the world I'd like to pass on to them.

So in summary, white people go out and make a black friend, black people go out and make a white friend and hopefully one day they'll just be your friend. Peace out!

Kennedy? Really?

So I was having a conversation with Mama O'Neal last night and we got to talking politics. While I enjoy talking politics I must admit that I am not the most well informed person. I try, I really do, I read the news, turn on CNN periodically and skim Time and Newsweek but there's just so much chatter! Get to the point people, I ain't got all day! Anywho mama and i were talking and she told me she was going to vote for Obama but more importantly she hadn't decided to cast her vote since Kennedy. Really ma, Kennedy? You haven't voted in over 40 years? Granted its only every 4 years so that's like 10 missed chances but still. However I'm not really one to talk I've only voted once and really I was forced (Thanks Sally). Not so much forced but shown that if I'm gonna complain at the jackass in the white house maybe I should let my voice be heard. It occurred to me last night how much this year's election is affecting so many people. When all is said and done history will be made and I'm just glad to say I could be part of it. SO that being said, don't be lazy, go out and vote! Add to the chatter and let your voice be heard, cause if you don't you really have no reason to bitch over the next 4 years.

Better...

Life just got better! :) I got a new job! Beginning November 1st, I will no longer have to work nights, overnights, weekends or holidays and I get a raise! Still working for Marriott but now I'll be a Revenue Manager so no more managing people which while fun and rewarding gets tiresome at times. I may actually have a life. I'm so happy I may do a little dance. :)

NKOTB

That's right folks, New Kids are back and older than ever! So I know this is old news to most people however I was going through my emails today and came across a email from Travelzoo.com. Now if you don't know travelzoo, mostly it features discount packages on airfare and hotels and such. Since my hotel sometimes has specials on it I decided to sign up for emails. Now I never knew they also sent out specials on event tickets. Well I got an email with and "outstanding" offer on NKOTB tickets. It seems that the heartthrobs of my younger years are not selling the tickets that they used to. So instead of $50-$70 a ticket they've dropped the price to $20 for lower level seats. Now this hurts me. I used to love love love the New kids. I was a huge fan of Jonathon actually, although he never sang by himself and really can't carry a tune. Anyways I was discussing this with a few friends of mine and I've decided I'm going to the concert! I feel I need to do my part and support the boy-band now man-band in their quest to rediscover their youth. While I doubt this will be the concert of the century I'm sure it'll be a good time and I'll be sure to blog about it later. If the boys are in your area do you part and see a mediocre show! Peace out!

Ow. Ow. Ow. I SAID OW DAMN IT!

So I went to the dentist today. While I am a huge fan of the lovely smooth, slightly minty, thoroughly clean feeling you get after a check up, I've decided that I kinda hate dentists. They are the used car salesmen of the medical industry. About a week ago my crown fell off my tooth. Well to be more specific my $500 crown rotted off my tooth. They're not supposed to do that right? Since this happened at 5am on a Friday morning it was quite difficult to find someone who could fix it. What's up with dentists taking Fridays off? Why should they always get a 3 day weekend? Anywho I was able to find someone fairly close to my house that was open and could see me asap. Here's where the used car salesmen bit comes in. All I wanted was someone to pull my tooth. It was pretty much gone so there was no fixing it. Just yank that bad boy and let me get on with my day. "No can do ma am. You need to see an oral surgeon to take care of that, however while you're here maybe we should set you up for a root canal, a few fillings, a deep cleaning and some invisalign braces." Look buddy don't try and work me and my insurance over, just do what I ask and we'll see about the rest of that stuff that you think i "need". Since they couldn't help me they refer me to an oral surgeon who won't be open until Monday. So I spend that weekend with fragments of tooth that keep scrapping the side of my mouth. Not so much fun. First thing Monday I call and they of course don't accept my insurance. WTF? Why refer me there then? I make a few more calls and I find a surgeon that does take my insurance, doesn't require a referral and can see me in a few days.

The appointment today was pure hell. Dr Kootman had about as much personality as a bedpan, never once looked me in the eye and didn't like my slightly inquisitive nature. I'm sorry but if you're removing something from my body I'm gonna have a few questions. Biggest one being how much pain is this gonna cause and how bout we make sure it's as little as possible. He said he could take care of it right then and there though so let's do this. After a few shots of local he leaves me to numb up and get ready. Now I always try and have a book and my ipod with me. These are like security blankets for me they keep me calm. I put on a little Augustana and try to relax. Well Dr Jackass comes back in and starts chiseling around the tooth. OW OW OW. K so I'm not a DR but local kinda means it should be numb and not hurt right? As this is not so much the case can I get a few more shots please? Well I'm told that "the patient really shouldn't tell the doctor what to do". Really? Guess you're in for a surprise then jackass cause it hurts and you need to fix it before I kick you in the nads. I get a few more shots and a few more minutes to get numb. Round two is no better than round one, he starts chiseling, then yanking and then tells me he need to drill into the bone. OW OW OW I SAID OW DAMN IT! Bastard doesn't want to stop! Says he needs to just finish and get the tooth out. Julie don't play that. I literally have to hit his hand away from my mouth to get him to stop. Now I realize this probably won't endear me to the good doctor but I could care less. I'm in pain, shaking, crying and he's looking at me like I'm a lunatic. I finally get myself collected enough to finish but it still doesn't fill great. After he's done he writes a quick prescription for Loritab and hands me a instruction sheet and leaves the room. No are you ok, do you need anything nothing. After I'm able to collect myself I leave the room to pay my bill. To think it only cost me $187 to be treated like crap. What a bargain! Now my mouth hurts and the Loritab is making me nauseous. I hate dentists.