Conforming to Social Pressure

I was a strange kid growing up. I was a geek from nearly the beginning, thanks in part to the fact that I had a geek for a dad. I went through a very brief period in my pre-teen years that I disdained geeky things.

But in my late middle school / early high school years, I began to embrace my inner geek. I had a picture of the crew of Star Trek:TNG in my locker in high school. I went to Star Trek cons, and was very open with the fact that I was a band and theater geek. My favorite singer in high school was Frank Sinatra, which tells you I wasn't really into popular culture.

This made my high school years a bit difficult, but I mostly ignored the teasing. Though I was physically abused in school for a while, which honestly made my life a living hell. But I weathered it all, figuring college would be better.

College was infinitely better. Finally, being a geek was not a bad thing. Though the first year of college was more of the same. My roommates were major party-ers, and I wasn't. It lead to some rough times, but thankfully it was just one year.

After college, I continued to embrace my geek-hood, since it really is a part of me. My husband is a fellow geek, and now we of course have Emily as our little geek-let. I never really understood the whole conforming / changing who you are thing. It was just not something I really felt like I needed to do.

As a result, I'm pretty happy with who I am. I'm proud to be a geek, a mom, a wife. True, if I had to do it over again, I may have done some things different, but I'm glad I never felt that I needed to change myself into something I'm not.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention (or how a toddler deals with having no Donkey toy)

Clever Toddler is Clever!

Emily has a Shrek toy that she got in a Happy Meal back when the last movie was out in theaters. She loves the Shrek movies, and she had been complaining to me that there was no Donkey to go with her Shrek yesterday.

This morning I was going into the kitchen to get her a banana and I glanced down and noticed that the Shrek DVD with Donkey on it was sitting in her dollhouse. Apparently she thought this would be a good substitute for an actual Donkey toy.

I sometimes think she may be too clever for her own good! But I think I'm going to have to see if I can find her an actual Donkey toy now to go with her Shrek.

Mechanics of Wrestling

Me and Chris Jericho

Now, you, dear readers, may have noticed that I am a wrestling fan, and I was inspired by the radio to write this post about what professional wrestling truly is.

I was listening to Josh and Sue in the Morning on Star 104.3 as I usually do on mornings that I have school. They were taking about Dancing with the Stars and giving a recap of last night's show.

Sue mentioned that she was sad that Chris Jericho was going home, and how well spoken he is, though she also said that she will not be watching wrestling because she didn't want to watch people beat each other up.

While there is people beating each other up in wrestling, there is a lot more. One of the skills a good wrestler must have is 'mic skills' which means they can speak well on the mic in order to get the crowd excited.

Half of professional wrestling is storylines. It's really like a violent soap opera, with the actual wrestling used to help move the story along. If they story is good, that's what keeps people coming back to watch, since it's common knowledge that professional wrestling is scripted.

I'm sad for Chris Jericho that his sojourn on Dancing with the Stars is over with, because I'm a big fan of him. But I do hope that he finds his way back into the ring soon since he's an excellent wrestler with fantastic mic skills.

Why I Will Never Text and Drive

My VW Bug!

I'm not very good at driving. I never have been. It didn't help that when I was 16 I got into a car accident. It wasn't super serious, but I had a friend in the car and the other driver had to be taken to the hospital.

Because I lived in Michigan and because it had been almost winter, I didn't drive for about 6 months after that. Not only did I basically have to re-learn how to drive, the accident really shook my confidence.

Now that I'm an adult, I still don't have a lot of confidence in driving. Because of this, I make sure that I have my eyes on the road at all time. And if there is someone else who is willing to drive, I'm much happier as a passenger.

I never really got way texting was so popular until I got my smart phone and started using the texting option on it. Now I text all the time, but I have no idea how people text and drive at the same time.

Usually I need both eyes on my phone to be able to text, and I need both eyes to drive, so to text and drive, I'd need another pair of eyes. And honestly, I've never gotten a text that couldn't be wait to be read / responded to until I was stopped somewhere.

So, I will never attempt to text and drive. I know that for me, I'd end up in a wreck if I did so.

Best Friend

So, I found out today that my best friend, Dolli, is having to move to Charlotte. We knew this was coming, but it's a lot sooner than originally expected. Needless to say, I'm pretty sad about this.

I feel a little anxious too. I used to have another best friend in college. After I had moved away  from the town our college was in, we began to drift apart, and it lead to a really nasty end to our friendship. Though I really don't think this will happen with Dolli and I.

I'm also sad for Emily. She is also losing her best friend, since Dolli has a little girl who Emily plays with all the time.

Though this separation will only be temporary. Todd and I were already thinking about moving to Charlotte in the next couple of years. This will probably accelerate our plans to move out that way.

Happy Easter!

Coloring Eggs!

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates! Since I'm Lutheran, we celebrate a whole Holy Week.

I didn't get to go to church on Thursday because the service was at 7 pm and that's right around Emily's bedtime. I did get to go to the 2 pm Good Friday service since Todd had Friday off.

We also colored eggs for the first time on Friday. We managed to do it with minimal mess and Emily had fun!

Today we are going to early church. While we are at church, the Easter Bunny will be coming to our house. I'm going to make French Toast for breakfast, and then it will be naptime. After Emily's nap, we are going to go to our friends' for our weekly gaming session.

It will be a full day, but it should be a good holiday!

Spoiler Free Review - Scream 4

The hubby and I went to see Scream 4 this afternoon. He had already seen it and insisted that I see it. We are big fans of the Scream movies, though mostly of the original.

Scream 4 is really an homage of the first movie. It is nearly as good as the original though it really is more funny than scary in most parts.

I honestly did not guess who the killer was. It really came out of left field for me, which made it all that much better.

If you are a fan of the original Scream, I would recommend checking out Scream 4.

Scary Movies

The hubby saw Scream 4 last weekend and liked it so much that he is insisting that I see it. Originally, I was going to see it myself, but now my best friend is going to watch Emily so we can have a date afternoon.

This is great because while I do enjoy, they also do freak me sometimes. I much prefer to have my big, strong hubby's shoulder to hide in if it gets too scary. Of course, scary movies can be bad for me because I tend to have very vivid nightmares.

But I have enjoyed the previous Scream movies, so I'm looking forward to having a date afternoon to see this one.

Why I'm a Fan of Technology

Emmy and her new dollhouse

According to the Terminator mythos, SkyNet became aware a few days ago, and then was suppose to go crazy, killing humans and taking over the world. I'm also in the midst of watching BSG, which involves robots (Cylons) killing and taking over the world.

Despite the fact that a lot of sci-fi writers out there think that technology is going to become aware and kill us, I'm still a fan of it. 

So, My dear husband has been in purge mode, selling a lot of things that we just don't use. He also likes checking out Craigslist for any cool toys for Emily

She's been sick all week with a cold and he wanted to get her something to make her feel better. And he found this super cool dollhouse for really cheap on Craigslist.

Of course, since he works nights, it was up to me to call on it and then go and get it. The house of the person selling it up literally up a mountain. I would have never found it if it hadn't been for my TomTom GPS.

I try and not go anywhere without Tom in the car. Once, when we hadn't been living in NC very long, Todd decided we should take a ride to look around. We were still used to Michigan where all the roads are pretty straight and you can usually find your way back if you get lost.

WNC doesn't have straight roads, and we got very, very, very lost. We were driving around in the mountains for hours, to the point that we thought we were going to run out of gas. We finally found our way home, but it kind of scarred me!

So I love my GPS, it makes my life easier. Yes, it might come alive sometime and kill me, but I'm willing to take that chance to simplify my life.

"Game of Thrones" Spoiler-Free Review

I've never read the "Game of Thrones" though I've meant to, but just didn't get around to it. When I asked my FB friends, they thought I should just watch the first episode without rushing to read the books.

I finally got around to watching it a couple of nights ago. I thought, on the whole, it was really interesting. Lots of sex, boobs and some zombie type things in the beginning.

The first episode spent most of the time introducing the world and the characters, so it did get a little overwhelming at times because there are a lot of characters in this show.

The end was shocking, and caused my husband to not want to watch any more of this show. For a man who claims he has no soul, he is very gentle about some things.

For me, I think I'll try and watch more. And get around to reading the books one of these days.

Spelling is Necessary!

I know that I'm not the world's greatest speller, but I do try my best. Spell check on my computer and my phone really helps with this disadvantage of mine though.

As a result, I really hate  it when people don't even try to attempt to spell correctly. Also, the shortening of 'You' to 'U' drives me crazy and it just looks ugly.

This rant is brought to you by the fact that I'm selling some stuff on Craigslist. We are trying to get rid of Emmy's old baby things that she hasn't used in a long time. Well, this person emailed me, and then texted, and I had to discipher what they were saying.

They asked for one thing, then inquired about another thing I was selling. The inquiry was so garbled, that I had no idea what this person was asking for. I had to send her a text back that said 'huh?'. She re-texted, and it was still really mis-spelled, but I was able to figure out what she was talking about.

But it still annoyed me all the same. Honestly, it doesn't take a lot of effort to make yourself understood.

GeekMom!

I've been an avid reader of the GeekMom.com for a while now, and a bit ago, I clicked on the link to become a blogger for their site. Well, at that time , I got a response that they weren't accepting new writers but would keep me in mind when they did.

I didn't really think much else about it until about a week ago when I got an email that I was one of the new contributors! Suffice to say, I was totally geeked!!

I didn't really want to say anything until my first post was up, and that happened today! http://www.geekmom.com/2011/04/toddlers-and-dragons/ is my very first official GeekMom post!!

Ironically, my best friend got me the GeekMom shirt for my birthday, and it came in just before I found out. I'm wearing it for the first time today, which I think is kind of funny :D

Daddy's Little Girl

Daddy Love Emily

When Emily was very small, she preferred me over Todd, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that she was breastfed and she much preferred her milk from the source rather than in a bottle.

Now that she's older, she's a total Daddy's girl. She loves her Daddy so much and he loves her right back.

Point in fact how much he loves her is that he picked up an extra 1/2 shift tonight at work, and his job is a 1/2 hour from our house. But he's coming home from 2 hours, just so he can read her a bedtime story and help me get her to bed.

WrestleMania Weekend - Sunday Part Two

Outside the GA Dome

Once we got off MARTA at the GA Dome, the crowds were already gathering even though it was about a 1/2 before the doors were suppose to open.

We moved to an entrance that wasn't near the MARTA stop, and waited. Since there was 71,000 people who where going to want to enter, they were going to have all the entrances open.

Once 4:30 hit, the doors were open. We were within the GA Dome in 5 minutes, which is very different than all the other live wrestling shows we've been to. Usually it can take a 1/2 hour or more to get inside the venue. But I suppose the folks at the GA Dome are used to dealing with massive crowds.

Todd at WrestleMania!

Once inside, we found our seats, then Todd went to get drinks and popcorn. It was a bit of a wait until things got started, but we had some nice folks sitting next to us that we talked to, and it was interesting to watch all the people fill into the Dome.

Lumberjacks!

Before it went live on TV, there was a match just for us folks there live (it will be on the DVD). It was a lumberjack match (which is where a bunch of people surround the ring to make sure the wrestlers inside stay in the ring), but before long the Raw GM, Teddy Long, came out and declared the match a Royal Rumble style match with all the lumberjacks. It was pretty neat.

The Rock!

Then it was time to go live. Now if you have ever watched a wrestling PPV on tv, there is always a screen that has the legal stuff on it before the PPV starts. They show that screen on the teletrones, and the crowd goes wild, since we know that we are going live. The crowd went even more wild because it was WrestleMania.

The first thing that happened was The Rock came out because he was the special guest host for WrestleMania this year. He has been appearing on Raw occasionally the past few months in anticipation of WrestleMania and you can tell that he was having a great time being The Rock again. Todd thinks he forgot how much fun it is to be an over the top wrestling character.

Several of the matches were meh (the Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler one was particularly painful as it went on too long), and one was bittersweet without us even knowing it at the time.

Edge is one of my favorite wrestlers, and has been pretty much since I started watching. He wrestled Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania for the World Heavyweight Championship. And he won, and he & Christian attacked De Rio's car to the crowd cheering.

What we didn't know at the time was that this match was going to be Edge's last ever. He got some MRI results back and announced on Raw this past Monday that due to a previous neck injury getting worse, he was going to have to retired from wrestling, lest he break his neck and become paralyzed.

So, I'm super thankful that I was able to see his last match live.

The best match of the night was Undertaker vs. Triple H. Now Undertaker has never been beat at WrestleMania and going into this match his record was 18-0. The match was amazing, partly because the Undertaker hit a move wrong in the beginning of it, and got hurt. Despite being obviously injured for real, he finished the match and beat Triple H to become 19-0. But he had to be taken out of the arena via stretcher.

The last match was John Cena vs. The Miz for the WWE Championship. Now The Rock had been mocking Cena for weeks, so we all knew that he was going to get involved. And he did, and the match was a little anti-climatic, especially after Taker and Triple H.

But it set up the main event for next year's WrestleMania - it was announced on Raw the following night that the main event for 2012's WrestleMania is going to be John Cena vs. The Rock. I don't think a main event has ever been announced a year in advance, and Todd is tempted to go since it's not that far in Miami - I don't think we'll have the money though.

We got out of the GA Dome, and got a bit lost trying to find the parking lot with the car in it. And once we found the car, we had to deal with all the traffic. We didn't make it back to my aunt and uncle's house until 1 am.

But it was an awesome day! We are thinking about possibly trying to go to WrestleMania 30, which is going to be at Madison Square Gardens in NYC.

WrestleMania Weekend - Sunday Part One

Christian and I

We got up at 7 am on the Sunday of WrestleMania 27. We did this because we had gotten VIP Axxess tickets to meet Shawn Michaels (HBK).

A bit on the VIP Axxess tickets - the biggest WWE Superstars had VIP signings. The tickets were more than the regular general admission tickets to Axxess but you were guaranteed an autograph / picture with the Superstar of your choice because there was a very limited amount of VIP tickets sold for each Superstar.

Todd had gotten a pre-sale code, so we were able to get our Shawn Michaels tickets early. Which was good, since all VIP signings sold out within 3 hours of being on sale. We decided to go with HBK since really the only reason he was at WrestleMania was because he was being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Now each Axxess session was divided into 2 parts, with the Superstars changing so you can get more autographs (or at least attempt). Now, one of my favorite wrestlers, Christian, was suppose to be signing in the first part, so we did what we had done before. I got in line and Todd circled. Though by the time he found Christian's line, it was quite long.

Since it was long, Todd was doubtful we would make it through. I didn't care and thankfully, the line moved fast so we were able to meet him, get autographs and get my picture with him.

As soon as we were done with Christian, we went to get into Shawn Michaels line. He was in the 2nd session, and even though we were about an hour early, there was already a line. We waited and finally he arrived!

Shawn Michaels and Todd

It didn't take us long to make it through the line. He was super nice, and took time to talk to us for a minute. Todd told him thank you for entertaining him all those years, and Shawn was very gracious about it.

After we were done with the VIP line, we got a couple more autographs before we headed out of Axxess. We had several hours to kill before going to get in line for WrestleMania. We had planned on going to Chicken & Waffles in downtown Atlanta.

We took MARTA to the stop we usually got off for Dragon*Con. We went into the food court at the Peachtree Center for a snack since both of us were really hungry. It was really odd because it wasn't very full and half of the fast food places were closed. Very different from Dragon*Con Sunday.

Marriott minus the Klingons

We went through the Marriott to get to the street. It was so empty that it was weird! We used Todd's phone to direct us to Chicken & Waffles, but when we got there, the line was outside. We forgot that it was Sunday, right around the time church would be getting out, and there are a ton of churches in the area.

We opted to not to wait in line, and decided to go to the Sports Bar in the Marriott for lunch instead. We got yummy food and some adult beverages. I haven't drunk alcohol in a long time, so I got a little tipsy.

We lingered over our lunch, since both of our feet were really hurting. It was about 3:30, when we headed over to the Georgia Dome to get in line for WrestleMania!

Adventures of Star Kitty

Star Kitty

For the last six month or so, our oldest cat, Star, has been trying to make a break for it. He's gotten out several times, but we always go chasing after him and bringing him back.

It's not easy going after him since he's fast and tends to head straight for under the deck which has an opening but it's a tight squeeze.

So, I'm sitting here, half awake since it's 6:30 am, and I hear a noise that sounds like a cat scratching at the door. But it sounded like it was coming from outside. I ignored it, but it happened again a few minutes later.

I got up, unlocked the door and opened it. And sure enough, Star was outside and wanting to come back in. He must have gotten out when Todd got home last night.

I wonder what adventures he had last night. I hope this cures him of his wanting to dash outside, though now I'm going to have to give him a flea treatment just in case.

WrestleMania Weekend - Saturday

First View of WrestleMania Axxess

On Saturday, we had tickets to two WrestleMania Axxess sessions. We didn't have to leave until 11 am so I was going to let Todd sleep in. He did end up getting up at about 8 am.

He showed me the goodies he had gotten at Axxess which included a signed John Cena print (I squeed - John Cena is my current favorite) and a WrestleMania 27 shot glass.

We played with Emily and got ready. She cried when we left, but according to my aunt, she stopped pretty much after we left.

Since it was going to be easier, we took the train, MARTA, downtown. We got there pretty earlier since Todd said that the walk to Axxess was long (though I thought he exaggerated a bit).

We finally got there and outside Axxess was these huge posters of all the WWE Superstars. It was really a sight to see. We went into the actual Axxess and stood in line since it wasn't quite time for people to be let in.

Me and Chavo Guerrero

Once it was time, the line went pretty fast. Axxess was big and loud, but really shiny. The only issue with it was that there were several lines to meet Superstars, so you just had to get in line and hope it was a Superstar you wanted.

Once we got in, we picked a line and it was Chavo Guerrero. Todd had gotten 2 WrestleMania posters online just before we headed to Atlanta. One for us, and one for the son of Todd's friend. We are going to give him the poster when they come over to watch the next TNA PPV. It's going to be a surprise :D

After we got Chavo's autograph, we walked around some and looked around. We got in the Legends line, and it was rumored that Kevin Nash was going to be signing there. He came out, we all cheered, and he signed a few autographs before he was told he was in the wrong spot. He was ushered away and about 300 people (including Todd and I) followed.

The people running that line were very good and got things organized quickly. We managed to get our autograph since they kept the line moving quickly.

After that, it was just about time for the session to end. They cleared out Axxess and had an hour between each session. We went and got something to eat and then came back to stand in line.

We had a game plan for this session. I was going to go directly to the line we had started at, and Todd was going to circle Axxess looking for where CM Punk (who was the whole reason we got the 2nd Axxess ticket on Saturday) was going to be signing.

Todd and CM Punk

Todd found CM Punk's line almost right away (it was about the only line that was marked before the Superstar got there) and texted me. I got out of the line I was in, and hurried over to meet Todd who had gotten in line.

The first session of Axxess we went to was so crowded that it was hard to move in some spots. But since the 2nd session of Axxess we went to was before and during the Hall of Fame ceremony, there wasn't hardly anyone there.

We got CM Punk's autograph quickly, and were able to get two more autograph before we decided to leave around 8 pm. By this time, my feet were killing me and I knew that Sunday was going to be a very long day.

Getting A Bit Serious For A Moment

I will finish up my WrestleMania recaps in the next day or so, but I wanted to rant a little.

I'm not one to usually talk about politics. I have an opinion, and it tends to be very middle of the road. But I really do not care for follow politics on a normal basis.

I do think our current system is very broken. And I think part of this is how the government calculates unemployment rates. Now I've been unemployed since December 2008 when I was laid off the day before I was suppose to go back to work after maternity leave.

I got unemployment and I exhausted it. Which I really don't mind. But what I do mind is that since I'm no longer collecting unemployment, I'm not counted as being unemployed anymore, even though I am unemployed.

This really skews the numbers and has led to the unemployment rate being low enough that extended benefits are ending. Which I think is bullshit since the economy / job market really isn't better.

When I was first unemployed, I applied for hundreds of jobs. Out of all those jobs, I got 1 interview. 1, that's it! This is the big reason I decided to go back to school.

I also got a lot of shit from now former online friends about how I used my unemployment and the fact that I couldn't get a job. For some reason, some people (especially ones it seems that have jobs) think getting a job is so easy, which it's not.

Plus there are other factors for me since I have a child. So I can't just go to some fast food place to work because daycare would cost more than I would make.

Though I don't mind that my unemployment ran out. I wish it hadn't, but I got all my full extensions, and we aren't doing too badly. I'm just angry for all those people (including my best friend) who thought they were good for a while only to have the rug pulled out from under them.

WrestleMania Weekend - Friday

WrestleMania 27!

I've been a wrestling fan for about 11 years now. I had some friends in college who watched it. We used to go to a local bar/grill to watch the pay-per-views, the first that I watched being Summer Slam.

Then I started dating my husband, and he is an even bigger wrestling fan than I am. His dad is a fan and he watched it when it was little.

We've been to quite a few pay-per-views live, which is always a good time. The most recent was that we went to the Royal Rumble last year in Atlanta and it was awesome.

But when we found out that WrestleMania 27 was going to be in Atlanta, we jumped at the chance to get tickets. In addition to WrestleMania, there was a wrestling event called WrestleMania Axxess. It was where you could go and meet wrestlers, get autographs and do other things.

Axxess was set up that you would buy a general admission ticket for a 4 hour sessions. There was 3 sessions each day. You could also buy VIP tickets that guaranteed you an autograph / picture with your favorite Superstar. We got VIP tickets for Shawn Michaels. We had thought about getting another one, but by the time we tried, the tickets were sold out. We found out later that all the VIP tickets were sold out by 3 pm the day they went on sale.

Anyway, Friday we got on the road pretty early to get down to Atlanta. We were staying with my kind aunt and uncle who always let us stay when we are doing things in Atlanta, and they watch Emily for us as well.

Friday night Todd had a ticket to Axxess, and I stayed at my aunt / uncle's house. One of my cousins' little boy who I'll refer to as E was also staying for the weekend because my cousin and his wife were LARPing. It was nice because E and Emily get along well since he's only about 6 months younger than she is.

Emily had fun playing and I had a good time visiting though I was pretty exhausted since I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before. At about quarter after 7, I asked Emily if she wanted to go to bed, and shockingly, she said yes.

We went to bed, which was good since I was going to have a long day on Saturday.