Okay, tell me it’s not just me. I am so ready for winter to be over. O.V.E.R.

There’s nothing like frigid weather and lots of snow to make people thing long and hard about starting a successful home business. The upside is you can work in your jammies (my favorite perk), don’t have to worry about shoveling the driveway, and can set your schedule around reruns of CSI on Spike TV.

The downside is a raging case of cabin fever, and while I don’t think I’ve hit maximum overload yet, it’s close. Why does it seem like February, as truncated of a month as it is, seems so damned long?

I’m ready for spring. SO. READY.

I didn’t watch the entire thing, at best I caught bits and pieces of the Golden Globe ceremony last night. I saw a couple of Ricky Gervais’s jabs, and they were hysterically funny. I caught Drew Barrymore’s acceptance speech and wished I hadn’t. Then, I saw Sandra Bullock’s tearful shout-out to her husband, and that actually choked me up a bit.

I love the clothes, although I have a sneaking suspicion many of the women of the red carpet utilized the “benefits” of a colon and body cleanse to fit into some of those creations. Not to mention the suspension of most laws of physics to get those “golden globes” to stay in place.

In light of the tragedy in Haiti, it seems frivolous to party like a rock star, but most stars seem to realize they live a very sheltered life and have reached out to those in need. Sandra Bullock donated $1 million to the relief efforts, and besides admiring her as an actress, I admire her as a person. There’s not really too many other actors I can say that about.

…is to fix the aesthetics of this site back to its former glory. Please bear (or is it bare) with me. As I’m not a code goddess, I am shopping templates as I speak. I can put my personal touch on it, which I do enjoy, so have patience.

In this economy, the last thing we need is an annuity? Really? Seriously?

Whew!

At this point in my life I don’t have the man who promised to love me forever, I don’t have a mortgage to a house I really can’t afford, I don’t have bills I really can’t pay off.

What I do have is menopausal night sweats like no body’s business, the loss of old friends, the gain of new friends, a sweet puppy who replaces the other puppy I had to put down for health reasons, and a son who loves me.

Happy holidays and I hope everyone has the most happy New Year!

Sometimes, looking at life is like peering through a clear window and other times it’s like looking through glass tile, where the images are blurry and distorted. This time of year is particularly difficult, because the season is really for the little ones. Once they have grown and gone, the nest feels mighty empty and cold.

I prefer to look at this season as Yule rather than Christmas, and intend to celebrate very low key. There’s too much commercialization anyway, and that stuff wears mighty thin. It’s easy to look back and remember old Christmases as the epitome of all that is good, when in truth they probably aren’t. Still, I’ll hold the good memories close and hope they warm the nest a little.

Well, it’s been quite an interesting time for my fellow Goddess and I. I’m sure right now (hopefully not for long) you’ll notice we have the default Word Press theme a’happening. Yes, somehow our blog was hacked and sent everything into flaming chaos.

With Miss Netta doing most of the grunt work and with loads of help from the fine folks at our hosting company, Hostmonster (btw, anyone interested in a great place to host, let us know, we’ll give your our referral number, so yes, we can make a few much needed bucks to keep this place going) we were able to weather this one tiny storm, although in all honesty, it felt like a hurricane.

I’ve had my own personal computer problems. See, I left my computer unprotected (shame on me, I know) and I’ve caught some viruses. Not having anything backed up, I freaked out, until I found Mozy.com, a great little online backup system. It’s easy to use even if the initial backup time is a little long (again, if you’re interested, just let me know, and I will give you my referral number…much needed money to keep our enterprises rolling along.) Once I pass this hurdle, I should be safe and ready to wipe my precious computer and start all over. Once I pass this backing up hurdle, I should be safe and ready to wipe my precious computer and start all over. And you can bet, I’m going to use one of the best free anti-virus software program out there—Avast.

And last but not least, not only has Miss Netta been struggling with a broken furnace in the beginning of the dead of winter (where she lives anyway) but she is working on 2 weeks without hot water. She’s dirty and cold, folks. Let’s keep her in our prayers and thoughts and hope that the powers that be see that she gets this fixed soon.

I tell you, if this keeps up, we’re both gonna have to hunt down a great life insurance lead because coupled with this time of the year, we’re just not sure how much stress our ole hearts can take, and in this economy, our loved ones are gonna need some extra cash.

The new year is coming up, and I remember in high school wondering what careers in the future would hold. At the time, I was in a nursing program, and I had a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept of writing any year that started with “2000″. After all, that would mean I’d be in my FORTIES, which was totally incomprehensible. I also thought that once I made it through the nursing program, that’s what I’d be doing for the rest of my life.

Ah, youth. How ignorant and innocent! Little did I know at the time that a person will change careers over the course of a lifetime depending on circumstance and situation.

Still, it seems the hot jobs in the millennial years are still in the health care field. Baby boomers are aging fast (I should know) and according to an article in the Reader’s Digest, health care is expected to add over a million jobs in 2010, and the demand is outstripping the supply. That’s the good news. The bad news is, a lot of these jobs (but not all) require a higher skill set, which means more education.

The hot heath careers as cited by the Reader’s Digest include surgical technologist, health care administrator, RN, and medical records tech. All require some kind of college degree or accreditation course, but the investment in education in this situation may actually pay off, as opposed to a degree in Political Science or Liberal Arts.

I was in nursing for many years, but moved on to other things as life dictated. One good thing about education — once you have it, you always have it.

I think the thing that strikes me is how life continues to travel in full circles. I am, like many people in this economy, struggling to make ends meet. But it looks like my early education may play a part in helping me get out of the hole.

Who knew?

As if this season isn’t busy enough, on top of that add some house woes and I feel like I’ve been beaten with a crankystick.

If this is how people lived back in the day, let me just say for the record I’d last about five minutes.

I was fine with the furnace not working. I mean, it’s a temperate climate here in the Midwest, at least for the moment, although at this time of year the temperatures seem to fluctuate from the sublime to the ridiculous. For instance, today’s high will be 67 or better. Yummy. Tomorrow — 43. Not so yummy. Still, I have been able to hold off the worst of the chills with no more than a space heater until I can get a hold of my heat guy, and since I’m originally from upstate NY, 43 is thong weather.

I was fine with a slow drain in the bathroom, vacillating between using spring plungers or dynamite, and opting for the spring plungers.

Then my closet ceiling caved in from some kind of water damage and I see mold. I can’t sleep in there. It smells funny and I’m afraid the entire ceiling will cave in and kill me in my sleep. Of course, this happened just before the Thanksgiving holiday and people are scarce. A call in to the landlady, and now there are people tromping all over my tiny house, tracking mud, asking questions to which I know not the answers, and I’m looking at the landlady’s sad and mad face wondering if I should just cut my losses and find somewhere else to live.

This would be move number SIX in about a year. Don’t ask.

I believe I may look into a nice rubber room somewhere, where I can get good drugs and drool to my heart’s content.

So, how was YOUR holiday?

I’m not a fan of the holidays, let’s be honest here. However, in my internal directory submission of holidays, Thanksgiving is one of the least offensive in many ways, although I never was a fan of cooking poultry, stuffing myself until I could puke, or watching a banal parade that is just one continuous commercial for the upcoming Christmas season.

I know I’m a grinch. Still, I wish everyone a happy day, and hope you’re enjoying the company of friends and family and lots of good foodz. Failing that, may your day pass painlessly, may your health be fine, and may you find joy in the small things no matter how dark your mood might be.

January 2nd is not that far away. And I’m thankful for that. Heh.

<3

Oh my! Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time to start thinking about those Christmas and Hanukkah presents. So here are a few ideas.

There’s still plenty of time to think about customizing gifts for friends and family. Everything from custom shot glasses to custom jewelry to custom t-shirts.

Places to start searching out customizable wares are jewelry stores, drugs stores, and even online stores such as zazzle.com. With a place such as Zazzle, you can even contact the designer for a custom design.

Customizing gifts makes them so much more personal and thoughtful. The receiver will know that you put a lot of thought into their gift, and that always makes someone feel special.