Habby Birthday To Me!

Yesterday I took the day off of work for my birthday. I tried to sleep in but the landscapers were doing their thing (with chainsaws!) and woke me up at like 9:30. Yes, that may seem like sleeping in, but sleeping in for me is like noon. So since I was up, Brad and I took the light rail downtown and had lunch with my Mom and then went to the main Phoenix Public Library. It is five stories tall! It was pretty impressive, but I still like the Tempe one better. But the Phoenix Library does have a way better CD selection. I checked out the following cds from the library:
Rosie Thomas - If Songs Could Be Held
the thermals - the body the blood the machine
Damien Jurado - On My Way to Absence
Emiliana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman
The String Cheese Incident - Outside Inside
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Living with the Living
the Elected - Sun Sun Sun
Patty Griffin - Living with Ghosts
Erin Mckeown - Grand
Ben Weaver - Paper Sky

Some of these groups, I have never listened to, only heard of; so I don't actually know if I will like them all.

Later that night we got sushi with a few friends and then for desert went next door to a Mexican restaurant and got fried ice cream. All of it was super yummy.

Imagination or Symptoms?

I can never tell if I am having real symptoms or just convincing myself I have symptoms after reading what symptoms I "should have". Case in point, when I read side effects for medicines I'm taking, I start to have those symptoms. Really? Or am I just imagining them? The same thing is happening now with pregnancy symptoms. Not that I am not having those symptoms, but some of them can mean that my period is coming as well. Oh well, I will just keep waiting and taking a hpt every couple of days (still negative as of Monday). I really want to save up some money and go to a Reproductive Endocrinologist (my insurance doesn't cover it) because I feel I will get better care there. My regular OB/GYN is just not cutting it. Anyone want to give me the name of their awesome Phoenix based OB/GYN with me?

The T-Mobile Dance

I guess this is an advertisement, but I just love it and it will make you smile! Enjoy.

found via kttke.org

A New Year

I can't believe that I am going to turn 26 in a couple of weeks. It's not so much that I feel old because I love getting older; but I just can't believe that ten years ago I was 16, that I have been working now for ten years, that I have some of the same friends from ten years ago. I changed friends often when I was younger so I never thought I would have long term friends, but it seems that I may now have some of the same friends for life (Amber, Christy, Laura). I remember when I was younger my Mom would talk to her friends that lived in different states. I thought it was odd and couldn't imaging doing that, but now I have friends like that. Friends that you are not making new memories with, mostly just re-hashing old memories when you speak. But that is also falling by the wayside because of Myspace and Facebook. I can just look on there to see what some old friends are doing. I don't really talk to anyone on those sites, I just check some old friends' sites to see what they are up to.

P.S. I started using Twitter. So follow me if you would like

Derby Girl/ Whip it!

I just read this book yesterday. I loved it so much (I say this about almost all books, except Inexcusable, grrr, I hated that book)! It is a bout a small town teenage misfit who often visits the closest biggest city Austin, Texas and ends up joining the Roller Derby team there. I identify with most teenage girls in books (what? I was a teenage only 6 years ago!), but this one actually was interested in things like music and activities that I am interested in. If I had even more confidence than I already have, I would love to join Roller Derby, or if I knew how to skate well. She falls for a guy in a band along the way. Which is bad news, except for all the guys I know in bands; who are great guys and wonderful boyfriends/husbands.

Just now while searching for stuff about this book, I found out that it is being made into a movie! Directed by Drew Barrymore! Starring Juno star Ellen Page! But the lead guy does not look like the guy described in the book (too hipster, not enough rock'n'roll), boo!

I hate Raymond

I remember not so long ago that every time I turned on the TV I could probably find a Friends or Scrubs episode; and it was awesome. I love those two shows. But that time has ended. As the powers that be have decided instead to show King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Two and a Half Men on every channel. I dislike all of these shows, but I really hate Everybody Loves Raymond especially because it does make me laugh sometimes (which makes me hate myself). But Raymond is a freaking jerk to his wife, he is a mama's boy, and is so super annoying. I just really despise him and can't watch that show for more than five minutes at a time.

Juanita June Teach (Lidgard) 1920-2008

My Great Grandmother died yesterday at home, asleep, surrounded by her family. She hasn't been doing well for awhile and broke her hip a few weeks ago while in Hawaii and it has been downhill since then. This weekend all the family was called to come and visit her because she wasn't really waking up anymore and they were just keeping her comfortable. We didn't know how long she would last because of her pacemaker, but she died yesterday and my Dad told me he was by her side.

I am feeling very sad for my Great Aunt Sally right now. A year ago she was living with three people; her husband Lee, her mother (my g.grandmother) and her stepfather (my step-great grandfather and my ggma's fourth husband). My step-g.grandfather died earlier last year, my Great Uncle Lee died a couple of days after our wedding in October and now my grandmother. It has been a lot for her to handle and I'm not sure where she will go from here.

My g.grandma was 88 years old and only in the last six months or so has her memory even started going at all. She went to Hawaii only a few weeks ago to visit her son and always commented on how she needed to meet new men. She was funny and opinionated. I love that when I went to visit her in October, she told me that she really liked Obama. I wish I would have known more about her life; I don't even know much about my parents' lives when they were younger. My family is not big on sharing which is something I plan on changing with my own family. But she did tell me one story not too long ago.

I asked her how she got together with my g.grandfather; she told me the story of how when she was about 20 she was dating a Bohemian (her words, I didn't quite know what that meant) and her Mother did not like it one bit. Della forbid her from seeing the said Bohemian. So to spite her mother, Juanita married my great grandfather Ralph Irwin who was 20 years her senior. Well her mother was not happy about that either. Always the rebellious one!

Four years

New Years eve/day was Brad and mine's four year anniversary of the date we got together. My mother has already informed me that now I have to count my wedding date as my anniversary. No thanks! I like having our anniversary on a holiday, although we did get married on National Coming Out Day!

We were watching an episode of X-Files yesterday where Skinner and his wife almost got divorced and she said that they had become only roommates to each other. I told Brad that even if we ever fell out of love that I wanted to live with him forever because he is the best roommate ever! He is my best friend. I am so thankful that he puts up with my laziness. There is nothing that we love more than to spend the day in bed watching movies. He has a sweet tooth and he asks me to make ice cream at ten o'clock at night (although the frozen yogurt last night was my idea). He is such a talented artist and musician. I think his song lyrics are amazing and his comics are so witty. I hope that he finds a path to do what he loves and get paid for it

Brad, I love you so much!

I need more information!

I just finished this book. It was so so good. I loved it. But it had the same problem that I have with many books and movies; what happens next! I get so invested in these characters' lives and then I never get to know how they end up. At the end of a book/movie I don't want to have to imagine that the couple got married, or what their house looks like, or if they had kids, or if she reunited with her family, etc.... That is why I'm reading a book because I want you tell me a story with a beginning, middle, and an end. Just hinting at things won't do it for me. That is why I really liked the epilogue in the final Harry Potter book. It gave me closure. Yes, I like those paragraphs at the end of movies that tell me how the characters end up. I want a book that follows a character all the way to their death and then maybe keeps going with a sequal about that characters kids. I want a never ending series.

Name Change

I finally changed my name and got my new driver's license today. I originally went in and changed it in November, but that was a disaster. In my state, first you have to go to the SS office and change your name there. So my birth name is Bubba Shannon Magillicutty (some names have been changed!) I have always gone by my middle name Shannon since I was very little so I wanted to get rid of my first name, make my middle name my first name and my maiden name my middle name. So at the SS office I changed my name to Shannon Magillicutty Dwyer (Dwyer is Brad's last name). They had no problem doing this.

Then two days late I go to the DMV to get a new license and they say no go. I am not allowed to change my first name, the only thing I am allowed to do is drop my last name and add his last name. I can't do hyphenated or anything else. I only have one choice (or I might have been able to just add his last name, giving me four names). If I wanted to keep Shannon Magillicutty Dwyer I would have to apply for a legal name change which costs about $300 and I would have to go to court and everything. So now I have new social security card with one name and a driver's license with another. I was very upset.

So I dilly dallied for the last month trying to decide what to do. Finally a few days ago I went back to the SS office and just changed my last name to Dwyer. So now I am Bubba Shannon Dwyer. I had to take a new picture for the license at the DMV because my last picture was from when I was 16, ten years ago. Of course I haven't taken a shower today and I look like crap. Oh well, I have a new name and all is well in the world.

I am pretty pissed at the status quo and that there are not many options for people changing their names. I think as long as one keeps two out of your three birth names, one should be able to change their name to any combination they choose. Boo to the patriarchy!

Hallelujah Vacation Hours!

I have spent the last couple of months since the wedding with no vacation hours left. It really stinks. Thankfully since we are not busy they have been letting us take some days off without pay. It was great being able to take off the two days before Christmas, but it means that my paycheck today was crappy.

The last three years I got three weeks of vacation a year, but since this year marks my four year anniversary here, I now get four weeks of vacation. That is so amazing to me. I could take off a whole month of work and get paid for it!

Unfortunately our vacation doesn't accumulate so this time all has to be used this year. So I am going to try and save most of it but if I am not pregnant by April (if I am I will need to save the time for maternity leave) I will be taking a lot of vacations! I am not one to take really long vacations. I usually take a day off every few weeks just to sleep in and do nothing.