*Sigh*

I hate the unknown. I’ve been at Smith Barney since February of 1996. It’s been through many changes in the past, so why am I nervous about the latest news of a merger with Morgan Stanley?

I’m what you call a member of “middle management”. So I’m nervous about my job security. Whose to say how long it will take before changes start happening? Whose to say that whoever does my job at MS is better than me?

I guess I can only sit back and wait. I HATE waiting. This is going to drive me nuts!

Part of me thinks this is a good move for us. A good move for Smith Barney. We are a great company! I’m a bit speechless about what this all means for Citigroup. I think Citigroup is great firm. I work with great people and I truly love my job.

I hope it doesn’t go away…

Texting as a mental illness? Really?

While checking local news sites, I came across the following headline:

Girl, 13, sends 14,528 texts in a month

That’s a lot of texts. But what I found more odd about the story itself, was the fact that an “expert” out there thinks it could be a mental illness. Great. Whose going to start the first Texters Annoymous group? I’m free on Tuesdays…

Check it out. Psychiatrist Dr. Jerald Block says that there are four distinct symptoms to diagnosing texting as a mental illness:

• Excessive use (neglect day-to-day activities) I neglect day-to-day activites – but because I don’t want to do them.
• Withdrawal (feeling depressed when not accessible) Is this depression or anger that you can’t use your phone (i.e. your in school or eating dinner or doing homework or because your parents took it away for the night because you failed your math test?)
• Tolerance (overtexting) Who set the bar on how much is too much? I know! My cell phone service. If I pay for 500 texts per month and I sent 501 texts, then I sent 1 too many. The girl in this article has unlimited texting. Seems to me, she has yet to overtext… (is that even a word?)
• Negative repercussion (social isolation) All teenagers go through this. With or without a cell phone to text from.

I don’t get it.

Last November-ish Dan sold a house to Casey & Diane. They haven’t moved in yet though. Casey is fixing the place up. By fixing up I mean completely updating. By completely updating I mean gutting.

I am anxious to see the final product! The plans they showed us looks to be like a great house for a family of 4 (soon to be 5!).

After checking the place out we headed back to their current home to hang out.

We had some good food, laughs and interesting conversations.

I realized, or more accurately, remembered, how much I enjoy their company.

Diane is a doll & a sweetheart all rolled into one & Casey is just plain hilarious. Good peeps.

I must make sure we see them more often than we have in the past.

The snow is blowing and steadily accumulating. And it’s COLD out there!

Why is the snow blowing from East to West? My snow drifts are gathering on the East side of my house. Weird. Is that normal?

It’s warm inside. Well, warmer. I can’t bear to turn the heat up more than it is. Thank goodness for sweatshirts, slippers and blankets!

Winter storm warning!

That’s a pretty freaky looking radar. We are expecting a ton of snow. Some places to get the dreaded “wintery mix” which means snow, sleet, rain, crap, etc.

The warning is from 1 AM to 7 PM Friday. It’s 11:21 PM on Thursday and I’m not looking forward to what’s ahead.

How much will we really get? We’re expecting 6″-10″ which really doesn’t sound like a lot. Except it’s all going to fall in a short period of time which makes for pure winter nastiness!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but there isn’t much to say.

I have found the motivation I was looking for and sticking to my plan so that’s good news.

I’m also 18 days away from attempting, cold turkey, to quit smoking. I have a lot of people telling me that I should use something to help me. But that’s not the route I want to go. I realize and am fully aware that smoking is an addiction. But I think with the right mind set and will power, it can be over come.

I’m going to do everything I can to do this on my own. I don’t want to take any pills and I don’t want to eat, chew or stick anything on my arm that is going to continue to pump nicotine into my system. It just seems counter productive.

I understand the patches – it gives you X amount of nicotine and you slowing step down to less and less. Well, I’m going to do the same thing, but with cigarettes from now until quit day. Makes sense doesn’t it?

I have just over two weeks to “ween” myself off the nicotine. So, I’m going to start with not having that smoke on the way home from work. Then I’ll go to not having that smoke on the way to work. Then I won’t take the morning smoke break at work. I think you get the picture.

Seems to me this will do the same thing as smoking up until quit day and then trying to find a place to hide a sticky patch on myself.

Keep your fingers crossed. Wish me luck. I will doing everything I can to beat this, and if I trip, I will get back up and keep going. I’m confident I can do this.

Even more so, I know that I have to.

I need some motivation. I’ve written down my goals and have committed them to memory.

But I still can’t find the motivation to take the next step. I had it not too long ago and I know once I get started I’ll get it back.

I feel like my to do list is too long to start something else but I know I have to for my own happiness.

Tomorrow must be the day to take that next step.

It’s a moral imperative.

Wish me luck!

So, I get an e-mail from a friend. She wants to keep up to date with me on Twitter!

What?

I click the link, sign up and…..nothing. What the hell did that do? I have no idea what to do next. The only way I can find friends is if I let the system look at my e-mail contacts. I don’t use gmail or hotmail or yahoo. I can’t find twitter friends by e-mail. Why the F can I not search by a name or screen name?

*Sigh*

So, I decided to go with WordPress. I think it looks a lot better than blogger. Blogger seemed….elementary. WordPress is easy to navigate, easy to customize and easy post. I dig it.

I have no clue if anyone out there in the world is reading this. Honestly, I don’t really care. As long as it looks good for me, I will continue to use it.

So there.

The cheesy potatoes are done baking, the steak is almost done on the grill and my stomach is screaming for food!

Sitting here watching the husband and our friend George play Call of Duty (insert latest version number here), we’ve come up with the brilliant plan to turn the TV into my new “computer”.

After dinner we are heading to the local Circuit City to get all the necessary cables to hook up my laptop to the big screen. Then I can sit in comfort on my couch and surf the net!

Who doesn’t love technology? I also just finished hooking up a bluetooth phone system so my cell phone will ring throughout the house. Very cool. Now I just have to figure out how I can respond to a text message on the damn thing. Heh.

Ok, that’s a bit too lazy even for me. I can clearly stop whatever it is I’m doing, or at least get up at the next commercial break in Forensic Files to answer a text.

Needless to say, my once drab looking Wednesday has turned into a fun night of good food, shopping and hanging with friends.