Happiness is surviving the East Coast Earthquake TV Coverage!

hahahahaha
I felt it.  No one else on my staff did.  Two were at lunch, the one who was with me thought I was nuts when I said "What just happened?  It felt like the building moved."  So - thank you Al Gore for inventing the internet - I promptly googled earthquake and saw that there had been one in Virginia.  Then I went on facebook and had my suspicions confirmed.  The TV coverage was just a little bit much.  I do feel for people in DC and NYC that must have thought it was another terrorist attack.  It appears that no one was injured or killed and damage seems to be relatively minor, except for some damage to our national monuments.  That makes me sad.  And Californians can laugh all they want at the New Yorkers who evacuated their buildings - but if your city was once the target of a terrorist attack and rarely has earthquakes - what would you think was going on and what would you do?  I would get the hell out of the building, that's for damn sure!
Anyway, the earthquake pre-empted my planned post that would have said "Happiness is that new car smell."  I picked up my new car on Friday.  I'm happy with my decision.  I don't totally love the color, but I don't hate it and for the price I got I'm not being picky.  One feature that I love in this car is that it has a hard drive for music.  So, I put a CD in and it records the CD to the hard drive.  I've been having fun picking what CDs to put on the hard drive.  So far I have a little Bon Jovi, some Queen, a mix from Greys Anatomy soundtracks and some standards (think Frank Sinatra).  Must add more Bon Jovi, REO, Beatles, Buffett - so so many.  Tonight on the way home, I think I'll load up the soundtracks from The Concert for New York City from back in 2001.

Happiness is....

....the car hunt being over and money in my pocket.  I find car shopping to be very stressful.  Test drives, sales pitches, negotiating.  UGH.  I thought I knew what I wanted this time - a Ford Edge or some other crossover.  I really liked the Edge.  It was not as economical as I thought it would be, but that wasn't really an issue.  I was briefly swayed at the thought of a Lincoln.  Went and test drove the Cadillac SRX.  Didn't like the styling, didn't like the roof support that created a big blind spot, but I really liked the ride.  Got a quote on a Cadillac CTS and was amazed at the price and thought - I may be getting Baby Jr. soon!  (Dad had a Cadillac Sedan back in the 70s that we called Baby.  We swore that if the house caught fire, he would save Baby first.)  I was really determined to buy American, helping out the economy, but did want to keep my personal economy in mind.  So, I got in touch with two Infiniti dealerships - the one that replaced the dealership where I got my current Infiniti and the one where the salesman I worked with 3 years ago went.  Well, the first one got back to me pretty quickly and gave me an amazing price.  $130 less per month than I am paying now for basically the same car.  I was still willing to go with one of the others if Ithought the overall value would be better.  But after reading reviews, etc - nothing could match the price or the value I was getting with the Infiniti.  So,  my personal economy won out.  Now - what to do with that extra $130 each month?  And I got a raise this month too!  Some of it will definitely go into savings.  I may also finally break down and get a cleaning lady to come in every week or every other week.

Friday Photos

Just a quick post - finished a blanket for my new niece.

and boomer

Happiness is....

....a truly local local yarn store.  And I don't have it.  I finished the baby blanket for our new niece on Monday.  (Pictures will be coming.  It's pretty and colorful.)  So now, I am ready to start a new project.  I want to use up some of my stash and I have this beautiful skein of Wollmeise yarn just itching to be a shawl.  So, with A's help, I pick a pattern.  I wind the yarn into a ball - let me tell you - 575 yards takes a while to wind.  I'm ready to cast on 319 stitches - WOW!  As I'm casting on with a larger size needle per the pattern, I realize that I only have one set of size 5 circular needles that are long enough for the body of the shawl.  And those size 5s are currently in the middle of a top I am knitting during my lunch hours.  Well, I could use some new stitch markers too, so I order another set of size 5 tips for my addi clicks.  I thought about waiting until Friday to head to the nearest local yarn store that would carry the needles I like, but I figure that if I ordered them first thing in the morning from a favorite online supplier, I would probably have them by Friday anyway.  And then I can spend Friday doing other things I want to do - like test drive cars.  It really would be nice though to be able to just pop into a yarn store on my way home or only have to drive 10 or 15 minutes.  Instead, the nearest good quality yarn store is over 30 minutes away.  They are quite lovely, just wish they were closer.

I need clever quips

A friend of mine is posting a countdown to my 50th birthday on my facebook wall.  Every day it's "Morning :) XX and counting...have a nice day!".  Today is 22 days.  I have been trying to come up with clever responses.  One of these days I plan to say "beats the alternative" but I've got 21 more days to quip back.  I sure wish I had some comedic talent right now.  One thing I will be doing soon, is starting a countdown for her, because she turns 50 less than 3 weeks after me.  :)  I love this woman.  She's a good friend and I actually am enjoying the fact that she is enjoying the fact that I turn 50 first.

Happiness is....

...a new hair style.  That's what I'm going for today.  The longish (chin length) look is just not doing it for me.  The perm makes it harder to dry and I don't think it's really added so much body that it makes the style look good on me.  I still feel it looks kind of old ladyish.  So today, I'll spend some time looking at hairstyles yet again.  Hopefully I can find something I like that will be attractive on me.

God's Will? or not

When you are dealing with infertility, loss or any kind of disease, there will always be people who say things like "It's God's will" or "It must be God's plan for you."  I suppose with some people, believing that their situation is God's will helps them cope with it.  For me, the suggestion that my situation is God's will is not a helpful one.  Starting on an intellectual level, I find it hard to believe that God gets that deeply into an individual's life.  Yes, He is the Supreme Being and could probably map out each twist and turn in our lives, but I don't believe He does.  Otherwise, it negates the concept of Him having given us free will.  On a purely emotional level, I don't buy it either.  If it is God's will that I remain childless when that is my heart's desire, then it must be some form of punishment.  Well, why would He punish me yet grant other people their desires?  I know I'm no angel, I am a sinner as are we all, but I am a good person.  There are people that you can legitimately look at and say "not so good a person" yet they get their wishes.  You could make the argument that they are not happy with their lives - but then I think you are stretching it.  And where does God's will come in to people who abuse or worse murder their innocent children?  Every day in the news you read about people abusing or killing children.  Was it God's will that those children live painful lives, die painful deaths?
So what started me off on this rant today?  I read someone's blog where they opined that it was selfish not to accept God's will for your life.  This is the blog of a woman who experienced infertility and eventually accepted living life without children.  If it helps her cope to say it was God's will, then I guess I need to respect her coping mechanism.  But for me, I don't believe it was God's will.  If it was God's will, then I would have to blame him.  He wouldn't be the loving force I have always believed in and relied upon.  For me, I believe it is just how life turns out sometimes and God's role in all of it is mourning my loss with me, being an anchor to hang onto when the pain is too much, being a light to show me that there can be happiness in my life in other ways.