Monthly Archives: December 2019

It Just Got Personal, Log, Our House, Story Time

Not Just Stealing Packages…

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This is a warning…

As everyone is aware, every holiday season there are folks who take advantage of those who order a lot from online. Especially around the holidays when those who don’t order a lot suddenly do.

Anybut, thieves love this time of year. Most people still have to work and don’t get home until evening. So packages tend to sit on doorsteps all day. Thieves drive up and down neighborhood streets to find these packages. They run up tot he door, nab the packages and drive off.

Well…that’s not the ONLY crime happening now.

Most people who are expecting packages to be delivered tend to have their guards down when someone knocks on the door. They think, “Oh! That’s probably that package I’ve been waiting for!”

BUT HERE IS A WARNING!! And I’ll tell you based on something that happened to me this past Tuesday:

I was on my computer upstairs. Just messing around. Somebody pounds, not knocks, POUNDS on the front door.

I initially think…do I have a package scheduled to arrive today?

The person pounds again. I go downstairs and, because I was alone, peeked through the peep hole.

I see a guy. No package in hand. He’s wearing a hoodie with the hood up. He’s kind of hanging out as though trying to avoid the sightline of the peephole and kept his face turned away from the door.

IMMEDIATE RED FLAGS!!

I stand there, staring out the peephole, not saying anything and watch him…ready to run upstairs to get my phone if needed.

He shifts his weight a bit and then storms off. I wait a few minutes to make sure he’s gone. Then I go back upstairs and keep my phone close. Some time later I go downstairs and turn on a lot of lights and even the TV to give the impression there’s more than one person in the house.

Today, the Thursday after this happened. A neighbor asked if we saw the criminal (thier words, not mine) walking around the neighborhood. Apparently this person (who I guess was also wearing a mask? I couldn’t see his face so I can’t confirm this) was going to every house and knocking on the door.

This person wasn’t out trying to steal packages. Package thieves DO NOT KNOCK! This person was looking for something else. It could’ve been someone easy to overpower and rob from, it could’ve been someone scoping out houses to see which ones were empty, or it could’ve even been somebody looking to nab someone.

I’ll never know. But I do know that I’ve learned a lot living alone. And when you feel like something is weird or giving you red flags…you listen to that feeling. If you’re wrong, no harm no foul.

So please, please, PLEASE!!! Be careful this holiday season. There are some real bad people wandering around.

31 Days of Holiday Memories!, Log

Random Holiday Pic

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31 Days of Holiday Memories!!

Day 12

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A show I worked on back in 2016. I stage managed this show in Oregon and it was a lot of fun.

All four boys flew out from New York to work the show and were extremely talented.

31 Days of Holiday Memories!, Log

Peppermint…EVERYTHING!!

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31 Days of Holiday Memories!!

Day 11

I LOVE peppermint. Peppermint candy, peppermint mochas, peppermint schnapps, peppermint candles, peppermint soap, peppermint, peppermint, PEPPERMINT!!!!

The odd thing is, I don’t like it the rest of the year…and by that I mean I won’t go out of my way to get something peppermint. Until the holidays. Then it’s OPEN SEASON!!

Even in Candyland…my favorite character was Mr. Mint……the PEPPERMINT lumberjack clown. And I’m talking the original Mr. Mint (cuz apparently he’s gone through a redesign?).

Anybut, enough about peppermint….have I mentioned I love peppermint?

31 Days of Holiday Memories!, Log

Holiday Possum

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31 Days of Holiday Memories!!

Day 10

Okay, this is cheating a bit. This isn’t a memory but I thought it was something to share.

We now have a possum living in our backyard. It’s a biggun’ and so far the only thing it’s done is stink up the backyard a bit.

Since it’s only appeared in the past couple weeks, I’m considering it a Holiday Miracle.

Trying to think of an awful pun name for it…..I’ll get back to y’all (unless any of you have any ideas for names).

31 Days of Holiday Memories!, Log

Brussel Sprouts…That is All

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31 Days of Holiday Memories!!

Day 9

HA! I bet you thought I wouldn’t bring up memories from Thanksgiving, did ya?!

That’s why I called this the 31 days of HOLIDAY memories.

ANYBUT!!

Every year (at least when my uncle still came to Thanksgiving dinners) my uncle made brussel sprouts. He was the ONLY one who ate them and all he did to them was boil ’em.

They’d stink up the house for days and everyone hated brussel sprouts. My dad claims he likes them, but he’s a liar. Okay not a liar. He likes them when they’re cooked, not boiled.

 

31 Days of Holiday Memories!, D Land, Log

Fireworks for One

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31 Days of Holiday Memories!!

Day 8

I used to work for Disneyland. One of my memories of working during the holidays is from way back in 2008.

I worked the attraction Autopia…’scuse me, Chevron’s Autopia (that’s who sponsored it back then). If you’ve been to Disneyland during the holidays then you are familiar with their holiday parade and fireworks show which have been the same FOREVER!!

Okay, not forever, but for a LOOOOOOONG time.

Anybut, there was a position on Autopia where you, the cast member stood in the middle of the ride all alone….my favorite position, to be honest.

It was a safety position in case something happened on the ride. There’s also a position where you walk the attraction (my second favorite position), but I always preferred the position standing in the middle of the ride.

I especially LOVED this position during the fireworks. There were speakers behind the position and you could listen to the music and get a pretty good view of the fireworks. Not the castle, but the fireworks.

I also liked this position during the fireworks because usually not many people rode the attraction during that point so you were pretty alone and got a show out of it.

I have a few other holiday at Disneyland stories from when I worked there…but I’ll try to keep them spaced apart.

And don’t worry Disney…none of them will be reveals of secrets or things not already publicly known.

I Have A Dream, Log

A Recurring Nightmare

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I don’t have a lot of recurring nightmares…

They’re more recurring themes of nightmares. But there’s one that I keep having that really messes with my head.

It’s the nightmare that I don’t have enough credits to graduate college.

I think it stems from the fact I was terrified while I was in college that I wouldn’t graduate on time. THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!! If you need an extra semester or year, that’s fine. But for me it was the idea that I wouldn’t graduate on time due to ONE credit.

My college required a certain number of credits of language. I don’t have a strong affinity for learning another language so this was very difficult for me.

I took French in High School, but I barely passed that so I thought I’d start over with a different language and one that I already knew a few words of (thanks to band).

ITALIAN!

The first professor I had……was AWFUL. He was Italian, but his class was just a lot of memorization. I literally had a final that was memorizing the Little Mermaid in Italian and saying it back to him. And no, I don’t mean translating the Little Mermaid and then saying it to him. He gave us the story in Italian and we had to memorize it.

I learned NOTHING in that class. I learned more when I worked an opera in Italy and lived there for a month.

BUT THAT DIDN’T COUNT TOWARDS MY CREDIT!!!! I lived in Italy for a MONTH and my college wouldn’t let that count for ANYTHING towards my language credit.

But luckily I earned all but 1 credit towards the language requirement from that AWFUL class which meant I still had to take one MORE semester of Italian, but I refused to take the class with that teacher.

Luckily I wasn’t the only one who thought this and he was fired before my senior year. So I got to take the remaining class I needed with a different professor who ACTUALLY taught it. He was also, VERY understanding. I explained to him I was a theater major and how I lived in Italy for a month. This was the last credit I needed to graduate and he was a little more lenient on me grading-wise.

I passed and graduated on time.

BUT BACK TO MY NIGHTMARE!!! The reason I said this nightmare messes with my head is even when I’m awake I feel like I didn’t earn that credit. I didn’t really earn the credit and shouldn’t have graduated.

And even though it’s been 8 (almost 9) years since I graduated I still feel like that. I still think I’m going to wake up and realize I’m still in college, struggling to earn that last Italian credit.

 

It’s also a bit of my Imposter Syndrome mixing with my nightmare…….feeding on the anxiety and stress to become a powerful Nightmare WIZARD!!

31 Days of Holiday Memories!, Log

Strange Holiday Phenomenon

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31 Days of Holiday Memories!!

Day 7

Only around the Holidays do I ever get the desire to learn how to bake and cook. I don’t understand WHY, because I have no desire to learn the rest of the year.

Last year it was real strong.

I even asked for a recipe card box so I could write down all the recipes my mom had. I was also the one to encourage my parents to bake cookies with me.

Though to be fair…the cookies is mostly because we used to bake them every year when I was little…..so I guess I can understand why that’s become such a strong thing around the Holidays.

But the COOKING?!

And I hear you all saying, “Well, didn’t you help with Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners?”

Yes, but I didn’t LIKE helping with those. Unlike the cookies.

Anybut, this strange Holiday Phenomenon (doot doo di doo doo)keeps haunting me every year.

31 Days of Holiday Memories!, Log

My First Beanie Babies

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31 Days of Holiday Memories!

Day 6

Remember when Beanie Babies were HUGE?

Yeah, I lived through that with only a couple hundred purchases…much to my parents’ chagrin.

Anybut! My first 2 Beanie Babies were Christmas gifts. A stingray (Sting) and a pink flamingo (Pinkie)…the irony that I grew up to be afraid of stingrays is tragic…

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They were my introduction into the Beanie Baby world and I still have ALL of my collection…but especially my stingray and flamingo.

I blame Beanie Babies on my desire to be a writer. I created an entire city that my beanies lived in. I had couples, families, villains with dastardly plots….the whole shebang.

I miss the classic Beanie Babies. The new ones have less beans and are just not as well-designed…in my opinion.

 

31 Days of Holiday Memories!, Log

Turn That Thing Off

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31 Days of Holiday Memories!!

Day 5

My favorite home movie is from when I lived in Indiana. We made a snow slide in the backyard that started at the top of our back porch and went straight down into the forest behind my house.

My mom was up and as she went down, she tried to stop the sled, but her hand hit a tree and she rolled out.

But what I remember the most, and the best part of the video is my mom turning to look at my dad who’s filming and she says, “I hit my hand! I tried to…TURN THAT THING OFF!”

And then you hear my brother and I being the best children and burst out laughing.

She was fine, just embarrassed that we got everything on film.