He’s Super…Thanks For Asking!!!

Preemptive answers to the questions that I know you will have about the following video:

His name is Shane Mercado.

Yes, he’s gay.

Because it’s my blog and I can.



Shane...thanks for making Blissfully Unaware a little more "fabulous."

(And keep dancing...because I think you're great!)

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

I know, you want a real update. Something serious and thoughtful and interesting, complete with meaningful sentences. But...you ain't getting one! HA!!!

Wanna know why?

Because I have to work tomorrow...and if you check the date...(go ahead, I'll wait)...tomorrow is SATURDAY.

And no, I don't have a job in retail so there is NO REASON I should be working on Saturday...except that my new job is in the mortgage industry, which means INSANITY.

So, once I actually get a freaking day off I promise I'll write an actual post...a good one...I promise.

It Came From An Email

*sigh*

Thanks, H.O.P.S.F., it made my day.

For Robert

...because he can appreciate this.

No Comment.

*cough*

Girl's Night

...is usually spent watching 'Ghost Hunters.'

But this week we chatted, made bad jokes, and sent each other flair on Facebook. Ah, adulthood.

Potter Puffs

...make my day!

(Especially this one.)

DivaStan – The Continuing Adventures

a.k.a. F*cking Tuesday

Time for a story, boys and girls!

Are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I’ll begin.

This morning, around 10:30, while sitting in my room watching television and sorting through the mess on the top of my dresser and listening to LibraryDiva as she rambled around preparing for a trip to the dentist and a day at work, I became aware of the sound of running water. I thought that perhaps LibraryDiva was letting a faucet run to get hot water…until she stuck her head into my room and asked me the following question:

“What’s that sound?”

We scampered around the apartment and discovered that this sudden distressing sound of cascading water was coming from the utility closet where the water heater and furnace are housed. After about two minutes of conversation during which we decide that we had never heard the water heater make this particular type of noise before and that perhaps this sound was in fact indicative of a potentially disastrous development I decided to wander toward the phone and place a call to the front office. I was informed that the gentleman who lives in the apartment directly below DivaStan had already placed an emergency call for maintenance due to the large amounts of water coming through the ceiling of his bathroom. (We, the residents of DivaStan, would like to take a moment to extent a sincere apology to the gentleman who lives in the apartment below us. We know that this is the third time since we moved in that we have effectively ‘flooded’ your home. We would, however, like to point out that each instance has in fact been the result of broken and/or damaged plumbing fixtures and is therefore no fault of our own.) By the time I was off the phone there was a maintenance guy standing in our hallway turning off our water in an attempt to stem the flow.

It was quickly established that simply turning off our water was not going to fix the problem so instead the water to the whole building was turned off (sorry neighbors!). While LibraryDiva frantically attempted to locate enough water to brush her teeth with I debated on spending the day at my parent’s house. The fuzzy punks were wrangled and LibraryDiva took off for parts unknown, and I decided to hang around DivaStan and watch the drama unfold.

While our humble forty gallon hot water heater was drained I gossiped with the maintenance guys and weaseled some info on our less than stellar parade of neighbors. Turns out that the guy in the apartment diagonal from us was evicted for reasons unknown, but that’s okay because he was pretty creepy. The guy in the apartment downstairs pulled a runner and took off when they pressed him about not paying the rent…and the girl who had been living with him offered to take over the lease…but first they had to go through the process of eviction and then when they ran her credit and discovered that it wasn’t good enough for her to keep the apartment on her own she took off too! Then came the tale of the girl in the 400 building who didn’t realize that the hose on the back of her washing machine had split and was pouring out gallons of water which soaked through her floor and flooded BOTH of the apartments below hers until her enraged neighbors beat down her front door and screamed at her!

Once the heater was empty the maintenance guy strong armed it out of the utility closet and took a sheet rock saw to the closet wall. The pre-existing small-ish hole was cut larger and larger until the source of the leak was located…a pin sized split in the main water line. A maintenance guy was dispatched to our local home repair store to purchase something called a “Shark Bite.” The line was repaired, the water heater was muscled back into place and reconnected and, though it looks like LibraryDiva and I will need to steam clean the hallway carpet again, the mess was really surprisingly minimal. (OH! And the maintenance guys were totally impressed by the multiple pieces of framed cross stitch LibraryDiva and I had hung in the hallway. They had never seen anything like it and were totally blown away to discover that it was our hobby. Yes, LibraryDiva and I are total dorks…but at least we embrace it.)

Can I Get An ‘Amen’?

Dusting off The Blog

Hello boys and girls how are you?

Have you missed me?

Did you notice I wasn’t around?

Did you?

No?

Bastards!

It’s okay…I’ll forgive you…eventually.

2009 has been keeping me on my toes what with family and friend…umm…issues. It feels like I’ve been pulled in a thousand different directions and the outcome is that I’ve been neglecting things around here at Blissfully Unaware. You should have seen the cobwebs!

And now to business!

First order of business: Happy (late) Birthday, Kati (a.k.a. Weird German Girl)!! I hope it was a good one darling! I wish I could have been around to celebrate with you.

Second order of business: Here, in brief, is a breakdown of the family issue.

The situation with my elderly grandparents is getting more complicated. Late in November my grandfather’s appendix ruptured and he had to be rushed into emergency surgery. He came through fine but had to spend several weeks in a rehabilitation center regaining his mobility. My elderly grandmother was left to handle things on her own. My Mother and my Aunt realized that they would have to head north to evaluate the situation for themselves. They were in Pittsburgh from December 20 to January 3.

The outcome of this visit is that while my grandfather is improving, my grandmother seems to be getting worse. They have insisted on staying in their house until my grandfather is able to arrange some of their affairs himself. Frustrations abound regarding this situation.

Third order of business: The Friend Issues.

You know what? I better not talk about this one.

Fourth order of business: What is going on with HistoryDiva?

I’m so glad you asked!

Well, I’m still unemployed but I remain hopeful. I signed up for unemployment. I spent lots of time over the holidays with my family and, as I mentioned, I was in charge of Christmas for us all. I spent a week house and pet sitting for a friend. I’ve been to Girl’s Night and Trivia Night (which is now in a different location because the ‘Mo Barr’ closed). I had a job interview (nothing came of it). I’ve done tons of cross stitch and read several books. Last Friday I jumped in the car and took off for parts unknown…relax, I wound up at the Dogwood Patch (my favorite cross stitch store). And yesterday I headed down to Atlanta and caught the First Emperor exhibit at the High Museum of Art. I was standing in the exhibit from the Louvre, breathing on a Di Vinci when they announced that the gallery was closing. I’ve never been so bummed!!! My room is clean, my laundry is done, and most of the time I’m bored out of my gourd!

*Laughing Too Hard To Breathe*

Do You Know What Today Is?

Happy First Anniversary, Blissfully Unaware!

My Thrilling Afternoon

The Interloping Midget and I hung out together on the couch listening to music (he prefers Ben Folds Five) and waiting for the pizza guy to show up while I did riveting things like balancing my check book, making an online credit card payment and checking on the status of my unemployment claim.





Yes, my life has come to this.

Send help.

Great Big Overture

...little bitty show.

This, boys and girls, is the Hope Diamond. It lives at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. It is the largest blue diamond in the world, weighing in at 45.52 carats.

Sounds very impressive, doesn’t it?

Now, I’ve been to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (thank you high school…you did one awesome thing for me) and, after forty five minutes standing in line, I can say that I’ve seen the Hope Diamond in person with my own eyes.

And I’ve gotta say…that in real life…it looks about like this…

A Graph

Thoughts On The Arrival of 2009

…here’s hoping it will have less suck then 2008.


Oh…too late.

A Memo

From the Blissfully Unaware Human Resources Department

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted Gregorian calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.