Small Town Christmas

Here is a view of my Christmas Holiday, here in Smalls-ville!

Santa wanted me to sit on his lap... the picture was "on him".




















This is the tree the City made a big deal about lighting, there was a parade and everything. I don't get it, but the citizens were excited about the white-lights-only Christmas tree.



















Christmas Card Photo Ops!

Building in a hole: -----------------------------The oppressed:



















The way out of town: --------------------- My friends... Dirty South Mafia:



















The social network:-----------------------Space heater... the love of my life:



















Christmas decorations and crafts!

My very first Christmas tree. I wanted something non-traditional but I love green, so I bought a metallic green Christmas tree. It's a little lop-sided. LOVE IT.



















The wreath I made at a floral class... love the bird.



















The Christmas ornaments I made at the floral class.



















AND of course, my Christmas shirt tradition! I'm just glad he puts up with me. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy for HP!

There are a few perks to living here! Aside from meeting a famous person this summer at a local event, I had something really awesome (by my standards) happen to me yesterday.

I GOT TO SEE THE HARRY POTTER MOVIE FOR FREE BEFORE ANYONE ELSE THAT I KNOW!

Let me first start my story by explaining how much of a geek I am when it comes to Harry Potter. I’ve grown up with the guy. I started reading the books when I was in the sixth grade and finished the last one when it came out my sophomore year of college. I’ve seen every movie opening day (thanks to a tradition started by my dad) and didn’t plan on ever missing one.

This time was going to be the first time I wouldn’t see a Happy Potter movie at its midnight showing. No one that I know here really cares about Harry Potter. They don’t get the warm and fuzzy feeling I get when I hear any mention of Harry Potter. I kept talking about it and trying to find someone to go with me, but no one really wanted to stay up late to watch me geek out over a movie they could care less about.

My good fortune began when I attended the ribbon cutting for the remodeling of the local movie theatre. I saw that the theatre was having a midnight showing and decided to see if there were tickets still available and go by myself. I asked about the tickets; there were two left. This theatre only takes cash, so I told them I was going to the ATM after the ribbon cutting and I would be back to get them. Suddenly, the owner comes out of nowhere and says, “We are doing a screening of the movie at 2:30pm to make sure it runs correctly before tonight if you just want to stay and watch it with us.” BOY DID I! I got so excited, I was cheesing hardcore. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

I immediately text my boss with, “They are allowing us to see the first screening of Harry Potter if we like. Please say I can stay! Please, please, pleeeeeeaaase!?” I didn’t get a response for a while and I was starting to get worried as the clock counted down to 2:30pm, but she finally called and said, “I know how much this would mean to you, so it’s okay with me.”

The owner, as a goodwill gesture, invited all those who attended the ribbon cutting to the Harry Potter screening as well, but I’m the only one who stayed. (This town really doesn’t like Harry Potter, I guess.) I was in the theatre all by myself; my own private screening. It was awesome. PLUS, I got free soda and popcorn!

In the end, I didn't get to see the movie at the midnight showing. The movie was great and I’m still gushing over the experience, today.

It's fricken freezing in here, Mr. Bigglesworth!

It’s getting cold here in Tiny-Townville and I’ve gone into hibernation mode for the winter. I packed up my stuff and moved into one room (my bear den) and have been performing daily tasks in there, such as, primping, microwaving meals and sleeping. Why have I moved all my stuff into one room for the winter? Because that is where my space heater is.


I am refusing to turn my heater on due to a nasty rumor I was told by my neighbor. They said that their electric bill was $600 two months in a row last winter. This seems ridiculous, but after asking others who live in historic homes, such as I, it turns out they have suffered the financial hardships of winter heating. Here are the reasons given to me as to why the bill would be so high:

1) It is an electric heater and costs more money than a gas heater. (And no, I will not be replacing the electric heater with a gas one for this rats’ nest, since I am not the owner.)
2) This OLD house is poorly insulated.
3) The air ducts are in the ceiling of my house… and heat rises… therefore, the heat doesn’t reach the lower habitable part of my house (you know, where the food, bed and TV are), making it inhabitable.

Since I live in the same house as these neighbors, I assume that I will meet the same billing fate if I chose to turn the heater on. My lack of wealth has caused me to forgo the luxury of heat.

My situation makes me wonder what the rest of the people living in historic homes are doing? Have they switched from electric to gas? Are they just going without heat as well? Or are they suffering the financial burden of their high priced electric bill in order to not lose the tip of their nose to frost bite?

I’ve tried moving the space heater to other parts of the house, but the other rooms are just too big with too high of ceilings for the heat to circulate through the room properly and make it warm. When I brave the living room for a half hour to watch a DVR’d show, I have to huddle in front of the space heater to avoid hypothermia. If I walk anywhere not carpeted without shoes, my toes go numb. It’s only 54 degrees out, so what am I going to do when the temperature drops into the 30s? (BTW... I think it's cold when it is 70 degrees out.)

On the bright side, my electric bill was only $49 last month. I guess I can use the extra money to buy more blankets… or an extra space heater.

Wifi Queen

My sweet boyfriend got me an Amazon Kindle, an electronic reading device that allows you to go online using wifi or 3G internet and buy books, for our birthaversary. (Our birthdays and anniversary are all within three weeks of each other so we get one present for our birthday and anniversary, thus the birthaversary.)The Kindle I have is the wifi addition because my boyfriend figured as long as I’m in the United States I should be able to pick up a wifi connection, after all who doesn’t have the internet??! I do not have internet. Neither does anyone else in this town, apparently.

You may wonder, “How can a person technologically savvy enough to have an electronic reading device not have the internet?” Well I work a lot and I can never get everything done. If I had the internet at my house I would probably work 24/7 and trust me, I do not get paid enough to sit on the toilet at my house while I type emails to people who think I’m too young for this job. So for the sake of having SOME SORT of personal life, I have decided not to have internet. I do have internet on my phone for light Facebook browsing, but for the most part, once I leave work that is it for my outside connection to the world other than a phone call… How barbaric is my life?

Anyway, I don’t have internet and my boyfriend buys me a Kindle, so today at work I see if our office has wifi. It doesn’t. We have Ethernet, I’m sure to keep all the locals, who would want to hack our top secret information, from using it. So I Google searched where to find a wifi connection in this town. Apparently Dairy Queen is the place to be. Dairy Queen is the only place in this town where you can get a FREE wifi connection after 5:00pm.

Now, let me tell you something about this town and Dairy Queen, it’s the HUB for bumpkin-ville. After 5:00pm until the time it closes; Dairy Queen is the most happening place in town, aside from Wal-Mart. It isn’t the only place to eat, but it is the only place that serves any kind of decent treat after 5:00pm.

Now you might ask, “Why not go to the public library?” Because I kid you not… this town does not have one. It hasn’t had one for over a year. No wifi connection for the citizen of this fair town.

So I sat in the parking of Dairy Queen, while all the busy bees pulled in and out of the town hive with their delicious treats, register my Kindle and ordered my first electronic book. And NO, I did not get a blizzard.

No Happy Hour?!

I’m not a big drinker, but occasionally a drink would be nice. Unfortunately, I discovered this week that if I want a drink in this town it is going to cost me. Friday afternoon, I called every restaurant in this town to see if they were having a happy hour. They all said no. I was perplexed by this, so I called all the restaurants back and asked what days and times they have happy hour. (Note: very few restaurants.) None of them have happy hour at all. NONE!! Even the two chain restaurants that have happy hours in other towns do not have happy hour here. How can this be? This town is on the lower end of the socio-economic scale and you want us all the pay FULL PRICE for our drinks? I understand this is the Bible Belt, but even Jesus drank a little wine.

I have a theory. A conspiracy theory. There is a bar and restaurants that serve alcohol, but not many. However, there are a few bars that require a “membership” in order to partake in the alcohol consumption or even entry for that matter. It is very prestigious. It is a place to kick back with a beer and play Bunco with the community’s upper crust. This is not a dry county and other neighboring cities (that are MILES away) have places with happy hour, so what is the damn deal here? I think the upper crust have basically muscled out happy hour in order to get people to come to their “members only” bars in order to brainwash people into their way of thinking. After all, if you are in there drinking you would become vulnerable and impressionable.

How can this town expect people to get together over drinks and socialize if no one but a few can buy them? I’m not one for spending $8 or more on a drink and I know that 89% of this town feels the same I do. How are people supposed to build substantial social lives without a means to hang out. I’m not saying we need to turn this place into a town of alcoholics, but let’s face it, other towns are more fun because they have happy hour. Everyone likes to break lose every now and then and have a couple drinks to forget the stresses of their day. Without this fun outing one would go home and dwell on all the nasty things that happened. I guess no one here wants to be happy.

Fishy Situation or My Only Friend?

I have a fear of fish.

BUT somehow I ended up with one. This is how the story unfolds….

I was in a spa buying a purse in there that I liked. (I don’t make enough money to actually get any of the spa services) While I was in there this guy walked in with a crate of beta fish. He tells everyone that he is with this church that helps get people off the streets and into rehab. Once they have been rehabilitated, they make and sell crafts to try and get back on their feet. If you ask me a fish in NOT a craft, but there he was selling fish as crafts.

Well the spa owner buys a fish from the guy and then asks out loud if anyone wants a fish. I wasn’t into it. First off, I didn’t want a fish PERIOD. Second, the fish was $10! I could buy a beta fish at a pet shop for like $2! (I actually found out later that this is not possible in the town I live in since there is no pet store.) Third, I didn’t trust this guy. HE looked fishy. Was he really making crafts for this church? I had never heard of this church, but what do I know? I haven’t lived here long enough to know if this church even exists, let alone has former drug addicts sell fish to people trying to shop in stores that say “no solicitation” on the door.

Anyway, the spa owner asked out loud if anyone wanted to buy a fish. I just kept quiet while waiting in line to buy my purse. As I get to the cash register, everyone else in the store who had found it in their hearts to buy a fish (which was everyone but me) is searching through the crate for their match. The guy asked me flat out if I wanted to buy a fish. I should have just had the balls to say no, but instead I come up with what I thought was a viable excuse, “ I would, but I don’t have any cash with me. Sorry.” I wanted to applaud myself for coming up with a tightly locked excuse until I heard, “Oh, I can add ten dollars to your purchase, run your credit card for that amount and give him ten dollars cash from my register.” I look over and see the spa owner holding her outrageously priced fish making this suggestion. Did she really think that I wanted this fish?

At this point, there is no way out. I can’t say that I have no money because I’m buying a purse and it’s too late to say I just don’t want a fish because I already said that I DID! So the next thing I know I’m picking out a fish. It was slim pickings since everyone in the spa had already picked a fish for themselves. All but one of the fish looked sickly. I could have picked a sick fish and waited for it to die, but that would be a waste of my $10. So I picked a pretty blue fish that I named Paul.





I got Paul a new bowl and some food and he is still alive and well.

Did I Smell?!

Here is some background information.

I moved from a place like this:




To a place like this:





I moved here for a job that sounds really cool on paper, but if you were to follow me around for a day you would probably feel sorry for me, especially once you heard how much money I make. Some might wonder what possessed me to take a job where I don’t make much money and move to a town like this away from my home and loved ones. YOU GOT ME? At least the people here speak the same language… sort of.

I’ve been here about four months and so far have managed to not make a single friend. How does a generally friendly person, like me, not manage to make a single friend? I don’t know. I guess I’m not as great as I thought. When I was in college I thought I was a pretty cool chick. I had a lot of friends and a fun life. Then I left school and had to move home. It was a rough time, but at least I still had friends and a city to entertain me.
Here though, things are different. You can’t just go to the bar, dance hall, club, mall or any real social place for that matter and make some friends, because those places don’t exist here. What does exist? WAL-MART and churches. I’ve been to both Wal-mart and to one church in particular.

At this church I thought things were going to work out. I thought I had met some good people, till the fateful day this girl asked me, while I was sitting by myself, if I was lonely. Basically how the story broke down was that her husband was trying to make her sit by me so I wouldn’t be alone and she didn’t want to. DID I SMELL? Nope. I had showered before I went to hang out with these potential “friends.” I’ve had some other bad episodes with people attempting to use me because they hear my job title and think I’m a billionaire.

Needless to say, I do not have any friends and this point and have no people to celebrate the small victories in life with.