Shawn's Rant & Rave Page

Wow, the last time I was on here, it was still freezing in Chicago.  I've been really busy lately but hope to get back into the habit of checking up on everyone.  It's the only way I have time to find out what's going on with everybody.

It's been a great summer for us so far. We got our boat and we're loving it.  We spend any free time we have on it although I haven't had much lately since work is so, so busy.

We've named her the Nauti Shreg (Shawn & Greg = Shreg - friends' nickname of us as a couple). Anyway, we've been on it a ton and we're learning a lot about boating.  Joy and Sam will be out here soon so I can't wait for them to jump on.

I'm attaching some fun pics here.  This is a shot of the boat and the other is my new pup Roxie as the sun was coming up the first day we got it.  Yes, we stayed up on it all night to see the sunrise.

Work has been crazy and I haven't had one free second to myself.  So here's the quick update you'll all be so happy to read: 

• The holidays are over.
• It's frigging cold as hell here in Chicago with windchills in the NEGATIVE 30s.
• The Bears lost.
• Summer couldn't feel further away.
• The doldrums of the dead of winter have finally set in.
• Work is CRAZY!
• It's so cold I actually purchased these boots today. One feels real "hot" in a pair of clod-hoppers like those.
• Crabby?  I think so but still won't leave Chicago!

Okay, leaving work to face the bone-chilling, face -numbing, nostril-freezing tundra.  Wish me luck.

P3228802reg[1]

Although, like Joy, I am a crazy list person, this one was tough.  I'm pretty much an open book so most people know everything about me.  Let's see here...

I have a horrible fear of bugs.

I never used to. In fact, I was always quite a tomboy but somewhere around the age of 15, this fear just hit me and I haven't been able to get over it.  I actually made myself go camping this year for the first time in years.  I've just been too nervous about bugs.  I made it through but it was not easy and didn't get me over my fear in the least.

I used to have a really big mouth and be sort of a bully.

I was a small girl growing up.  Being a gymnast, I was pretty small and didn't go through puberty until senior year of high school.  For some reason though, I've always thought I was bigger than I was.  I was not a very nice person in grammar school and used to pick on girls who could clearly kick my butt but they never stood up for themselves.  Until one day.  I opened my mouth about some girl and said some pretty bad things about her. She came to my school after she had heard about it, and basically beat my ass pretty good.  Shirt flew open, school books everywhere and a few head butts to the cement ground later, I learned real quick to change my attitude and never acted that way again.

I've always wanted to be a nutritionist.

I went to UIC a few years back to start looking into classes.  It was going to be expensive and I'd have to take a lot of pre-req classes again that I had already passed once but were too old and outdated (I hated hearing that). Anyway, things were moving along and then I was laid off from Citysearch. Needless to say, I couldn't afford school and never really pursued it again.

I hate flying.

Even though I've had to fly for work for the last 12 years or so, I never find it easier and I really dread having to do it.

I am the only one in my family or among my friends who went to college.

I didn't grow up in a very good neighborhood so most of the kids I grew up with got into some pretty bad stuff.  Many of them are in jail or have died or got pregnant at 15.  Because of my parents and my need to make them proud, I kept myself in school and tried to get the best grades I could.  I didn't want to have to fight about money with my significant other as I got older and that's all I ever saw people doing around me.

Have any of you ever heard of or eaten Turducken?  I heard about it from a friend of mine, Ryan, who had to spend a bunch of time down in New Orleans after Katrina.  He came back home telling us all about this interesting dish. Since then we all have been obessed with trying to make this thing.  The idea of it kind of freaked me out but we were all willing to give it a try.  It's a chicken, stuffed in a duck, stuffed in a turkey, with stuffing in between each layer of bird.

My friend Joe decided to take the reigns on this one as I wasn't thrilled with all of the de-boning and things like that.  It took him 18 hours to prepare on Friday (poor guy got two hours of sleep) and then 12 hours to cook on Saturday.  The recipe said 8-10 hours so we didn't end up eating this thing until about midnight on Saturday night. By then, we had all been drinking for so long that many of us lost our appetites.  I tried it but I'm not sure if I loved it...a bit too rich for me or maybe my taste buds were a bit of a mess after drinking throughout the whole day.

Here are some pics of the birds!.  Sorry vegetarians!

These were my favorite books as a child.  I absolutely loved The Giving Tree.  I remember how sad and happy it made me even at such a young age.  I also loved pretty much any of The Little Golden Books. 

This has been one of those random things that I've always wanted to know the answer to and just found out yesterday.  Does anyone know why the American Flag appears backwards on military vehicles, commercial and military jets, buses, trains etc?  See this example:  http://www.howstuffworks.com/air-force-one.htm

So I've been on Vox since July but I have yet to post anything.  Sometimes I feel like it's presumptuous of me to assume anyone would really want to read a blog of mine.  However, in support of a few close friends, I've decided to just take the damn time to do this.

Started a new job a couple of months ago and it's great. I work for ShopLocal.com and it's been a great experience so far.  Doing a lot of traveling but the company is great and my two managers are great too.  Never as great as Patty though!  (Wink!)  I work in Sales here but I don't really sell any ad space on the website. That's very much a tiertiary component of ShopLocal.  I actually sell the technology to run online circulars for big box retailers.  We provide the ability to place circulars, catalogs and the like within a retailers website. We also provide the technology to place those entire circulars into typical ad units that can run anywhere on the internet, with any regular media buy.

Greg and I recently adopted another dog!  I know, insane.  His sister found her on the side of the road in Indiana and picked her up.  His sister's landlord wouldn't let her keep the pup so I had to take her. She's very cute. Still a bit of a puppy so that's a challenge but she's a lot of fun.  Riley was jealous at first but now they get along great.  We still treat him like the star though.  Oh yeah, and we named her Roxie.  The name was so fitting to her personality.  Funny too - my mom's name is Roxanne so mom is pretty happy that her "granddaughter" has taken her name!

Riley Sleeping on Roxie 1

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