Bills and pirates
I just finished paying some bills and now I'm in a grumpy mood. We started Christmas shopping way back in October so we haven't been hit too hard all at once, although honestly which is better, getting hit in the knee with a banjo or having a band-aid made out of duct tape slowly ripped off of your hairy arm? I'm starting to think the banjo option is better because you get all of the pain over with at once. By that blazingly brilliant logic, I've decided that next year I'm not going to start shopping until the 15th of December.
In the past we've made regular contributions to a state environmental group. They're a little brazen with their tactics re: shaking us down for money and they're still misspelling my last name which, after four years of trying to fix it, is getting pretty darned annoying, admittedly more annoying than that particular faux pas merits, but it's all for a good cause so I keep writing them checks. And correcting my name. They called again last week, giving us the hard sell, which isn't too hard when you have a toddler running around the house who's about to inherit a planet that's been pretty well screwed up by all the burping cows and belching tailgates. The guy on the phone said that last time we donated we gave $-- and would I please be willing to do that again and send the payment in within a week since I didn't want to give them my credit card number? I said sure, then hung up, plagued by the sense that I'd just been had. Dave and I aren't rich. We're more like sort of comfortable and frankly, $-- sounds like a lot more money than I'd ever commit to donating given our financial situation. So I looked and sure enough the last time we gave to them, it was less than what the guy on the phone said we had given. So when I got the pledge letter today I scratched out the $--, wrote in what we had previously donated, and sent them a check, along with the correct spelling of my last name and some strongly worded threats about me putting them in the naughty corner if they ever pull a stunt like that again (the last bit being spoken into the envelope as opposed to written down because I'm a wimp). I'm a little irate. And I'm feeling guilty because, dangit, it's for the environment and aren't I being just a bit petty? On the other hand, I'm spending a little more money on earth friendly household products, etc, so it all probably works out somehow in the end. Right?
In other news, last night I went to a friend's house to knit and watch a movie. We watched the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga. There were five or six ladies there and let me just say, you would not believe the swooning that was going on over Orlando Bloom. Orlando, if you had been there with us last night, you would have been blushing. And running for cover. Of course, because I dare to be different, I had to part ways with the masses and stoke the torch fire that forever burns for Johnny Depp. I mean really. There's no contest there as far as I'm concerned. Attractive male actors aside, I had seen the movie with Dave about five minutes after it came out on DVD and to say I didn't understand half of what was going on would be putting it mildly. I asked four thousand questions. At one point I think Dave was seriously considering kicking me in the pants. Last night we watched it with the subtitles on. I can't begin to tell you what a revelation that was. I totally got it. All of it. This is a movie that should be read and not seen. Except for the parts where Johnny Depp is on screen. Those parts have to be seen.
Also? I don't know what my kid is doing right now, but it is most definitely not napping. It sounds like he's bumping out the wall to make his room bigger.