We have toys! Toys for Tots Fundraiser Update...

It was brought to my attention by several (seriously, 6 of you!) other bloggers/Twitter people that I've thus far failed to do something that I've done the last 3 years I've done my Toys for Tots Fundraiser. Which is just to go buy a little bit of toys with my own cash before the fundraiser ends to show people I'm really doing what I say I'm doing and to show that a little bit of cash can really go a long way in buying toys for Toys for Tots. My bad, I forgot about doing that this year because I've been super busy with work and personal issues. I definitely didn't want to skip doing that this year so I appreciate the e-mails inquiring about when it would happen. ;)

In any case, I was doing some holiday shopping yesterday afternoon and decided to scoop up my first round of toys that I'll be putting my own money towards. I always do that and then add a little more of my own money to the total amount received via donations as well for the big shopping trip after I end the fundraiser.

Anyway, aside from the stuff I got for the family members I was shopping for, I spent a total of $60 on this small pile of toys. There are 24 toys here including a princess set, toy cars, puzzles, books, coloring sets, toddler instrument sets, action figures and memory games. 

You might not think donating $5 or $10 will be much help at all but it really does help more than you think. The cutoff date for PayPal donations is on December 14th. I'll be going shopping a few days after that with all the donated cash and as always, a final post including lots of pictures will be posted showing off all the toys you generous folks helped buy and showing the delivery of the toys to my local Toys for Tots headquarters. Also, the Fundraiser Promo contest for a super easy chance to win a $25 Gift Card to Target ends on December 14th as well so there's still time to get it on that. A donation isn't necessary to enter the contest but definitely appreciated! And for the 20th time, a big thanks to everyone that has already helped out via donations or other ways, I appreciate y'all so much. :)

Happy Monday!

Reminders, Rambles & Rants....

I feel like rambling to clear some thoughts out. Or as some people who remember the story about my friend's relative, "Clearing some monkeys out of the attic." So ramble I shall! After this...

As a reminder, there is less than a month left to donate to the Toys for Tots blogger fundraiser. Cut off for paypal donations is December 14th.

The Target gift card contest lasts the duration of the fundraiser so you have until December 14th also to gain an entry or two or five to try and win that. A donation isn't necessary to get an entry but is appreciated and $5 is the minimum donation for an entry for the gift card if you want to make one. Check out the details here. 

And ramble ramble ramble....

I don't really understand a couple popular expressions I hear people use a lot. "You know you're getting older when...." or "You know you're from [insert city/state here] when...." OR anything like those two. I know I'm getting older because I get how time works and days keep going by and those birthday things keep happening. I'm not made aware of the fact that everyone gets a little older every single day by some obscure fact or occurrence. I'm also really aware of where I'm from without some random little tidbit to tie it to. Which tends to usually be some stupid generalization anyway.

I realized recently that I have an irrational hatred for wind chimes. I realized this at my boyfriend's mother's house because she has tons of them all over the place. Maybe it's not a single wind chime I hate but tons of them. They each make their own unique sounds which can be pretty. When there's multiple going with their unique sounds all going together? It drives me insane, I can't stand that noise. Pus it always bugs me when they start moving around when there's not any air flow changes I can feel. Also, I just really don't like the things.

A couple days back, a guy outside of the grocery store was stopping people because he was selling Twinkies for $25 a box. I don't eat Twinkies. I think they're disgusting. I don't eat any little snack cake or donut product either because I'm just not a fan of junk like that. I don't really get the insanity people are feeling over this. It's a fucking snack cake, not an important necessity that you literally cannot live without.I get there's things you get attached to but being willing to pay that much money for a box of snack cakes is ridiculous.

I don't think people realize that having tinted windows on their car doesn't make them invisible in there. Unless they're super dark, almost illegal or actually illegal dark. Then you're fine. Most people? You're not invisible in there. Or maybe people just get really lost in there like they're in the privacy of some little world and don't think about people being able to see inside their car when they're walking by or sitting at the same light for a prolonged amount of time. People do some really gross things in their cars. Window tint is not an invisibility cloak for your car.

I hate when people get their undies in a bunch when I don't text them back immediately. I work a lot. I'm busy a lot. I have a lot going on. I can't and won't always stop in the middle of everything just to respond back to a text message. I guess most people will do that but I won't. And if you text me while I'm driving, I'm not replying to it until I'm stopped or done driving. It's never over anything important. Phone calls are for important things. Getting mad at me because I didn't text you back fast enough to help you decide what to have for lunch? Ridiculous.

A little girl that came into my job yesterday asked me why water wasn't purple or lime green then proceeded to tell me why she would be willing to drink more water if it were purple or lime green. Her mom told her she would start putting food coloring in her water. The little girl told her that would be cheating and she didn't want any poison color water, only natural colored water. A short while later, a little boy came in with his dad and told me that he didn't like the bells on our Christmas boxes because bells reminded him of balls. He also told me that he had small balls but that dad told him they would get bigger and hairy one day. He doesn't want hair because hair is itchy. His dad looked mortified and told him to play the quiet game for the rest of their short visit to pick up their goodies. And lastly for the parade of interesting kids yesterday, a mom with four kids came in. The little boys shook my hand because they're "learning to be little gentlemen" and the little girl told me, "I can't shake your hand, I have a butt finger. My finger was in my butt!" She wouldn't stop giggling over that which made one of her brother's start giggling and tell me that he had his finger up his nose then his but so I had touched his nosy butt finger. Their mother laughed hard over that then apologized for her kids behavior and told me I'd understand when I had some of my own. I said I didn't ever plan on having kids personally. She looked at me like I said I'd shot her grandma or something. Which I'm used to since it's a typical reaction to someone announcing they don't ever want to have kids which I've done every time someone has broached the subject of having kids with me for the last, oh, 14 years now.

I'm super excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow because it's the first time I get to make more than just one or two items for the big family dinner. Usually by the time I ask about helping, everyone else already has everything covered and I get to make one maybe two things. I get to make four this year. I know a lot of people find having to cook like that stressful and unpleasant but I love to cook and I love cooking big meals for people. It's a challenge to get it all done and I love a good challenge. Especially one in the kitchen.

I'm done now. If anyone read all of that or even skimmed most of it, thank you. ;)

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Mind fucks aren't fun at all..

Before I get to the actual part of this post where I say random stuff that you weirdos enjoy reading for some reason, let me be annoying and mention two things for the 123rd time so far this month.

First things first, if you haven't seen the Toys for Tots Fundraiser I'm doing (somehow, maybe you don't follow me on Twitter and haven't been here before ;]) then check that out here. It's a great cause and a donation of just a few dollars goes a long way. ;)

Second, there's a contest going on around here for a $25 gift card to Target. You don't have to make the $5 minimum donation for an entry into the contest because there are other ways to get entries that don't cost you more than some of your online time but a donation will get you can extra entry for the gift card. For the rules for the super easy contest, check it here.

Now on to my ramblings.

I organized a food drive late last week and had a couple of my friends help me out with it. I asked around and they volunteered so yay for having helpful friends. We managed to gather up 93 pounds of food from co-workers, neighbors, other friends, etc for the North Texas Food Bank which I delivered yesterday. I know if you have a lot of canned goods, that's not a lot. Out of curiosity, I asked, and only 29 lbs of that was made up from canned goods. See, I bother my real life friends with charity stuff too. ;) While I was delivering our haul, I ran into a friend I haven't seen in around 9 years. We used to work together when we were teenagers and I'm surprised she recognized me. I was heading back to my car when I heard someone from the sidewalk call my name out. We talked for about 5 minutes before she leaned in and asked me if I still got high then without waiting for an answer asked me if I wanted to go hang out back at her apartment because she had some "good stuff" as well as some good pot back there. I declined because I stopped doing the kind of drugs she was talking about almost 8 years ago. I did have a minor lapse with weed a few years ago but it's been 3 years and 2 months since I've done that. I work really hard to not fall back into old habits because I'm unable to use substances "once in a while." If I start, it's an every day or almost every day thing and I won't let myself be like I was ever again because I wasn't a functional, happy person then. I politely declined my former friends invite and for some reason, she got mad. She asked if I could give her a ride and I asked if she had any drugs on her. "Just a little heroin, no big deal" was her reply to that. I declined giving her a ride but offered to give her money for the bus that was pulling off. She took that and handed me a card with her cell phone information on it. Then informed me she also worked as a dealer so if I changed my mind... Sigh.

That whole interaction actually really fucked with my head. I started thinking too much about the person I used to be. The people I hung out with, the people I ignored but shouldn't have, the relationships I ruined, the multiple ways I just utterly fucked my life up... and instead of focusing on the fact that I'm not that person anymore, that I learned from those mistakes and that I made my life better; I let them swallow me and I felt suffocated by things and emotions that don't have a place in my life anymore. It's not like our passed is ever just gone but I don't live in the passed. Things happen, they shaped the things I did and got me to where I am and there's no sense dwelling on choices made that can't be changed or undone. I've never done that so the feelings I was having yesterday were almost foreign to me because I don't worry about things that are long since done. I didn't really know how to get out of the mood I was in. I wanted to talk to my friend Rob who has known me for over 10 years and knew me back when I was a much bigger mess than I am now but I knew he's been sick and didn't want to bother him. I wanted to talk to my boyfriend whom I met while I was in the process of trying to put my life and self in some kind of order but he works from 7 pm till 4 or 5 am and I can only reach him on breaks anyway. So instead, I didn't talk to anyone and decided I'd write about it. Which didn't help because I couldn't make the words in my head come out right on paper. I went to the gym and decided I'd work out because physical activity helps me when I'm stressed out or feeling bad. Sometimes it does anyway. I'm usually able to clear my head and focus more while working out and last night's session helped a lot. Now writing it out like this is helping because I finally got the words out that I wanted out and got back to realizing who I am and where I'm at in life which is far from where I used to be. And that's a good thing because that girl was an extremely unhappy, angry, self-destructive mess.

As an aside, there was a guy at the gym on the row of treadmills in front of me. While running he was playing something on his cell phone. He some how got so involved in whatever was on his phone that he lost his footing, tripped, smacked his face on the grip bar you ca hold on to, then fell down off the treadmill. He wasn't hurt. He actually laid there looking stunned and then started laughing. The girl next to me asked if I thought he legit was being a dumb ass or if I thought it was some kind of hidden camera show stunt going on. I said I honestly believed the guy was just being a moron and had an accident occur due to his stupidity. She disagreed and thought hidden camera show was more like it. She didn't want to be on "no damn reality hidden camera TV show" because she "don't look no damn good on TV" which she knew because she was on the news once after some kind of storm had happened and she looked "a fool" apparently. So she said she was going to go check for hidden cameras or a TV crew before she could finish her workout. I thought she was joking but she wasn't. She went around the gym checking for hidden cameras and asking the two employees there at that hour about if they knew anything about hidden camera shows. She even asked the treadmill guy if he was aware of anything. She eventually got satisfied that nothing fishy was going on but then left anyway just in case everyone was in on it. That weird incident also put me in a better mood because the entire thing amused the hell out of me.

That's enough out of me. Thanks for still reading and thanks for the emails many of you send always checking up on me when I'm not around much. I appreciate it. :)

Also thanks for those of you that have donated to the Toys for Tots fundraiser and thanks to those who have helped me promote the fundraiser. Even if it is just because you're trying to win that gift card, I still appreciate the effort and help behind it so much. :) <3 nbsp="nbsp">

Happy Thursday!

Who wants a $25 Target gift card?!

If you read my last post about some of the fun we had in Vegas, then you saw that I was also waiting on confirmation to use a giftcard given to me to use as a blog giveaway for my Toys for Tots fundraiser. No, not to help buy toys because the people who gave me the card also gave me a $25 donation as well because they're awesome. I got the green light to tie the giveaway to my fundraiser so here's what's up.

If you're a blogger or tweeter and want to help spread the word about the fundraiser via twitter, facebook, tumblr or your blog/website; please feel free to do so and let me know about it. I've decided that people that help me promote the fundraiser will be the ones who get entered for the giftcard, which happens to be for Target, and the only way to enter the gift card contest will be via promotion of my fundraiser and/or donating to the fundraiser.

The minimum donation for an entry to the giftcard giveaway is $5. That's all you have to do but if you want to do more, no one's going to complain.You don't have to do a donation to be entered into the contest, you can just do the promoting (and tell me about doing it!) for entries but donations are definitely appreciated. :)

Promoting it on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or your blog/website will get you one entry per method of promotion. You will have to show me proof of the fundraiser promotion so you'll need to please email me [amorousrocker at gmail dot com] and let me know with linked proof. If you delete the post, tweet, etc after a few days, that will negate your entry and yes, I'm going to be checking. You have to leave the post, tweet, etc up for the duration of the fundraiser for it to count.

Each promotion gains you one entry and you can promote daily via Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or Tumblr if you want to though you'll have to email me your linked proof for each time so I can verify you're actually doing what you say you are.

Also, if you've already donated, your name has already been added once to the drawing for the giftcard. However, if you don't want to be included in the drawing for some reason, just let me know and I'll remove your name.

The last day to donate to the fundraiser is going to be on December 14th so that will also be the cut off date for the gift card giveaway and I'll do a drawing the following day for the giftcard.

Thanks and good luck!

Happy Monday!

Vegas fun...

My boyfriend and I just got back yesterday from a small vacation in Vegas. It was my first time going as well as his and the city was as much fun and as full of awesome as the people we know who have gone said it was. Not that I doubted them at all.

We spent Halloween there which was awesome. And yes, we did dress up. I was a pirate and my boyfriend was Mario from Super Mario Bros....

I won't bore you all with every detail of our vacation in Vegas. ;) I'll share a few things, though.

A few of the things we did:

Saw Cirque Du Soleil's Mystère at Treasure Island. The show, no surprise, was fucking amazing. I love Cirque shows and seriously wanted to see that one again at the next show time I enjoyed it that much. We didn't do that however since there's too much to do in Vegas for repeating stuff like that. 

We went to Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. That was awesome. I learned about a few different species of sharks and saw one of the largest manta rays I have ever seen in my life. I love the ocean and it's creatures and going to aquariums is one of my very favorite things. Also, I met a guy at the Aquarium who owns a Batmobile. I was wearing a Batman tee & he said, "I bet I'm a bigger Batman fan than you are." Then proceeded to show me the Batmobile he has parked at his house. Not sure about a bigger Batman fan but definitely a huge fan with a lot more money than I have. Though he was kind of a douchebag so I think I need to track him down and "borrow without intent to return" his Batmobile because someone that douchey doesn't deserve something so awesome, haha.

I was also mistaken as a prostitute on two separate occasions by two different guys that were probably in their late thirties to early forties. At least that's how old they both looked to me. Neither of them were creepy about it though, they were both discreet and left me alone once it was made apparent that I'm not a hooker. Oddly enough I was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans both times that happened. 

"Excuse me miss but can you tell us who you think has the nicer fake rack?" -Random guy to me, asking me to judge between two dudes dressed up as Showgirls for Halloween. They both made compelling arguments for why they each thought their rack was the better looking one and I made my pick based on the dude with the best argument since their fake racks looks almost identical, haha. 

And one of the funniest things I overheard happened in a restroom in one of the many casinos we checked out, between a couple of drunk women at Treasure Island.

Lady1: "Look, a mini plush pirate! Isn't he cute. Laura, say hey to my little friend!"

 Lady2: "No thanks! Lately all I've seen is little friends made out of limp material!"

Then they both laughed so hard they ended up laying in the bathroom floor holding their sides and crying. One of them started kicking her feet around and ended up sending one of her heels flying across the room into a sink. The woman at the sink next to the one the shoe landed in picked it up and threw it pretty hard at the two ladies and that ended their giggle fit and almost started a fight.

On Halloween night, we got stuck outside the Bellagio hotel because they were shutting the street down because they were filming a scene out of a movie and couldn't get down the sidewalk. The scene was someone parachuting out of a helicopter so they had that portion of street shut down for about 15 minutes. We could have gone back in and gone around a different way but opted to stand there and watch since they said we could do that. They wouldn't tell us what the movie was but we figured out that they'd been filming scenes for the Hangover 3 in Vegas all of this week and also ewkn they had shut part of the Bellagio's casino down on Monday for the first day of filming whatever movie. So now I'll have to watch the damn movie when it comes out to see if that's really what it was. They were cool and let us take pictures as long as we could do so without moving further out passed their barrier.

And that's all I'm sharing. I had a great time and will definitely go back since there is still plenty of stuff I want to do and see out there. Plus it's a lot of fun and makes hardly sleeping totally worthwhile.

Non-Vegas related, the Toys for Tots Blogger Fundraiser is up and running right now! Thanks to the people who have donated already and thanks to those retweeting my tweets about it and trying to help promote it with me. I appreciate it. I might have a giftcard contest going on shortly for people helping me promote the fundraiser as well as people who have donated and are going to donate a few bucks. I've been given a giftcard to do a giveaway with on my blog and I chose it to be for Target. I have the idea that donating and/or helping me promote the fundraiser will be the way to gain entries for the giveaway but I have to make sure the people that gave me the giftcard don't mind me tying the giveaway to my fundraiser. So, keep your eyes out for that one.

Happy Friday!