Thanksgiving

Posted on November 25, 2014 by dkbadmin under Holidays

Not excited for this!

I dislike Thanksgiving. Well I dislike Thanksgiving every other year I should say. Because every other year we stay home and create our own Thanksgiving. This year we are not at home we are at my Aunt’s house.

First a little back story: When I was younger, and my grandparents were alive, I loved going there for Thanksgiving. My grandparents, who would be my dad’s parents, lived on a farm. As we drove up to the farm there would be deer carcasses hanging out because my uncles and some cousins would go hunting in the morning. It never really bothered me seeing those. Then I would see the farm. I loved the farm very much. I loved how when my grandma would get everything ready for our meal, us kids would go to the farm. They had cows, chickens, pigs and farm kitties. All the kids would play up in the hay loft. Also there would be a lot of cats up there. We always had so much fun.

Then we all got older my grandparents died and my aunt and uncle sold their house next to the farm. They built a really nice house a little further away from the farm. They still have the farm but no animals expect one cow which they feed and then butcher later. They mostly grow crops now. There are some farm cats but it’s not as fun to pet them like when I was younger.

Now why I dislike going to the farm for Thanksgiving: My aunt has this weird thing about food. When you think of Thanksgiving you might think of all that food you will have for left overs, well not at my aunt’s house. She literally hides food. I have no idea why. When people start coming and bring food over she will hide it until someone asks for it. I think that is so stupid and its food for people to share not to hide. What is this, a hide seek for food? And she never makes enough for all the people that come over which really doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Now my grandma would make so much food she would tell us we had to take some home. Also all her food was very good.

On top of that my aunt makes pumpkin pies; she has more pies than the actual meal. Now I always liked her pumpkin pies because I didn’t know any better. Her pumpkin pies are grey and runny, I thought that was good. Until my mother-in-law made pumpkin pie, I was so blown away. I had never tasted a pumpkin pie that actually tasted like pumpkin and cinnamon. I didn’t know it could be so good! Now I hate my aunt’s pumpkin pie.

Also all my cousins are getting older and either moved away or have their own family, not many of my cousins come over anymore. Not even some of my aunts and uncles make the trip to come over because they have moved to a warmer state. Usually people come over now that I don’t know and only some aunts, uncles, and cousins show up.

When we eat, if I or anyone else gets anything on the floor she has a total freak out session. I would understand if it was juice or something that would really stain but we talking about food that you can just pick up and there is small children that come you know how messy kids can get, practically all day of freak out sessions about little messes.

Sounds like fun uh?

Well last year there was an incident that happened. Last year was an off year meaning we didn’t go to my aunt’s house for Thanksgiving. We made our own Thanksgiving which I love. The day before Thanksgiving my mom calls me in all in a panic. She asked my aunt if she could bring an apple pie for Thanksgiving. My mom hates pumpkin pie and all my aunt makes is pumpkin pie. She knows my mom hates pumpkin pie and some years she would make other pies to accommodate other people who dislike pumpkin pie. But last year my aunt called my mom and told her no other pie would be made and not to bring any other pie.

Let’s back up a little; my aunt is a huge control freak. One year when Jeff and I were first married my mother- in-law made some pumpkin and apple pies. My aunt had a huge freak out session; on how dare she make pies to share. Only she can make the pies. So this is what she did; she hid the food so no one could eat the pies until my mom asked if we could eat one of my mother-in-law pies.

Back to the incident that happened last year. Now my dad went over there early and my mom was going to go with my younger brother Adam a little later in the day. My mom called my aunt to ask if there anything she could bring and if she was going to make another kind of pie. That is when she said no and don’t bring any other pie. My mom was pissed! Not just because she is not supposed to bring pie but just how she treats everyone at Thanksgiving. I know my mom like me hates going to her house for Thanksgiving. She called me and told me how mad she was about this. Really though who does my aunt think she is anyways? She does not cook like my grandma, never has. Her food sucks on so many levels! But my mom ends up going and bringing an apple pie with her. Unfortunately for her she has to go because of my dad. I keep telling her she can come over to my house but she always gives in and goes to my aunt’s house.

What can I do? The answer is nothing.

This year Jeff and I are actually planning an escape route out of there. Go, eat something, talk a bit maybe play poker and then leave. Should only take 4 hours, usually we stay for like 6 or 7 hours. I want to leave before it gets too dark. Every Thanksgiving a bunch of the family likes to play poker, but only for nickels and dimes. Really cheap poker, they are fun because we all get to play and the games are silly too. That is actually my favorite part of Thanksgiving when we go. Also everyone in my family are big alcohol drinkers so they always bring so much booze. Free booze for 4 hours, sweet! What do you expect, I live in Wisconsin. So I won’t be driving home.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving and like it HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Rock This Town

Posted on November 20, 2014 by dkbadmin under Music

Rock it inside out!

Sometime during the 90’s when I was a teenager, I went through this phase of listening to big bands. I was totally into rockabilly and that is when I started to listen to Brian Setzer. He had an album called The Dirty Boogie. I totally loved that album. Of course I knew who Brian Setzer was, he from the 80’s band The Stray Cats. I also knew he is a killer guitar player.

I never thought of actually going and seeing him though. On Monday November 17, 2014 Jeff and I went to see Brain Setzer Orchestra and he was amazing. We saw them in Milwaukee at the Potawatomi Casino. First of all I have never been to the Potawatomi Casino and Jeff hasn’t been there since they updated it. The Casino is amazing there is so much to look at on the ceiling. This Casino is the biggest casino I have been in, in Wisconsin. Also it didn’t smell all that smoky which I was surprised by that and in the theater where the concert was you couldn’t smoke. I was happy about that as well. How the theater is arranged is in the front is seats like in a movie theater, then booths with tables, the seats we had were four chairs and table on the side of you and then more booths with tables. We were sitting a little off to the side but yet we could see everything. The couples sitting across from us were really nice people, a little small talk but not awkward small talk.

There was an opening band and they were called The Record Company. Never heard of them before but I really liked them. And the lead singer was from Wisconsin; can’t get any better than! I really liked their sound and will be listening to them. Also you can listen to them on Spotify, which is cool. They played for about forty five minutes. There was a little break, then Brian Setzer Orchestra was on. Oh wow! He was so good and so was his Orchestra.

Not only did he play Christmas music he played older songs like Rock This Town and Stray Cat Strut. But he also played a couple of new songs which sounded great going to be listening to that album. Since Brian Setzer has an Orchestra he played some Johnny Cash songs. I truly enjoyed the show.

After the show we stayed in Milwaukee. We stayed at the Brewhouse Inn. It was a Pabst Brewery at one time and they took the brewery and turned into a hotel. Very cool! We could even see where they brewed the beer. Also they had these really funny looking furniture that really cracked me up.

Foreign Foreign

Posted on November 14, 2014 by dkbadmin under Foreign Language

Now that is so foreign!

Foreign language is not my friend even though I want it to be my friend. When I was younger meaning grades first to the fifth, I had no choice of what language they were going to teach us. The language was Spanish. I was kid so that means I could care less about learning a foreign language I wanted to do kids’ stuff. That means I didn’t really learn anything.

Sixth grade which is middle school I got a choice between three languages German, Spanish and French. What do I pick? Of course Spanish and it was not fun. Seventh and Eighth grade I decided I needed to pick a different foreign language. I looked at German and it looked really hard so I picked French. Well I was in for a treat. French was so hard for me. I have no idea why I took two years of it. Also in Eighth grade I was failing and my only redemption was going to French camp for two days. My teacher told me if I wanted to pass I had to go and make an effort she would pass me. French camp was horrible! Once I got there the only rule was no English only French. Since I sucked at speaking French I couldn’t say what I wanted or needed for two days. But it was worth it to pass the class so I didn’t have to go to summer school.

In high school ninth to twelfth grade I got the same three choices German, French or Spanish. The only difference I only had to take a foreign language for three years instead of all four. I do not know how but my mom convinced the principal to let me not take a foreign language but to swap it for a bunch of computer classes. I think that computers could be a foreign language. So I took a crap load of computer classes but it was worth it not having to take a foreign language also I liked my computer teacher he was awesome.

After high school I didn’t think about learning any foreign language, I always thought what is the point because for whatever reason I can’t learn them. Not until I joined Livemocha remember I told you about that. That site makes you pick a foreign language so my fall back foreign language is Spanish so I picked that. I didn’t have any interest of learning the language just wanted to meet new people and help them with American English. Anyways I met my friend Helen there. Her language is Russian and I thought I would learn Russian. Now that is a very hard language! In my mind I thought I could learn Russian and someday I could speak to Helen in Russian and she could speak to me in American English. I would like to say if you speak Russian I admire you because your language is super hard to learn.

A couple of months ago I gave up learning Russian. I did learn some numbers, the alphabet, greetings and some random words. Russian was a lot harder than I thought to learn and I didn’t have the drive or the discipline to want to learn Russian. However that doesn’t mean I do not want to learn about Russia. I love learning things about Russia just don’t want to learn the language.

I was thinking about it and I know my best friend April is learning a foreign language. I didn’t give it any thought till I gave up on Russian. This foreign language I have always that it was unique. I think because they do not teach this language I didn’t think I could learn it without a teacher. The foreign language is American Sign Language. I didn’t come in contact with this language till I was fourteen. When I was fourteen had my first job I worked at an ice cream shop in the food court of the mall. We had a mother and daughter who would come and buy ice cream. The mom was deaf so the daughter would order for her. I thought wow talking with your hands is interesting. So back when people actually went to the library, I checked out a book on American Sign Language which is ASL for short.

It was really interesting learning some of the culture and learning some signs. I have no idea why I didn’t try to learn more. I guess I figured because I couldn’t learn a foreign language why bother, even though I thought it was really interesting.

Being older and rediscovering ASL I really wanted to learn this language. I understand Helen more and why she loves learning American English. You really need the want, drive, fascination and discipline to learn a foreign language. Also with ASL there is no pronunciation just have to watch what I sign because I am learning that some signs are pretty similar just need to pay attention what I am signing.

Why I think I will stick with this language because I have never been truly excited to learn a foreign language before. I really want to learn this and I am having fun doing it. Also it helps that I have a good teacher. My friend is teaching me and that is what she wants to do with her life. She wants to become an ASL teacher. So she can practice with me till she gets her degree. It’s cool!

One more thought, my friend April told me that music can help you learn a foreign language. I will have to agree. Since I am huge music fan learning the signs to a song and then practicing till I can sing along in ASL will just add to the fun. I decided to go with Sixx A.M. and their song Stars it’s one of my favorite songs right now. She is going to teach me all the words to that song. That means I will know more words plus I get to sing along with them eventually. Neat!

Here is a video of her signing Sixx A.M. Stars also I found these huge sunglasses and told her she had to put them on to make the video. Just being silly. April is so good at signing this song and she didn’t even know this song till I told her only couple of days ago. I filmed this on my phone this is her first attempt of the whole song. So I am really impressed!

Twitter Addict

Posted on November 11, 2014 by dkbadmin under social media

Twitter can be a good decision for some. But it was a really bad decision I made. I joined twitter in 2012 but never really used it till April of 2013. Now knowing me I should have never sign up for this Twitter application. I am such an internet addict and this really didn’t help me at all.

WHY THE HELL DID I DO THIS?

You cannot watch TV or go anywhere on the internet without anyone or anything mentioning Twitter or hashtag this or hashtag that. Seriously it’s everywhere! Even the President is on Twitter, everyone is there. It’s like a big party for really stupid thoughts. Or to promote things you don’t really care about. However, if you do have a business or author or really important, I can see how this can help you but I am none of those things, so it only really hurt me instead.

I am already a nervous person and think too much about random stuff. Hence here I am. At first it was really fun. I got to say dumb useless things in 140 characters or less and started to get starred and some followers. I was like wow, this is so much fun! Then after about a few months, big accounts started to follow me and they would retweet my tweets. I was like what? Wow, so fun! I am going to follow everyone who is following me no matter what or who they are or even what they represent. Once I started to do this, I started to gain a lot of followers. So many that I looked for another application that Twitter created to manage everyone that was following or had unfollowed me. I used unfollow.me to manage everyone and it was free. Also you have to sign up with Favstar to get the full experience of Twitter. Favstar is really to see who starred your tweets and you can give people trophies there.

I have to admit, it took me awhile to figure out everything. When I did my first retweet it was a rush. And I actually did a #FF. Which is Follow Friday and then you enter everyone you want others to see and follow. I only did that a couple times and was happy. Also I was getting DM’s from people and chatting with them that way. A DM is a direct message if you didn’t know. I have met really awesome people and really horrible people. I do have to say thank goodness Twitter has a blocking system in place for the horrible people. I was also thrilled to be mention in a tweet.

I figured as long as I was having fun this can’t hurt me in anyway. Right?

But then it started…….I would tweet and then think about it way too much! I would also be like “Why doesn’t anyone every retweet or star me anymore” or “OMG, I hope I didn’t offend anyone” etc. I was thinking about what to tweet what not to tweet. What if I don’t gain any more followers? I would think about Twitter so much, it was affecting me other ways in my life. Like spending time with my husband or family events and even sleeping. I thought about Twitter all the time!

I would check Twitter the first thing in the morning and it would be the last thing I would check before I went to bed. Even if I didn’t Tweet, I wanted to know what other people were saying or sharing all the time. It really was nonstop for me. I didn’t know I had a problem. My husband would be like you want talk about Twitter again and give a sigh when I would talk about it. But I really didn’t pay attention to it because I was a Twitter addict.

Literally one day in February sitting in bed thinking about Twitter like always; I thought about how this one little application was affecting me. Twitter made me nervous about what I was tweeting or what people thought about my tweets. And it hit me in the face! That I was spending too much time on this Twitter, what do I care about other people’s thoughts on Twitter? Most of the stuff on Twitter was just useless crap. Also I was sick of people DM’s about a lot stuff I didn’t care about or them harassing me because they didn’t like what I tweeted about or the fact that my avatar wasn’t a pic of me. Yes, I never put my pic on Twitter and I was really discreet about myself. Twitter was never the real me. Sure I would tweet about things that had happen to me or if I saw something funny but it wasn’t Danielle.

So, I thought about quitting Twitter for about two days and asked myself these questions: Do I need this? Is Twitter even fun anymore? What have I been missing in life because of Twitter? And the answers to these questions were easy to answer. No, I don’t need Twitter and it’s really not fun anymore. I have been missing a lot in life because of Twitter. After answering these questions, I did it. I quit, I didn’t even make it a year. But it was a lot wasted time there. I did however leave with a pretty good number of followers though. I had 606 followers but I didn’t even say goodbye and just quit.

And wow, I thought about it some more. I thought do I really want to do this? What I am going to do now? For two weeks I thought about joining again because I am a Twitter addict. I have a problem and Twitter was making it worst. But now after I quit, I do feel better. I know I am an internet addict but I don’t need Twitter to make it worst.

What I found out not being on Twitter is I have a lot more free time to pursue other things. I think about Twitter sometimes but it doesn’t invade my thoughts often. I am actually happier without it. Sure, I see it on TV or on the internet and of course hashtag this or that but I do not feel the need to be on Twitter anymore.

However, I am glad I went through that experience just to get it out of the way. Now, I honestly have an opinion about Twitter.

Goodbye Twitter forever!

Change

Posted on November 6, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

It’s good to change right?

Lately I feel like I am changing. Like every year I have a birthday but I do not feel older till later in the year. But this feels differently like I feel differently about things in life then I did before. I have no idea how this feeling of change came along but it has.

I feel differently about my family. I have a lot of family issues in my life and it really sucks. I feel that I should be past all this anger and I hate that I have but sometimes it just hard to get past certain people and feelings I have towards them. I am sick of dealing with the same old issues and the tears I have to endure. I am sick of trying to figure out how to get around certain topics that always seem to pop up. I am sick of trying to be someone that I am not. I am really sick of my family judging me for being the person that I am. I just want these family issues to just go away. I want to find the strength to stand up for myself and say what I really want to say but it’s really hard to do that.

So far this year I did tell a person how I felt and it was really hard. Also this certain family member didn’t talk to me for a week which I was okay with because I was so angry at them. In fact these certain family member makes me very angry and sad. But also at the same time they make me happy and make me laugh. And when it’s just me and them alone we always have the best time. It’s very hard to find a balance with them. The incident that happened I think had to happen because I felt like exploding! Unfortunately I feel these feelings will never go away but ever since this happened I feel differently towards this person. And I think that why I feel this change coming along.

Since I am on the internet I rather not say who this person is even though none of family reads my blog anyways.

I have feeling of giving up on certain parts of my family life and I am okay with that. Sucks for those people I am giving up on because they are going to be missing me in the future but this just has to happen. It’s like I have gave them so many chances and they choose not take them. Also when I see them I am not going to pretend that I will see them anytime soon. I hate when they say “we need to get together more” and I am always thinking well I gave you like a million chances to do that you never take them. This year I am just going be like “okay” and move on.

Also on Facebook I am not following these people anymore. I am sick of their posts about all the family things they do and how they gloat about it. It’s sad that I feel so much hate towards parts of family life. I really need to work on this and move past this but it has been my entire life of trying and failing. I feel so differently towards my family issues that I just feel like giving up on those parts even though they make me who I am.

However I do not feel differently about my tiny family meaning just my husband and I. In fact that part of my life is the best part. We have been through so much of my family issues that he has really been my rock through it all. Like when I cry and feel so sad, he gives me the biggest hug and listens to what I have to say. Or when I am so angry all I see red, he listens and finds solutions to the problems. I always feel so much better when he picks me up from those horrible emotions.

I feel differently on the inside. I feel that this change is good and moving me towards the person I am supposed to be. Maybe this change will make me stronger and not the coward that I see in the mirror. I know that since I have been blogging I actually feel stronger to say “Hey this is me and I just don’t care what you think about me.” All that is important is what I think about myself.

I hoping this change will move me to the things I want to get done to myself, so I feel better about myself. Like I want to lose a lot of weight so I feel different. I am not losing weight for anyone else but myself because I want to go and see so many places. Being a bigger person doesn’t let me do those things. I want to get a bunch of tattoos for me. I have a lot of ideas of what I want to get tattooed as well. I want to publish one of my stories; I don’t even care if one person buys it. Just want to say I got a book published would just be so cool.

There are so many things I want to see and do before I die. And with that I guess I really need this big change in my life right now.

I really like listening to hard rock when I am sad or angry; it always makes me feel better about myself. The song I like to listen to when my family is getting on my nerves is 5 Finger Death Punch Bulletproof. This song is so special because no matter what they say or throw at me, I am Bulletproof from their hateful words.

Oh Brother!

Posted on November 3, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

My younger brother Adam just moved to Portland Oregon. Finally! He has been talking about moving out there for a couple of years. One of his best friends and his girlfriend moved there awhile back. I guess Portland is the place to be. Well ever since then he moved out there my younger brother has been dying to move there but he would always come up with all kinds of excuses not to leave. He finally had no excuse to go a couple of months ago. His friend broke up with his girlfriend and needed a roommate. So he called my brother and to sweeten the deal he had a job for him. So there was no reason he couldn’t go. So he did which is good for him.

When we were younger we were best friends. Of course we had sibling rivalry but again who doesn’t? (Unless you are an only child.) Anyways when we got older our relationship sucked. It’s too bad that he had to move away for our relationship to be back on track but I will take it.

It’s funny thinking about the past with my brother. We are only three years apart so life when we were younger was fun because he wasn’t a little kid yet still could be very annoying. Since I was older I could boss him around that was the fun part. Ha! I use to make him do concerts with me for our parents. Make up dance routines to songs and then perform them. It was fun to do that also I think that is what we are doing in this photo. Fun times!

Also being older I would always stand up for him at school. I was pretty protective of my little brother and wouldn’t let anyone push him around. In return when he got to high school he would do the same for me. I am a shyer person then he. He always had a ton of friends which I use to be so jealous of. For example Adam could walk into a room full of people and like know half them and by the end of the night know more than half of the people. Me I would know one person and probably only know three people at the end of the night. So yes my brother is a huge social butterfly. Anyways in high school I was very shy so he and his friends would sit with me at lunch made me feel like I belong somewhere. We really looked out for each other growing up.

So when we got older and we started to separate, it made me sad because I love my little brother very much. Now that he is starting to come around in life again, I am really grateful to have his relationship back.

Here is a photo of us in high school together.

Adam I am glad you are in my life again. I love you so much!

Danielle's Blog

A blog about Danielle

Monthly Archives: November 2014

Thanksgiving

Rock This Town

Foreign Foreign

Change

Oh Brother!