making little kids cry since 1999

You all have heard me wax poetic in the past about Walmart.  And while I don’t want to imply that those feelings are cooling (except I think they totally are), I’ve felt a lot less love in recent months.  

At the end of the day, we shop at Walmart because it’s CHEAP there.  I would love to shop at Smith’s or Safeway or (God bless it) Whole Foods.  That would be my idea of grocery heaven.  Shoot, way back in the day before Reno had a Walmart Supercenter, I used to do all our shopping at Safeway and it was mighty fine.  Shoot, they have a Starbucks right there in the store, complete with a handy cupholder right there on the shopping cart!  I loved shopping at Safeway.  But, the fact of the matter is that we save SO MUCH more money by shopping at Walmart.  And it seems like anymore that saving money isn’t just a jolly whim, but a dire necessesity.  

Now, I’m a firm believer that all Walmarts are not created equal.  Why, just here in the Reno/Sparks area alone, there are four Walmart Supercenters and one of those I try not to ever step foot in unless it’s an absolute emergency.  It’s just too damned crowded.  And the clientele, for lack of a better word, is a touch on the shady side.  (There’s also a regular Walmart that I won’t even look twice at as we drive by.  It’s very existence chills me to the bones.)  My Walmart of choice is located in the neighborhood we used to live in up in Northwest Reno.  It’s maintained fairly well, is kept fairly clean and is fairly well organized.  And, on average, the people there are fairly normal.  You know, for a Walmart. 

There’s also one clear out in the boonies of Sparks and another one waaaaay south of town.  Ironically enough, all three of these Walmarts are located extremely close to all three Kohl’s in town.  Hmm.  Interesting.  Anyhow, I generally try to pick the less ghetto of Walmarts to do my shopping at.  But there is something about the average person who shops at a Walmart.  They have no freakin’ concept of BEING IN SOMEONE’S WAY.  For the record, my husband is rather poor at this too.  He’s frustrating to grocery shop with anyhow, what with the poring over labels and per-unit prices.  But he also leaves his cart right in the middle of the aisle.  And since we each have to have our own cart these days (the joys of three kids), it’s kind of difficult for me to move it for him.  But I try and I make sure that Harry isn’t standing out in the middle of the “traffic path”, picking his lip and staring into space as usual.  Because I wouldn’t want anyone to think I was a selfish douche.  You know, like everyone ELSE that shops at Walmart. 

Honestly, I would love to be able to shop somewhere else.  Shoot, if we had a Super Target here in town I would be there in a HEARTBEAT.  It’s all about saving money though.  And Walmart saves us a LOT of money.  At the end of the day, I just can’t ignore that.  Still, someone needs to remind me to not try going to Walmart on a Sunday afternoon.  Because that’s just asking for it.

I was reading a post over at Lost a Sock yesterday where she talked about how warm she liked to keep their house.  And, I swear to you, my jaw about hit the floor.   There are actually lots of people, apparently, who keep their thermostats at 74 degrees.  Or higher!  I think I would probably burst into spontaneous flame if we had our thermostat set at that for more than about, oh, 30 minutes.  

And I realized that there are people who are just plain intolerant to cold.  Much like I am intolerant to heat.  I hate hate hate being hot.  HATE IT.  I have an actual adverse physical reaction to being too warm.  Seriously!  The worst is getting into a car on a sunny but slightly cool day and it’s already warm in the car from the sun coming through the windows but then they turn the heater on?  ZOMG.  My skin crawls and I feel an overwhelming urge to PANT, I kid you not.  I cannot stand being warm.  Why I don’t just migrate to the Arctic Circle, I have no idea.  

We are misers around these parts and have been long before the current financial crisis ever hit.  I guess it’s just lucky that I like to be on the cool side anyhow.  During the winter, we have our thermostat set to 62 or so during the day.  I bump it up if I need to, like when we get a storm and it’s cooler outside than usual.  Generally, the house keeps it’s heat pretty well since the majority of the windows face the south side of the house and if the sun is shining, that goes a long way to keeping the place warm.  The thermostat goes up to 68 for a couple hours first thing in the morning to warm up the house and then again in the evening.  At night, we set it back to 58.  Because if there’s one thing I hate, it’s when the heater runs while I’m sleeping.  Even unconsciously, while I’m sleeping, I will toss and turn and wake up and sweat.  It’s awful. 

I generally wear my fleecy pajamas, slippers and a cozy robe during the day.  Sometimes I put a blanket on my lap when I’m watching TV.  The little kids too wear fleecy, cozy jammies during the winter months and when we dress for the cold, well, it works in the house too.  We’re not the sorts to wear shorts and t-shirts during the winter months.  If it’s 30 degrees outside, I figure I should be wearing a sweater.  It’s not worth the heating bill just to be able to wear a t-shirt when at home.  

I like it cold when I sleep so I can wear cozy pajamas and snuggle under a down comforter and flannel sheets.  The boys both wear cozy pajamas and snuggle under a pile of covers.  They haven’t complained about it and both have their favorite blankets.  I always make sure Evie is wearing warm pajamas and even then she gets tucked under a double-width fleece blanket.  Her room, like ours, faces the north side of the house so it’s cooler than the rest of the house.  As such, we’ve put a space heater in her room and we ran it last night to great success.  She stayed warm and cozy all night long.  I’ve already mentioned that I like it cool when I sleep and we even have the ceiling fan running on low in our room at night so that things don’t get too stagnant.  

So tell me this: Are we crazy?  I promise, if you ever came to visit we would bump up the heat for you.  But in the meantime, we sure do enjoy the comparatively small heating bills!  What do you keep your thermostat at?  And aren’t electronic thermostats just THE BOMB?  Makes life SO much simpler. 

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In other, completely unrelated news, I have a new review up over on ye olde review blogge.  PBN saw fit enough to send my nine year old a Wii game to review and I think it’s safe to say that he thought it was the coolest thing to ever come in our mail EVER.  What can I say?  The boy likes video games.  So yeah.  Go check it out.

So in the comments on yesterday’s uber-whiner post, Cagey said she hated posts like that (and so did Michelle, for the record), where I beat myself up (but I’m such an easy target!).  So in an effort to balance everything out nicely, I thought I’d do a post wherein I detail everything that is Totally Awesome about yours truly.   Because while I still believe that in some, way, shape or form that I am a la-hoo-ser, I do recognize that I have some good traits.  Somewhere.  Maybe there in the corner under that layer.  Ahem.  Here goes!

• I have some really cute kids.  As evidenced by the MONDO picture we picked up yesterday from Sears.  Seriously, ya’ll, it’s adorable.  And you should check out my full review of Sears Portrait Studio while you’re at it.  
• I have a fondness for writing that makes up for it’s lack of talent with an excess of enthusiasm.  I may never be a literary genius, but maybe someday I’ll get published.  That’d be awesome. 
• I love animals.  I always have.  When I was little, before the days of Animal Planet, I used to love to watch those wild animal safari type shows on PBS.  I’ve always loved having pets too.  For a long time, I was a big cat person, but thanks to Tiger, we’re taking a bit of a cat-break right now.  We have our hands full with the dogs now anyhow. 
• I like to think that I have a decent sense of humor.  This might not be the funniest blog out there and I’m in no way implying that it is.  But I do know funny when I hear (or see) it.  My dad used to always say I had such a great sense of humor.  I love to laugh.  I love to surround myself with funny people. 
• I love Christmas.  There, I said it.  I know it’s sorta fashionalble anymore to be something of a Scrooge, but I can’t help it.  Tis the Season to be Jolly.  I don’t love the stress associated with the holidays but I absolutely ADORE the wonder.  And I love sharing that wonder with my kids. 
• In a related vein, I love cold weather.  I love snow and rain and clouds.  I don’t love wind (but then, after living in Nevada you realize it doesn’t need to be cold to be windy).  I can’t wait until this mild weather is gone and we get some real good snow storms.  
• I’m loyal.  I’m not the sort to ditch out on someone when a “better offer” comes along.  Once I’m a friend with someone, it takes quiet a bit to shake that.  I give my friends the benefit of the doubt in iffy situations.  This has, in the recent past, led to me getting walked over, but I think it’s an important trait to have.  Because if you can’t count on your friends to back you up in times of need, then who can you count on? 
• I have awesome taste in music and movies.  If I do say so myself.  And I do.  Cuz this is my blog.  And I’m not talking about artsy-fartsy, alternative taste.  Yes, there are some awesome indy movies out there and some fabulous unknown musicians out there.  But I tend towards the mainstream and I love popular movies and music.  It’s the great equalizer.  And look at it this way, I’ll never make you feel bad for loving “Armageddon” (cuz I do too) (but I will hold “The Fast and the Furious” against you because that movie and all it’s spawn are CRAP).  

There you go.  Some of the things that make me awesome.  Don’t you want to be my friend now?

I’m rather lonely. 

If not for my husband and kids, I would be entirely lonely.  So I guess it could be (a lot) worse.  But the fact of the matter is that I don’t have a lot of “girl time” to enjoy.  Well, it’s not the “time” I’m lacking so much as the “girl”.   I have no friends.  Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat worms. 

And I think the longer that I don’t have friends and the more I am holed up here in my home, clacking away on my laptop, the more anti-social I’m becoming.  I have always been shy and introverted, but that never seemed to get in the way of making new friends.  So I don’t think I’m a total loser, you know?  Or at least, I didn’t used to be.  Maybe I am now.  Lah-HOO-ser!!

Ahem. 

I tried and a couple years ago, I thought I had finally hit the jackpot.  I had some friends that lived nearby that I loved to hang out with.  Our families loved to hang out too.  Kile enjoyed them, Harry enjoyed their son, etc and so forth.  It was like the answer to my prayers.  

Then… things went downhill.  I still to this day can’t put my finger on exactly what it was.  Was it me?  Perhaps they didn’t enjoy me as much as I did them.  Which, of course, stings.  It makes you step back and question yourself.  So it’s easy to see why, after a few failures on the social front, that we tend to keep to ourselves more and more.  

It’s safer that way.  Simpler.  Easier.  I love to take shortcuts, especially if they make my life simpler and easier.  And withdrawing from society is so simple and so easy.  And so safe.  If you don’t put yourself out there, you can’t be disappointed.  You can’t get your feelings hurt.  You don’t expose yourself to rejection.  You feel lonely, but if you try hard enough and long enough you can get used to it.  And you can even get to where you don’t even really notice it so much anymore.  Lonely becomes the New Normal.  

Maybe Reno is the problem?  It wasn’t so hard to make friends in college, but since being out on our own, it’s been so much harder.  Are people here just not that friendly?  Would it be easier if we lived somewhere else?  Would another neighborhood be better or would we need an entirely different part of the country?  

Why am I even thinking about this in the first place?? 

Who knows.  I just wonder, from time to time, what my life would be like if I had some good friends to hang out with fairly regularly.  I’m sure Kile would appreciate it, because then I wouldn’t be hassling him to come see “Twilight” with me this weekend.