I LOVE the theme song from the Big Bang Theory.

The Big Bang Theory Theme Song – Bare Naked Ladies

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait…
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!

“Since the dawn of man” is really not that long,
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song.
A fraction of a second and the elements were made.
The bipeds stood up straight,
The dinosaurs all met their fate,
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The oceans and pangea
See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same big bang!

It all started with the big BANG!

It’s expanding ever outward but one day
It will cause the stars to go the other way,
Collapsing ever inward, we won’t be here, it wont be hurt
Our best and brightest figure that it’ll make an even bigger bang!

Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating out while here they’re catching deer (we’re catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Encarta, Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!

Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!

I HATE the song Escape (The Pina Colada song). It has a catchy tune and comes across as being all romantic, but really it isn’t. It is a song about two people willing to cheat on their significant others and they just happen to be the other person in the ad.

Today’s Horoscope:
You have the courage of your convictions which is all you need to make a difference. Just be sure that what you think is true is actually true.

How does anyone know what is the truth anymore? I just want to go home and go to sleep. But alas I have work and maintenance is installing a new dishwasher for me today. I think I’d settle for a hug. 

Wow, I haven’t written in awhile. Life has been busy and work has kept me swamped. I’m quite happy nonetheless, so no complaints there.

One of my best friends ever is engaged (YAY!) and I’m so happy for her. I’m looking forward to the craziness a wedding brings and helping her through it all. I know she and her fiance are going to be very happy together – so yay for them!

I’m currently at work, typing with my gloves that have the fingers removed due to the extreme coldness (they don’t turn the heat on until later – BOO).

 I recently was given the opportunity to see some immediate and extended family this weekend. While I wish it could have been done with 4 hours of flying, I was still happy to do it. As dysfunctional as we may be, I wouldn’t change my family for the world. And what I would change, I have adopted families for! I am going to see my ‘adopted’ family this week, which makes me very happy. They were ‘adopted’ through my ex-bf, and once he stopped being my friend I don’t get to see them as much. Its just hard seeing them sometimes when he won’t barely talk to me. I know it makes his girlfriend uncomfortable, as she pointed out to me in an email once.

I think in my free time I’m going to start really writing. Maybe not original works yet, perhaps I’ll start out practicing with fanfiction. But by next November, I want to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – http://www.nanowrimo.org/ ). 

Tonight I think I’m going to be trying a new restaurant in the city. It’s called Bliss and I’ll be going with aforementioned best friend! I still need to double check we’re on, but its looking good. I’m looking to have a busy week with Bliss, dinner/games with the adopted family, and having some good fun with some Cornell Alumni at Zincks night. Once a year, on the third Thursday of October, Cornellians gather and have a toast to Cornell. I’m very happy to be participating this year as last year I was not yet comfortable to show up by myself to a social event where I don’t know anyone.

Well, back to work. They’ll be mad at me if I waste too much time.

So I’m going to proceed to post this at the risk of sounding corny, cause if I’m going to post rants I think I should post about happy moments too!

 So this morning I was heading into work listening to the Smallville Soundtrack: Talon Mix that I just bought. Everything by Lifehouse came on as I started thinking how great life is right now. I have a wonderful job which, while time consuming and a bit stressful, is challenging AND rewarding. I have some wonderful friends who mean the absolute world to me. I love being able to just hang out and play Wii/Disney Scene It or getting a phone call in the middle of the day saying ‘Samantha! I’m reading this book and I think you’d love it!’ . I’m so very thankful that most of the important people in my life have wonderful significant others that are just as amazing and fun to spend time with as my original friends/family and that my friendship circle is expanding as a result of that. I have a fabulous (I’m using another word than wonderful!) boyfriend who after almost 8 months still surprises me with how sweet and thoughtful he can be. Its a rare experience to be going out with a genuinely good person.

Sure, life’s not perfect. I have my emotional moodswings as much as the next female. In a perfect world I’d live much closer to my friends/family/boyfriend. I wouldn’t have an intense feeling of dread everytime my cell phone rings – worrying it’ll be bad news about my grandfather or father. Work would be confined between the hours of 7 and 4, for both me and my boy. But really, in the grand scheme of things, that’s all minor.

Alright, enough happy babbling. I’ll depart with the lyrics from the song that made me happy this morning!

 ———————

Find Me Here
Speak To Me
I want to feel you
I need to hear you
You are the light
That’s leading me
To the place where I find peace again.

You are the strength, that keeps me walking.
You are the hope, that keeps me trusting.
You are the light to my soul.
You are my purpose…you’re everything.

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

You calm the storms, and you give me rest.
You hold me in your hands, you won’t let me fall.
You steal my heart, and you take my breath away.
Would you take me in? Take me deeper now?

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

Cause you’re all I want, You’re all I need
You’re everything,everything
You’re all I want your all I need
You’re everything, everything.
You’re all I want you’re all I need.
You’re everything, everything
You’re all I want you’re all I need, you’re everything, everything.

And How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
  

A few months old, but I just stumbled across it.

 http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-04-06-disney-weddings_N.htm

I’ve recently been thinking about the topic of addiction, specifically the question ‘is it a disease?’. With some family members being addicted to alcohol (both recovering and not so recovering), it’s an issue that is near and dear to my heart. I know a few people whose reply is a very adamant ‘NO’. In their mind, alcohol addiction is a choice. I decided to do a little research (I’m NOT addicted to anything, so I don’t have first hand knowledge) and found a wonderful article that was in TIME magazine.

TIME – How We Get Addicted:
 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1640436,00.html

The article is extensive, reaching 4 pages.  It’s definitely worth a read however. It approaches addiction from a scientific point of view and monitors brainwaves and how the alcoholic brain reacts to alcohol stimulant. Its conclusion? Addiction is a disease, one people can learn to control, but a disease nonetheless. The brain chemistry of an addict is different than that of a nonaddict.

I would be remiss in my presentation of this topic if I didn’t post this article that I found on Slate.com. It is written by a psychiatrist and a psychologist and supports the theory that calling addiction a ‘brain disease’ is wrong and misleading.

Slate – Addiction isn’t a brain disease, Congress:
http://www.slate.com/id/2171131

 I’m always glad to read opposing viewpoints, but honestly I think the opposing viewpoint just solidified my belief that addiction is a disease not a behavior. What you ‘do’ with it is a behavior. In the article, they mention its dangerous to call it a disease because it takes the blame off the addict which can perpetuate behavior. I don’t think taking the blame off the person is a bad idea, if anything it starts to give them control. ‘You have this disease, but you can overcome it with your behavior. You just need help.’ 

In my mind, I kind of liken it to the fact I have Celiac Sprue – an autoimmune disease that results in an intollerance towards Gluten. CS can be brought on at any stage in life, for me it was when I was very young. Who knows what did it – it could have been a fever or my parents feeding me wheat when I was too young. One way or another, I have this disease. What I do with it is my choice though. I can choose to avoid the food items that make me sick and live a healthy life, or I could not. It is a choice I have to make every day – and let me tell you, it’s not an easy one. I know Celiacs who deliberately cheat on their diet because they just need to have that one piece of pizza or really miss that pretzel.

I know, it’s not an exact comparison, but I think its a good start. I could probably ramble some more, but I need to get back to work. Writing this post helped ‘me’ clear up some ideas in my head and I’m not trying to persuade anyone. I’m just getting down how I feel about it and the articles I found.

/rant on 

I’m a fairly sensitive person, my boyfriend will tell you I’m too sensitive. I pay attention to what I say and if I do say something that may upset someone, I’ll be the first person to apologize. If someone were to come up to me and say ‘Samantha, I’m really upset you did/said ….’ I would take the time to apologize and/or explain where I was coming from.

I would never say something to intentionally hurt someone else. However, it will just tick me off if you randomly decide to start being mean to me for something I did/said while expecting me to psychically identify what upset you. At that point I go from feeling sympathetic to just irritated. Especially if you’re someone who prides themselves in being upfront with people.  It’s just the cowards way out – and don’t expect me to be friends with someone who treats me like a punching bag.

 /end rant  

Yes, that’s right – this weekend was pretty darn awesome.

Friday night consisted of picking up my sis, making chocolate peanut butter fudge with her and hitting Barnes and Nobles at 5:30 to get our wristbands that say when we’d get our Harry Potter books. We were 103 and 104 in the line, which was pretty awesome considering they had about a thousand + people there that night. Then we departed and met my boy back at his apartment and bummed around until 11:30 when it was time to aquire Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We managed to remain spoiler free and were home and reading our books by 12:30am. I have to admit I am obsessed and finished it within 12 hours (and had sleep in there too!)

My comments will be posted later, allowing people a chance to avoid them if they don’t want to be spoiled.

Saturday night consisted in a banana night of banana peanut butter ice cream from Cold Stone and then banana margharitas from Mexican Post. Accompanied by a solid discussion with my boy which was fun and would have been more fun had I not been completely exhausted.

Sunday morning required waking up at the weeeeee hours of 7:30 to go try and buy a Wii! That’s right – my boy and I are each now proud owners of a brand new Wii. I then indulged in purchasing Super Paper Mario, Zelda, and Mario Party 8. Very good stuff! Now all I need is a nice bookshelf next to my TV to get things organized. Perhaps I shall hit Target this afternoon. I want tonight to be full of Wii-ness, but I think a lot will be cleaning and getting my apartment in order.

The only thing that could have made yesterday better was if we had the Pi approximation day (22/7) party that we were planning. With the Wii and my boy’s new kitten, Jinx, we were looking forward to having people over. But it fell through cause people were either too busy or too tired.

And so – that was the fun of my weekend. It really makes Monday that much harder cause all I want to do is either curl up with my boy or be playing video games or reading (and I can’t do any of that while at work!)

Tomorrow shall be Pub Quiz, which I’m very much looking forward to! 

 Back to work – Booo Mondays!

 

 yes, that’s right. Today, I bought an iRobot Romba (with scheduler) to vacuum my apartment for me when I’m not there. The ultimate in laziness! I have to vacuum so often now cause of the birds, I’m hoping it’ll make a huge difference.

 I also was able to make the purchase during a WOOT-OFF, on woot.com so I got a good price on it too!

Technology never ceases to amaze me.