And, right now, I have nothing to say. Well, I have a lot to say, actually, but I can't say it right now. I'll try and get some coherent thoughts together tomorrow.
Yea, so I missed yesterday. I have failed in NaBoPoMo. I had to go visit a client 2 hours away; I was away from "home" from 7AM to 7PM. When I got home, I had to do a load of laundry and pack before I could go to sleep. And I was tired. So, no post.
But today is Friday. And I got to come home, to Richmond. I took the long way, which is mostly 2-lane roads, so if you get stuck behind a farm truck or something, it can really slow you down. But, I had no time crunch, and it's a prettier drive. Today I got lucky and the trip went smoothly.
Now I am sitting, waiting for PB to get here, because he had to travel to Virginia Beach today for work. We're supposed to go to a party tonight, but that depends on how he's feeling. Tomorrow is date night at my favorite restaurant. And I am looking forward to it.
My room in Lynchburg? Cold. I sleep under a down comforter, an electric throw, and two knit afghans. Hopefully I'll be getting a heated mattress pad from a friend this week. Prior to having the multiple covers, I was getting up in the middle of the night and putting more clothes on.
My roommate likes to sleep cold and she has a heated mattress pad. She doesn't understand why I'm so cold. I need to get a thermometer.
Every year since I've moved to Richmond, my sister has brought the boy(s) over on her way to meet up with friends to go trick or treating. I was very disappointed that I would miss it this year. So, Sunday night, she dressed them up and brought them over to our house to trick or treat.
Monkey was Billy the Exterminator. He wanted TRgirl to dress Spiderman up as a skunk. The costumes came out great. What I didn't see? At Monkey's behest, Randy dressed up as Big Bill, and my sister dressed up as Ricky.
The next day started with a horseback ride at the resort. We did get to ride along the beach, which I always enjoy. Moreso when the beach isn’t littered in plastic, however. The ride almost ended disastrously. PB decided to take his new (very expensive) camera. I wondered if this was the best idea but didn’t say anything. His horse was slower than mine and he’s not as good of a rider (having been on a horse maybe twice) as I am, so he was behind me for the entire ride. As we were headed back towards the barn I heard him yell, “Oh, crap!” I turned my horse around expecting to see him on the ground. He wasn’t, but his camera was. The strap had broken. The strap I found for him (cue guilt). I told him I was heading back toward him- the guide came also; he dismounted and picked up the camera. He handed it back to PB; it appeared fine, but we couldn’t tell. I carried it for the rest of the ride as it couldn’t be worn; we both felt more comfortable with me being the one with only one hand on the horse. When we got back to our room he took it apart, cleaned all of the lenses (it had fallen in soft sand) and the body. Nothing broken, nothing scratched. He did lose a non-essential part that can easily be replaced. (Seriously, that is all the detail I can give you.) Huge sigh of relief.
That night we drove up to Fajardo to paddle the bioluminescent bay. Due to our paddling difficulties of the day before, we decided to switch things up. I sat in the back of the kayak, PB took the front. The paddling was a lot more successful.
To get to the bay we headed through a mangrove forest first- I was glad it was still light when we did that. We could see the mangroves and where we were going. It wasn’t quite dark yet when we got to the bay, so at first we could only see tiny sparkles when we dipped our hands into the water. As it got darker, the dinoflagellates got brighter. Any time you stuck your hand, your foot, your paddle in the water glowed. As you pulled them out of the water, sparkles ran down your arm/leg/what have you. It was absolutely amazing and made me giddy. I could have played in the water all night. Sadly, you can’t swim in that bay, but you can swim in Mosquito Bay in Vieques. I so want to do that.
On our final full day there, we drove down to Ponce (Puerto Rico’s second largest city) and saw Castillo Seralles. It was amazing. We also stocked up on Don Q rum, which is much better than Bacardi. We’ll be hosting a tasting in a few weeks.
Essentially, we had fun despite our accommodations. On our first big sightseeing day we went to San Juan and took a ferry across the bay to tour the Bacardi factory. When we got to the dock, there were taxi drivers waiting. One said to us “Bacardi?” and motioned for us to follow. A second person, who was more of a dispatcher type, told us that we needed to take a taxi to the factory and that the fare was $3/pp. We went with his driver, which upset the first driver, but the first driver had told us nothing. (This all made PB very nervous. I didn’t figure it was some scam to kidnap all the tourists. We were in a van with another group, after all.) The factory was quite a bit away from the ferry dock; the taxi was necessary.
The tour was fun and free and also, free drink tickets! The visitor center was closed for renovations so we actually got to tour the factory which hasn’t been open to visitors since the early 2000’s. Much to my delight, they described in detail the anaerobic digestion process they’d developed and patented and used to power the plant. I think no one else on the tour cared.
We took the ferry back across the bay and walked around Old San Juan. It was cool with narrow streets and brightly colored houses. El Parque de las Palomas was not to my liking. Palomas= pigeons (which I knew, so why I went is a mystery) and I hate pigeons. Dirty, nasty things. I also regret not buying the purple Coach bag. Expensive, yes, but beautiful and actually a very good deal, what with the coupon they gave me when I walked in to the store. We also explored El Morro and San Cristobal, forts that are part of the San Juan National Historic Site. I was fascinated to learn that the US had used these forts during both World Wars. They did provide wonderful views of the harbor.
The next day we took a kayaking/snorkeling trip to Culebra, an island 17 mi from Puerto Rico (and 12 mi from St. Thomas.) Actually, we took a ferry to Culebra. We met our guides at the ferry dock and then headed to Flamenco Beach, which was fantastic and exactly the kind of beach we wanted when we decided to go to Puerto Rico. We left Flamenco for Tamarindo Beach where we launched kayaks and paddled out to the reef. The paddling did not go smoothly for us and we were constantly veering left.
After tying up the kayaks, we jumped into the water to snorkel. PB and I were two of about 6 in our group who elected to snorkel without life vests. (In fact, we had one person on the tour who couldn’t swim.) The reef was beautiful- there were many types of coral and lots of colorful fish. We paddled back to the beach and got back in the water, this time to dive in a seagrass bed, where we saw sea turtles and stingrays. When we got back to the ferry dock, we learned the ferry would be late, so we were forced to hang out in small Caribbean bars drinking and eating. (Oddly, we had pizza which was better than a lot of what I’ve had in VA.) Culebra was easily the best part of our trip; I’d love to return to just there.
So hey! We just got back from vacation. We went to Puerto Rico, where I learned that even though my Spanish skills have declined, I can still manage ok.
Overall, we had a good time. However, the place we stayed at was terrible. It was advertised as being at this upscale gated resort community. It was a gated resort community. Where most of the restaurants had closed down. And in the nearest town, the most popular restaurant was Chili’s. They also advertised that they had two pools. They did not advertise that they didn’t clean them. There was beach access as promised, but not the two minute walk we were told. No, a two minute walk to the beach, and then a 10- 15 minute walk to their area of the beach. Where there were dirty beach chairs (seriously, they hadn’t been rinsed of in months, I’m sure) on a dirty beach where the currents are so strong that you can’t swim. (No, I have no idea why an entire resort community was planned and built at a place with an ugly, useless beach.) When we got to our room (which, to be fair, was clean enough) they put notes in our bathroom saying that we had X towels, and if they didn’t find X towels when we checked out, we would be charged. Which, fine, except when the right number of towels aren’t there to begin with. I complained to the front desk; it was fixed. Until Wednesday when they cleaned our room and changed out the towels. This time when I went to the front desk I told them that if they were going to threaten to charge me for towels that weren’t worth taking anyway, the housekeeping staff had better damn well make sure the numbers match.
When housekeeping went in to fix the towel situation on Thursday, they got back at us by washing the shower with an obscene amount of bleach and not rinsing it (I had to run the shower for 15 minutes before I could even stand to be in the bathroom) and running the empty dishwasher (no, I don’t know either).
I am settling in well. My roommate and I get along. She’s showing me around town and introducing me to people. We’re switching off cooking dinner, which is good. (She takes Mondays, because I leave my house at 6AM and get to hers around 6:30 PM, so I am dog tired.)
She has a cat. Named Kat. Kat is all white and looks quite a bit like Orion, especially from the side, and sounds like him as well.
She also has a creepy neighbor. He moved in across the street within the past month. When I came home after my first day on the new job, she was sitting on the curb talking to him. Note: he has a son who is 4 years younger than she is, and he was not a teen dad or anything.
That Wednesday, he came over and knocked on our door. He handed her a note saying how much he’d enjoyed talking to her and that he’d like to take her out to dinner. He included his phone number. This was written on the back of an ATM receipt from two days earlier, which is why I can tell you that he had $96 in his checking account.
Which, hey, we’ve all been there. But when you are a guy trying to court someone 20 years younger than you are, that’s probably not the information you want to be giving out right away.
She just let it go. She’s not interested. (She wasn’t before we realized about the ATM receipt. That just made it funnier.) She came home to another note on the door that Monday. She again has not responded and is hoping he’ll drop it.
Apparently, living in Lynchburg causes you to age prematurely. That is the only conclusion I can make from the fact that people tend to assume I am in my late 20s.
People here are obsessed with where you live. In Richmond, the question is answered by a general area of town. “Far West End.” “Near West End.” “Chesterfield.” “Short Pump.” “Northside.” “Southside.” “The Fan.” Et. Al.
Here, they practically want an address. You tell them an area, they start asking you questions about the neighborhoods in that area. Then tell you who they know who lives there, or used to live there.
Friday’s interview went well. I mean, I don’t know if I have the job yet, but the interview went well. Very well. In fact, they told me I interviewed well.
Possibly because I was prepared for this being a multi-hour interview. Unlike the last one, which was a huge surprise. Not the interview itself, just the length.
Also, having driven two hours to get to this interview, I was actually glad that it was longer.
They paid me for my mileage. And took me out for a delicious lunch.
I definitely walked out of there feeling much better than after the last one.
Some days I’m fine, and I am confident that I’ll find a job, it will be fabulous, and up yours, old job!
Today is not one of those days.
Probably because I am currently freaking out about health insurance. Remember that pesky bipolar disorder? Yea, that screws me up. First of all, my generic prescriptions are more than $250/month if I self pay. So, prescription coverage would be nice. And call my daft, but I really want insurance that covers actual emergencies. Which means that although normal people can get short-term coverage for $70/month, I will be paying about $200.
Which is still significantly less than my COBRA payment would be.
(Yes, the uninsured still have it tough, America.)
I have an interview on Friday. It’s in a town about 100 miles from here. Not ideal at all. I may have to take it. (You know, if I were to get it.)
I returned to work on Monday. My yet-unnamed co-worker and only friend in the office informed me that my boss had come in from his office (he works down in the Hampton Roads area) unexpectedly.
And I knew.
See, I haven't had much work for months. I've tried, and I've found some, but mostly, nothing.
We don't have a lot going on in my office. Well, in my very small department anyway. There were 3 of us. Now they are two. (One also doesn't have any work, one does work for mostly other offices in VA.)
Even though I knew, I was shocked. It's quite a blow to one's self-esteem. And, there's panic. One needs money to live.
I have, luckily, been interviewing for a job. And my old boss, who was also laid off by this group (last year) is working in a different operating group within the same company, and they are looking for people. He's already passed my resume along. Hopefully, one of these two will work out and I won't be unemployed for long.
Still, I wanted to leave on my own terms.
PB is being amazingly supportive. It is fortuitous that we had decided not to move, as he had already been paying for this apartment by himself. And the utilities, which will go up slightly. Hopefully, if I don't find something quickly, I will be able to cover the increase with my unemployment pay. Assuming I get unemployment. (I was laid off, so there's no reason to suspect I wouldn't.)
Still, it's a shock, and I'm still reeling a bit.
PB keeps telling me, "We'll be OK." And I know we will, but sometimes it's hard to believe that.
This week is my last week with Orion. He’ll be going back to New Jersey on Monday or Tuesday with my parents. I took him to the vet last night to get a final checkup and a prescription for some valium (he doesn’t travel well). The vet was very judgmental, even going so far as to tell me, as he walked out of the exam room, “Well, at least you found a good home for him.” Which, I never wouldn’t have. This wasn’t an easy decision, and dumping him off at the pound was never an option.
Luckily Jasper goes to a different vet at that practice.
So, anyway, I am trying to spend some time with my cat. I will miss him. However, I also think that this will be a good mood for him. He’s a needy cat. He likes a lot of attention. Which, he no longer gets from me. Mom, Dad, and Goose should be able to give him much more.
I also have been getting things cleaned out/purged for the move. I also have to clean the guest room this week because Bud and my sister-in-law will be staying there. Spiderman’s first birthday party is this weekend.
I need to clean the rest of the house too.
But first, tonight I have to go run a Jaycee project that I've been trying to get a new chair for. No takers. Currently I am angry about that, because I took this on last year as a favor to a friend who could no longer do it as she was going back to school. That friend? No longer speaks to me. She does still speak to all the people who couldn't be bothered to help her out. So, I am feeling like a big sucker right about now.
My cable is cancelled as of next Monday, which means that next week I’ll really have nothing better to do than to pack up the house.
Last weekend PB and I traveled down to Raleigh for two reasons. One, my friend Stewie turned 40 on Friday and there was a party. Who doesn’t love a party? It was a fabulous good time, although I was not as impressed with the Pim’s as everyone else was.
Saturday we took it kind of easy. Met a friend for lunch, headed out to A Southern Season (I’ve missed it! The friend too, but I've seen her more recently), shopped for a new shirt for PB (he’d only packed one), and then headed back to the hotel for a nap.
That night, we went to see my Hurricanes play. We had the best seats I’ve ever had for a hockey game. The game was a good one. The play was sloppy, but it went into overtime, so it was exciting. The people in our row were cool. And the Canes won. Yay! (They’ve lost the next two, but still remain ahead of the Thrashers in the standings.)
Sunday we met some other friends for brunch. We got to the restaurant first, and the waitress went into a lengthy speech about how it was closing in November. We broke the news to her that we were from out of town when it looked like she would never stop.
Then we came home and went to a Superbowl party. And the Packers won!
Thursday morning, I discovered one of my travel mugs in PB's cabinet. Me: "You stole my travel mug!" PB: "I'm just saving you from moving it."
I signed my notice to vacate on Thursday. I was told, "We'll miss your kitty." That would be Orion, who sits in the window and watches the comings and goings.
I bought a bottle of wine from a VA winery last night, one I've been to several times. Upon opening it, I found the wine had turned, which sometimes happens with non-mass produced wines. I e-mailed the winery, and they are sending me a new bottle. Not only are there wines good, but the people are too. Yay, Old House Vineyards! (Come visit me for a winery tour and we'll go there.)
Update from the last entry: Mom and Dad have offered to take Orion back to New Jersey with them when they head back up after the weekend of Spiderman's birthday party. I'm ok with that because I know their vet. I'm also wondering if he'll adjust more quickly if I don't bring him there. I do have to get him Valium for the trip because traveling stresses him out. And then the yowling stresses the people in the car out. So, Valium and sleeping is better for everyone involved.
We tried a new chicken chili recipe for dinner on Sunday, and we are having the leftovers tonight. Is delicious. I served it with yummy cornbread, which we can pretend is healthy, ok?
A few weeks ago, I woke up to PB saying, "Lose a pillow." I was confused, until he explained that what he meant was that I had fallen asleep on two pillows instead of my normal one, which causes me to snore. But, seriously, caused confusion out of a dead sleep.
Friday, we went to the new Cinebistro in town. Eh. We did not eat, because the food had gotten a terrible review that day on richmond.com. Considering the fact that our popcorn sucked, which may or may not have had something to do with the fact that we got the dregs from the bottom of the popcorn machine. Thanks for the popcorn crumbs, Stony Point Cinebistro! All in all, our experience was only ok. We agreed that we wouldn't be in a hurry to go back, and we definitely didn't see any reason to pick that theater over any of the others in town.
The movie we saw? True Grit. Overall, good movie, although I would have liked to feel more emotionally connected to the characters.
When we came out of the theater, it was snowing. Beautiful movie snow. That, my friends, was the fabulous part of the evening.
I feel like I should write about New Year’s resolutions, or tell you about Christmas, except I think the ship has sailed on the last one. (Was good. PB got me some lovely jewelry and I ended up with $100 worth of gift cards to Barnes and Noble. So, too busy reading to write. Yea, that’s it.)
I am also feeling overwhelmed with all that’s on my plate right now. I have to start cleaning and purging for the move. (Anyone need T-shirts? I have approximately 683.) I need to figure out what is coming with me to PB’s, what is going into storage and coming out for our new place, and what is going into storage to stay. Also, will my electronics survive storage? Do we really need a 27” TV in the bedroom? Is my TV actually 27”, or is it 32”?
When will I find time to pack, when I get home from the gym tired, and yet I must be going to the gym on a regular basis, because I need to get in shape and get my blood pressure, which trends toward high (but not enough to require medical intervention) under control? Before it does require medical intervention and/or causes difficulties with, well, things that will be difficult given my age anyway, so I really ought to give myself the best chance I can.
When will I take Orion up to New Jersey? I was originally thinking President’s Day weekend, but my nephew’s first birthday party is the next weekend, and I don’t know that it’s a good thing for his entire world to be changed and then be left alone the next weekend.
I think I need to sit down and break everything down into baby steps. You know, a long list filled with manageable tasks. And then maybe put a ban on TV before 9. I DVR everything anyway, so I don’t need to watch live, and it would take away a major time-suck. You know, if I only watch shows that I really really want to watch. That list is fairly small. How I Met Your Mother, Glee, The Amazing Race, Hawaii Five-O (I can’t help it.), Top Chef, Amazing Race when it comes back, Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters. I mean, in all honesty, I do not need to watch countless hours of House Hunters. And Property Virgins. Hmm. Maybe I just need to ask Comcast/Xfinity to drop HGTV from my lineup.
A friend of mine posted on FB yesterday that she was googling the words to "Danny Boy" before going to see a new baby (named Danny, I assume). Do you think that after said googling she realized that the singer is singing over someone's grave? I hope so.
Blog is fixed. For good. Hopefully. We'll see next month. Anyway, comment away! All 7 of you.
They are predicting snow here yet again. Not cool.
I have to wear gloves in my office in the morning. Or lose feeling in my hands.
Yesterday at oh, 3:30ish, I got a call from the front desk (workKaren) saying I had a package up front. As I am waiting on several gifts I ordered, I thought nothing of it. I walked up front to find these:
Later, we went to dinner at Julep’s. It was fabulous. I’d only been once before, for a client dinner. The company was better this time.
(Funny story: I was talking about the client dinner, and how I ended up having to drive people back to their hotels, as they were in town for a conference. Except I said, “And I had to take the clients back to their hotel rooms.” Me: red. PB: “Well, they were clients. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.”)
Prior to going out to dinner, he gave me my present*. I got a Nook! He hadn’t wrapped it, mostly because it came with detailed instructions on how to open it. Now, I remember reading when the Nook first came out that people couldn’t figure out how to open it. Well, apparently they’ve changed the packaging, because the instructions did not apply. And we opened the package fine.
I was very surprised, once again. I’d mentioned that I’d wanted one, that I’d probably ask my parents for one for Christmas. This set off a series of discussions about why an iPad would be better. Because the iPad does more. Which is true. But, it’s bigger and I wanted something that could fit in my bag, so that I could bring it everywhere. I was told that was not correct, that the iPad was not bigger.
How does an engineer win this argument? Graph paper!
I can’t wait to finish my current, actual book. Then, Nookbooks!
*So I could charge it while we went out to dinner.
That’s how old I am today. A year ago today I was getting ready to celebrate my birthday with a group of people, some of whom I invited not out of any desire to have them there, but out of obligation. PB and I weren’t dating, but I managed to convince him to be my ride, even though he lived on the other side of town. After dinner and drinks, he took me out to the Melting Pot for dessert. He also gave me a gift certificate for a massage.
This year, he is the only person I’m celebrating with tonight. We’ll celebrate tomorrow with other friends. I’m looking forward to this year’s festivities much more than last year’s.
It’s been a year of ups and downs, but the overall trend was up. I’m excited about the next year.
This weekend we headed out to Horton Vineyards for their barrel tasting. Horton is one of my favorite wineries here, and the barrel tasting events are fun. We went with one of PB’s co-workers and a few of her friends; PB doesn’t drink wine*, meaning we didn’t have to worry.
We had also invited one of PB’s other friends to come along. She declined, saying her husband had to work; they have two boys. A few days after we were told this, PB was talking to her husband and he mentioned that he wasn’t working this weekend. It came out that she had declined because she is wary of becoming close friends with women. (She does not have a lot of female friends, and ever since PB and I started dating her husband has been pushing us to do “girlfriend” things together.)
I felt weird about this, and it took me a while to put my finger on why. I resented the implication that this was some ploy of mine to get us to be BFFs. She’d mentioned that we should all go on a wine tasting tour, and thus when I found out about this I thought it would be something she enjoyed. Clearly it was not just an event for close friends; I didn’t know two of the people we went up with, and we met another group of people there that I didn’t know either.
Yes, I understand that she’s wary because she’s had some friendships go bad, and while I agree that women can be bad for this (hey, I just recently lost a large group of so-called friends), to turn down an invitation for that reason? That’s a little sad to me. I suppose there is a chance you could get hurt, but there is a much better chance that you’ll have a really enjoyable afternoon. Which is exactly what it turned out to be. (Also, PB was able to drive all of us, if she had come we would have had to take two cars. So, it was quite possibly for the best.)
Not that it really comes into play here. The fact of the matter is, I’m not really interested in being anything more than “couple friends” with this person. She’s a perfectly lovely person, but not someone I really see myself hanging out with on a one on one basis. Her interests are her family, World of Warcraft, and well, I don’t know what else. And I’m ok with that. I have fun when we all hang out, but anything more? I don’t see it.
Unfortunately, I’m hoping that this won’t put a damper on things the next time we get together. I’ll be worried about giving the impression that I want to be her girlfriend, and I don’t want to do that. In fact, I’d prefer to make it perfectly clear that I don’t. Which will be difficult to do without making it seem like I don’t like her.**
*This is both good and bad. Good, because I can go to things like this and not worry about driving. Bad, because, hey, maybe I would like to drink some good wine with my honey on occasion.
**Once, I was talking about a friend of mine with the same name as hers. I referred to her as “my friend (name).” She said, “I thought I was your friend (name).” So, also, maybe I’m confused about what you want there.
I began my Labor Day weekend on Thursday. I stayed home from work while PB worked a half day. Then we headed up to meet some friends for the Jimmy Buffett concert. The show itself was great, better than last year's. But, the police were really hassling us in the parking lot for tailgating. And by "us" I mean "the people parked in our specific lot. And also apparently the handicapped lot. But not all the lots, and certainly not the VIP lot." Look, yes, it is illegal to consume certain beverages in the parking lot. But, don't tell us that you are suddenly enforcing it this year because of an accident last year and then add, "You can still drink inside." Also, if you're going to enforce something, enforce it equally. And know that the people who want to get drunk will still find a way.
There were also checkpoints. We were stopped, but didn't even have to get out of the car. Because, hey, we'd stopped drinking around 7 and it was now midnight. We were sober.
We drove the 2 hours back to Richmond that night, as we both had to work the next day. (I had to go to a meeting for a colleague who'd just had surgery. And that was all I did.) Now, when this first came up, the plan was to stay up in NoVA and leave early in the morning. PB decided we should drive back that night. I generally do not do well with the late night driving. He assured me that he would be fine. Which turned out not to be true. I got us home, thanks to my oh-crap-no-one-else-can-do-this-so-I-have-to mode.
That night, we went to see the Richmond Flying Squirrels play and a friend of ours sing the national anthem. Funniest part of the night: The umpires came out onto the field, and one of PB's co-workers leaned over to me and asked, "Who are the guys in black?"
Saturday, we went kayaking with PB's cousins. As this was my first time out since the surgery, and also since I only have one boat and PB has no boats, we took TRgirl and Randy's tandem kayak. These are also known as "divorce boats". This worked out fine for us, as evidenced by the fact that at one point we were told we were having too much fun. Which, I pointed out, isn't it good when a couple has fun together? Also worked out well because my shoulder did get sore. PB: "That's ok. I owe you." (See above re: driving in the middle of the night.)
We had a quiet Sunday and on Monday drove up to Fredericksburg to meet the friends we'd gone to the concert with, as one had left his wallet in my truck. That's OK, because you know what a day trip to Fredericksburg means? Carl's.
So, I started out this weekend by seeing Eat, Pray, Love. I enjoyed the movie- it was one of the few books made into movies where I wasn’t disappointed. (Most of the Harry Potter movies have not disappointed me either.) Also, I had no idea that Javier Bardem was hot. He alone is worth seeing the movie for.
We started out on Saturday by cleaning the house, as Bud and the SIL were staying that night. Then we headed out to PB’s Aunt’s for a family party. There was a cornhole tournament. I watched.
Afterwards, we headed over to TRgirl and Randy’s to see my family, as they were all down for Spiderman’s christening. (Well, all but Goose.) Sunday morning was the christening. Highlight: Did not get struck by lightning.
That night, we headed up to DC (thanks for the horrific traffic, I-95) to see Great Big Sea at Wolftrap. The trip there was bad, but the show was fantastic. GBS does put on a great show.
On Monday we went to Kings Dominion to ride the roller coasters. We rode all but one, the Shockwave, as it had a bicycle seat and I was wearing a skirt.
That night, PB ran into TRgirl and the boys at Kroger. What happened:
Monkey (pointing): PB?
TRgirl: No, Monkey, PB is not here.
PB: Hi, TRgirl!
TRgirl, to Monkey: You’re right, PB is here.
So, although I love my phone (Android FTW!), it’s autocorrect feature for text functions leaves something to be desired. For example, I have wished people “contests” on their engagement. (Wanted “Congrats”.) Last night provided another stunning example. I was IMing with PB (hey, the computer was upstairs!) and the following conversation ensued:
WG: I’ll have to get a new outfit.*
PB: I can help with that!
WG: If you’d be willing to go shooting with me this weekend, I’d be much obliged.
PB: How about we go shopping?
PB: Cause I’m really not up for a murder spree.
Friday night PB and I planned on heading out to the First Fridays artwalk. Correction: we did head out but it started pouring on our way there. So, we turned around, as neither of us wanted to walk around in the rain.
Saturday we took Monkey to the Children’s Museum. It was animal day, which we did not know going in. It’s OK- Monkey likes animals. Not as much as ambulances, but that’s another story. The trip included visits with exotic birds. I had two bird sit on my shoulder. I am not a fan of birds as pets. That’s all I have to say about that.
Oh, except for this: At the bank pay area, Monkey was collecting all of the money. PB tried to hold onto some, which resulted in Monkey pulling it out of his hands saying, “It says ‘Monkey (full name) NOT for PB on it!’”
That afternoon we went boating with some friends. There was swimming, kneeboarding, and wakeboarding. I only swam*; PB tried both the kneeboarding and the wakeboarding. He was more successful at one.
My big accomplishment? No sunburn!
In other news, today may be my very last PT appointment. Depends upon what the doctor says next week.
*Hey, I have this shoulder and the ankle to worry about. Also am known far and wide for my clumsiness.
Saturday I took TRgirl and Spiderman to the airport. I drove her car, as it's easier than switching the car seat into mine. The AC was turned up very high, and Saturday was a fairly cool day, at least compared to the past few weeks. I was freezing, but didn't say anything because, hey, her car. Finally though, I had to say something, as in my experience the ability to feel one's fingers is helpful when driving. Her response, "Oh my god, please turn it up! I was just about to say something. Randy and my rule is that the driver controls the temperature." Essentially, we both sat there freezing because we thought the other one had control of the temperature.
I got the go-ahead from my orthopedist today to start physical therapy. Tomorrow is my first day. I am both excited and dreading it.
I also finally called to make a talk therapy appointment. I am dealing less and less successfully with a certain situation, and I really need some help to deal with it. Fingers crossed that she and I click.
Last Thursday PB and I headed up the NoVA (that would be Northern Virginia, for those of you unfamiliar with how we refer to the other part of the state. Seriously, it is separate from us.) for a little mini-break.
First stop was the National Museum of the Marine Corps. The building is an arresting site from I-95. And by arresting, I mean that your first thought is, “What the hell is that building and why does it look like that?” Then you take a minute to think about it and realize that it is meant to evoke the Iwo Jima Memorial. (Also, I just learned that it is actually called the Marine Corps War Memorial.)
In the museum you learn that that was not the first flag raised on Iwo Jima, if you didn’t already know that. Well, you learn many other things too, actually. It’s a good museum.
Oddly, the day we went the Army Band was setting up in the lobby.
We toured the museum for several hours. I was getting cranky because, hey, when I don’t eat, I get cranky and it was oh, 2:30ish. So, we hit a McDonald’s on the way north/back to the highway. PB managed to drip ketchup on his lap from his quarter-pounder. I had my Tide Pen, but he was driving. Of course, the ketchup was on his left side. And my left hand is my dinosaur hand, so I was forced to used my right. Which meant I had to lean over. Into the driver’s seat. Facing his lap while trying to get the ketchup out with the Tide Pen. Luckily from this position I couldn’t see the faces of the other people on the road.
We went to a concert at Wolftrap (Honor by August and Pat McGee, if you’re wondering) with friends of his that night. Here’s a little tip from me to you: when you go to an outdoor concert to which you can bring a picnic, make sure to bring your own caterer. To do this, you need to make friends with (or have one of your friends date) a caterer. Trust me on this one.
Oh, and then make sure to arrange it so that you are in charge of beverages and not food.
Although, the highlight for me was watching the Uruguay-Ghana World Cup game in a restaurant while we had lunch. With Uruguayans. And a table rooting for Ghana.
When we returned (earlier than expected. PB’s done something to his back.) I took the ketchup shorts and washed them. I haven’t done boy laundry in forever and forgot about checking pockets.
This week has been very emotional for me, and I'm not quite sure what to do with that.
Don't get me wrong, there have been good emotions as well as bad. A rollercoaster, really.
The bad: There is an ongoing situation (OK, it shouldn't be ongoing; I should have moved past it) that I'm trying to be OK with, and usually I am. This week, I was not. At all. Things added to it, things that wouldn't normally bother me, but this week they really got under my skin.
I'm starting to think that I may need to go back to therapy to deal with this. I don't want to have to, I want to be able to deal with things on my own and not always run back to therapy, but maybe I also need to learn what things I can't deal with on my own.
The good: Friday I got flowers at work. Specifically, a miniature rose bush. It was from PB and was completely unexpected. In fact, I thought that workKaren was just showing me yet another damaged box from UPS. I didn't realize otherwise until she said, "It's got your name on it, dummy."
That night we had planned to grill out but we got a late start, so we ended up heading out to a new restaurant we've been wanting to try instead. Verdict: Good pizza, good wine list, beer selection is lacking. After dinner we took a walk to get some ice cream but on our way there walked past The Byrd, saw that Robin Hood was playing, and decided to see that instead. So, a completely spontaneous date night. Most excellent.
Also Friday, a friend of mine had a baby. She's been ready to have him for the past few weeks; he was not ready. He's finally here- I went to meet him today and he is beautiful. Beautiful.
Can I just say that when you meet your friends' babies it's completely different from meeting your nephews (and nieces, I suppose)? I was just hit by a completely different set of emotions. We'll see if that changes tomorrow; it's their first night home and I'm bringing them dinner.
Tonight, well, I'm hanging out with my boys. I'd rather not be alone*; I'm still feeling really emotional and kind of reeling. It will pass.
Plus, you know, True Blood tonight. Hot Vampires.
*Boys: We are he and we love you and we never see you and we like you here. Without that man.
Thursday night I was headed over to PB’s with the last of his laundry (it hadn’t finished drying on Wednesday). He called about dinner, and I decided rather than pick something up on my way I’d just grab the Bertoli meal that was in the freezer- it was one of the bakes.
A grand idea, no? Except that when we went to make it, we realized that the dish was supposed to be covered with aluminum foil. Which he didn’t yet have.
(Have I told you that he moved last weekend? He moved last weekend. His roommate had the foil.)
Now, yes, you think, “Hey, it’s not unreasonable to assume that someone has foil.”
But.
I unpacked and organized his kitchen. Thus, I should have known.
So, off to the grocery store we went, looking for something for dinner. He decided that lasagna would be good as the first real meal he made at his house.
Actual conversation:
WG: How long is that going to take?
PB: Only about 45 minutes. Why, are you super hungry?
WG: No, just checking.
How the conversation should have started:
WG: How long is that going to take? Because it’s 7:45 now.
You see, after we got home, PB put the lasagna together. (Sidenote: we use the no-cook pasta. Why cook the pasta?) I opened the beer. (Hey, that is important!) After putting the pasta in the oven, PB comes out into the living room, sits down on the couch, turns to me and says, “Is it really quarter to nine?” I assured him that it was. He then realized that the lasagna wouldn’t be ready until at least 9:30. So, it was decided that I’d run to KFC and pick up dinner and we’d reheat the lasagna another day.
Note: KFC was out of biscuits. Not as bad as the time I went (different KFC) and they were out of chicken, but still.
Monday* I had my follow-up appointment with my surgeon. (I waited for over an hour past my scheduled appointment time. I hate this. Why can’t they call me and tell me they are running behind? I’d do that for my clients.) He saw me for less than 5 minutes. He’s happy with my range of motion but still wants me to sleep in the
sling and I can’t start PT for another 4 weeks.
Not what I wanted to hear.
He also wouldn’t listen to me about how I can’t actually sleep in the sling. Seriously, even if I take a sleeping pill I wake up three times during the night, often for an hour or more. He was shocked to hear I don’t sleep on my back. Do many people? No, really, I want to know. I told him, no, I sleep on my stomach. He said, “Well, I don’t want you sleeping with your arm above your head.”
How is that comfortable, even assuming you have an arm that you can lift over your head, which I do not?
The visit was concluded with him asking me if I needed any pain meds. No, no I do not.
After that visit I went to see what I hoped would become my new primary care physician- the practice was recommended to me. I was told to get there a half hour early to fill out my forms. The forms were: 1. Insurance information 2. HIPPA form. Did not take 30 minutes.
I went back to see the doctor. His nurse asked about medications and allergies to medications but never asked about any medical problems. Then she tried to take my blood pressure from the just-had-surgery arm.
When the doctor came in, he also took no history. He looked at the list of medications I am on and noted that he didn’t know about one of them because he doesn’t prescribe it. He did not ask what I was taking it for. When I tried to talk to him about the sleeping (because apparently when sleeping on my back, well, I do this stop-breathing sleep apnea thing) and he decided that I’m waking up because I’m in pain. Even after I told him I’m not.
I do know the difference between pain and discomfort, for the record.
I left there with a prescription for pain pills anyway.
Saturday, a friend of mine replaced my brake pads and rotors . When I was headed over, I got a text from his wife (a really good friend of mine) that said, “Come to the side door. We have chicken.”
I’m still laughing about that.
(Was good chicken.)
There was also a bit of excitement while I was over there re: high blood pressure late in pregnancy. All is ok.
It turned out that they’d sold me the wrong brake pads. Well, actually, much to the confusion of the guys at Advance Auto, the part was supposed to be the right part. I remembered that the box had been open and was marked as a “Return-new” so I made them bring out another box just to make sure the right parts were in the right box. Turned out that the pads in the box I was sold were not actually the pads that were supposed to be in that box.
Sunday morning TRgirl took me grocery shopping. Randy was working, so she had Monkey and Spiderman with her. Monkey wanted me to push the cart; can’t do it right now.
While we were shopping, I asked him if it was OK if PB came to his birthday party on Saturday. He said, “Yes. Just PB.” The rest of us will go out for beer, I guess.
They came back to the house so that she could help me make the beds (also difficult with one hand). We left Monkey downstairs with Chocolate Cheerios and Dora. TRgirl brought Spiderman into my bedroom, looked around, grabbed a pillow, put it in a laundry basket, and added the kid. Baby in a basket!
(I’d like to point out that my sister is an excellent mother, and it’s not like there are a whole lot of baby-containment options in my house. Still, it made me laugh.)
The surgery went well, according to the doctor. Everything is back where it should be. The nerve block was fun. Or funny. It’s rather odd to be looking at your hand and not be able to feel it or control it.
When the nerve block wears off? Not fun.
I spent Wednesday and Thursday in a fog, sleeping much of those days. Also, my AC broke and it took them two days to fix it. It was hot. I’d had surgery and I couldn’t shower. I also wasn’t supposed to take the sling off, but they’d put it on me with no shirt underneath.
It’s more comfortable over a shirt, trust me.
Anyway, now I’m back at work. I’d rather not be, but I don’t want to take the time off.
See, (and I don’t recall this from the last time I had this surgery) I am in pain. Constant pain. It can be abated, but it doesn’t go away. During the day I’m just taking advil/aleve so that I can function; I’m saving the harder painkillers for night.
Because I still have to sleep sitting up. Which doesn’t make sleeping easy. So, not only am I in pain, I’m tired. I know in the end I won’t feel this way, but right now I’m regretting having had the surgery. Sure, I was in pain then too, but it was much less. And I could do things like, oh, hey, cut my meat at dinner.
Tomorrow is my surgery. Hopefully everything will go well and my shoulder will be fixed. I’m hopeful that fixed = forever. I don’t want to do this again in 15 years.
PB will be taking me to the hospital. While waiting, he gets to run a web meeting. He’s staying at my house until I once again take care of myself.
I’m nervous about the surgery, I’m worried about the pain. I don’t remember it being that bad, but then again it was a.) in 1994 and b.) when I was 18.
Mostly what I’m worried about is the big immobilizer I have to wear. I won’t be able to even use my left hand, so I’ll be one-armed while I wear it. Which, I’m not sure for how long that will be. Web research says 2-4 weeks.
OK, I’m not actually concerned about the immobilizer itself, except that is black and the very best material for attracting dog hair. I’m worried about not being able to do things for myself. I’m big on my independence. Having to rely on others gets to me. I know. I’ve been through this. I’ve burst into tears because I had to call someone to go to the store and buy milk for me.
I have a great support system and I know people are more than willing to help me. I know that.
PB and I have talked about this; he knows about the fierce independent streak. I don’t want to get mad at him and lash out because I’m frustrated, but I’m afraid I will at some point. And that’s not fair to him at all; he’s going to be the one taking care of me the most. Well, plus, really not cool to lash out a people anyway.
I discussed it with Workkaren. Her response? “I understand, but you’ll just have to get over it.”
I’ll do my best.
In other news, big breakthrough last night. Orion tried to give PB a head butt. Which means he no longer hates him. Good news, that.
Sunday PB and I went on a Segway tour of Richmond. It was his birthday present. (Sidenote: I am now 2 for 2 on birthday presents this year and fear I have managed to set high expectations with both Randy and PB.)
I was nervous about riding the Segway. Apparently I even looked anxious. We went out to take the lesson given before the tour and the guide told me that women learn the Segway faster than men do. I did pick it up rather quickly, but so did PB. It is as easy as it looks! (Generally, that is a claim I don’t believe.) Well, maybe not for the family on the tour with us. The son and the mom both fell; the daughter got lightheaded and had to sit for a while. Our two-hour tour took nearly 3 hours. But, we did see everything we were supposed to. It was pretty awesome, actually.
This weekend we have a wedding on Saturday. Sunday is we’ll do some apartment hunting and getting loose ends tied up for my surgery.
Still to be figured out: How to keep Orion from sleeping on my shoulder when I fall asleep on the couch, which I foresee happening.
So yes, definitely surgery. And that's about as much information as I got from today's MRI/Doctor's appointment. Ok, well, I did get diagnoses. I have an ALPSA* lesion and a Hill-Sachs lesion. Essentially, I have stretched out the joint capsule, torn some cartilage, and flattened out the head of my humerus bone.
Or, in layman's terms:
Randy: If you were a horse, they'd put you down. (Here, TRgirl helpfully interjected that they would have already done that.)
Bud: You done effed** up your shoulder.
I have to go see the surgeon next week. Hopefully then I'll know actual things such as when, how much time I'll need off work, what the recovery period will be (internet says six months. I am hoping that the internet is wrong.), if I'll have to do this again in another 15 years, etc.
In other news, the day started out with the following question: "Why did we go to summer camp?"
*You know, your general anterior labral periosteal sleeve avulsion. **edited for language
On Thursday I went to see an orthopedist (fittingly named Dr. Cutter) about my shoulder. You know, the one I keepdislocating. (OK, sure, it's only been twice, this time. It will keep happening.)
Anyway, Dr. Cutter looked at my X-rays from my last doctor. Then he ordered 2 different views. He showed me those, explained about cartilage, and then talked about how the back of my humerus is damaged. Well, the back of the shoulder joint part. It's flat. It apparently should not be.
Anyway, he told me he was sending me for an MRI so that we could get a better look at the soft tissue. And then afterward, I'd come back to his office and we'd talk about options. I said, "What are the possible options?" Answer? "Surgery."
Not what I wanted to hear.
The MRI is scheduled for Wednesday. Not really looking forward to it, but it will be nice to have some answers.
Saturday night PB and I headed out to the Drive-in to see Alice in Wonderland and The Blind Side. Alice was interesting- I really enjoyed it. PB thought it was OK. He liked The Blind Side better. I liked that one too. Completely different flavors of movies.
Today, I completed my to-do list from last weekend. Taxes are done and I can now play Texas Hold 'Em. Not well, and I'm very conservative, so you won't see me on the World Series of Poker anytime soon.
Also this weekend I managed to dislocate my shoulder again. Well, it was likely only a sublaxation and I got it back into place. Still, it's sore, and I'm going to need to go back to the doctor. I would prefer not to have surgery again.
I have long suspected that my work cell phone doesn't always ring. I'll suddenly look over at it to see that I have a missed call and a new VM. Now, I did think it possible that I was just not hearing it.
Until yesterday, when I was holding it and looked down to see an incoming call. No ring. (Note, that it did ring on a call later that morning.)
So, I put in a support request. I explained that my phone wasn't always ringing and then said, "I prefer that my phone ring for each incoming call."
I may have just pissed off our Telephony* department.
*Yes, that's what it calls. And yes, it makes it sound like they are all liars.
So, the weekend here in Richmond was beautiful. Gorgeous. The perfect way to welcome spring.
Saturday morning I got up and headed over to TRgirl and Randy’s. My parents were down and they were all headed to Disney. Monkey was very excited, and as he ran circles around me, I asked him where he was going. “McDonald’s!” I pointed out that a lot of money could be saved by taking him there a few times, apparently.
That afternoon PB and I headed out to Hollywood Cemetery. He’d not been before and I’d only done a limited amount of exploring. He also wanted to take some pictures (he’s big into photography). I have not seen said pictures yet.
(Note: our actual plans for the weekend were 1. Do taxes and 2. teach me to play poker.)
We had planned to grill out due to the fantastic weather, but the grill, it was not working. That was sad.
Sunday, we took an impromptu road trip to Virginia Beach. Work-related on his part. I was just along for the ride. Whereas I don’t like driving long distances/hours in the car, I don’t mind riding at all.
Unless the driver refuses to stop for bathroom breaks.*
This weekend was both fun and productive. The productive included shampooing the living room/dining room carpet and updating the resume.
The fun:
Drinks with the girls on Thursday. Saw several people I have not seen for a while. Afterwards a few of us went and saw Precious. Excellent, well acted, very depressing movie.
Dinner and drinks with the ladies on Friday. We ended up switching from our planned venue. When I walked in (at 5PM on a Friday) I was told, “The wine bar won’t open for another 30-45 minutes. You’re welcome to stay and wait.” Hmm. I’m in the middle of Carytown. There are bars/restaurants all over the place, and they are ready to serve wine at what is traditionally considered happy hour. I think no on the waiting, thankyouverymuch.
Saturday MJ and I went to see Wicked. Loved. It. So amazing. And you will never convince me that the part of Galinda/Glinda was not written with Kristin Chenoweth in mind. (Note: she is clearly not in the touring production. She is featured on the soundtrack.) I loved it so much that I didn’t even kick the woman in front of me who kept moving her head every time I finally found a position in which I could see around her.
Sunday was low-key. Cleaning, hanging out with PB. Made this for dinner. Easy and yummy. I recommend.
Friday night PB and I threw an Opening Ceremonies viewing party. (I love the Olympics. Love them. Will watch crazy sports in the middle of the night love them.) We moved the venue to my house. It was originally supposed to be at his place; unsurprisingly he has a better TV than I do and also can get HD. I could get HD, but I don’t like the amount of money I have to give Comcast now. The advantage my place had over his was that the parking lot was clear. Because it’s important that the guests be able to park.
It turned out that one of our friends, who is familiar with my living room setup (he and his wife take care of the boys when I’m away) offered to bring a projector. He and PB had a good time setting that up. (They are both computer guys. I’m not being sarcastic when I say that.) The party was fun and I enjoyed the Ceremonies. No, they were not the spectacle Beijing was, but I think the organizers realized that they couldn’t top that and thus didn’t try. Although, what was up with Nelly Furtado’s shoes?
Saturday we went to the wood lot* to split wood. I also helped load trucks for deliveries. Then we went shopping. I was in need of new pants. (My pants, they are too big.)
On Valentine’s Day we did end up being able to do what he’d planned. (It was originally supposed to be a surprise, but he ended up telling me when it was looking like it wouldn’t happen.) We headed up to Loudon Valley Vineyards for a wine tasting and picnic lunch (eaten in the tasting room of course). It should be noted PB does not like wine. I did a tasting; the wines were good, a few were too sweet for my taste, but the Cabernet Franc was amazing. Sadly, I only bought one bottle. I also had a glass of the Pinot Noir with lunch. Lunch was also quite good- it was prepared by a friend of ours who is also a chef.
It was a lovely, fairly low-key weekend. Even my pre-party flusterness wasn’t at the level it usually is. That’s a good thing, because this upcoming weekend is Sashafest 2010.
*Our Jaycee chapters have a joint project wherein we split wood donated by the City (they give us any trees they take down) and deliver it to people who would otherwise not be able to heat their homes. (We also take other wood donations.)
This morning I woke up. It was snowing, not badly. I headed out to work, driving slowly and carefully. Twice I went alternate ways to avoid traffic backups.
I saw 3 accidents, 5 cars that had spun out, and a jackknifed semi. For the record, I had not one problem.
When I finally got to the exit for my office complex it was backed up. Sadly, there is only one route of ingress/egress. I sat on the exit ramp for 30 minutes. When I finally made it out onto the road, it turned out that the issue was that people were having trouble getting up the hill, so the office complex tried to close down the road. Which, hey, if people could have turned around and left would have worked. Since they couldn’t, well, you’re just trapping people on an exit ramp.
This was our fourth snowstorm of the year. We have received greater than 400% of our average winter snowfall amounts. The snow has ruined 2 weekends (3 for some people; we planned on being snowed in for one of them) and will likely cause us to have to change our Valentine’s Day plans. (It did cause PB to have to spill what the plans were.*)
There is a possibility of more snow on Saturday and Monday.
I am sick of it. Can’t take any more snow. My tolerance is for one, maybe two storms each season. And really, not 7-12” of snow. And then it stays cold so that the snow doesn’t melt? Really? (That is very unusual for snowstorms here.)
It’s been decided that we are renewing our passports.
So, it snowed again this weekend. Started Friday afternoon, sleet and rain overnight, more snow Saturday until about 6PM. Last night the temperatures dropped to way below freezing, but today it's warmer, the sun is out, and things are melting.
(Aside: According to this blog post, Richmond has had 400% of our average snowfall this winter. And that was before this storm.)
Except for a brief trip to Kroger this afternoon, I've been stuck in the house with the cats since Thursday night. Anyone want a cat? Especially a white cat?
Tonight PB and I are supposed to go to a superbowl party. Not sure if that's going to happen. I can get there. He? Not so much. They haven't plowed out his neighborhood yet. (And let's not talk about how I'd be refusing to pay my homeowner's association dues, as this has happened each time there was snow.) I'm hopeful that we'll figure something out, because I am going a bit stir crazy.
Also, I don't want to yell at Peyton Manning by myself.
Friday night PB and I headed out to his co-workers house for a game night. We played The Settlers of Catan. The night can be summed up as: lovely people. Sucky game. (Yes, I know. Big hit in Germany. See: David Hasselhoff.)
It started snowing later that night. It did not stop until Saturday evening. We ended up with (depending upon where in the metro Richmond area you were) between 6-12". I remind you, this is the South.
We spent our snow day painting the hallway/stairwell in PB's house. PB learned that I have no skill when it comes to painting. (To be fair, I have now painted 3 times. In my entire life.) We also had the following conversation:
WG: Whoa!
PB: What?
WG: Nothing. Just almost fell down the stairs. (Note: Since I have known him there have been several major falls. One was on October. Still hasn't fully healed.)
PB: (sarcastically) Do you have inner ear problems?
WG: As a matter of fact, I do. Ha!
Oh, the paint color (not his choice) was a cold, hard, bright white. Is terrible and could only be saved by darkening the trim. His roommate has decided that she likes the color so much that she wants the trim the same color too. I am totally willing to repaint, but I am unwilling to paint the trim that color.
We also watched Lord of the Rings (the extended versions!). OK, we didn't get to The Return of the King until Sunday.
Oh, and we made eggs and bacon on Saturday. And tried a new meatloaf recipe. Could be good, needs tweaking.
Last week at dodgeball, someone on the other team said to one of the girls on the team, “You’re like a sexy otter.” Worst compliment ever.
PB’s car is amongst the many that Toyota has recalled. Toyota does not have a fix for the problem yet. Yay for death by uncontrolled speedy crash!
(I’m not actually worried about that.)
This morning I was awoken by a cat. I pet him and was telling him good morning when I realized that the cats aren’t supposed to be in the bedroom and I’d shut my door last night.
I don’t think I can convey in words how much Orion hates PB. I can tell you that if Orion ever does, in fact, develop the ability to shoot laser beams out of his eyes, PB is a dead man.
It’s supposed to snow this weekend. PB and I are planning a LOTR movie marathon. (He owns the extended versions.) We’re cool like that.
Snow means one thing in the South. And that is French Toast. (Seriously, everyone runs to the store for eggs, milk, and bread. I have yet to figure out the magical properties of French Toast. Well, except for yumminess.)
Let’s pretend you are invited over to someone’s house to watch a football game. Dinner will also be served. You don’t particularly care to watch football. Do you
a.) Say, “Sounds fun, but I don’t really like football. Thanks for the invite, though.”
b.) Come, watch the game and hang out with your friends.
c.) Bring your laptop so that you and your girlfriend can take turns surfing the web. When she is not surfing the web, she will sleep on the couch.
If you pick c, please tell me how this is not rude.
Today, the office curmudgeon, who is an older gentleman (Note: is also an excellent engineer with years of experience that he is quite willing to share) asked me what server we store files on. Then he asked me how to get to the folder. Then he asked me how to transfer a file to it.
WG: Well, where is the file? Is it on your desktop?
OC: It's on my C drive.
WG: In the My documents folder? You can drag it from where it is to the sever folder.
OC: It's on my C drive. I don't know how to drag and drop.
WG: blank look
OC: Do you know how to use a slide rule?
Last Friday PB and I headed up to NJ for Bud’s wedding. We got to drive the path of the Nor’easter, which was awesome.
OK, it really wasn’t that bad. But, I’m not a huge fan of driving through rain. Especially in the dark. Which is why PB drove the dark part.
We did not make the rehearsal (that was not unexpected, but I had assured Bud that I would still be able to read the next day- I couldn’t think of a reason I would wake up illiterate.) but we did make the rehearsal dinner. Food, wine, chocolate dessert. And making PB answer questions about renovating Peg’s bathroom.
We drove up to the hotel and checked in and apparently watched some Seinfeld (this will be important later), although what I remember watching is History Channel.
Saturday, we woke up, headed out to a diner. (NJ natives miss real diners.) (PB grew up in the town next to the one I grew up in.) (Am going for a record with the parentheticals.) Then we went shoe shopping because he’d determined that I needed a pair of flats to wear. In case the heels got too uncomfortable.*
We got dressed and headed over to the church where I checked out where I’d be speaking. Also, I put on the corsage. On my left hand. Which already had a bracelet on it. Thus endeth the story of how PB ended up holding my coat, my purse, and a silver bracelet.
The ceremony was lovely. Monkey was the ring bearer and did a fantastically adorable job. My reading went well, first according to the English speakers, but then the Spanish agreed. (I did a Spanish reading. A poem about “El verdadero amor.” True love. My brother would not let me switch to The Princess Bride speech.)
After resting up for a while in the hotel we headed out to the reception. I have never had more food at a wedding. I had to check with my mom; the cocktail hour spread was enough that I wasn’t sure there would be a dinner. Which, would have totally been ok.
Hey, guess what? My brother sat all the cousins together. It was a kids’ table!
Anyway, fun! Dancing! Food! Fondue!
Headed back to the hotel on the free shuttle bus.
The next morning, Bud called. “Hey, are you guys going down to breakfast anytime soon?” No. Because we a.) did not pay for breakfasts at the hotel and b.) are still in our pajamas and watching Mythbusters.
(Clearly we know how to party.)
Anyway, we eventually got ready to leave and went and saw Bud and the SIL (who needs a nickname.**) and gave them their gift, because hey, why bring that to the reception? You know, if you are a forgetful moron.
We then headed in search of bagels. For lo, the bagels in VA, they are not so good. We had bagel/bagel sandwiches for breakfast and then bought some to go home. As PB was waiting to pay, he made some reference I did not get.
WG: What?
PB: It’s from Seinfeld.
WG: I don’t remember that. Oh! But I saw the Soup Nazi episode the other day.
PB: I know. I watched it with you.
WG: Really?
PB: Yes, that was me.
WG: I have trouble keeping the men in my life straight.
*Heels were fine. Slight cuts on my big toes at the end of the night. As Apple put it, “If you don’t have big gaping wounds at the end of the night, the shoes are not a problem.”
** Possible choices: The Beerwench, for she and Bud home brew, La Cubana because of how well, Cuban, or just The SIL, which boring. Thoughts? Other suggestions?
(Oh, and I took no pictures. TRgirl, Randy, PB, they all have pictures. I’ll post some as I get ‘em.)
This weekend, PB and I are off to NJ. Bud is getting married! Monkey is in the wedding. So are Randy and Goose. TRgirl and I are reading. I am reading in Spanish.
Volleyball, about 2120 Thursday night. Our setter sent me a bad set. It was unbelievably bad.* To get it, I ended up swing with my left arm. This is not my hitting arm. I ended up hitting it at such an angle (and with force. Am crazy hitter.) that my arm popped out of socket. I knew immediately what had happened because I had surgery 15 years ago to repair this shoulder, because I’d gotten to the point where I was dislocating it several times a week. (Note: I was told after the surgery that it was highly unlikely I’d be able to dislocate it again. Way to go me!)
Although I’d used to be able to pop it back in easily, I couldn’t manage it last night. Luckily, one of my teammate’s boyfriend was there and agreed to take me to the hospital. (Note: He is also a friend of mine. And my mechanic.) We headed over but got lost, so I called Randy, since he drives an ambulance. (I’d already called them to tell them what had happened.) Finally made it; the ED was filled with sick children, one of whom gave me very sympathetic looks.
After an exceptionally long check-in process (Thanks for confirming my SSN with me, typing it in wrong, and then making me stand there while you tried to fix it, check-in lady!) they brought me back to a room rather quickly. Where we waited. For my 12-year-old nurse. And the doctor, who checked my shoulder and told me he didn’t think it was dislocated. He did promise to get me a Percocet.
Oh, was I in pain? Yes. Great pain. I said it was an 8, but that was when I moved or during a muscles spasm. Otherwise probably a 6. Of course, it was bad enough that I got sick. I may be underestimating.
They came to get me for my X-ray just before 2300. At that point Randy had shown up, so the Mechanic went to get my car and park it at his house. When I got back from X-Ray, finally a Percocet. My 12-year-old nurse decided she would take my T-shirt off and put me in the hospital gown right then. I shot her a look and she decided to give the Percocet 20 minutes to work.
She came back, cut my T-shirt off and helped me put the gown on. After she left, the Dr. came in and asked if I’d gotten my IV yet. I looked down at the back of my hand, then the crook of my elbow. “No.”
The nurse finally came to put the IV in. But, she didn’t bring the sedative and muscle relaxant with her. Because why do that? (Also, I should have let Randy do the stick, based upon the bruise I’ve got on my arm.)
I do believe that the doctor was getting annoyed with her.
Anyway, they knocked me out. Apparently they had some trouble getting the shoulder back in place, but that meant that Randy got to help. He was pleased.
When I woke up, I looked down, and still seeing the sheet that they had planned on using for the reduction under my arm, I looked over at Randy and said, “They didn’t do it yet?”
His answer? “Yes, about an hour ago.” I then moved my arm and was all, “Oh, yea, look at that.”
We finally made it home around 2:30 AM Friday. I did not work that day. Randy had to. At a different ED.
So, yea. We went on vacation. We= Apple, Angeler, and I. So, fun group, good times had. We went to Charleston; I am going back some day. Charleston = Awesome. Myrtle Beach = not so much. As PB (who wasn’t even there) was able to explain it best, I quote him. “You had fun, but not because you were in Myrtle Beach.” Myrtle Beach is very commercial and built up, but oddly you can walk nowhere. Just not my type of beach.
Moving on to this weekend. Friday I had happy hour and then headed over to Apple’s (she was not at happy hour). (Fun story: she called me while I was on my way over. I answered the phone with, “I’m on your front steps.”) I was sleeping at Apple’s because PB, Sasha, the Russian, and MJ were all meeting there at 6:45 AM. To go sailing!
We had to be there at 9 and it was about 2 hours away. Plus there was the obligatory coffee stop. (Wawa. No Dunkin’ Donuts on the way.)
The wind was out of the east, which made for some very choppy sailing. The Russian took Dramamine just before getting on the boat. He should have taken it at Wawa. We had to turn around and drop him and Sasha off- they headed home; the rest of us soldiered on. PB took the helm for a while and did a fine job of sailing us around and not dumping us off the boat. (Keelboat helped.) Also, he enjoyed every minute of it.
Sunday I met up with Dig, the Golden Boy, and PB to watch some football. Dig had no stake in any of the games. The Jets won, so I was happy. Green Bay won, so the Golden Boy was happy. San Francisco lost, so PB? Not happy.
This past weekend (yes, I know it’s Thursday. Am very busy and important.) PB and I went to see Carbon Leaf Great Big Sea at Wolftrap (www.Wolftrap.org). Apple and EvilWatergirl* (EW from now on) joined us. The concert was fantastic. It did pour, and PB wanted to upgrade to covered seating (we were on the lawn) but was overruled. Or told he could upgrade his ticket but we were staying. The worst rain was after the show when everyone was walking to their cars, so he’d have gotten soaked anyway.
The next day we (PB and I. Apple and EW did not join us.) went and visited the Udvar-Hazy Center (real name much longer). It was fascinating. Really good displays and lots of crazy flying contraptions. Seriously, there was a lawn chair attached to a rotor. I prefer my helicopters to have, oh, sides, a front, a floor, you know…
When we were walking downstairs to the main floor, I almost opened the fire exit. You know, rather than turn right and keep walking towards the staircase exit that lead to the museum. My excuse is that I was talking and not reading. But still, had the potential to be the most embarrassing thing ever. PB might have left me there.
In other news that was not at all this weekend, I have a new bookclub. It’s like my old bookclub, but with fewer married moms. Which means we won’t have long discussions about kids**. Also, they had had issues with how My Sister’s Keeper*** ended, so bonus.
*Not actually Evil. She had moved to Chicago right about the time that I moved to Richmond, so the joke was that I joined the group as her replacement. She is back, but it has been determined that a.) I can stay in the group and b.) we are not arch enemies.
**I like kids. I just don’t want to spend my bookclub time talking about them. Or hearing your stories of when you were in labor with them (actually happened.) Also, so not a discussion I can participate in.
I woke myself up by laughing. I was having a dream in which my friends were making up various lyrics to Nickelback's "Rock Star." (No, I don't remember them. But they were funny.)
When my alarm went of 20 minutes later, "Rock Star" was playing.
I’ve just been really busy. Two weekends ago, Bud and his fiancée came down. When asked what he wanted to do, the answer was, “We want to see battlefields.” (This would be Bud, who just got back from Iraq.)
I had already planned for Friday night- we went on a ghost tour and had dinner at the Capital Ale House . (Bud’s a beer guy; he brews his own.) The last time I did the ghost tour, it was quieter. It was October, so no open car windows and such. Still a good time.
Saturday, battlefields! We started out at the visitor center for Richmond National Battlefield, aka the Tredegar Iron Works. We took a tour there. Others on the tour included a woman wearing a knit jumpsuit, another woman who answered her cell phone in the middle of the tour, and a guy who kept asking questions that had nothing to do with the tour. Like, hey, I have a question. About the river. Well, it’s totally related, because the river is just over there. Also, we made fun of him for the rest of the weekend by asking each other random questions. (We shan’t talk about the other thing we laughed about all weekend.) We then went out to Gaines’s Mill, where they had reenactors, for it was the anniversary of the battle. One of the regiments was a Zouave unit. They were cool, even with the silly pants.
That night I went to the best, most awesome, most fun wedding ever. Seriously. Wish all weddings were like that.
Sunday was the Crater. Bud’s comment? “I thought it would be bigger.” The temptation to bust out with, “That’s what she said!” was very strong, but I fought it successfully. Well, until now.
Last weekend was also a busy one. Canada Day party on Thursday (y’all know Apple is Canadian, right?). Friday, Apple, Flanders, PB and I hit the golf course for the first round that Apple and I have ever played. It went OK. Except at the end, when we found out people we calling and complaining about how slow we were. Which embarrassed me, but also made me angry, because, hey, how nice to have come out of the womb being able to golf. We hung out at Apple’s pool that afternoon and then hit Nacho Mama’s for dinner and margaritas as big as your head. We were able to sit outside on the deck.
Saturday hung with Apple and MJ and watched fireworks from near Apple’s house.
Sunday, PB and I went and saw Transformers. I enjoyed it, but it is every bit as bad as they say it is. Then we hung out at his house watching Deadliest Catch. There was a marathon! We couldn’t not watch it.
And now there is work, with its composting craziness.
I went out to Habitat for Humanity this weekend. Although the original plan had been for us to do some roofing, the shingles had been stolen the day before. We ended up putting up siding instead.
Now, I’ve put up siding before. Once. About 2 years ago. However, this filled the site supervisors with such confidence that not only did they not give us any instruction, they counted on me to teach the guy I was working with.
One thing I do know about putting up siding: you have to leave room at the end of the wall or along any doors, windows, what have you. (About ¼ inch, to allow for expansion.) When I was measuring, I was taking that into account.
Except that they guy cutting the siding? Was taking a half of an inch off of our measurement. His explanation? "That’s how I do it, to make sure you have space!" Except that since he was doing this based on my measurements, he didn’t need to. Nor did he ask me. He asked someone else on site if I was measuring tight or not.
He cut four lengths of siding. All were too short. He
threw a fit about wasted siding
told us if we screwed up again he was taking us off of the scaffolding
yelled across the entire site about how we didn’t know how to measure
Now,
you can probably find a place on the house to use 116” lengths of siding
right, because the whole reason we were hanging the siding that high was to play on the scaffolding
dude, you’d already messed up 3 measurements that you took.
So, I decided that
Hey! I don’t have to be here. I’m volunteering, so, not really interested and getting yelled at and berated. I left.
I’m told that the carpenter was yelled at later himself for not measuring things correctly.
Tuesday I went to DC with Apple and her mom. Last time Apple and I had gone to DC we decided we’d head back to visit the Crime & Punishment Museum and the International Spy Museum. We decided we’d go when her mom was visiting. (Her mom lives in Fredericton, New Bruswick.)
Tuesday we headed up, metro, lunch, and finally, Crime Museum. We were in there for a little over three hours- it was fabulous. (Also fabulous? DC Museums on a Tuesday.) Really good exhibits, a lot of interactive stations, and just interesting. There were also pirates! The Spy Museum (full disclosure: I’ve been there before.) paled in comparison. I mean, it was interesting enough, but the other was just more interesting. And did not have a wild group of thirteen year-olds running about.
We had a lovely dinner at a pub near the Verizon Center of which I shall upload the picture I took of the dessert menu- lots of offerings with beer.
On Thursday a friend and I decided that we’d go see Carbon Leaf at the 9:30 Club in DC on Friday. If you look at their tour schedule, you’ll note that they’ll be in Richmond this Saturday. Alas, I will not, so this was really my only chance to see them. (Unless I go crash with Phoebs and see the Londonderry show. Hmm..) It was a good trip, except for the fact that we had planned upon eating there, which didn’t work out because the food was a.) unappealing and b.) not well-designed for eating whilst standing. Also of note: club is in a somewhat sketchy neighborhood. Elizabeth insisted upon taking us down side roads instead of main roads. We do not know why Elizabeth was mad at us.
So, yesterday I was in kind of a crappy mood. Ok, so it actually started the night before. Y’all know that I am on the board of the local chapter of a big community service/leadership organization, right? (Right, because I just told you. Please try and keep up.) Well, at our board meeting Tuesday, I got into it with two of my fellow board members, one for complaining about the number of events we have when she doesn’t go to them (meaning, I fail to see how us having more events that you don’t go to impacts you.), and one for wanting to develop a contingency plan in case another board member (not at the meeting) offends someone. (This particular board member, who is a very close friend of mine, can be very abrasive. It’s not personal, he’s just abrasive.) I was of the opinion that maybe we should wait until it happens and then tell him to shut up and go away. (He would. Shut up and go away I mean.)
Yesterday, slight argument with Bud. As he put it, “We were both a bit Grr.” True that. (No worries, all is well.)
So, I forced myself to go to the gym last night. Made me feel better.
Then I got home and discovered the broken garbage disposal.
But hey! The universe was all, “I’m sick of your bad mood crap.” So, first there was Zoot's post about her Dad, which totally and completely made me cry at work. Then I found out a friend of mine was in a car accident; someone on a suspended license backed into him while he was waiting at the drive-thru. (OK, truthfully that was a little bit funny. The car is a bone of contention between us. Well, just with me, since said person has no idea, but still, sucks for the car, glad my friend is ok, and wee tiny bit of serves you right dance.) And then, the very worst news of all: I found out a good friend of mine has cancer. (We are very hopeful that it will be completely removed next week.)
Universe, how about leaving my friends alone now? Kthxbye.
I’m fine, really. Been busy, is all. I had visitors last weekend, and we had 2 parties, a wine festival, and drag brunch to go to. This weekend was NASCAR and watch Monkey run my parents ragged.
Plus there was the whole pulling my abdominal muscles so badly that I couldn’t move for three days. And then on Sunday? Stomach flu. Which really sucked, as a friend from Raleigh was traveling through on Monday and I couldn’t meet up for lunch. Because of the not being able to eat and the not wanting to make others sick.
Today, I am sick of the rain but also hoping it continues so that softball is cancelled. Is that wrong?
And no, we didn’t get lost and just reappear now. I’ve just been wicked busy. Although, every time I go I'm reminded that I love DC and think I should live there. (Then I check housing prices and that goes away.)
Anyway, Apple and I met up at Flanders’s house on Saturday morning and drove up to the City. I did an excellent job of driving in the City proper and even got mad at someone for navigating DuPont Circle incorrectly. (Our hotel was on Connecticut Ave., northwest of the circle.) (Fun trick to play on people in DC: Tell them to meet you at the Starbucks at DuPont Circle. Watch in amusement as they try to figure out which one.)
It rained for the entire drive up and was still raining when we arrived. We parked at the hotel and walked down towards the mall. We decided to hit the newly re-opened National Museum of American History. It was crowded, but the new layout and exhibits are quite good. I’d have spent more time reading, but Apple is not so much of an exhibit reader. It’s all good. There were lines to get into see the Star Spangled Banner (we didn’t want to wait, and I’ve seen it before) and The First Ladies (again, we didn’t want to wait in line. I’ve seen it in the past and would have loved to see it again, but it was a 30 minute line.) There was also a line to get into the American Presidency exhibit, but we mistakenly entered through the back and skipped it. We didn’t even know about the line until we left the exhibit.
That night we headed down to the Tidal Basin; most of the Cherry Blossom activities had ended. Apple had read there was supposed to be music. No music. We did see fireworks however. Then we went and ate sushi for dinner.
Sunday morning we went to the National Zoo. We only had a few hours, so we didn’t see the entire thing, but I did drag Apple into the reptile house. I do enjoy the reptiles. (As long as Harry doesn’t let the snakes out!) We headed out of the City around 1:30 PM. We were heading down to Flanders’s parents’ house for dinner; they live about an hour west of Richmond. I knew how I wanted to get there (it’s similar to getting to Bob and Steph’s) but Elizabeth (that’s my GPS) was insistent that we take a different route. As such, we had to navigate to US-66 with a map of Virginia which had a very incomplete map of DC on it. Thus, we went all the way down to Constitution Avenue instead of taking K Street. Which, when there are signs saying that Mall traffic is congested, means it will take you an hour to get out of the City.
We’re planning on returning when Apple’s mom comes to visit. We want to go to the Crime and Punishment Museum and the Spy Museum . That will likely be a day trip.
This guy tried to pick me up in a bar one night about 2 years ago. Awesome. He kept telling me how much money he had in the bank. It increased at least once. ("I got $600 in the bank." "I got $800 in the bank. We can go get it right now.")*
His final selling point was that he lived in a $450/month apartment "down by the jail."
Why did I not go for that?
*It has occurred to me that perhaps he thought I was a high-priced, very casually dressed hooker trying to pick up johns at Pub Quiz and that's why he kept offering me money.
Watergirl: I think my liver has forgiven me for Saturday. Maybe it’s even healed! Office Admin (OA from now on): I don’t think it works that way. But, I figure if we stop drinking by the time we’re 50, we’ll be fine. WG: That only gives you 10 years! OA: Oh, like it gives you so much longer. Like what, 13 years? WG: No, 17. That’s nearly twice as long! OA: Bitch.
Later, over wine and with different people: WG: And Obama hasn’t fixed everything yet! Yoga Boy: I know! And he’s been President for three months now! ShanShan: I’m no longer an Obama fan. He’s gone back on some of his promises. WG and YB (in stereo): He’s a politician!
As it turns out, there was extra money collected during registration for Dodgeball. (It has to do with single sign-ups vs. team sign-ups.) As our team is made up of mostly 21-25 year-old boys, it was decided that the extra money would be spent on a keg and wings. (There were e-mails flying back and forth wherein they discussed the research they were doing on the cost of kegs.)
Yesterday, we got an e-mail update:
To: Dodgeball Team
Subject: Dodgeball Drinkfest.
Our monies went to pay for the keg and jim beam-for shots. We ask that if u want snacks to please bring some. I will be bringing wings-and I might be willing to share;)
Dodgeball Teammate
So, now there is beer, Jim Beam, and no food. Apparently I am going to a frat party.
This weekend I’m headed up to NJ. Bud is home from Iraq on R&R. (Did y’all know he was in Iraq? Not sure I’ve mentioned it.) I’ll head up with Randy, TRgirl and Monkey on Friday and head back on Monday. I am excited to see my brother, but I hate NJ with the fire of a thousand suns.
Since TRgirl usually watches the boys while I’m away, I have to have a friend come and take care of them. Orion has to have meds twice a day and I feel bad asking people to check on them. Normally if I’m going away for an extended period I drive them out to my Uncle’s. (Bob and Steph: We have seven cats, what are two more? The boys: There are also dogs there!) (Jasper spends most of his time in Steph’s closet. Orion sits on the bench by the dining room window and yells at me for 10 minutes when I come to pick them up.) However, Bob and Steph live 2.5 hours away, so it makes no sense to drive them out there for a weekend trip.
Oh, and did I tell you I had the best time last weekend? It was in the 60s here and we hung out in Flanders’s backyard Saturday night sitting around the fire pit, having some wine, shooting the breeze. That was so much more fun than any bar would be. Well, except for when Hobbes* drank my wine.
Friday night, wine with the girls. Then I went home and slept because I had a killer cold. Saturday I woke up and went up to BARK to volunteer. I had a good time, but the number of dogs was overwhelming. Most everyone else wanted to take one home; I had had my fill of dogs.
I went home and took a nap, and when I woke up there was a message from a friend of mine. She was wondering, since it was supposed to be nice on Sunday (it was 60 here), if I wanted to go out to the barn and ride her horse. That is akin to asking me if I’d like some wine.
We went out and trail rode for about an hour and a half. I’m not as sore as I thought I would be. It was fabulous and confirmed the fact that I really do need to start riding again.
On the way home, my car overheated. The temperature gauge was in the red. Good times. I put 2.5 gallons of water in it and made it home. I thought the body shop (who replaced the radiator) would give me difficultes about checking it out, but they were surprisingly agreeable.
WG: I'm taking a long lunch. I've got a therapy appointment and then I have to run home because I forgot to take my crazy pills this morning.
AA: Don't say that! pause They are anti-crazy pills.
Today is my first follow up visit with my new psychiatrist. I am feeling much better- I’m back to where I should be. To me, this reinforces that what I have is a chemical imbalance. I’m still going to talk to her about some therapy, because I feel like right now there are a few things I need to talk through. Overall though, I am content. Thanks to everyone who left comments and/or checked up on me. This is a journey and I took a wrong turn, but I’m back on the right path now.
This weekend I received possibly the best text message ever.
"Dont eat the white dip"
See, I went to a wine tasting competion at a friend's house. The white dip had crab in it. Unfortunately, I didn't get the text before I got there. I asked about the white dip and was told, "DON'T EAT IT!" This confused the other person who was there (we were on time; the rest of the partygoers were not) because she could not understand why one would put food out and then not let people eat it.
Someone brought peach Wild Vines to the party. I think it was a joke. I hope it was a joke.
Friday I went out with the AA at work to celebrate her birthday. We went and did some beer tasting where it was confirmed that I don't like bitter beers.
Saturday AM I headed out, split some wood for people who can't afford to heat their houses, and then came home and cleaned. I then went to a party briefly and then out to dinner and a movie with a friend. We saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno. If you like Kevin Smith movies you will like it. If you don't, you will find it vile and disgusting. I like it and found it very funny, but must say that I have never before been attracted to Jason Mewes. I am disturbed that I am now.
Today I didn't do much of anything. I slept on the couch last night and woke up at 11. And then spent most of the rest of the day dozing. Seriously, my main accomplishment for the day is, "I drank some wine."
I got a message from someone I went to high school with on Facebook. It said, "I'm married to (some guy I don't know) and we now have 8 children." The only response I have been able to formulate is "Better you than me!" because, holy crap!
Christmas day I had dinner with Randy’s family at his sister’s. Then I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with a friend. At the theater, there was a seating dispute that somehow necessitated police involvement. After the movie started, we heard from behind us, “Someone needs to chill out.” “Well someone needs to stop kicking my chair.” “Chill out!” “Stop kicking my chair.” So then we thought there might be a fight. Merry Christmas!
We had second Christmas on Saturday. See, after Monkey was born TRgirl awesomely declared that they were not traveling for Christmas. Which means my parents come down here after Christmas, Peg and Bob and Steph come out from where they are and we do Christmas the weekend after Christmas Day. Which means that I don’t have to travel.
I gave Monkey some books and a stuffed cat. When he opened the cat, he said, “Mow mow!” It was cute, but you may have had to be there.
Tonight I am having a New Year’s Eve party. Why? Because that way I get to stay home.
A friend of mine sent me an e-mail last week; he asked me how I was. I haven't answered.
Right now, it's a difficult question for me to answer.
I stopped taking my medications about 2 months ago. If you'll recall, right before I left Raleigh my Dr. told me that he didn't think I had bipolar disorder after all and "had just been having some emotional problems." Then he gave me enough prescriptions to last me 5 months. So, they ran out, I hadn't found (or bothered to even look for) another doctor. I just stopped taking them.
I was fine for about a month. Then things started getting stressful, I started not being able to sleep, and things just spiraled downward. I no longer wanted to be. That's the state I get to- I don't want to die, I just want to cease to exist.
It took me a while to admit that that's where I was, but my friends helped me find a doctor. The doctor fit me in right away, I'm back on my meds, and I quit the thing that was causing me the most stress. I'm starting to feel better; I feel like I'm climbing back out of the hole. The days are still mostly black, but there are some periods of color.
I suppose the anser to the question is: I was bad. I'm still not good, but it's getting better.
Project Manager (to Watergirl, who is listening to her iPod): Good tunes?
WG: Actually, it's Click and Clack.
PM: A woman after my own heart! But I don't know how you can listen to them and focus on what you are doing.
WG: [PM], I'm folding paper. For the second day in a row. PM leaves.
Last weekend we (Randy, TRgirl, Monkey, and I) went up to the parents' for Thanksgiving. Yes, it was a week early. Randy and TRgirl rotate Thanksgiving with the families, and it was their year to go to our parents', but he had to work on Thanksgiving. So we had it early.
(I never go to my parents' for Thanksgiving. I hate the drive.)
We were cooking that Saturday and the turkey had finished early. Mom was worried about the timing because she'd planned everything else around the turkey finishing when it was supposed to.
Fear not! We will always come up with a solution. TRgirl was picking up the pan with the turkey in it. Mom had used and aluminum roasting pan. It had handles, but TRgirl did not use them. She used the sides of the aluminum pan. Said pan promptly collapsed and spilled the drippings all down the front of TRgirl. Goose had stepped in to help, and they didn't drop the turkey, but she was yelling. I ran into the kitchen where Mom was taking TRgirl out of her pants. I went and turned the shower on- cool water. At this point we were all convinced that the grease/drippings were hot and she was burnt. At this point, Randy took over her (he's an EMT; we thought it prudent.)
I walk out into the kitchen to see greasy pan drippings all over the floor. Mom was crying, Goose was crying, and I started cleaning up the mess. I took my shoes off because, well, feet are easier to clean. It took 3 washings to get the floor semi-clean.
TRgirl was fine; the drippings had cooled before she spilled them on herself. Apparently the clothes she was wearing still smell like turkey.
I spent actual Thanksgiving out at Bob and Steph's. It was a good time, up until I hit the deer on the way home. I'm fine; deer is not. Car is in the shop, but it will go on my comprehensive. Therefore, my rates won't go up. The End.
If my weekend were getting a performance review, I would give it a rating of “Did not meet expectations.” The final straw was Sunday night.
I had gone out earlier in the day to get spare house keys made. I am heading up to NJ this weekend with TRgirl, Randy, and Monkey for Thanksgiving. We’re doing it early because of Randy’s work schedule. (It will be my first “Thanksgiving” at my parents’ house in 7 years.) I have to get a friend to watch the boys as TRgirl is generally the person who does it when I’m away.
Anyway, I had keys made. The cat-sitter was supposed to come over last night and learn the routine. I wanted to test them out beforehand. Phoebs had called earlier in the day, so I was returning her call and decided to test the key. Grabbed one of the new spares, closed the door, turned the key, and locked the door.
Except that now I couldn’t unlock the door. The key that had locked the door was not able to open it. I was stuck outside with no coat; luckily it was about 50 degrees. Also lucky? The part where I was on the phone. I let Phoebs go and called TRgirl- they have my spare key.
When I told TRgirl the story, she said, “Well, I’m in the middle of eating dinner.” My eye-roll was apparently audible; she corrected herself by saying, “I could leave, but Monkey is also in the middle of his dinner.” She promised to come over when he was finished.
I called Phoebs back and we talked for another 20 minutes. TRgirl called and said, “Randy has your key and hasn’t called me back.” Yep, Randy had taken my keys to work. At his 24 hour shift at the firehouse. In a completely different county. He was on a call, so we had to wait until he got back to the firehouse to go and get them.
I was talking to Apple last night about the election. (Note: Apple is Canadian but is very invested in this election.) I was telling her that I believe everyone has the right to their opinion and that I am willing to listen to other's opinions, I felt that my friends who support McCain have resorted to name calling. One accused me of "drinking the cool-aid" (OK. I do admit that it was really difficult not to respond with, "At least Obama's supporters know it's Kool-Aid, dumbass!") and another accused me of not understanding what I was doing to the country. Which, actually, I believe I'm doing the right thing for the country or else I wouldn't be doing it. (The general implication has been that I have bought into some Cult of Personality and that I am not even thinking of the issues.)
Apple said, "I haven't noticed that. Of course, I'm not friends with any McCain supporters, so there is that."
That’s my favorite quote from this weekend. Possibly this year.
Anyway, the weekend. Friday night I met some friends out at Chipotle. One of them had won free dinner for 10. Afterwards I hung out at home; I considered going out for wine but the discovery that I had left my debit card at home made that impossible.
Saturday I went to the Folk Festival . I was there before it opened to man a table for a friend. She’s started up a new business selling compostable and biodegradable food containers and utensils. (Since the name of her business is Green Duck she shall be known as Ducky.) Anyway, we had to be there to show the volunteers what could go into the compost receptacles. (The vendors had not been required to buy from Ducky, just encouraged. As such, there was a mixture.)
Once the festival started up I met up with another friend and we hung out for most of the day, catching a few acts. My favorite was Liadan, but then it is a well-known fact that I like the Irish music. We also saw a guitar workshop where different styles were played. It was fascinating.
After being out there for most of the day, I headed home and collapsed on my couch. I even turned down an invitation to go out for oysters.
Sunday evening I went and saw Religulous and then we went out to dinner. Dinner is where the quote came from. The movie was good; it was funny and the interviewees often made the arguments for Bill Maher. On the other hand, he was constantly interrupting the interviewees and at the end of the movie he got quite preachy, which was ironic. But at the end of the day, how can you not like a movie that has a United States Senator admit (after saying some truly stupid things), “You don’t have to pass an IQ test to get into the Senate.” (Dear Arkansas: You might want to rethink that.)
Friday night I met up with Apple and Flanders (and a few of Flanders’s co-workers) for Happy Hour. I was not impressed with the bar, but I did learn that the wife of one of the co-workers grew up in the same town as me.
Afterwards, Apple and I were torn between watching the debates or going out. We finally decided on watching the debates and then going out, but the 2+ bottles of wine we drank during the debate ruled that out. I slept at her house where her dog played musical beds all night.
Saturday we had volleyball practice and then I went out with the girls to our wine bar. And then to our ale house.
Sunday I went over to a friend’s to work on my brakes. (He’s a mechanic and was helping. Also got me a deal on parts.) He called up that morning and said, “Have you had breakfast yet?” When I told him I hadn’t, he replied, “I’m making pancakes. Come over.”
We discovered that I didn’t have quite the right set of tools for the job. (I am requesting a bunch of mechanics tools for Christmas. I am planning on keeping this car for a while and I want to be able to work on it.) We drove to his work and picked up some tools; it turned out that the most important was the cheater bar.
That night, Apple and I went to the State Fair. (Dear VA: Your State Fair is lame compared to North Carolina’s. Please remedy that when you move into your new digs. Thanks, Watergirl.) When I got to her house, her dog jumped on me, leaving muddy paw prints on my shirt. I borrowed a shirt from her, so I was walking around the fair in a shirt (a size smaller than I normally wear) that said, “Life is simple. Eat, sleep, be Canadian.” across my chest. I got a lot of comments about Canada from men, proving that that is where they are looking.
This past weekend my parents came down to see Monkey. TRgirl, Randy, and I were around but were clearly not as interesting. They really enjoyed the fact that he is now in a talking phase and will tell you a story with mostly nonsensical words, goya being his favorite. He ends the stories with, “OK?” and is happy when you answer with, “OK.”
Saturday we took him to the zoo. Randy elected to stay home and enjoy having the house to himself. The Richmond Zoo is odd in that you can feed most of the animals. Which, in case you are wondering, leads to obese prairie dogs.
At one point my dad was feeding one of the monkeys. (Note: an actual monkey. Not Monkey.) This monkey had climbed up his enclosure and was sitting on one of the fence supports. He was trying to catch the food my dad threw, and every time he didn’t he gave my dad a look that said, “Dude, WTF?” This was sometimes accompanied by gestures. (This is not the first strange encounter that my dad has had with a primate. He once royally ticked off a gorilla at the National Zoo. We don’t know why, but the gorilla did not like him.)
You can also feed the giraffes. If you did not know, giraffes have long (about 18 inches) prehensile tongues. One of them used said tongue to lick Monkey’s head. This bothered the child not one bit.
I left early, as Apple and I were going to Williamsburg for the Wine and Cheese event at the Williamsburg Storytelling Festival. We met a third friend and her mom there. It was fabulous. I did not really know what to expect, but I enjoyed it so much that I am already looking forward to next year.
After the event, the three of us (sans the mom) headed over to Food for Thought which I highly recommend that you try should you ever be in Williamsburg. (Invite me. I have a coupon!) We spent the night at the mom’s house. She made us a fabulous breakfast the next day.
Apple and I headed home and stopped at Flanders’s to pick up her dog. We ended up staying for about 5 hours. We also debated about the proper possessive of Flanders. (Since we were talking about his house, Flanders’s is correct. If we had been talking about his stove, then it would be Flanders’.)
So, the situation last night that I was worried about? Not so much a big deal. But, and I apologize to all of my non-Richmond friends, Richmond birthday celebrations? Way more memorable than any others.
The last Birthday I went to? We ended up cruising around the Swift Creek Reservoir on a pontoon boat with some people who were also at the restaurant celebrating a birthday. (Note: the birthday girl did not come out on the boat. Maybe she had to go read People Magazine or something.)
Last night’s birthday? My Canadian friend was turning 28. (Hi, my friends are babies.) I suppose, since y’all don’t know any of these people, I need to set the scene. Or, you know, introduce them. I’ll just go with the main players.
Apple: My Canadian friend. The birthday girl.
Josie: Mutual friend of ours. Is launching her own business this week.
Prime Minister of Fun (PMF): Another friend. Fellow Environmental Engineer.
Crazy Drunk Bitch: Needs no explanation.
Flanders: Guy friend of ours. The one whose housewarming party I went to, even though I didn’t know him at the time.
So, we met downtown at Cha Cha’s Cantina for happy hour. Please note that Apple was late to her own party. A few of us including Apple and PMF walked over to Havana 59 for dinner where Josie, Crazy Drunk Bitch (who at this point was Loud but Nonoffensive Tipsy Girl) and a few others met up with us. I sat on the end of the table next to Apple and across from Josie. PMF was 2 seats to the right of Josie; Crazy Drunk Girl was seated diagonally to the right of PMF.
Anyway, mojitos (yum!), food, the waiter attempting to take my soup before I was done (the second time that has happened to me in Richmond. River City = the City of half-eaten soup?) (That waiter also did another thing I hate. I gave him $40 for a bill of $26 and he asked me if I needed change. Answer: Yes. That would be a ridiculous tip. Just bring the change without asking- If I don’t need it, because for some reason I feel that you deserve a 54% tip (by the way, that would include not taking my food away), I’ll just leave it all on the table, mkay?)
Sorry. Story. We are splitting a dessert when we all suddenly realize that Crazy Drunk Girl is verbally attacking PMF. Then she got in her face, and apparently there was a fork involved (waved threateningly) which I didn’t see. All while calling her a liar. And telling her that all her friends think she’s a liar. And they’ve all told her that she’s a liar. And gesturing threateningly with the salt and pepper shakers.
What is this thing she’s lied about? It seems that PMF was offered the opportunity to take an overseas position (overseas positions are the theme of this week’s posts) and had discussed it with Crazy Drunk Bitch, presumably when she was neither crazy nor drunk, because Crazy Drunk Bitch had just returned from an overseas posting. The lying part came in when she didn’t tell everyone else. So, I think the argument was that it was a lie of omission, but the fact of the matter is that PMF doesn’t have to share everything with everyone. It’s perfectly reasonable to seek out the counsel of someone with applicable life experience and yet not want to confuse yourself with getting everyone’s thoughts on the matter. Point: Not a lie.
Crazy Drunk Bitch would not let it go. A cab was called, she was told to leave, didn’t happen. One of our friends disappeared; it later turned out she couldn’t deal and went home. Josie, in the most awesome moment of the night, says to Crazy Drunk Bitch, “You need to leave. You are not welcome at this table. No one wants you here!” This didn’t work either. We called the waiter over (remember, not the sharpest knife) and asked him to give him her check. He hands hers over and we ask him to get a manager/bouncer. He is busy sorting out all the checks at the table.
WG: Leave them here. We’ll distribute them.
Waiter: continues thumbing through receipts
WG: NOW!
Josie: grabs checks from waiter
I gave her a pen, she signed her receipt and walked out of the restaurant, flipping us off as she did.
Flanders: Who wants a drink? They’re on me!
(We did explain to the waiter why we had gotten short with him. He had apparently missed the whole kerfuffle, though I’m not sure how he managed that.)
First the background: Y'all remember when I was unhappy at my job? Before I moved up to Richmond? And I was toying with the idea of Pharmacy school? The other thing I looked into was....
MOVING TO NEW ZEALAND!
NZ is actively seeking out immigrants with technical backgrounds. None of the jobs they had posted aligned with my background. However, I'm still on the e-mail list.
Yesterday I was informed that they are looking for workers for two large wastewater projects in Auckland.
I'm now thinking that moving to New Zealand is an entirely different proposition than moving to Richmond.
This weekend, the only day of note was Saturday. I went for a ride out at Pocahontas State Park . This would be a fine example of biting off more than one can chew. There were a lot of hills. Major hills. Also, the trail is not well marked so I got lost a few times. And, it turns out that there is some sort of problem with my front derailluer, so I would downshift and my pedals would stop moving. Which is bad.
Saturday night I went with my friend Kathy to the Sara Evans concert. This was the second time I seen her (Sara Evans, not Kathy) in the past year. Stace and I went to see her at the NC State Fair. This was at a better venue with better acoustics and there was no tractor pull to be heard. Also, I did not have to return to the Turkey Shoot afterwards.
There was also beer at this concert. Which Kathy ended up buying since some guy gave her a free ticket just as I bought mine. (I think he only had one.)
We also started planning for my birthday. (Yes, I do know it’s in December. Time is running out!) We decided that it should include alcohol and multiple bars.
Sunday I cleaned and then painted my toenails while watching Ice Road Truckers. That’s how I roll, yo.
Bob called me last night (Bob is, in fact, my uncle) to tell me that they'd had to put Bear down. Bear was my grandfather's dog, and also the best dog ever. He was great with kids, great with my granddad (who had a lot of trouble getting around due to his RA), and always happy to be with his people. And his people? All people. Bear also had arthritis which until recently was responding well to medication. Recently it had gotten so bad that he couldn't make it down the steps to the yard and Bob or Steph would have to carry him outside to do his business. Bear wasn't a complainer, but he was in pain. I have not doubt that Bob and Steph did the very best for him and I'm going to miss that funny-looking dog. (He was a german shepherd/basset hound.)
On a lighter note, msnbc had a headline on their site that said, "Aborigine wants boomerang back." I thought that was the point of a boomerang.
Tomorrow I am going to see Sara Evans. I can't wait! I love Sara Evans.
My bike was one of the best purchases I have ever made. Even when I don't feel like going (and seriously, I need to get back in shape, so I am making myself) once I'm out there, I love it. I mostly ride trails (there is a really good system here in Richmond) and while I'm doing so, I feel like I'm ten again. Also, yesterday I may or may not have crashed into a tree.
If someone ever asks you to sign up for a bowling league that starts bowling at 9PM on Wednesday nights, say no. That is a bad idea.
Also a bad idea? Trying to hit on me while wearing plaid shorts, especially if your opening line has something to do with my low score. I know I’m not a good bowler and I’m OK with that, but I am in no mood to be teased about it at 11:30 at night. On a Wednesday. When I have to work the next day.
Although, it turns out that if you have a really high handicap, you can totally beat the best team in the league.
Last Friday I threw an Opening Ceremonies Party. It was my first official party in Richmond. I ‘ve been here 4 months and have enough friends to throw a party. That was so not the case in Raleigh.
This Friday I’m going to a housewarming party for a guy I don’t know. A friend of mine is throwing the party, and he wouldn’t give her a guest list, so she just invited all of her friends.
(I’m very excited about having friends. Not that I don’t have friends, or that I am some sort of unfriendworthy person, but it took me a lot longer to make friends in Raleigh. I learned from that experience and immediately joined a Jaycee chapter up here and said yes to every invitation I got.)
On Saturday I have a cookout and then I’m going to the Richmond Braves game. (Tickets are a spendy $7.) It’s also bring your dog night.
I’ve now relaxed the “every invitation” rule. I turned down playing for a football team this fall because the games are Sunday mornings. I cherish my Sunday mornings of drinking coffee and reading the paper.
Thanks to some very lovely photos a friend posted on Facebook, I am recommitting myself to working out and eating semi-healthily. Ugh.
Started out yesterday with a bike ride. Through the woods along the river. I love my bike. Really good purchase on my part. I’m heading out again today.
So, through my Facebook account people from high school have been contacting me. Some of them I’m glad to hear from, some of them I don’t care either way, and one of them? I don’t actually have any recollection of her whatsoever.
Anyway, it’s all good. Except that every single one of them is married. Most of them have kids. This has been quite the shock to me, because very few of my real life friends are married. Even fewer have kids. It’s just not a circle I run in. And yet somehow I feel like I missed the train.
The odd thing about this? I don’t really want to get married. I don’t really want to have kids. I’m looking for more of a heterosexual life partner. Live together, split costs, nothing more legally binding than maybe a mortgage. (Note I said legally. It’s entirely possible to have a long-term relationship without being married.) In this day and age, I’m not sure that marriage means all that much. There are other reasons according to my therapist. Let’s not get into that.
Of course, all of this comes at a time when I feel ready to date again. So, if you happen to know someone who isn’t going to be all, “Let’s have babies right away!” isn’t that into religion, and likes the outdoor activities, send him my way.
Monkey would like for you to know that there are cats in my house. He would also like the cats to know that they are cats. (The boys: “We know.”) And will you come over here, because he would like to show you the cats.
TRgirl and I took him to the pool on Sunday. He loves swimming, but gets frustrated that we hold him the entire time. We do this to prevent him from drowning, as he cannot yet swim.
Sunday I also went out and bought bowling shoes. For I have joined a bowling league. (It’s just a fun league- I am a completely non-competitive bowler.)
As another part of my quest to meet as many people in the Richmond area as possible, I went sailing on Saturday. I have not been sailing since I moved South. I forgot how much I loved it- I was on a HobieCat for the first time. They totally talked me into joining the club.
So, I’ve not written because I feel like I should write about my vacation. Here’s the thing, though. My vacation, while thoroughly enjoyable, did not lead to good blog fodder. We went to Maine. Kayaked, hiked, shopped in NH (no sales tax), and visited with my Aunt (she lives up there). All wonderful, but not the most exciting things to read about. So, no vacation write-up. I do have tons of pictures, which I will upload to flickr someday.
Last week Randy graduated from fire academy. The ceremony was last Monday. I had planned on heading up there from work, but we lost internet/e-mail, so I left early. (Seriously, I ran out of things I could do.) I called TRgirl to see if she wanted to carpool, and she said, “That would work out well. You can drive my car home.” It turned out that she and Randy were planning on going out with the rest of his class to celebrate after the dinner at his parents’ house. They were going to put Monkey to bed there, go out, pick Monkey up, and then head home. His parents live about 30 minutes away from them; I live five. So, we simplified things. I drove her car home with Monkey in it, put him to bed, and hung out until the got home.
TRgirl: You don’t mind? It won’t mess up your plans?
WG: Well, my plans were to go home and watch TV. You have a TV.
(Confidential to TRgirl: That crying he did in the car? Over as soon as we started driving off. Clearly just a show for you.)
Also, I am very proud of Randy.
Thursday I went to the Trace Adkins concert . I am very curious as to how they sell that particular concert series to the acts. “So, you’ll be playing at an outdoor stage in an office park.” “An office park?” While there, I mocked on of Randy’s firefighting compatriots for flirting with the young (15-16) girls who were flirting with him.
Saturday we went to see Mamma Mia! That movie? Fun. Except for when Pierce Brosnan sings. That part makes your ears bleed and the baby Jesus cry.
Stacy and Sara came up this weekend, and we had a blast. We headed out west to do a little wine tasting/touring. We started at Wintergreen Winery on Friday. We also hit Hilltop (Fruit wines and meadery! I’m not usually a fan of the fruit wines, but I do love a good pear wine.), Cardinal Point, Afton Mountain and Veritas, where everyone was quite dressed up, it seemed. Also where one of the people tasting wines asked, “What’s a vintner?” (Answer: Something you should know before you go wine tasting.) We stayed in Charlottesville that night and watched 5 firework displays from the top of a parking deck near UVA.
Saturday, we started at Oakencroft Winery. (These wineries are all on the Monticello Wine Trail). We headed north towards Culpeper to visit two more, Sharp Rock and Old House. (I’m certain I’ve mentioned those before, which should be proof enough that I’ll go back to wineries, so if anyone wants to do a wine tour…)
We finished off the wine tour by hitting IKEA. As you do.
We had a kickball game tonight. I scored a run (first one of the season for me). Also, I got on base both times I was up.
But, the best part? I was playing second base and made two outs.
Unfortunately, the second one ended up like this:
It was a forced out at second and the ball was kicked into the outfield. I stood on the base, waiting for the throw, which I caught. Right before the base runner slammed into me. I said, "Ow!" put my hand up to my face, pulled it back, looked at it, and said, "Guys? I think I'm bleeding."
So, this weekend I went whitewater rafting! And I didn't write about it until now because I just got sent the pictures. Or something like that.
We headed up to West Virgina on Friday and set up camp. Then we got dinner and hung around the fire having deep conversations about religion. (Paaartaaaay!)
The rafting trip was Saturday. We set out at 0830, which worked out well, because we were among the first groups on the river. The water was cold, but the rafting was awesome. Well, except for the fact that 2 of the 4 people on my side couldn't paddle. Or follow any sort of rhythm. I was maybe thinking about clocking someone with my paddle.
The water was cool, so I didn't swim much. I did get a face full lin one of the rapids. Oh, and at one point we landed on anther boat and I thought we were going to flip. But we didn't.
Interesting fact: The New River is one of the oldest in the world and runs North.
According to our guide, people who cannot are often on her rafting trips. I would like to suggest that if you can't swim, whitewater rafting is probably not a good activity for you.
That night we went back to camp, hung out, played spades, and taught MMatt how to roast marshmallows. Good times!
Anyway, here are some pictures:
Our boat (Heather, the guide, is in the front):
What boats look like from up at the New River Gorge Bridge Overlook:
(Pictures not taken by me or with my camera. For I am so lame that I did not bring one.)
Friday after work I went to get a pedicure. I hadn’t had one since my last trip to Raleigh (a month ago), and that one? Not so great, actually. I forgot to take my phone off of vibrate when I left work. (I always put it on vibrate at work. That way I can be annoyed when everyone else’s phones ring and not be a hypocrite.) At some point when I was in the chair, TRgirl called and left me a message. When I was sitting at the drying station, I checked my phone and listened to her message about how she had to work at 1730 but that Randy was going to be late getting home and could I come watch Monkey? It was 1725. I called her back and said I would be there as soon as I could, paid, and went out to my car. Note that I did not turn the phone’s ringer back on.
I got to the house, ran in (still in my pedicure flip-flops), and there was Randy. TRgirl had called and left a message saying he’d gotten there, but I hadn’t heard the phone. Randy said, “Since you’re here, want to stay for dinner? It’s hamburgers.”
Saturday I washed my car. I’ve never done that before. In fact, my previous car? I never once washed it. Don’t get me wrong- I had it washed, I just never washed it myself. Once I’d finished that, I drove out to the storage unit and picked up my tent.
I went over to TRgirl and Randy’s to put it up. (Next week we’re heading north to see Bud’s big Army send-off. The next week I’m heading to West Virginia to go whitewater rafting. We’re camping, and I’d never even taken the tent out of the box. I thought it prudent to check it out before leaving.) They weren’t home, but apparently you can go over their house, walk into their backyard, and put up a tent without any of the neighbors saying anything or calling the police. Although, come to think of it, maybe they just didn’t want to make that call.
911: 911, What’s your emergency.
Caller: Someone broke into my neighbor’s back yard and is putting up a tent.
911: They’re putting up a tent?
Did I mention it was 100 degrees out? It was, so after spending 3 hours outside, I had to take a nap.
Saturday night I went to a party. I stayed until 3AM. As I was leaving, the host asked, “Are you sure you’re OK to drive?” I said, “Dude, I’ve been here since 7PM and have had 3 beers. The real question is, why am I OK to drive?” (One explanation: I did not participate in the ghetto beer pong. (Ghetto beer pong: played on tray tables instead of a ping pong table.))
Sunday we took Monkey to the pool. He is a fan of all things water. He even kept putting his face in. Afterwards, I thought about going to the bike shop and getting fitted, but then I remembered I’d had 5 hours of sleep. I stayed home and watched some season 1 episodes of Big Love. And, of course, the season premiere of Army Wives was last night. Ah show, I’ve missed you.
Driving to work today, thinking about what I have to get done this week. Pull off of the exit to work as I realize
"Shit! We've got a 9AM meeting at the WTP lab. And I'm wearing open-toed shoes!"
Call co-worker, tell him that I'm a moron, will most likely meet him at the plant.
Call co-worker back, tell him that the one thing I wasn't a moron about was printing out the agendas Friday, and to please bring them.
Drive home, run upstairs (Orion: "Wha?"), change shoes.
Run downstairs, drive back towards office.
Realize at exit for WTP would be very early. Decide to drive to office. Realize this is good, as have turkey sandwich in bag for lunch.
Rememeber that we have new employee welcome lunch today.
Get into office, put lunch in fridge for Tuesday, pick up agendas, notebook, and co-worker. Head towards plant.
Co-worker, upon hearing that I brought lunch, "This weekend messed you all up. What did you do?"
WG: "I didn't even drink."
Saturday was the NFB-Richmond Chapter picnic. I was a driver. The picnic was held at a big, new house. On the patio. Which surrounds an in ground pool. Luckily, no one fell in. Because, really, could have been a recipe for disaster.
My parents were heading back from SC this weekend, so they stayed at TRgirl and Randy's that night. I joined them for dinner. I was cutting up cucumber for the salad when TRgirl said to me, "Why are you cutting them on that?" "Because it's a cutting board?" "We don't use that one. Now I have to wash it."
She also has a kitchen island that you may not put drinks down on.
(Should you come to my house, feel free to use any cutting board you can find. Also, you may put drinks down on all surfaces in the kitchen.)
Today I went over there for breakfast. This afternoon, I went to see Sex and the City. I'll post my thoughts after the jump in order to avoid spoiling anyone.
Y'all do remember that time I was told I had endocarditis, right? On Tuesday I went to the doctor because I'd had swelling in my lymph nodes for a week, and it was starting to get painful. The doctor checked me over for all of 3 minutes and referred me to a specialist.
When I called the specialist? Fertility Clinic. Which, not actually my problem. I have a fairly good idea why I'm not pregnant right now.
I called the Doctor back and learned that she had been trying to send me to an OB/GYN or a breast surgeon. (The swollen lymph nodes are in my underarms.) (It occurs to me that some of y'all may not actually want these details.)The secretary at the office decided to give me the name of an Endocrinologist.
I called TRgirl, who managed to give me the name of an actual OB/GYN. I saw another Doctor in that practice yesterday. He checked me over and asked me about a bug bite that I have on my right boob. (Damn v-neck shirts). Turns out that, although this doesn't explain the swelling from a week ago, I have quite the skin infection around the bite. (Skin infection on my boob. I am the sexy.) I really think the first doctor should have caught it. I mean, it didn't occur to me, but I'm not actually a doctor, and the large, spreading, warm redness didn't raise any red flags. But really, the first doctor probably should have seen it.
Anyway, I am now on antibiotics. Not as massive as cat bite antibiotics, but still. (Oh, and they should take care of whatever other infection was present.)
Ok, it's not as bad as the time that Goose was diagnosed with pneumonia when he really had appendicitis, but still...
Friday night Robin drove up. Bud was supposed to drive down and arrive very late (or early), but as he was still sitting at the train station, 2 hours from his house, at 7 PM, he didn’t really feel up to making the 6 hour drive to my house after that. He came down Saturday morning. We all attended the event of the year, Monkey’s first birthday party.
Robin and I went on a Canal Cruise that night. The whole canal thing was something I didn’t know much about (meaning, the canal system in Richmond. I am familiar with canals in general.) and it turned out to be very interesting.
Saturday we headed out to the Richmond National Battlefield and the American Civil War Center. Lots of reading there. When we went into the museum, the City’s water rescue team was starting a river rescue. When we came out 2 hours later, they were still there. (Everything turned out OK). We hit another Civil War site (Chimborazo Hospital) and then headed to dinner and to see Indiana Jones.
Sunday we went to the botanical gardens, met some friends for lunch, and then checked out more of the City, including the Hollywood Cemetery. We were afraid we’d never get out. Turns out, all kinda looks the same.
Well, the farmer's market was lame. There were three produce vendors. The rest of the vendors? Flea market. I want produce at a farmer's market. If I want flea market stuff, well, I'll go to a flea market.
Anyway, there's another market I'll try. But not this coming weekend, as I'll have a full house. Including people sleeping in the living room.
I do need to start getting outside more. One idea I have is to see if TRgirl will let me take Monkey for some evening walks. Kickball starts on June 10, so that will help as well.
I also ought to vacuum my car before vegetation starts growing in the dirt on the floor.
Oh, and my very very good, most excellent friend was able to rearrange things so that I am able to go to Bud's departure ceremony. (I did have a prior commitment.) The least exciting part of that is the road trip with the one-year-old.
I was informed yesterday that Target can't "give out" quarters. I just wanted to get a roll. I would have give you $10 for it. (BTW, the cashier (who had had difficulty making change for the person ahead of me) told me that a roll of quarters was $25. Oh, sweetie, no.) I turns out that the bank in Ukrop's is open untl 7, and they were happy to give me a roll of quarters.
The teller discussed the awfulness of laundromats with me. I was going to go and wash blankets and my mattress pad yesterday, but them I remembered that I had to lock the boys up in the guest room today (pest control. They'd take Orion.) so I wanted to wash the bedspread after that. So, I'll be going this afternoon. I am that lame.
To get both boys into the guest room easily, chase Jasper up there. Orion will follow all, "What's he doing? I want to do it too! Hey, why are you closing the door?"
This weekend I am planning on finally checking out the Farmer's Market. I love Farmer's Markets.
I lost my address book in the move. I've got a new one ready to go, so please send your address. I've even got plans to send Christmas cards this year. E-mail, in case you haven't got it, is watergirl.micheleATgmail.com
I did sleep some last night. I've still got a Tylenol PM hangover. (I can't take a prescription pill at 0030, but I can take 1 Tylenol PM). There were thunderstorms, so Jasper was a bit freaked out.
I've got my iPod on; I have not heard my co-workers yet today.
I'm still not thrilled with my place, but I am planning on waiting out the lease.
Well I do believe that professionally this was the right move for me, personally I'm not so sure. I miss the people at my old office. They aren't as fun here. I miss my cube with the window. Not only does the guy behind me have a window, he shuts his blinds every day because he doesn't want to look outside. Also, he makes noises all day long. If you've ever met an 8-year-old boy you know what I mean. I can't find my iPod headphones, so I can't drown him out.I just found them. Tomorrow, I'll bring my iPod and I won't have to listen to him.
Also, WTF is up with my co-worker who is currently on a conference call? On speakerphone. In his cube. I don't make you listen to my conference calls, guy.
I hate, hate, hate where I live. I miss my little house. The place is adequate, but it's nothing special. It's an apartment complex, so the population is transient and there is no sense of community. The AC is terrible. I have to run fans upstairs and still I sweat because it's so goddamned humid. It will be really fun when I am running the clothes dryer this summer. That's right, the dryer is upstairs. It's a stackable washer/dryer and holds about 6 things. I'm really pissed that I have to go to the laundromat to wash some blankets and a quilt. I could have washed them in my old washer. The only redeeming quality the place has is that it's close to my sister's. I can get out of the lease early, but it will cost me a month's rent. So, I cannot wait until next April.
Of course, I'd love to be able to buy a house then, but I don't see it happening.
I also have a few people I'd like to call up and tell off.
And I hate all of my work clothes.
The fact that I only got three hours of sleep last night may have exacerbated this.
It has been a seriously long week, y'all. We had a big client workshop yesterday which we spent the beginning of the week getting ready for (I was working at 10 PM on Sunday). The workshop went well, but it was draining. I skipped book club in favor of going home and taking a 2 hour nap.
Draining as that may have been, it was also satisfying. I finally feel like I'm contributing, rather than just doing whatever I can find to keep me billable. Or being the department firefighter.
Saturday was National Rebuilding Day, so I spent the day working on a church. (Yep, we worked on the headquarters for the Richmond event.) It was supposed to be from 8-5, but we finally wrapped up around 6:30. By that time, few volunteers were left, so even though all I wanted to do was go home and shower, I couldn’t. My main project was putting together curtains to hide the old baptismal font. This involved lots of stapling. First, stapling pleats in bolts of fabric, then stapling the fabric to 2x4s. (If I had known about this project ahead of time, I could have come up with a solution that was just as economic, and yet easier.) All was well until it came time to attach the 2x4s to the ceiling. 119 year old church. Couldn’t find the studs. The guys kept saying, “But they should be 16 inches on center.” Me: “119 years old.”
Anyway, I had work to do over the weekend, and also laundry, which I had planned on doing when I got home on Saturday. However, I was beat, so instead I sat on my couch.
Which made Sunday absolutely nuts. I got up, read the paper, worked for 2 hours, cleaned the kitchen, did the laundry and left for Culpeper around 3 to take Peg out for her birthday. Bob and Steph met us at the restaurant. We determined that Peg and I would fly to Maine together this summer (huge family vacation in ME) and Bob and Steph would take the boys. So, I’m going to drive the boys out there and drive Peg back to Richmond. Or, as I put it, a trade. And Peg’s potty-trained. Peg: “Mostly. I am getting older.”
I got back home at 10 and worked for another hour.
I spent the weekend in Raleigh. I headed down on Thursday because I had an appointment to get my hair cut on Friday afternoon. It's been chopped. Not sure I like it.
The real reason I went down was because we had tickets for Spamalot. Loved it! The boys are not enjoying the fact that I keep singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" to them.
Other things: lunch at Hard Times, Earth Day festivities, and brunch with Stew. Stew! Oh, and I also managed to lock Robin out of her house. Because I am all crazy and do thinks like lock the door in between the garage and the house. My dad gave us helpful hints on how to break in, but it turned out that a friend of hers had a key.
Oh, I also picked up my propane tank, so I can now cook things on the grill.
Before leaving Raleigh, I called the cable company to see if I could cancel my account and drop off my equipment at the customer service center. The CSR asked me why I was cancelling and I told him it was because I was moving.
CSR: Are you moving out of our service area?
WG: Yes.
CSR: Did you check?
WG: Well, since I have (another cable company) schedule to come and do an install, yes.
CSR: Is there anything we can do to keep you in our service area?
WG: I'm moving because my job transferred me. It has nothing to do with my cable service.
We made it up on Thursday with no problems. Jasper is apparently a huge fan of wall to wall carpeting. He is much happier here. We also had our first mass escape this afternoon, but all returned safely. I had dinner at TRgirl and Ryan's and confused my dad wickedly when I answered her cell phone. I cannot run the dryer with the closet door shut or it sets off the smoke alarm. My vanities do not have drawers or shelves, they are just big gaping maws. I miss my friends; I've sent them my address. I hope they come visit.
Thursday I planned to sign my lease. I was in meetings all day. I checked my phone at 3:30 PM to find a fairly frantic message from my leasing agent. When I called her back, I was told that my original apartment had been flooded (pipe burst, shot hole in wall) and they were moving me to a different one.
I checked the new one out; it was fine, so I signed my lease. Of course, I had already set up utilities and my renter’s insurance. The insurance and cable? No problem changing those. The electric? Whole other story. First, they were closed from Friday until today. Then, when I called, the person I spoke to wanted to transfer me to someone to talk about my flood damage. He said, “Will that be OK?” I answered, “No. I just want to switch my service address.”
We got that done, and he informed me that there was a $15 connection fee. I told him I’d already paid that. I was told that was for the previous apartment, and they had to charge me another $15, there was no way to waive it. I told him I wanted to speak to a supervisor, and suddenly he could waive it.
Also this weekend, Aquamama picked up my washer. (She needed one, and I had one to sell.) Orion is very upset that the washer is gone. He keeps going to where it was and crying. He has never done laundry, so I don’t understand the sudden need.
Let's see. The last time I posted? Apparently 4 days ago. That night was my going away party (not to be confused with my going-away girls' night out or my going away office dinner), held at my house. It was a blast. I didn't cry at all, not even when Ed broke a wineglass. (Wait! There's leftover wine. Hang on.) OK. Back. (Confidential to Stewie: There is also leftover IPA.)
I would like to inform you that even though I picked on Ed for having the party at my house, I love my house and I love having parties there. I also love picking on Ed.
Saturday was wine club. But first was trivia smackdown with Robin. Who beat me! That almost never happens.
Sunday Robin helped me put my kayak on my car. I brought it up to Richmond that night. While driving up, I got a call from my landlord. I called her back as she asked. She said, "I thought I'd let Orion out. However, he was camouflaged on the bed pillow."
I now have a cube and a key to the Richmond office. Came back to Raleigh last night.
I called my leasing company this morning. They wanted to check that I was signing my lease on Thursday, but would give me the key Friday, when the lease started. I said, "But I need the key on Thursday," and was told, "You can't have your key until the lease starts, and that starts Friday. When you called, you said you wanted to sign the lease Thursday, not to move in then." I had to explain that I had called to change the signing because I'm going to be in Richmond on Thursday, not Friday. If I were able to pick the key up on Friday, I'd sign the lease then. I was told, "We can change the lease, but you have to pay for Thursday."
Duh. Seriously.
Today, I spent the afternoon setting up cable, electric, and new insurance. The cable took some time, because the sales rep told me that Comcast's records showed that I owed them $90. Interesting, since I've never been a customer. However, the customer service rep found no record of such a thing. So, I will have cable and internet.
I cleaned out the storage bench, the attic, and the coat closet. I also started on the study (it's actually coming along quite well). The stuff on the bed? That's what I need to get rid of.
I signed up for a few meetup groups in Richmond this past weekend. Yesterday I signed up for an event. One of the groups is going to James River Cellars. Who loves a good winery tour more than I do? (No one is the answer.) The bad part? It's on the 29th, and I should probably spend the day unpacking, not drinking wine.
Went out with my girls last night, danced to some 80s music. Woke up this morning (or rather, Orion woke me up (at 11)) this morning in an excellent mood. I watched some TV and then took advantage of the lovely weather (Dear friends in New England, I was outside in a T-shirt today. Love, Watergirl.) to clean out my storage shed. I can move all of the stuff in there when I go up to sign my lease. Although the kayak is probably going up the next time I head to Richmond. It's going to live with TRgirl and Randy.
(Did I mention that my new place is 5 minutes from them? And that that will be the closest I've lived to family in my entire adult life? I'm not sure I can handle it.)
I also cleaned out the pantry. Later this week will be the attic and the bathroom, followed by the room I am most dreading, the study.
Other things I need to do this week:
Schedule the move with the movers
Set up utilities.
Call about insurance.
Start working on getting my VA PE license.
Figure out what I need to do to register my car and get my VA driver's license.
I got into work this morning and spent an hour trying to get my computer to work. I tried to call our support desk (located in Sacramento) (Sacramento! Closer than India!) , only to learn that they fixed our phones by cutting off our long distance service. (We've just moved offices. Our switchboard was installed in the wrong building.) When I did finally get a hold of them (I used my cell and had them call me back) they agreed that there was in fact a problem, but they didn't know how to fix it.
Then I went to meet with a vendor. Who stared creepily at all of us. But most creepily at me, as he was staring at my chest. (This is included in the list entitled, "How not to get me to buy things from you.")
I may have overreacted a wee bit. I am not happy with the moving assistance they have offered, and I am getting some quotes so that I can negotiate that. But, at the end of the day, it's not big enough that I won't take the job because of it.
This weekend I found the neighborhood I want to live in. Today, I found a house in that neighborhood. The lessor has not called me back yet. Also, I got my transfer letter and they are really not offering enough for me to move. So, all in all, it may be a no go.
I am told the transfer letter is on its way. Of course, I will not be here tomorrow, as I have put in all of my hours and I am going to see TRgirl, Randy, and Monkey* this weekend.
*I am going to keep trying out nicknames for my nephew. For some reason, I tend to call boy children "monkey".
I got an e-mail from the Richmond boss telling me he told HR to start the process. Today their regional HR rep called my regional HR rep. Things are moving along, slowly, through the bureaucracy.
I'm going up to visit and really check out the city on the 26th.
Oh, and yesterday one of our senior PMs came in and told me that he'd heard I was talking to Richmond. He thinks it's a good move for me. He was also very impressed with the way things came together. (I know 2/3 of the staff up there, TRgirl and Randy are there.) I believe the word "kismet" was used. Anyhow, since the company has transferred him before, I asked him if I was being unreasonable in expecting moving expenses (my boss had thought so). His advice? "If they won't pay for you to move, don't go!"
So, the Richmond boss called my boss today. They are playing VM tag, but still, it's good news, especially when you consider that I had decided that it had been taken away. (Why, yes, I am a bit melodramatic.)
Also, Orion is once again, in the words of my mother, "More work than a 2 year old."
My new boss is supposed to call me this week, so that we can start working out details on the transfer. He said it most likely would be yesterday. Nothing yet. I'm stuck in limbo. I don't know how much work to take on at this office, because I don't know when they want me to start up there. I can't start looking for a place to live, because I don't know when I'm moving. I can't start packing, because I don't know where I'm moving too, so I don't know what I need to take.
Tomorrow we are supposed to update our workload plans. I think I'll use that as an excuse to call.
Do you know where's a great place to spend Christmas night? The ER. Awesome.
The day started out like I had planned it. I woke up, had some coffee, opened my present from Cdub. (External hard drive!) I vacuumed, ran the dishwasher, and put the roof racks back on my car. I had planned to vacuum it, but realized I needed an extension cord. I went and saw Juno, which I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend.
When I got home, I put the garbage out. Which is when Orion escaped. For the second time today. The first time I caught him easily. The second time> Not so much. He started with the caterwauling and hissing, and I tried to lure him out with canned foods and treats. Did not work. He finally came out from under the boxwoods and headed for the patio. I grabbed him, and he bit me.
Phone call
Mom: Hello?
WG: He bit me again!
Mom: You need to go have it checked out.
WG: I can't until tomorrow. No place is open.
Mom: The ER? That is open.
So, I headed over to the ER. Lot of people there with apparent cooking injuries. Also, some woman with a dislocated shoulder. She was sobbing, and I mean, yeah, that shit hurts (trust me. I know about the shoulder dislocation.), but I wasn't even sobbing like that when I smashed my ankle.
Anyway, I'm sitting in the ER, waiting to be called. A cop walks in. I didn't think much of it, because it's not that unusual. Then, I heard him ask the security guard for me. My first thought? "I didn't see any signs saying I couldn't park there."
He was actually there because the triage nurse called him to report a cat bite. Well, the call he got was for an "animal bite". He called his supervisor to see if he actually had to take a report on a housecat, and I overheard him say, "Even if it just bit the owner?" Orion is now on the books with animal control. He is under quarantine for 10 days. That quarantine will take place at home and at the vet's, where I'd planned on boarding him while away. (This is all in case he has rabies. His rabies vaccination was on Nov. 29.) Although, the paperwork does say if he escapes, I should call the police.
I had my interview in Richmond today. They offered me the job. So, now the ball is in my court.
The move would be a good one, career-wise. I'd get PM* experience and training, and the work is more like what I want to be doing- there's still a variety, and I won't get pigeonholed as, say, the DBP**-girl, but there is little to no environmental documentation, which is fabulous. It's a small office, but I actually know 2 of the three people I'd be working with- one was a few years ahead of me in grad school, and one was a vendor I worked with on a pilot project .
Of course, the downside is it means moving out of my comfort zone. I'm leaning towards taking it, because at this point in my life, my career is the thing that's important. Plus, I'd get to see the sprog a lot more.
As an offshoot of not getting the Chicago job, the recruiter for the Northeast Region passed my resume around. (I may have mentioned that.) I got a call from the Hampton Roads office- the staffing manager there also works for the Richmond office. The Richmond office is interested in me enough that I’m going up next week for an interview.
Now, the issues. Richmond would be good in that it’s where TRgirl, Randy, and the Sprog live. I know some other people there so I wouldn’t be totally friendless, but I’ll still need to find my own core group. It’s also closer to Peg, Bobby, and Steffy. Also, it sounds like the work there will fit more with my career path (or what I thought I wanted my career path to be).
But, I have my core group of friends here. I love my house, I love my neighborhood. I’ve got a good psychiatrist. My vet knows both of my cats and their health issues. I love where I ride, and I absolutely love the horse I am currently riding, so much so that when she does sell it will break my heart.
So, if I get the position, I’ll have to decide. To I try here for another year, to see if we can make my job be what I want it to be? I love the people I work with, so it’s not awful coming to work everyday. It’s just not great either. Do I stay here and plan on pharmacy school? Or do I take a chance on a position that seems a better fit for what I thought I wanted to do, even though I may learn that it isn’t what I want at all, and I do want to go back to school? Do I make the decision to uproot my life again?
Here are the things I must do between today and tomorrow.
Today:
go to the grocery store and pick up frozen strawberries, cream cheese, sour cream, jello, french fried onions, green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and canned cat food (one of those is not for Thanksgiving dinner).
I can register for classes tomorrow. Unfortunately, the three classes I need to get into UNC's program are either full or not offered. However, Aquamama and I were searching the web this morning, and we found this program. It's shorter than UNC's program, and also in New England. So, for that one, I need a psychology course. So, guess what I'm taking next semester?
Saturday night I went out with friends of mine. Goal: to drink girly drinks. Place: Rum Runners. (Fun fact: there's a scene in the Nickelback video for "Rockstar" where that building is seen in the background.) So, we're there having a good time, much to the amusement of the woman sitting near us, there to celebrate her 7th wedding anniversary. In fact, at one point they played some beach music, and she grabbed my hand and we shagged. (Do click the link. It's not what you think.) Or she did. I have no idea how to shag. Although I was told I did a reasonable impression of one.
Every year, the High School in my town has a band competition. Part of the "Band Day" is a parade through downtown. The bands line up in front of my house. Last year they surprised me and I was almost late for a volunteer thing. This year I was ready and got to watch. The boys watched too. At one point, I took Orion outside to watch, and he growled at the bands as they walked by. Other pictures can be found here.
I did not get the position. I am extremely disappointed. They still want to talk with me about positions in the region and mentioned Hampton Roads, VA.
That's not going to happen.
Oh, and please don't give me the "everything works out the way it should" line. I will kick you.
Last night I decided to join NaBloPoMo. The idea is that I am to post every day. I joined because I've gotten away from blogging, and this may be the kick in the pants I need. Also, it may give me to chance to do a few essay-type entries, rather than "You know what's weird?"
Of course, I don't mean today. Today I am anxiously awaiting a phone call. It's for a job that I applied for, in another city, with my current company. I want to get it. I feel like I've been in Raleigh long enough. I'd like to go somewhere else. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me. I think I have a reasonable chance of getting it.
Nor did I run off with a carnie, as was the rumor at work.
Yes, I did spend a good 10 days at the NC State Fair. Running the Turkey Shoot. (We now have a new sign. Is much better. Go me!) (Also, we do not shoot turkeys. You win a turkey. A frozen turkey.) I haven't finished running numbers yet, but indications are that it went well and I most likely met my goal, fundraising-wise.
Then I spent a few days recuperating. Tonight I'm selling tickets at the Haunted House. Tomorrow I shall finally vacuum my house so that it no longer looks like I've been stabling horses in there. (Turkey Shoot has hay. Hay gets caught in pants that are cuffed because even though one is spending days surrounded by fried insert-any-food-you-can-think-of, one's pants are becoming too big. One comes home very late after 12-14 hour day, forgets about hay, takes pants off, spilling hay all over bathroom. Cats spread hay throughout house. Repeat 10X.) Also tomorrow: getting ready to go to Atlanta for the weekend.
Oh, but on the exciting front, I have a follow-up phone interview tomorrow for that position in Chicago. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
I've been busy at work (so very very strange!) and with the Turkey Shoot, so I've not been around much.
I may or may not be going to Atlanta the weekend after the Turkey Shoot.
I want to buy Dodi. She's up for lease, and there is a lease-to-own option, but her price goes up $2,000 in January. And I can't have the rest of it by then. But, I've never fallen for a horse like this before. She needs some work, but she's young, which is why she's cheap. However, she moves well, which is what you want to look for.
Woke up at 2AM this morning. I'm not sure what woke me up, but I probably wouldn't have been quite as awake if Orion hadn't jumped 3 feet when I pet him.
After going back to sleep, I woke up again to a very strange sound. I couldn't figure it out, and then I realized it was rain. Rain!
I have 530 T-shirts in my car.
Bud cracks me up.
OK. That's about all I can think of. For now, anywa.
I had my first Turkey Shoot related freak-out today. It was of the "OMG! I can't get it all done!" type. Which, I can get it all done. I shall list what I still need to do.
Order targets (we have enough to get started with. I've requested quotes.)
Laminate the colored targets (groups shoot by target color).
Buy passes (am getting check tonight).
See if any Jaycees want to buy a shirt.
Shift captain training.
Check gun locks.
Hang new sign.
Buy snacks/drinks for manpower.
Figure out why my keys don't work.
Everything else is ordered and ready to go. So, not so bad really.
In other news, I rode Dodi yesterday. Now, a TB/Percheron cross has always been my dream horse. She was fabulous. Sweet, willing, although a bit slow to pick up things. She's still a baby, so she's got lots of growing/training yet to do. I may change the horse I lease.
We had a fabulous time. Hilton Head is wonderful. You should go. We spent time on the beach (amazing beaches!), kayaked, went on a dolphin cruise, toured Savannah, GA, and basically just hung out.
A few months ago, my company put out an internal request for people to work on a big project in Chicago. I applied, but never heard anything, so I put it out of my mind.
They called me today. I have a phone interview on Friday.
(Apologies to Stew for stealing this page from her book.)
So, thanks to a recent ego boost, I decided to try the online dating thing again. I signed up for the smiley faced one, because, well, I haven't tried it yet. It's going OK. Nothing has really come of it yet, but I'm talking with one guy that I'm interested in. Then there's this other guy. He seems nice enough, and is into horses, so I figured, "What the heck?' He would like to become a dairy farmer, and he was telling me that he thinks that's what's scaring women away. I was all, "Cows are cool! Goats are cooler! I could have a horse!" Nothing to be taken seriously, because, well, we've only talked over e-mail, so it's not like I'm planning for the future or anything here.
His response?
"Being a part of a dairy business is not to be taken lightly. Life on a dairy farm will change and affect you whether you are an active participant in the business or not.... Milking cows is not a job or a career but rather frequently refered (sic) to as a lifestyle or way of life... 24 Hours/Day, 365 Days/Year. My looking and smelling like what comes out of a cows backside mixed in with the smell of sour milk is the least what is to be expected. Oh, another good thing to mention to consider... Cows get milked twice daily... Approximately every 12 hours."
Uh, OK. Later in the letter he says, "Dairy farming is unique, for all the hard work I think I like what it has to offer for myself and a family."
Here's the thing. I don't know that I want to have kids. Meaning, I'm leaning towards no. I am not saying definitely no because things change, but as of this point, I don't want kids. (I'm not sure I've explicitly stated that here before.) I like kids, don't get me wrong, but I really like when they go home with their parents.
(I have already formulated extensive plans for corrupting my nephew.)
It seems clear to me that I need to tell this guy, "Hey, yea, this isn't going to happen." Do I have an obligation to tell him that the whole dairy farming as a way of life thing is a bit much after say, a week and a half of e-mailing? That things might go better for him if he maybe let that go, just a bit? That no one has to make any life decisions based upon a few e-mails? In other words, chill out?
Two weeks ago I had talked about how I felt some mounting rage. It subsided, but I still brought it up at my next appointment. We talked about what had caused it and how I had handled it. After our discussion, my doctor said, “I’m proud of you for how you dealt with that.”
Of course, I now want a T-shirt that says, “My psychiatrist is proud of me.” It would get people wondering, don’t you think?
This weekend I headed down to Atlanta to see a friend. I’d been teasing him that as far as I knew, Atlanta had an airport, MARTA trains, and an office of my company. He insisted that there was more to the city.
Unfortunately, he ended up having to work on Saturday down at Callaway Gardens. We headed down there at 0’dark thirty. I dropped him off and headed out to see what there was to do- he had several long breaks. After the recon, I headed back to the Gardens to check them out.
The first thing I went to see was the raptor show. (Oh, did I mention it was 8 million degrees out with 90,000% humidity? I didn’t? Well, it was. There was no shade where the show was.) The first bird was a Great Horned Owl named Juniper. If any of y’all know Orion, well, she was the bird equivalent. Opinion on everything. Very talkative. The next bird was a Red-tailed hawk. I forget his name. At the end of his segment, the trainer told him, “Home”. He flew off in another direction, which prompted her to say to him, “That’s not home. I don’t know what that is.” He wouldn’t come back, so she sent the other trainer after him. They couldn’t catch him, so the show was cancelled. I found this all very amusing. Of course, I was working on about 3 hours sleep, so that may have been part of it. But the hawk was all, “Road trip!”
That afternoon I visited the butterfly pavilion. A butterfly landed on this six year old girl near me, and she said, “It’s not even one of the pretty ones.” Never satisfied, that kid.
That afternoon we went to see The Bourne Ultimatum. Perhaps it would have made more sense had I seen the first two. That would not have excused the shaky camera work, however.
Sunday we checked out Five Points and went to Stone Mountain. We did not hike up (still with the stifling heat), but I did see the carving of the Confederate Generals. Well, kinda. There were trees in front.
The story ends with Myspace confusion, as they so often do.
Over the past few days I've noticed that I have had to work very hard to contain rage. I am not sure how much sense this will make, but I can feel the anger. I'm not angry about anything, just angry. I don't even know what brought it on. Things have been stressful lately, but I've tried to remove myself as much as possible. I have a doctors appointment next Friday, but if it doesn't get better by Monday, I'll be calling him sooner.
My new bed was delivered Friday. Love! I’ve upgraded to a queen size. The cats were confused when Cdub and I moved the old bed into the guest room, but they adjusted well and slept in there with me on Thursday night.
This means that I now have an actual guest room. This is good news for Phoebs and Angeler- neither one of them will have to sleep on the floor in September.
Friday night Stew and I went to see Waitress. It was excellent. You should see it. Although Stew did cry through the entire movie. I didn’t think it was that sad. Except for Adrienne Shelly.
Saturday was Habitat. I was working on putting up siding. I was up on the third level of scaffolding when I realized I was dizzy and nauseated. I got down and started drinking lots of water. Luckily, it was about 20 minutes from the end of our shift, and we had put most of the siding up while the other group still didn’t have their door up.
That night, we went to Downtown Live to see Night Ranger. Don’t go see Night Ranger. They were awful. We left after 3 songs and moved on to Tir Na Nog to see Walrus and then hit The Pour House to see some band that had a cowbell. Both of those bands? Good. Night Ranger? Bad.
I received my copy of Retired Racing Greyhounds for Dummies on Friday. While it has reinforced that I do want a greyhound, it has also made me realize that now is not the right time. I don’t have the time needed to properly train a dog; too much is going on right now. I have vacation coming up, the Turkey Shoot is gearing up, and then there’s this whole work thing.
Also, I probably shouldn’t ask my landlord to reconsider the dog thing at the same time I have to tell her that I locked myself out of the house and had to break in through the storm door, which now needs to be fixed. (This happened at 0645 on Saturday. I had to be somewhere at 0700. Oh, and I didn’t call my landlord because my phone was safely locked up inside the house.)
Saturday I had a cookout. I was out running errands, picking up stuff (I have lots of Heineken. Come over!) when I got a call. Well, I didn’t get it- I got the VM when I got home. It was an acquaintance of mine, saying that she’d heard about the party from someone else and could she come too? The phrase, “I am unabashedly inviting myself,” was used. I called the person who had told her about the party and that she should see if she could come, all “WTF? I’m trying to keep the party small. Don’t invite people.” The self-inviter did not come, but did send me a somewhat nasty text message, which, way to get invited to the next one. Except no.
Note: if the person who had told her about the party had called me and said, “Can so-and-so come with me?” I would have had no problem with it. It was the calling me up and inviting oneself that I had a problem with.
One of the errands I ran was to the mall, where the Triangle Greyhound Society was having an event. I met dogs, I played with dogs, I talked with owners, and now I really, really want one. And I don’t see my landlord letting that happen.
Or, I cannot make a decision, so I am turning to the internet.
I need new bedding for the new bed. Target has some on sale, and I was going to order it, but now I am confused. Do I order the light blue duvet cover and shams and match it with brown sheets and bedskirt, or do I go monochromatic with the blue? Or monochromatic, but then add brown accents? Or should I just forget the Target stuff and go with this?
The walls in my bedroom are brown with a faux suede finish. (HATE! To change it, I'd have to sand the entire room, which, also HATE!). Maybe even a dark taupe- there's quite a bit of grey in the walls. Taupe walls + hardwood floor + unfinished wood closet doors= need to add some color to the room with the bedding.
Oh, and when you're done with that, I need suggestions on a book to pick for book club in September. It must be available in paperback and be less than 350 pages.
Monday I had a riding lesson, and for the second time in a month I had a major anxiety attack while on Sandi. She got a bit upset by another horse, and it lead to my getting scared. It also forced Heather and I to work on emergency dismounts, which we have been putting off for years now. I spent the rest of the lesson getting on and off of the horse. I am more comfortable with an emergency dismount now, but still need to work on it.
Tuesday I went to Pub Quiz with Stace. We won third place. Well, with Danny, who was sitting next to us at the bar, so we made him part of our team.
Wednesday was the Fourth of July Turkey Shoot. (Note: You can only win a T-shirt at the 4th of July shoot). I spent all day at the fairgrounds. We hung out, had a cookout, made some money, and watched the fireworks from the top of the building. Which involved climbing up and down the rickety ladder.
Thursday was exciting- I cleaned the fridge and did laundry. Funny part: I was talking to mom as I cleaned the fridge, so she heard my exclamation of, “I don’t remember eating that.” She found this amusing, but when you live alone, there’s a lot of room in the fridge for storage, so…
Monday night I was supposed to fly into Atlanta so that I could attend a training course on Tuesday. When I got to the airport, I learned that my 7PM flight had been cancelled. (No I didn’t call first. Shut up.) They put me on the next flight out, which didn’t leave until around 8:30. However, that flight was delayed. When I asked the gate agent how long it was delayed, she said, “It might take off around 11. That’s what they’ve told me.”
I called our travel agency to see if I could get another flight out. (After arriving in Atlanta, I was supposed to take the MARTA to where I was staying. It’s about a 45 minute ride. So, I would have gotten to the hotel around 2-ish.) There was a Delta flight at 0600, so I booked that, went home, and went to bed.
(Actually, there was completely unrelated drama that I had to deal with while in the airport, and the delays and all made for a stressful situation.)
I woke up a 0330. Orion was not expecting the alarm to go off then and jumped about 10 feet off the bed. Was at the airport by 0430. Through security by 0440. No coffee at the airport until 0500. We lined up at Starbucks.
I was at our Atlanta office by 0830, in plenty of time for the training. Back at the Atlanta airport by 5:30 PM. I was supposed to take a 9:30 flight, but they put me on standby for the 7 PM flight. I was able to get on it, and was home by 10:30.
Yesterday I got a bonus at work. I was all, “I will buy a bag!” “I will buy more shoes!” “I could put it towards a saddle.”
Then my back twinged, and I remembered that I really need a new mattress. So, the money will go towards that. I’m planning on getting a queen. I don’t suspect that that means the cats will no longer sleep curled up against me- I think that is most likely not a space issue.
So, it’s been a bummy week. Nothing in particular, just bummy. When I have weeks like this, I get the desire to either
move to a new place. A completely different town. Just gather my things and head out. Right now, the places on my list all have snowy winters. Which I moved here to get away from. But apparently now miss.
Or
get a dog. Right now, the preferred breed is a greyhound.
I realize those things are not remotely related. I have no idea why those are the two things that I become obsessed with. I mean, on the one had, a new place would be interesting. New people, new favorite places. But then again, it took me about 4 years to feel settled here. And then the dog thing. I love dogs. But they are a lot more work then cats. And there’s still the possibility of traveling for work. Which means I’d have to pay for a kennel. Oh, and also, according to my lease I can’t have a dog.
So, one of the solutions is more feasible (new town!) but one is easier and could be accomplished sooner (dog!). What to do, what to do.
Friday night a friend called me and asked me what my plans were. What I said, “Not really anything.” Actual answer, “I was going to clean the bathroom.” So, I didn’t clean the bathroom that night. I met some friends for dinner and then we went to see Knocked Up. Which is very funny and I enthusiastically recommend it. Way more entertaining than cleaning a bathroom.
Saturday AM I did the Race for the Cure. I love it, partially because the neighborhood we walk through really gets into it. They set up sprinklers to walk through, make signs cheering us on, and there’s usually a brigade of people with SuperSoakers.
That afternoon I took a nap and ran some errands. Then I went out to celebrate a friend’s 25th (!) birthday.
Sunday I started laundry and cleaning the house before heading out to do Adopt-a-Highway. At one point, I bent over to pick up a water bottle. I realized the bottle was covered with ants. I looked down to see that I had stepped into a nest of fire ants. So, if you were driving down Wake Forest Road Sunday afternoon and saw a girl hopping around with one bare foot while flogging her leg with a sock, hi! Luckily, I reacted quickly and didn’t get too bit up.
Finally got home around 6 (more errands). I finished cleaning the house (including bathroom!) at around 7.
I’ve done it again. I have completely overextended myself. My planner? You should see it. It doesn’t even have the volleyball schedule in it, mostly because I don’t have the volleyball schedule yet. Oh, and volleyball starts tonight. Plus, now I’m increasing my riding schedule (note: that is a good thing), I’ve got Jaycee crap all this weekend, all next weekend, and then the weekend after that. The last week of the month I spend a day in Atlanta (I fly in the night before), have volleyball and riding, and then head up to Richmond. (The Richmond thing is also good.)
Also overwhelming? I am manpower chair for a huge project the Jaycees are running this month. I am having a very difficult time getting people to help. I just had someone back out of everything she volunteered for except for the fun thing (not uncommon for said person. Not known for doing projects involving labor, but shows up for all the parties.). When I told her I didn’t need her for anything, she wrote back “Thank you so much! I am doing manpower for (another upcoming large project) so I feel your pain.” No, clearly you don’t, or you wouldn’t have cancelled. Ask Aquamama about the wonderful things I was saying to you through the computer.
Regular readers of this blog (Hi regular readers!) know that I do this on occasion. So, now you have an assignment. Next May, one of you remind me not to sign up for volleyball.
On Thursday when I got into work, I had an e-mail from Cdub. It was forwarded from one of her co-workers, who was looking to get rid of tickets to Sweet Charity (starring Molly Ringwald!). I believe my answer to her was, "You should have called me! I didn't get this until today. I would have loved to go!" It turned out the tickets were still available. The seats were excellent, and the show was really funny. I wasn't actually very familiar with the show- it's funny and smart. You should see it.
It's a good thing that we enjoyed the show, because we went out to dinner beforehand and got some of the worst service we had ever gotten. The waiter took our drink orders, walked away, and didn't come back for our dinner orders until the drinks were ready, 10 minutes later. I even tried to stop him after he brought water over, but he ran off. We finally ordered, the food (as usual at this place) was excellent. We ate, our plates were cleared at 7:25. At 7:40 we still did not have our check. When I finally managed to flag the waiter down (he spent a good bit of time evading us), I told him to bring the check, as we had tickets to a show. He did not get a good tip. (He probably realized we weren't happy, as it was the manager who finally brought us the check.) I was not happy.
Saturday we volunteered at Operation Sharehouse. I love volunteering there- there's a tangible result to your work (we packaged over 5,000 meals). They also allow (and encourage) children as young as 5 to participate- we had several little ones working with us- which I also like.
Afterward was errands.
Today, I headed out to the Capital Dressage Show to volunteer as a ring steward. Ring steward keep track of the competitors and also get to check bits and spurs after the ride. (Translation: I stuck my hands (with gloves on) into the mouths of horses I'd never seen before.) It was a nasty rainy day today (and also the 3rd day of the show), so we had a lot of scratches. Most people went early- we can't force them to, but if they are ready, they may. Afterwards I went through the trade show- I needed new gloves and some boot socks. When I went to purchase them, I learned that the tack shop was giving 10% off to volunteers. Yay!
I was supposed to have a riding lesson at 3, but after standing out in the rain all morning, I wasn't feeling it.
Last Friday, I went out to Cat’s Cradle to see Martin Sexton. I’d never heard of him, but it sounded like fun. He is very talented and did an amazing acoustical “Folsom Prison Blues”. The end of the concert turned into a bit of a revival, but I’ll forgive him that.
Saturday was the Tiki Party. I dragged Stewie along, and at this party, where she knew no one but me, she met people who live 2 blocks away from her. We also had the pleasure of telling people we met through our blogs.
Sunday I did yardwork and cleaned. It was most exciting.
Yesterday Stewie, Aquamama, the British co-worker, Stewie’s ex-roommate, his girlfriend, and I went to play Pub Quiz at the Saucer. We totally kicked ass, and won a $50 gift certificate. To be used at the Saucer next Tuesday, and next Tuesday only. It’s a racket!
In case any of you are wondering, I am at this very moment driving down to get Aquamama and the kids, as her car is broken down. Or, at least that's what I told the guy I was on a date with.
This would be the second date. Well, not really a date. Get-together? We haven't been on what I would consider a date.
He's a smart, funny, nice guy. Also painfully shy. Which means I have to do a lot of the nudging. Am tired of it. Maybe it's a confidence issue? I don't know. I do know that when he finally called today, after I told him "You asked me out again, nary a word about it since. You are interesting and I'd like to get to know you better," I told him I was going to the mall (Macy's had a duvet on sale. Really good deal.) He agreed to meet me there. We walked around the mall for a while and then were heading up to Frankie's (they have arcade games, putt-putt, etc.) On the way, I called Aquamama and told her I was bored out of my freaking mind. Because I was.
She called with the fake emergency. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood to hang out today, I don't know. She's all for giving him another chance, because the first time we met, I had a good time (oh, and 2 beers. Coincidence?). I think I will, but I'm not going to push for it.
Last weekend I volunteered at the Downtown Raleigh Home Tour. Afterwards, I went and toured some of the homes with a friend of mine. Said friend is Irish. We got to talking about Boston, and she said, "I've been to Boston. I have relations there." I pondered for a minute, wondering if I should say anything. "Just so you know," I said to her, "In the US, we say 'relatives'. 'Having relations' is a euphemism for sex." Response: "Really? I'm sure I've said that before! Why has no one said anything?"
Things I learned on the home tour:
People who buy $950,000 condos are apparently so enamored of large walk-in closets that they don't care that the bedrooms are noticeably smaller than they could be due to said closets.
Spending $350,000 on a condo does not mean that you get hardwood floors. Laminate*, baby!
You can also spend $244,000 on a condo where the bedroom has no windows. Oh, and the hallway and kitchen have laminate floors.
However, it is possible to take a condo built in the 80s and update it so that it is my absolute favorite house on the tour.
Also, last night I went before the Jaycee board to present my resume. I was approved as the 2007 Turkey Shoot Chair. Which, yay, 2007 Turkey Shoot Chair! And also, holy crap, 2007 Turkey Shoot Chair!
*I have no problem with laminate floors. It's just that in that price range**, I'd want hardwood.
**I am totally pretending I could ever afford something in that price range.
Early last week, a friend of mine e-mailed me to see if I wanted to go to a speed dating event with her. I hemmed and hawed and then decided to talk it over with Stewie, the voice of reason. Stew: "What else are you going to be doing?" Me: "Nothing, really." Stew: "So go. What's the worst that could happen?" (That's her favorite question, actually. Sometimes it's not even rhetorical.)
So, I went, if only for the $2 domestics (except for Yuengling, which, when did PA secede?), $3 imports, and $3 well drinks. I ended up having a good time. Most of the guys were nice guys, but not people I'd date. One of them replied to everything I said with, "Right on. Right on." He also answered my question of, "Did you grow up around here?" (Sidenote: Most of the people around here did not in fact grow up around here.) with, "What do you mean by around here?" Um...
Then there was the guy who told me he played football in college. I asked him what position, and he said, "Cornerback." He then challenged me about what a cornerback is, and was impressed when I knew. (What? Girls can understand football?) I asked him if his favorite NFL team was the Falcons, and he said, "How'd you guess?" "You told me you were from Atlanta. It was a reasonable starting point."
The last guy I "dated" was drunk enough to be slurring his words. He started out by telling me that the last people he met through speed dating were liars. Then, as an added bonus he told me how he didn't like my friend (the one that I came with). He did know we were friends. It turned out that he is a recruiter, so he spent the next 3 minutes incredulous that I am a PE. "That's one of the hardest tests to pass! Do you know how hard it is to find a PE?" He repeated the last question several times, until I told him that I worked with several and that many of my friends are also PEs, so no, I don't know how hard it is to find one.
I talked to one of the guys that I had circled "yes" to afterward, and he started telling me a story about how his friend's girlfriend had moved to Chicago. They ended up breaking up, and then he proceeded to tell me all about the crush he had on her, even though he didn't know it. He said, "But I'm over it now." Me: "Are ya sure?" Him: "Why did I talk about that?"
It turns out that only one of the guys that I checked yes to also checked yes for me, which is fine. The ones I did pick wasn't because I was really interested in a relationship (because, hello, 5 minutes?)with them, but I thought I might enjoy seeing again.
It was an interesting experience, but I'm not convinced I do it again. I can meet strange freaky guys and guys who aren't interested in me for free on any given day.
I got up at 0400 yesterday morning to catch an 0615 flight. For future reference, bad idea. (Although, the travelers at that hour are familiar with the self-check kiosks.) The couple in front of me at security had a cat with them. They had to take the cat out of the carrier and carry him through the metal detector with them. My cats would not have been nearly as easily controlled. Not that I ever plan on flying with them. (Like the other passengers want Orion in the cabin, yowling the entire time.)
I took MARTA to our office here. This office is better than my office for the following reasons:
within walking distance to restaurants and public transportation
no cockroaches falling from ceiling
When I was ready to leave, I called my hotel. They run a shuttle. I don’t have to have a car. There is an entire shopping center across the street from the hotel, so more restaurants within walking distance. Most excellent.
Oh, and when I was packing I couldn't decide between 2 shirts, so I threw them both in. This worked out well when I stained one of them while ironing. (Stupid hotel irons!)
Ticketing counter,RDU. 6 open self-service kiosks; three people in line in front of me. To the woman before me, “Is there a reason no one is using those?” “Um, yeah, there’s no one there to check you in.” “OK, but they are self-service kiosks.” I pass them.
Ticketing agent , putting the baggage claim ticket on my bag,: “You’re going to Spokane?” “No, I’m going to Columbus, GA.” “I try to guess what the airport designation is. I’m always wrong.” (Note: Spokane is GEG. Columbus, GA is CSG.)
Atlanta, connection delayed 5 times. I stop watching passengers and pick up my book. I look up, a glance. I see him from the back; I never see his face. It is familiar, a reminder of the past, a jump in my chest. Most likely not him, but what if it was?
3 hours after scheduled departure we take off. Rental car clerk can't find mileage for car. Nor can she find gas. "Just bring it back as close as you can to what it was."
When my parents were down for Easter (I was a stop on their trip to FL), my dad told me he had three weeks of timeshares that had to be used before October and asked me if I wanted one. I thought about it for roughly a nanosecond before saying yes.
I called Angeler, my favorite traveling companion, to see where we should go. Our first choice was San Francisco, but nothing was available. So, we will be going to Hilton Head. Beach! Golfing! Savannah, GA less than an hour away! Oh, and I don’t even need a plane ticket.
Huzzah! Friday night I went to the Ren Faire with Little Matty. He wanted to see Albannach. First there was drinking of mead, then an “Acrobatic Equestrian Show”. Two of the performers got into an argument (the one flipping from the Belgian and landing on a pony didn’t like how the Belgian was being lead. The guy leading the Belgian stormed off.). It was awesome! The band was great, but we didn’t stay for the entire show, as it was cold.
Saturday I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned because my parents, Goose, and his girlfriend were staying at my house on the way to Florida. Sunday I made breakfast, saw them off, and then did my taxes.
Oh, and my dad offered me a week at a timeshare, so now I am planning a vacation. First step: figuring out where to go.
I was successful with the coffe and had some this morning. However, I walked upstairs with my car keys and not my office keys, so it seems to have not helped.
In other news, I will be joining Weight Watchers next week. A co-worker and I are doing it together- we can go to meetings during lunch.
This week, I am having trouble setting up the coffee. Well, actually it goes back to Friday. Friday (well, actually Thursday night) I forgot to put a key ingredient in the coffeepot. Water. Forgot the water. Sunday I set up the coffee before Cdub and I went to see Delirium. But, I forgot to set it to “auto” so no coffee Monday morning. Today, I did all that, except I forgot to check when the timer was set for, so coffee was brewed. At midnight.
Anyway, the point is that for the last 3 business days, I have had no coffee until after arriving at work. Which leads to things like this:
Watergirl: I just lost my keys.
British Co-worker: That’s not good.
British Co-worker: Wait, just lost them as in 30 seconds ago when you came through the door you had them and now you don’t?
Watergirl: That would be correct.
I fixed my storm door this weekend. It hasn't latched since I moved into the house. I took the lock apart, cleaned the crud off, and WD-40'd it. Now, I can sit in the living room and have the front door open. The cats can look out the storm door. Today, we were all sitting in the living room- Ri on my lap, Jasper lying on the rug. A backhoe drove down the street. Jasper ran to the window to see it.
TRgirl's baby shower was, well, a baby shower. The cool part was that she and Randy took me to the driving range the night before. I am now in the market for golf clubs.
Oh, TRgirl has painted the baby's room as an ocean. There is sky and waves. Except I thought it was sky and mountains. Which lead to this exchange:
We had our highest point total at Pub Quiz tonight, and were still one point out of fourth place. Which we would have tied for if someone had believed me when I told them what a calorie was.
Which is why I haven’t written much. So, here are some random thoughts:
The more I drive my new car, the more I love it.
Of course, I am writing this from the service area, because one of the seat belts is broken. I am also getting a second key.
Did you see The Amazing Race on Sunday? They had these wicked cool bomb sniffing rats. The rats were huge. I mean, for rats. Bigger than a Chihuahua. I kind of want to get one, and only partially because I want to see the cats react to a prey animal that is their size.
Also on Sunday I went for a walk with 2.0 and the Boo. I have not seen them in forever. It’s nice to connect with friends again.
This weekend is TRgirl’s baby shower. While I am very excited about becoming an aunt, I found Babies ‘R Us terrifying. Which must have shown, because the employees kept asking me if I needed help. When I was done, I had to go to AutoZone to clear my head.
So, the new vehicle means that I will not be buying a place later this year. I made that decision for several reasons. First of all, I love the house and neighborhood I am in. I'm not ready to give up on it yet. Secondly, I'm now not sure I'll be here (in this city) for 3 more years. Thirdly, about 3 weeks ago several rows of townhomes in a new development went up in flames. From that I learned that the building codes do not require that the firewall extend through the attic. Because, as we all know, fire never spreads through the attic.
As far as the work situation goes, I am essentially being blamed for something that is not my fault, and even if it were would actually point to a whole host of other problems. Also, and even more frustrating, is that some of the people I worked with are telling my boss the exact opposite of what they told me. Which shouldn't surprise me, and yet always does.
But, I have been given the chance to start anew. I've got a new project to work on, and even though I've been told that I really have to make this one work (I have such power for a peon!) it is a project that is actually in line with my experience, which should help.
(Oh, and if I ever tell you that I've never done something and I don't know what I'm doing, what I mean is that I've never done it and I don't know what I'm doing.)
So, anyway, the work frustration should be over soon. Which will give me more free time to be frustrated about other things. Like the fact that I cannot find a wallet that I like.
If you are meeting with your boss and your psychiatrist on the same day, meet with your boss first. That way, when the meeting with your boss goes the opposite of how you thought it would, you can talk to your shrink about it.
If you can't do that, make sure your shrink tells you to look out for yourself because there is no loyalty in the business world.
So, it looks like I’m not going to lose my job. Which, good. I also found out yesterday that many people on the project team are surprised that I’m the one being let go. No one is disappointed with my work. I’ve also realized that the kind of experience that I need I won’t get in Raleigh, so I have talked to some people about a possible transfer. It looks like they will have the work, the question is can I be put on the right teams so that we both benefit.
I was doing the whole networking thing yesterday, and was talking to our I&C guy on the phone. I told him what was going on, and then I told him I was looking for design experience, so if he heard anything let me know. And I told him I was willing to travel. He said, “That’s not the tra- word you want to be using. “
So, now it’s a wait and see. Which we all know is something I excel at.
My project manager is in town today. At 5:30 PM he called me into his office. He said, "After this week, you're going to go home, Jack and Josiah are going to come back, and you are not." I'm told it's a budget problem. I'm not sure I believe that. I was enjoying the project, I was enjoying working with the project team. I've been learning a lot. I've gotten to like it down here. I was completely gobsmacked. I think that I will probably lose my job. My boss had planned on me being on this project until the beginning of May. Now, I will have no work. I'm told they are trying to find something, but I don't know that they will. I liked this job. I liked the people. It's all over now.
Oh, and as an added bonus, I've been avoiding a situation at home. The travel has made avoidance easy. Now, I'm going to have to face it, somehow.
I haven't been writing much because my days are like this:
Wake up. Work out. Work. Work. Work. Eat dinner. Hotel room. Sleep.
Except for the one night where we did stadiums. My right quad was sore to the touch for the next two days.
But, on the weekends, I get my own car. And I can do stuff! Saturday morning a group from work met up to play Ultimate. Why did no one tell me how much fun it is. All y'all are fired.
It's fun, but difficult to play, and there is much running. So, I'd like to play more, but I really need to get into better shape.
Afterwards, I headed out to Orlando for some outlet shopping. Well, mostly to just get in the car and drive, but the outlet shopping was a good excuse, and I knew the guys wouldn't come. I didn't get much, but no big deal there.
Today I met up with our PA and her sister here to go riding. Her sister has 2 Tennessee Walkers, and I got to ride Spanky. Sweet horse- I'd not ridden a gaited horse before, and it is very nice. He is for sale, but is not a dressage horse. Also, I can't really afford a horse right now.
So, last night I almost wrote an entry telling y'all how I was in fact taking the boys to Gainesville, because my PA had found me an apartment.
Well, good thing I didn't.
She called back today. First, because the people renting the place had decided that they could not, in fact, take credit cards. (Yesterday they had told her we could pay with the company card.) Then again because, oh, also, they wanted a $500 deposit for the cats.
Neither of these things were unreasonable, per se. What was unreasonable was that conditions kept being added. It make me uncomfortable, so I decided not to do it.
So, this weekend, we take the cats to VA.
My Uncle says he knows that I am not actually crazy, I just sound it lately.
I just got off of the phone with our project assistant. It is now looking like I won’t be heading to Gainesville for an extended stay. So far, the only furnished place she can find that will also take the cats is the extended stay hotel. Which puts us in one room together. For nearly three months. I don’t see it working. I’ve got one other possibility, but as of now it looks like the boys are going to my uncle’s. Which is, if nothing else, a shorter road trip.
First, Stewie and I picked nicknames for them. Jack is about 2 years younger than me, a native Vermonter. If he were a dog, he'd be a Jack Russel Terrier. Josiah is in the age group known as "my parents" (his son is Goose's age). He just transferred to Charlote from NoVa, but he is a native of Buffalo and huge Sabres fan.
So, Thursday some of the girls at work invited me to go to a wine bar on Friday. I told Jack that I'd not be doing happy hour with them. He decided he'd come with us (other guys were coming). Josiah came along as well. I had a wonderful time- I have not had much female interaction as of late. The boys looked bored.
They were bored. They didn't like the atmosphere, and Josiah is still complaining that he spent $12 on a glass of wine.
The girls were going to another bar. I gave the guys the keys to my rental car. Found some nice neighborhoods in Gainesville (I've mostly seen the college neighborhoods, which are as you would imagine.) We hung out and they dropped me off at my hotel.
Yesterday we went out to Cedar Key with another co-worker and his mom. We had lunch, walked around for a little bit, and then drove back. I enjoyed the town, but we didn't spend enough time.
After we got back, I took a nap. Then I went and hung out at Borders for a while. (The Barnes & Noble here has no cafe. And no couches. Is stupid.) Came back, read, watched TV, went to bed.
Josiah called me this morning (woke me up) to see if I wanted to go to breakfast. We went to breakfast, where the boys complained about how bored they were. I've not been bored at all. But then again, I've been known to spend entire weekends by myself.
Transferring. Which, by the way, has only been mentioned as a possibility. But still, I must worry about it. (Except for last night, when my computer crashed and I was worried about that. It’s fixed now, so no more worries on that front.) I’ve researched housing, and it’s more expensive down here (Gainesville is more reasonable than Orlando.) I love the Gainesville office, but I also love the Raleigh office.
Gainesville is a nice town. There is quite a bit to do. However, the Barnes and Noble does not have a café, so there goes one of my favorite activities. Once you get out of Gainesville, there is nothing. There is also no Sephora.
There is in Orlando. Which is a big town with lots to do, and probably fairly easy to entice people to visit. Even my parents go there. Of course, it’s larger, and there are the tourists, but the parks are south of the actual city. I’ve not been to that office, so I can’t say anything about it.
Yesterday morning I was all, “No! Not even considering it!” Yesterday afternoon, I was, “Wait, Gainesville would be nice.” This morning I’m, “Well, maybe Orlando would be OK.”
Project Assistant: printing off color brochures
Watergirl: Oh, a golf tournament!
PA: I’ll bring you one
WG: I can’t play golf. I can drive around in a golf cart and drink beer.
PA: I like to drive around in a golf cart.
WG: I like beer.
Other PA: That’s my girl!
Later:
Phone rings
Watergirl: Hello?
Flygt pump rep: Hi, it’s [Flygt pump rep]. What can I help you with?
WG: I’m looking for some pumps. Some teeny-tiny pumps. But I can’t find them using your software.
FPR: Well, how about we make them bigger? Just teeny pumps.
I’m back in Gainesville. It is cold here, which is unfair. I mean, if you’re going to send me to Florida, at least make sure it’s warm. I brought flip-flops! (On a barely related note, I need new flip-flops.)
While I’m down here, I have several things I need to do. I need to write up a final project report for a Jaycee project (CPG in Jaycee lingo). Most importantly, I need to catch up with some people I haven’t caught up with in a while.
I got an e-mail on my birthday from Caroline, and I still haven’t written back. She told me she was moving, but I don’t know to where.
I also got a Christmas card from Erica last week. She doesn’t have my new address, and the post office has been dreadful with the mail forwarding. I have no e-mail address for her, so I have to write her a snail mail letter.
This brings up an interesting point. I started this blog as a way of keeping up with people. I’ve not been doing a good job of that. So, if you read this and we haven’t talked in a while, leave a comment! Send me an e-mail! Also, my cell phone number hasn’t changed in 4 years.
Watergirl: So, a little while ago, I wanted to dye my hair brown.
Hairdresser: Instead, why don't you just stab me in the heart?
WG: See, when I was thinking of doing it, I was talking to someone, and I can't remember who, but I was telling them that I didn't want to do it myself, and they said, "Why don't you just call your hairdresser?" but I told them you wouldn't do it.
Hairdresser: See? You do know me!
Friday night I landed at RDU. Two of my friends picked me up, and we went out to dinner. They took me to an Italian restaurant near their house, and I've finally found good pizza in Raleigh. So good, in fact, that I briefly thought of moving back to that area, even though I hated it when I lived there.
As we were ordering, my friend started telling me about a dream he'd had. I looked at his wife and said, "Did he just say 'wombat'?" She confirmed that he had.
Once they dropped me off, it was difficult for me to refrain myself from running around the house yelling, "My couch! My bed! My kitchen!"
Cdub dropped the boys off yesterday. They spent a good portion of the day mad at me. I felt guilty that I hadn't been home, so I let them sleep with me. Around 3:30 AM, I woke up because I was being stared at. (Mom: Ha! Payback!) Jasper was standing over me. I realized I had a splitting headache, so I got up and took some Tylenol. When I got back into the room, Jasper was sound asleep. I had to go sleep on the couch because he was snoring.
Today I heard my co-worker, the one who is keeper of the car keys, say, at noon, an hour into a phone call, “No, I’m ok. I’ve got a can of peanuts I’m snacking on, plus I have some baby carrots.” I went over, got the keys, and took the other co-worker to lunch.
I am going home tomorrow. I am very much looking forward to it. I have plans with many of my friends, and I’ll get to ride, and I’ll get to see my boys. The boys I have here are not the same.
However, it does make it harder to avoid a situation I’ve been trying to avoid. A situation that has been bothering me for over a month now. I’ve been mostly successful at avoiding it, and I can do so for the next week without a problem. At some point I’m going to have to figure out either how to deal with it, or how to let it go. The biggest problem is that I feel like I’ve been made a fool of, all warning signs pointed to the eventual outcome, and I ignored them. To top it all off, I tried to salvage the situation and ended up saying things that I didn’t want to, things that were not necessarily true, but that I can’t take back. So, there’s an entire group of people that I am not yet ready to face.
On a less whiny note, I will be shopping for a new purse. Something large enough to hold a book and my iPod for when I travel, and yet small/stylish enough to be used as an everyday purse. Currently, I am carrying my Healthy Back Bag through airports and switching to another purse that I’ve packed in my suitcase. I’m trying to pack less. I left my brown boots home this time. I’ve missed them.
But, the problem with traveling with two male co-workers is that they do not understand that. At all.
It started off when I asked, “When are we going to lunch?” Answer, “I’m not hungry,” which is not what I asked. We finally did go (the not hungry one didn’t come, and I had to point out to him that he’d need to give me the keys) and I explained that 1:15 is way to late for lunch for me, and I have otherwise conformed my schedule to theirs, so I’d appreciate it if we could at least eat lunch earlier.
I came back to learn that I am losing the cube I sit in here, and will be relocated to the cube that serves as a library. So, not really a lot of room to work. Why would we want to make things easier on the girl working away from home 2/3 of the time? No reason to do that at all- she’s already proven she’ll put up with most anything. Except late lunches.
Friday night we headed out to an oyster bar for happy hour. Is there anything better than oysters and $0.99 Yuengling? I think not.
One of my co-workers (sidenote: must come up with nicknames for them. Since I will be spending most of my time over the next few months with them, they will probably make a few appearances.) headed down to Tampa. This worked, because I am allowed to rent a car for the weekends. So, one of our co-workers from here took two of us to St. Augustine. We did not go in the fort, which I would have liked. We did go to the beach, where we saw a woman with a pet monkey. (Probably a marmoset, but also maybe a squirrel monkey.)
Today, they went rollerblading. I walked. Tomorrow, back to the grind.
Hi. I am in Gainesville. It’s warm here, but not much warmer than Raleigh was. I took a cab to the airport this morning. He was late because he was looking for my street on the other side of town. (There is a similarly named road, albeit one that includes an entire extra word, on that side of town.) The dispatcher did ask me which street I was off of. That street is nowhere near where he was.
I just got off of the phone with someone at a competing company- I was providing a reference for a friend. As we ended the call, she said, “Well, you’re with the Raleigh office of (my company)? Are you happy with your current position?”
2006 has been a rough year for me. I’ve been focused on the wrong group of people, I’ve fallen for the wrong guys (2005 taste in men, come back!), been diagnosed with bipolar disorder (which forced me to face some things I didn’t necessarily want to), I killed a dog or a cat, I got a speeding ticket, I no longer have the best ankle break in the whole family, and now my new meds are giving me a funny taste in my mouth.
But!
There were some good things, some excellent things even. So, I present to you 10 things that prove in 2006 wasn’t actually a bust:
I met Stewie. Stewie is awesome. Y’all should meet her too.
Kristi, who is also awesome. And bonus, her husband rocks!
I found out I’m going to be an aunt. (Don’t tell TRgirl and Randy, but since I don’t plan on having kids, this means that I get to buy the noisy toys. I am so buying and stashing Annoy-the-crap-out-of-me Elmo. Until he’s 3. (My nephew, not Elmo.))
New job!
Ridiculous raise at new job.
I paid off my car.
Turkey shoot. I love the Turkey Shoot. Or, I love shooting things.
I started jumping again. (On horses. So, really, it’s the horse that’s jumping. But I do have to stay on.)
Therapy. Should have done that years ago.
Bruno and I won sixth place for the year at MacNair’s.
I hope y’all enjoyed your holidays. My Christmas was good. Quiet, lots of food. Saturday, TRgirl and Randy came out. We had lunch, hung out, did the gift exchange. I now have Cranium. Y’all come over and play! Bob, Steffie, and I saw Night at the Museum. Fun!
Christmas Eve we had breakfast at Steffie’s mom’s house. Bud: You had biscuits and gravy? I miss biscuits and gravy! (I did not actually eat the biscuits and gravy.)
Christmas morning I set my alarm because Peg wanted to open gifts before 10AM Mass. After we opened gifts, she said, “Do you mind if we go to Spanish Mass at 4? It will be less crowded.” Then, buffet lunch at the Best Western. After Mass, dinner with more of Steffie’s family, including the best banana pudding in the world. (I did not get the “no communion” reminder.) (Also, Spanish Mass was given by a priest from Africa. His Spanish was quite good.)
Yesterday, I drove back. Note from Peg: “Watch the speedometer!” No worries there.
Today, I am back at work. I am regretting backing out of the beach trip, even though I know it was the right decision. If I were to go, I’d get fed up and leave early anyway.
Update on me: Am now cleaning. This is a good sign. Unless I go too far with the cleaning and am scrubbing things with toothbrushes at 4AM.
Update on mom: We may be neck and neck in the hardware division. However, she has no coral in her leg, so I get some bonus points. They tried to put her cast on yesterday, but she couldn’t bend her ankle enough. I hope that they start PT early- I was doing PT for at least a month before I could put any weight on my leg. I’m a bit worried- she doesn’t sound well on the phone. She’s having trouble getting around, and dad went out and got her a wheelchair. I found the wheelchair great for going out, but didn’t use it in the house except for when I was doing laundry. Also, don’t let Goose drive. He will run your leg into things.
I had my annual review today. I was dreading it. I hate them. It went very well, much better than I expected. So that was good news. With a decent raise to boot!
Orion got tired of me rolling away from him this morning, so he decided to sleep on me. Orion is sleeping in his room tonight.
I leave tomorrow for VA. I’ll be there until Tuesday. TRgirl and Randy are coming out to Culpeper on Saturday. Peg and I will go to church at some point (not sure when yet) and Peg will remind me that I cannot take communion. Apparently she has this fear that I am going to rush Father Leo and demand the sacrament.
I still have 2 presents to buy. I’ll be doing that tomorrow morning.
Mom fell down the stairs and broke her ankle Sunday. Sunday night she told me, “I think I’ll be back to work by Wednesday.” Me: “Ha!” Yesterday she had surgery, and they discovered the break was worse than they thought. We are still waiting to see who wins. (Win: having more hardware than someone else. My entry is 2 plates, 15 screws, and a bone graft.)
Went to the Dr. yesterday. I need a new doctor. I will look for one once all this travel is over. He did adjust my meds, however.
I am doing better. Still not well. Thanks to everyone who has called or e-mailed.
We are going to see Flicka tonight. I am way too excited about this.
Yesterday was a bad day. An awful day. A black day. I called TRgirl, who said she would skip her party. I called Stewie, who said, "I am cancelling my date." I called TRgirl back and told her she didn't have to come (Stewie lives closer). I got an e-mail from another friend checking on me.
After I got home (flight delays!) Stewie came over, made dinner, and we watched 13 Going on 30, which was silly and fun and what I needed.
Today, I am better. Not completely, but I will be.
I leave to go back home tomorrow. I’m not sure I want to go. I’ve gotten to the point where I am feeling comfortable in this office. I’m in a routine. (Everyone who knows me is all, “Oh. There it is.”)
I think it also has to do with the fact that I am frustrated with my life at home. Frustrated with my friends. Frustrated with my house, and the crappy, torn-up yard. And the temporary microwave that I’ve had for over two months now because the built in one broke, and my landlords are insisting that a microwave with an exhaust fan and a light is a special order item, which, have they been to Lowes? I want the top of my baker’s rack back. It’s where I put my purse. It’s where I put the mail.
I’m not sure any of that matters, really, since I can’t have a dog where I’m at. But do I really want to move again? I don’t know. (No, I do know. I don’t want to move. Well, within the area I am in now. I could be open to moving to another state.)
I think in the end, that’s why the car thing bothers me so much. I’ve been looking forward to this as a semi-new beginning, and now it is less so, because I don’t get to go out and meet new people. There are new people in the office, but (and it could be a factor of the time of year) we aren’t doing a lot of socializing. So, I’m stuck with my two teammates, who still want to talk wastewater plants when we go to dinner. It’s not the change I’d hoped for.
PS: Boston Terriers are way better than French Bulldogs.
The situation from the other night has been resolved. Upon further reflection, I was not at fault, and the other party involved is refusing to accept causality. It was really the kick in the pants I needed to remove myself from a bad situation. And that’s all there is to say about that.
In other news, I did not tell y’all that last week, while dining at an Italian chain restaurant (sounds like Barraba’s), the waitress referred to me as my co-worker’s mother. He’s 15 months younger than I am. Way to talk yourself out of a tip!
The next day, at lunch (where I was the only female in the group), they handed him my credit card. We aren’t sure if that is worse for him, or for me.
I really want to get a dog, specifically a Boston Terrier. I’m not sure how Jasper feels about that. Orion loves dogs. Of course, first I need to stop with all the travel. Secondly, I need to clear it with my landlord. Thirdly, I need to research dog training, because there is nothing I hate more than an ill-trained dog.
I also need to start Christmas shopping. I tried to start last night, but the address I needed was at home. With all of the travel and stuff, Christmas is feeling like something I have to do. I’m not decorating, because I won’t really have time to take the decorations down. I don’t plan on sending out Christmas cards this year- I hope people don’t take that as a slight.
Birthday went well. Lovely day. Immediately after the Birthday ended (after midnight...) was spectacularly, mind-bogglingly bad. Still kinda reeling here.
I'm doing better- my boss is helping me out, as much as he can. Still sharing a car with 2 people. Luckily, the hotel is located near a major shopping area, and there are sidewalks all the way. So, I can walk to Target, walk to B&N, walk to some restaurants. Also? I found a delivery service that will deliver from numerous restaurants. Delivery fee is $4.95, but what can one do, really?
The lead that I am working for is both knowledgeable and patient. I am learning a lot from him, which is really the point anyway. The overwhelming majority of the project team have something to teach me. Well, actually, all of the project team does, because sometimes you need to learning what not to do is more valuable than learning what to do.
Even though my supervisor had told me on Thursday, "Don't worry about the car," I was called into a meeting with the project manager today. First, he told me that I had to set up twice daily meetings with my design lead, because this is my first design. Which is true, but I know that, am completely terrified of screwing up, and plan on spending a lot of time in his office.
Then he said, "I've heard rumblings about the car thing. What's going on?" I told him my concerns. Not only did he tell me that three of us have to share one car, he also threw the fact that he is letting me fly home this weekend in my face. Had I known that was a possiblity, I would have bought my own damn ticket.
I left the conference room where he was sitting, and I got so angry that I could not breathe. A colleague took me into his office to calm me down. He also said, "No project is worth getting this upset. No job is worth getting this upset."
He's right. I'm trying to see if I can get off this project. I like the people I work with, and I don't want to leave this company, but I can't do this. We've been told it's through March, but it may be through June or later. If I can't be taken off of this project, I will be using all downtime to find another job. Not in consulting.
First of all, the name tag they put up for me? Well, it's made of paper. And my name is spelled wrong. (I had been worried about the name tag. Like it signaled some sort of permanence.)
I have a Chrysler Sebring convertible. Cool car. No backseat, huge blind spot.
The hotel has mosaic floors in the elevator. I haven't been able to get a picture, because I haven't been alone in the elevator all day. I am not taking a picture of the elevator floor when other people are there. Also, there is a speaker for the TV in the bathroom. And a rectractable clothesline.
The good: Thanksgiving was very enjoyable. I spent it with Peg, Bobby, and Stephanie, and her family. I love her family, because they treat me as if they've decided, "Well, she's Bobby's family, so she's ours too!" As usual, we had way too much food. I still have some. Anyone want to come have some mincemeat pie? Friday, it was beautiful. Bobby was working, so Stephanie and I went for a drive. We had a destination in mind, but as we drove, we saw a sign saying "Winery now open!" We decided to go see. We turned, and proceeded to drive very far up a mountain, off of a paved road to a gravel road, past a sign that said, "End state maintenance", through a narrow gap between 2 barns, and past some cattle. There was, indeed, a winery. The wines were so-so.
Later that day, we saw more winery signs. This winery was more accessible, and the wines were better. I bought 3 bottles. We had lunch at a little cafe, and then we headed home. It was a really good day.
The bad: Yesterday, heading home, I hit an animal. I think it was a puppy. I tried to avoid it, but couldn't. I felt awful, and was thinking about that and not my driving, when I passed a sheriff's deputy. I looked at my speed, and knew it was over. I saw him hit his lights and flip a u-turn, so I just pulled over and waited for him.
My last speeding ticket was Thanksgiving weekend, 5 years ago.
The very ugly: I hung out with some friends last night, and drank way too much. I am still in the process of finding out what happened, because I have only vague memories.
The last time that happened? My 25th birthday.
Surprisingly, I am not hungover, having followed the Phoebs rule: Lots of water, eat a cookie.
I am off to VA (otherwise known as the land with no high-speed internet) to enjoy Thanksgiving with my great-aunt, my uncle, his wife, and her family. I've spent Thanksgiving with them for the last 5 years, and they have been 5 wonderful Thanksgivings.
When I mentioned that I wouldn't mind getting back in touch with my ex-boyfriend, I did not mean that I wanted to randomly run into some guy I used to date while at a party.
Watergirl: walks through office, eating a pickle**
Co-worker: That pickle smells funny.
Watergirl: Well, it tastes fine.
Co-worker: It really doesn't smell funny. You were supposed to call me a pickle-smeller. You ruined the joke.
*not that you really needed it
**I love pickles. These were left over from yesterday's lunch. I ate leftover fruit, too.
So, I belong to a community service organization. Our chapter is rather large- we've got about 230 members. I have run two projects for them, and have regretted doing each. There is a mentality that 2 projects cannot be scheduled on the same day. Which, for some of our larger projects, I can agree with. However, usually the reasoning is completely inane.
Case in point: I am running a second CPR class. We had many more people than could fill the 8 slots sign up for the first. I would prefer to hold it on December 9 (as would the instructor, who is donating his time, but that is apparently not something to consider), but our yearly installation banquet is that night. I have been asked to check with him about holding it on the second "since the training starts so early and I imagine the banquet will last pretty late). It would make for a long day."
First of all, 9AM is not "so early". 6 AM is "so early". I imagine most of these people are up by 9 most weekdays. And also, take a nap. That's what I do when I'm going to be out late.
I'm tired of everything being a freaking production. I'm tired of the cliques. I'm tired of it being just like high school, even though our average age is somewhere between 29 and 31. I wish I had not just renewed my membership.
First of all, I am back in Raleigh. For three entire weeks! Except when I go away for Thanksgiving.
And now, on Thanksgiving. I have been looking forward (for months now) to November 22. Because on November 22 I can get a new phone. Except that I just realized, that's the day before Thanksgiving. So I can't get a new phone. Because I want to have a phone that is working for travel. So I have to wait until that Saturday, after I get back.
I have decided that new phone will have Bluetooth, because the one thing I miss about having a landline is that I have lost the ability to walk around and complete other tasks (laundry, etc.) while talking on the phone. Because it is just not possible to cradle my cell phone in between my ear and my shoulder. So now talking on the phone is something that cannot be multi-tasked (Jasper: Yes it can! You can still pet me!), and that just doesn't work for me.
Friday night, Cdub came over so that we could go to dinner. I told her, "First I have to go vote." So, I took her to vote. Never say a night with me isn't fun.
After voting, we went out to dinner and then saw Borat. Very funny movie. Not a family film, however.
Saturday, we went to see the Monet in Normandy exhibit. Excellent exhibit. However, I always forget that the exhibit space there is tiny. One should not go one the weekends. One should take an afternoon off from work to go.
Sunday, I went and checked out an exhibit on the Terrorism in America. I did not know that German saboteurs had blown up munitions depots in NY and NJ before the US entered WWI.
After touring the exhibit, I sat in on this forum. Most interesting.
Every once in a while, I'm reminded why I like living here.
So, back in Charlotte. But this time, many of the project team members are here. Including the Design Manager. Who was actually able to tell me something about the Gainesville schedule. He even had a calendar. So, now I feel at least somewhat prepared.
Anyway, we all went out to dinner tonight, and since Enterprise gave me a mom car (hello, Chrysler Pacifica) I drove. Which would have worked out well, except that I have this habit of putting the car into drive even when I want to back up. I never actually go forward, I just go to "D" before "R". Which most people either don't notice, or are too polite to comment on. Not my co-workers.
Of course, it might have had something to do with the fact that as we got into the car, I told them, "I'm an excellent driver."
Yesterday, after a riding lesson, I got my brakes done. After they were pulled off of the car, I asked "Were they as bad as I thought?" Answer: yes. Or possibly even worse than I thought. In fact, we could have taken this picture. So now, the car stops easily. This is considered a good thing.
(Note: Due to all the travel, I was only driving my car 25% of the time. Also, not home to get it worked on.)
Unrelated to the brakes, except that it also happened this weekend:
I went to the grocery store to pick up some things. While there, I checked the beer aisle, because I've been craving some Boddington's. Score! Except, when I got to the self-checkout, I suddenly remembered it was Sunday. I asked the cashier, "What time is it?" He looked at the clock and said, "Noon." I said, "Really noon?" and he looked in my cart. "Oh, it will go through now."
Not only because the carny who hit on me last night told me he'd stop by and see me tonight (Little Matty and Lori, stop laughing!), but also because I've spent so much time there that the fried Snickers bars are starting to look interesting.
Speaking of Little Matty, I pretty much forced him and Lori into the Turkey Shoot. He won the round. Got a turkey. It pays to listen to me.
Tomorrow they are picking up the old couch. Jasper will be sad. He likes it in front of the dining room window. Lots of sun.
Also tomorrow, I am getting a haircut. I'm tired of long. I'm thinking of chin-length.
One of my e-mail accounts was wonky for about 5 days. I don't check it often, but there was a 5-day gap between spam. No idea what happened.
I would like to enforce an office rule about coffee. Namely, if you are unwilling to make coffee when you empty the pot, you are not allowed to drink coffee.
So, I spent most of this weekend at the State Fair. We are running a Turkey Shoot, and I am on the committee. It’s fun, but tiring. And I am still jumping occasionally when I hear the shotguns, which is a bit crazy. You know, since I work there.
I also found out that I am a bit of an idiot. Or, as I told Jenny, the stupidest stupid that ever stupided. (Just so you don't get all mad at her, she disagreed.) So, even though I had decided to blow off my run, I ran. And now my knee hurts. Good news is the running/not being able to eat combo has made my pants too big. Which is good. I’d like to lose some weight before I live in Gainesville.
In other news, my coffee table has no top. Because the glass for the top? Was delivered broken. When the delivery guy told me, I said, “Of course it is.”
They’re shipping me a new one, but I’m going to need help to get it on the table.
So, I sort of freaked out yesterday, called my supervisor, and told him I was tired of being in Charlotte, and that there was no reason I couldn't do what I was doing in Charlotte in Raleigh. Then I told my PM I had personal things come up that needed to be taken care of in Raleigh. (In this case, "personal things" = keeping myself sane.) The bad part about coming back early is that I have to drive my own car now.
In other news, the party this weekend was a success. The last guests left at 2:30- they had to sober up. We may have been doing shots, which may be why they needed to sober up.
I am back. In my house. For three whole entire days before I go back to Charlotte.
I did not find any shoes. I did finally find this, however. Raleigh's Sephora hasn't had it for at least 6 weeks now. The woman at Foster's told me, "You smell good!"
Foster's. Yes. I was IMing with Stewie earlier, telling her I needed to stop at the market (not just any supermarket, but the really fancy one) and buy jelly for the party. She was all, "Seven Pepper Jelly? I love that with cream cheese!" She also pointed out that I could go to the actual Foster's Market to get it. Which is why she got this phone call:
Stewie: Hello?
WG: I'm lost in Chapel Hill!
(She did set me on the right path, and now there is jelly.)
Tonight we had a bowl-a-thon to raise money for the burn center. I knew that I would see the Boy there; it would be the first time since he dumped me. I was a little nervous, but was on a team with friends, so I knew I'd be OK and have a good time.
This afternoon, as I was riding out to Chapel Hill to shop here, my phone rang. I'd been waiting for a call, so I answered, even though I didn't recognize the number. It was the Boy.
Boy: Are you bowling tonight?
WG: Yes.
Boy: Can you bring my tent?
WG: It's already in my car.
Boy: What are you doing?
WG: Going to Chapel Hill to buy jewelery.
Boy: Oh, OK. Well, I'd talk otherwise, but I'll let you go, since you're with (mutual friend). We can catch up tonight.
WG: OK. Bye.
Tonight, he ended up being 2 lanes away (meaning there was only one lane between us). I was hanging with my friends, having a good time. He came up several times to talk- I was fairly laconic. At one point I was standing near the lane, talking. I had my hand on my hip, and he walked by, said, "Hey" and bumped my arm. Pregnant Friend: "Wow. He really is a jackass. I think he's pissed that you're having a good time."
Later, as I walked by him after returning my shoes, he said, "Meet me in the parking lot?" I said OK, because, well, tent. He gave me a flirtatious eyebrow raise (trust me, I know him, and I know what it means). I believe it was met with an eyeroll and derisive snort.
I waited for him in the parking lot, and handed him his tent when he came out.
Boy: So, what have you been up to?
WG: Not much, traveling for work a lot.
Boy: Any hot dates?
My landlord went to look at the microwave yesterday. He called me to let me know that the back door had been left open. (My back door, it does not like to close.) He said, 'But it's OK. Both cats are in the living room."
He called back to tell me he could find nothing wrong with the microwave. I said, "Of course you can't. It doesn't happen right away."
I came home, and discovered why the cats were in the living room. (Jasper: Actually, you had been home for a half-hour and walked past it 3 times. I had to sit by the mouse to show you.)
So, the appointment today? I don't know. First of all, this is a reschedule- he decided that he wasn't working on the day my first appointment was scheduled. Today, I sat around for 30 minutes after my scheduled appointment time. I hate that. My time is also valuable. So, I met with him, we talked for 15 minutes, and he changed my meds- different formula on my antidepressant, upping the dose of Lamictal (Phoebs, you should go to med school.).
I see him again in a month. If he's late or cancels, I'm finding a new doctor.
Oh, and I filled the new prescription today. On the bottle is a sticker that says, "Take with or without food." I had no idea that there might be another choice.
I'm back from Charlotte. With way too much work. And I am going back next week. And the week after.
I have somewhat nailed down the Gainesville schedule. Three of us will be spending 2 weeks there, a week at home, lather, rinse, repeat. From December until February.
I think I just need to line up many cat sitters.
I am off to bed- the second night in a row that I am retiring before 9:30.
Tomorrow, first appointment with the new shrink. He's a PA and PhD Psychologist. I'm a little nervous.
Friday night, I had Little Matty, his wife, and CP over for dinner. (Rosemary chicken. Yum!) Best conversation:
WG: So, it's like I fell and hit my head or something. First I decide to start jumping again, and then after jumping, I decide that a McDonald's cheeseburger sounds good. (For those of you new around here, I haven't eaten a hamburger in about 20 years. I don't like them.)
Little Matty: Are you pregnant?
WG: God, I hope not.
CP: Was it good?
(silence)
Mrs. Little Matty: We all want to know the answer to that one.
Saturday, I went to pick up my rental car. (Am leaving for Charlotte at o'dark thirty tomorrow, and the rental place is not open on Sundays.) I walk in, and the clerk says, "We've got a RAV 4 headed over here for you." This was fortuitous, as I was helping Ali move that morning.
I love the RAV 4. Want one. But it now looks like it will be a while before I replace my car.
Saturday night, hung out at a local "Irish" pub with some friends.
Came home, went to bed at 2.
Awakened at 3:30 by microwave, which has decided to cycle through its "AutoCook" options. While beeping. Loudly.
I made it stop, but it happened twice more (3:45 and 4:00). The second time, I had to go trip the breaker to make it stop.
Right now, I am very self-conscious. I feel like people are talking about me and laughing. (My therapist: Actually, you're not that important.) Yet, at the same time, I am also strangely brave about things. Jumping? Which I swore I would never do again? Which I started yesterday, on a lark, partially because Solie likes jumping? (Since when do I make decisions based upon what the horse likes?) Which I am also doing, and looking forward to, today?
I had a dream last night that I was at a meeting for the civic group I belong to. They made me get up and sing (I do not sing in public)- in fact, I was given a newspaper and had to make up a song about what was in the paper. The boy was there (he's also a member of this group). I never saw him, but I heard him laughing at me. I so hate my subconscious.
Part of me wants to call him, to talk to him about why. I know that I won't get any satisfaction from that. Part of the reason I am so bothered by this is that I will have run into him again. I was hoping he'd show up at the meeting Tuesday, but he couldn't even do that for me. (Yes, I realize he didn't know that was expected.) Right now, I can barely keep from crying. "How are you?" makes me well up. And I don't want to cry when I see him. And I don't know what to do about it.
Oh, and the wanting to talk to him? That's why I'm keeping his tent. I'm hoping that it will make him talk to me. Which, again, is stupid.
I had a good session today. We talked about the boy and other stuff, and how all the stuff is related. I am hurt right now, and I have been trying to rationalize it into not being hurt. That won't work.
So, I'm going to be hurt, knowing that it is magnified by other things, things I carry with me. I also know the hurt will end, but by allowing myself to feel it now, I can let all of it go.
I had a good time in Atlanta. I learned a lot in the training and got to know two co-workers better. But for me, the best part was that I got to be Cool Career Chick. Wake up call! Read the paper over coffee in the hotel lobby. Work. Hit the hotel gym. Dinner, out, with beverages!
In Atlanta, I felt at peace. I felt things were where they were supposed to be.
I got on the plane to come back, and I could feel the anger and rage building. The flight was delayed, and I realized that no one knew or cared when I was supposed to land. On my way to a meeting, I cried in the car. (I do most of my crying in the car. I do not know why.)
I see myself differently at home. I don't see myself as successful, or cool, or interesting. I am all of those things when I travel. I think that's why I am looking forward to Gainesville. I get to be a better version of me.
Doxie has never mentioned it, so I assume she lives in a magical part of town.
This trip has been good. It has reassured me that the PM I've been working for does not, in fact, hate me. (I am still paranoid after my last job. Eventually, that should go away.) I've gotten to know him and another co-worker (they work out of another office) better, and I think our working relationship will be all the better for that.
So, here's a fun practical joke to play on me. (The downside is it takes a while to pan out.) When your son is very little, take a trip to TX. Borrow my suitcase. Leave teeny tiny hats, socks, and even a diaper cover in one of the pockets, so that I find them when unpacking in my hotel room, nearly a year later.
I was baffled for a few moments, until I remembered lending 2.0 my bag. I called her, and when I told her what I had found, she said, "I want those back!" Me: "I didn't steal them, you know."
To answer some questions left by my last post: Gainesville, FL. Not quite sure how we will be doing it, but it looks like it will be from December- April. Note to company: Am not spending my birthday in Gainesville.
I am now looking forward to what is likely temporary duty (TDY) in Gainesville. I had first heard this mentioned about a week after I started, and agreed to it, as it would really get my foot in the door. It had not resurfaced again until Thursday. I had been out in Charlotte Tuesday and Wednesday for training, and the guy who trained us is out of Gainesville. He was talking to my boss on Thursday, and mentioned that he'd heard that I be coming down earlier than anticipated. I had heard nothing of this. We are trying to figure out when, so that we can work out the details.
My boss is very concerned with working out the details. Why? Because during a conversation about work travel, I told him about my bipolar disorder. He was very understanding, and has assured me that we can work it out in a way that will make it as easy on me as possible.
I still think I'll need to find a foster home for the cats. The deployment may be for six months, and I don't think it's fair to them that they live essentially alone for that long.
It's a good opportunity, and I think I've learned enough from moving down here that I won't spend six months in a strange city with no friends.
First, I would like to that 2.0 and The Cap'n for having me to dinner, and Cdub, who I just called, for saying, "I'll be right over."
Me: No, it's OK. 2.0 and The Cap'n fed me and gave me lots of alcohol.
Cdub: But you're still crying, so I'm coming.
I would like to also state for the record that I do not hate the cats. I hate the situation.
I also do no believe the boy. I think he is lying, about what I don't know, but I think him a liar. And if he were here right now I would break his nose. Am also angry!
Anyway, the point of this post. I have a checkered dating history. Not much in college/grad school. Too focused on the future. If I could go back and change that, I would. Because I feel like I missed my shot, and now I'm stuck. I love my new job, and feel like I have an actual career, but I don't think it's what will make me happy in the end.
Checkered? Yes. Well, remember how I was completely gutted a year ago? I've dated since then, been hurt, but the boy was the first guy I'd felt really comfortable with since MW- the first one I could really be me with.
I hate dating. Abhor it. Hate trying to sell myself to someone. At the same time, I do not want to spend the rest of my life alone. Yet, I'm feeling more and more like that will be the way it will go. I'm frustrated. I'm tired of being hurt. I don't know if I can do it anymore.
Yes, I am lucky. I have good friends. I have siblings who would do anything for me, including Randy, who really doesn't have to. But I am so tired of this, so tired of feeling like there is something wrong with me.
Yesterday I drove out to Charlotte. Today I drove back. Tomorrow I am in the office. Friday and Saturday I am camping with Jenny.
Next week:
Monday afternoon I leave for Atlanta. Thursday afternoon I come back. Friday night I babysit the Boo. Saturday is a wedding celebration/housewarming party.
The week after that
Meeting in Charlotte on Monday.
Am important, career-type person. (Also, camping!)
The answer is yes. Saturday I hit the mall with 2.0. I needed to replace my watch (the stainless coating was flaking off. That's OK for a $55 watch I've had for 4 years.). I ended up spending the most I have ever spent on a watch- it's a Seiko, but it was 50% off.
I have to go to a wedding party (they eloped in May) on the 16th. I was told the dress is "dressy casual". Which, wha? I decided I would wear a skirt. I went out to Target on Sunday and decided, "I'll just run into Marshall's and see what they have." What they had was a lovely jersey skirt in a black and white print with a gorgeous drape. Add a black Old Navy shell, and voila! My version of dressy casual.
The shell is shape-hugging, and also black, which meant I needed a new bra- all of my black ones are lacy, not smooth-cupped. So, we hit Vicky's this morning. I bought a black bra in a style I already own- I know I like it and that it's comfortable. (Thus concludes the part where you learn just a little too much about my foundation undergarments.)
I will wear said outfit with my sexy black pumps.
Yesterday I also went to Home Depot, where I bought air filters, a rasp, and a new dimmer switch. The rasp was for opening up a hole in the door to the storage shed. I've been working on replacing the knob for weeks, but the new knob did not fit into the hole that the old knob had. So, I used the rasp to make the hole bigger, and locked the shed finally!
Then I was so excited I went to install the new dimmer switch. I was extremely confident I could do it. I was also extremely wrong. I don't have lights in the dining room.
On Friday, I met some friends for dinner and a movie. We planned dinner early, figuring we'd have to wait for a table. We didn't, so we were quite early for the movie. We bought tickets and walked down to Barnes and Noble. I bought the latest book club book. I couldn't remember the name of the book, so the clerk helped me find it.
Clerk: Oh dear. This is our last copy, and it's damaged.
WG: Damaged?
Clerk: Yes. This page is bent. I can call around to other stores in the area and see if they have it, or I can just give you a 10% discount.
WG: A discount will be fine!
We then saw Little Miss Sunshine. You must see it. It was one of the most thoroughly enjoyable movies I've seen in a while.
Saturday, I worked at the Food Bank in the morning and went to Lazy Daze (an arts fair down the street from my house). Went home, took a nap, got ready for a date. (Through no effort on my part, the shortest dating moratorium in the history of the world has ended.) Dinner, then we met up with friends to see this band.
This morning, 2.0 called. "We're making cupcakes and I don't have enough muffin tins. Can I borrow one?" (I heard her mother in the background, complaining about the muffin tin shortage.) She came up, borrowed a muffin tin, crisis averted.
Why the urgent muffin tin need? The Boo turned one today, and they were having a party. With my new favorite drink, summer cocktail! (That was for the adults. The babies and the dog, try as they might, did not get any.) Not only did the Boo get chocolate cupcake all over him, but also all over my skirt. Not a lot of people who could get away with that.
Admin at work: You got a package. The UPS guy has apologized for the box.
Watergirl: Wait, you have to see this. I paid off my car, so I bought a purse. (Aside: was on sale!)
Admin: You paid off your car?
WG: Yep.
Admin: You paid off your car and all you bought was a purse? Girl, you need some shoes
