Friday, February 27, 2009

My impromptu diet

I don't know that I have ever mentioned it, but I weigh between 105 and 110 pounds on any given day. At 5'2", this does not make me physically impressive or intimidating. It does often make me feel like Susan the Happy Trotting Elf, from Coupling. When I was younger, I really did kind of resemble her, except I was never blonde.

All of that is buildup to say that I try constantly to maintain my weight. Sometimes, I spend time attempting to gain weight. It hardly ever works (don't hate me!). This week, I had a canker sore right inside the corner of my mouth. If I were trying to lose weight, this would have been a good way to go about it. I mean, I eat tacos at least once a week with hot sauce on them. I did that this week also, but it hurt. Other things that hurt to eat: pizza, chocolate, ketchup, mustard, salsa, anything with salt. That covers a lot of my diet. I had to cut many usual foods out.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, I was forced into dieting this week. I couldn't even drink out a straw last Saturday. It hurt to put my lips like that. Kissing hurt, also. I don't think I lost any weight though so don't go around hoping to get a canker sore. You'll just been in pain for a while. Oh, and I couldn't smile right for about a week, so I am sure that customers at work either thought I was creepy or in a bad mood.

I can't find Susan the Happy Trotting Elf on YouTube so here's Steve's first date with her.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Facebook Phenomenon (Phenomena?)

Just like everyone else I know, I use Facebook as a way to reconnect with people I have not seen in umpteen years. To a lesser degree, MySpace is good for this, too, but more of my old friends are on Facebook. Understandably, some of the people that I find were mere acquaintances in the first place and so, after the initial, "How are you?" email, we don't talk much anymore.

It's the others that are few and far between that perplex me. If you were close to someone many years ago, lost touch, and reconnect, should you expect that intimacy to still be there? Is that unrealistic? I don't think so. I think if it is someone who knew you very well before, then they probably still know you pretty well now. Sure, you'll both have changed due to life experiences, but people remain basically the same.

I'm wondering if there's a false sense of intimacy there though. I mean, just because I feel still close to a person, doesn't necessarily mean they feel the same about me, right? Just because I care about them, still, they may not feel the same way.

I have a lot of friends that are superficial, "Hi, How are you?" friends who do not really care what the answer to that question is. I have enough of those. I can pretty much count on one hand the number of people who have opinions that I value. When I reconnect with one of these people, am I maybe expecting too much?

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Because I have no life....

Here is my 25 random things post from Facebook...

1. When I was five, I wanted to be a garbageman when I grew up.

2. My hair has been red, burgundy, black, dark brown, light brown, and partially green (yes the green was intentional).

3. I love to cook and am actually pretty decent at it.

4. I never cook a meal for only me unless it is a frozen one.

5. I make amazing cheesecakes.

6. I've never really had a close female friend.

7. There are a lot of places I'd like to live besides TN. A lot. I'd better start moving around if I really want to live in them all.

8. Nothing makes me happier than a good Grateful Dead song.

9. I know every word to "Ice Ice Baby." Don't laugh. :)

10. I love the color green. It was the color of my room at my parents. Still is actually.

11. I love to watch my child sleep. He looks so precious (and quiet).

12. I am an Internet celebrity gossip junkie, but I hate TV shows about it (TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, Insider).

13. Large crowds make me extremely uncomfortable. I feel like I can't breathe when there are lots of people around.

14. I prefer quiet, softly-lit restaurants because loud ones make me nervous.

15. I don't like most coffee, but I love mocha lattes. Some mornings I need one to wake up.

16. I eat a banana for breakfast almost every morning.

17. My husband and I were married in a clearing in a grove of trees in a state park beside 2 waterfalls.

18. I wore pink to my wedding. I almost never wear pink.

19. I have 9 tattoos. Almost all of them are black.

20. I hate driving on the interstate and riding in a car on it sometimes makes me carsick. It's a motion thing.

21. I've had piercings, but I let them all grow back together.

22. I've always wanted to be a writer. I'm still working on that one.

23. I love chocolate, but only in small amounts.

24. I don't drink often, but if I do, I like mango coladas, sex on the beaches, and beer favored with fruit (Honey Raspberry Ale, Cranberry Lambique).

25. I have two degrees in English, but my favorite books are trashy romance novels--usually the ones set in 17th century England.

Friday, February 20, 2009

My Trip to the Bluegrass State

On Monday, we took a trip. You can tell where we went from the title. Now, I have been all over Western Kentucky--Paducah, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Louisville, Murray, but, until Monday, I had never been to Bowling Green. I think I might have driven through there once on the way somewhere further north, but it seemed pretty unfamiliar, so maybe not. Anyway, I liked it. I came home ready to pack up and move there.

There was a reason for this trip. It wasn't just for fun or anything. Last weekend, my husband's band played two shows in Ohio. The first show was Friday night in Cincinnati. They took two cars and the band's blue van up there. My husband and the drummer were in the van, running late as always. The drummer was driving when he heard a noise that he thought was a tire blowing. My husband thought that they had run something over. The drummer noticed that they were slowing down and pulled over. They discovered that the transmission had blown up and transmission fluid was spraying onto the exhaust. They had the van towed and rented one at Enterprise and kept going. They decided to figure out what to do about the van later. Here's the van the only time it made it to Johnson City, TN.


On their way back from their second show in Ohio (almost in West Virginia), they stopped and cleaned out the van. They planned on leaving it in Bowling Green and junking it. The problem at that point was how to get my husband, the drummer, and their gear home since the other van needed to be returned in Bowling Green. My husband drove the rental van home. He had missed Valentine's Day and was supposed to be home for a late celebration.

Come Monday morning, I am suddenly the one driving back to Bowling Green behind my husband to return the van. I wasn't completely clear on why it had to be taken back in Bowling Green, but it turned out to be a good thing because they knocked some money off the rental price because of how clean it was. One thing you don't know about me is my extreme dislike for driving on the interstate. I'm a backroads kind of girl. I like the two lanes. I like the scenery. I even like the little town where I have to slow down to 30 mph. This means we took Highway 231 all the way to Bowling Green. It took two hours, but we got there. I accidentally lost my husband at the only light in Westmoreland. It was a really long light and I was in front of him. I made the light and he didn't. He caught up to us in Kentucky.

One thing I forgot to mention was how much fun my husband thought it would be to take Quincy with us. Yeah, well, it might have been if he had taken a nap on the way or something. He was cranky by the time we got there. He threw a small tantrum in Toot's, which was where he said he wanted to eat. He didn't eat much. He mostly fussed about how he wanted to go home. Next time, he can stay with my parents.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

My head may explode!!!

Just went into town, paid bills, and bought some lunch. While we were in the McDonald's drive-thru, I very clearly asked my child if he wanted anything. He told me no. I assumed that meant no.

Fast forward to our return home and he sat down at the table and began to take my food out of my bag. First, he declared that, "This is my food! No, wait, you share your food with me Mommy!" Then, he said, "You give your food to me Mommy!" When he was told no, he asked me to go out and get him some also. Now, we live 20 minutes from town. I refused to drive to the nearest McDonald's. I bought a fish sandwich for lunch. I offered to make him fish. At first, he was reluctant. Now, he is sitting on the couch happily eating shrimp, which I just caught him sharing with the dog.

Once this situation was resolved satisfactorily and he agreed to the shrimp, I walked up to my husband and asked, "If my head explodes, will you clean it up?"

He said, "No. I would just move."

Why are four year olds so difficult?

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine's Day Night

My husband is 7 and a half hours away. The four and a half year old is sleeping. Oh, and the dog ate the chocolate that I had in the house while I was at work today. He was nice enough to leave the wrappers all over the floor for me to clean up. That's been my night.

I got to watch the new Burn Notice virtually uninterrupted, except for being yelled at by my child because he was thirsty. That was early in the show though. He must have fallen asleep because he didn't say anything else. When it was over, I walked into the living room where he was sleeping on the couch to put his pull-up on him, you know, just in case. He always wakes up dry, but I am still paranoid about that one time that I know could happen. Also, I'm pretty sure if it's going to happen, it'll happen while he's in my bed. But I digress, I walked in here with pull-up in hand and pulled off his pajama bottoms and underwear. I noticed that the underwear was slightly damp. After feeling around on the couch under him, I realized that he was pretty sweaty under his pajama top. He was sleeping with a blanket wrapped around his head. A lot of him was sweaty. I finally rolled him over on his back, put his pull-up on him, and left his bottoms off so he could cool off. I also moved the blanket off his head. I don't know why he likes to sleep like that. He sleeps that way a lot. Weird.

So, today, Valentine's Day, I worked nine hours. I did not see my husband, although I did talk to him several times. I got a card from my parents and one from my child that my parents bought for him to give me. Also, the dog ate my chocolate. I think I'm going to call it a night now.

Friday, February 13, 2009

All by myself

I don't do the alone thing well. I've always had roommates and before that I lived with my parents so there was always someone else around. This weekend, it's just me and Quincy. My husband has gone up north to play some shows in Ohio. He'll be back sometime on Sunday. That's two long, quiet nights with just Quincy.

It's the quiet that gets me. We've lived out here in the country almost two years, but I am still not used to the lack of noise at night. The closest road where lots of cars travel is a mile and half from the house. No one drives up and down our road much. Before this, I lived in town where there was traffic noise and stuff like that. Out here, if it's just me, I have to sleep with the TV on for at least part of the night.

Oh, also, my little friends the mice that I thought were entirely gone are not. We caught five or six mice, not counting the one the dog killed. I figured seven mice was probably all there was. Nope. Wrong. There's at least one more and it keeps outsmarting all the traps that are out. It hasn't even been caught by the traps that are well hidden. If it gets caught in a trap while my husband is gone, it will stay there until Sunday afternoon. I'm not touching it.

It's only 9:15. What am I going to do all night?

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

This lovely week so far...

I got some facts wrong in that last post, but they were thoughtfully corrected by my little sister in the comments. Ooops.

So this week...

I have suddenly become overly concerned with getting a new dog. I thought we might adopt a schnauzer that needed a forever home on Monday, but that ended up not happening.
Because I thought we might be going out to get that dog, I did not stop for lunch on the way home from my Monday morning sub job. This led to my not eating until around 4 o'clock that afternoon. Never assume things will work out around here.

On Monday, I did remember to stop at the school where I needed to put in Quincy's application so that he might someday go there. They asked for a copy of his birth certificate. This led to me realizing that we never ordered his birth certificate. We remedied that on Tuesday. It should be here next week. Again, ooops.

I turned down a substitute job on Tuesday, which I was requested for, because I was incredibly busy with prep for Quincy's Valentine party and getting him to school on time on Tuesday morning. Also, there were many errands to be done and they are much easier without him in tow. Turning down that sub job has come back to bite me on the ass. There were no jobs today and there are none for tomorrow. There will probably be one that I'll find out about around 5 o'clock tomorrow morning because that seems to be the way these things work out for me.

Oh, and I planned on sleeping late today since there were no jobs available. That plan was thwarted by the incredible wind around here this morning. I woke up early because it sounded like the roof might blow off. It didn't and I was the only one who woke up. When I gave up and got up, I woke up Quincy accidentally.

On the bright side, I don't have to work at Domino's tomorrow night. Also, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice come on tomorrow. So do E.R., C.S.I., and Burn Notice. I love Thursdays!!!

Friday, February 06, 2009

Let's pretend this week never happened

Besides the disappointing Super Bowl Sunday, there were other sucky things about last weekend. One of my best friends has this dog who is the spazziest thing and also the most terrified of so many objects/people I've ever seen. Her live-in boyfriend has a three year old. The dog is scared to death of him, which, I don't blame her. He chases her and runs at her and pokes her and stuff. So last Saturday afternoon, her boyfriend was holding his son and the son probably did something to the dog (he says not) and the dog jumped up and bit the boy in the face. She might have scratched him, too. Yes, it looked bad. His eye was swollen and such.

It would have stopped there, but the boyfriend's ex-wife lives with her parents and she took her son to the E.R. that night. The doctor there said it wasn't bad enough to report to the police or anything and the son ended up with three stitches. The ex-wife's father called the police anyway and so my friend felt compelled to get rid of her dog. It was decided that her mom would drive down from Wisconsin on Sunday and pick up the dog and go home Monday.

Then the story takes a scary turn. Her mom left Wisconsin around 8 a.m. on Sunday and never got here. They had no idea where she was and she has no cell phone. She showed up early Tuesday morning (I think) wandering in a Chicago hotel, knocking on doors. They took her to the hospital and she was very confused and didn't remember how she got there. Once she got home, her doctor did some tests and all they've said is that she might be diabetic. They still have no idea where she left her car or how long or how far she walked.

I had my own scare on Tuesday. My grandparents are 86 and 83. They drive all over the place. Tuesday around noon, they were leaving Home Depot, when a woman ran a red light. She hit the car on my grandfather's side (he was driving) and spun the car around. Their car mashed into a 2008 Nissan Armada, which hit the car behind it, which hit the car behind it. All in all, the lady wrecked four cars, not counting hers. When my grandparents car hit the Armada, it hit on my grandmother's side, pushing her door and door-frame in and into her hip and side. During the spin, her head also hit the windshield, breaking it from the inside. The airbags also deployed. They were unable to open my grandmother's door. My grandfather walked away from the crash okay, but my grandmother had a cut on her forehead that had to be stapled and they put a cuff around her neck. They took that off after they did a cat scan, but they also found 3 spots on her brain that were bleeding. They kept her overnight, but sent her home the next day after another cat scan. She has to have two more cat scan's to make sure the three spots are healing.

I'm really, really hoping that next week is better, what with Valentine's Day and all.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Superbowl Sunday at the Pizza Place=FAIL

From Friday afternoon on, my time at my pizza job was spent preparing for the onslaught of hungry Superbowl fans. I folded box after box, because you can never have enough of those. Our weekly sandwich sales have been around 350 so we just knew that that many might be sold on Sunday alone. Had to fold those boxes, too. Also, the breadsticks and wings now come in boxes. Those, also, had to be folded. Many were done by me as I was the only one in the store not occupied with other things to do. The store is trying to save money on labor so there are no extra people to do stuff like fold boxes. Some food had to be prepped also and someone had to do that. Not me though.

Speaking of food, my boss ordered for a busy Sunday. We had extra everything. We had enough boxes of sandwich bread for 300 sandwiches. I mentioned sandwich sales before. They've been high. Then came Friday, when we sold maybe 60, and Saturday, when 40 were sold. This was all day sales even.

Saturday came. I was working on my prep at a frantic pace as time allowed. Basically, any time not waiting on customers or taking phone orders was spent folding. I have the rough hands to show for it also. We figured that Saturday would be busy. It wasn't. "No big deal, "everyone said, "People are saving their money for tomorrow."

No, they weren't or, maybe they were and then ordered from somewhere else. I don't know. I just know it was one of the slowest Superbowl Sundays that I have ever worked. Even the halftime rush sucked. I'm hoping for a less boring week post-Superbowl. I hate walking in circles at work when I could be somewhere else doing something worthwhile, like surfing the Internet.:)