Who's Getting Married?

Not I! However, I'm helping my pal Jen to get things set for her wedding (this summer). And the more I keep talking about it, with EVERYONE, the more I sound like a Bridezilla. I think....

For sure I'm making statements about all the things "we're" getting accomplished. In fact I think I referred to it as "our cake" or "our colors" or even maybe "our wedding" while talking to another friend about it. She put me in my place by reminding me that it's not my wedding.
= (
Oh yeah, I'm still very single....


But it turns out I could be an excellent wedding planner!

Two Houses are Sucking Me Dry

I received some of my tax forms in the mail last night. You know, I understood that I have been a little short of cash, and that moving this year was a little bit expensive.

Somehow it had slipped my attention that between 5 different mortgages (first mortgages, second mortgages, home equity lines of credit, etc...) this year I paid $9000 in mortgage interest. NINE THOUSAND. Cash money! Holy crap. That's a very large percentage of what I take home.

The positive side is that it should be a good year for my tax return!

Very, Very Bad Day @ Work

I guess I never knew what the worst case scenario was for a day at my office. Well, since my boss quit and another co-worker is retiring, and the work just keeps getting dumped on me, I found out today!

I'm working on tight deadlines to schedule meetings with legal council, meet with the feds, and prepare a report for a huge state organization. My freaking e-mail would NOT work. This was slowing me down, and was super annoying.

It easily gets worse.

I got a new message and tried to open it. My e-mail did something it had never done before, it told me there was a problem and I needed to log out and log back in. Right? Wrong. I logged out and it wouldn't accept my password to get back in.

I can't even place phone calls to people without my e-mail up (as that's where all the numbers are stored) so I have to keep asking a friend (who has her own work to do) to give me numbers.

After about 2 hours with NO access to e-mail, another turn for the worse. A tech guy gets my e-mail open, and it is WIPED. As clean as the day I started over four years ago. There is nary a message in my inbox, or my sent files. ALL THE FILES my boss gave me (via e-mail of course) before he left are gone, my calendar and address book also blank.

HOLY SHIT! I am crippled without all that information.

I reported the problem (obviously) and this woman at the help desk asks me, "How soon do you need this information?" and my response is, "Immediately! I'm willing to wait as long as it takes to recover ALL of it though." The hell????

Maybe everything will be fine when I get back tomorrow. Or maybe I need a vacation for the rest of the week...

I Made it Snow!!!!

I was thinking yesterday, how it was too bad that my lawn looked like it needed mowing. I thought, this yard would look SO much better with a nice dusting of snow. And you know, it IS winter after all. About an hour later there was 3-4". And now my back yard looks like this!

Perfect.

God, I love my new house (and yard)!

Flu?

What the hell is the definition of influenza? Do the symptoms vary based on the strain of virus? I'm home again, sicker than a dog. Both my parents are ill as well (of course I caught it from them).

I think I have the flu, but I don't even know how to describe how I feel. Well I don't want to share the gorey details with all the world in any case. I think if my head were to be run over by a truck, it would be similar to how I'm feeling.

The fact that I'm not sleeping doesn't help any. I went to bed at 9 PM last night and was STILL AWAKE at 6 AM. I finally fell asleep and then got up at 9 AM. I know the recipe for getting well is resting, and I'm trying, but my body isn't cooperating.

The good news is that the lack of appetite has kept me off the food for a few days. How many more days can I go without food? It's not anorexia, it's all about the "flu diet."

Off to the Dr. I go... in the morning.

I Beg to Differ!

***You Are an Officelady!***
It all seemed so blissful at first. Wear cute little suits, meet friends with matching suits, get a small salary. Well, you're going to be making copies for the rest of your life, and a good raise is not in your future. And forget about marrying out of this glass ceiling! What? So you can make coffee at home and wash your husband's underwear? Gross!

What's Your Japanese Subculture?http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyourjapanesesubculturequiz/

Must Re-Focus Energy!

"We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same. "

-Carlos Castaneda

This is What They Mean by "Must Have Drunk the Kool-Aid"

Run Over by My Own Car!

My mom ran me over with my van tonight. Seriously.

We had picked up the three dogs from the groomers on the way home from work, so the van was very full. When my mom pulled into the driveway (she picked me up, so she was driving) I got out of the passenger side and a bag of paperwork fell out.

As I was bending over to pick it up, with the passenger door open, my mom asks if she should use the emergency brake. Their driveway is at a 45 degree angle (incline) and I said, "Um, yeah." And it was just as snotty sounding as it reads.

She applied the emergency brake and took her foot off the other brake and the car lurched backwards about 6 inches or so. Unfortunately, I was still bent over, with the door pressed against my side, picking up the papers. The ENTIRE weight of the van pushed me about 6 inches on my side. It's so sore and tender. I can barely move.

It occurred to me to go to Urgent Care, maybe get an x-ray, make sure I didn't have internal bleeding, see if I bruised a kidney (but I have two!) but I had book club ("A Widow's Walk") so I did that instead. I just got back, and it's still super sore.

If it's still bad in the morning, and I'm still alive, I PROMISE I'll get it checked out.

This does officially count as my mom running me over though, right?

Airport Madness

My dad was in Las Vegas for a week working at the big annual Audio Convention there with his friend Larry. My mom has been sick (super bad cold, sounds a little like she’s dying) for about that same time period. Originally the guys needing picking up from the airport at 10:00 PM last night (probably getting the driver home around 11:00 PM) so I begrudgingly agreed to do it.

Somewhere between when they left on the trip and last night the pickup time became 8:30 PM. Fine. What was really bothering me was the fact that my mom didn’t have (and therefore couldn’t give me) an airline name, a flight number, or a connection city name. She loosely mentioned Denver, but I think it was only because I was interrogating her like a bad cop would.

I got to the airport at 8:30 and ran to the big board to see what was coming in from where. First off, there were NO flights coming in at 8:30. None. OK, next, where are flights connecting from? Um, Dallas, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis….. there wasn’t a Denver Flight until after 10:00 PM and no direct flights from Vegas for the rest of the night.

*sigh*

I call my mom (dad doesn’t have a cell phone!) and tell her that none of the info I have makes it easy for me to pick them up. We argued for a bit, and I said bullshit many times, and finally I told her that it was unreasonable to ever send someone to the airport without an airline name, connecting city, and flight number.

I sat down with my book and waited. And waited. Finally I saw my dad’s bald head coming down the escalator. I got up and approached him, he looked tired. He just kept talking to his friend Larry and completely ignored me. I trailed the two of them ALL THE WAY to baggage claim, all the while they never noticed me (and I was about a foot from them, clearly invading their personal space if I were a stranger).

At baggage I finally say, “Hi guys!” and both their faces are happy, yet confused. My dad says, “Are you a back up driver?”

???

I say, “Mom sent me to pick you guys up.” Dad says, “We already have a ride, but we’re happy to go with you honey. It’s been a really long day.”

DUDE, they HAD A RIDE. My mom put me through all that nonsense for no reason.

On to the day Dad and Larry had:
Apparently in Vegas, they had given my dad’s seat away to someone else. He wasn’t late getting there or anything, they just messed up. So while my dad stood there, they had to go on the plane and basically eject the guy that had his seat. That guy must have been on standby previously. That guy was PISSED! He started out with “This is bullshit!” and his commentary only went downhill from there.

Then, they had given Larry’s actual TICKET (and seat) to someone with a similar name. Similar in that it started with the same first letter. Not so similar beyond that. So it was basically a miracle that they even made it home.

And the connection city was Chicago by the way….

Minnesota

I just got back from a weekend in the fine state of Minnesota with my friend Angie for a Daisy Blue conference.

The hotel we stayed in was pretty cool, and there was free stuff involved. Lots of free stuff.... =)

I feel revitalized, and energized, and pretty ready in general to conquer the world. I'm so glad that I got to spend some time with Angie, who is a great person and friend. An added bonus, I found some new and excellent business ideas.

Now if only I could transfer some of this into a better day job...

Perhaps You Weren't Paying Attention

This will getcha though.....

Click on the picture for a "better view"

Parking Ticket from Beyond the Grave

So weird this one!

I got an e-mail today from an old neighbor of mine. Here's what he said:




People have differing reactions. People WANT to laugh, and because I think it's
so golldarned funny, it's given people permission to do so.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 11:25 AM
Subject: Dad's Parking Ticket

Hello, I spoke to you last Friday regarding Dad's parking ticket. As I indicated
to you, Dad received a parking ticket at the Library on December 8,
2005. This came as a great shock to my mother and me since my father died on
May 17, 2004. I will be faxing you a copy of the citation shortly as you
requested.

I will also have you know that my father would have gotten a good laugh out of
this, and I have heard so many great one-liners from my co-workers and family. My personal faves:
* Sending an Amazon.com link, so that parking may reach Dad by Ouija board

* "I thought angels had wings-- who knew they drove Nissans?"

* Just simply forwarding the letter to Memorial Park Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Florida and see if they can just put the notice with the flowers on the grave.

* "Mom, Dad did die, right?"
"Yes, I'm pretty sure that was him in the casket. If it wasn't, he has some serious explaining to do..."

* "Sure gives new meaning to the words 'late fee,' doesn't it?"

Again, I want you to understand that the notice did not hurt or offend my family.

It's a Small World (After All)

My friend Emily is teaching English in France at the moment. She lives in a dorm type setting with other teacherly folks her age. One of the other women there, and a good friend to Emily, is from Germany. Since it's relatively simple to hop on a train and go to another country in Europe, Emily went home with her German friend rather than back to the States for Christmas and the New Year.

While in Germany, Emily met some of her friend's friends. It turns out that one of the women Emily was introduced to is from the same city we live in. It gets weirder.... she went to the same high school we went to (although in between the years we did as Emily and I were about 8 years apart). This mystery woman that Emily met is none other than the little sister of one of MY FRIENDS from high school. And her twin was there too.

I remember something about hearing that one of the twins was living in Germany, and it makes sense that her twin would go and visit.

In any case, it is indeed (once again proven to be) a small, small world.