Breathe

I've gone and gotten myself full of things to do and no time to do it again.

Some of the things have been on the list for months and months and some pushing over a year... like my bathroom and the missing wallpaper.

I have a huge difficult paper due for school on the 15th. I have a smaller assignment due on Thursday.

It's the week of "close" at work and there's a large pile of payables that need to be entered into the accounting system. Not to mention the other 10 or so tasks I have to do for close.

My clothes and the effort I made toward packing away warmer weather gear is half done and scattered around my bedroom again.

I have a massive scrapbook to embellish for a Christmas present. And although this sounds like a fun little hobby and nothing to stress over.... it's not. Fun? Sure. Fun with a deadline? No.

There is still shopping to be done for the holiday that is fast approaching.

I also need to order a cake for my Birthday party this weekend.

In the next couple of weeks I should send out Christmas cards too.

Lots of little things, some big things and barely over 3 weeks to do it = stress.

*Sigh* I'll try my best to not focus on the whole and work to get bits and pieces fully done along the way.

I hope I don't yell at too many people during the journey. Now is the time to install your thicker skin Honey. ;(

A Good Day Almost Gone Bad

So I've been waiting for a new album to come out for about 2 months. It's by my favorite band and it came out today. System of a Down is the band name.

I got up bright and early and went off to school. I spent part of my time in school thinking about the CD. I'm clearly obsessed. Knowing I'd be slightly late to work and not caring, I stopped off at the nearest Target to buy it. That way I'd have time to hear several songs on my way to work. Still obsessed.

I get to the new release rack and there are two blank slots. The tags say "System of a Down - Hypnotize" but there are no CD's. I look up at the sale poster and there's the CD front picture with the Nov. 22nd release date written underneath. I frantically browse the regular section and find several more empty spaces. SOLD OUT!? ALREADY! It's 9:30am! (Of course I think they’re sold out cause everyone wants it … right? Right.)

I call over a Target associate and point to the sign... "Are they all sold out?!" The young man says, "No, we didn't get the shipment in. If UPS brings it today, it won't be until after noon."

Okay, no problem. I'm sure the Target near my work has them. So I suffer through my drive to work, without my new CD. :( Now I'm pushing 5 more minutes of being late to work. Oh well. It's SYSTEM!

I run in the "work" Target and there they are, new and shiny, waiting to be heard. Oh but what's this? A special version? With DVD footage? COOL! So I ponder a moment... "Will I really watch it? It's 5 dollars more... What the hell, it's SYSTEM!" So I grab the special 2 sided CD/DVD version and head to the register. It rang up for the regular version sale price... $9.98. Hmmm... cool indeed - good choice.

I rip it open on the way to the car, get in the car and start the engine. As I pull out the CD/DVD, I observe the label on the CD side and the DVD side, so I know which way to put it in. But I also notice it's a bit thicker than most CD's. No matter, I'm sure it'll work fine.

I push it in, and in seconds I'm hearing track 1. Brilliant! Fantastic! My heart is racing, I'm laughing manically. Good times.

I whip into the work parking lot and hit the "eject" button. ... "Err" "SHIT” I hit "CD" to play it... "Err" "SHIT SHIT!" "eject" ... "Err" "ejectejecteject" ... "Err" "NO!!!" ... breathe ... "CD" ... "Err" "Fuck."

I turn the car off and storm into work.

I try and think calmly... I'll get it out. I'll keep it for the DVD side and go buy the normal album. Crap, what if I can't get it out... then I can't even listen to the normal one in my car. Crap. No no, I'll get it out. Maybe Target will take it back even tho it is open. Maybe they'll swap it for the other... yea.

A couple of hours later I head out for lunch.

I took a paperclip with me hoping to find a reset button of sorts that may help in getting the CD out. I found the button, but it didn't help. I pushed eject and CD several more times to try and get it out and it just wouldn't come. So I gently slip the paper clip in the slot to.... I dunno... help. After a few delicate passes I hit something and POP! The CD came out. I snatched it with lightning speed so I wouldn't get pulled back in. Whew. GOOD! I was highly relieved.

Okay, step 2. Go get the normal CD and maybe not have to pay for it. So I get to Target and take in the opened one. I approach the return counter not expecting to get what I want, but proud of the try nonetheless. They were reluctant. I even said "If you can't, its okay - I just thought I'd try." I guess they didn't install their backbones this morning, cause they let me swap the CD. :D:D:D

I get back to my car... the new, normal CD is already unwrapped. I put it in and listen to the whole thing through my lunch break. And then back to my first favorite song for a good jolt of energy so I can get upstairs and put it into my work PC.

Hehehhe, it's playing for the 3rd time in a row now, quietly in the background while I work.

I'll play it over and over and over again until I know every word, every musical note and queue. And certainly until I drive Honey insane.

Obsessed you say? Yes. I freely admit it.

Thanksgiving Haiku

I was inspired by RA to write some haiku. She wrote some last week about her kitties. I'm going with the Thanksgiving theme.

Enjoy.

Thanksgiving, this week
Mom's stuffed mushrooms, piping hot
I am hungry now

Giving thanks each year
I am very fortunate
Remaining thankful

We are a large group
Fifteen if you count us all
There will be much food

Sleep

I was in a crappy mood on Friday. No particular reason. I wasn't mad, or sad. I think if anything I was slightly depressed. But mostly I think I was just bored. My boss picked up on it and at about 2pm, he told me to go home. I didn't hesitate.

Honey and I hung out, gamed and ate dinner Friday afternoon/night. We went to bed around 10pm I think. I woke bright and early at 7am. No alarm just had my fill and woke up.

Saturday night I went to be around 11pm and woke Sunday morning at 8am.

Yesterday (Sunday) I laid down for a short nap at 11:30am. I expected to get up about noon when Honey had to so he could go to work... but I didn't. I didn't know anything till 3:15pm when the phone rang. I'm not sure how much longer I would have slept if my sister hadn't called.

And last night, I got in bed around 11:30pm. I woke before my alarm today at 6:45am.

That's alot of sleep over the last couple of days! Apparently I needed it.

My 3-Day Link

Yea! I got it already!

Here's the link to my donation page. :D

3-Day Donation Page

3-Day Breast Cancer Walk

Well I did it. I registered for the 3-Day 2006 walk. Its 60 miles in 3 days. The event for my area is late October 2006.

Fortunately that gives me a lot of time to train. And boy do I have along way to go before I can do something like this! I'm nervous but motivated.

And to top off the difficulty in training, I also have to raise $2200 to walk in the event. I figure if I can accomplish both of those goals, then actually walking the event will be quite a celebration.

And of course we can't forget why I'd even do something like this. It's for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, to fund breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment programs, as well as the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund, to provide an endowment for breast cancer initiatives. (hehe i took that from their website) http://www.the3day.org

My father did this in June of this year. It was wonderful! We're actually working on this together and hope to walk it together in 2006!

I'm excited. It's a powerful event and I hope to raise enough money to walk, but if I don't, I'll be happy with what I can raise in order to donate to the Foundation.

I don't have the link to my donation page yet. Hopefully I'll get that this week and can get it out there for folks to help, if they so choose. :D

Monarch Butterflies

Every fall the Monarchs migrate from the northern US to central Mexico. Well that is if they are east of the Rockies. If they are west of the Rockies they migrate into southern CA. But the bulk of them make the journey to Mexico.

This generation of monarchs lives much longer than the generation born earlier in the year. The spring generation only lives 4 to 6 weeks. But the fall generation lives 6 to 9 months!

If you look at migration paths you'll see that they funnel into Texas and down into South America. I'm fortunate enough to live right in the middle of this funneling path and get to see the migration.

Only two years in my past have I noticed the migration. Perhaps some years they are more abundant than normal, or less abundant. Or maybe they don't always cross over my area of North Texas. Or maybe I've just been too wrapped up in my own life to notice them.

But this year I have, and it seems to be the most abundant group I've seen in my life! They were so thick this morning I couldn't count them all. I started to count just to get an idea of how many I might have seen, and in a 1/2 mile of travel I counted 50. That means I easily saw hundreds this morning. Hundreds upon hundreds. :D It was incredible!

Just one more thing I always forget about the fall that I love. Monarch migration.

Copyright © 2003, Jim Cline http://www.jimcline.com/

Wow-Blog Slacker

I have 3 blogs I need to write. I think I’ll back date them so it’s a more even flow. Be sure to read down a few if you wanna see them!

Fall

It got “cold” in the last couple of days. I think fall is officially here now. And I’ve been bit by the bug too. All the stores are full of Halloween decorations and pumpkins. I’m seeing people in turtle necks and jackets. I had to get out my close toed shoes too. hehe.

I’m so ready for the end of the year. This is my favorite time of year and I’m geared up for it, excited and ready for turkey and Christmas! WOO!

Walking

This past June my dad registered and walked for the 3-Day walking marathon that travels the country for and benefits the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation. He has been cancer free for 15 years now and felt it would be a great thing to do to celebrate and help women all around the world with his collected donations. (Altho he didn’t have breast cancer hehe)

Anywho, since his walk, he and I have discussed doing it together next year. They’ll be in the Dallas area in late October 2006. At first we decided against it, thinking we might not be able to raise the mandatory donation amount on our own since we’d be hitting up a lot of the same people for donations. But when I saw him at Honey’s party he looked at me and said “Let’s do that walk.” :D

It motivated me. I’m excited about it and I want to do it. But it also fueled a greater desire. I suddenly wanted to walk! I want to train for this big event and in doing so get to the point where I can walk without my ankles hurting. I want to do other marathons and events throughout the course of the year to gear up for the big 3-Day. I want to do this so it becomes a normal routine for me, a hobby and an exercise regimen so I’m healthier and feel better.

I’m gonna do it! I found a great website for walkers with challenges and a message board full of other walkers who are great encouragers. I’m going shopping for a new pair of good shoes to support my arches. That’s what I need to keep my ankles from hurting. :D

WALK ON!

4 Day Weekend

About a month ago Honey and I planned this 4 day weekend to go to San Antonio to visit Sea World and see other SA attractions. i.e. The Alamo, Tower of Americas, River Walk etc.

Then the hurricanes hit. Miss Katrina and Rita. When we heard about the evacuations for Rita and heard that some people may end up in SA I immediately thought “Crap! We’ll need to book our hotel room to make sure we can get one.” Before I was done saying it my brain started to say “Well that’s terribly selfish.” So I quickly followed up with the second thought. Honey and I decided to cancel our trip so that folks that NEED a hotel room can have one, and we won’t be taking up a room so we can go on our precious vacation.

We went ahead and kept the vacation days we had planned though because it was Honey’s BDay weekend and there were plenty of other things we could do. :D

Last Thursday we had massages scheduled. We went to the same place and got massages at the same time by two different people in rooms next to each other. Hehe. It was fabulous. We went home in piles of happy goo and did nothing for the rest of the day.

On Friday we went to Six Flags! It was open in the evening for Fright Fest. There wasn’t anyone there! And the weather was fantastic. We didn’t have to wait in lines and rode a couple of the coasters multiple times. It was a great time and a perfect night to go. One of the “ghouls” jumped out and scared me as we darted from one coaster to the next. Heee!

On Saturday we laid around most of the day and then went out for the official BDay party. We went to Dave & Busters to eat yummy food, drink good drinks and play arcade games. Lots of people came too! My parents, my brother and his fiancé’. One of my brother’s girls and my best friend and her man. (you’d think it was my party, but Honey knows and likes all these people too. :p) Anyway, it was a great time too.

On Sunday, Honey and I did nothing. Watched TV and played World of Warcraft all day. Pretty perfect Sunday.

So the 4-Day weekend was a success, and although we didn’t make it to Sea World, I think we made up for it pretty well. I know I had fun!

50 Years Ago

The Good Wife’s Guide
Housekeeping Monthly 13 May 1955

Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.

Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.

Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper etc. and then run a dust-cloth over the tables.

Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.

Be happy to see him.

Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.

Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home later or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.

Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

Don’t greet him with complaints and problems.

Don’t complain if he’s late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.

Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.

A good wife always knows her place.

Unwarranted Indeed

I'd just like to follow up my last post.

Now that we've survived the weekend, I'm glad to report that it never rained and was only slightly windy on Saturday afternoon.

But thank god our gas tanks are full and every store within a 100 miles has zero water and bananas.

(you could cut that sarcasm with a knife)

Unwarranted Hysteria

They say the population of the Dallas/Fort Worth area will increase by about 1 million people by Sunday.

I-45 has been a parking lot for over 24 hours.

People are waiting in lines at gas stations and grocery stores for at least 30 minutes, closer to at least an hour.

Fuel stations are running out of gas.

Grocery store shelves are bare of milk, bread, water and more. My mother said that daddy exclaimed "Where's all the bananas!?" at Wal-Mart last night.

Hotel/Motels are booked solid. Reports are that the nearest vacancies are in Oklahoma.

I've yet to see any of this first hand, but I gather I will before the weekend is over.

Miss Rita isn't going to hurt us one bit. The masses of people will. And the panic of Dallas/Fort Worth residents. It's like the freaking apocalypse down here. Meanwhile, we'll have a nice breezy thunderstorm over the next 2-3 days.

It's insanity. Just as outrageous and irrational as people get when we get a freeze and all the milk and bread disappear from the grocery store shelves. As if we'll be stranded, frozen in our homes for weeks and weeks. *rolls eyes*

This is just silly. Everyone needs to just calm the hell down. And have some sympathy for those who have to come here from the coast. Leave some damn water and bread for them!

Old Friends Renewed

Within the last few months I've had the opportunity to get in touch with some friends from long ago. Some of them were able to find me, and another I've found myself as well as reaching out to a friend who I only hear from once every several months or more.

Lets start with Cory. Cory moved to my home town when we were all in 4th grade. After 8th grade he moved to another town in the area and spent his 4 years of high school away from us. We kept in touch through part of our high school years, but as things go, we eventually lost contact. One of his best friends during middle school was a guy named Shawn. Both of these boys ran with me and my best girlfriend and after Cory moved away, Shawn and the two of us girls still hung out. Shawn and Cory never lost contact after he moved away and not too long ago they were having a conversation about me and did the general "I wonder what Sarah is up to and where she is..."

So Cory took the only number he had, my parent's number and tried it. It worked, because my brother lives where that phone number rings and Cory left a message. I got a call from my brother and he said "Dude, check this out" and played the message. I promptly jotted down Cory's cell number and called him.

About two weeks after our initial contact we went out to see a band together and have a drink. It was a good time. It was nice to see him again and I genuinely am happy that we've found each other again. On that night we went to a bar, and one of the bartenders is the brother of another old friend of mine named Cassie.

I took a leap and asked him to give her my phone number. He did that and also gave me her cell number.

Cassie was my bestest girl friend during my senior year and several years after high school. Without getting into all the details, I basically lost contact with her due to my ex husband and her ex boyfriend. Young minds are easily influenced by asshole boys and I was persuaded to sever ties with her. Unfortunately I had a young mind at the time and let her go.

She and I have played phone tag the last week and a half, but last night I was able to get a hold of her and we gabbed for almost an hour. We easily cleared all the old dead weeds that had cluttered our path to each other and were giggling girls like I had seen her yesterday. With squeals and wiggles, we ended the call with "I love you's" and we'll be seeing each other very soon.

Cory and I saw each other again last Sunday for lunch and Shawn came along too. I was just as comfortable and happy with the two of them as I was 15 years ago. Altho I think they aren't quite as comfortable. They can't seem to grasp why I have a man who doesn't mind if I go out for lunch or to a bar for beer with other boys! Hopefully they'll get over themselves. :p

To say the least, this feels fantastic. I can't wait to see Cassie, and I hope to see those boys again soon. I may actually have the basis of a small circle of friends again!

The only thing that can make this even better is if my Honey and R.A. like these people too. :D

…………...

I’m a baseball fan! But it’s Halloween, so *GRRRR!!*

I’m a basketball fan! But it’s Halloween, so *SNARL!!*

I’m a football fan! But it’s Halloween, so *ROAR!!*

Those might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.

Ahhhh...

Work is so much nicer when I'm not running around like a crazy person trying to get caught up with 2 month old data because of the stupid new system implementation. Can you say, run on sentence? That's how I talk tho, so that's how I type.

Anywho, for the first time in about 3 months I haven't stressed over what I have to get done at work. I don't love it and I would certainly rather be somewhere else, but I don't HATE coming here anymore.

It feels good to know I can come in, get several things finished for the day and go home stress free and feeling accomplished.

School is nice and easy too. We have small reading assignments and journals to write, but it's pretty simple if you can interpret what these old philosophers wrote. Hehe

My life is calm again, for the time being. I hope it remains this way through the rest of the year. I don't wanna panic again until our next annual audit at work! I'll keep my fingers crossed. ;)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My sister has been assimilated into the blog world. I dunno if she’ll keep up the posts, but I hope she does. You can visit her brand new blog at http://utahbound.blogspot.com/

And no, she isn’t yelling, I just can’t get her to stop typing in all caps. :p She writes in all caps, and generally does whatever the hell she wants to do, so if you wanna read her blog, you’re gonna have to get over the caps. Painful as it may be.

Later!

Two Weeks Later

Man! I suck. Time flies by too fast some times. I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since my last post. I can hardly remember what has happened since.

Mostly work and school, but I did have some fun over the Labor Day weekend. It started pretty crappy but got better. I was supposed to have Friday the 2nd off but there was so much to do at work, I came in anyway.

Between a tantrum while stuffing envelopes and violently faxing papers, my boss told me to go home. I had only been here about 2 1/2 hours. He said he didn't care if I got everything done on Tuesday, we'll just take it as it comes and I should leave. So I did.

It took me the rest of Friday to shake off my bad past 3 months of work funk, but by Saturday morning I was good to go. I loaded up some clean panties and a tooth brush and went to my parents' house to hang with them. My sister and her two daughters were already there and the day was filled with shopping, crafting and giggling.

I stayed the night on an air mattress in the living room. When I woke the sun wasn't quite up (normal) and daddy was sitting at his computer playing a silly game and watching Bonanza. He gets TV on his 'puter. I got up and we sat in his office talking quietly over Bonanza, making up our own dialog. It's hard to try and laugh quietly. When it was over we sat on the porch and watched the world wake up.

Soon everyone was awake and momma was making breakfast. We ate and loaded up the car to head to my brother's house for swimming, grilling and playing with his 4 daughters. I got to see ALL of my nieces. :D We played in the pool for hours and ate yummy grilled kabobs and corn.

Dad and Tory

Sammy, Hannah, Aly, Paige and Mom

Abigale

Sammy

When I got home Sunday night, Honey was crawling around under my desk trying to figure out why my PC wasn't working. The power source went bad. So with some tech support from Dell we got a tech scheduled to come fix it. (it's under warranty) I actually just spoke to Honey and the tech called while we were talking and was on his way.

But I digress. Monday, Honey and I spent all day together. We got out of bed late and went to lunch out. When we came out from lunch my car wouldn't start. That battery went dead too! So again with the warranties, I took it to the dealership. Long story short I spent too much time and too much money, but my car is working again and all is well.

It was an eventful holiday weekend. Some parts were great and some were not so great, but now that my head is well above water at work, I can look back and feel good about the little extra time I was able to take off.

My Evil is Showing >;)

There is this turn I have to take to get to work. It's the kind that has two left turn lanes that go into 3 lanes on the crossing road. For some reason, people don't know what to do with this, even though there are dotted lines painted for guidance. Most people who turn here cut diagonally across the intersection and end up in the two left lanes on the crossing road.

This isn't how the lines are painted. They are painted so that you are to end up in the two right lanes. Every morning I turn from the farthest left lane, hoping to end up where I'm supposed to, in the middle lane of the new road. But no, every morning the yahoo in the other turn lane, cuts me off, forcing me into the far left lane and hogging up the middle lane. It makes me nuts.

So this morning I decide to turn from the other lane and do it properly, ending up in the far right lane. This nuts-o behind me rushes through the intersection, turning into the middle lane, forcing the other lane into the far left and then darting in front of me in the far right.

At first I thought she was just being a pushy wench and then I figured out she just wasn't paying attention and screwed up. She kept looking at me in the rear view mirror. Her eyes were darting around and I just knew she felt that "oh crap, dumb traffic move” feeling. I've had it, it sucks.

So we proceed down the road and she makes a turn, and I turn. And her eyes are there, staring at me in the mirror. Meanwhile, I'm just staring right back at her, perfectly still with no emotion on my face, sunglasses on. I imagine I look like the Terminator. She turns again, and I turn.

Then she turns again and again I turn. At this point I know she thinks I'm following her. She slows and turns into my work complex (3 large buildings all connected by parking lots) and almost stops. I'm pulling in behind her. She speeds up in the parking lot and makes a hard turn behind the 1st building. I work in the second building, so I cruise on to my normal parking area and get out and go into work.

That poor girl thought I was gonna hunt her down, confront her or fight her, for cutting me off in traffic.

It felt good. MUAHAHAHAHA!

Belly Dancing

I was in my 4th show last night. The first one I did was about 9 months after I started dancing. 6 months later we did another one and that was the last time I danced for about 2 years.

Last summer I took up new classes and we had a small “beginner graduation” after 6 months, which moved us into Advanced I. So last night we had our first Adv. I show and it was just as fun as the rest.

All total I’ve been dancing about 2 ½ years. And up until this point I haven’t had the drive to work harder and move into the higher class and possible consider soloing at some point. But something happened yesterday. I was inspired, or aware that I’m good enough or something. I also realized I do have a great desire to do more, learn more and be better.

So instead of dancing once a week in class I think I’ll start working a bit harder. I’m going to get out the choreographies I have copies of that we have to learn to test out of Adv. I. I’m going to work on them and learn them and test out. So come Christmas, instead of doing another Adv. I routine, I’ll do an Adv. II routine, or god help me a smaller show with me and a girl or two that we work out, on our own.

I’m finally ready to move on. I figured this day would come, when I was brave enough and knew enough to feel confident. Now that it’s here, I’m excited and can’t wait to see what happens.

Maybe R.A. will get out her shinies one more time and dance a routine we know at Christmas. Just the two of us.