Puppy Power!

Jazzy came for a sleepover last week and of course, crazy drunk pictures were taken. Aren't they taken at every sleepover?

another week, another dollar

I'm so relieved.

It is 4:26pm. Friday. I have finished everything on my diary for work (I was 2 weeks behind when I started this week). I have filed all my claims and all my mail is up to date and filed (I had to borrow a cart to get all my files from my desk to my cabinets). My desk is clean, my work is done, and I have 59 minutes left to be at work. Life is finally stuffing lemonade down my throat.

It's been an interesting week. Monday I took my mom grocery shopping, and hung around doing nada. Tuesday I wasn't feeling well so I laid around watching my Monday shows on the DVR and feeling ill. Wednesday I went to Shea's with Shell and we went to a sushi place out in Land O Lakes on Collier Parkway ... the sushi was fantastic (I'd say top 4 -- tied with Bonsai, Toki, and Soho sushi) but the service was terrible -- I'd say we were forgotten because it took us an hour to get our food, and we only got half of it because it was on two pages and they forgot the second page. But the sushi was great, so we'll definitely give it another shot. Plus, it's not like we're ever without stuff to talk about. Afterward we walked down to Marble Slab and then I went home ... so late, no sleep but oh well :). Thursday I had to go see the florist, and I figured out she's actually the mother of a friend of mine from high school. Not that I'm getting a discount or anything, but it's funny nonetheless. Suzanne came with me because I hate doing such things on my own and everyone else had previous engagements (haha, I made a funny!). Before and after I had to go see my sister because she was being her usual hormonal-puberty-craziness with my mom, and drama ensued. Everything's cool now, I guess, but it was pretty bad. I'm so glad I'm out of that stage. If my kids start that with me they'll be locked in their rooms until they turn 18. Not dealing with it. I don't know how children live through their teenage years. I was supposed to meet up with Kyle and Christen at the Zone last night, but I didn't end up getting there until 9:30 or so (about the time I had planned on leaving) so I stayed until 11:30 or so. Craziness. Then I got home and couldn't sleep, so I slept in this morning and I'm staying a little late.

Tonight I'm supposed to go to that bridal shower that I tried to go to last week and realized I had the wrong date, so I'm out drinking again tonight! Woohoo!

A Monday Morning Meme

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:30am (should have been earlier)
2. Diamonds or Pearls? mostly diamonds, a smattering of pearls are nice though :)
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Last Kiss
4. What is your favorite TV show? Without a Trace, CSI, My Name is Earl ... whenever I get to catch them.
5. What did you have for breakfast? A Bagel and sweet tea
6. What is your middle name? Lynne
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Italian, or whatever I'm cooking
8. What foods do you dislike? mayonnaise
9. Your favorite Potato chip? I don't really like chips -- too greasy.
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Jack Johnson's yellow cd (i don't remember the name of it)
11. What kind of car do you drive? Toyota Corolla S Type
12. Favorite sandwich? Grilled Cheese
13. What characteristics do you despise? conceit and selfishness
14. What are your favorite clothes? I'm with Stacy -- my heels! And my Loft dresses
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where WOULDN'T you go? anywhere there's a more than likely chance of being killed
16. Favorite brand of clothing? Loft Ann Taylor or NY&Co
17. Where would you want to retire? Charleston or Memphis -- I adore those two cities
18. Favorite time of day? lunchtime and afternoon
19. Where were you born? Good ole Dunedin
20. What is your favorite sport to watch? NFL and hockey
21. Who do you think will not copy and continue this? I don't know, probably everyone
22. Person you expect to send it back first? hehe ... I'd say Stacy, but she's the one who sent it to me ...
23. Pepsi or Coke? Coke
24. Beavers or Ducks? ummm ... sounds like something sexual
25. Are you a morning person or night owl? morning once I drag myself out of bed.
26. Pedicure or Manicure? pedicure. I do my own nails
27. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Not really ... same old, same old
28. What did you want to be when you were little? A forensic psychologist ... before that was the "in" thing to be. Then a teacher, then a writer, then an editor. I still want to be the last two, but I'll get there eventually.
29. What is your best childhood memory? taking my brother on the back of my bike to the library, and the antique stores and up to Shoney's for lunch
30. Piercing? Ears and Tongue
31. Ever been to Africa ? Nope
32. Ever been toilet papering? actually, no
33. Been in a car accident? Yep
35. Favorite restaurant? Moe's and Flemings
36. Favorite flower? yellow roses and tulips
37. Favorite ice cream? Monkey Bites from Cold Stone
38. Favorite fast food restaurant? Chick-fil-a or Evo's
39. How many times did you fail your drivers test? none, but I did lie to the instructor and told her I didn't drive over the cone when I did the parking part ...
40. From whom did you get your last e-mail? Stacy, as per usual :)
41. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Loft Ann Taylor or any shoe store
42. Bedtime? Whenever I get sleepy, unless I want to stay up anyhow. Then I fight it.
43. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Whoever decides to answer it
44. Last person you went to dinner with? Christen and I went for Chinese this weekend
45. What are you listening to right now? my iPod -- Bllue Plate Special is on with "Track 10"
46. What is your favorite color? Blue or Green or Tan
7. How many tattoos do you have? one
48. How many people are you sending this to? just the usual suspects
49. What time did you finish this e-mail? 10:41 am
50. Favorite magazine? People

Dreaming again.

I don't know why, but I've been dragging ever since I got back from lunch. I keep staring at the bottom corner of the computer screen but it doesn't seem to make the time pass any quicker. Why is that? I've finally got 10 minutes left -- hallelujah!

I've been having weird dreams again lately. I had a dream two nights ago that I was abducted by terrorists. Shelley, me and some guy were abducted and shoved into some hotel room, and they hit me and thought I was dead because it knocked me out, but when I came to I just had a broken jaw and a broken arm. Then we escaped and found out that we were in Atlanta so we were trying to find our way home. Then Stacy was there trying to navigate for us and she kept getting us lost and we were mad.

Last night I had another nightmare about my wedding. I dreamt that it was day of and we still hadn't finalized our honeymoon plans (in the dream we were going to Japan) so I'm in my dress trying to do my hair and flipping through these cards at a flea market trying to find a hotel room in Japan. Crazy crazy.

We've got my mom's dog for the weekend -- it's so nice to see Lola having fun without having to be the main source of her fun. It's breaktime :) They patter through the house back and forth and Christen says, "Well, I did only want two kids ..." and I was all "See? They amuse themselves!" Not that it's like that with kids or anything, but still ...

I woke up this morning to what I thought was a hurricane, but evidently was just 5 inches of rain falling in less than 3 hours. Oh joy. I went back to bed to listen to the rain before I had to ship off to work.

Because of my missed days of work last week, I am now up to my eyeballs in work -- I've separated it into piles. There's the "do before anything else" pile, the "do before it's due" pile, the "transferred to me and I don't care" pile and the "where did this come from?" pile. Plus, you know, mail and phone calls and all those other things I'm supposed to take care of. I worked an extra hour yesterday, and I will probably work late all this week to try to get a handle on things. Bah. I wish I was a housewife. But that's Christen's job right now.

I stopped by B&N yesterday to check if they had Paint it Black by Janet Fitch yet. Turns out they do, but it doesn't go 20% off until next week. I can wait until next week. I'm reading Just an Ordinary Day by Shirley Jackson, and it's divine. It's just the type of short fiction that I long to write. Tasty little morsels that leave you intrigued about the characters and always wanting more. Always leave them wanting more ...

After Barnes to the Noble, I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to get a friend a bridal shower gift. I have to say, I now understand why no one buys off the registry. You know how hard it is to find those things? I am traumatized from having to stare at the gadget wall (you know what I'm talking about) for a half hour looking for a cheese plane only to find out they're out. First I tried to get some of the dishes she wanted -- those are easy, no? Yeah, they're out. Then the gadget wall -- I figured I'd just get a bunch of gadgets. Very traumatic. But an hour later I was finally done. Hurrah!

Bah

I'm sick. Missed work yesterday, and came in today because I needed to pack up my stuff -- they're moving me to another floor. I'll probably go home after that.

Bah. I'm such a baby.

The Buzz

So have you guys seen this? I do feel bad that her son died, but unfortunately the whole article is overshadowed by this one sentence. “The couple, who met while working together at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken in Mexia, Texas, divorced in 1987.” Hehe. That’s all I’ve got on that.

My throat is absolutely killing me, and I don’t know what to do about it. I was sucking on a cough drop, but since I’m not coughing I don’t know how much help it is. It started hurting yesterday at work, and I don’t know if it hurts because of work or it just happened to start hurting while there. It didn’t hurt last night so much, but it hurts now so bad that I’m having a hard time concentrating on anything.

I’m reading John Irving’s Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, and the memoirs part was really good, but I’m trying to power through the short story part to move on to another book. The short stories aren’t bad, or I would just stop reading, but they’re not … compelling. The next book on the roster is John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flats. Hopefully I’ll start that by today at lunch or tomorrow. I haven’t gotten through the amount of books I had proposed as my New Years resolution, but I’d say I’ve read 50-75, so I don’t think I’ve done too bad. And there’s still 3 ½ months left of the year. It’s been a good year for reading, I’d say.

I’m thinking about volunteering at the library on Saturday mornings. A friend of mine does it and it sounds like something I’d really enjoy, so I think I might check out the library around the corner from my house. I think I owe them $10 from a book-on-tape I lost in high school, and I hope that doesn’t keep me from getting the job :)

My dad found a friend of his to do the photography for my wedding. I’m super excited because it’ll make it a lot cheaper, but super-nervous, because I haven’t seen his work yet. I’m going to see if he can do my engagement photos so I can see his current work, because he only works for friends now so he doesn’t keep a portfolio. He has an album from way back, and I guess I’ll check that out to see.

But that’s all that’s happening right now. Back to work – Toodles!

It's been a long time since I've done a meme ...

But I’ve been tagged by NPR Junky!

1) You have been selected as the next super hero in your city. What power will you choose to have? the power to fight all crime through video games!

2) Lemon or Lime? - Lemon with water, Orange with Blue Moon, and nothing with Tea. Nothing's a simple answer

3) How many speeding tickets have you recieved? - I've had a bundle, but none since 2000 -- I've been a good girl! Or I've gotten better glasses, one of those ...

4) It’s last call for alcohol what will you order? - probably a Shiraz or Zinfindel -- I'm stuck on this Bogle Petit Syrah that's fantastic, and their Zinfindel is equally delish.

5) Which video game character would you want to be? I only play one video game religiously, but in that I'm a high elf. I'd love to be a Spriggin, because they're so cute (and deadly for me) or a battlemage ... fun fun!

6) What event do you think has had the most effect on this country?a) every war any president can come up with.

7) What was the street name you lived on the majority of your childhood? For a while I moved once every year or two -- Eastwood, Crest Ave, Falcon Dr., but when I was 12 we moved to Pennsylvania Ave and the fam still lives there.

8) The name of your first pet? - I had a dog named Tippy, but the first one I remember was a German Shepard named Pi that was way bigger than me (I was 3) ... and I still miss that dog.

9) Your first grade teacher’s last name? ... No wait, I'm thinking ... she was older than dirt ... Gerard, I think. I can usually remember, but right now I'm stuck and can only remember to second grade, and then I remember my preschool teacher's name: Ms. Cathy.

And the final one…10) What color are your current undergarments? - Ah ... navy blue panties and a black bra.

And I'll tag VegasGustan, Autumn, Jamie, Random_Speak and Ordinary Girl. Fun fun!

Laborous.

I don't know what to say about my Labor Day weekend that won't offend one person or another. All I know is I'm in a bad mood, and I don't want to be at work. Hope you enjoyed yours!

Sometimes you just need the coffee

I need to start remembering not to drink so much on a school night ... or work night, whatevs. Shea and Kyle came over last night and we did cheese (havarti w/ dill, garlic & herb cheddar, and muenster) and summer sausage and slightly burnt bruschetta (okay, so I kept forgetting it in the oven) for dinner. Christen really wanted to do a wine and cheese night. It was actually pretty good, and we had about 1 1/2 bottles of wine between 3 of us (Kyle had thoe Bacardi fruit drinks). Later we went to The Zone and hung out with my favorite bartender ... I'm going to be so sad when that place finally catches on... I love the hole-in-the-wall bar feel, and it's going to end up being dance club loudness. I understand what they're trying to do, and I don't begrudge them trying to succeed, but I've never found a bar that I would actually go to on a regular basis, and that I would enjoy just hanging out at. It makes me understand some of my Tampa friends that are always going out to some of the small bars. It's so nice! But we had a couple glasses of wine there too -- a "super Tuscan" which was okay, a little weird at the end, and an Argentinian merlot which was fantastic (and I've never had a Merlot that I like)

But it was indeed too much of the drink, and I was a little tipsy, and Shea-Shea was more than pleasantly tipsy ... I had to keep getting her water because she kept getting the hiccups. So fun! But we really need to hold off on weeknights, I'm telling you. We were out until about 11:30, and then Christen and I had a little romp in the hay, so I didn't get to sleep until 1am ... and up at 6:30. Technically I should have been up earlier, but it wasn't happening. I stopped at Starbucks for a raspberry mocha, and dragged my butt into work. I'm fully awake now, but I still don't want to be here :) It's raining, and I want to be cozy in bed watching a movie or reading next to Christen.

Instead I'll be here at work nursing my Starbucks and counting the hours.