It's Been Awhile

I haven't written anything in a long time.  So much has happened in the past month and a half.  I went to Vegas for a wedding, my Great Aunt Cherie died, my car went to crap, and got myself a boyfriend.

The Vegas trip was awesome.  I got to spend 5 days with my best friends and watch one of them get married.  I was so happy to be a part of this wedding.  You know how sometimes you go to a wedding and you know it's a big waste of time and money because the marriage won't last 6 months?  This was not like that at all.  These two have been through hell and you can see it in their eyes when they look at each other that they're supposed to be together.  Cheesy?  Yeah.  Totally true though.

Aunt Cherie was a special person.  It was sad watching her being taken off life support after a stroke killed her brain.  Her death brought her family together.  People I hadn't seen in years came to the funeral and it was wonderful to see everyone reminiscing about the good times.  Cherie had her struggles, but she loved her family deeply.  It was a happy funeral.  Well, as happy as a funeral can be anyway.

My car is stupid.  Let's just leave it at that.  I don't even care that it's leaking all over my driveway.  It doesn't rattle or sneeze anymore so I'll just ignore it.

The boyfriend I got is pretty amazing.  He spoils Grace and me.  I'm not used to that at all.  He opens doors, holds my hand, makes me feel special, and is very patient with me.  If you know me, I'm stubborn and kind of a pain in the ass so patience is a necessity.  He lets Grace play games on his phone, shares his french fries with her, and entertains her while I'm busy.  I'm a very lucky girl.  Grace thinks he's the bee's knees too.

There you go.  You're all caught up.  Life is good.
 

Badgood

Things are kind of crappy right now.  Well, shitty to be honest. 

I've got some sick family members.  One will probably not be with us much longer and the other is facing a lifetime of excruciating pain.  I can't do anything for the one who is dying except support those who are still living and maybe try to find a home for her dog.  I'm a good hugger.  I hope that helps my loved ones.

I can help the one in pain much more.  I can cook for her, clean for her, help her walk, set out her pills, get her groceries, do her laundry, do her dishes, etc.  I will gladly do that stuff because it's so much easier than watch her go through what she's going through.  I'll do anything she needs if it means making her more comfortable so she can enjoy her life.

Also, my car is getting to be pretty dangerous to drive.  The right side of the windshield is almost always foggy.  The defrost doesn't work on that side and neither does the floor vent.  It wouldn't matter if they did work because a lovely, thick vapor comes out of the vents when I turn them on.  Well, unless it's the cold defrost and the car is constantly moving.  I know there's a coolant leak somewhere.  That's a definite.  Unfortunately, my car likes to be very expensive to fix and I can't do expensive right now.  I wish I was a good liar so my car could have an "accident."  I can't do that though.  I'd turn myself in before I even finished the job.

Lastly, my hair is being a bitch.  I normally don't care about it, but this is ridiculous.

With all this bad stuff, it's getting kind of hard to think happy thoughts.  The gloomy, misty junk outside is making it even harder.  I'm doing my best though.  I'm not dead.  That's good.  I have Grace.  She makes life good even when I'm mad at her.  I have the best friends and family.  I get mashed potatoes for lunch.  At some point, I'll get a hug today.  There.  I'm better now.  Mostly.  I'm badgood.  Better than just bad. 

BSH

The lady in green is Meghan.  She is getting married in 28 days.  I get to be in her wedding in Las Vegas.  She's pretty cool.  The lady in purple is Mo.  We almost share a birthday.  She's pretty cool, too.  The three of us have been friends since high school.  We sat together in Mr. White's Citizenship Issues class where we discovered our mutual weirdness and ability to make cardboard cars.  There, we formed our gang.  The BSH gang.  No, I will not tell you what the letters stand for.  It's a secret.  I'm pretty sure that Mr. White was thrilled when that school year ended.  I really don't remember anything he taught us, but I do remember loving the class because of the fun we had in our little area of the classroom.

On Saturday, we finally got the matching tattoos that we've been talking about getting for many years.  We would have gotten them a long ago except we couldn't decide what to get until Meghan got us matching three-peas-in-a-pod necklaces in May.  We almost immediately decided that the necklaces perfectly represented our friendship and the decision to get peas tattooed on us was made.  Fast forward a few months and off we went to the tattoo parlor where a guy tattooed and put up with us for 3 hours.  We're silly.  We talked like he wasn't there.  I sort of assumed he wasn't listening until he joined the conversation about fat cats with panuses and crazy kids. 

After the tattoos, we proceeded to get ready for Meghan's bachelorette party.  Meghan's fiance, Bryan, and Mo had a heart to heart while Meghan and I curled our hair.  It was pretty freakin' awesome.  The bachelorette party was awesome, too.  Mo and I left early so we could properly care for our children the next morning without being hungover zombies.  After this wonderful day, I am even more excited to spend 5 whole days with these ladies in Vegas.  Actually, Vegas should probably start worrying.

Lessons Learned

I learned a few things this weekend.

1)  My boss is a ninja spider killer.

2)  I'm not good at bowling, but I can be better depending on who I happen to be bowling with.  If it's not a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds laughing at me, I do much better.  Also, people falling down next to me can cause me to get a strike.  That was probably coincidence, but I'll stick with my theory.

3)  My family still thinks I'm a teenager.  I came home Friday night to my Mom, Aunt, and Uncle grilling me about where I had been.  Thanks for the concern people, but I'm 30.

4)  Grace should not stay up until the wee hours of the morning.

5)  Zombie makeup is not good for my eyes.  Neither is fire smoke.  A combination of the two is horrific.  I look like I spent the weekend bawling.

6)  I want a dog.

I obviously didn't learn anything monumental, but at least I learned something.  I'm going to go try to find an ice pack for my eyes. 

I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

I just had a lovely conversation with someone on the phone at work.  This is how it went:

Me:  Thank you for calling Duncan Aviation.  This is Adrienne.  How may I help you?

Caller:  Can I talk to Fred

Me:  I'm sorry, I have 2000 people here.  Do you know Fred's last name?

Caller:  No.  He's short, dark hair....gay.

(No one has ever given me this sort of description so I was a bit shocked and trying not to laugh)

Me:  I'm sorry. *giggle*  That's still not going to help.  Do you know which department he works in? *giggle*

Caller:  No, but I can tell you his boyfriend's name and which airport he works in.  His name is Dave.

Me:  Like I said, without a last name or department, I can't find who you're looking for.

Caller:  What if I tell you what he drives?

Me:  I'm sorry, that won't help either.  Hold on a minute and let me ask someone if they might know who Fred is.

I put him on hold and asked Lori if she knew anyone who fit that very detailed description.  She did and the guy doesn't work here anymore.  Unfortunately, the caller had hung up by the time I returned to the phone.

I was slightly disappointed that the guy had hung up.  I wanted to tell him I was impressed with how many details he knew about everyone except the person he was looking for.  Ok, I wouldn't have said that, but I was thinking it.

I would like all of our callers to know that I work in a very small office with a window that allows me to see the inside of a hangar.  I can see the mechanics, but rarely do they get close enough for me to see their nametags.  For any physical description you give me, there are probably 50 guys that fit it.  You give me a first name, there are probably at least 2 people with that name.  Also, I don't know if anyone here is gay.  I'm locked in this tiny office and don't get out much.  I don't care if they're gay anyway. 

Today is Fantastic

Today is absolutely wonderful.  After a week of being in some serious pain from stupid teeth, I am finally pretty pain free.  That might have something to do with the painkillers, but whatever.  The painkillers are making this day a little more fun.  Don't worry, I won't be taking anymore so I can drive home safely.

It's Thursday and I'm wearing jeans at work, but not because I'm rebellious.  It's just a team appreciation day so they let us wear comfy clothes for an extra day.  I'm shocked at the amount of people still wearing uniforms.  Seems silly to me.  Maybe they don't like jeans as much as I do.  I love them.  As part of team appreciation day, they're also giving us free food.  I usually get excited about free food, but since I didn't eat much the past few days due to the tooth pain, I'm super excited about this.  SUPER excited.

Also, I just found out I have more money than I thought I did which means taking my car to the shop is a little less scary.  I need to get this car fixed soon because I'm pretty sure it'll blow up if I don't.  That would be bad.

Today is my 4 month of no smoking anniversary.  I can't believe I've made it this far.  I haven't cheated even though I've wanted to really bad.  Every single day. 

It's another day closer to Saturday and that means another day closer to Meghan's bridal shower.  This isn't going to be your typical shower.  I've been looking forward to it for quite awhile and I'm not normally a shower type of girl.  I made something special for her and I can't wait until she sees it.

Grace and I got in an argument this morning.  It's hard to argue with a 9 year old through texting.  She wanted to wear high heels to school.  I just bought her a pair of dress shoes with a very small heel.  She knows they're not for school but she kept begging.  I threatened to ground her.  She said she didn't care if she was grounded as long as she could wear the shoes.  So, I told her I'd ground her until Monday so she couldn't go to the shower and I'd throw the shoes away.  She quit arguing immediately and said she loved me.  She better not have worn those shoes.

Books, Hair Cuts, and Failed C25K

Grace's first week of school went very well.  She got homework and did it quickly and correctly.  She behaved herself and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of school. She got to bring home a book from the classroom library.  The books are generally to stay in the classroom, but her teacher let her bring one home.  Grace chose "Matilda."  She read all 240 pages in 2 days.  I'm not sure I've ever read a book in 2 days.  I'm very proud of my child.  She spent time in the car, at the hardware store, and at home reading.  She even set up a comfy reading spot in the shopping cart:

As I was looking in her school planner, I noticed a little note:

She was really upset that she didn't get math homework this weekend.  Again, I love my child and so proud of her.  I believe she will go far in this world.

On a completely different note, I got my hairs cut.  I like my hair long, but it gets stupid and starts falling out once it gets as long as my shoulders.  So, off went 4 inches:

Lastly, I started the C25K program last week.  Actually, I thought I started it, but really I started some weird version my brain created while reading the directions.  I was a little ticked off when I went to look at week 2's directions and realized that I had messed up.  So, technically I started the C25K program yesterday.  My version was much easier.