BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY

Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge, TN
7/22/12

This morning was our "leaving day" but we weren't in a hurry to get back home.

We woke up fairly early, packed, and decided to forgo the hotel restaurant so that Steve could avoid the overly friendly host. Heehee.

(I'd like to tell you which hotel we were staying in, because it was a nice place and a great place to stay if you're in the area, but I've been burned by the random corporate web-bots crawling around and finding my blog, and I don't want to get the guy fired.  Overly friendly host or not, I don't want to be responsible for getting anyone fired!)

We had heard great things about a place called "Log Cabin Pancakes," which is apparently a town institution, so we decided to have breakfast over there.  The parking lot wasn't full, so we thought we'd be able to get something to eat fairly quickly, but I had forgotten a very important detail about staying in Gatlinburg...people can walk to most places!  We got as far as the porch and that is it.  The line was insane, and trailing out the door and down the front of the building.  It was like Clary's in Savannah.  We pretty much decided that no pancakes were worth standing in a line like that, so we left.  It wasn't just that place, though.  Every pancake/breakfast place we saw was completely packed out with a line out the door.  Alas, no pancakes for us!  Oh, well...

We drove out of Gatlinburg and headed towards Pigeon forge so that we could go to the outlets.  I love shopping at outlet malls.  I don't know why, though, because I'm fairly sure that the prices aren't that much less than the regular stores, but it's the IDEA that you can get cheap stuff I suppose!

On our way there, we stopped at what I dubbed "THE MALL 'O CRAP" which was a really big store full of all of those cheesy souvenirs that are the staple and lifeblood of the tourist trade in places like that!  I loved it.  I always love to see the trashy t-shirts and tacky stuff that tourist traps have to offer.  Don't worry, though, we didn't buy anything.  I think the highlight of that visit was a shirt that I'm pretty sure was marketing that reality show "Swamp People" that said "Gator Done!"  Now that's good stuff! :)  When we left there, we hadn't gotten too far when Steve happened to look out of his window and say "HEY!"  Right there, in plain sight of where we had actually stopped yesterday while we were looking for the store that I was convinced didn't really exist, was the store that we had been looking for!  No, honestly, it was right there.  I felt so stupid.  Not only was it in plain sight, it was right next to a restaurant I'd told Steve I wanted to try the day before.  We had just somehow blanked out the whole thing, which is even more amazing since the place is frickin' huge. Even the GPS hadn't found it, so I'm under the impression that it was built overnight just to mess with us.

The store is called "The Incredible Christmas Store" and it contains everything you could ever imagine might be wanted for Christmas decor.  We even saw a life size nativity scene, which my mom would have loved, but we didn't have the trunk space for the entire holy family. ; )  We stayed in there a long time, mainly because the place was enormous.  I found a couple of mermaid ornaments that I wanted to put in my bathroom (nothing for the tree, alas) and I also found a gorgeous music box that I fell in love with.  It was a big, wooden thing that had these giant brass disks that played kind of like a record would.  It was so beautiful.  I don't know if my description makes any sense, but I wanted it so bad.  Unfortunately, I didn't have $16,500 to spare.  Ouch. 

After we left there, we figured we'd go ahead and eat lunch, so we went to "The Partridge and Pear," which was the restaurant I'd seen the day before.  It was such a neat place!  It was Christmas themed, but not in a cheesy way.  It looked like a really lovely home that had been decorated for Christmas, but not with Santas or anything like that, and each dining room was different.  We were in the atrium, which was lined with windows and had an inset, hand-painted pear tree on the ceiling. That painting even had atmospheric distortion, which amazed me.  It was gorgeous and the food was so good!  We ordered way too much, but everything we tried was delicious.  We'll go back on our next trip!

We got back on the road and finally made it to the outlets.  Oh, and have I mentioned that traffic in these towns is horrible?  It took us forever to get to every place we went.  It was frustrating!  Anyways, we walked the entire mall and, surprisingly, didn't buy much of anything.  The prices weren't very low, and it was too hot to try on clothes.  We did get shoes at the Croc store, and before you laugh and point, I need to specify that we got flip-flops, not the ugly kind.  They are the most comfortable shoes on the planet!  The last pair I bought, I have worn until the bottoms have flattened out and the tread is completely gone.  I was lucky to find my size, so I got the only two pairs they had left in a size 7 so that I could stock up. :)

We drove out of town to buy some medicine for Steve (he was feeling better, but still not so hot) and then we decided to head back to Gatlinburg so that we could drive through the national park.  Well, that was the original idea. We got back into town and Steve decided he wanted something to drink, so we walked back to the Parkway to find a place where slushies could be attained.  We stopped long enough to ride a chair lift (and had a picture made like the one we had on our honeymoon) and then we got our drinks.  Back in the car, I asked how far away the park was and Steve decided that he wanted to skip it.  BAIT AND SWITCH!  He really just wanted a slushy!  BOOOOOOO!  Oh, well....Gatlinburg isn't that far away!  We'll go back and look at the mountains one day.  Heehee.

So, we headed home & now we're here.  We'd had a very good trip!

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY

Gatlinburg, Tennessee
7/21/12

This morning I had to get Steve out of bed before he slept the day away. It wasn't very late, but had I not woken him and made him feel guilty for not getting up, I'm fairly certain he wouldn't have gotten out of bed till noon! I probably should have let him sleep, it is his vacation and all, but this is the only full day we'd have to do a lot of stuff, and I didn't want to waste it. : )

We started out getting breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The host was very, very friendly with Steve. Like, weirdly friendly. He followed us to our table and actually asked Steve some inappropriate questions, like how much he weighed! Wha? It was very strange. I thought maybe he was flirting with Steve, as he was a bit effete, but I noticed he was wearing a wedding band. Of course, that could mean anything these days. My guess is that his marriage may not have been legal in Tennessee, if you know what I mean. :). It is actually kind of funny in retrospect, because Steve was trying to be nice, but you could tell he was very uncomfortable.  I asked him later if he was weirded out because the guy was flirting with him, but he said no.  He was actually more uncomfortable with a complete stranger trying to start a conversation with him! Ha!  I'm sure the guy didn't mean any harm, but he had some boundary issues for sure.

After escaping from the restaurant, we headed towards the Parkway, which is what the main drag here is actually called. We parked and began walking. our first stop was at Cooter's, the Dukes of Hazzard museum and gift shop place. We spent a loooong time in there. Steve is a big fan, remember? The museum was actually fairly small, but had a lot of neat stuff in it. Mostly the things on display were props, costumes and merchandise, but it was pretty interesting.  Steve got a few souvenirs, but he wouldn't let me get a Dixie horn for the Seabring. I was crushed. 

We walked on, popping in and out of different shops that looked interesting. It was really muggy outside, and I was sweating so bad. It was gross!  We visited a Hollywood Car Museum, which was fun (and also had awesome air conditioning.) We walked on along a bit further, but soon decided to cross the road and start heading back. By this time we were really hot and probably more than a little dehydrated, so to remedy that, guess what we decided to do? A moonshine tasting! True story. Did you know that there is a distillery right here in Gatlinburg that makes legal moonshine in many different favors? Did you also know that the distillery's store lets you taste all the flavors you want, for free, like some kind of hillbilly wine tasting?  Steve and I were curious as to what it would taste like, so we showed our IDs and got a tiny plastic cup that looked like the kind we use during the Lord's Supper. I chose the peach kind, while Steve got the plain White Lightening. You know what? Moonshine is gross. No offense to the fine distillers or anything, because I'm sure the product is just not for me, but it tasted like rubbing alcohol that someone had soaked a gummi bear in. Bleh.  Steve was also not impressed.  Needless to say, we did not try another flavor! Oh, and to add some fun to that, I was just dehydrated enough to get a tiny bit buzzed. Honestly, a thimble-full of moonshine and my hearing got dim and my head and nose got really warm on the inside. It's sad, really. We walked a bit further and visited a "mall" where I convinced Steve to get into one of those water massage chambers. He had hurt his back on the golf course, and I thought it would help. Unfortunately for him, he didn't take the lady's advice and drink any water after he was done to flush the lactic acid, so he began feeling bad, but he didn't tell me until way later.

We finally got down to the aquarium, which I was so excited about! Seeing it was the only thing I knew for sure I wanted to do while we were here. Honestly, though, the visit immediately started off being very, very irritating and disappointing. First off, the place was packed. Apparently a lot of people had decided to visit that day, including a very large group from a family reunion (you knew they were all together because they were wearing the same reunion t-shirt.) I knew the place wasn't going to be empty, so the problem wasn't that it was crowded, but the people with that family reunion were so freaking rude!

There is a kind of courtesy I always assume most people should try to follow while in a place like an aquarium or a museum: you go and look at the things, don't surround it so that other people can see, don't shove your way in front of people, and after a reasonable amount of time, you move on.  This family had either never been to an aquarium, or quite possibly had never been in public, before because they did the opposite of all of those things. I approached the first tank, and was immediately shoved out of the way by some kids who apparently didn't think I needed to see the fish. I stood back, waiting my turn, but they didn't move! Seriously, I kept waiting and that knot of people just stood there talking. Ok then, I moved on. At every freaking tank, a knot of people from this family would block everyone else. They'd stand there and talk, scream, laugh, and make camera videos of the fish. Seriously?  That kind of thing is ok if you don't have a thousand people waiting behind you, but to bottleneck a whole room full of people while you pretend you are the only ones there? Unacceptable. To make matters worse, 3/4ths of the women there were pushing strollers the size of Volkswagens. Why would a baby the size of a house cat need a thing so big? Hell even if they did need it, wouldn't it make sense not to bring it into a place so full of people that you can barely move, much less maneuver a stroller? I don't mean to offend any mothers out there, and I speak from the ignorant position of someone who is child-free, but that was the icing on the cake of inconsideration. I'm sure it wasn't meant to be that way, but it would seem like common sense to me.  Anyways...enough about that. Steve and I kept getting separated, so I was basically by myself for most of the time. Boo. We met up and lost each other a hundred times, but we finally managed to get to the moving sidewalk at the same time! Woot! That was actually pretty neat, because it took us through a glass tube that ran through the big tank in the middle of the aquarium, and we got to see the sharks and sea turtles and stuff. The only bad part was that the family got behind us and spent most of the excursion screaming and bumping into us. I ended up walking off of the conveyer belt before it was over just to get away from them.  Luckily, after that things got much better.  It was still plenty crowded, but the family reunion people must have left, because I didn't see many of them after that, and the groups of people that remained seemed to have a better idea how to behave in public.  I enjoyed everything much more after that, and although I was disappointed that there were no otters at this aquarium, I did make friends with a penguin named Riley. He was so cute. I'd never seen penguins up close before, and now I love them! :)

We finally made our way out, and started back to the car. We'd decided to drive into Pigeon Forge and go to a store we'd been told about, but we never found it. We used the GPS to no avail, we drove around forever, and although we saw the buildings that were supposed to be near it, we just never saw it.  I'm beginning to think we were tricked!  We finally gave up looking and stopped in a place to get some dinner.  We apparently got seated in one of the "event" rooms where a small wedding reception was going on, so that was a bit awkward. There were a couple of other people not involved with the wedding sitting in there, too, so it wasn't too bad. I just felt like we were intruding a bit. By the time we were done eating, Steve had really begun to feel bad, so we came back to the room at about 6:00 and he fell asleep. He's been asleep ever since. I hope whatever is wrong doesn't get any worse! I'm still wide awake, though, so I've got to figure out something to do until I get sleepy.

It was a long, and except for a few wrinkles, fun day. :)

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY

Gatlinburg, Tennessee
7/20/12

Things had been kind of stressful around our house at the beginning of this month, so Steve and I decided to take a weekend to get away.

Actually, we'd been talking about taking a weekend trip for a while, and after dealing with the long, drawn out deal with the cabinets, the whole thing with Bear, me starting a new job (more on that later,) and Steve being generally stressed out from work, we just decided to do it. The sooner the better.

One of Steve's friends from work told him that his family was planning a trip to Pigeon Forge, and that he was going to spend a day golfing. After hearing that we were thinking of going on a trip to Gatlinburg, he invited Steve to go golfing with him one day, if we happened to be close by.

We got up early this morning and, believe it or not, actually left in a timely manner. We had taken Butler to his pet "resort" the day before, so that helped out a lot! Don't tell him I said that. :). We had to drive through a lot of rain, but once we got to Tennessee, the day got much prettier.  We were listening to the audio book "Around the World In 80 Days," and just in case your curious, that is probably not the best book to listen to while you're traveling. The whole time it was on I felt like we were running behind!  We only had to make one stop, wherein I literally got chased around the car by an angry yellow jacket. I'm sure the other cars at the gas station just loved that.  The stupid bug even followed me into the car when I finally got in, but after a short freak out, we finally got him outside.

I haven't actually been to Gatlinburg since our honeymoon, and I had forgotten how gorgeous the Smokey Mountains really are. I also think that my trips out west have made me forget how green everything is out here. Everything is just so beautiful, even the kudzu!  Well, let me rephrase, the mountains and scenery are beautiful, but Pigeon Forge and the main strip of Gatlinburg are typically "tourist ugly." Tacky stores and tourist traps are kind of a scab on the edges of things, but once you get out of that, it's like Rivendell.

It took us forever to get through the Gatlinburg strip, but we finally made it to our hotel. It's right off the main drag, but far enough away that the tacky is not visible. The hotel is tall and cylindrical , and the rooms all surround the middle where the elevators are. The rooms are shaped like a piece of pie with the pointy bit cut off, which is kind of fun, but the bathrooms are tiny! The scenery is first rate, though, so small bathrooms are not a problem.

Steve had to leave almost immediately to drive back to Pigeon Forge to make his tee time, and I'm just chilling in the room.  I walked downstairs to check things out, and the hotel is packed this weekend. There is a huge family reunion being held here that I'm thinking of crashing. Do you think it would be suspect if I was the only white person attending? There is also a wedding, so I could crash that too. I guess.  I'd walk to the strip to shop or something, but we are a bit too far for that.  If Steve is gone long enough, I'm going to get into all kinds of shenanigans.

Right now I'm watching the CNN coverage of the Colorado theater shootings, which is just awful. Mitt Romney is giving a speech about it "not as a man who is running for office, but as a father..." which would be more believable if he weren't on a stage backed with a Patton worthy American flag. His speech was very lovely, though, so I shouldn't make fun.  I hate that this is happening, and it's scary since that is very, very nearby where Josh and Jeoff live.

Hopefully, once Steve gets back we can go and find something to get into. :)

(Later)

Ok, he's still not back and I am so bored!

(Later)

Freaking finally. Steve got back almost an hour and a half later than I thought. I was hungry, but I had waited to eat in case Steve came back early. Luckily it had been arranged for us to have dinner at the Pigeon Forge Mill restaurant with the family of Steve's coworker. That place was crazy busy, but we were seated relatively quickly. The food was delicious and they gave us generous portions. Very generous portions. Almost too generous. :). We were stuffed, but all of us got a chance to walk it off while we walked down the main drag of Gatlinburg's shopping area. It was a fun night, but I'm very tired.

Goodnight!

PLEASE STAND BY

BEAR 2003-2012

I suppose most of you already know that we had to put Bear to sleep yesterday afternoon.  We finally heard from the vet that the ultrasound and the other tests that they did showed that Bear had Lymphoma, which caused him to have an enlarged spleen.  It would have progressed, no matter what, and eventually he would have either starved or bled to death.  We could have brought him home and given him a few last days with us, but Steve and I knew that it would have been cruel to prolong the inevitable.  We got to see him for a while at the vet and love on him, but ultimately we had to let him go. I was there while they did it and I held his head and talked to him, and I cried like a baby. 

It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, and it feels like I murdered one of my best friends. He trusted me.  I feel like the worst person who has ever lived.

I know in my head that we did the right thing and that he would have just gotten sicker and sicker, and I couldn't stand to see that, and even if we had brought him home we would have eventually had to take him back and have the deed done.  In my heart, though, I feel like I've done something inexcusable and that I'll never really feel good again.  I realize that's probably stupid, but right now I hurt so much that it feels true.

Butler is also taking it hard.  As far as he's concerned, Bear has always been with him, and he's sitting out in the backyard looking for Bear and wondering where he is.  It's heart breaking.

So many people have been kind and it means so much when they say that they're sorry.  I never thought that would matter, but it does.

I know that other people think we're being silly, because Bear was just a dog, but he was more than that to us.  He was our dog, our friend, our child, and a member of our family.  We love him so much, and there will always be a hole in us where he once was. We keep crying, and it just feels so awful, like we will never feel better again.

We're going to miss you, Bear.  We love you.

WELL, THIS SUCKS...

Over the past few days we've been noticing that Bear has been acting odd.  He is very apathetic and he hasn't eating very much.  We put it down to the heat, and we tried bringing the dogs inside during the hottest part of the day, but I felt guilty keeping them shut up in their kennels for so long and I'd let them back out when it got a little cooler. Of course, a little cooler was still really hot, but they always had plenty of water and shade, so I wasn't too worried.

At night, though, he was just acting very strange and he wasn't eating very much at all.  Normally, he eats all of his food, but for the past few days he'd only eat half, or maybe just a few bites total.  I tried giving him other things, like cheese and soft training treats, and he'd eat that, but his regular food was barely being touched.   At first we thought maybe there was something wrong with the food, but Butler had no trouble eating it and it didn't seems to cause him any problems.

Last night, he barely ate at all, no matter what we did, and when I took him outside before he went to bed, he got sick out there and then he just found a place and lay down without moving.  That's not normal for him at all.  After some debate, we took him to the emergency vet clinic to get him checked out.  I wasn't expecting anything big, but he was so pitiful that I was afraid not to have him checked out as soon as possible.

The vet did some tests and took X-Rays, and when they came back it showed that Bear had a possible mass in his abdomen.  Yuck.  Since the emergency clinic didn't have an ultrasound, they couldn't be sure what kind of mass it is, so we were going to have to take him to his regular vet and have that done.

Of course, you probably already know that both Steve and I have been basket cases since we found out. There is a slight chance that the mass is nothing serious, but the vet told us that his blood work was abnormal and that some of his internal organs seem to be pushed aside, plus he seemed to think we needed to get this ultrasound quick, so we don't believe that it is "nothing."  We took him to his regular vet this morning to be under observation and to have an ultrasound, so we won't really know anything until later today.

I'm so worried about him, because he's such a sweet dog and he has no idea what is going on.  All he knows is that he doesn't feel good and that we've left him at the place he hates worse than anything.  I feel so terrible.  If this really is serious, we will have to make a very difficult decision that I'm not sure I could handle.  I'm so soft hearted about animals, and the fact that Bear is like my own kid makes this a million times worse.

I just hope he's going to be OK.  If you don't feel weird about praying for a dog, say a quick prayer for Bear.  We just want him to be OK.

CABINET UPDATE

Yeah, I know you've been chewing your nails and hovering near the edge of your seat for this. :)

We have almost everything done as far as the cabinets go.  The carpenter and installers came over early Monday morning and began ripping the kitchen apart.  It seemed to be fairly easy for them to do, which makes me wonder how they've stayed up all these years!  It was apparent that the people who built this house also built the cabinets, because it was the first time we'd ever seen naked sheet rock anywhere in this house.  I suppose that's also why they were never quite right, somehow.  Oh, it wasn't that they weren't useful or that they were ugly or anything, but they were just kind of weird.  Lots of space you couldn't use, doors that wouldn't quite close, and narrow shelving were the main problems.  Note to everyone out there: unless your builder is also a master cabinet maker, always find an expert to make your cabinets or you'll be very sorry later on!  Of course, most new houses aren't built like ours was, so you probably don't have to worry about it.  :)  At any rate, I thought I'd be sad to see the old cabinets go, but I wasn't! Not even a little bit.

The process took them longer than they originally thought, I think.  The massive counter tops that Steve built were a bit of a pain to remove, but they finally got it all ripped out and got down to business.  I was working in my office most of the time they were here, and every time I'd walk out for something, they'd made tons of progress.  It was a fascinating kind of thing to watch!

They ended up working until well after 5:00, and they didn't quite have everything finished, but the lion's share is done!  It looks amazing so far, and they've effectively given us twice the storage space we had before!  Yay!  I'm crossing my fingers that that means we can get rid of the mismatching shelving we had to get to store overflow food, and I also hope that means our corners won't be full of cans and boxes we couldn't fit anywhere else.  The pantry alone is enormous!  I'm not kidding, it's like Underground-Railroad-hiding-place big.  I'm just very grateful we were able to get such nice pieces of furniture for such a reasonable cost.  We were very lucky.

Of course, it isn't all perfect, but we had surprisingly few issues.  The sink hole is a bit too big, so the sink slid aside when Steve was trying to screw the clamps in and one of the screws cracked a spot of the laminate.  We are still waiting on a pair of doors that had accidentally been measured wrong and had to be redone and the handles had to be ordered and they weren't in yet.  Also, the island hasn't been set into the floor because we can't put it anywhere permanently until everything else is finished. The people will be back next week to finish up the details.  We also can't start putting things into the cabinets until after the hinges and handles have been installed and calibrated.  Related to all of this is that we are still waiting for the electrician to come back and add the plug for our stove and microwave, and Steve had to remove the sink again to redo that part, so we still have no electricity or plumbing in the kitchen, but I'm still completely tickled over everything so far.

I don't want to put pictures up until it's all done, but you'll be amazed at what a difference the new work has made!  We will still have some painting and stuff to do after that, but even with the sheet rock showing and the gouges in the walls from the other cabinets, it will still look beautiful! 

NOW SHOWING

Today has been a blah day.  I woke up in the wee hours of the morning feeling like death due to,  I assume at least, mild food poisoning and/or Ebola.  Yes, I either ate something slightly off, or I've contracted a rare, deathly, hemorrhagic disease.  I can only guess that it feels the same to have either.  :)

Anyways, I've been mostly dragging around the house, and in between continuing to try to clean all of the detritus out of the cabinets and sprawling listlessly across many of our household surfaces, I've been on an epic YouTube journey.  I can't even remember where it started but I've become fascinated by a few of the Japanese feeds I've discovered and I thought I'd share them with you, because...why not. You may not be as interested in these things as I am, but I'll tell you about them anyways!

I actually first came across this guy a few months ago.  The user goes by the name RRcherrypie, and his channel has become very, very popular as of late.  If you want me to be honest, I'm completely fascinated by his videos, but I have no idea why.  That's not a joke, I really don't know what it is about his videos that is so interesting to me.  He basically takes different kinds of weirdly complicated Japanese candy or craft kits and makes them for the camera. He also seems to be an enthusiast for a type of vintage Japanese toy called Konapun, which is some kind of miniature kitchen sets and fake food.  He never talks, there is no background music, and the only sounds are the ones he makes opening the packages and mixing things up.   He's also completely meticulous with whatever he's doing. Whatever he makes, it's always beautifully presented.  It's oddly soothing.  I've watched several of his videos over and over.  This video is one of the first I saw, and the stuff he's making is an actual candy kit you can make and eat.




If that sort of thing interests you, there are a couple of other people who do very similar videos: MarimoMarshmallow and Bonobos25.

This next one is kind of similar to the guy above, but instead of just doing candy and toys, this person actually makes pastries, desserts and other stylized, but otherwise regular, foods.  I think this is more interesting to me because it shows the cultural differences between the ingredients and foods we normally see.  Mosogourmet shows how to make more traditional kinds of Japanese foods, which are still much cuter than what we have!  One of the things I really enjoy is when they show the tools they use to make some of these things.  They are so specific and unusual. 



This last one is more on par with what I would consider a regular cooking show, except that it's called "Cooking With Dog" (not what you think, by the way), and it's narrated by a poodle that has a French by way of Japanese accent.  At least, I think that's what it is.  It's definitely a Japanese guy doing the voice for the dog, but I think he's trying to do a French accent.  Someone watch one of these and tell me if I'm right!  Anyway, the recipes are all very traditional Japanese things and the woman who makes them is kind of adorable.



Don't get me wrong, I do watch other things other than Japanese cooking stuff, but these have been my favorites recently!  Hopefully you'll like one of these too.  :)

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

Hey!  I'm back!   Oof.  I haven't written on here for a long time, but I have reasons! Maybe not great reasons, but I have them.  :)  Actually, I've been somewhere between really stinking busy, distracted, and asleep, so pick whichever one you like the best and run with it.

1) Two weeks ago I was back at Vacation Bible School running A/V for the assemblies.  I wasn't even around the kids that much and it still exhausted me.  I'm not kidding.  I was at the church between 8:30 and 12 every day. I would maybe talk to a few kids before things got started, and on one memorable occasion I stayed in a hallway with some of the smallest kids while their teacher was in another room for a minute or two, and it was all I could do to make it back to the sound booth and collapse.  I'm convinced that children suck the vitality out of anyone who happens to be in the same building with them, whether or not they actually interact with them.  Oy.  By the time I'd leave for the day, I'd have to go home and take a nap, which makes me feel so very old.

The preacher also asked me to help out a bit in the office, which I didn't mind doing, but he seems to think I know a lot more about IT stuff than I actually do.  I guess since I'm married to Steve I'm supposed to know how to fix computers, and I suppose I've picked up a few things, but I certainly don't know nearly as much as some people assume I do.  Luckily I knew enough to help him out, so it wasn't a complete bust.  He also asked me to add things to the church website, which I was completely unfamiliar with, but the program turned out to be super easy to figure out, so that was good.  All in all it was a great week, except for the chronic fatigue I suffered because of the litttle energy vampires.

2) The whole cabinet adventure has gotten underway, and the kitchen is a complete wreck. While I stayed with my brother this past weekend (Mom and Grant were on their annual pilgrimage to Atlanta) Steve and his dad spent Saturday yanking out appliances, capping off water pipes,  and generally causing necessary mayhem.  As of Saturday afternoon, I have no way to cook or wash dishes, and no counter space to prepare anything that doesn't require cooking, so trying to figure out the food situation has been grim.  We haven't even found a place to plug in the microwave yet, so mostly we've been getting take out.  Don't get me wrong, I like fast food, but I don't love how it makes me feel when I've eaten a lot of it!  I'm also certain that the dietician is going to have a stroke when I have to go back and see her this week and tell her what I've been eating!  At any rate, I'm excited that the process of getting the new cabinets has begun, but now that means I'll be packing dishes, cooking tools, and food into weird places all over the house until the cabinets are installed.

3) Oooooh, but speaking of food!  Mr. Lee's fruit has arrived early and he's given us a cubic ton of the most gorgeous blueberries, blackberries and peaches!  The blueberries are huge and sweet, and I've made muffins and pancakes with them so far.  I've also used the dehydrator I got for my birthday to dry some of the blackberries and blueberries.  The blueberries are weird when they're dry, but they're still darn tasty.  The blackberries are also good, but very fragile.  They don't taste like much and they're kind of seedy, but I like them.  They are a really good and filling snack!  The peaches, though...y'all....the peaches.  You have no idea how amazing the peaches that Mr. Lee grows are.  They smell so good!  When I got the first batch from him, I just stood there and sniffed them for two days.  I wanted to waller on them like a dog.  I guess I finally understand why they do that!  They are just some of the best fruit I've ever eaten, though.  Perfect and soft and delicious.  I wish I knew how to make them last longer though.  I know I can freeze them, but I hate to do that because I know they won't taste the same.  Honestly, since Mr. Lee has been giving us peaches, I usually only eat peaches once a year because none of the odd ones I've gotten here and there from the grocery store even come close.

4) I sang Via Dolorosa in church yesterday morning. It was the first time several of our newer members have ever heard me sing it.  Our new youth minister came over to me and said "Wow, I didn't know you could speak Spanish!"  I hated to tell him that the one verse of that song is really the extent of the Spanish I know, and I don't even really know what I'm saying.  He said "But, you had the accent and everything..."  So, I'd like to thank Chani Sanford (wherever you are these days) for teaching me my Latina accent!  Pamplemousse Perez:  fooling people into thinking she's bilingual for 13 years!  :)  Gracias, Chani!

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1)  I almost passed out at the gym today!  That would have sucked, because I was right in the middle of working out on the elliptical machine and I can't imagine what would have happened if I got tangled up in one of those!  I was actually feeling dizzy and weird all morning, mainly because of whatever sinus trouble I'm constantly plagued with, and I'd gotten light headed twice before I even left the house.  Steve said I shouldn't go, but since I'd missed two days this week, I didn't want to miss more.  I should've listened to him. 

I got off of the machine and managed to get my bearings, and decided that I'd finish my workout on one of the stationary bikes.  Once I was done with that, I felt well enough (I thought) to go back to the elliptical.  I was actually fine until the last few minutes, and then my vision started to dim.  I got off, made it to the car and figured that I could probably make it home OK since I live so close.  I got extremely light headed on the drive home and had to blast the air in my face and bite my tongue really hard to stay awake.  Once I got home, I was OK, but I had to lie down for a while.  I'm still super dizzy, but at least I'm fairly sure it isn't my heart being weird or anything - knock wood - making me feel like this.  I'm so tired of sinus problems!  I have no idea what is causing it, but it's been really bad since the beginning of March.  It's probably a dust allergy, but if that's the case, I'm going to have to move out of the house.  I never dust, you see.  :)

2) I finally applied for a passport yesterday!  I've been wanting to do it for a long time, but since I haven't had any plans of traveling out of the country, I didn't have a reason.  I still have no plans of travel (yet) but since Steve is going to have to do some international travel for work (and I can't go along...boo), I went along with him to apply for my own passport, just for funzies.  The guy in charge of passports at the post office was funny!  At first he was kind of serious and had he has this impressive fu manchu that makes him look sort of scary.  I was feeling very intimidated while he was going over my paperwork, when he looked up at me and said "Father?"  Since Papa had died, I didn't put his name on my application and left that part blank, but something had to be written there I guess, because the man handed me the papers back and told me to write "deceased" in that spot.  I started writing it, and then started to giggle because I couldn't remember how to spell it!  I'm sure it sounded weird, me giggling while writing that my father was deceased, and he gave me the strangest look.  I finally had to ask how to spell it and then he got tickled too.  He relaxed after that and everything was less intimidating.  He took my photo, actually taking it a couple of times when it didn't turn out well enough.  It's still not a great picture, but it'll do.  He also said I look like Sally Field, and then started making jokes about that. 

At any rate, the thing has been applied for and once I get it I'll be prepared to go globe trotting.  Hopefully.  Maybe one day, anyways.

3)  We went to Logan's graduation last week and I'm so proud! :)  It makes me feel really old, though.  I was forcibly reminded how uncomfortable county school graduations can be around here, because they are usually held outside on the football field.  It was really, really hot, crowded, and the lights attracted every bug in North Alabama.  Something about the size of a bi-plane landed on me and it was all I could do not to start screaming and running around in circles.  I was also reminded how boring high school graduations can be.  I'm lucky that this school didn't do things like my own graduation, where they gave out every honor and scholarship during the ceremony, making it last more than two hours.  All that had been taken care of at some kind of awards day thing, so mainly there was just a speech and the diplomas.

Bless her heart, the girl who gave the speech was just...bless her heart.  The kids who were interested in giving the speech had to apply for the job by submitting the actual things they wanted to say.   Her speech was apparently the best one.  Huh.  I know that sounds mean, and I'm sorry because I know she's just a kid, but the whole thing was like this:

Welcome! Thank you parents! Bible Verse. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Bible Verse. Fortune Cookie Message. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Inspirational Calender Message. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Bible Verse. Thank You.

Oy. 

Now my oldest nephew is a high school graduate and I'm an old, old lady.  I don't even want to think about how I'll feel when Seth graduates. 

WEEKEND UPDATE

Wow, I haven't done a weekend update in a long time! 

Friday night I helped some of the people from Steve's band receive and sort the yard sale stuff.  I'm fairly certain that I breathed in enough dust mites to start a colony in my lungs, but a lot of stuff was donated at least.  As I was going through boxes, I realized that every yard sale I've ever been to has variations of the same kind of stuff I was seeing.  Where do people get this crap to begin with?  You know what I'm talking about, right?  The weird little figurines, candle holders, mugs and random odds and ends that I can't imagine ever being able to find outside of a yard sale or garage sale, but they had to come from someplace.  I don't know, it's just odd.  I finally gave out at around 9:00 that night and had to leave.  I was so tired that I'd almost fallen asleep behind one of the tables.

Saturday, Steve had volunteered us to be back at the church at 5:30 in the morning to help set up and work the sale.  Nice, right?  Bleh.  We got there and moved everything outside, and then started waiting.  I don't know if you've ever worked a yard sale before, but they are a study in patience.  The first customers came in and bought a ton of stuff that seemed fairly random, but who knows.  After that people trickled in and out.  I helped out as much as I could, and several times my old customer service voice popped out.  It's bad!  It's about an octave higher than my regular voice and it grates on my nerves, but it's second nature to me when I'm dealing with people I don't know.  Yuck.  Very few of the things we brought sold, at least while I was there, so I must have really bad taste in brick-a-brack.  :)  I met a lot of nice people who play in the band, so that was fun.  Oh, and luckily, I didn't end up buying much stuff to bring home with us.  All I got was a few books, and who can resist cheap books, amiright?  Oh, and also Phillip, the otter. He's very small, so he won't take up much room.

How could I say no to that face?

It was a gorgeous day, and a perfect one for having a yard sale, but I was tired of being outside by the time the "shift change" happened and was glad to go home.  We stopped and picked up lunch, and by the time I finished eating the late night and early morning had caught up with me.  I was exhausted.  I only meant to take a power nap, but it raged out of control.  I felt much better when I woke up, and Steve and I decided to go see "Dark Shadows."  I loved that show when I was a kid, which surprises me since I was such a scardey cat, and the movie had Johnny Depp in weird makeup and for whatever reason, that works for me.  The movie was weird, but pretty good.  It was a nice way to pass a couple of hours, at least.  After that we had dinner and watched some old episodes of the "Dick Van Dyke" show, which holds up pretty well after all these years.  It was a nice day.

Sunday we had church, and after we had lunch with Mr. Lee, Steve and I headed out towards the wilds of Limestone County to go to a graduation party for my nephew, Logan.  I can't believe he's graduating!  It seems way too soon for him to be 18! If I were my sister, I'd be a wreck. I don't think I could handle being a mom.  Eesh.  A lot of my aunts were there ( I swear they never seem to get old!) and it was great seeing them.  I also met quite a few of Logan's buddies, and they were a lot of fun to talk to, too.  Now we just have Logan's graduation this Friday and then he will officially be a grown up.  Well, grown-up-ish.  It makes me feel very old indeed.

That night we had church again, and I was so tired I fell asleep twice behind the sound board.  Luckily I didn't miss any cues!  I was so glad to get home and go to bed.  It had been a really long weekend.

EVEN MORE RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) This morning I woke up convinced I was dying.  My stomach was hurting so much that I couldn't move, and I was also in Crazy Town, so my brain wasn't processing the idea of pain as well as it might if I were fully awake.  I even woke Steve up to let him know something was wrong, and that I might need some help if it didn't abate a little.  I managed to get up and walk around a little, which helped, but not very much.  I lay back down and eventually fell asleep again, and when I woke up I was feeling better, except that when I tried to stand up again I almost fell over.  All is well, though.  I finally managed to wake up enough to realize that I'd apparently pulled a muscle in my stomach (and arms, and legs, and side) while I was at the gym yesterday, and I had stiffened up while I was asleep.  What I had woken up to was basically like having a charlie horse in my abdomen, so that was a lot of fun.  I'm doing better now, except that I literally feel like I was in some kind of violent accident and bruised every part of my body.  I couldn't go to the gym today because I couldn't stand the thought of having to move my legs that much.  Why does trying to be healthy hurt so badly?  No wonder we have an obesity epidemic in this country. Working out sucks.

I may also be able to blame my initial over-reaction to my stomach pain on the fact that we watched Alien and Aliens last night.  Honestly, you see a couple of wormy aliens explode from someone's digestive tract and it can mess you up for life.

2) Speaking of going to the gym, I'm actually still at it. I didn't think I'd make it this long!  Things aren't going as well as I would like, weight loss wise, but I know it's mostly my fault.  I just like to eat, and there are days when that is all I want to do.  I manage it pretty well, normally, but sometimes it nearly drives me crazy.  I'm very sure that if I weren't seeing the dietician, this wouldn't be working for me at all, because the fact that I am accountable to someone keeps me from destroying the snack cabinet.  Also, this woman is so tiny and cute, and she seems so genuinely thrilled if I make any progress, that if I go in and show her my food journal and she sees something disappointing, it's like punching a kitten in the head.  She just looks so dang disappointed in me and it makes me feel terrible.  I have to go and see her next week, and the fact I haven't lost any weight plus the fact that I haven't been as careful with my meals as I had been before (usually out of convenience, really), is going to make her give me that sad kitten look.  I already dread it.

I have lost a couple of pounds, though, but not really enough for anyone to notice.  It's a slow and frustrating process!

3) Steve's band will be having a big, multi-family yard sale this weekend (weather permitting) so if you like to buy other people's old stuff, you should totally go!  We are putting in a bunch of clothes and kitchen stuff, for which I am grateful, because I think everything we own has been having babies.  I promise you, I went through my clothes not long ago and gave away a bunch of stuff I couldn't wear anymore, but when I went through it all again, I ended up finding three more huge garbage bags of stuff to give away and I still have a pile of clothes left!  I don't understand how that is happening.  I've also found things I didn't even remember we had!  It's insane the amount of things that can collect in a house.  So, anyway, the sale will be at United Methodist Church on Old Monrovia Rd. (or at least whatever road runs behind Providence).  Tell your friends. Buy our stuff. 

4) I was working on a decoration for Sara's wedding the other day, and the process included a lot of silver glitter.  I'd glued the glitter down, but had yet to spray it with acrylic sealant, so when I picked it up, some of the loose glitter got on my and went down my shirt.  I was oblivious of any of this until I got to church that night and looked down to see my chest covered in sparkles.  It was like I was trying to smuggle a couple of disco balls around in my shirt! 

5) I just finished reading Twilight this morning and I still hate it.  If anything, I hate it more now than I initially did.  Don't get me wrong, though...I think I finally understand why it became such a popular series, and why so many women love it, but I still hate it and I still want to punch Bella in the face until she dies. 

It actually made me angry to read it.  I don't consider myself to be a feminist, at least not one of the  militant and outspoken type, but to me that story is one of the most anti-feminist and misogynistic things I have EVER read, and the fact that so many women, young women mostly, love this book just blows my mind.  In fact, the knowledge that this book was actually written by a woman blows my mind even more!  The main character is supposedly a smart young lady, but at 16 she's willing to give up her life (quite literally) and everything else for a good looking guy who pushes he around, tells her what to do, puts her in terrible danger, is always on the verge of killing her, and who basically treats her like a child? Not to mention he's kind of an icky pedophile.  I don't care if he's an immortal, that's still disturbing.

No, no more...I can't talk about it anymore right now.  I might actually punch something, and I still have 3 more of these terrible books to go.  Could I stop reading them right now?  Of course, but I'm determined to finish this. 

MORE RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) OK, so...I didn't end up doing the audition.  Believe it or not, it wasn't because I was scared or anything like that.  The more I thought about it, the less interested in it I was.  However, I had actually decided I was going to do it anyway, because A) I felt like I'd be letting down a lot of people who had given me advice and who seemed very excited for me and B) I really need to do something.  I feel like a giant loser for not working and not having any kind of concrete plan for my life and I thought that, if nothing else, this would push me in some sort of direction.  I have friends that I admire because they seem to know exactly what they want and exactly how to do it.  Me, I feel like someone dropped me off in an unfamiliar town without a map and told me I have exactly one hour to find a restaurant I've never heard of.  It's frustrating and scary.  But I digress.

So I had decided to go ahead and do this audition anyway, but I realized I was missing one important thing that I needed: a head shot.  I don't have many pictures of me at all, and the only professional one I've had made in the last 5 years is little more than a glorified school photo and it doesn't really look like me.  Since it was the only one I had, I spent a while photoshopping the heck out of it and getting it ready to print, only to realize at the last possible minute that I only had one sheet of photo paper to print on, which meant no re-dos.  Halfway through the printing, I realized that not only did the printer screw up and make me look orange (seriously, I looked like Snookie's older sister), I also saw that I had somehow managed to load the paper in backwards, which caused the coated side of the paper to buckle, so I couldn't even flip it over and print on the back.  *HEAD DESK*

By this time I was just sick of the idea of the whole thing.  I had no head shot, no real experience, and no idea what I was doing.  I refuse to go into a situation like that half assed, so I just scrapped the plan all together.  It wasn't really important in the scheme of things, anyway, because I wasn't expecting it to make me a movie star, or heck, even an actor.  I just thought it would be something different to do.  I'm not even sorry about not doing it.  The only thing that really bothers me is that so many people got so exited for me about it, way more than I thought would actually care, and I hate to think they'd be disappointed in me for not going ahead with it.  Oh well, I'll just have to make them proud some other way, I guess!

2) Heh, one of my friends sent me the link for my old position at the SpRocket (ptooey).  The job is open again because they hired someone the last time they advertised it and the person worked there for about a week before they quit. I read through it and, though I can't be 100% sure, it looks like they've added a few extra requirements regarding behavior.  It might as well say "Please don't act like Kelly, or you can't work here."  Heehee!  Eh, I'm so freaking charming. 

3) You know, I hate it when I find out that someone I like turns out to be kind of an awful person.  Luckily I didn't have to learn this first hand, but I was talking to someone last night and, kind of off hand, they mentioned something that a person we both know once said that shocked me.  It was just a really mean and hurtful thing to say, and I wouldn't have thought him possible of behaving that way.  Of course, you can't judge someone by one thing they say, but the person I was talking too went on to tell me a whole bunch of other things that this guy both did and said, and it blew my mind.  I mean, he didn't kill anyone or anything like that, but I was still shocked that he was capable of acting like such a tool.  He just seemed so nice, but apparently it was all an act he'd put on unless he was around his friends, and unfortunately for him, his friends got tired of his behavior and stopped protecting him.  I generally considered myself a good judge of character, but I guess as long as someone is nice to my face I'm just going to assume they're a good person, whether they really are or not. Boo.  I liked this guy, but now I'm not going to be able to think of him in the same way and that makes me sad.

4)  Steve's band played Panoply this weekend!  I haven't been to Panoply since well before I was married, and that time I went with Josh and we did faux interpretive dance next to one of the performance tents.

The MCB wasn't scheduled to play until around 4:00 PM, so it was nice and hot by the time we got there. Yuck.  It was about 87 degrees, and the band was set to play on what had to be the hottest and sunniest section of the whole deal, which was the back pavilion of the Museum of Art.  We ended up getting there early, so while Steve helped set up, I walked around a bit.  I actually ran into a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in about a million years (Hey, Jason!) which was nice, and I got to talk to him for a few minutes.  Then I walked on through a zillion other tents and eventually made it to the artist's marketplace.  That is where the local and regional artist set up tents and sell their stuff.  I would have loved to buy some art, but I couldn't afford any!  :)  No wonder the artists are starving.

Once I made it back around to the pavilion, I caught up with Mr. Lee and one of our church members who happened to be there, and we listened to the band play.  It was lots of fun, and the band sounded great!  I got sunburned because I forgot to put on sun screen, and I'm pretty sure I had an slight case of dehydration by the time we left because it was just so dang hot!  I dread what summer is going to be like. Bleh.  Anyway, we had a great time and a lot of fun.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Steve and I stopped by our local comic book shop on Saturday, and with one brief exception (that I'm pretty sure was an accident) I went completely unacknowledged by the people behind the counter!  Rudeness!  They small talked to Steve, but when I'd make a comment about something they said, they seemed to pretend I wasn't even there.

I hate going in there, because it never fails that I can't get anyone to speak to me unless it's the owner - and I think that's only because Steve kind of knows him through some friends we worked with at the SpRocket (ptooey).  Even then I have to pretty much get up in his face and ask a pointed question.  Please don't get me wrong, I don't go in there for attention or be flirty or anything like that.  If we go there, it's just to pick up the comics we subscribe to, and Steve tends to look around for a while, so I'm just hanging around trying not to stare at the people playing RPGs, or whatever it is they're doing with the cards and the little figurines, and I've tried in the past just to strike up a conversation with someone to pass the time and they just ignore me! Every. Dang. Time.  I'd love to think it is because I'm so bodacious that they are just too intimidated, but yeah...no.  I'm fairly certain I'm par for the course as far as women who go in there, except that I don't tend to wear anime shirts and kitty-ear headbands.  Maybe I should! :) Either that, or I'm going to have to resort to a full on Wonder Woman costume.

I actually joked about this on Twitter when we got home, and I said "If I'm that ugly, please someone tell me so I can go into hiding."  I wish I'd reworded it, because I know it came across as "pity-fishing" for compliments, but I promise I wasn't.  I did get a reply that it wasn't that I was ugly, just that comic book guys don't know what to do with girls, so I'm going to go with that.

2) An Atlanta production company is going to be shooting a movie here in Huntsville!  Neato, huh?  I saw a news story about it this morning and thought that it might be fun to see about being an extra for it if I could.  It's a bucket list thing, you know.  The last time a movie was filmed around here, they had a cattle call, of sorts, for extras.  I didn't do it then because I had a real job and couldn't take the time off.  The information they had for that movie said you had to bring a picture and fill out an application, and that was pretty much it.  The website the news site sent me to for this new movie doesn't mention anything about extras being separate from the cast.  It says you have to come in and audition.  Wha?  The casting list mentions extras, but you still have to audition for the parts.  I've only auditioned for one thing ever, and that was a hundred years ago!  I tried crowd sourcing on Facebook (because I have friends who act) to see what I'd need to do for an audition, and it seems I'd need a headshot, a resume, and I'd have to read lines.  Yikes.  I'm not looking to become a movie star, because hell, I've never acted outside of a church play or two, I just want to say I've been in a movie.

I'd love to do this, don't get me wrong, but I'm afraid I'm too much of a chicken to audition.  I want to, really badly, even if I just got to play "lady at the counter #4" because I'd be able to say I had.  The auditions are this weekend, so I've got the rest of the week to waffle.  I wish I wasn't such a chicken-dog.

3) I've finally, finally, finally made myself buckle down and start reading "Twilight."  I know I've talked about it for a long time, and I might have even tried to start it a couple of times, but I've never gotten anywhere until this last try.  I am making myself read it because I don't think it's fair to dislike something blindly, and I needed to see if, in fact, I didn't like it.  I think I'm probably on chapter four or five right now, and I can say honestly that I don't care for it so far.

First off, the writing itself if kind of bad.  Maybe I'm wrong, but is it supposed to be written in a stream of consciousness style?  I mean, it isn't really that I suppose, but the writing doesn't seem right to me.  It's all out of whack because it seems that a lot of it is expressed in incomplete sentences and fragments.  I think at one point I could actually hear William Shatner reading it in his. Signature. Style. However, I'm sure not every writer who becomes popular is a whiz at grammar and structuring, so I'm going to let that part slide for now.

The story isn't even that terrible.  Please take that observation with a whole handful of rock salt, since I'm still at the beginning of the book, but the premise isn't totally uninteresting. Far fetched, and a bit immature, yes, but then a lot of things I like are.

I think the thing I absolutely don't like about the book is the characters. In fact, I kind of hate them all so far.

All the secondary characters I've been introduced to are so thinly sketched out that they could be invisible. The absentee mom, the clueless dad, the "friends" she makes that either fawn over Bella or hate her.  It's sad. 

Edward is an ass.  He actually reminds me a lot of two boys I dated when I was a teenager.  Seriously, he could be a hybrid of them: One was good looking, sweet, but had a creepy, over-protective, romantic thing going on where he'd try to fight other guys who he thought liked me (they didn't), he'd write me kind of unsettling poetry, and he promised to "love me forever." He also had some rage issues that scared a lot of people, but I don't think he would have ever turned them on me. He was way too protective of me, but then again, who knows?  I'd like to think he got most of that out of his system and is now a happily married and stable adult, but he was way, way too intense for me at 15 years old. The other guy was smug, very much a jerk, emotionally and borderline physically abusive - and he used to bite me.  I don't mean that in a kinky way either, he'd bite me and leave rings of bruises and teeth marks.  I think he thought he was being affectionate, but it hurt. To this day I don't understand why I liked him, but I assume it was because he was an amazing kisser. I'm not proud of that, but knowing what a festering scrotal boil he turned out to be kept me from dating anyone else like him, so...silver lining!  I see all of those kinds of weirdness in Edward, which is why I have the creepy crawlies when I think about the guy in this book who is supposed to be the epitome of the perfect man.  No one who behaves like that should ever be considered a romantic example for teenage girls.  It is wrong and unhealthy and gross. What makes it even worse is that grown ass women are all swoony over this sparkling douche, and they should know better!

Oh, and Bella.  BELLA.  I want to climb into the book and punch her in the face until she dies.  She infuriates me. She moves to a new town, which would suck for any teenage girl, but she doesn't even try.  She's obvs too smart for the new school, so she already knows everything they try and teach her and she's soooooo bored with it.  (Mope) All the kids are actually interested in her and want to be her friend, which must totally suck because...I dunno why.  Maybe because even Bella knows she's just the worst and can't understand the interest. (Mope)  The boys all think she's pretty and want to get to know her better, but instead of being flattered (at the very least) she insults them in her head while being barely nice to them outwardly because why should she be glad that people are being nice to her?  I mean, they're just small town boys, after all. (Mope)   Then of course, the only person she seems to be interested in is the one freaking person who either behaves as if she's a walking cloud of scabies, insults her, or -truthfully- behaves like a creepy, stalking weirdo. (Mope)  And, OK, maybe every teenage girl has to date guys like that to realize who they DON'T want to be with, but not our Bella.  She loves it.  She's the kind of girl who is a couple of insults and a dog collar away from being chained in someone's basement of her own free will.  She makes me mad.  The fact that she is a fictional character that I can't physically slap across the face only makes it worse.  

However, I'm still just at the beginning of the book.  Maybe by the time we meet Jacob, I'll love it.  We'll see.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) My ankle is much better, thanks for asking! :)  It's weird how quickly it got better after initially thinking I'd probably really damaged it.  I've sprained my ankle a bunch of times, but it had never hurt like that before.  After taking Jeoff's advice about how to take care of it, and thinking it was just fine, I ended up rolling it again (because of course I did).  It swelled back up, so Steve talked me into going to the Doc-In-The-Box and getting it checked out just in case.  After being in the dreaded clinic for two hours, having 6 X-Rays - three initial and three re-dos, and having the doctor pull and twist my leg into a balloon animal, I was told I was just fine and that I could go back to the gym the next day.  In fact, he gave me the exact same advice that Jeoff gave me to begin with.  He did give me a prescription for some anti-inflammatory pills, and I got a brace with rigid sides to wear the rest of the week, but now my ankle seems back to normal.  Well, sort of.  It feels like the bones in my ankle don't meet up anymore.  I don't think there's anything wrong, because with all the X-Rays, I'm sure they'd have told me if anything was amiss.  So now I just need to watch where I step! :)

2) Oh, and speaking of all of that... I mentioned that I slipped on a puddle at Home Depot in my last post.  I'd assumed at the time that it was water that had leaked from a car that had been parked there, but we had to go back there yesterday and get some stuff, and there was a puddle in the same place!  I guess something must be leaking.  They are so going to get sued.

3) Steve and I are getting our kitchen remodeled! I'm so excited!  Well, I don't know if you would call it getting remodeled, since basically we're just getting some new cabinets and an island, but I'm still excited.  The old cabinets were put in when the house was built in 1949.  None of them are to code, there isn't enough room for our dishes in them, and trying to find hinges or any kind of replacement parts for them has been a nightmare.  Also, we've gone through two counter tops, and while I love the blue tile ones that Steve built for me, it's so hard to keep them clean.  We're getting a local carpenter to build them for us.  We've seen some of his work, and it is beautiful, but the guy looks like he's about 12 years old.  This will be the first major change we've had done on the house since I've lived here, so I'm eager to see how it will look.  The down side to this is that we're going to have to repaint the kitchen walls and ceiling, and I hate painting walls.  Luckily, we're keeping the dark red color, so at least we won't have to spend days and days trying to cover a dark color with a light one.  Woot!

4) I feel so awful!  Last week I volunteered to do a bit of graphics work for a friend of mine.  He needed someone to make a logo for a Facebook page that his group of storm chasers are putting together. Honestly, I wasn't 100% sure what it was he needed, because when he sent me the email about the logo, he said he was drawing a blank and that whatever I could come up with would be fine.  So I worked for a day or two and came up with a few for him to chose from, he picked one out, and we did some tweaking until it was just what he wanted. 

I got another email today saying that he had finally gotten together with the whole group and showed them the logo I created, and they'd vetoed it.  Apparently they thought it would be a bit distasteful to use a logo with a tornado graphic when the Facebook page they were creating was a memorial for some of their friends who'd been killed in the tornadoes that had hit last year!  Oops.  I thought I was creating a logo for the storm chasers themselves that would include mention of their friends, not one specifically for the memorial page.  Eeeesh.  I'm so tacky.   My only saving grace is that my friend, the one who originally picked out the logo, didn't think about that either.  However, all was not lost.  They'd decided what kind of logo they did want and sent me a rough draft and some files, and I managed to get them what they needed.  Still...eeeeeesh.

5)  Butler and Bear tried to kill each other again this weekend.  I have no idea what is wrong with them, because it isn't as if they hate each other!  Seriously, if one of them is away from the other, they have a fit until they are reunited!  But if they are together, they act like a couple of grumpy old men!  It's insane.  The worst part about this fight is that Butler lost yet another tooth!  At least this time it was one of the smaller ones, but jeez.  He either must have the worst teeth in the history of all dogs, or he really bites hard when he and Bear are fighting. Dumb dogs.

OK, SO THAT HAPPENED

I'm going to make a wild assumption that most of you already know that I sprained my ankle pretty badly this weekend, but since it's the only thing of real note that happened, I'm going to tell you more!

WOO!

Saturday morning, Steve and I were out running errands and made an unplanned stop at Home Depot.  We were walking into the building when I either stepped in a puddle of water, or possibly oil (I couldn't tell what it was, I just know it was slippery) when my left foot slipped and went down. Hard.  I'm really glad Steve was holding one of my hands, because I think if he hadn't pulled me up just a bit, I might have broken my wrist or something.  It wasn't even one of those funny, slipping around trying to catch my balance kind of falls either, it was just that moment of knowing I'd slipped and then hitting the ground.  Everything turned except for my left foot, which is weird since that one was the one that stepped in the puddle to begin with.  My right flip-flop flew off and I was just suddenly lying there on the concrete under the awning of the store.

Once I hit the ground, my mind went "Oh, how embarrass...holy crap my leg is on fire!"  It must've looked bad, because Steve didn't even laugh! :)  I vaguely remember a man walking past us to go inside (thanks for your concern, there, good Samaritan) but mostly I was doing that internal thing where you try to decide if you're going to cry or scream profanity.  Luckily, I did neither.  I honestly thought someone from inside would come out and at least help pick me up off of the ground, since we were literally just a few feet from the entrance, but no one did.  So Steve picked me up and helped me back to the car so I could assess the damage while he went inside the store.

I actually didn't think I was hurt at all, once I sat down.  I mean, my hand was bleeding from where it had landed on a piece of gravel, but I cleaned that up.  My ankle seemed fine, which I thought was strange owing to how much it hurt when I actually fell.  I was relieved that it wasn't worse.  I just sat in the car flexing it and making sure nothing else was hurt.

Steve was actually in the store for a long time, so I thought he must have been telling someone that I slipped in a puddle.  We aren't litigious people, but I figured he'd at least mention that there was a dangerous slippery puddle by the door.  Turned out that, no, he'd just gone inside and looked around for whatever he'd gone in for.  (Don't worry, I've already had my moment of berating him for this.  But I can't really blame him completely because I said I was OK.)  He said no one was around the door when he went in, so probably no one saw me.  I seriously doubt that, but since he didn't say anything to them, I'm sure they weren't going to bring it up.

Anyway, so he came out with his stuff and we went on our way to finish our errands.  My ankle did start to hurt, so I guess the initial painlessness was due to adrenaline or something.  Stupid me walked on that ankle a lot that day, limping from place to place, until we got home and I could really take a good look at it.  It was swollen very badly, but not bruised at all.  We wrapped it up,  put some ice on it,  and I kept it propped up for a while.

By that night, I could barely walk it hurt so bad.  I've sprained this same ankle a lot of times, and it's never hurt like that before.  I had to pull myself around from place to place, and I even tried using a crutch I found (weirdly, only one crutch) but I wasn't coordinated enough to make that work.  I finally went to bed, tried to keep it propped up on pillows, and not move it unless I had to.

Sunday was Easter, of course, and I had to run sound and lights for the service, and even though it was a lot better from the day before, I still had to hobble around like an old lady to get ready for church.  I couldn't wear my heels, of course, and I don't own any flat dress shoes, so I ended up wrapping my ankle over my hose and having to wear a pair of those Dr. Scholls Fast Flats that were too big for me, so I could stuff my bandaged foot inside of them.  Sexy.  I managed to get inside the church with Steve's help, and Mr. Lee brought me the cane he'd used after he'd had knee surgery so I could get up and down stairs.  I was a sight. I also felt like an idiot for using a cane just because I'd sprained my ankle.  We have a child at church who was born with spina biffida and not even she uses a cane.  It made me feel bad and obvious and attention seeking.  Also, I'm not really coordinated enough to use a cane either, so I had to walk on the one corner of my heel that didn't cause pain to shoot up my leg, while trying to figure out how to get the cane to work in synch with my other leg.  I was very awkward. I probably could have done without the cane except for the stairs and needing it to brace myself while sitting down and getting into the car, but I was glad to have it to help me out.

By that afternoon, I was hobbling about quite respectfully without the cane and my ankle was hurting much less, so I managed to get around Mom's house with little problem.  We went there for lunch and had a great time, although I wish we'd stayed there longer and visited more.  I miss my mom, since I don't see her as much.  She says I never drop by...but to be fair, I do live 45 minuets away and don't happen to be in her neighborhood that often! :)

My ankle is not nearly as sore, but the rest of me is finally feeling the aftermath of falling down that hard.  I think I pulled some muscles when I fell.  My ankle is still swollen up like someone has stuck half a tennis ball under my skin, but amazingly it isn't bruised or anything.  My big thing right now is that I can't go right back to the gym.  I know I can't go today, at least, since it still hurts a little and is swollen, but I have a friend who has an MS in Exercise Science and is a performance enhancement specialist and injury prevention guy (Jeoff, Josh's partner, and he's awesome) and he said I could probably go back tomorrow as long as I didn't do anything too strenuous. I'd normally love an excuse not to go work out, but after the weird dreams I had when I missed last week, I'm scared to miss too much!


So there you go!  The saga of me falling down and hurting myself!  I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend! :)

I THINK MY BRAIN IS TRYING TO TELL ME SOMETHING

For some reason, I woke up super early this morning and decided to go ahead and get out of bed.  I let the dogs out and changed into my gym clothes, but instead of doing the smart thing and going to the gym to get my workout over with, I turned around and went back to bed.

I'd had to reset the alarm clock (Steve slapped the off button instead of snooze) so by the time I'd actually fallen asleep again, the alarm started going off and I was having to wake up every 7 minutes to hit snooze again (don't judge, it was still before 6:00 A.M.)  I don't know if it was a combination of my subconscious knowing I was just going to have to wake up again and push the button and the fact that I never got to go deep into sleep, but in between alarm beeps I had the absolute weirdest combination of dreams/hallucinations that I've had in a very long time.

One involved getting a long and rather uncomfortable hug from someone I used to go to church with,  one was about going to a friend's house to take a shower and completely flooding their bathroom, and I had several different ones that were just sounds.  But the one that really got me was, I think, built off of guilt of skipping the gym yesterday.

I dreamed I was walking home along the sidewalks that run down the side of the main road that goes past our subdivision.  In real life, I could walk down that same sidewalk and get to my gym, but I was walking away from the gym in my dream.  There was an elderly woman ahead of me who had stopped to stretch her legs and an elderly man walking towards the both of us. I stopped walking so that the man could get by, but he also stopped so I could go ahead, but when I tried to walk around the old lady, she jumped in front of me.  When I tried to walk around the other way, she jumped ahead of me again.  She laughed and said she was sorry and let me pass, but then I ran smack into the old man.  He also laughed and let me by, but when I turned around to continue walking, the bushes and trees on each side of the sidewalk had grown together and I couldn't get through them.  By now I was definitely frustrated, so I was going to walk into the street to go around the tangle of bushes.  The second my foot hit the street, the entire freaking neighborhood tipped over on its side, like that scene in Inception, and I fell over and started rolling back down the hill back towards the gym.

I woke up after that, but I honestly don't think I've ever had a dream that has had a more clear message: DON'T SKIP THE GYM.

If going to the gym was actually working, I'd be more inclined not to want to give that dream the finger, but as it stands...

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I absolutely cannot stand it when I'm talking to someone, and I ask a question, and they just ignore it.  I'm not talking about situations when I ask a question and whomever I'm talking to doesn't give me a straight answer to it, I'm talking about people who just completely act as if the question had never been asked and start talking about something else.  This happened to me again yesterday!  I just don't understand the rudeness of it.

I guess what really bothers me is that they weren't even personal questions.  I know my idea of personal information and other people's ideas are sometimes different, but I generally don't ask knowingly personal questions of people unless we're very good friends and I think they'd be comfortable telling me.  I'll even go a step further and say that I completely understand even when those friends don't want to talk about those things with me, if they are truly personal and uncomfortable to talk about.  They can just tell me they don't want to talk about it or whatever and I'm OK with that.

However, to just ignore a general question (one I'd needed an answer for) in the middle of a conversation is just so flipping rude!  I even repeated myself thinking that they didn't hear me, but I know they did.  Then the person I was talking to just turned around and started talking to someone else (about the same dang subject) as if I had just evaporated.  I sat there, trying to figure out if what I asked was rude or prying in some way (and, hand to God, I can't see how that's possible considering the subject of our talk) but it just flew all over me.  I don't know why it bothers me so much, but I guess I just don't understand how otherwise generally well-bred people can just be so freaking rude for no reason.  I can't imagine ever doing that.  It's like slamming a door in someone's face mid sentence. 

Sorry for being ranty, but people who are blatantly rude just get up my nose.

2) Are there any amateur dog whisperers out there?  Butler has been acting very weird and it's worrying me.

About two weeks ago we had to take him to the vet for his normal "old man" check-up and shots.  As you know, he hates getting in the car and going places, so it was as traumatic as it always is.  He didn't have a complete strip-the-gears checkup, but they did the usual blood work and senior exam stuff, but nothing really out of the ordinary. When we got him home he refused to go outside, which is weird.  It was really weird.  He wanted to come into the house and stay, but we can't let him do that usually because he's very clingy and if he's loose inside the house he basically wants to walk in-between your feet and stay right with you.  That means that you can't really do anything productive.  We eventually had to push him outside, which I hate to do because it makes me fee l so mean, but he seemed fine once he got out there so we didn't worry too much.

Fast forward to that night when we put them to bed.  Both dogs have been trained since they were puppies that they go into their kennels to sleep after they eat.  That's just the way it's always been.  Before we had gone to the vet, Butler had been doing this thing where we'd get him settled into his kennel, and then he'd stand up and scratch at the door.  We finally figured out that it was because he wanted a drink of water, so we had gotten used to letting him out at least once every night to do that.  If he stood up again, we'd just tell him it was time to sleep and he'd lay down again.   But that night he refused to lay down.  He'd bat at the door and whine, and I'd let him out to see if he was thirsty or if he needed to go outside. I wasn't sure if any of the shots had caused him to feel bad or something,  and I didn't want a repeat of the horrible thing that happened in his kennel a while back.  He didn't want to go outside and he didn't want water.  He just started wandering around the house, which really isn't like him at all.  Then he'd come back into the living room and go to kennel again. We'd close it up and the whole thing would start over again.  We finally just went to bed, thinking he'd eventually lay down again, but he wouldn't.  We could hear him scratching at the kennel door and doing that pitiful nose whistling thing that breaks my heart.  I'd get up and let him out, but he'd just wander around again.  I knew that if we kept getting up and letting him out, he'd never stop, so I finally had to just go to bed and try not to listen to him whine. Eventually we just took both dogs outside and let them stay out for the night, just in case he really was feeling sick.

It has been a little over two weeks and he is still doing it.  I don't know what's wrong.  We didn't get back any bad health reports from the vet, and at every other time of the day he seems exactly the same as usual.  He sleeps, barks and pees on things.  That's just how he rolls.  But at night it's like he suddenly has the surge of nervous energy and he can't be still.  We've tried sitting up with him for a while, we've tried sleeping in the living room with him(and I'd like to apologize to anyone who has ever had to sleep on our couch. It's torturous.) to see if he's just suddenly gotten some kind of separation anxiety.  He still wants out while we're in there, and he will eventually lie down, but he jumps up anytime he hears a noise.  I don't even know what to say to the vet if I were to call her.  "Uh, my dog won't sleep at night, even though he sleeps all day.  I know you said he needs more exercise, but we can't take him on walks at 1:00 in the morning!"  He just sounds so pitiful and it also gets aggravating, because Steve and I need to sleep at night.  I don't know.  I just don't want to ignore him if he's got a problem, but it seems less like he's got a problem and more like he's just wanting to piss me off.  Bless him.

3) This is a sad, but beautifully written piece that I think you should read.  A friend of mine wrote it.  It hurts my heart, but it also is a lovely bit of writing.

4) We had ants in our kitchen over the weekend. ANTS.  You know how I feel about bugs of any type being in my house, but ants just tick me off.  They are so tiny and hard to kill!  I had seen one on my kitchen curtain earlier that day, but it was just the one. I can't remember if I killed it or not, but I think I did.  Later that night Steve went to get something off of the counter and they were just...bleh...everywhere.  Apparently I'd spilled some sugar behind the canister, and didn't realize it, and they were having a grand old time nomming away.  The only poison spray we have to kill bugs is this high-octane stuff that is supposed to kill everything in it's path, but I know for a fact it doesn't kill ants. I nearly poisoned myself with it once trying to kill some ants in the cabinet, so I didn't want to spray it on the counters just in case I accidentally get it on something I'll eventually eat (again.)  We ended up having to move everything, spraying bleach and water all over the counter-tops, and going on a stalking mission to hunt down and kill every last one of them.  Our house reeked of bleach, and it ended up fading some of the paint on the wall, and the damned ants still were coming out of the woodwork. Literally, they were coming out of the woodwork.  Apparently we have a breach that can't be fixed until we completely replace a window. Curses.  Anyway, I finally located some of those ant bait things that we had left over from last time we had the ant problem and put them in strategic places.  The ants went in and out of them, and a day later we didn't have anymore ants. So, yay, I guess.

I still feel guilty for using the ant traps.  I mean, yes, I hate the ants and want them to die.  But it's one thing when you're tracking them down and killing them yourself. It's completely another to trick them: "Oooooh, look, I'm providing you with delicious food!  Please take it back to your home and share it with your family!  MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"  I realize how dumb it is to feel guilty for that, but there you go...

'TWAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE

Facepalm.

Sunday morning I woke up with sticky eyes.  I think it actually had a lot to do with the pollen and what not, but since it was also time to change my contacts, I went ahead and took them out before I got in the shower.  I kept reminding myself to make sure I put in a new pair of contacts, or at least grab my glasses, before heading out to church, but of course in the best tradition of good intentions, I didn't do either one.  It wasn't until we were on our way to church that I noticed that I couldn't see anything clearly**.  Thank goodness I wasn't the one driving!

Since we were already running late, we couldn't turn around and go home, so Steve and I decided that after orchestra practice (and after I got the sound system and announcements set) we'd run back home and I'd get them.  It was kind of a miserable hour for me.  Since I've started keeping my contacts in almost all of the time, I keep forgetting that I can't see squat without corrective lenses. I forget they are in my eyes altogether unless I get something stuck underneath one of them.  Honestly, my vision has gotten so bad that just walking around in the church was hazardous.  I had to feel my way around and I couldn't focus on anyone's face so that I could talk to them.  I'm also pretty sure I looked like I was drunk, because I kept weaving around. Not being able to see clearly was scary!

So we came home, and since we had a few minutes to spare, I decided to pop in a new pair of contacts, which were from a brand new batch that I'd gotten from the eye doctor. I hadn't wanted to waste any of the old ones, so the pair I'd taken out that morning were the last of those and I hadn't tried wearing any of the new ones yet.  My prescription had changed slightly, so I knew that when I put the new ones in, I'd have a little bit of adjusting to do, but I wasn't prepared for the absolute craziness I was greeted with when I put them in.  My vision was just as bad, if not worse, than it had been without the lenses in.  I kept thinking that I'd get used to them, but I didn't.  To be on the safe side, I threw my glasses in my purse in case my vision didn't clear up by the time services started.

When I got to church, I kept trying to clear my eyes, but it wasn't working.  I kept rubbing them and dabbing them with a tissue, but I still couldn't see.  I'd also randomly chosen this day to wear mascara, which I hardly ever do, so I just knew by the time church started I'd look like a sad hooker clown, but there was nothing I could do about it.  I was a little panicked because I was afraid that if I couldn't see, I wouldn't be able to catch the cues that I get from the music director, and that morning we were doing a different kind of service for Palm Sunday, so I finally just pulled out the contacts (and I wish I'd let the hand sanitizer dry before sticking my fingers in my eyes...ouch) and put on my glasses.  Everything was fine after that.

My main concern was that my eye doctor had somehow screwed up my lens order, and how much of a pain in the butt it was going to be for me to get the new prescription set and wait on my new lenses.  Also, I was going to have to wear my glasses every day until they came in.  I know that's a big "First World Problem" but if you've ever gone from fooling with glasses to wearing contacts, you'll understand my chagrin.  So once I got home, I decided to try the contact lenses again, and hopefully my eyes could adjust to them before night services.  I got the left one in, and I was just as blind as I'd been before, and of course that was frustrating.  I pressed on, though, because I was determined.  When I raised my right contact to put it in, though, I saw a tiny line etched in the lens.  I knew that my left contact had a line like that because I have astigmatism in that eye and the lens is weighted, but I'd never seen one on my right lens before.  Of course, then it all made sense.  I'd put my lenses in the wrong stinking eyes!  My sight is completely different in each eye, not to mention that a regular lens doesn't even properly fit over an eye with astigmatism, so no wonder I was completely blind.  I felt like such an idiot.

I don't think I'd feel even a quarter as dumb as I do if it weren't for two things:  One, the boxes are very clearly marked (L) and (R) so that I don't accidentally switch lenses.  Two, Steve asked me, as I was trying to figure out what the deal was, if I had the lenses in the wrong eyes.  I just gave him that "I'm not an idiot" face and went about my business.  Oops.

Anyways, now I can see and I'm feeling much better about life.  *SIGH*  It's things like this that remind me why I will never be a surgeon.

**EDIT: If you're wondering why I didn't realize I didn't have my contacts in before leaving the house, if my vision is as bad as I say, it's because I was in a hurry and my house is small.  Since I'm near-sighted (or whichever one means I can't see far off) I didn't have to look very far to see the things in my house so they didn't seem very blurry to me. Also, I know where everything in my house is, so it didn't dawn on me that I couldn't see it very well anyways.

A QUICKY

I love the fact that I have some friends that feel that I'm the kind of person that they can talk to and trust enough to tell personal things to. That makes me very happy.

Having said that...holy cow.  There are just some things you never expect to know.

And that's all I have to say about that.