Let us all give thanks... and blowjobs.

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I'm a bad designated driver

Tonight JP and I went out and met HIS friends and their wives at a comedy show. It was really great, both comedians were so funny!

I had offered, a week ago, to stay sober, drink diet soda all night, since I have to work in the morning, and JP has the day off, and they are HIS friends.

So I did that. A group of about 20 of us, me being the only sober (and cold) one in the bunch. What is the deal with that? The bar was friggin' freezing! See, I think it was chilly, but nobody else seemed to notice because they all had booze coursing through their veins.

But about 11, I was BORED, see, the wives of JP's friends and I don't really talk, we don't have much in common, and they've all been friends for years, and I always feel like an outsider around them. And I was actually getting sick to my stomach from all the Diet Coke (yeah, I had to drink THAT SHIT because the bar doesn't carry Diet Pepsi.

So I left JP there and came home. He knew I was going, I didn't just bail on him, and he stayed with my blessing and I told him to call me if he needed a ride after all. Members of the big group had said they'd get him home, but I told JP not to accept a ride from them if they'd been drinking, and he is a smart guy, he knows that.

I have to run out tomorrow morning before I go to work. Yes, I have to participate in Black Friday crap. Just a little, but still, what a pain in the ass. JP was going to go with me, but judging by his condition when I left the bar, I doubt very much he will feel like being out and about at 5 am.

It's midnight, and I should go to bed now, the bars close at 2am, so I guess I will get 2 hours of sleep, drive across town and back, and then get a few more hours... terrific. But I AM the D.D., so it's kind of my job.

Answer Amanda's questions

She asked in the comments a couple of days ago, so here's the answer:

I hate rejection, but I hate being lied to... so there's the rub. THAT is why I will most likely never see my name on a book in Borders or Barnes & Noble.
Then there's this:
How funny is it that my mom is my best friend, my husband is the love of my life, and my brother is well... Steven, and HE is the first one to get a chance to read it? So very wrong. There, there's another reason why I wish I could suck it back away from him.
You know what I'm afraid it is? What I'm afraid the REAL REASON is that I sent it to him? Not because he asked me... but maybe, just maybe I am still seeking his approval. As much as I like to run my mouth (and my brain) about how I am SO OVER being his little sister in his big shadow... well, shit, wouldn't it just SUCK ass if all that was for nothing? What if I really still am?

shit. now I put myself into a pissy mood.

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all! (and I really mean that, I wasn't being sarcastic or nuthin'!)

Turkey Day!!

MY turkey day was yesterday!
I FINALLY got a turkey last night in bowling (for those not in the know, a turkey is getting 3 strikes IN A ROW!)

I have never achieved this before. MY FIRST! And it certainly helped, because the game in which I got the turkey was also the highest score I have ever gotten in my life... 185!

There's a board at the alley, they list everyone who gets 215 or better along with their actual score. I WANT TO BE ON THAT BOARD... gawd, I am so sad... I need a life.

I also got some great news at work today. It sucks that I have to work Friday, and Saturday too. I do have Thursday off, Thanksgiving and all, but I was bummed about working the day after. UNTIL I got the email sent out by Mr Bank President... "Anyone working on Friday will be allowed to wear jeans on that day, thanks for coming in" (which is silly, thanks for coming in? I HAVE TO be there, I was scheduled to be there) but whatever, I'll wear my jeans and a smile. So my boss, upon reading this, told us that since Friday was a jeans day, then Saturday most definitely was a jeans day, too!

small things make me happy.

JP asked me tonight what I want for Christmas...

No. Idea.

Two more things off my 'list'

It's only a mental list, but I can now cross two more things off of it!

I just got off the phone with The Lodge, got Steven and Mark their jacuzzi suite for December 27th...
And, in the process of emailing Steven to let him know, I also included an attachment to the email. Steven didn't know about my 'book' until about a month ago, it's just not something I had ever thought of mentioning to him. So a month ago, when I mentioned it in passing, he said "Wait, what? You wrote a book?"

He asked me to send it to him so he could read it. So I did that. I guess that gives him about a month to read it before he comes up here.

Well, even if he hates it, and thinks it's crap, at the very least I can say that I'm thinner than him! And I DON'T have a receding hairline... so there!

wait, um... is it possible to UNsend an email? Can I just suck it back through the 'net waves, and NOT send it to him???? no? well crap.

Getting ready for the big one

Doing a pretty good job of getting ready for Christmas this year...

I have bought a few things, here and there, and today, I WRAPPED them! I only had 6 gifts to wrap, but the thing is, if I get them wrapped, there's less peeking than if they're just crammed into my closet. So I'm going to try to stay current with the wrapping as I buy.

We also got some more cleaning/prep work done on the formal living room this weekend. That room is where Christmas happens in my house. I keep all the decorations and crap confined to that room... easier to clean up when it's all done. Next weekend we will drag out the tree and all the crap, so this weekend was all about dusting and vacuuming, moving furniture to make room for the tree right in the front window. It will be so nice and pretty this year, this room got the majority of the face lift from the remodel this summer, so it looks really nice.

I also did pull tabs last night and tonight, and got my paycheck for it. So I have an extra $200 for some 'middle of the pay period' shopping, and I even have a little list of things to get with that money.

The one thing I haven't done, and NEED TO DO!!! is to make reservations for Steven and Mark for the Saturday after Christmas at their favorite place to stay when they come up here. Of course, they want a jacuzzi suite... I must do that tomorrow...

sickntired

I'm so glad it's Friday, and that I don't have to work at the bank tomorrow morning. I've been sick for a few days now, and all I really want is to sleep until I wake up.
Not sleep until the alarm goes off, but sleep until I WAKE UP... whether that's 8 am, or NOON, dammit, that is what I want!

and tomorrow I get what I want. yippee, a little victory for the snotty girl.

I am working at the bar tomorrow night, and Sunday night, but that's not too bad, and it gives me a chance to finish reading Duma Key... yes, the Stephen King book I bought ages ago, the same one that Alex has read twice, and I am finally getting to it. I'm almost done with it, having only time during slow weekends on pull tabs to read... and just last weekend I picked up S.K.'s latest book of short stories, and I will bring that along to read once I am done with Duma Key.

Shit, I was supposed to call and make hotel reservations for Steven and Mark for the Saturday after Christmas, they're coming up here. Shit, I was supposed to call Gina when I got off work tonight... well, it's almost 10 and I've already taken a dose and a half of Nyquil, so I think I will have to wait until morning to call her. Maybe if she reads this, and realizes how icky-sicky I've been, she'll forgive me? Gina?

Being sick makes me pissed off

I felt fine this morning, hell, I felt fine at lunchtime!
This afternoon, I started to sneeze... then my throat felt a little... raw.

And now I am full blown sick.
I went out after work and bought $30 worth of drugs. Nyquil, Zycam, pills, vitamins, herbal crap, vitamin C, and some shit that goes into a glass of water and... effervesces... like Alka-Seltzer, only with a nasty orange-ish flavor.

Anyway, I'm cuddled up with a big fleece blankie and vegging in front of the TV. I'm so pumped full of meds, I'm actually either feeling better, or just too doped up to care!
I do not miss work when I'm sick.
It's just not what I do. I am not one of those people. I will suck it up and work through it.
Of course, I don't get 'really' sick either, no flu, no bronchitis crap here, just awful body-dragging colds... just one or two per winter, so maybe I should be pleased to be done with this one so early in the season...

Or not, I'm just pissed off. I HATE being sick.

Bad bank employee

I feel so naughty.

I am being unfaithful to my bank.
I just finished opening an online savings account through another bank.
I had to!!
My bank has a savings account with a miserable .70% interest rate. Yes, that was POINT SEVEN ZERO! Not even a full one percent!

I did some online checking and found a bank (the one who also happens to 'really' own my home) that offers 3.75% with NO minimum to start and NO minimum to maintain that 3.75%... well, ok, it's not "NO" minimum, it's $1... and holy crap, if I can't keep one dollar in that account, then I need more help than an online savings account can do!

It felt so good to do the transfer this morning, from 'my' bank (my employer) to this other one... felt like I really DID something constructive with my money. Also there is the time factor. This makes my savings tougher to dip into. Yes, I can transfer it to my checking at any time, but it would take a couple of days to become available, etc, so NO CHANCE for impulse spending of the SAVINGS... isn't that the whole point of saving... TO SAVE!!

I feel really good about this... dealing (responsibly) with my money makes me content...
*sigh*

banned to the couch

Even with earplugs, I could hear him last night. It was a combination of hearing him and FEELING him snoring. Yeah, I could FEEL the vibrations of him snoring in the mattress.

Shortly after midnight I moved to the couch downstairs just so I could get a few hours of sleep. He did not apologize this morning either. Not that I 'blame' him for snoring, it happens, I get it... but when there IS a solution and he chooses not to do it because he's a big wussy baby asshole, well, then YEAH, HE SHOULD APOLOGIZE. I'm talking about the breathe right strips. He used them once when I first bought them... THEY WORKED but he refuses to use them because "they're not comfortable"

Ya know what asshole? NEITHER ARE EARPLUGS when worn every damn night... yeah, it actually hurts my ears.

So I am heading to bed tonight, eagerly... he's off at Camp Ripley until Sunday, maybe even Monday... yippee! a minimum of 2 nights of sleep, real sleep, in my own bed...
Goodnight!

Looking forward to 42

I came to an interesting conclusion about my life the other day.

My 20's were all about my family. I was pregnant 4 times in 4 years, I have 3 beautiful, smart(mouthed), fun kids to show for it. All 3 of those kids have the same father, and, shockingly, in this day and age, he is STILL the man I'm married to. Yes, we got married young, I wasn't quite 21 on our wedding day, and JP celebrated his 21st just 6 days before we said "I do"... It was a tough decade, but we made it through... together.

My 30's, I hate to say it, were (are) sort of "all about me" to quote that damn Happy Bunny. I got braces so I could feel better about smiling. I got an education so I could feel better about my career. I am working on my body, (I'M DOWN TO 147!!!) so that I have something to smile ABOUT! It's been hard for this decade to be about me, with JP being deployed for quite a chunk of it, but I guess I could look at it as a time for me to find out how strong I am, what I am capable of, and how much my children need me.

And now, for the one I'm really looking forward to: my 40's... yes, I am looking forward to the 40's... or rather, 42 to be exact. When JP and I are 42, our 'baby' Eric will be 18. Now I know that there won't be a magic day, such as the day after his high school graduation, when suddenly, WE ARE FREE, I realize that that won't be the end of it... I believe Stephen King said it best in the title of one of his short stories "Sometimes they come back"

But... at 42, still young, it will be the decade of US. JP and I have a great marriage. We don't have those silly 'silent treatment' fights that last for days... we KNOW what pisses off the other one, and we try very hard not to do that to each other... because it's just not nice, you know?
OK, maybe I'm sugar coating it a bit, maybe (just maybe) the reality is that JP is such a wonderful tolerant man, and MAYBE, just maybe he wears the pants in the family because (and AFTER) I pick them out for him... but it works for us. I am so looking forward to having our home to ourselves. No kids making messes and not cleaning up after themselves. Just he and I enjoying some peace and quiet.

That's what makes 40 sound so great to me... the sound of silence.

Ok, enough philosophical crap... did you catch that in the middle of my babble? 147 BABY!!
Nice...

What happened here Tuesday night

When I got home from work, Mom was making dinner. She immediately asked me if I had voted. I pulled open my coat to show my "I voted" sticker. She looked disappointed. I told her that I would take her up there after dinner so she could vote.

Well, after dinner we went down to her room and turned on the TV. The first few polls in the east coast area were closing, and they were projecting McSame as the winner in a few of the southern states.

Mom jumps up and says "That's it! I gotta go vote, NOW!" First off, I LOVE that seeing returns from states so far away got her so fired up. I grabbed my jacket, and Alex asked if he could come along. He then pointed out that he would be voting to RE-ELECT Obama in the next election.

This gave me a moment of pause. First off, Alex is already projecting the winner, and second, holy crap, he's going to be old enough in 4 years to vote. Wow, as if I didn't feel old enough already!

I took Alex along, happy that he was so enthused about the process. While mom was voting I was showing Alex around and we stood back and watched as some people came in and needed to register (I told him that he would not have that problem, he would be registered beforehand). He got to see a ballot and I showed him how to fill it out (no, I didn't show him WHO to vote for, I showed him how to fill in the spots, make the marks, hanging chads and all that shit)

When mom was done, we headed back home, and planted ourselves in front of the TV... Alex was in and out all night.
He asked that we holler for him if anything 'big' happened. When Obama won Pennsylvania, we hollered and he came running.
"So what's the score?" And he knew that the 'magic' number was 270.
We hollered again every time Obama flipped a red state, and he came running "What's the score now?"
He happened to be in the room at 10 pm. When it was announced.
"Barack Obama is the projected winner. Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States".

My son said "Yes!" and walked away.
I was impressed and proud of his interest and sense of civic duty. He may screw up and piss me off at times, but he WILL be a registered Democrat.

I may not be a perfect parent, but at least I have that.

Between the historic election and the intensity with which Alex was involved in an election that he wasn't even able to take part in, I was in awe for the rest of the evening.

So far so good

My day off began early, got the kids out at 7:30, then I sort of vegged out with "The Early Show" as they tried to recommend a new dog for Sasha and Malia... and my only question was WHERE WAS THE GOLDEN RETRIEVER??

That would be the best dog for the first family. Energetic, yet very trainable, great with little kids... best dogs ever, I tell ya!

Then I got in the shower, stupid, I washed my hair, I should have colored it beforehand. So that will wait until tomorrow I guess. Damn white hairs.

I have the 'list' of things I need to get today when I go get Gina for lunch. Even though it's a chilly rainy day, I am looking forward to getting out and just puttering around town.

I also have a couple of 'trouble spots' that I want to get through today. I have a clusterfuck mess on the floor space on my side of the bed, I HATE that. I also have a few areas that I want to clean up and go through for the big 'spring clean in the fall' shit that JP started. I want to go through this stuff, because I DON'T want JP to go through it. He'd throw it all, I just know it.

I also MUST post about our experience on Tuesday night. I will get to that this afternoon, it was great... I'm talking about my family's personal experience, not JUST the outcome. Both were really great.

For now, I am watching Drew Carey host TPIR, never really seen him do it before, and then I will get ready to go out on the town with GinaBean.

Two days off

Today was my last day of the week.
I have to call my daddy tonight, it's his birthday today.
Tomorrow I am taking Gina out for lunch, and hopefully she will help me shop for my mom's birthday present, which is Friday.

I did not sleep well last night, tossed and turned all night. I THOUGHT I would sleep soundly, after the outstanding election night we had, but it was awful. I am going to bed early tonight.

Wow.

Wow, that's all I can think of...
One, it's finally over, happy about that
Two, it ended the right (left)... correct... way.

At exactly 10 pm (my time) it was announced that Barack Obama was projected as the 44th president of the United States. Brought a tear to my eye.

Like it or not, love him or hate him, things WILL change.

He's got a tough road ahead of him, no doubt about that, there's no telling how long it will take to fix the mess that's been left for him, but if anyone CAN fix it, clean it up, and bring people together to improve our country, HE can.

Now I can go to bed, and sleep soundly... as soon as I find a BLUE shirt in my closet to wear to work tomorrow!

goosebumps at the polls

This election is historic. Monumental.
When I arrived at the polling place this morning to cast my vote (at 8 am, like a good voter!)
I got goosebumps because it hit me how huge this election is.

Of course I care about the outcome, but it really got me thinking...

big. huge.

Don't forget to vote (unless you're red, in which case, have another beer, relax on the couch, you'll be fine!)

;-)

I'm funny

Saturday JP and I were picking up a few groceries.

Me: You know what I want?
JP: What?
Me: Baked Lays... haven't had them in ages, that sounds really good.
JP: K...(as he steers the cart towards the chip aisle)
Me: You know, if you got me some pot, I'D be a baked lay...

I'm getting new bowling shoes

I use the rental shoes at the alley every week.
Tonight I EARNED the right to get my own. I bowled so friggin' good.
My average went up 2 from last week, sitting at 128, that makes me happy.
It will go up again.
Got a 118, meh, whatever.
I also got a 157, nice, beat the pants off everyone else on our team, AND the team we were bowling against.
I had my best game ever tonight.
Didn't leave an open frame until the 9th, then made up for it in the tenth with a strike and a spare.

180. No shit.

In other news, tomorrow is THE BIG DAY. I am thinking I will go to the gym first thing, then get the kids ready and out the door, then head out the door myself. TO GO VOTE. Yeah, that's right, before work. Polls open at 8am, and I don't have to work until 9:15. I remember a line last time, during the "after work" hours of 3 to 6 or so. I'm hoping to get in early, besides, they give out those cute little "I voted" stickers, and I want to wear mine to work.

The best news is that Wednesday I don't have to be in to work until 10 am, so I can stay up late as the returns come in. Then I have a meeting Wednesday night at work, should run til about 7. I am SO looking forward to that. Of course, assuming that things go as planned tomorrow.

Then I have Thursday and Friday off, with Friday being my best friend's birthday. I have to run out and pick up her gift, I KNOW what it is, just have to find it now. I'm concerned that it may require a run to Fargo, I've been looking around town and haven't found it yet... grrrrr.

I'm about ready to tell JP to stop with the remodeling until he finishes one project. He hasn't finished the living room trim (remember all the pictures this summer? He's STILL not done!) and he started putting plastic on the living room windows for the winter... THAT'S still laying around half done.

And then there's the freezer/tool room project, that has suddenly expanded to include the entire laundry room.

Enough is enough.
Just finish something.
Something.
Anything, really?

Lucky Number 6

I did a post back on the day of the Kentucky Derby, about 6 being my lucky number...remember?

Well, today I have another reason to love the number 6.

Last night I was whining to mom about having to break down and buy new jeans. I have slowly been replacing my work pants, as money allowed. But I just bought a new belt to cinch up my jeans. I HATE buying new jeans. Such a pain to find ones that aren't so low rise but not up in my ribs, and are long enough in the leg, and aren't too tight in the thigh (my 'usual' tight spot!)

She said "Go in my closet... well, hell, " and she jumped up and grabbed a bunch of jeans out of her closet. Jeans that didn't fit her anymore (skinny bitch is baggy in 4's and 2's!) She said I should try on these, and whatever I wanted, I could have. There were 5 pairs of size 10's... Levi's. That's what I'm currently swimming in, but these are a different cut, and they fit great!

And then!! And then!
The other two pair were size 6.
And they fit me.
Hear that? I got my ass into size 6's.
WITHOUT having to lay on the bed to zip them! No problem zipping them AT ALL!!

I remember once (ONCE!) in my Senior year of high school, being able to squeeze (laying on the bed to zip them) into an 8... and that only lasted about 2 weeks. I was 18. I am now 36 AND three ginormous kids later.
In a 6.

Life is good I tell ya!