The Cheetos Story

I've alluded to the Cheetos Story a couple of times before. Now, since it was requested, I guess I'll finally break down and tell the story.

Wow, now that I think the whole thing through, it's kind of embarrassing to admit to this story, but here goes:

The Time I Threw an Absolute Fit All Because of Cheetos

(I'm guessing that Cheetos were just the snack that broke the camel's back, but, yeah, anyway...)

It was a lovely fall day, and Aaron and I were still in our pajamas, sitting on the couch watching television. Aaron decided that it was time for a snack, so he got up and put some Cheetos in a bowl for us to share. He came back to the couch, and we slowly ate the entire bowl. Then he decided that, what the hell, it's a lazy day and we don't have to impress anyone, let's have some more.

He got up, filled the bowl again, and went toward the computer room. This is when I started to pout a little because I was having a good time and wanted to share another bowl of Cheetos with my charming husband. I didn't want the fun to end, I guess. He thought I just wanted more Cheetos, so he went to give me the bowl he had, because, well, they're just Cheetos.

But, I wanted to share, and I certainly didn't want to have him give up his bowl of Cheetos just because I was being whiney. I mean they're Cheetos, they're damn good, and I would be pissed if someone took my bowl, so I didn't want to take his.

Therefore, I went to pour another bowl. He didn't want me to dirty another bowl, so he said, "Here. Just take this one. I'm done."

Well, I apparently could not deal with this. So I slammed the clean bowl that I was going to fill back in the cupboard, picked up the bag of Cheetos (which was still folded up and clipped - just so you know I'm not making a mess), crushed them all, and threw the bag at my husband.

Who laughed.

Big mistake.

I then started to cry hysterically, he looked at me like I was insane (which I rightfully deserved, but at the time this pissed me off even more) and went into the computer room.

I went into my closet, shut the door, sat on the floor and cried. He came in about 20 minutes later and asked why I was sitting on the floor of my closet crying so hard.

Well, duh, because the windows were open and I didn't want the neighbors to hear me crying.

He helped me up and led me by my hand to our bed and cuddled me, waiting for me to answer for why I was crying about Cheetos.

The answer was, when I could finally get it out, that sometimes I just want things the way I want them, and I felt like I always try to give him what he wants. This time, I just wanted things my way, and he wasn't letting me have my way.

Geez....PMS much? I totally blew everything out of proportion, and I probably would have laughed at me too if I was in his position. That day, however, I was not having it.

Now, when I'm crying and he doesn't know why, he asks, "Is it the Cheetos again?"

It's never the Cheetos, but it does make me smile a little and stop crying.

So that is the Cheetos story. I'm embarrassed to admit that it actually happened, but I'm sure we all have our own version of the Cheetos story - when a little thing set off a big battle.

The Spectacular Falling Jessie

What with Amalah telling her terrifying tale of her fall yesterday morning, and Miss Doxie reminiscing (wonderfully, I might add. That is one awesome and way more incredible than I could ever dream about coming up with entry) about her stories from the past 2 years (including those in the category “Times I Fell”) I thought I do both.

No, not fall.

Reminisce about a time I fell. Spectacularly, even.

It all started on a bright October day, my freshman year of college. I was eighteen and stupid, especially about fashion, but for some reason I was rushing three sororities. This was the last night of rush and we were all decked out in our very best black dresses, because that’s what you did for “Preference Ceremonies” (the last night of rush). You wore a fancy black dress and went around to fancy rush parties hoping that you weren’t so dorky that you wouldn’t get in.

I was dorky enough to only be invited to two preference ceremonies, even though you could be invited to a total of three. And both of the houses I was invited back to were “small houses” which meant, basically, the unpopular sororities.

Man, I was a dork.

Anyway, since I was not one for fashion those days (regular day-to-day wear for me was stuck in the grunge-era style of a band tee over a long-sleeved tee with baggy jeans and Chucks) I was really not one for fancy fashion, including fancy high heeled shoes of death.

I want to note now, that I quickly got over the grunge phase and turned into the fabulous high-heel-shoe-wearing mid-west fashionista (meaning about 3 years behind either coast) that I am today. I like to think of myself as a somewhat snazzy dresser.

(Just the fact that I said snazzy is pretty bad – maybe I’m not as great as I think I am. Oh well.)

Okay, back to the story. So there I was, all dressed up in my fancy black dress and black high heeled shoes of death, waiting to go to my first house of the night. They were driving us around in busses (oh so fancy, no?) and we were all jittery and nervous, because tonight decided our future college experiences. Would we get into a “good” house?

For me? No. At least not one of the ones that everyone considered a good house, but it turned out to be a good house for me, just not a “cool” house.

As we pulled up to the first house, I noticed a scene outside. The house I was going to was right between two fraternity houses, one of which was a “cool” fraternity. We stopped in front of the “cool” fraternity, and my level of nervousness shot through the roof. Not only did I have to walk in high heels in a fancy dress, I had to do it in front of cute boys who were picking us apart as we got off of the bus. (Assholes!)

I steadied myself as I walked down the aisle of the bus, stepped onto the first step, got my foot caught in the hem of my dress as I went for the second step and face-planted on the sidewalk about 3 feet below.

In front of all the cute boys.

Man, did it hurt too. My knee and hands were all scraped up. The “Rho Chi” or Rush Counselors ran to my side to make sure I was okay (although I’m sure they all laughed about it later – I know I would have. There’s nothing funnier to me than someone falling. It’s why I love “America’s Funniest Home Videos” so much.) I was fine, and nothing hurt worse than my ego at that moment, so I stood up, brushed myself off, ignored the hot guys laughing at me, and went into the house. I got a couple of bandages, cleaned myself up, and became determined to forget that this every happened.

And I kind of managed to for a while, until one day at a rehearsal for Greek Week events. We just happened to be paired up with the fraternity house where I fell. This was about a year later, and one of the brothers kept saying I looked familiar.

Then one day he figured it out.

“Aren’t you that girl that totally bit it off the rush bus?”

Yeah, I am. Thanks for helping me to re-live the humiliation.

Luckily most of the guys who then remembered said they felt bad for me at the time, but it was too funny not to laugh. And they totally would have helped me if the Rho Chis hadn’t stepped in.

Like I said, I would have laughed at me too if it hadn’t hurt so much.

Tomorrow, as requested by karla: The Cheetos™ Story

I'm Done and I'm onto the Next One

Well, since I got that out of my system, I'm ready to move on. I'm over it. (Although, I can tell you this much - I am so not watching Oprah today. We are not back on watching-terms yet.)

Anyway, there is a message board that I frequently visit, well mostly lurk on, that has got me thinking about married life. Specifically how happy I am with my marriage. Also, how disfunctional some relationships can be.

My husband is a great man (especially in my opinion). He's more than just a husband, he's my best friend, and was long before we got married. We can talk about anything and I can completely be myself around him. I can be in myself in my full dorkitude and he still stays around.

He may laugh at me, but he still stays around.

This makes me especially happy when I read about women on the message board who feel like they can't talk to their husband about something that's bothering them. The only time I don't talk to Aaron about something that is bothering me is when I know I'm going to cry if I say something. Me crying makes him uncomfortable and defensive and so I wait until I'm calm so that I can have a more effective conversation with him.

Not that I don't have times when I'm upset and just have to get it out and cry at him and confuse the hell out of him. It's confusing for two reasons - one, because I can't speak in complete sentences if I'm crying hard, and two, because he doesn't get why I cry about the things I do sometimes.

(Like the time I cried about sharing Cheetos, which is a totally different story for a different time).

The other thing (not that there are only two things that I absolutely love and appreciate about him - there are far too many to list) that I'm thankful for is that he helps out around the house.

Wait, scratch that, I help him around the house.

He does dishes, vacuums, dusts, makes the bed, does his own laundry, et cetera, ad nauseum. One woman on said message board was thinking about leaving her husband because he was such a slob and she couldn't deal with it any more. I'm sure there were other issues, but it must really be bad if she's using that one as the excuse to leave him. I would never have to leave Aaron because of his slobishness. (Is that even a word?)

He simply is no where near a slob. In fact he's the exact opposite: He's a neat freak, and I love him for that.

I'm so thankful for him, that I tell him how lucky I am to have landed someone as awesome as he is on a daily basis.

Or I pants him in the kitchen while the shades are open, simply because I can. And he's okay with that.

(Sorry if I made anyone vomit with the lovey-dovey crap. We got engaged about two years ago sometime this week, and I'm feeling nostalgic and sappy).

Oh, yeah. And HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

Public Humiliation

I know it may not be "cool" to jump on the bandwagon, but I'm bothered, so here I jump.

Did you watch James Frey on Oprah today? If not, let me assure you it was pretty hard to watch. I understand she was upset because she put her "stamp of approval" on something that turned out to cause a huge scandal. And she was lied to and kind of made a fool of. I get that. I'd be angry too.

I don't think I would have, however, paraded him out onto my show to berate him like she did.

Whatever is true or not about James Frey's book, it still doesn't take away from his incredible talent as a writer. I could feel his words. I felt pain when he did in the book, and I felt sad when he was sad in the book.

And today, as he sat on her stage (and was brave enough to show up, because I know I wouldn't have had the balls to go on the show when I knew what was probably waiting for me) shaking and obviously upset at being called a liar over and over again (which whatever, he lied about some things - like I said, the book still moved me, true or not) I felt sad for him.

I'm usually a HUGE Oprah fan. I think she does a lot of good things, I learn a lot of things from her show, and basically, she's very entertaining. But today, I wasn't on her side. I don't think that, just because she has this outlet that she should publicly flog someone on it. I thought the whole thing was ridiculous and uncalled for.

I don't know what your thoughts are on the whole thing, but those are mine. And I know that this is the "hot topic" that people are talking about, and everyone will have something different to say. This is mine.

I Want to Know Who Slipped What in Which of my Drinks

Like, now.

Yes, this is another story about not sleeping. It's what's consuming my life right now besides work, so it's what I'm writing about.

(Wow, that was some unnecessary attitude. Sorry).

You see, last night in the middle of a perfectly good night of sleep, I (pardon my french) freaked the fuck out. Looking back at the situation, it's pretty amusing, but at 3 o'clock in the morning, not so much fun.

Here's the story:

Last night, I relaxed before bed with a nice, piping-hot mug of Sleepytime Tea(tm), and cuddled with my husband on the couch while watching whatever was on television (I was a little too tired to actually be paying attention, but since staying up until past my bedtime worked the night before I decided to try this method again).

Just after 10 pm, I drifted off into a deep, relaxed sleep. It was wonderful. Until about 3, at which time I got up to go to the bathroom because apparently 2 glasses of water with dinner and a cup of tea at 9:30 is a little too much liquid for me.

I climbed back into bed and was drifting off easily once again, when all of the sudden the freak out occurred.

I felt something tickling my cheek, brushed at it, felt something weird that shouldn't be there, threw it off, sat up screaming, and turned on the light.

This of course freaked my husband out of his nice night of sleep. He shot up too, with a "What the hell, Jess?" I was sitting there, shuddering at the thought that something was crawling so close to my ear. Then, I thought I felt something crawling on my leg.

I yelped again, and Aaron took all the sheets and blankets off the bed, and inspected them before handing them back to me, while I was still shuddering and looking around like a crazy person for whatever other bugs might be considering an attack.

I should note, that neither of us saw anything remotely looking like a bug, anywhere in the room.

He turned off the light, chuckling to himself at his batshit crazy wife (and it was definitely at and not with, because I was so not laughing). Then he cuddled me and tried to keep me from shuddering or thinking I was being attacked by mysterious invisible bugs any more, until I fell back asleep. Just when I was drifting off, he kissed my shoulder and asked:

"What the hell did you take before you went to bed?"

He's so sweet (or at least he was up till then - I think he was just picking on me because I so clearly deserved it).

So seriously, since I didn't take anything, who slipped something into my drink?

Maybe I should lay off the tea tonight. You know, just in case.

...and What Do You Call Your Act?

Last night when I got home, there was a surprise waiting for me in our mailbox.

You see, Aaron and I recently signed up for Netflix, and our first movie was in our mailbox yesterday.

And it was "The Aristocrats". (The front page is pretty safe for work, but I'm not sure any of the links are. So be warned.)

Now, I'm not exactly a prude, but I am getting slightly more prudish with age. Maybe it's because I don't spend nearly as much time intoxicated as I did in college - things are usually funnier when you're not quite sober.

Anyway, I was simultaneously very amused and very bothered by this movie. But not so bothered that I quit watching it, just bothered that people could imagine such scenarios as those they insert into the joke.

You see, it starts out with "A man walks into a talent agency..." and then the comedians insert the most obscene acts they can think of, and then end with the punchline "The Aristocrats" when the talent agent asks what the act is called.

The dirtiest? It was a tie between the South Park guys (they did an animated version where Cartman tells the joke) and Bob Saget. Yes that Bob Saget. I've heard people speak of his vulgarity, but I never really believed it until last night. And I think that made him even funnier, you know, because it was so different from how you saw him in the Full House/America's Funniest Home Videos (which is still my FAVORITE show) days.

So, if you don't mind some bad words, and really messed up mental pictures, go rent this movie. It was hilarious, as was seeing my husband turn purple from laughing and fall off the couch.

Actually, I think that was the best part.

Insomnia, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

That's the line that I had stuck in my head last night for some reason (sung to the Beatles - "She Loves You") at about 1 am while I was tossing and turning for the 3rd night in a row, and about the 5th week in a row. I've been having problems sleeping since September, but it has been really bad the past five weeks.

Here's a typical night - I'll use last night as an example.

Go to bed when tired (usually around 10 pm). Fall asleep hard and fast. Wake up at 1 am. Lay there for a while thinking that I should get up and do something different maybe, but decide I'm too lazy to do that. Fall asleep fitfully for the rest of the night (meaning, I wake up regularly, and then fall back asleep after about 10 minutes - this happens about 5 times a night). Wake up at 6 feeling like I couldn't drag my ass out of bed if someone were paying me a million dollars, but get up anyway, and for considerably less money. Work, rinse, repeat.

Last night I even added some Tylenol Cold Nighttime to the mix, thinking it was my case of the sniffles I'm currently dealing with that was keeping me up. Usually that stuff knocks me the heck out and keeps me down well past the alarm going off. Last night, I woke up feeling refreshed, thinking that the alarm was probably about to go off. And I laid there. And laid there. And then I finally looked at the clock and it was about 1:30.

I was not amused, to say the least.

I'm thinking that a bath and some tea are going to be instituted tonight, so that maybe I can unwind a little more.

Although, I do have to admit, that I called in to work this morning and slept in until almost 10 (3 straight hours - woohoo!) before getting ready and coming in.

But I still feel exhausted and about ready to collapse. Christmas break (and 12 straight days off) really messed with my schedule.

What a Weekend

John and Aaron
Originally uploaded by Mrs. Ca.

It was another fabulous, fun-filled weekend, which began with our friend John's birthday party (he's the one on the right in the picture)UPDATED TO ADD: (or I'm a complete dork and he's the one on the left in the picture. I'm sleep deprived, what do you expect from me? Genius-level functioning where one knows the difference between left and right? Geez. The handsome guy who is actually on the right is my wonderful husband. I feel like such a dork right now!). We all went bowling and had a great time.

(I think that if you click on the picture it will take you to the set of pictures from the party, but don't quote me on that. I'm not really sure how this whole thing works.)

Actually, I only bowled one game, whereas everyone else bowled about 3 or 4 games. I only bowled one because I sucked so much on that first game that it was not worth spending more money on.

But I still had a great time. It's nice to have great friends who make us laugh and who (at least seem to) enjoy spending time with us as much as we enjoy spending time with them.

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill - we had a couple of friends over on Saturday to eat chili and play Euchre (and drunk Sorry, which is just about my favorite game in the whole world).

The only thing missing from this weekend was sleep. Especially last night. I managed to take a 2-hour nap yesterday afternoon, which I should aparently not have taken, since I couldn't sleep at all last night. I am not alone in this misery either, as Aaron is also not sleeping well.

I am prepared for quite a week in the "Ca" house.

T Minus 6.5 Hours

Yay! It's Friday! And it keeps getting closer to the time to go home (or in my case, the time to go to the gym to hopefully work off another couple pounds this week).

I wanted to say thank you to all of you who left comments yesterday. They were really helpful. I think that I will just send the pastor a short note explaining that we're done and he can't really change our mind. The support you gave yesterday was very needed and appreciated.

Okay, enough sad crap, it's almost time to par-tay! Now, all of you, go out and have a wonderful weekend!

Counting the Hours till 5pm Friday

(as of right now there are about 30 hours - unless my math totally sucks, which is a complete possibility)

Well, I had another fabulous night last night. It was actually pretty fun, if not terribly exciting. We had an amazing dinner (sirloin, sweet potatoes and asparagus - aren't you jealous?) and followed that up by watching American Idol. Then I watched Criminal Minds while letting my husband play his football game on the playstation 2.

It was a relaxing evening, which was just what I needed because I had seriously busted ass on the elliptical machine (a whole hour - go me!) after work.

I'm really looking forward to the weekend, because this one promises to be a lot of fun (especially since there will be no highway driving - woohoo!). We have a friend whose birthday is tomorrow night, and then Saturday I'm making chili and having friends over to play cards.

Sunday we're doing our normal thing - avoiding church and going out to breakfast.

The avoiding church thing is getting more and more difficult, especially since our pastor called me this week.

See, there was an incident, well two really, in December. I don't really want to go into it, but I'll just say that I felt very uncomfortable both times, and the second incident made me decide that I don't want to go back to that church. Aaron is pretty indifferent to this decision - he doesn't really care if we go back because he wasn't exactly excited to be going every week in the first place. The church is failing - the congregation is tiny and old, and it's running out of money. It's sad for me to leave, because we got married there, but I feel that my time there is done.

Now the pastor wants Aaron and I to come in and talk to him about our reasons for leaving. I think this will be an uncomfortable meeting and I don't really want to go. I'm definitely not looking forward to it. I haven't sent him our availability as promised, because I'm really dreading it. I don't like putting myself in uncomfortable situations if I can avoid it, and I already gave him my reasons over the phone. He agreed that they were valid reasons, and I don't know why we can't leave it at that. He can't fix it. What's done is done.

(Sorry if this is all very cryptic, I don't want to go into details in case it gets back to someone who would be hurt by it all.)

Anyway, so as it is guaranteed that we will be successfully avoiding church this weekend - the one thing that would make it unpleasant - this should be a very pleasant weekend.

Now if only Thursday and the work-day part of Friday could pass more quickly, I would be all set.

Site-Cleaning

Well, as I was a little, um, unbusy today, I decided to play around with my template. What do you think of the changes? Is the background too busy? Are the colors okay? How the hell do I change the masthead (the ONE thing I can't seem to figure out)?

My Fabulous, Exciting, Thrilling Life

Ahhh...good morning. Can you smell the sarcasm the title of this post is emitting? You should be able to.

Today, I'm writing about what I do every night now that I'm a real grown up and don't have homework to do. That's right. I watch television. Aren't you jealous of how much fun I have?

But seriously, there are two shows which I would like to discuss today. One is a recent find, and one is a show that premiered last night.

The premier, of course, was American Idol. Were you watching? I only watch the first few weeks of the season every year, and half of that I watch on mute because so many of the singers are so bad! Last night was hilarious and sad, all at the same time. You have to wonder what some of these people are thinking, especially those that refuse to believe that the judges are telling them no.

Oh, and here's a spoiler, so skip this paragraph if you don't want to know what happened (which - whatever - it's not like there's much to spoil yet). What was with Paula and Randy letting in that one weird guy at the end? He could kind of sing (stress on the "kind of"), but I think he had some kind of spasm disorder. He just wouldn't stop moving. Aaron was thoroughly annoyed by him and was even more annoyed by the fact that he made it through the first round. I think the guy needs some ritalin or something. He made me a little nervous.

Anyway, the other show, which is a recent find of Aaron's and mine, is Cash Cab on the Discovery Channel. Have you caught this show? I think it's pretty fun (and will probably think so for only a few more weeks at which point I'll get bored and will have to move onto another show).

The basic premise is that a normal-looking cab is driving around NYC and when you get in, there's a loud noise and flashing lights (which is my favorite part because it never fails to surprise the crap out of the unsuspecting contestants) and the host announces that you are in the cash cab. The host/driver then asks the fares questions and awards them money until they reach their destination. Unless, of course, they get three strikes (wrong answers) at which point the driver/host stops wherever he is and kicks them out of the cab.

It's a lot of fun. And since I've now seen ever episode of Seinfeld, it fills that 6 to 7 pm block of repeats.

Wow...the life I live.

The Tale of the Giant Panic Attack

As promised yesterday, I will tell you about my Sunday evening, which is when the Giant Panic Attack occurred.

First of all, I should tell you that I have a small history of panic attacks. Like the time that I showed up for class (after having taken a sudafed and having drunk a large coffee) and the teacher started passing out the EXAM! That I had forgotten about. I promptly passed out. After I woke up (about 3 seconds later) I couldn't breath, I was white as a ghost, and I was pretty sure my heart was going to pound out of my chest. Let me just say, in case you were wondering, that it is not fun in the least to have a panic attack. There have been other instances (like the top of the Sears Tower, or other stressful situations), but none so dangerous as the attack that happened Sunday evening.

Sunday started out crappily enough. I woke up at 2:30 in the morning after having a bad dream (I dreamt that a foreign exchange student I knew in high school stabbed Aaron in the gut and he was dying. It was a really bad dream. No more eating so close to bed time.) and I couldn't get back to sleep until about 4. Then I slept until 6, at which point I had another weird-ass dream (about a friend who gave birth to a baby who looked EXACTLY like her) and was awake for the rest of the morning. So I started the day with about 4 hours of sleep.

After that it was a good day. I made breakfast, got ready, and headed north to see my sister because it was her birthday. Aaron stayed home because he had some things to do around the house, like watching football, so I was on my own. I had a great time with my sister, she loved her presents, and she dragged on forever before deciding it was time to go out to eat. I was hoping to get to drive home before dark, but no such luck. I did have a great time, and was happy to get to spend a lot of time with her, but I really don't like driving after dark.

Also, I'm still a little paranoid about driving my car. The whole accident thing messed me up a little, and so I'm not the most confident driver out there on the road.

So, about 5 miles into my drive home, I started feeling light-headed, my pulse started racing and I couldn't breath. Luckily I was at an exit, because I thought I was going to pass out on the freeway, which freaked me out even more.

I went into a gas station, bought some water and tissues (because I was crying - I was really freaked out) and sat in my car for a while trying to calm down.

When I got back on the road, I called a friend to help pass the time, but I was still feeling dizzy and kind of nauseous the whole way home. It was not fun, and I don't think I'll be driving on the freeway after dark again any time soon. The thought of passing out while driving kept me aware of what was going on, but also freaked me the hell out. I avoided driving most of the day yesterday, and I will be avoiding freeways for a while as well (especially the one I should drive on today, which is where I had my accident, so I'm taking the back roads instead).

I know it's a little crazy of me to not want to drive on the freeway, but once bitten....

I'm okay with my craziness.

Us? Adults? Really?

(Just a quick update from the last post first: There was nothing impressive about the Professor's Porn Collection - Just a few foreign-porn dvds and about 10 years' worth of Playboy. Unless someone had already bought all the porn 90 minutes into the sale, that's all he had. Such a let-down!)

Another great weekend is under our belts. (Except that mine is continuing. No work today, so I'm at home conquering my mountain of laundry.)

Do you know what's kind of hard? When you realize that you really are an adult. Saturday confirmed that for me.

We woke up early (because that's when we're trained to get up for work now) and spent the day shopping for plants and frames. I wanted some herbs for an indoor herb garden, so I bought these:

(Basil, Parsley, and Thyme)

We also had recently re-arranged the furniture, so we needed a large plant for one corner that was looking rather empty:

(I am naming it Bob.)
(No, I don't know why, it just looks like a Bob.)
(What? Don't you name your houseplants?)

And we also needed a plant for an empty pot we had, so we got this:

(I'm going for obvious here and naming this one Ivy.)

We also used the frames we got to frame some artwork we just had sitting around without frames (thank you to Kara for keeping us in art). Aaron went right to work hanging them up:

(He's so handy!)

After we did all that, Aaron dusted and cleaned the tables and chairs in the dining room, and vacuumed the dining and living rooms (pictures omitted so that he can keep some of his man-cred) and I swept and mopped the kitchen floor after doing all the dishes.

It was intense y'all. We got a lot done. On a Saturday.

Then we went out to eat at our favorite Japanese steakhouse, where I had one hell of a Mai Tai and the lobster tail. Aaron had a Sapporo bigger than his head and a steak/shrimp combo.

After dinner we rolled home and watched Dazed and Confused because after a day like that, you have to watch some mindless comedy, lest you become too serious and adult-like.

After all, you have to retain some of the goofiness to get you through:

(Look at that face. Who couldn't love a face like that? Hah!)
(He seriously laughed at himself in this picture for a good 15 minutes after taking it.)
(Which made me laugh with him, not at him, for about 15 minutes too.)

Tomorrow: The story of the Giant Panic Attack. See you then.

Um, Really?

I am a big fan of going to estate sales. In my hometown, it's a way to see inside some of the nice old houses in the area. In the metro area where I live now, it's a way to see in some of the big homes in the suburbs.

I'm on a listserv for an estate sale business in the area, and they send out notices every week about their upcoming sales, including a rather comprehensive list of the offerings of the particular sale. Here is an excerpt from the sale happening today and tomorrow (which some of my coworkers are attending with me, because we are just too curious):

MAPLE DINING TABLE W/1 LEAF & 5 CHAIRS, FILE CABINETS, NICEDESIGNED BOOK CASE, NICE LARGE SELECTION OF QUALITY GLASS, CHINAAND POTTERY, NIKON NIKOMAT 35 mm CAMERA & LENSES, CHESS SETS, LPs, LARGE COLLECTION OF WESTERN PAPERBACKS, COOKBOOKS, LARGE SELECTION OF XXX RATED VIDEOS, KODAK 4200 & 4600 CAROUSEL SLIDE PROJECTORS, NICE SELECTION OF KITCHEN ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES

Did you catch what caught our attention?

Perhaps the large selection of XXX rated videos?

The beginning of the listing talks about how this was the home of a college professor (there's a Big Ten University in the area) who had an eye for nice accessories from the mid-century modern era. I'm really excited to go see the house, as it's in a really nice area. I just think it's weird that they would sell, let alone make sure to list the videos.

It kind of weirds me out, but definitely piques my curiosity. I'll update if anything interesting happens at the sale.

The Return of the Car

Well, I got my car back yesterday afternoon at about 4, (it probably should have been later than that, but there was literally no one in my office, and I was having issues with sitting still, so I went early), and it's nearly perfect. They fixed everything, including the door dents that had nothing to do with the accident, so it looks better than it did before the accident. They gave us a complete listing of everything they repaired, replaced, or did other things to, and that list was almost three pages long.

It was quite a repair.

But they missed one thing. The horn. Which now sounds like you shot a cat or something. It's pathetic. But, if it's just the horn that's the problem, I can live with it. I'm just so happy to have it back.

So happy, apparently, that immediately upon falling asleep last night I had a dream about my car. Scratch that, a nightmare. I closed my eyes, drifted off, and dreamed about smashing up my car again. Stress much? Geez. It was horrible. I woke up immediately after the dream crash, heart pounding, sweating, and unable to go back to sleep for a while.

But I have it back, and it's nearly perfect, and I'm happy that I don't have to drive the piece-o-crap loaner car from the body shop any more. I celebrated this morning by popping a cd into the cd player - something I haven't been able to do since I got the loaner car about 6 weeks ago (I had borrowed my sister's car while she was at college, but then she was on break and needed it back). It was wonderful.

As for the before-and-after pictures, well, I tried. I got a roll of film out of the drawer that holds the cameras and took it to be developed last night. Aaron picked them up on his way through and when I opened them up, excited to be able to post pictures finally, there were no pictures of the car. It was the wrong roll, and we don't know where the right roll is. It is possible it went into this shoe box where rolls of film in our house go to die before ever being developed. There are probably more than 30 rolls in there just waiting to be processed. So I have about a 1 in 30 chance of getting the right roll. I think I'm going to try one roll per week until I find it. I mean, the more rolls I develop, the better chance I have that the next one will be the correct roll, right? (Yes, I am a statistics geek. Leave me alone.)

I'm Trying NOT to Hold My Breath....

but I'm failing miserably, and I'm so excited I can hardly sit still.

Here's the news:

I'm supposed to get my car back today.

You heard right. As of this past Friday, the deadline for fixing my car was today. I can't wait!!!

The reason that deadline was set last Friday was because my husband decided to be the "squeaky wheel" and moved everybody's asses into gear. (I've thanked him for this many times already.)

Last Wednesday or Thursday, Aaron wrote an email to our insurance agent and the district head for our insurance company complaining that we still didn't have our car back from an accident that happened on October 21. As of this Friday that will have been 12 WEEKS AGO.

12 FREAKING WEEKS!

Well, apparently his email was harsh enough for the insurance company to contact the owner of the shop (which the insurance company recommended we use) about why the heck it was taking so long to get our car repaired. Friday afternoon at about 2 pm, the owner of the body shop called me and apologized for 8 minutes straight that my car had not yet been finished, telling me that he was embarrassed that this had happened, that his shop doesn't normally take this long to do repairs (in fact he said normal repair time should have been between 4 and 6 weeks - we're more than double normal repair time), and that if there are any problems after we got it back that we should contact him on his personal cell phone to get things worked out. And, of course, that the car (bearing any unforeseen events preventing this) would be back in my possession today.

We'll see. No call yet telling me that it's ready. I was hoping to be able to pick it up on my lunch break so that I didn't have to miss my workout after work today.

Anyway, when we got home that evening, there were 2 messages on the machine, and just as Aaron started listening to them (one was from the adjuster handling our case and the other was from the owner of the body shop, again) the phone rang. We typically don't answer our home phone (long story) but I picked it up because my mom usually calls on Friday evenings, and it was the owner of the body shop, once again, apologizing and making sure that what he offered in compensation was okay (he is taking care of more than half of our deductible because of the extreme delay). It was and it took me another five minutes to get him off the phone and to quit apologizing to me. I mean, I'm glad he was doing it, and that he is so sorry about our being inconvenienced, but seriously, I was in the middle of cooking dinner (and in the middle of writing a report when he had called earlier in the day) so this guy was starting to be annoying because he was apologizing so much. I think he's worried that, because it's a small local shop, word of mouth would be really bad for the shop.

The funniest (not haha, but hmmm funny) think he said to me was that there had been interrogations all day (okay, so maybe haha funny - if you picture it right: dim lighting from an overhead fixture over a table, a guy sitting in a chair, the owner going all Vincent D'Onofrio on his ass) to find out what had happened to cause such a delay. Aaron thinks it was the shop trying to nickel and dime its way through the repair, doing only what was absolutely necessary. The owner has since promised me that he will personally check out the work and take it for a test drive before I get it back to make sure that it's "better than new" when it's done. I'm glad that he's taking this so seriously, because if there are problems after we get the car back, I'll be seriously miffed.

Since that time we've also received calls from the district head and our agent about the problems as well, hoping to appease us. Aaron apparently threatened to take our business elsewhere, and this got them up in arms.

So, I'm all set today, new registration and insurance information in hand so that I can have it with me when I pick up the car. If I get it back today, I'll have to post before and after pictures tomorrow (if I get my ass in gear and get the before pictures developed tonight - no need to do that with the after pictures since we have the digital camera now!!!).

I think I'm going to have to switch to keeping my fingers crossed instead of holding my breath, because I'm beginning to turn purple, and that can't be good.

I just want to know so that I can actually concentrate on work today and stop being so damn jittery with excitement.

Surface and Stars from the 80s

My husband and I have one show that we watch together every week. When Alias first aired, that was our show, but then she started crying all the damn time and the plot got confusing, and by the end of the second season, we were done.

We've had shows every once in a while since then, like The Biggest Loser, America's Next Top Model (he'll kill me for letting out that secret, I'm sure), and other similar shows. Now, we have a new show that we watch together every week - Surface.

It's kind of a science fiction show, but pretty fun to watch. There's these big sea monsters and a few different story lines happening around the creatures. Well, last night we were watching and there was a new character, and the actress looked pretty familiar. Then I realized who she was (at least I think it was her, because I can't seem to find any reference to her being on the show last night, but it sure looked like her): Martha Plimpton, one of my favorite stars from many 1980s movies such as Goonies and Parenthood. I haven't seen her in anything for a while, so it was fun to see her in this show.

Although, like Alias, the plot on Surface keeps getting more and more twisted, and as soon as something gets figured out, a new plot twist is introduced. I think that maybe we should stick to the more simple reality shows to watch together. Then at least the plot twists are sensational rather than confounding.

AND...if you still want to de-lurk, feel free to do so either on this post or the previous one. It's still de-lurking week.

Even Though Mondays Suck, This One is the Beginning of Delurking Week

First, just know this:

More on that at the end of the post.

I have to say that I am sad it is Monday today, because OMG I had a great weekend. I wasn't expecting much from the weekend before it started, but it turned out to be a blast.

Friday night Aaron surprised me by renting a copy of Spanglish on his way home. I've been wanting to see it for a long time now, so I was pretty excited. We watched it over dinner, and although I was pretty full from the yummy meatloaf I had made, when Adam Sandler made that sandwich with the egg I totally wanted one. Because, damn, that was an awesome looking sandwich.

Saturday started off kind of crappy, mostly because I was in a funk because I've been trying to do different things with this site and can never get any of the changes I'm trying for to work. Then Aaron convinced me to play Super Monkey Ball with him, which was mostly fun because I got to say "that sucks monkey balls" whenever he beat me.

Then we went out and bought the camera. As I said in the previous post, it is something that I've been wanting for quite some time. Aaron did his usual thing and researched cameras for a long time before we could go out and get one. I appreciate his work, and his research usually works to our advantage, but I'm also impatient sometimes. So it was hard to wait. And after months of research, it took only about five minutes once we got to the store to get the camera and check out. We went in with a mission, and the mission was accomplished.

I really wanted to take the camera out that night to take some pictures of my friends while we were hanging out, but since I was planning on doing some drinking, I decided it would be better if I left it at home. Aaron and I met four of our friends out at a local pub and I finally tried the pub's specialty - the strongest Long Island Iced Tea you've ever had. Seriously. They limit your intake to two per person.

I was a wimp and only had one. It was strong, yet delicious. And I was pleasantly buzzed.

Then we went bowling, and the funniest part of this weekend occurred. All because I can't drink beer (which is a post for another time).

The rest of the group got two pitchers to share, and I was thirsty, but also buzzed and lazy, so I asked Aaron to go get me a diet coke, please.

He said no.

I put on my best pouty face and said "Please?"

He said no.

I sulked.

He said "Fine. It's your turn to bowl. If you get a strike, I'll get you a coke."

So I walked up to the lane, released my ball, and by the time I turned around to give him a triumphant look, he was already halfway across the bowling alley. I totally decimated those ten pins.

It was awesome.

We hung out in the bowling alley bar for a while after that, watching sports and doing shots (which is my favorite).

Then Sunday morning we all went out to breakfast together. And after that I lazed around the house all day, napping and watching mindless movies on television.

It was a great weekend.

Finally, it's Delurking Week! So, feel free to de-lurk. Or should I say: PLEASE, de-lurk. I know there are people who visit this site every day. I see it in my stats. But only about 2 of you ever comment regularly (thanks to those who do). So yeah:

Guess what I Finally Got

That's right. I finally got my digital camera. We were supposed to get one about 12 weeks ago, but then the accident happened, and so we had to save the money to pay for that instead.

This is technically our Christmas present from my parents. We did a bunch of research on cameras before buying one, and finally decided on the Canon PowerShot A620. I am SO excited and I've been playing with it all day so far.

Although, mostly we've been taking pictures of random stuff around our apartment just to play with the features and then erasing them right away. There are a ton of cool features and I've tried out just about all of them so far except for the movie feature. I'm saving that for when we have a memory card big enough to actually hold whatever I decide to record (which will most likely be a stupid husband trick).

A Meme for Friday

TGIF! I am so happy it's the weekend. We have no plans really except to stay home and relax. Looking forward to it.

Anyway, I was tagged by Jenna, so here goes:

Four jobs I've had in my life: After-school program counselor, barrista, waitress, and research associate

Four movies I could watch over and over: Out Cold, Old School, Anchorman, and Legally Blonde

Four places I've lived: Columbus, OH, Midland, MI, East Lansing, MI, and Holt, MI

Four TV shows I love to watch: CSI, Desperate Housewives, America's Next Top Model, Best Week Ever

Four places I've been on vacation: Chicago, Kansas City, New York City, Toronto

Four websites I visit daily: Other than about 40 blogs, CNN.com, MSN.com, thenest.com, and Oprah.com (to see what's she's doing today)

Four of my favorite foods: Macaroni and Cheese, Pizza, Edamame, and Soup (pretty much any kind)

Four places I'd rather be: NYC, my parents' house, my house, and somewhere warmer than here.

Four albums I can't live without: Blind Melon, Blind Melon; One by One, Foo Fighters; Automatic for the People, R.E.M.; Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters

Four people I'm tagging if they want to be caught: Um, I don't know. I guess if you want to do it, do it. Leave responses in my comments, or a link to your site so I can see your answers. Enjoy!

That Time of Year

We have reached that time of year when I am sick of winter.

And this winter is a weird one, so I wasn't expecting the winter blahs to be here so soon. So far this winter, it was about 70 until just before Thanksgiving when the temperature dropped to the mid-20s and it snowed so as to make holiday travel a nightmare. It continued to snow until the week before Christmas when it started to rain and all the snow melted just in time for us to have a not-so-white Christmas. It has been raining and in the low-to-mid 40s since then until today when it started to snow a little more, even though it is 35 degrees out, and none of the snow is sticking.

So yeah, the weather sucks! And I'm sure it's only going to get worse as it turns colder again this week.

I'm starting to feel a lack of energy because it's just so damn grey outside all the damn time. I'll continue feeling like I should hibernate until mid-February when it's time for me to go absolutely freaking stir crazy and I break out the pastel in an attempt to make spring come just a little faster.

The thing about winter, however, is that if I didn't have it, I'd miss it. I love it until about the end of December, and then I'm done. The holidays are over, so the crappy weather should end too, am I right? I'm sure it would be a little different if I were into winter sports, but me + skis (or some other weird apparatus strapped to my feet) = hospital trip, and I don't think my insurance would like me to have any more emergency room visits right now (so far, there have been 2 in the past year for accidental injury).

So, what I'm saying is, I don't do winter sports.

It is also that time of year when I crave chocolate like the world supply is going to run out and so I have to get it all in while I can. Something about the feel-good aspects of it I guess.

If I were able to hibernate, I most likely would until about mid-March. It sounds like a good idea to me, especially since football and baseball are over for a while. Unfortunately, I'd also miss out on a lot of fun we have planned in the next few months.

I guess I'll just tough it out until spring.

Fitting?

It's amazing what a difference a couple of hours make. Stress has been alleviated because of one little phone call. And not only did the phone call alleviate the stress, it actually made things better than they were before! But, can't go into specifics because I don't want to get dooced.

Anyway, my sister was in town last week to see her boyfriend and she took the following picture for me:

Fitting? I don't know. But what is ironic is that about every other time we go near this sign (we like the restaurant next door) it is burned out. So they either have to fix it regularly because the same letters keep burning out, or there's some short in the sign and it breaks intermittently.

Either way I think it's pretty funny.

Diversion

I'm having a sort of stressful week (great to come back to after the holidays, right?), so I thought I'd say hello, and direct you an interesting story happening over at Amalah.com and her husband's website DCFoodies. It even made the Post Express yesterday (and kept me entertained while the last hour of the workday dragged by).

Enjoy!

Holidays Redux

Well, I'm back. Back at work and back to blog. Of course I'm sure I'd be much more excited to be back if I had slept AT ALL last night! (hint: I didn't).

My husband and I decided to make yesterday, our last day off before heading back to the real working world, a lot of fun. So we went shopping and bought a lot of clothes, and then we went home and I was all crabby for no reason. Fun, huh?

But, yes, the clothes were fun. I got a sweater I've been eyeing for a while and some black pants for work, among other things. We also went shopping for a digital camera (our present from my parents was money to go pick out a digital camera - Yay!) but didn't get one yet. Still need to do some more research. I'm hoping we'll get one this coming weekend.

Other than the money for the digital camera, I got a lot of other fun things for Christmas this year. My lovely wonderful husband got me a red Kitchenaid Stand Mixer that I have wanted for oh-so-many years. He also got me two books I wanted, one of which I have already finished - A Million Little Pieces. It only took me a few days and I LOVED it! My parents got us a bunch of little things, including Dysfunctional Family MadLibs which are awesome, and tons of candy. Oh and vibrating toothbrushes, which are weird but really cool. Aaron's parents got me two cookbooks I've been wanting (Paula Deen's Collection and Rachael Ray's newest one).

I really must have been a very good girl this year because I got everything on my list. And even better than the presents was the week-plus that I got to spend with Aaron. We had a great time and I was truly sad that it was ending this morning. I just want to keep sleeping in late and cuddling next to him, watching movies and doing all kinds of other things together. It was great.

New Year's Eve was a blast - we had some friends over, I made a big spread, we played Trivial Pursuit and I drank much more than I had in a while but didn't get to overwhelmingly drunk, just a nice kind of tipsy all night.

So, it was a great holiday week, and I miss it already (at not-even 10 in the morning the first day back). Hope you all had as much fun as I did!