Color Me Happy

(and busy)

The tooth? Is fine!

And that makes me oh, so happy. You see, I thought I had a bad cavity or had cracked my tooth or something. It hurt soooooo bad. But? It turns out that there was something caught under my gums that was irritating the root of the tooth. So, ouch! But also easily fixable.

The dentist actually fixed it in about 10 seconds (all though I won't go into details because it was kind of gross and I totally squicked out Aaron last night by describing it. Which was totally worth the pain in the first place.)

So the tooth is fine. And I made good macaroni and cheese last night. I used the recipe I grew up on, and it's so super easy that Aaron was wondering why I ever tried anything else. Basically it's homemade shells and cheese. I just boiled noodles, added milk and Velveeta (light of course, since I'm on this whole diet thing) and stirred till the cheese melted. Then, of course, to up the healthiness of it, I added steamed broccoli. Gotta get in those vegetable servings.

It was really good. And soft enough to eat since my teeth were still aching from the dentist appointment.

Yeah, I'm so relieved that it was just a small non-serious problem with the tooth. I'm such a baby when it comes to my teeth and pain.

Bad News....

The macaroni and cheese? Didn't turn out. At all. It was gross and not edible. We threw it away.

In other news, I have to go to the dentist today. Blech. Not looking forward to it, since in addition to the normally scheduled cleaning, I have a toothache. I'm hoping it's just a cavity. And that they give me something to numb the pain. Because seriously? I'm tired of soft foods.

Macaroni and Cheese

My favorite food in the whole world (as stated also in the post below) is Macaroni and Cheese. It is my favorite comfort food, and you just can't beat a nice steaming bowl of pasta and cheese on a cold winters day. It's just....fabulous.

In fact, from the time I was 2 until about age 4 I would eat nothing else. Well, except hot dogs (which at that age I called hotgogs) and cereal. Once, in an effort to get me to eat something, really anything other than macaroni and cheese, my mom made a wonderful pot roast with potatoes and carrots and all the fixings and set a plate of carefully cooled and cut up meat and vegetables in front of me on my high chair. I reportedly looked up at her and said "Macaroni and cheese. Hot gog."

Worried about my insistence on only eating these 3 things, my mother asked my doctor if it was okay. He said it was, and so I joyfully ate macaroni and cheese and hot dogs for most of my childhood. I was, until I met my husband, a very picky eater. Now you can put almost anything in front of me and I'll eat it.

Escargot? Tried it. Caviar? Love it. Mushrooms? Bring them on. Fish and other assorted seafood? Can't get enough. These are all things that I never would have gone near before Aaron's insistence that I tried them.

But this weekend, I'm making my old stand-by: a big dish full of creamy, delicious, macaroni and cheese. The recipe is a new one though, and it better be delicious because it has special meaning.

How can a recipe have a special meaning before I've even tried it, you ask? Well easily. My dad gave it to me.

You see, growing up my dad and I didn't get along very well. In fact, when I was about 4 I told him "I love you, but I sure don't like you". I know for a fact that he didn't really like me back. He's technically my step-dad and I made sure he knew that for the longest time. I made his life miserable whenever I got a chance, just to let him know who was really in charge. He deserved so much better than that and I'm glad I've come to realize that.

He didn't have to be my dad. He chose to be my dad. And he really isn't my "step-dad". He raised me well, taught me right from wrong, and shaped my ideas on many things. He's a really good guy, and I'm glad he chose me.

I've explained how and why he became my dad over in my "About Me" post listed in my side bar. We didn't really become close, or even like each other, until I left for college. When I brought Aaron into our lives we began to get along even better. Now I even get excited to see my dad, and he gets excited when we come to visit. When my mom came to visit last weekend, she kept saying, "remember to have me give you the magazine your dad insisted you have". She couldn't remember why he wanted me to have it, but she made sure to give it to me. I flipped through and immediately noticed what he wanted me to see.

He saw the macaroni and cheese recipes and thought of me.

Wow, you get an extra post today...

Mostly because I am so INCREDIBLY BORED here. The office is pretty empty and I finished my work for today, um, yesterday. So yeah. BORED.

Anyway, I was just talking to my husband and decided that I am just trying way too hard to please the man. Not in a bad way of course. He's incredibly happy. It's just that do more than what I need to do to make him happy.

You see, he mentioned, for the probably tenth time, how much he loved dinner last night. Dinner last night was roasted vegetable quesadillas, which took all of 15 minutes and no fancy cooking techniques to complete. I just threw some vegetables I already had chopped in the oven for ten minutes and then threw them between two tortillas with cheese.

Now, I admit, they were really good, but I don't get nearly the praise when I do something more complicated.

For instance, one time when he came back from a business trip I had a very special meal ready for him. I made beef wellingtons with a bleu cheese sauce, whipped potatoes, and chocolate pots du creme for desert. He didn't like it.

However, if I make him a club sandwich? He's in heaven.

This is our menu for the week:
BBQ pork chops with baked potatoes and corn
Salmon with roasted asparagus and rice
Roasted Vegetable Quesadillas
Chicken with a sun dried tomato sauce, with broccoli and polenta
Homemade Macaroni and Cheese (low fat of course)
Meatloaf with mashed potatoes

That's pretty typical, although I would like a few more vegetarian meals, he likes his meat (HA! that sounds a little dirty) and so I make sure not to make him go vegetarian for too many days.

The easiest things on here are the salmon, the quesadillas, and the meatloaf, all of which are his favorite. The mac'n'cheese is totally for me, because it is my absolute favorite food on the face of the planet.

The problem with this whole thing is that I like to cook fancy food. Cooking is one of my favorite things to do, so of course I go all out whenever possible, but he would just prefer a good sandwich with a good pickle and a beer. I just can't stop myself from trying to impress him I guess. At least he's full and happy.

Typical man, I guess.

Shameful Addiction

I have a confession to make. It's a little embarrassing, but here it is: I have been religiously watching American Idol.

That feels good to get off my chest.

I have yet to miss an episode, and have my definite favorites out of the "final 24". That being said, sometimes it is hard to watch. I feel sorry for those that I know aren't going to make it through to the end, and when they don't do well, I can feel myself turning red. When my favorites are doing well, though, I get excited. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

My favorite three girls are Paris, Lisa, and Katharine, and my favorite three guys are Ace, Chris, and Taylor. I think all six of them did fantastic in this round and will definitely get through. I had fun watching the guys last night, and when Ace sang "Father Figure" two things went through my head: 1) SO HOTT! and 2) I sure hope he's not gay, because that would be a disappointment for so many women out there! And then Paula made the comment about how all of her girlfriends and a lot of her guy friends would have loved that performance. It was amazing. However, I'm a rock and roll kind of girl, so I'm rooting for Chris just as much. And he's pretty cute too. And of course Taylor is talented and bluesy and I like that too. I really hope a guy wins this year.

Speaking of being a rock and roll kind of girl, I was reading a magazine at the gym the other day and it had an article about Rachael Ray (that sounds weird, but I promise, it is connected). Now, I'm kind of a Rachael Ray fan. I like most of her recipes, I like her ideas, and although she is a little over the top perky for me (although I'm sure that some people would say that about me too - I'm an eternal optimist) overall I'm slightly warmer than neutral about her. However, I read something about her the other day that makes me think that we could totally be best friends.

When she cooks, she rocks out to the Foo Fighters. I LOVE the Foo Fighters - well, specifically Dave Grohl, but whatever. They're awesome. I saw them in concert in the fall and have some hearing loss from it, but it was so totally worth it. She also drinks wine when she cooks. Heaven for me is some good rock and roll, wine, and cooking.

See, we could totally be best friends.

A Friendly Wager

Last night, Aaron and I were watching television while eating dinner (a bad habit, we know) and a commercial for one of those extreme diet pills came on the air. You know the one - the woman in the pink bikini showing off her rather largish rear end and then saying she lost 20 pounds in 8 weeks with this magic little pill. Then the "doctor" from Midwestern University comes on saying the same thing (and looking like a robot).

I made the off-handed comment that anyone could lose 20 pounds in 8 weeks if they really worked at it, and they probably wouldn't have a heart attack from the diet pills in the process.

Aaron looked at me and said, "Oh, yeah?"

I should have known I was in trouble right then.

You see, I've been working on losing some weight since right around Christmas. I've been working out regularly (except for that week when I was sick) and eating pretty well (except for the occasional binge on nachos or pizza, but they're becoming less frequent then they were before I started working on looking weight), and I've actually lost 7 pounds so far. And it feels great.

But I still want to lose about 10 more pounds. So Aaron and I made a bet. If I lose 10 pounds by March 24th (he gave me 30 days from today) we get to go spend a night at a bed and breakfast.

So I've got my work cut out for me. I have a couple of weddings coming up (one of which is my brother's wedding) and I'd like to look fabulous for them. The one that's not my brother's will be full of a bunch of people from my grad program that I haven't seen in about a year, and then at my brothers I will have to be photographed, so you can see why I'd want to look my best.

I really needed this for motivation. My motivation has been low lately, so this is a kick in the butt on to the right track.

But, oh, is it going to be a lot of hard work. And totally worth it too, of course.

Free Time and a Good Book

I love to read (the first time I typed that it read "I live to read" which may be more appropriate). So, when I have ample free time, and a good book, like I did this past weekend, I am in heaven.

I've been trying to read The Da Vinci Code for a while now, but had only made it about 100 pages in until Friday night. I sat down to read, and got a little further into it. Then on Saturday, while my husband had a chance to play a game we got a while back, I sat on the couch and read for about 4 hours straight. It was AWESOME! I got through all but 50 pages of the book, then I finished it on Sunday afternoon.

When I was growing up, our parents limited our television viewing to 1 hour a week plus cartoons on the weekend. We also only had one channel - ABC - so our choices were also limited. (We did get to rent a video on the weekend usually as well, but seeing as how we tended to rent the same video over and over again, we didn't see many movies either.) This gave us lots of time to either exercise our imaginations or read. I did both, but was definitely a voracious reader. By the time I was in the seventh grade, I started reading adult books because I had read everything that was interesting to me in the children's/young adult's section.

Now I find time to read only sporadically. I know that I'll have less and less free time to read once I have children and other family obligations, and this makes me a little sad. I should read instead of watching television, but watching tv with Aaron is time spent together and since he's not much of a book reader, he gets antsy if we're just sitting around together and I'm reading.

But, I'm still going to try to read more often. I have a James Patterson book I've been working on for a while (since before Christmas actually) and then there's a book coming out in early March that I can't wait to read. I just love curling up with a good book to escape for a little while. I got caught up in The Da Vinci Code, taken to foreign places and wrapped up in a good mystery.

And I can't wait to be caught up in the next good read.

P.S. Thanks for all the good movie recommendations on the last post. Unfortunately, I have seen about 90% of the recommended movies, but I am going to defintely watch those that were recommended that I have yet to see. (Also, Best in Show is just about my favorite movie ever. It's right up there on my list with Happy, Texas and Out Cold.)

Suggestions Needed

Aaron and I recently signed up for Netflix. I love watching movies, and therefore have seen quite a few of them. However, I know there are many, many good movies out there that I have yet to see. I need help filling up my queue.

So, what I need from you are recommendations for movies to see.

I love comedies. (Some romantic comedies, but Aaron really won't watch those.)

Second favorite are action/thriller movies (eg. The Bourne Identity, Kiss the Girls, basically any fun action movie or mystery movies).

I'm not really into romance movies, and am not a big fan of scary movies (especially not The Shining - don't recommend it, I won't watch it. Period.) although I will watch some after reading the spoiler. The Ring really freaked me out. Scream, not so much. Blair Witch Project, freaked me out too. As did the Mothman Prophesy. I also refuse to watch things like The Grudge or The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Basically murderers are okay, ghosts and demons are not.

Okay...recommend away.

Par-tay!

I am so looking forward to tonight after work (and working out)! I'm supposed to go out with friends and it should be a blast. I love Friday evenings. I'm still stuck in the school-night mentality - no going out on weeknights. Can't seem to get over that.

Although it's probably a good thing because if I miss my bedtime on weeknights I'm pretty useless the next day. And lately I have to be very useful around here.

For tonight, I proposed nachos and margaritas. We'll see how that flies. I love hanging out with my friends. They make me laugh a lot every time I see them, which makes anything that may be going wrong about 200% better.

However, I may be jumping on the jealously train a little tonight (although I know that I'll get over it with a drink or two). One of my best friends is going to Aruba on Tuesday, and I am so jealous I could just about die. I want to go somewhere warm so badly. I've never been anywhere tropical, or out of the country at all (unless Canada counts, which, when you live in Michigan, it really doesn't count all that much). I am aching for a good tropical vacation. Preferably before Aaron and I decide to start our family so that I can partake in wonderful tropical drinks.

Ahhh....now I know why I want Margaritas tonight.

Today's Special

Is a big, fat rant.

While it is very true, that I love, love, love my home state of Michigan, I also really, truly, madly, deeply hate driving in Michigan. A lot.

And today is one of those days where driving in Michigan really sucks.

A lot.

There was freezing rain yesterday evening, about 2 inches of snow last night and freezing rain again this morning. Which makes driving difficult, to say the least. Add in Michigan drivers (which are about the worst kind - more on that later) and it's a horrible day in the neighborhood, folks.

First thing this morning, I slid off the road. Not a good thing for my already overfilling bucket of anxiety. It was not good. In fact, if I hadn't been able to correct my slide I would have hit a) the tree next to me, or b) the cement pillar (holding up the overpass that is right there) in front of me. I was not in the best shape after that.

Then it took me so long to get to work that I only had enough time to grab a pad of paper and a pen to hustle across town to a meeting. Through more of the snow/slush crap that is everywhere on the roads.

The snow/slush that is not on the roads is actually really beautiful today. It's resting on every branch, and the whole world is pristine white. If I could have taken a snow day today, I would have. That is the one thing I miss about grade school - Snow Days.

As I mentioned earlier, throwing Michigan Drivers into this mess is not a good thing either. While driving around normally, someone runs every stop sign or red light I come to. I actually slow down at intersections, even when I have a green light, because you never know who is going to come barreling through the intersection.

Living in Michigan also enhances peoples' egos about driving.

They're all "I'm a Michigan Driver. I drive in this crap all the time. Throw it at me, I can handle it. I don't need to be any more careful than on a dry sunny day".

Ha. Yes you do. So I'm driving safely (not more than 5 miles an hour under the speed limit for this crap weather, but not fast either) and a Hummer (yes, Hummer - she and I drive to work together at least once every week, her riding my ass the whole way) flies up on my ass. Now, I drive a Mazda Protege - not the biggest of cars. If I had to slam on my brakes, with as slippery as it was today, I probably would have died.

This drives me absolutely bonkers, and makes me really, really angry on a bad day.

Today was worse than a bad day, and I'm PMSing, so I was *this close* to following her into her parking lot to bite her head off.

Seriously, riding my ass is not going to significantly shorten your driving time. I should know, I'm a statistician. I figure out significance on a daily basis. All it's going to do is make the crazy in me emerge just a little more, which is no good for anyone.

So, what all of this means, really, is that I'm going to give in to the temptation to emotionally eat today and get a big, fattening, greasy lunch because, damn, after a morning like this morning? I deserve a treat.

Bedtime Conversations

As we were lying in bed, getting ready to sleep last night, I looked lovingly over at my husband and whispered, "I love you".

And he looked back at me and whispered, "And I love you".

Then I looked over at him and whispered, "I think you're swell."

And he glanced at me with a strange look on his face.

"You think I smell?"

And then I laughed and said "No, I think you're swell"

He thought that was better.

We lay there a little while longer and my nose tickled, so I sniffled a couple of times.

He said, "No, really, do I smell? Why would you say that I smell. I don't smell!"

And I laughed again. It's the moments like this that make life really worth living sometimes.

Dreaming

I am at my mother's house, and for some reason she has a day care there. There are tons of little kids running around, and one comes up to me. I recognize her as Maggie, a little girl who used to go to the afterschool program where I worked in highschool. She hasn't aged at all, but this does not seem weird to me. Maggie tells me she has to go to the bathroom and needs help, so I go with her. Only, my parents' bathrooms are both in use.

"Oh" I think to myself, "I'll just take her to the one through the cupboard".

Sure enough, I push aside some bowls, crawl through the opening and we land in an old unused hallway that is full of cobwebs and dust. We make our way down the end of the hall, where Maggie decides to use the men's room (because of course, there is a men's and a lady's bathroom in the hallway under my parents' cupboard) and I go into the ladies room to, uh, use the facilities.

Just then I hear a scream from the men's room, and I hurry in there to see what is wrong. As I enter, I realize she's not in there and is no where to be found.

Suddenly it's the next day, and my boss (my actual, real-life boss, who is now at my parents' house) tells me that Maggie had died the day before the whole bathroom thing.

**************************************************************************

Then I wake up, thinking, "What the hell was that?", and cuddle up to Aaron. I, suprisingly, fall back asleep right away.

**************************************************************************

I find out I'm pregnant. I'm so excited and can't wait to share the news with my husband. I tell him when he gets home and he's really angry about it. So we decide to split up. I start dating someone new the next day, and am already massively pregnant. (I wonder why I didn't notice this earlier.)

My new boyfriend takes me to this mini-mart where they have all kinds of snack foods because I'm having a craving and I can't figure out exactly what it is. Then I see it. The perfect craving-solving food. Jalepeno Lasagne flavored Doritos. I open the bag and eat a chip. They are the best thing I have ever tasted.

**************************************************************************

Again, I wake up thinking "What was that?". Then the alarm goes off. No sleeping after this one.

What I really want to know is what the heck did I eat or drink that caused these weird dreams.

I've been having a lot of them recently, and they're all very vivid and I remember most of them afterwards. These were the two strangest. When I told Aaron about the first one, I think I freaked him out a little. I was clued into that when he said, "Um, you may need some help".

We've been talking some lately about me getting some "help". I'm still very apparently messed up about the whole driving thing since the accident. There have been multiple panic attacks, many sleepless nights, and a new symptom now - butterflies in my stomach. I feel nervous about 50% of the time, and it's starting to get pretty annoying. I feel a little better (regarding the whole weird stomach thing) when I drink some water or have something to eat, but then it comes back. It was really bad this weekend but is getting better this week. I felt fine yesterday, but am feeling a little nervous stomach-ish today.

Anyway, I'm trying to work through it. I'm so busy with life right now that I don't know when I would fit in some "help". I'm hoping this will all go away on its own. I've been doing better, little by little. Last week after my haircut I drove on the freeway, at night, by myself, all the way home. Granted, this was about a 10 minute drive but I did it. Small steps are important.

This past Thursday we drove to my parents' house in the evening. It was dark for the entire ride home and I made it just fine. No inkling of a panic attack. Thank God. However, the worry that I'll have another one is still there.

And that's almost as bad as the attack itself because it doesn't go away after a few minutes

Brain: Back On-line

My brain was acting like a broken printer last week (sorry best analogy I could come up with). The "offline" button kept flashing, but it's now been fixed, thank God.

Anyway, here's a little picture of my off-brained week.

While watching the (incredibly, mind-numbingly boring) Super Bowl (hey, maybe that's what happened. I was so bored my mind went numb. I am so totally using that excuse) (sorry for all the parentheses) I kept thinking that every time I looked at the down it was second down, and gee, wasn't that weird. Then the same thing kept happening for third downs after halftime. It was when I thought to myself "I cannot believe they are going for this on the fourth down" that I realized what the problem was. I was looking at the part of the little box on the screen that told me what quarter it was, not what down it was.

And, I'm an idiot.

Then a lot of other stupid-Jessie-tricks ensued that I can't quite remember from my cold-medicine-induced haze.

Then on Thursday afternoon I was driving down the street when I saw a sign advertising that a certain store had 12-inch subs. Which then struck me as weird since the store was the "House of Car Stereos" but whatever, maybe they needed extra business, or maybe someone was a good sandwich maker or something. Who knows. Weirder things have happened. Then I kept reading down the sign to where it said "$79".

At this point, most people would have realized what was really going on. But I thought to myself "Good gracious, who would pay $79 dollars for a sandwich".

Wait a beat

Then it hit me. 12-inch SUBWOOFERS.

Got it.

I am SUCH an idiot.

Of course, then I called my husband to tell him of my stupid-trick-o-the-day. He about fell out of his chair.

Thankfully, my brain is back to work today. The cold is gone and I am thinking (mostly) clearly now. Except, you know, for that time, this morning, when I totally walked into a wall.

I am a total idiot sometimes. At least no one was around to witness that one (but I am the dork who just told everyone about it anyway).

St. Valentine

So, tomorrow is supposedly Valentine's Day. And I totally don't care. And my husband is worried because he thinks I'm just saying that, but really, I don't care.

Really.

You see, Valentine's Day is also my little brother's birthday, so we never really celebrated Valentine's Day when I was growing up because we didn't want to take his special day away from him. So that's why I don't care.

Although I am totally making a fancy dinner (crab cakes over mixed greens with a peanut vinaigrette) and dessert (chocolate-glazed hazelnut mousse cake), just because I can.

3 Day Work Weeks are Great!

(unless you spend one of the days sick and one of the days off sick, that is)

But the other day off (tomorrow) is for pure fun. Aaron and I are headed up to my parents' house for a 3-day weekend of fun. I expect that there will be some drinking and board-game-playing occurring, as well as a visit to the coffee shop where Aaron and I once worked and where our romance began. My little sister will be home too, so it should be a blast.

I'm thinking I will also take Aaron tobogganing and/or cross country skiing. Whatever we do, I need to get in some physical activity because I have not made it to the gym all week. I've been to sick and/or tired to go. Mostly too sick. Blech. But, there is finally snow, and lots of it, so we should be able to enjoy some outdoor winter fun.

Yesterday afternoon we had a snow storm and there was a big accident on the freeway behind my office building. 16 vehicles, including 3 semis. That freeway is a dangerous one to travel. Last year there was a 200 car pile-up because of fog. If there were ever a place for me to truly panic, that would be it.

But today is sunny and COLD (currently about 14 degrees) and it's not expected to snow again until late tonight. Winter is finally here to stick around for a little bit.

Have a great weekend everyone, and stay warm! (if you live somewhere cold like I do. Those of you in S. California? Enjoy the weather for me!)

The Big Thing

So, here's what I was talking about earlier. I have been bored lately. Feeling kind of stuck in a rut, hair-wise. It looks nice long, but it just lays there. This picture is directly post-blow drying so it looks like it has a little volume. Ha! I laugh at the appearance of volume because it disappears about 10 minutes later. My hair doesn't curl, so it's either this style or a pony tail and that's about it. So, here's Before:

And here's after:

Ignore my dour expression. I just came in from the bitter, bitter cold.

Aaron hates it when I cut my hair. He likes it long. He also doesn't have to wash, detangle, blowdry or style it. Therefore he usually gets little say in the matter.

Here's what he thought of my new style:

"You're so beautiful I could kiss you"

"I have the cheesiest 'I'm happy' grin on the face of the earth"

I think he likes it. I'm glad. I also hope it looks better in future pictures than it does in the above "after" picture.

Wonder what I'll have to do when I get bored with it again.

Things to do on a Sick Day

1. Sleep in
2. Watch the Today Show in its entirety
3. Play Gin Online
4. Finish a project that you started in August (yay for me!)
5. Try to eat something spicy so as to hopefully get nose to run and therefore sinuses to unclog (spicy popcorn is, apparently, not spicy enough for this).
6. Blog, of course
7. Curse at Blogrolling for being down because all the sites you visit are only saved there and on your favorites list at work. GAH!
8. Yoga - because maybe in a relaxed state your body will heal itself, or some crap like that.
9. Curse at Yahoo! music, because seriously, following up Lifehouse with the Goo Goo Dolls is pure torture. What is up with this mix?
10. Look online for a picture that will help with tonight's big event. So far, no luck.
11. Nap

Okay, I'm going to go take care of numbers 8 and 11.

Blah...Home...Sick

Well, I'm home sick today with some sort of horrible sinus pressure/infection crap. My face feels like it's about to explode, but strangely enough, I'm not running a fever so I don't think it's a sinus infection. Just crap making me feel like poking something in my forehead to release the pressure.

So, yeah, not so good.

But, there is something exciting happening this evening that I am still doing regardless of my state of crappiness, so I will post pictures tonight or tomorrow.

Bits and Pieces

Well, the weather is finally being wintry here. After an oddly warm January, it's now snowy and twenty-one degrees outside. It's not going to get to thirty today. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of the cold, it is beautiful outside. Here is the view from our balcony:

Some days I wish I could share my drive to work with all of you. Today was one of those days. There is snow perched on every branch of every tree, the sky is blue and pink and gold, and the world seems peaceful. If I have to pick one thing I love about winter, that would be it. It seems peaceful. I'm hoping the snow sticks around until next weekend (which it should, it's going to stay really cold here this week) so that I can go cross country skiing out in the woods by my parents' house.

We found out the not-so-fun way this weekend that my panic attacks are not limited to me driving at night. I apparently just have to be in the car. Throw in some wintry-crap-mix weather (freezing rain and snow) and I get to be a basket case for the whole hour and a half home. The drive should have only taken about thirty minutes. I managed to not completely freak out the whole way, but had to do a lot of deep, slow breathing which kind of freaked Aaron out.

Whirlyball was a blast! We all kind of sucked and no one scored much until the last two games, which I sat out. I wonder if there's any correlation there. Anyway, there are pictures of our whirlyball adventure at my flickr site. Just click this picture:

Email is down today at work for the second work day in a row, and I am going through major withdrawal. They are trying to prevent us from getting the worm that is rumored to be going around, so they have blocked all personal email. I usually check my email about 20 times a day as some friends and I email back and forth a lot. Going from 20 to zero is making the work day go by a lot slower.

ROCK!

ROCK!
Originally uploaded by Mrs. Ca.

I was going to post all about last weekend today (although I'm almost a week late - I finally uploaded all of our pictures last night), but insomnia kind of attacked again last night, so I'm not incredibly with it today. Click on the picture though and it will take you to the set from last weekend. I have to say it was quite a fun weekend.

Last night I kept having incredibly vivid dreams that woke me up, including one pretty horrible nightmare that kept me up for an hour afterward.

I didn't even eat anything close to bedtime (which is usually what causes weird dreams for me), so I have no idea why I had them.

I have kind of a confession to make. I am wussy girly-girl for the most part. I can handle things like blood and puke fairly well, but anything creepy or crawly really squicks me out.

In my dream last night, Aaron and I were at a pet store, and we had safely made it through a room with very large snakes that were in very tightly sealed enclosures. I didn't have to really worry about those and didn't freak out. When we walked into the next room, however, I lost my shit.

There were lizards and little snakes everywhere, jumping from plant to plant, slithering and crawling along the floor, and coming at me from all directions. There were two doors in the room other than the one I came into, and I couldn't see from where I was, frozen with fear, which was the exit. I went to go back the way I came and it was blocked. I asked Aaron which door was the exit, but he was too busy laughing at me freaking out to tell me which it was.

Then I woke up in a cold sweat.

And decided that no child of mine will ever have anything creepy or crawly for a pet while they lived under my roof, because, ew.

When I told Aaron about my nightmare this morning, he gave me a huge hug, and said, "Don't worry, I'd wait to laugh at you freaking out after I got you out of somewhere like that and ensured that you were creepy-crawly free."

He's so sweet.

Happy Friday everyone!

Busy-ness

Gah! I have been so crazy busy that I couldn't even procrastinate long enough to post. I've been wanting to post pictures from last Saturday when Aaron and I had a very fun day of shopping, hiking, and video-game-playing, but haven't even had time to download the pictures onto my computer, so I can't even do that.

The good news is that I don't have to work all weekend as expected.

Which also means I can get my drink on with friends all weekend. Woohoo!

I can't believe it's Thursday already. I've been so busy I feel like I've missed most of this week. Between work, spending one evening with a friend, and all my weight-loss craziness (working out pretty much every day and of course constantly obsessing over what I'm eating) I am suprised I even know what day it is. And the only reason I know what day it is, is because of meetings.

I'm really looking forward to Saturday when we're going to Ann Arbor to play whirlyball with friends. I've never played before, but it sounds like fun. Basically, whirlyball is a combination of Hockey, Lacrosse, Basketball and Polo played while riding an electrically powered machine, similar to a bumper car, called a WhirlyBug™.

Yeah, I don't know either, but it sounds like fun.

And afterward we're going to a bar called the Zukey Lake Tavern. Which also sounds like fun.

Overall, between Whirlyball, the Zukey Lake Tavern, and the Super Bowl, this should be an awesome weekend.

AND I DON'T HAVE TO WORK! You don't know how much I was dreading working all weekend, and how happy I am that the work I was supposed to do fell through.

Now, as long as I don't (knock on wood) injure myself playing whirlyball, it will be a perfect weekend.