Things I learned by visiting MO...

Earlier today I was privileged to visit my good friend MO at her home. These are some thing I learned during my visit...

*A turkey sandwich with chips and a Coke tastes SO much better when shared with a friend.
*Babies are great, but I'm very happy I don't have them any more.
*Boys fight with brothers just like they do with sisters.
*Coffee is way better when it's shared with a friend.
*Chocolate-Zucchini cake is super yummy.
*I enjoy days off (this I already knew)
*I shouldn't show up at her house with a shovel. It scares her.
*How to make pickle juice ice cubes (gross)
*How to build a better mouse trap. :)
*I am not the only one who likes bags full of goodies...especially if someone brings it to me.

Thanks for the AWESOME time I had today, MO.

$89.00

Almost 16 years

On the 10th of July (Saturday), I will be crossing over a milestone. Not many people brag about 16 of anything, but I feel like it's worth saying something. Even if it is here. No one reads this (that I know of). No one follows, or subscribes to (or whatever) my blog. It's just my little world. No one IRL really cares about what I have to say or what kind of crap-tacular info is echoing in my brain, but maybe someday I'll be famous, and someone will care. They will read this and know that the day didn't go by unnoticed.
16 years ago (on Saturday) I got impatient behind a man driving a white Geo Tracker up a hill. He was headed to Alpine, California to go to a meeting. I was racing to Alpine from something (I can't remember what), and was running late. I am not a patient driver (I'm better now than I was then), and I just couldn't follow him for the half mile it was to the exit. So, I whipped around him and cut him off and exited the freeway. He turned on his blinker and followed me. I turned right at the stop sign blew through the green light, around the corner to the next stop sign. I had to wait for a pedestrian. I may have honked at them to hurry up. They did not. I looked in my rear-view mirror and sitting right behind me was the white Tracker I had cut off. I turned right and so did he. I turned left at the appropriate street. So did he. I was starting to worry that something bad was going to happen, or that he was going to follow me until I stopped, and then yell at me. I got to the house I was going to, thinking that I'd lost him on the curvy road. Just as I was getting out of my car, I grabbed my things, looked behind me, and there he was. White Tracker had found me. He got out, didn't say a word, and followed me into the house. I later found out his name. I remember thinking that he was funny, and charming, and WAY too old for me. I was still 18. The group was for 20-somethings. They said I was close enough. He was on the other side of that age-group...just about out of his twenties.
We met on July 10th, 1994. White Tracker became my husband eight months and eight days later.
We're still married. Sometimes we're frustrated, sometimes we're silly...but we've always been in love. We've worked very hard to stay together. We've been through enough to tear our marriage apart, at least three times, but we've stuck it out.
It has been so worth it.

So, to the cosmic void that I am writing to, YAY for me! 16 years!

SIGNS

I don't think I believe in signs. Like when something happens and people say, "It's a sign." I believe everything is going to happen the way it should...that it all works our for the best, but I don't know if there really are signs pointing the way. Sometimes the signs can be bad. So, all this comes up because one of those "signs" presented itself Sunday night, and, although I don't believe in them, I said to myself, "I wonder if this is a sign."
Here's what happened:
Pretty simple, really. I was peeling my name tag off of my shirt (from a 4th of July party) and it ripped in half. It ripped in half horizontally. Not only was it a neat tear, it totally separated my first name from my last name.
I was probably too tired, or really over-thinking it. (I tend to do that now and then)
Just thought it was interesting.
This is the stuff that keeps me up at night.

MOHAWK

A pic of the Mohawk when it's spiked.

Before pic...

First is before the trip ever started.
Second is coming home with a mohawk.
Will post a third when all hair is gone.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Son

He's home! Been gone for a week and I can't believe how much I missed him.

I thought there would be a happy silence in the house. Both kids gone, parents able to do what we wanted. Truth is, this house almost echoes without our kids here. We complain that it's too small, but it was HUGE without them. Coming home to an empty house is much different than I thought it would be. I wasn't free. I still did all the things that I normally do, but now I did them all alone. No one to help. No one to teach.

The cats are not nearly as helpful as I had hoped. They're kind of useless. To tell you the truth, I think they're just using us for food and shelter.

My Little Man came home more exhausted than I've seen him in a very long time. But he looks good. And he shaved his head...mostly. He's sporting a mohawk until Monday when his Dad will shave it off. Check out the photo from tonight. I'll post another one of it spiked Sunday. I have tried to encourage self-expression. I always tell him, if he likes something, or wants to try it, it's ok with me. Hair grows out...eventually. Of course girls (most girls) have the short end of that stick, as well. We can't just shave our heads and start over.

Well, I did after 9th grade, but that wasn't self expression. That was rebellious teenage girl, hating her mother, never wanting another curl on her head kind of stuff. And it worked like a charm, btw. She hated it. I loved it. The fact she hated it made me love it more.

So, after a long day/week, I'm heading to the recliner to get some sleep before we totally stress out Sunday!

Sleep tight, my dears...whomever you may be.

(is it "whom-ever" ? I can never remember. Something about context and the subject and something...screw it! I'm gonna sleep now)
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

DAUGHTER

My poor daughter has been visiting her Grandparents for the past week. The trip has not gone according to plan...
She has been fed food she doesn't like. I sent $50 with specific instructions to take her to the store and let her choose some food. That has not happened.
She has been sent to the pool (which, as it turns out, was closed) and then, upon returning, left alone in their house for 2 hours while they visited a friend. They, of course, have no cell phones, so she couldn't call them. She doesn't know her way around town.
She was taken to the wrong movie. She was supposed to see Toy Story 3. She instead saw Twilight. It scared her half to death. Turns out they went to the wrong town. Yeah, I know...

I feel as though I owe her something. Something huge for the grief she has suffered this week. I think I will buy her a new hamster cage. Her beloved pet keeps escaping the current cage. The new one is pink. And it will make her smile. And, hopefully, it will keep the hamster from becoming the midnight snack of one, or both, of the cats.


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

What was the worst job you've ever had?

I fear it is about to be the one I have now. My boss is about to leave. I do not like working with the person that I think is going to get the job, and I really don't want to work FOR her. I am not brave enough, or confident enough, to apply for the job myself.
Other than that, my worst job was in customer service. Taking calls for magazine publishers. I hated every day of that. The worst part was, we took all that grief, and never felt appreciated for it. The management would say they did, but they NEVER showed it anymore. Words aren't everything... They stopped doing contests, and bonuses and prizes. They stopped giving us a reason to try, aside from getting to keep a crappy job. People need to feel like they matter, and words only go part of the way.

Ask me anything

DATE NIGHT

We went tonight to the new Mongolian Buffet in Ames. It was good. You pick out what you want to eat, put it all in a bowl and then they cook it for you.
Kinda awesome.
After supper, we went to see Date Night. It was just as funny as people said it was. I loved it. I wanted to go to Borders after the movie, but Barry had a long day and has to work in the morning. Of course, I have all that, too...long day and work tomorrow...but he's the one who matters to me. So I dropped him off to get his car and came home.
I cried all the way home. I'm not sure why.
This picture made me smile...he buckled my popcorn into the car for the trip home. Safe and sound. It made me laugh and gives me a happy memory of the evening.
I should figure out why I cried...
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry