Holiday, Celebrate

Here are some fireworks over the Old Capitol building.

I was going to try and blog tonight, but I still have my cold and a horrible migraine on top of it. So, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to try to write a decent post...Or at least one that might make sense. I hope you all had a great holiday weekend and that the fireworks weren't also in your head.

All We Are Saying, is Give Sleep a Chance.

Here is the fire station in Riverside, Iowa.

So, here's the dealio. It seems as though I caught an annoying Summer cold from the lovely Stinky. She has had a sore throat and swollen glands for a few days now. I am feeling really weak and tired and I think I have a mild fever and runny nose. Because of all that, this may very well be my lamest blog post ever...And as we all know, that's really saying something.

I was going to try to go to bed early, but Stinky ended up babysitting for someone who is staying out very late on a weeknight. Stinky doesn't have to get up early or anything, but I have a really hard time sleeping when one of the girls isn't home. I'm going to give it a good college try though and see if I can actually fall asleep when Stinky isn't home. I'll let you know how it goes...

I'll Have a Cup of Tea and Tell You of My Dreaming

Here is a picture that Coadster took of the silhouette of our house and a storm a-brewin' last Sunday. I think it's pretty kick-ass.

Soooo, only two more days left of the week. Then we'll have our 4th of July weekend and Jazz Fest here in Iowa City. Is it just Iowa, or is there a different Fest every weekend in the Summer?

The weather took a turn on Sunday, and it's been amazing ever since. Perfect for running. I've finally been getting into shape the last few weeks. I'm very close to being able to kick all of your asses. Of course, I never would...I just like knowing I could.

After the busy, craziness of this weekend, I've slowed everything down and become really boring. Last night I had a dream that I was sitting in the rain somewhere that looked suspiciously like Golden Gate Park. I was watching a guy photograph a wedding party and I worried that he was going to ruin his camera in the storm. That was the whole dream. See what I mean? Even my dreams are mundane this week, and that's just the way I want it.

This Band's Curse Inflicts All Its Members

So, here's one thing I forgot to mention yesterday. On Saturday the girls and I went to Trek Fest in Riverside, Ia. - the future home of James T. Kirk. It was the 25th anniversary. We missed the parade in the morning, and weren't about to go to the casino and pay $25 or more to see Uhura, Sulu and Chekov. We, did however, catch enough Star Trek kitsch to last a lifetime. Oh yeah, there was also a car show at the same time, so we had lots and lots to look at.

Here I am getting attacked by the Horta on one of the floats leftover from the parade. Trek Fest can be very, very dangerous, you know.

Here is Coadster getting ready to board the Starship Enterprise...

...And here she is on the bridge with her finger on the contols.

Apparently, being in charge of all the controls really freaked-out Stinky. That was not the only time she made that face while we were there.

Eventually, we tried to escape the oppressive heat and humidity by entering the Star Trek museum place. Only in Iowa, do Trekkies and farmers co-exist so peacefully.

The girls were hanging with Spock and Kirk for a while, but then we quickly moved on. As far as I'm concerned, I don't trust the captain around my daughters.

I thought we'd be safe when we entered the next room, but were suddenly faced with a gigantic shrine to The Shat. This photo doesn't do it justice. I wish I had one of those panorama cameras, to show you all the crap they had in this room to pay homage to the man.

The rest of the day, I spent running and showering and dying of heat exhaustion and dehydration after my run. Then I got the girls to their respective places and headed out into the night.

Here are the Meat Puppets seriously kicking ass.

At first, I went to the Dublin to hang out with a few friends. We were having a great talk and watching baseball, when a bachelor party arrived, in an advanced state of innebriation. I was invited to the corresponding bachelorette party, but was too lazy to go to all the bars with them, so we were waiting for them to show up at the Dublin too. They eventually did, right when I was supposed to go to the Meat Puppets show. My doppleganger who also shares my name, kept trying to get me to stay. She told me the show was canceled because the whole band had diarrhea, but I didn't believe her and finally took my leave.

The band didn't have diarrhea (that I could see, anyway) and they were so awesome, I could barely stand it. Like the temp in my office said, they looked old, but they didn't play old. It was one of the best shows I've been to since Dinosaur Junior last year.

Here is Dexter and LN.

The show was sold-out and packed and hot and suffocating. Lucky for me, my friends Dex and LN, found the very best seat in the house. It was booth with really bouncy seats, located directly under the air conditioner. Basically, I jumped up and down with the air blowing on me for over an hour. If you ever get to see the Meat Puppets, I highly recommend bringing a mini trampoline and your own air conditioning unit. It's truly the best way to see them.

You Could Say I Am Tired

This weekend was full of wonderful. If there was any way I could have rolled up a dollar bill and snorted all the events into my nose for the head rush, I would have. It was that fun. Since I packed so much in it, I'm just going to discuss Friday night tonight.

I got home from work and spent time with the girls and got them where they needed to be. Then around 9, I met my girlcrush and other friends at the Foxhead where Mr. Meister was working.

We had been discussing how big our arms seem to look in photos. I suggested we just banana clip our upper arms, so we tried it out, and look how much smaller they are here.

After a bit, we headed to the Dublin and tried to mass our troops before we made it to the Mill to see the House of Large Sizes play.

We got to the Mill just as the band was starting and found out the show had sold-out. None of our guy friends had a ticket, so we said our good-byes and went into the bar.

It was populated with mostly old people - which is my kind of show. Luckily they weren't too mature NOT to make a beautiful pyramid of PBR tallboys.

The show itself was awesome. The band could still rock and boy howdy, did they. A few of my friends had never seen them before, and they were really impressed. With so many people, it was super hot and stuffy. So, after being in the thick of the crowd for a while, I went back to the bar and stood by my friends Bronson and Craig, where I could actually breathe.

Once the show was over, we went back to the Mill, where I took photos of my adorable friends and talked a bunch of shit.

Mr. Meister was nice enough to give us all a ride home after he got done tending bar. When we were in front of the bar waiting for him, this gigantic six year old looking guy (that's how some of my friends described him) kept bugging me about taking a photo of him. I obliged, just to shut him up, but while it was being taken, he started yelling, "I don't know what to do with my hands!" and then tried to get me to take another picture with him. Luckily, Mr. Meister drove up and I jumped into his car.

Life Ain't So Bad at All, If You Live it Off the Wall

Here is a crooked photo of the doors my neighbors painted on their porch.

Wow. What a crazy day today was. First I'll address all the dead people talk. I'm sorry to hear about Farrah. I know a lot of boys lost their...Whatever to her poster.

Second I'll talk about MJ. I'm sad that he's dead. His music was amazing pop. The Jackson 5 was crazy huge when I was in grade school and I saw The Wiz at the the theater for my 12th birthday (I think). In high school we used to run to Off the Wall and some of the girls - you know, those kind of girls would get a little teary whenever they heard Michael's voice crack with emotion in that one part of "She's Out of My Life". Which was always good for a laugh. Thriller came out my senior year in high school and seemingly played non-stop all the way through my first year in college. I remember watching the world premiere of the Thriller video at my sister's friend Julie's house that first night it aired. Of course, his life was fucked and he was whack and he had a lot of scary issues that took away any respect I had for him. I think it's weird how people try and make him a saint because he's dead. I'm all for acknowledging his talent, but I can't forget the bad stuff either.

Now, I will stop talking about dead people and discuss something way more interesting - Me. I got my migraine meds switched back to the stuff that works now. It took me almost a week to hear back from the dial-a-nurse people, but once I did, they got it all taken care of in a day. I was beginning to dread my three day migraines again.

This weekend should be full of music. On Friday night, I'm going to the Mill to see a local'ish band called House of Large Sizes play. Then on Saturday night, I'm going back to the Mill to see the Meat Puppets. I had an opportunity to see them at a basement party in 1985 when I was staying with my oldest sister in Tempe, Az. I decided not to go, because back then we were all such hardcore assholes and very territorial. We weren't nice to punks we didn't know who came to shows. So, I was too much of a wuss to go and risk getting my ass kicked. Now, I'll get to see them when I'll actually remember the show. I can't say that about many of the shows I saw in the 80's.

Soooo, what are you planning this weekend? Will you be busy mourning dead celebrities? Or will you be watching old people try to rock and not throw a hip out at the same time?

I Think I Thought I Saw You Try

Here is some graffiti of a boy.

I think tonight I'll just talk about a few of our obsessions. The first one is Stinky's cell phone. She is so obsessed with texting, that she made a fatal error last night. I've told her a million times NOT to bring her phone into the bathroom. There's no need for it there and there are too many things it could drown itself in. Of course, since she's 15, she didn't listen to me and it fell into the bathtub as it was draining. Oops!

Then I told her to take the battery out and put both the phone and the battery in front of a fan to dry out over night. Her sister suggested putting it in the toaster oven to dry out. She said it was faster. I told her that didn't sound like a very good idea. Guess which one of us she listened to? That's right. Stinky put her phone into the toaster oven until both the battery and the phone were starting to melt and turn into Shrinky Dinks. Um, duh. Of course, Stinky was horrified and started trying to shame and blame her sister. I told her to knock it off. She had made two bad decisions in a row. She was allowed to be upset about it, but not to direct that anger at anyone else who was mistaken, but still just trying to be helpful. Stinky told me she couldn't see anything positive in the situation.

After she went in her room and calmed down, we were able to come up with a solution. We do have insurance on our phones (I know how we all are). It still costs $50, which I refuse to pay, since I wasn't the one who made the wrong choices (that time, anyway). Stinky had $25 that she was going to bring with her to her church group's trip to Adventureland to pay for her food there. I told her I would spot her the rest until she could pay me back and we bought a bunch of healthier snacks for her to sneak into the park when she goes. I also refused to deal with the cell phone insurance company, since I hate doing that kind of practical stuff, and again, I didn't kill my favorite obsession (that time, anyway). So, Stinky had to go on the website and figure out how it all worked. She did a great job and her phone should be delivered to my place of business tomorrow.

Here is some graffiti of a girl.

LauraB. from What Fresh Hell is This blog, turned me on to the show Nurse Jackie on Showtime. It stars Edie Falco, who I've always loved and it is awesome. I watched the first 5 episodes in one sitting and am jonesing for more. It's about a woman who is really great at taking care of everyone else's needs and fucked-up situations, but not her own. It looked a little familiar. Hmmmm...

I've also started watching the first episode of the first season of Dexter and it looks really great too. It's a damn good thing I don't have anything else to do, or I would be in big, big trouble. Ahem.

Oh, and one last obsession. FMDM has been bugging me for a while to try a game on XBox called Peggle. It's kind of like pinball, but so much better and bigger and gayer. When you finish a level, there are fake fireworks noises, and giant rainbows and they play the Hallelujah Chorus and I get to celebrate my wonderfulness at video games again and again and again.

Okay, those are enough obsessions for now. Laura B. tagged me to do a meme about obsessions, but I'm not very good with the structure right now, since I've apparently been piddling all my time away staring at glowing boxes. I still may try to do that meme, but if I don't get around to it, this is my lame-ass attempt.

Oh, Simple Thing, Where Have You Gone?

Here are some stairs heading down.

All this recent talk of Father's Day and dad's and blah, blah, blah, got me thinking about my own history with dad type figures...Well, that and the fact that Stinky is having HUGE issues with her father right now.

If you couldn't tell by my sad, sorry dating past, I haven't had the best male role models growing up. My dad disappeared when I was four and the few memories I do have, were of him being on the emotionally distant side. Then at ten, my uncle became my legal guardian and he was violent and abusive, and mean in general. Not surprisingly, my relationships have been with men who were either controlling and angry or EXTREMELY emotionally unavailable.

I started dating the girls' dad when I was 22 and he was 35. At the time, it didn't occur to me how odd it was that a 35 year old man was still living the life of people my own age, or that I didn't deserve all the name calling and drama he was so fond of. Of course, I finally figured that out by the time I hit my thirties and had two very young kids.

I wouldn't change a thing, because it gave me my girls. I just feel bad that they have to deal with the bad decision in a partner I made when I was too young to know better, for the rest of their lives.

When the girls were younger, Coadster told me that even though she wanted to stay at her dad's house, she sometimes felt abandoned by me when her dad was on a tear. We solved that problem, by me calling during their dad's night and if he was behaving badly, Coadster would tell me she didn't feel well. He'd rather not have to deal with them when there was a possibility of them being difficult, so I would tell him one of them were sick and I'd pick them up and take care of them.

Lately, Stinky has been having real issues with her dad. She doesn't feel like she should have to put up with his swearing at her, calling her names and "borrowing" her babysitting and birthday money and not paying her back. I agree. She has decided not to go to his house for the rest of the Summer and reevaluate in the Fall. I tried a couple of times to get them to talk things out, but he got even more upset and sent her some horrible texts that would be appalling from a high school boy, let alone a man in his fifties. All I can do at this point, is support her in her decision. I try really hard not to trash their dad, because they love him and they are after all, half him. But I do want to make sure they know that all of that bad stuff he lays on them are his issues and he says those mean things to them because he is messed-up and unhappy. It's just a tricky, icky, sticky situation.

In the End the Path is Clear

As promised, here are the pics from Stinky's day at the Wapello County Fair. She went with her two friends. She said the lion cub beat her with its tail.

Well, kids. My 5 day weekend is officially over now. Wah! I love having all that time. I always say that I'd never get bored if I didn't have to work...At least if I had enough money. I have way too many hobbies and I do love to spend time by myself.

She and her friend's brother rode the camel.

The only thing is, I have no idea if that's really true. I don't think I've been unemployed longer than a month during my entire adult life. Up until a few years ago, it felt like a luxury to only work 40 hours per week. Plus, I've been a parent since I was 26 years old, and we all know what a time suck kids are.

Here she is looking back at her friends.

These five days have been really nice. It's not that I hate my job or anything. It's fine. It's more that I'm not the best time manager in the world. I try to do WAY too many things in a day and can't get through all of them. So, having 8 and 1/2 extra hours, really took away that stress. I was able to balance everything so much better. It was also a huge treat to be free when other businesses were open. I got my car registration renewed, Stinky's social security card ordered, paid my dentist bill, and went to the bank. Weird.

You can tell by how spazzy she is that we share the same DNA, can't you?

I only went out one night during those 5 days. Since it's Summer, it seems there was something to do every night I was off, but I'm such a homebody. I was really happy just to hang out at my house with my girls and eat dinner and watch movies. Especially with Coadster, I am painfully aware that time is very limited, so I try to take it whenever I can get it.

So it is, that I go back to work tomorrow. My house is looking pretty good, most of my errands have been run, I had tons of time with my girls, and many miles were run. I guess I can handle working four more days until the next weekend.

Darlin' In My Wildest Dreams, I Never Thought I'd Go

Here is a school bus with a jet engine.

Well, kids. I still have one day left on my vacation, and I also have a ton of stuff to do. I'm sorry if I haven't been very good at keeping up with blogs, but I've had a lot of fun and great experiences with running and hanging out with my girls. I promise to get back to the blogs starting Tuesday.


Here are some girls with corn dogs.

Friday night was nice and mellow. I watched two really long and depressing movies. There Will Be Blood was interesting, and there was some blood, just not as much as I imagined.

Here is the deck that Big 10 Rentals set-up for us.

Saturday, I woke-up early for me. I drove the girls a few places, and then met my friends who were driving me to the Air Show in the Quad Cities. Stinky decided not to go. She opted to go to the Wapello County Fair to see some country singer named Jimmy Wayne (I think?). I kept asking her if that was L'il Wayne's brother and she rolled her eyes at me. Awesome.

She got to ride a camel at the fair. Don't you fret. I'll be posting that pic tomorrow, for sure.

Our friend who hosted the air show, had the best set-up for adults and children. This inflatable slide held the kids' interest the whole time. As you can see here, the planes were a little loud for the youngin's who didn't have ear plugs. They were a little loud for me too, and I thought I lost most of my hearing at hardcore and metal shows.

Here I am documenting my stupidity....Again. I was insane about applying sunscreen every hour or so, but forgot my feet. I have to say, the sunburn pattern with these shoes, is pretty cool.

It was very hot at the air field, but the kids were smart enough to keep cool by bobbing for water bottles in the ice.

My friends were really impressed with how big the propellers were. There was a LOT of power in those planes, and best of all, there was a guy named Sargeant Swinger. We might have to make a habit of going to more air shows in the future.

The Blue Angels flew for the finale. It was cool, but so loud and most of the interesting stuff seemed to take place directly in front of the sun. My friend G., joked that it was sponsored by the Eye Care Clinic of the Quad Cities.

After we got back from the Quad Cities, I took a nice little nap. Coadster had spent the day giving tours of her high school to the class reunion of 1989, and then went to her dad's house, and Stinky was at that fair, so I had that luxury.

After I woke-up, I got a couple of calls from people asking me to meet them out. My friend K., took myself and the girls I went to the air show with, to a karaoke event.

I finally got my friend G. to participate. She always claimed she couldn't sing, and to that I said, "Hooey!" We started off singing "Harden My Heart", by Quarterflash. We wanted to sing "Papa Don't Preach", but they didn't have it. Instead, we sang "Like a Virgin" and G. started the song by saying, "I love reality" into the mic.

I headed home around midnight, but G. told me they didn't get home until 8 am. They made a very early morning trip to Perkins before that. I am such a lightweight.

I See You Walkin' Real Slow and You're Smilin' At Everyone

Here is that sign again, but this time they cleaned up the language. It said "asinine" last week, but this week it's "inane". I'll check again next week to see if it changes again. Luckily, we live in a community of writers, so the sign makers are bound to have a good thesaurus.

Today was my first day off, and it was delightful. I tried to do all kinds of wonderfully Summery things, and I think I was successful. The one thing I didn't do very well, was reading blogs. I'm going to try harder tomorrow. If the weather is as bad as they're predicting, I should have plenty of time.

Here is a drinking fountain at College Green Park. It was kind of tricky to shoot this with one hand.

I slept in and that was heavenly. I'm glad I'm not one of those people who can't sleep late any more. It's one of my favorite decadent things to do. When I finally hauled my ass out of bed, I lounged around and made some cinnamon toast and lounged some more. Later I had to run some errands and take Stinky to basketball practice.

All the storms had passed, and I was able to run in the very hot, horrible humidity. I came back and bathed and picked Stinky up from basketball camp. Originally, she wanted to go see the Star Trek movie, but while we were getting ready, she got a call from a friend who wanted her to go to the pool, so I was quickly abandoned. As you can see, I used my alone time to wander around town and take some pics of things I think are typical of Summer.

When Coadster got home from work, and Stinky got back from the pool, they asked me to drive them to the mall. What is it with that place? It's like a giant teenager magnet. I started getting hungry and cranky, so we went home and I grilled cheeseburgers, and I made corn on the cob - because we're Iowans and it's a law that we have to eat that kind of food.

Around 10, I decided to watch the movie Into the Wild. I thought it was a little long, but I did like it a lot. Some parts of it hit close to home. That whole "wandering vagabond in his early twenties" and the arrogance of throwing caution to the wind, was like looking in a mirror. Except, I didn't grow up rich, so I had a lot more respect for the little money I did have.

It's been a while since I've seen a pair of shoes stuck up in a wire.

Tomorrow I plan on getting some practical things done. Right now they're saying it's supposed to rain all day, so it would make it easier not to want to spend all day playing in the sun. I'll let you know what happens.

On Saturday I think I'll be going to the Quad City Air Show. There's a guy in town who is a Dublin semi-regular who owns a rental business, and he bought a bunch of tickets. He gave them away free to all of his friends and is supplying food and drink to all of us. How nice is that?

Coadster can't go because she already volunteered to work the 1989 class reunion at her high school. So, I'm going with Stinky and some of my fun girlfriends. Hopefully. I was supposed to get the tickets in the mail this week and they still aren't here. If they don't come tomorrow, I'll have to think up a plan B.

What are your plans this weekend? Will you be reuniting and it feels so good, or will you be looking to the skies?

For useless Twisting of Our Then New Technology

Here is some roadwork.

Do you ever find yourself searching for something on the web? You stalk people on Facebook, peruse blogs, Google shit you don't really care about. You're not even sure what you want. A connection, a sign, the answer to a question you don't even know how to ask? You find yourself frustrated, because out of your hundreds of Facebook "friends", there isn't one who has posted any new photos or had a witty comment thread that went on for hours and stopped making sense about fifteen comments ago.

You are aware that you are a stalker. A voyeur into other people's lives. Not for any scary or violent reasons, you're just nosy. You want to know what other people do, what they think, how they feel about everything. Why not? You put your life out there for public view. It's only fair.

Because you've had this conversation with your friends, especially your single friends, you know you're not alone. No one bats an eye when someone talks about their web stalking habits. Okay, some people do....But you don't. Isn't it only natural? Before the web, there were neighbors and communities spreading the word about people's lives. You chalk it up to the human fear of living in a vacuum.

That Music's Lost It's Taste, So Try Another Flavor

Hey, here's a classy photo of Stinky. Just so you can see that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree hugger. (as my friend K. said once)

So, I guess tomorrow will be my Friday. I'm trying to stop saying that, because then I confuse myself about what day it really is, and my brain might explode and I don't want to spend all of my vacation with my head wrapped in duct tape to keep my brain from oozing out. Oh, I like the word, "ooze", by the way.

a.) After that last paragraph, it's clear that I'm all random tonight. There's no point in fighting city hall, so I'm going with it.

b.) I got a call at work from someone representing a McDonald's in town. She wanted to know if anyone from our school would help them write a training manual in Spanish. She offered to pay whomever that person was, in $150 worth of McDonald's gift certificates. When I talked to my co-workers about it, I tried to imagine how much grease that would buy. John, who sits in the cubicle behind me told me to shut-up or he promised to McVomit. So, I did.

c.) I've been having territorial sidewalk issues lately. As I mention on here ad nauseum, I either walk, run or ride my bike almost everywhere I go. So, I'm familiar with sidewalk etiquette. As far as I'm concerned, pedestrians have the right of way, no matter what. They should come before runners, who come before sidewalk riding cyclists. I understand that it is pretty dangerous to ride your bike on many of the streets in my fair city. If you're riding on the sidewalk, you should never push the pedestrian off. Dude, you're riding a damn mountain bike for christ sake, why should the pedestrian have to go off-road? Okay. That's my gripe and I'm sticking to it.

d.) The weather here is still really cooperating with me. Now that I work all day, it's been cloudy and/or raining until my walk home. Then it clears up in time for me to run in the ridiculously humid air.

e.) I'm a little more than annoyed with my iPod's shuffle lately. I have over 3,000 songs on it. There is no reason that it should play the same 25 songs over and over, but it does. Today, however, it finally behaved and played songs I forgot I even had on there. Here are some of them:

1.) "Run Through the Jungle" - Creedence Clearwater Revival

2.) "Love Plus One" - Haircut 100

3.) "Superunknown" - Soundgarden

4.) "Lazy Eye" - Silversun Pickups

5.) "Antmusic" - Adam Ant

6.) "Fortress" - Pinback

7.) "Fairytale of New York" - The Pogues

8.) "The Rockafeller Skank" - Fatboy Slim

9.) "Stone Free" - Jimi Hendrix

Okay, have a great day today. Whether it's your Wednesday or Friday or Monday, or whatever the hell day it really is. Agh!

If I Don't Get Some Shelter, Oh Yeah, I'm Gonna Fade Away

Here is my friend G. and I doing a cheesy-ass pose for the camera with a camera. Yes, we do have issues, why do you ask?

Well, I only have two days left in the week to work before I start my 5 day weekend. Yeah, I said 5 day weekend. What about it? Holy shit, dude! 5 days in a row. I can't think about that now. I'll think about that tomorrow...

My goal this week is to just try to get shit done and be mellow and less social than I was last week. I went to 4 cookout'ish things in 5 days. Don't get me wrong, they were all great and saved me tons of money on food and I saw a lot of people I haven't seen in a long, long time. I'm just socialed-out for a bit and I'm taking it down a notch.

My plan is to replace a lot of that socializing with cleaning my house, playing video games, reading things in addition to blogs and to take some new pics, so that I have something other than party photos to post on my blog. Won't that be nice?

After how nutty the office was today, I'm glad I only have two days of work left. We got a letter sent to our school by someone on the wrong side of crazy. They were part of one of those whacked-out animal rights groups, and since we had a building severely vandalized a few years back, we are very, very careful about those things. There was all kinds of nutjob writing all over the envelope, so we called campus security to take care of it for us. The guy they sent was pretty cool and was making just as many "anthrax spores" and "bomb tripping" jokes (albeit nervously) as we were. In the end, they just sent us an article about some bullshit that was so boring and anti-climactic, that we threw it away and no one remembers what it was.

I also led some parents around for orientation. One of the women was from Iowa City and her daughter went to school with my girls. She told me this was her last kid. I said I bet it was kind of sad to see the last one go. She said, "Eh, the one thing I've learned as my kids have become adults, is that they don't really leave. You'll never be completely alone..." I'm still not sure if that was more comforting or disconcerting.

Even My Shadow Leaves Me All Alone at Night

Well, this weekend pretty much just flew by. I did get to watch Wall-E on Friday night and I loved it. I was so glad I got a night to watch movies and veg out on Friday, because the rest of my weekend was insane.

Saturday afternoon I went to the Dublin Underground owner's cookout. My original plan was to stay for an hour or so, and go home and clean and have some wonderful alone time. The girls had left for the Quad Cities with their dad, and this was the first time in months and months that I would have 24 hours to myself to do whatever I wanted.

At one point during the cookout, I got cornered by a woman who wanted to talk about all of her shoes. She was speaking in designers and dollars and I don't really speak that language. The only thing I could think of to say was, "I spend a lot for running shoes...". It seemed like the perfect time to make my exit, but when I went to say goodbye, the hostess and my friend G. dragged me into a room and they started playing dress-up with the hostess' scarves and making hilarious outfits, so I ended up staying until 9 in the evening.

I went home for about an hour to relax and get ready. Originally, I was going to meet my friends out at the Industry where my friend G.'s co-worker's band was opening for a Tool cover band. Since we got going so late, her friend's band was almost done, and I couldn't see paying any money to see Tool, let alone their cover band, so I went down to the Dublin and waited for them there.

The rest of my night was nice and mellow. One of my ex-boyfriends showed up and we had a nice talk. We've been friends since he was 17 and I was 19. Sometimes we get along swimmingly, and sometimes he feels the need to prove that he can still push my buttons and piss me off. Luckily, this was one of the swimmingly times.

My friends left to find after hours fun, and I went home. I woke up on Sunday to find that someone had called and left me a voicemail at 4 in the morning. The voicemail was just someone breathing and then a quick hang-up. I checked my missed calls and it was from Mr. B. Wha? I wonder what the hell he thought he was going to say to me. "I'm sorry I'm a sociopath?" or "I'm sorry I was such a lying little skeez?"

We're All Looking at a Different Picture Through This New Frame of Mind

Here is a guy I don't know with a bag of CD's attached to his ass.

Jinkies! I can't believe the week is almost over. I guess time flies when you're busy creating strange dark scenarios in your head, huh? The last couple of nights, I've gone to cookouts with my friends who all seem to have tons of kids. My girls even went with me tonight. They babysit our friend, A.'s son. He was there and was all excited that his babysitters were there, but got a little confused because he thought they were the same person(they usually babysit him separately) and all of the sudden there were two of them. My girls don't think they look that much alike, but everyone else seems to.

Here is a friend of mine sitting on an orange cone. Just because.

Sooo, this weekend? I'm not sure. Everything seems to be shaping up for it today. I got an invite from the owners of the Dublin to come to their house for a cook-out on Saturday night. It also looks like the girls will go to the Quad Cities with their dad that same night. It will be weird not to have them around then.

Friday night should be pretty mellow. I'll run after work, if the weather permits, then I'll hang out and watch a movie with Coadster. She has to take her ACT test on Saturday morning, so I'm sure she'll go to bed early.

It's funny how clearly I remember taking the ACT. I was sicker than a dog that day. I had had a track meet the night before, which didn't help. I was okay at the beginning of the test, but by the time I had to do the math section, I was fading fast. I think I had answered only a few questions when they told us we had five minutes left to finish up. Shit! I did what I could and got a decent enough score to get into a state school, which is all I could afford anyway. I didn't bother to take it again. Coadster is already planning to take it again in September. She doesn't do the best at standardized tests. She gets awesome grades, but she second guesses her answers and doesn't trust her knowledge and doesn't test that well. I just hope her ACT experience is a million times better than mine was.

What are youse guys' plans? Will you be cooking out or testing yourselves in any way?

Lights Going Out and a Kick in the Balls

Here is a road leading up to a barn and a silo thingy.

Have you ever had that? Where you're driving down a familiar road in your town? Your eyes are a little glazed over and you can see a car parked about a block away. Your mind is suddenly awake with perverse thoughts. You could go a little bit faster, crash into it and do a hell of a lot of damage.

You can hear it. The horrible sound it would make. The glass would break, your car would shriek as the front of it was pushed back, maybe as far as the hatchback. You are familiar with the metal taste of blood in your mouth and the pressure of the steering wheel crushing your chest. Such violence, what incredible force. All the world's pain and suffering happening right then in the small space of your vehicle.

You have the power to change your life forever. All those stupid things you worry your little pea brain about: Did you finally remember to pay the water bill, what will you make for dinner, what time was that show you wanted to watch? Those would be completely forgotten. Exchanged for something real, like survival and recovery. In a split second, the world would be a very different place for you.

As you finally pass that car, without accelerating, without making any kind of impact whatsoever, you think, "Whoa! Where the fuck did that come from?" Then you drive the rest of the way home with a little more purpose, carefully watching for any other obstacles.

*I thought I better put a disclaimer on here. This is really more of a writing exercise than anything. So, please don't worry about me, 'Kay? Though, you might want to worry about my writing...

Hey, I Wish I Had My Way, 'Cause Everyday Would Be a Friday

Here is a street musician putting her fiddle away and wearing an Iowa flag.

The rest of my four day weekend went pretty well. I've done a ton of running and even more cooking. On Sunday night I made chicken enchiladas, fried tostada shells, cooked frijoles and arroz and made de gallo salsa. I took a little break to have root beer floats with the girls. You know, I needed the sugar as fuel. I tried to watch the new version of Get Smart, but the constant storms cut the satellite signal about halfway through. I'll have to try again later.

Speaking of the weather... It has stormed here a lot this weekend, but it's been kind enough to do it mostly at night and in the morning. The afternoons and evenings have been great.

Here is some art sitting around outside at night during Arts Fest this weekend.

Today was my last day of freedom until next weekend. I spent most of it with Coadster, since Stinky went to a water park in Waterloo for her friend's birthday. She said it was really cold up there. It's funny what a difference an hour and a half can make weather wise.

I ran while Coadster started her Summer job. She's working at a Summer day camp. The same one she went to when she was a little girl. She got CPR certified this evening, so she's all ready to go on Wednesday when it starts. It will be a great job for her, since she wants to go into education and she loves working with kids.

The money will also come in really handy. Especially since we just went on a consult for her senior pictures today and they are going to be extremely PRICE-y. I told her I'd pay for the sitting fees, an 8 x 10 for me and a portion of the wallet fees. The rest she'll have to come up with, and if her dad wants a pic, he'll have to pay for it himself. She was really happy with my offer and has no problem putting up some cash for what she wants. I'm trying to walk that line with my girls, where I help out, but make them work for stuff too. I know people who's parents gave them everything when they were younger, and I don't think they did them any favors. Sometimes I'm almost (that's a BIG almost) glad I don't have a ton of money, because I would be tempted to give my kids too much. I don't want them to have to work as hard for everything as I did, but I also want them to learn how to budget and work for the things they want. It can be a tricky little line.

Your Head Will Collapse, but There's Nothing In It

Here's me looking a little pained with my migraine.

So, kids. I'm going to make this short. There have been some crazy thunderstorms passing through, so I've had to keep my computer off for most of the night. I have one more day off before I go back to work, and I am so grateful for that.

This weekend has been very nice so far, except for my persistent migraine. My generic meds don't quite seem to be cutting the mustard. I guess, I'll have to go back to my doctor and get them to write my insurance company to tell them I need my old meds. What a pain (ha ha).

I stayed home on Friday night and ate sushi and watched movies with my girls. We saw Kung Fu Panda and I thought it was a lot of fun.

On Saturday night, I went downtown to Arts Fest to watch Kevin Gordon, only to find out that I had screwed up the time and he was finishing his encore, just as I arrived. Perfect. I stayed out with some friends for a while, but my migraine was wailing on me.

I tried to help a friend of mine who is newly divorced and a little daunted about trying to date. I told him he would be mackin' on the honeys in no time. He told me he thought that might be something he'd like to do, if only he knew what it meant. After I explained what the phrase meant, I informed him that living in a college town, he could find tons of women to mack on. He asked me if there was anyway I could provide him with a list of names. It was a funny conversation for the most part. I haven't talked with anyone about how weird it is to go from being married and thinking you would be with that same person for the rest of your life, to suddenly being single and trying to remember who you were without that other person. I didn't have any real advice for him, (except for the macking on the honeys thing) but to tell him it was a long, up and down process and that I've never been a big fan of any process. Yeah. So not helpful.

Oh, one last thing. I'm supposed to name the next Saturday Scavenger Hunt person. How about the Alien? Does that work?

I Think About the Loveless Fascination, Under the Milky Way Tonight

Here are some light pink peonies.

So, my four day weekend got a ridiculous start. I dropped Coadster off at the high school baseball game and Stinky off at an end of Freshman year party, then headed to my beautiful friend S.'s house. We were planning on a nice mellow girl night with amazing food and some wine. It sounded like just what the doctor ordered.

Here are some darker pink peonies.

Once it got dark out, things started to get weird. My friend S., my friend K. and myself were sitting outside at S.'s table, when we saw two guys lurching toward us. We were a little apprehensive at first, but then after we talked to them and tried to get them on their way, we realized they were just young, harmless drunk guys in their early twenties. One of them vanished fairly soon, but the other one stayed and talked to us for over an hour and then called another friend of his to pick him up and he decided to hang out with us for a while too.

He kept trying to tell me how young he thought I looked. At first I looked 27, then he said I looked 19. I told him to keep drinking and I'd get down to 12 years old soon. He also told me that I could go to any bar in this town and get whatever guy I wanted. I thanked him, but informed him that most women could. It doesn't matter what we look like, or how heinous our personalities, basically women just have to show up to hook up.

Here are my first snap dragons of the season. Aren't they cute?

After we talked a little while longer, I realized that his girlfriend played soccer with my daughter. So, I showed them a picture of my daughter from my phone and asked them if they knew her. Turns out, they did. Coadster had been to parties at their house before. I texted Coady to tell her about it and she was really confused. She called me to ask me why I was hanging out with her friends. I explained a little of what was going on, and then handed the phone to the one boy, who proceeded to tell my daughter he thought I looked 19 and that next time I dropped her off at a party that I should come in too. Yeah, that will never happen, but we all got a good laugh out of it.

So much for our mellow girl's night. Maybe next time, we'll have to drink in the safety of our homes.

But I Don't Listen to her 'Cause My Head is Like a Sieve

Here is a sign I saw. Iowa City has a tendency to make weird, uptight rules for homeowners. Of course, those same homeowners usually aren't shy about voicing their disapproval. God, I love this town.

Okay, first and foremost I have to choose the Saturday Scavenger Hunt word this week. I haven't been very good at participating lately, so the least I can do is pick the word. I guess I'll choose....sign. Have we done that one yet? If so, let me know and I'll try again.

Kids, this week has been wonderful so far. Sure, the weather could have been better on Monday and Tuesday, but it has been so nice NOT to be crazy busy. I've been good about my hour a day cleaning project and I've had plenty of time to actually sit down and talk to the girls when we're not in the car driving somewhere.

We had a funny little conversation the other day. The girls were talking about being at their dad's house on Saturday night and how annoying some guy who lived next to them was being. He had lost his dog that night and I guess he just kept walking past their house, sobbing loudly and calling out the dog's name.

"Wait," I said. "Do you know if his dog was a Jack Russel Terrier?" The girls said it was. "Oh my god. That guy came up to me when I was walking home around midnight and asked me if I had seen his dog. Since I've heard that child molesters use that 'can you help me find my puppy' routine to steal kids, I assumed he was a creeper and ran away from him. Now, I feel kind of bad about it, but I didn't know..." Then my girls both laughed their asses off trying to imagine me running from some poor distraught dog owner.

Coadster is officially finally done with soccer. Her school lost at sub-state tonight. I think she's a little sad, but I told her we could play all the soccer she wanted in the lot behind our place. It's not as much fun now that she can kick my ass, but it sure wouldn't hurt me to work on my skillz.

Since it's obvious I'm being random tonight, I'll just keep it up. Tonight I went to the Sanctuary for supper club. I ordered the eggplant lasagna and it was really good. We had some new people show up too. I knew them both since they were Dubliners and one of them was Dexter of Degrees of Grey in Iowa City blog. They didn't know some of the other people, but I think everyone seemed to have a great time. Especially after we started talking about Cheech and Chong movies and trying to remember all the best stoner bits from them.

Tomorrow is the girls' last day of school and we all couldn't be happier about it. As usual, I'm taking the next two days off of work, so I'll have a four day weekend. Praise your deity of choice here. I can't wait. I just have to get through tomorrow. Hopefully, some high school kid will prank call me tomorrow like they did today. I picked up the phone and said "University of Blah blah admissions. How may I direct your call..." Then I heard someone crank up Kelis' "Milkshake" and a loud, booming, totally off-key male voice start singing along with it. Suddenly, a mom came on the other line and said, "Hello?" and I was instantly hung up on. Sweet.

Cause I Couldn't Bear to See What I Might See

So, I know I talk about Facebook way too much, but it's such a weird thing for me. As I've said before, I moved around so much when I was younger, and I suck at emailing and calling people, so I never got to see what happened to most of the people I knew when I was younger....Until now.

I think I've also told you before that after Coadster and I were in that horse and buggy accident when she was a baby, I've had some memory loss. It's hard to know if the things I've forgotten, especially from high school and directly after, are from the accident, or a lot of me blocking out some really bad times in my life. Either way, Facebook has been bringing it back to me a little. And it's been interesting.

Last week, my friend Jim sent me a message through Facebook asking for my address so he could send me something he found. I gave it to him and yesterday when I got home from work, there was an envelope with that Deadwood photo booth strip (circa 1984/85) posted above inside it.

I don't remember taking those pics at all. He said he found it in a box of old photos at his parents house. I vaguely remember the other girl. She was a year younger than me and we hung out together almost every day for about a month before she moved to Madison and I never saw her again. I have no idea who the Tony Orlando looking guy is and nobody on Facebook has been able to help me with that either. Nice 70's stache, though.

Also last week, a girl I went to high school with got on Facebook. I liked her a lot and we both went to college here together too. She wrote this on my wall:

Churlita, I'm thinking about h.s. alot tonight, missing h.s. friends, and remembering the Anne Boelyn(spelling?) report we did for Cor-key Ste-vens. How did we ever get away with that!

I responded:

Wow, A. You are waxing nostalgic. Ha ha. I'm not sure I remember the report, but if I know myself, I bet I probably felt the need to talk about her third breast or something equally mature.

And then she commented back:

Churlita, how could you forget, we made her out of playdough and shot her head across the room.

After she wrote that, it did sound a little familiar, but it makes me wonder what other incredibly awesome things like that I did (because that is incredibly awesome) in high school and don't remember. It was actually nice to have a fun memory from high school, since most of mine are so horrible. Because I normally have such great recall, it bugs me when I forget something, but I guess I should have thought about that before I smoked all that pot and drank all that beer in my late teens and early twenties, huh?

Come On, Come On, Let's Go and Again and Again and Again

Here is some gorgeous Iowa prairie. Maybe you have to live here to appreciate its subtle beauty, but I'm a huge prairie lover. If you ever want me to help you with a prairie burn, let me know. I've had tons of experience with them.

Well, kids. This weekend was really nice, for the most part. I ran my eight mile route for the first time of the season and the heat and the extra couple of miles definitely kicked my ass. Because I am obviously very, very ill, it also made me want to do it again once or twice next weekend, to see if I can kick its ass instead.

Here is some kind of wild flower remnant leftover from last year.

Saturday night I told my friends' G. and D. that I would meet them out and I tried, I really did. I got ready, I walked downtown and had a beer and heard fun stories from the night before (after I had already gone home). I was feeling like I was getting a migraine, and I was kind of annoyed with the world in general anyway. Then G. and D. went out to smoke and I was left with some great kids who were in their twenties and so not understanding any of my cheesy pop culture references, when I realized I just needed to go home. So, I said my goodbyes and took-off.

I decided to watch a movie. I figured I probably just needed to be entertained. I hadn't really heard much about it, so I tried viewing Henry Poole is Here. Um, it just wasn't my thing. It was all about having faith and about how you just needed faith. NO. MATTER. WHAT. FAITH! Over and over again. I felt like I was being bludgeoned with it. Don't get me wrong. I'm all about faith, but it would also be kind of neat-o to have that faith served up with a little plot too. It reminded me of the overkill at the end of La Bamba where they showed you every person in the world's reaction to Ritchie Valens dying in that plane crash. His mom, his brother, Donna, his second grade teacher, his dentist, the pack of stray dogs that roamed his neighborhood. I get it. I'm supposed to be sad... So, wait. What was I going on about? Oh, Henry Poole. I didn't even finish it, because I was completely faithed out.

Sunday was such a gorgeous day here. I couldn't stay inside or I turned into one of those cats that sit on back of the couch and swat their paw at the window. So, I ran my six mile route and went on a long bike ride.

I didn't take one of those kick-ass "ride as fast and as far as you can" kind of rides. I did blaze up a couple of hills, but for the most part, I wanted to meander and look at and take photos of stuff. It was so nice. As you've probably noticed, I rode by some prairie. Then I passed this sign, and figured I should really check out something called a "Visionary Stone".

In case you were curious too, this was what the "Visionary Stone" looked like. It was a big rock on a hill with a bench next to it. A little anti-climactic, but then again, nice and restful with a beautiful view.

I couldn't get a decent shot of the view for some reason. I think the sun was hitting it wrong, or maybe I just suck. Anyway, this photo doesn't do it justice.

After my run and ride, I was suddenly very hungry. The girls and I decided to eat dessert first and went to Dairy Queen before we went grocery shopping. Bad idea. I forgot what sugar does to Stinky. It makes her insane and overly silly. At one point she was being so obnoxious that Coadster and I ran down the aisle with the cart to get away from her. Lesson learned.

Can I Tell U What I'm Thinkin' That U Already Know?

Gomez trying to keep her dress up. Look ma, no hands!

So, this weekend has been wonderful and crazy and busy. Tonight I'll just talk about the nuptials I went to on Friday night. My friend and fellow Ottumwan got hitched and had her reception at the Eagles Lodge/Club/Center? or whatever it is. It was a great time.

Gomez had almost all of the guys from our town's rugby team in attendance, so there was no chance in hell that this would be a sedate affair. Thank gawd!

Lucky for all of us, my Girl Crush came back for it. She wore this fetching gown that made her look like a cross between Sandy and Cha Cha DiGregorio. How hot is that?

At some point during the festivities, a guy stopped me and asked me if I dated the guy I used to go out with last Winter. My response was, "Who hasn't?'

"Surprisingly, I haven't," he said. Then he went on to say he knew me, but in a more voyeuristic way. That one guy I dated had given him the link to my blog. He said he used to read it, because he now worked at some fancy schmancy school on the East Coast and it was his only link to Iowa City. I thought it was great and asked him if he wanted to pose for a pic with me and my girl crush, that I would then post on my blog and he said he definitely would.

There was a crazy mix of a bunch of people from different parts of my life. Since the bride was from Ottumwa, one of the guys I graduated with was there and his daughters, who are friends with my daughters, were also in attendance. We laughed about how weird that was, then we bitched a little about how crazy it was that our parenting has boiled down to becoming glorified chauffers and money dispensers.

My former classmate's son was a fiend on the dance floor. I couldn't get enough of watching him break dancing and doing the worm across the floor. Eventually, my classmate's wife came up to me and said, "Jeez! Who's kid is that?" I asked her where he got his mad skillz and she said he had three older sisters who taught him everything he knows.

The DJ was okay, but luckily my Girl Crush was there to suggest better dance songs. We were surprised, but they even had Prince's "Pussy Control" - the song the girl's pool league has adopted as their theme song.

By the end of the night, the dance floor turned into a giant mosh pit, and I couldn't have been happier. I had never been to wedding where there was a mosh pit before. I think it's a tradition everyone should uphold.

Nightime is the Right Time...a-DYNAMITE!

Here is a car window with a sticker that says "gravel rocks".

Tonight was so great. I didn't have to drive anyone anywhere. Not even once. I ran my six mile route, and made dinner. I got to do my hour of cleaning, dance like an idiot around Coadster while she did her homework AND make strawberry/banana/orange juice smoothies. I feel a million times better just having that little extra at-home time.

Here is another artsy shot that A. took of the colored lights on the dance floor where we did karaoke.

I love how fast the weekdays go when there are only 4 days in them. I also love that I have 5 more weeks like this on the way. Hooray!

Work has been really busy this week. All the colleges and high schools are sending us their final transcripts, and everyone wants us to make their decision first. My favorite line is, "We'll try to make a decision as soon as possible, but a lot of other people have all waited until the last minute to apply too. So, we have to review them in the order they were received..." Let me tell you. People love hearing that one.

This weekend should be another crazy one. I have to race home, shower, get ready and head to my friend Gomez's wedding. She's from the same town where I went to high school and her dad was my brother's swim coach. I didn't meet her until last year. Small world. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun, but a little more hectic than I like to be on a Friday evening. Saturday, I have to get Coadster to soccer practice by 1o. She's going to the Quad Cities to DJ a wedding and isn't sure if she'll come home that night or the next day. Stinky has a concert to go to on Friday night. Some local boy makes good pop star named Jason Reeves. He went to their high school, so I don't know if tweens and high school girls all over the country think he's dreamy, or if it's just the girls here.

Anyway, I guess that's all I got for you tonight. Let me know your plans. Will you be attending or working at any weddings?

Happiness Is So Hard to Find

Here is a recycled photo of myself and one of my co-workers at Gussini Shoe store in Berkeley in 1986.

I'm sure you all know how weird I am about music. I'm not as likely to look at how it's played or what people are doing with their instruments. You could have all the best musicians in the world performing and playing really well, and if I'm bored with their song, I couldn't be bothered. For me, music has always been an emotional thing. I feel really strongly about songs one way or the other. They can be an awesome memory or the soundtrack to a really bad part of my life.

Some songs I know are cheese, but it doesn't matter, because they take me back to a time in my life that made me really happy. Of course the opposite is true. Whether a song is good or bad, hearing it can remind me of a particularly shitty stage in my life too.

Lately, my daughter has really been into this song called, "I Can't Wait" by a band called Nu Shooz. I think someone else might be sampling it, and that's where she heard it. You may or may not remember them, but trust me, they were really big in 1986. At that time I was working at my worst job ever. (and I've cleaned toilets for living) I had just moved to San Francisco and was living in my boyfriend's mom's house, my boyfriend wasn't sure if he still wanted to stay together, I had no money, nowhere else to go and my bosses totally sucked. For years, I couldn't hear that song without it bringing back all those horrible feelings.

The crazy thing about it, is that I'm totally okay with it now. It's actually turned into a more positive memory. I can laugh at how I had to cover all the high school girl's shifts on Friday nights so they could get home in time to watch Miami Vice, and how my two favorite high school guys used to wait for me to close up, so they could ride the BART with me through Oakland and protect me if need be. I can look back with some perspective and remember that it was one of the first times in my adult life that I actually took control of a situation.

With my orphan issues, I was always so terrified to actively change things in my life. In the past, change usually meant I was moving toward something worse. I wouldn't leave bad relationships or jobs no matter what, because they were an evil I knew, as opposed to an evil I didn't know but was sure to meet. I was one of those people who just let things happen to them. I finally left that situation. I quit my job, got a new one and found roomates to live with, instead of my fickle boyfriend and his crazy mom.

So, I guess my daughter can bring it. I'm ready to take on all the music from that time. "Manic Monday"? Who Cares. "West End Girls"? I'll kick all the Pet Shop Boys' asses. "Rock Me Amadeus"? No, let me rock you. "That's What Friends Are For"?...Uh, no. I still can't listen to that one. Sorry.

But the Long Face That You See Comes From Living Close to Your Fears

Here is a neighbor's old car.

Okay. So, I'm having a smoke detector issue. You know how I don't have any mechanical skillz, right? Well, my smoke detector's battery started to go, so it was screeching at me in sporadic intervals. So annoying. I yanked it off the wall and thought I could just take the battery out of it, until I had a chance to run to the store to get another 9 volt. I was sadly mistaken. I couldn't get the damn thing apart. So, I did what I usually do in these kinds of situations; I called Stinky over. She is the only one of the three of us who has any kind of engineering know-how and she's usually really good at fixing everything. This time, she failed.

I had no other choice but to put it on the loveseat where no one sits and cover it with pillows to hush up its squawking. Of course, I forgot to buy new batteries. I went to sleep just fine, but then sure as shit, I was awakened at 3 in the morning by more low battery screeching.

Here is its wheel...

I wandered into the living room looking for it, so I could fix it real good by smashing it against the wall. Unfortunately, it wasn't hidden under the pillows anymore, and that's why it was so loud. I finally found the offending item on the coffee table. One of the girls must have moved it at some point. I quickly smothered it with pillows to put it out of my misery and tried to get back to sleep. Turns out, I couldn't. I flirted with the idea of giving up and reading a book and just dealing with how cranky I would be in the morning, but held strong to my sleep fantasy.

...And here is the front part of it.

I must have dozed off, because I was suddenly moving to NYC with a much younger version of my ex. I had already quit my job and got rid of my apartment, when I realized I could never live with him (that was about 9 years quicker than in real life). Since I didn't have a job or a place to live, I was free to go wherever I wanted. It was a toss-up between Austin, Texas and Tucson, Arizona. Then it occurred to me that I had kids. (I have no idea where they had been hiding at the beginning of my dream) and I had to stay in Iowa City. That realization jolted me awake and then I did give up on trying to sleep. I didn't do anything productive instead. I just tossed and turned and fretted about what today would be like on so little sleep. Really, I didn't need to worry. I functioned pretty well. Now, I need to get to bed, so that this deprivation doesn't build on itself.

Won't Be Long 'Til Summer Comes

Here are the daisies I planted the first Summer I lived here.

I wasn't nearly as productive as I would like to have been this weekend. Sure, I got some stuff done. Stinky helped me shovel out about a ton of recycling and crap for Goodwill on Saturday and my kitchen is kind of clean, but the rest of my place needs another week of me trying to whip it into shape. I know everyone is sick to death of hearing me whine about this, but having to get up and pick up or drop off my girls every half hour or so, really cramps my cleaning style. I'll start something, get a call, go do some chauffering, come back and either take forever to get back to it, or not get back to it at all. I found myself silently shaking my fist in the air at my ex for not being able to contribute the one thing he's ever done for us... Taking some of the driving load off of me.

Here are the neighbors' irises.

Other than that, the rest of the weekend was really nice. I got some good running in, I went to a cookout at my friend K.'s boyfriend, A.'s house on Saturday and then, as you've already read, got some badly needed blowing off steam time that same night.

Sunday was more driving, and grocery shopping, and in the evening I was supposed to go to another cookout at my friend Eggo's house. Stinky was planning on going to a friend's house, but that fell through, and we both found ourselves exhausted and decided we'd stay home and watch a movie together. Stinky likes horror flicks. If they're more suspenseful, I'm into them too, but I'm not so into the slasher ones that don't have a plot. She talked me into watching the Rob Zombie version of Halloween. Eh, it was okay. Stinky had never seen the original, and I assured her that the remake didn't touch its greatness. We've also tentatively scheduled a viewing of it in the next few weeks.

Here is another photo of the daisies. This time, looking them right in the face.

Today was pretty mellow. I had originally heard it was going to rain much later in the day, so I was going to wait until noon to run. Of course, the clouds rolled in and it started pouring not too long after that, so my running and bike riding plans were put on hold. It would look like it was clearing up and I'd get ready to run a couple of times today, and then it would start raining again the minute I stepped out the door. I took it as a sign that I needed to take a break. I ran 6 days last week, so I couldn't even feel too guilty about not wussing out today.

The girls and I took a little trip to the mall today. I was looking for a cute dress to wear to my friend Gomez's wedding this coming Friday, but didn't find anything I liked well enough to spend money on. I have a couple of other options. I may even raid my daughters' closet and try on Coadster's Homecoming dress.

Anyway, I hope you all had nice relaxing weekends and didn't have to break up your days driving teenagers all over hell.

And We Were Glowing Like the Metal on the Edge of a Knife

A couple of things converged to make this Saturday just about as ridiculous as it could get. First, our friend Dexter of Degrees of Grey blog started working at a dive bar called Kandyland. Apparently, it has a new owner who is trying to class up the joint a little, and is adding bands and karaoke to bring in more cultured and varied patrons. Second, I've never done karaoke before, and I suggested that we check out the Saturday night karaoke, with the extra added bonus of harassing Dexter at work.

The end result was pure idiocy...In a good way. If you've never done karaoke before, (and it seems I'm the only human on the planet who hasn't) you pore over a huge book of song titles to find the very best Def Leppard song in there. (well, at least if you're A., you do)

We had a few bumps in our fun road. Namely, super creeeepeeee, furry, toothless guys who were also WAY too friendly.

My friend J. here was very, very nice and agreed to dance with said furry, toothless creeper. If there is one thing I learned all those years tending bar, is that it doesn't generally pay to be too nice. So, in that spirit, I made a huge point to document the event. As you can see, J. really appreciated the gesture.

I was a little shy to actually get up on stage and sing at first. As I've said before, I'm fine dorking out all over the place, but please, please, please don't make me get up on stage, or I might just freak out.

This woman here? She rocked all of our faces off. A Facebook friend of mine told me that this is her thing. She actually wins contests and stuff.

Here is a photo of me "turning myself around and accidently wrapping the microphone cord around myself. Poor K. didn't know what the hell to think.

After I had my two beers, I was finally ready to get on stage with my friend K. and sing the "Hokey Pokey". I think the idea was that it would be so dorky and funny and I'd get caught up doing the dance, that I wouldn't be quite so nervous. Of course, we didn't account for my gracelessness. Suddenly, I was Jerry Lewis, calling out for Dean.

Right after that, A. got up to sing another song. This time, he traded Def Leppard in for the Eurythmics. At some point, my friend G. and I thought he needed a little help. By the time we got through, we needed to change the lyrics to "Nightmares are made of this..."

Right before we left, four of us got up to sing, "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights". We thought it would be funny for girls to sing it to other girls, and as far as we were concerned, it was. K.'s boyfriend A, took the camera and got all artsy on us. He took a bunch of pictures of us looking like the freaky people in the movie Jacob's Ladder. It was kind of fitting, actually.

The time finally came for us to leave our new found creepy, furry toothless friends and head back to the Dublin Underground. By the end of the night, we were sufficiently tired, sweaty and fresh out of shame. In other words, it was a perfect night.

A Hundred Miles an Hour in My Mind

Here are some weird things at my daughters' high school. I'm thinking they are used for football somehow?

I am so ready for this three day weekend. It will also begin a 6 week streak of having at least one extra day off a week. Can you imagine having an extra day off a week? I can't wait. We'll start doing Summer orientations at work soon too. I usually go and round-up parents and students and lead them around and eat lunch with them and ask them if they have any questions. Parents usually want to know what the drinking is like on campus, and I'm always tempted to say, "Oh man. It's awesome! Most of the kids are really, really good at it." But then I give them the usual spiel about our commitment to end binge drinking and alcohol education. Anyway, I have to dress-up a little more, but it sure breaks up the days.

The problem I can see for me right now, is that I've already checked out for the weekend. It felt like Friday when I left the building. Then on my way home, I was starting to pass this group of college boys drinking beer and throwing the football around. The guy getting ready to throw it asked me, "Hey, do you want to be impressed?"

Since I would love to have someone try and impress me every second of the day, I said, "Hell, yeah." He told me to stay where I was, while the guy standing a few houses down put an empty beer can on his head. I figured he'd either hit the can, or hit his friend in the face, and either way, it would be entertaining. He threw it over the guy's head and the beer can fell off all by itself. Needless to say, I was unimpressed.

Everyone keeps asking me what I'm doing this weekend, and I don't have much to tell them. Which is exactly how I want it. Coadster is babysitting for a friend of mine tomorrow night. She made school ambassador for next year, and it's a real honor and looks great on a resume, but it means she'll be working the high school graduation most of Sunday. Plus, both of the girls will be attending copious graduation parties all weekend. I plan on watching movies and drinking a beer or two tomorrow night. I'll go out with some people on Saturday night. A friend of mine is a lawyer in the Twin Cities and she said she wanted to hook up with us too. The rest of the time will be spent cleaning, reading, resting, running, and relaxing.

Soooo, how about you all? Do you get three days off? And if you do, how will you fill them?

And It's Alright, What I Can't Do

Well, kids. Things have calmed down today and I don't have a whole lot to say. Whew! Right? I did happen to bring my camera to work and took a couple of shots. On my way to work, I noticed that someone had placed a red plastic dinosaur in an overgrown yard. I think he looks really natural there.

Here is the bush in front of my office, heavy with flowers. It's almost unseemly, there are so many on there.

I still haven't really had time to work on the balance I was fantasizing about a few days ago. I have been able to run every day this week, and that's been wonderful. This evening my iPod chose to begin my run with Elvis Presley's "Burning Love" and end it with Elvis Costello's "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down". I liked the Elvis bookends.

Here are some twin pitchforks that I saw stuck in the ground on my walk downtown at lunch.

Tonight was the first time in forever that the girls spent mostly at their dad's house. I had to drive Stinky to basketball practice, but that was it. It felt weird but good to have entire an evening to myself.

I briefly met the supper club kids at the Hilltop for really cheap but delicious cheese fries. Of course, I didn't do much the rest of the evening, but I was finally able to live in my own little world and listen to my own music and hopefully get to bed at a halfway decent hour. Who knows? I may even get enough sleep to write a post that doesn't suck tomorrow. It's not likely, but it's possible.

There's So Many Fish in the Sea, That Only Rise Up in the Sweat and Smoke Like Mercury

Here are some pretty irises in the rain.

So, you know how yesterday I said I was fuming? At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to go into why. Mostly, because it's embarrassing and makes me look really, really stupid. But then I always hate it when people start something and don't really tell you what's going on. Plus, my whole blog is embarrassing and makes me look stupid, so what the hell?.

Last night, I finally had a couple of seconds of downtime and all I could get myself to do was stare at stupid Facebook crap. I was just going through people's friends lists looking for anyone I knew. I found Mr B.'s profile on there. It was closed, but I was perusing his friends. I love to look at photos, even if I don't know the people in them. One of the girls on his list had an open profile. It was all about her boyfriend with a bunch of photos of Mr. B. Her profile said they had been dating for 3 years. What? I'm beginning to believe more and more that all life's mysteries can be solved on Facebook.

I was really pissed off. So, today I wrote him a little message and sent it to him through Facebook. Please keep in mind, that I was angry when I wrote it so the grammar is even worse than it normally is on my blog. And yes, I do own a Thesaurus, but I seem to like to use the same five words when I'm mad. Apparently, I'm also fond of the word, "shit" in all its glorious forms. Okay. Here's my charming missive:

Hey,

Remember how you texted me a couple of weeks ago and told me I was the 2^nd thing you thought of every day? At first, I thought it was really sweet and assumed that the 1^st person you thought of was your son. Then I found out you’ve had a girlfriend for the last 3 years and now I’m guessing the REAL 1^st person you think of everyday is her, and it seems really mean instead of sweet. Seriously? Have you just been licking me on the face and calling me sucker for the last year and a half? I feel like such an asshole for believing all the bullshit you’ve been spewing at me. How many times did I ask you if you were seeing anyone and how many times did I tell you I didn’t believe in cheating and I didn’t want anyone else’s man? About a hundred million, that’s how many. And you lied to me every single time. The thing that sucks is that I’ve never lied to you and have been really open and honest about how I felt about you. I keep trying to think of what it was I did to you to make you want to treat me that way, and I can’t come up with anything. Personally, I wouldn’t fuck with someone I hated like that, let alone someone I told the things you told me. Are you really that selfish and need that much attention, that you think it’s fine to hurt the people who care about you to get it?

Dude, you told me you talked to your mom about me. Wasn’t she confused that you already had a girlfriend? Who knows? Maybe your family is Mormon and you all have tons of wives and you forgot to tell me that too.

I really feel the most sorry for your girlfriend. I have a feeling I’m not the only girl you’ve cheated on her with, and if you’ve been together for three years, I’m sure you’re really in love. It still blows me away that you would cheat on her, especially since you told me how shitty you felt after your wife cheated on you. I hope you can get your shit together and never do anything like this to her again. I doubt she did anything to deserve it either.

So, Mr. B. (if that is your real name…). When I first met you, I thought you were so cool and I hoped that if nothing else, we could at least be friends, but I’ve never had a friend lie to me and treat me the way you have.

Um, yeah. Whatever. I really don’t know what else to say. Lucky you, I guess.

My Mind Was Thugged, All Laced and Bugged

Here is a walkway that leads to the Piano Bar and then the alley.

Soooooo, here's the deal, Lucille. It is really late. The girls had their choir concert and then I had some bullshit I had to fume about and work on getting over, and now it's very, very late.

As I've already whined about, the last few weeks have been ridiculously hectic. I haven't had time to keep up with house cleaning, working out, eating right or my much needed alone time. In other words I'm not just whack, I'm out of whack. Hopefully, starting this week, everything will slow down and I can catch-up and get some kind of balance back. I'll let you know how that goes.

For tonight, I need to get to bed. Here's hoping your lives are all moving at a pace you can handle.

Watching Through Windows, You're Wondering If I'm Okay

Once again, I was caught up in a whirlwind weekend. Friday after I got off at noon, I met a couple of friends for cheap sushi lunch. It rained all day, so I went home and took a much needed, if not very quick nap.

The rest of the evening was for Coadster. I picked her up from soccer, and then went to Red Lobster for dinner. She loves that place for some reason. She had her beloved shrimp scampi, Stinky had steak and I had crab legs and steak. We had a great conversation and it all seemed to make Coadster very, very happy. We dropped Stinky off at home so she could go to a neighbor's house where they were sitting around a fire, and Coadster and I went to see Star Trek. We were both very happy with the movie. Of course, we both got a chuckle out of Hollywood's version of future Iowa, but we do most of the time things "take place" in Iowa.

Here's me and the girl crush dancing like idiots to her friend's band.

We hit the ground running on Saturday. I had to get Coadster to a soccer game by 7:30. Then I had to go buy bagels and bring them to the high school for snacks during the show choir workshop. Since Coadster had a soccer double header too, she was going back and forth all day. I made it to her second soccer game. Since Coadster made varisty this year, she doesn't get to play much, so me going to her games is a lot of me watching her sit on the bench. I like watching soccer, so it's fine, it's just that Saturday was so cold and windy, that I was thinking I could wait and watch her sit and watch sports on our couch in the warmth of the living room anytime I wanted. A friend of mine was working taking money at the gate, so we had a good talk. She's one of my Dublin friends and her daughter's in soccer too.

By Saturday evening, I was ready to stop running kids all over hell, and blow off some steam. There was a free movie called Drop Evil at the Englert Theater. It was a play at cheesy old slasher type films made locally, for the most part. I went with my friend K. We knew a lot of people involved and acting in the film, so it was pretty fun.

Here is a bartender safe from the craziness, behind the glass.

My girl crush was back in town again. One of her friend's bands was playing at the Yacht Club. I met some Dublin kids there after the movie and a quick trip to George's to see another friend who was in town.

Here are some cute girls working their "I'm a little Teapot" routine.

After the band played, we checked out the Dublin, but it was full of people we didn't really know and there was nowhere to sit, so we went across the street to a bar called the Deadwood.

The Deadwood was full of people we did know. Many of them, we hadn't seen for a while, so we settled in.

My friend Rachie was back from the UP of Michigan. We tried to give her all kinds of extra attention to help her recover from the Winter up there.

Then Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" came on the juke box and we dropped everything to do cheesy show choir moves to it. I'm sure you all know how that goes.

It got to a point where I was laughing so hard, that I had to sit down for a minute, or I'd fall down. I love nights like that. I think every night should get to that point. Okay, not every night, but any night that I go out with my girl crush. Thank god, it usually does.