He Told Us Not to Blow It. Cuz He Knows It's All Worthwhile.

Coadster making the same cheese ball face I always make in pictures. I guess there's no fighting city hall, is there?

Since it's been a little while, I thought I'd catch you all up on a few things in my life. Things are going just swimmingly.

Coadster seems happy in Ames and doing well in her classes. She calls me almost every day. Of course, The Guy always laughs at how short my phone conversations with her (and everyone else) are. She'll tell me what's going on, I'll tell her what's going on. We'll make fun of the cats and talk about whether we should worry about Stinky and then I'm ready to go. Thank god my girls have known me their whole lives and don't take it personally that any phone call with me will last 5 minutes if they're lucky. Yes. I am THAT lame.

I've also been working on Coadster's room. Last week I scrubbed the walls, removed all the hardware, patched up and sanded off any holes and I plan to prime and paint and rip up carpet in there this weekend. We're not sure exactly what we'll use it for. It will be a spare room for guests, and probably a sanctuary for The Guy to escape the estrogen flying around the house whenever he needs it...Which could be all the time.

Stinky all dressed up in USA themed clothes for the first high school football game this year. Every game has a different theme.

Stinky is in her senior year in high school and seems to finally be getting down to business. She's such a smart girl, but such a lazy student. She is working a lot, but still seems to get her homework done and in on time. Whew!

My friend's newly built tree house. Her boys love it.

The Guy and I are doing just great. We're training for my triathlon in a couple of weeks lately. He may or may not do it with me, but he's been great about helping me figure out the course and swimming, biking, running it with me and not making fun of me when I'm practically crawling at the end of it.

We had some friends over for black bean chili and corn bread for dinner last night and I made mojitos with fresh mint from my garden last night. It was so nice to hang out with my girlfriends and my boyfriend and have such great talks and laugh that hard. Who knows if it will last or what will happen tomorrow, but right now, I am as happy as a clam. I like to be aware of that while it's happening. I never want to take it for granted.

Between the Noise You Hear and the Sound You Like

Here is an old pic. I'm at the jukebox, picking out songs, which is one of my favorite things to do.

Well, kids. This will be a short and boring post. I didn't do a lot today but ride my bike, run and drive Stinky around to her assorted events. It was a fine day, just boring. I like boring, but it doesn't make for a very good blog post.

One good thing...A while back a friend of mine gave me a DVD of like 700 songs of new music. At the time, my home computer couldn't play it, so I tried to listen to it at work, but I could never have it loud enough to really hear the songs very well. I was able to download it into my new computer and I can't tell you how nice it is to have so much new music. It makes cleaning and reading and putzing around the house a million times better.

I Want to Ride It Where I Like

Here is a window, out in the middle of nowhere.

Good gawd! I feel like this blog has become me just detailing all the mundane crap I do every day, and I apologize for that. I'm going to try to actually write here and there in the next couple of weeks. Of course, today will be more detailing of boring crap that I did today, but it's all I got right now.

Today I was actually able to ride my bike to work and back. It was sooooo nice. It took me about 12 minutes to get to work. It normally takes me at least 35 minutes to walk it. I also just like to ride, so I can't wait until I get to do it every day. It's supposed to rain every day for the rest of the week. I guess I'll just have to wait until next week to make it my routine again.

I also ran my 6 mile route after work and that made me very, very happy....And a little tired. It's been a while since I was able to work-out so much in one day. I should probably ease into it a little more, but I'm obviously not smart enough for that.

I did give myself a little couch time and watched some house hunting type shows on HGTV and then finally finished sanding and painting two spots on my kitchen walls where there used to be a back splash with the old counters, but won't be with the new ones. Now, I'm more than ready to go read myself to sleep...I've heard In Cold Blood isn't the best book to read before bed, but you know me, I like to live on the edge.

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.

And When It's Time for Leavin', I Hope You'll Understand

Ondine and me and K. at Devotay for Ondine's special birthday dinner.

I think I may just make this a clean-up post. I got so behind with everything when my internet was down, that I feel like all I've been doing is back tracking. So, this is my attempt at tidying up the last week, so that I can get to a point where I can actually report things as they happen.

New Year's Day, Erik and I woke up late and met many of our friends at The Vine to watch some bowl games. Surprisingly, I wasn't too hung-over, but I still appreciated some wings and a carbonated, caffeinated beverage. At around noon, Stinky called and asked if I could pick her up at her friend's house. Coadster stayed at her dad's house on New Year's Eve after calling me to tell me that she had been at a party that was busted by the police, but not to worry because she wasn't one of the kids who got arrested. Thanks, honey. Hearing that, makes mommy feel so much better. Whatever happened to kids hiding all their exploits from their parents? Did they do away with that on the Millenium?

On New Year's Eve, Erik told me he wasn't ready to leave me yet, and so he pushed back his free lance work a little further. It made my new year. Tuesday night we were really low energy and did a lot of lying around on the couch watching football and a movie with Coadster.

On Wednesday, we went out for dinner at Devotay for Ondine's and H.'s birthday. I love going out to eat with my friends, because we all order different stuff and then share it.

Erik had planned on leaving Friday morning, but had to take care of some things before he left and decided to stay long enough to bring me lunch. Around 2'ish the cable guy came by and finally fixed my internets. Erik texted me and found out I was at home. He called me and said he was at our friend Dexter's house and asked if I wanted a ride back to work, and while he was at it, maybe he'd stay one more night and leave on Saturday. We had talked about the fact that we never went to see a movie on our week long date and so we could rectify that now. Sweet.

We went to the Hamburg Inn for dinner and then to see Charlie Wilson's War. I thought it was pretty good. On the way out, Erik said, "Wow. We've been really political lately."

I said, "I know. Let's go get drunk now." We headed down to the Dublin and didn't really get all that very drunk after all. Stinky came home around 11:30 and we got home almost an hour before her.

When we woke up on Saturday, Erik decided to stay until the next day. I didn't have the girls on Saturday night and it would give us some more alone time. We went to my friend James' house to watch the Steelers in the playoffs with some friends. It was a decent game, even if the Steelers didn't win. The Steelers started off sucking, but then my friend James told me to pretend to call them and let them know I was watching. And once again, it was dorky, but it totally worked. The Steelers came back and almost won it. Freaky.

After the game we headed to The Motley Cow since it was the last night at its old location. There were only a few people there - mostly it was the owner and the employees having their last supper. I had a beer and just a little taste of whiskey that was being passed around before we went home.

On Sunday, Erik finally left. Wah. I got back into my normal life again. I went running for the first time in 10 days and Coadster and I went to see Juno. I really, really, really, really liked that movie - and feel free to add some more really's to that.

Now, after this totally mundane, totally scattered post, I'll attempt to resume more updated blogging. Of course, I'm not guaranteeing anything...

Into the Cracks Where Fall and Winter Collide

Here is a guy sitting in the stands by himself.

So, here's a weird thing. I actually went out and did something tonight. And not just one thing, I did several things. I'm still sick, so I was thinking about just staying home and getting better, but then there were options and so I went with them.

The first place K. and I went was to the Bijou to see a movie called King Corn, a documentary about two Harvard grads who go to Iowa to raise an acre of corn and the things they learn about how our country eats. It was really good and funny. It also seemed a little timely after my food post this week.

After the movie ended, we met K.'s roommate J. at a multi-media art installation thingy. There was some interesting spectacle and and a few parts of it I thought were kind of cool. It was in all these different rooms, and in one of the last rooms we went into there was a girl wearing flesh colored underwear and being painted blue by another girl. Her image was being projected onto a screen while an old porno movie was being projected onto her torso. Did you get all that? Yeah, it was all very Laugh-In-y.

Once we had our fill of culture with a capital K, I stopped at home to check on Coadster and her friends who were playing Guitar Hero. I had to ask the obligatory, "So, no one's having sex, right?" question to which Coadster answered,

"Yeah, right. Because if any of my friends would have sex in my house, it would make me vomit." Good girl. I stayed long enough to embarrass Coadster in front of her friends a little more, and then K. and I stopped at our friend I.'s house. Her husband and kids were out of town, so she decided to have a party. I told K. I was going to just do a drive-by, because I didn't feel well and sometimes I.'s parties can have some grad studenty and artsy types who aren't always necessarily all that friendly. Tonight though, was actually pretty fun. There were plenty of people we knew there and we even solved a mystery. Our friend T. had lost a scarf at a show at the Hall Mall a little while ago. She knitted it herself and it was very, very cool. While we were standing in the kitchen tonight. Someone told this guy that they loved his scarf and it turned out to be T.'s He said he found it on the floor of the Hall Mall and no one had claimed it by the end of the night. How cool was that? We figured T. would be happy that he loved her work as much as she did.

Perhaps There's a Thing or Two I Think of Lying in Bed

Here is a picture of a snowy half-drained swimming pool.

Okay, kids. Here's the deal. I have a bad cold and it's making me all stupid. I'm absolutely sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm old and I thought it was a good idea to stay out until 5:30 am on Sunday morning. God. I'm never allowed to have any fun at all.

That whole first paragraph up there was written to let me off the hook from having any cohesive thoughts or anything to write about tonight. I seriously haven't done anything in the last two days but go to work, come home, go running, make dinner, watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special last night and take a nap tonight because the girls were at their dad's house. I've even been too sick to play video games, so you know I really feel like crap.

Sooooo, um. I'm trying to think of even random things to write about...Okay, here's one. When I was running this weekend, I accidently had the iPod set on Coadster's playlist. It was kind of okay at first, I heard "Sonny" by Bobby Hebb, and "Loro" by Pinback. Then as I got more into my run, I heard, "From the Beginning" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, "Island in the Sun" by Weezer, "Into Your Arms" by the Lemonheads and "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn and John which I can finally listen to again after it was so overplayed a few months ago. But just as I was a few blocks from home, some weird song came on that reminded me of Catholic guitar masses from the seventies. I was a little worried I was going to find some brainwashing tapes from whatever cult Coadster was joining under her bed, until I placed the song. It's called "By My Side" and it's from Godspell. I guess I'll never cure her of her love for musicals. I also stopped worrying about her when "Lovestoned..." by Justin Timberlake came on directly after. Whew, she's still 15 after all.

I promise this will be my last random thought tonight. Last week, I was talking some shit to my co-worker John, and so he thought he'd be all clever and shoot a rubber band at me. Little did he know I'd been working on my rubber band ball for the last few months and it had reached an impressive size. (remind me to take a picture for you, I'm pretty proud of the old girl) I snuck up to his cubicle and lobbed it on the pile of papers that were in front of him. He jumped about a hundred feet and his hands did that fish out of water flopping thing they do when John really spazzes hard. It was the best thing that's happened at work in months. He tried to retaliate this
week by rolling a two liter bottle of soda at my desk like it was a bomb, but I was unfazed and then he had to wait to open it, so it didn't explode all over him.

You Better Make Up Something Quick

Here is a picture of the inside of a sunflower. Oooh, texture.

I only have a few minutes of quiet left before I pick up Stinky and her friends for their sleepover. Coadster's hanging with her dad tonight. The play he's directing went up today, so she was going to that and then there's some kind of discussion afterward which should go pretty late, so she's just staying at her dad's after that.

Earlier in the evening, I got the girls set up with pizza delivery and then went running. I took Stinky and her friend's to some other girl's house and then went home to play some more Guitar Hero 3. I managed a feat I never thought I'd master, but I talked on my cell phone and played Heart's "Barracuda" at the same time. Yeah, you know I rock. It's okay.

My friend K. called to say they were headed to the Foxhead, so I joined them for one drink. A guy I know was tending bar, and we got him to show us his high school senior picture. It was very entertaining. There was another guy sitting by us who helped interpret for the man next to him, who was so drunk, they wouldn't let him stay at the shelter house up the street. He offered to buy us a round, but we declined. He kept saying he wasn't trying to have sex with us, he just liked us a lot. Huh? I was pretty brain dead and spent most of the rest of my time at the bar, watching Lara Croft: Tomb Raider with the sound off and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Young Guns came on after that, and luckily, there was nothing really too difficult to understand about that movie. I totally got that Lou Diamond Phillips was the spiritual one without even hearing one word.

Now, quiet time is over. I gotsta go pick up some screaming Mimis. It could be scarier than Halloween at my house tonight.

Don't Surround Yourself With Yourself

Here is Coadster with her friends, ever flashing gang signs. They must forget that they live in Iowa.

This weekend was pretty awesome too. I kind of like starting every Sunday post that way. I hope I can keep it up.

Friday night was me getting some much needed alone time. I still had to do some cleaning, and I had to give Q.'s interview questions all the time they deserved, but then I just putzed around and probably muttered to myself.

Here are her two best friends from junior high. I kind of miss seeing those girls hanging out in my living room and eating all my food.

After my haircut and my run, the rest of Saturday afternoon was devoted to meeting all of Coadster's Homecoming needs. Stinky and I tag teamed helping her get ready. We love her to death, but Coadster can be kind of a handful when she's stressed.

I had this plan that after the girls were dropped off at all their endeavors, I'd have a little staying in date with myself. So, when we went to Hy-Vee to buy a flower for Coadster's date, I picked myself up a six-pack. As we were heading to the register, a guy handing out wine samples asked, "Hey young lady, do you want a Jello shot?" Since I was with my two teenage daughters, I figured he was trying to be funny, so I asked him if he was serious, and he uncovered this container full of Jello shots. What the hell? When did they start giving out free Jello shots at the grocery store? I had to decline, because it was only three and I knew if I did one, I'd be asleep by four.

After I went to Coadster's best friend's house to take photos of all the kids, I stopped off at my friend K.'s house. She and T. were drinking wine. I was just going to stop by for a sec, and then order some Chinese take-out and go home and drink my beer and watch movies and play video games and do whatever else I wanted to do, but then my plans changed for the better. K. suggested we go to George's for beer and cheeseburgers, and what kind of idiot would say no to that? We only went down for an hour or so, and I was home by 10. Perfect.

I was just starting to play some video games, when Coadster called and asked if she could take the controllers over to their after-dance party. So, I was forced to watch a movie instead. I watched The Queen. I wasn't sure if I'd be into it, because I never got into the whole Princess Di hub bub, but it was actually pretty good.

This is Coadster and her date. Sorry it's a little dark.

Today was more football watching at The Vine. Our friend C. couldn't make it, because his grandmother died. They were pretty close, so I felt bad for him. The game was great, the Steelers won, and the other guys who watch football with us were a constant source of amusement.

The best thing about today, was that my friend K. called me later this afternoon to see if I would be her date to see Drive-By Truckers at The Englert Theater on October 19th with Dexter and his lovely lady, S. She had originally planned to go with this one guy, and as she puts it, she doesn't like him anymore. So, I'm the lucky girl now.

I know this is way too damn long, but I want to say one more thing. It's Columbus Day tomorrow, and apparently no one in Iowa celebrates it, but everyone in the Chicago area does. So, I will be away from my desk most of the day trying to sell our particular institution to several hundred parents and their high school aged children. I promise I will still try to read all of your kick-ass blogs when I get home, I just won't be able to check in until then. Pray for me.

Did You See Any Action? Did You Make Any Friends?

Here is me playing the photo game from Evil-E's blog, Random Crap. The word was "fall". So, this was taken last Fall of some fallen leaves.

Today was kind of excellent. I finally got some real sleep - almost ten hours to be exact. Nice. After I got up and actually moved, Stinky and I went downtown so she could cash some birthday checks. It was a little before noon and the downtown area was insane with Homecoming kids. There was a lot of black and then even more gold and I almost got drunk from huffing the fumes that came off of almost everyone who walked by me.

I helped the girls get ready for their cousin's wedding. I was invited but opted not to go, because it was my ex-husband's family. While I love many of his family members, it always feels kind of weird being around everyone and blah and blah. I wouldn't mind it one bit if my kids wanted to bring me some sopa back, however.

I went running after the girls left and it was windy and around eighty degrees and I think I could easily have continued for half the day. My iPod is funny because it tends to play certain songs over and over again, and others not so much. Today though, it brought up some music I hadn't heard in forever. The Knack's "My Sharona", Head East's "Never Been Any Reason" and my two favorite Van Halen songs besides "Runnin' With the Devil" - "Jamie's Crying" and "Dance the Night Away" all came on. It took me right back to Summer in junior high when I lived in Alsip, Illinois, and I would listen to WLS on the radio when I weeded the garden and sigh a little bit about a boy named Robert DiGregorio.

In the afternoon, my friend K. called to see if I wanted to join her, T. and our friend Ashley and her beautiful baby to walk her dogs in Hickory Hill Park. Hell yes, I did. We were still laughing about the other night when Ashley and K. and I were walking home from a show and were getting harassed by some guys who told us they were Marines. My friend Ashley, who is very tall and very gorgeous told them they looked too short to be Marines and then threatened to kick their asses if they didn't leave us alone. K. and I would totally have had her back, if they hadn't wisely crossed the street and finally shut their pie holes.

Around five'ish I traveled to an Iowa City suburb for a BBQ at my friend S.'s house. Her boyfriend excellently cooked us steaks and so I got to eat and then drink and watch a movie and talk shit. What more could a girl want?

Tomorrow, I'm going to do some stuff that even after a couple of beers, I know is bad planning for a Sunday afternoon and evening. At three I'll meet some kids at The Vine for more football viewing and then I'll leave that early to go see King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters at the Bijou with another friend of mine named S. and her husband J.. It's a documentary about two guys trying to break records on Donkey Kong. In the Apple trailer, they even show a snippet of filming that photo I put up on here from when Ottumwa was in Life magazine for the video game olympics in the early eighties. I like movies, I like video games, so a movie about video games should be the best thing ever, right?

And Your Destination, You Don't Know It

Here are very many tomatoes.

Well kids, I'm beat. My mission tonight is to get as much sleep as possible. Earlier in the evening, my mission was to avoid going downtown at any cost. Neither of the girls went to the Homecoming parade or to the free Three Dog Night concert that followed. Coadster went to Dubuque to watch the high school football game and Stinky went to the movies.

I drove over to my friend K.'s house where she and our friend T. were knitting what I thought looked like the beginnings of thongs, but they both assured me they were going to be washcloths and watching whatever crap was being served up on network television. There wasn't much selection, so we settled on wrestling. Who doesn't watch wrestling while they knit?

Earlier in the day, as I walked downtown surveying all the preparations for the parade, the guys who were setting up the big stage were cranking Roxy Music's Avalon. I think the reason that album cracks me up so much, is that almost every woman I know of a certain age (read: old) has probably had some cheese ball guy try to seduce her to that in the eighties.

After I came home from picking Stinky and her friends up from the movies, I played some Halo 3. At one point, Coadster called me to tell me she and her friends were back from Dubuque and were eating at IHOP. I quickly tried to turn the volume on the TV down so she couldn't hear the voices from my game saying, "Die demons!", but then all her guy friends wanted to tell me hi over her phone, and I finally gave myself away by telling them I had to go or I was going to get shot. They all had a good laugh at my expense and my guy died anyway. The end.

All Of It Was Made For You and Me

Here is a picture of some feet and some shoes...Some very white shoes.

Kids, I just want to say, I know I done you wrong yesterday and I'm sorry. Can we still hang-out if I promise to be better about only using the same post once? It's just that I looked down the week and saw what was coming and I had to take Monday night to clean, or I knew there wouldn't be another chance. Does it help when I tell you my house is nice and tidy right now?

Okay, whatever. Let's just lay it all out for you. Tonight I had to pick girls up and then I went running and then came home and started making dinner, before I had to take girls to a volleyball game at the high school. I then had almost an hour before I picked girls up and then dropped other girls off at their houses and came home, cleaned my kitchen and got ready for tomorrow. See what I mean? It's all so crazy making, and I know it's what we all deal with in our own ways everyday.

Tomorrow will be just as busy, but the girls will be at their dad's house and he has his car fixed, so he can actually do some of the driving for once. Yeeeee Haaaaaaaw! What am I going to do instead? Well, I'm going to run around with girls, but just different ones. I'm finally going to cash in that rain check with my friend from last week for beer right after work. Then I'm going to leave that and meet some friends at George's so we can walk from there to Devotay to celebrate my friend T.'s birthday. Because T. was so awesome and fun on my birthday, I'm going to try really hard NOT to make happy hour evolve into sloppy evening. I hear it's all about moderation. I'll have to try that sometime.

Thursday night I may have to clone myself. Stinky is marching for the first time at the football game and Coadster has a cross country meet in Cedar Rapids. It would be great if their dad could have attended one thing and I could do the other, but he scheduled auditions for the play he's directing on that night without checking to see if it would work or not. That's all I'm going to say about that, because if I started, I might not stop. I think I'll have to skip Coadster's meet, since I just saw her run on Saturday and I don't want to miss Stinky's first marching band dealio.

Friday's kind of an open spot - which means I may do something, or I may just clean, dig around for sedatives and get ready for Saturday.

Saturday is Stinky's fourteenth birthday. Days like these were made for Valium. After last year, I originally said no more big parties, but then I caved. In my defense, she's been hanging with a different crowd these days - kids who are actually her age and don't seem to be the types to vandalize Taco Bell and bring all the plastic silverware and "Caution Wet Floor" signs to my house. Coadster will be at another DJ'ing gig in the Quad Cities and my friend A. won't be able to come over bearing wine like last year, so I won't have my people to help me. Actually, maybe days like these were made for a Valium, Xanax and beer cocktail.

Just An Invitation Would Have Been Just Fine

Here is a photo of a metal sculpture at the State Fair. Now that I study it more closely, it kind of looks like a woman giving birth.

Tonight I'm taking a deep breath before heading into an increasingly social calendar for the rest of the week. Originally, I thought that I might go out once or twice this week, but things keep getting added on, and each event promises to be really fun. Here. Let me lay it all out for you:

Wednesday evening I'm meeting a friend right after work for a drink. I don't know if I've ever celebrated happy hour before. Normally, I go straight home when I'm done working and either go running, or drive the girls all over hell and then go running. I still have to get Stinky to volleyball practice at 6:30, so I will probably only have just one hour in which to get happy, but It makes me feel almost like a grown-up. Because isn't that what adults do - wear business suits and have cocktails during happy hour?

Thursday night, I will be nothing at all like a grown-up. I'm meeting several of my friends out to see bands play at the Picador. Some people I know are coming in from out of town, and it seems like it will be another one of those nights right out of 1997 at Gabes - except we're ten years older now. I'm taking the next day off of work, just in case I forget that I'm ten years older and need some recovery time.

On Friday night, another friend of mine is coming down from Minneapolis for the weekend. I haven't seen LA in so long I could cry, but through the magic of MySpace and blogging, we hooked back up and are ready for action. We hung-out a lot about ten years ago too when I was splitting with my ex-husband and the girls were very young. When I asked my daughters if they remembered LA, they said they weren't sure. Then I told them she was the one who gave them all those cool old school Polly Pockets, and they thought she sounded familiar. I finally reminded them that she was the one who told them to yell "Hey, you stinky hippies - Peeeee-Uuuuuuuu!" out our car window when that Vanagon cut us off at the gas station that one time. My girls suddenly remembered and said, "Oh, she's really cool."

Because LA is so cool, I'm going to look around for a bar that has one of those industrial fans so I can do my coked-out Stevie Nicks impersonation from the "Stand Back" video. LA has seen me do it before, but I think she needs a refresher. Now all I have to do is buy me a caftan, so I can do it up right.

On Saturday morning Coadster has a cross country race here in town. It means I'll have to get up WAY earlier than I want to, but then I'll run and maybe take a nap. As of right now, I don't have any plans for Saturday night, but resting still sounds like a really good idea.

I haven't heard of any more football watching plans for Sunday. On Sunday evening, Junot Diaz is reading at 6:30 (I think) at Prairie Lights. I love his work and really want to see him. Sunday nights are generally bad for me, bein's how it's a school night and all. I'm thinking I might be able to work it, if I make a pot of chili or potato soup on Saturday night and then I'd just have to heat it up and make sandwiches before I ran out the door to try and catch me some culture.

Living On My Own Was the Least of My Fears

How creepy does this goat look with it's shining blue eyes?

I don't know, kids. I just don't have much to share with you right now. I just feel like I don't even get a second to process anything enough to write about it. I come home from work, run my ass off, both literally and figuratively and then by ten o'clock, I'm done. My brain is fried and stringing words together seems really overwhelming. There's got to be something more worthwhile I should be doing instead, like isn't there an old episode of Flavor of Love on that I could watch?

Hey, I know...I could talk about my bed. I'm a little sad that I haven't had the time to get to know my bed properly. I feel like I was so irresponsible to go to all that trouble to make a room for it and bring it into my home, but not really get to spend any quality time with it. Sure, I sleep on it every night, and I usually make it in the morning, but I would be much happier if I could give my bed the hours of uninterrupted personal attention we both really need and deserve.

This is the first time I've owned a queen size bed all by myself. It's crazy to have so much room in a bed. It's funny to see which side I actually prefer. I've never been with a guy who hasn't been weird about which side they want/have to sleep on. Since I normally don't care, I take what's left. In the last couple of weeks, I've had the chance to discover my side...I guess I'm more comfortable on the right side of the bed. Who knew?

Well That is That and This is This

Here are some plastic veggies set on stainless steel for you.

This weekend went by so fast, I'm not really sure what happened. It's almost easier to figure out what didn't happen - namely, all those cleaning projects.

I started the weekend with a bang. I was running late for work in the morning, so I drove in as close as I could get before I hit the metered parking. As I reached my car after work, my friend J. was driving by and very kindly stopped to talk some shit. When I got in my car and started it up, there arose such a clatter. Yup, the rattling noise my car had been making forever and that Mr. Dateman wisely diagnosed as an exhaust problem, had made my car sound like the loudest of Harley's. If only I were one of those go-getter types who would actually get shit checked out before it became a very loud problem.

Most of Friday night I had a dull migraine that I treated with my wide variety of meds. Saturday I think I did some stuff...Oh yeah, I ran and drove kids around and tried to coordinate Saturday night festivities with several different people. It went from a gang of folks meeting at George's for cheeseburgers and beer, to a girl's night where we ate Indian food and then drank at 126. My friend A. got called into work for a co-worker who's dad died, so we figured we'd be nice and drink and very loudly keep her company. I drank Mojitos, which probably wasn't the best choice for me, because they don't taste the least little bit like alcohol and so I was kind of surprised when I was suddenly stoooopidly drunk. My friend S. did a great job of keeping us entertained with her gruesome substitute teaching stories. I almost felt kind of grateful to work in a sterile, bland cubicle...Almost.

Today, I was a bit on the hung-over side. Not bad, but kind of d-u-m and lame. So, I guess I wasn't much different than I normally am on Sunday.

I Wish It Was Sunday, 'Cause That's My Funday

Here is another recycled photo of rolled hay and farm machinery.

I realize that I spend a lot of time whining on here about a whole lot of nothing. So, tonight I thought I'd list things from a day that was pretty okay. It wasn't such a great day that I'll worry about a tornado hitting my house to make up for it, but it was good. Here is a list of it's goodness:

1. I spent about a half a day with Mr. Dateman and his roommates. He flipped me shit. I flipped him shit. He and his roommate flipped me shit. Me and his roommate flipped Mr Dateman shit. The shit got spread around...There was balance in the universe.

2. When I got to my car and was getting ready to drive away from Mr. Dateman's house, Coadster called me to see if I would take her and her sister to the mall to go school shopping. Sure, I had to be at the big scary maul, and it was packed because it was tax-free weekend, but we got some good deals and the girls thought I was the shit for buying them clothes.

3. At the mall, we also worked out a plan to get me my own room. You know, one of those places where you get to sleep in a bed and shut and lock your door and have privacy? One of those. They both agreed that they couldn't share a room because Coadster is totally Felix to Stinky's Oscar. Instead, Stinky said she'd happily sleep on the futon in the living room. Okay. Now all I have to do is look for a sale on a good bed. I want a queen and I want it to be comfy. After sleeping on a futon for the last four years, I deserve it, godammit.

4. After a late lunch and our mall journey, I dropped the girls off at their respective social functions. I stopped by my friend K.'s house to drop off some DVD's. I also checked out the garden and got even more tomatoes. I swear there are hundreds of them this year.

5. I went grocery shopping by myself, which is kind of nice. I ran into one of my co-workers and his significant other. When I asked him, if I would see him at work tomorrow, he said, "Yeah, I guess I can't get away with calling in sick now, since you saw me here." Maybe next Monday.

6. I waited until almost sunset to run today because it was so hot. Since most of the students are gone, I hardly saw anyone out and about. It was just me, the heat and humidity and the nostalgia in my head. At one point, I smelled laundry dryer sheets coming from a house and John Denver came on my phone Mp3 player at the same time. That combination took me right back to being a kid in the Summer and made me very, very happy.

7. I had turned the air conditioner on when I left to run, so when I got back my place seemed almost cold which was a perfect contrast to the swamp I left outside.

8. I called the court house and got their automated message. Not only do I not have jury duty tomorrow, I won't be called again for at least two years. Sweet. I won't have to deal with The Man after all...Except my boss at work, but I'm used to his shit.

9. Apparently, my favorite word for this blog post is "shit". So, I'll end this shit by hoping you all have to deal with as little shit as possible on Monday.