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.

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.