Yeah, yeah

So it's been a few days. I know you're all dying to hear more of my ticking-clock baby lovin' or rambling about my wedding, but just in case...

Watching the kids for Meg and Michael was really great, I love those kids so much-- and Julian, what an absolute HOOT! I think I taught him how to say "touche" which should be amusing. Three year olds, not so much with the actually grasping French parlance. As much of a nutter as he is, he does love his baby sister-- "My baby!" --and apparently spent part of the afternoon trying to convince Meg that HE was the one who carried Violet for 9 months! Every minute over at the Kavanaugh household is an episode of "Kids say the darndest things", I think. Also, it was nice to see Meg and Michael. I kept Meg up late (again) talking about the wedding stuff, and family stuff, and shared my invitations with her (which she seconded and approved), and poking at the baby who ate a little and then totally conked out. We both agree that babies are hilarious.

Sunday was low-key, but I got to catch the MotoGP race from Motegi which was nice. Even though that weekend in Indy was traumatic, I really enjoyed the race, and spending time with Jeremy, Josh, and Sarah! Sadly, Nicky Hayden got put out in the first lap by Takahashi, but Pedrosa didn't end up in first so I'll take what I can get.

Monday was loads of fun, it was our last AAC meeting of the year at CPK. I got there early to sit out in the commons at Atlantic Station and work some more on the Treasury office (I'm the financial adviser now for Gamma Sigma, and it looks like I'm going to do a really good job-- I'm so excited!) overhaul, and sat and talked to Vicki for a while outside while we waited for Lizzy and Becky. Dinner was OK, the best part was the appetizer. I know a lot of restaurants "known" for something don't usually have other good food, but CPK usually does! I got a panini that wasn't really anything special (though at least the Caesar salad was good), I don't remember what Vicki got, Becky got the Thai linguine which was good, but not stellar, and Lizzy got the pesto penne which wasn't really anything special, either! We also split desserts, which *were* pretty good and we certainly didn't mind spending the money since they had a deal that 20% of our check went to the Arthritis Foundation!

Anyway, I'm starting to get a little more excited about next year. It looks like Jeremy and I will be in Atlanta (since I can stay at Palate if I can't find a job anywhere else), which is really nice. I know I mentioned getting back in touch with all my old friends and their families, but I'm also really attached to these girls at GSU! Don't get me wrong, I would be ALL OVER being on AAC for Kappa Omicron, and I know it would make Rachel and Rebecca so happy, but I feel like not only do they need really good, solid, consistent leadership and alumnae support, but that I really am a part of the chapter now. Maybe that sounds silly to other people, but they really are like my sisters-- I love them, even though I want to shake them sometimes, and I can't wait to see what wonderful things they do with their lives and this chapter!

Tonight at work was SLAMMED. Thankfully, Matthew and Derek helped out in the dishroom, I don't know how we would have made it through otherwise! As a result, I'm able to keep my commitment for the collections payment this month for sure, and I can buy a bathing suit to take down to Florida with me! Huzzah!

Oh, and Jeremy and I are going to (most likely) split my gas to go down to Florida this weekend. I'm really excited, I miss him so much I almost can't stand it sometimes!

Off to bed with this tired girl! Ciao for now, pals!

Old friends and new babies

I went over to Meg's tonight for what was supposed to be an Atlanta Area Slacker's Club* meeting (*AASC was formed as a counterpart to the AARC-- runner's club --as we do not all care for that running thing the crazy people we love do), but much to our pleasure ended up being a smaller gathering than expected!

I took over Sweetwater 420 (the Atlanta Area staple!) and some of Blue Moon's summer brew Honey Moon (which tasted only slightly different than Blue Moon, but is still on my list of recommendations) and about 2-2.5lbs of raw fruit-- strawberries and three kinds of apples. While a couple ounces may have been siphoned by Meg and convincing Julian to eat his apples by bribing him with strawberries, I. ate. the. whole. thing. Yipes. On the upside, I don't feel particularly munchy, so apparently 2lbs of fruit does the trick...

We lit up the citronella torches, but were still getting bitten by mosquitos so we moved inside and watched "You Got Served" for the reason I bought it-- there's good dancing and it's total cheese. Julian went just about straight to bed, but Vi stayed up a little longer being fussy. If this is the fussiest she gets... I can only hope mine is like that!

Meg's sister Della stopped by and we all talked for a while about vacations, Austin, parenting, and assorted issues, and after Della left Meg and I stayed up even later talking about wedding stuff (I found my invitations! They are preddy!), sewing, and pregnancy.

I really hope we find somewhere to settle in nearby; I would still absolutely love to live in Austin, but I would be very sad to have caught up with Caq and Meg and their families and leave just as suddenly. Dill's parents moved out to Austin even after the triplets were born, nothing's set in stone. Besides, I don't know that I want to really own a place until after getting past the newborn-type age-- I mean, taking care of a house AND a baby could be a lot of work!

Well, it's 2a so it's about to be past my bedtime! I've given myself a 2a curfew so that I don't get back in to that 4a bedtime, wake up at 2p deal-- I realize it makes me feel really horrible and tired all the time to do that cycle!

Tomorrow is transplanting potted plants and watching the kids for Meg and Michael, which I'm excited about. Hopefully I will feel productive at the end of the day!

Just wanted to say

Since she's publicly acknowledged it on her blog, I will here...

I just wanted to say that I'm really proud of my friend Emily. She's had a problem with drinking (don't we all love when genetics meet circumstance?) and has decided to quit altogether. I've known a lot of people who have problems with alcohol, or addiction in general, and it's a really brave thing to step up to the plate and admit you need to do it for yourself and your friends.

She's doing her own rewards program in the form of her other, much more tolerable/physically healthier addiction, and I'm starting one from my side.

May 8 will be three weeks, 21 days, and when she makes it there we will go for the Nutella and Organic Banana smoothies at Nectar in Oakhurst! I'm going to figure out other yummy, culinary experiments to fill out every other three week (or so, depending on 'dem dollaz) interval.

I love you, Emmy!

Oof

Tonight wasn't so great at work, though Jon and I had some good talk time. I never really mind the slow nights as much when I'm working with Jon, and Amy and Carter (his wife and son) stopped by which is always a pleasure-- Amy's really sweet and Carter is just the pudgiest, cutest little kid! He laughs at *everything*!

I did get my Blackberry back, but I'm going to have to re-enter all my information because whoever picked up my phone first obviously had no intention of returning it... the password had been reset and there were things that had been downloaded! I wish I could say I can't believe it, but I totally can. Since they changed the password, I had to wipe everything to get in to the phone. Awesome. So, if I should have your number, just e-mail or text it to me and I'll put it back in!

Mostly I just wanted to make the announcement about the crackberry being back, I'm about to take a muscle relaxer and sleep and hope that when I wake up in the morning, it doesn't feel like I've been kicked in the hip by a horse... ugh. Stupid bone structure.

Weekend

Friday was low-key, but really nice. We had initiation for our spring pledges (hoorah new Alpha babies!) and a little pizza party after with birthday cake for India. Unfortunately, Alison couldn't be there because they were still taking care of some things with her father's estate. She got back tonight during LC, and is doing as well as can be expected-- possibly better. She's an amazing young woman, it breaks my heart she has to go through this.

After the pizza party, Vicki, Becky, and I went out and signed our gifts for the girls being installed as alumnae on Tuesday. I really wish I'd had an alumnae installation ceremony, I feel like I missed something there. Initiation was nice, though, because it made me think of Natalie (my new member educator) and Lindsey Hughes, our president at the time who initiated me. It's a really nice ceremony and definitely made me tear up a little! On the way home, I made a wrong turn and ended up at Magic City. That would be the strip club they talk about in the rap songs. Ohhhh yeeeeah.

Saturday was lazy, but I did go see Arcadia at GPC, which Alexandros was in. It was really nice, it's only the second time I've seen Alexandros since I've been back (the other when Jeremy and I went with him to lunch and Slumdog Millionaire), and we went to R. Thomas in Buckhead for my (much belated) birthday dinner and it was aawesome. I had a coconut curry linguine with shrimp and salmon. So. Good. They do all organic and locally grown food, it was quite delish. But pricey, definitely pricey. Also, the chai was perfect! I'm super picky about my chai, so I was happy it wasn't an absolute loss.

Tonight was LC, where we discussed some difficult things and I prepared myself to be the hard ass. I also did an arrangement for Alison of some roses and carnations I picked up at the Farmer's Market that looked pretty nice, actually!

That's about all. Clare was married yesterday, and though I wish nothing but the best for her, I'm still not convinced her new husband and step-children are that best thing. I would not have been surprised at the outdoor ceremony if it weren't for the fact that it was a product of him insisting they not be married in a church, which I find strange. I know Jeremy and I aren't getting married in a church, but that's mostly a convenience for our guests sort of deal, not anything to do with religion.

Ah, well, c'est la vie. All we can do is hope and pray that her life is as happy as she deserves for it to be and that he doesn't continue to be as sketchy has he has been to know...

This week: work, hopefully Memphis at the end of the week, and if Memphis is in the books then I will hopefully figure out why Jan and Marc's internet isn't working!

Why deny the obvious child?

Ron, Jeremy, and Hans

Sunset at Flagler

the "normal" picture of me and Jeremy at Flagler
me (and the scarf from Val!) at Jazz Night

Lindsay, me, and Em at Jazz Night

After many deep breaths and much meditation (and a jazz night at Palate with Em and Lindsay) my week has leveled out. I always say that these things seem to happen for no good reason, but when I look back... they happen for a perfectly logical reason! My computer fried because it's 10 years old. I mean, we had to wipe it and start over three times around Christmas! I left my phone in Unadilla because I wasn't paying attention, and it's not the first time I've done something like that. The belts on my car snapped because they were 12 years old (which, according to Jeremy, is twice as long as they're supposed to last) and though it should have occurred to me, the battery died because the belt connecting it to the alternator snapped the previous night and it totally drained. I need to start taking my own piece of tough-love wisdom: shit happens.

Jeremy, God love him and so do I, thinks I'm a little too hard on myself, and maybe I am. Perhaps it's being the oldest, perhaps it's being the child of an alcoholic (children of addicts tend to take on too much responsibility either to compensate for that parent or to prove to themselves that they won't make the same mistakes), but he's right-- I do need to start cutting myself some slack. Worrying takes years off your life, after all!

My weekend down there was really fantastic, a few pictures are above and if you want to see the rest they're up on Flickr with the jazz night pictures. Friday we went and had dinner at Ron and Kathy's with Hans, hung out for a long while and played with Sarah, their new Weimaraner puppy who was absolutely beautiful and absolutely bonkers off the wall hyper, and Harley, the sugar glider.

Saturday was pretty low-key, we watched movies and then went down to the beach at sunset with Ron and Kathy and took a walk and watched the sun setting over Ft. Mantanzas. It was really nice, quiet, and even a little romantic. We also saw a Boxer puppy I wanted to take home with me.

Sunday, I had intended to go to Easter services with Jeremy, but the fan kept me up the night before and I only got about 2 hours of sleep! I was sad, I'd even brought something nice to wear, but I would have felt worse yawning through services or being cranky with the nice old people. That afternoon, we went down to Flagler Beach in the afternoon and took a walk about a mile up the beach and back, stopped at Steak'n'Shake and got a milkshake to split, and then went home and lazed around. I brought a nice bottle of Verdejo up from work, and I had the recipe for the tarragon corn relish that was served with the steak special on Valentine's day so I made that and paired it with a baked swordfish steak. It was pretty darn good if I say so myself! We watched some TV and had dinner, then went for a walk, and came home and curled up for a while since I was leaving in the morning.

The drive back on Monday was harrowing, to say the least, and probably didn't help my distracted state when I left my phone in Unadilla. The storm I got caught in was really intense, and even though the speed limit was 70, traffic was settling in at about 55 for somewhere around 50 miles at a stretch! I kinda felt like an extra in Twister and couldn't see 10 feet in front of the car for the rain. There are some pictures, but I haven't gotten them off the camera yet-- had everything but the cows. (that was for you, Dill) I hit it about Tifton (about 200 miles south of Atlanta) and rode with it to around 20 miles south! I have driven in some really intense stuff, but this was possibly the worst I've encountered-- I was really surprised there hadn't been an actual tornado when I got back.

Speaking of getting back... when I got back, I realized that my phone was gone. I left to head to work, but all the roads were blocked off by fallen trees and power lines! I had to back up (as in, drive in reverse) for a few blocks because nobody bothered to stop me going the other direction to say there was a power line down. I was a good neighbor, though, and did stop people once I got turned around to tell them they couldn't get through. Nobody wants to get to a stop light and find a) a stalled out school bus and b) a power line looped so low it's almost touching the ground. A 30 year old oak tree fell in a neighborhood behind mine and took out three or four cars, lots of power lines, and half a house. It was really shocking! Then, when I got to the Oakhurst area, there were (shocker) loads more oak trees down. The power was out, so work was out for the night... I got home and went to get on Skype to talk to Jeremy and that's when my computer decided to spaz out. I was so upset I was shaking at this point, so I talked mom in to taking me up to Kroger to pick up sushi and Sweetwater, and I came home to wait for Casey. We were both pretty sure that the hard drive was fried, which really didn't make things better, and then I got twitchy and started moving things around and knocked over an entire 12oz bottle of Sweetwater!

Since then, things have been a lot better, you know how those days go. The computer decided it would work again, much to pretty much everyone's shock-- my brother thought I was joking with him when I told him it turned back on and was working fine! Thursday, I went to jazz night with Emily and her friend from work, Lindsay, who was really awesome and a lot of fun to meet. Nicole played, and when we were talking afterwards she said she'd love to play the wedding! So we'll have an hour of live jazz at the wedding, and Nicole has such a great voice, AND a sound system we can rent for cheap! Huzzah for wedding planning!

I think that's QUITE enough for now, so I'll head to bed. Everyone pray for and send happy thoughts to Emily, she's trying to get through something right now and could use all the support she can get!

For my much needed amusement

This week's waits on Netflix:

Quantum of Solace
Pineapple Express
The Tudors: Season One
Nick Frost's Danger! 50,000 Volts!
Namastey London
Slumdog Millionaire (hell to the yeah)
The Reader
The Caller


What I'm Watching:

This weekend, Jeremy and I watched Role Models which wasn't drop down hilarious, but was pretty darn funny. I frequently feel like a baby version of Paul Rudd's sarcastic, sick-with-uneducated-people character. One of my favorite lines of the movie? After being harassed by the coffee lady for asking for a large instead of a venti: "Tall is large, grande is Spanish for large, Venti is the only one that doesn't mean large. It's Italian for twenty. Congrats, you're stupid in three languages."

At first, I was wondering if they were just going to be jerks the whole movie, but they definitely redeemed themselves and let's just say that if you're a KISS fan, you'll need to watch for the last battle scene. That's right, battle scene. LARPers, here we come!

We also watched the new Speed Racer, which was alright. The cartoon was kind of lame (that's not to say I didn't like it, but it WAS pretty lame), and the movie was a classic Wachowski brothers (Matrix) acid trip. The acting was proper for the style, and I couldn't help but fall out laughing when Matthew Fox (who played Racer X) started crying at the end. Matthew Fox is crying, must be a day that ends in "y"-- amirite, LOST fans?

Last night, I watched Son of Rambow, a British film about a boy whose ultra-religious family won't let him watch tv or movies (they seemed to be Quaker-ish). He's got a crazy imagination, and falls in with a boy at school who is quite the trouble maker. They start making their own version of Rambo: First Blood, and soon the whole school is involved and his mother (a widow) decides that God would rather her take care of her family and do what's best for them than listen to some of the members of the fellowship who think the child is out of control. It's one of those sweet, nostalgic-type movies that the British do so well, and I highly recommend it.

Next up, more Desperate Housewives. I don't care what you think, I'm watchin' it and I'm likin' it. I hear it jumps the shark later, but I'm starting from Season 1 so I haven't hit that point yet.

Don't try to call my cell phone until further notice. I set it on a counter in f'ing Unadilla, GA (200mi SOUTH OF ATLANTA) and have to drive down there to get it. The 10k mile warranty on my tires is fast expiring, as is my patience. I wish I could just go on vacation and have a vacation. I don't understand why this is an impossible situation. Instead, every time I try to relax, things break and I start to really hate my life again. Mom wants me to go back on the anxiolitic, but it makes me twitchy and irritable and I don't want that.

I'm going to go change before work-- my head is pounding and all I want to do is cry, but the show must go on, I suppose.

bored much?

I'm siting here waiting for sunrise to leave Palm Coast since people here are nus and my night vision isn't what it used to be-- all those bags of carrots when I was little for nothing!! It's been a really nice weekend and I don't want to leave, I miss Jeremy a lot and even though I know I'll see him on Skype and again at Memorial Day weekend, and possibly the weekend before or after that (I wish I qualified for those stupid gas credit cards-- talk about rewards!), I'd prefer to see him every day...

More later-- the sky is getting lighter and I have to go pack up the Wii. That's right, Joe, you're going DOWN as soon as I figure out how to hook it up to my wireless. Which may mean you're never going down, we'll see.

Travel=Insomnia

I never sleep well the night before I travel. The night before I went to Hawaii, I stayed up so late, I ended up packing three times. Recently, though, I've just tried to make myself stay in bed and eventually fall asleep to something like American Dad on Hulu-- funny, but not funny enough to keep me awake (like, say, Arrested Development).

I took a little bit of Benadryl to nudge myself in the right direction, so hopefully that'll kick in soon. Jeremy's giving me a wake up call in four hours!!

TGIF?

(this was supposed to go up last night but the internet stopped working as soon as I was done with it!!)

Soo, back to my Memphis trip, which was more action-packed than I give it credit for... and Friday it is!

Friday morning I was supposed to go see Amy (Career Services) to look over my extended resume and pare it down so that I could go see Sandi on Monday and start looking for jobs. Since the lights had come on in my car the night before, I decided to cancel the appointment until I'd talked to Jeremy or Marc about what could have gone wrong. I kinda figured it might be the belts since I knew they were getting worn, and Jeremy confirmed my suspicions so I took the car up to Jiffy Lube where they were shocked and awed that I was able to make it there because apparently it was the belt that connects to the alternator that had been ripped. to. shreds. Now, as much as I like this Jiffy Lube in Southaven, I'm a little irritated that nobody mentioned that I might want to charge up the battery as it had taken a SEVERE draining getting me the last mile home and the five miles up to the Jiffy Lube for reasons that will come up later...

After that, I went back to the house and tried to get organized a little bit, then ended up leaving late for Heather's birthday dinner so I just met them up there. We ended up going to Majestic Grille downtown, and it was really good! I met some girls I hadn't yet, and met one in particular who was... very unique. Melissa, you know who I'm talking about. I sat with Melissa and Allie, I hadn't met Allie except for a couple of Facebook messages about the Strikeout Shirt I ordered-- she rocks my face off. She's SO funny and outgoing! Yay for new AOIIs! Well, she's not a "new" AOII, but I haven't met her so she's new to me ;)

Melissa and I split the calamari, which was a totally new take on it to me. They have a cornmeal breading and fry it up with jalapenos! It furthered my spicy food kick for the weekend, which started with Buffalo Wild Wings and finished with salsa at Los Compadres! But, I'm getting ahead of myself... I had a bacon bleu cheese burger and it. was. aaaaweeesome. Highly recommend it. Everyone else seemed pretty happy with their dinner, and the only complaint I had was that the waitress seemed like she'd never had a big party. She did her best, and the unique girl gave her a little bit of trouble (for which she got put in her place by a waitress who also happens to be someone she needs to respect a little bit more), but things were a little slow and two plates had to be sent back to be re-made which weren't delivered until we were all ready to go. Probably better to go in a smaller group.

Afterwards, I ran Melissa by Joe's in Midtown to pick up a bottle of wine for Heather (they sell McWilliams, our tier 1 wine at work!) and pick up something for myself for going to Ashely's (which proved difficult as Memphis liquor laws say that you can't sell anything under 5% alcohol in the same store, thus nixing my usual search for the elusive 420) and when I got back out to the car.... it wouldn't start!!

Ugh.

So, I'm thinking who I can call at this time of night (as it was after 10p at this point) and I remembered that Ashley (who was going to meet me for a drink and instead had some friends over and invited me to come out) told me that Wayne was at her place, so I called Wayne to come give me a jump and see if we could get it all together. Heather came and picked Melissa up to head back for Rites, and I waited. Wayne showed up, hooked up the jumper cables and everything lit right up! Of course, as soon as we took the jumper cables off... not so much.

There was a minor panic attack.

Oh, and my phone died.

And there was a big theory floating around that it was the alternator. After I'd spent $130 on the starter. And $140 on the belts.

Then there was another minor panic attack.

I managed to have a little fun. And another minor panic attack (regarding our roadside assistance program which, by the way, DOESN'T COVER ME apparently). Ashley's friends were a lot of fun, and even though we have differing political views, we're all very moderate and open to discussion so it didn't turn in to a hate fest which is the whole reason I stay away from political discussions these days in the first place. It evolved in to a trivia contest regarding presidential knowledge and the parallels between the Lincoln and Kennedy assasinations. There are quite a few and they are all pretty creepy, look it up. We stayed up way too late and I fell exhaustedly asleep at Ashley's since I didn't have a way to get back to Southaven. Thankfully, one of her friends had a compatible charger so my phone was sufficiently charged for me to try for a tow, talk to Jeremy, talk to Marc, and get everything set to get the car back down to Southaven.

The good news is that it was just the battery, in case you haven't figured that out yet. Marc charged up my battery and replaced the leads and it worked good as new and just in time for me to hit up the hockey game!

The Kings played a great first period, but after that they totally wussed out. They did, however, beat OKC in the next game and so they're on their way to the semifinals! They actually don't even play until the end of the month, so if it looks like there are two games in a row I may go back. I forgot how much I miss the games, and the other off ice officials-- they're my own crazy little family!

I went right home and talked to Jeremy for a while, then went to bed! I'd intended to get up and go to church with Marc and Jan; while I'm not much on church, I know they'd like me to come meet everyone. However, I was so exhausted from Friday and Saturday that I slept in waaay late.

That's all for Saturday, and in to Sunday-- coming up, I get another hamburger, Sophia and I go to Target, and I practice public speaking.

Just remind me ...

that on Thursday morning I leave for Florida and a weekend with Jeremy. And that I can abuse his stupid roommates when they tick me off.

Driving Rain

As in, "Brings new meaning to the term..."

A LOT has happened in the last few days, I'm so exhausted I'm falling asleep, so I'll just post about the drive up on Thursday which was way less eventful than the last two!

I left at about 11a on Thursday, which was an hour later than I had intended since I wanted to get here early afternoon, but there had been a totally wicked storm on Wednesday night/early Thursday morning so I decided it would be better to sleep a little late and therefore miss the rain since it was supposed to blow through-- the radar looked totally clear when I left... SURPRISE! I got to Irondale (about 20mi outside Birmingham) and there was a mini monsoon! I could see about five to ten feet in front of me so I kept on going, but I didn't get out of it until I hit the city limits. Thank goodness I didn't have to go 20 through B'ham in that-- it's crazy enough on a clear day, and even worse on a rainy one!! Once I got through Birmingham, it was pretty clear sailing

...

Until I got to Tupelo where the rain was even WORSE! It got so bad, I pulled off and sat at a gas station for a few minutes to let it pass (and it just so happened I had to use the restroom and re-start my iTunes), it was so strong when I parked my car in front of the door that I couldn't even see the door from where I was sitting. Absolute insanity. Oh, and that was about 350mi of straight driving without stopping. I am a god.dess.

I got back on the road and filled up again past Pontotoc, and was totally stoked to see that I got at least 37mpg on the trip up! Yeah 12 year old beat up station wagon! I probably could have gotten 40mpg (I have once or twice before), but since the exits are a little inconsistent between Tupelo and Olive Branch on 78 I decided it was better safe than sorry.

Got to Southaven about 430p, which was just over 6 hours including the stop in Tupelo-- totally awesome time. I talked to Jan for a little while and got my stuff out of the car, then went to pick Sophia up to have dinner with Caro and Valisa. I got on the interstate and talked to Jeremy for a few, and then some nasty lightning started up over Olive Branch and then the rain came. More torrential rain up to midtown and all the way to Buffalo Wild Wings, but I did get to catch up with my babies which was really exciting! Also, BWW was totally yummy. I miss it. Though I have to say the service at the one in Southaven is WAY better. Mine and Fia's Blue Moons weren't served with an orange, and then when I asked for orange slices, the waitress thought we wanted them to snack on before our food got there or something. I told the manager on the way out; I don't care how snobby it sounds-- if you're going to serve premium beer, you need to serve it properly. Plus, it takes forever to get food there, the servers are almost unintelligible, and the last time Sophia was there, the waitress didn't bring them forks and when they did get someone to bring them silverware... she brought them one fork! For three of them!

Went window shopping with Sophia at Shoenami and Old Navy, then we went up to the brand new Target by Emily (the one I went to brunch with last weekend) which is big and shiny and RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME. I mean, we all know I love me some Target, but this one is probably the best of all Targets put together. Even if it doesn't have a cart escalator. (I was going to put up these pictures of Dill as exemplary photos, but the internet is being slow so I shall just link them one by one) I picked up Oceans 13 for Jeremy (which we saw like three times in theatres right before we started dating), The Essential Journey for myself (because if you don't love Journey, or at the very least "Don't Stop Believin'", you're just not human), and I found serving platters for the wedding on sale for $4 off!! There were only two, so I went ahead and grabbed them, though I should have picked up a couple of rain checks to make sure I could pick up two more if I wanted them... maybe I'll see if they're on sale at the Southaven Target tomorrow.

I dropped Fia off after that and headed home. About a mile from the house, my battery light and brake light all of the sudden came on and my steering got really tight, I pulled in to the driveway and turned the car off, and turned it back on to make sure it was still working and it was-- the solution to that will come with Friday's story. I also realized that I was supposed to go over my resume with Amy on Friday but had forgotten my jump drive with the whole kit and caboodle on it at home, but I had it somewhere in Gmail (love the search feature! and the saving of sent mail!) so I tried to get on the wireless... only to realize that even had my computer not crashed and wiped all the wireless settings, I had actually never USED this computer here. I left Jan a note to see if she had the wireless key and Marc a note about the strange lights in my car and headed to bed.

Coming Up: I cancel an appointment, shell out $140, and apparently manage to dodge death and stymie the JiffyLube boys!

Exciting coupons...

With luck I can snag these coupons that arrived for us yesterday... they're for free admission to the Aquarium, Coke Museum, Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta History Center and Gardens, Atlanta Children's Museum, SO MUCH FUN! Also, Zoo Atlanta is opening a new aviary this month, so since the coupon doesn't expire until June, I'm totally waiting until May to go see the pretty birds!