Chilly!

It's really chilly here this week, like in the 50's which is crazy for May! In honor of that, I have an emergency solution up at Agape Events!

Insomnia Rules!

I've got to get my melatonin back from Michael-- I haven't slept in days! I'm trying to work from home, too, until it's above freezing each day. I get the feeling it's going to be a nasty winter! 11:15a and it's only 30 degrees. Sure it's 16 in Martinsville (which does not make me excited for Christmas...) but that doesn't mean 30 isn't uncomfortable for those of us with paper thin skin! Plus, if it's going to be this cold, I feel like it should at least do us a favor and spit out some snow!

The heat in the apartment has gotten a little bit better, by about 3 degrees. Still not great, but better and it keeps us warm enough at night when it's far below freezing.

Still stressed, and it's to the point now where I don't feel like doing anything at all. I still have a bunch of stuff to mail, including Christmas for the Eiler package that needs to leave Memphis this week! I've been so awful about getting to the PO, I just hate going in there this time of year! We got a couple of small things for Ana, and I'm sending her much belated birthday present over, and this year's Christmas card.

So, as you can see, still mostly boring stuff. Hoping to have some time over the next couple weeks to keep working on EB's wedding planner (since I've got more time than I thought lol) and get another few sets of cards up on my Etsy shop! (http://www.etsy.com/shop/HockeyPanda) Stop by and check them out, I do custom orders, too!

Ciao for now, I'm going to check out the Publix ad and then straighten my hair (in an effort to avoid more than a perfunctory shower in our freezing cold bathroom!) and set course for the PO!

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!

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!

Sunday, rainy Sunday

The weather continues to be February-like here, which means drizzly and in the 40's. Easily my most despised weather pattern ever. Not warm enough to only wear a cardigan or a quarter sleeve shirt, but not cold enough to wear a coat. Bah.

Went to get my nose pierced and Melanie had left to go back to Macon, which nobody told Mark who informed Emily she'd be there later since she took MARTA. When we showed up, the other piercer had come by to grab something and was like, "Oh, you didn't know? She's back in Macon for family stuff." We hung out and talked to Mark for a while, then went to Ru San's and pigged out on sushi-- stuffed myself with leftovers for $10! I like places like that not just because I don't want to spend a billion dollars on food, but because I can leave a $5 tip on $10 and be a) generous, and b) actually help the establishment by eating there and treating the waitstaff proportionally well.

You know, unlike the people who come to see me and spend all their money on food and leave a 10% tip...

Anywhoo, I've been bumming around and trying to start some scrap book pages. It's going slowly, though, because I left a lot more of my stuff in Southaven than I thought I had. My pages aren't super awesome yet, but once I get plenty of stuff and maybe some stencils for letters, they'll be a lot better. I did a couple pages of Jeremy and I parasailing in NC, the first page is us up in the air, the second is the last part where they let us drop in to the ocean. I had some cute little beachy stickers from Target, so there are some fish, shells, a pair of sunglasses, and an inner tube floating around. I picked two different blue patterns, a plainer one for the up-in-the-air shots, and one that looks a little under-the-sea-ish for the second set. I'm waiting on some pictures from Snapfish to get here, and trying to find my ticket for the Terra Cotta Army show, so I'll have a page for that and can start on my Hawaii pages, too. I have to swing by Target, so I'm going to see if I can find some solid colors that would be appropriate for the MotoGP stuff that I have.

That's about all that's happened tonight; Jeremy's had a much more interesting one-- he got to watch the shuttle launch! Though, he has had to sit in traffic for a couple hours. If he's lucky, even though they were done with the launch by 815p, he'll be home at 11p!

Ciao for now!

To quote Jimmy Cornfoot

March's weather is totally wrong:

March 1: 4-6'' of snow
March 5: 70 and sunny
March 9: 83 and sunny
March 12: 60 and cloudy

I think the forecast is 50's and rainy for the weekend. I know it's not the "snowmageddon" that Shelby's getting, but it's still nice and weird.

Also, I love Psych.

Flash Flood Warning, much?

Last night was supposed to start a few days of rain, possibly heavy rain. Apparently I'm the only one who looks at the radar. The storm system stretches from Mexico to Canada and is hitting pretty hard; I took mom to work this morning to go shopping, but unless the rain lets up I may not go-- driving back from Emory was like driving through the rain that hit Memphis during Katrina! No, really! I told mom when I dropped her off that there was totally a chance there'd be a tornado today, and about a half hour after I got home, they issued a tornado watch which may become a warning if the lightning and wind keeps up like it is now. I'm wondering if anyone's told the construction crew next door, even if they did wake me up at 7am I'd rather they not get blown away.

I really love severe weather (I know, I know, I'm strange-- but it's totally fascinating!), but it's putting a cramp in my win style right now. Not thrilled about that. I was also going to pick up some new fake chucks at Target since my old ones are getting a little, well, old, and see what their wedding organizer looks like. I'm stuck between that one and the Real Simple one, but you have to go to Crate and Barrel to get the Real Simple one, which is highly inconvenient.

Rhodes Singers had their Christmas at St. Mary's last night; obviously I couldn't go but I love you all and I'm sure it was amazing!

That's about it for now. I'm going to attempt a 30 minute nap since Casey kept me up and then the construction woke me up-- I'm sure you can imagine better than I how large drills can permeate a dream where you've just finished building your own house. All I know is that it ended in destruction and we were pretty ticked off.