Rain, rain, go away...

There's a big storm system moving in and I'm hoping it won't rain on formal this Friday! We've worked so hard to get everything worked out to have formal on the boat, it would be *super* frustrating if we just sat at the dock the whole night.

This weekend was really great, I drove down on Friday and made good time, got there a little bit before Jeremy and read for a while. I'm on to a few popular fiction series now, one of them thanks to Brunner. That one is Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, and while they're totally cheesy they're a lot of fun and the library has like all fifteen of them. I'm also reading Kathy Reichs's books, the woman on whom the tv show Bones is based-- they're really good, and since I'm a big fan of show I'm enjoying them.

For the next couple of weeks, though, I'm going to be boning up on my Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child books-- the DeKalb County Library is bringing them for the Arts Festival weekend!!! Preston and Child, for those of you who don't know, are two of my favorite authors-- they co-write a great series of mystery thrillers that are quite Holmesian. Preston wrote some contemporary science-based stuff back in the day, one of my favorite books in middle/high school was his called "Hot Zone" about an ebola outbreak, and another I can't remember the name of about an anthrax-like virus. Child I only discovered recently, but he does sci-fi type stuff also based on contemporary science. They both do a lot of references to "real" literature, which is nice for dorky people like me.

Anyway, we got a chance to talk to Valerie and Ana on Friday night which was really nice. I know I like talking to them, and I know Jeremy really misses them a lot. Ana's getting so big, and she knows all the different parts of her body and can say a few words now. She's definitely getting in to the two year old parrot thing, Valerie called for Matt to come get her and she ran off going, "Maaaatt! Maaaatt!"

Went to the beach on Saturday with Ron and Kathy and the seat belt wore the sunblock off our shoulders and we both got pretty sunburned. Our legs were burned, and the tops of our feet, too! The beach was really nice, though, and we got to see some really cool rocks-- high tide obviously lasts a while because there is some massive algae growth, some of the rocks look like they have beards! After the beach, we went back and went swimming in the pool at the campsite where Ron and Kathy live. The water was a little chilly, but I can take cold water in a pool better than in the ocean-- the ocean is supposed to be warm! We had pizza for dinner and went back to the house to relax and watch a movie.

Sunday we didn't do much of anything, it was just a hang around and be lazy day. Jeremy looked at tools and toolboxes online (the Sears website is SO slow!) and I took a little nap after a while, we went and had lunch at Panda Express because they've a) got air conditioning and b) got some pretty good (and spicy!) food we like. Plus, you can feed two people for $7.50 if you want to be stuffed-- we usually just get two entrees, but we went for three since I hadn't eaten (Jeremy had some pizza before he went to church) that morning.

Drove back Monday and made great time-- when I got back, I realized that the storm I went through last time added almost TWO HOURS on to my trip!! In. sane.

Work's been decent the last couple nights, though I'm a little worried about tonight-- we have tornado warnings! Last night was surprisingly good considering it was Cinco de Mayo, which Americans celebrate more than Mexicans do... It was a strange night in the neighborhood, actually. The Mexican place across the street had a band that played "La Bamba" and then went on to play some Janis Joplin and Willie Nelson... Mezcalitos intermittently played Mariachi music, and we went with an XM station called Caliente which turned out to be a lot of fun-- they played some cheesy ballads, some Mariachi, some Reggaeton, some pop, it was a blast.

That's about all for now, really. I'm still on Desperate Housewives and Spooks as far as Netflix goes, and will be watching The Savages and The White Countess later this week. Quantum of Solace is still on looooong wait, The Human Stain, Namastey London, Venture Brothers, Northern Exposure, Sherlock: Case of Evil, Slumdog Millionaire, and The Reader are also all on wait, if you were wondering. I'm not sure when I'll ever get to see Quantum of Solace since it's been on wait since it came out! I'm keeping it at the top of my queue, so one of these days...

Ciao for now, all-- more later this week!

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!

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.

Catching Up

Well, the last week has been pretty interesting and full of stories to tell! It didn't start until Thursday, obviously, but that night we had Strike Out which was a huge hit! The girls did a really great job organizing it (they did a bowling tourney) and it went off without a hitch. Lizzy and I went and hung out for a while, kept an eye on things, but bailed early since they obviously had everything under control and we had things to do in the morning.

Friday, I went out to Stone Mountain to meet with India, Becky, and Danielle to check out the potential venue for formal! I'm really excited, I can't say anything because we haven't announced it to the chapter (and I think some of the girls check my blog from Facebook, at the very least have the opportunity to!) but WOW it's going to be great!! I'll put up the picture of me, India, and Danielle with all the details as soon as it gets announced because I am super pumped. I do get the joy of checking names at the door, and imparting the severity of misbehaviour on our night of frivolity, but it should still be a blast.

We went out for lunch afterwards at Applebees (first time ever at an Applebees) where I had some not-half-bad hot wings. After that, I went to the PO and got all the rest of my baby presents shipped off and picked up postage for save the dates, which got dropped at the PO tonight. I also went by Target and found my wedding invitations! They're really cute, flat white invitations with a black ribbon that go in to little silver pockets. I'm very excited-- they're about $15/pack more than I originally wanted, but they're definitely the style I want. I'm really excited!

Saturday was the super exciting day-- it started with a Foundation breakfast at 9a (ungodly time for a Saturday breakfast, IMO) to which I drove in the pouring, nay torrential, rain that we got all day long. The breakfast was nice, and I met some really great women, and the food was tres magnifique!

After the breakfast, I went for brunch with some of my old high school friends who are still around. Emily (who went to Rhodes with me, we actually didn't get along at ALL in High School), Catherine, and Meg (who just had the baby) met me at Carpe Diem and we hung out for hours. Catherine and I got there first, and thought bottomless mimosas would be an awesome idea...

To the right, there is the regular mimosa Emily got... in the foreground, the first of mine and Catherine's drinks. We had four. And over at Carpe Diem, they make true to their name-- we probably drank at least a bottle of champagne each!! It didn't quite hit us until the third round that there was way more champagne in our drinks than OJ or peach (since I switched to bellinis) and we had about two to three times the drink Emily did! The food, of course, was freaking awesome. Carpe Diem's a little on the pricey side, but it's always worth it. I only had a biscut and some grits since I'd eaten at the breakfast, but I munched off of Catherine's french toast and Emily's head-sized omlette (Meg didn't have leftovers... that whole breastfeeding mom thing!) so I still had plenty to eat. We all felt like old ladies by the end of it because all we talked about was babies, birth control (Catherine's going to start trying to get pregnant in June!!), weddings, and toddler poop. We passed baby Vi around before she fell asleep, which she did quickly and quietly-- I know she's only a month old, but she's so easy, we were all impressed. Meg says she barely cries, just kind of chills out and eats like a good little girl! The waitress to a picture of us all for posterity, it's probably one of my favorite recent photographs!

After that, we went to Catherine's and met her puppy, Bruno, a miniature pinscher who is absolutely adorable. I mean, terrifying... yeah, terrifying, right Caq? She and Emily went to see her family and her old, sick cat, and I went home to take a nap.. thanks bottomless mimosas... I ended up sleeping for four hours and missing the staff meeting, but it wasn't that big of a deal. The only painful part was the champagne catching up to me... I don't drink it often enough to really remember that I don't get along with champagne... at all. Not even the really good stuff! Prosecco for me, thank you very much!

Sunday, I went down to Columbus, GA for a Foundation talk at the new chapter down there-- it was really exciting to meet a chapter who hadn't even taken their membership exam yet, I've never been to one that young! They also just had their first Strike Out and raised over $1100 for Arthritis Research!!! Gooooo CSU AOII! On my way back, I picked up an adaptor for my laptop plug so I could listen to music while I drive (since it's only $30 and a new radio/cd player is like $150+) and jammed all the way back up 85N!

Thursday morning, I'm leaving for Memphis to go to Heather's birthday dinner, and the hockey game, and see some of my friends up there. I'm really excited, as much as I dislike Memphis, I really do miss my friends a lot. Next Thursday, I head down to Florida to see Jeremy!! Yaaay! I'll have two good bottles of wine and I'm going to pick up some fish when I'm down there and make a delicious dinner for him.

Now, however, it's time for bed. I'm up about three hours later than I meant to be... I gotta stop snacking before I go to bed-- I spend too much time eating chips and salsa!

Ciao for now, dears!

First of the Year

Happy New Year everyone! My favorite holiday next to Halloween, where we can spend our time with loved ones and celebrate a fresh start. Check out the links, they're pictures of and by me in Florida; the ones of the manatees at Blue Springs came out great!

Christmas Eve- flew down to Jacksonville where Jeremy picked me up. We took the long way back down to Daytona, stopped at a beach and took a stroll, and drove through St. Augustine before we got home. Relaxed for a little bit with the History Channel and ordered some Papa Johns for dinner. I'd brought down stuff for mulled wine so we cooked some of that up and had a glass (which helped with Jeremy's coughing nast) and wished everyone in Indiana a Merry Christmas on the phone.

Christmas Day- got up earlyish, put up the pictures I had printed for Jeremy and turned on the tree I bought. I started on a pot roast with onions and potatoes, which turned out fantastically. We ate on that for dinner, and watched a movie but I can't remember which one-- we watched about five or six the whole time.

Up Through New Years Eve- We also caught up with the Eiler's Christmas slideshow-- Analia just keeps getting more and more adorable! If they didn't live in Singapore I would offer long-term babysitting for free, she's got such a great personality for such a little girl. Went to the Bulow Sugar Mill and wandered around, it was a really cool place-- once the biggest Sugar Mill in the area that shipped out to St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and Savannah. On the way back we wandered around part of the loop and stopped to take pictures of the pretty bird. We went to lunch with Jeremy's classmate Ron and his wife Cathy the next day, really nice people and very funny. Ron and Jeremy have the same sense of humor-- no wonder they get on so well! Walked around the little shopping complex in front of Wyotech and then went for a ride around the loop. The next day we rode down to Waleka with them and went out to the dock and watched the water for a few minutes. It was so much fun to be back on the bike again, and now that I'm not stressing my joints at work it doesn't hurt to ride for more than half an hour! Stopped at a great little country restaurant called MeMa's where we had corn nuggets (which were amazing!) and I got a shrimp basket for $7 with 1/3lb of fresh shrimp in it! Yum!

We laid low over the next couple days, made a couple grocery store runs, talked wedding stuff, and planned for the next week. We went down to Blue Springs State Park where the manatees were to see what we could see and... there were manatees galore!! We got to see a mama and calf, and several others hanging out throughout the naturally warm springs. We're definitely going to go back this summer when the manatees are gone so that we can swim and maybe find a place to get tubes and tube up to the St. John's river. We got home to find that the USPS had put a "Vacant House" card in the mailbox because I'd put a letter for one of the old residents in marked "No Such Resident, Return to Sender" so even though they've been delivering mail for months for the people who DID live there, they decided they were just going to stop.

New Year's Eve- we just kind of hung out for most of the day, watched some silly TV and played some Wii (though I also just watched Jeremy get angry with the Wii tennis-- way amusing), drank our champagne and watched a movie on Netflix. At midnight, we cheered, kissed, and said, "Well, I guess we're getting married this year, huh?" Went to bed not too much later after that so I could get up the next day and cook!

New Year's Day- Cooked up a good ol' meal of collard greens, black eyed peas, and corned beef. I forgot to get cornmeal, so we didn't have cornbread, but the greens and peas were the important part. We ate plenty, so we ought to have plenty of luck and prosperity this year; I'm not usually superstitious, but I take my New Years seriously! Besides, we could both use a bit of each! Watched another movie, I think the one about Genghis Khan, and discussed how silly the USPS is. Jeremy did get it straightened out, so no worries on the mail.

Jan. 2nd- We decided to go up to St. Augustine because everyone said it was super cute and charming, and I wanted to see all the historical stuff... BIG mistake. Unless you're ready to fork out $25/person just for parking and historical stuff, not including food or even water, don't even step foot in St. Augustine. Drive through, ooh and aah at the cute buildings, and then drive right on out. The parking was hard to find and expensive, all the historical stuff charged, we couldn't find a coherent map to figure out where we were so we just wandered around for a couple hours, and since the whole city seemed out to pick our pockets, we didn't feel like stopping for food. Plus, the few historical items seemed crowded out by the kitschy tourist stuff. Totally awful. We left in a half-bad mood and didn't really feel like doing anything else-- we skipped Ft. Matanzas and came straight back to Daytona where we had leftovers for dinner.

We didn't do too much exciting over the last few days, attempted Outback and was overwhelmed by the number of people and lack of space (they never seem to have enough tables!) so we got takeout, leaving Jeremy with even more leftovers to eat on for the next week and a half! I got to meet one of his roommates, Jeff, who seemed like a really cool, laid-back guy and his girlfriend Natalie who reminded me of someone I used to work with. It was a nice, quiet, relaxing time and that's exactly the kind of time we like :)

Now, I'm working hard to save for the wedding-- we know what we want, or rather I do, so I'm pretty intent on paying for it myself and not having to depend on outside help for it. My mom said she might help with the deposit for the venue, but since we get that money back (and she likes my plan) it won't be a big deal. I'm really excited about the prospects, and I'll keep everyone updated as I get ideas. It's going to be really creative, really nice, and very classic. Yes, it's possible!

Anyway, off to bed-- I'm already ruining the fairly decent sleep habits Jeremy got me in to this week. No cold water, but he's not big on letting me sleep in; which, to be fair, I asked him to enforce. We're also moving soon, which is exciting, so I'm up early to try and start packing up!