Light at the end of the tunnel

Tomorrow immediately after work I head out to Michigan with Shannon. TheMarty will join us Thursday after he gets off of work. It's really one of my most favorite times of the year, I can't imagine doing anything else around the 4th of July. I don't remember if this is my fifth or sixth year joining Shannon and her family for the 4th. What I do know is it's one of my happy places, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I know that every day we've spent together in Michigan has made us closer and better friends. Except that one time, last summer, when she tried to kill me on the jet ski, but I also know never to get on a jet ski with her again. I plan on telling Shannon every single sordid detail of my date Saturday night, and I know she's looking forward to hearing them all. I plan on going to Steak and Shake, Walmart, Cracker Barrel, the movies - all of the things that make this weekend what it is. Weekend, ok, that's an inaccurate definition, as we'll be there from Wednesday to Monday, but that's my kind of weekend. I know I'll have at least one moment where I sit back on the deck, look out at the lake and say "Hello, summer, I've missed you." I also know that I will fall asleep to the sounds of the frogs (and possibly the rain at some point) in the channel. I know that I will play lots and lots of games - the fun relaxing kind, not the kind that mess with your mind. I know that I will be nowhere near any computers, so please enjoy your vacation from me. I hope that you will come back after this mental-health break.

Weekend in Review

So, I'm not going to lie. Yep, I went and saw the New Kids on Friday night. Yep, this is an AGAIN thing, I know you know that I know that you know that I went to see them in October. I make no apologies! It was fun. Goofy, silly, summer-time fun. Surprisingly, Jesse McCarthy (McCartney? Not sure) provided one of the biggest laughs of the night. So, he's like this child who sings. He's up on the stage singing and gyrating in front of thousands of women old enough to be his mother. After one bland yet sexaaaay song and dance numbers, he let loose with the following awesome: "So. Ladies. Just so you know. I'm 22. - dramatic pause - Which means.....it's not illegal." It was actually pretty funny. It was a perfect night for a concert - balmy and warm, not at all humid. Awesome. I looked around from my very very good seat and had the 'I love summer' moment. Saturday? Saturday was a date. An awesome date that went on and on and on. I don't think I'll be going into details. Not today anyway. Just an fyi - either Wed night or Thursday morning I'll be heading off to my much needed much loved looooong 4th of July weekend in Michigan with Shannon and TheMarty. This means no internetz.....just lake, boats, drinking, sleeping, laughing. So if I don't get a chance before I leave to write another post, I hope your 4th is awesome and safe.

Mish mosh post

Has anyone else noticed that Brooke Shields has a lot of problems? No, I'm not THAT mean, I don't mean the mom-having-dementia thing, I mean Brooke Shields and her shit-ton of product endorsements. She has: Sun damaged skin Yellow teeth Damaged hair Bad teeth and a sundry of others I'm pretty sure she still likes Calvin Klein jeans too. Does she really need the money that bad? What's next, incontinence? "I'm Brooke Shields, for Depends" I fully admit to falling prey to "I'm a Celebrity - Get me out of here!". Sure, I was just waiting for Patty B. to get kicked off. She was on there WAY too long! She just got kicked off last night! Anyway, tomorrow night is the final episode. I'm rooting for John Salley, but I have an inkling that Lou Diamond Phillips is going to win. I think it's a good thing for him - it may help us forget a) his wife left him for a woman and b) he starred in "Route 666" a fantastically bad made for Sci-fi channel horror movie. I've got this hankering for some retro music this summer. I'm all about REM, INXS, Depeche Mode, Psychedelic Furs, The Smiths, The Cure, New Order. It came on pretty slow, like a trickle, but now it's a full on romp down memory lane. I think these bands and the times that they bring up for me were some of the best times in my life. Ahhh - Medusa's..... Sorry, sorry, I'm back. Sooo, if anyone has any wonderfully classic tunes they'd like to send my way, I'll take them. Right now I am in the process of as I hear an awesome song, I write it on a scrap of paper, go home and check my CD library, and if I don't have it I go on iTunes and buy it. A lame and slow process indeed. Enough rambling for today. Still getting used to my new office place space. Still feeling like the new kid in school. Still not so keen on it.

A new addition

About a month ago, I sated my creative side. No, I didn't actually get my hair dyed blue or purple as I had originally planned. What I did do was get a new tattoo. It's a decent sized Scorpio symbol above a decent sized Scorpio constellation. They are both done really well in a lovely shade of purple. I think it suits me, and I don't regret it, as I don't regret any of my tattoos. A few people in my life have a problem with the fact that it's on the inside of my left forearm. Visible sometimes, bigger than I had originally planned. I decided at my age not to hide it from my family or friends. I went to show VonParents one night. That night I was pleasantly surprised by their lack of reaction. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't hoping for a reaction, I was just expecting one. About a week later I had the unfortunate experience of hearing their (mostly VonMom's I think) opinions on the new ink. Some gems: "It's stupid" "It's huge" "You don't even like it" - Hm....this one confused me. Apparently VonMom thinks she knows me better than I know myself, because I'm pretty sure I love it..... "To date, probably your worst life decision" "What does it even mean?" "It's not like you to do this" This last statement has been coming back to the top of my mind. This statement defines the problem between my mother and me. This statement made me really think about what IS like me. I realized that if I were truly being me, and not worrying so much about what my family would think and have come to expect, I would probably have at least ONE arm tattooed with a full sleeve. I would have more holes in my ears than I do (currently triple-pierced). I would wear a lot more black a lot more often. I would do less on schedules and more on whims. I would probably have never gone to college at all, and might have run off to the circus, or to follow the Dead. I might have eloped once, and at the ripe old age of 20. I've come to love my life, but I'm not 100% sure that it's the life I would have loved. I know that when I broke my leg I lost my daredevil edge. Sometime after that, I lost a lot more of my edges. So, while my mom chews on the fact that I do these Horrible things that she cannot understand, I sit home on Sunday night planning out my outfits, paying my bills, balancing my check book, straightening my fridge - instead of out running around, drinking too much, staying out too late. I don't know if it's in the cards for me to actually be the person I might have been. I don't think that the person I should have been at 20 (the age of my first tattoo) is still the person that I should be now. I just know that every now and then I get these Time-for-a-big-change urges, and they do not go away. I'm starting to think that if I had following my urges,whims, and instincts more and longer that I would be more settled with myself. On a better note was CB's reaction - and it was her's that I had feared the most - she admitted that I am "free-spirited" and that she knew this about me. She said that she would get used to it. Which is pretty much how I ended the conversation with VonMom. My final statement to her: "Well, it IS a tattoo - so you have only one option, which is to get used to it."

Best of Intentions

I have a couple of decent posts a'brewin in my melon, but time has not been a friend of mine. So, here it is, Saturday night, and I'm writing a post about why I didn't write a post yesterday. Thanks to "The Facebook" (as Chris calls it, she's sooooo German sometimes) Laura and I have reconnected with the twins that we were best friends with all through high school and into college. We met them for beers and burgers last Sunday to catch up. Turns out that one of them lives 7 houses away from me, and has for 3 years. Damn, small world!! The other one lives less than 10 minutes away. So, instead of writing a post Thursday night, I walked my happy ass and a case of beer over to Twin1's house to hang out with both of them. We watched "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" and drank and laughed and had an awesome time. Also, work has been crazy lately. Thursday night we moved our office. We left the offices we shared with another small division (5 people) of the gigantic corporation we work for. Friday I had to find my way to the new office. We now work with all of the other Chicago employees of the corporation. Our new space is 3 floors worth of people. It was like being the new kid in school. CB had some things to do in the morning, so she didn't get in to the office for the first few hours I was there. I didn't even know where the bathroom was. It was mildly intimidating. I plan on writing more about the move next week too. I know, I know, I'm rambling - basically the move was the other reason I didn't get to post something worth reading. Mea culpa. Next week I hope to post something worthwhile.

A possibility

Perhaps you've noticed a slight change in my tone lately. Yes, there is a reason. About a month ago, I met a guy. It was a very random meeting, that revolved more around our mutual adoration of Hot Doug's than anything else. My train friend had told me that she and her boyfriend and his friend were heading to Hot Doug's on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. I totally invited myself along - as any mention of Hot Doug's gets me salivating. Plus, to be honest, I've been looking for an opportunity to hang out with train friend B outside of just chatting on the train with her every day. I think we're working our way towards being actual friends, so this was a good opportunity. Anyway, I invited myself along and train friend B let me do so. Back to the guy. He's funny and smart and interesting. Ok, sure, he doesn't live in Chicago, ok, he doesn't live in Illinois, but these are things that I don't think really matter right now. I'm interested in him, and I'm thinking he might be interested in me too. We've been emailing back and forth for a couple of weeks, and have begun to text every now and then. Of course it's slow going, as all things like this should be (in my opinion, any way). I'll be honest, I look forward to his emails, and try to be witty and bright in my responses. So, we'll see. That's the reason that I've been in a better mood lately. God, I am such a 16 year old girl some times......

Just sharing - back to your regularly scheduled day.

Blushing now, need to find something to be snarky about.

Von takes a bite of the big apple

Yipee!! Internet back working! Aaaah. New York City. I finally had my first real visit there last week, Mon through Wed. Sure, it was a work trip, but I still got to see more than I thought I would. Thanks to the most awesome team building exercize EVAH, I went on a four hour whirlwind tour of the city. Some of the things I saw/did on our scavenger hunt: Rode the subway Went to Grand Central Station Met the most fabulous, helpful, wonderful people at Kleinfeld's (Oh, Von, you mean THE Kleinfeld's? From "Say yes to the dress"? Yep, that one!) Ate dimsum (nope, don't like it!) Wore an I heart New York t-shirt while running around - so did my team mates, it was worth 500 points! Saw the Empire State Building Stood on a roof top Not only did I get to see a lot of the city, but we WON!! There was something like a 600 point difference. Let it be known that sales people are all about the competition. The first night we were there, we ate dinner at Capital Grill - I know that we have one here in Chicago, but I have never been to it, so I was pretty excited. The second night, after the loooong forementioned scavenger hunt we headed over to Lucky Strike for some bar food (Oooh! Fries!) and some more friendly competition. Oh, yep, my team won the bowling game too! (WE ROCK!!) After Lucky Strike we headed out to Time Square. I think that was my favorite part of the whole trip. It was a warm night, and I got to see all of the lights, and the people, and the stuff.....we really don't have anything like that here. We went to the W hotel and had some drinks at the Living Room. I felt really out of place there, but we were tucked into this semi-private corner, so I felt better. The best parts of the Living Room? There were two. 1: The idiot waitress who kept pronouncing one cocktail a group of us kept ordering as the "AAaah siiiigggh EEEEE" I could tell she didn't really know how to pronounce acai, so she just made up something of her own and ran with it. I think I ordered a second one just to get her to repeat it. 2. The couple directly across the way from us that was nearly/probably/likely getting it on. Now, them mauling each other was one thing. When our VP went over and walked behind them and waved at us grinning? Awesome. When we took pictures of them mostly vertical? Classic. When they got up to leave and we gave them a resounding round of applause and cat calls? Priceless!! Oh, yeah, while there we did lots of important business stuff too. Top secret, can't go there. Best parts of the trip? The scavenger hunt. Lucky Strike. Winning. Time Square Spending good quality time with my people I never get to see, but talk to every day. Worst parts? The smell. The garbage. The lack of green things. The mice I saw running along the street. As of right now, I can say I've been there. I would happily go back for work whenever asked. I don't know that I would go back there on a vacation. There are too many other places I would like to see first I think.

Home

So, I just got back from 3 busy and fun days in New York City. I'd love to tell you all about it, and I'd love to give you my thoughts on the Big Apple. But I have no internet at home (again). Once it's fixed, I'm all over it!

Get her out of there!!!

Dear Readers, Please. Please please please. Help me get Patti BlagoBitch off that t.v. show!!! For those of you unawares.....she's on that "I'm a Celebrity get me out of here!" show. There was nothing else on last night, so I watched this show - mostly because Speidi are on it too. There PB, and she's lying LYING about why her husband got fired, and all of this b.s. Oh, AND Today the charity that she thinks she's playing for has declined her offer, so basically she is playing for HERSELF. The longer she stays on the show, the more $$ she makes for herself and that evil piece of sh^t she is married too. So, I ask a favor - please turn this show on long enough to get the phone# that will get her kicked off. Thanks for your cooperation, V