Nosy Nosy Neighbor (Me)

The pimp of our neighborhood is my 60-something year old neighbor. She is a retired teacher but she still works part time. Over the past year, I've seen her go out with a bunch of different dudes. I guess she finally found one she really liked, because his truck is at her house 7 nights a week. When the in-laws were in town, Marilyn was all "Um, your neighbor had a friend over. His truck was at her house early. Like, real early." So they're totally shacking up. Play on, playa'.

Our other next door neighbors are out of town all week. They went on a week long trip to Alaska, so he asked me to keep an eye on their house while they're gone. So of course I took an inventory of all the toys in their back yard to make sure that none go missing. I take my job as nosy neighborhood look-out totally seriously.

Neal left for work Tuesday so he'll miss both New Year's and the National Championship game. SUCKS.

I got a sewing machine for Christmas, but I haven't opened the box yet. I guess I need to learn how to sew now? It makes me think of that episode of the Cosby Show when Denise sews a shirt for Theo that is supposed to be a replica of this designer shirt that his parents wouldn't give him the money to buy. It was all jacked up with one sleeve shorter than the other and the buttons all out of whack. This is exactly how I picture my sewing projects turning out. I can see me in tears with Neal going, "Baby, it looks GREAT!"

I went to Houma today with Mom and the fam to visit my grandparents. I stopped at the ATM to get some money for the bridge toll so when I got to the toll booth I gave the lady a twenty. She looks at me and goes "got anything smaller?" I'm like, "No, sorry, that's all I've got." She then gave me the dirtiest freaking look and handed me my change. Ummmm BITCH. My coworker was telling me that she was going across the bridge one morning and got in the toll tag lane. When she got to the booth, she realized that her mom had taken the toll tag out of her car and she didn't have it with her. She had cash with her, but the toll bitch wouldn't take it. She shut down all the lanes Coyote Ugly style and made her exit the toll way and get back in line. I am 99.9% sure that this is the same hag that gave me the attitude today. I don't expect toll bitches to be thrilled with their lot in life, but COME ON.

My other coworker Cindy made some cookies around Christmas and gave some to all of us to take home. She told me that they were "ricoytcha" cheese cookies (I'm pretty sure she meant ricotta cheese). Neal tried one before I did and he took one bite and made the funniest face I have ever seen right before he said "they taste like feet" and spit them out. I decided not to sample them.

It's like 70 degrees outside right now, so I'm not feeling like it's New Year's. My azaleas are blooming too??? It just seems wrong. Our tree is still up and while I play like I'm going to take it down soon, I will probably wait for Neal to get home. But it's almost time for Mardi Gras decorations!!! And king cake!!! Whoop whoop! Happy New Year's y'all and Geaux Tigers!!!

So I Creep, Yeeeaaahhhh

Just keep it on the down low. Said nobody's supposed to knoooooow.

Sorry, I just heard TLC's 'Creep' on the radio. No lie, I still jam that shizzz.

I read The Help forever ago but I just decided to watch the movie yesterday. So I knew the story, I knew what was going to happen, I knew it all. And I still cried at the end. I hate crying at movies, I really really do. But it was just so sad and happy and emotional that I couldn't help it. Ha - no pun intended. And why are white people such privileged racist assholes sometimes? It's embarrassing (even when it's in a fictional movie).

And I guess I haven't updated y'all on Olivia..well, she's at home, back at school and she seems to be doing okay. She keeps herself occupied and sober while hanging out with friends and going to play laser tag and going to the movies and stuff like that. She knits a lot too; I think it's therapeutic for her. She's still as quirky as ever and she works for Dr. Bob (the artist - you know, the 'Be Nice or Leave' guy) on the weekends. So all in all, she's pretty good. She turns 18 in April which is just unbelievable. I think she'll find her niche somewhere and she will be just fine.

Target at 8am Saturday was empty and wonderful. I got out of there with everything I needed in less than an hour and then had to go to Best Buy. I was one of the people sitting in my car waiting on Best Buy to open at 9. I felt old. Like, when did I become this person that sits outside of a store at 855am on a Saturday waiting for it to open? I also went to World Market which seems to be where they are hiding all of the Abita Wheat beer. Abita Wheat is my fave, but I forgot it was seasonal. They took it off of the tap at the Brew Pub and it is nowhere to be found at any grocery store in or around the Abita Springs area. So for whatever reason, World Market is the Abita Wheat hoarder of south Louisiana.

Over the past few months, I have sat in on meetings with some healthcare executives. There was this one guy who was not very pleasant and pretty abrasive, but his ass was kissed by everyone because he was important. He ended up getting into some legal trouble and was fired and he has had to do some community service as part of his punishment. Last weekend I was cleaning out closets so I got a bunch of stuff together and brought it to the Habitat ReStore to donate. This person in shabby clothes walks up to me and asks if I needed help getting the stuff out of my car and I recognize him as this former VIP that has gone from being feared and appeased to being forced to volunteer at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I was shocked. His fall from grace was quick and ugly. I mean, it was soooo a reminder that you should never treat people like shit, act entitled, or abuse your current position in life because it could all go away in a flash.

Neal gets home Wednesday and we get two whole days together before his family comes in town Friday for the whole weekend. Lawdy lawdy it's going to be a busy week.

It's The Little Things, Y'all

I got a mini heater from our office supply catalogue and it is making my life. I no longer have to wear my coat while I'm sitting at my desk working.

If anyone ever looked at our online bank account, they would notice that for two weeks a month the most frequent, repeat purchases are at the Covington Starbucks and the Dairy Queen of Yorktown, TX. There is only one 'restaurant' within a 20 mile radius of Neal's rig, so it's DQ for dinner most nights. And while I tried to give up my Starbucks habit, it didn't quite pan out. So every morning when I log in to our bank account to check the balance and transactions, there are always those two charges right there in the pending transaction section. Becuase neither one of us carries cash. EVER.

I just payed our first property tax bill last night. And I was excited about it for two reasons: 1. Because it means we own a home; and 2. Because we can pay the bill. Growing up I lived in a rental house. My parents owned a home for about 1.5 years before they got divorced, and from then on out it was all rentals. And of course money was always a big problem and my mom never let us forget it. We didn't come from a place where the parents hid the problems and didn't tell the kids about them, we were always totally aware of the financial issues. And because kids are sometimes victims of their upbringing, part of me thought that I would have those same kinds of experiences all throughout my life. And I definitely went through some rough times when I was in my early 20's and I was about the worst money manager that you could ever imagine. But I've learned from all my mistakes and so just that Neal and I both have jobs and we work hard and have health insurance and we own a house and have vehicles and can pay our bills....it makes me happy and I feel very fortunate. It's the little things, y'all.

Anyway, country is coming to town next weekend. The in-laws and Neal's sister and her kid will be at our house from Friday through Sunday. My work Christmas party is Friday afternoon from noon to three, so I will more than likely be a little tipsy when I get home Friday afternoon. This makes for great entertainment, I promise. Marilyn texted Neal last week and asked him what kind of perfume I wear, so he told her Dolce and Gabbanna - Light Blue. He then went on for about 5 minutes into all sorts of scenarios about how she will pronounce 'Dolce and Gabbanna' when she asks for it at the department store. This was comedy gold. I soooo wish I had recorded it.

I have a nice, modest garland wreath with a red bow on our door, and that's it for our outdoor Christmas decorations. A lady in our neighborhood put up the biggest, tackiest, colored lights on the outside of her house. I'm thinking of cutting letters out of magazines and pasting them on the paper (like ransom notes in movies) that say something like "Yo' Shit Is Tacky" and leaving it in her mailbox. But I think she'll probably figure out it's from me considering the face I make every time I drive by her house.

I have to do all of my Christmas shopping this weekend which means I will be fighting the overdressed, yat-ed up bitches in Target and everywhere else I have to go. And our pest control guy put a crimp in my plans because he's coming to spray the house sometime between 10 and 12 Saturday morning, so now I have to be home at that time. Maybe I'll go to Target at like 7am while all the yats are sleeping off their skinny-girl cosmo and white zinfandel hangovers.

Just Some Stuff

1. Neal gets home Friday...by that time, he'll have been gone for 18 days. Because not only did he have to work for 14 days + travel time, but he then has to go to training this Thursday in Corpus Christi. Sweet lord, by the time Friday comes around I will have his pillow dressed up in his clothes drinking bud light and eating dinner with me.

2. And speaking of Corpus...when we lived in Austin we used to drive down to Corpus for the weekend to go see concerts at the Concrete Street Ampitheatre. I remember one time we were walking/stumbling back to the hotel after a show and it started pouring down raining. We were soaked and it could have been a scene from a romantic movie had we not stopped at the Whataburger where I proceeded to get a messy hamburger and woof it down in the hotel room where I then passed out all drenched and bloated.

3. I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love 2.5 times yesterday. Ryan Gosling. That is all.

4. I took off 3 days next week and we have holidays Thursday and Friday, so this means ONE WHOLE WEEK OF VACATION! I think this is the first time I have taken an entire week off of work since I started this job. YYYYAAAAYYYYY!!!! I am pretty sure that I will wake up Monday morning, go to the gym, then come home and look at Neal and go, "I'm bored."

5. It's mid-November, 75 degrees outside, and humid as frick. Why do I even bother with the hair straightener in the morning on days like this?

6. I think I'm going to try out a gel-polish manicure this week. I've heard good things, so I'll let you know how it goes.

7. My office has decided to start smelling like vomit in the mornings now. Not sure why. It never smelled good to begin with and it's always been sort of like a third world country, but lately its been straight-up stank. It may have something to do with the fact that our 64 year old office manager has started eating boiled eggs every morning. She eats them while she reads the obituaries on nola.com while wearing two pairs of glasses (one on top of the other) because she refuses to get cateract surgery until she qualifies for Medicare. Seriously - this place is a circus.

8. And while I've still been doing stuff to the house and getting ideas off of pinterest, the whole "DIY" craze has gotten out of control. I'm seeing posts lately for stuff like, "Do It Yourself Glue." I mean, just buy some fucking Elmers for 99cents at the Rite Aid and be done with it. I'm sure it will come in handy in the event of the apocalypse to be able to make your own glue, but is it really that necessary?

9. I've started making coffee at home in the mornings lately. I needed a break from the Starbucks iced lattes. I'm sure I'll pick up the habit again, but in the meantime I'm saving $4.78 a day. This will pay for my gel manicure. :)

Work and Weight and Hair and Stuff

I've gained a little weight. Not a lot, but enough so that the pants that I've been wearing for the past 3-ish years have become too tight. I can get them on, but they hug my mid-section and it's not pretty. So I've had to go buy more work pants because I'm in this place now where my 2007 pants are still too big, but my 2008-2010 pants are too small. I have to wear ugly blue uniform shirts to work Monday thru Thursday, so my pants options are limited. And when in the hell did the gap stop selling everyday khakis? I don't understand. I now have to go to Old Navy to get my khakis, and they don't fit nearly as well as Gap pants do. There is a J Crew outlet in Mississippi that I only go to about twice a year, so I will have to hold off on my major khaki purchase until then. PS - The word 'khaki' looks weird when you type it over and over.

I also bought some comfortable work shoes - they're clogs. Like, brown clogs. The kind that you see nurses and chefs wear. They make me feel tall(er) because they've got thick soles. I think they're a little butch, but holy shit are they comfortable. I've worn them everyday this week because wearing comfortable shoes to work makes my day better.

And this whole weight gain thing? I mean, I'm still doing the gym thing four days a week. I'm starting to think that I've plateaued with the running; but I can't get up any earlier than I already do to get to the gym to run longer, so it is what it is. I also think the weight gain may have something to do with Neal going to a 14 and 14 schedule earlier this year. I eat so differently when he's gone and when he's home and I think my body was used to 7 and 7. Eating like crap for 7 days in a row while he's home is probably not as damaging as doing it for 14 days in a row. And once I gain weight, it's so freaking hard for me to take it off.

ANYway, I got my hair trimmed Tuesday and my hairdresser told me she was 14 weeks pregnant. I feel like the only non-mom on the planet. She is 28 and has been married for 6 months and she is very sweet, but she's not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed. I kind of miss my NOLA hairdresser, Charlotte. Charlotte is about my Mom's age and I have always wanted to be her. She's so cute and always wore the best clothes and I think it would be so great to just hang out in my Magazine Street salon all day and gossip and drink PJ's and be quirky and fashionable. Instead I'm wearing blue uniform shirts with lesbian shoes and reading policy everyday. (No, serisouly I love my job but sometimes I think it would be nice to just gossip all day long uptown while wearing expensive jeans and $60 t-shirts from Gae-Tana's.)

And while I'm thinking about moms and hair and stuff, I realized that if I ever get pregnant and have a girl that I will have to learn how to fix hair! I can't fix my own hair, much less someone elses. Is there a class that teaches you how to do this? The thought of this makes me very nervous.

Oh, and don't laugh but I recently finished a book called The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Anxious and What You Can Do to Change It and it was very helpful. I skipped over some of the parts that either did not apply to me or were too science-y, but the explanations on how the brain works and the relaxation/thought control techniqes she taught were worth the read.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh Y'allllllllllllll

How about some short, short stories? Here we go:

1. We went to breakfast Saturday morning at the Abita Springs Cafe. It's a little breakfast place in walking distance from our house. The guy who owns it used to work at Brennan's and runs it with slave labor, aka his wife and children and probably nieces and nephews or something. Now, the cafe is not a place to eat if you are in a hurry. These people take FOREVER to do just about anything. And they forget stuff all of the time. But you can sit outside and the western omelet is pretty good and they serve grilled biscuits that are the size of your face, so you just accept the slowness and tip well anyway. And the owner loves to talk to everyone. He will talk to you for 10 minutes while your coffee mug is empty and then look around for his wife and be like, "Oh, do you need more coffee? I'm not sure where she is. Hold on, I'll get it for you." But he did spout out one little piece of advice to all the guys who were sitting outside. Here it is: "Never let your wife smell a baby or a new car. 'Cause she'll want both." And you know what? He's so right.

2. I made a Halloween wreath this weekend. I got a foam wreath, wrapped it in pieces of black fabric with 'boo' written on it in orange, and then painted some wooden letters (they spell out 'Boo') orange and hung them in the middle of the wreath with ribbon. I guess it turned out cute, but I didn't think about how the outside elements would affect the trusty glue dots I used to attach the letters to the ribbon and then to the wreath. So the letters kept on falling off, and it was making our house look like it was stupid and couldn't spell the word BOO. I took everything inside to re-do and almost put the letters on backwards, so it would have spelled 'OOB'. So guess what the new word in our house is now? OOB. Sounds like, 'boob' minus the first 'b.' Everything is oob now. It's a verb, noun, and adjective. We've used it in the following phrases:

You're an oob.
Son of an oob.
What the oob?
He totally oobed it.

It's a very versatile made-up word. Feel free to oob it if you want to.

3. Pants were 40% off at the Gap yesterday and I think today too. FYI. I got some flared khaki colored work pants and even though I got the ankle pants, I still had to hem them. They're super long, but very cute. And then I got some brown wedge mid-calf boots from Belk for 40% off; they have the best deals on shoes. I need the weather to get permanently cool so that I can stop worrying about getting pedicures. So with the money that I save on not having to get pedicures, I can spend on shoes. See how that works?

4. I went home for lunch yesterday to see Neal before he left for work. He left a few minutes before I did. I had a meeting in Mandeville so I passed him at the gas station on my way there. I didn't stop because I'm pretty sure I would have caused a huge sobbing crying scene at the gas pumps of the Danny & Clyde's because I didn't want him to go. You see, yesterday was the worst day of my period and I was a teeny bit emotional. Neal leaving for work + bad period day = batshit crazy. Thankfully I was able to maintain enough control of myself to make it through my afternoon meetings. Then I felt muuuuuch better after I bought pants and shoes. Retail therapy - for the win.

5. I usually don't like mainstream country music a whole lot. I normally go for the indie/Americana/Texas type of country. You know, raspy voiced boys that sing about drinking whiskey and ex-girlfriends and stuff. (Until they get married, have kids, and become too happy to write anything good so they sell out and go on tour with Rascall Flatts.) But, um, I am sort of loving Keith Urban's song "Long Hot Summer." I jam the shit out of it. I think I'm going to buy it on iTunes right this second.

Wednesday

I was listening to Kidd Kraddick this morning and they were doing their "Does That Make Me Crazy" segment. A girl called in and said that when she's at work and she goes to the bathroom, she brings another pair of shoes in there with her so that "if something happens" she can change her shoes and no one will know it was her. Kelly Rasberry thought it was genius and Kidd started calling them her "poop shoes." I found this all completely hysterical because really, what girl has not had this issue at work? I mean, as I've gotten older I've become more okay with the fact that everyone poops and why be embaressed? But this whole things was just hysterical. Poop shoes - HA!

His 32nd birthday is Sunday so to celebrate we've been eating cake all week. Like, his parents made a peanut butter cake, then we bought a small cookie cake at the grocery store, then he wants me to make an all white cake this weekend for his birthday. So, cake cake cake.

How did I go from poop to cake? Oh well.

Anyway - Halloween is soon, right?

Day 1: "I'm not decorating the house for Halloween, it's stupid, blah blah blah."
Day 2: "Well, maybe we can paint some pumpkins or something."
Day 3: Girl at work mentions decoupaging pumpkins. "Wait, what?"
Day 4: Googling pictures of pumpkins and pumpkin-on-porch arrangements.
Day 5: Googling pictures of wreaths. 'Cause if I'm going to have pumpkins on the porch, I kind of need a wreath too.
Day 6: Writing out shopping list so I can go to Hobby Lobby during lunch this week to buy paint, stencils, fake spikers, spider web stuff, orange and black fabric, orange and black ribbon and wire and/or foam wreaths.

Here are some ideas that I liked:








So we'll be busy this weekend watching football, decorating the front of the house for Halloween, and eating cake.

Crafty Crafty Crafty

Did I tell you that Pinterest has taken control of my life? Thanks Peirce girls, y'all have made me an addict. ;)

Here is what I did in the two weeks that Neal was gone:

1. Wall lyrics for above the dresser in the bedroom.

2.I made a necklace holder for the bedroom. I bought wood and knobs from hobby lobby (that sounds pervy). Inspiration from Milkweed, of course.

3. I modge podged four small plates that we don't use with scrapbook paper for the dining room wall. (Yeah, I used modge podge for the first time last week. Like now, if you sit still long enough, I will modge podge you too. That shit is fo' real.)

4. Our last name for the dining room wall. (I used a faded wood frame from Hobby Lobby with no backing and bought small wooden letters and painted them black.)

5. Re-painted a standing lamp in the living room and got a new shade for it.

6. Bought new drum shades for the lamps in the bedroom. (Almost electricuted myself while changing out the shades. I now know to always unplug lamps when messing with them.)

7. Moved white cube shelves from the "office" into the bedroom. Bought brown baskets on sale at Lowes and spray painted them blue to match the bedroom grey/blue/white scheme and put them in the cubby holes.

8. Bought gray curtains at Target for the bedroom ($14 for two panels, what what!) to replace the fug blue ones that were in there. And they're a lot thicker than the ones I had in there before. Neal calls them "curtains of the night."

So here is what I've learned from doing this stuff:

1. You can paint anything. If it doesn't match, paint it. I looked all over Lowe's for some blue baskets to match the bedroom. I found some brown ones that were on sale and was like "meh" but then I was like, "HOLD ON - I can buy some blue spray paint and paint them." And they totally work. Duh.

2. When spray painting, place something underneath the object while painting so that you don't get those weird sticky edges underneath it. I don't know why I never thought of this before. Probably because I want everything done NOW and don't like to take my time and do things carefully.

3. Modge podge.

4. Scrapbook paper is multi-functional. I am not a scrapbook person so I've never really thought about the paper before, but there are so many different designs of paper at hobby lobby that you can use them to cover plates, platters, canvas, frame it as wall hangings, whatever.

And I think that's it. I will take pics as soon as I find my camera.

It's a Conspiracy

Here is what my horoscope for today says:

"Today is all about communication, and your ease with words and facial expressions should help you to make the most of it! Now is the time to let people know just where they stand with you."

See the part I bolded? It's just cruel because I had three teeth drilled at the dentist this morning and now I can't fucking move the right side of my face. Assholes.

Geaux Tigers

I ended up getting a last minute invite to go to the LSU game with my Dad Saturday, so I went. We stopped at Zippy's on the way there and each got a daquiri that tasted a little like pink lemonade. Well, the pink lemonade must have been masking the taste of gasoline and ecstacy, because I was fucked up six ways from Sunday after drinking that thing. Like, to' up from the flo' up.

And you see, I usually don't like to get *quite* that intoxicated when I'm around my parents, because, as many of you know - when I'm drunk my blunt honesty goes from zero to one hundred in no time. And at this point I start bringing up questions and situations that I am still carrying around from childhood. And quite frankly, I don't see the point in doing that. But I do it anyway, because I have issues and I just can't help myself.

So yesterday I slept pretty much all day and night and left the house twice. Both times were to get greasy fast food. It was a proud day for me.

And I'm still tired.

Moodyness and New Neighbors

I feel like I could cry at the drop of a hat right now. It's like there is a well of extreme irritability and crazy emotion that is bubbling up right underneath the surface, and I am just waiting for someone to pull the trigger so I can let loose. I'm trying to keep my composure and fake smiling and happiness, but it's a little hard to do. If I'm lucky, no one will come in here and talk to me for the rest of the day. 1 hour and 52 minutes left until I can go home and chug (in the most ladylike way possible, of course) a glass of wine and hang out with Neal and hopefully not explode in tears all over him.

In other news, I think I may have PMS today. Just a hunch.

We have some new neighbors in the "big" house next door to ours. There is definitely a situation there, but I'm not sure what it is. From what we can gather from peaking through the blinds, this is an interracial couple with a brady-bunch-like family. There is a black man with dreads, a white woman with 2 or 3 white kids, and a mixed-race baby. We were leaving the house the other day and he was unloading a huge bag of soccer balls from his truck, so these are the two scenarios we've come up with:

A. He plays professional soccer for a team in NOLA (if there is one).
B. He is a soccer coach at a highschool here. One of the mom's sons plays for him, he met the mom, and they fell in love and now they are the multi-racial brady bunch of Abita Springs.

I think he may possibly be british because he has some weird looking plate on the front of his truck with a 'GB' on it. Maybe GB = Great Britain? Who knows. I'm only speculating. I haven't heard him speak yet so I don't know if he has an accent.

Anyway, we were going to bring over some cookies to them to say 'welcome to the neighborhood' and so I could do some recon and figure out what their story is because I am incredibly nosy and enjoy inserting myself into other people's business. We bought some cookies from the bakery in Abita, but when we got home, everyone was gone. We waited and waited, but no one ever came back. And since it was super hot out, I didn't want to leave them on their porch. So we ate them and they were delicious and now our new neighbors will never know that I get an 'A' for effort for trying to be neighborly.

I Spoke Too Soon

The mother-in-law is in the hospital now. Something to do with her heart. WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Update: They're keeping her for observation overnight and she should get to go home tomorrow. It seems that she missed her last doctor's appointment because she was so worried about Neal's Dad. I hope she realizes that she needs to take care of herself too!

Past Two Weeks

So I had to work half days this past weekend. There was a massive fish kill in the Pearl River last week, and guess whose office was selected to answer the emergency response line? The phones were insane Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week. They finally slowed down a little over the weekend. I think the river is all cleaned up now, so hopefully things can go back to normal.

You would not believe some of the calls that we got. I won't go into detail, but I will say this: 1. People are crazy and 2. I think there's a whole lot of people around here that sit around and wait for a chemical spill to happen so that they can get some work for a few days. We did get a bunch of calls from people who were going into detail about their health problems when they live nowhere near the Pearl River. "So you're calling from where? No ma'am, I'm sorry, I don't think that your diarrhea is a result of this chemical spill that took place more than 30 miles away from your home." I'm guessing that they were hoping to cash in on this situation. I think that those calls will continue on for a bit, especially whenever the plant that caused the problems starts paying out. Lawdy lawdy.

But my favorite call from the weekend had nothing to do with the fish kill. It came from a lovely woman who had some questions about the plethora of storm systems out in the Atlantic. It went something like this, "Why ya'll gonna' wait 'till last minute to tell people what's going on? I'm going to fuck ya'll up because ya'll be fuckin' killin' people and shit." So, you know, that was pleasant. But that was pretty restrained actually, because she called one of the other girls in my office a "white bitch" during her first phone call to voice her concerns. Public service is awesome.

Anyway - umm, what else has been going on? I got crafty this weekend. I worked on decorating the master bath a little bit. I got a new mirror for the bathroom and made some framed pics to hang on the wall. I need to go to Hobby Lobby one more time tonight, and once I finish I'll try and take some pics and post them.

I did go and visit Olivia weekend before last, and she was soooo happy to see me. She seemed to be doing pretty well and she and I have been sending letters back and forth. But she had a little setback this past week. She ended up calling her counselor a bitch so she got pushed back to "level 1" and she was at a "level 3." My sweet baby sister needs to learn how to control her anger. It was weird seeing her in there. I want so much better for her than this, so I just hope beyond hope that this program helps her enough to where she doesn't relapse and she can turn her life around. She's got such a good heart and a vibrant personality. Her potential is endless, she just needs to be able to overcome these problems.

And I think it was week before last when I was at work and looked at my hand and realized that my entire diamond along with the prongs had fallen out of my engagement ring. I found it and brought it all into the jewelry store where they fixed it and and were able to set the diamond muuuch lower (which is actually what I had originally wanted them to do when we bought it.) It looks the same from the top, but the profile of it looks soooo much better. I love it!

So I hope that this week is a little less eventful than last week. Neal gets home Wednesday, yay! Hopefully we won't have to travel anywhere for any family crises this time while he's home. Happy Monday everyone!

From Sad to Glad, I Promise

I'm going to get the sad stuff out first because I need to. But after I do, I promise to be more positive.

A 34-year old woman who works for the Parish died in a motorcycle accident last week. I didn't know her, but from what I hear she was absolutely awesome. Things have been a little somber around work since then.

Then this morning we found out that our building manager's son was in critical condition at a hospital because he was in an "accident." His office is right next to mine and when the A/C goes off you can hear absolutely everything that goes on in there (whether you want to or not). So I heard him when he was on on the phone, and it turns out that his son tried to commit suicide. (His son is in his late 30's and has had some legal/mental health/drug problems in the past.)I didn't know what to say to him so I just told him that I hoped everything would be okay.....poor guy. I understand the way you feel when you want to help someone get themselves out of a bad situation, but in reality there isn't a lot you can do until they are ready to accept help and make an effort to change things.

And by the way, I'm sorry I've been such a bummer lately, but this stuff just keeps happening.

On a slightly happier note....

I'm going to see Olivia in rehab this weekend. I sent her a letter last week and had a response from her in my mailbox when I got home today. She seems to be doing really well in there. She's 17 and seems sort of grown up and aware of what is going on with her now. I'm really looking forward to seeing her.

And still getting happier....

I talked to the MIL today and the FIL is doing much better. He had his first breathing treatment today and, according to Marilyn, that was a really good thing. And I remember a few months ago they came to the house and he told me the following: "I got me some of that duck insurance." He was referring to his new Aflac policy that provides him coverage in the event that he is out of work for a while due to illness or whatever. So he told me today that he got his first "duck check" in the mail. And by the way, the FIL is not ignorant, he just likes to mess with me as much as possible. Like, whenever we go up to Baskin he will wear just a normal pair of shorts and a shirt with a pair of "dad shoes." (Side note - will explain "dad shoes" below.)But when they come to our house, that old bastard will have on his denim overalls and will sit on my front porch in all of his glory. I'm telling you, he likes to test me. I know he expects me to ask him to change out of his overalls before we go out to dinner, but I don't say a word.

Now, as for the "dad shoes" - I call them this because every dad I know wears them, including my own. Here they are:



They're hideous, right? I'm pretty sure that my dad is going to purchase some for Neal as soon as we have kids. Why? Because he likes to mess with me too.

Happier....

And I found some easy breezy directions on how to make curtains without a sewing machine. All I need is my fabric, curtain rings, and some stitch witch. Picking out the fabric is going to be the hardest part.

Girls Weekend/ The Punta Convention.....

Let me explain. Kristin, Jeanne, and I were in the car on the way to Houston for girls' weekend last month. We were talking about vacation spots and all inclusive resorts and stuff. Well, I told them that I wanted to go to the Hard Rock Resort at Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic because Kidd Kraddick spent a week there and they talked a lot about how awesome it was.

Now I'm not making this up. This joint exists. Here's the website: http://www.hardrockhotelpuntacana.com/

But I told them that Neal had said that he thought "punta" was a dirty word in Spanish. Jeanne said that she thought it was too, so Kristin looks it up on her phone. Well, in real life punta = tip in Spanish. In dirty slang, punta = dirty pussy. So from there Jeanne decided that our girls weekend would be called the Punta Convention. So when anyone asked what we were in town for, we had to tell them it was for the Punta Convention. And that is why I have the best friends in the whole wide world. Bunch of dirty bitches.

I'm Trying So Hard to be Cool About It

But I want a baby. Like, now. And it's getting harder and harder every day to ignore the pains. The every time I see a baby I get jealous of the parents pains. Like, holy fucking shit it hurts. And I'm pretty sure that you're not supposed to say these things out loud, but I'm going to anyway because maybe it will make it all a little easier to stomach.

And ya'll, honestly, there is nothing we can do about it right now. Absolutely nothing. We just have to wait until he's home when I ovulate, which won't happen until a few months from now. If we're lucky, it will be before the end of the year.

So I'm trying really hard to be patient. We are enjoying ourselves and doing all the things that you can't do anymore when you have kids, and it's all good. And I feel so very lucky to have Neal for a husband, because he is the best and we are the best together and there is not a doubt in my mind that everything will happen when it's supposed to. It's just that some days are harder than others, you know?

And if anyone asks me if we're going to have kids anytime soon, it will take everything I have not to smack them in the face.

But in the meantime I am going to do my best to chill and not worry about it and try and have faith in the universe that everything will come together when it's time.

Quick Update

1. Neal's dad FINALLY got out of the hospital yesterday. They moved him out of ICU Monday and then he was sent home Tuesday. Quick turnround, no? Neal came home Monday night (he got home Wednesday last week and then went up to Monroe Thursday; I went up there Saturday and stayed the night.), so as long as there are no further catastrophes we should get to spend a whole 7.5 days together (with the exception of the time I'm at work) before he leaves again Tuesday.

I mean, wow, that was a rough two weeks. I forgot how stressful it can be when someone is super ill and in the hospital for an extended period of time. I know that some of you know what it's like and I'm so sorry that anyone ever has to go through that. There are so many mixed feelings and you feel guilty when you can't be there and you worry until they're out and the whole thing is so freaking stressful and...it's a lot. I'm just glad he's home.

2. Work is drowning me right now.

3. It's 1000 degrees outside with 1000% humidity. It's almost hard to breathe.

4. Football starts soon and this excites me to no end.

5. I'm going to attempt to make some sort of curtain for our bathroom window next weekend, but I need to do it without the use of a sewing machine. I'm thinking stitch witch? We have this huuuuge window over our bathtub that sheds so much light in the bathroom that it feels like an oven when I'm getting ready in the morning. That shit needs to be covered up.

6. Bare minerals foundation is a gift from God. I mean, in case you were wondering.

7. As of yesterday, I am silencing my phone when I get home from work and putting it where I can't see it. I will stop doing this when Neal leaves. Save the drama for ya' mama, all you crazy members of my family, 'cause I ain't interested.

And Now....

I'm at the doctor with my boss. He needed me to take him to the orthopedist to get a shot in his knee.

So I don't mean to have a pity party for myself regarding everyone else's problems; but do you ever feel like everyone around you is in complete turmoil? Like, what is up with the universe, people?!

Whilwind

Last week was busy busy busy. I came back Sunday from girls' weekend in Houston (which was wonderful, by the way), went to work Monday and Tuesday and then headed up to Monroe Tuesday PM after work. Neal and I stayed at his parents' house in Baskin and then got up at 4 Wednesday morning to be at the hospital before 6am. We stayed at the hospital all day until his Dad came out of surgery and went into ICU. By Wednesday night he was talking and coherent so all seemed good. I stayed in Baskin Wed night and then got up at 4 Thursday morning and drove home from Baskin so I could make it to work for 8.

I worked Thursday and Friday and then planned on staying at home the rest of the weekend (which I did). But Mr Steve started to have some complications with his breathing Friday so they had to call in a pulmonary specialist. I mean, he's smoked cigarettes for about 40 years, so honestly I think this was a little expected. He had fluid in his lungs and, on top of that, he was panicking when he tried to take deep breaths and couldn't quite do it. The man just had his chest cracked open, so again, this was all somewhat expected.

Neal's sister (Dawn) calls me Saturday morning to tell me that they're putting him back on the ventillator because they think the best way for his lungs to heal is for the ventillator to breathe for him. So they sedated him, but him back on the machine, put him on some antibiotics and waited for his lungs to heal. Dawn tells me that she thinks this is the worst of it and that he should start to heal since the machine is breathing for him. But, she says that Marilyn is freaking out and would like for Neal and I (he's back at work - 10 hours away) to both come up there. But Dawn says that she doesn't think that we need to come up there because he is starting to get better.

Not 5 minutes later Marilyn calls me and tells me to get in my car and come up there. I started to get choked up and was like, "Miss Marilyn, I'm so sorry, but I can't. I'm exhausted, and I just can't. And honestly, I think he's going to be okay." She is not okay with this becuase she thinks he's about to die, but judging from what Dawn told me, I don't think that's the case. And this is her husband, whom she loves more than anything, and I get that she's freaking out and cannot imagine life without him, so I understand. Completely. But really, I was so fucking tired and it was pouring rain outside and I couldn't even imagine getting in the car for another 4 hours to go up there and sit in the waiting room with her when he wouldn't even know I was there because he was sedated. I went up there last week, I told him I loved him and gave him a hug, and you know, I'm okay with that and I think he is too.

And she has family up there. I kid you not, when he went into surgery there were 28 people in the waiting room. The only ones from out of town were me, Neal, Dawn and Neal's Uncle.

So Neal gets off of work tomorrow night and he'll probably go up to Baskin again Wednesday or Thursday. If Mr Steve is still in ICU later this week, I'll probably go back up there too. He is still improving though, but I think everyone will feel much better about it after he's out of ICU and in a normal hospital room.

And my 17-year old sister is in rehab. So, there's that too.

Craziness

The past two days have been cuh-razy between both work and family. This is going to be a long one, so settle in for a minute.

I left Tuesday morning for my conference in NOLA. The conference was for Mass Critical Incident Training, aka 'how healthcare facilities and organizations should react in a disaster.' They had some good speakers, but the main speaker I was interested in seeing was Dr. Anna Pou, who was the MD from Memorial Hospital that the Attorney General's office more or less tried to charge for murder for the way she handled patients in the aftermath of Katrina. If you have an hour and are interested, here's an article about it: The Deadly Choices at Memorial. It is a very long read, but it is soooo interesting.

But before Dr. Pou gave her presentation, a professor from LSU law school gave a presentation where he bascially called her a criminal, said she got away with murder and then said that Louisiana is wasting away and we are all stupid for living here. And then he left the room before she had a chance to give her rebuttal; kind of a cowardly move if you ask me, but whatever. Listening to her story was fascinating; I can't even imagine what it would have been like to be in that hospital with no electricity, water, or outside communication for days and days.

Anyway, I came back home that afternoon and got a call from Neal telling me that he had just been promoted, on his same rig, working his same schedule, so yay! Thank goodness he didn't take that last offer two weeks ago. As long as nothing else changes, he will actually be off for Christmas and Thanksgiving this year for the first time in forever. So moral of the story - trust your gut, people. He told me when they offered him that promotion on another rig a few weeks ago that something was telling him not to take it, and I'm so glad he didn't.

So yesterday I get up at 5 o'clock in the freaking morning to go to the gym, etc and when I get there one of the gym regulars tells me that my one of break light is out. (This shit only happens when Neal's gone.) He's so nice and offers to fix it for me this morning, but I ended up getting the building manager at work to fix it yesterday. I stop by my usual Starbucks on my way out, but there's a sign on the drive thru that says they're closed due to chemical spill (what the fuck? What kind of chemicals are they putting in my iced coffee?). I finally get across the bridge to the hotel where the conference is and get situated for the presentations. Then I get a text from Marilyn that says "call me now - 911". FUCK, what now?

Well, my father-in-law who is working in Pecos, TX was having some kind of cardiac event (he's already had two heart attacks) and is on his way to the local hospital. She is hysterical. So I'm texting and on and off the phone with her and Neal's sister for a few hours. Neal's sister books Marilyn a flight from Jackson, MS (nearest major airport) to Odessa which is where they have to airlift my father-in-law because there is, of course, no cardiologist in Pecos, TX. But Marilyn has to make it to Jackson in less than two hours. I call her to check on her on her way there and she is flying about 90 mph with her flashers on, laying on the horn, hysterically crying. And, this woman has not flown commerical in maybe 10 - 15 years. She has to change planes in Dallas and is scared to death.

She tells me that she is flying American Airlines, so I decided to try and reach someone at the AA counter at the Jackson airport to see if they can help her out because she has no idea what to do. Well, the bitch on the phone was so not helpful and said that there is absolutely no way to contact the AA counter at the aiport but that she hoped that everything worked out. Neal's sister stayed on the phone with the MIL the whole time talking her through the airport process and it ended up that the first person Marilyn asked a question to was actually on her flight. And I can tell you, without a doubt, that whenever Marilyn recounts this story to me, it will go something like, "The Good Lord put that person there to help me out" and honestly, she's probably right.

But she made it to Odessa and they're together and honestly I was more worried about her flying that I was about him in the hospital. I haven't gotten an update yet, but as far as I know he's okay and they're waiting on the cardiologist to check him out and let him know what's going on.

And all of this was happening in the midst of work drama. The office was calling me every 5 seconds yesterday because there were problems with this or that so I had to keep walking out of my emergency preparedness conference to deal with emergencies. So finally I just said 'fuck it' and left the conference to come back to work. But I didn't get out of the hotel without first hearing a 15 minute long story from the valet about how he's from Honduras and knows how to milk cows and would like to move back and open a fish farm but he thinks he'll open a chicken farm instead. Apparently chicken farms are easier to maintain than fish farms, incase you were wondering.

So, I am totally hoping for a nice, mild, uneventful day today. I just want to do some work, stay in the office most of the day, and then go to Target tonight after work. And please keep my FIL in your thoughts and I sweet Lord I hope he's okay. And that is all.

Keeps on Tickin'

1. I bought myself a watch yesterday. It's the first time I've worn a watch in, well, I can't remember the last time I wore a watch. Must have been years and years and years ago. The ticking on my watch seems really loud. Like, it's bothering me. It's nothing fancy, just a gray Timex. But it feels weird on my wrist. And FYI - I almost bought a "baby g" watch. I mean, I didn't buy it because I'm not 13, but I honestly thought about it. Why do those things appeal to me? I don't understand my own fashion sense sometimes.

2. Neal leaves tomorrow. I'm not going to complain, because ya'll know the drill. But I wish it didn't suck so hard.

3. On a happier note, I get to both gossip incessantly and pollute my body with numerous toxins this weekend with my bestest friends in the whole wide world. Good times, good times!

4. I hate my work radio. I went from having one oldies radio station to having one slightly fuzzy/static-y oldies radio station. I want to beat it to death with a baseball bat.

5. I have to be on the Southshore tomorrow and Wednesday morning for a conference downtown at 815am. Fuck.

6. Honestly, this is what I'm hearing right now: "tick, tick, static, what I think is a song by the band Chicago, static, tick tick, phone ring, tick, static." Can I go home yet?

More Cynical than Sweet Right Now

There were at least four instances yesterday when I wanted to yat up and say to someone, "hey - go fuck ya'self." I mean, I didn't say it but I sure did think it. I'm a little more chipper today (as of right now, anyway).

Do we want to talk about Casey Anthony? Probably not, but I'm going to give you my two cents anyway. I paid attention to the case a few years ago when it all first happened, but I didn't watch any of the trial. Honestly, what I think happened is this: she used chloroform to drug her daughter so she could go out and party. I think she accidentally killed her one night after doing this and then started with the lies and cover ups, etc. I was kind of surprised when the state went after her for first degree murder. I thought they should have gone after her for accidental manslaughter (is that a thing?) or somthing along those lines, but I'm not a lawyer so what do I know. Either way, she'll get what's coming to her eventually.

Most of you, at one point or another, have probably heard me bitch about my issues with mosquito bites. I think I'm allergic to mosquitoes; like, more so than the average person. When I get bitten, my bites get super red and swell up and look horendous and itch more than you can possibly imagine. I was outside Monday night for about 15 minutes in cropped pajama pants and I got attacked around both of my ankles. So Tuesday night I kept waking up to put cortizone cream on them every 30 minutes because they were on FIRE. I barely slept and then had to wear pants to work instead of a skirt because they looked so bad so I was pissy all day. I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon and she gave me a steroid shot and told me to take Benedryl. It helped a lot, but they're still there. But what I don't understand is how medical professionals can come up with cures and treatments for the most outrageous diseases, but for some reason they can't figure out a decent way to stop f-ing mosquito bites from burning, itching and swelling? I guess it's because there's no money in it. Sorry, rant over.

I'm getting near the end of The Sun Also Rises. Why didn't I read this book in highschool or college? I feel like I need to crash an American Lit class or something because I need some of this shit explained to me. I'm pretty sure that there's a lot of symbolism that I'm not getting.

And FYI to anyone who's interested: we're having a girls trip to Houston from July 15th to the 17th. Me, Jeanne, and Kristen are meeting Jill and Pero at the Doubletree by the Galleria where we will be staying for the weekend. We will probably be outside by the pool for the most of the time. If you're around and would like to come hang out or meet up for dinner or whatever, please let me know!

Tuesday

This weekend flew by. Did I really have three days off? 'Cause it doesn't feel that way!

We stayed in Abita Friday night and went to the Brew Pub. Saturday we headed to Baskin which started off awkward but ended up being fun. Sunday morning we went to Alex and then got home Sunday night around 6. Yesterday we cleaned the house, went to the grocery STORE(Neal makes fun of me b/c I go to the grocery, not the grocery store), BBQ'd and watched the fireworks in Abita from our back yard. It all went by so quickly.

Now let me explain Baskin. Most of Marilyn's family was at their house when we arrived. And it was just a little awkward because it didn't seem like anyone wanted to be there. It was quiet and everyone was just looking at each other and it just felt uncomfortable. Once all the extended family left, Neal, my father-in-law and I popped a top and finally relaxed a little. We ended up drinking and playing cards and it was pretty fun. I just wish that my MIL wouldn't try to get everyone together whenever we come in town; it's usually more fun when it's just us hanging out.

And as for Hannah Claire? She is the most beautiful baby ever. She was so good during the christening and was laughing and smiling and making faces at the priest and she just melts your heart. She has these massive blue eyes and she's such a chill little baby. I wanted to take her home with me. Patrick and Jeanne and Hannah look soooo happy and they are the sweetest little family. And no I didn't take any pictures because I didn't have my camera with me, but everyone else there was taking pics, so I'm sure they'll end up on facebook at some point.

Can I name just a few of the things that I ate this weekend? Ribs, fried alligator, peanut butter cake, a hamburger, red velvet cake, boudin, crawfish etouffee, fried biscuits (yeah, that happened), bacon, pancakes, and the list goes on. Are you sick to your stomach after reading that? 'Cause I am. Like, how freaking gross. So even though I did not want to get up this morning, I did manage to drag my ass to the gym. I had to after the way I stuffed my face this weekend.

We finally ordered a bistro set for our back patio. This is what we got:

Hopefully it's delivered before Neal leaves next week so I don't have to spazz out and put it together myself. Slowly but surely we're addressing the needs of the backyard. We still haven't landscaped yet though. Oh well, it will happen eventually.

Hope everyone had a good 4th!

Who Does That????

It is so freaking humid in my office right now. It feels like what I imagine the rainforest feels like. They can spend $250k to get hurricane-proof shutters on every window and door in the building but they can't fix this horrible A/C problem? (The $250k was federal grant money, but STILL.)

One of the many things I went shopping for this past weekend was Peanut's christening gift. I went to the local Jesus store figuring they would have something cute for a baby, but their selection was pretty weak. I couldn't do the Precious Moments stuff...I can picture Jeanne opening it and being like "thanks, so much" and then thinking to herself "crap, now I have to find someplace to put this shit." So I just bought her a little off-white and weathered keepsake box that has a window where you can put a picture. I figured that somebody will probably give her a rosary that she can put in the box. I've never actually bought anyone a christening gift before, so I had no idea what to get. I probably should have just bought her a cool looking wall cross from Hobby Lobby, but oh well.

I painted the dresser day before yesterday and it looks soooooooo much better. My dining room is 99% done now. There is one more thing I want to do to it, and then I will post some pics. And I want to give a shout out to Milkweed for giving me some awesome decorating ideas. If you haven't read Jessica's blog yet, go over there and do it! Plus, she has give aways for some of her adorable rehabbed furniture. And I also can't not mention my unofficial interior decorator idea-giver, Sarah Schnure. For reals, this chick has given me the best ideas and guidance ever. .

I went to the nail salon after work yesterday to get a pedicure and my phone rang while I was there. It was about 545. It was Neal and he was all like "hey" in a very somber way. It was his day to come home, so that is not a good sign. His company called him at 545pm, 15 minutes before he finishes his 14 DAY HITCH and asks if he wants a drilling job (he's assistant drilling right now) on another rig. And oh, by the way, we need you there tomorrow morning for another 7 days. He called me and was all, "what do I do?" We talked about it and he decided to say "no thanks." I'm not worried b/c another opening will come up b/c they're breaking out new rigs all over the place now, but COME ON. You cannot call someone up, 15 fucking minutes before they're about to leave after working 14 12-hour days in a row (PS - he worked from 6am until midnight Friday) and be like, "yeah, if you could stay another week, that would be great" Who the fuck does that? Seriously, WHO DOES THAT? He was all, "I can't do it. I just can't. I'll be miserable and mean to everyone out there and I can't do it" I wasn't complaining b/c I was ready for him to come home. So he should be at the house when I get home for lunch today. He'll just keep on assistant drilling until another drilling position comes up. And hopefully, next time, they'll call him in the middle of his hitch or after he's been home for a few days instead of doing it 15 minutes before he leaves on day 14. Again, WHO DOES THAT?

So yay because the week is halfway over and it's a 3-day weekend and I get to meet Hannah Claire Saturday and my dude will be home today and, last but not least, Friday is jean day at work!

Monday

I feel like I should take more pictures. This may involve purchasing a new camera. Like, I never take pictures anymore, EVER. This needs to change.

Now I need to paint the dresser/buffet. I finished the mosaic stuff, painted the knobs, and now it looks funny. What have I gotten myself into? What a freaking ordeal.

I just finished The Paris Wife and it peaked my interest in Hemingway (he was smart, crazy, and drunk - so unlike a writer, right?)so I decided to read The Sun Also Rises which is one of his most popular books, I guess. I started reading A Farewell to Arms a few years ago and never finished it. I need to put on my smart girl pants to read his stuff because it's a little hard to follow. I must must must finish this before I start reading anything else...but my next book will definitely be a no brainer.

And I think it's time that I make dentist appointments for Neal and I. But I just hate the dentist so much. And of course we both have different/weird insurance providers so the logisitics are a pain. I would rather go to the OBGYN and have a metal rod stuck up my whohaa than go to the dentist. That is pretty bad.

I went to my Aunt and Uncle's yesterday for BBQ and swimming. Aunt Babs was drinking O'Douls, so someone must have had a little talk with her.

I started watching Oprah's Behind the Scenes show on OWN. It's pretty interesting. I like it more than her actual show. She's just so real and honest and she hates high heels.

And let me just pass on this little piece of funny: our office manager is an older lady who is about two years away from retiring. She grew up in the 9th Ward and maaaannnn can you hear it in her accent. She always plans our office holiday lunches where everybody brings something to contribute. She wants to make enchiladas this week, so this is what she asks me to bring:

"Candice – Sour Cream and Gulamolie ??you know the green cream."

Yep, that was cut and pasted from her email. She's a trip, gotta' love her.

There was this episode of How I Met Your Mother where Lily's husband was gone for a few weeks and she missed him so much that she took her body pillow and dressed it up in his clothes and had a candlelit dinner with it. Now, I'm not saying that I've ever reached this point, but I can say that I see the appeal. Kidding, I'm just really really really really excited that he gets home Wednesday. Like, if I weren't at work I would sit at home and look out the window every 5 seconds waiting for his truck to pull up. Is that sad? It's probably a little sad. Oh well. Happy Monday!

Discount Retailers

Hannah's christening is next weekend so I went shopping yesterday for a dress and shoes to wear. I mean, I have dresses but they were either a little too casual or showed too much cleave. Instead of going straight to Banana and Ann Taylor, I went to Marshalls and got the cutest navy blue dress for $29.99 that was originally $115. What what!



I couldn't find any shoes there that I liked, so I stopped at Ross and found some Steve Madden grayish heels for $14.99 that were originally $60.



The christening is Saturday morning in Alexandria. From there we are leaving to go to Baskin for the night. His parents are having a BBQ and a small house warming shower for his sister at their house. It will be a country roads weekend, ya' heard?

Summertime

So the Harry Potter books are not available on Amazon for the Kindle. It seems that JK Rowling has not yet warmed to the idea of e-readers. Get with the times, JK! I would like to read these suckers before I see the last movie. But since I couldn't get the HP books, I started reading The Paris Wife, which is a novel that is written from the point of view of Ernest Hemingway's first wife. So far, so good. I really like it.

The weekend was good. I psycho-cleaned the house, went to Hobby Lobby (duh) and Sunday was allllll family. I hit up both Houma and my Dad's house. Houma was good. I got to see my cousin who lives in North Carolina whom I hadn't seen it about ten years, and her 1-year old daughter who is just the cutest of the cute. She just bebopped around and was so cute and friendly and chubby cheeked. I thought my mom was going to eat her. Like, she couldn't get enough. Oh, and I had a little chat with my ma' about over-sharing on facebook. Like, there is no need to mention that we are trying for a baby on facebook, mmmmmkay? And after all that I went to my Dad's only to be slobberd on by Aunt Barbara when I got there. Normally, when Aunt Babs is at my Dad's with only a few people around, she's pretty well behaved. Yeah, not Sunday. She must have been boozing earlier in the day because she was smashed. I swear, you never know what you're going to get with that one.

Neal called me last night and was all, "the weirdest thing just happened." Let me give you a little background on this situation....not anyone can just roll up to the rig that he works on. There is a gate at the only entrance and you have to check in with the gate guards before you can drive onto the location. Now who exactly are the gate guards? Well, in this case they are an old, retired couple who stay in their RV and guard the gate. They supposedly work as the gate guards part-time and they spend the rest of their time travelling around the country in their RV. They stopped Neal last night when he was driving back onto location and said, "Hey, are you the Saints fan from Louisian? We saw the sticker on your truck and your LA license plate. Hold on, we have something for you." At this point, the old lady goes into the RV and comes out with an iron fleur de lis wall ornanment and a silver fleur de lis platter and says, "someone gave me these and I don't have anywhere to put it so here, take it." He said they are both pretty decent. I'm not quite sure what to think of all this, but I guess if they look allright we'll keep them. But how do I address the thank you card? "Dear Old Gate Guard Lady, thank you so much for pawning off your old shit on my husband. We really appreciate it. Much Love, the Saints fans from Louisiana."

I'm almost done with the mosaic dresser stuff. I need to buy a few more tiles and then work the grout into it. And again, I can't stress this enough, don't ever attempt this on anything even remotely big. I wish I hadn't started it.

I have a radio on my desk and since this building is built of some sort of impenetrable material, I only get ONE radio station. And of course it's the oldies station. (And before you say anything, I can't stream Pandora from my computer because the nazi's block the Website on our computers.) So I listen to the Oldies at work all day every day and now it's playing "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys and it's making me think of Big Love and I'm kind of sad it's over. But I am glad that True Blood starts soon. I feel like True Blood = summertime. Not quite the same way that the summer season of Beverly Hills 90210 at the beach club = summertime, but it still = summertime, nonetheless.

Anyway, it's time to work! Hope everyone is having a good week!

Reading and Stuff

Since I got my Kindle, I've gotten into these 'dystopia' books. They're usually about teenagers in the post-apocalyptic U.S. that fight and fall in love and all that stuff. I read the Hunger Games series and then just finished a book called 'Divergent.' For some reason, the normal chick lit books just aern't cutting it anymore. I need a little break from Emily Giffin and Jane Green and all that.

And don't laugh, but I think I'm going to try reading the Harry Potter books now. I used to laugh at the movies and the adults who read and watched Harry Potter, but since Neal loves the movies I actually tried watching some of them and they're pretty good. I like having a series of books to read, so I'm going to start with the first book and see how it goes.

And I don't think I told ya'll but I attempted the mosaic thing on my dining room dresser/buffet. Um, I don't recommend it. It is SUPER tedious and really time consuming. I've done about half of the top of it and so I am going to attempt to finish it either this weekend or next. And now I need to either spray paint or buy new knobs for the drawers because the ones on there don't match anymore.

I have six post-it notes on my work computer right now. They each list something that I have to do followed by an exclamation point. It's really not a very effective way of formatting a to-do list. I used to be SO organized at work...what happened?!

Bye Bye Mini Vaca

Sigh. My mini vaca is over. It was too short. Sometimes, on a Monday, I am ready for the work week and all that it entails. But other times, well, I want to be a day lady for ever and ever and sleep in and watch tv and go to Target 50 times a week. I know I would get bored, but sometimes I just don't feel up for all the crap that I have to deal with at work. Money and budgets and projects and timelines and meetings and expectations and BLAH.

But can I tell you what a good time we had during our four days of fun and staycationing? Thursday we went to the Aquarium and the Riverwalk and Jax Brewery and drank beer during inappropriate daytime hours. We went to the Napoloeon House and had Pimm's Cups and the Carousel Bar and ate at Nola for dinner. It was wooondeful and relaxing. We came back to our side of the lake Friday and spent the rest of the weekend going to see movies and going to the Chimes and working in the yard and bbq'ing and it was the best.

When we were eating at Nola, we were sitting next to a table where I think a mother and daughter were sitting. In the middle of our meal, the manager (who looked like CeeLo Green) came over and started talking to them. I couldn't hear what was going on, but Neal heard and said that apparently the younger of the two had seen a roach in the ladies room and she was complaining. The restaurant ended up comping a good bit of their meal and I heard one of them go, "well, it looks like I'll have to find a new favorite restaurant." I mean what?! You're in the FQ in New Orleans...not exactly a place known for it's great smell and cleanliness. I don't think it's a big deal to see a roach in the bathroom of a restaurant. I mean, you're not eating in there, right? Now if you saw one in the kitchen, that's another story. But it's in the bathroom. While that's not pleasant, I don't think it means you should have to have your meal comped.

And do you know what I'm so excited about? That my brother and his wife get to go pick up their son this week after they've been away from him for 6 weeks. They both had to go to Air Force training so they left TJ with her mom for the duration. I wish I could be there to see him when he catches a glimps of Ted and Diwina. That poor sweet baby. I mean, you can't exactly explain to a two year old why you have to go away for 6 weeks. I'm so happy that they get to reunite this week and then all head to Chi-town together!

And I got my blood test results back from the obgyn; everything is a-ok. Told ya'.

This week is going to be so busy at work. Like, I just know it. I desperately need to find some motivation somewhere, 'cause I'm just not feelin' it right now.

Today is My Friday

1. I just need to get through one more day here, just ONE more day, and then I'm off for four days. Thank you sweet baby Jesus, I need days off. I also need to roam around the Quarter during the day tomorrow afternoon with a Big Ass Beer and spend money on funky french market jewelry that I wear one time and then never again.

2. I went to the doc to have blood drawn yesterday to make sure I'm ovulating. I haven't heard back yet, but I will be totally surprised if there's a problem. I think I'm okay. I think we are okay, I just think it's a timing issue. I checked my cycle and his work calendar and it looks like we won't have a shot at this until October (at the earliest). But after October, we get a few months of perfect timing. C'est la vie, it will happen when it will happen.

3. I got a text from Neal last night that said, "Tt's official. I'm leaving facebook. I just got a friend request from my mom." So yes, everyone, Marilyn is on the facebook. I give her two weeks until she gets the hang of it and then I'm going to have to deactivate my wall. I was already thinking about deactivating it anyway, since MY mother has been on some sort of mission lately where the goal is to embarass the shit out of her children on facebook. My sister had to deactivate her wall for this purpose. I'm not far behind.

4. I have small patches of grass growing in our garden. What do I do? Do I just get some weed killer and carefully spray the grass/weeds? I don't want to hurt my plants.

5. Word on the street is that the cigarette smoking pregnant bitch WAS pregnant with twins, but she lost one. And she's still smoking her cigs. This infuriates me so very much.

6. I watched Blue Valentine the other night. It was good, but don't watch it unless you're ready to be a little bummed out. Plus they try really hard to make Ryan Gosling look skanky in the movie and, you know, it just ruins it a little bit.

7. Um, Reese on the MTV Movie Awards? Her speech? I love her. And I think she may have been a little tipsy. I bet she gets drunk and talks some serious mean girl smack about people. So much fun.

Now it's time to work balls to the wall until I leave here today so that I don't have to worry about any of this mess for the next two days, ya' heard?!

Nanny Cnie

Guess who's going to be Hannah Claire's godmother???? ME!!!!!!!!!!!! I got teary eyed when Jeanne asked me yesterday. I totally didn't see that one coming, but I am sooooooo excited! I am going to spoil that sweet baby girl rotten. Candy (when she's old enough), clothes, presents every time I see her, and lots and lots of love.

Jean Day Tomorrow!

1. I didn't watch or DVR Oprah's final show. I don't really care about watching it. I feel like this makes me a bad person?

2. This is how my office works: my boss calls me and our office manager to his desk and says, "Well, I should probably do this individually with each of you, but who am I kidding there are no secrets in this fucking office...anyway, you're both getting raises. I applied for raises for both of you last year and they're just now going into effect since everything in government takes fucking forever." He did not tell me how much the raise is because he doesn't know, so I have no idea what the actual dollar amount is. He's not what you would call "detail oriented."

3. Neal gets home next Wednesday then has to leave again Sunday to go to Lafayette for well control training for four days. Sigh. But I decided to take off Thursday and Friday of that week so we can hang. I booked a room for us at the Monteleone Thursday night so we can eat and drink in the Quarter and look at fishes at the Aquarium.

4. I'm thinking of attempting to do some sort of mosaic thing to the top of our former dresser turned dining room buffet. I looked up how to do it and it doesn't seem *that* difficult. Basically, I buy the little tiles, glue them to the top of the table, and then grout around them after they dry. Something along these lines but not nearly as fancy/girly.....


5. Lord I hope it rains today. Our grass is struggling.

6. Tomorrow is jean day at work and this makes me very happy. We're also having an office BBQ for lunch.

7. Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

I Can't Think of a Title

I was just in a so-so mood until I checked our bank account and found an unexpected deposit! Neal gets bonuses sometimes after they finish drilling a well and we never know when they're coming, they just show up in the account. This is awesome because I desperately need some new shirts for the summer. I've been wearing the same three shirts with skinny jeans for the past two months and eventually people around here are going to catch on.

I watched the season finale of Bethenny Ever After last night and that bitch always makes me cry. I can watch the saddest movie ever and not shed a tear, but one episode of Bethenny's show and the tears just flow. I guess it's because I relate to a lot of what she says and how she feels. My upbringing was not anywhere near as bad as hers, but I relate to some of the family drama that surrounds her life and it hits home sometimes. And when she started talking about "breaking the chain" last night I almost started balling. Like how just because certain things happened to her when she was a kid doesn't mean that she will automatically perpetuate those same actions to her own kids. I haven't had any interest in reading her books yet, but now I'm thinking about it a little bit more.

And I think that Parks and Recreation is my new favorite show. Lately it's been better than 30 Rock (sorry, Tina) and the Office. I can watch it over and over and almost pee on myself laughing.

On another note, we have 7 super long windows in our living room. They're so tall that I need the 90+ inch curtains for them. Because I didn't want to spend a thousand dollars on curtains, I bought the drop cloths from Home Depot and the clippy things (thank you, Sarah) and hung two "panels" on each window. Well, the walls in our house are all beige so the curtains blend in with the walls too much. I want to get some fabric to add some trim to the top of the curtains to make them a little more colorful than they are now. I think I'm just going to go to Hobby Lobby and stare at fabric until something jumps out at me. Hopefully this works as well as I want it to.

I went to the doc yesterday to talk about my ladyparts and I really don't think I learned anything new or helpful. And as far as our timing issues because of his work schedule, there's nothing we can do. With the artificial stuff, he still has to be there because everything has to be "fresh". So I would still have to ovulate while he's home. She's going to do some bloodwork on me next month (has to be on day 3 of my cycle) to make sure I'm ovulating, then he will need to get tested, and then she'll do an ultrasound to make sure I don't have any tubal issues and then we'll go from there. So, yeah, it was not helpful at all. I think I just need to relax and realize that this will happen whenever the fuck it's going to happen. Some people are told they'll never have kids and then they have 5 of them. Some people are on the pill and they get pregnant anyway. Like, I'm just so tired of worrying and stressing about it. I mean, we knew each other for 4 years before we dated, we dated for 6 years before we got married, we were married for 3 years before we bought a house, and so on. Maybe this is just the type of delayed schedule on which we operate?

Chick Food

I didn't sleep at all last night because Neal didn't sleep at all last night. I tried to go to bed around 10 but he was up until almost 1 (he gets really nervous before going back to work when there's any type of change involved, so he doesn't sleep much the night before he leaves)and since I knew he was up I couldnt sleep. My alarm goes off at 5:15 every morning, but lo and behold I get a text from my mother in law at 5:05 saying 'happy anniversary.' At 5 o'clock in the freaking morning. Very sweet of her, but so not necessary at that hour. I got so pissed because I hate waking up right before my alarm goes off so I re-set my alarm for 645, skipped the gym and went back to sleep. This lead to me beging sluggish and late this morning and then I almost set the house alarm off.

I have about 40 hours of DVR'd television to watch from the past two weeks. Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, the Office, 90210...all good stuff. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a teeny bit excited about it.

I also need to go back to the grocery store tonight to load up on chick food. I eat very differently when Neal's home and when he's gone. When he's home, we cook dinner most nights. When he's gone, I will eat the same thing every lunch/dinner for about 4days in a row. I feel like such a spinster when I unload all of my turkey, lean pockets, yogurt, pita bread and skinny cow ice cream sandwiches on the conveyer belt at the grocery store. Like, I might as well throw a Cosmo magazine, box of wine, and romance novel behind it for good measure.

Anyway...3 years ago today we were in Galveston about to get hitched. Last night he told me that it was the best decision he ever made. Sweetness, right? :)

And Again

We had such a good weekend and now we're on that downhill slide because he leaves tomorrow for another two weeks. Yuck yuck yuck. But on the bright side, he got a promotion!

We went to dinner Friday night for our anniversary (which is tomorrow - 3 years!)at this little french place in Mandeville called Cafe Lynn. It's a "casual fine dining" restaurant in a building that used to be a burger king. You have to see it to believe it. The food was delish, really really good. I would totally go back.

Saturday we worked on the house all day. We just got a shed for the backyard, so we moved all of his nasty oil field tools and other crap off of our back porch and into the shed. We no longer look like we have a white trash back yard, so that's good. We then planted a few more azaleas in the front yard and painted some furniture and stuff like that. And then it was burger + beer time at the Brew Pub. Yesterday was grocery shopping, church (me, not him. I asked him if he wanted to come with me and he said 'no' so I told him that I would just let Jesus know that he was busy) and drinks at the Barley Oak on the Lake. So it was just a really good, chill, weekend. I love those.

And now it's time for work all week and he leaves tomorrow and I'm pissy.

And you know, I think I've realized where all my anxiety comes from. When I was growing up, life was not always easy. And now, I have a hubbs I love, a house I love, a job I love, and I feel like it could all be taken away in a second and that if I don't worry about it, it will be taken away. Like as long as I worry about something, it won't happen. But the second I stop worrying, I think it will happen. I don't know why I feel/act this way, but I do. And I want to stop being like that. It affects me physically and it is the main reason I work out as much as I do. The running 4 days a week helps get out some of that excess anxiety energy that I am always feeling. If I didn't do that, I can't even imagine how much worse it would be. And I do go to church in an effort to relieve my anxiety through faith and an acceptance of things that I can't control, but I also cannot blindly accept all that I'm told in church. So this is where I need balance. I know I sound like a broken record, but I've got to find a way to stop being such a freaking worrier. I worry about being a worrier. But it helps to get this shit out and write about it sometimes, so thanks for reading!

Flyin' By

Today and yesterday at work have flown by. This probably means that the rest of the week will creepy creep by at a very slow pace. I'm going to make beef stroganoff for dinner tonight (or as Neal calls it 'strog') and drink some pinot grigio and then watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune like we do every night we're both home. Does that make us old, nerdy, sad, or all of the above? I just love Jeopardy so much. But I don't watch it when I'm home by myself because what fun is it to yell out answers when no one else is around to validate how smart you are? But he totally kicks my ass in Wheel of Fortune. I don't understand how his mind works like that, but he can solve a puzzle with like only three letters. I'm more of a trivia chick, not so much a puzzle solver. I keep telling him that if he would just try out for the ole Wheel we could win a vaca to Hawaii or something and then we could drive around in an RV that he would win from the final round. (Actually, I think I would want to sell the RV and he would probably want to keep it for LSU games, so I could see this turning into a fight.)

The important people that run our building decided that it was absolutely necessary to purchase hurricane proof screens to put on every single window and door in our building. (This glass was already bullet-proof, by the way. I guess that wasn't enough.) I was lucky enough to have a single window in my office and now they have taken away what little view and bits of natural light I had left. Now how am I supposed to make snap judgments and spy on pregnant bitches as they smoke cigarettes outside of my window with my view obstructed like this?

We have been to the Chimes twice in the past 5 days. It's pretty nice. They have this awesome outside seating that sits over the river and it looked great whenever we glanced back at it from the inside bar, which is where we were sitting. We went Thursday night and it wasn't super crowded. Ate some alligator, had some drinks, etc. We went back Saturday and holy meat market, batman. It was packed with tan bodies and muscles and chicks playing with their hair and skinny minny bartenders with short shorts and tank tops. So we may become people that only go to the Chimes on Thursdays or Sundays. I think Fridays and Saturdays are going to be spent someplace else for a little while. We were sitting at the bar and these 6 people walked in, 3 mega-muscle dudes and 3 over-made up chicks. Neal guessed that they were going to order Michelob Ultra Light, I guessed vodka. I was right...all 6 of those trash monkeys ordered cosmos.

Is it really only Tuesday? I'm so ready for the weekend!

Thursday!

Neal is home, Neal is home, yay yay yay Neal is home! Two weeks is a long time, ladies. A long, long time.

I am now offically 1 day late for aunt flow, but I don't think it means anything. I am 99.9% sure she is on her way. I did a big girl thing the other day and made an appointment with my doc for May 18th. I am going to print out my charts and bring them to her and act all knowledgeable about the wonders of the female reproductive system. And with the way everything looks right now, I will not ovulate next month until way after Neal goes back to work. So that's another month where "trying" is not an option because he will be 8 hours away in south Texas. The doc will either have to give me some meds to force ovulation or set me up to do this the clinical
way with a turkey baster or whatever it is they use to inject stuff into you. How romantic, right? God I hope no one at work finds this blog.

Anyway, they opened a Chimes in Covington so we're going to go there tonight for drinks and dinner. It opened a few days before he left for work last time, so I had to promise to not go without him. I can't wait to dive into some Chimes food and become BFF's with the bartenders. Later!

WTF

So can I just tell you that there is a pregnant bitch smoking outside my office window right now? I passed her on my way to the bathroom and she was showing off her bump to another girl and told her, "I don't care what it is, just as long as it's healthy." I kid you not, she said that with a cigarette and lighter in her hand. I mean REALLY? I have yet to become pregnant and this dumb bitch gets to have a baby? I really want to slap her in the face and tell her to give her baby up for adoption so that this poor future-asthmatic child will not grow up to be complete and total ignorant white trash.

Okay, sorry. Rant over.

Meh

That is how I feel right now. Meh. I think it's a combination of having a very shitty week at work and Neal's new 14 and 14 schedule. I had him home for 14 days, which was great, but he left last Tuesday and we're only on day 4 of a 14 day hitch. This is going to take some getting used to.

The crawfish boil went perfectly. We had such a good time and everyone was well-behaved (until Aunt Barbara got hammered and started crying and kissing everyone on the lips) and we had plenty of crawfish and it was just wonderful. This was our first time hosting something for the family, so now I feel like I'm capable of doing it again. But oh my goodness the MESS. My house was a disasta' the next day.

I'm also kind of sad because now both my siblings live out of state. With Maddie in Houston and Ted and Diwina in Chicago for the next 3 or so years...well, it sucks. I like it when we're all geographically close to one another. I think I need some cheese to go with my whine.

On another note, I bought some purple and gold fleur de lis rainboots and it hasn't rained one day since I got them. I wore them one day anyway, because, well - fuck it. They're cute.

There was a mini Jazz Fest here in Abita last Sunday. We ate some jambalaya, had a few beers, watched some androgynous/hipster NOLA street musicians perform...all in all a good time. It was getting kind of hot out, so we went upstairs of the outdoor pavilion to watch the bands and it felt perfect. It was shaded and had a nice breeze going and we were both like "wow, I could totally take a nap right now." Another couple must have felt the same way, because they took it to the next level. They came up to the pavilion with a blanket, laid it on the floor, took their shoes off and went to sleep. I think I'm too nervous to sleep in public like that.

I made a huge mistake this week and tried one of the new Starbucks breakfast sandwiches. I got the bacon/egg/cheese one and it was pretty freaking good. I have not yet looked up the fat content of the sandwich but once I do, I probably won't be having another one anytime soon. But for real, it was decent. I was surprised.

I'll be spending Easter Sunday with Mom and Randy tomorrow. I think we're going to brunch somewhere in the Quarter. I don't care where we go, as long as they have mimosas.

This Week

Ya'll! I gardened this weekend and I totally loved it. I planted some petunias, some azaleas, and a few other things that I can't remember the names of. Chances are that none of these plants will survive at all, but at least I'm trying. We're going on day 3 of the new plants not dying, so that's good.

I went to Lowes yesterday to get a few more things and I was waiting in the check-out line behind a couple that was probably in their late 30's. I crossed paths with them a few times in Lowes and he was saying things to her like, "You better watch your tone" and she goes "YEAH, RIGHT!" It took them forever to check out so of course I was staring at them the whole time and making snap judgments about their relationship. He had on a Lollapalooza shirt from 2006 and she had on a South by Southwest shirt from last year, so it seems that they like to party. All I kept thinking was oh my goodness, they're sober and in Lowes on a Sunday morning and they're this mean to each other? I bet they're horrific to be around when they're drunk and I bet (if their t-shirts are any indication) they're drunk a lot.

Neal should get home Wednesday and he will either be home for 7 days and then will work for 14 or he will be home for 14 days and then go to work for 14. If he's home for 14 days starting Wednesday, he will be home for my 'fertile time'. (I've been taking my temperature every morning and now I know when I ovulate - it turns out it's day 17. My doc told me it would happen day 14 - 16. She was wrong.) If he is only home for 7 days and then goes to work for 14, he will be gone every time I ovulate from here to eternity. Because we are who we are, I am almost positive that his schedule will work out so that he is gone when I ovulate. As soon as I find out this is the case, I am calling my doctor to make an appointment with a fertility specialist so that we can do the artificial turkey baster thing or so she can put me on medicine to force early ovulation or whatever. It's been almost a year that I've been off the pill....enough is enough.

I soooo am not able to focus on work right now becuase my mind is on the party this weekend. I am thinking about all the stuff I need to get and when we need to set up and who is bringing what and what am I going to wear and on and on and on. We're up to 32 people now. Yikes. But I talked to my brother today and he said that he and Diwina are so busy right now preparing to move and they're both so stressed out and they are looking forward to the party as a time to have fun and not worry about stuff for a little while. So that means it's all worth it.

I went to Hobby Lobby Saturday morning, which is now my regular Saturday AM routine when Neal's gone. I go get my monster iced latte from Starbucks and then go roam around Hobby Lobby for about 2 hours starting at about 830am. I got some good stuff this week for the guest bathroom which actually looks pretty decent now. And of course everything I bought was 50% off.

OK, for real I have to work now. Buh-bye.

Getting Ready for the Crawfish Berl

I'm going to have roughly 30 people in my house in about a week. This is like my first big 'hosting' event...ever. (Unless you count Jeanne's 21st birthday party on Ira Street. But this shouldn't be anything like that because I don't expect beer fights to take place in the front yard.)Anyway, we're going to boil crawfish and everyone is bringing snack food and I can't wait to see TJ and all my siblings and I think it'll be super fun. And check this out - my sister got TJ an LSU training potty for his birthday that plays the Fight Song everytime you flush it. So for the rest of his life, whenever he hears the LSU fight song he's going to have to pee.

I have been looking and looking for an off-white armoir/china hutch/buffet to put against the back wall in the dining room and I was not able to find anything I liked that was not ridiculously expensive. I was walking through my bedroom one day and looked at the off-white dresser and a light bulb went off....that dresser would totally mesh in the dining room. I googled stuff about turning dressers into buffets and then Neal and I moved it into the dining room last weekend. We bought some shelves with brackets at Lowe's, painted them light green, and then hung them up over the dresser. We put all of our china and stuff on it, got some light blue curtains and BAM we're done. I'll post pics soon. Aaaaaaaaaand now we need a new chest for the bedroom.

We went to Nuvolari's in Mandeville for my birthday dinner and it was pretty good. I gorged myself and was serioulsy full for about 24 hours. We've been hanging out in Mandeville a lot lately; they have this bar that sits on Lakeshore Drive and they have a balcony and the view of the Lake is soooooo pretty so we hit it up a lot on weekend afternoons. We also went to the Abita Town Garage Sale last weekend and it was no joke. Traffic was a beast...this little town was packed. We didn't buy anything, but we did see some interesting characters. Garage sales always bring out the weirdos.

We've had two couples move into our subdivision in the past two weeks. I think they're both pretty young, but we haven't met them yet. I'm socially awkward and really bad at small talk and Neal doesn't like people, so I don't know how to go about meeting them. (Ummmmm maybe we shouldn't.) I feel like I should drop off a welcome-something, but I don't know what. Do people still do that? Like, if I ring their doorbell and hand them a present are they going to look at me like I'm retarded? I would. I would invite them all to the crawfish boil, but do I really want to subject them to the tension that fills the air whenever my parents are within a 10-mile radius of each other? Maybe I should just wait.

I'm going to attempt to plant shit in my garden tomorrow. It's already landscaped, but there are a few spaces that need some updating. I'm going to buy some mulch and some plants and just dig holes and do it. Yeah. So that's what's been going on for the past week or so.