Sick, Sick, Sick

Neal got home last Wednesday and came down with a horrible cold Thursday. He was sick the whole week he was home. He finally went to the doctor a few days ago and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection, bronchitis, sinusitis and an eye infection. For reals. So then I started feeling bad Tuesday afternoon. I went to the doc yesterday and was told that, so far, it's just allergies. I got a steroid shot, Allegra, and antibiotics to take in case it didn't get any better. I still don't feel great, but it's not bad enough for me to miss work. Can we just be over this, please?! I hate not feeling well. It's messing with my work-outs.

Being the great and caring wife that I am, I left Neal home by himself Sunday and went to Jazz Fest with my mom. We had free tickets and VIP passes to the Acura Tent (compliments of one of her "friends"), so I got to watch the Allman Brothers from the stage. It was freakin' awesome. Did you know that JF tickets are $60 a pop now? Because I didn't! I thought they were still $32, and I thought THAT was high.







Besides my Jazz Fest trip Sunday, I really was a good wife and took care of Neal the rest of his week off. I made homemade chicken pot pie for him, went to Walgreens 40 different times to pick up every over-the-counter cold and sinus medicine in existence, kept the frig stocked with gatorade and frequently tried to de-germ the house. He's back at work now and is hopefully feeling much better.

FYI - I decided against the vegetable garden. The area where the box is located does not get enough sun during the day...and it's waaaay too much work. I'm going to stick with pre-potted plants that I can just transfer to another, larger pot with some soil. I'm not into doing things that I have to "till."

Wooooooooooooooooooork

I have gotten so busy at work that it is unbelievable. Still loving it, but WOW. I usually don't drink very much during the weekdays, but this week I've been craving a class of wine as soon as I get home. That's how I know it was a long day. I'm realizing that it is virtually impossible to do all the work that is on my plate, so I'm starting to delegate a little bit. I have one assistant now with another one starting later this month. It's exciting and scary all at the same time.

Jeanne's wedding was so much fun! I'm so happy for her and Patrick and it was so great to hang out with my favorite girls all weekend.

I have a little raised box in my back yard now that is full of dirt and weeds. I think I am going to attempt to start a vegetable garden. Granted, I have no idea how to do this, but that's what book stores, the internet, and libraries are for. It's time to get domestic, bitches.

Neal gets home Wednesday and his sister and her boyfriend are coming in town next weekend. As long as it's not raining, we plan on going to Jazz Fest Sunday. Neal has never been to JF before, so I'm going to break him in with the Allman Brothers.

I can't think of a single other thing to write about right now, so I'm going to get in bed and catch up on my shows.

No Work Today

I am soooo happy to have today off. I cleaned last night so I don't have to worry about it this weekend. I have a family crawfish boil at my grandmother's tonight in Mandeville that I am also excited about. And my brother and his family and Maddie will be staying with me tonight, so yay!

My inlaws went overboard and bought me a new backyard for my birthday. They gave me a porch swing, two swivel/rocking chairs with a table, a picnic table (which Neal and I stained last weekend), and Marilyn bought a bunch of potted hanging plants and planted some flowers around the house. The backyard looks a million times better than it did; I must take pics. The blue hydrangea bushes around the house are starting to recover from the cold weather, the azaleas are in full bloom, and there are some very pretty purple freesia-looking flowers that are blooming now too. Oh I so wish they would just sell us the damn house. I'm expecting to have some issues finding a place to buy that I like as much as this place.

Now can we talk about allergies? I could not sleep at all last night. The first half of the night I was congested and the second half of the night my nose was running. Ew, I know. My ears are even stopped up. I took a claritin this morning and am hoping my PJs iced coffee will do the rest.

So I'm getting an assistant at work. And my boss showed me the new organizational chart for our department, and it looks like I will be getting an additional second assistant at some point in the future. And the word "manager" will be in my job title. Hmmmm. I'm kinda' pumped.

So Jeanne's wedding next weekend?! I can't wait!! I may need to get some waterproof mascara.

Busy Bee

I've been non-stop today! I actually slept until 815 this morning (which is late for me) because I stayed up until after midnight last night watching the Real Housewives OC reunion shows. Quality television. Then today I picked up my bridesmaids dress for Jeanne's wedding, bought some gold strappy shoes to go with the dress and some silver gladiator sandals (by one get one half off), went to Target, Old Navy, LSU store, and then to Roly Poly for lunch. I came home, cleaned the whole house and finally showered. I'm wiped. Now it's rainy and I'm watching Everybody Loves Raymond. Not a super exciting day, but it was productive.

The inlaws are coming in Thursday for the night. They're buying me patio furniture for my birthday, which our house totally needs. Then mine and Cara's b-day crawfish boil is Sunday. Holla!

Work was insane this past week. I've been put in charge of all these Parish projects and it is terrifying. I've never been put in charge of this type of stuff before, so I'm learning as I go. I'm not used to having this much authority at work and it is really freaking me out. I do appreciate that my superiors seem to have confidence in me and my abilities...I just wish I had that much confidence in myself! Sometimes I miss the old days of micro-managing bosses. (Yeah, I said it.) It was annoying, but a lot less stressful. The grass is always greener....

Neal and I picked out some pearl earrings for my birthday. I love them. The ones I've been wearing the past few years were tiny and fake, so I love my new ones.

I guess the only sort-of big news that I have is that I've gotten off of birth control. We'll see what happens!

Our lease is up in May and our landlords want us to stay here as long as we want, so we are going month-to-month from now on with a 60-day move-out notice. I've started looking at houses online, but we haven't started seriously looking yet. I really like that we don't have to sign another year-long lease and that we can also take our time looking for a place to buy. I was worried that we would be rushed trying to buy a house; I didn't want to settle for a place just because we were time limited in our search. Hopefully we can find something in Covington or Abita Springs, within our price range, that we both like.

I think that's all I've got for now. 30 in T-3 days, ya'll.

Just a Few Things

1. Jeanne's bachelorette party was last weekend. Lots of fun and I love my friends. But I'm so very, very tired.

2. I'm old.

3. Going to be in Houston next week Wed - Fri. I'll be at the Doubletree in the Galleria area. Feel free to holla'.

4. If you like reading about celebrity gossip on the web, check out www.laineygossip.com. She has nicknames for some stars (for ex: Carrie Underwood = Country Bitch) and she's hilarious.

5. I DVR'd Oprah yesterday so that I could watch Jessica Simpson talk about the massive pile of douche that is John Mayer. And I must say, I think JS came off great. She finally seems comfortable in her own skin. She was funny, honest, and genuine. I like her again.

6. I have a wedding to go to tomorrow night and I have nothing to wear. I'm thinking about just wearing my highschool reunion outfit (black pants, shiny teal blouse, black strappy heels, big necklace). I really don't feel like having to hunt down a new dress tonight. Blah.

7. I can not even begin to tell you how sad I am that Neal can't come to Pruitt's wedding tomorrow night. Frowny faces all around. I know that Neal is going to be so bummed tomorrow night and it will be very weird to not have him there. I guess it's just part of working in the oil field - you get off every other week so there are no vacation days or random days off. Boooooo.

8. I took a temperament/personality quiz today at work. I took the same quiz 9 months ago when I started my job, and my scores/outcome have changed. I was an "idealist" last June and now I'm a "guardian." I think it's my close proximity to 30.

GRRRRRR

I went to a meeting this afternoon that was supposed to be some sort of 8-person forum where everyone in the group brainstorms and discusses issues. Roughly 55 minutes of the 60 minute meeting were hijacked by two local politicians who talked endlessly about their personal experiences and views. Within the last 5 minutes, I was asked a question about something and I began to answer it. About 25 seconds into my answer, I look over at one of the politicians who is looking at his watch and looking around the room. I SO VERY BADLY wanted to say something along the lines of "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take the spotlight off of your fat-yat fucking face. I apologize for occupying 25 seconds of your time after I have spent the last hour listening to you ramble on endlessly while you name drop and talk about how wonderfully awesome and connected you are. Please, look away and be rude. Since I'm a young female, I probably have nothing of importance to say anyway."

But I would like to keep my job so I didn't say anything. And sweet Lord I would not have a headache right now had I been able to let that out. Time for a cocktail.

I'm Getting Too Old for This

I think I may be getting sick, but I'm not sure yet. It could go either way. I don't feel bad enough to go to the doctor. It's probably just the residual Mardi Gras funk. We had a great weekend, but I'm paying for it now. We managed to make it uptown Sunday and Monday for parades and had a lot of fun both days. While we didn't go down there Tuesday, we did drink it up "Northshore Style" all afternoon. It was Mardi Gras Day and I just couldn't convince myself that it was okay to do anything else but celebrate with drinks.

Wednesday morning I opened the doors of my Jeep to see the following items in the backseat: piles of beads, 2 small bottles of 5-hour Energy (Neal's), empty beer can, beer koozie, Taco Bell receipt, dirty fleece jackets, a rolling ice chest and an Orleans Parish parking ticket.

With every passing year, these hangovers get harder and harder to get over. I'm detoxing this week so that I'll be allllll ready for Jeanne's bachelorette party next weekend.