Remember Me

My friend sent me this video and I don't want to get into politics with this, but this video deeply moved me. I support the men and women that fight every day for our freedom (whether they should be there or not) and their families that support them.

Weekend Wrap-up

I hope that everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. I had a pretty good time, and I was highly productive, so I'm feeling pretty good. On Friday Mircea and I picked up some Colonial Field Stones for the front yard, and since the Hoopty couldn't handle the full pallet we had to split it into two trips which meant, are you ready, we had to handload the truck, drive home, unload the truck by hand, drive back, load up the second part, drive home, and unload it once more. Little Kateypooh got her exercise. Yes, my back hurts, but that was only the start of the back breaking activities. When Mircea went to work I spent the evening catching up with a friend watching the Office and burning some cds (should I admit that illegal activity?) It was so nice to catch up.

Saturday. I have no freakin' clue what we did on Saturday. Seriously, I'm calling Mircea right now to ask him. Oh wait, I remembered (puts down phone). Mircea worked nights so he slept most of the morning, and I did too because the power had gone out (we heard the transformer blow) and there really wasn't anything else to do but read and sleep and I'd finished all the reading I could handle. After lunch we hooked the trailer up to the hoopty (I should explain, it's a 1990 S-10, and it could fall apart at any minute) and went out to my house to pick up some boxes and furniture to put in the storage shed. I'm almost all moved out of my place, which is a total overexaggeration-there's a ton of stuff there, and we've moved a ton of stuff, so really, I have too much stuff!

Sunday was great. We put the boat in the water at about 9 am and started what was once again, a terrible fishing excursion. This time Mircea's closest friend Tony came along, and it was so nice to finally meet him. The catch is that he is my boss' son, and I'm terrified of this boss (he just signs timecards and stuff) so it made for a fun day. Tony and I drank too much, and then we toured the river eating crab cakes and not catching a darn thing, but we had a blast. Went to bed early (passed out-just me!) and got up early as heck on Memorial Day. At least I did. I watched the special on CNN about Memorial Day and it was very beautiful and moving (and featured my precious Robyn Meade). Then Mircea and I proceeded to clean the entire house, top to bottom, and make it a lot more liveable. Mircea has a ton of projects in the works right now, but no time to do them, so we made the decision to put all the projects in the storage shed for a later date and just live in the whole house (we had only been living in about 700 square feet of it which was kind of cramped.) The best part of the day is a tie. It was either the rides I kept getting in the wagon on the lawn mower or the mouse that came out of the carpet from the shed, announced seconds earlier by it's dung (at least we had a warning). We missed a party at my friend John's house, but as it turned out, it was probably a good thing that we missed (some very interesting dramatic stuff happened to a friend of ours.)

Ok, was that painfully detailed enough? Ooh, we also watched a little Deadliest Catch, when we were recovering from the mouse in the carpet. I'll have a whole post on "the Catch" later.

Is it Great Aunt Susie, or a Rack of Lamb?

I think the Vytorin commercials are the stupidest marketing ploy created by the "ad wizards". What the heck? They show a piece of somewhat fattening food and then show a person next to it that is supposed to resemble the food. The whole scheme is that you can get high cholesterol/blood pressure from you "Fat-as-a-ham Dad" or just a "ham". Or maybe it's both!

I really don't have anything else to say about this. I had a whole rant in my mind, but I think that the idiocy of this commercial is so clear that you don't really need my mocking words.

Shout-out to Lindsay who is graduating today from Copper Mountain. Woo woo!!! And she'll be in DC in a few short weeks. I am so excited!

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

Rant Alert: I will be whining and complaining about humanity and traffic. And some foul language that does not include the F word.

This morning is not the first time it happened to me. This morning isn't even the angriest I have ever been about this. But this morning is when I decided that I had to blog about this to see if other people were experiencing this (and also to determine if those that I think are my friends are actually the enemy).

So what am I talking about? I'm talking about the great driving phenomenon of two lanes merging into one lane, and those rat-bastards that believe that they are better than everyone else and can speed around to the front of the line, slowing the traffic even more. WHO THE F ARE THESE PEOPLE!?! Do they not give a crap that everyone has been merging the past .5, 1, or even 10 miles (because of the missplaced sign) and they are like "wow, this is such a clear lane, why are all these other chumps over there?". That's the thing of it; these people aren't oblivious, they know damned well what they are doing. They think that the rules don't apply to them. These are the same assholes that when a cashier opens a new line at the grocery store and they are at the end of a 10 person line, run over to that line and get served immediatly. Why is this so hard for people? Mircea and I went to the My Chemical Romance concert and waited in the longest line known to man because people would ignore the sign that said "Merriweather Post Pavilion: Right Lane Only" and would speed around us only to cut back in front of us right at the turn. This is not a way for traffic to move...this is a way to back up traffic more as everyone brakes, honks, and tries to block out people. The missplaced sign thing is awesome too. Several years ago on a trip to North Carolina to see my parents, there was a sign just North of Raleigh-Durham that said "Right lane closed ahead" and so the majority of people got over at beginning and other people sped around them for several miles only to find that there was never a problem. It was a disaster and added like 45 minutes to our trip.

Does this piss anyone else off? Anyone have any stories to tell? I get angry at these people because it truly hurts me to my core. I feel like it isn't just a person going "der, I'm the only one in this line" I really believe that it is people going "you know what, I can get ahead of this passive people that are following the rules, and I will, because I can."

A Smile from Above

This morning was one of those mornings where I feel the spirit of my mother with me. As soon as I got into the car I heard one of my favorite songs and it just put me in a great mood. I changed the station and heard What a Feeling, from Flashdance, which was one of my mom’s favorite songs. She would really rock out to that, doing here little foot tapping dance that I miss so much. Then the XM beeped in on a song I love (Human Nature, Michael Jackson) and I sang along to that like I used to sing along to it with my mom when I was a kid. And then the waterworks started, because I was on the Heart. Bette Midler’s Wind Beneath my Wings (from Beaches) was one of my mother’s favorite songs. She and my dad played it at their 25 wedding anniversary, where they renewed their vows, and then a couple years later we played it at her funeral. I was bawling. (I’m crying now at my desk) I’ve been thinking about my mother a lot lately. Mircea requested that I get rid of some of the junk I’ve been carrying around (for years) and I’m trying to avoid the task. I need to pare down some of the books (all my mother’s) as well as sell/donate some of the knickknacks from my childhood. (I should explain: when my dad got remarried I was given all of the family memorabilia, so I really do have an attic full of memories-and no attic.) I don’t really know how to go through all that stuff. I know it will be sad, and I just don’t feel like Mircea understands how hard it is for me. It definitely would have been nice to have a mom to advise me when I was going through all the mess last summer (can you believe it’s almost been a year?) I think that mothers and daughters often have volatile relationships, but I know that I sure need my mommy sometimes, even though I spent so many years pushing her away.

Ok, I don’t want to keep everyone depressed, so I’ll post something good and positive. We’re leaving for our little camping trip today at 3:30 and we’re both so excited for the mini-vacation. We’ve both got some good books to read, some yummy food to cook, and some hiking trails marked for some exercise and photo-ops.

**In an interesting note, I did a Google search for my mom, and there is a list of names/dates from gravesites in their county in Ohio. I saw my mom, and both her parents on there. They say that they are updating pictures (which I have of the headstones) for geneology purposes. Very interesting.**

Is it the Weekend Yet?

We're going camping this weekend and I just can't wait. So much that I keep wishing it was Thursday, so badly that I can't concentrate on anything. The new Linkin Park cd comes out today. I will be purchasing it, but I feel so broke lately after all my teeth adventures that I will feel some guilt from that. I have a $5 coupon and it's only $9.99 so I guess I'll be ok, right?

Mircea bought some cabinets and floors for this house on Sunday, so we've got some projects coming up in the next few weeks and months that will really get his house taking shape. I think his first goal is getting the kitchen done, and we picked out some nice tile for that. I'm pretty excited and I'm also looking forward to learning how to lay tile-that boy knows it all!

Hope everyone is having a great day. We're having a "1 day heat wave" here and it's like 85 degrees which is much too sticky for me. Where is Spring? I hate running in icky, muggy weather and Spring is my only reprieve from that around here.

Speaking of running, I have resurrected my running blog, though I haven't posted anything grand on it yet (or anything for that matter.) I'm not allowed to post until I actually get off my bum and RUN!

Caught Me a Marlin

Yesterday Mircea and I went fishing with one of his friends from work (Vince). We got the boat in the water at about 8 am, with the plan to be back home by about 1 pm. Ahh, the best laid plans never work out, do they? We stayed out on the Bay until about 1 , trying to catch the "elusive only to our boat" rockfish, which usually ranges in the 40 inches. Of course we didn't catch one, or three, which was our goal. We went back towards Solomon's Island and had lunch on the water at Stoney's (those people are getting way too much of our money-we always go to one of their locations when we are boating).

We decided to go back out on the Bay to try our hand again, and after we were out there a little while I said "Honey, I think that we should turn on the marine radio-I bet there is some sort of small craft advisory or something" and of course I was vindicated because there was and I quickly believed that we would capsize and became terrified that we were the only boat out on the water. We quickly made it to the safety of the Patuxent River, where the weather was sunny and warm (how quickly things change) and we decided to fish for some smaller bottom feeders. This is when I showed the boys that I was the Bassmaster. I caught a total of 3 fish, but threw 2 of them back because they weren't very big. The two of them managed to catch two little fish apiece, and Vince also managed to catch a skate (which is best described as a football helmet with a tail) with the anchor when he dragged it in. Here's our bounty of the sea...

Do you like how unsure I am of holding this little fish? One of the tiny ones I had caught was very spiky and pinched me so I was scared of this one. Also you can see my haircut, which I don't love. I think it must be blow dryed to be of any value b/c now that my hair is shorter the cowlicks go crazy. Yipee!!

I better get to work. Tons of household chores (as always) and homework to do, so I better be good. Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Sunshine

Ok, there is some sunshine in my heart today and I'm feeling a lot better. I agree with my commenters-you do have to be low to appreciate your highs and yes, I can get through this!

I have been so super productive at work this morning. I took a "mental health" day on Tuesday and had training yesterday so that was enough to get me back on track professionally. Thank goodness!

Tomorrow I'm getting my haircut, which is one of those "make me look new again" because my hair has become a rat's nest. Here are some of the options-though I might just say to the lady "do anything, make me hot".

Any thoughts?

As I'm getting better with time managment, I'll be able to post some stuff. I have some pictures to share from Key West, fishing expeditions, and a concert review from My Chemical Romance (for all my teenager readers)

I'm Alive, but Not Well

Things have been really hectic the last few weeks. I feel like I am spinning out of control with stress and worry and don't know how to get out of it. Work is stressful and I'm having a lot of trouble learning all the new stuff necessary to perform my job, school is tough and I have no idea how to do the math class I'm in, and I think I might be mentally challenged against learning. The one thing that was going well (Mircea) is not going so great right now. I'm just so stressed that I can't handle any little thing that comes my way. He has had a rough couple weeks too, punctuated by the death of one of his very close friends last week (while I was in Key West). I don't know how we can both get out of this funk and salvage our relationship. I'm going to start seeing my counselor again (June 12) who can hopefully help me with some of my emotional management issues. Sometimes I wish relationships were easy, and then other times I know they wouldn't be worth the heartache and searching if they were simple as can be. I just want to be loved, for who I am and what I offer. I talked to my friend Lainie today and she said "You lost your confidence, sweetie, and that's why you are so low" and she is so right. I don't have that confidence I had (for like 6 months total), so I'm not feeling good about myself or my relationships. Hopefully I can get out of this funk...at least the sun is out and bright and if I don't screw it up too badly I actually have a future.