Time Flies…

…even when you’re not having fun.

This day a year ago was the hardest day I’ve ever had the displeasure of experiencing. I somehow managed to pull myself out of my bed at my parent’s house after not sleeping a bit the night before, and making my way into work. My eyes were bloodshot and my body numb.

I had lost my first, four legged, (wo)man’s best friend of my adulthood the night before. My Angus, my Gus-Gus.

There are still times when I replay that night over and over again in my head. What was so different about that night? Was it really meant to happen or could I have done something to stop it?

Angus had always been a free spirit. Breaking away from me to run around in circles was his favorite past time. But that night, his run was a little faster, his circle a little wider. As if he knew what was about happen and he was trying to enjoy his last moments.

Knowing he would always come back to me I had given up trying to call his name to get him to put on those puppy brakes and throw it in reverse. I wish I had known that my Gus-Gus wasn’t coming back to me that night, I would have shouted myself hoarse to try and get his attention if it meant I could spend a couple of more minutes appreciating his spastic energy.

But it wasn’t meant to be. And I know that no matter how hard I wish, I can’t change what happened. I can’t scream myself hoarse or run like lightening to try and make out the license plate on the car that hit him and didn’t even slow down.

I can’t even wish to forget the immediate sense of loss and sorrow I felt as I made my way across the lawn to where he lay. I can’t forget how fortunate I felt when I saw that he was at peace with his tongue hanging out of mouth, just like it did when he would sleep.

I can’t forget the sense of love I felt as my family rallied around me. My dad and future husband immediately beginning to dig his grave so he could be laid to rest. My mom’s arms as she held me while I wept. Me running upstairs to my room to find a toy to bury with him and seeing that my mom had already removed his kennel and vacuumed away the lines it had made in the carpet.

I can’t forget bursting into tears throughout the night and into the next morning. I can’t forget going to work and trying to pass my bloodshot eyes off as allergies. I can’t forget that feeling of emptiness that followed me for the next few months.

I can’t forget b/c I don’t want to. I don’t want to forget b/c it’s part of what’s made me who I am today. I don’t want to forget b/c if I still had Angus today, I wouldn’t have Ozzy. And Ozzy needed me, just like I needed him.

So while I’ll never be thankful that I lost my puppy too soon, I am quite thankful for what I’ve been given in this past year b/c of his absence.

RIP Angus
February 2, 2006 - April 30, 2007

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 1

Wednesday Wanderings

• 9:47PM. That’s what time it was when Google Reader decided to show that I had a new post. A new post that I wrote at 8:30AM. I’m about to call it quits with the GR. Updated: Oh of course, the day I complain about GR being slow it shows that I posted at 8:11AM. Which is only 1 minute after I actually posted, as opposed to, oh I don’t know, 13 HOURS. Upgrade, definitely. Let’s keep up the good work GR.

• New addiction? Gossip Girl. So unnecessary, but so very good. Now I’m hoping that the new 90210 spin off will be on the same night as Gossip Girl. Because I’m not sure I can justify watching two vapid teenage soaps on two different nights.

• I’ve had an issue with motivation lately. Like I go to bed saying to myself “Self! Tomorrow you will wake up full of life and energy and you will accomplish everything on your ‘to do’ list.” And then I don’t. I wake up feeling sluggish and even more exhausted than I did when I went to bed. I don’t know why, but my energy in the morning is non existent. And no amount of morning yoga or coffee seems to fix that.

• Oh yeah, I’m still doing AM yoga. Though to be honest I’m about to memorize it just so I don’t have to hear the leader’s annoying voice. And it will probably be a good idea to commit it to memory for when I go on vacation to places that don’t have Exercise on Demand, though I’m sure though places don’t actually exist. I simply don’t to imagine a world without Exercise on Demand.

*kisses*

Smiley Count: ooh, only 1. eek.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Years upon years ago my sister and I got one of the best presents from Santa, a Nintendo Entertainment System. The original Nintendo, the best Nintendo ever. Of course Santa also brought us the Super Mario Bros/Duckhunt game combo and my sister and I were set. We would spent countless hours playing on our NES, eventually buying tons of games including Super Mario 2 and 3 and my all time favorite Jeopardy.

The only downside to the original Nintendo? The word original. Within a few years, maybe even within 6 months our original Nintendo was no longer the envy of the neighborhood b/c Nintendo was replaced by Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the best Nintendo game ever made, in my opinion, Mario Kart.

Oh how I envied my friends who had an SNES and later a N64. Oh how I loved going to their houses and playing Mario Kart. Oh the memories of hours wasted

Of course even though I didn’t have a Mario Kart of my own I still perfected the patented “girl lean”. You know what I’m talking about…leaning with your remote to try and not make your car run off its course? I not only mastered the “girl lean” while playing Mario Kart I even did the “girl jump” while playing Super Mario Bros. Because everyone knows you jump higher when you move your remote.

Of course, my video gaming days went by the wayside once I realized that no matter how much I “girl lean” and “girl jump” I’d still never be able to play those games very well.

But then, over 10 years later, the Nintendo decided to once again reinvent itself with the development of the Nintendo Wii and much to my massive enjoyment it also decided to remaster Mario Kart in such a way that is pure genius and totally caters to not only the “girl lean” but also the “girl jump”.

Observe:

The Wii Wheel.

“Now making it possible for every girl to kick every guy’s ass at Mario Kart.”

That should totally be their slogan. It would sell like hotcakes.

Actually it already is. My husband and I actually went on an epic journey to get all of the pieces for Mario Kart. The game itself, which comes with a Wii Wheel, we had pre-ordered and prepaid. So we picked that up from my husband’s store and headed over to Best Buy to pick up an extra Wii Wheel. But since Best Buy enables people who buy up a huge quantity of goods only to turn around and sell them for a higher profit, we arrived to find that Best Buy had sold out of Wii Wheels. So we went across the complex and shelled out more money than we wanted to just so we could both play our new game with the help of Wii Wheels.

On the way home my husband remembered that we probably needed batteries so we of course had to stop and pick up an 8 pack, just to be safe. And then we hit up the Sonic drive thru for happy hour and a little slushie refreshment.

But let me tell you, once we got home around 3:30 we didn’t turn that game off for at least 4 hours.

And I totally kicked my husband’s ass more times than he kicked mine.

Thank you “girl lean” All those years of being made fun of have finally paid off!

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 5

Best Idea Ever

Saturday night I got a little bored. Since I started a cleaning schedule* I really don’t have all that much to do on the weekend. And life gets especially boring when the husband is working. I ended up searching for things to do. Here’s a breakdown of what I did on Saturday to try and keep myself busy…

• Went to see my grandmother.
• Cleaned and vacuumed the Versa.
• Cleaned out the fridge.
• Cleaned out the pantries.
• Took the trash out. (3 times, don’t judge)
• Took several bags of clothing to GoodWill.
• Got my eyebrows waxed.
• Went grocery shopping.
• Organized pots and pans cabinet.
• Baked cookies.
• Made egg salad.
• Cleaned and cut 2 packages of strawberries.

It’s really that last bullet point that I want to focus on here.

Remember when I was on a margarita kick b/c of the marvelous Magic Bullet? Well, I grew kind of sick of margaritas after a while. I know, it’s blasphemy but it seriously happens. The only problem is that I still had about a shot and a half of tequila left and very little margarita mix. Nowhere near enough to make one last margarita. So those bottles have been chillaxing in my liquor cabinet for probably 2 or 3 months now.

So during the slicing of the many strawberries a lightbulb went on and I’m very pleased to say that the lightbulb? was perhaps one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. Behold:

Which eventually turned into…

And now all I want to do is go to the beach.

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 3

*Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Vacuum, dust every Wednesday. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: Sweep Kitchen and bathrooms, clean catbox, clean bathrooms every Tuesday. I’m C.D.O. It’s like O.C.D. only in alphabetical order.

Longing…

The countdown has begun. In less than a month I’ll be preparing to check my summer students into their New York housing. But that’s not exactly something for me to look forward to. You want to know what I’m looking forward to?

• JetBlue. I love JetBlue. The TV in every seat. The variety or airline snacks. The fact that my husband and I have seats in the 3rd row so we don’t have to fight anyone when the plane lands at JFK. And of course the fact that it’s a non-stop flight.
• Our hotel. The Washington Square Hotel. Oooh pretty And of course, swanky.
• Dinner at Vezzo with Margarita. She introduced me to this restaurant when I was up back in August. And I would be lying if I said I haven’t been craving a nice bottle of wine paired with a Fafandone pizza for the past 2 months. All of this followed by after dinner cocktails at Vig 27 and then off to KGB the Russian Mafia Bar we stumbled into late one night last August.
• A Saturday matinée of Sunday in the Park with George. I was able to book some amazing seats.
• BlogCon 08! I still have no idea what the plans will be but it will include some sort of open bar.
• Dinner and Margaritas at the Cowgirl! Best margaritas in town. I’ve actually already got the directions to this restaurant printed off I’m ready!
• Brunch with unlimited mimosas.
• The Superhero exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Mainly for the husband.)
• And probably much more! Your ideas are welcome!

I’m just so excited for this trip. It’s the first trip to NYC for my husband and I really hope that he enjoys himself. It’s a place that I love so much, I want him to love it as much as I do. I think his reaction is what I’m most looking forward to!

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 6

Grr, Pet Peeves

This morning is weird. I’m upbeat and perky but still feel like complaining about a few things. Ooh I know! If I disguise my complaints as Pet Peeves, you guys won’t notice…right?

Pet Peeve 1: When you repeatedly tell someone how to do something and then they still do it wrong or they ask you questions about things that have already been addressed. These were the people in High School/College who yick yacked while the teacher was explaining something and then they used the time at the end of the class that’s reserved for questions to ask questions that, had they been paying attention originally, were already answered. I especially hated this when I was in college b/c the professors would usually let you go early if there weren’t any questions. Towards the end of my time at university I would just get up and leave when it became apparent that my time was being wasted.

Pet Peeve 2: That I still have to endure these kinds of people. I don’t know why I thought I was leaving this kind of ignorance behind when I finished school. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that I work at a university…

Pet Peeve 3: That I mopped the kitchen floor on Tuesday and on Wednesday my husband found a trail of ants coming from the balcony door and had to Raid the crap out of them. Now I have to mop again. It’s like washing your car and then it starts to rain or a bird shits on your hood.

Pet Peeve 4: That my brain doesn’t seem to function properly. I called maintenance to fix my dishwasher on Tuesday and forgot to ask them to fix the weather stripping on our balcony door. If I had remembered it’s possible that the ant trail wouldn’t have happened and I therefore wouldn’t need to mop again. It’s like my brain purposely forgets things just to make my life harder.

Pet Peeve 5: That I always wake up one hour before my alarm is set to go off. Before I started doing AM Yoga my alarm was set for 6am. Without fail my eyes would pop open at 5am every morning. Mind you, I forced them closed and drifted off for another hour, but it still happened, like clockwork. Now that I’m doing AM Yoga and the alarm is set for 5:45am, you guessed it, the eyes pop open at 4:45am. It’s unfair. Why won’t my body just let me sleep?

What are your Pet Peeves today?

Oh and just so you know, BlogCon 08 is happening exactly one month from today! And honestly? I feel like I should change the name to BloGeTogether 08 but changing the email address is too much of a hassle. Email the BlogCon email if you want to join us!

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 3

Appreciate me!

Today is Administrative Professionals Day! Or as my boss called it yesterday “Secretary Appreciation Day” which made me giggle. My boss is taking me out to lunch today to show her appreciation and I think I also convinced her to combine this day with my birthday. (Which is in, oh I don’t know, 18 days!) I get a little self conscious when my boss gets me gifts, so I try to keep the number of possible gift days at a minimum.

So in honor of a day where I’m to be appreciated for the work I get paid to do, I’d like to make a list of things I do on a regular basis that I believe needs some attention and a little bit of appreciation (read: foot massages)

*Note: I’m making this list only b/c my husband refused to give me a foot massage last night even after I proceeded to whine about all of the things I do for him on a daily basis.

• Dishes. Holy crap how do they accumulate so quickly? It’s amazing. The dishwasher got fixed so at least I don’t ever have to worry about doing them all by hand. I think I’d go mad.
• Cleaning the litter box. After living with the beast that is Pax and his giant poos, I’ve learned to ignore the stench emitting from the litter box and I suck it up and clean it. I try to do it every day so as to cut down on buying a ton of litter but sometimes it gets away from me.
• Feeding and watering the cats and dog. Tis I that gets up in the wee hours on a Saturday morning in the hopes that if I feed the cats early enough they won’t start meowing at 9am anyways. Hasn’t happened yet.
• Taking the dog out. 3 flights of stairs and a dog that hates being on a leash makes for one craptacular multiple times a day job. Ok, a shared job but I think I do it most often. But then again I guess I should since the dog is technically mine. Though if we’re playing that game the cats are your animals…
• Clean. Last night I cleaned both bathrooms and mopped the kitchen floor. I’m talking, I may have violated my bathrooms they are so clean. Like scrubbed the woodwork, clean. Tonight? Dusting and Vacuuming.
• Make lunches and dinner. Everyday. It’s actually a running joke in my house to compliment my husband on his superb cooking when he orders in. “Mmm baby this is the best pizza you’ve ever made. I bet you slaved over a hot oven for hours making this!”

So, my darling husband, I hope that this post produces such an immense amount of guilt that you will surprise me tonight with a much needed foot massage.

A girl can dream can’t she?

*kisses*

Smiley Count:4

Sad Face Count: 1

Everything seems to be leaking…

• Feeling better! Not fully recovered, the nose is still itchy and a bit congested but I don’t feel like death anymore so that’s a plus!

• I always know that I’m feeling better when I start to clean. I went a little crazy on my kitchen last night. I even cleaned out beneath the sink. Which is a really good thing b/c while doing so I came to the realization that the hose that connects my dishwasher to the drain pipe has come undone. Sweet. Good thing the husband doesn’t go to work until 2 today, that should leave plenty of time for the maintenance mane to come and fix it! Though in retrospect, my dishwasher and I both had leaking noses/hoses…interesting.

• I found a pretty sweet On Demand channel called Exercise On Demand. A-Maz-Ing. This morning I did AM Yoga! My body was refreshed after the ten minute session and I felt ready to take on my day. I even took Ozzy on a longer walk this morning so that I could take the trash out.

• The only problem is that now b/c of a combination of getting over a cold and walking the dog I’ve kind of got perma-sweat going on. Hopefully at some point today I’ll cool off.

• Because of my morning energy I spent a little extra time on my hair this morning and holy crap does it look awesome today.

• See? Told you Also, doesn’t my hair grow fast?

• Finally, on a sad note, my step-grandmother isn’t doing very well. We’re unsure of what the future holds. Please keep her and my family in your prayers.

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 3

Sick and slightly delusional :)

So of course, I’m sick again. woot! I guess it’s my year to be sick. Oh well. Life coule be worse huh?

 

So today I’ll leave you with  a conversation my sister and I had recently about a woman who is always at the same meetings my sister is in. A woman who always plays Devil’s advocate with a super bad attitude.

 

mysister (9:59:24 AM): She looks SUPER unhappy. All the time.

me (9:59:34 AM): perma bitchface?

mysister (9:59:55 AM): hahaha YES

mysister (10:00:00 AM): Arms crossed.

mysister (10:00:01 AM): Scowl.

mysister (10:00:05 AM): Furrowed brow.

me (10:00:21 AM): I always feel bad for people with perma bitchfaces. like they made that face too much as a child and it got stuck that way

mysister (10:00:30 AM): LMAO

me (10:00:36 AM): they should have listened to their mother’s warnings

mysister(10:00:40 AM): Yes. Poor, poor bitchfacelady.

mysister (10:01:31 AM): Her hair is pretty tho.

mysister (10:01:33 AM): lol

me (10:01:35 AM): well that’s good

mysister (10:01:45 AM): Yes she’s got that going for her. Which is nice.

me (10:01:51 AM): it would be mean of God to give her perma bitchface AND bad hair

mysister (10:02:03 AM): LOL!

mysister (10:02:12 AM): You makin’ me sputter in mah meetin’.

me (10:02:21 AM): I’m trying to make you laugh out loud in your meeting

me(10:02:26 AM): oh good it’s working

 

*kisses*

 

Smiley Count: 3

 

I have no idea why my spacing is off. I’m kind of hating WordPress right now…and my nose.

 

…fixed my spacing, still working on the nose J

 

Beer Worksheet

In honor of the fact that it’s Friday (thank goodness) and the fact that I found a documentary about beer (Brewed in America) I’ve decided to create an old school worksheet like the ones we’d have to fill out in school on video days. Let’s see how much you know about beer…No cheating off your neighbor Wikipedia…

1. T or F. Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock b/c they ran out of beer.
2. T or F. Samuel Adams did not make his own beer.
3. Name two early Presidents who brewed their own beer.
4. During the German immigration in the mid 19th century, what type of beer was introduced?
5. During the Civil War a barrel of beer could be produced for $_____ and sold for $_____
6. Name the 3 beer brands that helped Milwaukee become the beer capitol of the US?
7. T or F. In order to increase their profits beer manufacturers also owned the saloons they sold their beer to.
8. ___________ and ____________ helped to revolutionize beer distribution in the early 1870’s.
9. In 1893 ________ became the first American brewery to produce 1 million barrels of beer a year.
10. _____________________ was the woman behind the movement towards prohibition using vandalism as her gimmick.
11. T or F. Before Prohibition, workers would get beer breaks just as we get cigarette breaks today.
12. Which Colorado brewery was the first to feel the pinch of Prohibition?
13. What year did Prohibition end?
14. How many years did Prohibition last?
15. Which beer company was the first to advertise on TV?
16. Which beer company was the first to create a “light” beer?
17. My favorite beer happens to be from the oldest brewery in the US. What is my favorite beer?

If you have NetFlix I highly recommend watching this documentary, it’s educational and entertaining!

And now I really want a beer

Good thing O’Charley’s has their tall Domestic drafts on tap special tonight for $2.50 a piece The husband and I are headed there after our date to the movies.

*kisses*

Smiley Count:5

How many did you get right? Highlight for the answers

1) T 2) F 3) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson 4) Lager 5) $1, $8 6) Schlitz, Pabst, Miller 7) T 8)Pasteurization, Trans-Continental Railroads 9) Pabst 10) Carrie Nation 11) T 12) Coors 13) 1933 14) 14 15) Anhueser-Busch 16) Miller 17) Yuengling