Mental Health Day

Ok, don't tell anyone, but I played hooky yesterday. I took what I like to call a "Mental Health Day" or "Dammit, I Feel Too Good To Go To Work Today" day.

I woke up ok. Even had some cereal for breakfast. That's as far as it went. I remained in my recliner, with the remote control in hand. There has to be some way I can make a living just doing this. I ran up all the channels, I ran down all the channels. Next thing I knew, it was ten minutes to eight! I have a 45 minute drive to work in the morning, so I figured there was no way I was making it in on time. I called in to tell my boss I was a little under the weather. I said if I could only lay down for a little while longer, I was sure I'd be feeling better. I said I'd be in between 10 and 10:30. Yes, I was that delusional to think that I was going to get a spurt of energy and actually hit the shower, pull on the pantyhose and get dressed and drive my 45 minutes to go to work. Part of me thought I'd just go in late.

Well....then I finally made my way upstairs and started playing Pogo. Damn that website. There I was, looking all cute in my new night shirt, hair pulled back in a pony tail, and I figured this was it for me today. I turned on some trash TV and played Pogo. Just before my expected due to work time rolled around for the second time, this time I chickened out and e-mailed my boss. Told him I wasn't feeling any better after all, and I wouldn't be in. I figured I couldn't out and out lie to him twice in one day.

I stayed in my night shirt (did I mention I was looking really cute in it??) and absolutely goofed off all day long. It was WONDERFUL! I was so bad, that Ron even let me beg off worrying about dinner. He handled everything, and let me tell you, it was a feast fit for a queen. The hardest thing I had to do all day was to refill my coffee cup.

If you have never done this, or even if you have and it's been awhile, I highly recommend it. I still feel the same way about my job, but at least my goof off day yesterday is making it a little more palatable today.

TGIF!

Speaking of Ron

He may be great at picking out night shirts, but poor guy has not been himself lately.

His left shoulder has really been bothering him for over a month now. It was cause for concern since he couldn't lift his arm over his head without pain. That's never a good sign. I suggested that since he finally has insurance, perhaps it would be a good time to try it out.

His doctor appointment was last Monday. The doctor felt both of his shoulders and even said that his left shoulder was warmer than his right one. That led the doctor to believe that his pain was caused by inflamed tendons and ligaments. The doctor also stated that this could be from more than just one injury since Ron really couldn't pinpoint when it happened. Sort of like one little injury after another after another would also get him to where he is.

The first course of action is meds. Ron is on an anti-inflammatory and a muscle relaxant. Now, I've been thinking for a couple of days how to put into words what that combination comes to. Anti-inflammatory + muscle relaxant + Ron = one mellow dude!

Monday night he took his first dose, then three more doses on Tuesday. By the time I came home Tuesday, Ron was best propped up in the corner of the sofa watching tv. Yep, his shoulder may still hurt, but I don't think he cares as much!

So, two weeks of this. After two weeks, if he still hurts, he goes back to the doctor. If he's better, he can cancel his appointment. So far, he says he does feel better. It's not perfect, but better. I hope that's not just the meds talking!

I'll keep everyone informed on his progress.

I'm CUTE!

Oh my goodness, I must have been a very good girl!

I blogged recently about losing my old and dear night shirt. I've looked around in a few stores for a suitable replacement, but alas, with no luck. I had about given up hope.

Then....

One bright day....

I came home from work and Ron told me he bought me something! A new nightshirt!!!!

I know this sounds silly, but I had a lot of requirements for the perfect replacement. I do believe he found them all. It's a big, blue (my favorite color!), cotton oversized shirt. To top it all off, it says "Reebock" on the front. That was an added bonus! After all...what does "REE"bock start with?!! Get it??

If anyone wants to see just how darn cute I look in my new nightshirt, y'all will have to come over. We are accepting reservations for accommodations in our spare room! Just bring you own night shirts.

And Baby Makes Four

Congrats to JoBeth and her husband Brad who welcomed baby Noah to join his big brother Isaiah today! I am so happy for your growing family!!

Welcome to the world, Noah!

Speechless No More

Ok, I blog that I have nothing to say. Then the flood gates open. Now I have a few things to yak about! Tonight though, I'll just start with one topic.

I try not to talk too much about work, but today was a doozy of a day.

The building we work in is on a very busy and crazy five lane street. The traffic is horrendous and some days just getting out of the parking lot is a test of driving skill. I hate going there.

Today, about 1:30 in the afternoon, we heard screeching tires followed by a little thud followed by a huge CRASH. Of course,we all ran to the windows to see the carnage. Turned out, the joke was on us.

Two of the people in our office, namely my boss and our regional sales manager, had their cars totaled in our parking lot. Yes, totaled.

The street in front of our building goes east and west. The parking spots are in front of our building, our cars facing the street, parked facing north and south. An SUV was heading east on our street, and the 18 year old driver wasn't paying attention and also going approximately 70 mph in a 35 mph zone. He bumped up against a semi, causing the semi to slam on his brakes. While trying to get his car under control, he bumped into the semi again, causing his SUV to veer out of control, hit the curb and go airborne. His landing strip was my boss' car and our sales manager's car. Their two cars which were facing north and south ended up facing east and west and moved a good five feet. It was unbelievable.

Luckily, no one was hurt. The driver walked out of his vehicle under his own power. Four vehicles involved, the semi drove away when all was said and done, and three other vehicles were totaled and had to be towed away.

I said before I've been in a funk. This might have knocked me out of it. Where my boss was parked, was where I usually park. But, I got there before he did this morning, so I took his parking spot and he ended up in mine. That could have been my car totaled. I was right next to them, but luckily untouched. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. If only. Five minutes sooner. About 20 minutes before the accident, the sales manager and I walked through the parking lot to go for a little walk. We could have been standing right there. If only.

The bright spot of this was one of the rubberneckers that was trying to catch all of the gory details in our parking lot, decided not to watch where he was going and failed to notice the traffic light 200 feet away from our building had turned red. He ran right into the back end of a car stopped at the redlight. Dumbass. Oh well. Police were on the scene anyway, so one of them just walked to the corner and filled out another report.

And how was your Friday??!!

Speechless

I know, for someone who has an opinion on everything, I haven't had much to say lately.

I've just been in a funk for the last couple of weeks and can't seem to snap out of it. I don't wanna just bitch and complain in here so I've been quiet. Hey people. Enjoy the quiet while you can!

Ron and I have some plans for this weekend, so hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things and let you know all about our new adventures. You know how wild we can be.

In the meantime, happy Friday, y'all!

Maybe I Do Need Saved

Um, maybe I am going to hell.

This actually made me laugh.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11822960/

I am bad. Very bad.

Get Off Of Me!

Static. I absolutely hate it. And it is taking over my world.

I don't know what to do anymore. I have a humidifier running at the house. I switched to dryer sheets instead of liquid fabric softener. Right now, my sweater is stuck to me like a second skin. My pants are no different. The hair from my head is stuck to the side of my face! I know I am quite a site!

So, how do I fix this? Is it something in my house? Is it my coat? Is it because I wear pantyhose? Is it something IN me? Ron shocks me often at the house when he walks by me, but other than that, I don't feel it as much at home as I do when I'm out.

Help! I need a static busting solution quick!

In All Its HD Goodness

My nephew, Mike, has written in his blog about the goodness of HD TV. While I am addicted to regular TV, I really didn't think that HD could really be that different to go on and on about it.

Mike....I was wrong!

Saturday, Ron and I stopped at Best Buy. We've been in the market for a new VCR since ours blew up. I know the technology is on the way out, but we have a lot of family videos still in this format and weren't ready to give up the option of watching them. But, we did make a decision that along with a VCR, we wanted one of the dual units that had the VCR and a recording DVD player. We have been pricing them for awhile.

The unit that Ron decided on, of course was out of stock. But for a discount, they offered us the display model. We were good with that. The bad thing is that they had to go searching for the "stuff" that went with it. While they searched, my poor back decided it had enough. I went in search of a place to sit.

What did I find? An extremely comfy couch right there in front of all of the plasma HD TVs. Ok, I know absolutely nothing about nothing and even I could tell that the one TV in front of me priced at almost $2,100 was worth every penny. Holy CRAP! I swear I could reach out and touch the wild life on TV; I could smell the aftershave on the actors.

I am now a believer. A plasma HD TV is absolutely the way to go. How many soda cans do I have to cash in to get me one of them? This is definitely gonna be added on to my Amazon wishlist.

# 100!!

Woo Hoo! This is post # 100!!

I thought and thought how to celebrate such an auspicious occasion. I mean after all, who'd have thought I could ramble on and on through 99 previous posts.

I have thought a lot about what I'd do for post # 100. Should I be wise? Philosophical? Humorous? Thoughtful? Pensive? Clairvoyant about the next 100 posts?

Nah. I decided just to mark this occasion with a thank you to those that read this. And a wish that I can come up with at least another 100 points or opinions to share. Let's just hope they are not about lost luggage!

Thanks, everyone!

Somebody Save Me, Please

Do I have "heathen" written on my forehead?

The God-squad seems to be after me lately. Almost every weekend we have Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on our door. There is no way I can clean up my language enough to say what I feel about that. To make matters worse, when I answered the door last weekend in my heathen bathrobe, the witness at my door didn't even want to talk to ME! He insisted on talking to the man of the house. I kept asking him if I could help him, and he kept asking for the man of the house. I finally just shut the door and went back to my day.

If that's not bad enough, Friday, I went to lunch with someone from our office. Who'd have thought a fish sandwich at McDonald's could have been so stressful?

She and I were sitting there catching up when this lunatic walks up to the two of us and said "I'll bet you a million dollars that the two of you are not saved". He then went on to tell us how he wanted to witness for us so he can help us find heaven and stop being heathens. For once, I showed restraint, and let Karen do the talking. Being in sales, she was good at responding to him in a non threatening way that seemed to assuage him and send him on his way. grrr People like that give religion a bad name.

Hey! How can I collect my share of that million dollars?

R.I.P.

I am an emotionally needy person.

That probably comes as no surprise to most of you. I need a lot of emotional comfort and I get it in many ways. I can attach myself to most anything if it will bring me a modicum of comfort.

One of my most favorite comfort objects is this blue nightshirt I have. It's just this big, oversized, soft, comfy shirt; the greatest thing. I would wear it when we have company for that nighttime trip to the bathroom. Or, nothing could beat it for lounging around the house on a Saturday afternoon.

I have had my blue nightshirt for more years than I can even remember. It's been washed so many times that it is softer than the softest cashmere. I am getting weepy here people!

I was getting laundry together tonight to throw in a couple of loads. I have been describing my blue nightshirt in the nicest possible light. The truth is, it's been washed so much that there really isn't much left other than the holes. I swear, if it went through one more washing, all I'd get out of the dryer would be a string. The sad day had come to realize that my favorite piece of clothing, my nightshirt, must be put to rest. (insert sad music here)

I made Ron come to the kitchen for my throwing away ceremony. I said a nice eulogy, bowed my head, and went to drop my nightshirt into the garbage. For some reason, my hand would not let it go. Maybe I wasn't ready yet.

Then Ron spoke up with his brilliant idea. (Yes he really does humor me way too much sometimes!) He said if I just cut a swatch from my nightshirt, I could have it with me for whenever I needed some comfort. Is he a great guy or what?!! Out came the scissors. I cut me a swatch about 3" x 3". That made it so much easier to throw the rest of it away. I think I got the last of any "fabric" that was left to it!

For anyone wishing visiting hours with my comfort swatch, it is now pinned up to the bulletin board here by my computer.

R.I.P., old friend. You served me well.

One For The Win Column

Last night, Ron and I headed to the Quicken Arena (the "Q") in downtown Cleveland to see a basketball game. What a game! Ok, when the team you're rooting for wins, it's always a good game.

The sporting world is trying to take a page out of the airline world when it comes to security. As bad as airline security is, the "Q" Arena was even worse.

They make you walk through a metal detector. Women that go through with a purses will have their purses searched. Ron walking through the detector set off the alarm. They had him to to the side while they went over him with the wand. The wand beeped when passed over his right hand pocket. Keep in mind, he's wearing his leather bomber jacket which has about a million pockets. One of them is beeping! He checked his outer pocket a couple of times and said that there is nothing in there. The security guard asked him about an inside pocket. So, he reached in and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He said that's it! Well, the security guard, obviously on top of her game, said "oh, ok" and passed him through.

Now, I know the tin foil in a cigarette pack can set off the detectors. But after the smokes were held up, she never patted him down or anything to see if anything else was in there! He could have been carrying a gun and as long as he held up his smokes, she would have let him through. Yeah, I felt pretty safe after that!

The arena was packed literally to the rafters. I didn't see an empty seat in the place. One of the best things about being there is seeing the camera guys put some of the signs that people bring in to the arena on the jumbotron. Some signs are just too predictable. You have your average "Go Cavs" or "I love LeBron". Some people in the Cleveland area are pretty darn clever though. On the clever side were "Camera guys are hot" (Hey that got her on the jumbotron a BUNCH of times) and my personal favorite "The guy behind me can't see". When they showed her the first time, the guy behind her was looking a bit peeved at this big ass sign being held up in front of him, but when he saw it on the jumbotron, you could tell he appreciated the joke.

It was a late night and I'm hoarse from yelling and my hands hurt from clapping. But it was a good night as the Cavs beat the Bulls 91-72.

Thanks again to Mike for the tickets!

Duh!

I was trying to decide if this story rated a page in my "That's Just Wrong" book. Unfortunately, I may need to start a new book. "I'm just a dumbass". Another bestseller in the making!

Ron and I were spending the day together just bumming. We were going to Best Buy, Walmart, Sam's Club and Giant Eagle, with lunch thrown in there somewhere. Some things we needed, some we wanted and some we just wanted to price.

List? I don't need no stinkin' list! We are two relatively intelligent adults. We can remember what we need as long as we just head up and down the aisles during our shopping excursion. We talked all morning about our mental "list". We knew what we were doing . . . we were on a mission.

Off we went. We shopped, we looked, we bought. (A new four slice toaster is one of the things we bought by the way! Woo hoo! I have hit the big time now!) We came home, unloaded the car and put away the booty.

That's when it happened. A "crap" here. A "rats" there. Suddenly a "shoot" or something similar to it. Yes, we forgot to get half the things on our damn list! Now I finally took pen to paper and actually wrote down the stuff we originally went shopping for and forgot to get.

Now you know what we have planned for tomorrow. We need to go back out there and buy all the crap we went out to get today! A girl's gotta have her hairspray you know.

Hi, Honey! I'm Home!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am home.

Yesterday was actually a good day, too. I've finished a lot of audits in the last 2-1/2 years I've been with this company. The last day onsite is usually hectic as can be, making sure everything is finished and packed up. Few things seem to go right that day and like I said, it's just hectic.

We talked about finishing up this audit. I said we should stay as late as we needed to on Thursday to finish up as much as possible so that Friday would be an easy day. Once we're offsite, we can't exactly say "oh wait! One more thing!"

Thursday went easier than expected, and we finished up about 6:00 p.m. packing up a lot of our files and equipment to take back to the hotel to pack into our suitcases. We joked that we wondered what time earlier flights left that we may actually be done early! I looked on Continental's website and saw that there was a 12:05 p.m. flight and a 1:40 p.m. flight before our regular 4:05 p.m. flight. We though, nah. We'll never make either of those.

Come Friday, checked out of the hotel and headed onsite at 7:00 a.m. We putzed around and suddenly realized, hey! We really are DONE! We boxed up the rest of the files to check onto our flight, we checked the website again and found there were eight seats left open on the 12:05 p.m. flight! No way! We thought if we made sure we got there early enough, we might be able to grab a couple of those seats!

We finished up, said our good byes and even got some hugs. And we were off. Things don't always go the way I hope, so I was afraid to get too excited about getting on an early flight. I called Ron to let him know there might be a change of plans, and to be ready just in case!

Sure enough, we get to the ticket counter, and the ticket counter gods gave us a great ticket agent. Since the earlier flight was a higher priced fare, the ticket agent had to do some magic in order to let us sneak on for the same price as our original ticket! I do love Continental employees!

I called Ron and let him know we were on board the early flight, due into Cleveland at 2:20 p.m. How sweet is that? We took off on time, had a smooth flight and a smooth landing. We must have had a great tail wind because we pulled into the gate 25 minutes early! That almost never happens! My luggage came off that flight in one piece, as did our box of files. Yes, all in all, a great day.

Ron and I went and had a nice late lunch together then a quiet night at home. And let me tell you, like the line in the movie, there's no place like home.

One Last Time

This is our last week here in Chicago. The weather made sure that our last flight out here on Monday would be memorable.

When Ron took me to the airport, it was snowing pretty heavily. That did not thrill me to say the least. While I am much better about flying than I was before, I’m still not the seasoned traveler that some in my family are. I still get nervous, especially in bad weather.

We boarded on time and even pushed back from the gate on time. Because of the snow, before hitting the runway we headed over to the de-icing area. This process only takes a few minutes. Once de-iced, we started taxiing for our runway.

When you taxi out, you reach the point where you make a big turn and as soon as you turn, you are lined up for take off. That’s when the jets really start humming and you’re thrown back into your seat during acceleration. (Ok, that has nothing to do with my story here today, it just happens to be my favorite part of the flight so I wanted to mention it!) We are getting very close to that turning point, and I can finally see airplanes ahead of us, making that turn. I know our turn is close at hand.

Suddenly, two fire trucks and an ambulance come rushing down the taxi way next to us. They pull up just short of where the runway actually is and waited there. A minute or so later, a plane came in for a landing on this same runway and as soon as it was down, the emergency vehicles went tearing out after it. Hmm. At least it wasn’t our plane! I did look at the plane coming in, and I didn’t notice any flames shooting out of the back, so I’m not sure what the issue was.

Anyway, the next plane then makes the turn and takes off. Only one more plane before it is our turn. Suddenly, instead of following the plane ahead of us to make the left hand turn to take off, we turn right! HEY! Even in my challenged directional state, I know we just turned the wrong way to leave. I hate it when that happens. We taxied for a little while and then pulled over. The pilot then announced that we were just given a new flight plan to Chicago and if we take this flight plan we will need more fuel. They needed to clear a gate area for us to refuel. So, we sat. And sat. And sat. Finally we started moving. We pulled up to a gate, and the refueling began.

I should note that I have been up since 4:00 a.m. If I’m lucky, I end up napping for the hour flight and feel a little bit better about having to work all day. The delays on the ground waiting for the gate to come back to and the refueling did afford me ample time for a good TWO hour nap! This was the best Monday I’ve had here!

After refueling, we headed over do go through the de-icing process once again. After that, we were given priority status on a runway and off we were. This is one of the few flights I was actually awake for!

As a side note, I had my camera with me on the plane. As most of you know, Dad has recently added into his reality the fact that he has actually been on a plane and flown. When I ask him about what he saw out the window, he couldn’t tell me. Obviously because he’s never been in a plane! In my mind, that has to make it hard for him. He believes he has flown, but he can’t picture what he would have seen. So my idea was to get as many pictures as I could out of my window for him. I snapped during take off, during the flight, during a steep bank to my side of the plane and during the landing. Maybe I can fill in a few holes in his “memory”.

Anyway, once airborne it really was a smooth flight over here. Now my only problem was I had to pee. If anyone has ever been in an airplane bathroom before, you know it’s really not a place you want to be. But it was getting to be an emergency with me. I didn’t think I’d make it the rest of the flight. Darn the bottle of water I took with me to drink at the airport. I wasn’t the only one in this state either. I think most of the people on this flight ended up back in the bathroom. Due to the long delay, I think no one could hold their coffee.

Finally, I gathered my courage and my full bladder and unbuckled and headed in. The bathroom isn’t much bigger than I am. I can’t tell you how hard I prayed for no turbulence while I was finishing my business. I had visuals of the turbulence sucking my butt right into the toilet and those emergency crews having to be summoned to pull my happy ass out of there. Yes, I have an overactive imagination. But I digress.

Things came out just as they should have. I finished up, made it back to my seat and got buckled back in. Life was back to normal.

Our one hour flight ended up being over three hours. And the worst part was that our new flight plan didn’t take us over Wrigley Field! That was one picture I definitely wanted to get for Dad! Oh well. At least we got here in one piece. We landed in beautiful warm sunny weather here in Chicago! What’s up with that? I left Cleveland, a town where the snowplows were all over the runways to come to Chicago where the weather was clear. Something is wrong with that picture!

After seven fun filled weeks, there are only two more wake ups and I’m home for awhile. I am ready.