Tell the Truth Thursday

Mood: Hungry (Not exactly a mood but it's dinner time)

My truths this Thursday:

1.) I'm totes excited to find this

I've got a tiny apartment sized stove with an even tinier apartment sized oven with only ONE rack. Christmas baking literally takes me days to complete. With this I'll have THREE racks and I'll be able to finish my holiday baking before I get all stabby and Grinchy.



2.) I finally dyed my hair. The result was a bit redder than the auburn color indicated on the box. It's a bit of a change but hubs likes it and I didn't think it was too bad until...my boss said "Wow! Red hair - did you do that to yourself on purpose?" head.desk.

3.) The circus is coming to town on Monday!  I LOVE the circus but I always secretly worry when I’m sitting there under the big top. What if there’s an elephant stampede? Or what if the lions and tigers go rogue and start scratching all our skin off?  I mean, what if the HUGE, GIGANTIC SCARY animals suddenly realize that they’re way bigger and stronger than we are and they decide to kill us all!?!

 

4.) I've been a massive exercise slacker lately. Video Game Barbie and I have not tangled in quite a few weeks. I'm slightly ashamed of this but I admit it's the same sort of shame I feel about my junk drawers. I wish things were different but I'm not sure I have the actual drive to get up and do anything about it.

So, there are the truths in my world - what about you bloggie friends? Anything you want to share?

And Now a Quick Recap...

Mood: Tired? Stressed? Cranky? (can't quite decide today which, I assure you, has made life very interesting for my long suffering husband).

What I'm watching: Alf (still freaking hilarious everytime he tries to eat the cat!)

Since I've been MIA again, a quick recap of my last few weeks:

1.) As we have already established, Scott and I are the poster children for travelers annonymous. We've also established that we're learning impaired because we keep trying. A couple of weekends ago (after an invigorating round of undeserved family drama...from my side of the family), my lovely husband arranged for a relaxing weekend away. In a lovely hotel. That was hosting the participants of a local dog show...along with their 5 million barking dogs. Did I mention my allergies? Yep. And, we were on the ground floor, near the door...Can I adequately describe the joy of having those 5 million barking dogs being left to do their *ahem* business just under our airconditioning unit? No. No I don't think I can properly describe the aromatic enjoyment that comes from having that particular brand of air freshener sucked in and circulated around our hotel room. People? There are some things that even industrial Febreeze cannot cover up. I'm just saying... Oh, and do I even need to mention that the fire alarm woke us up at 7:00 am? Yes, this has happened to us before. At a different hotel. We have obviously seriously pissed off the travel gods.

2.) Family drama level has reached DEFCON 5 billion and 2 over the last few weeks. Am supremely grateful for my wonderful, loving husband who keeps me from embarking on on some ill-fated, badly conceived plan involving a belltower and firearms.

3.) I have discovered that I'm a basically lazy, self-indulgent creature. Now, before those of you who know me respond with the totally called for "duh", let me just explain what preceeded this particular epiphany. I remember with fond nostalgia the hot summer days of my youth when I would enter a grocery store, a restaurant, or other establishment to be met with an artic blast of cold air that would cause my glasses to fog and goosepimples to form on my arms and legs. It was like walking from the heart of the sun into a cool, refreshing meat freezer and I loved every tooth chattering minute of it.

However, recently I've noticed a decided lack of arctic like temperatures as I've entered retail establishments. In fact, for the first few weeks of warm weather, I thought I was having hot flashes every time I entered a store and would constantly ask "is it hot in here, or is it just me?" Turns out that it's not just me. It's a combination of stores trying to appear environmentally friendly (sort of) and saving money on utility bills (ding, ding, ding...we have a winner here!). As much as I love the environment and saving money, I have to say that I get so incredibly cranky when I'm uncomfortable that I really do become a menace to society. So, honestly? It would be in everyone's best interest to either A. grab the jaws of life, loosen the wallet and turn down the air, OR B. Stay the heck out of my way because if I'm having a lack of air conditioning induced hot flash in the middle of a store things could get really ugly. Fair warning.

4.) I love my husband. A lot. I spent all day at a kite festival with him. He loves kites. I love him. Therefore I allowed him to live...even after 5 hours in the sun watching what, for me, amounts to the thrill of watching paint dry. Did I mention the sunburn?

5.) Speaking of paint...since I've worked at the church I've discovered that I have a severe allergic reaction to a particular type of paint. How did I discover this? It's the paint that they insist on using every.single.time. Days of burning eyes (ever pour bleach in your eye? neither have I but I think I've got a pretty good idea of what it feels like), itching skin (I also now know how a dog with fleas feels), and burning lungs can really take their toll. Also? Paint fumes do not disappear overnight. Let the misery continue!

So, there you have it. The highlights of my life this month.

Mi Vida Loca

Mood: Funky (It's been a very funky couple of days around here).

What I'm Watching: Sex and the City (I'm totally into channelling my inner Carrie).

It's been a few days since I've blogged. I'd like to say that I've been too busy but the truth is that I've discovered a new, totally addictive, game and I've been spending all my time trying to build communities and make millions of (obviously fake) dollars in the process.

Anyway...here's the week in review:

Adventures in Travel

Most of you who know Sparky and I know that we are the official poster children for traveler's annonymous. Our honeymoon cruise? Re-routed around two hurricanes (no wonder we got such a good deal...who knew September was right in the middle of hurricane season?). Our trip to Mackinaw City, MI? Who knew that we would end up travelling until 3:00 am because there were absolutely NO hotels with vacancies for literally hundreds of miles as we drove (and we won't even talk about the hotel room we finally ended up with at 3:30 am...suffice it to say that I felt squeamy about it for days afterward). Our trip to Gettysburg? Didn't even happen. Twice. First, Sparky's dad died. Then, Sparky was laid off.

You'd think that we would just avoid tempting fate and stay home where we're safe and cozy. The problem is that, despite our travel issues, we both LOVE to travel. So, when Sparky suggested that we have a weekend getaway last weekend, I was all about going to a place where people will clean and cook for me while I soak in a whirlpool tub while watching tv!

The fact that I had to send my dinner back several times? No big deal. I'm used to it. The fact that it took the cashier at Wal-Mart nearly 45 minutes to ring up a simple sale? We were simply amused and accepted it as par for the course in our travel. However, when the toilet in our hotel room stopped working at 2:30 am? NOT so funny. Especially since I usually need to make a couple of trips to the bathroom in the night.

Sparky (a plumbing pro from having to wrestle with the craptastic plumbing at our apartment) decided that he would go ask for a plunger at the front desk. After 40 minutes he returned without one (the hotel clerk couldn't find one), but with a key to the room across the hall. Now we weren't supposed to change rooms (since ours was a whirlpool room and the one across the hall was not) but we were meant to go across the hall to use the bathroom. That's right. Everytime we needed to use the bathroom during the night, we had to get dressed, grab the keys and head across the hall. I can't tell you how much fun that was.

Thankfully the next day they were able to move us to another room. Yay! The fact that it was on the second floor where there were no vending or ice machines was a minor inconvenience compared to having a toilet that actually functioned. No more going to the outhouse for us!!! Let the relaxation begin! Okay, so the in-room whirlpool tub didn't have the best drain seal and, as a result, would be constantly draining so I had to keep refilling it. Luckily that wasn't as big an issue as one would have supposed because as Sparky walked across the floor to get something, I could actually feel the bottom of the tub shaking. Deciding that I would be extremely pissed off if I ended up falling through the floor, naked sitting in the whirlpool, I didn't soak very long anyway.

Finally we just decided to call it a night and turn in. I was looking forward to sleeping in the next morning since check out time wasn't until noon...unfortunately we were awakened at 7:00 am by the incessent ringing of the hotel fire alarm. Luckily it seemed to be a false alarm but once this was actually confirmed Sparky and I were wide awake and decided that it would be the better part of valor to admit defeat, pack up our things and effect a full scale retreat before the vacation fates had the chance to regroup their offensive forces.

Is it a real Heart Attack or is it Memorex??

In honor of my boss's birthday and administrative assistant's week (since I'm officially an admin. asst. now), a friend decided to take both of us out to lunch today. It was a nice meal with friends, fun, good conversation and laughter. Until I started having chest pains. Crushing, squeezing chest pains. As someone who suffers from panic attacks and anxiety, I first tried to ignore them thinking they were just anxiety symptoms but they didn't go away and eventually I started to start sweating and feeling nauseous. NOT GOOD. Yikes!!

It was finally decided that I needed to go visit the ER and be checked out. Luckily the friend (shout out to Harlin), was willing to drive me out there and wait with me while the medical professionals poked, prodded, tested and x-rayed me within an inch of my life. Luckily all my tests were fine. No heart attack. No stroke. No blood clots. Nothing at all. The best the doctor can say is "who knows". Could have been a spasm, could have been heartburn, could have been anxiety, could have been anything really. The nurse said it could have been a reaction to the Chinese food I'd been eating. He said that some people are sensitive to MSG (I always wondered why there was such hype about MSG) and that the effects of that sensitivity exactly mimic cardiac arrest. Hmmm...No more chinese food for me for a very, very long time.