NotScarlett

The post-Thanksgiving....er...post

What a long, wonderful weekend! I was too busy recovering and catching up with un-fun work stuff yesterday to post, so I came in early this morning to spend a little time online.

Thanksgiving was quite lovely. Brian and I went to his cousin's house in Dothan, AL with his mom. The food was great, I brought a strawberry pie that won rave reviews, and the company was fantastic. On the way to the house, Brian and his mom explained the modern-day cotton industry to me, and Brian even pulled over to pick some cotton for me on the side of the road since I had never seen the raw product. Everyone was impressed with my knitting! I worked on the slippers I am making my aunt, and brought along the baby blanket from hell for a bit of variety, and knitted until I fell asleep after dinner.

The one bittersweet part of the day was that we had to pick up his grandmother from the nursing home where she lives in Alabama. It was terrible, I cried when we dropped her off at the end of the night, which I don't think made things easier for Brian or his mom. His grandmother has Alzheimer's (pet peeve: when people call it Altimers, or Alztimers....there is not a "t" in there, people!)and didn't know who anyone was, but knew she was with people she could socialize with. There were some funny moments, since she doesn't have an internal censor, and just says what she thinks, but it was pretty difficult to listen to her ask her daughter "Who are you?"

There were lots of animals at the house, and I was befriended by an 8 week old kitten who was rescued from the middle of a busy intersection and given a home by Brian's cousin. His name is Peanut, and he proceeded to climb up onto my shoulder and take a nap. B has pictures that I will post at a later date.

We didn't get back from Dothan til late, and when we got home, we just crawled into bed and dreamed of eating more turkey. Friday we went to my aunt's house and had Thanksgiving Dinner Pt. 2. Brian went guitar shopping with my uncle and my cousin Miranda, and I helped my aunt around the house and assisted my cousin Raymond with some algebra homework. Friday night we came home to a Christmas tree, and decorations everywhere. I was a little sad about not getting to decorate, but at least I can enjoy my roomie and her boyfriends decorations.

Brian bought me an early Christmas present Friday night! He got me a TV and a DVD player for my room, so we can watch TV and rent movies in peace when he is in town! We brought it home and he set it up for me, which was really sweet, even though he knew I could do it myself. Saturday he went and built me this awesome stand for the TV, so it can sit on some existing furniture I had, but will be high enough to see properly. We were going to go to a show Saturday night, but it was outdoors and it had been raining all day. It was cuddle-weather, so we rented movies and watched them on the new TV!

Sunday was spent doing laundry and catching up on stuff around the house. I talked to my friend Amanda, who got out of ICU on Wednesday and was able to spend Thanksgiving with her family. She is doing much better, apparently her blood sugar was very low, and after being medicated for about 24 hours and resting, she was fine.

In more happy news....today I pick up my car from the body shop! I have decided to be thankful that it is NOT totalled, and am looking at things in a whole new light. It will be so nice to have my own vehicle again!

No knitting news today....hopefully I will get to work on things this evening.

I will post more later today....there are some interesting Southern traditions around the holidays that deserve a mention and an explanation. I am off to work, but keep an eye out for more later!

A quick Hello!

Stopped by work to finish up a few things....just wanted to say HELLO!

Hope y'all had a great Turkey Day! B and I are off to eat leftovers at my aunt's house since we didn't get back from Dothan til late last night and never made it over to her place.

Will post pics soon!

Turkey Day

If I have to drink one more glass of cranberry juice, I will hurl. For real. It doesn't taste good anymore, and makes me feel like a bloated animal.

I get off work at 2 today. YAAAAAAY!

LETS TALK ABOUT THANKSGIVING!

I am heading up to Dothan, AL tomorrow with Brian and his mom to go to his cousin's farm for Thanksgiving. Yes, you did read that correctly, and yes, I know you are all laughing at the idea of me on a farm, and yes, you may stop now. I am a touch nervous about meeting the rest of the family, but I am sure it will all be ok.

Do you have any idea how odd it is to hear myself say, "oh, me? I am going to Alabama for Thanksgiving."

I miss my mommy, and wish I could be spending the holidays with her. Maybe next year.

Now, in that time honored tradition, I am going to tell you a few things I am thankful for.

I am thankful that there are people in the world who are willing to take a chance and help someone who had reached the end of her rope. I am thankful that I have a place to live, wonderful friends, loving family, food to eat, a good job, you know, all the things we all take for granted every single day. Right now I am most thankful for some very special people who are showing me there is a way out of the black hole of despair I have been wallowing in about my financial situation. I am thankful that there are people who love me and people to love, I am thankful that I have the opportunity to wake up and start a new day each morning, I am thankful for second and third chances.

I am thankful for my blog readers! The whole 2 of you out there! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you are able to keep in mind the many, many blessings we all have in life.

Everyone have a great holiday, and enjoy the long weekend!

A light at the end of the tunnel

I never believed all that crap about things could always be worse, God will take care of you, etc, etc.

Something happened to me today to let me know it IS true.

When you hit rock bottom, there is nowhere to go but up.

I want my life back, and thanks to some very special people, things are starting to look up.

On a much much LIGHTER note...

I need knitting help. PLEASE. Here is my wishlist:

1. I cannot knit in the round. At. All. I just don't get it. I try it, end up twisting stitches, and throwing the whole mess across the room. Any advice, pointers, or other info is greatly appreciated.

2. On that note.....dpn's make me want to poke my eyes out. I don't get it, guys. What can I do? I feel that my lack of in-the-round mastery is crippling my knitting.

3. There is NO yarn source in the town where I live. My only options are acrylics and novelty yarn, and I just can't see myself wearing things made entirely of Fun Fur. Suggestions on where to shop online are greatly appreciated. The less expensive the better, as I am POOR.

I need all you experts to help me expand my knitting horizons....I want to be daring...and maybe, JUST MAYBE...make....a.....hat.

;)

Weekend Update

The weekend was much too short.

I spent most of it sick, with a kidney stone and some weird sinus crud. I am feeling quite yucky this morning. I DID pass my stone late Saturday night, so that was a good thing.

Brian picked me up from work on Friday, and we went and did some window shopping, them went and saw a movie.

Saturday there was some hysteria on my part in regards to my finances, but he helped me through it and I made a very difficult decision, which I may or may not post about at a later date. He took me to a craft store in town I did not know existed and I was drooling over the bamboo needles they carry, and their small but lovely yarn collection. We went and did some window shopping at Target, and he drove down all the pretty back roads I like to take. He did everything he could to make me feel better....I was quite charmed and my tears quickly vanished. To cheer me up further, he cooked for me that night. Steak, lobster, and all kinds of other decadent goodness.

After dinner, we played with the dogs, and I just had to do this:

Don't lie, you know it's cute! He loves it! His front right paw tend to get caught in the little leg hole because he is so low to the ground, but he likes to wear it, he gets very snuggly when it is put on him. Brian didn't think it was cute, and thought I was sick and twisted.
Later, we took a nap and headed over to Amanda and Robert's to see their new furniture and hang out for a while. I brought my knitting and made some progress on the blanket from hell, which is temporarily being put on hold due to the massive amount of Christmas knitting I have yet to start. Yikes.

We woke up Sunday and played Battleship in bed. How cool is that??

Later on, we headed to the Museum of History and Natural Science with Nina and Justin. Seeing all the animals in a somewhat natural environment was very cool. I had no idea that Florida panthers were so massive, that wolves or black bears lived in the woods near my house, or that WHITE SQUIRRELS existed.

Last night we grilled out with Nina and Justin, then Brian headed over to visit a friend while I laid on the couch in allergy-induced misery.I did get some knitting done...Jasper even helped:

Brian came home around 11 and brought me roses. It was so sweet!

Now I am at work, and even though it is a 3 day work week, I am not really looking forward to the stress and mess I have to deal with. I really feel ill and wish I could go home and crawl back into bed.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Once again, I am working from home. 630pm, and here I sit. I won't even go into detail about my day at work. Let's just say it was another day full of stress and frustration.

I have hot plans this evening....laundry and some knitting. Although I may pass on the knitting, as there is nothing I want to watch on TV and I have a hard time knitting without television of some sort. Also, I would be working on the BLANKET OF DOOM, so I am going to have to re-evaluate the situation.

I have a million overdue library books that need to go back tomorrow. I don't know why I got lazy about taking them back; I think once again work got in the way. GRRRRRR.

I just want to relax for one evening. I can't do that now as I still have lots to do for work, and the dogs are drving me up the friggin' wall.

As crappy as today was, there were some things that made me happy. Here is a brief list:

1. Chocolate covered almonds
2. Artichoke and garlic hummus
3. The sunset
4. The cool weather
5. Freshly washed sheets
6. Email from Stacey
7. Phone calls from Brian
8. New bubble bath
9. Vick's Vapo-Rub
10. Props at work for my skills

With the Quickness....

I didn't intentionally lie about the blogging thing, I swear. I was just able to sneak on and post reeeeal quick-like.

Had a gorgeous weekend with Brian. I love him so much...he is too much fun. Went to see our friends TRON open for Jucifer on Saturday night. I proceeded to get thoroughly tipsy and do makeshift karaoke with our friend, the amazing drummer for Tron. This means we sang to each other across the venue to whatever cheese crap music was playing in between bands.

Tron was awesome....so loud. I love it. I can't wait to see them again.

Jucifer was a wee bit disappointing, although Amber rocks. I now know why the word "cacophony" (did I spell that right??!) was created. Little teeny girl completely WORKING a big guitar, backed by the loudest drums ever...it went on and on and on, and then her little pixie voice comes out of nowhere. Brian and I ended up leaving before they finished their set, as we are old folks and it was nearly 2am. Great show though.

Yesterday we lounged about and I worked on the Stupid Baby Blanket That I Hate. That is what I have named it. I kinda want to rip it out, but I would hate myself for doing so as I have made so much progress. I don't even want to take pictures of it to post though, it pisses me off so much.

Went to see Bri's mom last night and I had Collard Greens for the first time ever. They were surprisingly delicious....but no one told me that I would be up all night with a bloated belly, begging for God to have mercy on my gas-filled stomach. Not fun.

Hootie-Hooooooooo

Ok kiddos...no blogging for me for a few days. I plan on being computer-free all weekend. I need the break.

M-W next week I have business meeting with outside consultants and a builder breakfast to attend, so my time will not be my own and I will most likely not be in the office much.

I know you will all miss my inane ramblings.

Chin up though....I should be back to my old tricks Thurs/Fri-ish.

Everyone have a lovely weekend, and I will be sure to report on the events of the celebration for my love's birthday! WOO HOO!!!

Hugs and Kisses!

S

Friday is my friend

I have done nothing at work today. I suck.

Wait...I DID take a nap from 10-11, locked in my office. It was heavenly.

Someone made these ridiculously good pumpkin bars and left them in the kitchen for everyone...I am going to have to hunt this master chef down and get the recipe.

Keeping my fingers crossed that my man will be coming into town this evening and not tomorrow.

I do not understand why I continue to drink Pepsi even though it gives me wicked bad heartburn. I am an addict, I guess.

DAMN, I cannot motivate myself to do ANY work. This is not good, as there is a lot of work I need to be doing.

Then again, a 6th smoke break for the day sounds pretty good.

I want to use my last 15 bucks to go get the new Cake cd. It is probably good that I do not have a car today or else I would go blow some money at lunch.

I didn't get Brian anything for his birthday. Does this make me a bad girlfriend? He said he didn't want anything from me other than to get to see me and spend time with me. I actually think he is telling the truth. He's sweet like that. :)

It is pouring down rain. I really wish I could go home and curl up in front of some Aqua Teen Hunger Force and knit.

That sounds odd, right?

Well, I never said I was normal.

The Never-Ending Work Day (sung to the tune of the never ending story)

Its midnight, and I am taking a short break from working to blog things no one cares about.

Working on another damn laptop this evening...I cannot figure it out, and it is making me insane.

By the way, I DO realize that pretty much everyone who reads this has no clue what the hell I do for a living, other than it is something that provides me with endless amounts of bitterness and things to whine about. Let's put it this way: I am the IT department(I work on both software and hardware), I track every piece of data for every home my company builds from the date they decide to build it until the day homeowners move in, I am assistant to the vice president, and am frequently called upon to be everyone in managements bitch. That is a brief overview. Very brief.

Oh and all these extra hours? Yeah, I am salaried. Boo freakin hoo.

I really am considering changing my blog service...I like Stacey's features so much better. I really hate the fact that blogger does not let people leave a name when they post comments. By the way, hello Laura! I DO remember your birthday...and if I were there this year we would go on a massive shopping spree, THEN go to Sing Sing and drink cider with our pal Ginger. :)

Brian's birthday is tomorrow.....he is stuck in Pensacola for work right now. Hopefully he will be able to come to town tomorrow. If not, I will have to wait until Saturday morning to see him. It all depends on how things go with his client tomorrow.

I worked on my baby blanket this evening (oh dear, not for my baby, because I am definitely not in the family way...I just mean the blanket I am making) I decided to add stripes, and it is looking pretty good...I am rather impressed with myself because I thought for sure by now I would have ripped it all out and used the yarn for something else. Maybe knitting isnt the best habit for an ultra type A personality....I DO enjoy it though.