Month: June 2010

In the course of 6 days (starting today), I have 4 days off.  This is awesome.  Of course, it’s because I just worked 10 days straight, but I made it through all that and have today and tomorrow off, then Friday, then Sunday.  It’ll be pretty sweet.  So far today hasn’t been too productive, but it hasn’t been altogether unproductive either.  I woke up when Matt left, made some breakfast, and pretty promptly went back to sleep about an hour after that.  Got up again around 10:30 or so, put in my contacts and applied a bit of makeup (mostly because it makes me a little depressed to think that the only time i wear makeup is at work), and got a couple of loads of laundry together.  Matt’s mom, who I suppose I should call Helen (as opposed to Mrs Ralston or Mom…), was home, and showed me a bunch of yarn and crochet projects she’s been working on.  While I did laundry.

After a while she went to lie down (she was only home because she left work early due to feeling a bit sickly), and I went to Old Navy.  They were having a store-wide 30% off sale, and it may surprise you that I only purchased 3 items — a skirt, and a swimsuit (top and bottom sold separately, unfortunately).  I actually like them all.  Plus the swim wear was on sale anyway.

The I went to Bath and Body Works, since it IS right next to the Old Navy and everything.  They were also having major sales, and I came away with lots of bath and body supplies.  I mean, they have awesome sales.  Plus, I saved $10 since my purchase was a little over $30 (and included 7 items).  Good stuff.

Now I’m home and downloading the Indigo Girls’ new CD from iTunes.  Today’s the release date… and it’s a live CD with a bunch of all their best songs from the years, which seem to be most of my favorite songs too.  Some of their albums tend to have like 4 good songs and the rest are just okay… but this one looks like it can’t be bad.  I mean, “Heartache For Everyone” is the first song.

After I get all that downloaded, I need to change the sheets and make some potato salad.  Matt will be home in about an hour, so I still have plenty of time.  Once he gets home we’ll work out a bit and then I’m not sure what.  I’ve been more … um, antsy, or bored lately.  Which isn’t much fun when Matt’s favorite things to do are stay home playing chess or his bass.  And I like being with him, so going to coffee shops and leaving him home isn’t all that fun, either….

On a different note, here’s a picture of Bitey stretched out in front of the fan.  He loves it.  And he loves us.  Not sure what he loves more.  Please disregard all the dirty clothing….

Pretty cute, huh?  He’s a little doll.  Right now he’s next to me, curled up inside the Old Navy bag.  Hm, let’s disconnect the phone for a second to take a picture….

What a cuteness.

BTW, this album is awesome so far.  If I get any blank CDs, I’ll burn you a copy, Katie.

I mean, given my track record, I wouldn’t hold your breath, but still. I’ve been officially re-accepted, and I’m in the middle of filling out the FAFSA, and my email has been reactivated. Hooray.

Have I mentioned how much I hate Lipscomb? Oh well. Maybe they’ll have changed some since 2006. It HAS been four years.

So today/tomorrow I have to file the FAFSA and email Dr. Reed. And possibly Dr. Hearn. Oh, boy. It was so nice to not have to think about this stuff, but I suppose paying off the student loans will be immensely more gratifying if I actually have a degree to show for it… whether I do anything with it or not.

So there’s your update. I might post more later. I don’t like to think about it that much.

And, just because it will come up eventually, I’m going to do EVERYTHING I CAN to keep from having to participate in a graduation ceremony. But, there will be a party. In theory, of course.

I hate it when people post their political opinions as status updates on Facebook. I don’t do that, do I? I fight the urge, and generally end up posting a blog instead.

But someone (who I subsequently “hid”) voiced his opinion that Obama basically has no right to dismiss McChrystal and that it’s a violation of freedom of speech.

That’s bs! Obama is THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF. This means that all of his generals had BETTER watch what they’re saying as long as they’re collecting a paycheck from Obama for fighting under his command!!! It’s absolutely not a violation of freedom of speech for him to be dismissed, and anyway, he wasn’t dismissed. He RESIGNED.

I remember Mom telling us that even if we don’t agree with what the President of the United States says, we need to respect him/her (you know, just to be fair and hope that we have a female President someday) because they are the President of our country. I think she said this while Clinton was in office. If that goes for your regular citizen (which some people would debate, I know — though it says in the Bible… one of the Corinthians… that you’d better be respectful of the governing authorities because it’s God who has put them in command), then it DEFINITELY applies to the generals in the US Army.

Just sayin’. I would have liked to post all that on Facebook, but, well, it’s the wrong medium. And I wish other people would keep their political opinions in their appropriate places. Thank you.

occasionally I like being busy.  not usually, but sometimes.  it makes me feel important, which I’m usually not very interested in feeling.  importance means responsibilities.  but anyway.

so we went to Knoxville this weekend — left on Friday from Nashville, spent all day Saturday there, and came back on Sunday after having brunch at the Tomato Head with sisters and friends.  it was a good time.  the trip itself wasn’t that eventful, but I know at least Katie would like to hear about it, and I have some corresponding pictures to post, so….

oh  yes, I got an iPhone.  I don’t think I’ve blogged since then.  it’s very new, and I’m still learning how to use it, but it’s pretty cool so far.

We had dinner at a Waffle House in Carthage.

My parents’ front yard; it started raining about 5 minutes after this picture was taken.

We had salad and oatmeal muffins for dinner.  See above.  Everyone was there except for Joel, plus Marshall.

Then we went to the Tomato Head for brunch, which I think I already said.  Since I’m sure Matt wouldn’t appreciate me posting another picture of him, here’s another of L, Marshall, and Carla.

(Taken minutes before Josh Casada showed up to occupy the chair on the left.)

Alright, enough photo blogging.  Tonight I’m making salad and pasta… not quite sure what kind of pasta I’ll do, but leaning towards angel hair with assorted veggies, and an olive oil and lemon sauce.  Something light, to go with the hot, hot, hot, hot weather.  I hate summer.  Have I mentioned that?

oh, this summer is not going to be fun. I figured we got a mild summer (for TN anyway) last year and were going to get payback for it this year.

did I mention that I FINALLY paid off my credit card? it was a big deal. ever since those two months of unpaid maternity leave (almost 3 years ago…), I had to use the credit card more than usual and just did not do a good job of making payments on time or paying more than the minimum. which resulted in my balance staying basically the same for the next couple of years. so Matt got me to finally start paying attention and trying to pay it off… and now it’s done!! all of it!

Matt’s going to start doing P90X again, which means that I’m going to as well, even though I may drag my feet and complain and get mad at him for making me do it. completely irrational, I know, since I told him that he has to make me do it. since he’s only working 8 hours/day again, he has energy to exercise which is practically his favorite thing to do — other than playing chess. it’s good and bad; good because I need to lose some weight and bad because I hate working out. I don’t really mind eating more healthfully (as long as we can still get Wendy’s every now and then). but working out sucks. especially as hot as it is. then again, I sure do feel better after working out.

speaking of working out and it being hot, I took a cold bath yesterday (think swimming pool temperature). it was SO AWESOME. I’m not taking a hot shower or bath again until September or maybe even October. seriously, it was amazing. I read a short story in the New Yorker (this week’s issue is the summer reading one) and felt so cool and refreshed after I got out.

I’m blogging, by the way, because I should be cleaning up the kitchen instead. I made omelets and biscuits last night and failed to clean up after myself. though really, if I’m the one who cooks, shouldn’t Matt be the one who cleans up? or at least helps clean up? that just makes sense to me. he’s never as thorough as I want him to be though… but still. hmph.

I am, however, running out of things to say. what else can be said? well… we’re going to Knoxville this weekend. we’ll probably take the Kia (btw… got the license plate in the mail today finally!) to see how she does on road trips. we’re going to leave here on Friday — either at 3, if I can get out of work on time, or after 6:30 or so. we’ll probably be leaving Knoxville on Sunday morning so that we’ll have a little time to relax before going back to work. when you never have weekends off and take a road trip when you do, it’s just not relaxing at all. which sucks.

maybe we’ll go to the Vanity Fair outlet on the way. Matt doesn’t like spending money on clothes and claims that he doesn’t need any, anyway. all of his t-shirts are too big for him, stained, and/or have holes in them. his one polo shirt has holes in it and is vastly faded from its original color, which is apparent since the collar is much darker than the rest of the shirt. Matt doesn’t like going out in public much (though I don’t think he minds it as much as he used to), and I can’t help but think that he wouldn’t mind as much if he felt like he fit in more. which he would if he wore less sloppy-looking shirts. just my opinion. heh.

okay, Matt should be home any time. when he gets home, we work out. I think we’re doing pushups today (ugh). after that, a cold shower. then, to Target and Pet Smart. we need flea medicine desperately. after that, I’m sure Matt will want dinner and then bed. maybe I’ll see if I can talk him into doing something more interesting. I’ve been feeling bored and uncharacteristically social lately, which has both of us confused. need to hang out with Katie and with Cathy soon. so. hmm.

I have been rather lazy all day so far. Granted, I did get up and go in to work from 6-8 this morning. Since I’m on salary, I have to make at least 40 hours/week and hadn’t quite gotten there yet since those closing shifts were shorter than the opening shifts that I’m used to working.

After getting home, I made some breakfast and fooled around on the computer. Eventually I got out of bed and dyed my hair. Then I got back into bed, watched a little bit of an episode of Bones, and fell asleep. After waking up about an hour later, I took a shower, dried my hair, and am now back on the bed fooling around on the computer. So lazy.

I might be hanging out with Amanda this afternoon. Haven’t heard definitively from her, but it’s the tentative plan. She’s probably still asleep right now.

I ought to do something to make myself feel less lazy. Like, maybe get dressed, make the bed, wash the dishes, put away the clean clothes — something like that. Maybe all of the above, even. Hm.

this is the statue at Cafe Coco.  wearing beads.  FYI.

I’m afraid I don’t feel like blogging any more right now.  sorry.

I suppose that a couple things of note have happened in the last few days.

My work schedule has been a little weird this past week because the manager who we just hired a few months ago came into work one morning and told me that she’d been diagnosed with a stage 3 inoperable brain tumor. So I’ve had to work a couple of closing shifts, which hasn’t been all that bad. I closed yesterday (Sunday) which turned out to be not that bad at all; we were slow, plus Matt was off so we were able to hang out all morning. And I’m off today. Clopening is no fun.

Saturday was a busy day — for me. I hate busy days and try to avoid them. But sometimes you just gotta make sacrifices. I had to open, of course; when I got off work, I came home, showered, and got ready to go to Brittany and Austin’s new house in East Nashville for Story (their 2-year-old daughter)’s birthday party. Matt picked out a present for her at Target that morning since I’d forgotten all about it on Friday evening. There were maybe 20 or so people at the party; half were grandparents/greatgrandparents/aunts/uncles/etc, and the other half were friends who had young children themselves. I think there were about 6 or 7 little kids there. One guest of note was Nicole Kidman, who showed up with her 2-year-old and the nanny. Keith Urban dropped by later. We did not speak with them; we are not suck-ups. I know that if I was a celebrity, I would never go out in public because I don’t like talking to people. But then, I have no aspirations to be a celebrity. Whatever.

After the birthday party (we left a little early, heh), we drove my new car to Murfreesboro to hang out with Dawn and Kyla; Dawn just got back from a trip out West and we hadn’t seen either of them in a while. So that was fun, though we were both pretty tired and didn’t hang out too long.

And I’m off today. Then I’m off again on Wednesday and Thursday. What should I do? I need to do laundry, for one thing. Why is there always so much laundry to do? I might dye my hair… if not today, one of the other days. It’s supposed to be nice outside today, so I may end up driving to Cafe Coco to read or something….

Bitey’s playing with a spider on the floor. Poor spider. It doesn’t have a hope.

On that note, I think I’ll go make some breakfast.

First of all, I’m sorry for the ranting blogs. I don’t like being upset and I don’t like writing angry blogs. Sometimes people just make you mad, though, and venting about it is good.

Now then. I’m off today and it’s a little after 6am and I am very awake. Matt left about 10 minutes ago and will probably be gone for 12 or 13 hours again. At least he had yesterday off and was able to sleep all day. He sure likes to sleep.

So here’s what I’m going to do today.
1. Clean up the house
a. Make the bed and straighten the bedroom
b. Clean the litter boxes
c. Most of the rest of the house is clean, but maybe I’ll wash some dishes

2. Do some laundry

3. Go to B&C to do the Sysco order and maybe some other miscellaneous cleaning — just as long as I’m there about 30-45 minutes. Have to make up some time to get to 40 hours this week….

4. Start new crochet project. Helen (Matt’s mom) showed me Ravelry.com, which is a knit/crochet community and has a ton of free patterns. I’m going to try to make a cardigan next. It’s a big move, but I think I’m ready. The capelet I made last time turned out nicely (except that it’s a little too small for me, but whatever).

5. This might be all I need to do. Oh yeah. I forgot. I need to exercise. This will either be yoga or cardio; I much prefer the yoga but the cardio is very good for me. And always seems to go by faster. We’ll see.

6. After working out, there will be showering.

And now that I know what I need to do today, I’m going to go back to not doing it; possibly go back to sleep, possibly see what’s on Netflix.