Forgive me LJ for I am slack. It's been almost 3 months to the day since my last post. What's been going on? Well, let's see...
I am in month 3 of the Lupron injection/progestin therapy for my adenomyosis and praise be I am 100% symptom-free! It's been so wonderful I can't even describe it. The most annoying side effect so far is the night sweats but I'll take it. My doctor said that he'd be willing to extend the 6 month treatment to as much as 18 months since I'm responding so well and I'm seriously considering it.
Work is crazed and filled with more travel than usual because we have no sales staff so guess who has to go out on sales calls? It's about as fun as it sounds, but at least I get to visit folks and eat well while I'm gone. I also have until the end of the year to write my employees' performance reviews which I'm looking forward to as much as I would look forward to having my toenails pulled off with a pair of pliers. I'm not even kidding.
One cool thing about work is that we've extended the parameters of our backpack club and now a few of us spend an hour helping some of the kids with their reading one day a week. It's so much fun! I wasn't even nervous the first time like I'd thought I'd be, but let me tell you, 7-yr old boys sure are fidgety. I'm also surprised at classroom sizes nowadays - the two teachers we help have about 20 kids per class with an aide that helps about 3 hours per day. That's a LOT of kids, especially at that age. The teachers are so appreciative of the help and the kids seem to enjoy it, and it might sound cheesy but it really makes me feel like I'm helping mold the future in a small way. Plus, the school gets credit for all the volunteer hours we add which means that they'll get even more money for the school aside from the money we'll have left to donate after our expenses. At this point, we estimate we'll be able to donate about $1500 this semester which makes a total of $2700 for the school year!
David and I are going to Vegas for New Year's. The odds are good that we'll actually be awake for New Year's for the first time in over a decade since we'll be flying when it's midnight on the east coast. We're staying at Aria in the brand new City Centre which should be interesting since the hotel just opened about 4 days ago. I made reservations for us at Mix at Mandalay Bay and then we're going to meet up with Mark and Pam to see Aubrey O'Day and Holly Madison in Peepshow on Friday night. I was torn about where to go Saturday night, but I think I'm going to make reservations at Twist at the Mandarin Oriental since it's brand new and the only US restaurant by Pierre Gagnaire. So. Excited.
Please to be seeing my icons for what I'm watching and LOVING on tv. KTHXBYE
I cook y'all! Like, almost every night! We're just tired of eating out all the time, and we're at that age where those fast food calories don't just fall off like they used to. So please let me know of any easy, fast recipes or recipe sites because while I *am* cooking, I don't necessarily *like* to cook, so the easier and faster the better.
Thanks to all of you who've sent LJ goodies and holiday cards. I'm going to try my darndest to get cards out by New Year's (or shortly thereafter), so please do me a favor and give me your address even if you think I have it. Please be sure to include your email address as well.
I know and have been in contact with someone who's been diagnosed with H1N1! I don't know why I'm excited about this because lord knows I don't want to get it, but I feel all ripped from the headlines and stuff.
In other news, I've already culled shows from my Season Pass:
House - A third of the way through the premiere I realized I was not even paying attention. The Forgotten - Even for a pilot, there were too many people with no personalities whatsoever - and no, "concerned" and "sad" aren't characterizations - doing things I didn't care remotely about. The Beautiful Life: TBL - I was quicker on the draw than the CW because I deleted it after the pilot. For a show about the modelling industry, it wasn't nearly trashy enough to hold my interest. A hidden baby plot? What is this, Saturday morning cartoons? NCIS: LA - I love the cast, but they don't gel and the dialogue was atrocious and the plot was simultaneously predictable and plot-hole ridden and I don't even understand what they're supposed to be doing.
I am loving Vampire Diaries even MORE than I thought I would. Melrose Place is bad tv at its...not best, but mostly good. The Good Wife was surprisingly not Lifetime MOTW-like. I enjoyed Modern Family a lot, but Courtney Cox has got to tone down the shrieky shrillness on Cougar Town because there's a good show underneath all that noise.
Based on recommendations from both dreago and shadowlass and the prettiness of the cast, I decided to check out when Being Human would be airing episodes on BBC America and it turns out there's a S1 marathon of all 6 episodes tomorrow from 11-4pm Eastern.
Tomorrow is also my first day back at work in over 2 weeks. Joy. It should be pretty interesting too since I've only found 2 pairs of pants that I can button comfortably over my incisions. I also have my first post-op appointment to discuss next steps. Given that I've only had about 2 days that have been 100% pain free since the surgery, I can't wait for this discussion. Not that the pain has been severe enough to require medication every day, but still. I'm really ready to get this figured out. Beyond ready.
In other news, I made the horrifying discovery that my DirecTV DVR can only maintain 50 season passes. WTF?!?! Luckily I had a few shows that have been cancelled that I could delete, but even with that I'm already back up to 47 shows. Stupid DirecTV. I can't wait 'til DirecTV and TiVo go back to selling TiVo's again in 2010.
I also figured out that I'll be at a conference in Maryland the same night as my 20-year high school reunion. Eh, I would be sad, but I made reservations here for David and me for dinner Friday night. And I'm thinking about hitting up Top Chef Bryan Voltaggio's restaurant Volt for lunch on Friday or Saturday since it's only an hour away from where we're staying.
I keep forgetting the Emmy's are tonight which considering the amount of tv I watch is kinda funny. But then I've never been one for awards ceremonies in general, and I don't feel passionately enough about any of the nominees to pay attention. I'd like Michael Emmerson, Toni Collette and Jon Hamm to win, especially Toni Collette because she single-handedly makes United States of Tara, but I'm all prepared for Tina Fey to win instead in that category. I'll catch up on red carpet fashions on the web, otherwise I'll be watching the L&O:SVU marathon as I've been all day. Which reminds me - Mariska Hargitay? Nominated again? Not January Jones? Not Connie Britton? Yeah, whatever Emmy's.
Oh and I finished S1 & S2 of True Blood and I'm going to go against the grain to say that I enjoyed S1 more than S2. They both had their problems, but S2 started to seriously bore me the last few episodes, made me hate Tara, and wasted a lot of storyline potential. At least S1 never bored me although it did have Eric with that awful, terrible hair. That hair? Was bad. To the point I was getting Josh Holloway/Sawyer flashes and I was beginning to question everyone's sanity about finding AS so hot. Thank you random redneck for pissing Eric off forcing him to kill you in such a gory way.
I've spent most of the past 3 days either crying or high on painkillers. The pain, oh the pain is back. The doctor told me this time would either be better because of the surgery or worse, and it was so much worse. And to top it off, I haven't slept for more than about 6 hours in the past 3 days. Needless to say, I feel like crap but at least I have another week at home to try to get myself together.
And since I was lying here with the heating pad in a nice Darvocet daze, I decided to start watching True Blood. I'm halfway through S1( and I don't hate it!Collapse )
Long time, no post but life has been equal parts crazy and dull which I guess is the best balance to have.
I had my diagnostic laporoscopy last Friday. Long story short, he found a few lesions that he sent for biopsy/testing but endometriosis is not likely which is both good news and bad news. Good because hey! No endometriosis! Bad because I still don't have a cause for my debilitating pain. Today's the first day since the surgery that I'm 99% though, and recovery is going as expected. Plus, I'm off work 'til the 21st!
Watched Torchwood: Children of Earth yesterday and DAMN was that relentlessly bleak. I thought it was extremely well-handled and ultimately satisfying in that I believed what happened and why, but it was extremely hard to watch especially in a marathon session like I did. In old news - I have a mad girlcrush on Gwen.
I have my coworkers True Blood S1 DVD's and there's a S2 marathon on the 12th so I'm going to give it another shot. I'm definitely intrigued because it's attracted friends of mine who I never would think would be fans.
In looking at my fall TV schedule, for the first time in, like, EVER, I have no conflicts on any night that can't be managed with 1 DVR.( My Fall TV ScheduleCollapse )
I am also trolling the internet for Kings fic. Specifically, Jack/David fic. Me. Who hasn't read fic in forever except for the odd SPN fic featuring Ruby and Sam and maybe the occasional Wincest but why does all the SPN fic feature Dean as the dom when OMG if this season proved nothing else it was that Sam COULD and WOULD TOTALLY top and yes I may have thought about this just a bit. I also pre-ordered the Kings DVD's. Because Sebastian Stan? OWNS me. And I would pay TOP DOLLAR for the TV gods to put him and Seth Gabel on the same show. It's the least they could do after cancelling this show, T:SCC and Life all in one season.
The two episodes of AtS that aired on TNT this morning?
Fredless and Billy
Talk about primordial evil. Ugh. I think the first 4 episodes of S3 drove me to the Bitterness thread at TWoP.
So instead I watched Royal Pains. Cute. I approve. I do not, however, approve of Mental. That show is trying waaay to hard to be a different kind of procedural when it needs to focus more on not being boring.
There's nothing I would like more today than to be able to laze around but instead I have stuff to do. Stuff that involves GETTING DRESSED and SMALL TALK. And then, to finish out the day, CLEANING! It's not even 9am and I need a nap.
I have the day off tomorrow because David is having a colonoscopy because of...issues. He's doing all the fun prep cleansing today and he's turned into a Porky's wannabe with all the toilet humor. Good thing he's pretty.
I have developed something that might be called a fascination with Dog the Bounty Hunter. The good news is that I haven't season passed it yet; the sad news is that I actually visited the website to find out more behind-the-scenes info.
Terminator Salvation was a so-so non-Terminator movie but a terrible Terminator movie. Meanwhile, I have seen Star Trek twice now. Oh, McG. Let's work on a Fastlane movie next, mkay?
I've always been afraid to get a chemical peel for fear I would end up looking like Michael Jackson, but I had one as part of a facial on Sunday and it turned out really well! I have also discovered the skincare gold that is hydration serum. Goodbye shiny forehead!
My 20 year high school reunion is this year and the propaganda has started. And now thanks to the internet, it's non-stop and interactive via Facebook. I don't know why reunions have to be this big formal thing that costs all this money when all we really wanna do is sit in a room in the same cliques we were in high school and drink higher priced booze than we could back then.
Speaking of the consumption of higher priced booze, I still haven't booked my Comic-Con flight yet because I'm trying to tack a business trip onto it. I could potentially be in CA for 10 days, but depending on if my clients cooperate or not I'll either get to extend my Con trip or I'll have to fly back home one day and go back cross country 2 days later. These people need to work around my convenience, dammit!
Still haven't won the lottery. I need to get cracking on that.
Looking at the ol' LJ calendar I see that I'm falling into a not posting routine that is just not acceptable!
Birthday was good if uneventful. I had a horrible cold and ended up going to bed at 8pm. Oh yeah, I'm a party animal!
Work is good in that I still have a job so yay! It's travel season again and I'll be in Seattle, Portland, DC and Virginia over the next 2 weeks. My sleep medicine is definitely going to be put to the test.
Buffy-watching is not so good in that I STILL have not made it out of S2. I'm bringing them with me though since I'll have plenty of airport and hotel time to catch up. My goal is to get through S3 in May. I figure if I time it right, I can start S4 when all the current season tv shows have ended and there'll be nothing on so I'll be FORCED to watch S4. God am I dreading that mess of a season.
TV is eh - not good or bad - just there. The one show that I LOVED beyond all others, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, will probably be cancelled which sucks beyond the telling of it since it had a kickASS season finale that opened up all kinds of exciting possibilities. It hasn't been officially cancelled yet so I'm trying to keep hope alive but it's not looking good. The only other show on right now that I'm even remotely excited about is Supernatural. There are a ton of shows that I watch with one eye: Dollhouse - It's gotten much better, interesting even, but I'm still only really watching because of the Ballard storyline and Tahmoh. If I had to choose between this and T:SCC for cancellation, this show would get thrown over the cliff with the quickness. Prison Break - Yes, I am still watching it dammit and will until the bitter end. I still love Michael and Michael/Sara, but for the most part I just enjoy watching Linc running around in circles with his shirt untucked and tie undone trying to take down the company with his Fists of Fury while Michael is able to literally take down the head mastermind with sandwich bags. Good times! Lost - Which has been boring the PISS out of me lately with the exception of Daniel and Ben's episodes. I've never been overly fascinated with the island mystery anyway, so all this running around figuring out variables and constants and time lines and whatever is a big YAWN for me. I've always watched for the characters except for Sawyer who I've never been able to stand (and watching him and Juliette together is nauseating), so yeah this season has just not been my cup o' tea. NCIS - A show I have grown to love thanks to USA Network marathons. And hey, sp23 I have found the Abby love! It started with how sweet she and Gibbs are, but the deal was sealed when the assistant they hired for her turned out to be a murdering stalker and she was all "Can I PLEASE work alone now?" That did it for sure. And yes, I will be watching the spin-off with Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J. (See previously re: Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J.) CSI:Miami - Don't judge me. This show is the ultimate in no thought entertainment. It's pretty and ridiculous and sometimes downright insulting in its stupidity but it's never failed to entertain me. Southland - This show is a mess but I feel like it's worth my time because of the cast. They need to cool it with the all-over-the-place editing between storylines though because it's distracting. Castle - I love Nathan Fillion but I just did not buy into his chemistry with the lead actress and the rest of the show wasn't good enough to make up for that so I quit watching. Sorry Nathan! Cupid - I love Bobby Cannavale but I gave up on this because Sarah Paulson's hair looks horrible and it's really dumbed down from the original. Sorry Bobby! The Mentalist - I still have serious Robin Tunney issues but Simon Baker is fantastic and his Patrick Jane is funny and fucked up in a good way. Scrubs - They are truly pulling out great stuff for this last season. I will be sad to not have Donald Faison on my tv anymore. Rescue Me - So far this season has been really good, like S1 good. Also, there can never be too much Garrity and white Sean. The Unusuals - This show is a HOT mess saved only by Amber Tamblyn's charisma.
I have purchased many lovely pairs of new shoes which may lead to a complete home remodel because I NEED MORE CLOSET SPACE!
I'm hype for summer movies: Woleverine, Star Trek, Terminator:Salvation, Transformers 2, GI Joe. So much shit blowing up, I can hardly wait!
I'm also hype for Comic-Con even though I have no idea what will be there since all the big movies will have already come out. Whatevs, I'll just enjoy hanging with the girls and perhaps engaging in a little teatotalling.
Spring/summer porn reading is good. I've discovered Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series and I'm loving it. The second in Larissa Ione's Demonica series was even better (i.e. more twisted) than the first. And some of my favorite authors like Alison Kent, Shelley Laurenston, Delilah Devlin, Suzanne Brockmann, Angela Knight and Syndney Croft all have books due soon.
David and I have decided to be responsible homeowners and tone down our 10th anniversary travel plans so that we can get hardwood floors upstairs. The carpet is just destroyed and I'm sick of it. I also want new bedroom and den furniture and to turn one of the spare bedrooms into a library so I can have a place to read and put my porn on display, and there's no point in moving things around for that only to have to move it again for the floor installation so we're doing the floors first. Instead of a week on a tropical island, we'll most likely do a week on some beach or 4-5 days in Vegas instead. Vacation is vacation so it's cool.
Now I'm off to do laundry and pack for my trip next week. Somebody stop this crazy whirlygig of fun.
I finally broke down and went to the doctor this week for my insomnia. I've always had bouts of insomnia where I'd eventually just sorta pass out after a bit. But for the past 3-4 weeks I've slept no more than about 4 hours a night and it was getting a bit ridiculous. So now I'm armed with a shiny new prescription of Amitriptyline, and my first test run Thursday night was a huge success! Slept all through the night! The only side effects I've had so far are a little grogginess on waking up that goes away as soon as I'm fully awake and dry mouth - so far, so good. I'm keeping a drug/sleep diary as well since this drug is an antidepressant that's often used for sleep problems but can cause a variety of side effects, so I want to monitor this really closely. The doctor also checked my thryoid and I get the results of that next week, which is weird since 2 of my co-workers have had thyroid problems as well to the point one had hers removed and the other had half of hers removed.
I'm feeling all disconnected from the crowd on Dollhouse because while I feel it's gotten a lot better (although the internet opinion seems to be that last night's episode was The.Best.Ever while I thought it was just ok), Eliza Dushku's acting is totally distracting and pulling me right out of the show. Without getting spoilery for last night's episode, I found her acting as "Caroline" to be especially bad and I didn't believe for one second that she was a rebel tree-hugger trying to take down the man. She seems really affected and stilted and I rarely believe her as whatever role she's playing for the week, including her "real" personality. And yet, I will keep watching for Paul and Mellie, and somewhere along the way I've fallen in love with Victor. I will say that next week's looks promising - more Dollhouse, less Echo is a very good thing.
Tomorrow, I think I'm going to try very hard to pick up my S2 Buffy rewatch. I am dreading BII in a big way. Sigh.
DirecTV is going to air all episodes of Smith, The Nine, and Eyes starting in April! How awesome is that? I ended up downloading all the unaired eps of Smith so I still have them, but it'll be nice to see Simon Baker and Jonny Lee Miller's killer manlove the episodes on a big screen. And I was always disappointed that we didn't get to see more of The Nine, just when it was getting good.
Now, if they would only reair Jeffrey Donovan's Touching Evil, Kidnapped and Thieves...
I enjoyed this week's Dollhouse and thought it was the best one so far. For the first time I care about what's going to happen and actually managed to pay attention instead of rolling my eyes and saying "I hate this show" during every commercial break. Problem is, I don't care about Echo at all and a large part of my enjoyment this week was that she had very little to do. I have a feeling that this show is going to be like Alias to me in that I can't stand the lead character and I'm far more interested in everyone else except the lead. And not liking the lead makes for some very frustrating tv watching. I'm in it for the Ballard and Ballard/Mellie. Period.
I also enjoyed the BSG finale. I certainly had problems with parts of it and didn't think it needed to be 2:11, but overall I'm happy with the ending. And...really that's all I have to say about that.
Supernatural continues to kick ass. I am definitely going to have a rewatch of the last 2 seasons this summer because the Winchester brothers have evolved so much.
The Deification of Sawyer and Complete and Total Destruction of Juliet seriously hampered my enjoyment of Lost this week, and since even the idea of Juliet/Sawyer makes me ill, watching it actually play out sends me into RAGE. I'm not giving up on the show, but I will be throwing things (soft things thrown underhanded but still I'M THROWING THEM!) at my tv whenever that nonsense is on screen.
But for my money, the Best Thing I Watched All Week was Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. For a show that involves killer robots from the future, time travel and an impending inevitable apocalypse, this show is capable of delving into human emotion and flaws in dark and complex but still believable ways. It's smart but not pretentious, dark but not relentlessly gloomy, and thematic but not anvillicious. It's tanking in the ratings though (it was up a little this week-yay!) and cancellation is probably around the corner. If it does get cancelled, it's the one show I'll miss - and for more than just Uncle Hottie. Oh-and Garrett Dillahunt is a fucking genius and they should give him an Emmy for his entire body of work since he was ROBBED when he was on Deadwood.
I am home today, and the way it looks outside, I'll be home tomorrow too! It's ok, I have all the essentials: electricity, internet, popcorn, Boston Baked Beans, Frosted Flakes, milk, Capri Sun, and wine!
I'm going to watch TAR, the last 2 eps of Leverage, and Buffy S2 for as long as I can refrain myself from throwing the remote at the tv everytime Angel opens his mouth. Bring on Angelus! At least he's not whiny.
Timothy Olyphant has a painting in the attic because I swear he looks as good on Damages as he did in Go. Sexier even.
I don't understand what's going on on Lost, but I love it!
I'm going to see Watchmen at the IMAX with the girls next weekend. I also really want to see Race to Witch Mountain because goshdarnit Duane Johnson is charming as hell. I also want to see Duplicity which I cannot believe. Oh, I was always going to see it for the Clive factor alone. But he and Julia Roberts actually look like they have chemistry in it too.
I cannot even discuss the whole Rihanna/Chris Brown debacle without risking a rage blackout.
My office has decided to do a community project this year, and we've decided to do a Backpack Club. We're going to send backpacks full of food home with elementary school children who receive free lunch during the school week so that they and their families will have food over the weekend and even well into the week. With the help of the school social worker, we've identified 20 kids who are in need at one school and the social worker has received approval from all but 3 of their parents so far, so we're going to do our first backpacks this week. I'm SO excited! David and I went shopping this morning at my new favorite place, the Dollar Tree. I got so much great stuff - raisins, fruit roll-ups, pudding, juice boxes - enough for 3 weeks for all the kids, and it cost me less than $40! Best of all, my company will pay $20/hr for our time spent on the project up to $2500 which we can use to cover our expenses, and whatever's left will be donated to my county's Second Harvest Food Bank. We're estimating we'll be able to donate about $1000 - $1500 in June when school gets out which is HUGE for the food bank. I cannot wait to start packing and delivering the backpacks.
Our tenth wedding anniversary is this year, and I want to go to Turks and Caicos. I want to go here but David laughed hysterically when he saw the nightly rates. Yeah yeah it's a pipe dream, but at least I found a new place to add to my "When I Hit The Lottery" places to go list. My next choice is here which is actually doable for 6 days/5 nights if we can find reasonable flights. Plus, we can use AmEx points for this place and save about $1000!
I have rediscovered my love for Boston Baked Beans. Thanks again, Dollar Tree!
It's supposed to snow here tonight. I'll believe it when I see it, of course, but I'm sooo ready for winter to be over. Spring/summer fashions are much more fun to shop for. Especially skirts/dresses and sandals. There are about 25 pairs of wedges calling to me from Piperlime RIGHT NOW!
Somewhere along the way, I've started to really like Halle Berry. She always used to have this whif of desperate, kinda crazy tv anchorwoman vibe about her, but she's been looking so incredibly happy and GORGEOUS lately with Gabriel and that adorable baby that I'm happy for her.
I'm going to be the only person watching Kings aren't I?
We loaned the government almost $1100 last year according to my income taxes! Yay for tax refunds! Depending on what I find out at the doctor at the end of this month I'll either be booking our anniversary trip or making a deposit into savings. Luckily, I have short-term disability coverage at work that pays 100% for up to 6 weeks, but I'll still feel comfortable having a little extra cushion just in case. This is annual bonus payout month, but I'm not holding my breath for that since they haven't said anything definitive yet.
My Buffy rewatch is going...slowly, but I'm not quite ready to talk about it yet. But when I do, I'll do it at buffy_support! [/gratuitous community plug]
TV Making Me Happy This Week
Supernatural - The only thing better than brotherly angst is brotherly fistfights, and this week had the best of both worlds. I swear, I don't know when it happened --probably around the same time he took off his shirt and picked up Demon Ruby one-handed to straddle his lap, but that's just a guess -- but somewhere along the way I became a Sammy girl. I still love Dean and Jensen to death, but Sammy's walk on the Dark Side makes me crazy happy.
Battlestar Galactica - There's a reason why I usually wait until a sunny day to watch this show. Damn. Powerful stuff.
Lost - I'm not as pulled in by the Island Losties' storyline as I am O6, but I still really enjoyed this episode despite the Sawyer/Juliet shenanigans. WHATEVER, SHOW! I STILL LOVE YOU JACK!!
Burn Notice - Best episode in a while. Seymour Haywire is awesomely funny, and all this show needs to be great is a 100% less Tricia Helfer's character.
Friday Night Lights - I've already watched the entire season on DirecTV so I know how good this week's episode was without even watching it this week. I'm here to tell you, this season gets even better from here.
On another note, the Dollhouse promos have done nothing to change my mind re: it's potential suckiness (and more specifically, ED's potential suckiness) but I give them credit for knowing that a naked, cherry-downing Eliza will bring in viewers at least for a couple of weeks. If only they recognized the power of Naked Tahmoh as well.
Grandma's doing ok. Apparently she is not producing enough tears, and that combined with the age-related thinning of her corneas is what is causing the abrasions. They've given her drops for now, but a long-term solution will be prescribed on her follow-up on Friday.
My new favorite porn series: The Demonica Series by Larissa Ione. I'm crazy about vampire porn, but I'm always skeptical of the idea of slayers for obvious Buffy-related reasons. But this series - wow, it blew me away. The characters and the universe are complex and interesting, and the dialogue is sharp and funny. The violence is descriptive but not over-the-top gruesome or too long as to be boring, and the sex is smokin' hot and believable and often enough so as to not be boring. This first book is the story of Tayla, the demon slayer, and Eidolon, the demon doctor (a doctor who is a demon and treats demons at his very own demon hospital!) and they are screwed up and twisted and have fucked up relationships with family and there's a plot and everything and OMG LUV! The next book in the series is due soon. I read a lot of crap porn --proudly, I might add--but this is one really well-written book even by non-porn standards.
Starbucks' Vanilla Rooibos and Apple Chai Infusion Yes, they are pretentious-sounding, overpriced tea products. Yes, I would push down a man with a limp to get one of these on a really cold morning.
Seriously, the look on his face would make you think she's not wearing a blue gunny sack.
The weekend started out great. I had a hellacious day at work on Friday, so I was really looking forward to the weekend. Friday night, David and I went to a surprise birthday party for my friend Monica's 40th birthday. Monica also happens to be my ex's sister but I'm still close to her and the rest of her family - my good friend Johnetta, my hairdresser, is also her cousin. It's been a while since I'd seen Monica's mom so of course I went by the family's table to speak to everyone. My ex's wife *still* will not speak to or even look at me. Jesus, woman, it's been damn near 100 years! GET OVER IT! We don't have to be BFF but basic politeness shouldn't be difficult after all this time. But yes, I am shallow and petty because I took great pleasure in knowing that not only did I look fantastic, David (who's a handsome guy anyway) looked extra special handsome in his "big boy" blazer, while Derrick (the ex) was doing his best Grizzly Adams impersonation.
We stayed for a bit but then we went out to dinner at this great little soul food restaurant, Sweet Potatoes, where I think I had the best meal I've ever had in a restaurant in the state of North Carolina. I had the rainbow trout that was stuffed with sweet potato cornbread stuffing, collard greens and a succotash over garlic mashed potates. OMG so good! David had some kick-ass pork chops with homemade mushroom gravy with macaroni and cheese and a side of collard greens. And the best part? Everything, including a fantastic bottle of wine and an appetizer, was under $65 including tip! We met the owner and chef, who are the *only* two black female restauranteurs in the city and they were both really nice. We're already planning to go back to try the lunch menu.
Afterwards we went to this wine bar/restaurant, 6th and Vine, where there was a great blues band playing. They were truly jamming, to the point where even my husband who does not dance ever started to move a little bit. It was such a beautiful night - brisk, but not unbearably cold - that we walked around downtown and looked at all the cute new shops that have opened. I have to say I'm kinda proud of good ol' Winston-Salem. We're really coming into our own culturally, and I'd definitely encourage a visit if anyone hasn't seen our city before because I think we have more to offer now than ever without losing our small-town feel.
Because David and I are old, we called it a night pretty early and we were home in our PJ's playing online Scrabble by 11:30.
On Saturday, in my attempt to act on one of my new year's resolutions, I invited all the ladies in my family over for a "Soul Food" night. My mom, auntie, grandma and cousin came over and we cooked and ate and laughed and danced and had a really great time. We're going to try to make it a monthly thing, and I'm going to do my best to make it happen if for no other reason than I think my grandmother really enjoys the company. My grandma will be 89-years old this year, and even though it's tough to think about, I know she might not be with us much longer and I want to enjoy her while I still can. I was so exhausted when they left that I was asleep by 9pm. Going down the Soul Train line really does take it out of you!
I was going to work on Sunday but changed my mind at the last minute and thank goodness I did. Mom called and said that grandma had called her saying was blind in one eye and was incoherent on the phone. David and I rushed over to check on her and she said that she was having difficulty seeing and had sharp pains in her eye. She wasn't delirious (that was my mom's panic and exaggeration talking) but she was scared which let me know something was really wrong because my grandma is the epitome of "stiff upper lip". First thing I did was check her blood sugar because she did have a diabetic episode a couple of weeks ago, but her blood sugar levels were normal. Her eye was really red though, and she just kept saying "I can't lose my sight. I can't lose my sight." so David and I packed her up and took her to the ER. (With some "help" from one of the drunks/crackheads in the neighborhood. As bothersome as she was, I have to say that those drunks and crackheads in my grandma's neighborhood do a damn fine job of looking after "Nana" as she's known. They get her prescriptions, take out her trash, cut her grass -- and in return she'll give them food or wash their clothes.) Turns out she had a corneal abrasion and they gave her some ointment, but because of her diabetes and age they want her to go the opthamologist tomorrow so I'll probably take her. We got her home and settled in for the evening, then David and I proceeded to go home and relax all day.
So with all that, I haven't watched Buffy yet but I'm about to watch "Welcome to the Hellmouth" right now instead of the SAG awards. I'm both excited and nervous. But after the drama of today, I think watching Buffy might actually be relaxing.
I called my 88 year old grandmother to get her thoughts on the inauguration today:
true: Did you ever think you'd see the day a black man would be President of the United States?
Grandma: Yeah, because if I didn't then I'd have to think that mine and Momma's and Granny's and Poppa's struggles meant nothing. And I couldn't believe that. Because they wouldn't believe that.
Momma, Granny and Poppa were my grandmother's mother and grandparents -- my great-grandmother who raised ALL of us, and her parents, my great-great grandparents who were slaves in South Carolina.
My cell phone started blowing up today while I was at work which is odd because a) most people know to just call me at work since I don't answer my cell at work; and b)hardly anybody ever calls me anyway. David finally called me at work and was like "You're in town right?" "Um, yeah. You just called me at my office." "Good. Because that Laguardia to Charlotte flight that you take all the time just crashed in the Hudson. Everybody's calling me to make sure you're ok." "Holy Shit!"
I checked my voice mail and called everybody back, and then I called my mom which is the next best thing to having my own PI on the case. As a retired US Airways flight attendant, she told me what kind of plane it was, how many exits and where, how many minutes they were trained to evacuate that kind of plane when at capacity under those circumstances, what the pilot probably said, what the flight attendants probably did....everything. She was even able to access the crew schedule website to find out who was working the flight to see if there was anyone she knew. I find it comforting talking to my mom when crashes happen because she's so calm and logical about it. Strange since she's hardly that way about anything else in her life, but I guess 30+ years of flying will do that to you.
Anyway, I'm just glad that everybody survived with no serious injuries. I will gladly forego my free bag of pretzels and drinks for a well-trained crew in the event of an emergency.
Some amazingly awesome person gifted me with a paid LJ account so I can load up on icons! Thank you so much amazingly awesome person! This weekend I'm going to get the support group comm up and running complete with newly acquired Buffy icons.
I EXPECT AN OUTPOURING OF PARTICIPATION PEOPLE! WE ARE NOTHING WITHOUT EACH OTHER!!
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