Less than

A week from now I will be a married woman. Wow. I will also be on a much needed vacation. A real one, not the week I spent at home in January, worrying about all the stuff I had to do. I can't WAIT. I mentioned we're going to Cancun, right? Yea! Travel to a new destination! My brain is already on vacation. I'm just a useless pile of romantic, excited thoughts. And tirednessessessss... I'm exhausted. Every day has been full. I'm not used to being this busy and I don't LIKE IT. MAKE IT STOP. It will, it will...

The weekend started with a shopping trip on Friday night. I hate shopping. I'd known that I had to get my bridesmaids gifts for the rehearsal dinner for WEEKS but waited 'til the last minute. Put it off 'til this past Wednesday, then Thursday and finally did it Friday because I'd painted myself into a corner. Originally, I was going to get the girls each an elegant pearl/swarvoski (however you spell it) crystal necklace to wear at the wedding. Then I thought I wanted to be original and get them pretty fish pins. You know me and fish... I wanted them to be tropical marine fish, hand painted or decorated in pretty sparklies or some shit like that. Waiting 'til the last minute certainly closed the window on that one. As I was shopping, I noticed many pretty, different looking necklaces. I finally came upon some gorgeous sterling silver and mother-of-pearl dragonfly pendants on delicate sterling silver chains. Four of them. ON SALE! Perfect. Not too fancy (they can wear them again!) and not too weird... It was like when I went shopping for my wedding shoes a few weeks ago. The light shone down upon them as the angels sang, "Ahhhhh-leh-loooooooo-YAaahh!!" The girls loved them.


On to the last official hoopla...the rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately, he garden area of the hotel where we will be getting married is not available for rehearsals (unless you check the last minute, one or two days before the wedding...yea right!) so my boss kindly allowed me to have the rehearsal in the parking lot/yard at the office. She's been out of town and it's just been me here, so it was perfect. Plus it's right down the street from the hotel. After running through the ceremony a few times (SO much fun!) we all headed to dinner at a cozy little Italain restaurant a few miles down the road from my work and the hotel. Rons mom did a BEAUTIFUL job on the dinner. She even made baskets of grapes, wine and cheese as center pieces for each of us take home. They were gorgeous! She'd made a larger, special one for the bride and groom! And the speech she gave! Then my dads speech! I was floored! It was just... *sigh* Perfect. I'm not used to being the center of attention, can you tell?

So I think I'm perdy much ready. Yea. Perdy much. Mmmm-hmmm. Gonna do all the last last LAST minute stuff this week. Can't forget to pack for the honeymoon! Woooooo!!!!!! I spent yesterday doing the housework I'd put off for weeks and weeks. Mainly dusting. I dusted everything, vacuumed, mopped and rearranged the clutter. Now I don't have to do anything but maintenance until things calm down again. Actually...until we move! Nope...haven't found a place yet. Thought we did, but the lady is being kind of flakey. We will really start looking soon. But I've started putting all my little knick-knacks in boxes and throwing things out. Prepping to move sooooooooon!

I'm s'posed to go grocery shopping after work today. It's been such a long and busy day that I think I'm going to skip it. AGAIN. I'm so bad. I know I'll have to go to get some essentials I'll need for the trip...deoderant, contact lense solution, toothpaste...I just don't want to get a whole lotta food that we won't be here to eat. I'd rather put it off until we get back, quite honestly. Well, put off the big shopping anyway. I will have to make myself pick up a few things. Just not today. My back and neck are killing me. I want to be laid out and stretched on a rack at this point. I need a chiropractor! I sound like a bowl of rice crispies when I move my arms, neck and upper body! That can't be good.

I go poddy and go home now. It's been a long day. 'Bye bye.

Dappled

When experiencing high levels of stress, imagine you are here...

You want some?

Pictures from the infamous bachelorette party... I've got a few of 'em, thanks to my lovely friend Rosemary. Melanie and Lisa are still compiling the rest of the evidence onto a friendly looking DVD. I must be patient. Until then, however, I would like to share a few pics...



I decided to make it a pre-wedding party theme...every time I receive a pair of thong undies, they go on my head. It was a beautiful outfit and I was even able to wear the sexy top that night...

Unfortunately, you can't really see the top in this beautiful group shot taken at dinner...



I was wearing a sweater over it. This was before I really started drinking and being an idiot.

Earlier in the day there was this guy, the lovely man who we asked to serenade the bride-to-be on our little old scavenger hunt walk. Yes, the activity for that Saturday was to run down a list of things that the bride was to do...



One of which was to have a guy, any guy, sing to me. We came up on this dude and just HAD to ask him. Yea, I know...it was great! Got the whole show, including boobie flexing. Don't ask me what song he sang though, sadly I can't remember! Later in the day we came upon a blues singin' dude with a guitar and everything! Got three songs outta him! Of course, that was because he wanted tips...you know, open guitar case and all...

Some other things from my to do list that I actually got done included:

1. Kiss a guy on the cheek.
2. Ask married strangers for their advice on marriage/good luck wishes.
3. Sing loudly, "Here comes the bride", when entering all establishments.
4. Find a man with the same name as the groom...I actually didn't get this one done, though I tried! Couldn't find ONE! Rons were rare in San Diego that weekend...
5. Remove bra from under shirt (while keeping the shirt on) in front of strange men...

That last one was the most fun. By the time we got to that one, I'd had a good amount of alcohol. I did it on the sidewalk in front a bar, into which we had gotten whisked by a lovely group of men enjoying a bachelor party... A very cute man by the name of Chad (was it?) bought us all a round of shots. Everyone in town was so friendly that weekend. There seemed to be a lot of bachelor/ette parties going on. After the shot and taking a nice picture with Rod (not Ron, DAMN) I went outside and did the bra deed in front of all these cute men, who were heartily cheering me on. Joyous. And we got it all on video! Then I put the bra on over my shirt and we proceeded back to the hotel for a much needed detox and rest.

Shit, I gotta go again. So much to do and I hate getting on the 'puter at night 'cause I've just been so tired lately. I wonder why...

ELEVEN MORE DAYS. Wow.

Well, just ONE thing...

...about the weekend. I made up a new dance!! It's called, "Taking A Crap". Go ahead and guess how it's done. Just guess! I think I've started a new craze...

Less than three weeks

This past weekend marked the three week countdown to the wedding. As of today, I have less than three weeks. I feel the same...so excited, so happy, SO READY FOR THIS SHIT TO BE OVERWITH. I'll just keep thinking about laying on the beach in Cancun. That's going to be soon...oh so very wonderfully soon. Then we get to come back and start looking for a place to move. Ah, moving...another fun task. Nevermind that, I'm getting ahead of myself.

This past weekend was also my fabulous bachelorette party weekend. Once again, Melanie and Lisa outdid themselves. It was perfect. I got to have some great fun with my beautiful friends. Unfortunately, I don't have time to write about it at the moment. I will try to come back tonight or tomorrow to bang out an entry about it. There are tons of hilights and tons of pictures. There's also more video! But alas, lunch is now over and I must return to work so that I can leave at a decent time to go shopping for more wedding crap.

Bye for now...

So what the HELL was that??

As the day went on yesterday, my cold got better. All of a sudden! I don't get it. What was it?! I am now left with the little remnants of a slight chest cold...what I like to call lung butter. Every now and again I'll cough a little buttery cough. Mmmmmm. Tasty. All right, I'll stop being gross. Really. I simply love discussing bodily functions!

Anyway, work is calming down a bit. Obviously...as I have a bit more time to stop by here to spill my thoughts. Everything is much more organized, like it was when I started here. It's so great to know what's going on! I know what we have, what we don't have and what we will be getting. Most importantly, I know the correct pricing! The owner will be going back to Poland to get things done at her company (well, more her husbands company) for a short time . She is leaving next Friday and will be gone for about two weeks. Something I am very used to...being left alone at the office! Hopefully we will not have any more fiascos while she is gone! At least the lil' 'ol shipping lady will be here to talk my ear off. I've found that it's better than being all alone. Sometimes. Heh.

Time to work again. I have to finish this tedious art project...fixing up our logo. It's giving me a headache! Later...

Okay then...

This isn't a pretend cold like I thought it was yesterday. No, this is the real thing. Shit came crashing down around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. *cough* *cough* *SNEEEEEEEEEZE**cough*!!!! I've been getting sick way too much lately. This has got to stop. I feel okay right now, but early evening is when I usually start to feel really icky nasty. I'll make it through the day.

Today marks one month exactly until the wedding. ONE. MORE. MONTH. I cannot wait. I've started to have several wedding dreams. The one last night was hilarious...I had to pee and I was wearing my dress. I run to a public restroom right before the ceremony. Looking for a toilet that's halfway clean, dragging my dress around on the dirty tile floor... Find a potty, pee and I still gotta go! Keep going back and forth from the ceremony to the bathroom! AAAAAA!!!! Then I wake up and realize I really do have to pee. BADLY. I hate those dreams. It's a good thing I didn't really pee...that hasn't happened in a very very long time.

I had another wedding dream a few weeks ago that was very disturbing...I was up at the altar with my EX! All the while I'm thinking, "What's HE doing here?? Where's Ron??? I wanna marry RON! NnNnnnnNnnnnnOOOOOooooOooOOooooo!!!!!" I suppose this is normal.

Anyway, back to work. Busy busy. Blah blah.

Oh what a beautiful moorr-*HACK*

It's springtime here in Cali and that means the weather can't decide just what the fuck it wants to do. Actually, that seems to have been the theme so far this year. HOT cold HOT HOT cold HOT (in January, HUH?) cold cold HOT HOT HOT cold HOT cold... So here I am with another of what I call the semi-cold. I'm not sure if it's allergies or what. It started out with a scratchy throat so I think it's more of a cold. Or maybe it's just an allergy-cold hybrid. Lil' mister new kind of virus. I don't know, but all it's given me are the drippies and the hackies. No head-in-the-clouds, tired feeling, no headache... Just gunk in the throat and sinuses. Yummy!

So I was going to talk about the lovely bridal shower given by my wonderful friends Melanie and Lisa... But before I do that, I must clarify something that I mentioned in this entry a little while back. First of all, I apologize for being a Mike Patton obsessed IDIOT. I'm obviously so obsessed with Mike that I don't know DICK about some of the very talented people that he works/has worked with. That guy with the stupid glasses in the black and white picture? That's guitarist Trey Spruance (AKA Preston Lea Spruance III) who Mike grew up with in Eureka, CA. Together they formed the wonderful brainchild, Mr. Bungle, my favorite of the Patton endeavors. Fuck. I'm so ashamed! With the internet and all of its information it took me THIS long to check that out. Mike Patton fan indeed! Trey is a lovely instrumentalist (one of my favorite forms of music) and is now working with Secret Cheifs 3. A fan made a video, Aged Spazz Dance, featured on YouTube of course. It's fucking hilarious!!!

Okay. Now you know. I have done my duty and can now move on...

My beautiful friends threw my bridal shower on Sunday, March 11th. All I can say is that they totally outdid themselves and made me feel like a queen. Both of them have known me since childhood and that was special in itself. Well they made sure to bring out all the warm and fuzzies that day. Oh yea, and that day was HOT. It was fine though because it was perfect weather for the occasion. Let me list the hilights:

~There were very special people there, Lisa's mom Peira, her aunt and cousins, her sister, all people who are like family to me. Then there was Tyra, a newer friend I met through Melanie. The three of us have hung out quite a bit over the past few years. Only one of the Cathies could make it, Cathy with "Y" was celebrating a very special birthday that day. Melanie and Lisa had moved the event to the 11th, thinking her birthday was on the 10th. My dumb ass didn't realize this 'til the last minute. Oh well, I'll see you at the bachelorette party, Cathy-poop!

~The minute I walked into the house I was adorned with a sash that said "Bride to Be"....heehehe! Then they whisked me into the livingroom where they took my picture with a polariod to add to the scrapbook they were working on at the table! I didn't get to take the book home, as it is a work in progress. People took pics with me throughout the day. Everyone is making a page for me and it's going to include the bachelorette party as well.

~Melanie and Lisa spent the entire day before preparing, the decorations were simply adorable. Melanie had even made special plates for me! Since they've both known me from childhood, they each had pictures from birthday parties, trips to Disneyland, etc. Melanie put colored paper with pictures of me at all ages, including pics of Ron and I, on the bottoms of clear plastic plates. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen! And they made me a special chair! They prepared all of my favorite goodies, including crab cakes, panini sandwiches, all sorts of cheese and crackers, a wonderful salad and...and I forget what that drink is with all the fruit in it? It's a sort of wine cooler mix and and and I can't think of the name of it right now but it's SO GOOOD... Uhhh...

~THERE WAS A CHOCOLATE FONDUE FOUNTAIN. WITH FRUIT AND PREZELS TO DIP. OH. MY. GAWD!!!!

~They had a video camera and filmed parts of the day, too! They told me of the disasters during preparations the day before and said they actual filmed that, too! They're putting together a DVD for me as well.

~Speaking of the DVD...the biggest highlight of the day was one of the games. First of all, we played three games. They were fun and cute and not cheesy at ALL. The best game was the biggest surprise of the day. It was sort of Newlywed Game style. They had met up with Ron at my house earlier in the week and filmed him answering questions about our relationship. They'd ask things like, "What is your favorite thing to wear to bed?" or "What is the song that you hate the most?" So they filmed all of his answers and played it back at the shower. Each time they'd ask Ron a question, they'd pause it and ask me the same question. Of course they filmed my answers. Then they'd play back what Ron answered to see if I got it right! I got six out of ten! Hahaha! It was great! I couldn't believe how sweet it was of them to do that...and how adorable Ron was in the video! At the end Lisa prompted Ron to talk about our first date. Of course he has to tell the "dirt surfing" story... That's for another entry though! So they're gonna splice it all together with the day before preps and the bachelorette party...I can't wait to see it!

Okay, that's it for now. I have a feeling I'm forgetting something though. But now it's time to devote my FULL attention to fixing this logo of ours. Me and my write a little, work a little, write a little... I'm being bad. Must concentrate now. Bye bye!

I need a reminder? I'm losing it...

I should SO be working right now. Remind me to tell you about the wonderful wedding shower my friends gave me this past Sunday. I almost forgot to write about it! I can't right now though. So I'll just squirt out a bullshit entry. *squirt* *squirt*

...

...

...

BULLSHIT.

Later...

You think you know a guy...

I know I shouldn't talk too much about work on here, but I just have to right now. Remember how my old boss just up and resigned at the end of January? Well, as the owner and I are cleaning up the mess he left, we have found out why he left in such a hurry. I don't want to list details, but the situation is very disappointing to say the least. Neither of us thought that he had the audacity to do what he has done. As we uncover things, however, it has all begun to make sense. All the little clues left over the years. I am hurt, insulted and appalled. The owner is all those things times 100. I can't believe he would do this to her.

Now, before I sound like a total brown nosing kiss ass, I will admit that I have thought and said some nasty things about the owner. I have admittedly been jealous of her riches and have recently told her so. But overall, I have always had a huge amount of respect for her in that she has accomplished so much in her life. She EARNED all that she has by herself! How many wealthy people can honestly say that?

So we are handling this the best that we can. Things are coming together. The owner has made me feel like I have been a great asset to this company, something that my old boss never did. Sure, he'd compliment the way I'd improved so much since I'd screwed up during my first year, but he never asked for help, never told me what was going on, never really COMMUNICATED with me. I've come to find that I really don't know what he thought of me. Oh well. Who cares now. I know what I think of him after all this...

Oh yea, one more thing. My biggest clue about his character? The one that made me think, "Hmmmm, there's something about this guy..." He doesn't like animals. Every time I'd bring up my birds or cat or whatever, he'd make a disgusted face. Sure, he had pets for his kids, but he didn't seem to respect them. The way he'd talk about animals I could tell, he had no respect for them.

Okay, that is all. I must order lunch now.

How does it feel?

Like my brain is drizzling out my ear. Life changes are SO FUN! I tell you! I can't remember where I put my toast. Where's my pen? How many peices of toilet paper are left? There's sludge in my head now. I've got pieces of April, too.

GROAN.

Picture entry!

Some fun pictures I found on my camera... The dirty Stan and Praying Mantis were taken on the same day. Stan destroyed the poor Mantis about 30 minutes after the picture was taken... We should have hid her when we let him out. Poor thing.

I must say I'm loving this busy at work thing. I'm getting SO much done! It feels great. I'm off to pack orders now, one of the last times I'm going to have to do that...for a while I hope. The packing lady is coming back on Monday.

Later!

What else can I say?

I've been sooooooooooo busy. I knew this would happen...no more time for blogging! OH MY GAAAD!!! I have like...WORK to do and shit. So I've got a few minutes right now while I'm eating lunch.

News of the week? Or...uh...almost TWO weeks? I had my first wedding shower this past Sunday! I've been to many, many a bridal shower and it was so much fun to actually be the bride this time! I've planned on having two showers, one given by my sister-in-law, Kristy and the other given by good 'ol Melanie and Lisa, my two childhood friends. The one on Sunday was Kristy's creation. She and three of my cousins, Cathy, Debra and Janine put it together and it was beautiful. The tables were set with gorgeous dinnerware, there were white balloons with curly strings hanging from the ceiling, flowers everywhere and not to mention the FOOD. The food was fantastic! Bridal shower luncheons usually consist of mostly salads and bread so this one was very traditional in that aspect. 'Cept the salads were each so unique. They went together very well. And there were chocolate covered strawberries! YUMMY!

I got lots of great gifts, of course. Things I'd registered for and things I had not. We made a nice pile of them and took a picture. Then I had my mom take them to her house because there was no way in HELL I could possibly fit all that stuff in my postage stamp house. Thanks mom! And Kristy gave me one of the best gifts of all... She got me thank you cards and addressed them to all the people who had come. She even included the stamps! She's so thoughtful!

Next weekend I'm hoping to get together with a few of the bridesmaids and my mom so that we can get these gorgeous invites out. Of course! That's another thing! The invites turned out PERFECT! I'm so glad I went with that lady instead of going to Kinko's. They are just precious! So original and just what I pictured.

The weekend after next is the friend bridal shower on the 11th. This is when time begins to fly fly FLY! I'm stressing and want it to be over already, but at the same time I'm very excited. Typical.

Okay, got loads to do. Later!

Working out the kinks

Happy day after stupid sappy hearts and flowers day. I hate Valentine's day. A stupid Hallmark holiday. Fuck, it's not even a HOLIDAY! A holiday, in my book, is a day you get to spend off of work, in your pjs all day, eating peanut butter out of the jar while sitting on the couch in front of the t.v. like a lazy slob. I told Ron, again, that he's done enough for me this year. He actually gave me an early V-day present, some more Mike Patton work...some Tomahawk CDs. I got him a nice card (damn HALLMARK, I still can't help it!) and I'm gonna make him a wonderful dinner this weekend. I always like to give him things he can use or do things for him. It's more fun that way.


Speaking of Mike Patton, haven't had a moment in a while. Let us have a moment, shall we? No, do not tell me you are sick of him! NO! Haha...


Who is the dork in the sunglass made into specs? I have no idea. But Mike looks so cute in this picture. Sunglasses guy looks lame. I hate it when people make sunglasses into glasses, it looks SO lame.


Ahem.



Hehehehehe...he looks wasted in this one!


One day last week, while browsing for more Mike pics, I came across a survey posted by some teenie bopper. It asked readers to vote on who is cuter, Mike Patton or Johnny Depp. After I finished rolling my eyes, I read some of the responses...


Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp...of course! Who doesn't think Johnny Depp is cute? Ugh...


I'm so fucking TIRED of Johnny Depp I can puke. I'll admit that I thought he was cute during his 21 Jumpstreet days. Had a magazine picture or two up on my bedroom wall... I also loved him in Edward Scissorhands. But now, he's played out. Yes, he's a good actor...but so many women list him as their celeb crush. *YAWN* I've always been the type to not like things that everyone else likes. If it gets too popular, I can't STAND it. Like those stupid fucking mini coopers I keep seeing all over the road. Those things are so trendy. I hate trendy shit! Anyway, I'm getting off on another one of my tangeants...

While we're looking at cute men. Let's move away from fantasy land.


Ronnie poop with his hairlip smile and me with a smile that doesn't show all my huge teeth for a change. 'Member this one? I think I posted it a while back. It's from the car show we went to over the summer. It was hotter than hell that day...


Now let's get to what's going on THIS week. Busy busy BUSY. Work is BUSY! And I LOVE it! It's so good to have the owner back! Working with her has been so productive. We are reorganizing this place and it's already much better. We communicate well and I actually know what's going on now. I still miss the old boss though, he was such a nice laid back guy. But he was a little too laid back. He wasn't very organized at all. Typical man. But he was a great salesman. You know how it goes. Different people are good at different things.


Enough about work. Always a bad idea to blog too much about work. What else is going on? Hmmm...well... I went to a preliminary appointment with a counselor this past Saturday. Whenever there are lots of changes going on in my life, I find it necessary to talk to someone. There's too much going on in my little mind. Marriage is right around the corner. That's the biggest thing on my plate right now. And I can't WAIT to move. I just keep turning the same crap around in my mind over and over and over. It feels good to get it out.


I also went to a massage therapist on Saturday afternoon to get some of these knots kneaded. It felt great! I was so relaxed on Saturday evening. I unloaded my mind and muscles. Then we went for an OUTSTANDING sushi dinner. So very relaxing... Though unfortunately, my back started to knot up again by Sunday night. We'd spent Sunday doing my least favorite thing...shopping. We just joined one of those wholesale warehouse clubs. And I thought regular grocery shopping was bad. Try shopping in a huge, crowded warehouse. What a fucking nightmare. But I now have enough cat food and litter for Stan to eat and shit for the next twelve years.


I can't believe it's Thursday again already. I should get back to it. I needed a break, as usual. Time to work. Oh yes, and I have a cold coming on. I feel like shit. I'd better go take an aspirin. Later!

Love you

Last weeks problems have been solved and it's on to this weeks problems. The owner is here with me at work. It feels so good not to be alone! We are going through issues one by one and methodically solving each. I didn't realize how much I had missed her. So far it's been great working with her. I feel like we are getting things done. And she really made me feel good when she got here, as she made sure to tell me that she was very impressed with the way I handled the window situation. Little by little we are cleaning this place up. My old boss is still working with us some, too. He and the owner are friends and he wasn't just going to leave us in a lurch. He's such a nice person, of course he's still going to help us! He'll just do it from the comfort of home.

Everything else is fine. I'm still stressed though. It's the story of my life. My back feels like one giant knot again. It's pulling in so many places. I need a deep tissue massage in a bad way and I think I might just take the time to get one. Someday soon. Before I lose my mind. I'm taking a little break from wedding stuff this week. But we have to get back on top of things next week. I expect to be able to pick up the finished invitations by next week and we'll go from there. I have to start meeting up with vendors again to get all the details worked out. Whoo.

So now I will leave you with some pictures from Rons camera. Yes, more lovey cute piccies. Yay!


The happy couple.


The other happy couple.


Kissy kissy!


Can't have enough pics of the fish tank!!


...or the cat.


Yea Stan... Stretch it!!

Back to work for me. Happy Thursday!

Early

It feels very early right now. Probably because I only got about three hours of sleep last night. Yes, the madness continues. My boss is now gone and I am alone at the office again. As I've said before, it's usually when I'm alone that the shit hits the fan. Or in this case, the rock hits the window. I got a call from our alarm company at 10:30 last night saying that the police responded to an alarm and found one of our giant front windows broken. The cops called shortly after that saying that they were at the office and waiting for someone to come file a report and take care of the window situation. Thankfully, Ron has been working days again this week so he was home and I didn't have to deal with this alone. We jumped in the car and arrived at the office 20 minutes later to talk to the cops. Turns out we weren't the only victims. Some dickhead had paraded down the boulevard randomly breaking windows in anger. There were several other incidents last night. I was relieved to find out that there wasn't any theft, just vandalism.

After the cops left, Ron and I entered the office to assess the situation. He started sweeping up glass and I got on the internet to find a 24 hour emergency glass/board up service. Something one doesn't know exists until there is such an emergency. You know that operator message that goes, "We're sorry, the number you have dialed has been disconnected..."? That's a terrible thing to hear at 11:30 at night when you're trying to get something of this nature resolved so that you can go the fuck home and get some sleep. After more than a few such messages I was delighted to hear an actual human being answer the phone. He took down my information and said he'd be right out. Yay. Except "right out" meant at least 30 to 45 minutes, as he was located about 20 miles away. Boo. He finally arrived at 12:45 a.m. By this time Ron had gone to sleep on the bed conveniently located in the upstairs office. Yes, there is a sort of bedroom here for the owner to use when she comes to visit from Poland. It's quite comfortable, I've come to find. So Ron is snoring away upstairs and I'm dealing with a little weird dude...he showed up in a cherry red, 1987 Honda Accord. Two giant particle boards sticking out of the hatchback. Oooooh...a professional! He was nice enough but...there was just something...you know...strange about him. Well, you gotta wonder about anyone who has a job like that. Boarding up windows in the middle of the night, what a lovely and upstanding position to hold. Again, I was so happy to have Ron with me, even though he was sleeping 'cause he had to get up at 4:30 a.m. in order to make it to work by 6 a.m.

Little dude took almost two hours to get the job half done. He was fucking around with his tape measure for what seemed like years before he finally got to work. About 45 minutes into the job he had to leave and get more wood from God knows where. He came back 15 minutes later and tooled around some more. I was pacing the office. I'd go upstairs and lay down with Ron for a bit and then go back downstairs to check on dude. He'd finally covered most of the window by 2:30 a.m. and told me he'd come back first thing in the morning to finish up and secure the thing. I told him to please come back at 9 a.m. As I'm writing this, it is now 9:45 a.m. and he's still not here. I've talked to the owner and she gave me the name of a trusted glass guy in the area. I called him about an hour ago and he said he'd be out this morning. So now I'm just waiting. And waiting. And drinking coffee. And thinking about all the things I still need to do before the owner arrives on Sunday. In my pj top and jeans. With no bra. I'm a quite a sight at the moment. Heh. I'm thinking I'll need to come in for a few hours tomorrow to finish some things. I can't really concentrate right now. I think I'm gonna call the glass guy again and see where he is. I need an estimate before I file a claim with our insurance company. We have quite the deductible.

I got to bed by about 3 a.m. Sleeping (or trying to sleep) in that bed was interesting. There's a down comforter on it. Those things are HOT. Especially when you're wearing a top, sweater jacket and jeans. I woke up sweating at 6:30. Had trouble getting back to sleep so I just got up. Now my eyes are burning and I have that awful, familiar no-sleep feeling. I can't wait to go home. Alright, it's almost ten and I've heard nothing. Shit. Maybe I'll be back later to talk about how the rest of my week has gone.

Bizzy

Hoooo! Still hangin' in there! I'm in the midst of office cleaning and organizing this week. Still tying up loose ends, trying to keep up with daily crap...the usual. I'm hoping to be all moved downstairs by the end of Monday. Exhilarating, I tell you.

The exhilaration continues with the weekly wedding planning update. BREAKING NEWS! I've got ALL my vendors! The photographer, the DJ, the flower guy, the minister and I chose the last one, the cake lady, yesterday. That was the highlight of my day. I got to taste some truly scrumptious cakes! The easiest decision of all! Two bites of the moist, fluffy yellow cake with strawberry filling and I was sold. So I got a three-layer dealie 'cause I've got around 100 people on the guest list. I chose yellow cake with raspberry cream filling (oOoOoOH) for the bottom layer, chocolate marble with custard filling (eEeEEeeeughghgg) for the middle and yellow cake with strawberry cream filling (AaAaAaaHhhH) for the top. Whoopie whoopie yay yay! I think I've chosen my vendors well. They all seem like nice, down to earth people and a few have worked with each other many times before. Now it's time to get down to all the little details. The fun part! Right? Heh...

My invitations are at the printer. OH how I can't WAIT to see how they're gonna turn out! There was a little drama (in my head) with the printer because the first estimates I'd gotten from her were outrageous! I'd found her online and gotten together with her at the beginning of December. A very nice lady who runs her own small shop. We connected and talked easily because she is a fellow animal lover and bird owner. She's got an aviary of canaries and parakeets and a little male lovie, too! Of course she adored my lovebird design and was eager to work with me. After chatting for two hours, both about our respective pets and the project at hand, we came up with three design options. She emailed me the three estimates a few days later and I was FLOORED at the prices! This was right around when the holidays were at their hairiest so I put off calling and discussing the estimates until afterwards.

In the meantime, I stewed. At first I kept thinking, "Shit, she was such a nice lady, I thought she'd give me a better deal! I'm gonna go to Kinko's where I should have gone in the first place! I can buy a fucking used car for these prices!" I'm glad I took some time to think about it because I inevitably came to my senses. I was being unfair because I didn't do my homework and had never even given the poor lady a budget to work with! When I'd orginally met with her, I hadn't a clue what the going rate of invitation printing was! Kinko's here I come! Naturally, the project is muuuuch cheaper to do at Kinko's. That's because I'd have to do everything myself. Choose a design from the pages and pages of the binders full of wedding invite examples, the stacks and stacks of special papers, envelopes, fonts, cards...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! I don't have that much energy!! I just want someone to ask me what I want and show me the best options! Therefore, I compromised...took the Kinko's price to the nice lady and she totally worked around it for me! Who KNEW that all I had to do was ASK! Sometimes I amaze myself. *sigh*

Another thing about this lady is that she's got an indoor aviary that she might be able to give me. She just has to ask her husband if it's okay. They have to make sure that they won't need it for anything, you know...before they go and give it away! I hope it works out because I'd love to put my guys in something bigger that they can actually fly around in. The aviary is supposed to be able to be separated in two areas so that I can put two different species in it. It's a good idea to keep the lovebirds and the parrotlet separated...they need their own spaces. They'd fight and get all stressed out if I put them together. Yea.

Okay, that's all for now. I have to get back to work. I've been doing this in between and I really need to concentrate now. Lots more to do!

Serenity NOW!

To say this week has been busy would be the understatement of the year. Work has been INSANE. SO, I'm taking a break to write, dammit! I've been alone at the office again. My boss left Monday to attend his last convention while with the company. So that leaves me here to tie up loose ends from my week away, deal with the shitload of daily issues (always MORE when the boss is gone) and try to get things together for the big change. I haven't even finished closing up 2006...ugh... I also have to move my work space to a desk in another part of the office. In other words, everything is a fucking MESS! I'll get through it slowly but surely... Just have to quell the urge to panic. Not an easy feat for me. I let myself get way too overwhelmed on Monday and ended up getting physically ill, as in having to pull the car over and PUKE as I was on my way to the accountants office. That was fun. I'm sure the two cars that drove by while I was yacking really enjoyed the scene. Whenever I get so nervous that I barf, I know I have to pull the needle off the record and silence my thoughts. Which I did. I sat in the car for a few minutes and gathered myself. Since then I've managed to get a lot done, both at work and at wedding planning. Yay me!

So I haven't worked with the owner of the company much since I started here three years ago. From what I remember, she is type A alla way! That's not necessarily a bad thing, just something I have to get used to again. She'll have me running all over the place when she first arrives. She'll want everything organized to a teeee... She'll have a million ideas running through her head and will want to share them with me. ALL AT ONCE. She's actually quite funny when she gets going. I love it when she's so worked up that she can't even finish a sentence! I have actually changed a lot since I last really worked with her. I'm thinking we'll work well together. I'm HOPING we work well together!

And wedding planning, wedding planning, WEDDING PLANNING. It's getting down to the wire. All kinds of shit needs to get done between now and April. To think I originally wanted my wedding in February of this year! HAH! I really would've had to get off my ass on the planning LONG before I did. Yeap. Glad we changed it to April. I'm soooo not into this. Yes, I want a nice day. Yes, I want to celebrate with friends and family. NO, I don't want to plan what is essentially a huge party! I have never planned a party in my life! I'm all about small social gatherings so this is quite the undertaking for me. All the damn details. I just want someone else to do it. Wake up and SURPRISE! It's your wedding day! Everything is done and simple and lovely! Right. This is also the time when the "what ifs" start. What if any of the vendors screws up, doesn't show up? What if it rains? What if my cousin(s) drink too much? What if my mom has a diabetic reaction? What if I throw up all over my dress while trying to deliver my vows? WHAT IF I FORGET SOMETHING???!!!

It'll all be fine.

It'll all be fine.

It'll all be fine.

How many jillions of people have gotten married?! I must calm myself. Then I think, how many jillions of people have getten divorced?! That's another thing that's been on my mind. I'm getting married. I want this to last. I know it's not always going to be easy. I must not give up like so many others have. Marriage is not a doomed institution! There are just too many people getting married too young, or for the wrong reasons... Too many people who are chronologically old enough to get married, but are too immature to grasp the real concept of marriage. Spoiled people who don't want to compromise... People from an entirely different generation that's all about self gratification. But really, I'm ready for this. I'm sure. I won't be a statistic! Dammit!

Alright, shit...I gotta wrap up. It's jogging time again. I've been a bad girl and have been eating too much. My thighs and stomach feel so flabby. I don't even want to know what I weigh. I've always been of the mindset that if I look good and my clothes still fit (barely) it's fine. Just cut down on the portions. Fuck, I'm Italian! I LOVE EATING. I can't give it up. I can, however, exercise to keep things under control. So here I go. Right now. Bye bye.

I needed that

Well, it's the last day of my week long vacation. A vacation that I really needed. I didn't do much, but that's what vacations are for. I spent some time with friends, slept too much, worked on wedding details and read some books. I actually went to the local library and got a library card. I totally forgot how fun the library is. I used to go there all the time with my friend Cathy. We used to rollerblade there, pick out some books, read some and then rollerblade home. A nice way to spend the afternoon. Hmmm...she still lives pretty darn close to me. We should do that again... Whuddya think, Cathy?

Anyway, it's time to get back into work mode. I'm kind of excited/nervous because there are going to be some big changes at the office. The Friday before my vacation I found out that my lovely boss had given his resignation to the owner at the beginning of the year. His last day will be the 31st. I was expecting this...he's been with the company for six years and has worked in our office for three. He'd been working from his home in St. Louis, Missouri before he came to L.A. His working at the office in L.A. was supposed to be a temporary thing, but he ended up staying for a lot longer than he'd planned. He's always been a travelling salesman and was used to being away from his home and family for long periods of time, however, this was getting to be too much for him. Especially since he HATES L.A. Can't say I blame him there. I hate it and I was born here. So he says that it's time for him to move on. I'm really going to miss him. Now the owner, who had moved to Poland to live with her husband and help with the alcohol business they have over there, is moving back to L.A. to sort out things out. She was actually planning to do so anyway since the business really needs to be revamped. My boss' resignation just put the fire under her ass. I'm glad because I feel like the place needs some changes. Who knows what's going to happen...she may even decide to sell. I've been thinking about what I'm going to do a lot lately. I'm going to see what happens with the owner back. After the wedding I'm probably going to start putting my feelers out just so I have some other options. I'm nervous but I've been thinking about how much I need a change so much... Even a little change is good.

Okay, I've gotta go get my stank ass in the shower. I just went for a nice, long jog. Here...have some pictures of the birdies. I recently got some great ones of them hangin' at the local water hole. The digicam I got Ron for Christmas works great!







And then we have the adorable lovies sittin' on my arm while I'm at the 'puter. I can't even tell them apart by looks anymore! Pickles is still doing SO well... He's a happy little birdy now that he's got his flock established.


"Let's you an' me get outtah here... How 'bout my place?"


"First, let me whisper in your ear..."

Another year

Gone in a flash. I'm looking forward to another good year. Sure, the past year has had its ups and downs but it's been good altogether. I guess if I were to resolve to do anything, it would be to have a better attitude. Stop feeling sorry for myself. Stop worrying so much. Be thankful for what I have. Look ahead to the future.