how do you live so happily while i am sad and broken down?

 So when last I left you, I was annoyed about the coming of December.  It actually turned out pretty well!

a) I have a new nephew!!!! His name is Vaughn, and he is super cute.  I will get to meet him next Wednesday.

b) I didn't have to go to St. Louis.

c) I only have one more workday left in the year, so nothing really looks that bad to me right now.

I did have to work with a site in Mexico, which was annoying because my counterpart had a tendency to wander off, but I got it done and I didn't have to go anywhere.  

I've spent most of my free time working on scraping all the flaking paint/rust off my back patio railings, and trying to get a quote for installing a new railing back there because my insurance company now insists I need one.  I think I've gotten it to be under $500, so I'm happy about that.  Well, I'd be happier if I didn't have to do it, but oh well.  

Also, there was a small fence kerfuffle, in that I took my old ghetto fence down, and then the house next to mine that had been vacant for two years sold and they wondered where the fence was.  But it ended well, and the new owner seems nice and he is looking for good renters so hopefully it won't be too bad.  Although I think he's set the rent too high, given that he's asking for more than I pay on my mortgage, and my house is at least half again the size of that one, if not double.  

Speaking of mortgages, I wonder if I could refinance mine again.  I just did it about a year ago, but who knows, maybe I could lower it again.  I should look into that.

I have also been crafting, but haven't taken the time to post my Pinteresting to tumblr.  Ought to get on that!  I also made Vaughn's Christmas gift, which is a sock monkey.  

And in my spare time, I've been working on my 1D big bang.  Uuuuuuuuuuugh.  Why so hard, writing?  I've hit the minimum word count, but it's not done, and I've hit that stretch where it feels like it never will be.  I wanted to have it finished before I went to New Hampshire, but I'm not sure if it will be.  I have a couple of days off before I go, so there's hope yet.  

OOOOOOOOOh! And I'm going to buy myself an iPad for Christmas!  In New Hampster, where they don't believe in sales tax.

Well, today sucked.

To start off, I made a poor plan for arriving at this hotel.  It was a good plan when I made it.  I booked a 10pm flight two weeks, knowing that this would get me to the hotel between 12:30 and 1 AM, because I knew I'd need to be available on my tennis team roster.  We generally play from noon to 6 or 7pm, depending on which line, and I wanted to have plenty of time to get home and get cleaned up.  So it was a good plan, but then we moved the match up (yay! earlier = less hot, which is always a good thing in Atlanta in the summer) so then I had a whole day in between.  So I could have gotten in at a decent time, but I had no way of knowing that two weeks ago, and since I've lost status on Delta, I can't change flights same day anymore without paying a whopping amount of fees out of my own pocket.

Then when I got here, I realized that I left my prescription Pepcid at home.  So after my five hours of sleep, I woke up with the now unmistakable feeling of having had acid reflux in the night.  Sorry, gross, I know.  I never noticed that that's what was happening before, but now I can tell. 

All of this before I even get to work, which then started off with a bang.  Suffice it to say that the client is not happy, and my chances of making them happy are slim.  So stress all day long, and now I seem to have heartburn?  Or an ulcer, idk.  Then my kidneys started hurting and I thought I might be getting a UTI, which.  Awesome.  I did dehydrate over the weekend, so it's entirely possible.

Then I went to dinner, and my site this week features two of my all-time least favorite things:  
1) Conference dining!  Because the chance to sit at a table with complete strangers is fun!  
2) Buffet as the ONLY choice.  Buffets are a dieting nightmare - so easy to go overboard, and you end up eating bizarre combinations of food.  For example, tonight for dinner I had Swedish meatballs and a pretzel covered jalapeno popper.  Bwuh?

To top it off, all day my email was popping up autoreminders for me of stuff I needed to do, but didn't have time for.  Like the $3K worth of expense reports I needed to figure out and submit so I can get my money back.  

I've gotten a handle on the stress now, I think - I went to Walmart and bought OTC Pepcid which looks like what the doctor gave me, just without the insurance coverage, but whatever, it was $5 for 8 pills, which will cover me til I get home.  I got all my expense reports submitted and reconciled, and tomorrow I'll need to find time to send in the receipts but whatever.  My kidneys feel less like they're going to fall out, so maybe that was just panic?  IDK.

I really wanted to write tonight, but I think whatever creativity I might have had in me has been squashed today.  *sigh*  I was really hoping for an easy week, but it is not going to happen.  

 Hello!  I'm still around, still reading every day, but I haven't posted for a while.  I was in New Hampshire for work for 3 weeks, then Louisville for 2, and then I came home and immediately got really sick.  So I feel like I'm only now resurfacing.

I saw Hunger Games last night and LOVED IT!  So I immediately came home and bought the soundtrack and a new t-shirt.  Online shopping is so dangerously convenient!

Other than that, I am consumed with The Big Bang Theory right now.  Yes, I know, 5 years late!  I've even had season one on DVD for a few years (thanks <user name=krazycat>) but never got around to watching it.  I've got a crush on Sheldon/Jim Parsons now, so a lot of my time is spent watching YouTube videos of him.  It's like a friendship crush - I just want to hang out with him and play ping-pong and stuff.  

Let's see... other new things.  I'm having computer woes - the screen on my personal laptop is going out, plus my home network seems screwy lately and is fixating all its problems on my work computer, because it's the one I need the most.  I think I've either had some change made to the laptop while I was in our corporate offices, or I've got some sort of conflict with the new setup I did.  Both things happened around the same time, and I'm just savvy enough to know there's a problem but not enough to know how to fix it.  

I am curled up on the couch with my cat , watching a movie while I work on my cross-stitch project, with the other cat sitting across the way.  It feels very domestic.

I've done next to nothing all day, just recovering from my hangover from last night's festivities.  Some day I will learn not to switch alcohol types mid-stream.  It was a fun night though, and has resulted in my signing up to take a sewing class with some of the girls from tennis.  It starts next Sunday and goes through the beginning of February.

Christmas was good, but unfortunately I came down with the flu on Christmas Eve so I was kind of puny for the whole thing.  On the plus side, I had zero appetite, so I didn't gain any holiday weight.  I got nice presents - including 3 pairs of the same kind of gloves because Amazon makes it too hard to mark something as purchased when it's linked to a different site.  But by the third pair, it was kind of funny.  

Vacation went by too quickly, of course.  I still have tomorrow off, but then it's back to work on Tuesday.  Ah, well.  

 Today, I flew to Orlando for my last work trip of 2011!  Whee!  So ready for Christmas break!  But at least today was an easy day for me, I just had to fly here.

Which is good because when I got here I was so exhausted I had to take a nap.  :(  I am not getting enough sleep lately.  Wonder why, given that here it is, 1 AM and I'm still playing around on the computer when I have to be up again in 7 hours.  Why do I never learn?

I woke up from my nap because I got a text message.  It was from this guy I've been chatting with off a dating site.  He seems pretty nice, but part of me is wondering why I'm even bothering because he lives almost two hours away from me.  How would that even work? But I keep talking to him, because it's not like there's anyone else flirting with me.  Or at least not anyone that I want to flirt back with.  I guess we'll see.  Maybe he just really enjoys driving to Atlanta.

Today was my birthday, and I had a fabulous day.

Now I am about to tell you what I did, and there will be parts of it where you scratch your head and go, "She did that on her birthday and is happy about it??" That's okay. I have come to terms with the fact that I am indeed a special snowflake. It's fine.

First, one of the really cool things about my work is that included in what they call "floating holidays" is the option to take your birthday off. So today was literally a holiday for me. \o/

So this is what I did today:

• Went to my GP for a physical, which included getting the update for my HepA/HepB vaccine, getting bloodwork done to test my cholesterol, and having an EKG.


• Went to Krispy Kreme and got donuts as a reward for all the needles.


• Went to Lowe's and got keys made for the house. Intended to get keys made for tenant, but instead got really pretty keys made for me. I also got more houseplants so I can pretend like I can grow things.


• Went to Ross and got 2 photo albums, 5 shirts, and two dresses. 3 of the shirts I didn't even try on til I got home, but they are all great and one of them is so awesome I want to wear it EVERYWHERE. I got all this for $100.


• Went to my laser hair removal appointment.


• Went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond and got more fabric cubes for my office.


• Hung out with my friend at the tennis center; sadly couldn't play because you're not supposed to get overheated for 24 hours after the laser hair removal.


• Picked up my dry cleaning.


• Got a salad from my favorite Mexican place.


• Came home and got the mail, only to discover gifts from friends had arrived!


• Got wished happy birthday by my mom, who asked if I'd opened my card yet. I had not, as I'd just gotten the mail, so I opened it while I was on the phone with her, and YAY! They'd sent me a $100 check*! So it's like they bought me all the clothes I splurged on - *\o/*


• Went on a "Don't Get Killed by Strangers from Craigslist" errand with the same friend from earlier and had a nice chat.


• Came home and washed the curtains and baseboards in my bedroom.

*Yes, I'm the baby, why do you ask?

Now, as I said, some of you may be thinking that this would be a horrible way to spend your birthday. No special dinner? No friends everywhere? No attention? No party? But for me, this is perfection. Over the years, I have determined that while I love my friends and family, and I am excited to celebrate the occasion of my birth with them, it is in everyone's best interest if we don't do this on my ACTUAL birthday.

This is what happens on my birthday: I am a Virgo. On our best days, we're your friend who remember to bring sunscreen, bug spray, and bandaids on every outing. On our worst days, we are the anal-retentive bitches melting down on the side of the road because NO ONE IS FOLLOWING THE PLAN. Guess which one birthdays tend to fall under? Every year, my anxiety level would rise higher and higher as plans were made, but then changed at the last minute. Or people were late. Or the service at the restaurant was bad. Or we couldn't get to the movie theater on time. Even on the celebrations that turned out well, I always felt like at the end of the day, I hadn't had as much fun as everyone expected me to have.

The beauty of my day? Everything was under my control. I wasn't dependent on someone else to show up, no one was trying to make me have the bestest birthday ever, I got to do all the things I wanted. I accomplished things. I had a productive day, and was pleasantly surprised by all the things that I hadn't even planned on, like finding fun clothes and getting fancy keys.

And tomorrow, I will go out with my friends to a joint celebration with another friend from tennis whose birthday was this week (so we can share the spotlight, whew). It won't matter if half the people don't show, or if twice as many people show as RSVP'd, or if the guys at the karaoke place who barely speak English mess up our reservation and we get crammed into a tiny room. I had my birthday, and everything else is just icing on the cake.

I've been a bit quiet lately, sorry. Not much going on at chez moi. Sunday, I played tennis for six hours in 95 degree heat. We won! Thank God, because all that pain and effort for nothing would have been heartbreaking (sorry, other team) - only four hours of it was match, the other two were warm up that I foolishly thought I'd need. Oops.

The rest of the week I've been working (frustrating) and scrapbooking (fun!) I've been in a crafty mood lately, I think because I'm done with painting the office.

Speaking of, I've been thinking about the re-decorating, and finances, and a lot of things in that vein, and I really need to get a better handle on budgeting. I have several things I need to be saving for, including two vacations later this year (one to DC, one to the Bahamas!) and I need to get ahead of the game. I'm going to have to tighten the purse strings and actually save some money. Sigh. I had paid off my credit cards, and then this month I put about $600 on them. I lose.

V. good. Would watch again, and in true HBO fashion, I'm about to.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. I haven't read the books, so I'm all confused about the kingdoms and all, but it left me wanting to see more. Not more skin though, because heaven knows they showed enough of that. Also, apparently in WhateverLandia, they can only do it doggie-style. LOL, HBO, LOL.

For a brief moment, I saw an advertisement that I thought meant HBO was allowing people to watch HBO streaming online for a fee. But it seems to be only people who already have HBO that can do this. WTF kind of business model is that?

I'm in South Beach, Florida this week. It's going to be a long week, work-wise, as I am training rather than interfacing. Eight hours of standing on my feet, talking. The hotel I'm at is nice, and right on the beach.

But their wifi which can't even load facebook is going to end me.

The rest of my weekend was kind of dull - Friday night tennis got rained out, but I still had a nice dinner with friends. I got my lawn mower back from Sears, and all the repairs were covered under warranty. I tried and failed to go to the Dogwood festival - no place to park, gave up. I finished sewing patches and gluing buttons onto my messenger bag, and learned how to use my hot glue gun (which was stupidly easy - plug in, put glue in, squeeze trigger, try not to get glue on everything.)

Mostly I just watched Coachella's live webcast all weekend and stayed up far too late.



*Written at 10pm, Sunday, April 17. Not posted til now due to aforementioned faily hotel wi-fi.

Weekend
Last night I went to a karaoke place with my friends from tennis. This was the first time I'd really done to karaoke - except one time when I lived in Las Vegas that totally doesn't count because I was too drunk to remember it. Anyway....

OMG I LOVE KARAOKE.

I want to go again. Like, now. They had private rooms so you aren't singing in front of strangers, just your friends, and it wasn't very expensive. This is totally what I want to do for my birthday this year. Hopefully I can get people together before then too, because August is a long way away. There are videos up on my facebook if you want to see. I look fat. :(

Work
Totally sucked last week. I worked three 12 hour days, including Friday when I didn't get done with work until 10:30pm. Ugh. Fingers crossed that this week is better. Oh, and I might be going to someplace that's near Chicago in a couple of weeks. And I actually got my cost-of-living raise this year, it started with Friday's check. Not much, but every little bit helps these days.

Home
I need to clean like whoa. Last week dust clumps started flying off the ceiling fan in the living room. Time for spring cleaning! Prepare to see more about this in the following days and weeks - I am planning to set goals for myself each day. I am going to start in my bedroom, as it needs the least work - just curtains, windows, dusting, and baseboards. Oh, and I'd like to clean the carpet but I could wait on that. Then I will do the living room and hallway, the kitchen, the two upstairs bedrooms, then move to the basement last. Whee.

Oh, and I had to crawl under the house again today, because the hose for the sump pump that pumps the standing water from the foundation had fallen back inside, so it was just pumping continuously and not going anywhere. I need to get something to go around the hose to keep it from being able to do that this week, and I need to buy two more shelves for the bathroom so I can finish that project.

And now I'm going to go have a snack and read my book that's due back to the library on Tuesday. Have a good night!

Out with the Old...
2010 in Review:

• January: Had a carpal tunnel flare, had to go back to physical therapy, bought a Wii.


• February: Played in my first K-Swiss singles league, K & I took a trip to Charleston.


• March: Went to a Shawn Mullins concert, my Mom had a stroke


• April: Went to Coachella, K & I broke up, I got an iPod Touch.


• May: My team won our ALTA division & went to the playoffs, Mom got out of rehab, I had a tree removed, went to Missouri for my niece's high school graduation.


• June: Took my first business trip of the year, my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, my brother had a bike accident and punctured his lung.


• July: Went home to Missouri for the fourth, ran over a kitten in my driveway :(, had my first polo experience.


• August: Took a work trip to Vegas, my parents visited for a weekend, took a work trip to Calgary.


• September: DragonCon, Adam Lambert concert


• October: Trip to Hawaii and Alaska, went to zombie apocalypse for Halloween.


• November: Made the playoffs in K-Swiss, went to Iowa for my cousin's wedding, my parents & sister came to Atlanta for Thanksgiving.


• December: Had jury duty, was eliminated from K-Swiss finals in Round 16, went home for the holidays with the cat in tow.

Summary: So glad this year is over. Ugh.

Last year's resolution: House Plants
"Sounds like a silly resolution, I know, but there are no plants in my house right now. I am bad at remembering to water them, but my goal is to have something growing in every room so that I see them all the time. Also, I need to get a watering can. It's also part of the “save money” goal as well, since I love flowers and buy them often; I'm hoping to replace that with a flowering plant. I will have to learn what flowers seasonally so I can rotate them out, and I have to do all this with the flowers that are not toxic to cats, so it will require some research. There are a LOT of plants that are toxic, according to the ASPCA."

Result: I have four plants currently mostly alive. The herbs were a no go, and I managed to kill a cactus by underwatering it. Surprisingly, the African violet seems to be thriving. I'm going to say B- on this one.


2010 Goals

1. Hang living room curtains that I bought in August.

Result: Done!

2. Continue working on budgeting and saving my money, learning to control how I use my credit cards, etc.

Result: My top 10 expenses were: Mortgage, Home Maintenance, Travel, Dining Out, Automotive Expenses, Utilities, Telphone, Groceries, Electronics, & Gifts. Eh. I did okay this year, but not awesome. I am still working on it though!

3. Finish the college sweatshirt blanket.

Result: Nope. Haven't even touched it.

4. Finish my France sabbatical photo album.

Result: Done!

5. Continue augmenting my fitness routine with walking and working out on the Wii I plan to buy soon. I would like to lose 10 pounds and/or fit back into my clothes better (some of my jeans are now too tight to wear.)

Result: I started out well, but then it all fell apart. This one is solidly in the no go category.

6. Post one non-meme, non-tweet related post to LJ each week, and go back through and tag things better.

Result: I'm going to call this one a win! I don't know that I posted every week, but I have 79 entries tagged "It's not a tweet" and I did go back through my whole journal and retag things.

7. Try out one new recipe a month.

Result: Eh. I did try out some new recipes early on in the year, but I would say that after June I didn't cook much.

8. Mail cards to my family on their birthdays and anniversaries. I used to be really good at this but have been slacking for the last few years.

Result: Completed! It was expensive though. Cards are not cheap!

...In with the New!

2011 Resolution: Procrastinate Less!
I realize this sounds kind of vague, but here is a case in point of what I am talking about: this year I let my packing room get really messy and let the desk in my office pile up with papers that needed to be filed and other stuff. I stressed about both of these areas to the point where I had to keep the doors to both rooms shut at all times. It took me 30 minutes to clean up the packing room, and one workday to clean off my desk. Six months of feeling bad about it could have been so easily avoided! So my plan is this: put stuff away. Unload the dishwasher. Put the laundry away. Just less putting tasks off.

2011 Goals

1. Walk a mile every day. Not to say that I won't walk more than that on occasion, but I am both holding myself to getting on the treadmill every day and at the same time giving myself an out for the days I don't feel like really working out.


2. Paint my office.


3. Finish 2010 scrapbook. So much for 'as you go' scrapbooking! I made it through May.


4. Finish 2005 (I think - now I'm suddenly not sure where I left off) scrapbook.


5. Hang shelves in the bathroom closet.

And I'm using this post to count as TWO of the 30 day meme:
Day 28: This year, in great detail
Day 29: Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

Only 1 day left to go in this meme! I will finish it! (see how the less-procrastinating thing works!*g*)