Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Happy 35th

Today was my 35th birthday.  I have to say it was a good day.  I honestly couldn't have imagined it to have been any better than it was!!!

Birthday celebration started this past weekend with time spent with my mom.  We went to a tiny German restaurant in Ponchatoula for breakfast followed by shopping at the outlet mall. 

My actual birthday started at 12:20 am when the text messages started to come in.  I never realized how many "night owls" I have for friends! Phone calls started at 7:45 am.  So much for me sleeping in!!!  I got the business of renewing my driver's license done with early and quickly!  Then the rest of the day was spent receiving birthday wishes, shopping with my mom and seeing the movie "Letters from Juliet".  I highly recommend the movie to anyone who is a hopeless romantic!!!

Dinner with the parents at my absolute favorite restaurant "Louisiana Lagniappe".  That place is so good!!! Then back to the 'rents house for presents.  This year my parents outdid themselves.  I got the book "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang" and a pair of emerald and diamond earrings.  The earrings are gorgeous!!!  Love them!!!  This was in addition to the outfits my mom had bought me this weekend when we had gone shopping. 

I've been informed that I will be receiving more gifts in the coming days as my grandparents and my aunt seem to have "lost track of time".  My grandmother called to tell me that her and grandpa were out shopping for my present today and she was excited because she found something she just knew I'd love and was going to mail it tomorrow to be here "in time."  When she showed the gift to my Uncle, he kindly informed her that TODAY was my birthday.  LOL!  She swore to me that she thought she had another week!!! It's all good though.  I don't mind.  I'm just blessed that I still have my grandparents around!!!  My aunt calls being late "stretching out your birthday celebration!"

I didn't know what to expect for this birthday.  Had I gone by my "old" plan, I am so far away from the goals I had set for myself at 18!!!  But I tossed that plan out a long time ago.  I'm thankful to have a job that pays the bills, great friends and a huge, loving family!!! I am actually happier now than I have been in a VERY long time!  (I hope I didn't just jinx myself! LOL)

I look forward to seeing what the next 365 days brings!!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Wet Weekend...Just a little late

I'm a little late posting this update.  But that is because I wanted to post this:



I finished China Blue (or Purple)!!  I fnished it on Monday evening.  I'm excited to have another finish.  I was starting to feel like I'd have very few accomplishments this year!!!  Now I just have to figure out how I am going to "finish" it.  Any suggestions?

The Weekend
This weekend was a rainy, wet one!!!  But it provided me the opportunity to catch up on some stitching projects and reading!!!

I started a new book, a little while ago, that is HUGE.  I think it has over 800 pages.  It is Diana Gabaldon's book, An Echo in the Bone.  It's part of a series that I've been reading for years!!!  In fact, it takes her years to put out a book.  But I've been spending the summertime evenings out on my balcony, relaxing in the quietness of nature (if you call birds chirping and squirrels running across the rails as quiet), reading a few pages of my book!  But with the rain, I wasn't able to do that this weekend so I read indoors.  I'm typically a fairly fast reader.  However, with her books, there is so much detail, I try to slow things down so I haven't even made it to the 100 page mark yet!

Friday night I got to spend some quality time with my friend Bart.  Between our schedules, we just never seem to be able to find that time where we are both free.  Lots of texts and phone calls but no face-to-face time. Between my work and his work, army drill, and kids, there doesn't seem to be much time at all!  So, Friday night I was able to meet up with him, at his office!, for a chat before he heads off to Houston this week for surgery on his back.  Army duty has taken its toll on him and it is time to get it fix!  We are both hoping for a speedy recovery so we can find sometime this summer to spend together!

Friday at lunch my dad gave me a call.  He tells me "You go to those fancy supermarkets, right?"  He was talking about Whole Foods and the local fruit/vegetable stands, lol.  I said, "yes, why?"  He asked me to find him a horseradish.  Not the sauce, the actual radish that the stuff is made from.  Sounds hard, right?  Not really.  I had to replenish my stock of Diet Dr. Pepper on Saturday morning so I went to the local grocery store before heading off to the "fancy supermarkets".  There it was, in the very small section of organic foods.  Ugly looking thing!!!  And expensive too!  $4.99/pound!!!  So I picked up one root, I didn't know how much he needed and my dad happily prepared two crocks of horseradish sauce for himself on Sunday.  Its a fairly easy process, you peel the "bark" off the root, shred the root, and add salt and vinegar.  That's it.  Who knew? 

I caught up on all my DVR'd shows.  Including the new series "Happy Town".  I watched the first 3 episodes only to get to the end of the 3rd episode to hear them say, "Stay tuned to future episodes."  But it didn't say when!!!  No episode this week!  How irksome!!!!  By the 2nd episode I was starting to get invested!!!  I also watched a very bad film that I chose on Netflix because it was recommended.  It was called "Sex and Death 101".  Winona Ryder is in it.  Don't get it.  It is just BAD!!!!  It is about a man who receives an email right before he is to be married.  The email consists of a list of 101 women that he has slept with and will sleep with.  He breaks off the engagement and proceeds to find all the women on the list that he hasn't slept with.  Yep, thankfully it was an hour and a half of my life that I wasted!

Ok, I am off to figure out which project I am going to either start or pick back up on.  There are just so many choices!!!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

From The Bottom of My Broken Heart

No, no, no, no!!!  This is not in the reference of my heart!!!  LOL!!!  This is a title of a Britney Spears' song from the late 90s.  I heard it today when I was at the grocery store and it brought back a good memory

At one time my sister wanted to be a singer.  She's pretty good.  I'm not just saying that because she is my sister either.  She has even been asked by friends to sing at their weddings.  Anyway, in early 2000, my sister asked me to take her to Nashville to record a demo.  So I drove my sister all the way to Nashville for a few days for her to start pursuing her career as a singer.  We had a good time.  Most of it was spent in the studio recording songs and "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" (click on the title for a brief preview of the song) was one of the songs she sang.  I have to admit, it has become one of my favorite songs.  I also know the lyrics by heart because I heard it over and over and over again about 100 times over those days. In the car to Nashville she sang it over and over and over again.  Then in the recording studio, they took take after take after take.  I kid you not, I feel like those lyrics are fried into my brain.  Amazed I still like it!!! But the process is really interesting.  We did a little bit of sightseeing when she wasn't recording but I also recall that one evening it was pouring so we went and saw "Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigilo".  LOL!!!  Oh, the things that I do for my baby sister!!!

I also remember that on the way back home, we stopped in Memphis because my sister couldn't be in the state of Tennessee and not go see Graceland.  She's only been there at least 20 times.  I guess there's a reason why her name is Lisa Marie!!! (I named her, who knew it would be so prophetic.) We also stayed with my good friend Jason's parents, Brenda and Al.  My sister especially enjoyed it because Ms. Brenda never did simple.  She loved to spoil us!!!  She had a huge dinner waiting for us upon our arrival and the next morning, because she didn't know what we liked, she had bagels, donuts, pancakes, waffles, eggs, cereal...and so much more for us.  My sister, who loves to eat, absolutely fell in love with Ms. Brenda!!!

I just had to share this memory.  It is such a good one!!!  Hearing that song was like a flashback!!!  A GOOD flashback!!!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Great Weekend....Good Monday

Friday
I managed to take off half a day on Friday and still make overtime.  It was just one of those weeks!!!  Hopefully, those types of weeks will not be continuing.

Anyway, so with no plans in my mind, I headed home.  After a quick lunch, I realized that Charlaine Harris' new book, Dead in the Family, had come out this week.  For those who don't know, this is part of the Sookie Stackhouse series which is what the HBO series, True Blood, is based on.  Very excited to read the next part of the story AND I had a 33% off coupon.  Can't beat that!!  So I headed to the book store to purchase yet another book!  Came straight home and started to read.  But I had to pace myself, didn't want to read it all in one night which was very possible!!!

Watched the movie The Blindside.  Twenty minutes into the movie and I wanted to cry.  It is just a very touching and inspirational movie.  I felt very inspired after watching.  Inspired to do what?  I have no clue.  But inspired!!!  I highly recommend anyone to see this movie.  It was a teeny tiny bit infuriating to see Nick Saban representing LSU in this movie (TRAITOR!!!).

Saturday
When I woke up Saturday, it looked like it was going to be a nasty day.  It was overcast, kind of chilly and windy.  Perfect weather for a movie.  So I headed to my parents first to set up my Mom's Mother's Day gift while her and Dad are at the beach and to pick up their mail.  Then off to the theatre to see Nightmare on Elm Street!!!

Yes, I am a horror movie fan!  Love them!!  Nightmare is one of my favorites!!!  If you are to judge this movie on just its own merit, it is a pretty decent horror movie.  As a remake, it is a total flop!!!  There will never be a Freddy Krueger except for Robert Englund.  He was, is, and always will be Freddy Krueger!!!

Took a quick trip to the plant nursery to get some more additions to the balcony and then off to lunch with my friend, Celestine.  Then back to the apartment to read some more Sookie Stackhouse out on the balcony because the day ended up being gorgeous!!!  When I got out of the movie, the clouds had moved out, the sun was out and it had warmed up.  I believe it got to the low 80s!!!

Sunday
Awww, Mother's Day.  Except my mother isn't here.  She and Dad took a weekend trip to the beach.  Another first.  A Mother's Day spent without my mom. 

Did some gardening.  The balcony is really shaping up.  Who knew I'd ever enjoy gardening?  I loathe getting dirty and really anything outdoors.  Well, except going to the pool or anything near or in water.

Ugh!! LSU once again disappointed me.  Losing 2 out of 3 to Vanderbilt.  They keep this up and they will not be going back to Omaha or even the SEC tournament!!!

Stitching Update
I've been working on China Blue (or Purple).  I finished up Humpty Dumpty on the baby quilt and so I put it down for just a tiny break.  I was hoping to finish up China Blue but then I had a set back on Sunday when I realized that I had completely stitched a bird in the wrong spot.  Thus I spent quite a bit of time frogging stitches.  But that's ok.  I'm back on track.  I hope to have some pictures very soon on my progress on my projects. 

Monday
Typically I dread going into work on Mondays.  Just for the fact that I have to go to work.  But today wasn't so bad.  We are back to being fully staffed and we were able to get some things accomplished despite some drama. I had received a text from a "friend" (yes, he's a man, lol) saying that he was thinking of me.  Always a nice boost and it was a big enough boost to get me t hrough the day DESPITE one co-worker's bad attitude and another co-worker's nervous breakdown.  I managed to get through the day with a smile on my face.  I hope that this means that this week will be good or I have officially lost it!!!!  Which is quite the possibility since I found out today that I will be working my 4th and 5th conventions in June.  And the year is only almost half over.  I'm trying not to get used to this overtime, as I assume it will end one day, but it sure is nice to have!!!!  I'm exhausted but the pay checks are real nice!!!!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

The Best Friends & Sister

Another non-stitchy update!

I am back from my 3rd convention this year!!!  I am pooped!!  But it was probaby one of the best experiences I've had.  I was at a casino supporting one of our newest association coordinators as she put on her first convention.  I have to say she is an absolute pleasure to work with!!  She is hard working, smart, and WANTS to do the work. 

The resort that we were at, L'Auberge du Lac, was pretty nice.  It is a casino resort.  I'm not a big gambler but the pool area is well worth the visit to this resort!!!  It is absolutely gorgeous!!!  It even has a lazy river!!! This will definitely be worth going to during the summer for a "girls only weekend".

It has been quite tough the past few days.  Starting on Saturday when I received a text message (yep, that's right, a text message) from someone I thought was a friend cutting off the friendship.  I respected the text and did not respond back since it was pretty clear that he no longer wanted any contact.  However, for some reason, he felt the need to follow that up the next day with an email that was just hurtful and mean.  Once again, I did not respond to it.  But then, to top it all off, he decided to have his girlfriend email me too.  I guess my respecting his decision and not responding to anything was just not good enough.  I finally broke down and sent a text message asking him to please respect me enough to stop all communication since that was his wish. 

Anyway, I'm not very upset about the whole situation. In fact, I am relieved. In the back of my head, I knew it was coming.  So, I'm not hurt.  But I am upset at the way that he and his girlfriend attempted to intimidate me AFTER I complyed with his request.  One thing I learned from this situation was the fierce protectiveness that my friends and sister have for me.  It was so nice when several of my friends and my sister asked if they could "beat them up" for me.  LOL!!!  I really do pity the person who attempts to take advantage of me or is hurtful to me in anyway because I really think that they may not "survive"!!!  Yikes!!! :) Although I do think that my sister has lived in Texas too long!!  Her question was "who can she shoot."  Those Texans and their guns!!!

So thank you to my Jill, Jeannie, and my sister, Lisa!!!  Ya'll are the best and I love ya'll so very much!!!  But I am good.  I am better than good, I am going to be great because the trash is finally out of my life!!! 

Now I hope to move on with the good in my life.  Work is going to be tough for a while as unfortunately my office mate is out indefinitely on bed rest.  She is newly pregnant and recently suffered from a hemmorhage.  The baby is fine but she is on bedrest.  Until we know when she might be back (or if) I am going to be juggling a lot of duties!!!  I wish her all the best and a speedy recovery!!!  But summer is blooming around here and I can't wait to spend some relaxing time at the pool!!!  Who wants to come?  :)

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Hopes for May

I hope that May is a month full of surprises and good things.  A new beginning for me as it is the beginning of my 35th year. That's right, I am 35 years old at the end of the month.  I still feel as foolish as I did at age 18. 

I am starting this month off with heart ache.  But I am hopeful that it doesn't end that way.  That which does not break me (and no man will ever break me) will only make me stronger and wiser.  That's right, Chief Ronnie B, you WILL NOT break me.  You may turn your back on me but I am the better person (ok, not so much right here but it is my blog) and I will not go about spilling your secrets, no matter how tempted I am!!!!

Good thing is that work keeps me very busy.  I leave tomorrow for my 3rd convention this year. 3rd!!!  I typically only work 2 conventions.  This is the 3rd association that I am helping with.  Not sure how this one will be as I have never attended it before.  But it is being held at a casino resort and I've heard that it is very nice and I am looking forward to seeing that for myself.  I'm also looking forward to the overtime!!!  I've got some financial goals I am looking to hit!!!!  I have, definitely, one more convention after this to work.  But there is still a lot of year left so who knows what will happen! HR has told new hires that we hit 100 hours of overtime a year.  I've NEVER hit that before, but I think I might get near 75 hours this year!!!

I'm so happy that summer time is here.  Time spent on my balcony, at the pool, at the park.  Time spent outdoors!  I love the sun, even though I don't like getting sweaty.  Yeah, I know, I live down South, it is pretty much  mandatory that one sweats 9 months out of 12.

Positive thoughts lead to positive outcomes.  Or so I've been told.  :)  I'm going to try that.  I'm looking at this as a new beginning.  A spring cleaning of "life".  I loathe when it happens but there are times when it must.

I hope to have more "happy" postings of friends, summertime activities, books read and cross stitch projects. 

If you read this post, thank you so much for bearing with me! I appreciate all my readers!