Have I mentioned that I want to be a storm chaser when I grow up? Well, that's after my professional football career is over of course but I love love love storms, rain, hail, tornadoes and of course, all different types of sky and clouds.
We are having my very favorite type of storm right now, it's about 65 to 70 outside. It's been cloudy all day, and a little windy but warm. The thunder started about an hour ago, Big Daddy Thunders too! Shake the house Thunders! Complete with lightning. And all of this was right at dusk too, my favorite time of day. The sounds of the thunder were perfectly mingled with the sounds from my many wind chimes and the hundreds of Cardinals that live in my back yard squabbling over their supper. Perfect temperature, perfect light, perfect time of day. The rain was slow to start but came pounding down soaking everything. I'll hate the mud tomorrow (and the muddy dogs!) but for now we're sitting in a house with all the windows and doors open listening to the sound of thunder and rain. We even got a little hail. Terrific kick off to the spring storm season and a nice drink for my daffodils and tulips that are coming up out front. Yeah!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Max said I have to
My Aunt Max told me that I have to blog about my recent trip to St Louis so I guess I'd better do it. My children were raised knowing that they had aunts and uncles but most importantly, they had Greats....My aunts and uncles were their Greats and all Greats must be obeyed, sooo, when Great Max says to blog, I blog.
I had to go to St Louis on business this week which usually pisses me off. Everyone else in my region is within 3 hours of our regional office but I have to drive for about 6 hours to get there. Not only that, but they planned the meeting from 1pm on Wed until 6pm on Thurs which meant that I would have to drive from about 6am on
Wed to get there in time, attend the meeting until 6pm, attend the "dinner" where I get to brown nose and kiss ass, (not to mention that everyone expects me to be outgoing, funny and witty) get up and go back to the meeting from 6am until 6pm on Thurs and then drive home until midnight or so. Fun fun fun!!
Anyway the hotel we were booked into was almost disturbingly inexpensive so I thought I'd take the opportunity to drive up a day early and see if I could hook up with an old friend that I had recently rediscovered on Facebook. God Bless Facebook!! Mike Princen was one of my best friends in high school and he worked for Momo at the Lone Wolf, a country western bar she owned for a while in the 80's. Kelly had run into his little brother at her 20th reunion and got them onto Facebook where he found me! I make the plans about 3 weeks ahead of time so I actually had something cool to look forward to.
I arrived in St. Louis early enough to get ready for my dinner date only to find why the hotel was so inexpensive. It was a Residence Inn with a weekly rate and none of the amenities that business travelers count on. No free Wi Fi, no breakfast, no wake up call and most importantly, NO BLOW DRIER!!!!! I had to race out to the nearest Target and buy what I needed and pay for the Internet connection so that I could warn my colleagues, who were scheduled to arrive the next day, about what they needed to bring. Against all odds I managed to get ready in time and Mike came and picked me up at about 630.
He took me to his beautiful home where I got to meet his beautiful wife and three VERY YOUNG children. Hard to believe that a guy who graduated a year before me has a three year old when my youngest is 15, and a half!! He remember back to our high school days how much I loved Imo's pizza, the best pizza in St. Louis and that's what we ate. Sorry Great Max and Great Don and Amy and Matthew and all of you dedicated food bloggers but yes, we had take out pizza and it was fabulous! We were able to reminisce for about 4 hours and I'm amazed at how much I actually DON'T remember. I thought I was happy back then so I don't know why I would forget so much but Mike remembers so much more than I do. Weird huh? Anyway, it was wonderful and I so look forward to seeing them again.
That wasn't all though. The meeting ended a couple of hours early on Thursday so I had a little time to spare. My very best friend ever from high school, Jean, also still lives in St Louis. We've always kept up with each other. Sometimes we wouldn't talk for a year, but we always found each other. We once went 15 years without seeing each other but we always talked. I lost track of her about 2 years ago when I had to get a new phone number and lost all of the data from my phone. I looked and looked for her on Classmates.com and all over the Internet. I had found her that way before but it wouldn't work for some reason this time. I was so worried that something had happened to her to prevent her from answering her emails etc. The only thing I could think of to do was to try to find her mom's house, see if she was still there and try to get a number. Now, I haven't lived in St. Louis since I was 18 that's 25 years but I managed to negotiate the highways, take the right exit and find my way there without any wrong turns! I was very proud of myself until I walked into the house and Jo ( Jeans mother) said to me " Oh hi Tracy, there you are. Come here and check on my Grandson for me, I think he's sick..." Like she'd been waiting for me and my absence had been very inconvenient. To her, I had only been gone for a second and came in handy when she needed me. Anyway, I got the number for my friend after doing several chores around the house and visiting with many family members. I was glad to just hear Jean's voice again and know that she's OK. I didn't get to see her as I had to drive all the way home that night but I got what I wanted, peace of mind
So, it might seem lame and tame for some of you but this was the biggest week I've had in a while. Now I'm looking forward to the girls coming home on the 6th and I promise I'll take pics and blog about that week! I can't wait!
I had to go to St Louis on business this week which usually pisses me off. Everyone else in my region is within 3 hours of our regional office but I have to drive for about 6 hours to get there. Not only that, but they planned the meeting from 1pm on Wed until 6pm on Thurs which meant that I would have to drive from about 6am on
Wed to get there in time, attend the meeting until 6pm, attend the "dinner" where I get to brown nose and kiss ass, (not to mention that everyone expects me to be outgoing, funny and witty) get up and go back to the meeting from 6am until 6pm on Thurs and then drive home until midnight or so. Fun fun fun!!
Anyway the hotel we were booked into was almost disturbingly inexpensive so I thought I'd take the opportunity to drive up a day early and see if I could hook up with an old friend that I had recently rediscovered on Facebook. God Bless Facebook!! Mike Princen was one of my best friends in high school and he worked for Momo at the Lone Wolf, a country western bar she owned for a while in the 80's. Kelly had run into his little brother at her 20th reunion and got them onto Facebook where he found me! I make the plans about 3 weeks ahead of time so I actually had something cool to look forward to.
I arrived in St. Louis early enough to get ready for my dinner date only to find why the hotel was so inexpensive. It was a Residence Inn with a weekly rate and none of the amenities that business travelers count on. No free Wi Fi, no breakfast, no wake up call and most importantly, NO BLOW DRIER!!!!! I had to race out to the nearest Target and buy what I needed and pay for the Internet connection so that I could warn my colleagues, who were scheduled to arrive the next day, about what they needed to bring. Against all odds I managed to get ready in time and Mike came and picked me up at about 630.
He took me to his beautiful home where I got to meet his beautiful wife and three VERY YOUNG children. Hard to believe that a guy who graduated a year before me has a three year old when my youngest is 15, and a half!! He remember back to our high school days how much I loved Imo's pizza, the best pizza in St. Louis and that's what we ate. Sorry Great Max and Great Don and Amy and Matthew and all of you dedicated food bloggers but yes, we had take out pizza and it was fabulous! We were able to reminisce for about 4 hours and I'm amazed at how much I actually DON'T remember. I thought I was happy back then so I don't know why I would forget so much but Mike remembers so much more than I do. Weird huh? Anyway, it was wonderful and I so look forward to seeing them again.
That wasn't all though. The meeting ended a couple of hours early on Thursday so I had a little time to spare. My very best friend ever from high school, Jean, also still lives in St Louis. We've always kept up with each other. Sometimes we wouldn't talk for a year, but we always found each other. We once went 15 years without seeing each other but we always talked. I lost track of her about 2 years ago when I had to get a new phone number and lost all of the data from my phone. I looked and looked for her on Classmates.com and all over the Internet. I had found her that way before but it wouldn't work for some reason this time. I was so worried that something had happened to her to prevent her from answering her emails etc. The only thing I could think of to do was to try to find her mom's house, see if she was still there and try to get a number. Now, I haven't lived in St. Louis since I was 18 that's 25 years but I managed to negotiate the highways, take the right exit and find my way there without any wrong turns! I was very proud of myself until I walked into the house and Jo ( Jeans mother) said to me " Oh hi Tracy, there you are. Come here and check on my Grandson for me, I think he's sick..." Like she'd been waiting for me and my absence had been very inconvenient. To her, I had only been gone for a second and came in handy when she needed me. Anyway, I got the number for my friend after doing several chores around the house and visiting with many family members. I was glad to just hear Jean's voice again and know that she's OK. I didn't get to see her as I had to drive all the way home that night but I got what I wanted, peace of mind
So, it might seem lame and tame for some of you but this was the biggest week I've had in a while. Now I'm looking forward to the girls coming home on the 6th and I promise I'll take pics and blog about that week! I can't wait!
Monday, February 16, 2009
I'm still here....
So just so you don't think I quit entirely....I got a really cute idea for a blog entry and spent a couple of days working it up and getting the pictures ready only to find that I can't do it the way I want it. I can only load pictures at the top of my blog, and every time I try to move them my computer freezes up and my blog goes into "drafts". You wouldn't think that would be a problem but I am unable to edit my "drafts" for some reason. I've talked to Don and Max and they seem to be just as flummoxed by my problem as I am. Amy is blissfully away and unable to help me so I will just have to file my cute idea away to whatever place Stephen King puts his unrealized masterpieces until I can get out of computer hell and figure it out.
Anyhooo, Life here in Arkansas is playing out in it's normal boring fashion. Within a month, Kyle got his first pair of glasses and had his wisdom teeth out. He was actually prescribed Oxycontin, if you can believe it. I let him have a couple and confiscated the rest. Should worse come to worst in the divorce I can always sell them for rent money. Actually, if it really gets that bad, I'll probably need them for myself....
Speaking of the divorce, I came to an agreement with my soon to be ex today about the girls getting to come home for spring break and I may get to have my daughters with me for a whole week soon for the first time in almost 7 months. I feel so happy about that, I can't even begin to describe what it feels like. It's sort of like I have a huge cloud that hangs over me all the time and I worry, and stress and have really bad dreams and wake up feeling bad. After today, I think that I'll sleep ok tonight and wake up happy tomorrow. How can I tell you what that feels like? Just one day of relative peace is worth a million, that is to say, I'd pay a million for this if I had it, I hope it lasts for more than a day.
Everyone always says that divorce is hell but I never expected this. The fear, the anger, the worry and stress almost makes me wonder if it's worth it. The anger scares me the most. That's the one emotion that I can't really control. When it gets out of hand then I'm out of control. I'm probably more afraid of my own anger than anything else. That's what my ex was always best at, making me so angry that I'd not only lose control but look for any way to back out of that feeling, and of course he would be there to catch me. I knew that he caused the anger on purpose but that didn't help with the feeling, in fact it made me more angry that he WANTED me to be angry...
But, I digress, from what I don't know since I didn't really have a subject to begin with. Bear with me, I am determined not to abandon this blog and will figure out my computer problems eventually....
Soooo, here's to all of you, from someone standing on the Razors Edge ( great movie by the way) Have a lovely day
'
Anyhooo, Life here in Arkansas is playing out in it's normal boring fashion. Within a month, Kyle got his first pair of glasses and had his wisdom teeth out. He was actually prescribed Oxycontin, if you can believe it. I let him have a couple and confiscated the rest. Should worse come to worst in the divorce I can always sell them for rent money. Actually, if it really gets that bad, I'll probably need them for myself....
Speaking of the divorce, I came to an agreement with my soon to be ex today about the girls getting to come home for spring break and I may get to have my daughters with me for a whole week soon for the first time in almost 7 months. I feel so happy about that, I can't even begin to describe what it feels like. It's sort of like I have a huge cloud that hangs over me all the time and I worry, and stress and have really bad dreams and wake up feeling bad. After today, I think that I'll sleep ok tonight and wake up happy tomorrow. How can I tell you what that feels like? Just one day of relative peace is worth a million, that is to say, I'd pay a million for this if I had it, I hope it lasts for more than a day.
Everyone always says that divorce is hell but I never expected this. The fear, the anger, the worry and stress almost makes me wonder if it's worth it. The anger scares me the most. That's the one emotion that I can't really control. When it gets out of hand then I'm out of control. I'm probably more afraid of my own anger than anything else. That's what my ex was always best at, making me so angry that I'd not only lose control but look for any way to back out of that feeling, and of course he would be there to catch me. I knew that he caused the anger on purpose but that didn't help with the feeling, in fact it made me more angry that he WANTED me to be angry...
But, I digress, from what I don't know since I didn't really have a subject to begin with. Bear with me, I am determined not to abandon this blog and will figure out my computer problems eventually....
Soooo, here's to all of you, from someone standing on the Razors Edge ( great movie by the way) Have a lovely day
'
Friday, February 6, 2009
Ice Picks (get it?? Ha Ha)
I arrived home this afternoon after being gone for three days to find the neighborhood in recovery. It was 64 degrees outside and sunny. I opened the windows and relaxed to a soft breeze, the soothing sound of my windchimes, and countless chainsaws buzzing in the background. If anyone needs any firewood, just bring a truck down and everyone here will be more than happy to let you pick from the piles in front of their houses. This house is across the street from me. The city is supposed to come around and pick up these goodies as long as the branches are cut less than six feet long so people have been cutting and stacking for days. Anyway, while I was loading the wood pics I found a bunch of other pictures of the ice and thought you might enjoy...
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Grow up Already!
Well another couple of days have passed and total disaster has yet to strike so I guess I'm duty bound to pick the big girl panties up off the floor and get on with acting like an adult. I knew this week was going to suck so instead of harping on the terrible things I guess I'll try to focus on what's good...
They did not turn off my power on Tuesday night as anticipated. The roofer and electrician thought that it would take too long so that has been put off until Monday morning when they can do it and still get the power back on the same day. Soooo, much ado about nothing, thank goodness.
I'm still stuck out of town but the store that I'm working with has done a terrific job of stepping up and is actually in pretty good shape and ready for inventory tomorrow. I've had a couple of managers from others stores helping and they are doing good and learning a lot too soooo, not so bad there either. Work is going well, and my team is successful and happy.
I did have to drive all the way to Kansas City and back today, 7 hour round trip for a stupid 2 hour meeting but it's over and done with now and I got to see a friend that I haven't seen for a while and have lunch with him. I even got a kiss for my trouble, soooo, almost any kiss is worth a 7 hour drive and I'm a pretty happy camper tonight.
Mt. Redoubt is still threatening to erupt but my girls are in school and bitching about homework and their boyfriends. They're not worried or scared at all soooo, I guess I don't get to use that as an excuse for misery.
Tomorrow is Friday and I get to go home, the weather is beautiful and warm, I can start hitting the gym again on Saturday and I don't have to spend any nights out of town next week (I think). Wow, I don't know what I'll do with a whole week at home. Maybe I can remind Kyle of what home cooked food is. No, never mind. I can't imagine what pictures of my idea of home cooked food would look like next to Max and Amy's culinary delights. Anyone want to see a picture of Lipton Noodles and Sauce or perhaps Sloppy Joe's? I could stick some frozen Texas Toast in the oven and have it with our Hunts Spaghetti sauce....
Anyway, all is well again at least for now. I'll keep looking for excuses to be miserable and drama to focus on so that I don't have to look too closely at myself and perhaps, you know, encounter some really scary emotion. Maybe together we can hope that I don't find any...
They did not turn off my power on Tuesday night as anticipated. The roofer and electrician thought that it would take too long so that has been put off until Monday morning when they can do it and still get the power back on the same day. Soooo, much ado about nothing, thank goodness.
I'm still stuck out of town but the store that I'm working with has done a terrific job of stepping up and is actually in pretty good shape and ready for inventory tomorrow. I've had a couple of managers from others stores helping and they are doing good and learning a lot too soooo, not so bad there either. Work is going well, and my team is successful and happy.
I did have to drive all the way to Kansas City and back today, 7 hour round trip for a stupid 2 hour meeting but it's over and done with now and I got to see a friend that I haven't seen for a while and have lunch with him. I even got a kiss for my trouble, soooo, almost any kiss is worth a 7 hour drive and I'm a pretty happy camper tonight.
Mt. Redoubt is still threatening to erupt but my girls are in school and bitching about homework and their boyfriends. They're not worried or scared at all soooo, I guess I don't get to use that as an excuse for misery.
Tomorrow is Friday and I get to go home, the weather is beautiful and warm, I can start hitting the gym again on Saturday and I don't have to spend any nights out of town next week (I think). Wow, I don't know what I'll do with a whole week at home. Maybe I can remind Kyle of what home cooked food is. No, never mind. I can't imagine what pictures of my idea of home cooked food would look like next to Max and Amy's culinary delights. Anyone want to see a picture of Lipton Noodles and Sauce or perhaps Sloppy Joe's? I could stick some frozen Texas Toast in the oven and have it with our Hunts Spaghetti sauce....
Anyway, all is well again at least for now. I'll keep looking for excuses to be miserable and drama to focus on so that I don't have to look too closely at myself and perhaps, you know, encounter some really scary emotion. Maybe together we can hope that I don't find any...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Enough is Enough
I have officially had enough. I quit. I'm broke, tired and overwhelmed. My house is a mess, I've got way too much work to do and shit just keeps piling up.
We got back into the house on Saturday and while we were so happy to be home we walked into a huge mess and our cable was still laying across the back yard. The cable runs our TV, internet and home phone. We spent Sunday cleaning out the fridge, shopping for food, cleaning and restocking Kyle's fish tank and putting together all the things that we disassembled so quickly while we were trying to leave like dog crates, snake cages etc.
I did get to go out on Saturday night for my Birthday with some friends and had a really good time. There were tons of Linesmen (electric, not football) there from out of state and I kissed them all (some more than once)! I also got to see the Super Bowl on Sunday at a friends house so everything was looking up for a couple of days. The fridge was stocked, school was back in, the floors were clean and the laundry was getting done.
Tuesday morning came with the cable still down but our hopes up until a phone call this evening from my Landlord became the straw that broke the camels back. Apparently they need to repair the place where the electric line connects to the house, replace the fuse box with a breaker box and fix the roof where some shingles came loose. All this must happen without the power on so they will turn it off tomorrow and leave it off for at least a day. No amount of pleading and begging will change his mind so goodbye new fish, goodbye fridge full of fresh food, goodbye bank account, goodbye sanity. I even cried but to no avail, This will all happen tomorrow while I'm out of town and Kyle is left with the burden. To top it all off, the cable came back on but my 5 month old wireless box is fried and must be replaced and guess where I bought it....Circuit City!!! Of course. Just my luck.
So I give up. I'm officially giving in to this crap. I'm sad and frustrated, I miss my girls and I'm worried about their stupid volcano situation. Screw the big girl panties, they are thrown into the corner with my discarded work out clothes. I'm taking my tears and my dog and going to bed. See ya later
We got back into the house on Saturday and while we were so happy to be home we walked into a huge mess and our cable was still laying across the back yard. The cable runs our TV, internet and home phone. We spent Sunday cleaning out the fridge, shopping for food, cleaning and restocking Kyle's fish tank and putting together all the things that we disassembled so quickly while we were trying to leave like dog crates, snake cages etc.
I did get to go out on Saturday night for my Birthday with some friends and had a really good time. There were tons of Linesmen (electric, not football) there from out of state and I kissed them all (some more than once)! I also got to see the Super Bowl on Sunday at a friends house so everything was looking up for a couple of days. The fridge was stocked, school was back in, the floors were clean and the laundry was getting done.
Tuesday morning came with the cable still down but our hopes up until a phone call this evening from my Landlord became the straw that broke the camels back. Apparently they need to repair the place where the electric line connects to the house, replace the fuse box with a breaker box and fix the roof where some shingles came loose. All this must happen without the power on so they will turn it off tomorrow and leave it off for at least a day. No amount of pleading and begging will change his mind so goodbye new fish, goodbye fridge full of fresh food, goodbye bank account, goodbye sanity. I even cried but to no avail, This will all happen tomorrow while I'm out of town and Kyle is left with the burden. To top it all off, the cable came back on but my 5 month old wireless box is fried and must be replaced and guess where I bought it....Circuit City!!! Of course. Just my luck.
So I give up. I'm officially giving in to this crap. I'm sad and frustrated, I miss my girls and I'm worried about their stupid volcano situation. Screw the big girl panties, they are thrown into the corner with my discarded work out clothes. I'm taking my tears and my dog and going to bed. See ya later
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