Do you have that in my size???

worth the wait!

2009-04-18T19:19:00.001-07:00

at island divine event in la jolla

One life ends and another begins

2009-04-11T23:54:00.000-07:00

He's safely home now, is TCB, sleeping peacefully in his own home for the first time in ten months. The house was not spotless, I wasn't wearing any makeup, and there was no food in the house when we arrived, so nothing according to plan, but none of that matters a bit: he's home and a new phase of our lives is beginning.

With every new beginning comes an end, too. It was almost exactly six years ago that I started this journal and I have so enjoyed my writing here. I've learned things about myself, I've made new friends, and I've found an expression for my creative instincts that I simply don't have in any other part of my life. Still, this site is about "me" - singular, and alone - and that's not my life as of today. Tomorrow morning I shall begin posting at my new online home and I hope some of you might be inclined to follow. If that's true, you'll find TCB and me writing at Suburban Bliss, telling tales about what it's like to begin living together two years after the wedding ceremony as well as the ongoing adventures of the veggie garden, the cats, and my training for the 3-day in October. As for this site, I'm going to keep it up, at least for now, but disable the archives...put the past in the past.

The day draws near

2009-04-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

In less than 24 hours, TCB will be home. I should be excited, and I am, but I'm still sitting here sobbing from the sheer magnitude of the life change we are about to experience. He's leaving friends and a place that's been his home for two years that he will probably never see again. I'm going to live with someone for the first time since 1997 and will have to cede sole control (haha, what an illusion!) over this house. Impromptu social engagements like last night's dinner with friends from work will now have to be vetted by someone else. No more "Mummy and me" weekends. No more lazy Sundays spent watching British mysteries via Netflix.

And then, at the same time, no more holidays spent alone. No more dealing with life's little lessons on my own. I will stop skipping social engagements where most attendees are couples. I will (finally!) meet my neighbors. I will have company on the long training walks that are soon to start for the 3=day.

Sunrise, sunset. Some things end while another - hopefully wonderful! - thing begins. It's the way of things and I'm ready. A little scared, a little overwhelmed, but still and all, ready.

Bright new day

2009-04-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

First, let me apologize for the fact that several of my graphics on the sidebar have been messed up for some period of time. (Not sure how long since I never look at my own blog.) I've migrated them over from the old (paid) hosting service to a new (free) one and hope they will play nicely forever and ever after.

Next, I have exciting news to share: my carrots are beginning to sprout! Yes indeed, we are one step closer to cream of carrot soup, my friends. I will also be planting beets in the garden tonight, so start sending in your favorite beet (or beetroot for my British friends) recipes.

OK, I'm off to another meeting...ta ta for now.

Dying from neglect

2009-04-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

No, the title of this post doesn't refer to my beloved veggie garden - it's doing nicely, thank you! - but to this poor journal.

There was a time when I hated to wait 24 hours to update here, but lately I'm just not feeling the urge to post any more. Honestly, I don't really have a lot to say that anyone would find interesting and I'm becoming too lazy to want to put effort into organizing my thoughts into something coherent. I've thought about packing it all in when TCB comes home for good (check out the ticker in the header...scarily small number, eh?), but that makes me feel sad and I don't think it's the right answer. I need a place to come and write, to interact with people outside my everyday life, to share the things I'm learning as I try to love and take care of myself.

An example of that would be the realization I came to on Saturday while I was walking. In the past, I've always associated exercise with weight loss (and, by extension, with dieting) and have, therefore, either been obsessive about it or hated it (depending on which way I was going on the scale). I started my informal walks with my work buddy, Scott, with the same hatred I've always brought to walking..."this sucks," or, "no, I don't want to go for a walk, please just kill me instead" - you know the drill. And then, so very slowly that it was essentially imperceptible, I stopped hating it. But I didn't kick over into obsessive mode, either, I just made room for it. I am training for The 3-Day in October and regular walking is something I need to do, so I'm doing it. I'm not dieting, not even watching what I eat...in fact, I'm eating horribly, but I'm still walking. I even went for a walk on Saturday a few hours after a major binge! That would never have happened in the past and I think it bodes well for a less-OCD future: I can be less than perfect.

The Zen of starting a vegetable garden

2009-03-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I've done a proper post here...I guess it's a sign that I'm keeping fairly busy offline. Anyway, here's a quick mini update on some interesting topics as well as my slightly more in-depth thoughts about becoming an organic veggie farmer.

Mini updates:

1. How did you do with your Project Scheduling and Management class, Denise? Glad you asked...I got an A+. Not just an A, but an A+. (Yay me!) I'm starting Project Management Essentials (supposed to be the prerequisite for the class I just finished) on April 16th, so the adventure begins again.

2. How are you doing on your massive To-Do list before TCB comes home? Um, next question. No, it's not really THAT bad, but I have de-prioritized these tasks in favor of spending time with my mom last weekend, doing laundry (and gardening) this weekend, and trying to kick butt at work. I am signed up for a neighborhood garage sale next weekend, so we shall see how organized I can get before then!

3. Speaking of work, which project did you choose to work on - comfortable or constantly challenging? As I intimated last we spoke of this topic, I'm working on the challenging project. It's really tough in so many ways because I can't exhale, there is no room to coast, and I'm never more than oversleeping one morning away from disaster, but I have moments of sheer bliss where I am more certain than I've ever been that I AM competent, that I DO know what I'm doing, and that my team IS lucky to have me. Those moments outweigh the occasional panic attacks, so that's a good thing.

OK, so on to the main purpose of today's post: gardening. I would never have guessed how much I would enjoy my vegetable garden. I am SO GRATEFUL to my mom for coming down last weekend and helping me plant everything (see picture). I currently have the following plants in my plot: tomatoes (2), cucumbers (2), bell peppers (3), lettuce (3), squash (2), eggplant (1), swiss chard (1, accidentally picked up by my mother who thought it was beets), green beans (2 bush, 1 pole), strawberries (2), and various marigolds. I've also sowed seeds for corn and carrots. The lettuce is a big draw for Benjamin Bunny and his friends, which is a bummer. The strawberry plants are droopy and sad. And none of it matters because I just love it.

I love obsessively checking how the plants are doing each day. I love calling my mom to consult on how to fix what's going wrong with various plants. I love chatting about how to get the best results from your plot with the rare other community gardener I run into. (Birds get the peas. Bunnies get the lettuce. Soil amendment is a must.) Each day there's some new thing to get excited about...the new flower poised to burst forth on my peper plant, discovering that a long-abandoned plot adjacent to mine is just teeming with dormant strawberry plants reawakening after our recent rains (I've decided to adopt them and am now watering and weeding that plot, too), and the way that the eggplant that looked so sad for two days is starting to pick up. I accept that I'll probably lost 25-30 percent of what I've planted (hello, lettuce?), and I'm OK with that. But seriously, expect lots of veggie pictures in the next two months (or so) while I wait for my payback: harvest and meal preparation.

P.S. I don't have pictures because I'm not cool like Marla with her Igor updates, but you'll have to take my word for how adorable my three kitties are right now. They're all curled up into balls, sleeping, on my bed with me as I write and OMG the cute!!! I might have to go and sleep in the guest room (because I can't sleep with piles of warm fur blocking my access to free space), but it's totally worth it.

P.P.S. TCB and I will need to get a new (king size) bed when he gets home - see my inability to sleep next to furry heat sources, above - and we're torn between two options. TCB wants to get a sleep # bed while I want an environmentally-friendly, Amish-made bed instead. They're roughly the same price and we're both pretty stubborn, so I'm reaching out to my loyal readers...can both of you chime in with your opinion about which bed we should choose, in the comments? You'll be another data point in our - no doubt - fascinating discussions about which bed we'll be sleeping on for the next 30 years (if we don't kill each other before then).

P.P.P.S. I wish I were composing this on my trusty MacBook because then I could use the built in webcam to show you how adorable my baby cats are!

mummy and me

2009-03-21T10:12:00.001-07:00

mom & i at sycamore canyon preserve

I've been remiss

2009-03-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

I haven't been here since last month - yikes. I always have good intentions of writing something...and then it doesn't happen. I wonder why that is. Anywho...

I saw this in a store window and fell in love. I've been thinking of getting an metal water bottle instead of my plastic cup because I keep reading about how the plastic is going to give me brain cancer or shingles or whatever it is. This bottle has the added benefit of being cute, so that's extra motivation!

I am in the midst of creating a prioritized list of items that must be done before TCB comes home, then deconstructing that list to create a PBL (product backlog) of smaller tasks that can be assigned and then completed. If this sounds awfully work-like, well, it is. You see, while I am slack as all get out in matters related to my home, I am actually pretty well thought of as a "go-getter" at work because I get things finished. (Yes, that makes me laugh, too.) I figure that, if I treat this huge pile of work that needs to be accomplished in 31 days (omigosh) the way I would treat it as a Project Manager, I can figure out what can be finished with the current resources (that would be me), ask for additional resources (my friends and/or a paid organizer and/or a cleaning service), and add things to the next 30 day sprint (list of things for TCB to do once he's home) that will not fit into these 31 days no matter how many friends I entice over to help.

Believe it or not, I haven't needed to use my handy-dandy brown paper (Starbucks!) bag once today to stave off a panic attack - yay me! Yesterday found me bent over in my chair hyperventilating into that lovely bag three times, hence the plan to organize/prioritize/treat this disaster I call my home life like a work project. You know, the project plan is really looking so beautiful that I think I might post it tomorrow for everyone to admire - huzzah.

One of the tasks on the list should look like this:
Problem = I'm losing my grip on reality
Task = Call in-patient mental facility to make appointment
Predecessor = None
Time estimate = 10 minutes
Can be delegated? = oh heck yeah!
Due date = Yesterday

Yes indeedy do, nothing like a good list to wash away all of your troubles!!!

Dresses fit for a Princess

2009-02-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

I just found out about Princess Project...what a great idea! I've got a dress, shawl, and elbow-length gloves that I was trying to sell on eBay that I think have just found a home. I wish I'd known about this organization before I gave away so many beautiful ballgowns this past year - especially because you know some size 16W princess is going to swoon when she sees that beautiful things come in her size, too.

"Denise does a wonderful job for her writers"

2009-02-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

Ten random thoughts that floated through my head at some point today:
* Wham was so underrated as a musical force for good in the world
* I wonder how long I can go without doing laundry again?
* I think my cat has a very old soul
* Damn, I love my legs!
* You are such a pompous ass
* What can I sell out of the garage that will net me enough money to get a mani/pedi before TCB gets home???
* Which would I rather do without, toilet paper or moisturizer?
* I really need to give up caffeine for Lent
* Mmmmmm, chocolate
* I wonder what TCB is doing right now?

Denise wants more babies from Charlie Sheen*

2009-02-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

You'll think I'm crazy, but I'm getting really nervous about TCB's homecoming. Not the way you might suspect - will we get along? will I still love him? will he still love me? - but on a far more superficial level: I have to share my spectacular home with someone else and I don't know if I can handle that. I have a not-so-mild form of OCD and little details make me crazy. Will he remember to line the faucet and handle up perfectly over the middle of the sink in the kitchen? Will he try to hang the toilet paper roll the wrong way? Will he know that shoes must be perfectly parallel to each other when put away? Yes, I'm really obsessing over such things while counting down the minutes until he's here. Crazy much, Denise?

* I couldn't figure out what to title today's post, so I Googled "Denise wants" and choose my favorite from the results

Easy

2009-02-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

With a nod to Robert Frost, I’m facing a fork in my road at work with two very distinct possible roads/teams to choose from.

One will be easy, not in the sense of the work to be done but easy because I am a known, respected, and important part of their team. They know what to expect from me and I from them. I have delivered excellent results for them for several years. I communicate well and respond promptly and thoroughly to requests for information. It is expected that the majority of my current team will become part of this other group in due time, so I will know and care about the people I work with. I know their customers REALLY well and know what needs to be done to take proper care of them. There will be challenges for me on this team but they will be of the day-to-day nature…person A and person B have a conflict and want me to mediate or product C is having issues completing critical path activities…same challenges with different wrapping paper each time. My career path with this group would be no different than what I have now, even possibly a little smoother because of the respect I command with their leadership team.

The other choice is tougher in nearly every respect. The work I’d be doing is still fairly murky: probably close to what I do now but with new products and new people. My manager would be the manager I have now, the one that I’m still trying to figure out after a year of working together. The customers are known to me but still not familiar. There’s no built-in respect from this team because they don’t know my value (yet). After 14 years of doing what I do, it’s back to Square One in terms of my reputation and credibility. I feel like I’m walking on eggshells every day now, each footstep has to be delicate and deliberate. And I’ve made stupid mistakes already by trying to bring the old, tired stuff that’s always worked before because it’s easy…but nothing about this team will be easy.

I’m 41 years old and essentially a very lazy person, so the thought of starting over, of having to push myself every day to do better, to BE better, is terrifying. Terrifying and exciting and daunting and enervating and exhausting and, and, and…and I still find myself being drawn in by the challenge. To climb to the top of a mountain when you’re halfway there and have a Fodor’s Guide to help you with the path is not much of a challenge, but to sit at sea level and look up at the Sierra Mountains in front of you, knowing that you will have to bring your “A Game” every day in order to climb to the top, now that’s living.

Look at me being brave all of a sudden – who’d have thought it possible?

beyootiful flowers

2009-02-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

57 days until you're home!

70 Before Her 70th

2009-02-11T17:00:00.001-08:00

My mom's 70th birthday is on Monday, February 23rd. You will remember that she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery a few monts ago. Now she's on an oral estrogen inhibitor now and the doctors believe that her long-term prognosis is good. What you might not know is that she's also a seven-year survivor of colon cancer - a remarkable fact given the grim prognosis for many people with that same disease. She's defied the odds before and I have faith that she will do so again.

But she sounds scared when we talk on the phone for our daily check-in each morning. She's worried that she doesn't have the fight left in her to kick cancer's a@@ again. I keep reassuring her and telling her that I'll be walking 60 miles in October to help fund new and better treatments and - eventually - a cure, but she doesn't sound convinced. So I came up with this crazy idea: what if 70 people she's never met all made a donation before her 70th birthday? I've got 13 donations so far, so it's just 57 to go - what do you say? I don't care how much the amount of the donation is, I just want to be able to show her that if 70 total strangers have faith in her ability to beat cancer again, she should, too. (It would be great if you posted a comment here, too, so that I can show her your words of support.)

If you're "in", just click on the pink 3-Day widget in the right column of this page and it will take you to my fundraising page. After you donate, you'll receive a receipt for your '09 taxes via email, so be sure to give them your correct email address.

Thank you for your consideration!

Things I call my cats besides their real names*

2009-02-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

* Abby, Harry, and Sally

I've stolen this from Marla because, well, because I can, I suppose.

Individually:
Dally
Dally O'Malley
Dally of the O'Mally Clan
Dalldall
Hahwee
Hahwee Kitten
Abu Dabby
Abby Dabby
Abu

As a group:
Misfits
Kyottens
Kittens in Mittens (this was really only true of Dave, but the name has lingered)
Mama's Little Angels (this is totally sarcastic)

In other important news, I vacuumed the entire house, prepared my meals, tidied up after meals, went grocery shopping, cleaned the bathroom sinks and toilets, and straightened up my closet. I live an exciting life, I know, but it will no doubt flummox my poor, dear husband to know that I am becoming a Paragon of Housewiferly Duties now that I can't afford to do anything else.

I am also on the lookout in the garage for more junk to sell on eBay. Not that I've sold anything yet, but I'm certain that I will. Do not fret, TCB, I have (so far) resisted the urge to sell off your golf clubs, golf club travel case, scuba gear, and expensive bicycles. Your old bureau and chest of drawers will definitely go, probably via Craig's List because I'm sure as heck not shipping them, and the authentic Italian wrought iron and marble wine cabinet, too...although possibly not until you're home and can deal with the logistics.

Right, I've got to go and create my portion of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for my Project Management class. Seriously, People, don't envy me my fabulous life!

Things I am grateful for today

2009-02-03T18:44:00.001-08:00

In an effort to focus on the good things in my life, here's my list of things I am grateful for today:

Warm (but not TOO warm) February days with just the faintest hint of a breeze
Nine year old cats with lots of soft fur (and a very loud voice)
A financially prudent husband who has money put away for a rainy day (although the weather outside is warm, it's definitely raining in my bank account)
Making a lunch date with my mom and dad plus my BFF to celebrate Mom's 70th birthday
Finally getting off the stick and figuring out how to list things for sale on eBay - I have so much junk in the garage and at least some of it ought to make me some money

Okay, that's it for now. I'm going back to work tomorrow after taking the last two days off, so it's a strange feeling. I think I have more energy and less stress than I did before the little break, and that's good. I need to figure out how to make that happen on a more regular basis.

Nowhere to run

2009-02-02T17:39:00.000-08:00

I've written here about the fact that I suffer from depression. I've also written about being diagnosed with compulsive overeating disorder and the feelings of panic that I have whenever I try to restrict my food. If you combine both of those mental disorders with financial problems, you get to where I am now: a fidgeting, compulsively itching all over, unable to concentrate on anything for more than 10 minutes, mess. I'm stressed to the max about not having any money, which (among other things) means I can't buy food to deal with the stress, which stresses me out even more, and so on and so on.

Why can't I be smarter than this? Why can't I stop spending money? Why can't I be happy just to be alive and lucky in love and employed and have amazing parents who love me no matter what and a beautiful, gorgeous house? I always want something more than I have right at this very moment...there's always something missing. I have three beautiful cats and I still want the one who's not here anymore. I have more clothes than any one person should have/need and I still pine for "just one more dress for work". I have an amazing, understanding, financially stable husband and I still want...well, I guess wanting him home isn't such a completely unreasonable wish.

UPDATE @ 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday: At Danelle's suggestion, I've listed four items to sell on eBay. If they all sell, I'll get over $200 which will come in very handy at this point. Also, my husband directed me to a money market account which had enough money in it to save my behind for a little while. (Don't worry, Honey, there's still some left in there. And wow, the teller was so super-nice when I told her that I was completely out of money with my husband somewhere in the South Pacific.) All of this is a round-about way of saying that I'm doing a little better than yesterday and thank you to those who took the time to write and encourage me - you guys are awesome.

Reason #546 why i love my job

2009-01-28T16:56:00.000-08:00

My team gave me this tiara today & named me Princess of our project. I wore it all day & almost no one asked me what the sparkly thing on my head was. I rock!

Just a typical Sunday in paradise

2009-01-19T00:27:00.000-08:00

I'm awakened by the smell of food cooking, wafting up to me from downstairs. As I carefully open an eye, I catch sight of Harry the Cat, still snoozing at my feet, a lazy smile on his face. I hear footsteps on the stairs and the sound of my husband's voice telling yet another cat, "Be quiet, Abby, Mommy's still sleeping." He walks into the room with a tray full of food, two cups, and a pot of coffee, wearing the silly SpongeBob boxers I gave him for his birthday, and a smile. As we watch the football pregame show and munch on breakfast, I find it hard to remember a time when this WASN'T our Sunday morning routine.

Only 11 more Sundays until you're home, Sweetheart. After almost 20 months apart, that's nothing. Two months, two weeks, and five days? I can do that in my sleep.

Who's the biggest geek in this picture???

2009-01-16T16:26:00.000-08:00

The first session of my Project Management class was last night and I went into Geek overload. My perfectly sharpened pencils lined up perfectly in a row, which were also color coordinated with my rollie laptop bag and my tres chic purse. My three textbooks (already partially read because I didn't want to fall behind) stacked on top of one another next to the pretty pink MacBook. Holding down my hand so as not to ALWAYS be the first to blurt out the answer.

Oh yes, my friends, I'm well on my way to winning the title "Most Hated Girl" in class. Actually, I think I'm the ONLY girl in class. There's another person of the female persuasion in class, too, but she's more of a "woman" than a "girl". (Her disdainful glances at my pink laptop and cute purse were enough to tell me that. I mentally thought to myself, "Go ahead, discount my intellect because of my unnatural need to coordinate my accessories and carry cute purses...I'm totally going to kick your butt in the project simulation portion of this program.") I've already decided that I'm going to achieve both my PMP certification AND the UCSD Project Management certificate...because that's how we overachieving uberGeeks roll!

Call me in a few weeks when I'm lying on my bed, rocking back and forth, bemoaning how much work this all is.

The journal of 1,000 entries begins with a single thought

2009-01-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

I remember so clearly back in the first week of April, 2003 when I started this journal. I was single, hopeless, and closeted in my little house with a small, uninspired life, and I didn't know how to get from there to...somewhere, ANYwhere else. It took months before I received my first comment and, thanks to having switched comment systems like eight times since then, I can't tell you who it was that commented first. I will tell you that Lori was the first one to give me the excellent advice that I needed to comment on other people's blogs if I wanted to gain new readers for my own. There were others along the way, too, kind people who took time out of their lives to help me begin to live mine. Truly, that's what this blog has done: helped me step out of my head and into the world.

In the nearly six years since I started writing here, my life has changed drastically in some ways (met and married a wonderful - albeit absentee! - man, joined the Junior League and learned that I have a voice and should use it, and became a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for a (then) 13-year-old foster child) and hardly at all in others, including:

I'm at the same weight I was when I started this journal (260ish) after having lost as much as 60 pounds at one time. I'm not necessarily upset about the weight because I've stopped hating my big stomach and we're trying to be friends, but it's still not much progress for quite a bit of effort
In the nearly 20 months since TCB* left, I've cut myself off from most of the world, shrinking my world down to first my condo and now our lovely new townhouse. Doesn't matter how lovely it is, no friend is going to continue to make the effort to do things with you after the 10th refusal, Denise!

* Stands for The Cute Boy, a nickname I gave my (now) husband after we met...just in case there might be new visitors who weren't around way back then

Much/most of the backsliding can be put down to the fact that I suffer from depression. Actually, make that Depression with a capital D because it's not, "Oh, wow, I feel sad today," it's like, "Oh my gosh, getting out of bed today is more than I can handle but I have to get up and go to work anyway, so let me just throw some clothes on and shlep myself through the minimum day's activities until I can come home and zone out with food and mindless TV." Seriously, I don't know that I will ever be able to adequately convey what Depression feels like from the inside. I know that it closely resembles Laziness from the outside and that I sometimes berate myself for it, too, but it's an illness and I wouldn't beat myself up for not being able to use my arm if I'd broken it, so why is mental illness any different?

Anyway, I'd considered medication to deal with the Depression and have decided it's not for me. I'm the type of girl who doesn't take cold medicine and rarely takes anything for a headache because, if it's not going to cure whatever ails me, I won't put some foreign substance in my body to mask the symptoms. Depression is going to be with me for the rest of my life in some way or another, so I need to understand that and work with it.

It also probably wasn't the best planning to change my life radically through getting married and then send him off to live and work 5,000 miles away for two years, either. To make myself vulnerable to someone else after many years of living independently was no easy feat for me, and then we decided to buy a house and move - then merge - two households, all while he was gone. The resultant upheaval left me wondering where my life was and who this weak-willed woman who can't even get the boxes in the garage unpacked after nearly a year was.

Enough. I've had enough. Enough tears, enough emptiness, enough loneliness, enough grief. Life is meant to be lived, to be savored like a fine wine, to be ENJOYED...and that's what I intend to do again. I said at New Year's that my Un-Resolution for this year was to cry less and enjoy life more in 2009, so, to that end...

I've signed up for a Project Management course at UCSD Extension. It's 9 weeks, will help my career, and will allow me to take the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam, making me far more marketable. It will also be a great networking opportunity!
I've signed up for several volunteer shifts with Junior League projects that sound fun and will let me get out and do things with my friends, many of whom are members, too
I've registered to walk 60 miles in Washington, DC over my birthday weekend to raise money and awareness for breast cancer, of which my mother and grandmother are both survivors. (Shameless Plug: Have you clicked on the little widget to the right to make a donation?) This will not only help me feel as though I'm doing something to fight breast cancer, it will also make me more physically active which should help restore my energy and general sense of well-being
I'm volunteering with Just In Time, an organization dedicated to helping newly-emancipated foster youth thrive as they go out on their own into the world. This is a cause that I am passionate about and something that gives me great satisfaction

So, as I end my 1,000th entry, I am imbued with a new sense of hope, of drive, and an expectation that 2009 and beyond hold much promise and even greater joy for me. Cry less and enjoy life more, friends! The journey continues.

No brain cells left to come up with a snappy title

2009-01-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

Now that it's officially 2009, I need to stop pretending that I can continue to leave half of my garage covered in boxes from our move LAST YEAR. TCB will be home early in April (have you seen my ticker???) and there are still at least 50 boxes to be unpacked in the garage. This is not good. I will not be one of those people who can only park one car in the garage because the rest is used for storage of crap that just needs to be thrown out because really, if it's been in there nearly a year, clearly it's not useful stuff.

TCB, would you divorce me if I just hired a junk removal company to take away everything except your bicycles and golf clubs??? (And my beautiful sweaters that disappeared, assuming that they're out there somewhere and not in the shopping cart of a warm and happy homeless person.) (And some of the multitudinous Christmas decorations that are ALL OVER out there. Not all of them, but some.)

I also need to give up my procrastination about finishing up the inside of the house by completing long-overdue items such as:

1. Hanging up pictures on the walls. Most rooms are bare with the pictures sitting on the floor. (This is not an artistic statement about the hypocrisy of hanging pictures on a wall, it's just sheer laziness.)

2. Setting up the office to be something other than a storage room for boxes and boxes of electronic crap. Seriously, we have like 5 wireless router/modem thingies in there. Not counting the Apple Airport Extreme that I can't get connected properly so that I can dump the crappy and expensive (but functional) wireless router from the cable/internet company. Three printers. Two monitors. Two CPUs. Oh yes, and the second catbox required because I have more than two cats. It's a lovely room, really.

3. Vacuum all of the carpet so that I can get out the little green spot cleaning machine to get all of the barf stains from Dave's prolonged sickness out of the carpet. There was no point while he was still actively creating more but, well, that's not a problem anymore. (And frankly? It makes me sad to see them because they remind me of him.)

And the list goes on. It's so tempting just to wait until TCB gets home and then greet him with a smile and a, "Hey, here's your list of things to do before I get home...I'm off for a weekend at the spa in Austin," but it would be really sad if we got divorced after surviving two years apart, don't you think?

This weekend I'm going for a massage and facial at a nearby day spa, and then getting my hair cut and brows waxed. When all else fails, a girl's got to take care of herself.

Shameless plug for a friend

2009-01-06T17:01:00.000-08:00

My friend, Alexa, has created a site to showcase her wonderful photography. She's a dear friend who I met through the Junior League and she's really talented, so go on over and take a look.

My husband is famous!

2009-01-04T17:40:00.000-08:00

He's the one tending to the hot dogs on the grill. (Why am I not surprised???) Honestly, I never appreciated how much the USO does until my husband was sent overseas without me, so please do support them in any way you can when you have the opportunity because they are a lifeline to military families around the world.

Then there were three

2009-01-04T12:00:00.001-08:00

Abby, Harry, & Sally miss their brother and so do I, but we're all going to be OK.