I spent an hour this morning hanging out with my sister in law and the 2 kittens she's fostering. They are 3 weeks old and so cute I almost passed out when I saw them. Seriously.
So everyone who knows me knows that I am a complete mess in the morning or any time I'm waking up. I can't control it, I really can't. I'm not conscious, I don't realize that I'm swearing at everyone and being mean. I've woken up to people not speaking to me because of things I've said in the early stages of waking up and have no memory of. This only really happens when someone has the balls to touch me or try and wake me up... if I am able to wake up on my own with no interruptions, my exit from Dream Land is a lot more graceful.
If you don't understand what I'm talking about, let's break it down: I've punched my own beloved mother for touching me while I'm sleeping. I've told so many people to "fuck off" in my sleep that I've lost count. My go-to is "I fucking hate you. Get out of my life." Do you want to know how many people I've said that to? So would I. I honestly have no recollection of doing any of this most of the time, and in the moment there is absolutely no way to stop me. I wish more than anything there was someone in my life who understood that if they touch me or try and kiss my face when I'm passed out I will cut them. That's the key to having any sort of decent relationship with me. Just let me fucking sleep.
Wagandstuff totally gets it, actually... that's where I originally meant to go with all of this. In the mornings, he leaves me alone until I start moving around, and then once I've made some noises and my eyes open up, he lays on his back next to my face and tries to do some French kisses with me. This morning he actually just wrapped himself around the top of my head and licked my nose repeatedly. When he gets going with the French kisses, it's like he can't stop. He's totally the very best boyfriend I've ever had. He really gets me.
Much of my journaling over the last 3 years has been about growth and major life changes. Changes in my circumstance, attitude, plans, reality and career came fast and furious for a while there.
These days, with the exception of the ever-changing landscape at work, things have mellowed out quite a bit. But change is still everywhere, all the time, and you notice it even more when you have a chance to catch your breath and observe it.
Like this:
Lee took this picture of the tree in our front yard just a few weeks ago. It was much thicker and fuller and grown last summer, but we cut it back because a large portion of the leaves had grown in brown and sickly-looking. Cutting it back was our attempt at saving it. And so far, that attempt seems to be working:
A few weeks of springlike weather, including lots of rain, makes a big difference!
And then, of course, there are changes in the animal life around here. Remember this, from sometime in April?
That little ball of fur now looks like this:
Sometimes, change is overwhelming and scary. But sometimes, it is just plain beautiful.
What are your plans for Memorial Day weekend?
We're headed here:
Well, not right there exactly. But that's the view from my parents' cabin, which is where we're going. Their neighbors there have horses, and my niece goes crazy on the whole horseback riding thing. I know a lot of little girls do, but she's REALLY into it.
So anyway, we're leaving right after I get off work tomorrow and making the 2 1/2 hour drive, stopping to meet a girlfriend of mine on the way so that she can follow us up. My parents are heading up with my niece in the morning.
It'll be a weekend of campfires and board games, walks in the woods and maybe some fishing for Dad and Lee. The same neighbors who have the horses are having a party Saturday night, so we'll stroll down the hill and be merry.
I'm REALLY looking forward to it. I will have no computer or internet access while I'm there, so I won't be able to do any work stuff even if I want to!
So I was leaving the mall today and decided that since nothing interesting had happened, and since I didn't see anything of any interest, I'd just not do a blog entry today. 5 minutes after thinking that thought, I had a perfect blog entry - me getting rear ended by a car at an intersection. I was sitting at a stop light, looking down, and WHAM! The other guy to me he was reaching down for his cell phone and never even hit his brakes. Here are the pictures. I love carrying a camera around with me.
I look like I have Downs Syndrome in this picture. What is my hand doing? He sleeps on top of me. I should be more beautiful through osmosis because of that.
Whatever.
I never watched American Idol before this season, and I only started because I am required to for work. Well, let me tell you...
I have sat here with my TiVo every Wednesday morning for like, 20-something weeks and bawled my eyes out at every single episode. It's a magical show, that American Idol. It gets me in all the right places.
This cake went by so quickly that I hardly remember that I made it. The highlight is the fondant bow on the top. I made the loops early in the week and they had powdered sugar dots on them. Boss Lady fretted all week that the powered sugar wouldn't come off and I just told her it would be fine and not to worry about it. (Like telling Bush to complete an intelligent sentence with proper pronunciation.) In retrospect I should have gone over and cleaned one loop off so that she could see that it was going to be fine and quit worrying about it but I didn’t. Anyway, the powdered sugar came off fine and the cake came together nicely. The colors were gold and burgundy but I called it peanut butter and jelly. The consensus around the bakery was that those colors weren’t anything special. But the cake turned out fine. With this cake and the one last weekend, I am really tired of doing swirls.
Yesterday was a much better day after getting a good nights sleep. There is some kind of thing going on at the convention center this week, and all the hotels I like to stay at were booked in the immediate Tampa downtown area. Because of this, I'm staying about 10 miles outside of the city and have to commute in. Holy cow, you'd think this place is a mini DC with all the traffic. Yesterday it took me 50 minutes to get to were I'm working. Today it took 35, not too bad compared to yesterday I suppose.
I got out of work around 3pm, and decided to roam around downtown Tampa. If you live in or around Tampa, please forgive the following comment: Tampa is really, kind of a boring city. It's cool looking and all, with it's palm trees lining the downtown streets, but other than that, there wasn't too much to it.
I did pass quite a few nice houses as I drove the water front. I took these while driving so forgive me if they're a little crooked.
Boring downtown Tampa.....
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I'm driving a ford mustang this trip. Steve Betz, don't be jealous.
Janie recommended a place she scoped out last time we were down here, Tina Tapa's. It's a spanish restaurant that serves small sized portions.
Even though I'd heard the movie wasn't very good, I decided to watch Speed Racer at the IMAX theatre. The story line was just eh, and there was no character development to speak of, but the special effects were just crazy, if not over the top. If you are prone to epileptic seizures, you probably shouldn't watch this movie.
I think tomorrow I'm going to try Jackson's Bistro, since the old valet guy in the golf recommended it. If you're from Tampa and have any other suggestions, I'll gladly take them.
Mary Baldwin graduates a group from their Master's Degree in Shakespeare program - both an MLitt and a MFA. And each year the bakery does a cake for the celebration. And they always want the names of the graduates on the cake. When the client came in she just kept telling me what they did last year and on and on over how great that cake had been. But when I asked her what she wanted this year she wouldn't answer, just told me to do what I wanted. Her only suggestion was to include the names and a fleur de lis. So this was my solution to the problem.
I am supposed to train a new woman to take over parts of my Cake Decorating job. She’s from Martin’s – a grocery store chain. So she’s used to doing the big bloppy sloppy cakes that cost a fraction of what ours do. I hope it works out but I have my reservations. Anyway, I had started this cake and when she saw it you could see how intimidated she got – right off the bat. I really felt for her! Anyway, I walked her through the stages that I went through to make the face and that seemed to help her calm down a little bit. I’ve got to figure out a way to make it work with her because I want out of the day to day decorating there and she’s the only option that I know of at the moment.
I am really happy with how this cake turned out. And when the client saw it she was thrilled. She kept saying it just gave her chills. And I looked at her arms and she actually had goose bumps all over. Now that is a nice compliment if I ever had one. A totally unique compliment I must say!
