vacation, say what?

I get to run away on Monday for 5 glorious days thanks to a dear friend. She has been there for me with all of the dramas going on in my life of late and thought I needed a get away (um hell yeah) so she got me a ticket to fly out and see her. My work gave me a couple extra days off and away I go...YIPPEE. Can you tell I am excited? Now I just need to stop playing and get packed.

nerding out...

I guess this was my week for having nerdy moments. Yesterday I posted and celebrated Towel Day (go Douglas Adams) and today I am watching a movie that is once again channeling my inner nerd.
For every nerd & geek that ever loved Star Wars go rent or buy FanBoys. It is hilarious! The story is as follows...
They've waited patiently for years for the release of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. But when one of their own discovers he's terminally ill, a group of pals embarks on a road trip to Skywalker Ranch to steal the long-anticipated film. Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel and Kristin Bell star in director Kyle Newman's labor of geek love. Star Wars alums Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher and Ray Park make cameos.
The nerdy references abound in this comedy and I was ever so amused by it.
With all of the other stressful things in my life I love that I could let go and laugh today.

things to smile at

I am going to Colorado to see one of my best girlfriends!!!!
To say that I need this mini vacay is a serious understatement. My friend said she would love to get me out there as I obviously need to get away & she offered to help me out with the plane fare. We worked out a bit of a deal as I will play nanny one of the 2 days she will have to work while I am there and watch her little one for 8 hours. I found an amazing deal on a flight round trip from LAX for less than $200. So, with my boss being nice enough to let my coworker cover my shifts for a couple of days I am free to fly away. What is funny is I will have 6 days off than go back to work 7 in a row...haha. I am doing a little happy dance right now. Life has turned a corner to the sunny side of the street~LOL.

she said, I say

So, I have blogged a bit here and there lately about some drama I was experiencing. Basically a person I thought I was very close to is going through a period of intense change and feels that it is best to not talk to those around her. This is a person I would have said I knew quite a lot about and yet due to all of this it is as if I don't even know her. There is a bit of passive-aggressive behavior going on also in her not responding. It is ok for this person to leave cryptic posts on FB about how people aren't supporting her happiness, but not ok to actually communicate so we can know about it? I honestly give.
To me this just reeks of selfishness and game playing. If you want others to understand what you are going through you must share the experiences...how else can they understand. I will say that at this point it is not about taking sides, being supportive or even happiness. It is about if this person values our friendship or not. In talking to other friends who know both of us I was told that she feels sad about our distance right now. If that is true then act upon it. Pick up the phone or send a text, an email...something. The longer it goes on with no connection the thinner that thread becomes.
I also found out that a dear friend I have known forever is having serious medical issues & is facing the possibility of a pacemaker at 40 due to them. I sat down and thought about all of this and realized I know exactly why I am not sleeping, having migraines and generally feeling run down. It is all of this stress of other people around me. I need to make sure that while I am supportive of them, that I also take time for myself. I have reached out to some of my other close friends and had great conversations. I appreciate so greatly the amazing friends I have made and continue to nurture & cherish them. In times of adversity they are always there to lift my spirits, help me to see another side and just care about me.
I love them!

happy towel day

for more details on what this worldwide event is about & how people all over the world are celebrating!
TOWEL DAY

In honor of this holiday that celebrates the life and works of Douglas Adams I will be releasing a book of his today. People all over the world celebrate this fun holiday...all you need is a towel.
The original quote that referenced the greatness of towels is found in Chapter 3 of Adams' work The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

“ A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar ”

so lovely

This was the first Memorial weekend in 6 years that I got to relax and enjoy the 3 day weekend fully. I no longer work within the beach side town in which I live, thus could relax on the beach and smile at all of the tourists who paid to enjoy what I have everyday. The big beer & music festival once again brought out a multitude of crazy, even some of whom I know. It is the ones I don't that worry me. For example the guy who knocked on my back door on Friday eve wanting to come in and look around. He was under the idea that his brother might have lived here in college. I am thinking he was drunk and confused. Why do I say that you wonder? Well, it might be that he had a beer in each hand when he came to the door. Or it could have been that I have lived here for 11 years and the people who lived here prior to that were here for 15 years. This guy wasn't that old so I am guessing he was a wee bit confused.
I retreated to the local watering hole to hang out with the scary drunk people I already know. This weekend draws a lot of former residents and coworkers back for the fun thus I enjoyed catching up with those that I saw. I watched my friends play volleyball on the beach yesterday afternoon while we waited for the town to quiet down a bit. Today after my short work day I came home and dealt with friend drama (yes it is still going on) and decided to open the windows to hear the music and let all of my stress drop away. Tomorrow is a BBQ and more volleyball. Life is good.

things to do when you are not sleeping

As previously mentioned I suffer from the occasional bout of insomnia. They usually occur when I have a high stress level in my life which at the moment is quite low, thus I am not sure what the fun reason is now. All I know is I am averaging about 4 hours a sleep a night for the past 3 nights...and this is not consecutive hours either mind you. On the plus side of this I am getting through my mountain that is my To Be Read pile of books.
I read JEN LANCASTER'S
Great memoir "such a pretty fat or why pie is not the answer"
This book amused me on many levels, not the least of which is how she views the gym and WW meetings. An example of why I loved this book is this blurb from the back cover:
"To whom the fat rolls...I'm tired of books where a self-loathing heroine is teased to the point where she starves herself skinny in hopes of a fabulous new life. And I hate the message that women can't possibly be happy until we all fit into our skinny jeans. I don't find these stories uplifting:they make me want to to hug these women and take them out for fizzy champagne drinks and cheesecake and explain to them that until they figure out their insides, their outsides don't matter."
She has a healthy & hilarious outlook that made me want to get moving for the right reasons.

Another good one I finished off last evening was DEBRA GINSBERG'S book
Waiting, which is part memoir part social commentary. This book is a great read for any of us who have ever worked within the service industry. Sometimes you read a book and have those aha moments, this book did that for me. The common view is that people who work within this industry are all on their way to something else, waiting for the rest of their life to happen. I thought it was a funny, moving and accurate.
Then of course there is always the time killer that is Facebook and it multitude of games. I am quite addicted to Bewejeled Blitz myself. Alas many of my friends are also, thus my addiction is fueled by trying to top their high scores. Well, off for an attempt at an afternoon nap as most likely I'll be up most of the night once again.

tivo for the brain

Do you ever wish their was a rewind button on your brain?

I mean we all have these great thoughts, or sometimes thoughts we think are great when we are drunk.

(see texts from last night website for example)

For me it is often late at night as I am lying in bed and have a great thought run through my head. It could be anything from a reply I should have said in response to some one's words to me or a fabulous sentence for the book that I am wishing to write. It is times like these that a tivo like device for our brains would come in handy. Crazy big brother-1984 type thought I know, but can you see how handy it would be. You could record a moment to play over and over again. You could pull that random thought or sentence up when you are fully conscious....it would be great. Of course I could just put a note pad by my bed and write it down when it comes to me, but hello-way too easy & practical!

Though our brains are amazing things and at times can pull those crazy thoughts back up. I had one such great phrase come to me the other evening as I lay in bed drifting off into lala land. I actually remembered it today, of course I remembered it while I was driving so I couldn't write it down, but still I remembered! I am sure if I concentrate real hard it might even come back once more.

So, now off to put a bit of time in typing away at my never ending start to my novel/short story collection. I think if I ever manage to finish I would be amazed. Of course I read all of these other amazing books and semi despair of writing anything half as good, but I am working on my confidence issues....really.

on the bright side?

I had my first taste of repair to my "new" car yesterday. My sweet little cherry darling just turned 2...and yes I do name my cars, doesn't everyone? I don't drive much and tend to be good about the basic maintenance so having my tire blow out while running into town early yesterday evening pretty much sucked. I heard that my car sounded odd, then the feel of it changed quickly. I got into the slow lane and cruised onto the shoulder. In doing so I attempted to pull off as far as I could as I was pretty sure it was my front driver's side tire...and hey what do you know I was right! I called my dad as to be honest it was not a place I wanted to try and change a tire at, though I can do that chore.

My dad said he would be there shortly so I sat back and tried to relax. I will say that in all my times of breaking down (and there have been a few over the years) I have never had a CHP stop. I can no longer say that...he did stop at least. The guy asked me if I had help coming & said he would check back on his next loop. I thought about trying to pull further forward to the exit which wasn't too far ahead, but I didn't want to screw with my rim.

This ended up being a good call!

So, my pop comes and after a bit of searching we find all we need to get that dead tire off. Turns out my fancy new baby has a wheel lock on her tires so that they can't be stolen. Who knew there was such things...when you own old piece of crap cars you don't have that. My dad had parked his car a bit further out, but traffic was still ugly close. All of those valley folk pulling their rigs of camping & dune toys came very close to us.

The thing that bugged me is here is a car on the side of the road, getting a tire changed on the side where traffic is. You can see the flashers and are in the slow lane with no one in the fast lane, but do you move over...oh no you don't. Heaven forbid you think of others...crazy talk!

And to the ones who did move, thanks : )

The car comes with one of those small spares, so I drove back home quite slowly & carefully. This am my pops came back and took my tire and rim into town, paid for 2 new ones, brought one out to the house & installed it. Then drove the car into town to get the other tire. When all was said and done it cost me a mere $100 and 3 hours of my dad's time. No charge for labor or time...love that. Bless my savings for having enough in it to cover this.

And that is the bright side...pop could and did help, had the money and a day free to take care of it. Plus now having 2 fresh new tires on my car it can go for miles and miles...LOL

not so good at this...

I just noticed in posting the last blog that it had been almost two weeks between posts. Luckily I think I have only about 3 people who even read this so I am not disappointing many when I don't write. I guess life has just been a bit busier than I thought in the past weeks. I have a lot of things going on within my circle of friends and family that is keeping my head spinning. I thought about blogging on some of it, but it is all quite personal and gets hard to be general enough to not upset those who might be involved.
The high & low points are as follows.
I am semi not speaking to a very close friend as we have differing views on what our friendship should entail.
My brother is amazing for being a good man & taking care of the people in his life.
My house got a new piece of furniture...a damn cute couch!
I am still mostly unemployed, though I applied for 3 jobs in the past 2 days, including a church secretary...and yes you read that right.
I haven't had anything to drink as far as alcohol since happy hour with some friends on Thursday.
I saw Star Trek ~ it rocked. I would go again!
Went shopping and bought a dress & super cute shoes for my 20th

(OMG I AM THAT OLD?)

high school reunion.
Paid all of my bills and am broke again until the end of next week when I get my paycheck.
Oh well, that's life!

life, ain't it funny?

A couple months back I went south to visit friends and while on the trip spent a good part of the evening at the ER. In the end the visit was a minor one, but the conversation my friend, her mom and I had while waiting made me laugh. My friend's mom was talking about all of the things that bothered her. They ranged from french manicures to tattoos. My friend said to her mom, you are getting quite opinionated in your older age and her mom replied "what else do I have to do?"
It made me laugh then and now. We all have little pet peeves, bad drivers, people who talk on their cell phone in check out lines, a certain word that they hate to hear...whatever it may be.
We have to balance the things that irritate us with the things that make us smile. I have been trying to look at the glass half full way of life much more lately. So, in that vein rather than complain about things here are a couple of things that amused me in the last few days.
The woman at the local beach side farmer's market who walked around wearing a bra as a bathing suit top. How do I know it was a bra? Well, I own the same one & would never think to wear it on the outside of my clothing.
The alarm at work that flashes after arming it to "please leave now" with the seconds counting down. Why this amuses me so I don't know, but it does.
People who call my restaurant in the morning to ask if I think it will be busy that evening...hmm, let me look at my crystal ball. I smile each time and bite my tongue to not say some smart ass remark.
Most of the TV shows from the 80's. I just watched the entire series of Square Pegs on DVD this weekend. It was actually a very well written, sarcastic show, but at 12 or 13 I don't think I got most of the humor. For example in the Halloween episode the one black character on the show talks about silly white people are dressing up in sheets and walking around. Plus the clothes alone make me smile, never mind the valley girl speak. Then there is Johnny Slash, the new wave one on the show...one of my first crushes. Sadly the actor who played him passed away the year I graduated HS.
Neil Patrick Harris in both of the Harold & Kumar movies...random and strange, but hella funny.
The concept of one size fits all clothing, seriously?
Warning tags on hair dryers, curling irons etc that say to not use while sleeping. Really?
Jen Lancaster's book Such a Pretty Fat or Why Pie is Not the Answer
This is a fabulous book for any woman who has ever dieted...oh wait I think that is like every woman on the planet!
There are so many more things that make me smile, but I think you get the basic idea of what I did this weekend to smile.
Hope you had some happy moments of your own!

ok so it goes

I blogged previously about something going on with my friend and how it was affecting me. Well, despite conflicting advice on if I should actually say what I was thinking or wait and see what happens, I choose to say my thoughts. I sent off an email a little bit ago to this friend saying how I was feeling. I think I did a good job of just putting it out there in a non judgemental way...I hope. I love this person and would even if for some reason we didn't remain friends, though I just don't see that happening. I hope that my choosing to be honest about my true thoughts will help, not hurt.
On other news I decided that after doing all of this playing on the computer I needed a day off. So, after sending that email and doing this blog I am taking a computer free day
(or at least 1/2 day) as it is about 11 already. I have lots I should do and if I take playing bejeweled blitz out of the damn equation I might get it done! Also, have to see Repo, the genetic opera later with my friend discotrash later today. So, right now it is off to shower, throw some clothes in the washer and run a few errands. Later, food, repo and booze...life is good!

strange dreams

You ever have those dreams you wake up from and go WTF?
Oh, I do and did just last evening. I am sure that the stress I have going on from various aspects of my life was at least partly to blame. None the less I would rather not have had this dream as it was odd, scary and completely never going to happen (which is a relief). The funny thing is this is the first time in quite a while I have even had a dream. My sleep patterns have been such that I rarely sleep deeply enough to acually dream. After 3 or 4 nights of getting a hour or so of sleep at a time I slept a full 4 hours at once last evening. What is my reward, a crazy dream...really? I swear this bout of insomia/sleep issues is as bad as having a infant waking me at all hours. At least I am guessing based on my limited experience with such things.