Mom Story#2 of 5

I love looking at old photos with my mom and having her tell me about her life before she got pregnant and had me. She broke away from Highland for awhile and lived in Virginia Beach. She had a very interesting life. She was a cocktailer that wore those short go-go dresses with the white boots. I think the dress was lilac with a white belt, very classy. She also had super long hair, like Crystal Gayle only shorter, and she, gasp, smoked. One last thing that I will share, she was a carnie. Yeh, you heard me right. She worked at one of the booths at a carnival, it must of been before carnies got the reputation for having summer teeth (summer here, summer there) and not bathing. She was a hottie pot-ta-ty. No wonder why my dad married her. She'll probably deny some of it, but there are pictures to prove it. If you work at Lands' End just ask Janie's little buddy Chris, he saw a picture, he knows.
So my friend Susan got a new job. She's been the Assistant Catering director at a prestigious hotel and has gotten nothing but the cold shoulder and rudeness from her co-workers. Just one more incident of Minnesota Nice being a lie, Lie, LIE. So she'll start a new job soon. We went out to celebrate today. We tried to eat at Ike's, which is a new steakhouse that opened up a couple of months ago, but ended up at Nick & Tony's due to the half hour wait at Ike's. It was busy and our server hardly paid attention to us. If we wanted anything we had to ask for it twice, but the dessert is killer. Any dessert you order is going to be for 3 people. Susan and I didn't know this and when they came out the two desserts took both of our tables. Susan got the brownie sundae which was ok and I got this awesome carrot cake. It reminded me of this carrot cake I had a couple of years ago at Oddfellows. First off it's a monster slice of heaven with cream cheese frosting. Oh, I called my friend Jim right away when I got back to my office. We had been to Oddfellows since the wonderful carrot cake incident, but they haven't had it since. So, Jim was pretty excited, I think we'll be there for dessert only. It's a couple of hours after lunch and my stomach is still full, uuugggghhhh. I wish I didn't have to work at the POT tonight. Yep, that's what we're (the staff) is calling it. Kind of fun to say, to the right people.
So, have a great weekend and I'll talk to you soon.

Smelly Closet

So I cleaned my house last night. It had been over a month since this last happened and things were starting to get scary. There was also and issue of a smelly closet that I had been ignoring and was finally ready to take care of. After a half hour of scrubbing the tub and another half hour cleaning the rest of the bathroom I was ready to call it quits, but that smelly closet kept lingering in the back of my mind and I had to take care of it. Guessing what it may be, I waited until almost all the other house work was done before attacking the closet, I even spent a fair amount of time on the phone to avoid "THE CLOSET". I start pulling out my recycling bags and getting things ready to take down to the garbage area when there it is, the source of the smell. A little mouse corpse lay on the floor of the pantry closet. My stomach is doing flips just thinking about what I am going to type next. I was home alone and I couldn't leave the corpse there any longer, I knew that I would have to dispose of this myself. I grabbed a bunch of paper towels and went to pick up the corpse hoping against hope that I wouldn't be able to feel the mouse body underneath all that padding. Feeling a dead mouse body at that point would have been the least of my worries. See, sometimes when you procrastinate bad things happen. The mouse had been there for so long that it was stuck to the floor. I got my dust pan and after 5 or 6 tries I was able to dislodge the mouse from the floor. I then used a combination of paper towel and the dust pan to carry the corpse to the garbage. It was so nasty, I never want to have to do that again. I think I would have paid someone $20 to never have had that experience. The house is now clean, except for my room which will get done this weekend.
Mommy Story #1 of 5--
My dad was in the army for 20 years and during that time we moved, a lot. For 3 years we lived in Germany. It was this really neat twin home that was 3 floors. It was huge. I remember this one time, my dad was having a little shin-dig for some of his Army buddies. My mom worked hard all day preparing. Cooking, cleaning, taking little nips off the bottle for all I can remember. It just makes the story that much more interesting. There was a big patio out back with a sliding glass door that led into the house. I walked into the house and my mom was sitting in the dining room at a chair not pulled up to the table (when I picture it in my minds eye she's slouched over, but I don't remember that for sure). What I do remember is that my dad had to get her upstairs because she was so wasted. She had thrown up on herself, what a mess. I think that's the last time she got really drunk. She'll deny it happening like that if asked, but I think I am pretty close to the truth on this one.

The Trouble with Tribbles

Oh My God, Wells Fargo has done something right. I'm baaaaaack. Wow, 3 weeks to catch up on. So, I am still dating Troy although there have been some problems in our relationship that I haven't encountered previously, probably because I am a commitment-phobe and tend to run away from problems instead of dealing with them. It's because I come from a long line of non-confrontational people. What we do well is talk about people behind their backs and make them hate us so we never seem like the bad person. Anyway, Troy is the type of person to talk about his feelings and "share" them. Sometimes it's kind of like "sharing" a shit sandwich. I don't like what he has to say sometimes, but I listen and "communicate" my feelings back to him. In case you didn't realize I am putting quotes around the words that I am substituting with more politically correct words. Anyway, I've come to realize that Troy is sometimes very sensitive about things, like when we go to eat somewhere he doesn't want me figure out what I want before I get up to order, I should spend the entire time talking to him about whatever topic is on the tip of his tongue. When we are eating, for example, Chipotle, and he gets pissy because his burrito opens and the fillings fall out because he isn't holding the right way, I should wrap up my food and be ready to finish a cold burrito at his house. Otherwise we may have a "discussion" about my "behavior". I didn't know that relationships could be this much fun. I usually dump or get dumped way before this point. I also have learned to deal with the fact that he gets to pick the "music" that we listen to and everything that I like is crap. He rolls his eyes and talks a lot more than normal when I put on one of my favorite CD's. That way we have to turn the volume down and not really listen to my music at all. But, when his favorite song comes on the radio, we need to stop talking and turn the volume up. Is this really part of being in a relationship? Please fill me in.

Today, I've come to the realization that I am the worst daughter in the world. Not only did I not send a card to my mom for her birthday back in March, I didn't even send her a mother's day card. And, today when I got to work and looked at my calendar, I realized that I forgot my dad's birthday entirely. It was yesterday. Yah, I pretty much suck. Happy Birthday Daddy.

So what has been going on these last couple of weeks besides "discussions" with Troy and extreme guilt over missed special days. Well, I've been working a lot, but this last weekend I took off so I could dog sit for some friends of mine. They have 3 very troublesome, but oh so cute dogs that I spent about 5 days with. Getting up early for going potty and finding poop packages discretely placed in the house, constant licking and barking all times of the day or night, it was grand. I went to a couple of BBQ's also this last weekend. One with my friend Disco Mike. He owns a house in Northeast Minneapolis. He is currently in a state of remodel so it's always exciting to go over to his house and see what's new. Patty Pumpkin Pants and Pseudo Boyfriend were also there so we chatted and stuff. Ate a great meal and had to split so I could let the dogs out. On Monday, Troy and I went to my friend Candi's for grilling and stuff. The guy's played X-Box while Candi and I sat outside and played cards. I found myself saying to Candi, isn't this supposed to be a group activity. Why are the guys all inside and we are outside. And why in the hell are we cooking dinner. I'm not understandin'.
That's all the big stuff. Hopefully, I am back online with no problems and will be able to update daily again. Thanks.
By the way, tonight I am just cleaning my pit hole of a house, so tomorrow begins Mom stories that I wasn't able to do for Mother's day.

Mom Gets to Hear all about Troy

It's Friday afternoon and things are really slow at work. I've been contemplating applying for jobs online in front of my boss, but thought better of it. I don't want him to know that I really can't stand the work that I do here. Or, considering how slow things have been, what I don't do here. This morning I got to work and ate a peach muffin, very tasty, read the entire Star Tribune from front to back, minus the sports section which I just perused, and did the crossword puzzle. For those of you that don't know I am a crossword puzzle fanatic. I buy the Star Tribune saying I am going to read it, but if I get busy I just turn to the Variety section and do the puzzles. So I worked on that, then Miss Susan called at 11:45 to set up a lunch date with me. I went to lunch and returned and yeah, there was a job for me to work on, 10 minutes later I was bored, played some games on the computer (which I don't understand, I can play games, but not check my e-mail). Then I decided that I should try to do something that resembles work, so I sorted through some tabs (I know not really exciting), and then out of the blue in walks Troy, carrying a single rose for me. What a cutie!!!! So my boss Bob is the first person to meet him. Which is fine, but I think it made Bob feel awkward that I was being courted at work. But, Troy is so damn cute. I'll take pictures this weekend and try to get them scanned so I can post them. I talked to Mom today about him, I couldn't shut up about him actually, and she's a bit leary. I told her he has some tattoos and his tongue is pierced, but I like him and he makes me happy, so when they finally meet at my cousins wedding in July I told Mom not to be too harsh. I'm more worried about my dad liking him than anything. Mike's kind of a scary guy unless you're one of his drinking buddies (and you've known him for 10 years). I don't think he likes anyone initially, and vice versa. We'll see what happens.
So, I did finally get to talk to Troy's sister and her boyfriend for more than 5 minutes. I was somewhat intimidated by them, because I want her to like me so much. Dinner didn't go too well and the 5th wheel that joined us for dinner was what caused the problem. Words were exchanged and tempers flared. I felt like I was in some daytime drama. We left the restaurant so fast after dinner that I thought we were preparing for an emergency evacuation before the bomb dropped. When I asked Troy today what his sister thought of me, the only thing he said was that her boyfriend Dave thought we were a fun couple to hang out with. So I don't know what the hell that means but, I don't want to spend the night trying to figure it out.
We've got some fun things planned for the weekend. There is a Scottish Fair at Macalester College. It's the last year they are able to do this due to severe budget cuts. On Sunday, weather permitting, we will be attending the MayDay festival at Powderhorn Park. This is good people watching so I don't want to miss it. But, I think we are going to have a busy weekend, because X-Men 2 came out today and I MUST SEE IT!!!! So if it is raining, I think we are going to do that. Anywho, hope everyone has a great weekend.

Nicollet Mall Farmers Market

Yeah, for Thursdays all over again. I just love the farmers market I walk past on my way to work. This morning I decided that I needed a cinnamon bun for breakfast. I know, not as healthy as bananas, but oh so yummy. So they bag it up for me and I walk another block to get to my building all the while thinking of how good this cinnamon roll is going to taste. Fresh bread, frosting, cinnamon.....Yum, Yum, Yum. So, anyway, I go and get a glass of water and sit at my desk. I slowly take the bun out of the paper bag as not to disturb any of the cinnamony goodness, and I carefully inspect the bun.... Oh, no, it can't be, RAISINS!!!! Why would anyone want to ruin a cinnamon bun with RAISINS. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind eating RAISINS, if that's all I am eating, but don't mix it with baked goods. I may even on occasion eat an oatmeal/raisin cookie, but never ever in my cinnamon buns. Cinnabon doesn't put raisins in there, you know why, because they don't belong in there!!! So, I had to pick out the raisins and I only ended up eating the top of the roll where the frosting was at, but I didn't like it, a lot.
So yesterday I am going through my usual daily sites that I check out and ended up in a most amusing place. Check out this site, www.engrish.com. Oh, so funny. Here are a couple of examples.....




Check out the rest too, I was almost crying I laughed so hard.
Last night I briefly met Troy's sister and her man. I was having dinner with Jim and had to run, but tonight we are all going out to eat at the Green Mill. I hope she likes me, I know how important it is to Troy.
Ok, I gotta get back to work, I will talk to y'all tomorrow.