The Glory of Friday

My brother and sister-in-law made a another trip down here from CA this weekend. Hopefully we can finally get a family picture while we're all together since it happens so rarely. Lol. Tonight we'll all be going to Buca di Beppo's, a late-birthday family dinner for me since we didn't all have the same nights free, but I like to just say it's a family get-together. Lol. I don't wanna be the center of attention anymore. If ever I was. Haha. But it's pretty sweet because my mom and dad-in law got me a gift card there for my birthday. Sweet! The tiramisu there rocks. It has a pretty strong alcohol taste compared to CA Pizza Kitchen and Olive Garden because its basically drowned in rum (lol), but I like it anyway which is a surprise since I HATE the taste of alcohol. CA Pizza Kitchen's tiramisu has more of an espresso taste to it, while Olive Garden's is more lacking in both and is sweeter. Ain't I just the tiramisu expert! Lol.
Evan got me two books for my "big" birthday present. I'm so excited for them to come! One is a book about the history of Beauty and the Beast. How cool is that??! And it's full of different renderings of the story. Pretty pictures! And the other book I got (also Disney) is a collection of artists who did all their own versions of Disney Princess. I can't wait to look at 'em.
Tomorrow I am playing the piano for opening/closing hymns and both offertories at church. I am so nervous!!! I feel nauseated and shaky, and it's weird because if I mess up, it's not like I am going to be excommunicated/ de-fellowshipped or whatever. Lol. But I figure I can at least help out once a year. My heart can't take more than that. I don't have any time to practice the piano anymore being a full-time employee and student. I've only gotten to run-through the hymns once, so tomorrow will be interesting. (Yikes!)

Birthday Fun

First of all, let me say that I got the swellest text from my Disneyland hook up Ali. She sent me a birthday song which I set for my ringtone for today. I played it for my friends who went ahead and danced for me.

When I got home after work, I practiced my choir music until I had to leave for class. Unfortunately my voice left, so choir was .... interesting to say the least. Haha. My mom surprised me with pretty pink roses and a chocolate bar (the roses matched my outfit! lol). When I got home tonight, I walked in and my cutey husband had set up a candle lit dinner, having gotten take out from CA Pizza Kitchen AND tiramisu. Evan knows me so well. He also got me red roses and Moonlight Path Bubble Bath! I have been looking everywhere for this stuff! He said that's not even my big present. :) So now, stuffed beyond fathoming, I am watching Dragnet with my baby, while Molly is being funny at my feet, rolling around to get attention. In all, a perfect birthday.

Birthday Bonanza!

So today is my 22nd birthday. A nurse at work told me that she didn't want to hear it if I was in my twenties so I told her I was really 32. Lol.

I came into work and one of my besties at work tied a bunch of balloons to my chair and she and Tanya wrote all over the white board above my desk all their birthday wishes for me. So I had a good laugh when I came into work. My other friend got me a sweet little journal with bible verses on each page and a cute puppy card. They love me. Lol. I also got to go out to lunch today. Usually I just brown bag it, but today was a good excuse. We all went out to Port of Subs for lunch, meeting my other bestie there for some yum yums. So far the day has been great, and Evan told me that he has something planned for after choir practice tonight so I'm super dooper excited.

I started up my story blog again. I think I'm up to 6 chapters on the darn thing, but I am rearranging sections a little bit to make it sound better. Hopefully I can get some followers on it that will tell me if my changes are hit or miss. Lol. I desperately need feedback on the sucker. Anywho, if you're bored enough, dear friend who is reading this captivating blog, the link is http://shatteredplanet-lori.blogspot.com/. Follow it. Rip it to shreds.

Lori out.
Up, up, and away!

Friday Eve

It was been a looooooong week. Seems every week has been long lately. When we got home last night, we ate spaghetti and watched Zombieland (not the most appetizing duo) and then when the movie ended, it was about 7:30 and I felt confused. I'm not used to getting to just go home and chill. Usually I have to rush home to change into jeans and then fly out the door again. Molly was super excited that we were home for the first time this week, so I played with her. I love that she plays by batting me with her HUGE paws. She's such a puppy. I got bored pretty fast after that movie ended and so I put on Drop Dead Fred, worked on my baby blanket, and then after the movie ended I decided to play "Lava!" and climbed on the couches and made a bridge using couch pillows to get around my living room. Evan was on the floor so I used his "flaming body" to get to my bridge, bemoaning the fact that I just lost my husband and puppy to the lava, before I fell off my "bridge" and died too. So maybe I didn't feel like being a grown-up last night. Lol. Evan didn't appreciate my "saving" him with my throwing water on him. Then I topped off the night with spinning really fast and then falling down and closing my eyes to feel the floor tilt. After several sessions of this, my dearest grown-up husband told me to knock it off and go to bed. In revenge, I made him do the dishes and I ran cackling up the stairs. I love my marriage. Haha.

And now on to grown-up issues. We owe a crap-ton to the government this year for taxes, and by crap-ton, I mean 2 thousand buckaroos. You know, cuz I totally have that to just spend. It always makes so much sense to have a ton taken from every paycheck and then get blessed with forking more money over to the gov'ment at tax time. My husband is pretty sure that he might be able to find some deductions, and I told him that I will believe it when I see it. I told my husband that I felt like the little bunny from Robin Hood who got a gold coin for his birthday only to have the Sheriff of Nottingham take it away from him. Therefore I vow to ever after refer to Obama as Prince John, the phony king of England [America]. According to the good Prince, we just make TOO much damn money. Oh really? If I were rich, I'm pretty sure I would have a working car with less than 130K miles on it as opposed to over. I would have clothes that I didn't have to patch myself and hold up with safety pins. Interesting.....

I like my classes thus far. Well, who can really like communications? It's easy and there's no homework so it works for me. My world religions class is another story though. I hate these classes and philosophy classes because it always attracts crackpots, and the teacher is usually the craziest one. I'm just taking it to graduate. So I had a quiz this week, and I couldn't get into the dang thing, so I email the teach to unlock the quiz for me, since it's now the next day, but she emails back, "I made provisions for this happening and so I only count 4 quizzes outta 5 towards your grade." Umm, so what happens if it does it again?? *Rolling eyes* Gee, thanks for the help, teach.

Thank goodness its Friday tomorrow or I would go crrrrrrazy. I need a break!

Two weeks 'til my birthday!

I get to work today and there's a card on my desk. Wow, guys. You don't even know when my birthday is? Or are you just doing everyone's Feb. birthdays at once? Lazy! Lol. Oh well. At least I got one.

Next week, we're headin' to DISNEYLAND! for my birthday. Well, our annual passes expire next weekend so it works. My sister and brother-in-law are coming too so it will be SO much fun. We're staying in a nice hotel too! Yay for off-season hotel rates!

We dropped off our VW at the shop last night. Or Evan did. I was trapped in my communications class til nine. But the shop was all the way in Glendale, so they had to rent a tow trailer to drag the car behind the suburban. It works though since the guy is fixing it for cheap. He says we should get it tomorrow. I'm so excited! Then we're selling the sucker. It's all fixed and stuff, but all cars break. ALL of them, especially when you need the car the most. I want to get another chevy. My dad can fix WHATEVER goes wrong, and we won't have to drive our car to GLENDALE to get it fixed because dad doesn't have the tool. I want an Equinox, but I gotta wait for that one. I don't feel like being broke every month.

Valentine's Day is comin' up, and while I think it's a retarded holiday, I'm going to go out and get a bunch of paper hearts and pink table cloths, and just decorate the crap out of my house just to see the look on Evan's face. Haha.

Tonight is choir so I'm lookin' forward to 5PM. Work is CRAZY CRAZY, but it is month's end after all. Gotta get all the Jan. packets into the system. If only it were Friday.....

Monday, Monday, Monday . . . .

This weekend went pretty well. We went to church Saturday morning; I paid my tithe, stayed for potluck with Mom and Pops, and then chilled at my house for a few hours working on my cross-stitch, before returning to the church for the spaghetti dinner/talent show put on by the Mesa Wildcats Pathfinder Club. It was really cute. They put together a series of their own skits and performed them in front of everyone during the dinner, all relating stories from the Bible. They were so cute! They did a really good job and I am proud of them. I wish more people from the church had come out to support them, but we had a pretty good sized crowd overall. I left before they could tally the rest of the donations, but last I heard they were over $100. My mom sweet-talked me into playing the piano at the end of the program, so that was fun. After the dinner, everyone came back to my place. I went with my friend Allison and my sister Stace to Michaels to go pick up some yarn for a baby blanket I am working on for my brother and sister-in-law. Then we watched The Couch Trip when the rest of my family showed up. Hilarious! I love Dan Akroyd and Walter Matthau! Molly had a good time playing with Abby who came over to visit too. Abby was being so cute on the stairs. She would go down a few steps at a time and then poke her head over the side, before disappearing again to go down a little further, and poking her head back over the wall. She eventually went upstairs to lay down next to my little brother who was playing computer games in our office.

Yesterday, Evan and I had a good time being lazy. We watched the Blues Brothers and Parenthood while he worked on his production blog and me on my baby blanket and cross-stitch projects. Then we got ready and went out for a date night to Olive Garden. There weren't any movies in the theater that we were hip on seein' so we decided to go rent the worst movie of 2008 (aka Twilight) so we could put on the Rifftrax and listen to the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 rip into it. So we set off to Blockbuster to rent a copy, and they inform us that they never got a movie back and we now owe 21 bucks. I told them that we had taken it back because I remember. But he stated once more, "Nope, never got it!" Evan went ahead and paid it before I could say otherwise, and I was livid to say the least. I just paid over 20 bucks for a movie that I do not have in my hot little hands. I DON'T THINK SO! So I made Evan take me to the other Blockbuster (they said we dropped it off there instead of the right store) and once we got there, I politely asked for MY movie. The man looks and looks and looks. It's not there. "We already sent it to the other store." Oh, really? I told him that the other guy said they didn't have it and to please call that store for me. So he did. And guess what? They DID have it. Oh boy! Another roadtrip! We drive ALLLL the way back and the guy tries to give it to me, and I said, "I want my money back." He waited until he was done with his customer so he could "explain to me why he couldn't." I told him he could try. He gave me some BS about it being waaaaay late and that it was protocol to charge me for the movie. I told him that I am not paying for a movie that I did not like, much less, TWENTY ONE DOLLARS! I have NEVER paid that much for a DVD. So I quietly told him that I had driven all the way to the other store to get it, and then came ALL the way back, and I would like a FULL refund. He obliged and I thanked him profusely. I don't mind paying a "restocking fee" or whatever they call their late charges, but don't you dare try to charge me THAT much. We happily exited the store free of any charges and our money back and went home.

We bought the Rifftrax for Twilight and put it on our ipod to listen to while we watched the movie. It was pretty easy to sync up to the movie and we laughed our butts off for the next 2 hours. GOOD stuff. Evan and I decided that we need to get a Rifftrax for every movie we hate. Lol. I am thinking the next one we get should be for the new Star Wars or Kingdom of the Crystal Suck. We'll see!

New Crafts!! :)

I finally found a cross stitch project and it's going to take FOREVER cuz it's huge, but I am excited. Not to mention, I wanna try my hand at making the little crochet animals in my sister's book.

Walmart has a bunch of FREAKIN' adorable plant pots so I am already planning my backyard. It's all rocks so there's not a lot I can do with it, but the pots will be cute back there and I wanna get my hands on some rose bushes, the old fashioned ones that have the strongest smelling flowers and plant them along the wall in the backyard and get one of those wooden, not lattice, but close, structures to put over my patio since I don't have a porch and trail some ivy and jacob's ladder roses up on top for shade. It's going to be fun! Now if I can get a break.... Lol.

Someone to talk to....

Interesting to note my complete and utter lack of excitement for the weekend, being Friday and all, but these last couple of days have left me in a kind of funk. It's a strange feeling, blank and apathetic. I'd like to think that the real cause is my exhaustion from work and school, but I don't have it that bad. I'm just tired of people lying to me for months and excusing themselves with, "I have my reasons." I'm tired of being screwed out of my money. I'm tired of having no friends. I'm tired of my job. I'm tired of the loneliness that threatens to rise up and choke me whenever I go onto FB and see everyone else making plans with their friends for the weekend, while I have to sit home alone for two days.

I mostly feel like kicking myself when these thoughts pass through my head. I have a wonderful husband, my best friend, who takes care of me, but I miss hanging out with girl friends. It'd be so much easier to make friends if I drank, not that I wanna change now. Alcohol smells awful and tastes worse, and one sip gives me a massive headache, so no thanks, but because I don't drink, I'm immediately treated like I cannot handle some people I know who enjoy drinking. They clam up around me when talking about their parties as if I were going to condemn them for drinking. My favorite is when they try and badger me about my choice not to. Why is it so important that I drink? It's like asking, "Why do you like vanilla more than chocolate?" It was so easy to make friends in school. One just needed to ask, "Wanna be friends?" and that was that. Inseparable ever after. It's interesting how fast everyone disappeared as soon as I got married. Apparently NOW I have cooties. Pfft.

Some guy is coming to take the cats tonight and I'm trying not to think to hard about it. I love Sesmu and Bagheera and I'm going to miss the brats. But not the cat boxes. I got to come home last night to the contents of the downstairs cat box strewn over my landing and covering the bathroom floor, but the idiots still went to the bathroom in the now empty-of-litter catbox, so that smell was pleasant. With so many things goin' to crap right now, being a prisoner in my own home is obnoxious. I want to be able to leave doors open and not worry about the cats getting into the rooms and tearing things up or pooping/peeing/puking all over the place. I want the smell out of my house. Ug, but I'm sad that the boys are leaving.

Tomorrow I will read this and laugh, since I'm probably suffering from "pre-woman woes" or something. Blogs are funny. It's like running around and shoving your journal under people's noses and begging them to read it. I don't care that no one reads my blogs. It's purpose is for me to ramble and feel better, so thank you blog. My only friend. :)

2010 thus far . . . .

Today heralds the second week of forced-carpooling with Evan since the oil pump in our Passat blew last week. My dad researched how to do it, so all set with mailed-in car parts, dad and Evan set off yesterday to get the car fixed. Unfortunately, turns out that to get to the oil pump and replace everything, you have to take a lot of stuff out, including lifting the engine which my dad lacks the tools (or should I say, LIFT thingamabob) to do. Talk about hopes dashed on not having to take it into a shop. We are hoping my sister's VW repair man can help us out for a few pennies instead of a pretty one. Thank goodness my truck is running perfectly (*knock on wood).

I started my second(?) to last semester this past week. I am taking World Religions (UGH) and a political science class online and COM100 and Choir on Monday and Tuesday nights. After this semester I should maybe have an elective left to do this summer and I will be set. I wish I could take another class this semester, but HOLY EXPENSIVE, BATMAN! For my four classes, I am paying eight hundred bucks, and with tax time and Evan's school payments looming ever nearer, I did not think it would be a good idea to break the budget. Oy.

Evan and I decided that it was time to attempt to find a new home for the cats. They chew up EVERYTHING, poop EVERYWHERE, and tear up my new carpet. I don't have a lot of say in the matter since Evan is the one in charge of cleaning the terror-inspiring catboxes and the messes EVERY night since I have to stay away from it due to my asthma and allergies, not to mention my newly developed gag reflex (and I always thought I was pretty hard stomach-ed). We're so busy and short of time every night that it is putting a lot of stress on Evan. I love them so much though! They are so cute and sweet, but I am going along with Evan in this. We already specified that we want the cats to go together in the ad on craigslist since it will help them adapt better to a different house, but I still feel pretty badly. Hopefully we can find a good home for them soon.

My goals for this month are: 1) Keep A's in all my classes (which should be easy), 2) Lose 20 pounds (I've already lost ten! *happy dance*), and 3) have a car to drive to Disneyland in a couple weeks for my birthday.