New Years, Work, and a whole lot of Wah!

Hey folks. I have a cold. It's not a particularly bad cold; just enough ickiness to put a damper on your day. Throat hurts, can only breathe out of one nostril...you know the deal. Between that and the fact that my face is bleeding like I have some sort of stigmata due to a new crop of acne which along with my new wrinkles makes me soooooo attractive. Yes, I know I am not supposed to pick. No, I don't seem to be able to stop. Yes, I know that is a problem. But hey, I am freakin' ROCKING the troll look.
What was I talking about; oh yeah. New Years. So, as most of you know it is going to be a Blue Moon on New Years Eve. Seriously. I think I may be afraid to go out. It's going to be amatuer night + werewolves. *shaking head* Current plans include going over to a friends with the husband and dogs and apply moderate amounts of alcohol. *shrugs* Whenever I plan big it ends up very disappointing, so this year, planning small.
New Years Resolution: to write in this thing more. I am currently averaging about once per week--but I am thinking of trying to up it to 3 times per week. Don't know, have some thoughts percolating and will keep ya'll updated.
As an important sidenote: Soon Come the turnaround. The FCC (refinery thingy) is going down and 1500 unprepared contractors are, as I type, prepping to descend upon this island (some are here; some will be here later). They will arrive and it will be like they have never seen rum nor women before. *shrugs* looking on the bright side I should get some great stories out of this.
On the Dooley front--he has gone home as of last night. Bless that big hearted bafoon, he did not fit into our pack very well. It was an experience and things like that always keep me from getting a puppy! :)
*big hugs*
Love,
H.

Almost a year...Happy Eve!

Can ya'll belive I have been down here for almost a year? Yeah, me either. Yet, here we are on Christmas Eve. A year ago today I was back in the midwest hanging out with family--spending a lot of time talking about my "year" in St. Croix. Lots of changes this year, changed companies...okay, so that was the biggest change but there are lots of little ones too. I now have a (psycho devil minion) cat. Have officially learned (thanks Doolie) that I do not want a 3rd dog, and lived a whole year without having actual tv. Please don't think I'm a saint; I have netflix and watch a lot of tv onlne...just saying, I don't have network tv. I have learned that netflix is one of the best services in the world, that I fit in pretty well on this island of misfit toys, and I have learned I like my own company. Having never lived alone before--well, it's kind of nice. I have a lot more patience these days; because when everything take HOURS you have to develop patience. The last thing that I have learned is you can develop a callous regarding the beauty of the world around you. Yes, I have a deck overlooking one of the most beautiful views ever; often I prefer to go see what netflix I have to watch. It's sad, and yet nice that I feel at home enough to ignore the beauty.
Alright, enough of the year in review. Doolie update: this little (GIANT) bugger is a pain in the patootie! We have developed a system to keep him downstairs at night. The other 2 dogs sleep upstairs and the cat? well, who knows what he does. Sometimes I wake up with him stealing my pillow; sometimes he goes and kills things. anyway, with Doolie downstairs at night he sleeps as opposed to playing "kill the kitten" under the bed all night. Doolie goes home in T-4 days. Not that I am counting. :) He is a very sweet dog; just trying to determine his place in the household.
Alrighty, that's about all. Come the new year I am going to continue this blog. Probably involving themes (reviews, guest blogging, photo thursday, etc.)
Oh, Plans for the holidays? sorry, you all seem to want to know. Here is the Heather's schedule of Holiday events:

December 24th -- slacky dinner with husband and neighbors. eaten outside on the deck. turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry, veggies, and dessert.
December 25th -- slacky (possibly still in pjs) breakfast at a friends house with pretty much everyone I know. Then onto the beach for a day of sunshine and waves.

New Years? no idea--but I have a great outfit! ;)
January 2nd -- Adult parade at 11AM local time. *very* excited to see this. I arrived on the 2nd last year and caught some of the teardown...the outfits look amazing. This year you can watch it live on the internet. :)
http://www.stxfestival.com/
January 3rd -- Recovery; then back to work. :)

Happy Holidays Everyone!
-H.

Welp!

I say Welp! It's a fun combination of well and help. Here's the news: *I* am officially the bad neighbor. I know! Who knew? I mean, I've been the bad neighbor before...you know, when for a while I didn't believe in landscaping (drove my Chicago neighbor nuts) or hey, when I described my first neighbor in startling detail on this blog--probably not so neighborly then either.
But Doolie the beast from hell, well, he and his cat-search-play-jump shenanigans round the clock have officially prompted the OMG you suck email from the neighbor. And she is not wrong--I *do* suck.
Tonight there is going to be some exercise. Because otherwise I am screw-ed.

I'm gonna have to...

04:27: I lean into my dog Teak's head and whisper, "I'm going to have to kill him; and you're gonna have to help me hide the body."
And that's how my day started this morning.
Yesterday I had to get my phone replaced due to a water "incident". It wasn't even that dramatic or funny--just got some water on it...which apparently leaked thru the trackball and slowly but surely decimated my phone.
But back to the giant pain in my ass aka Doolie. My dog Life has completely given up on me as an owner and has been sleeping downstairs with what looks to be her middle pad extended upwards in my general direction. Teak the Faithful, well, he stays close but his face and flashing teeth very clearly tell Doolie is he unwelcome.
Greebo, f'n Greebo...well, he wants to give up no ground so he keeps attacking the foolish Doolie which only causes the (again) foolish one to get more excited and bang his idiot head into my bed more soundly Every Time.
(Reason #162 a kindle will never fully replace a book: you can't beat a dog with it--similar to Reason #1 (can't kill bugs) but different.)
Where was I? Oh yes, Doolie...so, I MacGyver'd a separation to keep him out of the bed loft...it involved stacked laundry baskets--that failed.
So we moved onto furniture And the laundry baskets-FAIL.
Then there was a hammock, a chair, and three laundry baskets-FAIL-although it did last just a bit longer.
So, for today--I give up. Hopefully with the addition of a baby gate and a prayer I can sleep tonight.
I would say goodnight; but let's be honest--time to make the donuts...
*sigh*

Oh. Meh. Gawd.

So, funny story. Or maybe just so tragic I think its funny?
I was complaining to my landlord about my ridiculous electric bill. Stating perhaps the hot water heater is causing my extreme cost.
So he gave me an on-demand gas hot water heater. In theory more efficient and I am all for it. Now here is where the crazy funny kicks in. My neighbors and I used to share a 6-gallon water heater; but now that is theirs alone.
Okay, cool.
I asked him, so now the electricity from the hot water heater is on their "grid"? He looks at me and says, "uh, no. But don't forget you get that $25 for their usage of it." This is the same as before the gas...
Oh. Okay. So wait. Not only do I now have to pay for additional gas for *my* hot water; but I get to pay for the neighbors' hot water too.
It wouldn't be so funny if it weren't so painful.

Re: holy. crap. I. am. tired.

Last night started out calm. So calm. So nice. Everyone chillin out.
Then, then it was time for bed. Which apparently in Dooley speak means hunt the cat hiding under the bed.
For 6 hours.
From approximately 8pm to 2am I heard the cat occasionally spit in anger at (poor) Dooley who was just existing with his head stuck halfway under my bed. Every angered spit from the cat caused the dog to jerk and wham his freakin' head into the bed.
To be more specific, he didn't do this for 6 hours straight. He occasionally took a break to hop onto the bed and step on my head. There was one memorable incident when he attempted to SIT on my head.
*sigh* I officially have marmaduke staying at my house.
This morning I woke up with Dooley asleep under my legs taking the complete head of the bed (I had long since turned around to get my face away from Dooley).
My cat is still mad. My dogs are still underwhelmed. I am *tired*.
That's all I have for night one; when Dooley visits. :)

Just to let you know...

...I am doing it for you.
Yes, things were tame, normal. We had a routine. Which although reassuring, does not provide humorous writing. So, when a co-worker asked if I wanted to watch their dog Dooley I said sure. *snicker*
Dooley makes my dog Life look like a petite flower.
He is, to the best of my guessing, a Great Dane Lab mix.
The cat hates me, the dogs are underwhelmed.
Let the crazy begin...

Remember when...

Hey folks,
So, I'm lying here sort of hoping for sleep. It ain't a' hattenin.
Remember when you were a kid and slept *so* hard that you woke up with your face stuck to your pillow which had somehow heated up to about 300 degrees? Yeah, those were good times.
Those of you on facebook know that my dog (Life) has been sick with a big hotspot and a cone-of-shame also known as an elizabethan collar to keep her from licking it. Her right side is completely shaved and in all honesty, she looks horrible. :( I took her collar off her tonight and she has been so stressed she is now lying incredibly close to me with her head on a pillow. Its not helping ME sleep, but I'm worried about her. *shrugs*, sometimes I'm a softie. :)
Works been going okay, friends have been going okay, family has been going okay, it's been fairly tame.
I put up some holiday decorations. Okay, all I did was wrap some lights around my banister along with some purple kmart special garland. But at night it looks totally festive. Sadly, during the day it looks a little trashy. *shrugs* One thing I know about myself; I'm kind of lazy in regards to decorating.
Oh, regarding the collar of shame (speaking of trashy) I got it for her on friday, but when I put it on it looked SO big. So, on Friday evening after cocktail hour it seemed a "good" idea to "trim" it. And I did. And it wasn't. Right after I trimmed it the dog immediately began licking the hot spot. Needless to say the next day, with the help of a friend who kept having to stop and bend over laughing at me, I duct taped that stupid collar of shame back together. Not only did my poor dog look stupid, she looked Trashy Stupid.
The best way to take all the majestic glory out of a large breed dog is to shave one flank unevenly and put a large cone around her head covered in duct tape. New low people, new low.
Life (the dog), never one to be held down by the stupidity of her owner has turned said cone into a battering weapon of mass destruction. Furniture has been knocked over and eventually moved, people and animals beaten, herded, and cut open. She now has a battering ram/slicing plastic cone of shame. Cone of Shame? No, says the dog; Cone of Dooooom!!!!
Gnite ya'll.
I wish you all to have the sleep of a happy child.
-H.

Well...

Okay, so paradise ain't always perfect. Power has been out since about 3.2 minutes since I sat down after work following the grocery store. That said, it has been (mostly) peaceful.
Goodnight!

Some days...

Some days I feel like I am damn good at my job. This is not one of those days.
I have been riding that roller coaster of I am great, I suck, I am great again, oh crap...
It does (and doesn't) help that I have the most subtle boss in the world. A slight waver in his voice could spell doom...or it could be he just shotgunned some soda. So, If he suggests something I for SURE do it. Today I am very tired due to travelling for HOURS yesterday and I was going to leave work early and make up the time later in the week. He said to me, "you know, people look at your gate times...",I stayed and worked. We also got the news that my boss' boss is quitting. It's one of those moments where 1. I am sad to see him go cause I liked him and 2. oh crap--does he know something I don't.
Nothing too catastrophic today. I will attempt to update more.
Today I got to work early enough to beat angry jazz hands lady (crossing guard) and that always leads to a good day.

Hello....

So, Happy Thanksgiving to ya'll. I'm back on the island. I've learned a few things in the past week of "vacation".
1. get home before the day before you have to go back to work. Getting home late and then having to go to work the next morning is unpleasant (aka sucks).
2. don't travel somewhere colder on vacation; make people come to you.
3. don't take a taxi home from the stx airport. It was really expensive and took forever.
4. don't be suprised when you arrive at the stx airport if someone forgot to unlock the airport doors so two plane loads of people stand there looking at the terminal but are unable to get to the terminal. And then (this part really made me giggle) when you do unlock a door only unlock one of the 4 available doors so the people bottleneck trying to get through.
5. I'm tired, and when I am tired I get grumpy.
6. My landlord is still unpleasant. My electric bill (which was in my door when I returned home along with my rent invoice) was ri-freakin-diculous. That on top of the over-priced cab fare filled me with an impotent rage.
7. Regardless of how grumpy I am my dogs (and cat) still missed me a lot and all piled on top of me (to hold me in place?) when I got home last night.
8. It was nice to see as many people as I did; unfortunately there is never enough time to see everyone.
9. Besides people some of the things I missed the most were giant target stores (where I danced down the aisles smiling at people); giant bookstores where I raided the clearance racks repeatedly; and a lot of the food.
10. Some of the things I didn't like about the mainland was that strangers don't look you in the face, everyone goes out of their way to *not* look at you. A friendly greeting causes mistrust, and speed and anonymity is prized over politeness.

My Thanksgiving Plans o' Wonder...

Thanks to the generosity of an un-named family member I'm flyin' home for Thanksgiving. Well, flying, flying, driving, driving, flying, and then flying. But who cares! I'm going to see people! People that I love! And my family! (Kidding! Ha! I totally love my family--I just cannot resist a cheap joke) So, here is the itinerary for my midwest tour '09. After work on Friday I sucker some poor bastard into driving me to the airport, or I park at the airport, or something along those lines. Then I awkward my way through customs...I always mess up the form or something. Then I settle in for my first nap...I mean flight to Miami. Arrive at Miami, eat something....then either run for my gate or wait a *really* long time. Depending on how close the gate is. If I'm feeling especially cruel I will order something to go, something with extra onions and garlic so I can stink up the cabin of my next flight....nah, wait--thats every other person I end up flying with...*sigh*. Then I arrive in Chicag where I will either wait for Wilkes to pick me up (we *never* time it right) or I wait for a cab to drive me home. Haven't decided yet.
Then home. Then some packing and meeting with friends. then some doctors appointments on monday--then swingin' by the old office to drop off my work computer which was *DENIED BY CUSTOMS (W.T.H.)* when I tried to ship it back and say hello to people at the company of which I quit. I will cry.
Then, if I can, I will convince them to take me drinking somewhere with wings. You know where...:) Failing that, I will go by myself. The "someone just quit lets go eat at RAM thing"...it needs to happen with me too, dammit.
Then tuesday--well, I'm sleeping in...and then packing some more stuff at the house. Then wednesday-the great migration to OH/MI. Where I get to see my family, I'm sure my mom will cry (I get my emotional state from her you know. :) ) and there will be much rejoicing as I get to see everyone. :) Then thursday there will be the eating....then friday, friday will be the shopping (and I will remember why I moved to a tropical island). Saturday we check out of the hotel and commute our way back to the windy city...Sunday I fly back to St. Croix. Monday back at work.
And, since it is 72 degrees here today and not sunny (rainy) I am freezing! like, need to get a long sleeved shirt on cold--so I am pretty sure once I land in Chicago I am going to turn into a popsicle and shatter anyway and all this planning will be moot.
Much love to ya'll.
-H.

Happy Monday

Happy Monday

Cold Rainy Day...

A cold rainy 76 degree day...you gotta admit, still beautiful.
:)

Ya ever wonder...

Ya ever wonder, maybe its okay to just be a bitch? Maybe I *don't* have to rationalize away my emotions every single time? Maybe the other people *are* just wrong and I can just not like people.
Now, maybe you all think that just feeling what you feel is normal...I usually have an entire mental discussion every time I have an emotion. "Why do I feel this way, what was that person doing, did I cause this....blah blah blah blah blah ad nauseum"
So. Anywhoodle, there is some info on how and why I may be as nuts as I am. ;)
Happy Sunday.

Why Communism Doesn't Work...

I'm not going to lie; a lot of me wants to be the free and easy lets all just put money in the pot and take what we need kind of person. But it turns out I'm not that. I am, instead, kind of a heartless selfish bitch. So, while part of me has always wanted to go live on a hippie commune and grow my own food the realist part of me says, yeah, but how do I pay for pizza? And you know there would be a SMACK DOWN on the first hairy-armpit that tried to steal my last slice. So, while generosity is a trait I strive for, it turns out about certain things I get snatchy and snarly:

• diet coke: do *not* take my diet coke. Do not even look at my last diet coke. I will fly over my kitchen island and smack that shit right out of your hand in a kung fu move normally only seen on television.
• netflix: If I lend you a movie; get that shit in the mail the next day. maybe 2. Because otherwise--what. the. hell. I'm paying for shit to sit at your house. gee, that's satisfying.
• books: not all books, not even most books--but I have about a dozen books that I do *not* like to lend and if you are on the list of people who are lucky enough to borrow them you better believe I am going to check up on your progress, interest, and health and well being of my book--possibly daily.
• caps/lids: I am aware that this is some fucked up shit. I am. But if I lend you something, please do not lose the cap or lid from it. I don't know why, but receiving something back without the cap/lid (you know, like the plastic thing over the spray nozzle?) completely ruins that product for me and I want to throw it away. An example of this is some dog stuff I lent someone to cure a dog owie. It was a spray bottle, it came back without the cap. I had to hide it in a cabinet. Also, my husbands man-hands overtightened the cap on a bottle of mouthwash, cracking it. I am desperately trying to use this mouthwash before I freak out and throw it all away. Yes, I *am* this nuts.

I'm sure there are more things; this is just all that came to me this morning. In case you haven't noticed, there is a slight tone to this post. In the past I have tried *so* hard to keep the posts all sweetness and light; but cripes folks...I've been here 10 months and 8 days, that's a lot of friggin sweetness and light.

So, prepare for a few sarcastic, grumpy, and probably hoo-larious postings. Because what it all comes down to is I'm me. And I sure as hell ain't all sweetness and light.

Hugs & Kisses!

-H.

Uh. so, November happened.

It just kind of hit me, I wasn't prepared, ya know. But today I just realized that it is freak'n November. Then I looked at the last time I had updated and that was LAST MONTH. Wowsa, I'm a slacker. If it makes you all feel any better I haven't been writing as much because I have been *doing* stuff.
Also, I now have a Wii; turns out that is a hell of a lot of fun. Just saying.
Let's see, having become a devoted fan of some other blogs (these things happen when you don't have tv) I know that I love the minutae of other people's lives. So, here ya go...random crap (yet again).

I am pale. Like--live in Chicago pale. I will be flying in on the 20th of this month and I *know* I am going to hear about it. I don't know how to explain any further that I live here, I am not vacationing here. There are limited amounts of time I can spend sunbathing while performing daily stuff. But, for the sake of everyone's expectations I will try to crisp myself this weekend.

Saturday night I went to a thing. Well, crap. I'm going to have to start from the beginning. You ever meet someone, someone who seems *so* happy with their life and with who they are that they are both inspiring and intimidating at the same time? That's Elizabeth. I do not have her full story but she is a lovely retired woman who is a friend of some friends and we all get along very well. She is part of a group of painters called the "Palleteers". They had an art showing saturday night. Free wine, food...and best of all--fun people.
In fact, I seem to have found my soul mates of obnoxiousness. I know, I know...a lady shouldn't be obnoixous. Here's the thing. In this world--there are assholes. You all know it. I know you do. If you are at a party or gathering and you end up trapped in a conversation with such an asshole and can't find a way out--well, you signal your friend and they rescue you. One of my friends Tabra got herself caught in such a pickle on saturday, and a group of us stared at her trying to figure out if she was stuck, or just expounding her point by waiving her arms. Turns out she was in fact stuck. whoops. So as a table we decided we needed a better signaling system. After going through a few; someone suggested whooping. You know, car alarm "whoop, whoop, whoop!" while not subtle, this certainly became h00-fucking-larious and became the theme song of the evening.
But then, then I got stuck with a lechery old italian dude who was like, "is your name Heather or Leather...bwahhahhah..how very sexual." Immediately I stared at him and sent out the call, "whooop whooop whooop!!!" and as friends started whooping along I yelled, "this is NOT a drill--Whooop, whoop!". Thankfully, this scared off the old lechery italian dude. So, I'm not sure--but this may be my new thing.

I *really* should tell ya'll about Halloween. Needless to say, I went to a party. And holy CRAP did I have fun. And in all honesty I could have used the whoop whoop a few times, but it hadn't been invented yet.

Work is going well, nothing too exciting (she says, hopefully not causing some sort of explosion by saying that).

Apartment living, well, honestly...I need a stand alone apartment. My neighbors are lovely people, I like them and their cats. But we are excessively close and share a wall, and one day I really thought if I heard Margaritaville one more time I was going to cry. But, that *did* get me up and out of the house. :) I torture them in the same manner for I have downloaded all of the Glee songs and have a tendency towards belting that out at full volume.

Dogs are doing fine, my new cat is decimating the local ecosystem and he goes in and out and has a disturbing habit where he goes out, kills a rat/mouse/lizard/elk, runs up to the screen door dragging its corpse to show me...then drags it away again. Bless his insane little ass--he still cuddles me at night. What more could I want in a cat? :) The dogs are occasionally underwhelmed with his existence.

Alrighty. This was a half-assed posting, but hey, they have to start somewhere.
Much love!
-H.

:)

Ok. There is a little ghecko on the Wendy's Drive thru sign. I find that adorable. :)

Random crap I can't make better

Okay, so at lunch today I was reading the news, then some blog updates on some of my favorite ones. Some of which have not updated in a while and I was all, *exasperated sigh* what is wrong with these people--don't they know I need lunchtime reading!! Then I had of moment of clarity where I was all, shit. I'm an ass. People read my blog for updates and I am a slacker. So, I have this list of topics in my phone that I really cannot seem to flesh out. So here they are in no particular order:

• I had gum today. It was suprisingly good. (I swear they are not all this bad) As I type this I am eating an orange. It is also suprisingly tasty.
• This island is RIDICULOUSLY small. I have no words as to the smallness. For example, one guy at work told me he was behind me in his truck at a stoplight and he left plenty of room so I could back up if I need to. Okay, first off...WTF--stop noticing me after work and secondly, I was well within safe guideline and stopped behind the line. Also, random strangers now know my name on the street. This happened occasionally in Chicago and stuff too cause I am an oversharer and will have gotten/given a life story while, for example, waiting in line at the bank. However...this place takes it almost to epic status. The standard rule of thumb is--don't ever fight with anyone or talk bad about someone cause holy hell--the island will know. I have that song, "Somebody's Watching Me" stuck in my head a lot.
• I am so addicted to diet coke it is past the point of healthy. And here, well ounce per ounce diet coke is more expensive than rum (ha ha, I totally don't know that for sure but it is very probably). I have paid up to almost $6.00 for a 12 pack and a big bottle of rum is $7.00. This island makes me wish I drank more; although in truth most of the people here fall in the category of functioning alcoholics (if we were stateside). I'm okay with that.
• The detriment of proximity: okay, this one's for the family members out there and this one is important. I am much better farther away. Seriously. If we lived in the same town we wouldn't get along nearly as well. I'm kind of abrasive, use humor to my own detriment, and cripes...sometimes I am just not nice. Just remember that when you get all lovey and missing me. I'm not all that great. :)
• This island is where electronics come to die. Seriously. I don't know if its the heat, the salt air, some sort of wacky messed up Bermuda triangle effect. Don't know, don't care. Just be aware that everything electronic is toast after a few months here.
• Most of the time I am on time to work. I have no real set start time but you know...showing up at 10 is not really encouraged. And regardless of the time you get there you are still stuck for a minimum of 8.5 hours. So, it behooves me to get here early. Additionally the earlier I get here the more I can avoid CRAZY CROSSGUARD LADY. Oh yeah, we've got a good en out west. She clearly wears a sign that says--Crossing Guard. Now, where I grew up and everywhere else I have lived a crossing guard, well, you know--they stop traffic and let folks cross. Traffic police--they direct traffic. So, this crossing guard lady, she stands in the middle of the intersection and directs traffic with the most crazy-ass'd hand gestures you have ever seen. The first time I saw her I thought she was doing an interpretive dance. As far as I can tell she blows her whistle intermittently and with no real meaning. However "jazz hands" seems to mean stop, "swishy hand circles" seems to mean wait your turn. I really don't know; sometimes I just wait til she glares at me then drive away quickly. Hey, maybe "glare" means go.
• I went all Nancy Drew on my landlord this week. Our electric bill has been going crazy; and honestly I am sick of the whole thing. But I called the electric company on the off chance that he was all behind in his bills or something. Turns out not, but I was all fired up. I'm looking for a new apartment for when my lease runs out...but this may be my best option. Don't really know. Today being friday I don't really care. I do know that the electricity seperation is not really well though out nor is it overly accurate. A lot of guesstimations are made. I also know I have not been using my a/c anymore and keeping track of the few times I turn the fan on, etc. If my bill doesn't lower significantly I am out of here.
• I hate my truck's (Bertha's) horn. On this island horn play is critical in traffic. But I don't have the timing of the darn thing down yet so I either sound insanely road-raged or I can't get her to make noise at all. It is frustrating.

Okay, so I know how lame these random tidbits of my life are and I shall promise to find other crap to write about.

Love and hugs,

Heather

Monday

Sunday.

Some days here are not so bad. ;)
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Its the little things...

This bagger wins best bagging of the year award. Seriously.
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Wednesday. Why?

Well, I'm fussy. I don't feel all that great, I'm trying to cut back on my diet coke, and today at work just kinda blew. You know, things don't work right, but then when you get them back to the office to "fix" them (aka smack them around a little) and I turn them back on and they work just fine. Freakin' annoying electronics.
I have a list of about 85 things I need to buy at kmart; and well, I am just not emotionally prepared to deal with kmart today. The last time I was at kmart I was there for 2 hours: 40 minutes of which I spent in line; 30 minutes of which I spent wandering aimlessly while they attempted to fix their "system"; and the other 50 minutes I spent trying to obtain items on my list and avoid running children. That's right, I said running children. Not that I haven't been tempted to run some of them over but I am still traumatized that at one point a child RAN FULL SPEED INTO MY CART. He almost knocked himself clean out. He looked all shocky and cry-y; I didn't know what to do. This random (mean) lady said, "oooh honey, did she run over you?" Refusing to appologize for yet another thing I didn't do I opened my mouth to object when the mother of said speedy child said, "DON'T YOU CODDLE HIM; AND HELL NO THIS NICE LADY DIDN'T RUN INTO HIM--HIS FOOL-ASS RAN INTO HER; MAYBE NOW HE WON'T RUN". On one hand this little dude totally hit hard, on the other HELLS YA! You tell 'em mother of speedy boy! This nice lady didn't do nothing wrong. darn it. So, yes. Long story short I now have to defensivly drive my shopping cart. And now you can understand why I am not yet emotionally prepared to go to kmart--it's exhausting.

was I depressed?

Everyone I know (including myself) has been depressed at one point or another throughout their lives. This weekend, I wouldn't have called myself depressed as much as coma-like. Sure, I accompolished a couple things--a load of laundry, scrubbing out the cat-box--but in general there was much couch-ville and hulu on a 10" netbook screen.
I could easily blame this move-less-ness on so many things... but being completely honest I took a weekend of 2 mental health days; and it was awesome. Of course, by the time Sunday night came around I had that dreaded sense of, "oh no, I haven't finished my homework," but in all actuality I didn't have any homework and I get that sense of dread every Sunday (damn you school homework; scarring me for life like that!).
The other thing I accomplished this weekend was cereal. I know that sentence makes no sense but keep reading. So, I read other blogs--I find some of them awesome, some of them are boring, and a good number of them just cease to exist. However, my favorite at the moment is 2birds1blog.com I find the girl named Meg hoo-larious. Well, she waxes eloquent about Kashi Go Lean Crunch a lot. Finally tempted into trying it and Sweet Baby Heyzus its delicious! In fact, that's what I ate all weekend. ALL weekend. Did I mention this has like 4, 786% (okay, exaggerating--but it's a lot) of your daily fiber needs? This all leads into:

Important Tips I Figgur'd Out Last Week

• Do not go from a crappy diet limited in fiber to eating nothing but fiber-filled cereal. This causes "issues". Issues that, while hoo-larious, cause your dogs to look at you in disgust or worse, bark loudly in response to the dog that apparently crawled up your ass and is barking for help.
• When you live on a small island with a small highway do not speed on it. If, by some evil twist of fate you do speed and get pulled over by the cops, do NOT ask them when the last time their radar was calibrated because "surely" I wasn't going that fast. It does not make them like you more. (that said, I still maintain their radar was mis-calibrated)
• No matter how lazy you are over a weekend; at some point the dogs will leap on you and make you get up. This is a reason I maintain anyone living alone needs to have a pet. Additionally I have to move around a lot more because I feel if I stay still too long my new cat will attempt to eat me, but that is a story for a different day.

People, I'm pooped.

Hey folks.
Still busy doing the quitting of one job and beginning of another while in reality doing the same darn thing. Sometimes I realize just how weird my world can be.
I normally update this thing on Sundays--but I was actually doing stuff. I am currently a lovely shade of lobster red on my shoulders from an afternoon at Sandy Point where I swam to my hearts content. Everyone remember the movie Shawshank Redemption? Yeah, that final scene was shot on the beach I was swimming off of. I live in the paradise that prisoners dream of escaping to.
Speaking of escape: I get to take a trip home over Thanksgiving; I am very excited. The one thing I have noticed about people from here going stateside--we all plan where we are going to eat. Don't get me wrong--food is plentiful and delicious here but options are limited. Also, after being at work all day after I get home it is just hard to leave again. But then--I am a total homebody. So here is a list of things that I have planned to eat so far during my Thanksgiving Midwest Tour (where I apparently plan to gain more weight than your average cruise ship passenger):


-Walker Brothers Pancake House
-JK's (local place of tasty breakfast)
-Taco Bell (don't hate--if you don't ever get it; come on you know you would want it)
-Portillos (mmmm, I want a chopped salad, fries, and a beef and cheddar croissant)
-Moon Temple (mmmm local chinese)
-Dunkin Donuts (Coffee in a super large horrible for the environment styrofoam cup and a glazed donut)
-on the way to Ohio we always get Hardee's at the rest stops. mmmmm, 43,589 calories of fat

I'm sure I will think of many more things to eat. Oh yeah, AND I will get to see my family. :) :) :)
(see? see how I was funny there? made people think I cared more about food than my family? funny huh?)
Hugs to everyone!
-H.

September 30, 2009

What I learned today:

• I hate paperwork. Especially the mind-numbingly pointless kind that involves writing shit in triplicate, faxing, emailing, and eventually having to get it signed by people more important than you.
• Paperwork keeps me from getting actual work done. Seriously, hours people. hours.
• My father is the only person in the world I can call at 5AM and know he will be up.
• Breakfast is WAY better when someone else cooks it AND you don't have to clean up. (Thank you refinery lunch ladies--I love you)
• Coming up with company name options within 5 minutes is tough; and getting a lawyer is costly (don't ask; no I haven't been arrested; everything is fine; long story; I have health insurance; I am not going to be a beach bum; I love you all)
• When someone is rude to you in front of other people--it TOTALLY still feels like you are the nerd back in high school. Apparently that doesn't go away. who knew? (into the BOOK OF GRUDGE he goes. The grudge book doesn't actually accompolish anything--but does make me feel better.)
• I totally have to write a posting about my Book of Grudge. That bad boy goes back to Junior High School.

Okay, I am done learning today. I don't want to learn any more. I actually (and this is a shocker) had my choice of two plans tonight. I am sticking with my original plan (more relaxing) and attempting to make the other plan of dinner into pre-dinner drinks. If that was confusing it is because my brain hurts. Have a good day!!!

Today's bit of weird.

So today I found out that Bertha (my ridiculously large ugly beige interior, gray exterior, weird door-handled SUV) may be following me to the new employer. *sigh* Don't get me wrong, sometimes 8-cylinders and enough cargo space to hold 12 bodies (stacked obviously) comes in handy but I feel like I need to retire my "go green" shirt while I personally drain the earth's resources. Between my diet coke addiction can disposal problems and my petroleum guzzling SUV I feel I am peeing in the earth's cheerios. *double sigh*

Okay, here is where it gets weird. Today on my way home I stopped at a stop sign and looked both ways. I saw a vehicle coming from my right--in reverse. It continued on past me in reverse, just a toolin on down the road. backwards.

I freakin' love this island.

Lucy, you've got some 'splainin to do...

Good morning folks.
First off, I would like to 'pologize for the discombobulation of my last post. Apparently, if you are unaware of the details of my little "company change" that post was a touch shocking. Example: My college roomates mother (whom I adore) called my friend in horror thinking I had quit my job to become a beach bum. (Sorry Diane!!!)
To clarify, I start my new job next week. The new job is going to be exactly the same as the job I have been doing for the last 10 months. Just a different source of paycheck.

Here are some of the questions I've been asked--please note: answers are subject to change or blatant denial at any point.

#1. Why are you leaving your current company?

I didn't want to leave the island--more specifically "we" didn't want to leave the island. This was a mutual decision between me and the husband. Unfortunately he will be staying stateside for quite some time going to school, working on the house, and working. This will be a slow transition (like, years slow). But it is a long term goal and we are trying. It was a rock and a hard place kind of decision; leave a company I was comfortable with or leave the island. Those were my 2 choices.

#2. Isn't it hard living apart from your husband?

yup, sucks hairy donkey balls. Hate it. Love it when he's here although it is hard to learn to live around each other again and then when that's settled and happy then it sucks when he leaves. I am really lucky because I am making some good friends on the island who know Wilkes and we have a regular friday get together--it really helps keep me from getting too lonely.

#3. What are you going to do with your house? Rent or sell?

Probably sell, eventually. Remember--this is a long and slow process and no decisions have yet been made. Don't really know what we are going to do with all of our stuff. Don't know a lot actually. We are taking it one day at a time. Decisions as they are needed.

#4. Isn't your husband irritated that you have left him yet again to pack up a house and follow you?

Oh yeah, he's having some serious anxiety about that. I can't blame him. I mean, my solution when moving is to "give it all away" or "can't we burn it" or "screw it, let's stay". I HATE moving. I'm terrible at it. This was a mutual decision...but executing the decision is the suck-ass part.

#5. A Kitten? Why would you get a kitten?!? What the crap?

I may have lost a few mouse/rat battles; but i won the freakin' war. My crazy kitten who has officially taken control of my household -- his very existance has kept all rodentia out of my house. Suck it Rodentia!

#6. When's the next time you are coming to the states?

I am thinking of trying to come back to Chicago for Thanksgiving. I have the time off approved it is now just trying to figure out logistics of when, where, how? Right now my dream is that both sides of my family will make a magical reconcilliation and everyone show up in Chicago at a delicioius Polish Restuarant on Thanksgiving. But in reality I am going to have to figure out how to do a "midwest tour--thanksiving style". I looked into flying into Chicago and then flying out of Toledo or Detroit...but the timing is annoying. For example, who the crap is going to drive me to Detroit at 3AM on a Saturday? And if I fly out of Toledo--I end up BACK IN CHICAGO for a nice long layover. *shaking head* I will try to figure it out and will let you all know--because yes, I do miss you all and love you all very much.

So, anywhoodle--hope this little Q&A has answered some of your questions. When things were in upheaval at work it was really hard to write here because I couldn't say a lot that was going on. That led to awkward and disjointed posts.
Although, just a heads-up--be prepared for a vast quantity of postings regarding my new kitten (named Greebo). He's a little insane and he's kind of cracking me up.
Much love ya'll!

So much...

I really don't know where to begin. Well, first off it's Sunday night, beautiful sunset as always. :)
My dogs are sleeping on the cool tile floor, my new cat (Greebo) is sharpening his claws in the bathroom waiting for something to kill and I am in my pajamas. In all truthfulness I was in pajamas all day although I did change types after my shower.
So, I quit my job on Friday. Officially put in my 2 week notice. In case any of ya'll haven't noticed--I find change frightening yet do it anyway. I called my boss and told him about it, got all emotional until he said, "uh Heather--we're not breaking up". This caused me to laugh through the tears. Then I sent out a couple of texts and emails to various folks and then my phone went bat-shit crazy with the calls, texts, and emails. My poor little battery wore down very quickly.
I had a few voicemails from people which I didn't check until Friday night. One of the ones that sticks out was from my mother where she said in a playful tone, "I hope you know what you're doing little girl!" I laughed out loud, said "I sure don't" to the dogs and went to bed.

So here I am about to start the sequel of my time here. I'm thinking of calling it, "Heather's Island 2--this time for keeps" or something equally inane.
In a nutshell, I'm excited to keep working where I am--I learn something new every day; I am not sure about a lot of the details of the future--but really, who is?
Hugs!
-H.

Random funny

Ok, so this evening I had a 4pm appointment after work. I brought clothes to change into as wearing coveralls after work feels kind of weird and they get really warm. So, in the ladies locker room I put on a pair of black cotton capri yoga pants, a tank top, and a long sleeve top over that. I walked downstairs and HOLY CRAP you would have thought I was wearing stilettos, thigh highs, and some sort of fruited head-dress. All the firemen gathered round and kept saying WOW! You look so "different".
So, I don't know if this is "good" different or "bad" different--but what the hell, at least I was comfortable.
*snicker*
Now I kinda want a fruited headdress.

Expletive!

hey folks, this post has been really hard for me to write. But here goes nothing...
For those of you who know me, I am messy. I have been described as "like water" in that my stuff with stretch out and take up all available space. However, it has always been a fear of mine to be thought of as dirty. My house here in the rain forest--well, it is usally neat and clean. This is mainly due to my fear of the mice and cockroaches that fully inhabit the island.

So, after that preamble let me tell you what happened the Sunday night before labor day. I was sitting quietly, relaxed, reading a book. All a' sudden I look up and there it is. A RAT. In. My. House. In typical Heather fashion I pointed and said "RAT" (I've also been known to point at other things and say their name, "Rock", "Bird", "Mouse", and "Lizard" are all favorites of mine--I know this ain't normal). Life (dog) was sleeping on the couch a mere 1 1/2 feet from said Rat and she rolled over and stretched (wtf?!?). To the dogs it was after 10 PM and therefore they were off duty.
The dogs woke up when I started tearing apart furniture and looking behind and under everything. No dice. The magical little beastie of doom seems to have disappeared.
The mice seem to be gone, but before they left they called in their big cousin.

blah blah blah wah!

I come to you today from a whiny place. Whiny is not funny, cute, charming, or adorable. But to that I say "Wah!".
I have a cold. I have a ripped muscle. I have a job that will probably end at the end of this month. I have WAY to much to do and I say, Wah! and the wah is followed by a sniffle, a couple of coughs, and a host of other symptoms usually only found on a NyQuil commercial.

Today I spent most of the day merging pdf documents. Jealous, aren't you? On the bright side it saved my leg (calf muscle) any extra wear and tear and in all honesty it is doing pretty well considering I was mostly unable to walk last Sunday.
Additionally, today I sat through a company-wide conference call. That is always an effective use of my time.

I'm sitting here, pretty comfy. I have the a/c on (expensive--but SO worth it) an ice pack on my calf, and the makings of a chocolate sundae for dinner. A chocolate sundae you ask? Yes. Because I have limited all of my (and the dogs') food to things that can be kept in the fridge/freezer/mouse-proof bucket. The dogs are underwhelmed with this new plan.

If things go well and I get to stay here longer--I am totally getting a cat. Preferably some sort of battle-scarred angst-ridden mouse-hating cat that likes dogs. I keep picturing some sort of weird one-eyed biker-cat with leather and chains on showing up with a "Bring IT bia-atch!" attitude. And no, I don't know why a cat with less depth perception would have better luck killing mice.

It looks like some mice have left me some more presents on the counter.
To that I say, "ew" and am off to clean my counters again.

Dear Gastronemeus Soleus,

Sweetie, I know I never call you by your full name but I needed you to know how serious I am. Calf, honey, how could you? Sure, I was hopping over to get a glass out of the cabinet, trying to make myself look silly--but that was no reason to try to LEAVE ME! You've been with me my whole life--you know I'm silly; I have ALWAYS been silly.
Tearing away like that, well, it hurt. A lot.
Please come back Calfie. I can't go on without you.

(p.s. Muscle tearing in your calf muscle makes a very disturbing POP! I am still skeeved out by that noise. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation baby!!!!)

Son of a...

Last night in my slumbering happiness I heard the mousetrap go off. "Got One!!!" I thought triumphantly then proceeded to have bad dreams about a rat dying a horrible death.
*sigh*
All of it to NO AVAIL. Traps are EMPTY.

The war continues.

On to other news. My landlord is back on island because my crazy neighbor (remember? Kevin? Loony bin, etc.?)went back to Boston and my newer fun neighbors (who btw, keep feeding my dogs biscuits like they're fattening them up for slaughter. They feed me too...wait a minute.....:) kidding-they're awesome)will be moving to the smaller, less pricey apt.
Anywhoodle, I now know where the mice problem came from. Darn you Krazy Kevin!!!! The mice are running rampant in the apartment next door. It is very possible they hung out with him while watching television. It was only a matter of time before they snuck over.
Happy Weekend people!!!

Oh. My. Freakin'. God.

seriously. SERIOUSLY??!!
Guess who waved at me this morning.
Yep. Mr. Freakin' Mouse.

There he was, chillin yet again in my bathroom.
I should start using a sharpie on the little dudes to see if they are the SAME ONE.
Because I was able to catch it with the same pans as last night mouse.
And let's be honest--how many mice can be that freakin' stupid as to be caught by a half naked bleary-eyed human armed with only a saucepan and a frying pan at 6:17AM?? At least this time I wasn't fully naked. I say that because I unwittingly inflicted my tank top and underwear-clad ass on my neighbors as I stomped outside with this morning's mouse.

I am contemplating the poison route--however, around here that can really contaminate your water source (cistern) as the poison makes mice very thirsty before they die. And I am too much of a wuss to actually kill them when I catch them.

I know, but they're fuzzy. and kind of cute. WHEN THEY ARE NOT CRAPPING ON MY COUNTER.

Mouse War

I got home after work, showered, put on pjs, and settled in when my phone rang. Some people I know invited me out to dinner. Despite the fact that it involved me having to locate and put on clothes--I decided what the heck.
So out to dinner I went.
When I returned home I disrobed in the living room (oh the joys of living alone!) and went into the bathroom. As I flipped on the light switch there, in the sink, was THE MOUSE. Just sitting there, looking at me with a definite, "what's up? You were out late" expression. I made a frustrated noise sounding somewhat like the wookie from star wars and said, "don't move".
Oddly, it listened and I was able to capture the beastie in a pan.
Ok. Then the dilemma. Naked, no shoes, a mouse in a pan--no lid.
Opening the front door I flung him. He ran as fast as his little legs could take him.
Hope he was traumatized enough to stay away.
Dammit.

mouse

Dear Mouse,
I saw you, you jerk. You ran right past me twice--and I'm pretty sure the last time you stopped and flipped me off.
I was going to try to catch you and let you go, but I have cleaned your filthy fecal matter off my counter one too many times. Who poops on the counter?!?! Jerk.
So, I admit it, last night I bought the kind of traps that snap your little spine. And I'm feeling rather bloodthirsty about it--I ran downstairs this morning like it was Death Christmas. As I looked forlornly at my set yet empty traps you ran right in front of me, did a vault OVER the trap, and flipped me off on the landing. What. The. Hell?!?
This is war mouse.
This is war.

It. Is. In. My. Apartment.

I saw it. I saw the little disgusting poops on the counter. I saw the telltale nibble into my granola bar wrapper.
But tonight. Tonight I saw my arch enemy! He scurried next to my fridge. I have set two devious (okay, really not all that devious--just ur standard mousetrap really) traps for them and, since my husband before he left hid the peanut butter in a place I could not uncover (his belly?) I bated the traps with pepper jelly.
Who knows, maybe they are fans of pepper jelly.
Anyway. The furry little pooping bastards is GOING DOWN!

Also, important tip. When your laying in bed and you feel a little something on your arm. Turn on the light and look before you brush it of. It is never "nothing" here. Bugs love me. And want to spend an inappropriate amount of time on me.
Goodnight ya'll.

Therapy

I'm having a bitter day. I am filled with bitter.
Here's the thing-- Stupid facebook. I found a (stupid) guy that I had a (stupid) crush on from 5th grade (ooooh yeah, we are going back THAT far.) through 9th grade.
(Stupid) guy went and stayed cute (SO not fair--i've just gotten old) and we had a few nice messages back and forth and in his latest reply he goes on and on how he married the "woman of his dreams" and is living the "perfect happy life".
Wtf?
Don't get me wrong--i'm pretty freakin' happy myself. Happily married, good job, blah blah blah. But holy hell, anyone who spurns my youthful advances shouldn't be that happy with their life, right?
(Eek! I'm a jerk!) Just did my own therapy there.
Uh. Yeah. So. Anyway, the weather here is nice... :)
Thanks.
Beware of facebook!
-Heather

Well. Summer's over...

Remember that Sunday night feeling? That--"uh oh, I didn't study for the quizz I don't wanna go to school" feeling? I always got that at the end of August before school started again. Well, here I am a grown-ass woman and that feeling is back and I don't like it. My husband is off-island, I have no idea what is going on in regards to working here (contract is up? Possibly, probably, who knows...), and I'm tired.
This post is depressing. Sorry. I shall work on chipper tomorrow.
Hugs & Kisses!
-H.

The Sunset

Peace

I'm lying here on my deck hammock and it is a perfect night. It is not too hot, not too cold--balmy and breezy and the sun is setting. The trees surrounding the valley are lush with rain and my crazy neighbor has what can only be described as massage music playing. It is peaceful, calm, and what I wish every moment of my life could be.
Sadly, for I would love to live here for the rest of my days, I believe my time here is drawing to a close. The budget for my existence in St. Croix drains dry at the end of september and there doesn't appear to be a new well to draw from.
A wise (lazy?) person told me recently to be like water and follow the path of least resistance and I took that advice to heart. I will follow where this life takes me--what is meant to be will be.
For now, well, I am content to watch the sun set.

I am a dork.

Please, I know you all are aware of my dorkiness. I just feel the need to share this *particular* dorkishness. I have a hurricane tracking map. I am fairly certain it is meant for children. But every time I get an email update about any tropical storm (why yes, I have signed up to receive email updates from the national hurricane center--why do you ask?) I immediately grab my sharpie and map and plot the longitude and latitude to see where the lil' bugger is.
I am excited--it is my FIRST ONE!!! But I must tell you--whenever anyone sees my map--the mockery abounds.
Yesterday I bought a red cross solar/crank/battery powered radio (NOAA/AM/FM) that can also charge your cell phone! How freakin' cool is that?
I'm sure there will be mockery there too.
*sigh*

Completely Pointless Survey

Please allow me to point out that I know how lame it is to complete such surveys. I shall not judge your judginess (and feel free to complete this beast and send it back to me either in email or comments.)...

1. What time did you get up this morning?

My alarm went off at 5. At 5:45 I actually got up. Left at 6.



2. What is your favorite color?

I usually answer blue, but in reality my favorite color is a deep purply blue.



3. Do you like to read?

I could read every day all day. I love reading. I get lost in stories and when someone talks to me the real world always shocks the crap out of me.



4. Have you ever been in love?

Quite often. Disturbingly able to fall in love with almost anyone/everyone. That has been a little more inappropriate now that I am married. :)



5. How do you take your coffee?

Large and black. (that’s what she said!) That’s actually not true, I just wanted to make that joke. I like it with cream (or 2%) and delicious artificial cancer-causing non-sugar. Preferably splenda brand of non-sugar.



6. Do you eat breakfast?Yes. pepperoni pizza - yes I am aware I eat like a frat boy



7. Do you prefer sleeping alone? No, well, yes. but no. I guess in a perfect world where the bedroom was cold I would prefer to sleep with someone (probably my husband ;) ). But when it is freakishly hot--do not touch me. Additionally I am no fun to sleep with because I move around all night and steal most of the bed.



8. Do you smoke cigarettes? No, I don't like the smell. Additionally since I play with asbestos daily it seems imprudent.



9. Have you ever burnt your hair? No, cause I'm a slacker and scrape my hair into a ponytail daily. To burn it I would have to attempt to style it.



10. Do you sleep with a pillow? I sleep with 5 pillows. And occasionally a dog and lately a kitten.



11. What are your habits? Diet coke. I am die hard diet coke addict. It's an issue.



12. Do you want kids? I have absolutely no idea. Scares the crap out of me.



13. Are you an only child?No, I have a sister.



14. Do you like road trips? In theory--yes. In practice--they can become tedious and you can begin to hate everyone in the car with you.



15. Where do you work? I used to work for a medium sized company which got eaten by a giant company and then I was an employee for the giant company at far away at a giant oil refinery before the giant company got in trouble at the refinery and had to find a new company to work for if I wanted to stay which turned out to be me working as an independent contractor.



16. Do you brush your teeth in the shower? Yup



.17. What did you do tonight/last night? I read, ate dinner, watched tv, then bed.





18. Do you prefer being single, or in a relationship?? I guess relationship. :)



20. What is your deepest secret?I killed a man in Reno. With my bare hands.



21. Have you ever been cheated on? I have absolutely no idea



22. Once a cheater, always a cheater?Probably.



23. Pajamas or naked? depends on temperature and number of mosquitos.



24. What do you take when you have a headache? Advil and drink something with caffeine.



25. Roughing it or luxury hotel?Luxury.



26. Beach or pool?Pool at the beach.



27. Would you give your number out to a stranger?Yup



28. Ever hitch-hiked?Nope



29. Ever picked up a hitchhiker? Yup, but I have regretted it approximately 2 out of 5 times.



30. Roses or daisies?Roses.



31. Do you consider yourself conceited?Not in the very least.



32. Is your hair its original color?Yup



33. Do you wear makeup?Yup, not daily though.



34. Do you eat ranch with your pizza?Yup.



35. Do you believe in God? Many of 'em.



36. Do you have a crush on anybody right now?Nope



37. Does he/she know it? n/a



38. What was the last thing you ate? Refinery breakfast
40. Where is your favorite place to be? In bed, when it's chilly, all covered up and reading a book

41. Do you think you're attractive?I don’t, but I’m spending lots on therapy to change that.

42. Are you allergic to anything? Amoxicillin. I get itchy and hivey

43. Ever had your heart broken?Yea, but when I look back I’m like “why the hell did I care that much?” and I feel really stupid.

44. Who was the last person to hurt you? Greebo the cat. He tried to eat my nose in the middle of the night.

45. Who was the last person you hurt? uh. dont know.

46. Do you wear socks to bed?No but sometimes I try and wake up and they are off my feet.

47. How do you feel about breast implants?I would never get them, but only because I already have freak-show huge boobs. But if someone else wants to get ‘em, mozel tov.

48. What kind of shampoo do you use?Aveda shampure. I like the smell.

49. Have you ever been in love? Yup. a lot. :)

50. Do you think love is real for young people? Sure felt real.

51. ? ?

52. What are you? Human. I think.

53. Say your opinion, or keep it to yourself? Yeah. say it.

54. The snow or the sun? Sun. :)

55. Have you ever been out of the country? Yup.

56. Where do you want to raise your family? St. Croix (for now) but as my family is husband, 2 dogs and a kitten. Well...not all that much raisin' to do.

57. The city life, or the quiet? both.

58. A club, or movie night?Movie night. But with cocktails.

59. Mercedes or BMW? Neither.

60. Do you like to dress up? sometimes.

61. How long does it take you to get ready after you get out of bed?11.5 minutes

62. Describe your perfect type of girl/boy? I am really quite eclectic. :)


63. Save your money or spend it?I am the most irresponsible person with money you will ever meet in your entire life.

64. Do you wear a belt? only when my pants are falling off and if I remember

65. How many pairs of jeans do you have?5 I think.

66. Do you want to get married in a church? Nope. didn't.

67. Shower in the morning or night? Night.

68. Is there ever a justified reason to lie?To save your own ass. Just kidding. Not really.

69. Favorite disney movie? Little Mermaid.

70. What's your favorite movie? uh. too many of them. :)

71. Shorts or jeans/pants? Shorts. It's really hot here.

73. Do you think you and your best friend will still be best friends in 10 years?I would like to think so.

74. Who's your bestfriend? Am lucky enough to have a lot of friends. I guess my best oldest friend would be my old college roomate...we text a lot and communicate a lot regaring textsfromlastnight.com

75. Are you a good girlfriend/boyfriend?I'm an okay wife. :)

76. Do you like being in a relationship? yup.

77. Hats or no hats?I can’t really pull off hats, but I envy those who can.

78. Do you fall for people easily?Yes. I fall in love at least 2 times a day.

79. Is it hard for you to open up to people?It’s hard for me to open up to people about serious stuff.

80. Do you watch what you eat?Yep, I usually look at my food before I eat it.

82. What do you want to be in the future?I don’t know and it causes me extreme anxiety every day.

84. "True love never dies"? Nah. True love never dies but it does tend to take the other one for granted after a while.

85. If you could change one thing about your physical appearance what would it be??I want more tattoos.

86. Mom or dad?What a f'd up question. Both.

87. How long have you known your best friend?I think I’ve known my oldest best friend since college.

88. Whats your favorite meal of the day?Brunch.

89. Do you have any secrets? Yup.

90. What is your worst fear?One of my family members dying and not being able to get to them.

91. Do you play hard to get?Uh, no. I need to work on that.

92. Are you hard to get? depends how that question is meant...

93. Do you like Memphis?I’ve never been to Memphis.

94. Do you use an umbrella? Nope.

95. Night or day? Night night night. As long as I don't have to get up in the morning. :)

98. Do you consider yourself 'nice'?Here’s my policy: if you’re nice to me, I’ll be the nicest most fun person ever to you. If you’re not nice to me, I can be a snobby, elitist, snarky, unnecessary bitch to you. Just be nice! Geez!

99. Are you fake? Nope. All parts are factory standard. :)

100. What should you be doing right now? Showering.

Darn It!

Okay, I am prepared. I have water, I have food, I have 100lbs of dog food, I have cards, I have 5 new books on my fully charged kindle. I have clean clothes, blankets, pillows, flashlights, lanterns, candles, a first aid kit, and a truck full of gas. You know what I don't have? I don't have a freakin' hurricane--that's what I don't have. Tropical Storm Ana--the fickle bitch, she down-graded back to a Tropical Depression and she is ever so south of us. I was looking forward to Ana, she wasn't too strong, but good enough to show me what getting to miss a day of work due to a tropical storm would be like...But noooooo. Fickle.
Then there is Bill, freakin' Hurricane Bill. He looks like he is swinging North on me, which is really probably good 'cause, well, he is a little rougher and tougher than his fickle sister Ana.
So, my nerdy little self is keeping an eye on Bill, marking locations on my dorky hurricane map.
I shall keep you informed. :)
Although, to be fair, the weather channel is probably better than I am at this meteorological crap. So maybe check there first for updates.
*hugs*
-Heather

My new friends

So, I may have some new friends coming to town. Ana and Bill. :) For any of you who do not know--Ana & Bill are tropical storms and they are heading my (St. Croix) way. I have water, I have food, I have candles, I have shutters. :) I should be just fine. Ana is set to hit (and she shouldn't be too bad) on Monday. Bill, well who knows about Bill. He will prolly landfall around wednesday or thursday. There is another behind Bill--but that one doesn't have a name yet.
Anyway, just keeping you all informed. I will let you know how it goes.
*hugs*

I can't help it...

...I hate being late. I hate it. I freak out if I think I haven't prepared enough prior to wherever I am going. Now, in the consulting world--this helps. You get to clients on time, you usually know as much as you can ahead of time. You appear impressive to said clients.
Here in the Virgin Islands--I am a freak. I am the person sitting for a half hour waiting for someone. I show up 10 minutes early--they're 20 minutes late.
*sigh*
I am also the fool who shows up to parties early--which drives my husband insane.
Well, I'm going back to waiting some more.
Hugs, ya'll.
-Heather

Saturday!!!

Morning! I have been drinking a lot of coffee this morning! and it is making me type really fast AND think in exclamation points! Using exclamation points is the sign of a writer who cannot articulate their thoughts well (!); but I am seriously seriously caffeinated!!!!!!!!!

So, I have a few topics that I have never been able to flesh out into a full posting; so I am going to try to clean out my "blog topic" file and give you a few tidbits.

• I know you all know me as smooth and charming, however (*snicker*) I am on occasion VERY awkward. The other day a co-worker was wandering by and I offered her a ride out. She is very nice, we have had dinner on occasion and have a few mutual friends. You know, that friend of a friend person. So, we are chatting about important relevant topics as weather, pets, weather, work, weather...and I just ran out of topics (you can only beat weather into the ground for so long). As I sat there in Bertha (my beast of a leased SUV) talking to her through the passenger window (she did not wish a ride out) and we had a few awkward seconds of silence I said, "okay, well I'm out of things to say...have a great night!" Only later did I realize how awkward that sentence was. *sigh*

• I work in a firehouse. There is one gal fireman, she is nice. Anyway, we kind of share a bathroom. There are also male firemen, and they keep stealing our stuff. This has led to me labeling the soap so that I can wash my hands. I wash my hands a lot. I wash them after I work with samples. I wash them before I eat. I really believe in washing my hands with soap and water--I have real irritation with the vast quantity of hand sanitizer being used. I mean, people, wash your damn hands. So, most of the time, after washing my hands I have a very bad habit of shaking them off and either letting them air dry or wiping them on my pants (or coveralls). I know, this is not a good habit--but I hate air dryers AND I feel guilty when I use paper towels (environment). Okay, there is the back story. The other day Anya (gal fireman) comes into the lab. She wanted to double check I hadn't borrowed the paper towels before she went to disembowel the male fireman for stealing out stuff (again). I had not borrowed the towels. But during the conversation I could tell that she thought that since I hadn't noticed they were missing that I was disgusting and didn't wash my hands after using the bathroom. I could not dig my way out of that awkward conversation. *sigh*

Thursday

This week seems to be zooming by in comparison to the last few weeks. At this very moment I am sitting in The Bombay Club waiting for dinner. The food is wonderful, but best of all--the air conditioning is cold. :)

Wednesday

Woke up this morning after being up most of the night with a headache. Blech. So in my infinite idiocy I decided to take a day off. That lasted precisely 2 hours and one bowl of spaghetti breakfast. Had some samples to complete on a rush basis. Seriously though, the spaghetti breakfast was *really* good.
Those of you who know me may be aware of my jovial nature (I know, shocking). The people I get along with best are, without a doubt, what my last performance review called, "blue collar workers" although I must tell you I feel creepy saying "blue collar" cause to me those are normal-type (ish) people and the folks in the dressy clothes with clean nails Freak. Me. Out.
Wow, okay, went of on a random tangent there. Back to my point, I tend to give a lot of the guys shit. In particular one insulator who brings me samples every day and talks about his yard with a bazillion kinds of local fruit; to him I say--bring me some dang fruit. I have been teasing him about this for a month. Well, today (the day I attempted to miss work) he did. So, besides feeling less guilty for missing work I also got a great fruity prize. My bounty included: 2 young pre-cut coconuts (1 gone), 1 giant soursop, 2 perfect ripe mangos (gone already), a few bananas, 1 sugar apple and approx. 10 carambolas (aka starfruit).
I am rich in fruit. :)
Goodnight folks!

I know.

There is nothing so boring as reading someone say how they are sorry they haven't written more--that being said, people, I am sorry I haven't written more.
I have been swamped. Not with work, not with my husband being here (although both of these things take serious time), but I have been swamped in stress. I have been spending so much time panicking and worrying about the when and the if "they" are sending me back to Chicago that I have ceased enjoying what I have in the here and now. I am so lucky to have my husband here. I am so lucky to get to swim in the Caribbean sea every weekend. I am so incredibly lucky to be up in the coker unit and be able to see miles out into the Caribbean. I am blessed--and instead of embracing and loving my life I am clutching at it--fearful of letting go. So. As of today I am living my life fully, enjoying as much as possible, and unless something changes--I will be shipped back to Chicago at the end of September.
One step at a time, one day at a time.
With hope,
Heather

Frog

My husband was in the bathroom (I know, good start to a story, right? :) ) and he pops back out after what I know to be after 7 years of marriage--WAY to short of a time. Holding his pants together and up with one hand he points back into the bathroom and says (in a manner best described as put out), "there is a teeeny tiny toad in the bathroom". I leap to my feat to investigate such an anomaly (I have removed many a baby lizard, metric-crap-ton of spiders, and am currently planning on chemically eradicating a mess o' ants which have colonized my vanity. The ants seem to have bitch-slapped the termites into submission so I have mixed feelings on the buggers).
Inside my bathroom on the ledge leading into the shower is an ADORABLE white tree frog. Fyi: these are TOXIC (yet still cute)to dogs (cuter). So, the little bugger needed to be removed from the domicile (before Life ate it, she has a thing for reptiles). Husband and I debated various methods (tissue box--cause we are lazy and that was in the bathroom--or hands). I went with hands. I carefully leaned down, placed my hands around it, gently scooped it up and it FREAKED. Leapt from my hands while leaking out liquid like a sieve. I, the calm biologist who used to deal with a ton of reptiles on a daily basis yelled (loudly), "YOU PEED ON ME--I HATE YOU!!!". Then washed my hand. Once I retrieved some gladware from the kitchen I caught it and let it go outside. I then tossed the gladware in the trash like the environmentally irresponsible person I have become (I drive an SUV now!!! I retired my "green" shirt--I feel like too much of a hypocrite), then the husband went back into the restroom only to come out defeated. The little frog had scared his poop away.
(And he would be SO happy that I said that)
Goodnight all!

Well...

This economy sucks.
I am so tired of hearing about budgets, cutbacks, lay-offs, and all of the associated depressing crap. Today at the refinery there was a stand-down. A small amount of time where they encouraged people to remember to keep their minds on work. I think everyone should take 5 full minutes and really dwell on it. Dwell on the horror of people you know losing their source of income, their future completely uncertain. Dwell on the fear of your own security. Know that nothing is secure, that everything is scary. Seriously, time it. 5 full minutes.

Alright, now that the 5 minutes is over. Stop. Focus on what you are doing. Leave all the fear and insecurity at the door. Feel confidence that things will get better (eventually). Do your work the best that you can. If you start to feel freaked again, give yourself permission to take a 5 minute break, but then focus and get back to it.

Failing that, watch this video...it is freakin' adorable. My favorite part is the pure joy on the brides face as she walks down the aisle. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Old woman and the stick...

No, this is not a parabel. There is no deep meaning to this story. You will learn nothing.
This morning on my way to work going into Frederiksted there was a very old bow legged woman scuttled across the road. She grabbed a stick, turned around and prepared to scuttle back over the road. Seeing the woman was in a bit of a hurry, I slowed my beast of a truck to a halt and indicated that she should go ahead. She looked at me as if I were insane. Then looked away. I waited. She waited, staring in the other direction. I still waited, she waited. It was a waiting standoff which the old woman and the stick won. I drove slowly through the intersection. Then, I watched in my rearview mirror the old woman, scuttle very quickly with her stick back across the road.
I don't know who or what that scuttling old woman intended to beat with that stick, but I feel bad for them--cause she was MEAN.

Hey folks

Sorry it has been a while, things have been stressful since my birthday (July 1st). Turns out the ever dreaded $$$ for me to work at the refinery ran out the day before my birthday; no-one told me so I continued to work. Long story short--I was fought for, but $$$ officially runs out at the end of September. So that combined with more layoffs, well, things are tough. However, you all know that, things are tough everywhere. I am blessed to have a job. No matter how annoyingly irritating people can be to deal with, I am still happy to have a job to deal with them.

I have news regarding the apartment. First off, they have totally fixed the road. Well, its still dirty, but it has been graded. Holy crap is that exciting. It is smooth sailing up and down that thing. It is almost a pleasure to leave my apartment now. Secondly, I have new neighbors. I still have my crazy neighbor, but he is moving out (or so I hear). But there are two new people in the "main house". And wait for it; they seem totally normal!!! Now, obviously, this normal thing is a sliding scale but here is some compelling evidence that they are in fact, normal (ish): they invited us to dinner one night with some of their friends and we all got along--with much laughter. This shows 1. they have maintained friendships and 2. since they find me entertaining they have a GREAT sense of humor ;). Then, we all met up at the rib cook off (where I kid you not, I never got to eat a rib--because they ran out within the first hour) where we all bought alternating rounds of beer and later that night we play Wii Bowling at their house (btw: I am NOT good at bowling, Wii or otherwise). So yes, normal, kind, and fun. I don't know if I will get ANY good stories out of them; but I will probably have more fun up here.

Wilkes (husband) and I took the dogs to the beach on Saturday after the "rib" cook-off (you know, the one with no ribs?). I was swimming and dragged Life (big dog) into the ocean--she was NOT happy with this plan at all. Teak (small dog) on the other hand was happy as a clam. I swam all the way out, he happily paddled next to me. When I stopped swimming he swam around me in circles. Just to experiment, I grabbed onto his tail. No kidding, he pulled me all the way into shore. Life sulked behind a tree. I swam out again, he "saved" me again. Teak and I have a new fun game. :) Life, meanwhile, will hide behind a tree.

I guess thats about it for now. Hope all is well with ya'll.
Miss you.
-H.

How I know I'm old...

So, I'm sitting here, wiping snotty tears off my face after watching one of those stupid uplifting/depressing movies my friend keeps sending me. I don't necessarily enjoy having feelings, ya know Carol. :) :) I was thinking to myself, gosh, I'm up *really* late. Wilkes has been upstairs snoring for HOURS. The dogs are passed out snoring in a nice counterpoint to Wilkes. I estimated it to be around 2AM. I looked at the clock, it was 11:12 PM. What the heck?!?!? I recall times of not going out UNTIL 11PM. Nowadays I know its a party if I let myself have a caffeinated beverage after 3PM. *sigh*
The downhill slide has begun folks. Next thing you know I'll be eating a balanced diet, stop dying my hair funny colors, and stop pricing full body tattoos.
Although I would rock as a purple-haired, tattooed old lady.

The beer, the dogs, and the bra--a 4th of July Story

Don't get excited; this is not that good of a story--but the title totally rocked; didn't it?

For the 4th of July the husband and I were invited over to a small party at a co-worker's. Since I hang out with these people I guess it is appropriate to call them friends, but still, I am working from a place of accuracy. :)
Anywhoodle, I brought the dogs (my furballs; not the hotdogs) and they proceded to play with their 3 dogs. So, we had quite the pack of beasts running around--but all actually quite well behaved. I brought beer. and then, to celebrate the 4th and my continued good health I drank beer (and pomegranate martinis - yum!).
When I first came to St. Croix back in 2007 I noticed then that this island--well, I can't think of how to put it delicately--no-one seems to wear a bra. Since I came here for work (at a refinery, which has fires, and I don't reccommend wearing things like polyester) the only support garments I brought were cotton sports bras. Comfy, utilitarian, and if I was sporting the dreaded "uni-boob" who really cared? I was wearing fire retardant coveralls. But then I started making nice with people, and getting invited out, and I realized (with horror) that it was in fact innapropriate to wear pajamas to the bar (well, kind of innapropriate anyway). So the uniboob look was out. When I ran back to Chicago the first thing I did was find a few well fitting bras and throw them in the suitcase. So when I was getting dressed for the small party I thought I should bust out a bra. I now know why no-one wears them here. It is too hot. This is just a small tip for those of you coming to visit. :) The fashion tip for this island is "comfy".

dude...it is hot.

in all honesty, it is probably very pleasant most places here, for example, in a hammock, on the beach, in the ocean...however today in my laboratory (yes, I pronounce it the way an evil scientist would....) the a/c went out and it worked its way towards 90 degrees. I know because I checked. :) so, as I sweated in front of a microscope in what could very well have been the 3rd circle of hell I thought to myself, self, tonight you need to update your blog...seriously. So I came home, took a cold shower (purposefully), grabbed my pjs hot out of the dryer (which in any other climate would be a good thing--here, ugh) and am now sitting below my living room fan.

Okay, so here are the updates:

Health

Oh happiness is being pain-free. You may all recall I had hurt my back (NOT at work. :) ). It made me gimp around, the pain was horrible. Or so I thought. Until a week and a half ago when I woke up Friday morning, began vomiting, went to work to give a talk on asbestos, continued vomiting, was fairly certain someone was stabbing me in the right kidney (just typing that is giving me a twinge), drove home, took pain pills, vomited pain pills (I know...the waste), told my husband "hospital" and off I went to Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital in Christiansted. Now, typing that sentence was a lot easier than the actual journey. My (poor) husband had to learn to drive on the left hand side with me screeching in agony and then passing out for a little while. And in reality neither of us knew where the hospital was--but I had a good idea.
However, we made it there fairly quickly and I was triaged in ahead of people--which was for the best since I was about to lay on the floor--and it wasn't very clean. They gave me Toradol--which although not a narcotic became MY BEST FRIEND as it helped relieve the pain. Which came back, and then they introduced me to morphine--at which point my wise, wise, husband took my phone away and I took a nap. The nurse tucked my blanket around me so it wouldn't touch the floor because (and I quote), "don't want any of the creepy crawlies to get up there". (I know, ewww, right?) So, long story short, it turned out to be a kidney stone. Holy hell people, drink water, do not get dehydrated, I did, and it is not worth the PAIN. I passed the darn thing per the CT scan but I am kinda disappointed that I didn't get to see it...maybe I could of made a bead out of it or somthin...
So, yeah. I am healthy (now), but I had a hell of a run there for a while.

Neighbors
Sadly, nothing exciting to report. He hasn't spoken to me since Wilkes arrived. It also appears that he has not been beaten up again, so that's good. My landlord apparently arrived back tonight (I see his jeep) but other than that no interesting news there.

Can't really think of much else that's going on. They did a big round of asbestos awareness training at the refinery, so I have been busy--and busy is good. However I don't like to confuse being needed with being important. This job is still hanging on by a thread--not a wussy thread, but a thread.

Hugs to all!

Coconuts

Today's moment of Zen: I currently work in a place where employees bring in coconuts for co-workers because they have too many. Weird.

Yesterdays moment of Zen: people actually get Dengue Fever here. Like, its common. I bought more DEET.

Birthday Dinner @ Blue Moon

I have stories...

Ever so many stories; sadly I keep running out of time to type them.
*sigh*
I shall try to update ya'll soon.
*hugs*
-H.

Best Feeling Ever!

Waking up; looking at watch reading 05:00; thinking might as well get up; then realizing it is SATURDAY!!!!!!!
Lay back down.

Huh.

Ever wonder if your meeting was actually effective and productive and it is just everyone else's meeting that seems like a giant time suck?
Yeah. Me too.

Look, Look!!

I totally did something fancy with photobucket. :) The pictures showing up on the right side of the blog are photos taken when my 2 friends Jenny and Carol were here.
I am feeling quite technologically savvy.
*hugs*
-H.

Up up up.

Now, I know most (all?) of you don't sit at work and pray for the cost of fuel to go up.
But ya'll payin through the nose equals job security here.
So sometimes I wish gas was still up. The Valero refinery in Texas City is shutting its coker unit down for 40 days also the refinery in Aruba is being shut down for maintenance and economic reasons. There will be a shortage. Prices will go up.
Just a heads-up.
*hugs*
-H.

Sorry it has been a while...

...I have been waiting for my back to either finish me off or get better. For a while, I was fairly certain that disk was going to be the end of me. I shall seriously respect the amount of pain people with back problems have--it was *bad*!. The doctor on the island was planning on sending me to another doc to stick a needle in my spine with steroids in it. I had a long talk with my spine that evening. Regardless, it seems to be healing on its own (yay!).

Let's see...working (I use that term loosely) at the Chicago O'Hare office for one afternoon was weird. But in all honesty it was wonderful to see everyone. The pizza was awesome and everyone looked great. Sometimes I really miss my office. But, sometimes I get to go to the beach here...its a tradeoff. :)

On Saturday my husband flew in (yay!!!) so now I am sharing my apartment - (looks around warily) we shall see how that goes :). He has been a big help with the back pain--not letting me move stuff, icing it, etc. It is great to see him, but the sucky part of a long distance thing is that you have to re-learn how to live together every time.

It looks like I will be getting a new neighbor in the main apartment. My landlord rented it out. I also found out that the crazy neighbor--you know, the one in the middle?--yeah, his lease won't be renewed so he will be out of there soon (fingers crossed). He reintroduced himself to me the other day. In his mind (world?) he had never met me before. Also in his mind (world?) I had a roomate. According to him--she was lovely (?!?!?). Well, it's good that my invisible roomate is lovely. It must be her who makes all the mess....hey, I like this plan. :)

Speaking of neighbors, for those of you who don't know back in Chicagoland I had some lovely crackheads as neighbors. Now, crackheads they were, but, they did a lot of random work for us (mowing, gutters, etc.). Here is an email from my husband filling me in on the good/bad news in our 'hood:

"Bad news, good news. I've had to hire oak and jerrys landscaper. It'll cost 72 a month, and they will bill us. Good news, jerry told me that our crackhead neighbors is being foreclosed on b4 I gave john a pile of cash to mow our lawn for the summer. Jerry found the info on a website. The foreclose apers went thru over a month ago. An empty house is better than a crack den
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T"

btw: Oak and jerry are the neighbors attached to us. They do not appear to be insane (besides some harmless (to us) OCD issues) nor have any addiction problems. :)

I used to watch a soap opera in England during high school called Neighbors. I should totally write one based on the antics of my various neighbors. :) :) :)

*Hugs*

Well, this is weird...

I'm currently lying in bed in Bellwood, IL. I flew in on what felt like the longest flight ever (but in fact we got in early). I ate chinese food on the couch, watched tv. It is all normal--but different.
If coming to my house is this trippy--I can't wait to see what monday in the office brings.

Continued frolic

Last frolic before plane

The disk, the crash, the eyepatch and the bright red butt.

So, I have had 2 very close friends in town since last wednesday night. We have had fun bummin around and all sorts of stuff. Here is the long version of the story: The friday before I had washed the beasts in an attempt to save money-boy was that a mistake. Since I spent so much time bent over my lower back had a bit of a twang to it which by last tuesday had turned into a stabbing pain with a dull knife. Finally by wednesday I knew I had to get some help. I found a doctor who told me I had a slipped disk (oww) in my lower back. So, many hundreds of dollars later I had a diagnoses and the start of physical therapy.
Wednesday night my friends arrived, they were helpful with setting up their beds and getting stuff organized. We toured the island and I had physical therapy daily. Then monday came around; the girls were going to take a full day tour of buck island and I was going to work.
Monday morning we were zipping downtown and on a curve my truck started to slide. I slid into a pickup truck. It was horrible. Thankfully everyone is just fine. No injuries at all. But, it sucks. A lot. The adrenaline rush alone was insane. My friends hopped a cab downtown to go on their tour, my leased car was towed off, and the cop gave me a lift to work.
I rented a car after work (where, due to the rush and the stress I accomplished no work at all) and headed downtown to pick up my friends. Jenny's eye was swollen and itchy and Carol had missed one area with sunscreen. Her butt--which was the Brightest red I have ever seen.
So, between the crushed car, swollen eye, back pain and the ass with 2nd degree burns--we all went to bed at 8PM. It was a tough day.
The end.

IMG00187-20090526-1755.jpg

Well. Why wouldn't there be a peacock on the road?!?

My Saturday by Heather Wilkes

Ok. Be prepared for jealousy.
I began my day at the Domino Club where Jewels made me my favorite breakfast (scrambled eggs with cheese, 2 strips bacon, 1/2 biscuit with sausage gravy, and 1 blueberry pancake). Then I went to the grocery store to buy beer and ice which I placed in that big red bucket in the picture. Stopped at Kmart to get some cash back (often more reliable than ATMs which tend to run out of money on the weekends) then drove home and stored all non-necessary items and put on a swimsuit before heading with the dogs down to a beach party for some friends who got married last thursday. I was hangin out with some work folks when I was asked to retrieve my little hibachi grill. Off I went to my house (5 minutes away) and picked up the grill and dropped off the dogs. Back to the beach and I set my co-worker (James) to lighting the grill. He is an eagle scout and seemed disheartened that I had not brought any form of lighter fluid (or grain alcohol). I said--"use some of the tortilla chips, there not as good as fritos for lighting fires, but they work okay." He looked at me shocked and said, "that works?". I replied, "you're and eagle scout and you don't know about the flammability of fritos?". He came back with, "no, eagle scouts always have white gas with them.". I said, "well, hippies always have crunchy corn-based snacks."
I think that was one of the funniest conversations ever--but then again, I find most things humorous.
Shortly after that I took off for another west end snorkel tour. This is a 2 hour tour which I happen to love. I have seen sea turtles, stingrays, tons of fish, coral, etc. Today the only large thing I saw (on the tour) was a stingray, but the fish and coral were awesome.
Then I swung back to the party before running home and grabbing the dogs and returning to the party for a 3rd time. Sitting with nice people watching the sunset, the dogs play, and for a very memorable 10 minutes--dolphins leap-- has got to be one of the most pleasurable things in the world.
I came home with the pups, happy, relaxed and tired. My car was a mess; stuffed with snorkeling equipment, bucket of leftover iced beer, used towels and sand--hence the picture which I thought was a good visual of my day. After emptying the car I made some dinner and now I'm heading up to bed after a little tv.
Today was a good day.
I hope everyone had a wonderful day.
Love,
Heather