the thin line between optimism and delusion…

If y’all haven’t noticed, I like the moon, and I think that it is a good idea to evaluate your moods and overall feelings at least a month, so I think I’m going to start doing that sort of thing when there is a full moon.  Like today. 

Right now, I need to make some changes in my life.  I don’t feel particularly healthy.  I’ve been eating lots of rich and indulgent food and not working out.  And I’ve probably been drinking more alcohol than I should.  It just seems like there is always a reason for these things.  I was in New York weekend before last and I felt it was my duty to eat all the yummy things that New York has to offer while I was there.  When I got home, my grandfather died (he was sick and couldn’t breathe, he lived a full life, it is sad, but was expected, and I appreciate everyone’s condolences), so I spend three days sitting around my parents house receiving tons and tons and tons of what they call here in the south "comfort food" – which basically means it tastes great and will make you fat.  Then after I ate too much food I would sit around with my gazillion aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends and drink beer and wine.  It was great to see everyone, but death and family are always stressful after a few days and I was exhausted when it was all over. 

And to top it all off, I haven’t wanted to work out recently.  I’m not sure why.  I want to blame it on the heat, but I know that isn’t the only reason.  I like running in the heat.  I also want to blame it on the fact that running through neighborhoods bores me, and that I miss running trails.  Augusta doesn’t have great running trails like Athens does, and being out in the woods was always a huge added bonus.  I guess sometimes you just go through phases.  I’m going to break out of this one today and go running if it kills me.

I’m not going to kill myself.  I know that in the past I have let a particularly bad run scar me, a run where I thought I would die and I kept pushing, and got overheated, or shin splints, or dehydrated to the point where I felt awful for the rest of the night.  When I have those bad runs I have to take the time to build back up and have a couple of good runs in my memory to erase the bad run. 

I need to be going to sleep earlier, and I need to get up earlier.  I need to wash my car and clean up my room.  Actually, I need to pack.  Because, guess what?  I’m moving!  I’m really excited about it – I’m moving in with one of my friends from Augusta who I’ve known forever and is super fun.  We are moving into a precious little house that her boyfriend bought (he likes where he lives).  It has a big kitchen and a deck and a yard and we are going to get a big tv and she has a dog, and I have a dog, and GUESS WHAT ELSE?  The house is right next door to one of my bestest friends from high school – Rachel – and her really great new husband!  Seriously.  I’m so excited.  And since I know I’ll be moving soon, I’ve started noticing the things I don’t like about where I live now.  Things that aren’t that big of a deal, things you can’t bitch and complain if you want to stay happy with your current situation, but once you know you are moving you can start to notice them.  Mostly I don’t like living by myself, and I’m really looking forward to having a roommate.  Briscoe is excited about having a doggie roommate too! 

It is so fun to have exciting plans.   

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…bought bananas and watched them turn brown without eating them. 

…left her clean clothes in the dryer. 

…never washed her car. 

…started blog posts, saved them as drafts, and never posted them for real. 

…never got around to framing things to hang on walls, such as diplomas, artwork, pictures. 

…lost netflix dvds.

…left coolers with beer and ice from saturday night outside until tuesday when the beer was hot and icky. 

…remembered it was trash day when the trash truck crashing down the street woke her up.   

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I’m noticing that the pictures of Briscoe I posted below have a sort of serious tone to them.  Most of the time she looks like she is smiling.  She really is the cutest dog in america.  So I apologize for how sad she seems to appear, I will have to take some happier looking photos of her later. 

Having a dog is awesome.  I had my feelings hurt by a close friend earlier this week and I was sad and after playing with Briscoe for a little while I didn’t care anymore and I felt a ton better!  Everyone should get a dog. 

In other news, my sweet friend Betsy got engaged last night to her cute boyfriend Brad!  Yay for them!  I can say with full confidence that they are going to have good looking chil’ren. 

I went to the Greenjacket’s game last night and I am happy to report they won.  Dollar beers were enjoyed by all. 

There is a new petsmart commercial that involves a bulldog and a bulldog puppy and we have it tivoed and we watch it a lot.  It is really awesome.  I melt everytime I see it. 

Jennifer’s engagement party is this weekend which is really exciting. 

Yay!  It is friday!  Get excited!

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I went to Nashville this past weekend for my sweet friend Sarah’s bachelorette party.  We had a wonderful time.   Friday afternoon I drove to the ATL and rode the rest of the way to Nashville with Cristina and Ben, who were going up for Steeplechase.  Cristina lives in a townhome in buckhead with her brother.  I met her at her house, we loaded everything up into Ben’s car, and left my car and Cristina’s car in the parking lot.  The parking lot was not crowded, and there was nothing to indicated that any of the parking spaces were specifically assigned to any particular townhome.  Shoot, there were barely lines drawn. 

Cristina told me that it didn’t matter where I parked, as there were not designated parking spaces. 

I rode back with the bachelorette girls, and yesterday afternoon when I arrived at my car there was a note on it that said:

"Whoever owns this car, I am calling to have it towed.  Paula Somethingorother Apt. B-1"  (the townhome I was parked in front of).    The note was dated Friday 5/11. 

As I am searching for my keys and feeling chastised for no good reason, a woman emerges from Apt. B-1.  We’ll call her Paula. 

Paula:  Is this your car?

Me:  Yes!  I’m so sorry about the car, my friend lives right there and she indicated that it was okay for me to park here and we’ve been out of town all weekend.  But I’m moving it. 

Paula:  Well, you know you can’t just park anywhere.  This is my parking space and even though I don’t live here all the time I don’t appreciate you parking in my spot.  (throws her hands up like she is exasperated)

Me:  Well, I apologize, but the spaces are not marked and there are no signs indicated that some parking is for residence and some parking is for guests. 

Paula:  There is plenty of parking down there, you could have parked down there.  (pointing in front of her neighbor’s house).  The spaces in front of each unit are assigned to that unit. 

Me:  Like I said, I had no way of knowing that this was not an acceptable place to park. 

Paula:  Well, it better not happen again, I had to park elsewhere this weekend, which I don’t appreciate. 

Me:  DON’T WORRY. 

Now, what I want to to know is, did she really let the fact that I parked my car in front of her house ruin her whole weekend?  I get the feeling that she did.  She was waiting on me to come back to my car.  Plus, I think she might have had to walk an extra ten to fifteen feet because of my inconsiderateness.  She was older, but she didn’t look crippled.  Plus, I apologized immediately and was as polite as I could possibly be.  I just wonder, did it make her feel better to yell at me about it? Obviously nothing I could say was going to make it better.   How do people get through life if they let trivial things like parking spots eat them alive inside?  I hate being repremanded, it hurts my feelings.  Especially when I wasn’t doing anything wrong. 

Regardless, I’d have been mad as a hornet if she’d towed my car. 

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This morning the radio people were giving away a trip to Jamaica.  They asked a question, and then had people call in to answer the question.  The head DJ said that the winner would be the 17th caller with the right answer to the question.  And I thought it was a hard question. 

So does that mean that they answer the phone 17 times, then on the 17th time they ask the caller what the question is and if they get it right they win?

Or do they ask everyone whose call they answer the question, and the 17th person who answers the question correctly wins? 

Do 17 people have to answer the question correctly to get a winner?

Am I making sense?  Does this bother anyone else?

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On a good day, my hair rubber band is the perfect stretchiness. 

On a bad day, I explode diet coke cans in the mini fridge that Heather and I share at work. 

On a good day, I wake up and know exactly what I’m going to wear. 

On a bad day, I trip in the parking lot at work and eat asphalt. 

On a good day,  no one else gets on the elevator that I am on, and I am able to ride all the way to the ninth floor without stopping. 

On a bad day, my right foot is attacked by unidentified biting insects in my parents front yard. 

On a good day, chocolate chip cookies rain from the sky.

On a bad day I run out of gas on a busy street because my gas gauge doesn’t work. 

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Happy Ides of March everyone!  Watch out for knife welding, backstabbing mobs of your friends and coworkers!

I really miss that hour of sleep I lost last weekend.  I’ve been looking for it all over my house, but soon I am going to have to face the facts and accept that it is lost and gone forever.  Now, in all truthfulness I get really excited when the time changes in the spring and I get depressed when it changes back in the fall.  I love the long days of sunshine.  But right now I’m sleepy.  Sleeping late is like a drug.  The lingering memory of sleeping late last weekend and how awesome it was is preventing me from being a fully functional human being.  For instance, my hair could stand to be washed. 

In other news, Camellias are beautiful flowers, but aren’t very good to cut and put in a vase.  Leave them on the bush, they look prettier there and when they turn black and fall off you don’t have to look at them anymore.  Gerber daisies are much better in a vase.  They last forever.  If anyone ever gives me flowers I would like them to be Gerber daisies.  Because they last a long time, and they aren’t real expensive, so when you do finally have to throw them away you don’t feel guilty.  They make me happy.  Friendly, cheery, colorful, non-snobby flowers.   Cut roses sort of depress me.  Except for the little sweetheart roses.  I like those.  The pink ones. 

Have I ever told y’all how much I like the way tea olives smell?  I’m sure I have.  And rosemary.  My parents have two big ole rosemary bushes outside their front steps and sometimes I run over part of it.  Then the tires on my car smell really great. 

Stephen and I ran at the canal the other day and there were fountains and fountains of Carolina Jasmine.  It was great.  I could see south Carolina from where I was standing, and enjoying their pretty flower.   It almost made the fact that I’m still not in very good shape and thought I might die bearable. 

Briscoe is really cute.  When you go to pick her up these days – she jumps up to help you.  And she makes this little umph woof noise when she does it.  Like – woumph. 

How come I always want to call people between 12-1?  I think most people are probably at lunch then.  But that is when I would like to make most of my work related phone calls.   Sigh. 

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I was just discussing with Jennifer this morning on the cellpiece how I am not a list maker.  We were talking about how some people cross of the days on their calender and some people don’t.  Let’s get real here, I don’t even really have a calender.  I definitely don’t cross the days off.  My desktop calender (those big huge suckers that are basically placemats for your desk) is still on September.  Great.  She said that of course I don’t mark off days in my calender, I don’t make lists either.  I told her I make lists in my head.  She said she was sure my head was a bad place to keep lists.  Details. 

Then Meg asked us this morning to make a list.   So I’m going to make a list of things I’m happy about. 

1.  I’m happy that our Deal or No Deal costumes turned out so spectacularly.  Except for the fact that a lot of people don’t know about the show Deal or No Deal.  I guess they live under a rock.  Hah.  Here we are looking cute.  The red glitter from our sweet dresses we got from Daffy’s (Clothing Bargains for Millionaires)  was all over everything. 

2.  I am getting a dog this weekend.  A wheaten terrier.  I’m really excited.  I know it is going to be a lot of work, but I really want a dog.  I want to take care of a dog and I’m excited about the structure.  Wheatens don’t shed, they don’t get too big, while still being big enough to run with me.  I really want a dog I can run with.  I wanted a lab, and my parents were dead against a lab.  I do see their point, I’m not sure I can deal with a dog that weighs 80 pounds.  Give me advice about my dog.  I know wheatens need a lot of attention.  So do I.  My job is very flexible right now.  Here is the picture the breeder sent me –

They get lighter as they get older. 

3.  In about half an hour I’m getting sworn in as an attorney.  It is really exciting.  I’m still so happy I passed the bar.  It is almost like graduating from law school all over again, just better.  The best part (besides the fact that I don’t have to take it again) is that everyone else is so happy for me.  I really appreciate the fact that people care. It means a lot. 

4.  I downloaded the new John Mayer Cd.  I’ve never had one of his cds before.  I like it.  Gravity is my favorite. 

5.  Last night I got to watch, on TiVo, four of my favorite tv shows.  Boston Legal, House, Bones, and Lost.  It was a big night.  I got a flu shot yesterday so I didn’t go run, but hopefully Elizabeth and I can go run tonight.  This whole time change thing really sucks.  A lot.  Especially since I still can’t get out of bed in the morning. 

6.  The WEATHER.  It has been so beautiful here.  I need to be outside more.  A lot more. 

7.  I am not going out of town for a while.  Except to go pick up my puppy.  I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.  I have had a great couple of months of travel, but I’m plum worn out.  I need a break.  Pretend like I live here.  In my cute house. 

Okay, that seems like a good number.  I’m off to become a real live attorney.  Kisses. 

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