Visiting

Did I mention that I am going to my Reunion? I decided not to long ago. I was having all kinds of second thought for a while. I have to admit, I have a couple of other motives for going to VA. The reunion is definitly not the biggest one. It should be a very interesting trip...

Do you ever feel like the world is just spinning out of control and the only thing you can do is try to hold on? Well, that’s my life right now. I’m just holding on. It’s been so crazy. Lately all I do is work. It’s wearing me down really quickly. Here’s a short breakdown of my day. Get up. Walk the Dog. Go to work for 10-12 hours. Walk the dog. Read and/or watch TV till I fall asleep. That’s it. 7 days a week. I haven’t gone anywhere or worked out in a while. I feel like such a bum. I have a few pleasant distractions. Shelly, B, and I go to lunch. James calls and always makes me smile. Lizzy and I have tea everyday at 3. (It’s not just the tea, it’s the conversation and lack of work for the 5 minutes it takes to brew a pot of tea.) They are small things, but they really help to break up the day. I need to do something drastic to change the direction my life is going in. I am not happy. I don’t sleep at night. I’m not eating right. One day I don’t eat anything and the next day all I have it cookies. I don’t want to look up and be in this same place next year or even next month. This is NOT living, it’s just being. I want to LIVE!

Man of My Dreams...

Someone asked me what I want in a man the other day. It got me thinking. I don’t really want that much. I don’t care what kind of car a man drives or how much money is in his bank account. I don’t need Morris Chestnut. (Not saying that Morris and I aren’t meant to be, but a girl can only wait for his phone call for so long.) So, I realized that there are only 3 main things I want in a guy.

1. A guy who makes me laugh. If you are laughing, you won’t be fighting.
2. Someone I can be alone with and not have to say a word. Ever have those uncomfortable silences with someone you are dating? Yeah, that means that you probably shouldn’t be together.
3. Someone who can “blend”. Let me explain this one a bit. I work in a very corporate setting. I want to be with someone that I can take to work functions and not worry about what he’ll say to my boss. I want to be with someone who will get along with my country family in Birmingham and my very traditional Japanese family. He has to be comfortable with my friends that drink, smoke, and gamble along with the ones that are Seventh Day Adventists and Christians that pray for us heathens. I’m not saying that he can’t be himself or that he has to like everyone in my life. I just want him to be able to get along with people and not be uncomfortable.

Those are probably the three main things I look for. Of course there are the standard things that everyone woman wants. You know, Have a job, any job just as long as you are working. If you live with your Mama, don’t call me! It’s one thing if there is a special situation around it, but not “Ummm… I live in my Mama Basement right now, but I’m gonna get my own place when I get my money right.” Oh, and since I’ve been in Florida, If I am blinded by your smile because of all the gold in your mouth, you might as well just turn around and walk away.

See, those aren’t unreasonable requests\requirements, are they?

SECURITY!!!

I have never really worried about my safety at home. I have lived alone for the past 5 years, minus the 3 months my friend lived with me after moving to FL about 2 years ago. In all this time, I have lived in 2 first floor apartments and now a townhouse. I never thought about someone breaking in or threatening my life in any way. Until today, that is.

My girlfriend just called me and told me her house was broken into. Kat lives in a nice middle class neighborhood. They don’t have the nicest house in the neighborhood, but it’s not the worse either. When she was leaving for playgroup with her baby boy (21 months old), she saw some guy on the street and thought it was odd. Turns out he walked into her back yard and threw a cement block threw her office window. He went through her office, leaving untouched her 3 PCs (she works from home), check book, bank cards, and safe deposit box and headed into her bedroom. He took some very odd things. A camera, a pack of cards, pajama pants with ducks on them, one diaper among other things. Her neighbor behind her heard the glass break and came to investigate. When he saw the broken window, he rushed home to call 911. The neighbor on the right of her saw the man leave. The police arrived quickly and caught the man at the bus stop right on the main road. Apparently, the guy had a rap sheet longer than my arm. Armed burglary, breaking and entering, concealed weapons, tons of drug charges. When Kat returned home with her son, her husband was waiting for her on the front porch. The neighbor had called him at work. If she decided to just run to the store and not go to playgroup, she may have come home with him there. If the neighbor hadn’t heard the glass break, she may have come home with him there. What if he was a killer or a rapist? There are so many what ifs and maybes. She is getting an alarm system now.

I’m a little uneasy about all of this. I mean, I live in a gated community, but people can jump fences. I am a single woman living alone. My dog weighs a whopping 13 pounds and would probably try to play with anyone who came in the house. Or he’d just hide in his room upstairs (Guest room that he claims as his own since I never go in there!) Do I need some type of security? An alarm system? A bigger dog? A gun?

Love on the Highway

There is something I really don’t get and this has happened to me a couple times lately. What do guys really expect to happen when they hit on you while DRIVING ON THE HIGHWAY??? I mean, I was driving to work this morning on 95. I was going, I don’t know, 50mph. This guy pulls up along side of me, honks his horn and waves! Oh, Wow! Your beat up old Tercel and subtle come on has got me all hot and bothered. I must pull over on the busy highway to profess my undying love for you or at least give you a little ass before heading to work. COME ON! Let’s be serious here. Is it just me or does anyone else not get this?

Reunion

How many of you have ever been to your high school reunion? Well, my 10 year reunion is coming up. Actually, it’s coming up fast! It’s this October back up in Virginia. I’m kind of torn as to whether or not I should go.

There are some reasons I want to go.
1.) I lost touch with some friends after graduation that I would love to see.
2.) Any opportunity to see my parents is good.
3.) It might be fun to see all of the popular kids now working at the Wal-mart, weighting 400lbs and still living with their parents. (I’ve already seen one from one of my many trips home! Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it?)

There are also reason why I don’t really want to go.
1.) It’s a bit pricy. Flight, Hotel, ticket to the event it’s self. Is it really worth it?
2.) I am NOT looking forward to seeing a couple of people that really made my senior year difficult. There was an incident with my ex-best friend and my ex-boyfriend. I think they might be married now, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
3.) My life isn’t really what I though it would be by now. I mean, I thought I’d be married and have kids. Instead, it’s 7:30 and I’m still at work! What kind of life is that? I mean, a man and some kids aren’t everything and all, but I just pictured myself approaching 30 a few pounds lighter with someone to keep my bed warm at night.

So, now I have to decide. Do I go? Do I not go? Hmmmm…

Labor Day

Besides my post about the wedding, I guess I never finished talking about my trip. Oh, Jdid, I didn’t even get to say goodbye to the groom’s mom. I think she had to be helped out sometime during the reception! I spent the rest of Saturday night surfing the net, chatting on the phone, and watching movies (New Jack City was on). I got a slight case of insomnia and was up till about 3. I just have a really hard time sleeping in an unfamiliar setting.

Sunday, I got up really early and drove back up to where my parents live, near DC. Mom, Dad, and I hung out reading the paper and watching the news. Then Mom and I went to Ikea. Exciting, huh? I realize that my parents are getting older now, so I enjoy spending time with them, even if it’s just random shopping or sitting down to a quiet dinner together. That evening, the three of us headed out to my girlfriend’s new place. Mom and Dad hadn’t seen it and they wanted to see her again. When she first moved up there, she stayed with them for a couple of weeks. She is now their surrogate daughter. Upon getting there, my dad immediately starts fixing things. He can’t help it. He can fix anything and he doesn’t like to just sit idle. I think that is why I have a hard time dating a guy that is not handy. Granted, I can fix a lot of things, being my father’s daughter and all, but I like a guy that can fix things around the house. My mom started asking how school is going and when are you going to come down for. That’s her thing. She always cooks. She also cleans too, but she didn’t want to be rude. Mom and Dad went home and me and my girl went to Georgetown. One of her friends was having a Birthday dinner. So, it ended up being a huge group of people, mostly accountants, only one of whom I knew. What do you do when you are bored while out? You get drunk!! I was just a little drunk, not too bad. But I’ll tell you, I would not go back to this place. Apparently, it’s a pretty up scale restaurant that get inundated with black people on Sunday nights. When we first got there, it was a pretty mixed crowd, but when we left, it was just drunk, ghetto, loud black folks. I just kept thinking, why can’t people act right in public. Maybe I’m just getting a little too old to do ghetto anymore. Plus, we had the worse service I’ve ever had. I mean, I used to be a waitress so I’m usually a really good tipper. I’ve been know to give 20-25%. In my opinion, this guy didn’t deserve a dime!! He was that bad. And I guess I could have understood if he was just really busy or he was doing it to everyone, but he wasn’t! There was a table of about 6 elderly white people there when we got there. He was at their table every 10 minutes, filling up their water glasses and generally kissing some ass. Then when it was later, he was at a table that had ordered 4 bottles of campaign every 5 minutes!! That is just messed up! Plus, he apologized about the wait and said he would take some off the bill. He of course told people on the other end of the table since my friend and I were already confrontational. When the bill came, he hadn’t taken any off and I was ready to start bitching! But, everyone else just wanted to go and made me leave without saying anything. I looked for the manager on the way out, but he was no where to be found either. Anyway, I made my own fun and got home around 3 in the morning after we visited another bar.

Monday, I woke up early and packed. Mom and Dad and I all hung out and Dad showed me his new bow. He’s big into bow hunting now. Yes, my father is a hunter. He’s the camper, hiker, fisher, hunter of the family. Mom is the sports freak. In fact, she was giving me tips on some good rookies for fantasy football. Daddy went to work and Mama drove me to the airport. Gas as $2.99 on the way, what a deal!

Traveling

I’ve been traveling a lot lately. A Whole Lot! I was flying home on Monday and it occurred to me that some of my best memories of people are of us traveling together. I don’t know why. I remember the most insignificant things sometimes. I really do have the worse memory. Any guy that dates me instantly wins about 80% of all fights because I just can’t remember!!

So, as I was saying, I was flying home Monday and I remembered a trip I took to San Francisco last year. I flew over there with JAG. I remember falling asleep on the plane. Now, I can’t sleep in public. I can’t sleep unless it’s dark anyway, but I have this thing about people watching me sleep. An ex used to do that and it creeped me out. It’s just so hard for me to do, but I was soooo tired. I put a blanket over my head and created a little “pocket” and air hole so that I wouldn’t suffocate. I woke up when we were still in the air. Instead of sitting up and looking around, I simply peaked out of my air hole. JAG laughed and told me how cute my little pocket was, while peaking in my air hole. He and I had a blast going to a conference and site-seeing in San Fran, but that was probably my favorite memory from that trip.

Another trip was actually a bus ride to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s plantation. I was in high school and our class went there. The bus ride up, I don’t remember. The bus ride down, I sat next to a good friend of mine. People were napping and doing things they shouldn’t have been doing in public. He and I just hung out and talked the whole way home. After graduation he joined the army and I went off to college. We lost touch for a little while. A couple of years ago, we got back into contact, and it turns out that that bus ride was both of our favorite memories of each other.

My ex, Nick, and I had some really good times. We had bad times too, but I don’t wanna get into that. One of my favorites has to be a trip we took to DC. We were in college in Indiana. I just remember it being really bumpy, which makes me a bit nervous. I was curled up in the seat next to Nick, and I felt really safe. He held my hand and I kept my head on his shoulder the whole time. Is it sad that that is one of my best memories of a year long relationship?

My last favorite memory of traveling with someone is of my mom. Of course I have great memories of her from every aspect of my life, but this was special. My mom and I drove down to Florida from Virginia when I first moved here. It was me, her, and the dog along with all of my crap shoved into my little corolla. On that trip, we talked about everything. It was great because she wasn’t treating me like her little girl anymore. She saw that I was grown up, sort of. We talked about her and my dad first meeting and her getting married at 21, about kids and education, politics and travel. Anything two people could talk about. We listened to Whitney Houston, who my mom loves, and sang along. And if ya’ll know me, you know I can’t sing! I am so glad that she came with me on that trip.

Wedding

This morning, my girl got married. It was a beautiful ceremony. I drove over to the Founders Inn early this morning. The mother of the groom was getting a big plastic bag out of her car when i pulled up in the parking lot. She had a hard time carrying it since she had a drink in her hand. When handed it to me to carry in for her(I offered), I realized that there were 3 bottles of liquor and a liter of pepsi in the bag. I looked at her and she just said "I'm just so nervous, I had to have just a little drink. Little my ass!! It was 9:45 in the morning!! We walked down to the room and my girl had her hair done, but wasn't dressed yet. In all, it was the bride, her mom, the groom's mom, the two bridesmaids, and me. I spend the time helping them put stuff on or adjust stuff. I also took some great photos of all the girls getting ready, since the real photographer wasn't there yet. I asked the mother of the groom for a pepsi while we were all getting ready. When she gave it to me, I could tell right away, there was a lot of rum in it! She also wispered to me that she didn't put that much in it. If she thought mine was weak, what was she drinking?? We had to slow her down a bit since the ceremony was outside in the sun! The entire wedding all went off perfectly. The bride's uncle, the captain of a private yatch, married them. After the cermony, everyone went into the reception. I sayed with the bridal party while they took pictures since I had everyone's makeup. When I went down to the reception, I spent some time chatting with the videographer. I met her the night before, at the rehersal. I probably should had headed straight in, but I didn't know anyone. I ended up seeing J, a friend of the bride's that I met twice before. He said a quick hi to me earlier, but that was it. I think it was because his finace was with him. There are some issues with him and her and jealousy that i won't get into. I ran around for a bit helping out, then I met up with one of the groomsmen's girlfriend. She didn't know anyone at the ceremony either. In fact, she hadn't met the bride or groom yet! So we went and sat together at the table with J and some other people. I met them and they were all really nice. I took a lot of pictures with the bride's camera since she was busy. No Aziza, there were NO single men there. In fact, I don't think there were any single PEOPLE there besides me. Maybe I should have taken Tiff's advice and solicited online for a date. I did have a couple of glasses of wine, but I remained sober the whole time. There we no drunken rantings about being the only single one there. I was thinking about driving to DC tonight, but I'm too tired. So instead, I am at the Bride's house. She is at the hotel with her new hubby. I'm watching Ray and catching up on some blogging. Exciting Saturday night, huh?

Love

I'm in Virginia now. I flew in at 9~ish last night. My parents came to pick me up. It was so crowded and loud at bagage claim. As I waited to get my bag, I turned around and saw my parents. My mom had her left hand looped through my dad's right arm, and he had his left hand on hers. Daddy had just wispered something to Moma and they were laughing together. It was really very sweet. Think about it, they have been married since my mother was 21. She is now... ok, let's just say 50+. All this time, and they still kiss goodbye every time either one of them leaves the house. They giggle like children when they are alone in the kitchen. I want to have that kind of love one day. I hope that my girlfriend who is getting married tomorrow has a love that lasts like theirs.

I admit it, I am already on vacation. I really don’t have much to do today at work. I managed to finish up the one really important thing yesterday, so I’m kind of just chilling. My flight to VA leaves this evening. The dog has been dropped off. The AC has been turned up. My out of office has been turned off. My time sheet has been submitted. My bags are packed and in the car. Now I just have to wait till I can leave the office without drawing too much attention to myself.! *Wink*

This morning work was interesting. For some reason everyone got on the topic of the hurricane, gas prices, the poor survivors of this disaster, out president…everything. I can’t even watch the entire news lately. I tend to get really upset and have to stop when they are talking about the hurricane. I’ve already donated money to the Red Cross and I plan on donating clothing and other personal items. It just breaks my heart. Plus, being in South Florida, very near the coast, I know that it could be me next time. I was just surfing through some blogs the other day and found this one. http://www.danjaruz.com/2005/08/williams-family-hurricane-relief-fund.html. There are thousands of stories out there like this right now, but any little bit can help. My heart goes out to all of you!!