Shameless...

Yeah, so it's been a loooooong time since I've blogged, and I have all sorts of excuses rationalizations really good reasons as to why I haven't been around. So why blog now? Well I figured what was a blog good for if not for shameless self promotion and winning a free prize...

So the Art of Waiting is having another contest for yet another super cute yellow toy camera - and I want it, again. All I have to do is mention them in this post (check), follow their blog and tweets (check) and shamelessly retweet about how I want to win the camera (check). So theoretically I'm a lock to win this little cutie!

As for the real blogging, I've been trying to get back to it for real. And I'm gonna, I swear. In fact, the NaBloPoMo theme for April is "Big" - and big things have been happening, so maybe...

Oh What A Night

I should start out with the requisite apology for goofing up the end of NaBloPoMo and not having been around for a bit. But I really don't have much of and excuse for not being around, besides a severe case of what my sister would call "Head Up Ass" disease. I did bail on the last day of NaBloPoMo, but I have a number of reasonable excuses - I was in a different time zone, I was entertaining someone else's children in Disneyland, I'd already messed up NaBloPoMo anyway, oh and I was at my super important reunion (also called the mini Slug-Fest-Love-Fest-Drinking-Fest).

It was pretty damned awesome! It's been almost 13 years since I'd seen all my old roomies and almost 20 since we'd lived together, yet we were able to pick back up as if no time had passed. Sure we were all a bit older, maybe a few more pounds here and there, but no worse for wear. Some of us had kids, some weren't working, one was having an affair, and one had a nice new set of boobs (none of those are me by the way) - but all still in good shape and still the same bunch of fun gals we always were.

Oh, and did I say we all looked pretty good? 'Cause we did. My one roomie said that "almost 40 is the new 20" - maybe she's right. Oh and I'm pretty sure I pulled off the H-O-T, hot bit as well ("you are hotter now than you even were in college" - a direct quote from the Ex) - even with the bangs.

After plenty of girl chatter and gossip the once "Fearsome Foursome" (our nickname way back in our Freshman year) got all tarted up and headed out to the bar to meet the rest of the Slugs. The group was supposed to include one Ex per roomie (yep, we broke hearts and took names once upon a time), plus a couple of floor-mates from our Freshman and Sophomore dorms. The "rest" of the group ended up being only be my Ex and one other friend. Oh, and my Ex brought his wife - which actually turned out ok, she was really nice (and incredibly tall and could kick my ass in a hot second, so I have to say she was nice right? :-).

Anywhoo, we headed out to the restaurant and proceeded to eat, drink and relive old times (strangely they included a lot of talk about how my Ex and I hooked up all those years ago - the good news is that his wife took it in good form). We kept talking, eating, drinking and laughing till we realized that we were getting a bit too loud for the rest of the restaurant patrons. We knew we weren't done with the evening so we headed on to some random country bar around the corner (which you really wouldn't expect to see in the trendy part of San Diego, and yet...).

At some point between trying to get me on the mechanical bull and the tequila shots we started to really have a good time! The guys tried out a little table dancing - which was frightening (and managed to get the bouncers over to our table). I'm fairly certain that at least one of the girls had a little spin on the pole (clothes on). But the night couldn't end there! Not long after, we all ended up on the roof top bar dancing and drinking well into the wee hours of the morning. Sometime around 3am we dragged ourselves back to our room and into bed.

We all managed to drag ourselves out of bed the next morning and down to breakfast. I'm not sure that we did any better than we did 20 years ago, but we all made it through the night not too much worse for wear. We enjoyed a breakfast and shared a small bottle of Advil and started making plans for the next reunion.

I guess the good news is that I've got a year to recover.

Current Music: So Long, Farewell, Bye Bye - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

A Big Day Here

Yeah, big, big day here - I woke up this morning, knowing that it was going to be great, but wow. I was floored.

I mean how many times in your life are you going to see some dumb-a** redneck drive a car down a frozen river and then watch that car stall and sink - all in your own back yard? Really, an historic event (if by historic you mean it only happens once or twice a year).


Oh and there was an awesome inauguration in Washington, but you know for me it was all about the car in in the river.

Current Music: Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo - Tracy Byrd

Maybe it's No-BloPoMo

What's NaBloPoMo called when it's every other day? What ever it is, I think that's what I'm doing. It's actually kind of funny, in my "dash board" there's a draft post and a published post every other day - so it's not for lack of wanting to do it! I had yesterday's post mostly done, then ran off to dinner and forgot to finish it when I got back.

So I guess the question is, am I doing NaBloPoMo or what? Let's go with "what" - I still love the theme of Change, so I really do want to write about that, but let's face it I may not be ready to do an everyday sort of thing! And feel free to give me crap, it's not like it's soooo hard to write a bit every day, even if the carpet is soaking wet and your husband is being an ass about it.

Anyhoo, enough of that nonsense I have something far more important to tell you! I finally got my t-shrit! As you can see, I got it for Christmas, and (as you can also see) I was pretty stoked! My aunt and uncle were completely confused, but you know, they're old and they live out in the burbs - so they don't get it :-)

The rest of Christmas was ok - it was strange (of course), and hard, there were a couple of mini-break downs but really ok. See that little stocking up there behind me? That's where my Dad's stocking used to be - that was a hard thing. But, as with the trip out in September, we tried hard to do lots of family things and create new traditions. It made things easier to start over with certain things then to try and pretend that the old way was still ok.

I'd better get off to bed, I'm so not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow - a week off of work followed by two four day weekends really isn't a good way to get ready to go back to a regular work week. And promise to think about my post for tomorrow (ok, Tuesday-ish).

Current Music: Girls and Boys in Love - The Rumble Strips

The Morning After

Usually the morning after an election is like any other for me - breakfast, work, lunch, work, home, dinner, bed. Never anything to write home about, just another day - no real changes to speak of. Sure there might have been an election the day before, but nothing had really changed.

Until this morning. This morning I woke up with a sense of excitement, a sense of change - even (dare I say it) a sense of hope.

Sure, there has been plenty of talk about hope, talk about change - and oh, how I wanted to believe it. But I just couldn't let myself. What if I bought into it, only to be let down by the American Public? What if I let my expectations get the best of me?

In the days leading up to the election I started to let my excitement get the better of me, thinking that perhaps the voting public wouldn't let me down yet again. I thought maybe, just maybe the people of the United States could see this candidate for who he is - a smart man, an amazing orator, an inspired leader of communities, a young man with a family, a man who's story is so very American. But I still wondered, could they see all that, see past the color of his skin?

So I put that little spark of hope away. But I kept hearing the buzz, seeing the signs and that little spark kept growing - enough so, that when I went into the elementary school gym to vote yesterday I found myself grinning stupidly. I was actually about to vote for someone, not just vote for the lesser of evils (or worse yet just vote against someone else). I practically skipped out of the polling booth I was so pleased!

When the first results started coming my heart sank. Thank you Kentucky, clearly the nation is not ready to be hopeful again, not ready for change. Thank you New Hampshire for your help, but your 3 electoral votes just aren't going to get us there. Then votes from Pennsylvania came in and I found myself saying, maybe "we can". Then the flood gates seemed to open as state after state turned blue, states that hadn't been blue in a very long time, states that you would never have expected to turn blue (not even if they collectively held their breath) were turning blue. And the spark grew and grew, like the Grinch's heart on Christmas morning.

And now here we are on the morning after. We all have a new President, and I have hope. Hope for our country and it's future - something I've not had for a very long time. I have something else as well, I have pride. I'm so proud of my countrymen and women, I'm proud that we were all able to come together and choose hope, I'm proud that it was the best voter turn out in 45 years, I'm proud that we have all been able to share in such a hugely historic moment.

Current Music: Fanfare for the Common Man - Aaron Copeland (feeling a bit classical today - but seriously, go listen to it. It will give you chills to go with your hope.)