However Although Thus Several Several

She's writing about not writing

I haven't been showing up here because I don't really know where to begin or what to say. How's that for a lead sentence? You can really tell I'm a Mass Comm major, huh? I'm sure it's obvious that I'm the daughter of a news anchor now...that opening really hooks you in and makes you want to read more, doesn't it?

Sorry. I keep waiting for the fog to lift and for my mood to improve, but so far I'm about the same - sad and irritable and, as a result, hard to live with or work with. (Feel sorry for PJ and my co-workers. Feel very sorry for them.)

I've been slowly working on some Christmas shopping, and I spent some time in the toy department today at Target. Wow! I wish I had about $500 to blow on games just for me, myself, and I. I love Yahtzee (Great Shakes! It's Yahtzee!) and Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble, and who knew they have about ten different versions of each of those now? Amazing. I have no idea why I was in the toy department. I didn't buy anything there. I went to Target for something completely unrelated to toys - but somehow ended up in the toy department for the majority of my lunch hour. Christmas magic, I guess.

I must say that this week has been a little better than last week, and hopefully the days and weeks will soon begin to get a little easier. I figure it would be hard to get much worse. Last week's life highlights include whacking my head on the corner of the fireplace mantel so hard that I thought surely my head was detached from my body and rolling through the house. Two days later I was suffering a resulting pain in the neck and shoulder area that felt like I had been involved in a wreck with a large truck, and then one day later I found myself in the floor of a friend's bathroom during a lovely dinner party. (No, I was not drunk. I apparently took one too many muscle relaxers before having a glass or two of wine.)

I have to work tomorrow because of graduation (damn over-achievers), but for the rest of the weekend I plan on busying myself with writing thank you notes on the absolutely beautiful sympathy acknowledgment cards that Amanda from PaperRamma designed and printed for me. I found Amanda on etsy (where I used to go for inspiration and ideas, but now go for comfort and distraction). She's currently designing our Christmas card. I've thought a tiny bit about the CCN and haven't really decided what to do about that. It seems the tradition should go on, but what ever shall I say? "Dear Friends: My mother died. Yep, it sucks. Love, Mandy." I'm guessing that might be a bit macabre. So I'm working on it.

In the words of our astute nephew, Jay Johnson, "We shall see..."  

Sit down and shut up.

Why do people who are not interested in watching a football game actually go to the game? And why do they walk up and down the steps, and in front of you and behind you throughout the game? Why don't they just sell their tickets and stay on the quad and drink? This I will never understand. It reminds me of going to see Elton John in concert. Some jerk sitting very close to us yelled "Play Tiny Dancer! Play Tiny Dancer" in his big ol' redneck country boy accent all night long. Then when Elton actually played "Tiny Dancer" - Mr. Redneck Jerk Face didn't recognize the song until the chorus.

So this crazy girl in a houndstooth fedora couldn't sit still at the game yesterday. The woman sitting next to me noticed it, too. I counted every time that the girl went by (times that I noticed - PJ says he saw her a few other times) and as she would walk by, I would say in a very loud and irritated tone, "SEVEN!" or "EIGHT!" or whatever number of times she had walked by at that point. I don't think she ever got it, though. Her boyfriend was up and down the whole game, too. I'm glad they've each found a compatible partner.

It was a beautiful day for football. But in some ways, our seats this year suck. For instance, to get to the seats, you have to walk up a very long and grueling concrete spiral. And once you make it up to the sky, it takes forever to cool down and get to a resting heart rate again. And our section gets full sun the entire afternoon. HOT as heck. But I like the view of the game. And I liked the breeze that came through every once in a while. And we had plenty of room yesterday to stretch out.

Here's our perspective...see, I told you it was a beautiful day for football:

 

And look who we ran into before the game serving up free ice cream on the quad. Is she cute or what?

 

 

I should mention that we have a SWEET parking space for the games, though. I'm sure we could sell the parking permit for more than the game tickets. We had fun just hanging there under the tree with our trunk load of refreshments before the game. And look how sweet PJ is - wearing Bama stuff for the game even though he's an Auburn fan. That's true love right there. (He may convert just yet. Especially if they keep that ridiculous coach.)

 

And I hear (from a reliable source) that we were on TV during the game...right after KY scored their first touch down. My dad says I was looking a bit confused. I was probably trying to figure out what the Hell that crazy girl in the fedora was doing.

The only other thing I should mention about yesterday (and this is just so I might use it as a reference in the future) is that I need to think (and look around) before I speak. Seriously. I was so very busted at one point in the day. (And I'm not talking about Ants-in-the-Pants fedora chick - I don't care if she heard me talking about her.) Anyway, I can't quit thinking about it and feeling like I should know better. I do know better. But there are times I just can't keep my thoughts to myself. (Like 90% of the time.) Oh well, she needed to hear it. That's how I'm justifying it anyway. Of course I will need to think of some other reason I said it if she calls me out on it. Surely she won't call me out on it. I think she would be too scared to hear what else might come out of my mouth.

When will I learn? (Don't answer that.)

Mary takes the Gold! (or in this case, the orange)

First of all - Michael Phelps! Holy Crap! That was close.

So, I've been a little preoccupied and I'm just now getting to the RAK. Sorry. Thank you so much for playing. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments! And I'm very excited about customizing a prize for the winner. And...speaking of the winner...we (PJ, Clover and I) did a little video of the selection process...and you'll notice the camera never gets a glimpse of me since I look like HELL tonight. (Rough Day.) And we did this video with PJ's phone. (Have I mentioned I need a Flip? In a bad way?) This video might make you seasick...sorry.

Click here for the big news!

Number 17 is mhutch! CONGRATULATIONS mhutch! I happen to know that mhutch is sweet Mary. Mary's comment:

Orange
Spunky
Rain
Lemonade(As in whatever life hands you, turn it into lemonade.)

Posted by: mhutch | August 13, 2008 at 10:09 AM

OK. This could prove to be challenging. BUT, never fear. I can do it! Mary, please email me at mandyj318@aol.com with your snail mail address and I will send your customized RAK very soon. The RAK, as promised, will "match" your four words. Orange? Rain? OK. I can do it. Stay tuned.

And the whole Iraq business reminded me of this which I have found very funny for many months now. It's the wallpaper on my laptop and makes me laugh every time I see it.

OK, so work SUCKED today. I can't for the life of me figure out why people want to act like this is their first rodeo when we've done this a million times now. Good grief, it's ridiculous. Anyway, kids are moving back in the dorms, and the we got our asses KICKED today. SLAMMED. SLAMMED. And then they swept the floor with us. It wasn't pretty. And I was having a bad hair day and I started my period earlier in the week. Sorry if that's too much information, but you need to know where I'm coming from. I may be MIA for a week or so while I try to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic...

Again, thank you. I love your comments and feedback.

P.S. Can I tell you how many times I've tried to post this? Sorry if your reader has 52 versions of the same post. Geez. I'm going to bed.

Wait! Am I in the Cash Cab?

Dude at work (DAW): What's Iraq?

Me: What?

DAW: Iraq? What's Iraq?

Me: Ummm...a country in Western Asia? Why are you asking me that?

DAW: On your blog. You said you were giving away Iraq and I don't know what that is.

Me: Oh! You mean a RAK? Oh.

DAW: Yeah, what's a RAK?

Me: If you don't know, you can't play. And one more thing - don't read my blog.

You have until Friday night after work (loosely translated as 7:00pm CST on 8/15/08) to leave your comment and enter the drawing for Iraq.

And p.s. It's not just for scrapbookers. I can do other things besides cut and paste, you know.

 

Takin' care of bidness and a RAK at the end

I'm pretty sure that we've covered most of these details before, but Lisa tagged me and I do what Lisa wants. Life is just easier that way.

4 places I visit over and over
    Barnes & Noble, Panera (every Sunday morning - Church of the Bagel), the ridiculous excuse for a Starbucks in my building at work, the lame Winn Dixie near our house (grrrr)

4 people who call/email/text me regularly
    PJ (emails and calls), Bobbie Jo (calls when she's not not speaking to me), Noele (we have the email Olympics going on, and she calls when she has a question...like, "Can I leave early today?"), Kala (emails almost daily and calls every now and then) No one texts me. Does this mean I'm not popular? People twitter me. Or is it "twit" me? Either way, I'm probably a much bigger deal than what you're thinking right now.

4 favorite foods 
    (This changes on a quarterly basis.) Reduced fat Cheez-its, thin crust pepperoni pizza, Special K Chocolately Drizzle breakfast bars, Girl Scout thin mint cookies

4 places I'd rather be
    Red Bar on crab cakes night, Seagrove Beach under the blue umbrella, on the Runaway in BVI, Scrap, Etc.

4 movies I'd watch over and over
    Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Dirty Dancing, Pulp Fiction, True Romance 

4 bands/groups/musicians
    Robinella, John Mayer, Emmylou Harris, Over the Rhine 

OK, now my turn to tag: I'm not tagging anyone because I can't think of anyone I want to know four things about. Just kidding. I'm not tagging anyone because I think everyone I know who has a blog has already answered these.

So...do you feel like you know me a little better now? I hope so.

For kicks, leave a comment with four words that describe you, and I will draw a winner Friday night. Winner gets some sorta RAK from me. I will customize the RAK to "match" the four words you use in your comment. How cool is that? Trust me, it's cool.

Kicking and screaming

I hate leaving the beach. I drag out the last day as long as I possibly can...making PJ stop at every little place I may have missed and pose for every little photo opp I can think of along the road out of town. He didn't pose for this one...I just happen to have a crush on this view that I had all week. Hoping it will marry me.

I would have written while we were there, but I just couldn't break away from doing absolutely nothing. Doing absolutely nothing in the hot sun all day really takes it out of you.

So, we're back.

Sigh.

We had a great time as usual. It was such a relaxing week of sun and food and drink and conversation and friends and family and fireworks on the water and so forth and so on.

PJ learned to play Guitar Hero. (He's really good...and REALLY gets into it.)

And we saw Get Smart. (It was excellent.) And I got new shoes.

Let's see...What else? Oh...this little guy:

So glad we got to spend a few hours with little cousin. (He says great things, BTW. More on that later.)

And no, we don't have a new puppy. This is just the hair PJ and I got off of Clover today using the FURminator. That thing is downright amazing. She must weigh five pounds less. And how could she not feel better? Instead of thanking me and realizing how fortunate she is to have me, she's pouting and avoiding eye contact with me now. Ungrateful little snit.

I can't even believe I have to go back to work tomorrow. God help me.