What I Accomplished This Weekend

Breakfast at Jim's with Big Daddy
Grocery shopped
Took both princesses to the mall for shopping and pretzels
Watched 4 movies
Took a nap
Went to church as a family
Made 5 lbs. of pizza meatloaf for potluck at church
Attended a wedding shower
Spent time with our Katrina evacuee mom
Deep cleaned the 70 gallon fish tank
Cleaned the bird cage

I've got one more day off and I think I'll go to the gym, take little princess to the pool, clean the house, and do some laundry.

Ahhhh, its good to relax and do nothing.

The End of an Era

My mom called the other day to say the old Marathon gas station was finally closing. I immediately started having flash backs to some of the sweetest teenaged memories.

All the hottest of the car obsessed boys worked there which drew us girls to visit far more often than the need to fill up our gas tanks. My sister and I both dated best friends that worked there and we spent long hours in the grimy office waiting for them to finish at work and take us out.

The owner must have been crazy but he really liked being surrounded by teenagers. There was only one other employee that was technically an adult. He didn’t act it and he was our beer source. For the price of a six pack he would buy us all the alcohol we wanted.

We worked on our own cars when things were slow. ‘68 Baracuda convertible, old Chevy truck, ‘72 Monte Carlo, ’70 SS Nova, ’68 Mustang, ’77 Firebird, ’68 Camero where some of the cars we drove. Mine was the 1972 Monte Carlo with a 402 big block, dual carbs, dual exhaust, air shocks, with metallic brown paint so dark the cops always wrote black in the box for color. You had to be careful cause every time you tapped the gas it squealed the tires.

When I got in trouble at home for missing curfew, my dad would disconnect one of the carburetors and let the air out of the shocks. I’d hustle down to the station and get one of the boys to put it all back before heading downtown to cruise the strip.

Everyone honked and waved when they drove by the station. Us girls hung out so much that the owner finally made a deal with us. If we girls agreed to not hang out at the station every day (drooling over the boys) then on Saturday nights we could come up and pump gas for tips and hang out with the boys. This deal made the station very popular on Saturday nights since we wore service station uniform shirts tied under our breasts and cut off shorts.

We made more tips in one night than the boys made all week. It always ended up being beer money and as soon the station closed and the beer run had been made, we’d head to a party, a barn or a corn field to listen to hair metal bands and drink til curfew.

One of the guys loved the place so much that he eventually bought the station from the owner and things continued as usual but with a new bunch of teen groupies as we all moved into adulthood.

I mourn the end of the full service gas station.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

People like to touch my hair.

Is that weird?

A co-worker said he wished his wife had hair like mine.

If I wear my hair in a pony tail (or god forbid pigtails) complete strangers think its ok to pull it.

My pastor has sniffed it.

When I hug people they tend to run their hand down its length.

People comment a lot on how soft it is or how thick it is.

I am more than my hair.

Road Trip Stories

My driving arm is wicked tan compared to the rest of me, 800+ miles in 3 days. Hard hats were not designed to be kind to girl's hair in hot weather but my new boots were broke-in enough to not kill my feet. I listened to every cd I own until I was sick of them. The cell phone reception sucked and I dropped more calls than I took and that was when I could even get enough bars to dial the phone. Small towns have an abundance of cops. I saw more cops in 3 days than I've seen in San Antonio in 6 months.
You should have seen the contractors freaking out. They first see the Company safety guy, which causes scrambling for hard hats and safety goggles. But then, what the heck, it’s a chick with him, looks like a company person, wearing the company logo hard hat and what the heck, she's taking pictures and conferring with the safety guy.

I loved watching them react to me.

Best road sign: county road in the middle of no-where.

"Slower Traffic Stay Right"

Shit, there's only one lane, I hope everybody stays to the right.

Guilty until proven innocent

Big Daddy called me at work Monday and accused me of having a boyfriend. Seriously. I had to leave work and come home to calm him down and figure out what was going on. Apparently taking a dressy outfit, high heels and nice pajamas on a business trip to the field equals boyfriend. We ended up having a long conversation about how unhappy I am. He sleeps all the time and never spends any time with me or the kids. Last weekend we spent all of 5 hours together, he slept the rest. This has been going on for atleast 6 months. I told him I'm lonely and unhappy.

I thought we'd ironed this out before I left on Wed. but apparently not. I asked him to lunch before I hit the road and I asked him to help me carry my stuff to the car. I said how I hated not being able to listen to music in hotels and took my cd player from the office. He said yeah, I'd need that to party with my boyfriend. We parted on a sour note.

The trip was good. I spent a lot of time driving (846 miles in 4 days) and sitting in boring meetings. I did get to met a friend's wife and we all went to dinner for her birthday.

I called Big Daddy twice each day, once mid morning when he was getting home and again around 10 pm when he leaves for work. He sounded short and pissy. Each day I became more depressed about it. Nothing like hours of drive time to mull it over.

By the last day I was actually dreading returning home while at the same time so very tired of traveling. I get home late afternoon and he's like a changed man. I found it amazing that from Friday night's short curt call he could be so different. He said that Saturday he realized how wrong he'd been and how the last six months have been pretty crappy for me.

Let's hope this is a new beginning and not a short story.

Thanks for nothing:(

Well another Mother’s Day come and gone. Big Princess got me some foot scrub, a manicure set, and bird seed for my bird feeders. I found this pretty amazing since I know she doesn’t have hardly any money. Big Daddy didn’t even wish me a happy Mother’s Day.

We were at Wal-Mart Saturday buying groceries and at the check out they had some cd’s. I picked out two that I thought I’d like for the trip I’ll be on the rest of this week. Big Daddy looked at me and said “Are you buying both of those?” I told him yeah, it will help make the five hour drive each way a little less boring. “Well, happy Mother’s Day.”

I thought he was kidding. Apparently not.

I even bought a pork loin and all the fixings to make a nice Sunday dinner so he wouldn’t have to take me out and endure long lines and other people. So Sunday after church, he goes to bed and the girls won’t clean up the kitchen enough for me to even cook. I was so pissed off I told them they could all go to hell and I wasn’t cooking a damned thing.

I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and sitting on the sofa.

Oh, don’t worry. I let Big Daddy have it today. I explained in no uncertain terms what I’m expecting from him in the future. I want to be wined and dined and romanced. I want someone who wants me enough to tear my clothes off. I told him as a roommate he’s perfect since I rarely see him, as a lover he has been sucking (and not in a good way).

I can only hope that he’s taking this to heart cause I’m real tired of the way its been.

5 Things I saw on the road today

5. 4' length of tire tread
4. One tennis shoe
3. Two couch cushions (non matching from different sofas)
2. Bundt cake pan

and the last thing I saw on the road before arriving back at the office from lunch...

1. Jock Strap--in the middle of the road and appearing to have been run over several times.

Say "Pandemic Panic" 5 times really fast

The World Health Organization has said a bird flu pandemic might kill 150 million people worldwide.

The US government’s bird flu plan was announced last week and projects that 2 million Americans might die. According to the plan, the president should be prepared to send the Army into cities to put down bird flu riots. Robert Webster, a prominent influenza researcher, told ABC's World News Tonight that a pandemic might kill half of the human population. Mr. Webster says he is keeping a three-month supply of food and water at his home, apparently in case the American economy collapses during a bird flu outbreak. Ok, just like in 2000 for the Millennium.

The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services recently advised Americans to stockpile six weeks' worth of food, water, and medicine in their homes, specifically powdered milk and tuna fish under the bed. There has even been speculation that "the Internet could shut down within two to four days" of a bird flu outbreak. What? I’m dying and can’t check my email?

All this for a disease that has only killed 113 people total worldwide in the last three years. Worldwide about 4 million have died in traffic accidents and at least 6 million people have died of diarrheal diseases in the three years. I know cause I almost died of a diarrheal disease myself. Ok, I just thought I was gonna die.

A bird flu pandemic seems extraordinarily unlikely. First, a pandemic would require significant mutation because as it currently stands is not transmissible from person to person. It can spread bird to bird, and bird to human but an infected person cannot transmit the disease to another person.

The vast majority of the people in the world never comes into close physical contact with birds (aside from fried chicken). So relax, the existing bird flu strain poses almost no threat and I think a one week supply of water, tuna and powdered mild is enough for anyone to keep under the bed.

Crap in tow

Big Princess arrived with all her crap in tow on Saturday to include a beta fish riding in her drink holder. She hadn't even arrived before she was calling and asking to go out with friends that same night. I was like A. you'd have to be home by midnight since you've got church tomorrow and B. you're not going anywhere until all your crap is appropriately put away.

She didn't go out.

Probably due to 70 lbs of dirty laundry.

So there goes the electric, water and food bills.

Big Princess the Sophmore

Big Princess has finished her finals and will be home tomorrow. Yea!

We will both have to adjust to each other again but I'm looking forward to hanging out. She's used to doing her own thing and not answering to me every day. I'm used to not having her crap everywhere messing up my house, and her sleeping and laying around.

I've told her she has to work 40 hrs a week this summer even if it means she has to take a second job. I'm also going to manage her money. She hasn't done a fabulous job this year and I just had to bail her out for $400 of overdrafts at the bank that she'll have to pay me back. Hard life lesson.

I hope she realizes how lucky she is to have parents willing to stand her back up when she leans too far to the side. I never had that and I'm pretty sure Big Daddy didn't have a lot of it either. For us it was "hello 18, get out, you're an adult now".

I love that she doesn't have to experience that harsh reality.

Compliment gone wrong

A friend of mine from the field has been at corp. the last three days. So I took him out Tuesday night for dinner and drinks, played pool and hung out. Then Wed. we just did drinks with some of the other guys and I went home around 6:30. Well when we get together and drink the dicussion always turns to people in the company at some point, who they like, who they hate.

We played a game I like to call "I'd totally do them". It gets pretty hilarious and since its always guys (hey, its a male dominated company) people in the game never come up. I mean what guy is gonna say he'd do a guy in the circle?

Well we're all laughing and tossing out names when my friend looks at me and goes..."I'd totally do you". We all busted up laughing. I'm so comfortable with the guys and vice versa that sometimes they forget I'm of the opposite sex. But the game's all harmless and nobody's really thinking their gonna "do" someone in the company so I didn't take it personal.

Well, today he was leaving and I walked him out to the parking lot to have a smoke. Joking around, I gave him a hug and said, "Hey, thanks for saying you'd sleep with me. That was the nicest compliment I've had all week." Just then we both look up and see there's a guy standing like 2 feet from us that we didn't know was there and the guy busts up laughing and walks away. We've both got no clue who this guy is but we bust up laughing at how my comment must have sounded.

My friend called me later and said he was still laughing every time he pictured the look on that guy's face. I bet the guy tells someone what he overheard today.

Better but not well

I can breathe! My sinuses are clear for the most part. My ear is better but still clogged. I decided to put off a trip to an ENT to see if it will clear up in the next day or two. The problem is, if it hasn't, I don't have time the rest of the week. I still have a cough that occasionally makes me wet myself. And I did sleep like 6 hrs in a row. That's a new record in the last 2 weeks. Also, its been so long since I ate regular food that it now disagrees with me. So little princess got Jack-n-the-Box Ultimate cheeseburger and fries, I had a lunchmeat sandwich and green beans to avoid the greasy food induced diarrhea. Sorry for sharing;(

A friend from work comes to town tomorrow (he works up by Dallas, about 5 hrs away) and we'll do dinner and drinks. I hope I'm up to it. Then we have a full day of meetings on Wednesday. I think he's staying until Thursday so we may do dinner again Wed. We'll see. It's nice to have something to look forward to...