Visiting Aunt Dot and took Ginja, as usual, and Hophead.

We arrived just in time for church. Then off to lunch in the hall. It was all pretty tame except for everyone pushing us to stay for dinner. Then it got bad…

I stepped away to let them know we would stay for dinner but Aunt Dot got pissed because she didn’t know what I was doing. I said I was sorry and she said, “You will pay for your sorrowfulness.”

WTF?

We went back to her room and she flipped out when I had to use the restroom and wouldn’t use the one in her room. While I was gone she, evidently, was cussing at the nurse, “god dammit… I will kill you!”. It amazes me that a nun would say, “god dammit!”

She was nasty, months ago, when when I told her Hophead and I got engaged. So telling her we got married never happened. I was nervous getting to that part and knew I had to tell her this weekend.

She flipped out because we didn’t get married in a church. She said I have to follow the rules.

I said, “Those aren’t my rules.”

She turned to Hophead and got nasty with him. I said, “Don’t talk to him like that or I will take him out of here!”

She said I was being disrespectful and I said she was being rude. I can’t believe I’m arguing with a 99 yr old nun.

I knew I had to change the subject and give it a few minutes and she would forget… It worked!

We muddled along for less than an hour when she started in on my hair.

About this time Hophead excused himself to the bathroom and that’s when he took advantage of his flask of Jameson.

Meanwhile… “Your hair is darker! It doesn’t look good.”

Every 5 to 10 minutes she would say this. I was getting really tired of it.

“Oh boy you are being too sensitive.”

“Well you’ve told me how ugly I am at least 20 times in the last hour, that would get on anyone’s nerves.”

Maybe I should point out how scary she looks without her wig and those freaky moles growing on her face are disgusting. I guess that would be mean… I would never do that.

Finally, she has turned the tv on. Everyone is occupied now… mainly her.

Dinner is in less than an hour then we are off to the hotel and a bar. The flask is empty I hope we can survive.

We still have to come back tomorrow. Ugggh

I was asked to schedule another Hop but this time I set a starting bar and ending bar and had people vote on which they wanted to go to in between. I have also scheduled an hour at each bar… So stop the bitching, OK?

Seems we are going to have quite the turn out and I decided to put it out there in Blog Land in case more wanted to join us.

So here is the deal:

Holiday Bar Hop

   Friday December 4th 2009

5pm               Union Street Pub                121 S. Union Street

 6pm               O’Connell’s                           112 King Street

 7pm               La Tasca                                607 King Street

 8pm               Light Horse (Upstairs)         715 King Street

 9pm               Flying Fish (Downstairs)      815A King Street

 Old Town Alexandria, VA

For more details on where to go here is a map.

A few tips:

• Bring cash so you can pay quickly and be on to the next bar.
• Pace yourself.
• There are plenty of Cabs to get you home. Be safe.
• Have fun!

From the age of 25 I felt the old age coming on and just didn’t want to get old.  Always felt too young to be old.  I was horribly offended when at the age of 25 a dude guessed my age to be 28. 

Ooohhhh to be 28 again… I wish.

I got married at the age of 20, divorced at the age of 30. I then experienced the twenties, I missed, in the first few years of my thirties.  I was single and legal and knew more than most twenty year olds.  Needless to say I had fun and all the while I was still being the responsible single Mom.  I knew that to properly take care of Mini Red and be a good Mom I had to take care of myself.  I wanted her to see that she still has to take care of herself  like Mommy did.

All the while I still felt like a young’un even though I knew I wasn’t. When I’d look in the mirror the person looking back didn’t look familiar.  As a teenager I was fugly and by the time I graduated High School things were definitely changing for me.  The divorce agreed with me too and I stepped it up a notch and dressed a helluva lot better.  Just ask Sis.  So when I was first divorced the person I expected to see in the mirror was that fugly chick and that wasn’t what I saw at all.  It took some getting used to for the mental to meet up with the physical. 

So as I moved along in my thirties I’ve had clues that I’m getting older and although many have heard me say something about being old I still felt young and felt I looked young too.  Last year I turned 40 and I was not happy, as some of you may have read.  People tend to say I don’t look 40 and I agree and love to hear that.  I still feel like I’m about mid to late 20’s but my wrinkles say otherwise.

So last week I was in Vegas and hung out with others much younger than I.  I arrived in Vegas tired after two months of craziness including the holidays, family, sickness and the biggie… Moving. I had only been in the house two weeks and left it in disarray to head to Vegas. I just didn’t feel I could keep up although one night I didn’t get home until six the next morning.

As I think about the events of last week and the fun as well as the stoopid things I did as I was hanging out with young’uns I made a HUGE realization.  I am soooo old!  I may have said I was old and felt old before but not really because I felt I defied it yet I haven’t.  I was fooling myself and I’m just this older chick.  When I was a little girl I remember Mom had a few single female friends and they had that divorcee air about them.  I now realize that is me and even the clothes I wear.  I’m not as young and hip as I thought I was.

Don’t get me wrong this isn’t a woe is me post it’s just another step in realizing who I am.  Sometimes we experience growing pains and this one is definitely painful but I’m coming to terms with it and I really don’t want it to keep me down.  There is too much that I haven’t experienced yet.  Now I just need to pull it all together and get it all done because time is flying by way too fast and I have a lot to do.

Someone said he looked ten years younger.

He is trying to decide if he likes it or not.  He figures if he wants to grow it back he could do it easily over the three day weekend coming up.

I told him I would post it here and we could take a poll to help him decide.

Before (with goatee):

After (shaved):

At Work:  ***Tapping fingers on my desk***

In The Car: ***Tapping fingers on the steering wheel***

I’m just not sure what to do with myself.  Minnie Red is at the beach and Kima is in a new home.  Not sure I want to be home alone.  Oh sure there are things that need to be done but… Nah don’t wanna do any of that stuff.  I’m just not sure what I want to do.

Maybe see a movie?  So I headed towards White Flint.  Ditched the movie idea and did a little shopping and decided to go for a pedicure.  I chose a pink but jeeze it ended up being an obnoxious glow-in-the dark type pink but it’s growing on me and I’m kinda digging it.

On the way home I talked to Minnie Red.  She and Mom went out on the wave runner.  Sounds like they traveled all over the place even packing themselves a lunch.  They stopped at some random beach and chowed down.  Oh yeah and Minnie Red tells me there were some kids hanging out there too… Boys!  The oldest was about her age and his little brother kept trying to get her phone number for the older brother.  She got them to back off by telling them she has a boyfriend.  I love that Minnie Red and Mom are having this bonding time and Minnie Red is having some real summer vacation and at the beach no less.

I did have to call FN after talking to Minnie Red.  Seems she did a so called break up with her little mohawk friend due to another boy on the horizon.  This other boy is one she met when she and her Dad hang out at Renn Fest.  She seems to think FN is unaware of what is going on but the boy’s parents let him know about these two texting quite a bit lately.  FN has assured me that when the two will hang out at Renn Fest they will be watched like hawks especially by Minnie Red‘s 17 yr old cousin who plans to be the third wheel.  Minnie Red will be in for a surprise when she realizes her Dad DOES know and it wasn’t by me.  At least he and I are on the same page about her.  I have no problem with boys who are friends or if she wants to say she is dating them because in reality it is only texting, emailing or calls and they aren’t seeing each other in person. She is too young for any kind of dating.

At Home: ***Tapping fingers on my face***

It’s like this every year and it just not something you can’t prepare for.  BUT… When in doubt go running.  I wanted to run and was waiting til later due to the heat.   When the time came I didn’t feel like running and could feel it wouldn’t be a good run but then… I did… I ran.  It was 9pm but I wasn’t planning on going for long.  I knew I had to do this or the running I did last week would be for nothing.

When I got home from running I found an email from Mrs. M.  I’ve been dealing with some crap lately, on a work level as well as personal.  I think I’ve been handling it all very well and just trying to push the bad stuff away and out of my mind.  Anyhow, I got this email from her and I have to say it left me in tears.  I don’t think anyone has ever done anything so nice and genuine for me.

“this is my version of sending you good karma…… I think you need a reminder of how great you are, with all of these emotional hits you’ve taken lately so….I can’t bear that you think bad things about yourself when you might possibly be the last person on Earth who should be (and there are so many good-for-nothings running around thinking they’re the shit!).“

The rest of her email I am keeping to myself.  I’m so lucky to have the friends I have.  Between them and running I have no worries except… for the big birthday coming up.

We have so much coming up and there are a million things that need to get done and just not enough time.  Time only permitted us to run one errand before heading off to dinner.  The plan was to eat at Gordon Biersch in Rockville Town Center but the wait was forever long and I didn’t want to leave Minnie Red for too long.  She is plenty old enough but I still hate leaving her at home. 

Anyhow… We decided to continue walking and came upon this Sushi place, Sushi Damo.  Looks like I’ve found my new favorite Sushi place. Plus it’s closer than Flying Fish in Alexandria.  I was going to order the Tengoku Roll but the waiter suggested the Sakura Roll and it was to die for.

The storms hit on the way home and just before I was to drop Mrs. M off Mr. M called to check and make sure she was ok.  They are so cute!  Then Mrs. M filled Mr. M in on our evening.

“Hey Babe!  We just had your dream evening.  We went to Forbidden Fruit, the sex shop, then had a Sushi dinner.”

……Get your minds outta the gutter… Not that kind of sushi dinner!

I wish I could have heard him on the other end.

If you live in the area and haven’t been to this store then you are definitely missing out.  The staff there is always very friendly and helpful.  The front part of the store is pretty tame but if you walk into the back you will find the really fun toys.  They have a door in the back that I would assume leads to their storeroom.  The door is flanked by these greekish looking pillars.  As we worked our way around the room came upon the bondage toys located next to one of the pillars, which had a heart shaped plaque that said “LOVE“.  Yes, I guess bondage is love.

Unfortunately, the trip to Forbidden Fruit wasn’t for either of us but I told the sales girl I would be back next week.  I’m due for an upgrade since the off buttons on my current one aren’t working.

Waa waa waaaaa

I know, “Stop being a Fuckin Pansy Red!

Work has just been off the hook and lemme tell ya all about it.

I was not looking forward to work on Monday and was trying to think of a good reason why I didn’t work Saturday or Sunday.  That was until I thought of the perfect excuse… It’s was the freaking weekend!  I woke up Monday morning with a headache and took some Excedrin. Nothing unusual there.

When I got to the office I found a present from Imelda.  She is the best Boss and knows each of us so well.

Finally, I was feeling a little better and went off to lunch with the work crew.  The floaters came back at lunch and I was able to push them away again.  Until they came back again with the speech issue and nausea this time.  Now I was just hoping it would pass for a short while so I could get home.  I literally ran out of work the first chance I had.

This week was not starting off well but at least no more migraines.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were some awful hours of more data scrubbing.  I think I’m gonna go blind and I’m sure I have carpel tunnel in my entire right arm.  In the midst of this Imelda had a birthday and got all grumpy about it until I reminded her I’m older.  Some of the people on our team are amazing and did some amazing work on her cube which now has a moat, a bridge, a tower and pink toile everywhere.  Along with that she received a beverage of one sort or another representing each of us, e.g. O’Douls from the Intern because he’s too young to drink alcohol.  If you’ve read any of Chelsea Handler’s books you will understand my drink to Imelda.

Oh and Imelda’s Hubby hates me for passing forward the Chelsea books, of which the first one is titled “My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands“.  For some reason he thinks I’m a bad influence on her.  Helllloooo who is forever sending me pictures of herself with all sorts of alcoholic drinks???  Ummmm… Imelda!!

What her Hubby fails to realize is that Imelda is Chelsea Handler’s married doppelganger. Imelda is the bad influence on me and it’s probably a good thing we don’t live closer to each other.  Although she has been stepping up her efforts to get me to move to Hagerstown and been sending me notices of homes for sale.

This week has also meant my car back in the shop and more money outta my pocket.  Hellllooo where’s my drink?

There has been something good in this awful week, besides the fact that it’s almost over.  I took a little time today to hang with Mom and Sis while Sis tried on wedding dresses.  She was just amazing looking!  My leetle sister looked like a Beautiful Woman!  Mom was having a hard time and was looking a little verclempt.  We then checked out the bridesmaid dresses.  Ugggh!  I hate this part because it involves me but a dress was found and I wouldn’t try it on so Sis did and she looked great.  I figured it would look awful on me since Sis and I couldn’t be more different and I figured my boobs wouldn’t fit in that dress, but I tried it and it looked really good on me too!  Mom did suggest I get a breast reduction but I will opt for more fabric in that area instead.  Who knows what Sis will decide but it was some nice bonding time for the three of us.

So at this point I have worked over 40 hrs this week.  I just need to get through tomorrow and get my toucas back to the beach, which should be easier now that I’m not scared to drive my car. 

I do have to send out a big thanks to two special guys… Ben Harper and John Legend.  You two have been the biggest help in getting me through all this data scrubbing with my sanity still somewhat intact and without any alcohol.

Check this out:

Shining (Romantic Comedy)

Evidently, this trailer started it all. 

“The trailer that started it all. Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror film starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall becomes a feel-good movie about a writer struggling to find his muse and a boy lonely for a father. “

For more check out The Trailer Mash.

The last class was Illustrator and as I am who I am I would talk to many in the class.  We had one class left and I was talking to this dude who noted that I said my friend’s name.  It became evident that he was intrigued by her but nothing to worry there was only one class left.  I did, however, tease her that he was going to be in the next class (In Design) with us.

The In Design class started January 28th and my friend was disappointed that I had decided to take a break.  We both voiced concern over the dude, who we will call Tater.  Our concerns became justified the first day of class. 

I was at home and happened to be on the computer when I got a sudden IM “dude. i need you in this class” and in a blink of the eye she was gone.

Ends up Tater picked a seat right next to her and even asked her out after class.  On top of that it seems the Professor is a complete loon.  Every time we talk I become more and more happy with my decision and she wishes she made the same decision.

Now that I’ve set this up here is the conversation we had today:

Graphic Goddess: i HATE HATE HATE this class.

Graphic Goddess: take it with the other Professor, save yourself

Red: oh yeah?  I’m feeling very happy about my decision not to take a class this semester.

Graphic Goddess: yeah i would too. I want to shoot myself

Red: I’m sure Tater isn’t helping

Graphic Goddess: he asks me out every class

Red: really? what the hell?

Graphic Goddess: he’s always like – so you’re not going to let me buy you food?
and i say, nope
and he’s like, really?
and i’m like, yep
and then he hates me for a bit
he’s very grumpy

Red: then he tries again? He’s a brooding sort of guy

Graphic Goddess: yes he is.  We don’t really get along very well
I always think he’s being an asshole and he’s well, always being an asshole

Red: you should bring in a framed photo of you and your boy and ask him his advice on the frame

Graphic Goddess: ha

Red: I love that you are very direct with him

Graphic Goddess:

Red: can I post this conversation? this is funny stuff
I’ll change his name to Tater. So what you want me to call you?

Graphic Goddess: sure.  um…i don’t care. graphic goddess?

I finally bit the bullet and got me a URL.  You know… to join the in crowd.

Word-press is a different animal and this will take some getting used to as I design myself.