2009 - A Look Ahead

Over the last few days I've seen a lot of blogs talking up resolutions - do you have them or not? Well, I'm a member of the "not" group. I became a member of that group when, one year after many years of not keeping my resolutions, I resolved to gain 10 pounds. It was a joke and something that at the end of the year I could say "I didn't gain 10 pounds. . . darn." It was the first resolution I kept, unfortunately. But, from that point forward, I don't do resolutions - just goals, and gaining weight has never been among them again.

I only recall two goals being set for 2008 (if there were more, I've forgotten them). One was to get a passport and the other was to have a scandalously inappropriate affair. And, while there was promise of the second one happening, neither goal was met so I'm officially rolling them over into my 2009 goals.

However, I want to add a few more goals to the 2009 list. They are (in no particular order):

• pamper myself more - massages are going to become more of a necessity rather than a luxury. :) I'm also going to indulge myself more, without thinking of the monetary consequences. I actually started this yesterday by buying my first Coach purse. Never thought I'd spend that much on a purse but you only live once.
  
• query this year. I'm working on something that I like and the goal is to have it complete before I start querying it but I've written a synopsis that starts going out January 20 (when school starts back up), whether I've finished the manuscript or not.
• make time for friends. With going back to school this past year it's been hard to work in the friends but that's important to do as well. It's part of the "things need to be more balanced" goal.
  
• get a passport - and use it! I know the passport thing was already mentioned but not that I plan to use it. SCG and his family are moving overseas in a few months and that would be a great way to break in the passport I think. (I've already received an open invitation so it's okay - really! :) )
  
• get the work done on my house that needs being done and maybe some of the things I just want done. The main thing is to get the baseboards down and painting - inside and out. The roof is a given since it's required because of the hurricane (it doesn't leak but insurance gave me money to get an entire new roof so I'm obligated to do so). It's the kitchen being redone that is the want.
  
• host a few parties at my house. I used to do this with a regularity but I haven't hosted one single party in my house since I bought it almost 8 years ago - well, unless you count the one time I had Bunco at my house, and I don't. I want to start doing that again.
• get weight back under control. This has been a tough year and well, I'm a comfort eater.

There are one or two more that are a bit more person but those are the biggies. So, how about you? Do you make goals? Resolutions? If so, care to share? :)

Nearing the end

Yesterday was another blown day. I had pretty well made up my mind that I'd do everything this weekend. I finally heard back from my instructor last night and, as with everything else, her response was pretty broad and vague but I do know what sort of page space she's looking for for each response.

Anyway, I was feeling tired pretty early and decided to listen to my body and went to bed. I'd been asleep for less than an hour and woke up with a start and a realization that my term paper is due more quickly than I'd been thinking. I've still been looking at it as weeks out that it's due but it's actually due the week after next. Gulp! I tried to go back to sleep so that I'd wake up today rested and refreshed but that wasn't working for me so I got up and started reading my research materials for the paper. I was tired enough that it wasn't really sinking in but I still couldn't sleep. So I settled on having a major anxiety attack and a fitful night of sleep, including a dream where I went to a comedy club (but didn't laugh) and had my purse stolen, which was hard to shake off when I woke up for some reason.

So the plan for today is to finish up my midterm and then give serious consideration to the term paper - all while doing laundry. Tomorrow will be spent on finishing up rough drafts and reading Acts 4 and 5 of King Lear. Any extra time will be spent on the spring cleaning which was the whole purpose of me taking the last week off.

What are your plans for the holiday weekend?

Today I think I'll...

Do you ever go to bed at night and plan the next day's activities? Something like, "I'll get up and then I'll (insert whatever it is you would do)". Then you get up the next day (which given the alternative is a good start, anyway) but then nothing else goes as planned. Yeah, that's kind of how today went for me.

Well, since I posted the blog with a picture of my office (if you can call it that), the plan was to get up and work on the room until it was done or when Dancing With The Stars came on, whichever came first. That was the plan anyway.

I slept in a little later than usual but decided to walk the dogs before I started working on the office. I figured it would get me up and going and energized for the planned activities.

Here's where I should tell you that I walk the dogs separately because, well, I'm only allowed to have two dogs, according to the deed restrictions, and I have three. And, not only do I walk them separately, I walk them on different routes. But the thing is, it's getting harder and harder to get one dog out at a time because the other two are always wanting to go - even if they just got back. This morning was no different.

I went out with Brewsky first. When we left, I could hear Harley barking. I hear him every time I leave with another dog but this was a little unusual because he didn't bark as long as he usually does. I didn't think much of it though.

When I got back with Brewsky, I planned to take Harley next. At the last minute I decided to take Max at the same time. I wasn't as energized as I thought I'd be and I figured I could just get it over with that much faster if I took the two of them together. As we walked away from the house, I heard Brewsky crying out as if his feelings were hurt. As with Harley, he does this every time I leave with another dog so it wasn't unusual.

Now, remember the plan was to come back and start working on the office room. Only, I came back to see this when I got walked into the house.

That's my dining room mini-blinds. Now, I have no idea which dog did it, although I'm leaning towards Brewsky but it could just be that I didn't notice after my walk with him but that's a front window and required immediate attention. The plan was officially changed.

I went to Home Depot (followed by Lowe's since Home Depot didn't want to seem to provide any kind of service to its customers) and bought mini-blinds and lawn fertilizer. It's supposed to storm tomorrow so I thought I'd rake the yard and then fertilize the lawn. Then I remembered I'd probably need to mow before I did the fertilizing thing. No problem, right? Until I remembered I didn't have any gas for the lawn mower. And I didn't want to go to the store all grungy (I worked in the yard most of the day...I had LOTS of raking to do) and who wants to take a shower to get out and mow shortly thereafter? So I just did the raking and put up the new blinds. Meanwhile the office still looks like this:
So, that was my day. I've been meaning to change out the mini-blinds in the dining room but I hadn't planned on doing it today - yet that's what happened. I'm hoping to work on the room tomorrow, particularly since it's supposed to be too ugly outside to do anything else. But, as they say, life is what happens when you're busy making plans so, we'll just see what happens tomorrow. ;-)

Spring Break

This next week is our spring break here. And since I'm taking classes this semester, I wanted to take the week off.

And I have big plans. Ambitious plans. I plan to organize my house (and my life) - and for those of you who have been reading my blog, you know that's no small order.

On the agenda is to clean and organize my office and guest room, specifically, and the rest of my house, more generally. I thought about what Jennifer Cruisie did a few months back where she posted pictures of her room and wondered if I should do it. Posting before and after pictures, like for her, would make (read shame) me into doing it.

Anyway, a little backstory - last fall I won a desk and bookcase in an online, company-sponsored, auction. I cleaned out the room I planned to use as an office so that the furniture (which was way bigger than I'd anticipated) would go right in it - and so the friend who helped me move it would only see a clean room. Well, since we had to bring the furniture in through the garage, it was the garage that my friend commented on. She wasn't ugly about it or anything but just mentioned that I might want to clean out my garage. I didn't take offense, since she was right. So, a few weeks later when I was so irritated at my boss at work, I took a day off and really got to work on my garage. By the end of the day it was all nice and clean, and I was proud of the accomplishment. It felt good.

It wasn't until the next time I went into the office (I don't do that much because I don't have a phone line in there yet) and couldn't get to the desk or my carousel of books that I realized why the job of cleaning the garage had gone so well. Turns out, I'd just moved everything into my office. And it was a few weeks after that that I did the ransacking of my office and guest room looking for the paper I'd written on my veteran friend so that now neither my office or guest room are "pedestrian friendly". Yeah, that's a good way to put it. LOL

Anyway, the plan for the week is to get them organized and ready for actual use, as opposed to being "junk" rooms. Also during the week, I need to work on my term paper for government (I'm doing my paper on the non-controversial topic of abortion), my Shakespeare mid-term and questions for my Shakespeare portfolio, due at the end of the semester.

I won't mention that I also would like to rip down the paneling in the living room and prep and paint every wall in (and outside of) my house because I don't want anyone thinking I'm wanting to accomplish too much. But then again, I did start off by mentioning that the plan was a bit ambitious, didn't I?

So, what you do have planned for the upcoming week?

P.S. Here are pictures of the office from two different angles.

Miscellany

I've been thinking I needed to blog lately but nothing seems to be coming to me. Well, that's not entirely true, things come to me at times when I can't blog (like when I'm at work) and then I can't remember them later (like now).

But anyway, I read all these other blogs and they seem so fluid and fun and light...like a conversation with a good friend would be. Then I think of mine and feel like they're very...structured, for lack of a better word. It's kind of like reading a book. I love reading a book that is light and funny because it just goes so quickly. At Nationals in Atlanta two years ago, I stopped by to talk to Julia Quinn (whose books I love and as a person...well, let's just say I'm glad she didn't press charges after the incident of '05 in Reno...). I remember telling her that I loved her books because they read like she just sat down one afternoon and typed up the whole thing. The next day (or two) after that, I went to her workshop and she said the highest compliment she gets is to have someone tell her exactly that. I wanted to ask her if she was referring to our conversation the night (or two) before but didn't because she may get told that all the time. But anyway, those are my favorite kinds of books to read.

On the other hand, I loved Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. LOVED it. But it was hard to read. At the time I read it I was reading five books a weekend (all part of a contest - not for most books read but to get enough chances at a win - prize was $250 gift card to any bookstore and I really wanted it...not that I have a problem or anything). It took the entire weekend to read Pride and Prejudice. But I loved it anyway.

So, it doesn't have to be an easy read for me to love it but well, it does help. But anyway, I feel like some blogs are the Julia Quinn book type of blog and others are the Jane Austen book type of blog - you enjoy them but man are they hard to get through. I don't know where my blog falls in there - probably in some other category - but just know, I'm working on having the Julia Quinn book type of blog. :-)

In other news, I told my boss (well, actually my boss's boss) that he scared me. I told him that today. He's really the nicest man you'd ever want to have as a boss but he makes me really uncomfortable and just scares the bejeezus out of me. He kept asking why and I told him I didn't know. Then I told him that I hoped his knowing would maybe help the situation. Then for the rest of the day, every time I saw him, he'd curl his lip up at me and growl. I think we're going to be okay - now that the ice is broken (somewhat). :-)

Oh, and then I was talking to one of my work directors (my secret crush, who happens to be married, so we're just close friends). Not sure how the conversation got started but during the course of the conversation I said something about my visa bill being high this month. Told him it was in the neighborhood of $500 (which is a lot to me). He started laughing hysterically, which I thought was kind of rude but he ended up telling me his has run anywhere from $1800 (minimum) to $8800 a month. $8800 in one MONTH????? What the heck is he doing that costs that much? He said several months in a row were that much. If I didn't have anything taken out of my check and didn't need things like food, rent or other essentials, it would take me two months just to pay that bill! This is the same man who told me his daughter wanted a $450 designer purse for her birthday next month. She'll be 13. And he's seriously thinking he'll "work something out" for her to have it. I don't think if you added up the amount of money I've spent in my entire life on purses that it would equal that amount. I think it's insane! But kind of explains the huge visa bill, don't you think?

But anyway, the 12 year old...er 24 year old, that asked me out finally showed back up to work yesterday (he'd been *cough* sick). He sent me an email asking how the holiday was. I said fine. He replied asking what happened while he was out. I replied with "nothing out of the ordinary". He sent me another email asking if we were still going out. I said he might want to stop by my office to discuss. So he did. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Are you married?

Him: No.

Me: Well, I was told that you told someone you were. (in case you didn't know, I tend to get right to the point...very direct)

Him: (looking pissed - and not because I was asking him this, but more like he didn't appreciate someone telling me his business. but I could just be projecting here) Who told you that?

Me: I'm just saying that someone told me you were married.

Him: I'm not. (not looking quite as pissed, as if he realized he didn't want to show that emotion...but again, I could just be projecting here)

Me: Well, I was told that you said that the seven year old was your wife's by a previous marriage. You can mistake a 'yes I'm married' or 'no I'm not married' but saying a child is your wife's by a previous marriage is kind of hard to misunderstand. (did I mention I'm pretty direct?)

Him: Well...I'm...uh...(through gritted teeth or my active projecting imagination) they're all ours.

Me: (made note that he didn't say the child was his but rather 'they're all ours' which would be what someone who helped raise a child might say but doesn't necessarily reflect a shared DNA) Were you married?

Him: Common law married.

Me: Did you get divorced?

Him: (blank look on his face)

Me: You do know that in the state of Texas a legal divorce is required for a common law marriage, don't you?

Him: I didn't know that.

Me: Yeah. You'd have to go through the courts to get a divorce.

Him: But we didn't have any assets. She had a car and I had a car.

Me: Doesn't matter. You'd still need to get a divorce. So, then, you're still married?

Him: I don't...I didn't... (pause) We signed papers. (I'm guessing the declaration of independence or some such thing.)

Me: (deciding to drop the marriage thing) Why did you move down here?

Him: I want to be a tennis pro and there's a great program here to help that. (Baytown, Texas has a great tennis program? Interesting...)

We talked for a few more minutes before I agreed to go to lunch with him on a day to be determined. I told a co-worker about the conversation and she said "Tennis pro? He told me he moved down here to get into criminal law. He said he wanted to be a police officer."

Apparently he's a pathological liar and since that's a deal breaker for me, so there'll be no lunch. Or anything else. Guess someone else will have to help me with my New Year's goal to have a scandalously inappropriate affair this year.

Oh, did I forget to mention that goal? ;-)