It's Crazy

I'm thrilled to bits to have been listed as one of Coaster Punchman's Crazy 8's, but disgraced and ashamed that I am only just now getting around to acknowledging being bestowed with this high honor.

In my defense I have been so busy at work the past 2 weeks that my eyes have barely been able to even graze the pages of my Google Reader.

What have I been up to, you might ask?

Remember last week when I told you that my contract was going to end forever in August? Well, I've been busily campaigning to get that new job (things are going really great so far although I have not yet been asked to interview) and at the same time I've been training my replacement - Norman Newguy.

Norm has practically been attached to my hip for a fortnight, which has been terribly uncomfortable as we are both married and he is freakishly tall.

I would like nothing better than to read your blogs, but Norm is always right there by my side. Even when I have safely tucked him in all snug and cozy in his own cubicle I still have no privacy because he is so monstrously tall that he can see right over the cube wall and I feel like he's always looking over my shoulder. It's maddening.

Anyhoo... Coaster Punchman named little ole me as one of his Crazy 8's and I should probably explain just what in the hell that means - so I'm going to paste the explanation:

“These bloggers are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

Nice eh?

Like I said, I'm honored.

Now comes the hard part - I have to choose only 8 bloggers to spread the Crazy 8 blog love. Difficult. I love you all so very much. If I've named you below won't you please accept a copy the pretty little graphic at the top of this post and name your own Crazy 8?

Here are my Crazy 8's:

Gwen - I love her. We are foul mouthed kindred spirits. If we lived closer to each other it could get scary.

CDP - One of the few bloggers out there that knows my secret real identity. She's a phenomenal writer - funny, honest, touching.

Tara - She is prolific, I can barely keep up, but she is so lovely and charming, I keep trying.

The Vegetable Assassin - I'm a new reader to her blog, but already a big fan. Not only does her handle have the word "ass" in it twice, but she is also hilarious and so relatable.

Chris Radloff - He writes what is on his mind and it is often insightful and lovely and causes me to walk away from the computer for a minute, find my husband and give him a big hug.

Sparsely Kate - A single mom on the other side of the planet from me who opens up and bravely shares her innermost, darkest thoughts and funniest insights. I'm always rooting for her.

Some Guy - It was his blog and his blogroll that started it all for me. I added his blog to my blog roll and mistakenly called it a "tag". So naive.

Pistols at Dawn - He makes me laugh out loud with nearly every post. That being said, I also want to hug him and shake him violently at the same time, but it would probably either cause him to get an erection or puke (or both) so I'll just shut up and keep laughing.

Update 10:23pm 3/22/09 -

After I hit the publish button yesterday morning I was unable to log back in long enough (due to spotty Internet service for which I blame the fucking college basketball tournament that everyone seems to be streaming online) to read any blogs or let any of the nice people in the list above know that they have been tagged. I was also unable to run a spell check and remove the word "erection".

Not having Internet service is a terrible pain in the ass, so to get my mind off of it I started doing laundry and making Kale and Chourico soup and forgot all about it until this very moment. I have since performed a spell check and decided to leave the word "erection" because it's 10:30 and I am too tired to worry about it anymore.

24 Hour Weenie People

I have lots of things to write about, but most of them are of the long-ish story telling variety and I'm not in the mood to flesh them out today. Besides, it's bill paying day for MDH and he's probably going to boot me out of the office at any moment. He is currently performing his usual Sunday afternoon routine of watching the talking head brigade (Face the Nation, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, etc..) while simultaneously watching UMass basketball on his laptop and shouting to himself, so I have a little time.

Here instead I'll tell you about our evening out. We forgot to take the camera. I don't have any actual photographic proof, but Rachel, Playtah and Aria were there as witnesses that MDH and I actually went out on a Saturday night.

We went to Billy's Lounge, which is a terrific little bar near our house. Technically it's within walking distance, but since we live in the fucking tundra, we drove. Aria's father's band were the featured performers of the night with the lovely Aria filling in for the regular female vocalist. She, along with the rest of the band, kicked ass. They played the kind of crowd pleasing R&B, Funk and Soul standards that make even the fuddiest of fleece wearing duddies get up and dance.

As we were leaving the bar I noticed that it was 12:50am and that I had a terrible hankerin' for a chili dog. MDH was not keen on the idea. I whined and put up a fuss until I realized that I was the driver, so I shut up and just drove straight to the 24 hour weenie restaurant instead of going home. It's weird that such things as 24 hour hot dog joints exist in a dullsville boring town that normally shuts completely down by 11PM, but I'm so very glad that they do. It's almost all we've got.

By the time we got to the weenie store MDH had decided not only that chili dogs were just the ticket, but also declared me "A Genius!" and trudged across the slushy parking lot to buy our late night snack while I waited in the toasty warm car.

We ate the sloppy doggies back at home hovering over paper towels on the sofa in the den and stayed up until almost 3am talking and laughing.

How did I get so lucky?

The Die Is Cast and I Am a Wuss

A few weeks ago I got a call from my elderly Aunt P. Naturally I was furious with MDH for answering the phone in the first place, but Aunt P keeps it short. I like that quality in elderly aunt type people.

Unfortunately Aunt P was calling on behalf of herself and my Uncle Dan to invite me and MDH to their house for Christmas Day.

Shit.

They just recently moved back to Michigan earlier this year from Boca and now live a 2.5 hour drive from us. We have been down to visit once this fall and had a great day. But it was not Christmas and it was not winter and snowy out. It was fall and kind of warm and didn't start to get dark until around 8pm.

Aunt P said that she and Uncle Dan were hosting their children and grandchildren and would love it if we could come too. She told me what time and that I didn't need to bring anything except "your precious self my darlin' girl!", and then hung up without waiting for an answer as to whether or not MDH and I already had plans.

We don't, officially.

Unless you count sleeping in and watching TV in our underpants while we have Bloody Mary's and shrimp cocktail for brunch as plans. These are our Christmas traditions I realize they are very similar to the way we spend most weekends around here except for the Bloody Mary's and the shrimp, but I had been counting them as plans. MDH is no help. He doesn't care what we do.

It's awfully difficult to explain that to your sweet little 80 year old auntie who sounded so hopeful on the phone and you know desperately wants you to visit and calls you "precious darlin' girl". Besides, like I said, she hung up before I could say no.

Today I decided to stand firm and called her back to let her know we wouldn't be coming. She wasn't home so I talked to Uncle Dan. I started to tell him about the underpants plans and the shrimp cocktails, but I couldn't get the words out before he started telling me how thrilled he was to be seeing us for Christmas and how Aunt P had already started baking pies. He called me "darlin'" too.

Shit.

I told him that weather permitting, we would try to be there by 10am. Which means, of course that we will have to leave by 7:30am.

Shit.

The best I could come up with was that we would have to leave before dark because MDH and I have really bad night vision (it's true!).

At this point there is no turning back. You cannot make holiday visitation commitments to aunts and uncles well into their 80's and then back out. Well, you can but then (if you are me) you will feel like...

Shit.

5 Things That Never Disappoint Me

Rebecca at r-cubed strikes again! Although she didn't tag me she did inspire me to post about more positive stuff for a change. Since I'm in need these days of a little extra lightness of being, I decided to just keep the list going after five. So here are 8 Things That Never Disappoint Me:

1. Looking at our photos, old and new. I can sit for hours sifting through them all. Here is a picture I took of some flowers on the front porch of our old house in Victorian Village.

2. Having a house with a driveway and a garage. Prior to living in our current home I’d always lived in apartments and with MDH in the city where it was a miracle just to have off street parking. Our last house had two off street parking spaces, but out front was permit only, for which the city allowed us one parking pass. Having over more than one guest at a time was stressful as we scrambled around to our neighbors asking to borrow theirs for the night. It’s terrific to not have to scrape snow off of the car or get wet as we come or go.

3. Owning my own washer and dryer has never ceased to delight me. We have an awesome stackable set that we bought 6 years ago when we bought our first house together. Sometimes I miss the laundramat, just a little, but only because you can do all of your laundry at once if you got the timing just right and the place was empty. But I much prefer being able to do one load at a time in my own home.

4. The movies Howard’s End and A Room With a View – they are an entire half of my personal DVD collection. The other two movies I own are Amadeus and The Philadelphia Story, but those two Merchant Ivory productions are the only movies that I will watch over and over and never tire of.

5. My nieces and nephews, ages 14 through 22. I adore them. They are not technically my nieces and nephews, but their mother, my closest cousin J who is five years older than me, and I spent a lot of time together growing up and always wished we were sisters. When we were teenagers we agreed that I should be called “Aunt Lady” to her children since my sister would never have children, I wouldn’t get to be an aunt otherwise. Her kids have turned out so wonderfully, I’m proud of every one of them. I could cry out with joy right now, just thinking of them.

6. Hydrangeas

7. Gazing at my diamond engagement ring. It probably seems a little shallow, but it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever owned and although I’ve had it on my finger for about 6 years I never get tired of looking at it. It’s a gorgeous 1.3 carat oval cut with D color as clear as water in a platinum setting. Most importantly reminds me at every moment that I am loved by MDH. He presented it to me in our first apartment over a box of Chinese take out we were eating over the sink after work on a Wednesday and it was one of the best nights of my life.

8. The B52’s Song for a Future Generation always makes me smile. "Hi! My name is Lady and I am a Cancer. I LOVE hydrangeas and snorkeling."
Here is the video - Enjoy!