it's been brought

We got our "damage deposit" back today; not "security deposit" as most places call it, even as our leases called it, but "damage." They kept well over half of it, charging us for things they are completely ridiculous. I'm angry. I'm furious. I have taken quite a while to calm down to the point that my hands have stopped shaking. So, yeah, I might have to sue the landlords. These 2 individuals are the closest for me "hating" someone as I have ever had and, unfortunately, that's a tough competition. I'm going to walk my dog and breathe...a lot!

Big Hair

I must admit, the hair in most of the pictures doesn't look too big and there aren't any of me, go figure, but I do have a few. Enjoy!

insight into me

When I was little I loved to watch movies, the happy kind where everything comes out as it should. Growing up, I stuck to movies with those themes. Even Clueless seemed to fit the mold; regardless of challenges everyone ends up happy. Sometimes I still wish my life would be that way. In high school, I was on the homecoming court, but didn't win. I was friends/acquaintances with a lot of people, but never in the "popular" crowd. I dreamt that Matt would proposed in some elaborate planned-out manner, not in his bedroom in his parents house while they sat downstairs unaware. I always believed my Dad would be the steadying force when I got married; instead, he was a source of disappointment. I thought he'd toast me at my wedding, he didn't.

I'm not begrudging my life, the people I know; the ones I love and who love me. I wouldn't give up the friendships I've made and the people who've touched my life for anything, but I think I've always wanted my life to have a Disney moment; that perfect, picturesque scene where birds sing on cue, the sun sets to just the right colors and people break into spontaneous song. I still hope for it, but I know those are the movies. They are created, scripted, shot and re-shot to be perfect. Still, something inside secretly wishes for that, longs for it, knowing it's all make-believe, but wanting the reality. That's what makes them so wonderful; that's what sucks me in a gives me hope that my Disney moment is yet to come.

What a weekend

I must admit it was so nice to not have to be anywhere this weekend, that I took full advantage of it. Saturday consisted of chores; simple things like vaccuuming, cleaning the floors and countertops, and doing a little bit of shopping for groceries and pieces of felt for my new kitchen chairs. Of course, while I was putting the felt pieces on my chairs, I noticed not one, not two but several scratches in my brand new table. So needless to say, I quickly called the furniture store (politely, mind you) to let them know that I was extremely unhappy that a brand new item was so damaged. The poor/sweet guy that helped me first asked if I was sure they weren't part of the design. Um, when there is scratching across the grain on wood, it's bad plain and simple. So we have a new one coming.
Needless to say, I thought that would be the extent of my excitement for the weekend. Boy was I wrong. My wonderful husband decided he wanted to take me to brunch on Sunday. It was somewhere we hadn't been before, but since it's close, we thought we'd give it a shot. The food looked amazing: omelet station, waffle station, huge table to desserts, and even more food. I was planning on small rations of all the things that looked so appetizing. Matt was all about the BBQ ribs and the waffle station, though he decided to save the waffle for his second trip. While we were eating, I noticed he looked like he was trying to convince himself he could finish the rib he was holding. He polished off his water, asked for mine and began hiccupping. Then I saw the look, the one that means, "I'm gonna be sick." So I grabbed my napkin and we bolted for the bathroom. Only he didn't quite make it there, but managed to not make a mess in the middle of the restaurant. 5 minutes later he's still in the bathroom. My first thought, food poisoning. This isn't good in a busy restaurant with a huge buffet. When we finally got himself together, we went back to the table, but in 2 minutes he was off again and gone for at least 10 more minutes. On this return to the table he said he thought his throat was closing, like he couldn't swallow and then took off for the third time to the bathroom. I immediately started freaking out because now I'm not thinking food poisoning, I'm thinking he's allergic to something he ate. I paid the check, got the car and picked him up at a side door where he proceded to once again vomit. Off to the ER we go. (Who knew the ER would be so busy on a Sunday at 1?) We waited an hour to get a room (the nurse was pretty sure it wasn't an allergy since he was breathing okay), then waited another hour for the doctor. By then, he was completely a-symptomatic, but whatever. When the resident did finally make an appearance, he shared that he thought Matt may have had an esophageal spasm, which are hard to diagnose without a history but not uncommon. So we had to wait a little longer to make sure Matt could eat some crackers and drink some Sprite without problems and then we would be good to go, after the attending signed off. So he ate the crackers and 45 minutes later, the attending showed up, talked with us a little and explained the scenario more and sent us on our way. 3 hours later, we get home, pack Matt's suitcase for camp, buy him a smoothie (he was starving) and send him to his concert.
Not the common Sunday in this household...

peace (and small bites)

weddin' update

What can I say about Oklahoma except that it was one long drive? I really liked the University though I think ours has more "stuff" immediately around it both for students and the community. Their campus, while equally beautiful, left many fewer options to explore, but the surrounding areas had many more options, especially from chain restaurants and stores.
Thursday night we rolled into town around 6:30, dropped of Megan at a friends house and headed over to a location that causes me to have queasy memories from childhood, Chuck E Cheese. We got to meet some of the other bmaids and Matt had a super time playing skeeball. He finished off the night at 550 tickets (well, between the 2 of us, I shared) and used them to get toys for everyone in the wedding party. The toy, which he selected before beginning his quest for tickets, was a small ring version of mits used to catch velcro-covered tennis balls and actually turned out to be harder than the larger version.
Friday, we went shopping and found outfits for the rehearsal dinner and all around fun stuff. Matt even bumped into TC at the CVS pharmacy when he went to get me a curling iron. The rehearsal was long, longer than anyone (including the bride) expected. Basically, the preacher went through the entire set of vows and had Lucas and Erin repeat them, which meant that basically they were married because they even kissed at the end. The only missing part was the rings and, since they're technically a symbol and they did that vows part anyway, they were married before the night was over. The rehearsal dinner was barbecue, but it was attached to a gas station. It made the statement of "Eat Here, Get Gas" have a whole new meaning. So because of Matt's encounter earlier in the evening, we got a chance to hang out with TC and her husband for a little while, which was awesome since I hadn't seen her smiling face in several months. Good times...
Saturday, oh Saturday can be summed up in 2 words: Big Hair. My hair appointment was the first of the day, 8:30 am. I arrived early, per my usual habits, and began the hairspray, back combing, more hairspray followed by hairpins and other methods of torture by hairstyling. When it was finished, I felt very "Steel Magnolias," but with my sunglasses I was Katherine Hepburn circa 1960...At least mine wasn't the biggest of everyone's and a little better than the "prom hair" some of the girls wore. All in all, the wedding was beautiful and long. Lothar gave a toast at the second reception that was very good, actually better than I expected from him. Then we hung out with Lucas's fam for a few hours and shared stories about him. All was good save Lucas's dad in pajama pants and no shirt (not the prettiest sight I've ever seen).
Now there's only one wedding left to go, Friday night, then I'm hoping our life will return to normal, well, as normal as they can be.



UPDATE: You ask for it, you get it. BIG HAIR!
More pics to come

On the road again...

Tomorrow we head out to Oklahoma, which causes the theme song to the musical "Oklahoma" to run through my head with visions of Steve Martin running around with an eye-patch banging on a pot while screaming "Oklahoma" over and over again (If you're clueless, you must watch Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.) This trip will be for wedding #5, bridesmaids dress #3. I am a little excited to get out of town. Even though 2bit's wedding was just a little over a month ago, it feels like forever. I'm hoping the trip to OK will be enough of a break for me. At least I know my only task is to bring something "borrowed" so i've packed 2 pairs of earrings, a necklace and my tussymussy. I'll probably bring other things just in case, but I'm pretty sure one of the pairs of earrings will be the winner. Oh, and this wedding will be HUGE. By huge I mean there are 7 attendants for the bride and 7 for the groom, it's being held in one of the largest churches in OK, and the whole church was invited. Not to mention, Lucas has the boys doing a tbone quartet and when I asked if they would be playing from the balcony (as they did for mine), he said "no, they'll be seating people there, too." HOLY CRAP!
We're also going to have a fellow wedding attendant riding down with us. I think it'll be a good time. I've not spent too much time in conversation with her; mostly our interaction has been that of cordial conversation. I'm just hoping we have stuff to talk about without the uncomfortable silence for 10 hours. Yikes! At least we'll have Mad Libs and snacks, that should cover about 20 minutes or so. Oh, and Matt's going to install his XM radio in my car. That's right, MY car. Teehee! He's got the CD changer in his, it's only right my car gets some extra attention.
Oh well, enough mindless ramblings. I'm off to Oklahoma, OK-L-A-H-O-M-A, Oklaho-ma!

Happy fourth o' July

What a wonderful day! I have to admit I did absolutely nothing today, maybe even less than nothing. First, I slept 2 hours longer than my normal waking time (ahhhh), then I helped Matt put together our new patio furniture. Okay, so maybe I was a little bit productive. I also installed the bracket for our flag. I've always wanted to have a flag on my house. I wanted one when we lived in the ghetto, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't stay there very long. The rest of the day was spent doing something I have missed terribly--reading for the fun of it. Granted, it was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but it had nothing to do with anything I can apply in my daily life so I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also spent about an hour or more playing with Carter, the 3-year-old who lives behind us. He had a very cool plastic swimming pool and slide and loved showing me how it worked.
Matt took off early for his gig in CR, which I found out after he left would be choreographed to fireworks in the area. Unfortunately for me, I decided sitting on the back porch a little longer was a good idea. I enjoy being able to sit outside without hearing vulgarities and thumping. Tammy and Brad even invited me down to the park with them to watch the fireworks, but I declined because of sweet Sydne and her fear of things that go "boom."
I only made it back in the house at 10 'til 9, turned on CBS and realized they were televising the whole concert. Man! But, I got to see the last piece, Stars and Stripes Forever. It's one of my favorite marches, but the piccolo solo (or should I say piccolos solo--there were 5) was horribly out of tune...horribly. I am going to blame that on the heat and timing. After all, pitch changes dramatically in varying temperatures and over time, so let's hope they tried to adjust the pitch, but went in the wrong direction. The best part occurred closer to the beginning of the piece, when a camera came into focus right on the Tbone section, with my sweet honey's face in the middle of the screen. It was awesome to see him playing, which made me feel guilty I'd miss the earlier pieces. Almost immediately the phone rang; it was Ken asking me if I was watching. He and Lisa had just turned it on about the same time I had and they wanted to make sure I didn't miss it. We preceded to laugh together and then hopped off the phone to enjoy the rest of the piece and watch fervently in hopes of seeing him play again. Alas, it did not happen, but I'm glad I got that shot.
Tomorrow is back to the grind, but I get to play with the kiddos again. I am determined to get my paper in better form, too. Afterall, the plan was to have it our before Memorial Day. Yes, I realize that was over a month ago, but that's what happens when you keep adding analyses of the data. Have I mentioned research rules?

I've got a peaceful, easy feeling...

Yesterday morning, I starting loving the new neighborhood even more. We woke up, looked out the bedroom window and there, walking down the street, was a doe. She was just walking very nonchalantly on the other side of the street. Of course, once Sydne saw her, she started growling and ran downstairs, which resulted in the pretty little deer jogging back in the direction from which she came.

If that wasn't cool enough, a few hours later, I looked out our back window and, sitting at the edge of my neighbor's driveway, was a beautiful redheaded hawk. Of course, the robins and chickadees weren't as happy to see them as I was, though it was fun to watch them dive-bomb him to chase him off. Of course, my compulsion to take a picture resulted in the hawk taking off to the light post across the street. He stayed there a little longer then decided to head west, with a trail of birds attacking him as he flew. Apparently, robins can be bullies.