Blessings

Losing a pet, losing a loved one, losing a cherished family heirloom...loss is loss. It pains me to think of my poor baby Sherman not here with me anymore, but I remember when I had to put my cat Norman to sleep. My friend Carol told me that even though I only had Norman for 3 years those were 3 years that he had a good home, wasn't in a shelter, and was loved and cherished. And the same is true to Sherman. Even though I only had her for maybe 7 years (and actually adopted her the week after I had to put Norman to sleep) those were 7 years in which she was loved and cherished. I still can't believe that Sherman is dead and I miss her terribly. I hope all my babies know how much I love them and cherish them. Pets are non judgemental and all they want is to show us how much they love us and how excited they are to see us when we get home at the end of the day. Its easy to forget that when they're jumping on us and want to play and we're tired. Pets always love unconditionally and we should always love them unconditionally. I let all my babies sleep with me last night which resulted in me not getting too much sleep since I was penned in and couldn't move all night. But they were happy so it was worth it.

I did go to the gym tonight and I actually WANTED to go! Holy shit! Tomorrow I know I won't go because we are having happy happy joy joy after work (aka happy hour) and then Paul and I are going out with our friends Josh and Tonya. Tonya and I sit by each other at work and I can't imagine my life without her. When I move into an office and can't be next to her (literally we sit so close to each other that she knocks crap off my desk with her chair) it will be a totally weird experience. She makes me laugh every second of every day. But we will be walking to the restaurant downtown so that's some exercise and I'll go to the gym over the weekend (along with the Boston flower and garden show which Paul is wicked excited about).

Tomorrow I have to clean client's house and a residential program all day...I don't even like to clean my own house!

See ya manana!

The funny in the sad

Tonight was an awful night. This week has been wicked stressful at work and I've been going to the gym after work to try to destress and start losing weight. Tonight's blog was supposed to be about wondering when I would start to love the gym and get those endorphins that people who work out are always going on and on about. But....

I came home tonight, went upstairs to get sheets to wash, and found my poor baby cat Sherman dead. It was awful! I called her name and moved the chair she was laying on and she didn't respond and I knew. When I touched her she was hard. After my hysterical meltdown in the kitchen I pulled myself together to do what needed to be done. Now here's the funny part because I'm sure you can picture this in your mind.

I bring a shovel and a post hole digger into the backyard and pick out a good spot. I attempt to use the post hole digger, but quickly realized that wasn't gonna be effective. Digging a hole is entirely a lot of work after the gym.

Then the hard stuff. I had to go in and get Sherman. I've had 2 cats put to sleep, but when you go the emergency vet they put them in a box. Sherman was on the second floor and I had to pick her up. This is when the hysterical crying began again, but I did it. I took her out to the hole and I said a prayer and I buried her.

This is what my neighbors saw: me, carrying something wrapped in a garbage bag, crying hysterically, and stopping to throw up in the yard. As soon as my back was turned my dogs were lapping up my vomit. Good times.

My husband, God love him, is in Vegas. He has been out of town for the last 2 terrible things that have happened and I'm beginning to think I'm jinxed when he's not here. So, he is out drinking with his friends tonight in Vegas while I'm trying to convince myself not to dig up my dead cat to make sure she's really dead. I know she is, but I'm having a bitter moment. I love my husband. He is the best husband for me ever and I couldn't imagine my life without him, but he is NEVER going to Vegas again without me. He's been there since Saturday and has worked 2 days and gone out drinking 4 days.

Watching Cougartown tonight Jules gives up drinking for 1 month. I don't think I could do it. I had to leave tonight after my awfulness and buy a bottle of wine (I also got a salad and Boston cream pie to go from a deli near my house). Life without wine seems so boring. "It's like finding my missing child in a glass." "Can you believe I spend as much on wine as I do on food?"

So Paul owes me 5 drinking nights now and has promised that he will drink with me on Friday. And you bitches know I'll be counting to make sure he gets drunk 5 times with me!

I think I get to sleep in a little tomorrow so off to a 3rd glass of wine! Hey, it may make me an alcoholic, but whatever. I'm okay with that.

Oh the gym

I have been forcing, forcing, forcing myself to go to the gym the last couple days. Saturday it was a gorgeous day so I ran outside (okay, jogged...okay walked the dogs). Sunday I cleaned house most of the day becase it was chilly and gray out. Monday and today it was rain, rain, rain, BUT I forced myself to go to the gym! Now granted today I ate a snickers bar and had a glass of wine both last night and tonight, but I don't feel like I've been eating terribly. Or at least too terribly.

Usually after cardio I do abs and I prefer to use the machine that supports your head and neck (its a bench that you lay on, but has like an ab roller on top). Tonight someone was using it and I was kinda ready to head home so I gamely climbed on an ab bench that was at a 45 degree angle. I put my feet under the little hooks and laid back with my head towards the ground. Um doing these crunches was a heck of a lot harder than I thought it would! As I was laying there crunching I started to wonder "how in the hell am I going to sit up to get off this thing?" I began to work out different scenarios such as rolling to the side and off the bench, unhooking my feet and sliding down on my back and then rolling off, or staying there forever. Each scenario seemed mortifying and I realized I would just have to FORCE myself to sit up. I waited until there was no one near me and I huffed and puffed my way up until I could get a hand to my side and grab the bar with my other hand. I probably won't do that again. Plus I think I only ended up doing 25 crunches because I was so consumed by my fear of getting stuck on this stupid bench. While I was on the elliptical I watched a (much thinner) woman doing reverse crunches on an incline bench and getting her feet so far up and over that she almost could touch the wall behind her. Granted she didn't have 35 pounds of belly fat getting in the way. My legs would've just bounced off my giant gut and gone flying back in the other direction.

Damn snickers bar.

Saturday night fever

Last night I went out for dinner in the North End with a girlfriend. The weather was gorgeous and we found a delicious restaurant where we could sit outside, eat dinner, and enjoy some wine. From there we walked over to the Marriott Long Wharf and had a drink in the bar. There were 2 guys sitting at the bar who were joined by 2 girls. Around this same time 2 older women came over and sat in between us and them. The 1 girl begins telling this story and she is wicked loud with a whiney voice. The 1 older lady looks at me and rolls her eyes while the other lady holds her fingers to her head and pretends to blow her brains out. I almost spit my wine out. We then notice an older couple on the other side of this annoying girl (who has now been talking for 15 straight minutes) just glaring at her. Good times.

I called Paul yesterday when I got home asking if I can transfer some money into his account so he can gamble and he promised to buy me a new laptop if I would. lol Such a silly boy! He also told me that they had met a group of ladies who were there for an Arbonne conference and that he promised that I would meet with one of them when she comes to Boston next month! He said "I met your new boss." Are you freaking kidding me McArtor???? The reason I had to call Paul when I got home was because he had sent me a text saying "call you in a sec." Well it took me 40 minutes to get home so that was one long second.

So Paul owes me 3 drinking days!

Drunk text messages from the Superbowl

Me: My drunk dad wants 2 know why he didn't get invited to the Superbowl. He has top secret clearance, is young at heart, and can get a permit to carrky a gun. He also wants you to know if you want to come home he'll go down and take your place and there will be a couple big bags of shrimp mailed your way.

Paul: My black friends would be scared of an 8ft tall white man with a gun.

My dad: I can put black camo on my face. Black guys respect a tough guy even if he is white.

My dad doesn't understand that his top secret clearance from when he was in the army expired about 40 years ago.

Paul @ 12:54am: I am now wondering the street looking for Reggie.

Me: I hope someone's with you.

Paul: A lot of people, no one I know.

Paul @ 1am: Found Reggie. I'm safe now.

Paul @ 1:21am: Iim really drunk

Paul @ 1:54am: Its been a long time since I was this drunk. Heading home

Paul then tells me he's going to an outdoor concert. I assume it's like a 4 Tops cover band or something.

Me: Whose singing

Paul: Rianna or something. The girl that got beat up

Paul: A young lady has ask me to put her on my shoulders.

Paul being a douche: Ha rd 2 tipe wit her on should?ers!!!

Paul @ 11:08: Having some drinks until after traffic

Me @ 12:33: R u still in traffic

Paul: Nope. Drunk and dancing with hookers

Me: Not funny

Paul: Actually some girls were flirting with our group. I was the first to show how pretty my ring was

Paul @ 1:32am: I'm soooooooo drunk!!!!!!!!

I wish I had kept the texts Paul sent me from his friend's bachelor party in Atlanta....so hilarious!

Missing

Usually I try to keep my blogs light and funny and I apologize because this one isn't. Last night we went to dinner at Oceana at the Marriott Long Wharf in Boston. As we walked in we noticed candles and flowers out front like a vigil. I asked the hostess what had happened. A young man and his girlfriend were staying at the hotel in February, he went outside to smoke around 2:20 in the morning, the hotel cameras show him leaving the hotel, and no one has ever seen him again. He was only 25. This story makes me immensely sad and reminds me of a similar story I had seen on 48 hours or Dateline or one of those shows. A young man in medical school was meeting his girlfriend and friends in the Bahamas for spring break and the night before he left to fly down he went to a bar in Columbus, OH. The bar was on the second floor and the cameras show him going up the escalator and entering the bar and he was never seen again. There is no footage of him leaving the bar. I saw the same thing on another show where a young woman went to a bar, they have her on camera, they have her leaving alone and the police found her car on the side of the road. No one has seen her since she left the bar.

Paul makes fun of me for always locking the doors, but it scares me to think that a person can just disappear. I would never want my family to go through that pain and suffering of not knowing what happened to me. I would think losing a child to illness or disease or an accident would be terrible, but to lose a child and have no closure and no knowledge of what happened to your child would be gut wrenchingly awful.

I heard on the radio that divers off the coast of Aruba may have found skeletal remains in the water. I am prayerful that it is Natalie Holloway so that her poor parents can have some closure in their lives.

Enough sadness. I am going to go outside and enjoy this gorgeous 70 degree day before it starts raining again tomorrow.

Be safe everyone!

Fat girls, fat girls...whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

I've been hearing on the radio this week about this woman who wants to become the world's fattest woman. She currently weighs 550 lbs. and wants to get to a 1000 lbs. Her name is Donna Simpson and surprise, surprise she's from New Jersey (why does every trashy reality tv loser wannabe hail from NJ???). She already holds the record for the world's fattest mom (I'm sure her kids are proud). Hindering her quest for glory...running after her daughter (age3) is giving her too much physical activity and keeping her weight down. Let's explore something disturbing for a moment...some man had sex with this fat ass. AND she's currently married to a man who weighs 150 lbs. He is a self professed fat admirer. I'm not sure how its physically possible for him to A) have sex with her and B) I'd imagine she'd have a little cheese in her fat rolls (stanky!) She has a website where people can pay to watch her be fat.

Granted I have gained a LOT of weight in the last 5 years, but I would hope that someone would shoot me before I weighed 600 lbs. I wouldn't even be able to move!

The other part that pisses me off is that morbidly obese people typically don't work and go on disability. I will be so pissed if our tax dollars pay for this woman to be fat. I think the state of NJ should tell this woman right now that she is NOT eligible for SSI or SSDI if she chooses to try and become the world's fattest woman. What lessons is she teaching her children? I'm sure her 14 year old son is wicked proud of his mom and I'm sure his friends don't make fun of him at all.

In the spirit of me not becoming the world's fattest woman I've been working out! Paul and I went to the gym Tuesday before work and I've been running...okay, jogging...okay 8 minutes of jogging with 22 minutes of walking for the past 2 days. I'm doing the couch to 5k podcast from Itunes. The guy speaking cracks my ass up especially when during the 5th interval of running he prefices it with "You should be feeling the effects of your running, but should not feel out of breath or tired." By this interval I'm wheezing like an asthmatic, could sleep on the side of the road, trying not to throw up, and am DEFINITELY feeling the effects of my running. I also know that people drive by and laugh at me because I run so slow that a good fast paced walker could pass me. And I always laugh at those people when I see them "jogging." (I'm a bad person, I know)

In other paranormal news...I went to a "mock" investigation last weekend and scared the shit out of myself. We were practicing EVP work and sitting in the dark and after I got over my initial omg we're in the dark panic and calmed down I then thought I saw something walk by the window and almost peed on the sofa! I thought I held myself together pretty well and my coping skills allow me to talk myself down from full blown cardiac arrest to mild fast breathing. It was fun though and I learned how to use some cool stuff. I'm excited for our first real investigation. Hopefully I don't run screaming from the building or am found in the fetal position in a corner somewhere.

Peace out!

Ouija boards are bad

Wow...it's been a long time since I've blogged on here! I guess getting married, settling down, renovating a house, and starting a new job had not left me much time for adventures. Although getting married, settling down, renovating a house, and starting a new job is an adventure in itself for sure. Living in MA has been an experience. We ain't in GA no more! My overall impression of MA is that Boston is an amazing city, people here (for the most part) are rude and in a hurry, and I've never seen such terrible drivers. Perhaps its the fact that there are no lines in the pot hole covered roads that make them so cranky, but I've lived anywhere that its acceptable to just pull out into the road and wait for someone coming from the other direction to stop so you can pull in front of them meanwhile causing the traffic in the lane you are blocking to begin backing up. I of course NEVER let anyone get in front of me if they've done such an asinine thing. I have met some really good people and definitely think I'll have some really cool adventures while we're up here.

Have you heard of the website meetup.com? It's a way to meet people who share your same interests. I started a photography meetup and then let someone else take it over mostly because I didn't want to pay for it anymore. Or plan the events. Last fall I also joined a paranormal meetup, but didn't go to any meetings. I went to the paranormal groups website and they have openings for investigators so I applied and didn't hear anything so I kind of forgot about it. In January I got a call and went through 2 interviews and got picked to be an investigator! Last week I went to my first meeting with this group and it was really interesting! WThe meetup topics covered were ouija boards, tarot cards, and television shows. Apparently ouija boards are bad. My parents, in their infinite wisdom, bought me one when I was in middle school. I made a comment about how it was good tomorrow was garbage day, but found out that apparently you aren't just supposed to throw ouija boards away! There's some kind of ritual involved to get rid of a ouija board that may or may not involved burying it. I can tell you what there ain't no way I'm burying that thing on my property. I'll have to sneak onto my neighbors property (the ones with the dog that barks all thet time) and bury it over there. The entire drive home from my meeting I thought about this stupid ouija board! My mom does not feel I'll be able to go into a "haunted" house to investigate and Paul thinks the night may end with me peeing on myself and running out of the house screaming, but I think I can be a little braver than that. Granted we watched Paranormal Activity 3 weeks ago and I am still scared that something is going to grab my leg during the night and drag me out of the bed, but regardless. It'll be okay. The other investigators are really nice and really funny and we are having a mock investigation tonight to go over equipment, etc. I think my first real investigation is going to be in April.

Other than that I'm still fat. I've lost no weight and have actually gained weight. Recently I started changing my diet and am trying to add working out into the mix, but its the damn wine. I love the wine! I know this love is not going to aid in my weight loss. I've been tossing around the idea of calorie counting and we'll see how that goes. I just don't want to get pregnant again and weigh so much! We'll be heading off to the gym soon.

It's a damp, rainy day here in MA and I can't wait for spring to get here!