The Circle of Life..

It always amazes me how things have a way of finding their way back to you.  You lose something you hold dear to your heart.  You mourn its loss, even though it's just a thing.  You finally come to terms with never seeing it again.  Then after a few months, maybe years, it comes back to you.  I feel like that is something special.. like the thing you lost is MEANT for you. 

For example, back in 2002 ish, I had this great necklace: a cubic zirconium star on a silver chain.  I had bought it when my obsession with stars was at its height.  I had just gotten my tattoo, and the necklace was the perfect compliment.  I wore that necklace every day, no matter what, for about two years.  Then, in the fall of 2002, I lost it.  I knew I lost it on a visit home from college one weekend, but that was all I knew.  I looked and looked, and finally gave up.  Fast forward to the next spring, I went home for Easter Break.  I was walking from my car towards the house when something shiny caught my eye from the ground.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I realized it was my star.  All dirty and almost completely covered with mud, but beautiful. 

I mentioned in my last blog that I lost my grandmother's ring at my wedding.  My grandmother died about 8 years ago, and I had her favorite amethyst and diamond ring.  I wore in my wedding ceremony as my something old, to honor her memory.  That night, about 4 AM, I woke up out of my deep sleep and realized I had no idea what happened to it.  I knew it was gone, without even having to look.  But of course I looked.  I looked through everything I had with me.  We went home and looked through everything brought to the house.  I looked in my car.  I called my mother and sister in law to make them look through their cars.  I called the woman who runs the building where we married.  I had the man at the Bed & Breakfast where we'd stayed that night look through his stuff.  When I returned from my honeymoon, Carmen and I went back to the wedding place to look through the grass & bushes around the building for an hour.  I called Men's Wearhouse to see if it had somehow gotten into Jared's tuxedo pockets. 

All of this time.. nothing.  Three months of feeling a sense of loss.  I know it's just a material possession, and that it doesn't mean much in the real world, but I felt like I was somehow letting my grandmother down. 

BUT.  Yesterday I was walking around the back of my car.  You know that space between the back seats and back windsheild of a car?  Where there is always a bunch of dead bugs and no one ever looks?  Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a HUGE dead bug back there.  I stopped and looked closer.. and there it was.  My grandma's ring.  Just like it had been there for 3 months.  How did I not notice it before?  How did I miss it the twenty times I looked through my car? 

Doesn't matter.  It finally came back to me last night.  Like Nana (that's what we called her) was just holding on to it for a while so I would remember her.  

But this ring is now even dearer to my heart.

Gift from the past

Yes, as Carmen pointed out in the comment on my last blog, I got married.  Though if you're reading this, you probably already know that.  But just in case you missed it, the pictures are here.

It was lovely and amazing and I'm still flabbergasted that I was able to pull it off.  Not everything went perfect, but that's how these things go.  What mattered was that the next morning I woke up a married woman.  And I didn't go bridezilla!  Jared got drunk.. but survived unscathed.  I lost my grandmother's ring at the end of the night. And someone threw up out front.  My step-brother hit on EVERY female there, including my married (and pregnant) best friend, my other best friend's wife, and all of Jared's cousins. But that's just the little things that no one will remember.  What was great was the dancing, the sweetness, the people, the colors, the pictures, the family.  I truly had a great time, and unfortunately it was over before I could blink.  The pictures are all I have to remember it by. Someone videotaped, but I havn't received the DVD yet.  Since it was a favor, I'll wait patiently. 

The honeymoon was more that I could have imagined.  The two months afterwards have been even better.  Nothing has really changed, except my name.  Jared lived with me for 3 years before hand, so this was nothing new. 

The next stage in life is moving.  We are working on that.. Last night I cleaned out my closet to find stuff for Goodwill.  I am giving away about 60 pairs of shoes, and 4 trash bags full of clothes.  I also found something odd in my closet: a wrapped Christmas present.  I could tell it was one that I had wrapped, I recognized the paper.   It was small, and squished under some boxes.  I opened it and found a little journal.  There was no name attached, not to the paper or written  in the journal. 

Who could this have been for? I have zero recollection of buying or wrapping this.

Maybe I put it there so that I would forget and find myself a happy little gift in the future...

Ginger Ale

In an approriate return to the blogging, I was inspired by Gnumoon's list of famous/hot Englishmen, and decided to make my own list.

Not a list of Englishmen, as I find my list would be almost a mirror of Gnumoon's, but my own special kind of list. 

Yesterday a coworker sent me a link to wicked rad t-shirt I would get if I wore t-shirts... Here is a picture:

You can order it here.

GINGERS!!

I took some ideas from this shirt, because I like a lot of these people, but I added some.  And I took out Lucille Ball because I will always be dissappointed that her hair color wasn't real.

People I didn't include: Julia Roberts & Nicole Kidman: because they're annoying.  Carrot Top: don't need to explain this one.  Chuck Norris: is he really a ginger?

In my ginger research, I was sad to discover the following people are not actually gingers:

-Alyson Hannigan (still love her though)

-Kate Winslet (I don't know why I thought she was)

And then there's Lindsay Lohan, who repeatedly dyes hers other colors to hide the ginger.  Sure, I did it once in high school, but that's what I would call experimentation. Plus, I wanted to see what life was like when people weren't CONSTANTLY STARING AT YOUR HAIR.

Finally, here's my list of my favorite famous gingers:

Bryce Dallas Howard

Molly Ringwald

Laura Prepon

Julianne Moore

Lauren Ambrose  (Six Feet Under, amazing show)

David Caruso (because of the f*ing sunglasses! ha!)

This guy (because he has a SOUL!!)

Tilda Swinton (because she can wear the weirdest shit and get away with it)

Susan Sarandon (because The Client)

Chucky

Conan (because you would all hate me if I left him off)

Gillian Anderson

Prince Harry (because he's so Spicy)

Ronald McDonald 

Shaun White (Hot!!)

And my absolute favorite, because of those awesome faces, those Ron Weasley moments, Rupert Grint

Alright, who'd I miss?

Why Carmen and Jon rule.

My engagement portraits, done by Jon Eckard with help from Carmen.

Well, nevermind, I was going to post the slideshow but I can't figure it out, as I'm internet challenged.  Just  click on Carmen's name up there^^^ and you should be able to see how much she rules.


p.s. THREE MONTHS!!

That F***ing Cat

As most of you are aware, I recently started a new job in a city which is an hour from my current home.  Commuting sucks, therefore I will be moving to the new city once things fall into place (once Jared finds a new job or once we're married, whichever).  As part of this, I have tried to start fixing things up around the house.  This weekend my goal was to primer my upstairs bathroom.  Four years ago in a drunken stupor I picked out a superdark shade of purple for this tiny bathroom.  I suppose I was still in college mode which was why I wanted fun colors.  This "fun" color is awful and made my tiny bathroom tinier.  Not only that but I was not good with paint, and got it all over the place.  Hence, primer.

I worked on the primering some with Jared on Saturday.  Sunday, while he was at work, I finished it up.  This is a very laborious, mind-numbing process, especially since I didn't have a roller and was using only a paintbrush.  Sunday morning before I got started, I went out to my car to grab my ipod to keep me company. 

Cut to four hours later when I finished up.  I got dressed in non-paint spattered clothing and was going to head to the gym.  I was cleaning up all of the paint stuff and getting ready to go out, which means walking around and closing doors and turning off lights.  I noticed I didn't see Meatwad anywhere.  So, I pretty much knew the little booger had escaped when I went out to my car four hours earlier.  Now, let's remember, I was upstairs, in the little bathroom, listening to music.  Easy to miss a missing cat.  Meatwad likes to run out the front door sometimes, out of curiosity I suppose, but he usually runs right back in.  Not this day.

Since I knew he wasn't in the house, I walked out the front door and looked to my right.   And noticed several people standing in the parking lot, and a police man standing next to the bushes in front of the building. 

I just knew it had something to do with my cat.

So I walk over and he says, "Do you have a cat?".  Sigh. 

Meatwad had been out for hours and had been acting psycho kitty.  The neighbors had noticed him in the bushes and tried to get him out of there because he looked ill or something (well his butt is still missing hair from the surgery he had 8 months ago).  Anytime anyone got near him, he hissed and pawed at them (tried to scratch).  The people freaked out thinking the cat had rabies or was hit by a car, so they called police.  Of course.  They didn't know it was my cat.

So the policeman tells me that animal control is on the way and that if they get here, they'll take him.  If I want to keep my cat, I need to get him inside without being bitten.  Apparently, if a cat bites you, even if it is your cat, animal control automatically takes the cat and puts it down.

I tried and tried to get near enough to him to pick him up, but he was not happy.   I grabbed a towel and was going to try that, but no good.  I was very upset, thinking he was sick or hit or something.  The officer did say that he had walked around earlier, so he wasn't hit, which is good. 

My reaction, of course, is to cry like a baby and call Jared to talk through my options.  Jared calmed me down some, but didn't really know what to tell me.   After a few more minutes, I decided to try one more time to just call him out of the bushes.  Well what do you know, it worked!  He jumped up and ran after me to our door and right into the house.   At first, the officer followed me in "just to make sure he doesn't bite" me.  But he could see that Meatwad was fine, just needed his momma.  Plus, I was still crying (which scares the hell out of men) so he left us be.

So that damn cat was fine.   He was apparently just scared and probably really hot (spoiled a/c cat).  But he sure did scare me for a minute.  I really thought I was going to have to say goodbye to my beloved butthole of a cat.  What most people don't get to see is how sweet he is (usually) to Jared and I.  Not thirty minutes after he came back in, Jared was home and he was rubbing all over him with love.  Meatwad is just an odd cat, but he's my odd cat.

I love that f***ing cat.

tomorrow

A year from now, my life will be pretty much completely different.

Tomorrow is my very last day as a GIS Analyst in Hickory.  After five and a half years,  I am leaving.  Why?  Well it turns out when your job is based off of contracts, when the contracts run out, you're out of a job.  In the beginning of June, I was told that they probably would not be able to pay me any more after September 30th.

Needless to say, I freaked out.

How am I going to pay my bills?

What am I going to do for insurance?

Well, the first thing I did was get online and apply for every GIS (mapping) position in NC that I could find.  I think I applied for six jobs that first day.

After a few weeks though, I wasn't hearing anything back and I was running out of positions to apply for.  I was checking jobsites several times a day.   Then I got a call for a interview! Four days later I went to that interview.

And... I was pretty darn sure I tanked.  TANKED.   I'm just one of those people that get nervous and my mind goes completely blank when I realize I'm nervous.  I was tripping over my words and repeating myself.  When they got to the GIS questions part of the interview, I had NO IDEA what the heck they were talking about.  But somehow I got through it, and went home.  And looked for more jobs.

At some point I was starting to feel a little hopeless, but then there's Carmen.  Carmen is a pretty positive person, and she talked to me and told me that if I think positively, things will go positively.  So, that's what I did. I started to see the good side of all of this.  If I did go on unemployment, I could at least sleep in.  Some of my bills I'd be able to defer.  I still had my Outback job, so I could possibly still pay my mortgage.  I could trade my car in and get something older that I wouldn't have to make payments on.  I could put all of my focus on planning my wedding.  Things would be okay.  And I would find a job.

This positive thinking thing really does help.  Carmen is a genius.

So, then I got a call from the people I interviewed with.  And a job offer.  WHAT?  I couldn't believe it, but yes, I got a new job.  A better job, really.

And on Monday, I start my new job, and my life will be changing.  

In January, I'm getting married.  Shortly after we will move to Winston-Salem, and we will have a new house/apartment/condo to live in.   We may even get a dog.  Next July 22?  I will be in a totally different situation.  

I will miss my friends in Hickory very dearly, but I will only be an hour away.  I will miss my coworkers and that sense of family that I have with them.  I will miss Katie and how she knows exactly what to say.  I will miss Carmen, and living next door.   When something breaks in my house in Winston,  I will not be able to run next door and ask them what to do.  And I won't have my trivia nights with her...  Perhaps we'll set up a weekly dinner in Statesville or something.

Things will be different.

But we will okay.  :)

Goings on

Hey everybody! It's my birthday Friday! I'm going to be a stinkin' 28 years old.  That's a little too close to 30 for  my taste, but I can't change it, so oh well.  Jared is taking me to the Merlefest on Sunday for my birthday so I can see the Avett Brothers!! Whee! It's been forever since I've seen them live and I'm just dying for the chance.  I just looked back and i haven't seen them since September 2006!  Good gravy.  That's way too long.

Also, one of my favorite bloggers who lives in San Francisco just did a music blog and included them in her list.  Sweet.

Since Friday is my birthday, I'm taking the day off from work (sleep! yay!) and Jared and I are going for our wedding cake tasting.  One of my coworker's has a sister-in-law who does wedding cakes and she seems really nice.  That will be my birthday cake, unless Jared feels like making one, no pressure.  Then, I'm going down to my momma's house for dinner.

This past Saturday was my niece Elora's birthday party.  She is nine now and that blows my mind.

When did this precious little angel get so big?

I saw every member of my immediate family on Saturday and I have to say, it was nice.  Crazy how that can happen sometimes!

whee!

Great, so another factor of getting older: Allergies.  I've never in my life had allergies like I've had this year.  Actually, I've maybe only even noticed an allergy issue maybe once before.

Starting about a week ago, I was getting regular sinus headaches.  I took advil, they subsided, I figured it was over.  Then over the weekend my nose started running and I got sneezy. Whee!! Yesterday it got to the point where I went home sick.  I think I'm on the mend today, and I took some Claritin, which Carmen was nice enough to give me.   I guess I'll survive.

Last night I went to another bridal show. It was a really really small show at the spa in Hickory.  There was only one vendor of each type (one caterer, one photographer, etc.).  I pretty much only went because I knew it'd be small and it was free.  Carmen and Jon were the sole photographer booth, so that was another reason I went.  Really it was ok, but I think the best benefit I got was talking to Cafe Gouda, who has pretty good catering prices.  Oh, and I got a cupcake (bad Allison!).

Nine months!!

stardate: 4/9/10

So, I added a wedding ticker to the old bloggage.  NINE months left!  I still have soo much to do.. I'll get there. I guess.  I can't wait though.  I am looking forward to the wedding, the honeymoon, etc, but I'm also looking forward to going back to having ONE job.

Pretty sad how quickly I've gotten sick of having 2 jobs.  It's just shitty having to leave work and go to work.  And not having weekends free. But I'm 1/7 of the way to my goal of saving.  As soon as I hit it, I'm going to quit.   I think.   It would be nice to save up extra and pay off some bills, etc.  But... No.  

For example today I feel like I'm coming down with a cold.  But I'm at the office.  I can't call in sick to restaurant    job due to I'm closing, and I need the money.  I can't call in sick to day job cause that just wouldn't be right (not working real job but going to other job).  So here I am. Whee!!

But, I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Working at Outback is exponentially better than when I worked at the Brush.  SOOOO much easier and better.

NINE MONTHS!

The Man, the Myth, the Legend.

Sometimes when I listen to Beck, I'm thinking, 'WTF?'.

And other times, like today, I listen and all I can think is, 'what a flippin' genius'.  Beck is a truly amazing artist.  It could just be hormones talking.

Beck has been my all time favorite artist since 1994, when I was 12 and heard "Loser" for the first time.  I go through some long periods without listening, and then when one of his songs gets shuffled in on my ipod, I have to switch to only Beck for a few days.

I recommend "Debra" from Midnite Vultures.  And "Go it Alone" from Guero.  Of course, there are a million other brilliant Beck songs.

He really really really needs to come to North Carolina on tour again.  I've only seen him once, in 1996, which was the LAST TIME he has played a show in NC.  Dork. :)

Oh, and it just occurred to me, Jared really does look like Beck!! I'm the luckiest girl alive!
Jared:

Beck:

Day off

Saturday is my sole "day off" this week.  What should I do?
Unfortunately, Jared is working all day :(  I am working all day today, which is his sole day off.


Options for day off:

A) NOTHING.  This seems to be the one I'm leaning towards, but I have soooo much I need to do.

B) Go shopping. I have no real money (all my Outback money goes to wedding) but I need some new pants, pronto! They are all are too big! :)

C) Go to Gym.  Hmmm.. maybe if I get up early *snort*

D) Clean.  Ha!

E) Go to Mom's house.   She invited me down for girls' night with my nieces (Elora and Madelyn) and her friend Janet.  I haven't been down there since Christmas Eve, maybe I need to be doing this.. but..

F) Hang out with Carmen, if she's home. I miss Carmen, having not been able to go to trivia for two weeks now due to working.  Maybe I can convince her to go with me to my Mom's house for a few hours Saturday night. 



P.S. I created a pseudo-finished wedding website here: HERE!!

Urban Outfitters

I'm willing to bet the reason this woman looks so downright unhappy is her pants.

I mean, are these supposed to be pretty?  I'm no fashionista, obviously.  But those are ridiculously ugly.  On a whole new level of ugly.  I bought an open cardigan from Urban Outfitters that I love so then I went back to look at what's new.  I had to pause and go back to this several times to see how horrible they are over and over again.  You can oggle the ugly here.

Amazing

What's amazing?  It's amazing how fast our bodies deteriorate. 

Last night was first night training as an Outbacker.  I have to say, I'm loving it so far.   I was supposed to just be following around my trainer all night, but I ended up handling a few tables mostly by myself (I still needed help for some things).  The point is, I picked up on it pretty quick and it rules. 

Here's the thing though, I worked for 6 hours and when I got home last night my back was KILLING me.  And then I woke up around 4 am and my legs were KILLING me.  WTF?  Am I falling apart already?  I'm 27 and I can't handle 6 hours on my feet?  I work out 4-5 times a week, I try hard to eat healthy.  What is wrong with me?  Maybe I just have to get used to it or something, but I don't remember being in this much pain after one night at Sagebrush.  Of course, Sagebrush wasn't exactly a lot of work most of the time. 

I'm sure if I went back and read my "Brush" (that's what I used to call Sagebrush) related blogs, I would find some complaining in there. 

Anywho here's to hoping I get used to it, because I have a loooong way to go before I can afford to get married. 

American Idol 10

I'm in a foul mood right now for some reason.  Damn headache.  And I couldn't sleep last night due to nightmares.  It was a really weird one but I won't go into details because it's just not worth reliving. 

I already broke my New Year's Resolution about blogging 8 times a month.  Stupid February being all short and stuff.  Ah well I'm still trying.

I know no one watches American Idol anymore, but for those of you who do, I'm going to share my pick for the year.  I don't really think this person will win,  but so far he is my favorite.

Alex Lambert!

No, not Adam Lambert.  I'm talking about someone with actual talent, not someone who screams!  Also, I love the mullet.  I mean, I think he's just growing it so people will remember him, which is fine by me. 

I'd share with you a video of him performing last night, but that's a lot of work.  Go google it or something. 

None of the girls this year really stand out for me except that chick with the gray hair, Lilly Scott.   If Alex goes and she stays, I'll vote for her.

Next year when Simon is off the show, I swear it to you I will not be watching.

Guess What Comes Out Friday!!!

 

Johnny Depp in 3D!!  Or, in other words, Alice in Wonderland!  Who's excited? Me.  

In other news, I got a part time job.  At Outback.  I am super excited.  I've always loved their food.  In college, it was a special treat to make the drive to Blowing Rock for Outback once in a while.  It was a tradition for Carmen and I.  Anytime our parents came to town, we said "take us to Outback!".  My family even took me there for my graduation dinner.   And now? I get to work there.  And eat with a discount (there AND Carraba's).   This is a good thing people!  Now, if I can just save up enough to have the lavish, extravagant wedding I dream of.

kitteh and wedding. What else do i blog about?

moar funny pictures

Meatwad playing around with his tail.  He is so weird.  When I feed him now, his tail gets really really thick and he acts like he's on acid or something.  Jared and I were going to videotape it last night, but we had technical difficulties (he was drunk).


I am going today to look at another place for a possible wedding location.  I would really like to hurry up and find a place. Once that's done, I can do everything else, I think!

world.

We live in a technologically advanced world.  We have machines that do all kinds of crazy things. Like fly.  And clean.  And make us happy.  We have machines that make us see better, hear better, hairless and smooth.  We have machines that collide atoms.  We have machines that go into outer space and send back pictures of far away planets.

My question is: how is it that with all of this technology, no one has created a calorie free, fat free, delicious chocolate snack? WTF is taking so long?  Is it because science is a male dominated field?  Let's get on the ball people!

In other words, I'm still hungry.  I've lost 10 pounds since January 1, but for some reason none this week.  :(

stuff v 18.0

Not feeling like anything is blog worthy lately.

I've been watching American Idol this season and not really connecting with anyone.  I guess that's okay since it's a pseudo reality show.  And we all know reality shows are the devil. 

Meatwad has calmed down since Super Bowl Sunday, except when it's feeding time.  At feeding time he FREAKS THE F*CK OUT and his tail gets really really thick (HOW is that possible?) and he practically screams at me.  I have to hold him back while I put the food dish on the floor else he gets so excited he knocks it out of my hands and it goes all over the place.  And that prescription food isn't cheap (in other words, you're licking it up off the floor, A-hole).   And Beefcake, ah, Beefcake.  Bcake has been his usual happy-go-lucky self lately, but I fear he may just go crazy one day due to Meatwad's incessant whining.  We shall see.


I have a potential wedding venue, but it's in Motown (25 minutes from here) and it's going to be work getting it pretty.  But I think I like it.  Just have to get Jared to decide.  I am, however, going to keep looking.  I have a crazy idea which would involve a lot of help from Carmen, and I haven't even run it by her yet.  Methinks trivia tonight is a perfect opportunity to bring that up. 


Jared got moved back to the Brush in Lenoir (only 30 minutes away instead of the hour commute he did have).  I thought this was going to be great for him and I'd see him more. WRONG.  He is working so hard and constantly on his feet.  He doesn't get the opportunity to eat most days, and he is staying late every time he works.  Yesterday he was there for 15 hours.  *GRRR*   

Life moves from one crappy deal to the next it seems.  I just have to keep our heads above water. :)

Meatwad

Meatwad
Originally uploaded by allygirl520

Demonstrating a cat's love of small spaces? I just thought it was funny that the whole bed was free, but he chose to sit on the pillow.

This is one of those LOL Cat rules, right?  IF there is one thing taking up a small space on the bed, your cat will be sitting on it.

Soupa Bowl.

I had a few people over to my house last night to watch the Super Bowl.  We were all cheering for the Saints, so that was a nice ending.  Except I don't really remember much of the game.   I decided to drink because it was at my house and I hadn't drank in a while.  And man, I LOVE being hungover at work. At least, that must be what I was telling myself last night. Why else would I have had that Irish Car Bomb?!

It was a good time until Meatwad escaped and went psycho kitty on everyone.  He used to be a sweet kitty when people came to visit. But ever since he got sick, he does not like visitors. Not at all.  He hissed, growled, swatted and scared everyone at my party.  I tried to keep him shut up in my bedroom so he wouldn't be bothered by everyone, but he wasn't having any of that either.  As evidence, here is my hand this morning:

And here is a video that my coworker Emily uploaded.  Crazy kitty.

Here are some pics from last night.


There was also some great video of my Jared shotgunning a beer because the Saints won their two-point conversion.  I'll have to show you that when I can.