Normal

Ah Sunday, still my favorite day of the week.

I wish that I had something exciting to report but its the same old, same old around here.

I'm still working for that darn bachelor's. At the moment I'm in an internet class, Social Anthropology. I was wondering when I was going to read "Yanomamö, during my college career and its here already. I have about 5 classes until I'm done. The trouble is finding the classes I need to fit my work schedule.

Works good, nothing to report there. No other activity from the girl who who wanted to be my best friend. I tend to stay out of her way. I do hear that she's backed off from others, as well.

I've been a little more social than normal, and I don't really like it. I've met some girls after work for movies, cocktails and dinner more that a few times in the last couple of weeks. I really like these people but I sooo love my solitude, I feel like I'm impatient, waiting for the time to go home. Yeah, I know that it sets me up for my eventual end; dying alone 2 weeks before the neighbors report me missing and they find my 30 cats have eaten my face. I already came to terms with that end in my angsty teenage years. I'm happy not being bothered. Dave is just fine about this by the way. He has many outside interest that keeps him occupied when I want to stay home. As long as he comes home with coffee for me when he returns, he gets to do what he wants, mostly.

Saturday, was spent with the BFF and Ginger (the red-headed BFF's husband) at cocktails and then a movie. Our bartender, Mixtress Melissa, is a new transplant from Idaho. She shared the same views on non-God and non-Children so we invited her and her husband Andrew to see The Hangover, and they happily accepted. Before, the arrival of Andrew, we girls started talking about boys from our past. Well, mostly because Melissa is young, newly married and has very small issues about marriage and love that we've all had. Not much to say, really, I had a handful of boyfriends, only one really good one, and then I got married to the one that I was supposed to marry. Supposed to, meaning, timing, trust, love, lives in Phoenix and won't move, my mother liked him a lot. It was a good start and only got better. The point is me rehashing what worked and what didn't isn't going to help someone else. Just like I did, you need to live it and take away what you need to, to leave or stay and make it work.

And The Hangover I loved. If you see it, you will know exactly how disturbed an individual I am. After it ended, I said that we need to watch this every Christmas.

Black Currants

At Costco earlier today, in the cereal section...

me: This looks good, black currants and walnuts
Dave: I hate black currants
me: this cereal is mine, pick one for yourself

He picks something with cranberries and macadamia nuts

Just now, I'm having my new cereal for my evening meal,

me: this cereal is pretty good, I love the black currants, how come you don't like them?
Dave: because they taste like crap
me: I love this cereal
Dave: then you love eating crap with milk pored over it.

idle chatter

what to say, what to say?

Well, luckily I just received an email from a cute, nice boy SECONDS ago. Hi! Ryan. Very cute boy, indeed...He's the prettiest 24 year old I know.

I think he's the only 24 year old I know...

Anyway, an American boy with dark brown hair will always catch my eye.

moving on

Well, my vacation, not sure what to say about that. It was amazing...wish you were here...I thought of many people I wished I could share the experience with but then really enjoyed the time alone with my sweetie. I can't believe I am with someone who is in his forties! Ok he is 1 week into his forties, but I am still in my thirties and that's what matters.

So a few highlights...

• I made Dave listen to Dr. Horrible in the car on our trip to the coast.
  
• We found a shop in Old Town San Diego run by a girl who dresses like Frida Kahlo. 80% of her store were items pertaining to the Day of the Dead. My BFF loves that stuff, so I was able to pick out quite a few good gifts for her and my sisters.
• We saw dolphins greeting surfers, one evening. No shark bites witnessed, as I had hoped. sigh.
• Dave got to rent a segway, which he had always wanted to do.
  
• and was sung to by a mariachi band!...oh wait he didn't like that. He didn't like that at all...
• My last night was spent on the rooftop of an ocean side bar with a Journey cover band playing.
  

I think my favorite feeling was biking back to our condo, in the evening. The wind rushing through my hair as I sailed along the boardwalk. On the right was the dark, beautiful, crashing ocean and on the left were the homes with every one of their tv's tuned in to the Olympics.

It was a lovely week and I am going back the next chance I get.

The fall semester starts on Monday. I am taking Interdisciplinary Approaches to Social and Behavioral Sciences and Death and Dying in Cross-Cultural Perspective.

This school thing is turning out to be easier than I thought. Well, there is one problem. That problem would be me and my procrastination. I will do any other task except for my homework and then try and complete that at the very last minute.

I also rely on my recall skills way too much. I passed my Cultural Diversity Exams with just attending the lectures and hardly reading the text. In fact I got an "A+" for the class. (Remember professor hottie?) This builds too much confidence in the fact that I can pass without really doing any real studying. I sense that I will crash and burn at some point.

Or will I?

This weekend is busy, again. Friday, I have dinner planned with friends, Saturday I have the family birthday lunch and then a party in the evening. My last of the festivities before I retreat back into my cave and not emerge until the winter break.

the weekend update

The upstairs bathroom renovation is finally finished. Yeah!!! Since Dave was unavailable on Saturday, I hung out with Dave's best friend, Dan, while he finished drywall and paint and moving plumbing. Dan is the politest guy I've run into in a long time. He kept trying not to say cuss words around me, because I am a delicate hot house flower. I heard lots of "darn" and "shoot". I walked into the bathroom and said, "What the Fuck! Just say it! I don't care if you have to yell a naughty word" (there is a joke in there somewhere). He also got to see my wide array of flannel jamma pants. Yup, I didn't dress up. I took a shower but I slid on my finest Wonder Women flannel pants and blue t-shirt and set myself up in front of the computer. He was subjected to my itunes library and then later in the day, and on into Sunday, he got to listen to BBC's Pride and Prejudice. What a lucky, lucky man.

So Dan left on Sunday morning at about 10 am and promised to come back in the afternoon to do the final touches and then he was all done. Dave arrived soon after from his morning bike ride and I demanded that he take me to brunch NOW.

My sister lives very near the brunch place so she stopped by. She joined Dave in a Bloody Mary and I had a pot of tea. I made a mistake in putting too much milk in my mug and only got my milk to tea ratio correct on the last bit of my teapot. Look at it! It's practically white. ick.
This is a bad picture of the cute boy who sings pop hits on his guitar. He seems to play the same stuff, because I heard the same songs as my last visit. Oasis, The Cure, Josh Radin, REM, Chris Isaak...Not that I'm complaining. I loved it.

The rest of the day was pretty lazy except for one little bump. A conversation about some property owned by Dave's Dad. When his parents left Phoenix about 5 years ago, he left a lot of things in a storage shed with a family friend. Well this friend now lives in another state and has the house on the market. Dave had a quite interesting conversation with his dad, since his dad assumed that we would take care of this stuff and have it shipped to him in Dallas. Luckily Dave told him that he isn't doing that and he needs to figure out what he wants to do with it or how to move it two states away. I try to stay out of his family's business but I can't seem to stop saying a few little remarks. My mother told me that arguing with them isn't worth it since they live far away and they aren't going to disappear so just try not to make any waves. I've done well so far, but I can't wait for them to learn that their precious first son is an agnostic now and married to an atheist. It was pretty sucky when they found out he was marrying a non-catholic.

The Tour is Over

Yes, the Tour de France is over. Congratulations Sastre Yeah for Spain now give me my husband back. He needs to take his sweetie to brunch.

An Article

I'm having some trouble falling asleep, so I heading across the internet to see what I could read until sleep comes.

I eventually made my way to the New York Times and found this article, An Ideal Husband.

I did a quick checklist in my head and it seems that my husband is the only one in my past who meets all the criteria.

My content state should help in eventually falling asleep

clarification

I made mention of Dave's smart-ass-i-ness in my previous post and I just wanted to clarify that that is a pretty rare happening. That 's what makes it funny to me.

Dave is more likely to act the gentleman.

For instances,

We went to a happy hour for my work peer group, on Thursday evening. There were about 30 of us in the group of work buddies and a few family members. He stood up and shook hands, every time that he was introduced to a new person.

It's just how his mother brought him up.

this is dedicated to the one I love...

I am hanging out, by myself, again and ignoring my class assignment. Dave is at class to get his license for carrying a concealed weapon.

So in my attempt to ignore the reading and paper about India's sacred cow, I will give you this. Ms. Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill came out the same year I met my sweetbaby. You know how couples have "their song"? Well we have about a dozen of them. This one will always remind me of the first year together. Yeah, I know. Everyone thinks that You Oughta Know would be my favorite song. People say it all the time. It's okay, you can say it, too.

Head Over Feet by Alanis Morissette

wow

I love this interview with Stephen Colbert.

There are some really interesting stories in this, but mostly I was amused at his attempt to explain a donkey punch.

other stuff happened in my day but I would rather hang out with Dave instead of type tonight.

good night!

Just two things

Dave and I visited the Electoral Compass. We made a pact to never discuss politics since we are opposites (like so many things...) and it looks like that we will continue to not discuss politics for another decade.

Stephen Colbert lipsynched When Doves Cry in the style of Prince. He was strangely enticing...

Not Carpooling

Dave and I began to carpool to work and I've really enjoyed the drive to and from with him. He's now out of training and his schedule has changed. The time he leaves doesn't give me enough time to get to school so for now we will drive separately on Mondays.

I'm driving home alone for the first time in two months when this song comes on the radio.



I really enjoy a good love song. It brings vision of my sweet baby and I walking on beaches and sharing a laugh in a hammock or whatever little "sweet" scenerio that you or I can think of.

Dammit, this song, like so many others, is now connected with an advertisment or a chick movie. I start singing along thinking of Dave and then I had visions of that white haired guy trying to get couples to meet up at his christian dating site.

I put in my songs about jane cd and that just brought up memories of man/boys that were not good for me and best forgetten. I do love that cd, though, its beautiful in its pain, mr adam levine.

I love you sweet dave

I was reading this site tonight about secrets. I found it interesting that many shared the same secret.

Ahhhh a four day weekend….

My birthday was Saturday and I just love telling people how old I am. They say I look much younger. I respond by saying that they are fooled by my maturity level. I took a four day weekend in honor of me.

Thursday night Dave and I went looking for a dinner made for us, instead of Dave cooking. Too busy at Corbin’s, too busy at 5 & Diner and missed the turn into the parking lot of Manuel’s. We planted ourselves into a booth at Rosie McCaffery’s. Undone by Weezer was playing as he enjoyed his Guinness; me, Harp as usual. We are trying to nail down our plans for Thanksgiving day.

We would really like to spend our Thanksgiving alone, no dealing with family; just dinner out somewhere. Last Thanksgiving I invited my sister in law and my niece. The SIL told everyone details about her divorce and how you need to take it one day at a time and it’s best to move on with her life while rehashing what a bastard he was. The niece insisted that everyone was mean to her. So, dinner, just the two of us, it is. Right now we are trying to decide on the Restaurant or we will be having dinner in with my sister and her husband. That would guarantee that I’ll get the type of stuffing I want. It’s all about the stuffing.

We then need to decide if we are going to the Company Holiday Party. It’s a dry party, not that that’s such a big deal, but most people don’t stay for the whole thing. The invitation says after 5 attire, so most put there outfit to good use and head to other destinations after eating at the party. We’ll probably do the same.

I did have a lovely evening with my new old friends from high school. It’s the type of evening that I love the most. Good food, very good food, red wine and hanging out in someone’s house late in to the night talking about ridiculous things. Yes, definitely will happen again. The whole schedule thing is a problem. I just wish we could just make spontaneous plans but with family, friends and school we do have to schedule time.

I also had another lovely evening in my home with my “family”. My sisters, husbands and friends that I consider family all meet once a month for family birthdays. I made a small mistake in thinking that no one will want to come upstairs so didn’t really clean the two bedrooms. Wrong! When two gay men in the house want a tour they want to see everything. I got a thank you card from one of the birthday boys, saying they loved my home, it was so “homey” I think that means messy.

So anyway back to me, Birthday night was great. Dave and I went to Salutè for dinner, because I wanted their calamari and some red wine. It was wonderful. We then headed to Corbin’s for another drink with my sister and her husband Jim. I spent Sunday morning “taking it easy” and writing a paper for the Southwest Native class. Sunday and today I caught up I all of my Tivo’d shows that Dave hates to watch and the movies that he would never see.

I found out that Barenaked Ladies are headlining at the Tempe New Years block party. I said I would never go again but it looks like I will be there this year. Never say never.

Ah, the weekend before the 5 day weekend. On friday I was offered a new position at the job starting MONDAY! Which I did accept, by the way. Much better hours.

For the drive home I was very happy. I called Dave to let him know that he needs to make sure that I wake up earlier, and placed a few calls to confirm the 4th of July fun at my house on Wednesday. I also, finally plugged my ipod into my car and now have a much better soundtrack for the ride home.

I took this picture from my cell phone because Breathe Me by Sia was playing and it reminds me of the last episode of Six Feet Under when Claire drives across the country to her new life in New York as scenes are shown how each of the characters die in the future. Very moving for me since I really loved the show and cared about the characters. Dave? well, as I was tearing up a bit as most of the families ends had shown, he says,

This doesn't make sense. She hasn't even left the desert yet...

I guess that you can say that he doesn't have the same artistic outlook that I have. He is really the best guy I've ever known though. He just left the house with some friends for a night mountain bike ride. He came up to give me a kiss goodbye and I was watching Great Balls of Fire and he starting dancing, white guy twisting would be the best description.