My life in so many words

The world's most spoiled cat

So apparently, I'm getting married in under 6 months

I need to actually post on here, especially since I have stuff to say. We're at T -6 months here for our big wedding fiasco. April 4th, 2009, and I will ditch La Due for Busse. Easier to spell, harder for people to pronounce correctly. We're getting married at Christie's of Genesee (if I was doing this on something other than my blackberry, I'd make it linky and all that, but no, not this time). They were fabulous and they take care of almost everything, and you can't see highway noise in pictures, so it will be good. And I think we'll be getting married right around sunset, which will be pretty, but potentially really friggin cold. We're going for one of our food tastings today, so you shall all soon know if you're eating mexican or turkey and roast beast!

So does this make me a grownup, or just a yuppie?

Some of you know about the clown car.  5 years ago, I had a Neon that liked to stall out at intersections and had to be hotwired to start (it was funny, I think my coworkers thought I had stolen the car).  Oh yeah, and it had no stereo because it had gotten broken into and the stereo was stolen.  So it was with much excitement that I purchased a brand-spankin new 03 Kia Spectra.  It had power nothing!  I can't tell you the number of times people left the doors unlocked because they thought I had a button or power locks.  And my lovely, stupid, evil cat peed on the car seat once (he rides in a cat carrier now), so the car smelled like cat pee.

At any rate, my wonderful, fabulous, brilliant boyfriend suggested we look in to replacing the clown car.  He's 6'1", so to watch him sit in my car was at once amusing and terribly sad because his head hit the ceiling.  So out we went last Saturday to look at new cars, mostly for him because his car is older than the clown car, and a bit for me.  I knew that I wanted to look at a Subaru because my coworkers love them and they have all wheel drive (though that might mean that I have to drive to work when it is snowy).  We ended up going to the Subaru dealership by the house, and I saw an 08 Forester (the LL Bean variety with all the bells and whistles) that I just loved.  So we left on Saturday to think about it, and by Sunday night, I knew that was the car for me.

It turns out that this is the dealership is the one that 75% of my sales guys have bought cars (and in some cases, multiple cars) from.  So one of my sales guys called ahead and the sales woman pulled the car, came in and gave me a price (just over $24k on a car with a sticker price of $28,365) before I even said anything, and in just about 2 hours I was free of the clown car and the owner of the best car ever (for me).  Even the boy loves it.  Cue the obligatory fuzzy camera phone garage shot of said car (which bumped the Jeep out onto the driveway - this still cracks me up!)

So this weekend will bring the random trip to Wyoming for pizza (not our fault they don't have Godfather's pizza here anymore!), and I might even let the boy drive :)

Damn hippies!

Stupid hippies decided that it wasn't enough that we recycled all of our water bottles at work, so now we don't get them anymore.  So everyone is more dehydrated before (seriously, you used to always run into at least 1 other person in the bathroom, now, not so much), and we have to bring our own water bottles from home to get water out of the cooler.  Stupid, really.  And you can buy pop.  So what was supposed to be a "green" decision appears to be purely monetary.

So yeah, I haven't blogged much lately.  Life happens sometimes.  And sometimes, life doesn't happen anymore for people, and let me tell you, you need to hope that you never have to give someone hospice care in the hours before they die (it was the boy's grandfather, but it was a really intense situation for me).  I do hope that I can touch even a tenth of the lives his grandfather touched, and all in such positive ways.  Puts it all into perspective though, I tell you what.

One of the funny things that came out of the emotional rollercoaster that was last week was that the boy's mom started introducing me as his fiancee.  That made me laugh.  Still not yet, but I suspect I will be soon.  Besides, they can't kick me out, I've seen too much of the crazy!  And I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Amusing blog searches and whatnot

So, I put up the cyber stalker thing down right so I can see why/how people find me and where they are from.  Someone from Montana seriously found me looking for "weirdest womans tits".  That's awesome.  They're not particularly weird, I only have 2, they're where they should be, and they seem to be pleasing to some, so I'm probably not what he/she was looking for.  I don't think I'm sad about that either.

I was hoping to get snowed in today.  My drive home last night from kwar was awful, but that's mostly because lane lines here, when the road is wet and it is dark, become a mere suggestion (and one that some people disregard altogether, like the ghetto van of death that almost took me out).  At least I had the good sense to take the boy's jeep.  But I wanted feet of snow, I wanted to wake up and find out that I didn't have to go to work. 

So the work negotiations have gotten interesting.  I've had my job in junk mail for 5 years, and I've made myself indispensable (which is nice in a crappy economy).  But things change, life is changing, and I finally made it known to my manager that I'm going to seek a position where I can work from home at least part of the time in the next year or so.  Yes boys and girls, I want to be a working stay at home mom, at least while I can.  The kids are far more important than the career (no, I don't have them yet, but I'm gonna have 2, at least that's the plan).  The problem is that I work in a department with idiots.  Idiots who say they're working from home, but are really out skiing or something stupid, and they can't let me work from home unless they let everyone work from home, which is total crap.  So I'm working with my crazy love/hate sales guy (he's alternately incredibly amusing and incredibly frustrating, all in the same day!) to try to define a position for me that would be some cross with sales and not only get me working from home, but doing so while also making some sort of commission, which is really only fair :)  We'll see how it all pans out.

And seriously?  I'm over kwar drama.  That's all I have to say about that.  That, and I wish, sometimes, some people would walk in front of busses.  Not Busses, I like those, but busses, the mass transit painful sort.

6 Random Things

You asked for it, and I'm working from home today, so I have downtime that won't get interrupted by someone asking me questions I don't feel the need to answer.  Without further ado, here are 6 things about me:

1.  I fulfilled a life-long goal on 2/28/08 - I finally saw Billy Joel in concert!  For those of you who don't know, Billy Joel was really the soundtrack to my growing up years, I had all the tapes, listened to them non-stop, and knew all the words to all the songs.  Needless to say, it was incredible that he even came to Denver, and I wasn't going to pass up the chance to go.  The seats were nosebleeds, and I'm petrified of heights, but it was so worth it.

2.  I picked the college I went to based solely on the fact that it had a chemistry major and a choir, but no music major.  I was terribly afraid that I wouldn't get into the choir if the school had a music major.  I ended up at one of the best engineering colleges in the US.  And now I work in junk mail.

3.  I hate talking on the phone.  I'm always afraid that I'm not going to know what to say.  This frustrates a lot of people.  I'm just glad I can order pizza online now.

4.  My amazing, wonderful, loving, completely wacky boyfriend calls me Tits.  In public.  He didn't realize there was someone walking behind us when we were going to the furniture store right before Christmas and he turned around and said "Get a move on Tits!".  The woman behind me was mortified.  I laughed.

5.  I've been planning a wedding I don't have an engagement ring for.  He's gonna propose, we've discussed it, the ring fits, everything.  But I feel like an idiot for planning a wedding that could not happen if something goes wrong.  (Oh, and Lovey?  Hope you like navy, that's the bridesmaid color!)

6.  I want to be a stay at home mom someday.  I don't know if it's my biological clock or whatever, but holy cow do I have the whole "need to have a baby soon" thing going on.  Kinda scary really!

Ok, so that's my 6 random-ass things - so there!

Just another Thursday

One of the benefits of working in mail order is that occasionally, clients will send you things.  Let me just say, clients do not send ME things, but they send other people things - today, it was a large box of grapefruit and some weird orange-looking things that were really crosses between tangerines and grapefruit, but were also strangely tasty.  For some reason, one of my coworkers (the one I seem to pick on relentlessly, but who just this morning, shot me in the back with a nerf dart - don't arm men in the work place, it is bad) seems to get all the cool stuff - one of his clients sends him wine once a month too.  I suppose I don't want to get things from my client, I'd end up with creepy dolls, old people pants, or some scary supplements for bits that I just don't have.

So most of you (seeing as that I think maybe 3 people read this website) know that I'm practically engaged.  I too have my very own engineer, and we've been together about a year (under a week to the 1 year anniversary).  We've talked about the wedding, I've tried on the ring (it is gorgeous and it does fit) and we've done all the family stuff (we had his entire extended family over for Xmas Eve and we were actually asked by one of his cousins, point-blank, when we were going to get married).  At any rate, I know we're going to get married, and I know we're going to get engaged, but I keep having the weirdest dreams!  The other night, I had a dream that he proposed to me, I got the ring, and the next day, he handed me this giant emerald so that I could make an engagement ring for his other girlfriend.  I woke up annoyed, which isn't really fair to him I suppose :) 

Oh well, only 8 more days until we leave our crazy jobs, crazy pets and all of it behind for 3 days up in Estes Park, away from cell phones, imminent auditions (have to reaudition for the small group in choir) and everything else.  For those of you who think you don't know Estes Park, you've at least heard of it - it's where the Stanley Hotel is (and no, that's not where we are staying! No thank you very much!)  Maybe we'll go on a tour though!

The beauty in a slow day at work

Fortunately, I've actually had two of them in a row, so my desk is cleaned off, I'm caught up on my work, and I can actually take a minute to catch up on my blogging.

I really ought to do this more.  Sadly, I have very good friends that don't live by me, that I can't just say, "hey, let's go to dinner" and catch up with them and inform them all about what's going on in my life, so this may be the best way to do that.  Plus, y'all seem to listen to me ramble, and that's not all bad.

Last Saturday was concert day.  In January and June, things get nuttier and nuttier until we herd the cats into the performance and we go.  What starts out in August/September as something occasionally akin to the torture of many kitties actually usually ends up being very cool.  And this year, we were lucky enough to perform with emma's revolution (who I had heard the music of for years, and was a bit on the "omigosh, I can't believe they're really here side, yes I did hug them both when we were done), and they were the sweetest women ever!  And what power in their voices!  And yes, I am a music dork!  Choir specifically!  Comes with being el presidente (or I suppose, to be correct, la presidente) of one of the best women's choruses (at least of the ones I've heard, and I've heard a lot) in the US. 

The week before we had concert day, specifically, the Sunday before, we had done 3 performances (2 church services and a run-out concert) and a rehearsal, so if you're vaguely curious about what we sound like, here's us singing Swimming to the Other Side at church (and yes, the chorus really is there after they get done with the solo bits, and hahahaha, the girl who usually sits next to me was way too close to the podium mic which they left on!  That happened to me the year before, but you guys are lucky - that track isn't online!).  We got better before the concert :)  Soloist were still, well, not the choices I would have made in some cases, but we did it.  And we made Pat (of emma's) cry because she wrote that song years and years ago and we did it well.

So some of you may ask, what was the stupidest thing you've done in choir in recent memory?  It actually comes with a picture (this one's for you Avery) .  So this was winter last year.  I thought the sweater was really cute, and it was comfortable.  No one told me when we had done this dance and I had worn the exact same thing, and done this very same move that you could see pretty much everything (though I did have to tell the girl next to me to stop staring at my tits during rehearsal, ah, the joys of a lesbian chorus!)  So when our lovely photographer (whose girlfriend was two girls down from me in the lineup) took this, it got sent in the set that went to the entire chorus.  Funny, eh? :)

And because I have no shame, here's the video!  The partner of one of our members was trying to take a picture from her camera phone, but she ended up getting the whole thing.  Watch the girl in the acid green tutu....

Where our heroine gets shot with Nerf Darts

So yeah, I'm here, and stuff.  We're flying through things at work in hopes of wrapping up the year so that we can all come in next week and do nothing.  Will that happen?  Nope.  Will I come in anyway next week?  Not bloody likely.

Gift exchanges at work are weird - what do you bring?  Something fun, something useful, something off the wall?  My gift was not the one that got fought over, but it got a good home with someone's son (a paper airplane a day calendar since we have an affinity for projectiles here).  However, 2 of the boys got Nerf dart guns (I swear to you, one of them actually shot me in the boob).  It's all fun and games until they start shooting at us girls on the other side of the wall, as we are unarmed.  Or we were unarmed, rather.  We decided that heavier, firm foam balls (yes, I did say balls) would be funnier.  So we spent the afternoon firing Nerf guns at each other.  They pay me to do this.  Why, I don't know, but they really do pay me.

Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to having a few weeks off of kwar?  I'm just burned out.  We've had a lot going on for the past few months (even though I missed the October concert because I had some sort of nasty plague), and pretty much the last thing I want to do right now is go sing, or more appropriate, go and listen to people whine.  I don't like whining, it's annoying.

Christmas is soon!  Yay!  I only knit one present this year (boyfriend's brother's girlfriend got a scarf), so it's not been too bad.  I just need to finish my hat before the Great Skiing Debacle (there are many very valid reasons that I've not gone skiing, but I guess it had to happen sometime - at least I go to get a nifty pink coat and fun new gloves and everything).  Yes, I am taking lessons (with the girlfriend who has only skied once a very long time ago, but who is undoubtedly far more agile, and far less likely to look like the StayPuft Marshmallow man than me), and no, I don't know where we are going.  Should be a trip, that's for sure.

Tomorrow is our baking extravaganza.  The best mother-in-law (future, but no, I don't think I'm being presumptuous) and the ex-roommate and I shall embark on a great cookie baking adventure.  The boyfriend wants lots and lots of cookies, unfortunately not all of the same type, so I think it will be an all day thing.  The day after, brother and girlfriend come to town, and then the next day is Xmas Eve, for which we are having 40 people over if everyone comes.  Is it wrong to hope they won't?  But because they've not met me, or brother's girlfriend, I think most of them will.  Apparently, we need to feed them too.  Should be interesting.

Ah well, back to killing time before I leave to go deal with choir stuff.  Here's to hoping the snow waits until I get home to hit :)

Starting Over

So much has changed that I thought I'd start over.

In the last year, I have:

• Bought a condo
• Re-evaluated my preferences and gone back to boys, quite happily even
• Became president of choir

Overall, it's been a good year.  I'm having the time of my life right now, dating someone who I probably ran into at Mines, but never really knew.  I actually don't miss the girls.  I was an awful pseudo-lesbian.  And the really cool part is that the choir girls haven't even been bothered by all of it (I did get a few strange looks, but no more than that).  So let me just say that the past has been put to bed, and won't be popping it's head up later.

Buying a condo was insanely stressful, but ultimately, so very worth it.  I am now the proud owner of a great condo thing in Aurora.  It's not too bad of a drive to get to work even.  And really, who doesn't want to have the power to paint the walls in the loft red (though looking back on that, it was a heinous PITA because red paint is so thin!)  Someday, it will probably become a rental property, but it made me feel like a real honest-to-goodness grownup to sign all of those papers!

And yes, I'm really the margarita (as Jen calls me) of the choir.  I really enjoy it, other than having to preside over the omnipresent dyke drama (which we do have less of now, I must admit).  We just did our first concert with the DGMC in a very long time and it was incredible!  We even got protested (ok, I know it was only 3 people, but that's still pretty cool!)  I think we're going to try to sing more with the other local GALA choirs, especially before Miami next year.

So that's the update on my life for those of you that still happen upon this blog.  I promise to post more now!