Get My Fall On

I was feeling a little bored so I decided to try something new. This is my old livingroom:

And this is my new livingroom:

I am not sure this is the final change, it is the second set of colors I have been through (the first being the most terrifying silver/blue I have ever seen.) Am I seeing a little too much brown here? The color is richer in real time but still I may need to try one more color scheme before I decide.

The next purchase/upgrade will be new coffee tables. That one looks so little with the new couch. I need something heartier to balance it all out. Or maybe I should just stop retail therapy right now. Naa.

Time Well Spent

I have just gotten back from my latest adventure. A week on the beach in Corolla. With wild Mustangs and even wilder friends.

Kerri turned forty last week. She is hating me right now for emphasizing this fact but alas, it is true. We have been friends for 24 years. TWENTY-FOUR. Yikes. Every year has gotten better and better. She is one of my most favorite people ever. I hope she knows that

The week started with Kerri, Suzanne, Summer, Anna, Lars, Stephen, Alicia and Melissa at the house. Mid-week Alicia, Mel and Stephen went home and my Sweet Pea and Alex joined us. It was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable trips I have taken in a long while (or at least a few months).

Coming home was a little tough. I love this group of people. I miss time with them. It makes me want to own a great big house and move them all in so we can hang out everyday drinking beer and lounging by the sea. Perhaps it is time to play the lottery?

Thank you Kerri, for such a lovely trip. And Happy Birthday Boo.

I Have Been Bad. Spank Me?

I have not written in over two months. What the hell have I been doing?

I turned 38 last month. How the hell did I get so old? I swear I was just 17 the other day. A cute little bleach blonde with no job and a stable of boyfriends. I kinda miss the stable thing.

I am leaving on vacation (yes again) tomorrow morning. One of my dearest friends, Kerri, is turning 40 on Saturday and she rented a house in Corolla for a group of us to join her in celebration. I will be meeting her in North Carolina and making the drive with her to Corolla. A week on the beach, sigh

I posted pics from my last trip and will add Corolla upon my return. With no internet connection in NC I guess you will all (does anyone read this anymore?) have to wait until I return for the details.

Juan et Juan Equals Two

K and S took me out to Chapel Hill last night to party party. We had a nice little Mexican dinner outside, drinking beer and eating cheesy steak tacos. It was raining a little and the temperature dropped to a reasonable 85 at ten at night.

After dinner Kerri took us to her favorite bar, The Cave. A very cool underground bar with live bands and a little pool table in back. Suzanne was so awed that I knew pool terminology she insisted that I play. I approached the two guys playing pool and asked if there was a list. Neither spoke much English but we worked it out to play doubles. Turns out their names were, you guessed it, Juan et Juan. Just two buddies hanging out picking up on chicks. Juan number one had a brilliant El DeBarge circa 1982 hairdo. Juan number two spoke not even one word of English but smiled at me a lot. Kerri and I held our own but Juan 1 was a pretty good shot and we ended up 2 to 2 in the end.

At one point I had to make a shot where my ass was in the face of three strangers. I warned them, they didn't move and then a tall blond guy pretended to hit my ass while I was shooting. When Juan 1 noticed he said to me " you bend like that in front of man he thing sweet luscious." Nice.

A few friends of K & S's joined us for a drink at the cave then convinced me I belonged in Hell. Yet another trip to an underground bar where you have to apply for a card (I am now a card carrying member of Hell) before they can serve you mixed drinks. Gotta love the ABC.

The place was dark, cool and smelly. Filled with wanna be goths, frat boys/girls and PBR at a buck fiddy. The jukebox was definitely one of the most interesting ones I have ever come across. The main bartender managed it and it felt like something you might find at CBGB's. It rocked. Unfortunately they were out of Stella so I didn't want to stay long.

At three AM we called it a night, errr morning and crashed out. For some reason sleep would not come over me until 5 AM so yours truly is a major mess at the moment and calling it an early night.

Tonight will be laying low and chillin' on the deck serving as a feast for the mosquitoes. Stella aplenty.

The Carolinas

Last Friday I jumped on a plane for North Carolina. I was met at the airport by Kerri and Suzanne. They moved out here a year ago and this is the first time I have been out to visit them in their beautiful new home. Their house is lovely; a large soft yellow exterior two story dwelling with three bedrooms on the second floor, a large living, dining, and den area and a sweet open kitchen and eating room. I accidentally left my card reader at home so pictures will be posted later

I spent Friday night in NC and on Saturday morning we drove two cars to Charleston (Kerri loaned me her BMW) so the three of us could hang out for a long night and day in SC. The drive was about four hours but it was so beautiful it just flew by. The three of us went out to diner at the Noisy Oyster in Downtown Charleston on Saturday and then spent Sunday milling about the area. It was so unbelievably hot there that whenever you walked into a store the sweat would just pour off of you. Not an attractive day for me.

Charleston is beautiful. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. The one eerie thing is in the middle of downtown there is a huge semi-enclosed market where vendors sell all sorts of junk (emphasis on the word junk). The market was previously used to sell slaves and it was difficult for me to ignore that. It made my skin crawl. Sometimes the South holds nothing but beauty for me, other times I can still feel the days gone, especially when confederate flags still wave on poles and as tattoos on the rednecks shoulders. Sigh.

Mid-afternoon I headed out to Edisto Island while the girls headed home. My family (dad and step-mom) had rented two houses on the beach for a family reunion. The family is my step-moms. A lively and large (20 plus) group of mostly southerners who eat, drink, chat and really know how to have a good time. The reunion was for several monumental birthdays; Grandma's 90th, my uncle Ned's 75th, and my aunt Judy's 60th. Cake every night, yum.

The house on the beach was amazing. A huge screened in porch overlooking the ocean that was never colder than 80 degrees. Dolphins swimming so close you could see their facial expressions (if they actually had any). Logger Head Turtle nests that would come to life late at night as the newborns tried to reach the ocean.

My cousins and brothers and I would sit on the porch late at night drinking beer and playing games. Well I would drink beer. Hunter and Jake, my brothers, 17 and 15, my cousins Lauren and Jordan, and Lauren's wife, Nancy all had drinks of their choosing (I was very stingy with my Stella). Sitting outside in shorts, feeling a breeze coming off of the ocean, stopping on Palmetto bugs and slamming back beers, life was good.

I spent five days hanging out with the family. On Tuesday we took a boat out into the Edisto Ocean/Lake area. For a good long while we were surrounded by dolphins, jumping in groups for show, bobbing their heads up and showing off their newborns. It had me awed. The captain of the boat stayed close to them for my benefit but the rest of the group wanted to get going so we headed out to look at the various islands and plantations on our 2 hour tour.

The remainder of the trip was spent lounging, beaching, drinking and eating to the point of silliness. I was able to read a book in two days, that's how lazy it was. Glorious and sloth-like, as vacations should be.

On Friday morning I headed back to NC. It took me six hours to arrive back at K and S's house where they greeted me with pizza and beer, thank the gods. Now I am sitting on their back deck in the heat watching the cats play in the yard and drinking coffee. I could live like this.

"I could spend a lifetime staring into those eyes."

The BEST bar pick-up line I have ever received. Hands down.

Happy Birthday Kiki

We had a big celebration for Kiki last night for her bday. She looked lovely. Rock on babe.

Out of Sight...

It is funny how you think you might not survive certain events in your life. How a situation may break your heart to the point of never feeling again. How a moment may leave you a shell of who you used to be. This actually never happens to me.

What I find happens, more often than not, is that I become a stronger person for the things in life that cause me to pause. I do tend to curl up and spend some time lingering in the emotions of it all but I always come out the other side feeling like I have accomplished something real.

I have spent the last year or so trying to figure out a strange relationship that has had me in a bit of a tailspin. I don't want to get into detail here but suffice to say it has finally found an end and I have mixed feelings on the matter. Some days I am pleased that we realized it wasn't right for us and other days, well, they suck.

After spending 12 years in very broken relationships I think I learned a little about cutting your losses. Some may say a year is a long time, but with this man, it was merely a blink. Every minute was wonderful, even the hard times. I will forever be thankful that he came into my life to make me laugh, hold my hand when I was sad and remind me daily that I am worth it all.

Perfect

I have eyed this beauty for a long time. Teresa Moore is a local San Francisco artist that I have been in love with for the last few years. Her prints are a little pricey but I broke down and bought myself this piece:

I can not tell you how happy I was to hang her on my wall tonight. She was just what I needed to make my room whole.

It is Possible that I am Insane

Yes I bought it, yes it is an S4, and yes I have issues.

Way Too Eighties

He loved me.

Just has to be Seen

These pictures are amazing. I had to share. More soon.

OCD

It only took four months but I am finally settled into my new home. Being a Virgo, normally my place would have been done in a week. It drives me crazy to not have everything in its place. But with my back being what it is these days I had to take my time and I think it made a difference in the overall look of my place. It feels very smooth, if that makes any sense. Like everything is where it is supposed to be. I am so happy here. Coming home feels like, well, coming home. The only downside is not seeing my mom all the time. I really miss her.

I reorganized my closet, specifically my shoes:

Yes, those are individual cases for each pair of shoes. I tossed a bunch of pairs I no longer wear and tried to keep it simple. Sadly, I am down to the basics. I think I need to shoe shop.

I have added a few more photos of my place. Some just to show my new artwork, others to show my fancy shoe alters. Yes, I know, displaying overpriced shoes in my hallway is silly, but I liked the idea more than watching them collect dust in the closet. Oh, right, that isn't a problem anymore. I will need to order more boxes.

A dear friend of mine gave me these on a whim:

French Tulips are my favorite. A loving gesture, thank you. They made me smile for a long time.

I am off to Philly this week. Taking Carmen on a mini-trip to NYC. She needs a break from everyday life and so do I. I can't think of anyone I would rather run away with.

And She is (a)Live

Let me get the niceties out of the way:

Happy Hanukkah
Merry Christmas
Happy New Year

There, I have been good. Now on to whatever the hellI feel like rambling about. Let me start with Comcast.

Every month I pay nearly $200 so that I can watch any channel on the planet, have a house phone no one will ever call cause I have been mobile for 6 years, but have to have so people can gain entry into my house, and finally, so that I can connect to the internet faster than you. However for the past month I have had to piggyback off of a neighbor to view my internet porn because something went awry with my internet connection. Some light wasn't blinking. Some wire wasn't connected, some THING wasn't working. Only I didn't really know this cause I was connected, sorta. I had access here and there thanks to Joe Smith who lives on my block. I spent over an hour on the phone with a Comcast monkey who had to put me on hold a dozen times to ask him superior which plug I should pull next. We did everything he could think of, although I had told him I had done it all before and was politely asking him just to send a person out to do my bidding. Finally I got an appointment. The tech came out, unplugged everything at once, pulled the battery and BAM, I have my internet back. Two minutes. He decided not to charge me, which was nice, because really, the monkey should have had me power cycle the damn thing in the first place. No wonder people are so mean to Customer Support. If I didn't have the best CS team ever I would think that companies only employ primates to answer customer calls.

My best friend, Carmelinda and her man Alex got engaged while visiting me over the holidays. Alex was very romantic about the whole thing. He proposed on one knee, under the Golden Gate Bridge. Carmen was so nervous she kept trying to get down there with him. She just didn't know what to make of the whole thing. When he opened the box with her ring inside, she jumped up and down like the 12 year old that she is. Now I have another wedding to plan (says me, that's who).

I took the last week of December off on holiday. I spent the first half with friends and family celebrating and really enjoying myself, and the second half flat on my back because I enjoyed myself to the point of throwing my back out. Oh yeah, New Years Eve in bed, on vicodin, watching Lost. Does life get anymore exciting? I shouldn't complain; on New Years day everyone else was so hungover they could barely move. I, on the other hand, could actually walk again. Just in time to return to work.

The week before I went on vacation a handful of people I work with threw me a thank you lunch at 21st Amendment. About 15 or so people. As usual we drank and ate too much. Our lunch turned into an all afternoon party. Sometime in the middle I was presented with a gift from the crew; $500 in Amex Gift Cards. I was floored. They packed it inside a copy of The Devil Wears Prada DVD, which was inside a hand-knit stocking made by my friend Soph. (Thank you lady). The idea behind the DVD was that I had been bitching about these beauuuuutiful Prada boots I wanted and they wanted me to buy them so I would shut up. Just dear god, close your trap and buy them already! So I did. They arrive, I drool, I strip my feet, I go to put them on and, FUCK, they are so narrow I lose all feeling in my toes within 4 minutes. Just long enough to trapse through the office, a six foot, 4 inch amazon babe, and show them off. Then right back in the box. They are now awaiting a trip to Ebay. Sigh. I guess I can't have it all.