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Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:04:25 -0500

It has been a while since I updated. Though a lot has been going on I have not felt compelled to write anything. Since my last post, I have tires and wheel locks on my car now. The new tire pressure sensors are still not working right so I have to keep bringing my car in to get evaluated. It is a pain but it could be worse. Curse those tire stealing thugs.

This is has been the month of new things since the New Year. My new year’s resolution has been accomplished. I learned to snowboard. My friend Michelle was kind enough to let me borrow her equipment for a week so I could go twice. My LF got free lift tickets to Waterville Valley from work, so last Sunday we drove up and I took a 2 hour lesson. Lucky for me these was only one other woman in my group. Our teacher John was a laid back dude, who was a pretty good teacher and very patient. My co-student was apprehensive and I thought at one point she was going take her board and break it over her knee, especially when her two friends came gliding down the hill effortlessly to see how she was doing. It was obvious they talked her into this. My instructor had to spend a lot of time with her. I did not mind. He showed me what to do and I just kept trying it. I spent most of the time on falling on the packed snow. My legs, neck and arms where tired and sore by the end of the day. My legs gave out at about 2pm, I was done. I was bruised but felt accomplished.

My second attempt was much more successful. Laura, Leigh and I drove through a snowstorm on Wednesday to Wachussett Mountain to snowboard. We were planning on taking a lesson but because of the slow going we missed it and ventured out on our own. It was the best decision we made. Laura had been before, and I went over everything John taught me with both of them. Leigh was quite impressive for her first time. We had the perfect day of powder snow and managed to have a number of good runs where we all stayed up on our boards the entire way down the hill. It was exhilarating and we cannot wait to go again. We took some video of our day. We felt like we were going faster then it looks on the video, but whatever we actually did it.

This week, the LF and I adopted a cat from the MSPCA, we named him Henry. His name was Bob which I liked but settled on Henry because Ramona is named after the Ramona Quimby books and the boy in the series is named Henry Higgins. We thought it was appropriate. We are not sure how old he is but he is probably about 1 year old. This is my first cat and I was a bit apprehensive but we definitely got a good one. He is house trained, gets along great with Ramona, is playful but not too crazy, and he is very friendly and cuddly. I felt the same when Ti got Izzy, she really was an insta-dog. He has been so easy and just great. Plus, he seems to really like his mouse toy so that bodes well for my mouse problem in the spring. I made a little video of his first night.

After being in a bit of funk in early January, the month closed out with a bang. I hope it continues.

Being Tested??

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 12:09:58 -0500

This is the time of year where many people are reflecting on the past year, looking forward to the new year and making resolutions. I do have some resolutions, one of them being not to complain so much but before I get to that I do have some complaining to do. As you can see from the picture above there is an important piece of equipment missing from my brand new, only 300 miles on it car. YES, you guessed it, A TIRE!!! Not only is that one missing but the other 3 as well. Oh yeah my holiday season of fun continued on New Year’s Eve day when I went out to walk Ramona before leaving for our NYE weekend in VT, that I had been looking forward to for weeks, to see my little Honda Fit jacked up on rocks with no tires. Some punk ass bastards decided to come by overnight and help themselves. Here is my holiday run down: Thanksgiving I was confined to my house all weekend waiting for Comcast, then Christmas I worked all week and missed my LF for her second holiday away in a row, and NYE I had no tires. This is not to say there weren’t fun times sprinkled in, but all in all the holidays were a bust this year.
My weary traveler friends and I ended up making it up to Vermont after a treacherous 7 hour drive in a snowstorm(great driving by Ash), and the weekend was great fun, including: cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, a working fireplace, sledding, delicious food, beer pong and hysterical laughter watching Monica navigate Lara Croft with the Wii remote(she got eaten by a bear, killed by bats and broke her body falling off ledges). I tried really hard to not make the tire incident take over my weekend but it was hard to not have it sitting there in the back of my mind. When we got back on Saturday I think it finally took over, I was a cranky ass the last two days thinking about dealing with it. My poor LF had to deal with me bitching about everything. It really is my coping mechanism.
I stayed home from work today to deal with my insurance. I probably did not have to take the whole day but to tell you the truth I really just needed some quiet time to myself. I think the insurance is figured out but who knows when my car will be fixed. I have to wait for them to call me when the claims guys gets to the dealership and assesses damage. It just burns my ass that after only a month I am carless again this week. It is annoying and maddening that some assholes just took all my tires on New Year’s Eve. I was in a state of shock. I know I will get through this and am grateful I have such good friends and a wonderful LF who I love very much. She is the best thing that came out of 2008. It is just really hard for me to let go of this stuff as much as I try. I will feel better once I get my car back with WHEEL LOCKS, and hope for better luck in 2009.

I do have some resolutions this year:
Get back on the WW’s, I do not want to gain back all the weight I lost last year. Shallow I know but it was a lot of work
Stop complaining so much, everyone has a lot to complain about, some more then me
Learn to snowboard

So bring it on 2009, I think the end of 2008 tested me enough that I can take whatever you throw at me. I added new pics to my What I have been up to page.

Stuffed

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:00:29 -0500

I just got home from an Italian Christmas Eve in Scituate with people who are the closest thing I have to family near by, and by family I mean people who I grew up with that are so close to your family you call them aunt and uncle even though you may not be related. I was so crabby all day and on the drive down. Jen and I were doing our usual bickering, she even wanted a truce at the liquor store. The minute I walked into Felicia and Denis’ place it was like I was home. Big hugs all around. My Aunt Yolanda was there to call me “the princess” and told Jen what a perfect little girl I was. She cracks me up because anything could come out of her mouth, and it did. She was drinking Vodka with a splash of tonic. There was so much food and of course the traditional seven types of fish. We had shrimp, salmon, crab, calamari, oysters etc, plus Lasagna. Jen and I were stuffed and then out came the pastries. As stories were being told about how much food my Mom used to make every holiday I spotted in the corner of the kitchen treats I have not had since I was a young, struffoli, or honey rolls. Little balls of goodness. It was like I was a little kid again hanging out with the cool kids who were friends of my parents. I am so glad I made it down there tonight, it really made my day. It was much needed to be around people who represent all the happiness I knew as a kid at Christmas. Tomorrow should be another great day of food as I head over to Jen’s for prime rib.
I hope everyone enjoys whatever you choose or choose not to celebrate today.
Happy Holidays.

Batten down the Hatches

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:12:40 -0500

Boston is expecting its first snow storm of the season tonight. I am already home, they let us out of work at 12:30 for safety reasons, and not a flake has fallen yet. The city has gone into super hype mode and declared a state of emergency, closed schools, and is basically shutting down. On my way home I saw salt trucks out already spreading salt. One truck was being tailgated by some jackass. Ah Boston, full of Mass-holes. I love stow storms. We had a hill in our back yard when I was young so any inkling of snow would get us all excited about making ramps for our slick silver saucers. Our backyard would be filled with neighborhood kids and adults waiting to take turns to sled down the hill and over the stone wall to land safely, or not so safely in our driveway. I am surprised no one seriously hurt themselves. Now as an adult I love the city blanketed with snow. The fact that I do not have to drive to get anywhere makes my life much easier. So I will hole up tonight, watching the snow fall on my back deck anticipating the first time I take Ramona out in it and she realizes what it is. She will go into a running back slide and wiggle around and invoke my childhood of snow days, snowball fights, hot pastina, and back yard sledding.

I prepared for the snow this time in the following ways:

Last two discs of season 1 of Dexter from Netflix
Entire 2nd season of Dexter, generously loaned by @jstein8 and @eberman
12 pack of beer
4 bagels
Bacon
Last 4 eps of Top Chef on TiVo waiting to be watched
Coffee
Cape Cod Potato chips
Breathing exercises knowing the family upstairs, that never go outside, will be holed up as well

Now just waiting for LF to get here so we can get on with the hunkering down.

Grateful

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:29:03 -0500

I realized I have been lax in my updates. It has been 22 days since my last confession. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, of course I could go the usual route and write what I am thankful for, but nope, I am going to write what I am not grateful for at this moment:

That buying a car is such a distasteful experience...liars, liars, liars. Why do we put up with it?
The continuous running and jumping above me even though I have talked to them about it and they seemed genuinely concerned about my quality of life. It hasn’t stopped.
The clanking in my pipes that wake me up every night. Earplugs do not work.
Almost being run over each time I cross Columbus Ave. by an asshole driver trying to take a quick left when they do not have the right of way
How much Comcast sucks right now
That my LF is away Thanksgiving and X-Mas this year. Poop.

OK...OK...OK.

You are right these are trivial things that are very superficial, things could be a lot worse.
Though the clanking pipes are like chinese water torture and I am not sure it will be resolved ever. I might need to move.

Anyway. I will stop being negative. I actually have a lot to be thankful for, including every person in the photo above.
Here is this year’s list:
I can afford to by a car
Having a secure job in these tenuous times
I am still healthy enough to play football each year and my team continues to make the playoffs
Ramona is as healthy as a horse
I know my TV will get fixed in a couple of days, and I really do not need it to keep me occupied
I have people to spend time with while my LF is away
I have a LF to miss
I have a great New Year’s Eve planned with people I love
Though my family is far away I have the technology to stay in touch with them
Change is coming to this country and I still get emotional when I see footage from election night
My life is full of love, friendship and many happy times

I hope you are as lucky as me. Happy Thanksgiving!

On The Brink

Tue, 4 Nov 2008 18:55:06 -0500

I am about to head over to my friend’s house to hang out with my people and hopefully watch history happen. I do not know about you but this election has been an emotional one for me. I have been angry, hopeful, inquisitive, and baffled, the list goes on. It all comes down to this moment as the polls close and the results come in. I got over my disappointment of Hillary not being the democratic nominee and turned my faith to Barack Obama, who I think can really help bring our country back to where it needs to be. I am so happy to be part of history and I had mixed emotions today as I left the polling booth. I wanted to skip and cry all at the same time. I will be so proud if this country looked past all of the rhetoric and voted this man into our highest office. We need this so badly right now I cannot even stand thinking about not winning. So I hope you went out and voted today to make your voice heard. It is so imperative that we have a leader who can end this war, get our economy back on track, gain back respect from the rest of the world and unite our country. The time is now for it to happen. Go Barack, we are counting on you!

Say What?

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:01:07 -0400

Thursday morning at 2am I got up to pee, my usual middle of the night wake up. When I was done and got back into bed all of a sudden I was in intense pain in my pelvic region. I usually have a pretty high tolerance for pain but this kept me up all night. Man was it uncomfortable. I was miserable not only because I was in pain but I hate no being able to sleep. I think I was annoying Ramona because she went to her own bed. The first thing that comes to my mind is UTI. I have never had one, and I think us lesbo are not really prone to them. Anyway, since I was up I started googling up a storm and was pretty sure I had a UTI. I made an appt the next day at my doctor, thinking I would get anti-biotics and things would be all good. All I could think about was my work project and how I cannot be sick right now. I get the to doctor and after the nurse takes my blood pressure she says, “Are you stressed, in pain, or in a rush?”, I was like, “All three, I have a project going live this weekend, I am in pain and I rushed over here on the bus.” Enough said.
After about 1000 questions from the nurse practitioner she says, “I am going double check with someone but I think I am going to send you to the hospital for a cat scan.” SAY WHAT NOW? Well, she thought I either had kidney stones or appendicitis. Then she says,”I hope you are not in a rush to get back to work.” Ugh this could not be worse timing.
The Dr’s office makes me an appt for a cat scan and of course it is not for another 2 and 1/2 hours. So I head back to work, get some stuff done, while grimacing, and then head to the hospital. I have never had a cat scan before. First you have to drink a quart of barium, which is this chalky substance which they try to flavor with blueberry. Gross. Smoothie this is not. Then it is time to put on the humiliating hospital robe. The nice guy in radiology got me some scrubs. I was going to steal the pants but the drawstring was broken. Finally I get into the cat scan room and lie on my stomach to get better picts. When they take the cat scan they have to put an IV in you and then shoot you up with iodine. When this happens it feels like you are having a hot flash, you get a metallic taste in your mouth and then it makes you feel like you peed your pants. That is fun. Now you do not actually pee your pants but the feeling is not pleasant. After holding my breath a couple of times I was done. The radiologist says, “OK, you are all set you can get dressed and go.” I was still in pain and so miserable I just wanted to break down and cry. I was like that’s it, nothing for the pain. So frustrating. So I get dressed, peed again for the 1000th time that day and walked home.
I think Ramona knew I was miserable when I got home, after her walk and getting in my PJ’s she got up on the couch and laid on me. See pict above.
The doctor’s office called me later to let me know she will call me the next day with the results. My LF came over to keep my company and made me dinner. I was starting to feel better. My PA friend Maia suggested I take the Vicoden in my cabinet left over from an old injury to sleep. I was so tired.
So today I get a call from the NP and she says she thinks I passed a Kidney Stone. WTF? So I guess out of the 1000 times I peed I must have dropped the little guy that was making me so miserable. Little fucker. Glad it was not worse though, with everything going on at work the last thing I needed was to have my appendix burst.

Heading to NYC

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:51:29 -0400

On the train heading to NYC to visit KS. This time I upgraded to the Acela. I was in NYC this exact same weekend last year going to a wedding with T. KS had just moved to NYC and was nice enough to put us up for the whole weekend after our plans fell though. There was a lot of drama around that wedding but we had a wonderful weekend anyway hanging with KS and her BF. It was the first time I really appreciated NYC, which has always intimidated me a bit. This year it is just me and her taking on the big city. The Red Sox are in the playoffs this year again and we will head to a Red Sox Bar to watch our boys play amongst our people.

KS and I have been friends for about 12 years. The first time we hung out was at a game at Fenway Park. The Red Sox have definitely been central to our friendship. Through all of our ups and downs she has driven me crazy, made me laugh, given me advice, shared many drinks, and been a confidant. Needless to say she has been a constant in my life. I cannot believe how far we have come and how much we have left to go. As hard as it was to leave my LF so early in the bed this morning, I am looking forward to hanging with one of my best friends this weekend. Just her and I laughing, talking, arguing and cheering on our Red Sox in the city that never sleeps.

Shacking Up

Fri, 3 Oct 2008 17:34:07 -0400

This weekend Ramona (not in pict) and I are heading down the hill to stay at my LF’s (hiding behind newspaper) place. I offered my place to guests of my friends who are getting married this weekend. I know what it is like to stay with people when traveling, it can be awkward and you feel like an intruder, so at least with my place my friend’s friends can have some privacy. This is a switch for me and Ramona. Usually my LF spends the weekend at my place. Since I have Ramona and neither of us have cars it is easier for her to stay with me on weekends. She calls herself a turtle because she says she is constantly carrying her home on her back. I find this amusing but I have a tinge of guilt because I know what a pain it can be sometimes. She also has two roommates so it is nice not to have to navigate the roommate stuff when we are at my place. Plus I am pretty particular and like the comforts of home, you know a coffee maker, HDTV, Wii you know all those important things. Also, I do have the best bed in the world. Lucky for me other friends of mine are going to be away this weekend and offered me the use of their car. It was perfect timing. Getting four days of my and Ramona’s crap from my place to the LFs would be a nightmare so having a car definitely is helpful. We have a lot going on this weekend. Gay wedding on Saturday, flag football and Sox game on Sunday and then work on Monday. That is a lot of different types of clothes for just three days. The funny thing is that both of my LF’s roommates have gay weddings this weekend too. One of them is going to be away so the apt will not seem that crowded. I just hope Ramona does OK. She can be a barky mcbarkerson sometimes, but she has mellowed in her old age. I will miss the comforts of home but we will make the best of it and I am just glad I have a wonderful LF to spend my weekend with, she is the best.

Now on to politics. So I watched both debates and am pretty happy with the way Obama and Biden performed, they definitely came out on top. Although I am slightly disappointed because I am so angry right now about the state of our country and how desperately we need a change. I want Obama and Biden to be as angry as me. I want them to be more upset we are in a war that was started based on lies, that over 4000 US soldiers have died needlessly, that if McCain gets elected another conservative judge will be put on the Supreme Court, that there is still so much injustice in our country, that our education system is failing our kids, that our economy is hitting the skids and the rest of the world hates us. I want to see that passion in the debates. I need to see it. What I do not need or want to see especially for the next four years is a woefully inexperienced VP candidate eating up all the election coverage and using folksy language to pander to Middle America. It is like watching a Prairie Home Companion, but in a bad way.

Last Day

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:14:52 -0400

I am sitting at airport waiting for my flight and the Tampa airport has free wifi. They have these cute little cubicles where you can plug in and work on your laptop. Whenever I get to the end of any trip I get antsy to get back to Boston. I miss my LF, my friends, my life, my dog, and the city itself. My mom always comments on what great friends I have and she always asks about them. This was a great trip to visit my family. I love seeing my nephews and it always makes me sad they live so far away. I would like to spend more time with them and if they lived closer I know I would. My sister and her hubby are doing a great job with them. I cannot tell you how many times my heart melted when out of the blue Zach, said “Autie, I love you”, or when Trevor asked “Why do you have to leave.” It feels good that they love having me around and I cannot wait until the next time we see each other. They make me laugh and I just like being around them.
We had so much fun at the Red Sox game last night, despite the loss. I complained about Sox fans in a previous post but this time I will complain about Rays fans. They were really obnoxious. We had two fights in our section alone and someone harassed my 4 year old nephew for wearing a Ortiz jersey. Go ahead and give me a hard time but he is 4 years old for christsakes. My mom was starting to get nervous. Then some jackass sitting two rows in front of us threw beer behind him and hit my brother-in-law. Even the Rays fans around us said he should have been kicked out. It was stupid. Eventually he was when he got in a fight. I missed it getting a beer. They had one “good” beer kiosk serving Harp, Smithwicks, and Guinness, I only ever saw Boston fans in line. I understand Rays fans get frustrated when so many Sox fans come and see the games and take over the park, but you kind of let us do it by not really supporting your team all these years. Now all of a sudden they are on the brink of playoffs for the first time and you come out and cheer for them. I think you need a couple of consistent winning seasons before you can get all crabby about other fans coming to your park to root for their team. You have made tickets easy to get by not showing up. I say if you want to take back your park, come consistently no matter how bad your team is doing and maybe you will see that change happen. It sucked sitting in your park and watch our team loose but at the same time half of you left by the 6th inning. Sox fans were still there watching no matter what the scoreboard said. That is the difference. And by the way, the cowbells are really annoying.
I will be posting picts soon, and for those of you who know my nephews you will not believe how big they have gotten.