Can I Just Say, ARGH!

Yesterday at about 12 o'clock I get a frantic call from my mother. My dad fell at our local grocery store and they were calling an ambulance.

So my frantic self called the boss, left work early and drove down there to check on him. It seems he blacked out and fell, smacking his chin on the buggy.

We sat in the emergency room at MVH for 4 hours before they told us they were going to admit him at least for overnight observation. He's on a heart monitor, because they feel that at his age, it should be something with his heart, never mind that he's prone to inner ear trouble, that he had a skin cancer removed from that area and that it was in the upper 80's yesterday and he had no business being out and about in the middle of the day, except that he was on a grocery store run for my mother.

The grocery store runs will be changing in a week or so. I'm going to go a little bit further into debt and buy them an appliance that they've been needing for a year or more now. I don't care anymore. I really don't. Everything will work out somehow. I'm not sure how, but it will.

Mom's still a mess. She's used to being the one in the hospital, not him. It's just all a muddle.

And did I mention that they found nothing wrong with him? Except that he cut his lip and bruised his shoulder?

So if I'm a bit scarce online...know that I'm having a mental breakdown. I need a shoulder...in fact my whole family does right now.

Random 10 - Week 116

From Music Memoirs

10 songs that sum up your weekend...or were on your weekend playlist...and one picture that relates back. (oh, and if you feel like it, tell us why you picked the songs you did)

I was listening to a lot of 60's stuff this weekend along with my usual weird stuff.

The Monkees - Laugh
Donovan - Jennifer Juniper
The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin (ARGH!!)
Justin Hayward - Troubadour
Herman's Hermits - Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter

Next...5 songs from Hairspray...A MOVIE EVERYONE SHOULD SEE!!

Welcome To The Sixties
Good Morning Baltimore
You Can't Stop The Beat
I Can Hear The Bells
(The Legend Of) Miss Baltimore Crabs (tee hee)

And as for the picture...A Chihuly Glass sculpture at Phipps



It looks like rock candy doesn't it?

Weekend Recap

Saturday:

I had a wonderful meal at The Union Grill in Washington, PA, which is located directly behind WJPA's studios. How did I not know that? I worked a block away from there for several years during college. Oye! I'm foolish.

The only bad thing I can say about the place is it's pricey. A little too pricey for the type of food I can get at Red Dawg's or Meloni's. Still it was good, and since I wasn't paying, I'm not complaining.

The remake of Hairspray was awesome. There wasn't a bad moment in the movie. John Travolta, who is one of my least favorite actors, right above Tom Cruise, was fantastic. Queen Latifah was a true queen. Oh and Christopher Walken rocks my socks.

The music and costumes were perfect. I wanted to nab some of those early 60's dresses. They were so gorgeous.

Walked 5 miles at the walking path. Can I get a woot? Please?

Sunday:

My sister, the youngest nephew and I headed to "The Burgh" today to go to Phipps. Lordy was that a mistake. CMU aka the richy rich uni from hell, had something going on and Phipps was a madhouse of obnoxious soccer moms and no it alls. The flowers and the Chihuly glass exhibit were gorgeous...but the people ruined the experience.

However it was great to see that this was the same glass used to make those fantastic chandeliers at the Borgata in Atlantic City.

We ate dinner at Mad Mex in Oakland. One word, YUM! I had a Thai Curry Burrito with tofu. The burrito was full of rice and peanuts and pineapple and oh was it scrumptious. It was washed down by an ice cold Corona. Double yum.

We all took a ride on the carousel in Oakland and then got a pina colada bubble drink.

If the people hadn't been so obnoxious the day would have been perfect.

Pictures will follow in the next day or so.

Monorail Cat!

Itchy has taken to sitting in the most unusual places in the house. Last night this is where I found her.

In between having fits of worry of her falling off and toppling to her death...Nah...she's jumped from the fridge to the floor, the distance is much shorter from here...I ran for the camera. Yeah, I'm a really good cat mommy. My kitty's in a precarious position and I run for the camera. It's a good thing I knew she wouldn't hurt herself and that she has pretty good balance, considering her shape is so darn round.

She was the perfect monorail cat.

The rest of the pictures that I took are here. Check them out and have a gigglefest, at her expense.

Lunch & A Movie

Today is ladies day. I'm going to The Union Grill in Washington, PA for lunch and then to see a movie. I'm not exactly sure what movie, yet, but I'm going to see a movie! Woot!

I'm looking forward to a day out with someone that isn't family, and that's not to say I don't love my family to pieces. I do. I love them dearly. Most of the time. Lately a few members of my clan have made me want to clobber them with sticks.

It's been a bit too much togetherness in our household lately. Way too much togetherness.

An afternoon away from everyone should make that a little better. At least, I hope it will. There's way too much tension right now. Between the vacations that didn't happen and car issues (not mine for once) and financial issues (everyones) it's really been a lousy summer.

Maybe these next few weeks will signal a change and that the last few weeks of summer will be better than the rest.

I can only hope. I can also hope that Hairspray is a funny movie, because I think that's the one we're going to see today.

I signed up for PPP!

I just signed up for a payperpost account. What's that, you ask? It's a blog network that allows bloggers to make money by posting for advertisers on your blog, and I don't mean having a block of ads posted on my blog. I'll be posting about real websites with services that I can relate to and maybe you will to.


The first time I read about these sites, I was hesitant, but Valbee is doing it so I thought, what could it hurt? I need some extra money. Don't we all? So I figured why not sign up?

I can choose how much extra money I make. This could be vacation money or money for those bills that creep up on me without notice every month and make me frustrated. Who knows? The only way I'll find out is by giving it a shot, and that's what I'm doing.

Ah...extra CD money. That's enough to motivate me. Actually money for rental cars motivates me too. Money to pay off bills is another motivator. Can you tell money motivates me? I imagine you can. Plus it's money made through writing, and I love to write and research. So this could be a great opportunity for me.

If you think you might like to make some extra money too, there's a sign up link in this post and on the sidebar of this blog. Just give it a click and you can sign up too!

Well I Preordered It

What did I preorder you ask?



The Pattie Boyd autobiography. I have to read it.

Who is Pattie Boyd?

For shame.

Pattie is the first wife of George Harrison who then went on to marry Eric Clapton. I believe the second marriage shows signs of poor judgment on her part, but that's neither here nor there.

I can't wait to read it. I'm sure Pattie has quite a few tales to tell, because the 60's were one wild ride for her.

Butterflies

For the last two or three days the area around my office has been surrounded by butterflies. I've seen just about every kind of butterfly that is native to Southwestern PA in the last few days.

I also couldn't resist bringing my camera to work to get one or two or...well 20 or 40 pictures of these beautiful creatures.

The Monarchs seem to be the hardest to photograph. They seemed to sense whenever I was about to snap a picture.

I did manage to get 3 pretty shots though. Most of the pictures that you can see if you go to my flickr page are of a lovely black butterfly and a yellow and black butterfly.

Yes, I'm easily amused. Stop laughing and go look at the pictures!

Top 5 On Friday - Week 134

From Music Memoirs

Top 5 Nighttime songs (songs about evening or things related to the evening)

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Nighttime

Justin Hayward & John Lodge - Nights Winters Years
(This is my favorite song from the album Blue Jays)

Erasure - Man In The Moon
(Gorgeous track from the album I Say I Say I Say)

Gordon Lightfoot - Song For A Winter's Night
(This song makes me sigh, a lot)

Paul McCartney - Goodnight Tonight
(cuteness overload)

~ song samples will be provided later in the day.

Busy Weekend Coming Up

It looks like for the next 3 weekends I'm going to have some stuff to do. A friend of mine called me last night and I'm doing dinner and a movie on Saturday. That's cool, assuming I can sit through the movie. I have a very short attention span for things like that these days. I can't even seem to watch television anymore.

Sunday I'm going to Phipps to see the butterflies and carousel in Oakland. I'm hoping to get some coffee from Crazy Mocha and perhaps dinner at Mad Mex.

The following weekend I have church things to deal with as well as hopefully getting to the Aviary or one of the Zoos.

The week after is my weekend trip to Canton to see my brother. Which I'm looking forward too, because everything else about this summer sucks. Nothing that I wanted to do has been done.

I bought a new bathing suit awhile back, and I've never gone anywhere to wear it. Not that I want anyone to see my fat ass in the bathing suit anyway.

I wanted to go to Idlewild once this summer. I doubt there will be money for that unless I unearth a windfall sometime in the next few weeks.

Then there's the trip to Erie that got put in the can.

Oh and the 2 zoos. I haven't been to Ohiopyle either.

~sigh~

And people wonder why I've been depressed.

At least some of that's about to change a little. Yay! I could use a few busy weekends. When I'm busy I don't have time to think and thinking is what makes me depressed these days.

I Feel Like A Fool

I caught PH online today on google. So out of the blue, I IM'd him.

He actually responded, too.

Amazing.

Yes, I'm ready to give up on the friendship thing there. I know it's a complete waste of my time, but I do hold out hope that maybe he'll grasp the meaning of friendship and know that I'm not harboring any desires to jump him. At least not anymore.

However it does seem quite wrong of me to be typing at him while listening to WJPA instead of WPKL. Ah well, such is life. I haven't listened to The Real Dill Pickle Morning Show in weeks. And I'm not about to go back to that habit any time soon, because it just makes things worse for me. Mind you, attempting to chat with him does too, but what can I say, I continually grasp at straws, plus I keep hoping one day he'll surprise me.

So far he hasn't. Which is why I really feel like a tard for kinda putting him on the spot, but then again, he wasn't answering my emails. I guess that's telling me something, huh.

The sad thing, is now I really don't want to go to The Grass Roots concert in Oct, because I don't want to see him. I don't want to hear him, because I'll just end up feeling hurt at the end of it all. That's just sad because I have 3rd row center seats for the concert.

Would someone please tell me how to get him off my mind, or at least how I'm going to get through that show without heckling him?

Sitting And Thinking

Just some random thoughts that have crossed my mind in the last 24 hours.

~ There's a reason I only fill up 3 times a month. I only work 8 minutes from my house, however my wage isn't that much, and since I'm up to my gizzard in debt, I can't afford the extra cash for gas. If I worked at the mall which was 20 + miles from home, I think I would have just killed myself, because it wouldn't be worth what I was being paid versus what I had to pay to get there.

~ I don't quite understand a person who sends a random email and then won't respond to the one I sent. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, PH!

~ Need to get Bootsie to the vet for her shots. That's another $50 I don't have, but thankfully August is a 5 week month which means...an extra paycheck next month! Woot!

~ Made the arrangements for the rental car for my trip to Canton, OH to see my brother in 2 weeks.

~ Just realized, I haven't read book 5 in the Harry Potter series, but I've read book 6. Uh. Not sure how that happened. Not sure I care about reading 5 or 7 anymore. I'm heartily sick of Harry Potter.

I will say though that if I were 18 again I would so have the hots for the little redhead that plays Ron Weasley in the films. He's such a cute kid.

~ There is much stuff that is needed for the house...new tv stand...area rug for the computer room....new comforter set for my bedroom and I haven't a clue how I'm going to wangle it all in the coming months, as shortly after my vacations wrap up (assuming I go on one), I have 3 birthdays that are family to worry about and at least 1 other birthday and Christmas. ARGH!

~ I think I prefer walking to strength training. Why? Because its so damn hard to get your cardio on whenever all the elliptical machines are being used, and I hate the treadmill.

Take Me Back Tuesday - Week 133

From Music Memoirs:

Pick a person or a few people that you'd like to tell something in song.

Tell us who they are...and what song you've chosen for them, and why.

Fishy Fishy Fishy...have I got a few songs for you.

The Byrds - I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better
~ After what you did, I can't stay on, and I'll probably feel a whole lot better when your gone.

Unfortunately..though that's how I should feel...it's more like this.

John Waite - Missing You
~ In your world I have no meaning, though I'm trying hard to understand and its my heart thats breaking down this long distance line tonight,I ain't missing you at all

To my boss: The Go-Go's: Vacation

Vacation...all I ever wanted. Vacation had to get away.

Can you guess who wants to use some of her remaining vacation time soon?

To Jennifer: Blondie - Call Me
(cos I'm worried about you, silly)

~ Call me (call me) on the line
Call me, call me any, anytime

I was lazy yesterday

I don't know if it was lazy or frugal, but for whatever reason, I stayed home from the walking path and Jack's Total Fitness yesterday.

I think it was a combination of both. Both places are a good 4 - 5 miles from my house, which means going there uses up gas, gas which I can't afford. Seriously, I think a horse would be cheaper at this point. My last almost fill up was $25 and depending on how many times I go to exercise, I end up filling up about 3 times a month. If I go out that's even more.

I can't take that.

I can't take sitting home either.

It's a vicious circle.

And laziness kicks in after 8 hours at work. Once I get home, I have little motivation to go to the gym, but I usually manage to make it there 3 - 4 times a week. Last week I did 4 days and one day at the walking path doing 5 miles of walking.

So all in all, I guess I'm not that lazy, right?

Small consolation. I'm not really lazy but I'm broke. GAH!

Kittehs Everywhere

I think Muthcka was the only kitteh, that didn't have his picture snapped this weekend, and that's because he's a cranky kitty.

Here are my furry feline friends....


Oogie, aka Kitler looking not so pleased.



This is Bootsie's WTF expression. She uses it a lot.



Itchy is glad I didn't snap another picture of her rolly polly belly.

Random 10 - Week 115

From Music Memoirs

10 songs that sum up your weekend...or were on your weekend playlist...and one picture that relates back. (oh, and if you feel like it, tell us why you picked the songs you did)

Most of the songs are pulled from the Zen that was on Random Play as I walked. It's funny that some of the songs were hitting how I felt most of the weekend.

Anggun - Still Reminds Me
Anggun - Devil In My Mind

(I love this lady's voice. I discovered her quite by accident several years back when her debut album came out.

Keri Noble - Talk To Me

Natasha Beddingfield - We're All Mad

Paul McCartney - Fine Line
(One of my favorite songs off Chaos & Creation In The Backyard, which is far from my favorite McCartney album)

Cliff Richard - We Don't Talk Anymore
(Perhaps he can update it for me. It's so funny, we don't email anymore)

Warren Zevon - Accidentally Like A Martyr
(I love me some Warren)

Cheap Trick - All Wound Up
(I was kinda, but not in a good way)

Fleetwood Mac - Monday Morning
(GET THIS SONG OUT OF MY HEAD)

Marillion - Kayleigh
(I haven't listened to this in yonks)

And the photo? My shameless cat Itchy

Weekend Recap

It's been a good weekend. Got some stuff done. Had some good food. Shopped a little.

~ Saturday

Yummy Mexican food for dinner from The Three Amigos in my little hamlet of Charleroi-On-Mon. Stuffed Pablano Peppers = Mouth on fire, but they are also tasty. So is the sweet corn bread. Oh and did I mention half price margaritas? Helluva good dinner.

I walked 5 miles at the walking path, doing my best to sort some issues out in my head. It didn't work, but hey, I walked 5 miles!

Did the laundry. Can I get a woot for that? I hate laundry.

Watched a fantastic comedian on of all places the Christian network. Paul Aldrich is a dang (cos it's a Christian comedian) funny guy. He's proof that I can laugh til I pee myself, even without the use of profanity or too much sexual innuendo. Seriously, this guy is worth checking out.

~ Sunday

Went to the Mart of Wal to stock up on the week's lunches. I am keeping Kraft and the South Beach Diet people in money, I swear. Bought one naughty thing. Saw pigs in pancakes in the frozen food aisle. I couldn't resist, damn it. I just couldn't.

Set off to Washington Crown Center, growled in a nice way at Fishy's general direction. Spent $34 I don't have on clothes that I don't have any place to wear. Can you say impulse buy?

Ate dinner at Red Robin. Oh how I love Red Robin. My sammich was the bruschetta chicken with parmesan garlic fries. My stomach was having orgasms, I kid you not. Oh and my drinky poo? Freckled lemonade. Bliss. (Oh that's strawberry lemonade, with huge chunks of strawberries) All in all, better than sex. Not that I'd know anything about sex.

Walked another 5 miles at the walking path. Still did not rid my head of the worries and other stuff that has been floating around that vast empty area inside my head.

Composed an "I'm a tard" email to the fishy one...I'm hoping he'll take pity on me and send a note back. Bets are on now that he won't. That's where my money is anyway.

I AM A TARD

I was clearing out all my emails this morning...and I went to my gmail account which I very seldom use and low and behold there was an email from...Fish, you know, He-who-should-be-flushed-down-the-toilet.

Hangs head in shame.

The childish girl in me has been avoiding him for 2 weeks and last Friday he sent me an email about a Nick Lowe article. AND I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT UNTIL TODAY!

FUCK!!!

He sent me an email without my even sending him anything. He saw something and thought about me and emailed me, in the old style of 9 words or less but still he saw an article and was kind enough to sent it to me, knowing that it was about someone I like.

I feel kinda small right now. Really really small. Worse still that email came and if I'm right I had that freaky dream about him calling me the next evening. Damn, why haven't I checked my flipping gmail in over a week.

What do I do? He probably thinks I wasn't speaking to him and I wasn't, but I didn't want to not be speaking to him, I was doing what I thought was best. Because I want a friendship out of this, or at least an email buddy, and I haven't a clue what he wants, but one thing for sure it isn't the same.

But lordy...I do miss him.

Perhaps I should be the one flushed down the toilet.

~sigh~

Once Upon A Time:

Walking was a cathartic thing for me. Anything that was wrong in my life could be hashed out in my head during a nice 2 mile walk. Well I walked 5 miles today and I was near tears the whole time.

My mind is stuck on two things, a certain person who should be flushed down the toilet and finances. Thinking about both brings about a fresh bout of tears, and with the right song, I'm a watering pot.

I keep telling myself I'm fine. The finances are working themselves out, slowly but surely without too many sacrifices. I also tell myself that I've gone 2 weeks without turning on 99.3 The Pickle, which means I haven't heard Fish...erm He-who-should-be-flushed-down-the-toilet, in 2 weeks. No I lie, my CD player conked out the other day and I popped it out in time to hear one of his commercials. I growled at the radio like the immature child that I am, and shut the car stereo off.

Anyway what does it matter that I have no extra money and I live from pay check to pay check, just barely, and the one person that I truly hoped would be at least a friend has flung that back in my face?

Money and friendship don't matter, right?

Damn it all, I'm one depressed little girl right now.

I WANT A HUG!

Another Lazy Saturday

I think all my Saturdays are becoming lazy ones, at least through the next few weeks. Again, I'm really trying to get a firm grip on my debt situation. I need to be able to handle it better than I am right now. At this point I really don't have much extra for myself to put away for anything. Nada. Not if I want to live like a normal human being. And I refuse to give up life because of bills. I can also thank my parents for still helping though they really shouldn't have to.

I'm going to do the laundry, read, and go to the walking path in Monessen and do 5 miles. My legs will hate me, but that's tough, cos I'm in no mood to go to Jack's. That's a Sunday thing. Plus I need to sell the first born I don't have so I can get a tank of gas. BLERGH!

Such an exciting life I lead, is it not? It makes me wonder how I can stand all of this sometimes.

If I had some gumption, which at this point I don't, I'd start cleaning again. But I've still got VHS tapes coming out of the wazoo and nowhere to take them or anyone wanting them, and I'm not keen on sending some of them to the garbage.

I do have one goal for this lazy Saturday, and that's not to spent the vast majority of it in front of this stupid computer.