Thanks for the "Welcome Home!"s everyone!!!
 
Lots of people are talking about the long weekend and everything. I wish I had a long weekend. That would be really nice. No...I just have a normal LOONNNGGGG weekend, with screaming kids and annoying parents.

Yeah, I'm lovin' my job about now.

Today wasn't that bad, I'm just falling into the "Work SUCKS and I'm NEVER having kids!!!!" portion of my menstrual cycle. The bad thing is, all the girls I work with have the same cycle, so the week's been greeaaaatttt.

Anyway, I fixed the sink today! And no one cared. The garbage disposal has been broken forever, and today the sink decided to not drain at all. A big problem because I had to do monthly maintainence on the printer. So I went online, googled disposals, and fixed the problem. Simple, really...there's a reset button on it. Heh. But totally sweet because I FIXED IT. Yeah...that's right. Go me.

Yeah, it's okay. No one else cared either.

Anyway, here's a slightly longer recap of my visit home.

The flights out were great. I pretty much slept the whole way, lol. Then my sis picked me up and we went to lunch and I totally MISSED the cow farms and corn fields!





I didn't realize how many there were until I moved here and there are NONE. Ahh...... I need to move west, I think.




Anyway, the visit with everyone was great. I saw lots of friends that I wanted to see, and avoided some I didn't want to see, and the wedding was so much fun. They had a square dance caller at the reception. Sounds weird, but they are square dance kind of people, so it was perfect and a lot of fun.

I was able to visit with my dad a lot, poor man. His back was hurting and he was pretty loopy on pain meds, but it was still good to see him. It's actually pretty hard watching him get old.

My brother is SO different, in just the couple months since I saw him last. He's suddenly...a man, almost. Holy cow. Facial hair and big hands and muscles. And he's only 16 and a half. It's actually quite scary.

I also saw a bunch of coyotes, I'm pretty sure. I don't think they were wolves. I saw one, first. It was huge, crossing the road near my dad's house into a field, and I thought it was a deer. When I got closer and saw the big bushy tail and the weird dog-like head, I knew it wasn't. It was weird though, I didn't think they got that big. It was the size of a very large dog. I was actually scared, because it just stopped and looked at me, and then turned and walked away. No fear. Very weird. And then about 20 yards down the road, there were about four more of them crossing into the field. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't really turn out.



And then...the flight back was SO fun! There were storms over Philly, and I have decided watching thunderstorms from above the clouds is really awesome! We hit turbulence, but it wasn't that bad.

I really do love flying.

And I found a riding school in OH if I ever end up moving back there that I love. And I got to eat deep fried ice cream at the International Festival. And I had food at all the restaurants I don't have here. And...that's about it. That and wrestled with the stupid gazillion parental controls my dad has on his computer that prevented me from actually doing anything. He's too paranoid.

Okay, I'm going to bed now.

Later!!!

Well, I made it home in one piece! My luggage was not so lucky. The TSA searched it (probably because I had a bag of guinea pig litter in there...I decided to get one and take it with me because I forgot I didn't have a new one at home and I wanted to clean the piggies cages last night right away) and a can of cat food and a toy. Presents for the kitty  . When they did it looks like they just opened my shampoo bottle and squirted it all over everything. Yuck. And the thing is, the bottle was closed when I opened the suitcase last night. Sigh....clean up job for today.

I get to go into work later today. My manager has something wrong with him I think. He's being frustrating. Anyway, he let me go in at 12, so I guess that's good.

Let's see...I'm going to update more later I think, with some fun details and pictures, but it was a great visit overall. The bad thing was my dad had hurt his back a few weeks ago, and while I was there he was having more problems so I took him to the doctor, and the doctor sent him to the hospital to get a MRI. He has a slipped disk. It's not very bad, but it's pinching a nerve, so he can't walk very well. He got referred to a specialist that he can't see until the 10th. I feel so bad for him. I hope he doesn't need surgery.

The other adventure was my car (and then I really do have to go and get some fruit and veggies for the piggies, and bagels for me). When I left on Friday, I had barely any gas. (Here's for planning everything out ahead of time) I couldn't find a station that was open at 5 in the morning, so by the time I got to the airport, the little light was on and the needle was on "E". It'll usually go about 3 more miles at that point, from past experience when I first got the car, not recently , so I figured I could get some help from security when I got back, and left it.

Flights were great by the way...and watching a thunderstorm from over the clouds is amazing.

Anyway, when I got back, security pointed me in the direction of a gas station, so I went out to my car, got in, and said a prayer that I just have enough gas to get to me a safe station. I hate Philly, and the last thing I want to do is run out of gas at 11pm in that city. Well, after getting completely lost, and not knowing where the station was I just decided to hop on the highway. Well...I drove my car 39 miles last night, to an exit way outside Philly that had a 24 hour gas station. It was amazing.

And now I really have got to go and get showered and everything, so I can be ready to leave for work at 11.

I'll have a bigger better update later!!!

So I've tried to post a couple times now, so I'm not writing a lot to see if this works. It keeps deleting. This computer is frustrating...

Anyway, I'm here in Ohio, it's great and warm and a little stormy. The flights were great. Lots of fun. I love flying

Anyway, I'll probably not be posting much the next few days. I'll have a full update when I get back.

OK, fingers crossed...let's hope it works this time...

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my other post about Marlon's picture! He can be so cute sometimes...makes up for the bite marks and scars, I guess.

In 12 hours, I will be in the air!!! I'm really excited and nervous. 

We all had a meeting today with my manager. It went all right, I guess. He and I "took a walk" afterwards, and he asked me if I had a problem with him. I basically told him what was bothering me, with the throwing of objects while customers were around, and feeling like everyone was against me sometimes, and then I apologized for being all emotional because I was PMSing. We had a nice chat though. I think it ended well.

Sometimes life is very confusing. I see other people pretty well usually...I just wish I could see me the same way. I wish other people would see that I'm pretty happy the way I am, and as long as I'm not doing anything to hurt anyone else, just leave me alone.

I really really need this break away from work.

Hurray for corn fields and cows!!! I'm so gonna go running past the farms down the road from my dad's tomorrow. I love the country life.

In less than 24 hours, I will be on an airplane heading for Ohio. Well actually, heading for Detroit to catch a plane heading for Ohio. So if I don't post for awhile, that is why.

I think I have almost everything done though. The apartment is still a bit of a mess, but I'll hopefully finish that up tonight. The kitchen in particularly. I have milk in the fridge, but I think I'm just going to dump it because it'll be bad by the time I get back, and there is no way I can drink it now. I had mozzarella cheese sticks yesterday. So good, but didn't do my tummy any good.

My manager got back from the meeting yesterday, and so yesterday was another glorious day of all of them behaving like 12 year olds. The New Guy threw a racquetball at me as I was walking out of the tech room, quite out of nowhere, and it hit me in the eye. Everyone else thought it was hilariously funny. Ha ha. I punched him.

I'm so fed up with it all. I'm still not in a very good mood today. Still PMSing. I'm going to do my best to ignore everybody though, and I think I'm just gonna get up and walk out if they start again. I'm almost out of there, so I'll just keep thinking that. My average is high enough for me to be manager now, and so as soon as a studio opens up, I'm gone. Where, I'm not sure yet.

Whew, I'm so looking forward to hanging out with some normal people this weekend.

Aww....isn't he cute? 





I know...I'm a dork. LOL

I went to the bank today, and the teller flirted with me. He was cute though, so I didn't mind. I have to admit I flirted back. Tee hee...

I'm going back to Ohio for a visit and to go to a friend's wedding this weekend. I'm excited! It should be fun. My dad's all excited, and really really happy about it. He was acting a bit martyr-ish at first, saying he wasn't sure if he was going to take Sunday off work, because he knew I had a lot of people I wanted to see and would be really busy, but I quickly nipped that in the bud and made him really happy by telling him that I told everyone I was coming home but not to plan on anything right now because my dad was my priority this trip. He was thrilled and I'm sure went right to the office and put in for the day off.

So yeah. This Friday I get to go to the airport at 6 in the morning. That's not bad though, at least I'll miss morning rush hour.

Well, I'm gonna go. I'm sleepy today, but I'm trying to finish laundry and stuff for my trip. I went running this morning, and it started to rain. It was amazing.

Later...

Hee hee.....

So today it was going to be my manager and me for most of the day. I felt either I was going to kill him, or we would get along pretty well. He's a great manager, just kind of annoying as a person.

Gee, I suddenly realized this sounds just like my old manager, just opposite. I still think I'd rather have the good manager, lol.

He's nice and everything, most of the time. He seems to have three moods- business-like, older-brother, and the-opposite-of-father-figure, which seems to be just an extension of older-brother, but really is kind of different. He's either all serious about the job, running and throwing balls and batting people with pillows, or telling me what's wrong with me and the way I live. The first two I can handle just fine. The last one, when he's attacking me with things like, "You take things to seriously. Lighten up." "You are too sensitive." and "There is no afterlife. There is no God. When you're dead you're dead, that's it. There's no purpose to life. There's no purpose to thinking about how your actions affect other people. It doesn't matter. I'm the only thing that matters to me." Yeah. Those really frustrate me. Along with, "You need to get drunk." "You need to smoke." and it's cousin, "You need to have lots of sex."

Sigh......

Anyway, I got him REALLY good today. Or, something or someone got him.

We were playing cards, him and I, rummy. He had beat me by a lot the first two hands, and he was preparing to deal, and giving me grief about losing. So I said:

Me: "It doesn't matter. I'm going to have an amazing hand next time, and go out on my first turn, and you're going to have a hand full of aces."

Mr. M: "Why is that?"

Me: "Karma."

Mr. M: "I don't believe in karma. Besides, what did I do to you?"

Rather than go into a huge rant about what he'd done to me, I simply responded, "No, I'm going to win because I'm good, and pure of heart." (Which I said slightly sarcastically. There was a huge thing about the "Pure of heart" which I'll spare you, lol)

He dealt the cards, I picked up my hand....and had a KQJ10 of hearts, two other jacks, and a 4. I picked up a card, and then discarded because I didn't need it. He picked up a card, and discarded a jack, which I immediately picked up and went out.

He just sat there, stunned, staring and saying, "Are you f-ing kidding me?" over and over, and then threw the two aces he still had in his hand on the table. I about died. He looked completely and totally shocked, and just kept saying, "Are you kidding me?"

I told him, "Hey, you dealt."

It was BRILLIANT.

He kept muttering, "Karma..." for the rest of the game. I won by 200 points. Brilliant.

So that was point 1 for me. The other two came from both his other moods, actually. I had a sale in which I beat his best number of POSES sold, but came short about $50 in the total sales, just from the extra cards his sale got. The last point came in the game of throwing racquet balls at each other, and I nailed him, quite by accident, in the chin. He didn't come close to leaving a welt on me. I move too fast.

Oh yeah. It was a great day.

...The reason that I have to go to the car repair shop today and get a new tire.

Yesterday morning, I thought my tire looked a little low, but figured I could make it to work and then just get it filled when I went to get my oil changed on break. Well, my tire had other plans, lol. I managed to get ON the turnpike, and then it went completely flat. So, I did what any other independent American girl would do. Or....maybe what any other stubborn, independent, American girl who knows how to change a tire would do...I changed it myself. Actually, that's not quite true. I put all the junk from my trunk into the back seat of my car, and then pulled out the spare. I then searched until I found the tire iron (I think it's called) and the jack, and then moved the whole mess to the flat tire. I got the lug nuts loosened (I am VERY proud of myself for that...they were hard to get off) and just as I started to jack up the car, a toothless guy with long hair stopped and finished changing it for me. Sigh...... You know, I've never completely changed a tire by myself? Men.... Although, he did it in about 1/15 the time it would have taken me to do it. And at least I didn't end up more grease covered. And so I suppose I was thankful that he stopped, and I didn't get killed by a semi or anything.

So, that was my adventure. It was very funny, actually. I didn't know if I HAD to call a tow truck, or if I could just change it, so I called my manager and said, "Quick question. Am I allowed to change a tire on the toll road? Or do they not let you do that?" and he replied, "No....you could probably change it there. You have a flat tire?", and I said, "Yes. I have a flat tire. [[beat]] Oh my gosh, I have a flat tire!!! I have a flat tire!!! Oh my gosh! Well, yeah. I have a flat tire, I'm going to change it, and I'll be late to work." He laughed at me.

And then today, when I talked to my dad and told him, he said, "Why didn't you just call a tow truck? You have road hazard coverage." Me: "I do?" Him: "Yeah." Me: "Ohh........"

But then I wouldn't have a great story about lug nuts and a toothless guy.



So yeah. I talked to my dad, and told him I have the last weekend of the month off which is also the day one of my friends is getting married. So I'm going home that weekend. He really really wants to see me. I'm thinking I'm gonna be spending the whole weekend with him, lol. My friends are going to be disappointed, but...yeah. Maybe I'll still arrange time with Tom for our pillow fight. While he's still single but taken. That man....

Yesterday I cheated on my diet, too, but oh well. It was a crazy day. We had no appointments, and then the last one was....fascinating. They seemed like very nice people, but they were....fascinating. They were made for each other, I'll just say. It was....fascinating. So hard to describe, I have never come across anyone like that before.

So, I better get me to the car place soon. They might have to order the tire in specially. Uggh.

Later