She is...

Following in the footsteps of Julochka and Spudballoo, I decided to hop on the "This Girl..." bandwagon. I've gotten a few new followers (thank you thank you!) lately, so I thought this would be a good time.

So if you've ever wanted to know your bloggy buddy Bambi, read on. If not, well, that's okay too...

She is...

...better as 2nd in command

...a doer, but not a creator

...fiction, not so much non-fiction

...ms pac-man

... a mac not a pc...iphone not blackberry

..."lucky in life and in love" thanks fidgeting gidget for the line

...straight hair... or curly hair...dozing under her hair-dryer

...autumn not spring

...vanilla not chocolate

...a starbucks grande skinny caramel latte

...canon not nikon

...satellite, not cable, but waiting for u-verse

...a bit of a flirt

...chardonnay not reisling...cabernet not merlot...red zinfandel never white

...lipgloss

...stacked tennis bracelets

...hubby's t-shirts at bedtime

...jeans and a sweater

...a label whore, but not proud of it

...slipper socks

...sinatra in the kitchen...erin bode by the fire...britney in the gym

...usually laughing

...a salad fork and a dinner fork

...amaretto on the rocks...vodka not gin

...travel

...medicine

...trying to age gracefully while fighting it all the way

...crest toothpaste...secret deodorant... johnson's baby powder...bumble and bumble hair products

...comfortable with who she is

Sunday Thoughts

I know it's not tuesday, but I'm having random thoughts anyway. Here's what I'm thinking about:

• Can dead people read our minds? I know at first your gonna laugh, but think about it. If not, how come we talk to them, go to their wakes and grave sights? I've gone to the place where my Dad is buried, as well as other family members just to say "hi" and pay my respects. But why? Do they know? Do they care?
• If they can read our minds, do they come when summoned? This is important to know because, as I'm sure I've told you before, I tend to think quite a bit in the shower. For some reason I haven't figured out yet, I tend to think about dead people while in the shower. It'd be bad enough if my Dad and Grandparents showed up in my bathroom while I'm butt-naked, but how about my 6th grade boyfriend who killed himself after high-school? I'm not sure I want him seeing me naked. Or what about our buddy that just died a couple weeks ago? I think about him sometimes too. He was a really nice guy, but I don't want him in my shower.
• Do dead people get mad when I let my dogs run loose in the cemetery? Well, not "loose" per se, I walk/jog along beside them, but I let them off leash to get some exercise. Plus I always always pick up the poo (it's important to be a responsible dog owner). But do they care that the dog may piddle where they are buried? 
• When I die can I go visit the people that are important to me and say goodbye, kinda like what happened here?
• Will my husband ever quit yelling at me to stop blogging so we can go see the Rams lose today??
• Grr. More random thoughts on tuesday!!
  

Happy Hour Friday

Hooray for Happy Hour Friday! I hope you've already been to Otie's site so you can click his little Linky and be one of the cool kids. If not, go do it. I'll wait.

Okay, well I'm so so sorry this is late. Thanksgiving dinner was fine, we only had 12 people over, so that was very doable. However one child who hadn't been here showed up late, ate someone else's stuff, and unintentionally started a battle. I should have stayed out of it, but I made a comment (bad mommy, bad bad mommy) and the battle escalated to an outright war. Needless to say, I was not in the proper frame of mind for a HHF post.


However, that was last night, the peace treaties have been signed, my blood pressure and heart rate are back to normal, and I'm ready to focus on some happy stuff. Are you ready? Let's hit it, sister.

• I'm so happy I got 3 new followers! Thank you thank you and welcome. I hope not to bore you to tears.
• I'm happy that peace reigns supreme (at the moment) in my house. Of course there is a little bit of ignoring going on... but I'll take it. It's better than outright hostility.
• I ventured out today and I had a great time at the mall. Most of the kids shopping is done, but not all of it, which is fine with me. I like to spread it out a little.
• I bought a couple things I needed... okay really I didn't need them, but I wanted them, and that's almost the same thing, right? I'll get photos soon, but not now.
• Yes, I'm lazy. Deal with it. I like it this way.
  
• Hubby told the girls what he wanted for Christmas so they are taking care of it. Nice, for them, but now I have to think of a whole other idea. I wonder if he wants to go to Denmark in January...
  
• I was planning on putting up the tree today, but I'm pooped now. It can wait.
• I'm so happy that we have enough left-overs for dinner tonight. And possibly tomorrow night. That'll be it tho... I am not going to drag it out til Christmas like my mom used to do.
• I just downloaded 3 new tunes to my work-out iPod. This makes me happy. I'd tell you what they are but you'd just laugh at me. But they have good beats and are good to run to.
• I am thankful that I had a stay of execution at the DMV today. It's closed. The only problem is that now I have to get up at the butt crack of dawn to be there before 8 tomorrow.
• In case you have forgotten, yesterday was the baby's birthday... we are going to get her learner's permit.
• We saw Blind Side and it was amazing. Go see it. It's worth it. BUT. I hate seeing movies about Memphis. It brings back a flood of memories. And usually it makes me feel like crying. I didn't tho, so I guess that's good.
  
• Okay, I think that's it for me. I know it wasn't very happy sounding BUT remember that my Rant and Rave post on Wednesday was all RAVES! I can't be sunshine and sparkles all the time dang it.
• Don't forget to go see Otie! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving... or just a wonderful Thursday night if you're not American.
• Cheers!
  

Rant and Rave Wednesday

Be sure to stop by and see Little Miss Blogger so you can clink on the Linky and be part of the cool kids. Come on... ya know you want to.

Rave: the older girls are home from college for the rest of the weekend. So far so good. I'm hoping it stays that way.

Rave: youngest daughter "volunteered" to clean the house again. By volunteer I mean that I will pay her. It's still better than doing it myself.

Rave: I'm learning new songs on the piano, even some Christmas ones. Yes, I'm sure everyone in the neighborhood will be sick of Christmas songs flowing tunelessly out of my house, but you know what, I don't care. I want to learn to play them. So far I've (ahem) mastered What Child Is This, Jingle Bells (of course), Joy to the World, Angels We Have Heard On High and Old King Wenceslas (which I only know the tune from Scrooged).

Rave: I'm trying really hard to start getting into the Spirit of the holidays. It's so easy to be grumpy -- well for me it is anyway. The weather is unseasonably warm, finances aren't flowing the way they should, my scale is stuck... but that doesn't matter. I'm gonna be happy if it kills me damn it.

Rave: my roses are confused

I have no idea why they think it's time to bloom. I cut them all waaaaay back -- to practically nubs -- early in the fall. I guess they thought spring came early. Sorry for the crappy picture. I didn't feel like hauling out the big-girl camera.

Rave: I haven't worked much at all the last couple weeks. But that's also kind of a rant. The lazing around the house was great last week, this week it's kind of old. Plus I need a reason to need new shoes. Wait, who am I kidding? I don't really need a reason, but it'd be nice to have the extra money.

Rave: I have a new follower!

Rave: Hubby wants to cook two turkeys this year. He's going to bake one and put one on the grill. I said "whatever," it's his side of the family and he can do it any way he wants. He wants the baked one just in case the grilled one doesn't turn out (we've never done it that way before...). I'm in charge of the rest of the meal so I guess it's fair.

Rave: My baby turns 15 tomorrow. Wait, that should be a rant. How on earth can the baby of the family be 15? That must make me old... doesn't it? We are going Friday morning to get her driving permit. Now that is scary. If I never blog again you'll know why.

Rave: I think I'm done. I need to take the dogs for a w-a-l-k. Shhhh, don't say it out loud, they will both start freaking out.

See? they won't even stand still. Now I have to go or they'll start beating down the door.

Have a great day and a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Rest of My Hats

If you can remember way way back to the beginning of the month, I did a post on My Many Hats, kind of a chronicle of the jobs I've held. In case you're having trouble remembering, it was the post that had those amazing firemen. I think most of you stopped reading there, but that's okay. It was a really good picture.

The other day someone I haven't seen or spoken to in almost 20 years friended me on Facebook (yes, I still have my FB account. Deal with it). Naturally this got me thinking about the past, which led to thinking about how we were friends when I was working at a bar, which in turn reminded me that I haven't shared the rest of my jobs.

When I ended my last post I had moved back home (which wasn't really home anymore because my whole family had moved) and was working for CBT's dad at Ronco. That didn't last too long because I don't think I really wanted a job. All I really wanted to do was go bar hopping. Sure I was only 18, but I had a pretty good fake ID. Besides, the dive bars that we frequented rarely checked IDs.

So anyway, after 6 months or so the semester had ended, the "big breakup" had already occurred (I tried to link a post that talked about it, but I can't find one, and honestly who wants to read about it anyway), I quit working at Ronco and headed back out west to spend the summer with my parents... that's when I met the first of many mistakes (I didn't marry this one tho). He was everything the other boyfriend wasn't -- which was what I thought I needed. He never went to college, he was dark and mysterious, he was a poet and a rebel, he rode a motorcycle (which I bought for him, but that's beside the point). I supported this would-be artist by working as a receptionist for a lawyer. Well, I say working, but again, this didn't last long. I can't remember the guys name, but in the phone book he was listed under AAA Law or something. You know, having the As in front will move you up in the phone book so everyone sees your name first. Needless to say, we had a lot of (ahem) interesting clients. I'll never forget talking to a man on the phone and asking if I could have his number so the lawyer could call him back. He said he was in jail and that he'd need to talk to him now... I was shocked. I really had no idea what to say to this man. "Oh what did you do?" didn't seem quite right. Anyway, I quit working there shortly after. Well, really I got fired. Seriously, the lawyer wanted me there at 8 in the morning! Come on! I was 18 years old and having fun! I didn't want to get up at 8! I usually made it in around 10. Needless to say, I got axed.

Luckily I soon found work as a receptionist at a salon and spa. I loved this job. It was fairly high end, but the people were nice and the owner and I got along well. Neil (the owner) and his wife Cathy kind of took me under their wing and taught me all about fashion and style. I should probably remind you here that I went to private catholic schools when I was growing up (9-12 was all girls). I knew precisely squat about how to dress, how to put on make-up, how badly I needed to wax my eyebrows (and other places). When I started working there I was -- well, not fat per se, but I was kinda chunky, I only wore Express sweaters (that's pretty much all I had at this point), and I had long hair that pretty much had no style. By the time I left I had a short sassy cut, two distinct eyebrows, I was 20lbs lighter, and I was hot. Okay so maybe I'm the only one that thought it, but I thought I was a babe. I'd like to say here that I dumped the parasite and fell in love with a prince, but that didn't happen. I was dumped. Again. Actually repeatedly. He'd call and make up whenever he needed me to buy him something, but other than that, I was dumped. And too stupid to realize it. One day his older brother had pity on me and came over and laid it out straight. He said he loved his brother but couldn't stand to see what he was doing to me.

So what did I do? I quit my job and moved back to the mid-south. So now I have no family and no job (still had a couple friends tho, thank God). And I still had my fake ID. To say I hit the bars would be a bit of an understatement, but we'll go with it for now. There was one little bar by the university that was a popular hangout, and I pretty much moved in. After a few months of drinking there, I realized it would be more cost effective to work there too, so there's my next job. Every once in a while someone would order food, but mainly what I can remember is beer kegs and live music. It was great -- for a while. Then came that damn wild hair of mine, and I ran off with the owner of the bar. Yep. We took off and that was that.

So this is the man that I would eventually marry. I was 20, he was 32. I was young and stupid he was just stupid. He tried his hand at a couple jobs but really all he knew was running a bar, so the minute I turned 21 we opened one. Wait, what? Why did he wait? Could it be because he couldn't get a liquor license in his own name? Argh. That's a whole other post. I did say I was stupid, remember. Anyway, we were in a big city in the south, and we opened up a little bar-n-grill. We had fun for several months, the place was always crowded and we had live music (once the Allman Bros), but then I found out I was pregnant. I was too afraid to tell my parents I was pregnant and coming home, so I told them I was pregnant and getting married. They were thrilled coped as best they could. The thing about working in bars, in case you don't know, is that there are so many drugs. I mean, I don't consider myself naive, but you wouldn't believe the stuff I saw, and I'm not just talking about "mary jane." I was shocked, and I knew that there was no way I was raising a child in that environment. So we did what I do best: we left.

After having my daughter I was pretty much home most of the time. I was in and out of school, but it was hard to focus on that with a baby at home. Then I found out I was pregnant with my second child. Ex-husband did not hold on to jobs well and I knew if we were gonna eat it would be up to me, so I got a job at a children's store (employee discount, duh). It was a family owned place and they really took care of me, but once baby #2 came I was done. Besides, I knew I really needed to get back to school.

That's pretty much it. I went back to school full time and got a BS in biochemistry (and a divorce). I worked in several different labs (p chem lab, med school lab) to make some money, but after I graduated I knew I'd need to find something "real" to do. I wrote about it in this post. I got through pharmacy school and now I'm doing a job that I absolutely love.

So, here I am with my current hats:

• Mother to teenagers
• Wife to Bob
• Pack-leader to Juneau and Jenny
• Pharmacist Extraordinaire
• Habitat for Humanity Board Member
• Junior Service Club Member
• Hope Rescues volunteer
• Piano Student
• Field Hockey Mom
• Queen of the castle
  
• Maid/cook/housekeeper/dog walker
  
• Blogger

How many hats do you wear?

Six Word Saturday

For more Six Word Saturday be sure to go to Show My Face. She's got a huge Mr Linky thing going on, so be sure to stop by.

For Happy Hour Friday this week I posted a picture of my new iPhone case, and as usual I had the phone in front of me so you couldn't see my face. Otie, dear boy that he is, commented that he hates it when people do that. Well, since I'm all about keeping my peeps happy, here is my Six Words:

DEAR OTIE, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU

So Otin there ya go. Wrinkles and all. I didn't even brush my hair. Well, I did this morning, but that was like 6 hours ago. Boom. You owe me now.

Happy Hour Friday

You should know by now this is my favorite post of the week. Yes, sometimes it's my only post of the week, but I'm working on that! Through emails with my good friend Otie we came up with this weekly gem and hope you like it. Go to Otie's site and join the fun!

Here are some things that are making me happy today:

• My new iFrogz case came! I think I told you about it at some point. Anyway, isn't it cool? Nope, it's not, it's hot. Hot Pink, that is. (Gotta love teenagers. She wouldn't be in the picture with me, but at least I got her two fingers. )
  

 In case you can't remember, here's my old case:

   Ok blogger you suck

• Ok is Blogger frustrating you?? I don't like this new picture up-load thingie. 
• Ummm okay back to Happy Thoughts
• Tonight is another Junior Service night. After the meeting, which hopefully wont last too long, we are going to one of my favorite wine bars, Erato. I love it. In case you forgot (how could you??) last weekend we had Girls Night Out. It was okay, but it was at a bar-bar, not a wine bar, and the wine wasn't that good so I didn't stay too long. But here's a pic of a few of the JSC girlies:

Hahaha I just realized I'm the only one without a drink in my hand!!! Trust me, that doesn't happen often.

• I'm happy that I have a clean house and haven't had to lift a finger. Okay that's not true, I had to lift a couple fingers to pay my child, but I'd rather pay her than do it myself have a dirty house. She's trying to raise money to go to Mexico with her friend over spring break, so all I have to do is wave cash in front of her and she'll clean. 
• I'm happy that my other daughter has a job. She works at Dippin Dots and seems really happy with it. That, of course, makes me happy. 
• I'm happy that I got a fabulous surprise from Ali (from Inner Ramblings of a Mid-Life Mama) in the mail! It's a Union Jack heart shape pin because I love love love the UK. Plus the card was funny which is always a good thing to get.
  

• I'm happy that today while I was taking a long, hot bath (and not cleaning or anything else) I decided what I want for Christmas and my birthday (cuz they're only a week apart). I want airline tickets to Denmark so I can go to Blog Camp 3.0 at Julochka's. Hubby's probably gonna say no. And then I'm gonna wine whine a lot. And then maybe he'll come around, but I kinda doubt it. But since I don't know the answer yet, I am still hopeful and therefore still happy.
• I'm happy that I still had some candy corn left. I ate several large handfuls some for lunch. I'd like to blame it on Bee since she sent me an email to thank me for sending her candy corn, but actually I already opened it before I got the email. It must have been her fault tho, normally I wouldn't eat candy corn for lunch. Besides, now I'm hungry!
• Oh yeah, speaking of both Julochka and hungry, I bought the new cookbook I wanted. Well, actually it isn't the one I was looking for, but it's by the same author: Nigella Lawson. It's her holiday cookbook and since I'm going to my mom's house it'll be fun to try new stuff on the family. Plus it has lots of drink recipes in there, and if your family is anything like my family, you need lots of drinks to get thru the holidays! 
  
• I'm happy that I'm done with this post...and I'm sure you are too. Don't forget to go click on Oties's thingie, and also visit the others that are joining us for Happy Hour Friday!