Blowin' in the Wind

All of a sudden, I'm not into the whole single life the way I have always always always been. I think this is only because Rasta is being so....well, I don't have a word. Inconsistent, perhaps? Maybe it's my fault - I get the impression lately I can't do anything right! Well, I guess if it were boring & easy with him I wouldn't like it at all. I think part of the reason I keep on perservering is because of the difficulty of it. But it's dumb of me to use this much effort for something that in the long run is going to be fruitless. But really, who cares about the long run? I'm workin' for the here & now.

It was a great Christmas and a great weekend. For Christmas I got Band of Horses - Cease to Begin on vinyl, and if you know me you know how happy that makes me. Also Wii Guitar Hero World Tour, Outdoor Adventure Games (I think that's the name - it has a mat much like the old NES trackpad - super sweet.) on Wii, awesome patchwork pants, several cool shirts, a sweater dress, an alarm clock, pajamas, Apples to Apples, an mp3 player, a 750 GB external HD....I pretty much cleaned up. AND even better I think everyone I got gifts for was genuinely happy with them.

This weekend I took the Amtrak to St. Louis for Shellie's wedding. Ended up being an hour & 20 minutes behind schedule, but then Daniel & I met up with Jeremy and his gf Bethany and went out to Novak's. Tom met us there & we got all liquored up. It was grand. Saturday was the day of the wedding, which was really fun. We got breakfast with Steve first, then all of a sudden I was very hungover so I just curled up in a ball until I had to go buy boots & a card. Then I snapped out of it and all wes well. The wedding was short, which is always good, and I liked their vows a lot. Then a group of us went to Blarneystone for pitchers & appetizers, then the reception. I drank a lot of red wine & got silly. Then after that was over we went to some weird gross townie bar for $10 all-you-can-drink. Tom made a friend who bounced on his lap all night long. Sunday was Jack in the Box taco day! Hooray!! Also we went to Katie's grad party, but not for very long. :( Then back home. Good times, good times. I wish I could find my battery charger, I need pictures!

I am starting to love my job again, which is nice, now that we have a new IE. We'll call him Ralph, since that's how I introduced him to everyone. At first I was not a fan - he is one of those overly happy people, and he always uses 2 greetings when I see him (e.g. "Hi! Good morning!"). While I am all for people being happy and polite and friendly, this was just too much. Now that he's been here for a couple weeks surrounded by a normal level of happiness, his has started to turn into something far more tolerable. Now I just need to get him to walk a tad slower, and life is good.

This weekend was a pretty good one. We went to the wedding on Saturday, where my mother proceeded to get extremely drunk. It was amusing at first, and then a tad stressful, but I got enough pictures and videos to make it worth it. :) To be fair, it was the most amazing open bar I had ever seen. We were drinking liquor that isn't even out on the market yet (Captain Morgan 100 proof = wonderful), there was Los Cazadores tequila, a Jagerator and a bunch of Monster (I hate Jager bombs), and a bunch of premixed shots & drinks (margaritas - lime & strawberry, Rum Runner, Cosmos, the list goes on). The wedding was very nice, and the reception was a lot of fun. I suppose it was everything a wedding should be.

Sunday we spent the day working on the grandparents' house. What I refer to as 'Estate Sale Vol. 1' is this weekend. It amazes me the amount of stuff we are selling; I'm not entirely sure how it all fit in the house. Perhaps my grandparents were magicians. They were pretty damn amazing, I wouldn't put it past them. My uncle decided he wants to sell hot dogs & the such so that he is out of our way but still helping - good call. :) I am in charge of making signs - so many signs - 'Keep children attended at all times', 'Not responsible for personal loss or injury', 'All prices negotiable', 'Mobility equipment available - inquire if interested', 'Please buy everything', 'Hot dogs & blow jobs available in back'. Sigh.

While in theory this is all a great idea, I am afraid to see how we will react when people start carrying our beloved family's belongings out with them after giving us a measly dollar. I imagine it will go something like this: "You take care of that ashtray. My grandfather spent YEARS getting emphysema with it. You don't know what a good deal you're getting for 10 cents - It's already been broken in for you and everything!" and then crying. I guess we'll see. If that doesn't happen, I'd say the odds of my crazy aunt showing up and causing a scene are pretty high.

My cell phone's internal speaker inexplicably stopped working this weekend. My options were to have all of my conversations on speakerphone, or use a ghetto backup phone I happened to have. I opted for the latter, although I am starting to wish I hadn't. Sometimes when I open the phone the screen is blue, so I have to keep closing it and opening it, or bend the top back to see anything. Anyway I ordered a new phone Monday night and it should be to me hopefully by this weekend, early next week at the latest. It should be the bomb, but I'll let you know when I get it.

In other news, I have poison ivy. Many of you might already know that this happens to me fairly often, like every time I am downwind of it. The strange thing is that when it first started showing up, it was just all over my ass and inside my bellybutton. Not sure about that!