lindagrace65

I called them. They love me. No problem with the payment that THEY didn't take out - don't know why, but it was just a little bonus for me.

I still feel all old and crabby, though. But hey. Such is life.

It seems I only blog when I'm in a craptastic mood. What IS that? I'm just really down on everything today. I know it's the job thing. I also know it's the "gotta call the IRS" thing. Yeesh. Stupid sucky IRS. Sadly, I'm not rich so I'm not getting a single damned tax break. *sigh*

I'm also, for the first time ever, feeling my age. 41 is looming. 40 wasn't bad. 41? I'm already feeling old, old, old. I'm 40 for another 12 days. Guess I'll enjoy it.

I have no reason to be sad - my husband loves me, I love him, we have a great marriage, we have awesome friends, our families are wonderful, we have a very silly kitty upon whom we dote, we both have jobs...the list of blessings goes on and on, and yet here I sit, tired beyond belief and feeling sorry for myself like an idiot.

Eh. Suck it up. Get over it. Go clean the kitchen, you lazy girl!

Instructions: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your livejournal along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see to what they're listening.

1) "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones
2) "Faith" by George Michael
3) "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince
4) That song about the black horse and the cherry tree
5) "I went to the desert on a horse with no name..." by America
6) "Illinois" by Dan Fogelberg

Tagging: lilmissbooyah, gekko, phdcow, cynaminbear, and that's all the friends I have here who haven't been tagged by jennapeach!

I wish it weren't over!

Felix had a softball game Friday night, then we had a team barbecue afterwards - Mikey brought his bbq pit and we all brought beer and sides and everything. It was great fun. I brought my famous brownies; everyone loved them! Jody came with, and so did Mr. Felix (my husband's pop).

Saturday I slept 'til noon. Ok, 11:45. but still. It was great. Felix had left to go fishing sometime obscenely early in the morning, like 6 or something. I didn't even know he'd left although he swears he kissed me goodbye! So after I finally dragged myself out of the rack, I called Jody and we went shopping for towels and rugs and stuff for her guest bathroom. Then we went out for a late lunch. It was mucho fun. Saturday night we just hung out and did laundry.

This morning, we got up and went to church and Sunday School. big doin's at church - our senior pastor is being rotated out (as happens every few years in the Methodist church), so everyone's kind of freaking out. Our new dude comes in in July.

Then we came home and read the paper and took naps and I basically didn't get off the couch all day. It was great! Felix doesn't get the thrill of just staying at home and chilling out, so he and his Dad went to Academy.

I just finished watching "M*A*S*H", and now we're watching "Once bitten" (imdb it if you don't know the movie - I'm too embarrassed to tell you what it's about!). We're also watching the Missions game on tv - it's televised b/c they're playing the Corpus Christi Hooks, which is where Roger Clemens is rehabilitating. Poor Missions. They're fixin' to get their asses whooped.

Anyway. back to the grind tomorrow. le sigh

I'm addicted. I started out with an addiction to cherry diet Coke - not the canned soda, but the fountain sodas, like from Dairy Queen or Sonic. Then a few days ago, at the movies, my husband goes, "Hey, they have Cherry Icees! Want to try one?" so I did.

And now, I swear to you, I fantasize about them. I still get a cherry diet Coke every evening after work, but those cherry icees...oh my Lord.

Uncle Bill, my dad's older brother, is 83 years old. Get this: he remodels houses then sells them for profit. He is one amazing fellow. He's always been in my top two favorite uncles (Dad had 5 brothers and 3 sisters). Uncle Bill also has a special place in my heart because he looks so much like my dad. He SOUNDS so much like my dad. Last Thanksgiving, I could've sworn I heard Dad's voice. It was so bizarre! My heart literally stopped for a second 'til my brain caught up with the fact that that was Uncle Bill's voice rather than Dad's.

He's a lot like my dad in many ways, really. They both have this ability to visualize what something could look like - like with the houses. They both could instantly grasp the best way to remodel a place to give the client exactly what they want. They also both draw on napkins all the time. Heh. They literally illustrate their points on napkins during dinner. Hopefully on paper, but now and then on cloth. Oops.

I wish I would have inherited that. I would've become an architect, which I think is what my dad would have loved to do - Uncle Bill too - if they'd had the money/wherewithal for college.

They're also both so intense sometimes - about politics (both Democrats), about Christianity, about treating others decently and kindly... Great guys, both of them.

They're also both so very silly sometimes. They both have these huge laughs. Kids LOVE them. I can't tell you how many times I played Candyland with Uncle Bill when I was little. And my dad...ha! He taught all my friends and me how to rollerskate, how to ride a bike, how to turn cartwheels, how to play "ghostman" baseball... Lordy. Uncle Bill and Aunt Eileen used to live up the road from us and they'd come over of an evening. We'd all be out in the yard catching fireflies. Such wonderful memories. I am so blessed.

I miss my pop. I wish I could just pick up the phone. I just get all verklempt sometimes - comes out of nowhere.

He's been gone three years on June 25.

I love you, Dad. I miss you like crazy. I think about you all the time. You raised me right, and I'm proud to be your kid.

I sent my husband off to softball with his dad this evening. I don't feel bad staying home since his dad'll be there to be his cheerleader. Plus it's a freakin' doubleheader, which means we wouldn't get home 'til 11, and well, I got up at 5 this morning and I would've fallen asleep in the stands.

So I'm using my time wisely by visiting my favorite boards, updating this thing, and watching "Hoosiers", one of my all-time favorite movies. I know it's about Indianer basketball, but I just pretend it's about downstate, small-town Illinois basketball. Shoot, my high school gym looks just like the home gym in the movie. The people have the same midwestern twang, and there isn't a "g" to be found on their -ing words. Heh.

And this weekend, we got nothing...a big empty expanse of time. I'm sleeping in tomorrow then doing laundry. Tomorrow afternoon we'll shop for some of the many gifts we have to buy for b-days, anniversaries and Father's Day, then I hope we'll go out to dinner at Chuy's, one of our fave Mexican joints. And Sunday? Church, Sunday school, then to the movies with some friends. I'm REALLY looking forward to a weekend of relaxation.

I also just had squeezy cheese and wheat thins for supper. Gross? Perhaps. but MAN is that good eats.

Thank heavens I have an ironclad tummy!

I have what my grandma used to call "an old sick headache" but it's somewhat under control right now. I've been suffering from this thing since Sunday. The 4 hour drive back to San Antonio from the Rio Grande Valley was pretty hellish due to the headache. Felix had his iPod with him, so he listened to "The Shining" on that while I tried to keep my head from exploding.

We spent Sunday with Felix's two favorite cousins and their wives. Felix, Ricky and Meme (short for Manuel) grew up together and are like brothers. They were all born within 6 months of one another, and they're just close as close can be. Happily we three wives get along very very well - these girls would be my friends even if we weren't related by marriage! Meme and Sandy are the first of us to have a baby (infertility is an issue for all three couples), so we fawned over baby Haley the whole time. She's 7 months old and is very much the smiley baby. Haley's Mommy and Daddy are smiley too now that Haley is sleeping through the night!

Haley looks like her daddy, not surprisingly. Those Solis genes are some strong stuff. The family resemblance between multiple generations is amazing. The grandkids all look like Solises; it's like the other parent doesn't even exist!

Sandy and Meme tried for 7 years to get pregnant and had tried everything - drugs, IVF, the whole works. Then lo and behold, miracle of miracles, they got knocked up all on their own! Ricky and Julie have had multiple miscarriages over the ten years of their marriage. And of course Felix and I have our own woes.

We girls talked a lot about how infertility affects marriages, and we know how blessed we are to have husbands who understand and who aren't into laying blame. Who knows what the guys talked about. Probably high school. :D

Anyway. Despite my feeling pretty rotten we had a good time.

And I'm getting my much needed day off just to lay on the couch. I'm watching "bringing up baby" with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. I love this movie. :D Next up is "Only Angels Have Wings", another Cary Grant flick that I love. I'd enjoy it a hell of a lot more if my head wasn't pounding, but hey, you can't have everything.

Someday I shall have an entire day to myself, to read, to nap, to read some more. But it doesn't seem that it will happen anytime soon. I swear, we are two people - how do we get so danged busy??? Oh wait...I remember. It's his family, all 80000000000000 of them!

While everyone else is enjoying their 3 day weekend, I get to get up early on Saturday to do laundry. Then we're going to his cousin's wedding. Then we get to get up at 5 on Sunday to drive 4.5 hours to the valley for a family reunion on the other side of the family. We'll spend the day in his hometown and in Mexico, returning to the hotel only to get a few hours sleep. On Monday we get to get up early again, go to breakfast with the extended family, then drive 4.5 hours back home. Yay. Not.

I love these people, I do. But geez. Most of them live within two hours of us. Why are we having the reunion in their hometown, which is hours and hours away from the majority of the family?!

The next weekend is MINE. I'm sending his ass fishing for the weekend and I'm not leaving the couch!

Oh wait, no. That's the weekend of his niece's birthday party. And the next weekend is his nephew's birthday party. And there's Father's Day in there somewhere.

It's never ending. Oh the joy.

ETA that I'm claiming the weekend of June 24-25 as MINE!

So I've been contemplating my feet today. Yes, it's one of those days on the job. Anyway, I've been working on my feet a lot. Since I cannot afford weekly pedicures anymore, I've taken to dealing with them on my own. My feet were A MESS last week. A MESS. Seriously. Cracked heels, cracked bottoms of the feet, really really really gross. So I took them in hand, literally. I used the major scrubby thing. I've moisturized twice a day. I sleep in cotton socks after slathering my feet with this amazing goo called "Crack Cream" (Mmmm, appetizing, no?). And after a week of that, my feet look GOOD. So to celebrate I am wearing my baby blue sparkly sandals today.

And I may as well admit it here: I like tanned feet. I know my feet will rot off from sun exposure, but damn it. I like tanned feet. So there. Don't tell Rouquinne.

So I got my car back this morning. It looks GORGEOUS - bright red and shiny outside, shiny black inside. And it smells great, which was my biggest concern. My LORD it's nice to have it back. I was ever so sick of that gigantor Ford Explorer. At least it was red...but dang. It took me three tries every time I parked it to get it straight. And the gas consumption was just obscene. I also felt sooooo hypocritical because frankly, I make fun of people who drive alone in gigantic freakin' vehicles like that!

In other news, my mom loved the day-of-the-week dishtowels I embroidered for her for Mother's Days. They're quite cute if I do say so myself!

Felix is playing in a co-ed softball league on Tuesdays this summer. I know everyone on the team, but I probably won't go to any games - I'm too lazy during the week to do anything like actually leave the house.

Felix's cousin is getting married Memorial Day weekend. I have GOT to find something to wear. I'd like to get something summery and sleeveless but I know I'll be freezing my arse off at the hall. Also, I need to get my husband a little tipsy so he'll push me around the dance floor at least twice. Poor guy - he's a great dancer, but I suck at it! So I have to get him a little buzzed before he'll try it - liquid courage and all that.

Off to bed.

Yes, that was quick. I'll never look at my sister the same way but it isn't worth alienating her (or becoming alienated from her, I guess). I just prayed to let it go while driving home yesterday, and I felt the weight lift. I love her; she loves me. She has issues with my husband? Oh well. It's HER problem. Everyone else LOVES my husband. I have people I've never met before come up at church and tell me they know my husband from one of his many volunteer things and then proceed to tell me what a great guy he is. And I KNOW that - he IS a great guy! I'm totally wild about him, and that's what counts. It's HER issue, not my husband's.

She emailed me last night with a blog she thought I might like, so I emailed her back this morning as though nothing had happened. It will always be in the back of my mind, what she thinks of him, but I've forgiven her. Because if I hadn't it would've made me insane.

I did call my mom last night and tell her about it (before I'd let it go) and was just a sobbing mess. My mom was like, "I don't know why she'd say that. Your husband is the best son-in-law I could ever ask for."

I guess I just don't get why she feels like she can say what the hell ever she wants to say to me, you know? I would never in eleventy bajillion years intentionally hurt her the way she intentionally hurt me. Oh well. Another mystery.

Anyway. :) Thank you, Ms. Blog, for letting me work that out.

My sister, whom I love and who is usually one of my favorite people ever, has crossed a line and I don't know how I'll ever go back to feeling about her the way I did. Long story short, she basically told me that she thinks my husband is bossy and domineering. It's humorous that she feels that way because she actually IS bossy and domineering and anyone who knows her on a more-than-superficial level would tell you that.

I just cannot believe she fucking put that out there (it was in an email). I mean, what am I supposed to do with that? He's my husband for Pete's sake - I'm not going to fucking AGREE with her (not that it's true).

I got the email at 10 this morning and now it's 4 and I still haven't emailed her back, nor am I going to.

I knew she didn't like my husband - she never has. They're WAY too much alike, and both want to be in charge in any given situation. I'm ok with that; my own sister trained me for that! And now here she is throwing it back in my face.

I just don't know where to go with this. I called my brother and he was all, "Just don't even dignify it with a response, etc." Well, that's fine, but now that it's out there in black and white it's impossible to take it back. And it completely affects the way I look at my sister, whom I love and who is (was?) one of my best friends, someone I could always count on.

And the only person I want to talk to about this is my husband because he is where I go for shelter and for comfort. But I can't because I don't want him to dislike my sister.

This sucks big fat ass.

Hooray! I love short work weeks. Even when I love my job I like short work weeks.

Tomorrow I'm going with my sister to have lunch at our favorite Thai place, so that's one more thing to look forward too!

Also, my mom is coming down for about 10 days in March. We're going to spend a couple days in Felix's hometown of Mercedes, Texas while she's here. The Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show starts March 10, so we're going down for the parade and stuff, and taking Mom with us. She came with us last year and had such a good time. She really knows how to find joy in life, even after it all. She's an amazing woman, is my mom. And Felix's family LOVES her. Seriously LOVES her. A huge part of it is that she'll eat anything - cabrito, tripas, lengua, any ol' innards they set in front her, she'll wrap it in a corn tortilla and go to town. Last year, Felix's aunt and uncle were like, "Did you know what that was?" My mom said, "I'm German. We eat the whole cow but for the moo and the whole pig but for the oink." They LOVED that!

Felix's family is so like my own, in many ways, the older generation, anyway. They're just the most warm and loving people, and they truly are my family now too. That goes a long way to helping me not feel so bloody homesick all the time. I'd clone 'em if I could, and sell 'em as "packaged in-laws".

So baseball season is coming up. YAY! I cannot wait. And once baseball season arrives, Fiesta is not far behind. YAY again!

I'm giddy tonight...odd combination of wine and caffeine...

What a craptastic week this has been...and I still have to get through tomorrow without killing someone. Geez. My boss pissed me way the hell off today and he NEVER pisses me off. He's just being an ass for no reason. bleh. And my annoying coworker with the hot ham hands is as annoying as ever. And her hands are as hot and hamlike as ever.

And then there's the jobhunt. Ohhh, the jobhunt. I'm getting discouraged. I'm encouraged that there are so many training jobs out there, but then I talk to the people and there's just something wrong with the job...like "we want you to be a phone rep for 6 months prior to going to the training department" or "well, that was the job we advertised, but now we're looking for curriculum development only, no training" and on and on and crap crap crappity crap.

Felix's birthday is Sunday. He's like a little kid, always trying to guess what he's getting. Silly boykins.

Felix also found out today that his best friend is going to the Middle East someplace to work as a contracts person. And hey, ok, the money is freakin' huge, but who in their right mind would go to the Middle East RIGHT NOW??? And I'm worried about his marriage; his wife is still in the AF and she just got home from the Middle East herself. There was some weirdness there - she got in huge trouble for cavorting nekkid on a beach with enlisted men (she's an officer). So anyway, she just got home and now he's leaving and things are still not nice between them AND he's going to go over there and get shot at and stuff (ok, maybe not, but still. You have to admit it isn't the safest place right now).

And, to be brutally honest, I always think that civilians who work in a war zone are nuckin' futs. I mean honest to Pete. There isn't enough money in the world to convince me to do that. So that's a worry.

On the plus side? Gina, oh she of the major health issues, got some good news today - her vitamin D is way up and she hasn't lost any bone mass. So yay! Good, good, good news there.

but hey, it's Thursday evening, my husband is off at a meeting, and "Dancing with the Stars" is on, so it's all good. I can drool over Drew Lachey. Ha!

Here we go AGAIN. I tried this just a minute ago but hadn't validated my email (I hadn't received the validation notice thingie in my email but that is neither here nor there). As an upshot of this whole validation thing I am annoyed.

Anyhoo. My sister. The phone interview with the people in Indianer went very well. They're fools if they don't hire her. But I don't want her to leave. She's my only family here and I shall feel bereft without her. However, she has to do what's right for her. Plus moving up there would get her about 850 miles closer to Mom which would be cool for both of them. She hasn't lived that close to Mom since she graduated college in 1978.

But I'll miss her like crazy. I know I'm being the selfish baby sister, but I really don't care.

So. I guess that's a blog entry.