Work? Why ruin a beautiful Friday?

Shelby tagged me for a meme, and because I am unable get my ADD head to stay focused on budget runs, I'm doing it now.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Sneaking out of school, getting ready for summer, counting down the months until I was 18, perfecting the "fuck off" stare, training horses, having my fair share of alcohol and thinking that if I survived this last year everything else would be easy. Aw, how sweet ignorance was.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today? Sadly my to-do list at work is boring given it's the end of the month: update IT database, run district financials, run A/R reports, File FY09, and send out nasty-o-grams to my vendors. Non work related: Make dish for tomorrow's cook out, meet agent, grocery shopping, laundry, go to the gym.
(Shit, I'm boring. I better add 'do something fun' to the list.)

3. Snacks I enjoy: I love love love me a ripe mango. Ooh, a Mango Lassi would so hit the spot right now.

4. Places I've lived: Calli Colombia, Grafton, Canaan, Enfield, Plymouth, Grantham, Lebanon. Yup, again not that exciting.

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: In no particular order
Fund the orphanage in Colombia that saved my life.
Set up college funds for my nieces (who cares if one is still in the cooker?)
Buy the house we want and stop worrying about how much the taxes hurt.
Buy my hubby the bike of his dreams, and myself too.
Buy my dad a vintage mustang from the days before he was a husband and father.
Go back to school.
Spend a month every year just traveling.
Pay off my sisters mortgage, and set up a fund to make sure she will always be cared for.

6. Peeps I want to know more about: Everyone, anyone. Go ahead post this meme, tell me you did, and I'll read it. I'm always curious as to other people's lives.

Now where did I put that pen?

Despite my lack of posting, there has been a lot of things going on.

Right now we are dealing with house hunting drama at home. We've found a few places we like, we are in the process of "negotiating" on one right now, but it's not looking good. It's amazing how fast your mood can change. We made an offer last night on a house that both HG and I liked (which is rare, as the only other thing we agree on in life is our love for each other. Anything else, we are complete opposites) and almost immediately came a counter offer where they dropped their price by $10K. So we all where excited. We counter offered again, going up another $5K, they countered going down just $2K. We returned another offer, and they returned with "give us your best offer, we have someone else looking at the house tomorrow." That pissed me off. I'm not sure if it's just a ploy, or if indeed their is another buyer. The seller claims that this person has looked at the house already twice... so then why would this only come out when were making an offer, and why would they need to see it for a third time? So we've decided to stay with our last price, not to offer them a higher price and then have them use that against us on this other potential buyer. We'll see what happens, but our moods quickly went from elated to annoyed.

I've signed back up for another knit pal "contest", although I just barely made it under deadline and they capped participants to only 300 so I'm not positive I made it in. I figure it might be incentive to get my knitting needles back out.

Talking about knitting, I'm seriously considering frogging the wrap sweater, as I barely have the motivation to knit a row. It's sucked all the knitting energy out of me.

Outside, I've planted a bunch of tomato plants, and in my desire for instant gratification, I keep checking them for growth and buds. I'm considering planting a few more veggies, but it's a short short list of what HG will eat (tomatoes being one) and I'd hate for it to go to waste.

I recently took a stained glass class, and found that I am good at it, which means that I like it. (I'm told I'm a bad sport, and if I'm not instantly good at something, I don't like it. My first bicycle ride out I wanted to be Lance Armstrong, my first motorcycle ride out I wanted to be on the pro circuit, when I had my four wheeler I was ready to race it a week after buying it, when I was playing soccer in elementary school I quit because we were loosing.... I guess I have a hidden competitive streak.) I'm waiting to see what happens with the house search before buying the needed equipment and setting up a work space for the glass cutting.

We've also put having a reception back on hold, again waiting to see what happens with house hunting.

A couple weeks ago I went on a ride with a couple UV'ers who post/belong to a local group site. It was nice, we kept the ride short as we felt we were pushing our luck with the weather, but overall it was nice to get out with new people. I also went on a hike up to Cardigan with other UV'ers, which confirmed what I already knew... I need to get back to the gym.

I did go back to the gym, and ran into a friend from school who recently moved back to the area and is a personal trainer... coincidence? I think not. We are scheduled for our first session at the ass crack of dawn on June 2nd... which by the way, I had a mental block and was thinking I had two weeks before that session to hit the gym (because I don't want to admit just how outta shape I am) but realized that it's really next week. Oh shit.

A little peak of a recent mini-golf game:

Water under the bridge

"We are not the same person this year as last; nor are those we love.

It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person"

W. Somerset Maugham

A few years ago I lost my fiance, who was also my best friend and my high school sweetheart. I'm not ready to go there out loud yet, but during the same process I also lost a friend. We had met back in elementary school when pony tails and overall where cool. There are so many memories we shared, some bad but many many good ones. I'm going to refer to her as Rose, after a play we saw a couple years ago that spawned many hysterical jokes between us, and because it gets old to say "her". So Rose... Rose always saw the world thru rose colored glasses, almost to a fault, and when bad things happened, it was really only momentary for her. Not that that's a bad thing, it's not, it's great when people can look past the negative and see only the good. However, that also left her ill equipped to deal with grief and sadness. For a few years she lived in another state and even with the distance we saw each other very frequently, and we maintained our close friendship. When she eventually moved back, she stayed with us for a bit as she looked for a job and eventually a place of her own. While it was a blast for me, it was occasionally a source of contention between Jimmy and I. Imagine if your mate had his/her best friend move in with you... it would be about the equivalent, some pranks, some late night laughter, some random unplanned trips and general mayhem. When Rose did find a place, our friendship didn't wane, except I would no longer wake her up at 4'am to go to the gym with me. I'm sure that was her favorite part of moving out, being able to sleep in :-) Our friendship continued undeterred, and as Green Gable as it is, we were bosom buddies. That is until Jimmy died, then it was like flipping a light switch, she was gone. It didn't happen that suddenly, although it certainly felt like it at the time. No, it was slightly more gradual, but in the light of the stress and heartache at the time, it felt instantaneous. The person you could always call and reach out for was suddenly not available, not returning calls or just really busy. At the time, I couldn't call her out on the carpet, I was dealing with too much, my family, his family, our friends, and what felt like every one's grief on my shoulders. It was only about a year later when Rose was staying at my new place and we were snuggled up talking like we did that I asked her about it. I calmly asked her where she went, why she wasn't there when I needed her the most. Her response was she "didn't know how to deal with it". I understand that. I didn't know how to deal with it, none of us knew how to deal with it, we where all trying to come to terms with a loved one being ripped from us. I wasn't asking or expecting her to solve the world's problems, to fix the hole in our families lives. I wouldn't ask anyone to do that, no one person could have. However that time marks the shift in our relationship, I was hurt that when the roles where reversed and I needed a friend, she couldn't be there. We continued to be friends, but it became a little more strained and a little more strained, and we both were changing. Last year there was a miscommunication in expectations and I felt I was being taken advantage of, so I sent an email in a joking tone asking if she was expecting me to do all the work for her. Rose became offended, and I reached my breaking point. I told her what I thought, which in hind sight wasn't a good idea, because a) it was an email, so I think emotions were misconveyed, and b) sometimes the rose tinted glasses block out other people's emotions or the not so subtle script. Our relationship has been tumultuous since, but lately we're both making an effort to reconnect. I came across the quote at the top, and I think it sums up where we are, good, bad or indifferent. People change, we change, often times I think that people are placed on pedestals for various reasons, but we often forget how hard the fall can be.

Insane in the membrane

Insanity.

Seriously, at this point she probably only has to sneeze and the baby comes out.