It’s almost officially Christmas Eve in the central time zone.  I have very mixed feelings about the holiday this year.  I’ve put myself through so many changes in the past 3 months – positive, GOOD changes – that to be honest, my 40th birthday (last week) and Christmas itself really kind of snuck up on me.  I don’t have a Christmas tree up, no presents wrapped and stacked, nothing.  This is the first time in as long as I can remember that I didn’t have SOME kind of Christmas tree up.  Very kind of sad and bizarre.

My dad called me last week and wanted to know if I was coming to St. Louis for the holiday.  (oh, my company shuts down from just before Christmas until the first working day after the 1st of January and gives us the time off paid without us having to burn our vacation or sick days – its a heavenly benefit of my company)  There was a lot of rumors that they were going to ask us to work over the holiday because we were expecting our contract funding from our customer by the end of last week.  That didn’t happen, so now it won’t happen until after the first of the year (the customer is shut down as well).  However, not knowing for sure until Friday means I couldn’t book a plane ticket, and holy lord, the prices are ridiculous.  So, I called my dad this morning and told him that I wasn’t coming home for Christmas.  He understood.  I could hear my mom mumbling in the background, but he deflected it for me.

After Christmas, the parents are going to head out to their lake house in Kentucky with the kids.  I am only about an hour to hour and a half away from Nashville, and so are they – so we are going to meet up in Nashville in about a week so I can see my Monkey and pick my Terrorist up to come home with me.  I have a lot to do between now and then to get the place ready for the Terrorist’s arrival.  I’m looking forward to her being here with me.

Tomorrow I am going to venture out.  Insanity, I know.  But I want to get a new wireless router for the house and treat myself to a manicure and pedicure.  I haven’t had a pedicure since August!  I was due to go for one when I broke my foot.  As long as they are gentle with the massaging on the stupid foot that’s a little mangled, I’ll be fine.  I have to go.  Can’t stand it any more.  Then pick up the stuff to make salsa and mexican food for Christmas dinner.

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas.  And I leave you with one of my favorite Christmas carols, and my very favorite version of it.

At 9:34pm (pacific standard time), on December 17, 1969, I came into this world kicking and screaming.  40 years later, I’m still kicking and screaming.  Not much has changed.

Since I was a teenager, I have noticed a yucky trend in my life.  Every year that I can remember since at least my late teens, I am sick as hell on my birthday.  Every. Year.  (there was another trend that involved being on my period on every single vacation I took, no matter when I took it, but that trend has been surgically eradicated)

Today is 2 days from my birthday (2 days people!) and I woke up this morning and felt fine!  No sniffles, no aches, no congestion.  Right on!!!  Chances are looking pretty slim that I’ll be sick on my birthday this year.  For the first time in forever it seems.  I got up, peed, put slippers on and headed downstairs to take Satan out.  I got about halfway down the stairs when I stepped down just slightly wrong on my right foot (the one I broke in September).  If my foot was not healing from a recent accident, it would have been no big deal.  But no, my foot is still damaged from September, so as it turns out it is indeed a big deal.

My foot got swollen pretty quickly, but I shoved it into a sneaker and trudged in to work.  At 8:30 this morning I got up to go to the bathroom and put weight on it after sitting for an hour and a half.  I actually cried out, just as L, one of the girls that sits in my office came in the door.  She reached out to steady me, asking what happened, of course.  I gave her the quick version, and hobbled to the bathroom (still had to pee).

I came back to my desk and called around looking for an orthopedic office that could see me today.  First one I called told me their first available appointment is in MARCH.  Uh, no thanks.  I found a sports orthopedic office that could see me today.  YAY!

I got there, and they x-rayed my foot.  Again.  My foot is going to glow green in the dark from all the radiation exposure lately.  Doctor came in and said he had good new and not good news.

Good news:  foot is not broken.  He said that he could see where the other breaks were, but they are healed and look good.  No re breaks there, no new broken bones.  Awesome.

Bad news:  the tendons I tore before are still not healed (they take forever to heal) and in fact, this little adventure down the stairs tore them further.  Not awesome.

He then began talking about putting me in a cast.  I had a slight meltdown in his office.  I cried.  I am still very emotionally raw from all the upheaval in my life, living by myself for the first time ever, in a place I’ve never been before and desperately trying to understand my new job which is a little above my head (but not too bad).  He wanted to put my RIGHT foot in a cast.  Right then.  I panicked.  How would I get home?  I can’t drive with a cast on my foot!  How would I get to work???

So, I did the very adult thing.  I cried.

It worked though.  He did put my back in a ortho boot (looks exactly like the one in the picture in the old post linked above), but this one is a little taller (almost to my knee) and is slightly different on the bottom.  Which is not awesome because I haven’t figured out how to walk in it yet.  I got pretty good at walking almost normal in the boot I had in September.  This one is weird.

I got fitted for my boot (again), which I will be wearing for the next two weeks.  Such a pain in the foot ass.  I stopped on the way home (driving without the boot, of course) and picked up my prescription for pain killers and a 12 pack of Diet Coke (you know, the necessities)  and came home.  I’m supposed to keep it elevated as much as possible, ice when I don’t have the boot on, yadda yadda yadda yadda.  Yes, I know the steps to this dance, I’m afraid.

**sigh**

Friday night, I was exhausted beyond belief, but still managed to stay up until like 2am.  I think I was too tired to sleep, ya know?

Saturday, my friend P was planning to come over, so I headed out to get the stuff to make the beef stew I had promised to make him, and rent the Lord of the Rings movies.  I also picked this up.  Because it makes Mary crazy.

Made it home in time to get the stew in the crock pot and clean up here a little bit before he got here.  He showed up and dinner still had about an hour to go so we decided to put in the movie.  The box for the first one had the disk for the special features, but not the movie disk.  Booo.  We found something else to watch.  While we did this:

He heard the shutter on my Blackberry (because I can’t figure out how to turn it off), looked at me and said “Did you just take a picture of our feet?”  Fortunately for me, I had been drinking a bit and wasn’t as embarrassed by that as I would be stone cold sober.  I laughed and showed him the picture I took.  He picked up his iPhone and showed me a nearly identical picture he had taken.  LOL

We ate and drank.  And talked, and watched movies.  All night long.  It was a lot of fun.  About 3:30 we were both getting very sleepy, so I went up to bed and he camped on the couch.  Dog got me up at about 8:30, and as soon as I opened my bedroom door, she bolted downstairs and licked him in the face until he woke up.  LOL  Dangers of staying at Chez Dana.

I made us breakfast, we watched a movie we found on TV, then he left.  He was cooking chili for a friend tonight, so he had to head to the store to pick up the stuff for it.  Another hug.  Very much like a date.  Again.

After he left, I cleaned up the breakfast dishes, and made this:

That is a triple chocolate refrigerator pie.  Chocolate cookie crumb crust, chocolate pie filling, white chocolate shavings on top.  Has to sit in the fridge for 2 hours before I can try it though. 

So, now it’s just me for the afternoon.  I’m doing laundry and trying not to drool while waiting for that pie to set up.  And watching the movie Empire Records.

IT’S REX MANNING DAY!

OH. MY. GOD.  (for those that didn’t get the urgency of this post from the title)

I am going to NYC in March to see Muse headline Madison Square Garden.  Plus, of course, hang out with my HSBFF for 3 or 4 fabulously epic days.

**last time in NYC with the HSBFF I broke my foot, walked/danced on it for 2 days before seeking medical attention – oh and the airline lost my luggage for 3 days – bastards**

***i promise to wear more sensible shoes on this trip***

So, once again, I get to hang out with my HSBFF for several days getting quality dork time in, see a great concert and be in the greatest city on earth.

SO. HAPPY.

• Things have been fairly quiet here on the home front, kind of.
• I have family dramamamamamamama like you wouldn’t believe, but I’m not going into any details here.  I will just say this:  it does not directly involve me or my children, but we are indirectly involved because it does involve a family member.
• I thoroughly embarrassed myself Monday night.  Everyone should do it at least once per year.  I seem to do it about once per month.  My kitchen window over the sink faces my patio, then the road behind my townhouse, then the back of a strip mall.  Right where my townhouse is there is a Thai restaurant.  I was doing dishes and cooking dinner, blinds open, lights on, dark outside, iPod in mah ears, just SINGING and DANCING to my hearts content.  Little did I realize that it was BREAK TIME for the Thai restaurant.  I had quite an audience.  When I realized it, they saw me kind of startle and notice them, so they all smiled and waved.  Ugh.  I smiled and waved back, and closed the blinds.  Note to self:  do not go into that Thai restaurant.
• Poor Satan is finally getting back to normal.  The change was a lot for her.  The dog crapped 20 times a day for the first 3 weeks I was here.  Nervous bowels.  Nice.  At least she’s really good about “telling” me when she has to go out.  I’m just glad we are finally back on a normal schedule.
• She’s also getting used to all the noises in the townhouse.  Slight thumps and what have you from the neighbors next door don’t get her too spun up any more, but if someone knocks on their door (which is right next to mine), she loses her pea sized brain thinking someone is at MY door.  We’re working on that.
• I have to go to Wal Mart after work tonight and pick up a crock pot and a new can opener.  The manual can opener I bought for the townhouse doesn’t open anything.  I’m not gonna fight it when for $9 I can have an automatic one.  And, my old crock pot was, well, old.  Need a replacement by Saturday though because I am making beef stew to have on Saturday when P comes over to watch the Lord of the Rings movies with me.  (Date?  Not date?  I dunno.)

So that’s about it for me.  Family drama, still settling in to my new place, still LOVE my new place, dog finally NOT shitting every 30 minutes.  YAY!  Things are getting brighter every day!

Tonight, I had a boy over for dinner.

OMG!  GASP!

The same boy I met for dinner last night.  During dinner last night, I might have mentioned that all my house hold goods were delivered and that I *might* need help setting up my PS3 and XBox (I don’t, but that fact is totally not worth mentioning here).  He readily agreed to come set that up for me.  I quickly agreed to cook dinner, and he agreed to bring movies over to watch on my PS3.

Holy shit, that sounds like a DATE to me.  WTH?

So, he showed up about 5:30 (half hour early, thankyouverymuch) and my sweet and lovely dog, Satan, did her thing and barked, growled and was generally an ass hole to him for the first hour he was here.  Fantastic.

He got my PS3 hooked up as I was finishing up dinner.  The spaghetti noodles were cooking, we were watching Mythbusters on Discovery when I noticed how absurdly quiet it was.  Like, scary quiet.  The kids and animals are planning a take over kind of quiet.  I got up and went into the kitchen and

OH – MY – GOD

There is my dog, Emma, SATAN, covered up to her belly in spaghetti sauce.  And not only is it all over her, it on her leash, on the floor, on the walls, on the stove, the fridge.  EVERY WHERE.  I turned and look to see my friend P standing there watching me silently freak out, kind of laughing and smiling.  At first I was like “You bastard!  How dare you laugh at me!”

Then he picked her up and asked where the nearest bath was.  I led him upstairs and into the hall bathroom.  He stayed with her in the bathroom while I grabbed a towel and shampoo to clean the dog up.  He stayed while I washed her and tried really hard not to laugh directly at me.  LOL

After the dog was clean, it was down to the kitchen.  He was awesome.  He grabbed the spray cleaner and a roll of paper towels, while I got the sponge for the counter top.

Ladies, take a tip from me.  Please do not let your dog bathe in your marinara sauce when having guests over.  It will cause you to burn the bread and for dinner to be delayed.  (oh yes, during the dog bathing episode, I totally burned the garlic bread)

We got about half way through a movie when he called “tired” on me ( he got up early and worked all day today) and got up to go.  He asked for a hug tonight (a step up from last night when he just wanted to shake my hand)  and asked me to call him tomorrow.

Twice tonight he called this thing tonight a “date”.

I was off today, to meet the movers delivering my stuff.  Yay!  That also meant a day off work.  Double yay!  I was worn out this week.

I’m getting settled in here.  The town is really nice; I really like it here.  The job is also awesome.  While it is fundamentally the same thing I was doing in St. Louis, it’s the next level higher in skills in my job class.  I am learning so many new things.  It’s kinda making my head spin, but that’s good.  It feels good to wake up and be energized about going to work instead of dreading it in the pit of your stomach.

Tonight I met a friend for dinner.  This is someone I went to high school with, who coincidentally now lives here in Huntsville.  We both have vague recollections of who the other one is – my high school graduating class was 555 people.  There are a lot of people from my class I don’t remember, don’t know or just vaguely knew.  P falls into the last group.  Still, it was nice to go out and have dinner with him.  He wanted to go out and find a bar somewhere after dinner but had to get up early in the morning for work tomorrow, so we called it an evening after dinner.

I played the dumb girl, claimed I had no idea how to hook up my PS3 and Xbox360, and if he wasn’t busy tomorrow after work, maybe he could come by and hook them up for me?  He eagerly agreed to come over and do it, I offered to feed him, and before I knew it, it appears he’s coming over for dinner, drinks and to watch a movie (said he’s got Transformers 2 on blueray, and I haven’t seen it).

Also?  It’s snowing.  I live in the south and its snowing.  This is just obscene.

I rarely do meme’s on here, but this one had odd and interesting questions.  I stole it from Tense Teacher.  It will be beneath the jump.  Other than that, I have had a very quiet, very low key day today.  All the stress of moving and everything finally caught up with me and I absolutely crashed hard last night (in my new bed for those wondering if I went to bed or slept on the couch).  I woke at about 9, at a little breakfast and parked my (ample) ass on my couch.  And other than trips to get a soda or go to the bathroom, I didn’t get up much.  Good day ,full of much needed rest.

Okay, now the meme.    Have a good week y’all.

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