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.

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 will survive.

It’s an awesome anthem.  But it can mean so much more than just what the words say.

And it can mean exactly what the words say.

This is dedicated to my love, my friend, my partner in crime, Gypsy911.

It’s cliche. It’s the ultimate girl anthem. It doesn’t matter. IT FITS.

Welcome to the next chapter in your life without the biggest douchebag that has ever lived. ( and yes TJ, I know you have my blog address, and I know you are looking at it, and YES, this post is about what a fucking dickhead you are. )

Thursday HSBFF had to work half day and the site that American Airlines had given me to track my missing bag said that it would be delivered some time that day.  So, I hung at the apartment, waiting.  She came  home around 2 and we had to leave at 4 to get to the U2 concert.  By 4 there was still no bag, so we had to boogie.  We took the train to the ferry to the subway to the New Jersey fucking Transit.  Seriously, the NJT is the WORST.  Awful experience, thanks New Jersey Transit.  Because NJT sucks so much, we got to Giants Stadium and were still standing in line to get in when we heard the first of Muse’s songs.  DAMMIT.  We got lucky though and got in pretty quick, and only missed part of the first song.  Muse is AMAZING live.  I’m just sayin.  U2 came on and played an amazing show.  Long show, but amazing.  It was a good night.  It was a long night, because the NJT wasn’t any better going back to Manhattan.

Friday we were going to head up to Albany, via Amtrak to go see another Kill Hannah show.  My bag was STILL not there.  So, after HSBFF left for her half day of work, I took off to find some clothes to buy.  As I was walking back to HSBFF’s apartment, bag in hand, digging through my purse for her keys, it happened.  I was wearing a pair of 2 inch wedge flip flops and the pavement in front of her apartment is uneven.  I tripped over the uneven pavement and my right foot turned and I fell.  Hard.  Scraped all the skin off my left knee and thought that was the worst of it.  Oh no.  After about 2 minutes of sitting there trying to catch my breath, I got up and went into her apartment.  I sat down for a few minutes before getting into the shower.  I stood up and nearly fell over after putting weight on my right foot.  It was swollen and turning black and blue.  GREAT.  In a city where walking is king and I just jacked up my stupid foot.  I got dressed and took off however, like a trooper.  Met her at the Amtrak station in the nick of time (I was admittedly moving a tad bit slow) and we boarded.  I sat down and she handed me a beer.  God, I love Amtrak.

The 2 1/2 hour ride up to Albany was beautiful.  The track runs right along the Hudson River and it’s just gorgeous.  We made it to Albany, made it to our hotel and then made it to the venue to see Kill Hannah.  We found a spot at the bar where I could sit and we watched the show.  It was great, and despite my jacked up foot, I got up and danced for one song.  Afterward we were waiting around and Elias (the drummer for Kill Hannah) came over and was talking to me….I told him about my foot and that I had got up and danced anyway.  He thinks I’m insane, I’m sure.  LOL  Caught a cab back to the hotel and crashed.  More than a small amount of alcohol was consumed.  Jesus.

Next morning we were up, had breakfast and made our way back to the Amtrak station.  Caught the train and headed home.  There was more beer on the train and much giggling and laughing and general obnoxiousness.  It’s how we roll.  We had decided that we were just gonna head back to her apartment so I could rest my foot.  Amtrak let us off in Penn Station (the coolest subway station in NYC.) and HSBFF announces she has to pee, and hey look, we’re right here by this cool bar!!  We went in to have **A** beer.  That turned into 3 and an Irish Car Bomb.  We finally pulled ourselves away and began heading back to Staten Island.

We got off the bus and began walking back to her apartment, passing a liquor store (Patron for me, Jameson whiskey for her), and walked by her favorite little dive bar near her apartment.  “Let’s just go in for one beer”.  Holy hell.  4 beers and 2 shots later……by the way, it was at about this point that my liver said “fuuuuuuuuuuuck yooooooouuuuu” and broke up with me…….we stumbled out and headed back to her place.  Unfortunately, we had been going so hard for 4 days that after a tall shot and a single beer at home, by 9:00pm, we were exhausted and we crashed.  Big time.

Slept in this morning, listening to the rain, laid around all lazy like this morning then headed back into the city for me to catch my plane home.  I landed in Hell, and immediately went to the ER.  Didn’t even go home first.  After x-rays, it was determined that the foot is broken, but they aren’t certain how bad it is, so I am currently wrapped in a soft cast, and I’m riding a nice vicodin high at the moment.    I’m home, comfortable and am watching the season premier of Dexter.  I miss my HSBFF like crazy, but it was such a good weekend and I’m a happy girl. 

*The title of this post will make HSBFF snicker like mad.  And no one else will get it, but that’s okay, because that is how 99.9% of stuff between us is.  No one ever gets it but us and we are so totally okay with that.

I arrived in NYC yesterday afternoon at about 2:15 and met up with my HSBFF.  There was immediately giggling and squealing and more giggling going on.  Awesome.  I was starving to death (well, maybe not to death, but I was pretty freaking hungry!) as was she, so we caught a bus, then caught a train into NYC.  We got off the subway, walked out and this was my view.

Ah, Times Square.  God, I love this city.  We headed into one of her favorite spots, an Irish Pub in this area and sat down to eat and begin drinking.  And OMG did we drink.  Jeeze.  At 3pm we began with 2 beers each, then caught the train into the East Village because that is where the Kill Hannah show was.  We pulled up into a bar across the street from there, and switched from beer to Red Bull and Vodka.  I don’t even know how many of those we had.  I truly lost count.  2 of HSBFF’s friends showed up (very, VERY cool people) and we headed over to the venue.  More Red Bull and Vodka.  God.  The show was awesome, Kill Hannah was awesome, the company was awesome.  It was awesome.

Mat Devine, the singer for Kill Hannah, invited everyone in the crowd to the after party/CD release party for the band.  BAAAAD  idea Mat.  That might be cool when the party is in someone’s house, or in a club in Chicago (where they are from), but this is NYC.  We debated going, and decided to finally.  We got there, and most slimy looking dude EVER wouldn’t let us in the club.  Told us it was a private party.  Meanwhile, he’s letting every skank in 6 inch stilletos come on in.  It was oh so much like every scene in a movie where people are denied entrance to a club.  That shit ain’t fiction.  HSBFF caught the eye of Mat and he was like, come on in, but Guido the Bouncer still wouldn’t.  He went back in and was fighting with club management about it, and we were just about to give up, but then Greg Corner, bassist for Kill Hannah and a DJ – who was actually DJ’ing that club that night, came in and saved the day.  He was like what’s going on??  The Guido kept telling him we couldn’t come in.  Corner, God love him, says “These two are with the (record) label” and suddenly Guido the Bouncer was defeated.  Ass wipe.  LOL

We went in the club, continued drinking laughed at all the sad, desperate little groupie girls trying to hang all over the band, thought that a few people should go get a penicillin shot after kissing on several of these skanky girls, and finally decided we’d had enough.  We were tired and wanted to go home.  2am, FTW.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite figure out how to catch the express bus (we were in a part of town that the HSBFF was not familiar with) and ended up grabbing a cab to the Staten Island Ferry, caught the 2:30 Ferry, the 3:00 train and passed OUT by 3:30.

It was just day one.  Tonight, we see U2 and Muse.

Wow.  I just read my last post.  I was in a bad space the night I wrote that.  Really bad space.  But you know what?  I snapped out of it, pretty quickly.  The professional situation?  Out of my hands.  All I can do is continue to apply to places and hope for the best.  I will not stop.  The personal situation?  Yeah.  This one is a bigger douchebag than probably ANYONE I have ever met.  EVER.  But that’s okay.  Karma is a vicious and ugly thing, and you know what sweetcakes?  You will get yours, and it will come back to you times 3.  I hope you are prepared for it, because it’s gonna be ugly and you will deserve every ounce of sadness, sickness and misery that you get.  My only regret is that I will not be there to watch it all go down.

Phew.  I feel SOOOO much better now.

My hooker friend Mary is, as we speak, on a plane to come to Hell.  She is a former collegue of mine (that’s how we met) and we became good friends.  We are having a big conference here in Hell for us and our suppliers and she is coming to town for that.  SO excited.  I’ll get to see her in a few hours.

Then, on Wednesday, my traveling self (always going somewhere aren’t I???) will be headed on a jetplane to NYC to see my HSBFF for 5 fantastic, funfilled days.  We will see Kill Hannah, U2/Muse, Kill Hannah again in upstate New York, then do stuffs in Manhattan on Saturday before I have to come home (sadface) on Sunday.  I love NYC so much.  And I love my HSBFF so much.  And I love Muse so much.  This will be a five day love fest.  Looking forward to it.  I need it.

THEN, the weekend of October 9, I have another quick little ninja trip.  I found a fare to Dallas (where I have friends), roundtrip for $95.  Couldn’t turn it down!!  Just a quickie weekender.  Although I am going to try to get down to Houston to see Andi, or see if she wants to come up to Dallas to hang.

So, as you can see….I’m doing fine.  Better than fine.  I’M FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC.

14 days from here.  From nearly right now, I’ll be standing in NYC with my HSBFF.  Making a mad dash from the airport to her office building somewhere in Manhattan to stash my suitcase, and then to head off to the East Village to go get giggly, get caught up, get a little drunk, then off to see Kill Hannah.  What will follow that is 4 more days of music (ZOMG – Thursday night is for U2 and Muse, then Friday is a train ride up to Albany to see Kill Hannah again), drinking touristy stuff, giggling like no bodies business about stuff that NO ONE else will think is funny.

That is a huge part of what is so good about us.  We’ve been friends since the age of roughly 14.  We’ve both seen each other through some truly shitty times and truth be told, we are still doing that same thing.  Through it all, we make each other laugh like no body else can.  Just a look, a glance, a part of a word will cause us to dissolve into a fit of giggles worthy of the typical 8 year old child.

In 14 days, I’ll have:  giggles, hugs, snuggles, ink, music, love, understanding, giggles….and more giggles.  YAY!

After being subjected to a stupid group picture at work, I went down to the café to grab some lunch.  Today is Tuesday and Tuesday means their home made chicken noodle soup.  It is honestly SO. GOOD.

I got to the café, pulled the lid off the soup pot and knew something was wrong.  It didn’t look the same.  At all.  I over heard the café worker telling someone that they quit making the soup from scratch and are now using a frozen soup.  Well, okkkaaaayyy, I’ll try it and I really wanted chicken noodle soup (I’m still getting over the crushing sick from the weekend – but I am SO much better today, thanksforasking), so I bought a bowl.

Dear, sweet, swaddled, baby Jesus.  It is the NASTIEST stuff ever.  OMG.  Totally, 100% inedible.  I was just sitting here thinking about what I was gonna do now.  Still hungry, need to grab something.  I was just about to grab my keys and head out to get something when my phone rang.  I wouldn’t normally answer it because it was my lunch time, but I recognized the number.  My friend Donna’s cell phone number.

She was out for lunch, at a little sports grill and bar near our office.  She called me to see if I wanted her to bring me an order of deep fried pickles.

O.M.G.  SHE IS MY HERO!

They are so good.  So 100% bad for me, but sooooo good.  I’m a happy girl now.

• Got up and drove 6 hours to Lexington, KY, on Saturday afternoon, arriving just in time for the beginning of ConFab at Bliss Manor.  Put our bitch shirts on and commenced to rocking the party.  And drinking.  And smoking.  And MORE drinking.  And then drunk dialing inappropriate people.  And then Miss Monique took my phone away from me (thank merciful god, because I was working my way through the contact list).
• Up at 9am, grabbed breakfast, brushed my teeth and was back in my car to head the 6 hours home.  Yes, I drove 6 hours Saturday and then 6 hours on Sunday, just for a party.  But it was oh so much more than just a party.  And if you weren’t there, you totally missed out.  Brad and Liz are amazing party hosts.  AMAZING.
• I karaoked.  Several times in fact.  If that doesn’t tell you how drunk I was, nothing will because I do not ever karaoke.  Damn you Brad.  Damn you.
• In nearly every picture of me from Saturday there is a smoke in one hand, and a drink in the other.  Except that one picture of me grabbing Hilly’s ass because she was LAP DANCING ME.  Oh, and the one with my face buried in her bewbs (see, NOW don’t you wish you’d come???).

In other news, 2 hours from home on Sunday, I developed a blinding migraine.  YAY.  Made those last two hours such a pleasure to drive.

Also?  Tis the season…..for fireworks.  And I live in a VERY rural area of town, which means they are all kinds of legal out here.  Let’s do the math…..BEER + REDNECKS + LACK OF COMMON SENSE x FIREWORKS = SOME DUMB REDNECK IS GONNA LOSE A FINGER OR TWO.  Just please, please stop trying to blow your damn fingers off at 2am, okay Jim Bob?

Also, also?  When getting on the freeway in the morning to drive into my daily hell, it would be helpful to turn on the radio and hear the first part of the traffic report that ends “…..so avoid that freeway if at all possible.”, especially when it turns out that “that freeway” is indeed the freeway I have to be on.  Traffic sucked a nut this morning, in other words.