• 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 am now moved into my new place.  It’s quiet, calm and peaceful.  MUCH better than the hotel.  Like, WAY better.    I was able to make a home cooked meal (Tense Teacher’s yummy taco soup) and eat it while sitting on this:

And watching this:

I love my new couch!  It’s so comfortable!  And, that TV stand?  I put it together all by myself.  I was very proud of myself for that. 

I’m dead exhausted and my foot is killing me.  I did too much up and around on it today I think, and it is complaining at me very loudly.  I took a couple Tylenol PM’s a bit ago and am going to be heading to bed very soon.  My only remaining quandary is whether I just crash on my uber comfortable couch or put my new sheets on the bed and crawl upstairs to crash in my new bed.  Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

Today is the American Thanksgiving. I am thankful for a lot, but still…..being alone today kind of sucks. Ah well, I’m going to maybe go see a flick and run by my townhouse to drop off the TV I bought yesterday.

So, I have been here in Huntsville, AL for almost a week now.  And have been at work for 4 full (well, almost full, because my new boss came in at 12:30 and DEMANDED I go home – heh) days.  What do I think?

I OMG fucking love it here.  Seriously.

I am suffering some separation anxiety of course.  My kids aren’t with me, and that sucks.  I’ve heard from the Terrorist several times.  She misses me.  Awwwww.  My Monkey is in Mexico with my parents celebrating his birthday (which is Friday), but I miss him just the same.

My saving grace?

Renee.

Seriously.  I knew Renee when we worked together in Houston.  We were casual friends, but not much more.  She was here in Huntsville, working on the same program as me, before I was.

I HAVE LATCHED ON TO HER.  Poor Renee.  Seriously.  LOL

It is really super nice to have people you already know when you move to a new place, and Renee has really taken care of me.  “Do you need anything?”  “Can I take you somewhere?”  “Can I show you around?”  “Let’s go to lunch!”  Awesome beyond measure.

So, on this eve of Thanksgiving, here is my list of things I am thankful for:

• My children.  They are healthy and happy (well, as happy as a 15 year old girl can be.  LOL)
• My health.  Despite my stupid broken foot, I am healthy.
• My friends that have supported me through all my whining on my search to get out of Hell.
• And finally Renee.  Seriously girl.  You are making this transition so much easier for me and I cannot thank you enough.  I <3 you!

Happy Thanksgiving Day to you all (or for my Canadian friends (even those sock wearing ones) happy Thursday).  Hug your loved ones extra tight for me, will  ya?

Okay, well, it sucks ALL  the time.  Although the one I am in at least has a full sized fridge and a small kitchenette so I can cook a few things (scrambled eggs and sausage this morning – yumm).  I got up at about 9am this morning, after being rudely woken up at 6am by a neighboring hotel guest.

You have to fully understand something about my dog before I go further.  She is a total crackhead.  She barks at every single noise because she’s only ever lived in a house before, so every time someone walks by the room she barks.  So, keep in mind, I’m a tad sleep deprived because people are coming and going at all hours here.

At 6am, she heard footsteps outside and barked and ran to the door.  Great.  I got up and grabbed her, trying to hush her up because I didn’t want to wake everyone in the hotel (she has a LOUD bark).  We got back in bed and I could hear a man talking.

“Baby, baby, you know I don’t hear my phone in the middle of the night.”

“Baby, you know I love you.”

“Of course I’m here alone.’

“YOU started this fucking fight, not me!”

Lather, rinse repeat.  He had this conversation with “baby” for 45 minutes.  Now, why was he having this conversation outside his room (and ultimately, outside MINE)?  My only guess is that it was because he was NOT alone.  He was pacing in front of my room wearing what sounds like cowboy boots that were making a god awful noise on the walk way.  I was highly irritated, but also interested.  I keeping shushing Emma to keep her quiet so I could hear.  Ha!  Busted ass hole.  Mary told me I should have poked my head out the door and said loudly, “Get off the phone with your wife and go back to bed with your girlfriend!”  LOL LOL

Once he satisfied her that he wasn’t with anyone, he went back to his room and I dozed back off.  That is when the strange, strange, dream happened.  I was headed to a concert with people (that I didn’t recognize) when we had a small fender bender.  The person that hit us was a friend of mine.  One that is very married.  We ended up going back to his house for drinks before the show (he was going to the same show and was going to drive us) and I was there with his wife (who I’ve never met before or even seen a picture of) who informed me that they were getting divorced next week.

That’s when it got WEIRD.  My mom walked in, with a 20 something year old hispanic man (who was gorgeous) that was hanging all over her.  I pulled mom aside and asked her WTF?  She just laughed and said she was done with my dad (they’ve been disgustingly happily married for 40 years now, mind you) and his bullshit and that they were getting divorced.  Please meet your new stepdad Jose.  I stormed out of the house and was caught by this friend of mine who informed me that he and his wife were getting divorced next week and that he wanted to date me.

Then I woke up.  It was truly bizarre.  The friend is someone that I’ve known since I was a kid, and am still in contact with now.  I kind of wish he would leave his wife, but then I truly don’t wish that on anyone.  And my mom?  No clue why she popped up on my dream.  The young Jose with her?  HAS to be because I saw New Moon yesterday and spent a good chunk of that movie drooling over Taylor Lautner.

So, I’m tired.  It’s rainy and cold here today, but I need to go out to Wal-Mart and pick up some stuff like shampoo and hairspray (hotel shampoo sucks and I ran out of hairspray) and a few other necessities.  But for right now, I’m going to sit here and watch one of my favorite shows, Snapped, on Oxygen.