and last summer, at band camp...

Good Gawd, where to begin? It's been so long, I guess we fall into all the categories tonight. So let's just begin at the beginning...

Foul and Pissy

Ugh. Day 2. Crampy, bitchy, and very impatient. Warm hands sound good about right now. Top that off with the new receptionist that started this week. 22, hair down to there, boobs out to here. You know the type. Duh. Tee hee hee. Yak. Listen to the little stories and watch all the old men drool while the younger guys fall all over themselves. Yea yea yea. I hope I wasn't that annoying at that age, but I'm sure I was. *grin* She's nice. But dumb. We sent her on an errand today to get a round tuit. It's a round disc that has Tuit written on it. (Around to it... get it?) Anyhow, she's running around from person to person (who are all in on it) to get this round tuit. AFTER we finally stop her and explain it, she says, "I still don't get it." Just our way of welcoming new blood to the office. Anyhow, she's bored, so she plays on the internet and reads girly magazines in between the 5 phone calls a day. She's supposed to be helping me to take off some of the extra work. Argh. Oh and THEN... Cutie but Not Hottie IT guy, who I've been asking for 6 months to put the timecard program on my computer because for some reason the scanner refuses to clock me in and out without reprogramming my hand every 3 weeks and at least 6 or 8 times of trying with everyone waiting behind me, *breathe* puts the program on her computer after the FIRST day. Oh HELL no. So, I do a little bitching to the right person (quietly of course) and suddenly EVERYONE in the office has the program. Including me. Who, of course, was the LAST person to get it. And apparently the most difficult because the computer kept freezing up and it took him about an hour to install what took about 3 minutes on the others'. Buahahahahaha... mess with me, will ya? Putz.

Hero Scoop

Hero D is heading back to the States from the Sandbox in the next 90 days or so. I'm excited for him and his buddies. It's been a long year over there. He's one of the cool ones who gets to hide out, recon, and find the bad guys. I get to chit chat with him at work coz he NEVER sleeps, and it's fun to hear the stories. Of course, I'm insanely jealous because he's travelled all over the world, gets to do covert shit, and can actually speak Spanish fluently (remember my pathetic attempt at taking a Spanish class?) Yea. I can say hello, goodbye, taco, and horse. We speak in English... anyhow, God willing, I'll get to visit with him when he's stateside. Aren't those folks awesome? He hangs out in the mountains for weeks at a time with no sleep; I'm pissy if I get less than 5 hours a night. I'm such a wuss.

Intellectual Stimulation

I am moving in different directions now. I'm finally settling in to being happy with me. I still work too damn much, but I'm working really hard at learning to just be. I have rearranged my schedule so I get Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons off, and I try to make sure I get out and do things with people. All work and no play makes Miss B a very cranky bitch. My fascination with learning everything about everything still drives me crazy. However, I don't feel the need to re-invent myself all the time. That's not to say I'm not striving to improve myself, my life, my health, and my relationships. But if you constantly change yourself, at what point do you stop and say, hey-this is me? How do you know that you are really what you want to be if you change what you are all the time? I am still taking classes, but trying to make myself read for pleasure as well. That's hard to do, not because I don't like to - love it! - just hard to enjoy it when thinking I need to be reading homework. *sigh* But I see some of my favorite authors have some new books out, and it's time to get caught up...

My Den

Well, Junior has moved into her first apartment with a couple friends. It's a 3 bedroom half a house. With a fireplace. It's actually pretty decent. And between the 3 of them, they have furniture, dishes, everything they need. Including my bed. Don't even ask.

Pickle and I went to dinner Wednesday like we usually do. Then we went to the park where she used to play soccer and walked around. They've really changed it; it's pretty cool. Well, just so happens, the park is right across the block from her new boyfriend's house. The one who's been in love with her since 5th grade. So she talks me into walking over there. I meet his mom, and chit chat with him. We decide to go for a walk. His mom and I are walking along (I'm in sandals, mind you) and she and Little D get the bikes, along with his little sister. So we go walking, for 2 miles. After we already walked a mile around the park. Today, my feet have blisters on all sides, and my toe rings cut gouges into the tops of my toes, so I had to take them off and walk around the office barefoot today. Never again.

Bub is stoked. He's now officially old enough to drive. It's scary. Problem is, he hasn't been seizure-free for a year yet, so I don't know if he'll be able to take his test. We're in the process of finding out. Next month will be the one-year mark. He's trying hard to get enough rest and watch for the things that may trigger him. It's not easy for a 16 year old boy to do.

Office Escapades

Cutie but not Hottie Foreign IT guy is killing me. He tells me the other day he had a dream that he, I and Benji the Scalemaster were all living in the same house. What was even more disturbing, he says, was that we were getting along. We were sitting at a table, drinking coffee, and talking. I think I'm getting to him. *giggle* Because he hates me...

OMG. Saturday, I fill in and work the yard because the boss has kids who run track. No problem. It's cool to hook up the trucks, play on the cb with the other drivers and just do the physical work. Except when it doesn't always go smoothly. It's always the last truck that gives me fits. I had to wait on the tire guy to replace a flat tire on one of the tanks. No problem. I go back after about 20 minutes and he's good to go. So I back under the tank, hook up the air lines, and wander around to the other side to see if he needs to check the tractor while I'm back there. We chit chat a bit, and I get ready to pull out. Release the brakes, put the truck in gear, watch my mirror, and start to roll forward. It's pulling really hard. What the hell? Check to make sure the brakes didn't pop back out. Nope. Tires aren't moving. WTF? Ok, maybe the brakes are stuck, happens, I'll roll back and see if they release. Nope. The tire guy comes around the side of the truck, just as I realize... I have not. cranked. up. the. dolly. legs. Motherfucker. They're bent at about a 15 degree angle and the pressure is so much that if I start cranking on them and they give, the handle crank will come around and probably kill me. Dumbass. So the tire guy gets a couple blocks of wood, and we move the tractor enough to get them up on the blocks and release the pressure on the legs so I can crank them up. First year rookie bullshit. I'm pissed at myself. Not to mention the brace on the side has snapped so the driver cannot drop the trailer with any product in it until it's repaired. I call him to let him know this so he doesn't freak out when he sees it. My boss says I obviously need to work the truck list more so I don't make these mistakes. I tell him I need to work it less because I'm obviously not qualified to drive a truck anymore. So, I'll be working again this Saturday morning. Stupid stupid stupid. *sigh*

I have never been a morning person. I try really hard to get up and be on time for work. Some days it's a heroic feat. The other day, I showered, and put my headband on and just pulled my hair back from my face. My hair is naturally really wavy, bordering on curly. When it's raining or humid, I don't even bother trying to curl or straighten it. Well, any other day, no one says much about my hair. I leave it down and don't do anything with it, and EVERYONE in the office says how great it looks. WTF? I think I look like a dork with it natural. I don't get it. The yard manager, the office manager, 3 of the girls up front all said something. And I spend time "doing" my hair, why? Go figure.

Just Stuff

When I went to pick up Pickle the other day, her sperm donor was outside digging around in his garden. As I was waiting and watching, I mused at how different he was than when we were younger. He would never wear shorts, and always had to look "just so", hair had to be perfect, blah blah blah. This day, he was wearing long shorts, an old t-shirt, and a straw hat. buahahahaha He looked like a doofus. It was cathartic.

Tip Jar

Working at the bar the other night, the hot little yard guy who me and the other single woman in the office are always drooling over came in. He's 20 something, and just a little hottie. More so because he's a NICE hottie. We love ogling him and chatting him up because he always gets this "deer in the headlights, the fat old ladies are flirting with me again" scared look on his face, while he's looking around for the fastest escape. That's the fun in it. We got spanked for being too "playful" and were not allowed to fun around with him anymore because it was thought that we were harrassing him. However, he told our bosses the other day that he doesn't mind if we play with him. God love him. He came into the office last week and said it was hot in there, but maybe he was wearing too many clothes. I know. I couldn't stop myself. I told him he was welcome to take off his clothes if he needed to. He laughed and said he KNEW he said the wrong thing as soon as it came out. mm mm mmmm. *sigh* He asked his girlfriend to marry him over Christmas. Me and the other lady have agreed we will wear black because once he's married, he will no longer be fun. She and I share similar senses of humor, and are quite the terror when we're around each other. It's a good thing we work in different areas. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure we'd be in trouble ALL the time.

Misadventures in Dating

Oy vey. As always, something spectacularly stupid comes out of my mouth. There is a Person of Interest I've gone out with a few times. We'll call him Mr M. Mr M and I have fun when we hang out; not usually a dull moment. We share similar humor, and have a lot of the same ideas and perceptions about life in general. It's a comfortable fit. Anyhow, we were going to the truck show in Louisville KY and decided to leave early from his place because it was a long drive and we had both worked that night. It was about 3 in the morning, and we decided to take a nap before setting out. No biggie. As I get older, I find I don't get all wigged out about stuff anymore. And as it's been a reallllllllly long time since I've had someone regular around (thanks kids) there are things that can be disconcerting. Of course, it's always nice to cuddle with people (in a non-sexual way-just breathing, relaxing) but it's not something I do a lot. He mentioned I seemed a bit nervous.

"Well, I'm not used to sleeping with men."
*Mentally smack myself in the head*
He sits up. "As opposed to... sheep? women?"
"I KNEW as soon as I said it..." We laughed until my sides hurt.

However, turnabout is fair play. We were hanging out a few weeks later and he decided he needed to change the shower curtain. We went shopping, got him the new one, complete with liner, hooks, etc, and hung it. It looked good. I told him all his other lady friends would like it when they used his shower.

"Most of them don't shower."
*raise eyebrow*
"Really? Hmm. Is that like not being used to sleeping with men?"
"No, I mean they don't shower here. You know what I meant." *giggle*

It's good to laugh again. And out with Mr M and talking with Hero D and terrorizing Hottie Little Yard Guy, I realize that Captain Crazy has not crossed my mind in a long time. Nice. I can finally enjoy the company of other people without the crap. Yay me.

On Being Me

So there you have it... in a nutshell, this has been what's happening over the last few weeks. More to come, but I'm just whipped now... time to throw the towels in the dryer, put Scooby-Doo in the vcr, and drift off to dream about heroes and travels and sleeping with men.

*hugs*
miss b