I crashed

For some reason, once a month-- and no, not at "that time of the month," I completely crash out for 24 hours. I am thankful that it always seems to happen on a day when people aren't blowing up my phone, and waiting on me to show up somewhere, or when I have an appointment. It happened last night. I slept- like a dead person- for 12 solid hours. Who does that? Me...once a month.

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I received this email last night... while crashed out. KK, your words lifted me:

"... I don't want you to be scared about anything. I want you to feel safe and accomplished as a woman on her own...(then she went on to tell me about a scary thing that happened to her this week)...These are our lives and they are scary and ugly but there are so many more beautiful things and times for us to focus on so remember the good stuff when the bad stuff haunts you."

You know what to say and when, and I am so thankful that you are in my life. I prayed, before all of this happened to me, that God would surround me with wonderful people who would love and uplift me and give me strength. If this isn't a demonstration of the gift of exactly that, I don't know what is.

I Poo

This is funny!

I'm in love with a gay man

Cute D is my new boyfriend. We met a couple of nights ago out with friends at a bar and have been having a fabulous time ever since. After kickin' it 2 nights in a row, he had to leave on a jet plane for a number of days. You see he's a pilot- how sexy is that? I miss him terribly.

I need boy attention right now. And so after our second night out, I awoke to the sound of my text messaging alarm to find a sweet good morning text from Cute D himself laced with concern for my having gotten home in one piece. I love it. I feel so cared for, so adored. He tells me how fabulous I look without prompting, he looks at me with puppy dog eyes to show his sympathy, he embraces my enthusiasm for life and tells me how amazing I am. I, of course, am completely able to return the affection unhindered by any crazy emotions or expectations. We are friends, and I feel that our friendship will only continue to grow.

I am so thankful when really great people grace me with their presence. It brings a new energy to your life. It brings new intellectual stimulus. It is interesting all over again to share your life story and to hear theirs. I have been energized this whole weekend because of the energy he has brought to me. And I am looking forward, like nothing else, to getting to know him better.

Cute D, as I told you this morning, have fun no matter what you do today. Definitely eat pancakes tomorrow morning! And miss me until you return. I can't wait for Thursday.

J.

Just today

I saw a girl running with her kite by the lake I walk around on Saturday mornings. I loved seeing the colors of the kite shining in the sunlight.

I saw a young boy putting up his lemonade stand while I was on my walk. I asked if he would be open later today for business, as I think it is so important to support our young entrepreneurs- he informed me very matter-of-factly that he would be open tomorrow before lunch. I promised I would be back. As I walked around the neighborhood I saw his little hand-written posters hung all around directing people to his driveway. It is so cute!

I realized that I am beyond poor. And, even though I wanted to hold on to my house, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to. My first steps in lowering my monthly bills is removing Person A from all insurance policies, canceling the housekeeper, not using any electricity or gas (heating and cooling) and living on what I currently have in my refrigerator for as long as I can.

I saw that my hot water heater is leaking- that's not a good sign. I think it is rusting from the inside out. I'm not sure how much one of these costs, but I'm sure it is going to totally bust at the most inconvenient time.

I realized that my fence on the left side of my house is also falling in.

I got a notice from my home-owner's association that I have to have my house power-washed before March 4th.

I am going to the hair doctor. Thank God. I'm looking pretty ratty. Now I look like a rock star

I ate ice cream- fat free of course, but I still ate it.

My Friend Cherie

I have to write an 'Ode to Cherie'. She has certainly earned a very special place in my blog. Cherie and I have been friends now for about 6 years. For the last 2 years, she and her husband have lived down the street from me, in a house I coerced them to purchase for completely selfish reasons.

Cherie and I drive to work together every day. Most days I am still half asleep, but Cher is always awake ready to have a conversation about one of the following topics:

1. A dream she had the night before- usually involving some element of sci-fi, her dogs and a random person she and I conversed about the day before (or a combination thereof).
2. A prayer or writing she read that morning.
3. The traffic. This of course is a favorite topic, as we are always ever-present in traffic. It is Houston after all.

Let's talk about the traffic. Cherie spends the 45 minute commute being frustrated about her lane choices. Does anyone remember that scene in Office Space where the guy is driving to work, the lane that he is in is standing still while cars in the lane next to him are whizzing by and so he switches lanes- only for that lane to stand still and the lane he was once sitting in to be whizzing. This is what happens to us...every morning of every day.

Cherie is the most polite driver though. She lets people over, actually utilizes her blinker, and waves to thank people for letting her over in front of them. My philosophy for the morning commute is usually screw you, but I suppose those morning prayers are doing her a world of good.

Let's talk for a minute about the music in the morning. There is one album that dominates the morning commute- Shock Value. It just seems to bring us right into downtown and pump us up for the day ahead. Then there are the lyrics-- we all do it, well except Cherie, we all make up lyrics to songs when we are unsure of what the artist is actually saying. When I do this Cherie will stop the song and ask "what did they just say?" and when she does it, I will say "what did you just say?" Then I usually laugh histarically at the ridiculous word she has just made up to conveniently insert.

On the drive home we almost often times call her Motha, who we lovingly call by her first name "Sheila". I just realized that Sheila is a whole blog entry of her own and I will have to retire this part of the story for now.

And so the commuting goes...with my friend Cherie

"Old Skool Fools"

Mardi Gras

I've decided that there are two sides to every Mardi Gras. The first in the glamorous, extravagant, elaborate, glamorous balls, and spending way too much money on ridiculous items like plastic beads and glow sticks. Then there is the trashy side- yes, that's the side where unfortunate girls flash their goods for crappy 12 inch beads in the middle of the street for God and everyone to see, the side where just the sight of a sign "Show your Dick" will prompt 3 unsuspecting tourists to do as such, and of course the side that prompts photos like this- really what was it that prompted you to think this outfit was a good idea?



So I had the pleasure of experiencing both sides. I met up with my friend Julie from S.C. and she filled my dance card every minute of the day. Friday night we saw 4 parades and by the time it was all over with, it was like 2am. Then upon returning to my hotel room, the guys down the hall are just gearing up for their in-house party. The amazing thing about the lads down the hall from me is that not only do they party until 6am, but then they are up at 9am yelling all sorts of things. I just don't know how they do it, I would have anticipated peace from 6am until at least noon, but that would be a waste of beer drinking time I suppose. So nonetheless, I fell asleep to the building shaking and woke up to the same just a few hours later.

Bead earning- these dirty old men have bead trading down to a science. They barter with you on an individual level, supposedly this is the "gentlemanly" way of doing things- as opposed to just flashing random strangers in the street. So you pick the beads you want, flash 'em, and go on your merry way. It's really very simple. Yes, I earned a couple, but the best of all beads I received from the Bead Ferry who felt that I just had to have them. The problem is that these beads were gifted to me on the first night, and no other beads stood up to the quality of any other beads. I was jaded all weekend. I didn't want any other beads.

And about the beads- for some reason, you leave your comfortable home, with all of your valuables behind and venture to New Orleans to yearn for, chase after, risk loosing an eye for, and sometimes beg for plastic beads on a string. As soon as you step foot into the city limits you are reduced to thinking that the most important thing in the world is obtaining the biggest and most beautiful bead strand. And as soon as you drive away, you think, why did I just spend and exorbitant amount of hours picking up and wearing beads? Regardless you are having fun all the while.

The glamorous side of things goes like this. You pay a lot of money to attend a proper Mardi Gras Ball, Endymion is the one that I attended. It was in the Super Dome, 14 thousand people were there and they bring the Endymion parade right into the Super Dome and it is crazy. This is where I received a black eye. This guy went so crazy throwing beads that I was pelted right in the eye and was sure it would be black and blue by the morning. Julie of course just quips "sometimes you gotta catch 'em with your face." Great. Anyway, everyone was all dressed up in ball gowns and tuxes. The parade was great. The people were loads of fun...and the music was good, although I would not recommend listening to any Kevin Costner music. But the Go Go's and Cowboy Mouth were great. We closed the ball down. Well...us and the totally drunk girl in the red dress who couldn't stand up and obviously shouldn't have been attempting to walk on her own, or even breath on her own.

OK Court and Steph. Next year, the three of us are there. I know all the places to hang out and see. We must arrive on Thursday for the Muses parade, it is the best, it's the all girl parade. We can leave on Monday morning because there really is nothing going on after Sunday night's Bacchus parade. I'll make all of the arrangements, just clear your calendar and get some money together.