CAUTION: Woman In Progress

Sooooo... Okay, y'all know I read food blogs, right? Well, actually I read a lot of different blogs. The kinds that are wildly popular. I generally tend to avoid reading the comments, though for two reasons. A) They're totally fangirling over nothing really special or B) they're criticisms. Drives me bananas. I mean, I have left a comment or two on a couple of well established blogs that complimented them when I really enjoyed a particular post and just recently I begged Katie Bower to switch her font back because the tiny fancy script she'd changed it to hurt my eyes. (Which she kindly did because she is super sweet.)  But believe me, I generally tend to agonize over whether or not to comment.  I typed and deleted that font begging comment multiple times before hitting publish. Keep in mind, these are the blogs of strangers, not friends like Trixie who I try to comment to as often as I can and usually with something silly ...

I'm done with a capital D with apologizing for not knowing what you didn't tell me. I do NOT appreciate your assumption that I will comply with your request/demand and will not apologize for not jumping on that bandwagon from the get go. Next time ask BEFORE you set something in motion that requires my cooperation or assistance. It is not FAIR to bully me into doing what you want me to do without considering how what you want me to do will affect me. Just because it seems silly to you does not mean it IS silly. It just means that your needs are different from mine. Why in the hell did you ask me to do this if you were just going to undo it as soon as my back was turned? And why in the hell should I redo it now that you've decided to you want it done again? I have not had enough chocolate to deal with you right now. There may not be enough chocolate in the WORLD to deal with you. I need chocolate. How hard is it for you to just ASK me when you can't find some...

People frustrate me to no end. I mean, is it really too much to ask for a body to actually get up and come get me when someone needs me for something? You know, instead of shrugging your shoulders and telling them, "I don't know." It leaves me frustrated when I find out later that someone I needed to talk to came up to see me and were turned away because the lazybones I work with couldn't be bothered to check the board to see where I was so that she could come get me or send a student after me. Yes. We have a sign-out board so that we all know how to find each other throughout the day for this very purpose. I can't be chained to me desk all day long. I have projects to tend to, meetings to attend, places to go and people to see. So we sign out on a white-board and if I'm not in a meeting or out of the building it's easy peasy to come get me if someone needs to speak to me or needs my help. But noooooooo. Not my circus, not my monkey seems to be the man...

So I was supposed to have a working breakfast this morning. As of Friday afternoon, I was supposed to meet up with a couple of people at a local cafe at 7:30 this morning. Since I carpool with Mama, I had to make arrangements to drop her off and take her car to the breakfast meeting. We had to leave early to make it happen and everything. I got to the cafe a couple of minutes early so I went on inside and ordered coffee and informed the waitress that I had two others coming. And then I waited. Eventually took out my book and started to read a bit. Twenty minutes later, the other two hadn't shown. So I called in to the office to ask D to connect me with one of the peeps I was supposed to be meeting. (I don't have this person's personal number or office number in my phone.) D then tells me that the meetings I was supposed to have today had been cancelled/postponed. So no breakfast meeting. No phone call, messenger pigeon, no nothing to let me know this. Turns out, the cha...

Or maybe it should be "On becoming friends with people you work with" *sigh* Ya'll know by now that I am not the kind of person who makes friends easily. Oh, I know there are a couple of you out there who swear I'm super sweet and all that. Or at least you have in the past. haha But you also know that I am not a people person. Talking to, connecting with, and often even dealing with people  face to face is difficult for me. I have never had wonderful experiences with friends and friendships. Sure I have the BFF and there have been others throughout the years who I've counted as best friends or good friends. But honestly? There's always been a disconnect somewhere between me and them. A sort of distance. I've never felt truly accepted by anyone. I'm different. Odd in many ways and more often than not my friends end up either using me for whatever it is they can't get elsewhere or they end up writing me off and forgetting me. I'm pretty sur...

I am super annoyingly frustrated with life right now. Nothing is going right. Sis2 and I have been making all these plans for how to pull off Mama's surprise 60th birthday party and everyone else keeps throwing monkey wrenches into everything. Not to mention the fact that only a precious few have RSVP'd that they're even coming to the party. She's depressed about life stuff (her oldest daughter being a butt, her dad's health issues, work stuff, etc) which really makes it difficult to keep her going off and doing something crazy like making her own plans for next weekend and shutting us out. Sis1 is being a butt. And a monkey wrench. She decided YESTERDAY that Emmy is coming up here next week for her annual summer vacation. Next week is IMPOSSIBLE for me to take any real time off to spend with her because work is taking over my life. I did manage to get Wednesday off with some begging. Work is taking over my life. And that's all the complaining I can do about...

~Sometimes the world just makes me cranky. ~I often feel like I just can't win for losing. Nothing is right. Nothing is good. Everything I do is criticized. Why can't I just live my life and you live yours and we just agree to disagree on what the other is doing? ~My knees are finally both in a happy place where they're not torturing me daily. Feet, too. I probably shouldn't talk about it, though. They'll hear me. ~I "walked" with Denise Austin this morning for the first time in MONTHS. I nearly passed out. But in a good way. ~Sis1 and my aunt in COLORADO (yes, I had to shout it because what. the. heck.) have decided that "we" need to throw Mama a big 60th birthday party in June. Oh, and they'll "help". Whatever. I know who'll be planning and executing this shindig and it won't be the sister in Alabama and the aunt in Colorado. I might can pull Sis2 into helping for realz but she's broke so you know who'll be...

I am convinced that mice are little mini-terrorists bent on destroying the world one wire at a time. Not only did they destroy half of Daddy's Christmas lights he'd stored in the shed. I mean, that's bad enough. But today really takes the cake. You may or may not know that My mother got a new Nissan Rogue last year.  Or earlier this year. No, I think it was late last year. ANYWAY, the car is barely a year old and this morning it would not crank. Well, it did at first, but when she cut if off it wouldn't start a second time. The problem? MICE. A mouse or a group of mice had built a nest under the hood somewhere and chewed through some wires. A $1300 fix, peeps, according to the dealership. Warranty doesn't cover such a thing and the insurance adjuster is giving her grief about it even though something like that SHOULD be covered under a comprehensive auto insurance plan. What the crap, mice? You don't have anything better to do than chew wires? They d...

I know I still owe y'all last weekend's report. Hopefully I'll manage it before I die. ;-) Even if ya'll don't care, I do. It was fun and special and I want to record it somewhere. Anway, this past weekend was actually really dull. Chick-fil-A, Haven , Sonic, Wal-Mart, frozen pizzas, dog hair, church, the folks, Once Upon a Time and Revenge . You know. The usual. I did try rearranging some furniture in the living room but moved it back. It was an epic fail. So epic I didn't even take a photo of it. haha The thing I want to get all ranty-pants about is this: Last weekend Sis1 informed us that she and Emmy would not be coming back home for Emmy's birthday weekend (the 17th/18th) because her youth group has a lock-in at church that weekend and she has a sleepover with a friend and some other excuses. Okay, fine. We understand. And with Thanksgiving being the following week, we get it. No biggie. Disappointed, but no biggie. But then...THEN, Sis1 called...

Okay ya'll. Go read this and then come back for my comments on it. Because I would never actually LEAVE a comment on her actual BLOG that was less than flattering because, hello. I'm a nice girl. So I'm going to bash this recipe behind her back. Because that's much nicer than harshing on it to her face and A) hurting her feelings and B) getting completely flamed by her loyal followers/fans who all want to marry her. Let me get this outta the way, first. I love Jess and How Sweet It Is. I really, truly do. She's, like, HILARIOUS and brilliant in the kitchen...usually and if not for this one thing we would probably be, like, BFF's in real life if we ever actually met. I read her blog every day because it, like, sweetens my soul. Or something. That's why I can't ever bash any of her recipe's on her blog because I respect her and wouldn't want to hurt her feelings. But...this has to be said somewhere because this sort of insanity is all over ...

No real point to today's post. It's a rambler. Enjoy! So. I'm thinking about writing a little editorial piece to put in the university's newspaper. A little ditty about MANNERS and HOSPITALITY. Seriously. Did no one teach half these kids about the common courtesy of checking behind you as you walk out of door to make sure no one's behind you and that if there IS someone behind you, you, I dunno, HOLD IT FOR THEM? Is that hard? Does not everyone in the world learn that little piece of 411 from infancy? Or is it just a few select old school southerners who cling to such a courtesy? You guessed it. I nearly got creamed by a door swinging shut while both my hands were full. I was leaving the coffee shop behind this student who breezed through the door ahead of me and let it swing shut behind him. Had I not thrust one of my ample hips out to catch it I'd be wearing my coffee right now. Even the person who was behind me was kind enough to rush up to catch the do...

Ya'll. I had an angry cry last night when I came home. Like, a full on southern style hissy fitted angry cry. It wasn't pretty. Not that I can "pretty" cry ever. But an angry cry? Disgusting. Why all the fuss? Well, you may recall how excited I was to talk to the power company about that tree in my yard and how they'd promised to cut up the trunk into manageable pieces  after they disposed of the limbs and other smaller junk. Guess I shoulda asked him to define manageable. Cause this? Not so manageable. Or maybe it would be if I were, I dunno, The Incredible Hulk maybe??? *sigh* Notice, please, how thoroughly they cut through this ginormous tree trunk: So, I'm just, what? Supposed to use my magical powers to move this mess? There's only maybe three chunks that I might be able to move on my own. And that'll be a stretch. Exhibit A: My size 8 flip flop for scale. So yeah. Angry cry. I ranted and raved and...

**So why is it that whenever you put in a service call for office equipment as soon as the technicians walk in the door the equipment works fine ? **Also, why did I eat three (small) cookies last night? I'm blaming Being Human . Seeing Aiden enjoy his supper so much made me think I was hungry. Except instead of blood, I need sugar and chocolate to survive. Good news is, that was the last of the cookies so they can't taunt me anymore. And... no more baking!! Not even for church. **One of my neighbors was recently featured in the three local newspapers for his incredible weight loss. He's 57 and back in 2009 he weighed nearly 500lbs. When he was diagnosed with diabetes he began working with a dietitian and lost a couple hundred. Then another neighbor of ours sponsored his membership to the local wellness center (the gym owned and operated by the hospital) and he lost an additional 100lbs. He's like, ten pounds from his goal weight. Said his exercises initially consis...

It's one of those days where both sides of the bed were wrong and I just shoulda never got up. And on a Friday, too! Not fair, universe. Not fair. But anyway, last night we had a wicked awesome thunderstorm complete with a power outage. Lost electricity at 7:30--AFTER the worst of the storm had passed over. It was hardly even raining at that point. I dragged out my big lantern thing and read back issues of People Magazine until I went to bed at 9:30.  Libby, who has inexplicably become terrified of thunder, locked herself up in her room and refused to come out until I mentioned going outside to do her business. I held her a little bit and sang her a lullaby before tucking her in for the night and she said she'd tuck her own self in if it meant I'd shut up with the singing already. Devil Pups. They're so ungrateful. Fortunately, the storm blew in some cooler temps so that the house didn't become an incinerator. I cracked my bedroom window before going to bed an...

Ugh. My teeth hurt and I think I may be getting a few weeks jump on some PMS because ya'll? I'm in a craptastic mood today. Or at the moment, anyway. Shortly after I got to work this morning, A im'd me that we're meeting Mrs. B for lunch today. Mrs. B who retired last year. So yay! I haven't seen her in a while except for a brief run-in at Wal-Mart a couple weeks ago. (Yes. We clogged an aisle for half an hour.) I really don't need to spend the money on yet another lunch outing as this will be the third one this week but life happens and it's just money and all that. Plus, it's Mrs. B! She's SO worth it. Because I am a good daughter, I invited Mama to tag along. She and Mrs. B have been friends and worked together for YEARS. I was being NICE. However, what's that old saying about being nice will get you shot in the face or something like that? Isn't there a saying along those lines? Oh, right. Let no good deed go unpunished. Being shot...

Today is what is known as "Staff Appreciation Day." Today sucked. I'd go into ranty pants detail but all I'll say is, "At least I have a job."

Okay, for the record I have NOT memorized every book we have in our collection. Just because I am "in charge" of the book collection does not render me the superhero ablity to pull books outta my butt. AND we have an on-line catalog for a reason, people. Now, having said that "out loud" I feel a little better. Never mind me. Talk amongst yourselves. I'm just going to sit over here and hum quietly to myself.

I hate it when people laugh at something I say when I'm not trying to be funny. You know, as in, I'm serious. Not joking around. Just offering my thoughts. And suddenly someone bursts into laughter because apparently my thoughts are ludicrous. I hate that. It makes me feel stupid and I hate feeling stupid. I also hate it when I'm in the middle of sharing a story on a topic we're all talking about and suddenly the others in the conversation are commenting about a magazine cover or the muffin they just ate as though I'm not sitting there mid-sentence participating in a conversation they started. It's rude, yeah. But also, I'm never sure if I should just stop talking or keep going. Both options feel awkward and I don't wanna be all, "Hey shut up! I was talking!" *sigh* I sometimes wish I were mute so I wouldn't be tempted to even try to participate in conversation with anyone. I almost always come away from conversations either annoyed, em...

You know how sometimes your day starts out really really good--the coffee you brewed tasted exactly how you wanted it, the weather was clear, your pj's were warm, the pup snuggled in for a good nap against your legs while you read a particularly good book--and then one tiny little thing totally throws you for a loop and then that's all you can think about?? Surely you know what I'm talking about. Well, either way, that's what happened to me today. Had a great morning. A great past two days, actually. Then I came into work and checked my email and BAM !! Hit right between the eyes. And I can't even rant about it because it's work related. But it just totally squashed my good mood and made me feel like utter crap. Like SMACK in the forehead with extra force. And I just can't get it out of my head. I keep chewing on it and turning it over in my mind and crafting things I wish I could say or do in response and knowing that I can't. There's nothing I ...

I'm a complete winter wimp. I admit it. I shudder when I see photos on the news or on blogs when the snow is as tall as a person and all the world is white. I cringe when I hear of temperatures (actual OR wind chill) in the negatives. As in below zero. *shivers* This, my friends, is why I live in the south. Well, besides the fact that I was born here. Winter here is like spring to ye folks up yonder. But...Ugh. I am so ready to bid winter adieu! We had a "winter storm" last night which basically means that there was the possibility of snow, sleet or ice--or all of the above. Mama and I left work at two o'clock yesterday in order to avoid it. Because ya'll? Us southern folk? We ain't got NO CLUE how to drive in winter storm conditions. Especially not me and Mama. We are not brave or stupid enough to try it, either. We ended up not  having any snow or heavy ice conditions. Mostly just a mix of rain and sleet causing icy roads, bridges and overpasses. The ...