Archive for April, 2007

I MIGHT BE GOING TO ALASKA, I MIGHT BE GOING TO ALASKA, I MIGHT BE GOING TO ALASKA!!
Yeah, I’m hoping SO hard that this opportunity comes through. I’ve known for a while now that my boss is going to Alaska the first week in June on business. Tonight, after dinner, he asks if I will research plane tickets for the boys and me to join him! I guess he found out that HIS boss is bringing his eleven-year-old son with him. My boss then asked what his son would do while the father is at meetings and attending to business, to which the answer was “uh i don’t know” (okay I’m paraphrasing because I wasn’t there). Okay, to make a short story out of it, my boss offered that I nanny for the other man’s son (I don’t mind!) as well as the two boys I already watch while in Alaska. My boss’ boss offered to pay half of my plane ticket in exchange for me working for him.
There are a number of hoops we must jump through in order to get this ball rolling though. The first criteria was to find tickets priced around $500 — CHECK (I’m good). The second hoop is that the boys will miss a week of school, so we must find out if that is allowable. The third hoop is that we need the boys’ mom’s okay (this is quite a doozy).
So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray that this works out. I am SO excited and really hoping I can go. I mean, come on, it’s ALASKA! I’m bout to pee my pants.

LOVE!

ps. We’d be in Anchorage!

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Okay I feel compelled to talk about books. I would hope that those of you reading this know me well enough, or have read enough of my xanga, to know that I LOVE BOOKS and I LOVE TO READ. I’m currently reading Sophie’s Choice by William Styron. It’s….interesting. It’s a pretty good book, except it tends to be lewd. Generally I stay away from lewd. I thought, by setting out to read the classics, that I would avoid a large amount of lewdness. Not so, as D.H. Lawrence and now, William Styron, have shown me. UGH. So now I’m just try to drudge through the nasty parts and get to the interesting parts and just FINISH the dang book. It’s weird to be on the metro and by embarassed by the book you are reading, I don’t like that.
Anyhoo, I can’t explain the feeling that overcomes me when I walk into a library or book store. I am completely inundated by a love of books. The possibilities, the sheer knowledge that awaits me in each and every book, well, quite frankly, it makes me giddy. I become quite lustful and ambitious, making mental lists of all the books I intend to read, wishing desperately that I could read the ALL simultaneously. I must touch the books I want to buy (when in a bookstore), as if I am tagging it for my future use, claiming that I will read it one day, as if this mere touch binds me to that book forever. It’s pretty crazy, as you can tell. Cecilia and I are planning on reading The Brothers Karamazov together and I’m really excited. I’ve been dying to break into Dostoyevsky for a while now, after establishing my love of Tolstoy, although I did start TBK a while ago and then moved onto something else. I have this thing where what I really want to do is read the masterpiece of a certain author, but in order to prove myself worthy, I must read another book they’ve authored. It’s weird. And it’s not like I’m the expert on which book is their masterpiece, it’s based on which book is better known. So, I read Anna Karenina before War and Peace and shall read The Brothers Karamazov before I jump into Crime and Punishment. When I find out that other people are reading classic books that I’ve been dying to read I’m filled with envy, it’s sad. I always imagine these scenarios where I’ll be at a cocktail party (never been to one) held at an art exhibit by a friend of a friend of a friend (I don’t even have that many friends here) and chatting with an intelligent group of people and the subject of books will come up, and I will astound this group with the knowledge I’ve gained from all the books I’ve read. So it’s more of a fantasy I suppose. I love books for their own value first and foremost, not for how smart they make me look…just so you know.
So I’m pretty much off my rocker.
If you are out there looking for a good book to read, let me give you some suggestions;

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Anna Karenina/War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy (both take a great deal of time to get through)
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (also really long)

my personal favorites among the classics I’ve read;

Pride and Prejudice/Sense and Sensibility/Mansfield Park all by Jane Austen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

LOVE!

ps I love to discuss books so maybe you could comment about your favorite book or what you may have thought about any of the books I’ve listed above that you’ve read!

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OH.MY.GOSH.
I think all forms of transportation are out to get me. I was on a metro train for 30 minutes while it sat in a standstill on the tracks. This all happened two stops from where I got on (I had like 12 stops to go). We went backwards, we went forwards, but mostly we just sat there. Finally Cecilia calls and is like, “want me to just pick you up?” I say, “yes that would be great”. I get off the metro, almost get completely out of the “building” when they announce that everything is back to normal and trains are operating in both directions now. So I got back on, only to move at the slowest pace possible. I saw a snail pass us (I actually texted this to Cecilia and laughed quite a bit over it). Laughing about life’s mishaps is so much more fun than being angry, I don’t know why more people don’t just laugh.
Thankfully I thought to upload all the Beatles music I have onto my new ipod. It saved me. You just can’t be mad while listening to the Beatles, well, at least I can’t. I love them so much.
You know what else I love? The DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here. I know, I talk about it all the time, but I just can’t help it. I think we saw the exorcist steps tonight (that’s for you, dad), it was creepy and I haven’t even seen the movie (nor will I ever).
Okay, I’m pretty tired despite the dulce latte I just consumed so I’m off.

LOVE!

ps wanna know a third thing i love? cesselot franconia riester. dc+cfr+alr = perfection.

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Today was QUITE eventful for me. I don’t get to say that very often so let me repeat, today was QUITE eventful for me.
It started with me sleeping through my alarm (gotta go back to using the cell phone). After getting the boys off, I went back to bed for a bit (I’m a bum, what can I say), I got up, picked up my NEW favorite drink from Starbucks (a dulce latte) (which is a whole ‘nother story), and headed off to volunteer orientation at the Red Cross Center in Fairfax. Volunteer orientation consisted of the instructor introducing herself, explaining why she is “instructing” instead of the original lady, putting a video tape into the VCR, taking the video out after like 20 minutes and asking, “any questions?” I wonder how many times she has seen that video. I found the video to be pretty humorous, but didn’t let on because I thought this would affect my chances of becoming a volunteer. The guy speaking on the video is at Clara Barton’s house, which he gives us a lil tour of….that’s funny.
I mailed some care packages out and now owe the USPS my firstborn (okay not really). I’m not disclosing who is to receive said packages, but I did send out 6 and there are more going out tomorrow, so. Let me just say if you are in college, about to experience finals, and I know/love you, it is highly likely you’ll be getting a “surprise” soon. So much for the surprise.
I came home, put away my laundry and caught up on LOST. Why is it when I try to multitask while watching LOST, it’s always a LOST episode with subtitles? These are my thoughts after EVERY LOST episode, “What the HECK!” Seriously, every time, without fail. I’ve found that LOST is starting to shake the core of my very being. Today, at dinner, I glanced outside and thought I noticed what looked like a line of dead grass, where, perhaps, a cable might be buried? I think so! ha. I’m a fool, I know.
I’ve been hanging with the neighbor-boy, Eshawn, a little the last two days. He kills me. Yesterday we went to get the mail together. I received a package from my brother. Let me just explain. From the outside the package looked normal. On the inside I find a note on a piece of scrap paper and a cd (Led Zeppelin mix) wrapped in what looks like a dirty Baker track towel. It made me laugh and utter “what a goofball” (I LOVE YOU ADR AND I’M SO THANKFUL FOR MY CD!) Eshawn thought that was just great and now is determined to be more like my dear brother. Today he says to me, out of the blue, “do I look like your brother?” I had forgotten and didn’t know what he was talking about. He started talking like a hick (apparently that’s what you do to be a goof) so I said, “yes Eshawn, you are a goofball.” He’s so cute, I shall take a picture to show all of you.

LOVE!

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WHOA do I have a lot of comments…including one from my MOTHER who is ABLE to see my xanga because she knows my password (i shall change THAT soon). Yeah, for your fyi Muddibuddi, I did not comment on my own xanga, that was my mom.

Just wanted to add another humorous anecdote.
Last night it was just the boys and me eating dinner, as my boss was running late. Sometimes when it’s just the three of us, the boys get quite hyper and an interesting mood sets in. Somehow we go to the point where Alex says to Loren, “it’s because you are adopted Loren” which next leads him to ask me, “If you were at an adoption shelter and saw Loren, would you pick him?” I look at Loren, who looks at me with a HUGE grin and crossed eyes. Which prompts much laughter. Somehow we got onto what exactly an “adoption shelter” is…apparently these kids are envisioning something much like an animal rescue shelter, with children in cages and whatnot. I set them straight, don’t you worry. And, yes, I said I would adopt Loren even though he had been temporarily inflicted with goofyness. that may have been a lie….(which has nothing to do with crossed eyes)

LOVE!

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edit: HOW COULD I FORGET? My cousin Tim is back in the USA after being in Iraq for way too long (as far as I’m concerned). The Lord is SOOO good!! Oh and I get to see him and the rest of the fam on Mother’s Day, yay!!

I’m starting to think I am becoming more and more type-A with each passing day. I’ve always tended towards type A-ness, as I am a firstborn and have always sought approval. My father is type-A to a T, but my mom is, well, let’s just say we have about 10 books with titles such as “How to live with a Messy”. My mom has greatly influenced my life, especially in the cooking/baking/cleaning/all things domestic and womanly, so it wasn’t necessarily a given that I would turn out 100% type-A. Not that there is anything wrong with either type-As or “messies”. As I mentioned in the last entry, I’m starting to become that person who can’t go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink. I’ve started doing the dinner dishes as I cook dinner. But, I also am noticing this weird quirks where I do things THE RIGHT way and any other way is just absurd. Take, for instance, making macaroni and cheese for Loren this afternoon. THE RIGHT WAY (aka Mandy’s way) mean you put the butter and milk in the pan as the macaroni is draining, because the remaining heat melts the butter, which then mixes with the milk, which makes for a more homogeneous mixture, which makes BETTER macaroni. (ps why does the cheese powder look so disgusting? I’m never eating that stuff again). I also have a method of eating pancakes, which I won’t subject you to now. There are MANY Mandy methods. Is that what makes me me or is that what makes me totally type-A?

A few funny anecdotes for you;
~ Today i was pretty pumped about laying out and catching some sun, as it is 85 degrees outside. I put on my bathing suit top, a wife-beater over that and some Soffe shorts. Loren comes home, gives me this incredulous look and says, “IS THAT your underwear?” heheh
~ I find myself in many Bridget-Jones-esqe situations as of late. At said game party, I was in the kitchen. I was tended to something vitally important when I decided I couldn’t live another minute without some DP. We had used all the cans of DP (it tastes better like that, but no matter) so I was forced to open the 2 Liter of DP…which promptly exploded everywhere. It had been sitting nicely in the fridge for an hour…why the necessary explosiveness?
As I’ve been mentioning, I’ve been looking forward to a strawberry daiquiri for some time now. So, as the evening wound down, I found myself declaring it was TIME! Ah how I forgot that ice + blender = NOT crushed ice (grrr). The blender would stop blending even though it was still on, I would turn it off, then stick my spoon down in it to force the ice cubes to the blades so they would be crushed. This didn’t really work out all that great, so I decided I’d spoon the mixture WHILE the blender was on, but I would use something a little more expendable…AHA a chopstick. I stuck the chopstick in there and the end snapped off…like an inch of it snapped off. Yeah, it SEEMS like a stupid idea looking back. I somehow got daiquiri explosion all over too, then had to fish the end of the chopstick out the daiquiri-ness. Everyone came to the kitchen to see what all the yelping was about. Sorry about your chopstick, C, may it RIP.

LOVE!

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I suppose I should post because I am at Cecilia’s (you know the rest of the bit). I am so sleepy…really for no good reason.
This weekend was so much fun. I think the weather being nice had a huge influence on my attitude! Okay, so my boss gave my Friday afternoon off. It’s kind of a long story, but it ends with me getting the afternoon off, so that’s all you need to know. I trekked across town to get to Cecilia’s place. I had my mind set on a nap, all I wanted was a good, long, windows-open-so-the-breeze-can-come-through nap. I wish you could see me on the metro when I have luggage. I always feel like I’m so inept. I had my suitcase, laptop case and a crate&barrel bag. I had to transfer trains then get on the bus to get within two blocks of Cecilia’s TH. I should mention that as soon as I parked the car at the metro parking garage I realized I had to pee. There is nowhere to pee at metro stations, on metro trains or metro bus stop or even on metro buses. Therefore my #1 priority was pee, followed closely by NAP! Okay…I’m dragging this. I made it to the TH, got to pee (yay, TMI i know) and got to nap (after being mom’s secretary for 20 minutes). The nap was okay, not nearly as glorious as I had anticipated though, as it only last like 45 minutes. That night we went out to eat with Kevin in Old Town, bumped into Julia and her gang, got ice cream, went out to the pier, came home and crashed.
Saturday was full of game-night-extravan….za preparation. We cleaned, grocery shopped, I caught some rays while Cecilia went apartamente shopping and THEN the GAMES BEGAN. woo. We had a grand time. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen (please refrain for macho jokes), but I liked it, because, as I was telling Cecilia, I could hear everyone laughing and it was wonderful. People weren’t just politely chuckling, this was full-out laughing. I liked identifying people by their laughs. I think everyone had fun. We definitely made too much food and the strawberry daquiris didn’t turn out so well. How is it I always forget how hard and messy that whole process is?
I think I’m turning into the type of person who can’t go to bed without doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen (sorry mom). I even liked it.
Today was church, a picnic (lotsa leftovers!) and sunbathing on the banks of the Potomac and watching Scrubs and Bridget Jones:The Edge of Reason.
I am sad the weekend is over.

LOVE!

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What a day.
I’m probably saying that because I just got back from a prayer service held for the VT victims at the church I’ve been attending since moving here. I’m glad I went, though now I have a headache from being so emotional.

So I been struggling with feeling useless since coming here. I pretty much do nothing all day, well in the time between when the boys leave for school and when the boys come home, so feeling useless is not so much a feeling as a reality. Now I am supposed to be studying for the MCATs (really need to get on top of that) but I also have been wanting to volunteer. I looked up the Red Cross and emailed them and signed up about two weeks ago. I also emailed the local chapter of the PKD foundation, asking if they needed volunteers. Still haven’t heard back from the Red Cross, and I called them this week TOO! PKD did initially get back to me but I’ve yet to hear from them again. So after not really getting anywhere, but repeatedly reading that volunteers are DESPERATELY needed in both places, I took matters into my own hands, well with the Red Cross at least. I’m going to a volunteer orientation class next Thursday. YAY! Let’s hope this ensures I get a gig. What I REALLY want to do is work in the newborn nursery or preemie nursery and rock babies. I’ve wanted to do that since I was like 6, but had to wait til I was an “adult”.

In other news, game night is a mere 2 days away. I’m really excited about the finger foods and the possible virgin strawberry daquiri that shall materialize for this occasion. We had finger foods at the surprise party for Kelly. I LOVE finger foods, my friends. I ESPECIALLY love this cream-cheese-and-veggies-pizza-like-thing we make. It is SOOO good. In fact, I ate about half of the pizza-thing at Kelly’s party. And I don’t really consider myself a fan of cream cheese. I think we’ll make pigs-in-a-blanket too. We ALSO had those at Kellykin’s party. I’m forming a theory that ALL men like these. I think girls like them too, but not as much as men/boys. It’s a good little tip that I shall remember when trying to win over males in the future. Pigs in a blanket are the way to their hearts. In fact, I think I made like 5 men fall in love with me at Kelly’s party, no joke. Okay that was a joke.

My boss gave me tomorrow afternoon off. YAY. He also said that his sister is coming the last week in June and he’s taking off work, so I will have off too. He really should tell me these things sooner. Oh what shall I do with my time off? It’s exciting to think about!

Okay I need bed and sleep…lots.

LOVE!

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Do you ever have a moment where life just seems too dang overwhelming? I had one of those today..in the midst of applying my make-up of all times. I laid on my bed and closed my eyes and thought about all that was overwhelming me, the mere struggle of being alive, how all I wanted to do was put my pjs on, go back to bed and sleep til the weekend… for about 5 minutes. Then I got up, finished putting my make-up on and took that trip to Target as planned. Target always makes me happy.
The weird thing is; things are really good right now in a lot of areas of my life. I’m pretty content! I just spent a wonderful long weekend at home, my best friend lives a mere 30 minutes away from me (which is history in the making), said bff and I are planning the first ever “Cecilia and Mandy’s FUN-TIMES-GAME-NIGHT-EXTRAVAGAN…..ZA” (i made the name up on the spot and C, your name is first because it’s at your place for your fyi). I am EXTREMELY excited about this game night, which will include finger foods and perhaps some adult beverages (I’m having a VIRGIN strawberry daquiri if this possibility becomes a reality)(I’ve been craving a daquiri for like 2 months now, no joke). Other great things include heading BACK home in 22 days (woo), the weather is getting warmer (though not as nice as KC), a lil payment confusion which ended in MY favor, as well as a tax refund check from VA, which is increasing my chances of owning a digital camera in the near future. Also, I made my dear friend, Randi’s dog-bed dreams come true. I did this by finding and buying her ideal dog bed at Target today. Apparently they don’t believe in cute dog beds in Texas…hehe j/j. She is really excited and this, in turn, makes me really excited. Love that girl. Oh and I have a new ipod (nano) that I’ve fallen in love with.
I’ve also been on a Beatles kick today and they make me pretty happy.
okay. you don’t have to be a witness to my bipolar-ism anymore. thanks for sticking with me this long.

LOVE!

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I wanted to write really quickly while I’m still at Cecilia’s place…you know, before I go back to the yucky internet. I am home, as you probably guessed…back on the east coast. I had a wonderful weekend (despite the flying fiasco) that went by too quickly. It was CHOCK-FULL of surprises. Surprise “I’m here” for dad’s birthday. Surprise “PARTY” for Kelly. And surprise “Pizza delivery” for Scarlett, haha. I’m surprised-OUT…I’ve met my surprise quota for the year.
I wanted to post some pictures of the party. There are a lot of people you won’t know, so I’m just gonna put up a few of us kids…and by “kids” I mean those of us who graduated together (plus Alex).

1. Ryan, Kelly and Joe…pretty much Kelly with a couple of her boys

2. Us kids catching up/shooting the breeze.

3. kelly and me with our favorite Lansing class of ‘02 graduate. Yep that’s right, we graduated with this guy. He’s also Kelly’s adopted grandpa!

So I’m back into the swing of things, well at least for 23 more days, and then BACK home for Mother’s Day. To all of you who I had the pleasure of seeing this past weekend, it was so good to see/meet you (the “meet” was for you briansbabe!).

Lastly, I’m heartbroken over the Virgina Tech news. Oh Lord, comfort the families of those injured and killed. Be with the family of the gunman Father God. Let us not forget that we are all capable of such things. amen.

LOVE!

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