Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Life Is a Musical

Ok. It's not. And ok, I stole that line from Andre 3000...but there are a few songs that fill me with longing whilst I sit at my desk with my headphones on. Something about these songs makes me want to break out into song and dance and have all of my co-workers join me in choreographed dance numbers. Is that weird? Do other people do this? Sometimes I think I might do well as a character on Scrubs.
Hmm...so my weekend was action packed, considering my boyfriend was out of town. I hit up the Riverdale-Smyrna high school football game to watch Tony's cousin play, and while Smyrna was our crosstown rival, that's only the second time I've stepped into their football stadium. It was filled with all of the scary teenagers you might imagine. Every time I end up with Tony's family for some function and his teenaged cousins are around, I find myself thanking God that I'm no longer that age and wonder how anyone ever survives high school. It's like a time bomb of nerves and stress and drama and a bunch of kids who think they are the shit. Only to discover once you graduate that yes, there is life beyond high school, that does not revolve around you. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl.
Almost like the giant roach I chased into the linen closet the other night. All by myself. No Tony to pick up the carcass, which is lucky since I didn't manage to kill it but instead chased it into the refuge of my towels and extra blankets. Nice.
Saturday found me yard saling. I don't think I was magnificent, but it was a fun day. I came home with a nice little profit (which I managed to spend later that night) and some funny stories:
-an unnamed party who let out a dainty little squeak (and by squeak I mean fart) while lugging around a king sized mattress.
-a very happy couple who took home the Black Jesus.
-and yes, I did regale an unfortunate couple with the joys of watching Brad Pitt eat finger food all through Ocean's Eleven. Watch it - you'll see exactly what I mean.
Then there was a hockey game with my pal, Lacy, who I love very much but hardly see. Then there was a lot of drinking, Mafiaoza's pizza which I never got a bite of, and a search for my keys (and H20) when we finally made it home.
Sunday Lacy took me to the Titans game (my first ever!), but I didn't fully enjoy it due to my lack of restraint the previous evening combined with the onset of allergy city. Sunday evening, finally curled up on my couch, still a little wary of six-legged pests, the allergies set in and rendered me useless.
Anyway, it was a good weekend. Full of adventure. Next weekend we're driving to Michigan for the MSU-UM game. I get to see lots of kids I went to college with and my best friend. And I'll get to see my family for brunch before coming back home. I'm pretty excited.
Car's back in the shop (again), so Tony will probably have to drive. I'm not complaining though. He's got the cd player.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Yard Sale

So today is the big day. I don't think I've kept y'all very updated about my life, just the random thoughts that wander through my mind. Well, for about the last two weeks, I've been helping my friend, The Mullet, prep for our "joint" yard sale. I use "joint" as loosely as possible, considering I've contributed about 1/8 of the goods.
So now I'm scarfing down some Special K Red Berries (yum) and getting ready to head over there. I have to say, I'm a mixture of excited and nervous...I guess that would be anxious. I think it's going to be really fun haggling with people and watching things get sold, but I've never done this before, and it occurred to me this morning that I'm also a little intimidated by the task. So we'll see how it goes. Hopefully we'll sell a ton of stuff and still be in relatively high spirits by the end of it.
In other news, I took my car to the mechanic yesterday...for about the fifth time this month - and that's not an exaggeration - to see what's up with my check engine light. And, after two tickets for my expired tags, I went ahead and failed my emissions test, so hopefully if I get pulled over again, I can show that I've tried. Oh, frustration.
At least if I sell some junk I'll have the money for whatever repairs my car may need this time.

Friday, October 26, 2007

I Had No Idea...No, Really

Well, until J.K. Rowling outed Dumbley-dore last week, I had no idea what fanfiction was. No idea that there are people so inspired by Harry Potter (and LOTR and Star Trek) that they make up their own stories, art, and character relationships based on her characters. No idea that there are websites and magazines totally devoted to these discussions and ideas and works of fiction/art. So I decided to browse a little, and check wikipedia.org (my favorite source for all things knowable), and lo and behold...there are even genres based on homosexual relationships between the characters - slash!
So I checked out some sites. I found one that focuses exclusively on relationships between Hermione/Harry, Malfoy/Ginny, Ron/Luna & Lily/James. Note that the last one is the only one that stays true to the book, and also that Ron gets stuck with Looney (apparently he's not good enough for Hermione...that's a whole different discussion for another day). Well, I'm not going to get into all of those aspects of whether I agree or disagree with what some people like to think about HP & Company.
I guess it just makes me wonder if I'm far less creative than other fans. I mean, it just doesn't occur to me to sit down and write an ending for Harry that's different from the one that Rowling has given him. And I certainly don't want to imagine these characters in explicit sexual situations. That's why I chose to read a children's/fantasty book about an eleven year old. Yes, I know that they all get older, and we get some snogging (yea!), but I don't want to imagine Harry in a situation any more compromising than that. I have to admit that while I do see the creativity there, and the imagination in saying, "Well, she did this with them, but what if it went this way..." I think I'm far more content to let it stay Rowling's work and Rowling's creation. To me, I have no authority to go around changing what she's chosen for her own characters or re-writing the world that she's made for me. Then again..."maybe I'm just like my father, he's never satisfied." Ha ha.
After my perusing I again was left with that feeling of being amazed by the many sub-cultures in our world. And also being a little excited that there are definitely people in the world that are far more concerned with the magical world created by J.K. than I am. This is yet another "whole 'nother world" that I had absolutely no awareness of until a week ago, and yet it has been putting right along for years.
Humph.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Drop It Like It's Hot

Sometimes, when I'm taking my dog out to "relieve" himself, I say that to him when he's taking his sweet time finding a poop spot.
I'll be like, "Come on, Boom, drop it like it's hot." And I chuckle to myself a little about my pun (I sure love puns). And then I get annoyed that there's noone around to appreciate it. 'Cause you know, my dog doesn't speak English, so he doesn't laugh at my jokes. He probably wouldn't laugh at my jokes if he did speak English, because honestly, he doesn't seem like he'd be a very accomodating guy. Better that he's mute in the ways of the language.
Anyway, something tells me that it's not what Juvenile, or Pharell, or Snoop D-O-double-G had in mind, but there you go. These are the thoughts that cross my mind while I wander about the minefield with my dog.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Pick Your Poison

Well, I guess I didn't do a very good opinion poll before picking these apartments last December. Seems if I had done a better Google search I'd have come up with a few more negative reviews.
But it appears that the reason they sprayed for spiders in the spring was due to a heavy brown recluse infestation. I've hit two or three reviews this afternoon with details about the serious spider problems. We thought they were using "spiders" as a code word for "roaches," but it looks like the spiders are the real problem around here.
So I guess at least roaches aren't poisonous...so maybe we got lucky after all. Ahhh.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

today i feel kind of sick

Like the kind of sick you feel when you've eaten too many cookies. Although to be honest, that doesn't happen to me very often, because I can really put away some cookies. There are a couple of things making me feel this way, but I think the top of the list is my mother.
There's been a lot of drama in the Nichole House for the past year, mitigated by my mother and her new beau and the unfortunate events surrounding his miserable existence.
I don't suppose that it's appropriate to get into such things in a public forum. But let's suffice it to say that I am not happy with my mother's choice in men and what with my brother being thirteen, her choice in men isn't something that only has an effect on her.
Well, and on Thursday I found out that she didn't file the divorce papers like she said she was going to (once he was in jail). And she's "undecided" about what she's going to do, which means that for the second time since June she has decided not to file for a divorce.
Perhaps a little back story is necessary. My mom met this guy last summer. She married him on Christmas Eve. He's a "recovering" alcoholic with an ex-wife and three kids in Chile. For the past year my mother has been a crazy person that I do not recognize. This woman is not the same woman who raised me.
And thinking about it all and what it means for my brother, and what it says about my mother and what her priorities are just makes me literally sick to my stomach. It makes me worry about so many things. Whether my brother will be safe in his own home. What the man is teaching my brother. What my mother is filling his head with to make him accept "Beau" being back in their house again. Whether my brother will lose all his trust in my mother after she says one thing and does another regarding very important situations in their lives. How my brother is going act out when he gets frustrated. What my brother is going to learn about men and women and relationships living in their house. How he'll vent his anger. What he'll be getting into while my mother is worried about the other man who's the priority in her life.
I just feel overwhelmed by all of it. I don't know how my brother feels about everything. I don't even know how much she has talked to him about it. I just feel disgusted that my mother would put a man before her own child and that she fails to see that that's what she's doing. It makes me sick.
And I don't know how to handle it. I don't know how to deal with it. I don't know how to talk to her. I am at a loss.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Jinx

Well, I'm a firm believer in most things superstitious, which is why I should have known better than to post that "don't get a ticket" New Quarter's Resolution.
Guess who got a ticket last night? For her expired tags? On the same night she was taking her car to the shop once her boyfriend got home?
Yep, yours truly. What's funny is that it was darkish, 'cause I had worked some overtime, and I was cruising down the road, and I see these two motorcycles next to me, and they make me a little nervous, because I hate motorcycles on the road. The entirely likely possibility of them hitting something small and spinning out of control and then me running over a human body totally freaks me out. That's not to mention all of those a*holes on crotch rockets who drive really fast and do tricks. They are just asking for it.
But so anyway, the two motorcycles with retina-searing headlights pull in really tightly behind me, and I'm actually cussing them to stop riding my ass when they turn their lights on. And I'm like, "God Damnit. What kind of luck do I have, really?"
I have only been pulled over four times in my driving career. And I have cried every time but once (because the one time was so ridiculous). My crying comes from frustration. I also clam up. I'm not a mouthy girl when it comes to figures of authority, or anyone really, but I did tell him that I haven't gotten new tags yet because I am trying to get my engine light to go off. I didn't mention that I was taking my car to the shop in three hours because I figured it would sound like I was making stuff up anyway.
I think the guy felt kind of bad by the time I was silently wiping the tears away, but he still gave me the fucking ticket.
And at this point, I just want to scream, "I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET THAT GODDAMN LIGHT TO GO OFF SINCE THE FIRST WEEK OF AUGUST. THE FIRST GUY CHARGED ME $250 TO NOT FIX IT. I'VE BEEN BACK AND FORTH FROM ADVANCE AUTOPARTS & FIRESTONE AUTOCARE & THIS NEW WEIRD GUY WITH A GIANT DOG AND WHO STARES DOWN MY SHIRT FOR THE LAST 3 WEEKS. DON'T YOU THINK IF I HAD THE MONEY FOR A TICKET I'D HAVE GOTTEN MY GD CAR FIXED SOONER!?!"
Well, that's what I want to say. Instead I cry a little more intensely. And get pissed at all of the passersby who have to slow down just to look at me getting a ticket. "Nothing to see here people. Keep fucking moving." But I just merge back in, with the help of the oh-so-pleasant motorcops. And I drive my whiney baby ass back home. Where I fume for a while.
Then I convince myself that there are worse things than tickets and dirty mechanics and roaches and credit report disputes. And today I can see the irony. And I can appreciate that there are worse problems to have. But sometimes a girl just wants to have a pity party. And I did.
It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to.