Diary of a Redhead...

thoughts...

2010-02-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

people that shovel snow into the perfectly clean street in an attempt to finally dig their cars out 4 days later are douches. I saw that twice today.

Speaking of twice, I also saw 2 transvestites in the hospital today. I'm convinced that kind of thing is like seeing a shooting star so I naturally took it as a sign of good luck. I knew that we had one transvestite--a guy I actually met in a lesbian bar a couple of years before I even worked at the hospital. He tries his best to pass but he's so obviously a man that its sort of sad, really. On the contrary, the "new" transvestite wasn't really trying that hard. He had long nails & a ponytail but with gender neutral clothing & minimal makeup, he wasn't passing AT ALL.

The 2010 Bonnaroo lineup was announced last night--Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Zac Brown Band, Steve Martin, Miranda Lambert, Diane Birch, Jay Z, Stevie Wonder, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The National, Tenacious D...there is definitely some potential. The Pros: There are lots of bands that I'd love to see, Bonnaroo 2007 was an absolute blast. The cons: $500 for tix, Tennesse heat in June, steamy port-a-potties, did I mention 4 days in the Tennessee heat without a shower, bathroom, & camping?? I still wanna go though but with our vacation to Alaska & my trip to Africa for work in July, I'm not sure if we're gonna be able to swing it.

CHOP (children's hospital of philly) finally got their stuff together and released the information about the Sickle Cell Conference. We've only been asking them for info since January 2009. Seriously. They sent out the email on 2/2 with the call for abstracts due on 3/1. Seriously. Luckily we have been working on our Evidence Based Project for awhile now so we were mostly prepared. Writing our abstract tomorrow & submitting it next week. Still waiting to hear back from the travel agency about the arrangements--we have a hotel list but know nothing about flight details or the tour that they are putting together.

Buying our plane tickets this weekend for our Alaska trip. Can't wait to get back to Seattle! So looking forward to a blackberry latte from Seattle's best, Pike Place Market, the lovely folks at the Inn at the Market, and this place...

Namaste

2010-02-04T07:57:00.000-08:00

Nah-muh-stay. So this is what we say to each other at the end of our yoga class. It basically means "I bow to you" in Sanskrit. The image shown above is actually framed & displayed in the yoga studio.

I have always been interested in yoga & have played around with it a bit through books & the Wii but have never actually taken a class. Thank goodness my hip pain finally pushed me into action. I had been having right hip pain for atleast 6 months--I specifically remember having a lot of pain & stiffness during our trip to Washington DC for the 4th of July. After much research & asking people at work, I figured out that I my problem was all in my muscles. Basically, I was so tight in my hip flexor, my hamstring had tightened up & my leg would be stiff like a wooden plank until I had "walked it out". Basically, I looked like Frankenstein. Not to mention, the many sleepless nights I had because of pain. I always felt better when I would stretch at home but it would very quickly return to the stiffness & pain.

On the first night of class, we sat on the floor in the butterfly position. I could lay my left knee on the ground but my right knee was almost pressed into my chest--I absolutely could not move my knee down to the ground. We are now in week 5 & I've gained back almost all of my flexibility. Most importantly, I am almost now pain free & I'm not walking like this anymore:

Anyway, I've really enjoyed the fact that April has been in the class with me & I'm getting to spend time with my best friend EVERY week! This is super awesome to me. I absolutely love the fact that she is so in love with our class & how passionate she has become about what we are doing. She's just having so much fun at it & she's really good--so this has really inspired me. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't go to our 3rd class. Apparently, that's the week when she converted to Hinduism & became a yogi because when I came back to the 4th class, she was crazy good. She had somehow found her core along with her balance & strength. Mine is still hiding under a rock somewhere. Last week, our 6 ft tall spaghetti limbed instructor Kristy demonstrated a position called the Crow. She said it took her 2 years to be able to get into the position & so we shouldn't feel pressured to do it. I look to my left & April is in the crow!

Try this folks--squat down with your legs apart and put your hands on the ground in front of you (sort of like a frog). Press your knees to the back of your triceps and slowly lean forward until your feet come up OFF OF THE GROUND! You will look like this:

April was one of only 2 people in the class who could do this--and she's just had a baby 3 months ago. Holy jeebus. I still contend that this position is impossible when you are built like a toy top, like I am. I've got too much junk in the truck pulling me back down to be able to get in that crazy position. I keep trying though--so if you see me with broken forearms or wrists and I've said that I've had a bad fall-you'll know the real reason why.

Last night, when I thought I was going to fall over on my face during the bending tree pose, I look over at April who is in perfect position & in deep concentration. She sees me out of the corner of her eye, doesn't lose her pose & says "hater."

and she's right. Its enough to keep a girl motivated .

a few things..

2010-02-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

It appears that we have won the battle of the mice...When I told Dad of our triumph, he said, "just wait until the next rainy day". Hmph. Bertie & Shelby have proven themselves to be good soliders in the Scientist's army & while Lola likes to simply supervise, she provides much needed stress relief to me while I'm holed up in the bedroom waiting for the hunt to end. I'm crossing my fingers that this was just a one time event but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I might be started to get the hang of the school thing again..or atleast I feel like I'm doing a better job of managing things. I don't feel quite so out of control. I did manage to pull an 87 out of my pathophys exam last week & though I only got a 78 on my differential diagnosis exam, I feel like I only have room to improve since it was just the first test.

I painted the thrift store dresser that I bought..one more tiny coat of poly & installing the new hardware & it will be good to go. Super excited to see how it will look in the office.

We have some plans for the basement, which really excites me. We've chosen a paint color & picked some furniture out. Mom & I spent Saturday reorganizing the storage room & cleaning up the basement..it hadn't been touched basically since the day we moved in so it was getting nasty down there. Having the space cleaned up really gets the juices flowing & makes me excited to get started on the renovations. Hopefully we will get the paint on in the month of February. I love to paint!

Had a lovely brunch at the Comet on Sunday, complete with delicious bloody marys. The Scientist has a friend who is a chef & he's doing the brunch thing..hopefully they will keep this up because my dish was sooo delicious. Anytime I can hang out in the Comet is also extra good by me!

Future posts to come--yoga, Cali & family.

Is it weird that I would very much like the opportunity to sit with an ENT specialist & talk about why humans have SO many boogers?

where does the time go?

2010-01-29T14:49:00.000-08:00

I was just going to get on the case of Jason for not blogging recently when I realized that I hadn't put anything up in over a week. I did go to California & had a spectacular time with my good friend Tammy & plan on posting a blog with some restaurant reviews, tales of wine & entertaining the veterans of Napa Valley, all with pics of course. Unfortunately, I couldn't find our camera before the trip (and after the trip as it turns out!) and had to rely on the just ok quality of my Iphone & Tammy's camera. When Tammy uploads the pics, I will pull them & post some.

Between the holiday last week & my vacation, I've only worked 3 full days of work in 2 weeks. Of course, I took 40 hours of PTO, which will put a nice little dent in my vacation time and I never like that.

Working 3 days out of 8 sounds good in theory but has totally wrecked my schedule. I just can't seem to get back into the flow of things..and just when I did, Friday rolls around and the weekend is here to throw me off again. I know, I know--there are worse problems in the world to have...Haiti & Jon Edwards as a husband come to mind. Nevertheless, I plan on rebounding this weekend & starting fresh next week.

This includes my schoolwork, which is lagging at best. I'm glad to see that procrastination is something that apparently sticks with you for a lifetime & doesn't fade as you get older. I had an exam yesterday, my first for the Differential Diagnosis class. I didn't fail & it wasn't exactly dismal at a 78, but that's never where my Type A, overachiever personality wants to be. I looked at my score, saw the 78 & was actually pleased with myself because it gives me some room to improve without having to worry about being totally in the gutter with my grades. The crazy thing is that I knew that EKGs were my weakness (because I've been out of critical care nursing for 5 years & because I didn't study it enough) so I was flying through the test & was actually thinking it was all pretty damn easy up until question 35 when the EKG stuff started. I'm sure that I missed a good portion of those questions, which is what dropped my score.

Despite what my horoscope says, I think I'm in a winter funk. A bright spot for me has been my weekly yoga class with April & Denise. I will most definitely post about our adventures, mostly because I want to put up a picture of the crazy position that April was able to put herself in on Wednesday. Denise & I are convinced that during the class we missed last week, April converted to Hinduism & became a yogi.

I'm moving to Mauritania

2010-01-20T19:41:00.000-08:00

Just kidding. I'm actually mildly disturbed by what I just saw on TV. Watching Taboo on Nat Geo & tonight its about "fat". Apparently there are still countries in Northern Africa which prize females with some junk in their trunk. Maybe this is why my African patient's fathers are always way too friendly with me & why I was stalked for months by 2 Africans in Kroger.

Anway,In Mauritania it is believed that a woman's size was directly related to her wealth..the bigger she is, the more money she has. A woman was interviewed & said that the bigger the woman, the more space she takes up in her husband's heart (or his wallet, I guess it depends on who you ask!) The disturbing piece comes in the fact that they practice "gavage" (just google it already!)to basically forcefeed their little girls. They showed a little girl crying & trying to fight as she was being forced to drink a bowl of fresh cow's milk mixed with millet & butter. To divert her attention from the food that she doesn't want, her toes were being crushed by 2 pieces of wood. The mother said that the pain takes her attention away from the food & its easier to feed her that way.

Little girls as foie gras. So sad.

eat your heart out Martha..

2010-01-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

I have a love/hate relationship with Martha Stewart. I want to be her & I also want to stab her. I have been semi obsessed with crafts since I was a teenager. Unfortunately, I don't come from a family of women who sew, knit, crochet, etc. so I had to teach myself to cross stitch when I was young. I worked at Michaels arts & crafts store in high school where I taught a few classes on beading and beginner's cross stitch. Lately, I've been working on things for our new house & have been completely obsessed with refurbishing old furniture. Last summer I purchased a 1930's era table & 1 chair from a 90something lady's estate sale. Her 70 year old son had grown up eating dinner at the table & was kind of sad to see it go. I wanted to work on the chair & the Scientist decided to try out the table.

Before:

So its not exactly a true before because it had about 9 layers of paint on it and it took MANY hour with a lot of elbow grease to get it back to its au natural state. I don't have a true After pic but I do have a work in progress photo but you'll get the idea.

Silly me, I didn't take a before picture of my chair..here's the after...

Stay tuned for more crafty posts, including more furniture redos, wreaths & home decorating ideas.

the pitter patter of little feet

2010-01-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

I'm not talking about babies--I'm talking about mice. We had 2 good nights without any sightings & I was just starting to get comfortable again. This morning I was awoken by the sound of the Scientist beating the hell out of something. Since he wasn't screaming, I assumed it wasn't a burglar. The sinking feeling crept back in, there was no doubt as to what he was doing--he was killing a mouse. Secretly, I was hoping it was a burglar...atleast I wouldn't be so scared to get out of bed. Once again, Bertie was playing with a little grey mouse but this time, the Scientist was able to take things into his own hands--or boots. He then found half of a mouse (the tail end I think) laying on the guest bed. After these blogs, no one is going to want to spend the night at my house.

It was time to take action...read lots of information on the net today about mice & ways to get rid of them. I read lots of things, including carbonated beverages & instant mashed potatoes. What we know is that we definitely couldn't do the poisons because a pet who eats a poisoned mouse can die. The cats die & the dogs get severe bleeding disorders. Yuck! I went to Wal Mart & bought glue traps, the ones that snap their necks instantly, and live traps that catch them. I also bought steel wool because I heard that was the best way to plug holes & potential places that they are getting in. Did you know that if you can stick a pencil in a hole or crack, a mouse can get in there?? Total insanity.

I went to the dentist & everything went really well. No more bleeding gums, no cavities, etc. The best thing about the appointment was that my dentist told me I looked thinner! Yeah! I told him that I'd been doing yoga..failed to mention that Id only gone 2x. I'll talk about that in another post.

I have my first test friday night & I'm totally not prepared. The class is really difficult & Im worried that the testing is going to be ultra hard. This crazy prof is even doing a comprehensive final! I haven't even bought the book yet or finished listening to the lectures. Nothing like a little procrastination to get the blood pumping.

Btw, for any 30 Rock fans--when did Liz Lemon become hyper-sexual? 2 episodes in a row & she's hooking up with hot celebrities..and its not a joke. Really?

a tail of a tale

2010-01-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

I love my house. I love living in a wooded area. I love the deer that visit our yard on a regular basis. I do not love having mice in our house. Shortly after we moved into our house in September, the Scientist found the stiff body of a little grey mouse in our basement, laying right out in the middle of the floor. No doubt that our cat Roberta was involved, whether she actually killed the creature or found it dead will never be known.

Early Monday morning I woke up to the sounds of Bertie "singing" (for lack of a better term). It was like she was howling at the moon or something. This went on for about 20 mins until the Scientist awoke & actually got up to see what the heck was going on. Not much actually gets me up & out of the bed at 4:30am on a cold night. I heard him talking to her & when he came back in he told me that she had caught a grey mouse & had it on the bed in our guest bedroom, where the Sandlins had laid their heads less than 24 hours before. He reports that he grabbed it by the tail and stared into its open, beady eyes as he carried it to our trash can. He even noted that the cause of death was a bloody wound on its neck.

I had a hard time falling back to sleep. I thought back to a time when I was a wee one & our cat Alvin brought home a tasty treat & left it on the stoop for my Mom to find. I distinctly remember Dad telling her that Alvin had brought Mom a present because he loved her & wanted her to be proud of his kill. Of course, I envisioned Bertie on MY bed with a mouse..I had the worst feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Around 6am, Bertie makes that gutteral sound again--but this time its coming from the floor, right next to the head of my bed. I quickly grabbed my phone and hit a button so to shine a light on my cat. Of course you know what's going to happen, right? There she was, wide eyed like some kind of crazed demon, with a grey mouse hanging out of her mouth.

I'm told I screamed like a banshee, threw the covers off of both me & the Scientist and screamed, "she's got another one!!!!!!" My Knight in Shining Armor jumps up, runs to the doorway to turn the overhead light on and promptly blocks the doorway as I'm trying to get out.

We don't know much but we do know that this mouse had somewhere between 4 and 25 lives. The Scientist immediately checked the garbage can but was unable to produce a corpse. Robo-mouse apparently came alive again in the garbage can & climbed out, only to be caught again by Bertie. While I was in the bathroom with the door closed off & sealed at the bottom with a towel, I was told that the mouse was again, NOT DEAD, and that it had gotten away from Bertie.

So here we are today..I'm a prisoner in my own home with a mouse that is able to reanimate itself & is nowhere to be found. The last time we saw him, he was headed into the laundry room where my clean work clothes are currently residing. Just. Flipping. Great. Every time I saw my cat last night, I was nervous. I even saw some fringe on the kitchen rug this morning & thought it was a mouse tail.

The Scientist bought a couple of live traps last night & filled them with peanut butter, only to have Shelby almost immediately stick her nose in one, set it off, and then carry it around like a giant bone.

The cat is permanently banned from our room until we find the little beast. I plan on drinking a lot of wine & sleeping with every bit of skin under the covers tonight.

You were a good one, 2009

2010-01-04T14:47:00.001-08:00

Despite my recent moaning & groaning, 2009 was one of the best years of my life. I married the Scientist (score!), bought a house (yipee!), got into grad school (d'oh!), went on a couple of really fun trips, drank more awesome wine than I should admit to & had so many good times with my friends, it should be a crime. I am so lucky that my family & friends remain healthy & present. Hearing of the 4th case of a young person (<40)with cancer has really hit that home for me.

For anyone who might be reading & wondering, I did go to my Aunt's house for Christmas Eve, though I didn't really wanna. Once again, I made a decision to please others but I guess I don't regret it. It just is what it is. My Aunt called me the day before & left me a voicemail telling me that we needed to have a conversation but that the holidays just weren't the time. She said that it wouldn't be Christmas without me & "you just need to come." So I went. It just made it easier for everyone. Do I think that conversation with my Aunt will ever happen? No. Do I want it to? I'm not so sure. I just don't think I want to go there & focus on that negativity again. I haven't had a single nightmare & my hip has basically stopped hurting--these are good things. I just didn't realize how much of that I was internalizing. Its totally insane.

Lots of exciting things on the horizon for 2010. In a couple of weeks I will travel to San Francisco to meet Tammy. We are renting a car & driving to Napa for a long weekend of wine, food & much needed catching up.I have some mild anxiety with the thought of seeing Kang again after 9 years. No set plans to do that but he does work at the French Laundry & we had talked about having dinner there. I had always planned to write a post about him when I was on the kick of posting about the men that I dated..now I'm not sure how the Scientist would feel about that. Is ruminating about exes & the horrors of the dating world an offense to the one you love & married? I don't know so I'm not even going to go there.

Looking forward to another trip to Seattle in April along with a cruise to Alaska. Can't wait to get back to the Inn at the Market, where we spent our honeymoon. Hopefully July has a trip to Ghana, Africa in store for me. We are slated to go to the International Sickle Cell Conference but as of yet, CHOP can't get it together to let us register & we've been trying for atleast 6 months. The hospital has backed us & we are hoping to present an abstract but again, no formalized plans. Not sure I will ever have this kind of opportunity again so I'm super excited & really hoping that it all goes as planned. I'm also looking foward to another trip with the Fishers. Look out Elvis, we're coming to Memphis.

We are also going to completely remodel our basement, including a new paint job, ripping up carpet, installing Pergo, buying new furniture, setting up the bar, etc. The goal is to have all of that in place by swimming season!! Oh, and I 'm going to try to stay in grad school & try to get knocked up!

So its going to be a crazy but fun year. I'm so glad that I have the Scientist to live in the craziness with me. I've heard that the 1st year of marriage is the hardest & I do think there is some truth to that. I feel very lucky that I truly believe we're both in it for the long haul (good times & rough ones) & I can honestly say that I love him more every day. Well maybe not every day, but atleast a little more each week. :)

forgiveness

2009-12-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

Forgiveness if a funny thing, really. The Dalai Lama says that we must forgive but never forget....that we must withhold negative feelings towards those who have wronged us & that we cannot hold the weight of a grudge. He says that holding a grudge is unhealthy & will break us down...or something like that.

Mom talked to my Aunt today for about 3 hours. My aunt suspected that I was not going to be out of town & had told her husband that she thought I just wasn't coming to her house on Christmas Eve because of what had happened at the wedding. (shocking!) Her husband told her that she needed to talk to my mom about what the truth was...maybe she should've talked to me instead, but whatever. At least he encouraged her to talk to someone about it all. In the meantime, I told Mom that I refused to lie anymore & was essentially hurt by the fact that she continued to do so. I felt like she was protecting my Aunt & not standing up for what is right. Selfish on my part, probably.

So Mom talked to her today at work. She basically indicated that she has played the entire event out many times in her head & of course she said the oh so typical "if I could take it back I would, but I can't." Don't we all wish that we could have a re-do? Basically, she said that she was hurt that her ex husband & his wife were seated at my parents table, amongst our family. They have been divorced for 20+ years, have both remarried--oh, and he happens to be my Dad's best friend. He has remained in my life & he genuinely cares about me. He gave us a very generous wedding gift & wrote in our card that I was his favorite niece & that I would always be his #1, despite the fact that he hadn't really been my Uncle for most of my life. I totally disagree--he's my Uncle. Nuff said on that.

She also confirmed to Mom more of what we already knew--that she was upset that she wasn't asked to do a reading in the wedding. She wanted to be more involved, etc.

I asked Mom not to engage her in an argument/conversation--just tell the truth that I'm not coming to her house on Christmas Eve. She was upset & said that it wouldn't be the same without me, yadda, yadda, yadda. Mom & I had already had a laugh about that in fact. I told her it was going to be a pitiful party without me & The Scientist...just Mom, Dad, Granny, Papaw, my Aunt & her hubby sitting around staring at each other. The Scientist & I breathe life into a family with so many secrets & skeletons.

I'm told my Aunt will call me tonight to tell me that she wants me to come to Christmas, etc. She believes we need to have a conversation. I struggle with getting a handle on my rebuttle...because I have one for every excuse she makes. Its like I said in the other post--don't call me because its Christmas & our family is obviously fractured. Call me because you mean it & sincerely want to make this right.

The right thing to do is to go to her house...It would be the best thing I could do for my parents & grandparents. I'm just not so sure that I can do it, no matter how much I want to.

On a holiday note, I've still got a couple of last minute things to get & nothing is wrapped. My house is an absolute pig sty, I need to go to the grocery to get stuff if in fact my family does come to my house after my Aunt's celebration. I'm not much in the holiday spirit, which is so not me. Maybe buying Rock Band will make me feel better?? To be determined.

What the frick?!

2009-12-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

So I went back & took a look at my long neglected blog and saw that a bunch of my posts were out of order with the wrong dates. According to me, Obama was inaugurated way back in 2008..crazy stuff. So here I am again..starting fresh..again.

I felt oddly compelled to blog something today...maybe its because I've read about the trials of Skinnybeard & facebook..more likely the fact that I'm in the middle of a huge family drama that causes me to have nightmares & provides me with many sleepless nights. Maybe I'll feel better if I type it & send it out into the oblivion. I don't think anyone reads this anyway so here goes...

I never thought I would say this but I'm currently estranged from my aunt. My mom's only sister. My maternal family is small--me, Mom, Dad, Aunt Brenda, her husband Fred, & my grandparents. I am the only child & only grandchild. Of course I have The Scientist now, but we're still a small group. It happened on the most wonderful night of my life--March 28,2009--the day I married The Scientist. The short of it is that for reasons still unknown to me (9months later), my Aunt left my wedding reception basically before it began and I've only spoken to a couple of times since. There's a lot of "he said, she said" going on about what happened but I'll tell you what I know & what I saw.

The seating at our wedding was a colossal screwup. The tables in the back of the room were flipped..so those who were supposed to be in the tables closest to the stairs were actually sitting at the back of the room & vice versa. I had a bridemaid all the way in the back of the room (sorry Karen!). When The Scientist & I were announced & entered the reception, I saw my Mom standing with my Aunt & Uncle near the cake. I went over & asked them why they weren't in their seats. Mom said that there had been a mix up with the seating. One glance & I immediately knew the problem. My great Uncle & his children were sitting in my Aunt's seats. In the meantime, someone else had gotten up from their table & filled those empty seats so that they could sit with the family that was seated at that table with my great Uncle. My wedding planner was all over it & had offered my aunt, uncle and 2 cousins 2 other seating options but they refused to sit. Unfortunately, one of those options was at my parent's table which was occupied by Dad's best friend, my Aunt's ex-husband. There were 6 empty seats at the table next to the cake so I offered those to my Aunt & again, she refused. When I asked where my 2 cousins were, my Aunt told me that Nancy had a bit too much to drink & was upset about not having a seat so she was in the lobby. We cut our cake & were seated at our table for dinner.

The captain's call came out for dinner & we went out into the lobby. I saw my Uncle standing at the top of the steps to the 20th Century's VIP lounge with my cousin. I heard my cousin say, "well I don't know Fred, she's your neice." I started up the steps but my husband said no, its not our problem, etc. When we sat back down for dinner, I looked around & saw that my parents, Aunt, Uncle & cousins were nowhere to be found. I immediately felt queasy & told my friends that I was going to walk around & mingle with folks during dinner. I took my glass of champagne & headed straight out into the lobby where I found my mother looking very pained. I asked where my Aunt was & Mom told me that she was taking Nancy home but that she & Fred would be back. Nancy & her daughter had come in from KY & were staying at my Aunt's house in Indiana, more than an hour's drive from the Theatre. I knew immediately that this was a lie & that my Aunt had left. I burst into tears & had to be calmed down in the VIP lounge. I honestly cannot describe what an overwhelming, awful feeling that was. I have since found out that my Dad was outside trying to get my Aunt to come back inside & all the while she is outside crying & throwing a fit. She was belligerent to my wedding planner & was standing outside crying with multiple people coming outside to talk her down. It was childish, petty, rude & most of all--SELFISH.

To avoid a painfully long post I will say this--my Aunt has never apologized or acknowledged to me what she did. In fact, she's done just about everything that she can to paint herself out to be a victim. In true maternal family fashion, she, along with Mom & Granny, have taken the stance that if we just ignore it, it will go away. Well, guess what everyone? It hasn't.

So here I sit, 3 days before our family's celebration with a deep, burning feeling in my belly. I'm not going to her house to celebrate with my family. The insanity of it is that to protect her, they've all lied to her & told her that I'm going to Hodgenville to be with The Scientist's family. My mom has made peace with her & I have to really fight the urge to think of Mom as a sort of Benedict Arnold. I've never wanted her to choose sides but at the same time, I want her to fight for me. She's my Mom, ya know?! So it hurts to see that she's protecting my Aunt, instead of telling her to apologize or acknowledge it & end all of this. I have one champion--my Dad. He & I talked about the incident for the first time last week & it was very interesting to hear his perspective on the situation. He's a wise dude & probably the most level headed man I've ever met. I take what he tells me very seriously. He wants me to get over it, grin & bear it for the sake of my aging grandparents but at the same time, he gets exactly why I have made the choice that I have. He. Totally. Gets. It.

So it sounds like my family will go to her house during the day & then come to my house in the evening (their choice, their plan). Dad says he's not going to bring it up but he's also not going to lie..if it comes up that I'm actually still in town, he's going to tell her that I'm hurt & pissed off. Again, its 3 days before & they've still not told my Papaw that we're doing this...its kind of sad how this family communicates & handles problems.

I have had more than 1 nightmare about my Aunt, where I wake up in a sweat or feeling sick to my stomach....and I've internalized so much of this, its hard to even articulate it..except what I know is that I'm sitting here right now, alone in my office, crying as I type this.

At what point do you give in (or give up) when you feel so very strongly about something but when you've known all along that you're never really going to change that person? Oh, and I keep waiting for the call--when she calls to say that I can't miss Christmas Eve (the first time in my life) & makes a half hearted, insincere apology, just to keep the peace with my grandparents. Is it too much to say that I want it MY way?

Counting down

2009-03-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

Last night was the culmination of events leading up to my wedding--the bachelorette party!! I continue to be amazed at how lucky I am to have such great people around me. From April's mom allowing us to borrow her house for the Pure Romance party to Lana, who changed her call schedule just so that she could come. I had told April ahead of time that I didn't want to get so drunk that I was sick or acting stupid, unlike the Redneck Scientist who came home without a shirt and not remembering a lot of his night with the boys. Thankfully, I am headache free this morning, despite the number of shots I ingested.

Doesn't April look pretty in this picture? We had our makeup done yesterday as a trial run for the wedding. April felt like a tramp but she looked amazing. The girls will have a very retro look--thick, black eyeliner, big lashes & red lips. Its pretty much my normal look but April wasn't used to it. A funny thing happened to me at the mall yesterday. I was in Torrid, one of my favorite stores and they were having a modeling try out. I walked by several times but paid them no attention. As we were leaving the store, they stopped me and asked me to sign up. I hesitated and gave several excuses about why I'm not model material. The owner of the modeling agency told me that I was exactly what he was looking for. What a hoot! On the way to the bachelorette party they called me to tell me that I made their top 10, out of 45 girls that they saw yesterday. I told them that I was getting married in 2 weeks so when they called me they told me that they changed the date of their "pagent" just for me because the owner was so impressed with my look. Its funny to think that I have a look. So as it turns out, they moved the date to the following saturday and we'll be in Seattle on our honeymoon. I'm not going to pursue it at all...the guy seemed really interested in me so if hes serious, he'll contact me.

Jerry is away in Baltimore until thursday. Everyone said that it would be nice to have the house to myself & to have a break. I'm finding its just the opposite..I actually miss him already.

Las Vegas

2009-03-03T16:51:00.000-08:00

Tammy wants to hear about my adventures in Vegas. Unfortunately, it wasn't as great as I had expected. My mom scored a great deal for airfare out of Nashville way back in December so I said I would go. I thought $180 was great for roundtrip, despite the fact that I had to drive to the folks' house and then onto Nashvegas. Anyway, we left on thursday april 19th. I called Granny from the airport and she told me that her sister, my aunt Nellie, was in the hospital in Lexington. She had a respiratory thing going on--basically some mild pneumonia and that she was taken there after not being able to breathe on Wed. night. I told Granny to call me if there were any changes. So we had a very uneventful flight ( I actually didn't get airsick for the first time ever!) and I was so excited when we landed in Vegas. Now there were 9 people on the trip with us. Half of them were staying at the Stratosphere and the other half in free rooms at Harrahs. So, I was on my way to the Stratosphere while my mom and aunt were at Harrahs. Got to the Strat and saw that I had a message from Granny. It went something like this...

CC: Granny?! What's wrong?
G: she's gone sissy. Aunt Nellie is gone.
CC: huh? What happened?
G: Aunt Nellie died. *sobs*

Welcome to Las Vegas! Apparently, after my aunt was settled into her room at UK, the doctor came out and told my family to give them 3 days to give her some treatements and oxygen and that they could take her home. 30 minutes later she was dead. As you might imagine, the entire situation was a mess and we really struggled with what to do. So we waited. Tried to enjoy our first night there but I think we all kinda felt like a black cloud was overhead. We went out to Freemont Street thursday night and I think that's a great way to get the Vegas experience, especially on the first night there..its kinda gritty and harks back to the Frank and Dino days of Vegas, despite the multi million dollar big screen that now covers the street. I was also disappointed to see the big Golden Nugget sign had disappeared off the entrance of the casino. Anyhow, the drinks were cheap and we even tried fried oreos. That's a little bite of heaven, right there.

We didn't find out anything in regards to funeral arrangements until about 4pm Vegas time on Friday afternoon. At this point everyone told us to stay out there and enjoy ourselves. My aunt Nell was a big gambler and really loved Vegas so everyone said she would be upset if she knew that we were cutting our trip short. Of course people don't really know that do they?? Let me just put it out there--if I die, y'all better haul your sweet asses back to Cincinnati for my funeral! I don't care if you're laying on the beach in Cancun. Come to my funeral or I will haunt you. We legitamitely tried to get back to Cincy. I guess if we REALLY wanted to we could. They gave us only one option. A 0630 flight out on Sat. morning. No available flights on sunday. So then Delta tells us that they will waive the $50 change fee but that since we only paid $180 each, that we would have to pay the cost of a one-way ticket to get back early. So be wary if you're using expedia, travelocity, etc. That's the kind of stuff that happens.

I had a bad feeling about not going back..something about it just didn't sit well with me. I guess its easy to look back and say we should've tried harder and gotten back but its also hard to say what the right answer in that situation is. Everyone telling us to not come back but we still felt guilty for staying. We saw Celine Dion friday night. We paid $86 and sat all the way in the top section in the farthest section to the left of the stage. The next available tickets were $176! She started the show with her song, "A New Day" and as she was singing, about 40 dancers, all clad in black were slowly approaching her. I have to tell you that it definitely had a "Night of the Living Dead" kinda feel to it and I was thinking if the whole show is gonna be like this, I'm gonna be asleep. Fortunately, the show was amazing. She had 6 costume changes and most of the songs were ones that I actually like. It was cool and something we all felt like we had to do since it was her last year in Vegas.

So some drama went down and I got pissed off and took my stuff to Harrahs around midnight on Sat. night. I decided to go to the Crazy Horse Paris show at the MGM Grand instead of going out Sunday night to the Buddha Bar with the young'uns on sunday night. Dita Von Teese was headlining at Crazy Horse and since I have a girl crush on her, I had to go. I was a bit nervous going alone but it turned out to be really fun. I sat at a table with some other singletons and it was good to have people to talk to before the show started. So, just as the lights were dimming, a guy caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. It was Tommy Lee coming in to sit 2 tables over from me. There was a woman with him that I immediately thought was Jenna Jameson but it turned out not to be. If you can imagine a cheap, $20 hooker version of Pam Anderson, you would see this chick. She had long, platinum blonde hair and it was so matted in back that she couldn't even get her fingers through it. She was picking her hair up and fluffing it and it was coming up in chunks! Eww. So at the end of the show, I ended up walking out with Tommy and his group. I said hello, he said, "what's up red?" like he'd known me all of his life. He was cool as hell..I just couldn't believe how down to earth he was. So back to the hooker...she comes out in these huge clear acrylic stripper heels and instead of pantyhose, she has stars tattooed up the back of her calf and thighs. Now I'm all for tattoos but this just added to the cheapness and to top it all off--she had an ugly face! She was a 2 bagger, for sure. I guess she could just lay one of her dreadlocks over her face to cover it up.

So, sunday night I called Delta to make sure that they had our reservations correct since we had been trying to get them changed on friday and they said everything was good. We show up at the airport and my mom checks in no problem. My mom's friend and I try to check in and they won't let us. They say that our reservation has been cancelled. Fortunately they were able to get us on the flight to CVG but we couldn't sit together. We get to Cincy, eat dinner and go to the gate for our 830 pm flight to Nashville. Once again, Fran and I go to check in only to find that we were placed on the 730 flight to Nashville and the Delta receptionist neglected to tell us. We never looked at our tickets simply because we just assumed that she put us on the same flight as mom. Finally got back to Scottsville KY via Nashville around 1130 that night. The following day Fran and I had to drive back to Cincy.

You may have read the story of the fall...so you know how that goes. I can't wait for my next vacation! Bonnaroo here we come!

back in action

2009-03-01T17:49:00.000-08:00

So its been a long time since I've blogged. I guess I haven't had much time or inclination..not that I don't have anything to talk about. The Redneck Scientist & I are getting hitched in 27 days. It seems a bit surreal to even type that. Between the wedding & lots of changes at work, Ive neglected the blog. Who knows if anyone even reads this thing anyway..there's something about putting your thoughts out into the oblivion that is very therapeutic.

Work has been crazy busy since the beginning of the year. We lost one of our nurse coordinators & I have had to cover half of her patients, including most of her "complicated" patients. The increased workload has been very demanding. I applied for and have been told unofficially that I've been accepted as an RN III. There are 3 levels of RNs in our hospital and the RN III is the highest of those. I have been working on meeting the requirements for the RN III for the past year, including taking the Certified Pediatric Nurse exam. So not to totally toot my own horn, but its kind of a big deal! With it, I received a 10% pay increase & 1 more week a year of vacation, which brings me up to 5 weeks a year. As I said, its unofficial...I've been told by my manager that I was approved, even before my committee met, however, I still haven't officially seen anything in writing. If everything goes as planned, I should see my raise on this coming pay check, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one!

Lots of wedding stuff going on..too many last minute holly hobbie projects. I am so blessed to have a great maid of honor who is taking her post way too seriously but has totally been into helping me with everything! That's her at the top of the page, folding paper cranes. I can't figure out how to put her in with this paragraph! I currently have 3 projects in the works--menus, bridesmaid hairpieces, & picture boards to cover some nasty black velvet at the 20th Century Theatre. We will add the programs to our workload once we meet with the Minister this week and know the schedule of the cermony.

If you're out there, let me know..give me a reason to keep this mess up!

Pride

2008-11-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

I was told that I have every reason to gloat because approx. 1 year and 3 months ago I made a prediction that came true on November 4th. I am so proud to be an American right now. I know that Michelle Obama caught a lot of flack about saying for the first time in her life that she was proud to be an American but I totally get what she was saying. I've always been proud, thankful, grateful, etc to be an American but I've not necessarily been proud of America. Is that a contradiction? Today I am so very proud, inspired and HOPEFUL.

When I made that prediction last year, we had just come from seeing Senator Obama speak to a packed house in Lexington, KY. I remember a couple of things very vividly. First, the vibe of the crowd was absolutely palpable and when they begin to play U2's "Beautiful Day" the room felt alive with electricity. At that time in the campaign, Barack's opponents were trying to spoil his reputation by discrediting his ideas for hope & change. During Barack's 45 minute speech, he referenced that and said something to the effect of, "they're calling me a hopemonger, like that's a bad thing." Of course, the greatest thing about that day was that I had the chance to shake Barack Obama's hand. He looked me straight in the eye and said, "thank you for coming out today." Poor Jeragano took an elbow to the chest from a Secret Service Agent, but that same Agent pushed me up to the front to get my handshake. I was shaking after it was over. Honestly, I had felt like I'd met Mick Jagger or something. People hate to hear it, but it was like meeting a rock star. He just has that "it" factor.

So yeah, I'm a hopemonger and today I'm proud. I heard it straight from a great man's lips..its not like its a bad thing.

I'm baaaaccck!

2008-08-26T13:30:00.001-07:00

So much to say...Will update very soon. Is anyone really reading this?

Our Next President

2007-08-27T17:29:00.000-07:00

Celebrity encounters...

2007-08-09T15:48:00.001-07:00

I read an article in cin weekly today about celebrity encounters here in Cincinnati. The writer had met Nick Lachey and Jerry Springer (but c'mon, who hasn't??) and her husband had met Bruce Springsteen (now that's pretty sweet!) among others. I started to think about it and I realized that I've met quite a few famous people and most of them have been incredibly random.

I met Springer on campus at OSU in the fall of 96.

I literally bumped into Corbin Bernsen from LA Law fame on Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills while trying to avoid stepping on his little son while I was standing in front of Cartier.

I met Uncle Kracker in a bar in Tunica, MS after his concert. He was very sweet and bought me a beer.

I met Keith Urban backstage at his concert about 3 years ago. The first thing he said to me was, "I love redheads" and he touched my hair. Honest to goodness, I was speechless and uttered something like, "I love you" in response. Not a smooth moment.

Of course there's Tommy Lee in Vegas this past April. That goes down as one of my favorites, because he was so down to earth and very cool.

I saw Vince Gill at the Columbus airport where my mom and I proceeded to follow him to the bathroom to make sure it was really him. When he came out of the bathroom, I said, "I know you" and he said, "nah, I just look like him." I was a kid at the time and very starstruck. He had these amazing blue eyes with the longest black eyelashes I've ever seen.

Back in the 80s my uncle represented Steve Wariner who was a superstar in country music but you might know him now for his song "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" (ugh.) He sang my favorite song, "Kansas City Lights" and my Granny had given me one of his records which had a headshot on the cover and I kissed him all the time. My uncle had him over to their house while we were having a family reunion. I was so mortified, I wouldn't get out of the truck. He even tried singing "Kansas City Lights" to me and that made it much worse..I'm such a dork.

I met Nick, his brother Drew, and Jessica Simpson back when I was in nursing school. I was taking care of the lady that lived across the hall from Nick's grandparents in the assisted living complex, Twin Towers. Unfortunately, during my quarter with my patient, Nick's grandpa died. I met the 3 of them in the hallway while I was walking with my patient. She introduced me to them and they were very sweet. I remember Jessica being very pretty, even without makeup on and very tiny. Nick just doesn't rev me up like he does for a lot of girls. I can see his appeal but its not for me. I found it interesting that Nick's grandma got married not too long after she was widowed..I remember they showed it on an episode of Newlyweds.

Has anyone else met a celebrity?

A resolution

2007-08-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

Finally I have gotten my issues with Gold's Gym worked out. After several emails and phone conversations with a new fellow from the corporate office, it turns out that they believe I was a victim of what they call "trainer fraud." Victim seems a bit harsh but whatever. Since they couldn't make any sense at all about my training sessions with Allison, corporate has credited all of the sessions that I worked out with her (10!) back into my account. That could be anywhere from 3 to 5 extra weeks for me, which is really nice. Unfortunately, they said that they couldn't do anything about my contract since it was signed by me and set in stone. I tried to explain to them that as a new member, I had no idea what the codes for the training agreements meant and that as far as I knew, OL2 was the 3x a week plan, and not what it actually is which is a titrated plan. They didn't seem to agree with me on that for whatever reason but I've finally decided thats ok.

Karla, my 2nd trainer, told me last week that Matt, the training director who screwed me, was fired by the company and I also heard that Allison is not coming back from her August hiatus as scheduled. What goes around comes around I say.

So you might have noticed that I referred to Karla has my 2nd trainer. Unfortunately, Karla has left the company to take a position with Lifetime Fitness and it seems to be a great opportunity for her. I now have a new trainer, Phillip. He's really great so far and I think we're going to be a really good fit together. My legs are killing me and that hasn't happened in awhile, so that's a good thing.

Hopefully I'll be able to get my motivation back because it was long gone. Dealing with all of this crap has made me not want to be in the gym, period. Keep your fingers crossed for me and whatever you do, don't let me eat that cupcake!

A Rebuttal...

2007-08-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

In regards to Jeregano's blog about last weekend--

#1. I'm not sure how my mother managed to lay her hands on a corncob to lure his dog back to the house. I can only guess that she stole it off of the squirrel feeder. Goats and corncobs..we sound like the Clampett family. Just call me Ellie May.

#2. Jeregano didn't each THAT much. Granny Clampett was concerned that perhaps she wasn't putting out her usual elaborate spread. All I'm saying is that it could've and has been MUCH worse, which is why I have a personal trainer.

my troubles with Gold's Gym...

2007-07-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

Awhile back I promised you a post about my trainer Allison, affectionately known as "the Sadist." Yes, I have a personal trainer. On a side note, I'm having my birthday party in London this year and I own a small, yippy dog...I'm very glamorous. Anyway, I joined Gold's gym in May after watching a friend from work drop 30lbs by working out and also because many of the nurses that I work with go there. I thought if I could have a workout buddy then I might be more inspired to go. Nancy introduced me to her trainer, Allison, and I worked out with them for a session. I really enjoyed it and signed up immediately. $300 a month for 3, 1/2 hour sessions each week seemed pretty steep but such a great investment in myself so I decided to go for it. It simply had to be done. Allison was great and she worked my butt off...literally, I lost 14 inches off of my body in less than 3 weeks. It was amazing. It was also the hardest thing I've ever done. When I first starting working out, I could walk on the treadmill for ages but what I couldn't do was anything that involved major cardio. I tried the elliptical one night and after 2 minutes at level 1, I was ready to die. I was done. I'm proud to say now that I do anywhere from 30mins to an hour on the elliptical and I'm up to level 8! Its easy to stay motivated when progress is so evident. There were days when I was so sore, I could barely walk..I suffered from all kinds of aches and pains and some days I didn't think I could on but I did and it was so worth it. So enough of my workout inspirational! I'll just say this before I move onto the juicy stuff--so far I've lost about 12lbs and 20+ inches total from my body. I've lost 11 inches from my waist alone. I'm loving my skinny jeans.

So onto the good stuff. The week of Bonnaroo, I was scheduled to workout with Allison on monday and tuesday. She called me to cancel because she had a sick friend. No worries. She then proceeded to either not show up for or cancel our next 3 appointments. Basically she missed 4 appts in less than 2 weeks. That last appt was on a thursday and I was at work. She sent a text message to the other nurse that works with her to cancel their appt but I recieved no text or phone call. My session was 2 and 1/2 hours after Nancy's so I called Allison to double check, thinking that maybe she just had to cancel Nancy but would make it to mine. Apparently I was unreasonable in my rationale. I left Allison a message and told her that if she didn't call me back, I would assume that we were still on. So I went to my session and she wasn't there. I saw another girl that I work with and expressed my frustration to her about what was going on. She suggested that I speak with Wes, the general manager of the Colerain gym about the situation because he had helped her in the past with some issues regarding the training department. She introduced me to Wes and the conversation began. I explained to him that I was disappointed because I was so motivated and wanted to workout and that Allison is a great trainer..yadda yadda yadda. I also expressly told him that I didn't want her to get into trouble because she's a great trainer and also because she was having some personal stuff going on that needed to be dealt with. That was the end of it and I went to work out on my own.

When I came back to my car, I found a text from Allison saying that she didn't have my phone number followed by 3 lengthy voicemails in which she became increasingly irate and hostile. Apparently, 3 people called her from the gym to say that I was "talking smack" about her to Wes. One of the callers was the guy running the front desk! She told me that she would never train me anymore and she just kept going on and on about how she had done so much for me and that she couldnt' believe I would spread her business around the gym. It became more outrageous with each voicemail. Naturally I called her to try to set the record straight but she wouldn't have any of it. She was incredibly unprofessional and made rude comments about Natalie, the girl who introduced me to Wes. The call ended with her hanging up on me.

The next day I spoke with Matt, the head of the training department, and told him what had occurred. He said that he would deal with it and asked me to send him an email describing what Allison had said to me. I told him that I would NEVER step foot into the Colerain gym again and that he needed to switch my training over to the Rookwood gym. So he did that and I never heard anymore about the situation. No followup or anything.

I've been working out at Rookwood and its really nice. I have a trainer named Karla and she's absolutely fantastic. Yesterday, Karla and I logged in the computer to charge me for a session and the computer showed that I was 5 sessions in the hole, meaning that they hadn't been paid for. I was going to be billed for July today so I figured that was the reason. Karla didn't think so and she said that we needed to talk to Steven, the training manager. As it turns out, Matt didn't sign me up for a 3x a week plan like he said he did. He signed me up for a plan that allowed me to go 3x a week for the first 2 months, then 2x a week for 2 months, then 1x a week for the duration of the contract! When he sold me the plan, he gave me a pricing list that showed 2 days a week at $280 a month and 3x a week at $340 or so. I told him that I would do the 2x a week, simply based on price. He said, "if I make it $300 a month, would you do 3x a week?" and I said yes. So that's what I thought I signed up for. When it came time to pay, he told me that I had to pay 2 months upfront, which was going to run close to $700 with taxes and fees. I told him that I couldn't front that much money at that point and so he asked me if I could do approx $460. I said yes, paid, and was out the door. When they billed me for June, I they didn't bill me $300, instead it was around $200 so I figured that was just the other half of the second month. I was fully expecting to be billed $300 today. At this point, I've been given the option to buy more sessions at a reduced rate of $25 a session instead of $35. The kicker is that I have to buy them in a lump and the smallest number I can buy is 15. So they want me to pay my gym membership, my training fee (they are telling me its $240), plus the $375 to buy my extra sessions. I might be as glamorous as Paris but I certainly don't have her money! So they are still trying to figure all of that out for me. I asked Steven why Matt wouldn't be upfront with me about all of it and Steven said "because he's a sheister! He's shady."

The more pressing issue for me is this-- When I discovered that my sessions were in the hole, my trainer suggested that I look at the log to see what I was charged for and sure enough, it appears as if Allison charged me for sessions that I didn't attend! She billed me for a session for June 9th which was a Sat. and she doesn't even work on Sat! She also billed me 2x for the day that I cancelled on her. Interestingly enough, she went in and made an exception (meaning that she had to override the computer to make the charge) at 8am monday morning, charging me for an appt that I hadn't even cancelled yet! Then at 842pm she used my password to get into the computer and charge me again for the same appt. That's some super shady stuff.

I've currently got Wes looking into it all for me and trying to sort it out. I'll update when it pans out. So the moral of the story is BEWARE and BE CAREFUL! I'm trying not to let this discourage me but its hard when I thought I could trust these people and obviously I couldn't.

P.S. The Rocky theme makes for excellent workout music!

Family Drama Update

2007-07-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

My uncle Raymond (the lawyer) got involved and not surprisingly, my Uncle John dropped the theft charges against my aunts. There's more to come on this I'm sure as the jewelry still has not shown up. I just keep crossing my fingers and praying that my aunts don't have it and they swear they don't. I know my Aunt Ethel doesn't but I wouldn't be completely surprised if my aunt Ruth did. I'm probably thinking way too much about it though. I can't wait to see how it all plays out. I'm sure my poor, sweet Aunt Nellie is rolling over in her grave!

2007-07-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

I knew there was a reason why I don't want a lot of kids. Ok, well there are several reasons but this is one of them. It seems that the larger your family is, the more drama ensues. My grandma is one of 7 siblings, all of which were living until my aunt died in April...y'all know that story! Here's what we really didn't know (I'm only gonna add this in because I think it adds to the drama of the whole story!)...My great-aunt Ruth (from Mississippi) and my great-aunt Ethel (from KY) were at the hospital when Nellie died. Apparently, just after the doctors told the family to give them a couple of days to get some meds in her and that she's be just fine, Ruth was out in the hallway with Nellie's husband John leaving Ethel alone in the room with Nellie. Apparently, Nellie coughed and starting spewing blood from her mouth. Very, VERY large amounts of blood. Ethel screamed and nearly fainted while Nellie choked on her own blood and died. Its now painfully obvious why the code team was unable to do anything for her. Anyway, what none of us knew was that my aunt Nell had lung cancer. She didn't tell anyone and obviously had forgone treatment. She had been severly depressed since the unexpected death of her only son in 2005 and was just basically waiting to die. So I can only guess that she must've had some kind of tumor lysis which would explain the amount of blood, etc. Sorry that this is so graphic but its like putting together pieces of a puzzle for me.

Aunt Nell was buried on monday while I was in Vegas. My uncle John asked the sisters to come in and immediately clean their house out. He wanted to move to their house in KY permanently and wanted all memories of Nell out of that house. So, that's just what they did. It took them days to get through her clothes, purses, jewelry, etc. She was a bit of a fashionista and loved to dress. They found 71 pairs of houseshoes alone. (Wonder where I get that habit from?? ) Aunt Nell was always loaded down with jewelry and she had a lot of expensives diamond pieces so when it came time to go through her jewelry, Ruth put all of the "good stuff" to the side and the sisters split the other stuff up to be divided among the nieces. I received her 25th anniversary wedding band, which is a beautiful wide, gold band. Ruth and John apparently boxed up the really expensive pieces (she had one ring with a receipt that showed my uncle paid $5K for it and that was a very long time ago) and Ruth told him to put them up somewhere. So, the girls got the house in order and started the process of moving on.

As I said, Nell was buried on monday. On friday my uncle John took a woman out to dinner and succeeded in outraging my entire family. I actually stuck up for him telling my grandma that she was out of line for being upset and telling her that he was probably very lonely after having lost his mate of 50+ years. I tried to get her to see it from his perspective and all she kept saying to me was that Nell wasn't even cold in the ground and he already had a gf! Again, I kept sticking up for him. Then, he started to get ballsy. He introduced her to my cousin and even took her to their house in KY. Apparently this lady was a friend of theirs, as she is the sister of their next door neighbor. He even asked my grandma, Nell's closest friend in the world, to meet this woman. My grandma said no.

Uncle John has proceeded to absolutely lose his mind and I've gotta wonder how much of a part this woman plays. John called Ruth's job in Mississippi (she's a slots manager in a casino in Tunica) and told her boss that she was a thief and had stolen Nell's jewelry. After calling 3x, her boss finally told him to stop or they would press harrassment charges. He called Ethel in KY and apparently called her every name in the book and told her that he was calling the cops if she didn't return the stuff. The ironic thing is that Ethel was already back in KY when the jewelry was sorted. It was my grandma and Ruth that did it. Interestingly enough, John has never accused my grandma of anything.

So today the Fairfield police department called my grandmother to speak to her because John has charged Ruth and Ethel with theft. The kicker is that, based on the cash value of the jewelry involved (over $10K), it makes the charges a felony. John is in his 80s and the aunts are in their 60s. Can you imagine this?? Its crazy to me. 60 year old women getting investigated for felony charges. So of course, John's family sticks by him and believes him...all except one of his neices. She has a friend who is a PI and had the woman investigated. Apparently this woman (aka the Black Widow) has been married 3x and marries old men for their money. John's neice believes that she saw the perfect opportunity when Nell died and dug her hooks into him. My grandma actually thinks that this lady stole the jewelry or has hidden it and convinced him that my aunts have it.

So we'll see how it all pans out. Fortunately for all of us, my grandma's brother, Raymond, is an attorney and used to serve on the KY State Senate. He has a lot of friends in a lot of places and hopefully will be able to sort all of this out.

I'm just sad. I can't my family has turned on each other like that. I think about my Uncle John as the sweet old man who used to give me $100 for Christmas every year and absolutely adored me. I can't imagine him turning on the aunts like this. I think my Aunt Nell is rolling over in her grave right now.

2007-07-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

Threaded and loving it...

2007-07-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

I've got this thing with eyebrows. This will come as no shock to some of you. I'm almost monkeylike in my need to groom other people. I bought this cute little tool at Sephora and I frequently bring it in to work to clean up the nurses eyebrows. I usually have a line of girls saying, "I'm next, I'm next." So you can imagine my sheer delight when my friend Thea came into work with perfectly sculptured brows and described to me a place in the Kenwood mall that does nothing but eyebrows!!! House of Brows is a new store that specializes in threading. I didn't know much about threading other than that it was a middle eastern thing and the girls use thread to rip out the hair instead of wax. I had to know more but I couldn't do it alone. So I convinced my friend Brooke from work to come with me and we made a little girls day of it. Coffee, Sephora, brows, and pedis.

I was a little hestitant at first but I Brooke made me go first. Basically the girl used a spool of thread and with the end in her mouth, she made almost a cat's cradle with the thread and somehow it pulls the hairs out. I've seen marvels of medicine and many, many surgical procedures but I couldn't quite wrap my mind around how she was getting the hair out with this piece of thread. I've decided that its difficult to understand the wonders of the universe. =)

So the end result is that my brows look great. They are full and lush and I wasn't irritated after like I typically am when I have them waxed. Brooke looked amazing too! She had tears in her eyes because the change on her was so dramatic. So girls and boys (yeah you know who you are!) go get threaded! Hanin is her name and eyebrows are her business.

Oh yeah, got a pedicure at my nail shop..it looks great too but it can't possibly compare to the lush little pillows that are my eyebrows.

Bonnaroo

2007-07-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

So I've had 3 weeks or so to reflect on it and I figured since I'm wearing my tie dyed roo shirt today, I should say a bit about Bonnaroo. Jeregano was going to post something but he never did so here I go. We spent 4 days and nights with 80,000 of our closest friends in a 700+ acre field filled with dirt and dust. Unfortunately we were parked really, really, REALLY far away from the center of all things exciting, aka Centeroo, and our first day there we hauled all of our crap in 2 trips from the truck to the tent only section to set up. It was only 90+ degrees outside and due to the lack of road signs (yes the place has named roads), we took the long walk with all of our stuff. Jeregano was carrying a Vietnam style dufflebag and wasn't very happy. Luckily our setup went pretty well. We saw comedy by Lewis Black and friends, movies in the much loved air conditioned movie tent, and so much live music it was hard to wrap your mind around it all. We even saw half naked ladies in a burlesque show! The Police reunited and even though Sting screwed up "Roxanne" and the band fell apart AND they ended their show about 40 mins early, they still rocked. The dust was so thick Sat. night we were barely able to breathe, let alone see. So many people walked around with bandanas on their faces it looked like a scene from the old west. I blew black stuff out of my nose every morning and I had to show it to Jeregano because it was so unbelievable! Everyday he had to witness the black snot. I washed my hair in a trough on saturday and it was one of the most exhilirating experiences of my entire life but not to be outdone by the first post roo shower that I took at my folks house on monday morning. It is possible to sweat your ass off for 4 days in 90 degree heat without showers and NOT smell like a pigpen. Baby wipes were our friend. I lived in a tent for 4 days with no pillow ( I knew I'd forget something!) and basically sleeping on nothing but a sleeping bag and woke up every morning feeling fantastic. It was totally impossible to sleep past 8am because despite our shade canopy, the sun turned my tent into a sauna at about 7:55am every morning. Beer was overpriced at $6 a piece and you couldn't bring your own into Centeroo. Thanks goes out to the boys with the flask full of bourbon! I came down with a bizarre and unidentifiable rash on my feet, neck, and arms. It went away about a week later thank goodness.

Despite it all, it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I saw Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Bang Bang Bang, The Police, Government Mule, Dierks Bentley, The Yard Dogs Road Show, Damien Rice, Ben Harper, Wilco, Old Crow Medicine Show, Ziggy Marley, Uncle Earl and the list goes on and on. I remember standing there Sat. night listening to the Police with probably 70,000 other folks and really feeling like a part of something great. I still feel a little sad that I fell asleep during Wilco but nothing beats sleeping in a field with a gyro in the belly. What a great nap that was.

So check out www.bonnaroo.com for lots of amazing pics. If I can ever figure it out, I'll put some pics of my own up here.

I can't wait for bonnaroo 2008!

a sad start to the 4th of July

2007-07-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I was just letting Lola into the yard when I heard someone behind me. I turned around to see this little old lady running towards me with a huge smile on her face. I didn't recognize her and immediately thought that she must know my best friend and or/landlords. She started yelling, "there's my woman, there's my woman" over and over again. She ran up to me and grabbed my arm. I said hello as her husband briskly turned the corner into the side yard. He yelled for her, "Ruby, come on now we have to go home." She kept holding onto me and said, "this is my woman. I'm going home with her." I held onto her hand and started walking with her to the gate. I told her that she couldn't come home with me because I had a lot of chores to do but that she could go home with her husband. She finally took his hand and as she did, he looked at me with the saddest eyes and apologized as if there was actually something to apologize for. He had the clearest baby blue eyes, like my dad's in fact, and they were slightly marked by tears. They walked out onto the sidewalk and as I went into the house I thought I'd check out my front door and see how they were doing. I saw Ruby take off running down the street with her husband running after her. I put my shoes back on and went outside hoping maybe to help him. He finally caught her as she was distracted by the siren of an ambulance. I saw her husband look back at me from a block away and instantly I felt silly for watching them so I tried to turn sideways and hide behind a telephone pole. As I watched them walk away, hand in hand, a wave of sadness fell over me. I thought of my grandma who dealt with the same illness and was so thankful that my grandpa had not been around to see her like that. It was absolutely devastating.

I had been waxing and waning on going whitewater rafting, frankly because I was scared. I've decided that I'm going now. Ruby has reminded me to live and get the most out of life. Its ironic that I work with kids dying of cancer everyday and it took having a personal moment with Ruby to remember that life is a great adventure and we might as well live it up.

Its been way too long

2007-06-20T06:14:00.000-07:00

I received a gentle reminder this weekend (alcohol induced) that I need to update my blog. Sure enough, I see that I haven't written anything in almost a month! Lots has happened so look for some new posts soon!

Topics to be covered include: Bonnaroo!! Chemistry class, the gym and Allison the sadist, and another story about my screwed up dating life. Oh, and I decided that my crazy date tales will have song lyric titles. The jailbird is now Jailhouse Rock.

Toodles!

Update...

2007-05-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

I'm sad to report that friday at 0500, Ricky died. He wasn't eating much on Wednesday and threw up a couple of times. My grandma had just switched his food so they figured that was the reason. Granny went out of town on thursday and left the cat with my grandpa. Papa said that he was up all night with Ricky thurs. night until he died. I didn't ask for details..I didn't want them. Papa buried him in the backyard and my grandma is going to pick out a new kitty when she gets home. She was devastated when papa told her. She cried and cried according to my mom. Anyway, I found a couple of beautiful kittens that the Cat Connection in PetSmart so I think we're gonna go and get one for her. I adopted my cat, Roberta, there a couple of years ago and I highly recommend them. I wish I could end this with a cute little anecdote but sadly I cannot.

Ricky

2007-05-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon I was awakened by a horrific, nonstop howl. I was in my bedroom and I could hear the noise coming from the front of my apartment. Immediately I thought my cat had somehow gotten stuck in the hallway while I was doing laundry but she was sitting in the window. I went outside and I could hear the noise coming from the vicinity of my car and a small tree. I looked up in the tree and couldn't find anything so I figured there was a cat under my car. I got down on my hands and knees (in my pajamas, much to the delight of the bikers in the Stumble Inn) to find nothing under my car but the noise continued. There was a guy walking down the street so I said to him,

C.C: Do you hear that?
random guy: yeah.
CC: I can't figure out where that's coming from
R.G: there's a cat in the window.
CC: That's my cat and that's not her making that noise
RG( dropping to his knees): HOLY SHIT!
CC: Oh my god, what?
RG: There's a cat crawling out of your engine

The next thing I know, a bundle of fur jumps through my hubcap and lands at my feet. The cutest little ball of greasy fur imaginable. He's a long hair tabby cat with a grey back with black stripes and a white belly. He looks like an old man with the hair sticking out of his ears..Once I figure out how to put pics on here, I'll post one of him. Some little girl walking down the street told me that he was one of the strays that she feeds that belong to a family around the corner from me. I refused to take him back there. He had no collar, etc so I figured if they wanted him, they would have kept a better eye on him. Besides, feral cats make me sooo sad. I want to give them all a home---and thats what I did.

I promptly shuffled him to my grandparents house and granny immediately fell in love. I'm very proud to say that they are now the proud owners of Ricky. I wanted to call him Volkswagen but no one was on board with that. He is the sweetest, most affectionate cat I have ever seen in my life. He eats like he's never been fed and he wants nothing more to do that play with us..its amazing. He seems so happy. This makes Granny (who is still deep in the grieving process for my aunt) very, very happy which makes Corky Cherrywood ecstatic.

Save a stray today!

Jailhouse Rock

2007-05-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

I think its best to start out by telling you all about "The Jailbird." We met online in April 2006 and I was fresh off of a very painful and unexpected breakup with Rick, the only man I've really every thought that I would marry. The jailbird and I had a great first date at the Comet complete with burritos and too many Guiness (what the heck is the plural of Guiness? Guinesses? Guinii?) When he kissed me outside, I swear it sizzled like the pink neon in the front window. We spent the night together watching movies, talking, laughing, and sobering up. There was an absolute connection there and the next morning he told me how disappointed he was that I was leaving town for a few days. I was high on a cloud. In hindsight I think I wanted to do whatever I could to erase the pain of Rick and forget it all. I might have been to clingy or too hopeful but I just desperately wanted to be in love again and right back into something serious with someone. Jailbird and I saw each other a couple of times a week for about a month. One night he was going to come to my place after hanging out with a group of friends at Newport on the Levee. I had a sneaky feeling that he was really on a date down there and not out drinking with the guys. He was already late and when he called me from the bathroom of the bar, I was highly suspicious. He was almost 2 hours late when he called to tell me that he was on his way to my house ( I was planning on telling him to forget it and don't even bother) and that he was being pulled over by the police on the bridge. I never heard from him again.

I left him several messages and Ims when he was online and basically told him that I just wanted to make sure that he was ok and not dead somewhere. Still nothing. Eventually I gave up and developed a very sour taste in my mouth whenever I thought of him.

So cut to Feb. 2007. I walk into the lounge at the Southgate House for Rockabilly Roundup and my friend Thea says, "oh check out that hot guy in the blue shirt against the wall!" Yep, you guessed it. Standing across the room, staring right at me--the Jailbird. I immediately wanted to walk right up to him and tell him that I was so sad to see him because I was hoping that he had drowned in one of his kayaks but I chose to be a mature adult and instead I just gave him the evil eye all night. He walked past me a couple of times and even had the nerve to brush up against me but he never said a word.

Two days later he invites me to be on his yahoo buddy list. When I accepted the invite, he denied me! I was so pissed off! When I asked him what was up he said it was an accident, he didn't mean to invite me, etc. I was like, "whatever dude" and didn't say anything else to him. Then a few minutes later I get this.."So did you have a good time the other night?". So basically we made conversation for a second or two and I just flat out asked him what the deal was.

Now here's where I wanna hear from you?? I wanna know if anyone believes this...he tells me that the night that he was coming to my house and got pulled over, he was subsequently arrested for DUI and assaulting a police officer. He told me that he spent 3 months in jail and it wrecked his life. Ok, so the first obvious thing was that he would've been out of jail at the end of last summer and why hadn't I heard from him. He told me that he was embarrassed, etc. So, I had more questions and he had more flimsy answers. I wish there was a way to find out if he really went to jail or not...but that's a little obsessive, right??

Anyway, I've chatted with him occasionally and he's had the habit of showing up at a lot of places that I'm at, which was weird when I was dating Gus, the rockabilly guy. Gus wanted to hit him on several occasions. One night at the southgate house, he was following me everywhere, even waiting outside of the bathroom for me...this did not make Gus too happy. We go out on St. patty's day and boom, there he is. So its been kinda weird. I still can't figure him out..I think the whole story is kinda lame but that's just the typical kinda thing that Cupid throws my way....

Cupid and the 1200lb man...

2007-05-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

So I sat home last wednesday night watching bad reality TV and drinking Young's double chocolate stout because Rod Steward decided to come down with the flu and cancel the concert that I had received 4 free tickets to! Ever seen Shear Genius?? Some dude cut a chick's hair into a mullet using clippers!!! Anyway, I also found myself watching a show about the world's heaviest man. He lives in Mexico and weighed over 1200lbs. It was completely crazy because he couldn't move or anything. So this guy has this cute little girlfriend that he hooked up with while he was bedridden. So I sat there going over the irony that the 1200 lb man has more game than I do. Hot damn! What's a girl to do?? Couple this with the fact that I had just spoke with a guy that I had dated twice for a couple of months each time over the past year. "The Ken Doll" has a new girlfriend now but he immediately wanted to talk about how and why I didn't want him. Playfully he told me that I needed to lower my standards (oh HELL no!) and that I really wasn't ready to settle down in his opinion (yeah, not with the wrong man, I'm not!). So I started thinking about my battles with Cupid, especially in the past year and I've decided to put it all out there for your reading pleasure..

The Fall...

2007-04-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Its only funny in hindsight, or atleast I think that's why everyone is laughing at me. Wednesday night I was suffering from a severe case of sleep deprivation, jet lag, and a preoccupation with some suprising and very interesting events that occurred the night before when it happened. Now you must know that I sorta have my nightime routine down pat and it consists of me turning off the lights in my living room and walking into my dark bedroom, past my bed to the nightstand where I turn on the tabletop lamp. I wish I could continue on with the wild and crazy adventures that happen once I get into my bed but that's not happening and that's really altogether another blog, isn't it? So back to Wed. night...Cell phone and charger in hand, I turned the light off in the living room and went into my bedroom. As I approached the bed, the floor flew out from under me. Ok, ok, I fell over my still packed suitcase (yeah Mom--I know!). Details, shmetails. Preoccupied and sleep deprived, I had forgotten that I left my Vegas suitcase on the floor in my bedroom. I mean it had only been there for 2 days (seriously Mom--I get it now!). Anyone that knows me knows that I'm no blade of grass so when I fall, I go down pretty hard. Several things happened at once; My left leg got caught under my suitcase, I shrieked in terror/surprise, my cell phone and charger flew out of my hand and crashed into the wall, as I crashed into my Hoover upright carpet steamer that was sitting against the wall. So as I lay there on the ground twisted up, groaning, and trying to figure out what the hell had just happened, my dog Lola comes to help me out by licking me in my mouth. Thanks Lo. The pain in my leg was awful, my fingertip was throbbing, and my toes hurt. I crawled to the nightstand, turned on the light and saw my darling magenta RAZR phone (I'm a consumer whore!) open and broken. My LCD screen was completely shattered and it wouldn't turn on. Being that I don't have a landline, staring at my only real link to the world in case of an emergency, left me fighting off small tinge of panic. I HATE not having a phone. Wanna know the kicker? I fell so hard that I scraped off the nailpolish on that throbbing finger that I told you about. A wounded pride and a ruined manicure. What else was there to do but go to bed?!

Its almost 2 whole days later and my left leg is totally bruised, my back is killing me, I'm limping around like an 80 year old lady and I still can't figure out why my right arm and my chin hurt. Luckily my new phone was delivered today and Rosanna performed some massage and healing touch on me at work, which left me feeling a bit better.

Its kinda like the fisherman who tells you how big his catch is and each time he tells the story, it gets bigger and bigger. People that I barely know have been saying, "tell me about your fall." The story has definitely made its rounds. Folks were in stitches but luckily, I wasn't!. Anyway, its the perfect ending to my less than stellar Vegas vacation story (another blog for another time!) So that's all I've got folks....I'm going home to enjoy some ibuprofen, a hot shower, and more than a few Young's double chocolate stouts.