CAUTION: Woman In Progress

I am so, so, SO lame. Ugh! I need one of those signs they use in rehab (or they did on the movie 28 Days ) that hang around your neck. Mine would say, "Make me shut the hell up when I start babbling about crosswalks and being the goofy aunt." *sigh* It physically hurts to be this lame. I'm going to hide under my desk now. Ya'll have a good weekend.

I sorely wish Bob and Jenny had left their He Wrote/She Wrote blog the way it was last year. I mean, I get that they want to be all professional and crap. I do. And that's good for those out there who want to learn to write a book ala Bob and Jenny style. But reading about writing? There's a reason Jana hasn't gone back to get another degree in school. Why Jana doesn't frequent a lot of writing oriented threads and message boards. No, not because Jana thinks she knows it all and doesn't need to learn anything more. It's more like: Jana hates schoolin'. I endured 12 years of primary education (grade school and high school) and four years of college because those were neccessary in the grand scheme of things. ie. Jana needed employment. But formal education--even that on a blog or message board--makes my eyes cross and no matter how great the teacher I get bored. Fast. I'm a do-er. Not a studier. I learn by doing. Anything I've learned about writing I ...

Me and Goofus. His b-day was on the 17th and mine on the 23rd so of COURSE we had to share a party. Of course, I contend (in my delusional way) that it was actually an "all about Jana" party. See? All. About. ME! hehehehehehe Even if Emmy DID blow out my candles before I could summon the breath to do so myself. But somehow, Goofus and Sis2 managed to sneak in there again. Such camera hogs, those two.

So I was watchin' the Food Network last night. (According to an article on MSN recently, I'm fairly cool for doing so. Who knew?) Ever watched Ace of Cakes? Man, I must be warped but I think Duff's actually a little on the hottie side. Weirdly so, but yeah. I mean, he's no Dave Lieberman but... hehehehe Bobby Flay however? Not so much. Don't know what it is about him but seriously not diggin' him. I think I like Duff's odd factor. And he looks like he'd be a lot of fun. He isn't afraid to put himself out there, be a complete nut and still be able to laugh at himself. And he's like the Ami of cakes. (ever watch Miami Ink? I'm so in love with Ami and Garver it ain't funny. Except, maybe it is a little bit. lol) Which gets me to thinking...Preacher man has NOTHING in common with any of these dudes that I find myself attracted to. So what's up with THAT? Availability factor? Real life vs. Fantasy? Well, actually, he does have a few cool...

It just came to me...I had some angsting that I meant to put in my weekend review! How terrible of me to forget? LOL Sis1...Yeah, yeah. I went all rosy on her. Well, there was a moment...a very dark moment when I wanted to strangle her. So ya'll know my struggle to lose weight. Right? Well, Sis1. Huh. She was freaking out a couple of weeks ago because she had gained some weight. So she asked me for tips. (Scary, that.) So I told her what all I'd been doing, taught her the little I knew about counting calories, healthy snacking, etc. She weighed this weekend while at my house. She lost 8.5 lbs. What took me three MONTHS to lose, she lost in two weeks. But wait. It gets better. Remember how she was worried she was getting fat? She had gone from 117 pounds to 125! Eek! Her size FOURS were getting snug! I can't believe I helped her lose weight. And she's all happy and thrilled for herself (as she has every right to be) while I was seething silently. I know, I know. I'm...

My mother finally figured out how to upload her photos from her digital camera! Will wonders never cease? hehehehehe Here's a few she has on there. Miss Emmy...Taking a lunch break from hunting. Dec. '06. That's a fun looking bunch gals, ain't it? LOL That's Sis2, me, Sis1 and Emmy on Christmas Day, '06. And all us "kids" eating Christmas supper...That's Goofus next to Sis2 and if you look closely you can see my other BIL's yellow shirt clad arm next to Sis1. And me! Christmas morning. For comparison's sake, I've posted a "before" picture below taken in May/June of '04. I think. lol See? 43lbs ain't a whole heckova lot when you're a big ol' gal to start with! LOL And then there's Sis1's b-day party back in January...Goofus, Sis2 and Moi! In case you're wondering, yeah. We was havin' fun. hehehehehe And spygirl, Jana. Whoo weee! Sadly, I was forced to give up my spy career when they discovere...

I actually had a great birthday this year. Go figure. Well, mostly great. I'm choosing to forget the not so great parts. Well, after I detail 'em in here, that is. '-) So Friday. For the first time in like, four? five? years I had to work on my birthday. Normally I take a personal day on my birthday (one year I took a whole week!) just because I figure I fought hard all year just to survive till that day, the least I deserve is a day of rest. Not so this year. With us being so utterly shorthanded at work I didn't feel good about asking off the whole day. Instead, I asked off for half the day. Mama took me to lunch (after I asked her if she would. *sigh*) and then we ran her errands till around 5:30. Then Sis1 and I set out in a mad rush to go eat supper--only to have to turn around and go BACK to the house (after we'd just driven into downtown!) because I remembered that I forgot to put my refrigerated items in the fridge! Fortunately Sis1 was in a generous mood and...

Multiple chins and all, that's me there with my cousin's puppy. Yep. She's havin' a baby AND she's got a puppy. I coulda sworn the girl had better sense than that. hehehehehehe

I took my love and I took it down I climbed a mountain and I turned around And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills Well the landslide brought me down Oh, mirror in the sky What is love Can the child within my heart rise above Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides Can I handle the seasons of my life Well, I've been afraid of changing 'cause I built my life around you But time makes you bolder Children get older I'm getting older too Oh, take my love, take it down Climb a mountain and turn around and if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills Well the landslide will bring it down and if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills Well the landslide will bring it down The landslide will bring it down Yep. That pretty much sums it up. Happy 28th year, me. I'm gettin' old.

Just thought I'd share a pic from my cousin's baby shower a couple weekend's ago. Ain't she the cutest little pregnant gal? That's me and Mama with her, btw. Sis2 and I used to babysit this girl. And now she's all growed up and havin' a youngun of her own. They grow up too fast.

Don't ask me what that means in the literal sense but that's how the day has been. My muse decided to wake up yesterday and I wrote and wrote and wrote for Drifters and then...I had to go home. (Like you don't goof off at work some days. Don't give me that halo act. lol) She plotted and fussed and fumed all night last night about being thrown off her groove. So much so that as soon as I got to work she was lashing the whip at me and I've been writing hell bent for leather ever since. That is, until werk got involved. *sigh* Werk is such a drag. Now the muse is off her groove again and pouting because she forgot where she was going. Good news is, I feel really really good about what I wrote. Not that I think it's brilliant, but gosh I love those days when the scenes just flow straight from my fingers to the keyboard and on to the screen. It's like I don't even have any conscious thought in the matter and it just comes out far better than any plotting I...

Love a man with a great smile. *sigh* No. No new crush. Just appreciating a good smile. ;-) Man, I seriously need to learn to spell. I just spelled "appreciating" as "apriciating." Oy. And earlier I was typing a comment to a friend and originally spelled "sandal" as "sandle" until I looked at it and thought, that looks off. Had to go to spell check on Word and check myself. Seriously. No wonder Emmy is having a hard time with her spelling words. LOL I kint spail wurth a dirn. hehehehehe Thank God for spell check. 'Nuff said. You'd think, being such an avid (or rabid?) reader, spelling would come easy. I learned a lot of cool "big" words that I like to toss out to family and friends just to see the head scratching confusion and you know. To sound smart? Little do they know that were they to ask me to spell the "big" words, my ignorance would show. (and just to keep me honest, when I did spell check just now? "frie...

You Are 16% Evil You are good. So good, that you make evil people squirm. Just remember, you may need to turn to the dark side to get what you want! How Evil Are You? Heck, I make myself sick. Ugh!

Or not. I let St. Patrick's Day glide right on past with nary a notice. Bad little Irish-Cherokee girl. Vewy bad. ;-) I've never really gotten the whole meaning behind the "holiday" anyway. Luck o' the Irish or whatnot, sure. Drinking green beer and pinching folks who don't wear green? Not so much. *shrugs* I got a wee bit o' the Irish in me blood, for sure but I wasn't raise on the Irish lore. Anyhow, I went shopping Saturday morning. Had to drag myself out of the house because ya'll? I was sooooo not feeling the "get out and about" thing. I would much rather have been lazy. But a girl's gotta eat and the devil pup needed some more bacon treats. She's unmanageable without them. (Yes. I bribe my dog.) Once I finally got there, I had intended to look around, do some "dreaming" in case I get any birthday money to spend. You know, I like to have my money spent before I get it. I'm just goofy that way. Unfortunately, I h...

Boredom reigned today so I decided to play with the blog. What do y'all think? Love it? Hate it? Needs work? Be honest. I'm a big girl. (obviously!) I can take it.

...the first time he asks me to go to coffee break it's too darn late for me to actually go? Ugh! LOL My supervisor is so persnickety about break times, though and it's only an hour before lunch. So she would not be happy if I went to break at 11 and then to lunch at 12. But I hated telling him no. I mean, I JUST ranted yesterday about wanting to be asked instead of doing the asking and then he actually ASKS (which makes me wonder if he's found this blog...) and I can't go. Totally sucks. Now he'll probably never ask again and I'll have to eat crow from now until doomsday. Or May when he leaves for another job. *pout* In other manly type news, just found out that the preacher man shot a nail through his finger with a nail gun on Wednesday. Ouch! I tell you, as accident prone as he and I are, us together would be a natural disaster. Never mind if we ever had kids. They wouldn't stand a chance. I just sold my niece's daybed for my sister for $200. Teased h...

Being a nerd, I was going through my old Yahoo 360 blogs adding tags and the like. Lo and behold I found this . Remember Monday's post? ROFLOL

Or am I spoiled? *sigh* You know, I'm all about women's rights and crap but the dude is still supposed to hold the door open for the gal. The gal precedes the dude into a room and ALWAYS orders first. That's just the way it's supposed to be. Call me old fashioned but that's one thing I've figured out with all this guy stuff I'm slodging through. I want to be the girl . I don't want to have to always do the asking or open the door or punch the elevator button. I don't want to always be the initiator in conversation. I want a man, not a puppy. I already got a puppy. Granted, she isn't as obediant but still. I don't want to be the strong one. I want to be strong, yes, but I want to be made to feel feminine and girly. And just because we're only friends doesn't mean you can't still open the door for me. I'm still a lady whether we're dating or not. Well, okay. Maybe lady is a little too strong a term for me but I'm still...

...of taking up smoking. hehehehe Just kidding. Don't flip out. I'm not totally off my rocker. Yet. It just looks like such a fun club. Everyone gathering outside with these sticks hanging out of their mouths, smoke curling up around their heads as they talk and laugh and pass the lighter back and forth. And smoking makes friends out of people you'd have never thought would ever be friends. I suppose the new smoking laws forged these friendships among those with an affinity for smoking. Our town, especially, as there is no smoking in any public buildings...restaurants, bars, etc. Nowhere, beyond your own home, are you allowed to light your cancer sticks indoors. And so they gather outside. Clusters of ordinarily polor opposite people, sucking down that nicotine like it's candy. Maybe I should start a candy club. I'm sure there's lots of people out there who can appreciate a bag of good almond M&M's. And at least they don't cause cancer or emphazima....

Danica was "shopping" for eveningwear over on her blog and it reminded me that (Eek!) I've got to start shopping for a semi-formal dress for my class reunion. Oy vey! I hate shopping for dresses. Especially fancy pants dresses. But I popped over to the JCPenny website and took a peek. Here are two choices. Which is ya'lls fave? dress one dress two I'm sort of leaning towards dress one since it has the ruffles in front to camoflauge the belly but I don't know. Or I might see if someplace else has more choices. I really don't want to put out that kind of money on a dress I likely won't wear again hopefully won't be ABLE to wear much longer after. You know, cuz it'll be too big? hehehe

The Devil Pup's nails have officially reached Kruger status. Or Scissorhands status. Yeah, Scissorhands. (Johnny Depp is by far cuter than Kruger, you know.) I have got to get her to the vet and get them clipped but where to find the time? With us down to three staff/faculty at work with maybe one student assistant I certainly can't take any time off. And the weekends are so hectic and the vet is only open by appointment anyway. And why would I want to bother them to open just to clip some scissorhand nails? And tick season is upon us. Yeah, I know. Some of ya'll are still buried under mounds of snow. But down here? Tick season. I've pulled five off of the DP already. Not an easy task, by the way. She hates having ticks pulled. Squirms, growls, bites and utilizes her scissorhands to get away. It took me a week to get one off of her shoulder. And even then I had to enlist Mama's help. And yeah, I do use some stuff that's supposed to prevent fleas and ticks. Bu...

Oy vey . I've GOT to stop calling guys "sweetie" and "honey". Granted, it's guys I know fairly well and feel comfortable around but it's soooooo going to get me in trouble one of these days. Trouble like, they think I'm in lurv with them. LOL But I call my gal pals sweetie, too. And my dad. But usually when I call someone sweetie it's because a bit of sarcasm is about to follow. Perhaps I feel it lessens the bite? hehehehe No, I caught myself calling Mr. Coffeebreak Man "sweetie" on Friday. He went to hand me some sugar for my coffee and only handed me two packets. I said, (or sed , as Emmy spells it!) "Oh, sweetie it's gonna take more than that." And yesterday I just KEPT calling my best friend's sixteen-year-old brother sweetie. I HAVE actually known him since he was three so I'd HOPE he knows I don't mean it in a guy/girl kinda way but still! hehehehehe But on with the weekend. There is a LOT. Hang on t...

I just feel so--inadequate. Ignorant. Uninformed. There's all these conversations swirling around me and I'm lost in the sea of them. Things I feel I should know but for some reason don't. Where do all these other people find this wisdom. This knowledge. It seems everyone else knows everything about everything. Like how beer is made. The history of moonshine. How to catch a catfish with your bare hands. Where was I went they were learning about all this stuff? Was I just not paying attention? I know, none of that stuff is important in the scheme of things. It's all frivolous stuff. But if I missed out on that, who knows what all else I've missed out on. I mean, I can tell you that Luke's Diner has the best coffee in Stars Hollow and that Rick and Phoebe used to be uncle and niece and are now step-brother and sister who are fooling around but I can't tell you that if you wiggle your fingers at a twenty pound catfish it'll swallow your fist and you can pu...

As reported on MSN... Aries Finding the right balance between letting someone special know how you feel, and yet taking into account your own situation and practical needs could be a difficult juggling act today. The position of the planets reveals that if go too far either way, problems may develop. If you can just for once follow your gut feelings, you will be guided as to how to proceed, and all will be well. Great. Just great. All my gut's ever led me to was donuts. I'm screwed.

How annoying can an annoying old man be? Thankfully not that annoying. Today at least. Of course, my boss will probably get an earful about her incompetent staff. Meaning me. *sigh* But. The old geezer is lucky I didn't run him through the microfilm reader like I've wanted to on many occasions. I think he finally figured out (after six years!) that I'm not afraid of his old geezer self and even as I'm silently picturing his annoying, unsolicited advice on my job giving, rude and domineering self getting stuck in the duplexing unit of the copy machine I'll merely smile sweetly, nod and bid him good day. I have a bruised nostril. Painful, I'll tell you. Devil Pup got a little...exuberant? with her affections this morning. I keep telling her to leave her teeth out of her kisses but I think she's been reading my romance novels when I'm not at home. I'll have to remind her that a) she's not a man b) she's not a romance novel hero and c) you're...

Cuz it ain't at my house. Well, that's not totally true. I'm able to fall asleep, just not able to STAY asleep. Like clockwork, I wake up at like three or four in the morning and can NOT go back to sleep. So. Annoying. I get up so tired in the morning but don't want to spend another single second laying in that bed wishing for sleep. What's up with that? Ugh! It's gotten so bad that I've started dreaming about the sleep aid Rozerem (or however it's spelled.) You know, in those moments before I wake up ? Such. A pain. I've even got dark circles under my eyes to prove it, too.

Had an eye opening weekend, let me tell you. Received a lot of discernment on a lot of things. All of which (Lord willing) I'll get to in a minute. But to catch you up...(this IS the weekend review, after all. hehehehe ) Friday afternoon was kind of freaky/weird. Mama was dropping me off after work and we were just chit chatting like we do and I mentioned my plans of going to a particular breakfast buffet Saturday morning. She says to me, "I thought you were going to Huddle House?" It wasn't until I was outside with the DP later on that it dawned on me. I hadn't mentioned to anyone but my blog about the possibility of going to the Huddle House. Has she somehow found my blog??? So Mama? If you're reading this? Just tell me. The suspense is killing me! I'd rather know for SURE if you're reading than just wonder indefinitely. Or heck. Maybe I'm just paranoid after having confessed so much crap last week. Ugh! Ghost Whisperer was a friggen re-run Fri...

So apparently this week is the week of reconnecting. lol Best friend in SC called me last night after nearly TWO MONTHS. The longest since just after she moved to SC several years ago that we've gone without talking. I see her mother every Sunday at church, so I keep up with her that way. But she's in nursing school doing clinicals and working part time at a hospital so she's much busy. That's why I haven't called her and she hasn't called me, though she told me last night to PLEASE CALL HER to distract her from the drudgery. lol We talked for over an hour and a half--catching up on each other and mutual friends/acquaintances. Mostly, though, we reminisced about high school. Blech! LOL She loves those trips down memory lane while I am only mildly amused by them. I didn't hate high school but it wasn't exactly my shining moment, either, if you know what I mean. Look up gawky nerd and you'll see a big ol' stinky picture of my chubby be-speckled fac...

Isn’t it funny how true friends can go months without really talking and yet, the next time you call or see them it’s as though you’d never been apart? I’ve got a couple of friendships like that. We know we’re friends—true friends—but for whatever reason, we don’t get to talk or see each other for long periods of time. Not because we don’t care about one another or think about each other but because of LIFE. I talked to one of those friends last night. She and I have known each other for what amounts to our whole lives (all through elementary, high school, college and post college as well as both working in the library) and recently she left the library to take a better paying full time job while pursuing her graduate degree. Now, she did all of this without really telling me anything about it. I found out through a mutual friend. It didn’t hurt or surprise me because she and I have always been this way. We live separate lives at peace with the knowledge that when we’re ready, we’ll re...