Travelling Tunes

Do you have 'driving music'? You know - music that you hear in your car, and you blast the stereo to bust and belt out the song like it's your job? Well, I actually have 2 songs at the moment. They vary from time to time, but for the past few weeks, it's been

1) "Shut up and Drive" by Rihanna - Okay, I seriously choreographed a complete dance number while driving and listening to this tune one day. This song is fun, hip and makes me want to shake my groove thing. When Adam's in the car with me and this song comes on, he automatically shuts up, rolls his eyes into the back of his head and pretends that I'm just a random stranger that picked him up on the side of the road.

2) "Rockstar" by Nickelback - Much to everyone's disgust, I have to admit that I have a little bit of a school girl crush on the lead singer of this band. Yes, kare, I know you think he looks like Jesus. But, it's not so much his looks as it is his voice and the complete and utter dirtiness of some of the lyrics. Many a time I've listened to their songs and thought "I'd strip to that". ANYWAY....back to my story..

So, yesterday morning after I dropped Adam off at school, I'm shuffling through XM radio looking for tunes and "Rockstar" came on - I instantly cranked the volume to teenage level & proceeded to sing for my supper. I love to sing - I suck like a vacuum, but in my car, I can transform from Mariah to Celene to Fergie to Kelly Clarkson to Rihanna, and yes, to the lead singer of Nickelback. I start singing to the top of my lungs. I have to add that I'm sure people look at me like I've lost it, but when I'm in the moment, I don't care who's watching.

So, here I am - sitting at a red light - music blaring, me keeping right in time with the tunes, and I look over at the car next to me. There's a guy, sitting in his car doing the exact same thing to the exact same song. He notices me noticing him - we both laugh, and continue singing while sitting in our cars.

We open up for Nickelback next month.

Have a great evening, everyone. Peace.

The Last Hurrah

Well, it's been quite a week - After much consideration, Amy has decided to move away, and she's leaving tomorrow morning. It's been a hard week - I don't think I'll ever stop crying. We fight like cats & dogs, but in a nutshell, we're basically the same person. I can't imagine not seeing her, not laughing with her, not fighting with her every day.

I decided that I would have a 'bon voyage' party for her last night, but because she's not going to be here for my 40th birthday next week, she & her friends actually gave me a surprise party. Such a great night.

This is a present Amy & her best friend, Jesse made me - it was a canvas with different memories written on it. As well, a quote from "for one more day" by Mitch Albom written on it:

"She wasn't easy on me, don't get me wrong. She smacked me. She scolded me. She punished me. But she loved me. She really did. She loved me falling off a swing set. She loved me stepping on her floors with muddy shoes. She loved me through vomit and snot, and bloody knees. She loved me coming and going - at my worst and at my best. She had a bottomless well. She had a bottomless well of love for me. Of love for me."

Once again Amy proved to give me a memorable present. I didn't think the tears would stop.

My girlfriend Jayne & her husband gave me a remarkable table with a lighthouse on it. It's absolutely beautiful. Her presents are always amazing. If you're noticing two girls dressed very '80s in the background, that's two friends I work with - Amanda & Laura. I always wanted an '80s themed party, so when they were invited to this, they decided to run with it. Needless to say, as soon as the gift opening was over, I ran upstairs & changed into some old clothes. I'm all about teasing the hair, wearing tacky jewellery and those shoulder pads! To top it all off - Vaughn got me another pair of uggs! Yay me!

Now, for your viewing pleasure, some pictures from last night's excitement. Amanda made me a cake with a penis on it - In my defense, I was drunk as a sailor, so, out of consideration, I won't post the pics of what I did with the cake later. BWAAHAHAH (Netter, you can see them all on facebook) ;o)

Happy trails, little miss. I love you everyday - and now I'll miss you every day.

Have a great evening, everyone. Peace.

I was a pawn in a vicious scheme

So, kare phones me yesterday & asks me if I want to 'pay it forward' with the lawn demons that were left on her lawn a few weeks ago. Needless to say, I'm all about a good time. I'm all about wearing a hoodie in the dead of night, crawling over people's driveways and planting little evil goblins on lawns. But, hey - it was Schell. I knew she'd get a kick out if it. I didn't, however, think she'd figure out it was us so quickly. Here's how it went down.

I arrived at kare's to pick her & 'Satan's toys' up and pack them into my vehicle. Let me say that I'm not a big fan of these. The whole 'ornaments left on the lawn' thing did not amuse me one bit. It actually freaks me out to think they they mysteriously just showed up there. ANYWAY....here they are, being loaded up by a co-conspirator, kare's daughter, Tres:

So, away kare & I go....Like two hoodlums in the dark. We arrive and park a few houses down from Schell's and decide that this is a picture moment:

By this time, I'm thinking that because it's completely dark outside, people tucked away in their homes for the evening are going to see flashes going off and wonder what the heck is going on. This apparently doesn't enter kare's mind even once. So here is a pic of my bad influence:

Picture this, if you will....two hooded strangers crawling over people's driveways with garden ornaments in their arms. Cars are driving by and all I can think is "Holy shit, someone's gonna call the cops". I don't think I laughed so hard in my life. We finally make it to Schell's front lawn and we start to arrange them. They're falling all over the place and we can't stop laughing. We finally get them all standing up and kare poses for a pic:We then proceed to fly back to my car, and kare realizes that we didn't get a pic of me with them.

Me: It's too late! We can't run back now!

kare: We have to! We've come this far! That's part of the dare! Let's go!

So, there we are - crouched down, crawling over the driveways & lawns again - to get this:

I thought for sure we'd get caught! I can't remember running that fast in my life - or laughing that much!

Schell, when you're ready to 'pay it forward', let kare & I know. I'll drive the getaway vehicle.

Have a great day, everyone. Peace.

Strange Happenings at the house of Schell!

Wow - you HAVE to read this post! There are weird things and even weirder people among us. ;o) Schell, there's never a dull moment in your yard!

The latest book.

I'm a fan of Mitch Albom - my daughter got me turned on to him years ago with the books "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet in Heaven". They were definitely 'tug at your heartstrings' books and, like my daughter, I passed them on to many people.

I was at the bookstore a few weeks ago, and one of the workers mentioned that he had a newer book - "for one more day". I had it finished before I could even go to bed. If you haven't read it already, I'm urging you to. It was simply amazing. However, I actually didn't think I'd ever stop crying. Let me know what you think.

Don't you just love it when you wake up for work and your day is going great? Your hair went perfect, you're not running behind, you don't get stuck in a traffic jam, there's no lineup at Starbucks....Everything is going absolutely swell.....And then there's that one person....every day, that just fucks it all up.

I have one of those people. Every morning, I stop at my work to pick up cash, paperwork, etc; and I make the lovely trip to head office to meet with the lady in Accounts Payable. Her job is to balance our previous day. That's it. If we've screwed up, or the cash doesn't jive, it's her job to get it back in the groove.

I'm a morning person. So, when I arrive at her office, my makeup is freshly done, my hair is great, and my clothes are wrinkle free (this doesn't last all day, but seeing it's the 1st thing in the morning, all is well.)

When I walk into her office, I'm chipper. When I greet someone in the morning saying, "Good morning - how are you today?", the correct response is, "Fine, thanks. How are you?" I don't care if your allergies are acting up. I don't care if your loser boyfriend won't pay his bills. I don't care if the company is trying to kill you by cutting off the heat in your office. And I certainly don't care if your six month flu is bringing you just that much closer to death. But I listen (as I'm checking messages on my cell phone) and I normally just let her have her rant. She then will proceed to complain about how whoever closed the store the night before should be tested for mental capability. How one of these days she's just going to stop doing our day end until someone actually gets it right. This burns my ass every day. This morning I had enough. I'll re-enact this morning's events....For privacy reasons, we'll call her "Swamp Thing".

Me: Good Morning all! How is everyone this fine morning? Why's your office door closed?

Swamp Thing: Don't be talking! The mold in this building is killing me. My allergies are worse today than they've ever been. It's obvious that 'the powers that be' (she actually did the finger quotes) have no interest in the little people!

Me: Well....that sucks...Hey, can we hurry this up? I've still gotta do a coffee run.

Swamp Thing: You can hang on. God knows it takes me twice as long to do your store. When are they going to start training people right anyway? I've just about had it with your store!

Me: Whatever. *rolls eyes*

Swamp Thing: Do you have any idea what I have to do every day? Do you know how much extra work it is?

~~~Let me just say, in my defense, she was cutting into my coffee time~~~

Me: Extra work?? Extra work?? It's your goddamn job! Do you know how much work it is for me to drag my ass in here every morning to listen to this? Get the goddamn stick out of your ass and do your job! I'm not packing my fucking bags to go on your pity trip this morning! Now hurry up, you're clearly not worth missing coffee for.

Not another word....The cash was done. I got my coffee. Life was good.


Have a great evening, everyone. Peace.

I Need Another Few Days - This Weekend was too Busy!

Wow - It's Sunday evening, and I'm exhausted! Friday evening, Vaughn, Amy & her friend & I went to the annual 'Kids Forever' fundraiser - a benefit for children with special needs. Amazingly, they raised $305 000.00 this year!!! It was a great night, as always:

Sorry - I can't be serious all the time....Who am I kidding - I can't even be serious half the time.

Saturday was my baby girl's 21st birthday! However, because she wasn't awake yet, my girlfriend, Jayne & I went and got our tattoos. Because we were so in love with Amy's, we actually both chose getting our husband's initials on our wrists. As panicky as I was, it was surprisingly not that bad.

Saturday evening Amy had a bunch of friends over for birthday cake and fancy slushie drinks. Her requested cake this year was fruit pizza, so, what my girl wants - my girl gets.

Adam's school's Drama Club is performing 'Cats' this winter and he auditioned this week and will be playing the role of Skimbleshanks, so, rehearsals started this afternoon. I dropped him off, and then proceeded to meet Kare at the dog park - lots of fun! Then the usual Sunday activity....grocery shopping. After getting home and finally getting everything put away, I slumped on the couch & went into a coma for about a half hour, until it was time to pick Adam up. I think it'll be an early night tonight. I'm only staying up long enough to see if Britney Spears makes a fool of herself on the VMAs tonight.

Have a good evening, everyone. Peace.

My Week.

Holy shit - how busy was this week? I guess it's all the craziness with getting back into the swing of things with Adam back in school. Here's a pic on his 1st day:

It's Amy's 21st birthday on Saturday, but her friend Benjamin (remember him from last year?) had to leave last Sunday, so we had a 'Bon Voyage Ben/Amy's Faux Birthday' celebration last weekend so he wouldn't miss it. I wasn't crazy about the boy last year, but I'll bite the bullet and actually admit that I love that kid. He's a sweet guy who absolutely adores Amy. Isn't that all that matters? Here are some pics:

As well, Amy got a portion of her present today - She & my father (she calls him 'Poppy') have a bond like no other - In his eyes, she can do no wrong (rolling eyes), and in her eyes, he walks on water. So....in honor of him, this is what she got this afternoon:

My Father cried. The guy did an amazing job - so well, in fact, I've decided to get another tattoo by him on Saturday, even though I swore that my last one was definitely my last one.

Netter & DH, it took a while, but your presents were mailed today - Nett, they told me that the dog sled should be mushing it's way out of the Post Office Igloo soon and you should receive it in about 10 days. ;o) DH, even though they stuck a ton of 'Fragile' stickers on yours, I'm crossing my fingers that it gets to you in one piece. Let me know when you both get them, k?

Have a great day, everyone. Peace.