Down and out...

One of my favorite bands is a Texas Country band by the name of Randy Rogers Band. They are freaking awesome and if you don't know who they are, you need to familiarize yourself with them. One of their songs is titled 'Down and Out' and that's just how I feel today.  Out of nowhere today I have this overwhelming and unsettling feeling of just flat out missing Mr. NRN. I know, I know. We've been through this. But that doesn't change the fact that it's still there.  He has a girlfriend now and I'm honestly happy for him (honestly). But I miss talking to him and joking around, and being able to talk to him and he would just...get it. He understood a lot of what I said and didn't judge me. Pick on me, yes. LOL But he never judged me.  When I get to thinking about everything that happened between us, because I admit SOME fault, I just...miss him. Sometimes to the point of tears...like today.

Giveaway and recipe...

I know I talk about her a lot but it's because I love her and she's one of my best friends. When Mrs. Adventure first told me about her blog I was completely clueless about the "Blog World" and all of it's...perks. The fact of the matter is, my blog is almost therapeutic to me. It's a place where I can get things off my chest that maybe I can't say in the real world. It's a place I can seek validation in times of feeling uneasy about something, or just to put down events that have happened for personal historical value. I love to write and have been told many, many, MANY times that I missed my calling and should have been a writer. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. The important thing is that it soothes me when I need to get something out of my head and I have a place to put it.

Perks. You know your attention was mine when I said 'perks'. Go ahead...just admit it. It's just you and me here. ;)  Some of the perks of Blogville is that you find people on here that are amazing in their triumphs, maniacal in their passions, heartbreaking with their tragedies.  I've met a few people in Blogville that maybe someday I'll actually have the pleasure and honor of meeting in real life. (Yes, Allison...I'm talking about you.)

I have known Mrs. Adventure and Mr. Arkansas (her husband) for some time now and know first hand how yummy their concoctions can be. If you happen to like portabello mushrooms and garlic, you may want to head on over here and see what she's got for us today. It looks yummy and I can't wait to try it for myself!!  She also used Garlic Nuggets. Let me tell you. These things are worth every penny as they are scrumpdiddlyumtious!  No joke. LOL  I'll be taking advantage of her 20% off coupon code on their website. You can bet on that!

She also has a giveaway going on right now for a $75.00 Hayneedle Gift Card Giveaway. I know my Gran could use a rain barrel with as much plant watering as she does...

I hope you guys are having a good day. After I pick Monkey up from work today, I'll be heading over to the Chevrolet Dealership and possibly test driving an Equinox. Maybe if I feed Monkey before we get there, he'll be somewhat well behaved and I'll be able to focus on the vehicle and not be so distracted by my two-year old (who is also bringing in some two-year molars right now).  He happens to be OBSESSED with cars right now so maybe that's just the place to take him... LOL. Who knows?  I'm sure I'll have something to say about it tomorrow...

Washing my hands of it...



This is the LTX trim...not the one I'm looking at. But the same vehicle none the less.



So, I've decided to trade in my Xterra (and honestly having mixed feelings about it...she's been REALLY good to me) and have been looking at a Chevrolet Equinox.  My goal is to lower my monthly payment, get better gas mileage, and give Monkey some more room in the back seat. Right now, he can rest his feet on the inside corners of both of the front seats. LOL  Little moose!  I was looking into possibly getting a Nissan Titan (my dad has one and I really like it...in fact, I look for reasons to get to drive it!) but decided that I WILL have a full sized truck, but not this time. Gas prices are rumored to be outrageously stupid this summer and I have a 22 mile commute to work...one way.  The Equinox boasts a 22/32 MPG while Xterra gets 16/22 MPG.  The back seat leg room goes to Equinox also at 41.2/39.9 (front/rear), as opposed to Xterra's 42.4/34.4.  My Xterra has a V6 in it and there is a V6 option for the Equinox, but chances are I would be giving up my V6 for a 4-cylinder. Sucks, but if the price is right (to include what I'm getting out of my tank for what I'm putting into it) then we have a deal.  I'm still in the beginning stages of this excursion but we'll see how it all turns out. 



The weekend was pretty fun. Friday night Monkey and I went to Blondie's house after we went out to eat. We had Chinese and though I'm not a fan of Chinese, it was good. She suckered me into it because the restaurant that we went to has "sticky buns". A delicious yeast roll that is slightly drizzled with honey. Have I mentioned that they are to die for? Mmm hmm. They sure are. I could live off of them forever. Anywho. So after we left the restaurant, we got all the way to Blondie's before I realized that I had NO CLUE where my phone was. (It's a Samsung Fascinate...) We went all the way BACK to the restaurant just for them to tell me that they didn't have it. Well, hell. Blondie and I proceeded to search the parking lot and my car for this thing. Wanna know where it was? Monkey was sitting on it the ENTIRE time. LOL!!!!  I changed his diaper before we went in to eat and apparently didn't look in his seat when we came back out. (side note: while I was in the restaurant asking the staff if they had seen it, a guy at the counter offered to call it for me to see if it would ring. Uh, No?  I don't know you! I'm not just gonna GIVE you my number! You could be some creepy stalker and use my phone to find and MURDER me!  Thanks, but NO thanks...  "No thanks. One of my girlfriends has her phone in the car. We'll just use hers." Exit quickly...)  Finally, we made it back to her place. A little while later, Monkey started pitching a fit because he was tired and was ready to go to bed. So I took his little butt home and let him lay down.

Saturday, Sissy and I went to ATX (Austin) to go to Whole Foods. I absolutely LOVE that store. It's like, hippie Mecca and there are quite a few people who walk around smelling like patchouli and B.O. (both of which are enough to make you vomit in your mouth a little) but all in all, I like it because most everything in there is either health conscious, and/or organic. (No, I am not a tree-hugger, but my girlfriend Mrs. Adventure has enlightened me to some healthier alternatives and tips on better eating habits.) It was a good trip. I picked up some more granola, chia seeds, raw organic almonds, whey protein powder (for my morning smoothies since I don't eat eggs), some olives to chop up and put into my salads, some snacks for Monkey's lunches, and a couple other things.  Hopefully, when they finish building the new H-E-B in our town, it will have a bulk section. Mrs. Adventure has one in her local H-E-B and I am green with ENVY. They are saying it's going to be the biggest one in Texas but we'll see. I've been in some seriously big H-E-B's in my day... LOL.

Mr. History is just that...history. And it's really quite sad. One day we are chatting and talking like normal and then the next, nothing. Silent treatment in fact. I don't know about you, but I'm not about to be put on the 'silent treatment' list for no good reason. I sent him a text and asked him what the deal was and his excuse for the days with no communication is that he's been really tired lately and blah, blah, blah. By no means am I getting all twisted because he isn't talking to me, but I feel like he should have just said something like, "Hey...I'm a little run down and just don't have the energy to talk right now...hit you up in a few days after I get some strength back." instead of straight up ignoring me.  I get it. We all have days like that. But communication is a big deal to me. If I can't talk to you, or you can't talk to me (and this goes for ALL of my friends and family...everyone that I am directly in contact with) then there is a problem. Not only that, but for him to be beyond ecstatic and make such a big deal about me finally finding him after he's been looking for me for 9 years and then go to not talking to me at all... No. I'm not playing these games. You either have enough respect for me to tell me what's on your mind, or you don't. And in the case that you don't, I don't have room for you in my life. It's just that simple. You don't tell someone that you "missed" someone for so long and then not have the decency to tell them what's on your mind. It makes you a liar. I don't like being lied to. It doesn't make me feel good, or special.

Maybe I'm just better off single. *sigh* Mrs. Adventure and I email frequently. She knows all about the ruts and retards that have come in and out of my life.  She said to me in an email one day "Gracie, he is a man. Its not that shocking sorry dear. One out of ever 100 is someone you'd want to end up with and at our age at least half of them are married... because they wanted to be. You are up against sorting through all the shitty ones for the diamond in the rough. It sucks but its just the truth. Don't let it get you down you need to look at dating for what it is."  I love her because she knows me too well. LOL

There are very few good ones left. I'm still looking. But unless Mr. History makes a damn good case for his lack of good judgement when it came to my feelings, things will continue to stand as they are. And by damn good case, I do mean a damn good case.  I'm thinking single sounds pretty freaking good for the rest of my life. Single doesn't get you hurt. So, I'm washing my hands of it.

Gracie

Gumbo anyone?

This post is aptly named as I have a few things to spit out and from one end of the spectrum to the other. Gumbo is like that...without the spitting of course. It's got all kinds of stuff in it, but it's scrumptious and yummy and when my Granny makes it, it's unparalleled!

First up, I LOVE O-P-I Nail Lacquer. It's the best stuff since sliced bread and since they came out with a "Texas" line of colors this year, I love them even more! I'd like to have all of the colors just because, but only have 4 today. Boo.  This is what they came up with...

I was tempted last night. I was tempted to have a desert but resisted on the grounds that I had had WAY too much to eat yesterday and didn't need to add to my misery by having that desert. What was it you ask?  Bluebell (some of y'all have no idea what I'm talking about. For that, I am deeply sorry. I'm deeply sorry because Bluebell Ice Cream is a Texas thing and if you have never graced your taste buds with the pure heavenly flavors of Bluebell...YOU ARE MISSING OUT!!!!) Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with ChocoVine poured over it. Chelsea over at Roots and Rings has blogged about it several times. I'm not a fan of red wine. I'm not really a fan of wine at all. But for about $10 a bottle, I figured, "Why the heck not?"  After I got mine home, I decided that it would taste awesome over some vanilla ice cream. It did people!!!!  But last night I didn't have any. You can bet I won't make that mistake tonight...

My computer was working slow as hell this morning. I wanted to shoot it. Dead. I know I've talked about putting bullets in my computer before but... it was begging, nay, crying and begging while crawling on it's hands and knees behind me as I walked away from it in frustration.  I decided that my employers would be none too pleased if I did shoot it so, as I type I'm praying that none of this gets "unfortunately deleted" by her attitude problem. 

Because my computer is obviously already there, I think it only fair that I get to go on vacation too.  I'd really like to see Greece. Greece, Ireland, Italy, Germany...and maybe England. But this is why I want to go to Greece. That and the Gyros...



OK. I gotta vent about this. One of my bosses, Mr. No Smiley (never cracks a smile, always dead serious,...buzz killer, etc.) is kind of a girl when it comes to his clothing. I'm serious. This guy wears starched jeans, a freshly starched and pressed shirt and a jacket to work every day. When he comes in the office, he takes his jacket off and puts it on the back of his chair. When he leaves, and it doesn't matter if he'll be gone for 15 seconds or 15 minutes, he will put his jacket back on. Over and over and over he does this. So, I heard him go into the other boss's office and it sounded to me like he was crying about the air conditioner being on!  WHO THE HELL CRIES ABOUT AN AIR CONDITIONER BEING ON IN TEXAS?!!  I silently prayed that nothing would be done about the A/C being on because I'm always boiling hot and miserable in here.  I wanted to smack his prissy self.

So, while I was searching for the photos you see above, I came across some other ones that I thought were pretty funny...



This is me in the morning...





How funny is this dumb kid?! HA HA




I know this is a little over the top with Japan and all...but it's still funny!!!



Have a good rest of the day. y'all!

Gracie

P.S. Head over to Mrs. Adventure's blog...she's got another giveaway going on!!

Been A While...

OK.  This sucker is probably gonna be long as hell...but I guess that's what I get for not posting in FO-EVA!!!

**Quick thought: it's been a while since I saw Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland...I should probably watch it again.**

As y'all know, I started school back in January. That is part of the reason, but not entirely, why I have been absent. I wrote two papers and they kinda kicked my butt a little. I got a 70% on the first one...Yeah. Not good. It was the first paper I had written since 2000 so I wasn't ENTIRELY surprised. I like to think of myself as a decent writer. That is, when the subject matter interests me. If it doesn't well...I'm kinda screwed on enthusiasm. LOL  Anyway, we turned in our second of two research papers and took our mid-term exam last Wednesday. I should have studied more for that exam and hope I did decent. This course has been an eye opener for me. A wake up call. "Hey, ass! Wake up and get your shit together and be serious!"  Yeah. Moving on.

In my last post, I mentioned something about The Monkey Chronicles. I LOVE that name but I think I've decided to continue my anonymity. And I don't know that I want to plaster my son's face all over the Internet (nothing against those that do). It's just a choice that I have made in order to keep from people, namely predators, from messing with my child. I like the free world and don't think that prison orange would make my already blotchy skin look any better. So, I ask you. Are we happy with Finding Gracie?  Maybe if I just put a tab up top that was for the Monkey Chronicles...I think I like that idea.

I hate not writing. I always have so much to say, but on the other hand, I'm an emotional writer. I write when my mind is right and fairly clear. If I'm burdened or deeply affected by something, often times I won't write about it until after the fact and then it's almost a moot point to write about it at all... I miss the blogosphere sometimes when I'm rutted like that. I'll try to be better at it...and now that I say that, I wonder how many times I've said it before. LMAO

I want y'all to know that one of my very best friends is also a blogger. (She's way better at posting daily too...) But recently, she has been doing some really cool give-a-ways.  You should check her out over at Mrs. Adventure...she'd love to have you!



I didn't make this but it's cool anyway.



Work sucks. I just needed to go ahead and say that out loud. I work with a bunch of children. My girlfriend across the hall way though, Miss Foof (short for "foo foo"--she's a tad more girly than I am) is truly my grip on sanity when these idiots start their crap. The midget was the one to start the drama last week. Or she is the best that we can narrow it down to. She's stupid, slow and just a whole lot of lazy and can't stand it when I'm done with my work and have more time on my hands to I dunno...blog maybe.  So, she started some shit that involved the big boss, an employee meeting, and references to me and the other chick we have in here.  I did not take lightly the personal attack she made on my work performance. I work, and I work quickly and efficiently. It's not MY fault she gets behind in her work because she's off being a social butterfly. (She's the first to put your business on the street too... Word to the wise...) Never before had I wanted to donkey-stomp a midget before that day... But you live and learn. I don't even look in her direction anymore. She doesn't deserve my time. She's a waste of space in here if you ask me.  Whiny midgets are the worst...



This isn't him but it's equally as bad if not worse



Speaking of work...I miss my office with a door on it. A door that I could close and shut everyone else out and not have to listen to all their problems and family drama. I don't mind if it's someone I actually care about. Miss T and Miss Foof are about the only ones I care to listen to up here. Every one else can just keep their crap to themselves as far as I'm concerned. I hate to sound all mean and hateful about it but I'm one of those people who gets all wrapped up in other people's lives and to hear about stresses just makes me stress. So a while ago I decided that I don't care to hear about everyone else's troubles. I've got enough of my own with my friends and family.   And I could slap these other two women in here who ask about how their lives are going...I can't shut the door on it because I DON'T HAVE ONE!!!!!  Grr.  So, one of my bosses is a short, rooooouuuuuuunnnddd, but not small man. Today, he is wearing his usual jeans with suspenders. Yes. I said suspenders. And a shirt that I could swear he stole right out of Monkey's closet. It is about 3 sizes too small. Wanna know how I know it's too small? I'll tell you. I can see the last quarter of his beer-keg of a belly sticking out from underneath it because it's too short to cover the damn thing. It's awful. My husband would not leave the house looking like that much less own a shirt to tempt him with doing so. Oh hell no.  Again, Miss Foof is my sanity.   She and I were talking earlier about how we really weren't sure how to take/read the other when we first met. Now? She-yit.  We're thick as theives now. LOL  It's nice to add her to my trusted friends list because she's real down to Earth and has a good head on her shoulders. I can talk to her about anything and everything and she doesn't judge me or act afool. It's a good thing. She'll be added to the "ALIAS" list when I can get around to it. She's a keeper.

Monkey turns 2 on Thursday. I'm kind of excited about that!  That means that I've been a good mother, well, good enough mother to keep him alive for two years. LOL  Sometimes I've wondered why he doesn't hate me for having to swat his butt or tell him "No" all the time but maybe I'm doing something right because he sure does always have a big smile ready for me when I go to pick him up from daycare. (Usually followed by a world class, junkyard, hissy fit tantrum...but hey. The smile came first. LOL)

I'm pretty sure you're wondering about the love life aspect as I haven't touched it yet.  Something worth mention has in fact happened. A week old recent event kinda has me guessing what's next but in a good way.

Last Tuesday I received a match so I logged in and looked at it. Now, mind you, I'm getting 8-15 of these things a day right now and sometimes they just don't catch my interest or I find something in their profile that doesn't quite sound good to me, etc. This one definitely caught my attention. His name isn't what caught my attention. His picture did. He looked very familiar and with the location he had listed, it was entirely possible that he was the same guy that a mutual friend had introduced me to several months before I left for the Marine Corps in 2002.  He and I had become friends back then and would have almost undoubtedly started dating had I not left for Boot Camp.  We lost touch after I left and I hadn't talked to him since.  So I sent this guy the initial 5 questions. And then thought better of it and skipped right to the email part and sent him an email. Basically, I asked him if his last name was what this guy's last name was that I'd known way back when and told him that I wasn't stalkerific but wanted to know because if it was him, we had a lot of catching up to do.

While I was gone, and it had been 9 years since I'd last spoken to him, I had every now and then tried to look him up. I usually didn't have much luck but one time I did find him on Facebook. I think at the time he was married so I didn't contact him at all. I didn't want to be "that chick" who resurfaces and butts into their life. I wouldn't want some woman doing that to me.  So I left it alone.   A few hours later, I received an email back and it said that he was in fact that same person and that *shocker* he had been looking for me for 9 years. (that's a really long effin time to look for someone) So, bam, Mr. History is born. (I promise to think up a better name as one brings itself to light. LOL)  Mr. History came down yesterday (he lives an hour north of me) to our family BBQ and really just kind of...fit right in if I had to be honest. It was like we'd all done that before and he had been to many of them. He told me later that it felt like a 9 year absence had never taken place and that it felt like it was just yesterday that we had seen each other.  I felt the same way. We are currently in the process of making plans for Saturday of this week.  No hurry. No plans for anything major. But it's nice to have him around again. LOL   I'll keep y'all updated.

Anyway. I am going to whip out my Nook and get some reading in. Currently it's:

Gracie