Andy

Andy. That's what she called herself when talking to herself. Andy... yes, Andy. That was a good name. No one else called her by that name. Truly, it didn't matter to her what she was called; as long as she knew that she was being addressed, she'd answer. What's in a name, anyway? Eh, what does it matter?

Different names suited her at different times... sometimes she looked or felt like another name would suit her better than what she was given at birth. Why must she remain one person all the time? When she was a child she was called many things. One thing in particular that stuck in her mind was "Beautiful." Yes, she was Beautiful at one point in her life. So much so that she wouldn't answer to anything else

Long ago she grew out of that. It's sad, really. She wouldn't answer to Beautiful now if you yelled it in her face. Who has she become??

Me

I'm falling in love with the trees...

So yesterday was the Fall Festival at Shadow's school... it was pretty fun. I forgot to bring my camera in with me so I missed a few good shots - such as Shadow and his teacher climbing up and then sliding down a GINORMOUS blow-up slide together, or him pitifully attempting to play golf. Yeah, I can promise you that kid is no Tiger Woods... 😂

Lately I'm finding myself attracted to trees. Not like I'm becoming a tree-humper or anything; I just absolutely love the way they look. I don't know if it's the season or what, but I see so many that I think are positively gorgeous - whether they've changed colors, lost their leaves, or not. Maybe I'm just now beginning to pay attention to them...

Scooter's been doing a weird / funny thing lately... he chases his tail A LOT... it's funny and stuff, but he's pulling all the hair out of the end of his tail. It doesn't look very good... it makes my butt cringe. 😬 Also, he's turning into a little man-dog... he's all picking up his leg on the occasion when he pees... it's so cute, but I don't even know why he bothers. He's so short he can't reach anything other than the ground anyway. Oh well; I feel him. I don't let my height stop me from doing whatever I want to do, either.

Anyway, well, I've gotten lazy... no, that's not it at all - rather, my attention has shifted temporarily from my writing to finding a new fucking job. (No worries, though - there WILL be more to come). I've been saying for the longest time that I was leaving the place I currently work... but I never have. There were a few reasons for that, but here are the main two.

1) I have thought on and off that the company was going to actually be successful somehow and that I should stick it out, and 2) I wanted to get my two years of experience in since this was my first job out of college. No one seems to really want to hire people without experience, (not in my field, anyway). Well I've got my experience and I'm dead serious this time. I've been looking hella-hardcore (yeah, I made that phrase up; you can use it if you pay me 😝) and I'm not stopping until something comes of it. I hate to admit it, but I'm completely miserable working at that place and life's too short to be spent being miserable. There are a LOT of things that factor into that, but I'm not going into it right now.

SO... what's going on will all of you peoples? A small percentage of my friends blog so I don't have a clue what's going on with yas. Speak up, damnit! I love you! (But not as much as trees.)  😉

😁

Nothing un-special.

Saturday we sold the washer and dryer so that we could go to Douglasville on Sunday to pre-order a Nintendo Wii. To the delight of anyone who is not a true friend they ran out before we got one. That's fine, though... we still have the money saved for when the next opportunity arises.

Also, my mom and some other family was over on Saturday picking up pecans (because we have three massive pecan trees in the yard that like to drop limbs as often as pecans - sometimes on the house, even). Anyway, I was helping with the pecans. And then I found it. A SNAIL. It was soooo tiny it didn't look possible, but it was. I took a picture of it, but it just looked like a dot. Seriously - it would have fit in this "O" - it was so tiny. I let it go (not that it was trying very hard to get away, but I just felt like that was the right thing to do). That made me wonder, though, how snails are born and if they come with shells. From the look of that one, they do. I'll have to research that some because now I'm curious.

Yesterday we put up a runner outside for Scooty so that we don't have to stand around waiting for him to do his business, and also so that he can have some time to play outside and get some fresh air. Well, we got it put up and I was outside playing with him, and we were running together, and then suddenly, I was rolling on the ground. He ran into my legs and knocked me over while I was running, so that made for quite a tumble. That was fun. I haven't taken a good fall in so long. Then he came over and breathed all in my face with his doggie breath - to make sure I'm ok, of course. 😂

On my way in from work earlier I thought it was quite pretty outside. It was one of those prettyful days with the trees looking all different colors and the sky's up there and some clouds and the light is golden... Yeah, I was admiring it hardcore. By the time I drove up to the school to get Shadow it was pretty dark out. When I got home a few minutes later it was even darker. That's gonna take some getting used to, I guess. So I was heading towards the door and this big monster-thing came from the shadow of my porch and was trying to get me! It was coming straight for me - I swear! I screamed or something. I made a strange, loud sound, at least. Well, that's my side of the story. If you ask Nick, my neighbor Mystic was calmly walking over to our house as she does sometimes. 😂

So all weekend the gliders have been up and playing - even in the daytime. Mostly Yorda. And she's been a little not-so-nice to me, too. I wonder if she's knocked up... that would make me super-happyfied.

In other news:  I may not be ok. Not willing to talk about it yet, but here's a piece of a conversation I had with a nurse today: (Nurse) "Yeah, none of the symptoms you're having could be caused from that." (Me) "Oh, ok, so the worst that could happen with that is cancer, then? ... Ok."  Well, everyone remain calm. I'll probably go to the doctor here in the next few months and find out what's up. And for the record (in the event I have cancer) I'm not scared of cancer. Fuck cancer.

And yep, that's THE END.

!!!!!!!!!!SUPER HAPPY AWESOME-TASTIC FUN TIMES!!!!!!!!!!

FRIDAY

We went to a football game with some friends and despite it being cold as fuck we had a great time. I think it was more the company than anything... So if you're reading this Shelley - we should hang out again. Shadow and I had a blast.

SATURDAY

Two words: Six Flags. It was freakin' GREAT. The weather was perfect once we got there and started walking around. I'd worried a little about Shadow riding rides, but he ended up LOVING it. He'd scream on just about every ride we got on about how great and awesome and cool it was, and he'd throw up the little "rock" hands, and then scream some more (half the time it was crap I couldn't understand 😂). The only rides he didn't seem to like was "Monster Plantation" and the sky bucket thing, but that's ok (I wasn't all that fond of the sky bucket thing myself, haha). I guess I'm scared of heights... well - more like falling from them. But anywayz...

I rode some rides and really enjoyed them. I finally opened my eyes on a roller coaster for the first time... (I've only ever been to Six Flags one other time in my life and I didn't enjoy that trip at all...) But this time I actually had a lot of fun. Me and Nick rode some things together... he ended up laughing at me a lot. The first coaster we rode I ducked and apparently made a weird face, so... I didn't really think I was going to hear the end of that (and I probably haven't). We ended up on a lot of the smaller rides that Shadow could get on and that was actually more my speed. I really liked those (and wasn't too scared to open my eyes). Not to mention we could all three get on most of those together. The only thing I got on that Shadow couldn't was some thing in Gotham City that swings you around... I liked that thing a LOT. At one point I felt like I was just puking giggles because I was having so much fun.

The only thing that wasn't so great was the driving... the heater in my car isn't working so the ride there was very cold... and we had to ride with our windows cracked a bit because the window kept fogging up. And on the way home I was so tired that I was just plain stoopid. I scared Nick pretty bad a few times... I stopped in the middle of an intersection at a red light and just sat there until he pointed it out, then backed up; and also when we got home I thought I saw someone on the roof and freaked for a moment. (There's more, but I think you've heard enough. I really think I'd gone past tired into something else altogether.)

Anyway, all in all, it was a great day. I was with my two favorite guys and also some friends, which made for some awesome company. Oh, and Shadow won a bunch of stuffed animals... he even won a dinosaur for me! He's such a sweetie. But yeah, good times were had.

SUNDAY

We saw "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 3D (in a fancy theater in Birmingham that has ice cream and coffee). I love that movie and it was awesome. The 3D effects were really well-done and the glasses weren't the cheap-ass cardboard kind, either. It was pretty cool.

TODAY WE MET THE FUCKING YEAH YEAH YEAHS!!!!!

Today has freakin' ROCKED!!!!! Me and Nick went to ATL today to see a Yeah Yeah Yeah's free acoustic show and it was GREAT! I ended up watching the performance from behind the band which was fine with me because they were so close I could almost touch them. 😍

They were doing this thing where if you dressed up like the band you would have a chance to have your picture made with them. So as I expected there were a LOT of goofy looking girls there. I ended up wearing my default everyday black shoes, some dark blue jeans, and my gray sweater (which is totally not what I'd planned to wear - I changed my mind at the last minute). Anyone happen to notice what Karen-O is wearing in that first pic? The same damn thing! I've told you people - I know things. Shit comes to me. So... I got to get my picture made with her!

(Yes, I'm in that one... my arms were just too short to get us both, LOL. You can see my glasses in the bottom right corner, though). And yes I was all up ons - we were close. I forgot to smell her, though. I've always wondered what she smells like...)

Nick took this one for me... and yes he got one too.

THEN... we had our pictures made with Brian Chase - the drummer (who rocks my socks, btw.) He is AWESOME!!!

He was SOOOOO nice. He said to me, "Hey, I have a band-aid, too."

And then he shows me his.  Yep, got a photo of Brian Chase's band-aid.

(I don't know if that was blood or just a really cool band-aid... he had to leave really fast so I didn't get to ask). But before he left we got his autograph on the back of this face thing that Nick got:

Afterwards, they had cake... so we had some of that and then also we bought their new album, which came with a free remix disc that has remixes done by Peaches, Nick Zinner, and Diplo (which is AWESOME, btw). Today has been AMAZING! 😁😁😁

On a lighter note than this past week's postings...

Yeah, I've had a few bad days this week. But I haven't forgotten all the good that's happened, too. For example:  Not this past Friday, but the one before it I went to Munford's Homecoming football game. I haven't been to even one game since I graduated in 2001 and boy was I overwhelmed when I got there. I started doing this thing where I laugh / cry / gasp for air... it was quite unattractive I'm sure. (To Jill, I'm kind of glad you were late... you might've never wanted to hang out with me again had you been there for that.  😂😂😂)

It was just so weird. When I got there, there were no places to sit except for one right near the band. Well, that suited me fine... for those who don't know I marched percussion in high school. Yes, I was a band nerd... always will be, too. Oh, the memories of being back in those stands, playing the hell out of my instrument, marching on the field. I miss it. Yes, I'm such a dork that on my way to the game (I had a short walk) I could hear the band playing and I found myself falling in step, taking the same path that we took as a band to get into the game. Sitting in the stands, even, I found myself banging my legs to the songs I knew. It was so awesome to just be there... it brought back so much. But then you look around and you see so many unfamiliar faces... like you weren't really back home or something. Then you realize how long it's been. You see teachers and other faces you know, but they're obviously aged. It just made me a little crazy for a minute. Like I said, overwhelmed.

Well, don't get me wrong. I love feeling. And I had a blast - especially once Jill and Misty got there. They were fun. And it was super-nice to be out with some girls just hanging out. I don't do that nearly enough. (HINT HINT)

Anyway, more good stuffs:  I went to Target yesterday and I was shopping on the clearance rack ('cause that's about the only time you can get me to shop) and found a shirt for $5.00 that I really liked so I got it. Then I found a sweater on the clearance rack that I wanted, but I found out it was $15.00. I was a little bummed out. I was thinking about that one... I didn't really want to spend that much money on a sweater. But then I resigned myself to getting it. I got to the register and just mentioned that I was bummed when I found out the sweater wasn't on clearance and the lady asked me the price I initially thought it was. I told her $4.98 because that's what everything else on the rack was going for. So she just gave it to me for that. THAT freakin' made my day. It was nice.

Also, this past week Jack (my boss) gave me some pens. One was really fancy and pretty, another was not so much (but kind of sparkly), and then two of them had highlighter's on one end. I was pretty happy over that, too.

This Friday we hung out with Santos and that was fun. He always make me laugh. Also, Nick's been a sweetheart, (or maybe it's all in my head, who knows?), but I've rather enjoyed more than usual all the time I've spent with him lately.

And recently I've bought myself a few girly things (like the clothes at Target and some make-uppy things)... something I've gotten out of the habit of doing over the past few years. I've gotta say, I've sort of made myself feel a little special by doing that. So FYI (ladies, especially): When you're busy taking care of everyone else try not to forget yourself. It's sort of refreshing.

And, well... that's all the good stuffs I can think of right now. So...

THE END.