Dreams

I am not usually one to talk about my dreams. I basically feel it is rather pointless. One of my small pet peeves is when a person is telling you a dream, and they get to the climax, and it is like "and THEN George Bush walked in the door and started break dancing!!! Can you believe it?!?!?!?!" I really just want to say, "Well, sure I can. It's a dream! It didn't really happen...anything can happen in a dream!!". But, I don't do this. I always listen because I know sometimes people really need to talk about a dream, because it feels so real to them. So...that's what I am about to do...settle in.

Every now and then I have a very unusual type of dream. It has happened three times in my life, so you know...they are rare. The first time it happened I was about 21 and lived at my parents house. I was asleep in my room in the basement and I randomly woke up in the middle of the night. I lift my head and look over at my dresser/window area and there is a Chinese man standing in my room. He is wearing a very small silver backpack and is looking out my blinds. I look at him, he turns and looks at me....I BOLT out of the room. I take the stairs three at a time, burst into my parents room and start yelling that there is a crazy Chinese man in my room. I am freaking out. My dad goes down, searches everywhere, and finds nobody. They bring up the logical reasoning that had someone actually been there, the dogs would have gone mad...I can't think of a good argument. It was just so real. I do not remember this like it was a dream, foggy half memories, no no...I remember it like it actually happened. I can tell you exactly what he looked like...I REMEMBER it. Another strange thing is that the only time that I actually remember waking is when I first woke and saw him standing there. At no point in my realization of the stranger, my extremely fast departure from the bed, my crazy ranting in my parents room, do I ever remember waking up again...really strange, right?

A few years went by before this ever happened again. Nick and I were living in the house we have now, and we were both sound asleep in our bed. Something wakes me up in the middle of the night and I look up to see...(okay it sounds a little silly)...a large outdoors type man standing over my bed looking at me very confused. He was carrying and Ax...kind of like a lumberjack. Anyway, I look at him, he looks at me and I say (clearly I am getting a little braver now...I did not just run from the room) "WHO ARE YOU?!?!" With this, Nick jumps up and I turn around to look at him. He says, "What's going on? Who are you talking to?" and I look back and there is nobody there. I just turned my head, and then turned it back....nobody. Yet again, this is not remembered like a normal dream...it is so real. Plus, I have no memory of waking up the second time...only when I woke to find the lumberjack.

Now, a few more years have passed and I have totally decided these little events really are dreams. There were times I thought they might be ghosts, or aliens or what not, but I figured they would be much more common if I had the Sixth Sense or what have you. Anyway, the other night it kind of happened again. Not the same, but kind of. (clearly this is what sparked the post.) I woke up to an animal in my bed. Something large rooting around. I (of course) am a little freaked. My dog and cat are both small. I roll over and see...okay, now this really does sound dream like...a wild boar in my bed. Seriously. I can't describe how sure I was that it was a wild boar (although there is something to say that is was rather friendly and didn't try to kill me or anything). I jump out of the bed (no need to ask it who it was...) and flip on the light. Ellie is standing there all alone. I am guessing it was her that sparked the dream.

I guess it really is just my mind playing tricks on me....but here is my problem. This last time, although so much easier to get over and even joke about, was distinctly different. There really was something there. Something that had created the illusion in my mind. I am fairly convinced that what I am seeing is not totally a dream, although I am not really awake either. I do not think there was a Chinese man, or a lumberjack or a wild bore in my room..but now I am thinking. Could there have been something there to trigger the entire event? I might be moving back to the whole "I see Ghosts" theory...or maybe I am just a touch of crazy.

House Guest

Nick's cousin Matt is in town this weekend from South Carolina. That means that my house is seriously top notch clean. I love having people come stay because it really makes you clean out every inch of your home...does it not do that to you? Well, it might not do that to me either, but it definitely does that to Nick. We were due for a really good spring cleaning (it is only July...not that late) so it worked out for everyone. Anyway, the house looks great.

It is always strange to have people stay in your home. We so love when Matt is here...he usually comes to see us a few times a year. It is just funny how when you wake up in the morning and look over and notice the bedroom door is closed and you think, " Oh, yea...someone is here.". You get up to pee in the middle of the night and you tip toe down the hall so as to not bother them...plus you make sure you have on some form of sleeping pants. Your husband cooks a delicious breakfast of bacon and home made waffles...and you eat it at the kitchen table! And even now as I sit here I can hear the two of them playing "Call of Duty" on the Wii. It is like Nick now has a new live in best friend. I can't complain. Before that Matt and I sat there and talked all about every movie either one of us has seen this summer ( and he allowed me to go on and on about the joy that is Harry Potter) while Nick was in the shower...the he showed us some great videos on the computer...and a picture of Heath Ledger as the Joker for the new batman movie (seriously creepy)...yep, we are enjoying his visit.

I do kind of wonder if he is ever going to come back to see us though...one time he was here and we had him help us move Missy...another time we put him to work in the house. This time...oh this is so wrong to do to him on his vacation....we are sending him to help Nick, Scott and Cory move a piano...then go over to home depot and pick up our new bath tub. I am pretty sure we are abusing him, but I guess he doesn't mind...he does keep coming back!

Benefits

You know those jobs that have special little benefits?? Some people might call them bribes, but whatever...those jobs where people will give you a little something so things go their way. I am sure politicians get it all the time. I, on the other hand, have never had one of those jobs. That is, until yesterday.

Yesterday I had to take one hell of a road trip for work. I was all over the state of Ohio collecting samples for micro testing. We have a field crew who always does this type of thing, so I am always behind the scenes in the lab just running the samples. I have very little client contact except over the phone. Well, turns out that this one client who is located in Ohio (and many other states) did not want the field crew to collect their samples. For some unknown reason it was important to them to have a certified Microbiologist doing the collecting. It's a once a month deal and takes about twelve hours to drive up and go to all of our locations. Tarp and I rotate the trip so it really doesn't come up that often. Tarp had gone the last two times to get the route down, so yesterday was my first trip.

I put on my lab's hat and roll out the door. I was actually supposed to wear one of the lab shirts as well, but seeing as how I do not own one, I went with the classic white T. I believe I was representing the company well...anyway, I roll into the first two stores with no big fan-fair. I take my frozen custard samples and head out to the next store. When I arrive at the third store I notice the manager is rather chatty. I talk to her as I am working...just random chit chat. Then she asks me how I like driving around all day for a living. I tell her that I actually don't do this for a living, that I am a microbiologist, but that they were having one of us collect all the samples. Everything changed. She started being sooo nice. Then...THEN she is like, " So, have you ever had our frozen custard?"(huge grin on her face which tells me she is thinking this will make sure her results come back as clean) I tell her that I haven't and she is all like, " Well, THAT won't do! You can have whatever you like!" So...I walk out of that store with a HUGE waffle cone filled with chocolate vanilla swirl. The manager so wanted to add sprinkles and hot fudge...but I thought it might be a little difficult to handle on the road. (I do have limits...although you would not have known it if you had seem me driving threw your town with my mapquest propped up against the steering wheel in one hand while the other was holding my waffle cone up to my face....)

So, maybe my free ice cream was not that big of a deal, but it was basically the first time I have ever been given something just because of what I do for a living...maybe I should never go into politics. Then again...I never mentioned to her that even though I am a microbiologist...I don't actually do the FOOD micro...we ship them out to our other lab...so you know...I wasn't running her samples either way. He he....maybe I would be a great politician!

Finished...

Well, I have finished the very last Harry Potter. What's that? You all are a little (lot) tired of hearing all about good old HP? Well, this should be the last post about him for some time....okay, I don't really know if that is true, but I assume what with me now knowing the entire story, I will be able to let the subject lie until the next movie comes out. Now, I know how people what are reading it are totally avoiding spoilers, and I promise you wont find any here...I am totally right there with you. So much so that I really have not been on the computer at all since it came out (okay, the other reason for this is that in absolutely all of my free time I was reading away), but if you don't want to be swayed by my general opinions of the book, then go ahead and skip to the next paragraph...Okay, all you who aren't done with it gone... I loved it. I think it is the best book of them all, but then again, a book with all the answers is pretty much always the best book in a series. The characters who died broke my heart. I thought the end...where it all went down, was amazing. The epilogue was to short for me, but then again, how much would it have taken to really satisfy me...*Sigh* I am just a little sad it is now all over...

Anyway, back to the real world. One thing that slowed down my reading a bit was the fact that Nick's dad got married on Saturday. All in all it was a nice wedding. The weather was perfect. The wedding was outside at their new house, and it was a small group of just family. Lisa's side of the family was WAY larger than ours, which isn't really hard to see being that there was a total of four of us, but the entire group was less than thirty. Nick and I stood up during the ceremony with Dale ( had a bouquet and everything!). It was very sweet and simple. The wedding was at 10:30 in the morning, then some people went to swim (I read my HP) then we all went back to the house for a large cookout. A cookout that included some serious Karaoke. I never thought I would see the day that Dale sang Karaoke, but I was wrong...It. Was. Awesome. Nick, Candice and I refrained from ever taking the mic, but it is always a joy to watch intoxicated people sing...

Sunday I was able to pull myself away from the book long enough to have an amazing dinner with the Kelsey's. Scott made his famous fried eggplant and his equally famous Margarita's...oh the love. Besides that, the weekend was dedicated to Harry. Now it is time to stop ignoring my house and my husband and get back to normal life...Hope everyone else who is reading the book enjoys it!

Harry Potter Mania

I honestly cannot believe that tonight at midnight I will have the very last Harry Potter book in my hands. I am not sure I could ever make it clear on my blog exactly how important this is to me....I keep talking about the growing excitement at work and Tarp keeps saying, "I just can't believe you love it this much!" Well Tarp, I do. I LOVE it....I love it as much as I have ever loved any book, tv show or movie.... maybe as much as I have loved any non-living thing (maybe tied with my Alf doll...but trust me, there is a lot of love there!).

I have 100 pages of the sixth book to finish up before the release. I did not have time to reread the entire series. I realized I was running out of time and ended up skipping book five after I went to see the movie last week(yes, yes, I know it is missing a lot, but I have read it many times before and know that book by heart). The movie, by the way, I went to see two times in two days and I thought it was by far the best movie in the series so far. As I dove back into the detailed story that all six books contain, I became more and more excited for the release. Small things that I had forgotten came back to me, the clear reality of the world that JK Rowling has managed to build....it is honestly amazing. If you have never read the series, you should really give it a try. Could all the people waiting in line at midnight for a book all really be wrong?

Tonight for the release there is a group of us going out to the Pub for dinner (how very British of us...) and then a party at Joseph Beth Booksellers. It is where we have been for the release of the last two books, and I would never want to go anywhere else. I know you can get the book at Walmart or Miejers and there will be no line, but it takes some of the fun out of it for me. I love seeing the people all dressed up (I will be sporting my HP t-shirt...the one I wore to our audit the other day that happened to land on the day the movie came out. The shirt is not blatantly Harry Potter...only a real fan would notice it. On the front it says "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and on the back it says "Mischief Managed". One of the auditors came it, and said "Oh man, I bet you are excited about tonight..but not nearly as excited as you will be next Friday!" I just looked at him, totally confused, and he said "Your shirt!!"....yep, there are Harry Potter fans everywhere! Tarp was amazed). I love being there in line with all the other people who love the story like I do...the other people who just couldn't wait until the morning to get their copy of the very last Harry Potter book that will ever come out!

So, I will be off the computer until I am finished reading it. Once the book comes out there will be too much out there that could totally spoil it for me. I have waited way to long to have the end taken away from me early. I really don't think I will be gone long, I am planning on having the book done in a day or two....and as soon as I am done I will open it back up and read it again...just in case I missed something! Hope all the other fans out there are as excited as I am!

One More Thing....

As if I haven't had enough crap happen to me as of late...an insurance adjuster has just left my house. remember that hail storm I was talking about here? Well, it turns out that lots of people around the neighborhood have been getting new roofs due to the storm. I really didn't think we had any damage, but then I heard what the damage looks like....sand coming out of your gutters? check. Bubbling up of your shingles? check. Gutters looking a little worse for wear? check.

Anyway, I went ahead and gave the old insurance company a call (second one in a month due to the computer fiasco...sure they love me) and had them come take a look. Good thing I did. As it turns out, we need our entire roof and all of our gutters replaced! Now, as random good timing, we were honestly about to do this anyway. With the addition we are having to totally redo half the roof, and Nick and his dad were just going to go ahead and replace at least the entire back half. Looks like now we will just be doing it all...and on the insurance companies tab. I just hope we don't have any water damage what with the storm being two months ago and everything....just one more thing on my list.

The Love....

We have our new computer! This was a real surprise considering they said it would not even ship until the 18th. Apparently they UPS guy went to our neighbor to sign for it, then when he got over here and realized it was three huge Dell boxes he got a little nervous. He pushed it all up against the house so you couldn't see it from the street, then before Nick even got up to the door he was running over to tell him that he had done his best to make sure nobody could see it... I guess he was sitting there waiting for him just sure that it would be stolen and be all his fault...but he kept a good eye on it and it was there safe and sound for us when we got home. Don't you think it is a little strange they asked them to do that though?? I mean, some people are really close to their neighbors, but we are not those people. We say hi, wave as we drive by, but I really don't have any clue what their names are. What if they were total thieves and ran off with my new amazing computer?!?! I guess UPS would have their names, but still...STILL.

Now let me tell you, you thought I had a computer problem before...this is going to be serious. My computer is now ridiculously fast (maybe this will actually make my extended time on the Internet not as obvious seeing as how I will be able to jump around at lightning speed...) We have this new beautiful wide screen flat panel monitor...we now have Vista, which as far as I can tell now totally rocks. Okay...I can't think of anything else really amazing about it, but I am just so happy to see it...so happy to be back online at my own house...so happy to actually be able to post on my blog, check my email, get on myspace and read everyone else's blogs all on my own time!! I feel so behind. So, that's it for now. I have many random thoughts to share with you ( I have been trying to remmeber them, but alas many I am sure are gone forever...), but you will have to wait...not to long though, because you know...now I have a computer!

Still Alive!

With all my bad luck lately I am sure you guys are a little worried about me but I'm still here! With all the computer drama I just haven't had a chance to get a post up lately. We do have a new computer on the way, we finally got the insurance claim done (Thank God!!) . Nick has actually really enjoyed me being off the computer this last week but I'm having some serious withdrawal! Looks like the new one should be here sometime next week. Damn the custom made computers, I didn't know they took this long!!

I've had a relatively packed weekend. The annual yard sale was a booming success but the 4:30am call time was extremely painful...especially considering I had to go to work for A full day at 9:00. No complaints here though because I'll take all that money for my old junk any time! After cleaning up from the yard sale we went out for Candice's birthday day. Good times were had, too many Mojitos were drank, not my best today at work...speaking of work I need to get back to it. I promise to get back to posting regularly when I get my new computer!


***By the way, I realized when the computer was fried I lost all my work on the new template...so depressing! *sigh*...***

The White Party!

I know you all are dying to see how cute we all were at Tarp and Jim's white party...okay, this is a cop-out post, but I still don't have a computer and I am just using Boo's really fast while she puts some groceries away...then it is back to work on the evil yard sale!
Here is a picture of the lunch bunch regulars
Nick and I all decked out in white...
Amazing but true, all the ZPO's were able to make it! How cute are we??

Liz-I know this will kill you, but this is my new myspace picture...adorable!

Boo, Chris, Me and Nick....

Tarp enjoying the party...not sure why the picture is smaller?

Jim looking so happy...clearly he is dancing up a storm. These guys know how to throw a party!

The view from the roof top deck...

No doubt about it, it was one hell of a 4th of July!


**Sorry not everyone is pictured...but I am so glad everyone was able to make it!!**

Not Exactly Lucky...

July 7th 2007...7-7-7 ...luckiest day of the century?? Not exactly. Candice, Boo and I were at Boo's house today getting ready for the yard sale next weekend. We came in through the garage and rather than go drop everything in the house we just sat everything down and got to work. We didn't want to get the dogs all worked up. The yard sale was not open...we were just working on getting it ready.

SO... the three of us came in to grab some junk. We were not in for long...not long at all. We just grabbed some crap and headed back outside. The ENTIRE time we had been working on set-up not one person had walked up and tried to buy anything, so we never though about leaving someone out to watch over everything. When we walked back out there were people shopping. What the hell? Does this look organized to you? You just come walking up to a random garage and start digging? Whatever...make an offer...we will take your money!

I look over and notice Boo's prescription sitting out. I grab it and run it into the house, and go to grab my phone. Wait...where is my phone?? In my purse. Where in my purse. Shit. That's right people...MINE AND BOO's PURSES WERE STOLEN!!! My coach purse, coach wallet, coach wristlet, coach calendar (yes, I have a problem) both our cell phones, $200 in cash (not to mention the mountain of change in my wristlet...yes I care), $200 in gift cards...needless to say we are pissed. We have called the police, and the insurance company...and the credit cards. Just kill me now....this is most definitely NOT the luckiest day of the century...except for the thieves...they had a REALLY lucky day...bastards!

Damn Lightning....

Last night was Tarp and Jim's 4th of July party....it was really amazing! I have tons of pictures that I will post up here so you all can see how completely adorable we all were in our white! This post will be done as soon as I get a new computer...that's right folks. I must buy a new computer.

We were getting ready to walk out the door to go to the party (totally decked out in white from head to toe, including my rockin' white shades) and the rain started. I'm not going to lie...it was seriously bad. I mean, a down-pour. I was a little obsessed with being as on time as possible, so I am all like, "let's GO!! A little rain won't hurt us!" Nick then says, "It is really lightning out there! I think we should wait a few minutes." Boo and I are like, "How dumb...what are the chances we are going to get struck by lightening??" and at that EXACT moment, a HUGE bolt of lightning came down and struck our street right in front of our house. Seriously. We SAW the bolt striking the ground. So....maybe the chances were kinda good we could get struck by lightning in a lightning storm....Nick is once again a genius.

Anyway, we then decide it might be a good idea to wait out the storm a little. We are all sitting there and Chris says, I think a tree might be on fire. I smell smoke! We walk into our office and my computer is totally smoking! No joke. I guess the lightning fried it. The crazy thing was that our power didn't even go out. It just got the computer...my precious, precious computer. *sigh*

We unplugged everything and went to the party...like anything would keep us away from there! Now we just need to report the strike to the insurance (my god how long will it take to get the claim made?!?!) and then buy the new computer...a new computer does sound nice, but the amount of stuff we lost is honestly sickening. We had some stuff backed up, but not enough...not nearly everything. My pictures, my papers...so much is just gone. Nick is going to see if we can get anything out of the hard drive, but I am not getting to excited. There was smoke...not a great sign. I am not sure when I will be able to post from home again, but I will get on and post from my sisters as much as possible...don't forget about me! I swear I will be back!

The White Hunt

Last summer my girls and I all went to Las Vegas for my bachelorette party. It. Was. Awesome. If you are curious about our adventures, you can see all about them (settle in for some seriously long posts...) here, here and here. It might be a lot to take in and read, but I really liked looking at the pictures...awww. Anyway...to the point. No, this post is not about Vegas, it is more about what clothes I wore in Vegas. You see, Boo had this wonderful idea to dress me in white every day we were away. There were (obviously) several outfits for each day, a white bathing suit, pool cover-up...bla bla bla. I had a ton of white. Now, they were not all white outfits, mind out. Just white on the top or the bottom, no need to go crazy here, but it is safe to say I have more white in my closet than most. Way more.

Still waiting for the point, aren't you? Here you go. Tarp and Jim are having a White Party for the 4th of July. It will be awesome. Seriously. Awesome. They have an amazing house downtown and you can see the fireworks from their roof top deck. There will be about a hundred and fifty people there all dressed in white from head to toe. They will have delicious food and a never ending supply of Margarita's, Manhattan's and Cosmopolitan's...last year a group of us went and it completely rocked. Best 4th of July party ever. Wow...I am pulling this all together....really.

So...Tarp decides on a white party and I think, "What could be better for me?!?! I have a TON of white. I can wear ANYTHING!". We have been talking about the party nonstop and I keep mixing and matching outfits in my head....what will be perfect? I worry a little about Nick, especially since he has decided he just has to wear a white sweater vest with nothing under it...that's right, but the worry about myself has been minimal. That was until yesterday. Yesterday I was at my sisters house and she showed me her dress...the one she got in Hilton Head which is totally to die for....the she showed me my little sisters dress...also to die for.

So here I am on the second of July totally green with white dress envy....I am going out to find the perfect white dress right now. I just can't seem to bring myself to mix and match my old stupid white tops and bottoms. No way, no how. Not doing it. I need the perfect dress...and perfect white sun glasses...just to put me over the top. Plus I have to try and find a white sweater vest, so I will be at the mall anyway...wish me luck!