Friday, October 26, 2007

Well I feel better

I just read this article on cnn.com. And it has to be true because it was on the internet. Nobody makes stuff up on the internet.
See -- read it here and see why I don't feel so bad about my adult beverage habit. This has also re-affirmed my degree in history. History can be fun kids!! Full of adventure and drinking stories.

Had dinner with Gary last night. I told him he was pushing too hard and we needed to step back about 8 steps. I don't think he was very happy about it, but I was not going to let this crazy ass juggernaut keep moving forward like this. Its like I told my sister, if this is going to happen, it needs to happen on its on, not because it was forced.
Of course, he HAD wanted me to take today off, and stay in town last night. I put the kebosh on that thought right quick. He did send an email later last night when he got back to nebraksa about being "friends" and what that meant for him.
Ugh. Seriously, I think his head needs an off switch.

And for your weekly bowling segment....
84 & 107.
So, it would seem things are looking up in that department.
Or I got lucky.
But, the new ball comes in next week so maybe that will be the magic pill.
Here's hoping.

Now Listening: Not A Pretty Girl by Ani DiFranco

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Book Club for Dummies

Rule Number One of Book Club: you don't talk about book club
Rule Number Two of Book Club: you don't TALK ABOUT BOOK CLUB

Kidding.
Actually the rule lately has been you don't talk about the book because you haven't read it.
So, Gold Star to Annie -- she read the whole thing.
Silver Star to Beth and Mimi for getting past 100 pages
Bronze Star to Carissa for cracking the cover.
Meghan gets a raspberry as she was supposed to moderate the discussion and didn't even open the book. Frankly, I am calling mulligan on that one this month.

Things we did learn in book club last night:
New Vocabulary Words:
page-turningiest: to turn a page repeatedly
unputdownable: unable to physically remove the book from your hands
I was Robbed: phrase used by young lawyers to convey a sense of grief brought on by a bad bowling frame on the Wii.
I know there were a few others, but at the moment I can't remember them. Might have had something to do with the glasses of wine I had last night.
Or maybe I am just getting old and forgetful.
Let's go with that theory.
Wait, scratch that. I am not old. It was the wine.
My logic is sound, I would rather be a alcoholic and young that an old forgetful person. Makes perfect sense. Although the other thing we learned last night -- your "alcoholism" is a relative thing. See compared to Joe -- I am sober as all get out. Compared to Gary -- kinda a drunk.
See - shades of gray.
Next in Meghan's 12 steps.....
Moving on.

AND
I bowled a 167 last night.
Ok, it was on the Wii -- but I am telling you, if I can just translate that to the actual bowling alley, I am golden.
Tonight shall tell.
Alrighty then kids -- its nap and cookie time, so off we go.
Actually its meeting time -- ick.

Now Listening: Trouble by Ray LaMontagne

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

I am in a box of emotions

Bad blogger.
Bad, bad blogger.
I know, I know.
The whole point, Meghan, is to keep things current and share with the world the latest and greatest in your life.
Well - here we go.
Its been a busy week-plus in my world. Full of confusion, indecision and overall I don't know what I am doing. And sucky bowling.

Where to start given that state of the union is so murky?

Hm. Lets see.
Gary sent me flowers last week.
At work.
Yep. That didn't raise any eyebrows or cause people to ask "Who did you get those from?" or "What is the occasion?"
Try and explain that one to co-workers who don't know a darn thing about this situation. I left it with "an old friend" and went from there. Then there was the series of emails from him telling me over and over how AMAZING I am.
Duh, of course I am fantastic.
Which then culminated with the "I have been a bad friend" email in which he was like, I should be focused on you, what you need, not pushing all this crap on you. I agreed. Told him to chill a bit, give me the weekend to just unplug a little. Which should have been easy as this past weekend was the weekend that my dad AND my brother went up for the football game.
And then I missed a phone call.
I was suppose to call him on Sunday at some point. I sorta ended up getting caught up with the Bears game -- hello? did you see that game? It was heart attack inducing. Nonetheless, I started celebrating the victory and forgot to call - not to mention had a few drinks in me, so that would have been a great conversation.
Called him last night and he unloaded a ration of shit on me about respect, time and what is really going on -- all because I didn't make a phone call.
I was pissed.
Really pissed.
I told him I was pissed and then he told me he has a job interview on Thursday. In Des Moines.
Yep - AWESOME.
I am so not cool with this whole crap storm. I told him up front that if I didn't return a call immediately or something along the lines of what happened, that it wasn't the end of the world.
Oh - and I compartmentalize my emotions.
WTF?
Really. Not sure I want to play this game anymore.
On to other nuggets of goodness....

Traded some text messages with Joe on Sunday as well. I know, shocking. Text messages from Joe? I don't believe it. I know you don't.
That all culminated in the last text message, along with a phone call as he was getting pulled over for an OWI.
Yep.
So, Sunday had like ZERO sleep as I was up waiting to see how all that was going to play out.
Ended up having to call his dad as my cell phone doesn't accept collect calls and they would not let him use his cell. Didn't know my cell doesn't accept collect calls. So he called me back at like 4 AM to let me know he was ok and had a ride.

I am joining a convent. Its the only answer at this point.
And bowling last week.
After my triumphant dominance of the hundred mark, I fell flat.
Really flat.
99 & 80
Yes. You read that correctly.
And the team we played beat us -- and we had a 114 pin advantage with our handicap.
Massive Suckage.
This week its all about concentration.
Or maybe I should just give up, accept the crapiness of my bowling ability and go from there.

Ugh.

Now Listening: 11:11 by Maria Taylor

Monday, October 15, 2007

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday.
She would have been 60.
It was an odd day as I wasn't sure what to expect.
Called the house talked to my sister and my brother.
Got a few text messages from Courtney.
I know all her girlfriends back home were having dinner and a toast in her name. I believe some of the family went down for that. I thought about it, but dinner on a Sunday at 6 would have been a midnight arrival back here in DSM.
I had a moment later in the evening with some of my friends.
I think Courtney said it best...
I just miss her.

Now Listening: Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens

Friday, October 12, 2007

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

Did you feel the earth move?
Perhaps catch a glimpse of a pig flying by your window?
Get a special delivery of a snowball straight from hell?

No!?!?!?!

Well you should have.
I did it kids.
Broke the hundy mark. TWICE.
You are looking at a 107 & 114 game bowler. Well, reading about technically, but you get the idea.
See I have proof:


Ok, now don't go all conspiracy on me. This isn't the Zupruder film or some weirdness about us landing on the moon. It's a cell phone picture. Allow me to explain. I am the last bowler -- so if you look across, you can clearly see that both games have a 3 digit score.

Booya. And yes, I am getting WAY too excited about a seemingly ridiculous thing, but a girl has to have goals!

Now Listening: Speak for Yourself by Imogen Heap

Thursday, October 11, 2007

too early for this

So I am driving up to the coffee shop this morning.
As I do every morning.
Not a morning person. Any of you that actually know me, know that speaking to me before about 9:30 AM can lead to serious physical harm.

Anyhoo.
I pull up, there is a little line so I look up and I see this right in front of me:
That's right. Its' not just a butterfly. No -- its a FLAG butterfly. And its not just one, there are NINE of them. On a rusted out Taurus that needed a new muffler.
My thought was -- wow, what's next? Unicorns singing the national anthem? Fairies running for congress?
FLAG BUTTERFLIES?
Either that or this is some new tactic in the war on terror. I mean, what terrorist would harm a person with butterflies on their car. Like I can see W in his office (the oval one) thinking -- hmm. I like butterflies. I like flags. Lets make a car decal.
Boom.
National Victory.
It hurts the head. More than a lot. Frankly I am not sure that a gallon of straight caffeine would help that headache.

Now Listening: Four Songs - EP by Alexi Murdoch

Monday, October 08, 2007

Save Second Base

HEEEEELLLLOOOOOO?!?!?!?!?
Is anyone out there?
Echo, Echo, Echo.
Ok - I might be exaggerating just a smidge. It has been a week since I posted. But I had a good reason. Last weekend was the big race weekend. And last week was all about getting ready for race weekend. Each night had a plan. There was cleaning the house -- more straightening up than anything. Laundry night for clean towels and sheets. The CostCo run -- thanks Mike for the maneuvering of the HUGE grocery cart with more than a little momentum. And for lugging it all around. And driving out there. Well, you get the point. Thursday was more groceries -- less bulk. For the record, back to the CostCo thing, I mean I just needed a bottle of juice. Not 8 gallons. Or, 50, MAYBE 60 plastic cups. Not 250. Bulk has its place, but wow. They are not messing around out there.
Thursday was also the start of Meghan's mini-bender. See, some folks were in town from well -- out of town, and I had said I would meet up with them. Well that kicked off at 6 PM. And then there was bowling at 9 PM. So, I went straight from drinks with friends to bowling. And sorta missed the whole dinner thing. So here I was, shooting to break 100 (again) and start off sucking it up -- big time. I know you all find this so hard to believe. Well, this other guy we work with was there -- big bowler. Unbeknowst to me, prior to that evening. He has 8 300 games. Yes, I was in the presence of greatness. So I ask Mr. PBA what I am doing wrong. For the next game and a half, we decide to work on my "technique". Which translated to even worse bowling because it all felt wrong. Starting with my left foot rather than right, locking my wrist, snapping the ball on release (huh? still don't get that one) and all the while knocking down one, maybe two pins at a time.
Allow me to put this all in perspective. With our handicap we had like 230 pins on the other team. They STILL almost beat us. So the obvious answer to a bad bowling night, no dinner and a weekend where you are entertaining 50+ people?
Simple.
Keep drinking.
Martine calls it grieving through socializing.
So, when I got to work on Friday (at 7:55 AM thank you) I think I might have still been drunk.
Yes, I am 32.
Yes, I am professional
No, I should not be doing these things on a school night.
Oh, and of course, all my projects at work are hemorrhaging from every possible orifice and I had planned on leaving early that day.
Suffice it to say, I did get through the day -- with the help of some grease. And did leave at 1 PM to go pick up the team shirts and do ANOTHER grocery store run before people started showing up at 5 PM for shirt pick up. And my dad and my sister and three of her friends were due in town at any point. This is what the chaos in my house looked like at one point:
Yes - I had shirts everywhere. These were on top of the official Komen shirts, so we were in good shape. Shirt pick up went well. Had some snacks and drinks for people that wanted to stick around. And some of them did. Good to catch up with people and forgot how many of you hadn't been to the house so gave a few 10 cent tours. Good thing I had picked up all the underwear. Kidding.
Sorta.
Well of course, it dawned on me about 9:30 PM and more than a few beers later, that I still had two egg casseroles to make along with 2 huge potato casseroles for the 50 + people I had promised breakfast to. So about 10 PM we started cooking. I had some great help from my sisters friends. Not my sister grant you. She just sat her butt out back and kept the cocktails flowing. But Lindsey and Morgan kicked into high gear and made some pig their bitch. Translation: they cooked the bacon. I will say that we were almost bested by an onion. But Ms. Morgan had a solution for that:
Yes, that is right. We wear our sunglasses at night. I am not sure that they actually helped in keeping me from tearing up for about 20 minutes, but hey, they looked cool and when you are c
cooking at 10:30 on a Friday night and you have had a few cocktails, they seem like the perfect answer to a rather teary issue.
So, we managed to get all the cooking done by about 11 PM -- and even managed to get the kitchen cleaned up. Called it a night around 1ish because I had people showing up starting at 8:15 AM the following morning. I got up around 7 to get some last minute stuff done around the house. And of course had my first of two breakdowns in the morning. I was sitting there, having my coffee, thinking about getting my race number pinned on to my shirt and then realized I needed one of the "I race in Celebration.." of signs. And then realized that I was going to have to change my sign this year. " I race in Memory of..." That was one of the toughest things I have done, reaching for that sheet. And I just stood there and stared at it for a good 5 minutes or so before Courtney came downstairs and she was like, can you write one for me. I told her give me a few minutes, I am having a little bit of an issue with this one this morning. But I did manage to get not one but two of them done. One for me and one for Courtney.


So slowly all the people started showing up. And we managed to all get downtown and hit the race in time -- which was something of a miracle considering all the bodies. Got a team picture -- of course that is only about 1/2 the team. It is on the Flickr site. It was a good walk. It was a little crowded at first but once the crowd got its pace and spread out, it was pretty nice. Except it was 80 freakin' degrees on an OCTOBER morning. IN IOWA. I think Al Gore may be on to something. So, aside from a slightly warmer morning than was anticipated, we had a great turn out. I think the announcer placed the total count somewhere in excess of 22,000 people. Which is a lot -- especially for Des Moines. Now we did have a few uber-ambitious folk that not only ran, but wanted to get timed. Big congrats to Andrea & Matt, finishing 170th & 168th in their respective groups (women & men) and to Steven who finished 35th in the mens standings.
Yes, that means that about the time we were completing our first mile, they were done, had cooled down and were headed back home to shower and wait for my walking ass to get home and get the food cooked.
But -- she had a plan. HAHHA.
Actually, it sorta solved itself. My father wasn't going to walk the whole 3.1 (yes Courtney, 3.1 miles) miles. He made it about 3/4 of a mile before the knees gave in. So I told him, no sweat -- head home and get the food in the oven.
The rest of the race went well. My second emotional part of the day was when we got to the finish line. Survivors have their own chute to finish through. They get a rose, have a whole cheering section and so on. Watching all these women walk through the finish line and get cheered on was just a little too much.
So there was that.
But on the whole, it was a really good day. Made it home, all the girls had beat me to the punch and had all the food set out, the bar set up and things kicked off in full swing. See all the pictures on the Flickr page link on the left. We did find out later that day that our "racy" team name had made the Des Moines Register. You can check out the article here. Of course, this was day three of the Meghan's Race Bender. Bloody Mary's and beer until about 5ish -- when I needed a "nap". Right.
I think everyone had a good time. I know that I did. It had all the makings of a really emotional day, and it was but in a good way.
And to top it all off, I got a picture of all the muchkins that raced in their team shirts and I think it might just be my favorite picture of all time:


That's Cloud, Emerald and Noah. All of them sporting the coolest in 7 month old gear. Kills me. Every time.
We did of course, have to go out for dinner and then had to keep the trend alive as it was LaNiya's birthday weekend. Those pictures are also posted.
Sunday was all about two things. Sleep and football. Oh, and reclaiming my house. But mostly sleep and football. Bears managed to pull one out against the Pack -- and I couldn't be happier. AND
I got to watch the "Rock of Love: The Reunion" show on Vh1. More train wreck. More trashiness. More bad hair. I heart it.
Ok, now that I have brought you up to speed -- sorta, I will sign off. I promise I won't wait a week between posts anymore. In theory, I am through the craziness and can start getting back to normal life. Whatever that might be.
Now Listening: Walk the Line Soundtrack

Monday, October 01, 2007

Daisy Turned 21

I blocked.
I partied.
I block partied.

Weekend was good. Drank too much. I know you all find that SO hard to believe. But it was nice to be home. The block party turned 21 this year.
And yes, that makes me old.
Weird to have a block party without my mom. Weirder to have one with Gary there.
We talked. I told him that I couldn't be his girlfriend. He told me all sorts of crazy shit that he never told me when we were dating. I think he might be having a mid-life crisis. I don't know.
The kicker was when I showed my sister the letter he wrote me. And their response was "I have mixed feelings"
HUH?
Mixed feelings? You are my sisters. You are on my side. There are no mixed feelings.
They were like, but he said such nice things. Ok, that was never an issue. The issue was that he could have told me these "nice" things at any point IN THE LAST 7 YEARS.
Ok, done with that.
I will keep you posted on any new developments.
Big race weekend this week -- trying to get the house in check (thanks god for the cleaning peoples scheduled visit lining up on the right week) and making a big ass Costco run this week.
Woo hoo.
Cross your fingers that the weather holds out. If it doesn't 50 people in my house could get interesting.
Flickr site is updated with pictures from the party.
Should have more tonight for all of you, just not feeling the love, or the appropriate snark levels.
Oh - but I did finally get caught up on the "Rock of Love" finale on Vh1.
It.
Was.
Awesome.

Now Watching: No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain