Three coffees in...

Three coffees into my day on a Friday at 7:30. Been in my new job for 7 days and it rocks! My enthusiasm has nothing to do with my caffeine high, albeit I feel mighty energetic and Super Man invincible right about now. Cliff at the office told me I should crash hard around 9pm... I will be sure to be on the loveseat all stretched out so I can pensively wait for my downfall.

The office I work at is FABULOUS! Everyone is lovely and nice and so welcoming. One girl told me when we met today that she has heard a lot about me and that someone else told her it was like I had been there forever. So far this is a temp to permanent gig but the VP of Sales told me at dinner the other night that he hopes to have the discussion soon about my being brought on full time. WOOHOO!

I have learned a lot over the last 7 work days - about a new industry, new software platforms, rules and regulations. I have also learned that on Sundays my stomach isn't turning over from stress thinking about going to work Monday morning as it was with my last position. Yeah, if they don't bring me on permanent I will be all sorts of broken hearted. The people and the atmosphere make up for the drop in salary but the perks outweigh that in a big way.

I feel like cleaning the house naked! It's been a great week, minus the fact that Patrick Swayze died. The things/myths Dirty Dancing taught me were as follows:

1. Your first time will make you glow and smile the next morning like the act lasted more than 20 minutes.

2. The more dance lessons you have the skimpier your outfits get.

3. Not everyone falls for the Cheetah.

4. Even the odd looking girls with a good heart can get the guy in the end.

5. Older sisters with complexes can drain you. If they are tone deaf it makes things worse but more laughable.

6. Kellerman's was a sun friendly environment but Lord help you if you needed an activity on a rainy day, thus, sex with Johnny Castle.

7. It's never a good idea to hide things from your parents.

8. The good guys should always come out on top and the scumbags should always have their charity donations to Yale torn up in front of their faces.

Dirty Dancing was an interesting movie for me - Our Senior High School Ball theme was 'I had the time of my life', the abortion Dr in the movie was stopping in New Paltz - where I grew up, and my maiden name was Gray, Jennifer Gray. I caught a lot of shit for that in the years after the movie came out and when people asked me on the phone at the office if I was the same Jennifer Grey I said yes but that I was told to keep my day job.

Speaking of Jennifer Grey, I also learned the valuable lesson that your nose job can ruin your career. So love your nose, embrace the bigness that you have on your face and appreciate the DNA and genetics that added to your facial features. Even if you look like Toucan Sam, it's part of who you are and what people recognize about you... It's as plain as the nose on your face.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner....

Labor Day weekend with a few thousand of our new best friends!

As usual with all holiday weekends, Adam had to work. This year was a bit different as he got to lead mascots around the Atlanta Motor Speedway for NASCAR weekend on Saturday. He had a great time and got some sun while I played with the dogs at home and relaxed knowing I start my new job this coming Thursday, giving myself a well deserved break from Careerbuilder.com. We had tickets to the Nationwide Series race Saturday night and at the end of his shift, the NASCAR Gods smiled upon him a shining light and handed over two tickets to the Sunday night Sprint Cup Series race! Given the choice we opted for the Sunday night race since we don't really follow the Nationwide Series.

Now, after working from home since July and being unemployed the last two weeks, joined at the hip with my MAC job hunting, the possibility of getting out of the freaking house was awesome! I watched the races on TV since joining a NASCAR pool at the office years ago, more so to make it look like I knew what I was talking about, but  I had never been to a live race. Adam brought home t-shirts from his Saturday shift at the track and the golden tickets and we were excited beyond belief for Sunday night - the first night race in Atlanta.

We left the house at 3:30 pm and got stuck in track traffic. Once we got there we wandered around the midway, watched some pre-race shows, bought me a hat and ticket holders you wear around your neck, cause you never know when you will need those in the future, and then made our way to our seats. The seats were BEAUTIFUL! I swear I heard angels singing as we found our seats by the entrance to pit road up in row 40, meaning we were high enough to see the entire track.

Now, I have never been into sports like Adam is. My Mother-In-Law is a huge sports fan and Adam grew up in that household. I grew up in an artsy household where what you made, made you what you are and final projects for art class were framed and hung along side my Dads artwork in the house. Having entered the NASCAR watching frame of mind 8 years or so ago, I latched on to one specific driver and have been a fan ever since - Dale Earnhardt Junior. No specific reason, I just latched on with the force of a famished baby nursing and never let go. I even bought a Junior Nation baseball cap at the track and was wearing it proudly. Adam got jealous of my newly acquired hat so we made our way back to the midway before being seated in the stands and he got the same one in another color so we could keep them identified as our own. Good Lord, you don't want to mix up your fan hats - at my suggestion.

The race started. The stands shook from the vibration of the engines as they revved up at the starting line. They went fast, faster and even faster. It amazed me that they were going 200 mph. Hell, I go 10 miles over the speed limit and I get a ticket... the boys were flying! Junior gained spot after spot after spot and kept on coming.

Then there were hotdogs and funnel cake. What's a day out at a race or a fair without this fare I ask you? It was a fun time guessing what concessions were going to make their way up into the stands. Burgers? Chicken? Beer? Oh lots and lots of beer. People had their own stash in the coolers they let into the stands. There was every make and model of beer and the koozies to go along with them. Attire was interesting as well. from fan t-shirts and shorts to outfits you would only see on people who were trapped in the mountains for a few weeks. The woman in front of me, who I neglected to get a picture of, was wearing a shirt that said, and I quote: 'If I gave a crap, I would give it to you'. Thanks for the visual you obvious fan of Pricilla, Queen of the Desert, now go finish your PBR and your Lucky Strike smokes and sit the heck down so I can see the track :)

So after Adam enjoyed a few alcoholic beverages (hmmm Budweiser, maybe he is nursing a crush for Kasey Kahne?) I volunteered to drive us home as we made our way to the car - leaving early as to avoid a 3 hour parking lot vigil. We listened to the race on the radio as we made our way home and watched the last few laps on TV once we got home. 'You let the dogs out and I will turn on the TV' Adam said. Good plan! We settled in and watched the race end and the wrap up commentary.

It was a really fun night with a few thousand of our new best friends, some of which I would hose down before they entered my home, but nice people nonetheless. March race anyone?

Benevolent Man

medium shades of winters gaze

through the rushes

through the haze

benevolent man all broken down

by all he bares

and his thorny crown

stealing time the seasons rush

birds wings trap the hidden hush

seeing it all by the seeding within

where there used to be no thoughts of him

salvation granted

and salvation lost

broken to bits by the cold and the cost

running faster than the wind does blow

covered by an ocean of snow

seeing what he can through the deepening maze

only grasping onto the moments he saves

Benevolent Man

The big clean...

Every two weeks I have cleaners come clean my house. Not that I don't have time, not that I don't know how... I do! Really! It's just that, well my sanity declares it. My husband works almost every weekend so I am alone in the house alone except for when Lexxy is over. I love those weekends and the last thing I want to do when she is over is spend an entire day cleaning dog hair off my sofa or scraping out the inside of my microwave. Not that my microwave gets all too disgusting, it just needs a proper scrape every now and again. I just hate dusting and vacuuming and everything it stands for. If there were a protest against cleaning in Washington DC I would hold the banner at the front of the parade. So for $80 every two weeks it's a good deal! We get our personal time and someone else cleans my bathroom! It's bad enough I have to pre-clean the clutter before the cleaners come so they don't know what I mess I really am!

So today was the every-other Thursday the cleaners come. Since I now work from home, strategic planning was necessary. All dogs were ushered out of the house around noon, minus Phoebe, our 9 year old Jack Russell who detests the outside like a bad case of indigestion. I called Phoebe upstairs and closed the office door, turned the tv on and resumed work. Typically when we aren't home we keep the dogs in the guest room as to not have the cleaners evacuate my home in fear of being licked to death, or at the sight of Phoebe biting the vacuum. I had my coffee and a backup beverage and my cigarettes. I was good to go. At 1:30 I heard the door open as the cleaning was about to begin. Typically they are in my house from 2-3 hours... this was not taken into consideration in my preparation activities for the following two categories: Food and pee breaks.

The dogs outside were quiet, much to the relief of our neighbors and it was a nice afternoon so the dogs were happy in the sunshine. For me and Phoebe it was another story altogether as I settled in to do research on companies I would be calling tomorrow. The noises of cleaning began and then it happened, as if a trigger for Pavlov's dogs, the vacuuming commenced. To this Phoebe cocked her head, got a viral twinkle in her eye and went rabid. She charged the door barking as if she had just seen the season ending cliffhanger on Grey's Anatomy and knew she would have to wait all Summer long to find out if George makes it or not. She barked. She cried. She bellowed. Then for some unknown reason, the cleaners knocked on the office door! 'They can't know I'm here!' I thought! 'Oh please don't open the door! Oh please oh please oh please!'. Now this thought pattern was not because I was afraid of Phoebe charging at and peeing on the cleaners in a fit of excitement of company, I was afraid they would see what I looked like. Today's working-from-home ensemble included yoga pants and one of my Dad's flannel shirts. No make up either. I could scare little children. All that talk about inner beauty is not going to prevent a small child from pointing and screaming at the site of me. Plus I need to shave my legs, thus I should be seen by no one.

The knocking stopped and they went back to what they were doing as Phoebe and I hunkered down as I realized I had to pee. They had only been in the house a half an hour and I felt like I had to go and now! This was not a good thing. Martha Stewart was on tv doing a show on hotdogs. Now tell me, does anyone believe Martha sits at home over a Hebrew National hotdog with sauerkraut and mustard while knitting or doing her recipes for her show? Yesterday she was making a dish that was in this huge pot with 32 lbs of sauerkraut and about a hundred pounds of meat! Martha, how many people does it take to eat all of that? There are starving children in China for God's sake! Ship some to them! I was hungry, realizing it had been since last night that I had eaten anything. So there we have it... pee breaks and food... which one would wear me down enough to make a run for it? I wondered if I could sneak out of the office and run to the kitchen for a piece of cheese, sight unseen.

Two hours later... the cleaners were still here. I had perfected the pee pee dance and sitting cross-legged in the hopes of channeling a spirit of calm to prevent me from wetting my pants. Phoebe was still hanging in but by now her tongue was hanging out and she was squeaking like a new chew toy. The other 5 dogs out back were still quiet. My husband called and I told him that they were so quiet that I figured someone let them out of the yard and that they are now free-reigning it in the neighborhood. I wonder if the cleaners heard me on the phone? Then it happened again. My boss calls me for a call we have scheduled for tomorrow. Drat! They HAVE to know I'm home now! I heard the mop, don't ask me how, and knew they were about finished. As soon as the door locked behind them, Phoebe and I covertly snuck into the guest room to check the driveway to see if they left. They were gone! We both ran downstairs like escaping prisoners of war and Phoebe ran straight for the back door while my mind was on hotdogs. Turns out she had to pee more badly than I did! In two weeks I will make sure she goes out before we play shut-in.

The Great American Dish Hunt

Saturday night in Atlanta and what do we do? We go on an international scavenger hunt for dishes. My inept ability to retain dish ware for more than a few months has been fraught with ravenous speed, the latest casualty a dinner plate which was innocently occupying space in the bottom of the sink. Poor dish never saw it coming. So, off to Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma and Macy's where we walked around the dishes section for approximately 20 minutes relegating some patterns to oblivion and giving other patterns an 'Eh' rating. Then it happened from across the crowded floor... I saw it. I promptly fell in utter lust with a set with birds on it - not hick-centric, Alabama-esque hunting birds but sparrows with a robin egg blue band around the dinner plate. Love at first site... I knew then and there that God had created these plates just for me and my personal use... then sticker shock when the sales woman told me, almost gleefully that it was $100 a place setting... Hell maybe for fine china but this was for every day, cereal eating, chinese food ordering, burgers and ribs off the grill foodstuffs. After hemming and hawing we walked out as the Macy's clerk hurried us out the door at closing time. Disgruntled we went to dinner to discuss our options and my needing to take it down a notch and realize this was a necessity purchase as opposed to an 'Ooh I HAVE to have it' purchase.

Step 2: Bargaining. As we set out early in the evening with a vision of 12 place settings, obviously to cover up my dish crashing habit, I started kicking the numbers back in order to prepare my wallet for a fiscal outlet. Now understand that having just lost my job (Grrr) and having just landed a new one which pays monthly, I have no money to speak of for leisure purchases. ' You know we could get away with 8 settings... that would cover breakfast and dinner when Lexxy is over...' Adam said nothing and continued to eat his burger while Lexxy listened on, influencing her purchasing habits forthwith. 'Then again, since it's most of the time just you and me we COULD only get 6 settings... and use our good stuff when we have company.' Now also understand company usually accompanies my husband's grilling expertise and results in a paper plate usage bonanza. Still, he said nothing and continued to finish his meal.

'You know my birthday is in 2 weeks... just saying...' Yeah nothing worked... So after Adam and Lexxy finished their burgers we went to Target where I dragged my feet as we headed to the kitchen section of the store in utter defeat, half hoping that everything they have was crap. Now I love Target. Normally I get a high off of Target, loving their anti-Walmart-ness, offering a bounty of products I actually use. Plus they sell dog food in HUGE bags and when you have a house with 6 dogs, bargain buys on Purena One are a plus. We learned the hard way that Beneful is a bad thing. Walking down the dishware isle there were solid colors, no... stripes, no... weird imprinted patterns, no. Then we saw it. It was a knockoff of the pattern I looooved at Macy's. There was one set left and it only was a set of 4 place settings. 5 minutes to spare until the doors closed we hurried to the customer service counter to see if they had others 'in the back', which mind you no one ever does. There is apparently no 'back' anywhere and everyone stocks what they have when they have it. If there is a 'back' anywhere I want to go there to take photos for proof. They offered us the option of looking for other stores with that pattern and there were a few which had two there and one there. So home we came to the graveyard that is my broken dish collection. Thank God we already ate... the rest of the unmarred dishes are dirty.