Wait! That's not spam mail!!

Holy Shmoly! I got a reply from Henry Rollins today... email. Well, it was either him or his assistant. It was rather vague. And short. At first I thought it was a spam mail because the subject line said "HR" which, after having been employed in the HR field for a little while, means Human Resources to me... but I opened it out of curiosity and there was a short little email with lots of short lines and periods... it was as follows:

"Emily. I appreciate the letter, thanks for sending. I don't know how to interpret dreams but it sounds like I was on yourmind momentarily. No need to feel guilty about hugging me, it's not a problem at all. I don't know when I will be in the great state of NM next but I appreciate the invite all the same. Thanks. Henry"

So, what do you think? Was that really from him or was it some kind little assistant who thought my letter was rip-roaring hillarious and mildly pathetic? So, what did I do next? You guessed it.. I emailed him back... sigh.. the squashing of my ego continues below:

"Hello Henry,

I have no intention of being a pest, but if I am please let me know. Is this an address that I may contact you at if I have any further musings/questions for you? Or, if this is a generalized fan-mail account, would the mail I send actually get forwarded to you or would it go through some sort of "screening out the loonies" process?
Oh, and another little tidbit from my funny little brain - I watched Johnny Mnemonic yesterday for the first time... I must say, you are the highlight of that movie for me. I usually have difficulty watching Keanu Reeves but you made the movie a real joy for me. (Any scenes you were in, that is.)

Oh, another thing before I go. I tend to get rather sarcastic on line and it can be hard to interpret that without facial expression or voice inflection. Let me know if you can take a little crap from me once in a while. I've been on my best behavior so far.

Thanks so much!

Emily"

Ugh... I'm a total starstruck loser... So.. here I am by the modern phone that we call the internet, waiting for a call.... sigh... I think I might just shrivel away out of embarassment.

Living on the Surface of the Sun

I am well on the road to skin cancer. My little family can spend hours in the sun, come home rosy and wake up with a tan. I spend 15 minutes in the partial shade, come home feeling like a fever, wake up looking like a lobster, peel 4 days later and go back to being ghostly pale. Sigh.
I guess I must not be overly concerned. It's not like I inspect my freckles for pre-cancerous cells.

We put Audrey in her little inflateable pool the other day. She wasn't too sure about it at first. She loves baths, but those have warm water after all. It was when I poured cool water on her back that she positively freaked out and her screaming echoed down the street... literally. By the time Ben came home from work, she was mostly okay and when he brought out her rubber duckies, she was completely okay. In fact, she was totally hurt when we took her out of the pool and changed her back into regular clothes.

I am finding that my normal witty (riiiiiight) commentary for my blog is running a little slow today. I think that my morning wake-up was a little less than pleasing:
Audrey's 5:30 squawk-fest - 5 minutes long
6:00 1st Alarm clock bell - 3 seconds
6:30 2nd Alarm clock bell - 3.5 seconds
6:31 Audrey's slightly more insistant squawk-fest - 10 mintues
6:35 Some idiot set off an illegal firework
6:36 Some idiot neighbor has a yappy dog that was woken up by the idiot with the firework
6:37 My room-mate's dog, Danzig, takes exception to the yappy dog and the firework.... for the next 20 minutes
7:30 Audrey decides that she really does want to get up and doesn't care that her mom is completely non-functional... good thing her dad shows up about 1 minute after mom drags her sorry butt out of bed....

It's times like this that I wish I was able to take naps....

I hate relatives that aren't relatives!

Aunt Flo has reared her ugly head... Stupid Woman. She comes to visit without so much as an "if you please", eats all my food for a week and leaves my house in shambles. Stupid Woman.

Ben told me (and our room-mate Scott) just a few days ago that I'm super emotional when I have PMS, but during the actual WEEK OF DOOM, I'm fairly normal.... well, that's a relief. At least I'm not a complete psycho and don't even know it.

Audrey started walking like it was old hat this week and aside from being a bit wobbly, she's pretty good at it. She refuses to perform when we want her to, but she does it when she thinks we aren't paying attention. Or, maybe it's when she herself isn't paying attention... food for thought.

Ben and I are having trouble adjusting to the break from school. We (I) keep saying "Wow, we're going to have so much time to clean!" What have we been doing, really? Sleeeeeeeeep... eat... sleeeeeeeep... go to the mall.... watch TV... sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.... sigh...
We did get some laundry in the wash this morning. Of course, that was more out of necessity than the desire to have a clean room.

We're going up to the mountains today for a Memorial Day weekend party. My friend Tiffany's father is part of a Bike Club *cough! Biker Gang! ...just kidding* and everyone is getting together for a big blowout.. Pig roasted in the ground and everything... mmm.. dirt! So, we're ready to escape the city and spend some time communing with nature and some inebriated humans. We'll be there until Audrey decides that it isn't fun anymore and screams all the way home. Hopefully, that will make her sleep well tonight and well into tomorrow morning.. fat chance, that!
We're also trying to convince Ben's dad, Dale to have a Memorial Day BBQ or something of the sort.. you can't have Memorial Day without a BBQ, comeon!! I think I will have to tell him that I can't live without his.. well, any mention of cooked protein just sounds like an innuendo...

What Dreams May Come

Okay, so I must be a complete crack-pot. I very much admire the work of Henry Rollins. I don't always agree with his way of thinking but I appreciate his thoughtfulness and his quest for knowledge.
So, I had a dream about him last night. I invited him for dinner and after some charm and wit on my part, I convinced him to come over. There was much more to the dream, but that's not the point of this post.
The point is, I ended up getting the urge to write him and tell him about my dream and invite him for dinner.... of course, I know that's crazy and I know he'll never accept in a million years. Hey, a girl can dream, right?
I did meet him once a few years ago and he was very kind. Perhaps a little over-polite. But you can't really blame any celebrity for that as they have to withstand crazy fans every day.

So, we'll see if I get some sort of politely ambiguous response. Of course, if he ever did decide in a moment of insanity that dinner at my house would be great.. i'm not too sure I'd ever tell. No one would believe me anyway.

Dang Leeches!

Okay, so I have hypothyroidism. As such, I have to go and get my blood drawn at least once a year, sometimes more. Needles freak me out and I dont care what people say about getting used to it. I can deal with it, but I'll never get used to it. Can you imagine.. Ok, here's my vein, poke it all you want, heck take a whole pint while your at it! Bleah!

So, anyway. I got my yearly labwork done on Thursday. I was lucky that I didnt have time to over-think it in the waiting room. They were totally dead and there was no wait. I can never look when they poke the needle in, but I usually do once it's there. Good thing I dont faint at the sight of blood like some people do. There was a little droplet right where she poked in. She was done really fast though and she was very professional and experienced. So, I was thinking, yay! I dont have to do that again for a while.


Well, today, I checked in with my OB's office and asked them what I should do since I am "late" and have gotten 2 negative test results. They sent me for bloodwork... whaddayaknow.... :P
So, ran down to the lab and waited..... and waited... for my turn for the bloodsuckers to get me... what a strange thing.. we all line up like cattle and willingly hold out our arms.
So, when my personal leech walked in, she seemed a little hesitant, but I didn't think anything of it... First, she tied that little rubber thing around my arm and felt around on my vein.. and felt around on my vein.. and felt around on my vein.. and then practically bruised my vein while she felt around some more... then she untied it and felt around some more. Then, she left the little alcohol square on my arm while she wandered around looking for her gloves and cotton squares... Then she put the rubber tie thing on again and got her needle and tried to stab all the way through my arm and out the other side... I couldnt even watch it! No wonder I forgot my name and date of birth when she re-verified it!

So, I should get the results back tomorrow (hopefully there's a little miniature body in there that will be super cute when I take it home). I don't know what they will do if I'm not "PG".... well.. good excuse to keep trying at any rate.

In the mean time, Ben is off school for a few weeks and we're going to put him to work! Yay! An extra set of hands makes all the difference.

I also planted all my seeds today. So, Beans, Tomatoes, Herbs, flowers.. hooray! Hopefully I dont kill them this year, like I do every other year. And, hopefully the neighborhood cats dont decide that the catnip I planted is especially for them... :P

Obsession VS The Stomach Flu

So Audrey got the stomach flu on the 21st.. the day before her birthday... Throw up and birthday cake don't mix. Well, they do.. just not the way you would want them to. So, she was sick and crabby and a whole lot of not much fun for the whole week. She didn't learn how to walk and she only wanted to be cuddled! Good thing we got her portraits taken the week before, or who knows how those would have turned out *shudder*!
She was over it by Friday or Saturday but was cranky for a few more days (just for good measure it seems). All was glorious and beautiful in the world! Oh wait, then I got it....

I now understand why the little stinker wanted to be cuddled all week. With Ben at work and Audrey thinking Mom was invincible, I spent the better part of Thursday curled up on a recliner, wishing I would die... or was it Wednesday?.... By Friday, I thought I was over it. By Saturday night, I was wishing I had died on Thursday... (or was it Wednesday?) Now here comes the REALLY awful part: I was so sick...... I couldn't stand to sit up longer than half an hour at a time... so.... no..... computer!! *Gasp!* My sister and I had started playing a new game since Mabinogi was starting to get annoying... Yay for Flyff! And of course, you would think that since it doesn't take much energy to sit at a computer, that I would be hunky dorey playing Flyff.... WRONG! Sitting up for any length of time made me dizzy.. and therefore.. motion sick.. and therefore....... you get the picture!

So, in the battle between Flyff and The Stomach Flu.... sigh... the disgusting illness won out!

The good news is we got Audrey's 1 year old portraits back! Hooray! She is super cute, if I do say so myself. I am going to put some of them up on my Facebook account as soon as I stop playing Flyff! Hooray for Flyff! :D