Happy Day!

Well! It's been a while, hasn't it? But, today is my birthday and I love my birthday like a little kid, so I thought it would be a good time to say hello and tell you all what I've been up to!

So, let's pick up where we left off, shall we? I chose not to go to the high school reunion. There really weren't many people I would like to see, and I don't feel any need to show them how I'm doing. Plus, I haven't seen, heard from, talked to, heard about, ANYTHING, the Awful Ex, so I decided to leave that situation exactly as it was. I'm a little afraid that he'd "want to be friends" or something ridiculous like that. As Ebeneezer Scrooge so aptly put it, "I wish to be left alone." So I skipped it. (I did look at the pictures on FB though, and there were some people I would not have recognized. And I don't mean that in a good way.)

Did I tell you that my car died? Yes, sadly, my beloved 10 year old Honda Civic passed to that great parking lot in the sky back in July. It quit in about 15 minutes, too, which is kinda scary and kinda good. I told one of my friends that it was the car equivalent of having a massive heart attack and being dead before you hit the floor. It was kind of good, in that we didn't spend tons of money fixing a million little things before the big one hit, and it was also good that I was close to home when the service engine soon light came on, because by the time I got to our driveway, there was steam pouring out from underneath the hood. We changed the oil and hoped it was fixed, so I drove it a little to make sure it was alright before work the next day, and I didn't even make it the three miles out to the highway. The engine temperature pegged out at the hottest point and stayed there, so I turned around and went home. A few days later, we tried to move it from that parking spot and it wouldn't even shift into gear, so the transmission and motor are both shot. We've been taking our time to decide what to buy next (and save up some money, since we were hoping that the Civic would last a couple more years until some other things were paid off), but we've pretty well settled on the Volkswagon diesel Jetta. It's a really cute little car and the gas mileage is unbelievable. Now it's just a matter of time while we get our finances in order to buy one. I can't wait because right now I'm commuting in a Ford Excursion, which is basically the biggest SUV EVAH, and you can imagine how maneuverable that thing is on city streets and parking lots.

One thing delaying the car purchase is the fact that our house is falling apart in large chunks. Remember back in May when the stove caught on fire and the well pump quit ON THE SAME DAY? Would you believe that the well pump died again, this time quickly followed by the hot water heater? And that this time, it rained the entire week after the well pump died so that we couldn't fix it (electric pump + rain = bad idea), so that we spent an ENTIRE WEEK without water in our house? Yep, THAT was a fun week. Fortunately, Rock's mom and stepdad live right in front of us, so I could go to their house to shower in the mornings, so at least I could still go to work. (I refered to my office as The Land of Running Water that week and I wasn't at all unhappy about working some overtime!) This time, we replaced the well pump, the pressure tank and the hot water heater, so hopefully it will be more than 5 months before we have to replace anything again. Aren't you dying to visit my house?

So tell me, what's new with you?

Oh right - that blog thing!

So! Long time no talk, eh? The culprit is my job, of course, but since I want to stay gainfully employed, that's all I'll say about that.

So let's talk about something else, shall we? How about my 15 year high school reunion? Seems it's in a few weeks. (Which - WTF? How has 15 years gone by so fast?) On the one hand, I'm tempted to go. Which is a total change of heart from the 10 year reunion, to which, I believe I said, wild horses couldn't drag me. But somehow, the ensuing 5 years have mellowed me a bit. (Or finding people on Facebook has convinced me that most of the people I went to high school have also put on weight, and have crappier jobs/ lives than I do. Which may not be the purest reason for wanting to go to a high school reunion, but I take what I can get.) There is a small handful of people I'd kinda like to see (and by small handful, I mean less than 5). It's also a family oriented event, at a local park, during daylight hours, so I don't think there's much danger of getting drunk and making a fool of myself. On the other hand, that means there is no alcohol to ease the social tension of seeing a bunch of people I didn't like 15 years ago. And I'm not sure I really want to go. There are lots of people I really don't want to ever see again. Which brings me to the big reason why I don't want to go: my really awful, abusive, high school boyfriend is one of the organizers. He sent out an email about it over the weekend, and just seeing that email made me feel a little sick.

So, tell me your opinions and your high school reunion stories! Should I stay or should I go?

Marshall Karp

Just a quick post to let you guys know that one of my very favorite authors, Marshall Karp, has a new book out! It's called Cut, Paste, Kill and the early reviews sound really good! I plan to pick it up this weekend and can't wait to read it.

If you do pick it up, you might just recognize a character or two. ; ) Blogging about books and emailing an author can have awesome and surprising results!

Still Alive

Oh my god, you guys! I have SO MUCH to tell you. First of all, we did get an intern! She's a friend of a friend, and she is SO MUCH HELP. She only works two days a week, but they are my busiest two days and she just makes everything run so much more smoothly. I'm still busy and working late most nights, but at least I have a little help on the most stressful days. AND, I have a half day off tomorrow (if I can get out of here at lunchtime!) and I plan to take Supergirl to the movies. I'm really looking forward to that.

Secondly, I met Richard Russo! He came to North Carolina for a reading and book signing, and he was so incredibly nice. He took lots of audience questions, and was gracious enough to take questions in the book signing line. I asked him a question in the signing line and he laughed and answered my question and told me a little story about his family. He was awesome. Such a genuinely nice man. And look, I met a famous author and managed not to piss him off! Major accomplishment, that. I did miss Jen Lancaster's NC signing due to house issues (as in, the stove caught fire and the well pump broke and my house had no water ON THE SAME DAY), but we won't dwell on that. I don't even want to know what was wrong with that day. Two days later, just after we got the water fixed, lightning struck our house for the third or fourth time. No major damage this time, it just burned out a few light bulbs. So what I'm saying is that you REALLY don't want to come visit.

Things Making Me Laugh Today

On Facebook:
Friend "is praying for family in transition, friends who continue to grieve, coworkers to know Jesus personally, military members abroad, their families at home, missionaries abroad & those who still wait, students who are graduating & those who still search for answers, those in leadership & those who criticize their leaders. Most of all...peace in the waiting...."
Is it wrong that my first instinct is, "Jeez, give God a break!"

Overheard in my office:
Co-Worker A to Co-Worker B: "You must have a photogenic memory!"
(She realized her mistake and corrected herself, but still.)

From inter-office newsletter:
"Moving to quickly makes my work sloppy, usually contains errors and I tend to feel scattered."
Yay, irony!

So tell me - what's making you laugh today?

Things That Make Me Smile

I got up this morning and noticed what book my husband started reading last night - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

That totally made my day.

Oh HAI!

Right, so that whole "month of April" thing...I've been around, hopefully commenting on most of your blogs. But at work, oh my God, at work, I've descended into the fourth circle of Hell. My closest co-worker gave her notice at the end of March (why yes, right around the time I stopped blogging!) and left our office the second week of April. At first, they were going to replace her as soon as possible, but yet not hire the first person off the street and asked me to take on her responsibilities for a short time. Which, yeah, I wasn't thrilled about, but as long as they were actually working on replacing her, I could probably deal. Then, a few days later, they were going to hire someone part time to replace her. Which, no, was not my first choice of options, but I knew she had a good bit of downtime, so maybe it could be a part time job. My biggest worry was that they would hire someone who wanted part time work, and then, when we get busy enough to need a full-time person, wouldn't want to go full-time. But then - oh dudes, THEN. Boss' Boss came into town on the next to last day my co-worker was working, sat down with Boss and me, and announced that he had no plans to hire anyone to replace co-worker, that I would be taking on both jobs, and that they expected outstanding performance in both roles OR ELSE. The OR ELSE was more subtle, but the message was loud and clear. So I've been working overtime and busting my ass for the last few weeks. It seems to be going pretty well, though, and I don't think the OR ELSE is going to come into play. Now, though, they are talking about hiring an intern to come in a couple of days a week to help me out. So there may be light at the end of this very dark tunnel.

In other news, I saw the movie The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and it was seriously wonderful! DO NOT be put off by the whole "it's in Swedish with English subtitles" thing. You can totally follow the plot and dialog. Rock, who has not read the book, went with me and he loved it, too, so you don't even have to have read the book. But really, you should, because as good as the film is, the book is even better. But the film stays true to the book, following the very complex plot very closely. I was really impressed. If it's coming to a theater near you, do go see it.