Feeling surprisingly good this morning, despite no caffeine in 60 hours. I was going to allow myself a Coke today, but I may skip it. Go me.
Suffered a bit of a financial setback today. I have my credit cards set up to receive a monthly payment automatically from my online bill paying service. I don’t open the monthly statements since I figured everything was progressing swimmingly. Today, I opened a statement to see how well I was doing. Turns out that in February the monthly minimum increased to $2.50 above what I had been paying them. So, there was a late fee in March. And April. And May. And at some point these fees put me above my credit limit. Which meant late fees and over credit limit fees of $64/month being added in June. And July. And August. Crap on a stick! I called the company and, of course, there is nothing they can do (or want to, I’m certain). They did tell me that if I paid $13 more this month, that would bring my account current and the late fees would stop. Like putting a bandaid on a decapitation. Sigh.
Know any good car pranks? Seems a certain housemate left town for a week with her boyfriend and let her boyfriend leave his car in our carport without considering that another housemate would be buying a car before she got back and might just want to park it in the carport he pays rent on. Time for a little smackdown. Ideas?
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Oh, my aching head.
I quit drinking caffeine 36 hours ago. Yesterday was actually ok. I drank a lot of water and was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t get my typical headache by noon for not drinking a Coke. Not this morning. Oh no.
This morning, I have an all-out screaming pain on the entire left side of my head. The kind of headache that amplifies smells, sounds, and light. I have a caffeine hangover.
And, of course, this is the morning that some weird construction is occurring at the house next door. It seems to involve at least five loud hispanic men with some sort of large tool on a trailer. The large tool could perhaps be a crank of some sort. With the large, loud tool, they seem to be banging large sheets of metal against the driveway. Another worker is hammering. Another one is cranking the Spanish tunes. I almost went postal. Except that would mean going into the sun.
This is turning into Leia’s Complaint Blog.
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This “real life” stuff bites. Big time.
My mom is in the hospital with some sort of kidney/bladder/urinary tract (I’ve heard several differing locations) infection that had her so sick she was running a 104° temperature last night. From what Mom said, Dad called 911 and she got to ride in the ambulance to the hospital. She’s all drugged up and should hopefully be better in a couple of days. Any prayers you can send her way are much appreciated.
My friends’ lives are coming apart all around me. Nothing is the same as it was one week ago. Nothing will ever be the same. It hurts my heart to watch them in such pain and I can’t do anything to make it better. I can’t make a website, I can’t buy something at the store. Nothing is going to heal but time and that is taking too long to get here.
Tonight Andrea said, “You know, when we’re fifty, this will all be easy. We’ll know what to do and we’ll know how to handle it. But right now, it’s too much.” I hope she’s right.
Thank you to those who have inquired if there is anything you can do. I appreciate your offer. There isn’t anything that can be done and that is the problem.
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A fun and tough weekend. Friday and Saturday found me in the company of various DFWbloggers, starting with food and ending with a hot pool both nights.
Sunday I attended the memorial service. I was amazed to walk in and see so many of our youth there. So many of the high school age boys look up to Nate as an example of the type of man they want to be. It was moving to think about how watching him cry in public and still be so strong and full of love would profoundly impact those young men.
Afterwards, Amanda and I unwound with $10 of cokes and Blue Bell ice cream (on sale at Kroger!). We hung out until youth group, which was the monthly youth-led worship service. Afterwards, all of us youth counselors went out to dinner. It was really good hanging out as a group. I’d been slacking off or out of town for the past few weekends and hadn’t seen my church friends in a while.
I moved to Dallas straight out of college over three years ago for a job at a television station here. I worked at KXTX for a year before leaving because of an impending station sale and change to a Spanish format. I haven’t seen some of my former co-workers since leaving there in May 2000. This Thursday, we’re having an ex-KXTX gathering to watch the Texas Rangers play Baltimore. I haven’t been out to the ballpark yet this year, so I’m excited about making that yearly pilgrimage. Thursday’s game may be the last of the season before the strike (if I understand correctly - I’m not a sports person), so I’m eeking in by the skin of my teeth. It will also be great to see some of my friends from those days. I’ve been thinking about them lately, but haven’t turned the thinking into actual contact. So, exciting!
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A beautiful woman I only briefly met is gone. My friends are hurting: pain, unwarranted guilt, and helplessness. Sometimes life just breaks my heart.
The revamp is delayed. Being there is just more important.
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Damn that Tina and her Shiner buying ways. It was great seeing all of you last night. Several fun new faces and even some old ones showed up. Thanks for coming.
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I have a date tonight. The lovely Karen and I are having dinner before the DFWblogs Cocktail Event. Eat your heart out.
» In my mailbox from Alex: “Jason’s mom called just now, and she didn’t want me to take a message. Rather,
she asked if I had a number where he “could be reachable”.
I’m guessing that he may be at Julie’s house, but I don’t have the number for
that (and it’s not listed at accidentaljulie, alargehead, or gnumatt). So, if
Jason is around, please have him call him mom.”
Jason, call your mommy.
» I’ve been working on tweaking our design site. Just a few more images to replace and there’s another item off the list of things to do! Which means I can finally get on the revamp situation.
This picture is as naked as you’re going to see me on the internet. My hair looks decidedly un-sassy without any styling goo in it. That’s what a weekend at the lake will do for you. Gracie is still exhausted from her weekend at the lake, but you can tell by the smile on her face that she had a blast.
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Mad accomplishment occuring at 2am lately. I guess that’s a good thing. I have finally finished up my friend Amy’s Make-up site at miuawga.com. One gigantic hurdle on the road to completing my to-do list down, about eight more to go.
Tomorrow night’s DFWblogs Cocktail Event is looking to be a good one. We’ve had almost a dozen new sites added in the past week or so and I’ve been encouraging them all to join us. I may just have to bring out the nametags again!
The founder of MEETUP finally contacted me yesterday evening. I’m not sure if they realize just what we have going on here in Dallas. You read the email and see if you understand what they are suggesting. I’m not clear on it. Mail me and let me know how you think I should respond.
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Much fun was had this past weekend at the Lakehouse celebrating DFWblogs‘ First Anniversary. Now my shoulders, nose, and cheeks are sporting a lovely red hue because of most of the day spent floating on a noodle. Better than Julie, though, who spent several hours on a SeaDoo with no sunblock on her legs. Today, she can hardly move because of the pain caused by clothes rubbing against her skin.
» Silly me. Friday night I stayed up late, once again sitting at the computer accomplishing little. I reasoned with myself that I would do it Sunday evening when we returned home. We pulled into the driveway at about 10:30 last night and I went straight to bed.
» And thus a new week starts with a morning wasted. Sigh. I want to be back on the noodle on the lake. Or on a dark boat at midnight with good friends. Anywhere but with this list in my face.
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Ok, I am severely displeased with MEETUP. Last month, they held the “International Blogger Day” on the third Thursday of the month. That’s cool. This month, however, they moved it to the third Wednesday. Not cool. We’ve been having DFWblogs gatherings on the third Wednesday of the month for a year now. I don’t like the idea of splitting up the people. I want to know all the DFW-area bloggers!
I have written MEETUP twice now and received NO response. And they’ve been very civil emails:
I run a site called DFWblogs.com. We have been meeting on the third Wednesday of the month for a year now. I noticed that the Blog MEETUP has been moved to this date (it was the 3rd Thursday last month). We have a very active group of people
that meets, and I would hate to split up DFW area bloggers with two meetings in one night. Is there any way we can combine efforts?
No response. This irks me.
» My email is now on a new server that is not allowing relaying and has SpamAssassin on it. I’m happy that I won’t be allowing further proliferation of the Klez worm. I am worried that I won’t get any mail at all now.
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