Another art project

my Christmas canvas.....










and finally....my entry way has something on the wall!! (no, I didn't make this one....bought it at a fun shop called Junkadoodle that my friend Kelly introduced me to several years ago)

Internet Dating

Ok internets (as BooMama is wont to say), I've pondered all weekend whether to put this out there, but I just can't resist anymore. I've told one or two friends and they were appropriately flabbergasted and outraged on my behalf. I feel the need to share with the rest of you and see if you think I was overreacting.....or what your rationale might be. Then maybe I can forget this piece of drama.

So, some of you know that I've (albeit somewhat reluctantly) subscribed to the adventure that is internet dating. One particular site that promises to match you along so many dimensions of compatibility (vague enough for you?). I've had lots and lots of matches, but so far, very few of these guys seem compelled to talk with me. (leading me to question if this is, in fact, the method with which God will reveal my husband.....but that is a discussion for another day)

So, Thursday I received what appeared to be a promising match....and I sent him questions to answer. To my surprise and delight (and slight trepidation), he proceeded to "fast track" our communication --- which only means we skip the back and forth guided communication and move straight into actual email messages (though still through the system).

Imagine my reaction when this is the message I received:

thanks for requesting communication. I'm currently pursuing another
relationship and thus I consider myself unavailable. However, you seem interesting and I think it might be nice to just know you. Your a CPA and I'm a CFP so we both are financially oriented. We probably think a lot alike. Would you like to get together sometime and get acquainted as a friend.

To put it quite mildly, I was shocked. Flabbergasted is the word that came most readily to my mind. Really? Is he serious? What in the world did he imagine that I would say?

Well, apparently, I didn't provide a response quickly enough (or he actually proceeded to use his brain and realized he had taken a large inappropriate leap), and he closed me out before I was able to send him my well-rehearsed answer:

Thanks for your note. I appreciate your compliment, but honestly, I'm not paying for this service to just meet new friends. I'm actively searching for my husband and if you are involved with someone else, then I guess you are not him. I don't feel that it would be appropriate for us to begin even a friendship if you are involved with someone else. Good luck with your search.

So, what do you think? Did I over-react or was he just completely out of his mind??

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In slightly related news, the newest Kia commercials are offensive to me......kiamatch.com? Seriously? It may be playing on this whole trend of internet dating, but it makes me never want to give that car company any money.

Impressive

Not only is this guy wicked smart, he can paint pretty well too!! Check it out!

Homecoming

Well, here are 4/6 of the grownup girls at Homecoming last weekend, and 1/2 of the babies. Mattie had a rough morning and had finally calmed down to be put into bed right before the rest of us had to leave.

Sara is in the Wildcat shirt - Jenna is her precious baby in the carrier

Mollie is in yellow - she is Mattie's mom

Sarah is in blue - she is the friend who spent 3 years in the Philippines

We missed Katie and Dara who weren't able to make it in for the festivites....though we need to start working on them for our 10 year reunion next year!

Haircut

These photos are a little strange to me, but I felt I needed to document this particular haircut.


My whole life I've been pretty opinionated about what I want to do with my hair. Cut, grow, perm (never again, by the way), cut, grow, etc..... I still drive back to my hometown to get my hair cut -- just can't beat the price and the 15+ year relationship. She periodically asks when we are going to color my hair (which I'm opposed to doing) and is always excited when I want to do something different than just trim.


So, today I again CUT my hair....this time enough to donate to Locks of Love -- a full 10 inches from the bottom of the ponytail holder. I have thick coarse hair, so it took 3 ponytails to make it easier to cut.

I don't love photos of myself, and these aren't the greatest, but I felt the need to share with you, my blogfriends, my new much shorter 'do.

Trapped

I'm still a bit traumatized by what just happened.....of course, while it was happening, I did think "this will definitely be a blog-worthy story!"

My office building has been going through some changes....it has sold a few times in the past several years and a couple of really large tenants have moved out. As such, my company is now on the top floor -- at 28. For a while the building considered building out condos above us, but they've since reverted to intending to fill the empty floors with commercial tenants. Which leaves about 14 empty floors above.

Since there are no people above us, the elevators don't work going up. Except that somehow, today when I punched DOWN to go get lunch, the elevator took me UP. I didn't give it too much thought, but tried to push the floor again where I wanted to go. No dice, so I got off the elevator intending to push DOWN again and wait for the next elevator. Well, the button wouldn't stay illuminated. (Apparently, I should have just stayed on the elevator, but I was thrown off so much that I wasn't thinking quite straight.)

So. Now I am one floor above mine. Locked in between two sets of glass doors in the elevator bay. The elevator call buttons aren't working. There is no phone or fire alarm to pull. There was a door alarm "in case of emergency" to break the glass, so after waiting a few minutes, punching the elevator call buttons repeatedly and periodically hollering to see if anyone on an elevator would hear me, I broke the glass. Ear-piercing shrieking alarm to follow.

I expected building security to come. They did not. So. Now I can get out onto the floor. But this is an unoccupied floor. No people, no phones.

Ok. So, I'll check out the fire stairs down to my floor. Put my sandal into the door on 29 so that I wouldn't be locked in the stairway and went down to try and open the door onto 28. No dice. Locked. Went back up to 29 thinking that building security would be coming soon......

Finally decided ..... phoooey on this. I'm going down. So, I walk into the fire stairs and let the door click locked behind me. Walk down to 28. Try the door again. Locked. Start banging.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Nothing.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

I decided to jiggle the door back and forth rather than just banging -- see sometimes, there is construction above us and we hear loud banging. I didn't want to be confused for random construction noises.

This fire stairway is located in the hallway towards our restrooms, so I figured eventually someone would have to pee and would walk by. Keep banging and jiggling the door.

Finally, our president opened the door. Whew. I told him bits and pieces of the story, barely managing to contain my tears. I held it together pretty well throughout the whole ordeal (only about 30 minutes, really), but now I'm feeling the effects. I was afraid that I wouldn't be missed for a long time -- see it happened at straight up noon -- most people were out of pocket for lunch already. They might have thought I was out for lunch and not miss me for a couple of hours.

So, now I'm waiting on a call or a visit from the building security manager to tell him the story. Hoping that my nerves settle a little first so that I don't start crying.

Totally random post to follow:

I can't even put together a full coherent sentence, so I'm just gonna make a list tonight.

• Went to Nashville for Zoe last weekend -- it is always good to get away. I saw quite a few friends from far and near -- Amy, Angie, Bret, Ofelia, Terri, Jean & Glynn, a boy named Brad from my middle school years (yikes - he has a 14 year old!!!!!!), of course Brandon, Mike, and probably so many more that I just can't remember tonight
• Sunday, I drove down to Tullahoma where I have family and spent the day with my aunt, grandma, and cousin and his family. It was a great homecooked Sunday lunch and good visiting time before I had to head back to the airport.
• On the plane to Nashville, when we parked at the gate the flight crew was extra vehement about us remaining buckled in our seats. Then 3 Nashville cops and a juvenile detention officer got on the plane and escorted a kid off in handcuffs. Don't know what the story there was, but it was definitely something different.
• Crazy, busy week because I found out that I'm taking another trip soon to count inventory....this time to our field office in Vernal, UT. Unless my memory is faulty, I don't believe I've ever been to Utah (beyond sticking my toe in at the Four Corners area). Should be very interesting, though it crunches a few deadlines in the next few weeks.
• Tonight I finally mowed my yard again -- I've been so consumed pulling out those bushes in the front that I hadn't taken the time to mow. Plus, I hacked down a bunch of plant garbage in the back yard tonight.
• Tomorrow I'm headed to the State Fair with my good friend Sarah - can't wait to see what new and unusual food there is to sample!!
• Thanks to one of the perks of my job, I'm headed to the Cowboys vs Patriots game on Sunday. Because it is such a big game, they are opening the gates early -- I'm praying that we don't have to sit through too much traffic or wait in an extremely long line to get in the stadium.

That's all for now, I think. I'm enjoying the rest of my evening relaxing on the couch and looking forward to the season premiere of Men in Trees in a few minutes.

Trimming the Hedges

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Phillip, I was able to (mostly) remove some fairly unruly hedges from my front yard tonight. I had borrowed his electric hedge trimmer to just try and tame the chaos --- and ended up 90 minutes later with five or six stumps. Yay!!!

So, does anyone have any tips or tricks on getting the stumps out? And how to protect my daylilies and iris while doing so? Should I just pull out the bulbs and replant later?





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