Britney is knocked up. Like we couldn’t have predicted that one.
Author Archives: Cindy
shoe shopping detour
Yesterday, as I left work, I was on a mission to find shoes to go with my wedding dress. I’m meeting the alterations lady tomorrow, and it’s important to know what kind of shoes I’ll be wearing, so she knows where the hem of the dress should be. Ok. So I leave my little parking garage, go to make a right turn onto a side street, but the street is blocked off by police cars, and the policemen are directing all oncoming traffic to make a U-turn and go back. I tried a detour a few blocks later, but that street was also blocked off by police cars. Since this was around 5:00 p.m. on a weeknight (and in a neighborhood that contains a LOT of offices), traffic was insane. While I was sitting in gridlock, I noticed that the news helicopters for all 3 local network news stations were circling in the air overhead. I called Dave and told him to check online and see what was up. He didn’t find anything. I looked it up this morning, and it turns out there was a failed attempt at a bank robbery right near where I work. (It was actually closer to Dave’s office than mine, but he only works about 1/2 a mile from me.) You have to register on that site to be able to read the story, so I’ll just copy & paste my favorite part:
“He was reaching to put money into the fanny pack which he had in front of him with his right hand, the gun went off towards his left hip,” said Ray Lauer, F.B.I. special agent.
Authorities said the robber barely missed himself, but he may have shot a hole in his sweater. Surveillance video also shows money being blown into small pieces.
As a trail of cash spilled out all over the bank floor in front of the counters, the suspect made his getaway.
A fanny pack. Oh good god. I know it wouldn’t be funny if anyone had gotten hurt, but that story cracks me up – it makes me think of the bank heist from “Raising Arizona” where the guys bring in the baby (still in his car seat) because they don’t want to leave him in the car. Then they set him on the roof and drive off. With this story, the amazing part is that the dude got away. The police and FBI are looking all over for him, and he just up & vanished. Which I suppose is fine, since all he succeeded in doing was blow a lot of cash into teeny-tiny bits.
But seriously, y’all. A fanny pack. I’m just sayin’.
And now, back to me: Because of the insane traffic, I ended up on a very extended detour, and lo & behold, I passed a Payless ShoeSource! I know the Manolo would be horrified with me for purchasing cheap footwear, but you know, I looked all over for nice shoes, and I couldn’t find any that I liked. Plus, I’m only going to wear these shoes once, and no one is going to even see them because the dress is floor-length. And after the fortune I’ve spent on the dress, I have a hard time justifying another fortune being spent on shoes. So I went with the cheapies. But they’re cute! (I don’t know why I can’t link directly to the shoe, but on the 6th row down, it’s the “Sparkle Strappy Sling.”) And they’re relatively comfortable for $20 shoes. So I’m happy. Yay!
Isn't it supposed to be spring yet?
Someone please explain to me why it’s April and there was frost on my car this morning? And why I’m still wearing turtlenecks? Anyone? Ok.
This week has been very stressful for us, money-wise, although I think we may have things figured out now. Bad news: we have to have our septic tank pumped and inspected. Eww. Good news: after it’s repaired and the backyard no longer smells like raw sewage (once again: eww), we should be ready to proceed with our home equity loan. Operative word there being “should” – this process has been delayed so many times & hit so many snags that I now have no faith in it whatsoever. Anyway.
So yeah, I’ve been a bit stressed. Oddly, it seems like it’s all the financial stuff of paying for the wedding, rather than the wedding itself, that’s freaking me out. I’m actually really looking forward to the wedding part – first of all, I’ve known for ages that Dave is my “marriage & babies guy,” and I’m thrilled that we have the opportunity to make it official in front of our family & friends. Also, it’ll be great to have everyone here, and I’m excited that they’ll get to see our house at the rehearsal dinner. And the wedding should be small enough (looks like we’ll have less than 30 people there total) that I’ll actually get to feel like I was able to spend time with everyone. So that’s all wonderful. But this whole money thing… Yeesh. I don’t cope with financial problems very well. I had a dream the other night that I went to pick up my wedding dress on the day before our wedding, and not only was it was 2 sizes too small, but it was also turquoise. I cried a lot in my dream. I’m not sure what that symbolizes, but I think it means I’m feeling a bit frazzled. Dave’s been good about making me lie down and relax when I get home in the evenings so I’ll stop pacing around the house & freaking out. As of yesterday, we figured out a solution that should make things ok for the time being, but I’m still worried about all of the other hidden expenses that lie ahead in the next 5 weeks. I think I inherited this worrywart gene from my dad. Gotta love genetics. To quote Winnie the Pooh, “bother, bother, bother.”
Hope everyone has a great weekend. I’ll try to be back to my normal chipper self (hey, quit snickering) next week.
oh what a week…
…and it’s only Tuesday. Let’s hammer out the bad news first, shall we? It seems that death abounds.
* My cousin Alphagal’s dog died over the weekend. I shall miss reading Modean’s entries on his dog blog, and it’s always heartbreaking to lose a pet, so my heart goes out to her & SNG.
* My best friend Kris’s grandmother died over the weekend of lung cancer. The good news is that this may finally be what scares Kris into quitting smoking. But still, it’s her grandma, and she’s (understandably) upset, so that’s no good.
* My friend Naina, who’s been having a not-so-fabulous year thus far anyway, lost both her aunt and cousin in a car accident over the weekend. Her uncle was in the car too, he’s stable in ICU. These are relatives that she was extremely close to – she usually introduced her cousin to people as her brother. And I’m pretty sure he was around our age, mid to late 20’s. So that’s just horrible.
In the category of not-really-good news, but not as bad as above:
* Dave’s kitties have a vet appointment this afternoon, because at least 2 of them have tapeworms. And if they share a litter box, that means they probably all have them. Gross, gross, gross. I’m just glad I’m not involved in trying to wrangle 3 cats into the car to go to the vet – that’ll be Dave & Steve’s fun afternoon task.
* We had our house appraised on Sunday, for what is hopefully the final step in the 2-month-long process of trying to get a home equity loan. We need the money for the deck that Steve is building, the driveway we want to put in (good-bye, gravel!), to replace the siding on the house, and oh yeah, to pay for our wedding, so it’s sort of infuriating that they didn’t tell us that we needed the damn appraisal until now, when we started this process back in mid-February. The good part of the appraisal: the house might possibly be cleaner now than it has ever been (I sort of went nuts at the idea of having a stranger evaluating our home). The bad part: it’s yet another delay in this ridiculously long & painful process of getting a loan. I have taken on the role of the Annoying Borrower – I’m calling the loan officer at least twice a day. “Have you gotten the report yet? Has it gone to the underwriters? When do we sign??” I figure that she’s the moron who didn’t inform us up front about all of the documentation that we were going to need, so I feel no guilt whatsoever in nagging her.
In happy news:
* We have an officiant for our wedding, an inter-denominational minister named Reverend Mary. I spoke with her yesterday and liked her immediately. Apparently she really gets to know the couples that she marries before the wedding, so she can make the ceremony very personal. She’s going to give Dave and me homework to do, sort of like a form of pre-marriage counseling, so I think that’s cool.
* Dave has made it 10 days with no cigarettes, so I think he has officially left the “trying to quit smoking” phase and entered the “has officially quit” phase. Yay!
* Last night, we got home and found that Steve had cleaned the garage – and he even built shelves on one of the walls so we have storage space! I was so excited that I could’ve kissed him. Except that he’s about to be my brother-in-law, and that would be weird.
* My old apartment, which I was still paying for because of weird lease circumstances, has been rented to a new tenant, which means I am officially off the hook, and I’ll get refunded for half of this month’s rent. That’s awesome.
* I am getting married in exactly 40 days. Whoo-hoo!
This scares me
My website hosts allow me to see what search terms are leading people to my blog. Here are few in my top 25 that I find truly, deeply disturbing:
* Teenie porn pics – WTF?? Teenie is my cat, people. As in feline, not as in p… oh, nevermind. Pervs!! And this is not something that’s only come up once, it’s come up about 10 times. Ick!!
* Bootylicious – Gee, I can’t imagine what they were looking for there.
* Dilated pupils – ???
* Sexy Christmas outfit – again, ???
* Cindy in panties – This made me laugh out loud, as that is something that you will never, EVER see on my blog.
* My sister’s bra – Again, something that’s never gonna be featured on poobou.com.
* Panty smells pics – I have no idea what this means, as smell is not something that can be visually captured. Regardless, all I can say to the person who searched for this is: you sick bastard.
In other news, I finally fixed my sidebar, which I’ve been needing to do for… oh, forever. And I’ve added a link to the Sarcastic Journalist, because her blog makes me laugh.
A scene from my weekend in Memphis, part one
I haven’t decided if I’m doing more than one of these or not. Regardless, the following is an actual conversation that I had with my best friend, Kris. She’s an absolutely brilliant girl, but sometimes… well, she is a natural blonde. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.
Kris: Do you remember that show about dinosaurs that was on in the 80’s? Apparently it’s still on one of the kids’ channels, because my nephew watches it now. I thought it was funny that it’s still on the air.
Me: A show about dinosaurs?
Kris: Yeah, you know. It had the mom dinosaur, the dad dinosaur, and the baby…
Me: Was it a cartoon or something?**
Kris: Well yeah, I mean, they aren’t real.
Me: (pauses, looks astounded) Really?!
Kris: (slowly realizes that she has just implied that a show about a family of dinosaurs could possibly be filmed using the real, live animals; slaps own forehead) Shit.
Fin.
**NOTE: “or something” actually meant “or puppets, or claymation,” not live animals. I would presume that it would be difficult to do any type of children’s comedy show using real animals, living or dead.
The Bachelorette Weekend
To sum up my weekend in Memphis: Yes, I did indeed score a load of trashy underpants. And some not-so-trashy. In fact, I got some really nice stuff that I might actually wear on a day-to-day basis, which is great. For those of you hoping for pictures of my new lingerie, keep dreaming. However, we did take a few pictures at the bachelorette party, which I’ve posted. There isn’t anything too incriminating in there, thank god.
As for the rest of the weekend, it was both good and bad. I love my friends, and it’s always good to get a chance to see them. And unlike when I was there at New Year’s, I felt like I really got to spend a lot of time with everyone. Kris now has two puppies (well, one belongs to her roommate, my friend Carrie), and they were adorable. Plus I got to meet Kris’s new 7-month-old nephew, which was fun. However, I have some not-so-happy memories associated with Memphis, so there are definitely some mixed feelings there. When we went out to the same places that we went to in college, and I ran into the same people that I used to run into when I was in college, it’s sort of depressing. Like the guy who was the bartender that one of my friends used to have a crush on, and he’s still a bartender in the exact same bar that he’s worked at since 1998. Or the roommate of a guy I used to date, who still hangs out at the same places, 6 years later. Hmm, yeah. The main thing I learned is to watch out for those nostalgic trips down memory lane, you might stumble into a pothole or two.
So I came home yesterday, slept for something like 11 hours, and now I’m at work today. And my car is allegedly fixed, for the bargain price of only $600. Whee! Hmph.
One other thing: everyone send encouraging words/thoughts to Dave, who is now approaching the 48-hour mark without a cigarette. Yay!! I’m so proud of him. Stay strong, babe. 🙂