She's ALIVE!

Eeeee-gad! It's been so long, I'm not even sure where to begin. Maybe I can try just giving some highlights for now, and then I'll get into the nitty-gritty details later. Or maybe not, lol - guess it will depend on how I'm feeling.

Okay, we'll start with the smoking. Did I quit? No (she says, hanging her head in defeat). I tried the patch for a week and don't you know, I ended up being allergic to the damn thing. I got this huge welt where ever I placed the patch, and it made my whole body itch something terrible. I could only put up with that for so long, so I stopped using it and headed to the doctor again for an alternative, which is this new-fangled pill they have out now. I haven't started taking it yet - been gearing myself up for a new quit date. I'll let you know how that goes, lol. I have stopped smoking in the house, which is a major step for me, so at least I'm making some progress, right?

Then there was the move back at the beginning of June. I'm glad that's over. I still have piles of boxes stacked around the house, trying little by little to go through everything we own, narrowing down our belongings by 2/3rds. Seems we were 22,000 lbs over our allowed weight limit, and if we don't get rid of all the excess weight, the government/military is going to charge us to move all that crap next time. That could be a very expensive prospect that we'd rather not deal with, so I'm going through everything we own, getting ready for the biggest garage sale known to man-kind. I figure at the rate I'm going, we should be ready by next spring, because there's no way I'll be ready before the cold weather sets in.

Mostly over the last few months I have just been sorting and organizing the new house, and over the last six weeks I have also been working a lot of extra hours, filling in for everyone else while they went on vacation. Not much exciting to talk about has been going on in my world.

I did get my own vacation this year. YaY! Any chance to get away from this place for a while is a blessing. Hubby and I went to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally the week before last. As expected, we had a wonderful time and didn't want to come home. If you ever get a chance to take a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota, I promise it will be well worth the trip, particularly if you are a nature lover. It's so beautiful there, and seeing the sights from the seat of a motorcycle is something I highly recommend. Hubby and I love it so much that we are going to renew our wedding vows there next year.

Let's see...Oh - I had a birthday last week. Happy Birthday to me. My birthdays are never really too exciting, but this year wasn't bad as birthday's go. Wait. I take that back. This year had it's good points and bad points. Given that my birthday falls in the middle of August, I never really get to celebrate in a big way. For the most part, there's never really anyone around to help me celebrate, because everyone either lives too far away, or they end up being on vacation. Well, this year my birthday closely coincided with ladies night at my favorite bar here, so I called on all my local drinking associates to help me celebrate. (I call them my associates, because I never really see them outside the bar, so I don't really consider them close friends.) Anyway...

Let me back track a bit here. My birthday celebration began with an hour facial, then an hour massage. That was very yummy! Hubby is always asking me what I want for my birthday, and rather than say "don't worry about it", this year I decided to treat myself. I enjoyed both the facial and the full body massage tremendously. Next up, I got a hotel room downtown for that night so I wouldn't have to worry about driving home. I had made reservations at this hotel about two weeks prior, so Hubby knew where I was staying. When I got to the hotel to check in, the desk clerk handed me a package that was sitting behind the counter for me. Lo and behold, it was a birthday present from Hubby - a beautiful diamond bracelet. I was tickled to no end, and felt like a princess at this point.

I guess I should add here that Hubby wasn't going to be joining me that evening at the bar because he had to work in the morning, so this was a girls night out kind of birthday. Well, at this point I was really looking forward to the rest of the night. I got my room, took a shower and got ready for the evening, then I met Big T for appetizers before we headed to the bar to meet up with everyone else. I was in great spirits. I had the whole night ahead of me yet, and there were plans for after the bar that had me excited too.

Well, we finally got to the bar, and from there things went down hill. For starters, the price went up on our "ladies night - all you can drink" bracelets. Okay, so the price didn't go up that much, but still. Then, I was thoroughly dissappointed by, not one, but two different men, in a depressing way. One of them had told me he'd be working at the bar that night, and then afterwards he was supposed to accompany me to my hotel room. I had been thinking about him all day, excited at the prospect of spending "private time" with him. He and I had been trying to find time alone for months, but nothing ever seemed to work out between our schedules. We had finally worked it out to be on this night, and not only did he end up not working, but I haven't heard hide-nor-hair from him since that night. Let's just say I'm more than a little pissed at being blown off like that.

Then there was this other guy, who had told me several times over the last few weeks that he was looking forward to spending that evening with me at the bar to help me celebrate (mind you, time with guy #2 was to be during the time guy #1 was working.) Well, guy #2 ended up not showing up until 11:00 that night, stayed all of 15 minutes, then left without a trace. And here I was thinking to myself, since guy #1 was blowing me off, maybe guy #2 and I could hook-up, because our "friendship" seemed to be heading in that direction. Boy was I wrong.

Needless to say, I ended up getting really trashed that night. When I got back to my empty hotel room - alone - I peeled off my clothes and sexy undies, crawled into bed and cried myself to sleep, because I just don't understand what I'm doing that is so gawd-awful that men feel it is okay to treat me like I'm worth so little. I know I'm worth more than that, but on the flip side I feel like I must not be anything special. It's hard to explain how I'm feeling right now, so I'll let that rest for the moment. Suffice it to say, I'm feeling a bit like a man-hater right now, because I'm tired of the way men are making me feel about myself. Moving on...

OH! About a month ago I got my bellybutton pierced! That was exciting! I've been wanting to do that for the longest time, and Hubby finally talked me into it. Yay!

And last but not least, my cat ate the power cord to my laptop two days ago, so until I get my replacement, I am forced to work on my desktop pc right now, which is serious need of a "tune up". *sighs*

Well, I suppose thats it for the highlights (and the low-lights) over the last few months. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

xoxo