Clever title? Not today!

Hello blog family. I feel so out of touch. My dial-up connection at home and my lack of enthusiasm for spending an hour checking emails that should take only a few minutes to read have kept me off the internet for the last couple of weeks. Lots of things going on, where to begin?

Work: I quit my job. It wasn’t a good fit, for me or for them, and everyone knew it. I’m much happier away from there. My boss was a very difficult person to deal with, and she got very nasty and very personal with me, which I don’t appreciate. Those of you who knew my situation there know that this was a good decision for me. I’ve decided to do temp work for a while. I’m on a 10-week assignment right now at Raytheon, working for ‘the man’. Wee! Should I tell them I’m a Democrat? Nope, probably not. But so far so good. The people are super nice and the work isn’t hard, but if I tell you anymore, I’ll have to kill you. Ha!

Home: Evan is moving in with me. We decided that it’s cheaper and easier to do that rather than try to get a new place. But this is only temporary, we’ll be house-hunting again later in the year. Roomies are still there, the frat house lives. We got a cat – a rescue from Dave’s clinic. His name is Herbie, he’s 15 years old and is absolutely the most lovable cat ever. He doesn’t much care for the dog, but the house is big enough to keep them separated. I don’t know how much longer he will live, but he’s cute, he’s healthy, and he’s happy to have a home. My car is messed up again. Had some things replaced, but it’s still not running properly, so I’m catching rides from my man until we figure out what the problem is, and whether or not I can afford to dump more money into the beast. I’m damn near two grand in repairs in less than a year now. Grrr.

Family: Kids are doing well. My son failed Science, which I don’t understand. Last year, he won an award. We really need to work on that. My oldest daughter made the honor roll, which is yet another surprise, and my middle child is, well, still in the middle. But they’re great, all things considered. My son spent the weekend with us, but middle daughter ditched us to go see a friend. Ahh, that’s not fair, I don’t mind when they go see their friends. But I think she was really more concerned about ditching Evan than me. For someone who’s never had kids, he’s pretty damn good with them. We took the boy to ride go karts and play miniature golf. I'm surprisingly good at putting, having grown up with a golfing dad. But Evan still won, with a hole in one on two holes. Dammit. And he lapped me on the go kart track. So did my son. I suck at driving things.

Comedy: I’m still funny. Come see me this Friday downtown at 11 PM. Instead of WECT the show will be across the hall at Honky Tonk Heaven. God help me. The weather for the last 3 weeks has kept people away from the Friday happy hour show. What is it with Dallas people and rain? You're not gonna melt, people, I swear! We’re on hold for this week’s show while the club undergoes some renovations. In other news…we are in the midst of negotiations to purchase a certain business. I can’t give details, but suffice it to say, it would be most beneficial, not only for us, but for Dallas comics. Hint hint. That’s all I have to say about that.

Again, the rumors about the WECT closing are just that – rumors. It’s not closing down, although some changes are imminent. More on that later.

We’ve been watching many episodes of “Oz” – no, not the Wizard of, The HBO prison drama. I have to admit it, I’m addicted. We’re almost done with season 4. That’s a lot of man-love.

Well, other than that, life is going along, happy and normal, or as normal as it can be. Evan has become a part of the family, and I have turned magically into some kind of domestic goddess, cooking and cleaning and doing laundry. I take care of my man. We stay busy, at home and away, and when we’re not busy, we’re lazy, and I love those days too. Hope you all are happy and healthy. I haven’t had a headache in two weeks and I’m not stressed out and sad. Feels good to be happy. Much love.

Funny, funny, funny.

This made me laugh out loud. I saw it on someone else's blog, which I linked to from a series of links to other blogs of people I don't know. I hope you find this as amusing as I did.

I hate Valentine's Day and other issues

Issue #1: For those of you who missed it last year, I am an anti-Valentines Day person. This is not new. I have instructed my boyfriend NOT to get me anything for this contrived, greeting-card sponsored 'holiday', and he is abiding by my wishes. I don't think he really cared one way or the other, which is great, because any other guy would take me saying that I want nothing as me saying that I really wanted and expected something, and that I would break into a hellish rage when he did not produce. Bah. Not the case. We get each other little gifts all the time, and I think that's far more special. I wrote a little piece on why I hate Valentine's Day last year, and since I'm too lazy to repost it, you can check my February 2005 archives.

So no roses for me today. I don't like roses anyway, I prefer tulips, or star gazer lillies, and I prefer them for no reason at all rather than on a day when everyone says you HAVE TO be all loving and thoughtful. Where's the thought in that? It's so much nicer if you're not expecting it. Men should not be made to feel guilty on this day! On the other hand, if this is the only day out of the year that you get your woman flowers, then you're just a conformist jackhole.

End of rant.

Issue #2: The rumors of the West End Comedy Theatre closing ARE NOT TRUE. They are having some repairs done and are temporarily closed until those repairs are completed. Shows will resume probably in a week or so. I'll email everyone. Fear not. I wouldn't dare let that place close without a fight!

Issue #3: My (oldest) daughter is making me crazy. I won't go into detail. Emancipation is only a year away. I wonder if the state would make an exception in this case? Every gray hair I have has her name on it. Although you can't see them now since I just re-colored. :)

Issue #4: I'm really tired of being sick. Once again, I have come down with some sinusy-coughing-congestion crap, and I'm not too happy about it. Blech. I wonder if stress has something to do with it? Perhaps.

Otherwise, life is good. My two younger kids still like me. My roommates, although odd at times, are still cool. Evan and I are doing well with monogamy, in spite of some daily ups and downs. He's so freaking awesome. I'm sitting in on his class tonite, I had to get out of my house for a while. He teaches computer networking at El Centrol on Tuesday nites. He and his students are currently putting together his personal computers, and I'm just sitting in the background, making the occasional smart-ass comment. It's what I do. Let me ask you this - is it wrong for me to be amused while he talks about 'master' and 'slave' in computer lingo with a class full of African American men? Better to stifle a giggle than to let one out I would guess.

Hope you all are doing great, and do not bow to the pressure of Valentine's Day! I'll find out, I have my ways.

A tag for me, a tag for you

I was tagged on Evan's blog, so here ya go. Let's get to know each other a bit, shall we?

Four Jobs You've Had In Your Life:
1. Waitress
2. Telemarketer
3. Office Manager/Admin Assistant
4. I once dressed up like a blueberry pancake.

Four Movies You Could Watch Over And Over:
1. Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. The Cable Guy
3. Goodfellas
4. Drumline…one band, one sound.

Four Places You've Lived:
1. Mesquite, Texas
2. Houston, Texas
3. Plano, Texas
4. Carrollton, Texas (do you see a theme here? I don’t get out of TX much.)

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch:
All I seem to catch anymore is Adult Swim and animated shows:
1. Family Guy
2. Simpsons
3. King of the Hill
4. Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Four Places You've Been On Vacation:
1. Vancouver, Canada
2. The Grand Canyon
3. Disneyworld
4. Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

Four Blogs You Visit Daily: (in no particular order, and certainly not including everyone)
1. Raging Apathy (aka Evan, although he doesn’t write daily.)
2. My soul-sista Beth.
3. My own to see how many hits/comments I have.
4. The Jill Blog

Four Of Your Favorite Foods:
1. Indian
2. Thai
3. Italian
4. Comfort food

Four Places You'd Rather Be:
1. Anywhere with Evan
2. At Starbuck’s having a cinnamon dolce latte
3. On “Premium Blend”
4. At the club doing a show.

Four Albums You Can't Live Without:
1. Anything by REM
2. I do love my Cake
3. Tom Petty Greatest Hits – there’s one song I always have to listen to before every show.
4. My newest – Death Cab for Cutie

Four Vehicles You've Owned
This is a tough one, I’ve been through a lot of cars.
1. 1973 GMC Hornet – orange, no less. My first car. Paid cash for it with my waitressing tips.
2. 1982 Pontiac Sunbird
3. 1994 Cavalier Station Wagon – my favorite car, and it went up in flames.
4. 1999 Saturn SL1
5. 2001 Pontiac Grand Am, that’s what I have now.

Four People To Be Tagged (do it! do it now!)
1. Beth
2. Bryce
3. Laura
4. Skye

Long time no blog

“You’re so cute when you’re slurring your speech,
but they’re closing the bar and they want us to leave.”

- Death Cab for Cutie, my new favorite CD. Thanks, honey. :)

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve posted something here. My apologies. I’m not blog cheating, so don’t get any crazy ideas about all that.

Life is good but busy. My daughter's birthday show was a lot of fun, although I don't think she appreciated it near as much as I'd hoped. Teenagers. Hmph.

We had a fun trip to Chuck E. Cheese with the kids a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I realize they are all much older than the typical Chuck E. crowd. When we suggested it, we were just kidding. Surprisingly, all three of them wanted to go! Strange and amusing. So we went and ate pizza, played games and took a series of silly pictures in the photo booth. Somehow we managed to get all 5 of us into one shot. If I can remember to scan them, I’ll put them up. We’re an adorable family.

Evan and I went to see a play at the Pocket Sandwich Theater Friday nite, followed (of course) by the late stand up show at West End, which I hosted. A fun but long nite, and both of us had to work on Saturday. Yuck. But somehow we managed to get thru the day. I bought The Aristocrats and we watched it Saturday nite. I had seen it, Evan had not, so now he knows what ‘Strawberry Shortcake” means. :)

Geez, what else? We’re about to start our ‘happy hour’ shows at the club on Fridays. They will run from 6 PM to 9 PM, with a mixture of stand-up comedy and live music. Our first show from our production company. Yay! I’m so excited about it. We’re trying very hard to tap into the downtown ‘after work’ crowd. I know there’s a huge market there, and still so many people are unaware of the club’s existence. Cross your fingers.

Evan’s teaching me how to play Texas Hold ‘em Poker. He taught me months ago, but it was two days after we’d met and I was distracted by that goofy, ‘having fun with the new guy’ feeling, so I didn’t really absorb it at the time. But now that we’re settled into monogamy, I can learn and hopefully kick his butt. Ha! Probably not, but it’s fun anyway. We played last nite at a pub. I had a couple of good hands, but I ended losing early and watched him play. Not that I mind, I do still find him fascinating.

We got our furniture, it’s absolutely gorgeous! And we’re still looking for a place to move into together, nothing concrete just yet. More details to come.

I miss writing every day here. I’m keeping a daily journal by hand, but I have very little time to spend on the computer. I promise more stuff soon. Hello to my Houston folks, I hope you're still reading. One more post to come today. Hope everyone is doing well. Much love from your favorite Den Mother.