Coffeebration

Snow snow, lots of snow ….

Yeah.  Yesterday we were sent home from work at 12.  This morning I checked my voicemail at work and there was a message that said “Good morning everyone, um work is cancelled today.”  That is seriously what it said.  But I checked my voicemail before I went to bed last night and there was a message that said that we were having a 10:00am start.  And when I woke up this morning there were no new messages, so I showered and got all ready ….. drank two cups of coffee, and was on my way out the door when I decided to check one last time, because seriously ….. my street is a big block of ice covered in snow, and there are people outside with sharp objects breaking up the ice and shoveling out parking spaces!  I was kind of mad that the message was not left on my voicemail until 8:30am which is cutting it really close to leaving time in this weather.  I decided I needed 1.5 hours to get to work so I was leaving at 8:30.  So anyways, now I am up and coffee’d up, ready to go and I have nothing to do.  Well I do have things to do, like wash dishes, clean, do my taxes, do some laundry, and get ready for Valentines Day … if there is a Valentines Day.

Being snowed in is kind of fun sometimes, but not when it is on Valentines Day!  For one, I feel bad for Bryan because the place he works is evil and is stressing him out a lot, and the last thing he needs is to get out of work and worry about getting somewhere for Valentine’s day on crappy roads that are dangerous, with a lot of people out there that seriously can’t drive.  Tonight we have reservations at Mantini’s Woodfired (thanks to Julie for suggesting!), but if the road conditions do not improve I don’t think we will be going because safety is the most important thing.  I’ve never had a boyfriend who was so sweet and romantic, and got really excited about Valentine’s Day.  Bryan and I have been planning this night and looking forward to it for weeks, but it isn’t the day that matters.  And honestly, with him, I don’t need a day to feel special and loved, because he shows me that every day.

Things are very good, and I think we have many more Valentines Day’s to come.  And if we get snowed in again next year, we may possibly be snowed in together under the same roof so it won’t matter anymore. 

In kitten news, I’ve been letting Peppsi out of my room – it has been a month since he came to live with us, and Boo still hates him.  I don’t blame her though, he’s a terror (as Bryan puts it).  When I let him out he tries to attack her.  Yesterday he pounced on her back, like he jumped on top of her like he was hugging her and started pawing and biting.  He’s not being mean or hissing, he just wants to play with her.  But she hisses and screams and flips out.  He’s three months old now, and I know he just desperately wants a friend.  He’s a really friendly little guy, but he has too much energy.  He sleeps with me all night curled up beside me.  I got out of bed this morning and actually rolled onto him because he is so small and it is hard to see him in the dark.  He’s still pouncing on my face when I’m laying in bed which definitely has to stop because scratch marks on my face is not attractive!

Anyways, that’s all.  I am supposed to be doing work from home, but I think I’m going to do my taxes 😉

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

I love Peppsi, I really do.  But he is fiesty and he injures me for no reason.  He pounces on my face in the morning and he bites my cheek when I hold him.  Then he curls up with me and purrs and loves me.  And he was very proud to show me what he did today while I was at work, so proud that I will share it with everyone as well:

But he’s too darn adorable sometimes ……

I don’t think so ….

 Our pipes froze in the kitchen the other day and we had no water at all. Not even a droplet would come out of the faucet. Our landlord called Jaime (my roommate) and Jaime informed her of the frozen pipes.  She (our landlord) asked that we open the faucet a bit so the pipes don’t burst.  We did that.  Last night I placed a space heater under the kitchen cabinets in hopes of thawing out the pipes.  It didn’t work. 

Today, around noon Jaime called me after she got home from work and asked me if I borrowed her hair-dryer.  I hadn’t.  She said she just got home and the dead-bolt was locked (which I didn’t lock when I left) and her hair-dryer was missing.  I asked if the sink was running.  She said it was.  Instead of assuming someone had broken into our house to steal a hair-dryer, we concluded that our landlord had been here and used her hair-dryer to thaw out the pipe, and had left.  Except the hair-dryer was nowhere to be found.

So Jaime called our landlord and she told Jaime that one of her service guys had been there and he thought it would be a good idea to take the hair-dryer with him to fix other frozen pipes.  WTF?  In addition, Jaime found my hair-dryer laying on the steps.

So … someone came into our house, who works for our landlord, who we do not know.  He came into our bedrooms and took our hair-dryers, and he left.  This is all without a single phone call to either of us from our landlord stating that somebody was coming over. 

Is this not a total invasion of privacy and unauthorized borrowing of someone elses belongings?  Seriously, if I would have come home to find some strange guy in our house trying to take off with our hair-dryers, I would have pulled out my mace and …. well he’s pretty darn lucky.

Ughh

This makes me sick. 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07033/758983-100.stm

I’m on a roll – lots of posting.  Actually I just thought of something I need to get off my chest.  Perhaps you recall, about exactly a year ago I got hooked on Arby’s Santa Fe Chicken Salads.  I’m not real big on fast food and eating crap all the time, but salads are pretty healthy and if you head on over to Arby’s website and check out the nutritional information, the Santa Fe chicken salad ranks up there pretty good for a healthy lunch or dinner.  Especially if you get it with the light ranch dressing, because the regular santa fe ranch dressing makes it rather fattening.  Anyways, my point is that I was eating one for dinner about once a week and I was happy.  After a while I sort of stopped eating them because I had been trying to cook at home more, and I was going out on the weekends, etc.  Two weeks ago I decided to go over to Arby’s for lunch and get one and was kind of excited because I guess I forgot they existed and hadn’t had one in months.  I ended up very disappointed though.  The salad had shrunk and the quality of it was not the same.  There was brown lettuce in the salad and it was soggy.  Had the place not been packed for lunch I would have returned it.  Instead I picked out the chicken and some edible pieces of lettuce but ended up tossing most of it.  So last week I stopped at a different Arby’s location and decided to give the salad another try.  This time my salad was filled with large chunks of iceberg lettuce, four little pieces of chicken, and seriously like three kernels of corn and a few sparse black beans.  I was so disappointed.  I really wish I could afford the Whole Foods salad bar every day.  But last time I went there, my salad was almost $10.  That’s not cool either.  Arby’s, get back on track …… or else.

So we finally decided on a name for the kitten.  We named him Peppsi and he’s such a sweetheart.  Bryan wrote a bit about him on his blog too if you are interested in some good writing because I don’t really have the motivation to write stories about him right now ….. because I will go on and on.  When Bryan and I first started dating and I mentioned how much I wanted a cat, he made sad faces at me and told me he was very allergic to them.  When I moved in with Jaime in August I warned him that she had a cat, and that I didn’t know if he would have a problem with the cat.  At first, he seemed wary of her and was even afraid to pet her because she might make him sick.  But her charm eventually won him over and now they love each other.  After realizing that Bryan wasn’t  allergic to Boo (Jaime’s cat), I chose to believe he wasn’t allergic to them at all, however he swore he was, and that Boo might just be ‘special’.  Well of course she is special, but being hypo-allergenic, well I don’t know about that.  So last week when I finally committed to adopting a cat, Bryan came along, and I was glad he did because I didn’t want to adopt an ‘unspecial’ cat.  While at the Animal Rescue League, we saw many cats and hung out in the ‘play room’ and not one sneeze or sniffle occurred.  Yay!  My boyfriend isn’t allergic to cats, we can live happily ever after now!  Anyways, I at least think I showed him that cats aren’t bad and that they are loveable and sweet and just awesome.  I wish I could convince more people to love cats … they are really great companions.

In other news, I recently wrote about my visit to the doctor where I was told my blood-pressure was very high for a 25 year old – well for anyone.  It upset me very much to think that I was on the road to heart-attack by age 40, so I have really been evaluating what I’m doing to my body.  I don’t eat extremely healthy, but I am not a pig.  I’m not obese, but I could probably stand to lose a few pounds.  My weight at my height is considered ‘average’ but if I gain about 25 pounds I would be on the overweight/obese line.  You know, when you think of obese, you think of someone who can barely fit through a door, or someone who takes up two seats on a bus, but at my height, I only need to weigh 160 pounds to be considered obese.  Anyways, I have been monitoring my blood-pressure daily at CVS and my results have been pretty steady, in the range of 120-130 / 60-70.  I think for someone my age, it would probably be ideal to have a blood-pressure of 110/70.  At the doctor, my blood-pressure was measured to be 162/90 which is alarming.  I have been nowhere near that since I’ve been monitoring.  In fact, I took my blood-pressure at WalMart last Saturday and it was 95/60!  So I’m feeling better, and reassuring myself that the nurse didn’t actually know how to take blood-pressure, or I was just more worked up than I thought -which is probably the case because I get really anxious about things, like going to the doctor.  I have another doctor appointment next Friday, and I’m going to try my best to be very relaxed – and I’m taking my little chart I made with my daily results.

Tomorrow Bryan and I are going to see a movie (his choice) so I don’t know what we are seeing yet.  Our taste in movies tends to differ somewhat so we take turns picking movies to see, but I must say I think we both always enjoy what we see, sometimes its just not something we’d typically watch without being ahem … forced to ;-).  It is a good thing though, and I think we learn a lot from each other.  On Sunday, I asked Bryan if he’d go to the Red White & Blue Thrift Store with me.  Jaime just recently was there and bought this kick-ass pair of shoes for $3 and I’m very envious.  Actually, it just reminded me of how awesome thrift-stores are and that I haven’t been very thrifty lately. 

Last night Bryan and I had dinner at Kings and then we came home and layed on the bed and talked while Peppsi curled up in between us and slept.  All I need in life is Peppsi and Bryan, and my comfy bed!  I was thinking the other day, because I often think – not that much comes of it, but sometimes I think I make sense.  Mostly, it is that I feel like a different person than I was a year ago, two years ago, or maybe ever.  I can get upset on occassion and I still worry sometimes, but I really believe that Bryan brings out the best in me and makes me see a side of me that I wasn’t sure I had in me.  

And I’ll end with that before I get into some kind of horrid rant about past relationships and why its everyone elses fault that I’ve been miserable.  We’ll leave the past in the past and keep looking ahead 😉

It is only the second day, but I have a feeling the kitty already loves me.  He did this all by himself.  The kitty still doesn’t have a name, but we are contemplating: Pepsi, Jackson, Reggie, Tobias, Xavier, and Comet.  We took a nap together earlier, it was nice.

Tonight Jaime, Bryan, and I went to the Animal Rescue League to look at cats.  I was set on adopting an adult cat, but none of them seemed to call out to me. Then I saw a little black kitten that looked just like Nine when he was a baby.  So I loved him and had to bring him home.  He is exactly two months old and he sure is the little rascal!  Here’s some pics.  Get used to it, this is going to turn into the kitty blog, I’m sure.

(Making a tunnel out of my pillows!)

(Yeah, I’m cute!)

(I’m little itty-bitty!)

(I will make it onto the bed, I swear!)

(Bryan makes me happy, just like he makes Jess happy!)

 Ok, that is all I will torture you with for now.  I have more important things to do, like kitten-proof the house so I can let him out of my bedroom, oh …. and give him a name.  So far I have no leads except that Bryan keeps calling him “Mo” …. yeah that’s not gonna fly. 

I know I rant about trivial things a lot, but I don’t honestly take little things as hard as I used to.  I get annoyed and frustrated sometimes but I realize that everyone does and it is just a fact of life.  I guess you could say I’m chilling out!  Although my brother wouldn’t agree, as I do still have minor episodes on occassion. 

Most recently I would say it was over Christmas.  It was a hectic evening and my entire family was in the kitchen trying to prepare two days worth of food for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  My mom and dad were in charge of cabbage rolls and mashed potatoes, and I was in charge of chicken fingers and homemade mustard sauce.  Things were going ok until my parents’ friend Harry unexpectedly showed up.   It was a bad time, but he made himself right at home in the kitchen and started telling all these stories.  There I am pounding chicken, my parents are juggling platters of cabbage rolls and he’s just making himself right at home.  What do you do in a situation like that, ask him to leave? 

Anyways, my dad got to talking to him and they were joking around and my dad decided to go upstairs to show him something on the internet.  My brother took it upon himself to begin helping by peeling the potatoes.  I told him  he didn’t know what he was doing and he was like “dude I’m 20 years old, I can cook anything better than you can, you don’t know anything about how I cook!”  I figured he couldn’t really do much wrong peeling potatoes so I just said that he better find a big pot to put water in because the potatoes would turn brown.  He was like “oh”.  He found a pot and put about an inch of water in it and I told him that he had to completely cover the potatoes in water, yeah he knew what he was doing. So we got to the pressure cooker part and boiled them, and when they were done I instructed him to leave them there for my dad.  He decided he was going to add the milk and butter and mix them himself.  I told him they’d be lumpy and gross and not to do it, but he clearly would not listen to me.  There were a few things in the sink, including a meat pounder I had flattened the chicken out with.  He picked it up and threw it in the other side of the sink, where dishes dry so he could lower the steaming potato pot into the sink.  I totally freaked out on him and asked him WTF  he was doing, yelling he was going to infect everyone with salmonella and that you clearly cannot throw things around that touched raw meat.  He just looked at me like I was a retard and goes “You are just like dad”.

Well I am like my dad, but I think on a very watered down level.  My dad makes every little thing out to be an end of the world crisis.  Anyways, I can be a little anal sometimes, but most of the time I think I am pretty cool.

I think I have a good outlook on life although I haven’t always been a pleasant happy person.  When I was in college and stressed and scared …. and was in a long-term relationship with someone who was not very understanding, things sucked.  There was drama and fighting, and a lot of emotional distress. 

Today I look at my life and wonder how I got here.  I am not at the ultimate place in my life, and who knows what that is, but I am happy.  I have a great roommate, and a wonderful guy who spoils me a lot and is so incredibly awesome.  To know that I can count the number of arguments we have had on just one hand is amazing, although he thinks we should NEVER fight!  I think Bryan helps me chill out.  He is just laid back and he talks about our future and makes it clear that he wants me in it.  I feel pretty good …. and there may soon be an addition to my little family here, no …… I’m talking about a cat 😉

 Anyways, I’m off to clean a bit.  My parents are coming over tomorrow so it has to be pretty!