Argh! The Dentist!

Yes, this morning I had the dreaded dental appointment. And, for the record, I HATE THE DENTIST!!!!!!! Years ago I started calling dentists "kitten killers". You know why? Because little kids who kill cats grow up to be dentists! Yes, that's right. And don't try to convince me otherwise. The verdict is that I have five cavities. Ugh. (I tend to put it off) I may have a beautiful smile, but that's only because you can't see all my filling. LOL One tooth that has to be filled, this will be it's THIRD filling. Yeah, I'm not so good about flossing and stuff. Bad Tera! *smacks my hand* And, on top of that, while she was poking around, she found a sensitive spot. When she touched it, I saw white. I never knew what that saying meant until that moment in time. Pain unlike anything else. So yes, my day hasn't been the greatest, but it's over now and I don't have to go back until April, so that's all good.

And on another front, we're supposed to get ten inches of snow, ice and sleet, with winds reaching up to forty mph tonight. Well, starting in about an hour. Rock on! This town sucks when it comes to snow, since they don't get it as much as where I moved here from, so they just might declare a county state of emergency and ticket people for driving, which means the county will force Purdue University to shut down which means I get to stay home! That would be pretty fuckin' nice, but I'm not holding my breath for it to happen.

Drew Pinksy

So I came home early from work yesterday because I had a headache and was lounging on the couch watching Celeb Reality shows on VH1...Celebrity Rehab mostly. And Drew Pinksy was on there wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. Oh damn. I've always thought he was cute, but when they showed him in street clothes...yummy! he's got some pretty nice guns on him. =) Plus, I've always had a thing for older guys. Hell when I was about seven I had a crush on Captain Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek. LOL

Publishers, Crude Oil and more

1. Anyone happen to watch the show Crude that was on last night? I think it was on Discovery. It basically talked about oil, where it comes from, how much of it we use, and how we've probably reached our "peak", which means that we've gone through half of it. We've gone through that much of it it 100 years, when the stuff took hundreds of thousands of years to "form". Wow. But that wasn't even what got me the most...what got me the most was the Saudi Arabian on there talking about the high prices of oil. What!?! HTF can he sit there and complain about the prices of oil when people in Saudi Arabia are rolling in it because of the high prices. I'm sure you've all seen teh news reports and emails with pictures of silver-plated Audis, 100+ room mansions, the crazy hotels and islands they are building in Dubai, and how Dubai is the richest city in the world right now. Meanwhile, half of us back in the US are having to scrape together money to fill our cars up with gas because of the astronomical prices and we're having to cut back on everything. But HE'S complaining about the price of a barrel of oil? I can't wait until those fuckers run out and have to come to us to get their oil. (Is it obvious that I feel strongly about this? =P)

2. I'm am the fattest I've ever been in my life. Yeah, I'll say it. 5'4" and 158 lbs. NO GOOD. I used to weight 118...granted, that was about seven years ago, but still, dammit. I gained about 12 lbs in Hawaii. Now I have to lose that, PLUS more. So, when I get home today, I'm posting one of my fat pictures on here from Hawaii, and in a few months, I'll post an update pic. =) I've GOT to lose it or I won't be able to fit into my wedding dress.

3. I love my Myles. He truly is awesome. Yesterday, I was complaining about how I wanted a Dirt Devil hand vac for cleaning the stairs since I hate using what I have on it. So he decides to go to the grocery store with me (I knew something was up because he HATES grocery shopping) and when I came back from another aisle, he had stuck the Dirt Devil I wanted in the shopping cart. And yes, don't say it, I'm happy I got a sweeper.

4. Publishers, what is up with some of them? I'm not naming any names, but have some class and use your brain. Geez. You've got to pay people and you can't just do whatever you want to with an author's work. Gimme a break. Sometimes the stupity of people just baffles me. This one is like stupidity times 100.

5. I hate my "real" job. Everything has changes since I came back from Hawaii. The atmosphere used to be pretty relaxed, but now, it's tense. The boss now has "an agenda". Yes indeedy. It was overheard that she wants to build her own team, so she's working to weed people out, which means cracking down on all of us. I know I'm not on her list, since she knows I'm quitting in a year anyways, but it still sucks to feel like you're being watched all the time. It's like Big Brother or some shit. I'm not diggin' it at all.

6. I finally get my cell phone today! Well, at least it's supposed to be in the mail today. Instead of going to a store and getting you one, they have to mail you a replacement. Not having one has been KILLING me. Especially since we don't have a house phone anymore, just our cells. I can't wait to just be able to pick up my phone when I'm in my car on the way home from work and call my mom. As it stands right now, I feel so...disconnected.

7. I'm doing well on the whole "getting organized" thing. I finally took all the Christmas stuff down and I spent some time yesterday putting stuff in its proper place to reduce clutter. We...well, I...have a tendency to put all our random cold/cough medicine and everything else like that on top of the microwave so I don't have to go upstairs to the bathroom pantry, where it should be. So, I took it all up there yesterday. I gotta say, it drastically changed the look of that space in the kitchen. Tonight I'm going to hit my junk drawers in my endtable next to my seat on the couch. I'm guessing that's going to be a bit more of a task. :)

I'm really sad now

While I was complaining that it was cold a few minutes ago, I was still in a pretty good mood. Now, I am not. Not at all. My mom just called me at work and told me my brother got a CALL. A call he's been wanting but one that the rest of us have been dreading.

For those of you who don't know this, my brother is in the Army. (It's pretty obvious that I'm proud of him by looking at my blog page) He's classified as a mic88 (I think that's the "technical spelling, pronouced Mike 88), which is transportation. I've talked to other people in the military and when I tell them that Doug is trans, they're like, oh, that's gravy. Until I tell them that he drives the big oil tankers. Yeah. Transporting anything like that in Iraq or Iran right now is one of the most dangerous jobs over there. Anyways, he's already done one tour over there, stayedf over later than his unit and worked on an assasin squad (oh man the stories he can back with! Except, he had to be REALLY drunk to share any of them, still does). He came back in July, safe and sound and all in one piece, though being there has had a HUGE effect on him.

So, getting to the point now, he called and told my mom there there is a transportation unit that's short right now and it looks like he's going to be going again. He may even leave within the week. No good! If he leaves right now, he'll be gone for at least twelve to thirteen months, during which time my wedding just happens to occur. =( He'd only be able to come back if they gave him leave, and they don't always let you come back stateside for your leave. A lot of times they'll send you to Kuwait or Germany instead. So yeah, needless to say, I'm pretty bummed about him going back. That's a year of worrying that I don't want to go through again.

And on another military note, I about flipped when I saw the whole Starbucks thing. I was going to die if I had to give up my Starbucks because they don't support the military. Thank God it was all a big misunderstanding and I was pleased to see a sign on the window about donating coffee to the military when I rolled through the drive-thru this morning. =)

-25 Degrees

Yup, that's right. With the wind chill it is -25 degrees outside right now. Cold! I went from 80 and sunny to -25. No wonder Myles is is sick now. Really sick, poor guy. He's pretty miserable. At least I haven't gotten anything (knock on wood) but with the cold we're having right now I'm not holding out much hope. It's looking pretty bleak. =P

I'm also back to my "real" job, which sucks, because instead of the happy-go-lucky attitude we've always had, things are changing rapidly. Not a fun place to work anymore, but at least I'll be quitting or going down to 1/2 time in about a year, so that's not much longer to deal with the stuff that goes on here. I'm hoping I can last that long, though. And my performance review is tomorrow, which I totally don't understand, since we don't even get raises until June, so I'm kind of discombobulated about that one and why I am having one. It can't be bad...unless they somehow found out about all the editing I do here. LOL Then that might be bad for me. But I highly doubt that's the case.

Hope the weather is better for the rest of you!

So, I'm back in Indiana

I'm back from vacation now. Today was a crappy day of traveling, but then again, flying always sucks. =) I got home to find that the front room smells like cat piss....obviously the kitties were not very happy with us being gone for two weeks. I'll have to spend some major time on my hands and knees cleaning that rug and the rest of the house tomorrow. Yeah, and I also need to take the Christmas stuff down this weekend, too. =) Hopefully the jet lag isn't too horribly bad, but it's 11:18 and I'm WIDE awake. =P So, we'll just have to wait and see.
Now that I'm back, there's soooo much to be done. More editing to do, more submissions to read, housework to do, laundry to do from vacation, grocery shopping, and oh, let us not forget, the wedding to plan. Yes indeedy. I've got to kick into high gear to get that going now. Man. So much to do!!! It's daunting, but it'll get done. I always manage. =)

My last day in Hawaii

So, today is my last day in Hawaii. Myles and I skipped out on the tour to the Kona coffee stuff that was planned and decided to do our own thing today. We went out and sat at the pool and drank for a little while. First drink at 10:30 am. Hey, it's our last day, we have to make the most of it. :) We sat out there until it got too windy and we got too annoyed and came up to our room and chill out up here in out oceanfront room. I've been getting caught up on emails and such and he's been sleeping. :) Works for me. LOL At about 5:30 we have to go to the farewell cocktail reception and then we go to dinner. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 1:45 and then we stay the night in San Francisco. We'll be home Monday night at about 10:00 p.m. And it'll be about 2o degrees when we land in Indiana. Yes! No, not really. At least I'll be coming back with a tan, though. LOL I'll be posting pics on here sometime within the week about everything we've done and stuff like that. It's easier to post explanations and show/tell everyone what we did when I have the pics to go with it. =)

And on a note that makes for a not so very happy Tera, my cell phone was ruined the other night. We had to take a Zodiac (sp?) out to the catamaran we took a sunset booze/whale whatching cruise on and on the way back to shore, the "captain" of the little thing was screwing around and we took a wave, which got me SOAKED from head to toe. I'll post pics of it later in the week (Thanks, Myles!). Needless to say, thank God my camera was saved, but my phone was ruined. Salt water and electronics don't mix. So I'll be getting a new one once we get home. But meanwhile, it's KILLING me.

Hawaii!

Okay, so I haven't had the internet for a few days now and it has been killing me. The Royal Hawaiian on Waikiki Beach is nice, but it's a bit outdated. You have to pay for internet access and it ain't cheap, so I only bought like an hour, which wasn't enough to do much. We left Oahu this morning and flew to Kauai and I'm sitting on the bed in our hotel room with the patio door open, listening to the ocean (oceanfront room), and drinking a glass of free champagne. Someone told the conceirge that Myles and I are on our honeymoon (mind you, we're not getting married until October) and they gave us a free bottle. =) Works for me. We spent a lot of time sitting at the Mai Tai Bar in the Royal Hawaiian, right on the beach, drinking. Tonight, I think we'll go to whatever bar this hotel has on the beach and drink. =) While on Oahu we got to go see Pearl Harbor, which was very humbling, and I got to see one of my REALLY good friends, Stephanie, who lives in Kaneohe, where her husband is stationed in the Marines. It was sooooooooooo wonderful to see her. And, here are some pics above. =) And by the way, the pink sarong I turned into a shirt is as close as I'm coming to a damn muumuu for those of you who kept saying for me to get one.

Leaving tomorrow!

Yup, at 10:42 a.m. my plane will be taking off from Indianapolis to take me far far away from here. Though, it wasn't so bad today, actually. It was in the 60s and we even had tornado watches...still do. Yeah, In January. Talk about weird. If this is global warming, I can't handle this. I don't dig the 0 degree weather we usually have this time of year.

And on a totally different note, I'm ticked off because we only have one country radio station that I can get in now. This blows. Yes, I'm hick, hillbilly, redneck, whatever you want to call me. Hell, Myles makes fun of me because we'll drive down the road and I'll say, "Damn, that's a nice deer stand. With the pond there it makes it perfect for duck hunting, too." Considering that he's from just outside Boston, he then will then laugh at me and call me a redneck. Honest to god, this exact situation happened a couple of days before Christmas driving up to my mom and dad's.

All right, I'm off to get the last teeny bit of packing done so I can chill on the couch, eat my Dairy Queen and watch some TV. No editing...I'll get plenty of that done on my plane rides the next two days. =) I'll blog and post pics as I have time.

Ah, getting ready.

So I'm getting ready and starting to get packed for Hawaii. And it sucks. LOL I hate packing. I invariably forget something even with all of my lists. I'm going to get as much done tonight as I can and then pack the last minute stuff tomorrow. =) I have to remember to put pills and cell phone chargers in my purse instead of in the luggage. We've gotten screwed on that before. I've never been on a trip for this long, so I'm having to pack much more than usual. Blech. And it's going to be even worse to come home and unpack all of it. Oh well. Just one of those things you kind of have to do it you want to travel. The neightbors are supposed to be over here any minute now to go over feeding the cats and watching the house while we're gone. I hope they pet the cats while we're gone. They're going to feel so unloved and lonely. =( I'm gonna miss them so much! I wish we could take them with us, dammit. But, alas, we can't.

So, I'm off to pack again. Hopefully I can get it all in two big suitcases...but since I'll be able to wear my cute sandals and stuff, I'm going to be tempted to bring about ten pairs with me. LOL

So much for relaxing

So, today I took a day for me, something I really don't do very often. One of my best friends, Misty, behind me in the picture of me, (I'm blessed enough to have two) and I went to lunch and had fajitas and margaritas, then went to the mall to go on a shopping spree at Victoria's Secret. The perfect time since a crapload of stuff is fifty percent off, all my fave pants and purses with goodies in them and all sorts of stuff. And have I mentioned their Beauty Rush lip gloss? I'm obsessed! But anyways, we then headed to get some mani and pedis and I headed home to change to some new comfy cozies. I caught up on a few of my DVR'ed shows, burned a couple of copies of Britney Spears new CD for my neices (yes, Blackout is my new guilty pleasure. I love it!) and headed over to my other best friend's house, Ann, to give the girls the CDs and then play with the littlest one, my Squirt. :) Myles called me while I was on my their and asked me to pick up a couple of things from the store and bring them to him. I ended up feeling guilty about not helping him as much on this one as I have in the past since I've been busy with editing and cleaning the house and getting everthing ready for Hawaii. So I ended up Murphy's Oil soaping all the kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets. Then, when I got home, I tore the back of my car apart trying to change the damn turn signal bulb. Cavaliers were made so stupid when it comes to changing lights. Seriously, it's bad. Got too dark and I got frustrated so I'll finish it tomorrow. Nikon, the cat, managed to slip outside and got a mouse...then brought it in the house, so I had to chase her down with that. So, yeah, so much for relaxing. LOL Now I'm editing again. I can't NOT work. Here's a picture I took of my Squirt today wearing her big brother's shirt. =)

As promised, my resolutions

In no particular order...

1. Quit Smoking. (I'm doing pretty good on this one, it's day two and no smokes. I could have been bumming, too, but I haven't. *Sigh* This sucks.)

2. Lessen my swearing. (No, I can't say "stop". That's impossible, I have a mouth like a sailor, it's in my genes.)

3. Eat better.

4. Exercise more.

5. Come up with a list of house chores and days I am going to do them to stop myself from power cleaning every weekend.

6. Be nice! I have a tendency to be mean/sarcastic, but I only do it with friends and family, and most of them know I only do it with people I am comfortable with.

7. Be more appreciative and do more of the little things that matter. Like randome cards and such and sending out birthday and anniversary cards. Stuff like picking up little trinkets that may only cost me a buck but mean the world to the person who receives it because it let's them know I appreciate them and was thinking about them. After the death of one of my best friend's this past year it has made me even more aware of things like this. Things as simple as making time for people. It means so much and I wish I had done it more before Dave died.

Busy busy busy

I haven't been keeping up with posting everyday, mainly because I've been too busy to think about it and partially because, well, I forgot. :) With so much going on, it's been hard to "keep in touch" so to speak. I've been reading through submissions like crazy. I think I've read six in the last two days, and busy writing up my responses to them. And I'm reading another one right now. Plus, I've been working on getting edits out and such. It's been hectic!!! My goal is to have all of my submissions read by February first. It's a tall order, but I know I can do it. :) I plan on snagging some reading time right now. I'm actually reading a good one right now...feels more like pleasure reading than reading a submission, so I'm pleased with that. It's not very often that that happens, so I'm extremely thankful when it does.

Hope the New Year is treating everyone else well and you've made your resolutions. I've made mine and I'll share those tomorrow maybe. Still deciding which ones to keep and which ones to toss. *wink*