I had a little Irish in me this weekend....

OK I admit it, I was over served this weekend.

It was my friend Danica's annual St. Patrick's Day party. This was us when we left the house:

Yeah, we had on matching shirts. So? (insert gag factor here)

At the party, there were these amazing Gummy Bears soaked in vodka. Who knew you could make the equivalent of Jello Shots in that cute little format?

Yeah, you soak them in vodka for a week, and they kinda swell up and have the consistency of Jello.  So fun!

You can eat A LOT of these and have no idea they're affecting you until suddenly you're drunk.

I was about 20 Gummy Bears in at this point:

I was verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry happy. LOL

Here's Danica and Elizabeth and me:

This one was a bottle of wine, 6 Jello Shots, and a thousand Gummy Bears later.  I stopped letting people take my photo after that. Hopefully Danica doesn't have any incriminating ones of me that I'm not aware of.

This week is going to be crazy busy, trying to get everything done at work that I need to do, plus pack for the cruise.

Six More Days. OMG.

Wait, is that the Christmas spirit moving me?

The tree is up and presents are starting to appear

We bought our First Christmas ornament together. It's a turtle, and there is personal meaning behind it that goes back to when we first dated 13 years ago. Let's call it Turtle Power and leave it at that...LOL

We were out with friends Friday night....

And I can't keep my hands off the guy. Aw, aren't we cute?

I think this was the same night...by the time Michael and Elizabeth were doing karaoke, I had been overserved and needed my glasses on. LOL

A couple of weekends ago we went to Cincinnati so Michael could do a stand-up gig, and at the hotel we stayed in, they put us on the sixth floor. Since 6 is his lucky number (it's really bizarre how often it shows up in his life!), we had to snap a photo...

This one was in October when we went to the Grand Victoria casino for the weekend..

You can't tell I like this fella, can you? LOL

Get a room, people. :)

It's going to be a really great Christmas. I can feel it....

This does not make me happy.

Sneezing. Coughing. Stuffy nose. Head feels like it's in a vice grip.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, I slept wrong and have a strained neck/back muscle.

Not happy today.

Would much rather stay home in bed today.

Dance with me....

Happy Friday everyone! Get your dancing shoes on!

Going away this weekend with the honey for Sweetest Day. Looking forward to an amazing time with the man I love!

Might do a little dancing myself...

Well, that about sums it up.

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have a great weekend planned!

I'm a UC Mom, the Empty Nest...and other Important Stuff.

So, my baby is officially a University of Cincinnati Bearcat.

And I'm an empty nester.

We moved Jordan to school last Thursday. Honestly, it was a great day.

We got there at 10am, and they gave us free Red Bull.  So far I loved college.  LOL  Then we got his room key....

 I got to put his room together, make his bed, do all the Mom stuff one more time...

He approved of the feather bed I bought him so that he would be comfy at night...

And I made him suffer through yet another "Mom and Me" picture....

We went to the bookstore, and I got coffee mugs for Michael and me to drink out of in the mornings....and a new shirt for me.

You should be proud of me, I didn't cry until it came time to hug him goodbye.  But the minute he said "I love you", I burst into tears and could not even speak.  So much I wanted to say to him, but all I could get out was "Please be safe and take care of yourself, ok.  I love you so much."  I know he knows everything I couldn't say (because I'd have gotten hysterical trying to get the words out, LOL), about how proud I am of him and how thankful and blessed I have been to be his Mom.  I've told him those things hundreds of times, I know he knows.  This time, I just wanted him to know I love him more than life itself, and am so excited and happy for this phase of his life to begin.

And then I cried all the way to Kings Island.  Which is only about 25 miles.  I thought that was pretty good, considering at one point during the drive down, Jordan and my boss exchanged text messages where David said "Is she curled up on the floor in a fetal position, barricading herself in the garage so you can't leave?" to which Jordan replied "No, not yet.  But I have a feeling she'll be on the hunt for an unused room after I get moved in though."

Oh Ye of little faith, I did neither.  I survived The Move of 2010.

My first weekend as an empty nester was great!  I have learned a few things about my son not living at home, such as...I don't have to worry when I walk around naked (TMI maybe, but factual) that he might walk in;  I don't have to panic anymore when I hear sirens (there is a police and fire station a block from my house, and yes I used to find ridiculous excuses to text Jordan when I would hear them to make sure he was alive....yep, I was "that mom"), my leftovers are still left over the next day to take to work for lunch; and the one who used to leave the bathroom a mess isn't me.  And the best part (which I thought would be the worst part) of not knowing what he's doing and where he is at night, is that I just pretend he's in his dorm room, and then I sleep great!

Plus, my nest hasn't been all that empty.  My guy is there a lot, which is great.  This weekend we went down to Hocking Hills and walked through the caves and stuff.  It was a lot of fun.

Later we stopped by a flea market....and I tried to get a picture of this guy with THE WORST MULLET in the history of the world.  He's standing behind Michael in this picture and unfortunately you can't see him, but he had this short hair on the front, and then the mullet part went all the way down his back.  OMG, it was hilarious.  

Oh, and at the flea market I made a purchase of my own....it was a UC Bearcat license plate thing.  I tried to post the picture here but it kept showing up sideways, and I didn't want you guys straining your necks on my behalf.  

We are moving our offices this week, so don't expect a new blog post anytime soon.  I'll be lucky to see daylight between now and next Monday.  

Hope you are all doing well.  I haven't been around to visit your blogs in ages, I've become a very bad bloggy friend.  I will try to get caught up soon, meanwhile tell me what's going on in your world!

Don't expect much and you won't be disappointed.

While that is my motto when it comes to Internet dating....it's also my advice when it comes to my blog right now.

I won't be around the blog world much for the next week. We have two major installations going on at work, and I'll probably be pulling 12 hour days for the next five to six days. In a related note, to my readers living in the Columbus area...if you are interested in volunteering to man our Parade of Homes house in New Albany, we'd love to have you! Even if it's just for a couple of hours, all you have to do is stand there and look pretty and welcome people who come in. Email me or leave me a comment here if you're interested. Here's a link to our house.

Oh yeah, and I'm getting this nasty ass cold that everybody else seems to have. Lovely.

By the way, as for the Mom Situation....

She is, I guess, stable right now. (As stable as a Reeg woman gets. Oh, snap!) She has good days and bad, she fluctuates between asking why God won't take her, refusing to eat, drink or take her meds, and then being perfectly fine and happy the next day. It's a roller coaster. She has very little urine output, so whether that's a sign of her kidneys failing or just dehydration, I don't know. (I'm guessing one leads to the other) She is on and off oxygen all day long. She doesn't have a lot of appetite when she does eat, maybe four or five bites in a "meal". But she is hanging in there. I don't know why or how, but it's not up to me to question it.

Anyway....be back next Wednesday. Let's just pray this cold doesn't hit me full force, or it's gonna be a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong five days.

No news is good news, I guess.

Nothing new to report on the Mom Situation today.

She is officially under hospice care as of today. We had a little bit of a hold up at the nursing home waiting on her doctor there to come in and "approve" it. Unfortunately he was in no hurry to do so until my sister went ballistic had a few words with the Director of Nursing today. They got right on it, and Dr. Fucktard miraculously decided he didn't need to take time out of his day to come and see her after all, he just approved it.

I know we all feel better knowing they will be taking care of her now. She's still eating a little bit (but requires a lot of encouragement from us and the staff to do so), and her only complaint is that she wants "that damn catheter" out. So we'll see what the hospice nurse says about that.

At this point we are just taking it day by day, nothing else we can do. I have a constant feeling in the pit of my stomach that won't go away (I think they call that dread), and every time the phone rings I take a deep breath before answering, knowing that at any time the call is going to come that she's taken that final turn for the worse.

I don't know, she may surprise us all. We had her down for the count last September and she rallied back and is still here nine months later. You never know with her, hell she might outlive us all.

I probably won't do much posting over the weekend, so I wish you all a very happy July 4th. Be safe out there.

I have a case of the Mondays.

Not that it was a bad weekend by any means.

Just too short.

Since my trip last month to Vegas didn't feel much like a vacation, I'm ready for another one. We are so incredibly busy at work and it's just the start of what's going to be the next four months from hell...not only several major installations in and out of the country, but we are moving our offices in September as well.

Ugh.

On the dating scene, I do have a "meet & greet" tomorrow evening. Seems like a very nice, normal guy. Gainfully employed, children out of the house, consistent in his words so far. So, we'll see how it goes.

I'm a little discouraged on that front. From the experiences you single ladies are having out there (and have left me comments about), to the ones I am having of my own, it seems that the number of seemingly normal, well adjusted available men is a very low one. I don't get the whole misrepresenting yourself, lying about your situation, or posting pictures that were taken 15 years and 50 pounds ago. It's going to come to light the second we meet so why bother with all the smoke and mirrors?

See, this is what kept me with my ex for the past five years. At least I *knew* him, I knew where he comes from and what he's made of and when he's lying! I knew why he was divorced and what his ex wife would say about him. (and I knew he had great taste in women, at least THIS woman. LOL) I knew his mood swings and his financial situation and knowing all these things gave me a comfort level that I don't have now. Granted, it wasn't perfect by any means and I want far more out of a relationship than what ours had morphed into, but at least I knew what I was dealing with.

I'm finding myself frustrated by either meeting guys who are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too attentive when they haven't even met me yet (good night texts are NOT necessary at that point!) or those who are interesting but can't seem to carry on a conversation to save their lives. I actually had one guy last week who had emailed me, and I responded, and we went back and forth like twice, and then I logged off because frankly, I had better things to do than sit on POF and exchanged benign banter with somebody who isn't asking me anything, but rather just exchanging trivia about himself. So he sends me another email saying "Obviously you aren't interested, since you quit responding."  For the love of God, it has been 10 minutes since my last email.  No lie!  I couldn't even respond to that.  I still can't.

I'm going into tomorrow's meeting with zero expectations. That way, there's only one way to go and that's uphill from there.

I am really just annoyed with this whole being single again and having to do this fucking dating thing. This wasn't in my plans at almost 50 years old.

Why did everything I thought my life was going to be at this age, take such a dramatic left turn? Ten years ago when I met my ex, I saw the rest of my life in the future and it looked pretty damn good. And now, it's nothing like it was supposed to be, or I thought it would be. I'm not saying it's bad, don't get me wrong. My marriage/divorce was a huge changing point in my life, and I learned a whole lot of lessons that evidently the Universe thought I needed to know. In fact I was practically beat over the head with many of them, just to drive the point home.

OK Universe, so I learned them. Now what? Any chance we can start practical application now?

If loving you is wrong....I don't wanna be right.

Yes, it's Whipped Cream flavored vodka.

This, along with Diet A&W Root Beer, is like a party in my mouth.

All is officially right in my world now.

A note to self.

Friday Escape

Happy Friday from Gracie and Griffin.

Rich and blonde. Who am I, Paris Hilton?

Check out that little link on the top right. Evidently my blog is worth $60 grand. Anyone wanna buy it? C'mon, I'll make you a deal. $50k and I'll even keep writing it for you.

I'll take payments.

In other news....

I'll let you know if blondes reallly do have more fun.

If someone buys my blog for $50k, consider me as having the time of my life!

That's hot.

I Need A Vacation...Part Two.

If I can direct your attention to the right of my blog, you will see a countdown clock.

Yes, my friends, I'm headed back to Sin City.

Back to the land of all beach and no ocean. But there are palm trees. And hot sun. And...pools.

Leaving May 16th, staying at Planet Hollywood where all the cool kids stay and coming back May 22nd. And hopefully spending some time with my BFF the fabulous Linda Lou while I'm out there.

I'm ready for a vacation. Mama needs her cocktails by the pool.

In other news, not so good...

My ex's uncle passed away last night. Makes me very sad. He was a very sweet, hilarious man (think Benny Hill not only in looks but personality) and he will be greatly missed. I'll be heading to Canada next week for the funeral.

Also next week, on Tuesday I'm taking Jordan to the University of Cincinnati so we can meet with advisors and stuff about him starting in the fall. I've never been to the campus so I'm excited to see it, and see where my baby will be living for the next four years. (Shut up, I'm ignoring the fact that he isn't going to be living with me. It's not denial, I'm just selective about the reality I accept.)

Hope you all have a fabulous Easter. Anybody got big plans?