I lied.

It is NOT a relief to be sick!! It sucks! The only good thing about being sick is that Brett calls me Sickpants, which I think is sort of cute and entertained me for the first 36 hours of this mess. But now I am so over it, but it's not finished with me. Yesterday I finally decided it was time to end my denial phase and get to a doctor. But I don't really have a doctor. So I ended up at this urgent care place near my house and felt a tad bit ghetto and irresponsible for not having a general doctor. But they were nice enough and sent me on my way with the good stuff. Then yesterday as I was trying to keep up with work, I noticed I couldn't see so good on the right side. I checked, and my eye looked like it needed a kleenex. So gross. And it kept getting worse, not better. I finally webMDed it, yikes, pink eye. Back to the ghetto doc this morning, only after waking up to the same symptoms in the other eye, too! 

This next bit has its pros and cons: I can't taste or smell. Bad because I like to eat, smell my perfume, cook, etc. Good because I think I've lost at least 2 pounds in 2 days.

I am desperately hoping to get back to work tomorrow! But I actually love being at home and taking care of my house. I even got to do an errand today when I realized Brett left his wallet here. Driving to his office I kept glancing to the backseat and thinking how fun it would be to visit him at work and drag along a kid or two. Then I snapped back to reality :)

In other sick news, I showed my really sick side when I actually performed minor surgery: You see, I have a deep dissatisfaction with the design of kleenex boxes. I remember once probably around 1999 or 2000 when I found one pretty blue and white one that I thought matched my mother's adorable downstairs bathroom perfectly and I think I either bought all of the boxes available at P&C to stock up or performed a similar transplant to today's. Target has a plain pale pink tissue box (the single, cube size) that I love. But they are ALWAYS out of it. It is only $1.12, which is a bonus since I can't stand buying tissues since I am almost never sick and they just sit there getting dusty. So anyway, today I needed more for obvious reasons, so I bought one of the ugly boxes and then put them in the old pink box. Xacto knife and mailing tape were involved.

kind of a relief

The last several weeks have been a bit busy and I think it is finally catching up with me! Three weeks ago, I was in girls' weekend mode in Miami with my best friends. A truly great time, that hopefully will inspire more frequent get-togethers. And since pretty much everyone either forgot their camera or had it stolen recently (me) we don't have many pics to document the weekend. But I will steal a few shots from Leah's camera phone to post here.

   

Anna and Courtney looking way more like spring-breakers than moms.

Me drinking a white Russian. It was on the brain since I watched the Big Lebowski the week before.

2 weeks ago Brett's parents visited and we did all the obligatory Atlanta things, which included my 5th or 6th visit to the Georgia Aquarium. I think I am officially sick of that place. I also took Pam to lunch and a pedicure which gave us the chance for some girl talk and gossip about the Smith men. I also traded in my Jetta that weekend for a different Jetta and am now a car owner, not a leaser. So I can go on road trips!! Who's up for a visitor? 

1 week ago, we were in Mexico. No pics yet, they are still on the camera. It was a fun  little trip! I am so lucky to live in Atlanta, where pretty much any place on earth is a direct flight away. Well, except Potsdam! That is more like 4 flights plus one ex-pro basketball player wanting to make out. Ahhh yes. That is one of the stories that would have made it to the blog if it had been used as originally intended, to tell all of my freaky deaky dating stories circa 2007. But then I had to go and ruin that by meeting a lovely guy. See how much more interesting and juicy this blog could have been? 

Returned from Mexico Sunday night and got back on a plane early Monday to head to NYC for 2 days for a work event. Which was quite stressful and involved a 5:45 am hair styling. I also got to hang out with Molly Barker, the founder of Girls on the Run, for a couple days and that was really cool. Sort of like hanging with a celebrity! She's super fun and has so much wisdom to share. 

I could not expect to go on at that pace forever though, and Thursday came to a close with a bad sore throat, fever and the chills, and Friday was worse. Of course, it's not all bad; Brett is a perfect nurse and brought me diet ginger ale, saltines and my favorite orange mango juice. He even surprised me with trashy magazines and let me rent Twilight. Which admittedly was pretty dumb, and unfortunately I think he's going to punish me by using the term "chillaxin" indefinitely. But damn, that Edward Cullen is hot! And Bella Swan is wears a StayPut headband throughout the movie. The worst part is that I am opting to skip the half marathon I was planning to run Sunday :( But this race always has a hideous, oversized t-shirt anyway so do I really care that much? Nope. So anyway, it is kind of a relief to be sick and have a good excuse to do absolutely nothing on this lovely, rainy weekend.

In other news, I read 2 pretty decent books in Mexico: Run by Anne Patchett and The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler. I also had a cashmere sweater stolen from my hotel room, and was alerted yesterday that someone in Vera Cruz had spent $627 at WalMart on my debit card. You take the good with the bad I guess. Have a great weekend.

tomorrow night at this time...

I'll be in Miami with my best girls! Can't wait.

Focus, people.

Last night we went to see Ben Folds at the Tabernacle, and I was grossed out by how many people were on their phones / mobile devices the entire time. Any time there was a little downtime, the guy a few rows in front of us was on his Nintendo DS. Brett was like, "Feel free to leave me if I ever become that disinterested in our relationship", as the dude was there with a date. The girl in front of us kept googling stuff on her blackberry during the concert. At one point I leaned way over to see what exactly she was searching, and it was "who is Claire Danes dating?" Her date was on facebook most of the concert.

Um, I am obviously all for the internet when I'm not doing anything else or really need some information, but I go to concerts to see and pretty much focus on the band. Don't really need other entertainment when I already payed $50 for a ticket.

The guy next to us was keeping track of the set list on, gasp, a little notebook and, gasp again, an old fashioned stubby pencil with bite marks. It was so charming, almost like being right back in 1998. 

Another eerily familiar yet apparently obsolete concept was the really drunk dude with the lighter. I like seeing the lighter at concerts. That the cell phone was replaced it just seems way too sterile. Much in the same way I dislike the plastic and cardboard holders for candles at midnight mass.  I know, I know, no one likes hot wax dripping on their hands, but if we're going to hold plastic, might as well just use fake candles. Wait, let's just use cell phones at church from now on. 

This is a pretty ridiculous post. Oh well. Ben Folds was great.

Merry Belated Christmas

Since I took a bit of a blogging hiatus, I never got to say Merry Christmas and share any fun details from my holiday 2008 season. It was a lovely time, Katie and Kyle were the perfect hosts and their home is looking lovely. 

First of all, it wouldn't really be Christmas without a nod to everyone's favorite 24 hour movie marathon.

Looked fab on K & K's new tv.

Second we ate really, really well, in fact that is pretty much all we did. Here is a beauty of a shot. I think it really captures the excitement we all felt about all those sugarplums, er, sauteed mushrooms.

To me, this image is like a modern day Norman Rockwell. I am considering painting it...

And third, when I got home and was regaling tales of father - stepdaughter cooking, brother-in-law wine decanting and general family merrymaking to Brett, he commented that we seemed like such a fancy schmancy bunch. So I consoled him by sharing this picture that I snapped from Katie's oh-so-elegant dining table:

Katie, what is this lovely red sauce? I hear it pairs well with Yorkshire pudding.

Hope your holidays were happy!

Once again, work is getting in the way of life.

How bad do I want to stay home tomorrow and watch Dr.Phil lay into the Octo-mom? Pretty bad. And no, I don't have Tivo. I have a combo DVD VCR, but the DVD player is broken. So I have a tiny, sleek DVD player sitting on top of the huge monolith DVD VCR. Just so I can watch the few VHS tapes I own and occasionally tape something with the VHS tape I've had since college. It was purchased when some friends and I bought Tae Bo off an infomercial, taped it and then sent it back. We were a wild bunch. That wasn't nearly as wild as when the shirts came off and we worked out with Billy Blanks in our sports bras in the dorm. Lovely. So yeah, I want to watch. Somebody fill me in.

a sad day

Although I am so lucky to have many lifelong friends from my hometown, none of them can claim the title of my first friend in Potsdam. And now she's gone. My heart breaks for the people closest to her, especially her husband, little girl and the baby who will never know his mom. Nothing much else to say, some things don't and will never make sense. Guess I just wanted to mark the day.