Thursday, April 29, 2004

I have spent the evening leisurely packing here and there, watching TV, playing a computer game, and blog a little.....it's the best night I've had in two weeks! My head is so full of real estate lingo, graduation juggling and helping mom finish decorating her bedroom, what I have dubbed "the bordello" that I have had very little time for myself.

Either I am too efficient or work is dragging in. I spend the morning busy and the afternoon waiting for proofs to come back or a new job to come in. Boss allowed me to take the last week of May off - if she doesn't help me with the print shop, she's gonna be sorry. That will be the week the print shop will be scrambling to finish the printing for all the commencements. It will fall to her to make sure and ride them to get the jobs done on time. Not my problem, I've got a signed okay to take vacation.

Enough for now, I'm sleepy.

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Teachers are mean and hateful and hard to work with! It's a bad day.

Monday, April 26, 2004

Sleep. I need sleep. I didn't sleep at all last night over this house business and I am feel every waking moment from it. My normal routine is so off, I haven't had a chance to read my book and it's a bit better than the last one and I want to. Stress does strange things to me - I stop eating and I can't sit still. By May 21st, I may actually fit in my skinny clothes. Who knows?

Waldo has gone awol and it's boring at work. I have work to do but there's no one to chat with when I need a break. Boss is out so we could be silly and relax but nooo...Waldo's gone awol.

  1. Elastic: stretchy
  2. Intervention: help me
  3. Risk: buy a house
  4. Junk food: life
  5. Arrogance: Not me!
  6. Responsibility: a hassle
  7. X: Mutant
  8. Marshall: John
  9. Kill: Bill
  10. Brother: Big

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Well, it looks like I am buying a house in Yukon. EEK! What have I done? No one will be allowed to visit for two years. When I say the inside is rough it's rough! However, it has much potential. There will be much elbow grease and sweat but that's okay. May 21st will be my closing date should nothing go wrong. Keep your fingers crossed. I will be keeping a journal on this topic called The Green Door.

Friday, April 23, 2004

Well, I saw the inside of the green door house. Horrible green carpet, very bad wall paper in the dining room, all the wood work is dry and needs staining and oiling, the frig is too big for the kitchen, the kitchen cabinets are beyond bad with bazaar scallops and the curtains are hysterical! So what do I do....make an offer on the house and I am actually excited! I like the floor plan therefore the rest can be fixed.

I'll let you know come Sunday, if they accept my offer and what will happen. This is all moving so fast for me that I am now very overwhelmed.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Looking for a house is exhausting! The green door house I saw yesterday is still in the lead. I will be looking at the inside of the house tomorrow. Wouldn't it be awesome if it happens to be the one? I am not really liking driving all over the city to check out each hit my realtor sends me. For me, the inside of the house really doesn't matter - I will remodel, that's my nature. What I am looking for is a brick house in a nice neighborhood that's it. Let's face it, any two or three bedroom house is going to be more than enough for me, after all I am in a one bedroom apartment right now.

Mom suggested that I move the tin carport to my backyard and she was freaking serious. I find those things repugnant and it would not stay anywhere in or on my property! Dad thinks I need it so that my electric blue car won't get hailed on. Not at the expense of sacrificing a cute property!

Anyway....too zapped to be zippy. Enough for now!

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

I have renamed Co-worker T. "Waldo." For those who have noticed Waldo has gone missing. Every time I go to his office to blow time or rant .... he's gone! I've checked my guest map a couple of times to see if he might check in. No luck. If you know where Waldo is tell him to go home...don't leave dana alone in that office!

My brain is mush, spent the evening filling out mortgage loan application papers. I don't think I understood half of what I signed, but what the hey. I looked at the outside of two houses and didn't like one at all but really liked the other. I can't wait to see the inside of it - it's tiny but cute and has a wonderful green front door. Should I purchase that house I've already decided that the tin car port goes! I told mom that we could take it over to their house and put it in the backyard to create a shaded area for Seamus - she wasn't amused (but dad thought it was a good idea). I am in trouble again.

I am a little overwhelmed (and scared). Enough for now.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

It's 1:30 in the afternoon and I call mom to let her know that something I had planned on at work and truly hoped for, fell through. The reason? My boss delayed acting on it. Normally rational and calm mothers can get quit funny about things such as this. By 4:00 p.m. she has an appointment with the bank for tomorrow morning to sign paper work and get a loan for me to pay off that freaking Student Loan and my credit card. She then informs me that I will buy a house now so that I can begin looking for a new job!

I know finding a new job won't be easy but as soon as soon I sign the mortgage papers I will begin looking in earnest. I would like to obtain a federal job for the benefits and security plus I already understand bureaucracies!

Gracious! It's been eons since I have been spastic and silly that I fear I have forgotten how. Maybe it was the paint fumes from trying to paint mom's bedroom cranberry (BAD IDEA - IT TOOK FIVE COATS TO GET TO THE TRUE COLOR EVEN WITH A PRIMER). Maybe it was that Seamus zapped all the silly out of me by trying to play ball all night long when I babysat him. Maybe it was the planets. I don't know but I feel good (insert James Brown's OOOOUUUWWW) and don't have a darn thing to say! Shoot!

Enough for now!

Thursday, April 15, 2004

T. and D. are always putting song lyrics in their blog.........so, as I sit blank of anything to write about, I thought why not share one song that has stuck with me for years. It's by the band called "The Call."

The Morning

I am standing at the edge of my mind
If I look in, I might fall in - I sense danger
I'm divided, but I've decided it's my nature
But if I look back I might fall back to yesterday
He was weeping as the morning has just broken
He says, "I'm a young man. I got nothing to say.
I got reasons for my feeling so disheartened
I am shocking to myself everyday".
I am standing at the edge of my mind
I wanna run, I wanna shout, I wanna make thunder

Wanna know what kind of spell I've fallen under
Show me, show me
I wanna live, I wanna breath, I wanna love hard
Wanna give my life to you
Lose me in you
He was standing I this dark, dark corner
He says, "I'm a poor man. I got nothing to show."
He said, "Please, please remember me when you leave here,
Or I just might follow you home."
I am standing at the edge of my mind

from Reconciled
written by Michael Been
published by Neeb / Tarka Music

I feel as though I've been standing at the edge of my mind and it scares me!

Enough for now. I got nothing else!

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

I hate to complain but darn it comes so easily! I am exhausted and needed to get my life back. Six or seven days to go (I've lost count) and I get to return to normal. Living between two homes is strange....I want a coke and have none here at my apartment but there is some at mom and dad's. Every day, I go home after work and slam some food down my throat, grab the mail and a change of clothes and head off to play with Seamus. He's a good baby and just as confused as me but I guess we'll hang in there.

I also hate blogging this early after work - I haven't had time to process the crap out of my system so I end up blogging about the place. That's not what I want to write about - I want to be relaxed and spastic - you know, true to my nature. Instead lately, this blog has been rather snarky....hince the absence of an entry yesterday.

I am getting worried, I haven't heard from Friend Shana and worry about that. I hope she's just busy. For that matter, I haven't heard from Friend Suzie or Friend Maggie either - Girls what's going on?

Anyway, enough for now.

Sunday, April 11, 2004

My parents live on a half acre piece of land with their house sitting at the back making a very large front yard. We have been teaching Seamus to stay in the front yard but allow him to run free like the big dog he thinks he is. That was the best thing we have ever done! Yesterday, I get over there and go to let him out of the back to run a little as I get the mail. He's barking his mean bark and I just think that he didn't recognize me or my car at first and hasn't settled. So I am talking to him, "Don't you recognize me?" and I open the gate. He tears off toward the far side of the yard in a dead run. All of a sudden three big black dogs run out from under a pecan tree. Terrified, I began screaming at him, knowing that the pack is going to turn and fight. Fearless Seamus chases them and telling them off in his most fierce voice. The pack goes out the yard and Seamus stops right at the edge of the yard right where we taught him. Shaking, I get his attention and he comes running back to me - happy and spastic as if to say "Did you see what I did? I am the big dog!" Had those dogs turned to fight, I can say without a doubt, he'd be dead today. When I got him in the house - I about cried. Why is that when all is okay, you break down?!

Thursday, April 08, 2004

Well were do I start? Work was unbelievably busy. I am amazed that the faculty advisors for graduation programs are responding well and I am ahead of schedule (SHOCK). I am afraid that I may have to eat some of my gripey words. That's okay, I will gladly do it. Other than that - pretty bland day.

It's too early to blog as that I normally have the night to ponder what I am going to write about but since I begin Seamus duty tonight I must blog now or forget it. It is impossible to type around him. He finds the sound of the keyboard funny and thinks you are playing so he attacks your hands. I make enough errors on my own - don't need his help!

I'd better go...so, enough for now!

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Well if it had to rain thank goodness I didn't have to leave the house today. Another day to burn my vacation days and try to make that magic number of 44. There is something so wrong with the place that I work when so many talented people are hating every morning that I they have to get up and report to work. I am included in that bunch and had to put plans to look for work elsewhere on hold until I could purchase a house. (Who wants to risk lending someone money who's only been on the job for two weeks.) Therefore, I have no hope for reprieve from the madness I call "my job" for at least six months! (whimper)

Is it the system or the managers creating the problem? Partially both. Where I work there seems to be a system wide right to be rude! People who I don't know and have never work with directly will e-mail hateful letters or call me and talk down to me so much so that I have grown to hate answering my phone. At least I can delete an email - if I hung up on someone, I'd get written up! The managers.............dare I go there - what's the point those who know mine know the point but let me just say this they are part of the problem. Enough work - tonight I refuse to allow it infect my evening.

Today I had to sit by the phone and couldn't go on-line to even check my messages. I contacted my mortgage broker and we chatted. She took my information and went to work to see how much house I could get for the payment I wanted - six hours later she called. I qualify for a 103 percent loan, which is good since I don't have any money for a down payment or closing cost. Then she tells me how much house I could get and I about swallowed my tongue - it's modest for most but it was 15 to 20 thousand over what I thought I could get. YIPPEE - some good news at last. Now the work begins, before I can do this at all I have to pay off that pesky credit card and that means campbell's soup for the next six months and no going out - nada every spare penny goes to that card. My realtor is ready and she seems pretty good and has a handle on what I want - SAFETY! She's checking into Yukon and Mustang - I think I want to go back to that small town with big city close.

I go on Seamus duty tomorrow as mom and dad have to go back to California for L memorial. Dad will be an honorary pallbearer since L choose cremation. I never tell mom and dad how hard it is to live in two places and Seamus is a sweet baby that I feel guilty over dreading doing these babysitting jobs. It will be easier when I have a house and backyard then he will come live with me.

Enough for now....oh yeah, mini poll changes Sunday - send questions as to what should be polled next and/or summit your vote.

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Gray and ugly day! It was such a long day (sigh). I think I am officially an "Anti-Upgrade" computer software girl! Adobe upgraded its Acrobat program and muck it all up! 6.0 is a piece of crap! I want my 5.0 back! I fought for two hours to reset or clear a form I had created and tested on my machine. Once my test gibberish filled all the fields that darn thing wouldn't clear. I had to create a special button to tell the form to clear itself! I was so frustrated that I was rather short with L who works in my office and had to apologize. Bless her heart, she walked in my office at the height of my frustration!

It's official I am in Graduation Hell! Two senior sponsor who torture me more than others, both sent their information in at that same time. I had to talk and explain and talk and explain to both of them and I know that I will still have a mess with them in the days to come. (Must think happy thoughts, must think happy thoughts, must think happy thoughts)

Enough for now.

Monday, April 05, 2004

Don't look for this post to happy or chipper; today, my heart hurts. We lost Friend L. this morning. He died at home as he wanted. Dad was able to visit with him a couple of weeks ago and they got to say all they needed to. Although, we were preparing ourselves for this eventual end - you're never truly prepared. Friend L. was good for and to my dad. He was always kind to me complete with rib splitting hugs and constantly chuckling. Earth lost a little of its luster today.

Saturday, April 03, 2004

Seamus has shredded his millionth baby and I spent a good 5 minutes picking up stuffing and prying it out of his mouth. To remedied the situation I emptied his baby of all its stuffing! Now Seamus runs around the house carrying the carcass of his baby - it's sad really.

I didn't realize how exhausting shopping for curtains with mom could be. We hit two stores and plotted and planned, counting measurements and finally checked out. Then armed with the curtains and proper color palette, we went paint shopping only to discover that mom hadn't thought everything through - first we had buy wall paper solution to stripped the border from the walls, then check out wall paper books for her bathroom. After picking a couple of styles for her to bring dad back to say yea or nay to, we headed over to the paint counter. There we discovered that putting burgundy paint on the walls really requires a coat of primer as well as the paint. By the time I left to go home a quick jaunt to the store to buy curtains turned into an all day affair.

Friday, April 02, 2004

A walk down memory lane....the medieval fair is this weekend in Norman. I lived there for ten years and haven't felt at home since I left. In 1985 I moved there to go to college and vowed I'd never leave. Had the town stayed the same, I don't think I would be in Oklahoma City now. It tried to become a mini-Edmond and destroyed all its traditions and uniqueness.

There were many wonderful landmarks that spoke of the bohemian 1970s. Town Tavern, a dive of a restaurant, complete with duct tape on the booths stayed open all night with unlimited bad coffee - perfect for drunken philosophical conversation became a video arcade. Pinks and Denco's, home of the Denco Darling (a very gross dinner with beans, something else and fried egg on top), became trendy restaurants that had no aura of collegians from the past. New cookie-cutter houses started popping up all complete with the modern look that no matter how beautiful they are, where not of the old style that complimented the city perfectly. Then Old Navy moved in - I moved out!

I miss the old Norman, where I walked my Irish Setter (Chauncey - rest his sweet soul) all over the duck pond to play with the other puppies in town or the campus, where I walked my Dalmatian (Henri - rest his sweet soul) who I couldn't take to the duck pond because the ducks scared him(?). I miss sitting outside at the Mont chatting for hours over beer and queso. I miss the peace I felt in the town versus the chaos here. Alas, that peace and friendship is now gone replaced by yuppie styles and attitudes. I thought that yuppie crap had died but noooo it alive and strong in Norman!

I doubt that many college freshmen today would learn that elmer's glue doesn't hurt your hair that much and jello is great style setter. Man, I had fun being punk, slam dancing and generally scaring the izod off those preppies! I had fun being a hard core to all the guys who would ask me to dance and when I politely said no, they would ask "Why Not?" My favorite line in reply was "Do you really want me to insult you?" GUYS NEVER ASK WHY - YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!

So I leave you with one question: is progress truly progress?

Enough for now.