Putting Out Fires

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Costume.... or disguise?

Hey all! Day 2 of month o' blogging and I'm much more cheerful today. And to be fair, I should start by swallowing my pride a little and admitting that I was a bit quick in being pissy at Target yesterday. Whether out of the goodness of their hearts, or out of fear of me (grrrr!) the good ladies at Target went out of their way for us last night and found Ryan's phone! And on a Sirius note: to be fair maybe my standards are a little too high. Maybe I'm just expecting too much to think that I should actually HEAR the radio I'm paying a monthly fee for. So, I'm sorry Sirius for going off on your product which was obviously DESIGNED to be crappy, so I should just suck it up. Right?

I'm currently sitting in my house. Alone. Dressed as an angel. Oh you thought adults didn't dress up for trick-or-treating? This is one of my most favorite holidays! Ryan's schedule is a little messed up this week, so I'm passing out candy alone for right now. (He's passing out candy with the fire crew at a park in the city he works in) Before sunset I took the doggies on a run in our new neighborhood to see what's going on. They had their costumes (read: Halloween collars) on so we met all kinds of nice people. People in this neighborhood actually have parties in their driveways with firepits and beer for Halloween! I love my neighborhood!

Off to see if I can find any raisin packages or quarters or something. The candy's running out fast! (and is a dinner of Corona and Snickers a healthy diet?)

***Candy update: I ran out of candy a half hour ago. Then I ran out of quarters. So I went to the store (as an angel) and grabbed 4 more bags of candy. And now I've been sitting here for 10 minutes with no Halloweenies to feed. I swear if I get stuck here with this candy..... it'll sit in the cupboard until next year.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Today? Can bite me.

I'm on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster lately. Lots of not-so-great things going on, but that's life, eh? I'm in a pissy mood, and when I'm pissy I try to stay away from the blogging. Because anything typed into a computer when angry just can't be good. BUT, because I'm a glutten for punishment, I signed up for NaBloPoMo at fussy which means I've managed to get myself on the hook for one blog post every day from now until the end of November. Crazy you say? Idiocy aimed for people who have a lot more interesting things to talk about then me you say? Yeah well, tough. I've got this pretty blog here and I intend to use it. So brace yourself.

And today kids, our theme is People On My Shitlist. Oh shit I said shit! Oh well. Sorry mom. (you don't still read this, do you mom?) OK, first is my friends at Sirius. I have a love affair with my Sirius. I would give up my cable for Sirius (oh wait, no maybe not). I've campaigned for people to get their own Sirius! You'll love it! I swear! Its the future of entertainment while driving! But then I decided to get Ryan his own car unit and things went downhill fast. Long story short, I've now made 16 calls to Sirius regarding a non-functional radio and finally the sweet sound of UPS ringing the doorbell came last Saturday. Thank you man in incredibly tight brown pants. Thank you for bringing us the Sirius. And then I triumphantly stuck the replacement unit in the car.... AND IT DOESN'T WORK EITHER. I feel like I've been totally screwed and there's no way for me to fight that company. They've got the duck and cover down pat.

But the real reason I'm pissed today is because yesterday some nice girl at our local Target called to say she'd found Ryan's cell phone in the store, saw the 'Home' number in there, called us, then carefully placed the phone behind the guest services desk. So Ryan happily drove over there. No one knew what he was talking about. So he came home (the people in red scared him) and called them a few more times. Me, looking for a fight already today, I drove right over there when I got home and watched them search. They found a phone! Rapture! But it wasn't Ryan's. So they dig more. Long story short again, they GAVE HIS PHONE TO A RANDOM PERSON EARLIER. Oh and Verizon? Doesn't see fit to have an emergency line open this late. Ahhh, that bill for calls to Titikaka are going to hurt.

So that's all. Welcome to Day One of self-inflicted mandatory blogging. More fun to follow.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Wish I Was on the Beach

Oh I love Mexico. And no matter who I go with, or how much my Rocky Point has changed, I love it. The most interesting thing about this trip was how much closer I feel to my girls and their husbands. Its not often that we travel together, and man do people's real selves come out! Oh the farting, the belching, the talk of poop and penises. And the DRINKING. And also? My girlfriends? Love their sleep.

My favorite parts of the weekend were laying on the beach in the perfect 85 degree weather, eating awesome seafood (fish tacos for $1!), the drinking, the general hung-overness, searching through tide pools, the pinata filled with inappropriate things for Kel's b-day on Saturday, and helping a girlfriend mack on guys on the bar. Hey! I'm married! I have to live vicariously! Here's some pictures:

(Oh yeah, that's condoms and candy in there)

For more fun pics you can visit africankelli's post about Mexico.

So, what's everyone up to for Halloween? I've got 2 different outfits for two different parties this weekend. And also, have you started Christmas shopping yet?? I still don't have a girl gift present idea yet, but I'm sure something brilliant will pop into my head. Ha!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Did I Mention That I Like to Drink?

We went to the state fair last weekend and I dropped my sunglasses in a toilet. And then I stuck my hand in there and pulled them out. True story.

We're off to Mexico in a day! Many beers on the beach. Sadly, I may be drinking beers alone. My girls'll be drinking all kinds of fancy concoctions (they make me sick to my stomach), and Ryan's been told by the doctor that he can't drink this weekend. That's right everyone, Ryan picked up a little sickly bug and is on meds that don't let him drink. What's Mexico without drinking?! Poor guy.

At any rate, for those of you who aren't from Arizona, we're off to Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point to the gringos). Its about a 4 hour drive from Phoenix, and its a town that once survived on its fishing industry, but now survives on American dollars. I've been going to Rocky Point since I was a baby, at least a few times a year, and I've seen it grow from a little tiny town with no paved roads, no condo buildings, and fish market guys who remembered you from time to time and rewarded you with special fish if you remembered to bring him his Bud Light from the States.

But my Rocky Point grew up with me. I complain a lot about the high-rises that went in on Sandy Beach where I used to camp, and about all the restaurants that sit where weekend trailer parks used to be the norm. But now I stay in the condos (but the OLD ones that are all one-story so you get your own beach front) and I spend the nights bar hoping on the well populated strip of clubs. So that's what we'll be doing this weekend. Picture me on my private beach during the day, and drinking under the palapas at night. Oh, and I'll also be spending my money on 'Rodeo Drive' where the chitzy shops are. And drinking beer, did I mention that? (Is there an alcoholic theme to this blog?) (oh, and tequila) (oh and its a good thing Ryan'll be there {sober} to walk me home)

So its that time of year again. This time last year I pleaded with you, The Internet, to PLEASE HELP ME. It is October 17th, which means I'm approximately 2 months behind in making my gifts for my girlfriends. My 6 girlfriends and I have this 10-or-so year-old tradition of giving everyone gifts. Last year my mother-in-law saved my hide by helping me come up with the idea to make these adorable bread towels, which I put in cute baskets, and filled with little bread loaves and their recipes. This year I'm drawing a blank again. I know that at least one of my girls is well into her gift making, so I better get on it soon. Help!

I'll try one more post tomorrow before I pack for MEXICO!!!

Saturday, October 14, 2006

The Reunion from... Oh Wait!

OK, so I stressed big time about my high school reunion. You know what? It really wasn't that big of a deal. I was lucky in two respects though: 1) I was on the reunion committee so it was part of my job to be social which made it easy and 2) I was drunk. Oh people, you don't know! I was DURUNK! I do remember the night, which is good, and I remember people who made BIG fools out of themselves, so I feel like I couldn't have been THAT bad. But what I did notice was that 10 years really adds a lot to some people, and I also realized that I'm much better off then some (thanks for the genes mom!). At any rate, the people who hung out together in high school pretty much huddled together in the usual groups at the reunion, and no one danced (except drunk me and my drunk friends) but everyone had fun. So much fun, in fact, that the place tried to kick all 300 of us out early because EVERYONE was so drunk. Here's some pics from the night (by the way, I picked the jeans and pink top outfit because I felt hot in it, and it turned out to be the right choice!):

The girl in the top pic on the bottom right is Roxanne Wilson, for anyone who watches The Apprentice. Roxanne, Mini (far left) and I were good friends in high school. Roxanne and I were on swim team together, and she convinced me to join the debate team. I was relieved that she was still Roxanne, and it was really good to see her. That second picture is my brother, my husband, and Mini's husband hiding from us drunk people outside. Thanks for driving boys!

Anyway, I really did have a good time, and I'm telling you some people really embarassed themselves. Oh, and I feel like I've gotten a LOT hotter since high school, and Ryan told me afterwards that there were a few guys he wanted to pop in the nose because of how they were looking at me. HOW COOL IS THAT?! And a girl I've known since elementary, who was in my girl scout troop and I've got pictures of at my 6th birthday party, couldn't stop telling me that I look like a supermodel. OK, so maybe she was drunk too, but still! I really did feel invisible in high school, so it was really nice. And I also realized that I really did know a lot of people in high school. I may not have been a 'popular' kid, but I was involved in a lot of stuff. (**Damn, I just went back and read that paragraph and it sounds so braggy! I didn't mean it that way, for real, but hey! Who doesn't want to look hot at their reunion?)

The next morning I had to drag my (hung over) ass out of bed to go set up for the reunion picnic. Shoot me for ever agreeing to attend that part of the weekend too. I spent the whole time hydrating under a tree far away from the party, but my Bubble Zone was a success!

The best part about the picnic was that us drunkards were sharing a ramada with an AA group. Awesome.

I'm really proud of myself for being brave and talking to all kinds of peopleat the reunion though. At one point one of the snotty popular girls was asking me what my husband did, then what I did, and she was visibly impressed. Then she walked away. Ha! That's right girl! Remember we used to be friends and you decided I wasn't cool enough? Well look at me now!

Other then that, I've been detoxing this week (by cutting back to one or two drinks a night, with the exception of the hair-of-the-dog drinks I had on Sunday), today we went to the State Fair (where we spent $55 in about 15 minutes *sigh*), and next week we're off to MEXICO! 4 days of laying on the beach w/ my husband and my girls, drinking beer, playing football, reading magazines, drinking beer, and eating Mexican food. Mmmmm.

I promise updates more regularly. I'm recently obsessed with Flickr and spending most of my time over there.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Is it Monday Yet?

An interesting commentary on clothes picked by men vs. women: I asked the Internet (in all its wisdom), the men at my work (because there's no women there), my husband, and my girlfriends for advice on my reuion outfit crisis. Almost without exception the guys all picked the jeans and pink top, and the girls all picked the dress. So what are we saying here? Men prefer women to look more casual? They prefer more cleavage? Women prefer a woman who's more dressy? I don't know, but it is interesting... At any rate, I'm still torn, but my husband (who's REALLY good with clothes, better than me) loves the jeans and pink top, and I feel totally hot in it. Thank you all for your input!

I think I'm concentrating on the clothes so I don't have to deal with the fact that MY TEN YEAR REUNION IS THIS WEEKEND. We (the committee) created a group page for the reunion on myspace, and people have been bantering back and forth about all kinds of things from travel arrangements to what we're wearing (a post which SHOULD have been helpful to me, but wasn't). Anyway, there's a thread called "Who remembers me?" and the replies go on for 5 pages. Most of the replies go something like this, "Um, hi. Does anyone remember me? I'm sure you probably don't". Good to know that I'm not alone in that fear. Can't wait for the weekend to be over. For once I'm looking forward to Monday.

*************
OK, I guess I don't REALLY need to chronical my fun time in the bar with the firefighters after the run, but I'll throw up a couple pictures since I promised. :-)

That middle one is one of the bagpipe players. He was in the bar with his bagpipes in one hand, and a beer in the other. I just had to take his picture. Some of these guys were STILL at Suspenders drinking when we came back 5 hours later. And we ran into those same guys for the next 3 or so hours in Greenwhich. Those boys are CRAZY.

So I'm done recapping my trip. I swear I could go on for at least 2 more posts about NY because it was just such a great trip. The 4 of us who hung out got really close on this trip, and Keith (the blonde guy in the pictures) actually sent Ryan and me a thank you note! I think we all kind of miss each other. I've offered to drive their drunk asses to Oktoberfest tomorrow, so yahoo! Reunion!

If I don't post before the weekend, here's wishing you all a fun-filled, beer drinking, dancing on tables weekend!

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

HELP!

We interupt the regularly scheduled dishing-about-the-hot-guys-in-bars to plead for your help.

My reunion is this weekend (and thank god this stupid reunion is out of my freaking life soon!). I've got two outfit choices, and as we know how much I know about clothes, I could use some advice. Here's the choices:

I'd wear strappy brown shoes w/ the dress (if I can find them this time of year) and my black boots w/ the jeans. Jeans are totally cool for this thing as its actually in a barn, but I don't want to be TOO under-dressed, you know? Anyway, I could go either way.

HELP!

Sunday, October 01, 2006

FDNY Tunnel to Towers Run

NYC is the only place in the world that you can visit, eat any food you want (including lots of Italian and street hotdogs), drink all the beer you want, and you come back having lost a pound. By the time the day of the Tunnel to Towers Run came around, I'd walked approximately 57 miles through Manhattan, my feet were sore, my hips were aching, my calves were burning... But as soon as the race shuttle drove through Battery Tunnel and came out on the other side in Brooklyn where the start of the race was, I forgot all the aches. The energy was insane. 15,000 of us got ready to run. Our group of 9 were towards the front with the firefighters, police and military runners, and we were directly behind a sea of red shirts worn by the crazy firefighters from London who kept lifting each other up to moon the rest of the crowd. I'm pretty sure they'd hit the bars before the run. :-)

When the doves were released and the horn blown, we all took off, into Battery Tunnel. The tunnel is only big enough wide for two cars, and because it goes under water it starts off going steeply down, then right back up again. It was 1.5 miles long, and the tunnel was HOT. I was right in front of a group from West Point all running in cadence. The sound of them singing and the footsteps echoing in the tunnel were incredible. When they passed me ('cause I'm SLOW), the group of Marines caught up singing cadence as well. On the incline of the tunnel the NY firefighters were all in their dress blues were lined up on the right side, every other one holding a flag, and the other every other one holding a large banner with the picture of a fallen brother on it. 343 firefighters were killed on 9/11. All those banners were almost too much.

That second picture is from after the race, but those are the same guys who were in the tunnel. Anyway, the tunnel was brutal enough that I really wanted to walk some of it, but there were so many people that if you stopped running you'd get run over. When we finally (finally!) were close enough to see the light outside the tunnel, the sound of the FDNY bagpipe band echoed in the tunnel.

For the rest of the race there were fire engines and ladders at every intersection, cheerleaders, high school bands, rock bands... And when we came into Battery Park the FDNY fire boats were on the Hudson spraying water.

The run ended at the World Trade Center site. When I ran over the finish line I noticed a man leaning over a railing shaking hands. Rudy Giuliani! And I shook his hand!

There was a big festival at the finish line with all kinds of free food, a few famous people (Kelsey Gramer for one), music, and some speeches. We were so hyped up after the run that we decided to hit a bar instead of heading back to the hotel to shower up. The best way to find a bar? Ask a local. The best way to find an insane party? Ask a firefighter. We got adopted by a couple of FDNY guys who took us to a bar called Suspenders. The place was PACKED with firefighters.

Girls, let me tell you, this was any female's DREAM. I was one of a handful of women in a bar filled with burly manly men in uniforms. Um, YUM. The bar bought drinks for everyone for the first two hours, and it took just about that long to get completely out of control.

Pictures of that next time... :-)

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Name: atpanda

Location: Mesa, Arizona, United States

I'm Amanda. I'm an engineer in an industry full of men, a professional wedding and family portrait photographer, a firefighter's wife, a traveler, and a dogMa.

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