Month: April 2011

Soul food is my nemesis, cake pops are my enemy, I grew up with a steady stream of fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, cornbread, collard greens and fatback, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, fried catfish and yes my grandmother even made chittlins. I had uncles that lived on pickled pig’s feet, a more disgusting concoction I don’t know of. These things are not good for weight loss, weight control, cholesterol, sodium intake, or so they say. My grandfather had fried chicken every morning for breakfast, he lived to be 82. Maybe he would have lived longer if he had watched what he ate, however he was not overweight and was incredibly active.
Then comes me, I am short and squatty, can’t get anorexic to save my life, and I do not eat that food anymore! Maybe I should go back to it, that way I will have something to blame. Oh yeah I do, cake pops at Starbucks. Man those little things pack a lot of sin in them! I lament the fact I was not born tall and willowy, being born short and squatty is a horrendous affliction. I try and fight it, wearing 4 inch heels, things that make me taller and therefore look slimmer. I don’t know if it works. I refuse to look at pictures of myself and if I catch you taking a picture of me, I will ask you not to. I do not photograph well and it is embarrassing. The older I get the worse it is, I think I am getting squattier. Is that a word? Must be, it was not autocorrected. That tells me more people are afflicted with this condition.
We should fight back! Hold a telethon, raise funds for genetic testing, we need to find a cure for this horrible disease. Is it a disease or a syndrome? I really don’t know the difference. If someone can enlighten me that would be great; in the meantime, I shall continue to fight in my way. Laying off the cake pops, not eating my beloved country food and starving myself.
Happy Friday!

Well Today is Wednesday and I am wearing new shoes, Carlos Santana stiletto peep toe pumps. I love them; they were a birthday present from the Irishman. I love these shoes and it is the first time I have worn them. They totally rock.
Everything that happened yesterday made it seem like a Monday, what could go wrong did go wrong. It started with me getting ready to go to lunch and looking in my purse and seeing no pocket book. I left it at home on the desk. We all know what that means, no Starbucks, then I kept getting the most involved calls, the last one especially involved. I actually have to do a callback today to make sure the customer was updated on the status or the issue was corrected. After work, the dentist, which of course I have no pocket book with me to pay them, so I call Alex who thankfully was home, he brought it up there. So that was not Monday like. But last night was a restless sleep night, Chewie kept wanting out, so of course, no opposable thumbs for him, that leaves me to open the door for him. When that alarm went off at 3:00 am I so did not want to wake up! The really upside of the day is when I sent the Irishman a text telling him that I left my pocketbook at home, he surprised me with Starbucks! How awesome is that? I really wasn’t hinting, I really was wanting sympathy, instead I got greatness.
Have I mentioned how much I love going to the dentist? My dentist totally rocks, if you are looking for a new on in Plano, call Dr Stokes! He does exceptional work and his office staff is total greatness. They are always nice and I am always at ease going in. I have never been hurt by Dr Stokes; I have heard horror stories of people being traumatized by the dentist. I have never been traumatized by the dentist.
I really need to get to the gym; I have bought a membership, now I need to use it. The downside of having a brand new, amazingly high tech television is I never want to leave it! I watched Friends in HD, How you doin’? loved it! So addictive. However I am going to have to drag my behind out of that apartment and to the gym if I want to achieve my goal, being the most beautiful bride for my age group. That is my goal. Wish me luck!

Well as we all know I was having issues getting enough sleep, so I went to the doctor and he gave me a prescription for Ambien. Well here is the story of why I will no longer be taking the medication. I took it for a week, then one afternoon Elizabeth called me and we had a pleasant conversation, then she starts to tell me about the conversation we had the night before. I said we did not speak last night, she started laughing, yes we did mom, she says.
She then proceeds to tell me that I wanted to sing a song for her, she said I said, “Do you want me to sing you a song about ping and purple?” she says she said no. no one can be certain of that. She then goes on to tell me I was saying IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII looooooooooooooovvvvvveee you in a sing song voice. I tell her she is making all of this up, she is laughing harder saying no. so I said I will be checking my call log, sure enough there is a call from Elizabeth that I have no memory of. So needless to say I will not be taking things that wipe my memory from me. No matter how much I need the sleep, I will stick to Excedrin pm to catch up on sleep when I need to.
There is no telling what else I did in my sleep, I will never know, but now, no one else will either.

I had an interesting weekend, full of ups and some downs, mostly ups. I did get to spend some time with Tessa, which is always amazing. This time included a trip to Target, where we found a butterfly net, so of course we purchased it. Went home and began trying to find butterflies to catch, we really had no luck in that, however, we did spy some squirrels, which she decided was net worthy. So off we go, chasing squirrels, well on about the fifth one, she decides she better stand under the tree in case one falls, she will be there to catch it. So she hands me the net and stands there with her hands cupped together ready to catch whatever errant squirrel comes her way.
Once she tires of this she decides I will be easier to catch than the squirrels, so she starts chasing me, yelling run Gigi, run! So, off I go, running just fast enough to stay out of her reach, have to make it challenging, don’t you know. After she tires of that, it is back into the apartment we go to decorate Easter cookies, then it is bubble time. By the time I took her home I was exhausted! She kept telling me she was ready to go to sleep, however I managed to keep her awake until I got her home so she could go to sleep there for her parents.
I discovered Saturday that the Irishman bought us a new TV, an amazing TV, one that is 47 inches and has internet on it and is WIFI and comes loaded with Netflix, Facebook and Twitter, I think I have died and gone to heaven. I don’t even know how to react anymore! We picked it up yesterday and he put it together last night, I didn’t get to experiment with it, but he did, he did call me into the living room to examine the crystal clear picture and the depth, wow is all I can say. I cannot wait to get home today and play with it! I foresee a lot of movie nights in our future!

I was driving down the road this morning and decided that I wanted the whole day off. So, I called attendance and took the whole day. I feel quite decadent. I am catching up on my recorded shows, I have cleaned my Mary Kay area and desk, I even got all of the dog hair off of my new comforter. How, you ask. Well, it was a huge issue, how was I going to get all of that dog hair off of it, I looked at the bed, looked around me, saw the vacuum cleaner. Yes, folks, I vacuumed my bed. It now looks shiny and new again. I am having the best time playing 1950’s housewife. I love it, I would love to stay home again and take care of home and hearth. I know that is not very progressive of me, I come from a generation of women that was supposed to want it all. I never did, confession time here, I would love to stay home. I don’t not want to work, I just want to do something from home. If I could get paid for writing, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Next on my list to tackle is my bathroom, I have already done three loads of laundry, vacuumed and had a ton of coffee, of course.
I have also watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. Loved it! I will not ruin it for those who have not seen it, just know I will be watching from this point forward.
So I say goodbye for today, I have tons to do, which include a trip to the grocery store and making dinner!

I have become enamored with a new television show, on Showtime, The Borgia’s, highly entertaining. I love that time period, if everyone will remember their history, the Borgia’s were the original crime family. Never allowing anyone to stand in their way of advancement; politically, financially or socially. The head of the family, Rodrigo Borgia, later know as Pope Alexander VI, he used his children to solidify his power, using the position of religious leader as if he were a king, which in those days he was above kings. He crowned kings, the power went to his head, he married his daughter off no less than three times, each marriage more advantageous than the last.
This man would never have won father of the year, but for those of us looking back, it is highly fascinating. I think the next pet I get I am going to name after one of them.
I would love to go back to that time, it was an amazing time in human history, the renaissance, the enlightenment, the art, the literature, it was the beginning of free thinking. The Medici’s were in the mix during that time as well, I hope they are depicted on the show as I love, love, love them.
I would not want to go back to live during that time, however a brief visit would be total greatness, perhaps a week. If someone out there has a Delorean or knows Dr Sam Beckett I would appreciate a loan or a meeting. I would totally adhere to all time travel rules. Do not change the past that means I would only be observing, not engaging the locals. I could so do that! Can you imagine being there for Lorenzo De Medici’s coronation? The thought, well, just makes me happy.
If you could time travel, what time period would you visit?

Well it is another Monday, another week, another opportunity to get it right. Get what right you ask, well anything you want. I want to be well rested and alert, that is my goal this week. I woke up all congested and eyes swollen, I really hate the wind! I have never had this kind of reaction before. I keep putting eye drops in and it is not helping.
The weekend was good, celebrating baby Jackson’s first birthday was so much fun. Loved seeing old friends and their families, loved seeing my good friend Geneva so very obviously happy. The day was perfect, sunny, warm but not too warm; I swear Geneva placed an order! Then on Sunday seeing Jeffrey, Elisabeth and Tessa, so much fun, playing with lady bugs and shells and seeing the new fish named Snoopy. She is growing up too fast, she will soon be 4, the day she was born is still so fresh in my mind.
Well my nasal passages are swollen, so that means I have a headache, so I will be signing off for now. I promise to be more interesting tomorrow!

Yesterday we received the sad news that All My Children and One Life to Live were being cancelled and low level talk shows were replacing them. I am beyond saddened; I grew up watching these soaps and continue to watch AMC to this day. Whatever will I do without Tad, Jesse, Liza, Angie and of course Erica?
All My Children was always at the forefront in tackling controversial issues in their storylines. My favorite was the friendship of Jesse and Jenny, it was the purest form of male/female friendship, he was her protector, her friend, a big brother. The thing that made it controversial was Jesse was African American and Jenny was Caucasian, this was the first time this was portrayed on television. Number one, how could a boy and girl be nothing more than friends? Especially attractive ones, next how on earth could these two be friends? This was the 1970’s and from what I understand the Southern states were up in arms about it. But as everyone continued to watch and Agnes Nixon stayed the course with the storyline, the viewers saw beyond color, beyond gender and saw the friendship, the sweetness and the amazing relationship between these two. It remains my favorite storyline to date.
On One Life to Live my favorite character without a doubt was Tina Lord; she was outrageous, funny, and beautiful and could flirt like nobody I had ever seen before. She had all the boys, she was on the playing level of Scarlett O’Hara and I was impressed and took notes. In the 1980’s I even had my hair like hers, pure craziness.
I will miss my shows, I will miss my characters and I am saddened by ABC’s decision to put subpar reality shows. I am not a fan of the talk show or reality show so I will not be watching; I know these shows will not be successful. And ABC will move on to something else. I wish the actors well, I hope they land on their feet and get other work; it will be sad saying goodbye to old friends.

Today is Jan’s birthday, so to commemorate I thought I would tell you about my friend Jan.
I met Jan in 1988, that will not date us as we were mere children, she was Jeffrey’s mother’s day out teacher, she was also pregnant, as was I. I was not comfortable with Jeffrey in mother’s day out, as I had not been a stay at home mom before and was uncomfortable with the idea of what I viewed as daycare with me not going to work. But as the months wore on I became accustomed to the situation. Jan made it easier; she was always gracious and calm. And beautiful, did I mention she is taller than tall and willowy and blond, just amazingly pretty, I am short, squatty with dark hair, of course I was jealous! She had her daughter a week before I had Elizabeth, more jealousy as that was my due date and Elizabeth was stubborn and refused to make an appearance until exactly one week later.
Jan is not only beautiful; she has integrity, kindness, a wicked sense of humor and loyalty. She has stood with me during the biggest mess of my life, testifying in my custody battle, sitting with me every day in court, making sure I did not lose my children. She always manages to lift me up when I am at my lowest.
Did I mention she has raised two amazing daughters? They are selfless, intelligent and kind; she has raised (along with her terrific husband Larry) two girls who are going out in the world and doing their best to help people. Not only here in America but one actually goes to 3rd world countries and helps people.
So Jan, I tip my hat, lift my glass and thank God every day that you are my friend, I hope your birthday is filled with amazing things and lots of love.
Love you,
Angie

So yesterday I went with Wanda to Sandi’s house to go through some Mary Kay things. Driving into the neighborhood itself was incredibly hard. Pulling up to the house, harder, going inside knowing Sandi would not be there, near impossible. But we did it, and we accomplished a lot. It was a good day, very draining emotionally, but well worth it, on a personal level just to be among her things, it felt like she was there with us.
Yesterday was not a good day at work either, I feel as if I am trapped in Hades, with a certain person pushing the pitchfork my way, and yes I know that is two different ideologies, just go with it. Every day I am being bombarded with the actual message that I am lousy at my job. Now mind you for five years I have been good at it. This manager has decided I am the worst employee ever hired by this company. Never mind the customers love me and I fix their issues and I am able to think outside the box, she is determined to make my life a living nightmare.
I shall not allow this to happen, only I can allow her to win in her quest to squash my spirit, only I can allow her constant micromanaging and nitpicking things that don’t matter to get me down, to depress me to the point of crying everyday on the way to work. I refuse to be defeated! I shall overcome! I shall continue to do my job to the best of my abilities and training. Satan shall not WIN!!