It Was the Summer of '84

I remember the day clearly. It was a hot, dry day, not unlike those we've been experiencing lately. I had been eagerly waiting for this day, and it had finally arrived. I was nervous, but I was ready. I walked in with my mom. It was the beauty salon where our neighbor worked, and with minimal tears and not minimal pain, I had my ears pierced.

A few short hours, I was invited to the city pool. My new ear bling forced me to decline the offer, and I wasn't much interested in having my ears pierced anymore. In fact, the last time that I wore earrings was for a dorm formal back in college, ... "a few" years ago. I basically had to reopen a part of the piercing to get the earrings in. Needless to say, my piercings closed years ago.

I had my ears repierced tonight. I am a vain, vain woman. I want to wear cute earrings for my wedding, and I knew clip-ons wouldn't cut it.

Since I don't have a regular salon and I'm lazy, I got it done at the mall. I swear that I was old enough to be the mother of every girl in the store, including the employees. My fiance in tow, I went up to the counter and said that I wanted my ears pierced. I think my vocabulary may have been a bit advanced because I swear that I heard crickets chirping in the silence.

The assistant manager to me over to look at studs and then went to get someone else to do because she hadn't been trained.

"Oh my God."

I kid you not. These were my exact thoughts.

Another girl comes over to help, and I am relieved that she looks like a high school graduate and the oldest employee in the store. After some general confusion about what they had in stock, I make my selection and start signing on enough lines that I thought I might have a house in escrow.

I loved filling in my age and date of birth. It led to the following discussion...

Misc Karen: "Ha. My age. I'm probably twice the age of your average customer."

Teenage Piercer: "You're probably twice my age."

(Yes, she did actually say this. Completely deadpan.)

MK: "How old are you?"

TP: "16."

MK: "I'm not quite there yet."

TP: "Oh, really? I was just joking."

MK: "No, I'll be twice your age in November."

That is when the crickets started chirping again.

She eventually dots my ears with a purple pen on my old holes so that I can greenlight the location. These dots were the size of large acne. She could have put them in about three different spots in the mark. I okayed it, trusting she couldn't mess up putting them in the old spots.

I got home, looked in the mirror, and noticed that the one in the left ear is higher than the one on the right. I'm hoping that once they heal it won't be as noticeable, and if worse comes to worse, I'll let them close up after the wedding.

Man, This Is the Song Stuck in My Head This Weekend

Swing, Batter, Batter, Swing!

Okay, I'm disappointed. I ca admit it. I was really hoping that Barry Bonds wouldn't get the record. I know "innocent until proven guilty" but I think he had to have been taking performance enhancing drugs. As such, I don't think he deserves to be memorialized. Then again, I pretty much think all athletes are overpaid. That being said, I hope the Seattle tells the Sonics to shove it when it comes to a new arena and that the Sonics enjoy Oklahoma City.

Gimme a D'oh

Okay, so I'm getting my blog back into shape after ages of neglect. I have temporarily put aside my awesome design until I can afford my own hosting to return it to its former glory. I'm putting back my long-lost links. Thank God that Unkymoods is now back as Punkymoods. Then while fiddling with my blogger dashboard, I discover that I had 50+ comments (most from over a year ago) waiting to be moderated to show up on my blog. Looks like I have some settings to adjust.

In other news, t-minus 3 months to the wedding. I have prided myself on my attempts to not be a bridezilla. The fiance and best man called me Bridezilla once, and I basically reared my Bridezilla head. Otherwise, much mellowness. My mantra on most wedding related items, "Is it something we'll ever use again? No? Then we don't need it."

Oh, in catching up on news from the last year. We have a dog now, Buddy (I tried to get him named Black or Coke.) Our cat, Jack, hates Buddy. Despite being maybe a fifth the size of Buddy, Jack is still the alpha pet. I'd post photos, but the last time I posted photos of Jack on the blog, I started getting all these strange referrals from what looked like "adult" sites, and the thought of adult sites referring to photos of my cat creeped me out beyond words.

Back to the Template : (

It's with mixed emotion that I bring back the blogger.com template. I now have a title to my blog again, but I don't have the elements of Jen's cool design. With over a year away from the blog, it is almost like I'm starting from scratch, again. And it's not like I've even had much of life in my absence. Maybe this weekend I'll get some of my old links back.

The News Is Out

Well, I haven't been around for awhile, but that's because I can't keep secrets, and there were a few people I had to talk to in person.

I am engaged!

Coming to wedding near you in Fall 2007 .

A Moment's Reflection

All week long I've been planning on blogging about how I'm doing on my New Year's resolutions as we approach the halfway mark, then I discovered I didn't make any which is sad, because I'm not doing half bad. (End grammatically poor run-on sentence.)

So here's how I'm doing on my non-existent New Year's Resolutions

1. New job - Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. I start my new job in less than a month and this is my first announcement of it on the blog. Back in February, I had a post about something big in the works. This was it. Oddly enough, it was with the same employer, it just took forever to get the interview setup. It's nonprofit work and I get to use my master's degree. The b/f and I move in a month to the new job's city, which is where he's been commuting for months now. Much happiness and progress on this front.

2. Blog/Writing - yeah, no comment.

3. Weight loss - More like weight gain. I am at a new all-time high, something I'm not proud of and have been rather bummed about. Last night, I formulated a plan to kickstart the new era of weight. How many pounds can I leave behind in the month before my move? Tonight I made a grilled chicken wrap with assorted veggies and had a small dish of ice cream with lowfat granola. I've even done 50 crunches this evening. A small start, but when I get to the new digs (which amazingly come with a pool) I plan to step up the exercise.

4. Finances - I'd say I'm breaking even for the year, but considering that I'm still rebuilding after the fire, not bad.

A Bad Box of Hangover

Saturday morning was misery thanks to almost a full bottle of red wine Friday night. Plus, I developed a cold to go with it. Oh, and the b/f and I spend the better part of the day out of town.

A Good Box of Wine

I had a long week of work, full of overtime and aching feet.

I blew my overtime on a box of wine and a movie, and we're not talking a Franzia and a matinee. I bought a used copy of Must Love Dogs and then hit the liquor store next. My favorite riesling, a chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernot savignon.

Everything's coming up Milhouse!

Crawling from My Shell

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I survived the b/f's sister's wedding (I've never seen a bride smile more & if I ever get married, I will shell out the money for a caterer). Just when I thought I could relax, it's one of the 5 really busy times of the year at work. And will only get worse next week.

Good thing I already have my Mother's Day gift taken care of.

I just keep thinking of the vacation the b/f and I are planning for June. Exotic South Bend, Indiana. Actually, I'm really looking forward to seeing my old college stomping grounds for the first time since I graduated. I have this horrible fear that the Notre Dame campus has grown all corporate. Uggggh, shivers down my spine. Think I would have to insist on a lovely summer evening's walk around campus to all my favorite spots.