Sunshine

I went to Mr. B's with Brian earlier this afternoon to talk about fabulous things and sit in the sunshine. The rooftop deck is marvelous. But now I have a sunburn. Ow.

I'm really looking forward to Kevin's visit this weekend. Should be good times.

I have an idea for a story I want to write. Now I need to actually get my lazy ass to work on it. Maybe if it is nice on Sunday, I'll go to the park and write.

I have had this weird thing going on lately, where I crave solitude, but I can't stand being by myself. I'll go places and completely zone out, but I don't want to stay at home. I feel self-conscious about my lack of input in a group conversation, and then I over-compensate, and then I feel ridiculous. I don't know. I'm an odd girl. That probably doesn't make sense at all.

My insomnia is kicking my ass.

One last thing before I quit.

Shit planet

So...my life has been really intense over the last week or so. I'm dealing with some some major personal stuff, I haven't been sleeping, and I've kind of sunk into a little bit of a slump. I try not to talk about it or complain about it too much, because I know there are people far worse off than me. But yeah...I've been feeling pretty lousy lately. Things are starting to really pile up and I am starting to feel like I will never be able to catch up or get some rest.

Towards the end of my day at work, the weather warmed up, the sky cleared, and it was a gorgeous evening. I think it is marvelous how something as simple as a nice evening can lift you up, even a tiny bit.

Speaking of work, I had something kind of gross and weird happen today. Our pest control man came to change out our stuff we use to keep bugs away. Since I was the manager on duty, he asked me if we were having any issues. I told him that we were having a bit of a fruit fly problem. He said they were coming from the floor drain. He told me to pour hot water and bleach down there, and that should do the trick.

Well, since I had it fresh on my mind and nothing else to do, I started pouring water down the drain. The water wasn't draining down, so I figured that the drain was clogged. So, I went to the hardware store to buy some industrial strength drain cleaner. Which is basically just sulfuric acid. I started to pour it, and smoke came up. While that was kind of cool, I kind of stepped back, because I was afraid of toxic fumes, or something of that nature. It's a good thing I stepped way back, because what happened next was outrageously disgusting.

*The faint of heart might want to skip this paragraph.*

Instead of the water going down into the drain, where it belongs, raw sewage started bubbling up out of the drain. I shit(pardon my pun) you not. It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. The whole store smelled like crap. I've never seen a busy Starbucks clear out so fast. We may have been been breaking a rule by not evacuating, being that we had a major biohazard in our back room, but that would mean I would have to call Cece, and I just wasn't willing to do that. We got the mess cleaned up, and the sewage stopped coming up. I did make an emergency call to a plumber, and invited anyone I knew to come into the back room and ask them if they could smell anything. Ha...I have the sense of humor of an eleven year old boy, and I love it.

So, because of that, we kept all the doors wide open, and I was able to enjoy the beautiful evening.

I'm off for the next couple of days. I have a few things going on...I'm going to a show tomorrow night, and have some plans in the works for Saturday. I just hope I'm able to relax a little bit. I feel like I have been rode hard and put away wet.

I know I'm right.

But that doesn't make it any easier. I just did a really scary thing, but I know it was the right thing to do.

Now I just need to breathe.

Lazy saturday night in.

So, after the craziness of last night, I decided to lay low and watch some movies tonight.

Yesterday evening began with a trip to Kailie's bonfire. Which was fun. Her friends seemed very nice, and it was a perfect evening to sit outside.

After Kailie's bonfire, the party moved on to the D. Steve had invited a few of us for Rock band and beer. By the time I got there, I was already pretty buzzed. But damn it, I tried to take pictures anyway, and I told other people to take the camera and do the same.



Here, you will see me doing the only thing I can do when I play Rock Band.



Steve and Jenn thought it would be a great idea to sing "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys as a duet. They got booed off the stage.



Rawk.



Next to my Jinx, this is the most beautiful cat in the world. Her name is Cass, and she belongs to Steve's brother, Dan. She just had a fur-cut. And she has devil eyes here.



Aww.

So, later in the night (or earlier in the morning depending on how you look at it), we had the fabulous drunken idea to make Zipfizz cocktails.

To make a Zipfizz cocktail, you need three things:



Zipfizz, crappy vodka, and coffee mugs.



As you can see here, Zipfizz cocktails please everyone.

This morning, I woke up to Steve's loud cell phone and a man and a woman having an AWESOME fight on the street below. I couldn't really get the jist of it, but I definitely heard the phrase "You've been creepin'". I left Detroit with a smile on my face.

When I got home, I settled in for a afternoon of laziness. I watched one of my favorite movies of all time, "The 'Burbs", watched some crappy television, ate some ice cream, and watched some pretentious indie movie I ordered from Netflix. Now, I'm kind of itching to get out and do something, but would take a lot of effort on my part, and I think my laziness today trumps my desire to go out.

The guys might get mad at me for this one.

I think it's weird that my tampons have inspirational quotes on the wrapper, such as "Get in the game!" and "Never give up!".

Pink flamingos decorate my yard.

So, I haven't posted a lot of blogs lately. I've been busy with a lot of things. Mainly work and the fun stuff that comes with late spring/ early summer. Everyone is coming out of the proverbial winter hibernation and there a lot of fun things to do as the weather gets nicer.

But I have been taking photographs.



Here, you see what I have done with my pathetic excuse for a front yard. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of kitschy, gaudy stuff. What could be more tacky than pink flamingos?

Another summertime tradition which has started back up are nights on Sara's porch listening to music and drinking a couple of beers.



It's still a little on the cold side, as you can see. Sara looks uncomfortable.



As does Brad.

Another thing that I have been all about lately is getting out of the house more often. A few of you may know about my recent anxiety attacks, one of which landed me in the hospital and prompted me to go back on my meds for my depression and anxiety, which I had weaned myself off of. One of the things I was taking was Klonopin, which is a tranquilizer, and I didn't want to do a whole lot of anything when I was on it. I'm feeling more stable on my medication now, and my doctor took me off of Klonopin, and put me on something that will perk me up a little more. I haven't noticed its effects as of yet, but I feel a lot better than I did while I was taking the other stuff.

So yeah...getting out of the house.



That's Bryan and I at Mr. B's. I go to Mr. B's a lot....it's so close to my work (like three doors down), I know all the people there, and it's pretty cheap.

Last friday, my friend Katie and I had a girl's day which was really fun. It consisted of sushi, sake, Target, Dollar Treasure, Main Street Billiards, and us witnessing a drunken bar brawl at 7pm in front of Mr. B's. I ended the night with Eric at Gusoline Alley, where we went to meet up with Steve Seck and Darcie.

Anyway, while I was at Target, I found something magical.

Some of you may remember this:



When we first got Huey, I found this gem at Target. It's made for cats, and it velcros together, so the cat can easily take it off. Huey LOVES wearing it.

So, imagine my delight when I found these:



Yup, that's right. Little sailor cat collars! Huey really likes this new addition to his wardrobe.

Jinx, however....



She's less than pleased, but she'll at least wear it. Not like the Christmas bow I tried to get her to wear.



One last thing of note. Last Christmas, Mark Christopher gave me a box of records that his parents had for me to rifle through. There was mostly stuff I didn't want, and a few things I'm planning on passing on to Steve. However, in the middle of the box was this weird rainbow colored wad of polyester. I pulled it out and discover it's true awesome-ness.



It's a freakin' hooded robe!!!



Now I can either join the Polyphonic Spree or start a cult. I haven't figured out which yet. Plus I need to figure out how to get the smell of mothballs and the seventies out of it.

Dear reader, you probably haven't made it this far. But if you have, I applaud your determination to finish reading this long photo journal of the last couple of weeks. As for right now....I have some stuff to do before work.

Facebook is wacky.

So, my Mom and my Aunt are now friends on my facebook page.

I find this odd for the following reasons:

1. In my warped mind, no one over the age of forty uses social networking sites, and if they do, it's through their boring job or they are perverts.

2. My Mom and Aunt Pam have a completely different set of morals than I do. While I totally respect that, I'm interested to see how much I will censor myself from this point on. I don't expect any of my friends to do the same, nor would I ask anyone to.

3. I have some mildly scandalous (not sexy-wise, just smoking and alcohol-related) photos in my albums. My Mother and my Aunt are both Mormon, and while they know that I'm an adult, I live on my own, and I can do whatever I want....I wouldn't light a cigarette in front to my Mom or drink beer in front of my Aunt out of respect for their beliefs.


Still, even with it being odd....I am thrilled to have them as relatives and friends on facebook. Now...the search begins for my father on myspace. Lord help me.

So, my friend Johnny is a connoisseur of dive bars. And I like dive bars, so I'm a good adventure companion. He foung this gem of a place in Madison Heights somewhere. They had giant PBR brafts for like $2.50, comfy bar stools, fabulous people watching (one guy was this sweet old man who looked like my grandpa and he told me he had worked at Tiger Stadium for fifteen years. I ordered a bottle of PBR, and he said "That's my girl!". I loved him. There was also some scary guy who looked like V from "V fot Vendetta".).

After awhile, Johnny and I left and headed back to the old stomping ground of Gusoline Alley. Not only did I sit at the bar (which I am pretty sure is a first for me), but they made me a mojito (they had mint left over from mint julips). I got a couple of pics while I was there.



Old friends!





Half of Johnny's face, me, and Jim.





So, yeah....last night was a lot of fun. It's really nice having those friends that never go away...you may fall out of touch of a bit, but they are always around. There is something very comforting in that.

I have to close at work tonight. Which shouldn't be too bad. At least it isn't a midshift.

I like when my friends come to visit.

In honor of Steve Seck and Christopher Hiller being in town, I'm thinking of having a big bar night/party here. The weekend of the 12th. While I do not own Rock Band (yet), I do know of lots of fun things to do around the area.

If I was to put together such an event....would there be any takers?