Halloween, Insanity-style

I have completely dropped the ball this year with decorating and other Halloween stuff. I managed to get some of my decorations up this weekend, and took the kids to the local zoo on Sunday for trick-or-treating. Tonight they had trick-or-treating at the PX, but between work and dinner, there was no way we were making it in time. We won't even mention the unpainted pumpkins that are sitting on my counter... I've been meaning to let them decorate them, but haven't made it to pick up the paints. So, to make up for my lame mommy-move of cancelling Halloween tonight, I'm going to do something special for them this weekend. I'd get them dressed up now, but NO ONE on my street has their lights on, indicating they are all either out with their kids, or not handing out candy. It's cold, I can't wait for the day the kids are old enough to beg for candy without supervison. Happy Halloween!!

Filed In: Daily Insanity

Entertainment review

So, I'm one of those people who hasn't seen any movie you bring up. Conversations tend to go like this. "Have you seen XYZ?" Nope. "How about ABC?" Nope. "Really??? EVERYONE has seen that!!!" Nope not me.
You get the idea... movies are generally not my thing. Anyway, Deuce brought over a bunch, one I had seen (Crash), one I had attempted to watch, and didn't follow (Munich), and a few others I hadn't seen yet. We ended up watching "The Notebook", which I really enjoyed, even though I teared up at the end. My great-grandmother had Alzheimers, and that story really struck a chord with me.
We also watched "The Producers", which was hilarious. I normally wouldn't watch a musical, but Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are awesome in this, and it had me cracking up. I'll always see Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller in my mind, no matter how old he gets, but this was a different role for him, and he did it fabulously.

Now, onto book reviews. I've read 4 Stuart Woods novels in the past two weeks, and I'm hooked. He has a series similar to the "Alex Cross" series by James Patterson (Kiss the Girls, Roses are Red, Along Came a Spider), his character is Stone Barrington. I really enjoyed the Stone Barrington novels, as well as his other novels. The one I finished today was actually not up to par with his others, in my opinion. It's called "Blood Orchid", and my only complaint stemmed from continuity issues. There were little mistakes made that affected the continuity of the story, and became distracting. Still, a fast read, and well worth picking up if you enjoy that genre. I'll be picking up a few more, since I borrowed these to pass the time while my friends are in training, and have only one book left to read. (Sidenote to Patterson fans: His new book, "Cross", is out the second week of November, and he's onto his wife's killer. This should be the best Alex Cross book yet!)

Filed In: Daily Insanity

Fall back

This weekend's time change totally screwed me up. I usually look forward to the time change in fall, an extra hour of sleep is always a good thing. However, my friend Deuce came over last night to watch movies, and sometime near the end of the second movie I fell asleep. I woke up at what I thought was 3:15 or so, left him on the couch, and went to bed. This morning, the kids woke up at the crack of dawn, and wouldn't go back to bed. I was up and down for a while, and finally Deuce came up to my room to see if I was getting up. I look at my watch, it reads 10:15, ok cool, I'm up. We go downstairs, and he looks at his cell and says "I can't believe it's only 9:20." Aw man!! Stupid time change!!!

So, Deuce is one of my favorite friends. His name is actually Justin, but we all call him Deuce, including my kids. He's leaving, getting out of the Army, very soon. We thought he'd still be here when our crew got back from training next month, but he found out this week that may not happen. If he's gone before everyone gets back they will be really disappointed... I'm just sad he's leaving, period. The funny thing about it is he's the only lower enlisted in our crew, which is mostly commissioned officers. So, I met this whole crew, and Deuce and I were pretty much instant friends, he's just that great of a person. I'm gonna miss him!!

My friend Tasha and I are taking our kids to the local zoo for trick-or-treating this afternoon. Shane is SO excited about being Spiderman, and Madison is going to be an angel, at least for the day. We've finally reached the point where they understand trick-or-treating, because they remember getting candy last year, so it's all I've heard about for weeks. God help me, I'm going to have 2 sugar-high 4 year olds running wild for the next week or so. Thankfully, I get to go back to work tomorrow!

Filed In: Daily Insanity

Ouch!!

So, I spent last night, and today laid up with back pain. That is possibly the worst feeling, because you're pretty much helpless. I called in to work, ended up going in for an hour during mid-morning, and coming right back home. After a couple hours on the couch with a heating pad, no kids to tend to, and a good book, I'm feeling better.
Thanks to all of you who commented and emailed your support, it means a lot to me. I've got some great friends, am dating a wonderful guy, and am doing just fine. The kids are slowly coming to understand what's going on, and are handling it well, considering.
So, has the year totally flown by for all of you? I cannot believe it's almost November!! I haven't done ANY Christmas shopping, and it's unlikely I'll be able to go on Black Friday this year, so I need to get a move on it. We're not doing anything notable for Thanksgiving, pretty much the entire month of November is going to boring. I've got to go shopping this weekend for a ball gown (KState is having Homecoming this weekend, so l should find a ton of sales), and I'm taking the kids to the local zoo for Trick-or-treating rather than try to go around the neighborhood on Halloween.

Untitled

Well, there is a fairly good reason I haven't been posting much as of late. Beyond working full-time again, there have been a lot of changes in the Insanity household. Nate and I separated a few months ago, before our cruise. A few of you know that, from emailing with me, but I figure the only way to get back into writing (which I crave so much, but have felt unable to do) is to come out with it here. There have been some rough moments, but it's a fairly amicable split. It's been incredibly painful for everyone involved, not just us and the kids, but our families, our friends (nothing like a split to show you who your friends are). So, things have been turned upside down, to say the least. I started this blog shortly before our wedding, and have written through some hard times in the past 2 years. This is probably the hardest of them all, the last thing we expected, or wanted to go through.

So, yes... changes. From the biggest things, to the smallest, everything changes. Six months ago I was a SAHM, living with my husband, and planning out the next decade of our lives. Today I'm a single mom, dating again, and trying to figure out what tomorrow brings, who has time to worry about next year? My appearance has changed, my interests have changed, my opinions have changed... I've gone through a metamorphosis of sorts, and I hope that whatever the end result is, I come out better for it. After all, isn't that what life is? Constantly evolving until you've reached some specified point, a stage of some sort of completion? I hope so...

Drama Drama Drama!

You know, at 24 I never thought life would be so much like middle school. I swear, drama everywhere. First, there is my ex-friend, who posted on a message board we belong to about how she lost a friend who was very important to her, a very obvious reference to me. Bullshit... if I was so important, we'd still be friends. And since one of the reasons she gave for not wanting to be friends was her "finding God" again, and my non-Christian beliefs, I wanted to suggest a Bible study when she needed suggestions for a girls' night out. I kept that one to myself, but it was tough.
Then there is work. We're only a few weeks into our training, and already there is a sexual harassment issue. The 19 people in my training class are ages 18-43, we're all adults, yet most of them act like children. So, another employee walked into our room yesterday, some comments were made and lewd looks given (she is a very attractive woman), and people were written up for it. So, my friend and I were talking, and she decided we should create a reality show about our job. We'll sell it to MTV and call it "Training Room". We'll vote people off, much like "Survivor", except instead of torches they have to hand over their ID badges and log off their computers. We'll have a confession room, a la "The Real World", where people can vent about each other. There will be the cliques and gossiping, it'll be great. Last one standing gets a promotion and raise, the rest are banished to Cubicle Hell. *sigh* It's a grown-up version of middle school, really.

Race Fever

I'm in total race fan mode, with the Chase to the Nextel Cup well under way. Today's race was Talladega, one of the most exciting of the year, and it didn't disappoint. Of course, any of you who watch NASCAR know what I mean, the wreck on the final lap is going to lead to some nice revenge next week. Vickers may have won, but taking out Little E and Jimmy Johnson in the process is pretty shitty. And for the love of god, every time a Hendrick team driver has won a race in the past two years, they've dedicated it to the victims of a plane crash that killed some members of the Hendrick family. The crash was 2 freaking years ago, it's time to close that book. You don't see drivers dedicating wins to Earnhardt Sr. anymore, and while it's sad that those people died, it's time to move on! So, Vickers looked like a schmuck, I nearly stroked out during the race (Kasey had a good shot at winning, so close...) and Junior fans everywhere are out for blood. God, I love the Chase! (And no, my driver is not going to win the cup, but it's still exciting!)

Eyebrow ring v2.0

So, I woke up a few weeks ago with my eye nearly swollen shut, and my eyebrow ring infected. I figure it was from taking it in and out for interviews and work, so I let it close up. I had it redone Friday, let's hope this one will heal better. I'm on a dangerous kick though, I got this one slightly to the side of my original one, and will probably get a second one in the same spot my first one was soon. Plus, I was discussing some other piercing with my piercer, and may have them redone... I'll be airport securities worst nightmare. Really, though, I'm having way too much fun with body mod, which tends to happen when I'm going through lots of change, like I am now. I guess that's one advantage of working in a call center... I'm dealing with large corporations all day, but they can't see me, so I don't really have to look the part.