Tidbits since the Weekend

It's been a sleepy week and busier at work than I've ever been there. I've worked overtime (read comp time) every day in the pay period that ended today. Which is okay because I need the last week of May off for the move so I can use up a fraction of my accrued comp time. I think I have 70 hours last time I looked. And I've even stopped counting the times I work through lunch. I'm now accruing comp time on top of working through lunch and it's still not all getting done. Also, just yesterday, my new boss told me that he's not going to approve hiring a new secretary even though the department already approved it and we can easily justify the need based on the volume of people my staff supports. Everyone is overwhelmed and we're not going to get any support from this administration. I'm sad about my job because I used to like it so much. I liked driving to the island and I liked the people I worked with. Now, there's a new hierarchy being established with an unprofessional woman who holds a personal grudge against me and one of my employees. The politics that ensue are driving me to reconsider my place of employment yet again and I feel like I just got there. Some of this is driven by the massive number of deadlines that have all hit at once and I'm hoping things calm down as we move into June. So, this week at work, sucked.

However, this week NON-work was a fabulous contrast to that. Except for the fact that we've gone out 4 times this week - including tonight. On Wednesday night we were up til about 2:30 AM and up past midnight every other day.

We are just starting to pack some stuff. I keep freaking out that we're not nearly ready enough and that we're not gonna be packed in time. To which Chris continually replies, Yes we are! I can pack like a packing fiend. I'm only cautiously optimistic that this will be an eventuality. Tomorrow we're going to get boxes in the morning after getting the cars cleaned out and an oil change.

Dawn called yesterday and she and Jim were chosen by a birthmother who is having a little girl in August. The birthmother is 22 and a red-head. She chose them because of James' red hair. Also, she is apparently adopted and thought that Dawn looked like pictures of her own birthmother. Dawn said she and Jim are very excited. That Jim can't keep the grin off his face that he's going to be the daddy of a little girl. That it's all been totally worth the wait. That it's like all her dreams came true and her prayers were answered.
I'm sure.

On Tuesday night, Chelsea had a date with David. He took her to his band banquet at the Hilton on Clear Lake. You know, the one where that crazy lady ran over her cheatin' husband after catching him with the other woman, and then backed back over his body after running him down the first time with their daughter in the SUV. That one.
Anyways, she looked absolutely beautiful as you can tell from the picture. I'm attaching two. One is of Chelsea and Colin - he thought she should stand under this flower bush but then stood in the shot with her which is cool.

The second one is Chelsea with her boyfriend David, who seems like a nice enough kid. He's smart and good conversation. He seems to like Chelsea well enough so that's cool.



This was our appetizer at Sushi Coast tonight. And I regret not snapping a photo of the actual entrees we ordered because they arrived with such presentation it was tantalizing but at that point I had chop sticks in hand and no time for cameras. What a delight a night out for sushi is for me and Chris. I'm so deliciously full. This appetizer is called Sushi Coast Nachos and included "magic spinach" in the middle. Each piece had some magic spinach inside as well. They were tunas wrapped around spinach and encrusted with crunchy goodness and topped with spicy goodness so that in the end each one was full of goodness.
So that's it for now. I'm going to be in packing and moving mode for the next two weeks. Please forgive any one-track-mindedness this blog may take on. That or my absence.

LOVE

Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day because Chelsea has always made me breakfast in bed. She's getting fancier! This year she enlisted Chris's help in buying a bottle of champagne for mimosas. I also got brie cheese, a strawberry and blueberry parfaitti, & chocolate croissants! Mmmmmm. You can bet I was a happy Mommy today! After my feast and mimosas I went right back to sleep. Chris and I didn't get out of bed until around 2:00 pm today. But we needed our rest because yesterday was laboriously fun!

We left the house around 10:30am yesterday and didn't return until about 11pm. We stopped at HEB for food supplies, ice, & drinks to sustain us for both the annual Art Car Parade and a performance of Madame Butterfly by the Houston Ballet at the Miller Outdoor Theater.

We collected an assortment of cheeses - a wenslydale with cranberries and some spreadable ones with crackers. Plus we got strawberries, cherries, nuts, and of course drinks - water, root beer and some cranergy drinks for the kids, beer and sangria for Chris and I. Chelsea brought her boyfriend David and David brought his sister, Amanda who was visiting for the weekend from college. She's a student at Stephen F. Austin. Yesterday was also the day we met Rhonda's friends the Bulgarians - Iskra and Itzo who were super nice and a lot of fun.

We didn't get a spot under a shade tree like I wanted but we claimed a pretty large part of the median with our chairs that we barely sat in the whole time. We were positioned such that facing in one direction we saw half the parade and eventually the beginning of the parade drove down the other side so we just had to turn around to catch the beginning. It was wonderful! Chris says this is the best parade in the northern hemisphere. At some point during the parade our friend Carl showed up so that was fun. He came with us to Star Pizza after the parade.

We liked Iskra and Itzo a lot! I'd like to have another chance to get together with them some other time. After the parade we went for pizza at Star but they left to go home afterwards and missed the rest of the evening. We also ran into Amber and Carlos at Half Price Books on Westheimer where we stopped to kill time between Star Pizza and the Miller Outdoor Theater.

Once we claimed our place on the hill and could sit for a minute I think each one of us crashed out for a bit. We were exhausted from the heat and being outside and probably not enough water. For whatever reason, I honestly thought we were going to the MOT to see an opera. I LOVE opera. If I had known it was a ballet I probably would have wimped out too. We all would have been at home asleep because I'd have given up and been on my way. So I guess it's a good thing that I read it all wrong because, man, what an awesome way to end a perfectly glorious day! The ballet turned out to be stunningly beautiful and the sun had gone down eliminating the burden of heat, night breezes swept up the hill. It was, in all ways, perfect. I was nestled between Chris and Rhonda with Chelsea, David, and Amanda behind us on the blankets. We drank a bottle of sangria and ate more cheese and crackers, hummus and pita bread, and wasabi nuts. Nothing but rich foods all day!

Chris and I took a stroll along the golf course beside the Miller. It was a beautiful walk in the quiet of night under the stars with soft grass under our feet and the swell of the music from the orchestra drifting in the wind from the hill. It couldn't have been a better day.

Then, this morning, I woke up to breakfast in bed, a lovely nap, and a perfect walk in Seabrook, Chris and I went berry picking! We have NO idea what we'll do with all the berries we brought home - I'm thinking of possibly making a pie. Today we had ice-cream with the berries.

Also, today, there was some really sad news related to the Art Car Parade. Apparently the curator of the Art Car Museum was struck by a car and killed right after the parade yesterday. It's the saddest news - here's the story.

Chris and I are both scratched up from berry picking. He said other families walking along the paths in Seabrook would be scandalized from hearing me cursing in the bushes. But the thorns! The stickers! The thicket of entangled prickly berry vines! Curse them! I look like I have some type of rash but it's just scratches from the berry vines. Each welt is a personal triumph for the delicious pile of berries now rinsed and sitting in my fridge.

Here are some of my photos from the Parade, Star Pizza, and the Miller Outdoor Theater.

LOVE

This is Temporary

I'm sad and a little angry for a little boy I love. You know, Chris and Colin have been living with me and Chelsea since last July when they returned from vacation in California. The plan with last year's move was to rebuild Chris's house so that we could all fit in one house. But we've been having too much fun just living our lives, going out, playing disc golf, taking trips, and dealing with the daily things of life to bother with that just yet...

So this year's plan is to move in together to a 3 bedroom rent house, thereby merging our belongings anyway, while rebuilding Chris's house. It's almost exactly like the original plan so don't think too long about what were the differences.

However, the other night Colin got to drive by the new place and Chris said he talked to him about the new plan and the rebuilding. We don't know if the whole scene that ensued was directly related to rebuilding the house or if it was some type of child-of-divorce drama to play Chris against his ex-wife or what but Colin had a fit. A scary fit. The kind where parents sit across from each other staring helplessly into each other's faces not knowing what to do and suggesting that he might need to see a counselor - he's obviously broken and needs fixing somehow. Colin screamed and cried, hit walls and threw things. He said he wanted to live with him mom because she made him a quilt and gave him more back scritches every night.

I was so very torn as to how to feel about this freak out. Part of me wanted to get in line behind Chris and Chelsea to take turns trying to calm him down like the line that forms behind the hysterical woman in the movie Airplane. Part of me wanted to have a little fit right along side him because I had not had a good day that day at all. In fact, the whole way home - about an hours drive - I had been dreaming of getting in and asking for a little attention myself. My feet were swollen up and I had started my period and wasn't in a good mood. Colin was getting all the attention and I felt like competing with him for about a split second. Part of me wanted everyone to just leave him the hell alone because he didn't really need the added attention and would probably have calmed down a lot quicker if everyone's attempts to calm him had not fueled his outrage. In the end, this is what happened. He cried it out and hiccuped himself to sleep. The next day Colin was completely fine and behaved as if nothing had ever happened. He was his usual 8 year old boy self, laughing and getting into little discussions about monsters and legos and giving out hugs and telling me and his dad how much he loves us. In fact, he is falling asleep right now and the last thing he said was "Melissa, I love you!" as he sighed to himself.

So why the outrage? What is going on with him? Was it a ploy for attention? Was he really sad about the house he hasn't lived in for the last 10 months getting knocked down? Had he just had a really bad day and started coming up with anything and everything he could think of to be angry about to play out the fit? I wonder if he has these fits at his mom's house and if he's ever told her that he loves his dad more.

I don't have a lot of experience with divorce. My parents are still married and I've never been married so obviously never been divorced either. But I do know people who are divorced and it never seems like it's a good thing where it concerns children. Sometimes when I think about James and giving him up I get a little sad. I think I would have liked to mother him and could have done a good job of it somehow. Sometimes it gets to me and I think that it was my last chance to have a baby and I threw it away. But when I think about the realities of keeping it him it always comes back down to a few key points and one of the main ones was Noe.

There is no way in hell I would have wanted to be linked to Noe via a child for the rest of my entire life. The child support battles and the visitation bullshit and the birthday parties with two families and worrying with him off on trips to Mexico to visit with his biological father's family. I've never had to deal with any of that with Chelsea's father because he's so much of an asshole that he's never even met her. But Noe, asshole that he was, at least kept up with all his kids and supported them (at less than he should have with the money he made) and visited them. He also had to deal with their mothers and it sucked. I did not want to be involved in that at all. So I can sort of understand what it's like for divorced people because I actually gave a child up for adoption to, on some level, avoid that whole scene. Maybe that's callous but everyone has to decide for themselves what they can live with.

I think that people need some type of support system with kids - like training wheeels - something to lean on if we think we're falling that helps to steady us so that eventually balance can be achieved. Training wheels for life. The element that I plan to keep with me and remember for the next outburst like that is that this is temporary. Just like 2 year olds get cranky when they are too tired, or 3# year olds get cranky when they've had a bad day at work - the next day everything will come up roses again.

a reflection and photographs of a walk

My birthday just passed me by in such a whirl of gifts and food that I haven't had a chance to blog. For my birthday I wanted to get off of work early and go sit on the beach to write but I had to work the whole day. So now, I'll think about the ocean and the beach and the sky.

As I move forward into my 3#th year of life I have to say that I'm very happy with everything - sure I could be a lot thinner and it would be nice to have some more money and more time. I wish my heels were smoother and the ends of my hair weren't split. My boobs could be a little more perky and I could certainly be farther along in my ever-continuing novel that I so rarely have time to work on. But physical imperfections and personal time management issues aside I've never been happier. I have had a good year since my last birthday - my relationship with Chris has grown a lot and we have plans to continue far into the future so I suppose things are working out well. Chelsea is doing great in school and has a budding new relationship of her own that keeps a smile on her face.

We're moving in 18 days and haven't packed a thing but today I started throwing stuff out which is the first step. Yesterday we found an absolutely gorgeous house. I knew there was a reason that the other house deal fell through - because there was a better house that we were meant to have! This one has windows galore! OMG the windows in this place are completely amazing. I took a video as we were going through it - I uploaded it to youtube HERE.

Today we took a walk along some trails in Seabrook and saw a multitude of wildlife including two different kinds of snakes, some wild boar, many frogs, some turtles, and a couple of bunnies and later in the day - while driving actually - 6 deer. Chris nearly stepped right on a water moccasin which tripped him out for the rest of the walk. There were berry bushes LINING the paths! I can't WAIT for them to be ripe! We'll go with a bucket and fill it to the brim with mulberries and dewberries; take them home, sprinkle with sugar and pour on some cream and eat them! Chris and I ate all the ripe purple ones we could find - some were fat, plump and sweet and others were a little small and somewhat too tart but we ate them anyway. It was a glorious walk and I can't wait to go again!

Here are some photos of things we encountered on our walk. This photo set will grow once I get the pics from Chris.

Just thoroughly enjoying life right now.
LOVE

The Company Picnic

I had a LOT of fun today. We arrived at Seawolf Park early to help with anything that needed setting up but there were several people so we didn't have to do much. Once everyone arrived it was completely, absolutely, wonderful to just hang out and have fun with your co-workers and their families. You learn a lot about people seeing their whole families together. There were games - water balloon toss, 3-legged races, hula hoop competitions, and plenty of barbecue and beer. I've never worked at a place that does company picnics before so I highly recommend them to any organization that doesn't. It turned out to be a perfect day for it too. There was a thunder storm when we woke up this morning and it was still sprinkling, overcast, and extremely windy when we first got there. We had rented the pavilion for the occasion. It was a great 3 story structure right on the edge of the water. It's also a memorial with two submarines that were in WWII that you can tour. I really wanted to take the tour too but we never did.

When I first climbed up to the top of the pavilion at SeaWolf Park, Chris was already up there with Chelsea and they looked at me and laughed and then Chris jumped over the edge of the pavilion wall and hung there by his hands - all I could see was his head and his hands. It freaked me out horribly for just a second but Chelsea was laughing and as I got closer it was apparent that the edge was at an incline - Like in the above picture. BTW - this is not my picture - I forgot my camera at home so I have NO pictures from today. :( I did a search for SeaWolf Park on Flickr and this pic came from this guy's set.

We had to leave around 3:30 because Chelsea wanted to get back home - she had a date tonight. They just went to the little coffee shop down the road for espressos. She's already back home - but it's 10 now.

Tomorrow my family is getting together at Cheddar's for a birthday dinner. We're celebrating my mom and Jason's birthdays which are both on Tuesday and mine and Chris's which are 5/1 & 4/12 respectively. I like Cheddar's a lot. They have this amazing (and totally fattening) appetizer called Idaho Nachos which is like nachos fully loaded - cheese, grilled chicken, tomatoes, green onions, the works - except that instead of corn chips they use waffle fries. mmmmm yummy.

Oh, big (negative) news - the rent house we found and loved fell thru because of our realtor who never checked with the homeowners if 5/23 was too far in the future to secure the house and it was. So now we're back to hunting and that house is already rented. We're not moving till the end of May. Packing is going to be a nightmare because things aren't organized and there are two houses worth of stuff to move. I don't know how we're going to manage that with movers but we're meant to have movers this time. Wish us luck on finding the perfect house for us and 3 dogs.

That's it for an update.
LOVE

Sun, Sand, Sea, Surf, Smashed

The weekend was stupendous! What a great time we had. I've been dying to tell everyone that I got Chris a gorilla costume for his birthday but we had to wait because he wanted to freak everyone out at the beach house. It worked out beautifully! Oh my gosh what fun! I ate too much and drank too much but had a lot of fun. Taking the monday afterwards off was a brilliant idea.

Chris and I slept in a little on Friday morning because we could. The weather on the way to Galveston was overcast and patched with rain. This had been expected. What had not been expected was that it was completely clear and beautiful by the mid afternoon and the perfect weather reigned throughout the rest of the weekend. The ferry ride over was the windiest choppiest ferry ride I've ever been on. As we sailed over waves they crashed over the edge as far as the first two rows of cars which got soaked. We met up with Patrick and Lala at the fauxmart that we stopped at to pick up some flip-flops and two koozies which really assisted in knowing which beer was mine the whole weekend. By the time we made it to Shalom IV, Lisa and Brandi were already there waiting for us.

Shalom IV was the most beautiful beach house ever. It had my dream kitchen completely outfitted with my dream appliances, tools, knives, furnishings, and view. It was roomy with tons of counter space and lots of plates and cooking utensils. I fell in love with it. This year Chris and I got our own room and we made good use of it. It was also helpful in the great gorilla caper. The room had a third story deck with a rocking bench outside so you could sit and gaze upon the ocean from right outside your bedroom. The deck(s) at this place were amazing too.

The first night we were there - as soon as everyone had arrived we trekked down to the beach and built a fire. Actually Chris K. built the fire - it was amazing. As we sat around enjoying the fire, a guy without a shirt on emerged from the water - freezing cold (it was cold at night on the beach - hence the fire) and asked if he could join our group. His name was Jason and he's pictured in the photos. What a guy! This kid asks us if we have any acid - right off the bat. Besides which, if any of us had been the acid-doing-type, I don't think he needed any because it was obvious he was on something already. He was talking about heroine but none of us actually believed him. Lala thought he was a ghost - which was good fun. The fire was so perfect though. It was decreed that there shall always be a fire at all future beach houses. In fact, we all had so much fun that we are talking already about doing it again in late September. That would be a blast.

Saturday was a day of eating eating and eating. The open grill turned out to be a good idea but largely WAY too much food. Everyone brought enough lunch to feed the entire group - which would have been like having 6 meals. Most people were full before all the food was done and some food just never got cooked at lunch because there was no need. Lisa made some killer macaroni and cheese - with seven different kinds of cheeses. Amazing. We made desserts - there were brownies and a HUGE lemon cake with lemon icing for all the birthday people. Also, strawberries and pineapples. The pina colada mixers were the right idea but we didn't bring enough of them. Two trips were made to the store for additional pina colada mix until on Sunday morning when we ran out of rum and couldn't utilize all the mixers. We went for a walk on Saturday night too and found the remains of an abandoned fire that my Chris kicked into submission. Just from moving around the embers and remains with his sandaled foot he got it going pretty good and we all stood around warming ourselves on that fire too. There was a full moon and plenty of walking on the beach.

Sunday most people slept in except for the breakfast people and we had home made hashbrowns a la brandi - she shredded the potatoes herself!! grilled pork chops, fried or scrambled eggs, and toast! OMG! That breakfast was to die for! I wish I had had more hash browns but they ran out pretty quick. Some folks had to leave for the drive home but the 2 Chris's, Lisa, Brandi, Carl, Patrick, Robby & I stayed till the very bitter end - around 4 and then drove out to the beach after locking up the house for one final beer on the beach before the drive home.

Here are some pictures from the weekend. A most excellent time was had by all.

Seeking: 800 mg Ibuprophin

my muscles don't work so good. so i'm gonna have to forgo the shift key for this post. no offense to the english language - which, as anyone who knows me knows, i love.
yesterday was chris's birthday - yay we're the same age now -for the next 19 days anyway. last weekend chris told his parents that i was 40. 40! ok there i used the shift key - but it was called for. they believed him too and his mom asked me later if i really was 40. i think it made her nervous. ah well.
but i digress. so chris wanted to play frisbee golf for his birthday but prior to that i got up to make breakfast, birthday breakfast of ham and cheese quiche and baked beans - i think it's a british thing but actually really tasty. the beans went well with the quiche. so after making breakfast but before eating it we rushed out to the y to register colin for summer camp. registration was half off and because he had a membership to the y with his mom the summer camp weeks were $30 less -shift again, i know, it took it out of me too. so the first week of the summer he's going camping w/ his grandparents, 2nd week going to away camp - camp cullen. then the rest of the summer going to day camp at the y which will be insanely closer to us in the new house we're renting at the end of may.
so breakfast, registration - where we ran into chris's x-wife, new hubby and baby which usually puts me in a funk for a while - then home to eat the breakfast and then we drove out to play frisbee golf at jack brooks park. chelsea didn't join us but colin and honey did. it was probably the best game of frisbee golf i've ever played. my throws were straighter and farther than they've ever been. chris thought so too. in fact, yesterday he started talking about keeping score. cuz ,you know, he has to win. he can't stand losing. i know you're reading this baby and you know it's true. be afraid be very afraid - one day i'm gonna beat you at frisbee golf. oh yeah. i am.
anyway - so i'm tired, and sore, and sun burned on my arms and neck. fortunately my face was saved because i was wearing a hat.
here's a look at chris on his birthday:


LATER IN THE DAY. As for the rest of the past month - here are some briefers:
Chris and I met our friends Amber and Carlos at the Station Museum for a Colombian photography exhibit. This exhibit itself was slightly disturbing featuring amputee porn, portraits of beaten women, victims of a disease that causes serious swelling in the brain and head area, and etc. However, the margaritas were free, all too available and quite potent. I have no idea how many I drank but I do know that it was far too many. At some point apparently Rhonda and Chris were holding me up and taking me to Tacos A Go Go for food when Chris stepped in a hole and went down and I went down with him. My foot twisted and hurt for about 3 weeks.

My family celebrated Jackie's & David's birthdays at Kelly's Country Cooking which is a very nasty place to eat. No one in my party felt good after eating there.

Chris went on a business trip to the Electronic House Expo in Orlando, Floriday and brought me back a cute shot glass and a tea cup that I've been using for tea at work. It's green and has daisies on it.

We've continued to play disc golf just about every weekend and this weekend we've actually been twice - we went again today. I could only do the back nine holes - my body was entirely too sore for 18 baskets today. Chelsea came with us today but didn't play golf - she sat on the swing and read her book the whole time. But she thoroughly enjoyed herself.







I went to delegate training at the residence of one of the other delegates. She had an immaculate house that didn't even look lived in with all white furniture and black furnishings like a vase on the white tv cabinet or the coffee table etc. It was kinda institutionalized or something. So we learned how to be good Obama delegates. The Senate convention was interesting - there were lots of good speakers - Nick Lampson was there to speak. The central message of the day seemed to be "united we stand" in terms of the Democratic Party. No matter who wins the Democratic nod we're all still going to vote democrat in November. Which is interesting because the Clinton / Obama supporters are SO for one and against the other - it's insane. We were meant to be there at 7:45 but didn't get there until 8AM and the line was wrapped around the building. The place was entirely too small for the number of us participating. We knew we weren't going to break for lunch so Chris and I had brought a cooler with us with drinks and sandwiches.
Afterwards we drove out to Chris's parents' house to pick up Colin and then over to Matt and Julie's for video games and dinner.

Oh we found out that Matt and Julie are having a boy! Yay! that is so great for them.
More good baby news is that Chris is going to be an uncle again! Penny is pregnant again! Yay!!! Congratulations Penny!

On April 3rd Chris and I celebrated being in love for a year. It was the one year anniversary of the day we first declared our love and began the exclusivity rule of our relationship. I got flowers at work - they were so beautiful! Here's a picture:

Chris' family celebrated his birthday with 18 holes of frisbee golf at a course in the Woodlands with green fees and the most extensive pro shop we had ever seen! Frisbees GALORE! There were more frisbee's there than we've ever seen in Academy or elsewhere - ever! Chris, of course, purchased a short stack of them. That's where I got my new green Archangel which may be the root cause of the vast improvement in my game.

Here's a few family photos from the big game:










And last but not least HERE is a link to my Picasa album where you can see pictures of the Buddhist Gardens that we went to today for a picnic before we played frisbee golf.