Consequences of a busy life

I've been suffering from blag lately... you know... when your blog lags behind, whether from lack of interesting posting material, or from life being too busy to post at all. I can't say I haven't enjoyed it, though.

* Bryon got a 4-day pass to Qatar. This meant that for 3 days, he was online a lot, and calling me regularly. Over those 3 days, we talked for a good few hours on the phone. It was wonnnnnderful. It hit me really hard when he went back to Iraq - once again, communication is sparse and I have no idea when I'll hear from him next. Iti's made me very sad.

* Two days after he returned to Iraq, I got a big package in the mail (yaaaay, FedEx!). He sent me a gorgeous, authentic, handmade Persian rug. O_O It is beauuuuutiful, a lovely pale pink. Made completely from silk - it feels so nice to touch. I just don't want to think about how much money he spent on it. Yikes. He also enclosed the first Transformers book so I can read it... :D :D :D and two of the cameras his mother gave him for Christmas, so we'll finally have some pictures from over there. There were also gifts for his parents, my parents, and Bryon's nephews (all 5 of them).

* I painted my bedroom sometime last week... er... yeah, last week. It is now a lovely medium blue - a happy, perky shade of blue (if that's possible). I left the woodwork white, and painted the entire room by myself in 4 hours (for the first coat - did another coat the next day). I also bought sheer white curtains and one of those nifty curtain rods with the finials on the ends... so I spent much time rearranging my room and getting it put back together. I LOVE IT. I shall post pictures soon.

* Still plugging away at Verizon. It's been grueling some days, but I'm trying to hang in there until something else comes along. *sigh* I do enjoy my co-workers, for the most part... which is the only thing making this job bearable right now. One of the girls found a new job and she is starting on Monday. She's very excited, and I'm very excited for her as well.

* Julie's Bonewhacker Moment of the Week: showing up at work at 8:30 (to open) and finding out I didn't need to be there until 10.. and had to work until close (7:30). I had stapled this week's schedule for the mall to NEXT week's schedule for downtown. But at least my hours for next Saturday have been changed, so I don't have to come in at 8:30 a second time. I basically just hung out for a while, did a Tops run, and read my book. We had a ridiculously fun day though - we don't have to make phone calls now, and there were about 3 times more employees than customers for most of the day today, so we all just hung around. It was actually fun, and thankfully the time flew by.

* Once again, I miraculously have two days off in a row. And I shall thoroughly enjoy them.

Soo..... there you go, for anyone who's actually still checking this thing. :D

Ren fairrrrrrrre.

After a really rough start and absolutely disgusting weather trying to convince us not to go, my mom and I headed out for the Ren Faire. I wore my lovely dress. We chatted all the way up, and lo and behold, the rain stopped about 40 minutes into our trip! The closer to the faire we got, the more excited I was. We wandered a bit, and then I got a turkey leg before we headed over to the joust. We sat there for quite a while before it started, because we wanted to make sure we got seats *other* than sitting on the ground. We were rooting for Sir William - at first he was entertaining but he kept taking potshots at the other guy until mom and I decided we didn't like him very much. Then he got walloped anyway, and had to beg the other guy for his life.
 
The faire consists mostly of shops and food, really, so we toured around. The only thing I bought other than food was a cute little fairy made out of string and wire, with embroidery thread hair and felt wings. It's really cute. I got lots of compliments on my dress. Still, the more times I go, the hokier it seems. Going once every few years is perfectly fine with me. Besides, it's soooo expensive.
 
After the faire, we zipped over to Oswego so we could drive around and see what's changed. There is a new Ruby Tuesday's, where that crappy little Cingular/hairdresser's used to be. There's not much visible progress on the dorm renovations or the new student center on campus. We drove around to check out the armory, and ate at the A&W. Yay for root beer floats!
 
The drive home was uneventful, and also completely rain-free. Go figure. I wonder what happened to the huuuuuge storm that was heading north earlier?

Wheeeee!!!!!

Ok, first of all, I talked to Bryon online today. I'd had quite the scare before that... the headquarters where (I'm assuming) he lives had a huge SUV car bomb drive right through the front gates. 5 guys were killed, and 20 were wounded. I spent a VERY miserable 10 minutes reading that article and then I checked my email - to find a message from the Family Readiness Group saying it wasn't any of our guys (at least not C Company anyway). Whew. He seems to be okay. He says it got to 140 degrees there sometime last week! I told him he's going to catch pneumonia when he comes back to our measly 80 degree weather. Not only that, but if he comes back in the middle of a New York State winter... *shudder* Yikes.

I haven't posted much lately. However, I did get my Pink Earring Swap earrings!!! Here's a picture (not a very good one, sorry):



I just love them. Somehow, this girl from Canada (who's never met me or even communicated with me at all) managed to pick out STAR EARRINGS, and wrapped them in star paper. My own best friends couldn't have done better (I happen to have a huge thing for star stuff). I wore them on Thursday to a family picnic, and on a fabric store excursion, and on a 3 hour Walmart run at 2am. The earrings had a very good time. Thanks, Dana!!! :D

What else... we broke our Denny's record the other night - 6 hours and 15 minutes. How scary is that? We were there through two shifts of waitresses. Well, whatever. I had fun hanging out with D and John and the Stiner Beanius over my two-day break. I completely forgot about work for a while - which is just what I needed. And on top of that, I don't have to be there until noon today! Wheeee! A blessing, considering I was up until 1:15 putting together my new over-the-door shoe rack, and putting my DVDs and CDs into my new metal rack. Woohooo!

So now... I'm off to get ready for work.

Playing with the portrait-maker.

Hee hee. XD



The link is here, courtesy of Marcia, who posted it courtesy of someone else. Etcetera. This thing is SO much fun.

Today I am off work, thankfully - and really enjoying my day. I may traverse to Corning, if the comic shop is open. Mike (Bryon's buddy from active duty, who he ran into in Iraq) has requested some comics and I need someplace with a wide variety from which to choose.

Speaking of comics, yesterday I heard Adam Ant on the radio, and it gave me huge cravings to re-read Blue Monday, which is a really great comic by Chynna Clugston-Majors.

So just for fun...

I'm MR. BISHOP!
Which BLUE MONDAY Character Are You?

A Gorge-ous Day Out!

Ok, yeah, that was cheesy. Oh well. So Stine, D and I made a sojourn to hike the Gorge in Watkins Glen last week. It was a lot of fun. It was a perfect day for it - plenty warm out, but not so warm that we fell unconscious from heat exhaustion.



Well, maybe a little. Heh.

The scenery there is just beautiful. Here are a couple of samples:





....and a couple of us goofing around. I made onigiri again, and D brought dried fruit, and we laid out some beach towels for a picnic blanket. We were sitting there for quite some time, relaxing and laughing our heads off. D and I are in tears from laughing in most of my pictures.





We also walked to the Great Escape for ice cream afterwards. Yummmm... So thanks for a fun day, girls! :D We should do it again sometime. Although I don't know when that will be, being that Stine's usually wayyyy up in the North Country and D is moving to Atlanta. :<