Yes, I still exist......

I haven't been on here in weeks. So much of my spare time is being spent planning for the wedding so I don't expect to be able to spend anytime on dA for a while yet. I miss this place, but I did take some time off from work at the end of April and I plan to spend some of that time test driving my new 300mm zoom lens.

I guess I'll be back in a few weeks.

Kevin turned on the television while we were watching dinner this evening and was watching the last part of Jeopardy and then Wheel of Fortune. For some reason it's still fun to sit there and try to solve the puzzles on these timeless shows. But after they were over a sitcom came on and Kevin asked if I minded if he turned the TV off - he can't stand sitcoms. I asked him why and received an earful about how they're just not funny because all the humor is based on cut-downs and he finds them to be terribly offensive. It's an idea that I can't really wrap my brain around but Kevin does have a valid point. A lot of the humor in sitcoms are based on cutting other people down but everything that happens in the shows are such exaggerated situations that it seems almost unreal. Maybe there's just enough of a grain of truth in these shows that we can relate to them and find the humor in terrible situations, but how does that justify the crude manner in which the characters tend to treat each other in these shows that we so often laugh hysterically at?

It is my theory that in finding humor in a biting or witty remark made toward someone on TV we find an outlet for all the mean things that we would probably, at some point, like to say to a person we really know. We can relate to the characters on the show because people really can be annoying or do stupid things but in the name of courtesy we are more likely to hold our tongues for the sake of not hurting someone's feelings. Awkward social situations and ironic mishaps happening on the boob tube all have the ring of truth to them - we encounter them in our daily lives enough to feel for the the poor soul on that TV show - but seeing it happening to someone other than ourselves brings the humor of the situation to the fore and we are forced to laugh not only at the character's predicament but also at ourselves. After all, we are all human together and all great comics know the universal secret to getting a good laugh is by telling the truth. The million dollar question is, does it make us less kind to find the scathing remarks in sitcoms to be funny? Personally I don't think so. What we find to be funny does not define our character - they way that we act and treat others when we encounter them does.

Lots of hard work this last weekend at home, but it was well worth it to get my home finally put back in proper order and get a lot of deep cleaning done. It feels good to come home from work and things are put away. It's great.

This weekend should be a blast though. Friday I'll be going out with a good friend of mine to keep me company while we watch Kev and Corey play acoustic at a bar out of town. I need to get out of the house, but I hate sitting at the bar by myself so I'm dragging my Irish drinking brother out with me.

Saturday I'll spend most of V-day alone, but it's okay. We've already planned to stay in bed all day with the phone off the hook to watch movies and cuddle. Sickeningly cutsey, I know...but we've hardly been able to spend any time together lately.

Next week should be just as exciting. One of my best friends is coming up to visit for a few days. I haven't been able to see her in a very long time and she's bringing her 5 month old daughter that I've never seen yet. I'm so excited about seeing her and the baby that every time I think about it I can't help but crack a big goofy grin!

Four trips to Gaylord and about a thousand bucks in the hole, but I was finally able to get the van home today. We left right after I got out of work and I was so relieved when I turned the key and the engine turned over. The tension didn't really ease off though until I got about 10 miles out of town and the van continued to run even when I kicked it up to 60mph. This whole fiasco has been such a major source of stress, but I'm glad that it's all over now and things can start to fall back into the normal routine - starting tomorrow of course. Right now I still feel a little out of sync. It's nine o'clock at night and I am still in my work clothes! (That is something that just never should happen.) The living room is a little trashed right now too. Kevin is playing an acoustic gig at Chief's tomorrow night so his PA equipment is strewn all over the living room floor. But it isn't really bothering me, he has to make sure it's all in good working order - better safe than sorry. It's just a good thing that we got the van back today; there is no way that he could have hauled all this equipment over there without it.

In any case, my world is mostly back in order and I know for sure that I'll be spending some quality time with myself this weekend. Giving myself a 'girly spa day' is well overdue!

This has easily been the shittiest start to a new year that I've ever had. I came down with that nasty flu a couple weeks ago which had me dead to the world for three days. Last weekend we traveled across the state to visit Kevin's brother. The trip was great, we went out to a restaurant with a sushi bar and ate SO MUCH sushi! It was delicious. However, on the way back home the van broke down 20 minutes into the trip and we were stranded on the side of the highway at 9:30pm. Neither of us has a cellphone right now so we were stuck in the freezing cold until somebody was finally nice enough to stop and let us use their cell phone to call Kevin's brother. He came out there and we managed to get the van working well enough to get it back into town and drop it off at a shop. By that time it's almost midnight on Sunday and I'm supposed to be at work by 8am Monday morning in a town two and half hours away! FUCK! Well, nothing can be done about that, so I call into work. I hate missing work.....it kills my paycheck and I feel SO guilty. What can I say? I enjoy my job and I hate leaving my associates to pick up my slack.

Anyway, the shop looks at the van the next day, they can't find anything wrong with it so we go get it and start off for home. We get about 45 minutes away and the van breaks down again! GREAT! Now we're stranded in the middle of this tiny little town that consists of a gas station/food market, A bar/restaurant, maybe a post office and some houses around a small school! Thankfully a cop stopped shortly after the van broke down and asked if we needed help. He called in my vehicle so it wouldn't get towed away then gave us a ride to the Pub so we could sit somewhere warm and try to get a hold of someone to help us get home. The officer let me use his cell to try calling a few people but no one answered except my best friend's husband who informed that his son had just gotten into an accident with the car the day before so they couldn't come and get us. So, we went in the pub and a couple of nice gentlemen let me use their cellphone to keep calling people until I finally got a hold of a friend. Either way, we ended up sitting there for almost 2 hours. We finally made it home by 8:30pm.....

The next day, Kevin gets up with me so he can take me to work in HIS car....it won't start. He came in the house just furious! I was trying not to freak out - I HAVE to make it work today! So I called my girlfriend who always works the same shift with me to give me a ride, no big deal. Kevin spends the morning calling people in Gaylord to get my van towed to a shop which cost almost a hundred dollars! But they don't have the keys to get in and look at the van. So I call a few people and finally get a hold of a close friend that said she would drive me out there after she's done with her classes that evening. Cool. That trip was fun.....she had problems with her car so we borrowed her dad's van, got pulled over on the way there (One the the headlights were out on the brights), couldn't find the place, stopped and asked for directions, get pulled over AGAIN and ask the cop how far away we are from the shop and apparently he pulled us over right in front of the place. With all of that going on, I didn't make it back home until after 1am. Have to work at 8......

The shop looks at the van the next day and they can't find anything wrong but they think that the fuel pump might be bad, but it'll cost $300 to replace it. Bullshit! I just had a complete tune up on that vehicle less than six months ago and that fuel pump in there is brand spanking new. I bought the damn thing myself. I'm not paying that kind of money to fix something they "think" might be the problem. Otherwise, they said it seemed to be running fine. Okay, I can't go out there and get it though until Saturday. Needless to say, I got out there yesterday, start up the van and it seems to be running fine. My friend that drove me out there was just going to follow me home - no big deal. We get not five minutes outside of town and the damn thing breaks down again! He calls the Otsego County police, they get us a tow truck to take it back to the shop and I pay another $92 fucking dollars! I still don't have a vehicle, I'll be calling these people on Monday and telling them they can pay my towing fee and they need to really look at this vehicle and I'll probably have to find a ride to and from work all bloody week again. Hooray....

Just to top it all off. When I got home from all of that last night I haven't even been home for ten minutes when my dad calls to cancel dinner plans that we had for this evening. My grandmother (who lives in Toledo, Ohio), is really ill in the hospital with blood clots in her legs and her lungs and they're sending her in for emergency surgery to try and save her. They left early this morning to go down there. But they really not sure if she's going to make it. Honestly, could things get any shittier right now?

At least the only good thing that will come out of the whole car situation is that I've finally got Kevin convinced that we really need to get cell phones. I checked into it and it really won't cost much for me to get two lines on a 2 year contract (and I can get the Scoop that I REALLY want, heheheehe....).