Wednesday, October 29, 2008

WOW!! ... Just.... WOW!!!

Where do I start with this post? I guess I should start waaaaay back at the beginning. For those who don't know.... My mom got married right out of high school and had me. Mom and the man I now refer to as my sperm donor were divorced by the time I was 2 and he was quickly out of my life. Lucky for me, my mom married an amazing man who wasn't afraid to take on the responsibility of a 5 year old little girl. This is, always has been, and always will be... my dad.

Sometime when I was in junior high, my sperm donor's father passed away. I felt that because the man was technically my grandfather, I should go pay my respects. During what turned out to be a rather crazy few days, I met my sperm donor and his 2 other children from 2 other marriages. That's right... I have a half brother and a half sister. My brother (Let's call him Big B) is about 6 years older than me and my sister (She'll be Supermom... to be explained later) is about a year and half young than me. (whoa! does that mean I get to have middle child syndrome? just thought of that!) Anyway... we foolishly did not stay in contact with one another at the time. (we were all kids with no idea how important family is)

Over the past... oh about 15 years I guess it's been, I've often thought of Big B and Supermom and wondered what happened to them, where they were all that good stuff. I've tried to search for them online before but have had little luck. Supermom's last name was changed after Sperm Donor left her mom, so I REALLY had nothing to go on with her. Big B kept the last name (thank goodness!) Well, the other day I decided I should try to look them up again. It occurred to me that I hadn't tried facebook or myspace. Well, after a few hours of searching, texting mom to see what she could remember, and putting pieces of the puzzle together... I found Big B on Myspace (at least I was pretty sure it was him... his profile was set to private).

I sent him a message on Myspace and then patiently (i was going nuts! he doesn't log on very often so it took him a WEEK to respond) waited for a response. He (FINALLY) wrote me back with his phone number. We ended up talking one night for about an hour at which point he said said he was actually going to be coming to town the next weekend. WOW!

So... fast forward through a week of us texting and talking on the phone... Saturday afternoon he made it my house! We had lunch, I showed him the house and around town. We basically spent the whole day together just catching up on ... our lives. That night he was supposed to go up to "The Big City" where he grew up to go out with a bunch of his friends and he invited the boyfriend and me to come along.

I should probably point out at this point that "The Big City" has a population of 1,848. yeah! This is where the adventure begins. We arrive at bar number one and are introduced to Big B's cousin, his cousin's girlfriend - Soto, and Soto's friend SpiderMonkey (I'm soooo not telling that part of the story... trust me). We're all hanging out talking and all the sudden... I see this guy walk in with a baby in his arms. Weird. It gets better... The baby is Soto's 5 WEEK OLD niece! There was a 5 week old baby.... in a BAR!!!! WHAT?!?!?!

We eventually move on to Bar #2 (where SpiderMonkey works). We're having a great time and all is good until everyone decides to head across the street to Bar#3. I had just ordered a drink (a strong one) and didn't want to chug it down. Soto looks at me and says "Just get a to-go cup." I'm sorry what?!?! I'm in a bar. Bar's don't have to-go cups. OOOOHHH BUT THEY DO! Welcome to "The Big City." Soto pours my drink into a to-go cup, we all leave our tabs open and head across the street to bar #3. Within seconds of walking in, I turn around to find SpiderMonkey holding a kitten.... in a bar!

Let's re-cap.... 5 week baby... in bar, to-go cups... from a bar, and a kitten... IN A BAR!!! Seriously, they should require a passport for this place! Oh... to top the whole night off... we went to waffle house at 3 am. AWESOME!

So, Sunday, after recovering from the mind warp of the night before, Big B and I head to A-town to visit a reletive we haven't seen in years, in hopes of getting info about Supermom. It worked. We soon had Supermom's mom's phone number. That night we had planned for my family (Mom, Dad, Shorty, and Pop Tart) to come over for dinner so they could meet Big B.

We get back to my place and Big B calls the number we got and within a couple minutes is talking to Supermom. AWESOME! He eventually put me on the phone and I dropped the bomb that the two of us were only about 45 minutes away if she wanted to join us for dinner. After a little bit of freaking out (by all of us) Supermom was on her way. So... here we are...





Seriously.... WOW! What a weekend. That's crazy right? AWESOME!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Weekend re-cap

Thursday night Dad calls to ask what I'm doing on Saturday. Turns out that a good portion of the family that lives in Savannah, GA is going to be in Southern IN visiting. And as a bonus, Aunt Jan-Jan (my dad's sister) is going to be driving up to A-town on Friday. So, Friday was work, ditched running with Simmonds (who was pretty grateful cuz she really wasn't in the mood to run) to have a margarita with Jan-Jan. Drove around town a bit to show her what has happened to little A-town since she left over 10 years ago, and then headed to play Texas Hold 'Em.

I was quite proud of myself this time. I played a lot smarter. I folded stupid hands that weren't going to pay out instead of betting to at least see the flop which is what I typically do. I also got lucky in that I actually got some good cards. In the end it was down to me and one other person (after we knocked out my mom - she ALWAYS makes some amazing come back and knocks me out!!!) He was definitely leading me in chips and we were both tired. After going all in (in hopes of losing and just ending it) from just seeing the flop (I was holding out for a straight... that NEVER works!!) the straight hits and I win the hand. Winnings were supposed to be $45 for 1st and $25 for second. He was still leading me in chips, but we were both over it, so I asked him if he'd take $40 and I'd take $30 and call it a night, which we did. 2nd place is pretty good for me though. I was happy.

Jan-Jan stayed the night at my place and in the morning we headed to the Louisville area where my dad's brother and sister-in-law live. My grandparents (from Savannah) were already there and Mom and Dad and my brother and sister were right behind us. We had lunch and lounged around the house together, catching up, and then headed out to this orchard/winery that is nearby. Mom, Dad and I did some wine tasting and then our whole crew headed out to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. YAY for pumpkins! Pumpkins = roasted pumpkin seeds!! AWESOME! Here's a couple pics of my adorable little cousin trying to find just the right pumpkin.


They aren't great pics, but she still adorable! Mom took some pics too that I'd like to post if she sends them to me.

Sunday was pretty laid back. The boyfriend and I went to "Breakfast" which has become rather routine for us on the weekends. The people know us now. We're like and old couple except we don't eat at Denny's. Who cares. Bub's is AWESOME. Oh yeah.. the Colts lost.... AGAIN! stupid!

Monday, October 13, 2008

A picture blog

I can't really make up for not writing for the past several months, but I can give you snapshots of some events that have happened...










!

Yay for Concerts!

If you've read my blog much before, you probably already know that I'm a little obsessed with this chick. She's frikin' awesome! This past weekend she was once again in Chi-town and considering it takes very little to convince me to head that way anyway... I went. She was opening for Ben Folds. Remember that band from like back in Junior High or something? Ben Fold's Five? Well, I guess they are no longer "five" but Ben has a band and they record albums and do tours and you know... stuff that bands do. So... Simmonds and I head up to the Windy City for some musical entertainment.

Before heading to the concert we went to check out the final contender for the bridesmaid dress for Beana's wedding next year. Here's a pic... Ignor the size 14 girl being pinned into the size 8 dress if you don't mind.. thanks!

Aside from the dress obviously being waaaay to small for me, I really like it. It's not going to be this color, but I still think it will be cute.

After dress shopping, it was off to Gino's East for lunch (cuz that'll help the dress fit! haha!). Then we headed over to the Congress Theater to get tickets. We had tons of time to kill so we ended up tooling around that area until we found a comic book shop that got Simmonds all geeked out. We finished up there just in time to throw some more quarters in the meter and split a pitcher of margaritas before the show started.

Missy ROCKED! of course. It was really cool to see her playing such a big venue (compared to the other places I've seen her play) and to see so many people there. I don't have many good pics because we were waaaaay farther back then usual. The stage looked pretty when we got there though, so I snapped this...


I actually have a couple decent videos, but I don't know if it's actually legal to post them. I just don't know the rules here. Ben Folds was quite amusing. He has a song called Effington and the opening line is "If there's a God, He is laughing at us, and our football team." Cracks me up! He also introduced a song by saying, "I fell of the stage, and I wrote a song about it." That's funny! As if he hadn't won me over with the comedy, he brought Missy Higgins back out on stage to sing
"You Don't Know Me" which is record with Regina Spektor on the album. It's a nice song, of course I wish he had orginally recorded it with Missy.. that'd be awesome.

Bottom line, Missy does it again. Last time I went to see her Eric Hutchinson opened for her - consequently, I now LOVE him! This time she opened for Ben Folds and I'm thinking there's a good chance I need to buy his most recent album... and maybe even some of his older stuff. I leave you with the one picture from the show that is at least half way decent. I don't remember what song they were singing, or why the costume was necessary (too busy laughing) but I found it amusing...

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

I Miss My Blog!!!!

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've blogged! I miss my blog. I refuse to make any promises about how this will be the beginning of me blogging again. But I guess it's a start. So, what's new? We're on foster dog number 4 - Joey. He's absolutely adorable. Husky body, German Shepard markings, and little stumpy Corgi legs. HILARIOUS!!! Raina - foster number 3 went to her forever home a couple weeks ago. Single guy with no other pets who will treat her like that princess she believes herself to be. AWESOME!

At the beginning of the year I started working out pretty hard core. I did a pretty good job sticking to it until about June or so. Then I just totally crapped out. I'm back into the swing of things now and Simmonds and I are actually running almost everyday after work which has been highly motivating. Now my legs are being STUPID and they hurt really bad. It's really frustrating. I'm trying to be healthy and active and all that crap, and my body seems to be rejecting it.

Work... hmmm. In a word... LUNACY! I think I should probably leave it at that for now.

Will and I joined a fantasy football league. It's freaking AWESOME. Highly addictive. Our neighbors got us sucked in. Will is really bitter because I'm 4-0 even though I should have lost every game. He thinks I should rename my team, "Team Bullshit" because that's how I win. It's true, but... mostly I think he's jealous.

Over the summer the Boyfriend and I have started watching The West Wing on DVD. I never watched it while it was on TV, so it's been fun. It's an interesting show. I'm excited that new shows are finally coming back! Damn writer's strike! Heroes is off to great start. New characters, new powers, old characters getting new powers. YAY!

Ok... my brain is officially dead.