Splash Travel

Remember the previous post. The one about the sun and the rain and the way I had just jinx myself.

Totally happen, because that same afternoon, it started to rain and sweet Jesus, it has come back in full force and it has not stopped.  Someone JUST wants to make my life hell – I.HEAR.YOU.. now TURN.IT.OFF.

See, I TOLD YOU SO. (To bad my odds in guessing the lotto number is not as strong as me guessing the weather patters.)

And with the rain, the mood went south, and for the past 2 days I been in a funk.  Thoroughly irritated about everything around me: house, work, co-workers, baggers at the grocery store (I mean how hard is to put the Egg carton ON TOP of the bag, because REALLY, scrambled eggs is not what I bargain for) family, Tom, the cats, the dogs… EVERYTHING.

Yeah, everyone has paid a little. (or a lot – I’m looking at you supermarket bagger)

But, yesterday, well yesterday someone taught me a lesson, and it came from the most unlikely source too, because you know those lesson always come down the pipeline unexpectedly.

As I was driving home, and thinking who I can pissed off, and utterly bitching about the rain, I came to the red light and as I looked up, this was in front of me:

Peek-a-boo

I totally did a double take, thinking oh, its just a dog.. the light changed and as the car speed ahead of me, this happen:

weeeeeeeee, can I stick out my tongue? Can I? Can I?

Opps! And as I sat there picking up the phone camera and trying to snap away, and not have an accident at the same time, I laughed – HARD, the funny just rolled out of me.  And I laughed and laughed, until tears came out of me.  And the light bulb went ON in my head.  Here I was, ALL pissed about something that is beyond my control and instead of making the best of it, I was letting it ruin my mood for days.  Because, really would this be SO HARD TO DO?

Dude, you need to go faster, so I can get soaked!

And as I came to the next stop light, the happy dog, looked back at me and I could totally hear him in my head:

Looking at me?

“Hello it’s just WATER, and if there is nothing we can do about it, we may as well PLAY”

Lesson learned buddy, lesson learned.

Tuesday, you are doing well so far, don’t you make me sad

The good news: The sun has COME OUT! It has been a beautiful day, one that just cries out for soaking by the pool, with a drink full of alcohol and pretty umbrella on top, while your skin smells of coconut suntan lotion and your iPod plays your favorite song over and over again.

The bad news: Instead of above scenario. I’m at work, inside a poor lighted office, with 4 more ours of work ahead of me and fighting a bit of indigestion from the Crab Rangoon that I had for lunch.

The very bad news: I probably just jinx myself and the rain will be imminent by the time I’m out of here.

Just.you.watch.

Kitchen Island, Boxes and Jell-O shots.

Today is the 1 month mark since our moved.

Shit, we are BONE TIRED.

Over the weekend, after 4 weeks of boxes all around, and building and doing projects here and there, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – barely, but ITS THERE!

Last night Tom and I actually got around to moving furniture around in order to “decorate” a space. (One down, 5 more to go) Mind you, we are still stump and we are not overly happy with the results, but, it looks ORGANIZED, because well, it does not contain one single moving box! And DUDE, that is the most triumph we have felt in the past 4 weeks – we were not going to spoil it by noticing that the other space, the one right after the arch, on the other side of the wall, still had boxes.

And this proves to me that once I set my mind to something, or I’m totally fed up (which ever comes first), I will usually accomplish what I set out to do. After weeks of sort of opening a box and being frustrated because I lacked the space or the creativity to put it someplace (ANYPLACE) this weekend I decided that I was going to tackle the boxes and if it killed me (it did) I was going to unpack at least 50% of them – I did more – hooray for my goal oriented self.

It felt awesome to get that much done. The house is coming together, slowly but surely. The best thing that happened this weekend was finding the furniture piece that will become the Kitchen Island. And let me tell you its AWESOME! Out of all the purchases we have done for the house, thus far, this is the best one yet. Because well we found exactly what we were looking for, and when does that ever happen? NEVER! But, this time, the universe was correctly aligned and BOOM, there it was, perfect… and the best part, we paid less (way less) for it that we had allotted ourselves, which made it even sweeter.

In other things we got invited by our next door neighbor to their 4th of July celebration. Since we have moved they have been super friendly – always saying “hi” when they see us, or making small conversation. All in all they are good neighbors (so far). And, for Tom and me, that have not had that since – gosh, NEVER, it’s been great. On Thursday, as we were getting out of the car, they made small talk and then extended this invitation:

“Hey, come on over on Saturday for our 4th of July annual celebration… where pool rules, food fuel us and Jell-O shots keeps us sane!”

I mean how in the hell can you say no to Jell-O shots? It’s like going back in time to my twenties! and if there is anything that I want to do more than ever is feel young again, drink myself under the table and then wake up with a total hangover the following day.

Guess what we did on Saturday night?

A little bit of rain outside, gives you a lot of wisdom inside

Ok… it has been raining non-stop around these parts since Monday afternoon. Yes, MONDAY! As in 4 days straight.

n a week were most of us are going into a long weekend, expecting to melt our butts off over a grill and stuff our bellies with potato salad this IS NOT a good sign. Because we obviously can not do that if we are literally swimming in our backyards – and I’m not talking about in a POOL.

Yesterday, that rain turned into severe rain, meaning it started at 6am and it rained all the way until this morning – IT DID NOT STOP. As a result of this, my street flooded, hell most of the city was under water. According to the news we got over 5 inches of rain and of course that means that most of us used it as an excuse to stay home from work.

The thing is that, as much as I like the rain, and the thunderstorms and all that mayhem outside, after 2 days of it, it gets old and I turn into a sentimental puddle of moodiness, and start to wish for the sun to come out and play, just so I can then write a post is how HOT IT IS OUTSIDE NOW. But, when it rains that hard and that long, all I want to do is sit at home in my PJ’s and read sappy love stories or watch sappy movies while eating a tub of ice cream or chocolate cupcakes.

So yesterday, after I decided there was not way I was going to drive thru underwater streets, I called into work and told them I was taking the day off. I shuffled my way downstairs and turned on the TV and determined that it was a good time as any to tackle the movies that have been sitting in our living room picking up dust.

What to watch? What to watch? The choices I had were “Seven Pounds”, “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Marley and Me”.

I’m a sucker for a few things and most of those that know me well know that one of those are cake and of course puppies. (ok, ok, shoes and purses are high up there as well). So “Marley and Me” won out, plus I knew that Tom would not be able to sit through that one knowing the outcome at the end (he is a big sucker for animals too).

I didn’t expect much, as when taking the video at face value and looking at the cast one would assume it’s another fun and light hearted romantic comedy that ends up with the quirky guy getting the just so nearly perfect girl who has that one little thing that’s always driven “the one” away and riding off into the sunset.

But, I must say that this movie was pleasantly surprising in that I had no clue what I was in store for, much like John Grogan when he set out to buy his wife a puppy…(the snooze button on the baby clock).

It was funny, and sweet and of course sad. Did I bawl my eyes off at the end? YES I DID, and I’m proud to type it out too. Anyone that did not let out a tear at the end of this movie – you are a dead person inside.

While the center of the movie is about the most awful dog, the core of it is about starting a family, letting go of solid plans and adjusting to life on a day to day basis. It is also about finding happiness with where you are at, even though it may not be where you thought you would be. But, at the end it teaches us that we love each other not because we are perfect but because of and in spite of our flaws.

Who would have thought that a little bit of rain outside will give you the opportunity to look around and make you realized what a great life you have inside.

Down the rabbit hole of redecorating

Our summer has been pretty spotty so far with lots of rain and instead of cooler temperatures, we have gotten a lot hotter ones. Right now, as I write this (in the office) the weather outside is gray, and wet (rain, rain and more rain) and it’s HOT. As in sticky, uncomfortable, yucky HOT. Oh my god, the hotness is unbearable. And this unbearable hot weather makes you want to do one thing and one thing only… hide under the A/C and sleep it off.

If only we had the luxury of doing that… but we don’t, because we are still in the middle of getting the house ready. Has this become a broken record? YES IT HAS, but there is NOTHING else happening in my life, so suck up my peeps.

But, we are so hating the weather down here south, because, most of the project that we have going at home need major cooperation from the weather gods, since we need sunny, non-raining days in order to work in the backyard by the shed. And those plans have gone to hell, due to the inconsistent weather patters we have been experiencing of late. We had put on hold at least 4 projects that we cannot do inside the house – And it’s driving me up the wall (actually “bat shit crazy” would be a better term) since these projects will give me:

a) shelf’s! So I can put my collection of cookbooks away
b) A finish vanity to store the makeup, jewelry, and knickknacks in the bedroom, making room for my underwear/sock drawer in the already limited bedroom closet.

The projects that have been completed center on the mass building of IKEA furniture we have done. Side note, we have become such experts on this that we no longer look at the instructions; we just KNOW how to build the damn thing.

But all that building has paid off since we have made progress in other areas.

Living room: Sort of done, or at least the component that holds the TV, DVD, Wii, games, and all the other crap that fall into the living room.

Kitchen is 90% done.

Entrance of the house or “foyer”: we decided to turn this small area into a sitting/library area and MY GOD, we just can not come up with the layout that we like, we have moved the furniture a thousand times around the room and we are still NOT happy with the way it looks (NYBoys do you hear that???).

Dinning room is off the kitchen and we have plans for that one, but they are on hold, because we need to build something and of course we need to be OUTSIDE to do it.

The ROOM: There is a room that we are totally on board with and that is the back room, which we named “the room”, because if there is a multifunction room, this one is it. It’s the Laundry room, the music room, the office, the art room, the dog room and god knows what else it’s going to end up being used for. But this room, is done*, (well maybe not the laundry that we put there yesterday).

The Bedroom: The 2 most important things are there, the bed and the TV.. ‘nff said

We of course are not finished; we have not put up any painting, frames, or anything that can be placed on the wall. We have not set out lamps, or any decorative stuff. We have not even painted a wall! We decided to wait for our Design Helpers/insperation (NYBoys and BFF) to arrive and lend a hand in finally whipping the whole house into shape. Because we all been there, any type of redecorating will start with something new needs something new needs something new and before we know it we are down the rabbit hole, into parts unknown.

*I would show you photos of our progress… just as soon as I find the digital camera in the mess!

He said, she said…

The past week has been sort of frighting on the death front.  We lost a couple of icons of our time, some expected, some not…  they said death comes in 3’s  so lets start with

The wisdom of age

Honesty is the most single most important factor having a direct bearing on the final success of an individual, corporation, or product. – Ed McMahon

The wisdom of a woman….

God made man stronger but not necessarily more intelligent. He gave women intuition and femininity. And, used properly, that combination easily jumbles the brain of any man I’ve ever met. – Farrah Fawcett

The wisdom of a man in a child’s mind…

Power tools, electronic stud finders, and super duper wall anchors, mean nothing when you have a cat with superpowers.

This weekend we took a break from unpacking. Yes, we are STILL UNPACKING – don’t judge!

Tom decided he needed to finish a DYI project that he started last weekend and I decided that since I was working on a side job this weekend, I was going to vege-out and not open another cardboard box and put things away. I was going to take a fucking break.

On Sunday, I came back from my overnight job (no it’s NOT THAT) and needed to chill out, because I had not gotten much sleep the night before (NO IT’S STILL NOT THAT!). So, here I was chilling in the bedroom and reading, enjoying the wonder of not DOING ANYTHING AT ALL, and solving a murder in less than 500 pages.

Then I heard a noise… sort of like something shifting on the wall in front of me.

I looked up…Not sure that I had heard anything. Side note here: I suffer from profound hearing lost. While I use to wear hearing aids at one time, the lost has been so deep, that not even hearing aids help me out. So, most of the time, I really do not trust the noises that I hear – because every so often the noises that I DO HEAR are inside my head and not really happening.

But, this time I was not the only one hearing the noises, because I notice that the cat looked up as well… and I don’t need to tell you who has super hearing powers around the house, do I?

The noise stopped and I went back to reading.

The cat went back to licking herself.

Then I heard it again, this time a bit louder. Apparently so did super-ears.  Because, the cat looked up and then at me and then she concentrated on the front of the bed where our beautiful bright RED Wall shelf unit was located – which, held our beautiful NEW 42” LG Flat-panel TV, my Apple notebook, the iPhone and the cable DVR. (I know, it sounds like I’m bragging, but I needed you to know understand fully what was at stakes here). Tom and I had installed the unit about 2 weeks ago after much bitching and fighting over power tools and the right anchors and were in the hell were the stubs on the house. 

So where was I? Oh, yeah the noise, the cat looking up, and me not trusting the noises in the first place.

But, alas, the noises came again, and trust me, I have no idea what made me get up from the bed and get close to the wall unit, but something did. And as I got closer, the noise came again, a bit louder and this time I reached out and put my hands on the TV, and in a split second the whole unit came crashing down, drowning the cat’s terrified “MEOW” and Tom, screaming from down below “WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPEN UP THERE???”.

If you cannot picture it… let me help you a little in getting that mental image going:

After the smoked cleared, the beloved RED unit was on the floor, the DVR box landed (SAFE AND SOUND) inside the laundry basked (that was holding the freshly washed sheets) located below the unit.  The iPhone flew to the other side of the room and landed (SAFE AND SOUND) on the floor, next to the stunned cat (thank good for the plastic case that protects it!) The notebook, inside one of the unit’s cubby was miraculously intact. And the star of the show, ME! Was standing up, holding the most important household item – oh wait let me type it again and clarify – HOLDING THE 42” FLAT PANEL TV WITH MY BARED HANDS!

Tom ran up, and we put everything back on the floor and as I sat on the bed and hyperventilated.  He shouted ”WHAT HAPPEN? HOW DID IT HAPPEN? HOLY SHIT WE ALMOST LOST THE TV!!!”

In which I responded: “Yep, so much for power tools, electronic stud finders, and super duper wall anchors, just let’s give thanks to the cat, for alerting us to the impending collapse, because I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING.”

And to set the record straight, the cat is getting extra nibbles for the rest of her life.

Evil is for wimps, I take “luck” for $100

Today as I was doing my business in the restroom (peeing people, peeing). I notice that I had put on my underwear backwards this morning.

Huh?

I sort of laughed about it and then I got a phone call from my mother:

Mom: “Hey, How are you today, feeling better?”
Me: “Ok, just tired, so tired in fact, that I just notice that I put my underwear backwards today, can you believe that?”
Mom: “Ohhh, don’t changed them back, it means you are protected from evil and that it will bring you good luck!”

Yes, these ARE the type of phone calls that my mother and I sort of have 2-3 days a week.

I don’t know about being protected from evil, but, right now we need all the luck we can get.

We have reduced to live “THE LIST”.

We have been tackling the unpacking little by little, because honestly after an 8 hour-work day, who wants to come home and work another 3-4 hours – anyone? Anyone?

Yeah, I thought so.

So in order to feel like we are moving forward, we promise that during the week, we would tackle one project, during the weekend, at least 3-4… depending on the amount of work each of those projects takes us. And in order to keep us in track and accountable (because if we want, we can be very lazy people), we have made up “THE LIST”.  The all powerful list that will consume our lives for the next couple of weeks – Trust me on this.  You just watch, I will be posting and referring to THE LIST every chance I get.

Now a bit of a background story…The new house has been recently remodeled. And of course, the closets, bathrooms and most cupboards do not have any storage systems in place. Meaning: we have to create one, and before we do this, we have to find a systems, fight about it and then buy a system, probably assemble the damn and thing and install it.

And this means one thing only – a trip to IKEA – god help me!

And a trip to Home Depot – god help Tom!

While we have Home Depot under control (we know this store like the back of our hands).  Tampa just had the pleasure of welcoming a new IKEA store (good for me, bad for my bank account!) and like any new IKEA gran opening, mayhem follows.  Because, most of the visitors to the store are IKEA newbie. They don’t know how the system works, they only come for the cheap meal and stop the flow because they are walking thru the store in total confusion mode. For a season IKEA shopper, like me, it’s enough to annoy the shit out of us. So a trip that normally can take 1 hour tops, would take about 3 hours just trying to crawl your way around the curious lookers.

This weekend we started off with 2 shopping list. (which are part of THE LIST):

SHOPPING (IKEA)

Bathroom Cabinets
LACK Wall Shelving Unit
Cubes or Shelving unit (Idea?) for Master closet
Power Strips (outlet plugs)
Light bulbs
Kitchen towels – Knife magnetic strip
Hallway closet Panels
Track rails (Bedroom, Laundry Room, and hallway closet)
Single sheet set for D’s room

SHOPPING (Home Depot)
Stripper for vanity
Stain & Pain for hardware
Broom & Dust Pan (for outside)
Drywall for under the stairs space (need to measure!!!)
Dowell and brackets for bedroom closet
Hardware for Kitty Door (1 magnetic strip, 2 hinges, 1 door handle)
Wood shelves for Kitchen bookcase 13”x31¾”
Wood strip (to hold shelves)
Crazy glue
Outlet adaptor
Bathroom (master) outlet
UF Cable (electricity outside)
Peg board hooks
Solar outside lights (price check)
Screws for washer brackets
Saw horse
Paint (White) for Bookcase shelves

Here is THE LIST we had for this past weekend projects

Got to Ikea & Home Depot (Friday night?)
Strip Vanity (and stain)
Stack Washer and Dryer
Install dowel & shoe rack in closet (master)
Built shelves unit for Laundry space
Do LAUNDRY
Sort clothes/shoes – get rid of unused (goodwill!)
Master – install the LACK shelve unit on the wall – organized TV, Cable Box
Built Shelves for Kitchen bookcase & Paint them
Organized Laundry/office space
Built and install Bathroom cabinets
Kitty door – install!
Wash Dogs
Throw out boxes by front door!!
Post couch/love seat in craiglist (take pictures!)

We were able to accomplish almost half some of the list projects. Including the two huge shopping trips to Ikea and Home Depot. Somewhere between Saturday night and Sunday morning we sort of lost steam and had to force ourselves to just sit still for at least a couple of hours. We promptly feel sleep and woke up 5 hours later!

We now have to kill the rest of the stuff off the To-do list. While continuing to unpack boxes and not go crazy in the process.

The house is taking shape, and its beginning to form some type of order.  Now, the only thing we needs is magical power, where we tich our noses and Boom! everything is done and in its place.

mmmm, maybe that should be added to THE LIST.

I’m usually good with remembering important dates

Apparently I’m loosing my touch…

Today is Tom’s 40th birthday.

And I totally FORGOT ABOUT IT! (Warning to reader, there will be lots of caps on this post)

Between the move, the house, and everything else that’s running around (without breaks) inside my brain, I TOTALLY FORGOT TOM’S BIRTHDAY.  And not just any birthday, but THE BIG ONE!!!

You know how I remember it? My iPhone sent me a reminder this morning. Let me repeat that for those in back of the room… MY IPHONE REMINDED ME THIS MORNING!

Bad, Bad, Bad…

The worse part of all of this is that, before THE MOVE, the new house, and everything else, I was really working this up. I was checking out travel sites, and out of the way nooks that I could zip him away for a BIG birthday weekend (like I did last year, and needed to top this year). Because, you know, it would be the BIG ONE! (Sorry, have I said that ALREADY?)

:::Sigh::

If it all had worked out, we will be on a plane today, en route to an International romantic location on the beach, just us, ready to drink sweet drinks with colorful umbrellas and lay on the hot Caribbean sun making sure we work those tan lines.

Instead, I’m at work, wondering how in the hell am I going to make up for this HUGE oversight. And, Internet,  I’m clueless! Totally and mentally void of any ideas. I cannot even come up with a good restaurant idea to take him! And trust me, after the total crazy I been dishing out for the past 3 weeks, he totally deserved the pampering.

This morning, after the reminder from the iPhone, I walked up to this sleepy man, sitting on our bed and sat on his lap and simply told him “Happy Birthday”. Just like that, no over-the-top hop-la, no hidden presents, not even a sappy card. Because, how do I begin to tell this man, what he means to me?

I could attempt to write something, about the relationship we have, the relationship I’m so damn proud of I want to list it on a top ten list and shout it out to the world. This man, who has been in my life for such a short time, but has made such a huge impact. He is my home, my friend, my love. He is full of loyalty and kindness and generosity and good times and great friends. Never judgmental, never opinionated, never pretentious. He is laughs and gestures and moments that astonish me with their simplicity and their magnitude.

He is at his best in spotted jeans and t-shirts full of holes, dirty hands and rolling on the floor with the dogs. He is stubborn, and forgetful and proud. He is a musician, a painter, a dreamer, a softy inside. He is my grand prize, my accomplishment, my voice of reason.  He is loved by his son, brother, mother and me.

And today he is another year older.

And today, I will offer a simple “Happy Birthday” and a promise that many more will come.

Hopefully with passports, and fruity drinks, and hot sand between our toes