I was doing pretty good there with the blogging but then *poof* it was gone...

Sue me, I've been busy. HA!

But I have been busy. Very. Despite the fact that we are entirely broke, there has been a fair amount of fun going on - mostly stemming from the fact that two of our very best friends just recently announced their engagement.

Huzzah!

I swear, last weekend N. and I must have poured for hours over flowers and dresses and menus and OMG all things wedding, etc. Dennis didn't mind or even notice really because he and C., the groom-to-be, were busy playing Grand Theft Auto or something. (Nope, not a video game person. At. All.) But that was all good because neither one of them were terribly interested in the Girlie™ which was exploding accross the room as N. and I did our thing.

*Squee!!* Wedding Stuffs®!

In addition to all that happy madness, Dennis and I celebrated our three-year aniversary on the 24th so yay for us! Well, we didn't actually celebrate it until tonight since my sweetie has not been home for a few days. He has been off at school, preparing to take his 100 Ton Masters test so that he can become a captain, purchase us a house and buy me a beautiful ring.

He says he plans to make an honest woman out of me at some point...if it's ok with my dad. LOL

(Heh. I said "LOL". I do that in speaking sometimes too. Such is the Intarweb inspired Brave New World that we live in now-a-days.)

But we DID celebrate tonight in high style at our most favorite eating establishment, Beach City Grill. Mmmmmmmm, YUMMY! Honestly, Larry (the owner, who was waiting tables this evening - YAY! He is so fun!) makes the best most flavorful dishes ever. EVER! We even had the pleasure of enjoying some of his famous Cajun Sweet Potato Fries with feta dip, homemade katsup and the always giggle-inspiring "Panty Ripper" hot sauce in addition to our main courses. Tee hee!

So all in all, it has been busy and happy (and delicious) and more busy and yet even more happy. Life is good.

Randomness and stuffs...

HUGE JOY!

And I can't believe that I didn't post anything about it until right this second!

The Daughter™ got PAROLED!

It's been a wild week since she got let out. First there was the hearing. Man, was that a nail-biter. Fortunately, that evil woman from the Board was not there. Thank the stars! Still, when the New and Improved Board recommended her release, I was still in a bit of shock. We'd been waiting for so long and it didn't feel real for a minute...

It sure felt real five hours later when they finally had her paperwork together and had finally reached the placement home though, because when she walked out the door to the facility she screamed a happy scream. WHEEE!

So she's been in the placement home since the 17th (she will be there for maybe 45 to 90 days?)and is doing really well. All of the ladies there are really nice and they seem to be looking out for her. Most of them are my age (or older) in fact which I guess is kinda good. Older people tend to be more mature and less apt to be unable to control themselves. Anyways, they all seem very nice. They even have the Internets which is very cool. I get emails frequently and I like that a lot. :-)

Awesomeness!

On the heels of The Daughter™'s release comes another very good thing:

Dennis and I can finally start planning our handfasting!

We are looking at Spring Ojai for the date and toying with the possibility of asking Gryphon to let us have it performed at their encampment. We are also thinking about colors and theme. I like the notion of using different blues and blue-greens and an ocean-esque/beach-y theme.

Calm. Peaceful. Serene. Loyalty. Fidelity. Truth. Openness. Endlessness. Romance. Forever. Blue says all of those things to me.

And the ocean is very important to my love - and to me too, really. While I don't necessarily desire to be on it like he does, I do enjoy being next to it and being able to see it, especially at sunrise and sunset or to be able to sit beside it on a warm evening and listen to the waves crash.

So much to do, not very much time to do it and even less money to do it with! Thank the gods that LOVE is free!

Good riddance.

The sweathog neighbor I was bitching and whining about a bunch of months ago? GONE! No more leaving her clothes in the washer for six hours, no more hanging out in the laundry room smoking, no more hanging with questionable people (mostly of the male persuasion) on the porch into the wee hours of the morning, no more piles of cigarette butts EVERYWHERE. YAY!!

Supposedly she left to go live with her boyfriend. I wonder how he's gonna feel when her other boyfriends are still calling her 24/7 for some Horizontal Lambada Action™? Oh well! Not my problem! *Squee!*

Childbirth...

It sure feels different when the baby you are (hopefully) about to deliver is 18 years old.

My gods this has been a long time coming. Almost three years. She went away a child and she is coming back a young woman. All the rules have changed and it makes me nervous and anxious and scared and hopeful and excited and a thousand+ other emotions that are so jumbled up that I cannot even name them.

Truthfully, I was a mess when she left. I was barely handling my own life and was struggling to handle hers too. I failed in a lot of ways I think, but I like to also think that I succeeded in a few very important ones. *shrug* At least I HOPE that I did.

*sigh*

Poor Dennis. I've appointed him as The Reality Check. The guy, when I get all wound up and control freak-y, who is going to remind me that I'm supposed to be treating adults like adults and to back off. I think this is going to work. I really do. I love and respect him and given his laid back yet responsible and loving nature, I think he is the perfect candidate for the job.

We will just be three adults living like roommates and friends - after all the kinks are worked out of course, because every new household will have it's random "bumps". But I am hoping that this will all work out *crosses fingers* and we will all be able to coexist happily like a little family. And I think that sounds pretty darn nice.

Lazy.

Ok, so even I am tired of having to log in to this thing to look at it so Public Blog it is. I mean seriously, it's not like I'm admitting to joining a hate group or harboring fugitives in my living room. This is my LIFE for crying out loud. And it's pretty damn tame around here most of the time.

Anyways.

I am still waiting for the Bankruptcy of 2008 to get finalized so that *GASP* I can use my one remaining credit card again (assuming that after the dust settles, they still let me have it) to buy gas at the end of the month in case I run out of money.

I'm doing well on the budget thing, I haven't actually run out yet but it's bound to happen eventually and it makes me nervous to not have a Plan B to fall back on because if I can't put gas in the car, I can't get to work and if I can't get to work, I don't get paid...

*BOOM*

...and then my world would end.

In more exciting news, Dennis and I will be taking a dancing lesson tonight in honer of my birthday last week and the Ballroom Dancing competitions we like to watch on PBS. The instructor suggested that I bring a pair of heels in case we do any lifts or quick turns. Hopefully, I don't kill myself with clumsy.

Quickly...

Being broke isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be or worth the seriously spooky feeling I've had since last week over the Finality of It All. It is DEFINITELY going to suck not having my Chevron card anymore though because the price of gas is killing me since DAMN, DO I DRIVE A LOT. I will probably put more than 300 miles on my wagon this weekend alone. Honestly, were not for the fact that the goofy little thing gets retardedly good gas mileage?

I'd probably be crying right now over the ashes over said Chevron card. *weep*

All that said though, I am not going to be one of those people I see on the news who decide where they can or cannot go based upon the price of gas. Life is too fucking short and Dennis and I have got the most wonderful of friends who happen to live nearly an hour away (not to mention how far we drive to play with them at Renaissance Faire) and I'm not going to let something as fleeting as a dollar sign dictate how much fun I am allowed to have or where I am allowed to have it, because yo.

Life is too damn short for any of THAT crazy talk.

There will ALWAYS be more money, you can bet on it and win ever time. There may not however, always be more TIME.

Bored, bored, bored.

I hate being bored. Especially when I know damn well that there are a hundred and ten things that I COULD be doing but yet I am not.

Laundry, she be one 'o the hundred and ten.

Cleaning cat boxes, she be two.

*sigh*

But neither of those things brings me any joy, except of course the clean clothes and non-stinky cat boxes at the end of my endeavors.

*SIGH*

I'm just so glad that come this Friday I will have enjoyable things to do (gaming with M. & N. and then the party on Saturday) which involve my sweetie whom I haven't really seen all week because by the time he gets home from work, I am generally already fast asleep on the couch and I barely open my eyes long enough to brush my teeth, wash my face and stumble off to the bedroom to go back to sleep which isn't what I'd call "quality" fricking "time" with My Man.

*whew* Run on sentences make me tired. I think I need a nap.

'splaining

So yea, I guess I ought to explain this whole *New Blog* thing...

When I first started blogging many years ago (I've had I think maybe 3 blogs in all, though only one of them lasted for any great amount of time) it was more of a way for me to vent about stuff that pissed me off or to amuse myself with random crap.

Mostly however, it was because I was lonely, and didn't have many friends or social activities.

All of a sudden though, since Evil left and Love walked in, not only did I have friends and social activities, I started having a hankering to write to them and about them which was really, really hard seeing that I had spent a great amount of time and effort to keep my "Internet world" and my "real world" in two separate boxes. Not to mention the fact that a few undesirables (*cough* a questionably stable xboyfriend and an asshat xhusband to name but two *cough*) found their way into the box and THAT is never a good thing.

So here I am, standing at the precipice of a Brave New Blog™.

I'm not sure what all I'm going to be writing here but hopefully, it will be something worth reading when I'm 80 and have my life to look back on, so that I can reflect upon all the good (and probably the occasional not so good) times I had.