My Year of Meaningful (2011)

Holy Crap!
I just had the most random memory... out of nowhere! I have no idea what brought it on (except for maybe Fiona nattering on a few feet away from me about her 70's outfit that she bought on e-bay for some fancy dress party?) but all of a sudden, there was this image in my head:

That clothing phenomenon from the early/mid 90's...
Everyone was doing it...

The Body suit.

Ooooohhh the body suit. The tightest tee-shirt ever that came to a snap closure in one's crotch!
Worn with NON-low-riding jeans.
And a black leather belt with a silver buckle.

Here are the things on my mind RIGHT NOW:

1. UGG!! I hate it when the people I sit *right next to* for 7.25 hours per day want to invade my space at lunch. Can't they just leave me in my own little world of my "non-section" friends for ONE LOUSY HOUR!??

2. We lost our football game last night, 3-0. That is the same score with which we actually beat the team we played, last week. I played my ass off last night while these other ANNOYINGLY LAME girls on my team proceeded to bollocks everything up for us. Like tall-ass-whatsername who was physically WALKING from point A to point B, in the completely WRONG end of the field. I don't know what inspired her to think she was playing striker, or why it didn't dawn on her to actually mark up with at least SOMEONE on the other team when we were supposed to be defending, but AAARHHH!!!! I HATE being the only one on a soccer team who actually knows how to play soccer!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well I'm going to miss our next 2 games because we'll be on holidays!!!!!!! Luckily they've taken it upon themselves to have some sort of a "training session" tomorrow, to try and learn how to kick a ball or something.

3. I'm also going to miss my next 2 yoga classes for the same reason. It will be my longest BREAK from the La Casa de Sweat-a-Lot in a year. I am extremely happy about this, even though I shouldn't be.

4. The day we left Manchester this weekend, cousin J's girlfriend J was at her mother's side when she had a heart attack and died. The reason J was there, instead of with us in Manchester, was because her mom had been diagnosed with cancer around Christmas, and given a few months to live. And they had scheduled a large gathering/prayer ceremony at the temple for her on this particular weekend gone. The kicker is that J doesn't even see her mom anymore, not just because of the distance between B'ham and M'ctr (2hrs?), where she lives a secret life (4 years now) with my cousin, but also because of the "You're-a-good-Sikh-girl-and-you'll-not-be-dating-any-white-boy-and-we've-selected-a-fine-few-boys-from-your-caste-for-you-to-date/marry" thing. The thing is, she always liked her mom, but doesn't even talk to her dad (same reason) who has basically threatened to disown her if she doesn't marry one of his candidates NOW. Anyway, the good thing is that she got to be there in her mom's final hours. The prayer ceremony was already over. Now for the even bigger change in her life: without her mom around, there is a small chance she can come "out of the closet" with cousin J., given the fact she really has no relationship with her father to worry about. If he ever finds out, she is effectively written out of his life permanently. No doubt about that. However, she does kind of have to worry about any of her devout brothers and sisters, who might do something weird. Stranger things have happened in her world. Poor J.

5. I tend to miss Missouri about once a year. This would be autumn. I saw this link on msn.com today and I clicked on it and it mesmerised me for . . . minutes. I love it. ~sigh~ http://travel.msn.com/Guides/FallFoliageSlideShow.aspx

6. I absolutely LOVE reading "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency". It is the BEST. OK, not like "The Source" best, but a different kind of best. I want to read it at lunch rather than sitting with those couple of you-know-whos. Yesterday I went to the coffee shop for lunch instead and read the first chapter of it and it was divine. Not to mention the semi-decent vanilla caramellatte.
A.Mc-S, the author:His writing is comforting, beautiful, and blissfully african, and I'm going to read every book he's ever written, after this one.

7. 3 days til the in-laws. And MIL is holding us emotionally hostage over the "issue" of our tradition of going out on our birthdays for dinner. She's so bleedin' religious that she doesn't do any work/creating of work/shopping/WHATEVER on Sundays. And my poor baby's bday is on a Sunday. We've already received the lecture via email. "It's our choice, but we know how she feels and why can we not just go out on Saturday night instead of Sunday?" Yeah, so I can sit at a restaurant with a big ol' manipulative POUTER? ugh. and people wonder why we've intentionally ostracized ourselves from our families!?!

Good weekend away with the hillbillies from Humansville in Her Majesty's United Kingdom.

I love the UK so much it bugs me to live in a country that hates it so much. Hell Manchester has as many starbucks as DC does. Living in a starbuckless country, I love the UK just for THAT, if nothing else. Needless to say we had at least 3 cups of DECENT coffee for the first time in yonks, while we were there.

Manchester was fabulous, Jer lives in a swanky 5th floor flat right across the road from the Manchester City Football Stadium. He didn't have enough room for TWO sets of couples and being that his ma & pa were there first, we graciously proposed to stay at Copperhead's hotel on Chapel St., which is in the lively Deans Gate area and it was fine. OK the bed was cement hell but we were relatively inebriated for most of it so c'est la vie.

Saturday we went to Liverpool and basked in beatledom. Another great city, that is actually a dive (I didn't know this), but we liked the George's docks/quays and ate a nice meal at Ha!Ha! Cafe/bar.

That night we had a light dinner at Revolution (a vodka bar) and Jer had gotten us tickets to The Comedy Store (Manchester outlet, not London!) and it was literally the best night of live comedy I've ever seen. 4 really hilarious acts including Junior Simpson (really famous! I've seen him on TV!) And Sean Mayo (?) and 2 others I can't remember. Stayed out late doing some aunt/uncle/cousin/husband bonding at the dive DIVE DIVE across the road til they kicked us and our plastic cups out after 1. The Mr. and I proceeded to do the ridiculous and eat a loaded doner kebab EACH on our way home. Totally unnecessary. Makes me want to do an ultra diet now that I'm back. Considering this was par for the whole weekend.

Ultra annoyed our flight home on Sunday night was like 4 and a half hours delayed, but there's a lot worse airports one could be stranded in. At least I finally finished "The Source". I know consider myself proud to have nearly 1,300 pages of grounded knowledge of over 200,000 years of middle eastern history. Best book ever. Just really, really long.

I have photos. Maybe I'll post them... hmmm....

I haven't been able to sleep in days.

It's killing me. I stare at the ceiling til 4am or later, tossing and turning, then drift off uncomfortably for approximately 2 and a half hours. The alarm goes off, we're up walking the puppies, and that's how I start my day.

It's adrenaline insomnia I think. I get songs like badgerbadgerbadger (refer to "Click if you DARE") playing on endless loop in my head, at warp speed. Like I'm ON speed or something. And grand schemes of football games past whirl through my head (last night), or perhaps the mental replaying of Rockstar Supernova episodes (last week), or even brilliant ideas for future tattoos (the night before last), etc.

I hate it. Even my breathing is quick and shallow. I'm just not relaxed and it's crap.

I'm getting loads of exercise. Last night I played a monster of a soccer game from 9pm - 10. Went to bed at 11:30 as per usual, still couldn't sleep. The night before, we went for a good half hour run around 8pm. Came home, ate a light dinner, exhausted (or so I thought)... still couldnt sleep. We wake up and do the 30-minute fast dog walk EVERY SINGLE WEEKDAY at 6:30. WHAT is the problem!?!??!

I'm not stressed out at the moment either. OK a bit overworked, but nothing new for the typical me. I should be EXHAUSTED.

Tonight my game plan is to, 1) drink chamomile tea now, before yoga. Go to yoga. Then after yoga, come home (ETA +/- 9:45pm), eat a bowl of straight up heavy-ass carbs (!) and pound a glass of red wine, before taking as warm a shower as possible, and attempting to fall into the sack for 11:15.

Oh yeah and SH is pregnant. 9 months to be exact. Wow. Surreal. And I'm just now finding out.

...to Alan L's last day at work. D-day = this friday.


The lovely Alan L (seen here at far right in both, next to the Kevvy) is our "summer student", meaning he was around the office doing shit work for the last 4 months or so, for peanuts & a scholarship for his last year of Civil Engineering studies at Cork University.

Weighing in at a whopping 22 years of age, he is officially my youngest friend. This is a bit intimidating, as it makes me feel like an old f*** but it hasn't hampered our relationship. He's just so dern cool. He's astoundingly good looking (these crap photos from last week do him no justice) as well as the star of our tag rugby team, and being a semi-professional sprinter, he has the body of a gladiator. Yet no girlfriend. I feel extremely sorry for him because I reckon he'd be one fabulous beau to some lucky girl.
1) He's about the only Irishman who doesn't drink that I know of, and at age 22, that means he has a real backbone & no time for silly peer-conformity issues
2) He's from Waterford (i.e. not Cork)
3) He's a sweet farm boy (OK I'll admit my proven historical weakness for)
4) Did I mention the body of Sparticus?
5) Sensitive & extremely generous (type that remembers everyone's birthday)
6) He obviously looks for something other than T&A in a girl
7) I actually think he would really, really, really like to have a girlfriend.
8) Funny, really dry sense of humour
9) Quiet and soft-spoken
10) Interest in blowing this joint and seeing something of the world
11) Did I mention he doesn't drink? This is unbelievable. Although I think it DOES make the fact that he doesnt have a gf in Ireland, believable. It's really sad.

I can fall down and worship at his feet as much as I want and not feel guilty because even the Mr. is a big fan of the A.L. (who is technically friends of us both, actually) It boggles the hubster's mind as much as mine how this guy could have the rottenest luck to have been born in this country whereby he's destined to meet nothing but drunk, uninteresting, high-maintenence floozies for the rest of his elgible bachelordom.

I'll really miss him. And the fact that he's not afraid to [in front of THE GUYS] pick up his banana at lunch time (no really, I mean the fruit) and hold it up to his ear to say "hello", when I'm doing likewise whilst repeatedly screaming "RING RING! RING RING!" into my own... [banana phone] ...well that's just billions of points in my book.

Ah even though he's no longer at the office I assume we'll still see him, but he does have a tendency to go home to Waterford on the weekends a lot. But oh well... we'll keep in touch. He's really curious about Africa and I've nearly got him convinced that he should try getting a job there somewhere after he graduates, rather than boring old Australia (like every other Irish 20-something).

Speaking of banana phone.... This is in my head right now.

September means many things this year.

First of all, it means only 4 months til Botswana.

Secondly, it means seeing my favorite branch of the family tree: Those nutty bumpkins from Humansville-- Aunt B, Uncle J, Cousin J, Cousin J's best girl J.... That would be the weekend after this one (15th), destination: Manchester (UK). The Aunt/Uncle component is coming to visit the Cousin/girl component, who's living there right now, so it's just perfect for our last rendezvous before we hit the dark continent. It's just a whirlwind short weekend for me & the Mr., but with the best company. And we've never been to Manchester before. Well ok, the airport doesn't count.

Third: The next weekend (22nd). OK this would be the "Roll on" part of september.... as in... "ROLL ON [outta here] QUICKLY, PLEASE?" ... the inlaws are visiting. Ma and Pa In La. Visiting. With the littlest sista. Ouch. Can you say "not a word of english all weekend get me well drunk please?"

Big number 4: It's my baby's birthday on the 24th. Hence the inlaw's visit. It's at this time of year (finally) that I'm technically only 1 year older than him. This, I like. Makes me feel less old. Must find perfect present quickly. It'll be our first bday celebration under the watchful eye of parental units. Ugh. But I love H's birthdays, he's so good at them. Loves to let me spoil him, loves the attention, loves the champagne. Always a great time. Wah HOO!

Fifthly and filthy: The NEXT WEEKEND after that (29th). Our tickets for Greece just arrived in the post TODAY!! YEEEEEEEEHAW! This year we're going to the island of Kefalonia, which I picked based solely on it's seemingly identical qualities to the island we were on last time: Rodos. I loved the town we were in (Haraki), soooooo much, that I would even have gone back again. Which is not like me. I mean: there's a damn gazillion islands, and I normally like to see as much *new* as possible. Hell I already think it's weird we're going back to the same country twice in 3 years. But it was so perfect. I was worried about spoiling our greek memories by going somewhere less perfect this year. But the Mr. put his foot down. Somewhere different. I spent like 2 moths researching every island just so I could find the perfect combination of:
a) as little large-scale resorts as possible
b) beachfront tavernas specialising in seafood
c) nice beach
d) quiet
e) nature
f) nearby access to other potentially livlier towns/resorts
g) accommodation with double bed (NOWHERE in Greece seems to have these! Believe it!)
h) potential for island hopping

Well I found it, and the small fishing village of Katelios it is! I absolutely can't wait. I'm most excited about hiking to the Turtle beach, somewhat near the village. Tickets are right here next to me: 7 nights of sheer bliss under the bright Greek sun. Postponing the end of summer, as we attempt to every year. Hanging out for holidays allllll the way til the end of september definitely hurts, when you see everyone else going away in June, July and August.... but it's worth it when you come back in the month of OCTOBER, and it's a slippery quick downhill slope to xmas from there. Viva!

badgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadger....

My dear friend S has saved me from a life of musical retardation by enabling me to get my download software back.

Can I just say this was a lifesaving process. Most people just wouldn't understand. But I know in my heart that my 24/7 open and free access to new music is literally my lifeblood, so *I* know how important this is. Note to self: Fasttrack the WMT.

OK but then the hardass part:
WHAT KIND OF CRUELTY DRUGS ARE YOU ON, WOMAN, that makes you challenge a Banana Pancakes song without allowing "Banana Pancakes" anyway!?!?!? That's just... harsh.

Everyone knows Banana Panckaes is the ultimate. It's a scientific fact.

2 weeks in a row man you're killin me. You're killin me.