Rubbing elbows with the rich and famous

For those of you out there in cyberspace that are Chicago Cub fans....I present you with my (kinda) brush with fame.

This past Saturday night my family went to a Peoria Chiefs game. Kerry Wood had been there earlier in the week on his rehab assignment and Henry Blanco has been there for quite some time on his. We weren't fortunate enough to see Kerry but Henry did catch the entire game. His hitting wasn't that great, but, given the circumstances, I think he did pretty good. (Circumstances being catching for an 18 year old pitcher and being, BY FAR, one of the oldest players in the dug-out)

So, we're sitting in our seats, looking around and doing some people watching, when my husband says, "THERE'S JIM HENDRY! THERE'S JIM HENDRY!"

We'll I'll be damned. There he was. Seven seats, one aisle and a walk way away from us watching the game.

He seems to be a super nice guy. Later on in the game he was in the concession area watching the Cubs game they had on the television and a friend of ours and his family, who were also at the game, had to leave. As they were walking past him they asked if he would mind taking a picture with them. He graciously obliged and made sure the picture came out good of everyone before getting back to watching his game.

We had a great time. The weather was incredible, our seats were good, the game was good - although the Chiefs didn't win. There was a fireworks display after the game and we stuck around for a little of it and then decided to try to beat the crowd out of the stadium and parking lot. Worked like a charm.

My daughter wanted nothing more than a bag of Cracker Jacks, which she's seen eating in this picture of her and I.

It was fun. We're working on getting her to a "real" Cubs game before school starts, but we're starting to run out of time. This was her second ball game - we went to Cubs Spring Training in Arizona in March of 2006. Again, great seats. She got some autographs (Angel Pagan, Ron Cedeno the most notable of those she got) and we got some really good pictures of Nefi Perez and Alfanso Sorriano.

So, that's my brush with fame - Jim Hendry. Oh, Jim, by the way, Happy Belated Birthday.

Go ahead, try and tell me I'm not a true Cub fan NOW!

Garage sale hell - part 2

Well, the garage sale came and went. I'm not $1,000 richer but I am $287 and change richer. Huge difference, no? Let me explain.

Friday night we met up at the location and started setting up tables. We were just going to get the tables placed and then be there at the butt crack of dawn Saturday morning to get all the crap loaded up on the tables. This was a YARD sale, no garage involved, so it was just all out there for God and everybody to beg, borrow or steal. The majority (read - not me) decided to go ahead and put stuff out since there was just so much of it. We'd have to be there at 3am to get everything set out on tables. So, against my better judgment, we put our stuff out on the tables and covered it all with plastic praying it would still be there the next morning. It was - remember, this is small town Illinois I'm living in, population 7,200.

While they were setting up Friday afternoon people were stopping thinking the sale was going on then. Rather than turn people away sales were made. I can't complain about that. What I can complain about is that my sister, who was there all day because all she does for a living is deliver newspapers, only put her stuff out. As in purposefully avoiding the things that were mine in the same damn tub that she was pulling her stuff from. So, of course, she had sales of nearly $200 on Friday, before the sale even started, and I had roughly zilch-o. Nice.

Saturday morning I woke up at 5am so I could get showered and look somewhat presentable all day. I sat in the sun all day and didn't get home until 4:15. Oh yeah, did I mention we were supposed to meet up at 4:30 to go out to eat? I took the world's quickest shower to wash the sweat off and loaded up on the perfume.

We went to eat and then Jenn and Tony came over to our house and we sat and talked and drank. I think all told I had 2 beers and 2 Captain and diets over a 7 hour span. My husband on the other hand, again thought he needed to drink an entire half gallon of Captain Morgan. Jenn and Tony left shortly after midnight.

Hubby laid down and immediately realized he had the spins. So, he took his pillow and laid on the bathroom floor. I didn't sleep well knowing full well what was going to happen...that he would soon be praying to the porcelain god. And that he did. I guess I should be happy that he didn't get into bed - there wasn't a repeat performance of the puking in the bed incident from a few months ago - but there was a puking on the bathroom floor incident. What a mess.

I think I got 2 hours of sleep Saturday night and we were back at the garage sale thing on Sunday. By the time we got everything packed up and home it was almost 4 and I hadn't gone to the grocery store so I went and did that and then started supper as soon as I got home.

By the time I finally sat down to relax after supper I was so physically exhausted that I ended up going to bed at 9. And did the same thing last night. I'm still tired sitting here at work today.

We had a few "run-ins" with family over the weekend with the whole garage sale thing. But if we hadn't I would have wondered what was wrong. I'll get into that issue another day.

Bottom line - I survived the garage sale and made a little money. I got rid of the big things I really really wanted to get rid of and all my stuff is separate from all my sisters stuff and will not be mixed together for any future sale. period.

The secret of my identity revealed

OK - I started something now that I can't undo. Here I am.



The first picture is me with my Husband at a family wedding in April. Notice - brunette.

The second picture is one my daughter took of the two of us a couple weeks ago.

The last picture is my Husband, my cousin's new husband, and me from their wedding two weeks ago. Notice - blonde.

I've decided that the last picture is by far the best picture taken of me in a long time.

I've also decided that I would never make a good candidate for a beauty pageant. Not because I don't think I could do it, but because I'm not really good at the whole "canned" smile thing. Perfect example, picture on the left and picture in the middle. It looks like I'm straining to smile, not natural by any means.

So dear readers, here I am for all the world to see. I'm 35 years old. I'm the mother to a 6 1/2 year old daughter. I'm the wife of nearly 9 years to my husband. I have issues, boy do I have issues. And my family is full of bitches and nut jobs. Oh yeah, I'm both of the aforementioned on occasion.

So, let me know what you think. Am I all that you thought I would be? Do you think I look like I'm 35? My curiosity has the best of me to know what total strangers get as a first impression of my mug.

4 fricking A.M.

For the last few weeks my daughter has been waking up at 4:00 a.m. everyday. Everyday. Hollering my name. It starts out with kind of a weak "mom-my" then, if I haven't answered or otherwise appeared in her room within .2 seconds it's a louder "mommy?" and if I still haven't responded within another .2 seconds it's a frantic "MOMMY!"

Most of the time she just needs to be covered back up and she's gotten her covers so completely messed up that she can't dig them out of the foot of her bed or lift them off the one side they're on. So, I go in, cover her back up, give her a kiss on the forehead and tell her I love her and tell her she needs to go back to sleep, that it's the middle of the night. Most of the time she asks me to stay in with her and lay down in her bed for a few minutes. She has a queen size bed, so that isn't an issue, I just can't sleep in her bed.

I think part of it is knowing that there's no alarm set in there to startle me out of my sleep world and hurl me into the awake world against my wishes. I'm always afraid that we'll wake up at 10am and the entire day will be lost, or I'll lose my job.

I used to be a little more prepared for this routine. I mean, after all, a few years ago we voluntarily went in and woke her up at 4am to feed her. Now that she's nearing 7 years old, my body tells me that 4am is for sleeping and nothing else.

So, for the past few weeks that this has been going on my sleep pattern has changed. On the rare night that she doesn't wake up hollering for me at 4 in the morning, I wake up anyway. Just to look at the clock and confirm that it is, indeed, 4am I guess. I just hope it ends soon because I'm getting tired of it, literally.

Garage Sale Hell

I'm in the middle of getting ready for a garage sale next weekend. What a nightmare!

I've been through all my dresser drawers, my closet (even shoes and purses-yikes!), my daughters dresser drawers and closet, and the kitchen cabinets. I still have to go through the drawers in the kitchen and I need to urge my husband to do all of the above. If I had my way, half his nasty shit would be in the garbage. But that's another story for another day.

During my kitchen portion of the project I decided to do something I've planned to do for, oh...I don't know...ever, or at least since we moved into our house 10 years ago - replace the shelf paper in the cabinets. I had no idea that something that sounds so simple could turn into a 5 hour project. F I V E!!! H O U R S!!!

The first two cabinets I did went really quickly but the third one took an hour and a half. The 4 layers of paper that had been placed on through the years were not ready to come off apparently. So, our house was built in 1958 and I think I pulled up shelf paper from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. With accompanying mystery stains to boot. All kinds of fun!

I finished my kitchen project off for that day by demolishing a shelf inside a small cabinet that was basically full of crap and turned it into a very efficient cabinet for all our cookie sheets and pizza pans. Turned out incredibly well! I find myself randomly opening the bottom cabinets - just to gaze in amazement at my handy work.

If only I could make enough money at the garage sale to gut the kitchen and get what I want instead of painting cabinets and putting on new shelf paper to pretend I have what I want. But, I know that won't happen either. Doesn't hurt to dream, right?

My daughter went through all her toys, books, dolls, etc and has decided to sell a lot of her stuff from "when she was a little girl". She's 6 and a half!!! She still is a little girl! We told her she could put her initials on that stuff and she gets to keep the money. She still owes Daddy about $25 for her new bike and she's thrilled to think that she could sell her old stuff and pay that off rather than having her allowance applied to it. That way she'll have "real cash money". She's a riot!

My mom, my sister and my cousin are in on the sale with me and somehow I've ended up being the one responsible for coordinating dates/times and advertising. What a pain in the neck. But, if we do as well as we did last year I'll be nearly a $1,000 richer on July 23 after the weekend of the garage sale.

Fingers crossed for no rain and nice weather!!!

Another one bites the dust

Well, another one of my cousins is hitched.

This was the one I've been looking forward to since the last one in April. And I wasn't disappointed, other than in my family - but what's new?

Hubby and I skipped town at 10am on Saturday to make the hour and a half drive early enough that we could grab a bite to eat before the ceremony at 2pm. Dinner wasn't until 6:30, and there was no way either one of us would be able to make it that long. So, Saturday around Noon was our first of two visits to Cracker Barrel, my favorite place to eat in all the world. I had all my favorite things - chicken & dumplings, mashed potatoes with gravy and corn. Yeah, major carb overload but I was trying to do some preventative eating. I figured if I filled up with all that I'd have a pretty good base to throw all the booze on top of and not get sick.

A couple weeks before the wedding my cousin asked if I would be in charge of coordinating some family pictures she wanted to make sure were taken. Just before the ceremony she gave me the list, about 15 group pictures - no big deal. After the wedding we were all kind of milling around the parking lot and I tried, I really tried, to get everyone wrangled up and back into the church for the pictures she wanted. But, evidently I was the only one who understood the language I was speaking because everyone just kind of left as I was telling them she wanted us back inside for some quick pictures.

We didn't worry too much about it knowing we could take them at the reception site. So, after dinner I started to round everybody up and discovered that one of my aunts and her family had already left without telling anyone they were leaving. Another one was in a totally pissy mood and my cousin that got married in April who is pregnant wasn't feeling well so that vehicle with 7 of them was leaving. WTF?!? It was 7:30!

I feel horrible. I let her down. But what could I do when I was working with a group of people who would have no part in cooperating? I realize this was (hopefully) her only wedding day and that those pictures can't be recreated. I tried. I really really tried. But the disfunction in our family runs so deep, and I think there was a little jealously involved with this too.

Anyway, Jenn was a beautiful bride and we had a wonderful time. The food was really good, the cake was incredible, the booze was free. If anybody went any sour from this event it was their own fault.

We got back to our hotel at midnight and stayed up for a little while b.s.-ing with one of my aunts and those cousins. I slept really poorly, if at all, I was having a really hard time breathing, and I was cold all night long. What hotel have you ever known to take the flimsy comforters off in the summer?

Sunday morning the hubby was up early, like 6am early. WTF?!? At 8 he was going nuts that we didn't know what was going on for breakfast - that no one had called. I tried to remind him that we had all been drinking rather freely, that none of us got to bed before midnight and that it was highly unlikely that much of anybody was awake yet. But, he kept on the subject enough that I had to start making phone calls to find out what was up. As suspected, we ended up being the first ones to check out, and we ate breakfast (at Cracker Barrel) alone. We were back home at 10:30 Sunday morning. I would imagine we were home before anybody else even had left their hotel rooms. Agh!

Then Sunday we had another party to go to - 4th of July celebration. Before lunch I made the 2 dishes I was taking and laid down a little after noon to take a short snooze. I ended up waking up at 3:30 to my husband yelling that he had planned to be AT the party by now, not just getting READY TO BE at the party. Whatever, the fireworks weren't until 9:30 and I really didn't think we needed to sit there and drink for 8 hours before hand. So, we got there a little after 5 and were far from being the last to show.

So, fireworks Sunday night and we didn't get home until 11pm. I was wiped out yesterday. So much so that I didn't even bother with my contacts and just threw my glasses on. Everybody knows how much I hate my glasses so when I wear them all day it's not usually a good sign.

I did get to bed a little early last night - 9:30, but I'm planning to hit it a little earlier tonight. I'm still so exhausted, and my allergies have turned into a full blown summer cold. Yuck.