48 Questions on a Friday!

It's been a long week, so in the spirit of being random (read: lazy) I thought I'd follow in Z's footsteps over at Raising Colorado and jack a 48 questionnaire from her, that she jacked from someone else. Thanks for the inspiration to relax Zachary!


1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?If my memory serves me right, my mother once said she named me after a horse jockey she new. I might have dreamt that though.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?Monday. After dropping Angus off at the vet I got a little freaked out / worried about him. I blame fear and PMS for this outburst. I'm usually pretty level headed.

*** For those that have asked, and commented thank you for your concern. Angus had an appointment yesterday and it seems the medicine is working it's magic and he's doing better. I'm so relieved. He's acting more and more like his old self, no accidents to speak of and thankfully he's finally getting used to his new food. He wasn't eating much the first day or two when he got home from the vet. ***

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?Not really. If I take my time it looks nice, but usually I write quickly and it looks sloppy.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Basic ham. If you want to get picky about it, I like a good, thin shaved ham. No honey, no smoking, just ham.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?Two fur babies. Human ones are up for discussion but nothing is being done about that at this moment.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?Maybe. I'd have to get to know me first. General consensus is that I come off as a real bitch upon first meeting me. So I don't know if I'd give myself a chance.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?Define a lot.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?The 25 year old inside me just went, FUCK YEAH! And the 36 year old that am just said "What if you get hurt?"

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?Special K Red Berries + banana. Or Reese's Pieces Cereal (this is desert mind you, not breakfast).

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?Ain't nobody got time for that!

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?Yes. I have my moments of weakness but I do believe deep down I'm a strong person.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?Peach, Strawberry or just some good ole' fashioned Vanilla (Breyers only!)

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?Eyes and smile.

15. RED OR PINK?Red. I'm not really a pink person.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?I have a habit of interrupting conversations and I'm trying to stop that.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?My mother.

18. WHAT IS THE TECHNIQUE THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON THE MOST?
Does #16 count as a technique? If not I will say curling my hair / styling it wavy.

19. WHAT COLOR SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Gray boots.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
Banana, Peanut Butter, Protein Smoothie. And a cup of coffee.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
A copier running.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Crimson Red.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
fresh cut grass, Mike's shampoo, fresh cut garlic.

24. HOW IMPORTANT ARE YOUR POLITICAL VIEWS TO YOU?
This is a dumb question [I'm keeping Z's answer to this one].

25. MOUNTAIN HIDEAWAY OR BEACH HOUSE?
One of each please! If I can only have one, I'll take the beach.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?College football!

27. HAIR COLOR?Brownbadlyinneedofatouchup.

28. EYE COLOR? Blue

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?Yes, since I was probably about 19.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?Chicken Wings and Pizza.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?Comedy.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?I know this isn't 100% true but the last one I remember paying attention to was Space Balls, or maybe it was Pitch Perfect (which I wasn't head over heels for like everyone else, it was meh).

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?Gray, noticing a trend?

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?Ugh, living in Alabama, I say neither, Fall and Spring please.

35. FAVORITE DESSERT?Cheesecake.

36. STRENGTH TRAINING OR CARDIO?Both.

37. COMPUTER OR TELEVISION?
Television. I love my computer butttt... I love TV too.

38. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?Still trying to finish up Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. It's a great book, I'm just a slow reader apparently.

39. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?triangles.

40. FAVORITE SOUND?Laughter or a cat purring.

41. FAVORITE GENRE OF MUSIC?
Grunge and Metal with some Rap tossed in. Basically if it came from the 80's or 90's or any time BEFORE that, I'm all about it. I have become my father.

42. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Costa Rica and Mexico.

43. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
I can sing.

44. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Maryland born and raised.

45. WHERE ARE YOU LIVING NOW?Alabama. Something I never thought I'd say.

46. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR HOUSE?A very pale yellow.

47. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR CAR?
The Jeep is a very dirty white.

48. DO YOU LIKE ANSWERING 48 QUESTIONS?
Sure beats coming up with something original to blog about!

If you made it this far, thanks for humoring me. Feel free to join the fun!

Happy Weekend everyone!!! I'm ready to hang out with Angus all weekend, and let him be social instead of confined to the bathroom!

muscle shoals sound

It's not everyday that you move to a small town, that you've never heard of only to find out while it's still small, it's got a bit of a rock n' roll dynasty attached to it.

Years ago when I moved to Alabama I had no idea I was moving to a den of music history. Slowly over the years I've discovered how much of a hidden gem "The Shoals" really is.

From being the birth place of the Father of the Blues, W.C. Handy to being a place where The Rolling Stones recorded two of my favorite Stones songs, "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" the area is rich with music history.

I was really excited this morning when Mike was telling me about a documentary that was going to be played at Sundance,  talking all about the history of Muscle Shoals Sound and Fame Recording Studios, [official website for FAME] here in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

// source

I wanted to share it with those of you who are classic rock, pop, R&B etc fans. I'm sure some of you weren't aware of Muscle Shoals sound. If you were like me, I had no idea what they were talking about in the song "Sweet Home Alabama" when they referred to Muscle Shoals, or The Swampers, [Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section], no idea. Now I live here. Who would have thought?

So please take some time if you feel like it, and enjoy the preview to this awesome documentary all about the history of the Muscle Shoals Sound. 

I hope the movie gets BIG buzz at Sundance, because I'm dying to hear all about Aretha Franklin's recordings, and The Stones, as well as all the greats that changed music history for the ages, and even to hear what Bono has to say about it all [watch the preview in the link above].

Specials thanks to my husband, Mike for sharing the link with me!

he's the closest thing I have...

I want to start this post by saying, I am a parent. Granted my children aren't of the human persuasion, but for me, in this point and time in my life, they are my children.

Please, parents of actually living, breathing tiny humans, spare me any comments about how I have no idea what it's like to have a sick child, that pets just don't compare. I'm sure in very many ways the don't. Just know I'm aware of that.

This weekend has been a long one for myself, my husband and my kiddos. Angus, our cat started acting off this weekend. From his symptoms we googled and narrowed it down to a possible UTI. Not usually a big deal I suppose, but for me, it's felt like it was. You see, the last time I owned a cat, that had this problem, I was pretty young. We had a male cat, who was black by the name of Autumn. He was about two years old, maybe three. Autumn got a UTI, one that I guess my parents didn't catch in time, and he died due to complications and the infection.

Fast forward to now. Mike and I are the responsible adults with pets. Ones that look out for our animals non-stop. They are our babies and our family. They sleep with us every night, wake us up ever night, and often drive us bonkers but in the end, we love them, more than I love most humans on this earth.

Angus like I said started acting strange, showing all the tell tale signs of a UTI. We quickly called our vet, since they were still open. The receptionist, that I'm not really fond of informed us they could see him first thing Monday morning. My first thought was OK, I can relax. We have an appointment and they didn't seem too concerned about seeing him right this moment.

That feeling quickly went away. The more I thought about it, I started to rationalize or maybe think very irrationally in my mind about Autumn. My first cat, my first male cat. My first male cat who was also black. I'm not saying Angus IS Autumn, but let's just say ever since I lost Autumn as a kid, I pinned for another black cat. After Autumn we only had girl cats (Misty and Barnie). We never had these issues with them. Apparently the UTI is a bit more common in fixed males.

Angus seemed OK, he was just licking himself (sorry) a lot. I tried to calm myself but then realized quickly that he hadn't gone to the bathroom in over 12 hours. Oddly enough when I returned home, from work on Friday I ran in and did some chores to get them out of the way. One being dumping and scrubbing the hell out of his litter box. Not sure what drove me to do it, other than the obvious (smell).

I got it all cleaned up and the first thing he's always sure to do, is use it right after I clean it. Literally it takes him maybe 5 minutes once he knows it's clean to mark his territory again. I can tell he's gone #2 (again sorry) but no #1s to speak of.

This concerned me. After enjoying a dinner for my sister-in-law's birthday, with Mike's family and after talking with his mom about the emergency vet - we put our evening plans to go out and see a friend's band on hold and drove Angus over to the ER Vet to get him looked at.

It's insane how much vet bills can be, but when you're concerned, money just doesn't seem to matter. Thankfully I had the money handy to handle this, but money wasn't my worry. His health was.

They instructed us we'd have to wait a bit, both doctors were in surgery. An anxious but friendly couple waited in the waiting room next to us. I knew it was their baby that was in surgery. Literally what felt like maybe 15 mins, and it was probably 30 max the doctor came out to see us.  Can you imagine if that was an actual ER. If we had a human child, I bet we'd be there for 2 hours before getting some attention.

He gave ole' Doodle Bear (one of his many pet names) a once over and determined that he had blockage. I won't go into specifics but apparently it's a common thing. Angus was going to have to stay overnight for observation etc. This was rough for me. In the 8 years that we've owned him, I've never been away from him unless we were out of town. He's never been left at a kennel. He's always been in the comfort of his own home. I felt horrible, but I knew it was for the best.

After a night of horrible sleep, I woke up and quickly started doing chores I wanted to get done (like taking down the Christmas tree, don't judge me!) and doing dishes etc. It was almost as if I felt like I was preparing the house to make it nice for Angus to return too. Mike got in on the act too cleaning and straightening.

By noon we were told we could come get him. As soon as they brought his little, sedated body out, they handed him over to me and I wrapped him in a blanket. He meowed a bit (which he doesn't do often) and clung to me resting his head on my shoulder. I nearly lost it right there. I'm going to blame PMS because I'm not usually such blubbering type of person, then again, he's like my son, so maybe when it comes to my kids I will be (prepare yourself Mike!).

We were instructed to take him home and let him rest. That he may or may not urinate since he had a catheter all night, and was pumped full of fluids to ensure he wasn't dehydrated but that he might be all pee-ed out. And that we needed to keep our vet appointment on Monday to let our vet asses him, give him meds if needed and a diet for dealing with this.

Once home, Angus was a bit out of it but you could tell he was glad to be there. He tried to use his restroom with little luck, ate a ton of wet food we got him, and then proceeded to relax the rest of the day. He was still having issues getting comfortable. He'd lay for a moment, then be up, move around, then lay down again. You could tell the sedation was taking a toll on him. I finally got him to lay on my chest for a bit later that day. We relaxed together and he slept on the bed as I watched his and my favorite Food Network. Truth be told I don't know if he likes it but I always watch it so I think it calms him too.

We started noticing the accidents that afternoon. I think quite possibly, he was peeing in his sleep. We cleaned up the bed. Then later had to clean it up again. We also noticed he messed on his sister, June, our Dog's bed. Again, I think this is happening when he's sleeping. I feel terrible. Awful that he's going through this.  I can't even get frustrated. This must be how mom's feel when their little ones get sick, or wet the bed. What can you do but feel sorry for them.

I know he's in pain.

This morning we took him to his appointment and had to leave him for observation. I lost it pulling away from the vet. Like I said I'm usually very calm, collected and I don't lose it easy. I blame hormones, PMS, and maybe, just maybe fear and worry. Mike always says if June passes, he'll be a mess, and I know I will too, but I feel like I might be a bigger mess with Angus. Not because I love him more, that's not it, he's my buddy. He's a momma's boy for the most part. Just like June while she loves me, is more apt to be all about Mike. It's just how they are.

I can't think about bad stuff like that, it makes me sick. For now I just want him better.

The vet called Mike and explained the issues with the accidents, he will give us meds for that, for the blockage, a new diet, and he's checking out blood work now to ensure nothing is wrong with his kidneys. My fingers are crossed.

We will be heading this evening to the pharmacy to get him some pills. Yes, I said pharmacy. Apparently Angus is getting only the finest people meds. I wonder if my insurance will work with that?

I'm starting to consider pet insurance right now, honestly.

Tonight it will kill me, but I will make a nice bed, in the bathroom for Angus. Place his litter box in there with his food and water, and make him a cozy home. His room where we keep all this stuff isn't heated and there is a winter advisory tonight for icy conditions. Not ideal for his wellness. Any other room in the house I fear he'll mess on the rugs, so maybe just maybe the bathroom will be just right. Only disturbed when we have to use it ourselves. He had a heating vent in there that is his favorite place to lay and hide (behind the curtain).

If you are the praying type, and I am. Keep little Angus in your prayers. I know he'll pull through this. I just need to get past this nagging feeling in my gut, the fear I have of not having him close. Mike has praised me for noticing his off behavior, which makes me feel good. Maybe I have more of a maternal instinct than I give myself credit for.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I just had to get this all out before I started welling up and crying at work. I am not a public cryer.

resolutions // goals

Every year I do this. Correction, WE do this. We make lists of all we hope to achieve, gain and do with our lives to improve ourselves in the coming year. And while some people achieve all or most of what they plan to do, a lot of us just fall short, or make it one month and then stop all that planning. This year I decided to make a plain and simple plan. To live by one mantra...

DO MORE WITH LESS...

In a quest to pay down debt, to lose weight, to feel better about myself, I've found that I can do more in life with less.

Less clutter.
Less spending.
Less over eating.
Less selfishness.

All of these mean...

More organization.
More money for savings / paying off debt etc.
More room in my pants, healthier body / mind / soul.
More time to get down to the things in life that are true, real and not materialistic.
More time to help others, not just myself.

DO MORE WITH LESS...

Means clearing out my closet, ridding my home of items I don't want, need or have a use for. Taking these items to the Salvation Army, to help others. Donating them to different  charities to help others. Items left that have a bit of value, I plan to sell on Craigslist or in a yard sale. Money to go toward paying down debt.

This year I want to down size. Hold on to what is important to me, purge what isn't.

Mike and I live in a great house, but I'll be honest there is one room that we literally are using as a storage area. Most items in that room are in two stacks. Wedding Gifts (Keep) and Donation items (purge). Throughout our home we have items that some might be LOVES, some might be items we just bought for the hell of it.

In an effort to eventually purchase a home, and start our lives be it with parenthood and beyond our first step is getting all our finances in order.  And frankly, get our shit in order. This will be a perfect beginning to that task.

So yes, I want to lose weight, who doesn't? Yes I want to incorporate a healthy lifestyle into my current non-healthy one. Yes I want to cut down my clutter and get my crap in order - but if I start listing those specifics I'll be upset by the time I say Happy Valentine's Day because I'm stuffing my face with dessert and my favorite jeans don't fit anymore.

Instead... I'm doing less with more. Buying less, hoarding less, giving more and taking more time away from just thinking of ME, ME, ME!

So tell me, what is your goal for 2013?

----
In other news tonight is the big night for my boys the Alabama Crimson Tide. BCS National Championship against the Fighting Irish if Notre Dame! I know it's going to be a great game. I am rooting for my boys but I know it will be a hard fought battle between the two! May the best team win and ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!

via google

Happy New Year!

Well would you look at that! We survived the end of the world AND now it's 2013. YAY! So much for my plan to not have to pay off ANY debt in the new year. I guess on the upside I'm thankful the world didn't end, there is way too much I want to achieve in the next few decades of my life.

That being said, I don't have a list a goals for 2013 complied. I'll work on that later. My only pressing thing I want to have finished and completed as soon as possible is to get over this cold / flu / sickness I contracted while enjoying the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains. Yes, I got sick, on my vacation. The curse continues - more on that later with a full holiday recap.

For now I just wanted to stop by and say Happy New Year!! Now pass the Mucinex and the tissues! And let me go back to sleep after work tonight and dream that I wrote this in the sand! Because, I would love to have some salt air, and salt water, and warm sand and frozen drinks right about now!