Updates and reflection...

Oh where to begin? Let's go with the most exciting news, shall we? Whil and I have added a new member to our family! BoDee Abraham Windsorson Johnson McCutchan. Simply put, the world's cutest Boston Terrier!
Last week, Erica (I miss her!) posted a bulletin saying that her ex-husband was giving away their dog and she wanted to find him a good home. Whil sent me a text saying this was it, he knew BoDee was supposed to be our dog. Two days later, we picked him up!
He's so fucking awesome. He looks so much like Dexter, I find myself calling him Dex on occasion. I tell him he should take it as a compliment, though...so I don't think he minds too terribly.
He's just fallen right into the groove with us. I was a little concerned about him adjusting and all that, but it feels like he's been with us for years. I couldn't possibly love him more.
I'll post pictures soon!

What else? Ah, yes. Well, today is August 25th. It's a strange day for me. Today, I would have been married 7 years. Instead, I barely made it over 7 months. I don't regret the decision I made, it was definitely the right thing to do for both of us, but I always look back and wonder how different things would have been had I not admitted I was wrong and gotten out.

I wish nothing but the best for Jeff, and I remember our time together fondly. I'm lucky in that there's no real animosity between he and I. Truth be told, I don't really think of him that often, outside of the month of August, every year...but I do hope he's doing well and is safe and happy. That's another thing, it's really hard to have an ex-husband who is active duty in the military. I never know what to think...should I be worried about him? Is that the right feeling to have? What am I supposed to do if the worst were to happen? Do I go to the funeral? (Morbid, yes...but I can't help it!) It's all so strange to think about.

Aaaaanyway...yeah.

Work is still work, life is still life.

Memories Ablaze.

Hell again.

I began composing a new blog yesterday, but then work distracted me (damn work...) and I forgot alllll about it, then closed it and it was gone forever. Poo.

So here's what's new (don't get your hopes up, there's not much): This weekend, Whil and I had some Dexter time! For those of you who don't know, Dexter is Whil's dog that he got with his ex-girlfriend Jillian. In effect, my Step-Dog :). Jillian is REALLY nice about letting us steal him for little sleep overs and that kind of thing, so this weekend, we did just that. He's such a good boy. Whil asked him if he wanted to go for a walk, and I swear to you...he nodded. I couldn't get him to do it again (even for pepperoni!) but he did it, damn it. He's reminded me how much I love having a dog around. I miss JayDee every single day, but I think I'm just about ready to love again. I don't think I'll be able to get a Pitbull again for a long long time, if ever (no other pit could ever measure up to JayDee), but I do think I'm ready for a pupster again. Once Whil and I get settled in a house, we'll make with the dog search.

Other than D-Money time, Whil's other band, Lazy Billy, played a show on Friday night with Heathen Ass Worship. God, I love when I get to see those guys. Thanks to all of you who came out, and hopefully those of you who didn't realize the error of your ways and will join us next time.
On the way home from the show, Whil and I turned down the street headed to our apartment and we saw an awful lot of smoke. My stomach dropped as I realized how close it was and that it was VERY probable that our apartment building was on fire...with my darling Fern inside. Luckily, it wasn't The Bridge. Whew. But it was something dangerously close, judging by the amount of smoke. We couldn't see 2 feet in front of us, our eyes were burning and we couldn't breathe. Naturally, we had to snoop it out. We walked down toward the Gateway since that's where the Fire Trucks and gawking crowds were...and there it was. A little piece of my history, up in flames. I don't know how many of you remember Club Axis...but I used to go there EVERY week with my girlfriends. Hell, I rang in my 21st birthday there! And there I stood, watching it burn to the ground. The smoke was too much, so we couldn't hang around for too long...but the next morning, we walked down to check out the damage. Man, oh man...it had been gutted. Every last bit of it was black and charred. But at least someone is getting a hefty, unexpected insurance pay out!

Other than that...I don't have much to report. Saw Dark Knight on Sunday...awesome. Heath Ledger really put everything he had into that role, and he was INCREDIBLE. I hate when Christian Bale (who Kim Jones refers to as her "Best Forever Friend") does his Batman voice. I get the reason, but it drives me NUTS. Maggie Gyllenhaal is not attractive. And that's it.

I have to pee, so I'm going to take care of that.

I suck at this...

Hi. Sorry, as it turns out, I don't have free time anymore. It does not exist for me. You know what does? Overtime. That exists in a very big way.
Besides hours and hours of work...I can't say too much is going on.

Whil is starting Unisys again on 08/04. This is a HUGE relief. Money has been really, really tight. At least we can say we got through it though, I guess that's good.

I just found out a very close friend of mine is pregnant! I'm super stoked about this. I would say who it is...but it hasn't been 3 months yet, and you're not supposed to tell everyone till after 3 months, apparently. So after 3 months, I'll tell y'all. :) She is officially my first and only friend to get pregnant intentionally. How sad/funny is that shit? Either way, it's awesome news, and I couldn't be more excited.

My adopted little sister, Amanda headed off to boot camp for the guard today. :( We gave her a proper farewell on Saturday, though. As I hear it, she and her friends were puking all night. Hahaha! Man, I wish when I was 18, I had had an older sister and her friends to get me plastered in the safety of their home. She better be grateful!

Hum...what else? Not much I guess. Drank myself sick on Friday night. That was good time. Puking out of the car (door open) while Whil makes a let turn at a very busy intersection. Definitely in my top 5 finest moments. Ummm...oh, got drunk with Daddy last night. lol. Good times! He always has the best Tequila. It also marked the first time I've taken shots with my Step-Mom. About damn time!!!

I think I'll call it done now. Hopefully my life starts being interesting again, soon.

Moving right along

So really, I have nothing new to report.

This should be an interesting read, yeah? Sorry. Um...Whil has begun the re-hiring process at Unisys. I feel bad...he hated that job, hell I hated that job when I had it...but we just can't have him out of work anymore. The stress has really been killing us. So it's nice to know that he will be bringing in a paycheck again soon.

Besides that, my thumb is healing as well as can be expected. The blister finally popped on Friday. It was REALLY gross. I won't go into details, but yeah...gross. So now I just have this shiny pink skin that has no elasticity what so ever. It's really odd. I thought for sure that once the blister popped I would regain the use of my left thumb, but noooo...now it's even worse. Since the new skin is on the knuckle, I can't really bend it at all. Lame.

Oh, went to The Roots free show at the Gallivan Center last week. It was a pretty good time! That place was packed to the gills, and the beer lines were an ungodly length, but I survived. I ran into the Bishop's son I dated for like 3 years. That was interesting. Sometimes I miss the kid. I mean, not like miss him in the let's get dirty sense, but I miss talking to him. We exchanged numbers and all that, so hopefully sometime we can sit down and catch up. He's actually getting divorced right now, so maybe I can give him some tips. HA! Like I have any tips other than "well now you'll know better".

What else? Oh! My poor Gillian had a battle with a golf cart yesterday and now has a broken foot! She's doing alright though, just trying to get used to the crutches and getting around her condo since she lives on the second floor and there is no elevator or ramp (isn't that some sort of code violation?). Whil and I took Oliver off her hands for a while since she can't really get him outside too easily. It's nice to have my Bunny visiting again.

I think that's it...yeah? Yeah.

Still Impressive...

Ah, the 4th of July. One of my favorite holidays, mainly because all I'm expected to do is get drunk and play with pretty fireworks. What could be better?
And this year, I certainly lived up to the expectations I just mentioned.

For the 4th, the whole lot of us went over to Mautner and Big Timmy's place for some BBQ action. We played some horse shoes (I of course got nailed in the shin with one, because I am who I am), made tasty burgers on the grill, played some beer pong, and drank till we could drink no more.

Once the fireworks started...things got a little out of hand. From Mautner and Tim's place, we could see the fireworks all over the valley, which was pretty awesome. We all stood out in the street and did the obligatory oooooh and aaaaaah-ing...it was great fun. But it just wasn't ENOUGH fun. So a few folks had brought a hefty supply of fireworks from Wyoming so we could make our own fun. I had only brought sparklers, so I was pumped to have something really fun to play with.

I'm not sure why it never occurred to me that doing illegal fireworks while drunk may not have been a good idea, but I wish it would have. I can't tell you how many Roman Candles I successfully set off, but I can tell you that one did not go so well. I am now the proud owner of a gimpy thumb, due to a nasty 2nd degree burn on my knuckle that has resulted in a HUGE blister that the Doc says I really don't want to pop. Apparently, the skin underneath is nowhere near ready to be exposed to the world. So now my thumb is in a splint, since bending it will pop the blister and it's all bandaged up and covered in goo to keep it from drying out. Oh, and it hurts.

Anywho, after the fireworks of death, we all headed back to the house for more drinking. I probably should have called it a night, but eh...charred flesh is charred flesh, no matter when you go to bed.
More drinking led to more fantastic ideas...case in point, naked hot tub. I have now seen more of my duder friends peepers than I care to admit. I am scarred for life...as I imagine they are from seeing my beached whale of an ass floating around in there. Ah well, what can you do?

After that, Whil and I headed home. Oh, another word to the wise: When cramming more people than previously thought possible into a hot tub, don't leave your purse sitting right next to it. Yeah, it wasn't pretty. But at least my phone survived!

So home we went. The next day, we were informed as to what we missed. Apparently, another friend of ours had gotten in an argument with his girlfriend (well, as we hear it, the whole party had turned into one gigantic argument) and had gone ape shit nuts...or as Regular Sized Timmy pit it "He went nuts, like...man vs wild nuts". Apparently, he decided to go to his parent's place in Lehi. He surely shouldn't have been driving, considering that we were in the Aves and he got on the freeway headed North. He wound up in Ogden, in a parking lot. He woke up in his car and realized he was bleeding profusely from the bum. Further inspection would indicate that he was missing a rather large chunk of his ass cheek. Why/How? That, we don't know.

So there you have it...our nation's birthday. Done up right.

Impressive...

I amaze myself...seriously.

Saturday, I was at the mall (Gateway to be specific), and I was doing some window shopping. Window shopping is just about the only shopping I can do these days, but I digress.

Anyway, I was leaving Forever 21, and was digging in my purse for my sunglasses. I glanced up to make sure I wasn't going to run anyone down or anything while I was searching, and located the door...or what I THOUGHT was the door. Next thing I know, I'm walking into a plate glass window. I made this god awful scream sound that I don't think I could recreate if I wanted to, and bounced off the window with my FACE. I immediately turned around to see who had seen me do it, hoping against all odds that no one had been watching. I was wrong. Half the fucking store saw me. A dude who worked there made a joke about the windows being really clean...I just hissed "YOU SAW NOTHING!" and ran out as quickly as I could, laughing at myself the whole way.

Turns out, Gillian was at Sanctuary and had seen me walk by so she texted me to tell me to come see her at the salon. I headed over to share my story with her, but I was so frazzled that I basically did laps around Gateway trying to remember where Sanctuary is. I finally called Gillian to ask her, only to be told that I had walked past it at least 3 times. She was watching me from the window.

So, I've been trying to decide what to do with my hair lately, as far as color goes...and I think Saturday's display of stupidity may be pushing me more toward going back to blond. Clearly, my natural color is fighting its way through.

Damn the Man!

So, Whil found a job a few weeks ago working as the "Greeter" at the Verizon store at Gateway. They pay was AWESOME for what he was doing, and it was within walking distance from our place (a short walk, even), so he was really into it.
The only downside was that he was required to take a drug test. I'm sure you all know what that means for Whil...the chances of passing that are slim to none. But he gave it a shot. They started him before he found out the results of the test, but we weren't counting our chickens just yet.

The poor dude quit smoking the wacky tobaccy for 2 whole days (a feat I was particularly proud of him for), and got one of those cleansing drinks and did the whole deal exactly as he was instructed to. It seemed like there was a good chance he could pass it. Well...we found out today that he didn't pass it. Shock of all shocks, he tested positive for marijuana. He was SO bummed about it. Verizon and Adecco (the staffing agency that placed him there) said he can't work for them for at least a year! He's blacklisted for smoking pot. It's fucking ridiculous.

Now, I don't get high...I used to, but it's just not something I'm interested in anymore. However, I fully believe it should be legal. It's just so stupid to me that someone can come in and work for you and do a great fucking job, be a world class guy all around...but as soon as you find out he gets high in his spare time, you don't want him anymore. FUCK THAT SHIT.

I would venture a guess that at least 95% of my closest friends are avid pot smokers, and they are some of the BEST people I could ever hope to know. They are all functioning members of society, and all very intelligent and motivated. But still, unemployable by some standards. It's ridiculous.

So poor Whil is sitting at home, bummed as all hell, feeling like he failed himself and me. I know what you're all thinking...why doesn't he just quit? To that I say why don't all you Prozac loving depressed people quit taking the drug that keeps YOU leveled out?
Pot is Whil's natural way of keeping himself happy. He has his issues, just like we all do, and sometimes it would seem, even worse than we all do. But he doesn't believe in mood altering, FDA approved, anti-psychotics...and I don't blame him. Pot works for him. Come to think of it, it works for all kinds of people suffering from one ailment or another. Fuck, they prescribe it in other states...but here Whil is being turned away from a job he was doing a great job at, because the government hasn't found a way to make money off of his brand of Prozac.

I'll stop ranting and raving now...but I'm not pleased.

If anyone knows of a job that Whil may be good at, let me know. He's kind of fed up with call centers and is focusing on his own business venture at the moment, but is looking for part time work. Let me know if you hear of anything.

Stupid fucking shit. Ugh.