Favors

Last Friday (when I made the spaghetti dinner), my sister came over with one of her new foster children, Symone. Symone is 15 years old. She has been staying with my sister for 2 weeks. Everything out of Symone's mouth was Mariah Carey this and Mariah Carey that. Then she delighted us with a few Mariah Carey songs. She has a beautiful voice. She belted out, "Did You Ever Know You're My Hero" with perfect pitch and range. Needless to say, Symone adores Mariah Carey and wants to be like her when she grows up.

Today I was talking with one of my clients who loves me (at his wedding reception, he dedicated the first song to me....and his bride didn't even mind). His wife happens to work for Mariah Carey as well as a few other celebrities...she travels with them. Said client has agreed to speak with Mariah Carey and ask her to give something special to Symone....(and PookieBear since she loves Mariah too).

I hate asking clients, especially high profile ones, for favors. But a foster kid whose life, at best, is filled with dysfunction? I just had to. And it would make me feel so much better about it if it really happens.

Every child should see their dreams come true, especially children who have the misfortune to be born to parents who just don't want them enough, like Symone. Hopefully Mariah Carey does acknowlege Symone in some small way. I will keep you updated.

4 Meme

Thanks to Liz at LooneyBin4sure, I'm doing this meme today:

4 Jobs I Have Had In My Life:

1 Button Factory worker. (I got in serious, life threatening danger from the illegal aliens for working too fast).

2 Certified Welder.....yes, true. When I graduated welding school I was immediately hired to build A-10 Fighter Jets. Check this out. 330 men in my department and cute little me.

3 Paralegal for the firm that represented Amy Fisher. Oh the stories I could tell, but I'd have to get all liquored up first before I'd speak a word about that whole story.

4. Paralegal for the top Matrimonal Attorney in my county, oh the stories I try to get out of my head every single night.

4 Movies That I Could Watch Over and Over:

1 Blast From the Past
2 West Side Story
3 Somethings Got to Give
4 Grease

4 Places I Have Lived:

1 LI, NY
2 LI, NY
3 LI, NY
4 LI, NY - Uggh, get me out of here already! Again, anyone want to buy my house?

4 Places I Have Been On Vacation:

1 Boston
2 St. Croix
3 Cozumel
4 Key West

4 Websites I Visit Daily:
1 LooneyBin4Sure
2 RockStarMommy
3 Mugwumpmom
4 Jennster


4 Of My Favorite Foods:

1 Avocados with fresh squeezed lime juice and kosher salt
2 Clams on the half shell
3 Fish, any way except fried
4 Jelly Donuts (And I ate one today)

4 Places I Would Like To Be Right Now:

1 In Connecticut
2 In my bathtub soaking in bubbles surrounded by gentle, slowly flickering candlelight.
3 Watching the sunrise over the Grand Canyon
4 Hanging out with Capt's kids because I miss them!

4 Friends I Think Will Play Along:
Who ever wants to do this meme

On Top of Spaghetti....

For the past month or so I've been craving spaghetti and meatballs. Perhaps it was because I was on the Atkin's Diet for 2 weeks, perhaps it was my longing for Sunday pasta dinners past. Whatever the reason, I just couldn't shake it.

The weekend before last, Capt came to visit and we made a big pot of sauce with meatballs.

Just before dinner I took out one meatball and tasted it. As I sat alone in the den eating it my daughter came in and saw me so she grabbed one too. As I was eating it I crunched down on 2 hard bits of something white. She found 3 pieces.

Capt came in. I asked him if he would taste one too, but I mentioned to him to eat it carefully and let us know what he thought. He found 3 pieces of hard stuff too.

Jen, being the type of person she is, asked for the receipt and called Stop and Shop to complain. They told her to bring the meat back and they would give her the money back. She told them that dinner was ruined and that she'd like to pick up two cooked chickens as well. Then she left with a few hot meatballs in tupperware. Jen's tough.

When she came back, she had my money back and two free chickens. Capt took us all out to a Chinese food dinner instead of eating the chickens. So we had chicken for lunches last week.

When we came home, I packed up the rest of the sauce and meatballs in tupperware and stored them in my refrigerator. They are still there, untouched.

This past Friday, I couldn't stand the cravings anymore, I woke up at 5am and put on a new pot of sauce and made meatballs. I invited a lot of friends and family over for dinner and we all had a great soft, spaghetti dinner, no crunchies. And it was good. And we were all satisfied. And it's all gone.

For a Jew, I've been told I make a mean sauce.

But here's my dilemma: There was no way I could have just thrown the first sauce out without it going bad first.....I'm sick like that. Now that it has been sitting in the refrigerator long enough to throw out, how do I dispose of the old sauce? I hate to throw it away in the tupperware, but how do you dump all that liquid in trash, what if it leaks? I've dumped sauce in the sink in the past, but that is too messy. A garbage disposal would work well, but I don't have one. Does anyone have a plan here?

I realize I'm a sicko for keeping the first sauce so long knowing it wasn't edible, but admission is the first step. I just could not bring myself to throw it out until now.

Speechless

I just had the best weekend ever.

I can't even put it into words....that's how great it was.

Another Fuzzy Friday

And here's two more reasons why I can’t sleep at night....

Although I had purchased my house years before I met my former husband, it just wasn’t a “man”-type house. The garage was too small for a car and there wasn’t an outside shed for “man” stuff.

Now don’t get me wrong, my former husband didn’t even own a hammer when I married him. In fact, he didn’t even know anything about tools or fixing anything....yet when we got married he moved in all of the sudden we NEEDED a shed. So we purchased an aluminum shed. And he hired some real Italian guys come and pour the cement foundation...I remember being more than a little afraid of them, but they did a great job and I let the ex handle the business transaction. I stayed far away from the cement and the cement guys.

When the cement hardened, we hired a teenager to put the shed together. It came out perfect....a nice aluminum shed near our bedroom window for all the tools and stuff that we didn’t have yet. If I remember correctly - and I do - it was late August.

The first night of the shed erection we opened our bedroom windows to let the cool autumn air into our room. Ping-ping-PINGITY-ping-PING. Not only had he had decided to put the shed within 20 feet of our window, he also had it built directly under a very old oak tree.

Have you heard of the saying, "The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree"? Well, the acorn don’t fall far from the aluminum shed either!

Since then I've learned that acorns fall bi-yearly...meaning every other year, not twice a year. (Capt and I debate that concept sometimes.) And they start to fall late August....like it is now.

Guess what.....this is the year that they are falling under my window all night long. Ping-ping, PINGITY-ping-PING....all freakin’ night long!

Lesson for you all: Don’t EVER build a shed under an oak tree. (They should at least put that in the assembly directions.)

And yet another reason I can't sleep:

I’ve never really had an alarm clock in my bedroom. I’m the type of person who wakes up whenever I tell myself to...sort of an internal alarm clock (but more because I wake up every hour.) Anyway, if I get nervous about having to wake up extra early for a very special event I just use the alarm on my cellphone...no problem.

Capt bought me a really sophisticated alarm clock last year. So sophisticated that the prerequisite for operation is a degree equivalent to NASA standards.....and I don’t possess such a degree. The damn thing goes off whenever it feels like and only if it knows I am in a deep sleep. Either a loud shrill alarm wakes me up from a sound sleep or loud, very loud rap music...I kinda prefer the rap music, if it would let me have a choice.

In addition, the colors on the LDD change constantly...all the colors of the rainbow....24/7. When the numbers and all the other blinking additions on the face of this clock change to yellow I wake up from the glow, much like a child shining a flashlight in your eyes. And as if that isn't bad enough, this alarm clock wears a clear sticker on the front that proudly states: Selectable LDD Color from the Rainbow - Super Loud Alarm.

Message to Timex: What have I ever done to you to deserve such torture? Whatever it was we’re even now. Leave me alone already!

Disclaimer: In all fairness to my wonderful boyfriend whom I apprechiate with my whole being, I picked out the demon-possessed alarm clock myself while we were shopping at Target one fine day. And now that I think about it I kinda put it in his cart when he wasn't looking or something and he wound out paying for it. Otherwise, he, being the electronic specialist that he is and having a compassionate soul, would not have knowingly subjected me to its venomous wrath.

THIRTEEN THURSDAY

13 Sentences Why I Could Not Sleep Last Night:

1. For the past 3 nights the television in my bedroom turns itself on at 9:53pm; I wake up and shut it off but it takes me awhile to get back to sleep because having the tv turn on by itself scares the Bejeezus out of me. (Does anyone have a clue as to how this could be happening?) (Is my house possessed?)

2. When I finally fell asleep (at 11:00pm) my lovely daughter Jen, whose bedroom is directly under mine, called my cellphone.

3. I answered it thinking it was an emergency because everyone that knows me knows that I am fast asleep by 9:00pm each and every night.

4. The emergency was that she had received an email that was sent to her from a woman scorned in Tennessee about a man that allegedly stole some money from her and Jen wanted to know if I knew who this guy was....I had received the same email earlier and deleted it because even though I do know the man involved, it's not my business so I'm staying out of it.

5. At about 3am I started to fall asleep again but had to wake up at 5am to get ready for the day.

6. When I got back home from working out at the gym it was 7:40am and I decided to jump back into bed and get some more sleep; I figured I could wake up at 9am and still have enough time to get to work before 10am.

8. Just as I was falling asleep, my son, Dave, twin to Jen, knocks on my door.

9. He's been complaining that his clothes keep disappearing, this morning was no different....last night he laid out his clothes for today on other bed in his other bedroom (he uses 2 bedrooms).

10. This morning the clothes were gone! (Again, is my house possessed?)

11. Now I am baffled as to who is stealing his clothes, but it is happening, he's not crazy, the clothes are missing.

12. That was it for my nap.

13. I thought my life would be so much easier when my kids grew up....I was wrong, very wrong.