4.23.2009

I'm A REAL Update

Well, you know how it goes. Life throws you a curve ball and you duck, fall on the ground, and lay there stunned for a while. Thankfully the curve ball wasn't necessarily BAD just...different.

First off, I am LOVING my job. The first two weeks were a little rough while I settled into the idea of not being as mentally stimulated as I would like to be at my work. When the oldest person you talk to during the day has only begun exploring the concept of complete sentences in the last twenty-four months, your job CAN BE a little under-stimulating! However, I have finally settled in and am now loving my days with those wee ones.

The two-year old is still cracking me up. Just the other day she walked up to me with her finger up her nose and told me, "Cassie! I can't git it out!" And believe it or not, she wasn't talking about her finger! Rather, she was giving me an update on a stubborn booger she had been fishing out for the past hour. Right now I'm just hoping that this job won't permanently kill any desires I may have had for children of my own. I also have a new found respect for stay-at-home Moms!!! (Oh my goodness, I don't think I have the mental strength to do it.) We'll see if that changes when they're my own!

As far as my living situation is concerned, I'm still at home with the parents. And truly hating every minute of it! In fact, just today I had a little power tussle with my Dad when he stuck his head in my door and asked if I was going to, "leave that bed" any time today. "Of course Dad! When I leave at 6:00 tonight to go to small group." was NOT the answer he was looking for apparently. (I happen to get Thursdays and Fridays off from the job. The family hired a part-time girl to work those days.) It makes my parents nuts that on my "weekends" I'd rather just slug around.

HOWEVER!!!! I may have a lead on a possible apartment. The guy my sister nannies with on the other side of town, is looking for a roomie! In fact, his rent would be $100 cheaper than the rent I'm paying here at my parents'. He and I have become fast friends over the past three months and we could totally live with one another and not want to slit our wrists.

There is only ONE huge obstacle to this possible arrangement.
"You're secretly in love with him?" you ask. Nope! Totally platonic.
"He's a total slob?" No way! Neat as a pin.
"Well then he's a total womanizer and you'll have to deal with his revolving front door!" Actually Sam is a perfect gentleman and is between relationships right now.

So what's the problem? He has a cat!!! And while I am nearly perfect in every way, I do happen to have a severe sensitivity to cat dander. Plus...I hate cats; HIS cat in particular! I have been over to his place numerous times and my allergy meds can head off the WORST symptoms (still some eye itchiness) but his cat is an asshole! We have a mutual hate for one another. In fact, the very first time I EVER visited, the cat shit in my shoe!!!! Not joking...little steaming cat turds were in my shoe. It's been all downhill since then. I've tried feeding it, giving it treats, speaking nicely and petting it. All these attempts have been greeted by hissing, scratching, biting and I was sprayed once.

Sam is completely bewildered. Apparently Shithead usually LOVES girls! He has loved every one of Sam's exes and has never acted this hostile ever in his life. Sam adopted this cat as a kitten from the litter Sam's parents' cats had a little over a year ago. Ironically, Sam's parents' cats LOVE me! (We went over there just to test and see if there was any "genetic" linking to the Cassie hatred. There wasn't.) I jokingly asked Sam if he could trade Shithead for one of the Nice cats from his parents and once again I was hissed at and bit....this time it was Sam. So, right now my moving out is in a holding pattern....because of a cat!

Lastly, an update on the love life. For a while there I was having a little fun with a doctor friend of mine from church but I was really only dating him for the free food and to have a standing date on the weekends. He, on the other hand, was looking for something much more serious so we parted ways. I am just not ready to be anyone's girlfriend! (I am enjoying my freedom.)

There was also a change on the Ex-Special Man Friend front. Ever since he and I had called it quits back in October, we promised to remain "just friends". Sexually it was really easy to do because we are zillions of miles apart from one another, but emotionally, you don't just go from lovers to friends in one phone call. We were still talking everyday. He was still the first person I called whenever something big happened in my life and I was still his most trusted sounding board for all that was going on in his life.

So, on April 1, I decided to take a 90-day hiatus from all communication with him. I told him I needed to get my heart back! He was such an enormous part of my life that when he left for Virginia I felt like I was left with only half of myself...and not the good half! He agreed and we haven't spoken since. It has been incredibly weird not to talk to him everyday. For the first couple days I erased hundreds of text messages that I started out of habit. I found falling asleep almost impossible without my nightly tucking in phone call from him. I still shed some tears over the hole that's in my life right now but that hole will naturally fill-in as I continue to fill my life with new friends, new challenges and new adventures.

I have so much to look forward to I find myself getting up in the morning ANTICIPATING the things on the horizon. I am so very blessed (asshole cats and over-bearing parents aside). All in all, I am very much in love with my life right now. Could I imagine myself in a different life with different choices being made and with SMF still in it? Absolutely! Those images are never far from my imagination. But would I WANT that life? I can honestly say, no. And that's the point! I love my life just as it is and I can't wait to see what's in store around the next corner.

So take that, Life! Pitch all the curve balls you want...this girl will ALWAYS get back up to bat.

4.18.2009

Life Is Too Nutty For a REAL Update, SO Sorry!

1) What is your salad dressing of choice?
If it's winter time and I'm looking for something creamy I'm a French/Catalina kinda girl. In the summer it's any sort of vinaigrette that comes my way.

2) What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
I love our upscale Japanese place here in town, JMK Nippon.

3) What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it?
Anything pasta shaped with marinara.

4) What are your pizza toppings of choice?
All veggies except mushrooms and olives OR pineapple and ham.

5) What do you like to put on your toast?
Butter and jam....Smucker's Strawberry Preserves

6) How many televisions are in your house?
An embarrassing amount actually, 5!! We have a 1:1 ratio of tvs to occupants.

7) What color cell phone do you have?
An all black Razor

8 ) Are you right-handed or left-handed?
Right

9) Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
Hahahahaha!!!! Tonsils, a couple of cysts, bone spurs/fragments, a gall bladder, a baby, a button from my nose at age 4, and a fishbone from the back of my throat at age 9......and a partridge in a pear tree!

10) What is the last heavy item you lifted?
A four year old.

11) Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
Yup; in a horseback riding competition when the horse refused to jump but my body didn't. I woke up flat on my back, staring into the nostrils of my mother, my trainer and two REALLY hot paramedics.

12) If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
Nope.

14) Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
Uh no!

15) How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
Upwards of 12. (Damn you Old Navy and your cheap flippies!)

16) What’s your goal for the year?
Oh lord! Not killing any family members.....and moving out as soon as possible in order to prevent it.

17) Last person you talked to?
The Baby Sis who left for Turks and Caicos today with the family SHE nannies for!!! (I totally picked the wrong family.)

18) Last person you hugged?
A choir member after we finished singing a benefit concert tonight.

19) Favorite Season?
Fall.

20) Favorite Holiday?
My Birthday!!! Just kidding.....Christmas.

21) Favorite day of the week?
Sunday!

22) Favorite Month?
September

23) First place you went this morning?
My job.

24) What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?
Sunshine Cleaning, last night actually! (Totally recommend it!!!)

25) Do you smile often?
ABSOLUTELY!!! It's one of the first things most people comment on.

26) Do you always answer your phone?
Nope! I'm a hard core screener. I owe A LOT of people money. HAHAHAHAHA!!! No, but seriously, I do.

27) It’s four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it?
Oh lord.....do want the list alphabetically or chronologically?

28) If you could change your eye color what would it be?
Very light blue.

29) What flavor drink do you get at Sonic?
We have NO Sonics in the near vicinity but if we EVER do get one, I want any one of those icy neon looking things!!! (We still get their commericials which is just cruel!)

30) Have you ever had a pet fish?
Nope....only pets of the four legged furry variety.

31) Favorite Christmas song?
Carol of the Bells by any group that can do it well.

32) What’s on your wish list for your birthday?
A new black cashmere V-neck sweater! Mine FINALLY retired after this past winter.

33) Can you do push ups?
Uh, no.

34) Can you do a chin up?
MAYBE if a pack of ravenous lions were after me but even then I'd still pause to consider which would be more painful.

35) Does the future make you more nervous or excited?
Excited....very, very excited.

36) Do you have any saved texts?
NO!!!! I sent and received 6200 last month ALONE!!!! I don't have enough memory to save texts.

37) Ever been in a car wreck?
Yup, a semi-truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and ended up driving OVER my itsy, bitsy Chevy Corsica on the highway. I didn't drive for a YEAR after that!

38) Do you have an accent?
Hard core Chicagoan right here baby!

39) What is the last song to make you cry?
The Hallelujah Chorus at the end of the benefit concert tonight actually!

40) Plans tonight?
No. In fact, I'm falling asleep as I type this.

41) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?
Absolutely. I'm glad I did it at a VERY young age. I will NEVER go back there again!

42) Name 3 things you bought yesterday.
Sushi, a movie ticket, and a round of beers!

43) Have you ever been given roses?
Multiple times for numerous reasons.

44) Current hate right now?
Hate does HORRENDOUS things to your skin..... not to mention your life expectancy. I avoid it all costs.

45) Met someone who changed your life?
I do so frequently actually.

46) How did you ring in the New Year?
Doing shots with my baby sister.....she turned 21 this year. However, we had to round up that night!

47) What song represents you?
Francesca Battestelli's Free to Be Me.

48) What were you doing at 12 AM last night?
Sitting at Old Chicago chillin' with the crew.

49) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
I should NOT have had that last drink!