Going on the gorge trip this weekend with Josh for a work thing. Should be neat!

I miss doomies & co. I need to see you soon please. I feel super out of the loopy. I am available the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Could we perhaps make plans? Like, a bunch of us? Thanks guys, it's been too long.

If people have gmail, make sure you add me to your chat list marykae@gmail.com especially if you use the video chat.

Between 4 different friends, I've gotten a video call every day for the last week, and I love it so much.

Some of my favorite "I Wish" songs.

In no particular order (the order in which I thought of them.

The Wizard and I, from Wicked



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBvQ15qVrT4

I Wish, from into the Woods



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wQww-6FuQ0&feature=related

Freeze Ray, from Dr. Horrible's SIngalong Blog


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfaXt1rC2G0

Going Throught The Motions, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (quality suck, coudln't find a better one)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F81gBzlKfLM&feature=related

Good Mornign Baltimore, Hairspray



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzWZrM5lqoQ

Something's coming, West Side Story



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu7sRdRrm_w

The Movie in My Mind, Miss Saigon



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCwbZ_er1Lc

Part of your world, Little Mermaid



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGoXtSw0Ias

Skid ROw, Little Shop of Horrors



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0kSBiu1IGk

Romeo and Juliet, Reefer Madness



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO-CN9lJvYo

Jack's Lament, Nightmare before CHristmas



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv1HX80u5x4

more cheer?

SO here are some pictures and descriptions of why my halloween weekend rocked.

I already wrote a little bit about Thursday night when we showed up. ANd I facebooked a couple photos, but you haven't seen teh picture that April took of the fort yet.

( Thursday pics )

Next of course, comes Friday, April and I spent the day at Santa Monica, and at night a bunch of us went to cafe 50's.

( friday pics )

Saturday was the day of the party. April and I went with Randy to help him find a costume. Then we went and got AMerican Dave, had gresy Mexican food, and headed to ROse's early, though not as early as I had thought we would.
APril is a mermaid, I am Starbuck, and Julie is upset


( saturday pics )

Sunday Dave took us to an awesome diner and Julie had a BBQ. I actually cried a little on the way back from the BBQ, and essentially refused to go to sleep because I had to leave the next day and would miss everyone so much. Dave stayed up with me looking at blogs and things and just in general being a great friend, even though he had to work the next day.


( sunday pics )
Monday was... Monday was one of the hardest things I have been through in a while. I know that sounds stupid, but it was. As you know if you follow me on twitter or facebook. Julie and Sarah came to get APril and I, As we were walking to her car, Dave is heading to work, he stops his car, jumps out and tries to give us a two liter of diet coke for... teh airport? It was sweet though. No one wanted our group to separate that weekend last ditch efforts are very sad to think about. But you try.
Julie and Sarah took us to a diner

( if you don't want to see what true misery looks like, don't click.  )

As a bonus, Julie took this video at teh party, I haven't watched it since I got back, and I am about to.

EP4LYF Halloween 2009 from Julie Caplan Nuzzalo on Vimeo.

I'm back. First day back seems a lot harder on me this time. Last time was super hard because of the short visit, but this time is like, I don't  know, soul crushing.

I just want to cry all night long.

American Dave picked April and I up at the airport last night. Shortly thereafter Randy came over and we started drinking wine. We took a silly  picture and watched some youtube videos while chatting about the most ridiculous things possible.



April got along really well with Randy and Dave, which is always awesome, I love when people can do that right away, especially when sometimes they can't.

After Randy left, April and I decided we should sleep with our heads at the foot end of the bed, because there was recently a flood accident in Dave's apartment, and his bed was angled funny.

Dave said it seemed like a slumber party and then got the brilliant idea to move the couch over near the bed, and build a fort.

I seriously felt like i was a little girl at my grandmas house with my cousins, laughing non-stop until I finally fall asleep.

This morning dave dropped April and I off in Beverly Hills before going to work.

I visited my old work and lots of people are still there which ws super cool. I gave them kettle corn and various jarred Oregon goods.

Then April and I had chipotle and took the bus to Santa Monica. We spent most of the day walking the promenade and the pier and the beach itself. Pretty relaxing, but a lot of walking.

Dave picked us up. We were all really tired and then it was nap time. I almost fell asleep but then I got concerned that someone might try to call while my phone is charging. I ended up bringing my phone and computer into the bathroom where I still sit.

As soon as Julie calls to say she has Sarah, I will wake everyone up and we will go to cafe 50's.

• I'm tired, I didn't get enough sleep 
• I'm a nickel short for a diet coke.
• I am stuck answering the phones today. I have a violent though eery time I hear it ring. ALl I can do is yank the ear bud out of my ear.
• Joey got caught eating in his room and is lying about it. You so want to believe their stories because you don't want to think they would lie to you, or break your rules, and their stories ARE plausible. But the most likely scenario is that I am being lied to. There are worse punishments than being stuck playing piano and reading all week.
• What's worse, every time Joey lies about something Josh discovered, it makes him mad at Joey and not want to hang out with him. This is a bad time for that because Josh is supposed to hang out with Joey on Halloween.
• tonight, when I get home, it's my last free time really before my vacation. I don't want to spend it getting work done, but I have to. I want to be lazy tonight.

Please tell me things to make me feel better, especially parents of teens.

I am packing my clothes for my trip next weekend because A. I won't have much time during the week to do so and B. It's not like I can wear most of those clothes at work anyway. Yeas, I am taking advantage of my 4 day weekend by wearing a lot of T-shirts and my favorite cargo pants and jeans.

I figure Thursday to work I can get away wtih wearing my crocs, the ones with a hole in the toe, because those are my favorite airport shoes. I am going to wear a long dress with them so as not to draw attention to them, haha.

I had a major hair dye fail last night. But it is fixable I, uh, think. I will take a picture of it right before I fix it. It means I have to go back out to Sally's today. Maybe I should ask the employees there if one more bleach and dye will fix it. I know it's damaging my hair. But it totally grows back.

I still don't have my dog tag for my costume but whatever. I also still have the same lame boots from my Captain hammer costume, I was hoping to find better ones by now, but it's cool. I am just happy to have found an ok shirt for it. er, shirts.

I haven't seen a lot of my Portland friends lately. I want to remedy that without letting my social life take over my home life again. I saw April, Cherie and Skeets a couple weeks ago, and Amber and Cherie the week before that. But I miss the doomie kids!

This is one of those situations where I wish I could be in more than one place at once next weekend.

I am INSANELY excited to see my LA friends and family, and introduce April to some epers. SO so much. But I am also sad that I can't be at the big Emmy/Dusty party. Like, really sad. Also, I miss spending Halloween with Joey. We used to go to the Hollywood Forever Cemetary every year when we lived in LA, one year we went twice. Once for day of the dead, and once for a screening of the Shining! ANd before that, he was trick or treat age. I think we did that twice in LA. ANd obviously that's what we did every single year in Wisconsin.

Last year him and Josh dressed up and they went bowling without me, not sure what they are doing this year.

Next year I hope to be debt free so I can take him to LA with me (right now we each get two trips, he goes to Wisconsin twice and I go once, and LA once, er, except I totally went to Julie's wedding). Of course I wont take him to the party, or bars, but he has a friend whose mom is super awesome and said she'd take him any time, and I am sure he misses Joey as much as Joey misses him. I really liked that kid.

Point. I miss the doomies, and I miss my L.A. Friends.

Portland, when I get back, let's totally make plans. LA I AM COMING FOR ALL OF YOU!!!!!!

Not sure how many have noticed, but I'm not doing a super lot off communicating lately. I mean, yeah, I still post a couple twitter/facebook stats a day, but in terms of real content, I'm just not generating it. I'm not super into chatting lately, especially during the week.

I'm not hanging out a lot, and when I do, it's at my house, or I try to get people to go to the Pit Stop (anyone interested in going tonight or tomorrow night?)

The truth is that I am just super busy, and when I'm not, I am tired. I don't really want to run to Portland and I don't really feel like talking a bunch.

I am still posting in EP, but mostly as a response, not really generating any action over there. In fact, EP is kind of dead. Those of you who didn't join because of too much email, now would be a good time to get to know us. http://groups.google.com/group/emailpartyawesome If you don't know, email party is just a group of people who email each other about whatever random crap we want to. It's still my favorite source for comfort and the first place I go when I need to bitch or cry or when I hear something funny. I would love to have some more of my friends on there with me.

I am a super big fan of email obviously, so feel free to email me. I also like it when multiple people facebook comment me, I can't reply until after work, but I super like it, it gives me a feeling of comfort for some reason, even when people leave annoying comments.

The next big thing you will probably see from me are pictures from my L.A. trip coming up.

Also, Josh has fixed up my website to reflect teh fact that I am nto using my blogger account anymore. Please bookmark it. That way, if I ever fall of of LJ you will still be able to find me. http://marykae.net

I found a letter on my door this morning that the "machine" I use at night is too loud and can be heard through the floor.

I think maybe the box my fan is on was vibrating on the floor or something.

My initial reaction of course is to be defensive. But I don't want it to be.

I realize that she signed the letter "your neighbors" which is exactly what the letter that we left her regarding her music said.

That annoyed me, but whatever.

The more I thought about it, the more I think that her letter was an exact clone of the one she was given, but with words replaced. Like Christine said on twitter, she was just waiting for a reason to complain, even though Josh is super careful and always looks out the window to see if her car is home when we watch BSG in our room, adjusting the volume accordingly. I mean, we're really careful to be quiet here.

I wrote a letter back, apologizing, and explaining that apartments are very noisy, and that Josh and I are forced to listen to brown noise (similar to white noise) in order to sleep. I explained that he left town for a week and took his speakers, so I have been using the fan, but he will be home tonight.

I apologized again and left my contact information.

The letter was genuine, completely, but I can't help but hope she feels like a complete douche when she reads it, you know, for essentially copying our letter and shoving it back in my face sarcastically. My letter is written as if I have no clue what she is doing, which, at the time when I wrote it, I was less sure than I am now that this is what she did. I hope she reads it, and realizes that we honestly give a shit about disturbing our neighbors, and weren't trying to be asshole when leaving one for her.

For those of you who remember, yes, this is the same apartment that I left a note about "sucking at rock band" but someone else lives there now.

ANd yes, my note about rock band was immature and bitchy. The main difference between the people that lived there before, and the person that lives there now is sheer volume. I can't imagine that the people before didn't realize how loud their shit was, and therefore did not feel that they could be reasonable. This woman's music was not nearly as loud, it was loud enough to bother Josh, who works from home. But it wasn't as loud as the rock  band people. Therefore we thought she would be a reasonable person. This was confirmed when she actually turned her music down. That is, I THOUGHT it was confirmed, until I received this letter, indicating that she is still feeling bitter and defensive over our initial letter.

It just pisses me off, you know? Being defensive over something that is MY FAULT is a quality I hate in myself, and I am trying to get over it. I would like to think, that had this woman's letter to me been genuine, and not a sarcastic copy of our letter, I wouldn't still be holding a grudge against her months later, or even right now, I would like to think I would be over it, and accept responsibility within the hour, and be angry at myself, not her. I mean, she would just be trying to get some quiet in her apartment.

Of course she's not JUST trying to get some quiet. Maybe the fan DID bother her, maybe it didn't and she just wanted to pick on us. Regardless, she shouldn't be able to hear it through the floor, her complaints are legit to me and if Josh weren't coming home, I still wouldn't use the fan tonight.

But I'm probably going to be bitter and hold a gruge against her, which I HATE doing. I don't like feeling negative thoughts about people. ANd I hate her for making me feel that way toward her.

Josh and I are planning a weekend away in November and I am not sure what to do with Joey.

he is too old for a babysitter, but I don't feel completely comfortable leaving him alone from Friday evening to whenever on Sunday.

He doesn't spend a lot of time with friends outside of school for some reason, so I don't really know any of his friends parents.

I know I can buy him snacks and movies and things to keep him amused, and I know i can call, but, I dunno. I think if I were 13, even if I weren't a bad child, I'd be thinking "hmmm, what can I do when no one is home that I can't do when people are?" You know?

Ideas? I can't really pay anyone to drop in or stay over the weekend as I am still a little less than a year away from being in charge of my money (by choice), and we're already paying to rent a car so I don't think I could get babysitter money for a 13 year old child.

Internet is totally dead today.

Please tell me, in comments, what you have been up to irl, afk, etc. COmment on other's replies. If you are reading this in LJ, track the post. If you are reading this in facebook, remember that I can't actually access facebook to answer you while I am at work, but am totally reading, and will probably answer you later.

$1.00 at my local target. I went back one week later to get the Vader socks for Joey and they were ALL GONE

Is anyone interested in coming over Saturday now that I have canceled Stuff exchange?

Josh is out of town and I think by then I will want more company than Joey Bears.

We could watch movies or play games (bring apples to apples over someone!) or, or, OR, I am downloading a bunch of karaoke files to my computer, we could have a ridiculous private karaoke room sing along (my microphone has a delay, so we'd have to go without it).

I dunno.

Like a mini-party or get together.

I don't feel like PLANNING a party because I don't know what I want to do.

What I do know is that I would make a delicious chili cheese dip in the crockpot.

This weekend was a pretty ADD one for me. Didn't get much done and didn't have important things at the front of my mind.

Actually, felt kind of off and bad all weekend.

Although on Saturday Joey, Amber, Cherie and I went to the Toy Story Double feature in 3-D, that was cool!

JOsh left this morning for a WEEK. Boo.

I canceled the stuff exchange but if anyone wants to come over next Saturday anyway please let me know. We could watch movies or play games or go to Pit Stop for a little while.

I woke up with a super sore neck, and now I can't turn it to the right, or tilt it back. It sucks.

To do tonight.

• check Joey's homework, bag, etc.
• dishes
• finish cleaning apartment
• clean bathroom
• BL-EP packages. I need to mail the remaining two big ones, like NOW. and I am slightly behind on the small ones again.

but so fascinating

• homework/bag/cleaning/planner check for Joey bears
• rose's ab workout flashcards, I need to install some things on my new computer, and print them out, and do them between chores
• make tomorrow's lunch for Joey
• research Joey insurance (I didn't put him on mine because there was no 2 person family option and Josh and I are not married plus he likes his insurance)
• dishes are bad, I was having a dream about Miley Cyrus and Jodi Sweetin that was interrupted by thoughts of my dishes, so time to do those.
• email Joey's teachers for the week.
• finish the cleaning job I started over the weekend.
• cancel rental car, or move it again
• figure out where we are dancing Friday

I think that's it?

Yesterday between 2:40-5 PM I was trying to reach Joey to find out if his arm was better to find out if we were going to Karate.

He wasn't home and wasn't home, I had no clue where to even start looking for him.

Fortunately, shortly after I got home, he came home. He was just hanging out at school with some eighth graders. ug.

So UNfortunately, I ended up taking him to Urgent care due to him LETTING SOMEONE KICK HIM IN THE ARM the day before.

He has a partial fracture and it's not going to heal for like 4 weeks.

So I came home, watched the last 40 minutes of Glee, and went to bed.

sigh.

SO last Friday it was discovered that all of Joey's karate stuff is missing. We turned the apartment upside down to find it. (the upside is that our closets are now much straighter).

However, since I was feelign crappy, and couldn't for the life of me get Joey to change out of his skinny jeans and into some sweats or pajama pants for class, I kind of freaked out (also, the big mess of all the contents of three closets didn't help me feel any better).

So we ended up skipping class.

We are supposed to make it up today, but yesterday Joey got accidentally kicked in the arm at school, and he can't move it very well. I don't know if he needs to go to a doctor or WHAT.

We are allowed to always make up classes by dropping into a different one, so that's ok. However, the longer I am away, the more anxiety I have about everything I have forgotten. And Joey can't help me because he's been out of class ALL SUMMER.

So I have anxiety about joey's arm. I have anxiety about getting the most out of the classes I paid for. I have anxiety about making sure Joey is dressed properly for class. ANd I have anxiety the longer I am away from class.

I had a different class in thesame room last night, and just WALKING in tehre reminded me of my anxieties, UG.

SO here we go, list.

1. find out what is going on with Joey's arm
2. based on what I learned, figure out what days both of us will be in class (I am not going today without him, because I have a class right after and would rather spend a few minutes getting extra work done if Joey won't be there tonight). And what days we can make up classes.
3. figure out what size Joey needs, and if he needs a bigger size than beofre so I don't have to feel like shit about buying a new one. Put in the order for it, or possibly check the good will (which is where the center would have donated it if he left it there).
4. take some extra time to remind myself of everything I learned BEFORE going to class (unless of course Joey's arm is ok, in which case, we'll be taking class at 6 PM and I won't have time to do that).

Ok, making a list helped. *a little*