There are babies in the water...

I started a new job within my company back in May. Since I have started here, 7 people have had babies. 7 months, 7 babies. I'm totally, 100% serious.

On Wednesday, one of the new moms stopped by with her little guy, 10 week old Sean. He was such a snuggle bug. I was holding him and there was not one peep. And the "Grandma Brigade" (as the grandmas in our office named themselves) kept coming over and commenting on "what a natural" I was with a baby.

I mentioned this to Kevin and he said "I hope you aren't drinking the water at that place. Don't be getting any ideas."

Later that night, I had a dream we had a baby. And it always surprises me how real it seems, and how somehow I miss this someone in my dreams who was never real at all.

I know I shouldn't have held the baby. We don't have any babies that are close in my family (we're in NY and my goddaughter, Hayden, is in Florida) so I don't get to hold and snuggle and love on babies often anymore. I think if we did, then I wouldn't want one so badly when I actually do get to hold one.

I know I don't want a baby right now. If I could, I would just borrow someone else's and get my fill. I have always loved having little ones around, and now that everyone is getting so big, I really miss it. But it's tough getting back into that mindset after the little love session I had the other day.

I can't wait to get up to the apartment tomorrow and get to enjoy my kitties...they're my babies for now. Someday, a real baby, but not yet.

*SIDE NOTE* Please keep Baby Max and his family in your prayers. Max is a T18 baby and his family will be meeting him today.

Big news. Big. HUGE

So, the dress is in. The shop called last night (and stupid me, I ignored the phone call because I no longer answer numbers I don't recognize...I have been getting calls for a pizzeria for a while and its quite annoying). I owe the balance in the next 30 days and it would be awesome if I could call them to schedule my first fitting.

This is her...Maggie Sottero "Nadine"...isn't she beautiful? Of course I am not so willowy, but its still lovely

Which on one hand, YAY! THE DRESS IS IN! I am so happy about that. Honestly, I ordered right down to the wire to be able to get it in time. SO I was really worrying about it getting here.

But on the other hand, the dress is here :/ and that means fittings and I know my shelf ass is not going to fit. And I need to figure out what undergarments I am getting. I have some Real Women dollars to use at Lane Bryant, so I am thinking new bra and panties and a pair of Spanx, and I know I still have almost 3 months, but I am so worried about fitting into the dress and every other wedding thing, which is not good, because I am stress eater.

Time to try and kick it in gear. I need to drop about 20 lbs. I know I can do it, I just don't really feel like putting forth the effort. The wedding planning stuff has ended up to be a lot more work and stress than I anticipated and it really makes me feel apathetic towards the whole thing.

But now its crunch time, time to start caring!! Let's go me!

Enjoy it!!

My new babies!

Well, since my camera has refused to turn on for a while (and more because I was too busy watching and laughing and playing with the kittens to actually take pictures of them), Kevin has sent me a few fuzzy pics of them curled up on one of our many ugly furniture items.

See, Viv (the grey one) has a little peach to her...she even has a little peach spot on her forehead...like a bindi haha. They are too cute really. I have melted into a cat person basically overnight. They are all tiny and adorable and I cannot wait until I get to see them every day (well, Kevin too, but the kittens!!).

I spent a LOT of time with them, trying to get them to warm up this weekend. It was really important because one of my fears with getting them before Kevin and I are living together is that they will only like him. Although, this could work to my advantage, because he will also be the one taking them to the vet's and they will definitely hate him for that move.

Hopefully I will be able to put some better pictures up soon, but being kittens means they are WAY too busy to pose for me.

Enjoy it!!

Oldies, but goodies

So, since I was pushing my classic Christmas movie on you yesterday, I think today I am going to do my top fave classic movies. You know, from back when movies were movies, with plots and stories and great characters and costumes and glamour (this was a conversation that was actually held at my grandmother's house yesterday).

It has been fairly easy for my to gain exposure to these movies...my grandfather's favorite piece of technology was a VCR. He taped and taped and taped the movies off TCM and made himself a virtual library. He even typed labels for each tape, numbered them and made 2 binders, movies in alphabetical order, so you can find the tape at a whim.

And so....the list:

*NOTE*

You must understand the appeal of a musical before you can appreciate this list. My best example and illustration of this is Yentl. Kind of a lame movie, if you ask me. It's not Bab's best. She plays a young Jewish girl who wants to study Torah, so when her father dies, she runs away, disguised as a boy and joins a school. She finds a study partner who she falls in love with, but who is engaged to another woman. When the woman's family forbids the study partner to marry him (his brother committed suicide, and that is no bueno for marriage), the study partner convinces Yentl to marry the woman. She manages to get around the whole "consummating the marriage" and she and the study partner go on a trip to another city. Here she reveals her secret - she is a WOMAN and she LOVES him. He runs around the room, shouting about how she is an abomination, a sin against God, against people and esp against his wife! WHY did he do this? WHY?! And Yentl's reply is, "Because I wanted to be near you. Because I love you." and they fall into each other's arms.

Um seriously, where else besides a musical could a confession of love change something around so quickly? Where else will you find someone break into song and have the crowd join in in harmony? Or know all the steps? I wish my life was a musical.... *sigh*

"Meet Me in St. Louis" - My absolute favorite. I watch this movie almost every night as I am falling asleep. I am confident I could watch this movie every day until I die and still love love love it. If you stick with the musicals, you can gloss over the addict years of Judy and you will always have a lovely picture of her. The Andy Hardy movies, Wizard of Oz, In the Good Old Summertime (a "You've Got Mail"-esque movie, also based on "The Shop Around the Corner")... she performs. But this is the best. She met her husband and was her happiest making this movie, and it shows - her performance in glowing.

"Gone with the Wind" - Vivian Leigh is to die for. Seriously, you will think Margaret Mitchell wrote the book just to honor her. Its a long one, over 3.5 hours, but totally worth it. Even if you only watch it once, even if you have to watch it in two sittings, DO IT. Better yet, read the book. It is a complete masterpiece. The woman spent 10 YEARS of her life writing this, her sole work.

"Singin' in the Rain" - Gene Kelly. Rain. Dancing. 'Nuff said. But seriously, this movie it a riot! And a musical. Which only adds to the enjoyment. The sidekick friend provides some great comic relief and it's just a very light-hearted movie. (For more Gene Kelly, try "Summer Stock", which also has the always wonderful Judy Garland)

"My Fair Lady" - While watching this movie, you also get to speak in a Cockney accent. We had to watch this in an World History class - clearly my teacher was trying to waste time, but she ended up hooking 120 girls on Audrey Hepburn and a large portion of us would SHOUT the songs from ski lifts that winter. You will never enjoy skiing as much again, knowing that you *could* be being serenaded with "I Could Have Danced All Night" by 16 yr old girls. (I also love Ms. Hepburn in "Sabrina" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's")

"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" - Ah yes, those seven "slummocky" backwoodsmen trying to court seven of the girls in town... Honestly, who isn't going to choose the big, rugged man?

"Hit the Deck" - Featuring Jane Powell (see movie above). A movie about sailors, singing, dancing and as always with musicals, falling in love fast!

"Good News" - Set in the 1920s, when men were "sheiks" and wore their pants up to their pecs. I love June Allyson. The men in old movies are great, but the women steal the show. This is no exception. You will love June too. I promise. June Allyson and Peter Lawford are also paired up in "Little Women" playing Jo and Laurie, in case you love their chemistry.

"Random Harvest" - One of the non-musicals on my list, this is an old black and white. I know some people don't enjoy those, but this one is worth it. It starts out with a man, injured in World War I escaping the hospital. He suffers from amnesia and people come looking for him, but a young woman takes him in and helps him out. They fall in love and... well, they come across some problems, but I don't want to give it away.

"Imitation of Life" - There are two versions of this one, but I like the Lana Turner/Sandra Dee version personally. It begins with two single mothers, one white and one black, both struggling to make ends meet. When Laura (Lana Turner) realizes the other family is homeless, she offers their small flat up for the night. Annie ends up staying on as the housekeeper while Laura pursues her career as an actor. You will cry your eyes out by the end of this. For a while, the Annie-Sarah Jane (her daughter) story line takes a back seat to Laura's glamorous lifestyle and assorted lovers, but the end is heartbreaking. We just watching this at my grandmother's recently, and we had three generations bawling at the kitchen table.

So, now that you know exactly how lame I am....go rent a movie!

Enjoy it!!

An interesting Thanksgiving night...

Well, it has been a looooong weekend and I have been neglecting my blog like it was my job. So I will try to recap, without boring everyone to tears...

WEDNESDAY - It was KITTEN DAY! The kittens arrived at the house around 4:30. And they pretty much hated us. The woman who dropped them off graciously let us keep the carrier they were in for the weekend, which was good because she would have been there for about 4 hours waiting for them to come out. We got them all set up in the kitchen and that was that. Oscar came out first, began exploring and then promptly hid under the table and slept for the next couple hours. Viv wouldn't even come out of the crate. It took her until about 10pm to come out of her own free will. They warmed up enough to come out, run around and play, but not to let us pet them. They also weren't very happy when I had to put them back in the carrier for the night (don't ask, they were at my mom's house and she hates animals so these are the concessions I had to make).

THURSDAY - Got up and let the kittens out of the crate. Oscar ran up to me and let me pet him adn played around. Viv was comfortable enough to come near but if I tried to pet her, or pretty much just looked her in the eyes, she ran away. Also, they don't really want to be bothered with sitting with you (they are kittens after all, they have a lot of playing to do!) but they also don't like it if you aren't in the room with them. There were no accidents during the night, they are doing VERY well with their litter box and Viv FINALLY decided to come out and eat, which was good.

We first went to my mom's sister's for dinner. My great aunt that was there is like rubbing a cheese grater on your nerves, but other than that, we made it through. Came home, checked on the babies and then off to my dad's brother's for dessert. By the time we show up there, everyone else is winding down, so we only stayed for about an hour and a half. Which was ok because we were all just watching a movie anyway.

We ran back to my house, grabbed the babies, loaded everything up and headed back to Rochester. About half way, Kevin complained that his arms was kind of numb/tingly. I joked that he was having a heart attack and did he want me to stop. But he said he was fine and we kept going. Before we even made it to the next exit, he started feeling short of breath and he changed his mind. We pulled over near a trooper, and Kevin walked around for some fresh air. He felt better when he was standing, but still wanted to stop. We got off at the next exit, made a pit stop to a gas station for some Bayer and headed to the hospital. By the time we got there, he was feeling better but we'd rather be safe than sorry. He got all checked in, they took some blood and did an EKG. Mind you, the kittens are still (for the past hour) in the back seat of my car. So I had to leave Kevin, drive to the apartment, drop them off, and come back for him. We ended up being there from 10pm until 2:30am for what thankfully turned out to be nothing. I've decided (and the nurse agreed with me) that he was feeling funny, and when he thought about it more, he psyched himself out and had an anxiety attack. So it turned out to be nothing serious. Nothing like a late night trip to the ER to remind you what you are thankful for.

FRIDAY - Kevin slept until almost noon. I sorted coupons and went grocery shopping and spent an obscene amount of $$ on basically nothing. In the same plaza, I stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond and FINALLY got our bedding - this has been a HUGE pain, trying to find something we both agree on. Also, I ran into Michael's to grab some adhesive for my invitations. I went back home and CLEANED like there was no tomorrow. The kitchen, the bathroom, the living room. I emptied out all the closets and took empty boxes down to the storage in the basement. I vacuumed and scrubbed and sprayed and dusted. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it. Then we went back out, picked up some wine for Thanksgiving w. Kevin's family the next day and also to Target. Target was a HUGE shopping spree. We had a TON of gift cards left from the shower that we hadn't used. We also had a George Foreman grill to return because we got two. SO we bought: 2 king size pillows (I didnt even realize king size beds had bigger pillows, until I opened up my lovely bed in a bad and held up the pillow shams...), a food processor, a Christmas decoration to put on the kitchen table, and lots of other little things. Then we stayed in for the night. I made quesadillas for dinner (one of Kevin's fave of my dishes) and we watched some things on the DVR. My buddy Oscar decided he was a scarf and laid in bed with me, across my neck. Seriously, they are too stinking cute. I just wish Viv liked us more....*sigh*

SATURDAY - Now it was my turn to sleep forever. I got up around 9, went back to bed at 10 for another almost 2 hours. Then I had to hurry up and get ready because we had Kevin's family Thanksgiving at his cousin's house at 1pm. It was pretty cramped there, about 15 people all hanging out in a tiny house. Dinner was delish, but I was able to control myself. But there was cobbler. Oh how i love the peach cobbler. But I was a good girl and only took one scoop. We played the longest game of Cranium on the face of the planet and didn't get home until about 6:30. Nothing much else, watched some hockey and my fave Christmas movie - White Christmas.

Seriously, if you have never seen this, I URGE you - watch it this year. It's adorable. It has great songs. And Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, and its totally hysterical. One of my fave parts is when, Danny Kaye's character is trying to set Bing's character up with a woman, who is your typical dumb blonde. They walk away and Danny says: "Alright. She didn't go to Harvard. She didn't go to Smith." and Bing replies, "Go to Smith? She couldn't even spell it!" haha

AND now, I am back home. Kevin was going to a Bills game with his buddies (well, he was going to the 49ers, but it was in Buffalo, so its a Bills game) and I had to drop him off at 10:30....his friends had been there for at least an hour already. This is something I will never understand.

Well, I guess that is all for now. Kevin took some pictures of the kitties, but he didn't send them to me yet, so I guess we'll have to wait for that.

Enjoy it!!

The thing about...

taking a newly created position is that you walk into other people's BIG messes. Clearly, if things were going fine, they wouldn't have needed to create this position in the first place. Which is just fine and dandy - it means you get a job.

However for me it means I have inherited headache after headache and today is NO exception. Someone emailed me - "Can you please fix this one account, it has the wrong rep name on it?" which I could do very easily.

Until I noticed what the real issue was. And this issue led me to run a report which turned up another 2500 accounts with wrong info, that I will have to change...individually.

So for the next forever, I will be looking up accounts on one system, noting the social security # so I am able to look it up in system #2, correct in both systems and repeat...times 2500. Rock on.

Enjoy it! (cuz I'll be too busy)


**UPDATE - I am now being asked to come in on weekends. Come on people! I have 2 jobs and I'm planning a wedding, don't I sound busy enough? As if the damn invitations weren't enough to drive me to drink...**

Ps - it's ok to love Erie

Ah-mazing weekend! Seriously. I was being super cranky about it to begin with, because Kevin was supposed to come and see me and come to Erie for the birthday extravaganza, and then found out he had to work. Then I had a veeeeery long night at Wegmans. So, needless to say, I was tired and not in best form when I got up and headed to my early hair appointment, to try a wedding hairstyle *again*.

This time, things were a MILLION times better - the girl, Cari, was awesome! She really listened when I was trying to explain, asked how I liked what she was doing, and was willing to work with me to create a style. Here is what we ended up with:


I totally LOVE it! She did a great job, especially considering my hair is not super long, and therefore not that easy to work with. Hopefully, if I keep growing it for the next 3 months, those little curlies on the sides will actually be able to reach back to the little bun. I don't have a veil yet (my mom is supposed to be making it, actually) so we couldn't try it out. But, I am going to put in underneath the curls in the back, which means I don't need to get a fancy barrette or anything, because you won't see it. I am thinking of maybe getting a could hairpins, just for a little extra something, but we'll see. Also, I think I will just leave the veil in all night - it makes me feel all bridal, and you only get to do it that one day, right?

I came home and went to the mall with my mother, which worked out to be a lot of fun. She has been wanting to go to the new Bobbi Brown counter, where my friend works, but she wants to go when Meg is working and there is no way she would remember who Meg is haha. So we went together, I got to show Meg my hair, and she did my mom's makeup. It was gorgeous! My mom does NOT wear a lot of makeup, so Meg was really trying to take it easy. She used a tinted moisturizer, which evened out her skin and covered up a lot of the red. I could tell my mom was not so comfy with having someone all up in her face, but it turned out beautiful!

I came home and relaxed, while waiting for my friend Tracy to finish errands so we could head down to Erie for Colleen & Mike's BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA! Once we got there, we grabbed a couple Hot'n'Ready's (which are just pizzas, I think from Little Caesar's) and hung out and got ready to go out. Colleen loooooved her birthday/Christmas present - I got her this adorable apron with cherries on it, a cupcake tin shaped like hearts and a couple towels for the kitchen with her fave, penguins, on them. It's for her inner domestic goddess. Although she does have plans to "sex up" the apron, ya know, high heels, sexy underpants haha.

We were supposed to begin the evening at Matthew's Trattoria for martinis, but when we tried to go, we were told that the people involved in "The Nutcracker" were having a private party...so much for starting the evening out classy, haha!

We went to the Plymouth and enjoyed some of their drink specials, including a shot called the Four Divas - delish! I have no idea what was in it, but it was yummers. After that, we went to this other bar where Colleen and Mike's friends, Mandy and Andrew work. It was classy. Or not. The thing about bars in PA (unlike NY) is that you can smoke there. So we walked into a thick cloud of carcinogens and countryfolk lol. It was a great time though. Also, apparently I became the papazzi. So, here is my photo essay from the evening at the Red Fox...

These are our gracious hosts, Colleen and Mike. I love them. Seriously.

Colleen, Mike, Tracy (who affectionately became "The Blonde" all night) and me. My clothes are STINKY from all the smoke.

Here is Steve-O and Colleen. There were a lot of funny candids,

thanks to my sniper attack camera skillz.

The lovebirds. Seriously, this is not alcohol induced for them.

They really are just this ridiculous.

Colleen and Tracy - they have been friends since they wer 3 years old and in the same grammar school. One phrase used often (stemming from their experiences in pre-k) is "Tracy's my friend and not yours, so you can't play with her." Both of these lovely ladies are in my wedding and I am so glad to have them in my life!

Ahh, beer my dear friend. Wow, am I pasty or what?! Stupid pale people ancestry! I am Irish Polish and German.... I'm practically allergic to the sun (and also, have the hottest temper around).

Colleen, hanging out at the bar

There was a lot of licking going on. Yummy!

Hot mess. That is all. But at least we're hot, right?

Say "Ah!"

A lady never reveals her secrets.

Seriously. Love them.

Josh doesn't mind the licking. We're all fine here.

Aww, so cute. I <3>

Colleen was all giggles at the bar

Tracy and Steve-O. Apparently when we were going from bar 1 to bar 2, they snuck out and headed over to an "adult store." They wanted to get Colleen something for her birthday, and Tracy picked out candy necklace nip tassles...to which Steve-O replied, "Well we don't want to get her something she probably already has." HAHAHAHA

She is a sassy minx. Be jealous.

Me, making sure my hair still looked hot. Yup, it did.

Yeah baby yeah

There was a lot of hard liquor involved with Tracy. It's ok, they are good friends.

Ok now children, settle, settle.

Lovahs!

Stranded at the bar, waiting for the slowest cab in Erie to retrieve our sorry behinds.

(l-r: John, Tracy, Colleen, Mike, Josh)

Enjoy it!!