i just love him

Last night this “hive”* thing came to a head.

 Lets start from the beginning though, shall we?

Yesterday, I went to help my Aunt Ronda finish up some of her spring cleaning. (why, I’m not exactly sure, the woman’s home is spotless. Perhaps these are traits of my mother and all of her sisters) Since her children are allergy royalty, Aunt Ronda has a stash of just about every over-the-counter and perscription allergy medication known to man. Since the “hives” had kicked into full gear that morning I needed something to alleviate the itchiness. Anything.

So she gave me Sudafed sinus and allergy.

It worked like a charm. The “hives” went away and for the rest of the day I was just pleased as punch at my new allergy-freeness. Usually, just before I go to bed, they kick in again, letting me know that it Benedryl time. They didn’t last night! Horray!

Fast forward to 2:00 this morning.

They came back with a vengance. The worst they’ve ever been, and this time they didn’t just itch, they hurt, with a kind of hurtful-itchiness that only “hives” can produce. I should also mention that they were everywhere except for my face. (God must know that that would have just been the last straw, I gotta preserve my pretty you know)

What did I do? What every other red-blooded American woman would do.

I cried. And scratched. And groaned. And cried some more.

I guess during all of this, husband woke up and realized what was going on. Being the darling husband that he is, he offered to go to the store and pick up some meds for me.

By the way, I’m the unemployed one, he had to be up this morning by 5:00.

After more drama and tears, I finally agreed to let him run out for me (I wanted him to get his sleep, see) and pick up some Benedryl and the stuff my Aunt Ronda gave to me. While he was away I changed the sheets, took a shower and put Bengay all over because it tingles and since I was given strict instructions not to sctratch, the tingle was the best I could do for myself.

Well, my knight in shining armor returned at 3 am with my drugs and shortly after taking them, I drifted off to dreamland.

Ain’t he the sweetest? I figure it was also good practice for midnight cravings during pregnancy. A two-for-one deal!

*I put them in quotes because I feel that they are really satanic bumps trying to overtake my body.

the countdown begins

I’ve been making good use of my unemployed time.

With no children to care for, shows like Regis and Kelly, The View, and General Hospital have become part of my regular TV lineup.

You can only imagine then, how utterly ecstatic I was to learn of the news of Rosie O’Donnell’s impending departure.

She’s such a (glory) hog. Sure the ratings have gone up since she joined the show last year, but so has the annoyance factor. She just loves controversy, and is sure to create it if there’s nothing else going on. She just complains about EVERYTHING! (I’m sure some of you feel that way about me, but I’m better ;)

And poor Elisabeth. She’s so sweet, so kind, so charming, so…….Republican. Gasp! The poor girl can’t get a word in edgewise with Rosie running the show. (because that’s really how it is)

Whatever happened to the good ol’ days of celebrity gossip and fashion trends? I deal with enough political issues in my own brain, I don’t need to watch it from 11-12 every day!

I want Star back!

the problems keep coming

Every year since I was about 15-ish I’ve been breaking out with these little mosquito-sized bumps all over my body right around this time of year. Ok, well not ALL over, just in places that are very convenient to itch. Like my knees, elbows, hands (yes hands you have NO idea how annoying that is!) butt, chin. You get it, right? Its very endearing to my new husband when I walk around scratching my butt you know. He just loves it!

Anyway, last night lemons and I went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, (hold the fabulous rolls and cinnamon butter please, we’re trying to lose weight!) and during the conversation I brought up my mosquito bite problem. (For the record they are not mosquito bites, that would be petrifying)

“Well, they sound to me like hives.”

“Huh.”

“Do they hurt?”

“Well yeah, the ones that aren’t on the surface yet do, the rest of them just itch.”

“Yeah, I think that’s what it is.”

I’m ok with this diagnosis. In spite of the fact that she is no medical professional, I at least know that she has some knowledge of something, right?

That’s good enough for me.

my perfection is slowly fading

Apart from having a mild bout with JRA, I’d say that I’ve been pretty blessed in the physical department.

No known allergies, no serious injuries, no real weight issues, cute feet with a second toe that is indicative of royalty and darnit, I think I’m “pretty pretty” (this is what my seven year old cousin says about my beauty).

Well, the ‘no known allergies’ part is slipping from my grasp. Last Sunday, I woke up with a sore throat, a leaky eye, and a stuff nose. I didn’t take anything for my symptoms as I am wont to do because I feel like I should let my immune system do the work and also because the pharmaceutical companies don’t need my money.

By Wednesday, I regretted that decision. I only got worse and as a matter of fact, I acquired some new symptoms, clogged ears and a sinus drip in the back of my throat.

ALLERGIES!!!!

Never before have I experienced this, and I don’t know that I’m a fan now that I have.

Because my mother – God bless her – still looks at me as a child, she told my husband to force me to take some medicine. So he did, and I did.

I feel better now, but now I’ll always have an allergy problem. I’m slipping further and further away from perfection and I just don’t like it!

and then there was a book review

I just finished reading The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble.

I loved it!

The author is British, so I had a fun time of getting used to “new” words like ‘bollocks!’ and ‘knickers’ and I had the darnedest time figuring out what a ‘pram’ was.

All in all, I was sad to finish the book, which is always a good sign. I felt like I was friends with the characters, which I think is evidence of good character development, and I actually cared about the different happenings in their lives.

I won’t lie, in the beginning I had a difficult time because there seemed to be so many characters, but eventually, it all just became easy to read, like it was natural to follow 6 different story lines.

 The basic premise is that these 5 women start a reading group and the books they’re reading seem to mirror the goings-on in their everyday lives. It was actually quite interesting.

I found that in the beginning I was interested only in one or two of the characters, but toward the early-middle of the book, I was captivated by them all!

 Definitely a good read. I’d recommend it to anyone (who is a woman of course)!

procrastination, your name is mine

* I am totally avoiding cleaning my apartment right now. I should have done it this week so that I could spend the entire day with my hubby who hasn’t had a day off in 2 weeks, but noooooo, I save it for today. BRILLIANT!

* Thursday was the first day in I don’t know how long that I’ve worn makeup. While this sounds totally shallow, I actually felt prettier, and just better. It was such a pick-me-up! The reason for the makeup? I spent the day with my SIL and neices. Cuz, you know, they care whether or not I wear makeup……

* I’ve been cleaning other people’s houses lately for some extra cash. While it has been profitable, my knees are bruised and my house hasn’t been touched. Also, I have discovered a new hatred for cleaning toilets and tubs. Not good.

* Brad Paisley is going on tour again this year. I’m finding it VERY difficult to restrain myself from following him all over the country. This year, he’ll be coming to Hershey Park (Hershey is sponsoring his tour), The Harrington State Fair, which just happens to very conveniently be in my state, and he’ll be in Charlotte, NC again which was the site of last years concert-de-virginizing of myself. I just can’t decide. One, or all three?

Ok, back to cleaning, I can’t avoid it ALL day you know!

to move or not to move, THAT is the question

As many of you know, hubby is being deployed in October. It is in our plans that we (or really, I) will be moving in with my parents around that time. Probably, September-ish. Recently, hubby was offered a job with his unit from now until deployment. While the commute is pretty hefty, the pay is much better than his other job, AND since the “job” with his unit were orders, he can keep his current job and get paid while he’s doing the one with his unit, well for the first 3 months anyway. Too wordy?

So the army has all of these fabulous ways for compensating their people, what with them putting their lives on the line and all.

One way is this pay called per diem. If I’m spelling it wrong, I’m sure Vanessa will tell me!

In this area, per diem is an extra $200 something dollars PER DAY, which would essentially be an extra $6,000 a month, not including his salary and BAH pay which is basically money they pay us to pay our rent. Did I mention that we’re saving for a house?

In order to qualify for this per diem, we have to live 50 miles from his unit. Guess how far we live?

47.5 miles away.

So hubby calls me this morning and suggests that we move and benefit from this extra cash. FOR FOUR MONTHS!

I don’t necessarily think it’s worth it.

Before you go all crazy on me and smack me around verbally, consider what a pain in the butt it is to move. Packing up all your crap, unpacking it only to pack and unpack again 4 months later.

Plus, our lease isn’t up until June, so we would have to break it. While we have every right to, because he has military orders and they basically break every contract you’ve gotten yourself into, I don’t really think it’s the right thing to do since we’re not moving closer to his unit, we’re moving further just so we can make an extra buck.

Ok, an extra 18,000 – 24,000 bucks, but still.

 Am I crazy? Are you all sitting there shaking your computer screens as if you were actually shaking me?

What to do?

i know i’m boring. sorry.

I haven’t been around much lately. Oh, you’ve noticed? Yeah, about that……

I’m home all day every day with the exception of my cardio-kickboxing class, which I’ve been going to frequently, thank GAWD. What could possibly be blog-worthy about that?

Sure, I could regale you with tales of more exciting times long ago, but they just make me long for exciting times in the present time. I don’t want to do that to myself.

I don’t know how people do this unemployment thing. It’s driving me batty!

i shouldn’t laugh, because I live here, but I did anyway

Last night, hubby and I were coming home from a late-night outing only to find that our street was lined with state and county troopers. There were so many in fact, that we had to take the back way to our apartment.

I was of course curious as to what in the world was going on, but I didn’t want to be one of “those people” who are just nosy and get in the way of officers trying to do there jobs.

So, I went onto our local News Journal’s website today and this is what I found.

 I laughed hysterically.

For those of you who don’t feel like reading, here is the gist of it.

Four punks from Philly (because where else would they come from?)  accosted a man in the parking lot about 10 p.m. “pistol-whipped him, stole his wallet and forced him to take them to his third-floor apartment.”

That’s not the funny part.

A good Samaritan called the police, who were there in minutes, and upon noticing their arrival, the criminals inquired as to the location of the back door.

In a third floor apartment!!!

I believe that they are candidates for America’s dumbest criminals.

The rest of the story is basically that they somehow jumped onto the 2nd floor apartment’s balcony and broke in there, but the cops heard it on their way up to the 3rd floor and caught the bad guys.

I think I should be scared because, well I live down the street from these people, and it could have been me, blah, blah.

But it was just too funny to be scared about.

i must be rubbing off on him

Husband: Did you save your old social security information?

Me: Huh?

Husband: You know, like your old social security number, did you save all of that after you changed your name?

Me: Honey, your social security number never changes.

Husband: Oh, right.