Crushed by MUSHED

I know this is a few days late, but it's not like the good ole' days of bowling blogging when I could go home and blog before my teammates even made it back home! Ah, the perks of living less than 2 miles from the Ft. Myer! But I digress......

On Tuesday we bowled against Team 8, aka MUSHED. Going into the night's bowling, they were in 5th place. We were in 9th which is technically last place because Team 10 is vacant. This week also marked Sandra's first week as a Chick with a Ball!! We won the first game by 20 pins. Then "Al Pacino" threatened bodily harm, so we threw the 2nd and 3rd games. I so did not want to say hello to his little friend. Ew! That just sounded really gross - sorry!! We lost the 2nd game by 87 pins and the 3rd game by 121 pins!!! Sorry Dallas, but we are cutting you off after the first pitcher of beer!!

One cool thing from the night - we did get some snazzy discount cards because we are league members. One is a punch card good for 100 free games of bowling. Of course there is a catch - you get one free game per day and it can't be during cosmic bowling. The other is a "League Member Benefit Card." It is good for $2 open-play rates, 10% off non-sale items at the pro shop, up to 25% off locker rentals, and 20% off at Kids Quest anytime. (Not sure what the Kids Quest thing is.) You better believe that I am going to use my discount cards this weekend!!!

Next week we bowl the incredibily cleverly named team, TEAM 5. After the first week they were in 4th place. We have a chance against them - as long as they bowl poorly and we bowl average or better than average. We will also be near "Al Pacino" again, so maybe Dallas can get that autograph after all!!

The Tracks of My Tears

A comment from a co-worker today made me think of the old Smokey Robinson & the Miracle song, "The Tracks of My Tears." I asked why he said hello to someone standing near me, but not me. He said that this person was having a bad day and since I am always cheery and happy - I believe he also said "glowing", he didn't think he needed to say hello and ask how I was doing. It made me think how sometimes when I am not in a good mood, I feel like I have to put on an act because people don't expect me to be in bad moods. It's not often that something upsets me to where I can't hide the bad feelings, but it happens. I feel like I am not allowed to be in a bad mood! So, just know that even though I may seem happy, I may pretending.**

People say I'm the life of the party,

Because I tell a joke or two

Although I might be laughing loud and hearty

Deep inside I'm blue

So take a good look at my face

You'll see my smile looks out of place

If you look closer, it's easy to trace

The tracks of my tears..

**NOTE: I am feeling fine!! I have thought of this before from time to time and just thought I would blog about it! Also, sorry for the Debbie Downer of a post!!

Dinner Date?

This past Saturday I invited Mr.X over to my place for dinner. I didn't go too overboard with dinner - lasagna, salad, and bread. Shortly after Mr.X showed up, Mandy appeared in the kitchen to come check him out. I was very curious how she would react because up until this point she has been a man-hater! Mandy didn't like my cousin. And she had a sort of love/hate thing going with my dad. She would hiss and growl but keep approaching him for attention. Mandy hissed once at Mr.X and that was it. Mr.X didn't seem to be a big fan of cats, but at least he offered a hand to try and pet her. Mr.X made it through the night with only a few scratches. He was also nice enough to tolerate Mandy's behavior as queen of the house. My dining table has a lattice shelf under the tabletop. Well, Mandy crawled around that. She also tried to get on the table numerous times. On one of these attempts, Mr.X gave her a gentle nudge back down onto the chair. But Mandy's claw had hooked itself onto a place mat and began taking that, and the bottle of wine sitting on the place mat, with her. Thankfully I caught the bottle in time!

I am a little confused as to what exactly Mr.X's feelings are towards me. We have gone out a few other times and there is plenty of flirting and little touches here and there. And we also exchange flirty messages. But the last two times we got together, all I got was a hug. Hugs are good, but sometimes you want/need more!! I am pretty sure Mr.X likes me. Could it be that he doesn't realize that I am attracted to him? Is he just "slow"? It's a little frustrating. No plans have been made for another get-together - I hesitate to use the word "date." I just want some clear sign that he is interested in me.

Now don't get me wrong - I did have a really good time with Mr.X on Saturday. I enjoyed cooking and entertaining, the conversation, and the company. He did make me do one thing though that I hate - making phone calls to strangers. I force myself to make phone calls for work. But other than that, I do my best not to. For example, I will order pizza online rather than calling on the phone. I told Mr.X this and he made me call Papa Johns. I was to ask for "Antonio." (Mr.X didn't know any Antonio, he just figured that there would be one working there!) Once I asked for Antonio, I could give the phone to Mr.X and he would do the talking. I begrudgingly made the call. I think that was almost as bad, if not worse than just getting a hug a goodbye!!

Double or Nothing

So my great caffeine bet went belly up before it barely began! Stupid me got a decaf mocha (today and yesterday). And as it was so lovingly pointed out to me by Dallas, a mocha has chocolate which has caffeine. If you guessed I dropped an F-bomb at that point, you'd be correct!! I am getting another chance next week, but the stakes of course have been upped. In addition to no caffeine, I am to avoid all sugar!! Holy cow - this is going to be tough!!! Especially because I know my co-workers will taunt me. My track record with bets lately has not been the greatest so winning this bet would be extra nice!! So it looks like I will be eating A LOT of fruits and veggies next week. I can't even have my usual Cheerios for breakfast or my yogurt with lunch! I feel sorry for those of you I see on a daily basis - I'm not going to be a very happy camper!!

I Heart Caffeine

As you all know by now, I am severely addicted to caffeine. I go to Starbucks waaaaayyyyy too much. Today was kind of a boiling over point for me. Usually I'd go to Starbucks regularly until they knew my drink or my name. Whichever came first. I haven't done this since moving to Nevada. My local Sbux has recently picked up their game. I'd walk in and am asked, "grande?", "iced?", "the usual?" Then they got to the point where they didn't have to ask me my drink when I got to the register. Today topped it all. I was a couple people back in line when I saw the barista put a coffee on the counter and tell the gal at the register that that coffee was for Sue - aka me. My drink actually beat me to the front of the line!!!

So at work today, I made a bet with Dallas. In a week I am going cold turkey off all caffeine - coffee, pop, chocolate, my favorite headache pain reliever! I apologize, over a week in advance, for the bitchiness, bad attitude, lack of caring about you, the whining, and the complaining. I'm sorry for snapping at you because you had the nerve to ask me a question when I have a raging headache I can't get rid of because stupid Excedrin tension headache contains caffeine! But I'm not scared.....Okay, maybe just a little.

Welcome to Nevada!

I finally got my Nevada driver's license and license plates this weekend. I got in the Information line at the DMV at 8:25am and walked out of there all done exactly an hour later. That was a lot faster than I thought! All went well except I had to cheat a little on the eye exam. My right eye is so bad I didn't see the final box of letters that I had to read. I read the first two and the lady prompted me to read the last one. Oops! So I closed my right eye and viola! There were the missing letters. I guess now that I have the DMV crossed off my list, I can work on getting myself to the eye doctor! Even though I am happy to be in Nevada, I am kind of sad about getting my new DL and plates. Maybe because I wasn't allowed to keep my old plates. When I moved to Virginia, I was allowed to keep my Washington plates. Oh well. I'm also a little disappointed that my temporary license doesn't have a copy of my photo. I know I had some stupid cheesy grin. I could tell. At least I have a way at work to look up my picture! I was facing some pressure at work (from one individual in particular) to get my stuff changed. So, is it bratty of me to not say anything and let this person discover the change on their own????

Going to New Heights

My old cat, D'Art (short for D'Artagnan), was the king of "perching." He would sit on top of the fridge alot, but his favorite spot was the top of one of the two armoires in my parent's bedroom. After getting in the morning to eat his breakfast, he would go to his "perch" as my family called it, and would stay there until 10:30am or 11am. Longer if it was rainy. Well, it seems that Mandy has found her perch in the house.

When I came home Friday afternoon, Mandy promptly showed me what she had been working on all day. She hopped up on the counter, the the fridge, then the tops of the cabinets, and THEN she hopped up onto the wall around the kitchen. I measured this morning and that wall is 9 feet tall! But of course my crazy kitty wasn't done yet! She then leaped across the hallway to the ledge by the front door. Mandy ended her journey in the half-circle window above my front door!!! It was at this point she freaked out a bit since she couldn't turn around to go back the way she came. She made a few leaps to the floor that really scared me. I was worried my Little Girl would hurt her leg or back or worse!! But she seems to enjoy herself up there!

I just know that the day I finally do have people over to my house, will be the day that Mandy decides to go to her perch ,and because she can, she will leap down onto someone's shoulders. Most likely the person who dislikes cats the most!!