Wednesday I met up with Terrific58 and we hit the zoo with cameras in tow. It was a great morning. Nice and cool, good light and great company. We finished off our picture taking expedition with lunch at Route 66 Diner – where I blew most of my remaining weekly points. This week has been rough on my points! Hubby took me to lunch on Saturday – which was very nice. Then Sunday they picked me up from work after they went to church and we went out for a family dinner. That was nice too. These days it seems like the time I spend with the family is way too limited! That’s what happens when you work two jobs though. It’ll be worth it in the long run.

Also on Wednesday, Ducky and I went to my birthday concert. She bought me Black Sabbath tickets for my Birthday gift. Of course they were touring as “Heaven and Hell” but we all know who they really are! They were here with Testament, Motor head and Judas Priest (the headliners). It was a great show and I remember why I love heavy metal so much! Something about the energy and rhythms that you can feel in your chest while an electric guitar screams out the harmonies. It always gets my blood moving and the my excitement meter pegged! I still like classic rock, and easy listening, Jazz and pop – but my heart will always lie with heavy metal I think.

This was the culmination of my heavy metal teen trifecta. In the last year I’ve seen: Rush, Scorpions and Black Sabbath. They were hands down my three favorite bands growing up. I couldn’t stop grinning all night, although I paid the price yesterday when I had to get up at the butt crack dawn to go to work, and then I worked my second job in the evening. Whew was I beat last night! I slept in today and then cleaned up the house. I have to work again tonight but I’m much more ready for it today!

It was hilarious to people watch at the concert. I loved the 80s – mostly. But I left them behind a long time ago. There were A LOT of young kids, but a lot of folks my age too. Some were like me, just enjoying a trip back in time, without feeling like we had to act 17 again. Others – had never left the 80s. There were middle age guys with beer belly’s and receding hair lines in long metal hair and leather vest. There were older ladies in halters and leather boots, the typical hair band groupie type attire — but with too much make up and too much – well everything. There was one chick my age dressed like a 16 year old. She didn’t quite pull it off. LOL People watching was half the fun! It was a great show and a great crowd. Thank you Ducky for a great BD present!

Well I’d better go get ready for work. I’m hoping I get less hours at SC next week – this week I had 37. That’s a lot for a part time job! Especially since I’m starting to get sub jobs now. Although hey – the paycheck will be good right?

Question of the day:

More hours or less pay?

First sub day back. Yuck. Not a good way to start the year.  I really hate subbing. I wish I could just get a teaching job and move on with my life. I’m considering other options. More and more these days. I know that I’m going to stick it out for one more year. Sub and work at SC – and then we’ll see. After this if I don’t get a teaching job, I’m moving on. I just hate subbing too much to do it for ever. It makes me want to cry (literally – my eyes start welling up, and my throat closes) when I think about abandoning teaching, but I also know that I’m getting more and more unhappy about subbing. I watched my dad work a job he hated for ever – and he was never happy about it. I don’t want to live like that.

Scratch that. I WON’T live like that.

Looks like hubby will be heading to HI at least once in the next couple of months, possibly 3 separate times and 3 separate islands. To say I’m jealous would be an gross understatement. However, it will be really good for him – help him alleviate some stress. It’s so funny because I was reading Angrocamp’s blog and she was talking about all the things she didn’t like there – and they pretty much matched my least favorite parts of island life….

Now, I  just miss the ocean. The island breezes, the plumeria and red ginger, the green everywhere and the blue skies and blue water. And the rainbows. And seeing whales. Swimming with turtles. Black lava rock and white sand. and star filled skies.

*Sigh*

I’m not helping myself here.

Well I’m off. I’m wiped out and I have a zoo date tomorrow and then Ducky is taking me to see Black Sabbath tomorrow night. It will be a busy, busy day. The concert will complete my teenage rock-n-roll trifecta though — Scorpions, Rush and now Black Sabbath. Hard to beat that!

What’s your musical trifecta?

While I thought my week was wide open, I ended up taking a bunch of hours at one of the other stores and worked my butt off. Today I worked 9-7 and tomorrow 10-6. It’s tough working that much, especially nights and week ends as I don’t see the family that much, but it’s nice come payday! I have one sub job lined up for next week and a couple for the following weeks. Hopefully I’ll start getting more of those and can work less hours at SC.

As for the bite, it’s much better. They do think it was a spider bite that I had a reaction to and developed an infection as well. The treadmill stress test was because I spent last Saturday in ER with chest pains. They diagnosed it as costochondritis, but wanted a stress test to double check the rest of the tests and make sure there was no cardiac involvement. And the results so far look really good. It’s just another weird ailment that I managed to get. Go figure! Gave me some Naproxen and Vicodin for that.

In better news – I’ve lost almost 20 lbs so far! Woot. I was very pleased! Hopefully by November I’ll be at weight I’ll be happy to take some pictures. I wanted to have some family portraits taken this year. Shh… don’t tell anyone, it’s a surprise! LOL

I finally started (and finished) Breaking Dawn. It was weird, before it was released I was so anxious to get ahold of it. Then when we got it, I couldn’t get motivated to read it. Once I started though, I had to stay up late and read and then got up early to finish. It was great! A fairly anticlimactic ending, I was hoping for something a little more — I don’t EARTH SHATTERING? It was good, although I predicted most of it with her use of foreshadowing… but excellent none the less.

Along that line we FINALLY got to see Dark Knight. I have to agree with everyone else, Heath Ledger gave an AMAZING performance.  I also loved the plot line. But I have to say, I wasn’t as impressed as I would have hoped to be. I think it was  a case of too much build up. That often happens when I don’t see something completely amazing right away — I listen to all the hype, build my preconceived notions and then end up disappointed. I dislike that fast camera angles and dark settings. But overall –I was happy and thought it was fantastic. Didn’t like the chick who replaced Katie Holmes, and didn’t like the Rachel character in this movie, but like I said overall a great movie!

Alright, enough rambling. I need to get some shut eye, I have to work all day tomorrow — Question of the day:

What was the last movie you saw at the theater?

I had this whole entry on how bad my week has been. But I’m so sick of listening to myself complain and list my ailments that I deleted.

So there. It no longer exsists. Hah.

Right now my life is oh so not fun. Nothing major, just life crap. I just need to spice it up some. Get out of my rut. Change things up. Yep. That’s exactly what I need. Hey Terriffic58 – I’m off all week – photo outing?? I’d love to go to the zoo, haven’t been there yet. Pick a day. I’ll make my self unavailable and we’ll do it!  *edit* actually, I now have a treadmill stress test tomorrow in the morning, and orientation at RRS Wednesday morning — I’m free afternoons and Thursday and Friday – what’d you say???

Sound familiar??

This week marked the beginning of one new era, and the end of another.

On Tuesday my baby started High School and on that day, it was the last first day of school for my oldest.

Oh sure, she’ll have a first day in college. But odds are that I won’t be there for that. She’ll head out on her own.

I’m so proud of my girls. Of course some days I want to choke the crap out them – like on Monday. My only day off and the house was TRASHED so I spent the majority of the day cleaning. But for the most part, they are intelligent, beautiful, unique and confident (well, mostly confident, who is REALLY confident at that age?). They are funny and caring. As with all things, there are goods and bads, but so far the goods far outweigh the bads. That’s a lot to be grateful for.

Ladybug got her hair cut before school – and I do mean CUT! Then we colored it black and purple on Monday night. Let’s just say there’s no mistaking my kids and they are fairly easy to pick out of crowd. So just to demonstrate here are some pictures! 

First: LadyBug’s new hairdo:

Now here they are first morning of school.

I love this one – notice Ducky is standing one step higher? That’s because LadyBug is now taller than both of us and Ducky refuses to accept that little bit of truth. ha ha ha.

In this one LadyBug is holding Ducky’s hand to prevent her from making gestures above her head — what a couple of jokers!

Unfortunately LadyBug’s hair looks mostly black in these pictures. The front has purple streaks and the back is mostly purple with black streaks.

What’s Eating Azcason?

This is what else I’ve been dealing with.

Monday night I noticed I had a bug bite. Thought it was a mosquito, but Tuesday it bothered me all day at work. It was hurting and itching. I got home took a good look and ewww I was not happy. Took some Benadryl (which for me is the same as hitting me on the head and knocking me out) and hoped it would be better.

Yesterday I woke up to the unpleasant fact that it actually looked worse! I huge red circle, about 8cm diameter was surrounding the bite site. Also the whole area was hot to the touch. yuck. Called the nurse out at base and since I had no other symptoms they told me just to treat it at home – with Benadryl creams etc. and to go in and get seen if I started having any number of symptoms which she ran down for me.

Jump forward to about 12:30 I started getting nauseous and had a headache. By 3:00 I was feeling light-headed and had pain in my arm, along with the nausea, so I had Ducky take me to urgent care. The doc there (though he didn’t seem concerned by my other symptoms and my extremely elevated blood pressure) said it might be infected and that I was having an allergic reaction. He gave me antibiotics and told me to take Benadryl every 6 hours (which is like telling me to sleep for the next couple days!). This morning it looks much better. The red circle is much fainter although there appears to be some bruising on it now??? Why?? I don’t know.This is on the back of my elbow and I can only assume something took a little nibble of me on my Monday cleaning spree. Aren’t I the lucky one?

The fun just never stops! I have a doctor’s note for yesterday, as well as today. But I’m going to go ahead and work (just have to skip the Benadryl) and then I’m going to go sub for Bunco. I think I’ll make it. I’d better! I’m looking forward to getting out of the house for something besides work! You know what’s odd? I spent 3 years in the insect paradise. I managed to avoid all the spiders, most of the mosquitoes and even the centipedes which regularly found there way in to my house and even have crawled across my bare foot in the bathroom. 1 year in NM and BOOM. Something nasty gets it’s venom in me. Darn it. LOL

Alright enough rambling.

Question of the day?

What’s eating you these days?

I have really been enjoying my job at Supercuts. It’s brainless and tedious at times but it’s really fun to work with other people and interact with customers all day. Even when I sub, I don’t really get to talk to other grown-ups, except at lunch. With this job I’m always working with at least one other person and there is constant flow of customers.

Yesterday was fun and hectic. There was a radio station out in front of the store I was working at. They were doing a remote for two hours. So we were slammed. I prefer to be busy, rather than bored so that was OK, but it was busy, busy BUSY! The biggest problem was that ALL of the general managers and the store owner all felt they needed to be there. Too many cooks in the kitchen. When I first arrived there were also three girls from the main office helping out, a manager from another store, and a visiting manager all helping out in some fashion, either helping at the desk or cutting hair.

I hadn’t even got settled in yet and had orders from three different people to do three different things. Now… I’m good. I can multi-task, keep things straight and get all my work done. I can not however sweep the floor and dust the shelves in the other part of the store at the same time. Mr. Fantastic I’m not. It just won’t work. They were stepping all over my work all afternoon. Not that it wasn’t great to have help. But 5 extra people and 4 extra managers that was just too much! Half the time I couldn’t even get to my register. It was nuts!  I was glad when they all left and I could just do my thing.

I’ve really been enjoying my job over all though. Today a teenage girl came in with hair to her waist. She had it cut into an A-line with the back above her neck. She donated the hair to Locks of Love. She had a whole crew with her, taking pictures and crying (she cried too, but she loved her new cut). It was so crazy, but so cool. She’d had long hair since she was 8. It was a big change.

(not pictures of her, just ones I found on the web)

I’ve always switched back and forth from short hair to long hair. I grow it out and then get tired of it and hack it off. Back and forth. The girls have both preferred short hair since they first got it cut that way. So, question of the day:

Short, Long or in between?

14 lbs down. Too many to state here left to go. I’ve pleased. I also got my pizza fix with pita pizzas — thanks to ThisIsBullDookie for that idea. Last week and this week haven’t been my best, but I’m back on track again.

Had another interview again today. It seemed to go well, but then they all seem to go well. So I’m not getting my hopes up. I’m not feeling as discouraged today – and have accepted the fact that I may be subbing again this year. If that’s the case, so be it.

Ducky got her senior portrait proofs back and they are fantastic! I can definitely guess which one the photographer wanted to enter in a contest…. It’s my FAVORITE! I love it. I’ll try to figure out how to post the proofs or get a link to the online proofs. They are soooo good! She is so photogenic! Both my girls are– but of course, I’m not biased, just honest!!

LadyBug also got something new today. I don’t have pictures yet, but she got her hair all cut off! It can do a faux hawk, or just be really wild and cute, or even have a “Sunday” style. It’s so adorable! I can’t wait to see it once we color it. Tomorrow is her freshman orientation day. She’s both excited and nervous. Me, I can’t believe that my kids are now both high schoolers! Yikes.

In other less exciting news — for the last two days I’ve been straightening my hair. I’m really liking it! The girls and hubby don’t quite know what to do as they have NEVER seen me with straight hair. Even Hubby in 22+ years — never seen me with super straight hair. I probably won’t do it every day,but it’s a nice change!

Alright — confession. I love Ace of Cakes. Does anyone watch that show? Duff and his crew at Charm City Cakes are the BOMB! They do some amazing stuff and I love to watch them create these unique pastries. And Duff – he’s just a nut! His crew is just as crazy! Check some of the cakes out at the Charm City Cakes website. Here’s some of the more interesting examples – although they make more traditional cakes as well. I saw them make the Hogwarts cake, they made it for the last premiere…. very cool!

Question of the day:

If you could have a cake of anything, anything at all, for any reason or celebration – what would you pick and why?

Ever had one of those days? I’m sure you have, everyone has. You know the kind I’m talking about. Where nothing seems to go right and no matter how hard you try to adjust, it just keeps going downhill. Yep. I had one of those days today. It started with bickering with Ducky while trying to get the girls registered for school. Not anything major, just misunderstanding, miscommunication, long lines and red tape. The regular registration stuff. That wasn’t too bad.

Stopped on the way home and picked up the mail, and found my first really unpleasant event of the day, a rejection letter from one of the Friday interviews. *sigh*

You know how that goes, you pick yourself up and plug on ahead. I got together some more resumes to drop off, dropped the girls off at the movies and headed out to sell myself (figuratively of course!). The first school was pleasant. The second school when asked what I needed I handed my resume over the counter and began “I just wanted to ….” about there I was interrupted by the brusque lady behind the desk. “Resume?” (rolls eyes and snatches it from my hand) “Fine”.  I smile sweetly and say “Thank you for much, have a nice day” all the while thinking B#$%$ – you don’t have to be obnoxious.

OK, no big thing, shake it off and regroup. Head home. Run a few other errands and then settle in for some reading. Lounging on the couch. Phone rings. The Family School position is not mine either. Vice-Principal is very nice, you interviewed well, it was between you and one other, I’ll help out all I can in order to get you a position, you’re one of the strongest candidates left in the pool yadda, yadda yadda.

This time not so easy to shake off. I really wanted that one. Felt good about it. So – I’m bummed.

Cleaning up I find 4 lottery scratches. I’m thinking pessimistically that the way my day is going I won’t win a dime – guess what? I was right.

Hubby calls and I tell him to pick up something for dinner – to pick up pizza. Right now I don’t care about points, I just want something to lift my spirits. He comes home an hour later, no pizza. Instead he thoughtfully considered my WW plan and choose instead something healthier – over-cooked grocery store rotisserie chicken, bag salad (not even the good kind) and bread – which we have no butter for because I didn’t feel up to facing the commissary. yummy. So. No pizza. I eat some chicken (and in defiance of my points eat some with skin) and have two slices of bread dipped in Olive Oil. Doesn’t really help and I’m still bemoaning not getting my slice of pizza.

Hubby and I talk, but I really don’t feel like hashing my day over and over again. I go back to reading. LadyBug comes in sheepishly, holding my phone. She’s been using my phone to text her friend on, since one of her other friends dropped LadyBug’s phone in a glass of tea a couple of days ago. Hubby ferrets out that now, she has dropped my phone in the sink while she was washing her hands and it is – surprise, surprise – no longer functioning. Great. Perfect.

It’s thundering and lightening outside. I figured I better stay in as the way my day was going, if I went outside I’d get hit by lightening.

So far the only good thing about the day is that it’s almost over and that tomorrow is probably going to be better.

Oh goodie, the cable box just went out. What other surprises could possibly lay in store?

I have a lot to be grateful for – and now is the time to focus on that.

So here are my thankfuls:

I’m thankful for a loving supportive husband.

I’m thankful for two beautiful, smart, and healthy girls.

I’m thankful for all my friends.

I’m thankful for the house we live in and the food we eat.

I’m thankful for my new contacts.

I’m thankful for my freedom

I’m thankful for all of you! Have a great night everyone.

Question of the day:

What are you thankful for?