Just call me Angie

This has been a great b-day weekend. On Saturday evening E&J and LadyBoyd and her hubbie surprised me with a trip to Sunset Symphony and a homemade picnic. It was great weather and company. I my favorite part was LadyBoyd's homemade carrot cake. I was getting myself ready for a carrot cake-less May, but my friends refused to let that happen. This was the best cake I've ever had. BTW, it makes for a great Sunday Morning breakfast.

Sunday I hung around the house and did absolutely nothing. O'Malley forced me to wake up by 8:30, but I'll forgive her. Something about a non-declawed paw to the face is very motivating... Although I was pissed when she tried that trick today at 6 AM and several more times until I finally gave up at 9:30. I'm guessing that I might never need an alarm clock again.

Today, E&J picked me up for a nice lunch at Texas d'Brazil. While it can be really expensive for dinner, lunch is much more affordable. The "Meat Palace", as J calls it, is actually a great place for us vegetarians. They had the best roasted red pepper soup and grilled provolone. I finished lunch with coffee and flan. Yum! Next up was a trip to the zoo. This is the opening weekend of the summer butterfly exhibit. We walked around for about 4 hours. We hit all of the high points: cat country, penguins, polar bears, butterflies. E&J told me that they were going to buy a membership to the zoo on the way out. But that was a fib. They actually gave me a new child. How's that? They bought me a one year adoption for the one year old female White Bengal Tiger named Orissa. (Orissa for Krissa, get it?) That's her on the left. Sorry for the poor quality; it's from the Memphis Zoo website. The only sad thing is that I don't actually get to take her home and cuddle with both her and O'Malley. I must say that the last year of my third decade of life is off to a good start.

Cake for Breakfast

The last few weeks have been full of surprises both good and bad. The first surprise was the not quite what I asked for birthday cake on the 16th. I asked for a carrot cake but got a white sheet cake with whipped cream frosting. (It took a huge amount of effort to get Mom and Nanny to call back the store and cancel the chocolate cake!) At least I got a carrot cake muffin (no frosting) out of the deal. Then while waiting for Daddy to get home from work on Thursday, I got a call from the treasurer of the Southern New England Conference of SDAs in Lancaster, MA. They have an opening and I have worked with several of the current employees there so they thought I might be interested. The trip to SNEC ended up with a chance to spend some time with my college roommate MM over subs at John's in Clinton. It was like old times. It's funny how you can forget how much you enjoy someone's company. Back to the surprises. When I called E to check in on O'Malley, she told me about another surprise that was waiting for me upon my arrival to Memphis--a rearranged office. My boss believes that his systems are the best and hates my piles. He took advantage of the fact that I was not here to make over my office. My office looks enormous now as everything has been shifted against the window wall. What really irks me is the fact that I was not consulted; I find that very disrespectful. My boss figured that if he likes, then I would as well. He keeps trying to get me to say that I like what he did. He doesn't understand why I don't. (Tangent: Last week when he was telling me about how he helped another controller become a GM, he was shocked to find out that I have no ambition to become a General Manager. Sorry, but sales is not my thing nor do I have any inclination to be a mini-him.) Anyhow, the best surprises of all so far were a beautifully cleaned up (inside and out) car on Wednesday and cake for breakfast today. E knew that I was wanting to get my car detailed and washed since it had become a bug cemetery over that last few weeks. That and I always forget to throw non-food things away. (Isn't that what back seats are for?) So, when she dropped me off at my car from the airport, Isabelle the Corolla (Ellie for short) was all bright and shiny. It was amazing. She even organized my trunk! The cake was made special for me (a layered lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting) by our resident traffic director/baker. Not only was it beautiful, but yummy too. Nothing is better than cake with your coffee at 9 AM! Now, you may be asking why I'm so happy about Ellie's makeover and not my office. It's simple really. I've told E several times that I need to give Ellie a good cleaning, but never make time for it. E knew that this is something that I wanted. As for my office, CS knows that I work in piles and that I do not subscribe to his organizational philosophy. Yet, he went ahead--under protest from just about everyone in the building--and did what he wanted anyway. E had to fight to keep him away from my piles of paperwork. Long and short of it: I wanted a clean Ellie and CS wanted my office his way.

Births

On Monday morning my friend (and E&J's sister-in-law) R delivered her beautiful baby boy Andrew. I am always surprised by the little fingernails. I took off after work and made the 2 1/2 hour drive over to Little Rock so that I could spend some time with little Andrew on his first day in the world. I got there around 7:45p and stayed just over an hour. Then I made the 2 1/2 hour drive home. It was totally worth it. Not only did I spend that whole time holding the precious little one, I got to see her in-laws. I am amazed by this whole family. Ever since I first met the family last year they have accepted me as their own. It's kind of like I'm another daughter/sister-in-law even though the Sims boys are married. Considering that my family is 1,300 miles away it is nice that they are so welcoming.

While I was holding Andrew I kept wishing that I was in a place in my life where I could start thinking about having children. Several of my friends are in the baby-making way and I'm a little jealous of that. I'm inching ever closer to the start of my fourth decade of life (only one year and 18 days left). Alas, there is no one in my life to make babies with. I do see myself well settled into married life before shaking it up with kids. I like that my brother waited five years before starting to spawn. It gave him and his wife time together to really appreciate each other before their lives became about the boys. But marriage is years away for me--as I keep telling my mom, I need to meet my future husband before I can think about marrying him :) Adoption is always an option if I never find the right person (or even if I do), but I don't really see myself as a single parent considering the fact that I am much in want of the help-mate that is missing in my life now. Anyway you slice it, I have baby fever and no outlet.

About freakin' time

I’ve finally done it. I went ahead and committed to a one week vacation that will truly be a vacation. No email, no computer, and barring any emergencies no cell phone. What’s that? Am I taking a vacation in the Stone Age? Close. I’m going to the family camp in Maine. Tuesday night I booked my direct flight to Boston and ended up spending a whole $3.91. Don’t you just love the perks of getting bumped on flights? And since I am staying with family and at the family owned camp and borrowing my dad’s car, this will be the cheapest vacation. I’m heading out two weeks from yesterday and won’t be back in Memphis until the 23rd. Right now the plan is to spend a whopping 5 ½ days up at camp (drive up Thursday morning and drive back late Tuesday afternoon). I will need to pack a cooler with water and some munchies to tide me over, but that’s it. Dad will join me for part of the trip so I’ll have a canoeing buddy. We are even going to try to get in a little joint b-day dinner with the whole family for our birthdays. As long as there is cream cheese frosting I’ll be happy.