Leah Barr

So it’s a new year. 2010 has dawned and I feel like I should commemorate the occasion but it really doesn’t feel any different than 2009 yet so instead I’m just going to ramble about the cats.

Our older kitty, Maggie, is sitting on the back of the loveseat watching me type and making sure I’m not typing anything inappropriate or too revealing about her, I’m sure. I love how cats are so intense. It’s like they’ve decided that the world is not running correctly and they have to step up and micromanage and pick that up while you’re at it and go get those tuna treats you try to hide in the pantry. Don’t make me start meowing. The point is that I’ve never owned a dog as completely OCD as the cats I’ve owned. Maggie has an issue with things being open when she feels they shouldn’t be. Miranda (the little kitty we have) doesn’t like it when things are left out. She has been known to drag me out of bed to show me that Matt left his wallet on the couch instead of putting it in the key holder as per usual. Miranda is also under the impression that when she wants to snuggle it is snuggle time, no matter what actual time is it. There has been a bit of a disagreement over this at three am. I have armed myself with a spray bottle next to the bed because after five or six failed attempts to put her at the foot of the bed I feel that it is time for some stronger deterrent. Anyway, world domination attempts aside, cats are fun to have around.

I like Rufus Sewell. I’ve seen him in various movies (he was insanely good in Cold Comfort Farm) and was surprised to see him doing a television show. He’s in a new science fiction show called, Eleventh Hour. I haven’t seen it, it could be utter crap…but his interview with Wired is great. Here’s a short exchange that made me giggle.

Wired.com: The performance in Eleventh Hour seems kind of reined in, compared to other things you’ve done.

Sewell: You mean The Illusionist where I’m playing a deranged psychopath who kills himself?

Wired.com: But you did it so effectively.

I love my new phone. It’s a beautiful concoction that allows me to call everyone and mess around online as much as I want. I love it!

I got a new, blue, LG Chocolate3. I didn’t like the original chocolates (or the second generation) as I thought they were fairly ugly and clunky. I love mine though, it’s so exactly what I wanted.

So the kids are done with their homework and have harassed the dog into a frenzy so she should sleep well tonight. That dog drives me nuts. I wish she’d just leave me alone but no, I’m apparently exactly the kind of snack she’s looking for. I think I’ve been licked to death.

Do you ever have one of those days where everything seems hectic, for no apparent reason? I feel like I’ve got a million things I need to get done but other than dinner (spaghetti) I really have nothing pressing. I just am seriously feeling stressed. Must be because I have so much happening soon.

So I’m on the lookout for my next phone. Yes, I know, I have an LG enV but…I don’t like it. I’ve never liked it.

It has a full keyboard and that is a cool thing when you’re able to sit down at type but I spend most of my time typing while I’m grocery shopping, walking around and not at the computer or driving. I know, but I actually can text message without looking at my phone and make a decent amount of sense. At least I can when I’m using the regular number pad instead of the full keyboard. Trying to type with the full keyboard when walking is a pain in the butt and completely unsafe while driving. It’s cool for internet stuff though. I don’t know. I just really don’t like the phone.

Matt was being very kind and thoughtful when he suggested I get it and his reasons were valid, I just think it’s a better phone for him maybe (if he didn’t already have a Centro). It’s hard to really know what kind of phone will appeal to someone else. He had a Q forever and I thought it was ugly as sin. I had two different razrs and he didn’t like those but I thought they were adorable and did everything I really needed at the time.

I work from home/wherever I am so I need to have a phone that will allow me to work when I’m not home, which will let me keep in touch with whomever I need to and will let me access everything I need to.  It’s just that the phones that do that are…not attractive. I’m not going to become part of the blackberry horde and I certainly don’t want to have to fight with my phone to make a call…so where does that leave me?

Do I get a phone that is pretty but doesn’t have all the functionality I want or should I go ahead and get an ugly phone that does more than I need and that I slowly grow to hate? I know, how pretty the phone is shouldn’t come into the equation but it’s something I’ll essentially have with me all the time. I don’t care what other people think, at all, but I want to find my phone pretty/attractive/aesthetically pleasing.

Do I just wait until the next set of phones come out and see if I can find something I like better? Is there anything coming out that will combine attractiveness with functionality? Why am I worrying about this?

Ah well, I’ll figure it out eventually.

In the meantime I’m watching my kids fight with Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. They are enjoying it immensely. The small one is having a problem as she is not winning much but the older ones are being really good sports.

Maggie is having a spaz attack since I put a second tag on her collar. She jingles and she can’t get away from it.

Our dog had to be put down on Tuesday, he had dementia and had started to slide further downhill. It was a devastating loss for us all and many tears were shed. We miss Hunter terribly and no other pet will ever take his place.

Matt is doing really well, managed to fight off whatever stomach buggy type thing we had a couple weeks ago and is napping a lot lately but mostly because there’s been some late nights lately.

We have a kid free weekend coming up as of tomorrow night but we might have my sister and her husband staying with us.

Matt is in Ohio for one night. He has to be there for an appointment in the morning and we felt it was better for him to be there early than risk a morning flight being late. I can’t stand it. I can’t stand him being gone all night. It feels like an eternity before he’ll be home.

So for tonight I’m going to be stretching out across the entire bed except for the ever increasing space the cat takes up. I should be happy that I have the evening to hang out and maybe do any of the things I used to do when I was single. Computer games and reading until all hours of the morning, oooh or I could go to bed early. That sounds better than I expected. Sleeeeeeeep.

Anyway, I can’t wait until my honey comes home tomorrow evening. In the meantime the kids have managed to forget all about making their beds or picking up their rooms in the wake of us getting a Wii. Oh how electronics make their brains mush.

I miss my honey.

This week is flying by. I’ve had a lot of work to get done for my Vegas clients and the kids have had a ton of homework. I know that CRCTs are coming up but so is Spring Break. These poor kids can’t think straight for how much they want to go outside. I can’t blame them. I’ve got a bit of cabin fever myself. I type and type the day away with the porch door open and a cat whining for me on the porch.

Blonde girl had a friend over to work on their science fair project. It seems to be going alright, we’re doing a presentation on the rainforest. I say we because guess who has to go make all the copies and type it all up. Good times.

So I should probably be starting on dinner but I have no earthly idea of when Matt is coming home. He has no earthly idea I have a bottle of champagne in the fridge waiting for our celebration tonight. The kids have no earthly idea of where the boy’s DS games went. We’re all frickin clueless.

Ah well, such is life. I heard from an old friend today. It was great to hear from him and hear how things are doing on the other side of the Atlantic. He’s a really nice guy and I know he’s going through some stuff but I hope it gets better for him soon. In the meantime he’ll have a friend to talk to.

Ok, enough rambling. Time for me to get off my bum and get something cooking.

Sunday morning was, thankfully, rather relaxed. I didn’t have to check out until noon but Amy and Rob, who were taking me to the airport, had to check out by 11. At ten thirty I took all my stuff and had some breakfast and checked out. I could wax rhapsodic about how hotels used to have better foods but instead I’m going to make a very important statement: Florida has the worst coffee. Amy and Rob say it’s because no one there drinks coffee and they don’t know how to make it. I was acutely aware that the person who made mine hadn’t ever had coffee before or was blind/had no sense of smell/not paying attention. It was horrid and I didn’t drink it.

The drive to the airport was uneventful and I settled into a seat and started reading. I have my bouquet still and at the time I had taken an empty gatorade bottle (see the post about Friday) and rinsed it out and filled it with water and put my bouquet in it. It got me a LOT of looks. I was asked repeatedly if I was the bride and had more than one person tell me that it was smart to have saved it that way. I was rather proud of myself as well.

So I’m in the airport with a purse and flowers in a gatorade bottle and I realize every time I look up that I’m being watched. Everyone and their cousin was looking at me and smiling and it was with very little surprise that the people I sat with on the plane wanted to know what was up. They said they’d thought I was the bride but since no young man ever joined me they realized I wasn’t going on a honeymoon by myself, so I had to be a bridesmaid. I assured them I was and the conversation wandered, as it often does, and they told me about their son who played the tribal leader in Disney’s Lion King at WDW and now is in Japan in the Blues Brothers show. They were very nice people and absolutely charming to talk to.

I made it back to the airport and picked up my luggage (and the kids luggage from their failed attempt to go to Ohio) and found my way to my car and drove home, just glad I was back home in Atlanta. I was completely and in all ways more exhausted than I have felt in a very long time. I got home and had to lay down and Matt was a total sweetheart and snuggled with me and we read (and I think did a crossword puzzle). The short one came home that evening and seeing Matt and the kids and hugging them all was the perfect end to a crazy weekend.

Yes, I know, the ending is sappy. I slept like the dead that night.

Saturday morning dawned bright and early for people who didn’t have their blackout drapes closed, and it’s very sad for them. I didn’t move a muscle out of bed until 10am, after the previous nights craziness. I got up and got my things together and walked (in my heels, needed to practice in those so I didn’t kill myself during the wedding…I haven’t worn those kinds of heels in years) next door to the hotel the brides parents were staying in. I got there early and Alic, the brides mom, and I talked for a while. She and her husband are absolutely charming and it was great getting to talk to her about random stuff.

The lady who did our makeup and hair arrived after the girls got there and we all started getting ready. Victoria and I had the same hairdos (per the bride) and we all looked fantastic when we were done. I helped the brides mom into her corset and then her dress and then we were off to the venue, dresses and bags in tow. The towncar that picked us up was very nice and the driver was quite helpful, which is always good when you’re carrying a dress, corset, petticoats and the million and one other things you somehow need while getting ready.

The country club was generous enough to let us use their dressing rooms to get ready. The womens one was very nice and comfortable but the mens dressing room was HUGE. It was at least three time the size of ours. All us girls got into our dresses then helped dress the bride. Leona glowed all day, she was an absolutely gorgeous bride. I had to be steamed in my dress, which sounds somewhat more shellfish like than it was. It had gotten…wrinkled…on the flight and so the grooms mom, Darlene, steamed me. It made things a bit warm for most of the evening. The layers and layers and layers of clothing tend to insulate.

I went into the mens dressing room (AFTER everyone was dressed) and helped them calm down and had them wipe any sweat off their faces and remind them that it was all ok and that everyone was going to be alright. Rick and I have been close for years and it was so amazingly sweet to see him all nervous and anxious. He’s always been like a brother and it made me almost cry (thankfully I was only too well aware of my makeup). And then it was time.

It seemed like we waited forever in that room before we were suddenly being ushered to a door and set up to walk. The wind was blowing too hard for me to hear if the music was playing that I was supposed to walk to and when I was assured it was I set off. Now walking in heels, especially the kind I was wearing, can be daunting. When you’re walking in heels up a slope of a cobblestoned type of ground and then supposed to walk down a grass aisle to the front it’s almost horrifying. All I could think, over and over, was, “Don’t trip. Don’t trip. SMILE. Don’t trip. SMILE. Don’t let your heels slide into the grass…SMILE”. It was amusing afterwards. I made it down the aisle without looking like an idiot and then when the flower girl came down she decided she didn’t want to stand where she was supposed to so she stood by me. I had to hold Leona’s bouquet because Victoria was supposed to read something. This all seemed ok until I was handed Victoria’s bouquet as well and had to hold up the arbor (which the wind was doing its best to make fall over on the bride and groom) and hold onto the flower girl who had decided she was bored…and four…a scary combination. We made it through the ceremony without a hitch and then were escorted back down the aisle.

Justin and I were the last to head back down the aisle and we just…kept…walking. I finally said quietly, “where are we going?” and when he replied that he didn’t know I said, “well we better get there quick before my feet fall off” which got him chuckling. We took more pictures out in the grass and the staff was sweet enough to bring us water and hors d’oeuvres while we waited to finish up. With a Leo, Leona and me, Leah, it got confusing sometimes as to who was supposed to be in the picture. Once we were done it was time to head inside to the real party.

We were all introduced to the guests and sent to our tables. It was a beautiful room and a wonderful meal. I had started to have a dizzy spell while outside and it continued through part of dinner. I tried to hide it but Rob, who was sitting across from me, noticed and kept an eye on me. I managed to make it outside and cool down in the wind and once I’d done that I felt better. Heat makes me ill rather easily and I didn’t want to feel that way or draw attention to myself. We watched the first dance and then ate, followed by the parent dance. Once that had ended we all danced and danced and danced until our feet should have fallen off.

I’d been barefooted for a while by the time I started dancing and at one point the flower girl noticed and came over to show me that she, too, was barefooted. We danced to almost everything (the wedding party was somehow absent from the electric slide) and I was really happy I’d thought ahead and taken some pain killers. We danced on and on and if I wasn’t dancing with anyone when I started I was within thirty seconds. It was fantastic and the only cloud over the evening was that Matt couldn’t be there. I missed him terribly (and of course the children too) and several times would sigh softly as I thought of him, wishing he was the one I was dancing with. I won’t claim that I didn’t enjoy myself, but it was tinged with a bit of longing for my honey.

We finally finished the dancing and most of the people there had imbibed a bit (I’d only had a drink and a half) so it was fun corralling them into the vans that took us back to our hotels. The bride and groom thought of everything. We got back to our hotels and Amy helped me out of my dress and corset and then I was by myself in my hotel room again. I almost wish I’d had a roommate, even if it would have meant not getting that king size bed to myself and instead having only a double to myself. I won’t complain, however, because I did manage to sleep very well after a nice call to Matt and a very long shower. *

I think I fell asleep before midnight and from then on I was completely unconscious and again slept the sleep of the truly exhausted.

Sunday was a whole new adventure that I’ll write about later.

*It took three shampooings to get the product out of my hair and I had to wash my face four times to get the makeup off. At one point I wasn’t sure I’d ever get out of that shower.

I spent this past weekend at a wedding. I say the weekend because from the moment I got off the plane around 9:30 the morning before the wedding until about 5:00 in the evening the day after the wedding I was on the go.

Friday:    I woke up at 4:30am so I could be out the door and to the airport before my early flight. I hadn’t been able to sleep because I was so worried I’d sleep in and be late. Three hours of sleep and no caffeine made me a bit on the grumpy side. I got off the plane and got my bags and then the groom and best man picked me up. From that moment on, we were ON THE GO.

We got to miniature golf only a few minutes before everyone else and proceeded to play 18 holes. It was a lot of fun and there is probably video of me calling my ball names, but I actually did rather well. I don’t think I won, but I probably came in somewhere around fourth in a group of eight…so I won’t complain. I met everyone in the party except the person who was to escort me back down the aisle. He had to work.

Once we’d all humiliated ourselves with our putters it was a winding trip to a nice Japanese place with some interesting service. The food was wonderful but the most interesting part was watching two people in their mid thirties-early forties making out in the parking lot while we ate.

With some real food in our stomaches we checked into our hotels and had about an hour of down time (which I spent vegging in front of the tv and then getting ready) before we had to be at the rehearsal. I’ll say this for Rick and Leona and their families…they have wonderful taste. The wedding location was this absolutely gorgeous country club and the view from where we were going to be standing was perfect. Everyone goofed around during the rehearsal and Rick was driving Leona nuts but in the way he does EVERY DAY.

The rehearsal wrapped up and we headed off to the rehearsal dinner, in a castle. The rehearsal dinner was fantastic and the whole group was in high spirits. We all received gifts, us girls got jewelry and purses to match our dresses. The guys got…lightsabers. It was fantastic. There were lots of speeches, including one I did to try to offset a rather inappropriate one, and I don’t think there was another room in the entire city of Orlando that could have been more full of love than that room. It was great to hear Rick say wonderful things about his Mom and StepDad and his new In-Laws. He’s such a great guy, even if he tries to act like a jerk to hide it.

After the rehearsal dinner we went to a place called Tu Tu Tango, which was insane. People were dancing, amazing pieces of art all over the walls and a sculptor who was making things with kids. The bathroom had stuff written all over the walls and ceiling and doors and toilet lids and toilet paper dispensers. They even left pens in the bathrooms so you could write something. I wrote, “I miss my husband”, and then tried to look happy because I got swamped to have my picture taken between the toilet and the sink. I’ve had more pictures taken of me this weekend than ever before.

Once Amy, Rob and I left the second rehearsal dinner we headed back to our hotel rooms and I stayed up for a while to make sure Matt had gotten the kids from the airport (there were tornadoes in Atlanta that night and they were on a plane that couldn’t take off) and once I knew they were ok I drifted off and slept the sleep of the truly exhausted.

I’ll continue with Saturday and Sunday in further posts.