Another sign I should never iron clothes...
Dropping an iron on your big toe (pointy/top side first) is not a pleasant experience.

On the positive side, apparently Loreal "Shock Proof" nail polish withstood the shock.
Granted, my toenail may fall off, but at least it will remain perfectly painted.
:)

I'm exhausted so this is going to be really really short.
Fish event last night....
Hot Stud agreed to be my escort over a month ago.
Confirmed it a couple of days ago (without me reminding him)
Yesterday around 1ish, I called to confirm pick up times.

And there's a long pause on his end.
(Remember, he has a history of getting bogged down with work or flaking out for some other reason, so I had two back up dates lined up - but they would have had to pull a miracle to be there w/ a few hours notice.)

He tells me that he's still working and might have to cut out early.
I told him that if he couldn't go, then tell me and I could have someone else take me.
He said "I'm not cancelling on you, I just might have to leave early."

(I of course am thinking he makes an appearance and disappears after 15 mins.)

I specifically invited him because he'd never been before and he just got a new camera and I thought he'd really enjoy it. And I enjoy his company.

Anxiety level during the call increasing...

I tell him that he's not getting work done by talking to me. That I am going home from work around 4 to change clothes and I'd call him then to see where things stood.

I called backup date #1 and left a vm.
I called backup date #2 and left a vm.
A third possibility came to mind, so I called him, told him the situation and asked if he'd be game with being on hold for the event for a couple of hours. (He lives around the corner from the fish tank) He was cool with it.

4pm. I get dressed. I'm irked. Typical Hot Stud - the flake factor - I had been SO looking forward to this event and I wasn't going to go alone. And dammit I wasn't going to let him rain on my parade (even though we got 4 inches of rain that day)

I called him and he said that he was going to meet me there.
And he did.
Looked super-snappy.
Polite and polished all night long. Tried to make some good business introductions for him with contacts I had there. He took TONS of pics. (Can't wait to see them). He carried my food for the buffet, my awards, etc.

I got recognition pins, a large snowglobe that plays music replicating one of my favorite galleries, and... a 2 night deluxe accomodation stay at a chi-chi inn/winery north of atlanta.

Of course, Hot Stud heartily volunteered to accompany me on that. I laughed and said that he hardly had the time for a 3 hour fish tank thing, much less a 2 night trip.

The more time I spend with him, the more baffling he gets.

I'm dog-ass worn out. It's 7pm and I'm going to bed.  

Didn't sleep a wink - not a single wink - Sunday  night. So I got up and was at the gym at 5am. Figured I'd get it out of the way.

Sort of went thru the day in a stupor. Got a call in the afternoon that is setting the ball in motion. I can't go into details about it until later this week, but let's just sum it up to say "Operation Redemption" is finally moving forward. (Some of you may have a clue to what I'm talking about - but don't post specifics about this ok?) 

Once I got the news, my anxiety level went sky high. It's not that I have an ounce of regret or apprehension about moving forward in this manner. I've been waiting a long time for it to FINALLY get to this place. My concern is once 'the other party' finally gets notified (later this week), that there may be threats to my personal safety. I'm always pretty vigilent, but it's on hyper-vigilence now.

Just last night, I was getting home. Someone beep-beeped as I was in the garage, and the door was automatically going down. Scared me for a second, but figured it was someone beeping at someone else in the 'hood. Then, there was banging and knocking at my door. A lot of it.

Everyone that knows me, knows I don't answer the door unless I am expecting someone. I can't see the front door from anywhere but the side door panels - and I don't want someone to know I'm seeing them, you know?

So I was sort of freaked out. I'm taking care of 'guest cat' again for a few weeks while her owner is away on a work project. He's giving me the keys to his place in case I feel too freaked out to stay at home for a night or two. And that's cool.

More details to come as I am allowed to elaborate. Thankfully, I have counseling this afternoon. Reminding myself is a good day for waterproof mascara.

New cell phone (actually, I liked the old one better but this one hasn't been dipped in toilet water). New cell phone number.

First number I got, well, belonged to someone apparently quite popular. Turned it on about 7am and a multitude of calls from some young urban girls where I couldn't understand a damn word they were saying. Kept askin' for Bizzy or Benny or I dunno.

When I told one young lady (ahem) that this was now my cell phone number, and that apparently he had moved on to another number...

She asked me "where he at?"

I replied that I didn't know who "he" was.

She asked me what his new digits were.

I replied that I had no idea.

I hung up.

She called back. (I let vm handle it)

Several times telling me to make sure Bizzy or Benny or whoever the hell this guy is that he gets her message.

So I called my cell phone provider, gave the service representative "Naqueisha" a request to change the number.

And she did so.

I hope whoever had this number before didn't have such a group of colorful followers.

Now the phone continues of entering in everyone's phone numbers. And deciding who really isn't worth the trouble of entering. (Some of the numbers, I'm half-tempted to call and ask "Who are you???") Somehow, I figure that both of us have gotten along this long w/o communicating, that we can get by the rest of our lives as well. Ya know?

 Typical day.
I go into the office (Yes, it's Sunday) to get some work done.
I lock the doors while I'm in there. Listening to my MP3 player with headphones. One of my coworkers brings his kid in who comes up behind me to look at the aquarium on my desk and scares the living shit out of me.

Off to the gym after already getting my heart rate up there... I'm on the elliptical watching the Falcons embarrass themselves against Detroit. I admit, I get into the game. I cheer and make gestures when things are good and I tend to make sort of growly noises when there's a bad play, etc.

Fourth quarter when Detroit scores another TD. I went to put my hands over my eyes and I lost my balance. I fell backwards and hit my head on some contraption behind me called a "TreadMaster". Rumor has it I was unconscious for a few moments. But I got up (with the help of this really cute guy!). The gym staff wanted to call an ambulance. I was fine. I wasn't dizzy. My head was a little sore from the impact, but I bet it was nothing compared to what abuse a linebacker gets on gameday.

After a lot of convincing, the staff agreed not to call the ambulance.They tried to force-feed me some chocolate (I hate chocolate!). That convinced them that I was totally nuts.  I had to sit in "time out" to make sure I didn't start bleeding out my ears or anything for an hour. And they wouldn't even let me do it in an area with a tv so I could watch the final mins of the 4th quarter.

Yes, I have a massive headache. No, I'm not seeing double. And darn if that cute guy didn't disappear. I'm going to have to go back tomorrow and do it all over again.

(And yes, those of you that know how klutzy I am, bring on the smart-ass comments.)

On a much happier note...

The work week is over. Although I've got to go back to the office tomorrow and get a bunch of proposals out. So does that mean the work week is really over or not? I'm there by 7:30am and don't leave until at least 6pm daily. No time to leave for lunch. I come home, feed the felines, get into my jammies, wash my face/brush my teeth and go to bed. Exciting life I lead, eh?

And no, I'm not working at the fish tank - although they called about a job offer this week... (Not enough $, no benefits...) This is a 'real job' that I took b/c it's less than 2 miles from my house. And it pays $. But they expect me to perform like I used to when I did high-level National-account-type sales - 60+ hour weeks. That was before Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The people at the (very small) office are really nice but I know that I'm going to end up imploding if I keep at this rate... My performance so far has been blowing them away, but their expectations of me are so high. Too high. (What can I say, I'm a great interviewer? LOL)

Date with Hot Stud this weekend if I can swing it time/energy-wise. However, at this rate on the energy-meter, it ain't looking good. I'm STILL sick from that flu shot I got over a month ago!

Funny how when you think you've put something unpleasant to rest in your life, it creeps back up.

Details are not important. Last spring, I learned that someone I thought I knew wasn't the person I thought they were. I *really* respected this person.

Through this person's actions and words, I learned differently. Hard to reconcile, but I accepted it. Realized it was TOTALLY out of my control. I had my peace with it. I learned that I need to really step back and work on how I trust others and determining if they are truly worthy of it.

(Always trying to turn something positive out of a bad experience!)

This afternoon I realized I think what has bothered me more than anything, more than me realizing that I was naive about this person, was what this person apparently perceives about me. We're talking some *REALLY* whacked out stuff. Stuff that anyone that even remotely knows me would laugh about.

I think I figured it out this afternoon. One conclusion keeps making sense. This stuff is so far-fetched that I'm thinking this person is seriously unbalanced ... Puts things in a different perspective.

I love politics. I watch the debates, the analysis, read up on the candidates and laugh at the mud-slinging and spinning. Not to mention the majority of idiots the news reports interview as 'regular Americans' and their perspective on things - they are really reaching for the bottom of the barrel.

I'm thankful that my phone number isn't listed anywhere so I won't get any of those annoying campaign calls because considering the number of political mail I'm getting every day (averaging 11 a day so far this week), I can only imagine the auto-dialers are going crazy.

Sorry that I haven't been updating. Work is killing my ass. I need to catch up on my blog reading and commenting.

Happy Friday.