Happy Birthday, Kayleigh!!!

Oh my, time has flown by!
My gorgeous little niece (the youngest of the nieces and nephews) turned FOUR today! This is so unacceptable!!


(picture taken 3/10 while hanging out at the hospital after my dad had back surgery.)

Happy Birthday, my sweet faced little niece!!!
Aunt Chelle loves you mucho!

Happy Birthday, Leslie!!!

One boring day at the office (while I worked at the fence company) in June of 2005, I was perusing the “General Hospital” community on Live Journal to see if anything interesting was going on. There was a post from some random girl about her first trip to the annual GH Fan Club Weekend and her wish to see if anyone was attending Kelly Monaco’s event and wanted to meet up. I commented on the post with a “Sure, come hang with my little group.” And the friendship with this cool chick was born.



She’ll tell you that I stalked her the day we met, but I swear I was innocent. I just saw her and called to tell her I saw her! But regardless, no restraining orders were applied and Leslie has blessed my life with her presence since then. I often have said that I always forget that Leslie is younger than me because she has such an old soul that is wise beyond her years. I love that we can have the most serious soul baring conversations and turn it around in minutes and am giggling over the silliest thing. (Including the fact that they send you mystery “balls” for dessert from the Chinese place we ordered from in Van Nuys. For proof of this I present you with the exhibit below.)




Happy Birthday, Leslie! May every single dream you wish for come true as you blow out your candles and may light shine on you this year and always. Your birthday present will be arriving in May when we set off on another Yuma adventure. But the wishes abound for you today and every single day!

Yay!

Lesli pointed out it was Sarah Jessica Parker's birthday today. I adore SJP and I adore Carrie Bradshaw! So what better way to end the ugly work week than to have a "Sex and the City" marathon. (Random choice of seasons resulted in season 2.)

Is it April yet?

This has been a trying month and I'm more than ready to tell March good-bye for the year. Forgive me ahead of time, this isn't a fun post.

My job is driving me nuts. One of my co-workers calls out or has appointments frequently. And I do mean frequently. She hasn't worked 40 hours since October and due to her yelling discrimination and going to HR, nothing is done when she has to leave early or can't come in. Unfortunately, we are at a busy time of the year and the work keeps piling up. Mandatory overtime gets enforced and since co-worker isn't there, I am the one that is working it. I am working overtime to make up her hours. And while the money is nice, I don't necessarily want to have to work the overtime.

When I got sick two weeks ago, the co-worker had conveniently taken the day off. I had to go to Urgent Care with the direction that I needed to come back. And mandatory overtime was enforced, making me stay late. I was sick and had to stay late. I was a tad bit frustrated.

And I am looking for another job, which is a whole other source of massive frustration. Send me some good vibes, folks, I need another job before I go mental up in that joint.

But what happened Monday pales in comparison to my job woes. A high school classmate from Turkey passed away. Vince was career Navy and was currently deployed. His death is under investigation and that is all that is being released, other than it was a non-combat death. And while his family and friends mourned him, I saw the ugly side of human nature come out. Massive speculation on what happened, harassing his family (including young daughter) for information, and unnecessary gossip. How he died does not matter in the grand scheme of things. Someone passed away and left behind a grieving family and that is what matters. Vince and I were casual friends,he arrived in Turkey the year we left. I remember him but truly have no strong memories of him. My best friend, however, was very close with him and I had to tell her this morning...very hard to do. The moral of this story is our military needs our support. They are not only over in foreign countries fighting for freedom but they are separated from their families for extended periods of time. While our lives go on, their personal lives are suspended in time, waiting to come home. These brave men and women need to know that we support them.

Overall, a very disappointing month, this March is. I'm ready to greet April Fools!

RIP Elizabeth Taylor

A true legend! And a fabulous humanitarian!



I think "Cat on a hot tin roof" and "National Velvet" need to be watched.

Sunday Six

1. I find myself assigning a number of things to post about and do a list posting often lately. I am a notorious list maker. I keep lists for everything. It makes my blogging easier as well.

2. I took in a showing of "The Lincoln Lawyer" today. I read the book a couple years back (and two sequels, which were fabulous) and enjoyed the book so I had high hopes for the movie. Matthew McConaughey was great and the movie is definitely recommended.



3. I'm indulging in my geek side tonight and flipping between the Harry Potter marathon on ABC Famiy and "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" on Spike. If any of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was on as well my night would be set. I am quite proud of my geeky likes. I know some people think it is insulting to be called a "geek" but I embrace it.

4. I feel a "hooky" day coming up soon! I am not saying when it will happen, just in the next couple of weeks I am going to totally take a day off of work at the spur of a moment and just have a day of nothingness going on.

5. I also need to find a good day to go over to CA, just to go. To see my cousin, Selena. To get some much needed inspiration from Kent and Minae. To hang out with my girls, Angelina, Leslie, and Nikki. Just a quick trip to recharge my batteries.

6. The hooky day and need of battery recharging is coming from the fact that I am totally feeling a funk going on. I realized today that I haven't taken a single picture with my camera since mid-January, which is highly unusual. I just am not feeling much enthusiasm. I'm sure a lot of it is this ugly flu/sinus infection/allergy season that is going on. But I really am not feeling like myself, which I definitely need to fix that.

Green, Green, Green!

Hope everyone had a greentastic St. Paddy's Day!

Reads!

I'm such a book nerd! And new books are coming out!
Through the lovely Samantha at ChickLitPlus, I'm going to be participating in a couple of blog tours for the following books:

A Scottish Ferry Tale by Nancy Volkers

Love Struck by Chantel Simmons

I'm going to be reviewing both of those books in May and will be doing a q&a with Chantel. So excited!!

Through Read It Forward, I received Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli. (After I am done with this, I will be reading it forward so watch for the review and the offer to send it on!)

Tonight I pre-ordered:

Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell and If you were here by Jen Lancaster.

Next up on the to-be-ordered list is Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

What are you looking forward to reading?

Goodnight Tweetheart: A review

Abigail Donovan hit it big with her first book. She had Oprah's stamp of approval and a near Pulitzer Prize. So what happened to her follow up? She seems to be stuck on chapter five with no inspiration coming to her. Her publicist signs her up for Twitter in an attempt to get her connecting with her fans and Abby is intrigued -- what is the big deal with this Twitter?

After her first initial log in, one of her followers, MarkBaynard, takes her under his wing and shows her the ropes of Twitter. Their flirtatious relationship quickly heats up as Mark shares his travels with her, as he is a college professor on a sabbatical around the world, and Abby shares her struggles to write the next great American novel with Mark. What happens when the real world interferes and the truth isn't what it seems?

That is exactly the question that Teresa Medeiros brings up with her latest novel, "Goodnight Tweetheart". Almost wrote entirely in direct messages/tweets, I was intrigued immediately when I saw the book on the shelf at Target and I am so glad that I picked it up to read. Abby is a likable character, her struggles with her career and her family are wrote with a very heartfelt and relatable manner. The hesitance to begin and continue the internet relationship is played out perfectly, as is her best friend's reaction to the relationship. Mark comes off as a little too good to be true at times and I found myself hoping that he wasn't going to end up being a loser that would break Abby's heart. As the eventual truth behind Mark's life came into play I found myself unable to put the book down, rooting for these two to find each other in real life and make their relationship become real. The book flowed smoothly, the pop culture references between the two as they signed off each night made me smile, and I finished the book in an afternoon. This is definitely one of those books that I recommend. You can order "Goodnight Tweetheart" through Amazon or find it your local book store (Borders, Barnes & Noble, even Target.)

(This review is part of the 2011 Chick Lit Challenge from Chick Lit Plus. It is not too late to sign up if you haven't already.)

Saturday Six!

1. So many are doing "challenges" on their blogs and I want to do them all but I don't know if I could keep up. A couple of cousins are doing a 30 Day challenge, a friend is doing a 30 day music challenge, one is doing a 30 day photo challenge, and one is doing a 30 day TV challenge. Too many choices!! :)

2. I ended up at Urgent Care this week due to a sinus infection. The lymph nodes in my neck were swollen and I did the stupid - self diagnosed myself on WebMD. (For future reference, every thing that is wrong with you on WebMD leads to a brain tumor.) Anyway, there were enough serious problems that it listed could be the problem for the swelling in my neck that it sent me scurrying to Urgent Care. Sinus Infection/swollen lymph nodes and some pretty dang expensive medication later, I'm on the mend. Unfortunately, the combo of meds leave me completely wiped out and I just want to sleep. (Of course, I also have insomnia so I am always in some state of exhausted.)

3. Tyson is on strike from his Friskie's cat food. *sighs* I have been giving him soft cat food as he will literally starve himself, but it is not good for him. Dang finicky cat gives Morris (remember him?) a run for his money.

4. The weather is already getting warm. I have the window open in my room all night now. Boo! It is only March, it doesn't need to be getting warm already!

5. The news from Japan is still devastating!!! So many prayers for the people over there as they just can not catch a break!

6. I read the cutest book for the Chick Lit Plus 2011 Challenge. It is by Teresa Medeiros and is called Goodnight Tweetheart. It is done almost entirely in tweets between the two main characters of the book and I really loved it. (Review coming tomorrow.) I am willing to "read-it-forward" and pass it on, if you want to read it leave a comment and I will send it on. :)

God Bless those in Japan!

Insomnia sucks. I struggled to sleep last night so finally around 2AM I got up and turned the TV on. And for the next hour just sat there staring at the devastation taking place in Japan as the earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc on that country. I finally had to force myself to turn the TV off and try to stop my mind from playing the scenery over and over. I said a prayer for God to watch over Japan, Hawaii, and our states as I drifted into an uneasy sleep.

Life is uncertain, folks. You never know when it will be over. Don’t wait for a disaster to alter your life to make you live to the fullest and love to the maximum. We can’t live in fear of pending doom and gloom, you have to live with purpose and light. It is something we need to think of every single day, not just when we see a tragedy happen and we think “Thank God, that wasn’t me”. Because we never know when it will be and the regrets should be minimal.

Sadness.

Today is a very sad day for me. I knew the day would come but it happened quicker than I thought. My local Border's bookstore closed this morning. :( Sure there is one still by my work, but the one by the house was so convenient for me. And I prefer Borders to Barnes & Noble any day of the week.

I'm a sad book nerd today.

Yup!

Friday Five

1. I don’t know why it just hit me but I have three big birthdays this month: My gorgeous niece, Kayleigh, turns four. My darling sweet friend, Leslie, celebrates at the end of the month. And my lovely friend, Shelley, celebrates a couple of days before Leslie.

2. It’s been a long week! Sinuses/allergies are going crazy with the nice weather, which means the trees have some blooming going on and my face is feeling it. I have been so run down all week and just look forward to getting some quality sleep in this weekend. I would feel bad that it was gearing up to be a lazy bones weekend but I need a serious recharging of the batteries happening.

3. They announced the cast for the 12th season of “Dancing with the Stars” on Monday. I’m very sad to say that I will be sucked into watching because the fabulous Hines Ward, wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, will be participating.



4. As you all have undoubtedly heard by now, through my geektastic squee’ing, I’m going to Comic Con in San Diego in July. (With my girls Rose, Jazz, and Lisa and will be meeting up with Leslie there.) There are quite a few authors (sci-fi/horror genre) and comic book illustrators attending. I’m so excited that I saw Patrick McDonnell is one of them! I love the Mutts comics! (Next to Calvin & Hobbes, they are my fave.)



5. Writer’s/Blogger’s Block has been eating my brains lately. I need to find some inspiration soon.

So what is up with you, my chickadees? What big and exciting plans do you have coming up?