Mind the Baby

Abbi and I went out on Friday night to the Clarendon Bar and Grill. It’s metro train accessible. She told me when she met me there that she had just had three glasses of wine with some folks after work. Three vodka and cranberries later, I could tell she was pretty smashed. Abbi is a very shy person, and I guess she uses the alcohol to lower her inhibitions enough to talk to people. She started conversing with people, mostly to “try” their alcohol. She asked some strange guy for his drink! She bought another vodka drink and drank it pretty fast. By then she was at the stumbling around stage. She kept telling me that she knows her limits, but clearly she doesn’t. She ordered two more drinks, and I pried them out of her hands and threw them away. She staggered up to me to ask where her drinks were and called me a few names when I told her I got rid of them. Then she told me she wanted to go just as it started to pour. I had to get her to back off from me for a minute to say goodbye to my friends. I walked her down to the metro with her sloshing all over me…. And we managed to get down to the platform to wait for a train. I asked her to sit and drink some water, and she told me she doesn’t take orders well and left. I went and found a cop who checks the gates at the station to make sure she hadn’t fallen somewhere and would be run over by the train. When I got home, she called me and told me she was on the bus to get home, but she wasn’t sure how she got there. I guess she blacked out for a bit.
The next day I told John what happened. Talk about your awkward conversations. “Your daughter is fucked up; you have to talk to her.” He told me it took her a while to grasp that being so sloppy drunk that I had to take care of her pissed me off a lot more than anything she said to me. It’s not even that this is a one time thing; it happens all the time alcohol and Abbi mix. (See my cruise recap) She lost her IDs and her metro pass during the evening too. I have no problem hanging out with her, but not where there is alcohol.

Memorial Day

My dad gets extra hugs this weekend cause one of his fraternity brothers died in Vietnam and it makes him sad.
We're having a family bbq Sunday. Tonight I am going out with the people I used to work with at NDU for happy hour, Saturday I am hanging out with John. Hopefully I'll be able to watch him play baseball tomorrow, last time it was rained out. Monday I may check out Kohls or Target for a Memorial Day sale. Oh, and I need groceries.
Last night I got my first kitty smooch from Ari. I just about melted on the spot. And he used his litterbox (instead of the floor or my bed) all day long!

My California Adventure

John and I have been volunteering as ushers at the Warner Theatre for about a year now. On Wednesday of last week, he tells me he’s getting Abbi (his daughter- see the cruise posts since she came with me) tickets to game 2 of the Edmonton Oilers/Mighty Ducks game in Anaheim. The first thing out of my mouth was, “Ooh, I want to go.” So Thursday morning Abbi calls me up and invites me to come with her. John bought us tickets to the game, and I found a round-trip flight on Northwest Airlines for $326. I booked us the hotel I stayed at in January when I went for the Caps/Ducks game. It’s right across the street from the Arena.
I drove down to John’s house on Saturday, he graciously agreed to watch Ari. He looked a little worried, and I spent a couple of extra minutes saying goodbye. Abbi and I had different flights since her dad bought her ticket. She dropped me off at the airport. The flight was fine. I got to LAX at around 5:30, and took a shuttle out to Anaheim. I checked into the hotel, and walked down to find some dinner. I took it back to the hotel as I was pretty jet lagged. I fell asleep and woke up at about 1AM to the realization that Abbi wasn’t there. I called her cell phone and she told me the shuttle driver took her to the wrong hotel, and she was too tired to move (it was four in the morning our time). So she spent the night in the Ayers Hotel Orange County, and I was in the Ayers Hotel Anaheim.
Sunday Abbi called at 8 (grumble) and I went down at ate some breakfast. She walked over to our hotel, which took her about a half an hour. We went and soaked in the hot tub for a bit and walked over to the bar next to the hotel for some lunch. We killed some time at the local mall, and then walked over to the Arena.
Abbi is a huge Oiler fan, so she was pleased to see there were a lot of Edmonton fans. Most of them got a kick out the fact we were from DC. I cheered quite loudly for Edmonton with Abbi, and they won the game 3-1. It was awesome. We went back to the bar we had been at for lunch, and hung out with a bunch of celebrating Edmonton fans. Abbi has some great pictures of the more diehard fans- there were two guys with orange and blue wigs (their colors) and one guy wearing this Oilers hardhat. The bar closed at 11, and so people wanted to walk down to Hooters. I was thinking at this point of going back to the hotel (thinking of my five AM shuttle back to the airport), but I let Abbi talk me into going for one drink. Of course it was closed. We gathered in the parking lot, and I told Abbi I was going back to the hotel. She left to go with everyone else, they all piled into a cab like a clown car.
I noticed this guy in the parking lot- tall, wavy dark hair, hazel eyes. We started talking, and he told me he and his buddy (who I had met earlier) had driven a rental car from LAX and they had planned on just sleeping in the car, but he couldn’t find his buddy. I had lost track of him too. So I told the guy he could come back and hang out in my room.
(This section has been edited) Anyway, his name is Steve (last name withheld to protect the not so innocent) he’s 21 (I’m such a cradle-robber) and he works for Air Canada. Oh and he’s nice a lean and muscular, with a flat stomach I would kill for. He was very eager to please. At the very beginning, his eyes flew open and he said, “Wow.” It was amusing. Anyway, it made the lack of sleep much more bearable.
I flew back all day Monday, getting back at 6:30. Abbi called to tell me John got pulled over for speeding on his way to pick me up. I picked up Ari who was SO happy to see me, and we went home. I noticed John speeding by me on my way home, so I guess he didn’t learn from the ticket. When we got back, if kitties could talk, my kitty would have said “Ahhh.” He was so happy to be home, he ran around playing with his toys and crawling in my lap for snuggles all evening.

The other two weekend days

Okay, so Friday night was fun. I baked a pizza (I had never used the oven, I always cook on the stove) and set off all three smoke detectors in my little apartment. Poor Ari kept looking at me like "the hell?" And I guess the apartment people didn't set up a phone number for my apartment in the call box outside, cause Jason couldn't get a hold of me. I thought I saw him as I was trying to burn the place down, but I was a bit distracted. I had Ari keep watch, but I forgot he had never met Jason. :) I saw him again, grabbed my keyes, and ran outside to flag him down. I must really like this one cause I never run EVER. I let him in the building. We ate, and Ari was way too interested in our meal, so I put him in the bedroom for a bit. We watched Dr. Who (the new one) and snuggled for a while and talked. He's got a lot of crap going on right now, his sister is getting divorced and moved in with him, and his Aunt had a stroke and was in the hospital. I know it was good for him to have someone to snuggle up to and listen to him. It was nice. He told me he was going to ask me out again sometime this week. Saturday he came over in the morning and we went down to John's to get his entertainment center. (So yes, Nutzee, when you asked me if Jason was there, he was) Mike drove his truck, and Abbi helped us too. Mike and I worked together at NDU. He likes to tease me about everything. He and John and Abbi weren't sure how long it would take us to get to John's, so they were at Quiznos when we arrived. We sat on a little stone barrier thing and waited for them. When Mike arrived, he asked me how my job was. Then he asked me "Have you fallen in love yet?" I just looked at Jason and grinned. Anyway, the move went fine, and Jason had to go since it was his sister's birthday. John and Mike left, and Abbi and I watched the hockey game together.
Sunday night I got an email from Jason that his Aunt died and he'd be in New York until Thursday. Anyway, that's where we are at right now.

Mother's Day

It was a good day. My brother in law flew out to Denver in the morning, but we had it at my sister's house. My brother and his fiancee were there too. We made london broil, a beet salad from Paula Deen, cucumber salad, grilled veggies, fruit salad, and angel food cake with strawberries and cream. It was delicious. We played a game where we tried to guess some of mom's favorite things. Then at the end we told her one thing she taught us, one thing we hope for mom, and what we like best about her. I said she taught me to never be afraid to try anything, that it's never a dull moment around her, and I hope she has us around to love for years to come. And it's true. My Ima is an amazing woman. Quite simply, she rocks. :)

Randomness

In December, I went out for a couple of weeks with a guy named Marcello. He was very flattering (he thought I was hot) and we had a a few nice dates. We slept together, and I recall the foreplay was much better than the sex. It was very....brief. Anyway, after that I didn't hear from him again.
So then yesterday, out of the blue, he calls me. He claims that he's lost his cell phone, and he went back to some old cell phone bills to find my number. We had some inane conversation after that and I hung up.
Oh, and the little smacking noises Ari makes when he eats, and the way he flops onto his back when I rub his head...are the cutest things ever!
Jason's coming over Friday night. It should be fun.

Ari

He came home last night. He was very skittish, and I kept him in the bathroom, living room last night. He cried a lot. I was looking for him a little disoriented at about midnight (he was crying loudly) and I went to the bathroom and discovered he was hiding behind the toilet. The woman I got him from told me this was perfectly normal for the next couple of days. It breaks my heart though. This morning, he spent some time in my walk in closet. He played on the computer (sat on the keyboard) and played with my shoe laces. He is a beautiful kitty. My co-worker told me her kitty hid for three days before she came out and took over the house, so I feel okay. I spent so much time cleaning and getting ready for him to come home I am completely exhausted. But I am almost unpacked. Saturday hopefully I will get John's entertainment center he is giving to me. Then I can move the tv, and unpack the dvds and tapes. Then I will unpack the books, since the tv is on the dresser/bookshelf I plan to use. Sunday we are celebrating Mother's Day at my sister's house. Ari can't come over and meet everyone though cause my sister's dog thinks kitties are tasty treats.

Tell Me Lies

Yesterday, one of my travel planners asked me to tell her the truth; we talk about her all the time because all of her travel authorizations are wrong and need fixing over and over. I looked her straight in the eye and told her I never talk about anyone, and of course we don't talk about her. Well, we do talk about her some...for the reasons she mentioned. Sometimes, she's so frustrating to deal with. She never takes responsibility for a mistake, her eyes just get really really big (bug eye big) and she proceeds to make excuses, blaming everyone else. It drives me nuts. And she's always complaining about how she hates preparing travel authorizations. WELL THAT'S HOW SHE MAKES HER LIVING.
Have you ever told someone a lie because you thought it was better they didn't know the truth?