Happy Holidays!

I know I have been quite (in)conspicuously absent recently, but it’s been busy around here what with the holidays and the leading of a double life and all.

It is so much easier to keep my mouth shut than to bother sorting out what I should and shouldn’t say. And so I do. But that is not to last for long, because I do plan to start 2011 with a heaping plateful of truth.

But I still have a few days of 2010 left in which to enjoy secrets and lies and my busy, busy double life.

For the record, no, I have not become a secret agent. But it’s a damned shame. All of my talents are being wasted with this hotel business.

Change is coming. I can taste it on the air.

And so, I bid you happy holidays and the warmest of wishes for the new year from myself and the two furballs at my feet.

Family.

Tons of things I’ve been meaning to post about over the last couple of weeks, but I’m a procrastinator was busy. You know, with that life thing I was referring to in my previous post.

If it hasn’t been made clear from the (meager) content of this blog, I am single and without children. Human children, that is. But, for as long as I can remember, I have always had canine children – my furbabies. I find it very hard to be without a dog in the house. Almost unnatural. They are man’s best friend, after all. Woman’s too.

 

    

Meet Turbo. Turbo is my gorgeous two year old Pomeranian. I “rescued” him from my brother about a year ago, after my nephew was born. (They had three dogs in the house and it was just too much with a new baby.) He’s a bit neurotic and has some separation anxiety issues, but he is such a joy to have in my life. Very smart, and generally very calm – especially for a “toy” breed. He is very much my dog. I live with my dad, and he has very, very little to do with him or anyone else who enters the house unless I’m not here. In fact, when I’m working and my dad is home, he tends to banish himself to his crate until I do come home.

I recently decided that Turbo needs canine company, because prior to moving in here in July, Turbo had always been around other dogs. I’m sure he’s content to be the only dog in the house, but I felt that companionship might be welcome. And this was pretty lucky since he sired a litter of pups in November and the owner of the bitch was ready to start getting the pups out of her house (at only five weeks old – not the greatest idea, but that’s for another time). So last week, we welcomed home the newest addition to our family.

Meet Riot! He’s a tiny little bundle of fluff with a rapidly developing personality. He’s adorable and so fluffy that I might just die from the overwhelming cute overload!

I’m afraid he may have developmental problems and separation anxiety from being taken away from his mother and his litter so early (it is recommended that toy breeds not be separated from the mother earlier than ten weeks), but nothing has manifested yet. He whines when he’s hungry and when he wants attention. He doesn’t make much complaint about sleeping in the crate at night or when I’m not home. He’s got the makings of a good little pup.

I can’t wait to see how he grows and develops. It really is like watching a child develop as his personality emerges complete with quirks and eccentricities.

Unfortunately, Turbo is terrified of him. I’ve never seen him shy away from another dog, but he runs from Riot when he attempts to play. I’m really starting to wonder if Turbo realizes he’s actually a dog. It’s possible he thinks he’s some type of rodent. Maybe as he gets bigger, Turbo will be more comfortable with him.

Don’t give up on me.

I’ve been busy lately, and for once, it has been less about work and more about life. And changing and growing and learning and knowing and things that are new. And people that are new. Things that may be right and good, but feel wrong, so how do you really know unless you make a leap of faith?

One day, I’ll be able to tell you about these things in a less vague and ramble-y sort of way, but until then, you will just have to trust me when I say that I am embarking on my next great adventure and it is so good.

I’m starting to get regular days off at work again and am slowly rediscovering my social life. And my love of Crown Royal. (Stop judging. I earned this.) I just spent two days indulging in sloth and fun and alcohol and fantastic food that I did not have to cook or clean up.  I can’t say more than that right now, and it pains me.

Why all the “secrecy”? Really not much of a secret. Pretty much everyone knows who I was with and where I was and what went down, but I find that dwelling on things too much tends to jinx them. So, this is officially a No Dwelling Zone. For the time being anyway.

Besides, I have a lot to figure out and someone’s going to get hurt, but at least all involved are aware of the potential for intense emotional trauma. So nobody can say that they weren’t warned or were caught unawares or any of that nonsense.

If there’s one thing I can say about myself, it’s that my Crazy is always on prominent display. So no one can blame me when they end up embroiled in drama and intense emotional turmoil. Or they can. But they’ll just look stupid. Because, hello? You were fucking warned.

Downtime.

Finally! I got two consecutive days off. Shocker, I know. This, unfortunately, has not lead to an excess of downtime. I still have a lot of demands on my time.

I spent a few days after work visiting with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. While visiting with my brother is not always a joy, his son is such adorable perfection. It is so amazing to see his personality developing. I wish I were able to spend more time with him. I had not seen him since January and had missed many of his little developments. He crawls and talks and is nearly walking. He has a fairly extensive vocabulary for such a young tike, though some of the words he’s picked up from my brother are less than appropriate. Favorites include “ass” and “boobies.” My sister-in-law will have him fit to appear in public again soon enough, I imagine.

They left to head back to Texas on Friday, leaving all of my spare time to the boyface. Nothing very interesting to report there. Just spent time being together, watching movies, etc.

I went on a bit of a baking spree just prior to Thanksgiving. Made a batch of Black Bottom Cupcakes and some pumpkin pies. Still have much baking planned, but my ambition ran out quicker than I expected. When I bake again, I will attempt to take photos and share the recipes. I plan to do a bit of tweaking next time. Perhaps I shall bake again tonight. Perhaps not.

Just bought a new batch of soaps from Geeky Clean’s  Cyber Monday sale. Can’t wait for them to arrive. This time, I purchased the Light-Up d20, Browncoat Field Ration, Boba Feet Foot Scrub, and Scrubasaurus Rex (in T-Rex). Cannot wait to be all geeky clean!

I have some shopping to do and need to get my oil changed today, so I shall keep this short and sweet.

Give Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving, blogosphere! I am making this short post from my phone (via Blogger-droid) while at work. I hope you are reading it from the comfort of your home while stuffed full of nummy Thanksgiving goodies.

It's been a busy week and will continue to be so until Sunday-ish. My brother and his family are in from Texas for the holiday. I hadn't seen my nephew since January. He has grown so much! He is ~ 14 months old and loves me, yay!

The boyface is also home from college for the holiday, so I'm trying to squeeze time in there when possible.

Perhaps more Truths later this evening, or perhaps I'll regale you with tales of my recent baking adventures. Or maybe I'll just ignore you to have more adventures!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Exhausted.

No, no. I have not abandoned this blog just yet. I just had no time this weekend, between work and spending time with the boyface.

The new schedule came out at work today. Everyone else is cut back to five days a week because they hired a new girl. I am still scheduled for every day between now and the 30th, and probably for a while after that. I can’t remember the last day I had off. I believe it was October 31st. So yes, so far scheduled for the full month of November. Probably for most of December as well.

They will work me to death because I will let them. I will let them because I need the money. My last paycheck was actually enough to live off of. Sad that I had to work 36 hours of overtime to make that. Minimum wage doesn’t go very far at all.

My time with the boy was good. We didn’t go to my favorite Mexican restaurant, but we did go to another Mexican place with his brother last night. It was nice. Never seems like we have enough time together, but he’ll be back on Wednesday for Thanksgiving break, so yay!

I can’t form coherent thought processes, so I believe I’ll call it a night.

Truth: Something people seem to compliment you the most on.

On my 30 Days of Truth page, I warned that I would not be doing these in order. True to my word, I am starting with day eleven. Something people seem to compliment you on most.

This one is easy. I receive the most compliments on my hair. It’s also probably the easiest thing for me to accept compliments on. My hair is pretty fabulous.

I have always been complimented on my hair, even when it was natural. It is long and thick and full of body. I can do practically anything with it, with a little effort. It is never lifeless or unyielding despite the dying and bleaching, despite how I try to flatten the life out of it most days. My hair rarely lets me down.

In the last several years since I’ve been dying it various shades of red, I’ve received even more compliments on it than ever. People just love redheads, even when they know it’s from a bottle. It’s actually been red on top, black underneath for the past year or two, and in the last six months or so, I’ve added candy apple highlights. So in addition to getting compliments on the condition and length of my hair, I also get a lot of compliments on the color (which are harder to accept since they should really be complimenting the dye manufacturers).

My favorite color products? Feria by L’Oreal in Ruby Rush for all-over red. It’s fantastic, vibrant color from a box. I’ve used several other colors, and in my opinion, this one surpasses even the professional colors I’ve tried. Another that I like is L’Oreal Excellence HiColor in Intense Red, which is a slightly deeper red and has good staying power. I generally choose the Feria though. Beyond the Zone Color Jamz in Candy Apple for the highlights. I LOVE Color Jamz. Vibrant colors and the consistency of the dye makes for easy application. I have used a lot of “wilder” colored dies that were very liquidy and runny and just a mess to use. This one has more of a gel consistency and I adore it. (And yes, I do pre-lighten before using the Color Jamz. No way around that. I don’t take it all the way blonde though, just light enough for the color to take.) Any black dye will do since there’s no worry about fading.

As far as a haircare regimen goes, I have none. Shampoo and condition with whatever. I don't even have a particular brand I use. Just whatever I pick up at the store. I switch it up occasionally because my hair likes change. I rarely use any product at all, other than whatever heat protector I happen to be using (usually this or this). I'm actually pretty careless with my hair. Just blessed, really.

I mostly thought to make this post because I’m in the middle of a touch-up dye job right now, and I had not yet posted today. And now it is time to rinse and ready for bed.

Tomorrow is payday (36 hours of overtime, yay!) and I have a date with the Jailbait. We’re going to my favorite Mexican restaurant. Should be a fantastic day (minus the eight hours of it that I will be working, of course).