No new is good news, right?

Well, I’ve signed all the paperwork to get the mortgage in the works. It’s supposed to go for under writing sometime this week. We’re only about 30 days from actually closing and owning a home. Mr. Nascar has been very excited and has all kinds of plans. I am less excited. I keep waiting for them to come back and tell us it’s not going to go through. I told him I wont be excited until my hand cramps from signing my name on all the papers at closing.

The landlord called and mentioned that his brother is looking for a place to live. He wanted to know what our plans were, since we had mentioned to him that we had a contract on a house. I had hoped for a little more time before needing to make a decision. However I talked it over with Mr. Nascar and he said we should just go ahead and move even if something happens and we don’t get the house. Where we live right now is just way too small for the 3 of us. I need to remember to call him back this evening and tell him we’ll be out of the house regardless by the first of the year.

Mr. Nascar has been working like a crazy person lately. He works his regular job Monday through Friday and now even has extra stuff to do on Sundays. He has just wrapped up working the Friday night high school football games, but is still working the Saturday college football games. He’s contracted for set up and game day next weekend, and then the following weekend will travel to Kentucky to work for E$PNU over THANKSGIVING for set up and game day for two football games.

To be honest, I’m very angry at him for agreeing to work over Thanksgiving weekend. This is our first “family” type holiday since he was released from prison. This time last year he was locked up and unable to celebrate with us. I just feel like his priorities and mine are in different universes right now. We did talk about it last night, and I understand that since he practically begged the guy at E$PN to work him on some out of town games, he feels like he might not be asked to help out again if he backs out of this one. I *could* go to KY with him, as I will be off 4 days for Thanksgiving, however part of the deal he has made to get to do this included his paying his own transportation costs. It takes 30-45 business days before he will be paid for this, so I’m not sure about spending the extra money just so I can travel out there with him and sit in a hotel all day long. Also, this will be the first major holiday my mom will be trying to celebrate without my step-father as he passed away very suddenly in June. I’m worried about her, really worried about her. I’m not sure if she’d want to come to KY with us, or if she just wants to stay home. I suppose asking her might be a good place to start.

I’m kind of pissed at myself to be honest. Why is it that this is such a big deal to me? Who says that Thanksgiving needs to be celebrated on November 26th? It’s on a completely different day up in Canada where I’m from anyway. Why couldn’t we just pick another weekend to celebrate together on? I feel like such an ass. Why can’t I just be happy that he’s working, and willing to work hard to support us and our lifestyle? Why can’t I just be happy that he’s not a fat slob just laying on the couch all day while I’m busting my butt at work? Why can’t I be happy that every other moment of the day when he’s not working he is at home? He doesn’t go out with his friends, he doesn’t spend time at the bar or strip club (like TheEx). Why can’t I just be content? Why is nothing ever good enough for me?

I don’t know the answers to those questions. Sometimes I feel like I’m literally going insane. I did have a long talk with Mr. Nascar last night. I feel good about the conversation we had. He was trying to empathize and understand where I’m coming from. He makes a good point when he reminds me that although we may have been together for 2 years now, we’ve only lived together 7 months and with him being gone to prison for 8 months, that’s a huge chunk of our “dating” time that he wasn’t around. We’re still getting to know each other. He’s still getting used to the idea that the things he does, the decisions he makes now effect two other people. I really don’t think that either of us is used to living with another person full time. Yes, I was married for almost 6 years, but TheEx was a truck driver and he would be gone for weeks at a time. That’s probably the only reason we were married as long as we were!

We both promised to try harder to put each other, and our relationship first. I took a big step today and decided to put my employer provided life benefits to work and I called and left a message to set up a counselling session. I don’t think that I’m dealing effectively with all the stress in my work life, and it is really interfering with my home life.  I certainly hope it helps, but I already feel better just from making the call to set up the appointment.

Thanks for listening!

Veni, Vidi…Vacation!

Monday morning we left Jacksonville at about 7:30am and ventured down to Orlando.

Florida is so flat, I really wasn’t expecting that. While there isn’t a whole lot to see on the way down, I still thought it was beautiful. Everything is lush and green with the rains they have been having. The palm trees are gorgeous and I didn’t realize there was such a variety among the species. Tall, short, medium; with all kinds of different configuration of palm fronds. The trees are so skinny and tall. I bet I could wrap two hands around the trunk. Mr. Nascar said its probably because they were burned down in a wild fire at one point and they’ve just now had an opportunity to grow again. The brush grows up between the trees and makes it look jungle-esque. The Spanish Moss that grows hangs off of everything and gives it the unique appearance of being bearded. It’s magnificent, I’m going to have a hard time leaving on Saturday morning.

The roads are so straight. I bet we travelled 50+ miles on the interstate and never went around a curve. That is something I’ve never experienced before. Mr. Nascar and I were speculating that by their very nature of being flat and straight the roads are probably pretty dangerous, especially at nighttime. I can see where tired drivers heading home could easily fall asleep behind the wheel because there isn’t a whole lot to force you to focus on. You just hit cruise control and away you go.

Orlando is about 60 miles inland from the coast so it’s significantly warmer. We arrived at our hotel around 9:40am and luckily we were able to check in to an empty room. We dropped off our luggage, and went down to wait for the shuttle to take us to Sea World.

I had never been to Sea World before, but Mr. Nascar went about 10 years ago with a previous girlfriend and loved it. He felt that this park would be the one that all three of us would enjoy the most, and boy was he right. We got a park map as soon as we arrived and set out planning our day around the shows that Sea World offers. We saw Shamu-Believe, Clyde & Seymour take Pirate Island, Blue Horizons – Dolphin show, and something with cats, dogs, and even a pig preforming. We rode one ride, and walked all over the blessed place looking at the animals and even sometimes interacting with them. We fed the sting rays, petted the dolphins, and almost got to feed the sea lions and seals as well but we just missed it. I’m going to post a few more pictures and let the pictures tell you all a thousand words. Suffice it to say, as exhausted as we were, we had a terrific time. Mr. Nascar chose well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings from Florida!

Webmiss, Bert©, & Mr. Nascar are on VACATION!!

We’re down here in sunny Jacksonville, FL where Mr. Nascar’s brother lives. We left from Tennessee early yesterday morning and arrived down here safe and sound before dark. We stopped by his brother’s apartment to visit for a bit, ran to Wal*Mart for some beach supplies and then headed down to the sand. It was awesome! Everyone kept saying how hot it was, but honestly I didn’t notice. The humidity here is negligible, whereas in Tennessee it’s unbearable. Often it’s 98% humidity before 8am up there. Yesterdays weather was pretty much ideal.

Bert© and Mr. Nascar immediately headed out into the surf for some boogie boarding lessons. The wind was blowing and the sun was setting. It was perfect. The smell of the salt water, the squish of the sand under foot, it was almost heaven. I never realized how much I missed living near the ocean until I moved to Tennessee.

 

We’re having a great time. It’s been very cool to meet Mr. Nascar’s brother and his girlfriend. We’re going to head off to church later this morning in St. Augustine at the Cathedral Basilica. While the original parish was built in 1565, it was burned to the ground at least twice. The Cathedral as it stands today was built in 1797 and over the years has been remodeled and added on to. I am told that it’s a sigh to behold and I honestly cannot wait to go and celebrate mass there. Afterward we will be going to brunch with Mr. Nascar’s brother and his girlfriend. We will bring Mr. Nascar’s brother back to the apartment as he has rehearsal with his band today and then we will be hitting the beach again. I can’t wait to walk down the strip and go into all the different shops. I truly am enjoying myself and can’t wait to explore. More pictures to come, especially of our trip down to Orlando later this week where we will be amusing ourselves at Sea World, Orlando!

I don’t like…

The new WordPress dashboard. I’m having the hardest time adjusting.

Can you tell I don’t like change??

We went to Dollywood yesterday to have some after Christmas fun. It was good, but reminded me too much of the time I went there with Mr. Nascar. It was tinged with a bit of sadness for me, because he wasn’t able to be part of the day. Bert© and I have season passes for both parks (Dollywood & SplashCountry) but my mom does not. I managed to win 2 free passes from work, so I invited her to go with us to see Winterfest.

We arrived at the park just after 11, and immediately headed to the Celebrity Theatre to see “Babes in Toyland”. Bert© and I had seen the production last year, but I really enjoyed it. I was surprised to see that it was not an entirely new cast. Some of my favorite cast members from last year made a reappearance this year. The little girl that plays the lead child is fantastic. I enjoyed her performance last year, and enjoyed it even more so this year. The best part was that we happened to sit next to a man who looked exactly like Santa Claus. He let Bert© sit in the seat next to him and ask him all kinds of questions. He said that he was on vacation in Gatlinburg since he was exhausted after Christmas eve. She had such a smile on her face and even gave Santa a hug before we went off to explore other attractions in the park. That man was very sweet and incredibly indulgent and I’m sure he gave my daughter a memory to last a life time.

We stopped for lunch after that, and then wandered off to wait in line for “The Polar Express 4-D experience”.  The line-up was huge. There were signs telling us that our wait time at this point was 75 mins, 60 mins, 45 mins, etc. I think it was worth the wait, but others might not have. You go into this little room and watch the very beginning of the movie, up until the train arrives outside the little boy’s house. Then a red beacon flashes it’s warning lights and another set of doors open. You file into the room and climb into these little “pods”. Each pod has 4 seats and they tell you very specifically to buckle up. You put on your 3-D glasses and the movie comes on again on a huge IMax type screen. The best part is that as you’re riding the train, your seat is attempting to replicate the feel of the train and the movements it makes as it flys uncontrollably over the tracks. Bert© was screaming her head off and mom was cracking up. I was hanging on for dear life and desperately trying not to injure my back on the ride. Unfortunately I managed to jar myself, and ended up in pain for the remainder of the day. I will be very happy to visit with my chiropractor on Monday. After it was over, Bert© was ready and raring to wait in line again to ride a 2nd time. I didn’t think I had the patience for another 90 minute wait for a 20 minute ride, so instead we went outside. At the bottom of the stairs they had a board with pictures on it, the children were encouraged before heading inside to wait for the ride, to have their picture taken with a man who looked exactly like the conductor from the movie. Bert© looked so adorable in her picture that we just couldn’t pass it up.

Next we waited in line to see the inside of Dolly Parton’s Home on Wheels. She had retired that one, and commissioned a new one to be built to the tune of 2.5 million dollars. As we stepped inside the old bus, which was still lovely and very lavish, we had our picture taken as a group (noticing a theme here?) and looked around. Now, my step-father is a retired Tennessee State Patrol Officer and he worked the main stretch of I-40 in Middle TN between Nashville and Jackson mostly. Over the years he has pulled over countless country music legends, including Miss Dolly Parton herself, in the exact bus we were touring. Unfortunately my mom felt compelled to regale that tale to everyone on the bus with us. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but with so many people willing to lie about stuff like that and name drop, I’m sure everyone on the bus was collectively rolling their eyes and thinking to themselves “Sure, lady”. So I was a little bit embarrassed at that part, but I didn’t say anything as this was mom’s special day. It’s the furthest away from home she’s been in more than a month.

Bert© had been talking all day about going to the Rockin’ Roadway. It’s a 50’s style car ride, where the children are allowed to steer a self-propelled car on a little track. Most children that we saw there were driving erratically, although they cannot get off the track so they can’t hurt themselves, but when the front of the car hits a curve in the track it does give the passengers quite a jolt. I say most children because Bert© was driving very sedately and calmly, almost like I was a doddering old lady and she was carefully taking me out for my Sunday drive. She really loves anything to do with driving, and it was so cute. Plus I was able to honk the horn from my side of the car, and I wore that sucker out!

We talked about seeing another show, but it was going to be at least 30 minutes until something was ready, so we wandered up Craftsmens Valley to have a look-see and do a little window shopping. Dollywood tries to preserve the heritage of hand-made crafts. There are live demonstrations of glass blowing, black smithing, wagon making, wood carving, candle making, and so much more. The artisans create the items not only for demonstration purposes, but also to sell in their respective shops. Some of the stuff that you can find in there is amazing and very creative. I noticed on a lot of the items that were sold at Dollywood that they said “Made in the USA”. I was very pleased to see that, as it’s not a common sight these days.

We walked up to see the Eagle Sanctuary. They are such beautiful and majestic birds. I could have sat there for hours and listened to them call to each other and watched them fly from branch to branch. Bert© though had heard a familiar sound, the steam engine whistle, and wanted to ride the train. We climbed aboard the Dollywood Express as the sun was setting over the Smoky Mountains. Darkness had fallen over Dollywood and the Christmas lights were magnificent. The engineer played Christmas Music for us over the intercom, and the whole train was singing along. There was just enough chill to the air to really make it feel like Christmas. We waved at all the other tourists in the park and wished them “Happy New Year” as we rolled by. We pulled back into the station depot about 25 minutes later with huge smiles on our faces and stopped to get some hot chocolate.

Bert©’s favorite ride is the classic Carousel. We lined up just as the lady said they had closed for the light parade to come by. Mom, Bert©, and I lined up along side the pathway and watched as lighted floats rolled past. Bert© was smiling and waving at everyone, Raggedy Ann even came up and gave her a big hug. The Tin Soldiers marched past on stilts, and there were even some elves dancing along too. Once the parade finished, we convinced mom to hop on the carousel and ride with us. It was nearly 8pm by the time all was said and done so we wandered back toward the front of the park to the exit. We took our time and browsed in all the stores. Mom bought a few things, and Bert© used the last of her spending money to buy some salt water taffy. I left mom at the exit and went to get the van so she didn’t have to walk out to the outer parking lot with us. I don’t think Bert© was in the back of the van more than 30 seconds before she was sound asleep.

We had an excellent day, and it was lovely to do something together as a family. I wish that Mr. Nascar had been able to be there with us, and I know he did too, he told me so when he called. I’ll try and scan the pictures that we had taken there, and up load them so you all can share in our fun too.

I only have to work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next week and then I’m off until January 6th. Hopefully that will give me PLENTY of time to blog and get caught up on everyone elses stuff.

Observations from an airport

Airport people are funny. In general, I love to people watch if I am dining out alone or otherwise unescorted. The thing I find fascinating about travelling people is that it adds a new level of complexity to them. When I surreptitiously watch someone, I find myself wondering all sorts of things about them. Are they travelling for business or pleasure? Where are they going once they’ve completed this leg to Texas? Are they happy or sad? Why do they have so much luggage?

 A man sat down from me in the terminal waiting area. Blonde hair, clean shaven, dressed in an old care-worn business suit. He’s young, probably 5-6 years older than me. He picks a chair 4 spaces down from me. Why? What reasoning is there for that? He plunks a tattered canvas messenger bag on the seat to his right. It is embroidered on the bottom right corner of the flap. A87 it says. Well, hello Mr. A87! As I glanced up at him, I noticed something different, something I found unexpected about him.

The other airport “waiters” were doing all sorts of different things. Most were reading a book, magazine or newspaper. Two were text messaging furiously with their cell phones. One young woman was drinking her crappy airport coffee and picking at her fingernails. So what was so different about Mr. A87 you ask me? Well he’s reading the bible and underlining in a blue pen that he removes from the inside pocket of his coat, passages that either have a deep meaning for him or that he wants to get clarification on at a later date.

And what am I doing? Why, I’m sitting in the airport terminal, observing, and writing furiously on my brand new legal sized notepad. I don’t want to forget a bit of this new journey. But, perhaps I just realized the funniest thing of all. Maybe I am the oddest passenger in the terminal. Either way, I hope that Mr. A87 sits next to me on the flight, because he is kind of cute.

I’ve got Georgia on my mind.

I think I mentioned in my post about being sick, that I hoped I was well enough come Wednesday of last week to attend a concert I had tickets for.I worked 3/4’s of a day on Wednesday as I was allowed to leave at 2pm. I zipped across the street to Enterprise and picked up my rental car. Originally I had reserved an economy car, but they didn’t have anything available so they upgraded me. I ended up with a 2007 Chevy HHR:

Now, I must say that is not the most comfortable car I have ever driven, nor was it the simplest to figure out. I spent about 10 minutes in the parking lot of the rental agency making sure I knew where everything was. My biggest problem was that my every day car is a manual transmission, while the HHR was an automatic. I couldn’t keep my left foot from stomping on the invisible clutch for anything! It was especially bad when I would have to stop suddenly. I began my 3 hour tour south out of Knoxville heading to Duluth GA to see Maroon5.

I arrived at the junction of I-75 & I-285 without incident. It is after I merged on to I-285 that the problems began. You see, it was a very long drive and I was getting kind of lonely so I called a friend of mine to chat. I didn’t for one second think that perhaps I needed to concentrate on my directions, I figured it was a no-brainer and I would be fine. The minutes ticked by as I sped along I-285 an I was growing ever further from the elusive exit 33. I was desperately trying to keep up my end of the conversation while searching for some sign that I was still headed in the right direction. I finally had to call uncle and admit defeat. I was lost. I hung up with my girlfriend and reasoned that at some point I-285 would intersect I-85 and I would be able to get back on track. Thankfully I saw signs stating that the junction for 85 was 2 miles ahead. North or South, I mused to myself. Which would I need? Thankfully the sign said 85N Chattanooga & Greenville. Well Greenville was listed on my mapquest directions, so North it was!

To my dismay, I merged onto I-85N only to find that I had travelled 30 miles in the wrong direction. CRAP! I believe it was around 6:30 and the concert didn’t start for an hour, so I reasoned that I had plenty of time. Wrong! Welcome to Atlanta, Webmiss. The point of taking I-285 was to bypass downtown Atlanta. Unfortunately, I had ended up at the wrong end and needed to travel back through downtown Atlanta to get back on track. Traffic was horrific. I had never seen anything like it in my life. Much, much larger than Knoxville. There were cars everywhere. People merging without signalling. But worst of all, we were just barely crawling along.

I did take a moment to enjoy the scenery, as I had never been to Atlanta before. I travelled past the stadium where the Atlanta Braves play. I whizzed along next to the TBS broadcasting building. I saw a sign for Zoo Atlanta and Underground Atlanta. Honestly, getting lost wasn’t as bad as it seemed because I got to see a lot of neat things, and really I would like to go back to Atlanta for a weekend and explore. Eventually, as the minutes ticked down to 7:30 I managed to find my way to the exit I needed for the Gwinett arena in Duluth. I parked my car, and walked down to the building in the cool night air. I was surprised that they did not have a security area set up where they were checking peoples purses and jackets for weapons and other prohibited goods. I flashed my ticket and was escorted to my seat. Because I’m lame and was attending the concert alone, I needed to only purchase one ticket. That fact enabled me to score floor seats, baby! I was so excited, I was shaking.

I was quite squished between two couples but the view was awesome. Promptly at 7:30 this interesting band came on. The lead singer had this great mop of afro’d hair, and they were singing some kind of rap/hip-hop music that had such a hard bass beat, the words he was singing were unintelligible. They played for about 15-20 minutes and then cleared the stage. At that point, I thought Maroon5 would be coming on, but no! We were in for a surprise appearance from The Hives an interesting little rock band from Sweden. Finally just before 9PM the curtain rose and Maroon5 stormed on the stage.

The concert was fantastic. Adam Levine really isn’t much to look at, but get the boy singing and gyrating around on stage and he’s pretty darned sexy. There were hundreds of screaming teenage girls, and everyone was on their feet from the word go. Unfortunately there was a very tall man in the row in front of me, and I was having trouble seeing. I decided that it was time to get something to drink and purchased a very over priced soda. I wandered back to the arena floor and stood on the side lines trying to decide if I wanted to wade my way through the sea of people to go back to my seat when an member of the event staff told me I couldn’t block the exit like that. I asked her if there was somewhere I could stand and she directed me to the area in the middle of the floor in front of the cameras there were filming the concert. It was awesome! Everyone was dancing around, screaming, and having a great time. I was a little more sedate than that, but spent some time grooving to the music.

I got a few minutes of video, the sound is practically worthless that I’ll try and get posted on YouTube. The concert ended and I booked it out of there as fast as I could. I did manage to find the strange car in the parking lot, and began creeping my way home. I think by the time I made it back to the interstate and on my way to Tennessee it was just after 11pm. I had planned to drive straight through all the way home, but promised everyone that if I got too tired I would pull over and find a safe place to rest. I managed not to get lost on my way home but sadly there was a casualty. A raccoon decided to play chicken with my car. I regret to report that the score is HHR-1 Raccoon-0. I had exited the freeway and was driving along a quiet backroad heading home. I saw plenty of deer just hanging out on the double yellow, and I was terrified that one of them would run in front of the car. I was very glad that I had rented a car, for those ‘just-in-case’ moments.

I arrived back at home safe and sound around 2am Thursday morning. That is the latest I have been awake in years. Seriously, I am not a night owl.

I had a fantastic time, enjoyed laying around on Thursday (I had taken the day off from work) and have great memories of my trip to Atlanta.

I would love for someone else to post their memories of their favorite concert!

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