Oh what a day

So this morning my friend Tom came over to help me tame my back yard. I have been feeing bad about not doing too much to get the physical house ready for the move and hubbs has been doing ALL the outside work. I am still working on getting off all the meds I was given erroneously so was sick most of the week but come this morning I was feeling decently enough. Which is good 'cos I have almost no way of easily contacting Tom, at least not to say, "don't come." Well it was wet at 8 am but he was here right on time and away we went. We moved quick and got alot of shit cleared out of the yard. In 2 hours we had what I thought would take us all day, finished. Now I can plant some shrubs to hide the monolith that has appeared behind my house.

Oh and now for the part that my friedns who new me forever ago (yes I am feeling old lately) will find fucking hilarious. Me + machete = I suck. Yes I cannot do any damage when swinging a machete at weeds. Oh wait it gets better. It rained on and off until about noon. By dinner time I was going try and get a fire going in the pit. Me + hatchet = I suck. Yes I could not swing the hatchet hard enough or accurately enough to splinter up a piece of dry wood to make dry kindling. So yeah I suck and the strong me that once was has become a weak lil bitch. I can't think of what else to call myself. I mean I used to be tough and strong and now, well I get pampered too much or something because I swear I bet if anyone would have seen me with that hatchet they would have died laughing. So there you go I am pathetic and I am putting it out there for the world to see, but no one saw it and I can delete this later. Oh the power I wield :P

but the Jack Daniels Roast I made kicked serious buttocks. I will have to use that marinade recipe again and figure out what else I can drown in it. I am going to miss my grill when it leaves me in a couple months

River of Life

The run down

5 days
over 100 12-17 yearolds
not nearly enough adults
1 hotel

Oh yeah can you feel the fun yet?

16 work teams
like 6 porches built
9 houses painted
16 yards cleaned up
some really awesome food, they made me fat
One guy who could end up being on my list of favorite people, but then again maybe not
Just all around a ton of fun for a good cause and purpose.

The part people care about:
meeting random people to avoid the same people I have been eating and sleeping with for 3 days.
Deciding walking into a church service through the front 30 minutes late with a guy who is not my husband would be a bad idea. Then again if it had been my husband people would have fallen over dead as he has only been in church twice in the last 3 years (one my baptism and the other was on the way to the lake, we weren't backtracking for him). It was a good choice. I had more fun shootin the shit with him anyhow.
Anyone who did not know me thinking I had a thing for him, made me giggle. Yeah maybe if I was younger and not married but otherwise it didnt cross my mind but it was a lil flattering.
The world found out that I only love Mitchell for his tools. But oh what tools they are :)

Now the best part:
Different woman in my bed every night.
Being in a bath tub with 2 guys
Being in a bathroom with 6 guys and another chick
hiding under the stairs with 5 guys.
shoulder rubs
Almost pitching a guy off the balcony.
Waking up to different rays of sunshine every morning

I am sure I will come up with more but that is all at the moment. I am still tired and I feel like ass but it is all good. Did it change me? It takes alot to change me. I did like however for once staying local. I do not like the idea of going to other countries to do mission work when there is so much that can be done right here.

I had ENTIRELY way too much fun and some of it I am sure was inappropriate for a church retreat but it was good times all around. And get that DAMN SONG OUT OF MY HEAD!!

My Ordeal

Ok back in May hubbs was denied orders because I am supposedly sick. A lot of phonecalls, faxes, doctors appointments and scrambling later we managed to get me cleared by the hospital in Japan. This was all due to a misdiagnosis. On May 21st I was cleared and hubbs applied for orders. At the end of June/beginning of July he received orders to Japan. WOOHOOO!!! Now that is the back story. Here is where it gets fun.

We went on vacation in the middle of June. He did not have “hard” orders when we left but I made the docs appointment anyway for overseas screening. When we got back my screening was the next Wednesday, June 27th and we had until Friday July 13th to get everything complete. And so it begins.

Go in on the 27th and this lady who has been a pain to me for months acts like she is God as far as my screening is concerned and then proceeds to tell me she can’t do anything because we are Navy. This lady is the EFMP coordinator at a JOINT command yet she acts like she does not have reason to help Navy family members. No big deal, the doc signs and coordinator gives the almighty stamp. I argue with both about tests I KNOW I need done and they tell me no. Thursday I learn an important paper was left out. I call the EFMP coordinator. She is not in, she does not work on Fridays and screenings are only on Wednesday which is July 4th. I schedule the screening for Wednesday July 11th, just in case. I also scheduled my own tests because no one would listen. I continue calling Friday, Monday and Tuesday and got nowhere. I talked to the coordinator’s supervisor a few times and that did not help either. Thursday, I got frustrated and went down to the hospital. The nurses there had seen me quite a bit since May when all this started. I told them my latest issue. One of them helped set me up with my tests and the shots I needed to get. They could not get anything done about the screening; it was just one headache after another. Friday they had me get one test. Monday I went back and had it read. Tuesday I had a health exam. Wednesday I had the screening. Now mind you the hospital in Japan has accepted me so this is mostly a formality. The doctor does not feel comfortable signing off on some things and I think “ok I can respect that.” He was confused by the wording as he had never seen the form before. This was at 8 or 9AM. He did not however tell me that he had not checked whether or not I am suitable for overseas. I found that on my own at 6PM! If I had not looked at it, I would have sent in the paperwork incomplete. I took it back to the hospital, first thing in the morning with some further supporting evidence, most importantly documentation that the gaining hospital had accepted me. That was not enough so I went back later with further documentation that afternoon. I was told come back in the morning for the paperwork. Friday morning I returned around 10:30AM. My paperwork still was not completed and I was asked to not return until I had been called. I guess my camping out for the last 9 business days was not appreciated by him, the nurses and I got along fine. At this point I had also contacted Navy Personnel in Charleston, SC and Tennessee and had been given the distinct impression that this was the doctor being overcautious or overzealous. At 2PM on Friday I received a call that it had been completed. I picked it up and we now believe it is all complete, hopefully the sage will not continue.

Pictures from the Masters

2007 Masters

Here are the pics I took during the practice days. I had a great time and hope I some day get to go back and walk on those fairways, maybe even as a spectator. Otherwise I am content to know that I did it, even if just once.

So today I see one of the sound guys from CBS at the Masters. He is older so I assumed he would have some pearls of wisdom about the industry. Was I right? HELL NO!!! This guy is the epitome of why I decided I would rather do random sound jobs than work in the industry. He has a very large fuzzy and I asked him how long the mic was in it, using my hands as an estimation. HE HAD NO IDEA!!! HE DIDNT EVEN KNOW WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT! He said some guy "built" it on Manday and he just new how to replae the batteries. Well congratulations Bob you can drop a 9 volt into the box when the light turned red. He actually thought it was a speciall designed contraption it was in fact identical to the fuzzy windscreens we used in college on a pistol grip and probably a long shotgun maybe 12-18 inches long. When I said boom work is hard keeping your hands up, he looked at me like I was crazy and said "why would you do that we keep it down low and point." I gave up at that point.

But yeah thank you Lord for once again pointing out to me why I left LA and don't really want to work in the industry again. I do however miss my press pass.

Day 3 of the Masters

Today I didnt have to work until later so I went in early to walk around. I can now say pretty confidently that I have walked all 18 holes of the Augusta National, I may have missed a couple but I will be checking that out to be sure tomorrow. Today was the Par3 contest. After reading about it I am actually kind of bummed that I could not watch it. I still have not seen Tiger or Michelson. The highlight of my day was Fuzzy Zoeller hitting his ball in a bunker and laughing with the crowd. I saw lots of other players too but none that I knew even after their name was said, hey I dont really follow golf, I just like it. My friend is a police officer, he is in charge of guarding the sacred leader board, and he has seen all of the big wigs. Tomorrow my goal is to try and get in to see the official tee off, or is it honorary, either way it is being done by Arnold Palmer. Woods and Michelson don't tee off until after I am at work so maybe someone famous will come by and say hi. Of course for all I know they already have and I am just oblivious. They all look alike, some are cute and flirt with me (which is cool) but most look like or remind me of my cousins and when they flirt with me it is weird. I am focusing on dropping my pseudo southern accent and talking like a Californian but it is hard with the think accents sitting to my left and right. I love seeing all the shirts with locations, so many remind me of home unfortunately people are just showing off where they have been, not where they are from. Some arent though and I tag them right half the time.

I did call one of my cousins last night. I just wanted to call and brag to someone who would get it. thankfully he did :) It was nice to talk to him but I was damned exhausted and pretty self centered I think. I totally forgot to ask him how everyone is doing, if he has seen our other cousins new baby and all that. Yeah I suck. Well it is Masters week in Augusta and they do say that during this week there is no world outside Augusta. I guess I proved that right.

I have no more great insights for today. I am trying to think of some but my brain is refusing to function and just wants to sleep. I have to figure out what I am wearing tomorrow as we are expecting a 20 degree temperature drop.

Unfortunately there will be no more pics as cameras are no longer allowed.

Masters, Day 2

ok so today is day two at the Masters. I work long hours but I have time before the day starts to take the long way to the stand and enjoy the course. I even get to take a camera in Mon-Wed so I am and I am taking advantage. I bought some swag and am collecting the plastic cups.

Yesterday I saw the joy and giggled when I saw a line and line stansions (like at Disneyland) for the mens room and when I went into the ladies room it was empty. oh the irony, oh the joy and I just wanted to scream FEEL OUR PAIN BITCHES!!!!!

Today I saw a guy with a REAL USC shirt. I was all Trojans BABY!!! He was happy I knew and thought the Gamecocks were BS, I have to agree. I also saw a guy with a City of Stockton hat so I asked if it was Stockton, CA and it was. The guy then tells me he is the mayor, I of course presume he is full of shit, so I looked it up http://www.stocktongov.com/citycouncil/Mayor.cfm and yeah that could be him.

I wanted to buy Pops a shirt but as much as I love him, it is not that much. The cheapest was $55 and the ones I liked were $80 and they went up to like $200.

Unlike most events, the food is cheap (I can ring up lunch for a family of 4 for under $20) and the people are nice. They aren't pushy or bitchy. they are really pretty calm. Lets see what happens when the match starts.

So yeah I am exhausted an my mind no worky. I have pics, proof that I really was there and some pics of players but now I need to go finish the laundry so I have clothes tomorrow