I'm MELTING....

I've just realized what the worst part of working from home is... no A/C. The best part of that, I can take cold showers all day if I want to. And eat ice cream. Well, Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches (only 140 cal).

The weather has been unusually warm lately. We went across the state this weekend to my home town and the hottest temp we ran into - 111 degrees (that's 44 degrees to those of you downunder). Fortunately, most of the time it was 103 and thank god we have a/c in our car. We did the drive in about 5 hours, stopped for lunch in hickville in a lovely air conditioned building. It took about 30 minutes on the road before I started to feel like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Remember she ballooned up to the size of a big blueberry or something like that? Yeah, that's how I felt shortly after lunch. We had to stop in another exceeding small town in hickville, wa so that I could buy some... ahem.. gas-relieving tablets.. and walk it off, so to speak. It was PAINFUL. And 105 degrees there, so that was a lot of fun.

Upon arriving at our cute little boutique hotel with air conditioning, we collapsed for a nap and barely woke up in time to walk to the first reunion event. Actually, I had a really good time. I talked to alot of people - mostly the women for some reason, which I'm still wondering about. I didn't seek out to chat with too many men. Irish was a great sport and I parked him down with a few 'spare parts' as they called themselves, while the girls and I wandered around chatting with everyone. I couldn't believe it but we stayed for 5 hours. I saw people I hadn't seen in.. well, 20 years... most of them I hadn't seen in that long. I hadn't even been to my hometown in 10 years.
It was exhausting too, let me tell you. All that chat about nothing. I don't think I know much more than the following items about my fellow classmates:
1. They have all been married at least 10 years.
2. Many have at least 3 kids (which surprised me, really) and quite a few have twins.
3. The women have aged MUCH better than the men.

Let's see, I guess that's it. After all that, this was the information that was imparted. Most could not tell I was pregnant and there was not another single girl there in my 'season of life' - I guess you could say. Most had their kids young.

The next day, Irish and I took a walk through the park, before the heat of the day appeared. My hometown was host to the 1974 World's Fair Expo, so they have a lovely riverfront park. We wandered around and took breaks in the shade and it was nice to see how some things never change. After that, we drove out to my old 'hood, saw my old house, which I'd lived in for 15 years. What a nice neighborhood it was, I have to say. We drove up the hill to where the rich kids lived and I was shocked by the amount of new homes going in. And cheap. (Not that I'd ever live there but it was definitely cheap!) Finally we drove out to Couer d'Alene, Idaho - used to be a sleepy lake/beach town but it was hopping on what must have been the hottest day of the year so far. We had lunch and stuck our tootsies in the lake for a while, then ran as fast as we could back to our air conditioned hotel for another nap.

The second event on Saturday evening was a dinner/dance. There were a few different people here but mostly the same crowd. The nice part was that you could actually sit down and have a chat with whomever was at your table. I sat with a girl I'd known since pre-pre-school days and another girl I'd known since the 6th grade. Catching up with them was very cool. I'd love to keep in touch with them but you know how that goes.. Again we stayed for about 5 hours and I talked to many people. I was so relieved to go home though. It truly is exhausting. Some people haven't changed a bit (personality-wise) which is unfortunate. The same people hung out with the same people they did in high school. I can only wonder though, can you really like those same people or is it just BECAUSE they knew you then that you gravitate towards them. I tried to talk to everyone, mostly because I am a completely different person now than I was then. But you could definitely see the cliques forming, which was an interesting vision. I'm glad I'm home.

Now I can see why they only do that once every 10 years, any sooner would be far too much.

Embarrassing story #5,923,233

Ok, not my embarrassing story. But too funny to pass up. I asked Irish if I could mention it here and he said no problem.

So we bought a couple webcams. One for us and one for Irish's sister. The idea is to be able to transmit video and photos of the bun or even talk using the computer. I had set it up on my work computer and tested the microphone and ear piece. We set up the other one on the other laptop to test before L went home.

I don't know if you all know how this works but being as most of you have been in long distance relationships, you probably do. I use Yahoo Messenger to connect and then 'Invite the person to view my webcam'. Then the other person uses Yahoo Messenger to connect and Invites me to view their webcam. And then we chat or call and we can see each other while we are talking. It can be fun.

So, in my first attempt to invite Irish to view my webcam, I accidently clicked on my parent's messenger account. I didn't think anything of it, because I figured if my dad or mom accepted, they'd just see me sitting there, nothing big. Right after that, I clicked on Irish's login name and he accepted my connection. But unfortunately, we couldn't get the microphone working so I went into the other room to work on his computer. He was goofing off and the next thing I knew, he was flashing his boy bits at me on the camera on my computer!!! I said, 'uh. I think my parents might be viewing that..' and the next moment the camera was turned towards the wall and poor Irish was curled on the couch in embarrassment!

A bit later I connected again and my dad was online. I chatted with himself and my mom. My dad made a comment/joke (I can't remember what it was) that could've possibly meant that he saw something he shouldn't have but it could've easily been innocuous. We chatted about 10 minutes and got offline.

Poor Irish spent the evening wracked with embarrassment. In fact, we couldn't look at each other without bursting into laughter at the thought that my parents might've seen the Irish jewels! Of course he blames me but I told him *I* wouldn't have gone flashing my bits at any camera, I just would've gone in the other room and done it to him in person!

The house to myself....

I have an afternoon free... ahhhhhhh.... let's see, what did I do? spent a nice long hour at the gym, came home and took a nice cold shower (it's pretty warm here right now), made myself a lovely salad... earlier I did a bit of cleaning... it's so nice. Irish took his sister to do a harbor cruise, which was nice of him. He hadn't been before and I had, so I decided to take a little time for myself. Three weeks is a little long to entertain someone, especially when she doesn't seem so inclined to do much herself. It's the complete opposite of when our last guests were here - they took care of themselves and when we planned something, they seemed to enjoy it. M's sister doesn't like to ride in the car very long (that leaves out a bunch of cool places to see in this area as most are at least an hour away), she doesn't eat very exotically (can't take her out to dinner because it's hard to find plain chicken, pizza with no cheese, salmon with no sauce...), and she only wants to shop (we both hate shopping, as you may remember). Don't get me wrong, I really like her, she's a nice girl but as we've both commented, there's not a wonder that she's still single at 41 because she's a bit.too.much.work. We are looking forward to having our own space back.

Tomorrow we are having an ultrasound. We decided to do it because our new midwive suggested it. Just to see how the bun is developing. I feel him a bit more these days, although Irish hasn't felt him since that first day.. don't know if I mentioned it but it was right after partaking of a Reese's PB cup.. the little one was doing a tap dance or something. It was pretty cool but most of the time it just feels like gas. lol I still feel great, I still am going to the gym and I started a pre-natal yoga class. THAT feels really good. I hope I can keep them both up because I think it really alleviates the aches/pains and well, it keeps my mood up. Now if I could just stop gaining so much weight! lol (oh wait, I'm *supposed* to do that!)

Work is going great. I'm really enjoying working from home. I know I work more than I would if I was in the office... When I went there in mid June, I managed to head out for smoke breaks (they smoked, I just chat and wave the smoke away from myself) with the group at least 10 times a day (at 10-15min a shot, that's a lot of wasted day). Now, I don't ever get stopped in the hall or the kitchen when I'm getting coffee and shoot the breeze for a few minutes. And I almost never get people coming to my desk and talking to me either. So I probably work more than I would if I were there. Which is fine. I want to keep the job so I'm making sure they have no reason to wonder why they hired me!

My high school reunion is in a couple weeks. TWENTY years. Jaysus. I didn't think I'd ever get to be THIS age. lol I pretty much hated high school so I didn't go to the 10 year. But I'm looking forward to seeing some of the people. If nothing else, I'll get to show Irish the town I grew up in and never want to live in again. I've already re-connected with some friends from that era, it'll be fun to see them in person. And if nothing else, it'll be a lovely night out with my favorite man. :))