Sweet Dreams....Or Not....?

I have been having these reoccurring dreams lately. Not the same dream, but the same theme over and over again. I am late for something, or have forgotten something really important. Like a couple of nights ago I dreamed I was at the beach having a really good time. I was having so much fun that I apparently lost track of time. I was thinking that it was Wednesday, and I still had the rest of the week to lounge on the beach. Only it turned out to be Wednesday of the NEXT week, and I was still vacationing oblivious to the fact that I should have been back to work 3 days ago. I was horrified. How do you explain that one to management??? I KNOW that most vacation rental agreements would make accidentally overstaying virtually impossible, but still....it was unsettling.

And last night, I was back in high school again. And I knew I had to take a really important exam. An exam that would determine if I could graduate or have to repeat my whole senior year again. But then a whole string of random things kept happening to keep me from getting to school...I couldn't find my car keys. I got lost while driving. I finally got there only to remember that the exam was being held in a completely different location......How frustrating!!!

Anyway, I just wonder what dreams like these mean. I'm not really having any kind of stress in my life right now. In fact, things are calmer than usual. No problems at work, no problems at home. Finances are stable. Everyone is healthy and happy. Whats the deal? Could it be that my mind invents stress when none is currently available during waking hours? LOL! It does make for some unrestful sleep. Oh, I sleep. Insomnia is not really in my vocabulary. If there is anything that I do particularly well its sleep. I'm an exceptionally talented sleeper. But lately I seem to be waking up tired. Its hard to feel rested when you spend all night struggling against unfortunate circumstances. Oh well, maybe tonight will be sweet dreams.

I made flan!!!!

Yesterday, I made flan for the very first time. And it was GOOD...much to my surprise and delight. Surprised only because not every thing that I try turns out right the first time. Or the second, or the third...etc. Some things NEVER turn out just right for me. But flan is obviously my friend. I had it for the first time ever back in March. On Easter, I think. And I thought it was the best thing ever. So rich and creamy! And it wasn't all that hard to make either which was nice. Of course, I will have to restrain myself from making too often because....well....I'm sure it has at least a gazillion calories per serving, and I don't think it would come out all that well if you attempted to lower the fat or sugar in it. I think this is the 'real deal' kind of dessert that you can only indulge in every once in a great while.

Also? We are in a drought down here in the southeast. It hasn't rained around these parts since I can't remember when. Our lawn, which is HUGE, is almost completely dead right now. We won't water it, because that would be such a waste when supply is low. We haven't needed to cut grass in a couple of weeks now, and somehow.....somehow that part of the equation has been kind of nice. We usually spend every spare moment trying to battle the lawn during the summer. This year not so much. Its ugly out there but at least our lawnmowers are catching a break.

Anyway, Monday is over and done with (yay!). And its a short week with the holiday on Friday, so thats good news, too. Maybe the short week will stop my husband from being so grumpy. He woke up with all kinds of complaints this morning. Apparently, I was sleeping way too far on HIS side of the bed. Its a king-sized bed, and he swears he only had a scant 6 inches of space last night. I have NO idea what he is talking about. I was perfectly comfortable and I slept like a baby...haha. And then he got into the shower and discovered that I used HIS razor to shave my legs. Um, well, I did it because he had the newest, sharpest blade. Apparently, I am encroaching all OVER his personal space these days. All I can say is that he better stop his complaining or I won't share the flan with him! LOL.

Strange...

I worked this weekend (Saturday) on my day off because a long-time friend/co-worker told us all at work on Thursday that her husband was having to have heart surgery on Friday morning to clear some blockages. Yikes! That sounded really scary, and she was supposed to work on Saturday, so I had no problem covering for her. I mean, I would HOPE that somebody would have the decency to cover for me if a member of my family was having some serious surgery.
She was supposed to call me and let me know how things went on Friday. So I waited and waited and finally got concerned and sent her a text message to see what was going on. The text reply said that they did some tests and sent him home....? Very weird since she had been all dramatic about the impending surgery the day before.

Another friend/co-worker had been suspicious from the beginning, so she called the hospital. No record of said Drama Queen's husband having been there at ALL. Not for tests, not for surgery...nothing. So she called several other hospitals in neighboring counties just to check and be sure. Nothing. Nada. So, I mistakenly thought that well....thats good news. Everything must be ok, and most likely she would call me and tell me that it was not necessary to cover for her on Saturday. WRONG!!! She never called.

Then, she sent a text on Saturday morning to the same woman who had called the hospitals, saying that they just had to call 911 for her husband. !!??!! She didn't realize that this woman was sitting at her mother's house which is just a few doors down from Drama Queen's house AND that the mother is addicted to her police scanner that lets her know everything that goes on up there in that small town. No record AT ALL of a 911 ambulance call, and....no ambulance in evidence at said residence. Does this sound suspicious at all? Is she lying just to get time off?

I can't say that I am really pissed off about it, IF she was making up this kind of a sad tall tale just to take some time off. But what I am is sad. We have been friends for 10-12 years. If she wanted the weekend off, I would have gladly worked for her if she had just asked me. I well remember the days when I was low enough on the senority totem pole to have to work most weekends, and now...I don't mind stepping up and helping someone out if they have plans. No lies or drama necessary.

I don't know. I suppose that its possible that there really was some emergency going on and we just misunderstood...? I'm leaning in that direction because honestly? I do NOT like thinking the worst of people. She is supposed to be back at work tomorrow, and I am not sure what to say to her. I guess it would look weird if I didn't at least ask how her husband is doing. I'm just not sure if I can believe anything that she says. Very strange.......

Stuff that amuses me....

-Apparently, North Carolina DMV has issued in excess of 10,000 license plates with the unfortunate letter combination of "WTF". It took some text-savvy teens to point out the acronym for a common slang phrase. It has been announced that anyone with a WTF license plate can return it for another plate that will hopefully have a letter combination that has been a bit more thought out. Although....actually....I would be proud of my WTF plate, if I had one.

-I was putting gas in my car today (yikes!), and I noticed something scrawled in the dust on the gas pump. It said "Thanks Bush!" .....yeah, thank you very much.

-My husband was rearranging the way our sound system/speakers work with the television today. It involved dragging the stereo out of the cabinet, and moving the television table. He managed to dislodge several humongous dust bunnies comprised almost entirely of dog hair. Yeah, I clean. I vacuum. But getting behind all the heavy stuff on a regular basis...not so much apparently. I thought I did an ok job of it, but from the looks of things behind the scenes, well.....I guess I don't get a gold star. My husband paused and watched as yet another errant dust bunny blew across the floor in the breeze from the ceiling fan, and then he asked me, "Is it wrong to hope that the dogs die soon?" Hahaha...yeah, it probably IS kind of wrong, but sometimes we can't help but think it. Good thing my dog is deaf so he couldn't hear what we were saying.

-Speaking of dogs, it would seem as though this dog's owner thinks he is awesome....ya think?

I saw this picture and it made me laugh.

The Power of The Mind....

I (we) really don't keep up with local news around here. We watch CNN, and I regularly read the national stuff. But locally...? Well, I really don't know whats going on around here. We don't subscribe to our local newspaper. For one thing, its a pathetic offering as far as newspapers go.
For another thing....newspapers make me a little bit squeamish. They are messy things. One has to unfurl a newpaper to gargantuan proportions to even read it. And then they end up being splayed all over the place waiting on someone (meaning me) to have to pick them up, organize, store and recycle them. Magazines are almost as bad, but at least they don't "splay". Its the splaying nature that makes newspapers so God-awfully hateful to me.

So my son calls me today to inform me that the city water supply here has been compromised. There is contamination with Fecal-something-or-other bacteria in the water. Its all over the news. Locally, of course. So I had no idea. Everybody was being instructed NOT to drink the water, use ice cubes made from the water, brush your teeth with the water...and so forth and so on. EWWWW! I was drinking from a big bottle of ice water that I brought from home, straight from the tap when he called me. And I had not one, but 2 cups of coffee made from our water for breakfast!! I started to feel ill immediately. Not just ill, but really seriously sick. My stomach was flip-flopping and cramping, and I began to wonder just how long I had before I began to die a horrible, gut-wrenching death from having ingested so much fecal-something-or-other bacteria.

Then I remembered that my husband also took a big bottle of crystal light with him to work today. Crystal light made from the fecal-infested water. So I pulled myself together from my dying-phase to make a quick call to him to warn him that his death might be imminent as well. He listened to me for a couple of minutes as I explained to him our dire situation. And then he said:
"Um, you know that we are on the county water system that is in no way connected to the city water supply?" And somehow I was cured. Just like that.

And while our water is safe here, unfortunately our son is on the city water system, and he has to boil his water until further notice. Actually, I think he ran out and bought several gallons of bottled water, cuz seriously....boiling is just too much work.

I know...

I know I have been lax in posting. For months. And I also know that I have given plenty of excuses. The latest one of those is that we have spent quite a lot of time painting and doing other chores to help Stephen and Hannia get their new place not only ready, but decorated to their (meaning Hannia's) personal taste. Its coming together nicely, and our part is almost done.
With the exception of helping them put down a new kitchen floor. Hannia's parents bought the flooring. We are going to help them install it. Well, ok, my husband is going to help them. I really doubt I would be any good at that.

I think they will be happy there. Its a nice place. And since their office is almost done (with the exception of the woodwork/trim needing to be painted....) and the internet installed, desk set up etc....Stephen finally was able to sit down and write a blog of his own. He has been even more lax about posting than I have, but then again, he has been without internet for a while. Or honeymooning out of the country....so yeah, he has his reasons, too. Anyway, if you want to catch up with Stephen's latest musings, you can find him HERE.

Besides that, nothing else is really going on. The rest of the family is down at Bald Head Island, having a great time, I hope. We opted out of the trip this year for several reasons. One of those being that we are trying to plan a special little romantic getaway later this summer for just the 2 of us. I feel like we earned it...haha. We're there in spirit though. Hope you guys get to see some of those elusive turtles hatching this time around.

The Apocalypse...?

It certainly looks like the apocalypse outside right now. Smoke from the wildfires down around the coastal areas of NC has made its way inland and has settled in over our entire town. It looks kind of spooky out there. And the smell is slowly seeping into the house, even though we have everything closed up tight. Areas of it were even thick enough to make driving a little tricky, like driving in heavy fog. Its so weird. I had to run into Target after work today. And it was a bright sunny day when I parked and went in. And yeah, I KNOW I tend to browse in Target for a fairly long time, but not so long as to expect that kind of a change. When I walked back out to my car, the smoke had arrived. Everyone was just standing around in the parking lot looking at it, trying to figure out what was going on. I overheard several people on their cell phones asking if there was any explanation for it on the news. I guess we all expected that the fires were far enough away that we wouldn't have any of this here. But we were wrong, cuz.....its definitely smokey out there.