The Beginning of the End of the Aughts

I really can't believe it's 2009. How strange is that? But what's more strange is that I'm incredibly filled with hope for this new year. This really can be a fresh start. I can make changes in my life that I need to. I can do anything, it's a new year. Everything that happened in the past is just that, the past. I like that thought. I'm gonna try and hang on to it.

So what happened to the Lion-Berrys at the end of the year? Let's see. Monday night I went out with our friend V, got super darn drunk, big surprise. V spent the night cause we're responsible like that. When she left Tuesday morning she locked the door knob. Makes sense, right? Wouldn't want anyone breaking into our place. Especially whilst I sleep off my drunkeness. Fast forward to that afternoon and I finally take the dog out. We go out in the yard, she runs around, blah blah blah. Come back upstairs, yup, door's locked. We don't have a key to the door knob. At all. We just use the deadbolt. Luckily I had my cell phone on me. Called the property manager and he came up forever later. Didn't have the right key, had to be gone forever again. But he gave me several smokes since mine were locked inside. Anyway, the doggie and I spent about an hour locked out. She really did not understand why we had to be by the door instead of inside of it by the heater. But it all worked out in the end.

That night I made steak and potatoes and sauteed carrots and green beans. I was very impressed, seeing as how I don't eat a lot of meat and I cook it even less. But it was pretty tasty, Sarah said she liked it.

Wednesday I had to work. Of course I did, I'm a bartender. I got there at 8 and frantically tried to over stock everything so that we wouldn't run out while the place was packed. And actually the night when pretty well. While it was slow for the first couple of hours I had some drunk guys buying me shots. So that helped my attitude immensely. We didn't have any fights, which is a damn miracle. And it slowed down enough that I was able to leave early! I was told I could leave around 2, but I had to enter in a bunch of credit card slips if I wanted my cut of the tips. Oh hell yeah. So I ended up getting out of there around 40 after. Just when the other bars are closing. Ending up having a swig of Beam on the street (always classy) and then helping my incredibly drunk friend get to her house. All the while freezing my ass off. Then I got my new years kiss the next morning from Sarah. Who slept through the new years, I'll have you know:)

We finished the second season of Prison Break, like two days after we got it. Last night we just finished Carnivale. I'm sad it's only two seasons long, but there is no way they could make a third. Now we're onto the 9th season of Friends that I got from Sarah's SIL. I love me some Friends. 

Today I'm sick-ish. I don't know if I'm actually sick or if it's cause I took cough medicine last night. That stuff makes me so out of it. I had some uber weird dreams because of it. One where I had to go through some security scan to enter a hotel and the lady said that my weight was unhealthy. And I said yeah I know. But my weight was like 500+ lbs. Yikes. But I didn't cough.

I'm gonna let the pooch run. Then I might be back to talk about day dreams of warmer climes, babies, and entrepreneur ideas.

Loot-o-rama

So we finally dragged ourselves out of bed at noon to open presents. For two people, there was a huge pile of wrapping paper left over. I made out like a bandit, Sarah is so good. As is her family. From the family I got two seasons of Friends and a food processor! A nice one at that. And it's red so it will match my voodoo man knife holder.

From Sarah I got my perfume that I was juuuust running out of, a huge pack of colored sharpies (I'm an artsy nerd), and other sweet stuff. But my second favorite gift from her was my calender. It's called Pinup's for Pit bulls. Basically hot, tattooed pin ups and their adopted pits. So freaking awesome!

But the really, really, amazing gift she got me is a silk screen press! I can't believe it! I've wanted one forever but never got around to getting one. And hell, I don't know when I might have talked to her about it. Certainly not anytime recently. Good job baby! I can't wait to use it!!

I think I got her pretty good stuff, but she did way better. I am thoroughly impressed. Have I mentioned I'm a picky bitch? And while I won't be mean about it I often don't like what people get me. So she really did good.

Her parents got her a macro lens for her camera, so she's wandering around taking extreme close ups of things. I got her tons of bath salt stuff for her stocking along with a bath pillow. So she's already used those:) My little bath baby.

Of course Christmas isn't all about presents. Okay, it sort of is. But I am doing a good Christmas deed when I'm done blogging. We've been hiding a flat screen tv since Thanksgiving for a friend of ours. While they are out we're gonna deliver it. So they'll get back, he'll think Christmas is over and BAM, flat screen! I love it.

Then we're gonna veg and watch either prison break season 2, carnivale season 2, or friends. I'm pretty damn excited!

Merry Christmahanukwanzica!

Finally Snow! And Jodie.

And I'm actually glad it's here. This has been the weirdest weather ever. It's been clear and freezing cold for oh about the last two weeks or so. I live in Juneau, a rainforest, I never see the sun. Yet the ridiculously cold weather has had me waking up saying "Damn it, it's gonna be sunny again!" Do we get two weeks of sun in the summer, oh no. Never. But today, finally, no sun! It started snowing sometime last night and hasn't felt like stopping yet.

The reason I'm so happy that the sun is gone is that we don't have any real heat in our lovely apartment. Until today. Of course the day it slightly warms up is the day we get real heat. Ha. Our apartment had been about 40-55 degrees during this whole cold snap. Yesterday a friend and former landlord took it upon himself to come check out our boiler/heat or lack there of situation. He immediately called the gas company to see about getting smaller versions of the monitor heater that is in the basement. Then he calls the property manager and pretty much tells them they need to get these installed. Now. That we aren't living in habitable conditions. Did I mention he's a lawyer also:)

So the gas guys are running all over the building drilling and installing. Which is freaking our dog out like non other. And I can't let her get her energy out in the back yard because that's where they are. Oy. 

So to take our minds off the noise, we are gonna settle down on the couch and watch a movie. In fact, we are gonna watch Maverick, starring goofball Mel Gibson and hotter as she gets older Jodie Foster. Mmmm. Have you seen the Brave One? Talk about hot. The picture at the top says it all.

For S

This is a wordle I made for Sarah. It's parts of two Pablo Neruda poems. He is my all time favorite poet. If you haven't heard of him, check him out. Now!

Dreams and Schemes

I had a lame dream last night. It was basically a manifestation of my fears, played out in front of me like real life. I had another one a couple of weeks ago. Usually my dreams are as unintelligible as a psychopath's secret diary, tiny fragments of my day with lots of crazy added in. But I hate it when I have dreams that just seem real. And I'm helpless to fix things in them. I would have to assume it's my subconscious fears being brought up to the forefront. I know I'm afraid of what happened in the dream. I know I'm afraid I can't fix anything. But in the dream and definitely in real life, I want to. All I want to is fix things. But then my brain has always been good at offering up "I can't" at most signs of difficulty. It would surprise me to have a clear as day positive dream. It'd be nice, but unlikely.

The worst part of the dream, or one of them, was when I was trying to fix things, it just made it worse or it was too late. I had made them push away by trying to fix it. Talk about a fucking pickle. But obviously that's a dream, it doesn't really work that way. I need to try and fix things, it would be worse not to, right?

The other terrible part was the look of hate or even lack of emotions towards me. Like I had become so much of a stranger that even hate was too personal of an emotion to be used on me. That's what's sticking with me.

And when I say the dream was my fears, it's not like it's always on my mind. It's a fear that is occasionally brought to light, but I don't obsess over it. I would like that to be known. I'm afraid even explaining the dream will make things worse. But I already did. If I can't talk to them, who can I talk to?

Arg. What I really wanted to post about was a book I read last night. Creepers by David Morrell. I was loaned this book oh probably two years ago and never picked it up. He's the author of First Blood, the book Rambo is based on. I'm not a huge fan of Rambo, so maybe that's why I never started reading it. But this book is completely different. It's about a group of urban explorers getting ready to break into an incredibly well preserved hotel. The hotel was build at the turn of the century, and as the years progressed, the owner never updated the styles of anything. And there is a reporter along for the expedition. That's all I will tell you other than I was hooked in the first couple of pages. And nothing amazing happened on them, he's just a great writing at getting you engaged in the story.

I started reading it because we had to go the laundromat, yuck. I ended up staying up till 12:30 and finishing the book. I so very highly recommend it.

Now to walk the whiney puppy who was JUST outside.

To meat or not to meat

I've had the feeling inside that I want to go back to not eating meat again. I did it for a while, I guess I was a vegan for almost three years. It wasn't that hard, you just figure out what you can have. And make the rest. But that was about four years ago. Since then it's been the spectacular All-American diet. I still tend to veer to veggies, but I eat my fair share of meat or "meat" in fast food instances.
I'm tired of the food I eat being bad for me. Why on earth would I put something bad for me in me? Besides alcohol and tobacco, those are lovely vices for another day. But really, why? It tastes good. Okay, yes, generally the worse it is for you the tastier it is. But it's not like healthy food tastes bad. You get used to it too.
I've decided that I'm getting too old to keep beating up my body. Or completely ignoring it, that might be more accurate. It's not like I'm just gonna naturally be healthy with the way I eat and don't exercise. So I've started exercising also!
I can't afford our overpriced gyms, so I'm using a DVD I pilfered from the ex mom in law years ago. And I feel better already. Even the next day when I can barely walk, it's nice to feel my muscles again.
So if I'm gonna kick my ass doing squats all day, I need to be fueling my body with better foods. So what to get rid of? All meat? Some meat? Maybe just dairy? I don't know yet. But today for lunch instead of eating leftover porkchops with loaded mashed potatoes and corn, I made a veggie curry with steamed broccoli.
And I am contemplating joining Mrs. Bluemont's juice feast. It sounds pretty awesome. But then I need to buy a juicer and all the other stuff. And I know Juneau in the winter is not the time to live off of produce. Hell, not even in the summer. But maybe if I can find a good juicer on the cheap, I'll be more motivated to try.
We'll see what happens, but something is gonna. Just you wait.

Holly Jolly Holidays

Thanksgiving was fun. It was the first year it was just two people, not a ton, not going to a semi strangers house and dealing with random people. It was very nice for it to just be Sarah and me and the pets. Since it was just us we made tiny little cornish game hens. They were adorable and once I got Sarah to pick meat off it for me, they were delish.

We did pretty good, we got everything cooked with out any near fires or severed fingers. All with two massive hangovers. Pretty damn impressive. And we got done and out of the house in time to watch most of the A&M game. Or massacre, whichever. And just when I was getting nice and cozy on the couch at the Rendezvous, it was time for me to work. Blah. It was super slow. Super super slow. But at least there was a creepy old guy giving me weird dirty compliments. That's always fun. But after a while Carrie came down and he started talking to her. Trying to buy her drinks, etc. I guess old guys have no gaydar or he's just really determined.

Verity came down and brought me leftovers. Yum! But before she came, whilst it was massively slow, I did arts and crafts. A lemon had been left out, so I decided to turn it into a hedgehog. And I think it turned out pretty damn good. And if my computer wasn't so slow I'd upload to flickr so all the world could know my talents. And since it was still slow, I then moved on to coloring and made a hand turkey. Not a jive turkey or a hand jive, just a hand turkey.
Thankfully the night picked up around midnight and I was busy and made a few bucks.

Tonight Sarah and I are going to the Public Market. I'm so excited. I love the hustle and bustle and the smells and just the familiarity of it all. It will suck balls that I have zero dollars to spend there. But maaaaybe if I just can't live without it...