Really?? Are you sure?

So this has been my life for the past 6-7 weeks.......

As some of you know, my father recently passed away.....I was finally able to make it back to California, mostly to get away from all the insanity in my life, cleaning out my father home, fixing the property up, putting it up for sale, and coming to the realization and sadness that he is never coming back:(

The Otherhalf had an entire tour to be on vacation and the kids were still in school, he said leave, go away, clear your head and relax, do whatever you need to do, but come back.

He was willing to stay behind--- still cleaning out my fathers house, even he didn't like to go there he is almost as sad as I am/ and have been.

I do not think he has ever trusted me to go by myself to California and now with my fathers death, turning the big one and knowing how much the being a Firefighter in the city of craziness and insanity is...HE Knew, I was already looking for the home in California, I already applied for my nursing license to be granted through reciprocity and had multiple homes I was interested in viewing.

For as much as I hate the fake people in LA etc and that TMZ shit...I like southern California. I just love it, It's warm, NO humidity, thank goodness...it's like spring everyday or at least all of the times we had visited. I would move in a heart beat and the other half knows this!!!

So, I purchased round trip airfare, packed my ice skates and left for one week. I planned on visiting family but my cousin was deployed to the Gulf for that oil spill and it sort of changed a few things.

First my dad was a Marine Corps Brat(Semper F)i, he was born in California, so I was looking forward to visiting family---getting as close to the naval base he was born at and let some of his ashes go......the naval base closed in the 90's.

I ended up doing nothing but sleeping, ice skating and laying by the pool, it actually was sorta great. No kids, no family commitments now just me and my thoughts.....

My dad won a Porsche 911, drag racing for pink slips in the late 70's....oh now, how much I miss that car looking back and the way it sounded, all the work, time taking to rebuilding it to his liking, I remember to way it hummed and when to shift gears just from the sound.

I rented a Porsche Boxster for the week, I couldn't afford to rent a 911 for a week but the boxster worked out amazingly....they say they can go up to 255 mph, but It got once over 100mph---and I thank the lord I didn't get caught.

Because when I get pulled over in this city. I get let go, something about when the Otherhalf Officially worked as an administrator for our Police Dept.(as he has said himself he hired, fired and retired cops, oh yeah helped push through all of there promotions for 10 years), before he jumped ship and decided to become a Firefighter....pretty much our name is notorious in this city of Brotherly love.

If I'm stopped by a cop who is new to the force---I go through the crap of you need to contact your commanding officier, the otherhalf is a fiefighter and I'm a nurse....and you know you burn in hell if you give a nurse a ticket, pretty much....always works, that and dude I have a horrible case of the shits if you want to follow me home and wait until i go to the bathroom and then give me the ticket as NEVER failed!!!!!

So, after looking at house number 12 or so, I take a wrong turn get completely f-ing lost, even with the gosh darn GPS and tumble into a nice neighborhood . I see a home for sale, google the information, get out of the car and walk up to the home, find the current owner after 20 minutes of searching between the people help cleaning it out etc...

I take some amazing views but the money I'll have to sink into it is going to be crazy....I have 4 kids, need to relocate 2,685 miles, so the owner and I talk for an hour or so, I take some pictures, ask about 90 million questions, call my realtor and then ask to me, "The most important question".

I do not want my young children being exposed to any celebrity like figure or so, no Lindsey's, no Nothing!!!!!!! Just everyday life, go to work come home and be quite!!!

So, what is the million dollar question???? Is there anyone anywhere around this neighborhood that would be considered famous, popular, no one get photographed no cameras, no nothing, right???

The owner says, "Well the family who lives over there, up there around that way, "He's the lead singer of Nirvana", I was like WTF??? Nirvana?? What? He says, "Yeah, yeah, Nirvana!" In his slightly broken english.

I said sure, "I bet so does Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin". The comment flew over his head & I hauled ass out of there as fast in my little Boxster could get me, I was still lost for an hour or so.

I returned home within a week, puppy sat my best friends 20lb. 7 month old baby f-ing beagle--the fucker got out of our fenced in yard and ran like frogger into two way traffic----I ran after him tripped and fell broken my left elbow in 2 places, managed to take most of the skin off the other side of my body like I was dragged by a truck for 4 blocks.

yes, I caught him, finally...and i will not say anything else other than that and we are still friends with the owners:)

Needless, to say I have seen 3, yes 3 Ortho specialists, had 2 MRI's, have to go to physical therapy 5 days a week and to top it off now have Frozen Shoulder Syndrome due to being in a sling...................and the Director of Shoulder, and Elbow services stated that if my elbow isn't working better in 2 weeks now, he's going to do it for me---how you ask--surgery, yeah I don't think so...good luck in two weeks I'm going to The Outer Banks, N.C., good luck finding me!!

Sunday Stealing

Cheers to all of us thieves!

Sunday Stealing: The Clown's Meme 1

1. How old will you be in five years?

I'll still be 33-I haven't aged in a few years:)

2. Who did you spend at least two hours with today?

The kids

3. How tall are you?

5'5

4. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks?

The f-ing end to the snow.

5. What’s the last movie you saw?

The Hurt Locker- is was pretty great.

6. Who was the last person you called?

My Grandmother

7. Who was the last person to call you?

The Other Half

8. What was the last text message you received?

From an old friend

9. Who was the last person to leave you a voicemail?

See the above

10. Do you prefer to call or text?

Call

11. What were you doing at 12am last night?

Sleeping

12. Are your parents married/separated/divorced?

Divorced

13. When is the last time you saw your mom?

Yesterday

14. What color are your eyes?

Green

15. What time did you wake up today?

To darn early

16. What are you wearing right now?

Scrubs

17. What is your favorite christmas song?

I'll be home for Christmas

18. Where is your favorite place to be?

Either under the covers or in Southern California-WHERE IT'S WARM

19. Where is your least favorite place to be?

At Work

20. Where would you go if you could go anywhere?

California

21. Where do you think you’ll be in 10 years?

Not sure

22. Do you tan or burn?

Burn

23. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?

The Dark

24. What was the last thing that really made you laugh?

My kids

25. How many TVs do you have in your house?

Too Many

26. How big is your bed?

Not big enough for four kids and the OtherHalf, that's for sure.

27. Do you have a laptop or desktop computer?

One

29. What color are your sheets?

Brown flannel with snowflakes

30. How many pillows do you sleep with?

2 or more

31. What is your favorite season?

Autumn

32. What do you like about Autumn?

The way the trees look and the way the air smells

33. What do you like about winter?

I'm really enjoying the 70 plus inches of snow we got in less than one week, oh yeah and they are saying we are getting more tomorrow and Tuesday- can't wait:(

Welcome Home!!!!

Yes, I have returned from my wonder trip to California, and while I truly enjoyed my time on the West Coast, it is good to be home again with the children.



I can not believe that we managed to get away from the chaos of home life for 7 days and 6 joyous nights. AAHhhhhh!!! What a joy:))



So, how was the trip, you ask.......????? First, what is up with American Airlines charging $55.00 for one extra bag?? The airport and flying is always my favorite thing to do:))



When we arrived to the airport there had to be 200 military men and women checking in at the same time...and lucky for me when my bag weighed over 54 pounds and not the required 50 pounds, my husband unzipped my suit case, there on the floor and tossed the contents all over the place to grab some things that were heavy, like shoes, by the way which were on the bottom to place those items into another bag, and when he was doing so, he managed to toss my cute hot pink bra and xxx- panties etc... all over the place...thank you the compliments, Uncle Sam, it was great for the servicemen to have something to think about for their flight, and yes, thank you to the Other Half too!



I am the biggest chicken when it comes to flying, and mental note to PCP- Ativan 2 mgs. does NOT work, yet again! I only screamed out loud two times, making the stewardess, comes and ask if she could anything as when were ascending into the beautiful skies. The Other Half, I think asked for a gag but that may have been me just hearing things. My knuckles were so white and the Rosary could not be said fast enough....I swore we were never going to get off the tarmac and into the air. We seemed to bounce up and down way to many times and not seem to be going fast enough to actually get off the ground, but yes, we did...I had the crazy thought that we would possibly skid off the runway and explode off the side of the road, maybe due to the weight of all that luggage, mine being the main reason, or possibly that the crew would just drop the load onto the ground and I would never see any of my things again...Yes, crazy I know...what an imagination.



First stop was The Sunset Marquis, I would highly recommend staying there, we had a wonderful time. We met many musicians, of course. And experienced our first earthquake and aftershock while at the Sunset. We had free passes to Equinox gym and saw more celebrities there. I made reservations at Mr. Chow a month before our trip, the food was fantastic, Do NOT drink any champagne! I was kidding when I said it would probably cost $30.00 per glass,---no it cost $45.00, and I drank two glasses. I'm glad The Other Half picked up an extra 24 hour shift prior to us leaving for the trip. Gosh, I'll be paying for that meal for a while, but it was worth it!!



The Grove was okay, same stores as in this area, nothing fancy, however the Farmers Market had great food and vendors. I had some delicious butter cookies with Jimmy's on them!!! Yummy!!



We stayed in Pasadena at The Langham Hotel and Spa for the rest of our 3 days. The hotel is gorgeous!!! We met Dennis Rodham and his family was very nice, but that dude is tall and freaking scary to say the least!:))

Venice Beach was quite depressing, something very one should see once, but then get the heck out of there. Some homeless man had a cardboard sign, stating he would work for marijuana?....Really are you serious???

Santa Monica was lovely, along with Malibu and riding up the Pacific Coast Highway was breathtaking.....

We saw one Large bush fire in the distance only to realize it was not far from the hotel...that was a little scary, but overall,....I would love to move out there and soak up the sun, sand and surf with the mountains in the background for the rest of my life, AAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Trip to California

I wanted to write so much, after our trip to California but did not have the time, then it was back to work, back to the same old stuff.

So here it is in a nutshell.

When I was younger, living with my Grandmother, she always told some weird stories about when she lived in California, so I never really thought I would like it. I did spend a short amount of time there waiting for a connection after coming back from Tahiti, so that experience never really counted.

Now California is a place, I may like to live, perhaps even retire! The weather of course was beautiful, warm or hot during the day and cool at night - almost reminded me of the Pocono's during the summer.

Everyone, and I mean everyone was ssoooo nice to us. From the family at Universal Hollywood to the Love Ride. We ran into a lot of "transplants" from the East Coast, and this nice young couple, the gentleman grew up in Wildwood Crest- imagine that! I vacationed in Wildwood Crest, every summer as a young kid.

We drove all the way to Carney's to see if, it was true about the Hot Dogs and Burgers, and yes, they are pretty darn good!

The only complaint was driving on those freeways! Even if we drove 80 miles per hour, we were being passed by, like we were not even moving, it was a pretty scary thought! It made driving on I-95 like a good thing.

We really needed to getaway, since we NEVER have anytime to ourselves, and the fact we never see each other, hence the fact we have been married so long. Make me wonder, where all our kids came from!?

The Tubes and Foo's put on a great concert, sort of didn't see much of the ZZ Top, but heard they were fantastic.

Well, that is it in a nutshell....Oh Yes, I'm working again tonight-imagine that not 12 hours, but 13 plus...I swear I have to plan it better...I think I have worked every Daylights savings time in the fall for the past 15 years! Go Figure.