Sushi!!

Do you have people in your life that you love to death but annoy the ever loving piss out of you at times. This would be in regards to the parental units. Love mom to death but if you tell the story any slower I am going to tell it for you. My god just spit it out!! And enough with the melodramatic story telling. Enough!

In other news I had my first sushi restaurant yesterday. What fun and So delicious!! Adam met me after work and took me to this place in Hackettstown, NJ. A decent drive away but totally worth it. I would recommend this establishment to a friend but please keep in mind that it's going to be $$$. I think there were 5 different kinds of sushi and it was unexpected to be full off of eating nothing but sushi. Now, the sushi was the most spectacular part of the meal however the chop sticks were the most fun! Before your meal, just like at a traditional American restaurant you get to choose soup or salad to eat. Of course I would choose salad with the most slippery salad dressing known to man kind. Tomatoes were slipping, lettuce was flying and I was being laughed at. After several minutes and finger pinching and adjusting later sweet success!! After dinner I was give a 9/10. Next time I'm going for the fully montey!! 10 for 10! Take a look!

In other news, tomorrow is the last day of work and then I have a 4 day weekend. I was contemplating working on Friday but I was just told by Marcus that he has off until Tuesday so I will pass on the working. :-) By the way Tiff comes home today!! Stay tuned for a Thanksgiving and friend updates.

Movie premiers and trainings

So last night I went to the premier of Breaking Dawn with one of my friends, Olga, and was pleasantly surprised upon meeting her to find that she had brought Natasha along!! Some of you may not know of Natasha as I don't have any memory of mentioning her in previous blog posts but she is Tiffany's niece. It was so great to see her as I haven't seen her since August right before tiff went away to school. Anyway, when I met up with these two lovey ladies I also had the pleasure of meeting one of Natasha's friends as well as another friend of Olga's. Pre-movie we all gathered around a friendly pile of cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets with an unexpected large variety of sauces. Once devoured and fingers, lips and sauce packets were licked clean we cleaned up and headed to sit in line at the theater. 

Once at the Theater there was a complication where Natasha's friend did not have a ticket for the same show time as the rest of us so with some adjusting and compromising Natasha changed her ticket and then was able to go with Brittany (her friend) to a 6 minute later showing of the premier. Thank goodness!!! :-) We were all pleasantly surprised to find that upon arriving to the line we were the second group of people. This was really awesome especially considering that the first group only had about 5 or 6 people in it. 2 1/2 hours, several bathroom breaks and bad joke sharing later we were heading into the theater and seated with anticipation building!!  

The movie was fantastic!! We all cried when Bella and Edward go married, squealed like little girls when Jacob took his shirt off and cried when we all thought Bella was going to die even though we knew she wasn't going to having that all of us read the books to the point that they are everything but memorized word for word. Anyway, the movie was REALLY great and by far the best one that was made to date. I CAN'T WAIT FOR PART 2 TO COME OUT AND TO SEE IT!!! I will admit that there was this bitch sitting next to me that was talking throughout the WHOLE movie without even trying to whisper that annoyed the shit out of me!! But alas even she could not completely ruin my movie going experience :-)

After the movie all of us hugged and parted ways with the promise that we would see each other and get together again soon. This holds especially true because.......TIFF IS COMING HOME TUESDAY AND IS STAYING UNTIL SUNDAY!!!! I officially cannot wait for next week :-)!! :-)!!:-)!!

Now today, I'm at yet another annoying training that is robbing me for gas money that I could otherwise be using for Christmas shopping for my nephews. Pain in the ass. I am so sick and tired of learning about confidentiality and about the PCPC. I get it already!!! Stop making me drive to Philly, Allentown, and Allenwood to learn this shit. Now, with that rant aside let me tell you about today's training.

I left my house ridiculously early. Got to my training still ridiculously early and started the training of the most boring topics ever. I don't want to learn about Pennsylvania's drug and alcohol confidentiality law 255.5. And With that said I also don't want to learn about 42 CRF either!! Unfortunately though I do not make the rules or the lesson plans around here. Thank goodness we only had one 5 minute break and the girl who was sitting next to me was clicking her pen at a consistent lightening fast rate while also chewing her gum like a cow. This proved to be nothing more than helpful at making the day move at a snails pace. Ugh!! There were certain points that I just couldn't take it anymore so I did it, I used the international gesture of 'you're being to fucking loud and therefore annoying so knock it the fuck off'. That right, I did the loud 'EH HEM!!!'. I will not apologize, she did not leave me any other choices so therefore I had to pull out the heavy artillery. Anyway, it did at least get her to stop for at least 5 minutes where I was able to recollect my sanity and thus allowed me to gain control to not pick up the chair separating the two of us and smashing her in the head with it while then following that action with picking up her pen and throwing it across the room. HAHA SATISFACTION!!

Well it looks to be about that time. Yup, this will be the end, for now. It is almost one and therefore almost time for training to resume. I will update later about going to my first sushi restaurant which will be on Saturday and of course I will have to do a post on Tiffs visit and the impending Turkey day. Ah...Turkey Day..that means there is going to be plenty of family drama to blog about.especially considering that we run out of that like we run out of fruit cake. And we know that won't happen because my family is made up of lots of fruit cakes including myself!! 

On that note peace out bloggers!! 

Love, 
Fruitcake!!

Changes

I can't believe that, yet again, it has been an inexcusable length of time since my last blog post. I really must get back on the wagon of consistent blog posting. A lot has happened and a lot of changes have occurred since September. Let's start at the beginning.

About 2 pages after the post that is previous to this one I received a phone call from NHS (Northwestern Human Services). Completely out of the blue since I had interviewed with them about a month and a half prior to recieving this phone call. With that said I was fully expecting the ever familiar 'sorry but the position has been filled' crap that comes with the territory of looking for a job. Well, I was quite wrong and pleasantly surprised. It was a job offer to be a Drug and Alcohol Case Manager. Are you kidding me?! Thank you so much!! I won't let you down!! This is so wonderful!! Thank you again and see you soon!! That is exactly what was said during that particular Friday afternoon. Quickly after hanging up the phone reality set in, holy shit...I have a job??.....in the Pocono's?? Mur is going to be pissed.....Thankfully Mur was much more supportive than I thought or even anticipated. And here I am, 6 days short of working there for 2 months and I love it!! My days are filled with trainings, paperwork, and lots and lots of people. I can honestly say that I never expected to like working with people who are suffering from addiction so much. Right now, life is good.

I have also had my birthday since my last post. I'm officially 1/4 century and I have never been more aware of life, friends, career or the boyfriend. It's weird and I'm not really sure what to think. Weird. But anyway, I went to Chicago to visit Brad and Tiff and it was amazing!! A lot of catching up, eating, drinking, and going out. Such a great time with some new great memories! <3

Lauryn and I also threw Jennelle her Baby Shower. Lauryn did the majority of the planning and took the lead in making sure that everything went off without a hitch. She did a great job and Jennelle seemed to have a good time. Now the next big event will be when Conar William finally comes out to greet us and the rest of the world.

In other news, Marcus is still in the process of applying for the Airforce. His interview is tentatively schedule for March but even so he won't know if he gets in or not until May. So, in the mean time he is looking for a job that is in the Pocono's so we can end this living 3 hours apart arrangement. If you know of anyone that is looking to hire an engineer let me know!!

Other than that I think you're now updated on everything. I'm gonna try to update more often during the week and perhaps write an entire post on the different office personalities that I work with. They are an....interesting....group of people. Working with a group of therapists is an experience that is for sure.

I hear some piggies popcorning!!

Over the past couple days I have thought on several occasions about updating this blog. And on different instances I sat and opened the browser to my blogger page only to have my brain become a blank slate. What did I want to write about again? What photo's did I want to share? I have no idea. Perhaps I should eat food that enhances memory or maybe look up games and exercises to sharpen my brain. Nah, I don't think so, never mind. I'd rather brew myself a cup of joe or cinnamon tea while satisfying my case of the munchies with the bag of South Park special edition Cheesy Poofs I have hidden in the bottom cupboard in the kitchen. Which on a separate note, did you know the phrase 'cup of joe' came from the secretary of the Navy who served under Woodrow Wilson after banning wine mess'? Yeah, just looked that up and you should too because it's interesting.

As some of you know and some of you may not, Mur bought me my birthday present the other day. A plane ticket to Chicago to visit Tiffer and Brad!! I'm so excited and can't wait!! So I anticipate, since it's my birthday weekend, and we're in Chicago and we haven't seen each other in varying amounts of time there will be copious amounts of drinking, shenanigans and lots of food!! Did I mention that I cannot wait??

Woah, throwback!!!

Next week is the family reunion. It is what mom-mom is referring to as 'the big one'. So far I know one family member is planning on working a double, the other probably isn't going to show up because she's preggers (well unless she decided to in which case it should be cautioned that she's only going because of a hidden self serving agenda), another is in France, yet another will probably go to a friends instead (highly advised), and finally the last couple of the family just won't go. After all the last family reunion that was even conceived as mandatory to go to we conveniently ended up going away for the week to North Carolina. So it looks like just me and Mur are going...but only if Mur gets off of work. If not, well then I'm going to come down with a case of the 'stomach flu'. Oh my!

Planning baby showers is such a drag especially when I'm not home. Sorry I don't talk to you that often, have no idea what the hell has been going on or that I talk to the knocked up chick because I asked for my Christmas present. How dare I?!!?! People not returning phone calls is a real problem. For both family and prospective employers. This leads me to my next point.

Diaper cake I made Lauryn

 I cannot count how many phone calls I make to people to ask if they're hiring, to check the status of applications and to set up interviews. Each time I only ever get a receptionist, secretary, voicemail. Return my fucking phone calls!! Losing sleep over worrying about shit like this is REALLY starting to get old.

Oh!! I almost forgot to tell you guys!! We got Guineas!!!! Two little girls that are about a month old. One that is white and black that we named Marshmallow and  the second is sandy colored that is named Cinn-a-Bun. They are both very sweet and love chasing each other around while then taking a break to eat cut up apple. Don't try and ignore them though because upon hearing you enter the apartment or wake up and come into the living room they immediately start talking to you and jumping around. So sweet, gotta love the piggies. <3

That's about all I have to update with you now. Sorry if parts sound harsh it's a side effect of sitting home alone for 21 out of the 24 hours there are in a day. So, pardon me again.

Hello!! Is anybody out there?? Can you hear me?? Is there anybody home??

Sorry to quote Pink Floyd but I just wanted to know.

Dear Family and Friends,

Does anybody read this thing anymore?!??

Love,
K

All Dressed Up and No Place To Go

Some new stories and pictures? Funny thing you should ask that because that's exactly what I have. James visiting, Tiff's going away party, Musik Fest, NYC and getting dressed up to go to Pittsburgh for lunch. Why don't you have a seat and perhaps get a drink because this is going to be a long one. Let's start with the ever interesting events of yesterday.

Pittsburgh.
So yesterday Marcus, Steve (Mur's dad) and I went on the 5 hour long journey to Steelers country, but not to watch a game of tossing the pigskin. Why then, you might ask? Well for that you will need some vital background information. Here's the scoop. Marcus's dad has, to my understanding, a butt load of siblings and in the past 6 months or so they have been dying off one by one. I know, very sad. Well, once again death has waved his black finger and so we end up in Pittsburgh. This time it's because Marcus's aunt has passed away..in prison. Yup, you read that right. Apparently about 25 years ago this woman killed her husband, her reasons are her own, but anyway until 3 years ago she thought she was Scott free. This of course did not hold true after the body of her husband and/or evidence against her rose its ugly head thus proving her guilt and landing her in jail. And there she staid for the past 3 years up until recently when she got sick and passed away.

Cabaret- The front

Now you know what us brought us to Pittsburgh, lets not waste anymore time and get to the good part. To start the journey to the city of black and gold we woke up at 4:30 IN THE MORNING, showered, dressed and left to pick up Steve at 5:30. At 6 we hit the road to begin the less than anticipated 5 hour trip. After long last we arrived around 11 to the funeral home where there was...no one. After a quick call we found out that the memorial service was not until 2 so we mutually decided to get some lunch. Italian, always a good choice except when the noodles are over cooked and mushy. The Bruschetta was good though!! Once done Steve and Marcus decided that it would be a good idea to find out where the memorial service was before it started so we wouldn't be late. Down the street and around a couple corners and there it was? Wait a second...where are we? Is this it? We better go around back and make sure.



 Please read the sign and allow me elaborate. You are not reading incorrectly. This, my friends, is a bar. Bar 'Cabaret' specifically. Yup, the memorial service is being held at a bar. But wait, it gets better.

Bar AND Dance Club.

Standing behind the bar and waiting for some sort of life, anybody, to ask for information proved to be...interesting. While waiting outside we found a door that lead down to the basement where only the most questionable looking of people came out. Of course the lack of intelligent life coming out lead Steve to descend the stairs in pursuit of someone. He made it half way down before deciding that waiting at the top of the stairs with us was probably a safer idea than going down. About 15 minutes and 30 people later, out came two people that looked a little more promising than the rest. While they were locking up the door we asked  about the pending memorial service. This proved to be most informative. For one thing we found out that all the people coming out of the basement of this bar were there for the AA/NA meeting that just let out. We were also informed that the aunt who's memorial service we were suppose to be attending is an ex member of this particular AA/NA group. Upon finding out that we knew this woman, and therefore deemed not threatening, we were invited to come and join this particular groups meetings anytime we were in town. But what about the memorial service? Well that's on the 20th isn't it? Today is the 13th. Oh no, we're a week early. Yup, we woke up at the crack-ass of dawn, got dressed up, drove 5 hours, and had lunch only to find out that we were a week early. After hearing this we got back into the car and started the drive home. I'll guess we'll try again next week??

Since Bobby Jo didn't come along on this little road trip I didn't have anyone to keep me company or to talk to really. I of course brought my 600 GRE vocabulary words, Zen and The Art of Motorcycle maintenance and The Black Ninja (my iPod) to keep me company but that wasn't enough. After  handed a baggie of gummie bears and already armed with my phone and an IKEA magazine I was occupied for at least an hour.

Mur and Gummies

Gummie Pyramid

First they Fell in Love

How Gummy babies are made

Gummie babies!!

 And then I bit off their heads. Yum...I mean...aw :-(

Home is the place we love best and grumble the most. -Billy Sunday

After 2 long weeks in New York I am home. Home to enjoy family, say good-bye to a good friend (just for a little while), and to enjoy things that don't exist in Elmira. Peepers, silence and family mostly. While home I of course went to visit Lauryn and Mr. Brody spending the majority of the afternoon playing and chatting. B-Lee now has a swing on the newly cleaned off porch where he likes to sit, giggle and throw a number of things you give him. These 'things' include, but are not limited to, pirate swords and blankets. What a monkey. Between UFO's and pushes on the swing I introduced Brody to 'twisting' the swing. This encompassed me turning him around in the swing multiple times until the swing ropes were everything except a knot and then releasing. Once released and Brody was turning in a near constant 360 degree circular motion shreaks of joy and giggles rang out. So began a marathon of 'twist' swinging.

Later on in the evening after Brody went to bed a stranger graced us with her presence. Who? Well Samara Sage of course!! How wonderful it was to see her, even if it was just for a little bit. Such a rarity to see that girl now that she's all grown up and at NYU. What a wonderful and beautiful young woman she has become, I can hardly believe it. During her stay we all gathered on the porch to catch up and exchange current events in our individual lives as well as with what all is going on in the family. A lot has happened so far in 2011 and much more is expected. May it run as smoothly as possible.

So of course, since I was visiting Lauryn, a comment was made about the blog. Where, or more like when, are you going to put up a new blog she inquired in a motherly nagging way? I tried my best to explain that there isn't a lot going on and therefore I lack material to write about. Well, unless you want to hear about an endless sink full of dishes, what I'm making for dinner and mounds of laundry that needs to be folded. Ick, writing about it is even boring. Nope, not doing that. With that said I did tell her that I had started several entries but decided they were shit so I just didn't post them. I saved them to my blog, of course, because I use this as a sort of journal and record of my life but just didn't put them up. Her reaction was something to the effect of, who really cares, put it up anyway. Okay, you win and here it is. This current entry was written above a previous one that, again, I think is complete shit. But Lauryn wanted it so if you don't like it blame her.

Saturday is Tiffany's final going away party. I'm prepared with lots of goodies for her apartment and her tummy. Marcus is working until Monday so again he will be missing it. I was told today that Chris is coming up and that our other friend Sam is working out a way to be present. It should be a good day. Must make sure that I am armed with plenty of tissues.

On that note I leave you with this: Tut tut it looks like rain. Much needed rain.

Originally titled: 'Just remember..'
7/7/11

 This week I discovered StumbleUpon.com and while browsing I found a couple unexpected tid-bits of wisdom and somethings that are just awesome to see..Enjoy!

"Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away."-Hitch (I understand the cliche)

Sky Lanterns. Amazing.

This song makes me cry. The only other one besides 'Hey Dad' by Good Charlotte. I can't explain why. Don't just read it, think outside the box and find a way to listen to it.

Warning Sign
Cold Play
 A warning sign,
I missed the good part then I realized,
I started looking and the bubble burst.
I started looking for excuses.

Come on in,
I've gotta tell you what a state I'm in,
I've gotta tell you in my loudest tones,
That I started looking for a warning sign.

When the truth is,
I miss you.
Yeah the truth is,
That I miss you so.

A warning sign,
You came back to haunt me and I realized
you were an island and I passed you by,
You were an island to discover.

Come on in,
I've gotta tell you what state I'm in,
I've gotta tell you in my loudest tones,
That I started looking for a warning sign.

When the truth is,
I miss you.
Yeah the truth is,
That I miss you so.

And I'm tired,
I should not have let you go.

So I crawl back into your open arms.
Yes, I crawl back into your open arms.
And I crawl back into your open arms.
Yes, I crawl back into your open arms...

I want to find this tree and sit in it while reading a good book.

To have sex or not to have sex. That is the question!

An interesting read and furthermore gives me motivation to apply to grad school. Part of the reason I want to become a sex therapist is so I can read and write articles like this one.

Is casual sex worth it?
(The name of the article and a warranted question)
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/28/is-casual-sex-worth-it/?&hpt=hp_c2

Well, you tell me.

And yes, I know I'm extremely liberal.

Lets Play Catch Up

Chell-o!! Long time and no blog post. For this I am sorry. Enough apologizes though, let me catch you up on my current events.

Lauryn and Jeff's new house

A few things that you should know. Amy Winehouse died this past week. Today is Jennelle's birthday. A level of homeostasis between the aunt and uncle was achieved this past month (I guess miracles really do happen). Homeostasis will return to chaos in the family, once again, around Christmas when Jennelle is expected to be due. Elmira continues to be uneventful. Tiffany is leaving for Chi-town in the next couple of weeks for grad school. The government is grid locked on as to whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. Sonya is at camp. Samara is leaving in about one month to go study abroad in Paris for a semester and then maybe Berlin. Lauryn, Jeff and Brody have inherited the aunt and uncles house through a series of unfortunate events that, in the end, worked out where everyone was happy. Lauryn and I are planning a baby shower for Jennelle to be held in October. Mom-mom and Pop-pop are officially in full time fair mode. This, by default, means that so is Al. As you can see, life is as usual.

Now let's get into some more interesting things.

Pie

Okay-dokie, so as everyone knows Marcus is working on joining the Airforce through talking to a recruiter, requesting letters of recommendations and using my antique chest, that I use as a coffee table, as an accessory to his sit-up work out regime. When asked what he thought he was doing the only response I got was a smile and a what? It works perfectly to hold my feet down!! Alright...but just don't break off the trim that goes around the bottom. Besides using the furniture to obtain peak physical fitness he recently took the officer entrance exam to determine what specific positions he would be eligible to apply to within the U.S.A.F. Of course the proper preparations were taken before he was administered the test and to my relief none of them involved the furniture. A trip to Borders later and a small emergency at Marcus's job that involved a co-worker setting his leg on fire we were on our way home, but only for a night. While Mur was off in the armpit of the United States taking his exam I was left home to sleep in unbearable heat and then to visit Lauryn and Brody while whipping up some fried green tomatoes. All I can say is YUM!! Lauryn has officially popped my frying 'cherry'. The days was cut short, however, as Marcus arrived home in the early afternoon at which time we had to leave immediately due to an impromptu dinner that was scheduled that same night. Annoyed and disappointed, I packed our things drove home and then sat in front of the TV until about 11 when he got home. To his credit, he did bring me home lemon meringue pie. The results of his exam did come in and he did really good. All 97's and 98's, except in the verbal section where he obtained his lowest score of an 88. We're not really sure what the numbers mean, but what we have figured out so far is that they are percentiles. If this holds true, after talking to the recruiter, then that is pretty awesome and he did amazing.

Complementary wine glass

In other news, Mom and Al came up for the wine fest which was fun and interesting. Lots of good wine, pictures and some really fucking rude people. I love wine and by the number of people that were there so do others. With that said, there is no reason to get mean and pissy while drinking it. Are you kidding me?! You're at a festival with 90 different venders serving over 800 different varieties of wine!! You should be happy!! I know I was. But, alas, not everyone was which prompted this little girl, and I mean 4ft nothing to cut off my over 6ft step-father and start yelling at him. LOL!!! Are you kidding me?? I told him to just push her over with his pinky and keep on walking. That's all it would take anyway, and it's not like I told him to slap her. He just laughed and walked away. Anyway, with my complementary wine glass in one hand and my camera in the other Marcus and I met up with his best friend Eric and a girl they both went to high school with. Her name? I don't remember, but that's not important. From 11 to about 4:30 we walked around braving the heat with the help of a 'walking bottle' and random bottles of water. Since the festival ended around 5 we decided that 4:30 was a good enough time as any to leave before the major rush to leave was well under way. Thankfully, we missed the rush by a long shot and came upon a standstill. Why you might ask? Well because of the courteous sobriety checkpoint of course! Conveniently ran and monitored by the trusty New York State Police Department. Seeing this and taking no chances Marcus and mom played a quick round of Chinese fire drill. Once completed and successfully making it through the check point we were on our way back home.

Other than that, let me narrate some past current events with some pictures.

Marcus and I went to Seaside, NJ.

Her shorts say, 'Yes, I know I have a nice ass'. Marcus thought it was an appropriate picture for me to take. I couldn't imagine why.

Beaver Stadium. Let's go P-S-U!!

Look what Cata added AFTER we graduate?!?! Go figure.

Whipping up some trifle.

This picture has a fun story. So it's the third consecutive day of temperatures that breech 100 degrees and what happens?? All the power in the middle section of our apartment goes out. And guess where the air conditioner is located? Yup, in the section that has no power. Upon this outage Marcus quickly texts and calls our landlord to no avail until, finally, it comes down to he and I unscrewing, disassembling and kicking in the basement door (because it's locked) to get to the circuit breaker. All because our awesome landlord refused to come down to Elmira from Ithaca to unlock the door. Well, while waiting for her response as to whether or not she was going to come down and fix our small electrical problem we roasted while feasting on curry with my small little box fan as the only sense of relief. Good story, huh?

Like I said before, Sonya is at camp so Marcus and I put together a little care package for her. Filled with all things necessary that one needs to have at camp, her 'survival kit' included things like: strechy robots, glow sticks, over sized sunglasses, grow your own pirate and of course mouth wash. Hey, you can't lose your head at camp. Always remember to practice good oral hygiene! For your very own care package all you have to do is go away for an extended period of time, give me your address and wait 2-4 business days. Requests can be made as to what you would like to be included.

And on that bomb shell, good night.

Short and Sweet

The weekend in a minute:
- Sat with my feet in the water at my favorite hiding spot for an hour and half.
- Quit my job.
- Cried on my mom.
- Cried on mom-mom.
- Wine with the Aunt and Jeff.
- Fire with Mom, Al and Marcus.
- Cleaning, Organizing, Moving.
- Grocery store, liquor store, margarita's.
- Chruch.
- BBQ with my favorite Puerto Rican family.
- More wine, chocolate pie, whipped cream and Apples to Apples with the family.
- Saying farewell to the Fam, until next time.
- Coming home.
- Dinner.

Things to come:
- Tiff's going away party.
- Watkins Glen Wine Festival.
- Penn State's Arts Fest.
- Finding a new job.

I strive to achieve the state of Nirvana but until I get there I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this car!!

Jaguar XJ