Random Thoughts

It’s been a bad week. My mood is just in the toilet.

I hate this. Todd is being extra lovely and helpful, for which I am very thankful, but I’d like to snap out of it and be happy, please.

An example of my mood?

I’d been meaning to clean the bathroom for three days because Nancy and Bob were visiting Wednesday evening. It had been a while and there was litter everywhere and the toilet was icky and how embarrassing for my in-laws to think that I can’t keep up on my housekeeping?

I never got it done. And I didn’t really care. I came home from work a smidge early on Tuesday and promptly fell asleep for two hours. Then couldn’t really muster the energy to do anything productive. Didn’t even do the dishes after dinner. Just stacked them nicely on the counter.

That’s a clear sign, isn’t it?

**********

I just noticed last night that our dental floss is made in Ireland. Huh. How much does it cost to import dental floss from Ireland? Seems kind like a waste of money. Don’t we make that here?

And it doesn’t even taste like whiskey or leprechauns.

**********

What gets me through a slow work day?

Blamimations by Kris Straub and Scott Kurtz.

You may remember the name Kris from my ECCC post - his table was blocked by another artist’s line, so I had to do some crowd control for him. He’s a sweetie.

I love Blamimations because I don’t have to watch it to laugh. The animation isn’t really the funniest part – it’s hearing Kris and Scott do all of the voices and just banter off each other. So, I just stick in my earbuds and plug away at work and laugh my ass off.

Too bad these only come out once a week.

**********

It’s a sad day for me. I just learned (two years after the fact) that David Lake, the Columbia Winery winemaker, passed away.

The David Lake Series is my absolute favorite line of the Columbia Winery wines. It was the wine I purchased on special occasions.

**********

And finally, on a happier note, you know how addicted I am to cute little puppehs and kittehs. They keep me going through the day.

But today, holy crap. I laughed at this one until I had tears rolling down my face.

Enjoy.



**********

Update!

I was in charge of dinner tonight, so I picked up some pork tenderloin, veggies, wild rice and a bottle of Waterbrook Meritage.

Rae-rae is feelin' much better now.

Suddenly, I Have a Strong Desire to be a Runner

Woke up at 4am this morning coughing and sneezing.  Yes, really.

So, I guess the running (i.e. exercising more than walking to and from the kitchen to refill my wine glass) actually wears me out enough to sleep. Or is there something else that’s happening that’s causing me to not cough at all? Odd, since running made my lungs scream for mercy.

Speaking of my lungs, my doctor refilled my inhaler prescription. Swedish Hospital has this beautiful new contraption – MyChart. You log on and can email your doctor, see your medications history, see your appointment history, look at your family’s records, all that good stuff. So I emailed my doctor yesterday and said:

My inhaler is almost out of juice, and I’m wondering if you could call in a refill?

I started running/walking fast and I find that the albuterol helps with the coughing and wheezing afterwards. I haven’t needed a new prescription for the last few years because I’ve been lazy (loaded word) and sedentary. Thank you.

I got an email back a few minutes later saying the prescription was refilled.  Right on.

I won't have a chance to run again with Raff until next Wednesday.  Yes, I could go without him, but I don't know if I'm that motivated just yet.  Let's just take it one day at a time.

And I Ran….I Ran So Far Away….

(don't know the song I've cleverly referenced?)

So, we have breaking news!
I ran last night. And nothing was even chasing me.

Raff is training for the Warrior Dash. I think he’s nuts but anyway.... After some drunken Facebook messaging last Friday night, he told me I should come running with him. And those four glasses of wine in me made that sound like a pretty good idea.

Oh, but then came Wednesday. Uh oh.  I got home, changed into my sweats and 6:30pm came. No Raff. I told Todd, “Maybe he forgot!!” Nope. At 6:35, Raff was at the door, breathing heavy and bouncing around.

“YA READY?!”

Sigh. I guess.

There were a few things on my side. One, Raff has only been training for two weeks. He’s not a regular runner. Two, he decided for this run he needed to wear two pound weights on each ankle. Which slowed him down. Thank gawd.

He kept insisting that we go at my pace, but Raff is 6’4” so three of my strides is just one of his. Inevitably, he was always ahead of me. And that was just fine. Then he couldn’t see me turning red and huffing and puffing.

For a first time runner, I think I did damn good. We ran two blocks, then walked a block. Then ran one more block (okay, half a block – it was a long block!) then walked. Then ran. Then walked. We both have asthma so as soon as one of us started whistling and wheezing, we’d slow down to a walk.

I was home 30 minutes later. I felt overheated and dizzy, but otherwise okay. I’d walked the last four blocks or so, so my heart rate was slowly coming down. I laid on the floor and stretched and breathed, then took a cool shower to get my body temperature down.

And then the coughing started. Oh, geez, the coughing. It was deep and wet and it made my chest hurt. And it kept up all evening. Along with the bouts of sneezing that had my eyes so watery I couldn’t see and that was so loud that the guys Todd was Skyping with passed along their sympathy.

But things calmed down for the most part around 10pm, so Todd and I went to bed. I laid out my cough drop and earplugs, had my glass of water, inhaler and tissues beside my bed, and my spare pillow already propped against the headboard and in place so I could just skootch up in the middle of the night if I started coughing and needed to sit up (this is my standard nightly routine. It’s very sad).

Todd and I did our nightly download and he made me laugh so hard I started coughing again. He said, “You know, it will take a while for your lungs to get used to running, but they’ll get better.”

I said, “Oh. I’m not doing this again. Silly man…..”

However.

Wonder of wonders, I did not wake up once at all last night. I never looked at the clock, I didn’t cough at all, I didn’t sneeze. My cough drop was unopened at 6am this morning when my alarm lit up.

Amazing!

And today I feel pretty damn good. I have a couple of sore places, but I was betting with Todd last night that I wouldn’t be able to walk today. Not so! I’m trying to move a lot today and will stretch really well tonight (maybe even take a soakie) and then we’ll see how I’m doing tomorrow.

Is this the start of a new Raechelle?

And did I mention that, with the exception of a bite of cake Saturday night, I have not had any pastries or desserts since…uh…March 1st, I think. I had some “power bars” at ECCC for lunch, and one of those was coated in chocolate, or probably, fake chocolate, but that’s about it. Look at me, sticking to a plan! Without even realizing it!! CB even invited me to join her for lunch at Azteca yesterday, and I passed. I walked down to my little café and had a salad. So, there.

Maybe I should start up Well Past Voluptuous again?

**********

Annoyance of the day: people who sing in the bathroom.
I realize there are good acoustics in there, but it’s just weird.

Very Late Weekend Update

Last weekend was busy. Period.

Up early on Saturday to help Amy move (Kayleigh joined me) then the stars aligned and Kayleigh had an overnight so Todd and I got to attend a party we were invited to earlier that day. Always fun. And lots of new people. And some…old people. Er. Old friends. ThorNton Creek’s ex-bassist was there was his wife. I hadn’t seen him in a few years and coincidentally, he had just requested my friendship on Facebook! Funny.

Up early on Sunday to make breakfast because Todd’s work partner, Brian, was coming over for an Airship Daedalus meeting (please notice the new banner on the right hand side of the page.  Because I am the best wife EVER).

This has become an every weekend thing. I like it. Brian comes over early on Sunday, Todd makes breakfast, I don’t even bother to ask Brian if he wants coffee, I just fix it for him (cream and sugar), we eat, then Todd and Brian work, while I clean the kitchen. Brian is usually gone by noon or 1pm so we have the rest of the day to be domestic.

However, on this particular Sunday, I was domestic at someone else’s house.

Stephanie referred me to a friend for a spring deep clean. So, I spent five hours dusting, de-cobwebbing, vacuuming and scrubbing a cute, little house. Very gratifying. And an extra $100 to boot!

That night, the money really wasn’t worth it as I could hardly walk. The old body ain’t what it used to be. Todd and I were supposed to go grocery shopping (HA!) but gawd bless my man – when I got home, he said “I’m thinking Chinese take out tonight.”

Right on, baby.

And the movie of the evening was Whip It, which is one of my absolute favorite movie now. It’s just a feel good, funny, sweet, rockin’ movie. Go Drew Barrymore.

**********

Side note - I saw a personalized license plate this morning.

SWT PEE

Um. I wonder if they meant sweet urine, or someone made a typo?

**********

Holy crap.
My 36th birthday is in three weeks. How the hell did THAT happen?!

Happy St. Paddy's Day and Other Stuff

Please enjoy this card I made on Some Ecards.

**********

You may (or may not) have noticed that the link to my blog changed. It’s now simply www.mynewlifeouthere.com

It’s like I have my own website. I’m so cool.
Now I just need to learn how to code.

**********

I saw a quote on building’s sign today on my drive to work.

Do not be pushed by your problems.  Be led by your dreams.

Very poetic, don’t you think? I’m going to try and keep that in mind.

**********

I haven't told you my most recent fantasy, have I?

The house next door to us, on a corner, is for sale.  It's big.  Really big.  Has a media room, a downstairs play area (or music room?), an en suite master bathroom, island in the kitchen, an office off the dining room and a one car garage.

I want this house.

I offered to switch with our neighbors, thinking they wanted to downsize, but I don't think she realized I was serious.  Now I'm dreaming about Todd's series selling and us gaining a large chunk of money very quickly and just offering the neighbors cash for their house.  Which they'll accept.  Yay!  I already have our furniture placed and have gone through our first party there.

What?  Just let me dream, okay?

**********

We watched Red tonight.   Awesome, awesome movie.  Just awesome.  Watch it.

It's awesome.

**********

I hate that I come home every evening and fall asleep for an hour.  What is up with that?  I need to get up more during the day.  Walk around the block.  Do jumping jacks in my cube.  Something to get off my tush.

Um.

Okay. That's all.  I think.

Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Blog...

Hi, boys and girls!

Now that the monster ECCC post is done, we can get back to the random things of Raechelle-land.

First, updated hair.

The pic just doesn't show how red it is.  Bummer.
But trust me - it's red.  And I love it.

Ron came over a few weeks ago when Theresa came up, and of course, Tom claimed Ron's lap.  Well, kinda.

Yo.  What up?

Ron didn't provide a solid lap, but that didn't stop Tom.  He was still pretty comfy.

Michael and Chris came over for dinner last weekend.  They hadn't been formally introduced to the new house.  So I made my world famous enchiladas and our guests brought the tequila for margaritas. But they also brought a housewarming present.

That Michael.  He knows me so well.  He knows that Jack and I had to break up recently, but he figured I'd be safe with Gentleman Jack.  Ha!  Gentleman Jack is the biggest whore of them all.

A side note; Michael also brought a cute little flask to the wedding.  When I first saw him, after the ceremony, he wiggled the flask at me and said something like, "Jack would like to say congrats."

Gawd bless him.

Anyway, what else has been going on?

Kayleigh has been sick since Sunday, Todd got sick on Monday, and I took a sick day today for care taking and appointments.  And I also conveniently squeezed in a Habitude trip, using my Christmas present from Ann.  Thank you, Ann!

I am rubbed, exfoliated, buffed and painted.

It's like putting the oxygen mask on yourself before helping other passengers.  One must take care of one's self, before helping others.  So I took care of myself.  And my nails, all 10 of them, are very pretty.  And red.  Ha!

Today was also my first facial.  When the woman put the magnifying light on me and looked at my face, she said, "Do you ever drink water?"  She said my poor skin is extremely dehydrated.  I told her I am well aware.  I ended up drinking lots of water today (hydrating my pampered skin) and I'm celebrating with two three glasses of wine tonight.  It all balances in my head.

What's coming up?

We're helping a friend move on Saturday.  I actually went over after work last week and helped her pack.  I blew through that kitchen!  She was very appreciative.  Like, happy hour appreciative.

So, she moves on Saturday.  We'd been invited to go salsa dancing on Sunday, but Todd has a work meeting, so we'll go next month.  I may just enjoy yet another Sunday with no plans.  Last weekend I was as worthless as a bump on a log.  Didn't get out of jammies all day Sunday.  I laid on the couch with Todd, and Kayleigh on the love seat, and watched movies all day.  How long has it been since I've had that kind of time?

I felt guilty all day.  Maybe I'll actually get dressed this weekend.

Side note; The Abyss is a freakin' awesome movie.  Todd's been suggesting it for a long time, and I kept resisting.  It was underwater, it was some action alien thing.  I just didn't care.  But I gave in, and holy geez, I'm glad I did.  Just beautiful.  And Ed Harris is a hunk.

Anywho.

Let me leave you with a picture of Elvis.  We'd just done laundry and Elvis was enjoying the warm socks.

I love that he has one fang sticking out.  Cutie pie.

Emerald City Comicon

So, I had this whole big long blog post written about ECCC, but upon re-reading, it bored even me.  But now I've got a few glasses of wine in me, so I think I can do better.
WITH BULLETS!

Up at 6:45am on Saturday, stop for a big ass latte and breakfast, on to the convention center!

Arrive at the Minion room, check in, get my bright green shirt and wait.

Quick tour (or power walk) around the event with a Black Shirt (staff member), quick burst of information and instruction, back to the Minion room and wait.

The head chick says "I need 10 Minions for Media!" and I pop up and run out the door to be included.

I am stationed at the front of Clair Kramer's autograph line.  Who, you ask?  Glory on Buffy.  She was wicked bad.

Awesome Steve, Clair's ECCC wrangler, is a sweetheart and gives me tips on line management.  Which I don't need because, at our busiest, we have five people in line.  As opposed to William Shatner and James Marsters, who are on either side of us and have to have lines that weave because there's so many people.

Clair is very nice and chats with me and Awesome Steve during the downtime.

Meanwhile, a bazillion people are milling around in costumes.  Some I know.  Some I don't.  I'm happy to be stationed away from the crowd.

I take an afternoon break while Clair is at lunch and doing photo ops, and go visit my hubby is who hanging out on Artist Alley.  While there, a good artist friend of his, Kris, comes over to say hi and mentions that the artists behind him has a line of people that is wrapping around Kris' table and it's blocking his business.  I ask him if he wants me to put my Minion shirt back on and take care of bidness.  He says, "If you're offering..."

I put on my Minion shirt and head to Kris' table.  He's right - there's a line of about 30 people wrapped around hit table, waiting to talk to another artist.  This will no do.

I break up the line and instruct the group to line up against the wall, across the aisle.  When there's room at the artist's table, I call a few more fans over to line up right at his table.

Kris is very appreciative.  The Staff head of the department pats me on the back.

The afternoon is winding down, the big sought after artist's line has finally dissipated, so I go back down to Media and find Clair and Awesome Steve.  There's no one in her line and they're chit chatting with someone.  I answer questions from attendees.

It's still fun to look at the famous people.

Suddenly, it's 7pm and it's time to check out for the day and freshen up for the concert.

Todd and I walk down to The Hard Rock Cafe and are dumbfounded by the line that winds around the block.  Uh.  For James Marsters?  Uh.  Maybe not.

But wait!  Trish is the fourth person in line at the front door!  We swoop in (which I still feel bad about) and are upstairs at the bar in 15 minutes.

And we are, again, dumbfounded to find that you cannot get food in the upstairs area of The Hard Rock Cafe.  We have lived on trail mix and power bars all day and just want some REAL FOOD.  Ain't happenin'.

James goes on.  Woohoo.  Trish and I belly up as close to the front as we can get.  He's cute.  But I'm tired and hungry, so I leave Trish to drool and rejoin my husband until James is done.

Actually, we don't even wait until James is done.  We've heard enough.  GIVE US FOOD.

We wait 30 minutes for a table, even though we see numerous tables that are empty.  I wait in line for the bathroom because there are only two unisex bathrooms.  And once I get in there, it is freakin' disgusting.  No urinals, only a toilet.  For a unisex bathroom.  What the hell?


We wait 20 minutes for our drinks and another 15 minutes for our food.  The waitstaff tries hard to be "cool" and "hip" but end up just being rude, immature and disrespectful.

The Hard Rock Cafe?  Not ever again, even if you paid me.

Finally, dinner is over and we return to the upstairs to see KrackleFest.  Which will begin after the two rappers.  Which is two rappers too long.

We say goodbye to Kyle and wish him a good performance, then go home and crash.

Sunday!  Up at 7am, stop for a big ass latte and breakfast, and on to the convention center!

I check in at the Minion Room, then immediately head to that hot shot artist's table from Saturday.  There will be no line problem this morning!

There is no line problem because the artist isn't due in until noon.  Great.  I head down to Media to assist Clair and Awesome Steve again.

But I am quickly reassigned to Jonathan Frakkes' line.  He was on Star Trek and he's freakin' hysterical.  He and Brent Spiner are having a ball.  Jonathan's line is pretty hefty.  I manage the back and make sure people weave.  It keeps me busy.

After a while, I am reassigned to Bruce Boxleitner's line.  And not for line management, but table management.  Which means I am between the first person in line and the table where Bruce is sitting.  I take pictures of guests with him and chat a bit.  Like asking what that round thing was that he was signing.  It is an identity disk from Tron Legacy.  I didn't see it.  Didn't really care for the first Tron.  I don't tell Bruce that.

When the line gets slow, Bruce, John (his ECCC wrangler) and I chat about the pictures that are laid out.  Fun stuff.

Finally, Bruce needs to leave for his plane, so we start packing up his photos and taking down the booth items.  Bruce is frantically looking for something to put his wad of money in and John and I are having no luck finding anything.  Bruce says he could put it on his carry on, but I remind him that the carry on will still need to go through the xray scanner and be out of his hands for a minute.  He pauses and says, "Right.  That won't work."

Then Bruce remembers a little teddy bear that one of his fans gave him.  "Where's that bag with the bear?" he asks John.  John gets the bag, and Bruce takes out the bear, looks at me and says, "Here."  The bear has black sparkly wings and little antennas with hearts on top.  A bumble bee bear.  I come home with Bruce Boxleitner's bumble bee bear.  It's a nice ECCC keepsake.

Bruce leaves, and I head back upstairs to check out Mr. Popular Artists' line.  Everything seems to be okay.

It's almost 5pm, so I take off my Minion shirt and hang out with Todd and the gang for the remaining time.  I still minion though; I help them clean up the area and pack up their stuff.  I turn in my badge as we head to the car and we wave goodbye to ECCC.

Update:
Todd visited with Brian this week, one of the owners of ECCC.  Brian said I went above and beyond what any girlfriend or wife would usually do for their geeky man.  And I had a fantastic time, to boot. So my wonderful husband got me a promotion - next year, Black Shirt.  Staff member!

BWHAHAHAHA.

Random Friday Babbling

I haven’t had chocolate in two days. I am making a conscious effort to not eat sweets. Too much wine, too many sweets, not enough exercise. So, sweets are dead to me. Long live wine.

**********

Speaking of being fat, it’s Frumpy Friday here in Raechelle-land. Ann gave me this big, gray sweater that, at first glance, appears to be a wool poncho with a cowl neck. It’s not flattering on me at all. But I’m wearing it at work today. Vanity be dammed. I am comfy.

I’m thinking though, with a pair of black leggings and my black stiletto heel boots and no tank top underneath, it could make for a sexy outfit.

**********

Maybe tomorrow night for the James Marsters show and our buddy, Kirby Krackle?

Wha..? You don’t know who James Marsters is? That’s Spike, from Buffy, silly! He is a guest at Emerald City Comicon this year, along with Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, Nicholas Brandon, THE William Shatner and a bunch of other people I don’t know all that well.

Oh, and did I mention I’m volunteering at the con? Me. Non-comic geek. Volunteering at a comicon.

Because my husband has a booth where he will be pimping his wares (as well as do all of his buds) and I thought, wouldn’t I be just the coolest wife if I volunteered to participate in something I have absolutely no clue about, just to be near my man all weekend?

That’s right. I WOULD be.

Also, I might meet famous people.

**********

And so I’ve dyed my hair the brightest red yet for the event. Can’t appear *too* normal this weekend.

Pictures soon.

**********

I think I’m going to leave the blog on Blogger. I migrated it over to WordPress, and while I LOVE the fact that I can have all of my blogs under one domain name, WordPress is only customizable if you know HTML. Which I do not. And don’t really have the time to learn right now.

If I can’t change the color of my font relatively easily, screw it. It’s too much work.

**********

Speaking of being technologically challenged, I signed up for a Twitter account. I don’t know how to Twitter, and don’t really want to Twitter. I just want to stalk….er….follow a few people I love.



....time lapse….


Twitter update:
I now follow five people on Twitter and have uploaded a profile picture. Still don’t know how to post a tweet. Or a twit?

It is a slippery slope, my friends.

**********

And now that I can see photos that Twits post, I wanna be at ECC!! I just talked to Todd. He’s there with his buddies and he’s seen Kyle and the famous people are signing stuff and I have to wait until tomorrow!!

It’s like a party I can’t attend yet. Crap!

Smells Like Change

Picture with me, dear reader, a big ol' vat of promise.  Promise and hope and prosperity and success.  Now picture a gigungus spoon of action.

This spoon has been stirring the pot o' promise for years.  It took big muscles.  And grunting.  But now, the promise is swirling on its own.  The momentum has taken hold and it really doesn't take much muscle to stir this promise anymore.  You just keep the spoon of action in there to keep it moving, not really to mix it.

It's very exciting.

I'm not really sure what happens when you completely remove the spoon.  I'm not sure if the promise goo will get to spinning so fast it will explode and make a mess in the kitchen. 

It's a mystery.

But I'm very intrigued.  Momentum is taking hold in many aspects of our lives and it's hard to hang on.  Kinda feels like the beginning of my relationship with Todd.  Clouds are parting (metaphorically of course - we still live in Seattle) and the sun is starting to just beam.

In addition to all of this momentum, I'm also transferring the blog to WordPress.  Also very exciting.  I still have some work to do, but I just wanted to warn you.  Hopefully, I can combine all of the blogs into one to make it a little more.....efficient.  Cause you know me.  I'm all about efficiency.

I will keep you posted.