The LONGEST week EVER: April 6-10, 2009

Seriously, could this week be any longer? Not only has it been long, it's been fairly COLD too. Long & Cold??? Nope, not a good combo!!

Im sitting here dumb founded cause im trying to decide if I really need to air my business to the world or if I should just go get a couple cases of COLDIES (beer) and get stupid drunk? I have to be careful about airing my business on here cause of the eyes that read it. (sorry, but my family doesnt need to know EVERYTHING that goes in my life).. so I guess coldies, a good friend and private business airing session is in order for tonight.

Here are a few issues that will be on the table for discussion:

1). Money

2). Dudes

3). Birth Control (and how much it sucks)

4). Work

5). What ever else my friend wants to talk about.

I can touch on these things:

1). I hate money cause I have none. With out getting in too deep because honestly, who isnt having money issues these days? Unless you won that Powerball Wed night.. then you can go screw yourself cause I was supposed to win that!! Anyway, Im working, but making crap for money and it's just not cutting it on the bill paying thing and im falling behind once again!

2). Where do I start with Dudes? Seriously, I know for sure that they came from freakin Mars. Im not good at this shit.. and im thinking about that golf course thing that CDM suggested in my last post (see comments section on "Caught in a Whirlwind). More on this later....

3). Enough said

4). So, i am working cause my lovely friend Delia got me a job temporarily, which has turned out to be a long term thing. Well, I have interviewed for a position with the city and im fairly certain that I have a good shot at this. Im excited about it cause its decent pay, GREAT benefits and the job its self would be gratifying.. and always room for advancement. However, it's NOT in the bag yet. With that being said, I like where im working, however, I hate the drive and I hate paying for parking everyday and if you dont understand this... see #1.

5). I already know my friend has stuff to talk about too so I cant wait for her to chug a few beers and loosen up! Then shes as good as an open book, baby!!! :)

Well, it's about time for me to get outta here. I have a 2pm appointment today and im hoping for good news on Monday to start my week out on a good note. Then I wont have to post negative shit on Fridays & complain about how my week sucked!

**On a side note: No, im not having a baby and no im not getting married! (this is to attract the attention of my aunt Katherine!!)

Happy Easter and peace!

Caught in a Whirlwind

Is March gone already?

A few good reasons March is behind us:

1. Officially spring is here, but mother nature keeps playing these tricks on us and brings us snow... WHERE IS MY WARM WEATHER? Enough is enough.

2. My grandmother passed away on March 18th.

My mother's mom.. my last grandparent.

3. Had to cancel the 60th birthday party for my mom cause of my grandmothers passing.

4. Just a bad month.. Adios March!

So, today is April 3rd and the high temperature here in lovely Minneapolis was something lame like 47. WTF? I want something above 60 degrees already. We deserve it. We got a shit load of snow this year.. winter came early and seems to just be hanging on. My winter clothes are ready for the box.. NOW. My flip flops are begging to be worn.. although they have had appearances in the past few weeks despite the cold. OH.. guess what? Were supposed to get a snow storm this weekend.. Mother-E-ffer!!

My grandmother (left), Margie, passed away on March 18th. She was 86 years old.. almost 87. Yes, she lived a good life. The quick story: about a week before she passed, she was at home & felt the need to dust her china hutch. Only God knows why cause she could hardly walk, let alone bend over and dust. She lost balance and fell backwards onto her coffee table and broke her rib on the left side. She ended up in the hospital. While in the hospital, she developed Pneumonia.. NOT GOOD when your 86 years old. Well, she never recovered. Had she pulled through all of this, her quality of life would have been ZERO. She would have went to a nursing home (ICK), been on 100% Oxygen for the remainder of her life and she would have been miserable. We didnt want that for her. She worked hard all her life, she was a great mother, grandmother, wife, sister and Friend. Just look at her! She was the sweetest lady I knew (well, my mom is pretty sweet too I must say). My mom and her brothers decided to take her off the O2 and let her die (a couple days before, she stated to my mom that she wished God would just take her). Im so grateful that I got to be at her bedside, rubbing her forehead and hair when she took her last breath of life! I felt very much at peace the whole day I was with her when she died.. I didnt feel sad. Before I went to the hospital, my boyfriend (OH.. did I say that??) told me that everything was going to be ok cause God will be there with me. And you know what? Im positive he was there with me. It was a little overwhelming to watch my grandma struggle with her breathing when they took her off the oxygen.. and then I lost it.. as did all my relatives in the room with her. My mom looked at her (they were best friends) and told her "Mom, it's ok.. go to sleep and go be with dad"... argh.. it brings tears to my eyes now thinking about it.

Her funeral was this past Tuesday. It went very well. She looked beautiful as always! It was very easy for me to know she is somewhere running, walking, dancing and so much more with my grandfather and her other friends. It was always hard for me to see her in so much pain.. all the time. Now I know she's FREE! xoxo to my grandmother! She is missed sooo much!

Since you cant plan things like dying, we had to cancel my mom's 60th birthday party that was all ready to rock n roll. I was really bummed out about it because I put some time and money into this whole thing and was really looking forward to it. Obviously my mom was in no shape to Party on down.. so we made phone calls and canceled it. It will NOT be resecheduled. :( Maybe next year for 61.

About the ONLY good thing to come out of March (and im not sure this is all that great either) is MARCH MADNESS baby!! Yes, im an avid Basketball fan.. LOVE IT! And because I love it so
much, I lost my mind and decided to bet a case of beer with my brother-in-law on our brackets. We put our brackets up against eachother. I did AWESOME the first round... and then it all went downhill from there. I chose Louisville to take it all.. and those fools failed me! And guess what? I cant recover my points now cause im down too far, so I now owe my brother in law a case of freakin beer. dammit! Oh well, im sure I will get to indulge with him!

Did I mention that I now have a sweetheart? That's right folks.. I snagged me a nice fella! He goes by Scott, Scooter, Honey, Baby, Sweetheart.. etc.. more on him later cause Im getting ready to go watch a movie at his crib! lol.. He is the ONLY good thing to come out of March with me. We have known eachother for 6 months now.. just taking things snail slow. And it's all good. I have nothing bad to say about him today!

I leave you with a picture of US! My heart is full of JOY!

Peace, Love & Happiness!!

This is For MOM..

It's not my mom's 60th birthday until March 22nd. But since ive been in party planning mode these past few days, I thought I would do her the favor of posting the pictures we used for the invites for her party. And since my mom has never seen my blog site NOR does she know how to turn on a computer, I think it's safe to assume that she will not see todays posting. And even if she did, she would probably laugh! She's a good sport!

Nice hair mom.. this picture was taken when she was probably in her late 20's. Holy make up.. holy hair doo and holy fugly yellow door we had in our living room. She's got the "white girl Fro" kickin.. lol... omg.. she would pay my sister and I $1 to brush her hair when she would rat it out like that. That was big money back in the 70's.

The next pic to the Right, was when she was in her mid 30's im guessing..Still a lot of make up I think.. but the hair doo calmed down alot! Thank god. Ironically, my mom was a hair stylist for about 25-26 years I believe. She owned a salon in NE Mpls where she made all the "blue hairs" or LOL's beautiful. (for those of you that dont know what these are.. blue hairs are the old bags that have that tint/hint of a purle color to their hair.. and the LOL's are Little Old Ladies.) She's been out of the hair business for a while now. She moved on to the other love of her life: Make up.

OK.. this pic to the Left is a few years old.. however, she looks pretty much the same. She now sells make up for Estee Lauder at the local mall. She's very good at it and everyone loves her.. but not more than her daughters! :) Yes, she's very beautiful and she holds her age very well! Both my parents look good for their age.. thank you God!! I hope this runs in the family.. well at least down my way.

And then we have probably the most current pic (R) of her which was taken about a year and a half ago. She looks the same as the pic to the Left.. except no glasses. I can onky hope that I look half this good when im her age.

So my mom will be the BIG 60. The party is taking place on March 21. We rented a hall for the event. And my dad, what a wonderful man he is... has offered to pay for the entire party. He and my mom have been divorced for about 17 years now.. and they are still good friends. He said that "Fritz" (my mom's nickname) deserves a nice party. So, a nice party it is.. and hopefully she gets a good turn out of good friends and family!

I love my mommy!! xoxoxo

Winter Sucks !

Im Baaaaaaack, but who knows for how long?lol.. hopefully for good. I have completely dropped the ball on this blogging thing and I regret it. When I dont blog for a while, I lose my train of thought and then too much is going on and it's hard to figure out where to pick up again. So, lucky you.. Ive had so much going on since ive last blogged theres plenty to blog about. But where do I start?

WORK:

I am currently working for a non-profit arts organization called COMPAS. My good friend Delia, who always comes through for me, quit her job there. They wanted someone to come in and fill the position until they could hire someone on a permanent basis. Delia suggested to her boss that since her favorite friend, Paula was currently unemployed, that I come and be the "fill-in" person for now. Well, I started working there on January 26 (ironically the day after my last blog posting) and im still there. They have suspended their search to fill this position until further notice! This is good news for me cause I have nothing else in the works. However, there are a few issues with this. The company that laid me off last December is only covering my medical insurance until the end of April. And I can not go with out medical insurance.. I can join COBRA, but that will cost me a lot of money. They also cover my perscriptions (not all of the cost) and I am on a few of those as well. I guess this means that I have to spend some quality time looking for a J-O-B.

A few likes: The people are very nice and friendly, the office is located in the beautiful Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul, the hours are flexible, the dress code is fairly casual, my friend Delia works close by so I get to see her all the time!!!

A few dislikes: The drive sucks, parking sucks (especially when there are events at the Excel Center cause the price of parking goes up.), I have to walk a ways from the parking ramp to get to the office cause all the cheap parking is NOT close (ok im exaggerating a bit here.. it's prob approx 3 -4 city blocks..lol)

So, overall, I can not complain. I feel very grateful to have this job right now in this economy. At least it's bringing in some extra money for me.. and who can complain about that?

PLAY:

My play time has been spent going up north a lot to my aunt and uncles house. They have a place on Damn Lake in Aitkin, MN. It takes approximately 1hr 40 mins to get there from Mpls, so not too bad. It's nice to have a get away from the big city once in a while.

I was there this past weekend for an "Ice Golf" Tournament on the lake. Yes, only in Aitkin is there Ice Golf. It's a lot of fun and NO, the fairways and greens are not groomed! The first time I played my aunt and I won the tourney.. however, there were probably only 6 teams (2 man teams). This past weekend, we didnt do so hot. It's all about the club youre using.. you only get one club so you must choose wisely!

It's always a good time going up north. I have met a lot of nice people.. fun party people.

WEATHER & SPORTS: Have I mentioned how much I hate winter yet? Winter totally blows! Yes, another winter storm today! Thankfully we didnt get as much here in the city as they did in northern MN. I would never live up there.. well maybe in the summer, but I would rather gouge my eyeballs out than live up there in the winter. Most of the snow has melted for the most part, but I will have to get out and take a picture of our front yard. We live on a cul-de-sac and they pile up all the snow from that area in our yard. There is still a huge mound of snow in our yard. This is the time of year we are FOR SURE getting snow. March starts the Minnesota State High School Tournaments for sports.. State wrestling tourney last week, girls hockey this week, boys hockey next week and we ALWAYS get snow storms when these tourneys starts.(Yes.. all at the Excel Center thank you, which once again drives up the cost of parking for me.. $12/day.. compared to $4 when no sports). After hockey, comes girls hoops and then boys hoops.. then I think that's it. If you dont know, MN is HUGE on the State High School Tournaments. Then my favorite time of year.... MARCH MADNESS!!! I cant wait. I know what I will be doing for the next few weekends.. watching college basketball! I love it!!!

My mom turns the BIG 60 in a couple weeks. My sister, dad and I are throwing her a big party! I found a hideous pic of her when she was quite young.. the hair.. OMG... thankfully for us that hair doo went out back in the 70's. I tried up post a pic of the invite pictures.. but no luck.. I will do it tomorrow from work! lol.. My parents still look damn good for their ages.. not that 60 & 61 are old!

Well, that's about it for now! There is definately more to come in the next days. I have updates on the dating scene, party scene.. hmmm.. what else? I will think of more. Im glad to be back!

Cheers!! xoxo

Knowing ME!

Today is "Get to know Paula Better Sunday". I think these are kind of stupid.. esp when the same friend keeps sending you them time and time again!! However, sometimes I harbor them in my email just in case I need something for my blog! So, thanks Liz for this one. Enjoy!

1.What is your occupation right now? Professional Job Seeker!

2. What is the color of your socks right now? Socks? I hate socks!!

3. What are you listening to right now? New music I downloaded from the Internet.. Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb!!

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Ice Cream last night at 1am.. I'm starving.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? YES! learned on a "3 on the tree".

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Scott

7. How old are you today? 37

8. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? College Basketball.. hands down

9. What is your favorite drink? Coffee, water, OJ or beer.. not necessarily in that order.

10. Have you ever dyed your hair? Ummm yeah!!!

11. Favorite food? Pizza, Ice Cream, Mexican

12. What is the last movie you watched? Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia

13 Favorite day of the year? Saturday

14. How do you vent anger? Blog? I don't know.. it's hard to say.

15. What was your favorite toy as a child? I have no idea.. is it important?

16. What is your favorite season? Spring time

17. Cherries or Blueberries? Neither.. I like the flavors.. not the fruit..

18. Living arrangements? Renting from a family friend

20. Whats on the floor of your closet? SHOES.. lots of them.

22. What are you most afraid of? I have no idea.. OH..not finding a job right now.

23. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Never heard of spicy burgers.. so Cheese.

24. Favorite day of the week? Saturday.. same as my fav day of the year!

25. How many states have you lived in? 3.. Minnesota, Colorado, Florida

So, there you have it! Don't you feel closer to me now? Some of these questions are sooooo stupid. I deleted some of them, hence the numbering being off and I'm not going back to redo them. Im having issues with the formatting!

I had some good stuff to blog about, however, it would have been completely inappropriate and hurtful to someone I care about. So, I came to my senses and decided it wouldn't be good for the friendship! I was angry with this person and thought the best way to deal with it was to exploit some of our texting conversation on my blog. He said some mean things to me and hurt my feelings.. so I wanted revenge! But that's just being mean and I'm not a mean person.

I am, however, a hungry person!

~Peace

Getting Organized and Starting Over

The story of my life it seems.. starting over and getting organized. UGH! Well, I FINALLY got my computer all hooked up and brought it to life with the internet. Im very excited to have a home computer.. my first I must admit. And Im completely addicted to it. Being addicted to my computer sucks because all I want to do is check my email, look for jobs and waste endless amounts of time on Facebook!

So, where do I start? The holidays were the same as every year. Im not a holiday person so I just do what I have to do and go where I have to go and hope it's painless! On Christmas eve, my dad and I meet at The Otter for beers after family festivities. We decided that it will be an annual event for us. This year, I invited my good friend, Mark to join us. So, I posted our Chirstmas Eve pic above.

Im officially unemployed now. Even though it's been nice having some time off work, Im soooo ready to join the workforce again! I feel like I have no purpose when I wake up in the morning. I was living such a routine life and now there is no routine.. hence the getting organized comment. The starting over part is because I have to start all over with a job. Good news is that I applied for a job, got an interview and now it appears to be a waiting game. It's a City job (City of Mpls) and would be a good job to land. They said that I should know something this week! Just waiting.......

Budget? What budget? Am I on a budget? Yup.. Paula has fallen back into the ranks of no budget and im very much regretting it. I really need to be ok with sitting on my ass in the house for a while now. Esp since im unemployed. Im starting to worry about money now and wondering when my severance check will arrive in my mailbox. My official last day of work was Jan 14. I was receiving a regular paycheck up until then. NOW.. where's my severance.. where's my vacation pay out? Im sick of waiting already.. and so is my checking account. Ive had to spend a little extra money lately for things Ive needed, not wanted.

I bought new glasses and contacts.. so im excited about that. It's been about 4 years since ive worn contacts. Im still trying to get used to not wearing glasses. Although, ive been too lazy to put the contact in lately. Glasses are so much easier! haha. Speaking of lazy.. it seems that the Lazy Disease has taken over me. I hate it and im trying to shake it. With no routine or purpose for getting out of bed these days, I spend my days being lazy! No good.

The dating update: Dating SUCKS! I dont think I will go into details here too much but I have my theories on this whole thing. Guys are looking for a roll in the hay.. not all of them, but most of them. If he's not looking for a roll in the hay, then he cant start a relationship with anyone cause he has all this drama sucking the life out of him.. but starts a relationship anyway, just to take you down with him and get a roll in the hay on the way down. Enough said.

Well, I have a lot of catching up to do, however I need to catch the writing bug again. When im not writing, i process everything in my head and then shove it aside and forget about it. In the mean time.. im looking for WORK! Ive decided on my new motto in the world of unemployment! This pic says it all!!

Peace!!

Havent Forgotten!

Happy 2009! No, I havent forgotten about my blog. I do apologize that ive been away for a while.. but you know.. I dont have a job anymore and I dont have regular access to a computer.. so for now I suck. BUT.. this is all about to change in the near future. It turns out that the company I worked for.. they are so generous, that once they clean off my PC at work, they are giving it to me! I can take it home and plug it in and start blogging again! I cant wait. I have lots to talk about and I have a lot of catching up to do with reading my fav blogs as well!
So, for now.. CHEERS! I will be here soon enough!
XOXO!