My parents are coming to visit in a few weeks—a little under five, to be exact. Every time my mom calls, she tells me how excited she is and how she just can’t wait. They’ll be here for 10 days. The first four we’re planning to spend in Pennsylvania for a festival that my mom has wanted to go to for years. She grew up there and we haven’t been back in two years, since my grandmother passed away. We three are going to drive there. Together. In my Jeep. Eight hours one way. Yep.

My dad and I have been on a couple of road trips together, and it went remarkably well, so I’m not too concerned. It’s the actual being at my apartment—together, staying here 24/7—that freaks me out a little. I think Goose and I will get much cozier in October. 🙂

Anyway, in other news, the O.C. premiered tonight. It was good, but not what I expected. And they added a new character and I am not a fan at all. Reunion then debuted… it seems kinda interesting, but mainly TV shows like these two drive me nuts. Why, you ask? Because while suspense is fabulous and all, I’d really prefer to just hear the whole story. This is why I love books—and get irritated by series’ of books. I can sit and read an entire book in just a couple of hours, and I will. Every time. But if there is a series of books, I will hold off until the entire series is written and published, that way I can seamlessly flow from one to the next. (Or rather, I try to. But if it’s a good story—TV or book—I just can’t help myself.)

Yes, I have issues. What can I say? I like to know everything and I’m all about instant gratification.

Seriously. Read this.

Quote of the Day: “I’m quite adept at going from Zero to Bat-Shit Crazy very quickly.”

Thank Grampa for this lovely little treasure.

I was quite intoxicated and it wouldn’t have made a drop of sense. Ask anyone who received emails from me last night, or who I conversed with on IM.. it was bad.

Or, actually, good. 🙂 We went to dinner on the Boss’ AmEx. Yeah baby. Double vodkas, dirty martinis and a lovely cheese experience was only the beginning of what we put on that card. 🙂

I’m still kinda loopy this morning. The coworker hasn’t arrived yet.. lol.. and I am making her stop for chips and salsa. I have a massive salt craving going on right now.

Ooh! She is here! Yay. Bye now.

Hi. How y’all doin’? I just got home from work about an hour ago. Sigh. I was going to blog then, but I had a highly entertaining phone call that occupied my attention. 🙂

Hmmm… we drank at lunch today. That made us a little.. flirty. Yep. IM was not my friend today. There should a be a blocker button that doesn’t allow me to IM people after I’ve been drinking…. lol. Or email.

OH, much more importantly, new songs at iTunes. Yay! Ben Taylor has a new CD out.. love him to bits and pieces.

No game plan has, as of yet, been established re: the getting laid. But there is definitely one in the works. It needs a name, like Operation Fuzzy Slippers.. unless someone has something better..? One of you is far better at coming up with names… you know who you are. Come up with something fabulous, ‘k? 😉

Far too sleepy to write anymore.

Yes. Everyone. You and you and you too. I am hearing it from all the people I know lately. They all are feeling.. needy. One wants a tongue ring, one wants an Indonesian princess (kinda), one wants a bad boy, one wants one far away and one wants Clooney. (Yes, I am in that list too—deal.)

So we need a plan here people. It’s crunch time.

What are we gonna do?

I think my toaster is broken. Kaput. Finished. I put a piece of bread in there, along with an egg dish (it’s a toaster oven) and then I jumped in the shower. The egg dish had already cooked most of the way through, so I tossed some jalapenos and cheese on top and left it in the oven. (So the cheese would melt as the bread toasted.. come on, don’t get bogged down with the details, stay with me here.)

The toaster did not turn off! WTF! So as I am toweling off I think, hmm, something is.. burning? Yes, the bread/toast was now a smoking charcoal lump, and the smoke was billowing from the edges of the toaster. In my good sense (read: stupid), I opened the toaster to drag out the offending slice and lo and behold, the smoking got worse. Now I am frantically running about the apartment, opening windows and checking the ceiling fans, hoping to god that the fire alarm doesn’t go off.

It didn’t.

Now I am concerned. At which point will a fire alarm actually go off? The damn thing was maybe ten feet from the toaster and it just sat there, doing nothing. This all happened 20 minutes ago—there is still a thin haze in my apartment and the damn thing still hasn’t gone off.

Is it broken? Has it died? Is this normal? Anyone?!

There was drinking last night. I think I drank an entire bottle of the Goose. My version of a hangover involves waking up at dawn (hello 6 AM, haven’t seen you in awhile), and drinking a bottle of water.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist died last night. The world’s about to get more interesting as President B now has two vacancies to fill. Oy.

Bush also sent 7,000 more troops to New Orleans. 200 New Orleans police have walked off the job and two committed suicide. The Superdome has been evacuated, but the Convention Center hasn’t.

I love the news. One of the best ways to figure out what’s going on around the country, aside from reading every newspaper (or getting each RSS feed), is to check out Slate.com’s A Summary of What’s In the Daily Newspapers. They do one every day.

OK, that’s my soapbox for the morning. Going back to bed now… mainly because if I stayed awake, I’d try to remember what else I did last night. Huh. I recall teaching a friend of mine how to flirt with the waitress, but I think that backfired..? I dunno. I was flirting with the bartender. 🙂

Have you ever had a day that starts out wonderful, and then, in a sudden, sharp twist, drops into the gutter? That’s how I feel about today. I slept solid for 12 hours, then I went and got a pedicure with a good friend of mine. (My toes are red and very cute.) Now I’m at home, doing some laundry and finishing up some powerpoints for work. It’s gorgeous outside. The sun is shining and both of my cats are stretched out in patches of sunlight on the floor.

My mom just called.

She’s had optic nerve drusen for years. It’s a condition where the byproducts of the metabolism, like protein and salt deposits, of the optic nerve (in her eyes) builds up on the surface of the optic nerve. When she gave birth to my sister and I, the pressure exerted caused her to lose some of her peripheral vision in both eyes. It’s been worst in her left eye, however. Over the past several years, her left peripheral vision has deteriorated a smidge every year, but not enough to be a real problem. (You can’t sneak up on her left side, or she’ll deck you.)

Apparently she has been realizing this year that her vision is getting worse, so she went and got it checked yesterday—and she was right. Her vision has deteriorated significantly and she has to go see another specialist. At this point they are talking surgery, to stem the liquid that is seeping from her optic nerve which could potentially blind her—something that we hadn’t even expected.

Last summer my dad was diagnosed with anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. He woke up one morning and suddenly he had a small black spot on his vision. He went in immediately, because he thought he had a detached retina (also very bad). They ran several tests and then he went home. The next morning, the spot was bigger. After several MRIs and a battery of tests, they realized it was AION, a condition that cannot be reversed.

It was initially devastating to my dad. You see, he’s a surgeon, and the ability to see is imperative—being a doctor is one of his greatest loves.

It’s been a year and he has about a 20% vision loss in one eye. He can still operate, however, and has compensated remarkably well.

I guess I’m just stressed because my parents are young and healthy and this is just.. hard. I wasn’t there last year when all this happened to my dad, and I’m not there now. I hate being this far away from my family when this kind of shit happens.

I have gone over 24 hours without blogging. It sucked. There was so much I wanted to blog about today and everything.. 🙁 But nooo, I made the bright decision a few months back to block our main office’s ISP.. just in case somehow the Boss accidentally stumbled upon it. And of course, to make matters worse, something is still wrong with the FTP I use and so I couldn’t even unblock it for a few hours.

So sad. 🙁

No matter. I am back now, that is all that matters. And I have so much to share! The Boss was not crazy today. (Remember, he normally is.) Woohoo! He did not yell, he did not blame us for anything, AND he said we deserved a couch (we’ve been mentioning how helpful a couch would be in the office..)! So we get to buy a couch now—on the Boss. 🙂 🙂 🙂

::::Happy Dance, Happy Dance::::

And to really make our day… we ate at a restaurant of OUR choosing! Falalalalalalalala…. fabulous little Thai restaurant that made kickass curry and Thai iced coffee.

So, in conclusion, apparently the Boss got laid.

To his wife: I salute you. Thank you for taking one for the team. 😉

::::I had someone email and ask why I haven’t commented on the hurricane and the devastation. To be honest, I cannot even form words to express what I would want to say. It’s catastrophic and horrifying and thousands have died and New Orleans, a town I loved, is gone. There has been many, many writers who have expressed what I cannot. He is one. Slate also has great coverage, This article in particular. ::::::