smiling on foot

We ended March with another (smaller) dose of water in the basement, but April is here and the sun is shining and I am really, really hoping that this is the end of the crazy rains. With the start of the new month, I’ve made some resolutions for myself. I used to have a roommate who used to perform various “experiments” to spice up her life. Some were more life-changing than others. I would say most were actual acts of self-improvement. One of my favorites was when she decided to french braid her hair everyday for a month. When I asked why she just coyly smiled and said, “It’s an experiment.” I’m not sure what sort of self-improvement this promoted… maybe it was just to commit to something as a form of discipline. To commit to something for an entire month is definitely HARD, but I’m going to try a couple of things for April:

1) No Diet Mountain Dew. It has been well-documented for some time how severely addicted I am to the dew. I don’t drink coffee so I start every morning with a dt. mt. dew to perk up my senses and keep me from getting a headache. To switch from regular to diet 5 years ago was a large undertaking, but now it needs to be taken to the next level. I have been drinking the dew everyday for years. I often joke that it’s like what Windex is to the Greeks and can cure all my ailments. However, I’ve recently been experiencing a burning in my stomach and acid in my throat. I don’t want to see a doctor about this, but I’m theorizing that the dew (along with boatloads of stress) is deteriorating my stomach lining. I resolved to stop drinking the dew on March 23rd, but caved on March 27th for just one can. I then bought a large package of lemon-lime gatorade and have been drinking those in place of the dew ever since. My head hurt for many of these last days in March, but I forged through. I’m surprised that I’m actually not that tired without it. Those electrolytes must really give you energy! So maybe I’m just replacing one addition with another and this can’t be seen as true improvement, but at least I don’t have that much acid reflux anymore. Bonus for me!

2) Get to work at 9:00 a.m. I’ve gradually been getting more and more riduculous with my arrival times at work. It’s been getting to the point that I’m sitting at home happily watching Ellen and eating my cereal at 9:05 and not getting to work until about 9:30. No one at work seems to care, but this is an act of a lazy girl. Even if no one at work finds it important for me to be at my desk in the morning, I have to pretend that it is just to make myself a more effective worker. And if I can truly make myself believe that I am important, then gosh golly won’t I be the happiest tiger in the jungle.

3) Twice a week gym visits. I went to the gym this past Tuesday, March 30th. This is the first time I’ve walked into the gym since the morning of March 1st when the hot water heater broke at home so I grumpily arrived at the BSC to just shower and leave. Actual exercise? Ummm… I think I might’ve gone once in February and maybe once in January. But those are mighty big “might haves” because I make it a practice to block out unpleasurable experiences so my recollection is foggy. But bathing suit season is right around the corner and I know that if I go twice a week, cut down on the soda and desk drawer of sweets (currently home to a full bag of yummy jelly beans)… I can lose maybe 6-8 lbs. Some may not feel this is a lot, but this 6-8 lbs is the difference of pants digging into my belly to pants fitting “okay” and right now we are in the digging into my belly stage.

(Which now that I’ve written this out makes me wonder if that physical stabbing of the waist of my pants might also contribute to my acid reflux? Hmm.)

So wish me luck as I embark on these very important initiatives for self-improvement in the month of April. Today is a sad day as my boss and mentor is leaving the company never to return. I will miss her so and may find myself drowning my sorrows in jelly beans this afternoon. But I’ll try and stay away from the dew… I just need to keep reminding myself that the dew won’t bring her back… *sad sigh*

Another addiction of mine from last year has resurfaced. AMR emailed me last week asking if I wanted to go tanning with her. I have minutes leftover (35) from last year’s tanning shenanigans at our local tanning salon so I said yes! We went last night and ohhhhh, does it feel goooood. My tan lines from last year never really went away completely so they have been given a little boost. I guess if the tan is artificial, it stays with you longer than a real one? We are going to go twice a week for a little while… just a little while. Did you hear tanning is going to be put on a list of carcenagins along with cigarettes? Like so many, many things… it’s so bad, but feels so good. And you wouldn’t think artificial heat lamps would be so enjoyable, but it really is addicting.

So at the end of April, I hope to 1) have zero acid reflux, 2) be on an earlier schedule that allows me to get to work on time, 3) lose a couple of pounds, 4) attain false hope that I’m important and 5) create a fake tan. I’ll check in with you in May and let you know my progress.

This wonderful piece of video footage was taken in R*becca’s basement bar the night before the jersey shore party. Love that karaoke!

By now, many in the northeast have heard of the flood that overtook many a backyard and basement. It rained a heavy rain the weekend before St. Patty’s and didn’t stop for about 3 days. This resulted in many rivers overflowing and underground springs and sewers backing up into people’s basements. Cars were ruined. Furnaces were rendered useless. Fire trucks were sent to houses everywhere to shut off electricity within the more endangered neighborhoods to safeguard against accidental electrocution. I had St. Patty’s plans for Sunday the 14th that would require me to take Monday off from work – however, those plans fell through because of the weather so I instead spent my Monday trying to help deal with the water in the basement.

Monday morning, I woke up to the vacuuming sounds in the basement and thought “uh oh…” I went downstairs and Dad told me that it’s starting to really come in down there. I put on my winter boots and checked it out. Sure enough, there were many large puddles forming. I rescued the catbox from one of the few dry spots of the basement and brought it upstairs to safety. Mum had found a cardboard box of mine that just happened to hold a bunch of electrical type things that had been in the water. I guess I don’t need those old cell phones and that 35mm camera anymore… but it still made me sad. So I ate some breakfast and did some things on the computer before taking on a shift of water vacuuming. Dad left to do some shopping and have a “meeting” at the local Elks lodge. From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., the puddles had turned to a full pool of water probably about a couple inches deep in the worst parts of the basement! I couldn’t believe how fast it came in! I got to work on the system Mum had started. First, we vacuum up the water until the shop vac was full, then dump the water into smaller buckets. When all buckets (5) were full, you have to carry them out to the backyard to dump. Dad had kindly left me 5 full buckets to carry out to start and boy oh boy was it miserable. I have a bad back, ya know, but I can’t let the elderly do ALL the work.

Remember the Unbreakable movie with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson? Remember how his “superhero” look was to wear a giant rain poncho with a big hood and to be all angry walking through the rain? That’s who I reminded myself of. I wore Dad’s raincoat for maximum coverage so the hood was very large on my head. And I trudged out into the dark, rainy day with my buckets of water with such an angry, angry… uh… anger. Just so mad at that rain for invading my basement. Since moving back to my parents’ house, about 70% of my belongings are in that basement. I knew most of my things were in plastic bins, but who knows how strong they’ll hold? I mean, they are from Walmart after all. And I knew my old, wooden bureau that belonged to my grandmother is just wading in the water down there, but what was I to do? Natural disasters just make you feel powerless… and that’s just no good for anyone.

So I emptied about 15 buckets of water and guess what… no progress at all. In fact, I think the water ROSE in the hour I was down there. I came upstairs just as dad was returning from buying one of his suicide submarine lunches: an Italian with everything including hots, plus potato chips. I think he was drowning (har har) his sorrows in heart-stopping meats because his beloved Elks had flooded too and *gasp* closed it’s doors. (!) He split his sub with me and we watched the news together while the sirens blared through the neighborhoods. One of dad’s favorite past times is laughing at others’ misfortunes so this cheered him up after the loss of his Elks. He enjoyed seeing the SUV on the news that was half underwater and the people being rescued from their homes. I told him that vacuuming and carrying buckets of water to the backyard was fruitless as the water is coming in too fast. He replied, “No shit” then went on to tell me how he visited many hardware stores and sump pumps are sold out. So I guess we do nothing. I went to my room and watched old episodes of Lost until Mum came home. At around 4:30, I put my boots on once again to check things out and the water was up to my ankles! At least I know my boots are fairly waterproof! We honestly didn’t know what to do, so we did nothing.

Then my brother came over just in time for dinner. He assessed the damage, ate dinner and then went home. I thought that was that, but he returned at around 10ish with a guy who’s been working with him (Mark/”Smokey”/”Catfish” – I have yet to meet this guy, but he has many names). I was in bed and had no idea they were even there. They drilled a big hole in the cement floor of the basement for a pump he found somewhere for us. Mum was instructed to make holes in a bucket and then put the pump inside. The hole they drilled in the cement was just big enough for the bucket. Water from under the house traveled into the bucket via these holes and then was sucked into the pump, which directed the water through a hose and out the window (into the neighbor’s backyard – sorry, guys). My brother did real good for us that night. By morning, the water was pretty much gone. Yay!

As for damages, the basement is a little stinkier than usual. My stuff is overall pretty good. The Walmart bins held up well. I had some framed photos in a trash bag and the bottom 5 or 6 inches got wet. They’ve been drying out in the dining room and most of it is salvageable. A lot of that stuff I’ve had forever and can be thrown out by now anyway. The big sadness is the mirror that goes with my dresser. I’m so dumb! I forgot that it was stuck back there upside down so the fancy wooden design at the top got completely submerged in water. I touched it and pieces of the design just crumbled off. I’m very sad about this… probably not sad enough to take off all the finish, sand everything down and refinish myself. (This is a very big two-bureau set.) But I do feel like I should do something. Maybe I can pay to have the finish removed and then all I’ll just have to do the refinishing. Maybe someone has some suggestions for me? You’ll see it in the pics below. I forgot to take pictures when the water was up to my ankles, so you’re just seeing the beginnings of the flooding… hopefully, we have a dry remainder of Spring!

Big news, bloggos, I’ve included a fun WordPress plugin to this here bloggo that allows those with fancy smart phones (iPhone, iTouch, Google Android, etc.) to read smilingonfoot.com in a nice and clean ”mobile view.”  If you do have a fancy smart phone and find that you’d rather read smilingonfoot.com in tiny font from the site (I know you will miss looking at my feet in top header), there is a button at the bottom of the screen that turns mobile theme on and off. Enjoy!

March is turning out to be quite the month for milestones for ol’ LK. This weekend marks the 2-year anniversary of breaking up with G and moving back to my parents house (yippee). Last week was the 1-year anniversary of purchasing my fabulous Mercury Mariner with 4×4, heated black leather seats, sunroof and many other fantastico attributes (still as in love as the first day we met). This year, I will pay off one of my three hefty college loans that I’ve been working so very hard on, before month’s end. This one was important for me to get paid off before the others as it’s in my dad’s name. So yay for March.

I’ve been laying pretty low these days and have been enjoying a calm lifestyle. Working is tough so the weekends need to counter with minimal outings and early curfews. And to further clarify, “laying low” also means not getting completely hammered or spending unnecessary dollars. In fact, I think I may actually be beyond these inclinations. For example, I went to Syracuse at the end of February for RB’s 34th “Jersey Shore” birthday party weekend. It was awesome! Everyone dressed up to the theme, which I love (more people need to have theme parties). Much to my surprise, I did not get ridiculously hammered and did not get miserably hungover during this visit. You know you’re getting old when hangovers are viewed as no longer worth it. :) When the party was winding down, RB and 2 ladies were off to a bar at 1:05 a.m. to meet boys before 2:00 a.m. closing. I opted to put on my PJ’s and get ready for bed. I heard from a few people afterward that they were surprised that I didn’t get to the bar too… like really surprised. So allow me to announce this March of 2010 that ridiculously hammered, party time LK has transitioned to a calmer, less alcoholic, yet still super fun with a little buzz LK. Let’s hope that she sticks around until next March (with a few exceptions, of course).  :)

3/23/10: This just in… Mum just informed me that today is the 32nd anniversary of my left kidney being removed!  Is March the best or what!?

This has pretty much been me for all of 2010 so far:

There’s a ghost at Hekd’s House.

First, I should tell you that I’m crazy obsessed with watching Lost. Even at this moment, I’m fighting the urge to not write this blog entry and instead dive right into some Lost episodes. Once I heard that the current season was going to be its last, I decided it was time to be part of the club. Before now, I refused to watch it because of all the unanswered questions the series poses. I would listen to my former roommate discuss the episodes with others and wonder why they put themselves through this madness of having so many more questions than answers. I wouldn’t be made a fool of. So I decided that once the series was ending, I’ll watch them all at once. Fortunately, Netflix offers them for free when I watch on my lappy.

And now I’m a fool for Lost.

I watch it just about every day and I’m up to season 3. To be specific, I have 4 episodes left of season 3. I love Sayid. I hate Juliet. I love Desmond’s accent. I’m bored with Jack. I love Ben. I’m disturbed by that Nikki/Paolo episode. I’m enthralled with Jin and Sun’s back story. It’s all a wonderful soap opera of characters. And they throw me just enough bones that I’m not overly irritated at the lack of knowing what the f is going on. But then again, I don’t have to wait very long to find out the resolution of each cliffhanger.

Last Saturday morning, I watched an episode. At the end of every episode, the credits come up and then the production company “bad robot” runs their graphic of a robot and some kid voices yell “BAD ROBOT!” and then the episode is officially ended. I’m at a place now that I’m so sick of hearing this every day of my life. So I try to hurry up and click to the next episode before this bad robot part plays. But last Saturday morning, I simply closed the laptop before the bad robot part played and packed it away in a bag. Saturday evening a bunch of us got together at Salem Beer Works for BM’s birthday, then I went to Dan and Hekd’s house for the night since it’s a lot closer than Weytown. My laptop spent all day and night unplugged and in my duffel bag. The plan was that I would sleep in the basement room on the comfortable futon. But for some reason, I was too scared. And when Hekd and Dan went up to bed, I felt uneasy being by myself. But I decided to sleep on the couch in the living room even though it’s not very comfortable. I put the TV on the sleep mode so it would shut off in 30 min. I do this at home nightly and 99% of the time I fall asleep before 30 min. At Hekd’s house, I was awake when it shut off so I put it on another 30 min. Once again, I was awake when it shut off so I just let it stay off and tried to sleep. I drifted in and out of a not-so-restful sleep and then around 4 in the morning, there was suddenly the familiar kid-shouting from the corner of the room, “BAD ROBOT!”

I was so scared, I buried my face into the couch and thought, “I knew it. I knew there was something off about tonight and there is totally a spirit in this house that’s messing with me.” At this point, my laptop had been unplugged for about 17 hours. I didn’t think my lappy’s battery could last that long. And even if it did last that long, Netflix times out when you’re not watching anything for a while. Dan went to breakfast with the boys the next day and relayed the story. Dan told me that Keith said it was probably a glitch. I think not. So I’ve decided it’s fact.

There’s a ghost at Hekd’s house.

My streak of failed relationships is successfully intact. And it’s okay. As a professional girlfriend, I rarely have a relationship that lasts less than a year, but the latest lasted just under 6 months. I don’t know if it’s the short duration of the relationship or the fact that it’s my umteenth boyfriend I’ve had to say Sayonara to (perhaps a bit of both), but I am surprisingly okay with everything. I cried for a week after we broke up and was generally sad for a week after that. I talked things out with a few close friends and then thoughts of him just fizzled away… just like magic. Now that I think of it, a substantial portion of what makes things okay probably has something to do with the low caliber of manhood this particular ex-boyfriend displayed. Breaking up was a no-brainer. But I won’t go into name-calling on this one. We’ll just say he wasn’t for me and I wish him well. I think 6 months is about the time when you get to know someone for who they really are and there’s no more of that “best foot forward” nonsense or even that “rose-colored glasses” nonsense from the beginning months. So you date and get to know each other and sometimes it’s not a fit and you break up before “real” feelings are invested. Not a terribly uncommon story. I think of him fondly as someone who sort of brought me back to life in the romance realm and I’m glad to have known him at this time in my life. And all this being okay is really a shocker for me (and I’m not talking about the hand gesture). I’m usually a lot more emotionally effected by these types of things. Perhaps we should throw in a little “growing up” in the mix too. Whatever the reason may be, it’s obvious that the way my head works has changed significantly over the past couple of years. And for right now, I think I’ve come to terms with not having a boyfriend for a while – there are other things in life I can focus on… and other things I absolutely NEED to focus on to make me happier in this life – that does not involve dudes. So stay tuned for more major personal growth in 2010. Maybe I’ll fall in love in 2011. It would be nice to do that one more time before the end of the world the following year.

Who puts Evergreen as a hand soap scent?

I’m not sure if Mum acquired this hand soap and lotion combo as a gift or not, but appeared in our downstairs bathroom this winter and has received some skepticism from yours truly. Now, when you think of hand soap, what sort of scents come to mind? Lavender? Vanilla? Something of a citrus variety? I would think these would be your “go-to scents” in regards to a hand cleansing. Did you ever smell a pine tree and think, “Man, that smells so good, I’d love it if my hands smelled like this all day?” Or perhaps, “Wow, the smell of trees is relaxing, I’d like to bathe in it someday?” I, personally, have smelled pine trees before and not once did I get the urge to rub my body all over said trees.

Don’t get me wrong, evergreen is not a bad smell. I enjoy the smell of a Christmas tree, or fake Christmas tree spray in a can or even a tree-smelling candle. But hand soap? If you think that evergreen is a weird smell for a hand soap, I’m in your camp (a camp surrounded by lovely-smelling trees, no doubt). Am I wrong to think this is weird? When I wash my hands in the downstairs bathroom, I could probably pick a liquid soap out of the shower to use instead… but I guess I don’t hate it enough for that sort of effort. Actually, I wouldn’t say “hate” at all… just weird… and maybe “ill-fitting.” But I will continue to use it since there is so much left, which actually makes me think I’m the only fool using this wacko hand soap.  I have yet to use the lotion. Hand soap smell is bad enough, but I’m really not feeling comfortable with that scent really lingering for hours through a lotion. Now that I think of it, I don’t believe I’ve ever even SEEN an evergreen scented hand soap or lotion in any store. Have you? Would you buy it? Would you use it if it was given to you as a gift?

I had a birthday last Saturday and it was a lot better than I planned. Mostly because I had initially planned to do nothing. I was going to let 33 just slide by with maybe the normal joint birthday celebration with my brother whose birthday is the day after mine (but 12 years earlier than my birth). My brother surprised me with a special phone call a few weeks before the big birthday weekend to make some plans. We didn’t do the big celebration together last year since I spent the weekend with my girlfriends at JBP’s former Cape Cod pad instead. I figured he could have the family birthday fun night to himself for that year. Good thing, though, because my brother’s son (my nephew) initiated a strong upheaval amongst the Hull locals that resulted in a parking lot brawl… and my mother trying to defend him with her words. ::Sigh:: Anyway, I was pretty touched that it was important to my brother that I was able to attend the joint celebration this year, but a little nervous that similar shenanigans would resurface. Regardless, it was decided that the family would meet at the local Chinese restaurant/bar for some karaoke, drinks and cupcakes the Friday before our birthdays. I invited NF, AMR, Bykfam and Bykfam’s sister to join me in case I needed to pretend to not know my relations. Thankfully, everyone behaved themselves and such measures were not taken.

Also around that time, I was emailing with HEKD about not wanting to do anything for my birthday. She offered to bring back the “girl dinner” so all the usual attendees could bring a dish to her home and maybe there will be some cake and candles for me. How could I refuse? I do so love a girl dinner. Since I currently do not have a home of my own, the girl dinner has definitely become few and far between. A low-key night with 5 of my closest girlfriends (and HEKD’s coworker who I never met before) was just perfect. I received many thoughtful birthday cards and presents. RB drove all the way east and forced HEKD to purchase basic baking supplies to make my fabulous smiley face cake. So I had family fun karoake night on the 29th (with no parking lot fights) and girl dinner fun night (also no parking lot fights) on the 30th. All in all, it was a nice birthday weekend (with absolutely no parking lot fights to speak of – phew!).