Why can't all weekends be like that?

By which I mean: four days long and packed with fun.

Thursday I went for the usual Thanksgiving meal with my family. I did take Hot Med with me, which went fine. He accidentally left the gate to the highway (my sister lives on a farm) unlatched, but fortunately realized his error and was able to convey it to me in time for us to corral the dogs (me) and sprint to the gate (him) before any damage was done. Whew. That could have been ugly. Other than that...we ate a lot of food. He ate pretty much everything offered him, and then reclined his seat back and slept most of the hour drive home. Typical American Thanksgiving.

Friday I had plans to meet up with some of my college friends who I last saw when we had a mini "reunion" over the summer. (No Hot Med this time--he had to work.) With kids in tow, we spent several afternoon hours roaming the zoo in some seriously beautiful weather, then had an early dinner at my favorite pizza place. (Note: be prepared, if you ever go to a zoo with someone who WORKS at a zoo. V: "Enjoy that cheetah now--they'll all be gone in about ten years--the gene pool's gotten too limited." Me: "Hey--he's right there. He can HEAR you!" Hee.)

Then the kids were parked at grandma and grandpa's with dad, and the girls went out for an evening of karaoke at a smoke-filled dive bar I'd never been to. We didn't plan to stay long, but...plans sometimes change.

We had ourselves quite a time. There was beer drinking, tequila shots (I wisely abstained from those), some good singing, some bad singing that was nonetheless exceedingly entertaining, some bad singing that was, well...just bad, some of it done by a man I dubbed the Casey Kasem of Karaoke. After each song that he butchered, he had to stand there, mike in hand, and tell us the sad tale behind his choice of that song. Serious downers--dead grandparent, crib death--"and that's why I had to sing this song...to dedicate to her." Come on, dude--my sympathies for your loss(es), but...wrong time, wrong place. We're all here to have fun, and there is NO appropriate way to respond to that. You can't clap, you feel obligated to stop your laughter for a moment and you end up just casting your eyes down, hoping he'll be done soon. And then you start up your raucous good time again, and, according to one of my friends, his wife turns around and stares at your table and mutters something about the need to "kick some ass." Fortunately, she restrained herself, and anyway, I think we could have taken her. The rest of the bar loved us--cheering, asking us to sing backup for them...and one decent-looking guy even hit on me. Not that I was looking to be hit on, mind you...but still. Good times, baby...good times.

Saturday morning I did my usual housecleaning, albeit in an at-most-quarter-assed fashion, had lunch with Hot Med, and then went home and crashed on the couch.

Sunday morning, went to church, grabbed a yummy bagel for lunch, and made plans to pick up Hot Med that evening to accompany me to a friend's birthday party. (Happy birthday, George!) Which took place at my favorite Indian restaurant, and involved selecting, adorning, addressing and sending out postcards, as George feels strongly that the world has gone too far in the direction of cybermail. Snail mail all around! Plus aloo gobi, garlic naan and a smidgen of the restaurant's version of birthday cake, which involved the particular Indian delicacy known to most as Gulab Jamun, but which will always be "scrotum balls" to me, thanks to my old friend Nora. (In all fairness...that IS what they look like.) (And now I can look forward to some interesting google searches, can't I?)

I finished off the weekend by watching the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie about the dog. Don't you just love a good Hallmark Hall of Fame movie and its attendant sappy commercials? I do.

I hope you all had equally wonderful weekends. Now...back to the old grind. Argh.

And stuff like that and stuff

I used to have a boss who'd say that. He'd end a sentence with it. "Blah blah blah, and stuff like that, and stuff."

Because I know you're just dying for an update on my life (hee), I'll do some quick bullets.

• Hot Med is still working nights. 5:00 every night this week, PLUS 10-2 on Sunday. That's seven days in a row. His words: "My boss CRAZY." He says he asked why he couldn't have a night off and they said it was "too busy." I still think there may be something of a failure to communicate, but I'm thinking I might see if his brother would be willing to talk to them, to make sure they're understanding what he's asking.
• For the record, NO, I don't like only seeing him for a few hours on the weekend. (I've been asked that, quite sincerely.) Why have a boyfriend if he's not around to go to dinner, take walks, help me lift heavy things in my garage, etc.? At this point it feels more like a weekend booty call than a relationship.
• I have just not been able to "let things go" this week. I'm getting into...well, not "arguments," but let's say "heated discussions" with casual Facebook friends. I printed off the section of our local animal ordinances where it specifies that you are required to provide SHELTER for your outside animals, and I'm preparing to write a note on it and leave it on my neighbors' door. Their pitiful puppy is breaking my heart. In addition to being cold and wet, she's SO starved for attention--sadly, the ordinances don't require you to LOVE your dog, so I figure the best I can do is make them think I'll turn them in. And maybe offer a few bucks toward the purchase of some lumber for a doghouse.
• Maybe I'm cranky because the booty calls are so infrequent? Hmm.....hee.
• The H1N1 flu shot is now available here to anyone who wants it. I'm thinking of trying to get one tonight. I've never had the flu, and I hardly ever even get colds, but...I've got to start rehearsals for another show in a couple of months, and I sure don't want to get derailed by the swine in the midst of things.
• For the record, I am not jealous of or threatened by Sarah Palin because she's an attractive, strong, charismatic woman. I could use those adjectives to describe pretty much every one of my female friends. I abhor Sarah Palin because I disagree with her on every single issue, and because when she speaks, her "grammar" makes my brain hurt. (Can you guess what at least one of the aforementioned "discussions" was about?)
• I just finished reading the autobiography of the woman I portrayed in my recent play, who spent 16 years in prison for a crime she didn't commit. She actually was not "exonerated"--as is often the case, after the original verdict was overturned, the DA was reluctant to admit the mistake, and was prepared to try her again. She agreed to accept a no contest "Alford Plea." (I would, too, after 16 years.) Her lawyers told her she wasn't allowed to speak during the plea hearing. Not a word in her own defense. She was to listen to them read the charges against her, and then she was to sign on the dotted line and walk out the door. She agreed, but it galled her. So, as the prosecutor was reading the charges, she spoke up. "Excuse me, Your Honor." Every eye in the courtroom turned to her, including the panicked ones of her own attorneys. She sweetly continued, "I have a bad taste in my mouth--could I have a glass of water?" Hee!!! I love that. (The judge ordered a glass of water brought to her table. What else could he do?)
• I'm now reading "The Lacuna," by Barbara Kingsolver. I really like it so far. Don't you just love it when one of your favorite authors comes out with a new book? It's like a kid with a shiny new toy. I'm such a geek.
• I tried the new Chipotle that is relatively close to my house. Sadly, I was underwhelmed. Maybe I'll try it again when the staff is more....seasoned. Because when I order a vegetarian burrito, I don't expect the response to be "it'll be about five more minutes before the chicken is done cooking." Umm...okay. Let's just skip the chicken this time. Poor girl. She probably wondered what the hell she'd done when she started to scoop the fajita veggies onto my hapless burrito and I nearly jumped over the counter to stop her. "No! Not those!" In my defense, the fajita veggies include bell peppers, and we all know my feelings about those.
• I finally turned on the heat in my house a couple of days ago. I hate winter. They say this is going to be a bad one. According to the size of the spoons in the persimmon pits, or some such old wives tale. I hope those pits are wrong!

Okay, I'll just go ahead and wrap this up now. My life has really, really not been exciting lately, has it? Oh well, exciting is sometimes not all it's cracked up to be, right?

I guess we won't have time to get on each other's nerves

Hot Med's boss has him working all evenings lately. It kind of sucks. When he took the job he was on days, then they added in a couple of nights a week...now it's all nights. Six nights a week, 5-close (11:00 or later). Since I work 8-5, this really cuts down on our weekday interaction.

I think they're taking advantage of him a bit. He doesn't realize he has any say in the schedule--he's afraid to ask for a night off, or a switch back to days, because he thinks he'll be fired. (They've even called him several times to come in at the last minute on what was scheduled to be a night off, 'cause they know he won't say no.) I tried to tell him he surely won't be fired just for ASKING, but I don't think he believes me...so for now he's living with it. And complaining about it to me. He gets a little cranky when he's tired. I think we need to find him a new job.

We went to eat at a Chinese super-buffet this weekend, and they were already playing Christmas Muzak. Unacceptable! I was distracted from the aural torture briefly, though...as Hot Med and the Chinese waitress each smugly mocked the other's pronunciation of "water." Hee. (For the record, neither of them had any room to be mocking.)

So, in glass-half-full mode, I guess the benefit is that if we're seeing each other for such a brief amount of time each week, we'll both be on our best behavior, right?

And herein lies the problem...

One of the online dating sites I've used in the past just sent me this helpful information:

A Map of Love: your best male matches by state
target: USA sampled: 39200

Your Worst States
Mississippi — 60.1
Arkansas — 60.2
Wyoming — 60.5
Oklahoma — 60.6
South Dakota — 60.9


Your Best States
Massachusetts — 68.9
Oregon — 68.7
Washington — 67.9
Minnesota — 67.7
California — 67.7


A Map of Love: your best male matches by country
target: World sampled: 25207

Your Worst Countries
Saudi Arabia — 42.0
Pakistan — 42.1
Egypt — 43.9
Kenya — 46.3
Malaysia — 48.9

Your Best Countries
Israel — 69.3
South Korea — 68.1
Iceland — 67.8
Denmark — 67.3
Netherlands — 67.2

Clearly, I've been looking for love in all the wrong places. Hee!

(No, if you're wondering, Hot Med and I haven't broken up again. This information was sent unsolicited. In fact, I watched the Halloween parade yesterday with the entire Med family--we all just kind of pretended that Sis and Nephew had been away on a visit. Everyone was in good spirits. Sis brought back beautiful scarves for me and Sis-In-Law.)

Gotta run--too many things to do in too little time today, but I just had to share those maps.