Night from Heaven, Morning From Hell

I have been having trouble sleeping for the past few months. Every night as I am reading in bed, my legs develop this irritating sensation. They seem to be still awake and not wanting to settle down and go to sleep. It’s hard to describe. Sometimes they jerk, but mostly they just feel weird.

My dad has struggled with restless leg syndrome since I can remember. And I think that’s what it might be.

While in Madison, I read a book about natutral cures for any illness.

The book recommended that I take some calcium and magnesiam before bed, avoid caffeine (i don’t drink coffee and very limited soda), quit smoking (i have never smoked), avoid excersing before bed (not a problem) and try taking valerian root.

I had taken valerian root before but last night it was amazing/annoying. I slept like I hadn’t slept in years. Then this morning was horrible! I couldn’t get my eyes open. I hit the snooze button for ONE HOUR. I was late for work. My eyelids were slightly swollen. And my mind was telling me to get back in bed.

I’ll have to admit, it’s been a little unproductive day at work. I have only written one article for the newsletter and researched only one foundation.

No more valerian root for me unless I plan on wasting the entire following day.

Cheers To A Great Weekend

It has been a great weekend!

My roommate from college who has been living in New Zealand with her husband came back to Madison on Friday. And Dean and I drove up there Friday evening. We ate good food that I cooked and drank lots of bottles of wine. And ended our evening drinking Brand Old Fashioned Sweet’s on the square like real grown-ups.

We rose early and I took a solo-morning stroll but ended up walking around the farmers market buying lots of great fresh produce. Then sharing breakfast together at Colleen’s house and then back to the farmers market for a two-hour munch fest where we drank fresh-squeezed lemondade, ate rasberries and cheese-curds. Bought tomatillos and chilis and thai-eggplants!

Then it was off to the apple-orchard where we picked apples, grapes and ate Queen’s Apple Dessert. Lots of caramel and whipped cream and nuts! Sweet, but lots of mosquito’s and bees.

A little relaxation until we headed to a Thai restaurant where we had to wait and hour for a table. But we occupied our time by going to a Caribbean themed bar and downing two pitchers of Spotted Cow.

After dinner, we headed to the Essen House and shared a 5 liter stein of bier with lots of backwash. But it made for good pictures and a few good laughs.

Then I snuck out at 8am this morning to get to the bus stop so that I could come back to work this morning. But it was so wonderful to be surrounded by good friends for an entire weekend. Ive realized that life(work) is getting in the way of spending time with my friends and family. So, here’s to more lovely weekends!

Sweet Aroma’s

This weekend we have the Milwaukee Bucks Energee Dancers coming to camp for a retreat. There is currently a guy downstairs who is cooking spaghetti with meat sauce for them. The smell is making my stomach churn.

Once upon a time, say in March. I took a trip to India. Great country, wonderful people, great shopping and overall, AMAZING food. Except for the spaghetti with meat sauce.

I can remember one night in this small town of Allahabaad (about a million people were just leaving this pilgrimage site when we arrived). It was absolutely pouring rain, the only rain that I saw in the three weeks that I was there! Many don’t know much about India, but let me just tell you….there are no sewage systems, no drainage system, and the streets are the public toilets. So what happens when it rains? Yuck, puddles of who-knows-what up to your ankles. Gross, Gross, Gross.

Anyways, it was getting late, and we needed to get some food. We literally jumped our way out of our hotel to a restaurant down the street. Once inside, the lights kept going out but we figured we needed to eat anyways and we would stay. This is the same restaurant that was plastered with paraphernalia (signs, Pepsi menus, Pepsi table signs) from Pepsi but only served Coca-Cola.

The only reason we went to this restaurant was for the sweets, Gulub Jamun.

And they had some “western food.” No veg curry and naan for us that night. We ordered:

Pizza i.e. naan bread with ketchup and cheese

Spaghetti i.e. noodles with ketchup and some unknown meat substance

We didn’t eat it, just picked away at the bread and noodles. And then we ordered a gulub jamun and life was good again.

One More

Ok, one more thing. I had to clean the apartment tonight. I really dislike cleaning. I am really lucky that Dean doesn’t mind cleaning and he does a really good job at it. But I dont like it. I get on it and do a really good job for about 10 minutes and then do the rest half-ass. But that one chair in the corner of the room that ALWAYS has a pile of clothes on it, is now empty, cleaned off, put away. But then I cooked dinner, and now the kitchen is a mess!

Everything is Driving Me Crazy!

So, everything tonight is driving me crazy and I know where this is stemming from…..

I had to go into Lake Geneva tonight. Lake Geneva sucks the big one. I can’t stand driving through LG because it takes about 10 hours to drive three blocks and all the damn Illinois people are clogging the streets. And might I add that it’s a Thursday evening after Labor Day. Shouldn’t they all be back home with their children that are in school….geez, go home and let me do my errands in LG. During the summer I think that I can count on one hand how many times that I went into LG. The thought of LG during the summer makes me shiver. You may not understand, but when you are permanent resident of the Geneva Lake Metro Area, you know how annoying all the rich, annoying, Illinois people are. I would NEVER spend a night out in Lake Geneva, it’s a mix of white-trash and upper-class trash and annoying. Alright, do you get me? I can’t stand LG and if it weren’t for this wonderful quiche I had to pick up and free coffee coupons, I would never go back there!

Secondly, I had to go to Walmart tonight. How come they can’t have enough damn cashiers. The lines were unbelievable. And the people at the self-check-out were taking their sweet time. Don’t they understand this is my only night off until next TUESDAY. I have shit to do and I need parmasean cheese and a baking mat.

Thirdly, there is absolutely nothing on the TV tonight. The one night in the past three weeks that I can literally not do anything and have the couch and remote all to myself and there is NOTHING on. Except Bush’s speech, but who would want to watch that unless he was telling the world he was resigning.

Fourthly, we are probably going to have to move. We are probably going to have to find somewhere to live. And that sucks too. I just want to stay in our nice, newly built apartment, with the nicest couch that i have ever had and a gorgeous view of the lake. But that all depends. It’s just annoying me that we have to go look at apartments, decide whether to buy or sell. You know the deal. Moving blows!

Lastly, then I promise I will stop. I am all comfortable in the sofa with my laptop and crap TV on and in about 30 minutes Dean is going to call and want me to come pick him up from work. And I don’t want to venture out now, I just want to snuggle in the couch. And it’s about time he got his own car too, he’s going to be here for a while.

Ring Envy

Women have ring envy. It’s not until you either get a ring or are thinking about getting a ring, that you start to notice all of the rocks women have on their left hand. It’ s amazing, how weird it is. Ever since the possiblility of marriage has come about I have gone on this ring mission. I am very low maintance and my idea of a nice engagement ring would be some sort of beautiful stone set in silver. Nothing bling, but something plain and simple and with meaning. Dean saw the movie Blood Diamond last March and since then has been very against getting a diamond ring as an engagement ring. If it were up to him, we would get married without any rings at all. But isn’t it every girls dream to have a perfect ring…..

Fast forward to May when my grandmother passed away. My Aunt choose to give me her diamond ring. It was very plain, 1 carat diamond on a gold band. If I was going to wear any diamond this would be it. I brought it to the jewelers and they let me look at it in the mircroscope and I had the prongs redone and the band bulked up as she had been wearing it for 50 years and probably never took it off. Its a gorgous ring, but more importantly, its a beautiful symbol of my grandmother. I wanted to start wearing it immediately and didn’t give Dean the chance to get down on one knee. I may as well put a sign on my face that said “Getting Married” as just this small ring caused so much commotion. Everyone at work said…when are you getting married, why didn’t you tell us….la la la. But then I had to go through the whole story of, we are getting married, but just on the down-low, and this is my grandmothers ring and I wear it in her honor.

Anyway, I ran into a friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in about a year and she placed her hand in my face. Her boyfriend proposed a few weeks ago and she was very excited. But the first thing that went through my head was, is it bigger than mine. Isn’t that terrible, I feel ashamed that that even crossed my mind. Maybe that is why I am writing about it. But I think this a common feeling women have when they see the infamous diamond ring. Ring Envy

Below is what I really want!

The End

It’s somewhat official. Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams have broken up. It made me think about my time that I spend in Sydney…..

I went to Australia in November of 2004 to be with Dean, as that is where he was currently living. I was very excited but needed to find me a job!! I interviewed at a few places and got each job on the spot. But they were all at mediocre places where I didn’t feel like I would earn much money. I went to my orientation at IEP (the agency that sponsored my working holiday visa) and she announced they were looking for someone who had bar and restaurant experience. It sounded good, so I forwarded her my resume and cover letter, and bam! I had an interview. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. I arrived at the Park Hyatt, a very expensive, exclusive hotel located right on the Sydney Harbor with the only hotel in Sydney that had unobstructed views of the Sydney Opera house from EVERY room. Anyway, the job was for a food and beverage assistant in the restaurant.

It all worked out and eventually I found myself waiting on the rich and famous of the world and it made me realize how really obnoxious Americans really are compared to the rest of the world. I had to convince a group of men from Michigan that I was really a Wisconsinite, as I had developed a little accent and they thought I was an Australian. I served a $1500 bottle of Champagne to an old man and his very, young, very blond girlfriend. I walked along the harbour at 2am each morning to catch my bus, calling Dean to make sure that he was still awake when I got home. I began to hate my job and really despise going into work everyday. And then the fact that the place was understaffed just aggravated me to no end.

Back to the point….we had lots of celebrities come into the restaurant. I think the best was Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams. I just remember her coming in, wearing her Uggs and a hat and thinking, DAMN, she is lucky having a hot, hot, hot boy toy like Heath. I never waited on them but they did seem really happy and down-to-earth. But now it’s all over. At least I could say that I saw them at their best!

For as much as I hated working at the restuarant, I got to see the Opera House all day long. Which for most people is not the norm. So, for anyone that is ever Sydney, walk down to the Rocks, and head to the hotel under the bridge. Pull up a rocking chair in the resturant, order an extremely overpriced cocktail ($16-20) and take in the views. And maybe think of me and Heath Ledger.

Rewind

Lets rewind to exactly eight months ago, January 5, 2007. It was a Friday. I was sitting in my cubicle on the 22nd floor of Bank of New Zealand in Auckland. I was probably counting Travelers Cheques or transfering thousands from NZ to some small country in Europe all in the name of “I need money for rent” At the time, I hated my job. I disliked the ladies I worked with and I felt that I was not appreciated. They treated me like I didn’t know anything although, no one had really trained me as to what I need to be doing. I worked closely with one lady, Taj, and once she realized that I was truely capable of doing my tasks without anyone looking over my shoulder, she gave me all of her work and would go for “walks” for hours in the morning and then again in the afternoon. At the time, I couldn’t wait to get back to my job here at camp. I knew that I would be given responsibility and I would be challenged and people would take me seriously. To all the 50-something ladies that I worked with I was a mere child. But at camp, I was a grown up with a real job and the summer wouldn’t run without me. I couldn’t wait to be done at BNZ (B, N, Zed is how to correctly pronounce it). The only thing I enjoyed was my morning tea break (with a free, yes, free cappacino machine) and the bus ride home at 5:05pm.

Now, fast forward to today, September 5. The summer is over, the hard part of the year certainely finished. All the campers have come and gone. I have finished billing all of the agencies just one more huge project to get done so that the summer is complete. And now I am feeling, why did I leave New Zealand and why was I in a hurry to return here? I am really stuck as to what I am going to do in the following months. Where am I going to live? How would I survive a winter in Williams Bay? What is going to happen? It’s all up in the air, but all I know is that I shouldn’t have been so eager to return to the states.

My Christmas List

I know it’s early to think about Christmas..butEvery year, my mom asked me “What do you want for Christmas?” For the past 10 years, I have always said “I don’t know” or “You don’t have to get me anything.” Well, as I have grown up this past year, I have a few things that I really want for Christmas!!

First is Rachel Ray’s knife set. It was a sign today as I was chopping onions for my homemade pancakes, and watching the 30 minute meals, when my knife slipped and cut my fingernail. Luckily there was no blood, but it made me realize that I deserve a really nice set of knives. Maybe if I had those kick-ass knives today, I wouldn’t have to spend ten minutes filing down my nail.

Secondly, I think to compliment my knife set would be Rachel Ray’s 10-peice Cookware Set in Orange. It comes with six pots and four covers and I could cook a whole Thanksgiving Dinner with these six pots and four covers and my new three-peiece knife set. Now, this might bore some people. But I really enjoy cooking and to have these great cooking essentials would be heaven for me.

Alright, enough about the cooking set. Now, all I need is a dishwasher to complete my kitchen.