Finally!

Yes, I finally took my Christmas tree down.

We've come a long way

An 1872 quote from the Supreme Court of the United States:

It is true that many women are unmarried and not affected by any of the duties, complications, and incapacities arising out of the married state, but these are exceptions to the general rule. The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator. And the rules of civil society must be adapted to the general constitution of things, and cannot be based upon exceptional cases.

They were denying Myra Bradwell the right to practice law in Illinois.

So, whatever happened to that guy?

For those of you who have followed my blog, you might remember my mentioning that I was going to contact a guy from my past. I posted about it here.

Well I decided not to send the Christmas card.

WHY?! you ask, especially after what the cards said.

Well, I'll tell you why. The last time he and I had any dialogue with one another was 1997 or 1998 (I forget). He lives about 1 mile from me. We probably use the same grocery stores, pharmacies, fast food etc. And not once during these past 8 years have we crossed paths. I think that's a pretty strong sign, don't you. If he and I are supposed to see one another, fate would have brought us together by now.

So, anyway, that's how it all turned out. If I want to change my mind, I can always send him a card on his birthday. I think it's in May.

Meme post

Mommy Librarian tagged me, so......here it is.

What was I doing 10 years back: I had just put my kitty "Metisse" down. She was a stray I found who had short front legs and played fetch. We were very bonded and I had her for a little over a year. I was absolutely heartbroken. And so, to help ease the pain, I acquired the cutest little himelayen kitten, "Mimi". She was just a little bitty white puffball with big blue eyes and brown points. She would purr so loud whenever she saw me I thought for sure she would fall apart.

What I was doing ONE year back: The company I work for right now is a start up company and January lst year was our official first month. I had been working with them since November 1 of 2004 getting everything set up and ready for 2005. January 2005 was the first day I received a paycheck in almost 3 months.

5 snacks that I enjoy
Chex mix
Chips and Dips
Honey roasted peanuts
Vanilla Ice Cream
Hershey's Chocolate

5 Songs I Know All The Lyrics to
Rumours (By Fleetwood Mac)
Killing me softly
The Way We Were
This Old Man
100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

5 Bad Habits
Snooze button
I wait until I run out of clean undies before doing my laundry
Snooze button
I watch too much TV
Snooze button

5 Things I Love To Do
Sleep late
Go out to eat
Travel
Go into the office, 'cause I love my colleagues
Quilting

5 Things I Would Do If I Was A Millionaire
Pay off my debt
Buy a Boxster
Buy a house
Donate some to the Houston Area Women's Center
Adopt a child


5 Things You Would Never Buy, never wear, or never get new again
Chimpanzee
Blow torch
A hat with fruit on it
Platform shoes
A Gremlin


5 Favourite Toys: I'm so boring, I swear
My car
Laptop
TV
Coffee maker
My Franklin Covey Planner


Then select 5 people to pass this on to
Freebird!!!
Cathy
Krystyn
DoggyBloggy
Chris (Solipsistic)

Best Shwarma in town

I did a brief exchange program in Bourges, France back in 1988; when my program finished, I headed to Paris for a week and then toured Europe for about a month. While in Paris on my first day, a fellow student took me to Feyrouz Deli where I experienced my very first Chicken Shwarma sandwich. I can still remember sitting on a bench under the elevated subway eating it. It was awesome and every day after that I had one while I was in Paris. It was just down the street from the little hotel where I was staying. I went back to that same deli in 1998 and it had grown to a full service restaurant.

I love Shwarma's and I make it point to know all the good ones in Houston. I have tried them from many different places in Houston and have narrowed my favorites down to 3.

My absolute, bar none, shut my mouth and slap your grandma favorite is at Aladdin's Mediterranean Grill on the corner of Montrose and Westheimer. I don't know what they do to the meat there, but it's awesome. I'm not a big fan of their Hummus, unless it's been in my fridge for a day, then it tastes better.

My close second would be Pheonician's Deli on Westheimer between Kirkwood and Dairy Ashford, across from Luby's. It's their garlic yogurt sauce. The garlic sauce is balanced by the roasted potato they include. They actually have extra amounts of it in their condiments bar and it is soooo yummy, you pump it into a little plastic cup like the ones you see for ketchup at MacDonalds. I like to dip pita bread in it.

And then lastly, Cafe Lili's at Chimney Rock and Westheimer, west of James Coney Island. I love their Hummus and they put pickled veggies in their Shwarma. I like to sit and eat there. It's a family owned restaurant and the father likes to walk around the restaurant offering turkish coffee to the guests. He's a very sweet older gentleman.

Ok, my friends, there you have it. If ever you are in Houston or Paris, now you know where to go to get a good Chicken Shwarma sandwich.

Desparate Dreams......

Friday night, I dreamt that the producers of Desperate Housewives wanted me to have a role in their show. Apparently, I was going to play a temporary part and was supposed to seduce one of the husbands. I don't know which husbands but when I met a couple of the male cast, none of these guys were on Desparate Housewives. I asked them how long my part was going to last and they said at least 9 weeks. Wow, that's not very temporary. I was so excited because I was really looking forward to looking glamorous and learning all the techniques to look great.

Carrie Underwood

I have a colleague at the office who loves American Idol. During the first two seasons, I never watched a single episode. Last year, I had a neighber that was working on the Fox crew while they were taping auditions in New Orleans. When she came back she kept saying, "watch for Leroy".

So, between her cue and my colleague's passion for the show, I decided to give the program a whirl. During the first few weeks the program aired, I watched. I got sort of bored with the auditions so I stopped. Then, I started again after they had whittled down the contestants to just 10. I never voted, I just watched but I watched every episode after this.

I loved Bo Bice. Every time I would leave the office on days that Idol would air, I would say, "Ok Guys, I'm going home for my weekly dose of Bo". He was my guy. I also loved Baby V (Vonzell Solomon) and Carrie but just not as much as Bo. When it came down to just the three of them, I was torn between Carrie and Vonzell. Still, I wasn't voting, I just watching.

So then it's the last episode, it's down to just Bo and Carrie and I'm still cheering for Bo.

Carrie gets up there and sings her very last song "Angels Brought Me Here". While she throws every last effort into this song, every hair on my arm stands on end. I am so moved. I can't even recall if Bo got a chance to sing after that or not but her song and my reaction was all I could remember. I voted for Carrie that night. I voted for her 3 times! Bo Bice? Who the hell was Bo Bice?

I have been waiting and waiting for her to produce a single. And now she has finally released "Jesus Take the Wheel". I think the title is cheesy but I absolutely love the song. I think she is wonderful. I still like Bo a lot but Carrie made her way past him and I'm so proud of how she has turned out.

She was worth all three votes.

What a week.

It's late and I can't sleep. I'm sitting here on my sofa in the dark with my laptop. The light from my 'puter makes everything behind it pitch black but occasionally, I can see the reflection of kitty's eyes looking at me. It's sort of eerie.

This has been an interesting week. I had a customer that had submitted a signed lease, deposit etc. on a cute townhome. The landlord had accepted the offer. After about a week or so, the landlord backed out of the deal (he had not signed the contract) hoping to get a better deal down the road; and so now I'm trying to help my customers find a new place. This week, they could only look at night, so I've been getting in at 8:00. Tomorrow afternoon we go out again, so I hope we find them something. I'm losing sleep over these guys.

And interestingly enough, I had given Krystyn a lot of thought. I started the week worried about her and thinking of ways to encourage her through her disappointment. A couple of times I woke up with that on my mind. What I think is so interesting is that I've grown to care about someone I've never met. These are people who will probably never enter my physical universe but have actually had some sort of impact on my life.

My friend, Dawn and I went out to happy hour at a place called Arturo's then we went to Canyon Cafe for dinner. Yummy, I recommend their Chicken Enchilada's Suiza, I litterally cleaned the plate. I was hungry as I realized when we sat down that it had been 48 hours since I last ate....I was so busy on Thursday I forgot to eat. We had a really nice time. Dawn has many qualities I admire and I hope that I learn from her.

I'm going to try to go back to sleep.

Scarce

That's been me lately. This has been a crazy busy week.

My close friend, John DeMers, wrote a musical Deep in the Heart. Every time he made headway with the script he would e-mail it to me. Whenever he wrote new songs, he would invite me to dinner and practice them on me. I watched this thing develop from the very beginning and finally, it was performed at The Hobby Center. I had always told him that I would be on the first row right in the center on opening night. And so I was. I'm so proud of him. Oh, and he needed to borrow my futon as a prop. It had a bit part in the musical. My sweet little futon, who knew?

My dinner with Naomi was nice. We visited for a long while. I think she's sincere, we'll see. I don't know why I was shut from the whole group and I probably will never know. She wants to hook up again and bounce a few things off of me. While there, she pulled out her Franklin Covey planner and I commented that I needed to get myself one. She gave me her old one: a beautiful burgandy suede binder. I love it and already I am feeling a difference in my organizational skills. I've done other things in conjunction but overall, I have a lot of control over all the details required for my work.

I spent Sunday brunch with my brunch group at Dharma Cafe. If you live in Houston or plan on visiting soon, I highly recommend this restaurant. It's a tiny cozy place with a great atmosphere. I am the only straight person in the group but I really enjoy spending time with these friends.

Then after brunch, I slept the rest of the day. I got up at about 6:00 and then went back to bed at 10:00. I took a tylenol P.M. and woke up again at 8:00. Sunday was the first day off I've had in about 20 days. I really really needed that sleep.

Ok, so that's about the highlight of my week.

Ok this is really strange.....

Back in 2003, I had a friend and colleague who introduced me to a really fun group of girls. We all used to get together every week and have dinner. Usually it was a mix of guys and girls. One of the girls, Naomi, would always pull me aside and tell me she thought it would be cool if the two of us went out for happy hour or something. We both lived in the same part of town.

So, each time I saw her, she kept saying "hey, put me in your cell phone and let's hang out". So, after about the 3rd or 4th time, I finally said, ok. Put her in my cell and invited her over to hang out for a while. She came over and we hung out in the gazebo of my apartments and, Chris, my neighbor and friend saw us and decided to visit with us. And he stayed and stayed and wouldn't leave. So, next thing I know, Chris and Naomi are a dating.

Next thing I know, I'm on the outside. I'm not being invited to events and whenever I see Naomi, it's because she's hanging out with Chris. The last time I saw her was February 14th, 2004.

So,yesterday, Naomi calls me out of the blue and wants to reconnect. I spoke to her at length this morning and we agreed to hook up for dinner and catch up.

Isn't that interesting?

I'm wondering if this has to do with the Holidays. We think over things, friends, resolutions etc. and I'm thinking that maybe this has to do with why these events have occured.

Serendipity

When hurricane Rita hit, I developed a friendship with two of my neighbors. Dawn and Jackie. I had known Jackie for quite some time but never really spent much time with her. I would invite her to my parties and such but she would never come. Now and then I would go over to her place and have a glass of wine and watch a little TV. We sort of made ourselves the block captains and kept inventory of those who were weathering the storm here.

That is when I got to know Dawn. The three of us just sort of formed our little click and we started hanging out just about every day. Jackie flew to San Fran. on a blind date and Dawn and I waited for her to return. Then, when Jackie returned, suddenly I was no longer included in the things they did.

I was really really hurt by this. I didn't want to approach either of them about it because I was afraid that i would break into tears and I didn't want them to see that. I also didn't want to become angry because they are still my neighbors.

So, I just decided to let it go and move on. I finally let it all go over Christmas.

Today, Dawn broke the ice and made an overture to talk to me. Apparently, someone tossed out a decent piece of furniture that she thought I would like, so she called me. When we got it in my apartment, we talked. It turns out it was Jackie that was preventing the three of us from being friends.

It is my understanding that something has occured that has created some division between the two of them. I told her she could still be friends with both of us even if we couldn't hang out as a threesome. Anyway, I hope that Dawn and I can pick up our friendship where we left off, I sincerely enjoyed hanging out with her.

Whatever happens, I'm so glad I got a chance to talk to Dawn about it.

J'ai réussi!

Ok Guys..... I passed the exam! I'm so happy...doin' the happy dance thing, doin' the "you can't touch this" attitude thing..... It's behind me.

You may now address me as Your Royal Highness. *sheepish grin*

Ghosts

I have been spending the last few months focusing on getting my broker's license. I finished my last correspondence class just before leaving for D.C. but I wasn't in time to take the test before the end of the year. So, I'm taking my prep course today and tomorrow and will take my test on Friday.

A lot of stuff that is covered in the prep class is basically the same stuff that one learns in the principle courses one takes for a regular salesman license. So today we went over the basics and I learned something new about disclosures. I guess it's been covered before but it wasn't significant to me then.

A seller is required to disclose if her house has a ghost. All this time I was thinking that it was NOT required because I couldn't understand how a court could uphold a suit for damages since "ghosts" can't be "proven". I think it boils down to there being a stigma associated with the property.

This summer, I had a woman lease a property from me who was frantically trying to get out of her current home because it was haunted. She had a poltergeist. She had only been in her place for about 3 months. I'm not going to claim that I'm a great judge of character but I could tell, she wasn't lying.

A lot of people seem to want to come forward with their ghost stories.

My sister bought a house in the historic district in Arlington VA. I remember her telling me that she had bought the house from a recent widow who moved to a nursing home; they built the house in the 20's. My sister said the dead husband was visiting the house regularly. Both she and her husband felt his presence. About a year and a half ago he disappeared. My sister encountered a neighbor who told her that the wife has passed away and she thinks he left to join her.

Anyway, I'm totally fascinated by ghosts.

Another one of my favorite things

Every now and then I discover something simple I love doing and I have to post about it. I just now discovered a favorite thing I've been finding myself doing lately.

I love opening up Cathy's blog and letting the music run in the background while I scroll through blogs in another window. I find I start with hers, let the music roll and then visit everyone else. Sometimes I just hang for a while and surf the net. The thought of downloading a music link on my own blog has occurred to me but I like going to her blog and hanging out.

Maybe I like the mix or maybe it's sort of like hanging out with someone who's in another room. I may eventually link music to mine but for now I'll hang out at her place.

Happy New Year Everyone

I had a relatively quiet evening. I went to Mai Thai and had dinner with friends (Yummy leftovers for later today, too!) and then I came home and worked on my quilt. I think I was in bed by 11:30. Woo-hoo, exciting! Actually, I did not feel like a party. As a matter of fact, I had a coke with my meal. How lame is that? But I did dress to the 9's, so I wasn't totally casual.

And, since Cathy is wanting so badly to see the quilt I'm working on, I did exhaustive research on the web and found the patterns so I can share them with her. Mind you, the link I'm going to include here is someone else's quilt.

The quilt I'm working on is my first attempt at this type of quilt (I made a tied quilt but that's another story) so my quilt isn't nearly as cute as this one: Sunbonnet Sue & Overall Bill

I have 30 8" squares. On my quilt all of her bonnets are blue and his shirt is the matching blue in the bonnet. Each pair of blocks are different in that the skirt and overall differs per pair. I have a 2" sash between blocks and my border will probably be 2" as well. I'm considering to attempt piping for the edge of the quilt but if that proves to be too difficult, I'll add eyelet (sp?) lace.

I've decided to embroider the hands. I also used black velvet for the little feet because I love texture and think that will make it interesting. I'm not real happy with some of the fabric I used for the blocks. I realize in hindsight that some of the fabric is not quality fabric. Live and learn.....