So, I haven’t said much of substance lately…

Well, I blame that on the drinking. Alco-ma-hal is coming in sweeter and sweeter packages that lure me in without me feeling liquored up. Read: Justin’s spicy-spicy bloody mary recipe (which I WANT btw. Good stuff.) and a new fondness for pear cider. Curses I left the remainder of my 6-pack at Kit’s house. Guess I’ll have to visit her again someday and retrieve it.

SO LET’S SEE…

in life… Mom is back on the making me insane swing of things. I’m too embarrassed to go into details here, but on her bad days, I question her mental health on top of worrying about her physical health. But, on these downswings, instead of feeling sorry for her apparent deteriorated state, I just want to crawl through the phone and strangle her. In fact, I question if she’s actually saying the things she does to me on purpose to provoke me because she’s angry and depressed. She never grasps the concept that I do wish she was nearby and generally enjoy spending time with her, but life (and distance) get in the way. Thus, she also never grasped the concept that the way to get people to WANT to try to make the effort to visit you is not to harass and insult them in a “guilt trip” gone wrong, sort of way, until they just want to crawl through the phone and… well, you get the idea.

also in life… our house is full of calendars because we have appointments. 50 million places to be and people to see, none of which include my mother until at least Mother’s day, provided she doesn’t piss me off enough to postpone even that in lieu of going to Marc’s 30th birthday bash that weekend instead. Anywho, yes… birthday bashes. Secretly fretted and worried and stressed over Kit’s shindig for no real reason only to have it be a spectacular event. Cannot offer enough kudos to Nicola and Justin. Very. Well. Done. We had a great time, and really didn’t want it to end, except for our commitment to drive up to Greenville the next day for Jennie’s bridal shower and the boy’s golfing plans.

I guess the next big event is the wedding of Marc and Jennie (who my mother thinks won’t actually go through with, though she’s never met either one of them nor could relay any reasoning behind her comment, only that it was the first negative comment she could think of tonight I guess. And, btw, Maggie, instead of congratulations on your engagement, my mother thinks I should not be in the wedding party if you’re going to the Caribbean because people get kidnapped from there.) ANYWHO… Friday morning JT and I are off to Greenville for a Friday afternoon full of family activities, then an evening of “just the girls” — as in myself, Jennie, her mother, her aunt, her great aunt, and her grandmother. Yeah, we’ll probably hit the strip club, if we can keep granny off the men in thongs once she gets liquored up… har har.

Then Saturday will be a “girls only” day, where we do brunch, nails, hair and makeup (and hopefully drink) prior to the 5pm decorating rush and the 7pm ceremony. They are having THE most untraditional wedding ceremony for having done all the traditional pre-wedding crap. They can’t be bothered with a rehearsal, because well, there is no chapel. The ceremony will take place in the same room as the reception, with people seated at their tables. The ceremony will not include writing their own nor repeating any other traditional vows. They estimate it at 5-7 minutes depending on how choked up they get. Then, let the feasting… I mean, light appetizers begin. Honestly, they seem so very happy, and my amazement at their arrangements aside, I’m really looking forward to the whole weekend of festivities. I loves me some in-laws.

SPEAKING OF weddings, the announcement of Ben and Maggie’s engagement is also pretty exciting news. Many congratulations have been sent their way, and now we have even more events this year to look forward to with the parties and showers and the-freakin-carribean! I feel lucky to have been asked to be a part of their event. Maggie is certainly a lost-sister that should have been, bound by cheese if not by blood… or something. Though, I will NOT forget your chants last night, dear one, of Gosh, I love drunk Kim! I love drunk Kim! Drunk Kim rules! I volunteered you to drive for a reason, girlie. I needed some drink on. =P

Now you can stop reading, if you still are, because I’ll mention work. Went up to the office this week to partake in a small share of the “celebratory gift” from FNIS for our migration work… lunch at O’Charleys.. on their gift-card dime. Golly gee that sure was swell. In the process got to catch up with many familiar faces who I frequently harass via phone or text, but rarely see anymore. Got caught up on all the latest gossip, and, suffice it to say, by the end of it, found myself offering myself up as backup customer service personnel in order to help us keep our paychecks coming. They didn’t really ask, but the need is there. I’m pretty out of the loop on a lot of CS issues these days, but any help will be better than whole days with no CS at all because everyone has appointments. I don’t know where the weird kinship with these people came from, but the little gang that remains… we’ve been through hell and highwater together and survived it. It’s not the best job, it’s not a dream job, but right now, we all depend on each other. Remove any piece and the whole thing would crumble down for the rest of us. JamesT calls us a remnant of the dot com that was. We are.

Tonight I am nostalgic, but tomorrow we see an accountant about our taxes and I will be cursing all their names and their mothers. Thankfully Friday I’m off, so the drinking and healing can begin… and by healing, I do mean the killing of brain cells so I forget I was mad at them.