#52 - I WAS ROBBED!

Goal #52 was to score a soccer goal for my team. This is pretty difficult to do considering that I'm a bad-ass (all things considered...) defense player and therefore I spend most of my time back near our own goal. And I certainly don't want to score there. It's rare that I push up enough to even make an attempt at scoring.

Well, during our last game we were short on players. So as the game progressed, we started getting worn out and not running as much. That's when I noticed that there were only 2 people playing on offense - the rest of us were lolly-gagging at the back - so I ran up to help.

During one exciting play, my husband, me and one of the other guys had the ball bouncing all over the place at the opponent's goal. Someone made a shot. It missed and bounced off the wall. Someone else took a shot. Same thing. Their goalie dived to try to catch the ball, but he missed and somehow I took possession. I had a window! And I was going for it!

I knew I had to kick it high because someone had fallen on the ground in front of me. I knew the goalie was still recovering from his last dive. So I lined the shot up and took it. And it was perfect! It was high, right in the middle, and dropping, about to go in, and ohmygod...

... and then...

...and then...

...some asshat - NOT the goalie - reached up with his hand and bumped the ball just enough to bounce it up and out of the scoreline! Which, by the way, if you don't know is completely illegal! It's cheating, you @$#^@$#% #$%#@$^ %^*$%^!

It would have been my only goal ever! And you stole it from me! You mean, stupid boy!

So I didn't score after all. :( And he didn't even get sent off. Bad call. But I'm not bitter.

Tonight we're playing again. Kharmically speaking, I'm due.

The ABC's of Me

I was tagged by Joyce! (Hi, Joyce! My middle name was Joyce - after my grandma - until I changed it to my maiden name after marriage.)

A - Attached or Single: Attached

B - Best Friend: My husband, but since that's probably cheating... Shelley!

C - Cake or Pie: Pie! I hate chocolate cake.

D - Day of Choice: Saturday for obvious reasons...

E - Essential Item: a good bra

F - Favorite Color: blue

G - Gummy Bears or Worms: worms - they're more fun to play with

H - Hometown: Slow-deatha

I - Indulgence: shoes, cheese Doritos

J - January or July: January - my b-day's in January

K - Kids: not until I graduate

L - Life is incomplete without: challenges (I'd get seriously bored otherwise)

M - Marriage Date: April 29, 2006

N - Number of Siblings: two - a younger bro & sis

O - Oranges or Apples: I am addicted to oranges

P- Phobias or Fears: snakes & religious fundamentalists (I'm reading Under the Banner of Heaven, and it has warped my mind)

Q - Quote: "When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad, I'm better." - Mae West

(I don't really have a favorite quote but I like this one. I found it when I was looking for the one that goes something like: If I can't serve as a good example, then I'll have to serve as a horrible warning.)

R- Ring size: I forget! 7, I think...

S - Season: spring

T- Tag 3 Friends: Ashley, NDK, & MC

U - Unknown fact about me: (Related to Joyce's) During my kindergarten graduation, I won a trophy for memorizing and reciting my bible verses perfectly every single day. Now I am agnostic.

V - Very favorite stores: DSW!!!

W - Worst Habit: procrastinating (as in now)

X - X-ray or Ultrasound: ultrasounds don't mutate your DNA

Y - Your Favorite Food: crème brûlée, oranges, watermelon, cheese Doritos

Z - Zodiac: Aquarius

#38 - Purge 101 Things from My Life: Items 1-49

I have to say I'm very proud of myself for this one. I come from a long, decorated line of thoroughbred pack-rats. My people are horders. We horde e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Because you just never know when you might need that ratty, old towel or those rusted, bent nails. And why throw them out, when there's all this room in the closet/garage/junk drawer? And I'm one of the least clingy in my clan. I could go on and on and on about certain other family members who shall remain nameless, but I won't. You know who you are!

Tonight while Greg was playing (and winning!) poker, I scoured my closets and drawers. Culling clothing! Clothing I've had since high school! I wish I was kidding, but I actually pulled out a dress I wore to take my senior pictures. How sad is that... That dress was over 13 years old! It's time to let go.

So I'm doing it! I'm taking clothes and giving them away to friends and charities. Surely someone can make use of these things I haven't touched in years. And here's what I've thrown out so far:

6 sweaters
7 skirts
12 dresses - twelve!
5 tops
6 bras
4 pairs of jeans
1 hat
3 t-shirts
5 pairs of shorts

Go me! Hopefully I'll have another wave of bravery and conviction soon because it actually feels good to lighten my load.


And may I just say, this was an emotionally difficult job for me, made all the more challenging by a kitty who is obsessed with laying on clothes.



I can't tell you how many times I had to disturb her peace to get at those things she had perched herself upon. But she's pretty cute, right... :)

::sigh:: Back to Zero (again)

Shit! I just blogged about my vitamin role yesterday. And guess what?

I forgot them yesterday. Grrrrr.....

#15 - Sand and Repaint Front Door

We've just hired someone to redo our back deck for us. And since he'll be toiling with the sander and paint anyway, we decided to tack on the front door as well. For $150 he's going to accomplish this goal for me.

That price may seem steep, but right now I'm traumatized by the thought of stripping and repainting any wood surface for a while. $150 is worth it! We're picking out paints tomorrow, and hopefully it'll be done by the week-end.

#54 - Back to Zero

I'm starving and forgot to bring my lunch today. That means my 'no fast food for a month' goal is starting over. Boo!

But the good news is that I haven't broken my month-long daily vitamin trend. Yay me!

#7 - Beat Greg at Darts

I totally should have made this "Beat Greg at Bowling" because I kicked his ass this week-end!

After briefly recovering from an ill-advised home improvement project on Saturday (oy!), we met up with our friends Shawn and Jim at the bowling alley for some double-date friendly competition. I must say the girls completely dominated in the first 2 games. My scores were 136 and 132 - I won both! Then it all went to pot, and I came in dead last with a 92 - more representative of my typical bowling prowess.

But I'm taking this as a good omen. Maybe I should challenge Greg to a game soon in the man cave. He hung the board ages ago, but we haven't used it once. I think it might be time...

#73 - Something Must Be Wrong...

I got my passport back!!!! Already! On Saturday!

How? How is this even possible?

The last time I renewed, I gave it the full, recommended 6 weeks processing time and still had to pay the expedition fee to get it back to catch a flight to Hungary. This with condemnations and I-told-you-so's from Greg up to my eyeballs! The time before that, we're talking MAJOR CRISIS. I had sent in the application and was desperately waiting for it to arrive so I could take my first international flight alone as a new high school graduate going away on an exchange program to France. Three days before my flight, we got the envelope in the mail. My mom came running back from the mailbox screaming for joy and waving it in the air. She handed it to me. I ripped it open, looked inside. It was all my information - my name, my address, my birthday - with SOME STRANGE, BEARDED MAN'S FACE!!! I just broke down in tears right there in our driveway and kissed my plane ticket and my five weeks overseas goodbye. I was devastated.

Well, the wonderful people at the county courthouse listened to my tear-stained story of woe and fixed everything. Somehow they mailed it off and got it back to me two days later, a day before my departure. By the time I arrived in the Paris airport, I hadn't slept in days due to the worry.

This time it took them SEVEN days to receive, process and send back?!?!? I'm... dumbfounded... impressed... in shock...

Maybe the passport gods are making it up to me for all my bad luck in the past. Or maybe it's some force conspiring with my husband to show me the virtues of not procrastinating. I have no idea. But I'm so happy that there will be no more passport crisis again for another 10 years. Hooray!

By the way, the new passports are impressively artistic. Each page has some all-American scene - Mount Rushmore, the Liberty Bell, the Mayflower landing, etc. So pretty! I'm hoping I'll soon fill them with stamps, but as for now, I'm officially counting this task as done. yay!