Finally!!!

Ugh.  Finally finished reading "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt.  I'm not going to lie.  I really did not enjoy this book.  I wanted to like it.  I really did but I don't see what the big fuss is about (read the NY Times review here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/books/review/donna-tartts-goldfinch.html?_r=0)

This book is almost 800 pages full of completely unlikable characters.  I wanted to feel some empathy for Theo but he grew up into such a creepy slimeball I actually detested him by the end of the book.  His girlfriend Kitsey doesn't even love him enough to not cheat on him with his boyhood nemesis Tom Cable.  His childhood friend from Vegas, Boris, is an unapologetic, drug-abusing criminal and the whole "underground art world" plot is just mind-numbingly convoluted.  The only two characters with any type of redeeming qualities were Hobie and Mrs. Barbour (who, in her own weird way, does seem to care a great deal for Theo).

Profiling

"Transplanted Yankee raising 2 beautiful daughters and a hubby on a never-ending search for a decent bagel and a slice a pizza in the South. Short and sassy, loyal, funny, slightly sarcastic, practically blind, 40-ish, loves to read, travel, and spend time with family and friends. According to one of my children, I like to wear make-up and party. Still madly in love with (and married to) my high school sweetheart. Samantha Brown has my dream job. I like margaritas, can't stand coconut or bananas. I will do anything for a friend in need. Just don't mess with my family. I'm very, very protective. Pretty much a non-BS kind of gal; I have no patience for drama, ignorance or stress-inducing activities or behavior."

Just realized I really, really need to update my "About Me" section.  It's pretty outdated.  Am I still considered a "Transplanted Yankee" if I'm back up North?  I've found a great local pizza place and there are many bagels places to choose from so I can probably get rid of that.  I'm still raising 2 beautiful daughters (and still in love with my high school sweetheart!).  Still short and sassy, very loyal, funny, sarcastic, practically blind (and gallbladder-less!).  Still love to read and travel.   No changes regarding coconut or bananas.  Still enjoy a margarita on the rocks with salt. 

Snow, Snow and More Snow!

Really enjoying today's snow!  It's been snowing since about 9 AM and hasn't let up at all.  It's really accumulating quite fast and is very light and fluffy.  I took the dog for a walk this morning and you can't even see where our foot steps were.  KJ had off from school yesterday and today so this does not count as a snow day for her.

Cosmo closed his office early and stopped for lunch and Starbucks on the way home.  KJ likes some white mocha something or other but since I don't do coffee he bought me a peppermint hot chocolate.  The two of them shoveled the driveway a bit and did some sledding down the hill in our backyard.  We had the dog all bundled up in her coat and KJ took her down the hill a couple of times.

KJ's volleyball practice has been cancelled, I'm burning some Delicious smelling Red Velvet candles and we're all nice and cozy, snuggled up on the couch and about to watch a movie (options are:  The Butler, Rush, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, or Jack Reacher).

Miss Jackson Metro

Looks like the Cos Fam is traveling to Vicksburg, MS this summer!  Last night T was crowned Miss Jackson Metro and will compete for Miss Mississippi!  Very, very proud of her and I wish we could have been there to help her celebrate!  Fortunately, she's got a great group of friends and they were there for her last night.  They were actually planning to go to next week's pageant in Tupelo but decided at the last minute to drive to Jackson.  So glad she had the girls there to share in her win!

T said one of the male judges in the private interviewed asked her about Hoover and Tow-A-Days (which always cracks her up) and he even asked her about Spain Park!

Talked to T briefly after the crowning and I teased her and asked if her crown fit in the car.  She said, "Fit in the car?! I'm not taking this baby off!   I'm wearing it while I'm driving to Outback for a blooming onion!"

This is actually a photo from her talent portion of the Miss University pageant she did in November

T's friend Tana took this photo last night on her phone  and sent it to me

This is the first time she wore this new black gown; she just bought it on Friday!  She had been competing in a red gown I wasn't too crazy about.  

A couple of these girls are participants in the Miss Teen program.

She usually texts me after each portion of the program and said she did very well in her private interview and she was extremely pleased with her talent.  Last week she struggled a bit on some of her turns; she said the stage floor was not varnished well and it really affected her turns.  She come in 1st Alternate in that pageant.  

She said she was very surprised when they finally called her name.  She said she was a little concerned that she didn't win any of the categories (talent, on-stage question, swimsuit) and when they called her name second, she was very surprised and cried a bit!  

Whoops! Forgot a Good One!!!

We also started watching HBO's new series, "True Detectives," with Matthew Mc and Woody Harrelson.  They play Louisiana State Police investigating what appears to be satanic/ritualistic murders that took place in the mid-90's.  The show is interesting because it goes back and forth between current time and the past.  Something's definitely going on with Matthew Mc, though.  He's looking real rough in current time.  Maybe the case was too much for him and he snapped?  The show is very dark and gritty and I can't wait to see how this plays out.  Matthew Mc looks like he filmed this either during the same time he lost all that weight for Dallas Buyers Club or immediately after and hadn't gained the weight back yet.  http://www.hbo.com/true-detective

Post Holiday

The holidays are over and life is getting back to normal.  The relatives have gone home, the kids are back at school and regular TV programming has resumed.


I've started watching "The Curse of Oak Island" on the History Channel.    http://www.history.com/shows/the-curse-of-oak-island  As we all know, I'm a big history geek and love shows like this that force us to look at the unexplained, the other side of things.  The possibilities.  We're two episodes in already and, unfortunately, I'm getting a little frustrated.  They haven't really come up with new evidence as to the mystery of Oak Island and I feel like I've seen all of this information before on an episode of "America Unearthed" or that show from the 70's with Leonard Nimoy. 


I've been watching "Reign" on the CW.  I think it comes back on a little later in the month.  It's the story of Mary Stuart (AKA Mary Queen of Scots) and is kind of a Gossip Girl meets The Other Boleyn Girl and I'm probably about 30 years old to be watching it but it's fun and campy and not very historically accurate which really doesn't bother me.  I get my history fix from other sources. 
http://www.cwtv.com/shows/reign


This week "Blacklist" returned to NBC.  I made Cosmo sit down and watch it with me and he really, really liked it.  James Spader is awesome in the role of "Red" Reddington.  http://www.nbc.com/the-blacklist/


I also started watching "Intelligence" with Josh Holloway and the red-headed actress from CSI, Marg Helgenberger).  http://www.cbs.com/shows/intelligence/  He's got a computer chip in his head and is basically a walking, talking, living and breathing Internet.


Tonight is "Nashville" night!  http://abc.go.com/shows/nashville  I really enjoy this show which is very weird because I do not like country music.  At all.  But I love Connie Britton's character and Hayden Panettiere is also great as Juliette Barnes.  She's kind of an ingénue in public but a bitch behind the scenes. 


While I do enjoy a good TV series, I also like to relax with a good book.  I'm currently reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.  The book is long.  756 pages on my Nook.  I'm on page 242 right now and to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm enjoying this book.  Maybe I just had very high expectations and am a little let down??  IDK but I'll see it through to the end. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/books/review/donna-tartts-goldfinch.html?_r=0

What Do You Want to be When You Grow Up?

Having some problems uploading photos to my blog the last couple of days.  Yesterday I had a great post about the Golden Globes Red Carpet Fashion but without pictures, it's kind of pointless.


KJ has just started her last semester of middle school.  That just kind of hit me.  I rec'd an e-mail about an open house for rising 9th graders.  The end of January she meets w/ guidance counselors to choose her high school curriculum and the parent's meeting is early February.  Wow.  Let that sink in for a minute.  My baby girl is on her way to becoming a high schooler.  A freshman. 


We met Champ out for dinner last night and had a really nice chat w/ KJ about what she wants to study, how important high school grades are, etc.  T was easy.  She always knew what she wanted to do.  She was on the broadcast team in elementary school, middle school and high school.  She only visited colleges with a broadcast journalism program.  KJ just isn't sure.  And let's be real here.  She's 14.  I'm "40-something" and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. 


She'd like to do something sports-related but has decided she does not want to be a sportscaster.  She said she would be too nervous on the air.  She'd like to work for a professional sports team but she's not sure in what capacity.  She loves to travel so we talked about pursuing a career in hospitality.  She also asked a lot of questions about Human Resources and we talked about a career in Marketing or Sales and how she could use a degree like that.  She said she "wants a fun job" where she can make "lots of money."  Don't we all???

Scar

No!  Not him!!  More like 4 small bullet holes!  Yup.  Unexpectedly had my gall bladder removed the day before New Year's Eve.  Holy hell.  That is not something I ever want to go through again (and thankfully won't!) and I never want to wish that on my worst enemy!



I went to bed Sunday night before Cosmo (which is a rarity in this house; I'm usually up until all hours of the night).  My parents had just returned from my cousin's wedding in Columbus and my brother and his fam had left earlier in the day.  I couldn't get comfortable.  I tossed and turned and had a really weird pain in the middle of my chest that wrapped all around to my back.  I got out of bed so my tossing and turning didn't disturb Cosmo and laid on the couch for a while.  Which seemed to make things worse.  So I sat up and watched TV.  That didn't help either.  At one point, I was on my hands and knees gasping through the pain (please keep in mind KJ was also asleep on the couch and never woke up through any of this).  After about an hour of horrific pain that was not going away, I woke up the hubby.  I swear to God, I thought I was having a heart attack.  The pain was horrific and I couldn't breathe.  It felt like a boa constrictor was wrapped around my upper body and slowly but steadily squeezing.  I begged him not to wake up my parents and I begged him not to call an ambulance.  Just get me to a hospital.  Well, since we haven't lived here very long, neither one of us had any idea where the hospital was! 



We got in the car, pulled out of the driveway and called 911.  The sent us a few miles down the road to the Emergency Center (a stand-alone emergency care center that provides the same emergency medical care that patients can receive at a hospital emergency department, but does not have inpatient beds).  They took wonderful care of me.  And let me tell you I was in sheer agony.  I kept crying to Cosmo "OhMyGod  I think I'm going to die.  Some thing's really wrong."  Cosmo told the ER doctor that I had a pretty high pain threshold and for me to beg to go to the emergency room was an indicator of how bad things were.  We got to the emergency center around 1:30 AM, they quickly did an EKG, checked my vitals (blood pressure was through the roof but they think that was because of the intense pain I was in) and started me on some pain meds.  After some chest x-rays (which came back fine) and an ultra sound, they determined I had gall stones.  I had a couple of choices:  be submitted to the hospital for pain management, have the gall bladder removed ASAP, or go home.  I was still in a lot of pain so going home was not an option.  And neither was laying in a hospital on pain meds without actually doing anything about the stones that aren't going to "pass" like a kidney stone would.  So, they transported me to the main hospital around 7 AM, got me a bed and by 1 PM I was in pre-op.  Around noon the girls and my parents came to the hospital and KJ took them to the cafeteria for some lunch.  I remember being wheeled into surgery at 2 PM and the next thing I remember is waking up in recovery.  They went in laproscopically (through the belly button and I have an incision point right between my boobs deep in my cleavage and two incisions on my right side).  By 7 PM that night I felt totally fine and by 8 AM the next day (New Year's Eve) I was ready to go home. 


T and KJ took my parents to the airport bright and early Tuesday morning and came to the hospital straight from Dulles.  Cosmo met us at the hospital and they all helped me get in the car and the girls drove me home, got my prescription for me and picked up plenty of ice pops, broth and jello.  Yummy. 


As you can imagine, New Year's Eve was kind of lame and I barely got off the couch.  T got together with her "little" (she lives in Arlington) and another one of their sorority sisters for New Year's Eve.  They had dinner with the Little's family and then went out afterward.  T spent the night because there was no way I was going to let her drive on New Year's Eve.