Family Drama

Now that you know about the "Big Night Out" at MB, let me tell you the fall out portion. So I've been home for about a month when I get an out of the blue email from Bill (names changed so I didn't get killed by my family) my 20 year old cousin's mother. And I quote

has a $740 charge on his credit card from the night y'all all went drinking together. He says he paid the tab for everyone. Did y'all go any place after Captain Poo's? The receipt does not say Captain Poo's. It says Dog Leg Left.

We are trying to deal with his wild spending, drinking and honesty issues. He is going to a counselor today. It would help if we had our facts together.

Now at this point I'm thinking Shit, Damn Fuck we're busted and she's pissed. The other co conspirators and I decide to let me address the email and I'll handle Bill's Mom (BM). I proceed to fudge the truth b/c at this time I'm still trying to NOT tell anyone where we went b/c I just don't want to deal with the drama associated with that. Suffice it to say the conversation went down hill from there. The high points of my eventual telephone conversation with BM were

1. Bill didn't buy alcohol
2. Bill is an adult and needs to take responsibility for his actions
   
3. I have no guilt about going to a damn strip club b/c I'm of age and can make my own decisions
4. And I did nothing to feel sorry for.

At which point I find out that the dumbass went back the next night BY HIMSELF and spent a freakin grand at the club. So I go back to the original theme of the conversation

1. Bill is an adult and is responsible for his actions
2. I'm sorry (no not for getting caught see point numbers three and four above) but that she is dealing with this
3. Some people have to learn the hard way like 95% of my family including ME!
4. He'll eventually grow up but only if he is held responsible for his own actions

WE hang up on good terms and I congratulate myself for the mature and responsible way I handled the phone call. And then proceed to convene a conference call with my girls to gossip and dissect the conversations. This is on Tuesday night

So I go back to work on Wed and it's all good until about 5:30 PM when I get this blast email that just about blows the top of my head off.

If you get a call from the Horry County Police Department, it is because I have filed charges against the Crazy Horse for selling $1740.00 worth of alcohol and etc. to my 20 year old son. Y'all might be called on as witnesses.

Thanks for your assistance!

WTF?!?!?! Oh great, this means that on top of not holding him accountable for his actions, you've drug me, Jamie and my best friend into an asinine police report that could at some point in the future impact all of us. I don't need to be tied up in a police report in which I could be held accountable for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Again been there, done that, escaped by the skin of my teeth on that one. No charges, b/c I didn't do anything wrong but it could have gone so much more badly for me than it did.

Plus this just pissed me off and told me that BM did not listen to what I said and is still living in her safe little world where nothing is Bill's fucking fault. GROW UP! The dude went back a second night by himself to spend a thousand dollars on some cute little dancer named Jewel. And she was cute and sweet, but get real! How does this translate into a complaint against the Crazy Horse. He's allowed in there at 18 and can spend whatever amount he wants on lap dances. THEY NEVER SERVED HIM ALCOHOL!!!!! They are not going to risk their ABC liquor license on some dumb 20 year old punk who spent some money there. The Crazy Horse is a freaking institution in North Myrtle Beach, it's been there for as long as I can remember.

So I and the others decide to just ignore this email and not respond. But by now I realize I'm going to need to do damage control because I am 100% positive that this little episode has made the family airwaves and I need to talk to my parents to ensure that I don't get relegated back to the "Awful Child" list that I've managed to NOT be on in at least 6 years. :)

Big night out at MB

This is a long one so just bear with me. I wasn't going to blog about this, but in the end it just too damn funny not to.

Let me set the stage for my latest family drama. As you know, my family vacations for a week at Myrtle Beach every year. This has been going on since before I was born people. Too many people of all ages stuffed into one house makes for some VERY interesting stories over the past years. But since we've all grown up and people have moved away, died, been born, just gotten older, etc, the number of people has changed from year to year. So this year, it me, my parents, my aunt, my cuz Jamie, my other aunt and uncle and my two of my bestest girlfriends on the planet in a four bedroom two bath house on the front row. Scattered among various other houses were other member of the extended family.

So one night we all decide to head out to a local "hotspot" that Jame Jame had found from talking to various people. The girls and Jamie head out to Captain Poo's local hotspot and proceed to hang out and the girls were drinking like fishes (which we'd done since we'd gotten to the beach on Saturday). My younger cousin we'll call Bill and my brother and his girlfriend show up and decide to hang for a while. this is all good until Captain Poo's decides to shut down for the evening and we have to find somewhere else to go. Now my brother and his girlfriend decide to be the smart ones and go home! Bill and the rest of us decide to stay out for a while. No big deal, until you start looking for a place in North Myrtle Beach the week before high season starts that's still open at 1 AM AND (drumroll please) allows under 21 to get in. Guess what the only place is that will allow this interesting combo to happen.....A Gentleman's Club!

So we proceed to traipse over to the Crazy Horse and the girls are going to continue to hang and drink b/c we just didn't want to go home yet. Bill, of course is 20 so he can't drink and Jamie is DD for the night. No biggie, we'll go, have a few more drinks, talk, laugh and head home before the sun comes up because I have NO desire to ever be awake and drinking when the sun comes up again. Been there, done that, have the bar bills to prove it and no thank you I'm too damn old for that anymore.

See now this is where things get interesting. Bill (the 20 yr old cousin) has a tiny little self esteem problem and has now decided to show his older cousins and her hot friends exactly how cool he is. And this is probably going to be two parts.

We show ID, pay our way into the Crazy Horse and find a table. Bill is off somewhere and when he gets to the table he tells us he's paid the bouncer/doorman to make sure we "are taken care of" and he's pulled $600 are and we won't have to pay for anything. My first response was WTF??! There's like 12 people in here, we don't need to pay to be taken care of, plus there's three women at the table and dancers for some reason swarm around tables with women and hwo the fuck are we going to spend $600 on drinks. Well duh, we didn't really see Bill for the rest of the night b/c he was off in the private room spending his $600 on lap dances. Whatever we had a really good time talking to the girls and drinking and then it was time to go home.

Here's the deal, we all agreed to NOT tell anyone where we went b/c it wouldn't go over well with the family AND Jamie and Bill had gotten into deep kimchi last year for doing this. So we tell NO ONE where we were and suffered the hangovers the next day like the big girls we were. Of course the girls were in bed by 10 the next night and I'm not sure Jamie even made it to 8 PM. But we're all old now and know when to get some sleep after being stupid the night before.

Boot camp rocks...

or sucks depending on how you look at it. When I came home from my last project I decided to start boot camp cuz one of my girlfriends had great success doing one. So for the last five weeks I've been up at 5:15 AM Monday through Friday rain or shine to go work out with about 15 - 20 other women. Let me assure you the boot camp is kicking my butt.

On a happier note, in four weeks I lost 8 pounds, 7 of which were all fat! Woohoo!!!! Go me! I've dropped 1.5 percent of my body fat and I'm extremely pleased by this. Now I just have to keep it going whenever I finally end up on the road again. :)

Remember when?

Do you remeber when I was BMCing (bitch, moan and complain for those of you who don't personally know me) about traveling nonstop and wanting down time? Well...be careful what you wish for. I've been home since the first week in April and I am BORED out of my everloving mind. I've also burned a weeks vacation and didn't go anywhere.

I HATE being on the beach (company term for no billing project) with nothing to do. Because it is not like being on vaca...at all. I've worked for consulting companies where if you didn't have a project you just had to check in for a couple of hours a day and they didn't care where you checked in from AND you still got paid. I used to frequently check in from the pool deck with a cold one when I was living in Atlanta. But now that I work for one of those uptight management consulting firms who also does tons of govie work, I have to account for ALL my hours. Never mind the 60+ hours I worked during my project, I have to have a charge number for every single hour of the week. And forgive me if I work quickly so what some other moron would take two days to do I usually get done in six hours. (Note to self: work on that concept or at least make it LOOK like it took longer. No need to set the bar that high). I'm ready to go back to work and the picture isn't very rosy right now. The only thing pulling me through is that I have boot camp every morning (will update after Thursday's body composition and yes, I'm a little afraid) and my annual family vaca at the wild and wonderful Myrtle Beach in 26 days! Which I'm brining both of my best girls on this year. I swear my family is going to make us get our own house next year. They have no idea what its like to have all three of us together for any length of time.

Back to BMC...I'm now starting to get a little worried that it might be time to start looking for a new job. I was complacent one time before and got the 'ol heave ho for my efforts. (Ok, it was 2001, Lucent Technologies and 55000 people also got the pink slip.) But still it was traumatic and it took me almost a year to find another job. There is NO WAY I can survive another go round like that.

Plus I swear my SO is about ready to ship me off for points unknown. This is the absolute most time we've spent together since we've known each other. And the condo is just not that big. LOL

Ok..I'm done BMCing, but I swear if something doesn't change soon, I'm going to get a second job just to have something to do.

I need a gig

I've been home for 2 1/2 weeks without being on an assignment. So far I've helped with three proposals (I hate proposals b/c I am NOT a salesperson), cleaned up my previous client's deliverables (so we can use them again, charge a premium for them and the client will think its all new), started boot camp (I f'ing hurt everywhere!) and spent WAY too much money. My bank account says I need to go back on the road soon. I'm a victim of too much month and too little money. But the closet is cleaner than it was and the storage unit is somewhat more organized than it was when I got home. God bless The Container Store. :)

Award snafu

So in my previous post I was ranting about my missing award. This is the resolution...my boss forgot to give it to me. But I now have it and am planning on how to spend my award. It's either going to be on dinner here or something from the Coach store. :)

Thanks for nothing

I was nominated for and received a cash award from my company back in Feb. It wasn't paid in Feb's paycheck which was no big deal. My company is notorious for missing the monthly payroll window.

So I forgot about it and checked my online payroll stubs this morning. I have two: one for my monthly salary and a second mystery stub. Upon checking said stub, I deduce its for my award....except the net pay is ZERO. I got a f'ing award for which I'll get taxed on and I received NOTHING in my account for it.

Please explain that to me!

Before we ever left...

I'm slack. I haven't posted to my blog since I got back from London (which was FABULOUS) and I've since been back to NY, SAT, NY and home. Soooooo....here we go. Whirlwind weekend in London. Overnight flight was great, I slept about three hours, my SO not at all. Seats were awesome, plenty of room good food, on demand games, movies and musics. But before we ever boarded the plane we started having fun. I picked the line to go through security at JFK b/c I NEVER get in the same line as people with kids especially those in a stroller because it takes forever to get through. Yes, I fly every week, I HATE strollers and newbie flyers.

Anywhoo...this is a transcript of the people in front of us in line. Read with a Cockney accent

TSA: Please remove all metal objects and put them in the bin, remove laptops, dvd players, video cameras from their case, keep your boarding pass out and only one carry on plus one personal item per person.
Female passenger: Its against the rules to bring more than x amount of alcohol back into the UK we aren't buying anything else in the duty free shop
Male passenger: But we promised
Female passenger: NO
Male passenger: grumble, grumble, grumble

TSA: Please remove all metal objects from your pockets before passing through security
Male passenger dumps fake fur coat and shoes and carry on in bin and walks through metal detector

BING BING BING (aka as the moron alert)

Male passenger shows off belly to show belt buckle (totally grody by the way)
TSA: Please go back and remove all metal objects from your pockets including keys, change, cell phone, watch, etc.
Male passenger dumps three pounds of change from left pocket and cell phone but doesn't remove belt, watch or wallet.
TSA: Please remove everything from your pockets and take off the belt
Male passenger is like the clown car removing shit from his pockets: more change, wallet, belt, watch, FIVE rings, gold Mr. T chain, etc. Goes back through security and BING BING BING
At this point SO and I are falling on each other laughing b/c the TSA chick is PISSED!!!!! And not being nice about it.
TSA: COME BACK HERE AND REMOVE EVERYTHING FROM YOUR POCKETS. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
Male Passenger remove THREE condoms from back pocket
TSA: Condoms?!? Really are you serious?!?! CONDOMS?!?!?! I said take EVERYTHING out of your pockets. These are FOIL. They set off the metal detector. Is there anything else in your pockets, any of your pockets?!?!?
Male passenger: No I don't think so
TSA: Go through the metal detector now and I don't want you to come back here again

Male passenger finally gets through security and his wife who is already through security is about to blow a gasket.

SO and I proceed through with no problems. Of course I need to change my pants after peeing on myself from laughing so hard at the idiots. I love traveling! International is the best!

BTW...this couple was across the aisle from us on the flight over. They continued behaving as if they owned the damn plane and needed rock star treatment the whole flight and continued fighting about the duty free alcohol. LOL

Cheers

I'm back! At least physically I'm back in the States and have been since about 10 PM Monday. All I have to say is I love that city and I am sooo going back to London. The other half and I had an absolute blast. Short story is lots of walking, little sleep, British breakfasts, football, the tube, drizzle and a new suitcase for the trinkets we brought back. I'll go into more detail later, but I'm alive, we had a great time and it sucks to be back at work. I still haven't caught up on my sleep but I'm planning to while I'm in San Antonio this weekend. :)

Outta here!!!!

So today is the day I fly to merry ol england for the first time. I'm all kinds of excited and about to bust to get out of work and leave. But I still have eight more hours until I leave. On the good side of the house is the fact that I won't have to work while I'm gone b/c I killed myself last week and this week to get it all done so I can leave in good conscience. On the bad side of the house my stress levels have been out of control for two weeks. Which leads me to my next topic...stupid fights.

That being said I have a confession to make. I did something I swore I'd never do. I picked a fight with my SO over something stupid b/c I didn't know how to express how upset I was over something else. I won't go into what I was upset about but I will confess the stupid fight part. It was over the size of the suitcase I was packing for the London trip. Keeping in mind I'm gone for 17 days and I'm going to work, London and San Antonio during this time. Anyway, I packed the 22 inch suitcase instead of my usual 19 inch rollaboard and first he was asking if I really wanted to do that and why was it so full. I pulled psycho girl out of the closet and proceeded to rant uncontrollably and say really not nice things. Thank god he doesn't hold grudges because I was mean and borderline psychotic. I'm going to have to be extra nice on this trip to make up for it.

Back to the fun stuff now. He's on his way here to NY and we are so outta here for four days tonight! I can't wait and it's like waiting for Christmas when you're little. It seems like today is NEVER going to end. I've also got money and requests for lots of little things from there and of course chocolate that you can't buy here. Well you can usually find it in NY, but not in the rest of the good ol USofA. So what little room I have left in my suitcase is getting filled with chocolate before I come back. :)

BTW...I'm sorry for being that girl and going psycho on you. I'll try not to do it again.

I suck at Tag

What is your occupation?

IT Consultant for a management consulting firm. In reality I develop stuff for other companies to use and then walk away hoping it all works out ok. :)

What are you listening to right now?

My other half telling me what he's buying and bitching about how hard it's going to be to get his Canadian citizenship.

Can you drive a stick shift?

Yes. At least I used to be able to. I'm going to take out my SO's car and make sure I still can. and no I'm not telling him when I do it.

Last person you spoke to on the phone?

My mom.

Do you like the person who sent this to you?

Yes, except when she buys shoes without approval. :)

Favorite drink?

Non-alcoholic ... Starbuck's Peppermint mocha! Alcoholic ... Jameson's scotch.

What is your favorite sport to watch?

Soccer (shut up... it has hot guys, shorts, great legs...nuff said)

Have you ever dyed your hair?

Hell yes! I definitely color my hair, it's ugly without a little help

Pets?

Yes. One chunky pretty kitty.

Favorite food?

CHOCOLATE! If that doesn't count, then pasta of any kind.

Last movie you watched?

LeMans with Steve McQueen (he is the epitome of coolness).

Favorite day of the year?

Christmas.

What do you do to vent anger?

Bitch to my girlfriends.

What was your favorite toy as a child?

Lite Brite, I never had one and was hugely disappointed in my parents for that.

Which is your favorite, fall or spring?

Fall. I love sweater season.

Hugs or kisses?

Hugs for friends and family. Kisses for my SO.

What kind of pie?

Key lime or my dad's Chocolate Cream pie. OMG sin on a plate.

Living arrangements?

I live with my SO in a 700 sf condo...or at least my cat does, I travel during the week for work.

When was the last time you cried?

Monday AM, my uncle died unexpectedly and I couldn't make it to the funeral.

What is on the floor of your closet?

Shoes, dirty clothes, a suitcase and my cat.

Favorite smell?

Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and cinnamon.

What inspires you?

Someone trying to make the world a better place or standing up for those who can't do it for themselves.

What are you afraid of?

Being alone.

Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?

Cheese with bacon.

Favorite car?

I have several...but my all time wish car is a 63 split window vette, in reality I really really want a...I don't know. My dream car (BMW) turned out to be a big PITA.

Favorite cat breed?

Big fluffy cats..

Favorite day of the week?

Sunday AM because I don't have to do anything and we both get to sleep in.

How many countries have you been to?

Four and the furthest was Taiwan.

I have no one left to tag. :)

Traveling is such an adventure

I try and get home sometime between my Dad and Mom's birthday every year. Their birthdays are only a couple weeks apart, so we usually try and celebrate them together b/c I can only get a couple trips home a year. Since I've been traveling so much I decided to take advantage of the fact that my company will pick up my flight if I don't go back to DC first and make the most efficient use of my time. I book a flight leaving Thursday afternoon because that's when I always fly back from NY.

Now that the stage is set, let me tell you the rest of the story. I have a two hour working session with my clients late Wed afternoon. We are doing process design for a new IT process and I won't bore you with the details. Anywhoo...I screwed up so bad that I thought I was going to be asked to leave the client. My boss explains to me that I need to fix this tomorrow (Thursday) and I need to get it done now! My flight leaves at 2:40 PM and I'm in meetings all Thursday AM. Soooo...like the good corporate slave that I am, I change my flights to Friday stay an extra day and fix the problem. Which BTW, wasn't totally my fault as I was using work from another team in my company, but I didn't validate it and I'm the one on the hook. Back to the story...flight changes, fix the problem. All taken care of right?

10:30 PM on Wed, I'm done working and check the weather for Friday. HOLY SHIT!!!!! We're getting 6 - 8 inches of snow on Friday. I'm thinking I'm never going to get home for Dad's bday and I've already disappointed them by not being able to get home on Thursday.

I wake up to a winter wonderland on Friday AM. It's pretty, but have you seen the airports in NY during snow and bad weather? They get screwed up very badly very quickly. So I head to the office for my early morning meeting to rectify the Wed screw up. And........




the people coming to my mea culpa meeting AREN'T there b/c of the SNOW!!!!!! ARGH!! Ok..c.onf call, make everyone happy and call the car company to come get me and take me to LaGuardia praying my flight takes off. There is already a three hour inbound delay at LGA, a 5 hour delay at JFK and a 7 hour delay at EWR. Let's see, three hour delay at LGA, three hour layover in Charlotte for the last flight to Florence = missed flight home. Now I'm royally pissed b/c I'm never going to get home to see my parents.

At least I'll be able to get to DC if I can get to the train station.

But we have a happy ending, my flight takes off 1 hour late and I make my flight home. Now I just have to make sure I make the 5:45 AM flight out Monday AM.

5:45 AM flight. WTH was I thinking?!?!? Oh yeah, Daddy's girl has to go home for Daddy's birthday. I'd hate to disappoint. Plus I got a GREAT card. I knew he was going to cry! :)

Across the pond

I'm soooo freaking excited. My other half and I are finally taking that trip to London we've been talking about for years! Flying Virgin Atlantic premium economy which is first class on most other airlines. Using points for an awesome hotel near the Kensington Palace, going to see a soccer game and tour all kinds of neat things using the London Pass. I cannot tell you how excited I am to take this trip. I've never been to London and I've heard awesome things about it. I'm going to Harrod's, (hate on me all you want Terri, you've been there), Hard Rock to add to my shot glass collection, the Kensington Palace, London Tower and all kinds of stuff that I can't even begin to list.

Ok..I'm done being insane and am going back to my normal self. Updates to come as we get closer to trip date.

Be careful what you wish for...

because you just might get it.

Holy crap what have I gotten myself into?!?! I BMC'd about working governtment and wanted to go back to commercial work. Ok. I put my trnasfer in, wham, bam thank you ma'am I'm transfered with a nice 10% raise. This is all good right? Right!? RIGHT?!?!?!?

Well...not exactly. I knew there would be days where I worked crappy hours and travel is part of the gig (I like this part for the most part), but holy crap I'm tired of working this many hours in a week. My days are minimum 10 hours and usually 12 -14. I'm working weekends and traveling and giving up parts of my life I don't want to.

I flipped out this weekend b/c I volunteered to be on Terri duty post surgery (my pleasure chica....love you!) but based on her previous surgery I expected her to be still drugged up until 7 PM again. But oh no, she has to get new doctors who don't over sedate her and bam she's out by 2 PM. WTF?!?! There goes my carefully laid plans for Friday. :) So I lost 5 hours on Friday that I ended up having to make up on Sunday. Too much work, too little time. My assessment raise better be HUGE. B/c unlike some people I'm not getting a bonus for all this work.

Bastards. Or maybe it's just PMS. Whatever, chocolate makes everything better. :)

I love my job

Not. That is all.

I "heart" NY

I'm a convert. It's official, I'm a NY convert. I love this place. OK...now that I'm done fawning all over a city, I'll explain why. I spent the weekend in Manhattan with my other half as I managed to mostly recover from that lovely little virus I had last week. So I used points and stayed here. This place was very cool and I had no problem getting there from Queens without a car. It took a little while, but then again driving anywhere in DC takes an hour.

The view was fantastic and we had an upgraded room overlooking the Hudson and the skyline was absolutely gorgeous (even if it was the NJ skyline).

Friday night we wandered around, found a pizza place, ordered a pie, walked two more blocks to get drinks from this really neat little grocery store, and took it all back to the hotel to veg and just hang out. OMG...that pizza was fabulous. The crust was almost like soda bread and was extremely tasty.

Had a little sleep in on Saturday, but we did get out around 10 AM. Two subways later and about a mile walk we ended up at the MoMA because I'd never seen any Monet's in person. And let me tell you they are more gorgeous and interesting in person. We wandered around and ended up in the Arms and armor wing which was totally cool as well. Swords, armor, guns, helmets, shields and at least one suit of armor from Henry VIII. TOO COOL!

Back down to the NYU area b/c we wanted burgers and fries...at which point our carefully laid plans derailed. Leaving Blue 9, we ran into some of my other half's soccer friends. Into Nevada Smith's for one beer. Yeah right! Five Jamison's on ice later, I'm dying for some more food and we part ways with the friends. Gyros here we come. Once he finally figures out that we've walked about 9 blocks too far and we have to turn around. We end up here and I have the best gyro I've ever had. Split a hooka and about an hour later after hanging out talking to the owner we grab a cab back to the hotel. Because sometime in between finding Cinderella and leaving the temperature dropped dramatically.

I had a great time, spent some money, walked a lot, had great food that wasn't dramatically expensive and spent QT with my other half. Now I'm a convert. I soooo want to move here.



Just need to make more $$$ so I can afford my habits in this city. What do you think about this little place? It's only $6.1 million freaking dollars! We passed this walking to the MoMA and just for grins I got the address and realtor's name. HOLY SHIT! I'm never gonna make that kinda cash, but I'm sure with enough roommates we could afford it. :)

Downside of traveling (hack hack hack)

So my blog is called travelin girl adventures for a reason. I travel. ALOT! Mostly for work, but sometimes for fun. Hoping to do more of the fun stuff soon. Swiss Miss I so want to go to Austria with you!!!

Anyway, I finally succumbed to the bane of all travelers. I'm SICK! As in fever, hacking cough, chills, night sweats and all around feeling like poop! And this totally sucks b/c I'm supposed to spend next weekend in NY with my other half on our first mini vacation since I moved in last June. Life's been crazy over the holidays with work and other obligations and we haven't gotten to see much of each other. So we are really looking forward to playing tourist in Manhattan all weekend. Now I don't know if its going to happen.

Of course I have no choice about work. I have six weeks to finish up a project that we kicked off this week and there is a ton of work that needs to happen before the end of six weeks. So I have to be on site next week. Sick or no sick. Thank god for Motrin (vitamin M for those in the know).


It's the only thing allowing me to feel human right now. (time for more drugs...brb)





Ok...next dose of Motrin down the gullet. Back to traveling and being sick. I'm trying to decide how sick I need to be before I work from home and how much trouble I'd get into for doing so. I'll decide tomorrow night because my flight back to NY doesn't leave until Monday AM. I can always cancel at the last minute if I have to. I'm done complaining now...at least I'm not having surgery like some people.

Now I'm going back to sleep. I'll be happier later. :)