Corroborating Witness

Today I was a court witness, or as they called it "corroborating witness" for the first time in my life for a friend going through a divorce. She is a great friend and I had promised her I would do it, and what a weird experience. The "judge" grilled me more than I thought she would. Her husband was also there, and while it was great to see him, as we were always friends and the divorce is an amicable one, it was also bittersweet and signified the true ending of an era. A bunch of us used to always do things together and those are truly some of my favorite recent memories. I really miss those times and sit here tonight reflecting on life and how much things change, whether or not you really want them to. You have to just keep moving on and persevere, but sometimes it's hard to know what to do with all the sadness and loss.

Weekend of Relaxation and Fun

Lately my life hasn't consisted of either relaxation or fun, to the extent that I forgot I could even have some. A girlfriend and I took the weekend to tour VA wine country in her cute VW bug convertible. With a base in Harrisonburg, VA, we visited the Valley Fest Beer & Wine Festival where we fell in love with musician Mike Davis and raced down the highway blaring Bon Jovi alongside some JMU students. The next day we visited Afton Mountain Vineyards, which was so beautiful (pictured) that I didn't want to leave. We enjoyed lunch on the patio and glasses of dry riesling, very rare. Our other favorite vineyard was Keswick, which was really pet-friendly and boasted a beautiful chocolate sauce infused with wine. The roads were beautiful country roads through the mountains, and riding around with the top down it was easy to forget your cares. Monday I went to a cookout for Memorial Day, and had a fun time with friends who are quick-witted and entertaining. There was tons of food and drink, and even a couple of cute guys to flirt with. All in all, a great way to end a great weekend.

Sad for a Life I Never Met

My neighbor and fellow dog person, who has become a very dear friend, told me today that her favorite cousin committed suicide. This is someone she had been wanting to fix me up with. Apparently he was more depressed than people ever knew. He left behind a teenage son--how very tragic for the family. I really feel terrible for my friend, and wish I'd had the chance to meet this cousin she so admired, though I guess I would be even sadder tonight. You just never know how much a day can change everything.

Weekend with Nothing to Do

Just once, I have had nothing planned this weekend except for the Pet Happy Hour I organized last night. It was awesome, very fun time. I organize this every year for my condo association. It was a long, tiring day, so I didn't plan anything else this weekend. I am trying to finish my garden planting, and my house is a wreck so I am trying to get things back into some semblance of order. I have gotten a lot done, but all on my own schedule. Which is nice and much needed. If only the dogs would just be a little more low key things would be almost perfect. Tonight I wanted to grill and sit out for a while, but my neighbors have people over and they are outside, so it's kind of awkward, so I am inside watching a movie instead.

Mad at Blogger

Ok, so I had created this special blog template with all these things in the sidebar, and for no apparent reason and with no warning Blogger changed it yesterday right after I made an adjustment to the template. Now my sidebar has nothing interesting anymore and I have to figure out how to recreate it. Fuckers.

Sunday Night

Is there anything more depressing than Sunday night? Sunday night without wine, maybe. Luckily my friend J came over and helped me to make sure I had plenty tonight. We laughed and cracked up about crap that happened this weekend, and she got to see some plants that I just bought for my garden. I did a little planting today, so that was nice. Still have a lot to go. How is May here already? Anyway, it's after 11 and I need to get my beauty rest. The dogs are restless so I guess it's time to finally get to bed. Night all.

Things I Love

Things I Love is an occasional rant about things that really bug me. Usually it's about work, but today's rant is about my friend K, who calls me repeatedly but doesn't ever leave a message. This really pisses me off, and I have told her in the past that it bothers me when she doesn't leave a message cause I don't know how urgent her call is. She has had a lot of stress in her life recently and I've been there for her. So when she has called in the past I would typically call her back if I saw her number on caller ID. But you know, my life has gotten really stressful and is she there for me? No. When I ask her why she doesn't leave a message, she makes up some dumb excuse why she didn't leave a message, like she didn't think I'd be home but thought she would check. Well, if you don't think I'll be home, don't call me. She also called last night, Friday, at like 8:30 pm. After working a full week, I don't want to deal with her shit for an hour on the phone, and her calls are never less than an hour. She doesn't work so she has no idea how hard Friday nights are--I am either too tired and don't want to spend an hour on the phone, or I'm trying to go out and have a social life. I also have told her not to call on Friday nights but again she apparently doesn't care. Matter of fact I think the previous "no message" call was last Friday too. Will she ever get a clue? Apparently not. I would tell her these things again, but past experience has shown that she doesn't listen and will do whatever she wants anyway. So I will do what I want and ignore her. There, I feel better now.

Crazy

I have been at my new job almost a year and it has gone by so fast. It's been very stressful--first the company got bought out and I lost out on stock options and profit sharing. That has been sort of taken care of with a new bonus plan, plus a free parking space. So I am finally sort of over it. However, I've been dealing with a crazy employee for the year too. He has been out of work more than at work, and had sort of a mental breakdown around the holidays. He's brought union grievances against me and my boss. Now he's being evaluated for being "fit to work" which at first he was, but now he is not. It's a long story. The worst part is I am having to do his work, and now this is dragging out indefinitely again. He's been out more than a month. I can't take much more of this. I desperately need a vacation. I am taking tomorrow off, and hopefully having a long weekend will help to get me through this month until I can get a break . . .