Wednesday, April 25, 2012

I've Moved!

Well, not physically...but I have a new blog and it's a wordpress blog. If you want to come along for the ride, join me at Cohabitation Chronicles!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Cohabitation Chronicles: The Cupid Shuffle

That title doesn't have much to do with this post, except a round about reference to Valentine's Day...and the fact that HH hates line dances. He asked on his FB status if people would be doing the Cupid Shuffle today. Just silly. LOL!

Anywho, my co-worker got some gorgeous flowers today. People keep asking me where mine are. When I tell them we don't do Valentine's Day, they give me a look of incredulity.

But honestly? We don't need to.

HH does great stuff for me all the time. It's the little things that add up. Running me an Epsom salt bath when I beat myself up at the gym. Cooking dinner and leaving it on the stove when I get home. He just went and bought Bogey a kitty condo. He does laundry during the day, vacuums...sure he sometimes leaves his socks by the bed, and that awful Redskins hat on the nightstand...but that's ok. LOL!

He does lots of little things to show that he cares. He makes me belly-laugh at least once per day. I specifically told him not to do anything today, because he probably would have.

If you celebrate it, have a wonderfully awesome day. And if you don't, have a great day anyway, because you can. :)

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Cohabitation Chronicles: Passing Ships

HH has gotten settled into his job here in Charlotte. The first week, he was able to work first shift, but now he's been moved to the shift he will likely have for a minute: second shift, working 3pm - 11pm. He has worked this shift before, but it's definitely not his favorite. If one of the oldsters retires, then he may have an opportunity to bid on first or third shift. Second shift means we pass like ships in the night, literally. I get up around 6:00am to get to work between 7:00 - 7:30. He's asleep, so I tiptoe around e house trying not to make too much noise. I try to pack my yoga bag and my work bag the nig before, and pick out my clothing, so that in the morning I don't have to rumble around the room too much. Wednesday was my first day back to work after my birthday stay-cation. He graciously got up and fixed me some coffee with the Keurig, and packed my lunch. I could tell he was tired so I told him not to worry about getting up in the mornings. At night, I try my hardest to stay awak until he gets home. Most night's he comes home to me conked out, the iPad next to me on the couch or the bed. Last night was the first night I stayed up, and I think I was out 8 minutes after he arrived. LOL! When I wake up in the mornings, I always find that he's placed the iPad and my iPhone on the charging station next to the bed. :) When he gets up, I'm well into my work day. He will usually do chores, so that means (so far) I don't come home to the house looking crazy, and usually come home to dinner. Winning! He will start laundry and when I come home I will fold and finish what he didn't get to. After I eat, I will fix a plate for him and set it aside so he can just warm it up when he gets home. I don't feel bad now about indulging in my yoga practice because I pick classes that are scheduled while he's at work. We did just join a gym, though. The only time we'll be able to work out together is on the weekends. That's kind of a bummer. I still get texts about his adventures with Bogey, and what he's doing during the day. I think we're falling into a nice routine here. I was talking to a co-worker and she said her husband has worked 2nd shift for years, and at this point if he switched to first shift, they'd kill each other or get divorced. LOL! So I guess there's something to be said for space and absence making the heart grow fonder.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Transfer of Energy

On the way to work this morning, XM played Mint Condition's "Nothing Left To Say." Got me a little teary eyed, because this morning I woke up to a text that an acquaintance had passed away.

This man happened to be the limo driver for Mint Condition when they came here in 2008. He didn't know me from Adam, but because we both knew my friend Steph, at her request he got me the band members' autographs. We met him behind the concert venue after the show, and there he was - bright smile, like a big brother, joking with me about these autographs I do desperately wanted.

The flyer they signed is still framed and I always smile when I look at it.

We befriended each other on FB and would joke around occasionally, but I hadn't talked to him much as of late.

I hope that his 2 kids, his family and close friends can find some peace on the coming weeks. Like HH reminded us at my grandma's and dad's funerals, energy is neither created not destroyed - it just changes form. He's still there with you all.

R.I.P, M.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Bogey Has A Gentleman Caller

So...this dude comes to the patio door and meows for her. Sometimes she just sits there and stares at him. Sometimes, she ignores him.

The other day, HH and I came home and 2 black and white cats were fighting on the porch. One was reallllly pissed. The other was cowering and trying to get away. If I had to guess, I'd say this is the pissed one, and he won the fight? LOL!

In any event, color me tres confused, because Bogey is spayed, and has been for some time. She's not in heat. So what gives?

Monday, January 30, 2012

The Cohabitation Chronicles: Yoga Date

On Sunday morning, HH woke up and said, "we need to go to the carwash. You should come with me!"

Say what now? I don't wanna wash the stinkin' car! I've been driving around with a dirty car since before you got here, and I'm pretty ok with that. LOL!

Then the idea popped into my head, and I said, "ok - I'll go to the car wash with you, if you come to yoga with me this afternoon."

HH: Is this how it's gonna be? Every time I ask you to do somethin', then I gotta do somethin'?

Me: Yup. Yoga is at 4:00pm!

Now...I thought I was going to have to WASH the car. What he really wanted me to do was drive my car there, so that he wouldn't have to make multiple trips. He took care of all the washing, drying, tire shining, etc. Do note that I DID ask where the towels were so I could dry the car off, but he declined my help.

So, I felt semi-bad about the 90 minute yoga class I was taking him to.

Here's what CFYC's website says about their power yoga classes:

"Each Power Yoga class is suitable for ALL LEVELS and all classes are taught in a heated room.

The style of yoga that we teach is called Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga.

This powerful, energetic, flowing class has a strong emphasis on breath and allows beginners, intermediate and advanced students to be challenged in the same class.

The room is heated to help cleanse the body and warm the muscles.

90 Min Power Flow
The full Baron Baptiste Sequence, this 90 min class is guaranteed to take you to your edge."


It says all levels. And I've taken him to yoga before, so I figured he'd be fine.

First of all, he had on TOO MUCH CLOTHING. He had on an under armor top and then a basketball jersey type top over that. I said, "babe, it's going to be 90+ degrees - you got on too much!" He said he would be fine. Second, I kept trying to tell him to hydrate before class. He was drinking coffee. Sigh.

We got to class and set up our mats. He was joking with one of the other students that he was going to spend 89 of the 90 minutes in child's pose (that's the pose they tell you to go to if you feel overwhelmed or you just need a break). But I know how he is, and although they tell you to leave it outside the door, ego is a powerful thing.

We started class in child's pose, went into down dog, high push up...all moving relatively slowly and working on waking up the body.

Then the sun salutations started.

I thought I was going to lose him then. It's a sequence that moves pretty fast, but the teacher will always tell you to move with your own breath. If you're not used to it, you really won't keep up with her commands. Bless his heart, he was trying. I saw the sweat rolling off of his brow and soaking his shirt. After a few salutations, he took off the basketball jersey. I stifled a giggle.

Diane, the teacher, came over and helped him a few times with some adjustments. Watching him in Warrior 1 and 2 reminded me of when I first started out last year. Due to my knee issues I would not bend very deep. She acknowledged that that was his body, and she never forced him into anything.

I think it was about 45 minutes in when HH went missing in action. I looked over and he wasn't on the mat. I thought maybe he went to get some water, or he just needed a break from the temps. I was going to give him a few minutes before I went after him.

Luckily, I didn't have to chase him down. He came back in as we got to our standing sequence. Eagle, dancer, tree...all poses requiring you to balance on one leg. He actually did pretty well. I know during our flow sequence, Diane took us into crow 3 times. I really wish I could have seen him, but the pose requires balance and looking straight ahead. I told him he could keep his feet on the mat, but I don't know if he did it.

Towards the end of the stretching sequence, Diane took us into frog pose. For those of you who aren't familiar with yoga, THIS is frog pose:



First, he wanted to switch mats with me. I thought he wanted to do frog pose up against the wall...but later he said, "I didn't want that lady's azz in my face!" - referring to the person to the right of his mat. I was like, that's yoga - sometimes we occupy the same space! He wasn't trying to hear it. LOL!

After 5 minutes in that pose, he told me that I'm in time out until Wednesday. Clearly NOT happy with me! LOL!

Needless to say, I think he was super duper happy when we hit savasana. All the ladies were joking with him and asking him if he'd be back the next day. Poor thing. He just looked like he wanted to side eye everyone.

On the way home, in the middle of the silence he says, "I'm over here feeling like Marvin Sapp..." and starts singing "Never Would Have Made It." LOL!! Dramatic, much? I fell out laughing over the steering wheel.

I'm so proud of him, though! And today he said he felt ok. But I think that's his last foray into 90 minute power classes.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Birthday Recap

Whooo hoooooo! Hello, 37 - nice to meet you! Feels just like 36, except with maybe a few more aches/pains/injuries. LOL!

My birthday rule is that I will not work on my birthday. Period. I refuse to have those miscreants I deal with getting on my nerves on my day. Hmphf. Since I carried of 4 PTO days from last year, I decided to go ahead and take 4 days off. I'll return to work on 2/1.

On my birthday, I let Shanna take me through the paces in her 9:30am power yoga class. As a present to myself, I skipped some chataurangas, and kept my hands at heart center in some of those crescent lunges. Magical.

Unfortunately, HH had to work second shift, so we could not go out to dinner ON my birthday. Instead, Rockstar Stacy and I hit up Crave - the dessert and hookah bar here. I read up about the tobacco content in hookah and have decided it's just not for me, but I DO like their cupcakes. I got 2 of them to go (lemon ginger and strawberry). Rockstar Stacy graciously plied me with strawberry honey mojitos, so I was feeling lovely when I got home around 10:00 or so. So lovely that I poured myself a glass of wine, and then promptly fell asleep on the couch, snuggled under the covers.




Rockstar gang signs!


(Psssst - if you're in ATL, my girl Lyndsay makes better cupcakes than this. Ask for the "Better Than Sex" cupcakes. You're welcome.)

HH got home around 11:30 or 11:45. I'm honestly not sure, because he scared me awake (the alarm signal is here in the living room since I have the cell phone system, and the door chime is rather loud. I still haven't figured out how to turn it down). I heard him come in and head to the kitchen, but I was so out of it, I didn't realize WHAT he was doing until he sat the ice cream cake down in front of me:



The next morning, I went to yoga again because we had early dinner reservations at a restaurant here called Upstream. I came home and HH had birthday flowers waiting for me.



Upstream was an adventure. Generally the restaurant week menu is reserved for dinner only, but they had no dinner reservations available that day. The manager talked to the chef who graciously agreed to let us choose from the restaurant week menu. 2 thumbs up, Upstream! HH had some sea bass that was delicious, and I tried a duck dish for the first time. It was served with pureed sweet potatoes with maple syrup...it was heavenly! But I can see that duck is a very fatty meat and not to be eaten often. HH had a s'mores bread pudding dessert, and I had a chocolate/white chocolate souffle. It was yummy and not too sweet. I liked his dessert, too. Unfortunately, the s'mores bread pudding is only around for restaurant week. Boooooo. :)

After dinner we headed over to South Park mall so that I could hit up the Bare Escentuals store and get some lip gloss. You get a 15% discount during your birthday month. Winning! All I had to do was show my I.D. After visiting there, and The Body Shop, the SOL started to kick in on my shoes, so we came on home. Then we realized we hadn't had anyone take photos of us together, so we had our own little impromptu photo shoot:



Dapper!


Photo on the left was an impromptu snapshot HH took, after making me laugh. I don't even know what we were talking about. That's his favorite photo. Everyone on FB says I look very happy. :)

Photo on the right was another impromptu shot...apparently I give him this "really?" look a lot. I guess. LOL! He was probably cutting up, anyway.

So...that was my weekend. Today we got up and tried to unpack/organize some of HH's clothing. That's a whooooooooole other blog post. I also took him to a 90 minute power yoga class. I am laughing as I type this, but he made it through. I got a post about that, too.

Stay tuned!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

One Year of Yoga!

I realized that on 1/3 it had been a year since I started my yoga practice. A year since I got to class 5 minutes late, wearing socks, and Stacy introduced me to a whole new world.

I didn't even practice on my anniversary. I was in ATL ingesting calories I didn't need. When I returned to Charlotte, I promptly went to my favorite yoga studio and paid for a month of unlimited yoga. It was $99.

I know some folks are gasping for air, but that really is a great deal. To just drop in for a class is $16. 6 random classes would be $96.

Between 1/5 - 1/26, I've attended 23 yoga classes.

I'll let you do the math on that. LOL!

I feel so much better when I go, so I have resolved not to neglect my practice this year.

Some of the things I'd like to work on this year:

--core strength
--shoulder flexibility/openness
--handstands/head stands
--side crow

I'm hoping a regular practice will continue to help me in these areas.

I'm very grateful for everyone I've met on my yoga journey. I can't wait to see where it takes me.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Cohabitation Chronicles: Man vs. Cat

It's no secret that HH is a dog person. I remember year 1 he was talking about this big ol' horse dog, a cane corso, I think? Whatever it was, it was huge and would need about 3 acres of land to roam and pillage.

Uh, no.

So, he has to get used to having a cat. His dad has a cat, so it's not like he's never been around them before. Every day he is amazed by the stuff she does, and I'm like, "ok..." I guess because I've had cats most of my life. I WILL say that Bogey is unlike any other cat I've had before.

They seem to have some kind of competition going on. Or something. I can't quite figure it out. They have their own communication going on. Mostly him yelling at her for doing some cat like thing like, running under his feet, begging for treats, wanting to sleep at the foot of the bed. When he walks toward the bedroom, she runs that way in attempt to beat him to the door and then run under the bed, 'cause she knows he hates it. I don't know how she knows, but she just knows. Every time I come home from work, they are having some kind of "discussion" and he has now "banned" her from the bedroom. The door is literally closed and she is lurking in the laundry room, waiting for the chance to sneak in. LOL!

In the past few days, I've gotten the following text messages while at work:

"Where are the incense??? This d*mn cat stinks!" (left a present in the litter box for him, I guess)

"Crazy azz cat in here doin' wind-sprints!" (anyone who has a cat knows they will just burst into random sprints around the house. I call it the Kitty 500.)

"This d*mn cat just sh*tted smellin' like a grown d*mn person! And, got the nerve to be lookin' at me like she ain't did nothin' wrong!" (Riiiiiiight. Because humans always smell like roses and honeysuckle. LOL)

"Ummm...I didn't realize that the quilt was a "dry clean only". So, if the pillow cases come out wrecked from the washer...Bogey did it! :-\"

Sir. Now we're blaming everything on the cat? LOL!

They frequently side eye each other. I had a good pic the other day, but I accidentally deleted it. He was on the couch and she was on the back of the couch. They were just staring each other down. It truly is comical.

Every now and then, they have a nice moment. A couple of nights ago we were sitting on the couch watching tv. I was on the right, he was on my left. She jumped up and curled up into the space to his left, and he was rubbing her on the head. Awwwwww. Lasted for about 90 seconds and then she got annoyed. I guess he wasn't doing it right. *shrug*

Oh well. My first cat lived for 17 years, so I have a feeling Bogey will be here for a minute. He's gonna have to deal with it!

Bless all of our hearts. But we're not getting a dog right now. So...yeah.

Monday, January 23, 2012

The Cohabitation Chrolnicles: Sharing Space

(we can thank Melleaux for that title...lol)

Sooooo...it's been 9 days since HH's arrival. Oh - LDR now = HH. His initials. His choice. LOL! We are slowly but surely integrating his things into the house. One thing has become painfully obvious:

WE NEED MORE SPACE.

Or maybe we need less isht? Well, probably a combination of the two.

And the thing is, it's not like he brought a lot of stuff! He didn't even bring furniture. Just...stuff. Clothes. Books. Paperwork. Random tchotchkes. O_o

For the past few months its been me and Bogey. We settled into the space and got a routine going. De-clutter each day, major cleaning on weekends everything in its place.

Enter the dragon.

If dragon = clutter monster! I think clutter makes him comfy! He just sits stuff down the first place he can find. Mostly on the console table in the hall. Sir. No! Why? I feel sort of bad/guilty/frustrated because it's not MY space anymore, it's OUR space...BUT IF YOU DON'T PUT THOSE DAMN KEYS IN THE BASKET WHERE THEY BELONG AND STOP SCATTERING MAIL EVERYWHERE!!!

LMAO! OK. I digress.

It reminds me of the episode of Tia and Tamera, where Tamera talked to her therapist about moving Adam's things into her condo after they got married. She had to stop thinking of it as HER condo. She had to try to see it from Adam's point of view.

I totally get that episode now.

So, we're making adjustments. And I don't want this to sound like a complaint post because its not. I wouldn't change it for the world! It's more like a brain dump. And throughout all of this we have laughed so hard. At our "moments" (like me moving something 2 minutes after he sets it down, and him looking bewildered).

I'm giving up space in the house and creating shared space in our relationship.

#winning!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year, New Adevntures

I think I may have been asleep when the clock struck 12:00...but then I was woken up by what seemed to be a combo of fireworks and gunshots. Gotta love Georgia!

I'm down here visiting family and friends for the start of 2012. It occurred to me that I hadn't updated my blog with the greatest change that will be happening this year:

LDR GOT HIS JOB TRANSFER!!!
*throws blue confetti*

He'll be here in 13 days...I think part of me is still in shock. When he Sent me the text a couple of weeks ago saying to "call him ASAP" I thought something was wrong. I called and he said he had gotten a call from his company's headquarters wanting to know if he was still interested in transferring. Well, of course!!!

Then, being the claim rep I am, I started asking detail questions, for which he didn't have the answers and I was like, "get off the phone with me and call your boss and get the deets!" I learned later that someone here must have gotten fired or quit, and when they went to check the transfer list, his name was at the top.

So now, we're just preparing. It's been a minute since I shared space with someone. Y'all have seen my shoe collection...I don't know how we're gonna work out closet space. LOL!

Luckily, we had a skeleton of a plan in place, because we figured when he got the call, it would be a fast transition. His brother is taking his furniture. Duplicate items are being given away. He's trying to get everything he needs to bring to fit in the car. Pretty much his clothes, his stereo, and that's about it. LOL! The 14 year old was a bit upset...I think he thought he was going to come down right away. Once LDR explained to him (there's a reason I rented a 3bdrm house) he understood. Plus there's the matter of reworking the custody agreement. That takes courts, and time. And we need him to get his grades up this second half of the school year. But we will do everything in OUR power to get him down here with us.

When I left after Thanksgiving, that was a hard goodbye at the airport. I cried as soon as I realized I had to get in the security line (we usually get there early enough to sit and talk). He shed a few tears as well. I think at that time we were just feeling the weight of the distance, and not knowing when our next visit would be.

Funny how things work out when we do what we're supposed to do, and then get out of the way. :)

Thanks for all your prayers and words of encouragement. We can't wait to get started on 2012.