Monday, Monday

I'm quoting The Mamas and The Papas today. All day:

"Every other day, every other day,
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes
You can find me cryin' all of the time"

That's how I'm feeling right about now. I'm so tired...but I refuse to give up my skating. My right knee hurts a little bit. Last night, I took some 800 mg Motrin at the rink, to head off the stiffness at the pass. I neglected to have some food in my stomach, so then my stomach was hurting at the rink. Dumb! I will have to sneak in a snack or two on Sundays, if I'm going to take the Ibuprofen.

This weekend was all about the Taste of Charlotte. This would have been something cool to do with KC, but as usual, he was working like a Hebrew slave at the restaurant. RB can be cool to hang out with, when he understands the concept of hanging out AS FRIENDS. I just didn't want to go down that road with him, so I went by myself. I ended up meeting up with one of my friends, who had taken her son down there.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach, and I ended up buying 21 coins. At TOC, there is no "admission fee." You just buy coins that you use to purchase samples from the vendors. Most items cost 2 - 3 coins. They had some kiddie games/rides for the kids, and those were usually 1 coin. (At Taste of Atlanta last year, you had to pay an admission fee, and they gave you this bracelet to wear. After you got the bracelet, you could then buy the tickets to get your samples. That was some frackle nackle bull. Admission fee???) I got down to TOC around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and by the time I left at 10:00, I still had 15 coins. All I had that night was some Cake Batter ice cream from Coldstone Creamery, and a Leapin' Lizard smoothie from Planet Smoothie. I used to drink those smoothies all the time when I lived in ATL. We really don't have a lot of Planet Smoothie locations here. And to me, Smoothie King just ain't the same. As for the Cake Batter ice cream, that was my first time trying it, and it truly was like licking the spatula after your mom got finished making the batter for Duncan Hines yellow cake. Yummy! I think I have a new favorite ice cream flavor...

On Sunday, I woke up around 9:30 or so. I called my mom and we talked for a couple of hours. I got her to recap the story of when she first met my dad. So I will consider that entry 1 in the "interview series" I referenced a few weeks ago. Now I have to call my dad and get his version of the meeting. I bet you $5 it's different. LOL! I think this interview project will be really fun. I would like to sit and talk to them when I go home in July, but I don't want to take my laptop on the plane (the keyboard is broken, and I'm using a temporary plug in keyboard, until I get one off the net and get Geek Squad to install it). Maybe I will get one of those mini-tape recorders, and then I can transcribe the convos when I get home.

I wore a white dress to TOC on Sunday. I was so worried about getting food on it, but what I did get on it was make up. I have a habit of touching my face and then forgetting that I now have make up on my fingers, and then touching my clothes. I don't know why I even bother trying to wear white. I used up all but 2 of my tokens. The first stop was Coldstone Creamery (I know - it's a sickness), then I went to Chen's Bistro for sesame chicken and rice. I probably should have gotten that first. I let that digest, and then stopped by Dixie's Tavern, for what they called 'Death by Chocolate Brownie.' It was just so-so, IMHO. A good brownie/ice cream combo for me, means a warm brownie, which melts the ice cream as soon as it hits. The brownie needs to be somewhat rich. Their brownie was dry as the Sahara, and it had walnuts. Boooo! Maybe it's better at the restaurant. I let that settle, and then since I couldn't find anything "new" to use my last 5 coins on, I settled for using 3 back at Planet Smoothie, and got a Leapin' Lizard for the road. I saw one of my Natural Hair Meet-Up group members while I was down there. All in all, I had a good time. I'm going to have to start getting out by myself more often.

KC said something last night that made me laugh, but now I'm thinking about it more. We were talking about his job. Right now, he's managing the kitchen...but he'd really like to be a GM one day. If not with the company he's with now, then with another one. He was telling me about the trials and tribulations of dealing with his co-workers in the small town he's working in. In regard to where he is now, he said, "they think this is a destination for me, but it's really just a pit stop." It was the way he said it, and the context of our conversation, that made me chuckle. This morning I thought about it - is this my destination, or my pit stop? Originally I thought it was a destination. I saw opportunities for management. But now, we've downsized. And frankly, working for a third party administrator is always a little bit iffy. Especially if they are silly enough to only have ONE major client. If that client decides to jump ship, we're screwed. I've gotten to know some of the ins and outs of managing here. The requirements of the managers here are totally unrealistic and outrageous. But I wonder - is it like that everywhere? Decisions, decisions.

OK, this is long as hell, and I need to do some work. Happy Monday, Blogspot!