LeighMo's bit of heaven (or hell)

So, Hallow's Eve is day after tomorrow. I managed to find costumes the kids like and didn't cost a fortune. Both are pretty basic, son the elder will be a 'dark wizard' (black cape with a hood), and daughter will be a witch (black dress thing with a hat.) Son the middle was adament he'd be a pumpkin, and since there aren't any pumpkin costumes out there for an amost five foot tall, 90 pound 8 year old, I had to improvise. But, he seldom answers direct questions, and when he does I feel he must be rewarded for his efforts.

I am going as Wednesday Addams. Its a long story.

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Work continues to be so much fun, I feel I should be paying them for the chance. Nate and I have been getting teased a little, I suppose that is to be expected a bit when co-workers are dating. I went to my first meeting the other day (I think it was the first meeting EVER, but whatever). Pretty interesting. I made a newsletter template with which they were happy and plan to start mailing out next week. I've also been assigned the task of creating a myspace and facebook profile, and joining some ad thing where I click on links to get other people to click on my link (http://www.clickrescue.com) I have no idea why, but I'm getting paid to do nothing, so I don't question much.

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I saw Sweeney Todd last week. The play. I've never seen a play in person that wasn't a melodrama with myself acting in it (Of Moss and Men, remember THAT one, Alex??) The cast is just incredible....they act the story, while singing and playing their own instrument. Imagine, a young lady, playing her own accompaniement on cello, while singing in a beautiful soprano? While a tenor is singing a different song and playing his own accordian? Seriously, the talent is just incredible. I'm seeing Tosco in a few weeks, the actual Opera. And Nine Inch Nails, too. Talk about eclectic, eh?

Grand Rapids continues to grow on me. In a one block radius, there is a theatre (where I saw the play), an arena (where concerts and other shows take place), a multi-themed museum, gardens, parks, etc. etc. Older communities, with grand houses, older communities with the kinds of houses that were built by craftsman and feature built in cupboards and features that give houses character. Yeah, theres a lot of ghetto (and whetto), but knowing where to go and where to avoid helps a lot. I really like going there, driving around and looking into a city to which I've never been privy.

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So, the election is in less than one week. I'm still completely removed from it. So, for whom will I cast my vote? Al Franken. Yep, he's the guy. Al's the man, will bring progressive ideals and a sense of wit unmatched by either candidate. Maybe I'll write in Slick Willy, bring back some of that 90's boom we all grew up with and for which we pine. Yep, I frankly don't care, and I know I should, but I just can't put myself through the whole really wanting one person to win, and the subsequent depression that ensues when they don't thing again (Kerry, I miss you!)

.....it seems. I have a job. It rocks. I sit and play on the computer, while I'm waiting for someone to help. Its a new service, and while the powers that be wine and dine the hotels in Grand Rapids looking for clients, I get paid to play on myspace, read news, and blog. Once a week I get paid to drive to Grand Rapids, go to a meeting, and drink coffee. They like me, they weren't sure at first but I think now they are pretty confident I won't make an ass of myself or their company.

I have the job because of a guy. No, I didn't have to peddle myself for it, nothing that interesting. I was perusing a singles site and I saw his picture. I read his profile. And a little voice inside my head kept telling me to contact him. But he lives near Grand Rapids, has one kid and doesn't want more, so I figured eh. And the voice got louder and louder until just to shut it up, I tracked him down on myspace.

While emailing back and forth, we discovered that I was out of work and his company was looking for someone entry level. We talked geek a lot. We talked kids alot. We talked useless exes a lot. I met him for coffee, where we talked more. I got an interview with the company, and the boss didn't hate me, so I got hired. He's funny, that guy. But cool.

If I hadn't emailed a stranger, who I emailed because of a gut feeling, I wouldn't have a job and I wouldn't have found Nate. He tossed around the soul mate label thing once, and I told him that wasn't quite it. Soul mates I think come and go throughout our lives; sometimes they evolve with us, but most times they don't and for whatever reason no longer remain our mates. I prefer to think of us as copies of each other's souls...we are so alike, so in tune, even when we are an hour away from each other we are ususally thinking or doing the same things, saying the same things at the same time.

Its quite nice. The job is working out nicely. I'm going to be doing some graphics work for them, too, when I'm waiting for stuff to roll in. If I could afford to, I would travel to GR more often, because the downtown area is fabulous. I'm in no big hurry, though, there is no rush for the future and it will come when it does.

Thats why I've been silent, getting on with the show and staying mucho busy. Which is how I like to live.

I went to the doctor today. Completely against my will, and only because they said they would refuse to authorize a refill for my prescription otherwise. So, I caved.

I weighed in at 127, which is still within a good range for my height (I've lost 1/4 inch, must start yoga-ing again.). Here is the part I don't understand....my old clothes still fit me. I haven't had to purchase new jeans in a year or so. I have, however, seemed to have finally (finally! praise the gods) hit the upper B range in brassieres. Perhaps even a C. Does that account for five or six extra pounds? I'm befuddled.

I did get the refill, and also had a lab ordered to do some bloodwork. Nothing major, I am just tired of feeling exhausted. Not just normal tired, but I wake up exhausted and it progresses through the end of the day. I can drift off at will, just by sitting still for five minutes. I want to see if it is simply anemia, or if it is something else. Its going to be a fast blood draw, so I might see if they can run my blood sugars too. Lately I get dizzy and somewhat sick feeling if I don't eat something within an hour or so of being awake. Dad has had full blown diabetes for about five years, he's afraid I'm coming down with that (I don't think that is it, though).

I had to explain why I take such long hiatuses from medical appointments. I told him I don't have insurance. And I don't like having huge bills that can't be paid. He said he understood, but still......stern look....he actually is a very nice doctor, I like him a lot. He told me to at least get the iron levels checked, and if the job I interviewed for hires me and gives me insurance, to get my behind back and do the whole nine yards. Its been six years since my last post partum checkup, which means its been six years since my last checkup.

In the meantime, I am going to make myself start walking again. I haven't been doing that since I moved. Stretching and yoga-ing again, so I don't keep shrinking. I really eat pretty well, but I probably should cut down on coffee. Not stay up until 12 or 1am when i have to get up at 5. All that kind of stuff.

I never really understood the whole casual, random dating thing as a lass. Didn't seem to make much sense to me, wasting time trying to separate the wheat from the chafe (I didn't say I was good at it!), letting someone within the walls of the fortress, only to blam! watch the whole thing blow up to start over again. No, I didn't partake in that too much, and of the two other boys that are lucky enough to be called ex, one of them is the happiest gay man I know. The other is in denial. And had a little winkee.

I do, however, now see the point...its just freaking fun! And the speed at which I get over people now is just amazing...I love you, you don't? Well, see you then! Bigger and better people to meet, more fun to be had, so long and thanks for all the fish. True, I still can't wrap my mind around the idea that one can indeed casually date more than one person at a time, but monogamy and I went together like two peas in a pod. Even when I'm not committed to someone, by Crackee, I am practicing for it.

I'm having coffee this weekend with a lovely fellow. Since lately I can see the quality of people I choose to bestow my company upon increasing, I am most happy to report that he is pretty much what Mr.D is (a great human being who is mature, smart, traveled, and ambitious), plus one very important thing: he is a father. Custodial father, at that. Solo custodial father.

The coffee is just coffee, simply the physical meeting of two minds that have already connected, and from there we shall see what transpires. Oh, and he's 30. Old, I know, but I'm willing to look past that. Perhaps that 3 or 4 span in years is the difference between one who can't be encumbered and one who does? We shall see.

Don't get me wrong, I still have feelings for Mr. D, but I am very good now at being able to reclassify feelings and place them under the appropriate column in which they belong. Before he leaves for better job markets and the future he's been carving himself, I must tell him how profoundly he has changed my perspective of life. I do not believe in regrets, and I can see now the purpose he served in mine. Had I not met him, I most likely would have stayed with the ex-boyfriend longer, and potentially found myself in a relationship worse than I had had before (I am fairly confident, looking back, that he was a narcissist). I broke up with him to pursue Mr. D, and the things I learned about myself simply from meeting him are hard to explain.

Besides, I am a firm believer in the old addage that you have as much time for others as you make for them, and in the last month there has been not much effort made on his part, which tells me whatever ship was sailing between us has left the port. It was a grand ship, and will sail forever in my heart and mind.

So, with coffee to be had on Saturday, with a fellow that emailed me right away to see how my interview went, I jump back on the giddy girl bandwagon.