Playing catch up with the ketchup

A couple fun events in the past few days. Sheila and I talked several times over the weekend and I'm planning another trip to see her in August. I invited Nola to go as well, so the trip won't seem so long with a traveling partner. My birthday is coming up in a little over a week, but I've pretty much decided I'm not going to throw myself a party. I was going to do something big, invite tons of people, but blah, parties are better when other people do them for you so it's a huge event and it's a celebration and not so much a "look at me!" engagement. I'm just hoping for some gift cards or something to put toward a 10 season box set of a series coming in September. That'll be good enough. ;)

But we've set a date on the Massey camping trip. We're going to be in the hills of Elmira, NY from August 1st through August 5th. I've already taken the time off and I've been collecting camping gear for the past two weeks. I think this time around will be a lot more fun for me now that I know what's going to happen. Plus more people I know will be going. And I've learned that I get incredibly uncomfortable (and quiet) when I'm in a situation where I have specific expectations and they're simply not even close. I had that kind of experience last weekend in NYC at one of the bars with Sheila. But when we go out again this time, I'll know exactly what's up and can be better prepared and relaxed. I'm funny like this. Call it a character flaw. Hey, I'm working on it!

My mother is fully recovered from her thing in the hospital last week. She's up, about, moving and doing everything she needs to do. It's like a new take on life and I'm so happy for her. We're planning a family camping trip to the Adirondacks in late August or September, so you haven't even begun to imagine the anticipation coming out of me for that. Gonna try to climb a couple new mountains, and with my continued efforts with my weight loss and muscle gain (with newly devoted daily gym visits) I'm hoping in another month I'll be close to my goal weight. One can only hope.

Last night several of us gathered at Jake's place to play games and watch a movie called "The Devil's Rejects". Jake is slowly going through his queue of movies from NetFlix and he gets the best movies that just make you want to scream and throw things. This one had so much violence and sex in it, I about screamed when the one guy cut the face off of another guy and then tortured the dead guy's wife with the skin. Killing for the sake of killing and gore for the sake of gore. Oye. But god it was funny. Marni brought over a game and the four of us played this antique game for over an hour. Little did I know I do extremely well at antiquing and even won the damn thing. I always win games the FIRST time, but never again. Perhaps because I have no strategy.

But Marni caught my mention of Kathy Griffin in one of my off comments and she mentioned she *LOVED* her. My god. I've been addicted to episodes of the 'D List' for the past 2 weeks since NYC and I've now watched all her DVDs of the past four years. So we agreed to go together to the next show nearby in the midst of hyperventilation. Ha. But she emailed me this morning:

She's coming to Turning Stone Casino! September 21- a Friday at 8 pm. Let's buy tickets!!!!!!!! Buy them buy them! I'll pay you back!

And I did! We got front row tickets for her in September! They started selling today and they're already almost sold out. I'm just excited, so excuse the extreme dorkiness of this post. Marni! Wooo!

I have a fun demo tomorrow for a bunch of bosses, so I'm finishing up prep and doing my best to not take it all too seriously. Work on autopilot.. engage. Life is too good to be stressed out.