Happiness is...a garage

Today is a nasty, cold, rainy day here in North Carolina. But I had to run errands anyway. I plodded my way over to the closet to grab my jacket and as I reached for my keys, I remembered that I have a garage. A garage that keeps me dry when I get into and out of the car on nasty, cold, rainy days.

I know I have posted something similar to this before, but it means enough to me to say it again. I grew up poor enough to live in a house that had holes in the roof. It leaked when it rained and we had to have pots and buckets scatted all over the place to catch the water as it came in. When we had errands to run or groceries to buy, and we actually took the car (instead of walking there, like we usually did), if it was raining you would try and bring as many bags as possible into the house at one time so we would get rained on less. The idea of a garage was so foreign to me. I grew up knowing nothing different.

I bought my first house with a garage when I lived in Louisiana. I will never own another house without one. And every time it rains and I have to go out somewhere, EVERY TIME, I thank myself for my work ethic and my financial responsibility that allows me to afford a home that has a garage. Life is good.

Horse sense and Turkey day

I had a great Thanksgiving. Better than I ever thought possible without my dad, uncle, or Eric here with me.

In an unexpected turn of events, a friend of mine and her boyfriend were heading over to the house of one of the physician's at work. She, in turn, invited me to go with them. So I said sure. All I had planned to do was study anyway. But ya gotta eat, right? So I picked up a couple cases of soda as my contribution to the feast and off we went. The house we went to belongs to the physician, his wife, their kids and their horses. :) They have about 13 acres and 5 horses. And so I spent the afternoon with 4 other women riding horses. I hadn't been on a horse in 20 years. I came to realize a couple of things as we got close to the barn....first, horses are a lot bigger than I remembered them to be and second, I am not as brave as I was when I was 17 or 18. I was nervous as all hell. I got on the back of this beautiful horse named "Kid" who is, in horse height speak, "15 hands tall" and I felt like if I fell off this thing it was gonna hurt. But I didn't want to chicken out, so I was a good sport about it. Once I got used to it we rode around for about 2 hours. And it was a BEAUTIFUL day. It must have gotten up to 60 degrees outside. I couldn't get the smile off my face.

When we were done riding, we went inside and had our fill of traditional Thanksgiving feast. I left feeling fat, dumb and happy. Life is good. My friends' other half was there and he took a bunch of pictures of our horse riding excursion. I'll post them as soon as I get them. :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

The Laminated List

Most people know what the "Laminated List" is. If I am not mistaken, it may have come from an episode of "Seinfeld". It's a list that holds the name of 5 famous people (no real people or people you know personally) who you would be given a free pass to have sex with, even if you were married, in the event that they would suddenly show up on your doorstep and insist that they would want to have sex with you too. No repercussions. My list contains the following 5 people:

Bruce Willis
Kevin Costner
John Travolta
Blair Underwood
Johnny Depp (providing he showered before hand)

My list used to have Christopher Reeve on it too, but since he's no longer alive, I felt it was only fair to put a new name in his place (welcome to Johnny Depp!). If there was any question, should anyone else on the list happen to die, there are runner's up waiting in the wings...


The Sister

The market sucks

What the hell was I thinking? Both of my stocks have gone south. South for the winter! Well hopefully it will only last through the winter. One of them has gone so low it's almost disappeared. It's lower than I am. And I am pretty darn low. I have to breathe! Deep breath in...KEEEHHH....long breath out...Hooooooooooohh....

Maybe the stress from this particularly painful market run will trigger some weight loss! See! I am an optimist!!!

Investing like a pro!

About three months ago, I was riding high in the stock market. Stocks were strong and I was a-smilin' daily! Now, however, is a different story. Yeah...not so much smilin' any more. That being said, when I thought my main stock couldn't go much lower I did what my Uncle Dan would have done...I bought more! Then it promptly plummeted another 10 points. What's a woman to do? I'll tell you; I call it "Cry-n-Buy" which is exactly what I did. I Cried as I hit the 'execute' button on my USAA investment account purchase request. To quote my late, great, Uncle Dan, who is no doubt saying from the great beyond..."I hope you know what you're doing". I hear ya, Uncle Dan. I hope so too.

No fences

I had the strangest dream last night. I dreamt that someone stole the fence I just put up around my back yard. It's a really nice 6 foot wooden privacy fence I had installed and someone just came by in the middle of the night and stole it. They left like one or two 8 foot sections, I don't know, maybe just as proof for my insurance company that one was actually there to begin with, but the rest of it was just gone. Both gates, the posts, even the concrete.

I wonder where the hell that dream came from?

One track mind

I had a good day today. I went to lunch with a friend of mine and when her and I were in the car on the way home, I was telling her about a funny email I got from my other half, I was laughing so hard as I was telling her about it I could barely speak. I laughed until my eyes were tearing and my stomach hurt. It was great to laugh like that. I think we should all laugh like that at least once a day.

I miss my sweetheart, but I have successfully gotten through the first full week without him. It is all downhill from here, right? RIGHT?