The good, the bad, the broken...

The Good - I leave tomorrow for vacation!!! Two whole weeks in Ireland with B for our official honeymoon. Guinness here I come! I really don't want to work today but must get through my mountain of a to do list before I leave.

The Bad - I just got a notice in the mail for jury duty. The one benefit for moving every two years or so is that the legal system doesn't catch up with you. I've now lived in the same house for almost 4 YEARS (I think that's a record for me). I saw the notice and started hoping that they wanted me to appear while I was on vacation! No dice. It's for the end of May. Ugh.

The Broken - I went to the gym last night so that I could join in a small group training with my drill sargeant Brit. We had just started class and I was just finishing up a lap of lunges when I look over and see Brit on the ground clutching her leg. Even from 20 feet away I could see the tear falling on the ground. Turns out, she was demonstrating an exercise to some others and fell. No one was sure (even Brit) exactly what happened but she was in a lot of pain. Maybe a broken ankle. The parametics were called and all of us in her class kind of hovered around Brit until they arrived. I felt like an idiot standing there so I started asking questions... Can I get anything for you? Call your husband? Would you like someone to go to the hospital with you? Are you sure you don't need me to do anything for you??? I also felt terrible for her because I know what it's like to injure yourself in front of a lot of people. Mortifying!

Since I know how long it can take at the emergency room, I was planning on calling Brit the next morning to see how she was. Around 10pm I get a call. Brit is back from the hospital and is sooooo embarassed over the whole incident. Turns out she tore ligaments in her ankle, chipped a bone or two, did some sort of damage to a few toes AND has a very nasty bruise on her butt from landing on a bar bell when she fell. Poor girl! Lack of mobility is going to drive Brit CRAZY! We were laying bets at the gym on how long it would be before she was back at work. She is not the type to sit around even when in pain. I think she will be back in by Monday even though others were betting on 2 weeks. I can just see her on crutches yelling at her lazy clients to do 10 MORE pushups!

A glimpse at the good life

Late last week, B mentioned that his boss asked if we would like to join him and his wife for dinner and a basketball game on Saturday. Since we were no longer going to Peoria to help my sister move (she moved on Thursday so didn't need us on the weekend), we didn't really have a good excuse not to go. I'm not much of a schmoozer and usually feel uncomfortable surrounded by people I don't know. I don't really know B's boss (he also happens to be my boss' boss) and I've only talked to his wife briefly at the Christmas party. However, it would probably benefit B's (and possibly my) career to get to know them better.

We met them downtown MKE for dinner. It was a new Thai restaurant near their condo. First odd thing... We are looking through the menus and the Boss starts organizing what we are going to order. The menu had too many options to choose from so he thought we should just ask the waitress for some recommendations. Ok with me. The boss and his wife were looking to order similar dishes that they eat at other Thai restaurants, I think to do a comparison. I mentioned that I wanted to try some of their curry. B didn't really voice any preference. So the boss ordered for everyone. This is what I found odd.

Next odd thing... There were jalapenos in the fried rice and in the curry dish. I've never seen jalapenos in Thai cooking before. Can't say I'm a fan. I soon noticed a new odd thing... The boss (after ordering for all of us) hardly ate anything! I started wondering if he was on some sort of Atkins diet because he mentioned that he doesn't eat rice. This I also found odd considering he loves sushi and he married a Japanese woman.

Finally the meal was over. We made our way to the Bucks game. I knew this was going to be a challenge because I do not follow basketball at all. I know B mentioned they were court-side seats but I didn't know exactly where they were going to be. Let's just say, if I leaned forward, I could touch one of the Buck's players. Yes, we were not only court-side but also right next to the bench. I guess these are the season tickets that our company's CEO uses (he's a big basketball fan) and since the IT group helped our company make the first quarter's numbers, this was a little thank you gift.

The game was pretty good, even though the Bucks lost. I actually paid attention. It was also interesting to see all the stuff happening on the bench. Did you know that they recycle all the warm-up outfits? EEEWWWW! When a player on the bench gets called into the game, they start taking off the long warmup pants and long-sleved shirt they were wearing. It's kind of funny to watch one of the towel boys chasing after a player as they strip, trying to catch the falling clothes. The towel boy then folds up the outfit and places it in a bin. As a player comes in off the court, they grab an outfit from the bin and hand it to them. I did not notice any specific name on any of the outfits so it's a random handout. I thought this was a bit gross but realized that most guys wouldn't care anyway.

I tried a few times to start up a conversation with the boss' wife but it didn't go far. She would respond to my questions or comments but that was it. I felt a bit awkward but shrugged it off. I'm not great at small talk and I was actually interested in the game. It was hard not to be when they were so up close and personal.

After the game, we went back to the boss' condo for some drinks. Their place is like a museum. The boss is an avid antique collector so he took us on a tour. I also got to meet their 2 yellow labs. The younger one's personality remind me of my puppy so I was instantly in love. This also turned into a common topic that the wife and I could talk about - dogs. While the guys were playing pool, the wife and I played with the dogs and swapped quirky dog stories.

It was an odd evening but ended on a good note.

What? I can't hear you...

This past weekend B and I learned how to scuba dive. It's something I've always wanted to do but never had a good opportunity to do it. A friend was looking for a partner to learn with her because she was going to Bonaire in May with her boyfriend who scuba dives. WHY NOT? I then found a place to go diving in Ireland and talked B into learning with us.

The place we went to crams in a few weeks of training into one weekend. Friday 6-11, Sat 11-7, Sun 9-12. Overall it was fun. My ears however, didn't have much fun. I have problems "equalizing" my ears (actually it's just the right ear that has a problem). That means that when I go down to anything below 5 feet, my ear feels like it's going to explode. In my case, it's probably due to allergies (snot blocking the air passages). I can eventually get equalized but it takes me 10 times longer than everyone else. By the time I got to the bottom of the pool, the exercise we were doing was over and we needed to go to the surface.

We had some extra time after lessons for practising and my instructor said I might want to practise equalizing. I ask you, HOW is practise going to remove the snot from my ears??? I'll tell you - IT DOESN'T! Drugs do. The scuba training says you shouldn't use anti-histamines/decongestants because if they wear off, you could do some damage. SCREW THAT! By Sunday I was fed up. The only non-drowsy medicine I could find in the house was for Severe Cold. I decided that should work just fine and downed it. What a difference! I still couldn't decend as fast as the others but I was only a minute or so behind them.

My instructor were giving me kudos for my improved equalizing. I eventually confessed that I had taken some drugs. He then mentioned that many scuba divers do. WHAT??? They make sure they take drugs that won't wear off while they dive. Well DUH! Why didn't they tell me this on FRIDAY? My poor ear. I'm definitely taking drugs before diving in Ireland. Any recommendations would be most welcome.

For F**k's Sake!

I had quite the interesting weekend two weeks ago. Friday night, I was in the mood for a Fish Fry. I may have mentioned in the past that every restaurant in the Milwaukee area has a fish fry on Fridays. Especially during Lent. One of my favorites is at a bar called McBob's. They also happen to pour a decent Guinness so it's not difficult to convince me to visit McBob's.

B and I tried to get a bunch of people to join us but most were busy or bailed on us. One friend of B's (Dave) said he might if his in-laws were interested. He is engaged to an Irish lass (Bridie) and her family was flying in for the Bachelorette Party. I was not expecting them to come because I have suffered from jet lag and know that flying across the pond can be very tiring.

B and I had given up on anyone joining us and had just ordered our fish when we got a call. Dave and the in-laws were on their way. I got to meet the Bridie's mam, auntie and sister and I had a blast talking to them. What a fun bunch of ladies. As some of you know, f-bombs are very common in Ireland. And let me tell you, they were flying everywhere. For some reason, I found it extremely amusing to hear "Mam" lay down the f-bombs. We had so much fun, the ladies invited me to the Bachelorette Party the following night.

I decided - What the hell? Why not? I won't know many people but there are usually many people that don't know each other at those kinds of events. I decided to throw my insecurities into the wind and go for it and I'm glad I did. I had a lot of fun. It was a bit strange because I felt like an outsider but I already knew Bridie and her family so I always had someone to chat with. I also got along really well with Dave's sister, Pixie.

The most memorable moment of the evening was a cab ride between bars. I was sitting in the back seat next to Pixie and a rather annoying girl (I'll call her Pita) was in the front seat. Pita had declared earlier in the evening that she just knew she was going to get into a fight that night. With her big mouth and attitude, it wouldn't have surprised me. She was also desparately hanging on to her youth and former single status (she recently got engaged). Anyway, Pita was in the front chatting with the cab driver. Chatting may be a weak description of her inquisition. She kept firing questions at him - Where are you from? Why did you become a cab driver? Almost to the point of being rude and condesending. BUT to top it off, she was sort of flirting with him! "You're cute."

Pixie and I were in the back seat trying not to burst out laughing (it was difficult). THEN the cab driver rolled down his window. Not such an odd thing except it was freezing outside. Just as I was about to request that the window be closed, I caught a whiff of an unpleasant smell. I nudge Pixie and whisper to her, "I think the cabbie just farted!" Meanwhile, Pita continues the inquisition, oblivious to the reason behind the need for fresh COLD air in the cab. We could not hold in the laughter anymore. Pixie and I start giggling histerically. Pita looks at us and asked what was so funny. Quick-thinking Pixie chalks it up to too much alcohol and a case of the giggles. Pita resumes the cabbie inquisition. I start giggling just thinking about it.

I had great fun with the Irish laddies. I've even made plans to meet up with Bridie's sister in Ireland. I'm getting very impatient for my vacation to start!