Tamssmat

Mass text that I sent out earlier : “Who the hell is responsible for us losing Dante Hall to the Rams?!”

Responses?? 1. Satan 2. Dante Hall and Father Time 3. You are in a piss poor mood today 4. Carl Peterson (he likes ponies) 5. Dante Hall  6. Dante? Rams?  What college team is that?

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. For the most part, I’ve usually had a day off from work already and feel more relaxed than any other day. I get to go have Starbucks time with my good friend Katie. AND FOOTBALL IS ON ALL DAY. I don’t get to watch Favre play today which I would like to have seen. He’s an American hero. I am watching however, the Dallas/St. Louis game and it is quite entertaining. James Hetfield may be losing me to Tony Romo. (I’m just saying it for the ratings James, don’t worry. I’m yours forever.) Next up, Chiefs v Chargers. We better win this one or I will get cranky. Chargers have sucked so far this year. This one should be a gimme but we’ll see. Chiefs aren’t playing like pros this year either.

Tonight, Eagles v Giants. What a good game that one will be!! That’s the one I’m really looking forward to. Love the Giants. They have the most players that we like to yell about. Osi Umenyiora (yell out the whole name), Jeremy Shockey (SHOCKEY!!), Kawika Mitchell (KAWIKA!!), Plaxico Burress (PLAXICO!!), Amani Toomer (’it’s not a tumor’ but only if you’re going to try to say it like Arnold) and last but most certainly not least, Michael Strahan (wooooohoo Michael Strahan!!). Of course, I am an Eagles fan as well. So this one is going to be another tough one as far as choosing who should win. I was so glad when they got rid of Terrell Owens. That boy didn’t deserve to stay. I think very highly of Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb is a rock star. They also have David Akers, one of my favorite kickers.

So yeah, I’m going to be stressing a bit by this evening but such is life on Sunday. Now if only I could get some cold weather with my football…..

You might be a Tammi Burlison If….

1. You woke up this morning and were pleased to find you could honestly say “I woke up with a Metallica on me”.

2.You had a great day at work yesterday until 5:00 P.M. and have felt like a worthless employee ever since.

3. You spent the morning working out a solution with your dear friend Katie to the work problem.

4. You loved Florida but you are thrilled to be back home and away from the family.

5. Your son understands that there is no talking in the car during “Mandatory Metallica”.

6. You consider yourself extremely blessed to have the family and friends that you have.

7. You’re only real complaint at the moment is that someone should get over his girlfriend already and remarry you.

8. You enjoy considerably the crap your coworkers give you for your quirks which are many.

9. Your plan to take over the world has been temporarily stalled due to work and family responsibilites.

10. You’re developing a plan to get it back on track for a 2009 take-over.

11. You want to lose 15 pounds.

12. You can’t find time to exercise and refuse to give up Starbucks and other such fattening goodnesses.

13. You live paycheck-to-paycheck even though you know it’s not in anyone’s best interest to do so.

14. You shop to curb depression instead of eating or binge drinking.

15. You’ve seriously considered a change of location but decided against it because you absolutely love living this close to your family.

We saw a family of dolpins today!!! They swam, they leapt out of the ocean, they splashed around even!! It was great fun. We think we also saw a shark. Of that we’re not 100% sure but it did have a dorsal fin and did not swim like the dolphins do. For one thing, he didn’t arch through the water like they do, and they tend to look like they’re going somewhere (from what little experience I have with them) and he was just kinda meandering around. Dad and April ran down to the beach to get a better look while Mom, boy and I stayed in safety on the balcony. I tried to get boy to run down there and give Dad a cut and shove him in the water so we could know for sure if it was a shark but he wouldn’t do it. We just recently saw the family of dolphins swiming back from whence they’d come.

The weather is turning on us. It’s supposed to be pretty stormy tonight, possible tornadoes even but I’m not entirely sure that’s for our specific area or not. I heard it on the radio when I was shopping. We’ll see what happens!! Bill has already declared a mutiny if the storm attempts to slow our progress home on Sunday. I think I’ve made all of the purchases that I need to make. I am quite happy with what I’ve bought for the people that I wanted to buy things for and that’s always a good feeling. Usually, when on vacation, I spend almost every dime on myself (it is after all, my money and my vacation) and then on the last day, scramble to find something that I can pass as a gift picked out specifically for them. This time however, I found presents for everyone on my list!! And it’s not even the last day yet!!!

I finished the scarf last night that I started knitting when we got here and I’m now contemplating what to create next. I’m reading book #3 (The Devil in the White City - look for a review later!!) and reading “Orbiting the Giant Hairball” for work. So far, I don’t see it as being a very good book for our staff book club. I can’t quite put my finger on why though. I think it seems like a good book for anyone that has worked in corporate America and has ever felt stuck in the swamp that is processes and procedures but quite frankly, the graffiti is just plain distracting. I think it’ll be one that I’d recommend but not one that would work very well for our purposes but I could be wrong. Though, I’m never wrong so the odds of that are pretty slim.

We watched Hot Fuzz last night. I was so disappointed in it through the first half but came around as a devout follower by the time it ended. I think I might be in love with Simon Pegg. I’ve decided that it must have loads of hidden stuff through the whole movie like Shaun of the Dead does. I must own it. It shall live along side Shaun.

The Huntress is the 4th in a series about 3 sisters and those around them. I give this book 5 out of 5 I liked it that much. (5 out of 5 whats is yet to be determined. I considered coffees but I’m open to suggestions.)

Depending on what kind of book you are in the mood for, this series could be perfect. They are easy, quick reads, what I consider “fluff”. I don’t tend to read “fluff” but these are just plain fun. Set in 1586 France and England, it is a genre that I find myself loving to learn about.

The sisters, Ariane, Miribelle and Gabrielle Cheney are daughters of the earth. In other words, they are considered witches but in fact, they are just women who are in tune with the earth, have learned how to heal with herbs and can read a person by looking in their eyes. Each sister is highlighted separately in each of the first 3 books but this one follows Catriona O’Hanlon as she seeks to find Martin Wolfe and his daughter Megaera and take them back to the Fair Isle in France and the protection of Ariane.

We’ve met Martin in other books and watched him grow up so his story is one we’ve wanted more of and therefore is a natural choice for a 4th book. I just hope we get to read a 5th book letting us learn everything that is going on in Meg’s life!!

I’m sitting outside on the balcony with the fam. Well, except for Bill, he’s still sleeping. I think. He could be just upstairs laying in bed for all I know. Dad and April are doing a book club and I am glad I didn’t join. Much love to both of them but we’ve already had a couple of moments where we weren’t exactly “loving” our time together and goodness knows, they’d be more frequent if they were trying to get me to participate in something. I wanna read the books I brought. The ones that have been in my “to read” pile for a while now that I never have time to read.

I’ve missed a couple of days of updates and I’m sure each of you are just dying to know what we’ve been doing. Well I’m here to tell you. We’ve had family movie night which was fun, we watched “Wild Hogs” which is a movie I never would have paid to watch but thoroughly enjoyed!! For one thing, it had John Travolta in it. Up until he dressed like a woman for “Hairspray”, I would have bought anything the man was in. I’ve since lost my devotion to him. I am now a one man woman and that one man is Mr. James Hetfield. ‘Nough said.

On Tuesday, Bill and April and I went out exploring. We had a few things on our list to accomplish and we did them all!! I now have shorter hair, a new tattoo (my sons name on my wrist), and a few more books to add to my pile!! (My self-imposed ban on going into a book store for 3 months since that seems to be where all of my money goes instead of towards the bills that sustain life for boy and I has been lifted because it is after all, vacation!!) We had lunch at O’Charleys. It was a fun day.

Wednesday, I decided that I needed a real cup of coffee and since the McDonalds’ in Florida don’t see the need to have iced coffee, we sought out a Starbucks. That little outing turned into “The Great Hunt for the Right Beads”. It was a long journey to the mall that the lady at the customer service kiosk by the Starbucks told us about. She even drew us a map and told us that a Chinese lady ran the place. After that success, we lunched at O’Charleys. Don’t ask why, I don’t really know. It just seems to be our food destination this time around.

Getting into the car with April and her husband can be an adventure in and of itself. Take the other day for example. We’re riding along taking care of various tasks when it comes to light that Bill is wearing the same t-shirt he’s had on for the past 2 days. This makes day 3. Don’t get me wrong, he’s bathed, but then he’s put the same shirt back on. Gross. The shirt has even at one point been balled up with a pair of underwear. It is now and forever will be dubbed “The Dutch Oven Shirt”.

Well I’m off to see what today holds, what new things I might learn about my family but rest assured, you will get to read all about it upon my return!!

I overcooked myself today. It’s been a good day!! I got up early with my mom and went for a nice long walk on the beach. Exercise is a good thing, especially when you have your mother to motivate you to actually do it. Then I logged on and checked my work email while dad made us bunny bread french toast. It is sooooo good. His secret ingredient?? He uses ice cream instead of milk. Mmmmmm. After I tired of the laptop, I joined the family down at the beach. They were all in the water this time (except for my brother-in-law and he looked like he was about ready to go in.) and were coming out right after I got down there so I sat and read for a bit. Then, the boy was in there by himself so I went in with him and let me tell you, there’s nothing like some salty waves up the nose to clear up the sinuses.

I’ve been indoors knitting and k-napping ever since and that is exactly how a Tams should spend her vacation. The hippies moved out so that’s been really nice. But I think I’ve decided that my family has developed a plot to keep me from watching football. I didn’t realize it until this morning which is a huge credit to their collective planning. I’m not sure how I feel about this new development or the fact that they coaxed me away from the safety of my couch and towed me to Florida. I’m suddenly suspicious of their every action. Here’s my proof:

1. Yesterday was Sunday and they took me down to the ocean to read my book.

2. Then my father and sister encouraged me to sit out on the balcony with them and enjoy my book further, sneaky.

3. I started feeling sleepy and mentioned to them that I might enjoy a nap and no one bothered to tell me that I had already missed the pregame show AND most of the noon game!!

4. I woke up refreshed and joined them all (except for my mother who stays down there on the beach for HOURS) in the common area of the house and not one of them mentioned that the Chiefs game was in full swing.

5. Finally, after watching the depressing Chiefs game and settling down for the Sunday night game, Dad asked me to turn the TV off just because dinner was ready!! (Mom made taco salad. We all look forward to taco salad night when on vacation.)

As if I need further proof…

6. They’ve decided that tonight is a good night to go out for dinner. JUST IN TIME FOR FOOTBALL TO START!!!

7. After dinner someone suggested we stop at Barnes & Noble on the way back.  Anyone that’s knows me at all knows that I cannot pass up time in a bookstore!!  Very shifty of them.

Hopefully I’ll return to Kansas City whole but at this point, I make no promises.

Well it’s officially day one of our vacation.  I don’t count yesterday, the day we actually left Kansas City and landed in Florida because it sucked.  Flying sucks.  Traveling sucks.  And on top of that, I had to go to Wal-Mart after we got here!!  It was awful.  But it’s Sunday now and so far all I’ve done is lounge on the beach and finish my Jodi Picoult book.  That’s a lie.  I did come back up to the condo and make myself a wrap and eat it.  My brother-in-law is currently monitoring my sister as she creates a sandwich for his consumption.  He’s alternately giving her pointers and makeing fun of me for blogging.

We are at a different location this year than the one we usually go to.  We usually stay at the Destin Beach Club but this time decided that there just wasn’t enough room there for all six of us and so, April, the official family events coordinator, set out to find us something different.  What she found is something different that’s for sure.  When we pulled up, we were all a little bit affraid to get out of the car.  Our mother apparently knew that we were staying in a condo, I on the other hand did not.  This is most likely entirely my fault as I rarely pay attention unless the conversation is about me.  Odds are, they started talking about the new locale at one of our family meetings and I heard the word house and assumed and then wandered in and out of the conversation as is usually the case.  Anyway, in the dark, from the front, it looks a little better than a shanty.  Lots of really thin, long things all clumped together into one.  We came in, preparing ourselves for the posibility that we might need to find somewhere else to stay (remember, this is after I’ve already been on a plane and in airports that don’t like smokers most of the day so I’m already  grumpy at this point.  I don’t think I had been able to smoke a whole cigarette since I left my house at 9 that morning, never a good idea.) and were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was!!  The inside is what we wanted.  It’s got just the right amount of space, we have enough bedrooms, we have 3 bathrooms and no one has to share, there’s a common room that we can choose wether or not we want to be in because it’s not the only space to be.  It’s perfect!!  Now, how to make sure we don’t have to go outside again??  The view of the back is 10x worse than the view from the front.  Dad and I went out front this morning to take another look and decided it wasn’t as bad as we’d first thought but the back, it’s just plain embarassing.  But onward and upward, we’re here to spend time with each other and enjoy the ocean and the beach, not to sit in a beautiful house.

So the boy and I are staying downstairs and we have our own balcony down there.  I love it.  I sat out there reading for about an hour or more last night.  The second level is the common space with living room and kitchen and balcony.  It is here that Dad and I spent an hour or so this morning enjoying the sound of the waves and the fresh air when the neighbors just to the west of us woke up.  Dang.  They sat outside too and the balconies are right up against each other.  Great, we’re next door to hippies with annoying laughter.  We’re not so secretly hoping that they pack up and leave soon.

Today is a very sad day. I just found out that an old friend of mine passed away sometime in the night, Sunday. From what little I know so far, he left us while he slept so at least he had that. I’ve known Greg since my very first days as a cocktail waitress at the Hurricane. He sat just to the left of the opening of the round bar where I would stand to either wait for my drinks to be made, or just hang out and get in the way of the bartenders and barbacks. He was there almost every day. Not necessarily to drink but just because he knew each and every one of us and felt, I think, a sense of honor in looking out for us when the bar became chaotic. He was a big scary looking black man but he was a teddy bear at heart. On days off, when Jr. was with my parents or his dad, Rebecca and I would go sit at the round bar early in the evening and catch up with Greg. He worked for FEMA and could always tell us what we needed to know about the activities of the government. He made fun of me and at the same time supported me, when I started wearing a Victoria’s Secret water bra. When the bar was packed with drunken idiots trying to get the bartender’s attention, Greg would part the drunken cattle and make way for me to get back to the safety of the round bar.

He had a blog that he used to email the link to me every time he posted and it was the best blog I’ve ever read. I’ve spent years trying to convert people I know to the ways of Greg Beck and his ‘Views from the Spanish Announces Table’. Hilariously entertaining rants, stories about his day at the FEMA offices, his take on the trips that ‘the man’ would send him on. One Saturday afternoon early, I took Jr. with me down to the bar to pick up my paycheck and Greg was there just hanging out with Tim and Bottles. My boy was probably 4 years old at the time. He promptly jumped up onto the stools at the round bar and started running laps around the bar, hopping from stool to stool. Now picture Big Old Greg watching in horor as this little blond boy who is WORLDS smaller than he is risking his life for the sheer joy of stool hopping. Poor Greg didn’t know what to do. It was vastly amusing. He gave Jr. a real harmonica. Not one of those little crappy pieces of metal, a musicians ‘4 chromatic octaves’ harmonica. The boy still has it.

His services are going to be held early next week and I will not be able to attend because we’re leaving for Florida on Saturday morning. I’m not sure how I feel. I haven’t seen him in years but it was just last month that he and I were texting about meeting up at The Record Bar because it had been entirely too long. And now I don’t even get to be here to say goodbye to him. He will be so greatly missed by more people than I can ever hope to touch with my own life.

I’ve spent the majority of today thus far feeling like crap. After the 5:30 A.M. phone call with my boss where she made me feel OK about needing to stay home from work today, I got my boy packed up and sent off to school then tried to rest. I didn’t sleep much last night, can’t breath, my whole body hurts, and I have a craptastic cough. I couldn’t go back to sleep however so I got up, took some Midol because contrary to popular belief, it is not just for female issues, its a cure all I tell you. That made me feel just good enough to wander to my bedroom and log on to the laptop to try and accomplish something with this wasted day. I got a couple of things done that seem to be ever pushed to the back burner when I’m sitting at my desk and other things are flying at me non-stop so that made me feel good about myself. Then my boss told me to get off the computer and go nap so I did. Or I tried rather. I think I dozed for about a half hour at best. Which anyone that knows me knows full well that on any given day, at any given time, I can lay down for a good 2-3 hour nap so this little piddley one did nothing for me. I’ve tried to read my book but can’t seem to focus even though its a really good book and if I was well, that’s all I’d have done today is read. I considered laying in my room and catching up on all of the TV shows that I have DVRd but there’s a pile of clean clothes on my bed and I just can’t talk myself into folding them and putting them away.

I’ve eaten nothing but a couple of chocolate chip cookies that my mom made because nothing sounds good and I’m really not hungry even though I’m a little shaky. I’ve consumed massive amounts of orange juice and released most of it back to the oceans already.

You know those days where you wake up feeling sick but go to work anyway, then once you’re there you find it difficult to make it through the day?? You just wish you’d stayed home to recover but can’t bring yourself to go home because you know you can tough it out. Then there are those days that you wake up feeling like crap and you stay home. For me, those tend to be few and far between. I’m a relatively healthy girl. Today however was one of those days and I always feel like I should have just gone to work and toughed it out. Ugh, some days you just can’t win for trying. I can say however that about a half hour ago I finally peeled myself off the couch and bathed!! I know you are all impressed with me, feel free to send gifts. It was a feat of strength I tell you.

Well, the boy just got home from school and convinced me that I can in fact just throw the clothes on the floor and rewash them later, or lay right on top of them so I think that’s where I shall be for the remainder of this day.

P.S.  I’ve worn my birthday poncho most of the day because it has become the most comfortable thing in my closet.

It’s amazing to me how I can be plesantly trucking along, content in my world, loving my job one day and the next day blows so hard I want to pack up and call it over. It was a good run. See you next life. Today was one of those days unfortunately when my faith in my work was shaken to the core. Hopefully though, as always, Greg will bring me back around. He always does. I have what I like to call an “easily swayed back to the good side” type of personality. Some might call it “simple” but those people don’t belong in the world with me. I’m doing what I can to rid us all of them forever but that’s another story for another day. I’m fortunate in that I can get all disgruntled and dismayed but give me a 10 minute Greg pep-talk, I’m golden. This is what I hope to acquire tomorrow. In the fast paced world of advertising, one day can trample your soul. We like to say that we work hard, but we play even harder. I think this is why I love my job on most days.

So, maybe in an effort to cheer you (and me), now is a good time to mention some things that make me happy!!

1. James Hetfield

2. Weekends, days off from work

3. My family

4. Metallica

5. My pets (Kirk, Metallica, James, Baby MowMow and Sweet Pea)

6. Chilly weather, rainy weather, snow

7. My house, fireplace

So, I think we can all see, Tams just had a bad day. I’m already happy again!!