Did someone say traffic?

So I spent the day out with my mom, my memere and Ally. We were up at the camp in the mountains and decided to go to the big "city" in the mountains which is about 40 minutes west of the camp. I drove. Spent all day there, thunderstorms EVERYWHERE, eat lunch, head back to the camp.

Get back and there's complete darkness. Storm knocked the power out. I pack up and head home. Cause seriously, there's very little you can do in a 960 sqft cottage, in the dark with 5 adults, 2 toddlers and 4 dogs besides go insane.

MAJOR MISTAKE.................

Start heading home...10 minutes into my ride, I hit my first downed tree, then my 2nd, then my 3rd. Get into "Tofu City" and am suddenly in the worlds LARGEST traffic jam. Turns out a tree fell on the interstate and everyone is getting off the highway and now taking major road 1 into "Crap City". Wedge my car into the line and silently start swearing as I'm still a good 20 miles from home and need to follow major road #1 just about ALL the way there. 35 minutes later and I'm at "point of no return" - its either take this right, or keep going and pray the traffic eases up (I'm following a river on my left with a mountain on my right). There's no more turning until I'm in "Crap City". I keep going.

Roll, stop, roll, stop, roll, stop .....

"Allison STOP kicking my chair"

"No Allison, Daddy can't come pick us up"

"Yes Allison the stupid cars should just go home"

roll, stop, roll, stop, roll, stop.....

About 2 miles past "point of no return" - oh look, they're turning All the cars around. A power line is down across major road 1. I now get to follow all of the cars, BACK to "point of no return" and follow them up major road #2. Police are JUST putting up a road blockade when I make it back to "point of no return" & major road #2.

Took me another 20 minutes of roll, stop, roll, stop to get to major road #3 which was THANKFULLY clear and I was able to make it home from there.

A 35-40 minute drive AT MOST, took me over 2 hours today (and that was to get the to 1/2 way point).

Supposedly the area my sister and mom live in got hit REAL hard. Neighbor called them at the cottage to let them know their houses are all ok, but there's trees and power lines down every where there.

Obstructed View

Obstructed View, originally uploaded by floreksa.

Only for my Sox, would I sit in a seat smaller than the smallest airline seat with a pitch designed for someone roughly 4'10" for 6 hours, pay $50 for the privilege and NOT be able to see the batter.

Baseball - BORING AS ALL HELL when you can't see home base or the batter. Had this been my 1st trip ever to Fenway, it would have also been my last.

When the tickets say they're obstructed, they're not suggesting that you might not be able to see a tad bit of the field. They mean you're going to miss vast portions of the game.

May I suggest NEVER buying a ticket in Section 20 seats 1 - 6ish, any row?

I'm edjumacated!

Stole this from Lisa! (thanks!)

Movie Reviews

Twittering like no one's business

I've taken the plunge and signed up for Twitter. I've know about it for forever, just never really bothered to sign up. Did it today. For all the world to see the aimless wanderings my mind takes while at work.

Hi! I'm Sarah and I'm an internet junkie.

oh - I'm woefully shy of followers, so if you'd be so kind...I'm floreksa

Prayers Answered!!!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!


It is NOT MS. Capital N, Capital O, Capital T, NOT MS.

Apparently my sister is a freak of nature and has a "cavity" in her neck, basically a hole - probably there since birth. They have no idea why its causing an issue now and not before and it may never cause an issue again.

Its a relatively new "thing" in the Dr world - they only really discovered them with the advent of MRI's (or during autopsies). There's nothing for it. It might grow, but most likely won't. She'll see the neuro every 6 months for an evaluation and ONLY if the evaluation warrants it would they even bother doing another MRI. She does have to see him immediately if anything else worsens (but he's not expecting it too).

The best he could tell her was to be careful with her neck and not wrestle, but couldn't offer a good explanation why she shouldn't and if she has a lot of speeding tickets, to slow down.

:)

No one can take this grin off of my face today!

D-Day

Its Diagnosis day for my sister. Please say a quick prayer that its not MS. Her appointment is at 9:30 est.

Feeling Kerflumped

I had Monday off. Daycare was closed. Usually a day off does me good. Gives me a minute to detach from work and relax and Monday should have been no different.

This time I even had something to look forward too. We had a plan and a destination. I was meeting up with some other mom's from a forum I help admin. I was even going to finally meet Major Bedhead (who lives less than 5 minutes from me, and yet we had never met!)

Julia picked us up and off we went. We had an amazing time at the spray park. It really is a gorgeous park. The kids were great, everyone had a blast and the ride home was blissful with a van full of sleeping kids and Julia and I just gabbing away.



The kerflumped-ness? Well that occurred yesterday. At work, out of the blue I found myself almost in tears, dangerously close to tears, tears that would totally betray my bad-ass, bitchy, get it done attitude that has served me well working with so many men. I couldn't figure it out. What the hell prompted it? It had me scratching my head (and reaching for a tissue to blot the wetness collecting around my eyes).

It took me awhile, but it finally hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm not a stay at home mom and sometimes it kills me. I'm not even sure I could do the SAHM thing, but I sure as hell wish the option was available.

Looking at the pictures from the day at the park made me mentally do a little

"One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong".

I was the only working mom. The one who doesn't even know where all parks are, great or not. The one who's kid goes to the park every day, but with someone else.

I feel like I'm never there for Ally. I come home from work so completely annoyed that its all I can do not to yell at her for no reason. I lose my temper before we even get home. Daycare is less then 2 minutes from my house. I need to learn to disconnect as soon as I leave work. I need to learn to use her play time with me as my means of relaxation. But right now I can't. I come home and just want to be alone.

And that makes me cry.

PhotoShop Friday Project

Courtesy of http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/blog/

The ShaZAM Lesson

Before




After
/

Skin tone is still a little too blown out, but DH was screaming for me to get ready to leave.

I can hear it!!!

The Ding Dong cart is oooh so close. I can hear it sitting here in my living room chair, teasing me. Tormenting me. Will it come down my street? Will we have ice cream tonight?

I'm very, very tempted to go find it.

Sister Update pt 2

Well the spinal tap is done. She said it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Right now she's on the 5 hour, lie on your back and do nothing else at the hospital. She thought she'd be able to go home and lie down there. I didn't have the heart to tell her that no, she'd be stuck at the hospital the whole time. Thankfully, my mom is with her.

I think the only test left now is an MRI of her lower spine.

She goes on the 22nd to get the results of everything.