March 2007Monthly Archives

The Inner Workings of Lydia

Are you scared yet? Just looking at that title has me freaking outside, and I already know the oddness that is me.

While folding endless bills this afternoon I had plenty of time to reflect on some of my oddest of odd traits – some that have been pointed out to me, and some that annoy me more and more over the years.

1. I have this habit of saying “nuh-uh” after saying “nope”. I don’t do it after I say “no” or “no way” or “hell no”. Just “nope”. So it ends up sounding like “nope, nuh-uh” and I come off as if I’m addressing a little kid or a bad squirrel or something. I don’t know why I do this – I just do.

2. Apparently (according to my family and friends) I have a plethora of snores. My sister, Candace, has informed me that she has started to catelog my snores. I feel bad for her, because I keep dragging her to my apartment to spend the weekend with me and I subject her to the snoring. Actually, there’s a kind of funny story related to my snoring.

On my recent vacation I shared a room with my parents. They got the bed (nice..comfy..bed..) and I, well I got the rollaway. Now, for those who have met me, I am not a small in stature girl. I’m 6′ and yes, overweight (damn the diet plans for thinking I can do it). So when I encountered a 5 1/2 foot rollaway complete with boards that REARRANGE YOUR SPINE I knew that fun was ahead – BUCKETS upon BUCKETS of fun. (p.s. why do they show Titanic on cruise ships? I’ve asked this before, but seriously.. why?) So, one morning I woke up to hear my parents … giggling. GIGGLING. Do you know what went through my mind first upon hearing naughty laughter like that? Yes. That.

So, without opening my eyes, I asked, “what is going on?”. To which my mom replies, “Coffee’s done!”. My parents are nuts.

Upon further questioning it was revealed that they had discovered a snore that resembles a coffee perculator. Lovely.

3. I forget things – all the time. Recently my friends and family had a great laugh at me because I had not forgotten to put oil in my car (by the way, an oil light is RED, the check engine light is ORANGE. Dad drove all the way out to check out my oil only to find that the oil light wasn’t on), but I had FORGOTTEN TO PUT THE CAP BACK ON AFTER FILLING THE OIL. I’m an idiot. Seriously. There is a rhyme and reason to my forgetfulness, however. I daydream, a lot. In fact, when daydreaming once when I was a little girl, about 10 years old and making a cake for my mother’s birthday (a Williamsburg Orange Cake), I forgot how many cups of sugar I’d put into the frosting. Of course at that point it didn’t matter, as I had yet to discover that granulated sugar was NOT powdered sugar.

4. After 8 months of recovering, I still am in love with a boy I never met. I’ll let you know if it changes after 12 months.

Springs and Colds

Just in time for me finally kicking the last remnant of my cough from my mega-cold of 2007, Sergei has decided to come down with a case of feline respiratory virus. So this morning I get to experience my first trip to the vet, and his first trip meeting his new vet… and I get to experience stress as I have to pay out a week early to get him checked up – and right before rent time too, what a joy.

My car’s oil light has been on the blink too, to add to my current stress situation. Dad is making his way out today to take a look at the old thing and try to fix it. That car is supposed to last me one more year – please, please let it hold up.

So that’s what I woke up to this morning. Not exactly the best way to start out my Thursday!

Name that Tune

(Stolen from Chris!)

Step 1: Put your ipod on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarassing.
Step 3: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.

  • 1. You’re beautiful, that’s for sure.
  • 2. Feeling like I can’t forgive what I want to
  • 3. Watch the sun rise, say your goodbyes, off you go.
  • 4. Hey dad, look at me, think back and talk to me
  • 5. Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes
  • 6. I’m leavin’ today, living it, leaving it to change
  • 7. I’m so tired of being here
  • 8. There’s a big ol’ hole that’s gone right through the sole of this old shoe
  • 9. Choo choo to Broadway foo Cincinnati
  • 10. Friday night last orders at the pub
  • 11. Per amore Io conosco la tua strada (I think?)
  • 12. I’m a fool to want you
  • 13. If I seem to scintillate
  • 14. Don’t call me a zero
  • 15. I waited til I saw the sun
  • 16. It’s a long way from Star
  • 17. There’s a boy who works at Starbucks
  • 18. I’m not surprised its come to this
  • 19. Nip it in the bud
  • 20. The very thought of you
  • 21. Hush now baby, here’s the word
  • 22. Saturday what a day, what a silly little day
  • 23. I was staring at the sky, just looking for a star
  • 24. I’ve got a ticket to the fast city
  • 25. I can’t understand it.

Good luck! I’ll post the answers in a week or so.

Mouse in the House

Well, just in time for Sergei’s homecoming this evening – Mr. Mouse has made an official appearance by jumping out from under my sink at me over lunch today.

I call the shelter at 2pm today to find out if Sergei is, indeed, ready to come home tonight – then God willing, will be picking him up at 4:30 p.m. today. Such a nice mom am I, that I am giving him a playtoy on his first night in his new home.

Stay tuned for pictures and updates!

New Family Member


Today I went to PAWS to check out the kitties and sadly, the pretty girl and I did not match up as well as I’d hoped. Apparently she’d been a stray and she must have been out on the streets for a while because she was very stringy and very thin. She was also not quite the personality I’d been hoping for.

So Kris (my friend who took me there) and I started from square one. One feisty boy kept drawing my attention but he was already spoken for – however in one of the lower cages there was almost his exact twin – about one month younger, who was lazing about in his bed. After some coaxing he came forward and I asked to meet him in a separate room.

He’s perfect, folks. He curled right up in my arms and laid his head right down in the palm of my hand – and just stayed there. When I lifted him a bit he stretched out and put his head on my shoulder – and he is a purrrrrmobile. Apparently he’d been left at the shelter in their outside box a few days before. He’s intelligent too – he knew exactly what was happening when they came in to take him back to the cage (he has to be checked out by the vet on Monday then I pick him up Monday afternoon).

He’s perfect. Meet Sergei.

Bats, Cats and Twitter

Isn’t she cute? I am praying that she will be there on Saturday when I go to pick a kitty from the local shelter. I saw her picture on their website and just.. knew! I just really hope she’ll be there.

And it is now coming up on bat season. Last year I had an .. episode with a bat – two bats in fact. Late last summer I woke up one evening to the sound of flapping. Opening my eyes I was astounded to find that there was a very large bat flying around my bedroom.

I stayed up all night with all the lights on and a broom clutched tightly but after my severe screaming the bat stayed hidden.

The next night, as I was sitting at the computer with my headset on, the bat decided to make a reappearance just as I was pressing my “push-to-talk” button and chatting with some friends – it landed on my head, folks. I screamed into my microphone and took off from the computer chair, and.. remember? headset was on – so I ended up dragging my computer tower across the floor a few good feet before I realized what was happening.

So this year I will be armed with my broom, hopefully a fixed window within the next few weeks, and a cat. Between the three of us I hope to defend myself through another season of bats.

And finally – sign up on Twitter! My username is Benz1966 so add my to your friends list. As of right now I just have Chris as my friend, and that makes me feel quite pitiful =( (Not that you make me feel pitiful Chris.. it’s just, you know!)

Almost living again!


Cold is almost over and I have an appetite again!

On a side note – friend of mine just showed me this picture and for some reason I find it totally hilarious.

Still sick..

This is a bully of a cold, I’ll give it that.

Thursday I had a bit of tightness in my lung area and knew I was coming down with something. I’ve been taking my vitamins and drinking oj every day like a good girl so I had hoped it wouldn’t hit me hard. No appetite around dinner – just drank gatorade and water.

Friday the cough started and the tightness got even tighter, but it was still livable. Still no appetite, lots of gatorade and water.

Saturday the coughing was non-stop and my voice lowered about an octave. Still no appetite, lots of gatorade and water (Yay for Kroger’s having a 10 for $10 sale on Gatorade)

Sunday I couldn’t speak. Which was a blessing because my voice at the end of Saturday sounded like a bullfrog. Still no appetite. At this point I hadn’t eaten since Thursday evening. Lots of liquids though!

Monday I couldn’t breathe – and here I thought the worst was over. Got sent back home from work and spent the day just trying to breathe. Still no appetite but managed a piece of toast last night. At this point I’ve switched to Powerade because I’m tired of Gatorade flavors!

And now it’s Tuesday – my voice is back up to a croak, and I’ve been addressed as my boss a few times. Now the congestion is hitting my head and it feels like a balloon is about to burst inside.

I would give anything to have me back again!

A small note

It’s Friday, March 16, 2007 at 3:31 p.m. CST.

  • I have a serious chest cold – and it’s getting worse by the minute. Life, at this very moment, is quite miserable.

It’s now 3:32 p.m. Welcome to one minute of my personal sick life. 1 1/2 hours to go before I can go home and gasp for air in my bed.

Spring Comes

The last few months have seemed such a blur. Work, practice, play … then rinse repeat. I’ve settled into a groove and now that I am at my most comfortable I’m looking at shaking things up again.

I’ve been taking piano lessons from Dr. Ed Kaizer at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Ten years ago this year I took my first senior semester off and went to work at Disneyworld in their College Program.

This turned out to be the first step in not finishing up my degree in Piano Performance. Since that time I’ve been through some rough ups and downs in my life and battled serious depression – and still am battling. One of the traps I fall into at my lowest low, which I have been at for the last several months, is that I make my life around me comfortable and then I fall into it and emerge years later only to live through the same experience again.

This time I’m not going to let several years pass me by. So I’m looking into going back to school, possibly as early as this fall. I don’t know how the finances will work, how the job situation will work, or if the idea is even remotely possible. That much will be left up to God, so I’m not fretting about it.

In the meantime I am focusing hard now on preparing for an audition, I am taking the gaming in my life and using it to further a relationship with Alec (who just purchased a new Dell computer that makes me drool with envy), and to a lesser extent, Ethan and Evan. (How wierd is it that I hardly know those two younger boys when I was so close to all of my other siblings. They have incredible personalities and wonderful sense of humor (senses?). I guess that’s the downfall of being the oldest of nine with a twenty year gap between myself and Evan. But now they are like undiscovered gems of books that you get to read for the first time.)

Meggan turned 26 yesterday, and celebrated 10 months of being sober this week as well. I am so incredibly proud of her. She’s been promoted to bartender at her job and this year will finish up her probations. She’s another one I’m learning to know again.

So life moves on. Please pray for me – that my eyes will not droop shut again. I’m struggling hard these days and as time passes the easier it seems it will be if I just go back to sleep in my comfort area and let life pass me by.