There's a place here that makes some wonderful broiled oysters (and I don't particularly like oysters) with garlic, romano, gouda, bacon and parmasan. So we'll start with those.

Let's freshen the palate with a caesar salad, with a creamy caesar dressing, the croutons from Outback, some bacon and fresh grated parmasan cheese

Segue into the perfectly grilled (medium rare) ribeye steak, some baked mac and cheese, and the same rolls like Texas Roadhouse makes.

Dessert would have to be a plain, New York-style cheese cake.

The drink is fresh-brewed Lousianne tea, with lemon and Sweet N' Low.

This is the same menu I had planned for my last meal before the Rapture. I guess I can save it for October 21 now. :)

I hate my job.

I love what I do (when I'm allowed to do it), but I detest the company I'm working for.

That is all.

I love my bank's mobile features! I have USAA, and they have a top-notch system! I can even make deposits with my cell phone, which has been great!

I have an odd, recurring dream that's very simple in the visual. It's like I'm watching it on an old black and white set (the kind that has the rounded corners and the knobs to change the channels), and the screen has this incline on it. Then I'm on the incline and running, and I'm a little cartoon mouse being chased by a big cartoon wheel of cheese. I run until I wake up, usually with a startle.

I'm not sure what it means, I suppose it be me being overwhelmed by all the things in my life. I had it mostly when I was a teen, then it tapered off. I probably haven't had it for a few years now.

It'd be a theme restaurant called "Axis & Allies" and we'd serve food from all over the world (that participated in WW2). It would be decorated kinda like an underground bunker, and the tables would have old strategy maps laminated on it, and the televisions in the bar would loop through old war movies. The menu would have sections: Axis, Allies, Neutral and serve a few dishes from each place. They'd come served with those little paper flags stuck in them. :)

I can already hear the negative press, too. :)

OMG, I had the most amazing job interview ever! The disappointing thing will be if they don't offer me a position after this. Or worse, they offer me a position, but the pay sucks. It was just...well, let's say that it took 2.5 hours of simply chatting with the CEO at Starbucks. :) No personality tests, etc. :)

How long has it been? A long time.

Anyway, last night was at the Children's Hospital ER for like four hours, then 2 hours at the Calhoun campus. Natasha was feeling overwhelmed and saying that the only way to make it all stop was to kill herself. We went to see the counselor, and Susan couldn't reach through to her, and was worried more than usual. Natasha had been doing real good, but there's been some school stuff and some medicine tweaks and so on, and I think it pushed her into a corner. So off to the hospital we go.

We can't just go straight to the Calhoun campus (where the Children's Hospital Inpatient Behavorial Health Program is), oh no...we have to go to the ER at the Hospital itself, wait in a crowded waiting room with a bunch of sick kids running around wiping their snotty little noses and then touching everything with their snotty little fingers. While Mom chats away on her cell phone with the Baby Daddy, clacking her 6" long bejeweled fingernails against the chair arm. Fun.

When we finally go to the Calhoun campus, we're in the waiting area when the place goes into lockdown because some kid goes absolutely apeshit. His mom was checking him in, and when she got ready to leave, he freaked out. He was screaming her name, holding on to her; he had to be physically restrained so she could get out the door. Of course, the elevator couldn't come soon enough. She kept her back to the glass door, where he had put himself into a protestor's death grip around the door handle, beating on the glass and screaming "MOM!" over and over. She was bawling by the time she stepped into the elevator.

It took them about a good five to ten minutes to actually pry him from the door without breaking his arm, then they had to physically move him to one of the rooms. We could hear him screaming over and over, and the doctor trying to calm him down, but still be firm. No, he wasn't going to go home. No, he can't call his mom. Etc. After about fifteen minutes of this, the doctor waves his hand and a nurse comes out with a syringe in hand. It got real quiet after that.

Then they let us in. At least they apologized. I'd never seen any kid do like that. Natasha got all checked in, we hugged and I left. I got a short call from her this morning and she said that she didn't want to be there, but it's not like I can go get her. She has to be released by a doctor. She'll probably be there a week.

Sigh.

Not so sure about the whole 'sewing' part..

Stasia and Sam came out Saturday morning and she tried on her grandmother's wedding dress. As beautiful as the dress is, it just didn't fit. My mom was SO SMALL on her wedding day...Stasia couldn't even fit her arms through the lace sleeves all the way, and my mom was really shortwaisted, while Stasia has a longer waist, so it didn't fit right. So, that was depressing.

Then I brought out my wedding dress as a 'shot in the dark'. Stasia looked at it, then gave me 'that look'. I laughed and said, "Worry not! My feelings aren't hurt." So, both dresses were put back in their boxes and put up in the closet.

Sam and Mike chatted while Stasia, Victoria and I went to go look at wedding dresses. We went by Southern Bridal in Mandeville. The goal was to just look at wedding dress styles, and once we found something Stasia liked, we could start looking at the discount websites. So, the helper-lady was like telling Stasia to try on ANYTHING she liked. So we had like a dozen dresses taken back to her dressing room. At this point, we're not looking at prices, because we have no intention of buying at a boutique store.

So she tries on one dress. Very nice. Goes into the maybe pile. Try on dress #2. We all suck in a breath, because it's gorgeous. It bounces out dress #1 from the maybe pile to take the lead. Try on dress #3. Nice, but not enough to bounce dress #2 out of the running. Try on dress #4. Stasia says as she looks in the mirror, "I really want to try on dress #2 again." Go back to the dressing room; try on dress #5, but we don't even leave the dressing room. So we try back on dress #2. She's standing in front of the mirrors on the stand, and we're both teary eyed. We decide this is the one.

Now the big issue...price. The dress is originally $1200. But the girl tells us it's 50% off. Whoa...nice. Then another girl pipes up...and it's 50% off THAT! So this beautiful, gorgeous, perfect dress is going to be $299. I'm like, "Tell me where to write the check!" The only drawback is because it's a discontinued dress, we have to pay for the alterations. There's two things to be fixed...the "up top", and the length. But we have some options that are perfect, so it's no worry.

I hope everything goes as well as this! I'd post pictures, but...well, we don't need the groom to see it :)

Saints are going to the Super Bowl, w00t! I've watched just about every game this season. I will admit that I'm a johnny-come-lately fan of the Saints, but I did fan them from the very first game this season and onward. I guess I just got lucky as to which season I decided to try and do the football thing. What helped was being able to go to the Dome to see a game /live/! It was truly awesome and from that moment on, I was hooked.

Victoria and I are headed to Cincinnati for Mardi Gras. Actually, we're headed there for medical reasons, it just so happens to be over the Mardi Gras holidays, so she doesn't have to miss school. Thank goodness. This time, we're doing appointments that have to do with her urological issues. Why can't the doctors all coordinate their times? It seems that no matter what, we can't see all of them in one visit. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Natasha is going to North Carolina for the Mardi Gras holidays. She's going to spend the whole week up there. Hopefully, we can get her bed built while she's gone. We're going to use some of the cabinets that are in the (soon to be torn down) garage conversion, and build it up so it has storage, etc. If it works as well in reality as it does in my head, I think it will be pretty cool. :)

Natasha's also driving now, legally. She finally got her driver's license. She got the blue Versa hatchback and a new radio in it, so she's stylin'. It's been nice to have her available to run to the store, etc.

I wish I could help Stasia out on her car, but things are just so tight right now. I'm hoping she can get it running enough to get a job, and then once she gets the job, she can get a new car under some uber-1337 financing program.

Our finances suck right now. Applied for a home equity loan and we were turned down. Something about derogatory entries on our credit report. I have a feeling that we have some unpaid medical bills that have been reported. I'm just so overwhelmed by them all, and I do admit that I keep putting off facing that huge monster. I just don't have the time or energy to do it. I keep trying to sort them out, but they just keep coming in. Maybe one day.

Stasia and Sam are getting married! That's such good news! Given the financial situation, we're having quite a tight budget on it, but it's not so much the pomp and circumstance as the actual joining of the two, right? Still, I want her to have a nice wedding to remember. Mom sent her wedding dress down, and we're going to see if Stasia can fit in it. That would be so cool, for her to wear her grandmother's wedding gown. I'm hoping to be able to go to Baton Rouge today and go with them on the tour/tasting of one of the places that they're looking at for the ceremony/reception. Hoo-rah!

My job is still going. My boss has showed up MAYBE four days this month. That doesn't count all the days she wasn't there from about Halloween on last year. Most days she doesn't even call. I'd like to think it's because she has such confidence in my ability to run things without her, but I don't think that's it. But it's a job that pays well enough, so I won't be looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Moved the fish tank into the home office. No pescoral fatalities on the move, so in about a week, I might hunt down some cheap fish to add to it. It's nice having it to glance over and watch the little (and big) fishes swimming around. I do like fish tanks a lot.

I think that's it on the updates. I'm sure I've left stuff out, but hey, there's a lot of stuff to remember for the first post of the year (pretty sure it is...I think). Anyway, take care kiddos, and I'll chat with you all later!