Paint myself in blue and red, black and gray.

I deserve a pat on the back, a cookie, a gold star. Something. I accomplished so much for my August art show this weekend. Not even this weekend. I accomplished so much in 24 hours. I'm pleased as punch. But I know myself...I work very well under the rewards system so pony up! It was probably the most I've accomplished since I found out the art show was a done deal. I had been majorly slacking. Not due to laziness. I wasn't motivated, I wasn't imspired. I COULD have sat down at my station and worked night after night but I would have produced garbage. I'm smart enough to admit that. Anyway, it felt good to make major progress on 4 paintings. It also felt good to get text messages saying "I miss watching you paint" and "I love your art". Boss, baby.

After a long lapse in hang time, I finally hooked up with Tom and Carol yesterday. Though it didn't go exactly like I thought...their car broke down on the way to the new CSU radio station. I personally kept warm by running my mouth at top speed about a bitch...THUG bitch...who needs to get her face high-fived by not only my fist but by the swift arm of the law, specifically dealing with child welfare. Grow up. You should've grown up the second you pissed on that stick and the plus sign popped up. I'm not in the mood to babble about why some people should buy puppies, not pop-out babies. This was about Tom and Carol FUN DAY!

So we waited for the tow truck and waited for Phoebe, a.k.a. Wonder Woman, to come to our rescue. After that, we were all too frozen and flabbergasted from the car debacle. We went to the jigsaw, ate soup and drank beer, trying to get toasty. I'm fairly certain that by the time we left, I was still frozen. And this may have been the first night in my entire life that I did NOT kick my socks off. It's going to be a lonnnnnnng winter. But it was so good to just CHILL with Tom and Carol. You never realize how much you miss people until you're with them again. I can't let the gap go that long again. It's not healthy.

Painting, chilling, debt paying...welcome to my winter.

I'm pink and black and blue for you.

This may very well end up being a mushy, lovey-dovey, "all about my fiancee" sort of blathering mess. So if you can't stand me having my pants romanced off in odd and somewhat deformed ways...take a hike or run for the hills, yo. Cause I'm feeling all dreamy and not at all grounded this morning. Though I also feel sort of sicky from having cookies for breaskfast. Maybe I'll vomit pink and red adorable heart shapes or something. Doubtful.

Todd rubbed his cologne on the neck of my hoodie and it's driving me an odd combination of batty and bananas today. I usually get all high school crushy on him based soley on his deoderant. Throw in cologne...I'm a puddle. I hope people don't think I
m sniffing my clothes to see if I stink. Because I don't. I smell delicious. God, I'm downright chipper! On a weekday!

Yesterday I tried on the potential wedding gowns for my folks but you can read about that nonsense on the wedding blog later. I'm just setting the stage. I was missed and missing while I was at the store so I was anxious to get home. I walked in to candles leading a path up the stairs and outloud I said, "Awww shucks". I was probably blushing too. I did not get romanced in previous relationships. Onward...I made it to the top of the stairs to find a nakie Weasel with a cocktail, a bathroom full of candles, and a hot shower. My days are really long and Todd feels bad that when I get home, it's late and dark. He was trying to relax me.

*MISSING REELS*

No one needs to hear about what happened there because you would eithee puke and die or wash your eyes out with soap. Neither of which I recommend. Just know that when I said I wanted to come home to that every day, he responded, "Any day you try on your wedding dress!!". He's as pumped as I am (that's NOT wedding talk...just wedding-inspired awesomeness). We're officially retarded for each other. So I got to take my burning hot shower alone...he can't take the heat...but we talked-n-talked-n-talked-n-talked. Life is good.

YOU HEAR ME??? Life is GOOD!

Here comes a dogfish chased by a catfish.

So not only am I engaged but...I have a dog??? Who would have thunk it? I have never been much of a dog person in general. I connect with weird dogs randomly. Always quirky dogs with issues and odd personalities. Which is similar to how I connect with my friends and people I've dated. I've been thinking about getting a dog for about a month or so and now...I'm a dog owner.

Actually...TODD is a dog owner.

Friday was Todd's 29th birthday and I wanted to make it memorable since he said he had never really celebrated a birthday. All around...I know I did a bad-ass job from start to finish and I heard him yacking on the phone to friends about how great the birthday had been and that was early on! Outside of what we did and what I planned (some of which got cancelled because my poor fella is sick sicky sick)...this is about the dog.

Todd has always had a dog around. And now that we're living together...there's no dog at the Ol' Kentucky Shark Corral. Everywhere we went where there was a dog, he make pals with it and talked about how if WE had a dog, he'd take care of it. Of course, in the back of my mind, I heard a little kid that claims they'll take care of their pet until it goes belly up. But I figured...if I picked out a dog that I liked...maybe it wouldn't be so bad having a mutt around.

And it's not bad at all!

I went to the APL and played with some of the dogs I had researched and they were all swell...until I met Holly. She was skiddish and nervous and jumpy and quirky and I was in love. She had an owner that got her as a pup and spent zero time with her. He was moving and so he surrendered her at 6 months old. I knew she was the one. I put a hold on her and ran out buying bones and treats and collars and leashes and bowls. I wrapped them all up with 2 pictures of Holly and he was SH-H-H-H-HOCKED! But a little uneasy.

Todd likes purebred dogs. And he wanted to know what other dogs were chillin' at the APL. I explained my logic on picking Holly and I think he agreed that my picking the dog would help me bond with it more. But we sort of dropped the dog subject for the rest of the night. The next thing I know, it's Saturday afternoon...I'm leaving David's Bridal with Phoebe (see wedding blog for an explaination on how I do NOT carry the bride gene) and Todd's leaving the APL with HOLLY!!! Yep. He fell in love with her just like I did.

And she's not that nervous and skiddish! She's just an awkward 6 month old pup that looks JUST like a coyote! She already has a favorite shark blanket, loves when we walk her, rocked her bone to bits, and has adjusted to sleeping in her kennel when we leave for brief periods of time. She has a dog bed in there and she's all about it! She likes sitting by the couch where mom is and she waits by the window when dad leaves. She's a good dog...with a new name.

They say when you rename a dog, you should give it a name that sounds like it's previous name. After Todd reading through every possible list of dog names or ethnic names or what have you...we decided to call her Shelby Nova (my pets have always had middle names). And Shelby seems to like her name just fine! I really can not believe I just spent all this time talking about our dog. Never in one million years!!!

We have a dog. Guess we're an American family now.

Come meet her. Little crazy coyote.

I said, "Listen here son, I got news for you!"

It was the end of an era this weekend. Sugar's last show with the Lords of the Highway. I have seen them more times than I can count (they even played twice in my basement) and they all became good pals. I've seen songs, drummers and even cowboy hats come and go over the years. I've seen them in a hand full of states, at a plethora of venues. It's hard for me to accept she's moving on. She's playing bass for Horror of 59 now and I'm interested to see what that's going to be like. I can only picture her and the upright playing Lords songs. I can only picture her being Sugar and not Rebecca. I even asked her...now that she's in Horror of 59...is she still Sugar? Sigh. But while I was sad to hear 23 songs for the last time, I was THRILLED to orgasmic proportions to get not one dedication ("Tiger In My Tank") but TWO ("County Fair"). Yeah, I'm Super Fan. Or I was...sigh.

So that's how Halloween went down. Todd and I dress up as Frankenstein and The Bride of and went to the Beachland to pay tribute to Sugar. It was so good to see Rocko, Jen, Jim, Grimm, The Shoe-Lanes...and Texas Pete dressed as a Tooth Fairy. He and I agreed that we will do a duet, karaoke-style, to a Bon Jovi song on New Year's Eve. Amazing. It was a bad-ass Halloween...my first one with Todd. Before the Beachland, we went to my parents' house and chowed down. Saw the little kids in their costumes. Chilled out for awhile. I was worried that due to the sickness that had been raping me, I wouldn't make it for maybe the first time EVER. But I showed my cold who's boss and had a great night.

And in the morning...well...anyone with a pulse knows I got engaged. And I started a NEW blog all about the wedding details. I'm basically doing that so I have something to look back on years down the line, so my wedding party bitches can stay abreast (tee hee) of any wedding developements, and so anyone who wants to be involved in the wedding stuff CAN BE and anyone who isn't so much interested can stay here and just listen to me blather about whatever floods my brain at any given time. If you want to know the blog address, just hit me up. And while I'm going to let The Cleveland A and My Space stay relatively wedding-free, I will say this...I am bananas about Todd and I can't wait to be his bride next year. There have been plenty of ups and downs but I wouldn't trade what I have with him for ANYTHING in the world.

Engaged. Holy cow.