OMG ETS LURV!!

Some Good News!

Well, it seems that the car just needed some freon and it doesn't need a whole new electronic system or other type of expensive part!!! *does a cartwheel*

YAY!!!!!

Now that I don't have to worry about that, now it'll just be dealing with my mom and trying to figure out what went wrong today.

I have to be honest, I love my parents, both of them. I especially love talking to my mother and I want to have a good relationship with her. I really do. I don't know why this can't happen sometimes and I don't know why it's me that always gets blamed for things or gets accused of making things up, but I'm just starting to get fed up with always being the one that is wrong and always has to apologize for things that I haven't done. I don't understand how that solves problems, it's just covering things up with a nice warm lie and it's why things like this will keep happening because we're not addressing the problem as to why these blowups keep happening.

Here we go again...

So today was interesting, to say the least. Let's start from the beginning...

The air conditioning in the car has been acting up recently, the passenger side blows out hot air for about 20 minutes until finally the cold air comes out, so I decided to bring it in to my mechanic to look at first before I bring it all the way to the dealership. It could just need a simple recharging or it could be a leak, something simple. So they needed the car for longer than I had anticipated, so I figure just have someone drop me off at the train station and I'll take the train into my job. So my mechanic, really great guys who often bring people home when they need to, offered and dropped me off at Union Station.

I grab the train and get off at the Bridgeport Station where I'd hop on another train up to Naugatuck (where my job is). However, my train arrived one minute late and I missed the one departing up to Naugatuck. I was told the next one wasn't until 1:30PM, so I figure I'd hang out with my mom until I figured out what to do since my parents still live in Bridgeport. Possibly I'd borrow her car just for the day. So I call her and decide to take a cab to her house. And immediately the storm begins.

I come into the house and she immediately begins to yell and berate me about how I screwed up and how I shouldn't come into her house and order her around. This is right after I come through the door, so I'm completely blindsided. I was stranded in Bridgeport and didn't know where to go and only came over because my mom offered to have me over, I wasn't yelling and I wasn't trying to order her around. So I start talking back which just made things all that more worse.

Here's what the conversation was like from my mom, who I am now very much concerned with. Apparently, I'm a bragger that likes to show off and I've left the house now and have to sit down and shut up. I'm crazy now ever since I got on "those pills" and oh, how come you're crying, you're the one that goes into New York all the time, you should be able to take it. Oh, but I'm not going to give you the keys unless you're nice to me, you have to take me insulting you for no reason, but oh, you should stay for coffee, in fact take the whole day off from work, we'll have dinner when you're sister comes back from work. You're stranded now and I'll f*ck over anyone, I don't care, I'll f*ck over my own kids, anyone who tries to take advantage of me! Oh wait, you can't touch you're phone, who are you calling, don't call for a cab you have to stay here. Don't call your father, you'll get me in trouble.

*sigh*

I just don't know what to do sometimes. Thankfully, after talking to my dad he said "of course you can take the car, just bring it back." So I managed to make it to work and organized with my sister to drop the car off and then have her bring me home afterwards.

My mother and I have always had a rocky relationship, but lately it seems like things are taking a toll for the worse and I'm not sure what it all means.

I'm going to finish work today and hopefully when I bring the car back we can talk things out and really get to what is really the problem here.

I Feel :-P Today

I think :-P best describes how I've felt lately. I've been sick now for about 2 weeks, but I am getting better aside from an annoying cough whenever I laugh or run around a lot that still remains. I just feel blah: blah about myself, blah about my looks, blah about my clothing, just a general blah...

My COO diagnosed me with mild bronchitis because of my cough and now supplies me with cough drops and I guess it is/was bronchitis because I definitely took more of a hit than I would from just a cold. My ego is shot along with my energy levels, definitely not the responsibility of a mere cold.

*sigh*

*cough*

I can't wait for autumn. Maybe it's not bronchitis, maybe it was my body attempting to evolve a set of gills in response to the humidity we've been experiencing lately.

Cellphone Photo Dump

Basquiat-esque graffiti in New Haven.


Great Irish pub/restaurant new MoMA.


View from the mezzanine in the Columbus Circle Mall in Manhattan.

Day and Night

Well today was spent by me doing all types of shopping and sightseeing down in midtown, or at least what I was able to see through my melting hair and eye makeup. Damn, it was sweltering today.

So I headed down to Columbus Circle to oogle over things I counted afford and have a little clothes spree at places I could afford. Espirit it now one of my favorite clotheries (well, yes, I'm making that a word now.) I also checked out Sephora and picked up some more Calvin Klein Euphoria since I was starting to run out and also a Clinique facial soap kit.

Then it was a walk across town to visit the ritzy "oh my god, I'll never be able to afford this" part of midtown. Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, Tiffany's, the Trump Tower, Barney's to name a few names that I saw and remember. I kind of got repelled out of Barney's much like what would happen if you put to magnets together of the same poles, but I had a nice walk through.

Then I was just too hot and tired to think about trying anything else on, so I came back. I'm now a little more sick and I'll be taking it easy tonight. This simple Connecticutian has had enough for the day. Perhaps Loehmann's tomorrow from the comfort of my car.
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Friday Night in The City

I am cat sitting down in the Bronx for the weekend, half as a favor to my friend who is away and the other half part of her birthday present to me of a weekend in the city! YAY!

So last night was spent eating take out food (like a proper house guest) and then I went off to see a friend's band play down at Crash Mansion. They are Funeral Crashers and are quite good. Plus the band before them, Entertainment, was also great as well. Definitely check them both out.

Unfortunately, there was work being done on the 1 last night and we all had to file onto city buses for a portion of the trip back. Everything would have been fine, but our driver kicked us out early and poor little Christine was stuck somewhere on 191st Street. EEK!

Thankfully, I found a little guardian angel who was also trying to travel up to the Bronx, so we banded together and found the other bus back up to the Boogie Down. Thank you Haciendo, you were invaluable as a body guard/navigator.
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Sicky...

I'm thinking about taking a half day from work. :-P I hate even being a little sick since I know that there are precautions that I MUST take in order for the little sick not to become a big sick. So, symptoms right now are: hacking dry cough that builds into a huge deep cough sometimes, a sore throat and sour taste to my mouth, tired and feeling a little out of it, plus my "filter" is down a bit and I have to remind myself "hmmm, maybe I shouldn't say that."

So I think I'll take a half day and immediately take a nap and just generally do nothing.

I <3 Absolut

Not so much for the taste as I've upgraded to Grey Goose, but damn it Absolut vodka has some of the best ads ever, hands down.

This latest ad I saw in the back of the latest New York magazine while I was training back into Connecticut.


After realizing that it was a legitimate ad I scoped out the fine print at the bottom of the ad and saw the familiar Absolut Vodka legal info. So I venture over to that part of the internetz and, oh boy, the ladies and gents at Absolut have out done themselves this time.

http://www.nowbekanye.com/

And I Have Come Full Circle

I'm sitting down eating my Barnum's Animals Crackers. I open the little box, making sure not to tear the little string handle. I tear open the little brown bag and start selecting which animal I will munch on first.

I've done that the same now for probably more than 20 years, the only difference now is that I do it on the train back from New York bound for home after I just got out of a high power meeting about the penthouse I'm building.

He he...the little girl never thought she would grow up to do that. The eating of the animal crackers, now that I knew I'd still be doing :-)

Now once these plans get reviewed, hopefully everything will be OK and I didn't screw up anything and it will be on it's way for ordering.
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Independence Day Weekend

Happy Independence Day and for all you UKer's, happy blow stuff up day! All you need to know is that we're American and we enjoy blowing stuff up, that is all, keep it moving, nothing to see here. We're not celebrating any special event or anything, no no, we just call it Independence Day, we're weird like that. *looks around guiltily*

So after some tiffs with the fam (nothing major just dumb disagreements) we had a great little BBQ and a nice little fireworks show. It was a concentrated show full of all the favorites and minus any calls to the po-po from angry, crotchity neighbors.

Today will be spent with running some errands and then training off to Manhattan to have extended birthday celebrations.

Before that, I may be lame and head into the office for a bit. My penthouse framing plans need some revising and I have to figure out how to connect new steel to old cast iron. The PE and me have a tentative plan, we just need to finalize and draw up something.
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Need for Newness

I think the best way to describe how I've been feeling lately is that I have a growing desire to experience new things and new people. This is probably coming from work being crazy for a while and beginning to ease up slightly, enough for other portions of my brain to free up and start thinking again. Those thoughts end up rattling around in that noggin of mine and they conjure up images of a new boyfriend, new apartment, new vacation spots, new restaurants, new shops, new music; basically, I'm craving a social restart on some levels.

This probably comes from a waning desire to date a particular person since new (startling) information has been found out as well as just a "meh" attitude about the whole thing. I don't want to wait around for someone to be ready to seriously date, I want to meet someone now that wants a somewhat serious relationship. And I'm not talking the moon, I'm just talking about dating exclusively. I'm a simple girl.

As with apartment options, I'm looking into moving (Gomez, NO!) further into Connecticut. I know, I know...you're saying "Christine, that's impossible, that goes against every desire you've ever talked about, you're going to be in sterile alien territory! They'll change you into one of THEM!! You'll live where there are more trees than people!!" But just bear with me as I list why this is good:

• I'll be saving money on gas which is now like pouring liquid gold into GD (Gert-Darcy)
• If the place offers utilities included, I'll be saving money during the winter months which has also steadily been on the increase.
• I want an "engineer's apartment," as my mother eloquently put it. Something that has a washer and dryer that doesn't require quarters to operate, something that has a dishwasher and something that has a stove that's not from the 1940's. Mind you, my stove still kicks major ass (it's a rare push button from back in the day), but c'mon now...
• With all these compounded savings, I'll be able to visit more of you people out in the city.

So yeah, I got some thinking to do as well as number crunching. Excel will be my buddy for a while.