Friday, November 25, 2011

The World:Buster Buster:The World

I miss having a big dog. I miss Zoe and Diamond a fuck ton as individuals, too, but in general I miss having a big dog. Mister & I have talked about that a lot since we buried Zoe this summer over our vacation. Mister works at night often and there is something to be said for the security provided by a big furry beast.

A few months ago my girlfriend Deb starts sending me pics of a litter of puppies that were born on the retirement farm her mom lives at in Butler. She jokingly asked if I wanted one. I laughed it off. The following week more pics. More laughing. Then the pups hit about 3-4 weeks and she sent me these...


And I fell in love. These are the first pics I have of Mister Buster Badass ~ Buster for short!  He was 4 weeks old when these were taken. He is a rottweiler/hound mix. He kind of howls when he barks. Its LOUD and cute for the moment. We shall see what I think of that when hes 80# of howling mad man :-)

Fast forward to 2 weeks later & the pups are ready to come home. Deb did me a solid and went to go get Buster so he spent 2 nights howling at Deb, Madison and Jeff in Rimersburg (thank god hes cute or I may never have gotten a puppy & thanks for being awesome guys!) before I got up there to get him.

One trip to the vet later and we were on our way back to his new home. Gizmo went up with me to get him. She is naturally neurotic, so I was expecting SPAZZ. She did not disappoint. She calmed down eventually, read: 3 or 4 days later, but was pretty much tweaked out from long car ride, new puppy, vet visit, long car ride w new puppy. Honestly she was better than I expected. She wanted to play with him but didnt want him to come too close. It was an interesting battle to watch her wage. Now she thinks we have gotten her the Best. Squeeky Toy. Ever.  I cant WAIT for him to outweigh her in about 4 weeks. Should be an entertaining flip to their play. She digs him, though.
Heh. Im so cute you wont even get mad when I eat all youre shit and I know it.

At the Vets office. Dunno why he licked the table but the pic is cute!

He likes to move while napping & his head fell out of his crate. Look at the Dumbo ear!

Gizmo in the back, Buster in the from. Shes 40#, he was around 12#

Beached himself on a pillow w Mister (who has nicknamed him WANG! for obvious reasons)

Napping on the chair together.

Gizmo - 3 years old, left ~ Buster - 8 weeks old, right. THE PAWS! They get bigger daily.
Taking a nap. He does that often.

Getting ready to eff some shit up

Post Turkey Day Crash
Cocooned in fleece for warmth post bath!
So thats Buster. Hes 9 weeks old now and growing like a weed. House breaking w the bell method has that all solid 3 weeks in. Not too bad on chewing our stuff but e make sure to have plenty other legal options around. Seems to dig his crate although I'm betting he's outgrown it in a few weeks.

Happy, healthy and adorable addition to the family!

It amazes me we are from the same planet. Least of all Parents.

Is it wrong to really and sincerely dislike a sibling? I am struggling with that at the moment, and after our holiday dinner last night I kind of came to a conclusion - I REALLY dont particularly like my sister. I see people that look forward to family time, that want to hang out with siblings; for a long time I wanted that, but I dont think we are ever going to get there.  For those who dont know I am the oldest of 3 girls at 35, the Bitch just turned 34 and the Baby is 28.

I know that bothered me at one point...that my sisters and I arent close. I know that about 10 years ago the other 2 were very close, well that was what I thought at the time - looking back I think that the Bitch just didnt have anyone else willing to put up with her shit so she made the Baby do it and the Baby didnt know any better so she did. They have since grown apart. A lot. Like to the point that it honestly wouldnt surprise me if the 2 of them never spoke by choice again - the Bitch holds a grudge like nothing I have ever seen & the Baby has never felt is it her job to make relationships work - I do my best to stay far away from all of it. There is a metric fuck ton of history and bullshit between the 2 of them. I have heard bits and pieces from both but to be perfectly frank I dont give a fuck, I had nothing to do with any of it and dont trust either one of them to ever tell the truth of it - they both have that "lie when the truth fits best" thing going on. Short version - there are some trust issues there that run both ways that I dont see being resolved for a really long time.

This sucks a lot for my mom and dad. I think the only thing they want is what every parent wants at the holidays - all their kiddies and grandkiddies rounded up around the table having a meal and celebrating the holiday together...you know that Norman Rockwell picture perfect arent we the happiest family ever bullshit? It makes me sad that the 2 of them cant even put away all of their bullshit to give that to my folks. It really isnt all that hard to set aside personal bullshit and suck it up. I do it every year :-) I dont think we all collectively have been together for a holiday in 3 or 4 years.  I dont really care about seeing the Bitch and the Baby, but I really miss seeing all the kids together.

Last night we Turkeyed at Mom's. The Bitch was there w her live-in boyfriend, sans kids because they had Thanksgiving with their dad this year, and the Baby wasnt there (as is tradition). The ladies were sitting around the table after dinner having a conversation, the men watching football in the den, all normal as could be. Our topic of conversation wasnt the point - the jist - the Bitch felt very strongly about it and I can see both sides of it so have yet to formulate a firm opinion one way or another. As one would in a conversation with differing opinions I was asking her questions - we were having a conversation. All of a sudden, and seriously like from zero to rage in 5 seconds flat, she goes furious red and yells at me that I just think Im right. Which I dont, and said as much to her; I dont know whats right or wrong, Im still chewing on it hence I was asking her questions. She then called me a bitch and stormed out of the room mumbling things under her breath. I told her to grow up, she told me to go fuck myself. In front of my grandmother, too. She really is just THAT charming. I laughed at her. I doubt that did much to chill her out but I dont really care...a 34 year old storming out of a room just like she did when she was 10 is funny as hell.

But it made me think. If she wasnt my sister I would have nothing to do with her. I have no patience for people that act the way she does. I would never actively seek out a friendship with someone I do not trust. Her most dominant personality traits are ones that immediately turn me off when I meet new people. Even down to her mannerisms and the way she speaks. Everything about her repels me. I cant imagine being close with someone who is so close minded name calling is their idea of a solid argument. Her idea of keeping up with current events is watching Entertainment Tonight. Im not judging any of that. Whatever works for her, none of my business, just not my kind of people.

The same can be said in reverse. She doesnt "get" me either. She doesnt get why I dont care about living in the suburbs or driving a super nice car, or why shopping is not a driving force in my life, or why I dont like the Bachelor or American Idol. She doesnt understand my politics mainly because she has no opinion or knowledge on the topic and has no idea why I care. She thinks I am less because I choose not to have children. She is wrong - she needed kids to validate her existence, I validate my existence in other ways. Neither is better, neither is worse. She thinks I am weird. She thinks I married a strange man. She thinks we have the wrong goals and direction.

This means I am doing it right.

Ive known her since the day she was born. I watched her practice and perfect all the bullshit games she plays and manipulations that make up the thing she calls a life. I think this bothers her more than anything because none of them work on me.  When she got up and walked out of the room calling me a bitch and telling me to go fuck myself I laughed. I laughed because I finally realized HOLY SHIT I AM NEVER GOING TO LIKE THAT WOMAN.

Im done. Im done trying to like her. I wont ignore her or anything like that, that would be juvenile, I can coexist with her whenever Ive been doing that for years, but I'm done trying to like her and feeling, to some degree, like Im wrong for not. Is it wrong to stop trying & just accept that I dont like her and never will?

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The End of the End

Or... What Happens After You Commit Career Suicide

Well I did it. Finally. After well over a year of debating, fighting with myself, making excuses and generally being too afraid to just make a fucking decision already I made the fucking decision already.

I quit.

Tomorrow is actually my last day full time with the place I have gotten a steady paycheck from for over 11 years.

Hang on. I want to say that again. Tomorrow is my last full-time day with my job of 11 years. Just saying it makes me feel freer.

It wasnt an easy decision. Obviously. I cant imagine it is ever easy to decide to walk away from the security of the known and into the vast unknown for me or anyone else, but I have been forcing myself to do this job that I really do not like or want to do anymore for at least the last 18 months. I had foolishly hoped that I would just get over it or that I could just keep doing it while I waited for The Thing. Well, I didnt get over it. So instead I gave notice and am leaving to go make The Thing happen.

So the last 3 weeks have been peppered with "where are you going?" "what are you going to do?" "what restaurant are you going to next?" "did you & bossman have a blow out?". Nope, nothing even remotely that interesting, really. I reached my limit with my entire existence being dictated by the stupidity (mostly not deliberate, for the record) of others, being the go-to sounding and venting (read: bitching) board for 40 plus people and the general chaos that is the day-to-day operations of 5 restaurants and a commissary kitchen. Add all of that on top of working for a very...challenging/frustrating/pigheaded/illogical/would trip over a dollar to pick up a penny...man and thats a metric fuck ton of unhappy.  On the surface I manage all of that well - I think in a lot of cases I make it look easy - but the reality is it saps your will to live a lot of days and when those days far outnumber the ones that you go home with a smile on your face thats a problem. The kind of problem that puts you in a major funk in every aspect of your life, saps any creative energy you ever had and just generally made me into a person that I didnt know or want to know ~ and Im sure those closest to me probably feel/felt about the same.  Its pretty amazing how just 1 fucked up facet of life can knock everything else so far out of balance. 

Where am I going...I dont really know exactly yet. I have agreed to help out Bossman with some transition stuff in a consultants role until the end of January to help my people. Some folks think this is insane and that I should just cut the chord. I hear that, really do, but I cant. And I cant not for Bossman, but for my employees that I am leaving behind. They will need a bit of guidance. Its the least I can do for a staff that has busted their asses for me for so long - I would no more leave them hanging like that then I would jump off a bridge and expect to fly.

I dont really have a terribly specific plan at the moment. I have a general idea & the feeling that I am doing the right thing on every level, and I dont really need more than that, well outside of the support of my other half, which I 150% have. My next Thing will evolve as everything in my career has thus far - as it is intended to.

All things considered this is the closest I have felt to being me in a couple of years. Its going to take me a month or so, if not longer, to get old work out of my system and reprogram my head to make what I want my first priority as opposed to whats best for my work. Its a process that I am hugely looking forward to, truth be told.  I also cant wait to get into my own kitchen again, feel passionately about what I do for the first time in a loooong time and to let my life be dictated by my own stupidity as opposed to that of those around me.

Free. As of tomorrow at 5pm for the first time in over a decade I will be FREE.

And it feels FUCKING INCREDIBLE.

Totally Unrelated: WE GOT A NEW PUPPY! My next post will be pics of lil Buster Badass. Hes too cute for words!!!