The Weekend (and Thursday)
Thursday there was an employee screening of Charlie St. Cloud. I brought Casey to work with me so she could spend the day in the park and then I could meet her at the theater instead of having to go all the way home and get her and then come back. She brought her friend Francisco. We could only bring one guest, so Debbie used her pass to get him in (we joked that he was her date, the cougar). The 4 of us had dinner at Panda Express before going to the movie. The movie was great. Zac Efron could probably read the phone book and I'd like it because he's fucking beautiful, but even aside from that it's a really good movie.
Friday was Amy's last day at work (she moved to Georgia today), so Sharon, Debbie, Silvana, Lori (the new girl, Amy's replacement) and I took her out for dinner and drinks at a place called O'Charleys. I hadn't been before, and I really liked it. Their happy hour prices were great... I had chicken tenders and a huge glass of white grape sangria, and my total bill was about $10. The food was fabulous... they brought out fluffy, buttery rolls, and for dessert we had donuts dipped in icing. Yum. We had great conversation too... long after the bills had been paid, we sat and talked. We were there for almost 3 hours.
Saturday was pretty uneventful... I paid bills, did laundry, got groceries (thought I left my cell phone at the store and had to go back and check lost and found, and then was relieved later when I found it under the seat in my car), and then Casey finally got up at 3:00 (teens, ha) and we watched some TV. I made tacos for dinner and then she went to her friend Jim's house for a few hours before I made her come home and go to bed around 10:30.
Today we went to church with my parents, and also Casey's friend Brianna and her family. We all went out to lunch at Cracker Barrel afterwards, and then Bri's family was going to take Casey with them to Cocoa Beach. They are spending the week there and offered to let Casey stay for one night, with me picking her up after work tomorrow. But then when we were having lunch, June (Bri's mom) extended the offer to Wednesday. My only concern was that Casey has a lot of work to do for school (she's taking a summer PE class online and has daily assignments to do and also has a book she has to read for her upcoming geography class), but Brianna is in the same classes and June said she fully intends to have them work on their assignments together. With Bri to work with and June to push them to do it, I know Casey will get more done than if she was home alone. Here she'll just sleep all day, play guitar hero and maybe devote an hour to school stuff. There I'm sure she'll get plenty of beach time, etc, but she'll get a lot of studying done too.
So we had to run home after lunch so Casey could pack some more clothes for her extended stay, and we finished watching the premier of Project Runway while waiting for them to come pick her up. Once she was gone I met up with Sharon at the Parliament House (gay bar) for their piano bar/karaoke thing. This was my 2nd time going and I had a lot of fun. Finally got up the nerve to sing a song by myself (those people are intimidating with their awesome voices). I chose Funny Honey from Chicago and it was a bit of a disaster. I don't know all the words, so I kept having to look over the piano player's shoulder, and then during parts I knew I'd look up at the audience, and then when I had to look back I'd lose my place (the piano player, a cute gay guy also named Kelly, was very sweet and helpful and would point out where we were), and then it kind of just ends before the part where she goes into her rant. I guess it says to go back to a certain section, but Kelly said that section wasn't there, so I told him just play the regular song and I'd try to remember those lyrics, and I did pretty much remember them. I guess I did sort of ok... it's hard to tell how you sound, and though they did applaud when I was done, nobody really said anything. But then finally when I was leaving Kelly said I sounded great, so there's that. Eh, next time I guess I'd better pick something I know really well. Ha. At least it's pretty informal, fun environment, so even when you screw up you're still feeling the love.
Not long after I got home from that, I had to go to the church for a meeting for the National Catholic Youth Conference we're attending next year. Casey was technically supposed to attend with me, but being at the beach at that point, she was excused. The kids were taken to a separate room to do ice breakers and get to know each other better (she knows them pretty well anyway, since she's attending youth group events now and went on the mission trip) while the parents did some planning for the fund-raising auction we're going to have... we have to sell ads and get donations for the auction. It's a decent bit of work, but worth it since Casey and I will be going on a free trip to Indianapolis and attending a pretty awesome convention after it's all said and done.
So I came home and watched the Prison Break movie, which I got from Netflix. Yeah, they made a movie that went straight to DVD. It was fine. You know, it's Prison Break. Pretty much what you'd get from watching the show. Next in the queue - Nanny McPhee, because I've never seen it and there's going to be an employee preview of the sequel soon.
P.S. I finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It was pretty good. And I actually learned a lot of history because, aside from the part about vampires, it was all true historical fact. It was basically a biography of his life with vampires thrown into the mix.
Friday was Amy's last day at work (she moved to Georgia today), so Sharon, Debbie, Silvana, Lori (the new girl, Amy's replacement) and I took her out for dinner and drinks at a place called O'Charleys. I hadn't been before, and I really liked it. Their happy hour prices were great... I had chicken tenders and a huge glass of white grape sangria, and my total bill was about $10. The food was fabulous... they brought out fluffy, buttery rolls, and for dessert we had donuts dipped in icing. Yum. We had great conversation too... long after the bills had been paid, we sat and talked. We were there for almost 3 hours.
Saturday was pretty uneventful... I paid bills, did laundry, got groceries (thought I left my cell phone at the store and had to go back and check lost and found, and then was relieved later when I found it under the seat in my car), and then Casey finally got up at 3:00 (teens, ha) and we watched some TV. I made tacos for dinner and then she went to her friend Jim's house for a few hours before I made her come home and go to bed around 10:30.
Today we went to church with my parents, and also Casey's friend Brianna and her family. We all went out to lunch at Cracker Barrel afterwards, and then Bri's family was going to take Casey with them to Cocoa Beach. They are spending the week there and offered to let Casey stay for one night, with me picking her up after work tomorrow. But then when we were having lunch, June (Bri's mom) extended the offer to Wednesday. My only concern was that Casey has a lot of work to do for school (she's taking a summer PE class online and has daily assignments to do and also has a book she has to read for her upcoming geography class), but Brianna is in the same classes and June said she fully intends to have them work on their assignments together. With Bri to work with and June to push them to do it, I know Casey will get more done than if she was home alone. Here she'll just sleep all day, play guitar hero and maybe devote an hour to school stuff. There I'm sure she'll get plenty of beach time, etc, but she'll get a lot of studying done too.
So we had to run home after lunch so Casey could pack some more clothes for her extended stay, and we finished watching the premier of Project Runway while waiting for them to come pick her up. Once she was gone I met up with Sharon at the Parliament House (gay bar) for their piano bar/karaoke thing. This was my 2nd time going and I had a lot of fun. Finally got up the nerve to sing a song by myself (those people are intimidating with their awesome voices). I chose Funny Honey from Chicago and it was a bit of a disaster. I don't know all the words, so I kept having to look over the piano player's shoulder, and then during parts I knew I'd look up at the audience, and then when I had to look back I'd lose my place (the piano player, a cute gay guy also named Kelly, was very sweet and helpful and would point out where we were), and then it kind of just ends before the part where she goes into her rant. I guess it says to go back to a certain section, but Kelly said that section wasn't there, so I told him just play the regular song and I'd try to remember those lyrics, and I did pretty much remember them. I guess I did sort of ok... it's hard to tell how you sound, and though they did applaud when I was done, nobody really said anything. But then finally when I was leaving Kelly said I sounded great, so there's that. Eh, next time I guess I'd better pick something I know really well. Ha. At least it's pretty informal, fun environment, so even when you screw up you're still feeling the love.
Not long after I got home from that, I had to go to the church for a meeting for the National Catholic Youth Conference we're attending next year. Casey was technically supposed to attend with me, but being at the beach at that point, she was excused. The kids were taken to a separate room to do ice breakers and get to know each other better (she knows them pretty well anyway, since she's attending youth group events now and went on the mission trip) while the parents did some planning for the fund-raising auction we're going to have... we have to sell ads and get donations for the auction. It's a decent bit of work, but worth it since Casey and I will be going on a free trip to Indianapolis and attending a pretty awesome convention after it's all said and done.
So I came home and watched the Prison Break movie, which I got from Netflix. Yeah, they made a movie that went straight to DVD. It was fine. You know, it's Prison Break. Pretty much what you'd get from watching the show. Next in the queue - Nanny McPhee, because I've never seen it and there's going to be an employee preview of the sequel soon.
P.S. I finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It was pretty good. And I actually learned a lot of history because, aside from the part about vampires, it was all true historical fact. It was basically a biography of his life with vampires thrown into the mix.