The Steel Anniversary

My wedding anniversary date is just around the corner. It would have been our 11th year. The traditional anniversary gift for 11 years is steel. I would have most likely figured out a way to incorporate that into the gift I would have purchased.


Now I'm steeling myself for all of the emotional crap.


A few months ago - even a few weeks ago - I thought to myself: I don't want to see anyone on that day. I just want to be alone with my thoughts. It's the first of many milestones I'll have to deal with this year, and I don't want anyone seeing me. I'll probably be a mess.


Well, dear friends, I've decided not to be in mourning on that day. But I will be surrounded by steel! My two partners in fun, shopping and friendship and I are going to the Eastern State Penitentiary's Terror Behind The Walls attraction. It's the remains of the prison - just a bit jazzed up and scary as all get out during the Fall.


From the Eastern State Penitentiary web site:

Opened in 1829 as part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through "confinement in solitude with labor," Eastern State Penitentiary quickly became one of the most expensive and most copied buildings in the young United States. It is estimated that more than 300 prisons worldwide are based on the Penitentiary's wagon-wheel, or "radial" floor plan.

Some of America's most notorious criminals were held in the Penitentiary's vaulted, sky-lit cells, including bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone. After 142 years of consecutive use, Eastern State Penitentiary was completely abandoned in 1971, and now stands, a lost world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers.


Yeah, okay...maybe that description isn't exactly appealing, but we had such a blast last year. I screamed-laughed my head off as the other two girls led the way through the one-hour tour. As is custom, we'll also most likely be shivering from the pouring rain that also occurs every single time we go out. I'm not kidding! Most times, we have to go and get towels and wring our clothes out. Maybe in our previous lives we were rain makers.


I have a picture of the three of us from last year. We are freezing our butts off, and soaked to the bone, and yet you'd never know it. We're smiling ear to ear in the shot.


This year, I'm especially looking forward to it. The girls will be coming to my house, kicking a frozen margarita bucket, and staying over for girl talk and some fun time away from regular responsibilities as moms and wives.


For every memory that makes me sad, there are two that make me realize I'm going to be okay.

Now, if I can just figure out a good hangover remedy...

Kickin' It Circa 1980s...

Best Buy is awesome. I went there with my manfriend and perused the music aisles. I left with about $60 worth of music (5 CDs).

While I did buy Feist, The Killers and Apocalyptica...I also went old school (meaning pre-iPod days...sigh...). I bought Michael Jackson's Number Ones CD and a compilation Def Leppard CD, too.

It's October. It's Halloween season. What better way to rock out but to Thriller? As I was dancing in my car, I thought of the scene from 13 Going on 30. Yeah, Michael Jackson's more than a bit odd, but man could he make some great dance music. I don't care who you are - how do you not want to get up and dance?

Enjoy the video, thanks to YouTube:

The Happiest Place on Earth

I had the best vacation a couple of weeks ago. I could not have asked for more, even when I had the opportunity to do so.

For the first time in the bazillion times I've been to Disney World in Orlando, I met the Fairy Godmother. It was a pretty cool moment, standing there with her.

I think if I had met her seven months ago, I would have given her a laundry list of wishes:

• I would have wanted February 18, 2008 - the day my then-husband of 10 plus years told me he didn't want to be married anymore - to have been erased


• I would have wanted a second chance at children


• I would have wanted purpose to my life


• I would have wanted lipo. (Hey, I didn't say the list would be completely without superficial wishes!)

Life isn't always perfect, but I am so grateful for what I have in mine. Granted, I cry now and again, but I smile more than I did a number of months ago.

So, when I saw the Fairy Godmother, I gave her a hug and smiled.

Back On Track for HealthyQuest 2008

I've been moving away from my Healthy Choice regimen, and as a result, I put back on some weight. Granted, it's not a lot of weight, but...I was down to 40 pounds of weight lost, and now it's back up to 37 pounds.

Grr.

(This picture does not represent my actual weight, by the way. Or my feet. Ew.)

So, it's back to Healthy Choice meals and some quality time at the gym starting this week. Now, while today I'll be treating myself to some yummyness at the Texas Roadhouse (their sweet potatoes are out of this world), and I will be on vacation at the end of this week in Florida, I will be re-vamping my goals so that I lose another 10 pounds by the end of this year.

I simply won't go back to where I was six months ago. I had junk in the trunk, front and side to side. While I totally dig my curves, the lumps in between the curves simply weren't healthy.

So, if any of you out there have any tips for losing the last 10 pounds and maintaining the weight loss...I'm all ears...

Re-Emerging Into the Universe With Social Networks

I am finding the world of social networks to be rather interesting. I thought this would be a very solitary time in my life, to be honest. Not lonely, but alone. I don't know if that makes much sense, but in my head it does. I mean, not to get all pathethic, but I really expected to be "that woman in the house with 12 dogs" people would talk about and wonder what her story is. I was prepared for it. I accepted it, and was almost happy about it. Almost. :-)

Any-hoo...

A friend of mine sent me a request to join Facebook, something I thought was for the teeny-boppers. I've reconnected to friends I had in high school, college and even my grade school. For as many "requests to connect" I've sent out, I've received equal amounts of "Remember me?" postings. It's really been quite wonderful to catch up with people. I'm not a person that generally would entertain going to a high school reunion...EVER...so this way to say hello and talk to people I remember fondly has been a real hoot!


There's also a professional network site which I've been a member of for years. It's called LinkedIn. According to its About Us section, LinkedIn is an online network of more than 25 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. It's terrific for expanding your professional connections and opportunities. (Plaxo Pulse is, too, by the way.) When you register, you post your work experience and education on-line, and then it's smart enough to send you a list of "People You Might Know."

As per each week, I sign onto LinkedIn, and it gives me this list. This particular time around, they gave me a person I actually did know from college. I met him when I was a freshman at college; he was dating a good friend of mine from high school, and I briefly dated his roommate. As is typical, we all went our separate ways. Generally speaking, when I request to connect in LinkedIn with professional contacts who were also friends, the response I get is an Accept and a simple "Hello! How are you?" comment and that's about the end of it, and vice versa when people connect to me. So, I was pleasantly surprised when this contact said "Hello! How are you?" and then proceeded to send me a detailed e-mail on the events of his life. I caught him up on what's been new (you know, for the past 15 years), and then followed up with an Instant Message thanking him for sending me such a nice e-mail. We wound up continuing the conversation on IM for about an hour and a half. As much as I like IM, I'm a listener, so not being able to read a person's body language or facial responses in response to what they are saying doesn't always give me enough information.

So...I was brave. I asked this person if they'd like to meet me after work and get caught up. I thought of him as a friend then, and it appears 15 years didn't change that opinion.

We met, had drinks and dinner, and wound up talking for five and a half hours. Over the course of two weeks, we've had more conversations, more dinner, and more laughter than either one of us has had in a while.

It's...nice...in a very "huh? what just happened?" kind of way.

While I may never see the majority of the people to whom I've reconnected, it's interesting that when people post comments and messages, it's still in their voices that I remember from many years ago.

I'm An Auntie!

On September 6, 2008, I became an aunt!

My sister and her husband are proud parents to Miss Lily Isabel. She's a tiny, feisty girl, and doing well. She's a preemie, so she'll be in the NICU for a little while, but all indications are she's more of a Tiger Lily than a shy flower.

If I do say so myself, she's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen.

The Beginning of Cheryl's Next Chapter

It's been a while since I've posted anything here, mostly because it had been quiet on this western front.

Then, blam-o!

My divorce is final. The Court issued the divorce decree on August 20, 2008. I found out August 28, 2008, via my BlackBerry device. My attorney's office issued their final bill via e-mail on the 28th, for which I was extremely grateful. My attorney was totally kick-ass, but I paid for kick-ass.

During the e-mail exchange, I asked the paralegal if she had heard anything about the status of the Decree, and she replied generally the Decree takes about 4 - 6 weeks from the time the Praecipe is delivered to the Court. We had submitted the Praecipe about three weeks from August 28th, so I thought, ok, a few more weeks, and I can get closure. I had been told in other cases it may take as long as 3 months for this to occur, too, so I was relatively happy about the 4 - 6 week estimate. Not more than five minutes after the paralegal's e-mail, I received an e-mail from my attorney, saying she actually had the paper copy of my Divorce Decree, and I've been divorced since August 20th.

Huh. Interesting.

I stared at my BlackBerry screen for about five minutes. In my head, the Divorce Decree issuance would be documentation with a gold seal in a bulky package. Nope. Not in my county. A simple e-mail, followed by a single sheet of paper from the Court saying the marriage is dissolved.

Over ten years of marriage dissolved with a single piece of paper.

Poof.

Done.

What I thought would be an emotional breakdown was a shrug of the shoulders. Please understand: I am sad this had to be the way it was. But, as people told me, I knew it was coming, so I probably had enough time to process it, over-process it, and get the closure I needed by the time I received the official Decree.

So, August 20th marks the beginning of the next chapter of my life. Wife. Goes. On.