Bare Naked Ladies – If I Had A Million Dollars

Risa just jokingly referenced the “but not a real green dress…that’s cruel” line from the song by Bare Naked Ladies – If I Had A Million Dollars.  What a great moment to see her remembering something so fun that used to be such a big part of her joking side prior to the accident.  Mom and I love to see these small moments of victory and hints of the girl we know showing through the brain injury!

Charlie Waiting For Me

Each day when I come home, my 13 year old dog, Charlie, is so happy to see me. After I leave for work each morning, he patiently waits by the garage door for my return. Mom has been sending me photos of him waiting by the door for me to come back. One is from yesterday and one from today. Love him!

Charlie - Waiting At The Door
Charlie – Waiting At The Door

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Real Estate License – Achieved!

I finally have my Real Estate license. It was approved by the department this morning and I paid my fees. Now to choose a brokerage to hang my license without too much in monthly fees so that I can get my MLS subscription and start really working my future investments!

Oh, no, not kittens!

Lucas brought a kitten home recently with the “can I keep her?” Smile on his face, and apparently, that kitten was already pregnant when he got her as she had babies today…this is the news I came home to after work! Ugh. Not quite what I anticipated for this evening.

On A Gondola

Had a great first date tonight.  I have been talking with this man for a few weeks on the phone and we finally met in person tonight.  It was a wonderful night starting with meeting in Downtown Chandler at San Tan Brewery, a tour of the Downtown Chandler Square, and then a drive to a resort hotel in Scottsdale for an exclusive sushi dinner, and then a walk around the property and a surprise Gondola ride!  He is very sweet and we had a fantastic time.  He seems to be very adventurous and spontaneous, not to mention tall and handsome!!  Let’s see where it goes.  His name is John.

Strong Enough – Sheryl Crow

Out of the blue, I get a talk from the guy that I have been involved with for the last 14 months, after we spend most of that time planning our future together, and four months before he moves out here, he suddenly determines that he may not be able to handle all that comes with moving out here and he isn’t sure he can be with such a strong and independent person.  Blah!  Here is the theme song of the day.

God, I feel like hell tonight
Tears of rage I cannot fight
I’d be the last to help you understand
Are you strong enough to be my man?

Nothing’s true and nothing’s right
So let me be alone tonight
Cause you can’t change the way I am
Are you strong enough to be my man?

Lie to me
I promise I’ll believe
Lie to me
But please don’t leave

I have a face I cannot show
I make the rules up as I go
It’s try and love me if you can
Are you strong enough to be my man?

When I’ve shown you that I just don’t care
When I’m throwing punches in the air
When I’m broken down and I can’t stand
Will you be strong enough to be my man?

Lie to me
I promise I’ll believe
Lie to me
But please don’t leave

One Thing – Finger Eleven

Many tears shed and still no answers and so confused.  This song seems to be the theme song for right now…

Restless tonight
Cause I wasted the light
Between both these times
I drew a really thin line
It’s nothing I planned
And not that I can
But you should be mine
Across that line

[Chorus:]
If I traded it all
If I gave it all away for one thing
Just for one thing
If I sorted it out
If I knew all about this one thing
Wouldn’t that be something

I promise I might
Not walk on by
Maybe next time
But not this time

Even though I know
I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know
I just hate how it sounds

[Chorus x2]

Even though I know
I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know
I just hate how it sounds

Even though I know
I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know
I just hate how it sounds

[Chorus x3]

Georgia Day Trip

So, it is Doug’s birthday and we had a nice day planned to go to a surprise destination on a road trip. Since I have known Doug, I have never been disappointed by riding around with him to see the sights. Even though I didn’t know where we were going, I knew it was going to be wonderful.

We headed out around 11am after he took some people up to Unicoi Gap. We started out on a twisting, turning road with nice scenery on each side. We took a quick detour to cross over a creek and take a couple of photos.

We then continued on and, after a while, came upon a super awesome place, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and turned in. It was amazing and full of troll and gnome houses, chimes, and other decor.  I ended up buying a super cute frog windchime and some fairy dust.  The place is Sleepy Hollow in Blairsville.

We continued on our journey and stopped in Blairsville to get a bite to eat.  We found an interesting looking restaurant right in the downtown square called Hole In The Wall.  The sign said it had been there since 1931.  We decided that this seemed like the kind of quaint restaurant we were looking for.  We decided to dine upstairs and we were the only ones up there with a view out into the downtown square.  We ordered drinks and some fried pickles and then the Hole Burger.  While waiting for our burgers to arrive, I began to give Doug his birthday gifts one by one.    I had accumulated a collection of five gifts over the past several weeks that I was so excited and anxious to give to him.   It was so fun watching his reactions to them all!  After we ate, the waitresses came with cake and ice cream with a candle in it and sang happy birthday.  That was super cool.  I like that he enjoys sweets (although the cake was huge and he took some home for later).

We then continued on our journey and I still wasn’t entirely sure where we were going.  Soon, though, we ended up in a town that is actually one town, two cities and in two states.  McCaysville, Georgia and Copperhill, Tennessee.  There is actually a blue line through the town that separates the two states and it goes right through the buildings.  Even the river has a different name as you cross it from one state to the other.  We stopped in to a local bottle bar to have a drink and, although the place was pretty much empty, it ended up being very entertaining.  A lady at the end of the bar was quite the talker and QUITE the redneck.  She went on and on about all sorts of topics and goings-on and she was not shy at all about her vulgarities!   Doug and I both said that it felt like we were in a movie.

We hung out in this twin city town for a bit and took some photos and then headed on to Blue Ridge, Georgia to get a hotel and spend the night.  After checking in, we went downtown to the Whistle Stop Grill where we heard they were doing Karaoke.  After sitting down and ordering a drink, Doug grabbed the song book and picked a song to put in.  He ended up singing three songs while we were there.  We once again met a very interesting, and very drunk, older woman who was also not shy with her vulgarities and somewhat aggressive flirtations.  She was funny and as she apologized to me for coming on to Doug a bit, she reassured me I had nothing to worry about by saying, “Honey, my parts are so closed up you probably couldn’t get a finger up there”.   It was a good thing I hadn’t just taken a sip of my beer as I didn’t quite expect her to say that and I just choked and laughed.

We headed back to the hotel, hung out for a few hours talking and other fun stuff, and then got up the next morning to shower and head back to Helen.  On the way, we did some sight-seeing and stopped at a few places.  It was a spectacular time and I hope it is the first of many wonderful birthdays that Doug and I share together.