The scariest kind of call

So my phone rang this morning around 10:30 and it was Ben.  No big deal, I thought he was probably calling to say hi before he went to lab.  He is in California working with some peeps at USC learning some new research techniques.

Anyway, phone rings:

Abbie: “Hi Honey” 

Ben (in a semi-distressed voice): ”I got in an accident I need our insurance information”

Abbie: “Oh my God! Are you OK”

Ben: “Yes, I am fine but my glasses are F’d”

Abbie: in my head thinking, hmm the only way for his glasses to be smashed is if he hit is head, hard.

I give him the information and we hang up.  I instantly panic and almost lose it.  I call my mom and of course she can’t talk.  I repeat to myself over and over that he is fine, everything is fine, he is going to be fine.  I calm down and make a couple “hypothetical” phone calls to our insurance agency.  i.e. if we were to get in an accident while driving a rental car, would we be covered and “hypothetically” if someone’s glasses were to get smashed would insurance cover that?

Ben calls back about 30 minutes later in a much more relaxed voice.  I once again repeat all the same questions, “are you OK?”, “are you hurt?”, “what happened?” and so forth.  This time he informs me that his head is bleeding.  Panic, again.

I have since talked to him about 10 times and he assures me he is fine.  The car is still drive-able and he is coming home early tomorrow.  Thank goodness!

I am going to have to stop worrying so much or else I will be the worst mom ever! 

I feel like I have a sixth sense at times and I always joke that I am psychic.  About 4 years ago I kept having this feeling that something was going to go wrong.  I was much too happy for any normal person and I just knew something was coming.  Low and behold my dad calls one morning and said he and my mom are driving to Indianapolis to see me, just to visit.  Yeah right.  That is how I found out my parents were getting divorced.

Lately, every time I drop Ben off somewhere or he is off driving alone, I’ve had the same feeling.  I certainly hope this is what I was waiting for because this I can cope with.

I will be much happier when he is home.

Impromtu Evening

I just spent the evening outnumbered by Brits and it was wonderful!  I got an impromptu dinner invitation this afternoon and it took about .045 seconds for me to decide.  Not only was I going to spend the evening with some of my favorite people but I knew I would have a fabulous meal at the same time.  The idea of cooking for myself was not overly appealing so I jumped at the invitation.

It was a fun evening of translating lingo into the ”American” version and sampling some fun UK cuisine.  I learned that a “stone” is a term for pounds, I still have no idea what the actual conversion is but I know that 2.5 stones is around 20 pounds (my wonderful British hosts I am sure are reading this so please feel free to correct me.)  I also learned that they really like beans.  Any type of bean is a staple in UK cuisine.   They also gave me a lesson on credit scores in the UK vs the US.  Basically, the US is really stringent and is not very lenient when you miss a payment.

My host also raved about Marmite on her blog so I decided while I was there I must try it.  I am with the 50% of Brits that can’t stand the stuff.  I can’t really explain it but it is kind of sour and salty all at the same time.  It made my tongue tingle in places where I wasn’t aware I had taste-buds.  Needless to say I only had one sample.  I got rid of the taste with some tasty homemade good-for-me fudge.  We polished off the meal with English tea, which I get the biggest kick out of.  I don’t really know why because it is after all tea but there is something about having a cup of English tea with English people.  It just tastes better.

It was an evening spent with wonderful food, great wine, and fun friends.  When I decided it was time to leave I looked out the window and realized it was going to be a terrible walk home.

I almost died.  Seriously.  Well, not really but I was scared.  I have never experienced weather quite like it.  There is a ton of construction going on around us and I was afraid something from a building would fly off and hit me.   I was knocked around by the wind and almost lost my footing a couple times.  I was run into by a couple with their faces covered trying to shield the wind and snow.  My face was covered in water from the snow and my eyelashes were beginning to freeze.  I couldn’t see anything because the wind and snow were whipping at my face so hard I couldn’t open my eyes even if I wanted.  At one point I had to duck into a doorway to compose myself.  I then decided to run the rest of the way home.  In the process I ran into the Dunkin Donuts guys taking the trash out.  I made it home safe and sound and am just now regaining feeling in my ears.

Now I have to take Charlie out. 

Copycat: 2007 Cities

I am such a copycat.  Benjamin listed the cities he traveled to in 2007 after getting the idea from someone else and here I am doing the same.  Mainly out of curiosity.  Here is goes:

Charlotte, NC x3
Detroit, MI x4
St. Louis, MO x2
Coopersburg, PA x3
Indianapolis, IN x3
New York, NY x2
Washington DC
Grand Rapids, MI
Spain: Marbella, Malaga, Ronda, Cadiz, Seville, Tarifa, Granada
Gibralter, UK
Cincinnati, OH
Ft. Lauderdale, FL x2
Pittsburgh, PA
All over NE x2
Columbus, OH
Houston, TX
Nashville, TN
Minneapolis, MN
All over New Jersey x2
Milwaukee, WI
Boston and surrounding areas, MA
Rumney, NH
Louisville, KY
Lexington, KY
Philadelphia, PA
Urbana-Champaign, IL

That is all I can remember.

I’m Famous

For those that know me, and know me well, you all know that I like to say…”Don’t mess with me, I know Tae Bo.”  I practice this mad skill of mine about twice a year but I am awesome.  I am about to start practicing way more now that I have to look good in a wedding dress, but that is beside the point.

While sitting in my hotel room tonight I decided to indulge myself in a little culture.  I have the TV tuned to MTV on an episode of Run’s House.  That’s right, its a show about a rapper turned reverend and his family (I know how to live).  During the first two minutes of the show one of his daughters says…you know it, “Don’t mess with me, I know Tae Bo!”  I am SO famous!  They are taking my lines and using them on MTV. 

I wonder if this is intellectual property infringement (or some other lawyer-like term).  I think I know someone that can help me with that.

Watch out Benjamin, we are about to win a mad lawsuit, time to move up to a two bedroom!

Single Mom

I definitely feel like a single mom these days.  Granted, I don’t have kids but I do have three animals that I have to look after.  Since Ben has been out of town for the last 6 days I have been on my own with the animal care.  Charlie, our 2 year old yellow lab is a very good boy but quite a handful at times.  Our cats, Ringo who is 18 and Kitty who is 8 don’t do much but pee and vomit on a multitude of items so they are loads of fun to say the least.  Anyone want a cat?  I’m serious.  No, really, I am.

Anyway…As I have mentioned before I was sick for the majority of the week and I am also not much of a morning person so needless to say Charlie’s (early) am wake up calls are not welcomed.  This is Ben’s job.  Also, we generally share the exercising/walking/cleaning tasks for Charles.  I usually get the clean up duties for the cats but once in a while Benjamin will take care of it.  To make this week even more fun, it was about 10 degrees and windy with snow until today where all the snow melted and became nasty black slush.

Being the good doggymomma I am, I decided to take Charlie for a long walk in hopes of wearing him about a bit.  Not only was I unsuccessful in wearing him out but he went from a yellow lab to a black lab.  He was COVERED in black sludge from the sidewalks.  Great.  I tried unsuccessfully to wipe him down with wet washcloths…this was after he shook his body and covered our guest bathroom in sludge.  I then attempted to bathe him by myself.  At this point I had lost all patience and was not a very nice doggymomma and Charlie I think is still mad at me.

I have a clean dog, clean bathroom, and am currently enjoying a glass of wine counting the seconds until the doggypappa comes home.  Approx 6 more hours.

Oh, I am also ecstatic to see Ben so I finally have someone other than animals to talk to!

Update

I am not crazy.  I report the truth.  For those that remember my post on the New Generation of Tight Rolling jeans I have even more proof that this is a new phenomenon.  Not only have I had friends tell me they have seen the same thing, but I have witnessed it multiple times since AND people search for it on a multitude of search engines.  I know this because many of them are directed to my blog… thanks to WordPress’s handy “blog stats”. 

Seriously?  I wonder if we all looked as ridiculous as the kiddies these days?

I think I should change careers and become a reporter.  Maybe I would be far less bored than I am with my current choice.

But They are All Wonderful!

Wow.  I went wedding dress shopping for the first time today and it was fantastic.  I have been feeling like crap all week and today was the first day my head didn’t feel like there was a train roaring through it.  I was out at my mom’s and out of the blue she asked me if I wanted to go wedding dress shopping.  I immediately said no.  First of all, I have blown my nose about 300 times this week and have only showered twice…I was feeling really pretty.  Second, shopping for my dress is the one thing that has freaked me out about this whole process.  The dress is SO important.  Pretty much the whole wedding revolves around the style of dress I choose.  It is also the most criticized piece.

I informed my mom that we will need an appointment so she promptly picked up the phone and called the salon.  I had zero hope that there were any appointments left but just my luck there was one at 3:00.  I immediately called Ben as he was on top of a mountain in Utah to tell him the big news and he had a very unexpected response.  He was really excited for me!  It may have been the exhilaration of skiing down a mountain or the fact that he was freezing his butt off and didn’t hear me correctly but I am going with him being excited.  After talking to him I was feeling a little less freaked out and off we went to the bridal salon.  My mom was armed with a latte (her traditional getup when we go shopping for me) and we were ready to go.

The salon experience was wonderful!  A lovely lady named Pat helped us.  She has been doing this for 19 years at a salon that has been in business for 35 so I was feeling good.  I had no idea what I wanted so she had me strip down to my skivvies and just started putting dresses on me.  I put on the first dress and then the veil…it was like a scene from the movies.  I teared up, my mom was crying, and we were both thinking that “I can’t believe this is really happening!”

About 10 dresses later I fell in love with two.  This coming from the girl that thought she wouldn’t find anything.  One dress produced another round of tears in my mother and the other is absolutely stunning!  No worries… we are going to keep looking but I really love these two dresses.  One I know Ben will like…the other I am not sure.  I guess I am going to go with the theory that he will love whatever I wear…as long as I am not wearing gloves (he vetoed those Senior year Prom).

I was feeling a little un-excited about the whole wedding process but I am back in the game.  My drive home from the burbs was filled with fun thoughts of table arrangements, flowers, and what it is going to feel like to see Benjamin for the first time that day.  I may have even cried a little.  OK, laugh at me now, I deserve it.

Can’t wait for the next round of shopping!