well this must be the week

for old friends to get back in touch.

Yesterday I got a short note from an old high school friend. Haven't heard hide nor hair from him in almost 15 years, though I know some of his family so I always ask how he was doing when I see them. I know he's married and has a kid or two now, but that's about all I know. Mom bumped into him several months ago and talked to him briefly, giving him my mailing address so he could write me. Well I got a letter from him yesterday, really short and basically just saying sorry we lost touch over the years (he's in the Navy so moves a lot) and he wanted to know if I really did want to get back in touch. I guess a couple other friends of his he tried talking to again, didn't answer e-mail or letters. I wrote back saying definitely let's catch up. We were pretty good friends in high school and he's one of the few I lost touch with that I'd like to talk to now and see how they're doing.

Then today I got an e-mail from someone I used to work with who I was friends with. We only hear from each other every once in a great while and it's been months. Turns out he's in San Antonio and expects to be passing through Dallas this weekend and wanted to see if I was going to be around and wanted to get together before he headed back home. And it just happened to work out since I'm around all week and weekend so we may be able to catch up. We haven't actually seen each other probably in close to three years so that was a surprise too.


I guess that means I better do a little house cleaning huh? LOL

Saw Harry Potter last night

I went to the 8:15 showing last night and it was excellent! The movie was actually sold out. Even Star Wars Revenge of the Sith wasn't sold out at the opening night showing of that movie I went to.

They cut a lot out, but I expected it since they book was so long. And even with cutting a lot out, the movie was still over 2 hours long. I loved it! I think a couple of the best scenes were the Quidditch World Cup and the dragon scene during the tri wizard tournament. But the ending in the graveyard was awesome too. Especially seeing Voldemort finally come to in the flesh. Oh and the Dark Mark was wild the times they showed it.

I want to go see it again! And I'm going to have to reread the books to refresh my memory and some things I had forgotten. What's kinda funny is the guy next to me in the theater has never read any of the books, he's just seen all the movies, so I kept hearing little comments out of him all through it. He was talking to himself really but a couple times he said something to me since I was next to him and the other side of him was an empty seat.

the new glasses saga

Well yesterday I had to break down and get new glasses. I had them Thursday night at home but Friday morning I couldn't find them anywhere. I looked all the usual places I put them, both bathrooms, my dresser and chest of drawers in the bedroom, the bookshelf in the spare bedroom where I've been sleeping, and all around the living room. Couldn't find them anywhere. I spent a whole hour before work searching and finally quit since I was going to be so late for work as a result.

I had my sunglasses but that was it. And I needed my regular glasses so I could go see Harry Potter last night and because I need them to drive. So I started calling around to different glasses places to see if someone could read the lenses on my sunglasses to give me a new pair of glasses from that. They all said they could but... I haven't had an eye exam in at least 5 years so they all refused to do it because it was too long since my last exam.

So then I called my eye insurance place to see what I could do about it since I never got an insurance card. Well they don't do cards, you have to call and request an benefit form before you go to the doc and then the doc fills it out. But of course, they refuse to fax it, they will only snail mail it, so people who need something in an emergency are pretty much out of luck. So THEN I had to call around to find a place that was inexpensive enough for me to afford out of pocket so I could get a basic exam and then go to Lenscrafters for glasses. I finally got Wal Mart who was cheapest and got the LAST appointment available for the day at 4:30. So this was most of my work day, trying to arrange to get new glasses.

Got my appointment, had to talk the doctor out of doing all the extra stuff he wanted to since it was so long because it all cost extra. LOL Then I went to Lenscrafters for glasses since they can do them in an hour. After all, I was in a hurry so I could make it to my "date" with Harry. LOL

And I can tell it's been a LONG time since I bought glasses. Prices have gone up a lot since the 5 plus year ago I last got some. I had a ton of frames picked out, narrowed it down to three, then one. but I had them write down the product numbers for me, since once my insurance form comes through, I'll probably get a second pair so I don't have to go through this again if I lose my glasses. But hey, this is the first pair I've lost in about 20 years of wearing them, so I have done really well till now.

And of course I had to get new sunglasses too since my prescription has changed a good bit so I don't want to go back and forth. So $450 later between appointment and two pairs of glasses, and a line of credit through Lenscrafters to pay for them, I walked out of there with some new glasses and made my movie.

I got home after the movie and guess what... I found my old glasses halfway under the bed. My best guess is Amun found them and thought they were a new toy and carried them under the bed. The other two have never touched them.

The only good thing about it was it forced me to go to the eye doctor for an exam since I probably would have procrastinated about it for at least another year before going again. And my new glasses are REALLY nice! And the new sunglasses are awesome. I got the polarized lenses so even though they aren't darkened down as much as my old ones were, they do a MUCH better job of blocking out the bright sun. It was a huge difference and for the first time I wasn't blinded driving in to the sun today, even WITH my sunglasses on.

9 days and counting...

until Harry Potter Harry Potter Harry Potter! Yes I've become an HP addict and I've been so impatiently waiting for Goblet of Fire to come out in the movies. I have every intention of seeing the movie on opening night but I haven't bought my ticket yet. I'm waiting on Susan to make up her mind if she wants to go opening night too or not. If she is I'm going to buy two advance tickets but if she isn't, I just intend to get one. I've been bugging her about it for weeks and I'm really going to be hounding her this weekend so I know for sure. LOL

I had a great night last night

I got home from work and my friend Susan stopped me before I went upstairs to tell me they She and David) were grilling out and had tons of food if I wanted to come. They were out at the pool.

David was on a cooking kick yesterday and he called Susan at work to say they were having a "date." She asked what their date was going to be and he said he was cooking her dinner, but there was too much food so they needed to invite more people. (Quite a date huh? A party date? LOL) So they called me, called my upstairs neighbor Angie, called Bill, and tried to get Casey in the leasing office but that guy is a social butterfly and is always busy! I was the first one there as I got home about 6 and was out by the pool by 6:15 with Susan. Too cold to swim but it was a gorgeous night out, as we've had all week long so it was perfect cook out weather. Angie got there between 7 and 7:30 and David was in and out all evening. He was doing all the cooking and wouldn't even let Susan in the kitchen to see what he was making. Bill got there a little after 8, pitcher of strawberry daiquiris in hand.

Dinner was ready about 8:30 and man what a spread! David went mostly Cajun wild and made jambalaya, sauteed crawfish (which I've never tried before, in any way of cooking and crawfish are YUMMY!), shish kabobs, baked potatoes wrapped in bacon, hot wings and bread. He said he had planned to make blackened fish filets too but ran out of cooking space and people to eat it! As it was there was TONS of food left over. (I'm hoping for a few doggie bags today since they weren't doing much with everything last night but covering it and putting it in the fridge to worry about later. ) Then Susan had bought a French chocolate torte for dessert. Man was I stuffed after dinner! And I drank half of the daiquiris, Bill and I each drinking 4, so I was feeling pretty good too. The whole thing was David's idea and he actually is the person who invited everyone.

About 10:30 I headed on home, slightly unsteadily even after all that food from the daiquiris (Bill had made them pretty strong!), after a short conversation with Bill before we all went our separate ways. So it was a perfect night last night, a million times better then sitting in front of the TV with my left over mac and cheese, watching my TV shows working on the computer, and playing with the "kids," which had been my plan for the evening.

And you should have heard the bunch of us making plans for different group things we want do together. We all picked one thing we really want to do that can be a group function and we're gonna see how many of those things we actually do - roller skating, camping, horse back riding, nudist camp (Just a joke! Bill had to pick something and he jokingly picked that one. We'll not do it but we still include it in the list. LOL), movie night (easy one to swing and probably the most likely one to do. My pick was horse back riding but I also suggested ice skating and midnight bowling.

I'm so glad I found a group of people I can call up on a whim just to talk to or hang out with. I have my book group, but I have this group too. I've always been slow to make friends, but once I do we are friends a LONG time and it's taken me two years down here, but I finally have a good group of folks that are friends now, between my book group and my neighbors.

And I will possibly be spending Turkey day with Susan and David. They aren't planning to go anywhere and I've not gotten anything to do yet. So I may just horn in on their holiday celebration. LOL