J. Pair V. The Ogress

We find J. Pair, the Cup Bearer, at the magical burger kingdom. The Cup Bearer is fiercely mastering the dragon which provides currency to the knights and ladies of the court. After taking the commands of the knights and ladies, the Cup Bearer requested an audience with the King and Queen. Their majesties then approved the commands and J. Pair brought back feasts for the court to nourish upon. All was well in the kingdom.

Suddenly a black cloud appeared. In walked the Ogress, a feared creature in the kingdom. She demanded a feast be placed before her immediately. The Cup Bearer ran to their majesties and repeated the words the Ogress had spoken. Against his will the King obliged. the Cup Bearer returned and told the dragon the Ogress’ commands.

The dragon would not hear of such atrocities and forbade the demands to take place.

What was the Cup Bearer to do?

She pleaded with the dragon in vain. The Ogress began to stomp and shout. Beads of sweat started to pearl on the Cup Bearer's brow as she continued to plead with the dragon. The Ogress thrashed around the kingdom barely missing the people of the court.

The Ogress stared teh Cup Bearer in the eyes, the Cup Bearer didn’t flinch. Finally the Ogress gnashed and fled the kingdom in disgust; setting out once more in a search of a feast.

Alternate Ending (The way J. Pair would like it to end)

The Cup Bearer stared down the Ogress without a flinch. The Ogress gnashed, baring her enormous teeth. The fearless cup bearer ran to a knight and in one swift movement took the large sword from his belt and jumped to the belly of the Ogress, holding the sword to her throat. She told the Ogress to cease her torment and never return to the Burger Kingdom or there would be irreversible consequences.

The Ogress quivered, fell to the ground sobbing and crawled out of the kingdom in fright. The knights lifted teh Cup Bearer on their shoulders in appreciation. The King absolved the Cup Bearer of her status and made her a Lady of the Court. The Ogress was never seen again.

Early Riser

I have become an early riser, usually waking between 6 and 6:30am. Why you ask. It was not a choice made by me, rather dictated by Mr. Duncan. You see when Mr. Sir (Duncan) goes to bed at night and when he tells me he needs to potty…midnight, 4am, and so on, he whines. When he goes back in to his crate after the potty break he cries a little and I tell him "quiet" and within a couple minutes he is indeed quiet.

This is in contrast to 6am or after when Mr. Sir starts whining once again. Repeatedly I tell him "quiet" in vain. Alas my night has come to an end. I would absolutely love it if Duncan could sleep until 8am or even 7:30am. Yes, that would be divine. In the meantime I'm considering switching my schedule around a bit incase Mr. Sir can't sleep later.

I'm considering getting a gym membership (suggestions accepted!) and though I like working out in the evening, at the rate I'm going, I'll be a vegetable by the time I would like to be working out. This means exercising in the morning, not my favorite idea, but it could work. This also means taking Bella on her walk in the morning – note, the sun setting later will also help in an evening walk. With having permanent hours at the B & G Club in the afternoon I now need to get my chores done, you guessed it, in the morning, ugh. Though I've always been able to easily get up at any morning hour this doesn't mean I can function. I will need to get used to this new schedule. Once again this could all be resolved if I could just get up at 8am instead of 6:30am.

Update: I wrote this blog entry a couple days ago and didn't get a chance to post. Since this original entry, I have successfully woken up at 7:30am! In fact, this morning, Mr. Sir needed to potty at 5:45am and seemed content to stay awake. I however, was not. I kindly, yet firmly told Duncan "quiet" and though it took a few extra verbal reminders on my part, he settled in and drifted off to sleep and let me sleep as well.

Meet…

I know this blog is for Bella, but I'm momentarily hijacking it to write about the newest member of our family.

Meet Duncan Rex…

He's two months old and just came home Saturday. Believe it or not, I think he's smaller than Bella was when we brought her home. He is a little bundle of joy!

The first day was fun, Bella was very curious about the little boy and it didn't take long for her to start playing with him. I was worried he would howl Saturday night once I put him in his crate to sleep as Bella howled her first night which is why she now has a permanent place sleeping in my bed. My main concern was the barking would upset my neighbors, so I figured if he started howling and wouldn't stop I would let him sleep with me just like Bell.

To my utter shock within about five minutes of whining he quieted down and went to sleep! Of course he woke me three times during the night to tell me he needed to go potty. Even after the potty times he only whined for five minutes and curled back up in his crate.

Since Saturday night Duncan has gotten progressively better at sleeping, last night he only needed to potty once. As of now we are going to bed about 10pm and waking up at 6am.

The past couple of days I had to work and had many errands to run and noticed Duncan has found his voice and howls when I leave, in turn Bella starts voicing her thoughts as well. This is not good, especially for condo living. Having free time today I decided to experiment. Duncan likes very much to cuddle and sleep in my arms; I like that too, but at some point I need to start getting back to normal. After play time this morning he started looking very sleepy, I gently removed him from my arms and put him in his crate. He starting whining so then I covered his crate with a blanket. I told him a mere 3 times "Quiet" in a calm yet firm tone and he went to sleep. I am in awe.

I love Bella, but Duncan is much less stubborn (knock on wood) and is much calmer. I hope is training goes as smoothly as his sleeping!

J. Pair Vs Ash Wednesday

What a blessed day I had yesterday. The day started off like any other. I was called in to work last minute because someone else was sick. Though unexpected I was happy to work as I'd been asking the Universe for more hours which in turn equals more moolah. After work I went to apply for a position at a local bookstore that had "Now Hiring" signs in their windows. I returned home after filling out an application and sat down to a wonderful PB&J sandwich with a glass of milk on the side. It was delicious, just what I needed. I no more finished my sandwich and noticed an email from one of my mom's co-workers saying her other place of employment was hiring by referral only and her boss was expecting me to drop in. I immediately took my dishes to the kitchen, put Bella in her happy place, and raced out the door. I found myself at Herfy's Burgers talking to a girl at the counter and told her the manager was expecting me. The manager asked me if I had any experience in the field. I did a mental grown, here we go, this is where my journey ends – barely any experience = no job. I told the manager I help my mom with her company and dealt with customers and I had volunteered at Husky Stadium, so what if it was in 2003 and it was only one day, I survived so that had to count for something right? The manager looked impressed and asked about my availability and proceeded to tell me to come in the following Friday for training. I could have hugged him, which would have been very awkward, so I didn't. I thanked him profusely and told him I'd be there Friday. It's not the job I expected to get, but that's okay. My mom hasn't heard her co-worker say anything bad about the restaurant which can't be said about all businesses. I'm excited and a little nervous. Once I get through training I'm sure I'll be fine, but the first days of new job are always a little intimidating.

If that wasn't enough excitement for a girl in one day I got a solo in choir too! Choir was scheduled to sing at Ash Wednesday and there was one little solo in the congregational music and my music director asked me to sing it. It wasn't my best performance ever because I only sang through it twice and the organ played the wrong cue notes, but who cares. It ended well and that's all that really matters. Oh yes, it was a very blessed day for me.

J.Pair Vs. Jell-o…Jell-o 1 Point

Once again I have failed at the simple task of making Jell-o.

I should disclaimer this by saying I'm not a bad cook. I can make excellent eggs – in various serving suggestions. I am a whiz at sandwiches, mainly because they are my favorite thing to make; so many different food groups in one tidy package. I'm getting better at making dinners. I've mastered spaghetti (or any pasta for that matter). Boil the water, at the pasta, and then add the sauce. When I am out on my own I won't starve.

It disturbs me though that I can't make something as simple as Jell-o. I should clarify; I can't make "Quick Set" Jell-o. I have now tried three times to make the "Quick Set" Jell-o and I can't do it. I've followed the directions to a T and it doesn't work. I can safely say it's not human error. As much as I would like to make "Quick Set" Jell-o I think I will hang up my apron on this and stick with the 4 hour Jell-o which does get jiggly. If anyone has any suggestions for making "Quick Set" Jell-o let me know, though it's a moo – point now.

J.Pair and the Career Change

Major changes have been happening in the Pair household, not including the Christmas decorations.

After much deliberation, okay not that much, I've decided not to pursue a career in opera. You see, I'd been thinking about my career off and on for a while and then I graduated. I had that feeling of "What do I do now?" and the feeling didn't go away. Of course I knew what to do, practice, audition, find a grad school, but the more I thought about it the less those things appealed to me. Fortunately I had a voice teacher who didn't mess around and flat out asked me if this is really what I wanted to be doing. Jackpot since I'm a chicken and wouldn't have admitted wanting to change careers. Seriously I'd been singing a good 15 years; I wasn't just going to back out.

It only took a few days after the conversation with my voice teacher for me to make the decision. Suddenly I was free, I had all these options open to me. I love to write so I could get a degree in English and a Masters in Creative Writing, I love to design interior spaces so I could go to interior design school, I could become a PE teacher and make all the little kids run the way we had to run…revenge could be mine! Nope, don't like that idea.

After a few days I started to wonder if I had made the right decision, but truth is I was never big on practicing (I did it because I had to) and don't tell anyone, but I'm not such a fan of classical music – this might be a problem as an opera singer.

So where does this leave J.Pair? Well I'm leaning toward interior design because I constantly wonder how I would change a room. Case in point, I was waiting in the doctor's office yesterday and the coffee table wasn't centered and a leg was turned. I promptly center the table and fixed the leg. However; I do love to write, so it's a tossup. I've already spoken to some family and mentioned the interior design idea as my new path, but I may have been premature about that. Now I just need to look in to interior design and writing programs and see which one speaks to me more.

As for the current job front, I'm working for my former employer – filling in when she needs it. I had an interview for a receptionist position and am eagerly waiting to hear back from them, I pray I get that job.

Blogging in Word???

Success, I wrote my blog in Word and it post on blogger!