Freakin' out, man.

Okay, so something seriously creepy happened last night and I am freakin' out just a little bit.

So Nate fell asleep in my bed last night. He didn't take his afternoon nap and had been awake for 7 hours (which is Alot) so I didn't think he'd be waking up during the night. I picked him up, put him in his crib, skyped with Boyfran for a while and then went to bed. I didn't turn the monitor on because I figured he'd be sleeping the whole night.

Well, around 5 a.m., I'm woken up by him shrieking and crying. I get out of bed and go to his room, but he's not in his crib! My heart jumps in my throat and I start to panic. I rush out of his room and into the living area, look around and see him in the kitchen. He's in there by himself, crying, and totally barefoot when I know for a fact that he had socks on when he went to bed because it was supposed to be a chilly night and, well, he just always has socks on.

So of course I sweep him up and start comforting him. He eventually calms down, and I take him back to my room and he falls asleep against me again, but this time I just let him sleep cuddled up next to me. 

Then it's time to wake up and get ready for work, at which point I picked him up and put him in his crib. I got ready and left, and noticed that the front door wasn't even locked. Then I start really freaking out. WHAT IF SOME PSYCHOPATH WAS IN MY HOUSE LAST NIGHT WITH MY CHILD?!

Of course, it's probably just a coincidence, but still. I've been going over and over this in my head trying to figure it out. I called my mom to ask if maybe she had him, but she said that she didn't, that she heard him crying "when I took him to the kitchen to get his bottle." But of course, I didn't take him to the kitchen and he didn't have a bottle. 

So this leaves me with very few explanations.

EXPLANATION 1:

Nate woke up and somehow ninja'd his way down his crib, crawled out of his door and to the kitchen, where he realized, "oh, man, it's kind of dark and nobody's around WAAAAA COME GET ME MAMA!"

EXPLANATION THE SECOND:

Nate sleepcrawled and didn't start crying until he inexplicably woke up in the kitchen in the dark.

EXPLANATION PART TRES:

Some pyschopath was in our house and took Nate out of his crib to take him away, but Nate woke up and started crying and scared him/her away.

EXPLANATION IV:

My brother got him and left him maybe on the sofa or something? But this is even less likely than a psychopath coming to the house.

And NONE OF THOSE explain how his socks just disappeared. I talked to my mom and she didn't notice his socks in his crib. 

What freaks me out most is that, since I don't know what happened, I don't know how to prevent it from happening again. What if he really did sleep crawl? What if next time he ends up somewhere he could get seriously hurt? What if a psycho really was in the house? What if they plan on coming back and really taking him next time? Uuuugh I hate this. It makes my head and tummy and heart hurt.

Catching up

AHMAHGAH, I AM SO BEHIND!

I've got so many things to write about: a trip to Canada, a trip to AlaBAMa, and the Indian food experience. Actually, I might have to do the Indian food experience again because the pictures I took have magically distappeared.

AND!

I need new things to try! I haven't even thought about what my next experiences should be. It's getting close to wintertime, so maybe they could be winter-related foods/movies/experiences? Again, nothing that would require spending all the money because I am poor.

WAIT!

I totally forgot I still have to watch The Godfather. Which I can totally do this weekend because it's Veteran's Day on Friday and I will have the day OFF, bitches! Hell yeah! But I still need suggestions so we can move right on along after that.

Gah, I feel like I need to write about all the things that have happened, but I don't even know where to begin.
Okay, let me 'splain. No, is too much. Let me sum up:

-trip to Canada
-moved offices and am adjusting because this new position keeps my bizzay.
-orchestra concert
-trip to AlaBAM!a
-grandma admitted to emergency room because of heart failure, freaked out, but she's okay now.
-stupid car troubles
-NATE TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS ON SATURDAY *supermegaflail*
-He also apparently has a slight lazy eye, so he needs to see some doctor so we can work on fixing it

Oh, and I am no longer single! I can hear the collective gasps and sobs from the long queue of suitors waiting outside my door right now (only not really because I had no suitors other than Boy. At least, none that I'm aware of.). But don't worry! It's a long-distance relationship, and we already had our time for each other each day pretty much set, so nothing has changed in my day-to-day life, which means that there won't be yet another thing to keep me away from my adoring fans. All 12 of you. *hears the relieved sighs*

That's pretty much the big things for now. Just a quick update to let you know I'm not dead yet!

I leave you with this picture of Nate to make up for my long absence. Isn't he the cutest?

Dear Brent

That's my Sharpie, bitch!

Love,
Me

I'm just THAT good.

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I totally have my Indian food post and a post about my vacation to put up, but this little gem was so good I had to put it up right away.

So the office I work in had this pot luck party at one of my coworkers's house. I signed up to bring up barbecue meatballs. Why? you ask. Because it's the simplest thing to make! Seriously, throw a bag of frozen meatballs and equal parts of barbecue sauce and grape jelly in a crock pot, set it on low before you go to bed and they are ready when you wake up. Easy peasey.

ANYWAY.

So we don't really use the crock pot much. Hardly ever, actually. My mom isn't much of a cook, and I've just started earning my kitchen wings. This means that we don't really have a way of carrying a crock pot to and from locations except by hand. I figure it won't be too bad, and I put one of those heavy duty trash bags underneath it should any sloshing happen. Great. I get everything situated on the floor on the passenger side of my car (that thing was HEAVY, by the way), and I'm off to work. I took it out and up to my office because you just don't leave food in your car for hours, and then when it came time to go to my coworker's house I took it back to my car and loaded it up, then of course had to unload it when I got there.

All of this loading and unloading, and it only sloshed a little bit, and it landed on to the bag. Sweet. So we get there, and there is TONS of food. Barely half (if that) of the meatballs were eaten, but that was sort of expected. So I had to load them back in my car on the way out.

Now, the house we were at was HUGE. I mean...whoa. And it had a huge circular driveway, which I conveniently parked at the end of. Now there was a smooth, cement part of the driveway that ran straight and to the back, and then the rest of the circle part was gravel. I parked on the end of the gravel. I loaded the meatballs back onto the garbage bag, got in the car, and started to reverse so I could back out onto the smooth cement part, then drive out (there were cars in front of me so I couldn't just drive forward).

I pushed gently on the accelerator, because I could see a Jeep somewhat close-ish in my rear view mirror and the last thing I need is to back into a parked car in front of my coworker's house, y'know? There was a little ledge I had to get over to get onto the cement, and that little bit of gas I gave didn't push the car over. So I pushed the gas pedal just a leeeeetle bit harder, still not enough. Finally, I gave it a nice tap, but the car SHOT back. I panicked because I thought the Jeep was super close and slammed on the brakes. In doing so, the crock pot heaved and meatballs and barbecue sauce flew out. (Turns out, the Jeep was still like 15 feet away. Go figure)

I saw the whole thing in slow motion. The lid bounced up and a tidal wave of sauce and meatballs poured out of the front, splashing the side panel, and getting all over the floor of my car. The bag couldn't save it. There was nothing I could do to stop it either, nothing but sit there and gape at the mess and think "....great." After about 10 seconds of staring at the pool of barbecue sauce, I quietly changed gears to "Drive" and went back to work, shaking my head the entire way back.

I parked, got out and went around to my passenger side and opened the door. It looked even worse from that angle. Sauce was dripping on the bottom of the door, even. I realized just how hopeless it was, cursed myself, grabbed my stuff, closed the door and trudged back to work.

Nina Knows Naught About: Indian food

To clarify, I mean Indian, like, from India. Not Native Americans.

So yeah, I figured I'd keep the momentum going. I don't want this thing to slow down so I'm going to do up this post and make myself go get Indian food sometime this week.

I don't really have any idea what Indian food tastes like. I kinda made naan once, on accident (I was trying to make tortillas but failed). The big impression in my head is that Indian food stinks. I used to work with this girl who would bring Indian food to work, and when she'd heat it up in the microwave at lunch time it would leave this god-awful stench that permeated that entire corner of the building and the surrounding offices. Seriously gagarrific. So that has just helped me to stay far, far away from Indian food restaurants.

Okay, now what I really need from you guys is suggestions. What do I order? I don't think there are any readers in the greater Houston area that could suggest places for me to go, so I'll just have to Google it. Or ask my brother's girlfriend. She likes Indian food. She may even go with me. But yeah, suggestions would be fantastic.

A Game of Thrones

FINALLY!

Okay, so now I've read the book, and let me tell you, there's actually other stuff besides sex! A lot of other stuff! I don't know why nobody ever mentions the other stuff because that stuff is way more interesting than the sex.

Yes, there is incest, and a 13-yr-old girl getting sexed, and rape, but when taken into context of the story it's not that bad. Also, the author does not mince words. A whore is a whore and a bastard is a bastard.

The story is told in the point of view of the characters. It's like a whole bunch of different individual stories woven together seamlessly to tell the bigger story. I like this style, because I get to know more about the main characters and it somehow makes it all the more personal, I guess.

Gah, I want to talk about ALL THE THINGS, but I am going to restrain myself. Just suffice it to say, it's a REALLY GOOD book! There are so many elements to it: knights and kings and queens and lords and ladies,  honor, loyalty, deceit, betrayal, seduction, lust, love, family, bravery, cowardice, war. And there are dream motifs (look at me and my literary terms!), animal/nature symbolism... I truly believe there's a little something in here that most people will enjoy reading about.

OH! But it's not a story that you want to read to your child under 13, unless you're ready for questions like, "Mama, what does 'cunt' mean?"

Good Bye

An hour and a half from the end of the last day at this office and they're making me do work.
What's up with that?! Don't they know I'M DONE?

Seriously, though, it's no biggie. Just some correspondence stuff. But it's annoying because it's stuff that should have been specified when I first got it DAYS ago. Which means I would have gotten it done and would be able to blog here without feeling rushed 'cause I gotta finish it before I move to my new temporary office.

Although, I could just hand this all off to Charlotte ....

Meh, then it REALLY won't get done.

It's kind of sad, this whole office closing deal. Okay, really sad. The Shuttle Program is done and my office is the first to disband. We're not needed any more. There are no more flights to operate and integrate.

This whole program closing thing has been kind of anti-climactic. It's like, there was the final launch, it landed, and now we're done. Sure, there have been some "parties," but no big community thing. Well, KSC had a huge thing, but not here. It's all been kept pretty in-house, so to speak. Oh well.

My desk here is cleared (well, except for this correspondence crap), my email has already been changed, and in just a little over an hour I will walk down to my new office and this position will cease to exist. There will be no fanfare, no big sendoff. It will merely slip silently into oblivion, only to be remembered by a small handful of people as they think back to their days in this office, a nostalgic smile playing on their faces.

Nina Knows Naught About: A Game of Thrones

Okay, the votes are in and the winner is A Game of Thrones! Thanks to all those who voted! I had a few people give me their votes without commenting, which is okay.

So up until very recently I had never heard of A Game of Thrones. Apparently, there's also a TV series based on the books, but I didn't learn of it until after I heard about the books. Everyone I've talked to who has either read the books or watched the series (or both) tell me that it's "so awesome" and "you really should read/watch it, Nina!!!!!!!11!"

Well, what is it about? All I ever heard was that there is Alot of sex in the book, and even more so in the show. Well, okay, I can deal with sex. Reading about sex is not that big of a deal. So I'm still cool with reading the book at some time in the future.

Then one of my good friends began to read it and tell me a little bit about it. Here's how that conversation went (I'm paraphrasing a bit, but this is essentially it):

Me: "So how is it?"
Him: "It's SO GOOD! You should definitely read it."
Me: "Okay. So tell me about it."
Him: "Well, there's Alot of sex."
Me: "I've heard, but that's not a big deal."
Him: "Well, it's not just like, normal sex..."
Me: ?
Him: "There's incest --"
Me: "Gross. Well, that's not too ba-"
Him: "And sex with children. Well, a child."
Me: O_O
       "Like rape?!"
Him: "Well, it is at first, but then she kinda ... gets into it ..."
Me: "I suddenly don't want to read this anymore."

So for a while that's all I thought it was about. Which is strange, because when you read what's on the book, it doesn't seem as if there would be that kind of content:

A Game of Thrones

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Okay, so maybe the "barters his sister" bit gives some insight but still. I never heard about any of that other stuff when people talk of the book!

Anyway, it is now queued up in Google books so I can read it at work and still look like I'm doing something productive. Now I will find out what is so friggin' "awesome" about the book, aside from the child sex.

 

6 months

My baby is 6 months old TODAY! I can't believe it.

I figure here is the perfect opportunity to introduce my son, AKA Nate, AKA thecutestbabyinthewholeworldandidon'tcareifyouagreewithmeornotheis.

When he was born, he looked like this:



And now he looks like this:

 
 
 
 

That last one wasn't really necessary, but I adore that face he's making. I could seriously just sit here and make this post all of my favorite pictures of him so far, but I don't want anybody asploding from cuteness overload.

First Mission ... Quest ... Thing

I don't know what to call them yet. I might go with adventure. Maybe. 

Okay, I've got three options in my head. I'm poor, so I won't be doing the super fun stuff like sky diving or riding in a hot air balloon yet. I'll just stick to some simpler stuff to start off with.

So I figured I would have a choice between a food, a movie, and a book. Here be the options:

• Indian food. I can't say that I have ever had Indian food before. Except I once accidentally made naan because I failed at making the tortillas I had planned. But I don't think that counts.
• "The Godfather." I know, I know. GASP! I've never actually seen it. Not even a little bit. 
• A Game of Thrones. I keep hearing so much about this book and the series but still have not read it.

Okie dokie, there be the options. Let me know which one you'd like me to try first. I guess I'll wait a few days and hear what kind of responses (if any) that I get.

I don't know what I'm doing.

I really don’t. So just, bear with me here, okay? Please?

My name is Christina. I’m known by many people both on and off of the Internet as Nina. I am a single mom and mother to the most adorable baby on the planet (argue all you want, I will win). I am a native Texan, but I promise you won’t get any of that Texan superiority (well … not a lot. Nothing that should make you do more than the occasional eye roll.).

I went into this whole blogging deal wracking my brain for what I could possibly write about. Seriously, what do I know enough about that I could write an entire blog on it? My life isn’t interesting enough to keep people entertained, and I don’t regularly ponder deep ideas about the meaning of life or try to answer “why is a raven like a writing desk?” I’m not even funny.

In trying to sort that whole thing out, I scoffed to myself and thought, “It would be easier to answer with what I don’t know, which is a lot.” And that’s when it dawned on me. That’s EXACTLY what I’ll write about! This is the perfect premise to a blog! 

Right?

Anyway, so that’s what I’m doing. But I’m not just going to babble, I’m going to make a list of things I know nothing about, then educate myself on them. They could be experiences, ideas, recipes, cultures, states, etc. My plan is to write what I think about these things beforehand, then experience/educate myself and then come back and write on any changes of perception I might have had. I won’t go into the deviant here because GOD FORBID one day my son stumbles across this and reads something like that. So none of that now. And in between the learnings I’ll sprinkle in some pictures of my son, any ponderings that I just might have been, um, pondering, and anything else I feel like.

I’m also going to ask for YOUR opinions on what I should educate myself on. I’m not entirely sure how to go about getting your opinions, though. Do I just put out some options and say “Okay, vote for which one you want me to use” or put a poll? How do I put a poll? CAN I put a poll on here? Or a pole? Or even a Pole? 

Huh. I guess the title of this entry should have been: “Nina Knows Naught about: Blogging”