5 posts tagged “bet”
Lately I've gotten back into couponing. I always love a good deal, but up until the past couple of weeks, I hadn't been as into it as I had been in the past. It takes some work and strategizing, but in the end, it's really satisfying. Just this weekend alone, I have spent less than $10 for about $80 worth of product from CVS. My total over 2 trips to CVS stores yesterday and today was $8.78, which got me 3 CoverGirl lip products, a tube of toothpaste, a plastic accordian file (to organize my ever-growing collection of coupons), 4 bags of Easter candy, 2 packages of maxi pads, some deodorant for Tadd, a bottle of conditioner, hairspray, and some Excedrin Migraine. I love it! And after all of that, I still have $7 in Extra Care Bucks to put against my next CVS purchase. We also did our weekly grocery run today and got another $80 of stuff for $52.52. I would say we are well stocked on many things for awhile. This website really helps with finding th best deals, although I'm also considering restarting my subscription to the Grocery Game.
My mom made it through some major surgery this past week. She has had all sorts of issues with her lower digestive tract, so they went in and removed the part of her intestines that were the source of the problem. Tadd and I visited her in the hospital Friday night and Saturday. She seems to be doing a lot better, but she still has about 2 weeks of recovery ahead of her. Once she is recovered, most of the problems she has had in that area of her body should be gone and she can even go back to eating things she couldn't have before.
Bet came over and hung out Friday night and ended up spending the night. Then Saturday night, he tagged along with Tadd and I to meet up with Betsy & Richard at this new place down in the Waterford Lakes area called Firkin & Kegler. It's an entertainment center with a restaurant, nightclub, arcade, bowling alley, sports bar, pool hall, etc. We had a good time. We ate, drank, the boys bowled a few games, and Tadd even won me plushes of Scuttle and Ursula from The Little Mermaid with tickets from the arcade. Hee! I have some pics from the evening that I might post later.
I will be back soon with my Oscar picks!
Finally, here are the pics form day 2 of our weekend. We met up with Bet and his friend Brian at our hotel, and then met up with my brother Ryan and his friend Justin at the park.
More later...
Anyone else heard the Smashing Pumpkins' new song Tarantula yet? I will admit, the moment I heard it for the first time, I cried a little. Not because it is a sad song, because it certainly isn't, but because it really hit me that the Pumpkins are really back! And they sound like the Pumpkins should, which is something I had worried about when I heard they were getting back together. It's an amazing song and I can't wait for the next month to go by so I can own my very own copy of Zeitgeist. This has been a long time coming and means a lot to me.
My first ever concert was an SP show (Mellon Collie tour, November of 1996, when I was 15). It was like a religious experience for me. I have a vivid memory of one of the three encores being a 45 minute version of Silverfuck. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I remember Billy climbing the ten foot tall speakers, and sitting up there just wailing on his guitar and thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I remember Jimmy Frog coming out in his full frog costume to dance when they played 1979. I remember being SO upset when they left the stage, knowing the most amazing night of my life thus far had come to an end.
I also would not know Bet if it weren't for the Pumpkins. We met him while standing in line to buy Adore at the Virgin Megastore release party on June 1, 1998. Our group was first in line, his was second. We chatted while we were waiting in line and he and Tadd exchanged email addresses. We emailed back and forth a few times, but nothing ever came of it. Two years later, in February of 2000, the radio stations announced that the Pumpkins were coming to Orlando for a special Virgin Megastore autograph tour. Out of the blue, Bet emailed us to ask if we were going and said he would go extremely early and save a spot in line for us. People waited all day to make sure they got one of the limited wristbands that let you in to meet the band, so we had several hours to reconnect with him then. I will forever remember that day as the day I met Billy Corgan. I shook his hand! He signed my Smile 12" single LP! My friend Cari got to give him a hug! Talk about star struck! Afterward, I got an email from Bet saying he had a little crush on my best friend Jessica. The two of them started dating not long after that, their relationship lasted 5 years, and he has been a fixture in my life ever since.
I also remember following the Smashing Pumpkins around Florida during their last tour for Machina in 2000. At the time, I was 19 and a freshman in college and Tadd and I were on the verge of breaking up. Jessica, Bet, Nate, and I had bought tickets to all three Florida shows. Due to work and money issues, Tadd could only come to the final show in Orlando. Friday night, Bet borrowed his mom's minivan and the four of us drove to Tampa for the first show, then back to his parents' house near Disney on the same night. We slept, then drove down to Ft. Lauderdale the next morning, saw the show there, spent the night in a hotel, and then drove back up to Orlando the next morning. The day after that, the four of us went to Islands of Adventure for the day and then met up with Tadd and about 25 other friends that night for the Orlando show. It was a weekend of pure bliss for me. I loved every single solitary minute of it. About a week later, Tadd broke my heart and we lost contact with each other for over a year. Two weeks after that, the Pumpkins officially announced they were breaking up. It was just a crazy, emotional roller coaster of a time for me, and something I associate closely with that band.
So while some people might say it's just a band, I just don't see it that way. To me, they are so much more than that. I feel connected with them emotionally, and they have been as big a part of my life as some of my oldest friends. And the fact that they are back is just amazing to me. I can't wait to hear more songs like Tarantula. And I can't wait until they are touring again. It'll be just like old times!
Where oh where are my journal buddies??? I haven't seen entries from any of my Vox friends in a week and a half! I'm getting lonely over here...
But, regardless of whether or not I have any active buddies over here, this will remain my blogging home. I like Vox infinitely better than LJ.
On a similar note...I would like to give a warm welcome to Bet, who created an account yesterday. He hasn't done anything with it yet, but it's still nice to have more people in my Vox neighborhood!
Okay, I'm pretty sure that this will be the last of the birthday entries for me, but I just had to share this.
I got to my office this morning and found an envelope propped up against my computer monitor stand with my name scrawled across the front. I opened the envelope and found a Gemini card. On the front is a picture of twins with the Zodiac wheel around them, and the words "Gemini, May 22 - June 21". I open the card and on one side I find two printed paragraphs about various traits of Geminis, but on the other is a handwritten letter. Here's what it said:
Happy Birthday Heather!!
A little history on this card. I bought this card in or at (I guess) at a mystic shop in Fort Worth, Texas. The year was 2003 and the weather was hot and arid. It was early May and I was talking with Jessica and we spoke of your upcoming 22nd birthday which caused me to buy this card. Well I obviously didn't send it on time and I held onto it for next year (2004). Well that year Jessica got a card for us both to sign and in 2005 I forgot I had it and bought you another one and got drunk at Epcot (obscenely drunk). Then I took it to California with me and well I forgot to send it from there too. But now I found it and I left it out so I wouldn't forget. Many zipcodes and area codes and states and timezones late here you go!! Good riddance card! Hello Heather.
Love,
Bet :)
TX, FL, NC, CA, FL
The envelope too.
Ha ha ha! I can't believe he kept the card all through moving from TX to FL, then to boot camp in NC three years later, then to his training in CA, and all the way back to FL! He is so funny. He works in the call center on the first floor of the building where I work, so I assume he snuck up here on his break last night and put the card in my office. I'm oddly touched by this gesture and it really made me smile when I got into work this morning. He is such a good friend to me and Tadd and I'm SO glad our friendship did not end when he and Jessica broke up.
Bet, on the off chance that you're reading this...you rock!
