MY THANKSGIVING MANI

Ah, it's Monday. It's hard to believe I've been off work for almost 3 weeks already. It's still weird to be sitting home on a weekday, and I'm having a hard time remembering what day it is most of the time. It's a strange feeling, and I'm undecided as to whether I love it or hate it.

The Michigan unemployment system is trying to make me crazier than I already am. After I filed, I immediately received a letter telling me that I was waived from having to register for work until March since I have a return to work date. Last Wednesday was my assigned day to do my first check-in which has to be done every two weeks in order to get my moolah. I went online to do that, and the system walks you through several questions in order to certify each week. 

Part of those questions involve whether or not you worked, looked for work, etc.  Obvi I have not looked for work so I chose "no" for that question. Then there are additional questions when you choose no for that question. Now, wouldn't you think that one of the choices would be because I'm waived from doing so?  Nope!! That would be way too easy. 

Since I was stumped on how to proceed, I decided I'd better call in to the customer service people to assist me in how I should do this every two weeks. I can't even begin to guess how many times I called. Every time I got the same thing; all reps are on other calls, try your call again later. Okay. I'll do that. Non-stop from 9:00 a.m. right through to 4:35 p.m. when I got the message that they're closed. Fan-frickin-tastic. 

I decided to go ahead and fill out that stupid incomplete question section and not answer that question about why I didn't look for work because it gives the option of answering those additional questions right away or do it later. I thought maybe that "later" part might give me the spot where I could mention that waiver letter. Nope!  I used their system to send a question about this, hoping they'd respond via email.

So even though they're closed, they still managed to send me an email telling me I have a new message in my account, and I fully expected to go to my account and find the answer to my question.  Nope!!

Instead I got two letters telling me there's a problem with my claim because I didn't answer about the looking for work stuff, saying I may lose my eligibility. Seriously, this is a royal pain.

I tried calling on Friday, but of course they were still closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Cut to today, where I started calling at 8:30 and still can't get through.  Hell, I can't even get far enough to be put on hold.  Another option is to go to the problem resolution office. Too bad the nearest one is an hour away. 

It's a damn good thing I don't count on that money to pay for minor things like rent or food, and I feel badly for someone that is dealing with this shitty system for their real bread and butter. Turrible; just turrible.

On Wednesday night I decided I just couldn't have plain nails for Thanksgiving even though my family couldn't care less about what I have on my nails. I still care. It was difficult and a little painful to do, but I managed to at least stamp them. It did take me a little longer than usual, though.

I didn't bother trying to figure out anything theme oriented. I decided to just go with a fall-ish color.  Enchanted I Am the Walrus over black is just pretty on its own and is honestly one of my favorite polishes of all time. I like it so much I've used half the bottle and already know I want to get another. Hopefully they won't discontinue it. It's really hard to find it in stock most of the time.  I then used one of my all-time fave designs off of my Llarowe LeaLac A stamping plate. Done and done.

Tomorrow is my after surgery followup appointment. I'll be glad to get these stitches out. I think that might sting a little since I've had them in almost a week longer than I should have. I'm healing pretty well; hopefully the 4 spots won't scar too badly. 

I've been doing my exercises a couple of times a day which causes me to be pretty sore, but I think I'm moving pretty well. Of course, I really don't have any idea of how I'm supposed to feel. 

Griffin and I were playing on my bed on Saturday and he slammed my shoulder pretty hard with both feet. It was my own damn fault because of what we were doing, but holy hell did it hurt!! I actually had tears in my eyes from it. The way he hit me didn't concern me as far as doing any damage, but I made damn sure we started playing a different game.  There were quite a few times he wanted me to pick him up, but in general having him here wasn't too difficult with my gimpy arm.

He's such a fun kid, and everytime he was at my house he didn't want to leave. We have a definite system of what we do together, and I "may" be spoiling him a little. He's obsessed with Hot Wheels in almost a fanatical way.  Awhile back I decided to keep new ones set aside in the closet so I could give him a new car as a surprise every now and then. You know, "pick a hand" game.  Now he expects that every time he walks in the door. And now he gets that at least a couple of times when he's here. I think I gave him 4 this trip. He makes sure he has his new cars when he leaves here, and I steal 4 or 5 of his to keep here. He has something like 140+ cars already.  Once he gets his new car, he grabs my hand to help him, and we bring his race track into my bathroom which is where he wants me to go with him to play cars. My bathtub has a great ledge around it which works perfectly for racing.

Every since he was old enough to stand, he spends a lot of time lining them up. Perfectly. In a row, two by two, three by three....it's weird. Tyler said the first thing he did yesterday when they got home was grab some cars and line them up.

Those are just the cars he had in the little case he came here with!! Anytime they come, he chooses which cars will make the trip and puts them in a small zippered case so they can go everywhere with him. Crazy. For Christmas I bought him a case that holds 100 cars that looks like a little suitcase, complete with wheels and a pull out handle.  I'm thinking I should have bought two since he collects cars like a crazy person.

Kind of the way I collect nail polish. Uh-oh......

I AM THE WALRUS - IN CANCUN

It sucks to be home. I am glad that I have today to relax before going back to what I assume will be a whole lotta' work tomorrow. Yesterday was a long-ass day; up at 6:30 a.m. to get ready to leave Mexico and didn't get home until 9:30 p.m. Kev had to ditch me in Atlanta because he needed to head to Minneapolis for work today. So I hopped a flight to Detroit and from there one back here to Escanaba.

Tiring. I would like a vacay from being on vacay, please.

I only did my nails twice while I was there. I think it was Tuesday when I decided to take off the marble, and all I did was paint them with Enchanted Polish I Am the Walrus. It's so spectacular on its own I knew I'd be happy with it all by its little ol' lonesome. And I was okay with it for 2 days, even though I dented 3 fingers because it wasn't completely dry when we had gone to dinner. 

I suffered through the dents until I couldn't stand it anymore. Of course that means the next day I removed it from those 3 and repainted them. The plan was to just stamp on them with black because I really like how that looks. Easy-breezy with very little effort.

I really thought that I would do them one more time, but I just didn't feel like taking the time to do it. Seriously, it's kind of stupid that I did them at all, when I think about it. Serious addict am I.

Here's a couple pics of my happy Mexico face. The other couple in the pic we met 4 years ago at the El Dorado...they were in the swim-up casita adjoining ours, and we became friends. We've actually been trying to get there with them again, and we finally managed it this year. We didn't have adjoining casitas, but we were in the same section. We did dinner almost every night and hope to go visit them as well as plan our next El Dorado trip together, hopefully ever year from now on. 

We took a cab into Playa Del Carmen to have dinner and walk around. After dinner we passed by this place and realized we had eaten dinner there last time so we stopped for a drink. The place was pretty empty because it was getting late, but the workers were hilarious and very happy to give us some great drinks as well as free shots along with handmade flute-type instruments for Tricia and me. The shots they gave us were lemoncello, which I found disgusting but everybody else liked. Maris asked about the brand, where to buy and how much, and the waiter went to check. When he came back he had another guy in tow, and evidently he makes it himself.  It really caught him off guard when Maris asked to buy a bottle. I don't think he had a clue how much he should ask but finally said $20. That was a great price for it, so Maris walked out with a bottle. The guy should start selling it in the bar; he'd probs make a lot of money.  Maris looked it up on the interwebs, and now he'll be able to make some for himself.....much cheaper than going to Playa.

This one is just some general swing silliness at one of the bars at the resort. We may or may not have been drinking.

I just realized that this swing incident took place while I'm wearing the same shirt as the first pic. And since this photo was taken after coming back from Playa Del Carmen, the evidence of drinkage is already in the other picture.  Oopsie....my bad. They have quite a thing about swings in bars at the El Dorado. For some reason there are quite a few in this bar, and on our walk back to our section our drinks ran dry. God forbid! So we stopped to get a refill at an outdoor bar, one of several conveniently placed along the way, and they had swings at that one, too. So of course we also had to give those a test run.  They weren't as wide, and we have decided we prefer those. We may have to do some re-testing next year to be sure.

Our last night there, Friday, Kev and I had a candlelight dinner on the beach. We had done that 4 years ago, too, and enjoyed it so much we decided to spend the $140 to do it again. We were a bit disappointed with it this year. The filet was good, but we just weren't all that impressed with the rest  of it. I think by Friday we were both just kind of dragged out and just didn't feel that great. I would say we won't do it again, but the next time we go it's included in our package so we will. Mabes we'll just do it earlier in the week instead of waiting until the end.

We asked our waiter to take a pic (of course). It's pretty damn similar to the one from 4 years ago. Kinda' comical, I think.  Not so much a fan of seeing 4 years of the aging process in such a real-ass way, but whatever. Not much I can do about that. I think I'll blame it on the lighting differences and different camera. Yup. That works.

I think in keeping with the animal theme of this blog's polish name, I'll post a couple of pics in the next post of some of this year's wildlife at the resort. It was a pretty amazing year for that, much better than last time when I think I only saw little gecko lizards running around.

But for now, I do believe I'll take a little nappy-nap. I know I should try to accomplish something, like laundry, but I figure since my sun-dress-donning-shorts-wearing-tank-top-sportin'-bikini days are over for this year, it can wait.

BEATLEMANIA? I DON'T EVEN LIKE THE BEATLES!

What a nice night I had last night. I'm actually happy I didn't go to dinner with my fave cousin. She came out with a bottle of wine and spent about 4 hours visiting. It's probs more time than we would have had if we had gone out.

We are the same age and grew up friends as well as cousin, but as it goes with so many people from our pasts, we grow up and go our separate ways. She has lived in Savannah for years and until last summer, I don't even know when we had seen each other last. My profile pic is actually one she took last summer when we went to dinner. AND I even like that pic of me, which is highly unusual. Granted, I'm not the ugliest human and no one has ever run screaming in the opposite direction at the sight of me, but still...not so much a fan of photos.

Anywho, apparently she has decided that it's redonk that we don't stay in touch. Can't argue with that!! She's still my fave cuz and just a really good, sweet person. We reminisced, laughed and even cried a bit. I'll blame that on the wine. Hopefully it won't be another year before we see each other again.

Rather than actually painting my nails today, I had 19 new polishes to swatch on palettes and do sample nails to attach to the bottles. Right now I'm still wearing the glequins but will take those off shortly. I haven't yet decided if I'm doing nails tonight or waiting until tomorrow, but I at least thought I'd show off one of my favorite polishes. 

Okay. Look me in the eye and tell me this is not one of the most spectacular polishes you've ever seen. You can't do it, can you! I think it's shockingly beautimous. That color change, that shimmer....what more could a person ask for? 

I'm just going to assume you'd like to know what it is. It's an Enchanted Polish from their Beatles Collection, I Am the Walrus. Now go buy it. You need it. It just doesn't get much better than this.

Because I snagged a great deal on Julep today, I simply must share. Cuz' I'm nice like that. AND I like spending other people's money.  It's 6 polishes on sale for $36, but if you use the coupon code BEAUTYBIO it's only $18!  If you're a Maven, shipping is free, too.  If you're not a Maven, you should probs consider it and sign up using my link: Julep Maven  Personally I've been very happy since I  joined last spring. The best feature of their monthly program is you get to see what they'll be sending and decide if you want to skip the month.

I could go into more detail, but enough of that. I really just wanted you to see that good deal, not make a shameless attempt at getting referrals. 

Maybe tomorrow if I end up not doing my nails, I'll post some pics of my hummingbirds. I got a ton of great photos today just while sitting in the living room taking pics through the front window.  Made me happy and all warm and fuzzy on the inside.  And then I even had a cute Bambi hanging out in the front yard for a bit, just to add to the warm fuzzies. :)

It's been a good day. 'Nuf said.