I'm So Excited! (And I Just Can't Hide It!)

FOUR DAYS until Becca, Tom and CJ get here!  I’m so excited I could pee my pants (literally, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much coffee this morning!).  I haven’t seen Becca since she left for Arizona umpteen billion years ago.  But I’m also in a panic now, as my lofty intentions to clean the house a little bit at a time fell all to Hell, and I’ve got a major exam this week and a paper to write, and an extremely messy house to boot.  But I work best under pressure, so I should have the house at least presentable (and the Christmas tree finally down) by the time they get in late Saturday night.  I’ve been putting in overtime at work, and next week’s a holiday, so I’ve tentatively arranged to take Thursday off as my last vacation day, Friday is a holiday, and my extra hours hopefully will allow me to leave early Monday-Wednesday.  I’m so happy and excited I’m practically bouncing in my seat (this is making my boss look at me funny)!

 

Gotta go!

Mom, ca. 1967

I found this picture of my mother, from March 1967, in my dad's stuff. Mom was stationed down here at Randolph Air Force Base, just a few miles from where I now live. Dad was also stationed there. That's how they met. Let me just say - my mother was a fox! The picture quality is terrible because the original is all faded and had a very pronounced green tinge. I did the best I could with Photoshop to correct it, but it's still really grainy.

Lazy Bones

I'll admit right now that I have been ULTRA lazy this week, and it carried over into the weekend. I had grand plans to take down the Christmas tree, take out the stinky furniture to the curb, clean the house and do a whole bunch of cooking for the next week. Instead, I've read - spy thrillers, cheesy romance novels, cheesy spy thriller romance novels, and generally anything I could get my hands on that I hadn't read yet and interested me even the slightest bit. I also took my spiffy new bike for a long ride with Jamie and a few of his friends yesterday. Best thing about the bike was it was the last one they had, and it was dented in several spots and scratched minorly in others, but still fully functional, so I persuaded a manager to take $20 off the price!

I haven't looked at anything related to school work, other than to keep checking on my degree requirements to see if a bunch of the papers I'd filed for substitutions and waivers had been accepted. I discovered today that they had, with one minor glitch. There was a minor mistake that should be easy to fix, but once that is fixed, I'll only need FOUR classes to finish my degree and graduate in December: a Spanish class (the "D" in my last Spanish class still counted towards my degree, yay!), a class on crime trends in America, a class on juvenile delinquency, and Intro to Criminal Justice. As per usual, I was ornery and took all the advanced courses before I took the introductory course. So, once this semester wraps up, I'll be 12 hours away from graduating. Woo hoo!

Randomness

I'm thoroughly enjoying lolling around this week. It's my spring break, so I have not even cracked open a text book this week. I've just been enjoying stuff as it happens. Staying true to that fashion, here's a bulletted list of random junk that has happened, is about to happen, or flitted its way through my brain this week:

• Received notice (a sign hanging from my house doorknob) that brush/large item trash pick up day is coming soon. Yay! The first items to go out will be the VERY stinky couch and matching armchairs from Dad's house. Currently, they are bestowing their very special perfume on my garage - old beer, stale beer sweat, and dirty dog. Dad slept on his couch, ate on his couch, and even - apparently - peed on his couch once or twice. I'm looking forward to that NOT being in my garage anymore.
• Received a letter yesterday addressed to my father that his application for increased disability benefits from the VA was still being processed, and to have patience. I called them and told them Dad had all the time and patience in the world, seeing as how he was dead and all. The lady I talked to was very apologetic that word didn't trickle through all the departments yet that he died. She was also horrified that the records weren't expunged to weed out all the applications of servicemembers who had died.
• Ziggy got a bath and all his fur shaved off. Poor thing was so dirty and matted it couldn't be saved. Off it went. Now he looks VERY comical. Buddy is next on the bath list, but he won't require shaving as he's got such short hair.
• I think I'm going to buy myself a bike. Nothing fancy, just a single-speed with a wide seat and back-pedal brakes. I want something comfy to ride back and forth to work when it isn't too hot or too cold. I have a very economical car, but I feel so wasteful driving the very short distance between work and home. If I ride a bike, it won't take very long for me to dash home for the car if Jamie gets sick at school or I have to run an errand for work. Plus, this is an easy way to save more money and get in some exercise, too.
• As stated in a recent tweet, my Christmas tree, fully decorated, is still gracing my den. It must come down. I can't stand it any more. It will be accomplished no later than this weekend, I promise it!
• The weather has turned absolutely GORGEOUS! It's in the low 80s to high 70s, the sun is shining, the lilac trees are blooming, I've got some really pretty pink flowers growing along the side of my driveway (have no idea what they are) and all the trees are green and leafy. Spring is here!

MOY/EOY

I nominate myself for BOTH Mother of the Year (MOY) and Employee of the Year (EOY) awards*.  It’s almost 8 p.m. CST, and I’m sitting at work finishing a “rush” report my boss wants out tonight.  Just one thing, I’m sitting here typing in the near-dark so that my son can sleep in peace on the couch across from my desk.  What’s a little eyestrain when you can accomplish being a good mom AND a good employee, when the two often seem to be at cross purposes?

*BTW – Just in case any of you are horrified that I would think something this small actually qualifies me for MOY or EOY, take heart.  I’m kidding.  Maybe just Mom or Employee of the Month.  J

As of 45 Minutes Ago...

I completed my midterm for one class, and the assignments for the other two. So, as of 45 minutes ago, I'm on SPRING BREAK! Tomorrow, I'm taking Jamie to see a double feature of Paul Blart: Mall Cop (if it's still playing) and Race to Witch Mountain. He (and I) was really bummed that I couldn't take any time off work last week on his spring break due to no one being available to cover for me. I'm going to try to make it up to him tomorrow. I'm also planning some surprise activities next week, such as hiking at a park nearby, a trip to the 1/2 price bookstore, and a trip to the railway museum (it even offers train rides).

An odd thing I've noticed, ever since it sank in that - after this semester - I only need five (possibly four, depending on how convincing I can be on the applicability of a prior clss) more classes to complete my major, I've procrastinated even more. I would have thought the opposite would be true and I'd be more motivated, but that has not been the case. I've never denied I'm fairly contrary by nature.

Ch' Ch' Ch' Changes.... and An LOLCat

There've been a lot of changes happening lately to people I care about. Make ups, break ups, shake offs, lay offs, pay cuts, hour cuts, hair cuts, birthdays, mind haze, death, life, and everything else under the sun seems to be happening all at once. I just want you all to know that, while I am crazily mixed up in the goo that got shat (this is my new favorite word) on me in the past couple of months, I do still care, I am still thinking of you, and I am still wishing you all well - I just may not have time to go to the phone/computer and call/e-mail you to tell you so. Consider this notification that you are, indeed, loved. :-)

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Saw this just now and had to post it:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Driving to Podunk After Work

I’m driving down to Podunk today after work so I can pick up the last few remaining things from Dad’s house that I want/need, and leave the papers on the counter the buyer needs so he can get the lawyer started drawing up the necessary items to revert ownership of the home.  This should be the last trip down there.  It’s both a relief and a burden.  No matter that the house is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a bunch of nosy provincials who refer to the area as “the ranch” and view it as paradise on earth, only to be left for the procurement of food at the grocery store – an hour’s drive away.  Yes, the area is pretty, sort of.  Yes, it’s kind of nice to stand on the banks of the pond and throw food to the catfish.  It’s also nice to wake up early and see the deer gathered around the pond for a drink.  But It’s nicer to not have the worry of it over my head.  To not stress over paying house payments, and keeping vandals out of the house.  And DEFINITELY it’s nice to not have your every movement examined and flocks of people coming over so they can observe you like a damn animal in a zoo there for their viewing pleasure. It’s nice to know that, after I split everything with my son and brother, there will be just about enough left to pay for the orthodontia Jamie desperately needs.  It’s nice to know that I won’t be eating up the gas and putting undue stress on my car to go down there.  It’s also nice to know I live in a neighborhood that is not completely isolated and the breeding ground for rabid ignorance and hatred of all things “different.”  It’s nice to know that it will not take me an hour to get to the nearest movie theater, nor will it take me two hours to reach the nearest museum or cultural event.  It’s nice to know my water is not brown and stinky, and does not turn all my white things the color of dog turds when washed in it.  So long, little house.  It’s been nice knowing you, but it’ll be even nicer to be rid of you.

At the End of a Long, Stressful Day, Do Not...

At the end of a long, stressful day, in which legal problems almost arose, the lawyer you'd already paid too much admits he doesn't know his arse from a hole in the ground, and you vehemently wished the whole world in hell (and the opportunity to dig your da up just to spit on him and bury him again), do not... I repeat, DO NOT:

1. Walk in from work and glug down half of a huge bottle of wine you'd bought to use for making that awesome shrimp scampi recipe you'd come up with (especially not on an empty stomach);
2. Turn the a/c temp control back up near 80 because you figure you're not going to have any extra money for electric bills or whatnot after you get done paying off all your da's creditors;
3. Start cooking said shrimp scampi, with the heat from the stove adding to the humidity and general misery in the house;
4. Nibble on the (cooked) shrimp while you're making the dinner;
5. Glug more wine;
6. Get so mad about everything that you start crying, producing a veritable snot factory to compete with the mucus already being produced due to allergy season.

So, we have heat, alcohol, seafood, and snot. Mix those ingredients for a while, and you wind up yakking a pile on the floor that looks oddly a lot like Fancy Feast - Seafood Feast variety.

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Jamie walks in from playing:

"OMG, Mom, what happened? Are you okay? Are you sick?"

- No baby, the cat got sick on the rug, that's all.

"Ummmm... Mom? We don't have a cat.

(a beat)

"Have you been drinking?"

Dropping (Again) and Other News

I admit defeat. I'm dropping a class. Four classes is just waaaay to many at this point. I feel bad about it, but I'm facing reality. I simply cannot go back to getting too few hours of sleep a night. Even when I am awake, I'm too brain dead to concentrate enough to do homework. So, I'm dropping one of my courses. By some stroke of luck, though, it turns out the class I am most behind in, the one that I have absolutely NO idea what I'm doing in, is one I don't need for my major, but thought I did. It seems I got a bit confused and was looking at the requirements for the wrong calendar year. So, I'm going to drop that one.

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In other news:

1. Jamie is having a blast taking tennis lessons from my boss' daughter, Michal. She won't let me pay her anything for it, but I did insist on regularly giving her some gas money. She picks Jamie up from school on Mondays and some Wednesdays and takes him to practice. How on earth did I wind up with a jock for a son? Oh, well, it keeps him in shape and makes him tired enough to sleep at night.
2. I'm making some progress in getting Dad's affairs in order. Joel was a HUGE help to me when he came down for a week. He boxed up everything that looked like it was usable, so all I have to do this weekend is load my car and lug it home. Yay, Joel!
3. The leftovers that we don't want/need, or is obviously trash have presented a bit of a problem. However, we've made a deal with the man who is buying the place. He and I are going to do a walk through on Saturday and come up with a figure of what it would cost him to take care of the junk, the A/C and replace the carpet. That sum will be deducted from what he said he'd pay for the place. This way, it's not coming directly out of my pocket, and we can hurry up and get the sale done. This would be one less thing I have to worry about, so I'm all for it. Joel agrees.