Short update post-Tuesday

Beast was fortunate (?) enough to have all the charges reduced to misdemeanors--DWI and disturbing the peace, rather than DUI and resisting arrest--on Friday. The police screwed the pooch in collecting evidence and not allowing him insulin, plus he took all his paperwork from rehab and meetings and so forth to show good faith in trying to fix himself. And the fact that he'd been fired carried some weight too.

So, we're packing and cleaning and prepping for tomorrow's departure. Beast paid all the bills, emailed all the car rental, airport transpo, and other updates to me and Sparky. He also sent a final email to our AirBnB host, and repacked his backpack, changing it out from work-based to vacation travel. The first-aid kit he takes when he travels has been updated.

He has been sore and limping all day--hips are achy--and about half an hour ago, he finally admitted that he was ready for bed. But he wants to see the NASCAR race. It's less than half over right now. The fast part, in other words, is over. It could be another 90 minutes before racing ends. He should go to bed. My job is to STFU and let him mind his own business.

We had to go buy a third rollaboard today on the way home because we realized that Sparky doesn't have one. So that was extra walking, because of course luggage is in the #@*!*ing furthest corner from the entrance of the store.

Anyway. I've been sparking low-level anxiety attacks for about two hours now. This is about when I start melting down prior to every vacation, but this is mostly focused today on worrying about Beast. Some of the behavior he exhibits when he's tired like this is the same kind of behavior he has when he's been drinking so that's really the majority of the problem for me. At least he's eating some dinner now though. That will help. And his affect/mood isn't like when he's drinking. So it's ghosts and my imagination that are making me slightly manic.

Also, I think I just realized today that I'm not going to see my sister. Usually when flying to England, she's "home base." This will be the second visit since her funeral, and it keeps hitting home that she . will . not . be . there.
Ever.
Again.

I sometimes wonder if I have the slowest Reality Awareness filter ever created. I mean, she died SIX YEARS AGO and I'm just figuring this out??

So yeah. Having now gone back in time to reread old blog posts, and looked at my Family page here...I need to do some work on cleanup there. People will keep having babies!

Time passages

• Yesterday was Homecoming at Beast's & my (and Sparky's) college. Sparky was sick, but the weather was gorgeous.
• Our team lost. Booo...
• Thirty years ago this fall I was more homesick than ever before (or since) and also exhilarated by college life.
• It was fun to go back, weird to sit in a dorm and listen to boys/men shout swear words in the halls (not to mention the 100 dB rap music), and good to see the campus looking great.
• The campus library hasn't changed except for some of the books moving around. And there are more computers, of course.
• We had to come home last night because I work today. And teach Sunday School, too.
• Some of the people I work with SUCK BALLS!
• Most of the people I work with are simply awesome, even inspirational.
• The Head of HR for the City--and thus us--informed us that we full-timers should all be working 45+ hour weeks until a new director and children's librarian are hired. Excuse the FUCK outta me but, with one exception (see above) we already DO work over our hours on a regular basis, beeyotch.
• Last week is over. Thank God.
• I'm afraid to get a flu shot because so many people around me have been sick in the past week; what if the shot along with their germs makes me sick!? 
• Pinto, the youngest guinea pig, tried to commit seppuku Friday when I cleaned their cage: he leapt out of my arms onto the top of the cage and nearly fell off the back. Maybe we shoulda named him Spaz....
• I met someone for the first time last Sunday who was sure I worked in the same community as him (he's a firefighter several towns to our east). Nope. Really. NOPE!
• Beast and I got to new cell phones on Monday. They are officially smarter than us. lol
• I'm glad the professional refs are back. A week too late for the Packers, but...oh well, right?
• Having badgered Beast into making a doctor's appointment to get his cough and his "numbers" checked out, I think I need to get in to see MY doctor as well about some weird new not-so-fun things my body is doing.
• Time to get going: Sunday School, breakfast with Beast, work (post-upgrade, I hope everything works!), then home for the Packer game (and pizza?)

Saturday=Work Day

[If you follow my meme blog, this will all look familiar to you: I posted it there first today.]

We have family coming to stay with us a couple of nights this week, so the push is on to get the house tidied up. Since one of those people is under 5, it means some major renegotiation of space so everyone has a comfortable place to sleep. One of the things I've put off (for several years) is getting the upstairs storage area cleaned out of all the old clothes. I scheduled a pickup from Purple Heart for this Tuesday, so this morning I sealed the Already Packed Boxes and loaded the Rest of the Stuff into garbage bags--their preferred containers apparently nowadays. They all need to be brought downstairs and left on the front porch, but after a little extra reorganization that storage space looks the best it has in several years. Plus, I found my parents' slides from when I marched in the Tournament of Roses parade; Beast is going to convert them so I can post them on our high school reunion and high school band Facebook pages.

Then I came downstairs with my lingerie and hand-wash-only clothing and started that load.

Next up: moving shit around in the pantry. That room has become an absolute nightmare: literally no place to stand but in the space the door opens. Since it's actually meant to be a laundry room, that means there is a LOT of junk piled higgledy-piggledy on the floor. But no more! The cases of pop are now lined up out of the way, the giant Bag of Plastic Bags is on the back steps to go for recycling when I hit the grocery store tonight, the ancient golf clubs that kept falling down are now back in a corner where they are less likely to get knocked down, the step stool, distilled water, First Floor Laundry Basket, and cleaning supplies are pushed back and stacked so there's room to maneuver, and all the paper bags are together inside the biggest. I also threw out some liquor bottles that were empty, tossed some very old food gifts, rearranged our drinking water containers, 409'd the liquor shelf to get rid of the sticky spots, and swept guinea pig fluff out of the corners (the downside of having them living near the pantry is that their stuff goes in there: yuck. Also, I took the bag of scarves, gloves and assorted other paraphernalia from my mother-in-law's front closet--she died 4 years ago--and added it to the pile for Purple Heart.

Once that was done, I moved the laundry around the next cycle and came back upstairs where I emptied the dishwasher, reloaded it with what can be cleaned in there setting aside a couple of things that didn't get completely degunked in the last load, and ran water to wash pots and pans. Beast spent 10 minutes levering out the Spiced Tea that had solidified in a mason jar in the pantry over the past 4-5 years since my sister gave it to me, and I washed up all the stuff on the counter.

All accomplished between 10:30 and 12:30 when my knees suddenly went weak and I started to feel sick--oh, yeah, maybe I should eat something besides bread today! Somewhere in the midst of all of this I had a Very Necessary Conversation with Katherine, my niece, who is hosting another contingent of family starting tonight. She's wanted to get all their activities absolutely nailed to the wall before they arrive--that's what my family tends to do--and has been freaking out about this all spring, culminating this week. She seems fine now. I dunno, relaxation is not her thing at all. That was actually the worst part of the morning, to be honest.

The stuff in the dryer hadn't completely dried when I checked, so that's still hanging fire.

What's left?

1. Guinea pig cage cleaning. Maybe tomorrow. Then I don't have to do it again till next Sunday after Wayne and Elizabeth (and Justin) leave.
2. Grocery shopping for us this week. Tonight. When Sparky can go with me; it's good to have him from a pragmatic point of view--he helps load while I scan at the self-check--and also it's good quality time to talk about stuff without him feeling like I'm grilling him. Which, of course, I am!
3. Clean out the fridge. It's really not nice in there: lots of dried lettuce and so forth in the cooler bins, spilled baking soda, agéd food, and assorted stains. I really should also be checking the age of some of the food in the pantry, but I can do that later in the week.
4. Find the sippy cups and lids. Technically, I know exactly where the lids are, but I can't remember where I put the cups.

Sparky is off doing his thing all day (7-7) at his "summer job" which is nothing we really want him involved in but are letting him try it out until he figures out why these things are called Pyramid Schemes (he's into it only $100 so far, which is a cheap lesson).

Beast is paying bills in the office. I may go in there and do some more work on my Goodreads shelves pretty soon. All in all I feel pretty good about today!

Erk

Aside from poetry, I haven't been around much. There are several reasons, but the Big Two are Work and Beast's (lack of) Health. I'm slowly getting my head around working 40 hours a week and being a Responsible Adult, but next week is going to be pretty horrible: I'm involved in putting a coworker on official probation, and I'm fairly certain she won't be able to maintain the baseline work changes required. There will be angst, and not just from her. Another coworker essentially has begged me to do whatever I can to keep the other woman from losing her job. Well, that's just fine but she has to carry her part of the load. And she's not. Hasn't, really, ever. Sigh.

Beast's back has been fubar since last August when he was hospitalized, and I have quite literally lost count of how many times we've been to the ER since then. The ambulance has picked him up three (four??) times in the last two months or so. Long story short, he is scheduled for a laminectomy on Monday. Tomorrow is pre-op testing day for him (I work), Saturday we drive up for load #1 from Sparky's dorm room, Sunday is...Sunday (i.e. busy in the morning, not-so in the afternoon). This is slightly faster than we had expected, but OMG-Thank-God for that!

The difficulty is that I need to go pick up Sparky and the rest of his stuff from school at some point--Wednesday or Thursday--and bring him home for the summer. And work. And bring Beast home from the hospital. And...yeah, see? Life, she is destroying next week completely. I really do hope this surgery goes smoothly for Beast, resolves the majority of the pain issues, and that Sparky can find a summer job.

Steps to the Second Floor

There are 16 steps leading upstairs from front hall to bedrooms.

How long does it take to go up (or down) 16 steps? Ten seconds? Fifteen? It certainly takes me less than half a minute to get from the couch to my bedroom most of the time.

I took Beast to the spine surgeon's office today. He saw the surgeon about two weeks ago, and after the doc had time to look over Beast's records, he wanted him to have one more cortisone injection in his spine with his needle-guy. So, that was this morning. This doctor didn't give Beast any general anesthetic (unlike every other one he's ever had), so he was fully awake and had only (very) local anesthetic. When they came to the waiting room to get me, he'd only been back there for ten minutes, at most. He was in absolutely the most pain I've seen him in for the past week or more, because there's so much inflammation and the addition of a syringe or so of liquid in a space where it had nowhere to be. But we got home ok, and I headed off to work.

When I got home at about 6:30, I started collecting the household garbage before I realized that Beast needed to get upstairs to bed NOW.

"NOW" means that at 7:45, I was finally dragging the garbage can and recycling bins to the end of the driveway.

• Ten minutes, and a Percocet, to get out of the recliner.
• Five minutes to cross the living room, front hall and reach the bottom of the stairs.
• Approximately 25 minutes later, Beast was sprawled on the floor at the top of the steps.
• About twenty minutes after that, he had made it to bed and was sitting on the edge of it emptying his pants pockets.
• And ten minutes after that, I told him I was going to go do the garbage and I'd bring his cell phone and some water upstairs.

When I came back in, he had dropped off to sleep.

I let him rest for about half an hour and then went back up to make sure he got his CPAP going.

I've been home two and a half hours and it feels like either 30 minutes or all day.

What blogs are good for

In this case, they are good for dating the last occurrence of Beast being admitted to the hospital in dire pain from his back. The last one, that is, before yesterday.

Yes, so he's in the Big House again, although this time is less severe. They MRI'd him yesterday and he finally got into his regular room about 9 p.m. I'm about to head back over to see what today looks like and perhaps find out the results of the MRI.

Whee. At least Sparky is home this time to help with some of the fetch-and-carry things. He's been a trouper, though he gets bored sitting at the hospital.

More later, perhaps.

Blog vacation

Apparently, I took most of the month of May off this year. I have to get a grip on writing again. There are just too many things going on, many of which I don't want to (or can't) discuss here because they are too close to the bone at this point.

One of the events of the last several weeks is that Beast's aunt died, the sister of his mom. This leaves his dad as the last of the Old Guard. Aunt M (yeah, just did the requisite Wizard of Oz thing in my head) was a terrific woman, and I feel fortunate to have gotten to know her just a little bit. The funeral was good. A bit weird for me, but good as funerals go. But it's hit Beast hard.

Sparky graduated. We got his grades last week, which got us grounded in reality after weeks of believing all the nice things people have been saying about him since school let out for him. ...sigh At least his grades weren't so bad that his college scholarship will be affected. At this point. I'm worried, but I'm trying to let him fly on his own--if he crashes, it may be the only way he learns. Just like most of the rest of the men on my side of the family. Genetic flaw? Goofy nurturing techniques? I don't know.

We've been attending graduation parties almost every weekend. We also helped Amy move. Twice. Long story. If you know her, go read her blog for more about that. The place she's in now (as of yeserday) is lovely. I'd live there in a heartbeat! The intermediary place...let's just say it needed lots of TLC. Or dynamite.

I am finally starting to catch up on the huge backlog that accrued in April, at the end of our budget year. Have learned that I can blow through 80 items a day on a regular basis and still manage to keep my insanity and general assholish behavior under control.

Katherine is still a complete wreck. One of her coworkers committed suicide last month, so she's justifiably upset about that. But she's already so close to the edge for me that I don't have a lot of extra rope to throw her. We're supposed to go to a party at her and Alan's house over the weekend of the 4th, but she's completely pissing me off about it. The only thing that's keeping me from bailing is that Elizabeth, Ken and Baby J will be there (and Marie and Jan). It may be the only chance I get to see the little guy!

And amidst all of this I'm trying to keep a grip on all the things that need doing/buying/organizing before Sparky heads off to college in August. We are slowly buying things, but I think I'm going to wait till the back-to-school sales start before I really go to town on shopping. And we need to find out about his roommate and negotiate the big stuff with him and his family.

Oh, and there's the mission trip next week. And Sparky's outrageously bad allergies. And my weight. And, and, and....

So yeah, having listed this--and, as I said, this is not even close to all of the stuff in the air--I'm now wondering just exactly why I'm not panicking every second of the day. And night. Hopefully I won't start now!

Peregrinations

As promised, here's the program for the next few weeks for us.

{{gasp!}} An actual post!

Yes, it's true, I'm feeling moved to blog for realz. Mostly because I've actually been working my ass off (I wish) for a few days, trying to get ready to leave on our trip on Tuesday.

In line with this push is a renewed, or even new, effort to keep up on things around here: bills/receipts (entering them into Quicken), planning and making actual meals, generally not sitting around on my ass (see above). Sparky and I switched jobs a week or so ago so he is no longer in charge of dishes but has taken responsibility for running Roomba around the house as needed. I expect the novelty of that will wear off fairly quickly, but it is nice that I'm not nagging him about the dishes on the counter--I just take care of it myself. So there.

He is hours, maybe a day, away from finally committing to Pio U for college. We need to send in a deposit and he'll be set. It's nice that Beast and I will know our way around both the campus and the city in which the college is, but it is exTREMEly odd to think that Sparky will be hanging out in some of the same places we did nearly 30 years ago. Thirty years!? O.M.G.

In other news, I established for myself last Monday that kidney stones are pretty fucking painful. I'm still having some minor pain, but nothing -- NOTHING! -- like what I woke up with on Monday!

So I did a whole long blather about our trip at this point, but I'm going to cut that and make a new post of it.

Abdicate

As usual, my family is proving to be much more lovable in theory and at a distance. My sister is due to arrive in the area the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. She and Jan will be staying with their daughter (my niece Katherine) and her (long-suffering) husband, Alan. We have hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the majority of the past 8 years. Katherine and Alan, Alan's mother and step-dad, and my two nephews (another branch of my family) have been the usual contingent, along with FIL the last few years. And Amy, if she's willing to tolerate my family's insanity. My assumption--uh-oh, right?--was that I'd do the usual thing this year again, with Jan and Marie added to the crowd. So I ordered a fresh turkey. We're all good to let the festivities commence.

Then Katherine decided she wanted to do Thanksgiving at her house for Alan's family. Because, after all, Mom will be there to help (i.e., do all the planning and work).

Except that's not going to work because ... I don't really know why. So then the plan was to host everyone from Jan's family (he grew up in this area and his sisters and their families still live here), and us.

Keep in mind that if there are more than 8 people in their living room, we will have to go outside to change our minds. It's a teeny-tiny house. With fucking long-haired cats in it, to boot. {{aah-CHOO}}

Katherine works Friday morning and Saturday morning. I work Friday all day. The backup plan my sister has hatched is to have a leftovers kind of meal on Saturday afternoon at our house. Uh, no. See above re turkey, all 20 lbs. of it.

By the way, no one has mentioned any of this hullabaloo to my nephews to find out if they want to come on a weekend instead of Thursday. And, oh, yeah, FIL is falling through the cracks a bit here. [I couldn't really care less about Alan's mom and stepdad.]

Here's the email I just sent Marie and Katherine:

I'm not sure how this is all going to work, honestly. I need to check in with [Beast] yet, since he has not yet returned after his dad's surgery, but just so everyone knows, I have pre-ordered a turkey, so "just leftovers" on Saturday isn't going to work for us. I actually don't mind cooking the whole meal; it's the one time each year I make a big deal in the kitchen.

It seems that everyone's schedule is completely incongruent with other people's. [Beast] will be out of town earlier the week of Thanksgiving and may be traveling other weeks too. One of my coworkers will be on maternity leave starting any day and that means that I will need to pull extra hours if I have any chance at all of keeping my head above water. And we're doing fundraisers at church for youth group.

As for my schedule at this point, I work [weekdays]. I also work Sat 12/9. I put in a few hours every Monday morning at [Sparky]'s school library as well. We will be taking the youth group kids [shopping in the Big City] on Sunday 12/5, and I'm sure the bell choir will be playing on 12/12 for music Sunday. Those are the definite dates. I think we'll be doing fundraiser stuff at a lock-in at church on 12/10. Maybe. We might be able to push it off till the following weekend if necessary.

OK, I'm off to figure out something for [Sparky] and me to eat while [Beast] cools his heels at CVS with everyone else who needs scrips filled tonight.

Do I sound a right bitch? Well, fuck: I don't care. I'm so very tired of people just assuming that my time is infinitely juggle-able. It's not. I'd love to be able to drop everything and reschedule because of other people's emergencies* or brainstorms, but I just can't. Things are literally cram-jammed into a general semblance of coherence that is frequently upset by our own personal "course-corrections." Like FIL's surgery. Sparky's work schedule. Car problems.

Gah. I want my private island now. Me, my nephews, Amy, Jenny, FIL, and my own household. That's ALL! Oh, and any of my blog friends. And if that makes me Queen Bitch, so be it.
______________
* My attitude was not helped in any way earlier today by having to cover for the sudden departure from work of Miss W. for an emergency. Her grandson fell and banged himself up. She had to go hold her daughter's hand. How the hell did I survive Sparky's childhood without any local hand-holders besides Beast? I mean, really.

OK then

I just got repeatedly flipped off by a LOL who was annoyed because I didn't allow her to cut me off in traffic. She then ended up whizzing past me in the parking lot of the store, and then we walked inside, quite literally, right next to each other...because she race-walked to pass me on her way to the carts.

She looked like a relatively nice woman, too, once she stopped making those Flipping Off Faces. I was pretty proud of myself for not saying anything to her, just smiling a little whenever we crossed paths in the pet section. No, I wasn't stalking her: I was looking for bedding for Ruka.

Take my word: do not mess with "Zetta" and her Volvo.

The more things change

...the more they stay the same.

We now have zero exchange students at our house. Picture Beast and me with our jaws on the floor and our hands thrown up in the air: WHAT!THE!FUCK! Yesterday's email from Sparky's German teacher reads, in part: "Despite your saying you do not need a break; the German teachers would still give you a rest. ... C[...] says she would be OK with moving to another family. She says you have been great hosts and should not infer anything in our moving her at this time. Mrs. P[...] had offered to place another student Tuesday when we all learned the Germans could not return to Germany. C[...] would be staying with Julia .... Also, perhaps with the disappointment of not returning home, being with another classmate is good idea psychologically."

I actually totally get that last bit, so I was somewhat mollified after I read this. And, to be honest, it was quite lovely to come home from the conference last night and have the house to myself (Sparky was at a study group) and not have to worry about anyone needing a ride or help finding something to eat or do here.

In other news, on the train home last night one of the women with whom I was traveling discovered that she had misplaced her wallet. She got off at the next station and called back to the city ticket office--the last place she knew she had it with her--to see if someone had turned it in. She also called her husband who checked online and found that someone had already used the credit card, within just a few minutes of the wallet being left! Sigh. So, obviously she's not getting it back.

Which coheres with the status of my bag. The Lost & Found woman said that sometimes it takes a little while for things to make their way back to her, so I should check in again today and next week, but realistically...I'm out a nice half-pack, a curling iron, a flashlight, and some charger cables. Some other stuff too, but nothing really horrible or irreplaceable. Well, except perhaps my notes from the first day of the conference. I've made a list of what I can remember having packed in there so I can hit the stores and replace what I need this weekend.

* * *

OK, Sparky has headed off to school and I swapped hours today at work so I don't have to leave until noon. I'm going back to bed. I almost fell asleep in the middle of CSI:NY last night and ended up going to bed at 9:45. Still feel like I could sleep a month, but I keep waking up with thoughts of "Oh, yeah, _____ was in the bag too!" or "I need to make sure the girls...oh, never mind" or "I need to figure out what we're doing for _________" etc. Time to revert back to having nothing scheduled every hour of the day!

We have a fridge full of food too, so I don't even have to cook for awhile! Yay!

Gambling...

At 4 this afternoon, I was leaving work, Beast was on his way to Biggish City to the West with two of the current three teens in our house to play Laser Tag, and we had a rather boring evening ahead (after a pretty boring rest-of-the-day).

Right now there are 18 people in my house, 16 of whom are under 18. Two large pizzas have disappeared, and their are large chunks missing from the other four still on the kitchen counters.

We could open a shoe store in our entryway.

One of the German girls has a MAJOR crush on one of the host boys, and isn't being particularly subtle about it. Then again, they are only scheduled to be in the States for about 56 more hours, so needs must.

Eight teens are in the basement playing pool, and eight are in the dining room playing poker. [Poker rules explained in Germlish are pretty amazing, by the way. Lots of "funf."]

My Presbyterian forebears are whizzing around in their graves, but I'm having a blast just watching.

FML

I am so very tired, and the coming week looks like an incoming tsunami.

Actually, perhaps today and tomorrow is the outward suckage (technically, called the drawback) just before the big wave hits the shore.

Upcoming events:

• More German exchange stuff, the scheduling for which seems to change every 20 seconds or so
• Take FIL home from the hospital (outpatient-sorta-ish surgery yesterday)
• Sparky works Friday night
• Girls are at Mr. High School contest (guess Sparky's missing that, boo!)
• Laundry. There are a lot of dirty clothes in the house!
• Petting Zoo @ work for 2 hours on Saturday (it's for Technology not Animals)
• Sparky's school band contest "thingy" on Saturday
• FIL's bday is today; we should take him out to eat or something sometime soonish
• Sparky is on for childcare on Sunday @ church
• Departure Luncheon for the exchange group & host families
• Packing & prep for my (library-related) conference Monday - Wednesday (I leave Monday and return Tuesday night, then go back to the Big City on Wednesday morning for the rest of the conference)
• Prep for Beast's (SIP) conference Monday - ?Thursday (He will attend Monday, come home overnight, and then head back on Tuesday staying overnight that night--and Wednesday?)
• Packing and prep for the girls' return home on Tuesday--yes, I miss their last night in the States....sigh....which is why Beast has to be home Monday night

It'd be nice to fit some cleaning of the house in there. Also, we need MORE groceries (damn, these girls eat a LOT! lol). And there are the daily household things that need doing, too. Oh, yeah, and our jobs, the ones we get paid for. GAH!

So, yeah. Life=psychotically insanely stupidly busy. I'm a little cranky. Sue me.

What.A.Day.

• Boring Bible Study text this morning. The pastor even said so. lol


• Technology issues leading to a cretinously slow database at work.


• The mere thought of vomit on surfaces at work.


• Laughing with E. for 10 minutes over a book of tongue-twisters, followed by mooning with her over an adorable book of poems "by" dogs. I love our children's librarian.


• Too much processed sugar in one afternoon.


• 14 straight hours away from the house.


• Email from church about a 12-year-old in our community who has an inoperable brain tumor which sprung a leak in her head. She's (back) in the hospital, in pain but improving. Terrifying and very sad.


• Email from The Boss at 1:30 p.m.: "I need some statistics for your report, which I have to present to the Board tonight."


• Registration forms I've been requesting for two months (and worrying about for another month before that) which arrived last week...are due on Monday. Next Monday, 2/8. Ten days to collect everyone's info. Nice organization, PCUSA. Real *$%@!ing nice.


• I'm not a fan of sloppy joes. Just sayin'.


• People who can't read music...in a choir. The are nice people. They can't read music. O.M.G.


• The most boring part EVER assigned to me in that choir. Seriously: I play in 8 out of about 40 measures, maybe 10 notes total.


• Worry over FIL's complete lack of energy after his last three dialysis visits. Not to mention his laryngitis. And his toe.


• Beast had a crappy sales call today. And he's far from home and feeling a little out of things.


• Email from a friend whose life is so tragic. According to her. Well, you made your own bed, Ms. L--now you're lying in it. We all have to lie in our own sh**, you aren't so special. Lots of people have it worse off, and most of us have at least as much going on...but no, YOURS is so much worse. Because it's yours. Yeah. F**k you and the horse you rode in on. I have no tolerance anymore.


• This was Sparky's birthday. Not that you'd be able to notice, since he was up at 6:45, off to school, then church (study group and dinner) and then back to school for ACT class. He just went up to bed...10 p.m. Happy 17th, Baby Boy! {eyeroll}


• Blackberry Stoli + tonic + lime = To Die For

I'm taking a mental health day tomorrow. I wish I could do the same for about 6 other people who need the same thing and can't actually do it. But I'm seeing a friend. A real friend. Someone I don't think "f**k you" thoughts about. Ever. Yay.

Oooh, and Beast comes home tomorrow, too. More yay!

Hi

I was in Vegas for about 51 hours over the weekend with Beast, Sparky, and Sparky's friend Camo. We had fun. Lots of fun. We pretty much ate non-stop, too. And I drank too much one night--free drinks!

Tuesday Beast was sick in bed all day, still in Vegas. Boo!

He's home now. This week was nuts. So was last week (see previous entry for details). I'm tired.

Seems like everyone at work is cranky.

Tonight is the Help for Haiti concert. Sparky's at work--did I mention he has a job?--and we're waiting to hear on another possible job for him as well. Short version: he's never home.

Neither is Beast.

Frankly, I'm not home as much as I'd like to be, either. Good thing we have a guard cavy.

P.S. We also have no food in the house. Cuz there's no time to shop. Yeah. Joy.

Today's schedule

• Woke with alarm at 5:20 with the morning DJ flapping his yap about Jay Leno...Conan O'Brien..blah blah blah
• Eventually hauled my tired butt outta bed, got dressed, got ready for work, prepped the meds, did the hair, etc., etc.
• Logged into email and Fb, with limited success on the latter
• Headed out, with meds in their Kleenex (I'm so hi-tek), stopping to collect coat, scarf, phone, work keys
• Realize I never picked up the paper yesterday. Head down the driveway for that one and today's. Spot one propped against the snow at the edge of the driveway. Fall off edge of driveway into snow, landing on all fours in the snow and nearly somersaulting into the culvert. And the paper wasn't there, either.
• Go back inside and towel off pants and hands. Head back to truck to leave, again.
• Back out of driveway, and spot paper 4 inches to the left of my thrashing-in-the-snow marks. Swear, stop car, get paper, finish pulling out of driveway.
• Arrive at Bible Study late for the second week in a row. Reach into pocket for meds and realize I grabbed the wrong wadded-up Kleenex. No meds today. Crap
• Bible Study/Sparky's "I'm up and ready to head to school" text/drive to work
• Picklist in the dark library, woo hoo
• Leave note on Fb cancelling study time at church this afternoon
• Dink around killing time doing minor project work before leaving for meeting
• Spend 20 minutes convincing a coworker that she REALLY, REALLY needs to see the doctor NOW and get answers YESTERDAY about this weird pile of symptoms
• Leave for lunch. I have no memory of the hour-long drive to the meet-up place. Scary
• Lovely lunch with wonderful people, marred only by having to wait over 30 minutes after ordering for our food to arrive. It wasn't quite worth the wait, but the company was good which nearly makes up for it, right?
• So the meeting started 30 minutes late, oh well. And lasted over two hours. And was, mostly, lots of fun. I actually love these people. Well, most of them... lol
• Drive an hour home. See Sparky for the first time today, and find out how today's finals went. Relax for an hour, talk to Beast for the first time today, and watch 45 minutes of ST:TNG with Sparky. Also repair internet connection so that I can FINALLY access all of Facebook, just in time to leave again...
• ...for Bell Choir at church. Progress, MUCH of it, is made there. Help break down tables and clean up the room for the next group, who definitely won't need padded tables and bell stands, etc.
• Drive half an hour to FIL's apartment. The dressing on his toe needs changing. Home Health will only do every other day, so we are responsible for the rest of the days--it needs to be done daily. Chat with FIL and tonight's CNA, who is super-splendiferous, for an hour or so after changing dressing
• Drive half an hour home. Say goodnight to Sparky. Start typing this while switching between CSI:NY on CBS and NCIS on cable.

I am

SO

FREAKING

TIRED!

Strange Day

I took today off work so that I could get some "Christmas stuff" done. It's been a strange day, starting last night when UPS delivered about 20 bottles of wine to our house, allowing Sparky to sign for it. I kind of joked around with him about not being old enough to drink but UPS thinks he's old enough to sign...then today when we unpacked everything Beast noticed that the boxes say on them that they shouldn't be delivered to anyone underage. Nice job, UPS.

Why do we have 20 bottles of wine in our living room? Cuz we had a wine party a couple of weeks ago and the rep had everyone's order delivered to us since he was out of town over the weekend and wasn't sure when the boxes would arrive.

So those were sitting between the Christmas tree and the sofa this morning.

Beast overslept--his first words of the day were "Oh, S**T!" when my alarm went off at 7:30. He meant to be up at 6:30 to work and prep for a busy tech installation day here at home. So he showered and beat feet downstairs...only to miss the call from V-zon guy about installing a second line.

By 10 the V-zon guy was here poking around in our basement and walls while I retired to the spare room to wrap up all the presents I've procured. I got about half done while he was here; when I heard him leave, I commenced carrying them down. Having sorted them into appropriate piles under the tree, I stood up to the sound of the doorbell. Thinking V-zon had returned, I opened the door to a guy who said, "C-cast here for hi-speed installation?" Yup. Neeeexxxttt.

I returned to the spare room and finished up the rest of the wrapping, cleaned up the mess I'd made, and brought everything downstairs (well, everything that Santa isn't bringing).

Beast had to head to town to collect some things to go with his new technology, so he also got to take the First Christmas stuff for my great-nephew and the gift Sparky found under the spare room bed earlier this week from my English sister to my other sister. They must have missed it while packing in October and obviously I never look under the beds in there!

The wine cartons were unpacked and sorted, with some bottles going into town with Beast so he could deliver them to the people who ordered them.

Sparky and I worked on a jigsaw we started yesterday. It's making us dislike animals--there are a LOT of brown animals! ;-)

Somewhere along the line, I got a large papercut in the side of my right index finger.

When Beast got home and unloaded, he brought the mail. Included in our stack were 3 cards for our next-door neighbors--including the one we sent them. Sigh...idiot carrier: their mail is on hold because they are out of town.

Beast headed back out to shovel the snow, since it seemed to have stopped. About then, a nurse called from the place where FIL lives to tell us they thought FIL needed to have his foot checked out at the hospital as it seemed to have developed an infection. So Beast and Sparky got to work double-time on the driveway so Beast could go pick up FIL and take him to the ER. Sparky then went next door and did their driveway so the house doesn't look deserted.

Amy called. We dithered about whether she should drive north tonight to her parents' house. Her choices were do that, head an hour south to her apartment, or come stay here at least overnight. Since she hasn't shown up here, and that was well over an hour ago--I'm assuming she chose A or B.

Beast just called 10 minutes ago to say that they are admitting FIL to pump him full of IV antibiotics as the foot does have some infection. He should be out in 24-36 hours. Tops.

And so it goes.

Notes:

• All of this new technology is being paid for by Beast's company. He now works 100% out of the house and they want him to have what he needs here: photocopier, fax, dedicated phone line, direct mail (to a maildrop, not here), high-speed connection to the internet, printer, you name it. The office is stuffed to the gills now. Crazy.
• Our house is fooking COLD during the day (because the thermostat is programmed to keep the temperature at 65).
• My address book is two years out of date. In it, my niece isn't married and still lives in her old house, under her old name.
• Where did I put the wrapping tape?! I know I bought several rolls in the summer. Did I really use them all up?
• To reiterate from last year: I. Will. NEVER. EVER. Need. To. Buy. Bows. Again.
• It's possible the paper cut isn't actually a paper cut. It may be that my skin cracked open. It's just about that dry.
• Sparky has discovered coffee, downing about 6 cups in the past 24 hours. He's not my kid, that's for sure. Yuck.
• Tomorrow is going to be yet another strange day, this time at work.

5 minutes after I wrote all this, Amy called to fill us in on her plans. Natch.
lol
It's all good though.

Long Day

I left at 8:45 this morning for church. From church I went straight to work with my lunch in hand. Cataloged for two hours, worked the Sunday reference desk for three hours, stayed after and worked on monthly stats, went to the Dollar Store for snacks and drinks and then to the grocery store for a chicken-salad sandwich for me, and then headed back to church for the youth group meeting. I was home by 8:20, I think.

Meanwhile, Beast went to the hospital to check on his dad, came home and worked outside for a few hours, came to the youth group meeting, left early to go back to the hospital one last time, and came home.

There were two voicemails on our home phone today from a friend of my sister Jean's. While Jean and Reg were here visiting last week, Friend drove in from her home about 90 minutes away and spent the day with them. She called one more time before they left. She's an odd woman, but whenever Jean is in the area, they get together and chat, and I guess she has visited them at their home too. Whatever. Circumstances being what they have been, I don't think she's done more than meet Beast once. He barely knows her, and certainly would neither recognize her name nor her face if he came across them.

The first call this morning was clocked in at 8:56. She wants to know what's going on with Jean. (She is in the hospital in Colorado near Marie because she wasn't breathing well: they discovered pneumonia, anemia, and a general inability to suck in enough oxygen at 8,000 feet above sea level.) "Now!" is all over Friend's voice in the message. She called back at 2:39 this afternoon and left another "CALL ME!!" message. I didn't notice when I got home that we had voicemail--we rarely have anything interesting on it, so I usually don't bother to look. Beast found the second message when he came home at 9:10, which reminded him to tell me about the first one.

I do not call people after 9 p.m. except in pretty dire circumstances. So she'll wait.

However, she has now become Class A Bitch in my book. Dude, you ARE NOT A FAMILY MEMBER. F**k the f**kety-f**k OFF! And do not...do NOT tell me what to do. Reg has Skype; Friend has Skype. They worked that all out last week. If he (or Jean) wanted her to know the details, he'd've Skyped her. Or she could Skype him and ask for details.

I hate being a go-between. HATE. IT. I did this when Ellen died with everyone in my family for about a year and then pulled the plug. You got something to say, say it to the person who needs to hear it. You got a question to ask someone, ask them. Not me. I'm out of this. And so...yeah, I'll call Friend and tell her nothing and that I will be away from ALL PHONE CONTACT EXCEPT EMERGENCIES for the rest of the week. I will do that. Tomorrow.

Oh, wait: her voicemail isn't set up on her cell so I can't leave a message.

* * * * * * * *

Any patience I might have had for humankind earlier today has evaporated. And I think I'm getting sick. Which is all because other people infected me. STUPID PEOPLE!

Not having fun

...not this week. But I am winnowing out my work-related emails, having gone from 2300+ yesterday to 1248 right now. I'm up to June 29 of this year, and I'm ready to shoot myself.

In other news, I'm all about doing what needs doing next and waiting for the next emergency. There seem to be a lot of those. That could stop. Please.