Wouldn’t it be amazing to have the ability to mesh all of the small experiences of every 24 hour period into a life or perspective-changing lesson?
I think this is something I’d like to try. It may not be reasonable to try to glean meaning from every day, but perhaps I can learn something spectacular based on all of the experiences of a week.
We finally got a new cell phone after Corey’s washing machine incident. And it’s true - I’m officially a technoweenie/technophile. I can’t help myself.
We (read “I”) have been eying the Blackberry Curve for about a month now, and we were finally able to pay the $200 (pre-rebate) for it. I felt like such a nerd, practically squirming to get it in my hands. Retard me, though, I forgot to grab my old phone and the charger when I left for work, so I can’t do anything with it right now. *sigh* I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow.
Yep. I half-assed on the laundry. I’m thinking “Thursday’s another day.” I’ll hit the laundry again then. Also, it was not a bad alternator on the Mazda - just bad connectors, for a $12 fix. I can live with that.
Yesterday wasn’t as frantic as I thought it would be. I got up just in time to grab a heavy breakfast and go to the blood drive. I felt a little crummy after donating my pint, but horrible. A can of grape juice (blech!!!) and a cookie later, I was ready to roll.
I got home later than I expected to, but it turned out that the people that we were going to visit still had some running around town to do themselves, so we weren’t officially late. We packed up the kids and headed out to Golden Valley for a BBQ and a swim. In an actual concrete pool - not one of those doughboy jobbies. I doused the kids and myself in sunscreen, even reappliedd it after the specified time, and shocker of shockers, nobody got a sunburn! Imagine that! We stayed until 2 a.m. playing games on their Wii, then headed home.
Just as I made my 3rd to last turn to go home, lights came on behind me. I pulled over at our neighborhood convenience store, wondering what I’d done wrong. I was going the speed limit, I had turned into the correct lane, I’d used my turn signals properly. I’d had half a beer, but it was over 6 hours since I’d had it. It turns out that I just had a burned out lightbulb above my license plate, but it wrecked my nerves, to say the least. The officer was very nice, a result of my non-alcoholic breath, I’m sure. She wrote me a fix-it ticket, and sent me on my way. I got home, tucked the hubby and kids into bed, took a nice warm shower to hose all the poolness off of me, and crashed at 3 in the morning.
I kept waking up every hour or two starting at 9. The humidity was so bad today that it made the cooler seem like it wasn’t functioning. I gave up on any more sleeping a little before 1 p.m. and decided to get my grocery shopping done. It was well-overdue, as the kids reminded me by asking me to take them to get something to eat first. I decided to take them with me. We went to the first store, where I got them each something to eat and something to do (by the way, since when can you NOT find a damned coloring book in a grocery store?!?). I got them set up in the balcony where they can see the whole store, and let them kick back up there while I shopped. I had them bring their “stuff to do” to the other two grocery stores, planting them in the deli dining areas while I finished up my shopping. They said they were perfectly happy with the arrangement, and I got to do my shopping without tripping over the kids and fighting over who was going to “drive.” I’m stowing away the experience for future reference.
When I got home, I asked Corey to make dinner, even told him what he could make so he didn’t have to ask. As soon as he got out of the shower, though, he got a call from work asking him to come in ASAP. I was grumpy at first, but then I thought of all the times he’s gotten stuck with making dinner on the days I’ve been called in early, and got over it.
As it turns out, I was apparently 2 hours late for work today. Someone changed the schedule during my weekend, and didn’t bother calling me to tell me that they needed me to come in at 4 instead of 6 tonight. I do have proof that it was changed over my weekend, though, so my ass is covered. It still pisses me off, though.
Okay, so it turns out that this weekend IS frought with places to go and people to see, although mostly on Corey’s part. Today, he had to go get the Mazda’s title transferred to the guy who bought it from him and do a bunch of running around. This thwarted my plans a little, because a lot of that running around involved him running off with my car and leaving the Mazda here for Mercedes to clean out. I didn’t get to the laundromat until 6, and they close at 8. I didn’t have enough time to finish folding up the laundry without holding them up and making them stay late, so I brought home 4 of the 6 loads unfolded, and got them folded at put away at home. Still, I accomplished half of goal #1 in a non-half-assed way (I did originally plan to get this all done in two days and stuck with that). I got rid of two full 39-gallon trash bags worth of outgrown/damaged/stained-beyond-bleaching clothing, and made a real dent in the monster that had become our laundry pile. I’m very pleased with myself.
On the downside, Corey went to go get some minor things done on the Mazda, and it seems that the alternator may be dead. This sucks, in one way, because that’s more money that we’ll be dumping into it, even though it’s already sold. This doesn’t suck, in another way, because we’d both have felt like crap if it had happened the day after the guy took the car home or while he was on his way to work or something. If it costs more than $100, I want to see if we can get the buyer to pitch in something for it. After all, Corey only charged him $500 for the vehicle, and I don’t think that’s unreasonable for an otherwise mechanically-sound car.
So…tomorrow’s another day, and Corey has plans to have a bunch of sweaty, testosterone-laden men to come to the house to watch other sweaty, testosterone-laden men beat the crap out of each other. I’m thinking it will be a good time to pop season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy into the computer and drown myself in the headphones - maybe I’ll even catch a few games of Word Riot. Or perhaps I’ll take the opportunity to go to the laundromat, and screw around watching my shows and playing games afterwards.
Saturday, I’m going to be donating blood again - I’m finally eligible after my last tattoo. Afterwards, we’re supposed to go out to Golden Valley for a barbecue with some of Corey’s buddies from work, so I don’t think we’re going to get to the cooking day this week. Corey thinks it’s a good idea, though, and he says it sounds like a good way to spend some time with the kids. This makes me happy! If I get up early enough, I’ll take Alex and all of our plastic bottles down to the recycling plant again. I think it’s a worthwhile project. Just a small portion of “doing our part,” but better than nothing at all.
I did find out about taking a float on the Colorado River. I can’t find anything locally like what I was looking for - a leisurely inner-tube float - but I did find something that sounds particularly interesting. There is a “smooth water” tour that takes place on an inflatable raft, starting at the base of the Hoover Dam. It includes transportation from and to the Hacienda (the first casino on the Nevada-side of the Dam), a sack lunch, a brief history of the dam, promised wildlife sightings, and a swim, for about $62/head. A little pricier than what I was expecting, but I’m kind of wondering, if we get a big enough group, maybe we can get a discount. At any rate, it’d make a fun “field trip” for the kids - a little playing, a little learning, maybe even engendering a little pride in their region, and reinforcing that urgency to conserve what few precious commodities we have here.
A. Attached or Single? Attached
B. Best Friend? My husband and Christine
C. Cake or pie? Dutch apple pie
D. Day of choice? Any day that is stress-free
E. Essential item? My laptop/a computer
F. Favorite color? green
G. Gummy bears or worms? Worms
H. Home town? Kingman, AZ
I. Favorite indulgence? Really excellent wine
J. January or July? July - January lasts too long
K. Kids? Mercedes and Alex
L. Life isn’t complete without? Family, whether they’re blood or acquired.
M. Marriage date? June 7, 1995
N. Number of brothers and sisters? 2 sisters
O. Oranges or Apples? Oranges
P. Phobias? mosquitos
Q. Quotes? “”
R. Reasons to smile? There’s a million reasons, too many to name!
S. Season of choice? Spring
T. Tag 5 people:
U. Unknown fact about me? I think everyone knows everything about me.
V. Vegetable? broccoli - but I always have to take two shots at spelling it.
W. Worst habit? Smoking
X. X-ray or Ultrasound? Ultrasound
Y. Your favorite food? Crab, sushi
Z. Zodiac sign? Scorpio
Z. Which zoo animal is your favorite? Great cats.
I think I’m long overdue for a set of goals. I really need to tackle some serious crap in my house, so it’s time for one of my fabulous lists:
It’s a short list, but it’s heavy, and I think it’s going to take a lot of work to get there.
Just thought I’d pop on real quick-like and post a little entry.
I got more RAM for my desktop. The difference is night and day! Holy cow! I was running Vista on half a gig of memory, and it took forever to get the poor beast up and running. Like, turn on the computer and watch the better part of a half-hour sitcom before everything came up and IE could finally find my homepage. Not exaggerating. So - mama happy.
I had an epiphany yesterday. I finally understand why Corey prattles on and on and on about crap that he knows I’m not interested in and why I can’t get a word in edgewise in order to change the subject:
He likes to plan things out loud, and I’m conveniently there so that he doesn’t look like he’s talking to himself.
Dad and I are taking a motorcycle trip up to Las Vegas to see my grandfather before he moves off to New Jersey. It’s going to be a hot ride, but I’m very much looking forward to it - the sun in my face, the wind in my hair; it’s a beautiful thing.
I’m gonna I would like to stop using the word “gonna.” Permanently.
I was tagged by Christine for this…
The Rules:
~Link the person(s) who tagged you
~Mention the rules on your blog
~Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
~Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
~Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged
1. I drum my knuckles on doors and walls as I walk by them in public. I don’t know why. It’s just something I do. It doesn’t serve any purpose, and I don’t do it at home.
2. I count when I’m doing some tasks. Again, it doesn’t seem to serve any purpose. I don’t count anything in partictular, I just count. It may stem from my mom telling me, when I was little, that it would take a lifetime to count to one billion. I think I’ve been trying to prove her wrong ever since, although so far, it looks like she was right.
3. Since the first time lice passed through my home, I’ve had a habit of picking at my hair. I can’t help it.
4. I love, adore, and miss my coffee. It does horrible things to my body, like make me shake, loosen my bowels, and make me feel like I’m having a heart attack. Every once in a GREAT while, I indulge, fully knowing the consequences.
5. I pick at my lips. They seem to be in a perpetual state of chappedness. I always make the situation worse because I can’t stop biting at them or picking at them. The dry skin drives me nuts, and I frequently end up with a bloody lip. The collection of chapstick floating around my house does not seem to help much.
6. I have had two children and a hysterectomy. This means that hair now grows in places where it didn’t used to, and I keep a pair of tweezers in the shower to pluck the little buggers out of my skin.
Tada! All done!
This has been a good day. The weather is finally starting to act like summer. Mercedes’s final report card came in the mail - nothing but As and Bs, in SIXTH GRADE! This may not seem like a big deal to some, but 3rd grade was a bad turning point for me, when I started changing schools every couple of months instead of every year or every semester. I like to think that providing a stable, stationary home for my kids has helped them in some long-term, wonderful way.
Mercedes starts her new art class tomorrow, and she also gets to explore some new-found freedom. Because of the sleeping schedule of the grown-ups in the house, I asked her if, instead of coming straight home after school, she would like to walk (3 blocks at most) to the public pool afterwards and hang out there until we wake up. She also has the option of meeting a friend at the nearby park, before going to the pool, for lunch. She’s very excited, and I think the time away from her brother and the watchful eyes of US will be a healthy step for her. I’m sick with worry. LOL. It’s just too easy to picture all the god-awful things that could happen in-between, but I can’t keep her under my thumb forever, and I know that if I don’t start letting her branch out a little, I’m going to have a serious rebellion on my hands. And if I have that, I’ll also have a TYRANT cranky husband on my hands. I’d rather throw myself into a pit of double-edged razor blades.
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