Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
So, it’s been busy here. I suppose it’s been busy where ever (or when ever) you are.
Christmas came and went; New Years came and went.
We survived.
Did you?
Let me tell you about our December.
Everything was going fine; busy but fine. Presents were thought about (and eventually purchased); baking was in high gear; the house was all decorated and the tree put up.
Then, a Monday. Like most Mondays, it started out in the morning. By afternoon, it was a monster Monday. The Boy had taken the car to school and wanted to get The Girlfriend her Christmas present – not an unreasonable request. I told him he could go to the mall and come right back home as I needed the car later in the afternoon. About ten minutes later, he called again. This time he said something that didn’t quite register.
“Mom, I was in a car accident. I’m fine, I called the police and they are here now. I have to go.”
Hmmmm… what was that? I was sideswiped – it took a few minutes for me to get my brain to wrap around what he just told me.
Long story short – he slide on some black ice, took out a telephone pole, had to go to the emergency room as I could not get to him without my car, the car got towed, The Hubby & I were worried and scared at the same time. After we got to the hospital and saw he was fine, we went to the auto shop where the car had been towed. The car was not so fine.
We’re up to 12K in damages and looking at the end of January before it is ready.
Yeah, exciting, huh?
And you haven’t even heard what happened the Monday after that!
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Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Today is Freedom Day. Not freedom from taxation, but something almost as good.
Freedom from Braces. The Boy is Free From His Braces.
Yippee!!
It seems soooo loooonnnngggg ago he got them on. It was three or four decades years ago, when he was just a cute little pre-teen. And now, he’s a full fledged teen, complete with straight teeth.
How we both hated going to those appointments. He hated wearing the rubber bands (which might explain why it took soooo looooonnnnnggggg to be done with them). I hated seeing the rubber bands everywhere – the tv room, the bedroom floor, the bathroom, the laundry.
But today, he is FREE.
And to make the day even sweeter, he got to drive to the appointment by himself. Yes, world, The Boy has his drivers license. Ordinarily, a parent might be tempted to tell the world to watch out for their new driver, implying this new driver has no skills and ought to be locked up instead of allowed to drive. You will hear no such thing from this parent. My kid went to Drivers Ed. My kid drove with a licensed instructor for four hours, practicing onramps, traffic flow, parking, backing up, etc. My kid drove ME everywhere (but not crazy) while he had his permit. He GOT UP all by himself for school just so he could drive in while he had his permit. He was willing to go almost anywhere so he could practice driving.
He took his test and passed on the first try – no repeat of the test needed.
And off he went. He’s been going to friend’s houses, The Girlfriend’s house, school, the store … he even picked up dinner for me and The Hubby a few times.
Freedom is freakin’ awesome!
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Saturday, October 17th, 2009
This is not like, a dream I am aspiring to – I want to make that clear. This is just a dream I had last night, and like most dreams, you may wonder what it means, but it is just a dream.
I was sitting in the back seat of the car. I believe The Hubby was driving and The Boy was sitting next to me. But I also had a bundle in my lap – a wiggling little bundle, that when it wiggled around to face me, showed me his beautiful little baby face. You parents out there know what I mean – the absolute beauty and joy of a baby’s face looking at yours, recognizing you, stopping and staring at you.
Now, in reality, that baby of mine would be in a car seat, no matter how young he was. But this is a dream, and in dreams the rules of reality don’t necessarily apply. We were driving on the road, and I just had this little guy wrapped up in a blanket on my lap. He started to wiggle some more, turning his body towards mine, as if he was looking for something. Instinct kicked in for both of us; I lifted up my shirt and he started to nurse.
What almost woke me up out of the dream was the overwhelming sense of joy and peace when he latched on. It startle me with such a jolt – I truly hadn’t expected to feel that. But I pulled myself back into the dream to continue to nurse him, to see his eyes look up at me and to smile at me.
But…reality interrupted. I heard some little girl throwing a temper tantrum. It got louder and louder until I was fully awake and realized the tv was still on. I’ve never seen it, but I am pretty sure it was The Little Princess. Don’t ask me what it was doing on at 2 in morning – I’m not in charge of scheduling on Starz. I started to watch it a bit of it (I was awake, remember) and thought to myself, I really have no interest in this movie, I’d rather go finish my dream.
So I snuggled back into my comfy flannel sheets and fluffy comforter and closed my eyes. It doesn’t ususally work, but sometimes I can get back into a dream. Tonight it worked, although not for long.
I was back in the car, although the baby was done nursing. We were still driving, and he was still in my lap. Suddenly there was gun shots fired into the car (great way to get back in the dream, right?) I dove to the floor of the car, trying to protect the baby. I wondered where the driver and passenger (the ones I assumed where The Hubby and The Boy) were… because I was alone in the car with the baby.
After that little scene, I have no recollection of what happened. I don’t know if I woke up and lost the dream, or if it just stopped there, or if it kept going and I just don’t recall it.
But I still remember that amazing sense of joy when the baby first latched on. But it is just a dream, not the kind of dream I am trying to make reality. I am definitely done with having babies. The Boy just turned 16 this summer – to have 17 years between siblings is too much. I am done with diapers and midnight feedings and teething, but that also means I am done with holding a baby, breathing him in and holding him close.
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Thursday, August 27th, 2009
From our trip to Denver -
We went to the Whole Foods across the street from my mother in law’s house. It was the first time I’d ever been in one. The Boy laughed, well, his ass off at this. He saw the bottles on the top row at such an angle that all he saw was “ass”. He couldn’t figure out how they bottled it!
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Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
So we are traveling to Denver (actually, Salida), CO for a family vacation. And because we like to be challenged, we are driving there. Nothing like a road trip to bond the family together, I guess!
I am going to post all of this after we get home, so bear with me on this.
We left CT on Wednesday night; drove into Milton, PA and slept. Up several hours later and continued through PA, OH, and then the I states – Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Thursday night was a hotel in Des Moines. And Friday morning (today for me as I write this), we take off for our final destination. It’s going to take about 12 driving hours to get to Salida from here.
Saturday is my sister in law’s wedding, which was the whole reason we came out. I’ve already gotten a little emotional thinking about it, so I made sure The Hubby will have a handkerchief for me when I start to tear up at the actual wedding. We will get to see a whole bunch of The Hubby’s family – some I have never met, some I met once or twice over 20 years ago, and some I actually know (like his mom and sisters).
The driving setup has apparently evolved over the years. Now, generally speaking, The Hubby drives, The Boy sits in the front and I sit in the back. This works out best for our “car sickness”. Not that anyone really gets sick, but everyone is best suited to those seats. I took a turn driving on Thursday for a few hours, and because I am so short, the seat has to be pretty close to the wheel. That, in turn, gives the person in the back a TON of leg room. So The Hubby sat back there and did some work and generally relaxed for a few hours.
After we got past Chicagoland, The Hubby pulled over and let The Boy drive. It was his first experience with highway driving, and other than being a bit challenged on the onramp, he did just fine. We may not have him drive today as we are pressed for time (sort of), but on the way back it will be flat and straight for miles and miles as we head to Kansas, so I suspect he will get tons of time practicing then.
Well, it is 6:30 am and time to start getting on the road. Happy trails!
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Friday, August 7th, 2009
Somewhere else… probably stuck in someone’s hard drive or the internets or something.
Life has been very busy and there hasn’t been to much time for posting. We took a trip to Denver (details will be forthcoming – it was an interesting trip) and of course, after a vacation, you come home to a mountain of laundry and work to catch up on.
That was my main goal this week – to get caught up on work stuff. It turns out both my bosses took this week off, so I had a great start in getting dug out of the paperwork hell I was in. I had piles and piles and piles (literally – I had three piles) of paperwork to double check was entered in the computer and then scan and then file. I completed pile #1 on Monday. On Tuesday I completed an online project (so I could work from the bedroom and clean up 15 episodes of General Hospital). On Wednesday I completed pile #2. Thursday – not so productive.
I went to tai chi class – something I haven’t been able to do for the last six weeks. It felt good, but man, am I out of practice! Then, I did some work for the three guys who hadn’t gone on vacation, and I must admit, I probably goofed off a bit as well. So, not a real productive day, but – hey – there’s always Friday, right? Plus, The Boy is camping with The Grandparents this weekend, so it’s kinda like he’s back in school or something.
Friday. Ah, sweet, sweet Friday. I started with good intentions. I had four loads of laundry washed and out on the line by noon. The Hubby came home for lunch…but really to pick up his Camaro convertible. Shortly after he left, he called. He had spilled some gas additive on his shoes when he filled up the Camaro. Then he called again… it wasn’t just on his shoes – it was on his socks and pants. I offered to run him up some clean clothes, and he didn’t hesitate to say yes. So… off to his workplace with clean clothes. He had baked a cake (yes, he did all himself!) for his administrative assistant’s birthday, so I stayed for a piece of cake. So, about an hour down the drain there. I was going to head over to the church to pick up some boxes, but one of my guys said he needed a letter asap. So off I go home to take care of that, hoping I could still swing by the church before dinner to get those boxes.
I walk into the office. Everything looked the same… everything looked fine. But it was not fine. Folks, I hate to tell you this, but THE BITCH IS BACK AGAIN. Yes, my laptop pulled the same stunt as last month. It would not start. I almost cried.
But I am a big girl, so instead I called customer service. After a couple of minutes explaining my situation and trying a little troubleshooting over the phone, Diane (very nice Diane at Lenovo) suggested I send it back in to The Depot. I said – what other choice do I have? in that disgusted-I- give- up tone. Well, she said, you DO have another option. I can pass the case to Customer Relations. They are the big guns – the ones that can authorize things such as a new computer. So, after a bit of discussion, I tell her to move me over to Customer Relations.
Now I have to wait 3 to 7 BUSINESS days for them to contact me. The Hubby advises me to just tell them outright to get me a new computer as they clearly can’t … or just aren’t interested… in fixing my computer. I certainly would like a new working laptop. We’ll see what kind of attitude I get when they call.
But for now, once again, I am back on The Hubby’s old desktop, trying to control my bitchiness and deal with it.
UGGHHHHH!!
PS – just to top the day off, there were goat issues at The Grandparent’s place. I now hate goats.
L
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Monday, July 13th, 2009
By the time I post this, it will actually be The Boy’s 16th birthday. But now, as I am writing it, it is just his Birthday Eve.
It’s hard to imagine that sixteen years ago tonight, I was in such pain but so happy about it. There had been a false alarm the week before and all of us were ready to get it over and done with. It was really hot that summer… not much rain and my parents had actually run the well dry (that happened with regularity every summer). I was big and miserable, and anxious to meet the little guy who had been poking me in the ribs for the past few months.
That night, I certainly wasn’t thinking about this night. It is not just Birthday Eve, but it is Driver Permit Eve. Yes, the grand world of driving will be opening up for my little boy. Except, of course, he is no longer little. I can no longer deny that he is growing up, becoming his own person, and getting ready to leave the nest. I still have a few years before college, but with the driver’s license comes the real independence.
Here’s where we all learn if he’s got the skills to get by in life – learning to juggle school, work, fun, relationships, and activities. Here’s where he can fail and still have a safety net.
I’m sure he can do it… he’s a great kid with a pretty good head on his shoulders. He has plans, goals and ambitions. Someone asked me recently what I wanted for him to be when he grew up. My answer was – I want him to be happy and successful, but by his definitions, not by mine.
So that is my birthday wish for The Boy – happiness and success, by his definitions, whatever they may be.
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Friday, July 3rd, 2009
the continuing saga….
I called the computer company on Tuesday. I still hadn’t heard (either by phone or email – both of which was promised to me!) if they had even recieved my computer. So imagine my surprise when the customer service rep told me it was on it’s way back to me and should arrive on Thursday.
I was happy about that, but a bit puzzled by what she said after that. She said that they hadn’t found anything wrong with it – they re-formatted the hard drive and it worked fine. It was a power drain issue that they could have walked me through over the phone. Actually, when I heard that last bit, I wasn’t puzzled…I was pissed. So I had sent my computer out to Texas for no reason? Been working off an external drive on an old desktop so my laptop could “vacation” this summer?
But, I was happy enough that it was on it’s way back to me to overlook, or at least not dwell, on those little questions.
Thursday came… Fed Ex came… I opened the box, put the battery back in, plugged it in and everything was fine. I loaded up about 15 programs and started to relax. I hadn’t gotten to loading up any of my files, but I was ok with that. I wanted to buy a hard drive dock and be able to get some files that had not been backed up onto my external drive. I figured I’d do that over the long weekend and come Monday, it would be like everything always had been.
The Boy had The Girlfriend over for dinner. He actually made dinner for her (and, by extension, us). He decided on a chicken parm dish, so I pulled up the trusty website, A Year of Crockpotting, to come up with just the right approach to the meal. He got up in the morning, made the chicken parm and got it into the crockpot. When she got here around 5, it was ready, so he boiled the water for the pasta and made the garlic bread.
The Hubby and I ate in the bedroom and the kids got the dining room. She was very impressed (I think, anyway!) with the thought that went behind the meal. They were celebrating their six month anniversary, so it was very sweet of him to do this for her.
So after dinner, The Hubby and I hang out in the bedroom, both of on our laptops, happily putzing away the night. It gets to be time to drive The Girlfriend home, so I put the computer into sleep mode and head out.
It’s about 11:30 when I get back, so clearly it’s time for bed… not computing. I woke up around 7:45 this morning and went to turn it on to get the news and my email. Hit the power button… start to hear the sound wave.. then it dies. Hit the power button again.. absolutely nothing this time. I decide not to waste any time and bring the computer upstairs to the office and call the computer company.
So I spend the next 20 or so minutes with my new best friend, Derrick. He tells me that the notes on the account indicate they just reformatted the hard drive and turned it on to verify it worked. And it did. So they sent it back to me. No where was there any note that the tech they sent out to me had put in a new hard drive, seen that it wasn’t a power issue, and recommended a new motherboard. NO WHERE. So, it being a Friday, he can send me a box with a prepaid label, but that wouldn’t even leave Texas until Monday, then take two days to get to me, and then a day to fix it, then two more days to get it back to me. That puts it roughly around Christmas, I think. So I ask if I can send it back myself (I do have a box for it now) just to get this party started quicker. He says that will be fine and will cut down on the turnaround time for me.
So I hustle it over to the UPS Store in town and get it shipped out today, for delivery on Monday by 8:30 am. So my sincere hope is that it will be a WORKING computer, back in my hands by Wednesday at 4:30.
The Bitch is Back, people.
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Sunday, June 28th, 2009
Ok, it’s not as good as the movie “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, but, hey, we don’t live in Roman times with Phil Silvers or Buster Keaton.
We were driving The Girlfriend (yes, The Boy has a steady girl) home last night. Usually it is just me and The Boy on this trip, but The Hubby decided to join us. We dropped off The Girlfriend at her house (about 30 minutes away from our house, by the way) and started our journey back home.
We started to talk about our plans for Sunday and general family chit-chat. Up ahead, we saw some flashing lights from emergency vehicles near the stop light on the divided highway we were on. We get to the stop light, and it is clear that something big is going on just past the curve, but we can’t see it. Soon there are other off-duty emergency personnel showing up (you know, the “regular” cars with the nice blue lights – volunteers on the ambulance corp, etc.) and the best we can do is to stay in our lane and stay out of the way.
It becomes very clear we are not going straight onward… in fact, a police car pulls up and blocks our half of the divided highway. So, we have to decide whether to turn left or right. Turning left, we are 95% sure there is no way home. Turning right, we are 90% sure there is no way home. So, considering the odds, we make the split second decision to turn right and go up the hill.
We follow some other cars up the hill who have made the same decision. But it becomes clear no one knows where to go. The car in front of us puts his blinker on for the first left, and we plan to follow. But instead of turning, he keeps going up the hill. We turn, just as The Boy points out the One Way road sign. So now we are going the wrong way on a one way street, with no idea where we will end up. Very quickly, we see the divided highway below us, with traffic coming up the one way road (in the right direction). So we pull into a driveway and turn around.
Now we have to fight our way to take a left to go back up the hill. Now there is a lot more traffic coming up the hill. We manage to squeeze in, and go up the hill a bit more.
We see several cars put their blinkers on to turn left, and not ones to find our own way, we turned left with the crowd. Quickly we saw traffic turning around in the dead end circle of that street. So, back to the hill we head.
By this time, the GPS has finally found itself and I can plug in “Home” for a destination, careful to press the “avoid freeways” option. We continue down the hill, and miraculously, we know where we are and are free to continue on our journey home.
Of course, that is not the end of the story, my friends.
As we are going down the road, we see the railroad crossing has the arms down and is making its’ merry little tune. There are only a couple of cars ahead of us, so we assume that we got there just as the arms were going down and we would see the train pass us by, and then we could continue on.
Nope.
We sat for four minutes, listening to the ringing bells, warning us of the impending train, but train was to be had. We saw someone in the oncoming lanes actually get out of his car to peer down the tracks. Now we were in the mass exodus of cars turning around to get out of that traffic. We ending up driving by the route we would have taken if our original path hadn’t been interrupted. There was no traffic coming down that road… so clearly something major must have happened.
Now, I don’t mean to imply that whatever accident happened on that road should be taken lightly. I suspect several lives were impacted with the events of the night.
But for our family, it was a night of adventure – full of little missteps and happenstance… a fond family memory.
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Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
No, it’s not the 19th of June that we are celebrating (you silly goose… it’s June 16th today!).
The Hubby and I are celebrating our 19th Wedding Anniversary today. And how are we celebrating, you might ask? Well, I made beef ravoili and garlic bread for dinner, and he is at a golf outing… so, basically we won’t be seeing each other today.
But that is totally ok. He surprised me this morning with an early morning email (posted at 1 a.m.), telling me how much he loved me and how he can’t imagine life without me. Gee, talk about getting me weepy first thing in the morning! (Alright, a little weepy now, too, just writing about it.) So I replied back to him so my email would be the first one he saw this morning on his Blackberry. And I posted on Facebook (before he did!).
This is the last week of school for The Boy. I can’t believe his sophomore year is over. It flew by, what with his Applied Science class and volleyball this spring. His summer is kind of open; the internship we had been hoping for doesn’t seem to be happening. It will give him one last “free” summer, as I expect next summer will be full of college angst and working a summer job for pay.
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