Thursday, February 21, 2008

Reasons why I have an imprint of my steering wheel on my head

I cannot for the life of me understand why exactly I seem to attract the most obnoxiously stupid people in the world. I have been sick lately so my patience is pretty much shot but honestly......what is wrong with these people.
First thing this morning I received a phone call from someone at 7:56 am. Now.....usually I would already be awake but since I have been sick I haven't been sleeping worth a crap and didn't go to bed until 4 am. This phone call was from one of my bosses to ensure that I remembered that NEXT MONTH is when we start calling on certain stores. Yes....I can totally understand why it is necessary to CALL before 8 am to ensure that I know that this is happening as opposed to ....oh I don't know............EMAILING!!!
So I get up and decide that I may as well get something accomplished today. I have a bunch of work to get done because I have been screwing around all week and not getting enough done. I go into the kitchen to get a drink and of course the sink is completely stopped up and there is a sinkful of water and God only knows what else sitting in it. Sigh.
I finally get out of the house and receive a text from Dormouse whining because she forgot her lunch money. Okay...yes I understand that she needs to be responsible and everything but honestly it's not like she ALWAYS does this and shes so damn skinny she can't really afford to skip meals so I run up there to get that done.
Okay...now I can go to work, right? Um.....no. I forgot to pay the damn water bill. Sigh. Okay, no problem. I drive downtown and get in the nifty little drive up line. I never remember how much my water bill is so I just write the check out and round up cause I know it was $8something. So I write it for $90 and put it in the little slot. Ooops....effective yesterday we are no longer allowed to go through the drive thru lane without having your bill on you. SIGH. Alrighty then.....I pull around, park in the parking lot and go inside. There are only two people standing in line and NOBODY at the counter working it. Why, you may be asking? Well, because both of the ladies that were working were working on the DRIVE THRU!!! Eventually, one of the ladies came over and started waiting on the lobby customers. It's finally my turn so I hand her my check and she proceeds to start looking up my account by my name which of course is on the check. She then asks if the account is in my name and I tell her no.......it's in the name that is on the Memo portion of my check. She looks it up again and says "Oh....you are paying too much." "Yes", I tell her, " I generally just get a credit for the next month" Well this confused the crap out of her but finally after asking if this was even possible to the other lady she hands me my receipt. Oops....I have $17.64 worth of credit because apparently it wasnt $8something it was $7something.
At this point and time I decide that it is too much trouble to quit smoking today so I stop at a convenience store and get a pack of cigarettes. The total was $4.77 ( Yes, I know I shouldn't smoke, yes I know that is expensive ...get off my case!!) I actually had cash so I handed the lady $5.02 expecting to get a quarter back. OMG!!!! After trying to patiently explain this to her I finally gave up and took my two dimes and 5 friggin pennies because she couldnt figure it out.
Finally, I was able to go to work where my day got a lot better because I was able to actually, you know...um work. But now I have a headache from banging my head on the steering wheel repeatedly today.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Mental Health Day

Remember how I said that I was scheduling my Nervous Breakdown (and yes....Nervous Breakdowns are that important that they should be capitalized) for the 16th? I decided that I have had enough little mini ones to make up for that and I will not be needing to use a whole Saturday for it. In fact, I decided that I am tired. So I am taking a Mental Health Day.
I went to Cody's meeting this morning. I was there bright and early without the benefit of Starbucks but still managed to keep my sense of humor. I heard about how bright my son was, how well spoken my son was, how funny my son was.......and how lazy my son was. However, I really, really, really like his teacher. It seems that her son acted the same way Cody is acting and he is graduating from MIT this year so there is hope. I told her that I didn't even care at this point if he actually WENT to college....just please oh please graduate! I really like how she makes sure that I know what is going on but doesn't do the blame thing that so many teachers seem to want to do. Yes, I know that I choose to work outside the home (though honestly, I do like to feed him occasionally so having a job does enable that) but, short of standing on his head and following him around to ensure that he has absolutely everything and then actually does it and then TURNS IT IN is pure and total torture. I cannot for the life of me comprehend why in the world a child will whine and complain about actually doing the work and then not even bother turning it in! Sigh.
It is nice and quiet in my house right now...nobody watching tv on the highest setting, no sounds of tv coming from the kids bedrooms, no arguing, no nothing. Just blessed quiet.......well except the cat sneezing and snorting every twelve seconds. But other than that ......silence. I need to take a Mental Health Day more often.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Just another Manic Monday

Have I mentioned how glad I am to be home? Seriously, even though there is the everyday mundane stuff to deal with...cooking, cleaning, chauffering, appointments, work.....doesn't matter. I really missed being home.
I was able to spend the weekend getting my house together and organizing everything for the entire week, so that I can actually get something accomplished. I have noticed that I don't function very well without taking the weekend to organize. If I put it off and try to do it during the week in the mornings before I leave, I get all discombobulated and out of control. I don't know why I even try anymore, I think I am getting too old to be spontaneous. I need strict schedules that do not allow for procatination of any kind.
Tomorrow is the annual meeting with the ARD committee at Cody's school to determine weather or not he still needs some extra help with math. Judging by his grades I would assume this would be a no brainer but he has this laziness issue and "forgets" to turn things in. This is the first meeting that I will have with this school since he switched schools at the beginning of the year. I really liked the counselers and the facilitator at the last school. However, I really like his teacher this year, so I am hoping that everything goes smoothly and they don't take away the extra tutoring. The way it goes right now he gets help during school from the Special Education teacher and has two days a week of tutoring. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Dad was moved to another facility today. His insurance decided that he wasn't making enough progress at the costly rehab that he was in, so he was moved to another facility and hopefully that will help. He informed me while I was up there that he wanted to come down here with us so I have been looking into someplace that will be able to help him. Right now he needs more care than I can possibly give him but that doesn't mean that he will always be like that. Because of other serious issues he cannot live with my brother but if we can get him to the point that he can be somewhat self sufficient then we will have him move in here with us, though we would probably need a bigger place to accomodate wheelchairs or walkers. I spoke to him last night on the phone and apparently he is very serious about coming down here because he asked me about it several times.
It's really weird. I dont have the best relationship in the world with my dad. Never have. I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually spoken to my dad on the phone in the last 5 years. Last night, while talking to him I spent over 30 minutes on the phone with him because he didn't seem to want to hang up. I don't think I spent that much time on the phone with him if you added up all of those phone calls together. In recent months we emailed pretty regularly but that was it. I'm not really sure how to handle this newfound dad thing. I am not stupid, I do realize that right now they only reason that he is wanting so badly to come down here is because I am the lesser of two evils. I'm not saying that my dad doesn't love me, nor me him....because of course I love him, he's my dad. And I am sure that he loves me too. I think part of the problem is that I haven't lived near my family, any part of my family, for almost 20 years (And can I just interject...THANK GOD!) I guess maybe I am a little rusty on this whole family thing. Then there are the complications that have arisen that just make things ugly but somehow, someway, things will work out.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Life Altering

For the past few months I have felt at the end of my rope. I have felt that I was barely hanging on by a thread and this past week has stretched that thread thinner than a pre pregnancy Nicole Richie.

It has been one thing right after another, with each one thing being a little bit worse than the last. And that scares me because I feel that I am sitting here waiting for the next thing to happen and all I am doing is damage control in my life.

I am not living. I am reacting. And I don't like it. I think about the future and what I want from it. I think about it but I am not doing anything to get to it. I am working and freaking out over things that I am unable to control and it has made me incredibly angry. It has also made me incredibly exhausted and run down. Today I could barely keep my eyes open, and this was after sleeping in my own bed for 8 hours straight last night.

I have decided that I have to make some changes. Changes are going to have to be made anyway because of other things going on but I am not working at my best like this and have let way too many things slip through the cracks. I am tired of chasing my tail, so to speak, so changes.....they be coming. As soon as I find my sanity.

It's probably in the clothes hamper, under the dirty clothes.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Southern girls dont drive on ice.

I am a southern girl. I wasn't born a southern girl...in fact, I was born in California. I was raised in Virginia for the first part of my life and after the age of 10 moved to Missouri where I lived to the ripe old age of 18. After leaving Missouri, I moved to Georgia for 8 years and then went on a brief stint to Germany for 2 and a half years. I then moved to Texas where I have been since the begining of 1999.
The point to all of this is that I do NOT do snow. I do not like snow and it does not like me. My brother has not stopped giving me a hard time because in my advanced age I seem to have not only developed night blindness but directional dumbness. The other night, it snowed. It snowed ALOT. Not as much as the people around here were expecting but HEY! I'M FROM TEXAS DAMMIT! CENTRAL TEXAS! WHERE IT DOESN'T SNOW!!!
Anyway, it snowed. And I still tried to make it out to Columbia where my dad was. I drove out there at I70 was fairly clear. Then I took the exit.
Did I mention that I have a rental car? Yes, I have a rental car. I have a rental car that has Florida license plates so I have to assume this is a Florida car. The windshield wiper fluid is FROZEN. The windshield wipers are crap and as I look out over the parking lot where my car sits right now, I swear it shivers. Poor car.
Anyway, back to the story. I got stuck...in Columbia....without my suitcases.....because of snow. How embarrassing is that? I just couldn't see anymore. I couldn't stop sliding all over the streets. And, I couldn't find the damn interstate! So I got a motel.......apparently the only motel in existence that does not have wifi. I found the mall....bought some clothes and toothbrush and toothpaste and holed up all by myself in this little room until morning, when I could see and drive without sliding all over the place.
I wanna go home.