And We're Having Fun, With No Money

The ditch lilies in my backyard are blooming now!

Well, kids. It's been a long night. We had a little electrical problem where we lost juice to about three rooms in my house for at least an hour. With the help of a friend, and getting Stinky to admit to trying to plug in a fan to a particular outlet, I figured it out and fixed the problem. Finally, it was a problem that isn't going to cost a bunch of money to fix. Of course, it means that it's much later than it should be and this will be a short post.

I finally finished my addictive book and I'm going to start reading Frankenstein now. I've heard good things about it.

So, another weekend...I only get the regular 2 days this week. A friend of mine is coming into town tomorrow night. I'm not sure what all we'll do. If the weather holds, we'll try to canoe on Saturday late morning, but I have to be back and ready to hold Coadster's hand when she gets her first tattoo at 3.

Okay. I'm exhausted and I need to get some shut-eye. Nite nite and have a great weekend. How are you all spending it?

Don't Tread on an Ant He's Done Nothing to You

Here is a picture of some daisies I'll be planting in my garden this week. Because I need to see something pretty right now.

Sometimes you have a fine day and the weather is amazing and work isn't all that bad and you spend your 3 o'clock break out on a sunny bench reading your book. Then after work is over, you have a pleasant bike ride home. You run for an hour after taking a couple of days off and you feel amazingly strong on this warm and windy day.

You come in the house and the first thing you hear is, "Mom! I'm gonna puke. LOOK AT THIS!" You are high out of your mind from endorphins, so you try to stay focused. You think your daughter must have the flu and you wonder why she doesn't just get a bowl or go to the bathroom if she feels like she's going to be sick. She points to the kitchen and she says, "Look in there. Gross!"

What you see when you peek into your kitchen is a floor covered in little flying bugs. What the!... You reach under the sink and spray every inch of the floor with Raid. Later, after you check things out on the internets (as suggested by your sister) you realize the bug spray spaz, while quite satisfying, was actually a bad idea. Because the web has instructed you to pick-up one of these creatures, now dripping in poison and look at its wings and its body to see if it is a termite or an ant. They're pretty tough to distinguish. So, you find a few that aren't quite so drenched and put them in a tupperware container. You hope to bring them to a pest control place as early as possible, in order to quell your bad habit of creating bizarre scenarios in your head. If you know the damage of a thing, one way or the other, you are generally much less likely to spaz.

I Think About the Implications of Diving in Too Deep

This isn't the most flattering pic of Coadster, but I love her t-shirt. Also, the USB port is working, but it seems to be making all my pics kind of short and squat for some reason.

Kid's, I'm just exhausted. I got off work, gave plasma, ran some errands, made dinner and it was suddenly 10 o'clock. I'm still not quite sure how that happens. The good thing is that starting this week, I won't be working a full 40 hour work week until some time in August. I only work half days the next three Fridays in a row. I know it's only 4 extra hours, but you'd be amazed what you can do with four hours. It will be so nice for it to be 4:30, when I normally get off work, and I'll have already run my 6 mile route and hopefully have some yard work or kitchen work done.

Right now, though? Right now, I'm going to take my leave and try to rest up. It always seems like that the first time I give plasma during the week, drains (get it?) me the most. Night, night.

But Now it Feels So Strange Out of the Atmospheres

Stinky getting beaned with snowballs by the neighbor kids on her walk home from grade school.

Well, bloody hell, kids. It's been a long night of packing and sorting and cleaning in my world. I know that they say you never know what you've got 'til it's gone, but right now it seems more accurate to say that you never know what you've got 'til you have to pack it and move it. I tackled the huge walk-in closet in the girls' room and to everything I pulled out, someone would say, "Wow. We still have that?" I'm sure that will be even worse after I've had a garage for a couple of years.

I'm at that point where I'd be happy just to toss everything, rather than move it. Luckily, most things are boxed up, so I don't get rid of stuff like this year's tax documents or my high school and college diplomas or the girls' birth certificates.

I think I'm going to ask to take off work a couple of hours early tomorrow, so I can stop by Goodwill and the recycling center, before they close and while it's still light out.

Coadster goes to her dad's tomorrow night and then leaves for All State in Ames on Thursday afternoon, so this is her last night at this house. We've been here for eight years, so it feels kind of weird for all of us. But we're on to a new adventure, and life is always better with a new project and and a new adventure... At least as far as I'm concerned, anyway.

Too Legit to Quit

Here is one of the photos I posted on Craigslist to try and rent my apartment.

Jaysus, Mary and Joseph! It's finally done. That's right, the guy came over tonight and signed the sublease. Sure, I had to eat an extra month of rent to get there, but that's a hell of a lot better than 7 or 8. Now. NOW. I can finally do that thing I've been waiting to do since this whole process started and that is relax and finally enjoy the fruits and trials of homeownership. Ahhhhhhhhhh. In one week from today I will be closing and moving into my home and wearing out a path between my home and Menards. I can't wait....I think.

So, this will be my crazy, busy last push to clean and pack. At least I can see the end of it now.

And, oh yeah. It's the weekend. I almost forgot. I'm sure you won't have to wonder what I'll be doing this weekend. If you need to, see the preceding paragraph. Some of the Dublin girls planned an after work drinks and dinner thing for Friday night, but it starts at 5 and in my world, that's pretty impossible. Instead, I'll hopefully get a run in and then come home and dismantle and pack-up my kitchen.

Saturday there will be some running of errands, and more of that packing stuff. A friend of mine is celebrating her 50th birhtday at the Hilltop tavern and I might try to make it to that for some cheese fries...And to wish her a happy milestone, of course. Then I'm sure I'll meet a friend or two at the Dublin and make an early night of it and clean and pack some more.

Sunday will be more repetitiveness. I will also try to blow off some steam by running as much as I can too.

Soooo, how about you all? Will you be packing, cleaning and sorting? Or will you be packing, cleaning and sorting?

Time Don't Matter to Me

Trying to take a respectable photo with a Yayhoo getting in the way of it.

This weekend was a weird thing...Or maybe I was the weird thing this weekend. I felt structureless for most of it. I've always loved that feeling. When I was a kid I used to pretend there was no time and try to stay up all night and read books or watch old movies and defy it all. As an adult it's not so easy, but this weekend I did my damnedest. I suppose it didn't help that I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife.

Finally getting it right but realizing the top one is more fun.

I did go out for brief periods both nights. The only reason I did was because I had friends in from out of town. Actually, the guy on Friday wasn't a friend, but a friend of a friend. Both of my girls were out doing their own things, so I had exactly two beers and stayed out for a couple of hours.

This particular friend of a friend is also a good friend of that one guy I dated about a year and half ago. I introduced myself to him, and didn't once mention the guy I dated. About five minutes later, he called said guy and came back with the phone and asked me if I wanted to talk to him. Don't you think that's kind of odd? It wasn't a big deal. I don't have a problem with him, it's just that I haven't heard from him for at least six months, so it's not like we're buddies. I would never call the friend of a friend's ex-girlfriend (who I know) and tell her I met her ex and then ask him if she wanted to talk to him. Some boys are just funny.

Some friends taking the bicycle rickshaw home.

Saturday was kind of a bust. I did socialize and saw another guy I knew who was in town from Denver. We had a good talk, but I just really wanted to go home. I was in one of those moods where I wanted to lie around and read my book. Nerd.

Today I did a little of that book reading though. My girls were at their family reunion with their dad, so I had a beautifully structureless day. I woke-up and read and then ran and then went to my friend K.'s house and talked to her for a bit. I did go to the store, so I suppose that was practical. Then I read some more and my daughters didn't get home until almost 10.

I suppose tomorrow will end my wonderful streak. I have plenty of errands to run and things to take care of before we leave for our camping trip on Wednesday. It just helps to slow everything down for a day or two and pretend that there's no time or deadlines or a thousand chores to do every once in a while.

In the End the Path is Clear

As promised, here are the pics from Stinky's day at the Wapello County Fair. She went with her two friends. She said the lion cub beat her with its tail.

Well, kids. My 5 day weekend is officially over now. Wah! I love having all that time. I always say that I'd never get bored if I didn't have to work...At least if I had enough money. I have way too many hobbies and I do love to spend time by myself.

She and her friend's brother rode the camel.

The only thing is, I have no idea if that's really true. I don't think I've been unemployed longer than a month during my entire adult life. Up until a few years ago, it felt like a luxury to only work 40 hours per week. Plus, I've been a parent since I was 26 years old, and we all know what a time suck kids are.

Here she is looking back at her friends.

These five days have been really nice. It's not that I hate my job or anything. It's fine. It's more that I'm not the best time manager in the world. I try to do WAY too many things in a day and can't get through all of them. So, having 8 and 1/2 extra hours, really took away that stress. I was able to balance everything so much better. It was also a huge treat to be free when other businesses were open. I got my car registration renewed, Stinky's social security card ordered, paid my dentist bill, and went to the bank. Weird.

You can tell by how spazzy she is that we share the same DNA, can't you?

I only went out one night during those 5 days. Since it's Summer, it seems there was something to do every night I was off, but I'm such a homebody. I was really happy just to hang out at my house with my girls and eat dinner and watch movies. Especially with Coadster, I am painfully aware that time is very limited, so I try to take it whenever I can get it.

So it is, that I go back to work tomorrow. My house is looking pretty good, most of my errands have been run, I had tons of time with my girls, and many miles were run. I guess I can handle working four more days until the next weekend.

I Might Be Great Tomorrow, But Hopeless Yesterday

Here is Coadster doing more gabbing than stretching before her run today.

Don't worry. I know you're just as sick as I am of listening to me whine about how busy I am, and how I just need a day to rest, or a good swift kick in the ass, or whatever the hell else I'm always yammering about. The good news is that this should be my last REALLY busy week for a while. Hopefully, after that I'll have a little more time to try to process things and maybe actually write a halfway thought out blog post that's more than just me listing off all the bullshit I've been doing. The bad news is that you'll have to wait about a week for that.

Stinky wouldn't let me take a photo of her throwing shot, as it's not the most flattering looking activity ever. I totally understand, so I took some pics of her playing with an adorable puppy instead. What could be more flattering than that?

Here is a photo of the puppy getting so excited, he's biting the fence. Awwww.

Today was the girls last track meet. Tomorrow will be the cross town rivalry soccer match. Girls varsity match starts a little later, so I get the luxury of running before I drive over there. Coadster will miss her last select women's choir concert in order to attend the game. Her choir director is apparently not amused. Oops.

I seem to have taken a lot of chain link fence photos today.

This Is one of those weeks where I get to take a half day off on Friday. Of course, it's all eaten up. The second I get off work, I'm supposed to meet my friend Chris and his boyfriend who are in town from New Mexico to get married. Then I'll try to go running before I take Coadster and Stinky out to dinner for Coadster's 17th birthday. Yeah, 17th. How the hell did that happen? It still sounds weird to me.

Okay, I suppose that's enough rambling about all the crap I did and will do in the next couple of days. But you know as soon as things slow down, I'll have all kinds of time to process all the nothing I'll be doing. Sweet.

I Don't Know How to Tell You All Just How Crazy This Life Feels

Here is a picture of a parking meter and a drainage pipe up against the Bluebird cafe/diner/whatevethehellit'scalled.

Ah, hell, kids. Is this week almost over yet? Didn't I call it yesterday? Remember when I said my head might explode? Well, I think it did a little, but on the inside. Where no one can really tell...From a distance anyway.

There was all this schedule finagling that was supposed to happen. My ex was going to the soccer game at the school outside of Cedar Rapids to pick-up Coadster to get her back in time for her jazz choir concert thingy because I don't get home from work until 5. Then I was going to take it from there. It was going to be kind of nice, because I would have time to get a run in before the other running. Then right before I was ready, I got a call from the ex to say that his car had broken down somewhere in North Liberty and I would have to pick up Coadster.

So, I went and as you all well know, I have no sense of direction. I took one little wrong turn and then figured it out. Meanwhile, Coadster was trying to figure out what was going on, and called her dad, who's cell phone ran out of minutes so he couldn't answer, and me, who was driving on the interstate and couldn't hear the phone I probably wouldn't answer anyway while I was driving. Coadster started to spaz that maybe I was hurt or in an accident. When I finally made it to the school, which is much more like some weird compound of several grade, middle and high schools, Coadster was crying. I calmed her down and we figured out where the hell she was and where the hell I was and we finally got it right. Whew!

Needless to say, I am beat like a rug, and not at all at the top of my game, so I won't be cutting anyone with my sharp wit at any point in this post...Then I guess it's like every other post I write.

The good thing is that I gave myself a another half day tomorrow. I will have FOUR WHOLE HOURS to myself tomorrow. Yes, that needed to be all in caps. That's how much of a big deal it is to me. The difference between this week and last week, is that this week I have no plans whatsoever. I am up for anything, and then again nothing. The only thing I'm planning for is my six mile run tomorrow. It's supposed to be 70 degrees and I really need to experience the meditative benefits of running. I can't wait to have at least an hour with me and my iPod and the sidewalk and not being asked one single question that entire time. How lovely!

What kind of loveliness will you be experiencing this weekend?

It's a Hard Life to Live, But it Give's Back What You Give

I'm posting photos of signs tonight. Here is my girl crush and her hubby, personifying the sign behind them.

So, the rest of this past weekend, I gave myself another "Get out of Jail Free" card. I had a long, stressful week, and a crazy night on Friday, and I was in dire need of some rest. Sure, I did the usual running of teens hither and thither, but other than that, I rested. I took naps and finally watched 3:10 to Yuma. I really liked it.

My girls went to the neighbor's for their movie watching extravaganza until 11:30. I received texts from a couple of people asking me to meet them out, but I was really happy on my couch. So, I sat and tried to recuperate.

It must have been too little too late, because I woke up on Sunday with a migraine. I wasn't surprised I got one, with all the stress. I was just happy it waited until I didn't have a ton of stuff to do.

Here is a homeless guy. Don't worry, I gave him money for taking his picture.

Which leaves us to this week. I'm back to cleaning for an hour a night, since I was negligent with it this weekend. If I actually spend that hour a day, it works pretty well at catching me up. The big constraint, as usual, is time. Tomorrow is the girls' first track meet, and I think there are a few other things going on throughout the week. Plus, this is the first week in a while that I haven't given myself even a little vacation time. I guess, I'll get off a half hour early tomorrow to get a cavity filled, but that so doesn't count.

I'm just going to try really hard to remember to go slow and steady and not to stress. That shouldn't be too hard, should it?