Oh, When I Know You're Watching Out for Me, I Look for What Matters

Stinky and her boyfriend.

Wow, kids. These last few days have kicked my ass in every way possible. It was really good, but that goodness can be tiring and stressful and wonderful and definitely requires some processing time. I will attempt to slowly work my way back into blog land this week. I used Stinky's iTouch to get on Facebook for about 5 minutes on Sunday night, but you can't really do much blog reading or writing with that.

Awwww. I really like Stinky's guy. I think she's finally dating a guy at her level, instead of some "project guy" who she tries to help. I told her from way too many of my own experiences, that you can't make someone a nicer person unless they want to and are willing to work really hard at it. I hope she finally understands that.

Tonight, I'll just talk about Friday and Saturday. I'll cover Coadster's freshman orientation in tomorrow's post. Soooo, Friday was wonderful. I got up and went running. Then Stinky, her boyfriend and I got ready and went to lunch at Panchero's (their choice). We made a quick pit stop to the store to pick up Gatorade and water for the cooler and we were off to Lake McBride.

Stinky's boyfriend told her that his family wasn't very outdoorsy and he had never canoed before. He was worried he wouldn't know what to do. I told him he could ride bitch (maybe not in so many words, though) and Stinky and I would paddle. By the time we were about halfway through, he had an idea how it worked and really wanted to paddle too, but we were in the middle of the lake and I didn't want to have to worry about us tipping the canoe. I told him next time, I'd be happy to let him paddle.

After our canoe ride, we went to the beach and swam and read and did some lying about. The weather was perfect.

In the evening, I worked on my backyard. I had a few branches I wanted to get rid off, so I got the fire pit going and burned a few things. It was all very pleasant in my backyard with the fire and a beer....Until the fire truck pulled up in front of my house. I quickly put the grate on my fire pit and went to see what was up. Two firefighters came to the door and said one of the neighbors ratted me out. They were really apologetic about it. I told them I thought it was weird that the neighbor wouldn't just ask me to put it out. They said that people weren't like that anymore, and shook their heads. They asked me what I was burning and I told them. They asked me if they could come back and check things out. They informed me that my fire pit was regulation and totally fine, but I was only allowed to burn corded wood within city limits and they would have to watch me while I put out the fire. They were pretty funny, because they were both huffing the smoke when I put the fire out. They said with everything being so wet, they hadn't had a good fire in a long time and then on their way out, we talked about how nice it was to sit in front of a fire with a beer on a Summer night. I thanked them and they apologized again and I went inside, because obviouslyly my magic fire show was over.

The beach under sunny skies and pretty puffy clouds.

Saturday started a little later than I would've liked. There was a huge, bad storm that rolled in and the sirens went off around 1 or 2 in the morning. We all rushed to the living room to turn on the TV to see what was going on, but couldn't find anything...Except the worst programs and infomercials I had ever bothered to watch. So, we went back to bed, very, very late.

Saturday was also unbearably hot and humid. I tried to run around 10:30 and it was still miserable. Since Coadster was feeling better, we decided to keep to our original plan of riding bikes to some used book stores. When we were done with that, we stopped by the Dewey Street block party for about a half hour.

Both of the girls were off doing their own things on Saturday night, so I went to the Dublin with G For a quick beer. I had been spending a lot of time with teenagers all week, and needed a little chat with friends. It was a nice mellow night at the bar, and I got home just a little later than I had planned. I did find people to talk about books with and didn't have to hear about any high school drama for at least 2 hours, so it was a double bonus.

Wouldn't It Be Good to be On Your Side. The Grass is Always Greener Over There

Here is my new hot water heater. She isn't really all that pretty, but she has a great personality.

Today was a series of hits and misses. The theme today was gaining and losing and minor annoyances, I suppose.

As you can see, I did get my new hot water heater installed, but it doesn't look like I'll get that extra $100 rebate from the state. I sure wish they had a better system for people to get their rebates, or would somehow figure out that everyone and their second cousin twice removed was going to want a piece of it, because it was so frustrating trying to access the website or the phone number. They were totally overloaded. I tried on and off all day, just to get to a place on the website where I could reserve my rebate. Fat chance. At one point in the afternoon, I got as far as the part on the site where I could enter my information and the minute I hit submit, it kicked me out of the system. Bastards. I don't know who actually was able to access the website in order to overload it, but I'm assuming they were people who didn't have to work during the day and could try every 2 seconds. Again - bastards. By 1:30 when I was finally able to access the site enough to get to the registration and before it kicked me out, I saw that they had already given out all the money and were only putting us on a waiting list. I'm not quite sure what we'll be waiting for. To see if some people have invalid claims? To see if there is more money allotted or maybe they just want to appease us so we don't revolt.

Since it doesn't look like I'll get my rebate, I figured I might try to give plasma to recoup my losses. It would take two weeks of donating to get that money. But, alas. It wasn't meant to be either. After I drove all the way out there and went through the whole rigamarole of questions and tests, it turned out that my crit (iron level) count was one point less than it needed to be. So, I was shut down there and had to drive home with no cash. Wah.

Once I got home, though, things looked up a little. I'm the opposite of those helicopter parents who hover over their kids and do everything for them, because they're sure they won't do it..Or at least won't do it right. So, I've been trying to get Coadster to fill out her financial aid application for a month now. She was good about filling out scholarships and auditioning for money from the school of music, but she really wanted me to do her FAFSA for her. I refused. Believe me, it would have been a lot easier to do it for her, but I'm supposed to be raising her to be independent and self-sufficient, and part of that is being here to help her with any questions she might have, but not do her shit for her. Anyway, of course she waited until the last minute to fill out her paperwork, (this weekend) but she did finally get it done and right now it looks like she'll get a grant to cover much of her tuition. Now, we'll just have to see if she gets any scholarships, before we make the decision to take out loans.

It's Hard Out Here for a Dumb-Ass

This is what one of the plasma people did to my arm. This was taken over a week later and I normally don't bruise very easily. Yowza!

So, this how sad it is to be me: Today I've been obsessing over home improvement websites, as usual. I found some really great instructions on the best way to paint my cupboards. I also saw a glass tile back splash installation how-to article and it seemed pretty inexpensive and simple. (I'm sure I might sing a different song when I actually try to do it myself) Anyway, by the time I got off work, I was all different kinds of excited to get going on my kitchen. On my lunch break, I had made a list of the few things I still needed to get to finish my cupboards. The main thing being non-shrinking wood putty. Hmmmm.

So, Stinky and I braved the slippery, snowy roads and made it to Menards. We found some really pretty alternating light and cobalt blue sheets of glass tile that will look amazing in my kitchen (if I don't fuck it up) and got some more sand paper and sand sponges and other stuff. Then we headed home. At some point, my car hit a patch of ice and we spun-out a little. For someone who's first instinct is always to spaz, I remained pretty calm. Luckily, there was no one behind us. Stinky's face went white and I righted the car and drove on, albeit much more slowly than before. Once I got home and made dinner, I suddenly realized I forgot the putty. So, I braved the elements for nothing. Derrrrr.

And now for something completely different....Coadster made it into the chorus of the school musical. They're doing The Wizard of Oz this year. She's never auditioned before because she normally does two sports in the Spring (soccer and track) and has never had time. Since her soccer coach left, and she's training to run a half-marathon on her own and it's her last year in high school, she figured it might be fun to do something different. So, she auditioned and got cast. Yea Coadster!

Nothing That I Would Not Try

Here is a nest in the top of my lilac bushes.

So, I did something weird tonight....I donated plasma for the first time. As most of you know, I bought a house in November and my mortgage payments are a couple hundred dollars more than my rent was. Then, of course, a month later I found out that we had to take mandatory unpaid days off. Great. All of that left me with very little wiggle room financially. I thought about getting a second job, but then I wouldn't be available to see my girls play sports or perform in anything and I'd probably lose most of my weekends. I decided to check out giving plasma instead. It won't give me a ton more money, and I may not be able to do it every week, but it gives me so much more schedule freedom, and basically I'll get paid to read for an hour.

I originally started the process a month ago, but had a little snag because I have a very slight congenital heart murmur. Doctors can usually only hear it if I alert them to it. When I was 19 and it was first diagnosed, the doctor told me that if I'd been running since I was 10 and never had a problem, not to even worry about it. The plasma people made me go to my doctor, so she could check it out again and give me the okay. Anyway, it was all fine.

A lot of the students who work in my office have given plasma, so they were telling me all the ins and outs of it. They all said that my life would be much easier if I drank lots of water. Because I'm me and I want to make sure I do a thing well, I came in there about as hydrated as a person can be. The only problem with that, is that all that water can affect your crit count. You have to have a certain amount of iron and protein in your blood before they'll allow you to donate. My iron levels were okay, but barely.

The nurse who had to do my health history scored big points with me at first, by saying, "Oh, they must have your birth date wrong." I asked her what they had down and I told her that was correct. Then she said, "Holy cow! I seriously thought you were in your twenties." I thought she might be my new best friend, until we got to the part where she had to feel my stomach for whatever reason and she asked accusingly, "Why are you so skinny?" Huh? For one thing I don't think I'm all that skinny, and for another, how rude. I bet she wouldn't have asked anyone why they were so fat. Anyway, I guess I'll just have to call it a draw and I won't ask her to go have a beer with me after all.

So, since I was so hydrated and my weight put me in the lowest category (which still doesn't mean I'm too skinny) I only had to give the least amount of plasma, and it just took me 33 minutes to donate. The tech people were pretty impressed. I do feel a little weak afterward. Some of it might be that I haven't been sleeping the best this week, but I'm sure it takes something out of a person to have their fluids drained, farmed and given back to them. I'm supposed to go again on Friday, so I'll see how I feel after that.