What a Frickin' Day!

I got up a little later than I wanted, especially on mornings I need to go to court for my Externship, but I balanced things out without washing my hair. It was all good, because I washed it yesterday morning plus it was pouring outside with a nice wind blowing things around. I got on the road earlier than lately and then it happened...traffic!

The expressway I take to get into downtown is the same whether I'm going to work, school or my Externship. For months now there has been a lane closed going over the great big bridge. So can someone explain to me why, even months later, there remains a traffic jam south of the lane closure every single day? Once you do that can you then explain to me why this morning traffic came to a crawl 6 miles before the lane closure? And even on a normal day that crawl begins between 3 and 5 miles before the lane closure. WHY?!?

I make it to the courthouse and today would be my first day using my new found...er...obtained badge. This allowed me to go through the "attorney" line without feeling like I was committing a crime or something. I was so excited! So when I finally got up there I asked the deputy if I needed to put my badge in a little bowl to go through the metal detector. She looked at me like I was crazy! She then told me to just put it in my bag. I wanted to ask her if she maybe wanted to see it. Apparently she didn't care and the line was backed up behind me, plus I was running a few minutes late so I just moved forward.

Of course ever since I purchased my two new bras I now trigger all metal detectors. I don't know why...maybe it is because they are better bras and the underwire is stronger. I don't know, but apparently this gives every single metal detector screener grief. They wand me and it never fails that the stupid thing goes off on my ankles not my bra, but the only thing different on me going through now is the bra. I can't explain this. Regardless if I'm going to see my guy or if I'm going into court I now set off the metal detectors. Crazy if you ask me!

I get upstairs and of course the two defense attorneys are running late, but I'm always so happy that the our client and the co-defendant are always there. On time! Such good boys! I was so excited to bring this trial to a conclusion today. I've enjoyed it, but there is no reason why this 1.5 day trial should be on week #3 and into day #3. We go through the morning, call our 3 witnesses and then it is Co-Defense Counsel's turn. Apparently he did have a stroke because the fool put his client on the stand!! This was such a bad move! Both us and he had everything we both need for our closing and to give reasonable doubt. After hearing that crazy testimony I don't think it bodes well. There is still reasonable doubt to be had, but placing a defendant on the stand can certain swing things against you.

Close to noon everyone rested and the prosecutor inquired about a stipulation. The attorney I'm shadowing wanted to inquire as to how the stipulation would be worded before she agreed to it. Apparently this upset the very easily-irritable judge, because instead of letting this get worked out, potentially over a lunch break, and coming back to give closing arguments he opts to dismiss the jury for the rest of the day and we can all show back up tomorrow at 9am. Are you kidding me??!!??

Even though I didn't want to I opted to head over to work to get some stuff done and more importantly to be able to return tomorrow. Finally at 7:30pm I left work...exhausted and irritated. I got tons done, but this current project I'm working on does not appear to have an end in sight. It is due by the end of the month...

Hopefully tomorrow will bring a conclusion to our trial and more importantly we will get a quick verdict and that would be a not guilty verdict!

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36

Just getting started: 11, 13, 14, 15, 19, 30, 32, 37, 38

Needs attention: 8*, 12, 16, 17, 18

*~~I still mention this because I'm still pissed off from last Saturday. Just saying...

A Week In Review

So, last Sunday night I started with a crazy little cough. I really thought it was my allergies acting up due to all of the rain and wind we've been experiencing. I soon learned that it wasn't just my allergies. Monday I hacked my way through work and then onto Urgent Care. By 7:30pm that night I was diagnosed with (another) sinus infection and an upper respiratory infection, had (re) started my antibiotics, and was already sound asleep!

Tuesday morning I got up at 5:40am, called into work and went back to bed. I got up again at 11:30am. Yes, 16 hours after I originally went to bed! I ate, emailed my laid-back Prof. about class that night and as soon as he responded saying that I was excused from attending my butt was back in bed by 2:30pm. I got up around 8:00pm that night and went back to bed by 10:30pm. Wednesday morning I called in again at quarter till 6am and didn't get up until 10:30am that morning after I talked with my guy and he told me I needed to get some fresh air to start feeling better. I was in complete agreement so after I got up I stripped my bed and lysol'd my room. I think did my laundry, picked up the house and got ready to go to class that night...I didn't want to push my luck.

Thursday I returned to work, but still felt pretty crappy. After work I went to my last S&L class and then picked up taco bell for the munchkin, aunt & I for dinner. When I walked through the door with dinner my aunt tells me that my bro is in the ER with what they think could be a broken jaw. WTF?!? This is where things really started to heat up this week! We were told how his manager sent him out to deal with a drug-dealing trucker and to tell him to leave and the guy hit him and took off into the woods. So I bbm his ol' lady and she starts going on how he is going to get fired because OSHA won't take his urine sample because they didn't collect it and the hospital gave him pain killers, etc. My mom is at their house with the 2 boys and the ol' lady is at the ER w/bro. In an effort to help I call my other aunt and we go to the hospital to get bro's keys and get his truck from work to his house. This was partly done, because I suspected that the two of them would be stupid enough to attempt to get the truck home upon bro's release regardless of the amount of drugs in his system.

We arrive at the hospital upon ignoring his ol' lady's bbm telling us there wasn't a need to be there. We walked into his ER room and were instantly hit with a wall of hostility. There was only one person in the room, his ol' lady. To say that she was hostile and rude to us is an understatement. I have never been treated with such disrespect by a family member in my life! After my bro returned to his room from radiology she threatened to go home so we could carry on with our party. Huh?!? Bitch, are you high?!? After constant unacceptable disrespect, I snapped. I fired back that I just came to help and obviously I'm harming so I took my bro's key and walked out of the hospital with my aunt. We went to bro's work, talked to his boss and the co-worker that was with bro when this went down. This is where we got the true account of what happened and it was just as we suspected...my idiot bro was his typical hot-headed self, confronted said drug-dealer against his manager's wishes and wouldn't let the man leave the premises while they waited for the police to show up. Dude pushed bro, bro pushed back, dude decked bro and according to his boss, bro got his ass whooped.

Well, Thursday night I finally got home around 11:30pm still pissed off. In an effort to unwind I decided to work on my TIVO backlog and started watching the Grey's Anatomy season finale. OMG!!!! Nine minutes in I was standing in the middle of my living room with my mouth wide open! Needless to say it did not help me unwind! Did anyone else see that???? I went to bed around 1:15am. I was still wide awake at 2:30am. Still pissed off about how we were treated hours earlier, so I rolled over, deleted both of them from bbm on my phone and rolled back over. I finally fell asleep sometime after 3am...

My ass was exhausted come Friday morning at work! I pushed through, got lots of stuff done at work and then made my way out to see my guy. :) I hit two hiccups on the way out there. The first one actually developed at lunch with a co-worker. The entire time we were at lunch I kept catching her looking at my boobs! It got to the point that I wanted to ask WTH?!? Instead I started to get the feeling that maybe you could see my green bra through my top so in a panic I decided to stop on my way out to see my guy and pick up a new bra! I just didn't want to relive the designer hole incident. The second hiccup was the frickin' rain! It has been raining off and on for days here. And when I say rain...I mean downpours! Thunder and lightening were in tow, of course. At one point I was driving 35mph in a 70mph speed zone. But it was all worth it to get those 2 hours with him. :) After my shitty week I really needed those 2 hours of down time... Needless to say I slept like a baby last night...

Consider it done: 1, 2, 15, 27*, 28*

Just getting started: 12, 13, 14

Needs attention: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36

*~~Well, I decided not to cancel and reschedule, so I've been waxed and facialized.**

**~~Yes, I know that isn't a word, but I like how it sounds so I'll be keeping it! :)

A Little Organizing Going On From Time To Time

In the last couple of months, I've continued what I started here. In an effort to clean out and organize a few areas in my life and home I organized and cleaned out two more areas. My panties drawer and under the master bath sink. Both of these areas came to my attention by way of chance.

Several weeks ago while doing laundry and putting my clothes away I came to discover that I couldn't stick any more underwear in my drawer! Crazy, isn't it?! When I did my bi-annual shopping trip last October, I picked up some new panties. Not only because it was fun, but because I was in serious need of smaller ones! (Yay! If only I could say I could use smaller ones again would I be super happy!) I opted to purchase them a couple sizes smaller than the pants I bought, but I failed to throw out any of my old ones at that time. So when I couldn't fit all of them in the drawer, I decided it was time to throw some underwear out! I ended up throwing out 29 pairs of underwear! Yes, I said that correctly~~29!!! I left myself 13 pairs. Who the heck needs 42 pairs of underwear at one time??? Needless to say, I definitely needed to clean this drawer out. It was like its own little country or fire hazard!

Next came a few weeks later when looking for something in the bathroom. One minute I'm looking for something, the next minute my mom is ridiculing me for having hair dye that is older than my munchkin (he'll be 8 in June!) under my sink! Before I knew it, I was cleaning out and reorganizing the area under my master bath sink! Six boxes of hair dye were tossed out and eight cosmetic bags were removed and relocated to be used for future gifts. Apparently every time my makeup brand has a sale that includes that "free" bag with little goodies in it I am in need of makeup and am a sucker and get that "free" bag for $29.95!

Can anyone guess what the chicks in my family are getting for Christmas this year?! LOL

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 29, 30

Just getting started: 8, 25, 27, 28

Needs attention: 9, 10, 15, 21, 24, 26*

*~~Obviously this is not the organizing I need to do to stop feeling all out of sorts lately! Go figure!

An Uncontrollable Swearing Lazy Student With Irreversible Bra Problems

Well, I made it to 9am before I swore yesterday. I think. What I mean is that I know I swore at 9am, but I don't think I swore before then, but I'm not sure! We had a meeting scheduled from 9am-1pm and two of my co-workers were able to get out of it, so on my way to the meeting I popped into one of the co-workers' offices and told her she was a lucky b! It came out so easily, of course! Then I told her, "Look at what you made me do!! I gave up swearing for Lent, so let me rephrase~you lucky girl!" We laughed, I went on to my meeting and suffered for the next 4 hours. It totally sucked!

Of course working on my SADO homework until 3am Tuesday night and not even touching the assignment I had to turn in by 5pm did not help me. I don't know if being uber tired or the fact that I had to draft my statement of facts before class was more distracting. So after the meeting I worked on getting through more of my client's 1,500 file and threw together something that had the title "Statement of Facts" on it. I emailed it at 4:30pm and off to class I went. I feel like I'm turning in stuff that isn't even worth of being printed out, let alone being a completed assignment.

After class while a couple of us remained a conversation started with Prof. Fergie. It revolved around a student who opted to drop the class the day before, but failed to let her know. She then went on to tell us how the thing she can't stand is a lazy student and continued to expound on her feelings about this...of course the entire time she was staring at me...perfect eye contact. Nothing like being subtle, huh?!? She did conclude how a lazy student really has to prove something to her and show her something spectacular to bail themselves out. Does anyone need to guess what I'll be doing next week? Yup, you've got it...doing something spectacular to bail myself out.

I guess I should have known yesterday was going to be a challenge when I was getting dressed and couldn't figure out why I was having such difficulty putting my bra on. Apparently they are not reversible...who knew!?! I do now...

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20

Just getting started: 7, 16

Needs attention: 11

Pictures of my pile of papers & the end result...

Holy shit! What a mess. This is 10 months of stuff...

Do you see my panties? I couldn't even put my underwear in the drawer due to this mess!

A little progress has been made...

Here is the result...

Look at this...it totally rocks!! I'm so happy I've accomplished and this kept it up...

These are now gone too...

And this is all that is left these days, minus the gym bag on top, because I carry that in my car. Just in case, ya know! ;)

Recap

I've accomplished more this weekend than I anticipated! Yay me! :D Just a quick recap...

Done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 & 12!! Look at me go!

Yes, I finally got all of my papers filled! Woo-hoo!! Pictures will follow in the future to see what I was up against and the progress I made. Of course now I have 5 boxes sitting in my bedroom! 3 need to go to my aunt's basement...along with the 3.5 foot stack of books from my last two semesters! But hey...I can see my dresser top again and put my underwear in the drawer. LOL

I guess I would have to say I kind of accomplished #14 too since I took a nice little 1.5 hour nap this afternoon. So I'm counting that accomplished to! That only leaves 3 things on my list to do...7, 11, & 13.

Remaining hopeful for a great week this week...for all of us!!

I need boy-shorts too

I'm preparing to go and see my man. I actually leave in 13 hours. I'm working 4 hours tomorrow and then leave straight from there. I should actually be packing instead of searching the internet, but I cannot help myself. Since I had to throw one of my 3 pairs of jeans out last Friday I had to stop and pick up a pair or two (or 4) of new jeans last night. And then it happened....I found boy shorts in my size!!!! If you aren't challenged by being plus-sized you probably wouldn't understand the difficulty of this task!

I have heard about boy shorts, seen boy shorts and feel in love with boy shorts only to be sadden every time I went shopping for new underwear because my stores never had boy shorts. But alas...the time has come and finally I get to buy boy shorts. I was so excited to get up this morning and put a pair of new underwear on...my boy shorts. Then it happened...the bottom fell out of my excitement when I tried to insert my daily pantyliner in my boy shorts...NOTHING STICKS TO THEM!

WTF?!?

Absolutely nothing seems to stick to my new boy shorts. Apparently, when you have something that is 95% nylon & 5% spandex nothing sticks to it. I cannot go without my pantyliner...I've been wearing them for almost 20 years!! I feel totally naked without one! I spent the day in my boy shorts with a non stuck pantyliner in place and loved the feel of my new panties, but not the fear that my pantyliner might be falling out.

I've came up with a little plan to see if I could make it work with double sided fabric tape. Yes, I've became desperate to make my boy shorts work, but I have also started searching for plus-size cotton boy shorts as I hate the thought of having to tape my pantyliner in every morning! But I also hate the idea of giving up my boy shorts too...

No need to worry though...I shall overcome this obstacle too!

The blue dot, a red bra and the plastic bag

Whatever would these things have in common? Well, they are signs that my cleaning lady is getting worse and worse...

Let me go back to the beginning so you don't think I'm a complete spoiled brat! LOL When I decided to go back to school I knew I would need help at home with my munchkin and the house, so I originally asked/offered the job to my mom. She would clean my house once a week, plus get the munchkin on the bus for $50/wk. Then she feel in my shower and broke her shoulder. Since I wasn't in school for the summer, it was okay and the house was no problem. By the time school came around again she was okay enough to start cleaning again. But then she was scheduled for surgery that January and actually in December stopped cleaning. I knew my neighbor was cleaning some other houses and they were really in need of some financial assistance, so I offered her the job and she took it!

I think I thought things would be great, because she was always going on about how often she cleaned and how particular she was with her cleaning. She was even nice enough to clean my house on Christmas Eve that year because she needed the money and I was having the family over for Christmas dinner. So our relationship went from being just friends and neighbors to being employee/employer.

Well, things seemed great in the beginning but quickly went down hill. After maybe six months or longer I came to realize that she wasn't moving anything and dusting around things. If my son's playroom was out of order at all she would refuse to vacuum in there. Then I figured out that she was cleaning my entire house with one rag. I'm not sure about you, but with a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, and an almost 1,200 square foot home when I would clean I used more than one rag. Then my aunt pointed out to me that she was the one having to wipe off the TV screen weekly because no one else was doing it.

So I came to the decision that I was going to have to let her go soon...this came a realization in December, especially when a co-worker gave me the name and number of an alternate person to clean my house. She said she is really good and cheap too. I never got to make that call in December because my current lady's, who is no longer my neighbor but is still a friend, daughter came over to give me a picture of her baby and told me that her mom had been really, really down lately. I told her I was aware that her mom had been depressed lately and she confirmed that she feared that her mom was suicidal. I found this scary because a couple times my friend had called and said there were a couple times she thought of calling me because she was at her wit's end and had thought about ending it all.

I knew after having this information confirmed and with the economic downturn that I couldn't make that call to my friend telling her I no longer needed her services. :( I just didn't want that on my hands if she decided to do anything, especially since she wouldn't take any of my advice or suggestions and go and talk to a professional. So I decided to take her down to every 2 weeks instead of every week and she told me they were using my $50 every other week to file bankruptcy because they were so far behind financially. So I thought maybe once I confirmed she filed her BK I would move her down to once a month during the summer since I could clean once I'm done with school and then call the new lady and see how she was and maybe in the fall alternate them and eventually let my original lady go.

Then I discovered something today and I have changed my eventual plan... Two times I've tested my cleaning lady. Not intentionally, but when I would see something I would leave it there to see if and when it would get taken care of. One time I noticed that my blue shampoo had splashed a small little dab up on the side wall of my shower. It wasn't noticeable if you just looked at the shower, but if you were cleaning the tub and the shower you would definitely see it. 6 weeks later I took care of it myself. A few weeks ago I noticed something on the floor at the edge of my bed...my red bra. It was between my bed and the foot board under one of my decorative pillows that don't always make it up on my bed during the week. Well, I picked it up this weekend while I was doing laundry so I could wash it. Needless to say...the pillow and the bra were never picked up from the floor. I find it really ironic since she never has to make my bed but I did expect she had been dusting and using pledge on my oak bed...well, I hoped she was but I kind of thought some time ago that she hadn't been using pledge on any of my wood since we used it some time ago and placed a dusting rag on top of the canister, which has never moved since.

Then I found the final thing that kind of sealed the fate of my cleaning lady dilemma. As I was putting paper products away this weekend after shopping something feel on the floor in my bathroom closet where I keep all of my cleaning supplies and paper products. It was the bag that went over the end of my mop, which I purchased months and months ago when my other mop broke, along with the zip-tie that fastened the bag to the mop. Apparently when my cleaning lady unwrapped the mop she didn't feel compelled to throw out the plastic bag and instead left it balled up on one of my shelves in my bathroom closet...

So after the blue dot, a red bra and the plastic bag I know what I will need to do this summer while I'm off school...I'm hoping that their BK has been filed so I will feel less bad.

That isn't an excuse

After a pretty great day at work today and before I went to the gym I opted to exchange two pair of workout pants I purchased a couple weeks back before I went up to see my guy.  So I go to the store and say I want to exchange these 2 pairs of pants for a different size.  I'm told it is no problem by clerk #1 and to shop around.  So I find replacement pants, grab two pairs of panties (okay, not really panties...more like stuff 'em and see how much that girdle like contraption can hold!) and go to the counter.  

Clerk #1 is gone and clerk #2 begins cashing me out.  The conversation goes like this:

#2:  Are you a perks member?

j'lynn:  Yes.

#2:  Where did you become a perks member?

j'lynn:  Here.

#2:  Do you know when?

j'lynn:  No

#2:  $84.13

j'lynn:  For two pairs of underwear?

#2:  And your pants.

j'lynn:  I'm exchanging them.

#2:  Yes, but the new pants are more.

j'lynn:  They are the same pants.

#2:  Yes.

j'lynn:  They went up because of supply & demand??

#2:  No.  They are the same price as what you paid for them before.

j'lynn:  And I'm exchanging them.

#2:  Yes.

j'lynn:  And I owe $84.13???

#2:  Yes.  

****after some clarification I was advised that I was only getting $15 back per pair of pants that I was returning.  When I inquired why I was told it was because I didn't have the correct receipt****  

j'lynn:  But the other clerk told me it wasn't an issue.

#2:  I don't know.  This isn't my normal store.  Sorry.

j'lynn:  Can you hold the two new pair?

#2:  No.

j'lynn:  Huh?

#2:  No, we can't.

j'lynn:  Great.  They are the last two in that size.

#2:  I'm sorry, this isn't my normal store.

**Yup, heard you the first time!**

So I decide that I want the two new pairs, so I told her I wanted the new pants and the old pants because I know I have the receipt, I just grabbed the wrong one.  So now my bill was an additional $30.  :(  Then I asked the tell-tale question..."Is that with my perks?"

...

#2:  You aren't a perks member.

j'lynn:  Yes I am.

#2:  Nope.  I can't find you.

j'lynn:  Look me up with my phone number.  That is what everyone else here does.

#2:  This isn't my normal store.

j'lynn:  Okay.

#2:  Your perks expired back in 2007.

j'lynn:  So you mean to tell me that in the last 2 years everytime I shopped I wasn't getting my perks rewards?

#2:  This isn't my normal store, sorry.  (WTF?!?)

j'lynn:  Why wouldn't someone say, 'Oh, I'm sorry, your perks membership expired.  Would you like to reactivate it?'

#2:  I'm really sorry.  This isn't my normal store.

Repeating "This isn't my normal store."  isn't an excuse!!! It doesn't answer several questions when they are all different on different subject matters...   So tomorrow when someone asks me something I'm just going to keep repeating, "This isn't my normal store." How well do you think this is going to work?

My man...

I actually need to combine the last two days in to one post because I missed being sweet on my man yesterday & today.  :D

Monday morning when my man called as we were talking and flirting with one another the best you can while someone is always listening to the call, thanks MDOC!!  There was talk about hands and since he kicked ass in his typing/computer class I told him he could type my dictation naked, etc.  Ladies...you know how it goes....LOL  Well I must have gotten too excited because when I looked down the underwire in my bra popped out!  It busted right through the fabric and I had to remove it!!  

Then today my man said, "Baby, I can't wait until you come up to see me next week."  Well honey, neither can I....  I love you D!  Muah!!!!!