It Is A Party Weekend!

This weekend was scheduled to be quite the party weekend.  Friday night was Chica's birthday party at a local bar & bowling ally.  I was so honored to be invited and put it in my calendar.  Last night was our 1st Quarter Team Party at the Big Guy (a/k/a the boss)'s house.

I had hoped that this weekend would be so eventful, especially since it is a 3 day holiday weekend.  This always leads me to develop some big plans of all the things I'm going to do and accomplish!  This list usually ends up much longer than time allows to accomplish.

But...Thursday night I could barely keep my eyes open while driving home during the start of a little snow storm from seeing my guy.  I'm sure the fact that I had been up since 3:30am had something to do with that.  Combine that continued tiredness and the fact that the snow storm was still going when the munchkin and I arrived home after Karate Friday night I opted out of attending Chica's Bar Birthday Party.  I felt bad, but by Friday night I'm exhausted y'all!!

Our team party was set to start at 3:00pm Saturday afternoon.  Of course I was an hour and a half late.  Opps!  As usual, I did not want to go, but had a great time once I was there and stayed over 2 hours longer than I had planned.  Yes, every time these plans and events come up I'm all like "I'm not doing this; this is the last one; etc." but in the end I am usually glad I have attended.

It may have been the alcohol I consumed at the party, but while it was still snowing (yes, the same little snow storm that had been going since Thursday night!) I saw a Kroger's and decided to do 98% of my grocery shopping at 10:30pm on my way home from the team party!  I do not know whether it was the hauling of the cases of Diet Coke or vegetables, but by the time I had everything hauled in my lower back was killing me...I blame this on the alcohol too.

After the necessaries were put in the refrigerator, I watched a little TV and then hauled myself to bed early this morning just so I could wake up 5 hours later unable to go back to sleep, which seems to be a pattern here of late, but that is a story for another post!

Never My Intention

It was never my intention to blog on August 1st and not to return until 13 days later, but I've been crazy busy and pretty exhausted. My apologies to the few readers I have left. Hope you will bear with me while I continue to work through this whole new phase in my life! It will get better. I promise!

For the last five years or so I've been blessed or should I say spoiled by being able to have someone come and clean our home. Well, those good times have came to an end. I can no longer afford it nor can I justify it. So tonight I embarked on this new adventure of cleaning my own house. I'm not finished and I move really slow. Probably since I hate it so much, I'm sure. Plus I end up taking a lot of breaks. Once I put the clean sheets on my bed and vacuum I will be done with our 2 bedrooms, the munchkin's playroom and our one and only hallway, leaving the 2 bathrooms, the living room and the kitchen. Of course the last room that I will tackle is my bathroom, because it just grosses me out to clean it. Blah!!

I'm sure this whole cleaning process would be easier in my life if I would have learned how to clean when I was younger. When I was growing up my mom did not work outside of the house the majority of the time, so she did all of our cleaning while we were at school and our dad was at work. So I never even had the opportunity to watch how she cleaned or to do it with her either. We also never had chores assigned to us either, so outside of cleaning my bedroom because I was anal even as a child I did not learn how to clean and manage a home until after I was married and in my 20's and after taking a five-year break I feel like I'm having to learn it all over again.

Since this is posting close to 2am Saturday night/Sunday morning, please don't think I've been trying cleaning all day and night. I didn't even start this process until after 10:00pm tonight and I've also watched some TV in between too! LOL I multi-task during cleaning, but probably not in the best way.

Amazing

Well, it has been a whirlwind of a weekend thus far! Friday night was overall fantastic!! I wasn't sure how it was going to go when I developed a horrific headache that morning, but I tried to remain positive since I had gotten up at a decent time in order to get ready and look half-way decent! Finally about noon after taking a huge dose of Motrin I figured I would grab lunch out, which has been my MO for the week, and see if that made my head feel better. It actually worked so I was able to get a few things done during the afternoon at work and then before I realized it, it was time to meet up with the family at school and attend the Book Awards!

I don't know if Book Awards are given at every school or if they are called something else, but at my law school they are given out to the top people in each class for the last year's semester and also given to the students that a professor wants to recognize! I thought I was receiving two, but was surprised and only received one. Hey, one is better than none! Of course by the time I went up to be greeted by the Dean he says to me, "First Book Award?" I guess he noticed he had never seen me around these parts before! Of course I responded and said, in typical j'lynn fashion, "Yes and it only took me 4 years to get it!"

The ceremony was over in a blur, I have very little memory of it and couldn't tell you what anyone else received except for two other people~~a friend of mine, RedBull, from class who shocked the shit out of everyone when he received one for Trial Practice (he took it last year) because he is not the type of guy you would expect to win that! When I told MyMormanGirl about it she asked me if he had attended every class session drunk, because that is the only time he is animated! The other guy I recall from the ceremony was the freak who was awarded 6 Book Awards! I was going to say to Holly-Hobby sitting next to me (from my TP class) 'you know that dude isn't getting laid while in school' but then I remembered I'm not either so I left it alone! But as my aunt said afterwards, "That guy who got 6 of them looked like he was all business." No shit! LOL

So after the ceremony, we went across the way to the school for the little reception. That was a bust and we left like 15 minutes after pictures with my LSBFF! On to dinner we went! We went to the top of the city for dinner. It was fantastic. The food was to die for delicious. My steak practically melted in my mouth! We had lobster corn dogs and a lobster/brie dip to start. OMG...the lobster corn dogs were to die for delicious! Then on to salad, which I thought kind of sucked, but everyone else liked theirs. Then the main course! It was yummy, yummy, yummy. I had agreed to pick up the bill and expected it was going to be very expensive, but did almost pass out when it came and it was over $600! Of course the fact that my other aunt and uncle decided to order a bottle of wine on top of their cocktails did not help matters (yes, this was after I said the meal was on me...you know the single mother in school struggling to make ends meet!), but whatever. It was all worth it when on the way home my munchkin said to me that the night was "amazing" and the restaurant we just left at 73 stories up in the sky was "amazing"!!!! FTW!!! ;) I love you baby and that is what I wanted you to have, an amazing experience!

I totally committed a faux pas on one part of the evening...I didn't realize until we had left that I had likely just double tipped our waiter. Before the bill came my other aunt was going on and on and on about how uncomfortable she was and how she had to get out of there. I was feeling the pressure mount because there had already been instances of words being exchanged, albeit in a polite tone, between her and my mom the entire meal. And my aunt was getting to the point with her mouth and her whining and carrying on and physical antics about how uncomfortable she was that I was just thinking~~hurry up, pay the bill before it gets worse. So I quickly figured out 20%, added it on, signed the bill and we left. I refused to look at the bill until Saturday morning to see how much money I just over paid the waiter. When it came to a realization that Eddie had been tipped 39% I just had to keep telling myself, "Pay It Forward!" He could go home that night to his wife and tell her he had a great night! :) He was fantastic and didn't make my parents feel uncomfortable when they asked certain questions or like when my dad said, 'Man, I only eat at truck stops, I don't know what I'm doing.' Eddie was fantastic, patted my dad on the shoulder and said, 'It's all good. I've got your back.' :) So it was worth it and I have to believe that Karma will pay me back for that faux pas! ;)

When the munchkin, aunt and I came home, they took off for her house and I collapsed on the love seat. I made my way to bed soon and died when I hit the pillow. But only a portion of my busy-ass weekend was over! I was up by quarter to eight Saturday morning to get a few things done before we headed off to our Annual Pow-Wow!! :) After running a few errands, we finally made our way up there at about noon. It was very nice. :) Pictures will follow sometime in the future and I'm hoping the new camera took better than these from last year. The best part was...my munchkin had the time of his life! We booked out of there around 3pm and the entire hour plus ride home he went on and on about how he was a little Native American, "every drop counts", and thought that was awesome!! :) He just loves it there! I can't wait to go back next year when I won't have the pressure of school resting on me, making me need to leave early! We can stay the whole damn day if we want! Woo-hoo!!

After we got home, I felt like I needed to get some personal stuff done around the house and in my life. So I spent the rest of yesterday afternoon and all of last night getting things done so I could check off things from my to-do list...

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24

Just getting started: 10, 21, 22, 25, 26

Needs attention: 4, 11, 15, 23

A Bit Of A Change Up!

Due to some scheduling conflicts that I had in my schedule this week, I had to change it up a bit! As you know, Tuesday I had to do my oral argument for SADO, which then left me with no class Wednesday night. But since I have an awards ceremony to attend Friday night (more on that will come in a later post!), I moved my weekly visit with my guy to Wednesday night. This also lead me to having to move up my grocery shopping trip to last night! In addition to all of this, I've completed Trial Practice for all intents and purposes, so you will find that missing from my list of things to-do today!

My Friday To-Do List:

1. Attend my Book Award Ceremony

2. Go to dinner with the family

3. Do all of my E&T homework

4. Do all of my SADO homework

5. Do laundry

6. Pick up the house

7. Write out my bills

8. Balance my checkbook

9. Attend the annual Pow-Wow

10. Write my guy

11. Workout

12. Dig out my guy's papers and mail them

13. File my papers

14. Get my suits drycleaned

15. Take down the Easter decorations

16. Send out the soccer schedule to the team parents

17. Catch up on my emails

18. Catch up on my TIVO

19. Send out the munchkin's first communion invitations

20. Continue preparing for all of the things we have coming up in the next few months

21. Refocus with WWs

22. Refocus for next week

23. Get me some serious sleep

24. Plan out my week

25. Get organized

26. Get my shit together

What do you need?

This is not the way to greet customers entering your restaurant, but this is how the munchkin, my aunt and I were greeted some time ago when we entered a local Chinese restaurant. Yes, I am serious! We walked in and the kid behind the counter literally greeted us this way and the following conversation ensued...

kid: What do you need?

j'lynn: Are you closed?

kid: No.

j'lynn: Then I guess we need a table.

kid: Oh.

j'lynn: Or else we can go somewhere else.

kid: No! Please come...please..how many in your party?

Okay. I've been to numerous places, but I've never been greeted with "What do you need?" Is this a new technique? Needless to say we haven't been back. It is hard enough to find a restaurant that isn't McDonald's that my munchkin agrees with or else we would have left that day too.

Is it just me or has the downturn in the economy also placed customer service in the toilet too? I really thought that it would have an opposite effect, but it seems that I have been wrong in this assumption.

Urgent Care is Still A Doctor's Office, Not a Sports Bar

My trip to Urgent Care this weekend made me want to check this one off my list of future posts.

Several months ago, during one of my many trips to the Urgent Care before I was discovered why I felt so icky I wanted to scream at the people in the waiting room. I'm sitting there feeling like crap and it was a super busy time for the clinic. There are approximately 20 chairs in the waiting room and this trip all but 2 were filled.

Being an Urgent Care Clinic is apparently paying off because they also have a large flat-screen HDTV on the wall. They won't change the channel so you have to watch whatever is on NBC. This visit was a sports game. I cannot remember if it was football or hockey. Now mind you I'm a sports nut with the rest of them. When I can sit in my living room, alone, watching an Alabama football game and scream, yell, cheer, and bitch until I have a headache when the game ends I consider myself a bit of a sports nut! I do believe though that there is a time and place to cheer on your favorite teams and Urgent Care is not the place.

As I was sitting there feeling like crap, with all of these other people who I don't know, waiting to be treated, I didn't feel like I was at Urgent Care. I felt like I was at a Sports Bar! There was so much chatter, so much cheering, so much swearing, that I was looking for a waitress to bring me a drink to make me feel better! Seriously people...I just want to remind everyone that Urgent Care is still a Doctor's office, not a sports bar!

The last thing I want to hear while feeling like shit is people cheering, yelling and swearing at a TV in the doctor's office. It isn't chicken noodle soup and doesn't help sick people feel better...

Things that make you go hmmm....**

1. When you attend a team meeting to learn that all of the rumors that have been flying around are absolutely true...the entire basis of your job is being taken over by another department, which means you could be out of a job in a month, in a few months or in a year as no-one seems to know when the takeover is going to take place. I now know what companies who have endured hostile take-overs feel like.

2. When writing a blog post, this blog post actually, at 12:48am and you hear a loud bang outside and you aren't quite sure if it was gun fire or a car back firing and cannot really decide if you should call the police or not. But since you didn't hear a car after the bang you give into your fears and dial 911 regardless. (This will get your adrenaline up and the idea of going to sleep will leave the forefront of your brain immediately...at least for about 5 minutes!)

3. While visiting your man in prison you spend 2.5 hours witnessing the woman in front of you popping her honey's zit on the side of his neck and you feel disgusted by the whole act, but curiously ask your man if he wants you to do this for him and then wonder if maybe you two are not "in-love" since he doesn't want you to pop his non-existant zit in the visiting room, but you feel like maybe you should have offered the one on your hair line in case he felt compelled to commit such an act to profess his love in your relationship. (Yes, this will leave all involved except the madly in-love couple in front of you sick to their stomaches.)

4. When speaking to the 911 operator and she asks if you "need" to be seen and you tell her no that you are fine but just aren't sure if someone could be laying dead somewhere and felt like there was a duty (as a future officer of the court) to report such noises...

5. You discover that both you and your man feel like the next 9 months your Tuesday nights are empty because the (too short) season of Sons of Anarchy is over and you are both sadly going to miss it! Albeit for very different reasons...well, I'm 98% sure that he isn't going to miss it for the same reason I will, lack of seeing Jax's hot, bare ass and imagining that hot, bare ass while being placed in a trance watching him swagger all over my not nearly big enough or clear enough TV screen...

6. Even though you have drafted posts for the entire week you feel compelled to add additional posts the first two days when your drafted posts will post...gosh, there is a lot of posts here! LOL

7. You failed to mention to the 911 operator that the reason you feel there is such a duty to report this possible shoot-out at the Alamo is because even though you've only lived in this park almost 8 years there have been at least 3 murders that you can instantly recall. Of course they were all stabbings and everyone knew one another and no one knew of the stabbings until the (alleged) perps ran to their neighbor's house covered in blood...

8. Before anyone can knock on your door covered in blood where you will have to make a second phone call to 911 and you will have to remember to use the word "alleged" during that call you decide that you can reduce your own adrenaline quickly and will likely fall asleep within minutes of hitting the pillow just like almost every other night, you shut off your lights and go immediately to bed!

Good nite y'all!!

**~~C&C Music Factory, who knew that 18 years later I would still think of this song as often as I really do!!

There are boundaries for a reason y'all!

When I was airing out my issues with my friend "A" a few days ago, I made mention of a future post. Well, here it is... There are boundaries for a reason. Apparently my friend "A" doesn't maintain such boundaries. She has always been like this ever since I can remember.

I have a belief. If you are with someone and especially if you love that person, there are certain things that stay between that couple. I feel that one of these things is your sex life. Now, don't get me wrong. Little tid-bits may come out here and there, but not anything of substance. Like I have never felt I was giving out substantial information about my sex life with my man when I've said that it is amazing and I've never complained once in the last nine plus years with the exception that due to certain circumstances it has been lacking lately. However, actual details of this part of our relationship are for him and I only. I think it keeps it special just for us...

Apparently my friend "A" doesn't see things the same way. She is currently with a guy who I don't think is the best choice, but I think that goes with so many of my friends. I guess I really am a mom because I often think that my friends could do so much better than the person they are with. I do not judge as I have become a believer in the fact that we can't always pick who we fall in love with. I get sometimes daily phone calls with very detailed information as to their sex life. I don't want to know such information.

I don't want to know that it takes your significant other between one and two hours before he can finish the job. I don't want to know whether you or he enjoys playing the back 9. I don't really want to know that you have a sex swing in your bedroom that your children have seen assembled. I don't need to know how many times you've attempted to get yourself some and how many times he has said no. I don't want to hear you say "we were both so horny put some porn on and started..."

I thought of a way that would stop such conversations. I told "A" that I thought maybe she had an addiction problem when it comes to sex since every single day I hear about her sex life. She proceeded to tell me that they only "do it" 1-2 x's a week compared to when they first started dating and they were doing it everyday. Um...yeah, I'm not talking about the sex itself. I'm talking about the fact that you talk about every single day. I can't think of a day that has went by that she hasn't mentioned her sex life.

I've always placed boundaries on my relationships, but maybe I'm the only one...

I probably shouldn't be angry, but I am...is that wrong?

I honestly had no intention of posting another entry today, but I received a text message while I was in my Litigation class tonight that irritated me and this I was irritated with myself for being irritated over the text... Do you ever have that happen?

Let me back up for a minute. I have a friend. My oldest friend in fact. We have known one another since we were 5 years old. We come from different yet similar families. Our lives have taken different yet similar paths. You get the idea... I think we both had the same opportunities in life...actually at times I think she had more opportunities as she had services available to her that I didn't have available to me. I'm not complaining mind you. My childhood was no day in the park, but it made me who I am today. Same as her.

Throughout the last 28 years we have lost touch more than once, but somehow we always made our way back to one another and rekindled our friendship. Back when my munchkin was born we met up again and discovered that we were both married the same year, in 2000, and she was pregnant with her first child and due approximately 5 months after my son was born. It was actually kind of ironic. I then filed for divorce from my hubby in 2004 and her and her hubby after having another baby in 2005 filed for divorce a couple years later.

As you well know, after filing for divorce from my man, I began raising my son on my own and in 2006 went on to law school. My friend, "A", began raising her two kids on her own after the divorce and talked about going to school. This is where our differences become quite apparent. Even before "A" and her hubby divorced they were on State assistance, so after the divorce she remained on State assistance. Actually, as I think back she was on State assistance in 2002 when she was pregnant with her son.

I'm not here to judge people who find themselves in a time of need and rely on what the State has to offer in the name of food stamps, rent assistance, payment of gas and electric bills, payment of daycare, and free college. Certainly in today's economy, living in the hardest hit State, there are a lot of people who never would have thought they would be on assistance are. I even knew if I would have been laid off in July that my first stop on my way home that day would be to sign up for benefits for my son so he would be okay while I doubled my load of classes and pushed my graduation date up to this coming May. So please do not take this post wrong and think this is an anti-welfare bitch, because it is not.

Back to tonight...as I try and figure out the last possible day I can mail in my next two bills so they don't hit before payday this week and worrying how I'm going to get the munchkin the two presents I want to buy him for Christmas since my financial aid from school dried up about 6 weeks early this semester...I get the following text message from "A": Just got a call, we got adopted 4 christmas! Normally I would be happy at the fact that her children will have a nice Christmas this year, but I just can't. I cannot bring myself to be okay with this, because this will be the 7th Christmas in a row that I've received the same message from her.

I know it probably makes me a horrible person, but I just cannot make myself happy over this turn of events. I don't want her children to be punished, but at what point do you tell yourself it is time to stop living off the State and time to get a job and/or go to school to get a career and provide your kids their own Christmas instead of relying on an agency or a donor to give your children the Christmas they deserve?

So tonight...as I sat through a class, exhausted, stressed, sacrificing my time with my son...my friend shares her good news that my donations to the Salvation Army are going to her children again this year to put a smile on their faces Christmas morning while my tax dollars paid to keep her gas and electric on again this month and secured another month's rent in their home. All while I wonder if I can put a smile on my son's face this Christmas morning alone...

And while I go to bed tonight after midnight to get up early tomorrow morning to go back to a job for 8 hours that makes me angry everyday dealing with the BS, I know "A" sits in her home, smoking her Marlboros while her boyfriend smokes his dope and they have marathon sex* so she can sleep the day away tomorrow while her kids are at school and the rest of us are working I ask myself what's wrong with this picture and how horrible of a friend am I wishing just once "A" wasn't adopted for Christmas....

*~~This is for a whole different post, which we shall call "There are boundaries for a reason y'all!"

Can I Ask You A Question?

Apparently I have a look about me that tells strangers that I'm open to conversations and willing to answer their questions. The idea of this post came to me long ago during a visit to a lab to have blood taken and after last night's incident at Meijers I decided it was time to write this post...

Many months ago, I went to the lab down the hall from my PCP to have my blood drawn. After I was done, the very chatty phlebotomist says, "Can I ask you a question?" Well, let me tell you I'm a very nosy person, so of course I wanted to know what she had to ask, plus no matter how much I would like to be I just cannot be rude to strangers unless I'm in a really bitchy mood or else they have irritated me already. So of course I said yes and then immediately regretted it! The question was: "What is a good amount to spend for a girl's birthday present?"

Now mind you...we had already discussed the fact that she had 4 kids, 2 of which are girls, and I had 1 boy. I don't know what is a good amount to spend for a girl's birthday present!! I don't do girl birthdays and I'm kind of cheap! I gave my opinion that $15-$25 was probably a good range. Thinking I'm home free I was stopped with a follow-up question, "But what if they only spent $3 on a gift for your daughter?" I did the whole...you don't want to punish the child for her parents lack of money or class if they have money and choose to spend very little on the present. She continued with another issue and when I shot that down with what I thought was a reasonable contribution that would get me out of the lab, she had another and another and another. After more than thirty minutes I wished her good luck and walked out.

Now fast forward to last night...I decided to go ahead and get my lunch meat at Meijers instead of driving to the meat market today just to get a small amount of lunch meat to make it through a three day work week and before I get my hands on some left over turkey & ham from Thanksgiving Dinner. That was mistake #1. Mistake #2 was responding to a fellow shopper when he asked how I was doing. Mistake #3 was saying yes when said shopper asked if he could ask me a question, because his question was "What is wrong with America today?" WTF?!? I thought it was going to be something along the lines of lunch meat or condiments or something to do with a deli counter...not "What is wrong with America today?" When I said, "Excuse me?" I was on the receiving end of a dissertation about this 52 year old's inability to get accepted into medical school, his time in Cincinnati, a book he read by some author about the Southern Bronx, his parents, his view on Republicans, 9/11, the Iraq War, etc...these are only the ones I remember. This went on for an hour, I swear to God!

I know what you are saying, "Just walk away j'lynn." Um, yeah...I did that. He followed. At one point I wondered how much time I might get if I stabbed him in the eye with my pen! He followed me around the bakery section, the vegetable area and the fruit area. I wondered if I needed to call security but he wasn't really being inappropriate...just trying to carry on a conversation and expound his theories and conspiracies upon a person. I was finally able to escape after I began yawning...okay, it was more than just the beginning of yawning and more like consistent yawning. He then walked away saying how some day maybe we will run in to one another at the coffee shop. I walked away in a hurry mumbling how I didn't drink coffee and immediately headed to the feminine products area hoping he wouldn't track me down there so I could leave the store without the fear of a stalker following me home to tell me more about his views on WWI, WWII, and the Bush Administration~that includes both I & II.

Maybe now I will learn my lesson...when a stranger asks if they can ask me a question my answer will be "No!" I'm not nosy enough to like people enough to have wasted an hour and a half of my life with them over their craziness!

Accomplished: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, & 19

Started: 8

Undone: 7, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, & 20

No Headbands Here

Realizing that some of my "Future Blog Posts..." have been on my list for some time, I thought I would check one of those off today, since I'm in the mood for checking things off lists! Plus I had a conversation about this very issue with my esthetician today while she was waxing me and giving me my facial.

I just cannot wear headbands and it sucks because I love headbands. I don't know why I cannot seem to wear them...I say it is because my head must be too fat, my LSBFF says it is because my hair is so fine and my esthetician weighed in on the matter today and said maybe it is because my head is too small or that my hair is so fine. LSBFF, you won this debate!

When I put them on they look so cute (the full headbands I'm referring to) and when I see others with them on they look so cute too. The idea of washing my hair and just picking it out and slapping a headband in it makes me so excited...especially on those days when I'm running uber late, but I have to wash my hair because I haven't done it in 3 days! But before I walk out the door in less than ten minutes the sucker is already sliding off of my head!

I've tried so many things to prevent this slippage...keeping the band over my ears instead of behind, putting product in my hair and touseling it a bit to give it more texture, and I've even attempted to actually style my hair by scrunching it and putting the headband in then...but nothing seems to work. It totally sucks! Even when I'm washing my face at night when I try to use a headband to hold all of my hair off my face the sucker slips right off within minutes! I've purchased several different kinds of headbands to see if maybe it was the headband and not my head! I have thick ones, skinny ones, loose ones, tight ones...I even have one that has designs on it that are sort of made out of a rubbery substance, which I thought for sure would latch onto my hair and prevent slipping...NOPE!

It is very frustrating and I spend my days envious of girls when I see them with their headbands on, looking all cute with their hair nicely kept out of their face for that "fresh" look, wishing that I could wear some of the 20 headbands I am now the proud owner of. But alas I have succumb to defeat and declared a "No Headbands Here" zone. Instead my mom leaves me notes saying, "borrowed a head band today, hope you don't mind." Why should I mind? It isn't like I'll be wearing it!!

Accomplished: 1*, 2, 3, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18***, & 19

Started: 8**

Untouched: 4, 7, 9**, 10**, 11, 16, 17, & 20

*~~I did the best I could with what I had, but I probably shouldn't have taken lunch with my co-worker, who just returned Thursday from her 2 month medical leave but since she hinted at it Thursday and I had already picked up my lunch I just felt bad saying "no" a second day in a row. I would have kicked more ass if my big boss wouldn't have scheduled a last minute 3:30pm meeting...but I did what I could and consider it accomplished!

**~~Technically I don't have any homework due this week in these 3 classes, but since I always have limited time and the assignments due the following week are HUGE my goal is to complete my MSJ in Litigation, begin my final project for Small Firms and prepare my oral argument for Pre-Trial and finish everything during my 4 day weekend for Turkey Day next weekend!

***~~Hmmm...sleeping in today until my guy called and woke me up at 12:27pm today (of course I didn't go to bed until after 2am last night) marks this one off my list! LOL I'm just glad that this didn't happen again. But of course, I feel like I could take a nap right this minute!

Very talkative

I just realized that this will be post #50 for me for the month of September. I am so sorry to have been so darn talkative this month. Some of the reasoning has been that I caught up several things that have been floating around for well over 6 months... I'll try and make October less "posty"! Since I'm averaging almost two a day, I'll really try sticking with just one a day next month...

WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!

We left the house for the State Fair at approximately 9:45am today and arrived home around 12 hours later. I'm exhausted, achy, sunburnt and about $100s lighter.

This was the first trip for all of us to the State Fair. Even though all 4 of us have been raised less than an hour away from where the State Fair takes place, none of us had ever ventured there. I don't think any of us would have went this year if it wasn't for the munchkin asking to go and us figuring this could very well be the last year for it, so off we went.

I don't know if it is because we are spoiled by our County Fair or if we have very high expectations or what, but I will admit...none of us were overly impressed with the State Fair. :( I know that many people may disagree with us, but there were maybe only a few more rides than the County Fair and maybe a handful of different things to see, but there were a lot less vendors then what we have at our County Fair. We walked around for first couple hours we were there, then did some rides to please the munchkin, then decided we should grab some lunch. Of course before we made it to lunch we found the $.50 chocolate milk that I read about here. The munchkin was going to milk a cow too, but the farmers told us it would be about 5 mins before we could so we ventured to see the police horses first because there was no one around. Well, apparently we were wrong because when we returned to milk the cow there were probably 40 people in line. Where they came from...we have no idea!

We grabbed some lunch and after 2 failed attempts to get some fair fries, we hit the midway again. The munchkin had a blast riding rides for several hours! Of course, there were a few rides he wanted to ride that he needed someone with him, so we bought a book of 22 tickets for $25 (he had an all-day band for $25 too) for just this case. Well, I did the tilt-a-whirl with him, and my aunt did the ferris wheel with him. Then my other aunt made mention that they had seen the Himalaya and the munchkin wanted to go on it. Memories of years past (my teenage years) flooded back. That was our "choice" ride every year and all night long when we went to our County Fair back in the day. I was so excited to introduce the munchkin to the Himalaya!! (Of course that wasn't the name of it anymore, but that is what I know it as.) So the ride starts, backwards, and something went wrong inside of me...I totally freaked out.

As you know, with being my size I'm going to be a tad-bit thicker than my 46lb 7 year old! So the bar wasn't as tight on him as it was on me. I told him he had to hold on for this ride. Well, my child has no fear, unlike his mother who dreams of crazy things to fear and one of her fears is her child dying in a freak accident. (This has been a long term fear of mine, even before I had kids and steams from a crazy realistic dream I had years and years ago in high school.) So when my son refused to hold on as we are whipping around at extremely high speeds (which later I estimated at 210mphs. LOL) I grabbed a hold of his left thigh and gripped on to hold him in the seat. At one point the following conversation took place:

Munchkin: Mom, let go of my leg.

j'lynn: I can't

Munchkin: Mom, please let go of my leg.

j'lynn: I can't. You might fly out of the seat. Please hold on.

Munchkin: This is so fun......

j'lynn (in her head, screaming): WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ride then stops so it can go forward at the same crazy speed. I stopped gripping his thigh, fearing that he will probably have a hand print bruise on his inner thigh and he promised he would hold on. In my scrambled brain I believed him! So wrong on my part! As it restarts, he lets go loving every single minute of it, and now I have to find a better way to hold on to him. So as we whip around at break-neck-speeds I attempt to put my leg over one of his legs, or my arm across his chest, but my hands are slipping and he is fighting my trying to get him safely under some part of my body. I feel myself sliding in the seat, fearing the worst...realizing that it is okay if I die on this ride but that people would be really pissed if he died.

This frickin' ride lasted HOURS! When we finally exit the ride, my body is shaking, my heart is pounding, my head is ready to explode, and I want to sit on the ground and thank the lord that we didn't die! While my son asks if we can go on it again! Of course my response was: ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!! I need a drink of something, I need to calm my nerves...I need to stop shaking and get my heart under control. That's when we find real fair fries and I drown my near death experience and fears in a bucket of greasy fair fries and a large Diet soda!! Thank god for us coming off the Himalaya alive and greasy fair fries!

We also moved back to the kiddie rides, saw the petting zoo, pig races and the birth of a calf! I only made it back on the tilt a whirl one time for the rest of the night. I decided that I am officially old and wonder what the hell I was thinking at 16 when I would ride the Himalaya 50 times a night at the County Fair!

Later we did run in to a young man who informed us that last year there was a kid who was injured on the Himalaya and another little boy who almost fell off a different ride that goes upside down in a circle. So my fear of dying wasn't so far off base now was it!?!

I have returned

So before I left work on Friday I decided to set up posts to publish over the weekend while I was visiting my man. I drafted a post for Saturday and that worked out, then I drafted a post for Sunday, but couldn't get that one to set up to be posted on time (so I authorized it to post after I returned home), so I decided not to draft a post for today because I was so pissed that Sunday's post wasn't working! So I have nothing for today other than....I'M HOME! LOL

It was another great weekend of visits, which I will update when I get a chance to in the coming days...of course when I checked my email I had 72 new emails at home and at least 30 at work. I have taken those numbers down to 3 personal emails to deal with tomorrow and 23 to deal with when I return to work tomorrow too! Nothing worse than over 100 emails to deal with when you return home and the only thing you really want to do is get back in your car and go back to where you came from...

Until tomorrow...good night y'all!

The Flu or the Pills?

Well August has started and it finds me behind already! Yikes!! My apologies for the lack of posts for this past week. I have a few things that I will discuss in future posts ("What do you need?"; "What bank? Oh...that one. Opps!"; "Hello? You aren't real."; and "That's not a party, that is their TV.") to make up the lack of posts. Of course I do not know when that will happen, but it will! ;)

Where was I all weekend you ask? Well, I was here...at home...sick. Friday night we went to dinner and then I came home to relax a bit. I knew I had a lot to accomplish this weekend, so I went to bed with the thought that I would sleep as late as I could after my crazy week (more on that later). I woke up at 10am, but decided to lay there for another hour. Finally at 11am I got up so I could shower and go and get my bloodwork done. Before I left for the lab I started feeling "off"...I made a trip to the restroom and then went on to the lab.

After I went to the lab, I decided to go to the pharmacy to pick up my durable medical equipment for my diabetes equipment. As I left there I knew I needed to race back home to the bathroom again. After coming home I decided to watch a movie that I purchased the night before (more about this later too!) until my 3:15pm pampering appointment. About 30 mins before, I left for my salon. Of course my girl was running really late, but I was okay with that. She did my facial and waxed my brows & lip. As soon as I left and entered my car I knew I had to come straight home again.

I spent the rest of Saturday at home even though I had a huge list of things to do. Thinking maybe the stress of the week finally got to me, I decided to go to bed early. I was in the bed before 10pm and spent the night wrapped in a blanket trying to get warm, but my head was on fire. Sunday morning I got up feeling just horrible. My entire body ached, especially my legs. I called my aunt to tell her I wouldn't be making the parade and cookout at her house that afternoon. She brought me some medicine and gatorade...

Thinking that I had licked this little stomach flu, much to my amazement that 2 days later I'm still having some issues. Now we are beginning to wonder...was it the flu or am I having a reaction to my diabetes medicine? So now tomorrow I need to deal with this. I'm totally bummed because I tested at 107 tonight and now I may be having some problems with my pills...ugh.

As I told my aunt...if it isn't one thing, I swear, it is another! :(

Rude Grandpa & the other characters in baseball

During the munchkin's baseball season there were so many characters I think I could have made a blog entry on each one. There was one particular family that I found really interested...well, actually two.

Family #1...there were two cousins who played together. They were with the bad-ass family. At first it was suspected that there was a real dad vs. a step-dad situation brewing, but then it seemed like "real dad" was actually grandpa. The fathers to the boys were brothers, 10 years apart. One was the typical bad-ass, with a couple of tattoos, smoking, wearing his hat backwards and when he walked he had that typical bad-ass walk. He was actually kind of good-looking in that older-bad-ass way. (Yes, I do have an affinity for bad boys! LOL) His brother was real thin, really tattooed up, earrings, but not the typical earring...more like spikes. He smoked and wore his hat to the side. Spike only showed up once to practice and apparently something happened and he wasn't allowed to return again, which according to TBA happens a lot with his little bro.

TBA never stopped talking. His mom, grandma, would come to the games a lot and you would think that TBA and grandma did not own phones, because they talked and talked and talked for hours at a time about everything. I heard all about their MVAs and their pending suits (wouldn't I fall off my chair if TBA ever walked thru my office!), their worker's comp claims, etc. There did sound like there was some really good gossip about TBA and the mothers of these two boys and some jealousy....I wished at times that I could concentrate solely on their conversation instead of anything else, but I couldn't.

The kicker with family #1 was during Thursday's last game when as soon as the game started TBA looked at real dad a/k/a grandpa and some new woman in the mix and said, "Okay, lets go, but no need to tell the boys." In RD a/k/a grandpa's car and they left. I thought of some instant questions...how do you do that, do you think your children won't notice when they look up in the stands and all 3 of you are gone, and where did they go and what did they do. It is a strange little family and I wished I knew more...

Family #2...There are a lot of players in family #2. There is loud-mouth-mom (LMM), Coach J a/k/a dad (CJ), superstar (#1), superstar (#2) (the big and little bros), lil' sis (lil' sis), chain smoking grandma (grandma) and rude grandpa (RG). The first practice I attended I instantly did not like LMM. She has a comment for everything. I adore CJ...he is just awesome. #1 was an awesome kid and a kick ass player. #2 was a nice quiet kid until he got with some certain kids, but outside of that was a nice little boy and a heck of a baseball player too. Lil' sis is such a tom-boy it is scary! RG and grandma were strange.

RG earned his name the night of one game when they got there late and he proceeded to set up his lawn chair directly in front of another player's mom. And after she picked up her chairs, her husband's chair, and their two sons' chairs and resettled, RG picked up his chair and moved so close to the benches that I was totally blocked in. There was no way for me to get out of the bleachers unless I stepped on his chest as I stepped down.

I believe LMM learned her behavior from RG. I just never saw such a family that were so rude to other parents at a baseball game. Oh yeah, grandma would set up her chair in front of other people and then would never sit in it because she was too busy chain smoking over by the tree. Um...why did you haul a big ass lawn chair there if you aren't going to sit in it?

During the last practice, LMM left lil' sis for CJ to watch while he was out on the field with #2 and #1 was out on the field too helping with the kids. LMM went off to find a nail shop to get a pedicure. I'm all about pampering myself, but I would not leave all 3 of my kids for my husband to watch, especially my 3 year old daughter, while he is the assistant coach to a team of 7, 8 & 9 year old ball players. 4 of which are ADHD and 1 of which was autistic.

Did I tell you that one family had 5 kids all under the age of 7 and dad would come to practice or the game alone?

I never saw such a hodge-podge of a group of people for one thing! But even with all of those characters and a Rude Grandpa, I was happy to be on such a team, because compared to last year...they were awesome! Last year was a group of snobby parents, so I'd rather be with the characters then the snobs! :)

LSU wins national title

In the hopes of my munchkin watching baseball to learn more about the game and at his request when flipping it around, we landed on the College World Series Finals-Championship Game.  Well, he went to bed and I've been sucked into the game.  Well, now I can converse with the rude grandpa at the munchkin's baseball game next week about the fact that LSU won (over Texas) and add my opinion on the crack of the aluminum bat vs. the wood bat (from back in the day!).  

As for the rude grandpa...that is for a future post!

Wow...what a difference

I remember on my way in to the office this morning I thought of a great post for today's entry. It was something that happened to me or around me and darn it to all...I can't remember what it was! Ugh...I hate it when that happens. I'll remember later I'm sure of it and as soon as I do I will let you know. Anywho, a few family phone calls later in the morning gave me another great entry, so here goes...

In my battle against my continuing illness I thought maybe something in my house was making me sick or vulnerable to illnesses or producing horrible, horrible allergies, so last week after going back to the doctor a/k/a Urgent Care (yes, I seem to visit Urgent Care more frequently than my doctor, but the schedule is much more applicable to my life...if only my PCP would stay open till 10pm and wouldn't have a 4 hour wait then I might see him more often!) and being put back on antibiotics for a "nasty" sinus infection and tonsillitas I decided it was time to take some household action.

I started by stripping my bed and spraying it with lysol. Then I moved on to my humidifier and cleaned that all up and changed filters. Then last, but certainly not least, I called and scheduled an appointment for someone to come out and service my furnace and central air unit, which is occurring today.

I had my uncle come over and sit to wait for the service people, which then lead to him calling me and asking me about a lock on an electrical box outside. Of course I had no clue what he was talking about. I then proceeded to call my aunt, who then spoke to my mother and called me back about this mystery lock. The story that finally came to me was when I kicked my man out back in 2004 I feared "someone" would do something to my electrical box and I took the lock off my shed and put it on this outside electrical box and put a new lock on my shed to keep my man out of my stuff! Of course what this really means is my mom and dad took the lock from the shed and put it on this electrical box to prevent my man coming and messing with my electrical stuff and to keep him out of the shed too.

Do you see all of the holes to this story? I do!! First of all, "I" did not do any of this. I may have been a consulted party, but trust me in the fog of filing for divorce and kicking my man to the curb and losing my step-son in the process I have no memory what-so-ever about a lock being inter-changed. Second...by taking a lock that my man had a key to and putting it on the electrical box really doesn't stop any potential horse-play does it? I'm thinking he would likely have recognized the lock and knew he had a key for it. It just does not come off as such a deterrent to me. Lastly, maybe someone should have marked this information somewhere or labeled a key, because I now suspect that I no longer have a key for this lock.

Luckily Mr. Fix-It can get his job done without really entering that electrical box...because the talk of bolt cutters and strange men at my house was going to send off all sorts of other alarms at my house today...alarms I really don't want to deal with today.

Of course I'm not sure if I would hear all of these alarms, since as of yesterday I can no longer hear out of my left ear. :( Back to Urgent Care I went last night clearly frustrated with the fact that I can't seem to get better, especially since the last few weeks I had thought "this" was simply allergies. I told the doctor that I traded a sore throat for a blocked ear and everything else remained the same and that my frustration level is really high right now. He proceeded to proscribe me a different, much stronger antibiotic, which I find funny because it is what he originally proscribed last week that he ended up canceling when the pharmacist advised my co-pay was going to be $40. (All of this was done without my knowledge, of course. And I do understand his position when he explained last night that he made a judgment call, because so many of the people that come in to see him really can't afford that co-pay.) I told him I didn't care the cost...just give me something that was really going to work.

Wow...what a difference 2 pills have made! I took this new antibiotic with the newly proscribed heavy-duty decongestent when I got home last night and when I got up this morning I was like a new person! Holy smokes!! My ear remains blocked and I'm certainly not over my sickness as I am "really, really sick" according to the doctor last night; however, I feel like things have turned a corner. I took my morning decongestent before I left for work this morning and can't wait to get home to take a second dose of my antibiotic, so hopefully tomorrow I will feel even better!

Of course the munchkin woke up hacking this morning, which isn't surprising since mommy has been sick, Chica and her girls have been sick and he is with all of us everyday. So he will be seeing his doctor at 4:30pm today...

Combining Holidays...

Well, today I was up before my alarm...shocking! In to the shower I went and out I came. As I was attempting to get ready I hear a knock on the door. I open the door and there sat a flower box! I opened it up and there was a mixed dozen of roses. :) They are beautiful. My son sent me flowers for Mother's Day. :) Munchkin, I love you and thank you baby! I've enjoyed all of your gifts to me. :) I will post pictures in the future of all of my wonderful gifts...roses, seed-plant, and hand poster!

Then off to register the munchkin for the 09/10 soccer season. Doesn't that sound weird?! OMG...in less than a year it will be 2010! Yikes! Anywho...I rushed up to register him, running late because I had to get my roses in to the beautiful green vase they came with. Luckily it was much easier to register him at noon then it was last year when I went at 10:30am, thirty minutes after they opened, because last year it took me hours to get what it took me to do in 10 mins today!

And from there the family met for a family dinner @ 3pm. Mom, dad, aunt, uncle, other aunt, munchkin and I attended. I had planned it with the intention of the entire family going to dinner. It was my treat for both Mother's Day & Father's Day. It seems that we always do something for Mother's Day and don't always follow up on Father's Day. I think primarily because my man isn't here and since he isn't involved with my munchkin I don't press the "holiday" to bring it to the forefront of my munchkin's mind and since it appears that so many times if I don't plan the family "gathering" it doesn't get planned...or so it feels! So I decided when I took all of the mothers, fathers, mother-figures and father-figures in our family out for a Mother's Day dinner I would double this up and make it dinner for both Mother's and Father's Day. Unfortunately my brother and his family opted not to participate, because he thought he couldn't afford it. I couldn't chance ruining my surprise because NO-ONE knew about it. Regardless, dinner was good and I think everyone had a good time.

From dinner on to Ladies Night @ The Harley Dealer. This is my mom's thing. From 6pm-10pm the dealership is turned in to a ladies-only haven with various vendors, drinks, food, and music. This year it was a Vegas Casino Night theme. Mom, my aunt and I went and for whatever reason my mom can't be happy over anything. I don't know why, but she wants to be involved in nothing and just is very unhappy. I hope she finds her way through this moment of hers. We didn't gamble, but we did stand in the most popular line of the night...to see the tarot card readers! It was better than last year. **This is for another post at another time!

Then back home for the night! The munchkin asked my aunt to stay over and we will all go to church together in the morning, because the munchkin has a reading during mass! :) I'm so excited...

April Fools

Well, today is the day. Some of us love it, some of us hate it, some of us could care less! It has been a long time since someone has played an April Fools Joke on me, outside of my munchkin~of course! I think that comes with getting older and more mature...I think! And on top of it being April Fools Day it is also Hump Day! Each time I look at the calendar it gets better and better! LOL

I've had one hell of a busy week so far. Sunday I worked on some homework, but didn't get nearly enough done. Monday was a prison tour for class. It was actually pretty interesting. More so than what I thought. I told my man about it and how it smelled in there and he said it smells like "ass"! LOL I think he may be right. The other areas we smelled I think was associated with whatever was prepared that day for dinner, which smelled like it might taste like ass. It was definitely not the freshest place to be and if you are sensitive to smells...you don't want to go to prison! Of course there are a whole host of other reasons why you don't want to go, but add this to your list...it smells like ass! The best experience I thought from the whole tour was a guy in segregation telling us if we wanted to see real segregation to go to Level V, because "this here segregation (Level II) is nothing more than a country-club!" Combine that with the dancing man and his $5Million dollar civil suit and the man who did not want us looking in his cell (as he stood in his window the entire time we were in there)...that is where they should bring people for entertainment! It was the best! LOL

After the prison trip was on to class with a sick Prof. W! Why oh why do people attempt to do their job when they are so sick? For instance, my aunt has bronchitius from one of her co-workers who prides herself on never missing time from work! Well, that is all fine and dandy, but you live alone and aren't around other people. My aunt is my babysitter, so if she goes down with some funky illness, I have to find replacements, not to mention the fact that now me and my munchkin are exposed! UGH...people like that piss me off! So I beg of all professors...please do not come to lecture us when you are on death's door, especially when we are only 4 weeks from starting exams! :( But I do hope Prof. W & my aunt & her co-worker all feel better very soon and more importantly, I hope we don't get it!!

Tuesday I called in! I just couldn't take it anymore! I did a little reading, but I seriously sleep too! My man called me about quarter to 9am, which woke me up. I got up and then laid back down about 10:30am and slept till after 1pm. I got up and went back to bed at 3:30pm and slept until almost 6pm. I stayed up, we ordered pizza and then off to bed I went again at 11:30pm, but I read Crim Pro for another hour and then went to sleep again. I think I have sleep-itis! EEK!!! Of course I came in to my office to be greated by 11 new files! WTF?!

So I'm working my fanny off today and paying for taking that day yesterday! Whatev! I will have a later/future posting about squeeky bladders being an excuse for a lube job! Leave it to my work's restroom to bring about another post....and yes, we are all adults here! LOL

Enjoy the rest of your hump-day and beware of the April Fools Jokes!!!

PS: Happy Anniversary Dani!!