... i am now a child minder. at least for a little while.
out of all the doors in our apartment complex (at least several hundred), one of our neighbors knocked on ours to ask if her daughter could stay with us once school ends, while she and her husband work. she said, "of course we'll pay you".
when i say "neighbor" i'm using the term subjectively. the family lives in our complex (neighborhood) but not in our building. their building is down the parking lot and around the corner. about a three-minute walk. or we could cut across the playground and be there two minutes sooner.
the patels (not their real name) seem to be nice people.
they welcomed us nicely when baby bliss and i first moved here (back when i left mr. bliss).
a week or so after we moved in, we went to the pool one evening and there they were.
mr. patel was roasting corn on the grill while their daughter swam. she and baby bliss hit it off immediately and her parents were very friendly to me. mr. patel offered us corn when it was done.
at first i said no but they insisted.
to season the corn, they offered salt, limes, and a red spice from india. the salt and lime were yummy on the corn but i passed on the red spice. anything red means hot to me. now, i don't automatically poo-poo spicy but i draw the line at hot.
and why waste a good ear of corn by experimenting? lol
we ate and talked between bites. i asked them a gazillion and one questions about india and they fueled my imagination with tidbits of information that i'd never heard before.
so any way, we've seen and talked to the patels around the complex for almost two years now: at the pool, in the gym, on the playground, etc.
still, i was surprised when mrs. patel asked if their daughter could stay with us during the day.
i'm honored that they chose me to trust with their daughter and thankful for the unexpected income.
amen.
.
Showing posts with label people i know. Show all posts
Showing posts with label people i know. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
347: the smell of beauty
hey y'all.
saturday i was more than a little tired. allergies have kicked baby bliss and i around this season and i've been coughing a lot. that in addition to my itching ears and sore throat. i used to have bad allergies before baby bliss was born (ears/nose/throat itching, nose and eyes running all over the place).
the worst of it was the 2 or 3 day i had a cutting feeling in one side of my throat. even with that it's been manageable for me because i've had practice.
but poor Baby Bliss hasn't experienced anything like this. and now, on top of the problems she's been having, she has pink eye.
on the way home from church last sunday, baby bliss said, "mommy, ____ said she thinks she has pink eye but she wasn't sure because she has allergies too."
the child in mention has had allergies since we've known her. but i'd never seen her eyes red, as i noticed they were on sunday.
what i'm wondering is why the child thought she had pink eye. did she hear her momma say those words? and if not, did she say those words to her momma? before they left for church? i'm really wondering.
cuz now that i know baby bliss has it, we're staying home. no way would i send her to junior church knowing she has a highly contagious infection. i think it's distasteful, to say the least.
most of my day (after i was awakened from a much-needed slumber) was spent sanitizing the place. which was a bit of a bummer cuz i was planning to sort out my office and tackle some other things from friday's to-do list.
when it got full dark, the 3 of us took a walk to the mailbox. as we turned onto the main road, the smell of honeysuckle wafted up the hill.
it brought back memories of home, where for as long as i could remember, there was a honeysuckle spread growing along the fence of the house across the alley from my grandma.
there was also a wild spray of honeysuckle growing along one of the fences in the side yard of the house we sold before we relocated.
i've smelled it here before but it was so unexpected and such a nice surprise at the end of a day that had worn me out.
thanks God.
.
saturday i was more than a little tired. allergies have kicked baby bliss and i around this season and i've been coughing a lot. that in addition to my itching ears and sore throat. i used to have bad allergies before baby bliss was born (ears/nose/throat itching, nose and eyes running all over the place).
the worst of it was the 2 or 3 day i had a cutting feeling in one side of my throat. even with that it's been manageable for me because i've had practice.
but poor Baby Bliss hasn't experienced anything like this. and now, on top of the problems she's been having, she has pink eye.
on the way home from church last sunday, baby bliss said, "mommy, ____ said she thinks she has pink eye but she wasn't sure because she has allergies too."
the child in mention has had allergies since we've known her. but i'd never seen her eyes red, as i noticed they were on sunday.
what i'm wondering is why the child thought she had pink eye. did she hear her momma say those words? and if not, did she say those words to her momma? before they left for church? i'm really wondering.
cuz now that i know baby bliss has it, we're staying home. no way would i send her to junior church knowing she has a highly contagious infection. i think it's distasteful, to say the least.
most of my day (after i was awakened from a much-needed slumber) was spent sanitizing the place. which was a bit of a bummer cuz i was planning to sort out my office and tackle some other things from friday's to-do list.
when it got full dark, the 3 of us took a walk to the mailbox. as we turned onto the main road, the smell of honeysuckle wafted up the hill.
it brought back memories of home, where for as long as i could remember, there was a honeysuckle spread growing along the fence of the house across the alley from my grandma.
there was also a wild spray of honeysuckle growing along one of the fences in the side yard of the house we sold before we relocated.
i've smelled it here before but it was so unexpected and such a nice surprise at the end of a day that had worn me out.
thanks God.
.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
343: i woke up this morning singing...
...God is so good!
i woke up this morning singing...
God is so good!
my God is so good to me!
the drama (read here) is over.
thank you God, thank you God, thank you God!
the good: a few minor changes in his favor, great big ones in mine.
the sad: this "us vs. them" mentality that has taken the forefront.
the ugly: i want to snap a few necks. (but i know this feeling will pass upon receipt of that first new-and-improved child support check.) and although my tongue has been known to cause heart palpitations, for baby bliss's sake, momma shall put on her "lady" face.
because The Other has told baby bliss he will be at her birthday party with The Other Two in tow.
after all the drama... cuz somebody thought it would be a grand idea to forcibly remove baby bliss from the warm cocoon of momma love she has known since birth.
this whole mess has shown me an example of something i already knew: a college-education, six-figure job, and residing in an exclusive neighborhood, cannot save one from the stigma known as being ghetto.
having said all of the above, when i see The Others, i will exchange cordial hellos and then go about the business of minding mine with the invited guests until time to say good bye.
because i'm grateful.
amen.
.
i woke up this morning singing...
God is so good!
my God is so good to me!
the drama (read here) is over.
thank you God, thank you God, thank you God!
the good: a few minor changes in his favor, great big ones in mine.
the sad: this "us vs. them" mentality that has taken the forefront.
the ugly: i want to snap a few necks. (but i know this feeling will pass upon receipt of that first new-and-improved child support check.) and although my tongue has been known to cause heart palpitations, for baby bliss's sake, momma shall put on her "lady" face.
because The Other has told baby bliss he will be at her birthday party with The Other Two in tow.
after all the drama... cuz somebody thought it would be a grand idea to forcibly remove baby bliss from the warm cocoon of momma love she has known since birth.
this whole mess has shown me an example of something i already knew: a college-education, six-figure job, and residing in an exclusive neighborhood, cannot save one from the stigma known as being ghetto.
having said all of the above, when i see The Others, i will exchange cordial hellos and then go about the business of minding mine with the invited guests until time to say good bye.
because i'm grateful.
amen.
.
Friday, April 18, 2008
336: friday stuff
hey y'all.
today was errand day at chez bliss.
we hit the bank, picked up grandma and went to the "thrit" store. even tho i know i shouldn't have, i bought books. more books, as in "i ain't got no where to put more books."
because i've reached the maximum number of books i can put in my office until i clear all the papers off the floor. and i already have bunches of books waiting to be released from their cardboard prisons.
then grandma treated us to lunch. after lunch we went to one of the
last was the $ store, where i shopped for baby bliss's party. this year we've decided to have a theme party.
today was errand day at chez bliss.
we hit the bank, picked up grandma and went to the "thrit" store. even tho i know i shouldn't have, i bought books. more books, as in "i ain't got no where to put more books."
because i've reached the maximum number of books i can put in my office until i clear all the papers off the floor. and i already have bunches of books waiting to be released from their cardboard prisons.
then grandma treated us to lunch. after lunch we went to one of the
last was the $ store, where i shopped for baby bliss's party. this year we've decided to have a theme party.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
334: when we party, we party hearty
hey y'all.
i'm in party planner mode today.
mr. bliss and i have a wedding anniversary coming up.
in the midst of all the packing and moving, sucking teeth and rolling eyes, fights over toilet paper and toilet seats, and i-told-you-so's over badly thought out purchases (his of course!), we managed to make it to 5 years of (mostly) love and happiness.
for all his faults, he's the hubby i've loved the most.
so i'm planning a little something special for us. God was good enough to give us a friday for this year's anniversary so baby bliss will be spending the night at grandma's.
i'm gonna go to trader joe's for a special menu, which i haven't decided on yet. there won't be any alcohol cuz even tho i indulge in white wine when the moon is blue, mr. bliss doesn't indulge at all.
what ever i get to eat will have to be either easy to cook, something that only needs to be heated up, or something that's already done cuz i'm living proof that throwing down in the kitchen is not an inherited genetic trait. and emeril is not our next door neighbor.
we haven't had our favorites (pizza or hot dogs and beans) in a while but i'm wondering how well those food items might fit in with our late-night plans. (wink, wink)
i only have a few weeks to get this one together. that includes the time i'll need to spend moving the rest of my darned boxes. (that are still stacked on the floor around the dining room/kitchen area.)
* * *
baby bliss has a birthday coming. (now if i already mentioned this, bear with me y'all. sleep deprivation is a memory-sucker.)
she and i were talking about the invite list yesterday. we had about 40 people on the list, including family. today we decided to invite the whole church.
now lest y'all think i have accidentally looped my brains out with my crochet hook, our church is small. i don't know how many actual members there are but i guess we get about 200 on a good sunday.
out of that 200, i know 50 or so, some by name and face, some by face only cuz i can't always remember names. less than half of that 50 have children. but i'm inviting them any way because our parties are family affairs.
so now i have to make my lists so i don't forget anything. then i have to make notes on my MS Works calendar so it can remind me. i'll need it to remind me to start my lists, remind me to finish my lists, remind me to print the lists.
or else.
i'll forget.
.
i'm in party planner mode today.
mr. bliss and i have a wedding anniversary coming up.
in the midst of all the packing and moving, sucking teeth and rolling eyes, fights over toilet paper and toilet seats, and i-told-you-so's over badly thought out purchases (his of course!), we managed to make it to 5 years of (mostly) love and happiness.
for all his faults, he's the hubby i've loved the most.
so i'm planning a little something special for us. God was good enough to give us a friday for this year's anniversary so baby bliss will be spending the night at grandma's.
i'm gonna go to trader joe's for a special menu, which i haven't decided on yet. there won't be any alcohol cuz even tho i indulge in white wine when the moon is blue, mr. bliss doesn't indulge at all.
what ever i get to eat will have to be either easy to cook, something that only needs to be heated up, or something that's already done cuz i'm living proof that throwing down in the kitchen is not an inherited genetic trait. and emeril is not our next door neighbor.
we haven't had our favorites (pizza or hot dogs and beans) in a while but i'm wondering how well those food items might fit in with our late-night plans. (wink, wink)
i only have a few weeks to get this one together. that includes the time i'll need to spend moving the rest of my darned boxes. (that are still stacked on the floor around the dining room/kitchen area.)
* * *
baby bliss has a birthday coming. (now if i already mentioned this, bear with me y'all. sleep deprivation is a memory-sucker.)
she and i were talking about the invite list yesterday. we had about 40 people on the list, including family. today we decided to invite the whole church.
now lest y'all think i have accidentally looped my brains out with my crochet hook, our church is small. i don't know how many actual members there are but i guess we get about 200 on a good sunday.
out of that 200, i know 50 or so, some by name and face, some by face only cuz i can't always remember names. less than half of that 50 have children. but i'm inviting them any way because our parties are family affairs.
so now i have to make my lists so i don't forget anything. then i have to make notes on my MS Works calendar so it can remind me. i'll need it to remind me to start my lists, remind me to finish my lists, remind me to print the lists.
or else.
i'll forget.
.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
315: workin, workin, workin day and nite! - a story of extreme gratitude
yes Miz Aly, mr. bliss had me working day and night, getting things all packed and moved.
and Sister Susan, can you believe that on thursday (of last week), mr. bliss told me i should have everything packed and ready to go by saturday?!
i told him he'd gone mad. even God needed 7 whole days to Get It Done.
how in the life of bliss did that man think i could pack up an 1100 square foot apartment full of furniture and things in less than 48 hours?
i told him i needed at least a week.
after i explained how my stress level would be so far off the charts if i even attempted to do what he was asking and that i might never regain the wife-mother sanity i'm hanging on to with both hands, he agreed.
but i digress y'all. lemme start from The Beginning.
we knew the lease on our 2BR would expire mid-march so i began looking at places a few months ago. we looked at houses and apartments in or as near as possible to our neighborhood cuz we love it here.
somehow, i needed more space cuz my dining room "office" was overflowing into the living room and driving us all crazy. (and the more i dragged into the living room, the more baby bliss felt she should drag into the living room as well...)
mr. bliss said he didn't care as long as i was happy.
baby bliss couldn't be bothered one way or the other as long as she would retain her own room.
(y'all can click here to read about the places we looked and how we weren't supposed to be moving at all.)
finally we decided to stay in our same complex for a number of reasons: we live in a neighborhood we love, it's close enough to family, the management already knows us well, and we've never had any serious problems with living on this property, blah blah blah.
around the first of february, i talked to the office manager about renewing our lease. he said we still had a few weeks before we had to sign the new one, no rush.
cool. so we kinda forgot about it.
mid way thru the month i recalled my frustration with my office situation and began dreaming of my own real office, at home.
initially mr. bliss said no when i brought up moving to a 3BR, cuz he didn't want to pay more rent. he also didn't want to move furniture. but i couldn't give up my dream.
i asked the office manager about a 3BR and he said if i had asked a few weeks earlier, he would have had one for us. he said 3BRs rarely came open and he didn't have any notices to vacate. but he said anything was possible so i should check back again before we came in to sign our lease renewal.
a week passed and i checked again. nothing... but he said to check back towards the end of the week.
well, i wasn't feeling any confidence in that because the end of the week would put us at our signing day.
why did i ever doubt that God would make my dream come true?
we went in on thursday to sign the renewal and office manager asked if i'd gotten his message from the day before: there was a 3BR available.
my eyes lit up and i looked at mr. bliss with a huge grin on my face.
office manager asked what floor we wanted. i said 2nd. he said it was a 3rd floor unit but if we wanted, we could look at it.
mr. bliss looked at office manager and said, "she'll take it."
i laughed and said we'd look at it first.
we all fell in love immediately. then i got kinda 'spicious and wondered how there was all of a sudden a 3BR when there hadn't been one open earlier in the week.
in other words, i began to doubt God. and being human (and true to the conspiracy theorist that i am), i began to imagine all sorts of scenarios in my mind about how and why the apartment was now available.
i told mr. bliss i wanted time to think about it.
we returned to the office to fill out the papers but couldn't decide on a move-out date for the old place.
office manager said we could take some time to think about it and give him our final decision the next day.
y'all see that? i had just said those very words and God gave it to me.
on the short drive back home, i realized i'd better start counting my blessings and stop complaining about bull puckie. ;-)
i'm not joking when i say as soon as we got our shoes off, i pulled out the tape gun, searched for empty boxes, plastic bags and anything i could use for packing materials.
then i went out in search of boxes. most places told us they had no boxes or to come back early friday morning. i was overjoyed when we got several from tuesday morning and a pizza place. cuz i was anxious to get started.
silly ole me should have been online arranging to move service for my utilities and doing our change of address with the post office. but it slipped my mind until friday evening. and i didn't get online to do the transfers until the wee hours of saturday morning.
most places need at least 2 business days to coordinate service transfers. our's went through just the way i needed them to.
hallelujah!
i'm thankful to everyone who helped us move: #1 brother-in-law, #1 auntie, grandma, youngest cousin, and our downstairs neighbor from our old building.
on friday, i did my best to empty furniture so it could be taken out saturday, the only day #1 brother-in-law would be available to help.
i managed to do all 5 dressers, 2 night stands, and 2 bookcases. saturday, #1 auntie helped me empty the remaining furniture (two lateral file cabinets, an armoire, and a buffet) while the men moved the empties and heavy boxes.
everyone was extremely helpful but i have to give an extra "thank you" to our dear neighbor.
who has become a member of our family in the short time we've known him.
he's gone to church with us and we'll be going with him very soon. we've all eaten dinner together several times and he's even gone grocery shopping with me and baby bliss.
if it had not been for him, i know we would not have completed this move in enough time. because of him, baby bliss and i didn't have to tire ourselves out walking up and down the steps, we didn't have to carry heavy boxes, and i didn't have to stress myself with moving everything out of the building by the deadline.
while mr. bliss was at work, dear neighbor carried boxes up and down steps, let us put some items in his storage unit, took trash to the dumpster, and was just an all around BIG help to us.
when mr. bliss came home, dear neighbor helped my hubby move boxes and small furniture.
and he would not accept a dime for any of it.
after we finished it all on thursday, dear neighbor dumped the last load of trash then biked home (about a minute away) to wait for baby bliss and i to freshen up so we could head out to grab some grub.
we picked him up and motored a couple of blocks to our favorite market. he offered to make us a real meal for our late lunch if we got the fixings. but we were all too hungry to wait so we decided on pizza.
i tossed two into the cart with the few other things i'd picked up while baby bliss and dear neighbor were busy stuffing their faces with tidbits of goodies they got while running back and forth to the sample area.
dear neighbor said we could eat at his place (cleaner and more organized than this place with boxes stacked and plates who-knew-where) so i took all my food there. no need to stop to unload when i would be home later any way.
our good time was interrupted by dear neighbor's "friend", who was waiting at his door when we got back.
but that's part of a looooooooooong story that extends in time both before and after this event. not something i want to get into at all.
this was the most stress-free move i've ever had. i'm thankful.
amen.
.
and Sister Susan, can you believe that on thursday (of last week), mr. bliss told me i should have everything packed and ready to go by saturday?!
i told him he'd gone mad. even God needed 7 whole days to Get It Done.
how in the life of bliss did that man think i could pack up an 1100 square foot apartment full of furniture and things in less than 48 hours?
i told him i needed at least a week.
after i explained how my stress level would be so far off the charts if i even attempted to do what he was asking and that i might never regain the wife-mother sanity i'm hanging on to with both hands, he agreed.
but i digress y'all. lemme start from The Beginning.
we knew the lease on our 2BR would expire mid-march so i began looking at places a few months ago. we looked at houses and apartments in or as near as possible to our neighborhood cuz we love it here.
somehow, i needed more space cuz my dining room "office" was overflowing into the living room and driving us all crazy. (and the more i dragged into the living room, the more baby bliss felt she should drag into the living room as well...)
mr. bliss said he didn't care as long as i was happy.
baby bliss couldn't be bothered one way or the other as long as she would retain her own room.
(y'all can click here to read about the places we looked and how we weren't supposed to be moving at all.)
finally we decided to stay in our same complex for a number of reasons: we live in a neighborhood we love, it's close enough to family, the management already knows us well, and we've never had any serious problems with living on this property, blah blah blah.
around the first of february, i talked to the office manager about renewing our lease. he said we still had a few weeks before we had to sign the new one, no rush.
cool. so we kinda forgot about it.
mid way thru the month i recalled my frustration with my office situation and began dreaming of my own real office, at home.
initially mr. bliss said no when i brought up moving to a 3BR, cuz he didn't want to pay more rent. he also didn't want to move furniture. but i couldn't give up my dream.
i asked the office manager about a 3BR and he said if i had asked a few weeks earlier, he would have had one for us. he said 3BRs rarely came open and he didn't have any notices to vacate. but he said anything was possible so i should check back again before we came in to sign our lease renewal.
a week passed and i checked again. nothing... but he said to check back towards the end of the week.
well, i wasn't feeling any confidence in that because the end of the week would put us at our signing day.
why did i ever doubt that God would make my dream come true?
we went in on thursday to sign the renewal and office manager asked if i'd gotten his message from the day before: there was a 3BR available.
my eyes lit up and i looked at mr. bliss with a huge grin on my face.
office manager asked what floor we wanted. i said 2nd. he said it was a 3rd floor unit but if we wanted, we could look at it.
mr. bliss looked at office manager and said, "she'll take it."
i laughed and said we'd look at it first.
we all fell in love immediately. then i got kinda 'spicious and wondered how there was all of a sudden a 3BR when there hadn't been one open earlier in the week.
in other words, i began to doubt God. and being human (and true to the conspiracy theorist that i am), i began to imagine all sorts of scenarios in my mind about how and why the apartment was now available.
i told mr. bliss i wanted time to think about it.
we returned to the office to fill out the papers but couldn't decide on a move-out date for the old place.
office manager said we could take some time to think about it and give him our final decision the next day.
y'all see that? i had just said those very words and God gave it to me.
on the short drive back home, i realized i'd better start counting my blessings and stop complaining about bull puckie. ;-)
i'm not joking when i say as soon as we got our shoes off, i pulled out the tape gun, searched for empty boxes, plastic bags and anything i could use for packing materials.
then i went out in search of boxes. most places told us they had no boxes or to come back early friday morning. i was overjoyed when we got several from tuesday morning and a pizza place. cuz i was anxious to get started.
silly ole me should have been online arranging to move service for my utilities and doing our change of address with the post office. but it slipped my mind until friday evening. and i didn't get online to do the transfers until the wee hours of saturday morning.
most places need at least 2 business days to coordinate service transfers. our's went through just the way i needed them to.
hallelujah!
i'm thankful to everyone who helped us move: #1 brother-in-law, #1 auntie, grandma, youngest cousin, and our downstairs neighbor from our old building.
on friday, i did my best to empty furniture so it could be taken out saturday, the only day #1 brother-in-law would be available to help.
i managed to do all 5 dressers, 2 night stands, and 2 bookcases. saturday, #1 auntie helped me empty the remaining furniture (two lateral file cabinets, an armoire, and a buffet) while the men moved the empties and heavy boxes.
everyone was extremely helpful but i have to give an extra "thank you" to our dear neighbor.
who has become a member of our family in the short time we've known him.
he's gone to church with us and we'll be going with him very soon. we've all eaten dinner together several times and he's even gone grocery shopping with me and baby bliss.
if it had not been for him, i know we would not have completed this move in enough time. because of him, baby bliss and i didn't have to tire ourselves out walking up and down the steps, we didn't have to carry heavy boxes, and i didn't have to stress myself with moving everything out of the building by the deadline.
while mr. bliss was at work, dear neighbor carried boxes up and down steps, let us put some items in his storage unit, took trash to the dumpster, and was just an all around BIG help to us.
when mr. bliss came home, dear neighbor helped my hubby move boxes and small furniture.
and he would not accept a dime for any of it.
after we finished it all on thursday, dear neighbor dumped the last load of trash then biked home (about a minute away) to wait for baby bliss and i to freshen up so we could head out to grab some grub.
we picked him up and motored a couple of blocks to our favorite market. he offered to make us a real meal for our late lunch if we got the fixings. but we were all too hungry to wait so we decided on pizza.
i tossed two into the cart with the few other things i'd picked up while baby bliss and dear neighbor were busy stuffing their faces with tidbits of goodies they got while running back and forth to the sample area.
dear neighbor said we could eat at his place (cleaner and more organized than this place with boxes stacked and plates who-knew-where) so i took all my food there. no need to stop to unload when i would be home later any way.
our good time was interrupted by dear neighbor's "friend", who was waiting at his door when we got back.
but that's part of a looooooooooong story that extends in time both before and after this event. not something i want to get into at all.
this was the most stress-free move i've ever had. i'm thankful.
amen.
.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
310: weekend stuff
hey y'all!
how was the weekend at your house?
ours was long. kinda busy too.
i needed to do my friday errands (on friday) and baby bliss didn't feel well. so i bundled her over to grandma's and ran off screaming "Freeeeeeeeee-dommmmmmmmmmm!", scaring everyone within a 50-mile radius.
as i was finishing up. baby bliss called to say she wanted to sleep over at grandma's, a real surprise. which meant i had to go home, to grandma's, then back home. baby bliss can't sleep without her Teddy Bear.
mr. bliss and i watched movies for several hours friday night/saturday morning. (hmmm... why did i just have a deja vu moment? like i've written that line recently?)
saturday we slept in. later i got mr. bliss to go to hobby lobby with me. i was looking for yarn for scarves. it's not that i don't have a ton of yarn stashed already. but i needed more.
i made a scarf for a friend overseas and sent it to her for christmas. now she wants another. and her mom and sister each want one.
i don't have the colors they requested hence our look-see at hobby lobby.
we were in line in the dollar store (where we'd found some yarn that might have worked) when mr. bliss got paged to go to work. he said we could wait in the (long) line but i didn't want to. so we left.
i dropped him back here then high tailed it over to my grandma's (again). i passed #2 auntie's house along the way. she was getting her mail so i stopped to say hello and hang out for a few minutes.
when i got to grandma's, baby bliss was all packed and ready to go. huh? i'd told her the day before that she would have to stay at grandma's saturday as well because i planned to attend a meet up event that evening.
well that chap was up in arms. i had to put on the "cuz i'm your momma and i said so" hat. she backed down, we called a truce and returned to our respective corners.
yeah. i thought so. LOL
the event started at 6. knowing how slow i am, i should have been home at 4:30, getting ready to leave by 5:30 latest. instead i was at grandma's. and she asked me to take her to the supermarket.
graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand-maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
by the time i got back home, it was after 5. then i poked around here and next thing i knew, it was almost 7.
i grabbed my gear and ran.
i wondered who else was late as i lawfully made my way to the event.
as i read the directions to get past the point i knew, i sensed a mistake. how could i be heading south and be required to make a right turn onto south _______ street? if i was already heading south, a right turn should be going west. (right?)
any way, thank God for a fairly good sense of direction. i managed to get there no wrong turns. the only other weird thing was the address for the venue. no part of the building faced or attempted to go near the street that was named in the address. go figure.
when i got to the table, there were a few other ladies present. we all exchanged names and greetings as i settled into the closest chair. everyone else had ordered so i did too. while i waited for my tea and small bowl of soup, i engaged the ladies in conversation: where are you from, how long have you lived here? do you have any children, etc.
after we ate, we passed around photos and discussed the topic that had drawn us all together: natural hair. (for those of you who don't know, "natural hair" generally means hair that has not been "processed" or chemically treated. this is a commonly-used term in the african-american community.)
about mid-way through the event, i thought about moving down to the other end of the table to mingle with the ladies at that end. partly because i wanted to learn more about them and partly because i wanted to connect with someone closer to my own age. (the oldest person at my end was 10 years younger than me.)
but i didn't. i kind of got caught up in what the young ladies were talking about. not the specifics because the conversation was about musicians i've never heard of. i was drawn in from a nostalgic standpoint. at one point i zoned out and reminisced about the friends i had back in tha day, the concerts we'd gone to, and the other fun events we'd attended.
the pre-mommy days.
i didn't stay much longer. we opened the nice gift bags our organizer thoughtfully put together, ate cake and talked a bit more. and when the young lady sitting next to me said she was leaving, i did too.
we said our goodbyes to the ladies, walked out together, exchanged nice-to-meet-you's, said good night, and parted in the parking lot.
the next meeting will be in a month. we have some fun events planned but i'm not sure if i'll go. it was good to get out but i was tired by the time i left (around 9:30), i don't like driving in the dark, and i felt like i had missed out on some crochet time. (yeah, i know. i sound like an old lady, right?)
funny that i can stay up around the clock at home but out in the street, i start shutting down at dark.
.
.
.
how was the weekend at your house?
ours was long. kinda busy too.
i needed to do my friday errands (on friday) and baby bliss didn't feel well. so i bundled her over to grandma's and ran off screaming "Freeeeeeeeee-dommmmmmmmmmm!", scaring everyone within a 50-mile radius.
as i was finishing up. baby bliss called to say she wanted to sleep over at grandma's, a real surprise. which meant i had to go home, to grandma's, then back home. baby bliss can't sleep without her Teddy Bear.
mr. bliss and i watched movies for several hours friday night/saturday morning. (hmmm... why did i just have a deja vu moment? like i've written that line recently?)
saturday we slept in. later i got mr. bliss to go to hobby lobby with me. i was looking for yarn for scarves. it's not that i don't have a ton of yarn stashed already. but i needed more.
i made a scarf for a friend overseas and sent it to her for christmas. now she wants another. and her mom and sister each want one.
i don't have the colors they requested hence our look-see at hobby lobby.
we were in line in the dollar store (where we'd found some yarn that might have worked) when mr. bliss got paged to go to work. he said we could wait in the (long) line but i didn't want to. so we left.
i dropped him back here then high tailed it over to my grandma's (again). i passed #2 auntie's house along the way. she was getting her mail so i stopped to say hello and hang out for a few minutes.
when i got to grandma's, baby bliss was all packed and ready to go. huh? i'd told her the day before that she would have to stay at grandma's saturday as well because i planned to attend a meet up event that evening.
well that chap was up in arms. i had to put on the "cuz i'm your momma and i said so" hat. she backed down, we called a truce and returned to our respective corners.
yeah. i thought so. LOL
the event started at 6. knowing how slow i am, i should have been home at 4:30, getting ready to leave by 5:30 latest. instead i was at grandma's. and she asked me to take her to the supermarket.
graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand-maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
by the time i got back home, it was after 5. then i poked around here and next thing i knew, it was almost 7.
i grabbed my gear and ran.
i wondered who else was late as i lawfully made my way to the event.
as i read the directions to get past the point i knew, i sensed a mistake. how could i be heading south and be required to make a right turn onto south _______ street? if i was already heading south, a right turn should be going west. (right?)
any way, thank God for a fairly good sense of direction. i managed to get there no wrong turns. the only other weird thing was the address for the venue. no part of the building faced or attempted to go near the street that was named in the address. go figure.
when i got to the table, there were a few other ladies present. we all exchanged names and greetings as i settled into the closest chair. everyone else had ordered so i did too. while i waited for my tea and small bowl of soup, i engaged the ladies in conversation: where are you from, how long have you lived here? do you have any children, etc.
after we ate, we passed around photos and discussed the topic that had drawn us all together: natural hair. (for those of you who don't know, "natural hair" generally means hair that has not been "processed" or chemically treated. this is a commonly-used term in the african-american community.)
about mid-way through the event, i thought about moving down to the other end of the table to mingle with the ladies at that end. partly because i wanted to learn more about them and partly because i wanted to connect with someone closer to my own age. (the oldest person at my end was 10 years younger than me.)
but i didn't. i kind of got caught up in what the young ladies were talking about. not the specifics because the conversation was about musicians i've never heard of. i was drawn in from a nostalgic standpoint. at one point i zoned out and reminisced about the friends i had back in tha day, the concerts we'd gone to, and the other fun events we'd attended.
the pre-mommy days.
i didn't stay much longer. we opened the nice gift bags our organizer thoughtfully put together, ate cake and talked a bit more. and when the young lady sitting next to me said she was leaving, i did too.
we said our goodbyes to the ladies, walked out together, exchanged nice-to-meet-you's, said good night, and parted in the parking lot.
the next meeting will be in a month. we have some fun events planned but i'm not sure if i'll go. it was good to get out but i was tired by the time i left (around 9:30), i don't like driving in the dark, and i felt like i had missed out on some crochet time. (yeah, i know. i sound like an old lady, right?)
funny that i can stay up around the clock at home but out in the street, i start shutting down at dark.
.
.
.
Friday, February 22, 2008
308: another one gone by...
hey y'all.
i can't believe another week has gone by.
time...
just yesterday (so it seems) there was sunshine and Susan was saying she'd seen a woman laying about in a bikini. or maybe it was a bikini top. either way, Susan doesn't live too far from me and i agree with her that it wasn't that warm.
seems like a few days ago Aly was talking about doing the girls' hair. but that might have been last week!
time is getting away from me in leaps and long strides.
i feel like i haven't had time to write any of my stuff in too long. i have been crocheting tho. but not as much as i want to.
too much other stuff to do: wipe down all kitchen surfaces, wonder what to do about the cracked bottom shelf in the fridge, wonder how much laundry i should do today or if it should wait until tomorrow...
and where the heck is that smell coming from? (or is it smells?) is it the fridge? the carpet? the kitchen floor? the garbage disposal?
do i really care????
should i?
yeah. i guess i should. *sigh*
well what about the rings in the bath tubs? and the spotty bathroom mirrors (that are the size of some picture windows)?
and all the dishes that are dirty despite the paper plates and paper towels i buy so we don't have to wash so many darned dishes?
and why am i the only one who remembers to close the pantry door and the foyer closet door and the laundry room door? so we aren't bumping elbows and knees on them when we walk past?
i have some clothing modification ideas i wanna work on but when? only God knows.
i've been thinking about giving up the writing gig. i mean writing for other people. their stuff i mean. i wanna get back to writing my own stuff. and to working on some other projects i've got in mind. i love the extra income but it's not steady and what i want to do will generate income too. eventually. ;-)
with my current schedule, there just aren't enough hours in the day. which is why i'm still up and they are sleeping.
welllllll, maybe i'll get a cup of tea and do some more crocheting while i try to get back to a few books i've been reading, defrag the hard drive, watch this documentary about ralph nader, and sketch out the design for a laptop bag for baby bliss that i'm gonna make using left over after denim from her jeans we cut last summer.
i can't believe another week has gone by.
time...
just yesterday (so it seems) there was sunshine and Susan was saying she'd seen a woman laying about in a bikini. or maybe it was a bikini top. either way, Susan doesn't live too far from me and i agree with her that it wasn't that warm.
seems like a few days ago Aly was talking about doing the girls' hair. but that might have been last week!
time is getting away from me in leaps and long strides.
i feel like i haven't had time to write any of my stuff in too long. i have been crocheting tho. but not as much as i want to.
too much other stuff to do: wipe down all kitchen surfaces, wonder what to do about the cracked bottom shelf in the fridge, wonder how much laundry i should do today or if it should wait until tomorrow...
and where the heck is that smell coming from? (or is it smells?) is it the fridge? the carpet? the kitchen floor? the garbage disposal?
do i really care????
should i?
yeah. i guess i should. *sigh*
well what about the rings in the bath tubs? and the spotty bathroom mirrors (that are the size of some picture windows)?
and all the dishes that are dirty despite the paper plates and paper towels i buy so we don't have to wash so many darned dishes?
and why am i the only one who remembers to close the pantry door and the foyer closet door and the laundry room door? so we aren't bumping elbows and knees on them when we walk past?
i have some clothing modification ideas i wanna work on but when? only God knows.
i've been thinking about giving up the writing gig. i mean writing for other people. their stuff i mean. i wanna get back to writing my own stuff. and to working on some other projects i've got in mind. i love the extra income but it's not steady and what i want to do will generate income too. eventually. ;-)
with my current schedule, there just aren't enough hours in the day. which is why i'm still up and they are sleeping.
welllllll, maybe i'll get a cup of tea and do some more crocheting while i try to get back to a few books i've been reading, defrag the hard drive, watch this documentary about ralph nader, and sketch out the design for a laptop bag for baby bliss that i'm gonna make using left over after denim from her jeans we cut last summer.
Friday, February 1, 2008
296: the retraction (sort of)
a recent conversation at our house...
me: so is your momma definitely coming this weekend or not?
mr. bliss: i didn't say she was coming this weekend.
me (staring in disbelief): um, yes, you did.
mr. bliss: no i didn't. this is super bowl weekend.
me: so? i know what you said. you said she might be coming this weekend.
mr. bliss: naw. i said she might be coming february 11.
me (not knowing that feb. 11 is not even a weekend day): you never said "february 11". you laid in this bed right here and said "this weekend".
mr. bliss: oh. well i meant february 11.
i hope with every cell of my being that he meant she'll be leaving on feb 11 cuz no way can she stay with us from the 11th (a monday) until the following weekend.
:-o
i'll have to move to my grandma's for the duration.
and apparently they are caravan-ing down. and i know those other people ain't staying with us. cuz that's just pushing the envelope too far and i'll have to put both feet down to quell that notion.
so if there's a bunch of in-laws coming, why can't the MIL stay where the others are staying? i think she'd be more comfortable surrounded with more of her kind.
and mr. bliss can even go stay where ever they're all staying and it will be just one big happy mish-mash of THEM.
i'm just saying.
.
me: so is your momma definitely coming this weekend or not?
mr. bliss: i didn't say she was coming this weekend.
me (staring in disbelief): um, yes, you did.
mr. bliss: no i didn't. this is super bowl weekend.
me: so? i know what you said. you said she might be coming this weekend.
mr. bliss: naw. i said she might be coming february 11.
me (not knowing that feb. 11 is not even a weekend day): you never said "february 11". you laid in this bed right here and said "this weekend".
mr. bliss: oh. well i meant february 11.
***
i hope with every cell of my being that he meant she'll be leaving on feb 11 cuz no way can she stay with us from the 11th (a monday) until the following weekend.
:-o
i'll have to move to my grandma's for the duration.
and apparently they are caravan-ing down. and i know those other people ain't staying with us. cuz that's just pushing the envelope too far and i'll have to put both feet down to quell that notion.
so if there's a bunch of in-laws coming, why can't the MIL stay where the others are staying? i think she'd be more comfortable surrounded with more of her kind.
and mr. bliss can even go stay where ever they're all staying and it will be just one big happy mish-mash of THEM.
i'm just saying.
.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
211: mazel tov!
congrats to my blog sista Aly Cat 121 and her hubby on the birth of their beautiful daughter Asaria. this is daughter number 4 for those love bunnies.
y'all have got to check out the pics of those lil angels as babies. what's funny is that it looks like there are four pics of the same baby but it's not true. all the girls just look so much alike. "-)
y'all have got to check out the pics of those lil angels as babies. what's funny is that it looks like there are four pics of the same baby but it's not true. all the girls just look so much alike. "-)
Saturday, August 25, 2007
204: namaste y'all
okay, the "y'all" at the end of the greeting/goodbye phrase is not really correct because the translation ends with the word "you".
but i'm a southern gurl so "y'all" is there cuz it sounds good to me.
y'all know what i love about the internet? it connects us to so many and so much.
without the internet, you and i probably wouldn't know each other in any capacity.
but on to what i was supposed to be saying in this post...
that last post ended with the word "namaste". and in looking for a site to link to so some could get a feel for what the word embodies, i came across another "namaste" site.
now go check it out y'all and tell me, how cool is this?
here's a hint: if you knit, you might like it more than some other folks. i've never seen needles like their's.
but i'm a southern gurl so "y'all" is there cuz it sounds good to me.
y'all know what i love about the internet? it connects us to so many and so much.
without the internet, you and i probably wouldn't know each other in any capacity.
but on to what i was supposed to be saying in this post...
that last post ended with the word "namaste". and in looking for a site to link to so some could get a feel for what the word embodies, i came across another "namaste" site.
now go check it out y'all and tell me, how cool is this?
here's a hint: if you knit, you might like it more than some other folks. i've never seen needles like their's.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
191: what's going on?
hey y'all.
this synchronicity thing is getting eerier by the day.
don't get me wrong now. i've always prayed to be in the Flow of Abundance, to dance in the swirl of Life's Unseen, and kept abreast of Things I Need to Know. and i'm not saying i'm a Sylvia Brown or a Madame Cleo '-) but God has been good to me with the intuition thing.
i've been a just-miss no-show for more shoot outs, bank robberies, and knife fights than i care to remember. i've managed to come across long-lost documents right before they were needed, i dreamed my daughter's birth at a time when i was adamant about not having children, i've advised people to make seemingly questionable business moves that have served them extremely well, etc.
i can't recount all the wonderful incidences of coincidence/fate/human revolution/karma/synchronicity that i've experienced in my life. and i'm sure there are some i've missed out on cuz i was somewhere doing something i had no business and therefore blocking the necessary download of information from God/Goddess/Universe to my brain.
but the past few weeks have been eerie in a way that has me worried.
i told y'all about the bad dream where i thought my sister was calling to tell me her son had died right? i think that was last week.
any way, we were at the library yesterday (where else? LOL) and i was talking to my friend V who works here. (yeah, i'm at the library right now.) V's brother came to drop off her car and she introduced us.
after he left, she and i started talking about family. i told her about my sister, how we hadn't seen each other is sooooo many years, and how i don't have any contact info for her now. then i was talking about the small town my sister lives in and how it's not too far and i was thinking about driving down to see if i could find her.
well how about this: while we were talking, a man came up to V's desk and asked for a pencil sharpener. he sharpened his pencil while V and i continued talking. when he heard me say my sister lived in ______, he laughed and said he was going to ______ very soon for a special event for a college friend. we all laughed then V and i listened to him talk about his upcoming visit to _____. he even told me how far the drive i from here. (and no, i don't think he was trying to pick either of us up. i got the feeling that women weren't his type.)
when he left, V was the first to say how weird it was that he was going to _____. she knew nothing about my dream so she didn't know how much more weird it was to me.
then today... a few hours ago, i met the step-mom of one of my daughter's new friends. and doggone if she didn't look like my sister.
so what do y'all think? could all this be pointing me to get in my car and drive on down to _____ to find my sister? i haven't seen her since the first time we met (11 or 12 years ago) and haven't talked to her in over a year.
maybe something is wrong and God wants me to see my sister. i'm gonna pray about this tonight.
this synchronicity thing is getting eerier by the day.
don't get me wrong now. i've always prayed to be in the Flow of Abundance, to dance in the swirl of Life's Unseen, and kept abreast of Things I Need to Know. and i'm not saying i'm a Sylvia Brown or a Madame Cleo '-) but God has been good to me with the intuition thing.
i've been a just-miss no-show for more shoot outs, bank robberies, and knife fights than i care to remember. i've managed to come across long-lost documents right before they were needed, i dreamed my daughter's birth at a time when i was adamant about not having children, i've advised people to make seemingly questionable business moves that have served them extremely well, etc.
i can't recount all the wonderful incidences of coincidence/fate/human revolution/karma/synchronicity that i've experienced in my life. and i'm sure there are some i've missed out on cuz i was somewhere doing something i had no business and therefore blocking the necessary download of information from God/Goddess/Universe to my brain.
but the past few weeks have been eerie in a way that has me worried.
i told y'all about the bad dream where i thought my sister was calling to tell me her son had died right? i think that was last week.
any way, we were at the library yesterday (where else? LOL) and i was talking to my friend V who works here. (yeah, i'm at the library right now.) V's brother came to drop off her car and she introduced us.
after he left, she and i started talking about family. i told her about my sister, how we hadn't seen each other is sooooo many years, and how i don't have any contact info for her now. then i was talking about the small town my sister lives in and how it's not too far and i was thinking about driving down to see if i could find her.
well how about this: while we were talking, a man came up to V's desk and asked for a pencil sharpener. he sharpened his pencil while V and i continued talking. when he heard me say my sister lived in ______, he laughed and said he was going to ______ very soon for a special event for a college friend. we all laughed then V and i listened to him talk about his upcoming visit to _____. he even told me how far the drive i from here. (and no, i don't think he was trying to pick either of us up. i got the feeling that women weren't his type.)
when he left, V was the first to say how weird it was that he was going to _____. she knew nothing about my dream so she didn't know how much more weird it was to me.
then today... a few hours ago, i met the step-mom of one of my daughter's new friends. and doggone if she didn't look like my sister.
so what do y'all think? could all this be pointing me to get in my car and drive on down to _____ to find my sister? i haven't seen her since the first time we met (11 or 12 years ago) and haven't talked to her in over a year.
maybe something is wrong and God wants me to see my sister. i'm gonna pray about this tonight.
Friday, August 10, 2007
184: #2 Auntie's house with grandma
baby bliss and i are at #2 Auntie's house with grandma. we're still up. (yeah, what a surprise, right?)
i'm doing this and b.b. is watching That's So Raven. she's in tween heaven cuz we don't have cable at home.
earlier, my grandma was watching one of her religious programs. it was interesting but we could have done without it this time. Clifton Davis (the actor/songwriter) is now a minister and he was the host. now, i don't have a thing against gay people at all (some of my best friends and all... LOL) but i think he's a lil sweet. even baby bliss (who knows my gay friends) got a ding on her gaydar.
she even asked my grandma if he was. my grandma said no but what does she know? sometimes the signs are very subtle. and sometimes the most overtly feminine man may not be gay at all. not in the truest sense of the word...
grandma wanted to see the program to the end but i knew she wouldn't make it. it was already going on 11:30 and i've never known her to stay up that late. baby bliss saw her nodding off and kept trying to get my attention from the other side of the room so i could laugh at grandma with her. now y'all know that ain't right.
and i know something baby bliss don't: every shut eye ain't sleep. no way would i want my grandma to open her eyes and see me clowning her. she might whack me with a wet dishcloth cross the back.
when she realized she couldn't catch my eye, baby bliss--that little minx--began texting me about grandma: mommy look! grandma is sleep!
did i set a bad example by texting her back? i sho hope not. y'all know how hard i struggle to set a good example for the girl, to be a pillar of virtue and what not.
any way, by the time Cliff was doing the goodnight prayer, grandma was in full tilt nod. baby bliss nudged her and sweetly said "grandma, don't you wanna hear the prayer?
grandma's eyes flew open and she looked at the clock. "what time is it?" she asked. i told her it was midnight. she retrieved her keys from the kitchen then stopped back in the living room before she headed down the hall to her room. (she has her own whole house but a room here too.)
"are y'all staying up?" i said yep, we'd be up a little while longer. i expected a comment like, "don't let that baby stay up all night" or "y'all betta get back on a school schedule soon". but she didn't say anything. maybe she was just too tired?
i'm doing this and b.b. is watching That's So Raven. she's in tween heaven cuz we don't have cable at home.
earlier, my grandma was watching one of her religious programs. it was interesting but we could have done without it this time. Clifton Davis (the actor/songwriter) is now a minister and he was the host. now, i don't have a thing against gay people at all (some of my best friends and all... LOL) but i think he's a lil sweet. even baby bliss (who knows my gay friends) got a ding on her gaydar.
she even asked my grandma if he was. my grandma said no but what does she know? sometimes the signs are very subtle. and sometimes the most overtly feminine man may not be gay at all. not in the truest sense of the word...
grandma wanted to see the program to the end but i knew she wouldn't make it. it was already going on 11:30 and i've never known her to stay up that late. baby bliss saw her nodding off and kept trying to get my attention from the other side of the room so i could laugh at grandma with her. now y'all know that ain't right.
and i know something baby bliss don't: every shut eye ain't sleep. no way would i want my grandma to open her eyes and see me clowning her. she might whack me with a wet dishcloth cross the back.
when she realized she couldn't catch my eye, baby bliss--that little minx--began texting me about grandma: mommy look! grandma is sleep!
did i set a bad example by texting her back? i sho hope not. y'all know how hard i struggle to set a good example for the girl, to be a pillar of virtue and what not.
any way, by the time Cliff was doing the goodnight prayer, grandma was in full tilt nod. baby bliss nudged her and sweetly said "grandma, don't you wanna hear the prayer?
grandma's eyes flew open and she looked at the clock. "what time is it?" she asked. i told her it was midnight. she retrieved her keys from the kitchen then stopped back in the living room before she headed down the hall to her room. (she has her own whole house but a room here too.)
"are y'all staying up?" i said yep, we'd be up a little while longer. i expected a comment like, "don't let that baby stay up all night" or "y'all betta get back on a school schedule soon". but she didn't say anything. maybe she was just too tired?
Thursday, August 9, 2007
183: dreams...
hey y'all.
how's the weather in your neck of the woods? it's hot as hell here. well, maybe not that hot. but it 'pends on who you ask and who you b'lieve, i guess. but it is sho nuff hot here. over a hunnert degrees in the shade. baby bliss keeps talkin' bout it's our fault (my generation) cuz we killed the ozone layer with all the hair spray we used back in my day. i keep telling her it was my mother's generation, not mine. but baby bliss is a non-believer.
we have been managing to stay cool, thank God/Goddess/Universe. i am thankful for air conditioning, electricity, mr. bliss who works to pay the bill, and living in an area that doesn't see too many black outs.
as usual y'all, i was up til the wee hours. but not too wee. i crashed around 2 or 2:30 in the a.m. guess my clock is naturally slowing down and winding back the other way in preparation for the coming school days.
some semi-scary news: i remember three (3) distinct dreams from sleepy time.
the first was baby bliss and i in FL. the dream was a hybrid of an actual trip i took for my high school graduation and a conversation i had with a friend in e-mail the other day.
the other was weird-er and sad. it was actually two dreams in one, i guess.
i was checking into a high-priced hotel with a sista-friend i grew up with, her husband (who in waking life is a heroin addict), and a girl who (in real life) grew up in the projects across the street from us. we were all attorneys in town for a conference.
the man who checked us in was Mr. L. (an ooooooold man who in waking life was the door man at a building i worked in almost 20 years ago. he was old back then so he might be dead now.) while my friends were checking in, i got a phone call. Mr. L. wanted to know who i was talking to and he kept asking my friends if they knew who it was and what we were talking about. when they wouldn't give him any info, he threatened them.
as we were on our way to our rooms, my sista-friend was in tears and told me she could no longer be affiliated with me because she'd worked too hard to get where she was. i tried to find out what Mr. L. had threatened them with but she wouldn't tell.
(by the way, the phone call was secret intel about a recently-deceased, well-known attorney. i was told he'd been killed because of information he had that would cost the US govt. a whole lotta $$)
we all piled into one room (don't ask why. i don't know... dream stuff...) and began talking. then i got a 2nd phone call. it was bad news.
a voice -- that i assumed was my sister's -- told me "A." had accidentally hung himself. in real life, my sister has a son i've never met. (she and i have different mothers and haven't seen each other in over 10 years.) i thought she was telling me her son was dead and i realized i would never meet him. of course i burst into tears.
but when i called my sister's name, the woman said no, she wasn't my sister. then i caught the voice and realized it was my sista-friend V. from home. (a real friend, who i've known almost 25 years)
then i realized who she meant: "A.", my ex-boyfriend. (another real person; she and i dated brothers when we were in high school; A. was my boyfriend, K. her's.) she said he and his brother (not K.) had gotten into a tussle and A. hung himself later.
i really began boo hoo-ing. in fact, i woke up crying.
the first thing i did was call V_____. but i had to leave a message cuz she was at work. she called me back this afternoon. she said A____ and K_____'s family was mostly fragmented now. some of the siblings no longer come to family events and some no longer call other members at all.
i'm pretty sure the cause is their mother. most of the children were adopted and their mother was more like a wicked step-mother. she and i didn't get along. primarily because i opened A_____'s eyes to some things he wasn't aware of. monetary things...
V___ and I had a lot of catching up to do. i'm 'sposed to call her back tomorrow cuz she called while we were at the library so we couldn't really dish like i wanted to. '-)
i have to set the alarm on my cell or else i won't remember to call her.
.
how's the weather in your neck of the woods? it's hot as hell here. well, maybe not that hot. but it 'pends on who you ask and who you b'lieve, i guess. but it is sho nuff hot here. over a hunnert degrees in the shade. baby bliss keeps talkin' bout it's our fault (my generation) cuz we killed the ozone layer with all the hair spray we used back in my day. i keep telling her it was my mother's generation, not mine. but baby bliss is a non-believer.
we have been managing to stay cool, thank God/Goddess/Universe. i am thankful for air conditioning, electricity, mr. bliss who works to pay the bill, and living in an area that doesn't see too many black outs.
as usual y'all, i was up til the wee hours. but not too wee. i crashed around 2 or 2:30 in the a.m. guess my clock is naturally slowing down and winding back the other way in preparation for the coming school days.
some semi-scary news: i remember three (3) distinct dreams from sleepy time.
the first was baby bliss and i in FL. the dream was a hybrid of an actual trip i took for my high school graduation and a conversation i had with a friend in e-mail the other day.
the other was weird-er and sad. it was actually two dreams in one, i guess.
i was checking into a high-priced hotel with a sista-friend i grew up with, her husband (who in waking life is a heroin addict), and a girl who (in real life) grew up in the projects across the street from us. we were all attorneys in town for a conference.
the man who checked us in was Mr. L. (an ooooooold man who in waking life was the door man at a building i worked in almost 20 years ago. he was old back then so he might be dead now.) while my friends were checking in, i got a phone call. Mr. L. wanted to know who i was talking to and he kept asking my friends if they knew who it was and what we were talking about. when they wouldn't give him any info, he threatened them.
as we were on our way to our rooms, my sista-friend was in tears and told me she could no longer be affiliated with me because she'd worked too hard to get where she was. i tried to find out what Mr. L. had threatened them with but she wouldn't tell.
(by the way, the phone call was secret intel about a recently-deceased, well-known attorney. i was told he'd been killed because of information he had that would cost the US govt. a whole lotta $$)
we all piled into one room (don't ask why. i don't know... dream stuff...) and began talking. then i got a 2nd phone call. it was bad news.
a voice -- that i assumed was my sister's -- told me "A." had accidentally hung himself. in real life, my sister has a son i've never met. (she and i have different mothers and haven't seen each other in over 10 years.) i thought she was telling me her son was dead and i realized i would never meet him. of course i burst into tears.
but when i called my sister's name, the woman said no, she wasn't my sister. then i caught the voice and realized it was my sista-friend V. from home. (a real friend, who i've known almost 25 years)
then i realized who she meant: "A.", my ex-boyfriend. (another real person; she and i dated brothers when we were in high school; A. was my boyfriend, K. her's.) she said he and his brother (not K.) had gotten into a tussle and A. hung himself later.
i really began boo hoo-ing. in fact, i woke up crying.
the first thing i did was call V_____. but i had to leave a message cuz she was at work. she called me back this afternoon. she said A____ and K_____'s family was mostly fragmented now. some of the siblings no longer come to family events and some no longer call other members at all.
i'm pretty sure the cause is their mother. most of the children were adopted and their mother was more like a wicked step-mother. she and i didn't get along. primarily because i opened A_____'s eyes to some things he wasn't aware of. monetary things...
V___ and I had a lot of catching up to do. i'm 'sposed to call her back tomorrow cuz she called while we were at the library so we couldn't really dish like i wanted to. '-)
i have to set the alarm on my cell or else i won't remember to call her.
.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
166: updates
could y'all tell from the previous post that i was seething with threatening-to-erupt rage?
i was afraid i'd want to spit in one of non-custodial's eyes and pull the other out with a fork.
but lunch wasn't so bad. we made small talk while we ate. a casual observer wouldn't have known i'd been contemplating evisceration just minutes before.
baby bliss was happy with the short visit and that's all that really matters, right?
***
last night's soda run was a bust. i think the doors only open until a certain hour, after which access is cut off.
i no longer crave that sugary dr. pepper taste, thank goodness. now i've got a hankering for watermelon and pineapple tidbits, both of which we have in the kitchen already. (we're at the library right now so i won't be able to partake for another 1 1/2 hours, at least.)
i'm supposed to be working (read: writing some part of my Work in Progress) but i'm sitting here doing this. LOL
what better way to enjoy my time at the library while waiting for baby bliss to finish her time on the PC than by blogging? :-)
i'm also listening to music. i don't have my headphones and my volume is low but all of a sudden it got very quiet in here. i 've been turning the volume down in increments but it seems to get quieter every time.
am i in trouble? will i be singled out as the culprit and be banished from the library?
i should think not.
there was a young woman sitting in front of me who seemed to relish the thought that we were all taking in her cell phone conversation.
i wasn't (this time) and her loud voice was damned annoying. that was part of the reason i turned my music on. i do like to eavesdrop every now and again but her conversation was ordinary.
my ears are tuned to take in more juicy, gossip-y kinds of details.
tsk tsk y'all. i sometimes feel sorry for those who have no scandals to be overheard whilst talking loudly on the cellular.
personally, i take pains to occasionally shock my listeners with loudly whispered words like "g-string" and "nipple", and phrases like "how big was it?!" and "she did what to your...?!"
everyone needs a lil bit of titillation in their lives.
some days i feel i'm here to provide that service.
165: lunch with the non-custodial parent
i left my ex before baby bliss was 2 years old (8+ years ago) to return to my hometown (over 2,000 miles from the ex). i left because finding the middle ground for living a peaceful life seemed to be impossible for the two of us.
we divorced several years later, amicably.
fast forward to the ex's re-marriage (a few years ago) and problems began to creep in.
they were subtle: baby bliss returned from a visit with tales of parental squabbles (normal). baby bliss gets into it with the step-momma about step-momma's heavy hand when doing baby's hair (which i specifically told step-momma not to do) that turns into a hair-pulling session (not good) bestowed upon baby bliss by the step-mommy. (time for momma bliss to put her foot down. or up somebody's @ss if necessary).
then comes the step-momma's pregnancy. baby bliss returned home from a visit upset because the other parents were showing pictures of their recently acquired abode to all who would look. the descriptions of the glorious rooms were festooned with titles of ownership like "little man's bedroom", "big man's office", "the parents' love nest", "little man's nursery".
baby bliss said she asked, "where's my room?"
to which the biological non-custodial was said to have sputtered, "ummm, yeah. haha. we'll just work that out when you come for a visit. haha."
okie dokie.
nine (9) years of parenting with mr. bliss as my partner and now hubby... either and/or both of us: did almost a year of potty patrol; slept with one ear on standby in case baby fell out of new bed; kissed a google of skinned knees; have been sleep-deprived as necessary to battle nightmares and under-bed baddies; accompanied baby bliss for her first day of school (every time, from Pre-K to 2nd grade, after which we began home schooling); volunteered countless hours chaperoning class trips/playing teacher's aide/offering general school-wide help; took the child to doc visits (wincing at all appts requiring needles of any kind); played tooth fairy too many times to count; read countless bedtime stories; consoled said child with hugs and kisses (and the occasional Tofutti cutie or bowl of sorbet) when some eyes-squinted-in-prayer wished-for event or situation didn't pan out; washed a ton of kiddie-sized laundry; hosted at least one birthday party every year (some years there were 2)...
y'all know what i mean.
the real mess started after i filed to change the jurisdiction for child support last fall. a month later i get a phone call from the non-custodial. it started out with general chit chat. then he requested permission to speak on a more serious matter.
the matter turned out to be a "concern" for baby bliss's education. the other parents "noticed" that baby bliss never wanted to read when she was with them. ummm... okay...
i'm pretty sure i was among the exception(s) when i was a young girl cuz i loved to read any and everything i could get my hands on. at any time, day or night.
that's not baby bliss though. although she reads quite proficiently for her age, she's not a huge fan of the written word. i'm past making a big deal of it tho. she knows the reading requirements for this house and tho we sometimes struggle with it, she's doing well. her test scores say so too.
the "concern" for baby bliss's education is peeled away layer by layer to reveal something deeper: the non-custodial says he needs "more say" in baby bliss's life.
LOL yeah, okay. from hundreds of miles away, you need more say in the life of a child who's being raised by other people. people who's child-rearing has been satisfactory for all the years previous...
i was already suspicious of the conversation and wondered where it was really leading. because what i also heard were suspicious pauses in the conversation, as if the non-custodial was reading from a script or being coached.
when i requested clarification of the words "more say", i was met with frantic tongue-tied hemming and hawing. until the meaning was clarified by the unknown coach(es).
the conversation got a little tense and heated. not (too) ugly. but it did end with me advising the non-custodial to seek legal counsel. he couldn't agree to disagree on a situation that was previously to his liking but had somehow ceased to run smoothly at some point from his (or their) point of view.
in the early part of this year, a sheriff's deputy knocked on my door and handed me a summons. i was being sued for custody and child support. the only allegation: baby bliss is receiving "an inadequate education". without ever having requested or seen one report card/progress report (well, maybe only one) since Pre-K, the non-custodial makes this allegation.
okay. they had now pulled out the big gun (a lawyer) so i'd have to get one too. for protection of course.
if any of you have ever been thru this kind of madness, then y'all already know what a mess it is. let me just say that prior to this nonsense, i have always been cooperative with visitation between baby bliss and the biological non-custodial. my own mother took baby bliss to see her dad for a week-long holiday a few months after i left him. (which she never did again because he showed his behind so much that an older relative of his--who was there at the same time--reprimanded the ex for his behavior and the way he treated my mom.)
after that, he was always welcome to visit her at my home. i even allowed him to take her with him to his home (several states away, after he moved back to the east coast) and i didn't even have his address. i allowed him to take her with him to spend time with him and his girlfriends. because i've never been the don't-have-my-baby-around-your-woman type. (one of his girlfriends and i even became good friends thru phone calls and e-mails.)
mr. bliss and i have always been gracious hosts and the ex has been warmly welcomed at our house (and homes of my family members) with his girlfriends (and even their children)--for many years.
yet my daughter is now a member of a statistical group that i never imagined she would belong to: children who are caught in custody battles.
fast forward to now: we're on our way to have lunch with him. no more unsupervised visits until this mess is over. i'll detail more about it all later cuz i gotta run.
we divorced several years later, amicably.
fast forward to the ex's re-marriage (a few years ago) and problems began to creep in.
they were subtle: baby bliss returned from a visit with tales of parental squabbles (normal). baby bliss gets into it with the step-momma about step-momma's heavy hand when doing baby's hair (which i specifically told step-momma not to do) that turns into a hair-pulling session (not good) bestowed upon baby bliss by the step-mommy. (time for momma bliss to put her foot down. or up somebody's @ss if necessary).
then comes the step-momma's pregnancy. baby bliss returned home from a visit upset because the other parents were showing pictures of their recently acquired abode to all who would look. the descriptions of the glorious rooms were festooned with titles of ownership like "little man's bedroom", "big man's office", "the parents' love nest", "little man's nursery".
baby bliss said she asked, "where's my room?"
to which the biological non-custodial was said to have sputtered, "ummm, yeah. haha. we'll just work that out when you come for a visit. haha."
okie dokie.
nine (9) years of parenting with mr. bliss as my partner and now hubby... either and/or both of us: did almost a year of potty patrol; slept with one ear on standby in case baby fell out of new bed; kissed a google of skinned knees; have been sleep-deprived as necessary to battle nightmares and under-bed baddies; accompanied baby bliss for her first day of school (every time, from Pre-K to 2nd grade, after which we began home schooling); volunteered countless hours chaperoning class trips/playing teacher's aide/offering general school-wide help; took the child to doc visits (wincing at all appts requiring needles of any kind); played tooth fairy too many times to count; read countless bedtime stories; consoled said child with hugs and kisses (and the occasional Tofutti cutie or bowl of sorbet) when some eyes-squinted-in-prayer wished-for event or situation didn't pan out; washed a ton of kiddie-sized laundry; hosted at least one birthday party every year (some years there were 2)...
y'all know what i mean.
the real mess started after i filed to change the jurisdiction for child support last fall. a month later i get a phone call from the non-custodial. it started out with general chit chat. then he requested permission to speak on a more serious matter.
the matter turned out to be a "concern" for baby bliss's education. the other parents "noticed" that baby bliss never wanted to read when she was with them. ummm... okay...
i'm pretty sure i was among the exception(s) when i was a young girl cuz i loved to read any and everything i could get my hands on. at any time, day or night.
that's not baby bliss though. although she reads quite proficiently for her age, she's not a huge fan of the written word. i'm past making a big deal of it tho. she knows the reading requirements for this house and tho we sometimes struggle with it, she's doing well. her test scores say so too.
the "concern" for baby bliss's education is peeled away layer by layer to reveal something deeper: the non-custodial says he needs "more say" in baby bliss's life.
LOL yeah, okay. from hundreds of miles away, you need more say in the life of a child who's being raised by other people. people who's child-rearing has been satisfactory for all the years previous...
i was already suspicious of the conversation and wondered where it was really leading. because what i also heard were suspicious pauses in the conversation, as if the non-custodial was reading from a script or being coached.
when i requested clarification of the words "more say", i was met with frantic tongue-tied hemming and hawing. until the meaning was clarified by the unknown coach(es).
the conversation got a little tense and heated. not (too) ugly. but it did end with me advising the non-custodial to seek legal counsel. he couldn't agree to disagree on a situation that was previously to his liking but had somehow ceased to run smoothly at some point from his (or their) point of view.
in the early part of this year, a sheriff's deputy knocked on my door and handed me a summons. i was being sued for custody and child support. the only allegation: baby bliss is receiving "an inadequate education". without ever having requested or seen one report card/progress report (well, maybe only one) since Pre-K, the non-custodial makes this allegation.
okay. they had now pulled out the big gun (a lawyer) so i'd have to get one too. for protection of course.
if any of you have ever been thru this kind of madness, then y'all already know what a mess it is. let me just say that prior to this nonsense, i have always been cooperative with visitation between baby bliss and the biological non-custodial. my own mother took baby bliss to see her dad for a week-long holiday a few months after i left him. (which she never did again because he showed his behind so much that an older relative of his--who was there at the same time--reprimanded the ex for his behavior and the way he treated my mom.)
after that, he was always welcome to visit her at my home. i even allowed him to take her with him to his home (several states away, after he moved back to the east coast) and i didn't even have his address. i allowed him to take her with him to spend time with him and his girlfriends. because i've never been the don't-have-my-baby-around-your-woman type. (one of his girlfriends and i even became good friends thru phone calls and e-mails.)
mr. bliss and i have always been gracious hosts and the ex has been warmly welcomed at our house (and homes of my family members) with his girlfriends (and even their children)--for many years.
yet my daughter is now a member of a statistical group that i never imagined she would belong to: children who are caught in custody battles.
fast forward to now: we're on our way to have lunch with him. no more unsupervised visits until this mess is over. i'll detail more about it all later cuz i gotta run.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
161: the man at the pool
men don't read women's blogs, right y'all?
i hope not cuz somebody out there might know who i'm talking about then i'll be busted.
any way... *sucking my teeth*
there's this guy i've been seeing at the pool fairly often in the past few weeks. he's teaching some folk round here to swim.
i've been going to the pool with baby bliss but not getting in. she plays and swims while i "work" on the shaded porch. (might that be called a "portico"? i'll have to look it up.)
we go to the pool at different times every time and we don't go every day so i'm not stalking the guy. we just happen to be there at the same times lately.
he has an interesting face and a beautiful body. he's tall and mostly slender, a very dark shade of burnished mahogany, and he's fit. not in an ugly over-muscled way. but in a comfortable, spoon-me-on-the-sofa kinda way. mmmmm... yummy.
we've exchanged smiles and greetings, spoken a few words about the weather in passing. and that's as far as it'll go.
despite the fact that mr. bliss and i are more like a roommates these days, there is no one else for me. by that i mean:
but it's all good. the swimming instructor shall remain a delectable specimen of eye candy and possibly good fodder for a steamy short story or two.
c'est la vie...
i hope not cuz somebody out there might know who i'm talking about then i'll be busted.
any way... *sucking my teeth*
there's this guy i've been seeing at the pool fairly often in the past few weeks. he's teaching some folk round here to swim.
i've been going to the pool with baby bliss but not getting in. she plays and swims while i "work" on the shaded porch. (might that be called a "portico"? i'll have to look it up.)
we go to the pool at different times every time and we don't go every day so i'm not stalking the guy. we just happen to be there at the same times lately.
he has an interesting face and a beautiful body. he's tall and mostly slender, a very dark shade of burnished mahogany, and he's fit. not in an ugly over-muscled way. but in a comfortable, spoon-me-on-the-sofa kinda way. mmmmm... yummy.
we've exchanged smiles and greetings, spoken a few words about the weather in passing. and that's as far as it'll go.
despite the fact that mr. bliss and i are more like a roommates these days, there is no one else for me. by that i mean:
- right now i don't want more than i have.
- my life is full.
- i don't have the energy or the inclination to do anything more than what i'm already doing: sneak peeks while i watch to be sure baby bliss isn't drowning.
but it's all good. the swimming instructor shall remain a delectable specimen of eye candy and possibly good fodder for a steamy short story or two.
c'est la vie...
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
145: mood music
i've mentioned this in other posts but it's so good i'll repeat it here: i love music.
music is the key that unlocks my spirit. i'm more aware of this every time i indulge in certain kinds of music. now if i could only know which certain kind of music to play each time, i could take over the world.
cuz i only get it dead-on right sometimes. that might be because i don't listen to as much music as i should.
i listen when i'm driving (99% of the time, it's my faves burned on CDs) and sometimes i listen in the house. i would say i get less than half of the daily recommended allowance for listening.
it's cuz the people who live here would rather watch telly and DVDs. and i think they need hearing appliances cuz they can't hear the telly unless the volume is turned up to Maximum Decibel. which means i can hear the bloody thing even whilst wearing headphones.
totally annoying.
but tonight, i'm in heaven. the other blisses have been in their respective bedrooms for the past several hours, leaving me in the living room alone. this occurs so rarely that i didn't realize it until a few hours had passed. and i realized i could play my mu-sic!
what's playing right now? "please pardon me (you remind me of a friend)" by rufus and chaka khan:
...hope you don't mind.
you look like a friend of mine.
and it's seldom you find
a face that's so kind.
and now i must bid y'all fine folks adieu. a sista went to bed in the wee hours and had to get up early. i'se tired!
thank God i don't have to get up at any sp'cific time til sunday...
Monday, July 9, 2007
139: the people in my dreams
this morning i dreamed about the in-laws and my son.
for those of you who don't know, i inherited my son thru marriage. i hardly talk about him here because i don't see or talk to him much in real life. i met him when he was 10 or 11. he already had a momma so i didn't try to step in to play that role. he and i have our own special relationship. sometimes he calls me ma; sometimes not. it's cool.
my in-laws are personae non gratae. i don't fool with them and they don't fool with me. due to the meddling and undue influence of the most senior female family member, those people got off on the wrong foot with me. over the years, some of us had managed to "put up with" the other(s). a few of us had even managed to develop genuine ties to the other(s). then the most senior female family member -- who cannot be truly happy in her misery unless she has others sharing in it too -- put her big mouth and even bigger foot in to destroy the tenuous strands that built the bridge(s) that create(d) family ties.
what i learned from those adventures is that for some folk, blood truly is thicker than water. and even if that blood relative is a known muck-racker, the bird-kin will flock around the perp as if she spouted truth everlasting.
whaddya do?
*shrug*
here's what i did: i put up with those people as long as i could then i decided to stop dealing with them. i have enough drama with my own family of origin and any attempt at inserting extra commotion into my life gets the cold shoulder.
now y'all know i digress. back to the dreams. '-)
i dreamed i visited my stepson (who is currently visiting acquaintances). i thought he was gonna say he was coming home but he said he was going to a show with his friends. he showed me the ticket or program thingie and the date was aug 10. (all y'all gambling folk can play 810.) when i realized he wasn't coming home, i cried.
the other dream was scary. i dreamed we were going on a road trip with my brother-in-law and his family. (wife and 2 kids) i don't know how we were all gonna fit in the car cuz it was a toyota camry. (it was a gold camry too so look up the number for gold and play it y'all.) with me, mr. bliss, and baby bliss, there would have been 7 in the car.
(i can think of a funny-but-possibly-offensive ethnic "slur" that mr. bliss would insert here -- based on his parentage and the number of people in the car -- but i won't say it. he's proud of his mixed heritage but like a lot of people i know, he's not above joking about it.)
any way, i cannot imagine anything short of a life-threatening emergency that would make me get in a car with 6 other people. and God forbid it should be a road trip. i'm a bad road trip passenger in any vehicle: if i'm riding, i can't fall asleep and get irritable. if i'm driving, i'll need to stop at least once every hour so i don't fall asleep. in a car with 6 other people, i'd be ready for a straight jacket 30 minutes into the ride. knowing i'd have to get back in the car might be enough to have me hitchhiking at the rest stop.
i don't know where we supposed to go in the gold camry cuz i didn't get in the car. i was standing at the curb, they pulled up, i opened the door, stuck my head in and commented on the kids (specifically the little girl's hair).
that's all the action i remember. the rest was my thoughts about how we would all fit in the car.
i guess that's when i either woke up or went into the other dream.
.
for those of you who don't know, i inherited my son thru marriage. i hardly talk about him here because i don't see or talk to him much in real life. i met him when he was 10 or 11. he already had a momma so i didn't try to step in to play that role. he and i have our own special relationship. sometimes he calls me ma; sometimes not. it's cool.
my in-laws are personae non gratae. i don't fool with them and they don't fool with me. due to the meddling and undue influence of the most senior female family member, those people got off on the wrong foot with me. over the years, some of us had managed to "put up with" the other(s). a few of us had even managed to develop genuine ties to the other(s). then the most senior female family member -- who cannot be truly happy in her misery unless she has others sharing in it too -- put her big mouth and even bigger foot in to destroy the tenuous strands that built the bridge(s) that create(d) family ties.
what i learned from those adventures is that for some folk, blood truly is thicker than water. and even if that blood relative is a known muck-racker, the bird-kin will flock around the perp as if she spouted truth everlasting.
whaddya do?
*shrug*
here's what i did: i put up with those people as long as i could then i decided to stop dealing with them. i have enough drama with my own family of origin and any attempt at inserting extra commotion into my life gets the cold shoulder.
now y'all know i digress. back to the dreams. '-)
i dreamed i visited my stepson (who is currently visiting acquaintances). i thought he was gonna say he was coming home but he said he was going to a show with his friends. he showed me the ticket or program thingie and the date was aug 10. (all y'all gambling folk can play 810.) when i realized he wasn't coming home, i cried.
the other dream was scary. i dreamed we were going on a road trip with my brother-in-law and his family. (wife and 2 kids) i don't know how we were all gonna fit in the car cuz it was a toyota camry. (it was a gold camry too so look up the number for gold and play it y'all.) with me, mr. bliss, and baby bliss, there would have been 7 in the car.
(i can think of a funny-but-possibly-offensive ethnic "slur" that mr. bliss would insert here -- based on his parentage and the number of people in the car -- but i won't say it. he's proud of his mixed heritage but like a lot of people i know, he's not above joking about it.)
any way, i cannot imagine anything short of a life-threatening emergency that would make me get in a car with 6 other people. and God forbid it should be a road trip. i'm a bad road trip passenger in any vehicle: if i'm riding, i can't fall asleep and get irritable. if i'm driving, i'll need to stop at least once every hour so i don't fall asleep. in a car with 6 other people, i'd be ready for a straight jacket 30 minutes into the ride. knowing i'd have to get back in the car might be enough to have me hitchhiking at the rest stop.
i don't know where we supposed to go in the gold camry cuz i didn't get in the car. i was standing at the curb, they pulled up, i opened the door, stuck my head in and commented on the kids (specifically the little girl's hair).
that's all the action i remember. the rest was my thoughts about how we would all fit in the car.
i guess that's when i either woke up or went into the other dream.
.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
137: saturday fun
the remainder of today was interesting.
ya gotta love my granny. she tried to trick me into doing doggie duty at my auntie's tonight.
earlier in the day she said she wanted to go home to press her hair and get ready for church in the morning. she said she didn't want to go to church from her daughter's house because that might make mr. bliss late. (he's picking her up for church.)
ummm, hello? i didn't sign up to house- or pup sit. i have guests coming in tomorrow and i needed to get home (after staying with her at auntie's from early yesterday afternoon) to make sure my quarters are presentable for their arrival. in addition, puppy sitting would require me to be responsible for auntie's house (keys, alarm, personal effects, the car her co-vacationers left in her driveway) and the dog (making sure he was fed, watered, and walked).
i've done it before and i didn't mind then. this time tho, granny put her honor on the line and i think she should keep her word.
needless to say, she had a 'tude when i took her home to get her church clothes (and probably her strayt-nen comb). i dropped her back at auntie's and she acted like she didn't wanna wave g'bye.
i sho hope she prays about her attitude when she gets to church tomorrow as well as why she thinks it's always okay to inconvenience me but never the rest of her kin.
most of them hit her up for money, food, etc. i've never done that. because i'm the one "with no job", i've usually been the one to take her to appointments and to run errands. not that i don't love my grandma. i do. but i get tired of being the go-to girl when it suits her and the outcast when that works better.
on a more pleasant note, our neighbors (who hail from a hometown near our own) had a weekend shindig at their house. their family is still visiting from the holiday and they all invited us in like we were part of the clan. my daughter played with our neighbor's niece, i watched the ladies play spades, then my hubby joined a bunch of them to play blackjack while i talked to a new friend. later we all threw down on some grub dished up by mrs. neighbor.
ribs, steak, hot dogs, bratwurst, corn on the cob, greens, baked beans, tater salad, homemade crab cakes, and all kinds of drinks... mr. neighbor manned the grill so i gotta give him his props too.
the downside was that my daughter got a bit sick and i had to leave too early to bring her home. i wanted to give my food time to digest and get to plate number two so i told mr. bliss we could take shifts with baby bliss. of course he said no but as soon as i got settled in to stay home, here he comes in the front door. by then it was too close to 10 p.m. and i decided to stay home.
mr. and mrs. neighbor are cool people but we haven't known them that long and i think it's rude for me to be knockin' at people's door after a certain hour.
maybe they'll have some food left over tomorrow evening. i bet i've got somethings in the freezer i can take over to add to the grill. :-)
it's nice to have good neighbors. i'm thankful.
.
ya gotta love my granny. she tried to trick me into doing doggie duty at my auntie's tonight.
earlier in the day she said she wanted to go home to press her hair and get ready for church in the morning. she said she didn't want to go to church from her daughter's house because that might make mr. bliss late. (he's picking her up for church.)
ummm, hello? i didn't sign up to house- or pup sit. i have guests coming in tomorrow and i needed to get home (after staying with her at auntie's from early yesterday afternoon) to make sure my quarters are presentable for their arrival. in addition, puppy sitting would require me to be responsible for auntie's house (keys, alarm, personal effects, the car her co-vacationers left in her driveway) and the dog (making sure he was fed, watered, and walked).
i've done it before and i didn't mind then. this time tho, granny put her honor on the line and i think she should keep her word.
needless to say, she had a 'tude when i took her home to get her church clothes (and probably her strayt-nen comb). i dropped her back at auntie's and she acted like she didn't wanna wave g'bye.
i sho hope she prays about her attitude when she gets to church tomorrow as well as why she thinks it's always okay to inconvenience me but never the rest of her kin.
most of them hit her up for money, food, etc. i've never done that. because i'm the one "with no job", i've usually been the one to take her to appointments and to run errands. not that i don't love my grandma. i do. but i get tired of being the go-to girl when it suits her and the outcast when that works better.
on a more pleasant note, our neighbors (who hail from a hometown near our own) had a weekend shindig at their house. their family is still visiting from the holiday and they all invited us in like we were part of the clan. my daughter played with our neighbor's niece, i watched the ladies play spades, then my hubby joined a bunch of them to play blackjack while i talked to a new friend. later we all threw down on some grub dished up by mrs. neighbor.
ribs, steak, hot dogs, bratwurst, corn on the cob, greens, baked beans, tater salad, homemade crab cakes, and all kinds of drinks... mr. neighbor manned the grill so i gotta give him his props too.
the downside was that my daughter got a bit sick and i had to leave too early to bring her home. i wanted to give my food time to digest and get to plate number two so i told mr. bliss we could take shifts with baby bliss. of course he said no but as soon as i got settled in to stay home, here he comes in the front door. by then it was too close to 10 p.m. and i decided to stay home.
mr. and mrs. neighbor are cool people but we haven't known them that long and i think it's rude for me to be knockin' at people's door after a certain hour.
maybe they'll have some food left over tomorrow evening. i bet i've got somethings in the freezer i can take over to add to the grill. :-)
it's nice to have good neighbors. i'm thankful.
.
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