And the Drama Rolls On

C called last night to chit chat... school had started, update on color guard... basic stuff.

When the conversation rolled around to S, she said, "She's not doing very good."

Me	Really? How so?
C	Well, the other day, all she did was cry in her room all day.
Me	Oooo. You're right. Not good.
C	Then, last night, she came out of her bedroom saying mom needed to take her to the hospital because she was going to hurt herself if she didn't.
Me	Yikes.
C	I know. DS has blocked all of our numbers, but I have some things I'd like to say to him.
Me	Like what?
C	Well, for one thing, he keeps calling her. One minute he'll say he's in love with her. Then, he'll call later and say that he didn't mean it.
Me	Asshole.
C	Exactly.

I called CR to ask her about the incident.

Me	So, I hear S was suicidal.
CR	Not exactly.
Me	Really? Well, C told me she was threatening to hurt herself if you didn't take her to the hospital.
CR	Yeah.
Me	Well, that is the definition of being suicidal.
CR	Right, but there's more to it than that. Because I told her that the hospital wasn't going to take her memories away. At best they were just going to take her phone away, and if that's all she wanted I could do that. She didn't feel the need to go to the hospital after that.*

*Note: the preceding conversation may have been slightly embellished to give it a good punchline, but the gist was still the same.

Week of Frustrations, Redux

On Monday my mother called me with a bug up her butt:

Mom	Do you know what E is planning when you go to TX?
Me	I guess not.
Mom	He thinks he's going to stay down there and work on some job with Billy Bob
Me	[sigh] We talked about this on Friday and I had hoped we put it to bed, but obviously not.
Mom	So are you going to talk to him?
Me	Of course.
Mom	You should also call CR and tell her to talk to Billy Bob
Me	[defeated] Ok.

Who am I? The friggin' UN???

I didn't really see the point in calling CR, but I did. Long story short: neither she or Big D knew anything about said job. Nor would they talk to Billy Bob because he just does his own thing and there's no sense trying to talk to him. (I'm paraphrasing, of course, but that was the gist.)

E was fixing something to eat when I got home. (Another big step. At the beginning of the summer he would wait for me to get home and then let me heat up the leftovers. I'm like, "Dude, you can work a microwave as well as I can...")

I just acted like we were picking up the conversation from Friday

Me	Did you talk to Billy Bob today?
E	Yes.
Me	Did you find out any new information?
E	No, not really.
Me	Something else I thought of is how are you going to get your medication while you're down there?
E	I thought about that too.
Me	[trying not to look shocked]
E	I don't think it matters, though, because they hired someone for the job.
Me	[biting my tongue hard so I don't make a sarcastic comment about no "new" information]... So, they're not going to hire any one?
E	No, I guess not.
Me	[sigh of relief]

Guess Who Changed Her Mind Again?

E was still in bed when I woke up on Sunday, so I decided to watch the movie that we rented that I knew he didn't care anything about. I was listening to the commentary on the extras when I fell asleep. Next thing I know E is waking me up. After grumbling and grousing about, I decided that I should go reserve the hotel and van to go pick up S. Their little town in TX has morphed into a "resort" town. And I've discovered that you can't wait til the day before (like I used to when they fist moved down there) to make a reservation. Plus, it seems like the price goes up $20 every time I go down there. Pretty soon I won't be able to afford to go down there at all.

Sunday nights I reserve to watch "my shows." C almost always calls me during this time and I tend to get agitated with her. There were no calls on this night, but as I was getting ready for bed I happened to glance at my phone and see the following text messages from CR:

S didn't want to disturb your shows but b4 too much planning happened S decided today not to move b4 the baby comes

OMG, I was furious! I texted CR back:

Great. I've already reserved a room & van. Now that u live in a "resort" town I can't wait til the last minute. I am sick & fucking tired of this shit.

Yes, S's indecision is driving me bonkers. I'm also sure that CR has been laying the guilt on *thick* (first grandchild, etc.) But it's hard to express those nuances in 160 characters. CR responded:

Can't help it she just decided today. She promises she won't change her mind tomorrow is all I can say. Can't you just cancel the other stuff?

ARGH! They SO don't get it! In my fury I also texted S:

Its time for you to act like a grown up & not have ur mommy deliver ur messages. If you've got something to say to me, YOU say it.

I was still angry when I woke up on Monday. I know I've been apprehensive about what would happen to E once S arrived, but when I examine my feelings now, I guess I figured it would all work out.

E & I decided Monday night to go ahead and go to TX. No, I really don't have the money, but I think E needs to see his brother (& vice versa). I suppose I need to talk to S too. But I'm half way between still-very-angry and ready-to-bawl-my-eyes-out, so I haven't a clue what I would say.

I know what you're thinking: Seriously? You didn't see this coming? She's changed her mind... how many times???

You're right, of course. I did see this coming. But it wasn't til I talked to my mother this morning that I figured out why I was so upset.

She was telling me how much better S was doing: actually helping out a little (not a lot, just a little), grieving over the lost relationship with DS (no, they are not back together), and she and CR were finally getting along better.

Me	That's all well and good, but she's got to live in KS 6 months before she can get "in state" tuition. Anything before that is "out of state" and 4x as much.
Mom	Ok. What do you want me to do? I think that's where she needs to be now.
Me	Maybe its true, maybe not. [Ed: definitely not] I'm talking about her future here.
Mom	Can't you just butt out?
Me	[nearly running off the road; yes, I was driving and talking, but I had a headset on!] No, I will not butt out! I am the only one who's thinking about how she's going to care for this baby! You and CR are being very short-sided in how you're approaching this situation. Since you won't think about the future, apparently I have to!
Mom	Aren't you sweet?
Me	[seething]

I swear to God I almost hung up on her for calling me sweet. You want to know what's really going on here? You've read this far, so I guess so. My mother is SO afraid that CR will get depressed over this situation and she'll try to kill herself again. There. I said it. I named the big pink elephant in the middle of the room. And so she's totally willing to sacrifice S & baby to make sure CR stays happy.

Later in the conversation she told me that S is not going to college & CR doesn't really care. Again, not a surprise. I knew it, but hearing the words made me realize why I'm so upset: I was desperately holding on to the dream that S was going to get out of the trailer park trash world that she'd grown up in... and now she's just bringing another generation into it.

I know you hear me harping on college like it's the be-all, end-all solution. I know its not. I also know that a diploma is not a guarantee. I just want to expose to her to other people, other life styles, other ways of thinking. I don't even care if she graduates. I just want her out of that place.

But that's not going to happen. I know it, but I just can't seem to come to grips with it.

Saturday at the Salt Mine

I really didn't want to "plan" anything last weekend. I just feel like I've been running 100mph for so long, that I just wanted a leisurely weekend. But I also realized this would be E & mine's last weekend before S got here and things got even more crazy. So I called a friend of mine that has a go-kart.

My mother and I got E a go-kart for his 16th birthday. He loved it. It didn't last a year before he totalled it, but he'd really out-grown it by then too, so I suppose that's the way it was supposed to be.

Anyhow, I thought if my friend didn't mind him riding around on the go-kart for a while, that would be a great day for him... and almost worth scheduling something on a weekend I didn't want any official plans.

As it turns out, the grass was really tall in their fields, so riding the go-kart was out of the question. However, my friend suggested that we visit the salt mine in a nearby town. Sure, ok... that would be something different to do.

About an hour before we were supposed to be there, I got a call that my friend was not going to be able to make it. So it was just going to be E and I. Even though I'd already purchased the tickets I gave him the option not to go. (See 1st paragraph) But he said he wanted to go.

So, we're sitting in the waiting room and E starts to freak out a little. He gets claustrophobic and the thought of going down 600+ feet was getting to him. Even though we only had about 10 before the tour started, that was too much time for him to think.

So we asked the lady at the info desk some questions. I was pretty convinced that it would be ok after that, but E was still apprehensive. Fortunately the tour started a couple minutes later.

First, they show a safety film on how to use the "breather" they give you "in case of emergency." It's the same piece of equipment that they give the actual miners. It's in a little pouch that you wear around your shoulder. The film showed how to place your lips on the mouthpiece to get oxygen. However, then it said, "You may notice that your lips begin to burn. Do not remove your lips from the mouthpiece, even if the burning is so intense you want to remove your lips. This proves the chemical reaction is working...." Yikes! E whispered in my ear, "I really don't want to do this." I had my doubts at this point, too, but I felt like it was important for E to go through with this.

Next, we were issued our breather pouch-thing and a hard hat. For some reason the hard hat really perked him up. Must be a guy thing.

Then we get on this clunky-looking lift. E was behind me. It may have looked clunky, but it was really fast. It was like taking off on an airplane. My ears were popping most the way down. But also, since we were descending over 600 feet, it was totally pitch black most of the way. Like, you can't even see your hand in front of your face, pitch black. As soon as it went dark, I felt E's hand on my shoulder.

Most of the tour was on a tram. And while it was underground, the pathway was huge - tall and wide. So E didn't have any claustrophobic issues.

Since it's perfectly environmentally controlled, many of the movie studios store their originals there. So we got some pics of the actual costumes from some movies.

Mr. Freeze	The Matrix
Batman Returns	Talledaga Nights

Then there were these two crazy kids:

Sorry, the picture is dark, but, hey,
we were in a MINE ya know!

A funny note on the way back up... there was a group of girl scouts that happened to be there at the same time we were. The girls took the first lift. The left-over leaders / chaperons were on the same lift as E & I. They were crackin' jokes and having a good ole time. They were flirting with the guide (who was probably 20 years their junior). It was pretty entertaining. So we get to the super dark part of the ride and one of the leaders says, "I've got a light right here in my pocket." The guide, who was the only other male on the lift besides E, says, "Uh, m'am, that's my pocket." Maybe you had to be there...

Week of Frustrations, Part IIIa

Still Friday.

E called me at work to tell me about a job he'd been offered in TX. Big D's mother's ex-husband, Billy Bob had told E there was "big job" they were working on and some construction work was available. [Ed: his name isn't really Billy Bob, but it will do for the purposes of this entry.]

E concluded with, "So we have some things to talk about when you get home." Amazingly, I kept my cool and just responded with, "Ok."

I left the office shortly after that. That was one of the few days that I was thankful for the 45 minute drive. I screamed, mostly obscenities, for about the first third of the drive.

So by the time I got home I could speak to E in a logical fashion. So I called him upstairs so we could talk.

I began, "Do you know how long this 'big job' is supposed to last?"

E	[plops on the bean bag] I don't know.
Me	Ok. Let's say, for the purpose of this discussion, it's 3 months.
E	Ok.
Me	So here's my thoughts on the matter, in no particular order. As I recall, one of the reasons you decided to wait until January to start school was so you could get more accustomed to your environment before starting school. If you go away for 3 months, then you won't be settled when school starts.
E	I might not be gone that long.
Me	True. But it also might be longer, right?
E	I DON'T KNOW!
Me	Enough with the yelling. You said you wanted to talk about this, and this is how adults discuss things.
E	[flops on his back and throws his arm over his eyes]
Me	Also, there's going to be forms for school that you'll need to fill out. I can't help you with those things if you're 8 hours away.
E	So I can't go?
Me	E, you are 19. If you want to go, I can't stop you. Its not up to me to say you can or cannot go. All I can do is help you think through the process.
E	So I can go?
Me	[shaking my head, completely ignoring his last question] How will you get there?
E	I was going to stay when we drive down to get S.
Me	Ok. How will you get back? Because, I gotta tell you bud, I'm tapped out.
E	I don't know. [flops on the bean bag again, for emphasis I presume.]
Me	Well, that's something else you'll need to figure out.
E	[sigh]
Me	Will you be staying with your mom while you're there? I happen to know that your brother has bunk beds now, so there would be a place for you to sleep. But you were very unhappy with that situation before.
E	I might be staying somewhere else.
Me	Ok. So that's something else you'll need to find out. Will you be driving while you're down there? Your car insurance is only valid in KS. [Ed: cheap, liability-only] And I shouldn't have to pay for that while you're down there.
E	I don't know. But at least it will be a job! I've applied to every automotive place I can find around here.
Me	And this 'big job' is an automotive job?
E	No. Construction.
Me	And how many construction jobs have you applied for around here?
E	Well, none, but...
Me	My point is: you've been very selective about what you're applying for around here. You're not looking for a career at this point, just a job to get you through school.
E	[pouting]
Me	Well, it sounds like you have LOTS of questions that need to be answered before we can go any further in this discussion.

At the forefront of my brain during that whole discussion is all the back-sliding that would happen if he went back to TX at this juncture. Somehow, in spite of my frustrating week, I managed to keep from saying, "Not just no, but Hell NO!" I'm actually pretty impressed with myself.

Hopefully, I stunted him with my verbal assault, and that put this issue to bed.

Photo Phun Results

From earlier in the week, here's some of my creations using the links I posted.

E's graduation pic, cartoonized.
(BTW, he loves this picture!)

An old picture of C used for a 1952 yby photo. With some sort of skin condition.

C again, yb-ized to 1962. Looking eerily like my mother.



An old pic of the little guy used for the 1952 lady. Same skin condition. Doesn't "she" look surprised?
"Hey, does anyone know why I'm wearing pearls... and a dress?"


1976... on the short bus.
My co-worker said,
"Stop it! You're using the yb-izer for evil now."
At least he's not wearing pearls.

Week of Frustrations, Part III

Friday.

E and I toured the college in Wichita. I had a little trepidation over doing the tour because E is only partially medicated. (In my defense, he only told me he was out on Wednesday evening. And since one of his meds is regulated, they can't call it in. We have to go pick up the script and take it to the pharmacy. Hope to have that filled this weekend.)

But he was in a pretty good mood in spite of that. I've started to notice the subtle differences between a good mood and the evil spawn that sometimes inhabits his body. Like, he says, "bull crap" instead of, "bull sh*t". Bull crap = good mood.

E	Do we have to tour the whole place? I just wanna see the auto stuff.
Me	I imagine we'll have to see the whole place.
E	Well, that's a bunch of bull crap.

Also, "crackheads" = good mood. (Like I said, it's subtle.)

The tour was fine. The lady that took us around, surprisingly, only took us to the automotive area. The facilities are much more sophisticated than those of the community college we visited. E was very impressed with them. But they are EXPENSIVE! About 3x the cost of HCC. Plus, he'll have to take a comp and math course just to get the certificate, whereas HCC does not require comp or math unless you're getting an AA. Dang, it. I was hoping they were going to be pretty much equal.

Since the tour was done so quickly, I decided we should take another run at his driver's license. We now had the legal-looking paper that CR has used all these years to get him through school. Guess what? Nope, it didn't pass muster with the DMV. They friggin' called the office of vital statistics. And guess what else? The affidavit (a.k.a. legal-looking paper) is no longer any good. So it's not like I can just mail it in and finish the process. Nope. I've got to start ALL OVER. I texted CR:

You're lucky u live so far away or I would strangle you. The DMV did not take the "legal-looking" document you've been showing to everyone all these years. Grrr

Its times like these that I wish I drank.

Week of Frustrations, Part II

Thursday.

For some reason I decided to call about E's insurance. I'd sent the "legal-looking" paperwork last week and I wanted to make sure they received it.

Yes, they received it. And there was also some forms that had been mailed to me. Goodie more forms. The CS lady on the phone kindly read them to me. The first said something to the effect of E's insurance being canceled on Aug. 31. Huh? Then the next one said, "Congratulations!" Obviously she read them in the wrong order.

Why is his insurance being cancelled? Because he turned 19. What???? I did not see anything on the website about it only being valid until he turns 19 else I would not have jumped through all the hoops.

So what is he supposed to do, I asked. "Well, there's always Blue Cross Blue Shield." Thanks lady. You were absolutely no help.

Week of Frustrations, Part I

I actually squeaked by on Monday and Tuesday of this week with little to no frustration. But trust me, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday more than made up for it.

On Wednesday, I woke up and had actually remembered my dream from the night before. Depending on how long you've known me, you may remember that I used to have these epic saga-type dreams. Very vivid. And then mini-me happened. (Short story: a tumor on my sinus. Long story: another post for another day) Now I rarely remember my dreams.

But this dream... This dream had my ex in it. And she was trying to get me to go see some house that was "perfect" for me. And of course it was the farthest thing from perfect that I could possibly imagine. Yes, I get it. Clearly I haven't worked through all my issues yet.

So the dream made me pissy. THEN, later my ex called! (How weird is that?!) This never makes me happy. When we broke up she made this big deal about wanting to be friends. But the only time she calls is when she wants something. This time was no different.

She wanted me to pick up something from a bakery that's near where our office used to be.

Liar	... and since you work over in that area, I thought you could help me out.
Me	Well, I don't work in that area anymore.
Liar	... crickets ...
Me	We moved.
Liar	Was that a recent thing?
Me	A few months ago.

After the favor is rebuked she always goes, "So, how are you?" Still bitter. And you? No, of course I don't say that. I'm just as sweet as can be. If she can lie to me for all those months, I can certainly return the favor during a phone call.

By the end of the call she was ready to hire E to come organize her garage. At least that call had a purpose to it. Usually after I hang up I have to scream obscenities for the next several minutes, or answer the questions the way I wanted to answer the questions. It's not that I "want" to, I have to. Which, in itself, is bad thing. But then there's my phone issue. See, my phone has a tendency to pocket-dial. It calls people all by itself. And if they don't answer it leaves a very long message of me doing or saying... whatever I happen to be doing or saying. Fun, huh?

And then I have to drive home. The blue boxes are houses that have been built since the satellite photo was taken.

Click the photo to see the big version

Yes, I know now: never mix love and real estate.

Photo Phun

I stumbled across a couple of links that are a lot of fun to play with (in case you don't read my gadget news):

Turn any picture into an old yearbook photo: http://www.yearbookyourself.com

Turn any picture into a cartoon: http://mintywhite.com/tech/freeware/befunky-cartoonizer-turns-your-pictures-into-cartoons/

Make your own avatar: http://www.buscarmessenger.com/avatars.swf

Animate yourself: http://www.gizmoz.com

Early morning phone call

My day started with a phone call before my alarms had even started to go off. Even if it had come after the alarms had started to go off, it still wouldn't have been good.

Caller	Who is this?
Me	Huh? (Ed: just because I answered the phone, do not be under the illusion that I'm awake.)
Caller	Who am I speaking to?
Me	You called me. Who are you?
Caller	This is Brandi's mom.

Uh-oh.

E has been talking to Brandi non-stop for a couple of weeks now. At all hours of the day and night. I didn't worry too much about it because it was summer time.

I had asked E about her. He said she's 17 and she lives in "north TX." Where ever that might be. Again, I didn't worry about it because E doesn't have enough money to buy gas to get to church once a week, so he's sure not leaving the state.

As you can probably imagine, the mother had a whole different take on the situation.

For starters she did not appreciate all the calls in the middle of the night. (CR used to take the kids' cell phones to bed with her to prevent that sort of thing. I'm not sure why this mother hasn't thought of that since her daughter was equally the callee as the caller.)

Also, she had blocked E's cell phone number for "threats he'd made." I wish I'd have been more awake to probe that statement a little more. Sorry, folks. I don't have any more details on that one.

Ultimately, I told her I'd talk to E and we hung up.

I was on my way to work before I remembered about the call again. So I decided to call CR and see if she had any more details.

Other than remembering the name, she didn't. Oh, wait. She thought that Brandi was around 14. Whoa! That's a waaaay different number than 17! She also had a funny story about C. It seems that C takes great pleasure in tormenting E's female callers. Once she's aware of the fact that she's gotten under their skin and knows they don't like her, she calls them members of her fan club. CR said she thought Brandi was a member of C's fan club, so maybe I should ask her.

While she had me on the phone she decided to yell at me, "What are you planning with my daughter?" This is exactly why I try not to call CR. "Who? S? Nothing! Why?" Her tone still accusatory, "She keeps giving us a count down on the number of days til she's leaving." Well, duh, labor day is just around the corner. That date hasn't changed.

And then she recounted all the different ways she keeps trying to convince S to stay. For example, pointing out that she didn't used to want to be in the same room as E, why would she want to move where he's living now? I could really go off on a rant here, but I think you all know what I'm thinking, so I won't. Back to the original story...

I did talk to C, and other that remember the name and fan club status she didn't have any additional details either.

So E called later and was bummed because Brandi's mom had blocked my number. (She's quick, eh?) I told him that she had called and gave him the Reader's Digest version of the early morning call. (Which is something of a misnomer since I really don't remember that much of the call to begin with.) I really didn't want to have this conversation over the phone. E does much better when we do the serious stuff face-to-face. But here we were...

I asked E how old she was again. He said, "She's going to be 17." Ah. Clever trick. I won't be falling for that one again. So, is she a senior? "No, she's a junior." Oh, E, this is not good.

Then he wanted to know what the supposed "threats" were. I didn't have that info. He was like, "I WANT TO KNOW!" He was going to call her to find out. I tried to explain what a very bad idea that was. I guess I'll find out when I get home if he actually called her or not. (Yes, in case you're wondering, my lashes {that had just grown back} are falling out as I type this.)

Then, without hardly a breath between topics, "I want to move back to TX."

Announcer: In this corner, wearing blue trunks, the wallet: "The HELL you are going back to TX! I filled up my credit cards buying parts for your truck, furniture, clothes... you will stay here and PAY RENT!"

Announcer: And in this corner, wearing red trunks, the conscience: But you were so unhappy in TX...

Yes, he was unhappy, but he misses his friends. [sigh] I tried to tell him that it would get better after he started working. "But," he whined, "Brandi is the only one who knows me."

Anyone want to trade places tonight?

Is she coming or not?

That's the question E posed to me yesterday. "I don't know," I told him. "I haven't talked to her in about a week." A short while later I get a text message:

S	What day are you coming down here?
Me	The earliest I could come is late fri aug 29. we can drive back on the 31st (sunday). Is DS coming or do you know?
S	He isn't coming. He won't talk to me but I don't want to talk about it.

Alrighty then. At least we can continue to store the extraneous junk in that bedroom. Woo hoo!

In other news, I'm loving the new fridge. We were able to get 2 pizzas and a left-over casserole in there without serious re-arranging. Plus, we noticed there's still a drawer empty!

Bought a new fridge!

Having E living with me these past few months has shown me that the fridge I had was a single-person's fridge. There just wasn't room for the my science experiments, plus his science experiments, plus the regular food, plus left-overs. And the freezer... fahgedaboudit.

So I bought a 25cu behemoth.


E measured the opening, with the old fridge in it at 36.5" So I thought, "Great! The width won't be a problem." HA! For whatever reason, when we got home that night, I decided to re-measure the width. Apparently E doesn't know how to work a tape measure very well because I measured the width as 35.75"

Wanna guess the width of the fridge? Yep, 35.75"

Here's the picture of the clearance.


That's cabinet + ZERO CLEARANCE + fridge.

And its a very smart fridge, too. As we were putting the food back in the fridge, I kept sticking my hand in there, going, "I don't think it's getting cold." Turns out, it wasn't. It doesn't try to cool things down when the door is open.

Also, again whilst loading it up, suddenly the light went out. "What kind of crap is this?" We thought maybe the light bulb had jiggled loose during transit, but couldn't get the cover off because it was so flippin' hot. Seriously, the light bulb should have lasted more than 10 minutes.

Later, after the door had been closed a few minutes, I'm getting ready to put more stuff in there and VIOLA! The light is on! Not a dead bulb at all. Just a signal, "Hey! Moron! Shut the door already!!"

I am SO PROUD!

Yesterday, the guy who called the police on E came down and asked E to help him work on his car. Ummmm, awkward!! But E just shrugged it off with, "Sure. Just tell me when."

You guys! Doesn't that just about bring a tear to your eye?

I told him I was so proud of him and he said, "I don't hold grudges."

Today, I texted CR to tell her about the incident. Her response: E's a sucker for that kind of offer. He probably wasn't even wary of the offer.

Ok, I get that if the guy would have asked him to come mow the lawn, E might not have been so magnanimous, but still. If it were me, I would have told the guy no and to get the hell off my property... after I asked him if he clanked when he walked sporting those big, brass balls.

I guess if you constantly point out that the glass is half empty, eventually it will be.

They broke up again

Texting with S today, I repeated the rumor I'd heard from E yesterday: that they were broke up again.

S	Yeah. I don't know what his deal is.
Me	R u still planning on coming to KS over labor day even if he can't come?
S	Yeah maybe it'll make him happy. He told me to go.
Me	Absence makes the heart grow fonder...
S	Yeah sure. He said he has to work all the time anyways so I wouldn't ever see him.

Yes, I know they've broken up before. But it seems like they get back together for shorter and shorter times. Fine by me. I wasn't anxious about trying to reel him in. (S says his problems have gotten worse over the summer.) Frankly, I think I'm going to have my hands full with S.

Talking to my mom on the phone today and she admitted for the first time that E has really made progress this summer. She also expressed concern about him back-sliding when/if S moves in. I share those concerns too, I just don't know what to do about them.

Stupid Birth Certificate

So last Friday E and I tried to go get his driver's license moved to KS. I was kinda hoping we could convince whoever happened to be behind the counter that since my last name matched E's birth certificate, and my address matched E's address that they'd make the leap of faith. They didn't. Dammit.

Even if I had CR's paper that she has had stapled to E's birth certificate, it's still not legal... but apparently it's pretty convincing (since that's what she's used all these years).

So I downloaded a form off the internet to do the process right. E has to take it and get it notarized. Plan B: CR sent the legal-looking-paper along with his bday present, which should be here today or tomorrow.

Good thing because he got a letter from the insurance people that they need proof of his citizenship, which requires... a BIRTH CERTIFICATE! And they need it by Monday, else his eligibility is denied.

But no pressure.

Cast of Characters

In an effort to help me be more consistent in how I refer to people, I'm putting this page together. As a bonus, it may also help you keep track of who's related to who. I'll try to remember to update this as new characters are added.

The kids: E, S, C, D (also referred to as "the little guy")
Their mom, my sister: CR
CR's current husband, D's dad: DR, or "Big D"

DR's mother, D's grandmother: DN
DR's step-dad, D's grandpa: CH
DR's brother, D's uncle: SC, or "Bub"

S's boyfriend, and baby-daddy: DS

CR's husband #1, E/S's dad: J
J's wife, E/S's step-mom: SY
J's parents, E/S's grandparents: K and "Big J"

My loser-brother, E/S/C/D uncle: DG
My mother: SN
My mother's boyfriend: B

My friends: JL, DD
My ex: KM

CR's husband #2: TOG

E is 19 now

My apologies for the lapse in entries. I'm working on a different project at work, which gives me less time for blogging. Dangit.

First and foremost: CR FINALLY SENT THE REFILLS!!! Since his insurance is still in limbo, that saved me from having to buy another month's worth.

On a related note: we went to see his med doctor today. Trying to get him off the current stuff and on to something that doesn't make him so drowsy.

In other news...

On Thursday of last week I got a series of text messages from CR:

I know the baby's sex!
I've been sworn to keep it a secret, at least for now
Ha ha! I know & you don't! Even if she tells you, you may not know cuz she hasn't decided if she's gonna tell the truth for fun

OMG, are we 12?? My response: Whatever.

Later, I get a message from S: Its a boy

Me	Is that what you wanted?
S	Yea

Alrighty then.

Talked to C last night. She's been sick for about a week. Sinus infection, I think. She missed 4 days of her required practices of flag-whatever-they-call it last week. Anyway, she confirmed that it's a boy. Generally speaking, boys are easier, so that will be good.

---

E celebrated his 19th birthday on Saturday. I took him out to his favorite BBQ place. I had told him the week before that if he wanted to invite a couple of friends from church, that would be ok.

Wednesday night... well, first we had to deal with his roadkill. He didn't just hit a bird, he hit a duck! And it broke the friggin' grill!


Sheesh.

Anyway, he was all jazzed up because he'd gotten some girl's number. I'd asked how old she was and he didn't know. So he called her while I was fixing dinner. And I heard him ask, "I have a serious question for you: how old are you?"

After the phone call he told me that she'd completely dodged the question and wouldn't give him a straight answer. I told him that probably meant she was too young for him. I figured that meant I was going to have to call and talk to the girls mother.

But then the girl called later that night... 1am to be exact. Yeah, I know. Believe me, I wasn't happy about it. The bad news is that he found out she is only 15. I told him that was too young for him. But the good news is that I don't have to worry about it: when she called, she was apparently drunk. That was a complete turnoff for him. In that moment, she lost him at hello.

So it was just he & I. My friend from work, JL, and her daughter joined us for desert. It was very low-key. I still cannot believe he's 19.

I was bummed because the present I ordered for him was delayed and didn't arrive until today. Also, when he was at his dad's, they did nothing to celebrate his birthday. He was there the week before his birthday and they didn't get him a card, stick a candle in a twinkie, nothing. Asshole.

He's still sleeping on the air mattress, due to no fault on my part. He just doesn't want to go shopping for the mattress. That's ok. The lawn needs to be mowed again.

Bought a car!

It's a 2001 Honda Civic, with 81,000 miles. I gotta tell ya, it's been a looooong week. More about that in my next post. Here's the car.