Archive for the 'Personal' Category

Thank God THAT’S Over

Published March 28, 2007 in Miscellaneous and Personal. 2 Comments

That mutant flu seems to have tortured us to it’s satisfaction. Monkeyboy returned to school yesterday (no doubt to pick up the next virus du jour) and BooBoo and I feel almost human again.

I have so much work to catch up on it’s not even funny. We have had a rash of apartment building fires in the area lately and our local fire inspector is really cracking down on us. Not that this is a BAD thing, because it’s not. It’s just a bad time of year for us to have to get all of this crap done. Things are always tight during the heating season for this building and winter is far from over.

Despite that fact, it’s also time to start planning on spring cleaning. The weather was beautiful over the weekend, but I was too damn sick to do anything. I have a very nice enclosed sunporch in my apartment that I want to get cleaned off. I just moved into this particular apartment last June (after waiting 4 years for it to come open) and that sunporch is my sanctuary. Unfortunately, in the winter time, it’s just too damn convenient and I ended up tossing all kinds of crap out there to just get it out of my way. Now I get to sift through boxes of Christmas decorations, cans of paint and building supplies. The sunporch isn’t totally weatherproof so it can’t be used in the wintertime, but my mission this year is to find out how much it will take to make it something I can use year-round.

I’ve also got to clean out my computer closet. One of my tenants gave me a perfectly good 1 year old computer system last week because he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it and just went out and bought a new laptop. I took a look at it and it was infested with spyware and viruses. I reformatted the drive and it’s fine. I try to keep two extra systems around just in case one of ours dies, but this is getting ridiculous. The kids each have a system, I have two at my desk, one in my room, a media center for the livingroom and a laptop. That’s more than enough I think.

Time to get started!

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Ubervirus

Published March 26, 2007 in Personal. 0 Comments

I’m not sure exactly what kind of killer bugs the public school system is breeding nowadays, but Monkeyboy brought home a DOOZY last Thursday. BooBoo and I caught it on Saturday and all the three of us have been doing since is puking our guts out together.

I never get sick enough to stay in bed, but that’s exactly where I’ve been for three days. I called my maintenance guy, M, yesterday to ask him to bring me bottled water and Advil. Upon arriving at my door, the first thing out of his mouth was ‘You look like a bag of smashed assholes’.

Gee…thanks Buddy!

Regular blogging will resume as soon as I no longer feel the need to put a bullet through my head.

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My Aching Back

Published March 19, 2007 in Personal. 1 Comment

I spent most of the weekend shoveling out from the latest snowstorm. I’d guess we got around 20″ of new snow. I hope to Gawd this will be the last of it. I’m finding that I have to live on ibuprofen for 2-3 days after a big storm like this…it’s getting time to pass the shovel to the boys and make THEM do it. Unfortunately, they’re both still at the age where more fooling around gets done than actual work.

Today is Monkeyboy’s 10th birthday. He was supposed to be gone with his dad over the weekend but the snowstorm Saturday ruined that…and also ruined my plans for his birthday party for this weekend because now he’ll be gone. He’ll get a gift and cupcakes today though and I’ll save the rest for Friday. I may give him the day off from school and let The Ex pick him up in the evening. We shall see.

Word has it that the new Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End trailer premieres this evening during Dancing With the Stars on ABC. This creates quite the dilemma for me because Dancing With the Stars interferes with 24. And nothing interferes with my Jack Bauer fix…except for my long anticipated Jack Sparrow fix. Decisions, decisions.

Well, I am off for another fun filled day of work and homeschooling. And if I’m lucky, a nap. Ciao!

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Free Real Estate in Alaska

Published March 16, 2007 in Miscellaneous, Personal and Complaints. 0 Comments

As I sat at my desk earlier cursing Mother Nature for the 12-18 inches of snow she is so thoughtfully sending my way tonight, I came across this from CNN:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Anderson, a little town in Alaska’s interior, has no gas station, no grocery store and no traffic lights, but it does have plenty of woodsy land — and it’s free to anyone willing to put down roots in the often-frozen ground.

In a modern twist on the homesteading movement that populated the Plains in the 1800s, the community of 300 people is offering 26 large lots on spruce-covered land in a part of Alaska that has spectacular views of the Northern lights and Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak.

And what’s an occasional day of 60-below cold in a town removed from big-city ills?

It makes absolutely NO sense to me, but I would move to a remote area in Alaska in a heartbeat if I could get broadband up there. I don’t understand my attraction to remote areas of the Northwest though. I have a love/hate relationship with wintertime. I live pretty much in the shadow of Mt. Washington…home to the worst winter weather in North America supposedly. Winter here can be brutal sometimes. Two weeks ago, I was dealing with 60mph winds and temperatures of -35. When temperatures hit the 50’s and 60’s earlier this week, I VERY happily took the heavy liners out of our extreme weather jackets and put the winter boots, shovels and salt away. I opened windows and started making a list of spring cleaning supplies to buy. BooBoo and I took one of our tenant’s dogs for a walk around town yesterday and enjoyed the fresh air at the park for a bit. Then, I woke up this morning to flashing weather alerts on my local news webpage and groaned. And now, I’m dreaming of the Alaskan wilderness??

Oh well. At least I get out of spring cleaning for another few days!

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All the News That’s Fit to Print

Published March 15, 2007 in Miscellaneous, Personal and Kids and Parenting. 0 Comments

Now that I’ve gotten this joint back up and running, I guess it’s time for a real update. So, what exactly has kept me away for so long? Oh, where to begin…

Some of you remember that I homeschool my oldest son and send my youngest to public school. I spent a fair amount of my blogging hiatus fighting with the school. Again. The short version is that Monkeyboy raised a ruckus by saying the word ‘penis’ at school. Twice. Neither time was it in a sexual context. But those of you familiar with the public school system’s sensitivity towards anything that could be construed as even remotely sexual can probably identify with the crap I’ve been dealing with ever since. I’ll probably write more about this whole thing later (oh imagine the Google bait!). Suffice it to say that I haven’t pulled Monkeyboy out of public school yet but it’s been very close.

BooBoo continues to do well with his homeschooling, although he also continues to be ‘uninspired’ with schoolwork in general. For a while, I thought it was me or the subject matter that was boring him to death. I’ve since concluded that he’s a typical 13 year old boy…he’s uninspired about everything that doesn’t have a video game controller attached to it. I’ve decided to stop worrying about it and just go with the flow. He’s learning…even if he’s not excited about it.

I know a few of you would like to hear the latest in the Pseudo-nephew Saga. The two of them are growing like weeds and, health-wise, are doing wonderfully. Looking at them, you’d never know the hell they went through for the majority of their lives. Their eyes are bright…complexions are rosy. According to the group home cook, they’re capable of eating them out of house and home, so that’s an issue we’ll need to confront soon. The youngest will eat until he literally pukes it all back up, so I’m sure that we’re going to be looking at both of them having serious issues with food if we don’t nip it in the bud now.

Behaviorally, there’s been no progress. They are each happy and compliant children…until they’re NOT. And then there is no reasoning with them at all. I’ve got a stack of Physical Intervention Reports on my desk almost 4 inches thick. These reports get mailed to me every time one of them needs to be physically restrained by a staff member. Sometimes I get several in the same envelope. This was incredibly depressing to me for a bit but my own self-preservation kicked in and I have started making a game out of it with myself trying to guess which kid each report is about. Seriously. Anything to keep my own sanity in check.

Academically, they’re blossoming…thank goodness. At least that’s one strike against them that they seem to be able to overcome. Hopefully they can build on that.

As for me…well, there’s the good and the bad. All of these kid issues combined with the loss of one of my contracts are just sucking the life out of me right now. I promised myself a long time ago that I would never work for someone else again, but at the moment, self-employment is no rose garden. I’m considering looking for another online community manager gig. I did that during the ‘dot-com boom and bomb’ and working remotely is the best of both worlds. Especially since someone else gets to worry about the bottom line.

On a good note, spring is finally making an appearance here in the mountains. It’s a time for renewal and rebirth and that alone is something that makes me happier than I can say.

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For the Angels Who Have Touched Me Recently

Published October 6, 2006 in Personal. 2 Comments

Given recent events in my life, for a while, I was being dragged down by my own dark thoughts about the world and people in it. After several phone calls and emails today, I am once again reminded that there are angels out there. This is the second time this year that I’ve been touched by angels…you’d think that I wouldn’t let myself get dragged down again. But I did. I am imperfect…and so VERY humbled once again.

I’ll try to make sure that the lesson sticks this time. I love you all.

Touched By An Angel
by Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

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What the Hell

Published October 4, 2006 in Personal. 0 Comments

You are about to witness one of the very few times that I will cave to the power of public opinion. Over on the right side, you’ll notice the donation button that I said I wouldn’t be placing anywhere on my blog. A few people really want to help me out with the current situation and I’m truly touched by their generosity. And impressed by their tenacity.

It’s very disconcerting to know that there are people out there who are more stubborn than I am ;-)

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Busy

Published October 2, 2006 in Personal. 0 Comments

I’m still around…just busier than a one-toothed man in a corn-on-the-cob eating contest. As if I’m not busy enough with the usual stuff, the universe has thrown more shit at me this week when I got the word that I may soon be partially unemployed. It seems that one of my clients is struggling to pay the mortgage on several of their investment properties. I’m not in panic-mode yet, but I reserve the right to start hyperventilating at a later date.

I was finally able to see the pseudo-nephews over the weekend. They’ve settled in to a good routine and seem to be holding their own. They’ve both gained weight (thank GOD) and are getting some color in their cheeks. The food isn’t anything to write home about apparently, but it’s more than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I met with the treatment team there and they are all optimistic that the boys can be helped. The biggest strike against them right now is that the pseudo-family is too busy covering their asses to actually help fix any of the damage. Pseudo-mother has flown the coop and moved out of the state. Pseudo-brother is trying desperately to give up his parental rights. And the mother to these kids has made another half-assed attempt at suicide and is in a mental hospital far from here. I’d like to err on the side of charity in her case, but truth be told, I’m fresh out of sympathy…having spent it all on her children.

Anyways, the outlook for the boys looks bright. They’re eager to please and responsive to positive attention…traits that will serve them well as they try to stuff all the knowledge that ‘normal’ 12 and 9 year olds have into their heads. They will likely be at the group home for 18-24 months; longer if they need it. For now, I’m limited to weekend visits there but will begin slowly transitioning them to day visits here at my home…then weekend visits…then longer stays. We finally explained to them my relationship to them and their father, so at least they now know I’m more than ‘the pretty lady who brings us presents’ but not quite their aunt. They seemed to take that information in stride. I brought pictures of my home and my kids with me and they are very excited to meet BooBoo and Monkeyboy next weekend.

The feeling is mutual…to a certain extent. My boys are excited about the pseudo-nephews, but I think they both lack a frame of reference for the whole situation. My boys both remember previous foster children I’ve had and so they understand the concept of me being a parent to children who aren’t really mine. They’re having trouble wrapping their brains around children that are so damaged that they can’t live HERE with us yet.

I’ll be spending the next few days preparing my own two kids for their first visit inside the walls of an actual treatment facility. We live in a very small area and as far as I know, there aren’t any REALLY mentally disabled kids in the schools, so my boys have no experience dealing with some of the behaviors that they’re likely to see next weekend. There is a Down’s Syndrome kid and another kid that has Cerebral Palsy (I think) that both LOVE to hug people. While this doesn’t bother me, I can see my 13 year old punching someone in the head if I don’t warn him ahead of time (Of course, the sarcastic part of my brain wonders if anyone on staff has ever thought to lock both kids in one room so they can hug on each other and everyone else can get some peace and quiet). Anyways, E will be accompanying us on this little adventure, just in case it’s too much for my kids…he can take them out to a miniature golf place down the road for a few hours.

It should be interesting.

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He’s Right

Published September 26, 2006 in Personal. 0 Comments

I can’t argue with this:

BURBANK, California (AP) — Oscar winner George Clooney shrugged off suggestions Monday that he might run for political office — but he sure sounded like a politician doing it.

The actor-director skillfully deflected a barrage of questions from reporters about a potential Clooney candidacy, after appearing at an event where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation aimed at helping stop genocidal violence in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Told that fans are clamoring for the “Syriana” star to run for office, Clooney said with a subtle head shake, “Believe me, you don’t want me in politics.”

You’re right, George. I don’t want you in politics. I let ol’ Arnold slide because he married into a political family, but part of me still wonders how many people voted for ‘Arnold the Movie Star’ rather than ‘Arnold the Politician’. The sad truth of the matter is that movie and television stars have a huge influence on society that can easily lead people away from good common sense. In George Clooney’s case, I’d hate to think that his wet-panty-inducing-good-looks had anything to do with him winning any elections. But that’s EXACTLY why he would win.

And Oprah? Don’t give up your day job either. I admire you for some of the things you’ve done, but your influence over the unwashed masses is scary…at least you realize it.

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