Ugh~part deux

Whew...no more orange push-up on the walls.

And for the record, Home Depot will NOT take paint back. Dirty Bastards.

So, 45 bucks down the drain.

Luckily, I had paint left from painting the living room. So now the sunroom is a lovely honey yellow. Which is what I should have painted it in the first place...but hey, you live and learn.

Damn...what a chore. My back aches, I have paint in my hair, under my nails, and on my legs. Clearly I'm no Martha Stewart. But it looks great. Tomorrow I just have to paint the trim and I'm done.

Now, I get to clean the carpets this weekend.

I can't wait to go back to work on Monday.

Anyone want two gallons of semi-gloss orange push-up??

Ugh....

I fucked up. I mean, I really fucked up.

I decided that on my 'vacation' that I was going to paint my sunroom. Cute little room, three sides are all windows. So I go to Home Depot yesterday and I spend thirty minutes in the paint aisle. There must be 2000 different colors of paint samples in the store. I wanted a bright sunny color since it is a sunroom...My living room is a honey yellow so I wanted something different....I was thinking along the lines of terra cotta...then was going to re-do the floor in terra cotta tiles.

So why in the hell did the color turn out to be almost neon orange??? I painted one small wall, and it was a bitch because of all the windows and trim. And as I'm painting, I'm thinking 'nah...this is just the color when it's wet, it'll get darker.'

Not so much. It's still brighter than an orange push-up...c'mon..you remember the orange sherbet in a push-up container...yeah, like that.

Does anyone know what the return policy is on paint????

dangit.

Paityn

Paityn took this picture of herself with my camera-phone. Damn if she isn't a better photographer than I am!

Isn't she the cutest!!??!!

The Apple Orchard

I had an awesome day! My mom, my sisters, my niece, my great nieces, and I all went to the apple orchard!

For six bucks, you got a hayride, got to pick apples, pick out a pumpkin, have fresh apple cider and hot donuts, and feed the animals. Paityn and Lilah had a blast. They loved feeding the animals....except the buck, he was quite slobbery.

I haven't gone on a hayride in years and I didn't even realize that I missed it!

My aunt is a retired school teacher so in the fall she works at the orchard giving little kids tours through the orchard, showing them how apples are turned into cider. She does an amazing job. No wonder she was teacher of the year in her district!

Lilah had a bit of an issue when the goat tried to eat her hair, but other than that, she thought it was way cool. I swear, she is the coolest two year old ever. She's the one in ponytails in the picture. Paityn has long hair and is the smartest three year old ever. I'm not biased. Really, I'm not.

Why can't everyday be like today?

Vacation!!

AHHHHHHH...this is the first official day of my vacation. Ok, so I'm not actually going anywhere. But hey, this is the first vacation where I'm NOT going anywhere!

I take, typically, two vacations a year. In the past four years I have been to at least ten different countries, plus visited my parents in Florida. So, this will be a first for me...staying home.

It's kind of a working vacation. I want to paint the sunroom, and the bedroom, clean the carpets, and basically just do a deep cleaning throughout the house. I would also like to start the re-do on the bathroom.

Hmmm...the bathroom. If I ever see the people I bought my house from in public, someone will have to send me bail money, cuz I am definitely going to jail.

Those people were idiots in every room of the house...but in the bathroom, it's just a shame. They glued some type of linoleum on the lower half of the walls. Possibly in some feeble attempt at wainscoting? Except when I tried to take this crap off the walls, the glue pulled the paint and the backing to the drywall off the walls. Nice, huh.

So, the walls are down, but not behind the vanity and toilet because you have to take them out to get that shit off the walls...and since I only have one bathroom, it has to be timed and coordinated to take out the vanity and toilet, and pull that shit off and do whatever I'm going to do before putting it all back again. And this has to happen within one day.

I can honestly say, that the walls have been f'ed up for about a year and a half.

But who knows...maybe this will be the week. Since the only way to fix the mess in the bathroom is to tear the drywall down and start over, or cover it up again, I've decided to put beadboard on the walls half way up and do real wainscoting in the bathroom. It's cheap, will look good, and hopefully will take less than a day to get it up. But I'd really like to buy a new vanity and toilet before I start. And that's just not in this week's budget. So I guess the bathroom is out this week.

Dammit. And this is a vacation???

Finally!

Ahhhh....the withdrawals are over...and I can finally, see the light!

It's amazing to me that it took two and a half days for the electricity to be restored. Especially when the storm only lasted about fifteen minutes.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. Was in bed by 9:00pm Thursday because it's hard to read by candlelight and there wasn't anything else to do.

2. The power came back on Friday morning about 4:00am just long enough to scare the shit out of me because I couldn't remember what lights were on the power went out.

3. The power went out again on Friday morning about 4:05am just long enough for me to run around the house shutting everything off and setting the clock...fuckers.

4. Had to go to work on Friday with wet hair because I couldn't blow dry it...so I guess that makes Friday a 'bad hair day'. Though showering by candle light was kinda romantic, even if I was alone.

5. Still no power on Friday and had to throw away a whole chicken that was in the refrigerator. Oh, and the half and half for my coffee that I couldn't brew. And the mayo.

6. Ahhhh T.V.!! My God of a neighbor let me hook my fridge and t.v. up to his generator. It was nice to actually to watch t.v. until 10:00pm when he shut the generator off. Damn.

7. Was in bed by 10:15pm on Friday because the power was still off.

8. Ate pb & j on mini rye bread for dinner on Friday since it was the only thing worth eating in the house.

9. Brushed my teeth at work on Saturday because there's no way to boil water for the boil water advisory.

10. Power came back on at 7:30pm Saturday night! Of course, this was after 10 calls to Detroit Edison and fighting with the automated system to get some information.

I'm just happy that I survived! It's clear to me now that I am way too dependent on modern amenities. I had some serious internet withdrawals and could never have survived back in the days before electricity. I'm such a wuss.

No Power...

Oh criminy....there are days it's wonderful living in a small town...no traffic, less noise, very little crime. I have a huge yard with a huge garden and my dogs and I spend lots of time back there just living the simple life.

However, on the down side to all that small town charm is the fact that this cute little village has some of the oldest powerlines in the state. So when we have any type of bad weather, the power goes out.

I got home from work on Thursday and about twenty minutes after walking in the door, there was a thunderstorm. The storm only lasted about fifteen minutes, but lightening struck the powergrid and knocked out the power.

It's Saturday morning, and I'm at work so I could finish up some things before my vacation next week and to brush my teeth. I still don't have power. And the funny thing is, there's a 'boil water' advisory, but no power to boil the water.

What the hell?? I'm a refugee in my own home. I would go somewhere else, but with two huge dogs, I'm not real welcome if you know what I mean.

I don't have time to post a lot since I'm supposed to be working...but just wanted to leave a note that I'm still here....somewhere.

PMS and the morons on the phone.

Man...I was evil today. And even though I baked cookies last night and brought them in to work, my co-workers were like..."man, what the fuck is wrong with you??"

Yeah, I hope you choke on those cookies, motherfuckers.

I can honestly say that I very rarely suffer from PMS...but I guess today was the exception.

I had a woman call me today and say, "I need to fax you a substance abuse assessment on RW, what's your address?" Huh? So I give her the address and she says, "Oh, you guys changed your name!" Huh?? Nope...sure haven't...we've been Children's Protective Services since about 1968. "Oh, you aren't Judson Center?" Um...nope. "Oh...Well, I'll send this on anyway." Are you kidding me? Substance Abuse information is confidential you half-wit...sheesh. I'm thinking, what an idiot...and say this out loud after I hang up and my co-workers start laughing.

The next call I get is from a man asking me why I snatched his kids out of class on Thursday. Who, me?? "Yes you. You made them cry, and I want to know why." Did we take them? or just talk to them?? "Why would you take them???" I don't know sir, I'm not the one who snatched them. "Well who did?" I don't know, but if you give me your name and number I'll be sure to have someone call you right back. "You can't call me, I'm at work." But~didn't you just call me from work? So he gave me the number. Fucking moron.

The third call I get is from a woman wanting to know why her kid can't live with her in a fifth-wheel in her boyfriend's mother's polebarn. There's no electricity, no water, and no heat. I mean, it's September, it'll be cold here in Michigan in just a hot minute...never mind the fact that the kid goes to school in dirty clothes and smelling like he hasn't bathed in a week. I mean, why can't the kid stay with the dad until you get your fucked up shit together?? "Because he's mean to me". Hey Doofus, it isn't about YOU! It's about your kid, you selfish bitch.

I swear, it's a conspiracy.

4:15am...

And the pager goes off. I'm on-call again and not ONE page all night until 4:15am. So I stagger out of bed, trip over the dog, stub my toe, say a few choice swear words, and call the service back. It's a call from Law Enforcement(L.E.) regarding sexual abuse. Great. This usually means a trip to the hospital to interview the victim. So I call L.E. back and the officer says to me..."The sex abuse nurse examiner said I didn't have to call you because it's a child on child assault, but I wanted to call and confirm that that was true". So basically, what I heard was "Blah blah blah blah, but I wanted to call and wake you up at 4:00am because I don't believe anything anyone tells me".

And, of course, the nurse examiner was 100% correct. We don't investigate child on child assaults. Unless the parent failed to protect the victim...i.e. knew it was going on and didn't stop it. But I'm polite...I don't rip the officer's head off, even though you would think that the nurse examiner who does this type of examination REGULARLY should know the rules. C'est la vie.

Now I can't go back to sleep.

So, now it's 5:30am, I've showered, made a pot of coffee, let the dogs out, and made my lunch. If I had a man here, I'd be having great morning sex. If I hadn't quit smoking, I'd be having an early morning smoke with my coffee. But, the whole world is sleeping, everyone that is but me. Even the dogs went back to sleep.

It's kinda nice though. I didn't have to rush through my shower as I usually do in the morning. I can actually sit here and peruse the blogs on my favorite's list while I drink my coffee. It's raining outside...and the windows are open...there's a nice breeze, the pitter-ping of the raindrops on the ground, and I just realized, it's Friday. Ahhhh....

Maybe I should get up this early more often. Or...maybe I should go crawl back into bed until the alarm goes off.

September 11, 2001

Where was I? Several times I have been asked that same question...

8:00am-I didn't normally work this early in the morning. My shift as a therapist in a maximum security facility for boys was Noon until 8:00pm. I can't remember why I came in early that day. All of the boys were at the school on campus and I was hanging out in the operation's center. I was good friends with the day supervisor so we were just hanging out, having coffee. The T.V. was on, and then the breaking news. Of course, just like everyone else, it seemed like a tragic accident. Then the second plane hit. We were watching the news, and the plane just hit. Just like that. Then there was no escaping the truth...

We called our boys back from school, and sat in the T.V. room on the hall watching the drama. It was unnerving to watch these tough, street smart, smart ass boys with tears in their eyes. Asking me over and over, why? Who? How? What happens now?

At 1:00pm, our whole center, one of five at the facility, and all of the kids, and staff, went into the courtyard where we held hands, said a prayer, and cried together. That was 120 kids, and probably 30 staff.

And while we stood there, in our moment of silence, a lone plane passed overhead. A military plane on it's way to Selfridge Airforce Base. It was odd, because there was already a hold for all air traffic.

That day joined the others I can say "I remember where I was"...The day the Challenger blew up~in my college dorm room watching the shuttle as I skipped class, or the night that Princess Diana died~I was sitting in my living room, watching T.V. Or the day I called my mom at work to tell her I wasn't coming home for the weekend and found out from her secretary that my Grandmother had died.

I'm sure there will be many others before I die. And that's the sad part...I will remember.

*sniff*&cough%hack#!

Ugh....I am so sick....summer cold? summer flu? SARS? I have no idea...but if I weren't so sick, yesterday and last night would have been funny.

Normally, I am one to call in sick at the drop of a dime. Stubbed my toe? Can't go in. Gorgeous day outside? Can't go in.

But I was on-call Thursday night and on phone duty on Friday, so I didn't want to stick anyone last minute with having to work on-call or phones.

Phone duty consists of answering the child abuse hotline for our county. You can get calls from nosy neighbors telling on the crackhead that lives next door, to law enforcement needing someone to come pick up the baby they just found wandering the streets. Sometimes, the calls can be stressful, so I certainly didn't want to stick anyone. That's just bad ju-ju...and in our office, it WILL come back to haunt you.

So I toughed it out. Worked all day, went through a box and a half of kleenex, only the first box being the kind with lotion, so now my nose is red and raw. I kept having to put people on hold so I could sneeze, cough, or blow my nose. And decided when I got home, that I was going straight to bed. Of course, this pissed the dogs off...they just wanted to play. We played for a while, they got dinner, then I laid down. And that's when the fun began.

There's nothing worse than having a runny nose when you are sick. I would lie on one side, and the nostril that was closest to the bed would stuff up and I couldn't breathe out if it. Then I would wake up with snot running down my cheek. So, I would turn over, clear that nostril while the other would stuff up and run. Of course, this happened every 15 minutes, so I was awake all night. Turning over, blowing my nose, then turning over, blowing my nose. The cold and flu medicine worked on everything but my nose. Sheesh.

And every time I turned over, the dogs would wake up, want to play, want to go outside, chase the cat, try and eat the growing pile of kleenex in the garbage next to the bed. I finally crated them around 2:00am so I could TRY and get some sleep. Poor little guys...I felt bad for them, but needed some rest!

So here it is, Saturday morning, I'm exhausted, still sick, out of doggy treats/bones(to keep them occupied), and they have the energy of ten little dogs because of being cooped up in the house. I still feel like crap. I would write more, but the bed is calling...and so is my box of kleenex.

I think this is a payback for being snotty the other night. God don't like ugly.

The other dog...

I know I have posted a lot on here about Nala, and she's kept me busy quite a bit, lately. But I do have another dog...her name is Madchen(maid-chen). Which is German for girl. I got her from a rescue organization(which is defunct now, I believe.) and they told me she was a rottweiler/Mastiff mixed puppy, and that she would be over 100lbs. Just what I was looking for. Well, it must be miniature Mastiff, because full grown, she barely weighs 60 lbs. I don't mind....it's a nice size for a dog, but I was expecting something a bit more grand.

She's a sweetie. Very gentle, playful, always ready to give a little lick, or a lotta licks. But she's a tad high strung.

I took her to puppy class. Apparently it's not ok for her to cry and whine and run around(after pulling out of her collar/lead) and rile the other puppies up. Everyone else thought she was a sweetie, but they were a bit miffed when the noise in the class got out of hand and they couldn't hear the trainers. She's a rebel, and wanted all the other puppies to rebel with her. Don't get me wrong, when she's at home with just me, she's great. She knows all of her commands like sit, lie down, shake, high five. But she has way too much energy to stay. We were asked not to come back to class.

She has a few bad habits...I mean, other than the previously stated ones...such as, she loves dirty kleenex, and knows how to open the bathroom door to get at the garbage....and anything else in the bathroom garbage, if you get my drift. And she loves the cat's food. Yes, in addition to these two mongrel dogs, I have a cat. She's older than God herself, and is the Queen Bitch here at home. She was my first pet, and once she's gone...no more cats. I love her, but three critters, I think, puts me just on the other side of crazy. Madchen also loves kitty tootsie rolls so I have to keep the litter box in the basement.

My solution to the cat food/tootsie roll problem, was to put a baby-gate at the top of the landing leading down to the basement. The litterbox downstairs, and the catfood on the landing. The cat can get by the gate just fine. But Madchen is smarter than me. She can jump the babygate, eat the catfood, and run downstairs for dessert. Of course, then she wants a little kiss. Sheesh.

I have done everything to keep this dog from doing this! The dog's dog food container(large bin with a lid) sits in front of the babygate. And anything else I can find to block her jumping range. Nothing seems to work. So yesterday, I decided to get creative...I put a second babygate in front of the dog food. Just leaned it up against the bin, hoping that if she tried to jump, or move it, I would catch her.

Problem solved!! I know this, because this morning, I heard a CRASH, and watched Madchen run through the house like the devil was chasing her. It would have been funny had it not been 5:00am. It's funny now, thinking back on it.

Oh well. Clearly I have issues and perhaps me and the critters deserve each other. I swear, I'm not getting anymore animals ever! When these guys join all the other creatures in creature heaven, I am done. It'll be nice to not have to run home after work to let them out instead of meeting some yummy at the local pub, or get up at 3:00am to clean up dog puke. I will be able to be spontaneous and go away for a weekend without having to think about puppysitters! I certainly don't want to ever be that crazy old lady with 37 cats!

My house just isn't that big.

Friday....sheesh...and THANK GOD!

Ok...I'm still mad at my sister, but relieved that she is most likely going to be ok. The doctor's feel they can save her kidney, but there may be some damage to it.

Sigh.

Oh well.

I'm glad she'll be ok, but I'm still mad at her.

I was on-call last night and in the span of forty minutes received three emergency pages from the service. One was for children that were being starved, one was for a very little girl home alone, and the third one was for a child covered in bruises. I sometimes think I'm superwoman, but what the hell am I supposed to do it THAT situation?? Well, I called the sheriff's dept. and asked them to do welfare checks on the kids. I got to the calls before they did. Hmmm....busy night. I can tell you that all of the kids are safe and sound, though that made for a very busy day today....of course, the day before a long weekend. And now I will have two court hearings early Tuesday morning...nothing like putting you behind before the week even starts!

But now, it's all good...sitting here, at home, in front of the fan, drinking a cold one, and smoking a cigarette....hey, I only said I was TRYING to quit. Smokers know what I mean about ending the work week with a relaxing smoke...it's like being able to breathe again, or unbuttoning your pants after a very good meal. It's like that. I'm a closet smoker...so to unwind at home is a pleasure. And I think this is one of the first times I have ever admitted that I'm addicted to smoking. Damn. I hate that.

I don't like the fact that I smoke....I don't like having to spray myself with perfume or body spray to cover up the smell, or sticking a piece of gum in my mouth on my way into the office to hide the ashtray mouth. I hate the fact that it's five bucks for every pack I buy! I hate that I lie to the men I date and say that I'm a non-smoker. I'm sure they know...though when I first meet a guy, I will actually NOT smoke for two days so I don't smell like smoke! How sick am I??? Ugh...it really IS an addiction.

At this rate, with current gas prices, I can't afford to smoke and drive too.

I quit regularly. I even have a box of the patches in the bathroom so I can put one on first thing in the morning....But they make me itch, and I feel funny...I don't know what the hell that's about, but it bugs me. I have quit numerous times for months at a time, only to get pissed off about something and buy a pack. Believe me, it's not the physical addiction, it's the emotional one that bothers me. But even Zyban isn't for me. I've taken it before, and loved it! Worked great! But after a year, and I started smoking again, after quiting the Zyban, I developed a horrible allergy to Zyban...broke out in horrible hives all over. I ended up having to carry an epi-pen with me because my allergist couldn't get my histone level under control. It took six months. Ick...that was a nightmare. I'll quit for good. I want to. I have to. I need to. I will....soon.

Morally Twisted gives me kudos for trying....thank you very much. Keep up the encouragement. I really do need it and appreciate it.

On a darker note...I can't watch t.v. anymore. The horror down south just breaks my heart. And it pisses me off that in this amazing country, we have these problems. Dead bodies everywhere, people dying regularly because of lack of food and water. I just get ill watching it.

I've given money to the Red Cross. Our county is sending police units to assist with the trouble. My ex-boyfriend is one of them. I worry that he will be ok. I wonder how we as a country will ever recover from this. It's so shameful that we can take care of every other country, but can't take care of our own. Please give to the Red Cross whatever you can, money, blood, food donations....it's all good.

Great, now I'm bummed...I guess I'll go grab another cold one, light another cigarette, and try to put my troubles, and the world's troubles out of my mind.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.