oh, camping

you never last long enough!  i have lots of stories for you, honest, but tonight all i did was fiddle with some pictures.  you can see the start of my collection over here.  today was my first day back at work, and it was a doozy.  i'm not really sure why i'm still awake...

home!

evidently you are never, ever, ever supposed to let internet people you are going to be out of town.  which is why you didn't know i went to the oregon coast until just now, when i got home. 

the cat is happy to see me, which makes me happy.  we didn't leave the house too big a mess when we left, so it was nice to see a living room relatively tidy.  i had a nina simone album and a bizarro collection of stories waiting for me.  we stopped at ikea on the way home and got a ridiculously good deal on a new futon mattress for our bed in the as-is section.   it was half off!  our bed has been kind of a pain in the back, and it will be nice to sleep on something with a bit more substance.

i am a bit weary from all the traveling we did, and glad to be home where i can put a little more space between myself and bickering children.  there is nothing like a roadtrip to bring a family all close together!  hee hee...  more word and pictures tomorrow.  i had a great time, but i'm looking forward to washing some clothes and sleeping in my bed!

dance party, baby!

i can't stop listening to this cee lo green song.  here is the link, but be WARNED: it is NOT FOR WORK.  or for listening to when your grandma is around, or if your pastor comes over.  or if anyone under the age of five is in your house.  it is, however, so supremely catchy and awesome that i can't stop shaking my booty to it and singing along.  i listened to the other song off cee lo's forthcoming album, and bought it on the spot because i liked it so much.  there is something about that man's voice that makes me dance! 

january wedding

if we get married in january, we could use this song...

these are their stories

how did i not hear about this art show before?

i am specifically in love with this needlepoint.  the kate beacon's are also lovely, and really, any of the ones that involve Briscoe or Stabler are all right with me. 

how about an overdue wedding update?

i know you're all just chomping at the bit to know what's going to happen and when, hee hee, so i thought i'd let you in on the current plans. 

the truth is, if i had my way, i'd find a cute dress and take D to the courthouse where fifteen minutes later we would emerge as legal spouses.  while the idea of this appeals to D's fiscal sensibilities, it does not appeal to his romantic nature.  yeah, it's weird that he's more into having a "wedding" than i am, but if that's what i have to complain about (and not, say, a porn addiction), then boo hoo, woe is me.  i don't want having a tiny, courthouse wedding to be one of those things that he regrets later.  i also really don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a wedding.  or rather, a wedding reception, because we all know that's where the money goes.

while D has agreed to the courthouse gig, i know his heart isn't in it.  i told him last night that i don't want to get married next month, i don't want to rush it, and that i think we should just go ahead and take some time to come up with a plan that will make both of us happy, and satisfy our parents as well.  i won't get my planned elopement, but i also won't have to parade down an aisle in a ridiculous white dress, so we're both getting more of what we want.   i think the best thing to do is find a cute little grange out here, set a date, and then rally the troops to help us make a wedding day we can all enjoy.  my sister and mom can do the food, D's folks can help with the invites and decorations, we can enlist friends and family to help us set things up, and we can save our money for a place of our own while still celebrating our relationship and family.

a few months ago i broke up with wedding websites and magazines; since then i've felt a lot calmer and relaxed about having an actual wedding.  i don't feel as rushed or freaked out, and i think i'm also a lot more open to different ideas. i think as long as we're all there, there are nibbles and flowers and the people we care about, the day will be just fine.  cross your fingers!   

want to come over?

because i have a house full of teenagers, mad max on the tv, and lots of "that's what she said" jokes.

if you are a grown-up, i also have rum and cokes.  

hey, guess what?

i am totally, thoroughly, seriously fucking sick and tired of being asked by the boychik every five minutes why has to go camping with us this summer.  um, here's why: BECAUSE.  i think he harps on me the most because a) i have already proven myself a sucker, b) i made the mistake once of trying to answer one of his questions (which you would think would work, but it doesn't! if you don't give him the answer he was already looking forward, he will harangue you to within an inch of taking your own life!) and c) we are still establishing BOUNDARIES.  sorry about all the capitalization, but DAMN.  some things i am feeling strongly about right now.

bio-moms, even if you have shitty, terrible, annoying teenagers, at least you got chubby cheeks out of the deal and delicious baby legs to chew on.  think of this when you think of ME.

yeah, so the answer to the above question is he has to go, because he does, because this is something we do as a FAMILY.  plus, he can't be home alone for four days, as he is currently being restricted from going out with friends because he never got a job this summer.  that is sort of a long story, but the gist of it is that he can have people over, but can't go anywhere unless it's with us.  needless to say, him being stuck at home is punishing ALL of us, but sometimes as a parent you have to suffer for your art.  misery transports well, thankfully, so he'll be just as mopey out in oregon as he is in my living room.  (dear friends we are going camping with, i'm sorry, he'll probably be a jerky-jerk-face at times.  but better you should find out how awful your children will be as teens now rather than being surprised about it later! right? i'm performing a public service!  it will be less painful for you to learn it from me than learning about this stuff on the streets.)  this answer to his question is, of course, not to his liking, and he's trying hard to figure out a way of getting out of this trip.  at first i tried reasoning with him, but now i just say "because!" and change the subject or hide in the bathroom, pretending to pee.  i have actually pretended not to hear him once or twice as well, which is cheap, but effective.

i'm really looking forward to being with friends and going camping, i just hope my friends still like me after next week!  and i do actually hope that i don't kill the boy or otherwise freak out the next time he wheedles at me and tries to worm his way out of a family vacation that he will enjoy, or ELSE.  

TMI

my period was a whole week early this month, totally surprising me this morning.  the good news is that this means i won't have my period while camping in about a week and a half!  don't get me wrong, a girl can have fun in the woods bleeding to death (so long as the bears don't sniff you out), but a girl has a lot more fun when her uterus is just sitting there quietly, minding its own business.  suck it bears! you won't be able to find me this year!

it's like buying a new dress!

man, i think i more than really like the new blogger templates and options.  see how cute my blog is now? still nerdy (thank you, book background!), but it looks way better than my home-grown, cobbled together mess of html.  i never was very good at coding. 

so if you are still over on typepad, and part of the reason you stayed was because typepad had great looking templates and options, now you know you don't have to.  blogger is free, easier than ever to customize, and i totally didn't make any money shilling for them just now.  in the few years i've been blogging over here, i've had nothing but good experiences.  you should move into my bloggy neighborhood! 

weirdness

i'm going to try to use some of blogger's fancy new post design and templates to spruce things up.  things will look weird for a while, but you're probably reading me through an aggregate, so you won't even notice! 

left on my doorstep

two books: my side of the mountain, and satan burger.

i wonder sometimes what amazon.com thinks of me.

oh, louie

how did i not know about the new FX show with louis ck?! i love louis ck! hence, i love his new show. it's terribly inappropriate for kids, though, so i watch it on hulu. it's a really, really good show. dry and terrible and raunchy and funny and sometimes exquisitely painful. are you watching it? do you love it?

while i'd like to stay home all afternoon and watch louie on my computer while eating crackers, i am instead going to be a productive grown-up. i have a bit of a longer lunch break than usual, so i'm going to go wash my car (D's car, technically) and clean it out. i love my boyfriend, but his car is full of crap and needs a vacuum, a wash, a thorough dusting and a new happy tree air freshener.

why i love cable tv

because you find amazing things like the american astronaut on the sundance channel. we were lucky enough to catch it from almost the very beginning. it's absurd and ridiculous and beautiful to look at and full of music, and i'm sure if i thought about it long enough and used enough words i could explain to you why i found it so delightful. instead i'll show you a small clip from the youtube and you can do some exploration on your own. i will say this, the girlchild didn't love it, D kept saying he didn't like it but coming back into the room to find out what was going on, and the boychik and i were entranced.

hi rocky!

we are babysitting D's brother's african grey parrot, rocky*, for a little over a week. she's a sweet bird, albeit a bit neurotic, but she's settled into her new routine pretty well.

i noticed yesterday morning that she's totally picked up my ridiculous bird voice. every morning (and afternoon and evening and whenever) i chirp, "hello, rocky!" like a higher-pitched ethel merman, and now the bird sounds like ethel as well at times. our new favorite game is, "who is rocky being?" sometimes we can hear D's brother, lower pitched and gruff, his sister-in-law with her sweet, tiny voice; sometimes she's the phone, "beep, beep, beep..." and when i hear my voice coming out of her beak, it just tickles me to no end. she says "thank you" at appropriate times, and "oh boy" when you come to her with a bit of banana, and every now and then we'll all be laughing at something on the tv and she'll join in. i wonder how much she knows what she's saying, and am amazed at how much like us she sounds.

i have to say, though, lulu is not impressed. she's okay with rocky most of the time, but once she starts talking, lulu is out of there. i think the bird making people sounds is just too much for her kitten brain.

*rocky was named because they thought she was a boy. then she laid an egg.

broken record

i was so excited to hear that anne rice was giving up christianity. honestly, i read probably way too much anne rice as a teenage girl, and found her conversion in the late 1990s upsetting, and her writing afterward boring. i liked that she was awesome and crazy and atheist, i liked that she was a different kind of writer and made vampires dangerous and overtly sexy. her books scared and thrilled me, and to this day i don't really take other vampires seriously (i think mr. sparkle-pants vampire is kind of a sappy dope). i heard she was renouncing catholicism and i thought "yay! we get anne rice back!" then i heard an interview she did on NPR and realized, "no, she's just splitting hairs about dogma." so sad.

i drove my pop's truck today. i have never driven a vehicle so large, and when my father was alive, the very idea of me driving his truck would have given him a small stroke. that truck was his baby, it was the first car he ever bought brand new, and when i was learning how to drive a stick shift, the notion of my learning it in his car wasn't even broached. being behind the wheel this afternoon felt awesome, and also left me feeling kind of guilty and giddy. it's got a crazy powerful engine, and is so tall; i felt like such a badass driving it. all i could think was, "man, i wish i could call him and tell him i drove his truck and didn't hit anything or do too badly." i felt ridiculously proud of myself, and wanted him to know that i wasn't even that nervous. my palms were sweaty, but not that sweaty. i hope i don't sound too much like a broken record, but i miss my pop. not because i'm a daddy's girl, or we had some fairy tale relationship, either. there were years upon years when we couldn't even be in the same room together; times when all we did was fight and i wished i had any other man on earth as my father. we didn't have an easy relationship. i couldn't even tell him i loved him over the phone, which is odd considering i end every other phone conversation earth with that. "i'd like a large pepperoni and mushroom pizza, thanks, i love you!" even at our best we were prickly. i loved him, though. when i got older and got to know him better, i found i actually really liked him. nights like tonight i'd do just about anything to have one more complicated day with him.

unfixable

the insurance company called me today and declared that it would be way too expensive to fix my car, so they want to cut me a check. the collision place (which i highly recommend!) had warned me of this the other day, and i'd done some research and decided that there was no way i was letting them give me less than $5,000. which means i thought i would get $4,000. lucky for me, i was seriously wrong, and i actually got more than 5. how much more i won't say (because we all know that's gauche) but DAMN. this is the first time i've dealt with a car insurance company that didn't leave me feeling like i'd assumed the position and they'd picked my pockets. score!

tonight we went to mom's house to pick up my pop's old truck. D had wanted to borrow it anyway to move some stuff around, and we thought if we went tonight we could make sure it was running. it's a good thing we did, too: it needed a new battery. the idea is that we can use the truck while we decide what to do with D's car and the insurance check. we have a few options; i can use the insurance to make both of our cars tip-top and save the rest, use it on just D's car (which needs a new windshield and some suspension work), we can sell D's car and i can buy myself a new (old) honda, or i can actually drive the truck and D's car can just stay like it is. either way, we probably won't end up spending all of the insurance money on cars, and i will be able to use the rest to pay off my bankruptcy early and maybe put some away.

i'm glad everything so far has worked out, and if you can get insurance through USAA i would say, do it. they were crazy nice and awesome, and i am so impressed by how well they handled the situation i'd switch over to them if i could. that being said, i'm sad my car is smooshed and off to auction, it's weird seeing my dad's truck on the road, and i am very tired from running around all night getting things set up. i should have been in bed a while ago, but find myself *up* so i might need some time to read before hitting the hay. what a strange week it's been!

hola, august

i hear D and the girlchild in the kitchen making biscuits and gravy. she is such a good little helper, she's like having a very small sous-chef. spongebob is on in the living room because once everyone got up i was a little self-conscious about watching lockup while knitting socks. the boychik is playing video games on his DS and rolling his eyes at anyone who dares speak to him. the cat is a lump on the cot that somehow made its way into the living room. i'm hungry and excited for both the biscuits and the gravy, and have a new pair of socks on my knitting needles and absolutely no motivation to anything beside some laundry today. hooray for sunday!