Is this like serious writing ... at least we're doing it, right?
Good morning … just reviewing the To-do list – this is where we’re standing this morning – progress has been made! How did I get so domestic – or is this because I’m not USUALLY domestic?
• Get ready to AND go to work-AT-work!!!
• Get out the garbage again on the way out the door
• Call Walgreen’s for picking up the C-Pap machine
• Do those last few “middle-of-the-closet” clothes to free up some more space and hangers
• Get laundry and cleaners stuff to the car – do what you can here, k?
• Clean sinks and mirrors
• Make sure all surfaces washed BEFORE vacuuming
• Vacuum at least the first round - surprise Rich!
• Get credit card to Maury so he can pick-up new little fridge
• Clean big fridge before Rich brings in groceries
• Hmm, shouldn’t you tackle some more kitchen cupboards and drawers?
• You’ll have to wash another load of dishes before Rich comes home too!
• Maybe do laundry on Saturday with or without Rich
• Go over banking with Rich
• Hang pictures with Rich I think
• Consider home DONE – Help RICH do Rich work-at-work things!!!!
Hmm, I’m getting a lot closer cuz the list is shorter than it was yesterday. Yesterday was mainly cleaning the three kitchen cupboards, doing odd things in the bedroom, picking up the living room and rearranging shelves, AND sorting through all the bills.
We think that’s pretty good. The FAVORITE part of the day though was talking to Rich. He seems to be doing pretty good. He doesn’t seem quite as sick or at least that’s what he is claiming in that he wants to do some night time fishing too! He says he’s getting his appetite back and that the guys are all getting along well together. He did allow time toward the end of the conversation to be talking about work or lack of it. We had decided not to bring up work if he didn’t, but I guess it’s ok to be preparing for it a bit on vacation as long as he can concentrate mostly ON being at vacation.
I think Rich got more fish on Sunday than on Monday, but he’s at that comfortable part of vacation where you don’t know for sure which day it is. He says they’ve had some good shore lunches, but also has had some sandwiches. I think they are responsible for week day breakfasts, but are getting dinners which he calls plain like guys like. No fancy French cuisine for fisherman! Ok, yeah I’m worrying about his tummy.
Rich says that they’ll probably be leaving about 8 am on Friday. I don’t think they’ll get home that night until 10 pm to 12 am. We’ll have to see. Usually what I do is try to get some sleep before he gets here so I can massage him to sleep AFTER he gets here. He’s such a dear!
Probably should think somewhat of doing work things. I’ve got an annual meeting tomorrow for the new guy. I’ll have to focus on that today as well as maybe doing sometime on working on the annual report and sometime on finishing the paperwork for last week’s annual meeting. I’ve missed the last three work days so I’m feeling a little out of it. I have to worry a little bit about getting in to water my plant!
I think I left the office pretty well picked up. I also need to check in on Robin’s work on Holly’s material and to see if Holly is back again and if there wasn’t backlash from that whole project. I think that’s the majority – though I still have to check my schedules to make sure that things are getting updated. That will probably be the first ACTUAL thing I get done. I remember giving Rosa a copy of a handwritten scribbled copy of my regular annual schedule. I’ll have to also to check my mail box and update my check-in dealie.
Still got 15 minutes left before the shower though so we’re going to take down our level of panic on all that other stuff. Shouldn’t be such a big deal to go to work – actually Rich said something about that last night. He says that Sister realizes that after a long vacation it’s ALWAYS harder to come back to work. He’s probably right because before you can go back you gotta be thinking of all that you MEANT to get done before you went back.
I’m in general happy with what got done over these last five days. Wow! I had that many days? I can’t believe then there’s so much to be yet doing, but then it’s so much more than I have gotten done in a while, I don’t want to take me down. Just gotta be in a regular status of updating, right?
Rich was patient with me on the phone over the last few days. I’m thinking hmm, maybe he misses my babble. I told him that yesterday was the hardest. Not that I wanted to stop him from his trip, but I wanted him to come home and be happy with all I did – ESPECIALLY for him!
Well, ok some of it was for me and some of it was for Maury too.
Hehe there’s a video taken where some nut jumps out of a helicopter and wrestles with a Marlin. I think the newscasters dispelled the myth though in saying ok, I think there was a cut in the film where there was a cameraman in the water … AND it seems that the fish isn’t moving as much as a BIG fishy with a sword could. But, it was a pretty cool looking video explaining this new way of fishing by spotting the fish from the helicopter first then jumping in! Maybe I can find the YouTube version of it to show Rich what he’s doing wrong!
Hmm, that’s interesting too … they are saying that 3 out of 10 people in the United States do Facebook. That’s pretty cool. I don’t know how old you have to be to be included in the count … or old for that matter … like do people pre-reading or post-sight count in the numbers? If they do then the numbers for FBrs is pretty big! They say the fastest growing population with it is for the people over than 35. I can believe that too, especially if more of the younger folk had already been counted previous.
Hmm, ok … maybe it is time I should go take my shower.
Pswhoo that was good for me! Well, except the meowy cat part. Missy seemed to be telling me from the moment I stepped out of the shower that I should be hurrying.
Now I got the two of them flanking me both wanting attention. Man – how are they going to survive me being gone all day? They gotta get a grip on it!
Ok, maybe it’s me that needs to get a grip on it … just I’d like to step out of the shower and not be as needed. You know … you can sit with me, but don’t demand I be petting you! Well, Ok now that doesn’t exactly pertain to YOU, but maybe somebody’s kitties around here!
Maybe we better be moving along.
I feel strangely in sync with the Flylady this morning. I think of her when I’m thinking about doing stuff around the house and all that is good for me. She would tell me about some daily routines for morning, afternoon if we were here, and evening. Taking a shower and making beds are good routines. I’m thinking now that I should have cleaned both of my sinks already. Hmm, maybe not RIGHT away. I guess we are still a bit resistant. I’m going to have to check out what kind of official cleaning stuff we have. In the olden day people used comet or ajax or something. I think now the stuff people use comes out of a spray bottle and it swears to be good for a gazillion stuff.
I never like looking under the counter cuz I hate the sense of getting smells on my hands. I’m doing better with the green hand soap we’re using now because it’s got an apple scent and isn’t too strong. But we’re still putting the very smallest amount of lotion on our face because we don’t like the feeling of it either.
Hehehe I just answered something on CNN AM Morning Fix. They were asking about Celebrity doctors so I inferred the situation to Sherlock Holmes AND Dr. Watson.
It’s funny … I just read over the other 12 comments before mine. I think mine is definitely the cutest on the board –
Scrawled by Ann Ludford Garvey 'round about 6:33 in the mornin' Merry Month o' June 30
“I wonder what Sherlock Holmes would have said about celebrity doctors - Would that have explained Dr. Watson?”
I don’t think my response would be read, but there is some brush with the famous in thinking that it could. I don’t use this option as often as I should.
Ok, so then if I weren’t talking about that, housekeeping, work … have we talked enough about Rich? Let me think here. There’s the part where we love him the bunchiest!
I think in general last night when we talked we were just hearing each other’s voices. It is a way of talking saying about everything without saying anything.
My Maury thoughts are also on hold. I read his facebook that he didn’t get much sleep again last night. You know as a mother, it’s my natural given duty to worry about these things. But, because he’s already 28 years old we’re not supposed to worry about it out loud TO him. I think it’s ok, if you do some sneaky Inside worrying.
I think he’s going to be busy tonight too. He said maybe on Wednesday he can pick up the fridge. Maybe I could do some of that cleaning up stuff tonight? Damn … am I talking about all that again? What’s wrong with me? I think I’m taking too much satisfaction with having a cleaned up place. It would be REALLY nice if I could get someone now to come out and clean the dirt stuff under stuff. I’m still having problem with dust on surfaces and vacuuming. Ok, aren’t we being a little of our natural obsessive self here? OK YOU! There’s nothing different about this … you’re just going in mind obsessed patterns, just you don’t always think of housekeeping just sometime!
Maybe I should think of posting so I could finish getting ready for work? Yeah that be the idea. You can do this girl … just think one moment forward is one more moment closer to Rich coming home and snuggling him to pieces! Man that kinda thing could drive a girl crazy! But, NOT the kind of crazy that Dr. Marvin is concerned with. *Sigh* ok, you … go!
Can We Work a Little in Here TOO?
Good morning … this is me! If I can excuse my indulging the kitty, my poor Missy seems to be on the worse end of this “New Deal.” Yesterday was another attack on her security because I had to take off the bedspread in the back room so that I can get it to the cleaners. I am figuring at this point that she and chief spend a lot of time hiding under that bed and the spread was their cover or foliage.
Missy’s next front, well maybe some down the line – because I took apart the closets as she once knew them, but today I took apart the kitchen cabinets. I’ve been hearing the doors open and shut. I’m thinking she is spending time hiding out in there too. Silly kitty! So now Chief just found a further back corner under the bed and Missy chases me around the house meowing at me. Well except now she’s giving me a small break. She’s lying next to me attentively.
I’m not sure where exactly I left off yesterday, but I’m pretty sure we made progress on the day. Today we’ve been furthering it while spending some time just hearing the sounds of the place. With that it seems that we’ve been doing fine tuning. It’s just little things like bringing or gathering dirty clothes and other for either the laundry or the cleaners. Even if I don’t get this done it’s a big change that I’m getting them out of the house and down the stairs. Hopefully Maury will stop by again today to see what progress has been made.
Maury’s been real good this week in helping out. I’ve got now … two boxes, four laundry bags, four cleaner bags, and one bag of garbage. This is like 4-5 loads going down and he’s got to come back up too. I would really like to get this next part done before he might stop by. I think he gets off about 6 pm or later. I’ve got some tins that I will collect that will be going to Who-who’s house. I would also like it if he could bring down some of these empty boxes he said he would take. I’m trying to eliminate clutter … and TODAY is the day for the living room.
Oh yeah we were saying though about finishing up in the back. I wanted to make a space for Maury in the kitchen in case he wants to have food here that is his own and DOESN’T fit in the fridge or freezer. Under the island we’ve got really 3 cupboards. Two of them face into each other and then there is a third really deep one that’s in the back corner between the island and the sink. There’s a dividing wall though so it doesn’t open to the sink.
I did fill the deeper part with the pieces of stovery that don’t get used often.
This was for the waffle maker, the wok, the turkey pan and the crumkake iron. Don’t ask! The first thing though I did was on the double side. I went through it pulling out all the plastic dishes. Wow! That stuff adds up. But fortunately stacks pretty well. I had two separate piles of containers with one being squarer and the other being rounder. It’s good that it’s a good depth. These are the cupboards on the bottom part of the island.
Then in a couple of oblong plastic dishes, I gathered all the lids. I think they are fairly balanced. There were a couple of pitcher type things that I put in the cupboard above the fridge. Yeah like when in 10 years have I used pitchers!??
There were also some paper cups and that pretty much filled in 1/6th the area.
Above it we put some glassware. Rich had bought some new stuff, but he’s not been cooking of late. I also hid in this section the extra coffee. I think there was something else here, but this is all I remember. Hmm, thinking now there are a few more glass bowls above the tall cupboard over the sink. I bet there is room in back of the new stuff for the old stuff, and that would clean up the area better for snack type foods. Rich seems to think we CAN’T reach up there … HAH!
Next to the glass dishes to the left is some of the packaged goods Rich stocks up on like cereal, rice, potatoes, oatmeal and that’s pretty much it. It doesn’t take a whole lotta space, but enough. This used to run willy nilly between the other pots, pans and bowls, so it’s really a big deal to dedicate a while shelf for them.
Underneath the box goods, are actually TWO sets of pans. I took all the pieces of the old set and stacked them up leaving their tops to the side. Wow … those pans were scattered so I didn’t even KNOW we had that much there. These were mostly the tinny type that doesn’t have Teflon, but then again who needs Teflon to cook noodles. The new stuff Rich has gotten all has Teflon. I didn’t like though how he had left them piled up on the stove. I figured the compromise was that I give them PROMINENT space not too cluttered in the cabinet and THEN we could put them away as if it looked like we wash our dishes!
I also got rid of the extra popcorn machine so that it was possible to put the newer one on the wicker shelve instead of next to the stove. It was only one of those ¾ foot counter tops, but it can be handy if you are working with something on the stove, especially because the microwave is taking a good part of the cupboard on the other side. Usually, Rich just uses the island area to do all his swishing and swirling.
Hmm, that’s another thing I cleaned out. There is a square wicker basket on top of the counter that we use for our bread type items including rice cakes and tortillas. There had been individually wrapped candies that no one was eating and receipts so I cleaned up that too and found there was room in the basket for peanut butter and cinnamon. Hmm, I bet you that extra peanut butter would fit behind the extra coffee. Then it would leave the only thing above the stove to be the bake goods like flour, sugar, and walnuts.
I didn’t clean that well. There is another cupboard to the right of the stove that has goofy things in it we never look at … YEEKS! Maybe I should clean this too. If there is nothing there – Oh yeah we got medicine-like stuff in there. I forgot … usually we don’t get sick. In the cupboard to the right is a bunch of stuff that has most to do with seasoning. The cupboard on the bottom of the U on top has our can goods and small packaged products. There’s a tiny drawer that can’t be open because the stove blocks it … I imagine great big horrible spiders must live there!
Well, probably not, but sometimes I peek in there just to check it out. Under we have the cupboard that holds the plastic garbage bags, and other bags and wraps.
Across this is a small cupboard that we use for towels and washcloths, and above this is a cupboard we use for oven mitts and hot pads. Above the sink in between these two cupboards is that small double door that used to have plastic and glass bowls, and some of the chips and crackers Rich hides, I think I’m going to clean out this one and a couple others like the towel drawers and the pot holders and the silverware tray.
On the upper right side of the sink are two more double doors, and this has the glassware and dinner dishes. Pretty cool really how efficient the kitchen is. Oh yeah … couple more things. Above the three island doors that we started talking about at first are three more drawers. The first one is for regular silverware and knives, the second – middle drawer is for all the funny utensils people have, and then the last drawer closest to the aisle/portable dishwasher is the junk drawer.
It was not THAT long ago I cleaned it up, but it gets messy pretty fast.
That pretty much explains my whole kitchen EXCEPT the first cupboard of the three I’ve been talking of. You heard about how deep it was and that I filled in the depth part, but I only took it to the level edge of the door. THIS is the part that we’re giving Maury. He’s got an upper AND a lower. *Big Grin* I sure did talk and think a lot about stuff before getting to this part. I’m just so thrilled that I can make room in a regular-sized apartment for him. It feels easily like there really is enough room for three people.
I DO like the part there is a dishwasher too! It sets next to the wicker shelving at the top of the U. It rolls easily into the middle of the U to clean. Nothing says three people better than THANK GOODNESS WE DON’T HAVE TO WASH DISHES!
I figure Maury is going to have some specialties he’ll bring to the kitchen in his food tastes like cereal for one! Maury emphasized the other day how little time he’ll be here and that it will mostly be for sleeping. But, I want him to feel welcome.
Hmm, maybe now a little more welcome. Hehe … I just called him and asked him if he’d pick up for me a little fridge at Sears. I got a 4.6 cubic foot. I don’t know how exactly big that is, but it seems a good size. Ok, now I know how big it is.
It said like 32 inches tall and 20 inches wide and 22 inches deep. It is stainless steel and under $200 with everything included. It should fit right between Maury’s bed and desk if the desk is moved a little closer to the closet. Not a REAL lot of room there to spare, but I think it’s going to be a really good deal. It takes a while to think of these kinds of things. We don’t have the biggest fridgerator – it’s an apartment size and after Rich goes shopping it gets all filled-up. He doesn’t usually fill-up the freezer because he likes getting his meats fresh, but the fridge is smallish and its missing one of the door shelves because before we moved in it didn’t have a side to hold things on the ledge.
Maury on the other hand had a real nice fridge that they’d just gotten. It had one of those nice ice-maker – water disposal things. Ours, is like a jillion years old. BUT, I know that Maury can really fill up a fridge. A good part of that is he can fill-up the beverages. Maury used to drink a LOT of pop. I think now he drinks a LOT of water, but then again, he may have some other stuff … I think he likes juices and some alcohol. This way Maury can fill up his fridge with some of his specialty stuff. PLUS it will give him a ledge for his alarm clock and stuff because the top seems just the right height.
The only thing is that its for the house so that when Maury leaves … we get to keep it. That way WE’LL be able to have an extra beverage fridge. As it is now … it’s hard to keep beer, water or pop in there because it gets filled up so fast. I hope that Maury is going to like it and won’t cause too much problem in picking it up. I know he has a super busy schedule, but this thing is a good priority.
Maury also didn’t mind the idea of bringing up the air conditioner from down in storage. He didn’t do it last time though because he didn’t have enough time to unburden it. Rich has taken over the spot down there and it’s got lots of fishing and sports gear.
Hmm, I just checked on air conditioners and I found a couple I liked but they each cost just under $200 and I didn’t have enough money to clear that because I had to pay $850 for a school loan and $350 on an electrical bill. BUT, the fridge squeaked through! Win one for me and one for the credit card. There should still be about $400, but not maybe that much or the air conditioners would have gone through.
*Sigh*
Maybe there’s some left over to do something? I’m not sure if the check to my sister and the one for my tickets went through. I hope so. This is why people like me don’t look at bills! It’s just too scary.
Let’s not worry too much. At least the fridge went through, right?!!
Hmm, it’s about 3 pm almost and it doesn’t seem too much like we’re getting through with the living room cleaning. I want to leave tonight open for at least OPENING up the bills. Lots of them are duplicates, but still have to force our way through it. Maybe if I put them in a bag until I’m ready for them that I couldn’t clean up everything else. It seems to be the point that’s stopping me now.
Ok, if I were going to clean the living room … what would I do first?
• Put bills in bag
• Take off extra stuff from shelve and pile on glass table
• Start on south wall condensing books, then do west wall, and finally do north wall
• Make sure extra books fit on top – or at least straighten that part – need kitchen chair
• Clear desk and shelve from office supplies, placing in white rollaway
• Put disks in front part of the white rollaway files
• Condense white rollaway as much as possible – so that it tucks under the table
• Face the books left on shelf
• Sort items on table and put or give away things not needed
• Clean shelves and other flat surfaces
• Clean items – like candles and pictures going back on the shelf
• Measure and cut fabric for couches
• Dress couches
• Call Walgreen’s for picking up the CPap machine
• Consider whether to vacuum or leave for Rich – Hmm?? Can’t we do this?
Other rooms need vacuuming too, ya know?
Ok, let’s say we can do all this, then what?
• Wash surface of both bedrooms BEFORE vacuuming
• Open bills
• Sort bills
• Get laundry and cleaners stuff to the car – or wait maybe another day or two before Maury can do it – that seems like a good deal, right?
• Go to work
• Maybe do laundry on Saturday with Rich, hmm? He’ll have fishy stuff ya know?
• Remember go back to work!
• Do those last few “middle-of-the-closet” clothes to free up some more space and hangers
• Be happy with how the house turned out
• Hmm, shouldn’t you tackle some more kitchen cupboards and drawers?
• You’ll have to wash another load of dishes before Rich comes home too!
• Get credit card to Maury so he can pick-up fridge maybe on Wednesday – he called back
• Wash kitchen and bath sinks
• Man is this list EVER going to stop?
• Ok, that’s pretty much it
• OH – get out the garbage again!
• OH YEAH – hang pictures!
• Consider home DONE!!!
Ok, ok … that’s enough of that .. you can see about where we’re at with it. Lots of work done, but some more DEFINITELY to go!
I think I’d like to check out that material for the couches first. I figure that if we get the living room to looking nice enough then we’ll want more to be doing stuff. It’s already late in the day – only 5-7 hours left that we could work, but then we get the advantage of having done pretty much what we wanted earlier and some of it WAS work … and even a little went into writing which has been hard for us lately.
We’ve got to get far enough with it today yet so we can be proud of our effort and not get overwhelmed with chores the rest of the week. It’s still a lot easier to clean and move things now than it had used to be when we were much heavier. Hmm, a case should be made there though … our scale seems either to be broken or maybe in need of a new battery. We better look in to that.
I think if we could do all this then there wouldn’t be much to do except to write, pick-up more as we’re going along, keep up better with bills, help Rich get situated without having a JVS job, learn to live as three-party house, go to work at work, think of saying hi to Joe and Thom, see Dr. Marvin, maybe go to the gym, love our cats, and sometimes sneak away for the weekend.
Hmm, that sounds like a pretty good life, hmm? Only thing we didn’t mention was we gotta keep loving Rich to pieces! WooHOO!!!
Ok, you now … enough writing … get back to work!
Fishyman is in Canada - and Ann is really now working!
Good morning this is me again. I don’t know how long I will be writing for because I want to get some work done, but then again I’m home from work, so want to get some play done too. I think I will post about the time I post this entry the one I’d written in short last week before the wedding. I think I’m just out of my writing habits so it’s a bit getting back into it. I love this sense I’m feeling now just in a few seconds time. It’s like being rewarded with a gift barely scratched.
There’s so much going on now I thought it might be good to get something down. I had talked to Dr. Marvin a couple weeks ago about getting back to Blogger, but he suggested that we might write in a more condensed manner so we say what needs to get said, but don’t spend so much time on it. For so long through our writing history we had found ourselves writing from start to finish of any given day. We became so passionate about writing that we left out time to be doing other things.
Now it seems with Rich’s boat and time spent up in WI with my sister … other priorities have become evident especially with my weekend time. I don’t know how long its been, but it seems to that we are more ready to be at work while at work.
So that part has a certain priority as well.
Some of the things that I would like to mention now are:
• Rich’s job position
• The work lately at St. Rose with annuals and client files
• The work on Holly’s portion
• The 50% planned cut in the Department of Health and Human Services
• The deaths of Ed McMahon, Farah Faucett, and Michael Jackson
• Rich going to Canada
• Maury coming to live with us
• And our project for the week of fixing the back bedroom
• Meetings with Dr. M
• Relationships with family
Maybe we’ll not do that in quite the same order though and maybe other things will come up. The first thing always seems to be Rich. He left about 6-7 hours ago for Canada. His partner this year is his best friend Bob, but I think this one other guy is going to be traded around. He has some problems not being able to stop complaining about his health so the guys are trading him up so no one gets stuck all the time. I don’t think any of the guys would abandon him, but his personality is hard to deal with and takes extra energy.
Rich left pretty ready to be gone. We had written with him to-do lists last Tuesday because he had so much to do and we figured that the best way to get him past other difficulties this week was to give him a clear path toward vacation. We wrote for him while he figured and we came up with a list for things to pack, a list for groceries, and a to-do list that was broken-out to cover each specific day Tuesday through this morning.
Pretty much everything got covered that at least had to be covered, though we ended up with the kitty litter this week. He had made heroic efforts to get everything done. The last half hour, then the last ten minutes, and then the last four minutes were all played out in a manner that only time running can play. I love our dear bear so much that I find being with him is a capture of putting all dreams and hopes and reality together and wishing desperately that he has absolutely no hard moments and will be safe wherever he is.
As to him being not here, we’ve been pretty much lost to the moment of the day after the loss of Michael Jackson. I didn’t think so much of Ed McMahon though I’d recognized he was an important part of television history. I’ll always think of him though as Johnny Carson’s side-kick. I felt more curious of Farah’s death mostly because of her last efforts to propel forward the understanding of living with Cancer. I didn’t watch her special but might try to train my mind to it when it plays again. I certainly watched Charlie’s Angels, but it was just a show on at the right time. I think that the women seemed at the time more like TV personalities than anything else and although women being smart and tough were important for the age, I didn’t really put much into the particular personalities. Eh … pretty girls.
Ok, we’re back again … it is now Saturday instead of Friday when we first started this entry. We decided to continue from here because we hadn’t seemed to get nearly as far as we’d planned. Somewhere in there we’d switched over from writing to going through boxes again from the back bedroom. I’ve made some serious dents. I’ve gone through about 16 boxes so there is really progress being made. The living room looks terrible, but I’m pleased with the progress.
We have been finding things now that related to our past life. I had thought we’d thrown out the divorce papers, but apparently we’d kept them. That was one of the first things I explored. I held in mind throughout that now Maury is going through his divorce so we’re thinking similar thoughts about what we’d been going through next to what he must be going through now. I decided when making the evaluation of what stays and go to keep the divorce “books” that I’d made. We had chronologicalized the course of events. It seems the divorce proceedings started in June of 1992 and continued through March 1994. We put together the book by months and every new section started as a cover sheet the billing sheet from our attorney.
That had all been put together after being threatened by the alarming amount we were being charged by our own divorce attorney – Mr. James Kiss. He was a crook on all accounts. But, I don’t want to get into that now. I don’t want to be in that negative space.
We didn’t stay with just that writing. We’d found one box after that with about 30 legal pads that had been written about the time we were living in Winona finishing the degree. We didn’t read any of the pads, but identified the time to be about 1998. I think we’d lost a whole nother series of writings because we’d been writing to Rich and Dr. Woollcott and then to Dr. Marvin, but we were doing it on the computer through emails and I don’t believe those were ever printed out before the computer system we were using went down and we lost the material.
The last box that I’d discovered seems to be almost completely full of stenobooks, and I’m not sure what’s in all them. We got lost on some other stuff before we had to stop . I’m not sure when those years were to have been writing all that. I was being a little overwhelmed so didn’t get too far.
One of the things I’d come up to was my baby book. It’s not very filled in, but there are a few things in it and I had to hold onto myself when going through it.
I also don’t want to go into that right now, but I know there were differences in how we were being explained at certain ages. For example we were very agile at two years of age, but by 2 ½ we were “clumsy.” We had been recorded by having a lot of bumps and bruises – though she didn’t explain we were getting beaten on. By four years of age my mother described me as “snotty and aloof.” Yeah, like right welcome to my childhood. What kind of thing is that to write about your child – especially at such a young life period?
She didn’t write anything after those comments. I did find that I was in the hospital due to a respiratory problem for four days during my first year - sometime in 60. Apparently during the first year I’d had measles, then I got German measles and then there was the hospitalization and then even those two cases was supposed to have been mild, the last reported case of illness was having a severe case of mumps. I think the respitory problem was between the first two and the third.
It doesn’t look like I fully recovered, but went into one thing from the other. I also know that my mother was pregnant with Connie Sue before the end of my first year. I was born in July of 1959 and she was born January of 1961. That means 18 months after I was born she was born, so about my 9th or 10th month she was already pregnant. About then was when I was having all these problems. As to my older brother on the time line … He was born October 1957 so that put him 18 months before me … which means when he was 9 months she was pregnant with me. My mother was born in August 1940 and my father was born in August 1939 so that meant my father was 20 when I was born and my mother was 19. This also means that she was 17 when she had my brother and my father was 18. It also means that she was 16 when she had gotten pregnant with him and my father was 17. Man – they were so not ready for all that.
There were some idiosyncrasies with my being able to speak as well. There was a very long period between being able to say my first words to being able to say sentences – although after I had said a sentence it was but a couple of months I knew how to ask why and what. I don’t have memory of the dates, but I’m thinking it was like 7 or 8 months when she said I said “mama”, but like 22 months before I put together sentences and 26 months before asking first questions. It seems really early with the first date and really late with the send set of dates.
Trying not to over think all this, but I’m figuring some things I don’t really want to think of were going on. Hmm, one other thing too … was that she said we were elusive at 18 months and easily hurt when being punished and by like 2 or 2 ½ she had said something about that I was truthful, but something else negative about not wanting to be punished. Something I think like hiding, but different. I was somehow resisting being punished EVEN though I was honest. It was nice of her to note that. It seems kinda strange now that much could be put down about formal punishment. I just remember one of my first memories was having been hit and kicked into a corner of the hallway and curling into a small non-communicative ball. I wonder if this is what she meant by being elusive.
Ok, ok … you can imagine we were somewhere else with all these thoughts yesterday.
We’ll put away the book again and look at it much later.
I’m being a little bothered now because either the people downstairs or across the hall really have their music up too high. It’s not quite 9 am and we are just hearing heavy base and it is distracting and feeding my natural frustration with this other stuff. It’s disturbed the kitties too … they are heading for the back.
I don’t know if I should say something to them it would require getting dressed and I’m pretty against all that. Maybe they will cut it off or someone else would complain. I know the opposite side folks under or next to this have an infant so I’m pretty sure they are not going to put up with that for too long.
Poor Missy she’s here complaining now. Ok, let’s try going into something else.
Hmm, Missy seems to be calmed down somewhat. She crawled on top of my chest as she will do periodically. She only stays 8-10 minutes and she just collapses under our petting under her to the tummy and sides areas. I think there’s a very warm connection of her heart beating next to our heart that is and has always been very important to her. She sure is a lover cat. She doesn’t get to spend nearly the time Chief does because he watches that, but she does make her moves.
I feel a little better now although we’re still hearing the thumping from next door. Apparently, at least it has slowed down so it’s not so quickly beating at us.
Hmm, just went for coffee and the last of the cherries Rich had gotten. I picked up a few of the notebooks in the last book. Some of the books are empty and others look like the time between 1992 and 1994. So I’m thinking we must have been writing in the process of those last years before getting the divorce. I noticed under a small pile of some of the small stenos folders from St. Mary’s … I recognize the worn out red from the past.
I didn’t want to go that direction because then that might lead to all those things during the time period of BJ. I think I’m just going to seal this box again and not do much other with it, but to store it. I don’t need to go through everything to clean out that back room. I have to keep my eye here on the sparrow. Maybe by later today we can finish the closets … that be a pretty big deal. I don’t know if we’re going to make it through the whole thing, but we’re a good 1/3 or more beyond the hardest most compact part. There will be stuff in the middle of the two closets with clothes hung-up … that shouldn’t be too hard. There’s some pressed boards in there too from old shelves. Maury will have to decide whether to keep them or use them or help us throw them out.
I think it’s generally different planning a life with Rich rather than one on my own. I am more apt to clean house with him knowing we can be building a new life and lifestyle together rather than absolutely needing all fragments of the past as resources that might be necessary to have in my future.
Part of that wrestling was to manage our thoughts toward most of our older clothes we had almost every piece salvageable from about the time we went to college out of high school and beyond – so in that some of the clothes WERE from high school. I think there has always been the thought that we would go or grow back into them. I don’t know maybe it’s part of something we all go through and maybe part of it is the tie we have in being a multiple. Maybe some parts thought that we could go back or hold onto time through the clothes. I also know how difficult it was for us to obtain clothes so how hard it might be to let them go.
It’s not that I just wanted to toss my past, but we want to clear it up some. Maybe for a bit we could talk about what’s coming up … I didn’t want to be so specific with it at Facebook, because I wanted Maury to announce changes as he might like.
But, if we haven’t mentioned it already, Maury is definitely coming to live with Rich and us. There are a lot of feelings toward all that. He stated something already about making sure I knew how often he is out of the house and how most of the time it will be just another place for him to crash and keep things of his he needs to get to.
I remember that of him that one other year he lived with us. It was like I’d been looking for more of a conventional family sense, but the fact was that at that time he had really wanted to be with Lauren and his daughter who were living at his Moms. It’s kinda funny now, but I think with the changes coming up for Maury and his family that his MIL would have taken him too on the “off-days” he wasn’t with his children at the house. I don’t know how Maury has come to the choices that he has, but he didn’t accept that option.
I’m afraid he’s thinking it’s a pretty big regression coming here and he knows he’s going to need to get a grip on Rich’s and my intimate levels. I think he’s being reminded somewhat of that very uncomfortable past where there were a couple other guys in my life. I very much think of them as transference of life draft. I knew that I hadn’t loved them as I might someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, but I believe that in getting some of the tangible things I needed from them it meant letting go of some of my personal comfortableness. We hate that part of our life, but at the time it helped get us from the house to the apartment in River Grove to the house in River Grove before we lost everything. Fortunately, we lost all those connections at the same time. It’s just that at that time I didn’t know how to get “male-type” help without putting out something and to that we sacrificed our children parts. It’s got to be the stupidest thing that … ok ok … let’s not go there. I guess we did what we did to get by just knowing now how shameful it was … and to some degree the boys remember that part of our life and I’m simply embarrassed for myself. I feel bad for any part that might be relived with Rich because I’m being his mother at the same time a lover to Rich. We’ll try to be careful.
Rich explained to us that one of the things we have to give up is being naked.
That’s one of our favorite things. I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but fact down … it’s just a thing. CERTAINLY … this won’t occur with son around. The thought makes me cringe deeply. Maury said once not too long ago that he’d seen or the boys had seen or known that I had been in the shower with one of these guys from my past. Oh man how horrifying. For ALL of us! I think that was basically the end of it … I trusted my boys instincts that we didn’t need this guy around. He and his family were thinking marriage and we were thinking … we just needed a house for me and the boys. The guy had bought a house with us and we meant it purely for him as an investment, but he wanted more … that was part of what was making us crazy about that time. We just needed to live, but things got complicated in getting from one point to another. I remember not wanting him around so much and not feeling I could control it.
Ok, shhh … no use to go back there now … it’s enough to know it’s part of the processing though that Maury might have to be going through.
Wow … Josh Lev just gave an update of all the sites that crashed like Google, Twitter and Widopedia because of them all being hit by the need for people to understand MJ dying. He said that at the CNN site they had 20 million page turns in one hour. That was supposed to be like 5 times their record previous. It sure has been a pretty big deal. You can imagine that we’ve had MJ stuff on with CNN all along. There was a while we hadn’t realized after being on the phone that the volume was turned way down. We’d engrossed ourselves in going through the boxes and even when we did notice not being able to hear the words, we just went on for a while with just the visual.
Now I realize that the show flipped off for the first time because of a recording being done on VERSUS for one of Rich’s fishy shows. We might just watch this in the background for a while to catch some differences of thought for MJ and all to the fishyworld we know our sweetie to be living. He’s going to be in it now for a couple of hours. We’re wondering if he’s remembered to breathe. He had written a note saying that he would be out at 8 am fishing and that he would try to call me tonight.
Hmm, maybe we should take a moment now to jot him a note. I want him to have some nice thing when he gets in to check his mail now that we know he’s got a connection.
Mmm that’s done.
Hmm, now this is the third day … It’s Sunday and I’m afraid I’m losing my wonderful long weekend. It’s been very nice being off – especially in helping me deal with Rich being gone. I’m not getting very far with the writing, but then again … I have been making definite progress with the extra room.
I finished to the degree I want to clear out stuff in the room. There are a few things left like pictures on the top of the closet shelf, there is extra shelves in the closet that aren’t put up and there is a box of dishes in the closet on the floor. There’s also a large TV in there that has to come out and the bedding will be cleaned and the actual bed probably thrown out.
There was a whole lot of work done in the room. We took out 25 bags of garbage – well as far as the kitchen. Maury came over last night and took a look at the space. He also took all the bags and some boxes down stairs. It was a lotta work, but not overly difficult for him. He was taking 4 bags a time down the three flights of stairs. I had him putting the bags next to the garbage can because I didn’t want to flood the space in the garbarge. Someone’s going to think that we’re moving. I can’t believe that I had that many bags of expendable stuff.
I guess Maury thought so too because I found him opening some of the bags that were marked – animals. He salvaged three animals. He wasn’t scolding me out loud for letting the boys’ childhood stuffed animals go, but he did let me know that I had gone overboard just a little in that he was looking through the bags. He had to rip a hole in the bag to see what was in there. He saved just a little dog, and he saved a purple dragon and he saved “Speller.” Speller was a black panther that had been a puppet that I used with the boys to help teach them spelling. I had just not been able to tell the difference between one to keep or more or just to let them all go.
Maury put them back in the closet. I think he’s thinking of the girls – but we were saying where have you been the last 10 years of them sitting in the closet? I told him how hard it was to be doubting my throwing efforts because I’d worked so hard to say good-bye to them already. Maybe he was dealing with feelings himself over his childhood. I think he really appreciated that I’d given him such a nice room space, but in the meantime he had to be letting go of his childhood too a bit. Maybe with all the other changes he’s making it is a little harder now. To be fair though I had put “Garbage – Animals” on the bags and I put office, or paper, or clothes, or pillows, or whatever on the other bags so that Maury or anyone who might want to look through the garbage would have an idea what’s down there. I know that sometimes the lady downstairs on the first floor will salvage garbage things for some poor Mexican families she knows of.
I talked to Maury about the air conditioner downstairs … We kinda hinted around a conversation on privacy and sleeping with doors open or shut. He said teasingly that he sleeps naked … so we said … maybe we did too! This is information that seems personal, but then it’s something the other party should know as to … let’s not go visiting each other after the door’s been shut! Maury didn’t have any more than 10-15 minutes so he said he would be interested in looking at the air conditioner in the storage room later. It would be good for Rich to get it out of that downstairs closet for space and good for Maury to have coolness in his room.
Rich of course is going to be another problem. He said the rooms didn’t need air conditioning, but that’s because he’s been pulling in cold air at night with a fan.
He’s not thinking of when we’re going to have to shut the doors. I think it’s going to be a real problem for the kitties because their sleeping patterns are going to be changed. They spend a lot of time sleeping back in Maury’s room. I don’t know how that transition is going to go, but I’m not looking forward to it. They are seeing changes in there already. This morning we saw one sitting in the middle of the floor just looking around. Poor kitty … Maury says that he knows of a really strong powder or something for the carpets to get out the smell so we’ll have to see.
Still think we’re going to need throwing out the bed. They’ve been using it on their own for the last 9 years.
I really don’t know how that transition is going to work. Any clues would be appreciated.
Should probably be moving on – I am trying to catch up with some kitty loving. I just had Missy up on my chest where she got a good pet. I think she goes through these periods where she’s discombobulated and then needs some calming down. Chief by now is already in the back most likely under the bed. Not too many places to hide back there.
Maury said he could live with the treadmill back there, but I would like to get it out of there so it won’t be in the way. I don’t know maybe he could use it? Or, maybe it’s just going to be hard to move. I don’t know. He and his uncle and cousins moved it up so he knows what he’s dealing with. At least this time it would be going down.
Otherwise the room still has the fireplace headboard, which I might get desperate enough to as Who-who some help with. I think she’s trying to clean up her basement, but maybe she’ll have a corner. It’s a big place and we have so little storage.
Rich has taken away the downstairs storage and half the front hall. He uses the small downstairs space for some car stuff, but mostly sports and fishing equipment.
I think that most of our storage places or corners or a cupboard needs to be reevaluated.
I think we’re still pretty involved in the back room. We cleaned out closets, the dresser and desk drawers and anything in the middle including the stack of pillows, blankets and towels, and the rolling office supply container. Just gotta pull off the blankets and get them into the cleaner. Not sure though if I’ll have enough money to get them out.
We decided to order a pizza way late last night out of the $100 that Rich left us, but I might want to use instead the money for cleaning the bedding. We’ll have to throw the feather comforter, but there’s a purple fuzzy blanket and the bedspread which I really like. It’s white with embroidered flowers.
I didn’t think about it until now … well I figured out the part where Maury isn’t going to want a white bedspread, but maybe after its thoroughly cleaned I can bring it up to Who-whos. I don’t know what she has on their extra bed, but this is really a nice bedspread with its worse problem being that its pretty big. We talked to my sister a bit about having the room fixed up nice enough so that maybe Rich and us could come up without staying in an expensive hotel and being able to do some fishing up there.
I think that there are so many trips and only so much time so I don’t know how often this will happen, but I could see us visiting throughout the fall and winter too.
There wasn’t a whole lotta time to get to know one another over the wedding weekend, but I think in general people respected each other. I don’t know if we’ve really talked to Rich enough as to his thoughts. Basically, I think he just accepted. I remember him saying something about my mother not seeming as bad as we’d made her out to be. I remember getting so frustrated with that before … where I told our teacher and counselor before she visited that they would think her not so bad. It is part of her doing that church image thing – or little girl thing that isn’t so nice. Yeah, right. Ok, shhhhh Why are we going here again. Let’s not do that.
The appropriate place and time would be at Dr. Marvin’s. Hmm?
Hmm, I wonder about poor Missy. She’s been out on my chest now three times this morning. It’s about 6:30 am. I don’t know if I took away a nest area of hers in the back. I didn’t see anything LIKE the bed where there was a lot of fur, but she does seem to be confused by something. She’s stopped crying now and is sitting next to me though on the floor giving her a bath. We’ll see.
We’re going to need focusing the rest of the day on either Rich and my bedroom or the living room. It be a more direct idea to do the living room, but I think we’re going to have a hard time placing the boxes until we get some space going for us in the closet. There are five-six boxes that may need to find room in our side of the closet. Rich took down the boards in there that I was using for shelves so that my clothes particularly dresses hang down proper, but I think the boxes ARE going to need to go back into that space. They were there before, but had moved and now seem to be finding their way back.
We had thought through the option of putting them in the hall closet, but we’re worried because of the lack of space there since Rich is using it for his extra clothing closet for out of season athletic wear. I think that I have soooo much stuff in the house that I should narrow my closet usage. I still have my coats in the front hall and stuff up on the top of the closet. Hmm, that seems to be another problem. We were trying to find room for the extra suitcases. I know Rich leaves the one he uses all the time in the bedroom back on my side between the bed and long wall. It’s hard to get in and out of bed if that entire space is filled. I can get in at the bottom or Rich’s side of the bed, but at night when I’m getting up to use the bedroom, I like to have a little more room so I don’t wake him. We’ll see. I put a couple of suitcases inside the big one so that took down some space, but we still need to find a place for the big one.
Rich has got extra equipment and hats on top of his closet, I think on top of mine are some games I don’t need – and I think there’s some blankets. On the bottom of Rich’s closet is the dirty clothes baskets and then he’s got more storage on the desk. There is in addition a tall dresser and one more with a big mirror. It looks more like a 30’s style vanity or dressing cabinet. I really dislike the bedroom furniture, but we’re a far ways from getting anything better.
I think what we were thinking yesterday was whether or not we could pull the desk out a bit and place back by it a shelf unit left over from the one Rich took down in my closet. It’s just that he has so much stuff on top of the desk and dresser that I don’t think is getting put away because they don’t have a place to go. We could put a table cloth or sheet over it to hide the contents … that might be a good idea. Hmm, matter of fact – we have that extra material that we used for the bedroom curtains. We could use that! I was going to give it to Who-who, but if I can use it that be good too.
The rolling desk cart had to come out into the living room. I think I have to redo that space, because it is just short enough to tuck under the desk a bit if I can clear off the space on top of it. It’s going to be hard to find somewhere better to place that. I do like that its right next to the desk with the idea being that space could be better used. I’d have to clean off the old bills, but that also is a goal of this week with Rich coming back. I really want to have some nice spaces taken care of. Such as I want to clean out a drawer and cupboard in the bathroom vanity for Maury and it would be nice if I could get him a shelf in the hall closet. I’m not sure if that’s really necessary, but it would be a nice gesture.
If I clean off an area, maybe I’d be able to do the towels better so that we’d have enough room for all of them and extra for Maury to use. I’m not sure how he is situated there just want to make sure he’s in good shape.
There is a lot to consider with moving someone into a place that’s not naturally that big. I think it’s going to be somewhat a hardship to share the bathroom with three adults, but I think we are just going to do it. I’m hoping enough that we have different schedules so shouldn’t be running into us too much. Maury reminded me he’s going to use the place primarily for sleeping – and for taking showers. I don’t know if he’s going to wash his clothes downstairs at the pay machines or if he’s going to bring his clothing to his Dad’s or Alex’ where it doesn’t cost anything.
Maury said he’s getting a new schedule at work so it sounds now like he’s going to be working Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then he’ll have of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I think he will be with the girls on Thursdays and Fridays and then every other weekend. I’m not sure how the arrangements are going to be made after the house sells, but my guess would be by then Maury has enough money to be putting some aside for the apartment he’ll have to get himself and the girls.
I really do look at our place as being necessary only until he doesn’t have to be paying a mortgage. He got the name of a realtor from his lawyer and now he’s saying it will take another week or two. The girls don’t know they are going to have to move yet. I can’t imagine how all these changes are occurring to them.
Rich spends so many nights out because of his work, ballgames and fishing and Maury works long hard hours. Even as to our hours we’re spending a few more of them away than had been in the past. I think it should be ok. We need to maintain that Rich is able to be King of the throne room for as long as he needs, but make it accessible to Maury too – whose got new hardships in all that he’s already lost.
I have to kinda giggle on the every other weekend deal. It will be good that Maury’s gone a couple days so we can be making up for that making out time, but as well – woohoo!!! We’ve got every other weekend too! Ok, maybe this is something that doesn’t have to be drawn out so obviously *sigh*.
Ok, so we’re back … it’s about 7:15 am now on Sunday morning and we’ve just taken our medicine. That’s not off too much.
Beside the drawers thing that moved into the living room, we also moved the tea cart next to the treadle machine and in front of the bookshelves. I didn’t really want to cut off the bookshelves, but the table needed to go somewhere. It was a wedding present of my Grandma Ludford so there is like no chance it’s getting thrown. Just the same we’ve always used it to some capacity. Lately it’s been holding on top of it not one, but two boom boxes that are about the same size. One of them was mine and one was left by Maury the last time he lived here almost 8-9 years ago. Mine too is older than 9 years. In this area of our lives we’re pretty electronically challenged. We don’t really have a handle on music except through the radios on these boomboxes and the connection we have to rhapsody on the Internet.
I don’t know what else to do with the boomboxes. I know they are very old, but they work just as well as they had originally. It’s hard to get rid of stuff that is causing no problems with the exception they do look pretty big and bulky. Maybe Maury will contribute some idea as to how to handle this one.
The teacart worked out pretty good in that it allowed me to get rid of that chair that was holding the extra machines like the DVD and and other recording thing as well as the cords control thing … there’s a lot of electronics over there. It’s not a bad deal – I worry about the clutter affect, but I don’t know how else to do it without getting rid of stuff. You have to admit I’ve done my best to eliminate stuff considering we threw out those 25 bags.
I think when we start up again … we’ll start in our bedroom. I will need to clear out the closet for boxes and I will want to set up the shelves in back of Rich’s desk so we can clear up that space. We’re going to lose a little free space in the middle of the room, but I think just about a foot worth – as wide as the shelves.
There is another thought too that we might put the shelves in back of the bed between the bed and the wall, but most likely we’ll save that space for the suitcases. I don’t like the cluttered look, but we’ve got to do what we can consider how many people and stuff are going to be in our small space of an apartment.
Maury said that he’s only going to bring what he needs for general day to day stuff. I think he might bring his TV … maybe we mentioned that that the TVs in the two bedrooms is going to need some rearranging. I’m a little worried in that I think the TV that will be coming into our bedroom – my dad’s old TV might be too big for the space that we’ve presently gotten arranged. I think that we can move the speakers to some other space … just have to wait for Rich to make some decisions there … he’ll figure out what to do
Ok, we’re moving along here. We went back a little bit, but it got too overwhelming to be thinking all these thoughts over again. So we figure we’re just going to need continue.
Hmm, just got some new coffee, but spilled a little. *Sigh* It’s going to be ok, right? We also opened the curtains a bit to let in some light. I don’t know if I like the looks of the room in that I can see how messy it’s gotten, but then that’s just to inspire forward, right?
When I get to the comfort level of wanting to work again, I think I should start … where?
It seems like we should be first in the bedroom and make space on my side of the closet. If I take the boards out, I can set that up behind Rich’s desk, and then I can move the boxes into the closet, and then I can clean up some of Rich’s desk area and dressers using the shelves, and then I can take out some of the extra clothes?
Hmm, maybe we should move those extra clothes before moving in the boxes? That might represent a little more normalcy as to what to expect of the closet space.
Key thing here though will be the closet.
I don’t think Rich is going to like that I put more in there because he’s worked so hard at getting out the clutter. But, I think that has to be the best plan. I think we’re going to throw out those curtain rods that are in there and whatever else is in the middle of the closet – the dead area and then we can stack the boxes in that area – this is the part that separates my double side of the closet from Rich’s. Hmm, then that’s a plan … first clothes, then shelves, then boxes, then lining the shelves – clearing off Rich’s desk and then – hmm, somewhere in there too suitcases in back of bed – that could actually be done first to gain more space.
And, then somewhere toward the end we’ll clear off the extra spaces. I think too we have a few extra smallish size drawers to put some stuff in.
Ok, stop worrying now it’s just what we gotta do next and next and to do all that we’d have to be actually active – but, we’re not ready to be doing that yet. The rest of the tasks will switch out over the week. This is the part where the bathroom and living room – and maybe living room closet gets fixed up too. But, we don’t want to overwhelm the system entirely. Hmm, and ONE more thing?! Let’s take down the Christmas stockings? That be a good idea hmm? Though it might now be closer to Christmas than farther away. Pswhoo. That got out of hand didn’t it?
Somewhere toward everything being picked up … we still too have to do bills and we have to be getting the Internet fixed on the big computer and do something with the printer. I know that Rich wants to get files transferred over, but still too we might want to wait on that until Maury gets here. Maybe he could save us some time. He IS a Comcast Internet specialist right? Ok, ok … enough about cleaning for now. Let’s think some new thoughts, hmm?
Anything new on Sir fishyman? No, not really. We brought the phone close to the couch where we slept last night, but we didn’t get too far. It doesn’t appear that he called last night or this morning. Hmm, maybe we should check our email?
Yeeks! Nothing in the mail, but I tried to delete finally my emails delete file and there were 1400 emails in there and it wouldn’t let me “select all” because there were too many there. Shoot that’s going to take some work. I can only delete about 10 at a time before I have to push delete button or scroll down. Man that’s going to take some time. Maybe Rich will sneak in a few spare moments to make a call to us. I sure hope no call doesn’t mean he slipped his phone into one of the lakes – I KNOW he’s tried that operation before!
Hmm, I gotta get that CPap machine back to Walgreen’s Home Care too. I think they will need to come out and pick it up. I think we’ll have another day coming up when? It’s costing me some small amount of dollars each week though so it really needs to be done.
I don’t think I’ve gone into this next subject too much, but it is probably pretty important. I’ve been thinking of getting the place ready for Maury so much that I have neglected this other important topic.
Rich’s workshops at JVS have been shut down as of Thursday and we don’t know, but are thinking that he’s going to be without a job come the Monday he returns. We’ll have to figure out then if he gets any severance and how much if any vacation time is he going to be able to get. He says he has about 13 weeks left AFTER this week.
Maybe this is part of what is helping us clean up and throw out. I feel as if we are getting ready for the new us. I really like this part where we are getting ready to go and are much more mobile than before. It feels fluid. With Rich not working MOST likely at JVS, we need to think out his time, space and money and all.
I think we’d be ok, but he’s still responsible for his wife and house. So there’s no doubt he’s going to need bringing in more an income than he will after there won’t be any JVS.
He’s also got an income being cut at New Hope. We’re hoping not at St. Rose. Hmm, maybe we said something about this before. We’re thinking that he may or may not put out a resume, but in general we think he’s going to try and make an income from his entrepreneur abilities. We don’t know if he’s going to be able to get his contact list brought over before they shut down and collect his computer and phone.
He’s going to need getting a new phone AND most likely a computer, but he says he was prepared for this and had saved enough money for it.
I don’t have much idea on Rich’s money situation. I think his wife though had been scheduled to cost him about $2600 a month. That’s as much as we bring home. It sure be easier if she could take care of herself. But, that’s not going to happen.
She’ll always be a dependent.
We were serious about handing our money over to Rich. I’m really hoping that he takes it over. It’s kind of the feeling of the house and getting it cleaned up. We just don’t want to deal with the clutter. Rich had said something about taking out an allowance that would be for doing what we wanted like in taking the boys out, but other than that all the money we make goes out to creditors. Almost all of it.
Just want to know that we’re paying down our debt. We figured before there is about $100,000 debt – mostly with school loans and hospital debt. I don’t know if we can get rid of this before we retire with general expenses being as high as they are.
I know that I’ll have to be going back to the gym if I’m going to be able to justify that cost. We’re on a contract now, but figure that we’ll have paid the majority of it by September … hmm, maybe just half of it … was it 2009 or 2010. Shoot, don’t know that part. Maybe we’ve got a lot more to pay. I know if we can hang on to it … our FOR LIFE payments will only be like $12-14. I really want to get to that point – for now it’s costing $49. Ok, enough of that. That will come later when we’re more caught up with life – Hmm, is that going to mean washing the silverware tray too?
Ya know what ya gotta do girl!
*sigh*
Ok, back to the harder part of Rich not having direct work. If he works on his own, he’ll most likely be splitting his time between the house and St. Rose Center, until something happens there. I believe he will still be contracting work, but he’s going to have more options as to where he places the work.
Rich said that he believes he’s saved all the contracts with the exception of the big one called Kernel Seasons. This is a company that is putting seasoning on popcorn. It is a food contract so that puts a little more limit on the situation.
Not just any job could take the work. Plus, I think that this company was very upset and might be able to sue for whatever it is where you interfere with normal processes in the manufacturing change. There was no warning … JVS just said close up the doors today I want it done by tomorrow so that they didn’t even ship out the material – they made the customer come pick it up without even finishing the contract that they were working on. Rich was ahead of himself a couple of weeks so there were other jobs to sort out, but I think the others will maintain their commitment with him as he shuffles their work to the new appropriate shops. I don’t know what kind of income Rich is going to need make to hold on to his life standard – including his wife, or to progress that. I’ve got in the back of my mind that he be able to bring work into multiple workshops throughout the city without presenting too much conflict of interest between the shops.
I don’t know if shops are going to be something of the past though as the state of Illinois tries to cut down money going into social services. I don’t know if too I’m going to be losing my job too. I think I explained before that I believe I will be last to go, but that doesn’t help the situation. I think my back-up plan is to go to some other faction of social services, but if they are all being helped, I don’t know if I can even get a job working at a nursing home. It feels now like my failsafe. I think it’s going to take Rich’s business some time before we can both afford to live off of it. We need some separation so that there’s back-up for one another.
There’s also the part where we should be assisting Rich in some of his needs. He could really use someone like me to build his business because we can be very helpful. But, until Sr. Theresa cuts us … we really have to focus on what we’re already doing. I’m hoping for better days to come.
Maybe I’m afraid of thinking of Rich without a job too far down the line. I think more than anything, I’m afraid of him getting rid of his boat. My general impression is that is a $200 payment a month, but then there seems to be a lot of repair expenses. I don’t want him to lose this resource. It’s been so good for him and long in coming. He deserves this much in life. He doesn’t have a house and his car is on payments as well. I know at least the boat though is a luxury item and that he’d still be able to fish with the guys without it. Just it be such a major disappointment. I just can’t even comprehend this might have to happen. I will fight against losing the boat to the end. EVEN if it meant just docking it until the cash flow is working better. If he did that he’d still have to pay the monthly cost, but wouldn’t be putting the extra for repair and such.
Without the boat though it would mean that he and I aren’t going to be going fishing – maybe we’re here already, though this thought breaks my heart. Why would God show me this wonderful aspect of life and then take it away like so many other things to do with my lifestyle – like with my own house, kids, job, pets, etc.
Ok, that’s all in the past and Maury IS coming home for a bit, right?
Last night I followed him into the room. He saw the bags and knew what he had to do there, but the thought I keep going back to is him just standing in the middle of the room and mentally figuring stuff out inside his head. I said something apologetic in that it didn’t seem as much as I would have wanted to offer him, but then he said the nicest thing. He said that it was nicer and bigger than what he’d been offered by his dad.
You know how competitive we are. I still have a little bit left of feeling put out in that Maury was so sure he’d be with his Dad and didn’t need my help. But, then here he is. So, why did he have to act so coldly before. His father has done this with all the boys – the part of making them pay for space.
We have a little confused feelings here because we’ve been on Rich for his son not paying. I don’t know if I can make a big enough distinction that his son is planning NOT to move out and Maury IS planning to move out. I think it is different though in that Maury is paying out on his house for the girls – and he’s trying to eliminate that cost so he can get his own place. That’s much different than not contributing toward anything for any specific purpose.
I do have to admit though it was a little easier justifying why Maury should come home to live with Mom since that’s what Rich’s son was doing. Well, he actually didn’t leave and it seems like he’s engaged so is bringing in now his girlfriend so that Rich is paying out the mortgage for three people. In that situation, I would think that Rich has the right particularly due his work situation to ask for help with mortgage – that or they help in selling the house because it’s something that is difficult for them to afford now. I’m not sure what he’s paying, but we know he’s paying on mortgage and second mortgage. Even if he agreed to pay some toward her living expenses – he’d get enough to get out of that second mortgage and she’d get the majority to put down on a down-sized condo.
The best situation for the son would be – if Rich might continue paying the mortgage, but that his son and girlfriend if living there would have to set up some kind of savings program so they could accustom taking out big money from their paychecks and for now they could be saving that money for a down payment so that when it’s time for the house to go – they’ll be in good shape. This would be a means of them taking care of themselves and Rich a way of helping them without being taken for granted.
Seems fair and in the same respect, I would hope that any money Maury could save here would go to paying down his debt on house and credit card. I’m going to have to watch myself though because he’s already saying he’s going to be out having the lifestyle he prefers which means going out for movies, eating dinner out and doing things like skydiving. We’ve always thought Maury put too much on credit card, but we will need to push the situation that we don’t have any right to be making decisions for him. The gift of a cost-free room has to be a gift without ties.
Hmm, we slowed down again. Missy was just up here for her 5th time this morning and it’s now about 9:15 am. I’m pretty sure by now that we took away her hidden sleeping space. We didn’t do this on purpose – she’s always just “hidden” somewhere toward the back, but it’s not making us feel any better.
I guess there’s not so much to say any more about the kid’s living and saving arrangements. I can’t be hypocritical and expect Chris to be monitored from the outside by require a savings plan if we’re not going to require the same to Maury.
It is true though that we know that Maury will be paying down his responsibilities.
I’ve just got to hope he’s paying down the credit cards more than adding up. Shoot, shoot … this was the danger area … got to not worry about what he does. He’s got a room with us plain and simple … it’s temporary based on the fact that he’ll pay for his own place after his first place sells. We know he won’t stay here a moment more than he has to. Good Maury! He’s still independent. I think he wants to make this clear too – in that he’s letting us know already how many hours he’s up compared to those he spends sleeping. *Sigh* Better get him his own keys this week.
Preparing for the Big Wedding
Good morning. Hmm, that sounds pretty strange. Or, maybe it’s been that we’ve been the stranger. I don’t know how long it’s been now since we’ve been on blogger regular. We’ve been really, really somewhere else. There might be no big surprise thought that we’ve been mostly over at Facebook and through that over at the Pirates game. It seems that’s the no-mind thing we reach for first thing in the morning and again when we get home.
Maybe we are getting a little off of that in that lately it seems we’re not motivated to play it at night, but then too we weren’t ready to be writing at that time either. Usually what we’re doing is listening to CNN catching up with the day’s events OR getting ready to be talking with Rich when he gets home. It seems he’s been doing a lot of games lately so he’s getting home about 8 or later.
You can be pretty sure by then we’re lookin for some snuggly time. Rich has been favorin eating dinner and having a lemonade-down Margarita out on the balcony with us just long enough to convince him we’re melting away without air conditioning.
*Sigh* Women! What can you do with them!
So anyway here we are and we got a little time to spare. This is a Friday and for 4 Friday’s in a row we’ve been taking off to use up our vacation time before the 30th. We were going to take off Monday the 22nd too, but sister wanted me at work until we figure out if Robin is coming in in case she needs someone to take over the leadership and Group 1. I’m not sure why Imelda won’t be doing it, but she MIGHT be taking over Maria’s group. I’m not sure exactly who gets between her or the combination of Theresa and Cathy. *Sigh* Thing is we just gotta do what we gotta do.
We’ve been pretty much into work the last hmm, maybe 4-6 weeks. I’m not sure why we’re working now, but there are a few things going on. First off is that we had to start working toward the new Annual year with our clients. I swished out the schedule and we’ve got 22 people – about one a week between June and Thanksgiving to have an annual for and make up the corresponding reports and goals. Pshwoo.
It wouldn’t be that bad but there are other things going on too. We’ve started working on our case file and we’ve brought it up from 59% to 82.1% as to documents being in. We’ve sent out two mailings to parents and we’ve sent out one mailing to CSO – the State people and one phone call to them. CSO is responding pretty good – I’m happy with that. It’s a little harder with the parents. I don’t know how many of them have gotten their people scheduled for State IDs, medicals or dentals since I sent the notes out. I’ve had a few dribble in, but after two letters, then I figure I will wait until after the 4th, and then I will start making calls. I think as to actual documents out I’m looking for about 30 pieces of paper.
Sister seems to like what’s happening there and we told her how Robin the new DSP who helps with Q work on Fridays helped and about how much she can really do for case files. I’ve taught her to go through them and either order them or clean old stuff out, how to look for and record documents that are there or missing, and how to get out letters of inquiry to the parents. It’s not real brain rocket science, but it is a process and eats up some minutes.
I’ve kept my charts and paperwork up during the weekdays when she’s been away … and then she had to get her tonsils out a week ago and is having hopefully her last day off today. That’s a couple Friday’s we didn’t get her help. I really hope she’s doing good.
Sr. says that what I had her do with my files, she wants me to have her do with Holly’s files. Holly’s files need a lot of work. I do think some of her parents are better at getting in documents, but the last time I talked to Robin about the filing that Holly is having her do, she said the books are so full it’s hard to move them around. AND, the files are hard to get to because Holly doesn’t have a good file set up. She’s got two big units with horizontal files – so 8 long drawers, but there is no frame in there to hang the files and they get floppy. I feel embarrassed for the center that Robin has to go through that mess to get anything done and I figure that might be why Holly has such a hard time getting around her files too. Well that and she runs a messy office.
Holly has been gone about 6 weeks, but she’s been coming just lately between 3-7 pm a couple days during the week. She’s thinking she is going to get a medical clearance on Monday. I haven’t missed her being out in that we ran the Pirate game all the way through May and had the awards the first week of June and since the beginning of June we’ve gotten Friday off we’ve been doing our Thinking group on Thursdays. I’ve done 3 weeks of annuals … we might have said that … better clear our head here.
Holly if I didn’t say before had time off for an operation … she had some kind of grapefruit size growths inside her that weren’t cancerous, but took some attention, and then something burst open and then something got infected and well all that so she’s really been out of commission.
I took the minutes for the last two Administration meetings, and I did the behavior meeting minutes, and that hasn’t seemed to be a problem. I thought at the time of doing the notes they might be a little wordy, but I liked them a lot. The big change over everything seems to have come with the new little netbook. I have no problem taking it into meetings and writing my heart out. Afterward it’s real easy to formalize what’s been said. It gives me a sense of completion to be getting things down so thoroughly and because we’re taking pride again in our work, it seems that we’ve been willing to work harder.
Yesterday on our way out the door we went through sister’s office to put something on her desk. We paused to read something and then sure enough there was Holly coming around the corner and when she saw we were still standing there she looked at her mail box like something interesting had just happened there.
I don’t want to overshoot here, but its been one of Sister’s biggest complaints that Holly goes and reads personal things on Sister’s desk. I’m thinking that’s what Holly had intended when she came around that corner. Nobody just gets up in the middle of nothing going on time to check mail. People usually check it when they first come in the door and maybe when using the washroom. Hmm, maybe I’m feeling a little resentment that Holly’s back. Things seemed to work fine without her, and now they are getting messed up again. It’s not a good feeling thinking that anything you put in private on Sister’s desk is going to be gone through by a snoopy peer. Like two days I had to leave my staff survey. I didn’t think that was something Holly should be reading. Most likely I will tell Sister about what I’d seen. I’ll let her come to her own conclusions, but I think I’m going to ask if I can put my papers that I leave her on the way out the door on the corner of her kitchen counter. I don’t want to interrupt the sisters, but I should have that much privacy.
I told Holly yesterday after I’d surprised her by still being there I told her that Sister was saying that she was going to have Robin do her case files to catch them up. That had been one of the things that I’d left on Sister’s desk so I showed it to Holly who didn’t want to look too carefully because she usually shies away from the things I do that seem like work. Holly started fretting immediately … she said well I wish someone had told me because I’m going to have to … blah blah blah. She said she’d been planning to do something else and now she was going to have to look at that.
We told her … Holly, Robin is still out tomorrow, meaning today Friday. She won’t be coming in until next Friday. Then I told her all you need to do is have a pile of anything that hasn’t been filed, and then she’ll file it, clean-up the old stuff, categorize what’s there and write some letters to parents. That’s what SHOULD Happen, but I’m pretty sure that Holly is going to try and complicate things – usually to hide what she hasn’t done. BUT, Sister does not mean to punish her, she just wants to get the records cleaned up.
This is all a part of what’s now going on at the Admin meeting. We really pushed Rich to keep up with what he’d started, because we thought it would make him look good and since funds are really being limited … we needed to really help boost his credibility. He had finally set-up the system where he was going to be looking at case files. I thought that was excellent, because I really think it helps us stay focused on it rather than worrying til the beginning of next year when CARF or the state are looking for those documents. Holly seems to think though she needs to do a lot of work ahead of time. The whole deal again isn’t to make her work harder it’s just to get the job done.
We also told Holly the first day we saw her back and then more carefully a couple of days ago when we’d gone in to get caught up. We told her about the couple sets of minutes that were in the book if she wanted to catch up with some of the big stuff, but she said she didn’t want to look yet until she was more caught up. But, when we’d gone into her office she was just staring at an Internet page. We know she wasn’t working and doubt she’s done much after getting back.
So anyway we reminded her that Sister was SERIOUS and that Rosa WOULD be sitting next to her while she did the July billing. It’s supposed to happen the first couple of days into July I think. Holly had blown me off the first day I’d set it, but this time I wasn’t giving her as much wiggle room. Me telling her is like giving her a “Heads-up” before the boss and reality get to her. She’s got to be able to wrap it around her mind.
Holly started by saying something about well she CAN’T sit next to her and that she’d have to do something in her own office – meaning Rosa. I said NO sister said she was going to LITERALLY sit next to you. Then Holly slowly came to figurin that she probably couldn’t split the work and that Rosa WOULD have to come to her computer.
Then she was into how many clients she had and how overwhelming the work was and all, but we held firm. How many clients Holly, how many clients do you have on Home-base. Home-base is a particular kind of funding through the government. And, all the clients who have home-base at St. Rose go to Holly. And, in addition she has clients from the outside that just use her for the billing of home-base stuff.
BUT, Holly is always very evasive when it comes to anything about Home-base. This is the billing that Sister is talking about. Holly couldn’t avoid the fact that she didn’t even know how many clients she had. I know for the regular center she has 24 clients and I have 23, but am doing the work for her 24th client, because he came in while she was gone. The first question was – how many of those 24 clients are on Home-base and how many EXTRA clients did she have. She’s always trying to make it seem WAY out there.
At first she was going to blow me away, but sometimes I think Holly realizes she really should be doing something or maybe that in some small way I’m trying to help. So she went through this process of staring in the air counting and looking at several scraps of paper. It took her 7-8 minutes but she finally said she’s got 27 people on home-base. Ok, so what’s the division? Again she tried to muddy the water, but as it turned out … Out of her 24 clients … four of the clients WEREN’T Home-base and the other 20 were … so that meant she only had 7 extra clients. I was pretty sure she used to have 11 -13 so I’m thinking that due to her case file neglect she’s losing them.
So the way I figure it is that I have to do all the extra work of program management, CARF AND staff training, because she’s way busy with 2 days a month’s worth of paperwork on 7 people. I soooo Hope that Sr. finds time for Rosa to do the work so that it gets done right and then just uses Holly for the back-up. But that means that Holly’s only specialty beside Town Hall which equals my Thinking Group … well she just wouldn’t have too much to do certainly not enough to excuse her from doing case files and Qnotes.
We’ll see. We had pushed a little more on the Rosa is going to learn part … Holly said she couldn’t do it because she has it all up in her head – that’s the part that had lead to how many clients? I told her if she didn’t know how many clients she had – how the heck was she remembering everything else? That’s when she started figuring it out. I told her that Sister’s concern was that if she weren’t there we would have no means to billing for our services and that was too much risk for sister particularly after Holly had been out for so long. I can appreciate Holly’s concern with being replaced, but then I’ve always thought – the more you teach someone the more advanced you can go – because the older work can go to someone else. I always try my hardest to teach EVERY thing I knew to anyone who would listen.
I think the biggest help I was to furthering Holly’s mind was that when she said everything was in her head as to method of completing the task and the specifics of the task – I acted out exaggeratedly – you mean you have NO MASTER LISTS? I think that has to be the biggest crime of the century – well at least as far as St. Rose goes. I could see Holly start to sweat it out. I think that’s something we’re going to recommend to sister is that when Rosa goes in … she has to write out the directions for everything. Pretty much what Holly does is blow things up like a fan fish to make people believe things are too hard for anyone else to even conceive of.
I was talking to Rich yesterday after one of my meetings about the new annual forms and then Sister came in. One of the things I brought to the threesome conversation was that I told sister we’d talked to Holly about the billing that Rosa would be sitting in on. I asked sister if she was serious about that … because Holly was pretty sure that it couldn’t be done. Sister frazzled up pretty quick. Yup. Yup.
I think it’s going to happen! Sr. just couldn’t afford to put that much risk on the system. She has been, but now she’s more determined. When you are talking to sister you gotta get it out in about 2-3 sentences or she’s already gone down the road into something else. I made sure to say – she says Rosa can’t learn it because it’s all in her head – no MASTER LIST. Yeah … you can imagine I’m just that kinda person. I don’t mean to be getting Holly in trouble, but maybe there’s some frustration because after 10 years of doing CARF I’ve never gotten a SMIDGEON out of Holly of ANYTHING of hers from Home-base that I can brag about in CARF.
It’s not only sister that doesn’t know what Holly is doing – it’s me too. Sister has always told me whatever she could that wasn’t personal with her other employees, but sometimes that too, but the point is that with CARF I’m supposed to know all our systems and subsystems. Ok, maybe too we’re just on a Holly rant. Calm down girl!
We’re back. We just took our shower and got a few more things ready. Rich is home and we watched him pack. It’s one of our favorite things to do. I think we like watching him taking care of himself. Sometimes he’ll ask questions about a certain shirt or pants, but we usually let him do the figurin because we’re just new with this whole male dressing thing. Frankly our expertise is in UN-dressing him!
Hmm, well I guess our mood has changed and you can see which direction it is going.
We’ve been trying to put it off in our thoughts as much as we could, but we’re likely to be seeing our mother tonight. MANOMAN does that seem not long enough away. I don’t know why I’m dreading this so much. I think I’ve enjoyed the privacy I’ve always had between them and Rich and now today Rich is going to be meeting them and there’s no way of getting out of it unless I drop dead pretty quickly, but seeing as I just had such a nice shower that’s probably inconvenient. HMPF!
Oh and there’s something new too. We’re now wearing make-up. I did that too after doing the shower and watching Rich pack. There’s not a WHOLE lot of make-up, but some. AND, after six years we got our hair cut. It hadn’t been done since Sandy died. My old friend Becky did it and I guess we gave her some trouble because we got yelled at and then didn’t talk to her anymore cuz she was so scary.
Last weekend we were at CS’s and we told her before we got there we’d appreciate if she set up an appointment, but that we’d probably be weird. She’d gone so far out she’d even prepared to take us to the Dairy Queen if necessary, but she didn’t have to do that. Well, it’s pretty much because no one would talk to her afterward, but that’s a whole another story - she’s actually pretty understanding about some of our eccentricities. We might have a few.
She had to do something for Nathan though so she went into the phone store with him and we weren’t ready yet so we stayed in the car and while we were waiting which was like over a half an hour, then we got to thinking that we’d come that far with our hair that we’d like to go all the way and figure out the face-thing too. So when I came out we asked what she knew about make-up counters. She figured she knew where to go.
She brought us to some store with the name Boston in it. There were actually 4 make-up counters, but we didn’t figure that out right away we were pretty flooded.
I think we did some more not too much talking. This lady with a white lab coat had us sit down and she started doing stuff and running up a tab. We got out of there at about $197. What a deal, hmm?
There were three bottles – BIG to be cleaning your face. One was some kind of liquid soap, and then the next was something she called an exfoliate, and then the next was some kind of lotion. She said they were all not supposed to cause allergies and they didn’t have fragrances. That was appreciated. She said it would last about 3 months, but we’re using less then a fingernail size at a time. It’s all pretty threatening, but we have been using it after the shower and before we go to bed. I can’t say that it’s made all the broken-out problems go away, but I’d like to think it’s gotten better. I feel like it’s less bumpy.
Then – oh whatever company it starts with a “C” because on the zipper of the pink make-up bag it has a thingy with a “C” on it. Anyway the bag came further down the line. Before she gave me the bag, she gave me a small bottle of some kind of liquid foundation. The bottle will probably be the stuff that runs out first. The neat part was she put a little bit of it on the back of her hand and then she had a nifty big brush that she’d just dipped in the stuff on her hand and then that went all over the place.
After that she got out a round something with a mirror in it and a soft padded thing. All the time she worked she hemmed and hawed and did pretty good at matching up the colors that I was supposed to have. This last thing was some kind of a compacted powder and she said that it would set the foundation and she said it would act like a wick in absorbing the faces oils. I thought … hmm that’s a pretty good idea! She put that pretty much all over everything too and she talked about blending and such. I think my sister was doing the talking with her because we were just talking inside pretty much.
Then she got ANOTHER face thing! It was probably the coolest. It was a tube like container and she was showing us how you had to twist the cover as you were pulling it out. It turns out what was in there was another nice size brush and when you twisted it you pushed it up against the top of the container where some pinkish cheek make-up was … I forgot what all the colors name was, but I think that color matches somehow the eye and lips colors. It was quite some system.
We had worked it out with my sister going in that we’d write her a check after we’d gotten out and she covered us on the credit card. Because by this time it took three things to clean our face and three things to cover our face up and we hadn’t gotten to the other stuff yet. PSHWOO!
So then next was the eyes part. That’s always the scariest part. She found one thing that had four colors in it. We’ve only used two of the colors though. We’re a little scared of the other colors. There are two shades of pink and two shades of brown. That nifty container has a mirror too and it had a couple applicator things … one a small pad and the other a small brush. Pswhoo. The lady decided that the eye liner would be too much for me, but she gave me several mascara’s for free.
That’s like the dickens to get on fairly straight! We must have little lashes and not too much for eye lids.
The last part of the official make-up was the lips. She brought out a pretty little tube of some pink stuff and I clenched my teeth thinking about how many dozens of years I’ve avoided putting stuff on me and how on Earth was I going to keep my lips “prettied-up?” But, we’ve been trying. I still have to fight our normal impulses to wipe the lips off because they have something on them. And, she didn’t stop there … after she put on lipstick, she put on some glossy stuff on a soft pad. I never knew how that all worked.
My sister was on the side as the lady was starting to wind down. She had an appointment coming in, although that appointment wasn’t on time and that worked to our advantage. My sister was like you are going to give us lots of free stuff aren’t you? We were so far from being able to talk and we were afraid to touch our lips with our lips. So the lady started going through her drawers and she through in the bag which is a beauty! I love it! And then there was some other stuff, maybe 6-8 things including a fold-up brush and something to take off the make-up.
So anyway that’s how it got up to so much money. She must have been thinking AHA!
Here comes a pigeon! BUT, she got us past the first step. We’ve been using it all week, but no one has said anything, so I don’t know if it was just put on good enough not to stand out, or whether it looks terrible and people are uncomfortable mentioning it. Rich says we look pretty, but he said we looked pretty before it. I think he’s playing both sides of the candle.
