I am not sure how much of this I can do right now. My hands are bothering me, my left especially. I can say old war injury, and mean it. Mostly, it has to do w SBC operator services…you know, the things I don’t like to talk about, so heinous are they. I will do my best, but no promises. I reserve the right to babble until my hands no longer twitch—and then continue on at a later date…
First thing, I love to travel w my boyfriend. Not just because he lets me sleep in his lap most of the time, but because he makes things so easy on and easy for everyone around him, all the time. Not just on trips, but all the time. Since I am on a detonation timer when traveling, as in my fuse gets wicked short, any kind of concession and thoughtfulness booms large. Second, I am not much for traveling anymore. Long distance, short distance. Nah. Not my thing. Let me stay home. Give me a horse. Seriously. Or let me walk. Otherwise, I am not really much for it. I am too worn out from it. Trips here in town. Trips across country, where time stands still as you fight to get from point A to point B in order to reach point Z before nightfall…drives me bonkers…
I am glad we did it though. Even though I am a shop-a-holic, it was good to see Dad. Very good to see Dad. Although I feel like a complete schmuck for showing up, going shopping, loading a gorgeous motorcycle and then …splitting….but that is pretty much what I did. E got to spend some quality time w Granddad. I got to go shopping at my favourite stores, which include Ikea, the half priced bookstore, and Gabriel brothers.
I learned not to use the Enterprise rent a car facility in Florissant on Lindbergh. They have great customer service, when they are talking to you, but if you are waiting, you are pretty much non-existent. We were lucky we made it out of town Friday night. I won’t go into that right now, because it makes my head hurt too much to care about—and since everything worked out ok, why bother?
I learned Fords are not such bad vehicles as I was lead to believe, me being a die-hard Chevy girl. I have to abandon Chevy utterly now that Ed Whiteacre is in control—he ran AT&T into the dirt—now he’s going to do the same to Chevy—and oh yes, as a former employee I am doing nothing more than expressing my true heart-felt opinion there—he could care less about anything than the all-mighty dollar.
I digress…
I learned that Fords draw blood, as effectively as any knife. Few is the blade that will pass up my blood. This 2010 Ford F-150 was no exception. I went to adjust my position in the seat and somehow reached in between the center seat and the passenger seat—and the truck punctured my thumb—rendering me incapable of knitting for the most part—although I did make a stop at Joann’s and bought some yarn and a crochet hook—seven though w the other issues w my hands I wasn’t all that able to do much….
I did manage to get R addicted to Ikea, so I am very happy. Once the move is managed, we are getting a bed from there. Which means I get to do some finagling w the beds here, as we have one more than we need—we just need a mattress and box spring for it. Not to mention, the kids want bunk beds…so there is that to ponder as well. We’ll see. The other house is coming now, as we have nothing left to use as an excuse.
We have decided, it seems, to wait on moving in together, only, in my estimation, because of the way things went in his past. He seems to feel moving this fast this soon with us somehow negates things that happened in the past w the last girlfriend. He couldn’t and wouldn’t move in w her—and here we are, ready, willing and able—and I come w an entirely different set of baggage than she. I will not say I have more baggage—and I mean the kids here for me—than she carries—because from what I know of her personally, her baggage far outweighs mine—and she has no children ……….we can conveniently blame the issue here on the older dog who has incontinence problems though….
So, we are looking for a house in the same area as R instead. Anything other than this house right now. Even before the trip to WV, the driving back and forth was wearing on my nerves. Now, as I sit here, listening not only to the rain hitting the roof, but to the leaking of the water through the roof, that drives makes me grind my teeth….I have already told R I am on a mission now to find that other house.
Our deal stands at…the kids and I get our house close to him…we use both houses as leverage for the next, bigger house, once his job is more secure…and once he gets that better job…bigger house, more land…no holds barred.
It really sucks to live this far away from him, since he and I both sleep so much better in each other’s arms. That is a really big issue. Our insomnia without one another. Living closer together will change that.
Snarf—it’s not as if we haven’t had keys to one another’s houses for years anyway.
I learned…lady bugs can be tenacious. We had one in the truck w us on the way home—it didn’t want to leave. E says she found it (or one just like it) crawling on her arm after we got home last night. Not the first time, but the whole we are done for the night time. Maybe the lady bug or bugs just needed a change of scenery and we were a good mode of transportation there.
Let’s see.
E wasn’t too bad, considering. She actually stayed awake most of the trip there and back. Luckily, the front seat obscured her view, so keeping R up and attentive was not an issue.
Ford F-150s have lots of head room, lots of leg room. Plenty of room for a nearly 6 feet tall woman to lay down with her head in the driver’s lap. It made the drive much more interesting, when I wasn’t actually asleep in his lap. And gods bless the man, R did let me sleep, in both directions, going there and coming home.
I learned I am moderately competent and confident at driving, on roads I know well, in a vehicle with which I am comfortable, so long as traffic is not asinine. And so long as the weather is clear.
However, I also learned, I do not need to be driving for more than 20 minutes or so at a time. I do not need to be driving if there is traffic, more than a very mild set of traffic. If it rains, forget it. Anything more than rain, you’re lucky I am riding in the car.
So, I technically CAN drive; I just should not be driving with my children in the car. It’s far far too stressful for me. Put me in a vehicle I don’t know—and pray gods above and below that traffic behaves itself and I don’t have to do anything that makes me the least bit uncomfortable, like pulling out in a big truck around lots of construction equipment…I can’t do it.
YET—note—as soon as we got the virago, I sat down on it, and I swear that bike was made for me. I cannot drive. I do not know how to drive a motorcycle. Traffic terrifies me. And yet, I sat on that bike and knew she was mine. All I have to do is get over my fears, learn how to drive a bike and get my license…and I am good to go. She’s heavenly.
On the trip, we went to half priced books. Oh boy—did I blow my spending limit there. BUT—I did buy a bunch of movies---I made it to the clearance section, most of it anyway—I made it to the writer’s books—I made it to the knitting books—and then I was dragged away kicking and screaming, more or less…R and E were hungry…I even managed to grab a cd while we were being checked out…and, thanks to R, I got the teacher’s appreciation discount as well…which was good, since they over-charged us on a couple books—and I bought 2 copies of one book (although E is very happy because it was a knitting book and she got the second copy…)….I did manage to procure one fiction book…thanks to the clearance section….the rest I am very much looking forward to reading. I found one book and as soon as I saw the author, I didn’t even open the book. Eric Maisel. Boom, in the basket. E got some very good stuff….R got some very cool stuff…N even got some neat stuff out of the deal, even though he didn’t go w us.
E got to eat at her most favourite Cracker Barrel—and they indeed did have the fire lit…although we sat too far away to see it. She was still happy.
Gabe’s was an experience for me. Never got to find N a pair of shoes. Forgot to drop the fringed purse in the cart. BUT—bought eight pairs of awesome jeans that are not just long enough for me, but are over-long for me. I have a thirty-four inch inseam…well, fine, thirty-three and a half, roughly. Finding pants that are just long enough is an issue. Finding anything over long…a miracle. I got some skinny over-long jeans. I got some wide-legged jeans—which I absolutely adore for some reason—also over-long. I bought a bunch of shirts, although not all at gabe’s. I have all my basics covered for now, except maybe nice thick fuzzy socks—which I am planning to be making myself here soon…I bought clothes for N, because he has no pants here, and T is not known for sending much w him when he stays. Since we are going more places these days, N needs to have more clothes here w us, and T doesn’t approve of sending much w N here, or much decent well-fitting stuff at all, so I took care of that. I need to find him shoes, but we’ll wait and see what he is wearing this week-end when he comes. It was too cold for his sandals when we saw him the week-end before this last week-end, but we’ll see. That was the only response I got today when I emailed T to let him know we were back and what we got for N—that T had bought him shoes last week. Gotta love that ability to almost communicate w that guy.
E got the coolest pants, black with all sorts of red and pink roses all over it. She also got some adult t-shirts to wear as nightgowns. If someone can explain the one-eyed monster called Norma Jean, I’d really appreciate it. She also got some scary skully shirts. And a vampire t-shirt.
I bought granny boots And some cool high heeled moccasins. And of course, clearance for Frederick’s of Hollywood lingerie and sleep shirts. Awesome, awesome time. Everybody got a little something. From R, to me, to the kids, to the dog…everyone…
It was actually terrific today, except for the whole doing laundry, unpacking, sorting, shifting stuff outside of this—I got to clean out my closets again. Which is actually a very liberating thing. It’s kind of disturbing , how much I love to buy new clothes as I shift styles and lifestyles…and how much I love to throw out the old stuff that just sits here reminding me of days that will never come again (because I won’t let them). If I had to work in an office atmosphere, I do have the clothes to pull it off….but not like I used to have. Even with all the stuff I bought, which is all much more me than the stuff I tossed today, I still ended up tossing more stuff than I bought—not to mention—I still have WAY WAY less than I had when we moved in here…the whole hoarding instinct is going away…even though I am not giving up my pack rat status.
I had so much more to say. It’s late. I’m tired. I had a very long day. My day today covered most of the trip costs, except the shopping sprees.
Oh, we inherited fish. We have three male mollies hanging out in a bucket here in my bedroom. Dad gave us the five gallon and the ten gallon tanks. What’s funny is just how good a thing it was he told me he was planning to give us the tanks…because I was contemplating buying a tank. I was thinking just a small five gallon tank for the beta, and a ground crew for him. But the betta, well, the betta passed. I think we can safely say the waters grew too cold…although technically it wasn’t that cold…but that’s the excuse I gave when the kid found out that we no longer had a betta, so that’s the one I am sticking to about this. What I wanted was more along the lines of a twenty or twenty-five gallon tank. Some tiger barbs of various colours. And bottom feeders as well.
So, here we are, with three male mollies. Waiting for the waters to cycle through so the boys can find their new home, which is technically their old home, all redone.
Originally, there were four fish coming home with us. Originally, there was Big Boy. He was a leopard botia. The last remaining fish from MD. He had grown large and fat. He grew this way by eating everything else in the tank, except these three rather traumatized mollies. He had his own bucket for the trip. We never even pulled him out of his cave either. I picked up the cave, out of the ten gallon tank. He refused to budge. I dropped him, cave and all, into the water filled bucket. He did fine the first part of the trip. He was alive and perky when we got to the hotel in Dayton. There was a mighty splash the next morning. When we checked the bucket later, there was dead fish. I would like to say I was saddened by this, but I cannot. All I could think of was, oh good, now I don’t have to worry about him snarfing anyone up as his dinner or anything. Now, I am missing him a little more, now that I have discovered that botias eat snails…and we have snails….my quandary now is…do we buy more botia and risk another Big Boy who eats everyone and everything…or do we find something else that finds snails appetizing and try our luck there? Hmm. We’ll have to see…I haven’t decided yet.
All I know now is we have to buy some female mollies. Now that the boys are not running for their lives, they are going to start running after each other in the whole dominance play they have. Too few females and the boys will run them ragged. Will literally kill them in their over-zealous approach to reproduction. So, two girls for every boy, just to keep things fair.
But, we also need bottom dwellers, snail eaters of no. And a single solitary plecto. Yuck. I am not a huge fan of the plecto. Although they do serve their purpose. We have live plants in the tanks, so algae is not a problem. The plants take care of that. But E must have her plecto…so I shall give it to her.
The five gallon tank needs a new light bulb. E wants guppies. The original plan was to keep the mollies in the five gallon tank, and let E breed her guppies to her heart’s content in the ten gallon. No light bulb means no fish in that tank, even though we are going tomorrow to get a light bulb. After R gets off of work. Now, I have many ideas wandering through my head about that five gallon. No reason not to get a couple corey cats and a betta for that tank. The betta would be a happy camper. We’ll have to see what strikes me the right way tomorrow in the pet store.
Any recommendations for online aquarium places would be greatly appreciated. I do fresh water only. I don’t care for buying fish sight unseen. I just want a good place to get decent equipment without paying an arm and a leg. I wasn’t planning to set up aquariums in this house, especially not with the move so close to happening right now. But since we have tanks and fish, I am letting my inner aqua-fiend loose. I have ideas. They were working fairly well in other tanks, long long ago, but I was never able to really let go of everyone else’s pre-conceived notions about things and do things my way…I can now though—and I am looking forward to it.
The ex has friends who are raising discus fish, if anyone is interested. Let me know if you are and I will get you contact information for them. Don’t look at me for discus though. E gets her mollies and guppies—live bearers. Sigh. Once we move, I am getting a larger tank. I want a tank for my tiger barbs. I want another tank for my angel fish. I will be more than happy to give mollies and guppies away. But then again, I am not against having an Oscar raised up on guppies and mollies either. I might not have had tanks for awhile, but I am still my Pappap’s grand-daughter—I have no problem having many many tanks all around. Although mine will be full of lots of different things….
Ahh, the planning stages of things…
I have to remember to ask Dad what the plants are we inherited. I know the duck weed. But there is a fern and another frondy thing too. I’d like to know what the frondy thing is. All the plants are free-floaters at the moment. The frondy things have roots that seem to want to be planted, but after the cross-country move for everyone, I have no desire to plant things. Let them acclimate for awhile and we’ll see afterwards.
I spared a glance around my room, as it is late and I still have a lot to do. I caught sight of those high heeled moccasin shoes…and all I could think was…it’s so great to be a girl. Those shoes. One certain pair of jeans and any top I want…killer….I love it….
Alas, I have so much to do … just to be able to get into bed….much less the other things I need to do tonight to post things….
I have to get busy.
This is my trip update. I reserve the right to re-visit things as they come to mind. Not to mention, all the issues I had typing this up tonight. I think I did rather well.
Thanks for listening….
