Headed for New Mexico

I just have nothing my brain can wrap around as interesting, not even remotely interesting. So here's an update of the goings-on.

Addison and Bailey started back to school this week. (Duh - like every other kid.) But it's kinda weird to have both my kids in high school now, Bailey being a freshman and Addison being a junior. Bailey's playing volleyball for Lee Freshman, and Addison just started a new job as a receptionist at a very nice retirement community.

Tomorrow Alan and his dad and myself leave for Albuquerque for the marathon on Sunday. Alan's race starts at 5:30 a.m., meaning he has to be on the shuttle that takes him to the starting line around 4:30. When the 5K is over that Leigh and I are running, I'll have plenty of time to walk back to the hotel to get my camera for when Alan crosses the finish. I can't wait!

Last night we went out for mexican food with Addison and her boyfriend, J. It was a lot of fun, and we got to know J a little more in the process. He seems like a great guy.

Since this was the first week of school, I wasn't expecting any subbing jobs. But I have been receiving several requests, anywhere from September through to December. Hopefully I'll stay fairly busy.

See? It's a slow week.

What a ma-roon...what a nincowpoop.

At the moment I'm enjoying a nice, cool house, unlike the last couple of evenings in which I woke up around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. sweating and throwing off the covers. Our a/c has once again been charged with refrigerant to get us through a couple more days, and on Monday or Tuesday we are getting a brand new, top of the line air conditioner. And while we're so thrilled to be getting it and no longer fighting the unpredictable performance of our current unit, it could not have come at a worse time.

My failure to get a teaching position this fall has gone from "well golly-gee, I really wanted a job" to "mother f*%#er, this sucks." The strain and weight on my shoulders from not having a job and not bringing in that added income is heavy, like buckling at the knees heavy.

Our plans to eventually be debt-free and enjoy at least a smidgen of the lifestyle that we see so many people around us enjoying are that much further off. It's not that we're materialistic, or at least we really try not to be, but you can't help but look around and wonder how everyone else does it. We could have paid off half my students loans for what this a/c is costing. I hope our luck is soon to change, because before too long we'll have replaced every single major appliance or necessity.

Didn't I recently post something about looking on the bright side? See subject heading above.

DIY It

I've thought for a very long time that one of the best gifts I could leave my kids is the creedo that you have to fend for yourself. "If you want something done, do it yourself." If you've ever been neglected, rejected, ignored, etc., then you know. It's character building, and who doesn't need a little of that?

Maybe I get some of this from my mother, because she absolutely raised us to take care of ourselves. I can unclog sinks, toilets, fix garbage disposals and vacuum cleaners, converse with plumbers and a/c repairmen (and pretend to understand them), and by God as of today I can replace a lawnmower blade!

But in all seriousness, I really want the girls to know that sometimes people just can't or aren't going to be there for them when they need them. It can be your friends, boyfriends, husbands, and even your own parents. I've been through all of it. I don't want to pass on my cynicism to them, but a little toughness around the edges can help you get through difficult times. And help you become a better handyman at that. :-) Besides, you're never completely alone.

Ingredients

Two cups of coffee, a big fried breakfast, and a jog out of the way. That's how you start a Sunday. Almost gives me enough energy for the dreaded grocery store. Almost.

Randomosity

This is the vine we thought was a goner earlier in the season when the caterpillars attacked it. It's clearly fine now and is well on its way to being out of control. When you walk underneath it, you can practically feel the tendrils trying to lash onto you:



I bought these old, rickety, not-that-comfortable chairs at an auction several months ago and never really had a place for them until Alan and I found this bargain discounted table at Target. I'll pretend these are our bistro chairs until we can afford to buy good patio chairs to match the table. Umm...there's that vine again:



I've been on a mission for some time now to find the perfect homemade biscuit recipe, all the while knowing that Pillsbury probably makes THE best biscuits and all that's required is twisting open a can. Not to mention zero cleanup other than tossing the sheet of tinfoil or parchment paper in the trash. Still, it is just too much fun to work with that gooey, sticky dough! And once you've had several unsuccessful batches, the challenge to make a good biscuit becomes part of the fun. Honestly though, I don't think it's so much the recipe as it is how you physically handle all the ingredients. Anyway, what really irritates me is that I spend all this time looking for a recipe, and my Mother can whip out homemade biscuits with her eyes closed. But the ones I made this morning were pretty darn good:

Seeing the light

My lack of postings is directly related to what's going on lately: nothing. No job, no house projects, nothing newsworthy. Actually that's not completely true. The fact is that everyday I log on, my mind seems inundated with negative thoughts and who the heck wants to read that.

Which brings me to a vague part of a dream I remembered when I woke up this morning. It had something to do with either myself or Addison getting a pencil poked in one of our eyes, like a BAD poke, like it was stuck in there pretty far. That's all I remember, but what it led to when I awoke was "wow, thank God that was just a dream." Which led to, okay how about starting the day being thankful that we all have our eyeballs intact, and our organs, and our appendages, and basically our health. We may not be the Cleavers or the Cosby's, but my family is relatively healthy, alive, and talking to each other. I know I'm blessed, I just seem to have a problem remembering that on a regular basis.

By the way, the a/c broke again this week. Yes!!

Marathon Update

Alan just finished 21 miles in 3:09:47. He left around 4:55 this morning. The race is three weeks from tomorrow and he's right on target!

By the way, if you're looking at my posted time and thinking that doesn't jive, that's the time I clicked "new post" and not the time I published. Good ole Blogger...

TotaLEE cool

Bailey made the freshman volleyball team this week, and they're wasting no time. The first scrimmages are today, followed by a couple more tomorrow. I'm trying to curb my enthusiasm, but it's pretty cool to me that she's playing for the Lee Rebels.

The headaches are getting out of control. I've had to make sure that I get as much accomplished in the mornings because I know I'll have a headache shortly after lunch. At least it's predictable and therefore I can plan. But seriously, what is up? I don't want to pay for a comprehensive doctor's exam - I simply don't believe they'd be able to figure anything out or worse, that they'd tell me I'm allergic to EVERYTHING. Mostly though I just don't have faith in doctors around here. I guess I've become cynical, maybe unfairly, but I only have to look at my mother and her years of procedures, surgeries, and prescription drugs to believe that some doctors appear to be figuring things out as they go. I want them to know their business.

I could also skip the whole exam and just go for the pain pills. But if the solution is to take a pill every time, then I'd have taken a good 30 pills in the last 40 days and that's just not for me. Something tells me the problem all these years has been food allergies...I'm not sure I want to have that confirmed. So stop complaining then, right? NOPE. It's my blog and I'll cry if I want to. :-)

DeeBee surprised us with this sign she found in Oklahoma, so I placed it in the kitchen where it accurately points to the direction of our guest house, a.k.a. "the cottage." It sounds uppety, but all it would take is one visit to our home to know there is no such thing here. Just a simple home and a rustic little guest house.

It appears I won't have a teaching position by start of the school year, so I'm going to reinstate to substitute and hope that something comes up later in the semester. I didn't bust my butt looking for a job, meaning I didn't show up unannounced on campuses and call principals every day. I also didn't apply for kindergarten jobs (for which there were a few openings) or at magnet schools (longer school days). And I didn't check out the private schools and have no interest in going that route. I'm aware it sounds ugly, but I don't want to teach primarily white students from privileged backgrounds. Something will come up eventually, and I have to believe there's a reason for the delay.

Time to get up

Just catching up on some "Freakonomics:"

Actually now that Alan's through reading it, I think I'll check it out. But right now I'm deep into a murder mystery called "Monkeewrench" that DeeBee recommended, and it's AWESOME. I may have a new murder/mystery/detective series to read. That's mostly what I've been doing the past couple of days, since I've been lacking the motivation to do much more than breathe. Can't explain it, it's not a big deal, and it will pass.

I've decided a mean spirit is doing whatever possible to keep me from walking and running. It wants me to be lazy and get fat. First it was tendonitis, now it's a lingering case of shin splints. But yesterday was the last day I had to take the "fat pills," so I have motivation to keep going and see if this exercise will finally result in a leaner body.

Me

I keep messing with my profile pic. I had to remove the one of and me and Junior (which is still on my Myspace) because I couldn't get over the resemblance of myself to Dick Van Dyke. Nice chin. So then I filled space with a flower, boring. And now here's a half picture of my face. A little better, but luckily it's a thumbnail and you can't see those canines.

Afternoon getaway

It's 3:30 and I'm having a glass of wine. :-) That's right. I'm resorting to alcohol to relax, settle my nerves that are bundled from an assortment of things the past few days. What is it Willie Nelson says in "Whiskey River?" Something about letting that soft amber burn flow through his mind? Yeah, this is something like that. Except it's not amber and it doesn't burn. But I get your drift, Willie.

A photo of a photo of Willie and Dale on Willie's bus:

Stuff from the weekend I can talk about

I'm starting to mourn the end of my summer, and I don't even have a job yet. But hopefully the job situation will change soon, since principals are due back from vacation on Wednesday. If I do what I should today, several of them will have my resume on their desk when they return. And several of them will have my resume for the second time. It just always sucks to be in job searching mode....it seems you can never really relax because you know it's hanging over you...and the interviews...such joy. BUT, the end result is teaching, and that's very cool.

Saturday we had a minor scare. Alan had left for an 18-mile run and came back an hour later, clearly not having run 18 miles. He walked in and with very short breaths said "I - need - help." To make a long story short he stepped on an ant bed while running, maybe a fire ant bed, and had a bad reaction. We've all been bitten before and just dealt with the typical itching and irritation, but apparently because he had been running, the venom ran quickly through his whole body. His hands were swollen, his face was puffy, his skin was red and blotchy literally from head to toe, and anywhere you touched him he would wince from the severe itching. We called a 24-hour nurse hotline and began treating his systems for both dehydration and an allergic reaction to the ant bites. It took several hours for the swelling to leave his hands, but good old Benadryl took care of the itching pretty quickly. The ant bites slowly started surfacing that afternoon and evening, and I'm guessing we couldn't see them right away because of the redness that covered his whole body.

It sucked that he wasn't able to finish his run, be he made it up yesterday. And I ran a whole 3 miles today. :-)

American Graffiti

The last two mornings we've woken up to a sur-prise out front. Friday morning it was an impressive TP'ing of our house. (We called it "wrapping houses" when I was growing up, and it was normally done to someone you liked.) However, along with the toilet paper, there were broken eggs all over the front porch, the driveway, and Alan's car. Not exactly a friendly gesture.




This morning the culprits got a little more creative with food. In addition to more eggs (not on Alan's car again - this was from yesterday), there were pasta shells with mac & cheese sauce, shallots, a sandwich bag filled with a doll's head in red liquid, and what I think was a frozen bag of creamed spinach. Talk about raiding your parents' fridge. There were also a lot of shoe polished windows, all over MY SISTER'S CAR (which was packed and ready for their trip back to Oklahoma today) and our house.

Apparently we weren't the only ones privy to such gifts. I had an upset mom calling me who had similar surprises at her house this morning, thinking it was Bailey who did it, because HER daughter was the one who TP'd and egged our house the previous night. She (the mom) was very embarrassed and apologetic, and I think it took some nerve to call and admit what happened. And then the kids responsible for last night called and fessed up to Bailey. They meant it to be funny. Oh yes, I was laughing HYSTERICALLY while Bailey and I were scrubbing more egg off the concrete.

Kids are stupid. Two mornings spent cleaning up this mess means I've reached my limit. I can take things in good fun as much as the next person, but I'm ready to take Alan's suggestion and hide on the side of the house tonight with the water hose and nozzle set to "jet blast."

The Kids (that includes Alan)

What we do for fun

So far we've being doing a little of this:





























And a little of this:














And besides tennis and birthdays and eating a lot of Whataburger and Rosa's, we've gone shopping, played hours of Guitar Hero, and have plans to go swimming today. We need them to stay several more days to get everything in!

Catching up

This week....let's see. A/C broke again. Water heater had to be replaced (ouch). Bailey had oral surgery to have six teeth pulled. So it's been kinda busy. But everything's good and fixed and Bailey recovered easily. Only took one pain pill. The reason that's important (okay, besides the fact that she didn't have much discomfort) is because now we have good drugs in the house. And since I've had a headache every friggin day for the past three weeks, this is exciting stuff!

DeeBee and the kids will be here this afternoon, so we're pumped. Finally Alan won't be the only boy around here. And Bailey's birthday is Sunday, so it'll be really cool to celebrate it with lots of family around. She wants a trampoline by the way. She's 14, so I'm thinking it'll be used for about a year or so.

I have a few things to do before everyone gets here, part of which is making some sweets to fatten us all up over the next week.

Pictures proving my niece and nephews are the coolest are soon to be posted. :-)

To regret or not regret

There are two clear philosophies here. Live life with regrets or not so much? I see a lot of "no regrets" comments on teenage myspace pages, and although I've seen similar comments on my own daughters' pages, I'm not using them as an example here. All walks of life and ages seem to favor a side on this issue.

For me, I'd feel a little arrogant to say I have no regrets. There are plenty of things I have done or words I have said from my teen years until now that I wish I hadn't, or at least wish I would have handled in a different/better manner. And although the main "no regrets" argument is that had you not done or said those things, the circumstances or consequences that followed wouldn't have happened, you therefore wouldn't have learned from them, and maybe life wouldn't have played out the way it did. I understand that argument, but saying I don't regret anything just seems callous. Let's say you can think of several instances where you probably hurt someone's feelings or damaged a relationship or lost someone's trust. I just can't look at situations like that and say, "nope, I sure don't regret treating people like that!"

That being said, there are some cases in which you are part of the cause of someone's grief but you still don't regret it. For instance, I don't regret getting a divorce.

But I do regret not staying in touch with friends, for not always having my priorities in life right, for not putting my girlfriends first in highschool, for not wanting to play more when the girls were little, and definitely for griping out that woman in the Albertson's parking lot. That's the one that'll come back and bite me when I least expect it someday. :-)

There's no right or wrong, just different views. I'm just curious how others feel.

The Gay Desert Queen

That's what Alan calls the passion vine. A few weeks ago I was complaining that caterpillars destroyed our beloved and obnoxious vine, but with a couple treatments of rose bush insecticide, it bounced back in all its prissy glory. Now it's splattered with dozens of these gaudy purple blooms. They are a bit "out there" and appear to be quite proud of their reproductive parts!

Those crazy marathoners

It's been cool lately (finally) to be able to go for a run, and as long as I've done my stretching beforehand and afterwards, not spend the rest of the day wishing I could cut my legs off at the knees. And then there was today. Ouch. This morning's jog has left me with the knees of an 80-year old. Not sure what's going on, but I'm not going to let it stop me either. Not yet anyway.

Alan is about 8-weeks away from his marathon in Albuquerque. Tomorrow he has a 10 or 11 mile run, and every Saturday from now until the race he'll be increasing that amount, with shorter runs on the days in between. Living in Midland, he doesn't have the luxury of having a running group to train with, so this is something he's doing completely on his own. Personally I think that makes this accomplishment all the more impressive. Luckily though, Alan has a couple people he knows that have done this and can offer great advice, particularly Heather who just completed hers in April and won 1st place (I think) in her grouping.

I'm going to tag along to the marathon and do the 5K portion at the end. I can't wait to be standing at the finish line when he crosses. How cool!