I found out just after midnight that not one, but two of the 22 co-workers on my “team” share my birth date of 11/26. Of course, I’m the oldest.

Tonight I got 3 text messages from friends wishing me a happy birthday & 1 wishing me a happy thanksgiving. Oddest one was from a 603 area code, it could be from either of 2 people, but since it’s apparently a new number, I’m not sure if it’s A’s or J’s!

Shopping for the kids for Christmas online is depressing. The only thing I buy that way are clothes so I’m already facing at least 2 out of 3 not terribly enthused about receiving clothes for holiday gifts in the first place. Then there’s the worry about will they like what I got for them.

Still trying to write more here, not succeeding very well at all. Thought about it last night for Thursday 13 but couldn’t quite think of 13 of anything.

I’m off tomorrow night from work. It made more sense to me to request the day after Thanksgiving off so as to have a 3 day weekend than to have the holiday off & go back to work on Friday. 11/27 is Jimi Hendrix’s birthday so it’s worth celebrating right?

Talking with the ex today after the kids spoke with him, it’s like talking to someone on the phone at work, no real personal information is exchanged: “How are you? That’s nice. Ready for the Holiday season? No me either” I can’t believe I’ve known him since I was 13, lived with him for over 9 years & was married to him for more than 8 years. Just don’t know the guy at all any more.

The one thing I regret about not being able to have today off was that it would have been fun to go to my mother in law’s. She’s a really cool lady & last year’s Thanksgiving feast at her house was great.

I found out tonight that while my new shift does give me Christmas off automatically (as I have Friday & Saturday off every week & Christmas is on a Friday this year) I am not going to be able to take Christmas Eve off. However. I do have next Sunday off, which is important to me because with the new scheduling, I would have had only Saturday off next week & then have had to work 5 days before getting my new Friday- Saturday off schedule underway.

 

But never got around to doing so.

1. Nearly 2 weeks ago I spent the better part of an hour driving around the town I work in looking for a UPS drop box to put a bag with a bra in (it had a UPS return mail sticker on it) I called UPS twice & was told three different options for drop boxes, I had ms 13 & mr 10 with me & we couldn’t find any of the drop boxes.

2. Last Friday I got sent home from work 3 & 1/2 hours early (they closed our center down that early on 2 Friday nights in a row, they’re talking about doing so every other Friday until further notice) Since I was out early I used my computer to look on the UPS website & was easily able to locate a UPS drop box myself, when I went to put the package in the box, I realized we’d driven by this box at least 5 times the night we were looking for it the week before, there was a tree on the sidewalk with ridiculously overgrown branches which hid the box from sight.

3. The being sent home early thing is a huge concern. They’re also closing another call center not that far from ours. Big worries for me as I fully expect & need to work there at least another 30 years ’til I’m 70 & can retire as gracefully as possible, I’m thinking right now that I need to step up my alternate plan of buying mega millions tickets for ever drawing.

4.  Also at work, they’ve done another shift shuffle, just got the word tonight that I got my first choice in a shift, working to close (not because I really want to- the thrill wore off right after school began for my kids in August, but because ms 19 hasn’t gone to get her licence & hasn’t done a thing about getting her car on the road, because she needs me to drive her back & forth to work I have to work nights) I got Friday & Saturday nights off though, which I prefer to Saturday Sunday as I’ve been working for the past 5 months or so.

5. Only 2 of my current co-workers are going to the same group I am, one I like & one I could do without, however, on a brighter note, my fairly new supervisor is going to  continue to be my supervisor & I like her quite well.

6. One of the drawbacks to working nights is that since the kids are at school all day (they get home an hour before I leave for work) I have little to no motivation to get up & do much of anything, the computer, tv shows I care about, reading, none of it trumps sleeping right now.

7. The house is staying clean though, I’m doing a bit every day & the kids are making extra effort to keep the shared areas clean as I get upset when they’re not.

8.  Mr 10’s room has been a big issue just lately & for all my threats, days where I took the smart card out of his satellite receiver & took it to work with me as punishment, I found the best thing to do. Last Saturday morning I was washing up breakfast dishes & I asked him to take a trash bag in his room & get started & told him I’d be in when I was through with the dishes & started a wash. His eyes got huge & he said “uh, no mom, I don’t want you to yell at me, I’ll just clean it myself” And he did! By Sunday night he had the room nearly immaculate, even under the bed!

9.  In other news, our dryer completely stopped working, it hasn’t gotten hot in months but I was still tumbling some clothes dry in it (the ones which don’t do well on the outside clothes line – like socks, underwear & jeans) now it sits there & hums, doesn’t tumble at all. I have to find a way to get $50 or so together at once to have the local appliance repair guy come see if it’s recoverable or what.

10. On top of that, my oven’s heating element is burning out, to cook something which needs to cook at 350 for 30 minutes I have to set the oven to the highest setting (475) & cook for 45-60 minutes. Not fun.

11.  One contributing factor to my never blogging any more is that the computer is so messed up that just going visiting other people’s blogs or checking email is a huge chore. the computer is very slow & sluggish, it’s not saving things correctly & the kids are actually pressuring me to go back to our circa 1994 model & to scrap this 2003 model I got for free from work. I don’t quite know what to do to tell the truth.

12.  I admit to an odd lack of interest in the internet just in the past 7-8 months too. I’m not sure why but it just doesn’t have the pull it used to.

13. Ms 13 is going to Washington DC for an overnight trip with her 7th grade class, it sounds like a huge inconvenient mess to me but she really wanted to go. They leave at 5:30 AM on next Monday morning, (it’s approximately a 3 & 1/2 hour drive from where we live) run around seeing sights all day Monday & Monday night, sleep in a motel Monday to Tuesday, see more sights all day Tuesday & are expected back here at the school at 10pm Tuesday night, I would not be a chaperone or teacher on that trip for love nor money.!

1. Photo of Me:  No pics, don’t want to scare the kids.

2. Current Candle Scents: We use a lot more incense than candles here, really loving the sandalwood this month.

3. What I am Currently Reading: I didn’t finish the book from last month until the 29th, but started An Echo In The Bone as soon as I’d closed the Templar Legacy.

4. Newest Music Added to my Playlists: Nothing this month, I’m still too suckered into the satellite radio in the car & I’m not online very much these days, there never seems to be time.

5. Movies I saw:  No theatrical trips for me this month, (I know, I’m terribly boring, that’s why I don’t blog much any longer, there’s nothing to say!) At home we watched a few horror movies, more me keeping the kids company while they did so really, I’m not a fan of horror movies since I discovered what sorts of real-life horrors there are in the world.

6. Something yummy I made this month:  3 Cheese Spinach Lasagna (also known as roll ups, but I just lay it out in lasagna form instead, it’s easier.) So good we’re planning to have it again either this Sunday or the following one.

7. The Last Place I Ate Out:  The kids & I picked up pizza at our local pizza place (called Aly’s) the weekend ms 19’s BF put in my new bathroom floor.

8. Something which made me Cry:  The general kindness & goodness of my 19 year old’s BF for putting in my new bathroom floor. (if he’d just get the sink & the medicine cabinet in I’d be jumping up & down.) This was all without pay, when I muttered something about paying him back someday he told me he wasn’t looking for any money, we needed the floor & he knew how to do it, he also pointed out that I’ve fed him enough meals that he feels like he owes me. He doesn’t but it was sweet of him to say.

9. Something which made me Laugh:  ms 19 woke me up on the Sunday morning of the bathroom renovations saying “do you want the bathroom painted or not? If you do, come help me now” I got out of bed, threw on old clothes & she, I mr 10 & ms 13 all crowded into our 5 foot, 2 inch by 3 foot 11 inch bathroom & painted the walls red. It’s a very small space & we were very crowded, you can see in this picture, which really is just to show the color, that we weren’t very careful & got it on the ceiling. Ms 19 was determined that we should paint before the vynil went down on the floor & considering what the plywood looked like when we were through she was right.

10. Something that I looked forward to this month:  Halloween of course! This was my first year at home, 19 & the BF decided to take 10 & 13 out trick or treating, I got to take it easy & wait around for trick or treaters so that I could hand out our candy supply.

11. Something I am thankful for:  That we all had a safe halloween & that I had enough money to be able to buy the materials to replace the bathroom floor & to buy the melting chocolate & do the halloween chocolate pops for the kid’s classes & ms 19’s & my workplaces this year.

12. Something I want to remember about this month:  All of it was wonderful, we really had a great month, from the bathroom, to the chocolate pop making, to the game nights each Sunday to pumpkin carving on the morning & mid-day of halloween itself. Everyone really worked at getting along & being nice to one another this month it seemed & we really had a great month.

13. A Picture I took this month: This is ms 19’s pumpkin, eventually I’ll post the others but it costs to send pictures from the phone & I can take them off the memory card for free, but it’s time consuming & at 3:19 a.m. Well, it’s just not happening tonight!

I’m in a funk. I know the economy is bad, I know I should be grateful that I even have a job. But I’m really hating my life right now. I don’t usually hate it this much, the occasional grumpy, rude customer doesn’t get me down, most are pretty happy with me because although I’m sometimes as much as the third or fourth person they’ve spoken to, I am usually the one who fixes their problem. Or, if I can’t fix it myself, over the phone, I resolve it by setting up for a technician to come out & fix it at their house. When you’re through talking to me 99% of the time, the problem has a resolution, one way or another. Also, since they put me back on the phones in June, I don’t charge people for stuff they’re supposed to be charged for, oh of course I tell them what the charge is, but if they give me any push back at all, like: “I’ve been a customer for 3 (or 2 or 10) years, I don’t think I should have to pay” I say ok & adjust the cost of a technician, or whatever they’re bitching about having to pay. It is a part of my job, to make the customer happy, not just fix the problem but give exceptional customer service & please them at the same time. This week however, thing have been going poorly, I’m fighting a sore throat, which may or may not be part of the H1N1 thing which is going on, I’ve heard that it starts in the ears, goes to the throat & then the nose, but I’ve also heard it’s more stomach flu with diarrhea. So I don’t know exactly & I resent the fact that most news organizations aren’t giving that info out, at my work they want you to describe how you’re feeling & let them determine if it’s H1N1 or not too, which is ridiculously unfair to me. All night tonight, I got yelled at because the customer’s perception was that it was our fault. Them having their tv on the wrong channel, the snow falling outside their windows (in more than a few states!) & their decision to rearrange their rooms & move their satellite receiver away from the connection in the wall which has a connection to the dish outside had no bearing on the situation whatsoever. (in their opinions at least) I was in tears 3 times before ‘lunch’ at 930 (yes, it could be somewhat hormonal, I admit) and spent my lunch enjoying the new book I’m reading & comforting myself with reminders that by 11 it would be quiet & I’d only have to take 3-4 calls an hour by then, that I only had to get through tonight & tomorrow night & I’ll have my 2 nights off for the weekend. I got back on the phone with renewed energy & vigor & at first it was great because we weren’t getting any calls, it had already quieted down & It was barely past 10 pm! Then I got a call, I barely got a chance to tell the guy my name & thank him for calling, he interrupted & ranted, shouted, swore & raged for 13 minutes, I got my mouth open to try to apologize & begin to rebutt his statements & he hung up on me.  Just slammed down the phone & was gone. After making threats about the BBB & that we had better get UPS out to his house to take back the box we had sent him which he didn’t want & had told us not to send.  Of course, since he was not on the phone anymore I couldn’t do much for him, I noted the situation, logged off the computer & told my boss I was sick. I went to the store to get a pumpkin carving set as I’d promised my kids that I’d pick one up tonight since Ms 19 got paid & paid me. Then I came home & read websites & looked at vintage halloween decorations to try to decompress. It’s helped a little but I still have to go back tomorrow & do another 8 & 1/2 hours. Not a good situation at all. After 8 years there, I know how to handle escalated customers, but also after 8 years there, the stupidity, the wilful immaturity, the general rudeness of people really gets to me, it builds up on me more & more & I’m getting less & less able to cope with it. There have been many times when I thought I wouldn’t make it much further with this job. Right now, when I know there is not just no other job which would pay so well, there are no other jobs period. I have to keep this job but I don’t know if I can.

 

I do read a lot, I might not talk about it much & I am not much for best sellers or what’s hot, but there’s always a book or two within 3 feet of me most of my life, within easy reach if an available 5 or 10 minutes (hopefully more) opens up. Scary stories have been part of my life since I was a little kid. I was easily scared when I was young, but heavy exposure to Steven King novels from age 11 or so forward inured me to much of the creepy, gross stuff. Here are some of my favorite scary reads, both past & recent.

1. As a kid I received Cricket magazine for a lot of years, thanks to an uncle in the library biz. I remember a short story in there about the ghost of a boy, I don’t have the exacts I’m afraid, but it was a favorite of mine for many years.

2.  The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes, while not particularly scary was always one of my favorite books growing up & I read & re-read it every Halloween until I was much older than my mother thought I should be- reading this book.

3. Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck, Both funny & scary, I loved this book & all of Richard Pecks books (the ones which were written when I was still a kid that is.) Although ms 13 was given “A Year Down Yonder” this summer for a school reading program & I read it myself & enjoyed it very much too.

4. The House With A Clock in it’s Walls by John Bellaris. I discovered this book in the library all on my own (my mother often shoved books at me at the library which I sometimes dutifully read & sometimes didn’t) And my mother was amazed, the author was from her (& my adopted) Hometown of Haverhill MA. & my uncle the librarian knew him. More importantly (at least to me) It was illustrated by Edward Gorey & consequently was my introduction to Edward Gorey who continues to be one of my favorite artists.

5. I’m already seeing that this could be a real mess, I don’t want to list 8 Steven King books in order of my preference for them, but really, there aren’t all that many adult books which actually deal with real ghosts. (I remember being terribly disappointed in “Ghost Story” By Peter Straub as it was not anywhere near as scary as I expected it to be when I read it at 12.

6. The Witching Hour & the rest of the Mayfair Family Chronicles by Anne Rice. I’ve read a few of the Vampire books, but Vampires aren’t my favorite thing really. (I understand the attraction, it’s just not all that appealing to me) I found the Mayfair Witches very entertaining though & it certainly has some very detailed descriptions of New Orleans which I enjoyed, never having been there & having heard all sorts of wonderful stories from my Grandmother who went there often when she was married.

7.  I also have spent a lot of time reading non-fiction books about ghosts, Hanz Holzer & others who spent lots of time chasing them long before people followed ghost hunters around with tv cameras.

8. Also in the Non-fiction category are books loaned to me by a co-worker a few years back: “Ghosts of Virginia” volumes 1 through 4 (I understand there are 13 or so now) were very entertaining although I was disappointed that there were no stories about my adopted home county. (we do have a ghost tour, one of these years I hope to get to go on it!)

9. I still stand by my statements over the years that Steven King is best in short story form. Most of my very favorite stories of his are from the short story collections. Room 1408 (the story, not so much the movie) You Know they got a Hell of  a Band, Crouch Lane, Uncle Otto’s Truck & Gramma are all stories which packed a lot more punch, a lot more scare for the words than The Stand or Carrie for me at least.

10. That’s not to say I don’t love some of the full length books too. The first book I read by Steven King was The Shining & I was 11, the librarian was dubious but my mother said I could take anything I wanted out & backed me when the librarian questioned it. I read it & it scared me, not a lot as there was a lot I didn’t totally understand, I’ve always been one to go with the flow when it comes to reading, I always assume if I don’t quite get something right away that it will be made clear by the end of the book. (It’s always worked, although with some books it took a couple of times reaching the end of the book for it to all  make sense!)

11. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill (yes, Steven King’s son) I really liked this story & wish he’d hurry up & come out with more books!

12. Duma Key by Steven King, (I know, I know, way too much Steven King on this list, but this one was so good!) I listened to this one as a book on CD & really loved it. Lisey’s Story surpassed it but it wasn’t so scary, it was more fascinating generally.

13. The #1 scary book for me is Pet Cemetary by Steven King,  I haven’t read it since I was 15 or so & don’t intend to do so ever again. The reasons are more about my own superstitions regarding my kids than because the book specifically scared me. With my family’s history, seeing my parents go through losing a child when my brother died, I don’t want to have one of my kids precede me in death & so couldn’t hack trying to read this book again because of its subject matter.

Funny how the idea you have about something before you actually experience the reality is so far from the truth.
I’ve been on nights for nearly 8 months now.
I thought it would be great as it’s closer to my natural preference, to stay up late & sleep in, in the morning.
The whole reason I’m working nights is to free myself up to take ms 19 back & forth to work though, so I’m up at 7:10 to make sure ms 13 & mr 10 get off to school in a timely manner & don’t keep their bus driver waiting, then on ms 19’s work days (just lately 4-5 days per week instead of the 3 a week it was when we started this experiment) I’m up again at 8 to take her to work, back home by 8:45 & asleep again, usually, by 9:30.
Then I get up when I feel like it- this is supposed to be around 10:30 -11 but is often closer to noon & sometimes, 1pm. I schlep around, watch the news & daily show from the day before on DVR & then the noon news on DVR each day & often before I’ve finished that it’s time to go get ms 19 from work.
By the time we’re back home the younger kids have arrived home on the bus & I have under an hour until I have to leave for work- that’s at 4pm.
I work from 5 to 1:30 (except that at least twice a week & sometimes more often, they offer to send people home if they’d like to go & I’m really bad at resisting that offer!)
At home I often get online & read my email, play majongg on Lifetime & do surveys for survey spot. I often pull up the blog & even come all the way to this page, the one where I could write a new post.
This is where I bog down though, I’m tired, no one wants to hear about my day (or night) at work, I’m somewhat prohibited from discussing it anyway, can’t talk about technology (& after 8 hours of talking to people about why theirs is malfunctioning why would I want to?) I’m afraid to comment on the company’s polices both toward customers & towards employees. (99% steady signal indeed)
The kids are all old enough to know exactly what I’m doing when I’m at the computer & I’m routinely told “don’t blog this mom” I have strong opinions on politics & social issues, but I believe opinions are like asses, everyone has them & they all stink so it’s best left unaired.
So after a few paragraphs of what I can’t & won’t write about I’ll go ahead & share some stuff that has been happening.

We’ve been playing games every Sunday night for a couple of months now, it began when Chrissie & her daughter were still living here, she & I would play with my younger kids, then her daughter, ms 19 & ms 19’s BF started coming down & hanging out, we were pretty limited at first because everyone wanted to play rummy or Scrabble & though Chrissie, the kids & I tried, we had a lot of trouble convincing ms 19, the bf & Sami that Apples to Apples was a worthwhile game, we did it though & now ms 19 is the loudest one when we’re discussing what to play each week. I also bowed to pressure from mr 10 & taught everyone who didn’t know how to do so, to play poker, so we often do a little family gambling just for my father’s chips so far, no actual money has changed hands yet, but we’re talking about a nickle, dime & penny night sometime soon. I’m really glad we’re doing this, game nights used to be once every 3-4 months & though everyone always said we should do it more, we never managed, now I’m cooking a big meal to share with whoever is there at the time & we’re all having a lot of fun with it.

If you read this blog often (and there’s seldom much to read lately) you’re aware I purchased a new sink, new flooring & base wood for my bathroom, last weekend was the repair the bathroom weekend. Ms 19’s BF took over the whole project & did an awesome job. It happened to be my grocery shopping weekend so I couldn’t really help much Saturday, ms 19 & the BF pulled up the old floor, took out the old sink & toilet etc & replaced a section about 3×3 of the sub-floor too, then put down the new base floor. This is the floor while in progress, mr 10’s knees are in the picture because he refused to move.

Sunday morning ms 19 woke me up & said “lets paint the bathroom before bf puts down the new linoleum”. So we did. I’ve had maroon paint for a long time, it was originally for the dining room but multiple people convinced me that maroon in a windowless room was a bad idea (I’m quite happy with the yellow the painters painted it during the roof & other repairs after the tree fell on the house) So the maroon paint was just sitting there & my cousin has a maroon bathroom downstairs in her house (of course, lucky her, it’s a lavatory, they have 2 bathrooms at their house! Lucky lucky) so I had been thinking the maroon might look good- and it will, after I get the trim painted white- it’s currently mauve which is an unusual combination to say the least, I also purchased gloss paint when it was for the dining room, I had read a description in a much-loved book of a room painted that color with gold stencils & I was going to do the stenciling too in the bathroom. (before mr 10 discovered the stencil paints & ruined them all, I’ll have to purchase more gold paint before I can do so now). I don’t have pictures of the finished project because the sink isn’t installed yet, the BF ran out of time & our old sink has leaked for nearly a year so we’re all used to not having a sink in the bathroom (we just use the kitchen sink) & will continue until 19’s BF has time to install the new sink. This picture gives an idea of the color, it is a bit more magenta than maroon I think, but the kids like it & it was fun painting the room with them at least.

My love hate relationship with the Sirius satellite radio continues, they’re doing a week-long Halloween channel, I’m really enjoying it, I got to hear Christopher Walken read Poe’s the Raven on the way to work today & excerpts from Dracula on the way home. They also have scary stories, songs like the obvious “monster mash”, scary music, reminiscences of people who apparently work for Sirius about their favorite Halloween memories etc.   Pretty cool idea, I’m sure if it lasted much more than a week though, I’d tire of it.

1. I’m a big radio listener, I’ve had a radio on in my room, my car, my ear while walking thanks to early walk-man radios & even a few small transistor radios since I was about 11 or 12.

2. When I first became aware of satellite radio I thought it was a crock. I mean really, why pay for radio? There’s plenty of free music coming off the airwaves. Even here in VA, where the ex & I used to joke in ‘93 & even in ‘97 & ‘98, that we had 18 presets on the car stereo & only 3 stations worth tuning to. It was enough.

3. Funny how cable & satellite tv didn’t seem odd, I guess it’s because it started early enough in my life that even growing up in MA where I had access, even before cable or satellite, to at least 11 different channels, plus, on the South Shore where I grew up, another 5 or 6 from RI, many more than people here in SW VA received or even now, receive without satellite.

4. When the DBS provider I work for entered into a partnership to bring some satellite radio stations in over a range of tv channels I was a little more interested, mostly because they gave cool t-shirt out to us. (At my job it’s all about the t-shirts)

5. You can’t read the t-shirt very well, it says:
Censorship = Off
Free Speech= On
Another nearby call center from my same company got a bunch which said:
Hate = Off
Love = On
I’ve tried over the years to get one of those too, I’ve also tried petitioning the Sirius folks to issue these shirts for sale, I heard there were others, though I’ve never seen them I’d buy one of all they had, espeically if they offered them in 3x, my 2x is, sad to say, a little small these days.

6. I was never going to actually have Sirius, (which is now merged with XM, the other company offering satellite radio. ) In an actual car though, I mean really, pay for radio? There’s enough radio stations around here now to fill my 12 presets. I don’t need any more than that.

7. And of course, my cell phone has an mp3 player, I’ve driven home many nights listening to songs on my phone through a single ear phone (I’m mostly deaf in the other ear, so it doesn’t matter about stereo or not to me) I know you’re not supposed to listen to headphones while driving, but it’s mostly just the deer & I out there after 1:30 when I get out of work & deer don’t make any noise so I don’t need to be listening for them.

8. The new car has Sirius XM for free for the first year. It is wonderful! I love it, I have the option of setting 12 presets for radio & the same 6 buttons twice again for satellite radio too. I’ve got all my favorites set up on there. First Wave Alternative, Hair Nation, Lithium & Octane are my favorites, but I had no trouble filling up all 12 presets.

9. Especially insidious for me is the 50’s on 5, 60’s on 6 up to the 90’s on 9. I run through them all on my way to work & then on the way home at night. I have a really wide ranging taste in music (as long as it’s rock/pop, no country or hip hop for me thanks) & so can listen to most anything from the 1950’s forward.

10. Then there’s the talk channels, I’m not a fan of talk radio & get enough news daily between local, national news & the Daily show when it’s on, so I stay away from the politics & pop culture leaves me cold, I don’t care in the least what Lindsey, Brittany or anyone else who doesn’t live in my house or call or text me regularly does so I don’t care about those.

11. However there are 4 comedy channels, I find myself often times tuning to these on the way home at night, just to take my mind off the awful, rude, slacking calls I’ve been taking all night long. Laughter really is the best medicine.

12. I keep feeling guilty & tuning back to the radio at least once a day, I run through the 12 stations I can pull & seldom find anything worth listening to.  Music changes rapidly & my listening to my insular, commercial free genre specific satellite radio means that I’m not hearing the new songs being played on the radio daily, I’m going to be 41 in just over a month, but I still listen to new music, giving that up is not something I feel ready to do, but I’m already slipping off the new music cycle. Often though, it’s the commercials that drive me back to the satellite radio.

13. I have 11 months & 1 week left with satellite radio, the salesman told me it’s $15 or $20 a month to keep it after the free year. I’m already debating with myself whether it’s worth keeping. I fear I may be so addicted by then, that I won’t be able to live without it!

1.  Blog every day. (really!)

2.  It’s half past October & I have yet to post a single cool Halloween picture.

3. I haven’t even looked at the cool Halloween Decorating books I spent the last 2 years puchasing cheap on Amazon.

4.  Also, I’m sketching again & think often that I should drag out some of my old art & consider what I’m doing now against it.

5.  Sketching always puts me in mind of my favorite artists – Edward Gorey & Tasha Tudor. I should look through some of their books, especially since this year I’m missing my grandmother more than I have since right after she died in 2006 & Tahsa Tudor makes me think of her as she was a huge fan of Tasha Tudor’s books.

6.  I’m engrossed in my current read: The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry, but don’t ever seem to read when I’m at home, only at work.

7. I should clean up around the house, even the computer keyboard’s keys have a subtle stickiness which I am not enjoying.

8. We have a foam Haunted house to put together, we started last weekend but were rather frustrated with it & it became time for family game night a little too soon so it was put aside, now, what we did have done has fallen apart so we’ll need to start back over from scratch.

9.  As always there are earings, necklaces & other bead involved things calling my name at the back of my head.

10.  The weekend of the 24-25 we’ll be doing our annual chocolate pops making for the kids to give out at school & ms 19 & I to give out at work.

As always, there is embroidery to be done, I’ve finished the Thanksgiving picture I was making & begun an ambitious advent calendar on 14 gauge plastic board. It’s coming along nicely but is the biggest, most structured project I’ve put before myself since I completed ms 13’s Christmas stocking 10 years ago. Everything else I do, I dabble at. Just pick it up & put it away, freehand & pick & choose from multiple sources to make what I want to make. This is a real project with specific instructions & I’m enjoying the challenge.

1. According to my weather info on my msn home page, it’s not going to be above 50 at all for the next 4 days & it’s going to rain. This is a very bad thing as I have not even dug out the heater & don’t really have much money for kerosene right now.

2. I have to go see mr 10’s teachers tomorrow for a conference, in the first marking period he got some really worrisome grades: A- B, C, D & an F. The F was in english, the B in math, which is totally him but still not good.

3. Ms 13 is applying herself for the second year in a row & received 2 As & 2 Bs.

4. Every evening lately, I come home from work & go online to play mahjong, I pull up this site & most nights I pull up the option for a new post, then I consider what to write, I really do want to write but then I think of all the things I hate about work & can’t put down for fear of  losing my job, I think of all the things I’m worried about in general & don’t want to bore people with & so I often don’t write (obviously, I’m down to Thursday Thirteens only this week).

5. There’s also the added concern that the ex has located me on Facebook & so we’re “friends” now there. I’m worried he’ll find me on My space next & locate the link to this blog.

6. I haven’t actually been to myspace to take the link down yet however, not sure if that’s being stupid,  lazy or just assuming he won’t take the initiative to bother looking there. He claims to not have time or interest in these sites.

7. I was a little appalled the other day when ms 19 pointed out that my myspace status still read “eagerly waiting to go on vacation” We left on vacation at the middle of July. I hadn’t been back on myspace since before that!

8. Obviously I’m not a big fan & don’t have the time or interest to maintain these sites either.

9. Same could be said of the blog just lately, it’s more about not really knowing what to write, if I complain about conditions at my house, well that’s boring & upsets certain residents of my house.

10. I’m especially under strict gag orders on ms 19 & ms 13 both of whom are annoyed that I have a blog at all still. “That’s so 2005 mom, get on twitter or get over it”

11. Did I mention I’m playing a lot of Mahjong lately?

12. New boss at work is pretty ok. I can’t say cool or great, but she’s not bad. It’s kind of nice to have a normal female boss (as opposed to the last female boss I had who seemed to be trying to prove she was even less sentimental, kind & human than the male bosses)

13. Ms 19’s BF’s birthday is this weekend, I’m using it as an excuse to make a cake!

1. Photo of Me: Not a one was taken this month (or at least, not one survived my delete button, you’re not missing anything I assure you)

2. Current Candle Scents: Incense is burned more often in our house I admit, but this month the scent I smell the most is Yankee Candle’s car freshener in “autumn leaves” scent – I love it!

3. What I am Currently Reading: The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry. (looking forward with great anticipation to Diana Gabaldon’s newest book in the Outlander series, my mother is reading it & is going to send it on to me when she’s through)

4. Newest Music Added to my Playlists: Not a one.

5. Movies I saw: In the theaters: none, ms 13 & I watched Same Time Next Year which I had never seen but that came highly recommended by my grandmother many years ago. I liked it.

6. Something yummy I made this month:  We had a yummy Chicken Divan a couple of weeks ago.

7. The Last Place I Ate Out: We had Red Lobster & then Red Robin back to back when I got the loan money from my 401k, this was partially a bribe for ms 19 & her BF to come with us so we could use his truck to help bring the new bathroom floor & other needed items for the bathroom back home after we picked them out.

8. Something which made me Cry:  the news that my wonderful, never been a moments worry, jeep compass was in need of a rebuild on the engine, something I couldn’t afford to have done along with the car payment & all my other bills.

9. Something which made me Laugh: My mother had to co-sign the replacement car, that’s not particularly funny, but they fed-exed the paper work to her with a return label to use to send the papers back overnight, the car dealership guy who was setting this up asked me if my mother’s town had a fed-ex or ups place so he’d know which one to use, I assured him they have both. It always amuses & amazes me how so many people have no clue how different MA is from rural VA, when I told my mother this story, she laughed & said she could think of 10-15 drop boxes for both ups & fed-ex within 10 miles of her place, not just in her town! (conversely, here in VA where we drop things for fed ex & ups is a video store, they just hold the boxes there for the truck drivers!)

10. Something that I looked forward to this month:  Not driving the compass any longer with the bum cylinder banging & rattling.

11. Something I am thankful for:  That although I had to put money I really couldn’t afford down & my mother had to help, I do have a reliable (brand new) vehicle with a lifetime power train warranty on it. (got another jeep)

12. Something I want to remember about this month:  When the check engine light comes on, go directly to the dealership.

13. A Picture I took this month:  1939 dodge for sale at the local car dealership, isn’t it lovely? They don’t make them like that anymore!

As I mentioned in my last post, I had issues with my lovely Jeep Compass. They were serious engine issues, my ex’s guesstimate as to what it might have cost to fix the problem was between 2 & 3 thousand dollars. The Jeep dealership was actually less optimistic than that.

I was already considering the Salesman’s comment about replacing the Compass with another car when I said I didn’t find it funny last Thursday morning. Friday I went in to talk to them about it.

Long story short I am the somewhat reluctant but very relieved owner of a 2009 Jeep grand cherokee. It is HUGE. It is very white & it is coming with a very large payment.

However, I didn’t have the money to pay for the repairs the compass needed, I didn’t have the money to pay for the tires the compass would have had to have had by January to pass inspection, they were able to put what I owed on the compass (not an inconsiderable amount at all, let me tell you) into the payment on the cherokee, they combined credits for taking a 2009 after the 2010s were released with loyalty credits & multiple other credits that they didn’t exactly explain to make it a work-able situation.

I like the way the new car sits up so high, and the Sirius satellite radio (which I’m already familiar with because the company I work for has Sirius music channels in its lineup for your listening pleasure & the kids & I all often use them at home when doing something which we’d prefer to have music with (house cleaning is the #1 thing I do while listening to Sirius in my house I admit).

The car is not as roomy in the drivers seat area as the compass was, which surprises me as it’s a lot bigger everywhere else. If I hadn’t gone from the drivers seat of one to the other I would think I was crazy, but I’ve got to lose weight to drive this car comfortably (not exactly a bad thing, I admit).

It is so freakin’ huge I feel like I am going to drive over things, I’ve also seen it do a few odd things in the lights system, I was driving home the first night & suddenly although the high beams light on the dash was on, the headlights were on low, I flipped them back to low & back to high & they were high beams again, also the first & second nights, my front right turn signal didn’t work, the light on the instrument panel for the right turn flashed rapidly which is a signal that one of the outside lights is out & so when I got home I tried them & found it was the front right. Then, the last 2 nights though, the right turn light worked fine!

I certainly hope I don’t have a car built on a Monday when the workers were hung over or a Friday when they were all in a hurry to get the day over with & go home! Loose wires seems like the most likely reason for this, but of course everything is sealed up so I can’t even see any wires to check, let alone check them & of course because both issues are no longer going on, it’s useless to take it to the dealership.

Along with the new car payment I have a new insurance payment & of course, here it is the last month before renewal so I have a great big payment to make on the insurance just for October, then in November it will be spread out between the 6 months payments like normal.

The younger kids like the new truck a lot (the compass seemed more like a car, although it’s considered a medium size SUV, this thing seems more like a real truck- handles like one too) They like anything new & different is part of the situation & the back seat is bigger & has a slide out cup holder which I like due to the disgusting mess they’ve made of previous back seat cup holders.

Ms 19 is less excited, she is concerned because her BF read online that they get horrible gas mileage, this is the first 6 cylinder car I’ve ever owned (the ex & I had an Iroc with an 8 cylinder for a winter once, but I tried to not drive it more than I had to- he had trouble getting it started on many a cold morning & would spray ether in the carburetor & the image of the mushroom cloud like fireballs which would come off the top of that engine scarred me for life).

So I wasn’t expecting much in the gas mileage department, the paper stuck to the window glass said 13 city & 20 highway which was concerning, but of course, twisting mountain roads are neither city or highway & I’ve had cars I thought would do great do horribly & cars I thought would be terrible get great mileage here.

The compass had a read out that gave an MPG average read out & before it started having engine trouble it averaged 27-30 MPG, after it started having issues & running on only 3 cylinders it averages 23-25 MPG, still better than this cherokee I admit, but the cherokee is doing pretty well for what it is, it’s MPG readout like the compass’ one showed 18-19 the first half of the first day & it’s been between 19 & 21 every day since then, not too shabby considering the size of the truck & the size of the engine.

One great thing is that although my plates still renew in December, this car’s state inspection expires in April, this is good because I’m more likely to have money to replace tires then & do any other repairs which are required like brakes etc in April than I am in December which is when the Compass’ inspections expired.

Oh & the very best thing about this new car? It has a lifetime warranty on the drivetrain. As the lead mechanic at the dealership said, if what happened to the compass’ engine happened to this car, it would be covered, at most I might have to pay $100.  That, I can affort.

1. I am in deep now, I took a loan against my 401k to catch myself up, pay a few large, not worthwhile bills off & re-floor my bathroom.

2. Today I took my car in to get an oil change & determine why the check engine light was on, being the ex-wife of an auto mechanic means I take things like this fairly lightly, I thought it would be the EGR valve or some such thing which would be fixed & I’d go on my way.

3. Underneath the above whistling in the dark I knew that the check engine light blinking while I was driving & the choppy performance of the car since Sunday afternoon were bad signs though.

4. Sure enough, my #4 cylinder is mis-firing & lacks compression, the garage where I took it wants $68. an hour to tear down the engine to determine why this is going on.

5. Yes, I said to determine why, fixing what’s wrong with it will be additional cost.

6. Still not laughing at the salesman’s comment, after I heard this news, that if I wanted to trade it in he’d love to sell me a new car (I still owe in the 5 figure range on this car- putting another car on top of what I owe on this one would make my car payment something near my mortgage’s monthly payment.)

7. Of course, we bought all the stuff for the bathroom floor & re-do last weekend, I’ve already mailed off my catch-up payments & after the oil change & spark plug replacement I did today I have about $70. of the loan money left to my name.

8. Which means I’m still going to be late on many bills because fixing the car is going to have to come before anything else, because if I don’t have a dependable, working car I will lose my job & be even less able to pay all my other bills. What a mess.

9. All is not lost, ms 19’s BF’s best friend & his dad run a garage just a few miles away, they charge $40. an hour for repairs so I can save over $100. Just in having them tear down the engine & determining what is wrong with it, then I might be able to cover fixing what’s wrong along with determining what’s wrong!

10.  This is what I get for buying American & driving 27+ miles each way to work daily (not to mention 44 miles each day on the days I have to take ms 19 to work on top of my daily work drive)

11. Big kudos to Chrissie who’s taking ms 19 to work tomorrow (& probably Friday) so I don’t have to drive my car so much while it’s misfiring.

12. I am torn about calling the garage tomorrow because if they can’t finish the work before Friday night I don’t even want them to start until Monday because this is a grocery shopping week & I can not be stranded at home all weekend.

13. Thanks will also be going out to the 1 co-worker I have who lives even further out than I do, he drives by my road every day on his way to work & just 2 weeks ago he ended up on my team & my exact schedule & so he’s agreed to pick me up for work on which ever work days the car is in the shop getting fixed.

Last year, in an attempt to clear some space in my old computer I moved a lot of pictures from the computer to a memory chip. Of course, as is par for the course in my life, the chip disappeared immediately afterwards. I tore the computer area apart, crawled around under the desk, the computer stand, the sewing table where I keep pens, papers, usb conections etc & could not find this chip.  Fast forward to last weekend, mr 10, always one to push the seasons asked me to allow him to take out the Halloween decorations & look through them, after extracting a promise that he wouldn’t try to decorate the house until October 3 (first weekend in October) I agreed. We found 4 or 5 decorations which will require glue & a delicate hand to reconstruct & the memory chip! Stil in it’s plastic case it had gotten tossed into a pumpkin bowl which had been on top of the monitor & when the pumpkin was packed, the chip went too. So in honor of the return of all my pictures, here are 13 of my favorite pictures off the chip, most of which are older pictures of either the kids or me.
1. Me at about 8 months, I still have the bear, which is why I like the picture.

2.  Ms 19 at 11 months, I always loved this look on her face.

3.  All 3 kids in 1999, ms 13 (on the left) had not had her eye surgery yet so her eye is very crossed in this picture.

4. Mr 10, as a toddler, back when we still lived in the trailer.

5.  Another picture from before we moved to our current home, ms 19 (then 12) has just said something  which isn’t exactly true, you can tell because of the look on ms 13’s (then 6) face.

6. Another one of me, age 2 this time.

7.  Ms 19 (then 9) & Ms 13 (then 2) back in the pre-mr 10 days, clowning around with cabbage leaves which were part of dinner that night.

8. mr 10 while we were camping when he was just a month past his first birthday. That’s ms 19 in the foreground.

9. Ms 13 a couple of years ago, I wish she’d let her hair grow,  she looked so cute with it braided & now it’s too short to braid!

10.  ms 13 & mr 10 a few years ago on a lovely, bright fall day. (not like this week, cold, rainy & cloudy- ugh!)

11.  Ms 19 & I on her first Christmas morning. Oh so many years ago, I don’t feel old enough to have a daughter who is nearly 20!

12.  Ms 13 during one of our many excursions to the river to swim this summer.

13.  Mr 10 in a similar position as ms 13 in the above picture, thought I should include something more recent. Just for contrast.

I’m really enjoying the whole having a “real” weekend thing. Except for the part where I’m at work Friday night when most people are relaxing on Friday night as part of their weekend. Those months when I was off Friday & Saturday nights were so wasted, I wish I was still on that schedule, although it’s fun to be home on Sunday night with the kids & it’s useful in that it means I’m there to make sure they’re really all ready for school on Monday morning (trusting that to ms 19 has been rather frustrating I have to admit)

That said, it’s been enjoyable at work this week, not too terribly busy, (well,except for last night, but I just don’t want to revisit that horrible evening anytime in the near future so I’ll conveniently forget about it)

It has been a long day as ms 19 had to go to C’burg to a clinic to apply for birth control on a sliding scale, I had to take her as part of my current plan to not be a grandmother before age 50, Chrissie went along for the ride.  We left at 9 this morning, which required my getting out of bed at 8:45, I had not fallen asleep until after 3 last night so it was rough to say the least.

While 19 was at the clinic Chrissie & I walked around Lowes pricing the stuff I need to replace my bathroom floor & numerous other worn out things in the bathroom & around the rest of my house, I was planning to go to Home Depot to price the same items there but ms 19 finished sooner than planned, we ran a few other errands around C’burg & came home in time for me to take a 2 hour nap which helped but I was still falling asleep at my desk at work by 10:30 tonight.

I got a diet coke & drank it during my last break & I did ok all the rest of the evening, including the drive home & now I’m starting to feel sleepy again, but as I almost never seem to just write ‘normal’ blog entrys any longer I wanted to do so- especially since I won’t be home most of tomorrow.

Tomorrow is our general grocery shopping day, the one of two days a month we get to eat dinner out & the kids are especially looking forward to it.  Tomorrow is also the first home game of the Virginia Tech football season so we won’t be going to C’burg for this trip, it is so crowded, chaotic & crazy when there’s a game.

We’re going down to Roanoke, I’ve even bribed ms 19’s BF to take her to work & pick her up so I can sleep in & still go to Roanoke without worrying about getting her at 3 or anything (of course, part of the trade off is that I have to drive her both ways Sunday. It should be worth it though)

I’m especially excited to go to Roanoke because one of my favorite shops is saving me a bumpersticker for my car, I have one which says coexist with the letters shaped like all sorts of religious symbols, they’re saving me one which says tolerance in a similar way. I’ve seen quite a few of these but couldn’t find one to buy any where & this store said they had them on order & then called to let me know they’d hold one for me.

I’m hoping the trip to Roanoke is as much fun as going out with Chrissie & ms 19 was today, since it’s ms 13, mr 10 & I, it could go either way, we often get along very well, just the 3 of us but if ms 13 is in a bad mood or mr 10 is still not feeling well it could be rather unpleasant. Only time will tell.

1. Mr 10 stayed home the other day due to a sore throat he’s been nursing since the holiday weekend, he’s got cough & sniffles too, I just hope it’s only a cold, not some flu already.

2. The car’s check engine light popped on late last week, every other time it has come on like that it’s gone off on it’s own a few days later, this time it’s not doing so.

3. Time to pluck/wax/depilate my eyebrows, nobody likes a unibrow!

4. Ms 19’s work schedule has changed since the increase in minimum wage, now they have her in there for only 6 hours a day but she’s working 4 days, getting 1 off & then back in for 4 more days (it used to be 3 – 8 hour days a week).

5. All this extra driving of ms 19 to work & back is killing my gas, my car & my sleep. I get home @ 2:15AM, I’m in bed & hopefully on my way to sleep by 2:30, then I get up at 10 past 7 to be sure the younger kids are ready to go to school & get on the bus ok. Then I’m up at 7:55 to take ms 19 to work, back home & in bed by 8:45 & it always takes a half hour or so to fall back to sleep, then I’m no good for anything until at least 11, sometimes 12!

6. My boss is gone, we have a new one, my first favorite thing about her is she’s got at least nearly as much seniority at the company as I do. At this point, with my company’s high turn over rate, that’s saying something.

7. We’re also, supposedly not going to have to change shifts, it will be optional. That’s still a rumor though & I try not to put too much trust in rumors. Especially at work.

8. Ms 13 is definitely becomming her sister all over again, hormonal rages, crying jags & her own special brand of know it all sarcasm. If I survive 3 children through childhood without ripping every hair out of my head, I’ll know for sure that there must be a higher purpose to life!

9. With the changes I’m planning on making thanks to the loan against my 401k at work, I have to replace the bathroom floor, I’m still musing over whether to replace the sink or not, it’s got a big broken place where ms 19 allegedly tried to split a bath fizzy in half & broke the sink instead of the fizzy. (this is what she tells me at least, after 2 years of consideration, I’m not so sure that she wasn’t just sitting on the sink) Anyway, the sink is in really poor shape, I’d love a pedestal sink but it’s a lot of extra money compared to the floor materials (my bathroom is not more than 5 feet by 6 feet if you don’t count the tub, which we’re not, so it’s not going to be a lot of flooring materials).

10. The hair is getting out of control, both in grays & length, I’ve trimmed it a few times recently (I don’t trust anyone locally to cut my hair since I got scalped the last 3 times I had my hair cut professionally) and even cut in some long layers, it’s to my waist at the longest part now & while it’s kind of cool, in that I have never been able to grow it that long before, it’s a lot to take care of, wash, dry & get out of my face.

11. Then there’s the grandmother factor, she was always horrified when women (including my mother) over 30 had hair longer than shoulder length, she was of the opinion that over 30 you should have short, serviceable hair. So I “hear” her in the back of my mind about my hair all the time. Both about the length & keeping it pulled back off my face, to leave it down around my face is like a cardinal sin to me due to her opinions!

12. Then there’s that pesky gray. It’s spaced out a bit, but it is there & because I am mostly talking on the phone at work, I can sit there & look in a hand mirror & look & look, until I’m all but plucking myself bald, pulling out all the grays. I can’t decide if I should highlight to try to hide them, or go a darker red to cover them.

13. I’m hoping it’s going to warm up again soon, we’ve been cool & rainy here in SW Virginia this week & I’d personally, like to see it get up into the high 70’s again at least, I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer quite yet!