Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

Fox News keeps recycling the music that they used for the week after September 11th, when they showed endless loops of the second plane hitting the WTC. Every time I hear it I flash back onto that period of time and snap my head to the TV expecting to see planes hitting buildings.

Once again I’ve gotten my days all jumbled and spent all day today thinking it was Tuesday. I realized around 9 pm that it was Thursday and my cruise leaves a week from today. It also means that I’m not going to get the quilt done on time, damnit, nor am I going to be able to make it to my nephew’s Eagle Scout ceremony. I’m bummed about missing it, but we’d have to corral the kids, drive to San Antonio (1.5 hours) for the ceremony, leave there around 10 pm then drive anouther 3.5-4 hours to Houston and show up on my in-laws’ doorstep in the wee small hours, then get the kids up at 7:30 the next morning to go to work with their grandparents and then us drive the 1.5 hours from Houston to Galveston that morning.

The good news is that we have a contract on our old house and closing is scheduled for 4/28. And it’s at a price we’re happy with. The bad news is that next weekend is the cruise, the weekend after we’re going back to Houston for Easter, so we’re going to have to leave the kids there again in order to come back and clean out the garage, which is filled with 10 metric assloads of junk. The buyers are being really weird and got upset when we said they couldn’t have the microwave, and they wanted us to drop the price on the house because they plan to add on another 1000 square feet or so and need the money (which is my problem because…?). They told their realtor to tell our realtor to make sure that we get the grass mowed before closing. Wonder if they want us to leave the lawnmower for them, too.

I got this adapter thingie for my GPS and some software called MacGPS Pro that lets me download just about any map, calibrate it, and do live tracking from my GPS to my laptop. I got this big old map of the Gulf of Mexico to use for the cruise. It only took me three hours to figure out how latitude and longitude works. Somewhat.

By the way, that dream I posted earlier? I really did dream that, this afternoon while I napped. The son was played by William Hurt, probably because I saw a production of him in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The father was kind of like John Huston, and the kid was anonymous.

Once upon a time there was a man who had long and deep-seated resentmet towards his father. He knew his father was an evil man and what he did was going to corrupt himself and others so awfullly that he should not be allowed to live.

Having made up his mind to rid the earth of his father, he made his way to the apartment building where his father lived in order to do him in. He climbed onto the barely functioning elevator and pushed the button for the thirtieth floor.

When he got to the apartment his father, small and wizened but still lovely to look at, was waiting at the door for him with a smile and a tear. Surely the son had a right to do as he saw fit, but didn’t the father have a right to be heard? The son agreed that was fair, and they sat to talk.

The father explained he wasn’t evil but rather not human; it was natural for him to be able to jump to the tops of trees and float gracefully down. He was part faerie, and by killing his father, the son would never be able to fulfill that longing ache deep within himself that said there was more to life than his day to day drudgery. After a long and tearful talk, the two reconciled. The father explained that he was able to bring a little magic back into his apartment and demonstrated the most amazing things for his son, swooping soundlessly across the room; balancing atop the railing of the balcony that overlooked the city; not only demonstrating but teaching as well.

So that when the son left his father, with much love and hugs, and went home to see his own son, he was laughing and giddy at what he had seen and what he could do. He had a long talk that night with his son, promising him things would be different, they would live a happy life and always learn to look at things from (literally!) a new perspective.

After a good night’s sleep filled with colorful incredible dreams, the two woke up and got dressed and made out of their house for a bite to eat. The father, eager to show off wha the had learned from his father, took a huge running leap in order to plant himself at the top of a brick wall.

Only he had forgotten. All the magic was at that old apartment. Outside, in the real world, there was no magic. So instead of landing gently on top of the wall, he ran into it full force and broke his neck while his son watched.

The end.

(is that the most bizarre dream ever??)

I just went out and spent around $200 at Wally World for stuff to go in care packages for soldiers. I’ve been asking people for names to send stuff to, since the DoD has forbidden packages addressed to “Any Soldier”. I got the name of someone in a command position in Afghanistan so hopefully he’ll be able to distribute stuff around to some people who don’t get much from home.

I got:

candy, playing cards, lip balm, baby wipes, deoderant, sunblock, saline nasal spray, peanuts, disposable cameras, gum, mouthwash strips, Kleenex, Purell, Sharpies, toothpaste, and Krazy glue.

From what I understand, it’s been taking a month or more to get stuff to the middle east. Hopefully nothing will melt or crumble away before it arrives!

1. Health insurance sucks. I apparently can’t get insurance because I’m too fat. Neat.

2. Prescription drugs sucks. I went to see the doctor the other day to get something for tension headaches (which for me are caused by not sleeping) and she gave me some Elavil, which is supposed to be this all around wonder drug that cures depression, insomnia, tension headaches, and chronic pain. Only problem is that it turned my into an utter and complete bitchmonster and nobody, but nobody, was immune to my wrath. Yikes.

3) So I took a little hiatus from quilting because any little thing that went wrong (or that I perceived might have a chance of going wrong) made me want to burn the darn thing, in which case I really never will get it done. (Only 5 or 6 short stripes to go!) Luckily I figured out the trick to sewing on merit badges by machine – the lovely zigzag stitch! I probably would have permanently disfigured myself trying to sew those things on by hand – they have a hard plastic backing, and so far I’ve broken a basting gun, a #10 Between needle, a #12 sharp, and a universal sewing machine needle on them.

4) In my time off I got to the games I’m supposed to be beta testing (yes, I beta test games, it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it, no I don’t get paid but I do get the games for free as well as get my name in the credits for all the world to see). I started out thinking that this one I’m working on was imbecilic, but it’s grown on me and now I’m totally addicted. Meanwhile the other game I’m testing, the one where I didn’t want to stop playing to eat, bathe, or sleep, has fallen completely by the wayside.

5) I’m turning into an old lady with grey hair and wrinkles and dry skin. When I was a teenager I scoffed at the commercials that told me my face would get dry as an adult. Whoops.

6) I haven’t gone to church in forever because I feel too guilty even to ask hub if he minds watching the kids for a couple of hours, even though I do it all the time when he goes out.

That is all.

Don’t forget to watch Six Feet Under tonight. Brenda’s coming back. I’m going to have to make hub watch in the other room so I don’t have to hear him call her names.

We just got the girls to sleep, so now I can go to sleep to wake up in 6 hours in time to shower and feed the 4 yo and drive to San Antonio and go look at cabinets in a place that’s not really going to be open and we won’t be able to find out prices, then to New Braunfels to look at light fixtures at a place that may or may not be open on Saturday.

That’s ok, I have nothing else to do. Ha.

And I spent 2.5 wasted hours tonight at the crap-ass mall near my house looking for a basic black evening dress to wear on formal night on the cruise, and all they had was stuff in petite sizes. Hello, I’m 5’9″, petite schmetite. But that’s ok, I had nothing else I could have been doing.

I hate poor planning!

I saw the dermatologist yesterday. She said that I should use some Curad scar therapy and that it may open up again and that I should always wear a bra. Oh, and I can go swimming if I use antibacterial soap afterwards. And take lots of Advil for the pain.

After my dawn raid on the monster gerbil from hell in the kitchen, my sleep schedule is completely messed up. I’m just going to stay up tonight. Of course now that I’ve decided that, I’m starting to get sleepy.

4 yo: I’m gonna put my hand in your pocket, daddy.
Hub: Uh, ok. I wouldn’t do it if I were you, but I guess it’s ok.
4 yo: Look, daddy! My hand’s in your pocket!
Hub: Uh huh…
4 yo: Now I’m gonna put my hand in your grey pocket!
Hub Uh, ok… HOO! Wait, that’s my underwear!