I got to sleep in a bunch of times...

Got my wish. I ended up sleeping in a lot over several days. Sleeping until 11 am is just an awesome thing. But I'm already sick of that and ready for other things.

I've had a couple nice lunch dates with friends, some stay at home mommies and my former co-workers Mike and Jeremy. I have done a little yardwork, but not a lot. We were treated to some gorgeous summer-like weather for a few straight days last week. I have had some fun with the dogs outside, and chatted with neighbors and did bike maintenance on Geoff's bike but cannot get the pump to attach to the stems on Jess' bike so I can't go riding. I want to figure that one out the most because there isn othing nicer and time-killing than taking a bike ride in the middle of the day.

Seeing that I have all this free time, you would think I'd be getting a lot done. I managed to clean the guinea pig cage. And that is sort of about it.

I have lists. The lists have to be done. The lists have to be completed. Item by item. But I can't manage to focus and do.

Instead, I long for distraction. I watch DVR'ed shows, "Red Eye" on Fox is my favorite. It is a news-ish topic oriented panel show, slightly conservative in nature but positively inappropriate and naughty at times. I goof off on Facebook and play Bejeweled (which my children call Becrack). I procrastinate to the last possible minute, and sometimes even later. I even rejoice when someone calls and asks for my help with something, because I would rather do stuff for other people than do stuff here. I was able to help Keri with some Rebel stuff last week for 2 days, but didn't go see the show (kicking myself for that). I will help her a little bit again tomorrow.

Tuesday I'm having lunch with Professor CM. Remember him? Over the course of this journal I've done a lot of work with him. He has a project for me, a website that has to be prettied up and fast ("Christine, you know my style. White Background, One Picture, Times New Roman, Blocks. Make it nice") that he will be presenting to a publisher. He hopes to get a huge pantload of awesome moneys in advance, and will be able to pay me for building the website. My first form of "payment" will be new software. He's getting me the new Adobe CS4 with Dreamweaver and Flash and Photoshop and all that good stuff. It's good that he gets things for free or little money. For me, this is the equivalent of a $2000 payment which he got for $500 or so bucks. Hot damn. Thank you CM! We'll figure out an hourly rate to "pay back" the software purchase, and then he'll start paying me.

---

This weekend I'm taking Jess to Pittsburgh.

She applied to Umass Amherst (accepted), Syracuse (waitlisted), University of Pittsburgh (accepted and first choice), and University at Buffalo, but she accidently did her common app to Buffalo State. We didn't care for the University at Buffalo too much, and they can't just forward her application to them (jerks). So we don't give a crap about Buffalo.

Pitt was her first choice, and after visiting I think she fell in love with it. We're in love with it. Great place, great school. Cathedral of Kicking Ass and all that. Syracuse's loss if you ask me.

So this weekend is accepted student's day. And she and I are going out on Friday, staying with my friend Liz who lives about 5 miles from the campus (gotta google maps her address!) and spending the day immersed in Panthery Goodness. Somewhere in there we'll spend some time with the in-laws, possibly hotel it up that way on Sunday night and head back on Monday morning.

I need to make sure that's okay with Her Royal Hiney, Jess. I mean, she might have a paper due or something! And heaven forbid she miss two days of school! Oy! I honestly think that if my parents offered to take me out of school for 2 days and go on a trip, I'd be rejoicing and not pushing back that I have homework due. She's a weird duck. I hope she keeps that weirdness in college though. I mean, once you're paying to be somewhere.... and that ...

---

The following weekend I'm heading back to my hometown.

Thanks to the joys of Facebook, a bunch of people I went to elementary school with started jawing at one another about whose elementary school could win at kickball. When I was growing up we had like five elementary schools, and then we were all brought together for 6th grade, split up into TWO junior high schools (so people you got to be friends with for one year now were at another school and no longer liked you... really smart stuff Huntington....) and then we came together again for High School.

So the jawing and posturing turned into a 'let's actually DO a kickball tournament!' Bah ha ha ha ha! A bunch of 40 somethings running around playing kickball sounded pretty funny so I got my fat ass all into it. Then they got the idea of having this be a charity event, and they set up a scholarship fund for one of my classmates who died in 2004 in a work accident. I never knew this guy, but I was vested already in the kickball portion of things because I was all "hell yeah, Southdown can kick Washington's ASS!"

I think about 100 people from the different elementary schools are signed up, who knows how many others will sign up, and there is a $20.00 buy-in to play. Hopefully this scholarship fund will grow, and we'll do this every year. There is another round of games in July, but I'll be working with Rebel, and Geoff's performances are that weekend, and I can't pass on that.

That night, two brothers who are in different bands are doing an acoustic show together to entertain us and cap off the shenanigans. I think I'm most looking forward to that. It should be amazing.

And in between, I'll try and do some vacuuming and clean the bathroom.

When do I get to sleep in?

People keep asking me "so, now that you're laid off, what are you gonna do?" Instantly my reaction is "Sleep In Late."

Or I go the Homer Simpson route and say "Well first I'm gonna get really drunk...."

I've done neither. Not sure if I am disappointed in myself for not doing either. I've found that I take the kids to school, come back here, get on facebook, and then do some cleaning. And then I pump out the basement. And then I go on facebook. And then I let the dogs out. And then the kids are home. And then. and then and then...

Tomorrow I can sleep in. No one needs to go to school. I don't have getting drunk like Homer on my list of things to do, but all told, a glass of wine would be nice.

One thing that I've been doing a lot of is running the sump pump in our basement. Three weeks ago we had a catastrophic rainstorm. About ten inches of rain in 72 hours. Records were broken, chaos ensued. We left for church on the Sunday morning that the rain was really trucking, and I heard the sump pump running but didn't think anything of it. It was running like a champ, like it has for almost 4 years when we get some rain. We got home and I could hear it. I got some laundry together at about 2pm and went downstairs to discover about 7 inches of water on the floor.

The sump pump was running, but not sucking any water out of the basement. I brought it to Doug's attention, and he decided to go find a new sump pump at the store. I went to an Eagle Court of Honor for our Boy Scout Troop. I got home at 7pm that night and Doug still wasn't back. He had to go to 10 different stores to find a sump pump. He went down to hook it up, and we couldn't hook it into our system so we had to run a hose out the window to pump the water out.

There I was at 11pm, running a hose down to the street to get the water away from our house. Good thing I love my life.

I looked across the street as I was unraveling the hose, and saw my new neighbor throwing a bucket of water out his back door. They had just moved in back in October, and I didn't know them well but knew that they went to the same college I did. We met while their kids were trick-or-treating. Already they'd had a tree fall over on their car in December during the first snow storm and here they are bailing out their basement. I told Doug that I felt that I should go over to help. He opted out, since he spent four hours driving around America looking for a new pump for our basement.... and I can't say as I blame him.

I grabbed a bucket and went across the street. When Ben came out on the side porch I said "need some help?" and held the bucket up. Ben smiled and invited me in. I spent the next 90 minutes helping him and his wife bail out the basement. We took out about an inch of water, and then they decided it just wasn't going to make a difference if we kept going. At least we had a couple laughs, and I got to meet the new neighbors. New ish. Not totally new. But you know what I mean.

The following day, our hot water heater was under water, the pilot out, the gas off. Doug and the kids went to work and school (or maybe the kids had no school, I can't remember at this point). I stayed home, manning the pump and monitoring the situation. At one point I was convinced that the pump wasn't working so I went out to check my hose. Looking across the street, I saw that the fire department was there pumping out the neighbor's basement. And the two houses next to them. So one came across and asked how our basement was and asked to evaluate it.

"You should have called us yesterday, when the water got close to the water heater." They had the basement pumped out in no time. Literally, an hour. Done. I got to hang out in my basement chatting with my town's finest, apologizing for bothering them.

"It's our job, Chris" said Lt. York. "We get paid to do this, and your tax dollars go to us doing this so ... use us. We're not just for when your house is on fire."

I ended up calling the next day again, when the water got to be a few inches away from the hot water heater. We had the plumber come out and flush out the tank and relight the system... and I didn't want it to get wet again. They confirmed that our sump pump was not working. We'd burned through the second one in less than 2 days. Doug bought another one on the way home from work.

Our basement hasn't been water-free since the first storm really. This week we got yet another storm with about six inches of rain. It could be worse, we could be living in Rhode Island where everything is completely trashed.

As for our basement, we have to wait until it is fully dry to install the sump pump exactly right, and until then it has to be plugged in manually. On that note, I'll be right back. About every 2 hours or so I have to plug it in, and it takes about 90 minutes to empty out the basement. Wash rinse repeat.

That's been my life since getting laid off, really. Rather thrilling.

Self Imposed Cone of Silence...

Shortly after my last entry, I found out that I was going to be losing my job. My boss very politely pointed out that while she knows I never, ever really write about work or work related issues, she needed to emphasize to me that I should not blog about the layoff. In fact, I don't know that I even should write much about it. Last time I blogged/wrote about getting laid off that boss took my entry about my exit process, printed it out and gave it to the management team. And that was kind of embarrassing, because then everyone at that job started reading my journal.

So I knew for about six weeks or so I guess, I forget the actual date that they let us know "for realsies" that we were getting let go, and who would be in the culled group. Over the weeks it was interesting to watch a lot of drama and stuff going on at so many levels. I felt like I was on a TV show watching alliances form, and infighting, and arguments, while I sat on the sidelines not part of the whole scene. I got voted off the island, and I'm okay with that.

If you go back and read that entry and the two before it, I think that a lot of what I feel now is exactly the way I feel right now, so there isn't a lot to say about where I am. I had outgrown this job a long time ago. I picked it up simpy by running into G at Wendy's in 2004 and she said "I need some graphic work done, can you help me out." Six years is a long time (well, almost six years, June 2004 was when I started doing graphic design work on a computer at a fold out table in the middle of a room where 10 other people were running around doing things and yelling and acting start-up like).

There are pros and there are cons to me being let go. I always make pro and con lists when there are landmark moments that I have to deal with. I wish that I had 3 more months inside the job, just to get me that much closer to Jessica leaving for school. Right now I have a decent severance and I've applied for unemployment. Part of me says that painting the bathroom and doing volunteer work at the schools and whatnot, do some websites on the side, and just kind of relaxed over the next few months. And watch a lot of Dr. Drew Celebrity Rehab and RR/RW Challenge Fresh Meat kind of crap shows in my pyjamas every day after taking the kids to school.

But, that said...

I have a job interview tomorrow morning with a job placement/contract agency that does web design placement, and I'm kind of psyched to have an interview this quickly in life... kind of neat, considering the amount of people I know who are flat broke unemployed and screwed. But I'm not getting my hopes up too high. A three month contract would put me into July, just in time to run off with the Shakespeare kids, so that would be very perfect timing wise, and I could go back on unemployment after the contract ends... But like I said, I am not getting my hopes up, I am not getting those hopes up, putting eggs in a basket, or otherwise planning on anything.

I'm not sad that I lost my job, I miss my girls. I think we had a great time together and as a team we got a lot done. I just wish my company had executed a better business plan and didn't crash and burn the way it did. But.... it's so good to know that I have these contacts in life, and maybe something might pan out. Heck, it's how I landed there after running into G at Wendy's....

Anywho. That's what's going on over here. I think I will make a more concerted effort to write more because I am paying for webspace, and I know a lot of you care what's going on.

And now, off to enjoy one of my favorite things about being unemployed -- lunch with a friend!

February at the Way Out Inn

Nothing has changed much in the land of the way out inn for the past couple months. Well, a few things... so that garners an update.

When last we spoke, dear readers, Keri went to Russia for a visit with Anya. The visit went well, there is so much love and stress and hope and fear there, but no resolution to what to do with Anya and how to get her here to the USA. Please continue to keep Keri in your prayers, and especially keep Anya in your prayers because she needs power bigger than government on her side. That's all I can really say on the topic because I'm frustrated and infuriated at how things are going for them, and I do not want to say anything that could potentially upset the metaphorical, proverbial apple cart with my righteous anger.

This past Saturday I went to the eye doctor. I hadn't been for a number of years, since I had my last spate of Migraines and thought I had a brain tumor. Once I turned 43 my vision just totally failed. I can't see to read (which sucks because I love to read). I had to ask a stranger to read something for me, I needed the toll free number off of the back of one of my credit cards and it was too small for me to read, so he read it to me while I dialed. I have spreadsheets at work that I can't read on the printouts -- I have to put them on screen and enlarge them to 150%. Rather than continue to struggle with this, I made the appointment. Turns out, I'm fine, I just need reading glasses at +1.75 and the eye doctor said to just buy them at CVS off the rack. Kind of funny, she could have sold me a pair of $300 glasses that I don't have vision insurance for to cover... but she didn't. So I thought that was classy. My distance vision is still impeccable, but the whole Blindy McBlind Blind Shabadoo situation has been corrected with a pair of $10 stupid looking CVS glasses. Now I just have to remember to bring them places with me, like church. Doug said he's gonna get me one of those chains that old ladies keep their glasses on, with baubles and kitty clips and whatnot. I think he's having fun at my expense.

Gonzo has continued to show some sort of severe lameness in his back leg and then stopped using his front leg on the same side. Two hundred dollars later at the vet and we still don't know what the cause is. He's on pain killers that I give him only when he can't walk at all, which perk him right up. And a little buffered aspirin the rest of the time, which I give reluctantly because blood thinning agents scare me. What if he cuts his paw open on some ice in the yard and bleeds to death? Don't like the idea.

A couple of weeks ago, Jess competed in the local ESU Branch competition for high school Shakespeare. A sonnet and a monologue, 30 students from around Eastern MA, and all told a wonderful afternoon of watching Shakespeare. Keri came to watch as not just Jess but Madeline (another Rebel from Marblehead) had made it to this competition. She brought Zoe, and another set of parents of a younger boy came too, so we had a whole Rebel Corner in the auditorium. Geoff and Doug came, and I was impressed at Geoff's staying power. He really enjoyed it and told me he wants to start practicing for when he's in 9th grade. It made me smile. He loved the kid who did "Bottom's Dream" from midsummer (he got advanced to the next round) and a few others. So it gave this old mom's heart some joy.

Jess and Madeline were eliminated (of the 30 competitors, 10 go on to the regionals of New England) which horribly disappointed me. I thought at least one of them would make it to the next level. Ah well.

But it was fun, and personally I had a blast coordinating the competition for the high school this year and working with two of the English teachers to get it done. Next year I already have a couple kids lined up who want to do it. I'm thinking of approaching the school to start a Shakespeare discussion group/club/something that meets after school so we can get the kids thinking of monologues, watch movies, read scenes, think about characters and motivation. Make it start with the 8th graders so they can come up into the high school ready for this.

There is one kid in tenth grade who is like my new best friend. He emailed me the other day and said "I am dying to see some Shakespeare but my parents aren't interested. Where can we catch some?" So we're going to go see Othello when it starts in Boston in a few weeks. I'm hoping to groom him as a minion. Mwah ha ha ha ha ...

After the competition, Jess was pissed and didn't want to go out to dinner or anything. We came straight home (picked up a pizza on the way) and her mood changed immediately upon getting the mail.

She got accepted to Pitt, her first choice. Now we have to mail them back her acceptance of their acceptance with $300 bucks or something. I want her to wait until she hears from the other schools, but she's already decided that Pitt is It.

Her "meh" attitude towards college from two months ago when we toured schools seems to have abated. She's gung ho about Pitt and ready to go. Which makes the "meh" attitude transfer slightly over towards her school work. In her mind, she knows what she wants to do and being at Pitt instead of being here is top of the list. She completely bombed a midterm, due to miscommunication with her teacher because she just didn't give a rat's ass about it. I told her if I'm paying 30,000 dollars for her to go to school her communications skills and effort are going to have to substantially rise to match the dollar amount. Holy crap.

I'm dreading her leaving though. Already.

Geoff is doing well with things. Middle school seems to be a good place for him. So far, so good. I don't want to jinx him but suffice to say the more time he spends away from his Elementary School the more convinced I am that the past 6 years of his life the problems weren't HIM but THEM. I say this to people at the middle school and they kind of sigh and say "yeah. We get that a lot." How many of you, family and friends, have followed me through the last six years of our lives and know the sheer hell we went through with Geoff. Yeah, some of it was him, and a lot of it I never put down here because I thought that poorly of my child and the things he was doing. Is it just that they know how to diffuse situations easier at the middle school level? Are the rules just different enough that he never breaks them because the elementary school rules were so messed up and wrong that he couldn't HELP but break them?

Or do they just not tell me when he's bad. Which makes me paranoid that they're hiding things from me and thinking they can just handle it internally. Which then makes me worry, and makes me question him and them, and it turns into a big paranoid cycle for me. I constantly check in with his teachers and ask "how is his behavior? What is he doing in class? How does he treat you and others?"

Without fail I'm hearing back that he is respectful, quiet, "intensely serious," (!!!!!) very intent on telling others to sit down and focus, and doing it without being an ass or rude, just saying "we need to get through this work so we can move on." And the kids he's with listen.

And on the flip side, he has learned when to make jokes at appropriate times instead of jumping up in the middle of class or yelling out in the cafeteria. He seems to have figured out a balance of getting work done and keeping people entertained and laughing. So much so that I don't try and shush him or reel him in anymore when I'm with him in a group (he's funny because he steals from Bart Simpson and accuses me of "Momming all over" things when I do that). I let him go and 9 times out of 10 what comes out of his mouth is semi-insightful and really amusing. The other one percent I have to talk to him about, but it is different than a few years ago when that balance was opposite.

We did a food drive this past weekend for our Boy Scout Troop and Geoff was sorting cans with a friend. He tried a joke out on me at home which wasn't bad, and I gave him a recommendation on a change of word or two, and later I heard him do it with the guys.

"I wonder if the hungry residents of the area have email. If they do... we can send them.... (holds it up) SPAM!" Which made his friends fall on the floor laughing. Score!

Later, he was moving a can of baked beans over to the cans of fruit (we sorted everything into sub categories so they could get shelved at the pantry more easily.

His friend Brendan said "Um, Geoff. Beans aren't a fruit."

"Oh no, Brendan. You didn't just say that..." I said, aghast, seeing the grin on Geoff's face... and he launched into "Beans, Beans the magical fruit!" song while Brendan introduced his palm to his forehead.

"I walked right into that one, didn't I?" he said. Everyone was laughing, not just at Geoff's joke but Brendan's reaction. It was fantastic. And Geoff actually knew when to stop singing and keep working. Two years ago I would have had to drag him out of the room and lecture him on shutting up already.

He makes a game out of menial tasks. They had to move all the pasta into large boxes so Geoff started yelling "I'll save you, pasta! Save the pasta! Rescue it!" while picking up boxes and moving them to their new location. All the boys, except for one, were laughing and having a great time. There was one who kept saying "shut up Geoff! Shut UP! I'm trying to COUNT!" so his dad moved him to another spot to work. Geoff wasn't upsetting the program, work was getting done and they were having a blast. So rather than let one kid stifle him and stop the humor, the dad knew to shift his humorless kid to another job. I'm enjoying how he works within the troop and how other kids "get him" there. It's such a relief.

He is working on four big merit badges right now (and has to turn in papers on a fifth). I'm not sure he'll have them all completed by our Court of Honor in two weeks. But he is into it, getting the sheets and picking duties that he can do on his own, asking me to help him with things that he needs help with. He had to talk to a kid from another country and ask what life is like for kids in that country for Citizenship in the World. So I got him connected with a friend of mine from High School who was an exchange student from Denmark and lives there with his family, his oldest son is a few months older than Geoff. He likes to make videos of himself so for Citizenship in the Community he is making a video about our hometown that he is narrating. I'm hoping he has that done by this Saturday so we can show it to his merit badge counselor. It would be nice for him to get five merit badges in one ceremony, but I'll settle for one or two and the rest can come in the late spring.

I got tapped to coordinate Summer Camp registration, and the Bowl-a-Thon in March, and I just did the coordination for Boy Scout Sunday this past weekend, and set up sponsorship of a Blood Drive for late February. I think after summer camp duties I'm done for the year. Whew! Keeps me busy and out of trouble, right?

There isn't really much else to tell. We didn't get any snow from Snowpocalypse 2010. That all stayed south of here and it has been enjoyable watching my friends in Maryland and Virginia on Facebook with their stories unfolding about 36 hours without power and 30 inches of snow and a .50 mile long driveway with too much snow for the snowblower to handle. Kind of nice to sit back with a beer and read that in the evening instead of deal with it myself. I am procrastinating getting ready for work, all for your pleasure and enjoyment. And I hope you did enjoy. More later, I'm sure. How much later? Dunno. but... thanks for reading.

The post Christmas/post college tour report

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you have had a great holiday season and that if you ended up trapped in any of the two Category Four Kill Storms that have reared ugly heads that you have survived. Of course you did ... you're sitting here reading my journal.

We've had a busy December. Jess is about 1/3 of the way through her senior year in high school, and right now we are vetting institutions of higher learning for her giant smart brain and butt to go to. Doug, Jess and I took a trip to look at three colleges during the beginning of December. We looked at Pitt, Syracuse and Buffalo.

Buffalo didn't impress me overall, but if they gave Jess a pantload of financial aid and scholarship money, I'd force her to go there. She likes Pitt. Who wouldn't? They have a 40 plus story tall building called the Cathedral of Knowledge, which Jess has rechristened the Cathedral of Kicking Ass. I liked Syracuse, the feel of the campus from the center where the Saltine Warrior shoots his arrow to the sky out to the little street with the pizza shops and boutiques. And not a Dunkin Donuts in sight... which to me is a selling point because it means the city has not been purchased by Dunks. The architecture is amazing. The facilities perfect. It made me wish for a do-over for my college career.

Both Pitt and Syracuse have friendly faculty whereas Buffalo wouldn't even meet with us. Jess reached out to the freshman advisor and his abrupt "I'm too busy to meet with you" email kind of bothered me. Dude... how about "I'm really sorry I'm unable to meet with you on your visit. I realize you're coming from about eight hours away, so please meet with my colleague Dr. XYZ and I hope you enjoy your visit to Buffalo." Thanks for putting in the effort to wow prospective student families. I would be happy if she went to either Pitt or Syracuse...Syracuse is closer which is good.

But even closer is Umass Amherst, which is also on her list.

We have no money with which to send her to college, I have no idea how she is going to PAY for this, how WE are going to payfor this. She wants to study languages and linguistics, but I don't know that she really is married to the concept of a career in the field. She says she wants to be a translator or interpreter. What does that mean? Will she get a $19,000 a year job in the national parks translating for Germans and Ukrainians when they come to visit? Or is there actual, lucrative dough available for her out in the world. I remember the day that I realized I earned more than both of my parents. Unless she gets a Masters or Doctorate, I'm not sure she'll beat Doug for income, but she very well could beat me considering I don't make very much more now than I did when I made that realization about my income.

Truth be told, I just want her to make a good income where she doesn't drown in debt, like I feel I'm doing now, and part of that will hinge upon how much she ends up having to borrow for college. The schools we are looking at run about 20-30,000 a year. Times four.

That's a bucket of debt. A really big bucket.

I truly wish we'd had the money to plan better for her. She deserves it. She really does.

Highlights of our trip were dinner with Doug's parents and our niece and nephew, and watching how much Elyse loves Jessica, eating at Primanti's in Pittsburgh and the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, seeing my old (long term, not ancient) friend Eva for the second time this year, and meeting her husband and son... those in addition to visiting some mighty fine campuses.

---

We had some Christmas Decorating Malfunctions that make for a fun tale. When we got back from our trip, I wanted to get the Christmas tree immediately. Doug wanted to wait. So there we were on December 19th doing our Christmas shopping and buying our tree.

Sunday we had a Category Four Kill Storm, and didn't get much done that day, so the tree stood outside in the back yard under the awing, getting snowed on.

Monday night we set to getting the job done. Doug set it in the tree stand and we discovered the stupid stand was busted. Repeated attempts to adjust and make do with said tree stand were met with utter failure. It was decided that I would go buy a new Christmas tree stand. The tree went back outside again to wait.

I left work at 6 pm Tuesday and went to seven different stores. No one had Christmas tree stands. I was treated piss poor at both Walmarts when I asked. At Lowes, the kids were friendly and apologetic and made suggestions for where there might be one to be found.

After five stops, I decided to write my own script to a little movie or an episode of "My Name is Earl," to bribe God or Karma with a good deed, and then I'd go into the store and poof!! I'd be rewarded with a brand new awesome Christmas tree stand made of awesome.

I went to the Walmart on Rte 114 in Peabody, the parking lot was PACKED and I let people go in front of me, I was nice even when it was obvious people wanted to kill me and leave me for dead over the railing to the cart return stand. Walking to the front of the building, I had two dollars ready for the kettle.

Here's my chance to bribe Karma... mwaah ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

The Salvation Army bell ringer was looking mighty chilly so I asked him if he wanted a coffee. He thanked me and said yes -- and reached into his pocket to give me cash, I waved him off and asked how he liked it. I went and stood in the stupidest line of stupid people in the Subway within the store. "What can I get on my sandwich?" "Are your mushrooms fresh or canned?" "That's too much onion can you take some off."

Finally, I buy the coffee, get it all filled up for the dude, and take it out to him.

"A ha!" I say to myself. "Lord, I know you will reward your servant here at this particular retail establishment!"

Well, there was not a Christmas tree stand in sight, but there were 20,000 tin containers covered in lead paint filled with carmel popcorn from China. There were several dozen open boxes of lights, strings all pulled out, bulbs missing. Not even good lights, just LED stupid cold dead lights that no one really wants. There were wooden pressboard signs of polar bears and penguins wishing you "Happy Holidays!" when everyone knows they don't live in the same hemisphere and would never ever be seen together like that in public, nor do they even celebrate holidays.

My bribe to the universe did not work. But as I left the store I wasn't disappointed with my hands empty when I walked past the bell ringer and he thanked me with a huge smile and a wave of the coffee cup.

I never did find a tree stand. I borrowed one from a friend who had to buy a second for herself because they bought an 11 ft. tall tree and her base couldn't handle the tree.

We set the tree up with the borrowed tree stand, and went to bed.

6:15 the following morning, I'm up sleeping and Geoff was on the computer. Doug was in the shower, the dogs were outside. CRASH! echoed through the house, and Geoff jumped up, ran downstairs and screamed at the top of his lungs "CHRISTMAS IS RUINED!!!!!!"

The tree fell over.

I came down and the tree was horizontal, across the coffee table and all over the couch. Ornaments were everywhere, some broken, some fine. I sighed, found my boots, walked through the livingroom, got some coffee, and came out to start the cleanup. Geoff helped me (God bless him) and we discovered that it would be a great idea to bungee cord the tree to the shelf behind it and pray that it stayed upright while we were at work and school. (It has... thank God).

We lost about 11 ornaments. Most of them were K-mart specials from the past several years that Doug has picked up along the line. Only one of them "meant" something to me... it was one of the ones my friend Courtney had made.

All told, the tree is still upright, crooked but sturdy. Christmas has come and gone and it will stay here until Geoff's birthday and hopefully not fall again.

Christmas was pretty cool -- really low key for us. Now that the kids are older it lacks a certain magic. In years past, long time readers will recall my efforts to get Geoff to go to bed or leave me alone or me wrapping presents until 1am. This year I was done wrapping by 9pm and in bed at 9:15. I told the kids to stay upstairs until I told them they could come down, and they did. Geoff took a book to his room and Jess waited on the computer. Piece of Cake. Why the last 17 years hasn't been this easy is beyond me.

My parents came up on Wednesday, and they just left a few minutes ago. We didn't do anything special or go anywhere, and that's fine... my mom did a hand-me-down of her Gamecube to Geoff so he's been upstairs locked in and playing his brains out. I'm going to have to reorganize a shelf up there for the ten million games she sent up too. Doug made an amazing rib roast and it was perfect. All told, that was the highlight of the holiday. I like it like this... no stress, no travel... bliss.

Guess that's about it... not much more to report. Like I said -- I hope you all had a good holiday that was equally laid back and happy.

Thanksgiving oh nine

So I think that Facebook wins. I spend all my time there, I never write here, and have lost interest in blogging. But I could not let the month end with one sad, lonely entry. Because that would suck. If this didn't cost me 25 bucks a month to maintain I think I would give up entirely.

I have nothing really interesting to say. Tonight I'm feeling particularly empty and void of interestingness. I'm sick already of the Christmas Creep, where the pre-thanksgiving influx of Christmas ridiculousness made me sick, and today being Black Friday I think of all the meaninglessness of the consumerism of the holiday and it just makes me retreat.

I have a friend who is younger than I am, and he suffered a massive heart attack this week and is in a medically induced coma. I am sitting here in the living room watching TV and all I can think of is how kind he is, and how he beat the crap out of stomach cancer 5 years ago... and how this is heartbreakingly unfair.

What else can I say or add? I'm honestly empty of anything.

Here is the muppet update.

Next week we are going on a college tour with Jess. Right now she just wants to apply to Umass Amherst, and that is it, but we (Doug and I) are requiring her to look at more schools. So we are aiming for University of Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Syracuse. Syracuse is the real long shot, because financially it is stupid expensive. Pitt is the same cost out of state as Umass, so I'm kind of happy about that even though it is so far away. If she can go somewhere as cool as Pitt ... why go to Umass!?

She only wants to apply to Umass, but we know for a fact that the in-state tuition schools are handing out more positions to out of state students because if they can make 30k instead of 20k, they'll take the 30k students, which means the out of state kids. She can probably get into each of the schools she wants, no problem. I'm quite pleased with her SAT scores (1900 out of a possible 2400). I think she can get in anywhere, but have no idea how we're going to afford it.

We'll leave Geoff here with a house/baby sitter. I think everything will go okay. Geoff doesn't want to go with us but I think he is secretly jealous about her future plans. He has latched onto German as his language of choice and only speaks German around the house since we had our house guest and now that he is taking German in the middle school. I love how he likes it, but he needs to bring his math grade up if he is going to progress a grade next year. He got a big fat F this first quarter and he has to bring it up to a C or we're in big trouble. He can't do Shakespeare in the summer because that is when it is summer school, so it really falls on him to take care of bringing that grade up. He got 2 Bs and 2 Cs and a big fat F... so this is reality for him.

We spent Thanksgiving with my college roommate Laurel and her husband Chris, and their kids. Jess is close with Sarah (who was born on my wedding day) and it was a wonderful night. They live near Umass, so ... if Jess ends up out there it'll be good that they are so close.

I dunno. I guess that's about it. I have nothing else really interesting to say as all I can think of is my friend Chris and his family right now. That's about it. I don't know why I am keeping this journal any more. Certainly, it isn't because I'm writing anything of interest.

I hope you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

By the pricking of my thumb...

Welcome to yet another November in the world of the Way Out Inn. Since the last update, Jess has started to apply to colleges, we had an amazing fun fundraiser night for Boy Scouts at a local restaurant, and Halloweeners came to visit. In our old house, we maybe got two or three Halloweeners. This year we had about 50, and it was kind of weird because I actually expected more due to the fact that the local 55+ residence that usually hosts an indoors apartment to apartment trick or treat (which every kid in town goes to) cancelled due to fears over H1N1 Swine Flu.

I work in Salem, so I bailed from my office at about 3:30. For the past few weeks there has been a ferris wheel outside my office building just sitting there... and they weren't running it until 4pm daily. I wanted to ride it when I would have lunch, and was always disappointed that it wasn't running at noon. I came out of my office and there it was... running. So I got my ride. I got some fried dough, and I beat feet out of the city of Salem before all the freaks and knuckleheads could come out. If you aren't familiar with what happens in Salem, it is the hub of the north east for Halloween "fun." It is absolute chaos when it kicks into full gear on Halloween itself.

It was a beautiful Halloween, I love when Halloween falls on a weekend and I don't have to rush home from work and be all spazzed out over trying to get ready in time. I also love it when it isn't stinking freezing out and we can sit out and enjoy ourselves. As usual, Jess went to her friend Lizzy's house. Liz' birthday is Halloween so they always spend the weekend together, and this may be the last time she gets to do it because I don't know where Liz and Jess will be next year.

Geoff doesn't trick-or-treat anymore. He's "too cool" for it. So he played Guitar Hero Metallica all day yesterday. Doug and I set up lawn chairs outside in front and he came out a few times to look at kids in costumes, some his own age and older, and then he went inside. I am not sure why he didn't want to go out. I gave him the option to go down to a friend's house, and he opted not to. So I'm not sure where he is with friends and things. Maybe next year.

My friend Janet, her husband and their two boys came by. Dave took the two boys around the neighborhood and Janet sat with us, relaxing, chatting and having a great time. We had initially planned on putting out the fire pit and chilling at the end of the driveway, but the wind was hellacious and I was afraid that the house would catch fire if we did. So we didn't fire up the cozy.

Jess came home from Liz' very early. She told me to pick her up at 4... but called us at 11 to get her. She went straight to bed. She has had a horrible cold, and I think it is owning her. She asked me if she had a fever or not and she didn't feel hot at all, so I think it is just a cold and not Swine Flu or anything.

I've had a lot of discussions with people about the vaccine and whether or not to get it. We opted against it. All of us are always sicker after the vaccine (yes, I know it is a dead virus in the vaccine, but after we get shots we get sick. Just the way it is, and I hate that). We also discussed the fact that there are 3 million vaccines for 300 million Americans, and that if there are people freaking out that they WANT it, they can just have it. We'll run the risk of getting it.

I know several people who have had actual confirmed cases of the flu, and others who said they had it but never went to get a test at the doctor to confirm that it was THE H1N1 flu. I have friends whose kids have it right now. I have friends who are just coming out of it. Our elementary school attendance has dropped to below 30% but they haven't closed school. I wonder how many parents are keeping their kids home with colds or even if they're NOT sick, just to keep them away from school.

How about you? What are your plans for the super flu that is sweeping the nation? Do you think the media and citizens are overreacting? The people I know who have had the flu say it goes fast, is intense but done. Over. Fini. So I'm thinking that it'll be okay if we get slammed by it. Doug had to get the shot because he works at a hospital, so we'll see how we fare in comparison.

Before I go -- if you live North of Boston and you'd like to buy a Christmas Wreath for your house for the holidays, get in touch with me. Geoff's Boy Scout Troop is selling greenery and I can arrange to take your order, get it to you, the whole nine yards. So drop us a line.

Alright. More later...

HHS is the best -- Blue Devil Marching Band Reunion...

This past weekend I went down to Long Island to participate in the alumni marching band reunion. About 100 alumni members showed up, which is kind of a lame showing considering how many actually still live in or near Huntington. People have their reasons for doing or not doing stuff.

I wasn't going to do it until my friend Eva asked me if I was coming; and then my sister asked me to, because we were never together in band at the same time due to our years apart in age. Both of us were very active in the band, and it meant a lot to each of us. Why not share it together once?

Sure. Why not.

I honestly did not remember a note or word of my high school fight song. I looked at the sheet music last week and just ... drew a blank. A total blank. It wasn't until I heard the high F trill in the flute practice room that it all came back to me. ah yes... and here we go.

My flute was in ill-repair so I had taken it in for a tune up last week. I guess I should have taken it out and tried it before driving to NY... because it still didn't work. I thought it was me until someone handed me a flute that worked, and then I realized my 40 year old Armstrong was most likely total shite... and should be retired. With a loaner flute and a willing heart, I sat in a room with a dozen other flute players from the 70s, 80s and 90s, and we slogged through the fight song and the national anthem.

Over and over.

I won't say it "flooded" back, but eventually I remembered fingerings, I remembered how to get from one register to another. I would play down an octave when I couldn't get the old lips to purse enough to hit the high notes. The percussion section was rehearsing across the hall, and when they'd come to the part in the cadence where we'd whip our instruments up and get ready to play, we rehearsed that and nailed it.

Eventually they pulled all of us into the auditorium, and we ran through the fight song. It sounded like this:

Not too shabby for a pantload of old farts, some of whom had not touched an instrument or played in 20 years. We practiced again and again, sped it up a bit, marked time in place, and broke for the night.

I had the honor of going and hanging out at a very overcrowded bar with a mess of people from band, and some who were there because they knew we'd be there. Old friends, new friends in the form of spouses... we didn't stay out too too late because 8am rehearsal time was going to sneak up on us way too early.

We met at the parking lot of the junior high (now called middle school, which made me sad). When we marched around, it felt natural. Everyone knew their rank, kept in step, and did a spectacular job.

The actual parade was great... turning the corner onto Rte 25a from the parking lot where we'd assembled, there was a huge crowd, and there was cheering. Actual cheering... for us. It was kind of funny. We played the fight song over and over and over. After about 10 times I realized I'd forgotten it on purpose, blocked it out like a horrible memory. Enough of THAT crap! Oy.

We marched up a nasty hill that I honestly do not ever remember marching up before. I think we used to end in the parking lot at the shopping center. Trumpet player Ted said that we most certainly did march up that hill because his father has pictures of us doing it back in the day.

So I think I'd blocked that out, too. I likened it to childbirth. It's awful, painful, hellish; and you deliberately forget how bad it is so you'll be silly and tell your husband "oh sure, yeah ... let's have another baby!" And then there you are back in the labor and delivery room saying "OMFG!!!! I remember NOW how bad this HURTS!" Actually, I can honestly say that even for a hugely overweight fat old lady I had no problem with the hill. It wasn't until 2 days later that I felt it...

The arrival at the high school was joyous. Our band director said "one more time and it's your last time!" on the fight song... so we played it loud and proud, finished with the final measures of the drum cadence and stopped. Everyone cheered... it was fantastic.

We played the national anthem at the football game with the high school band. Our band actually was better and more prepared than the High School band. But we sounded okay together and video evidence that people posted to Facebook shows that we were indeed spot on and did a great job. I sat with my sister and our friends Mike, Eva, Dan and his wife Meg, a girl named Chrissy who I didn't recall from back in the day but she knew me. (Crap I'm bad with memory on some things...) The rain was holding off, the forecast was that we'd get our asses kicked but that didn't come to pass. The cocoa was "special" and warm and wonderful, and we played along with the marching band the best we could with their silly interstitial musical pieces. We were good at "Let's Go Band" (which I remembered from Geoff playing a few years ago and I relearned that with him), and we had our section laughing at us as we cheered for the Blue and White.

Linda and I left after halftime and went home for a disco nap. We had a dinner to go to with the alumni, and wouldn't have made it through the evening without a nap. Again, feeling way too old. Dinner was decent, the bar was good, and the companionship was fun. We all tore the place up, laughing and sharing and watching Dan's teeth and lips turn purple slowly from the amount of cabernet he was enjoying. After dinner, we went to a martini bar in town that wasn't my scene at all, but found a dark corner where most of us fit. We drank more, laughed louder than we should, hugged people, laughed more and did the "dirty stay out" until 2am. We shut the bar. I've never done that before. Never shut down a bar. We all enjoyed some pizza. 2am NY pizza is the best. There is honestly NOTHING like it. And we tried two more bars but decided the scene wasn't what we wanted so we went our separate ways at about 3am.

My sister and I drove home to her house, the rain started, and we were happy to get home after laughing out asses off because we sang song parodies to Kings of Leon and Black Eyed Peas about how we were going to go get some sleepies.

I took the ferry home in a wild nor'easter and had wicked vertigo all day today because of it. But, it beat driving home in the snow and rain. The photos are here, if you want to see them all. I keep looking at them and smiling. I love my friend Mike, and he looks so handsome and happy. My sister is adorable. My boy Herbie was owning the Drums... Eva was just an amazing laugh the whole time... the ridiculousness that was coming out of our mouths as we snarked around town. It was so nice to see our band director. She taught us all so much, and 25 years later, we still "had it.." thanks to her groundwork years ago.

It was an honor to go out and play that stupid song a million times over and over. I'm glad I went. And I'd do it again. I am almost inclined to go get a good, decent flute... and actually take up playing again. We shall see. We shall see...

---

Now, there is talk of a choir reunion in Bowling Green where our choir director lives. He can't travel to us, so people are starting to build up an event for March '10 for us to go do... Eva and my sister want me to go ...

The Canoeing Merit Badge Story - "Awww, my life totally sucks."

On Wednesday, we had an interesting Geoff experience. 

When he went to summer camp, he did three merit badges and didn't complete them. On his canoeing badge, he had one requirement left, so we made arrangements to meet with a merit badge counselor (who happens to go to our church) and get this puppy put away. Geoff was stoked, he couldn't wait to go... and we got down to the waterfront and he and Steve got the canoe out and brought it to the water.

The docks and floats were pulled up onto the beach as they were getting ready for the winter. Steve was there before us and had planted the canoe next to one of the floats closest to the water.

Because he hadn't worked with Geoff on the badge to that point he asked him some "refresher" questions about safety, paddling styles, all requirements that Geoff had completed over the summer... but Steve needed to know before headed out to the water with him that Geoff knew his stuff. 

Satisfied, he had Geoff walk to the back of the canoe (remember the canoe is half in the water and half on sand) and instructed him to turn around and sit. Geoff did that. And the second he sat down, the canoe flipped over on its side. 

Geoff, in the water end of the canoe, went into said water. It was kind of like a slow motion train wreck. I saw it happening, and both Steve and I stood there and watched. The water was about thigh deep at this spot, so he was submerged. Soaked. Head to toe. 

He got out and said the above quote about his life sucking. 

Steve said in a very calm and matter of fact way, "that's one way to look at it. It's your choice whether or not you'd like to try it again. It's up to you. We can finish this today, or come back in the spring. Whatever you choose, I'm happy to help you."

Geoff looked at Steve and said he'd like to try again. I could see that the wind was out of his sails though, as he got back into the canoe and Steve pushed them off. His paddling was weak, gentle, reserved. Steve encouraged him to put some more muscle into it but I could tell that Geoff just wasn't loving it as much as he had been the minute he got there. 

The requirement he needed to do was to basically paddle out 50 yards, go around 2 buoys in a figure 8 and come back to shore. Steve taught him some paddling techniques that he didn't know, and they went and did their figure 8. I could hear Steve asking him if he was comfortable what with being soaking wet and all. Geoff swims in weather like this (it was in the upper 50s, and I'm sure the water was really cold) so he wasn't freaking out about being cold. He wasn't shivering or teeth chattering, so he was fine. 

In the end, he achieved what he needed to, and got signed off on that last of the ten requirements for the merit badge. 

On top of that, he didn't lose his cool and flip the mother effing hell out the way I kind of thought he might, the way he usually does. I was really relieved. 

Part of his success in this was the fact that neither Steve nor I reacted strongly to the spill. We kept our cool. Had he done it in front of 10 other Boy Scouts, I think he would have stormed off and quit. 

I know that was embarrassing for him... Steve said that it would have been embarrassing for him as a 56 year old man. He was impressed with how Geoff regrouped and got the job done. 

My biggest hope is that he can maintain that kind of skill, or come to the point where he can laugh at himself and just continue with a crowd around him who might be laughing at him and turn it into a crowd laughing with him. 

We'll see.

But, I'm proud of him -- he did a great job and that's fantastic. Whew.

Das Wereweinerhundgeisterhaus!

"Ich lebt in einem wereweinerhundgeisterhaus mit einer vogelscheuche und einem hexenmeister."
I live in a were-weinerdog ghost house with a scarecrow and a warlock.
-Doug, at dinner, speaking his own very special brand of German

I took today off because I am beat. Exhausted. And feeling that "I'm going to throw up or pass out" kind of feeling. So being home, curled up with many dogs and the Steelers Fleece is the best place to be. I updated the Boy Scout Troop website (we have a huge fundraiser coming up at the end of October) and before I slip off into sleepies I thought I ought to write an update.

Our exchange student is spectacular.

I took the day off on Friday to clean house and have decided I want a cleaning lady. Yikes. But I digress. Jess and I picked her up on Friday evening, and brought her home where Doug had just arrived and where Geoff was waiting for us. We decided to go out to eat. The girl she is actually doing her exchange with (Raina) came with us (long story, Raina couldn't host her at all, so a 2nd family was asked to host her and then they backed out... if you read my last entry, that's how we ended up hosting. It wasn't Raina's fault at all, and she feels horrible about the whole situation, but we're not mad at her or anything. She's a gem and we love her).

We had a lot of fun and unlike 2 years ago when Jess didn't talk much in German and our exchange student was shy, the languages were flying. Raina and Jess were speaking German. Melanie was speaking English, and Geoff was speaking some crazy Geoff language of Spanish, German and English as he so desperately tried to fit in. It was entertaining and sad at the same time. I had to pull him aside and ask him to scale it back, not compete, and just be himself. He had decided since she was from Germany she wouldn't know any English so he had better at least pretend to speak her language. I understood his efforts, and thought them very kind. He's figured out she speaks perfectly good English, and has finally calmed down. Doug and I spoke "Denglish" as Raina calls it.... English mixed with some Deutsch words. Lots of laughs were flying.

We kept Melanie awake until 9pm when she finally collapsed into bed.

Saturday afternoon we went out to Salisbury Beach. The dogs needed a good run, and swim, and she wanted to see the ocean from somewhere other than a plane. She's been to places like Spain and whatnot but wanted to see our ocean. So we threw sticks and looked at Newburyport and watched a ton of people with their horses and I took more pictures of strangers and horses than I've ever taken in my life. They were so pretty on the beach.

Funny, the last time we were up at Salisbury Beach with a German Exchange student we saw exactly the same thing... now that I think of it. All the photos are here, if you'd like to see.

Saturday night Jess and I went to a Bat Mitzvah party and Melanie spent the evening with Raina's family. I think Melanie would have enjoyed the Bat Mitzvah party because they played all of her favorite music and there were Rebels there who would have embraced her. I know the mom of the Bat Mitzvah gal would have welcomed her to the party no problem... but I didn't want to overwhelm her with 10,000 new strangers after being here for less than 24 hours. Upon reflection, I think she would have done just fine, splendid, wonderfully. Ah well. I took a million pictures of Rebels and others with glow stick necklaces and chaos... the photos are here if you want to see. A couple particularly nice ones are there of our Jess.

Sunday we took her to our church, and it was a special and different service. Our pastor dresses up as one of the most famous of the Great Awakening church fathers and he does a truncated version of one of his 3 hour sermons. I'm sure it was impossible for her to follow because I was lost and confused... but Rob (our pastor) was all dressed up with the wig and everything so a good time was had by all.

Afterwards, we toured the church from top to bottom, and she got to enjoy the view from the steeple. It was a very nice time.

The work week started and our German Guest went to the high school for the first time -- she said that she had a great time, and that everyone was really friendly. We watched "House" in English and she liked it. She didn't know Hugh Laurie was that guy... yeah. That guy. I was happy to finally see the season premiere, which I hadn't had a chance to catch yet. In fact, now that I think of it I missed the last two episodes of last season, so ... hmmm. Gotta go back and dig into some Hulu or Fox online and catch up.

Melanie has a great sense of humor. The other night we were watching a news report about the German elections, and they kept showing footage of revelers at München's Hofbrauhäus and I said "Look at all these stereotypes! Look how the American media portrays Germans!!! Like a bunch of drunken jerks!" She responded "Oh but that IS how Germans are all the time!" Which I thought was adorable. Monday night we sat around the dining table while Doug looked up words in Google Translator and tried to say them, and it made her laugh so hard. She would correct him, he'd try and say it... and so on and so on, much to our great amusement. At one point he was yelling about Bird Poop and Scarecrows (vogelscheuche) because his "scheuche" was coming out like Scheiße (oh I do love the German double S thingie!). I told her basically I would put money on the fact there wasn't another family in our school district with an exchange student at their house from Germany sitting around the dining table talking about wereweinerhundgeister and vogelscheuche. Guaranteed.

This weekend, the girls are off to NYC in an adventurous trip with Germans and American's mixing it up. Two 2 years ago when The Germans were here, you'll recall that on the same NYC weekend we went to someone's wedding with our German exchange student (GES, remember me calling her that for short? lol). And then we spent two days enjoying Manhattan, which you can read about here and here, if you are so bored at work you can't think of anything else to do.

Melanie is with us through the 15th, when we put her on an airplane and send her away. I already feel like I'll miss her. Three weeks is such a short time. Wow. But ... today she is in Boston doing the Museum of Science. Then to NYC with my daughter. Then they'll have a couple field trips during the week, including one to the town where I work and I may try and see them for a few minutes while they are there. I also think I will take her to the second annual Salem Zombie Walk, which takes place on October 10th (she said it sounds like fun, and I think she honestly means it). We may go with Pastor Rob out on his boat out to see whales on the 10th too, if that works out. Not sure yet... Have to wait and see.

Doug's parents are coming up to nearby Manchester NH for some sort of convention for some glass stuff that they're into. So we'll have a visit with them in late October... I wish they were actually coming to visit while Melanie is here.

Anyway, I so desperately need a nap right now. This has taken me longer to write than I thought because I got two phone calls and a house guest in the middle of it. I'm sure there will be more adventures coming up soon.