Family Reunion

Last weekend I went to Painter, Virginia for a 75^th birthday party/family reunion. The party was for my grandmother’s cousin. Painter is on the Eastern Shore of Virginia for anyone who has never heard of it, which I am pretty sure, would be just about everyone. The party was at one of the honoree’s daughter’s houses which is on a creek-which my husband, who is from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, informed me is actually called a “gut”. Whatever that is.

The weather was horrendous and we drove the entire four hours in rain which varied from mist to absolute downpour. Thankfully they had planned ahead and got a large tent for the party, just in case. The weather unfortunately ruined plans for boat rides and most of the outdoor games. Even when it was not raining, just about the only people brave enough to venture from under the tents were the children. Who were all wet and muddy and I am glad the party was not at my house! But this is why I have decided to not have large parties ever again!

So it may seem odd that I would travel all that way for a party for my grandmother’s cousin. My husband was rather unclear on why we were going down there. Actually, when I was growing up, I was rather close with one of my (third) cousins from this extended part of the family. Her name is Tisha. So it was all very cute, Tisha and Tricia.

Tisha is two years younger than I am and we wrote to each other all through high school. I had a few other pen pals, including my cousin who had been tragically moved away to Florida when we were 9 and 7 and some people who I got as pen pals by putting an ad in a magazine, but that’s a different story. The night before we went to Virginia, I tried to remember when Tisha and I had stopped writing. I know that I wrote less to my pen pals once I went to college, but I always kept Sue, one of the magazine pals who had become one of my best friends in the world; and I always wrote to Stacy, my other cousin-except when we were fighting. But I have no idea when Tisha and I stopped writing. I don’t know if it happened when she went to college or when I went to college.

But, since we are cousins, we are now all caught up. It seemed very strange to me that I had not seen or spoken to her in almost 20 years, and as soon as I got there, we looked at each other and both said “you haven’t changed at all”. I was very afraid I wouldn’t recognize her-people I went to high school with and saw every day for 4 years I don’t recognize. In the grand scheme of things, I didn’t ever see Tisha that much-but there she was and I knew it was her. She is married and has three sons. She only lives about two hours from me, according to her, although I have mapquested it and they disagree. (And yes, I think I just invented a word.)

Overall it was a very nice trip and I am happy we went. Tisha’s oldest sons and Brandon played all day long, badminton, in the rain, and were bummed that they aren’t able to just stop by and play video games. We stayed in a hotel close by and went back Sunday morning for breakfast. We traveled a long way to visit and they wanted to visit with us as much as we could.

Hopefully, we will be able to get back in touch and not have 20 years between the next time we see each other.

Well, it is getting late so I better go get some sleep. I don’t want to wind up catching whatever my husband has; apparently it is a terrible illness. ;->

Men are Babies

Why are men such babies when they are sick? My husband has cold symptoms. You would think he is dying. This started last night, he was complaining about it. So today it is worse. Don't get me wrong, I am not denying that he has these symptoms, but it's a cold. So he has to go get some Nyquil, also fine. But then he decides he has to take it at 7:00. So while my kids' music teacher is still here, he goes upstairs and falls asleep. When I send Brandon in to say goodnight, apparently it is too much trouble to say goodnight to him. Brandon comes back and tells me "daddy wouldn't even give me a hug." I can assure you that I have never been that sick, nor do I think he is. I am just annoyed because now Brandon is going to be extra miserable in the morning and I am the one who gets to deal with it!

There...it's done

I knew the link for Viv Pickle. I didn't know how to edit the links, that was the issue. So, I had my husband help me with that and now I know how to edit links. So, there is a link to Viv Pickle, and to my other blog.

Making me learn how to do stuff when I have to go back to work in five days. **sulking**

WHERE ARE MY PICTURES???

This site drives me crazy!!!!! Yay...there they are.

Best Birthday Present Ever

I was supposed to do this...I forgot. Actually, I am trying to change to my other blog but I haven't figured stuff out on there yet. At any rate.

My friend Beth, who is the awesome-est friend ever (ask her other friends too, they'll agree) gave me the best birthday present ever last week. My husband is even upset about it because "that's the most thoughtful thing he has ever heard of." Requires some backstory:

Beth and I became friends in 9th grade because we had Latin class together. At some point that year or the following, my memory sucks, ask her, we became best friends because of our mutual love of all things Duran Duran. As was required of all Duran Duran friendships, her favorite was Simon and mine was John. You couldn't be best friends with someone who had the same favorite, of course. All Duranies know this. In 10th grade (1985) we even went to England with the school trip.

For my birthday, Beth had a personalized purse made for me with the Duran Duran theme. If I could figure out how to edit the links-I have read the directions and I do NOT find the code it says I will see to edit links- I would post the link to the Viv Pickle site where you can find out for yourself about how to get your own personalized purses. But I can't figure it out because I am fairly computer illiterate and I just don't care all that much about it. But not only did she come up with this idea to have the purse made, she sacrificed her own concert t-shirt and a scarf that she bought on the trip to England so that I could have this purse. The t-shirt was from the time when Roger Taylor was not in the band and since I also love him, she gave up the scarf so there would be a picture of him.

Now, I ask, how cool is that? And since Beth is the only one who reads this blog and comments on it, you can now comment about how cool and wonderful you are! So here are the pictures, as promised, outside, the inside flap and the inside lining. Feel free to tell whoever you want to see them to check them out.

Pictures from the Flameworking

It's really hard to take pictures of glass. Without a flash you can't see anything, but the flash reflects off the glass. Go figure. The coolest thing I made was this chain. I have to work on the other picture.

Flameworking

So I signed up for a three day course in flameworking because when I see people doing it I think "that looks cool". Yesterday was day one. It is freaking hard! The booklet said "beginner to intermediate" and when I called I said "so, if I have never done this before, this is ok?" and they said yes. Naturally, there are no other beginners in the class. AND one woman in there has beads in the same book that the instructor has items in. Does she belong in a beginner class? I think not. But that's another story.

The course is at Salem Community College the instructor's name is Sally Prasch. She is amazing. Very nice and helpful. She is just a guest instructor there sometimes.

She decided to start out with the hard stuff first because then the easier stuff is really easy. We received borosilicate tubes, which is hard glass which we were supposed to pull points onto the ends of and make into clear beads. Uh-huh...that didn't happen. My very first attempt I was not turning my hands the same direction so I have a very cool twisty thingie, very cool, not what we were supposed to do. So that was eventually turned into a hanging ornament.

Next, we were supposed to make some little vases and put color on them. I somehow blew the wrong end up. However, with some help, I did manage to get a vase, with color on it. It's got a rather interesting shape to it. All in all from the attempts at hollow beads I have three hanging ornament things...and the vase.

The she showed us how to do some stuff with solid tubing. That seemed a little easier. Since the class was from 8 am to 5 pm, at some point or another I gave up on the hollow beads and such and decided to make a chain out of the solid tubing. When I left last night I had two links completed and the loop started to join the links onto.

So today Sally started by showing us how to make beads with soft glass. The so-called "easy stuff" I heard about yesterday. Yeah, not so much. The problem is that the hard glass you can pretty much not know what you are doing and things turn out ok. Stop working with it, go back to it, no problem. So, there I am, working on my nice soft glass bead, it's looking pretty good and then pop it explodes. Super. You have to keep it hot the whole time. Good to know. So I try again. There is a fine line in the keeping it hot. My next attempt I kept hot, and my lovely color decorations melted right into it. I think I may have gotten it and I may have made three decent beads. I'll see tomorrow when I go back and get them from the oven. But I decided, all in all, soft glass is a pain in the ass.

I went back to the chain. Sally helped me join the two links. It's hard to do because you can only get the one you want to bend hot or else you won't have linked chains, you'll have joined, which is not what I wanted. So then I made two links all on my own, got them linked together with a tiny bit of help and it went really great. So I had two chains of three and I linked them together with another link totally by myself. Then we had a break for dinner. I was going to add three more links but horrible stuff was happening! It was like had no idea what I was doing. I was terribly upset because I had done three really quickly! One of them was all kinds of deformed. I decided it was late and I had had enough of that.

Finally, yesterday and again this morning, Sally showed us how to make "end of the day pendants" using all the scaps you have left over. So I made two of those. It's sort of hard to tell for sure what they'll look like because the color does weird stuff and doesn't show so much until after it's fired. They both looked pretty good though.

So tomorrow it's only from 9-3, which should go fast since I was there 9-8 today and I could not believe it when it was 8! If my pendants look good I think I will stick with that. Give everyone pendants for Christmas! ;->

Thirteen

This is a picture of my daughter on her 13th birthday. You can tell she is extremely shy!

Dentists

I hate the dentist. I had to get a tooth filled today. My mouth is killing me! I do not understand why anyone ever decides they want to be a dentist. The whole thing is gross and no one likes it.

I think being a teacher is bad enough, no one wants to be there either! But at least there are always a couple of kids who like it enough to make it worth something!

My missing post has appeared. I actually read the troubleshooting and figured out how to fix it. Yay me.

Hmmm

What the hell happened to my last post??

13th Birthday

Alyssa is officially 13. We had a very interesting day yesterday, her birthday. While talking to my son's friend's mother, my call waiting clicks and I see Alyssa's biological mother's maiden name on my call ID. So I tell the woman I am talking to, whose children are also adopted "Oh my god, the kids' mom is calling." She replies "Oh, I'll let you go." "Uh, no...we don't talk to her!" So I didn't answer. Then I was telling Rob about it and speculating that perhaps she has no access to a computer right now because she has left her husband (third one) and if she's with her parents maybe they don't have one. She always sends the kids emails on their birthdays and maybe she called because she can't email. To which my (sucker) husband replies "well, that makes me feel bad."

In the meantime, Alyssa is helping me get ready for her friends to come over and I told her Cara called and I didn't answer and asked her how she feels about Cara calling. I have no idea how I would feel if my mother abandonded me when I was 3 1/2 and I haven't spoken to her since and now I am 13. She said she didn't know. I asked her if she wanted to talk to her if she called back. She said she didn't think so. I told her she did not have to and it was totally up to her but I was sure she was calling to say happy birthday.

Obviously she called back, otherwise, I wouldn't be bothering with this. After some of Alyssa's friends were here, they were on their way out to the pool and she called back. She said "since it was a big birthday, she wanted to call. She wasn't sure if that was ok or not." I asked Alyssa again if she wanted to talk to her, told her it was up to her, she didn't have too; she took the phone. I could tell she was really uncomfortable. The dog was barking because the girls were standing at the door so Cara tried to talk to her about pets. Aly was freaked out I think.

So that was the first event of the day. We were not officially having a party because that stresses me out too much. I cannot handle the kids birthday parties. Too many people here, in my stuff, hate it. So it was just Alyssa's friends K & Z (from the Kelly Clarkson concert), my niece who is 11 and her friend from school. My sister-in-law came with her whole family to bring my niece here. Her husband and 3 sons hung out with my husband. Brandon went to his friend's house after karate. My mom and step-dad, step-brother and his wife came over for cake.

After cake we went to see "John Tucker Must Die". I was absolutely dreading it. It was surprsingly not terrible. There were some really funny things in it, I don't think the girls got it but Bet and I were cracking up. In some ways I guess it's good to go into a movie expecting nothing. Can't be disappointed that way. I was reminded why we never see movies in theatres though. All told it cost me $89.50 for seven tickets, a large popcorn, five drinks and two kinds of candy.

We get in the car and Aly informs me that her money fell out of her purse. She had put her birthday money in her purse. Needless to say this is after she has been told you don't carry all your money around for no reason at all. She "forgot" how much money she put in there. We went back in to look for it but, of course, it was not there. I got her to admit later that it was all of it, she lost $160. Thankfully, she had gotten some checks and those she had given to me so she didn't lose everything. That's a way to ruin your birthday.

We came home and my aunt was here. She called in the morning and wanted to come over. I tried very hard to prevent her from coming but she was determined so I think there was no way around it. She came much earlier than she was supposed to and by the time I got here Rob was totally stressed out because the boys (my jail bird cousin's kids) were running rampant and the younger one had broken something of my son's. My brother-in-law was totally trashed and shirtless. He had tried one of my aunt's meatballs, shoved it in whole, had sauce all over his face and then wiped it on his shirt. My brother-in-law is a piece of work.

After about 15 minutes here, with the lost money, my husband flipping out, the boys running around, I decided I needed to start drinking too!

Before they left the older of the two boys pitched a fit. All in all that visit was a nightmare. That's a whole other issue I have to deal with now. I don't want them coming over if they are going to run wild through my house. And I know my aunt is going to let them run wild.

As far as the rest of the party. The girls swam for a while, ate and hung out. Aly was disappointed because K was supposed to spend the night and like she always does, she changed her mind. Z never called her mom when I told her to. Her mom just showed up around 9:45-just after I said "Did you call your mom!?" After my s-i-l and her family left and we got cleaned up it was almost midnight.

So, it's a good thing I didn't have an actual party. Since I wanted to avoid the strees and the late night after cleaning up the mess. Tomorrow we get to do it all again for Brandon's birthday. Yay.

Things I Don't Need to Know About

I was pretty sure I could get through my entire life not knowing that if one is arrested and not bailed out quickly enough one gets sent to county. Also, one can only call a number so many times before needing to call someone different. But because I have a cousin who no one understands, I now know these things.

My children have directions not to answer the telephone unless they recognize the number on the caller ID. My parents did not have this luxury. Neither do I, because my children do not follow this rule, especially my son. So yesterday he answers a call which is a collect call from my cousin. Now, I know she has a cell phone so I cannot, in good conscience, not take the call, obviously something is wrong. She's in jail. She is such a dumbass. Unpaid traffic fines and outstanding warrants.

She did not call her mother, we guess because her mother told her last week she had had enough and was "done with her". Believe me, she knows damn well her mother would not leave her sitting in jail, but whatever. She made her choice and called her loser boyfriend instead. Maybe if she had started with mom she would have gotten her out in time and she wouldn't have spent the night there.

So, I got to be the one to tell my aunt. Very tactfully I might add, "Um, yeah, did you know your daughter is in jail?" I sort of assumed she knew, otherwise I'd have at least told her to leave Boscov's and sit in her car so she wouldn't have to break down in the store. She called me this morning on her way to try to go get her, but she hasn't called me again. I assume she got her.

Aren't families fun?

Whoa, it is seriously hot

I like summer. Partially because I am a teacher and I have off. But I also despise being cold-so I like summer and generally do not care about the heat. However, 97, feels like 105 is even too much for me. I actually went in the pool yesterday. In addition to not liking cold, I don't like to be wet (yes, I take showers) so for me to go in the pool, it's hot.

Yet for some reason, I am going to go to the boardwalk tonight with my cousin. We'll see how that goes. Mainly I want to see if she has any explanation into her "issue" with not getting a medical procedure done. That is her thing, and she has her own blog about it on MySpace so I am not going to detail it. But when I was in Florida with our other cousin and she bailed out of getting the procedure, again, the two of us were completely baffled. She makes no sense.

Oh well.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the NJ DMV and my pleasant surprise today. I had to get my license renewed and I was dreading it because we have this new 6 point identification thing in NJ and every woman I know who has gone to get their license renewed since it started has had a problem with the marriage certificate. The DMV tells them they can't accept "that one" because "it's the pretty one they give you at the church" they need the official one from city hall or whatever. So, they have to go to city hall and get another copy, with a seal. Fun.

Well, I was married in Barbados. So, I was worried, because if they don't like it, it's kinda too bad. I can't just run over and pick up a new one! The girl kinds rubbed her fingers over the one spot to check that it was an actual raised seal, which it was, and that was that. The woman who took my picture and all looked at it and laughed because it has my status as "spinster". Yeah, I was thrilled with that at the ripe old age of 25. My husband's status was "bachelor". So anyway, in addition to not having any issue with my documents, I was out of there in 15 minutes!! Unbelievable! And my picture is not that bad. So, all in all, a good day at the DMV.

Air Travel

I have not flown for two years. Two years ago I went to Miami by myself to see my cousin and her best friend. It was a girl's trip. Sole purpose of which was lay by the pool, drink and go out dancing. I don't recall the flying part sucking royally. But this trip to Orlando was horrible.

First of all, taking your shoes off is just stupid. So there everyone is, with their kids and bags and everything else and no one has shoes on and the line is backed up because everyone is trying to get their shoes and their kids shoes back on and get their stuff. It's just ridiculous. I have no interest in blowing up anyone or anything, but I firmly believe that if someone does, they are going to find a way, even if they have to take their shoes off.

I flew on Southwest because they had a good deal, $59 each way-bargain. My aunt has flown here from Florida tons of times on Southwest and my uncle has come here from Nebraska. My aunt was the one who told me about the special. They are great. Um, yeah, so we get there and find out there are no seat assignments. You get on and sit where you want. The flight was delayed for over an hour. I forget why now, weather probably. Thunderstorms, it is summer after all. When we finally board the plane there are 38 people already on board (they told us this-I didn't count) so naturally, even though we are in the "A" group, can my family sit together? No, of course not. So we stick the kids with a girl who looked their age and we sat two seats away with a woman who was sitting alone. God knows what my kids were doing during that flight. No doubt annoying the people in front of and behind them.

The flight was generally horrendous. Loads of turbulence. We dropped several times. That's great. Once I was in the bathroom. They knocked on the door to check on me. There's a little light in there that tells you to go back to your seat. Well, sorry, can't do that right this second. When I came out they asked me if I was ok. Said I had nerves of steel. It was a lot of turbulence.

The flight home was equally wonderful. I forgot to get our boarding passes the night before so we were in the "B" group for boarding. We left to allow two hours to drive from Vero Beach, where my cousin lives, to Orlando. It's usually an hour and 45 minute drive. Our flight was supposed to leave at 4:50. We were there at 3. A little earlier than the recommended hour and a half they want you to sit there and do nothing, not too terrible. We are checking our bags and the guy says "it's still showing on time but there is weather here and weather there so it is going to be delayed". Yeah, imagine that, there is weather. **sigh** Yes, there are thunderstorms in Philadelphia and Orlando in July. After about 15 minutes of sitting at the gate we are informed that the flight is delayed until 6:45. Great. Almost 4 hours in an airport with an 11 and 12 year old. Fun. There was "weather" and an air traffic control problem. Ok, well, who scheduled all those flights for the same air space??

The people at the gate tried to blame Philly. The exact quote was "If a leaf falls on their runway, they shut down." Interesting. I've had far more problems leaving Orlando than I have had with Philly. That "weather" and all. And I once sat 14 hours in the Atlantic City airport. (then my kids were 4 and 5-imagine the fun that was)

Anyway, they tried to make everyone feel better by changing the time to 6:00. Moved another flight that was supposed to leave at 6 from the gate, which caused everyone to line up. Bad enough I was a "B". I wasn't going to be last in the line for "B". And then we stood there and no one boarded the plane until about 6:15. We did find three seats together so my kids didn't have to sit alone this time. We took off at about 6:50. Yeah, 6:00 my ass. That flight was also generally terrible. Lots of turbulence. We got home hours after we were supposed to. Then the storms actually hit so we drove home in terrible rain, flooded roads. Overall a wonderful evening.

I guess the moral here is not to go to Florida in July. Actually, I guess it's don't go anywhere in July. The thunderstorms are going to cause problems and your air travel is going to suck all the way around.

Then again, since I am a teacher, I have no option but to go places in the summer. See, and everyone thinks it's so great being a teacher.

Vacations

Why is it that we need a vacation from vacations? Bleh! I am home now and so far today I have unpacked, put away clean things, sorted laundry, have laundry in the washer and dryer, three more loads (at least) to go; it took me almost an hour just to clear out the mail from the week. My house is a mess since my husband came home four days before the rest of us and did nothing around the house. Why would he? Whole other issue anyway. I have had enough working today.

Oh! And for some reason I have a whole circuit that is blown. The refrigerator in the garage is on it and who knows how long it's been blown? I had to clean out the fridge and throw a bunch of stuff away. No idea what the problem is. Every bathroom outlet in the house is on that circuit so I couldn't dry my hair this morning. Who puts the outdoor outlets, garage and all bathrooms on the same circuit? What is that!? That is going to have to be husband's job. Gotta draw a line somewhere.

Surprise, surprise

I am as good at this as I am at writing in a diary. I think about it and don't do it.

Not much going on. Getting ready to go on vacation. Took my daughter on the spur of the moment to see Kelly Clarkson last night. It was ok. Not my thing but since she went to Depeche Mode with me when all my friends were scarce, I figure I have to repay. I got to sit with my friends who actually had seats. Aly got to bring two friends and sit on the lawn. Aly's first concert was two summers ago when she saw Hilary Duff with one of the girls who went last night. I won't put other people's kids names so we'll call her "Z". Z is the daughter of a friend of one of my friends who I went to the show with.

Following this?

When the whole thing came about, Aly had a friend over, we'll call her "K". So I invited her as well since I sort of felt bad like "Hey, I know you're over here hanging out but something cooler has come up so you gotta leave". So her mom has never been to a concert!!! I cannot fathom such a thing. But she said ok. Her dad then said "you're going to let her sit on the lawn with all the pot smokers?" At Kelly Clarkson? Whatever! The girls said there were some drunk people up there and they were second hand smoking. I figure as long as they are telling us this stuff, we are safe. It's when they stop telling us that it's a problem.

Digression.

So anyway...Aly and Z had a grand old time because they are loud and obnoxious. I forgot to mention that K and Z are in the same Girl Scout troop so no one was a stranger in this group. K decided that she is not a concert person so this will probably be her first and only concert. She sat on the blanket in the grass and thought Aly and Z were crazy, singing at the tops of their lungs and dancing around-which they sort of are! But that's how you are supposed to act at a concert!

So that was last night. Monday I went to the beach with my new friend Heather. Funny how at this stage in my life my closest friends (besides my husband) are my "pledge mom" from my sorority (who I am a month older than) five girls from high school and my new friend Heather-who I would not know except for one of the high school friends. She had off and since I have off all summer she thought maybe she finally has someone to go to the beach with. I was so happy! No one ever asks me to do stuff!! So now we are both happy because we have a beach friend.

Update on my assistant...her husband is still out. But she is going to Florida now. I told her I thought that was better for her and her son. Show the husband that life will move on without him. So I'll see her tomorrow when we get down there. We were going to go to Islands of Adventure but I guess her son decided he didn't want to go there again so we'll just be staying with them and not hanging out. Her birthday is Friday so I think I'll get some "beverages" to celebrate.

Definitely won't be posting during my vacation. I have decided to leave the lap top home. It is an experiment! Ever since I have had a lap top it goes everywhere. I waste entirely too much time on here! So, I will hang out with my cousin and probably drink way too much instead. Maybe I'll actually take some pictures and post them when we return.

What do you say?

My friend called me earlier to tell me her husband left. Just went to work yesterday morning and didn't come home. She called him at work to ask him what time he'd be home for dinner and he informed her he was not coming home! No warning, just left. They've been married for 20 years! I offered to go visit so she could talk, she said no. I have no idea what else to say or do. They have a 14 year old son and they lost their daughter, who was 18, last January. I feel the same way I felt then, I want to do something to help her somehow, but there is nothing I can do.

I am going to visit my friend tomorrow in Washington DC. She had a baby in May, I want to go see them both. She went through a lot to have this baby, everyone was really excited for her. We were all shocked when she wrote to tell us she had her and she has Down's Syndrome. I think I would freak out, but she has been really calm about it. Hopefully it won't pour all day long! I hate driving in rain!

Why am I here

In the summer I get bored. I don't go to work, there is nothing on tv. I get tired of working around the house. So I write ridiculously long emails to my friends. But they have lives, so they don't respond. Then I get neurotic. Writing in a journal makes my arm hurt, because who writes on paper anymore? So I said to one of my friends "maybe I should start a blog". And she thought that was a good idea also, and I have known her for 22 years. We can talk in half sentences. So, it must be a good idea if we both think so.
I have decided that message boards are NOT a good idea. (above friend warned me of that) The level of nastiness that some people get into is just ridiculous. It's like middle school. Been there, done that, sure as hell don't want to go back.
So anyway, I think I have this all set up now. It's late, I am going to sleep.