Dear Blog, I Have Forsaken Thee

Dear Beloved Blog,

I never meant to desert you.  You deserve much, much more attention than I have been giving you.  I have no one to blame but myself and my fickle desire to tweet, tumble, and 'gram it up.  I was clear with you from the get-go about my ongoing relationship with Facebook...the others just sort of happened.  I can't explain it.  I'll understand if you never want to see me again...and I deserve it.     Love, Me

But seriously, folks...my damned smart phone and the tablet are really to blame.  With them, I can tweet to my heart's content, post photos that normally would have ended up here, along with a really kick-ass story to go along with them, and follow the posts and ramblings of my bloggy friends...but I can only do so much without a keyboard.  This is the first time I have touched the keyboard on the PC since January.  Hard to believe!  But this morning, school is out and I found myself with a cup of coffee in my hand and an empty, quiet house, so I thought I'd take advantage of it.  I do have good intentions, really I do.  And I hope, sincerely, to get back on the "horse."  I will schedule it.  I will.  As I flipped through my Picasa album, it just brought home how important it is to me to actually write about the things as they happen.  The other media are great, for what they are...but they can't do justice to the events in our life, and that's always been what this blog was for...so that the little guy can remember and understand things in his lifetime.

That said, and as summer begins, here are the major things happening around Ye Olde Home Place...

My beautiful sister is engaged and getting hitched in less than a month.  THAT should be quite a post.

 The little guy just finished 1st grade.  And while he's not always this pensive, he does do some quite heavy thinking for a kid his age.  His "Andrewisms" have become more philosophical...still funny, but often very thoughtful.

 I have a halfway-finished (wait, do I even need to say that? everything around here is half-finished...) bathroom remodel underway.  Here's the nice stuff.  If you look closely, you can still see the hot pink paint on the trim behind the sink.  I hope to finish the room this summer, but I am highly distractible and have already moved on to other ideas that won't get finished.  Until then, I love my sink.

My school stress is over, for the time-being.  On a particularly stressful day in May, I murdered my "Got Stress" happy face stress ball.  The kids behaved rather well after that.  I include this just because it makes me laugh.

Here's the next project that will cause me to forsake the bathroom:

                                                               

                                                               

I'm going to convert an old dresser of my grandmother's into some mish-mash combination of the three you see above.  I'm inspired!  I'm also broke, so I'm about to see how cheaply I can make the transformation.  If this happens before summer is over, you should be very, very impressed.  I will be!

For now, though, I'm going to see if I can get my Instagram and Tumblr onto the blog...that way, if it's six months before I post again, I won't feel quite so guilty. 

Sunday Night Six-Pack

Okay, Sunday nights aren't normally for Six-Packs, but after this week in particular, and the fact that I'm woefully out of bloggy routine, what the hell.  There's a full moon, too, so why not? 

1.  I really, really miss blogging on a regular basis.  So many of my vents and rants take place here, that when I don't get them off my chest, it comes to meltdown status.  Not weepy, sobby meltdowns, but gripey, bitchy radioactive snarkiness that could bubble over at any point.  Right now that's directed at family members.  We have always been somewhat squabbly and quirky, I'll give you that, but since Edna's death, we put the FUN in dysfunction.  Actually, I continually have to remind myself that things aren't worse since her death--the things that are screwed up were that way long before she was even sick...but it's her absence that makes it seem worse.  I won't go into details, but there are members of my immediate family that need a swift kick in the ass reminder that family isn't just about traditions and holidays, but also about the nitty gritty and about being there for the not-so-pleasant stuff.  And yes, sometimes it involves inconvenience and changing one's plans, but SO WHAT?  It's coming from both sides right now, too, which doesn't help. 

2.  I'm in love with several household appliances...my Scentsy warmer and the Nook.  Well, let me clarify...I'm in love with one Scentsy warmer and one Better Homes warmer (read that, cheap Walmart knockoff).  My house smells like oatmeal cookies and gingerbread, and it's certainly not because I'm baking.  And it smells like that DAILY, not just when company's coming over and I light the candles.  It's no small feat in a house like this, either...when you combine 200 year-old house smells with a crotchety old cat who can no longer consistently aim into the litterbox and the fact that I'm a laissez-faire housekeeper, it's a small miracle. 

3.  The Nook Tablet we got for Christmas is my new favorite thing, but like all things--when I do something, I sort of do it obsessively.  So, I've downloaded about 76 books since Christmas Day, and I take personal pride in the fact that I've only paid about ten dollars total for books.  I'm on a quest for every free Nook book there is...so I not only check out Cheap e-Reads, NookJr, and NookTeen on Facebook for the new finds, but I personally search daily for the freebies.  I already have more books than I can possibly read (and even some that I know I'll never read, but I grabbed them "just in case.")  It's a family Nook, but we might have to add a little brother or sister to the family just so we can read the books we have and also play Angry Birds and update Twitter.  I'm really just waiting for the implants into our brains/eyes so that we can be connected 24/7.  Kidding, I think.

4.  College basketball season is in full swing...but unfortunately, our team is not.  I need a win soon, because even though I'll keep watching and cheering, my optimism is waning.  In the past, I could go to games just to go, and have fun, and be pleasantly surprised when we won...but I got used to winning MOST of the time, and that's not happening now.  My Dukes are struggling, and although I'm not calling for the coach's head on a plate like some other "loyal" fans, I really, really want something to turn around.  I'm too emotional about it to be a good fan, though, because I worry too much about players' feelings being hurt, or whether they're discouraged by the losses.  Okay, maybe I'm too much of a GIRL about it.  :-P

5.  I have had bronchitis/laryngitis/sinusitis for what seems like forever.  It actually dates back to before Thanksgiving when I had strep throat and tonsillitis.  I'm sick of being hoarse and coughing, and I should probably go back to the doctor, but there just isn't time.  Between basketball games, Andrew's karate classes, afterschool homework club, faculty meetings, sick and post-surgical parents, a house that's too flipping big and doesn't clean itself, and...oh yeah, and SLEEP...I just can't make the time appear.  So I suffer, and sound terrible, and uggggh.

6.  Andrew spontaneously requested going to his grammy's for a sleepover next weekend, so we're planning a (gasp) night out.  We'll start, of course, by watching our team get pummeled win at home, then hopefully we'll head out on the town, if we can manage to stay awake past 10 p.m.  It's really sad, and probably a sign of old age, when it sounds like too much effort to go out and I'd just rather come home, snuggle up with the  Nook and a snack, and get a solid twelve hours of night's sleep.   

Just When You Thought You Were Rid of Me

What a summer.  A summer of smart phones and sunshine, stress and sleepiness, stories that might not get told, and the speedy passing of time.  And it's over.  Sigh.  Not technically, I know...not for another three weeks or so, but school has started, and Sunday evenings have taken on their evil onus again, and I'm forlorn.  I feel as though I've been robbed, because much of my summer was not-so-pleasant, and although I started with grand ideas about projects that would be done and structure that would be kept and clever new places that we would go...we did none of it. 

This is actually the first time I've touched our computer since my last post two whole months ago.  Blame the smart phone, with which I can maintain constant contact with all of my relatives, closest friends, and complete strangers.  I'm a little bit addicted, I have to admit.  I don't NEED to be on Facebook or Twitter, but if I'm not doing anything else, why not?  Uggh, don't get me started.  If I could go back, I would, but I don't think there's any turning back. 

So, what DID I do this summer?  Well, I rode a roller coaster of emotions with the whole dad's girlfriend thing.  (I took a few people along with me on a few of those rides.  There's a story there, but too much for this post.)  I battled a flea infestation and nearly lost my older cat (another story for another day).  I started making my bed every day, and insisting that Andrew make his.  (Nothing else is clean, but if the bed is made, it LOOKS like it!)  And I spent quite a bit of time at the lake, although not as much as I would have liked, due to the two issues I already mentioned.  I nursed the hubby through yet another hernia surgery toward the end of the summer, and I bought a new car (new to ME, that is), which I am still very excited about, in spite of the fact that the reason it was for sale is unpleasant (the sudden dementia of my stepfather's mother). 

What DIDN'T I do?  Maybe I can list them here and have them not plague me and make me even more bitter than I already am.  I didn't lose weight.  I didn't get pregnant.  I didn't go to the beach.  I didn't paint anything or remodel anything.  I didn't get to ride my riding mower because it stayed broken all summer.  I didn't see a single one of my friends (or hear from them, for that matter...another post entirely) for the entire summer.  I didn't make Andrew play outside when we were home.  We didn't use the blow-up pool, with the exception of one day.  I didn't enjoy much of it.  And this ISN'T making me feel better.  Sigh.

Alas, though, it's Sunday night.  Andrew's in the tub making me bubble "smoothies" that he insists are getting warm while I'm typing this.  He also tells me he'll sell me the secret recipe for $69.99.  And my arms are rubbery and hurting from pruning bushes away from the sidewalk, and yes, it hurts to type.  Whine.  So, off I go, to scrub the little guy's head and get him tucked in in time to see True Blood, one of my few guilty pleasures and the one hour of the week that is just MINE. 

I'll be back.  And I'll be less moany and groany, and maybe even have a few pictures from the Summer of Hell to post.  Pictures that make it look like I wasn't completely miserable.  And hopefully my arms will hurt less by then.

    

Facespot Blogbook

Between the blog and the facebook, the entire world can see right into my living room window, at least metaphorically. I don't know where the need to be connected to everyone in the universe at the same time comes from, but apparently we aren't the only ones baring our souls to the planet, as evidenced by Facebook.

Facebook is a new addition for us in the last week or so, and as each day passes, I become more convinced that it's a tool of the devil. What a complete waste of time--the laundry isn't getting done, books aren't being read, and my eyes hurt from staring at the computer screen incessantly. But, thanks to Facebook, I now have friends in completely random places--old friends from high school whom I haven't spoken to in years, friends of my husband's that I dug back up for him, and even people from my workplace, because God forbid I actually have a conversation with them at school. No, I have to read about their lives online.

With a virtual connection to the whole planet, it was inevitable that skeletons would start popping out of the closet--it was just a matter of how big a skeleton and from whose closet it would come. Several days ago, James found his last girlfriend and "friended" her without mentioning it. Now, not a big deal, but I had to give him some shit for it, right? I mean, this was the girl he dumped unceremoniously and somewhat shadily after we had already starting seeing each other. I know, not cool--but I was 19, after all, and I didn't know her. He gets the Huge Shmuck Award, not me.

Anyway, so I gave him some grief about it--but only because he neglected to mention it, like I wouldn't look at his "friends" list. The sad thing is, I had to fight the urge to send a friend request to her myself, even though I have never spoken a word to this girl, and I'm sure she hates my guts. Hell, I hate her just because I think I'm supposed to! Why she's not already throwing virtual daggers at me, I don't know. Unless...oh gosh, unless she's a nice, forgiving person who doesn't hold grudges? (shudder)

Well, at the risk of bigger and uglier skeletons appearing, and of never having clean clothes again, and of being driven completely insane by the extremely slow dial-up internet connection (I know, I know), I guess I'll at least stick it out for a while longer and hope the novelty of trying to find connections to rock stars and old flames wears off. In the meantime, we've OF COURSE put a link to the blog on our facebook pages so our "friends" can really see what we're up to, because walking around naked in the living room with the lights on (STILL A METAPHOR--mostly) just isn't giving us enough exposure.