springading.com

Well, this post was started almost a week ago, but then it came to a screeching halt when I was writing and heard the mouse trap go off. Yup, a mouse trap. In all my years of apartment-living, I’ve never had a mouse, and if it hadn’t been for Gremlin hovering around the bottom drawer in the kitchen, we would have never known. We hadn’t seen any evidence of a mouse until we checked the drawer Gremlin was so desperate to get into and found mouse poop.

If you’re wondering why we hadn’t noticed it sooner, let me point out that it’s a rarely used drawer. Pretty much every where else is clean.

I really hate mouse traps. But I also hate mouse poop. I also hate arguing with Jim about when said mouse poop should be cleaned up. Me: Immediately. Him: Never.

Okay, I exaggerate. He wanted to wait until we verified that all the mice were gone before he cleaned it up. “Otherwise,” he said, “I’ll just have to clean it up all over again. ”

Whaaaaa…? If someone breaks into your house and poops in your kitchen, you do NOT leave it there, saying, “Well, they might break in again, so let’s just wait and see and clean all the poop up at once.” That’s just crazy talk, not to mention gross.

Whatever. Jim caught himself a couple mice and has cleaned up everything very nicely. He’s a nice guy, that man.

Sadly, that was our excitement for the week, epitomized by images of Gremlin circling that drawer and Jim shaking his fist at an imaginary mouse, shouting, “I declare war on your tiny, furry house!”

I think I picked a husband that’s like my cat, come to think of it. I don’t think that’s really a bad way to pick one’s soul mate, really.

If my husband doesn’t quit being so damn hot, we’re gonna get in trouble again. I’m just sayin’. I married one hell of a beautiful man, inside and out.

Okay, I’m done being mushy. Time for bed.

First, the awesome:

Grocery bag dispenser

“What is that goofy-looking thing?” you might be asking yourself. Well, I’LL TELL YOU. It’s a grocery bag dispenser! I used to have one with sunflowers on it, but it got lost somewhere in the shuffle, and truth be told, I don’t really like to keep anything I had during my first marriage, anyway, know what I mean? It could be tainted with evil by now. But I did want another one–grocery bag dispenser, I mean, not evil–and lo and behold, I found a pattern on the web for it! And guess what? It only took maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a skein of yarn I didn’t really like anyway, two hairbands (when I have dozens), and one afternoon.

And now I don’t have a ton of bags floating around loose underneath my sink. Which was driving me nuts.

Okay, admittedly, if you don’t understand my excitement for it, be assured, Jim doesn’t really either. The mess of bags under the sink never bothered him, either.

Okay, the not-so-awesome: Monday morning, Gremlin was acting odd–looking like he was trying to go to the bathroom everywhere, and eventually, growling and hissing when Jim tried to pick him up–so Jim took him to the vet. The poor little guy had bladder stones and an infection that was starting up. The vets recommended that they keep him overnight so they could cath him–and gave Jim an estimate.

Jim started to panic. Monday was his first day after quitting his job to go to school, and it figures that THAT was the day to get hit with an estimate that would nearly clean out our savings account. He picked me up from work, worrying.

Yeah, it had me worried, but here’s what I figured: We have the money in the savings. This is what savings is for. It wouldn’t touch our checking. It wasn’t earmarked for bills or anything. And I work a job where I can work as much overtime (at least for now) as I need, so I can just work more hours and fill ‘er back up again.

I think that reassured Jim a little, but what helped is that the actual bill was only about half of what they quoted. Big sigh of relief. Because I was planning on pulling 11-hour days. I did that yesterday, and I was already exhausted just from that.

So, actual bills being about half of estimates: More awesome. Add that to Gremlin feeling better = even better yet.

Also, awesome: Jim is in school, although with a twist we didn’t expect. He thought his class was 4 hours long. Turns out that it’s only an hour and 15 minutes. And he’s already quit his job, and it’s too late to find another course (plus, I don’t want to pay out of pocket for another one), so basically…Jim has a lot of free time on his hands! Hahaha. He seemed to feel bad, but I figure he might as well enjoy it while he can. It’s a nice break.

So far, though, Jim doesn’t just sit on his ass, like I expected him to. Every day, he’s cleaned, run errands, and he’s done a beautiful job of it. Now I’m thinking he wouldn’t be a half-bad house husband, heh. OH. And to top it all off, when he picked me up from work today, he said, “Hey–wanna listen to your new CD?”

“What new CD?”

“This one.” He handed me an Evanescence CD, one that I had had before but, again, was one of those things that got lost with all the moving.

Have I mentioned that I have the best husband ever? Anything that was ever “not-so-much” awesome, Jim makes better, always.

Damn, I’m tired. Loved my three-day weekend last weekend. Didn’t get so lucky this weekend. I pulled overtime all week and I just did overtime today, on a Saturday, from 6-11 AM. The only good thing about working on Saturdays, though, is that at least you know you’re not going to be put on the phones.

Oh, yeah. I was put on the phones two days in a row this week. That’s never fun, but it wasn’t too bad, either. My concern is that I’m supposed to be working a special project (the portal) that I’ve been told has high-high-high priority, and then I’m also only one of two people allowed to contact an outside vendor, which is only done two times a week, and which also has high-high priority, but if I’m stuck helping the phone people out, this high priority stuff starts getting really behind.

And the special project is already behind. So Friday, I waved my supervisor down and said, “Okay, I need to know which of my prorities is REALLY the priority. Portal? Phones?” I told him that sure, I don’t like doing the phones, but if they want me to do that, that’s fine–but I’m worried about other stuff getting even further behind. Luckily, he agrees with me, and they’ve already had meetings to see about getting those of us working this special project from getting stuck on phones.

That’d be nice. Until then…I just do what they tell me, heh.

Wow, that’s the most I’ve talked about work in a while. Let’s stop now.

Anyway, I’m tired. Tired enough that I snapped at Jim last night, in front of Phil, both of whom seemed surprised by it. (As Phil put it, “That’s the most heated discussion that I’ve ever seen you two have.” And it really wasn’t that bad.) Still, I felt bad about snapping at Jim, but sometimes….JIM. ARGH. We’ll just leave it at that.

Maybe I just need some time alone. Maybe I’ll suggest that to Jim because I got really bummed last night (WHY? WHY? MY LIFE IS AWESOME) and I’m still kinda moody today, so I think that’s all it is–time for some Spring Break, haha. Whatever it is, I’m gonna have to figure it out soon. Everything’s been pissing me off.

Maybe I just need a nap. Works for Gremlin.

Jim and Gremlin, playing the XBox

Of course, Gremlin makes sure that he has a high-quality person to snuggle with first. Maybe that’s the key.

Well, I haven’t posted much in the last week, but there’s a lot going on. I did not have to get on the phone Monday at work, as I had wondered about in the last post. Nobody did, as far as I could tell. Instead, I’ve been working the portal at work all week, and I think I’m getting the hang of it. At first, it started off rocky, with very low production, but then, once I started getting responses back that I could actually work, my productivity skyrocketed.

Jim also found a desk next to the dumpster this week, perfectly fine, nothing wrong with it, and we really needed a desk. So he hauled the thing up himself. So, YAY, I don’t have my laptop on the floor next to the sofa anymore, and the cable cord is no longer right in the middle of the living room floor where everyone walks. Now it’s more off to the side where people rarely walk. I’m very happy with this, although now we’re going to need a proper chair. Right now, I’m sitting in the rocking chair, and while I love rocking chairs, they’re not so good when paired up with office desks.

But the real event of this week was that my sister, Jennifer, left with her kids, Damian, Trinity, and Seth, to move to North Dakota, where her husband is.

I cannot deny it: I’m bummed. Jennifer is the sister I’m closest to, and I LOVE her kids. I even lived with them fairly recently after my divorce, when Nate (her husband) was then living in Texas for a different job that he had. It was a good set-up because I got free room and board and she got a free 24/7 babysitter. Honestly, I only moved out because when her husband came back, it was just too crowded. I probably would have stayed there even if she didn’t need a babysitter , and I would have just paid her rent. (Which I did when he did come back and she didn’t need a sitter anymore. I’m not a mooch.) But my point is that Jennifer and I get along well.

Anyway, I texted her Wednesday night, remembering that she was supposed to be leaving Thursday. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to see them again, but as it turns out, Thursday, she called and asked me to stop by because her ISP won’t turn off their internet service until she returns a modem to them.

Aside: The ISP is Mediacom, and she confessed to me that she didn’t think they ever gave her a modem in the first place. The modems she had were her own. She came to Illinois not needing one because she already had one from California. I mention this because Mediacom did the same thing to me and my ex-husband. We turned down getting a modem for them because we were computer people and wanted to choose our own. So we bought one. Then I accidentally plugged it in the wrong place, fried it, and we had to get another modem the same day, and we were pissed about having to buy two. When he and I split up, he ran up bills in my name, including Mediacom. Mediacom tried to claim we owed them money for a modem, and through ALL the fighting he and I were having, that was ONE thing we agreed on: NO, Mediacom, YOU NEVER GAVE US A MODEM.

I still don’t know how/if my ex resolved that one, but per the divorce decree, all that stuff is his responsibility, so I don’t really care. I just want to mention that if you have to have Mediacom, you might as well get a modem from them because they’re gonna claim that they gave you one, anyway.

But I digress. Jennifer decided to just give them one of her old modems she wasn’t using, but she needed me to take it because they were closed, and she needed to get moving. So Jim and I drove the 40 minutes out to her house and visited with them briefly before getting the modem. The visit HAD to be brief, as she was trying to get out that day, she had no furniture left as the movers had already taken it, and the power had already been shut off. She was doing all her cleaning by candlelight.

So we say goodbye. We’re sad. Yes, even Jim is a little sad because although he didn’t know Jen’s kids very well, he did like them (no small feat, considering he doesn’t really like kids that much) and he was actually excited about being an uncle.

But I’m particularly crabby about it, and when we get home, we putz around a little bit, then we try to go to bed early. Jim hasn’t been feeling well this week, anyway. And it’s about a quarter ’til 11 when my phone rings.

I pick up. It’s my sister. Wasn’t she supposed to be on the road? “Spring,” she says worriedly, “I’m driving along here, and I realized–I don’t think I ever put out those candles.”

So I get up, get dressed. Jim starts to get up, and I tell him he doesn’t have to come. He insists. There could be looters, he says. I have to laugh at his paranoia, but he comes with me because he doesn’t like the idea of me going out there and traipsing around in the dark alone. So we drive 40 minutes out there again, and guess what? She DID forget to blow out the candles! They were still going on in the basement. OH MY GOD. Good thing she remembered and called me! Good thing she still had a relative in the town that she was leaving, and good thing I still had a key to her house!

We check out the house to make sure she didn’t miss any others. She hadn’t. We marveled over the owl that had been making creepy screeching noises when we first came in (I just looked up owl sounds; I think it was a barn owl), then drove home. We didn’t get home until midnight.

And we proceeded to be cranky until the next day, particularly due to lack of sleep. And it’s not going to get any better if I don’t replace this chair, stat. Like I said, rocking chairs and office desks don’t mix. Especially when paired with a bummed Aunt Dingy.

Nothing much to report, just letting everyone know that Jim’s doing okay. I did convince him to stay home the day after he went to the ER, and I managed to “sneak” and let his mother know what had happened. I had to “sneak” because Jim originally told me not to tell her anything. And by “sneaking,” I mean that I posted it as a Facebook status while he was in class, knowing full well that his mother would read it, call, and I could give her the details.

Of course, right after I posted it, Jim’s cell started going in crazy in class as people started texting and calling him, all concerned. He ended up ripping out the card, heh.

I had a good reason, though. First of all, Jim was feeling guilty about having me do all the work, and I figured if his own MOTHER pretty much ordered him to stay off his leg…well, pressing upon him how important it was to give it a rest would make him feel less guilty.

The second reason is that she gave freakin’ birth to him. She deserves to know every sniffle he has, and she certainly has a right to know when her first-born child has landed himself in the emergency room.

Anyway. Jim seems better, although a little sore from time to time. Meanwhile, I’m anticipating this ambulance bill. I’m telling myself that it can’t be that bad because we don’t live far from the hospital. On the other hand, I work at an insurance company. I see what some providers want to charge–and how much we make them write-off for being in-network.

Gulp.

So. Yeah. The last two days, I’ve been doing a lot of overtime, 10+ hours, and I plan on keeping up the pace the rest of the week, all while trying to eat semi-better (screwed it up tonight, had Mexican, still down 13 pounds, though), work on Jim’s Lego Pirate Ship blanket, and finish A Game of Thrones. That will never happen before the premiere on Sunday night.

Yeah…

I’m so very tired.

SIGH. I’m bored. So bored. I’m watching Angel and thinking that all these people who die on this show have exciting, interesting deaths, at least, whereas I am probably going to die of a tooth infection. Which, even that, with its death and stuff–boring.

My tooth really has been bugging me.

Not much has been going on. Jim has started school. This is the first time he’s ever gone full time, and while he’s reduced his hours at work, he’s still working three days a week. So far, he’s doing well, but the semester’s still early, and five classes with that much work is…well, it’s a lot.

It’s a lot of hours to put in while going to school; it’s not enough hours for two people trying to pay bills. Jim’s the food-and-gas guy, whereas I’m the “everything else” girl. I’ve come to terms that I will probably have to start picking up on the tab on groceries, which wouldn’t be such a big deal if I didn’t want to get rid of our credit card bill so bad. I’ve been paying for that thing since, like 2008. I was doing a great job last year of getting it knocked out, then had a couple of rough months where I only paid the minimum and BAM. It was right back where it was.

Credit card companies are evil.

So Jim and I are trying to cut back, when there’s really not a lot to cut back on, since we never were big spenders in the first place. We figure we can save some money by eating in and not driving around so much. I’m proud that I didn’t hit Jim up for one of our drives at all this week. (I asked about it one night, but that’s because I was verifying that he didn’t want to. Honestly, I was too damned tired to go anywhere, anyway.) I’ve also been working overtime. Yet, after looking at today’s paycheck and mentally subtracting all the bills, there’s just so–so little of it left. And I feel like that damned credit card will be hanging over my head forever.

But, alas, I’ve been broke before. Very broke. And I’ve also gone from that to not living from paycheck to paycheck before now, so I know I can do it again. And you know what helps immensely with not living from paycheck to paycheck? Not having a car payment. Which, just doing what we’re doing now, it’ll be paid off in a little under three years. Way too long to be making a car payment, sure, but it’s at least a definite light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

A very long tunnel, but hey–as long as I can see that light.

Back to cutting back on money: that means trying to have cheaper hobbies. I’ve got my crocheting, but Jim has video games that he seems to just burn through. And XBox games are not cheap. And remember D&D? If anyone remembers way back when we started our “Homebrewed” game–can you believe it’s almost been a year?–then you would remember that initially, it wasn’t just a way for Jim and I to do something together, it was also a way to save money. Except lately, we haven’t been playing. First, it started off with me. After, you know, things happened (I really don’t want to talk about it anymore), I couldn’t get myself back into it. Then the holidays, then it seemed like Jim couldn’t get himself back into it, and last week and this week, it won’t happen because Jim’s been scheduled to work on Saturday.

Truth be told, I barely remember where we left off. I kind of miss it.

But even if we don’t do our D&D game again, I have a plan. Just work more overtime, even more than I’m already working. Because then when I get home, I’m dead tired, and all I want to do is sleep. As far as hobbies go, they don’t come any cheaper than that.

Speaking of…I think I’ll head to bed. I plan on doing more overtime in the morning. Night, y’all.

Via text:

Me:  Love you, have a great day.

Jim:  Any day where I come home to you at the end of it is a great day.

Guys, steal this man’s shit.  It’s gold and will get you laid, I guarantee.

I didn’t want to leave things too long with that last depressing post up.  I mean, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not taking it down.  It is what it is, and I’m not removing it.  But I don’t want it to be the last thing up on my blog.

Things are okay, or as okay as they are right after a miscarriage.  Jim and I were on edge, then we had a HUGE fight (the details of which are nobody’s business but our own), we made up, and oddly enough, things seem to be much less edgy now.  We went to my doctor’s appointment on Tuesday where she confirmed that the pregnancy levels dropped significantly between the two times they drew blood.  Before the miscarriage, it was over 200; on Christmas Eve, it was down to 80.  It kinda hurt to hear it, even if I already knew.

I was surprised, though, that there was still any number greater than 0 after I lost the pregnancy.  I guess it’s a slow process, your body going back to normal.  Unfortunately, they’re going to keep drawing blood to monitor the levels until it gets to 5 or below.  And yesterday, the nurse couldn’t draw my blood for the life of her, so she gave up and referred me to the hospital today to try again.  As it turns out, if you’re too dehydrated (apparently, I was), it’s more difficult to draw blood.  That’s what I get for guzzling coffee before my appointment.  I was just trying to make it so I could pee in their little cup.  D’oh!

At the appointment, after the doctor confirmed everything, she sat down and asked us if we had any questions.  Jim and I were both pleasantly surprised.  I don’t know if I mentioned this in the last post, but Jim didn’t like our doctor, so he was happy she at least acknowledged that we’d have questions.  She asked us if we planned on trying again.  Jim was all like, “DEFINITELY” and then gave me a look that made me think that if the doctor wasn’t in the room, he’d try knocking me up again right there on that table, heh.  The doctor said that if we did try, we should wait at least one cycle. 

I’m not exactly that keen on trying again right away.  I’m not sure if this is a normal response, but I was wary of sex, even though the doctor said it would be okay.  I think I was nervous partially because I didn’t want to get pregnant and possibly go through another miscarriage, and partially because my stomach was still a little sore.  And poor Jim…well, he’s a healthy man.  But he was starting to LEER at me.  I was starting to feel like he was hiding around corners, about to pounce me.  Life was starting to look a little like a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip:

POUNCE!

Yup, just like that.  Except a lot less innocent–and a lot less hairballs.

Damn cats.

Anyway, I got over it.  The sex-is-scary thing, that is.  Jim can be pretty convincing.

Hello, all.  Yes, it’s been a long time, but folks, I’ve got things going on, a lot of things going on.  A few days ago, I actually did post, vaguely hinting to things going on, but I’ve since deleted that post, and now some OTHER stuff is going on.  I promise that I will reveal all soon.  Or semi-soon, anyway.

I’m just kind of…freaking out.

You know what else is freaking me out?  Christmas is less than a week away now, and Jim and I just started Christmas shopping.  I feel bad because I missed an old friend’s Yule party (she’s some kind of Wiccan blend, not Christian) and even though I hate social gatherings, I would have totally loved to have gone to her Yule party.  It sounded like fun.  Way more fun than how I actually spent the evening because, alas, do you know what I was doing at that time last night?  I was stuck in some OBSCENE traffic outside of St. Clair mall.  They seriously had only two exits in the entire mall, so cars were wrapped around the whole place.  We were in line for an hour to get out of the freakin’ mall.  I kid you not.  We were probably in line to get out of the mall longer than we were actually IN the mall.

Today?  We’re sticking with good, old Carbondale.  Although, admittedly, from what we saw yesterday, lines were also an issue, but not a freakin’ HOUR LONG type an issue.  Know what I’m saying?

Changing gears:  I was just reading Becca’s post about her husband and his guy friends.  You know, how there are times when he’s playing on his XBox with his friends and she’s like, C’mon, get off that thing already, I need my husband.  Now, admittedly, Jim doesn’t play XBox with anyone else.  He actually would prefer not to play with other people, at least not at this point.  (I think that’s why Warcraft pisses him off so much–having to deal with other people.)  But Jim does have a game he goes to every Friday night.  And usually, before he goes to game, he always offers to just stay home.  (Bet this would surprise his friends, but it’s true.)  I always say no.  Have fun.  And then our running joke:  “Try not to cheat on me while you’re out.  Don’t slip and fall into a vagina somewhere.  I hear that’s a problem in this town.”

Then it’s him saying goodbye, and me saying, go away already, heh.

After that, it’s me and Warcraft, although Jim recently admitted to me that he would actually like for me to text him sometimes while he’s in game, so now I try to text him at least once, so he knows I’m not having too much fun without him, and then I go to bed.  He comes home around 1 or 1:30, I give him grief about how late it is, that I “know” he’s really cheating on me, and then we snuggle and go to sleep because it’s all in good fun.  I know I’ve got a good man; he’s not doing anything that would upset me.  I just LOVE giving him grief.

But this Friday?  He was out until 3:30 in the morning.  I’m okay with 1 AM, because it means he’s been gone around 6ish hours, which I know is about how long a game can run.  But 3:30 is pushing it, even in my lax rulebook.  At least, it is without a phone call, which he did NOT do.  I totally would have given him hell…if I hadn’t been sleeping, anyway…and too tired when he came in…and pretty much forgotten about it by the next morning.

Someone remind me to be a bigger bitch sometime.

Anyway, I’m gonna wake Jim up.  We need to do more shopping today.  I’ll probably wake him up with scrambled eggs and French toast.  OH.  Breakfast in bed.  I’ll start on being a bigger bitch tomorrow, I swear.