rough monday

11-2-09

Happy November!

What a long ass weekend! The boys were off at varying times through out the weekend. I don’t know what was up with that. Maybe I was just off. Luckily, during the time they needed to be happy and good, they totally were.

Friday night, Ken chose Nationals for Friday Night Dinner with the fam. The only real bummer was the only thing on was basketball and football. Hockey or Baseball would have been so much more fun to watch.

Saturday went by quickly. In the morning, the boys played while we just hung out. Around nap time, Ken went out to the grocery store while I stayed home. I took advantage of the quiet to scrub. I cleaned the heck out of the bathroom, scrubbed the kitchen floor Cinderelly style, and got our bedroom looking nice. Ken had put up a hat rack for me, which made me uber happy since now my little corner of the bedroom that has my cool mirror, also has also has all my hats and scarves, which make it look like I am some budding fashionista.

House clean. Check. Kids napped. Half check. All we needed to do now was get over to the carnival.

I get so stressed about getting places when I decide on a set time. Like I wanted to get to the park no later than 4. We ended up having to stop at the store, and got stuck by a train, which got us there a little after 4. I know, I shouldn’t stress, but in reality, I would have been happier to get there at like 3:30. I know, lame.

My parents and Matt met us there. Matt was gunning for a show down. He was picking fights left and right. He lost the right to talk to me about 30 seconds in. Yeah, it was that bad. Luckily, only Dax really had to yell at him, which resulted in my mom yelling at him.

There were way more games than 2 years ago when we went last. Many were kind of more older kid specific in terms of skills, but the boys didn’t seem to care. They especially enjoyed the ghost bowling. With each game, you got a couple pieces of candy. By the end, they had a pretty good amount.

What shocked me was how few other Transformers there were. In addition to that, there were a lot of compliments given to their costumes. This also shocked me since they were the standard issue ones at Target.

Ken didn’t have a costume, but he did bruise up his eye with makeup. It looked real. In fact, my dad was sure he had smacked himself with something. He wasn’t buying it that I popped him, but he also wasn’t buying it that it was makeup. LOL! This one older guy even approached him at one point and said he and his friend had a bet on whether or not it was real. That was fun.

I was pleased to see so many parents getting into the spirit. If the baby was a bee, so were the parents. Even if they were not themed, there were lots of dressed up moms and dads.

Best costume there was a guy with a giant silver balloon, with a cardboard box around him, with the words on the box “Attic Storage”. Yes, he was balloon boy. Loved it!!!

We stayed there for about 90 minutes. Dax was losing patience as the lines got longer and longer. This of course doesn’t bode well for Disneyland, but then again, I don’t know that we will be going on the rides with the crazy long lines.

We stopped by McDonalds and got the boys fed at the house. My parents met us there at 6:15 and we headed out for Trick or Treating. It was shockingly dead out. We were the first set for many of our neighbors, which was fun since the boys charmed the crap out of these people and they got extra candy. There were not many porch lights on. It seems that less and less people are wanting to give out candy, or even home. Like Maria and her crew went trick or treating in Manhattan Beach! Granted, the walk streets there are awesome (which is why we are going there next year).

We went maybe a couple blocks. Dax kept declaring they had too much candy, and both boys were pretty much done. We headed down our street, hitting up the houses on the way to our block. This is where Bobby fell off a porch. Not fun. It scared the crap out of him. He was fine. Not even sure what happened. It made him ready to be home right then and there, though.

We bid our goodbyes to my parents, and then we hung out on our porch for an hour or so, handing out candy. The boys actually looked like they had more fun giving candy then getting it. They were both so freaking cute, too. Each of them, without prompting, would compliment people’s costumes, would hand out gobs of candy, and would say happy Halloween to groups. They would offer commentary about costumes, and sometimes would ask people if they liked theirs. At one point, my boys were flirting it up with a couple of princesses. I just sat back and took it all in. No pictures, no film. I just enjoyed it all.

Luna sat on the porch with us. It seemed like a perfect way to socialize her. Shockingly, no one even noticed her. She only barked once, but mostly just hung out. She ended up falling asleep at my feet, all kinds of content.

The boys got bored with how few trick or treaters that we had. I was shocked. We used to have kids bussed in. Even last year we had more. But I think that being it was a Saturday, more parents didn’t mind taking their kids somewhere farther away or even carnivals and stuff since it wasn’t a school night. The boys decided then that it was fun to run out to the sidewalk to check for people, then sprint back to the porch when they saw someone a block away. Then they would go check again, run back, run there, run back. Well, you get the idea. Being that it was 2 hours past their bedtime, they were in good spirits.

At 9 we called it a night, especially since we had pretty much run out of candy and luckily, no one else was coming. When we were reading to the boys, we did get a couple kids ring the bell, which of course means parents are not teaching their kids that when the light is off, don’t ring the bell. Oh well. Only Lycos seemed to mind.

I was so hoping for some sleeping in. The boys went to bed late, so surely they would sleep in a little bit, right? Not so much. Daylight Saving Time sucks when you have kids. Their bodies don’t understand it is ok to sleep that extra hour. So when we gain and hour, in reality, we actually lose an hour. It totally blows. Dax already is one of those kids who gets up at 5:30 every morning. So that extra hour? It means he was up at 4:30.

Since the house got up so freaking early, we went ahead and got up. We had plans on going to the Halloween store for their 50% off sale anyway, so this worked out ok. Of course, the bastards didn’t open until 11!! So instead, we hit up Target’s sale, then Toys R Us, and PetsMart. By the time we were done, Halloween store was open. We got Bobby his Tin Man costume, and Dax a Cowardly Lion one. We screwed up on that one, though, since we didn’t look inside the packet. The body is huge, and the head looks like it is for an infant. Oh well. At Target we got them clone costumes from Star Wars, and not only were they thrilled, but their daddy was as well. I also got a new shower curtain. I compromised by not getting the skeletons and got the fun monsters. Ken preferred the clear one, so monsters it was. Plus, the bath mats for the skeletons were sold out, so monsters still matched our current bath mats.

The boys insisted on getting a costume for Luna. We picked one out at Petsmart since they were like $2. We got a little dragon one, which ended up not fitting, which I am sure pleased Luna, despite her amazing patience.

At the Petsmart, people would be proud of me in entertaining the thoughts of my boys at some point getting a hermit crab despite my deathly fear of them. Of course, we have no room for more critters, so I so far am safe.

The whole morning, and a good chunk of Friday and Saturday, I was sickly. I will not get graphic, but let’s just say it was important to be near a bathroom much of the weekend. I was a little concerned for today, but so far, so good.

We got home and the boys went down for a nap. Dax was out quick, and for like 3 hours. Bobby finally fell asleep, and managed at least an hour and a half. Both needed it, and clearly they needed more. The rest of the afternoon was spent with them being grumpy and cranky and pissy.

While they slept, I ran out to the mall to get my new bras. It was a successful trip. I was impressed with the bras I got. I got 4, 2 standard, one a little fancier, and one, ultimate, holy crap I have rockin boobs, style bra. All very happy making. I think that in another month, I will go back and get another 4, just so I have pretty much one for every day of the week. Then I can get rid of my old crappy ones. I am not getting rid of those yet. I have them out of circulation, but I may use them for things around the house, or walks or stuff like that. I also picked up a pair of jeans since they were only $20, and the bras were cheaper than I thought they would be. I looked at other stuff, and tried on a super cute dress that I fell in love with. Of course, I didn’t get it since it was $80!!! Seriously, $80 is a bit much. I would have looked amazing in it, especially with the holy fuck boobs bra, but really, $80???? I may need to start going their weekly to watch for it to go on sale.

Our walk last night was sporadic in success. We got the boys helmets and pads, which they looked crazy cute in and it felt like they had some more protection. They liked them and I was sure this would inspire them to have fun. Dax just wasn’t feeling it. The first block, he was pissy. He calmed down, so we opted to try another block. Clearly we were not thinking. Luckily, we didn’t set out for the exercise route, as that would have taken forever.

As we approached the house, our neighbor, Evelyn, this little old lady a few houses down from us approached me. She is one of those neighbors that is actually quite nice, but old and crotchety because her husband died a couple years back and let’s face it, at her age you are allowed to be a bitch. We helped her get to the hospital a couple times when her hubby was sick, yet even through all of this, she was barely cordial with us. So when she came across the street asking if Luna was a golden, with a giant smile on her face, I was thrilled to stop. She totally lit up as Luna licked her hand. She told me her beloved companion, a 14 year old Golden that she always walked with, had passed on a couple months ago. I am telling you, in the, what, 11 years I have been there, this was the most I have ever spoken to her. And she was so nice! There is something to be said about animals and their ability to being people together. If the puppies were not so expensive, I would so get one of Luna’s litter mates for this woman.

Actually, we need to go get her shots in the next week or so. The place she got her first set has a special that includes all of her shots, a wellness visit and spay for $200. We may look into that since that is pretty good, what with a spay costing like $60 anyway. Plus, they take walk ins, so even though we love Doc Steinam, we might do that for her vaccinations.

Luna is slowly learning the sit command. I was impressed when on a couple of tries, she actually sat when I told her to. Of course, this is just us starting out, but I think that when she gets a little older, it will be easier. In fact, she seems smart enough that I am going to forgo the formal training since I think Ken and I can handle the simple commands. I want to take her to the small dog park once she gets all of her shots, as that will be good socializing. But why spend $109 for the class when I know what needs to be done, and she is 9 weeks and I was already able to get her to sit on command.

At Target, there were scarves and hats I had been eyeing for months that were on clearance. I was so thrilled. So I picked up a scarf and a hat. Dax decided to wear the multi colored fedora through Target, taking it off occasionally to say, “Howdy, partner!” Too funny!

Ken got me a curling iron, flattening iron combo. Yay! It means I can do some fun shit with my hair. It probably means I need to get my ass up a bit earlier when I want to use it, but what the hell, right?

We did not get to IKEA as planned. I am hoping they have some under the bed storage solutions. Ken also needs some desk material that will help in our organizing our desk area. He has been working really hard to get all of that set up. I have a few things I need to go through now from his efforts, and hopefully with all of this, I can set up my scanner and start work on that sort of stuff. Our desk does now look like we could launch a rocket, but it gives us both the ability to work on the computer at once, so that is nice.

I have now watched at least one person park in the parking lot when this is not their month to be allowed to park there. It should be interesting today to see who adheres to the rules.

My stomach is still unsure of what to do with me this morning. The pills I took last night to help me seem to be holding on, but there is still the icky feeling. I would say I had the flu all weekend, but I think it couldn’t be since aside from that, I didn’t have any other symptoms. And, I also think that if it was going to develop into a flu, it would have already done so. I think I will continue to tough it out.

Having my boobs back up where they belong has quite the slimming effect. It is quite nice. Also, my new trouser jeans seem to be working quite well.

I think my boss actually parked in the back!! Holy crap!

I am truly tired of crying at work. I am thinking I need to stop doing personal emails at work.

Friends need to be honest. When they see their friend hurting, they need to try to help them. Not just in the form of a hug, either. Maybe it is by helping solve the problem. Or offering alternative views in order to help the friend gain perspective.

I try very hard to do this. When my friend is hurting, I try to help. I give them stories about my own dealings with a topic. I consider all sides of the situation to see if maybe we are missing something.

What I would like to think I don’t do when friends offer me this same kind of support is to tell them they are full of shit. The reason I turn to friends for advice or even just a shoulder to cry on is because I know they can see my problem from a totally different angle. And more often than not, they can see when I need to step back. I may not take their advice, but I know they are giving me the best information possible since they know me, and they are outside which has way better perspective sometimes.

I am going to keep my head up and know I offered this kind of support as a friend. I am going to stop blaming myself. In fact, I think I will even venture to say I am a dammed good friend to have. I am funny, even when I don’t try. I am insightful. I am fat, so all my friends can feel all svelte and gorgeous next to me. Come on, that was funny. I like to think I am very loyal, and even when I get kicked around, my door is never locked. Hell, even when I am mad at a friend, in times of need, I will always be there, no matter what.

Sure, I described myself as a hug with spikes earlier, but I like to think the spikes are really just loving reality checks for people who are too close to a situation to think straight. And I promise, the spikes are sterile!

My self esteem wants very badly to fight me on these grand statements. It says, “what are you doing you, fool! You suck and you know it!” Well, news flash, crappy self esteem, I am feeling pretty groovy despite my argument this morning. I know that I did the right thing. I also know that she will see it that way in time and this will just be something we laugh about in 30 years. I backed off when I saw that she wasn’t seeing me as a friend, because until she sees that again, all I am is a threat.

I am here, and will be when things cool down. Hopefully she doesn’t completely bail on me. I really kind of hoped to be a maid of honor at some point.