Thanksgiving adventures

11-30-09

As much as I so don’t want to be at work right now, at least it gives me a chance to regroup. It was a long weekend.

Wednesday evening, the Brenans arrived. The boys were dressed as Buzz and Woody, which seemed appropriate being we were going to the Magic Kingdom. We first went to dinner at Don Jose’s. Yum!! Dinner was good. The boys were clearly tired, but kept it together quite well. With Bobby in his Buzz costume, he had caught the eye of this one little girl next to us who looked at him as if she was really next to Buzz Lightyear. She was practically drooling on him. It was super cute.

We got to the hotel, which was beach themed. Appropriate since it bordered California Adventure’s boardwalk area. We went inside, and within 5 minutes, my boys each had a balloon. Talk about service! While the grownups did the check in, the boys and I went down to this room that had a giant sandcastle display which had a tv in it. It was playing Disney cartoons. The room also was filled with kid sized beach chairs. So they sat down and watched. It was such a great idea.

While still in the room, this other little boy wandered in. He couldn’t have been too much older than Bobby, but he was all alone. He sat down, and was pretty quiet. I didn’t think much about it. Grandma came in to hang out with us, when the boy started saying something. He was standing, and seemed troubled. He also didn’t seem to speak a lot of English. I finally made out what he was saying, which was “stuck”.

I went over to find that his finger was stuck between the slats of his chair. Crap! Luckily, the kid was quite calm. I didn’t want to just yank his finger out. It isn’t my kid, I wasn’t about to possibly break his finger. So I sent Grandma out to see about getting some help. He was so calm, only occasionally trying to get free. By this time, more of my own group was coming in. Andy tried to pull the chair apart a bit to free his finger. We were about to get some lotion or something when his finger came free. I checked out the finger, and it wasn’t swollen. He was able to bend it and seemed fine. He then promptly sat back down. Very strange. So the security guard and another cast member told us they would watch after him when we left. Grandma told me that it was another 20 minutes after Ken and I took the boys up that his parents showed up, and then they had the nerve to be mad at the kid.

The boys looked tired, but apparently not tired enough. I don’t know if it was nerves, growing pains, or just Dax being a pain in the ass, but he claimed his toe hurt in the middle of the night. He yelled, he cried, we changed his jammies. Nothing was working. Finally, I moved the now very awake Bobby over to sleep with Ken, and I crawled in next to Dax, where he promptly fell asleep.

Mind you, Bobby was up for a while longer. I also, was awake since Dax kicked me in the face twice, the stomach 3 times, my ass twice, and just various body parts more than I could count. He is a wild sleeper.

We got up pretty early since the character breakfast started at 7. I wanted to be able to have time to get over there, along with making sure we were ready to go. I was impressed when the entire group was ready to go when I wanted them to.

The breakfast was over at the super nice hotel that borders Downtown Disney. Such a gorgeous looking hotel. All the woodwork is very pretty. The dinning area was right outside near their pool. We were there about 20 minutes early. But I am glad we were. We were the second group there, beaten only by this couple that apparently has spent the last 2 weeks at the parks, eating at this restaurant every morning. The boys were able to run around and get some energy out so they would sit for breakfast.

We also started chatting with the security guard. His name was Gil. He was super nice. He wanted to let the boys “open” the restaurant. What this ended up meaning was he gave the boys the special bouquet of balloons to put on the table. He also gave them an autographed picture of Chip and Dale. This didn’t appear to be what the kids get normally.

The food was spectacular. They had these little Mickey waffles that came to the table fresh. Oh.My.God. So freaking good. They also had tons of yummy food at the buffet. We all ate tons.

But the more important part of the breakfast was the characters. I had read some reviews that there was little to no character interaction. I was pleasantly surprised to find those reviews were not even close. First came a bear from Brother Bear. The boys loved him. Another bear from that movie came over. A raccoon from Pocahontas, a gorilla from Tarzan, and Chip himself showed up. All of them spent a ton of time with the boys, letting them shakes hands, offer a banana to the gorilla, and we took gobs of photos. One of the bears even came back to bring them buttons with Chip and Dale on them. So cool! Dax and I saw Dale on our way out of the bathroom, but we didn’t talk to him. If you want the kids to see characters, take them there!!

Dax at one point did ask where Donald was, and Bobby said, “He is at McDonald’s, Dax,”

We walked over to the park a little after 8. It was crowded, but not bad really. We walked in, passing Dax off as under 3 (he got in free!) and I was so excited I could barely contain myself. We stood there for a second, and then Bobby says, “Mom, why are we just standing here?” Talk about shattering that glass. LOL!

The park was decorated for Christmas. It was very cool. We walked down Main Street, heading first towards Tomorrow Land. The castle was gorgeous, all covered in icicles. There was only one problem. It looked like half the size! Look, I know that some things when you were a little kid looked huge and then when you went back as a grownup, it wasn’t big anymore. But I have been to Disneyland as a grownup. I am telling you, the castle shrunk! I wasn’t the only one who thought this. Ken and Andy both thought the same thing. It was very odd.

The first ride the boys went on at Disneyland was the Buzz Lightyear ride. I had been wrong in thinking that the Buzz and Woody rides were only at California Adventure. And in reality, there are actually 2 of them, one all Buzz ride at the main park, and the Toy Story ride at CA Adventure. The Buzz one is far superior, and I am glad it is the one at Diensyland. No wait to get on, and the boys LOVED it.

We promptly went across to the “Darth Vader” ride. Dax saw the Star Tours font and got excited about it being Darth Vader. We almost didn’t get to go in with Dax. He is just the right height, when he stands up really tall. His head, in all fairness, did touch the bar, but it is close. Luckily, the 2 times at the park he was measured, they let him through.

They loved the crap out of Star Tours. Bobby was mesmerized. He couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. Dax giggled hysterically when we jumped to warp speed. I don’t know that I watched any of the ride, since I was watching their complete joy.

After this ride, we decided to go to the Nemo submarine. The wait time was super long, which is normal for that ride. So we considered going to Autopia. That wait was also long, but we picked up fast passes so we could come back. I told them we should go to Fantasy Land, but I was vetoed, and after a lot of standing around, and making half attempts to go to something, we ended up getting in line for the submarines. Luckily, the line moved pretty quickly. There estimate said 30 minutes, but Andy had a line length app, and it showed that it was much shorter. The ride was so amazing. We had not been on it since they had upgraded it to Nemo’s sub ride. I was so impressed with the technology and how great it looked.

We went over to Small World, and the boys enjoyed the hell out of that, too. After that, it was time to go back to Autopia. Man, Bobby really enjoyed that. It was now close to nap time for the boys. We wanted to get them down for a nap. We had late checkout on one of the rooms, so we needed to get them to sleep and get the rest of our stuff out of the room by 1. It was now 11:30.

Our other party members headed to California Adventure, and Ken went out to get the boys some lunch at McDonald’s. I hung out with the boys. Ken texts me about 5 minutes after leaving to tell me he ran over something, and it took out the back tire. Crap! I scrambled and got the boys some soda to drink, and then got them to lie down to sleep. Dax crashed instant, and Bobby took about 30 minutes. They were both out by the time Ken returned.

The only real problem was, they both needed another hour of nap time. It was now 1, and we needed to get out. Ken loaded the bag into the car and checked out, while I woke up two kind of cranky children. They cheered up after a little bit, but those first 20 minutes were iffy!

We met up with the gang at California Adventure. Here is where I started getting annoyed. The only thing I wanted to get them on there was the Toy Story ride. But since there was no fast pass, and the line was a 40 minute wait, the thought was to wait to see if the line died down. We hit up the Bug’s Life show first. I so assumed the boys would like that. I was so wrong it wasn’t even funny. Since it is a 3D show, and when the bugs shoot acid on the crowd, and in the process, we also get water spit at us, Dax was sure we were taking him to his own execution. He screamed, he cried, he buried his head in my armpits as the darts whizzed past our heads and the giant spiders came down from the ceiling. All kinds of bad. We did one more 3D show, which also upset Dax. Who knew the muppets were so scary?

We found the Monster’s Inc Ride, which was awesome. Not only was there no line, it was so much fun! We ended up doing that twice.

I kept asking when we would do Toy Story. At one point, we stopped at the bathroom, and when I was going in, I was told after the bathroom, we would head over there. I told Dax in the bathroom that we were going to see Buzz and Woody. We came out and I am told we were doing something else. Nice. I was pissed. My boys had been told 5 times they were going to see Buzz and Woody, yet we kept doing other shit. Plus, we got on some ride that I wasn’t even asked if I wanted to do it! It was this one that you are in like a hang glider seat, in front of a giant screen, flying over America. Look, it was gorgeous, but it made me ill. The boys loved it. Thank goodness.

Then they were going to see the Aladdin show. I wanted to see it, but let’s face it, making the boys wait for 30 minutes, then to have them sit for an hour in a show they might now like? Nope. Luckily for me, Ken agreed. So they went to the show, and we finally headed over to Buzz and Woody.

The line, although long, wasn’t bad. They didn’t seem to care about the wait, and they enjoyed the whole thing. The ride was nothing like I expected, but they still liked it.

After this, we decided to go on the ginourmous Ferris wheel. There was a line for rocking cars, and one for non rocking. I wanted to do non rocking, but I was vetoed. Yes, there is a pattern here. I was terrified. We waited as I watched the thing go around. I watched how much rocking the damn cars did. Holy fucking hell. One of the cages was empty. When we asked why, they said it has not been cleaned yet. Ewwwwww!!!! One person even had them stop the ride because it was too much. This made me happy that I had an out. But still, I would need to make it all around the circle once to get out again. Ken told me I could not go, but I felt like he would make fun of me, and the boys might get upset. So I sucked it up and got on.

I should have trusted my gut on that.

We went part way up and the way the thing is designed is it makes you slide and rock. I about died. I had to grip the seat, close my eyes and do deep breathing exercises. The boys were concerned for me, but luckily, they were having too much fun with the rocking to care. Ken made sure to yell to the guy to stop and I was able to get off, allowing the boys to keep going. Mind you, I was one of 5 stops the ride ended up making to let people out. The boys were apparently just annoyed that the ride kept stopping. If they had their choice, they would have stayed on it for hours.

We headed back to Disneyland for dinner and more rides. The boys really liked the train, especially the part with the dinosaurs. We ended up going to the Haunted Mansion, which got mixed reviews. Bobby enjoyed it, especially the end where you get some hologram in your car with you. Dax was a little more spooked. He also was exhausted. We decided to start rating their energy like a cell phone. The beginning of the day, they were at 5 bars. Dax was now on the red bar.

We were going to possibly go to the Pirates, but the wait was too long being that we needed to be on Main Street for the snow. That was way worth it. Ken was finishing up with our season passes, and he sent us out to the street to see the snow. We were in the middle of Main Street. We could see them light up the castle, and we were right under a snow machine. It was so pretty I cried. No joke. The boys were covered in the “snow”. It was so cool! Except when I inhaled some. Holy crap, that sucked! I thought I was going to cough up a lung. It was awful.

It was late at this point. The boys were tired, we still needed to get to the resort, and we had not shopped yet. We hit up the shops so we could show Grandpa what to get them since he wanted to get them something to remember the park for. Luckily, we found a baby Bolt (the only Bolt thing there). We also found a baby Buzz Lightyear, which I swear, looks like it has boobs.

Andy got them a couple of R2D2 spinning, screaming light up things. Thank goodness, all of this stuff was given to them at the end of the trip. They did get balloons, which had the Mickey inside the balloon, and it lit up. Super cool.

We did in fact have to carry the boys out. Dax almost slept by being carried. I had him for a while, but then Ken took him. Of course, Bobby wanted to be carried, too. Luckily, he didn’t mind being on my shoulders, which is so much easier to do.

Our day at the parks came to an end around 9. It was a long day for all. The boys fell asleep in the car on the way to the resort. Dax was tired enough that when I set him down to get him in his jammies, he stayed asleep. Both crashed out on their little mattress within a few seconds.

We clearly missed a lot of the park. But since we have the passes, my plan is to take them often.

The resort was not nearly as magical as Disneyland.

First off, the place was supposed to sleep 8. Apparently they didn’t mean comfortably. There were two rooms. Each room only had one bed. There was a pull out couch in the one room, and one in the living room. We ended up in the second room, Andy and Scott on the living room pull out. The place in general was crap. Ok, no, it was fine if it was just a hotel, but this was a resort where they want gobs of money so you can come back several times in the year. There was a shotty bathroom, only so so facilities, and over all, not worth the money they wanted Ma and Pa Brenan to invest.

Friday morning came much to quickly. I had not slept well, having to get up a couple times in the night to first, put Dax back on the mattress, and to cover them both twice. It was also incredibly uncomfortable, so I was sore, tired, and cranky come Friday morning.

We went to Coco’s with Grandma and Grandpa. Andy and Scott stayed behind. It was a good breakfast. They happened to have a pancake meal that looked like Mickey. So Dax ate the ears and then told us that he couldn’t hear anymore. He then ate one of the eyes and declared that Mickey was now a Cyclops. LOL!!

We got back, and I got the boys in the room. Andy, Grandma and Grandpa were sitting out at this patio area outside the room. I finally was sitting down to look on my computer for 5 minutes when Ken came in all gruff and told me I needed to go outside to talk with everyone. I was annoyed at the assault and the fact that I was ordered to go instead of him telling me what was going on, I was angry.

I went out and Andy was telling us that apparently Scotty went home. He had suffered a super severe anxiety attack. He has been getting these for a bit now, and they seem to be getting worse. The circumstances of the trip, the not being able to really “escape” and all factors contributed. I can so understand. Look, I love my inlaws, but it is chaotic. When we all get together, it is a lot of energy spent. So Scotty had to deal with his father in law, who often spouts off with his conservative crap (luckily, Scotty was gone for the one on Saturday, but I will get there). He then has to deal with Ken and I and two wild kids. Shoot, I would be stressed, too! Oh, and I was!

While sitting out there with them, we got on the topic of schedules and routine and how certain people are more ok with changes. It was pointed out that Bobby gets shy around folks and lately has been quite clingy with me. I was impressed with him in how much he hung out with everyone this weekend, but at Disneyland especially, he didn’t want to ride with other people. He wanted me. We talked about his sensitive nature, and then Ken said things he should not have said.

He proceeded to tell his parents and brother that it was my fault Bobby was this way. He told them that when he was a baby, I coddled him a bit more than I did with Dax. He said it was because of him being a first born, but essentially chalked it all up to me being an overly protective mother.

I was crushed. I was angry. I was sad. I wanted to take the boys and go home. Scotty was allowed to run, why wasn’t I?

The rest of the day, I was upset. To make matters worse, every plan we had, I was not consulted. And when I voiced an opinion, I was vetoed. I wanted to feed the boys. Nope, let’s go on this boat first. I wanted to let them nap. Nope, we needed to leave now. Everything I wanted to do, it didn’t matter. Even Andy mentioned to me that I seemed to be vetoed on a lot of things that day.

We did do a bunch of fun things. We went down to the pier. We went on a ferry (a short on to Balboa island). The boys went on a Ferris wheel and we played in the arcade. Turns out, Dax is not ready to play skee ball.

We went to the grocery store to get provisions for dinner and breakfast. I volunteered to make spaghetti. I only did this so I could have control of something.

There was some kind of campfire event that night at 6. We were going to go this, but Andy started looking it up, and it looked like it might be farther away than I wanted to walk to. I also was concerned that the boys would not enjoy it, and that I would have to carry a cranky kid back to the room. So I said we shouldn’t go. I was ignored.

We walked over to the fire pit, which was closer than we thought, but still kind of far. No one was there. No fire, no smores. A couple of people showed up, and they didn’t know about this campfire event. Great. Luckily, there was a giant sand pit near by, so I took the boys to play. There also was a bench, so I could sit and watch. I was miserable.

Ken came down at one point. We could have talked about things, but he was too interested in finding out what happened to the campfire. He knew I was upset, yet I was frustrated that he didn’t seem to want to talk it out. I even tried to bring it up. He seemed oblivious to my attempts.

Turned out, the guy who does the campfire was out sick. Lovely. We had trekked out there for nothing. Thank goodness my kids are such good sports.

We went back to the room where the boys watched the rest of Up. Then they went to bed. Thankfully, pretty easily. Then everyone watched Monsters Vs Aliens. I have seen the movie 100 times, and trust me when I say, I didn’t need to see it again unless it was background noise.

We went to bed where I continued my streak of uncomfortable sleeping.

The next morning, Grandma and Grandpa had to go to a 90 minute presentation. Basically, in order to stay there, they had to do the sales crap. They had to be there at 10. it was 5 minutes away. It was now 9:30, and Grandpa was anxious to get going. Grandma was still drinking her coffee. They started to bicker. Both were being cranky. It didn’t help, though, that Andy and Ken seemed to take Grandpas’s side. I had to point this out to both of them after they left. Thankfully, they understood what I was saying.

We took the boys to the crappy parkette they had there. For a family resort, the facilities were not fab. We went by the pool, we played with giant chess pieces, looked at coy, and wandered the grounds. Luckuly, Grandma and Grandpa did not invest, although, it was close.

It was now 11:30, and I was determined to make the boys nap today. I fed them and put them down. Grandpa seemed annoyed they were napping, as he wanted to go to the tide pools. I didn’t care. We could go later. We let them sleep until 2.

We went down to Crystal Cove beach and looked at the tide pools. I managed to not only find the first life forms, but noted they were hermit crabs (a lot of them) and didn’t run screaming! YAY!

We walked all around the beach there, and it was super pretty. I have not had time to upload those photos yet. I had taken 400 at Disneyland and on Friday. I haven’t even gone through all of those!

We then pilled in the car and drove to Vista. Apparently we were going to see where Grandpa grew up. Mind you, the house is gone, and the avocado orchard is now a housing complex, but we went there in raining dark to “see” it. The boys were such good sports. Me? I was quiet.

We stopped at some random Mexican food place for dinner. Andy ordered a pitcher of margaritas. Ken also ordered me shots of Chambord to put in the margaritas. I was pretty drunk by the time we left.

The drive back almost put the boys to sleep, but they stayed awake mostly. We got back and they fell asleep pretty quickly. I started working on pictures. It was at this point that all hell broke loose.

Grandpa was watching Fox news. I don’t know what happened, but it was mentioned and next thing you know, Andy, Ken and Grandpa are arguing politics. In all fairness, Andy and Ken were extremely calm. Grandpa was an asshole.

He was condescending. He was arrogant. He was a racist ass. He actually believes that Obama surrounds himself with communist advisors. He also believes that Fox news is the only true news channel and that they are not skewed to the right. He thinks Glen Beck is the only one who gets things right. He thinks black people are a problem. He fears for my children’s future for some reason.

I didn’t care that he was this stupid. I already knew this. I cared more about how he went about informing us of this. He told Andy and Ken they should watch more Fox News. Ken pointed out he already does. He acted like they didn’t know anything about both sides, which isn’t fair being that Ken not only listens to gobs of conservative talk radio, he reads up a lot on stuff. Ken was quite educated on the topics. Yet he treated Ken like a child. At one point, he said something, and then followed it up when Ken answered “right” that he was just testing him.

He continued with his arguments, and whenever Andy and Ken agreed, he made this big show of relief. But when they disagreed, he pretty much told them how disappointed he was in them.

He went on to say the war was Obama’s problem. When it was pointed out that Bush got us there, he quickly told them to keep Bush out of this. What the hell????

It was awful. They went on for 90 minutes. He was so rude about the whole thing. He refused to listen to their points and statistics, he only wanted them to listen to him. He thinks Jon Stewart is full of shit. He agrees with tea parties.

After he went to bed, Andy and Ken knew how annoyed I was. I had checked out, sitting at my computer, trying hard not to tell him to keep his bullshit away from my kids. I was most annoyed at how he felt his two grown sons were idiots.

I told Andy and Ken all of this. They agreed with what I was saying. I told them political debate is fine, when all sides respect each other. There was no respect on his side. He was just spouting off like Rush or Glenn.

Apparently on the drive home, Andy brought all of this up again with him and he had not realized how annoyed I get at these kind of talks. He doesn’t bring this stuff up in front of Scotty because it upsets him. Now he knows it upsets me just as much. He was very sorry. He also was less cranky in the car ride home. I am hoping he was just a little drunk from dinner and just passionate.

That was Andy’s favorite thing. He loved seeing his dad now feel the same kind of passion and fear that Andy has felt for the last 8 years when Bush was in office. Andy pointed out it was refreshing to be on the other side and to hopefully show his father how upset and hurt he was for a long time.

Look, I may not like Bush. I may love me some Obama. I think most politicians are annoying and find most of the process irritating. I think people are too vocal in their displeasure with their elected officials and don’t let them try to do their job. Look, we voted them in. Let them try.

Luckily, I had filled Ken in earlier in the afternoon about how he had really hurt my feelings the day before. He had not realized that is how the whole thing came out. We talked a bit, and he assured me I was the best mom he has ever seen. That night, we continued our discussion. It was good since I was able to explain a lot in terms of Brenan crazy along with how I feel so ignored on these kind of trips. I don’t think I need to be the only one making decisions, but let’s face it, if I am going to be mostly in charge of the kids, I want more of a say.

Sunday morning, the grandparents and Andy left quite early. They had a long drive ahead of them. We took the boys to the pool. It was nice. No one was there, and the water was a good temperature. We also went in the Jacuzzi. It was a good morning. We got home before 10.

The dogs were so excited! The cats were so excited! Our house was all kinds of happy.

My parents came over right when we got home. They needed a kid fix. They also got to meet Luna. Luckily, Luna was charming and sweet. Their visit was good as I think that got out the rest of their energy. The boys crashed out in a nap in their own beds. Ken and I caught up on some tv. It was a relaxing afternoon.

The boys were clearly coming down from quite the weekend. They were pissy at each other, fighting every second. It was rough. We had them play outside, and Bobby actually threw the toy lawnmower at Dax. Not good.

I baked a cake, hoping this would be one of those happy things for the boys. They still whined about everything under the sun. We put them to bed and Dax cried himself to sleep when he was denied the “milk with a lid in the kitchen”.

Our bed looked so inviting all day. I was so happy to finally crawl into it. It was such a shame I had to get up.

So now, I am at work, staring at a stack of statements I don’t plan on sending out, but I am keeping on my desk so it looks like I am busy. I really should have taken today off. It would have allowed me to unpack, and to get some rest so that I was ready to decorate for Christmas.

I have gone back and forth in my head about a tree. I had said no because of Luna and money. But I am wondering if I spoke too soon. Then again, money is a big deal. I want to get the kids bikes. Actually, all of the presents I want to get shouldn’t be that much. Bike, should be the most, with like $75 each. Then a soccer ball? Can’t be much. Plus, a couple of other small things. I don’t plan on spending more than $300. Presents for family, just web cams, so nothing fancy. I think if I get a small tree, it isn’t too bad. We will see. A lot depends on how much Ken makes this weekend, and if he gets paid anymore this month.

Yes, this week will be hectic. Ken has a birthday party Friday evening. Then on Saturday, he has the big Manhattan Beach tournament. I hate these tournaments. Ken doesn’t eat, rest, hell, he hardly pees. It isn’t good for him. Plus, it is an all day affair. Plus, he has to get the food to sell, and he has to clean up. It is all a big hoopla. Plus, with him needing to do a birthday party on Friday, he is going to be uber stressed. Honestly, it is getting to the point where December is bitter sweet for me. I love the holidays, I love all the stuff, but yet Ken is always at tournaments and the stress of me trying to figure out those Saturdays is annoying. I know, I should probably not get upset. It is his one livelihood, but it gets old. I do hope that when the boys start playing soccer he doesn’t miss a game for a tournament.

I wish I was crafty. I wish I had money, too. I would love to get a bunch of art supplies and invite a bunch of people over to make holiday crap. Kind of like a holiday party with a theme. It would allow the kids to play, and it would kind of be like my present to my friends. We have tables and chairs. I just need a fun idea. Hmm..if I was really smart, maybe I should just buy a bunch of plain stockings. Then some decorations. Tell everyone to bring a bunch of little toys to fit in the stockings that we can give to a charity. We could take the stockings to the children’s hospital or something. It would give our kids a sense of giving back at Christmas. Maybe I will plan for it better next year?

I suppose I should work on something. I have to figure out this program in which we are going to start sending invoices electronically to one of our larger customers. We have tried to set it up since 2002. Yes, you read that right. So now, I took it on myself to get it done. I am not proud, but I will be if it works. I don’t have the mental ability this morning, but I am going to try anyway. I need to be distracted from life right now. I have too much I need to do when I get home, and too much to do between now and Christmas. I am glad I get a week and change off. I really don’t want to go anywhere.

Ok, I just downloaded a crap load of stuff for this testing. It is gobs of data, and most of it, I am pretty sure I don’t do anything with as it is all programming crap. I think my plan is to hit up my girl in IT this afternoon to see if she can make sense of some of it. I am kind of the contact for this, but she really has to do the behind the scenes on the database stuff. I think she is just glad I have taken it on to get them to send me the right stuff.

Sigh. It is amazing how much sucking up some people do. I have sat here, listening to my two neighbors chat away all morning about the things they are getting the VP of finance for his Grandpa Shower. It is nice to see so many people have so much disposable income in order to get stuff for a man to give to his son when this man makes more money than my entire department combined. Mind you, we have a girl in our own department that just became a grandmother this year, yet we didn’t do anything for her. It just drives me crazy. Look, the generosity is nice, but until you are universal about it, then all it looks like is you are sucking up to the boss. So not interested.

Tomorrow is my slightly hectic day. I get my H1N1 shot. I also have a meeting at 2. I hate that since I know it will go long. Plus, I just end up sitting there, listening. It has only a little bit to do with me, and realistically, not enough to warrant me being on the phone.

I am thinking I need to do something little for the kids at daycare. Plus, something nice for the boys to give Maria.

My day is now going crazy slow. Luckily it is almost noon. I can go online, dink around, and then read my magazine. It is the yearly issue in which it has the list of folks who died this last year. It is all kinds of crack to a death hag such as myself.

As much as I know I have things to do when I get home, I may actually take today and just sit. I know that this free time is precious this week.