GOING! :)

Now that I live in West I pass by M'Ellen's house on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I am usually in a hurry to get to work or someplace so I never stop. But I think of her and her family often as I pass. Also when I'm at work I think of them often because they attend dance classes at the dance studio next to my place of employment.

So, for the most part not a day goes by that I don't think, however briefly, of them.

The other day I was on my way to Kennewick to sign the papers for my new apartment. I was passing by and thought for a moment that I saw M'Ellen's car. I thought about waving but realized it wasn't her car after all because there was no "Human milk for Human babies" bumpersticker. Oh well.

I went on to the apartment and signed the papers. Afterwards I was looking for a cheap basket for a Christmas gift basket and remembered a new 'seconds' store that I had not yet ventured into. It's called Cheapskates and it's near the Winco in Kennewick. Since I was just around the corner I decided to check it out. As I pulled in the car ahead of me looked familiar. It was M'Ellen's car complete with breastfeeding propaganda!!

Yeah! I would get to see M'Ellen! But the guy who stepped out of the car and walked into the break shop next door wasn't M'Ellen. It wasn't even Pat. It was some guy who worked there I guess. I resisted the urge to follow him and investigate further.

That was my closest M'Ellen sighting. :)

Oh, and the new store was WEIRD! Cool, inexpensive, scratch and dent furniture interspersed with torn boxes of Cheerios and feminine hygiene products for a dime!! LOL Very interesting.

The other day the kids and I went to The Bookworm. I have great childhood memories from there and wanted to introduce my kids to it. No one was disappointed. We each found something to enjoy. For me it was Simple Abundance.

I had heard of this book before. Probably multiple times. I can't really tell you exactly where. I just know I have. It seems like a book that a lot of people I know must have read. At first I was disappointed to see that it was written as a one chapter a day book. And that it started on Jan 1st. As usual I said 'To hell with that. I'm reading it straight through!" And I have been.

I'm really loving it. There's a lot of stuff in there that I needed to hear. Stuff that's extremely timely. So my plan now is to read it by the first of the year (a week to go, I should make it) and then start reading it again day by day in my new house.

Only a week to go to the new house and to not working anymore! Yeah, so much change. I love it!

I don't think I have blogged here about the best part of my husband's trucking adventure yet, have I? Shawn has a daughter Jasmine. She lives in Ohio with her mom and siblings and we pay child support for her every month. Shawn had only seen her once in the hospital, when she was born, and we had pretty much given up hope of really seeing her because of the distance, financial difficulties, and our own inability to make that a big enough priority to make it actually happen.

Well a little bit ago Shawn was trucking through Ohio. He looked up his ex in the local phone book and called her. She was totally receptive to him coming over and meeting his daughter. Just talking to Shawn about it before hand it was clear to see that this was going to be a life changing event.

And it was. Jasmine was a little shy at first meeting the daddy she had never known. But she warmed up to him a lot. He says she's a lot like Kathrynn, loves to talk, very friendly. He spent as much time as he could there soaking up nine years worth of daddy time. Now he gets to go back for Christmas day. He couldn't make it here. He's stuck on the road. But his next drop is in PA and OH is only a few hours out of the way. Since his drop isn't due until Tuesday he gets to spend some more time with his daughter. It's been so great for him.

We're sad he's not here for Christmas. But we get him every other year. I'm sure it means a lot to Jasmine to be with her daddy on Christmas and we're glad he's not alone somewhere in a truck stop!

Ok, to be honest there's a part of me that's insanely jealous. The whole hanging out with the ex thing bothers me on a low primordial level. The thought of them 'catching up' and 'having closure' in a 4 hour phone call tweaks a little bit of the territorial part of my monkey brain. But I'm making a concerted effort to ignore all of that and be the good little wifey back home. I really am.

I withdrew Kathrynn from school today. And then they canceled it (in mourning?). Kind of an anticlimactic last day.

Kathrynn was sad to be leaving. All I've heard since day one was how much she didn't like that school and over the last week there has been much excitement as her last day grew ever nearer. But when hit with the reality of it all she was sad. I was going to write that I don't understand her. But I do. I can totally relate. Change is scary even when it's change for the better. And every time we forge ahead we also leave things behind and unfortunately sometimes that sucks.

She's glad she doesn't have to go tomorrow though. LOL

Finally got approved for an apartment!! WAHHOOO!!! So as of the first of the year I'm outa here and headed to the exotic land of... (drum roll) ... Kennewick! Yes, that's right I will once again be enjoying Kennewick living. Ok it's not the big move I was looking for but it's out of my parents house and that's a plus.

So today's my anniversary. Eight years. Wow.

My husband is someplace between Alabama and California. I don't feel hugely sentimental about him not being here for our anniversary. I might as well get used to it. If he continues with this trucker thing I will have to pick and chose my holidays and with our anniversary, Christmas, and his birthday all in such quick succession I imagine Christmas will usually win. That's OK.

This year he won't be home for Christmas. He should be home for his birthday in Jan though since he also has an eye appointment around then. The suckiest part about him not being here for Christmas is that I won't be here either! I put in my notice at work (YEAH!!) telling my boss I would be leaving at the end of the year. So apparently as 'punishment' I'm working swing shift (3pm-11pm) on Christmas Eve and Christmas. :( But at least I will be here Christmas morning.

I'm also probably working New Years. My co-worker requested that I work because I'm the 'coolest person to work graveyards in a long time'. Since I haven't had any better offers I may as well get paid to stay up all night.

It's got to be the wackiest holiday season ever! LOL

I've been wasting a lot of money lately. I hate to think about it. It's very depressing. Just a short tally of the money I have wasted this week...

$80 at the casino. A waste because at one point I was up $245 and didn't walk out.
$120 in overdraft fees at the bank.
$20 application fee for an apartment that denied my application.
$50 deductible on my cell phone to get a new one because I dropped mine in the toilet. A waste because the next day after fully drying out my cell phone works fine but the insurance company won't reverse the order for a new one.
$1.50 for the privilege of being told no (see Bank post below).

That's all I can think of right now but that's $271.50 spent on absolutely nothing! To put that into perspective my last paycheck was $272!!

Grrrr...

A while back I switched from Yakima Federal, a small credit union which I loved, to US Bank, a large nationwide business of a bank which I thought I could handle.

I hate them.

I signed onto my online account the other day to find it $167 overdrawn! Somehow I had overdrawn my account. I didn't realize this was possible without checks! It wasn't possible at my old bank. When you ran out of money they didn't let you keep spending as they apparently do at US Bank. I called the customer service number to figure out how the hell that happened. She said that I had had outstanding charges and then I took money out of the ATM. Then when the charges went through they overdrew my account. So the lemonade I bought at the mall now cost $35 and the extra $7 I spent at Lane Bryant was now $37! $120 worth of fees later And I was dumping more than half of my paycheck into the bank just to bring the balance up to $0.

I asked the customer service rep. Why they would continue to let me spend money I don't have and she said they figured I knew how much money I had. Um... if I knew why would I incur $120 worth of fees? Just for fun? I asked her at what point they would have started declining me money and she said at about $1000! $1000!!!!! Oh my god!! Unbelievable.

Last night when Shawn and I were out I needed more money so I thought I would see if I could take money out of my account. Knowing full well the balance was zero. Nope. It denied me. No big surprise. But today when I checked my account online I was $1.50 overdrawn! Apparently they charged me $1.50 for the privilege of being told no!

I hate big banks. Too many rules I don't understand. I hate learning shit the hard way.

Lets just say I won't be going into stripping professionally. ;) Or if I do I will make it a rule not to get rip-roaring drunk before hand. :) We went to the Out&About (Shawn's idea I swear!) and drank about 6 too many Long Islands. I actually got cut off!! I've never been cut off before. The bartendress was very nice about it though. I asked for two drinks and she asked who they were for. I told her they were for me and my husband. She said "How about one for your husband and water for you?" LOL So I said OK and drank water. I was WAY too drunk evidenced by the fact that I spilt about half of his drink trying to walk back to the table. And apparently I spilled the rest of it by tipping it over at the table though I have ABSOLUTELY no recollection of that!

We stayed the night at a motel. I had packed my boots and the rest of my outfit (I did try to photograph the rest of it but decided none of the photos were appropriate to post) I didn't get to do a strip tease because standing up was hard enough. Dancing was not an option. LOL But Shawn LOVED the outfit and the boots. ;) It's no ones business and I probably shouldn't post it but 'nothing' happened last night because we both passed out awaking this morning still in my boots! LOL

Oh I had a second all new experience too. Barfing. Well barfing from alcohol. Never done that before. Can't say I ever want to again. And then an hour later having dry heaves and barfing up bile. Incredibly reminiscent of morning sickness! Yech!

Note to self: Alcohol is a bad BAD thing!