Sistah Pat

The Go-Go Chick Award is given to those who make me feel exhausted just reading their posts!  “I have to get up at 4:00, work out on the rowing machine for an hour, breastfeed the baby, wake up the hubby and iron the kids clothes while I’m fixing them breakfast, take them to school and then head to the office where I do the work of twenty five people and eat lunch on the treadmill, come home and help the kids with homework while fixing a low fat, low carb, heart healthy dinner!”

If you’ve received this award, it’s because you are Da Bomb!!! You have a LOT to be proud of!  Even though your life is incredibly full and your cup overfloweth, you still manage to exercise and eat healthy.  YOU just totally ROCK!

Today is a go-go day.  Work, faculty meeting, drive halfway home to tutor for home/hospital student, turn around and drive back to work for ROTC meeting.  Ought to have me running from 7:00 to 7:00.

Or, it could be that I’m a go-go girl because of upcoming plans.  DH and I decided to get away for a few days.  We have a long weekend coming up the first week of November.  I know he wants to go to Tunica, Mississippi and I’ve been reluctant to do so.  But, I called one of the caseenos down there and we have enough points for one night free and the others at half price so I booked us a room.  We’ll head down there on Thursday, Nov. 5th and return on Sunday, Nov. 8th.

I talked to Mom and she’s really looking forward to us taking her to our place in Florida for Thanksgiving so we’ll be heading down there two weeks after the Tunica adventure.  I haven’t been down there since June.

Lots to keep me busy.  Weight is at 185.5 this morning.  Won’t say I had a perfect day yesterday because I didn’t exercise but I ate well so I feel pretty good about it.  Even when dinner didn’t turn out, I stuck to it.  I fixed Ginger Grilled Chicken Breast with Snow Peas.  They didn’t have the brand of snow peas I usually get so I had to buy a different brand.  They were stringy and tough.  Yecchh!  I ate the dish but wound up picking all the snow peas out of it and just eating a bit of the chicken and whole wheat linguini that make up the rest of the dish.  Without the peas, there wasn’t much to recommned it.  I filled the void with an apple and a salad.

Looks like exercise is going to be 20 minutes or so on the treadmill before I go to work because I know I won’t feel like doing it after a killer day like the one that lies ahead. 

Have a wonderful day, chickies!

Got one perfect day behind me, now I just need to keep it up.  I’ve got a plan for today.  Taking a hard boiled egg, a single serving tomato juice, a sandwich of whole grain bread with lean ham and an apple to work with me.  Going to walk on the treadmill as soon as I get home.

I went to Whole Foods yesterday looking for greek yogurt but couldn’t bring myself to pay $2.50 per carton for it.  Right next door, there was a fabric shop.  One of only a handful left in Louisville.  I decided to go in and check out the fabric for reupholstering the chair in the RV.  I found one fabric that would work for $45.00 per yard.  Found another for $35.00 per yard and a rather flimsy possibility for $25.00 a yard.  Then I wandered into the clearance area and found a good possibility marked down from $45.00 a yard to $5.00.  There was only six yards left on the bolt so I bought it all.  I’m getting closer and closer to tackling that job.  I’d be really happy to get it done for $30.00!  I even have enough fabric to redo a couple pieces of trim so that the chair will look like it belongs in there.  I’ve tackled much bigger jobs in the past but it’s been a long time.  Haven’t reupholtered anything for at least seven or eight years.

I’m off to the shower and then I’m going to enjoy another perfect day!

That’s what it feels like. 

Waiting for the other shoe to drop….
Waiting for my ship to come in…
Waiting for the dust to settle…

Yeah, it feels like I’ve been waiting to exhale. 

How many times do we complain about waiting in line?  Griping and whining about how we don’t have time for it?  Don’t have time to wait.  I’m tired of waiting.  I have to get moving.  I’ve waited long enough.  How about some chiches about time? 

Better late than never….
There’s no time like the present….
Time waits for no man…

I’ve been stalled on this diet thing forever.  My life has been stalled forever.  Not that I’m not busy.  I’ve got lots of stuff to keep me busy but I’m just

running in place…
spinning my wheels…
running hard and getting nowhere…

I was sitting in the spa this morning thinking about going shopping today.  Needing to pick up some dress pants that aren’t so tight.  What’s that about?  I have lots of dress pants.  Lots of tight dress pants.  I think it’s time to get off my butt and do something about that.  Then I thought about going out to dinner with my friends this week.  And a potluck luncheon at school.  And, of course, Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  In fact, the entire holiday season is right around the corner.  I almost decided to wait until the new year to start getting back in shape.  Wait a minute…that’s three months.  Three more months of procrastination.  Is that crazy or what? 

So, I’m doing it.  I’m starting right now.  I’m planning on boiling some eggs to take to work next week.  Fixing a nice dinner of Thai Beef and String Beans.  With a salad.  And I’m going upstairs and uncovering my treadmill.  Again.

There’s no time like the present…
Better late than never…
Time waits for no man…

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

And my all time favorite.  JUST DO IT.

10:30 a.m. update - Weighed myself, 186. (Cripes!!) Put on a horrible orange tank top, bright blue capris, a red sports bra and hot pink shoes.  Gathered a few old friends to help me (Enrique Iglasias, Rob Thomas, Pink Floyd and the Blue Man Group) and headed upstairs.  Moved the boxes of Christmas decorations to make a path, moved the rocking chair that went up there to make room for the sleeper sofa that went to Florida, moved six suitcases and three boxes of winter clothes and made it to the treadmill.  Moved my aerobic steps and a box of books off my treadmill and walked for thirty minutes at a 2% incline and 3.0 mph.  Not much, I know, but my calves were burning, my heart rate went up to 130 and I developed a light sheen of sweat on my brow.  Oh, and a headache.

Thought about some realistic goals while I was walking.  Decided that I want to be in the 170s by Thanksgiving.  That should be easy enough if I keep at it.  Only 6 pounds and a month to do it.  I’m not going to deny myself the potluck, or dinner with the girls, or Thanksgiving dinner.  Maybe I’ll be so motivated by the time those events get here that I won’t want to eat a bunch of junk but it doesn’t matter.  It’s all about the day to day routine.  I know if I do what I’m supposed to everyday, those random events won’t make much difference in the long run.

I went online and printed out some coupons for Oikos yogurt, threw out some flat iron steak to thaw for dinner, boiled a dozen eggs, and made a grocery list. 

It’s really not that difficult.  JUST DO IT.

3:30 update - Went shopping and got lots of healthy stuff.  Came home and cleaned the bathroom and did a load of laundry.  DIL dropped off DGD, Holly, and said she wants to divorce DS.  Go for it, girl!  Don’t know why they didn’t do it a long time ago.  They haven’t lived together for more than two years.  She has a boyfriend and he’s moved in with his girlfriend in Florida.  Doesn’t sound like much of a marriage to me. 

Now I need to get things prepped for dinner.  Think I’ll post tonight’s dinner on My Favorite Recipes category.  It’s really good and really healthy.  It’s from The South Beach Diet cookbook so the focus is more on lowering carbs than calories but it still comes in fairly low at 340 calories a serving.  Leaves plenty of room for a salad and light dessert.

 DH is stretched out in bed and I have my alarm ringing in my ear.  Yeah, it must be Friday.  Gonna be a long one.  I have to teach ESS for an hour after school and then I have to go see my home/hospital kiddo after that so I won’t be getting off until 5:00.  Hope the trip to school goes better today.  I was late yesterday and had to sign the dreaded red sheet.  I was only two minutes late but the regular sign in was already taken up and the red one was glaring at me.

DS used my car so much that I told him he had to keep it gassed up.  As a result, I haven’t had to put gas in it for months.  Now that he’s gone, I’ve got to get used to it again.  Headed out yesterday morning and the gas tank was empty.  I had to stop and that took at least five minutes.  Went up the road a bit and came upon a wreck and traffic was slowed down.  There goes another five.  Then, because I was running later than usual, I got behind a school bus that was stopping at every corner and lost another few minutes.  Finally got around it and came upon the remnants of a house fire about a mile from the school.  At least ten emergency vehicles blocking the road and traffic being directed around the scene one lane at a time.  Hope no one was hurt.  Even after all that, I managed to walk in the office at 7:32 but the red sheet was already waiting.  First time this year that I’ve had to sign in late.  sigh…

DH called from our place down in Florida.  Said it was 80 degrees and sunny.  Said he’d already unloaded the truck and was going to take a long, hot soak in the clawfoot tub and get a good night’s sleep.  Anyone seen that commercial of the redneck hot tub?  hee, hee!

Okay, let me get this day started so I can get it over.  Have a wonderful Friday, girls!

The kitchen clock is tick tocking away.  I never noticed it before.  Everything seems so quiet this morning.  I know it’s psychological but nevertheless, it really seems quieter since DS left yesterday.

In this melange of assorted family, it all adds up to chaos.  Andrew and Steven live with us.  Oldest DS has been here for more than a year.  With a cat, and DGD, Holly, is here whenever he spends time with her.  Youngest DS is here almost all the time and it’s only been recently that he stopped caring for Jake and Scout everyday.  Then there’s his dog, the twin’s cat, and last but certainly not least, there’s DH.  Ohh, and me.  I suppose I add to the chaos.

Oldest DS packed up his panel truck and headed for Florida yesterday.  He’s going by our cabin in Madison and dropping off a sleeper sofa, a dinette, a bunch of cabinets and assorted odds and ends.  His stuff is all going with him.  He left yesterday and the house seems so much quieter.  Of course, it isn’t but it sure feels that way.  Feels empty and a lot more roomy.  I hope he gets there safely and finds what he’s looking for with his girlfriend of the last year or so.  Lots of love goes with him and I’ll miss him but it still feels good to get a little piece of my house back.  There’s been a lot of tension between him and DH, especially the last six months or so.

My goal is to get my home back by the first of November.  Youngest DS needs to go home.  We have a very close knit family and I know this is a difficult time for him so I haven’t pushed him very hard.  I love him and know he feels lonely and displaced.  He stayed here in the beginning of this mess so I could help with the kids and because he didn’t trust DIL but things are not going to change significantly for a long time and he needs to begin rebuilding his life around something other than DIL and his kids.  He’s over here almost all the time although he does go home occasionally.  My house is a LOT closer to his job and he has DH and I here.  It’s hard to find fault with him because he works like a dog and does everything he can to help but it doesn’t do him any good to stay here.  He needs to learn to deal with his life as it now stands.  I can only imagine how alien his home must feel to him.  Kind of like my house this morning.  Very, very quiet.  And, for him, very, very lonely. 

It’s hard to imagine that it’s only been a little more than a week since he had the kids over here everyday.  I guess, in some ways, it’s been easier for him to adjust because things have changed fairly gradually.  He had a home and a family, then he had the kids all the time, then she had the kids but he watched them everyday, all day long, then it became every day but just for a couple of hours and now it’s just once a week.  In some ways, I suppose it’s been easier but in other ways, it just feels like a long, slow nightmare that just keeps getting worse.

I suppose, at some point, he need to set regular visitation.  We need to say, “This is when he has the kids.  Every week.  This is what it is.”  I know, however, that it’s going to be difficult for him.  It looks like he’s going to wind up getting them Saturday evenings, after work, keeping them Sunday and Sunday night and then taking them to school Monday mornings.  That’s the only day he has off.  DH needed his help last Sunday to work on his car and I wasn’t happy that he spent his only day off working on DH’s car from around noon to 7:00 p.m.  Had a word with DH and told him not to tie up ANY of DS’s Sunday because that’s his day to spend with the kids.  Of course, he countered with, “I know.  I felt bad about it but it was also the only day he could help me with my car and I couldn’t do it by myself.”

I’ve been blogging too long.  Gotta get moving.  Have a good one, Ladies!

Thanks, Sunnydaze, for nominating me for the Georgeous Blogger Award!  It had a .png extension so I’ve changed it to a simple jpeg picture so no one will get any pings from it.

Rules:

-Include the award on your blog or post
-Share with everyone six interesting facts about yourself
-Nominate as many bloggers as you like
-Be sure to link the nominees within your post
-Let them know that they received this award through their tagboards or private message them
-Share the love and link this post so that everyone will know the person whom you received your award from.

Six interesting facts about me:

1.  I love to travel, usually in a 37 foot RV.

2.  I love to cook (and eat).

3.  I’ve been married 40 years to my high school sweetie.

4.  I write.  All the time.  About anything.

5.  I have ten acres down in Florida and can’t wait to RETIRE down there.

6.  I’ve visited 44 states including Alaska and Hawaii, and five different countries.

Nominations
Susan
Joy
Brandie

I’ve really been out of commission for a long time.  Didn’t realize how long until I started trying to think of six interesting facts about myself and couldn’t think of any.  Anyway, this is what I came up with.  Pass it on ladies!

Killer Tuesday is more like it.  I have to work from 7:30 to 2:30 then have a mandatory faculty “book study” (like we don’t have enough to do without having to read books about how to be a great teacher) from 2:30 to 3:30.  I have to be at the home of my Hospital/Home school kiddo from 4:00 to 5:00 and then back to school for an ROTC Booster Club meeting from 5:30 to 6:30.  Looks like a twelve hour day from the time I leave for work until I get home.

I don’t like these mandatory book studies we’re having.  In theory, it sounds good.  Read a book on school time and then meet once a month for a “book study” session.  In reality, I read about half of it at home a couple of weeks ago and read the other half yesterday evening but found that I’d forgotten most of the first half.  (sigh)  I mean, really, how do you expect us to sit around reading books at work when I usually can’t even find time to go to the bathroom?

I hope oldest DS doesn’t move out today without me having a chance to say goodbye.  He was packing up his panel truck yesterday afternoon and getting ready to move to Florida with his girlfriend.  He moved in here a year and a half ago to stay “for a couple of months”.  I love him but will be sooo glad to see him moving out.  He’s supposed to take a sleeper sofa, dining room table and chairs and a half dozen cabinets and drop them off at the cabin for us.  I hope it all works out for him but I don’t put much stock in “internet romances”.  He and his girlfriend have only gotten together a few times but they talk and IM and visit on a web cam constantly.

He’ll be leaving Holly and the twins behind but I don’t think they’ll notice too much.  We’ve raised the twins for the last six years so they think of DH and I as their parents and Holly still lives with her mother.  True, she’s over here almost every weekend with her father but I’m usually the one who watches her.

I’d better hit the shower and get this day going.  I’d rather sit here and blog for a few more minutes.  Don’t really want to tackle today but I don’t have much choice.  The last thing I need is to start a killer day by running late.

Yep, the leaves are comin down!  I sat out in the spa yesterday and watched them.  I looked up and, for a moment, I thought it was a flock of birds way up in the sky but then I realized it was leaves, spinning and whooshing up to the sky on an updraft of wind.  It made me think of when I was a kid and we’d see so many birds flying south this time of year.

I remember sitting on top of my sliding board and watching clouds of birds that covered the sky in long black ribbons that seemed to go on forever.  Wonder why we don’t see that anymore?

I remember an abandoned piece of property with a ramshackle old barn that had several gnarly old fruit trees and my Mom would take us there to gather apples and pears in the fall.  We’d wrap the pears in newspaper and put them in boxes in the garage and it seems like we had pears forever.

I remember my biggest trick or trick ever!  I had a huge bag of goodies. My brothers and I were walking home and a bunch of teenagers ran up behind us, pushed me down and took my trick or treat bag.  My brothers took me home, dumped all their goodies on the table and we took turns choosing.  One for you, one for me, until we all had an equal amount and then my big brother gave me the last piece even though it wasn’t my turn to pick.  It was one of those peanut butter chewy things wrapped in waxy orange paper.  I didn’t even like them but I still remember him giving me the last piece.

I remember my grandmother’s jams and preserves.  Come to think of it, most of them seemed to be “pear based”.  Apple and pear preserves, plum and pear preserves and good old pear butter.

I remember standing over the heating vents in our kitchen with my dress billowing out like Marilyn Monroe on chilly autumn mornings and my mother saying, “Patricia Ann, if you don’t get moving right now, your brothers are leaving without you!”

I remember having to leave my warm, cozy bed to get ready for school.  I still have to leave my warm, cozy bed to get ready for school.  I still don’t like it.

I remember being twenty pounds lighter and the waistband of my pants feeling loose instead of tight.  I remember having two separate boobs instead of one continuous roll of fat across my chest and under my arms.  Wasn’t that long ago.  This time last year. 

I can’t go back to Grandma’s pear preserves and mama urgeing me out the door every morning but you would think I could get back to where I was last year.  Wouldn’t you?

What do you remember? 

This is for you, Susan.  It’s a rerun in more ways than one.  Seems like the newsletter is always a debaucle.  At any rate, sit back and enjoy the show from last February:

February, 2009 - I put in another long day yesterday.  Finished the school newsletter and will, hopefully, get it out today. I’m not really responsible for getting it copied and distributed.  The graphics department has to do that.  My part is DONE!  The principal was really happy about it.  That makes three newsletters down for the year and three to go!  I don’t know why it’s so hard to get anything done at school.  I’ve decided I’m going to keep track of what I do today and try to figure out where the time goes and what I can do to make it more manageable.

4:30 - OMG!  I’m so exhausted!  All I want to do is crawl up on the couch and die.  I tried to keep track of what I did today.  Here’s what I got:

7:30 - 7:45: Checked my mailbox, set up an account on a laptop for the attendance clerk because her PC went down - met with the principal to discuss printing out the newsletter, set up another account on a laptop for one of the counselors whose PC went out.

7:45 - 8:00 - Met with the department head of the graphics program and tried to break it to him (in a nice way) that the principal was NOT going to wait until next Wednesday for the newsletters to get printed and wanted them done on a copier so they could be distributed last period today (1,600 of them).  Dismantled and put away laptop, speakers, and projector used for a training yesterday evening.

8:00 to 11:00 - Checked my email - 23 new messages since yesterday afternoon - answered the ones that were red flagged and put my own red flags on the ones I needed to deal with today.  Set up a cart of 30 laptops for a teacher and delivered them to her room.  Taught my computer class (my kids were sooo good today, bless their little hearts!), met with graphics department head again (guess I didn’t handle the first meeting well because he came to my room and was really angry and defensive about copying the newsletters and pretty much said he had other priorities today). It occurred to me that I don’t get paid enough to deal with this kind of stuff so I told him I was just the messenger and he’d have to take it up with the principal. Went to a classroom and fixed a printer.  The principal summoned me to her office again because she’s NOT happy with the head of graphics and wants those damn newsletters to go out TODAY.  Asked if I’d show one of her secretaries how to run the newsletters through the copier and get some kids to fold them in half.  

Set up the copier with 11 x 17 parchment paper and showed the secretary how to place the front and back pages and run copies.  Showed her how to reverse the paper, place the two inside pages and run the parchment through again.  Told her we distribute them in stacks of 25 since that’s a pretty good average for most classrooms.  Told her to keep count by using tick marks for each set of 25.  She looked at me like she didn’t know what I was talking about.

“You know…like this…make a mark for 25, another mark for the next 25, and, when you’ve made four marks, make a slash through it for a set of 125.”

She gave me this totally puzzled look and said, “You mean each one of these marks are 125 papers?”

How can you not know how to do tick marks?  “No, each mark is 25 papers and each set of marks is 125.”

“I don’t understand that at all!  Why can’t I just write down 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150 and just keep going?”

“Ummm…that’s fine.  If that’s easier for you, that’s fine.  Whatever you need to do to keep track of how many you have.”

I watched her until she got the hang of it and then went to find some kids who were teacher aides or office aides to fold the newsletters.  Got the kids and showed them how to fold the newsletters and got them started.  Went to a classroom and showed a teacher and her students how to set up accounts on a really great history site.  Came back to the library to find the kids looking for me because the secretary had done 400 copies with the inside pages upside down.  WTF???  400 pages??? On expensive 11 x 17 parchment paper!  How can you not notice something like that for 400 pages???  And the kids were afraid to say anything.

Okay - I’m sure she feels bad enough.  I go in there and make sure she understands how to do them and wait while she makes another 100 copies to make sure.  She’s lost track of how many copies she’s made and I tell her not to worry about keeping track of that.  The kids can count them out into stacks of 25.  We’re in third period now and I need to find new aides to help with the folding.  I find a couple of kids and head back to the library to discover that the secretary accidently hit the 75% button and ran off 100 copies that have to be trashed.  Got her straightened out AGAIN and showed the kids what to do.  Went to teach a class and came back to find, (I swear to God!) that the secretary put the pages down on the wrong guide and there are 350 new pages with a 3 inch margin at the top and the print running off the page on the bottom.  

I can’t stand it.  I really can’t stand it!  Did she not notice this on the first 100 copies?  Surely to God she saw it on the next batch of a hundred!   What was she doing?  Reading a Harlequin romance as the pages floated one after another into the tray?   I decided that I’d better go to the principal and tell her I’m doing the copies myself and break the news that the entire morning has been wasted and we have 850 newsletters that are total trash and about 400 that are good.  I told her I would have the newsletters ready for last period.  That gave me 2 1/2 hours to get it done.

At this point, I gave up on trying to write down what I do all day.  Damn near killed my ass getting 1,600 newsletters printed, folded, and distributed but I got them done and didn’t hardly have enough energy left to drag my butt out to the car and drive home.  Had a carton of lite yogurt today and I’m really too tired to even be hungry.

Don’t have any wine in the house but a couple of dusty bottles of Maui Splash from a couple of years ago. They’re going in the freezer while I throw together a pot of loaded potato soup and then the wine and I are going to the spa.

Update - Our graphics department is done at the end of this year.  They’re being replaced.  We have a new magnet program coming in with a focus on medical technology.  The secretary is still at the school and is the one who didn’t order paper for this batch of newsletters.  They’re always trying to find something that she can do.

The uniboob is back.  You know, the one that extends from your left breast, under your arm and around the back to the right breast.  That obvious roll of fat that can only be hidden by some kind of tortureous bra full of wires and spandex tight enough to contain the Colorado River.  Even then, it doesn’t do anything but push the fat up into the underarm area.  Not for me.  I’ll just wear jackets for the time being.  No sheer blouses or fitted tops for you, Sistah Pat!  You better plan on covering up with a different jacket every day! 

DH and I were going to take the RV and go to Edinburgh this weekend.  I wanted to spend the weekend in that nice little RV park across the road from the outlet mall.  Edinburgh is a strange place.  There’s nothing there but a huge outlet mall, a lot of restaurants, and a couple of nice hotels.  I suppose people go up there and shop all day, go out to dinner and then crash at the Hilton Garden Inn.  It’s strange that they have this huge outlet mall and directly across the street is an RV Park hidden in the woods.  Right next to the RV park is a fence separating it from a pasture with horses and, on the other side, a corn field.  Weird.  At any rate, we just couldn’t work it out.

Went to the funeral home yesterday evening and visited with Rick and Pam.  Rick is taking his father’s death hard.  Of course.  We feel bad for him and the cold and rain didn’t do much to lighten the mood.  We had planned to go to Edinburgh as soon as I got home from work but yesterday was incredibly stressful and then we had the visit to the funeral home and it just kind of killed the mood.  This morning isn’t much better.  Still cold and gray.  DH got up early and had some coffee, read the paper and then went back to bed.  I don’t think he wants to drive up to Edinburgh and I’m not enthusiastic enough to change his mind so I guess we’ll just hang around here.

I showed my temper to the boss lady yesterday.  First time she’s seen it but I didn’t feel like being diplomatic and she deserved what she got.  I do a four page newsletter for the school.  It’s designed to showcase the school to the community.  Copies go to the kids and their parents and they get distributed to local businesses.  I work hard on it.  I beg people for articles about events that show our school in a positive light.  I want to have articles about honor’s kids who are chosen to go to leadership conferences and meet with the mayor.  I want articles about athletic trophies and honor roll kids and teachers receiving awards for outstanding events in the community.  Don’t know how it works everywhere else but, in Kentucky, kids pick their schools and we want to attract exceptional students and lots of them.  Our school budget is based on the number of students we serve.

The problem is, teachers are busy.  They don’t have time to write articles about the good things going on in our school and I don’t have time to be a reporter.  I do this newsletter voluntarily.  It’s not my job but I work hard on it and I’m pretty good at laying out an attractive spread that’s printed on parchment and looks good.  The principal loves it.  She really wants to keep it going and counts on me to get it out.  And I do.  But I don’t have time to do it at school and almost all of it is done on my own time.  Still…the principal is getting the nickname of “last minute Louise” because she always seems to be getting things done at the very last minute. 

Case in point…the newsletter.  She wants to approve it before it goes out and I understand that.  I do.  The problem is that she’s constantly making changes at the very last minute.  The Showcase of Schools is this weekend.  It began at 3:00 p.m. yesterday and runs through this evening.  The Showcase is an event where all the high schools and middle schools converge at the convention center and have booths where they try to recruit students for next year.  She wanted a big stack of newsletters at the booth to be distributed to families.  She’s clueless, however, about the amount of work that goes into getting it done.  I worked on it last weekend.  I finished it over the weekend and took it her for approval first thing Monday morning.  The only things missing were her “Message from the Principal” which takes up the first column on the first page and her “Calendar of Upcoming Events” which takes up the last column on the back page.  She looked it over and said, “This is great, Pat, but I’d like to include an article about the Freshman Academy and our Environmental Program.  I talked to those teachers a few days ago and asked them to write something.  Haven’t they given the articles to you?”

“No, I haven’t heard from them.  When did you ask them to do this?”

“I think it was last Monday.  Can you contact them and get those articles in this issue?”

“I can ask them but, in all honesty, if I include those articles I’ll have to delete some of the others and redo the layout to make the new articles fit in the space that’s available.  I know you want these to be ready on Friday and I still don’t have your “Message from the Principal” and “Calendar of Events and we’re looking at a lot of work in a short window of time.”

“I know.  I know you asked me for them a couple of weeks ago and I apologize for not getting them to you.  I’ll try to get them today but I’d really like for you to get the other two articles from Teacher A and Teacher B.  I think those things really need to be in the issue that goes to the Showcase and I really want these for Showcase.”

Okay…so I go to Teacher A and she’s fuming because she swears this is the first she’s heard about this and she doesn’t have time to write up an article and Teacher B is apologetic and says she’ll write up something and email it to me.  So I’m forced to “interview” teacher A and write the article myself and, in the time it took for me to interview her, she could have written it herself.  Teacher B sends me an article and I swear one of my students could have done a better job.  She also sends a photo that would really look good and I think we need to put the photo in but that’s going to create even more chaos with the layout.

I worked on the newsletter Tuesday evening and then finished it up when I was home with Revenge of the White Castle’s on Wednesday and took it to the principal first thing Thursday morning.  She liked the two articles and loved the picture of some of our kids posing with the Mayor but wasn’t happy that I’d taken out the article on one of our students winning a bunch or ribbons at the fair.  I told her I’d had to cut some things in order to get the new articles in and I figured that the kiddo winning ribbons at the fair was a good one to cut because her ability to bake a tasty pie and sew a nifty dress really didn’t have anything to do with the school.  Principal lady says she sees my point but the kiddo is such a wonderful kid and she’d really like to keep the article.  Again, she apologizes for not having her own articles ready and I remind her AGAIN that I still don’t have any parchment paper to print the newsletters on and her secretary hasn’t gotten back to me after she asked her to purchase it.  She says she’ll take care of it and sends me on my way.

Thursday afternoon, around 1:00, I get an email from Last Minute Louise with the Calendar of Events and the Message from the Principal which is -  get this -  two entire pages!  I run to her office and find that she’s left for the day. Thursday evening, at home,  I reworked the entire article, slashing and cutting like crazy to get it down to something manageable and still had to reduce the font in the entire newsletter to 8 points to get things to fit.  If you’ve never done any desktop publishing on Adobe Pagemaker, you wouldn’t understand what that entails but, take my word for it, it’s a monumental pain in the ass.

Friday morning, I’m back in her office and find that she won’t be in until late morning.  I go to the secretary and ask her if she has the parchment paper and she doesn’t know what I’m talking about.  In the meantime, I have classes to teach and I finally run back down to the office during my 20 minute lunch break to find Principal Lady sitting in the conference room with a couple of other teachers eating lunch.  I show her the newsletter and she says, “I’m eating lunch right now.  You can leave it here and I’ll try to take a look at it when I can.”  She gives me a nasty look as if I was somehow out of line to interrupt her lunch and the nasty look DID NOT sit well with me.

I said, “I didn’t get lunch today.  I’m on my lunchbreak right now.  I don’t have time to eat lunch and I didn’t have time to eat dinner last night.  In fact, I was up until 1:00 trying to get this newsletter done in time for the Showcase.”

Principal Lady said, “I really want it for the Showcase but if you can’t get it done in time.  We just won’t be able to have it.”

I said, “If I’d known you didn’t care if we had it for Showcase, I wouldn’t have given up every free minute I’ve had for the last week to work on it.  My part is done.  My part has BEEN done for more than a week.  In fact, I’ve had to do my part over and over again because no one else ever has their part done in a timely manner.  I’ve been run ragged trying to pull this thing together.  I don’t have the time or the energy to devote to something if it’s not important.  I’m done.  I’m finished.  I’M DONE!”  With that, I just turned around and walked away and left her sitting there with the newsletter on her desk and her jaw hanging on the floor.

It wasn’t five minutes later that she appeared at my desk apologizing and telling me how rough it’s been pulling this Showcase together and how no one wants to help with it and she’s been stressed to the limit. 

I said, “I know exactly what you mean.” 

She apologized again and said the last thing she ever meant to do was come across as unappreciative to me because she knows how much I do for the school and appreciates it more than she can say.  Said I just happened to come at a time when she decided she was actually going to take 15 minutes for herself and was not going to let anything or anyone intrude on her lunch so she could kind of relax and regroup to prepare for the Showcase.  She said the newsletter looked absolutely fantastic and she wanted to know how soon I could get three or four hundred copies to her.

I told her I didn’t even have paper.  I had, at most, less than a hundred sheets left from the last newsletter and her secretary said she didn’t know anything about it.

I swear.  She looked like she was going to cry.  I told her I’d make as many copies as I could using what paper I had and would have them on her desk before I left school.  She smiled and said, “I don’t guess I can talk you into coming down and helping out with the Showcase tomorrow, could I?”

I smiled and looked her square in the eyes and said, “Not a chance in Hell.”

We both started laughing.  I made 80 copies of the newsletter and left them on her desk.

DS surprised me yesterday.  He began talking about going back to school.  Looking at changing careers.  I think he’s been shocked at how many resumes he sent out and how he hasn’t heard anything.  A few days of working construction and not getting any bites to a position as a chef have gotten him thinking about making changes.  I wish he would.  He’s always had a good reputation in the restaurant industry but it’s highly demanding and I’d love for him to look in new directions.  In the space of a couple of years, he’s gone from a family man with custody of two beautiful kids and a  decent job as the head chef of a restaurant to an unemployed man who has lost his family, his car, and his dreams.  If there was ever a time to look at making serious life changes, it would be now.  I think it might restore some of his battered self esteem and help him look beyond his current situation.

Of course, he’s not unemployed.  He’s working but it feels pretty temporary.  He comes home covered in drywall dust and totally exhausted and I can’t see him doing this forever.  His boss is a good friend of his and will keep him working but it’s not really DS’s niche and so he still considers himself jobless.  If he’s not cooking, he’s not doing his thing.  I hope he can find another “thing” that isn’t so physically demanding and has a future to it.

In fact, he’s downright shocked that he hasn’t received a single bite and he must have sent at least 50 resumes to positions offered on Craig’s List.  He’s been replying to ads for months and he’s become convinced that he’s doing it wrong.  He clicks on “reply” on a listing and the email pops up but it’s not his email carrier so he copies the address line to his AOL email, copys the subject line, attaches his resume and sends it out.  I’ve checked how he’s doing it and it all seems correct but, like him, I’m really surprised that he hasn’t gotten a single reply.  I’m not sure how Craig’s List works but it seems like he’s doing everything correctly.

I called DIL last night and asked if DS could have the kids from 6:00 p.m. Saturday when he gets off work  and keep them until he drops them off at school Monday morning before going to work.  She seemed delighted.  I’m actually surprised she didn’t say he couldn’t keep them Sunday night because it’s a school night but she seemed okay with it.  In spite of everything, she knows he’s been the one who got them to school everyday for four years.  I know the deal about not letting him have them on school nights was just a ploy to force him to take them on weekends but, now that he’s working, weekends are about the only time he can spend with them.

DH and I were going to take off in the RV when I got home from work today but, last night, he told me that Rick’s father died.  Rick is a dear friend and we’ll be going to the funeral today.  I think….I don’t know if he got the news late or what but DH told me visitation and the funeral are today.  I’ll have to check that out.  It doesn’t even give me time to send flowers.  I don’t know how we missed hearing about it until the last minute.  The man was really struggling with Alzheimer’s and I guess it was expected.  Rick told me he wasn’t doing very well a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah, I guess I have to face the facts.  Summer is over and winter is chomping at the bit.  Woke up and decided to go out to the spa for a few minutes but the rain is really cold and I didn’t feel brave enough to run for the spa.  I’m not flexible enough to make the adjustment from a warm cozy bed to a dash in the cold rain within a ten minute timespan. 

After all the stress from yesterday, DH and I have decided to go off in the RV this coming weekend.  I’d like to leave Friday but I know DH has a lot of stuff to do here at home so it might be Saturday before we can get out of here.

Busy day today.  Aren’t they all?  I’ve got to go to work, finish up the school newsletter, get off work and bring the boys home and then rush over to teach my home school kiddo.  If I get home in time, DGS wants me to take him to Balfour to pick out his senior ring.  They’re open until 8:00 on Thursdays.

Not much else going on.  DS called his attorney again yesterday and the guy said, “You don’t have to sign anything.  All this stuff is already taken care of and you pay child support so she’s on her own about daycare.”  After he talked to his attorney, he called the caseworker and the guy said, “No, no.  All I need you to do is fill out a financial statement so we can apply for daycare assistance.  You’re not agreeing to pay for anything.  It’s just to see if you and Stacy qualify for assistance based on your joint income.”  He’s still not feeling comfortable with doing it, however.  It’s really difficult to trust these people anymore.  At any rate, it seems logical that I ought to call Stacy this evening and see about arranging visitation before he fills out anything.  It might make her a bit more flexible with what he wants if she needs him to fill something out.

Just called in sick.  I’ll get more work done that way.  :-)  I tossed and turned all night with stomach problems, headache, and (TMI) bowel problems…  We had White Castle hamburgers for dinner.  I can’t eat those things.  Another of DH’s plots to kill me.  “I know you’re exhausted, Honey.  Go get changed and eat dinner.  I bought White Castles!”  Of course, I didn’t have to eat them but I was so damn tired I didn’t feel like fixing anything else and they were there.  For those who don’t know about White Castles, they’re yummy, itty, bitty burgers that pack a lot of flavor into a small package.  People eat them by the sack and then frequently get hit with terrible indigestion and diarrhea.  I ate four of them for dinner.  Now, I’m paying the price.  Pele’s Curse is nothing compared to White Castle’s Revenge.  I don’t call in sick very often.  I always feel like I have too much to do but, in reality, a lot of what I need to do today can be done from right here on my computer so I decided to call a sub.  My students are all working on Power Point presentations for the Showcase of Schools this Saturday and I’m trying to pull the school newsletter together.  The only thing that’s going to be a snag is an annual inspection for ROTC by some big-wig Colonel today.  I told them I’d bring in some appetizer refreshments.  I can have DS go by Kroger and get a shrimp platter or something when he takes the kids to school.  Then I can sit here, without interruptions, and get the newsletter done.

I home-schooled my kiddo yesterday and I’m happy to report that she appears perfectly normal.  She’s cute, shy, and I didn’t pick up on any obvious problems.  I had her complete a 6th grade placement test which included a one page composition of writing with the topic “One of the Best Days of My Life”, a few science questions, some spelling, and quite a few math problems.  She did fantastic.  She had to do a bit of thinking before she began writing and I was getting a little concerned as she continued to stare blankly at the paper but then she started writing about last Christmas and what fantastic gifts she received and seeing her grandparents, etc.  Once she started writing, she completed the task quickly and produced a nice little story.  I think everything is going to work out for her.  I’ll be working with her through November 4th but I expect she’ll be returning to school at that time.

Now, if there’s anything nastier than the White Castle Curse, it would be the DIL curse.  It’s hovering over me again.  She had to make arrangements for someone to pick up the kids Monday and then DS received a call from the social worker yesterday morning at 6:30 a.m. blasting him for not being “proactive” in the case.  The social worker said he’s not making any effort to arrange visitation with the kids and he needs to go downtown and get the No Contact Order dropped so he and Stacy can work things out about visitation.  DS told him he can’t get the order dropped.  It was filed against him.  He told him DIL has to go downtown and file a motion to have it dismissed.  The caseworker knows this.  Stacy knows this.  They’re the ones who told us.  The guy actually argued with him and said, “Have you even tried?”  DS told him it would be like someone issuing a warrant for him and then him going downtown and telling the court he wanted the warrant withdrawn.  He can’t do it.  She has to.  The caseworker told him she has to work and DS told him he has to work too and he can’t take a day off after working less than a week to go downtown for a totally futile task.  Then the caseworker ordered him to take another drug/alcohol screening yesterday and said he’s going to recommend that he attend alcohol counseling sessions even though their own assessment team decided that he doesn’t need to. 

DS said, “Look, I know Stacy has convinced you that I’m an alcoholic wife beater but I’m NOT.  I haven’t had anything to drink in more than four months and I’ve passed every one of your tests with flying colors.  I know you find it hard to believe but I AM NOT an abusive person.  She’s the one who always starts getting physical and then she turns on the tears and tells everyone how abused she is.  I admit that I enjoy having a few beers after a hard day at work and I admit that I might even have had a few too many beers on occasion but I am not an alcoholic and I do not become abusive.  I just get sleepy and go to bed.  Now, I don’t drink at all and I don’t know what else I can do to convince you that I don’t have an alcohol problem.  You’ve never talked to any of my friends, family or neighbors and you don’t know anything about me.  The only person you’ve talked to is Stacy and it’s in her best interest to make me look as bad as possible.  I’m already paying $30.00 per week for “anger management” counseling and $30.00 everytime you order an alcohol screening, and $100.00 a week for child support.  I can’t afford any more counseling.  I’m already paying $650.00 per month and another $30.00 a week would bring it up to almost $800.00 a month and that’s not even counting my house payment, utilities, gas, or food.  I just started back to work last Thursday.  What do you want from me?  I’ll be more than happy to attend alcohol counseling if the court is willing to pay for it but I CAN’T AFFORD IT.”

The caseworker said, “I want you to become more proactive is getting a stable relationship going between yourself and Stacy.  I want your mother to call her and work out a visitation plan that works.  I want this case to be finished within three months.  I intend to sign off on it in three months and I want it done.”

DS was really upset.  He called me yesterday afternoon and told me about it.  I understand his frustration.  I’m sick of it, too.  He got off work at 5:30 yesterday and had to run downtown for a screening and then rush home to shower and change and go to anger management counseling.  There was a wreck on the expressway and he sat in traffic forever and didn’t get home until after 10:00.  I told him the only thing I can figure is that DIL doesn’t want to have to pay for daycare and she’s screaming bloody murder to the caseworker and he, in turn, is trying to get DS to take up the slack for DIL.  It’s infuriating that they’ve given her residential custody and I don’t think she’s handling it very well so now they’re jumping all over him in order to get her off their backs.  Or…to make it appear that everything is under control and running smoothly.  I don’t know what to do.  I don’t know what DS is supposed to do.  Obviously, the caseworker wants me to call DIL and try to work out some kind of visitation plan but we’ve been trying to do that for three months and she refuses to do anything except consider DH to be her “on call” babysitter.  She wants him to pick the kids up from school everyday and keep them until she gets off work and she wants him to take them overnight on Friday and Saturday so she can have the weekend off.  I’ve tried and tried to get her to give him overnights during the week which would work out perfectly but she refuses.  Now he can’t pick them up and watch them after school and he works Saturdays.  What is he supposed to do?  I KNOW that if I call her, she’s going to want me or DH to pick up the kids after school and watch them until DS gets off work and home at 5:30 and then she’ll pick them up at 6:00 and I am NOT going to be her unpaid babysitter.  I don’t even think DS has time to get over here before 6:00 since we live so far away from him.  I’m going to call the caseworker today and ask him what the Hell he wants us to do.  Of course she’s having trouble handling things on her own.  We tried to tell everyone that she couldn’t handle it but no one would listen.  So how in the Hell is it supposed to be our problem?  Damn, damn, double damn!

This whole thing is such a nightmare.  From the very beginning, everything that seemed logical has gone out the window.  Stacy has never taken care of her kids.  It’s always been DS and yet, they gave her primary custody.  She’s horribly controlling and vindictive and yet, they say we need to work with her to come up with a visitation plan.  And now, when she’s really struggling and they should be thinking that they may have made a mistake, they call and raise Hell with DS because things are not going well.  Everytime we think that they may finally see the light, it becomes our fault.  I honestly don’t know what to do.  How is she so different from every other single mother who has custody of their kids?  Having custody means you have to work out daycare and you have to give up partying on the weekends.  It means your current boyfriend might be getting tired of taking care of you and your kids and you might have to step up to the plate and take care of them yourself.  It means you might have to look at what’s best for your kids and stop thinking of yourself all the time and expecting everyone to take care of you and bend over backwards to see that you can function.

Okay…I’m ranting.  Enough…I talked to DS and he suggests that I attempt to work out visitation where he can have the kids from Saturday evening through Monday morning and he’ll drop them off at school Monday morning before he goes to work.  He said he’ll also take them from 6:00 to 8:00 one or two evenings a week even though he knows that’s going to mean he just has time to help them get their homework done and feed them dinner.  There really isn’t any other way to do it.

11:00 a.m. update - DS called.  Said he called his attorney and asked for a copy of the court ruling (again) and the attorney (if you want to call him that) said they have a new court clerk and he “just hasn’t been getting paperwork in a timely manner” so he still doesn’t have it.  He did, however, tell DS that he can’t make a motion to dismiss the Protective Order, DIL has to do it.  Said the only possibility would be if the judge had changed it from a “no contact” order to a “no unlawful contact” order but he doesn’t think that’s the case.  Said, if it was, the caseworker would know that and no one would have to do anything.

Half an hour after DS talked to his attorney, he got a voice mail message from the caseworker saying he needed him to call.  DS is working and was going to wait for his break but another voice mail came in ten minutes after that from the caseworker saying he needed DS to call him immediately to make arrangements to sign some paperwork about “after school daycare”.  Of course, DS decides not to call the guy until he’s spoken to his attorney again and ten minutes after that, the guy leaves a third message saying, “I need you to call me immediately so I can get your financial information and make arrangements for you to fill out the paperwork for after school daycare.”

Well, F*ck that Sh*t!  DS isn’t calling him until he talks to his attorney (worthless as he is) to find out why in the Hell they need HIS financial information and why they need for HIM to fill out paperwork for Stacy to get child care.  Sounds to me like they expect him to pay for it.  We’re not calling anybody till we have a chance to talk to worthless attorney.

Dangerous combo.  I was asked to start home hospital schooling a 6th grader yesterday.  Beautiful little girl with long blond hair and huge blue eyes.  I’ve seen her picture.  Honor roll student.  On September 15th, she lost control of a bicycle while attending a picnic at a park with her family.  It didn’t have any brakes and she didn’t have a helmet.  She lost control of it as she barreled down a hill and wound up crashing into a creek and hitting her head on a rock.  Good thing her cousin was there.  She was face down in the creek and unconcious and probably would have drowned if her cousin hadn’t gotten to her quickly.  She spent a week in ICU and then a couple more weeks in rehab before being released as an out patient and now has short term memory loss.  She’ll be out of school for at least another six weeks.

I’m meeting her this afternoon.  I’m supposed to go to her house twice a week for an hour each time. I talked to her teachers to see about getting some of her work but they said she can talk to you and seem okay and thirty minutes later, she doesn’t remember anything about it.  Instead, I’ve decided to put together a placement test for the 5th grade and see what she can do with it.  After that, I should have a better handle on what I need to do for her.  I hope everything turns out okay for her.  You never expect these kinds of things to happen to your child.  It must be really hard on her parents.  She wasn’t wearing a helmet, no brakes on the bike, made the decision to ride it down the hill while wearing flip flops.  Of course she couldn’t stop it. 

It makes my problems seem trivial.  DIL called last night and said “Penny”, the CASA worker, picked up the kids and took them to the library after school and Scout has an overdue book from 2008 called “That’s Not My Monster”.  She said he can’t check out any books until that one is returned and told me to have DS look for it.  The conversation said a few things to me…the CASA worker is evidently helping her out with the kids after school.  She really thinks DS has nothing better to do than to try to find a book from 2008 and, she can’t afford to just pay for it.  Or…she can afford to pay for it and is trying to dump the problem on him.  Either way, it seems pretty trivial in light of children with brain injuries.  I told DS and he said he’ll try to find the book.  He still hasn’t really met the CASA worker except for the brief conversation after court a couple of weeks ago.  She was supposed to call him Sunday but she didn’t.  Scout says he really likes her and she and Mommy are good friends.  No telling what she thinks of DS but she could at least make an effort to work with him.  He called her yesterday after she didn’t call him Sunday and left a couple of messages but she didn’t return his call.  I like the suggestions that I get rid of Pele’s rocks by throwing them at DIL.  Still, I think that might be considered domestic violence…

Today is the first day of DIL’s new arrangements (if there are any) for the kids.  I told her last Wednesday that DS is working and won’t be able to pick up the kids from school anymore.  Told her DH and I would see that they were picked up and keep them until 8:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday but she’d have to make other arrangements after that.  Haven’t heard from her since then.

DS called the caseworker and told him he was working.  Everyone has been notified but DS and I are still nervous.  I asked him…”What’s the worst that can happen?”  She doesn’t make any arrangements.  No one picks up the kids and the school calls her at 4:30 because no one has picked them up.  She has to take off work and go get them.  DS is still nervous because he seems to get blamed for everything else but I don’t see how this can come back on him.  I told her.  He told the caseworker.  She hasn’t called or left any messages.  Guess we’ll see. 

Ever heard of Pele?  The volcano goddess?  A fiery goddess of Hawaiian origin with a jealous and possessive nature who creates and rules over the islands with her assorted relatives.

Legend has it that taking a piece of her rock or even a small container of the black sand created by her wild and wanton behavior - no matter how small the amount - will bring the thief bad luck. There are those who dispute whether this is actually a Hawaiian legend or whether it’s just a creative technique to keep people from taking lava rocks and the “legend” itself has even been attributed to a particular national park historian. But the truth is that it really doesn’t matter whether the legend has any basis in fact - people have been sending lava rocks and sand back to the National Park for years in an attempt to make the cause of their perceived bad luck go away.

It’s acknowledged that the best way to atone for your thieving ways is to return the lava rock in person. On a return trip to Hawaii.  (That’s not such bad luck, is it?)  But then again, not all of us can drop everything and take off to Hawaii.

Lots and lots of people believe the legend.  Here’s a link to a site with loads of notes and letters that accompanied bits of rock and sand that were sent back to Hawaii in an effort to appease Pele and ask her forgiveness. 

So why do you bring us this tidbit of superstitious nonsense, Sistah Pat?  What exactly are you trying to say?  Are you saying you believe that glass jar of glittering black sand with the golden strands of Pele’s hair and the smooth, jet black stones that you use as paperweights on your desk are wreaking havoc on your life?  Could it be that you’ve decided your “I don’t believe this superstitious crap” attitude is beginning to waver?  Perhaps.  Just a bit….

I’ve got to admit things are just not going well.  Okay, I confess…I’ve taken some rocks and sand during some of our visits to Hawaii.  After all, they’re only rocks.  Right?  Cheap souvenirs.  And they’re so pretty!  The last one was taken four years ago from the side of a mountain overlooking the ocean as the current lava flow ran down the mountain to the coast where it spewed out of a lava vent and erupted into the ocean.  Hot magna exploding and pulverizing into new lava rocks that replace the old in such copious amounts that the goddess surely can’t be concerned or even aware of the little nugget I took.  Right?

Sometimes I wonder about her.  Pele.  With the way my life has been going the last few years.  What happened to the joyous empty nest DH and I had?  Plenty of money to do anything within reason.  A clean house that required only the minimum amount of effort and left us with loads of time to enjoy traveling and the fruits of our labor.  Beautiful grandkids and sons who had moved out and were ensconsed in their own roles as fathers and husbands (or significant others).  Now it just seems like nothing ever goes right.  I have this heavy black cloud hanging over me.  I have a constant sense of misgiving.  What’s going to happen next?  It’s gotten to the point where I expect bad things to happen and just keep trying to keep my head above water.

I worked all day long yesterday.  Went shopping after work Friday and spent almost $300.00 of ROTC Booster Club money to buy Angus beef burgers, buns, condiments, soft drinks, meatballs, etc. etc. for the Highview Festival yesterday.  I got there at 9:00 a.m. to find my ROTC significant other (the club president) firing up a huge grill and setting up our booth.  There was another woman there.  A parent volunteer (Yay!!!) and the three of us set to work.  Mr. President was manning the grill, I took the burgers, hot off the grill, and put them on buns, added cheese and placed them in styrofoam containers.  We didn’t want any of the kids anywhere around the grill.  One of those massive “MAN” grills that could accommodate 18 to 24 burgers and have room for a couple of turkeys on the side.  All day long, Mr. Prez grilled and dodged the flames and I did my best to package the burgers while coughing and sweating in the billowing smoke from the MAN grill.  We were GOOD!  Turning out burgers with the speed and efficiency of a well trained fast food team.  The burgers were flying and the money was coming in!  At 11:30, the cadet who was working the table (a lovely girl with four years of ROTC training behind her) told us we’d brought in $300.00!  The break even point!  At that point, things got pretty crazy.  Lunchtime hit us and we were swamped!  So much so that we had to have our adult volunteer make a burger run to GFS to buy more burgers and buns.  She got back and we were running low on cheese and soft drinks so she had to take off again.  I looked up a couple of times to see a hoard of ROTC cadets taking orders, dishing out meatballs, and handing out food to the masses.  Our volunteer returned and did her best to keep things organized and we just kept going.

Things finally settled down around 3:00 and Mr. Prez and I were able to turn around and take stock of our surroundings.  Hot, sweaty, and smelling of eau de smoke and angus beef parfum.  I headed to the portolet and he sank down in a folding chair and popped the top on a Diet Coke.  When I returned to the booth, I noticed that the cash bag was lying on the table of the booth.  Not out in plain view of the masses but still…it shouldn’t have been lying on top of the table.  Anyone could grab it and run off into the crowd.  I made the decision that I was going to take the majority of the cash out of the bag and put it in my purse for safe keeping.  I opened it up and started counting.  Two hundred and sixty seven dollars.  What????  How could that be?  I counted again and called Mr. Prez over.  He and I just kind of stared at each other with that sinking feeling slowing taking over our exhaustion.  Someone stole the money.  Doing some quick calculations, we figured we should have had at least $700.00.  And there was no way we could salvage the situation.  There were at least twenty cadets who had been milling around the booth all day.  Most of our cadets are honorable, outstanding kids who display integrity beyond their years.  They’ve been in the program for three or four years and have devoted many hours to discipline and community service.  Then again, there are those freshmen who try the program, don’t like it, and can’t wait to finish their freshman year and get out of ROTC.  I don’t know.  There were so many kids hanging around.  All day long, they showed up, worked a couple of hours and were replaced by the next shift.  Sometimes, we had as many as fifteen kids running around.

We continued selling what we had and finished the day with a total of $327.00.  Mr. Prez and I were defeated.  We usually finish with a feeling that we’re totally exhausted but we did something good for a great bunch of kids and we feel good about it.  This time, we’re left feeling like we’re to blame.  Like we should have thought about it.  Should have been on top of things better than we were.  Especially me.  I’m the treasurer, for crying out loud.  I should have kept a closer eye on the money.  I’m angry, too.  Angry that Sarge and Major showed up for about an hour, had a burger and coke and cut up with the kids for a few minutes and then disappeared.  Angry that more parents can’t be bothered to volunteer an hour or two of their time to help out.  Angry that a wonderful group of kids have to learn a nasty life lesson.  Of course, we talked to the kids.  Like deer in the headlights.  They didn’t know anything.  I think most of them would have reported any suspicious behavior they observed but they were just as disappointed and shocked as Mr. Prez and I.  He and I talked about it.  I don’t know what we could have done differently.  We certainly couldn’t have the kids anywhere around that massive, red hot grill.  I could have run over to the booth occasionally and taken the bulk of the money for safe keeping but I just didn’t think of it.  I just didn’t.  I wouldn’t dream of stealing and neither would most people.  We’re just not used to worrying about thieves and other nasties.  I don’t think I’ve ever stolen anything, except a couple of lava rocks and a handful of black sand.

Maybe I should send my rocks back to Hawaii….

That’s what the extended forecast is calling for Monday.  I’m NOT ready for that.  Maybe it’ll change before then.  DH and I have been trying to get away in the RV for a weekend but haven’t been able to work it out.  We had actually hoped to do it this weekend but the Highview Festival is going on and I have to work it on Saturday.  I’m kind of glad we’re not going.  The forecast is for lots of rain and a progression of chilly going to downright cold temps.  Maybe things will improve for the next weekend.  I wanted to go somewhere with cool, beautiful days and fall leaves to enjoy.

Potluck went well and we have leftovers today.  Got to work yesterday and one of the more “prim and proper” APs had left a crock pot on my desk with a note.  “Pat, sorry to leave my weenies on your desk.  Can you take care of them?  I have an early meeting at Gheens Academy.”  Bwwaaahhh! Ha! Ha!  Thought I’d lose it.  Really, you’d have to know this guy.  Very dorky and very proper.  “Sorry to leave my weenies on your desk.  Can you take care of them?”  (snort, snort, hee hee)

I have to go to GFS after school today and pick up around 100 frozen burgers, buns, ketchup, mustard, chips, and drinks for the festival tomorrow.  After the parade, ROTC is raffling off a couple of cornhole sets and selling food to raise money.  Cornhole seems to be the rage these days and I don’t even know what it is.  Guess I’ll find out tomorrow.

DS got off work at 5:00 yesterday and got over here around 5:30 so he could spend some time with the boys until DIL picked them up at 8:00.  She told me on Wednesday that she’d be working late and that she needed some more warm clothes for the boys.  I told her David didn’t have any of their clothes anymore except for a couple of outfits.  I’ve been over there and helped him pack their stuff and I know she’s been given all their clothes, including the winter stuff.  I don’t know what she was trying to prove but Scout showed up here yesterday wearing a pair of pants that were at least eight inches too long for him without a belt.  I asked him why he was wearing them and he said Mommy said he didn’t have any long pants that fit him and she can’t find his belt.  I reminded him that he’s been wearing long pants for at least three weeks and he said “That’s what I TOLD her.  I don’t know where they are.  Maybe they’re dirty.”  If you know me at all, you probably know how hard it was for me to keep from running out and buying him some new pants but I didn’t.  I’m going over to DS’s this weekend and dig through every drawer and every closet just to make sure but I know she already has all of his clothes and I know he has plenty of long pants that actually fit.

DS got a job yesterday.  NOT in a restaurant.  Scary…the idea that he’s been looking for a job as a chef or kitchen manager for weeks and nothing has turned up.  He has a great resume, good references, and has won quite a few awards in his time and yet, there’s nothing out there.  So…he took a job in construction.  Not sure what his work days and hours will be but I guess we’ll work around them. 

DIL came to the door yesterday evening when she picked up the kids and said, “I’ll be running late tomorrow and Friday and will pick up Jake and Scout at 8:00 instead of 6:00.”  I can’t tell you how much good it did me to say, “Stacy, David got a job today and won’t be able to pick the kids up from school from now on.  I’ll make sure they get picked up and taken care of tomorrow and Friday but you’re going to have to make arrangements for daycare starting Monday.”  She looked like a deer in the headlights and said, “Well, uhhh, I have to work….”  I said, “We ALL have to work Stacy.  There won’t be anyone here to watch them.  You’re going to have to make some other arrangements.”

I’m wondering if she’s going to try to work out something with the after school program.  They have a great after school program where they’ll watch the kids, help them with their homework, and keep them entertained.  The kids really enjoyed the program last year but DH found out, when he checked into it this year, that she had taken the money he gave her to pay the last bill last May and kept it instead of paying them.  It was in her name because she set it up but he’d always given her the money for it and I guess she didn’t think it was going to come back on her because she planned on running off as soon as school was out.  I know she didn’t dream that the judge would order that the kids were to continue attending the same school to avoid as much disruption in their lives as possible.  I don’t know what she’s going to do but it’s going to be on her to work it out.  She may have to use the after school program and pay them $450 before they’ll take her back.  DS said he wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to hit him up for the money.  I don’t think she’ll do that but I’m willing to bet that she’ll try to convince them that he’s the one who didn’t pay it last year and they’re no longer together so it’s not her fault.  I can hear it now….

Today is the second potluck of the year at school.  I got off easy.  DS has been working on his portfolio and wanted to add some stuff to his catering menu so he cooked up a huge pan of baked ziti yesterday evening so he could take pictures and price it out by servings.  Looks to me like he made enough for about 50 servings.  I’m wearing pants with an elastic waistband.

Did I say I enjoyed sleeping with the windows open and a cool breeze drifting through the window?  The sleeping is good but the getting up is not.  I really didn’t want to get out from under the covers this morning.

Today will be the first normal work day since last Thursday.  I thought I’d get a lot done yesterday and I suppose I did but it seemed like everyone in the school took advantage of the day to come to me with computer problems.  Felt good about getting so many things fixed, though.  Sometimes, it was just osmosis.  Just restarting the things took care of a lot and folks were singing my praises.  “You fixed it!  Yay!”  I didn’t run into anything I couldn’t deal with and the net result felt good.  A major decrease in the pile of paperwork on my desk and at least ten computer problems addressed and resolved. 

ROTC met from 5:00 to 6:30 and I finally got home around 7:15.  It was a good thing we met.  I had wrapped my brain around the idea of chaperoning and working at the Highview Festival next Saturday and was brought back to reality when I discovered it’s this Saturday.  I’m scheduled to work the ROTC booth and parade from 10:00 to 3:00 and the school booth from 3:00 to 5:00.  Still feeling a bit miffed about having to report to work an hour early yesterday while knowing I’m volunteering seven hours on Saturday. 

Nothing going on at home.  DGD, Holly, has been at the house the last five days and I tried to keep her from eating junk as much as I could and made sure she got some kind of exercise every day.  She lost 2 1/2 pounds since Thursday!  Ah…to be young again.  Walk around the block everyday and cut out a few extra helpings and lose 2 1/2 pounds.  (sigh)  In the same time period, I lost 0.  (double sigh)