Lies we tell our children

The summer I was 9 I was out playing in the yard when my dad came outside to do some work on the house. Naturally he was in shorts, after all it was summer...in Washington...he's from Wisconsin. Any way, being the observant 9 year old that I was I noticed a rather large discoloration on the back of his leg. Roughly 4 inches above, below and including the back of the knee. It was a strange bean shape, and I'd never seen anything like it before.

Not only was I inquisitive but I wasn't afraid to ask questions. This was before people started really laughing at you in class for asking the infamous "no question is a dumb question" question. So, I asked my dad what the large mark on the back of his leg was. He told me that when he was a kid he had been bitten by a butterfly. A very large butterfly. Then he proceeded to go into detail about the size of this insect, using arm gestures and the whole nine.

Naturally fascinated I watched in horror as my dad recounted his vampire butterfly attack. It was so graphic that it caused me to question everything I knew about insects up to that point in my life. Which, granted wasn't much, but enough to know that butterflies weren't roughly the size of a bread box with fangs and attacked people for no reason. I contemplated this whole situation for days before asking my mom about it. To which she promptly replied "Dad's lying. It's a birthmark." Oh.

Why do we tell our children such lies? Probably because it's fun. It certainly caused my imagination to go into overdrive. And 16 years later, I can still remember the whole incident in detail down to the color of the shorts my dad was wearing...pink.

When you grow up

When you're a kid, adults, most often your parents, will tell you things like "you have it so good, it's hard to be an adult." You assume that they mean you will have to pay bills and go to work. Yea yea, no biggie. After moving out of my parents house these "hardships" were no big deal for me. I had a really good work ethic instilled in me when I was a kid, so a job was never a problem (when I could actually get someone to hire me). However, all that aside, these are not the hardships that your parents and well intentioned adults mean when they tell you that your life will be hard when you grow up.

What they do mean is that you will have to make decisions. Sometimes they're really fun to make; do I buy the red dress or the black shoes or both?!? Sometimes they're shit, how do I tell my husband I lost my job? They also don't tell you that decisions aside, you're now going to be burdened with things that you have no want or remote desire to contemplate.

Recently I've been faced with lots of facts that I don't want to deal with. These are the hardships that my parents must have actually been talking about. My life is relatively sublime. I love what I do for a living. I'm totally in love with my husband. We don't have money issues to worry about. And we get to travel due to his job, so I'll get to see lots of stuff before settling into any kind of family situation. I have no need to complain. I know lots of people are far worse off than I am. However, I've recently had a series of blows the last 2 years or so that make me question karma's intentions.

About a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with a condition that is not only rare but basically incurable. It might go away, it might not. Last year my grandpa was diagnosed with mesothelioma at age 65. We're not sure how much longer we'll have him with us. He's my only grandpa. In the last 2 months I've simultaneously been diagnosed with yet another condition that is basically incurable and might or might not go away; and at the same time my mom was diagnosed with heart disease at the age of 42. She'll have to go through surgery in a couple of weeks to have the sac around her heart removed.

I should thank my lucky stars that I'm not facing skin cancer, or something deadly myself. But two people really close to me are very close to that, and it scares the crap out of me. I've never lost anyone close to me. I don't think I can handle it if I have to face 2 deaths within 1 year. I don't think that will happen, I hope it won't. But why don't they tell you that these are the hardships that you will face when you grow up?

Baby it's cold outside...

So, I made a hat! Well, I made two. The first one was a beautiful olive green; but it was too small. It fit, but it gave me a headache cause it was tight. Soooo I made a bigger one with a gorgeous garnet yarn.

I am not a good knitter. I know how, but I don't like to do it because it takes too long. For my birthday my grandma got me a Nifty Knitter loom that was a large rectangle for making scarfs and purses. After making a scarf in about 3 hours (a really long rainbow scarf, see previous post), I knew I had to get the circles! Since the weather has FINALLY gotten cold here I need a hat, and rather than buy one, I decided to make one; now was the time to get those circle looms I'd been eying. Plus, they were on sale.

I did this hat in 2 hours. 2 HOURS!!! Hell yea!

Uninvited House Guest

So, a few weeks ago I noticed my cat tweaking out for no reason. Well, seemingly no reason. We'd be sitting on the couch, watching tv and all of a sudden she'd launch herself off the couch and into the kitchen. Where she'd be staring intently at the cupboards. I slowly came to the conclusion that maybe we had a mouse in the house; but had never seen it, so I just kindof wrote it off.

Then, Leo decided to take down the Christmas tree. Which had been sitting in the corner well into January, and we had taken quite a bit longer to getting around to taking it down than usual. He lifted up the bottom third of the tree (yes, it's one of those huge fake ones), and all of a sudden, he screams and jumps up onto the couch. Immediately realizing that he sounded like a little girl, he jumps off the couch and proceeds to start looking behind our stereo and the couch for something. I, sitting at the other end of the couch, am now completely intrigued. So, I ask him what the big deal was, did he see a huge spider or something? Nope, it was a mouse. According to him a big fluffy brown mouse, and it ran "right across his foot!" Alright, my hunch was correct, and now we have confirmation.

Now that Leo finally believes me that there might be, and in fact there is, a mouse in the house, and I am not as crazy as he would have me believe, he decides that we're going to the Home Depot "TODAY!" to get the mouse traps. Me, being an animal lover, I agree because you can't very well live with a wild mouse living in the house, but secretly decide to get the humane ones. Once there we grab the "catch and release" traps and a package of the sticky traps, which come 4 to a pack. We get them home and place them around the house in strategic places. Leo and I agreed that putting the catch and release trap in the kitchen was probably the best idea because that's where I'd seen Stardust run to most often; so it gets loaded up with peanut butter and placed beneath the cupboard.

About a week passes, with us checking the traps every morning, and every time we get home, with nothing. Then, one morning after Leo had gone to work, I got up and stumbled into the kitchen to get my breakfast. Lo and behold, the catch and release trap is in the middle of the floor. Curious I bend down and peek inside; sure enough we caught a mouse! After doing a little victory dance I assessed the situation. This little guy was no bigger than an inch in every direction! HA! This was the mighty mouse that had caused my big navy submariner to jump up onto the couch?!? Oh, this was too good!

I briefly thought about just taking the mouse outside and let him go when a couple of thoughts entered my mind. First, he would probably just get into our house the same way he did before. It was cold outside, and I'm sure that's the chief reason he came into the house in the first place. Second, it really was cold outside! The temperatures had just dropped to the low 20's and me being the bleeding heart that I am couldn't bear the thought of him just freezing to death outside! So, I placed him on the counter, out of the way of the cats (who had obviously been playing with the trap all night), and presumably into the arms of safety.

On the counter he sat, all day, until Leo got home. I didn't want to just make a decision like keeping the little guy without consulting my husband first. The results could be disastrous. So, once home I told him about the mouse and we agreed that we could get him a small cage and some food, but "only until the weather got warm!" Of course this decision was reached complete with heavy sighs and eye rolls.

So, off to PetSmart to get the little guy a cheap cage and food. Once we got home and got the cage ready it was time to take him out of the trap. The poor thing had been in there all day, and was covered with peanut butter from head to toe. Leo took one look at him and said "he looked much bigger before, I'm sure he's fluffier without all the peanut butter on him!" Uh huh. After getting him into the cage we noticed that he's got a gimpy arm! The poor little guy had been fending off cats for weeks with one good arm. So, now we're teetering between letting him go when it's warmer, and just keeping him. He's awfully cute; but like we need another pet.

So, for now, we've got an uninvited house guest.

Rest Assured...

Do you ever wonder if your friends miss you? You move away from "home" and start a whole new life. Lots of things happen, and being humans we tend not to keep in touch like we should. I, for one, am particularly bad at this. Even with the friends that I've known for 12 years.

I suppose I'm feeling a little home sick. I couldn't tell you why. When I left home, I only really kept in actual contact with 2 friends that I'd known since school days; and that was sketchy. I'm terrible at making new friends, and working from home didn't bode well for making friends since I'm not a huge fan of Navy wives. Needless to say when I left Washington I had so few friends I could count them on a hand and a half, sometimes more and sometimes less depending on moods.

Maybe I'm a little too good at weeding out friends. But I also happen to know that they're really good at weeding me out. I've had friends just up and hate me for no reason. In fact, this happens so often that I've gotten an actual complex from it. When I don't hear from a friend for a week, or they stop returning my calls; I immediately assume that they're mad at me for some reason. Then I pour over the things that I've done and said over the past weeks to make sure I haven't stuck my foot too far down my throat to salvage a relationship. Only to find out that it was something as mundane as a dead cell phone battery; a lost cell phone; or they were simply out of town. Heaven forbid they have a life.

So, while I'm feeling homesick, I couldn't tell you why. I don't even want to go home to visit family. The only family I still have living in Washington are my aunt (and cousins), and my grandma and grandpa. My aunt is so busy she can't answer my emails, and my grandma isn't even in Washington right now, she's down in California.

So, it's not family drawing me home. It must not be friends either...of the people I still talk to back home one of them is even gone. I don't even think I'd have a place to stay, I'd have to get a hotel somewhere. How sad is that? When you can't even go home? And being displaced feels more and more like home every day?

Go forth and multiply!

Bored tonight, I find myself searching through MySpace profiles yet again. This time I'm going over friends or rather people from high school. There's been a profile set up for people from my high school who graduated in 2000. As I peruse their profiles I realize how truly sad Port Orchard really is...

They got the multiply part right; but why hasn't anyone gone forth!?!

I'm not saying noone has gotten out; but a good 80% of the people I graduated with seem to either still be in Port Orchard or have ended up back in Port Orchard. Granted there is something to be said for living in a small town. But having said that why in the world would you want to just stay put? Why stay in a town of less than 8,000...keeping in mind that when we graduated our class was nearly 1,000!! The rest of the population in that town seems to be comprised of retired people.

Honestly, who am I to question people's choices? However, it still seems sad to be proud of the fact that you've got 2 kids and you're working at the local Wal-Mart and on your second marriage?!? UGH!

I am SO glad I got out of that black hole!

Sneeky Peeky..

You ever spy on someone on MySpace? Go looking for that long lost love; or old friend? I do it probably too often. I think it's the voyeur in me. I'm curious to see how their lives are going. What's been going on, what hasn't. That sort of thing.

The other day I was snooping around and I came across an old flame. Pretty serious at one point. But just didn't work out in the end. I keep checking back to his page in the hopes that he'll update his pictures or write a new blog; but it just hasn't happened. There's no way on earth I would ever contact him directly. The consequences could be disastrous (mostly for him - I just don't like being called names). Of course this is probably just the melodrama in me. He's probably tell me to fuck off and die and then I'd leave him alone. Why can't he just update his damned life so I can get on with mine?

If you keep a MySpace page, be kind to all of us voyeur's out there and if you're not going to update your profile at least put up a notice. Cause it's really irritating when we can't read your blogs and look at new pics. and see who you're becoming friends with.

Crafty like ice is cold...

Don't you just love it when you have one of those really productive days? Yea, me too. Today, I got 2 full cross stitch patterns finished (not framed yet; but finished), and 5 more necklaces! WOO HOO! I'm a craftin' fool!

I suppose that's what happens when your food supply is threatened because you make a living by selling your stuff.

Check out the goods! I'll be taking them to craft shows locally before I sell them online. So, if you live near me come and check me out!

Resolute

This year I've decided that I'm breaking from tradition and actually making resolutions. I don't usually do this for the simple fact that once you set a resolution in place people (myself especially) tend to do everything they can subconsciously to break that resolution. So, I'm setting them, but I'm setting the bar low.

1.) At the end of the day I am going to try to put all of my loose change into my big fat [empty] piggy bank. Hoping against hope that by the end of this new year I will have enough change to take into CoinStar and possibly buy all my Christmas presents with!

2.) I would like to start blogging again. And mostly blogging about what I'm making and crafting and what's going on with Emotional Baggage; but also what's important to me. Because, come on, it's my blog.

And a distant 3.) I would like to get the last 30lbs or so off. For the simple reason that it will get my neurologist off my back; and possibly get me off these nasty meds. Here's hopin' but I'm not placing it in the #1 spot because it's not the most important to me. Strange huh? Eh. Weight aint nuthin but a number baby! lol

So, here it is. And here I am. January 1st, and I'm off to a good start. I've put a bunch of change into my piggy bank and written a blog. I think this year is going to be good. If nothing else it will be interesting. Stick around and find out won't you?

8 Feet of Killer Gay Scarf!

I received a knitting loom for Christmas and made my very first scarf ever! I've never been able to knit due to the fact that I'm an instant gratification crafter. But with this loom I was able to finish this scarf in about 4 hours! YAY!!



I'm hoping that someone will want to buy it from me on MySpace. Honestly, I'm posting it here, because I look REALLY good in this picture! hehehe

Strange days...

I was out shopping today when I got a call from my grandma. She got a call from my mom, who is currently in the hospital in Germany....

Apparently a little over a year ago or so, when they were still living in Seal Beach, my Mom was having some problems breathing. Nothing big, or extreme, just shorter of breath than a 40 year old woman in relatively good health should be. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her and sent her on her way.

I guess it's started getting worse lately. Recently they were at a Christmas festival in Germany and my Mom was having problems walking very far at all. When they got home, or rather to Sardinia (close to home for them), she went to the doctor again. This time he could hear something wrong with her heart; and informed her that he would have to send her to the hospital in Germany because he couldn't do any of the required tests at the Sardinia hospital.

So, today sometime, my mom is undergoing tests in a hospital in Germany to find out what's wrong with her heart. I think she's going to have to have angioplasty, which is fairly routine; but not for a 42 year old woman.

I'm not sure if I should be worried, scared or dismiss the whole thing because I'm sure she'll be fine. It was indeed a strange day....let's not hope it turns into a bad week.

Perhaps more should read this...

I got this in my email from my mom today. It basically sums up everything I've been saying since Katrina. While it was a nasty storm, and a tragedy....well....you can read this for yourself.

Weather Bulletin - North Dakota



Priceless

THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MOMENT.

North Dakota News

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota state after a snowstorm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event---may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

George Bush did not come.

FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government

No one even uttered an expletive on TV .

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.

No one looted.

Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.

No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.

Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.

Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.

We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sit-in at home' checks.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."

It does seem that way, at least to me.

I hope this gets passed on.

Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.

Big fuckin deal!

If you're alive, you've heard about what happened with Michael Richards (AKA Kramer from Seinfeld) and now Andy Dick. If you've been living underneath a rock for the past couple of weeks, basically it's a simple break down. They've both mouthed off at stand up shows to a heckler in the crowd (quite obviously a black person) and called them a nigger.

Now, the media is all over this. How dare they call someone that word! God forbid you call someone a nigger! But it's perfectly ok to call a mexican a spick, or wet back; or how about a white person a honkey or cracker?!? Does anyone even know the real meaning of this term any more?

The actual dictionary definition of the word nigger used to be "ignorant". And guess what? When it was first used in the US black people were ignorant. They weren't allowed to have an education, as so it was a term of accuracy. Or you could take the term to it's root [negro] which in some tongues can be interpreted to be the actual color black, or to mean from Sub-Saharan Africa. So, again being an accurate term. God forbid we be accurate. Let's also remember that not all black people are from Africa...

It's not a word I like, or use. Although, I must say that there is a BIG difference between a black person and a nigger. Just as there is a big difference between a white person and white trash. The long and the short of it is there are stereotypes for a reason. If you want to break down racial stereotypes you can't call each other niggers and then get your panties in a bunch when a white person calls you one. All you're doing is keeping racism alive. So how about you get the fuck over it?

Positively Giddy!

I went to the thrift store today to get a few things to make some Christmas presents. And, as usual I ended up in the records section. The stores out here have KILLER stashes of old records! In one haul I got GREAT records!! Here's the run down...

Nat King Cole - Dear Lonely Hearts
The Cure - Shake it Up
PINK FLOYD - THE WALL!!
3 different Santana records
Richard Pryor - Bicentennial Nigger
Richard Pryor - That Nigger's Crazy
Miami Vice Soundtrack
More of The Monkees
Alice in Wonderland - Original Disney release from the cartoon movie!!
Get Smart
Goldfinger Soundtrack - Complete with old pictures of Sean Connery!
Laugh-In Soundtrack!
The Songs and Comedy of the Smother's Brothers!

OH YEA! I'm diggin it! If you need me, I'll be sitting with my ears to my speakers...

Words to live by...

Ladies and gentlemen, The President of the United States...



“One lesson is that we tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is ... just going to take a long period of time to—for the ideology that is hopeful, and that’s an ideology of freedom, to overcome an ideology of hate.... We’ll succeed, unless we quit.”


WHAT?!?
I didn't vote for this moron.
Read the article this was taken from Here: In the Shadow of Ho Chi Minh

Why not a really rare disorder?!?

I'm still struggling with the idea that I've got a disorder that probably won't ever go away. It took me a long time to come to terms with rhinitis; and that I'd have to be on meds for that for the rest of my life. But, now I've got this condition, it's just past the one year mark and I'm finally starting to get answers to what it is exactly that I've got.

Pseudotumor Cerebri (PTC). Officially, diagnosed and on meds; and continuing to be confirmed. I guess I was hoping someone would say that I didn't have it. Here are a few facts for those of you who might be interested in knowing what's actually going on with me...

Simply put, there is too much cerebrospinal fluid in your head, and there's no place for this fluid to go. (this is me...) The much larger second group develops pseudotumor cerebri and a direct cause cannot be found. The doctors have no idea what causes the primary idiopathic PTC. The disease is frequently chronic in this group and needs long-term treatment.

The common symptoms are
*Headache, dizziness and impaired vision. Headache is often worse on awakening, and can be intensified by coughing, laughing, bending over, crying, and increased physical activity.
*Impaired vision shows up in several ways. It can be visual blurring, brief moments of dimming or loss of vision called transient visual obscurations (this is actually what caused me to go into the doctor to get diagnosed), small specks appearing or vision distortions (items moving up or down).
Blindness can occur.

Other symptoms affecting PTC patients include: shoulder/arm pain, neck pain, memory problems, awkward coordination, muscle weakness, fatigue, back pain, and depression.
Possible symptoms include dizziness, hearing loss, ringing in the ears or noises within the head called tinnitus.

Regarding headaches: a study showed 92% of patients interviewed had headaches; 93% of those with headaches said it was the most severe headache they had ever experienced. The head pain was described as a pulsing headache that kept increasing in intensity. Another description was a "pressure" headache, resembling a percolator. Seventy four percent of those with headaches had it on a daily basis. Can also experience neck stiffness or nausea.

HELL YES! Not only do I get to suffer from headaches (non treatable so far by the way) but I also get to have nasty pain in my neck and back and get dizzy at random. Those are just the ones that have been happening lately. I can't tell you how much this sucks.

Apparently PTC only effect about 12,000 in the US; so YAY ME I picked out a nice rare one. Which means, the cure for something like this is pretty much not anywhere near anyone's mind or microscopes, at least not for a while.

The worst part of this is that I look totally healthy. So, when I complain about anything I get eye rolls, irritation and disbelief. Not to mention noone can tell me why I got diagnosed with this except that maybe I was a little overweight for a short period of time in my life and I'm a woman. Fabulous! Migraines were at least something I could manage; but it's no wonder the migraine meds never worked for me. lol

And now for some good news! PTC can last for months or for years. It can go into remission. For those in remission, PTC can re-occur 5% to 10% of the time. So, keep your fingers crossed for me. It's been a year, and it hasn't gotten any worse, but not any better either. I have my moments of total fear of going blind, but I'm slowly getting used to the idea that I won't ever be completely healthy.

Hooray for great genes!

Getting a little tired of being walked on!

So, I've been here in Virginia for 4 months. FOUR! When I moved here, I moved here on the good faith that my old boss, Kerry Longworth, would send me MY drill, that she had been using (since she didn't have one) since I started working for her as a nail tech in September of 2005. She promised to get it serviced, since she had been using it on a regular basis for almost a year, and I agreed that was fine with me as long as she sent it to me as soon as she was done getting it serviced. Just to note at this point, this drill is a nail tech drill that I paid $500 for. It's top of the line, a very nice drill.

Just before I left, I needed to liquidate a few items. Namely my washer and dryer (my new apartment had one) and a couple of nail tables that I had purchased at a garage sale earlier that year. I sold her both the washer and dryer and 2 nail tables (with fans that worked and outlets and everything) for $150 total. She's going through a divorce, and I needed to get rid of them, so I figured it was a fair deal all the way around. We decided that she'd trade me product (high end skin care and makeup she sells in her salon) for the items. Sure, no problem, sounded great to me.

It took me a bit to get settled in here, but I finally got settled in and got around to calling her about getting me my products and drill. Roughly a month after arriving and moving in. She claimed that I had never told her what I needed so she hadn't ordered it. I promptly corrected that problem and she said she'd get it ordered. 3 weeks later, she finally gets SOME of my product in, because apparently she's no organized enough (that's the nice way to put it) to remember the 3 things I ordered from her. I told her to forget about sending it, and I would have my grandma pick it up from her.

At this point, she's had my drill for 2 months, and agrees to give my product to a friend who's in town. So, I've got PART of my payment for the washer and dryer and nail tables, not all, but PART. Then, she says she doesn't have my drill at the salon because she's "found a guy to service it" and so she gave it to him. Mind you, she has no business card, phone number, name for the guy or name of the business. Uh huh. So, my friend comes home with a sample product (yes, it's used, it's not even new product!!!!!) and no drill. Great.

So, I call her, and she promises to send me a new product "as soon as it gets in." She's already ordered it, and it's on the way, and she's gonna send it to me as soon as it gets in; along with the other product she ordered me that she "forgot" to give to my friend when she was in picking up the other product. ARGH!!!! 3 Weeks later, still no product. I call, and now she's avoiding my calls.

"Oh, she's with a client, I'll have her call you back." Bullshit. Then, one night she calls me at 1am! Wakes me up, and then tells me she's sorry, she'll call me back the next day. The next day, no call. So I call her back, and get the same avoidance.

I've gotten every excuse from her...."She left work because of her divorce, she has to deal with Shawn (her soon to be ex)"....."She took the rest of the week off because her grandma died."....."Her mom has been getting threatened."......"I've lost 3 people close to me in the last 2 weeks!" OH MY GOD!!!!

If this shit was taken care of when she said she'd take care of it, we wouldn't have to go through it just after someone "died" or "while she's having marital problems" or whatever the fuck her excuse happens to be today!

FINALLY after leaving messages and getting no response, I sent her a text message. No response. So, I text her again. I figure if I can't get through to her with messages and voice mail, I'll inundate her with text messages. The last one was particularly nasty. That got a response....

"I'm not avoiding you. I called and told you to call the next day. You wait almost two weeks. Don't get nasty with me. The world doesn't revolve around you."

Ok....Another text comes through...

"I have had 3 friends and family die in the last 3 weeks. Two dying, and my mom's life threatened on top of everything else. It's at a service guy...But I will get it and send it done or not."

Keep in mind it's (at this point) been at this "service guy" for 2 months now! Here's my response...

"No you told me you would call ME back since you waited til 1am my time to call me remember? I call bullshit it's even being serviced!! It's been 4 months, I told you to send it any way 2 months ago, and you said no. Remember? The world does not revolve around you and your divorce! Grow up, be an adult, and take care of what you promised 4 months ago!!"

Finally, she tells me that it has nothing to do with her divorce, bla bla bla, and then I tell her to put herself in my shoes. The last message I got from her said "I'm sorry, I'll send it to you." I'll believe it when I see it. Not to mention, I've got to basically just write off the product that she still owes me. If I was still in Washington I'd walk my ass down there and make her give me the name of the guy and I'd go get it myself.

My personal theory is that she never found a guy; she probably lost it when she moved into her new condo. Either way, she can send me a check or my drill. I'm fucking tired of playing games. And I'm fucking tired of people treating me like I'm stupid just because I'm nice. Fuck this shit, I'm done being nice for a while, it must be time for super bitch to appear. (((at least I didn't have to physically yell)))

My life in a single patch...

Ok, so while searching this site, I found a patch that basically sums up how my life began...



WOW.

Drained.

My new logo.

I have been so drained lately. Absolutely NO energy whatsoever! And on top of that, my Emotional Baggage business has finally been doing well! I'm getting good exposure, and requests for custom purses, and I've even got a woman in Seattle who wants to consign them for me!

Leo's gone again. He should be back around the 1st of the month, which will be nice. But while he's gone I've got to bust ass and get some more stuff made and build my inventory for the holiday season. Especially if I'm giong to go to Italy for 3 weeks in November. I've got to have a good inventory that Leo can just mail off. But then it's back to that first problem, I'm so goddamn tired!

My brain is drained for purse ideas. Maybe I have too many.....*sigh* Ever come to that creative jumping off point and forget what you came to it for? Or maybe you forgot your bungee cord so you gotta go back and get it. I'm going back to get my bungee cord...

Laundering Money Through Wal-Mart...

Ok, before I totally get into this post, I want to explain something for those of you out there who don't bank with Navy Federal Credit Union. When you make a purchase with your debit card (which by the way only will run places as a credit card), they "soft clear" the money from your account right away. Basically making sure you've got it. Then, they put that money right back into your account, and then they "hard clear" it roughly 3 business days later. You never see these transactions, they don't show up on your statement, but they happen. All of this is especially frustrating if you rely on your online banking at all to make sure you've got funds before you go anywhere or really do anything. Now, keeping all this in mind, let me get along to my post.

Recently I've moved to Chesapeake, VA. My husband got stationed over here, so I moved the house while he was riding the submarine around to get over here. As such, I got here roughly a month before he will get here. Which gives me time to get to know the area a little bit, and get the house in order before he gets here. Yes, I know I'm such a good wife. ;)

One of the things on my list to do was find a place to shop on an extreme budget. We have practically no money to buy groceries and gas after paying the bills, until we get reimbursed for our travel expenses. SO, this is where the Super Wal-Mart down the street comes in handy. Not only is it right up the street from me, but I am able to go there to get everything I need to get. Because, naturally, having just moved all the way across the country I need not only groceries, but little things like a shower curtain and garbage can, etc.

So, I venture on over to the Wal-Mart. Which is REALLY hard for me to do, because I despise everything about that company! But, at this point I'm still scared of traveling too far from my new apartment by myself, for fear of getting lost; and I've got like $3 to spend on everything I need. I get there, go shopping and it was great, I saved a bunch of money and got everything I needed. I spent roughly $90.

About a week later I was checking my bank account and I noticed that Wal-Mart had deducted the $90 from my account, and then 3 days afterward PUT IT BACK IN! So, I'm a little freaked out, until I look a little further up the list...3 days after they put it back in my account, THEY TOOK IT OUT AGAIN!! WTF!?!

Now, like I said with Navy Federal they do this, but you don't actually see it happen. It doesn't clear your account twice and show up on your statement! So, I figure, I'm laundering money through Wal-Mart. Or at least I was. After seeing this happen to my account, I'm so pissed that they felt the need to keep accessing my account, that I WILL NOT be shopping at Wal-Mart any more. There's a very nice supermarket near my apartment, and a Target in the same strip mall. So, I say to hell with Wally World. They can launder all the money they want to...but not through my account ANY MORE!