My cousin is moving in with me.

Tuesday of next week, in fact.

What the what? you say? Wha?????

Yeah. I know. He and I are both a little freaked out by it too…but it’s going to be ok. It is. He needs help. He needs some non-parental support while he gets back on his feet. His personal and familial life pretty much took a nose dive this past year. When life takes you out at the knee…a little help from family can be the one thing that gets you through. I am a living witness to this. I’ll testify every single time. Been there. Done that.

We talked tonight. Had a long long talk about life and divorce and family, and jobs and the future and ESPN and the lackthereof in this house. About cats and carcass cleanup and helping with yardwork and lightbulbs. About food and shower schedules and college and night school and tech school and not having a shitty crappy job for the rest of his life. About finishing his degree. About just needing some space. We’re both freaked a little about living together. But we’ll figure it out. Everything’s gonna be alright.

He’s taking the spare room. Which will leave the futon in the office for guests. I’ve still got plenty of room if we need it, not that I ever need it, but you know…just in cases. I’ve been talking about cleaning out that freakin closet for 6 months now. Here’s where I’ll actually get that done.

I’ve done a lot of praying about this over the last 24 hours. I’m going to continue to pray for this situation, and for his situation and to be the best help to him I can possibly be. If you’ve got a second or two…I’d appreciate it if you’d send up a word on our behalf as well…

When he left he said…”I’m really excited about living with cats again…”

sweet boy.

GAH!!!!!

It’s the first week of absolutely gorgeous weather here. 70’s and 80’s all week long. BIG SMILES!!!

After losing a day on Sunday, I worked and cleaned and grocery shopped and swept the garage and sprayed the yard for weeds…I got enough accomplished that I went to bed, freshly showered and slid into clean sheets and slept. Without dreaming of lists of things to do. I slept the whole night through, and woke up refreshed and ready for the week! That hasn’t happened in I dont know how long. seriously.

So we’ve got two more days on the pay period. I’m hoping for first commission. I’ve got a few things on my weeks schedule, but mostly I just want to try to do a little yard work at night to prep for the leveling. Easter is this weekend, and I’ll be spending that with Bonusmom.

I don’t have much to report, just wanted to say It’s a Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood! Get out there and enjoy. NYC gals? this pretty stuff is headed your way. Hang on just a little longer!

Last week almost ate me. Whole. It was a long long week, packed with adventures and late nights and busy days. By the time Saturday was over I was over too…but didn’t want to just stay home again. I was feeling a little social and Heather invited me to dinner with her and her hubby. Mandrea joined us as well. It was fun, the wine was flowing and was so smooth it went down like water. The meal was spectacular, the conversation was hysterical, we lost Mandrea to to clubbing but the three of us stayed and talked and laughed.

Ok. I have no idea how much wine was ingested, but it was too much. I woke up early the next morning with a piece of pizza and crumbs all in the bed. Toilet paper all in the bed. There were pictures knocked off the hallway wall. Woof. I felt bad bad bad…So bad that I was on the couch until about 5pm. Suffering.

What. The. Hell.

I may never have a glass (s) of wine again! It’s been forever, and seriously people I’m talking FOREVER since I’ve had too much to drink. I just don’t, anymore, it seems. And after losing an entire day, a perfectly gorgeous weather day, where I had planned on cleaning and working outside….I may just not ever again. Gross. I felt gross and guilty for wasting a day, for having to cancel plans with Gert, and I actually woke up this morning dreaming of cleaning and grocery shopping and getting stuff done. The garage, the yard, well it’s gorgeous all week so I can get some stuff done bit by bit after work this week…oh well. Live and learn.

Today, I’m chasing my tail trying to get everything done. I’m cleaning and doing laundry. I need a trip to the hardware store for weed killer and a ladder. The grocery store is in my future as well as a trip to Tuttle to pick up our second bounty from the Co-Op. Veggie burgers and sweet potato fries on the menu tonight with Chris and Cindy! Wahoo!

It’s a beautiful day. Gorgeous. I’m taking my coffee outside to the porch. I’m going to give myself a breath or two before I leap into it. I hope your week is fabulous…! And after reading my NFTU today…I’m focusing on the good and what I can do, and not what I won’t get done.

Misti, whatever you focus on, you will experience.

When you talk about “what is” or “what was,” even if you’re just explaining to a friendly ear, you project more of the same into the future. If you ask more than you give thanks, you’ll believe less in your own power. And if you insist that it’s hard and that you’re lonely, you’ll find that it is, and you are.

Yet, always you can choose to focus on what’s good.
Misti… whatever you focus on, you will experience.

Tallyho,
The Universe

She’s back.

At 3:45 this morning I heard scratching on my window. I jumped out of bed and ran to the back door and ran outside and seriously, it could have been a boogie man but I didn’t think twice. That’s how she says let me the frack inside, and sure enough she ran like the devil was chasing her right into the kitchen and started eating crunchies!

Then Sammy woke up and felt like HE needed crunchies. have you ever seen a cat eat in his sleep? sigh. Then they started hissing at each other so I threw Sammy in the bed with Stormy and tried to lay back down as Kiki had settled in on the couch. Then the boys started growling. and we were ALL in the living room in separate corners at 4am. Pretty sure it was the fresh catnip from the Frontier that had the boys’ tied in knots. Keeks was just annoyed I think. She seems fine, was scratching her ears pretty fierce, so I treated her for mites which IMMEDIATLY pissed her smooth off. I can’t win for losing with that girl.

I seriously thought she was gone. Gah…..sigh.

So this morning, after a special trip to wallgreens for fresh makeup for me (I’ve been scraping the bottom of the bottles with my makeup brush) and moist food for them, it’s time for coffee and gearing up for the day. I don’t go in until 10 and thank the GOOD LORD, I did get to go back to sleep for an hour or two and slept HARD.

I have to tell you about rollerskating with my Wonderboy.

OHHHHH THE ADVENTURES WE HAVE…

Ok. so. Yukon on Wheels, our local rink in Bonusmom’s town…not open on a random Thursday night. Boo. She hunts around and does find one on the Southside. Ok. Whatever. It’ll be fine. We’ll go, we’ll skate, we’ll laugh it’ll be great!!! GRRRRRREAT!!!

I get off work, after two SUPER powerhouse busy days, at 7pm. I don’t get down there till almost 8. I get in, and I swear to GOD, there are 500 small, loud screaming, shreeeeeeeking, nasty ass booger filled gross little creatures ON WHEELS!!!

Oh shit the bed. I must have looked a little wild eyed, and the kind kid behind the desk said I could search for my people before I paid…and all of a sudden I saw them both. Over at the edge, gripping the wall as if it held the secrets of Life. Wonderboy being lead around by a Big Boy with a Whistle. Bonusmom skuttling around as best she can…lips muttering the Lords Prayer under her breath.

Ok. If she can do this, so can I. I paid my 4.50 and then the lady asked me…”are you with the roller derby?”

I wish I had a picture of what I looked like because THAT, combined with that question, made for a ridiculous moment. I just watched Whip It last weekend, so I didn’t know if I should take this as a compliment…or something else. I assured her I was not with the derby and took my skates over and bought my locker and found my people.

Wonderboy wanted a drink. Ok. We will skate over and get us a drink.

Bwa ha ha ha ha. Skate over. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA HA!!! We scuttled over, gripping the wall, three by three, like some sort of awkward Noah’s Ark line…and those little booger-filled banshees? ZOOMING by. ZIPPING thru. and just falling down in front of us. OH MY GOD. The screaming. The zooming. ELEVENTYGILLION of those little freaks.

My nerves were just shot by the time we got the 10 feet to the snack shop. I got rootbeers and the kid a hotdog and this other little kid started begging money. Hey Lady. Can I have a dollar?

no. no you cant.

then the pimply faced kid in a wife beater was flirting with the snack bar girl. Both had enough grease on their face to cook french fries…she’s flirting. he’s flirting. he only had two dollars. she gave him a large coke and a slice of pizza anyways.

I am just trying not to fall down.

I. Hated. Everybody.

I wanted to remove my skates and go the fuck away from that place that was SURELY built on a Hellmouth.

But here’s where it gets good. Wonderboy, fortified with rootbeer and hot dog, was a little weepy about how sucky this was. Not easy. Not fun. Too crowded. Too loud. We talked about trying new things. About how NEXT TIME at our smaller (quieter) rink in Yukon, how it will be easier, because we’ve already done it once. About how, we can either remove our skates (pleasepleasepleaseplease) and walk to the other side and go eat real (not snackbar) pizza, or we can skate around a bit and see how we feel.

The kid decides to skate.

Well. If he can do it, so can I. I immediatly told that Adult Voice that wanted to go away from that place to shut the fuck up, and I got my Wonderboy and my Bonusmom, and we skated.

we skated.

around several times. hugging the wall, but that was ok.  At one point I heard this little voice behind me say, Excusemeexcusemeexcusemeexcuseme…

I looked behind and it was another little tiny wallhugger who apparently wanted to pass us.

Sorry kiddo. this is as good as it gets. just slow your roll.

on the carpet a lot.

and it was good.

We did remove our skates eventually, and found a Chicago Pizza place and had a “big cheese pizza” at 9pm on Spring Break, and made plans for the Great Wolf Lodge in the summer, and talked of our adventures this week and cheers’d each other.

We said goodbyes at 10pm, and all wearily made our way back to the Northside…or as I called it Civilization. (yes. I know. I’m snobby. I was tired and you have no idea how many kids there were in that metal building…)

At the end of the day, I had spent great time with my kiddo. And my cat came home.

Wouldn’t it be great if we all had a little 8 year old Wonderboy to muster up our 8 year old courage and stamp out the 39 year old scaredy cat voices?

Happy Love Friday, ya’ll.

Kikimama is on walkabout.

and Kikimama doesn’t DO walkabout. If she does, it’s perhaps for about twenty minutes then she’s scrambling back inside for snack and nap.

I let her out yesterday morning. I also removed her old flea collar yesterday morning, intending to replace it with fresh collars this weekend. Before I could remember to call her back in, my phone rang. It was work. I had forgotten that I’d opened my book at 10:30 for a client to get in. I had planned on getting in at noon like usual. I scrambled around, got clothes on, threw my hair up in a pony and hauled ass. I was BOOKED SOLID until 7:30.

When I got home I feared she’d gotten into the attic. But there is NO WAY she could have. I moved all the things she climbed on and closed the entry with the piece of wood. Then I remembered she was outside. Without a collar. I haven’t driven around the neighborhood to see…but will call the pounds today, both for the Village where I live and my neighboring  Nichols Hills area.

Here’s what I know.

She hates the outside for long periods of time. She has no collar. She’s either in someone elses house nuzzling up and telling them what a bad mommy I am and could she please have another snack. or she got picked up by animal control…or she’s gone.

I’m pretty sad about this.

It’s rainy and cold this morning.

I have another busy day at work which is a blessing. I have a small gap this morning around 9:45 where I can make calls.

Send up some light and energy and prayer our way kids. It’s kind of a sad day on Andover Court.

After work yesterday (which I don’t want to tell you how freakin slooooooow it was) I headed home to change clothes then on to Incredible Pizza to meet BonusMom and Wonderboy for some serious playing time. We mastered skeeball. We cheated our butts off at putt putt. We did bumper cars. Twice. We played air hockey and Wonderboy someone cheated at that too. Little bugger. He bowled as we took a break and sat for a second. We channeled our inner Nascar and raced go karts. He won first place! We fed token after token into that machine that pushes all the coins to the end and then hopefully they fall…oh my goodness. Bonusmom and I were ridiculous, racing back and getting more tokens, adding more money to our cards to then get more tokens. We decided that Vegas and the three of us (each who were saying OH JUST ONE MORE AND IT WILL FALL) would not be the best combination.  After 3 hours of playing and gathering tickets, and playing some more, we shopped and spent our 1900 and some odd tickets on…stuff. He got a big ole gun that shoots nerf balls. He got lots of spinning UFO thingymabobs. He got some puzzles. He got a lot of crap stupid junk amazing! prizes! We ate some fairly lackluster pizza and parted ways, all three pretty tired. A successful night however.

Today, I think he’s going to drop by the salon for a haircut/shape up and then perhaps we’ll travel across the street to Cheesecake Factory for a slice of yum.

Other plans for the week include but not limited to, roller skating tomorrow night. Anyone wanna join us? We’re going to skate at the Yukon rink…the more the merrier!!! It’s likely to rain, so a trip to the bookshop will probably happen. I mentioned a movie, several are out that look fun, and got the “nah, that didn’t look very good to me” (clearly this is the one area where he and I are NOT alike…I think he just doesn’t want to sit still that long). He goes back home on Friday to rest up for getting back to normal.

Ahhhhh Spring Break for an 8 year old.

In other child news….

Kikimama has been getting into the attic. Dragging my new insulation down into the house. I figured it out last week, and moved the piece of wood over to cover the entry hole. Apparently she has figured out a way to slink up thru the gap in the wall between said piece of wood and get up there still. Sneaky little bitch. Finally, I get smart (duh) and move the obstacles that she is using to climb on so that she cant get there. I just a few seconds ago heard a ridiculous racket in the garage where I’m sure she decided to imitate the Flying Wallendas and failed. Stubborn little bitch. Last night, however, I was petting her and found a huge chunk of fur that seems to be….shorter. missing in fact. I’m wondering if she is diseased, or if she has actually rubbed herself raw sneaking up into the garage between the wood and the wall, or if she got the insulation on her and scratched the bejesus out of herself…all things to worry about.

Children…le sigh.

I have finished the 5th book in the Outlander series…and my friend, client, crack dealer who got me started on this series is driving 30 minutes to bring me the last two books. I cannot express the joy that this brings! SO GOOD!!! It’s an undertaking to say the least, but if the freaking story weren’t SO GOOD…oh so good.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my “list” that I want to accomplish. Not a big Life List like Cindy has done, but just a regular, clean out the garage build a flowerbed list. It sometimes get’s a little overwhelming. And then I think of the people in my life that are dealing with major change. New family. New careers. Losing a career.  Losing a parent. Divorce. Raising children. Major crisis of faith. Financial freedom or the lack thereof. Illness. . .

And I kind of just chill out. And know that everything’s gonna be alright.

Here’s today’s NFTU:

What if I told you, Misti, that you couldn’t have anymore of anything… No more friends, no more money, no more anything, until you first got happy with what you have? Actually Misti, I’d never tell you that, because frankly, it’s not always true. But, if you’re not happy with what you’ve got, it’s hard to imagine that you’re really thinking favorably on those things. And the thoughts that you are thinking, perhaps unfavorable, limited, and afraid, are the ones that will receive priority in the manifestation of tomorrow. Uck.

Easy to change,
The Universe

After only leaving the house once on my three day weekend, I woke up this morning refreshed. (although I had the song Golddigger running on loop in my brain)

Yesterday I had to report for Jury Duty. Again. and I did report. again. Me and about 300 other people crammed into a room full of pews. I would like to point out…jury of MY peers? My ASS. It truly is the most amazing cross section of people next to the state fair. There was no more seating by the time I got checked in, and there were several of us leaning up against the wall. At this point an older couple walked in, you could tell they were agitated and the man was mumbling and complaining louder and louder and finally we heard what he was saying…

“grumble grumble grumble…look at this (very disgusted tone)”

“grumble grumble grumble…proof that this system (disdainful tone) doesn’t WORK…(because HIS system does)”

“grumble grumble grumble…look at these people, all of them–

at this point the woman next to me leans over and says (with increasing disbelief) “sir. we are JURRORS. This is Jury Duty! We are NOT CRIMINALS!”

the old jackal had the courtesy to look ashamed as he grabbed his wife and scuttled off to find the real criminals.

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Not a smart move on my part because the woman then started a conversation about how GREAT a movie Twilight: New Moon was and Team Jacob vs. Team Edward and my eyes began to glass over.

But LUCK was on my side yesterday. I got dismissed. DISMISSED dismissed. Duty had been done, served, voila. No mas. No calling in to check and see if I have to report again. DONE. I’m hoping, that since this is my second time in six months that my sentence has been served.

I got to shake it off last night with dinner and a Thunder game with Pseudo Sis’s 1 and 2 and JackRyder. We had pre-game nachos and then watched our home team aaaaaaaaaaalmost beat the Spurs. Thundergames are FUN…it was a good night.

Wonderboy is here…I think. The spring blizzard kept him from arriving on the scheduled day, but hopefully he’s here and we’ll get to do some fun stuff this week. So here’s hoping the week rides along, full of clients and $ to be made. The weather is allegedly going to be spring-like, so that’s a plus. I’m off to get ready to work! Happy Tuesday ya’ll!!!

Jury Duty again today. This time for District Court, which is different from Federal Court. I have to be there at 8am today. Gross.

I am NOT psyched about this. at all. However, I’m not nearly as nervous as I was first time. I know the general area where I’m going. The weather is supposed to be better, in the 60’s this week, so I won’t be trudging downtown in the snow and ick.

I’m taking my book, which is almost finished, and another to read, as well as some magazines.

Wonderboy is making his way towards Oklahoma today. Spring Break, dontcha know. We think perhaps some roller skating is in our future.

HEALTHCARE REFORM PASSED!!!!!

What an epic thing to see. . . to be a part of. It’s amazing how much resistance there is to monumental change in this country. But there was a day without social security, a day without medicare, a day without all of the things that people count on. This change? Well. It’s been a long time coming. As one of the million uninsured persons in this country I am extremely excited and proud of what happened yesterday. Only time will tell…but it’s about time right? yes.

Turkey Black Bean Chili.

yum.

Pirate Radio. Sex and the City. Pacific.

watched.

two hour nap.

slept.

kitchen.

cleaned.

blizzard is half way over, with the second half dumping another several inches…”they” say.

I’m contemplating getting out of the house and watching some march madness at the bar. my friends are up there.

Contemplating.

I would love facetime with the girls as I’ve been absent most of this year…but I can’t seem to pry myself off the couch. It’s snowing outside. I’m full of chili. It’s gonna be a longshot that I leave the house.

I find myself with an unexpected three day weekend.

We’re in the beginnings of the throes of our springtime blizzard. Yes. Blizzard. 4 to 9 inches expected with crazy winds and drifts. GROSS. the high today is 31. Tomorrow is 35. Yesterday? yesterday it was 70.  That bigass storm that dumped gobs of snow in the Rockys has made it our way and brought crazy winds with it too…Yesterday I went to look at my book and get a handle on who would call in and cancel…lo and behold everyone already had. EVERY. ONE. No one is going to call in spur of the moment on a day like today for a hair-do, so…here I am. Bartending tonight is thus far still on. However, I feel like I probably wont make the 45 mile trek and just let the local gals handle this one. I’ll pick up my fair share this season, so I refuse to panic about the money I am not making today.

Which brings me to my point…and I do have one.

While I’m actively NOT panicking about the money I’m not making today…What shall I do? It’s nice, actually to get a real weekend. Monday will be spent in jury duty, so two days off to laze and relax and do chores is a blessing. Most of my chores, hoewever, are done. Laundry is caught up save one or two loads. I could go through the mail that has piled up and get that organized. Perhaps I will tackle the filing that needs be done in the office. Perhaps a few piddly things around the house. I am going to make some black bean turkey chili. I dunno how. I’ll make the recipe up as I go along…more on that later.

Maybe I’ll write some. Read some…I’m half way through the fifth Outlander book. Ahhhh Jamie Frasier.

It’s a strange feeling…not rushing to work. not rushing to rehearsal or a performance. not feeling like “i need to go and get that done.”  I’m going to sip my fabulous cup of coffee and be still for awhile and contemplate my day.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.