Maxima Love
That’s my big number. And we are on the way to the golden 200,000. I noticed that Maxima owners really love their car. Maybe it’s because they have been driving them for so long and for so many miles. I spend more money, and am willing to spend more money, to fix it than replace it. I have the 2004 version. (The best shape I think. Very “Maxima”.) Technically, and for full disclosure, I am not the original owner. That would be my BF. And he bought it brand spanking new. But we swapped cars a few years back, and my trade was destroyed in a terrible, totaling, highway accident (no injuries except the car) so I am claiming the Maxima as my own forever and always.
That’s the whole car. It needs some cosmetic work and it makes some strange noises, but it starts and takes me to work every day. If you love your Maxima, and have some time to burn, send me a comment, or a pic if you want. I know you are out there because I see you driving around in your Maxima, with the same look I have when I drive around in mine. For the most part. When I’m not dog-ass tired or coming home from work at 2 am. But I digress.Maxima people look at other Maxima people. Probably just to compare cars, but whatever. I’m not going to go into the whole big thing. Send me a comment!! We are so aggressive too. Just do it. Please. Anyway…
Let’s try to shake this site up today. My sister, the self-titled queen of all things interesting, decided that my site is too boring for her. So I am starting with fast cars (because that’s a huge reason for loving the Maxima in the first place–speed) and continuing with exciting, upcoming, posts such as, death. And pornography. I’m not kidding. I said death. With pictures. And porn. With pictures. Check back in a few if you are not automatically getting e-mails or following me. And if not, why not? Take the time and do it now. E-mail to the top right, or follow by clicking the link for it. Easy and one less thing to keep track of. I will come to you! Now that sounds exciting all by itself doesn’t it? But right now, I have other pressing matters to attend to that cannot wait. I must go to the local public perishables and supply institution. For long term staple items and body products. Bare bottom body products. Can I even type such scandal? Then I have to visit my pharmaceutical connection. I need to pick up some “medications” there. The good sh*t, that messes with your heart. Then I have to get ready to meet the brain trusts at the education center who will be teaching my children life-saving survival tactics for an ever changing, future based, random, potentially dangerous, world, that they have to be prepared for at all times. Their regimen includes hands on training, as well as written doctrine and instruction. Do not tell me that my life is boring. It is a daily grind to stay alive. And no one, I repeat, no one, gets out alive.
So don’t worry so much. Here’s some of that education in action. A picture that just sums it all up. Left on a note pad, on the coffee table, for us mere humans to decipher as we wish. Shake up the status quo every now and then. Analyze everything, and nothing, at the same time, and draw your own conclusions on how to proceed. Keep moving forward with as much kindness, and humor, as you can muster, and you should be just fine. Deep stuff. Random and hilarious. Like life itself. Later.
Bonus Day!
Still working out the kinks in my camera phone. Not all my “files” are making it through. Maybe it’s a new advanced Samsung feature when you try to send pictures through the system it automatically corrupts the file of the crap shots so you don’t even waste your time.
That company is so smart. The first picture is a flower from my neighbors house. I have more. Of course I do. Today is an unexpected day off, so I like to call them the bonus days, in life. My plans are suddenly open and fluid. Maybe I will catch up on sleep. Maybe I will post all day. Maybe I will take a shower and remove all this excess hair from my legs. Yuck. Maybe I will sit on my ass playing Tiny Village. Now that it is my only game and play app, I can really focus on it.
*Quick side note: what do we, you, the general public, think about spending actual real world dollars on these games? I am seriously considering paying cash for crystals because I want to do stuff in this fake world faster. Leave me a note/comment when you can. Thoughts, ideas? Is this the lamest way to spend money ever? I can justify it by saying it’s an early birthday present to myself. Maybe? I got paid today and I have time to burn. These are my “for” arguments.
*Extra quick side note: I have updates on my health. Too fat. Too little exercise. Apparently I need to be doing the “cardio” kind. B/P still a skosh too elevated. I have been increased on my starter meds. But I’d like to D/C them altogether. The MD said I could if I wasn’t a rolly-polly when I come back to see him next time. Lupus titer high and positive again. (Lupus panel negative though. I may have a life-long, general, vague, comes-and-goes, inflammatory disorder to deal with for my golden years. If a face rash and some bad numbers on a blood test is all I get from this over the years, I will be a very happy camper. I can exercise and stay out of the sun. No problem.) I will be heading out to the garage to pull some of my “diet” books and revamp the current food plan. But first I need to get that shower/shave thing out of the way. And believe me I have plans for more postings about this. I already have a title for my new quest in mind. “144 by 44”. See, I will be 44 this year. And my follow up appt is after my birthday. 144 lbs might not be exactly do-able in that time frame, three months, but I can try. I hesitate to throw out my actual weight number because I am not sure if it’s fat or not. It’s a good amount under 200. It’s definitely not slim. But I am a heavy person in general. Like, heavy bones. I know that sounds like an excuse, but I’m like a deceptive bag of concrete. I might look compact and weigh what the number says on the sack, but when you go to pick me up, I-Yi-Yi!! I weigh a ton. And now your back hurts! 144 would be the least amount I have ever weighed as an adult with children. Except for the brief month, many years ago, when I weighed 138 because of a literal diet, of coffee and breath mints, when I was going through some shit. I literally could not eat food without throwing up. Not my fault. But also not a story for this bonus day either. Spoils the fun.
Maybe I will get new grass today. Literally. The village I live in tore up my yard as you may remember from ONE YEAR AGO. Almost to the day. Because of broken water mains. Click to read. Catch up here. Well they are back. Sort of. They have been coming to the house every day this week doing something to the front. Flatten it out. Dig up more. Shore up the edges. Fill in with dirt. Smooth that out. I have got to believe that sod is next. Maybe today?! I hope they hurry. I hear storms are approaching. Storms with really cool names. Derecho.
The following is copied word for word from a weather news site:
A derecho, Spanish for straight, is a widespread and long-lasting storm that comes with fast-moving thunderstorms and rain, and also can bring damaging high winds, hail as big as golf balls as well as tornadoes. Weather forecasters have been warning that this rare weather phenomenon, which last year left a 700-mile trail of damage across the Midwest and mid-Atlantic, this time could hit a swath of states from Iowa to Maryland starting Wednesday.
Yay! At least I won’t be at work and then have to drive in it this time. I also need to seriously update some of the pages on this site. I noticed some old info floating around and we could use a freshening. Let me finish this quick. I’m running out of shower time before these kids get home. I will try to link the yard thing and post the new pics of the yard. And some flowers and probably birds. And lottery news. Still working on the scratch-offs, but I can tell you, so far, we are not winners. Still have to work for the money. I have 4 cards/chances left. Wouldn’t this be a great site if I could just write every day about how much money I have and how I don’t have to do anything, ever, again in real life if I don’t want to? I would just post title after title with some picture taken from my couch: Still Rich. Suckers! Oh to dream….Later.
That would be The Truck. And The Dig. And The Smooth. Hopefully the next picture will be, “The Grass”. Ugh. My kids have started calling me for rides and I am still hairy. Ugh. Bonus Time Shower Time. Although shower time should really be an All-The-Time. Ugh. Wasting Time. Later.
Awww. 57 Degrees As The Car Drives.
It’s not really raining. And it’s not really 57 anymore. The temp is inching up again. And this wasn’t even today. I know that I should NOT be taking pictures, with my phone camera, while driving, on the expressway, in the rain. But I did. I saw the car ahead and sometimes you never know when you are about to drive past something cool. Be alert! The world needs more lerts! (That’s from an old poster I used to have about a billion years ago when I was young. It really stuck with me.) Anyway…it’s a picture I took and I really have no other use for it except to show my son and then delete it. So here it is, headlining a world famous blog on a semi-cloudy-sunny-sneaking-can’t-decide-if-it-should-be-dreary-or-not day. Man, I can really stretch out a sentence. Anyway anyway…
I’m about to go into the 3-part Tire Drama, I spoke of last night, told in HD Camera Phone Picture Quality Storytelling. That is a patented technique for my new posting style, basically more pictures so there can be less words, not successful so far, that I will let you adopt as your own for a small fee if you find it works for you too. Or just works at all. But here, you are getting it for freeeeeee….(Bedtime Story Style. Look it up.) Stay with me now, because, as usual, it will be a long and round-a-bout, drawn out, possibly all day and night, tale for the ages. In fact, you may not even see the thread or the connection in the beginning and will most likely forget the original idea for the story in the first place. That’s OK though. It’s Monday. And it’s Tax Day. I have a whole money post thing that I do. Truly. Today might be the day to update that, 3 years late, feature too. (Yes. 3. THREE. Years. Late.) It’s called “Found Money.” It’s real and it’s kind of interesting and cool, I think, but I am sooooo far behind. I have kept all this loose change, for 3 years, in different containers, (to tell each year apart), in my hall closet, without even tallying it all up! My whole family knows it’s there and just leaves it alone. FOR THREE YEARS! We even add the most current change to the most current container, and never disturb the previous ones. You know how when you live with crazy people, but you don’t realize that they are crazy, because you have never known them any other way, or even known any other people, for that matter, all up close and personal, until you spend time outside your small bubble of family, and suddenly realize that your normal is other peoples abnormal, but because you are deep in the crazy too, you just go along?? You know?? Well. Then you find that you have three years of loose change sitting in a closet that everyone is very careful not to move, or knock over and spill, or mix up, every single day, when they are just trying to get a towel out to take a shower. Thank you family!
So today may be our lucky day! The madness ends. Well, this one point of madness. Maybe. It’s not like I am counting that change yet. In fact, I haven’t even ended this long-ass post, and I have gotten so far off topic, and even started 2 new ones, maybe three, (I can work alot on very little) that I can’t even remember how I was going to end this thing. Tires. Money. Weather updates. Flowers. That’s four actually. And I really can’t (don’t) want to go anywhere right now anyway until I get my car back. Oh yeah. My car. The reason I don’t have it right now. That’s it. I found the start of breadcrumb trail! Lo and behold and the laundry shall never get done! More time a-wasting over here. Maybe I will just throw a load into the washer and switch the dryer real quick and then type some more. There’s no time schedule for crazy. I mean creativity. Later.
Just because this starts a whole new year. One week late.
And because I get to combine all my favorite things. A chunk update. Another weather update. And pictures from my phone. Of the sky. At sunset. With a lot of skeleton trees. This is what 55 degrees in January at dusk looks like this year. It was warm today too. I don’t generally go for the no jacket thing just because it’s hotter than usual. I’m the first one to yell pneumonia. And we’re all being lured into poor health by good weather. But I’ll admit I was only wearing a zip-up hoodie and I was getting kind of hot outside. The sun was shining down so bright that I was getting crabby and drowsy. The warm sun just makes me want to lay down in it and take a nap. Like a snake I guess. Or a fat middle aged non exercising chunk of fun. Here comes the chunk part! It’s a tough week. I’m more tired than usual. Kind of achy and greasy. And I was particularly sick of feeling sad and depressed. So I spruced up this old carcass a bit with some new hair color (sorry Amanda…I know you are the only one who should be allowed to fix my hair but I swear I cannot drive for two hours, pay for gas and tolls and feel good about myself until I get a job…the box has to be the cure for now…it looks good by the way. The kids didn’t even notice. They thought something was different but couldn’t put their fingers on it until after I told them. My theory on home hair coloring, or anything really that you try to do yourself, is that if no one notices anything different it’s a good job. Only the glaring mistakes or radical change gets any attention) and some good hygiene and hair removal. However I also ate a bunch of crap that I shouldn’t because it was here and I had to get rid of it by next week when the real work on chipping away the fat cells begins. You will all be happy to know that I managed to eat, er, get rid of, all the chips and dip and most of the cheese/sausage/cracker stores. I also disposed of an entire box of Whitman’s Dark Chocolates, with my daughters help, who interestingly enough HATES dark chocolate but was able to power through and help me save our household for the greater good. I also drank the rest of the wine from the other night and am currently working on the final two bags of Ghirardelli chocolates while washing them down with Jack Daniels. I haven’t cooked in a week or worked out. In fact we have been staying up way too late watching the bad movies we love so much. The kids have to go back to school Monday and I should be working by the next week. (That’s very wishful thinking as I am making it my sole purpose in life–well besides eating all the food in the house—to have a job in another week or two.) I will have a full report on the snacks because I took pics of them. Really. For instance, I found this GIANT potato chip in the bag. I mean it was really big. I don’t think I have ever seen one this big. So of course I took it’s picture. With the dip container and the TV remote for scale. I also took pics of the sky and some more trees, big surprise. And I have a movie list if you’re interested! We watch BAD movies. Like B movie bad. With old stars like Debbie Gibson and Tiffany in them. Or Lorenzo Lamas. Remember him? And they usually are battling a giant crocodile or a sharktopus, you know a shark-octopus hybrid, or a giant squid against a giant snake. Some are better than others and some are just terrible. This is how we spend family time. As for tonight, I have to try and hurry this along, because the BF is on his way with another sack full of fast food from the local greasy spoon and we have a special night of, All New Releases!, to watch. They have to be back tomorrow so we have to plan our time carefully. I actually feel a little sick right now from the food I ate today. I know this is not something I should even say out loud, but I cannot wait until I get my dang period! (pardon my french). My appetite will disappear, I can get some energy back and hit the gym instead of the Dunkin Donuts, and burn off the winter weight. From about 10 winters but who’s really counting anymore. I only have about 10 pounds to lose (for each winter) so it’s pretty do-able! I’m excited. Oh! I almost forgot! I finished a book! A reading book. Not a school book. It was the Denis Leary one. You might have read about it here two years ago or so. Sadly, that’s how long it has taken me. I finished it last year. Made it just under the mark too. Like December 29th or something. I still recommend it for anyone who likes Denis Leary. It is funny and easy to read. Even my mom’s brain surgeon said, “that guy is something else…” and he chuckled. So there you have it, a brain surgeon endorsement! I’m just not good with the whole concentration thing in sentence and paragraph form without a lot of pictures to break up the words. Except for when I type. I can really string some letters together huh? I put a picture of the book below so I wouldn’t ruin my sunset shot. Oh! And I also found my first street money of the year. One penny and one dime. I will try and keep that up to date now. Just as soon as I tally up last year and post it under its proper heading. There’s just no excuses for letting all you loyal readers down. You want to know these silly mundane things that have no benefit to anyone. And I cant even keep up. And truthfully I am not doing much else besides sitting around and thinking about doing stuff. I’m lucky we have laundry. Alright, seriously, let me wrap this up. I know the BF will be here any minute and I want to catch up on my Words With Friends (evil evil evil—addiction in smart phone form) and BeJeweled (the other evil in the world of computers and high tech gaming–that was meant to be funny. BeJeweled is hardly high tech. It’s really no-tech. It’s pretty though. Match the gems for one minute. Try to score as many points as possible. Why, oh why, would that ever be addicting??) Ok, I think I hear a car in the driveway and my liquor glass is empty. Using the words from my son’s first book that he really liked…breathe and think…relax and run…om shanti shanti…Until later…
Day Quote…talking about that whole money thing…edition.
I need some. Well, I need a job anyway. Sent out lots more applications yesterday, that took a long time actually, so I couldn’t switch over to here before the never-ending-afternoon/evening/night-day ended. I have more places to try today too, but since I am here and I did take the time to go find the quote I was looking for, I might as well stay and share.
I think that after my kids and BF, and school, as applicable, the thing I think most about is money. I could be considered shallow I guess. Or one-track-minded. But you need money to live. I just heard a quote on TV about it, I think it was from 30 Rock, Jack’s line, “Money doesn’t buy happiness. It IS happiness.” That’s not my quote, it’s just an extra. Feel free to repeat it all you want, it was on TV!
Anyway, I don’t want money just so I can buy a bunch of crap. I want it so I can pay all my debt and pay off my house and buy another one if I want to. And I would like to have some extra in a bank somewhere that I can go online and look at whenever I want. And you can’t depend on other people for that money. Even if they owe it to you from, like, forever. Sometimes you have to let that crap go. I mean, don’t get me wrong, totally take legal action if you can, but don’t beat your head against that brick wall until you’re bleeding and stupid. Serves no purpose because most everyone’s in it for themselves anyway. But this is not a complaining site. It’s just a little lesson I learned over the summer. And it gives the quote some backbone. A little “meat” if you will. It’s like, all relevant, and junk. Hmmm. I may be building this thing up too much. Hopefully I haven’t already used it. I checked back a ways, but not ALL the way. Besides, I am about to recycle a few more anyway and if you’re like me, you’ll just read it, like it’s all fresh and new, maybe say to yourself, “I heard that somewhere, I think. Where did I hear that? Oh well….” and move on. So without further ado, let’s, a do this.
FYI, the picture above has NOTHING to do with money. I just like it. I will be posting the pics from the cross country meet locations. They were all outside and the skies have been beautiful the last few weeks. See? Multi-tasking! Progress!
QUOTE OF THE DAY
How we treat our money and the things that money buys is exactly how we treat ourselves and the people in our lives.
–Suze Ormon
Were not wiser words ever spoken? Ooh look at me. Fancy. And just so you know I don’t take all this too serious, here’s my new favorite song/slash/video, off of the You Tube and hopefully not pulled from my site. I even made it my ringtone. Cha-ching!
Can anyone say National Jr. Honor Society?
How do you spend the money you get for achieving high honors in academics when you are 13?? If you are my son, you buy a bunch of Nerf guns!!
But really cool Nerf guns. With extra foam bullets. They got two shotguns and two automatic guns. The shotguns even have fake “shell casings” that pop out every time you re-load. These are the kinds of things my kids like. Even from my old fart perspective, I do have to say, they are pretty fun. And, as a bonus for me, the process to purchase them was highly entertaining.
We were quite the spectacle at the store, picking them out. My children were trying to pretend that they were getting gifts for their younger cousins instead of admitting that these were all for them. There were lengthy discussions in front of the display about the merits of one type of gun over another and who would like which gun better. Do we like the automatic? Should we go with the shotgun? How many extra bullets? What color? What design? Nobody was paying attention. Nobody really cares what you buy, least of all the checkout lady. For good measure though, my daughter asked for a gift receipt. So we, I mean, they, their cousins, who were having a birthday party that weekend, could return them if they wanted. Elaborate lies! She explained this all to the register girl, who I am 100% sure did not give a shit. Pardon my French. A thousand kids a day go walking through and I doubt that two almost-teenagers buying Nerf guns hardly raises an eyebrow.
Props go out to my son who generously spent his smart-money on himself AND his sister. He bought Stevie the same guns and they split the extra bullets. He never even hesitated. So that’s one more thing I can add to my “like” list. And it’s an important one. Really. Good. Kids. I am a lucky mom! Later.
Graduation! Anti-climactically followed by MORE school!
I spent two hours, apparently looking like a non-stop-grinning-photo-posing idiot, at my first formal graduation ceremony, preceded by two hours of standing around in very high, very painful shoes (but looking sexy–winkity wink), waiting for said graduation. I will say that I greatly disappointed my mother by not attending my high school graduation, (although our recall of the reason why differs–another wink there)….but…. hopefully, this kind of makes up for it!
After the ceremony…we took some pics, hung out for a bit, talked and laughed, remembering the good times and the bad, exchanging well wishes and promises to keep in touch….one last look around….and we left the school, tears in our eyes, painfully hobbling toward the car (my shoes were REALLY killing my feet!!) to my future….
For one whole day!! HAHA. I know my sissy was probably reading that, like, “WTF?? What the HELL is she talking about??!!??” Hee hee…As you can see I am still just as funny as usual. Anyhoo…we went to a restaurant with my family and had lunch. Then we all went home. I have never wanted to sit on my ass and do absolutely NOTHING more than that moment. I think I said that after my finals too. I think I probably say that alot. Hmmm. So I did. It was a nice night. The BF went to hang with his friends and play poker and I watched terrible movies with my kids. Like really terrible. Sharktopus. Dinoshark. Mongolian Death Worm—kind of a Tremors rip off but who are we to complain when we willingly pay money to rent them?
I just got home from my extended class, that I voluntarily registered for so I can prepare for the Nclex. Graduating is good, but it doesn’t get me a job. I need a license for that. So please hang out with me four more weeks!! It will be fun! Less pressure, more downtime. I am just making sure that I know all that I need to know, and everything I don’t know I won’t feel so stressed about because I did what I could to prepare!
So anyway, I want to put a few more pics around this site but my phone doesn’t want to cooperate. High tech photography is what I rock over here! But this is some of the loot…Flowers!—More flowers!—(Mommy and BF and children!) Shiny, helium, Mylar balloon! (Sissy!) A box of chocolates! (Sissy!) A card that tells me I cannot talk about school anymore for at least 2 family parties! (Sissy!) A beautiful angel figurine with a “don’t kill anyone” message—but much more poetically phrased! (Other sissy! And my almost-driving, little (?) bigger than me, niece!) A big, fat, check…cha-ching! (Other mom!) T-shirts with RN on them (Beth and Wayne!)—that I can never actually wear in the general public! They tell us that advertising is not always the best option. And it’s not because we don’t want to help people—of course we do! I would not have gone through all this stress just to ignore people! The problem is that I am still just a person, without a medical degree and without access to hospital type stuff when I am not at the hospital! I would LOVE to think that I am so smart and so brilliant enough, that I can diagnose or answer any and all questions anyone might have about anything! Sadly, I am not. Not even close. Bummer. But I do LOVE my t-shirts! They make me so proud to be just who I am! Another nurse! It’s awesome!
I only listed these things, not to brag, but because I want to say thank you. Again. I appreciate the time you spent with me Saturday, and the gifts are nice, but I would have been cool without anything!! So thank you for the “extra” stuff! You guys are all awesome! Love you!
Alright that’s enough. I never mean for these to be soooo long and they always are. My goal during (my last—forever) “pre-job summer” (besides study for nclex, prepare a resume, write letters, fill out apps, go on interviews, get a job, get a job, get a job) is to stream line this website again. Get it back to quick and mindless, BUT amusing and relevant, posts, that I can handle WHILE working a 12 hour/day job! High goals as usual. Especially since this may never have been considered amusing and certainly not relevant. But I have a degree now! I am one piece of paper smarter than I was last week! See?
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?! (c’mon that was the PERFECT segway…no??)
Alright look for some pics and some “found money” updates. I have about a year and a half of dirty, crusty street coins, sitting in little bowls waiting to be tallied. And I have to do a little reading for tomorrow….so how about this…abrupt end. Bye!
Thank you 2 dimes on the ground!
As stupid as that seems. And as stupid as it is that an entire MONTH has gone by, again, and I can’t find time to come here and bore all you faithful fans with my one track life!
So here is some more about school, in case you were wondering and worried!
We had our first cardiac test yesterday at school. The semester is winding down. Everyone is hoping to graduate in May and they crank up the curriculum to put us all at ease. NO. Last four weeks, deep into the heart and kidneys of mankind! NOT easy content. Not for the faint of heart (pun intended) or weak willed. Cardiac moves like a rollercoaster. Lots of stuff inside that fist sized muscle that runs your body non-stop (hopefully), 24/7, for every waking and sleeping moment of your entire time on Earth. It even runs your body BEFORE you set down into the actual atmosphere. It starts pumping your teeny tiny, unformed, tadpole body 4 weeks into fetus hood. But we all don’t need an anatomy lesson.
The point is, when I pulled up to the school at 7:30 am to start classes, I got out of my car, looked down, and there were two, shiny dimes right at my feet! Of course I picked them up (street money people! Even tho I have been horrendously bad at logging in all the money I have found for about the, oh, last YEAR or so….I WILL catch it up! I promise. I HAVE alot that I have found…really.) Anyhoo…2 dimes…20 cents…20 questions. I was hoping that was a good sign to indicate that I will be getting all 20 questions correct.
Well I guess it worked…superstitious! 100% on the test! Very happy. I am attempting to get that A again. I am fighting an uphill battle because I did so bad on that first damn test. So now it’s all trying to get the points back. It is still possible numerically and what a pain! Too much pressure and really, all I need to do is pass the dang things! Whatever…we all need something to keep us moving forward right?
So that’s all. I have so much to do today, per the BF, and here I am writing about found money. So I know you will see this and YES, I am wasting some time here, BUT, my care plan is done. (Was done by 8:30) and I did two loads of laundry already. Cardiac is sitting here next to me waiting for me to wind this up. My people need to know these things!
I also have to update on my 10K….Successful! Finished! And on my own power! BEFORE the time allotted! Mostly because of my sister, who not only beat my time, but because she just trained and pushed us and kicked butt and made me finish! So props to you and congrats to us!! FYI—it was soooooo cold that day too. YUK! We were running just to stay warm. Chicago ya know. It was 40 degrees and threatening to rain when we ran at 7am, and 70 degrees and sunny by the afternoon when I was driving home. What a crock! I wasn’t gonna actually comment right now about it, I was saving it for later, but oh well, now it’s done, so we’ll do it again next year and I’ll talk more then!
Alright, alright, I am getting off now. Need to do more homework and laundry, before the kids get here. We need to go bowl out and shop for a few more things and pack them up to go for the weekend with their dad. They get to go to Kentucky and fish and swim for 4 days while I freeze and read about heart attacks! I think there’s a holiday in there somewhere too….but it’s not one that I do anything for so I will try and keep this posted and updated. Love you honey….all will be well. End.
I gotta say…
I don’t know who the heck is still looking at this every day, but, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my 15-week-jammed-up-school-crazy-going-no-time-to-post-anything heart! Someone is keeping me alive and on the charts and I thank you.
I literally have one more clinical and one more week of class to go this semester. One care plan. One evaluation sheet w/ goals. One Hesi test. One Lab Final and one final Final. Now that I have typed it…it seems like alot. But trust. It is not. Actually it is but that’s just because I have to study everything, all over again, and then answer even MORE questions. But then I’m done. Until January. One post in 15 weeks…not bad.
Here’s a quick update: School. Football. School. Football. I take the kids to bowling. I go to clinicals. I don’t play any games anymore on facebook, but I do check the site. I stay up way too late. And not for good stuff. I rebooted my Ipod but I am not in love with it anymore. I lost all my playlists and a few hundred songs when I re-loaded the back up discs. I haven’t exercised in weeks. Unless you count the few pushups I do every few days to make sure that I still can. Which I do. But I still fit in my small pants so I don’t care too much about the extra flab hanging over the top for now. I can hit the gym in about a week. School is busy but fun this time. Stressful but in a completely different way from last semester. And my license is calling. I can almost hear it now. I haven’t really been drinking either. Not even enough time for that. Or movies. Or pleasure books. Or mags. I have alot of gossip news to catch up on. My mags are from August…I know I should just throw them away…I’ll decide at Christmas about that. Anyway, I am having a drink now and it is good.
The two things for fun that I have still been doing is collecting change off the street (and keeping it in a cup) and playing my pocket poker game (the quest for the royal flush). Don’t I sound like FUN?? I will post the amount for the last few months in a few days maybe.
AND….wait for it……the quest is over!!
I GOT THE ROYAL FLUSH!!
Oh yeah! No kidding. I think it was clubs. I got it awhile ago but saved the pic for just this moment. I am a wild woman! Do not mess with me and my mad fake poker points skillz! The back of the game says I get 2500 points for the royal flush but I got 5000! What?? I know! It was an exciting day! And just when I did not think it could ever happen again….IT DID!!
TWO Royal Flushes! This was a hearts set. Another 5000. Oh yeah…I’m going for the 10,000. I am unstoppable.
I need to go eat dinner and study something. Thanks for hanging again with me thru the weeks of drought! I really do appreciate your time! I’ll have more later! Pictures are below.
The first one. And that was pretty exciting.
Ugh! Blurry! But you can see it! Another 5000.
That was the high score but I am going for more points. I think I am over 7100 now. Yes I know. Sad life. That’s what the vodka is for. See ya!
Meanwhile, in other, non-money-costing news, I can ride a motorcycle!
This is the bike they let me ride for the program! This pic is from the Honda image bank so thank you very much…please let me keep it! I was so excited, nervous, sweaty, etc, etc, that I never even thought to take a picture of the actual bike I was riding! I have to say I felt very cool, and grateful that I had a bike that looks and feels real “motorcycle-y”. I know that’s not a word, but the guys were riding dirt bike type motorcycles because of their height. I had a bigger type bike, that looks more like what you see on the street. And as a bonus, I was able to fully plant my feet on the ground. I was comfortable and in a good position on the bike so I didn’t feel like I was struggling. Thank you Honda!!
And even bigger thank you to the MSF, Motorcycle Safety Foundation: www.msf-usa.org
And the State of Illinois Motorcycle Rider Program: www.mrp.illinois.edu
I was literally starting from scratch. The BF heard about the classes from another one of his friends who was taking it, so we signed up too! (It cost $20 dollars but you can get it refunded to you at the end of the course if you choose. Or you can donate it to the program to keep up the quality. That money is well worth it!)
I have never operated a motorcycle in my life. I didn’t even really know how they worked. That may seem stupid to some, but I was a passenger, like a billion years ago, and that was only for a short time. Life ya know? I will admit, because everyone seems to think it’s funny and I can laugh at myself, I did not even know that the throttle rolls IN. Dumb huh? Everytime people fake ride a motorcycle they turn the throttle right? Well, I thought it was OUT, like, vroom vroom, roll your hand forward. HA! Nope, It’s in, towards your body. Luckily, that was the only really scatterbrain thing I didn’t know. They asked at the beginning, who knew how already and who has NEVER ridden. Three (including the BF, knew) nine of us did not. I have been kind of going over this in previous posts when that damn tree hasn’t interrupted me, so I won’t rehash too much. But I will say, we started with twelve and ended with eight. Some people make it look so easy and I admire them. It is “easy” to learn how. It’s not easy to control and steer and turn. That takes practice. But the class moves fast. 4 days, about 20 hours, written test AND driving test. If you can complete the program and pass the tests you get your “M” (That’s the letter they put on yer license to say you can drive a motorcycle!)
Did I pass??? I was nervous! Once you complete the exercise portion the instructors are no longer trainers but representatives of the DMV. Pass the test, get the M. And…we had to take our written test AFTER the riding part because of a participant hold-out. (Had to be unanimous, one gal didn’t want to take it on Sat., and then she ended up leaving anyway, but it was too late, we had to wait until Sunday) You don’t get to know if you passed the drive part until after the written part. So we all trudged in and took our test and waited.
All eight of us PASSED!! YAY!! The BF and I now have our licenses!! It was actually very exciting! And a relief! The nerves were pretty high. It’s so weird, but I am so glad I did this and was able to complete it!
But, as the instructors pointed out: “You are all now all officially licensed and certified parking lot motorcycle operators! Keep that in mind when you actually hit the road.” Good point. We have been on a range, with adult supervision. Probably not quite the same once we get out onto the streets.
Since I don’t actually own a motorcycle, it is kind of hard to practice these new skills, but if we can find a good deal on a small bike, then we are going to try and buy it. I never realized that motorcycles can be kind of expensive, even used and smaller ones. The BF is looking everyday! It is kind of addicting and I see why people love it so much. I am mostly interested in skill improvement right now until I can ride pretty confidently. Besides winter is on its way in the Midwest and that cuts my season short, plus with school starting I’m not sure falling off a motorcycle in the street is a good idea. Just kidding…I never dropped the bike or even had trouble holding it up. When you don’t know, balance and weight is critical, and I wasn’t sure if I could do it, but it was ok. Better than I thought it would be.
Anyway…I could go on and on, but I won’t. (That’s for my sissy. Just seeing if you are paying attention, especially since you already heard my story on the phone and sounded so thrilled…yeah, I could tell. You were un-interested. But as you know, I don’t care. I’ll just talk anyway! haha)
If you already have a license, good for you! If you don’t and you want one or you want to learn and all that good stuff, I highly recommend the program. It’s time out of your life for sure, you have to do the work and give a little bit, but it really is the best way to learn in my opinion. I even got a cool t-shirt!
And a bumper sticker!! Awe…..some……!!!
just shy of pretty 