Ramblings of a Post Vacation Mind

Norwegian Cruise Lines is now popping things into our Facebook feed every 30 seconds (it seems). 7 day cruise to the Greek Isles from Venice!  Let's do it!!  Then another one....and another one.  I dream of the two of us living on a ship for a year and THEN moving to Reno.  Maybe we'll do that!  Time will tell.

The blue jays returned!  They vacated their property in the neighbors trees when they were trimmed (the trees really needed the trim and we are so excited to have a little sun in our yard again). Yesterday, a mama jay popped herself onto the garden table just outside the study window looking for peanuts.  I went out shortly after and obliged her by filling the tray - and then enjoyed multiple mama jays feasting!  I'm so happy they are back - I missed them and feared they headed away forever. They were just vacationing somewhere nearby, I guess.

J. and I spent quite a bit of time outside yesterday working on tidying the yards.  We seem to gravitate towards working out back because it's what we see from our office - but we did some work out front late yesterday 'cuz that's what the neighbors see.  Our gardener had knee surgery apparently so he hasn't been coming - pissed me off since there was no mention of that in his monthly invoice - the front is an overgrown mess and J. is going to mow out there today.  We pulled some dead plants out of the beds and I did a little pruning.

More of that today, I think.  The pool pump is non functional ($272 repair) so J. is also having to net the pool and spa as much as possible.  So far, my monthly raise has gone for repairs of things and/or vet bills for Chloe but hey! that's OK 'cuz we're covering those things with 'regular' money vs. savings so that's a good thing.

There has been a parting of the ways here with H. - he has been asked to leave...and that's working out about as well as you'd expect.  He ended up paying for a hotel room one night when the friend he was staying with couldn't let him stay there. (I ventured to the bank login linked to the kids accounts because one of our credit cards is on that 'link' and only that link (it's in my name) and noticed his checking account was overdrawn - and saw the hotel charge).  I didn't realize this friend doesn't rent his own apartment - he's renting a room - so when H. has been staying there, it's sleeping on the floor of the room the guy rents - not sleeping on the couch of the apartment the guy rents.  Last night, he slept here because he had nowhere else to go.  I'm not sure how this is going to go - obviously.  Not the way we'd hoped. He has another friend who is supposedly getting an apartment 'any day now' and when that happens, H. will have a place to go every day that isn't here...but until that happens, he will migrate.  Living like a nomad with occasional stops in your 'home bed' will have to do for now.  He is well aware that he has burned every conceivable bridge with his parents at the moment - not that we don't love him, 'cuz we do - but that we are done with enabling him to treat us badly over and over. To breach our trust over and over.

H. says 'when her house sells any day, she will get an apartment and I can stay with her'....only I 411'd her address and the home isn't listed - so it's not nearly as 'soon' as H. thinks it's going to be. I can't decide if he's gullible or not bright.  Love....makes things seem rosier than they appear.  

We aren't allowing him access to the car either so he doesn't even have a car to sleep in - homeless takes on new meaning and I'm a bitch but I'm not so much of a bitch that I literally want him to sleep outside somewhere.  (He has a horrific cough and looks like he's sick and I will be mentioning that today as well - that he might want to get to a doctor to get the cough checked out. Though smoking everything imaginable will do that to a person so....there's that to consider as well.)

It's a quagmire of crap at the moment and it's hard to live in all the 'tension' but it is what it is.  I hope he can stay with a friend tonight.  And at the very least, he is organizing his 'stuff' to identify what will go and what will stay when he is able to officially 'no longer live here'.  Those were the words I used when I gave him permission to sleep here last night - yes, you may but you don't live here anymore so you need to attempt other arrangements nightly.  Every single night.  Forever.  This is not your 'home' anymore.

Gulp.  Those were hard words to say but they needed to be said...if for no other reason than it needs to sink in just how egregiously he violated our trust for (what I hope will be) the last time.  (It won't be...we all know that...but a girl's got to dream, right)?

I did find a room to rent for him in Antioch near school and we're going to talk about that today.  He's got just enough money to make that work for enough months to finish school?  So maybe that's the best approach.  We'll see.  I plan to broach the subject today.

I found the most comfortable pair of sandals at JCPenney before the cruise - I think I mentioned that in a pre-cruise post.  I loved them so much that I purchased two more pairs - one in a 'denim' color and the other is a backup for the original pair.  And score!  They were still on sale, and 25% off AND $20 more off for the rewards we received from our big pre-cruise shop!  I'm keeping an eye out for a couple swimsuit coverups and/or some 'long dresses' to wear in the evenings - 'cuz 'Freestyle Cruising' is very casual and yet ladies did 'dress' for evenings and I sort of want to do the same on our next cruise.  Might even decide to get out the sewing machine and make a caftan or two...'cuz I'm short and I'll likely have to alter any store bought items anyway.

Spring is here and I'm itching to wear shorts, tank top and sandals daily - but it's been windy and the wind is bitter cold (still).

I didn't work Friday afternoon 'cuz of the drama here at home - boss was incredibly kind and supportive...but I need to attempt to get to the office for a few hours this afternoon - it's a board prep week looming and there's so much to do...

My 'vacation brain' needs to vacate the premises for now 'cuz my work brain has to be back in high gear from now through June.  It will return in July when I take a couple weeks off to hang around the homestead (B. will be home in July at some point, we think).  But for now, cruising is a mere memory and I've got to get back to my work focus.

The struggle is real.