Easter Excitement

Good Friday turned into not-so-great Friday as H. called to say he'd been laid off.  They went from 150 trucks a week down to 20....when he asked his supervisor for his paycheck on his lunch break, he was referred to another supervisor who handed him his check and a yellow 'HR' envelope confirming that Friday would be his last day.  Because H. found out early (by asking for his check at lunch), they let him leave mid-day.  To say he's disappointed would be an understatement.  My reaction was considerably stronger.  He and I had been having a stressful week towards each other as he burned through more money than I would imagine he could spend in a week - despite my admonishments that he needed to keep a cushion, etc..  His roommate starts his new job tomorrow - and H. has been helping him out a bit and I'm OK with that.  They keep careful track of who's paying for what - and then pay each other back....but still.  I was already so flipping mad at H. I could barely speak....and then the news that he is once again unemployed.  Not a great day.

I kept telling him that they hire 'temps' as a classification of employees so they can weed them out.  He said he was doing great - but then acknowledged he was late one day.  And to me, he never seemed that 'happy' about the job.  It wasn't driving equipment like his old job - it was serious manual labor loading and unloading trucks by hand.  He would come home everyday and crash - just exhausted.  We've not seen much of him since he started that job.  I think he wasn't exactly setting himself apart as a 'stellar' employee - and consequently, when the time came to cut down staff, he was (again) on the list of the soon-to-be-departed.

He swears he's learned his lesson and he promises he will not spend as much.  Girlfriends are expensive and he takes his girlfriend out a lot and always treats.  I try to educate him on the 'new economy' where you just don't spend $50 a night over and over - it's just not feasible.

OH - and when I looked at his pay stub for the two weeks he was paid for (and they gave him his final week separately), it turned out he'd only been working 30 hours a week, not 40.  I pointed that out with a 'did it occur to you that your budget - which you overspend regularly anyway - was based on a FORTY HOUR work week?  And you've only been working THIRTY HOURS?  When were you going to mention that small MAJOR detail - 'cuz you are seriously short to make your rent on thirty hours a week'.

Boys.  My boys.  They have always sucked at math.  Considering what I do for a living, it's ironic.

H. and I went to the bank together yesterday to deposit his final paycheck - and we stopped at a desk to have them completely un-link his savings from his debit card.  If he doesn't have money in his checking account to cover, his debit will be declined.  The bank rep said 'you are so lucky to have your mom be such a help to you.  My mom just threw me out on my own'.  I don't know if she meant that literally - but I said 'I'm not sure he thinks it's always a 'bonus' to have me be his bookkeeper'.  She said 'he should'.  H. replied 'I do appreciate her help and I am lucky'.  So there's that.

I'm pretty sure he feels lucky 'cuz we are his cushion.

On that note, I head full speed into Easter Sunday cooking.  J. just hooked up the TV in the family room to Amazon Prime so I can watch Good Wife all day while I cook up a storm.  H. and his roommate are coming for dinner at 4 - looking forward to a nice meal.

And I'm off tomorrow - sliding into another reasonably short work week - I'm usually off during Spring Break so it will be different to be working part of it.  Should be quiet.  Schools closed.  Plan to get a lot done!

OH - we got a letter from B. on Friday - he's busy but doing well.  He clarified for me that he's not going to Ranger School - he's entering RASP - the school is primarily for Officers seeking Ranger training.  He's being sent in to the selection process and upon completion, will enter a Ranger unit.  So he'll be at Ft. Benning for at least another 11 weeks....

I am hoping for a phone call today - it's a long shot but I still hope.  Mom's all over America are anxious to hear from their soldiers and it's Easter.  Here's hoping.

Woo Hoo - Not

The woo hoo of a three day work week is now like a slap in the face 'Holy Crap what was I thinking?'.  As the 'final' workday dawns - awakened from a dream state (very rare) by my alarm and still somewhat groggy from that - I am stumbling to the shower and out the door.  Starting the day as early as possible because while yesterday was a joyous day of no meetings (it felt like puppies and flowers all day just toiling away on my list of 'stuff'), today is the opposite of that.  Back-to-back-to-back meetings all the day long.  Even trilling that like a song or nursery rhyme (sing-songing "all the day long" lightly with a touch of merriment while picturing myself in a field of flowers with a basket to gather with accompanied by my sweet little Chloe) does nothing to ease the discontent that is upon me as I face a day where my calendar is blocked solid.  As a co-worker and I added yet another meeting yesterday and she gently inquired 'how does that work with all the other meetings we have tomorrow' and I replied gently 'not great but it's do-able'.  We'll just eat lunch at 11 and drink as little as possible during the day 'cuz we have no time for potty breaks - or breaks of any kind.

The running tracks we installed at three of our sites over the summer (last) will soon be open to use and I can't wait to take my workout clothes to work with me and change into them at the end of the day and use the track to walk/jog a bit before heading home!

We haven't heard from B. in two weeks now - at least by letter.  The weekend of his pass with plenty of contact has left us with no letters since they are out in the field learning tactical maneuvers, living off rations and schlepping 80 pounds of gear with them wherever they go.  He warned us he wasn't sure how much he would be able to write so I know he's fine.  I'm pretty sure bringing paper with you to write your mother would be a bad thing to do - and he'll write when he can.  We do know that he was able to go to the National Infantry Museum on the base for a movie and lunch on Sunday - and that is where the graduation will be held so we can look forward to seeing the museum also.

We will be in Georgia three weeks from today (!) and we are really excited about the trip.

Birds just started chirping so it's almost sunrise.  I'd better get going.

I'd love to insert a pic of puppies and flowers - but it's just too much effort for me at the moment.  More soonest -

More Shoes!

Happy 23rd wedding anniversary to us!  Time has flown by....seems like yesterday.  Though the gray hair, wrinkly skin and tricky joints would confirm that a lot of time has passed.

We spent the day at our lawyers office updating our trust documents.  We get annual reminders and have been a little remiss in getting things modified as needed.  At $250 an hour, you tend to put it off until you just have to.  Traveling together in the near future was my final 'must do' - so we did.  Feels good to have the updates in process and I will be traveling easier knowing it's all worked out the way we want.  Though the most recent changes won't be in effect until after the trip to Georgia in a few weeks but we'll just have to play the odds on that one.  I feel confident we'll be fine - and if we aren't, we won't know about how it turns out...it will be what it will be.  Even our intentions outlined are not 'real' until we've all signed and it's all notarized....so that will be done before Cancun.

The second stop of the day was Fleet Feet in Pleasanton.  J. has put over 300 miles on his shoes and they were in need of replacing - so we stopped there to get him the same shoes he purchased there before.  On the way there, I asked if he would be OK with me getting fitted - and he said 'I was thinking the same thing!'.  So I took the time to have a fitting - and found out that I'm wearing shoes that are 1/2 to a full size smaller than my feet actually measure!  Hello, bunion issues and ingrown toenails - pleased to meet you and guess what?  I've been causing my own misery for as long as I can remember by not having been fitted for shoes in many decades - and my feet have changed.  I'm also more flat-footed than I ever recall and inserts to correct that are perfection!  It was a crazy amount of money to spend - but heck!  It's our anniversary! 

Is 23rd the year of shoes?  Should be.  Was for us.

I also got two good fitting sports bras, a pair of capris, a t-shirt, some socks and a hat - all NOT cotton and all washable.  That's the other monumental change - DO NOT WEAR COTTON.  All these years of wearing cotton socks and cotton t-shirts or shorts.  NO!  Cotton doesn't wick water and it takes a long time to dry out.  Moisture in shoes is NOT good for feet - so socks that stay dry and/or dry out very quickly.  The salesperson Sara who helped us was so great - patient and really took a lot of time.  I tried on 3 pairs of shoes - and not just tried them on and sat there.  Tried them on, walked in them, tried different lacing techniques, walked some more, added inserts, walked some more and then did a side-by-side of the two that felt best.  And I was pleased as punch that the ones that truly fit and felt the best were also reasonably attractive - with purple in them.  I love them!  Though I told Sara 'I will never again buy a pair of athletic shoes based on looks - who cares what they look like?  The right shoes feel 1000 times better than anything I've ever worn before - and that will hopefully help me stick to walking.  It has certainly worked for J. and I will never again think twice about spending money for quality shoes. 

Last stop was lunch at Sansar in Livermore - and it was after 2 by the time we got there.  Then home.  Now it's moving into the evening with massive amounts of stuff to cull out from work - but that's OK.  J. is heading to church for Good Friday rehearsal and I will plow through a bunch of stuff in a couple of hours.  A very late lunch equals light dinner so no cooking tonight. 

Tomorrow is back to work but thankfully, I'm off again this Friday and next Monday - so a three day week for me!!  Woo hoo!! 

A Tale of Two (Pairs of) Shoes

If you are over 40, think back to the days of shoe stores on every corner.  4 or more in every mall.  Remember those stores?  Think back....shopping for shoes was a big deal with so many stores to choose from.

I worked at a shoe store my senior year of high school - Chandler Shoes.  It was sort of 'uppity' as shoe stores went - lots of high heels with expensive accessories.  I worked the front desk most of the time - ringing up sales for the sales staff who were all paid on commission.  One day, I was left alone in the store and two ladies came in.  They purchased $300 of hosiery (really!) and I did a good job getting them to buy.  The sale was recorded by me and I was excited to be soon getting my first commission - and hosiery commission was far higher than shoes.  I told my boss when he returned from his break and he congratulated me profusely.

When I got my next paycheck, though, I didn't get the commission on the hosiery sale.  While my boss never admitted it, I believed he gave the commission to another sales person.  When I asked about it, he made a big deal of correcting it - but he gave me my commission.  I quit shortly after - realizing that even when you did a great job at selling, it wasn't likely you would get credit for the work.  And my boss was a dufus - as most managers of shoe stores in the 70's were.

Anyway - I am rambling...but remember the good old days when they gave you a shoe horn with practically every sale?  Needed one?  Just ask and the plastic miracle tool would be in your bag - no charge.

I need new shoes in the worst way - and I have a style I like - sturdy leather in brown and black.  Used to be I'd go to Ecco and find the perfect shoes that would last years.  Ecco hasn't been the best for me lately though - so I've been branching out.  I found perfect shoes at Lands End and ordered them....in a 1/2 size up.  One brown pair and one black pair.

Even with the 1/2 size up, I couldn't get them on my feet - and realized I needed a shoehorn to do the job.  We've searched high and low in the house - it's the kind of thing you are sure you must have someone but we can't find them.  And then I searched high and low at every store in town...nothing.  Walmart has then online - for $7!

Yesterday, I finally found an 18 inch shoe horn at Walgreen's - $4.99.  I hated to think that I would be using a tool that was designed to require no bending - but it was the only shoe horn in town.

It works!  The shoes are on my feet and being worn around the house to break them in.  The only thing troubling me is the blister that is healing on the back of my right heel - which I got the first time I tried to wear them with socks that were too thick.  When that blister heals, I think they are going to be fine - and eventually, I think I will be able to slide them on my feet without the assistance of the shoehorn.  Leather will stretch to match my feet - and then they'll fit perfectly.

J. is at church this morning - last week, we ran into a friend who works at our church and he said 'so are you not attending because you're pissed about something or because you're lazy'?  I said lazy - though the truth is somewhere in the middle of those two things.  Truthfully, I just like time alone - and the time when J. is at church is when I get some alone time.  I enjoy it.  I like piddling around the house by myself and get up and going much more when J. isn't here than when he is.  And I don't think God cares if I go to his house - or praise and worship him in mine.  I really don't.

The dishwasher is churning away.  We worked on the garden yesterday and sadly, are having to give up the plan to use the raised beds.  J. pulled out dozens more grubs from the beds - so we are pretty sure that the grub eggs are still in there and the grubs continue to grow - and they will be there for quite awhile.  I think I'm going to just use some flower seed and if they come up, great - if they don't, that's OK too.  We'll leave them empty if they don't grow....

So we planted some herbs and tomatoes in our patio pots and put two pole bean plants in a planter under the dining room window (full sun a good part of the day).  We are going to put the squash plants in the front yard in an empty area that has plenty of room for them to spread.  May not work but it's worth a try.

Spring-ish

In the time it took me to run to one of our schools to check on something, stop to get a prescription at the pharmacy down the street and then go to Starbucks for an iced tea and the Taqueria for a breakfast burrito to split with my beloved, the weather turned from lovely to wind-storm.  Drat!  My day off of gardening will still happen - but since one of the things we need to do first is 'mix' old dirt with new dirt, amendments and manure, that project won't happen today.  Too windy to put dry dirt products on a tarp and mix...it will just blow into everything.  Luckily, we have plenty of weeding, trimming, etc. to keep us busy.

I am off on Monday also and we will spend our 23rd wedding anniversary with our attorney - shoring up our trust documents in anticipation of multiple trips where we will both be on the same plane at the same time.  I just like to have all my ducks in a row....

This weekend is a 'must finish taxes or die trying' weekend....among zillions of other things that need doing.

I went through a bit of withdrawal this week, returning to being 'out of touch' with B..  After watching on Facebook as it counted down the number of minutes, then hours since he'd last logged in - until finally, at day three, I think, it just stopped counting and shows him 'silent'.  It was so great to have those couple of days of hearing from him off and on with calls, texts, etc..  He's in two really busy weeks of field work - where they live in the forest for days and practice tactical maneuvers - so we don't expect to hear from him via letters much the next few weeks.  I brace myself for when he is in Ranger School 'cuz we will absolutely not hear from him much...and I know that will be very hard.

Once again, we've been able to find videos of Ranger School - so we know a lot more about it.  We even know that when he finishes - if all goes according to plan - he will graduate the day after we leave Cancun - which means we will likely fly from Cancun to Atlanta and then spend a long weekend with him and come back home from Atlanta.  That's going to cost a fortune - but oh well.  I don't care what it costs - we are going to be there.  It's still possible his graduation may be moved a bit depending on scheduling, etc. so we're not changing plans at this point - we'll just wait and see what happens.

The training will be incredibly intense.  I watched the videos just gob-smacked about the things they will be doing.  They actually do three weeks at Ft. Benning; then 3 weeks at a base in Northern Georgia for 'mountaineering training' and then the final three weeks in Florida in the swamps!  With alligators!

So after Basic, it's three weeks in Airborne (at Ft. Benning), then nine weeks in Ranger School and then he will finally get a couple weeks leave to come home and visit.

I continue to be in awe of his motivation and determination and have no doubt he is going to make a great Army Ranger.  So proud of him....

Son #2 is arriving here this evening to pay us back the $ we fronted him last week.  I'm not going into too much detail except to say he's on my last nerve about keeping his agreements.  Not to mention that it seems highly doubtful he will be able to pay his rent in two weeks - but at this point, I'm stepping off the 'monitor H.'s budget' roller coaster and leaving him to it.  Pass or fail, it's up to him - and we aren't going to provide 'easy money' for work he rarely ends up doing.  Always a reason why he can't come over to help do the things he committed to doing and was paid in advance for.  Argh!

Tonight is pizza night!  We haven't ordered pizza in a long time and I can't wait!

Should Have...

taken the entire week off.  Monday mornings suck - especially after four days of sleeping in.  The thought of repeating this torture next Tuesday (after FIVE days off) is almost more than I can handle.  I thought of calling my boss and leaving a message - but calling in 'absent' for the entire week when I've been expected for a few days, at least, is probably not the best career move.

But oh how I wish I would...could....

It's 6:30AM and I'm just heading to the shower.  Reset the alarm a few times this morning.  Sometimes, those extra 30 minutes (times a couple) are the best sleep I get all night!

I remind myself that B.'s return to reality this morning was likely a hundred times worse.  I don't have a drill Sargent yelling at me to wake me up! 

So there's that.....at least. 

RASP!

Yesterday, J. was awakened by B. calling - forgetting that it's 3 hours earlier here?  He told J. some good news and bad news.  Upon my awakening (a couple hours later), I got to talk to B. - no timer!  The bad news: he's not going to get a week off after Basic Training so no trip home.  The good news?  He was offered and signed a RASP (Ranger Assessment & Selection Program) contract last week!  He is so excited - and deservedly so!  The kid has worked his heart out to reach that goal - and what a great thing to accomplish.  I've been afraid to think about it too much - fearing I would jinx it and/or preparing for the disappointment.  I thought he had a PT (Physical Test) still to come - but it turned out they called him into the 'office' and offered him either Special Forces or RASP - he took RASP.  It's an honor to be offered either - both is a dream.  B. chose RASP because it's more of an 'action' position.  But Special Forces is still an option...

He will finish Basic in a few weeks; then head to Airborne training for two weeks then to RASP.  He finishes RASP at the end of June - and who knows where from there.  If he's selected as a Ranger, he would be based at one of three bases - two in Georgia and one in Washington (the state - not DC).  He hopes for Washington 'cuz at least it's on the same coast as home.  If he doesn't make RASP - then we'll see.  That's the part that scares me - but I am working hard at not worrying about all the 'what-if's'.  I'm just going to enjoy the moment - continue to be incredibly proud of him - and pray about it all as often as I can.  It will work out....

He sounds very good and thoroughly enjoyed his 32 hour pass.  He had dinner at TGI Fridays last night with a bunch of his friends.  They stayed in town, enjoying comfortable beds and hot showers and eating with no time limits!

His pass ends in a couple hours.  He called again this morning - another nice long-ish call.  And we've been Facebook IM'ing off and on all weekend.  It's been so great to hear from him - he sounds so great and so happy. 

We also got a really long letter from him - and after describing one of the activities they engaged in the past couple weeks, he commented that he still frequently thinks 'I can't believe I just got paid to do that!'.  Good sign when you love what you're doing and getting paid is a bonus!

I am cooking quite possibly the smallest corned beef ever - and J. keeps gently reminding me that it's just the two of us and it will be plenty!  I know he's right - but it's so odd to cook such small portions of things.

I've been enjoying my long weekend - and looking forward to another long weekend next weekend when we celebrate our 23rd!  It's Sunday and I'm sort of wishing I had just taken the entire week off - but oh well.  Three days will fly by and I do have plenty to do. 

We are waiting for the arrival of son #2 who will be working for four hours today to earn the $ we advanced him mid-week so he could go out to dinner and a movie with his 'friend'.  H.'s budgeting skills continue to be lacking...but we're getting by.  He won't be thrilled about working for us today but oh well.  I'm not exactly thrilled about spending my Sunday supervising, either - but that's life.  Yard work!

We've got 70's and 80's music blaring in the family room - doors and windows open to let in fresh air.  It's Spring-like!  J. and I've celebrated the weekend by eating out a lot and shopping a little.  J. has needed new clothes for a really long time - and I'm taking advantage of a tidier closet that makes knowing what I need to 'add' so much easier.  My goal is to get to a solid set of work outfits that I feel really good in - and then giving away the rest.  It's time... I bought a pretty skirt and top to wear to B.'s graduation in April - and if it looks nice, I might just shock the heck out of everyone at work and wear a skirt to work!  That would be a surprise.

Chloe got her shots on Friday and she's a little 'off' this weekend.  Not her usual bouncing off the walls self.  It's like when your kid is sick - you just feel so bad for them and would do anything to get them back to normal.  I'm sure she will feel better in a couple days. The vet complimented J. on how great she looks - she's got a nice hourglass shape (thanks to more walks and fewer treats!) and she's looking really svelte! 

Congratulations to B. on an amazing accomplishment.  When he sets his mind to something, he is unstoppable!