Black Friday

FAIR WARNING, this WILL be a RANT, not a sweet little positive & upbeat post.
Now, I am the first to admit that I LOVE Christmas. The trees, the music, the festive holiday headwear, the festive holiday socks. You name it, I love it. I try to start shopping, or at least planning my shopping early. It annoys me to no end that along about the 4^th of July, I begin seeing ornaments and decorations in stores. I'm not talking about the local Hallmark store that starts teasing about the upcoming ornament release. I'm not talking about the local craft store that starts having crafty stuff, because, frankly, if some things aren't started that early, they won't get made in time. I'm totally cool with that. I'm talking about going into the Garden Ridge and finding that while it's still 127 degrees outside, 25% of the store, right as you go through the door, has already been filled with this year's themed ornaments, inflatables, and various other Christmas stuff. The number of stores (aside from the aforementioned Hallmark & craft stores) that have at least 2 aisles dedicated to Christmas starts growing exponentially sometime in August, and it just doesn't stop. We're lucky if we get to Halloween before we start being bombarded by Christmas music. (again, don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas music. My IPod gets re-synced right before Thanksgiving to add my Christmas tunes, which amount to almost a gig and a half of the almost 19 gig which comprises my iTunes library). While I do have Christmas music on my iPod now, I won't even start using that playlist until at least sometime Thursday, and as we are headed down to TRF for the weekend, I suspect that we'll probably make more use of the "Faire" playlist than the Christmas one, at least on the drive down Thursday evening.
All of that being said, the week before Thanksgiving, and the weekend after drive me bananas! Yesterday I made my FINAL Thanksgiving week run to WalMart. Of course it was a madhouse, and fortunately, I only needed about 8 items, none of which are probably priority items for most folks, so I had no trouble finding them in plentiful supply, and my short list, coupled with my mostly empty basket afforded me the ability to go through the 20 items or less line. Thankfully, most of the folks who comprised that madhouse were NOT as prepared as I, thus they had overflowing baskets and were most definitely NOT candidates for the express lane. I understand that most people will discover, on Thursday morning or afternoon that they've forgotten SOMETHING that is necessary… butter, brown & serve rolls, napkins, toilet paper, something that they need to get through the day. I am totally cool with GROCERY stores being open PART of the day on Thanksgiving. I am NOT cool with the whole "shop WalMart ALL DAY on Thanksgiving". Seriously people? If you dislike your family so much that you want to be away from them on Thanksgiving, stay home & read a book, check into a hotel for the night, but what makes you think that your compulsive need to be at WalMart trumps the employees of WalMart's need to spend time with their family, on what could be their last day away from the store for the 32 days until Christmas? I don't work retail, and I haven't in more years than I care to consider, but I remember my mom doing it when I was a pre-teen. Back then, the Blue Laws were still in effect, so the stores she worked in (at the mall) weren't open on Sundays, but she worked every day except Sundays. I've had friends work retail, even if it was as a part-time 2^nd job during the holidays, and from Black Friday through Christmas Eve, there were no days off. If OT was a concern, they just worked shorter hours every day, a 5-6 hour shift, instead of 8. Oh YAY, I don't have to be on my feet for 8 hours today, just 6, how awesome, and only 30 more days just like it to go… The very idea that we HAVE to start shopping in the middle of the night, when sane and rational people are at home asleep, in order to get one of the 5 televisions that will be offered at a deeply discounted price is preposterous to me.

• Number One: WalMart, Sears, and Kmart ALL have had layaway available for several weeks now. You could have put 10% down, paid some each week, and by mid-December you'd have your fancy tv without having to fight 25 other people to get it, then guard it with your life as you spent more time wandering through the store for other "deals" that you'll have to fight for as well.
• Number Two: If the only way you can have that behemoth tv is to fight 25 other people to get it for the discounted price, you probably should ask yourself if you can afford it in the long run. Remember when we didn't buy what we couldn't pay cash for? Yeah, that's how I've lived, aside from my car payment for many many years. Sure I have a handful of "toys", but I've saved up to buy each and every one of them. Are they the latest and greatest? Perhaps not, but they do meet my needs, and provide me with a little joy when I use them. The one who dies with the most toys IS STILL DEAD & DIDN'T GET TO TAKE THE TOYS WITH THEM.
• Number Three: Remember the days of the Blue Laws (as I understand it, many states still have them)? In Texas the only ones I know of still on the books are related to Liquor/alcohol and car dealerships. Back then, we could buy food on Sundays at the store, but if we needed plates or cups for those groceries to be served on, we were SOL. Back then, we managed to get our shopping done between Monday & Saturday at CLOSING time. I remember when places other than the drugstore, convenience store, or grocery first started being open on Sundays, they were open from Noon or 1 o'clock until 5, then it became 6. Hell, I remember when the grocery stores, WalMart, and gas stations/convenience stores CLOSED, what a novel idea, having actual BUSINESS HOURS, rather than just being open all the damned time. We managed to have whatever we needed bought during the prescribed hours, and if we didn't get it then, well, we did without until the store opened again.

Obviously this is something that riles me up. It's not my intent to piss anyone off, and if you really want to do the Black Friday thing, more power to you, but I'm not going to be sympathetic if you kvetch about crowds. You won't find me at those sales, and you sure as HELL won't find me at WalMart on Thanksgiving (or Christmas, when that comes next month) Day, (unless I have to stop by to cash my paycheck, which would be done WELL before noon) because I know that my right and desire to spend time with the family I'll spend my holiday with is no more important than the same right and desire of those WalMart employees who have to work, simply to satisfy the out of control corporate greed which feeds the frenzy of the American consumer's desire to get the greatest deal.

My Black Friday will be spent at the Texas Renaissance Festival, with some of my very favorite people and fairemily. I think it sucks that so many of them have to forego a traditional Thanksgiving feast at home to be in rustic conditions and make ready for another workday. Rather than feeding the greed of Corporate America (I've got free tickets), I can do some of my Christmas shopping in support of the independent crafter/small business. 
Places to check out:
Estelril Enterprises - a fabulous selection of lotions, gels, soaps, salves, incenses and bath salts, all made from ancient Native American and/or Celtic family recipes, using natural ingredients.  
Fairely Well Maid - beautiful crochet, sewn, and tatted items
McCord Works - amazing crochet jewelry
Willow Creek Crochet - beautiful arm warmers available in a variety of sizes
Loime Studios - skirts made from upcycled fabric, various kinds of artwork
ClipClocks -  Beautiful brooches and pins that have a hidden secret... they hold a clock!
Monkey Skull Craft Works - turned wood art: pens, candlesticks, bottlestoppers; and paracord survival bracelets
The Candle Cafe - amazingly well-scented candles, and truly the ONLY place I purchase candles for many years now

Whine whine whine

This is probably going to wind up being one of those bitchy whiny posts, so either please bear with me, or come back tomorrow for something a bit cheerier (I hope).

 Back in November, I moved in with friends, in an effort to try and get back on my feet. There have been times that it’s been great, and times when it’s been strained, to say the least. We’ve all had to make adjustments, and while it’s not a perfect situation, it’s the best there is for now. There are 4 adults (1 not yet 20) and a teenager living here now. All 4 adults are unemployed, and not a one of us is collecting unemployment. A couple of weeks ago, we held a “family meeting” and came to a few ground rules.


Each of the 3 oldest adults will cook dinner 2 nights per week, 2 of us will each do a night with one of the kids, and the kids will do one night on their own.


Monday is T & the boy (19)


Tuesday is me & the girl (14)


Wednesday is E


Thursday is the kids


Friday is me


Saturday is E (& T if we are having company)


Sunday is T


Kitchen duty (as of that meeting) consists of preparing and cleaning up after dinner, and it is the responsibility of the cooks to plan ahead to be sure that all necessary ingredients are available. Everybody is to rinse their own plate and put it in the dishwasher.


Monday, Wednesday & Friday the boy is to sweep the living and dining rooms, and on Friday mop them, and help as needed with trash


Tuesday, Thursday, & Sunday the girl is to sweep the kitchen/entry, and on Sunday she is to mop the kitchen and sweep the stairs as well.


I am sweeping the public bathroom downstairs and the girl’s upstairs, and keeping sinks, tubs & toilets swiped clean.


T is in charge of trash and keeping the porch/front yard clean


E is in charge of keeping the kitchen and living/dining rooms generally picked up






So Friday, I had plans with a friend to go with her to find fabric for her new dress, and was also going to try to exchange something for E at Joann’s in Dallas. I did the messy part of prep work for my soup on Thursday, cleaning up behind myself as I went. Friday morning before I headed out in the cold, I put everything in the crockpot, put the trash in the trash, and cleaned up behind myself once again. It was kind of a trying day, and when I got home, I came in to a sink full of dishes! WHAT? I cleaned up the DINNER dishes, which, thanks to crock pot liners, consisted of rinsing the ladle, washing the spoon rest, and washing the lid to the crockpot. I got chewed out a couple of days later for not washing and putting in the dishwasher what I found in the sink. WHAT? SERIOUSLY? I was GONE ALL DAY, I DIDN’T EAT ANYTHING IN THE HOUSE THAT DAY. When did I get elected to clean up other people’s messes?






So tonite there was another family meeting, because E had been on a tear much of the day, over various things. Well, the boy’s chore days have been changed to match the girls, so that all the sweeping/mopping can happen on the same days. Granted I haven’t been up and done the girl’s bathroom, but I DID handle the downstairs bathroom before we had company come over on Sunday.


Now the “dinner” duty has become all day kitchen duty. Which, on the one hand, if we would all get up and clean up after ourselves, wouldn’t be a huge deal, but not everybody does that. I guess we’ll see what shakes out.






I get that I’m living here and haven’t been able to contribute much at all financially, however there have been 3 trips that could not have been made as they were without me here to stay with the girl and the critters, and another that needed someone here with the critters. I am doing all that I can to find work, and get some regular income that will allow me to contribute financially to the household (as well as keep my truck, tyvm), though it seems that I’m the ONLY one who is actively trying to find something, which is quite frustrating. Especially when I start getting “advice” texts from unemployed people about what to do to find work. UGH!






I think it’s time for me to pop into bed with the kitties for a decent night’s sleep before I get up and head into FW to take some clerical tests I need to do in order to apply for some municipal positions.

Utterly Astounding

Now, I am the first to admit that as a non-parent, I am hardly qualified to give parenting advice, however as a law-abiding, generally rule-following member of our society, who has been a major part of the lives of multiple children, related to me either by blood, or by love, I consider that I AM qualified to make a couple of observations about this situation with a 4 year old PreKindergartener who is, according to his parents, being persecuted and discriminated against because of his hairstyle. There are literally hundreds, possibly thousands of stories out there on the internet about it… My Google search, yielded 30,000 hits.
Over the last few months, I have read several articles, mostly from the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star Telegram, with regard to the situation. In the past, most of them included statements to the fact that the child has Native American heritage, and wants to wear his hair long in the Native tradition, and I'm fairly certain, that at one point, I also read that his father also wears his hair long. Today's stories, however, state that his father, a tattoo artist, used to keep his head shaved, but agreed to grow it out, along with the child, who "wants to grow it out and donated it to an organization that makes wigs for children…" Seriously people? A FOUR YEAR OLD? And the Native American heritage? Yeah, that's clearly important to the family since none of his 3 brothers have long hair, nor did Daddy until allegedly the child wanted to grow his out. I have known my share of VERY bright 4 year olds, however NONE of them have come up with an idea like growing out their hair to donate it to charity on their own. Judging from the length of his hair, this driving urge to have long locks is a relatively recent development, or else it would have been beyond the length deemed excessive by the district well before the end of October. Their "effort" to conform to the part of the rule that says boys' hair must be kept out of their eyes is to put his hair in a ponytail, ON TOP OF HIS HEAD! I wouldn't put my 4 year old DAUGHTER'S hair in that whale-spout ponytail on top of her head, much less my son's! Do they really think that it's a good compromise? His mother claims that braiding or cornrowing his hair makes his scalp bleed. UMM… what the HELL? I have done and seen my share of cornrows and tight braids over the years, and I have never seen or heard of them causing scalp bleeding.

We live in a society in which children and many of the young adults have both a sense of entitlement, and a belief that either the rules don't apply to them, or that they don't have to be followed if they are unpopular. It is parenting such as this that has bred this generation of kids. "Why Junior, the world does INDEED revolve around you, therefore, you are above the rules, go right ahead and express yourself, with no regard to anyone or anything else." Don't get me wrong, I know some AWESOME kids, who are willing to obey the rules, work hard for what they earn, and have learned to express their individuality WITHIN the boundaries prescribed by society/school districts/parents. Unfortunately, the longer I am unemployed, the more time I am out in public places other than an office environment, and the more instances I see of ill-mannered, spoiled, lazy, and unruly children. Now, I know full well that it is NOT always the parents' fault that the kid turns out to be lazy, ill-mannered, lazy, or unruly. I share living space with one such kid, who is legally, an adult. Since returning to the household, soon after I joined it, well, it's been one thing after another, all boiling down to a lack of respect for other people and the rules (in this case, of the household).

I honestly believe that these parents are looking for their 15 minutes of fame, at the cost of their child's education, and rather than seeing this situation as an excellent learning opportunity, they are teaching him to have a total disregard for the rules that have been in place, and have been working for a great many years. So far, because his parents believe that the rules shouldn't apply to him he has been exposed to:

1. Isolation from his friends and peers at school
2. Negative attention, and I would venture to say ridicule from around the world
3. The idea that he doesn't have to follow rules he does not like.

Never mind the fact that the taxpayers have had to pony up an extra $30/day for the teacher's aide to "teach" him in isolation. I believe that if your child is so very bright at 4 years old that he can come up with the whole growing his hair out to pay tribute to his heritage, and to ultimately donate to charity, he doesn't particularly NEED the additional instruction that taxpayer-funded pre-Kindergarten programs provide.
That's my rant for tonight. I could have posted about it weeks ago, but, well, just didn't get around to it.

Keep in Mind:
Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door – Dr. Laura Schlessinger

BOYCOTT VICTORIAS SECRET

Back in August, I was made aware of the Body By Victoria contest, because the daughter of a fellow rennie had entered. Her name is Casey, she is 19 years old and has Osteosarcoma, which is advanced enough that she will lose her enough of her right leg that she will not be able to have a prosthetic leg. This is part of the post that I first saw posted on Wench.org: "I don't love the parts of my body that are affected by cancer. I don't love my tumor, or any of the nerves it's currently pressing against. I don't love the bones it has weakened to the point that I will have to use crutches even after the fracture heals in order to avoid fracturing more bones. On the other hand, I love my legs because they transport me, because I like their shape, because they've been pretty reliable for the last 19 years. I love my legs because I can move my little toes out separate from the rest of my toes. I love them because they make it possible for me to get piggy back rides. I love them because they help me dance. I love them because they come in a pair, so even when my right leg is amputated, I can still enjoy these things with my left leg. I love my arms because they support my weight on my crutches and make it possible for me to still get around without having to ask for too much help. I love my fingers for being able to grasp some things while still holding on to the crutches, without always spilling or dropping those things. I love my body's tolerance for pain, and the fact that it can take so much without making me cry in front of people. I love it for the fact that I didn't cry that one time when they were trying to hook me up to the IV and kept digging around the more tender veins in my arms. I love my body even though it doesn't look like the Victoria's Secret "A Body For Every Body" ad to the right of my screen as I type this. I love it even though it's bald and can't sexily toy with its hair, even though it has no eyebrows to arch at men, even though its bra size is only a 36A, even though its weight fluctuates but will probably never have that flat of a stomach, even though it will soon only have one leg and some people will be disgusted by it. I love it even though it's falling apart. I love it because it's mine." The prize for this contest is a three-day all-expenses-paid trip to NYC, includung a full spa day and other pampering prizes that she could really use after all of this awful trauma. http://www.bodybyvictoria.com/#/Gallery/880 Over the course of the last month, there were lots of fraudulent votes, and Casey's supporters were vigilant about reporting the spammers, whether they were voting for Casey, or for other contestants. Casey won the popular vote, by THOUSANDS of votes. Unfortunately, Victorias Secret is run by toads, because though they admitted to her in a telephone call that her votes were genuine and fair, they'd decided to change the rules because of the tampering that occurred, and gave the top 50 vote getters in random order, to uninvolved judges, who then selected 2 grand prize winners, neither of them was Casey. As a consolation prize, they've given her a $500 gift card. What a slap in the face! I am FURIOUS about it, and have made my opinion known to them. I have also told them that I will be making sure that every forum I frequent, as well as the hundreds of people in my email box is aware of how they do business. I realize that I am but one voice, but if enough voices band together, it CAN make a difference! This is my letter to them Hello, I am writing you today regarding your “Body By Victoria” contest. I was made aware of the contest on one of several forums I am a member of, and I was one of the supporters of the popular vote winner, Casey. I am aware of the fact that there was more than one issue regarding fraudulent votes, and some of our forum members were among the honest folks who were watching and helping to ensure that your company was notified when they occurred, whether the fraudulent votes were being cast on Casey’s behalf or not. As I understood the rules when I read them, there would be a popular winner, and another winner would be selected by judges as well. I cannot quote specifics because I failed to print said rules off, and, well, they are no longer posted. I find it to be sneaky, underhanded, unethical, and utterly abhorrent that you decided, once it was clear that a real woman, who will never have a perfect body was winning, to change the rules. My understanding is that she received a call from your company, admitting that the votes for her were genuine and fairly cast, but that instead of awarding her the grand prize (which was now available to 2 winners, just not her), you were awarding her a $500 gift card. In my opinion, that was a slap in her face. Her entry is certainly the most genuine, and the most honest without being shallow, vain, and self-centered. To be frank, I have not shopped in your stores for myself for many years, as you do not carry anything in my size, however many of my friends do, and I have bought many gifts and gift cards from you. That has stopped now. I refuse to do business with a company that would handle its affairs in the manner in which you have handled this contest. I can assure you that I will be posting the information and my opinion of your practices on every forum I frequent, my blogs, Twitter, and all the hundreds of people in my email box. I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your decision and award the grand prize to Casey, however I realize that I am but one voice that you may or may not pay attention to. I used their comment form here http://www2.victoriassecret.com/html/custsrvc/contact/comments/?rfnbr=8678 to register my opinion and I encourage you to do the same!

Final Countdown

YAY! We are finally in the home stretch of the countdown to Opening Weekend at Scarby! Cannon is in 29 hours. In 26 or 27 I'll be in the parking lot greeting friends and getting ready for a lovely day in the shire. I should totally be packing my stuff and getting the house picked up so I can leave at 10:30 this morning to get some errands done before I head down to Waxahachie, but of course I am sitting on my ass, watching the news and blogging instead. I have managed to narrow down what to wear and am leaving all but 2 outfits at home, in an effort to not have quite so many decisions to make when I wake up in the mornings after a late night. I suspect that tonite I’ll be helping my motel roomie work on alterations for a friend’s costuming. Hopefully the changes will be mostly straight seams being sewn so we won’t be up all night. The cats know something’s up, and my sweet boy is sticking very close this morning. The good news is that the house won’t be unattended this weekend for the crazy bitch to get in and steal me blind, because some of my friends are staying here, though I’ll be closer to faire at the motel. I’m also hoping to get some good sunshiny photos of my front yard before I head out, because I’m quite happy with what I had my nephew put in on Sunday. I am going to have to get a better shepherd’s crook for one of my fuchsias though, because the one I’ve got keeps leaning down, and won’t stay upright for some reason. The more time I spend trolling the net looking at plants, the more I want to do with my backyard! I suspect, however, that I need to slow down a bit, lest I bust the bank account. This weekend is also Race Weekend in north Texas. Several people I know are going to various activities out at the speedway, but even if I wasn’t going to faire, I would probably not be heading that way. Traffic makes me crazy, and as much as I like watching on tv, and keep up with where my driver is in the standings, I’m not willing to be driving in that mess. If someone else wants to drive, we can discuss it, but it’s not going to be me behind the wheel. A few years ago I went down to Sundance Square on Friday to get an autograph for a friend’s birthday. I realize that Nascar is considered by many to be a redneck sort of sport, and I find it hugely amusing that it is the only professional sport that openly acknowledges a supreme being, and addresses that being prior to every race with a prayer. I think it’s kind of sad that other professional sports don’t publicly acknowledge faith in any way. I also appreciate the fact that generally, Nascar chooses vocalists that can do the Star Spangled Banner who can actually sing it without mangling it or jazzing it up, or whatever so many of the others I’ve seen at other events are doing. I mean, I get that everybody wants to leave their mark, but come on people, it’s our national anthem, and as a military brat, I have certain expectations with regard to the flag, anthem and other patriotic things/ideas. Among those expectations are basic respect for the flag, which means face it, men should remove their hats, and if you choose not to participate in the pledge or anthem, please just sit or stand quietly. If I am at an event hosted by your country, I will afford your flag and anthem the same respect I offer my own. It annoys the HELL out of me to see or hear people talking or giggling during the anthem. OK, that rant’s over now. I’d better get off my butt and get the sheets in the dryer, clean sheets on the bed, and finish packing so that I stand half a chance of being on the road when I want to be!

thanksgiving sucked

/28/08 This has quite possibly been the worst Thanksgiving I’ve ever had. I am finding that I have less and less patience for people in general. I drove 6 hours to come to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere to spend a few days with 3 of my very favorite people. I knew going into the trip that I was going to have to suffer the presence of 2 of my very least favorite people. Darla is my very best friend ever, and honestly I would do anything in the world for her, however I think I have found the one thing that I won’t do. I can deal with her snotty, bitchy sister and her smarmy brat niece, or I can deal with her drunken asshole boyfriend, but I have found that I cannot deal with them all at the same time. I have spent the better part of the last 41 hours either drunk, or crabby, or both. Neither of those 2 adults has reached the conclusion that there are other people in this house who have an opinion, or feelings. Lisa has spent most of the time I’ve been here telling Darla how to parent Nick, because, well, since Darla has managed to raise Nathan to the ripe old age of 17, he’s not been in trouble with the law, he’s doing fine, for the most part in school, and in general he’s a well-adjusted kid, clearly Darla’s an incompetent parent! Rick, on the other hand, has spent most of the time I’ve been here completely drunk and in general being an asshole to everybody except the baby. Last night, once the baby was asleep, the bratchild was also asleep, Nathan had gone to his room, and I laid down on my bed (the couch) in the living room to try to go to sleep. Rick and Lisa decided that they were going to stay up and watch the end of US Marshals or whatever the damn movie was. I plugged in my IPOd and tried to ignore them and go to sleep. Yeah, notsomuch. Asshole decided that he couldn’t hear the movie well enough, so turned up the volume, now that the baby was asleep in his room. I tried to ignore them as best I could until the movie ended. Silly me, I thought that I would actually get to go to sleep. Lisa headed to bed, but oh no, not asshole. He turned on a light, dug around in the cabinet and got out yet another movie to watch! I asked him if he was going to watch movies all night and his response was “oh, just for a little bit.” I got up and started into his bedroom to get in bed with Darla and he acted all offended, but I just told him “I can’t sleep with that TV on. I’ll go in there and sleep in your bed, you can stay up and watch tv all you want.” I eventually fell asleep, about 12:15 in the morning, in there with Darla. All was fine until 4:30 when he decided that he was ready to get in bed, at which point he came and tried to rouse me out of my spot. Darla told him to leave me be, so he slammed outta the bedroom and came out to the couch. I’m ok with it. Fucker. I got up around 7 to get up and hopefully get to spend a little time texting with Tom before he had to go to work, and sent Rick into his bed. I had about an hour of peace before Lisa & bratchild woke up and came out. While I was in the shower, Rick found it amusing and appropriate to try to gawk at me through the shower door, and bang on it. WTF??? He wasn’t even drunk yet… I think he was on his 2nd beer of the day. In all reality, if not for the fact that I will be unable to travel at Christmas, thus unable to do what I have done for nigh on 10 years now, which is spend Christmas with Darla & Nathan, I would not be here at all. I would have stayed home, gotten a few things done around the house, and started getting ready for Christmas. Unfortunately, next year, it will be Lisa’s year to have the bratchild at Christmas, so they’ll be back here again, which means I will NOT spend Christmas with Darla & Nathan for 2 years in a row. Sigh. I want so desperately to talk to someone specific, but even if he was not at work, I am not sure I could talk to him without being completely negative and bawling my eyes out, and I just don’t want to subject him to that. He doesn’t deserve my ranting and whining, because he brings a smile to my face and light to my world, and I hope that I do the same for him, at least sometimes. Eventually I think we’ll reach the point that I feel comfortable telling him what all is going through my head and fussing and crying my little eyeballs out when I’m overwhelmed, but I’m not sure he’s ready to deal with that right now. Saturday, November 29th dawned and Lisa & bratchild finally left. Soon after that, Darla & I headed for the big city. In that part of the state, that means Midland/Odessa… big woo, right? Well, our first stop was The Candle Café in Midland. It’s absolutely my favorite candle shop. More on that later, when I can gather my thoughts for a more positive, less rant-filled post. One of Darla’s other friends met us at the Candle Café. This is a person that I was never terribly crazy about, but in the last couple of years, she’s made some choices that cause me to want nothing to do with her. At any rate, I knew we were going to have to meet up with her, as she had some things to give to Darla for Christmas, but I told Darla to begin with, I do NOT want to spend the whole day with her. It’s bad enough that we get less than 24 hours of time for just us (except for dipshit rick and the boys). So we were driving into Midland, and we passed a street on the outskirts and she said “her aunt lives down that road”. Now, see, I was willing to begin with to meet up with this chick because I thought she lived in Abilene and was only in town for the holiday weekend. But HELL NO, she fricking LIVES THERE. She lives less than 2 hours from Darla, yet the only time that she can find to see Darla is when I have driven 6 hours to see her. WTF???? So as we were leaving, Darla retrieved her things from the chick’s car and the chick said she would follow us to the Christmas bazaar that we were planning on hitting next. As Darla got in the car I said (probably rather loudly, and honestly, believing that chick was in her own car already) “Oh HELL NO, I am not spending all day with her, how long is she planning on following us around? I did not drive 6 hours and 400 miles plus another 120 today to put up with her bullshit today!” Chick pulled out of her parking space before we did, but not angrily as far as I could tell. Darla said we’ll just tell her we’re heading back home after the bazaar. When we got to the bazaar, she wasn’t there yet, which surprised us, but in all honesty, I didn’t care, since I really didn’t want to be with her anyway. She arrived a few minutes later and we set about wandering around. As is our nature, we wind up being in different booths at the same time, but we always manage to hook back up every few minutes. I hadn’t seen her in about 30 minutes, and it had been about 15 since I’d seen Darla, but I did find Darla again and was at a booth with her looking at hair stuff, when chick came up with her bags acting all pissy, and told Darla she was leaving. Darla asked her if there was something wrong and she said no, that she just needed to go home. Off and on throughout the rest of the day Darla fretted about why she left early, if Darla had done something to hurt her feelings or piss her off. I tried to get her to not worry about it, I suspect that perhaps she heard my rant about not wanting to spend the whole day with her, and I don’t rightly give a damn. In the last 6 years, I have NEVER been able to have a visit out there with Darla without her horning in on something, on at least 1 day of my visit. She’s self absorbed, and always has an agenda. When Darla had Nick, she was Darla’s coach in labor & delivery, and she stayed with Darla when she went home from the hospital until I got there. Darla’s choice was to breast feed, and Darla was open about this, though because of some delivery complications, her milk didn’t come in very quickly, and so Nick had to be started on formula. Until I was there and I was able to have a say so and support Darla, chick was doing everything she could to hinder breast feeding. Again, I say WTF??? She was totally unhelpful about making sure the pump was nearby and as soon as he started fussing, instead of handing him to Darla (who wasn’t allowed to lift anything over about 3 lbs, and had to be off her feet except to go to the bathroom for a week after he was born), she carried him into the kitchen with her while she fixed a formula bottle. Yep, she is just one more person in Darla’s world who wants everything her way, hence I don’t want to deal with her if possible. After the Christmas bazaar (which was fun, but that will all go into a nicer post as well), we headed back to Midland to hit the mall, since I THOUGHT that’s where the nearest Lane Bryant was. Talk about a fustercluck mess! The first entrance/exit that we came to was closed off, so it took 20 minutes to get into the stupid parking lot. Yeah, no Lane Bryant. Picked up a few things at Bath & Body Works as long as we were there, then hit Victoria’s Secret to see if they had the sweats Darla wanted. By the time that we got to Academy to pick up what pinhead had sent $ for, and got to Walmart, it was 5:30. We made our rounds and got everything that was on our written list. I had forgotten to write one thing down, but it wasn’t anything major. By 6:15, I was over it and burnt to the ground, so we went to find an open checkout lane. UMM, you know those commercials now, about opening more checkout lanes on Saturdays? I think they forgot to get that information to the Walmart in Midland, right there on I20. I swear to you, there were 8 self-checkouts, 3 express lanes (20 items or less), and 1, yes, I said ONE regular checkout open. uMM, yeah, a total of 12 out of I think 36 or 40 lanes were open. Helpful, since I needed to reload a gift card, and we had about 30 items. I just gave up on the reload, and we did the self checkout, after which we noticed as we walked out, that 2 more regular lanes had been opened. GRRRRR! We rolled into the driveway about 8:45 or so to find that we had company, one of butthead’s co-workers. No idea how long she’d been there, but of course butthead was drunk, the baby wasn’t bathed or ready for bed, AND as I discovered when I heated up some potato casserole and got some carrots for MY dinner, NOT FRICKING FED YET! Therefore, instead of eating my potatoes, I had to feed them to the baby. The company left around 10:30, and the baby was bathed by then. When Darla tried to settle Nick down to sleep, butthead had to keep trying to “help” however in his drunken state, and because he will tell him “you don’t have to go to sleep, but you have to sit here with me and watch tv” the baby thinks he’s going to be rescued and not have to go to sleep yet. I think finally around 11:30 butthead went to bed, and within about 10 minutes, Nick was out for the count. So, finally, it’s nearly midnight, and there’s now way in HELL I am going to try to get the itunes stuff transferred from my computer to Darla & nathan’s so she can sync when she wants to update it. I also discovered that asshole had opened and drunk half of each of my last 2 Dublin Dr Peppers. OK, now screwing me out of my Dr P is a killing offense in my book. And this pinhead has opened not ONE, but TWO, and drunk the sum total of 1 of them, leaving the halves to go flat. Not that I would drink out of anything I know he’s drunk out of, since he’s got a wad of chew in his mouth most of the time, so God knows what his drunk ass left in the cans after taking a swig! Sunday morning I was hoping to be on the road by 10 a.m., but that didn’t happen because I had to do the whole itunes transfer thing, and even then, it didn’t transfer into her Itunes, it just went to her music folder. So I left Nathan in charge of making sure that everything got into the proper place, as well as recreating the playlists, but I was hysterical before I gave him the task! OH, and Lisa called to see if I would go to the Cracker Barrel in Abilene and pick up the baby doll that bratchild left the day before when they stopped for lunch. Um, yeah, that is a great big NO! Especially since I didn’t plan on going through Abilene! I wound up leaving about 11:30. Stopped in Ozona at the DQ to get a DP and some lunch. Yeah, I’d filled my cup with some on my way out the door, not realizing that dipshit had given the company something to drink in it the night before, and left fricking LIMES in the bottom. I HATE LIMES! Yep, we’re up to 3 wasted dr p’s now, 2 from Dublin at a cost of about $1.25 each, plus a regular one. So, I place my order “Hunger Buster with cheese with KETCHUP AND PICKLES ONLY, and a large dr pepper. “ she repeated it back to me, correctly, gave me my total, and I pulled up. I got my drink and about 3 minutes later they told me to pull forward and wait. Sigh, so I did, and about 5 minutes later, here came my food. Go back 2 sentences and see what I said. Go on, I’ll wait. Yep, clear as day I said KETCHUP & PICKLES ONLY. My burger came out “sub ketchup for mustard” WTF??? It’s a good thing that my aversion to onions and tomato slices has to do with flavor/texture, and not an allergy, because hot damn, there they were, nestled in among the shredded lettuce. As frustrated as it made me, it just wasn’t worth the bullshit of waiting in line behind the million cars parked, or the 7 in the drive through to raise hell about it. I only made 1 stop after that, in San Angelo for gasoline and a potty break. It took me a total of about 6 hours from door to door, including the 2 stops, so I made pretty good time. When I got home, the house was pretty much in the same state I’d left it in, which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t a huge deal, but since I’d been hearing for a couple of weeks that Helen’s plan was to do some cleaning while I was gone. Oh well.