Doing The Right Thing…

… so Wednesday, I got my unemployment check and texted the Crack Whore to tell me the cost of Weed’s GED test and who to make the money order out to.

Weed had been in the store a few weeks ago lamenting the fact that his sleazy mother spent all the settlement money from her bogus lawsuit on all kinds of shit and didn’t set aside anything for his GED.

Now.. even though it isn’t her responsibility to come up with the money :: it’s his :: I would have still thought that she would have taken care of this since she’s always the one bragging about how she got him to get through the courses. But what do I know, right?

Anyway.. Weed had said that if he didn’t get to register for the December test, he’d have to wait until March. Neither Chief nor I want to see him lose his momentum :: he actually has been straightening out… a little :: so I told him when I got my next check I’d pay for the test.

She texts me back telling me that the fee is 75.00 and if I could have it by noon since he had to show his face in court and it would do him good to have the money order when he faced the judge .. since apparently, the GED was part of a court order. I don’t know if I necessarily believe that but that’s on them.

So fine.. I tell her that I’ll get it and will drop it off at her place. She tells me that Weed wanted to grab something to eat so she was taking him to the shop and I could meet them there.

Fine. Whatever.

But when I went to the bank, I noticed that not only did my unemployment come in.. but her child support payment had come through.

Now.. remember.. Bubba had lived with her for two week at the beginning of the month and I was mulling over the though of returning half of it to her.

Now.. I know y’all probably just sprayed whatever was in your mouth onto your computer after reading that and I apologize. Just send me an email and I’ll send you out some Lysol wipes to clean up the mess.

Just hear me out for a minute…

Regardless of my personal feelings for her .. and regardless of how she chooses to live her life.. having Bubba live with you for two weeks is a MASSIVE impact on your finances. Just on food alone. Even though she gets food stamps, it’s not like it’s an endless pool. Well, until the next month.. but again, that’s besides the point.

I also know that they have a court date coming up in January for child support and figured whatever trick she tried to pull out of her hat regarding the time Bubba spent living with her then a cashed check with ‘Child Support Refund For Bubba Staying There’ on the memo line would go far as to showing who was playing fair and who wasn’t.

See! I’m not ALL rainbows and kitten kisses here!

But even with all that.. it was still the right thing to do. And if there is one thing I will always do.. it’s the right thing. Even if I don’t want to.

So I got one of those “blank inside” cards and just wrote a note explaining what the check was for and why I was giving it to her.

When she opened it, she text me all defensive saying that she loves her sons and would never turn them away and I just squashed that like a bug and explained that it wasn’t a question of her loving :: cough cough :: her sons but THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

She either pulled or horns in or mainlined the “happy” smack because her tune changed and I was just THE. BEST. PERSON. IN. THE. WORLD. and how BLESSED. I. WAS. FOR. HELPING. HER. AND. WEED.

Whatever.

She did cash is like… right away but I expected that.

At any rate.. I didn’t tell Chief. I didn’t tell him because.. again.. I sometimes have my own agenda and when it comes out that I gave her the money back :: which it will :: my response is going to be that he doesn’t tell me everything when dealing with her so why should I..

It petty, I know.. but also a big bone of contention.. so maybe this will turn things around.

We’ll see

Review: Passengers

So with nothing better to do today then to watch movies, I found PASSENGERS on Stars On Demand and OMG.. it was GREAT!

I know.. a movie I actually liked, right?

This one has a cast of great actors: Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, Andre Braugher and David Morse to name a few.

Anne Hathaway is a therapist who is assigned to council a handful of plane crash survivors.

One survivor, Patrick Wilson, seems to be in deep denial and of course… being the little hottie that he is.. becomes more then just a patient :: wink wink :: ..

I’m not going to tell you anything more about the plot because there are twists :: some, ok, are a little far fetched :: and I really don’t want to spoil it if you get the opportunity to watch it.

A quick search on the internet looks like I’m probably the only one who actually LIKED this movie.. but I did.

Let me know if you do..

My Mother’s A Bitch

Ok.

First let me state for the record that I love my mother very much. If I didn’t, then I wouldn’t have had the reaction that I had on Friday.

So Friday afternoon, Chief closed the shop early and we went for a ride out to a local farmer’s market. While there, my cell phone rings and it’s my mother. She immediately starts telling me something about my grandmother’s heating bill and some application that they never received from the gas company.

Had a great Thanksgiving.. thanks for asking, Mom.

So I tell her that I wasn’t home but when I did get home I’d call her and look up whatever information she needed online. She asks where we’re at and I tell her.

HER: Make sure you buy me something nice for Christmas.

ME: What are you Spaz? What do you mean make sure I buy you something nice for Christmas?

HER: Just what I said.

ME: Are you implying that I don’t buy you something nice for Christmas?

HER: Well, just make sure it’s from a nice store and not from the farmer’s market.

I was like, are you fucking kidding me? It may not seem like a big deal in print, but you had to hear the tone in her voice and the little sarcastic “hmph”.

And the thing is, I never shorted her on a gift.. regardless of what my financial situation was.. and now this year, since I’ve been laid off and money is tight I’m already feeling guilty that I have to be extra frugal and can’t go all out like I used to do. I figured people would understand.. I figured MY FAMILY would understand because really, when the hell did the true meaning of Christmas become how much money you spent on a gift?

IN FACT .. this year, I was going to get her one of those 200.00 laptops.

Key word: WAS

It just really got under my skin and really fucked up the rest of my day.

So when I got home, I called her like I said I was going to but was my usually chippy self. She picked up on it right away and asked me if I was mad about something.

But the WAY she asked it lit the neon sign that made it clear that she knew exactly what was bothering me.

So I tell her that I was upset.. that her comment about her Christmas gift had hurt my feelings.

Her reaction would have made you think that I was accusing her of smuggling drugs in puppy belly’s or something.

She said she was only joking :: of course she was only joking. .that’s EVERYBODY’S excuse when they say something that hurts somebody else’s feelings :: and that there must be something else bothering me. I told her there wasn’t.. she got all defensive again and pulled out her violin. She said that everybody can tease but her.. which is bullshit and I told her that. Then she said, “.. OH, GO FIND A JOB”.

Like.. what the FUCK?

What the FUCK does THAT have to do with anything?

By then, the wall went up and I was like, “.. yea. Find a job. Real nice.”

I didn’t even want to talk to her anymore. So I told her that the online application that I filled out was submitted and hung up.

Chief knew how upset I was.. and he was getting upset for me. Especially the whole job thing.. because she will never accept that working in the shop that I OWN is work. And that gets under his skin big time.

The thing is.. when your a child, you see your parents as “parents”.. but when your older and see your parents as the adults that they are, you also see their flaws.

My mother is, deep down, a good hearted person. She’s generous and funny and devout. But she’s also very judgmental, negative and opinionated on things she has no business having an opinion on.

She uses the fact that I’m her daughter as an excuse to say and do whatever it is she says and does and thinks it automatically gives her a free pass.

And it doesn’t.

Because there is never a justification to hurt someone’s feelings and not own up to it.

Black Friday Shopping.. Further Proof That I’m A Masochist

… so hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that it was everything that you wanted it to be.

Mine was relatively quiet :: for the life that I live anyway :: .. Chief cooked a fabulous turkey, made fresh cranberry preserve, mashed potatoes and that green bean thing that has those crunchy deep fried onions on. My father in law brought over these sweet potatoes that Chief’s brother makes that were SO FUCKING GOOD! There were apples in there and pineapples and OMG.. it was SO FUCKING GOOD!

We ate around 3.. my father in law was out the door by 4:30 :: he can’t see well at night to drive so as soon as the sun moves behind a cloud he’s on his way :: and then the boys went off to the Crack Whore’s.

Beings that we were going to be home alone, I had visions of some porn and pokin’ but the stuff that’s in the turkey that makes you tired kicked in and after the emergency run to get sewer main unblocker :: yes, the sewer backed up into our basement again :: I was down for the count.

NOTE: Yes, we wound up getting a turkey late Wednesday night.. because, yknow, tradition and all. Shame you can’t see the eye roll I just gave right then!

Anyway.. so 4:30AM .. read that again.. 4:30AM.. my cell phone starts ringing. I jump out of bed.. trip over Bella.. slam my knee into the foot board.. step on the cat and drive for the phone in the dining room.

It’s Bird.

YOU UP??? I’M UP! WE STILL GOING SHOPPING??????

Ok.. so earlier on Thanksgiving, I was going through the circulars and one of the department stores had 50.00 flannel shirts for 8.00. So I happen to mention to Bird that I SHOULD get up at be at the store when they open to grab a few since that’s what I was going to get my father in law for Xmas anyway.

The ONE time that the bitch takes me seriously!!

I kind of feel bad because her sleeps schedule is all fucked up so for her to be up at that time either took some serious effort on her part OR some serious meds.

Fine. So I tell her to come pick me up and she said that she was going to wake up her daughter, Peep, to come with. Peep is home from college and I’m sure the last thing she wanted to do is wake up at 430am to go shopping on Black Friday.

Anyway.. so they get to my house by 5 and Bird is WIRED.

I mean W.I.R.E.D

She’s like a bobble head anyway but OMG.. she was all over the map. I asked her if she had had coffee :: because coffee makes her seriously spaz :: but she said she didn’t even take an energy pill. She’s doing fifty things at once.. pulling out all the circulars from the paper and showing me what she needed to get and all I’m telling her is that she BETTER stop at a Dunkin’ Donuts because I can’t get through this without some serious caffeine.

I should have known what she had issues ordering two large coffees, one with milk and sugar and one with extra sugar and cream that this how adventure was NOT going to be good.

Further proof was when she goes speeding the three blocks from the DD to WalMart and is YELLING at the guy at the red light to turn when he had NO intention of turning and then playing chicken with an old lady for a parking spot.

She has this BIG silver truck and between the old lady trying to jockey her little Toyota .. cars trying to get down the row and cars trying to get up the rows and the poor guy just trying to get out of the parking space, I just knew I was going to die and it was the one time that I voluntarily put my seat belt on.

Then the old lady starts yelling at her.. she starts yelling at the old lady and my chin is literally on my knees because as rough and tumble as I am.. I’d rather just park at the farthest end of the parking lot and walk just to avoid all the drama.

So I’m yelling at her to stop acting the way she is.. Peep is yelling at her to stop acting the way she is.. and the evil demon that has possessed poor Bird turned it’s head and spewed green pea soup before telling us both to shut the hell up.

WalMart is usually a mad house but this was even worse then my vivid imagination could conjure. There were cattle shoots sets up with sadistic cops from three counties welding electric prods to keep the masses in line.

And there were masses.

BELIEVE ME .. there were masses.

The majority there to pick up flat screen tv’s at ridiculous prices all with their nickers in a twist because they were sold out. If you ask me, there were never any tv’s to sell out but that’s just my Wal-Mart Conspiracy Theory thought.

Bird was pissed but figured while we were there getting pushed and shoved and prodded, we might as well pick up a paper shredder.

A paper shredder? Are you fucking kidding me?

But a paper shredder she grabbed and then it’s standing and standing and standing and standing in line to purchase it and I swear I should have just walked the five blocks home.

We finally get out of the line and it was on to the next store. Kohls.

I have to say that even thought Kohl’s was crowded, the were organized. To me, WalMart people don’t usually shop at Kohl’s and so the whole experience was completely different. Then again, Kohl’s doesn’t sell tv’s and radios and the like ..

So Bird and Peep go running around grabbing this and that and I’m just wondering when the hell I’m going to be able to just go buy the flannel shirts. Bird keeps telling me to buy things.. do some of my shopping.. but I’m not prepared financially to do that so basically I’m just there to carry bags.

Kohl’s had a great check out set up. You stood in the main line away from the cashiers and when one was free, a Kohl’s person directed you to the open cashier. It made things move along a lot quicker and was less stressful then having all these people rolling their eyes and shifting right behind you in your personal space. We spent around an hour and a half in there but really, it wasn’t so bad.

Then on to Sears. Apparently, Sears was selling flat screen tv’s at a ridiculous price too and Bird was able to scoop up the last one. But that was a WHOLE process in itself and by this time, I really just wanted to go home. But I sucked it up and got through the sale. Next stop, Boscov’s because Bird wanted to buy herself a ring.

I think I have to state for the record that indecisiveness is a huge pet peeve. Especially indecisiveness while shopping. I’m the kind of shopper that scans a store and if nothing jumps out at me, I move on. For Xmas shopping, I have a list. And I stick to my list. And if something on my list isn’t available, I do a quick scan and move on.

Bird buying herself a ring from her husband for Christmas was the epitome of indecisiveness and by this time, I was ready to crack and on the verse of a breakdown.

The funny thing is, a woman also buying a ring asked me how old I was. When I told her 44, she was shocked because she thought I was in my early 30’s. Then she commented that Bird must of had me REALLY early in life.

Bird looked like she was going to blow a gasket and I just chuckled to myself at how sweet revenge really is.

We FINALLY got out of there and FINALLY made our way to JC Penny’s to get my flannel shirts.. which took all of… I dunno.. 15 minutes? Most of that spent in line?

Then back to Sears to pick up the tv and then to the supermarket to pick up clams and clam juice for the New England Clam Chowder that Chief was making.

By the time I got to the store, I had been with Bird and Peep for 5 hours and it was literally the worse 5 hours of my life.

I’ll never do that again…

EVER!!!