We've been kicking around the thought of driving up to Arkansas, so I can visit some family, for quite some time now and now we're finally going to just do it! My mom hasn't met J yet and only saw E one time, when he was only about 4 months old...hell, my Granny has yet to meet EITHER of them and neither have my brothers.
**Speaking of brothers, I just hope they're not all doped-up and running the roads the whole time we're there. I'd like to actually see them this time. They're adults and yes, they control what they do and how they live their lives...doesn't mean I don't still worry about them OR that I have to agree with it. I certainly cannot cast stones, though...as I did plenty of my own partying in the past. I just hope, like me, it's a phase they get through safely.
I digress...so, we've made the reservations for the hotel and car rental (renting so we don't use wear and tear on our OWN cars). We'll be driving up on March 12th, after I get out of class, and driving through the night. We are hopeful that this allows the boys to basically sleep the whole trip away, which will make our lives MUCH easier. We'll drive back on Sunday afternoon or so. Basically, just a couple of days...but honestly, other than my brothers, mom, Granny, and my dads (the father and the dad who raised me)...I don't really care who I see, so it should be plenty of time. I will see a few old friends, yes, so that will be good too. My point is, all I need of Arkansas can be handled in a couple/few days. Anymore than that, and I get VERY bored with it and yearn for my city-life back. Besides, it seems everyone up there seems to be meth-ed out and I don't like being around it. I CERTAINLY don't want to expose my children to that mess before their due time. Seriously though, when you can walk into a Wal-Mart at 3:30am and it's half-packed with bug-eyed people, wearing cut-off shorts and muscle-T's and still sweating when it's 35 degrees outside...you've got a problem. Just the fact Wally World is PACKED at that hour is a problem, never mind the distinct aroma of drugs sweating out.
I've already taken that Friday and the following Monday off work...Monday will be a recovery day, if there IS such a thing. Hard to say with two under the age of 2, but we do alright. My Virginia is amazing, with what she deals with and handles on a daily basis. I'm actually GLAD I get to come to work everyday for a few hours. Anyway, I guess that's it for now. More sooner than this post took, I promise...
Showing posts with label Relationships. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Relationships. Show all posts
February 20, 2009
January 15, 2009
Randy
Now...I wrote this back on February 20, 2008 and posted it awhile back on MySpace but thought I'd re-post it here, after reading it today. Just kinda made me sad all over again, I guess.
Well…my Mom just called to let me know Randy Railey passed away today. Randy was one of my Mom’s oldest, and dearest, friends having been married to my Mom’s OLDEST friend, Marsha, for God knows how long. I can remember being like 7 or 8 and going to visit them, if that gives you any indication. Today was his 56th birthday too. His kidneys had shut down and he was jaundiced really bad too…they initially were going to take him off of life support tomorrow, but his daughters decided to do it today as their last gift to him. He would have wanted and appreciated that because he was always a very no-nonsense kind of guy. He pretty much attacked life head on and would have wanted to attack life-after the same way. He told you how it was, or at least how HE saw it, even if it wasn’t what you wanted to hear…at least you would always get the truth and what you needed to hear. I was surprised by how sad it made me to hear about it…I knew their plans and knew it would happen today, but it still struck me deeper than I had imagined or prepared for.
Randy was always very good to me. When I was young, he never treated me like a “kid” so much as others did…he talked to me straight up and in the eye, which has always earned my respect from others. When I enlisted in the US Army, I don’t think anyone was any more proud of me than he was, save for my Mom and my Granny. He taught me a lot in the time between signing into the DEP and actually shipping off to boot camp. He had gone to military schools growing up and knew the inner workings of such things. He taught me how to keep moving forward full-force but never standing out too much…in basic that can get your head cleared in a hurry. LOL He taught me that if I truly wanted the most out of the military, volunteer for everything (such as schools) I could, that’s pretty much what I did, and yes…I got the most out of it. He taught me how to break down an M16 and a 9mm before I ever got to Ft. Jackson or Ft. Bragg for training. He also taught me how to march properly, stand at attention, parade rest, turn, and about-face long before ever having to actually do it for a DS. It was immensely helpful to me and I always loved him for it because he obviously cared enough for me to devote so much of his own time to help me.
Randy loved his beer and hell…he’d smoke a little grass every so often too…but that doesn’t change or affect the person he was. I wish I could have told him thank you just one last time. It would have meant something to me to know he really did understand it. So, I am left with saying it here…thank you, Randy. You will be missed.
Well…my Mom just called to let me know Randy Railey passed away today. Randy was one of my Mom’s oldest, and dearest, friends having been married to my Mom’s OLDEST friend, Marsha, for God knows how long. I can remember being like 7 or 8 and going to visit them, if that gives you any indication. Today was his 56th birthday too. His kidneys had shut down and he was jaundiced really bad too…they initially were going to take him off of life support tomorrow, but his daughters decided to do it today as their last gift to him. He would have wanted and appreciated that because he was always a very no-nonsense kind of guy. He pretty much attacked life head on and would have wanted to attack life-after the same way. He told you how it was, or at least how HE saw it, even if it wasn’t what you wanted to hear…at least you would always get the truth and what you needed to hear. I was surprised by how sad it made me to hear about it…I knew their plans and knew it would happen today, but it still struck me deeper than I had imagined or prepared for.
Randy was always very good to me. When I was young, he never treated me like a “kid” so much as others did…he talked to me straight up and in the eye, which has always earned my respect from others. When I enlisted in the US Army, I don’t think anyone was any more proud of me than he was, save for my Mom and my Granny. He taught me a lot in the time between signing into the DEP and actually shipping off to boot camp. He had gone to military schools growing up and knew the inner workings of such things. He taught me how to keep moving forward full-force but never standing out too much…in basic that can get your head cleared in a hurry. LOL He taught me that if I truly wanted the most out of the military, volunteer for everything (such as schools) I could, that’s pretty much what I did, and yes…I got the most out of it. He taught me how to break down an M16 and a 9mm before I ever got to Ft. Jackson or Ft. Bragg for training. He also taught me how to march properly, stand at attention, parade rest, turn, and about-face long before ever having to actually do it for a DS. It was immensely helpful to me and I always loved him for it because he obviously cared enough for me to devote so much of his own time to help me.
Randy loved his beer and hell…he’d smoke a little grass every so often too…but that doesn’t change or affect the person he was. I wish I could have told him thank you just one last time. It would have meant something to me to know he really did understand it. So, I am left with saying it here…thank you, Randy. You will be missed.
December 30, 2008
Communication
Alright - something has been bothering me today about my partner in crime, who we will refer to as Virginia (the Train tune would be the theme song to the made-for-TV movie about her life). I know that I have been accused of having a "convenient" memory, as I'm sure just about everyone has...ok, every MAN has, and remembering what is only relevant to me at the time...or more importantly, what benefits me at the time! *wink* I readily admit to having resorted to such tactics in the past, present and future.
Anyway, an incident occurred recently that brought to my attention the fact Virginia does this sort of thing to me often enough also and I wonder if it's ALL women or just her...here's the deal: we are still waiting for the delivery of our new washer and dryer to the loft (they are shipping them to us on next Monday), so V needed to go do a couple of loads. (Sidenote - the lofts have a laundry room but the dryers work basically the same as if I stood in my living room, picked up the wet laundry in piles and tossed them into the air over and over until they were dry.) She headed out while I put on the Daddy cap for awhile. Upon returning, she claimed there wasn't a cart in the garage to load the baskets onto in order to bring them up. Trust me, I have been through this exam before...so I offered to go carry the baskets up for her, one by one if I had to. "No, of course not," was her reaction and she explained to me she would just go back down later on and get them when there should be a cart available. I said "OK" and nothing else was said...
Now that you have the setup, you are probably already laughing because you can just imagine how this turned out. The evening carried on as usual and when I went to tuck baby E into bed, I fell asleep also. He has been very sick so he's been sleeping in our bed but I digress...at midnight or so, V comes to bed and wakes me up to tell me I need to make sure and take my night-time insulin and other particulars. She never mentions anything about laundry and since she claimed she would bring them up, I didn't really even think about it honestly. I woke up the next morning and got dressed for work, as I normally do, packed my lunch, poured a cup of coffee, etc...and am just about to walk out the door (on time) when V comes around the corner from the bedroom and tells me she needs the laundry that's in my car. Now, THIS isn't such a big deal but what she follows it with IS...she says, "You told me you would bring it up last night but you ended up falling asleep with E."
I had to do a double-take...I literally said the words, "Excuse me?" Now, as a man, I have been through this test also and know it would do me NO good to argue what she had said before OR now, but I'm a stubborn Gemini and always right, so... I tried to explain to her that after my offer she had told me not to worry about it because she would get it herself...but this was to no avail. I even tried to explain that things would have been much easier had she told me I needed to bring the clothes up at midnight the night before, but alas...you know the drill. It wasn't getting me out of having to carry out the deed. My shoulders slumped a little, I set my lunch bag down and proceeded to go down one wing of the complex in order to get a cart...and then to another wing of the complex to my car in order to load it...and then back to the main wing again to drop off the clothes. Needless to say, I was about 30 minutes later than normal to work.
Real funny, huh?! Well, she has yet to admit there was ANY conversation after the point in which I offered to bring up the baskets in the first place...and I'm sure she never will...not that I am pushing for it either (I haven't mentioned this situation since then, in fact). This woman amazes me. Had it been ME in the "wrong" (for lack of better words only), you'd better believe she would have quoted our conversation word for word and spewed forth like a well-paid attorney until I could do nothing but stand up, admit my undoing and convict myself. But, NOOOOO...this was a different viewpoint, so her tactics had to change too. Still got the same verdict though. She's like Devil's Advocate in the fact she just never loses. Is this all women or did I just get lucky? My bet would be it's all (or most, at least) women.
Anyway, an incident occurred recently that brought to my attention the fact Virginia does this sort of thing to me often enough also and I wonder if it's ALL women or just her...here's the deal: we are still waiting for the delivery of our new washer and dryer to the loft (they are shipping them to us on next Monday), so V needed to go do a couple of loads. (Sidenote - the lofts have a laundry room but the dryers work basically the same as if I stood in my living room, picked up the wet laundry in piles and tossed them into the air over and over until they were dry.) She headed out while I put on the Daddy cap for awhile. Upon returning, she claimed there wasn't a cart in the garage to load the baskets onto in order to bring them up. Trust me, I have been through this exam before...so I offered to go carry the baskets up for her, one by one if I had to. "No, of course not," was her reaction and she explained to me she would just go back down later on and get them when there should be a cart available. I said "OK" and nothing else was said...
Now that you have the setup, you are probably already laughing because you can just imagine how this turned out. The evening carried on as usual and when I went to tuck baby E into bed, I fell asleep also. He has been very sick so he's been sleeping in our bed but I digress...at midnight or so, V comes to bed and wakes me up to tell me I need to make sure and take my night-time insulin and other particulars. She never mentions anything about laundry and since she claimed she would bring them up, I didn't really even think about it honestly. I woke up the next morning and got dressed for work, as I normally do, packed my lunch, poured a cup of coffee, etc...and am just about to walk out the door (on time) when V comes around the corner from the bedroom and tells me she needs the laundry that's in my car. Now, THIS isn't such a big deal but what she follows it with IS...she says, "You told me you would bring it up last night but you ended up falling asleep with E."
I had to do a double-take...I literally said the words, "Excuse me?" Now, as a man, I have been through this test also and know it would do me NO good to argue what she had said before OR now, but I'm a stubborn Gemini and always right, so... I tried to explain to her that after my offer she had told me not to worry about it because she would get it herself...but this was to no avail. I even tried to explain that things would have been much easier had she told me I needed to bring the clothes up at midnight the night before, but alas...you know the drill. It wasn't getting me out of having to carry out the deed. My shoulders slumped a little, I set my lunch bag down and proceeded to go down one wing of the complex in order to get a cart...and then to another wing of the complex to my car in order to load it...and then back to the main wing again to drop off the clothes. Needless to say, I was about 30 minutes later than normal to work.
Real funny, huh?! Well, she has yet to admit there was ANY conversation after the point in which I offered to bring up the baskets in the first place...and I'm sure she never will...not that I am pushing for it either (I haven't mentioned this situation since then, in fact). This woman amazes me. Had it been ME in the "wrong" (for lack of better words only), you'd better believe she would have quoted our conversation word for word and spewed forth like a well-paid attorney until I could do nothing but stand up, admit my undoing and convict myself. But, NOOOOO...this was a different viewpoint, so her tactics had to change too. Still got the same verdict though. She's like Devil's Advocate in the fact she just never loses. Is this all women or did I just get lucky? My bet would be it's all (or most, at least) women.
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