AtHomeMom, Unplugged…

Sitting with the gang, watching the game.  I’m not really into sports, especially when the teams that are playing aren’t local.  But DH and the kids get into the snacks and the commercials.  So it winds up being a good family night.

Big week this week with overseas training 3 out of 5 days.  So not my favorite thing. 

Did the taxes yesterday.  Glad to be done with it, but we didn’t wind up doing as well as we have in past years.  That was kind of a bummer, but the good news is that our net between Federal and State has us up by $30.

So on the whole, it hasn’t been the worst weekend in the world, but not the most exciting either.  Plus, there is still 8 inches of snow on the ground (I really don’t like Ohio this time of year).

Anyhoo, that’s the update on my life at the moment…

All of these years I have been addicted to General Hospital.

It all started back when Luke raped Laura.  A friend told me she had watched it one day after school, and I thought, “Wow, sex on the TV, after school when my parents aren’t home.  Awesome!!”  I was 12, what do you expect?  So I watched through the summer on the run, pissed my dad off royally by my excitement over Laura’s return from the dead and continued to follow through the late 80’s when I was home with my oldest.  The stories were exiting and fun, and while the relationships while rocky, they were everything that I wanted for myself and more.  Then I went back to work and lost track, for the first time…

My second child had health problems, and I wound up having to quit working so she wouldn’t have to be in daycare.  I didn’t return right away to GH because I’d lost track of the characters and storylines.  Until one night, I was drifting off to sleep with one of the Soap Opera Awards shows on and heard Susan Lucci announce the return of Luke and Laura.  I bolted up like a flash, excited as all get out.  And within weeks, I was hooked again.  This time around, the stories were deeper, more dramatic.  I laughed when Laura chased her bag out of the plane, sobbed as Dominique died in Scott’s arms (one of the best acted scenes ever, even DH said so), cried for days through the BJ’s heart story and fell in love all over again with Lucky and Liz.  Jonathan Jackson and Rebecca Herbst brought the magic back to GH.  It was the Wall of Jericho all over again, just without the blanket.

When Lucky “died” in the fire, the show lost something for me.  When they brought Jacob Young in to play Lucky, that ended it for me.  He never fit the part.  Couldn’t even begin to fill Jonathan Jackson’s shoes.  About that time, I went back to work again and lost track of the show.  I have received weekly update emails from ABC since, well I can’t remember when.  And I have followed the spoilers and recaps when it occured to me, but I have not been a regular viewer since the Jacob Young days.  Even when DH and I had P in 2003 and I ended up staying home with him for 4 years, I couldn’t stir up the interest to watch regularly   Greg Vaughn was a huge improvement over Jacob Young, but I don’t think the writers ever gave him really juicy material that he could sink his teeth into.

GH has always been like comfort food for me.  One year SoapNet did a Luke and Laura marathon on Thanksgiving, and I just happened to have the flu so I couldn’t cook.  That was one of my best Thanksgiving weekends.  I cuddled up on the couch and watched LnL for days.  I mean, if I had to be sick, that was definitely the way to do it.  So I get a huge kick out of being able to watch old scenes and episodes on YT.

When I heard that Jonathan Jackson was coming back, I was beyond excited.  Thank God for DVR because with my work schedule now, I could never keep up.  I started watching as soon as I heard he was coming back.  Sure, I felt bad for Greg Vaughn, but in truth, I never really felt he “was” Lucky.  And yes, he played the part for longer than Jonathan Jackson.  But right out of the box, JJ has brought the spirit and character back to Lucky.  The scenes where he confronted Liz and Nik about their affair made me cry with sorrow to see one of my favorite couples implode in that way.

And Jonathan Jackson must have a magical power over the GH writers because, for the first time in years, they’ve really been bringing it.  I mean even the non-Lucky stories are better.  I hope it keeps up!  My secret life as a GH lover may have to be outed if they can do as well as or better than the past few months in the long term.

And by the way, I do have a great deal to say about Liz and the predicament that she’s gotten herself into, but I’ll save that for another day…

~to be continued~

I am cleaning viruses off of K’s laptop.  Big fun.

We are taking down the Christmas tree.  Yes, I know we should have done this weeks ago.

There’s grocery shopping to be done.

DH must watch football later.  To hear him talk about it, it might be a matter of life and death.

I’m so excited that I could just vomit…

On Friday, I’m headed out to Southern California as a surprise for my dad’s birthday.  The break is much needed as work has been crazy lately.  Had a mandatory work day today that just sucked major balls.

Going home is a mixed bag.  I’m planning to to visit my dad (of course), my mom and my second family which is going to take up most of my time.  As much as I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, I’d like to have some free time to visit some people and places that I want to visit.  They are places that no one will care if I make it to or see but I’d like to do it for me.  There are also people I’d like to see but making the time or effort would be considered as something inappropriate by the people that I have to live with on a day to day basis.  I don’t know what it would be considered as by the people concerned, but at the very least, it could get complicated.

Life is a funny thing.  There are people that come into your life and seem so very important but then they just drift out as if they were never there.  At the same time when you do reconnect, it seems that your importance in their life was pretty big and their place in your life has never subsided.  And you’re left with this feeling that their purpose in your life isn’t complete…  That your story with them has many chapters that remain to be told.

I won’t be writing any of those chapters on this visit.  I don’t have the courage to seek out those stories.  Many years ago, I tried to pursue those endings.  At the time, I thought I was given the ending of the story, but my heart couldn’t let it go.  I’ve been given indications over the years that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t see the end of the road. Maybe I’m fooling myself, and that’s entirely possible since I’ve done it before.

Visiting the family is challenging on its own terms as my relationship with my siblings and parents is difficult at best.  Going back and wishing that I could be finding answers to questions that have dogged me for most of my life makes it all the more bittersweet.

So much worse for us.  We suffered many setbacks last year, not the least of which was DH taking not 1 but 2 pay cuts.  But I got a promotion that included a raise.  It didn’t make up for the income that DH lost, but it’s keeping the roof over our heads and food on the table.

P started kindergarten which has been a mixed bag.  He is doing extremely well from a skills and knowledge standpoint, but he still has some catching up to do socially.  Not too surprising for a boy who spent most of his formative years surrounded by sisters quite a bit older than he and willing to spoil the kid rotten.

H and K have had some issues typical of girls their ages.  At times they have been pretty difficult to live with, but with all the problems that teens and preteens have these days, it could be so much worse.  In fact, N called me yesterday because she knows one of K’s friends through her boyfriend.  K’s friend had N because she had unprotected sex and wanted to know how to get the morning-after pill.  N was worried that K might be sexually active since her friend is.  I worry about a lot of things with the girls, but right now sexually activity is not one of those worries.

N is living with her boyfriend now but she is still going to school.  We found out that she will be getting her degrees next August.  That’s right, degreeS.  She is getting a dual major.  I am so proud of her.  I was so screwed up at her age.  In fact, I already had a kid.  She is being so smart and I really admire that.

DH and I have been struggling a lot lately with stress, but for the most part, we’ve managed to do it without shutting each other out or fighting like cats and dogs.  We’ve had our ups-and-downs over the years but I think we’ve gotten better at weathering them than we used to be.

I’m not too sorry to see 2009 behind us.  I hoping that 2010 brings us better things!

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday…

I have done nothing.  And I mean nothing for Christmas. 

I feel like I’m drowning…  Between work and year-end, DH’s 2nd cut in pay and just the trials of life in general, I feel like I’m slowly going under.

My anal-self doesn’t like this, not one little bit…

I am a strong believer in the “my way or the highway” school of parenting.  Apparently, it also works with cats.  At least with mine…

After force feeding him twice yesterday, he got up this morning and chowed down.  Ate some wheat grass, Fancy Feast and canned pumpkin.  And drank some water, all without my having to force or even beg him.  He just walked right up to the bowl and dug in.

I can’t say that it was the fear of having to be force-fed again or just getting some food into him to get the ball rolling.  Whatever the reason, I’m just glad he’s eating on his own again.

I’ve never been a Black Friday shopper.  I don’t like crowds.  Don’t like shopping for things that are already sold-out. Never like having to get up before dawn.  So I’m just not one of “those” people.

What do I do instead?  Most years I sleep in, laze around and revel in my superiority for it.  This year, however, I didn’t look at the calendar and scheduled a re-check appointment for K with the eye doctor for 7:50am.  It’s a long story but they wanted to see her 2 weeks ago but that was Fall Play week for her.  And without thinking twice, I said, “Can we schedule it two weeks later?”  They hemmed and hawed because her situation was kind of serious and finally said, “OK.” 

Then a week later I realize, “Holy Shit, that’s Thanksgiving weekend.  I’ll be giving up one of my precious few mornings to sleep in…”  But they had made SUCH A BIG DEAL out of the fact that I had postponed the appointment in the first place, I had visions of Children’s Services camping out on my front porch if I put it off again.  So, I consoled myself with the notion that, at that hour of the morning, we’d be in-and-out and could be home sleeping again before 9:00am.

That picture in my head did not include getting up this morning and finding a half-an-inch of snow on the ground.  Uggghh, I hate snow with a passion.  I truly feel that a federal law should be enacted that snow is only allowed to fall between December 24th and January 1st of every year.  It should be illegal for snow to fall on any date outside of that time-frame, and if it does, all commerce should grind to a halt.  Everyone should be allowed to stay home if there is more than a quarter-inch of snow on the ground (is my Southern California upbringing showing yet?).  But my Congresswoman and Senators just can’t seem to take me seriously on that idea…  Oh well…

The eye appointment did go quickly and I was snuggled cozily back in my bed prior to 9:00am, snow not withstanding.  And then at precisiously 9:08am as I was slowly drifting off, the phone rang.  And so went the going back to bed idea…

Then the cat decided that no food we had in the house would suit his interest.  In fact by 1:00pm, he was sporting the nasty breath that indicated he was in need of subcutaneous hydration…  And while attempting to perform that manueuver, I found far less fatty tissue than a cat named Fats should have and decided that we needed to start force-feeding him.  So the rest of the day was spent hunting the proper ingredients for pureed cat food and wrangling the cat while forcing a syringe down his throat.

Did you know that canned pumpkin is good for cats and sometimes they like it?

Did you know how hard it is to find canned pumpkin the day after Thanksgiving?