The continuing saga

My Braves haven't been playing so well recently. I had to turn the game off in the seventh inning last night because it got too pathetic. It's the top of the first inning and their opponents (Cincinnati Reds tonight) just scored two runs. I know my boys can do better than this. But enough about baseball.

I had some COFFEE this Afternoon!! With CAFFEINE! WEEEEEEEEE!!!

Twitch has been transferred to the store in Simpsonville (Arby's). It's an hour away. He has no car, no drivers license. He's got the learners permit, and has been driving Superman's truck with me in the shotgun position. I actually enjoy the drive, or have come to feel that way about it this week. I like it better when I drive. He's not too bad at driving, but he's new and nervous, and I like being behind the wheel when I'm in the car, you know? Today we took my truck, which is a piece of shit with a manual transmission which Twitch doesn't know how to drive. I like my truck better. The thing is, it takes an hour one way to get to Simpsonville and uses a bunch of gas. I drive back home, only to go back to get him six to eight hours later. That's a LOT of gas. Which costs a lot of money. He's helping with the expense, but not as much as all of it. I'm trying to get him to save so he can secure housing in that area. I've spent four hours on the road every day this week. I have mixed feelings about this.

The poor guy (Twitch) had to work ten hours today. I got there an hour before he got off, not realizing he would work that late. It all worked out well, though, because I'm easy that way. I needed some new shoes anyway and hadn't yet found a chance to shop. There's a shoe store half a mile up the road from Twitch's shop, so I wandered up there and had my favorite kind of shoe shopping experience. This is a representation of what I bought.

(One beer down) I asked the nice sales associate lady for those old fashion ugly Crocs. She said they only had that style in mens, which is fine by me. She showed me what they had, three different colors/styles. The camo print was an easy elimination. The other shoe was brown with a leather (or leather look) patch on the top of the upper. It was $15 more than the black ones. Though they had the brown in a size 7 (my size in mens shoes) and the smallest size black was an 8. I tried them both on, and went with the 8. Crocs are supposed to be kinda loose anyway, right? And it has that strap thing on the back that helps keep the shoe on. So it's all good. I told the friendly sales lady that ugly and old fashioned was kinda my style. You know, I'm so fashion backward. So I got a pair of shoes I like for less than $35 and took less than ten minutes to complete the entire shoe shopping experience. Yeah, that's how I like to shop. I feel good! (The caffeine and beer help. 'Bout to start on my second beer, so watch out!) 

After the wonderful shoe shopping experience I stopped by Starbucks. I don't think I've been inside a Starbucks in at least two years. I got myself a short "tall" black coffee, then went back to the Arby's where I bought the last chocolate turnover. Man, those Arby's folks have the best turnovers, and the chocolate is extraordinary. Been wanting one of those for a while now. 

Oh, and in other news, the weight loss thing isn't going so well. For example, there's an IHOP beside the Arby's. Twitch has had to be at work at 8:00 every morning this week, but Arby's isn't open for breakfast. Leaving home before 7:00 hasn't given me the opportunity to eat before leaving. So twice this week I had the Bananas Foster Brioche French Toast at IHOP. Oh boy.

I mean look at that. Who could resist? Who knew warm bananas could taste so good? 

I recommend them if you aren't trying to control your BMI. So good! I got myself a bowl of cereal before leaving this morning, so was able to forego the cost and calories of that particular temptation today. Then I had a chocolate turnover this afternoon. In my defense (which isn't a good defense, by the way) I had a V-8 for lunch. *sigh*

Half way through the second beer. Feelin' good! I haven't been drinking much recently, like less than a beer a day. Maybe two or three beers a week. So two beers has a bigger impact. Oh, further along on that beer than I thought: just finished it. Weeee! And now I don't even care that the Braves are playing like shit. My tongue is going numb. Nice buzz.

Superman is on his way home from work. Yes, it's 8:40 on a Friday night. He's been working a lot of long hours recently. The plant just had a power surge and he lost the PowerPoint he'd been working on for over an hour, so he's chucking the whole thing and coming home. I suspect he'll have to spend a couple (or more) hours at work tomorrow.

What else? I suppose I could update the Sproing drama. Yesterday was hell. Did I mention in my last post that he'd been before the judge on the ... wait a minute. Let me check the last post and see if you are up to date with his latest criminal activity. (insert Jeopardy "wait" music)  Nope. That last post was written before his latest criminal activity. Last weekend he stole Superman's debit card, took it to Wal-Mart and spent approximately $150. When this breach of trust was discovered, we called the police. Because DAMN! We live in the city, Wal-Mart is in the county outside city limits. So to make life more difficult (because damn) the offense has been divided between city police and county sheriff's departments. The theft of the card is a police matter, the use of it is sheriff's domain. He's had his arraignment with the city. We're waiting on the sheriff's warrant, when we'll have to see a different judge because fuck my life. The municipal judge considered putting Sproing in jail, but released him on a personal recognizance bond of $5000, with restrictions. The judge, bless his heart, wrote his direct phone number on our copy of the paperwork.  If the boy gives me any grief I can call the judge and he'll revoke Sproing's bond, sending him to jail until his June 5th court date.

Well, yesterday Sproing was being an ass, at which he has a special gift. I asked him to fold and put away the load of towels in the dryer. Oh. My. God. You'd have thought I asked him to donate a kidney. After the judge had a serious talk with him about doing the right thing and respecting his Mama. And it got worse from there. I finally told him that I was done, and would call the judge tomorrow. (Which was today, for the record) He kinda freaked. (What the fuck. What does he expect?) Then he (Sproing) asked to talk to the sheriff's detective who questioned him about the charge, a guy who used to be the resource officer at the high school. Evidently Sproing feels comfortable with the man. So I called the sheriff's department (at 9:00 in the evening) and asked for the detective to call me. Which he did. I'm impressed. He talked to Sproing, calmed him down. After the conversation Sproing was way more copacetic. He apologized and everything. So I had pity on him and didn't call the judge today. So far today he's been calm, but I've hardly interacted with him at all. He got home from school right before I left to pick up Twitch. When I got back I went to the beer and baseball, and Sproing is doing his thing away from my presence. So far so good. Tomorrow is Saturday and we'll probably have more opportunity to interact. Oh please oh please oh please let it be peaceful!

Sproing got the warrant from the city, which is what sent us to the municipal judge. He hasn't yet gotten the warrant from the county, though. Once he does, we'll have to go to another judge to repeat the process. I don't know how that'll work out.

Oh, and of course all this shit violates his probation with Juvenile Justice. I talked to his probation officer. She said she'd wait to see what the city and county do with him before taking any action. She thinks it'll work itself out without her having to interfere. You see, since he's 17 years old now, he's treated as an adult when he fucks up like this. DJJ is a secondary concern. Damn, I hate this. Sproing can be such a nifty guy. But he can also be a pain in the ass. As you have probably realized by now.

HA!! Braves won!! Finally. Maybe this portends good fortune for this weekend. In my life, not just for the Atlanta Braves. That'd be nice.

Today I've been in a good mood. Last night I felt like wringing Sproing's neck. Today I spent pretty much all day without Sproing, and got to drive my truck, which always makes me happy. I had a lovely almost three hour nap this morning when I got back from Simpsonville, finished my sappy gay romance novel, had a good shoe shopping experience, drank CAFFEINATED COFFee and ate chocolate yummies. And now the Braves have just won their game (yay, about damn time boys) and I've now had three beers. The buzz is strong in this one. Time to end this post, take a shower (because I'm kinda ripe) and kiss all over my husband who has finally gotten home from work. If there was anything else I meant to say in this post, well, it won't happen.

Until next time

Checking in

I will be on the road today, but right now I'm sitting in Doug and Indigo's living room trying to motivate myself out of this chair to get some coffee. I got to meet Doug yesterday. He is a lovely fellow! I'd like to get to know him better.

I had a great time in NYC. I saw Penn Station, the subway, the station nearest Patrick's apartment, and Patrick's apartment. Then the same thing in reverse. That's right, we didn't go anywhere. We talked for hours. It was wonderful. I went to New York and did precisely what I most wanted to do. It was a very good trip, although perhaps a bit too short at 28 hours. Patrick is as wonderful in person (if not more so) than he is on his blog.

Today is another day of traveling. I will head toward South Carolina, but not go all the way home today. I plan to stay in Virginia tonight, and go HOME tomorrow. I've talked to the sentries on duty there, and they say HOME is a good place for me to be, please. Pretty please. [Trying not to sound utterly desperate. ]

Coffee. Now. Then a shower. Then pack the truck. But first coffee, please! [Sounding pretty desperate.]

a few things

All right, y'all. There is something gross going on in my refrigerator. This sounds like a job for Superman! His sense of smell is somewhat hindered, though not altogether gone, so it won't be quite as bad for him.
Actually, he's already looked for the offending substance and found nothing. S cleared all the old nasty stuff out of it a couple of weeks ago, but obviously something else has turned. I think Twitch said he looked for whatever was smelling the place up and didn't find it. I suspect none of them looked very closely. As bad as it smells, I don't blame them. One of us needs to get in there and do some reconnoitering. But I haven't been to sleep yet so I'm not gonna do it now.

Update on the 'fridge: Superman found it. There was a tray of chicken breasts hidden in one of the drawers. We forgot it was there, so $16 worth of boneless skinless chicken meat went bad. I hate when that happens.

And now I can't remember what the other thing was that I planned to tell you. I'm really tired, that's my excuse.

Oh, right! Check out my little avatar thingy over there. It's a bear drinking coffee. You know, the Java thing. Also, I've been thinking recently about what sort of animal I might be, or be most like. I considered a chicken or some kind of bird. I like birds, and chickens in particular fascinate me. But though I might like chickens, I don't think of myself as one. Superman's other alias is Concolor, which is the species (?) name for a puma. So he's a big cat. Light has been a cat most of her life. One of her first "words" was a purr. The neighbor had a cat and Light, at only 15 months old, loved to play with it. The cat purred very loudly, and that is the noise Light would make when referring to a cat. It was adorable. So she has identified with cats for practically ever.
So I was thinking, and I came up with bear. Here are the qualities I relate to:

• Big


• Grumpy, and able to get away with it most of the time


• Somnolent: they are known to sleep for months at a time


• Omnivorous: they don't know from food groups!


• Protective: you know their reputation for protecting their young

And here's the thing about a mama bear. If her cubs are irritating her, she'll cuff 'em good. But if she thinks they are threatened, woe betide the fool who's doing the threatening! I get like that on both accounts. I can be bitchy to my kids when they need it. But I have a strong protective urge. If anyone I care about, be he child o' mine or anybody else I have in my heart, is in a situation I feel is perilous I will stand up big and strong and make a mighty roar in defense.

So this avatar is a bear drinking coffee. It isn't the kind of bear I consider myself to be. My image of my bear-self is more like this. But it is difficult to find an image on Google/images of a big bad bear like this sitting in a club chair enjoying a good cup of steaming joe. You know?

And speaking of coffee

Superman brought home this poem the other day. I'd like to give credit where credit is due, but all he knows is that it came in an email.

The Starbucks Prayer

Caffeine is my shepherd; I shall not doze.

It maketh me to wake in green pastures:

It leadeth me beyond the sleeping masses.

It restoreth my buzz:

It leadeth me in the paths of consciousness for its name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of addiction,

I will fear no Equal™: For thou art with me;

Thy cream and thy sugar they comfort me.

Thou preparest a carafe before me in the presence of mine barista;

Thou anointest my brain with pep; my mug runneth over.

Surely richness and taste shall follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the House of Starbucks forever. Amen.