Diva's school honeymoon period is over

She made it seven days before getting suspended. I got a call from her grade principal this afternoon. This grade principal is different from last year's. We have a woman this year, Mrs. S. She seems like a nice lady. We had as pleasant a chat as possible considering the circumstances.

Diva's offense: hitting another student (male) in the head/face with a three-ring binder. The story as I understand it: the boy got too close to Diva as they were getting their supplies for class -binders or calculators, I've heard it both ways. He might have pushed her, but he definitely got too close to her. According to Diva (as related by Mrs. S.) he called her a bitch. According to Sproing (he's in that class, too, but was on the other side of the room and missed most of the drama) she told him something along the lines of "get the fuck out of my way." It sounds like something she would say. Also, by the way, not that it makes a difference, but she is a bitch. However, it's inappropriate for anyone to point that out on school property.

I haven't seen Diva yet. She either went with the volleyball team to an away game or rode home with her friend on the other school bus. So I haven't heard the story from her. Sproing told me the story according to the injured boy, who told Sproing. The kid's eye was bleeding. Sproing says the binder hit him in the eye ball, but I'm not sure it wasn't just the skin around the eye. I don't know.

I had to stifle my laugh while on the phone when I learned that Diva hit the poor kid. Sounds just like her. Really really didn't want the principal to hear me laughing at Diva's antics. I feel sorry for the boy. Hopefully he will stay out of her personal space from henceforth.

The girl is suspended for three days beginning tomorrow. She'll be home Friday, (Sat, Sun) and Monday is a holiday (Happy Labor Day) so that doesn't count. Suspension days continue Tuesday and Wednesday. It seems she often gets suspended on days that correspond to holidays and/or weekends. So yeah, she gets a whole week off. And it's my pain in the ass to get to keep her busy and NOT having any fun for a week. Oh, we'll let her slide (a little bit) over the weekend, but tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday I'll have work for her. Housework if not school homework. Haven't discussed it with Superman yet, but she'll be grounded for the time, including the weekend.

That will be difficult to enforce on Saturday, when Superman, Twitch and I drive to Charleston to deposit Twitch in his new digs. I think I don't care. We'll tell her to say home and get (list of chores) done, but if she goes off with friends, what can we do? If she's still gone when we return, she'll be in deep weeds.

I feel like shit. Here it is, all over again. I have an annoying desire to beat her with a whip.

Any suggestions about what kind of chores around the house she can do?

Good grief

So yeah, I guess it has been a while since I put up a post here. I've been avoiding the internet again. Nothing personal, y'all. Just depressed.

The kids got back into school last Tuesday. They've been at school for just over a week and neither of them has been suspended yet. Yay! I haven't had any calls from the principals. So far so good. Diva says she has all A's so far. She's also going to be part of the girls' volleyball team, sort of. She's been drafted as a line guard or something. She'll watch the boundary line (or whatever it's called) and judge whether the ball is in, out, or on the line. Good for her. She really is trying to keep her nose clean and do the right thing. I'm annoyed with her, but I think that has more to do with the antagonism between the two of us.

I don't want to talk about Sproing. Suffice to say he isn't behaving well. Got another B&E charge (felony) a couple of weeks ago. Still hasn't been to court. Grrrr.

Twitch is moving to Charleston! (South Carolina) He spent last week there with a couple of friends and looked for a job. So far nothing, but he did pay September rent at the apartment there. He'll be the third roommate with those friends. It is my fervent hope that he is gainfully employed within the month and can afford October rent. It's a good move, him leaving here and moving to Charleston. I don't want him to have to come back home. He doesn't either. Superman and I will take Twitch and his load of stuff to Charleston on Saturday. I'm looking forward to seeing Twitch's new apartment and spending some time alone with my husband after we drop off Twitch at his new home.

I am relieved that the annoying teenagers are back in school. I've not recovered from the summer break. Seriously. My nerves are raw and I can't think clearly. Is this a minor case of PTSD? Maybe. I feel as though I'm wounded.

Shall we talk about the dog? Oreo. Predominantly black lab, with rumors of pit bull parentage and signs of possible other breed influences. Dalmatian has been suggested. I'll tell you what, though, he's a smart pup. He's about 6 months old, maybe 6.5. We have him in beginner obedience classes at PetSmart. He learns fast. He is a very good dog. We have considered finding him a new home because we are not really ready to have another dog right now. However, the longer we have him and work with him, the more we want to keep him. If you recall, Sproing brought him home, saying he'd take good care of him, etc. Yeah, right. I said "no." Superman said "no" but the dog (for reasons I can't recall) spent the weekend here, at which point Superman changed his position on keeping the dog. Although he's a wonderful dog, he is a puppy and requires a lot of work, supervision, and diligence to keep him from chewing up my entire house. Right now I want to keep the dog and get rid of Sproing. If only it were that easy.

Do we want to talk about my depression? Disclaimer: I do not want to hurt myself, have no plans to do so. There is no joy in my life. I have a good life, indeed, and I am deeply loved. That helps. I am mortally tired of the shit I have to deal with. I don't really know how to describe it. I'm stuck. Pretty worthless for many values of "worth." Oh, I have many fine qualities, but really? Day to day I'm barely surviving.

I don't want to talk about it anymore.

Braves baseball helps. Fewer than six weeks left in the season, and "we" (the Braves) are almost a shoo-in for post-season playoffs. We're 13 games ahead of second place in the National League Eastern Division. And as of this evening we have the highest win percentage of any other team in the MLB. For most of my readers, that means jack shit. The significance here is that I'm not too depressed to want to watch Braves baseball. So it could be worse.

And that's all I know.

Thought for Today, and other stuff

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. -Naguib Mahfouz, writer, Nobel laureate (1911-2006) 

7.5 days until the kidlets go back to school. It can't start early enough. Tomorrow (Tuesday) they'll go over there to get their IDs made and pick up schedules. Superman took them both shopping for clothes last weekend (two weeks ago?) and Sproing was in a mood and didn't get anything except a pair of shoes. He asked a few days ago if we can go out and get him some clothes. He is so out-of-favor with me that I'm not getting him anything. Not now, anyway. A week or four into the semester I'll get him some pants, maybe shirts. He probably needs socks and underwear, too. But he ain't gettin' it this week. 

It's bloody hot here. Hot and humid with intense sunshine. I just checked; current ambient temperature is 91F but the heat index is 99F. It feels at least that hot to me. Diva and I were out in it. She had a doctor's appointment and we drove my truck, Manny. No air conditioning, of course. And no shade in the doctor's office parking lot. But we're home now, so it's alright. 

However, the passenger side window doesn't work. When we got home I pushed the switch to close it and - nuthin'. That's one disadvantage of electric windows. I suspect the window motor is dead. Superman happened to be home for lunch, and he put a sheet of plastic over the window for me. Manny still needs to get his "check engine" light checked out. The light came on as I was driving north on Hwy 7 in Vermont, now two months ago. The light isn't lit when I first turn the motor, but comes on and stays on after I drive for a couple of miles. 

I avoided my computer all last week and through the weekend. When I was going through my email this morning I unsubscribed from quite a few email newsletter things. Not all, but a lot. I still have A.Word.A.Day. That one stays. That's the source of the above quote. 

I'm still depressed. August does this to me. Well, probably not August specifically, but things that happen in August. Like the oppressive heat, and the kids having been on summer break from school for so long! Really, we ought to have school all year, with two or three week breaks between semesters. That, plus all the regular holidays and teacher work days and such, there would still be 180 days in the school year. I've figured it out before. 

That's all I got, folks. Ask me questions, maybe that will give me some ideas about what to write.

Here's the thing

I dread spending time with my children. Well, with some of my children. One in particular. The young boy is being a pain in the ass, and has been all summer. Although to my surprise and delight, Diva is doing very well. Though I'm not eagerly looking for opportunities to spend time with her, when these opportunities occur they can be almost pleasant. It's a process for both of us, Diva and me, learning to get along in each other's company. Sproing, though, isn't attempting to make things better. He's just obnoxious and rude and inconsiderate, etc. School starts in 15 days. Yes, I'm counting them, the days.

Today has been difficult for me, and it's a "me" thing. I slept in, which isn't a bad thing necessarily. I got up and showered, which is good, since some days I forego the shower. (That's one of the signs that I'm depressed, the skipping of the shower. Also the sleeping in.) I spent a few moments in the same room with Sproing. That was stressful, so I left. I was finishing my morning grooming routine in the bathroom but the cat's litter box made the experience odiferously unpleasant. Well, what to do except clean it out, right? Superman usually does that job, but he's at work and I'm uncomfortable with the stench, so here I go. And make a mess of it. Dumped half the cat poop on the bathroom floor. I cleaned it up effectively. (Sometimes when I try to clean up my messes, I end up making bigger messes.) But in the process I stepped in dirty cat litter (no icky solids, but nasty nonetheless). And I'd just had a shower. So I washed my feet in the sink. One at a time; I didn't levitate over the lavatory to wash both feet simultaneously. Now, on a good day I'd have a laugh at my clumsiness and go about my business. Today is not a good day. I very nearly cried. And I've been anxious and on edge ever since. I have some pills to help that, but I'm going to try eating a healthy lunch (I had a healthy breakfast, though it was small) and see if that doesn't help soothe my nerves somewhat. I have to go through the living room where the Sproing is lying in wait to be ugly to me, and that increases my resistance to leaving the relative safety of my bedroom.

As you may have noticed, I'm not writing much here these days. Actually, I went all week last week without turning on my computer at all. I think it was yesterday, Sunday, that I finally logged on and checked my email. I deleted most of that without reading it. Just too depressed. Facebook depresses me these days, too, though I did peruse the 'book for a while yesterday. Probably won't mess with it today.

I watched the Braves win all three games against the Phillies this weekend. That was about the only "fun" thing I could do all weekend. I was strong enough one day last week to get my hair cut. That's a stressful activity for me, as I've mentioned in the past. But it was OK. And I spent the time with Twitch, too, which was pleasant. I picked him up from work (he has a small part-part-time job doing warehouse stuff at a department store), we went to the cheap haircut place and waited a long time for my haircut, then he helped me buy $300+ worth of groceries at Aldi. Aldi is the place where you bag your own groceries in your own bags/boxes. I have a few market bags and miscellaneous small containers for that sort of thing, but not for $300+ worth of groceries. I had an old medium sized dog crate rattling around in the back seat of my truck, though, and we assembled that to hold lots of groceries. Used bungee cords to secure it in the bed of the truck. Thankfully it was a rare sunny day here in the 'wood. The whole thing was kinda funny. Perhaps I should have taken a picture of it, but I didn't. Anyway, that was a busy day. Buying, bagging, transporting, unloading, and putting away that much stuff takes a long time and lots of energy. Way more energy than I have today, for sure.

These paragraphs are too long. I reread them, looking for a good place to divide them into smaller chunks, but find no good breaking point. So there you have it; long, rambling paragraphs. It's the best I can do today, and I'm OK with that.

Let's go find some healthy lunch. Maybe that will help. (It won't help the paragraphs, but will hopefully help my emotional condition.)

Oh, Look at the Time!

As in, it's been a long time since I posted. I've been either busy, depressed, or hiding.

Tonight I had lots of beer. I drank all 5 of the remaining beers in the refrigerator.

We bought another refrigerator. It's a used one, only 10.5 sq ft. It sits in our bedroom. The original purpose of this refrigerator is to keep our beer safe from predation by the other residents of this household. Yes, someone (or more than one someone) has been swiping our beer. What cads! So I got a used 'fridge so we can keep our stuff secure behind the locked door of our bedroom..

There are too many people in this house. Twitch has an alternative situation that might (I hope!!) come to be. A friend of his has a place in Charleston SC and is looking for a third roommate. Twitch has already applied for jobs in that area online. I really hope he can move to Charleston.

The kidlets have been much easier to deal with this summer than in previous years. And actually Diva is sometimes pleasant! Can you believe it? Sproing is a pain in the ass, but I'm not letting it get to me much. Here's the thing: I went away for three weeks (you remember my trip to New England, right?) The separation helped the relationship between me and the kids. While I was away, Superman kinda let loose of the reigns a bit. He's not as strict as I am anyway. So when I came back it was easier to keep the looseness than to impose more restrictions. And I've loosened up on my give-a-shit. So they do whatever and I don't care.

Of course that's not entirely true. I keep tabs on them, and give some direction. But since I've loosened up they seem to be more willing to do what I ask of them. Most of the time. Diva more than Sproing (OMG!!) because he's a pain in the ass.

I've been on edge today. Why? I dunno. Had my period last week, so it isn't premenstrual shit. Maybe it's that my home is stressful. Could be, eh? OMG, the week before my period was hell. I was so cranky, and realized it was hormonal. Poor Superman. I tried to stay out of the way of the kids as much as possible. I recognize when I'm unreasonable.

Hey, lets see what this dog of ours looks like.

 His name is Oreo. I don't like that name, particularly, but that's what Sproing likes. It was what he was called as a puppy, when we got him. It's a name, so whatever. As often as not I call him "pup."

 He's more or less adorable. And bigger now than he is in these pics. He's nearly 6 months old now. He had his balls chopped off earlier this week, and starts obedience class later today. He's pretty smart, and very puppy-like. Weighed 45 lbs on Wednesday when he had his surgery. He's got a lot of Labrador in him, and some pit bull, according to the kid who gave him to Sproing.

Oh look! It's Superman! I like this picture. He's a cutie. I don't notice it when I look at him, but in these pictures he looks older than I perceive him to be. 

 And check out our produce! While I was on my trip this pair of squash was harvested from our garden. I had to get a picture of it to share with you, since it looks so much like a scrotum. I mean, am I right?

How fun is this? We didn't eat it. They picked it when I was away, and by the time I got home it was far from fresh. Oh well.

So, let's talk briefly about this garden thing. We planted green beans, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes. Here's the thing: I don't like squash or zucchini. Besides which, the zucchini plant died from some kind of bug infestation. We've eaten some of the green beans, though I've thrown out more than we've eaten.  I've also used some of the tomatoes. There are green ones on the vine which I'll harvest at the proper time.

So we planted this garden with things I don't like. WTF? I dunno. And Superman is too busy with work and stuff around the house to cook up any of this stuff.

I'm quite tipsy. I've been depressed most of the day, and decided I'd do the beer thing tonight while watching Braves baseball. Didn't have the first beer until the 8th inning, when we were leading the Cardinals 4-1. That was the final score, btw. After the game I continued with the beer. I'm dizzy and feeling smooth, but the headache is there, too.

So. Depression. Superman went to Georgia today to visit his family. Good for him. I'm glad he gets to do that. I hate that he's away, though. Sometimes he takes one of the boys (Diva isn't welcome in his parents' house after beating me up a couple of years ago) but this time he went by himself. So everyone else is home. They all drive me crazy. Wait. This paragraph was supposed to be about depression. OK, so I has it, the depression thing. I hate summer. Maybe things will be better when the kids get back in school. Their first day is Aug. 20th. Less than a month away! I need me time with none of these pariahs at home.

Let's talk about parenting. I've given up, sort of. Diva and Sproing are 15.5 years old now. They are responsible for their own behavior. They do what they want. I leave them alone. That's not entirely true, of course. I just try to keep things together with the minimum effort. I can't do any more than that. They've broken me. I just don't give the kind of shit that I used to.

It's officially Saturday. It's my brother's birthday today. He's 49. Hee hee hee. I can't wait to tease him next year. I'm two years older than he is, so anything I say he's already said to me. That's not why I started talking about Saturday, though. I haven't even opened my computer since sometime last weekend. All week I've been either watching TV (which I rarely do) or reading from my Kindle. I've read I don't know how many gay romance novels/stories. I read a straight romance today. It was weird. The two main guy characters fell in love with women. WTF is up with that? It's time for another gay story, or else something of high quality. I have a collection of E. M. Forster works on the Kindle.  The novel I read today was not well written, so I need something of quality to wash out my brain.

I have another book, a paperback, that I started earlier in the week. It's entitled The Hoarding Handbook. It's written for social service providers who deal with hoarders. It isn't specifically for mental health professionals, rather it is written by mental health professionals for others who deal with hoarders. I have read the first three chapters. It's good, I guess, but hard to read because I see myself in it. I got it so I might be able to help myself a bit with getting rid of the crap I've hoarded. It's a slow process, especially since I keep distracting myself.

OK, I'm going to quit this rambling and get ready for bed. It's high time I went to sleep.

This just in... (sound of random beeps and clicks in the background)

From Sean (Breen Lantern) at Idle Eyes and a Dormy

Which Superhero Are You?
My results:
You are Superman

Superman 70% Spider-Man 70% Hulk 55% Robin 53% Iron Man 50% Catwoman 45% Green Lantern 35% Supergirl 33% The Flash 30% Wonder Woman 18% Batman 15%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

And here I thought I was only married to Superman. 

Saturday stuff

I got a couple of questions from my previous post about how the kids behaved while I was on my trip. According to Superman, they did pretty well. Figures. I leave, they straighten up. He isn't as strict as I am, so they don't fight against him as hard as they do against me, I think. And since I have been home they've done pretty well, all things considered. We haven't had any law enforcement officers involved in our business, at least.

I'll tell you a story about Sproing, though. Last week I took him to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to take the test for his learner's permit. He took it, passed, and got his permit. All is well. He and his dad went driving a couple of times that day and the next. He was driving at 10:30 last Saturday night to pick up his sister from the skating rink, and got pulled over by a highway patrolman. He had been weaving in his lane, and the officer said he didn't come to a full stop at a stop sign. Superman says the stop sign thing was bogus, but Sproing was indeed weaving a bit. He's not used to sitting in the driver's seat, and it's a different perspective on the edge of the road. He was getting too close to the road's edge, and Superman reminded him to move toward the left a couple of times. The officer came up to the truck and looked at Sproing and his permit. Sproing is kinda small for his age. When he saw that Sproing had the learner's permit, he asked if Sproing was just learning to drive. Of course Sproing answered in the affirmative. The officer said "you have a lot to learn," gave the kid his permit back, and wrote out a warning ticket. All in all it was a good experience/lesson.

However, on Sunday of last week Sproing was acting all crazy. He was angry, arguing with us and throwing things around. He threw his learner's permit at me and stormed out of the room, only to come back a little while later to retrieve the card. Then he got a pair of scissors and cut his permit in half. WTF? Then, of course, threw those at me. So I have them, tucked away in a drawer. He isn't getting another chance, not for a long time.

Sproing discussed the incident a little bit on Monday. He said he wasn't going to be driving anymore, not any time soon. I agreed. He isn't quite mature enough to drive, obviously. One of the things he said when arguing with us on Saturday was that Dad kept commenting on his driving while they were out. Well, duh! No, he says, I don't comment on your driving when I am in the car with you! Which is a lie. He comments on our driving all the time. But he just can't accept constructive criticism, suggestions, or correction in anything that he does. Seriously. This is going to continue to be a problem throughout his life if he doesn't figure this out. And he cuts us off cold when we try to discuss it. Oh well.

Since the kids were pretty chill while I was away, I've tried not to get into their shit since I got home. I don't necessarily agree with this approach, but it's better for my blood pressure if I let it be. I dunno. Things are so far gone with these kids that it's probably too late to try the strict approach. Right now I'm just trying to not rock the boat.

The state agency that supervises Diva's social services is trying to drop her as a client. We had a meeting the day after I got home from points north. Did I tell you about that? Yeah, the ladies in charge said that she barely qualifies for services any more. We've put her case on hold for three months, after which we'll have another meeting. The thing with Diva, she can hold it together really well for a while, then some damn something will tip her over the edge. So yeah, right now she's great. I hope it stays this way.

The scab on the bite on my arm came off yesterday, two weeks after the bitch bit me. The wound isn't completely healed, though. I put a bandage on it after the scab came off, but have just removed it. There's going to be another scab forming, but it'll be a much smaller, thinner one. The scab on my finger is still there, though it is smaller now. That was quite a deep bite on the finger there. And the finger is still a bit sore to the touch.

My new DVD player came in yesterday's mail. We bought a cheap nasty one for the living room a while ago, but it broke, so we donated the one in our room to that cause and I began looking for a replacement. That was more challenging than I predicted. So I ended up ordering one from Amazon. It came yesterday. This afternoon Superman and I watched two chick flicks. He's a good sport. We watched "The Backup Plan" which neither of us had seen. It's cute, but quite simple. JLo, you know. The male lead is a fella named Alex O'Loughlin who I've never seen before. He's cute! After that movie was over I was in the mood to watch more sexy male romantic leads, so we watched my current go-to chick flick, "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. >swoon< Ryan Reynolds is so drool-worthy! So Superman watched Sandra Bullock while I watched Ryan Reynolds, and we both enjoyed Betty White, because hey, what's not to enjoy?

Not a lot of deep philosophy in today's entry, huh? Eh, it's too hot to think too hard. I'm inside enjoying the air conditioning. We got a new A/C last spring, and it works so beautifully! So here I sit, rotting my brain and cooling my heels.

Bridges, lessons learned, and other random adventures

Now that I have mostly caught up on my sleep and have wasted literally hours on facebork, I'll get back to telling you about my road trip.

First, Skippy. (Dammit, where is my camera??) Drats, I can't find my camera. I want to take a new, close-up pic of Skippy. Oh well, here's one of him showing off the little gift package I got when I checked into the hotel in Connecticut. As I mentioned in my last post, I got him at a little shop on the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) on my way north.

Before I got on the BRP I stopped to eat at a Waffle House (WH), knowing that I'd soon travel beyond the range of that purveyor of comestibles. One thing I've noticed about Waffle Houses recently is that their employees seem to have better teeth. The old joke no longer applies. (That baby has more teeth than the entire third shift at Waffle House.)

There was a new guy working the WH the day I visited. He's a manager trainee, but evidently very new and that day he was learning the basics of waiting tables and calling out orders. Thankfully the crowd was light in the mid afternoon. All the gals working with him had to tell him how to call the orders to the cook. There is a protocol for that, you know. He was making a mess of it. His coworkers were very patient with him. The fact that he was young and cute might have influenced their attitudes. He was of average height, fit build without being either bulky or skinny, and had his blond hair in a buzz cut. I estimate his age to be 25. And he had red cheeks and the sweetest smile that made his eyes twinkle. He was very good natured about the whole fiasco. Really, the other gals carried the work very well as he stumbled along so it wasn't a fiasco at all. They called him Skippy. He did not wait on me, but I sat at the high counter with a front row seat to the show. I never saw his name tag clearly, but I think it said "Skip." So a couple of hours later when I bought my little black bear, his name had to be Skippy.

That happened at the beginning of the trip. From here I'm going to relate my experiences in reverse chronological order (mostly), mainly because I need to tell you about my night at the campground in New Jersey.

New Jersey is an odd place. For one thing, they don't sell maps of all of New Jersey on one map. I found an atlas (book) of every New Jersey county but that exceeds my NJ information needs. I was over halfway through NJ before I found a map I could use. The NJ roads and highways are different from what I'm used to. Busier, more commercial enterprises along the road. It was one long long long long series of strip malls from north of Trenton to Camden. I got off the Garden State Parkway where it intersects the NJ Turnpike and followed US-1 to US-130 which took me down the western part of the state. I got on a little two lane county road at one point that was quite pleasant. Otherwise, too much traffic. I had the address and directions to a campground in Clarksboro, but laws-a-mercy it was nigh unto impossible to find! I circled around, narrowing my spiral until I had to stop for directions. I hate doing that. But I finally found it! I felt so accomplished!

I was on the road for approximately 11 hours that day driving from Southington, CT to Clarksboro, NJ. The date was June 22, 2013, the day after the first day of summer, ergo sunlight stayed around late. I got to the campground at 8:00, maybe 8:30 and had plenty of light to set up my Conestoga. That was also the night of the supermoon (as near as I could tell) and I wanted to sleep outside that night.

As is typical of most campgrounds now, this place caters primarily to camper trailers and RVs. There were two tent camping sites beside a small cabin in a somewhat remote area away from any other campers. Shortly after I arrived a trio of young people, twenty-somethings, came to the cabin. One young man and two women. I didn't catch the guy's age, but the girls were 20 and 25.

They came to party. Oooh boy. Miss 20 yr old got an early start with hard liquor. The others were mostly drinking beer. They invited me to join them, which I did. Two other young men friends of theirs, Joe and Andrew (both HOT!!) joined them a bit later. I took a six pack over (because it's proper to take booze to a booze party, right?) and stuck to beer all night. Had my first taste of Bud Light Lime. Meh, OK but not spectacular. I had been drinking Third Shift lager, which I prefer. We were sitting around the fire ring in front of the cabin shooting the breeze and chillin' out. 'Twas quite enjoyable. Miss 20 yr old and the first guy went into the cabin (where the little refrigerator with the beer lived), turned out the lights, and got loudly frisky. Odd, but whatever. Afterward she kept drinking the hard stuff, and eventually became belligerent. First guy tried to calm her down, but she got violent with him. Joe and Andrew were getting uncomfortable, saying they were going to leave. They'd planned to stay the night.

And here's where I get stupid. (You see what's coming, right?) I don't have a lot of experience (OK, none) with violent drunks, but I can usually help sober people when they get out of hand. So I tried to calm down this little Miss 20 yr old. And she was little, probably weighs less than half what I do. I'm big, but not very strong. She was little, drunk, and very strong. With strong healthy teeth and good muscular jaws. Yep, I got beat up. The bitch bit me (broke the skin) in at least three places- my right side, right bicep, and left ring finger. She punched me in the chest above the right breast and in the back of my head. That happened a week ago, Saturday night last week. My finger and arm are still a little bit oozy and sore. The bruises all over have faded to a sickly yellow. Oh, she also got me in the jaw but not hard enough to bruise, thankfully. I bit my lip and cheek in the process, and that was sore for a few days. That's better now.

Lesson well and truly learned: stay away from angry drunk people.

After Joe and Andrew put bandages on my cuts they left and I went to my truck to sleep. After I minced to the bathroom. You know a person only rents beer. It gave the old kidneys a good workout. (Probably the liver, too.) I got to sleep pretty easily, but some time later was awakened by some noise and lights coming from the cabin. I peeked through my curtains and saw a law enforcement cruiser and two officers with flashlights at the cabin. Then I heard her yelling curses and insults. One of the officers said "Alright, now you're under arrest," to which she cursed some more. And low and behold if I didn't have to pee again. So I got up and made my way to the bathroom. On the way back I got a flashlight in my eyes, but no discussions ensued. When I woke up at 7:00 Sunday morning everyone was gone. So I packed up and went south.

I drove over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (not the bridge-tunnel from the Norfolk area) which I've heard can be kinda scary for people with bridge allergies. Gephyrophobia. Bridges used to make me uncomfortable, but not so much anymore. Oh, I also crossed over the Tappan-Zee Bridge into New York (or was it New Jersey there?) That was fun. Of course on the way from South Carolina to Pennsylvania I crossed the New River Gorge Bridge, one of my faves. It was a bridge crossing trip. Sean and Jeffrey took me across the Hudson River a lot when I visited Breen Acres.

Sunday I drove to Richmond, VA to my cousin's house. She had a little baby girl two months ago and I wanted to hold someone else's baby, which I did. I also got to play with her precious two-year-old son.  I did not want her to know about by violent encounter, and thankfully the shirt I wore covered all my injuries except the deep cut (bite) on my finger, and that was easily explained as a camping incident. You know, I pinched my finger (between some bitch's teeth). I was exhausted and not up to extensive visiting, so I didn't contact any of my lovely blogger friends in the Richmond area. Sorry guys. Maybe next time. When I went to bed Sunday night I told my cousin not to worry about keeping the kids quiet, that I'd wake up whenever I needed to. I hoped to get a fairly early start on my trip back to South Carolina, but did not set any alarms or anything. And I slept until 11:00! Woah! I was tired! It made the trip home seem longer and hotter, getting that late a start, but I don't mind. If I was tired enough to sleep that long (at least 12 hours), I needed the sleep more than I needed to get home early.

I am back in The South(TM). It's hot and humid, just like summer in The South(TM). I hate it, but I'll try not to complain too much. There is baseball and air conditioning, so it's OK. I didn't watch Braves baseball the whole 2.5 weeks I was away. They did well without my supervision.

And that's all I have to say about that.

INTERWEBZ!!

OMG y'all, it's the Internet! I haven't been online since Monday, and on Monday I forgot to post. I got so wrapped up in email that I spaced a post. Sorry. Before Monday I hadn't been online since the previous Wednesday. Holy crap, y'all. That's a long time!

I'm on the homeward leg of my trip. OMG I have had a fantastic time. I camped. There are pictures.

Today is the longest day of the year. Taking full advantage of that, I woke up at 4:30 this morning to break camp and head out. Left the campground around 6, iirc, and headed east to St. Johnsbury, VT. Strange name. Pretty town. Got gas and caffeinated coffee!! First caffeine I've had for days! It was utterly thrilling!! I still feel buzzed from it. OK, not really. I feel buzzed from being over-tired. I drove through a bunch of New Hampshire then into Maine, down the center (or something - not the coast) to New Hampshire again, because one must go through New Hampshire to get to Massachusetts from Maine. So I did. I got as far as Southington, Connecticut.

OMG, y'all, I haven't told you about Skippy yet! He's Skippy the Wander Bear. Because he goes with me when I wander. I got him in North Carolina in a little shop on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here he is in the truck when we got to the campground in Vermont. He's excited about it, but it's hard to tell. This is the mess of my truck after approximately 10 days on the road. Skippy is very patient with me. He makes an excellent traveling companion. I can talk to him and he doesn't argue with me.

Although I didn't have access to the interwebz, I did take notes. I've got lots of stuff written in a little notebook, mostly the kind of things I'd write here if I could. Since I wrote down the info about Skippy, I forgot that I hadn't actually told you for real. I'll get back to that (I hope), transcribing (or interpreting) my notes into blog posts. I'll tell you then how Skippy got his name. Waffle House is involved.

My mind is all over the place. Beer is a contributing factor, but I was pretty crazy before I had my first. I've only just started on my second. I'd better hurry and write before I get to my third, because I have no idea what kind of foolishness will spill out from there.

Tonight's selections include Third Shift and Samuel Adams' Irish Red. Happiness ensues.

You wanna see the conestoga? I made sure to take pictures this morning before I took it down.

How groovy is that? From another perspective, how redneck (hick, podunk, hillbilly, white trash, bootleg) is that? WTF, I like it. I mentioned in the last post that I hadn't figured what to do about the sides. Well, I got an inspiration at the Black and Blue store (Red White and Blue thrift store in Pittsburgh, but I like to call it Black and Blue because it's fun and it irritates Light). Shower curtains!! They already have holes in them for hangin' and they're about the right length. Two of the three I got are extremely light weight. And I think they are all pretty. Put together with that crazy plaid, it all looks, well, bootleg, but what the fuck. Maybe one day I'll get it all color coordinated, but if not, what the hell? 

Here's the rundown of the trip so far. I went first to Indiana, PA to visit Light. There is more to say about that, but for now I'll say I had a lovely time. I was there from ... Saturday to Friday (6/8 to 6/14). Then I drove to Troy, New York to visit Breen Acres (Sean and Jeffrey). I was there until Tuesday 6/18. Man, what fun!! Of course I also saw Harvey Milk and Rita Mae Brown. They are the stars of the show, no doubt. I had a truly marvelous time visiting the Breens. 

On Tuesday I went to Vermont. I've been fascinated with Vermont for a while. Superman researched the state for a story he wrote, and he is pretty fascinated with the place as well. I wish he could have been with me. I drove from the capital district of New York to Bennington, VT, then hit highway 7 north to Rutland, Middlebury, and Burlington. I hung a southeast out of Burlington on highway 2 to Montpelier. From there I continued on US 2 to Groton Forest Road (called New Discovery Rd on Google Maps, but whatever). The campground where I stayed is called Groton Forest Rd Campground, so we'll call the road Groton Forest Road. OK? It's a small privately owned campground. Simple, but with nice facilities. Definitely functional and handy. I set up between two very nice camper trailers. Oh, yeah, I looked very hillbilly. I'll let you know if I start to give a shit about that. 

Did you get to see tonight's full moon? Actually, I think it's maybe a day short of full, but close enough. The sky here is very clear and the moon is awesome. How cool is it that the Summer Solstice coincides with a full moon? Very. 

I'm at the Days Inn in Southington, CT tonight. Skippy says that camping is fun and all, but Hey! Hotel rooms are really nice! 

Beer #2 is gone, and I've been awake and active for approximately 19 hours. Since I'd like to get to Virginia tomorrow, sleep would be an excellent idea right about now. 

There is more to say, but you will have to wait. 

Oh, except this one thing. Ur-Spo, I drove through Tewksbury today! No rats were consumed. *N.B. Massachusetts spells the town "Tewksbury" whereas England adds an "e": Tewkesbury. Not sure how rats are involved, but I suspect it's a rather sordid affair. 

(Just realized that today I've been to every state in New England except Rhode Island. Is that why I'm tired?)

Convince yourself that everything is alright

For Nancy - Pete Yorn : Time Lapse Lettering from Bobby Roman on Vimeo.

'Cause it already is.

Nice message. Does it work? I dunno. Maybe.

I am preparing for a trip. I told you that last time, I believe. I made myself a new skirt and a dress or two. I say "or two" because the first one I made, well, the dress turned out OK before I "helped" it. I art-ed it up by painting it. It's made of plain unbleached muslin, so it was very plain and off white and boring. So I had some fun with craft paints. But the dress didn't fare so well. It looks like it was dragged through the mud. Doesn't matter much to me, really, because I made it with muslin as a test of the pattern. I'll use it as a house dress, just wear it at home when I'm hanging around doing home stuff.

Then I used the same pattern to make a dress with a blue and green checked seersucker cotton fabric. I'm wearing it right now. It works, it's comfortable, and it looks good (I think). So that's an overall win. I'm also going to use this pattern for some nice linen I bought a couple of years ago. That's the plan, anyway.

I have decided to try to do something creative every day. So far I've mostly sewed. I'd really like to get back into sculpture of some kind, but I'm working up to that. And there is a good bit of sewing I should do anyway. My wardrobe is... old. And worn. I have quite a few house dresses, or as I like to call them, rags. I rarely wear them when I go out anywhere. Most of them used to be fairly decent clothes but have been worn slap out. So I need some new stuff. So I sew. Diva and I went to the fabric store yesterday and I found (on sale!!) some pretty yellow fabric with a little flowery print. I bought the rest of the bolt (4 yards) and want to make a blouse from that, to match the skirt I plan to make from some yellow gauze stuff I have that looks like that picture up there.

Then there's the conestoga frame. I've used painter's drop cloth canvas to cover the conestoga in the past, but that stuff is very heavy. I'm not in good shape, folks. My muscles are weak and wimpy, so I need something a bit lighter and easier to manage. I made the roof portion of the cover last night. Now I need to set up the conestoga frame to determine how and where to attach the sides. I hope to do that this afternoon, but it looks like rain. I want Superman to help, also, because... well, because I want help.

We went to our favorite place, The Mill House, for brunch today. Today is the first day they've been opened on Sunday and have served brunch. As far as I'm concerned it was a smashing success. Mimosas, people. And savory crepes. And one of their specialties, Drunk shrimp and grits. The grits are actually polenta, and the shrimp are marinated in some kind of beer (I forget what) then they make a sauce with the marinade. It was extremely good. I had the curried chicken crepe which was even better than Superman's drunk shrimp and grits. After my mimosas (yes, two) I had a beer. So yeah, I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Today is C's birthday. He's 25. We were going to take him out for brunch for his birthday, but he had to work (he's a cook at Shoney's) until noon, but didn't get off until after 1:30. We were already at The Mill House, waiting for him to join us. Eventually we left, came home, and he was just getting out of the shower. So I told him we'd take him out for dinner, but he's going to spend the rest of the day with his friend Holly. Oh well, we'll take him out later this week. And I got to have a delicious boozy brunch with my Superman, so it's all good.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Since I have some sewing and other prep-for-my-trip work to do, think I'll post this, change into my house dress (or some shorts) and get to work.