Thursday, January 27, 2005

Car Rant

As I have said before, my car is a piece of crap. I am trying to teach E to say 'piece of crap.' It sounds more like 'meow.' Anyway, it really reeks.

First of all, it is old. Now I really have nothing against old cars. I loved my little 1990 Toyota Celica. If it hadn't died, I would still be driving it tho' E's carseat didn't fit in it too well. It had almost 230,000 miles on it and still looked fine, cute, red, and sleek. Unfortunately the engine died. Okay, I killed it!!! I hate that I did that!!! I still kick my lazy ass for that. My cute little car... But I digress. I do not hate old cars. Just this old car.

It is a 1993 Ford Thunderbird; black (or some dark color that I can't quite figure out; green? purple?). First of all, it has no CUP HOLDER. WTF??? What car made after 1985 has no cup holder? Where am I supposed to put my water bottle? My latte? My freakin' coca-cola? Piece of crap.

Secondly, things now no longer function on it. Valuable things, like the driver's window. And air conditioning. Have you ever lived in the middle of a desert (Tucson, AZ) with NO AIR CONDITIONING and you CAN'T EVEN OPEN THE WINDOW!!? In a black (green? purple?) car??? Can you say 'hot?' I think you can. Not to mention that going to a drive-through or paying a toll is a major pain in the butt. Piece of crap.

Other things no longer function either, like the tape player. It ate one of my tapes.

Pieces are continually falling off of it. Almost every day another little piece of plastic snaps off of this piece of crap. The other day the entire interior of the driver's door came off. You know, the upholstered part that gets attached to the metal outside part? Well, only the wires were holding this part onto the door. It became impossible to close the driver's door from the inside. I had to climb over the console until I took the armrest off and wrenched the piece of crap off of the door. It is now leaning against the garage (the interior door stuff, not the car).

And that annoying bell thing that dings when you don't fasten your seat belt? Well it dings. Constantly. Ding! Ding! Ding! Constantly. It positively drives me CRAZY!

And the headlights won't stay on. As a matter of fact, if you somehow happen to get them to stay on, they will go off at some almost-certain inopportune time. And only the high beams work. Which means that some annoying little pain-in-the-ass will probably flick his high beams at you to tell you that you have your high beams on. I KNOW THAT, ASSHOLE!!

B says we don't need a new car. The engine is fine.

Oh. And the 'Check Engine' light has been on since B got back from Tucson.

Piece of crap.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Stupid things

This is bad. Now I don't smoke, but this seems like an awful invasion of privacy. What are they going to to next? Fire people for eating at McDonald's or not exercising enough or not brushing your teeth?

Come on, Big Brother. Get the heck out of my bedroom!

Monday, January 24, 2005

More weasels

Well, the weasly insurance company (A***tate), sent us two checks; one for cleaning up the water damage and one for the damage to the contents of the house.

I need to check if our policy covers replacement cost of our damaged goods or if it is current value. Looking at their itemized list (thanks, B, you did a great job of itemization), they took depreciation on everything.

...except my record albums. I don't understand that...

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Happy birthday

Today is my birthday.

Happy birthday to me.

Monday, January 17, 2005

Bitchin' Day

I am going to bitch today. Today has been the epitome of all Mondays. Everything that could go wrong did.

First of all, let me start out by saying that I HATE MY CAR!!!!! It is a piece of crap. It is the crappiest piece of Crap in the history of Crapdom. It is garbage. Pieces are continually falling off of it (gee, I hope this isn't a critical piece...), it has NO DRINK HOLDER, things are incrementally starting to cease to function. It is such a piece of crap, it is deserving of its own rant (to follow later). Anyway, that is my first bitch of the day. I hate my car.

My second bitch actually started on Saturday. After we dropped B off at the airport, E & I went to Costco. I needed to get gas, drop off a prescription, maybe pick up a few things...well, when I dropped off the Rx, the woman at the counter said, "Oh...the doctor didn't sign this. We can't refill this prescription. We need to call the doctor to verify this."

I think, "Oh, for chrissake!. This isn't uppers or downers that I am planning to take to the local high school and sell for $5 a hit. This is a topical ointment that I want to put on my rash before I scratch my legs raw."

I say, "Okay. Can I pick it up on Monday?" Receiving an affirmative, I leave the counter.

Today I go back to the pharmacy at Costco. First of all, I had to wait in line for 10 minutes. There was some moron in the front who took 10 minutes to pick up her Rx. WTF?? Are they synthesizing her prescription there?? And what is it with people. She had to wait until the very end to fill out her check. Like she was surprised that they actually expected her to pay. You idiot!! Fill out the check!! You stood there for ten minutes. You should have had that done already!!

The next two people in line take about a minute and a half each. Finally it is my turn.

I say to the blonde behind the counter, "I am here to pick up my Rx" and explain what happened on Saturday. They scramble around in back and then come back and ask how to spell my name. I do so and then they ask again what the problem was. I tell them (again) and the brunette that I spoke with on Saturday says, "Oh, yes. I remember you. The doctor hasn't called us back yet."

Great.

So they try to get the doctor on the phone again and I cool my heels on their little waiting bench. Five minutes later, the blonde comes out and says she will fill the prescription and it will be 'only 5 minutes.'

Great.

Ten minutes later the brunette comes out and says, "I'm sorry. We don't have any of that in stock. The computer said we did, but it wasn't on the shelf. You are going to have to come back tomorrow. Okay?"

I say, "No, it's not okay." But what can you do? I am going to have to go back tomorrow.

I bought one thing and then had to wait in line to get out of the stupid door (anyone who hasn't been to Costco may not know that you need to have them look over your loot and put a little mark on your receipt...blessed by the Pope, I guess). I only had ONE THING!!! Then there was the stupid, dumbshit moron who calmly walked back to her car right in the middle of the road. Move over, you idiot!! I may just run you down!!!

Anyway, it is not even 3 o'clock. There may be more to come.

(...did I mention I hate my car...??)

Anybody else have a bitch?

Friday, January 14, 2005

A Mile in my Shoes

This post really pissed me off. I left a comment on Uterine Wars but still can't forget this stupid insensitive comment.

I don't even know why it pisses me off so much. I am not an overly sensitive person. I am an engineer and a scientist...not exactly all warm and fuzzy. I was never the one in school wanting to have children ("...sentimental pap!" I thought). It wasn't a big deal to me. If I had children, well, then, that's great. If not, then...*eh*

It is really easy for someone who can pop out her children whenever she wants to to say, 'Oh I would never do that!' Even if it 'took a few months' (BFD...a few 'months'...), it still happened in a way that is better than on a cold, hard table with a man you have only seen a few times sticking glass pipettes up your nether regions.

We went through a lot to get our son. I never figured the lengths we would go; never figured that B would want to go to the lengths and expense we went (B is like the cheapest person I have ever met...he makes Scrooge look like Mother Theresa).

But we did. And E is worth everything I ever did; every pill; every shot; every invasive procedure.

He is worth it.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

General ramblings...

Spent the last two nights getting the house back in order. It got really messy when I was unpacking boxes from the garage. When I get back to unpacking boxes again (read: after B goes back to Oregon), I will unpack box; put items away (keep, toss, give away); put box (and wrappings) back in garage; get next box. This should keep us clean and still get the garage cleaned out.

B goes back to Oregon on Sat. Hopefully he will get the house put back together quickly (i.e. hire people to do it and not try to do it all himself) so he can return to NM soon. He is so arrogant though that he thinks he can do it all himself. I have my doubts. Especially since he is so great at starting projects and so crappy at finishing them.

Crap.

E gets evaluated by a speech therapist next week. He has lots of words, understands almost everything, but so far hasn't really said a sentence yet...unless 'mean mommy' is a sentence (he also says, 'bye, mommy'...is that a sentence??). He is 25 months old. All the books say he should be saying 'two-word sentences.' He does everything else, just no sentences.

What's with that? He's really smart. He really understands almost everything you say to him.

More crap.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Surgery

Had cataract surgery on Monday. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm awfully young to have cataracts. I even had a doctor question whether it was cataracts at all (B had emailed him asking him for advice...turns out he was just an optometrist anyway...we needed an opthalmologist) I knew that I would get cataracts. My mother had them; my aunt had them; my grandmother had them. They probably go back 10,000 years in that family. But...my mother was in her 60s. I am in my 40s.

Great.

The good news is that now I can see again out of my right eye. I was totally blind in my right eye. I could not even see (literally) my hand in front of my face, tho' I could see movement. Now...colors are brighter, things are sharper, there is no haze anymore.

The bad news is that now I want the left eye done too.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Resolutions...

I don't do resolutions. They are stupid and no one ever sticks to them. That being said, there are some things that I would like to do (or do better) in the coming year:

1) Lose weight. I would like to lose about 50 pounds, but will settle for any amount. I lost over 30 pounds last year, so if I could do that again, that would be great.

2) Be a better housekeeper. I am doing better. I have been using the Flylady method and my house is much nicer. It would not satisfy my MIL & FIL, but I don't think I could ever be good enough for them so I bloody give up there...

3) Not argue with B. There is no way to change him. The only person I can control is me, so I am going to try to work on ME.

4) Read more to E. Lately I have not been as good at reading to E. I can't wait until he has the patience to listen to a whole story. Right now, I barely get a sentence or two read and he is turning the page or just moving on the something else. Ahhh...the attention span (or lack thereof) of a two-year-old.

5) Get more exercise (see #1).

6) Go on a vacation. We haven't had a real vacation since the 3-day cruise we took in 1996. I think it is about time.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

De-lurking day

Gee...someone declared today to be delurking day. I read a lot of blogs but comment on only a few of them. No one has ever commented on mine.

I feel lonely...

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Still Steaming

What my mother-in-law said before we left Austin is still ticking me off.

What a bitch! She says such nasty things. She said something about E being 'delayed'. What a crock of BS! She is comparing him to a boy who is 6 months older! Six months in E's life brings HUGE developmental strides.

My beautiful son is a happy, healthy, loving, caring wonderful little boy.

I think I have steam coming from my ears.

What a bitch!

Monday, January 03, 2005

Back from Austinland

Scene I

B's mother has cleaned out numerous drawers for B's brother and sister-in-law to store their things while they are staying in Austin. Patty offers me a couple drawers to put our things in. I gratefully accept and begin to unpack into the offered space.

B's mother flips out and says, "They need all of those drawers!!"

"She offered. She said they had plenty of space. I didn't ask," I tell her, somewhat taken aback by the vehemence of her reaction.

"Oh, no. That can't be! I will clean some drawers for you in our room. What if you need to get something and someone is in there changing?"

"Isn't that what 'locks' are for," I think. "The same could be said for our clothes in YOUR room." Again I say nothing.

In the almost 12 years B & I have been married (and the 5 years we dated before that), his mom has NEVER cleared out a drawer for us to store our things while we visit.

Scene II

Three little children in a playroom crowded with toys. Two boys standing around a train table and a little girl across the room sitting on a stuffed horse.

The little boy picks a train piece off of the table. The bigger boy grabs it out of his hand. The little boy picks a house off of the table. Once again the bigger boy wrenches it from his hand.

"You can't snatch things from E's hand like that, Teddy!", says the little girl.

"But he's messing it all up!", wails the bigger boy.

"He's only a little baby. You can't just snatch things away from him. You have to teach him," says Teddy's 5-year old sister.

I choke back tears watching this little girl defend my little boy from his 7-year old cousin. What a good girl is our little Tori.

Scene III

B comes and says to me, "Pack up. We are leaving today."

Huh? I thought we were staying another day.

"We are leaving today."

As we are packing, I find that B's mom has been criticising us, saying what lousy parents we are, how disorganized we are, etc., etc.

Loading the car, B begins to waver about leaving a day early and his mother says, "You are too disorganized to be parents. You two should never have had children. You should just put E up for adoption."

B says to me, "Do you want to stay?"

"No. Let's get the f*ck out of here."