When we last left off....

I had a guest last week. Sandy, Doug’s (my ex) mom came to see me for her birthday. She arrived on Thursday the 17th at the ungodly hour of 8AM and we went to my house so she could look around. We ran some errands, had a great lunch with Carmen and Paulie and decided to hit the road that day instead of waiting for morning. Yep, we took off for McMinnville, OR. Why OR you ask? Well to see Jennifer of course. Jennifer is Sandy’s granddaughter. This was Sandy’s b-day gift to herself. A trip to see her wonderful Jennifer, and I was extremely happy to be invited along. We drove for about 6 hours and decided to crash in Medford for the night. In the morning we raced to McMinnville. Originally we had planned to just do the full day drive and see Jennifer and her family that night, but I really didn’t want to have to drive 10 plus hours in one day if I could avoid it. When we arrived in OR it was around 2PM and I asked if I could call Judy (Jennifer’s mom) to see if it would be ok to grab Jennifer from school. She was really sweet when I called, since I caught her early. So we went to Jennifer’s school and picked her up as a surprise. She was really excited to see us. I got to meet her best friend, Freya and we headed back to Judy’s house. This is the first time I have met Judy and the rest of her family. We arrived at their house and there was a ton of family hanging out. Judy and her husband John. Lori and her four boys, Michael, Trevor, Jojo and Matthew. Then the rest of the kids started coming home. Rebecca (a weekend visitor from Portland) Jonathan and Jessica (the twins) and finally JD. A lot of activity from the get go. The house, according to Judy, is always busy. Seemed fun to me, but I can imagine just needing down time sometimes. We hung out for a few and then packed Jennifer up for a few days in the hotel with us.

Friday night was easy going. We had dinner and then went to see Holes. Great movie, we all enjoyed it more than we thought we would. We were in bed early so we could get up in the morning for some much needed SHOPPING. We got up early and had breakfast then headed to Salem for the mall. We had a blast. We hit every store, shopped and shopped until we were too tired to continue and then headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. When we got there Sandy decided to just stay in. I took Jennifer to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner. We had a nice time, just the two of us talking and eating. She is a wonderful person. Very kind and thoughtful. We went back to the hotel (we brought home leftovers KNOWING Sandy would be hungry when we got there) and curled up in bed to read and watch TV. Jennifer decided to sleep in my bed. I thought Sandy was being generous letting me have Jennifer for the night but at about 2AM with Jennifer kicking me and making her way to sleep at the foot of the bed, I realized Sandy merely wanted a good nights sleep. LOL. Jennifer and I woke up sleeping diagonally across the bed; me at the top and Jennifer at the bottom…kids are fun, eh.

In the morning we went out for a light breakfast and then to buy a few things for Easter dinner. Judy and her mom Carolyn were cooking Easter dinner for us. We arrived a little early. When we got there everyone was already there. Carolyn and her husband Chuck, Judy and John and all the kids. It was awesome. There was a ton of food, and Easter eggs hidden everywhere. Unfortunately, there was a little mix up about Easter baskets and Jennifer didn’t have one. Easily taken care of though, I put her in the car and we went to Safeway to build her one. It was really fun. We grabbed up everything in site and made the basket right there on the check out counter. We went back to the house and I played video games with Jonathan (he whooped me). Then I played some chess with Jonathan (again, he whooped me, the kids is Smart!) We had a really nice dinner and then sat down to play Yatzee with Jennifer and Jonathan. OK, he didn’t whoop me that time, but only because it is a game of chance…then we all took a trip to Lori’s house in Newberg. We hung out for a little bit visiting with the kids and such before heading back to McMinnville.

That night Carolyn and Chuck had offered their home to us so we spent two nights at their house instead of a hotel. It was really nice of them. They have two pups named Rusty and Frankie, Dachshunds, who took some time to warm to me, but eventually became all cute and more friendly. On Monday, while Jennifer was in school, Sandy and I got a chance to hit some of the little antique stores on 3rd Street before picking up Jennifer and Freya from school. We went back to Judy’s for a few hours before heading to 3rd Street Pizza for a school meeting about a trip that Jennifer and Sandy are taking to NY this summer. We had a really good time at the pizza place and then headed back to Judy’s to play Scrabble with the kids. I could only get Freya and Jennifer to play with me though. When it got late and Sandy and I took Freya home and headed to Carolyn’s for the night. Carolyn and I really hit it off, she is a riot!

Early in the morning, Sandy and I hit the road for home. It was hard leaving. I had had such a great time. Sandy and I drove all the way to Redding to see her ex-husbands sister Les. I had planned on maybe staying the night there with them but being only 3 hours from my bed, I just couldn’t do it. I hung out for a couple of hours and jumped in my car and raced home.

I was so excited to be home. It is so nice to climb in your own bed after so many nights in other ones. My plan was to go to sleep early and sleep late. The early part happened that night, the sleeping late, nope, no way. Sandy had me on a whole new schedule and I was up at 7AM (ugh!) I am still all wonky with my sleep, heh.

So now I have Sandy coming back to me today and we are going to have dinner with my family. I have to get her to the airport at the painful hour of 5AM, so as you can imagine, tonight will be an early one.

Finally, I am moving to mom’s on the 6th. I have yet to pack a damn thing, but I have all the details of the move pretty much nailed down. Tomorrow friends and family are coming over to help pack a bit, which will help. Then I have a week to get everything in order which should be fine. I am really excited about this move. I get to be with my family and just take some time to relax without the stress of paying $1,100 in rent…thank god for family!

Kisses

I have been bad...

I have been a little detached lately. Not all that into writing. I have been working out my love and my life and so far I am doing ok.

My roommate is moving in with her fiancé. That’s all cool, but it left me in a bad place. Really, I want her to be happy, but in her happiness I have basically lost my house. On May 15th, provided our landlord finds a new tenant, I will be putting my life in storage and moving into my mom’s. Heh, 33 and living with mom. The very cool thing, my mom rocks. She is amazing and wonderful and loving and will help me get back on track in this painful economy. I am looking into school again. I will look for work, but my priority is to destress and try to find some joy in life. Mom is willing to let me take the time to do that and I can not express to her how much that means to me. I have many decisions to make in the upcoming months and it will be nice to not be terrified while making those choices, to know I am safe and secure. My beautiful friend Marianne will be fostering for my three cats. She is a lifesaver, she and Aaron, her fiancé. They are really looking forward to having the boys there. I know they will be in great hands, I just hope there HUGE dog Peyo will be ok with it all.

I have not really been able to discuss my love life here. As it mostly does not exist. I tried to figure things out with an ex, but it just isn’t meant to be. I am ok with that, I really am. I am at peace with not being with him, but I miss so many things about him it is weird. I need to step back and let those things go, let them just be a sweet memory and not something I long for. I know this is the right thing to do. Makes my heart ache, but life goes on.

I visited with another “ex” (I use the term loosely) last night. He has become a wonderful friend and I don’t get many chances to see him so it was nice to be able to go over to his house, have him make dinner for me and fall asleep on the couch watching movies. I woke up in the guest room a little confused, but he brought me coffee in bed and everything was cool. He is such a nice guy, and would be a good “catch” except for the married bit. Yep, he is married, and his wife knows we are friends and is cool about it. I am happy for him that his marriage is so good. I have known him for years and there were times that he struggled with his marriage, and I was there for the worst of it, but things seem to be going wonderfully for him and it makes me happy.

I went to an open mike on Friday night. I wasn’t expecting to see so much talent. It was really fun. Singers, slam-poets, ranters, crazy people; they were all there. There was one artist, a singer named Evan Hadley. He was so great. We sat at the table with him, talked to him for hours; then he sang and I was smitten. The guy was awesome, on top of being super cute. Carmen took a real liking to him, which is great cause I think they would be a fun duo for dating. She is a little shy on the dating idea but I worked it for her. Got his number, talked her up, I think he will call her. It would be fun to hang with him again. If you get a chance check out his website www.evanhadley.com.

I have been focusing a lot on the person I want to be. This is such a strange time for me. I know I want to be single, I know I want to make major changes, I know I need to leave some people behind and further embrace those that are healthy and happy. It can be hard to do when you love those that you know are bad for you. But it also can be done and I am sure this is my time to clean house. I want this life, this one life I have, to be amazing, and in order for that to be, I have to be amazing. Working on it, I swear.

Kisses