Growing up

My  son is 17. Which means he's a senior. Which means he's thinking about things. Life things. Big things. Like college. Career. And moving out.

A few years ago, I'm thinking about life without the kids and I'm thinking "Wooo hooo!! I'm gonna have money and I'm gonna travel and I'm gonna do all kinds of cool stuff."

(I don't know where I think all that money will come from, but that's another blog post.)

Now that we're almost on the threshold I'm thinking....wait a minute. How did this happen?

This is weird. I remember being 17 and thinking I needed to be making $500 a week to move out. I don't think I realized you could live on a lot less than that until I saw my sister do it. I, on the other hand, got married before I tried to make it on my own and, well....I guess I did learn pretty quickly you could live on less than that. And raise a family on less, too, but that, too, is another blog post.

Last week we had a college recruiter at our dining room table. We have now formally applied for college. In Tennessee. It's what he wants. I'm hopeful for him. But it's Tennessee. I'm thinking "Lord, if he goes, I hope he remembers to wash his clothes once in a while," and "You know, I don't think I like this not letting me know where he is when he leaves the house business." We need to back up a minute!

*Sigh* He's growing up.

Today on the way home from school, his girlfriend was talking about an apartment she wants to get after she graduates.

Christopher asked me what I thought of him moving out.
I wanted to say "I don't!"

Just yesterday I was remembering him toddling across the living room, propping his elbows against my knees, looking up at me with that sweet little face and clapping his chubby little hands because he made it and didn't fall.

I said, "Well, I guess I think you need to stay home and go to school here where it's cheaper. Then when you have a good job, you need to move out. I don't want you living at home when you're 40. But no, I'm not exactly ready for you to go, either."

No, I really don't think I'm ready. But I am very fortunate. He is a good boy and I know he will do me proud.

Big thoughts about small things

Well, alright. So it's been a minute. Sorry for the disappearing act. I've been dealing with stuff and sometimes when you're dealing with stuff, it's the only thing you can think about. And I promise you didn't want to hear about it. And I don't do well hiding what's on my mind. So sometimes, the best thing for me to do is go away for a while.

I'll try to do better. ;)

Have you seen the weather today? I am so in love! I'm trying to hurry and get everything done so I can go for a walk before it gets dark. I got away from it for a while and I can tell it in so many ways. But it is way too pretty to be inside. I've got some cornbread in the oven, some chicken and noodles I made last week in the microwave, and I think I can do this!

The past couple of days I have had the migraine from hell. I normally only have to spend one day on the couch. This time it laid me out for two days. Yesterday I actually had to leave work. I have some meds that knock out the pain, but I was actually dizzy. I never get dizzy! (Shut up!)

The awesome thing about having a 17 year old is that when I have a migraine I can hand him $5 and say "Go get pizza for dinner." And he can! Then yesterday, he and his girlfriend heated up some leftovers I had in the freezer and did an awesome job of cleaning my kitchen. Awesome, awesome, awesome. That's all I can say. :)

I have my windows open. Oh. My. Gosh. How I love this! Okay....this is gonna sound ghetto but, I'm broke. My back screen door is in sad, sad shape. I cleaned it up because I love light and air, and I suffered through the summer keeping the back door closed. But I will NOT be able to live through the fall, too, with the back door closed. However, my screen is coming off at the edges. I have been meaning to tell the landlord about it so she can fix it, but they've been busy fixing other, more important stuff around the house.....like the air conditioner....that I hate to ask them to fix the screen too! So the thing is knobless, and it gaps, and the bugs are getting in. *sigh* I promise I will tell her about it. I promise! In the meantime, anybody got any duct tape??

Also, I have decided to start couponing. Three weeks ago. I researched how to organize it. Got a package of the baseball card holder thingys to put the coupons in. Found out I'll need two. Found extra coupons. They've been multiplying on my kitchen table. Two weeks ago (I think it was) I borrowed a binder from Cathy. Over the weekend I started clipping and organized them. I got through two coupon inserts. I have about a gazillion to go. I will try to work on it again some more tonight. I'm sure I'll have it done in time for the next batch of coupons. I wonder how many in my stack have expired? Anyway. Hopefully I'll get them all clipped and organized before the ones that came in the mail today expire. Next step? Find extra money to get started on that awesome stockpile. Hmmm....That could take another minute.

Ding! Time to eat and then walk. Later!


P.S. Here is my public service announcement for today. Jiffy cornbread expires. It loses a lot of its oomph after seven months. My son now believes  he's poisoned. Please check your expiration dates. You will thank me later. :)

Most people hate jury duty...

I'm kind of enjoying it.

Yes, I'm weird. We've established that. Moving on.

I'm 38 years old, been a registered voter most of my life and this is the first time I've been summoned. Y'all know how I love new experiences! Once I was in there, I was kinda soaking it up.

Naturally because I have that Anderson Thousand and One luck, there had to be a rare situation going on. I was called to come in on Tuesday at 8:45 a.m. We waited almost two hours, nothing happened, and we were excused and told to come back at 1:30 p.m. So we did. All 50 of us.

We suffered through two hours of Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown (cruel and unusual? I think so! Who are these people?)  before it was finally explained to us that another trial had run late, causing this trial to start late, causing the jury selection for this trial to begin late, and well....now it's too late to select the jury by the end of the day, so we'll begin selection first thing Wednesday morning. Be back at 9 a.m.

So we did. All 50 of us.

I heard people complaining about losing two days worth of work. I've been off since Thursday. As of tomorrow, I've had a week off, only two days of which I requested. During that time, I've caught up on housework, laundry, done school shopping, grocery shopping, dealth with the kids' first week of school. I ain't complaining.

I am, however, incredibly curious. While everyone else was concerned about the work they're not getting done, I'm wondering what the inner workings of a courtroom really look like. Yes, I'm a reporter, but a general assignment reporter. Feature stories don't take you into very many courtrooms.  Yes, I've met judges. Yes, I've met lawyers. I've just never actually seen them work together. And I wanna know if it really looks like Law and Order in there.

Yeah, it kinda does. "There's like a judge and everything!" (-- Legally Blonde)

So anyway. They broke us up into three panels. I was on the first panel. We had to tell the court about ourselves. I always hated that part of first dates, by the way. At least the judge gave us a list of questions. All we had to do was answer them. I think this should be adopted on first dates. (Tell me your name, which side of town you live on, occupation and how long you've been there, and what do you like to do for fun. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, what kind of dressing do you want on your salad?)

When we got to the part about my occcupation, I thought, "this is it! He's going to dismiss me right now!"

Instead, the judge said "Have you ever written anything bad about me?" I smiled sweetly and assured him I had not.

The assistant DA asked the same thing....just to make sure. I should have had more fun with that, but....shoulda, coulda, woulda. LOL

Then we were dismissed for another hour and a half while the other two panels were examined. I was thinking Arby's...and that when I came back at noon I had no idea when I'd get to see lunchtime so I'd better eat now. And that I would probably see lunchtime five minutes after noon, because there was no way they'd want a member of the media on the jury.

A Thousand and One.

I was one of the chosen ones.

I can't talk about the case. Y'all know that. I will say it's a sad one. And I am taking it seriously. I am just savoring the new experience. And now chilling on my comfy couch, 'cause those chairs are definitely not.

We listened to some testimony, had some mechanical breakdowns, and I had a bit of a panic attack. Well, the one time I took my purse to the jury boxwith me, I started kinda freaking out about my cell phone going off. Because with my luck, I was afraid I had forgotten to silence it and the judge said he'd fine anyone in his court $100 if that bad boy goes off! So I'm trying to pay attention while nonchalantly bending over to turn my phone off and "OMG please tell me I didn't accidentally turn the sound back on instead!"

Thankfully, 10 minutes later he exused us for the day. And my phone did not go off.

We have to be back in the morning. I will be there with bells on....notepad in hand, cell de-batteried!

I have a new addiciton...

 It is called the online yard sale, and it has taken over what little free time I have left.
Really!

Like I'm not on the computer all day as it is, I come home at night, flip open the laptop and start grabbing piles of clothes. I have two more piles right now I have to work through before I can delve back into anybody's closet for more.

Let me back up. I found it a while back but didn't pay it much attention. Then Cathy says, "I made like $250." That kinda got my attention. So I started with a few things in my room. Namely, the jewelry left over from my Premier business. There were a few pieces that have been occupying space in the jewelry bag in the bottom of my closet. I wasn't gonna wear 'em, and nobody at my shows bought them.

So I drug them out for the first time in over a year, snapped photos of them, posted them online and they were gone in a week. Every. Single. Piece. And I was about $30 richer (I sold them really cheap) and very happy.

So I sold the bag, too. And the trays. And a dress or two.

And then I got an idea. Maybe, if I let them keep the money from the stuff we sell out of their rooms, the kids will get excited about cleaning their rooms.

It worked. Sort of.

Christopher started pulling stuff out of his room. He made about $12 and then he stalled. Catie and I spent one whole evening going through her closet. I pulled stuff out, she said "yea" or "nay," and we made piles. (Her closet looks great now, by the way! :) )

I took the piles to my room and thus began two weeks of selling. Not every night, but most nights, I come from work, snap photos, upload them, post them to the site and if I'm lucky, I get a few nibbles. Then once or twice a week, I take the things people want, put them in bags, put tags on them, record the transaction in a notebook, and load it up for the Shop and Drop, a consignment store where I can drop the whole shoot and shebang and a few days later, go get my money.

By the time I'm done, it's bedtime!

One night early on, about 10:30 p.m., I got tired of the piles of stuff in my living room and dang it, I just cleaned my bedroom so I wasn't about to start piling it in there! So.....I cleaned out the coat closet. Now everything in there except the vacuum cleaner is up for sale. When someone is interested in something, I just go pull it out of the closet.

Bonus points: The money I make is helping me buy school clothes. Double bonus points: if I buy clothes off the site and I just sold something, no money actually leaves my pocket!

The only problem is, when you give most of your attention to something new, another thing suffers. I won't be showing you any pictures of my house anytime soon! ;)

"I ain't complainin' but...

I'm tired, so I'm just sayin' what I think. And if we're being honest, then honestly I think I need a drink." -- Martina McBride

I am tired, and that probably has more to do with the state of mind I'm in than anything else.

I'm home for about 10 minutes, shoveling down a tomato sandwich because it's the quickest thing I can think of. I had to make sure Christopher got to work by noon. Today, I'm feeling like one work schedule to deal with is bad enough. Two could very well make me crazy.

Anyway.

It is so funny how one day you can feel like you’ve got the world by the tail, then for the next three it feels like the world is kicking yours.

My daughter is going to a private school in the fall. Can you believe that? I still can’t, either. In terms of opportunity for her, it is unbelievably awesome. We are all ecstatic. But in a more immediate sense, it creates another bill I have to pay, which is less I have to spend on other stuff...you know, like groceries...and I'm beginning to feel suffocated.

She needs new clothes because her natural state is blue jeans and T-shirts, not polos and khakis. To say nothing of school supplies and a lunch box, because y'all, I just can't do $3 a day for lunch.

 On the plus side, I’ve found a place to sell her clothes. Mountains and mountains of clothes. She is going to be rich, I told her as we pulled piles and piles out of her closet to sell on the Online Yard Sale. It got her excited enough to help.

It took me two days to list them posted. I'm not done. I have a pile on my floor that need to be washed before they can be listed. We have an album on the site with about 30 pieces that we pulled that were just hanging in her closet.

Yes, I feel like the world's worst mom for not culling this out sooner.

But I’m not even being facetious here. I’m talking about my evenings are photographing clothes while cooking dinner. Posting photos online while eating dinner. Going for a walk because I make myself. Coming home to finish posting online. Getting ready for bed while making arrangements to drop off items people want to buy. At 11:30 p.m. forcing myself to shut the computer off and go to bed. Taking another 15 minutes to wind down. Falling asleep around midnight. Waking up at 7 and hitting the snooze until 8. It's only getting worse!

All of this, for two days, for about $25. I am staring at my phone like a mad woman hoping to see a notification that someone else wants these things that we don't.

Tonight, I bag up what sold last night. I'm doing laundry and getting more clothes ready to post. I may walk. I may not. But either way, I plan to catch up on rest. Things always looks better in the morning...if you've had enough sleep.

Gosh, I sound ungrateful, don't I? I'm incredibly thankful she gets to go to this school. Any sacrifice is worth it. It really is!! It's just, sometimes, you want to give in and throw a temper tantrum when it pinches!! Thanks for listening. The people who are usually gracious enough to listen to me whine are all out of town this week! :) Besides, I'm officially late getting back to work. *sigh*

Ooh baby baby it's a wide world...

... Sorry. I couldn't think of a good title. 

I wrote this blog post yesterday, but I couldn't post it because of internet problems. By this morning, the issue had spread to my landline, my cable and my wireless router (which affects Facebook on cell phones and horror of horrors, iPods), all of which are connected to the same modem, which just sat there, all black and lightless. 

Bleary-eyed (I was still waiting for my coffee to brew) and while my cereal got mushy, I mashed the reset button on the back with a half-chewed pencil. The modem lights flickered, then flickered out. So I called Comcast to have them send me a refresh signal. Didn't work. The automated lady offered to put me through to a real person, who said he couldn't see my computer from his end. He asked me if it was plugged in. Of course it is, I thought. Otherwise no lights would have come on when I hit the reset thingy, right? Made sense to me. I had no idea which plug in the power strip was the modem, so I just started pushing in random plugs, and guess what? 

Yep. Shut up.

So anyway...here is the blog post I was gonna post yesterday. I'll wait for you to finish laughing. 

I have figured it out. I live vicariously through my subjects. Either that, or I'm ADD. 

We won't discount that possibility.

There is a ginormous world out there, and as much as I want to experience it all, I can’t. As much as I want to do it all, I can't. I meet people every day who are passionate about what they do, and they become amazingly good at it. That is why we write and read about them, after all. They study everything they can get their hands on about their one specialty.

I would love to have a fraction of their knowledge and be just a tiny bit good at whatever it is that they do. But frankly, I don’t want to invest that kind of time. Plus, I just find way too many things fascinating to be tied down to one specialty for very long. If I took a six-week course in everything I find interesting, I would never do anything outside a classroom. Besides, in three days I'd be like, "Okay, that was fun. What's next?" 

Take today. I talked to a 29-year-old chef who is clearly rising quickly to the top of his field. Twenty medals in the 13 years or so he’s been with the American Culinary Federation. There aren’t many chefs in his position in this area, I’m told. But every time I tried to talk about him, as a person, he steered the conversation back to food, and the profession. Actually, I don't think he steered it so much as we just kept ending up there. That's the passion talking. I tasted a fruit leather (think fruit rollups without all the sugar) he created just that morning. Just...out of the blue decided to make some berry puree and stick it in the dehydrator to see what it would do. And then there was the brisket he had cooking in this tub thingy that smelled absolutely divine. They won't be ready until Friday, though. All I know is, after 30 minutes of talking to him I was ready to sign up for a cooking class.

Then tonight, I spent two hours watching members of the Aiken Community Playhouse rehearse The Great American Trailer Park. What started off as an interview with a director ended up feeling like I was just hanging out with a group of friends. Or, talking to a group of friends I was welcome in but not necessarily a part of. Yeah, that’s it. Then they invited me to stay and watch. So I did. I remembered drama class in high school, and all the times I get up and sing karaoke in front of strangers. It is all fun and is great for building confidence. This group had so much fun “working” that frankly, I kind of want to go back tomorrow night. I almost wanted a part, too. And I left wanting to join a theater group. But honestly, I don't think I could handle the rehearsal schedule. Four nights a week. All day on Sunday. My hats off to all of them. 

Hmmm….maybe I need to write down all the things that I'm interested in. Sort of a Bucket List of things I want to do or learn before I die. Then I guess I need to get started doing something! 

Ballroom dance

Learn how to adequately decorate a cake

Take a cooking class

Take a writing class

Learn to row

Bike

Run

How to make a latte, or a cappuccino, or an espresso, or some other yummy coffee with whipped cream on top

How to run a business (preferably a coffee one)

Learn how to buy coffee beans, and how to roast them

Go see another country. Perhaps to buy coffee beans

How to invest and grow money

How to make some extra money...without sacrificing time with my kids/friends/family or a somewhat clean house (needed in order to grow money)

Gardening

Planting and tending a vegetable garden

Canning the stuff I grow in the garden….provided any ends up edible

Learn how to take an X-ray

Learn to give a shot (I don’t know why. I hate getting them.)

Learn how to write a book

Write for a home magazine

Sew curtains…and pillow cases…and a dress

The fundamentals of interior design

Learn about architecture

Walk across the country. (I’d be happy to drive, too.)

Coupon like a champ

I will definitely have to add to this list later. These are just off the top of my head. Tomorrow I’ll probably meet someone else cool, and I’ll want to do what they’re doing, too.

How times have changed

So there I was, interviewing a guy for a story when in walks his grown son. The son had to be in his late 40s, at least. If you said 53, I wouldn't be surprised.

My very first initial impression was, cool! (Please don't judge me. I am a child of the '80s.)

His full head of more-salt-than-pepper flowed behind him as he walked with that arena-rock-star swagger adopted strictly to make it move just like that. You remember how these guys walked, right? They threw their hair better than a swimsuit model. I don't remember if he were wearing a Motley Crue T-shirt, although that's how I now have him pictured.

That first impression lasted all of 10 seconds.

My second thought was, "Man, 20 years ago I'd have thought you were the coolest thing ever. Now, it's kinda sad."

I mean, that was 20 years ago. I would have been 18, that look would have been cool, and I would have been dumb enough to think that awesome rock-star good looks were all that really mattered, even if I was jealous their hair was prettier than mine.

It's funny how times and tastes change. The reason our parents hated to see us come home with one of those guys was that even 20 years ago, he probably didn't have a steady job. That would have been evidenced by the fact that he only had the 2-60 air conditioning in his Trans-Am (two windows down at 60 miles per hour). He probably would have lived in his parents' basement, too.

To see a guy like that now you think, wow. I bet you still work in a record store. Or the skating rink. (I've seen more of his kind there.) Is it bad that I was picturing this guy sitting in a Naugahyde recliner in the paneled living room of an old single wide with Kiss and Lita Ford posters all over the walls?

*Sigh* Me and Cathy talk about this on our walks sometimes. I told you we used to walk this very neighborhood when we were 12 and 13, didn't I? We used to look for these guys! We totally overlooked their primered cars with cracked windshields. We could forgive them because they were cute and looked very nice from behind in those Levis. We loved it every time one of them honked at us while we strolled the sidewalks of the highway. They still honk, only now we look at the cars and think "Yeah, right. Not in this life, buddy." Because the kind of guys who impress us now don't have longer hair than we do blowing in the breeze. And they would have more class than to honk anyway.

It's one thing to appreciate classic rock, but dude. You really don't have to dress the part anymore.