Beginnings

Well, I haven't blogged in...Oh, about a year now. The princess has graduated and is an adult all her own. I'm enjoying it!! I'm pretty excited I don't have to dump any more money into the school system just to disappoint me and her. I don’t have to deal with anymore teenaged drama…nope. Now it’s adult drama. Ha ha! I am pretty proud of her and excited for her! She starts beauty school next week!

After a few months of looking for a job, I’ve got a new perspective on interviewing. What the crap do some of those questions mean to the interviewer? I read online that the meaning of: “What is your weakness?” question shows the interviewer how you handle the stress of answering the question. It shouldn’t have anything to do with the answer that you come up with….although I don’t think that the interviewer knows that, because they all seemed to be hung up on the answer…. I also looked up online how to answer that question so I could be armed with the goods for the next interview, only to not even be asked the question!

The good news is that I don’t have to interview anymore (at least for a long time, I hope!) because I got a new job!! My summer is over and now I feel like my first day of school is coming up just after Labor Day! Except it isn’t school…it’s a new job. I so enjoyed my summer off, sleeping in, having lunch with my girlfriends, hanging out late on weekday nights and reading, sewing, talking on the phone and just hanging out… I’m going to miss my freedom… BUT let’s face it, I’m broke and I’ve been very irresponsible, so back to reality!

In my little town, it’s all we got.

Fall Friday nights most of the town meets up at the field, rooting for our high school boys, heckling the referees, watching the girls dance and cheer and listening to our award winning band perform at the half.

Most people that live here went to the high school here. They all talk about how it was when they were there. “We never won a game the whole time I went to school”, “I was the band major when I was in school”, “We won state my senior year”… All of this can be heard just sitting in the stands. (I’m kinda jealous that I can’t really share my experiences…because I didn’t go there).

It’s funny how times have changed and frozen at the same time for them. Homecoming brings past graduates back to the field for the game and to be introduced on the field before the band plays at half time.

It also means that the Princess was nominated by her senior football players to be on the royalty court (again). This time she was able to wear the honored white (reserved for seniors) billowing dress and compete for the coveted Queen title. Someone else got that, but she was just so happy to be on the court and happy that she was a real Princess for the whole day!

Our “Boys of Fall” won their homecoming game making the day pretty perfect!

The List

My “To Do” list after Laid-Off-Dom:

1. Clean out the Closet – And throw some of my hoarded crap away!
2. Wash the walls throughout the house
3. Paint my bedroom – I’ve been planning to for about eight years now!
4. Put my feet up!
5. Turn off the TV and turn on the radio
6. Do some sewing
7. Smell the Roses

And if my some miracle this list is ever completed, that’s when I will hit the pavement and look for another job! Is it kind of a bad thing that I’m looking forward to being laid off?

I think that being a working wife and mother means that I have to do everything and not just women’s work (or for the feminists: “Domestic Duties”).

I think a lot about what the world was when my great grandma was a wife and mother. I think about how she wore a dress, worked hard at home with laundry (not in a machine), cooking, cleaning, taking care of her children and some of her neighbors too. She cared for sick relatives and took in family members who lost their spouse and father. She was always beautifully dressed and had a smile on her face. Times in the 30s were tough for everyone, but in today’s time, we as women are dealing with some of the same issues of financial woes, sick loved ones, children’s needs and we have to add a boss to all of it.

A friend of mine recently started substituting at her son’s school after working about five hours a week at a newspaper. She asked how other mom’s deal with working all week and keep the house clean, kids fed and homework finished…

and the response from the “mom’s” painted a very real picture for me. We all pick our own battles. House cleaning and cooking loses in the big tug of war of work and children. It was eye opening to me. I never expected to see that other women feel the same way that I do. The feeling of coming home at dinner time and just wanting to sit down for a few minutes, but your children are hungry, so we either force ourselves to stand in front of the stove or we run through McDonalds drive thru.

In my heart, I want to do it all. I want to cook, and have a beautifully clean home, and hang out with my Princess and Hero when ever they need me. Keeping everyone including myself happy while working a full time job is not an easy feat! I’m certainly looking forward to the break before I start applying for another job.

Slang

In the last few weeks I’ve over heard some slang that has seriously taken me back in time, all the way back to junior high school, high school and a blast to the 90s.

Just this morning, my Hero told the Princess that he would get a “Killer Green Tie” this week. When was the last time you heard the word “Killer” used to describe something is a positive way? It’s been a long long time for me.

One day last week I was talking to my friend in the news room about an hour before our news was to air for that day. Usually, the news room is abuzz with last minute details and late breaking news coming in…One of the reporters was running to one of the edit bays, and my friend says, “Everyone Spazzes an hour before news time”! Spaz is one of my favorite words ever! I couldn’t stop giggling over it!

Another friend of mine was talking about some really great find she had on facebook…described it as Righteous!

I guess that I’m one to talk, because I regularly use the word “totally” and I didn’t think that aged me, until I saw and heard the afore mentioned words. I’m pretty sure to my teenager I sound extremely old, but in my heart I’m still sixteen years old. Nowadays, my teenager is saying Sick, Holla and Bad… Thanks to the eighties slang, I understand the positive / negative thing.

Hoarder Confessions

Inspired by the fire that threatened my folks’ home town of Herriman and the couple of families that lost their homes as well as all the contents in them, I’ve wondered if I’d be alright losing all the items in my home since I’m a hoarder. Not the kind where there are pathways lined with crap throughout the rooms of the house. I’m the kind that cannot part with anything that may have the slightest sentimental value that I’ve added to it. I’m emotionally attached to every piece of paper that enters my house! I don’t have pricey items, I don’t have extravagant items, but I do have stuff that mean special things to me.

Maybe it was the way I was raised with a food storage filled with canned goods to last at least a week and mom’s old graduation dress in the basement closet. I don’t remember my parents tossing out their hoarded items, even junk mail. I come by it honestly.

Now that I live in “Tornado Alley”, my Hero frowns upon too big of a food pantry because he said that no one wants to get killed by a can of green beans being hurled at their head with tornado force winds. So, my hoarded items are more of the paper type, shoes and purses.

What would I grab in the moments before knowing that I may lose it all to a tornado or impending fire?

I’ve actually left my home before fearing a tornado and didn’t take anything with me except my purse and my family. I left my beloved scrapbooks and genealogy book. I left all my clothes, shoes, important papers, jewelry, even my car. My family ran for my husband’s car and drove to the nearest tornado shelter and never looked back for our crap. None of it even crossed my mind at the time.

Why can’t I just throw it away? Actually choose to toss it? My Princess has no problem throwing out unwanted items. Each year she goes through her whole room and takes out bags of out dated belongings. I cringe at the thought of what could be in those bags! There will be items in those bags that I will be emotionally attached to. I don’t even look anymore, because they are her items and I’m trying hard to learn from her how to throw my crap away!

Today, if I had to run to the car in fear of losing it all, I bet I’d just go with my family and not let any of my hoarded crap cross my mind.

In The News

Triple digit heat folks! It’s been twenty three days and counting with no end it sight! This is the true meaning of “long dog days of summer!” Heat indexes of 115 degrees some days! The lakes and old swimming holes are warmer than bath water and not refreshing. My first experience of Rudy Creek was two hours and a sun burn that resulted in “Sun Poisoning”! It looks like I’m having an allergic reaction all over my shoulders and chest. Next time I vow to use the highest amount of sun screen that SPF offers!
Shores Lake a couple of weeks ago was a little better. I used a SPF of 70 and the water near my toes was a little cooler, but I was rewarded with blisters on my feet from a walk up the road while sweating to death in sandals I haven’t warn in quite a while.
On the news today a mention was made that the heat in Louisiana resulted in the street buckling! It looked like a fault line had run through the road. In Atlanta the heat index was 120 degrees and in Tulsa the Red Cross has set up cooling centers.
Mother Nature needs some ibuprofen!

Also in the world of news is that I’m being laid off soon. My company has decided to centralize the accounting department of all the TV stations they own across the country. While this is not the best timing, I’m looking at it as a blessing. Some days I’m jaded and others I’m looking forward to it. We haven’t been told of the actual day, but I’m secretly hoping to get through the rest of the year. That would allow me to be at home the remaining six months of the Princess’ senior year and then figure out what I want to be when she grows up. It would be a blessing to be home savoring the last six months that my daughter is a child.

I'm so excited!!

Do you know what I love about the South? Just about everything! But most of all, I love that when you tell people that you are going to the Daytona 500, most people actually know what I'm talking about AND they are jealous!!
I'm so dang excited for the race tomorrow that I can barely stand it! I'll take lots of pictures for all of you to share in our "People Watching Fun!"
Can't wait!!!!