By Popular Demand.....The Dinner Story

This, by far, has got to be the strangest dinner I have ever experienced.

It all started with a simple errand to Costco. My son was picked up from school by his father's live-in-girlfriend/fiance, who shall remain nameless. Although she is very nice and I actually like how she treats my son, she is not my first choice for getting him home from school, but he likes her and wanted her to pick him up that day. She works as a custodian for a different school in the district, so she picks him up and he pals around with her 14 year old son while she cleans classrooms. (Totally against the rules according to her job!) Since I live 20 minutes across town and didn't want to make two trips to the west side, I arranged to pick him up after my Costco errand.

While in Costco, I get a phone call from my son asking me when I was going to get him because nameless live-in-girlfriend/fiance wants to go get dinner. I asked him where she wanted to go out to eat and he said a pizza place in the mall. Since Costco is not far from the mall I told him that I would meet them there. I check out at Costco and take my goods out to the car. While loading the boxes in my car, I picked up a box (which was the heaviest damn box....obviously, the Costco person must have thought I was a weight lifter) and pulled a muscle in my back. Like an idiot, I put the box in my car (looking back, I should have made the box a little lighter first) and finish unloading my cart and take it back to the cart bay. As I am walking to the car I have this sharp, stabbing, burning pain on the right side of my back that hurts every time I breathe or move even the slightest. So, I call nameless live-in-girlfriend/fiance's cell phone and my son answers. I ask him where he is and he says that they were at the pizza place. I told him that I was on my way and to keep an eye out for me because I didn't want to get out of the car (back is killing me now). He says that they just ordered him a pizza and that I should just come in.

GRRRRRRRR! I didn't want to go in!! I park the car, figure that I am not going to cook dinner because of my back, and walk inside. Let me set the scene from here......8:00 on a Wednesday evening, large pizza place, three tables with patrons, and me walking through the door. When I walk in the door I see them, they see me, too late to back out now. Nameless live-in-girlfriend/fiance, her 14 year old son, my son........and my ex-husband (of 8 years, who is a complete and total loser/asshole) all sitting down at one of the three occupied tables. What am I to do? Do I nod kindly and stand a distance away? Do I order the pizza I planned on ordering for dinner and then sit at an empty table and read my book? Oh shit! Left my book in the car.....damn, that's out of the question! Holy awkward! I go to the line (wait, I am the line) and I ordered my 'take-out' pizza and a drink, because suddenly I was as thirsty as if I had ran a marathon in the desert. Upon filling my cup my son yells acorss the empty restraunt "Mom! Come over here and sit with me...I pulled up a chair for you!" Now what was I supposed to do. Nod my head and say 'I will stand right here?' or perhaps 'No thank you buddy, I need to say hi to my friends.' I sucked it up, put on a smile, and went and sat at their table.

It was one of those classic "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" type of moments. They couldn't let silence encumpas the table. Talk, talk, talk, about meaningless topics. All I could think about was the sharp, stabbing, burning pain searing its way through my back! Finally their pizza came and they started eating. Shortly thereafter, my pizza came neatly boxed, and I waited for my son to finish his pizza. Now, keep in mind we are talking about a 13-year-old boy eating pizza. Usually such a quick event that I don't even see the pizza move....it just disappears. But.....not tonight. He ate slowly....painfully slowly. It was almost unbearable.



In the end, I was the bigger person. I sat down, carried on conversation, smiled (knowing I looked increadibly good tonight and loving every moment of it), and had a little bit of fun with my son. After we got in the car he said "Wow, that was weird!" You are telling me son....you are telling me! It must have been due to the lunar eclipse that I saw that night. What other explaination could there be?

Venting my Frustrations

This was written a few days ago and the laptop gods conspired against me and shut down my computer. Thank God for Blogger's autosave program. Here are my thoughts from Friday 02/15/08.

I am at the end of a busy day. I woke up at 5:30am, took my son to school, went and picked up work, since I work at home I threw in a load of laundry, and I worked. About 1:00 p.m. I have a raging headache....Oh ya, did I eat breakfast?? I think that would be a NO! Ok, fix a little something for lunch and get right back to work. Then, Outlook reminder to the rescue...it's 2:45, time to pick up my son from school. Out to school and back....an hour out of the day missing. Back home again, get son a quick snack then right back to work. Suddenly, it is 7:00 and my son is asking what is for dinner. Dinner? Didn't you just eat? Break away from work long enough to make dinner and eat with my son. Back at the computer working away like my life depends on it....oh wait.....it does!! By 10:30 I am finished with work (Whew..Long day!)and go into the kitchen to clean up after dinner. As I am clearing dishes I realize that the dishwasher is full...of clean dishes! I unload it and start loading it when I realize that I am out here busting my butt and my kids are each in their respective rooms watching TV! As I am out clanging dishes neither one of them come out to ask if they could help me. What have I raised....monkeys?! I think at least monkeys would come out to see what was going on.



Whew....well at least I don't have to go to bed with this on my mind. Here's to making tomorrow different! Wish me luck in training my little monkeys....looks like I am going to need it.

Bullies!

Remember when you were in grade school? There was always a big, mean, bully that liked to corner kids in the locker room or in a deserted hallway during class. Well, what do you do when that bully is now a teacher? I think I am fairly easy to get along with, but this teacher is a complete a$$! He is the kind of person that picks his favorites at the beginning of the school year and the kids that he picks on. Well, my daughter was one of the lucky favorites. My son is the one he has chosen to pick on. I swear he enjoys making my son's life hell. Well, the joke is on him. I have been documenting everything that he has done and kept all of our corespondence (ie. e-mails and notes) and he pushed my last button today. This afternoon I had a meeting with the principal (my third one this year about the same teacher) and politely told/showed him what continues to go on. I just don't feel like I am getting anywhere by going through the proper channels. So, at 4:30 this afternoon I called the superintendent of the shcool district and requested to be put on the adjenda for the next board meeting.

I will not have a bully teaching my son. He ought to know that if you back a mother and her cub in the corner she will come out swinging every time!

The Sun is Shining!

What a beautiful day it was today. After what seems like months of torrential rain, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping. It always amazes me how much of a difference the sunshine makes in people's mood.


In my back yard I have a wild bird feeder that the little finches use and a hummingbird feeder that, you guessed it, the hummingbirds feed from. I was tired of buying that RED hummingbird food so I looked on the internet and got a recipe for making my own hummingbird food. I made some with my nephew last week and they have eaten over half of it already. It is really neat to see the little guys flocking to my feeder.

Here is to hoping tomorrow brings with it another sunny day!!

Which Comercial Was Your Favorite?

Every year it is always a tradition to watch the Super Bowl at my parent's house. At first , I have to admit, I only watched the game to spend time with my Dad. Then, over time, I really began to watch the game, well and of course, the halftime show. Who could forget the Janet Jackson "Wardrobe Malfunction?" Does anybody know who won that game....not me!

Four years ago my son started playing football in a Pop Warner league where we live. Football is now a year round sport in our house. This year, like many others, we ended up at my parent's house for snack foods, bbq, and watching those 2.5 million dollar 30 second commercial spots. Every year we have the same conversation at the end of the game "Which commercial was your favorite?" As always Budwiser captured the show. Although, they had many commercials during the Super Bowl this one remains my favorite!

Way to go Hank!