Coincidence? I think not

I think Mr. McStalker has finally realized that I'm not interested in playing his game. He was in the office early Monday morning and still hung around a little longer than necessary but it was ok.

We were talking about some stuff that happened over the weekend. My husband and a group of buddies recently bought into a duck club for the hunting season come fall. They're leasing one blind in this private club. Come to find out, Mr. McStalker is a card carrying member of this place.

So, Saturday hubby and some of his group went to this club to move their assigned blind so they could make repairs and get it into the location they wanted. They got most of their work done before they got totally drenched with rain and were on the way out of this place when they were confronted by a (supposedly) 750 pound man in a big dually truck that read them the riot act about how they were trespassing and he was going to have them arrested, yadda yadda.

So, my husband started making phone calls to get in touch with the guy that owns the property - the guy they signed the lease with. He didn't have his number so he had to call this guy who called this guy who called another guy who called the owner. Finally, Joe, the owner called my husband directly and they got the problem worked out.

So, Monday morning when Mr. McStalker came we were talking about this duck club deal (for divorce case purposes) and he said he hoped my husband wasn't involved in the cluster from Saturday. He is partners with Joe, the owner, and he and Joe were talking about it. So, Mr. McHotty-Stalker tells Joe that he hopes it doesn't get back to me because he has to talk to me and face me and he likes me and doesn't want me mad at him.

I guess Joe told him who my husband is because all of the sudden he went from laying on the charm to back talking his way out of the things he'd been saying before. Maybe he's scared of my husband.

Oh well, mission accomplished. We're back to a working relationship and he isn't grossing me out by trying to be smooth and disgustingly beating around the bush that he wishes I wasn't married. Oh - he did flat out tell me that one. And he asked me if I would go out with him if I wasn't married.

Agh!!! Men! They always have to get an ego boost.

As he was walking out the door he told me that my husband was a lucky man - that he had a good looking wife who knew what she was talking about when it comes to guns, FOID cards and duck hunting. When I told him I hunt, and that's why I know all that stuff, he said he wished he'd gotten to me first.

The old saying goes "All I need to know in life I learned in Kindergarten"...If that's true, I'm screwed!

Last night I was so excited to get home and ask my daughter all about her first day of school. I started to get a little peeved though when she couldn't remember anything or didn't know. Finally I asked her, "what do you remember about your first day of school?"

Her response?

"Katie puked at lunch, Daniel peed his pants in class, and Kaitlyn got put on time on for not going by the rules."

Fascinating.

She couldn't tell me who she played with, who she sat with at lunch, what she ate for lunch, or if she learned anything in class but she could tell me all about bodily functions and disciplinary actions.

And to think, I was excited about her going to kindergarten.

My Eyes are Wellen

Oh, today has been a rough day for me - my daughter started Kindergarten, today is the first full day.

This morning as we were driving across town to get to her school I made sure we talked about all the important things she'd need to know for today - like when she goes to the bathroom that she needs to wipe, flush and wash her hands (this rarely happens independently at home); that she needs to eat her food with her utensils instead of her hands (she just started eating with her hands again about 6 months ago, silverware was mastered up to that point); that she needs to raise her hand when she wants/needs to talk to the teacher; where she needs to go when she gets inside the school; and most importantly I told her that every kid that was there for kindergarten today was in the same situation as her - it was their first day of kindergarten too and she needed to make some friends and help the kids that were having trouble not being with mom or dad.

We went yesterday for 15 minutes so she could meet her teacher one-on-one and put her school supplies away. In the pamphlet they handed out they urged parents to drop their kids at the sidewalk (which is normal protocol) so they had the feeling of independence and confidence rather than to walk them to their room. So, I did just that - unlike 98% of the other parents there with their kids. It was the biggest cluster f*ck I've seen in my life.

So, we pulled aside, I got her unbuckled, got her school bag on her back and gave her a hug and kiss and sent her on her way. I couldn't even look back and watch to make sure she got IN the school because of all the traffic congestion. As I drove away I started to cry, in fact I'm starting to tear up again thinking about it as I type. I guess it hit me that my baby is no longer a baby. I want her to grow up and be strong and independent, but at the same time I want her to need me.

I'm trying to convince myself that these are tears of joy. I'm trying, but it's not really working.

He's got game alright

Well, it appears our new client (stalker) is attempting to take his "game" to the next level.

Today I received a telephone call from Mr. McHotty. He didn't need anything. He didn't have any new information regarding his divorce case to tell me. He just wanted to say hi. See how my day was going. Find out if I had big plans for the weekend. For a while I thought he was going to ask me out, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Ok, so I admit that when he first started talking to me more like a friend than an employer (well, kind of, I am working for him - on his divorce case) I was fine with it. He seemed like a nice guy, was telling me things he probably wouldn't tell my boss for fear that the "old man" might not get it, we were laughing and at the same time getting work accomplished. I've found that we do get more information and have an overall better working relationship when people trust us, feel like they can tell us anything, and more often than not they just need somebody to vent to and I can typically relate to what they're going through. Most people don't particularly care for lawyers or the people that work for them, I guess I'm trying to make people believe that we're human beings with emotions, feelings and life experiences outside work.

Today, I hope that he doesn't remember my last name fear that he may have looked me up in the phone book and start driving past my house. I seriously think he may be psycho.

During our phone call he told me that he wanted to tell me something the other day in court but that my boss came back in just as he was getting ready to. Alrighty then, I got a little freaked out by that comment. So he goes on to tell me that he was going to let me know that he thought my eyes were beautiful and that the color of them had him mesmorized. Ok, yeah, uh-huh, gotta go.

So, I had serious thoughts of getting on the phone to my eye doctor immediately after I got off the phone with him. Damn those colored contacts! They are pretty cool, aqua colored, and they do make my eyes look pretty damn hot. I've often been asked if they are my real eyes. "Why no, they aren't, but I must get them back to their original owner, thanks for reminding me." Duh! They are my real eyes, just not my real eye color.

Anyway - back to Mr. McStalker. I did get off the very uncomfortable conversation speedy quick, used an old trick to get rid of telemarketers, I told him I had another call that I had to take.

Whew!

So, I got out of it for today - but what's going to happen next week? I guess I have to wait and see.

It HAS to be close to a full moon - There's no other logical explanation

Weird things have been happening lately. OK, so not weird so much, but definitely not normal.

At work we just determined that we represent two men in divorce proceedings filed by their wives. I know, nothing out of the ordinary there. The men are brothers-in-law, their wives are sisters. My boss can not think of another time in his 30+ year career that he's been in a situation like this. This wasn't a plot or plan by the men either, neither of them know we represent the other.

Also, one of the men has been totally hitting on me. It's flattering, don't get me wrong about that. He's a couple years younger than me and very attractive, his soon to be ex-wife, on the other hand, is about as good looking as the ass of a baboon. So, even though Mr. McHotty is drop dead gorgeous he clearly has issues about having to be the pretty one in the relationship. When we're reviewing documents he keeps trying to change the conversation from divorce paperwork to social hook-ups:

Mr. McHotty: So, I see you're married.

Me: Yep, eight years next month. (In my head I'm saying yeah, that's typically what the ring on that all important finger means)

Mr. McHotty: I'm sure we probably partied and dropped some beers together when we were younger.

Me: Maybe. (ah, no, we didn't. Believe me I would have remembered doing that with you)

Mr. McHotty: Maybe when this thing is all over we can have a couple beers.

Me: I'm afraid I'll have to pass on that. (uh huh, that would go over real well with my husband - hey honey, don't mind me I'm just going out with Mr. McHotty that just got a divorce from his baboon ass face wife)

We went to the county fair last night. Whoo-Hooo. Baby girl had a great time and rode rides until she could hardly function she was so wiped out. The carnies were as obnoxious as usual. I hate walking through the midway and all the nasties are hollering out to get you to play their stupid games. One guy last night had really put some thought into his pitch - we were all walking through and he says to my husband "Hey dad, if you let her play I'll let her win" Yeah, that will teach her a life lesson that you don't always get what you want.

Of course, we had to get our fill of fair food. Corn Dogs, Lemon Shake-Ups, Funnel Cakes. This year they had deep fried oreos, twinkies and snickers. Hubby had a deep fried twinkie but wasn't really impressed. Anyway, managed to drop about $40 in a couple hours time.

August in Illinois. Doesn't get much stranger than this.

Doctors Orders

Yesterday I was at the doctors office for the problems I've been having with my left knee. See, I started running last fall. I am by no means breaking any records, I typically run at about 5.7 - 6.0 miles an hour. That's not fast in terms of serious runner lingo, but it breaks down to about 10 to 11 minutes for one mile.

I've never had great knees by any stretch of the imagination. My kneecaps do things that no human should be able to do - they float around and I can (if I try hard enough) get them onto the outsides of my legs. I know. Gross.

So, when I started running I told my husband that I would run until I blew my knee out. I'm well on my way to that goal.

My doctor has given me strict orders to avoid exercise or extreme physical activities that may affect my knee for 2 weeks. 2 WEEKS!!!! I can't even take a leisurely walk. He wants me to exert no added stress on that knee. I also have to take an anti-inflammatory drug twice a day during that 2 weeks to see if we can get the creaking noise to go away.

So, what happens if all this doesn't help the situation? Roto-rooter orthoscopic surgery to remove the "junk" as the doc called it. It basically amounts to the fact that I have been rubbing bone on bone in my left knee so there are multiple tiny bone fragments floating around in the socket. Yuck-o.

I'm hoping that the 2 weeks of easy going will take care of most of the problem, I really don't want to have surgery. I can't afford to have surgery. I hate needles. I'm a big baby when it comes to pain.

One of my "finer" accomplishments

Earlier today I was ready the blog at waiterrant.net and found little humor in his plots to sever the heads of misbehaving children in his restaurant. After all, I have a child and I frequent restaurants *gasp* with my child. Remember, she's 5 1/2.

I am not a patron who "thinks" their child is well behaved in restaurants. I KNOW that my child is well behaved in restaurants and here is why:

Back in the mid 90's when I was 23 I thought I needed to be married to the jerk now known as my ex-husband. At the time we married I was working full-time at a local bank and part-time as a waitress at the local members only country club. My jerk, I mean husband at the time, had a nasty habit of overdrawing our joint checking account (a trait I now know he continues to this day) ultimately causing me to lose my job at the bank. So, I went from a part-time waitress to a full-time waitress pretty quick.

I worked doubles almost every day just to try to maintain a positive balance in the checkbook - mostly to no avail. I won't say that this was a plush job as far as waitressing gigs go, but it wasn't shabby. I made $5 an hour (which was almost twice the "normal" hourly wage for wait staff anywhere else) and had a guaranteed 15% tip on every ticket I wrote. Sometimes I even got a higher percentage of tip on the ticket and occasional cash.

So, working at a country club you deal day in and day out with the so-called upper crust of the area. I'm telling you now, their kids are B R A T S, and mostly the spoiled rotten variety.

Since I made a living for nearly two years as a full-time waitress / wait-staff supervisor I have a fond appreciation for any person who serves me a meal at a restaurant. I tip well, I say please and thank you and I ALWAYS stack my dishes as if I were busing the table myself.

So, when the time came to start socializing my daughter by eating out, I made damn sure she knew how to behave.

Ever since she's been able to speak coherently she politely tells the server what she would like to eat and drink, says please and thank you, and sits STILL in her chair. We've never taken Cherrios or any other snacky type of kid food to pass the time. Sometimes, if I know we'll have a long wait at the place we're going, I'll take a coloring book and some crayons to pass the time.

So, Mr. Waiter Rant - not all children are brats that need to be destroyed. I hope that someday, when you decide to procreate and fill the world with your spawn, you do a favor to society and teach your children how to property behave in a restaurant setting.

I could REALLY get used to this

Well I just learned that we get to go home early today, for no less than the 3rd time in the past 7 working days.

Yipee!!!

This works out pretty well having my boss out of town. Works out even better when our partner has engagements away from the office in the early afternoon that make it relatively impossible for him to make it back in before closing time.

I still haven't heard word one from my boss since last Friday. I was joking in my earlier post when I mentioned something about him getting off'd in New York - now I'm beginning to wonder.

Maybe he finally realized that I do know how to perform my job without him constantly hovering over me. Or that there's not shit he can do about anything when he's in New York and I'm here in the middle of smallsville Illinois.

Who knows, maybe he's shacked up with some hot momma out there and has no desire to come back to corn field USA. If that is the case, I sure hope he calls to tell me so I can reschedule all these court appearances and client appointments I've scheduled since he's been gone.

So, in the next hour I need to figure out what I'm going to do with my new found 1/2 hour of "me" time. I'll probably just go fake-bake, I swear I'm addicted to the tanning bed. Not in a bad way, I don't look like shoe leather or anything, I just like laying there in the warmth and getting a little bit of a power nap in, an added bonus - get a tan and a nap, at the same time.

That's all folks! I have to somehow manage to kill an hour without doing too much work or looking like I'm not doing enough work. Piece of cake.

Alright Already - Time to get back to work

Back at work today recovering from the Chicago excursion. We had a really good time, the weather was incredible, my daughter was cooperative, and we came home with some money. A good day.

We boarded the train here at about 8:45am and got into Chicago around 10:45am. Baby Girl wasn't as excited about the whole train ride experience as I thought she should have been. When the train started off she made the comment that it was like a mix between riding in a car and on a plane - like a car because we were on the ground and like a plane because of the way the seats look. And to think, she's only 5 1/2 and made that observation.

My mom sat next to a lady that is a frequent Chicago traveler and she gave us tons of inside information - like about the free trolley that runs pretty much to everywhere we wanted to go. For free. In Chicago. So, we took advantage of that to get to the American Girl store and to Navy Pier.

The American Girl store is like nothing I've ever seen before. Three floors of little girls with their dolls toting around baskets, boxes and bottles of all things American Girl. It was insane, absolutely insane. My daughter was trying to follow suit with all the other little girls there by putting anything she could get her hands on into our basket. If I had let her get all the stuff she put in, which I didn't, she could have easily cost me $500. Just with the few things she did get - a pair of glasses for her doll (still can't figure that one out since she doesn't wear glasses), a package of undershirts and underwear for her doll, and an outfit combo (shirt, pants, shoes and a book) - it was $60. Unreal.

For lunch we hoofed it to Ed Debevich's. "Soda Pop" rocks! Our waiter, Soda Pop, was the typical model of rudeness to my mom and I, or "Desperate Housewives" as he called us, but sugar and spice to Baby Girl. The only thing he did wrong by her was tell her he had her hamBOOGER and that my mom's hambooger even had snot on it. She wouldn't eat her sandwich until he came back and told her he was teasing. She got to see them dance on the counter, which was something she was looking forward to, and ate the World's Smallest Sundae, complete with commemorative cup to bring home.

After lunch we hit Navy Pier and just kind of walked around. Hit Build-A-Bear and a few other spots and kicked back and did some people watching. Lots and lots of people wearing things they had NO right to be wearing. I wanted so badly to ask one particular lady if she owned a mirror. Eeek!

We took the water taxi back to Union Station from Navy Pier, that was fun. Then we sat and waited until it was time to board our train. It was packed on the way home, all the college kids from the City heading back to Western Illinois with all their bags. I can't imagine getting on a train with all the stuff I would take to college for a year, that would be a huge pain in the ass.

So, that's it - back to the grind stone today. Boss man is still gone, haven't heard from him since Friday. I'm beginning to wonder if he got bumped off while he was in New York.

Counting Down

The count down is in full swing - actually three count downs:

1. Tomorrow is the big day for the train ride and visit to the American Girl store in Chicago. I spent some time this morning on the web getting directions to/from the store and a few other points of interest. I'm not sure if we're going to hoof it or grab a cab, it doesn't seem like very far to walk, but then again - I've never been to Chicago with a 5 1/2 year old in tow. Come to think about it, I've never been to Chicago to walk the streets in this kind of weather - that will certainly be a nice change of pace. Most of the times I've been in the City it's been between Christmas and New Year's and fricking freezing cold. I'm excited to go and so is my daughter. I'm pushing for Ed DeBevick's for lunch. My mom talked about Hard Rock Cafe, nah - that's just a $8 hamburger. Ed's on the other hand, is my kind of joint.

2. Boss man might be back in the office sometime this week. He's set to be back in next Monday but I'd be real surprised if it was actually that long. I know he's from New York and still has some family there, but this isn't the type of guy who goes somewhere to lollygag around. And I'd venture a guess that his family has had about all of him they can stand and have encouraged him to head back to Illinois. Besides, his barstool at his local haunt isn't going to warm itself, if you know what I mean.

3. School officially starts in two weeks. Yeah kindergarten! On Friday we got the invitation to ride the bus for a "trial run". Thanks, but we'll pass. It doesn't make any sense to me at all why they even sent us that letter. From my house to the school where she is going to be is maybe 2 miles. And this town wonders why the school is in such a financial slump that they had to do this stupid grade siting stuff and close one entire school down...well, duh, quit running so many fricking buses! Heck, back when I was in school the only time you rode a bus was if you were a country kid or were in a sport and traveling to the other school for the game. Things have certainly changed.

That's about it. We opened our house up Saturday night since the weather has kind of broke, no more 102 degree days. There's a really nice breeze but the humidity still makes it feel pretty thick outside. I've tried to explain the benefits of air conditioning with my allergies to my husband to no avail. He doesn't get to see the effects of a night sleeping with 3 fans (yes, 3 fans in one room - in the window, on the ceiling and on the floor) on me all night. Swollen eyes, nose full of goop - you know, all the fun stuff.

Random Thoughts

Just some miscellaneous stuff -

~ My boss has been gone for three days now, five more to go. He just called to check in (as if there's anything he could do about it from 1,000 miles away) and told me he was a few minutes from the George Washington Bridge. Means nothing to me, other than it's in New York. Never been there, and as my husband informed me last night, likely never will.

~ Four more days until the big day in Chicago. I'm taking my daughter on the train (her first train ride) into Chicago and going to the American Girl store. My mom is coming with us, I have to bring my checkbook after all. (Get it - she's my checkbook) Baby Girl is getting excited now. Last night she asked me what outfit I though Julia (that's her doll's name) should wear. Then she decided that it was best if Julia didn't wear any shoes, we'd hate to have another incident like we did at Kohl's a while back. (We lost one of Julia's shoes briefly - and she had a fit, borderline panic attack) I tell you, that kid remembers everything.

~ This weather we've been having here is insane! It was blistering hot and as dry as the desert for what seemed like forever - now it's cooled down some (which is nice) and started raining like crazy. I'm grateful for the weather, I'm not real thrilled about what it's done to my allergies and sinuses.

~ I've talked to a couple of people about my run in with David's Bridal and they've, of course, offered their unsolicited opinion of what I should have done. Our next door neighbor takes the cake - she said I should have walked out and told them where they could stick the whole dress and gone somewhere else to buy one. Hello - the wedding is in less than two months and that was the dress that the Bride picked out. Had she been with us and known what the score was, I may have done that. But still, could you imagine what I'd have to deal with from my daughter? She's only 5 1/2 and loves that dress with all her heart. She'd be devastated to say the least, then I'd have to deal with her wailing and the alligator tears for no less than an hour on the way home. I think I'll pass, thank you very much.

~ Kindergarten starts in a few more weeks. We've tried pushing Baby Girl's bedtime up from 9pm to 8:30pm so that when school starts and she has to go to bed at 8pm it isn't a total shock to her system. Yeah, that's working well - not even close. I think it was 9:15 when I finally got her there last night. Not that we have anything going on that would prevent her from being in bed on time, she's a major staler - man she'd make a great hostage negotiator, she can hang with the best of 'em.

That's about it. It's Friday, thank God, and I've got about 4 hours of work (well, time to pass at work) left. It's been slow here, I spent the greater part of yesterday filing (you know me, I love to file so much that I put it off as much as humanly possible). With any luck we'll get to leave early today - the other lawyer hasn't been into working much this week.

Happy Friday!!

Reflection

Well, the past couple days I've taken some time off from posting to re-read some of my previous posts.

I sound like an idiot.

I wouldn't necessarily call myself intelligent, but I know I'm not dumb. I guess I'd consider myself to have far more street smarts than book smarts. I am, after all, a college drop-out. It isn't that I couldn't make it through college - I didn't want to make it through college, I sabotaged myself by my total lack of discipline. Of course, it didn't help any when my boyfriend was back home and I was 3 1/2 hours away. I spent too much time doting on that (failed) relationship than worrying about my studies. Lesson well learned.

I think I've also come across as someone who, although married, would jump in bed with another guy on a whim. That's totally false. I'll admit that I have recently put myself in a situation with an ex-boyfriend that would lead any reader to believe that I would/had jump(ed) into bed with him. It didn't happen and it won't happen. I do feel a strong connection to that particular ex, some things happened while we were together and shortly after our split that will always be, no matter how much I may want to wash that part of my life away I can't because of those particular incidents.

My husband and I have been married for nearly eight years (next month) and have been together for over ten. Just like every other married couple (who are honest about the state of their relationship) we've had some tough times. I'm sure that he wants to get rid of me sometimes as much as I want to get rid of him at times. We have a beautiful little girl who is almost 6 and is a carbon copy of her father. That little girl is my life and I will do anything for her within my means. She's the only kid I've got and I can not, will not, imagine my life without her.

I think the main problems with our relationship are that we've hit a rut, so to speak, and that he has either run off or put down any girl friends I've had. My best friend, that I had long before I met him, is one perfect example.

She and I are total opposites, which was why our friendship worked so well. She was single, no kids, living on her own, and a little on the wild side. At that time I too was single, no kids, living on my own, but very conservative. We would go partying with "the guys" back in the day - ahh the good old days. When he and I got married she was my maid of honor - that's pretty much where the love/hate relationship started. She lived in Peoria and I went there for a night for my bachorlette party - no big deal, it was just her and I out on the town. I had promised hubby that I wouldn't drink much and we be home relatively early the next day. Everything went really well with that plan until we went to one particular bar and the bartender thought I needed a "bloody brain" shot. From there it's a little hazy. All I know is that I got home late and had two large welts and several bruises on my head, chest and arms. It all came back to me and I realized that the "bloody brain" cursed me - made me fall out of bed and walk into a wall. Ouch. That was pretty much the beginning of the end. Hubby started bad mouthing her so much that she just quit calling or coming over. I can't blame her really.

So, I have nobody to talk to when I need to vent about him being an asshole. That's where this site came in. He has no idea I have a blog and I don't access it from our home computer. I NEED to have this space to get this crap worked out.

As far as the rut goes ... I love my husband, very much. I won't say that I can't live without him because I can. It's just that there isn't the spark that there used to be. His idea of foreplay anymore is coming up and saying "You wanna suck my dick?", or by talking about the "good old days" in front of our 5 year old daughter. There's a time and place for everything and it isn't when you've got a child in the room with you. Very romantic huh. I've tried to explain this to him and he just tells me I belong on Little House on the Prairie. I don't - he just needs to realize that I can't/don't automatically raise to the occasion. He doesn't get it, probably never will.

So, hopefully I can move forward from this post on not sounding like a fricking idiot. I'm doing the best I can with what I've got to work with, and that's really all anybody can do.

Why I think Corporate America Sucks

Saturday my daughter and I made a trip to a national bridal chain store in Peoria. She's going to be the flower girl in a wedding in October. She's excited, she's very excited. We had our first trip to this particular store in June when we first ordered her dress.

First off, as soon as I walked in the doors at the first appointment I was not impressed. The people are pushy and rude and the store was not clean. Chain stores, such as this one, take all the personality out of planning a wedding.

So, Friday night at nearly 9pm we get a phone call from some chick at this place and she asked to talk to my 5 1/2 year old daughter. (We have caller id, so I had a pretty good idea who was calling) I said I'm her mother, what can I help you with. She says to me, "It's a personal matter." I snapped right back, "What kind of personal matter do you have with a five year old child?" Silence. I caught her off guard with that question. So, she says who she is and why she's calling and keeps saying things like, "I was calling to remind Baby Girl that she has an appointment tomorrow at 11:30", "Baby Girl will need to know that payment in full is required at tomorrow's appointment". So, again I said to her "Baby Girl is 5 years old. She isn't capable of traveling an hour away from home without adult supervision, she isn't paying for her own alterations. You need to tell these things to me, the mother of the 5 year old child."

Anyway, we get there for our appointment and they told me that Baby Girl had already checked in and was already in the back for her fitting. Funny, she was standing right there next to me the whole time and the last I knew she hadn't been cloned. So, after some confusion (there was a bride back there with the same name as her and she had her flower girl with her) we finally got back there for her fitting.

The fitting itself went well...until they told me how much the alterations cost. I paid $59, came to less than $65 with tax, for her flower girl dress. The alterations to her dress are $155.00!!

WHAT?!?!?!?

Believe me, I was very loud in expressing my disgust. I told them the alterations were costing me three times more than I paid for the dress in the first place. I asked them what I had to do to get their pins out of her dress so I could take it with me to have the alterations done somewhere else that wasn't going to rape me. Can you believe that shit!?!

Even after talking, loudly, to the store manager I got no where. So, those bastards still have her dress and now have $155 of my money. We have to make another trip in a few weeks for her second fitting and believe me, they will again hear how disgusted I am with the entire situation.

My cousin is getting married in April and Baby Girl will be one of three flower girls in that wedding. I'm telling her now, I am not, will not, go back to that place under any circumstances and order another dress.

TAKE THAT DAVID'S BRIDAL!!!!

I'll tell you the one important thing I learned when I worked retail for so long....
If you have a good experience with a place you tell a couple people, if you have a bad experience with a place you tell every fricking person you know and twice as many that you don't!!!

Gulp

Today I feel like it's all I can do to keep my head above the water. Figuratively, that is.

All this week I've been so tired when I wake up in the morning. I know the reason for it this morning, but the rest of the week I can't explain. We had a pretty bad storm move through at the butt crack of dawn that knocked power out about 3 times. Isn't strange how difficult it is to get back to sleep when your house is completely silent. It's like all the weird noises that are normally masked by the air conditioner, fan or whatever become eerily louder and harder to explain.

For some reason, I was able to hear my daughter hollering for me this morning even with her door closed and the baby monitor (that we still use even though she's no longer a baby) got shut off the first time the power got zapped. She ended up in bed with me for the second time this week. At least I get back to sleep when she comes in our room, when I try to stay in her bed with her I get no sleep whatsoever.

Mr. Personality has stepped back into the house. I'll give him credit, it's not his fault. He plays softball on a church league (for a church that neither of us go to - he's catholic, I'm Methodist and the team is for the Presbetarian Church) and the "normal" coach has been out of state on vacation. It's tournament time and hubby has been put in charge of making sure all the guys show up, all the equipment, the rotation, all that jazz. Not to mention, the team is in last place this year which is a total contrast to last year's second place finish. It's been rough this year... a lot of the normal guys just quit showing up for one reason or another, the pitcher (we only have 1) got hurt early on, and because of all this morale is pretty much shit. I look at things on the (not so) bright side...all they have to do is lose tonight and this nightmare is over for at least this year.

Sometimes I just want to scream

Yesterday my boss dropped a bomb on me that he swears he told me six months ago. He's leaving next week for New York for nearly two weeks. So, I find it very odd that all this time during the past six months that I've supposedly known this information we have both been scheduling things during this time period. Yeah, I didn't buy it either. I think he just decided he was going and was trying to cover his own ass and, as usual, place the blame on me.

Whatever, I don't care. I think it will actually be nice to have him gone for awhile. I've got (who'd figure this one out?) tons of filing to do and have loose ends on plenty of our cases to tie off.

We just discovered a strange thing in one of our new cases today - I was reading the local newspaper and saw a name in the obituaries that looked familiar but I couldn't figure out why. I started reading and found that it was the wife of one of our clients that we just filed divorce for. We filed on Friday and she died on Saturday. She was 41. She never did get served with the paperwork - if that isn't a load of bureaucratic bullshit to try to get a summons recalled with a Judge's signature I don't know what is. The word on the street is that she had recently gotten into some drugs and ended up with an o.d. I guess if you look at it with a twisted perspective our guy ultimately got what he set out for.