so don't ask if you don't want to know
Posts tagged family
And for the rest of you
May 22nd
My baby graduated last night! My last and final (and only) kid to graduate.
I’m telling you the whole thing was a drag right up til they called her name.
Overcast sky all day we were hoping would hold. No such luck. Just before I got there (an hour early in order to find parking and seating) it started sprinkling. As more and more families were crammed into the stands at the school’s football field the rain continued. Umbrellas fighting for space, too. The old bat in front of me had one of those six foot golfer umbrellas that drained right onto my lap. Not to mention the drunk ass father and grandfather that showed up 5 minutes before the thing started and bitched the whole time about getting wet. Shut up asshole, we’ve been here for HOURS. What ever happened to chivalry, where the menfolk sat in the rain holding seats while the ladies waited comfortably whilst sipping cocktails in the car?
Eventually, yet right on time they started the Commencement. 805 graduates filed ceremoniously down the football field. In the rain. Then there was the standing for the pledge and the longest and most elaborate version of the Star Spangled Banner (I swear they added verses) followed by some slow convoluted America the Beautiful. Just long enough to gather puddles in our seats. Joy.
I was soaked and I had an umbrella! Most of those kids didn’t. But they were cheerful and excited, starting waves when the speeches (of which there were too many considering the weather) ran too long. There were teachers and staff at the end of each row confiscating the beach balls that periodically popped up. Spoilsports.
Finally after an hour of (I’m sure very nice and well thought out speeches and music) droll they started calling names, and it took another half an hour before they got to Ginnie’s. People waited til their kid’s name was called and cheered and then promptly left the stadium. By the time my Walker kid was up, our little group was in a wide open space in the stands so she could see us cheering her.
And by the time I made my way to the back of the field they’d flipped their tassels and the families were let in and she found me before I could find her. She was sooo happy and excited and relieved to have it all over. And soaked.
Why do they line those caps in cardboard? Wouldn’t a slim sheet of plastic be just as cheap and yet hold up better to the elements?
A few hugs and pics later (no dumbass me forgot her camera, I’ll have to wait to get copies from Ashley’s mom) she made that phone call and shit went downhill fast.
And just about the time I was trapped in the mass exodus in the parking lot, the rain stopped. Figures.
You Called Me!
May 15th
** The following is an approximated and condensed version of the conversation I had with my mother last night, 1 am her time.
Phone rings, my mother’s ring tone.
Me: Hello?
EM: Is Buck there?
Me: Um, no, he’s not available at this number ever again.
EM: Oh, uh, this is his mother-in … er I mean ex-mother-in-law. Do you know where I can reach him?
Me: And this is your daughter if you don’t recognize my voice by now Mom.
EM: Oh shit, you dumbass! What the hell are you doing?
Me: You called me, Mom. And why am I the dumbass? And why are you calling Buck in the middle of the night?
EM: You didn’t call me for Mothers Day so I thought I’d call you.
Me: Bullshit Mom, I talked to you the day before Mother’s Day and you just dialed my number thinking you were calling my EX HUSBAND.
EM: Mumble mumble sleeping pill, how was your Mother’s Day honey?
So I told her how my day went and she moaned about her bad health and Orc’s bad health and the bills and how bankruptcy didn’t help her a lot and how she was up after taking her sleeping pill and making out bills. Blah blah how are all the kids and about Ginnie’s graduation and so forth.
EM: So what did you do for Mother’s Day?
Me: Mom, go to bed. And don’t mail out those bills until you double check them tomorrow.
EM: What, you don’t want to tell me what you did for Mother’s Day?
Me: I already did, which is how I know you really need to go to bed.
I never did find out why she was calling the ex. She always did like him better than me.
Quiet Sunday Morning
Apr 12th
Home alone. Sweet!
Slept in, got my podcast editing done (finally) and now I’m catching up on my DVR stuff.
Ginnie went camping Thursday night with her gang and should be back late this afternoon. Maybe before, because it’s been snowing up where they are. I’m not looking forward to the whining and bitching when she gets back but I’ll admit to a bit of amusement at their discomfort now.
Casey took the kid to his friend’s so they could all do the Easter Bunny/eggs/candy thing together. Doesn’t bother me a bit to miss any of it.
I’m watching Krod Mandoon and it’s pretty bad. Awful. Stupid. Okay the guy playing Krod is cute, and looks damned fine without a shirt but maybe this would be better on mute. I won’t be recording any more episodes.
And as soon as I get this latest Evo@11 episode uploaded, I’m going back to bed BECAUSE I CAN!
Ginnie's Graduation Pictures
Apr 4th
Finally!
I’ve been bugging this kid for weeks to get decent pictures taken. She kept saying she’d get her friend to take them to save money. Fine, just DO IT!
And here’s the best of the bunch.
Click on the pic to get to the entire set. Lisa Nickle took over 100 pictures over the course of the day. She did a great job. I ordered business-sized cards from moo cards because I just couldn’t get the pictures to look good on mini cards like mine.
And Lisa and her sister are making beautiful hand-made announcements. All we have left to do is gather everyone’s addresses and get prints of some of these made.
Update on Max
Mar 25th
Max called me Monday morning (and I had a post up here but Casey closed my browser and lost it) and I’ve got a bit of an update.
Tentatively, he and Kela will be here on leave mid-August. He’s not sure of the dates yet. And better yet, sometime in the first two weeks of December he wants to fly us and some of his best friends out to Hawaii for his – get this – wedding.
This is Kela and Max from someone else’s wedding. Probably the best picture I have of them.
Fuck You Liza Minelli
Mar 10th
Money makes the world go around? The world continues to rotate whether you’ve got money or not.
The weekends keep getting longer. Casey’s been laid off his great job and has little money to keep his household running. I feel bad but I don’t have spare money. Ginnie’s out of a job, so she tends to stay home to eat instead of going out all the time. Corey was laid off, too. NOBODY is working and everyone is eating my food. Casey and Kira usually show up sometime on Saturday and just hang out and that kid eats all the time. Peanut butter sandwiches, cereal or cheese. Milk and cheese add up!
Today is Casey’s 26th birthday and he guilted me into baking a cake. And he wanted something specific for dinner, which WalMart was out of (of course) so I had to go to another store and pay an extra $1 per package for it. This just about shot my extras budget for the week. In return he tells me I don’t have to pay him the $100 I still owe him from last month. Mighty white of you there son.
Friend of mine gave me a name to help clean up my credit (fat chance) and looking at the guy’s website, I can’t even afford to do that. I can’t get out of this lease without paying two months rent.
Personally, I can live on sandwiches and cereal, mac & cheese and eggs – in order to have money to go out for #evfn with my friends. I can usually make what I have stretch for my own priorities, but I can’t feed everyone. But what can I do? Gee, kid you’re on your own? I’m nagging Ginnie every day to suck it up and get another job. Casey is supposed to go back to his old tool selling job tomorrow and they’re both supposed to eventually get unemployment. It’s taking a long time for that stuff to kick in.
No, I’m not asking for and don’t anyone send any money. That just makes me feel guiltier and more of a leech. I’m just bitching. One of the projects I was working on for extra money the guy canceled after I did a bunch of work, and I don’t know if he still plans on paying me. I guess I’ll find out Wednesday. And another project for another friend fell through before I even started.
I don’t know what I’m going to do. Bitch a little here, bitch out loud to them, then sell my body? Yeah right, I can’t even give it away.
Yay, another baby I'll never get to see.
Mar 5th
My favorite niece Brittany (who lives in Florida) had her baby today: Damian Gabryle Cox. 7lbs 15 oz., 20 1/4 in. long! Born at 3:13 P.M. Not too sure about the spelling of the name as I copied it from her younger sister’s MySpace page. Will double check soon. And Mom says he’s a beautiful baby, not all squidgy like new babies tend to be.
I’m happy she’s happy.
I’m happy my Mother got to sit there in the waiting room for hours with my Sister and her Evil Husband. Neither of them would speak to her. Betcha that was fun! It was Brittany’s step-brother’s wife who had the baby last week. I think the step-sister is pregnant, too. Must be something in the water.
Opposite times
Mar 1st
Last night was soooo much fun. My friend Sheila’s birthday party! A Mardi Gras themed party even. Being the incredible me I was invited to come a bit early for Marshall’s spectacular chocolate souffle. Every time Marshall comes to town I get to try something different and he’s probably the best cook I’ve known. I love getting special invites to his meals. He made gumbo last night too. I’m trying new foods and I actually almost like gumbo. But I loved the souffle. He put mandarin orange slices and a couple of raspberries on the side. Little touches like that. Presentation. We never went much for presentation but I’m starting to appreciate it.
And the party was fantastic! Dancing in the front room, and plenty of Strongbow for me. Lots of friends, lots of laughing and I crashed there so I wouldn’t have to drive home. Got up (unfortunately too) early this morning and eventually Marshall made us all omelettes.
Yeah, I was toasted and managed to get most of the men and some of the women to show their tits for beads. I dragged people onto the dance floor to loosen them up and flirted ineffectually with just about everyone. That’s me. One young man was especially playful and sweet but I was still alone at the end of the night. Oh well.
ENDOFTHEGOOD
And I get home and my house is trashed, people in the basement, power sucking all over and a nasty sticky mess in the kitchen. I go dump my stuff in my bedroom and some young guy I’ve never seen before is in the kitchen looking for a bowl to feed Kira cereal. Uh, who are you and where is this child’s father? Someone broke the DVD part of my home entertainment system. Someone got into my stash of Thin Mints. Someone leaves bathroom lights on and kitchen lights on and TVs on when no one is around.
And would I like to babysit tonight? Fuck no. He cleaned the kitchen, mopped and vacuumed the floors and bathed the kid and apologized for everything. Including pissing off the neighbor. And they just left for the night.
ENDOFTHEBAD
I have this uber geeky couple living behind me and she’s tromping on my last nerve. The “I hate to be a bother, but,” bitch. If I have to hear one more time how they sleep/work different shifts and how allergic they are to cigarette smoke and how they moved specifically to these apartments because they’re supposed to be non-smoking and they can smell smoke through the fucking walls and she just about had an asthma attack because she can smell cigarette smoke in her bathroom and it’s making her sick and her husband sleeps during the day and he’s choking on the smell and oh yeah we’re too loud… One night she rings my doorbell at 10:30 to bitch because Kira had been making too much noise in the bathtub. Apparently last night she gives Casey shit because they were too loud outside on my patio, which is on the opposite side of the building than she is! So they shifted the party over to Mikey-O’s apartment which is right across from hers – just for spite. She’s right about the non-smoking clause in the lease, which is why I smoked outside and I’ve been bitching at Ginnie to do the same. She’s lazy and thinks smoking in the bathroom with the fan on down there is good enough. Uh, no.
You know, if you’re that sensitive to your neighbors why choose an apartment? Wouldn’t it be better to rent a little stand alone house out in the boonies where nobody will bother you?
Shit, her husband Peter (not cool enough to be a Pete) just showed up at my door to reiterate the lease and no smoking rules and that they were too loud last night and she almost called the police. Fine, call the police cuz I wasn’t even here. The cops will nudge us to be quiet and you to get over it. Whatever.
Kaydence Renee' Kinney
Feb 25th
My sister’s step-son’s (who I’ve never met) new baby, which makes me what?
Long lost not-so-Great Aunt Debbie?
So yeah, teeny tiny baby. I get my information 3rd hand through Myspace so I don’t know the weight but that is a TINY baby. Hope all is well. But seriously, Kaydence Kinney? Poor kid.
tidbits or bids and tits?
Feb 23rd
While wandering through Myspace I found out my sister’s step-son’s wife had her baby and they named it Kaydence Renee’ – complete with apostrophe. Yes, my eyes rolled. Why do people feel the need to fuck their kids up forever? She’s gonna need to carry name cards for the rest of her life. Or maybe a tattoo would be easier.
Sister’s daughter Brittany (the only one of that family I actually have contact with) is due in a couple of weeks. Though I’m getting reports that she may deliver earlier as everything seems to be in perfect arrangement for it. She’s planning on naming her son Damien Gabriel. Interesting and yet spelled within normal limits. We laugh that he could turn out either way, evil or good. I don’t know if she’s planning on using her real last name (Stephens) or the one she goes by (Kinney) or the father’s last name (I’m clueless).
Mom was upset she was specifically uninvited to Brittany’s baby shower. Poor Brittany had to chose between her selfish bitch mother or her whiny obtuse Grandmother. What nice people I come from. And her perpetually broke Aunt Debbie wasn’t even mentioned.
Whatever.
_________________________
This Wednesday is Ignite Phoenix. It’s organized by friends of mine and the whole program consists of 5 minute/20 slide presentations of whatever you’re passionate about. As long as you’re not selling something. I think Jeff said there were 18 presentations this time. The last two IPs were at GoDaddy’s local offices but we’ve outgrown that venue and this time it’s at Tempe’s new Center for the Arts. Lots of people have been wanting an excuse to check out that venue so it should be pretty packed.
Friday night #evfn (East Valley Friday Nights) is meeting at Studios 5C Gallery in Tempe. I love #evfn. It’s our local twitter meetup every Friday night at a different location throughout the east valley and it’s expanded beyond twitter people. We’re averaging 45 people so it’s getting harder and harder to find places that can accommodate that many people. Apparently this one is sponsored (free food and drink). A couple of weeks ago we held it at a brand new W hotel called “aloft” and they provided a tour and a drink/bar snacks at their lobby lounge “w xyz”.
(I don’t know about this trendy naming shit with all lower case letters. I feel like I need to show they’re proper names somehow.)
And Saturday night is booked, too. I’m not sure if I can talk about that til it’s over but I have lots to do to get ready for it. I have PLANS. Think Mardi Gras and boobs.
I’ve got Kira today and she’s whining for second breakfast. I’m yelling YOU JUST ATE over her screeching and she ain’t buying it. Pause goes Gullah Gullah – which usually shuts her up. Consequences for whining. Let Grammi finish her stupid post and she’ll get you a snack. Patience grasshopper.
