Like I Have Time For This?

Unfiltered, in the rain, at the (pardon me, but I can’t resist) FOOT of the one and only GIANT FROG HEAD:

my feet.

Katherine over at Our Report Card has requested a picture of my feet. I think my feet look much prettier filtered in Photoshop.

That’s as good as it’s gonna get, feetwise. It’s a bit of a slow day around here. Just sort of hanging around looking at our toes. Sometimes, that’s what you need to do.

So, we finally sold our house in Colorado.

Closing was today. By 12:30 eastern time, it was all done.

I purposely didn’t blog about what was happening with our house, mostly because it was too depressing, and also because I kept this blog to mostly Get Away from that whole nightmare and whistle in the dark a bit.

And now that it’s all over with, I can tell you that the past six months have basically been a stint in financial hell that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. We’ve been paying rent here and mortgage in Colorado, plus a second mortgage, plus utilities and lawn care and maintenance, and you get the picture. It’s never taken us more than two months to sell a house, but the real estate market has changed significantly I guess, and it’s a buyer’s market all the way in Colorado right now.

More than half the houses in my old neighborhood are up for sale and still the developers continue to build new houses, and the new cool thing to do in Colorado apparently is to give a homeseller a ridiculously low offer on their house and when we counter offer with something REASONABLE, when we say in fact, hey I’m not gonna let you walk all over me, then the buyer says, oh really? well, screw you then. I’m gonna go buy one of those brand new houses. The developers say they’ll give me a great deal on a house just like yours.

This happened to us twice, and the second time it happened we’d had someone waiting in the wings who wanted to rent our house and wanted to rent it for at least two years. And we told that prospective renter that we needed to see about selling it first, and by the time we’d gone through the whole shitty-first-offer-reasonable-counter-offer-then-watch-the greedy-bastards-walk-away rigamarole, the renter had found something else and we were back to square one.

After that weekend, I sat down and had myself a good, long cry, and we began to investigate seriously moving back to Colorado, because we just simply could no longer afford to pay for two houses in two different states. The money was running out. RegularDad was working at least 2 weekends a month to pay for all of it, and my guilt at not getting a job because I’m homeschooling began to creep in no matter how many times he said not to worry about it.

We also considered lowering our price again, but we were already so far below market price that it would have been awful to have to do that. But we considered it. And then, the day before we were gonna lower our price again, we got another offer. And this one was REASONABLE and we accepted it without even a counter offer.

And every single day I waited for the deal to fall through. But it didn’t. And now it’s all over with.

I’m still having trouble believing it. That we no longer have this awful financial weight hanging over us. But it’s apparently true.

Of course, we’ve got some financial regrouping to do. It’ll take a while to make back all that extra savings we’ve shelled out this year to pay for everything. So, we’ve decided to stay here in this little rented country house instead of buying something expensive. We’re gonna try to get all our debt paid off before we buy something again. Real estate on the east coast is much more expensive anyway.

But since we’d finally sold the house, I told RegularDad that we needed to make a long-awaited purchase. It arrived yesterday, and the kids couldn’t be happier:

After they played on it for a while in the heat, I made them come inside to cool down. As they were walking in the door, my 4-year-old said: You know what Mom? This house is all right.

I couldn’t agree more.

So, after 8 long months, I can finally say that we moved back east and feel like it’s really true. And now that I’m not wandering around the house with this constant pressure, this constant litany of oh shit, oh shit, oh SHIT what are we gonna do? running through my head, maybe I’ll be able to write some poetry again. Or at least finish unpacking.

But hey — at least I didn’t start smoking again, right?

I saw this meme floating around, and at first I didn’t quite understand how it worked. Then I commented on Katherine’s post because she was talking about Doritos, and I just had to comment about that, and I sort of ended up in this meme.

 So, here’s how it goes. I’m gonna answer five questions that Katherine asked me. Then, if you comment on my post, I’ll take that as a request to participate in the meme. I’ll update this post and ask you five questions about you. Then you post your answers on your blog. Make sense? Everyone on the same page? Good. Here’s what Katherine asked me:

1) If you weren’t homeschooling your kids, what would you be doing with your life? I’d probably be writing a lot more, and publishing more. I’d also probably be doing freelance graphic design, since that was my day job before I had my kids.

2) What are your top 3 favorite books? ARGH!!! This is a damned near impossible question to answer. Just within fiction, I’ll say: The Lord of the Rings by Tolkein, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and The Stand by Stephen King. But really, there’s no good way to narrow it down to just three.

3) Where were you the first time you kissed your husband? In his dorm room. He winked just before we kissed. He’s got a really good wink.

4) Give us your favorite recipe? This is a somewhat modified salmon recipe I got out of the You On A Diet book.

Take boneless, skinless salmon filets and marinate for 10 minutes in the following:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 teaspoon ginger (or 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger root, if you’ve got it)
2 green onions, chopped

After marinating, grill or pan fry for about 5 minutes each side. Serve with Basmati rice mixed with lightly sauteed red pepper and onion, and fresh steamed green beans. This is the current favorite recipe in the family. Even the kids love it.

5) Do you have a childhood fantasy that never came true? Not that I can think of. My childhood was strange and fragmented and unhappy in many ways, but in spite of it all, I still managed to have some nice things like horses and ski trips, and various crushes and all that. The number one wish I can remember about my childhood is that I simply wished it to be over. For me to become old enough to move out of my mother’s house. And that one came true.

 Corollary question: do you want a copy of the Brian Adams cd we just got for our daughter? It helps with the “Spirit” dts. What album did you get? I can pick up a copy here. Does it really help? Really?

Well, that’s the meme. Tomorrow I’ll do that middle name meme. I’ve been tagged twice for that one, and still haven’t gotten to it. This summer has been a lot busier than I thought it would be.

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 Well, Shawna isn’t blogging yet, and Katherine already did this meme, so Wendy…it’s all up to you! Here’s your 5 questions:

1. What’s the funniest or strangest thing that happened on your wedding day?
2. Are there any artistic talents out there that you WISH you could do, but just aren’t gifted with?
3. What is your favorite time of day?
4. Describe what you did yesterday.
5. Coke or Pepsi?

Erin, here’s your questions:

1. When you were a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?
2. What location is your dream home in? And what does it look like?
3. What’s the last live concert you attended?
4. South Park or Simpsons?
5. Coke or Pepsi?

Well, I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night at around 10:00 pm.

Was it good? I think so! Am I gonna tell you anything about it? Nope! No spoilers here. Except to say that I was WAY WRONG on the majority of my plot predictions. Seriously. I was way off. And I’m glad. It’s more fun to be surprised by stories, rather than sit there saying I knew it! I just knew it! over and over again.

Buying at Borders turned out to work well for me. I didn’t go to the midnight party. My kids are too young for that. And they get up early. So if I had tried going to the midnight party, and then gotten home at maybe 2:00 am and kept reading until dawn, I would have fallen asleep just as they were waking and just as RegularDad was leaving for work. And that would not have been pretty. At all.

So I went early in the morning instead. The kids got up at the crack of dawn as usual, and waved goodbye to RegularDad who sadly had to work all weekend. We had a quick bowl of cereral and got dressed and brushed our teeth. We found shoes and got in the car. I gave them granola bars to nibble on for the ride to Borders.

When we pulled into the parking lot, it was mercifully almost empty. I knew I wouldn’t need to go to Target. The parking spaces had been written on with sidewalk chalk. Each slot had been assigned to various Harry Potter characters. We parked in Bathilda Bagshot’s space, next to Arthur Weasley’s space, which was empty. I guess Arthur had to leave the party early. Ministry business, perhaps.

We walked right in the wide-open front doors and up to the large table where books were being handed out. They found my name on the preorder list, handed me my copy, plus a free poster and lightning bolt tattoos for the girls, and that was it. The girls each wanted a new book too, so we spent maybe 10 minutes in the children’s area while they chose their books. I rushed them through it as best I could, and went up to the register where there was a short line forming. We paid for our books and left.

Back home again, I made sure the answering machine was on, put on cartoons for the kids, gave them permission to raid the fridge for cheese sticks and fruit, and got busy reading. Around noon, I slopped together some PB&J’s. Around 4:00, I let the kids have some leftover cake, and then they finished up the scrags in the last 2 bags of chips. RegularDad brought home a pizza and salad for dinner.

He immediately took over the kid situation, which ended the constant questions from my 4-year-old: Mom? Are you done reading Harry Potter yet? Mom, can I look at the poster? Mom, I’m still hungry. Mom, what’s a tattoo made out of? Mom, can I go online? Are you done yet, Mom? Please can’t I look at the poster? PLEASE?… All of which, I’m proud to say I was able to answer without losing my temper and while still reading, hardly skipping a beat.

Not long after the kids were in bed, RegularDad opened our bedroom door to check on me and said: I knew it! I just knew it! and flipped on all the lights. Then he left, mumbling as he closed the door: reading in the dark AGAIN….

A couple hours later, I emerged from the bedroom a bit headachy and with an incredibly sore neck, but knowing finally how it all turns out. RegularDad gave me a neck massage and we watched an incredibly BAD movie on the Sci-Fi channel. He asked how it ended and I refused to tell him until he threatened to just go read the last page. So I told him, and then made him promise not to tell anyone else for at least a month, just in case they hadn’t finished reading yet.

Today, I’ve got to wash all the dishes that have been left sitting since Friday. And maybe deal with the laundry. Maybe.

Or maybe I’ll just start re-reading.

So, a year ago today, I quit smoking.

It was a not-really-planned kind of thing, a spur of the moment kind of thing, brought on because my husband had found this website and told me about it. And I went to this website and read all the articles they had, and I was JUST FURIOUS at the nicotine-replacement-therapy industry because it’s such a fucking sham. It makes people think that quitting smoking is next-to-impossible without their incredibly expensive products, when the real truth is that quitting smoking is actually not that hard. All you gotta do is DO IT.

So, I quit smoking the very next day. Smoked what I had left in my pack and tossed the rest at midnight. And the first three days just totally sucked. I put on PBS TV for the kids, drank lots of cranberry juice, and read article after article at this website. And then for two weeks I lived in this foggy haze of confusion. And then after that, guess what?

I. Was. Fine.

I didn’t need the patch. I didn’t need the gum. Or the lozenge. Or the inhaler. I didn’t even need the anti-depressant my doctor kept trying to push on me. (She gave me a bag of free samples of Wellbutrin that I never used. Eventually, I just threw the bag out.) Turns out…I wasn’t depressed. I was just hooked on nicotine.

Go figure.

And today? I’m about 10 to 15 pounds heavier. People say it looks good on me, though. That I’m not so scrawny anymore. I almost believe them. But my cillia have grown back and my chances of developing heart disease and/or lung cancer are dramatically decreasing. And I’ve lost my little phlegmy smoker’s cough. So, I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.

The past year hasn’t exactly been a breeze, though. If I’d known we’d be moving 2,000 miles across the country this year, maybe I would have kept on smoking. There were a few days this past year where my stress levels went so haywire that my husband felt sure he’d arrive home from work to find me chuffing away on the porch steps. But no. I made it.

For the record, here are my stats from the past year:

As of this writing, I haven’t smoked for 1 year and 9 hours.

I have not smoked 7,308 cigarettes. I have saved $1,483.67. And I’ve added 25 days to my life expectancy.

So, bring on the love, people. Tell me how great I am. I think I deserve it.

Sara over at the Learning Umbrella tagged me for a music meme. The way it works is I’m supposed to list 8 songs that I can’t help singing along to whenever I hear them.

It took me quite a while to come up with this list, mostly because I’m one of those Incredibly Talented In The Car Alone singers. I sing along to just about EVERYTHING when I’m in the car by myself and I’m just really GREAT at it. So narrowing down my list took me quite a while, but I’ve finally come up with a small representative sample. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Dear God, by Sarah MacLachlan*

2. Chickenman, by the Indigo Girls*

3. Sin Wagon, by the Dixie Chicks

4. When God Fearin’ Women Get The Blues, by Martina McBride

5. Respect, by Aretha Franklin

6. Tempted, by Squeeze

7. Fernando, by ABBA

8. New York, New York, by Frank Sinatra

*For these two, really, you could pick just about any song they’ve ever written or sung, and I’d be singing along to them.

Well, there you have it. And I didn’t even get to add in all that Donna Summer I’ve recently re-discovered. Damn. Next, I’m tagging Katherine over at Our Report Card and Robinella over at Not A Stepford Wife. And thanks to Sara for tagging me. This was fun.

So, I’ve written previously about my dilemma regarding the upcoming release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The agony of decision. Where best to make this all-important purchase?

I’m almost done with this ridiculous problem. Almost. I think.

I went to Borders a couple weeks ago with the girls with the specific intent to pre-order Book 7. But of course, the girls wanted to buy a book themselves. And because I’m a sucker for books and the cute kids who want them, I told them they could each choose ONE book that I would purchase for them, because I love them so very much.

Remember, I told them…. ONE book each. And ONE book only.

And they descended upon the children’s section of our local Borders with delight.

My six-year-old found what she wanted quickly. It was a copy of Wag A Tail, a children’s picture book we’d just gotten from the library earlier that month. I pointed out to her that we still had that library book in our house at that moment and asked if she would prefer to pick something new, something she hadn’t read before. She said no, and I let it drop.

My 4-year-old picked out six of her favorite titles not long after and brought them to me. I told her to pick ONE. She insisted on six. I insisted on ONE. She insisted LOUDER on six. I suggested that she needed to pick ONE or else she’d be leaving with NONE. Zero. Zip. She pouted and threw the books to the ground. I said, Okay, no books then. Let’s go. And she shrieked and picked one of the books up and ran after me.

By now, People Were Looking At Us, and I was irritated as all hell over the whole damn thing. My 4-year-old gave me another battle over who got to place the books up on the counter so I could pay for them, and People Were STILL Looking At Us. I could feel their judgemental eyes upon me and kept my eyes unfocused and then asked the clerk if I could pre-order Harry Potter. He told me I needed to go to the Information Desk for that, so I backtracked through the store to the Information Desk and waited for a clerk while my 4-year-old tugged at me and told me repeatedly that she was quite ready to go.

The clerk’s name was Susan. It said so on her employee identification badge. I told her I wished to pre-order Harry Potter. She sighed and took down my information and entered it into a computer. Then she rattled off an admonition that I should not expect to receive a personalized phone call telling me the book was in because of the high quantity of pre-orders they had already received. At best, I’d get an automated recording.

I asked her if she anticipated a long line of people on the day of release. And she then proceeded to tell me (eyes rolling and chest heaving in overly-theatrical exasperation) that she couldn’t really say for sure how it would go, but that Harry Potter releases were the reason she’d gotten out of the book-selling business. Harry Potter releases had been, apparently, the LAST STRAW.

“Book 6 was that bad, huh?” I said with a small smile to this woman who had been so psychologically traumatized by Harry Potter release dates.

(And all the time I was wondering if she’d noticed yet that she had accidentally STUMBLED BACK INTO the bookselling business, and I was wondering if I should maybe point it out to her. Just in case she hadn’t noticed.)

“Oh, I didn’t DO Book 6,” she assured me. “I’m talking about Book 5.”

I left soon after with a receipt for my pre-order, a cranky preschooler, and the beginnings of a headache. I told my husband the whole story later that night and told him I was thinking about maybe just driving over to Target on July 23. Maybe Target won’t have long lines. They certainly won’t have Susan, the-bookseller-who’s-not-in-the-bookselling-business-anymore. If Target has long lines, I’ll just go on over to Borders and pick up my pre-order. But maybe Target will be my best bet.

He knowingly narrowed his eyes at me and said: “We’re gonna end up with two copies of this book just like last time, aren’t we?”

I promised him that wouldn’t happen. I’m pretty sure it’s a promise I’ll keep. Yeah, pretty sure. Sort of.