Roller Coaster

It’s back to work, life and driving after an extended up and down blogging absence. Roller coaster like, as my friend Keith Partridge would say. Personally, I always thought Shaun Cassidy was “Da Doo Ron Ron” cuter.

Hang on tight, kids. Here we go!!!!

Up: My daughter did extremely well following her meal plan this past weekend and participating in quite a few 4th of July activities. We also discovered two new twists on some old favorite board games...Life: Twists and Turns and Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition. Both keep track of your money and things with handheld devices and debit cards instead of the paper money. We’re board game people and both were lots of fun to play.

Down: Life: Twist and Turns turned out to be a little more accurate than I cared for, though. While we were playing, I got a phone call that my co-worker’s, (The Biker Chick) husband passed away. He was recently diagnosed (like 2 weeks ago) with a brain tumor, but no one had any idea the end was that close. Very Sad.

All Around: We also went to a Fourth of July Parade over the weekend. The good part is that I never have to search for parking because the parade passes right by my crazy in-law’s house and I can park in their driveway. The downside, of course, is that the parade passes right by my crazy in-law’s house and I am trapped there for a few hours.

Like A Roller Coaster: My in-law’s, including my brother-in-law, The Cellar Dweller, make Everybody Loves Raymond’s family look like The Cunninghams. You just have to laugh around them because if you don’t, you’ll cry. Trust me. I often wonder how JW escaped with his sanity.

It Keeps Going Faster: My beautiful big screen TV is broken, malfunctioning and I believe kaput. I love that TV except for some “flaw” that Sony neglected to mention. The $200 bulb burns out on that TV like all the time. I just replaced in in April and it blew out again so I called the store to bitch. They said to bring in the bulb and they would replace it for me. We took the TV apart to remove the bulb and everything around the bulb was melted. MELTED! Now I have to call some tech guy who I’m sure won’t even show up the first three times I schedule him ('cause that’s how we do things here in Chicago) to tell me the TV is fried.

Thrills Coming At Ya: My attempt to stop hairpulling has been non-successful to date. In fact, it’s been worse because now I’m thinking about it. I’ve been trying to squish Play-Doh and play with stress balls to no avail.

And I Walk Down: The reason I haven’t been blogging is because I’ve been driving, not actually walking, but that's not in the lyrics :) Since my daughter stepped down a program in the hospital, I drive her there in the morning and then pick her up again at 3 and I work in the interim. Too hard to drive on the expressway and type. I’ve seen people do it, it just doesn’t look safe to me.

All Around: I’ve also been working a lot of hours since my co-worker isn’t there. I’ve also been peeking at used car dealers for a car for my oldest because with our new schedules, we’re having incredible difficulties getting everyone everywhere they need to be. This was supposed to be my ex-husband’s responsibility, but I’ll tell you about that later. It needs a blog entry onto itself. We’ve also been gardening (the front of the house looks great!) and planning to build another deck (just a floor) in the backyard so I can put my gazebo up and actually use it. It’s not doing much good in a box in the garage, right? Oh, and get ready for a Catboot story because my patience has worn very thin with an ex-friend of mine and she’s about to feel my boot heels. I just have to polish them up first.

That’s pretty much it.

Like a roller coaster.