"Oh, Hattie, yah. Thank you. Now I know what name to put on the restraining order"

Ah, no update for a few days.

Let�s see, Hub has been hanging around every damn day, my mental state has not been the greatest, and then I�ve had all this shit to do�oh yeah, and yesterday I spent most of my day in bed with a lovely pukey sickness.

We got a call just before the end of the school day yesterday that Minnie had hurled at school so Hub went to pick her up, and I spent the rest of the day/evening in bed with her.

We watched �Ella Enchanted� for the 3,154th time together. Have you seen that movie? So cute. I love it. I first saw it on Xmas Eve when I was in bed with the Hangover From Hell and have watched it numerous times since. It�s on the OnDemand, which is free with our ridiculously expensive package. It�s such a cute story, plus I love the stuff with the castles, and the prince (holy crap, he�s cute), the magic and the ogres and fairies and giants. And Anne Hathaway is absolutely stunningly beautiful if you ask me.

I fell asleep partway through, then when it was over she switched it to Nick, and then it seemed like the only times I woke up was when that hideous commercial for the new KidzBop was on. OMG, can you say �fingernails on a chalkboard�? They must show that commercial every five friggin� minutes. Who the fuck is buying this shit? (Kelly?). Please stop, for the love of God! I can�t fucking stand it. Little high-pitched voices singing �When September Ends� which I don�t even like when Green Day sings it. And what the hell is �oh chariot?� I don�t even know if that�s what they�re singing, but by the time it gets to that part I�m clawing my eyes out in misery. That and a very nauseated belly makes for some suicidal thoughts, for sure.

Anyway, now Hub has the Mysterious Barfing Disease. Beavis had it last night but evidently is over it. Mickey hasn�t, and most likely won�t at this point. His flu shot excludes him from a lot of the fun around here in the winter. Little cardiac bastard.

Speaking of the boy, I�m most likely going to have him in preschool in a few weeks. There�s a preschool at Minnie�s school, for some special ed kids that they have (since the school districts are responsible for these kids� educations at age three), but they need to have �regular� kids in there, too, to integrate them or whatever? Anyway, in the monthly newsletter this month, they announced there are still openings at the preschool for kids 3-6, and it�s wicked cheap! $40 a week. Not fucking bad at all. We�re poor as shit, but I think we can swing $10 a day (it�s four days a week). Anyway, I�m bringing him in Tuesday morning to check it out, and hopefully I can get him started the week after. It�d be Monday through Thursday from 8:50 am till 11:20 am. Which would mean? I�d be all alone for that time. It seems kind of wrong. But, he really needs it to get used to the school environment since he starts first grade in September.

I�ve gone out of my way not to tell Nina about the school thing until after he�s in. I know she�s going to want to send Josh, and we all know what that means. I�d be doing all the transporting, dropping off and picking up and that�s just not fucking kosher with me. Not at all. Selfish maybe but oh fucking well. I do more than my share for them, and I�m just not into waiting for him every morning, being late on account of him (a given), and dealing with his shit both ways even if it�s only a fucking five minute ride, he is annoying. If his education is that important to her, she can get off her ass and take care of it herself. It�s not my fault she doesn�t have her license, and I fucking do enough for her as it is because of it.

Like, the other morning. She calls me up just as I was on my way out the door to go to the credit union and the grocery store, can I give her a ride to get the baby�s birth certificate and drop it off at welfare because it was the last day she could. I mean, the kid was born December 17, what�s the fucking hurry? Anyway, I�m thinking this would be a quick trip, City Hall and welfare, they are both within a block of each other. And remember, I have a schedule to meet as Colin and Makayla show up at 12:30 on the dot every day.

So. I told her, �I�m on my way out right now, can you be ready?� (This is like asking her to move a mountain). �Oh, well, I need a few minutes to give the baby a bottle, that way he�ll just sleep while we�re out�. LIKE I CARE. So, I give her a few minutes. Then I go over and beep the horn. She comes out. �Want to come in and smoke one first?�. Well, I�d rather get the show on the road, since there�s a time issue, but the kid is still having his bottle. Whatever.

And she�s doing her fucking hair. She has to curl it all over the place and it really does look nice, but who cares! Welfare and City Hall don�t give a fuck and see people with their hair not done all damn day long. So, it took a half an hour to get her ass moving between the hair and the joint.

(Oh, and it was just her and the baby. Julie and Josh were at her mom�s for a few days this week. Thank God, because sitting in the car with them? Torture worse than KidzBop).

So, by then I learn, it wasn�t just welfare and City Hall. No, we also had to stop by the hospital to drop off a breast pump and get her $50 deposit back. Yay. Then I notice, when we�re on the road for minute, that she doesn�t have a breast pump. Or maybe I missed it. So I asked about it, and of course she forgot it at home. Then we have to turn around and go get it. She said, �Good thing you remembered it, or we�d have gotten all the way to the hospital and had to turn around�. Um, no? You would just go without because I�m under time constraints and MY errands are not going to be neglected because of your dim-wittedness.

The hospital actually takes like two minutes. Then we go to City Hall. Oh wonderful City Hall of Nashua, with your ten parking places, don�t you realize Nashua�s population is like 100,000 and that perhaps more than ten people need to go to City Hall at a time? Anyway, she ran in and ran right out.

Jay had taken her ID the night before to pick up her prescription (why his wasn�t good enough, I don�t know), and never gave it back. So, she couldn�t get the birth certificate, but wanted to go drop off whatever paper it was that she had from the hospital to welfare anyway. And fortunately, she was in and out of there, too.

Then it was my turn. The credit union had a long line at drive up, but oh well. Then we went to the grocery store right next to the liquor store, and she wanted to go into the liquor store. By this time, I�ve got less than 20 minutes to get home. She was like, �Oh, you just go into the grocery store and after you come out, I�ll go into the liquor store�. Um, no? I told her, �I HAVE to be home in less than 20 minutes, no matter what. We�re not going to have time�. She was all like, �But I don�t want to bring the car seat in� meaning the baby. Guess what? I don�t fucking care. If you want booze bad enough, you�ll bring the baby cuz once I�m out of the store, I�m going home.

She brought the baby in.

Then, she called me Wednesday to see if I could bring her to Josh�s doctor�s appointment the next morning for 8:45. That fucks my morning up, especially when I had plans to get shit done. But, fine, whatever. Yah. She called at like 9:00 the next morning, she overslept and no appointment for Josh. Honestly. WTF. I am so unwilling to interrupt my life any more because of her.

And the last minute babysitting requests. I haven�t babysat for them in forever but they still ask. Always last minute. Always for shit that is ridiculous. Grocery shopping, appointments, etc. Can�t bring the kids anywhere!

I�m working on my backbone, just so you know.

Anyway, so that letter to Julie (the neighbor Julie, not the aforementioned toddler from hell Julie). I tweaked it a lot more, took out a lot of stuff, and walked down and put it in her mailbox Wednesday afternoon. She called me within fifteen minutes of my dropping it off. And? She�s not so bad. Lots of misunderstandings, lots of wrongs on both our parts, and a lot of crap from the Hot Karls made it into a mess that it didn�t have to be. Seems as though she�s been feeling like everybody in the neighborhood hates her, and I�ve been feeling the same.

So, situation resolved, and we all breathe a collective sigh of relief. Me, her, the other neighbors, even Beavis, who surprisingly was kinda happy to hear that I had spoken to her. Hub even said, �I knew that you would smooth the whole thing over�. Yes, dear husband, if I can get it to the point where we can get along with your second ex-wife, then I can do it with almost anyone. I should be a fucking diplomat.

Anyway. It�s 11:30 already? However did that happen? I haven�t even showered yet and after yesterday, I�d say I could really use one. You would too If you were next to me. Peeeeee-yew! I can�t even stand the stench. But, I�m so comfortable. I really don�t want to get wet. That�s sad.

That�s all I got for now.

Ciao.

Listening to: Danny Phantom is cranked to the max.

Currently reading: "Can You Keep A Secret?" Sophie Kinsella

Thinking about: A shower? If Hub's still alive?