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chochiyo_samaI set my alarm, but it didn't go off this morning. I was supposed to meet my sister Kim at 8 to go for breakfast at Perkins and then go shopping at walmart. Fortunately I woke up at 8:30 pm, so I wasn't too late. I almost called and cancelled because I just did not feel like getting up and getting dressed. However, I called and Kim was already up and fully made up with her hair fixed and everything. (Unlike me--I just Get up, Get dressed, and GO. I don't think anyone would recognize me with make up on.) I couldn't leave her in the lurch after she specifically got up early (she likes to sleep in on the weekends) and got herself all fixed up. So, I got my ass in gear and headed out after i hung up and folded the two baskets of laundry i had hauled upstairs last night. The roads were a little shitty, but I didn't feel in imminent danger of death, so it was okay.
I picked her up and we did Perkins first as we were afraid it would be PACKED if we went there afterwards. She got one of the new scrambler skillets, and I got my old and eternal favorite--two eggs, over easy, crisp hash browns, link sausages, pancakes, and hot tea with honey. Yum.
That doofus sister of mine insisted on paying for breakfast since I helped her with some stuff for her on-line class. She read it to me and I helped her phrase and punctuate it correctly. That is No Big Deal to me, since I do it almost automatically. She certainly did not have to buy me breakfast!
After breakfast, we went to Walmart. I bought some Valentine things for my homeroom kids. I figured if I bought them when I saw them, I wouldn't get to February 13 and realize I had nothing for the homeroom.
I didn't think I got that much at Walmart, but it still came up to $65. Of course, with today's prices, even at Walmart, it doesn't take much to get up that high.
While Kim and I were having breakfast, we discussed our financial conditions--always struggling--but at least we are better off than our poor sister Joni. They are behind two house payments. Jeff hasn't worked in months, and it's all on Joni. She's trying to sell her horses, which are like her children to her, just to make enough money to get caught up.
I don't know whether mom got the information from Tammy or from Joni herself, but apparently, if they lose the farm, they will have to move into an apartment, and if that happens, they will have to put Kaylee into an institution. She will be dead in a month or two in a place like that. There is no way she will get the kind of care and attention she needs there.
If i had the money, i'd pay off their debt--but Jeff would just have himself buried up to his eyeballs again. He is a nice and personable guy, but he is like the poster child for instant gratification. If I had the money to pay off their debt, I would make it a condition that he would have to attend money management classes AND therapy for his spending addiction. i think he just never learned how to handle money. His mom is a spend a holic, and his dad had money...for a while.
Anyhow, i'm worried about my little niece. poor sweet thing. Maybe death would set her free from her miserable pain-filled life--but I don't want to let her go. I have hardly seen anything of her lately--well, she has been in the hospital for going on 4 months...but even before then...life just keeps being so busy. When she gets home, I am going to make a special effort to go and see her more often.
Anyhow--Kim and i bought lottery tickets. Maybe we will win and our financial troubles will be over....wouldn't that be great?
Kim also insisted on pumping gas for me since we stopped at the Kwik Trip to buy them. I was only down about 1/4 a tank, but one less thing to have to do this week.
After that, I dropped her off at home. When I got home, I cleaned out the back seat of my car. I had brought two laundry baskets to put the groceries into so I could just scoot them along in the snow like little sleds to get them in the house. There was enough extra room to clean out the back seat. i had shoved all the garbage into a box that was in my back seat, and I threw that in the garbage receptical at Kwik Trip. Now, it needs to be vacuumed. But i don't see that happening any time soon.
When I got in the house, I put away all my groceries and dragged the laundry up from the basement and got that folded. When i go upstairs, i'll put that away.
Right now, I am going to whip up some spaghetti. I am more likely to eat something healthy during the week if I make it on the weekend. I'd also like to get the living room and dining room vacuumed and the kitchen swept and scrubbed before I go upstairs for the night. It's already after 5 pm, so I am not sure if that will get done or not. Sigh.
All those snow days, and I sure didn't manage to accomplish much. i got caught up on my rest though.
Well, I need to once again get my ass in gear and get some cooking done. I will likely report in again before I go to bed for the night.
I picked her up and we did Perkins first as we were afraid it would be PACKED if we went there afterwards. She got one of the new scrambler skillets, and I got my old and eternal favorite--two eggs, over easy, crisp hash browns, link sausages, pancakes, and hot tea with honey. Yum.
That doofus sister of mine insisted on paying for breakfast since I helped her with some stuff for her on-line class. She read it to me and I helped her phrase and punctuate it correctly. That is No Big Deal to me, since I do it almost automatically. She certainly did not have to buy me breakfast!
After breakfast, we went to Walmart. I bought some Valentine things for my homeroom kids. I figured if I bought them when I saw them, I wouldn't get to February 13 and realize I had nothing for the homeroom.
I didn't think I got that much at Walmart, but it still came up to $65. Of course, with today's prices, even at Walmart, it doesn't take much to get up that high.
While Kim and I were having breakfast, we discussed our financial conditions--always struggling--but at least we are better off than our poor sister Joni. They are behind two house payments. Jeff hasn't worked in months, and it's all on Joni. She's trying to sell her horses, which are like her children to her, just to make enough money to get caught up.
I don't know whether mom got the information from Tammy or from Joni herself, but apparently, if they lose the farm, they will have to move into an apartment, and if that happens, they will have to put Kaylee into an institution. She will be dead in a month or two in a place like that. There is no way she will get the kind of care and attention she needs there.
If i had the money, i'd pay off their debt--but Jeff would just have himself buried up to his eyeballs again. He is a nice and personable guy, but he is like the poster child for instant gratification. If I had the money to pay off their debt, I would make it a condition that he would have to attend money management classes AND therapy for his spending addiction. i think he just never learned how to handle money. His mom is a spend a holic, and his dad had money...for a while.
Anyhow, i'm worried about my little niece. poor sweet thing. Maybe death would set her free from her miserable pain-filled life--but I don't want to let her go. I have hardly seen anything of her lately--well, she has been in the hospital for going on 4 months...but even before then...life just keeps being so busy. When she gets home, I am going to make a special effort to go and see her more often.
Anyhow--Kim and i bought lottery tickets. Maybe we will win and our financial troubles will be over....wouldn't that be great?
Kim also insisted on pumping gas for me since we stopped at the Kwik Trip to buy them. I was only down about 1/4 a tank, but one less thing to have to do this week.
After that, I dropped her off at home. When I got home, I cleaned out the back seat of my car. I had brought two laundry baskets to put the groceries into so I could just scoot them along in the snow like little sleds to get them in the house. There was enough extra room to clean out the back seat. i had shoved all the garbage into a box that was in my back seat, and I threw that in the garbage receptical at Kwik Trip. Now, it needs to be vacuumed. But i don't see that happening any time soon.
When I got in the house, I put away all my groceries and dragged the laundry up from the basement and got that folded. When i go upstairs, i'll put that away.
Right now, I am going to whip up some spaghetti. I am more likely to eat something healthy during the week if I make it on the weekend. I'd also like to get the living room and dining room vacuumed and the kitchen swept and scrubbed before I go upstairs for the night. It's already after 5 pm, so I am not sure if that will get done or not. Sigh.
All those snow days, and I sure didn't manage to accomplish much. i got caught up on my rest though.
Well, I need to once again get my ass in gear and get some cooking done. I will likely report in again before I go to bed for the night.
Family.
Date: 2009-01-18 11:46 pm (UTC)Don is still unemployed. And he drank 3 beers at my parents' house yesterday; one per hour. But at least they are not behind on their house payments....ANYMORE. My parents got them through that. Don is allowed no cash. My sister give him only what he needs to get the grocery shopping done. And she knows what everything costs so he isn't give much more than what is needed to cover it. He has a credit card but my sister pays all of the bills so she can monitor what it is used for. He is only allowed to use it for groceries or whatever my sister "approves". If he strays, she'll take his card. She's the bread winner and those are the rules. She keeps him on a very tight leash. Of course it is a different situation than your sister. My brother in law is a gambler, alcholic and has been addicted to prescription pain medication. He has an addictive personality. He's the happy, friendly, cheerful life of the party. But he's also lazy enough that his wife has been supporting him for not quite a decade. And my parents are putting both of their kids through college; one of them through Berkley which is really expensive. He's majoring in chemical engineering and will be getting his master's and PhD. He takes after my sister. The other we can already see is taking after Don. He could have gone to a major school but opted for Cal State San Marcos and lives at home. He's been working at a movie theater for a few years and has no ambition to get a better job. And he had no ambition to move up at his present job so when a new manager was hired, he lost all of the seniority he had gained under the old one. Doofus. He's a short term, instant gratification person. He doesn't consider the long term consequences of his behavior and is a bit inconsiderate. Also spoiled. My parents' paid $250 to have the lock fixed on his car (my ex-car that is actually my sister's car now) because of break-ins trying to steal the stereo he just had to waste all of his money on to upgrade. I told him if he had left the original stereo in there, no one would have tried to break in.
Does your Mom know ab out Joni's situation? She should be informed. She has a right to know, whether she can help or not. And she'll be hurt when she does find out, which she will, and find out it was being kept from her.
And if your sister wants to pay for your breakfast or buy your gas, let her. She's doing something nice for you because you did something nice for her. You didn't ask, require or demand that she do anything for you. She's doing it in appreciation for what you've done for her. It makes her feel good. Let her have that. You do a lot for others. And I'll bet if the situation was reversed you'd be buying her breakfast and filling her tank for the help she gave you.
Candy's home now but needs some quiet time, so Ramses and I won't be visiting her until next weekend. It cost them about 4 years's worth of insurance payments; almost $1600.
Re: Family.
Date: 2009-01-19 03:11 am (UTC)Kim didn't pay for my gas--she just pumped the gas for me so I didn't have to stand out there on my bum knee. She's a good kid. Her husband is also a waste of space.
He's an alcoholic, lazy bastard who only works at his supplementary insurance sales job (Aflack) enough to make the house payment and his car payment and buy his massive quantities of booze and cigarettes.
He's very intelligent, but a self-centered asshole. He's constantly telling her that she doesn't do her share--she buys all the food, all the clothes, shoes, and personal grooming articles for the boys, she pays the basic bills--gas, electricity, etc., she buys all the cleaning supplies. She pays for everything, in fact, except the house payment and his car payment.
Any decent furniture they have, she has bought.
I would have kicked his ass to the curb ten years ago...but, she feels the boys "need" their father. I wish she'd see that all they are getting from him is a very piss poor example of how to be a man.
If I won the lottery, I'd give him a half-million dollars on the condition that he got the hell out of my sister and her sons' lives and never darkened their doors again.
My sister Tammy and my brother Jack chose their mates more wisely. They are not PERFECT, but at least they are decent human beings with values who appear to actually love my siblings and do their parts to keep the families going.
I'll give this to Don....
Date: 2009-01-19 09:15 am (UTC)He does the laundry and folds it. He does the grocery shopping. He even does some cooking.
I don't know if he does any cleaning.
The boys are lazy. They've lived in that house for a decade and the same weeds are still in the back yard. They work at my parents' house, but my parents PAY them. $10.00 an hour to do yard work. IMHO those boys should do anything my parents want for FREE considering my parents are paying tens of thousands of dollars for their educations.
My sister isn't a freeloader. But she's outnumbered in that family.
Don has a realtor's license but doesn't do squat. He quit a good job as a salesman to become a mortgage broker, but his drinking screwed that up. My mother told me my sister gave Don an ultimatum, after the knee replacement surgery was healed he was to get a job or move out and live with his mother. But...he's still home and still unemployed. It's one excuse after another with him.