Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Monday, December 31, 2007

Last Post of 2007

And last entry on this blog. I gave some thought to a new blog and abandoned the idea, as nothing creative came to me, and the last time I started a new blog (this one) things didn't turn out as planned and in fact got quite bizarro. Call me superstitious, but I don't think I'll tempt the Universe to send me any new growth experiences by trying to be clever. So I've been doing a little redecorating back on the old blog, and as of tomorrow the Bossy Little Dog and I will ride off into 2008, and God Only Knows What Adventures. Please adjust your links accordingly, all 3 of you.

I'll leave this blog here, and a trail of empty champagne bottles back to the former/future address.

I am glad to see the back of 2007. I am glad to be here to see the back of 2007. 2008 is not going to be easy either, but at least it will be a fresh adventure - new work situation, moving (somewhere as yet undetermined) etc. Today Girlchild returned her father's old Sentra, which will sit until Boy can come fetch it - I will probably take it for a drive now and then, just so it gets a little exercise, but I haven't driven a stick in years so I'll have to take it around the block a couple of times until it comes back to me. I drove a stick for decades it's not like it won't come back. Girl loves her new car. When I drove her and load of her stuff back to her house it was in the carport looking all shiny and pretty, and damn, it is a cute car. It was raining, so no pictures. My heart belongs to Baby, though - I need Baby. Baby is a hard working girl, and 2008 is going to be a hard working year.

The animals got me up at 5:15 this morning, so I do not plan to make it til midnight. I'll open the champagne around 9, and toast the end of a really, really weird year, and contemplate goals for 2008. There are many.

The Way We Were, circa 1992-ish

In the course of the endless sorting, donating, and throwing out, I found a few old photos from the early 90s, when the kids were small, including one of my favorite shots of my notoriously camera shy late husband:


You can see where Girlchild got her smirk, can't you? I think she was 8 or 9 here:


I swear I was sober in this picture, and all I can say about the hair and makeup is give me a break, it was the 90s. I don't think the makeup was really that heavy in person, I think that's an effect of the flash. I hope.



Boy was around 11, and in this picture appears to be 11 going on 20 - what a serious kid he was, even then.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

This not working thing is exhausting.

Last night L and her bf and his friend (I think this is either a fix-up situation destined to go nowhere, or we are just each other's available suitably presentable escort) met for drinks, followed by greasy pizza. Kiss off those extra WW points.

So, I got up early, went to post office, hardware store, Tarjay, came home and started sorting crap and loading boxes, and around 1, 1:30, I called my lovely Girlchild, to see what she was doing - I'd lost track of her work schedule and whether she expected me to return her dog. No, she was going car shopping and hoping I could accompany her.

So I cleaned myself up - slightly, I still looked like shit - and we went car shopping. To cut around 5 hours of confusion, pain and drama very, very short, Girlchild is now the happy owner of a very lovely new '07 leftover Honda Civic. Pretty blue w/a sunroof, satellite radio, place to plug in your iPod, lah-di-doo-dah, which is now the basic Civic package. Photos to follow, if it's not too rainy tomorrow. Tomorrow there is furniture to move, and an elaborate car shuffle in which her old car, which started out as her father's car, will come back here to hang out until Boychild can fly down to lay hands upon it, heal its ills, and take it back to NC.

I am wiped out, but Boy's input on the car shopping process was most comforting (he used to work for this dealer group) and the dealer's nice staff made it fairly painless. She has a car she loves and a car payment she can live with, and all is well. I still don't understand why it is impossible to buy a car in under 5 hours even if you know exactly what you want when you walk into the dealership. Even the adoption of the Subaru took that long, and I had selected it online and wasn't financing it.

If anyone is looking for me, I will be in bed with Captain Morgan, Boris, Dudley, Murphy and Shrek. I think that officially makes it a menage a menagerie.