in 12 hours

I will have been in the air for 15 minutes. We arrive at La@uardia at 8:10. We catch our ride to Manhatt@n at 8:30. We meet up with a sweetheart of a woman that is taking us to the inner sanctum of the wholesale world. I woke up at 4:00 this morning, I am so tired, but I am too excited to sleep...and I am terrified I won't hear the alarm. I am taking a camera and will amuse you with photos and details when I return.

Yesterday was my birthday

.....and it completely sucked. When BigD was on his way out the door to go to work he noticed a note that S3 had written and left on my computer, for me to find when I got up, and BigD got a look on his face (the face I know better than he does) and while he verbally stated "OH, he beat me to it", he was thinking ...shit, I completely forgot to wish her a happy birthday so now I am pretending that I remembered. So I teasingly told him he was a liar and that he just forgot...I was SMILING...and my tone was fun...he turned around and huffed out the door PISSED AT ME because he forgot. Sometimes I just want to hold that pillow over his head a little longer than others. Then twice more through the day we had what started out as nice phone conversations that ended up with him hanging up pissed at ME and I had done nothing. Sometimes I just want to hold that pillow over his head a little longer than others. Things went downhill fast from there. We are still dealing with car issues, which drive me freaking insane as I hate anything automotive. As far as I am concerned if you have to pay 20fuckingthousand dollars for something you should NEVER have a problem with it. S1 called and his roommate completely bailed on him and left the moving of all the furniture to the storage unit (till the new place is ready two weeks from now) and the final cleaning. THe roomie has nothing at stake here, but if the place isn't sparkling I, ME, THE PERSON WHO MADE THE SECURITY DEPOSIT, won't get it back. So S1 is freaked, worried that I won't get my $500 back so I drove to his place with S2 who helped him move furniture to storage while the roomie was no where to be found. (they have to be out by Friday). I have to go back tomorrow with him to inspect the place and deal with the raving bitch of a manager that has cackled to me before that she loves to keep the security deposits. Yeah. She is a bucktoothed bitch and I am gonna take her down. We have the photos of the move in day and the place will look exactly the same when we are done. Then the bad birthday continued into today and has just been one big mess of phone calls, problems, family issues (I canceled my brothers visit and he is pissed and can't get it that I have too many things on my plate for a visit right now....remember he does nothing, no job, no hobby, no companion, nothing.. so delaying a visit till next week is NO big deal to him but helps me tremendously so wouldn't you think he would be considerate. Nope. He is a complete asshole. If we were not related I wouldn't even like him). Between trying to make sure BigD and the boys don't starve while I am in NYC THIS WEEKEND and making sure I have the important items I need to take, etc, along with dealing with a work supervisor that is making my life very difficult right now demanding HOURS of daily overtime (yoohoo...remember it is called part-time for a reason??) and too many things that I can't even go into right now...it will be a miracle if I make it to New York with any sanity left. Honestly, I am so befuddled right now I can't even put together a coherent post. Sorry.

Baby acrylics

So, I was having a conversation with S3, as we were going through the mountain of clothes he has outgrown, the mountain of hand-me-downs he won't wear because they are "stupid" and the mountain of smelly clothes that need to be burned. He came across a sweater vest (for those of you that don't know, it is a sweater, but it doesn't have any arms so your boobs are warm but your arms stay cold) that he wore as a joke to a school function, after buying it at goodwill for 50 cents. He tossed it into the burn pile. I was aghast. I looked at him horrified and asked "do you know how many baby acrylics had to die to make that sweater"? He looked at me and thought for a second then said "what does an acrylic look like"? I could barely keep a straight face. I told him I couldn't believe they hadn't taught him that in his ecology/biology class. Only when I nearly wet my pants laughing did he figure out that a baby acrylic looks like a big acrylic only smaller. duh. I am such a bitch. I should probably set aside a few bucks for his future therapy. Oh, and also the "detective" came by today to interview S3 about the he said/she said crap. (Yeah, glad he jumped right on that, it happened, what, about 2 weeks ago and there were 5 whole kids to get statements from---podunk donut sucker) So, here is the scoop. She said it happened against her will. He admits it happened and was consentual. At least they both agree they were grabbing the goods. The reason S3 got dragged into it, is the girl in her statement said S3 was the first person she talked to after "IT" happened. So now the monkey is on his back to determine her mood/affect right after the event. You have to be kidding me. You think a 14 year old boy can figure out a 14 year old girl? I have a 55 year old boy here that can't even do that. So S3, wrote up his version of what did or didn't happen....he saw no flirtation, no curious blanket rustling, no crying, no sudden movements, no hint from her after that anything was out of the ordinary (but again, he is a 14 year old boy, so unless she was wearing a ham sandwich and carrying a basketball, he probably would not notice anything). The nice officer said they are turning the whole thing over to the prosecutors office to see if they want to pursue it with charges. In the meantime, both the parties mothers are P.I.S.S.E.D.O.F.F. and are talking lawsuits, after being friends for over 20 years. Welcome to middle America. (And please send donations so we can prevent the slaughter of helpless baby acrylics)

Update on he said..she said

Wanna know what I know? Nothing. A big fat nothing. This police department in this village (not where I live, but neighboring) is an absolute JOKE! If I were the parents of this girl making the accusation, I would be so pissed. They have only interviewed 3 kids that where there that night and S3 was supposed to be interviewed yesterday and the officer was a no show. (I waited here all day---grrrr) Do they really think that these kids are going to remember tiny details about her actions or the look on her face or if she "seemed" upset. Hell, most of them don't remember what they had for breakfast and are clueless to details after about 5 minutes. Unfreakingbelievable! We are not even certain the police have even talked to the boy yet...though because of faceb00k and texting everyone on earth knows that the accusation has been made. I will update if and when S3 is ever interviewed. (Did I mention that he was sitting right next to the boy that is accused?? Don't you think it would be a tad important to talk to the kid sitting next to the alleged perpetrator??) Anyway, on to a different topic. I AM SO EXCITED THAT 7 DAYS FROM NOW I WILL BE PACKED AND READY TO GO TO NYC! We land there very early in the morning and are planning on not stopping till we fall over. We might be hooking up with a sweet blogger that is a NY'er. I will let you know what develops. I want to ask her first if it is ok that I talk about her :) I am still not sure what I am going to say when I call in "sick" that Saturday. Anybody have any good ideas? I am not good at lying, and am so grateful I can call and not have to see anyone face to face...I would end up telling them..."oh hell, I am not sick, I am going shopping"...then I would be looking for another job. This coming week my brother is coming for an overnight visit. It has been a looonnngg time since I talked about him, but I am sure I will have plenty to say once he leaves. He is hard to describe but extremely irritating to most that know him. (and he wonders why he is still single). The story about him is somewhere in my archives but since I never labeled anything. I have no clue where. In the biggest news of the week I have decided to get my fat, out of shape self, onto the treadmill that has become BigD's clothing depository. He is daily hanging things all over it. So I have been moving his clothes, revving that baby up and walking. It is easy to do if I have something on the DVR that I have recorded...it passes the time much more quickly. An hour show is about 45 min without commercials (another reason I live my DVR) and I can do a couple of miles in one show. Off to a healthier me. I have been reading some bloggers that have had amazing weight losses 100+ pounds and if they can gather up the courage and stamina to do that, I can certainly lose the 30 (or 50 if I want to actually look good) with a little effort. Except for the food part. Somehow I have to get rid of my tastebuds, they are my downfall. Why the hell doesn't lettuce come in chocolate flavor? Ok, I am starting to ramble now. I will be back with any news.

He said---She said

S3 was at a friends house earlier this week. I really like this family. The mom (I will call her J) and dad are nice and have common sense and are doing a good job instilling values into their two kids. The son, is S3's age and they have been on several teams together and have become pretty good friends. While S3 was there, a couple more guys from the teams showed up along with a few girls they are all friends with, and live in that neighborhood.The mom and dad asked if they wanted to watch a movie. They have an awesome setup in their back yard with a projector and wireless speakers so they grabbed a bunch of pillows, blankets etc and plopped down on the grass to watch the movie. The next day the J calls me in a panic. The first thing she said was "S3 did not do anything wrong" so at this point I am thinking~what the hell is she about to tell me? Apparently, one of the girls I will call her B, went home that night, and sobbed to her sister, all night, that one of the boys (I will call him T) put his hand down her pants and then took her hand and put it down his. (they are both about to enter high school this fall) J was calling to find out if S3 saw or heard anything....because the girls parents went to the police and filed a report. She said if the police hadn't called here yet, they were about to. This all happened on Tuesday and J is still a wreck because whatever happened or didn't happen was in her yard. She is very good friends with T's mother and has been told to not talk to them until this is investigated. Now..here is a little back story on both of the "participants". B has a history of being a drama queen. She has been caught in flat out lies more than once, sobbing her innocence the whole time. She even told one of the guys a few months ago that she can lie better than anyone. T, is obnoxious. He is cocky (no pun intended)and is a 'get in your face' kind of kid. He is wickedly good at sports and thinks it makes him all around better than most of his peers. Do I think he is capable of doing this...yep, but I also think B is capable of lying. So, this has turned into a he said/she said situation. S3, didn't see a thing, said that B stuck around after the movie, laughing, joking. S3 said she did not appear upset at all the whole evening, in fact, after the movie they all went into the kitchen to eat. I grilled S3. Were they cuddling? No. Do they have crushes on each other? No. Do you think T would have done this? Maybe. Do you think B could be making it up? Maybe. S3 was laying on the grass next to T and didn't notice any squirming or anything odd that took his attention away from the movie. The parents were about 50 feet away, they didn't notice anything or anyone acting unusual. My take...I am thinking that it was probably a mutual grab fest and after she left, felt guilty, worried that T would spread the word about what they did, so she is crying assault. Yes, I know, I am a woman and any assault is a horrible thing, but falsely accusing someone is just as horrible. If you ask anyone in law enforcement, they will tell you there are many many times that men (mostly) are accused of assault after a wild night, when the woman decides the next day that it wasn't a good idea to have given up the goods. It is not fair. If T did do it, he needs to be held accountable. If B is lying, she needs to have some therapy. Her parents, by the way, are in complete denial that their daughter is as S3 stated "an attention seeker". As a mom of 3 sons, I have always worried about the accusations that could be made and thankfully have drilled into their thick little frontal lobes that when a girl says no, SHE MEANS IT. But, this girl never said no. She didn't leave. She wasn't upset until she got home that night. As of now T doesn't even know what he is being accused of. The police department that is handling this is getting statements from all the kids that were there before they show up at T's house on Monday to question him. (It is a rinky dink department and the cops there are either right out of the academy or are old and have been let go from "real" departments and are filling out their time until retirement and really don't want to be bothered actually working). I think if I had a daughter that told me she was accosted, my first call would have been to the boys parents, am I crazy to think this? Whatever they determine actually happened, one of the kids needs to be held accountable. What do you think? (I will update if S3 gets interviewed and what happens with this whole mess)

my career (grab some coffee...this is a long one)

A couple of weeks ago Dodi asked how I got into medical transcription and it is really kind of a mixed up story but here goes. When I went to college (in the stone age) I had a choice of being a teacher or a nurse. OK, I guess there were other options but not many for girls that grew up where I did. You either got married after high school, or went to college for one of the two above mentioned careers. I decided on nursing because, well you know, I wanted to help people (just like Miss America) so off I went. In those days nursing was not what it is today. It was basically bedpan duty, and grunt work, it was hardly glamorous. Anyway, I got half way through and realized that I really didn't like it. I had no idea what to do because I had spent all that time in school and didn't want to feel like I had wasted my time. One day after class I saw an ad in the paper for a school offering a course in medical technology, I called, I signed up and I loved it. It was my chance to work with people in the health care field without having to clean up vomit. After that I got a job at local hospital working in the cardiology lab doing all the diagnostics that were available there at that time and kept taking classes wherever and whenever they were offered. After a few years, the hospital was expanding their neurology department and the chief neurologist asked if I would be interested in setting up the lab with him. Sooooo...off I went to school again (this time on the hospital's dime) and I set up the department with Dr. Head of Department. My job entailed many different things and each day was different, each case was different, each patient was different, and when cool new equipment was developed I begged the hospital to buy it for me...um, I mean the department. I did this for more years than I had planned. I had a little diversion called infertility that sidelined my perfect plan of being a mother by my second wedding anniversary. Fast forward 8 years of working and it was becoming less and less interesting each day because I was consumed with becoming a mother. While I wanted a career, I didn't want to be a career woman...and nothing else. (if that offends some of you, it shouldn't...it was what was right for me). Then lo and behold, OHN became a momma on December 1, 1988. S1 had been born a few weeks before, but placement didn't happen right away. I had a call on Monday to pick up our son on Thursday. So much to do, so little time. I talked to my boss and took a "maternity leave", unpaid of course, cause you sure couldn't pay someone who has a newborn to be home with them (Oh wait, yes you can, but only if you somehow remove that child from inside your body--cuz we all know THAT is the only way to become a mom--don't even get me started). Dodi...you still there? Are you sorry you asked? Anyway, I was to return to work March 1, 1989. In mid February I was rocking my amazing new baby son and I totally lost it. I started to sob. I couldn't blame hormones unless you call unbridled happiness hormones. I told BigD that we had waited so long for this child that it was tearing me up inside to think about going back to work. He looked at me and said "then quit". Mind you, this was a Friday evening and I knew I couldn't turn in a resignation until Monday. I was twitching all weekend thinking that BigD was going to come to his senses, realize we would starve to death if I wasn't bringing in a paycheck, and by Monday he would look at me and say "your doing what??". He didn't say it. I went in and gave a 2 week notice....everyone laughed and said they knew on December 1 that I wouldn't be back...and they threw me a shower...in the cardiac stress lab. It was wonderful. So, now back to the question..how did I start doing transcription. After years of doing little things to make some extra cash so we didn't starve and when S3 was getting ready to head off to preschool, I decided that the babysitting I was doing wasn't what I really wanted to do. After all, I had changed about a gazillion diapers by that time (I watched up to 6 kids 3-4 days a week), and I wanted to do something back in the medical field again. It is what I knew, and what I was interested in. One day, I told BigD, that I wanted to work my own hours, be able to go pick up a sick kid at school in the middle of the day, take time off for school functions without a boss bitching, make good money, and not have to leave the house. He told me when I found that job to let him know, because he wanted it too. I called a few of my old doctor pals and asked what I could do for them with my fancy shmancy new computer. Unbelievably THE FIRST ONE told me his transcriptionist had just retired and wanted to know if I could do that. OF COURSE I CAN, I told him with way more enthusiasm than expected. (He is still one of my clients;) I went out, spent just under $100 on the bare necessities and my company was born. Timing is EVERYTHING. Had that woman not retired, I don't know if things would have rolled the way they did. I went on to add a multitude of doctors offices, hired and fired transcriptionists, added and lost accounts (my state has a crazy malpractice premium and several docs left for less expensive pastures) and here I am today, bitching and moaning about EMR's sucking the lifeblood right out of my veins. They will eventually put all of us transcriptionists (at least in the physician offices) out of business. It has been a great ride and I am still holding out hope that I can snag a few more offices to get me through till S3 heads off for college. By then, my other two boys will be out of college and so grateful for all of my years of sacrifice, they will set me up in a beachfront condo somewhere. It could happen, quit laughing. So Dodi...it is more than you really wanted to know I am sure. But this should be a warning for the rest of you. If you ask me a question, more than likely I will answer.

And the answer is.........

YES. She would love to go. It gets even better than that. Not only would she love to go, but I happened to ask a friend that happens to have a husband that is a complete sweetheart. He cashed in his Hilt0n Points for us so we are in midtown Manhattan in a suite at the D0uble Tree on Times Squ@are and it will not cost one penny. (I didn't have an inkling that this was going to happen and frankly neither did she till she was talking to him about the adventure and he offered his points....I am either going to have to sleep with him or make him a cheesecake.) Can I tell you how freaking excited I am???!!! We ended up ditching the package deal after spending some time at the computer comparing places and prices. I got a roundtrip flight for 140 bucks so this is the cheapest getaway ever, well, at least till I get there and my debit card will be smokin. We leave our nearby airport at 6 AM for the hour and a half flight to LGA arriving early enough to spend the entire day doing what we want. Nothing makes me crazier than shooting a whole day traveling. Departure date--August 1. Any of you that have any little NYC gems you want to share PLEASE DO. I am going to stalk a couple of you that live in the NYC area via email and see if you can tell me where to go (please, nobody tell me hell, I have been there, and it wasn't pretty, and it is a post that I will make someday that will be controversial--but I don't want that to bring me down so back to the topic at hand). We will not be concentrating on typical tourist, Empire State, Statue of Liberty etc. In fact she doesn't even want to go to ground zero, and since I have been there 6 times, I am willing to forgo that on this trip. Ironically, the only person having a hard time with me going is S3. He was visibly upset and quite vocal about it too. In his mind, here is his mom who canceled the family vacation and now she is jetting off for a weekend WITHOUT the family. I had to explain that a $2500 beach trip was a tad different than a $500-$600 trip. I also tried to explain how sometimes women need to be with other women and since I am surrounded by testosterone this is a rare and exciting occurrence. He is 14 and didn't buy any of it. I refuse to let him rain on my excitement though. I have a really large umbrella, and it is up, and will be up till August 1. Someday he will get it then feel guilty and buy me chocolate to apologize. I just hope I still have teeth by then. I'm going to New York. Somebody pinch me.

So here's the deal

I have been having this wicked fantasy where I jet off for a weekend in New York City to shop, eat, sight-see, shop, eat sight-see, you get the idea. Out of nowhere, Traveloc1ty sent me a notice of a package deal, air and hotel from my nearby airport to NYC. It is only 385 bucks people. This is for two nights at a nice place in mid-town near everything and the subway for things it isn't near. I called a friend and left a very cryptic message for her to call me back. We are both in semi-depressive states so this is completely crazy and our last conversation revolved around how our kids are sucking the life out of us financially. Why am I even thinking about this??? Because I can. I have no idea if it will pan out, but shit, it sure sounds like fun. I am fairly well acquainted with NYC having been there 4 or 5 times but it has always been with A MAN who HATES shopping, or rather browsing and negotiating with street vendors. He is good for about 2 blocks in Chin@town and he is done. But, going with another girl, we could wipe those streets up. I never spend much money when I am there, I just soak up the smells and sounds and sights. I love eating the street fair food, grabbing the pretzels from the roach coach, and there is pizza every 12 feet. OH, I just realized that I could probably go the MOMA there this time. When I go with BigD we are required to spend a ridiculous amount of time in Irish bars (and you have NO idea how many of them there are in NYC!). Even walking in Central Park, having brunch in the Village, popping in and out of the trendy shops where the well-to-do drop cash like crumbs. Does it sound like I am really considering this? It does to me. BigD will crap if I tell him I am taking off for a girls weekend to the city. I am going to be 52 in a couple of weeks and have never done this before. If it does happen, he has absolutely NO ground to stand on to say "no"...he has been away three times this year with his pipe band so if this pans out, he had better not even raise an eyebrow or things will not be pleasant in the half-nuts house. Am I crazy? I can't decide if I want my friend to call and scream YES or if I need her to tell me that I need to take a walk and get a grip.

Can't make this stuff up

How many times have we heard someone say "I would die for some chocolate right now" ? http://news.aol.com/article/man-dies-in-chocolate/562626

Did you watch?

I wasn't planning on watching the M. Jackson memorial but kept getting drawn back to the TV. There were some very poignant moments, some wonderful music, some beautiful words, but the thing that kicked me in the gut was his daughter speaking. No matter what we thought of him, he was her dad and she and her brothers will now not have a father or a mother, and that makes me sad.

I need a favor

I am looking for a photograph or image to use for a project I am doing. If you have any adorable shots of either infants hands or feet (no faces) and would like to have that featured where many many people will see it, send them on over. They can be black and white, or color, or whatever. I will pick from the ones I get and you will have the pleasure of knowing yours was picked. Of course, this just means that you won't be paid, you will just have the satisfaction of the knowledge that your photo/photos is/are being used for a good purpose. Sorry I cannot divulge any more than that. If you refer back to my earlier posts, I eluded to a new project I am doing and I cannot let the cat out of the bag yet. Now, on to other miscellaneous stuff. S1 was home for an entire week and bored to tears. He actually was invited to go to the east coast for the week with a friends family and he came home instead. He basically slept and ate. He will be 21 in November and I am having such a hard time letting go. I still want to tell him how to do things like I did when he was 4. Letting go of things is not an easy task for me...it never has been. Good grief he only lives 45 minutes from here, we instant message and/or talk daily-(sometimes just a 30 second hihowareya) but I still miss the hell out of him when he isn't actually here. BigD had a birthday earlier this week and we finally got around to celebrating last night. It was a beautiful evening, S1 smoked ribs, I cooked other picnic like foods and all 5 of us sat on the porch and watched 3 small deer grazing through our back yard. It was all rather surreal. The times that we are all together are so rare now and to be honest it makes me very melancholy. Almost to the point where I spend so much time thinking about how much I miss these times, that I never allow myself the chance to enjoy them when they are happening. I miss having my crazy little mess makers. (though the upside is way less laundry and whining;) but I am one of those parents that would be fine with my adult child living here. Weird. I know. To say I am in a funk is putting it mildly. The driving force for me right now is my new project and that will certainly help with the funk once it materializes. Some days work really gets on my nerves. I find the data enjoyable, well, as much as you can enjoy other peoples sicknesses and scourge. There are a couple of the docs that I just love and a couple that need to go back to high school and finish, because there is no way in hell they ever passed a Language Arts/English/grammar class. Oh, and by the way, if any of you are doctors, I have a little bug to drop in your ear. Please do not dictate 2 pages of data, then realize you have dictated the data from Frank's chart, instead of Mary's and tell me to "scratch that". I get paid by the line bucko. If you dictated it, I type it for 20 minutes, then "scratch that", I make no money. You are being a jerk and I am betting your doctoring abilities suck if you can't tell the difference between Frank and Mary. Please never come to a hospital near me. My desk is covered in papers and bills so in order to keep my sanity, I am throwing a blanket over the whole desk and walking out to the hammock, with a book, because I want to. Don't forget to send your photos to onlyhalfnuts@gmail.com or put them on your post and I will copy paste :)

food poisoning

Since BigD is away, the testosterone trio has been getting to pick dinner, as long as it doesn't involve me cooking it. Hey...BigD gets to eat out this week, so do I. Last night S1 picked a local establishment that has 7 locations...great food, big TV's everywhere, good atmosphere and decent price. I got their special gyro and can promise you I won't make that mistake again. I have been in and out of the library all night, had to call off work, and have been flat on my butt watching a marathon on USA network. Fun times. I will be back ...gotta run.