Day Two with the Drill Instructor

Stepson #3 started Marine boot camp on Monday. It's handy having a spouse that went through it so we know what he's going through each day. I generally know what he's going through, boot camp is boot camp, but the day to day stuff is different between the services. Yesterday was "meet" the drill instructor day. I can only imagine what that is like. The asterisk were theirs not mine. Nice to see that Marines have a sense on humour. I had an upper endoscopy yesterday, fun time was had by all! It wasn't really that bad they gave me a sedative that made me happy. I wasn't so fond of the spray they put down my throat to numb it. It was supposed to taste like bananas. It taste like crap and it was foamy. I didn't fall asleep from the sedative until I came home and slept all day, all night and woke up at 9:30 on Saturday. My throat was sore but that's about it. I do have a hiatal hernia which explains all the heartburn.

The World of Comics

I have to admit that I'm a big fan of Luann and For Better or For Worse. And I know I'm not the only one...come on, you're out there. I can't be the only person that checked out Tiffany's My Space. I even checked some of the links. Okay, I thought about posting to it. Man, I can't believe how many people have blogged Tiffany to rat out Luann & Bernice. Quit cluing her in!

I find it fascinating that Luann has blurred the lines between fiction and reality (okay, let's not even go down the reality show road). How cool is it that I read the strip about Luann and Bernice blogging onto Tiffany's My Space on comics.com and with a little tap dancing with the fingers, bam, I'm reading the same blog on Tiffany's My Space. Now how cool is that? Okay, I need to get a life.

Luann is great but my favourite is FBOFW. I have been a fan of that comic 4Ever! Fans will know what that means. I know that they aren't real people but sometimes it just feels like they're part of my family. I'll admit that I cried when Farley died. I knew it was coming, Lynn Johnston said so in an interview, and you could see the build up. It was one of those situations where you didn't want to read it because you knew the ending but you had to anyway. (I get that way with any books on the Rominovs, I keep wanting to shout, "Don't go down in the basement!" But I digress). Even to this day when a reread the strip I tear up. And what is going to happen to Elizabeth and Constable Wright? I seriously think that he's going to become interested in that old friend of his and dump Elizabeth. He really doesn't want to move south. But that's okay because I think Elizabeth will be reunited with the one that she truly love, Anthony. Oh BTW, I was totally wierded out when the comic started winking at me! I'm not sure if I'm ready for animated comic strips online.

Bird Flies the Nest

Today was one of those painful parenting days—one of the boys permanently flew the nest. Today the Marines came at 5 a.m. and took him off to boot camp. You're proud but torn up at the same time because it's such a turning point in their and your lives. I think I've been crying off and on all day. All the other parents at work know exactly what I'm going through. The single ones have no clue. They don't get it, just a few days ago I was ranting and raving that I wished they'd all move out because they don't do squat around the house and expect me to pick up after them, afterall they're on summer vacation. And now I'm crying because I want my baby back. It just seems yesterday that he was ten and playing roller hockey, and then all of a sudden last month he graduated from high school and "poof" he's gone. The circle is now closed because both Bruce and I now know how our moms felt when we went off to boot camp.

Memories

I was on vacation recently up to Newfoundland for my aunt & uncle's 60th anniversary. The last time I was there was 10 years ago at their 50th. While I was there I found the Dick Nolan album I've been searching for in an antique store. It was the only one that was never put on a CD. It has a song on it called Fiddler's Green that my father used to sing (usually when he was in his cups). I've heard the song sung by others but it wasn't the same, it had to be Dick Nolan's version. I had the album but my ex kept it for some strange reason. So I haven't heard it for almost 10 years. Today I finally got a record player so I could hear it. The minute I heard it I started crying. I could picture my father singing away and me, being the snotty teenager that I was, rolling my eyes and saying "Daaaadddd." I called my sister and played the song over the phone. She was sniffling as well. We had a good laugh over that, both of us were crying by the third note! What a nice memory.

Books I've read: Just finished the Tanya Huff vampire PI series. Not bad, always liked her writing. Also finished the DaVinci code just before the movie came out so I could compare. Not bad, but the writing wasn't too difficult. After I finished the book, I realized that the whole story took place in what, three days and no one ate, slept or changed clothes??? I'm in the middle of the Kite Runner but not working too hard on that one (it's my lunch book) and the new Pern book written by her son.

Goodbye Georgie

It's funny how we get attached to objects. I just sold the car that I've been driving for the past 12 years. I balled my eyes out when I had to hand him over to the dealer! He was a 1994 Geo Metro 5-door that I called Georgie...get it, Georgie the Geo. I know, I'm one of those people that names their cars. I've only had 4 cars in over 20 years, I tend to keep them a long time. Georgie was a fantastic car and we had so much history together, hence the crying. I bought Georgie because I needed a car for my dog Phineas. He was too large for a small car but I didn't want to drive a van. Phineas died a few months after I moved out here during my divorce. I firmly believe that he died of a broken heart and my ex had a lot to do with it. I still mourn my poor Phineas. I had to fight tooth and nail to get Georgie shipped out here, the cheap bastard didn't want to spend the money, said I should have drove out here. Yeah, right, not in the state of mind I was in at the time. I remember how pissed I was when I found out his girlfriend was driving around in my car. I wanted to fumigate him when he arrived. I remember how wonderful it felt when the flatbed pulled up with my baby. I felt so emancipated from that louse. I also felt that I had won, the car was mine! And today I sold him. I hope he goes to a new home. But Max, the 2004 Miata turbo, I bought sure will console me.

When Life Gives You a Lesson

My oldest stepson is in college and living at home. Lately he had been bringing his four friends over the house to play computer games after school twice a week. At fist I didn't mind, but over time I was getting tired of the noise and aggravation of coming home tired from work to a house full of kids. Then life taught me a lesson.

Two weeks ago while coming over to our house they got into a horrific car accident. I'm not sure what caused the accident because it was a single-car incident but we do know that they veered to the right, went down an embankment and flipped over three times before stopping. There were five kids in the car, mine was in the back, in the middle, and not wearing a seatbelt. He said that he tried to put the belt on but couldn't fish it out of the seat so he gave up. Funny, how one little decision changes your life.

One was only banged up a bit, two were in the hospital for a few days with broken arms. The two that were injured the worst were the driver and my stepson. We weren't sure if the driver was going to have brain damage, the doctors had him in a drug induced coma for 72 hours, but he came out okay and will be out of the hospital next week. My stepson received a broken leg, arm, jaw (in 2 places), cheekbone, and a collapsed lung, bruised spleen and a concussion. After hearing the sequence of events from his friends (he can't remember) I am amazed that he survived. They said he was half-way out the sunroof when the car finally stopped rolling. I guess when it finally came to a stop with a thump, he was hurled through the sunroof. I shudder to think what the results would have been if he was hurled through the sunroof before the car came to a stop. I don't think I've been more scared in my life when we were waiting in the ER while they were patching him up, or when he was going through his two surgeries. It's a parent's worst nightmare.

And here I was complaining about the noise. I can't wait until they are all better and over at our house again making as much noise as they can.

Books I'm Reading:
Working my way through Tanya Huff's Victory Nelson vampire series.

Th Ass is Still Alive

Remember the guy that I was feeling sorry for because, even though he was an ass, he didn't deserve to have lung cancer. I went on and on about how he wasted his life because he had money but didn't enjoy it or life. Well the bastard lied!!! Can you believe it??? He called his sister over in Europe and gave her this sob story and then....opps, I jumped the gun. The doctor said it might be cancer but he'd have to take some test. And guess what, it's not! He had his sister and his soon-to-be ex-wife (my relative) all upset and feeling sorry for him for nothing. Mind you he does still have diabetes and now some funny condition that causes tumors in his lungs. You get it from digging up dirt in Southern California, how bizarre is that. And to top it all off he lied to my relative about breaking up with the other woman and he hasn't. What a piece of work he is.

Life...Got to Love It

It has been way too long since I wrote a blog. Not that I haven't been thinking about writing one, it's just the doing that sucks. I had this wonderful one hashing around my brain for weeks after the new year, had it practically finished—in my head that is. I wish I could figure out a way to telepathically submit blogs. It was very profound, about all the interesting people that passed away last year. It seemed that they passed away in threes, such as the voice of Piglet, Tigger and Tony the Tiger. There were more notable people vs. popular people that passed away, or at least it seemed to me. But now I've completely forgotten the witty lines andreparteee that I had thought of and now it's lost forever. All I have left in my brain is dribble.

I made the mistake not too long ago of deciding that I was in a state of bliss. Really, everything in my life was going well. I though that I have "arrived" to that Oprah moment when you realize that this is a pretty good life. I live in a place that I love, a house that I love, was finally "really" losing weight, and to top it off I'm married to the most wonderful husband in the world. Pure bliss right? Notice I didn't mention the kids?

Never think that you're in a bliss state when you have teenagers and especially don't make the mistake of saying it out loud. Right after I uttered those fateful words all hell broke loose with the 16 year old and we went through a miserable period..a long torturess period full of abject misery. But we're coming out of it, a little frayed, but hanging in there nonetheless. I think he's through this stupidity period and finally realizing that he has to pay the consequence of his actions. New school, new rules, less freedom, etc.

Now I have to deal with the 18 year old.Onlyy 3 months to go and he's under the Marine's wings :) What is it with teenagers that they think 18 is such a magical number? It was for me because I had graduated and moved out. It's not if you're still in high school and living with your mummy and daddy. He made the mistake of telling me that he was going to a late movie on a school night instead of asking...not a good move on his part. But it's hard to be hanging out with your older brother's friends and having to come home early because of a curfew. So now his life is miserable because he's 18 and can't do what he wants, when he wants, afterall he's now an adult. It alway amazes me that they do the most un-adult things, like sulk, pout and lie, to prove that they are an adult.

Is he going to get a big surprise in July when he reports to boot camp. My husband and I (who both went through it) are silently chuckling. He has no idea what hell he's going to be going through. We're going to look like saints compared to his DIs.

But I think I'm getting back to that bliss state, only this time I'm not saying it out loud!

Books I'm Reading:
Lammas Night by Katherine Kurtz - Witches try to thwart Hitler with the help of HRH the Duke of Clarence, brother of King George VI. Spell binding to say the least! I don't think I've ever dislike a book by Kurtz.

Victoria's Daughters by Jerrold M. Packard - bio of Queen Victoria's daughters. Likes to gloss over history a little too much. But I figured I read about Victoria's grandduaghters (4 of whom became Queens) I should backtrack and read about the mothers. Interesting theory of how Victoria became a carrier of hemophilia. Seems there is no history of it in her ancestors hinting that the Duke of Kent was not her real father.