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11/21/2007 AMAZINGHello all. Yes, I know... it's been ages since my last blog, and I've made so many promises to try to get "regular" again, and here I am, sadly a pathetic blogger ignoring all her friends AGAIN. I'm sorry, but truly, when you hear all that's been happening, you'll understand, I'm sure. My biggest problem is WHERE TO START.
Ok. Here goes. Promised other stories were: (1) puppy news, (2) car news, (3) My Aunt Merce moving here news, (4) my cousin Pio moving here... and THAT's a story!, (5) new stuff with B and his job, (6) updates on mom, (7) updates on my friend from Columbus, GA and whatever else might have happened. Really, if I write all that's happened since June, the last time I blogged... I'll be here forever.
In the words of Enigo Montoya in "The Princess Bride", "Let me a-splain... no no, that's a too much... let me sum-up":
Puppy news: Elvis is now HUGE... probably around 70 lbs or so. He's absolutely beautiful, although a bit lacking in the brain department. B has COMPLETELY adopted him, finally... it was a process. Now, however, B and Elvis are best buddies. Elvis lives for B to come home from work and play with him. He jumps all over him, waits for him to sit in his lounge chair and climbs on top of him... literally ON top of B's lap, like a baby, and reaches up to lick his face. He gets treats and new bones almost daily, and they wrestle on the floor, play football and frisbee outside, and where B goes, Elvis follows. Other than B's rather volatile, though loving relationship with Simon the cat, I think this is the first time B has allowed himself to love an animal... ever... in all of his life. I think this is a good thing. People who can find it within themselves to love something small and generally more helpless than themselves seem to be more human to me... more down to earth.
Car news: Well now, this one has changed a couple of times. I know I put pictures of my "bought at auction" Mercedes in one of my blogs... or talked about it or something..so, since then... let's see, B traded his 89 Chevy pickup 4x4 for a 95 Ford pickup 4x4 which is prettier, runs a bit better, and is stick shift rather than automatic. He's got a car payment (to his boss) now, but no interest, and he can afford it, so it's cool. Also, since then we sold (well, barely sold) the Mercedes to B's uncle (who's wanted it since we got it... it's his favorite vehicle) and we took that money, and the money I got from a fender bender, and we put it toward a Yukon that B's boss was selling, so that's MY new vehicle. I like it a lot... it's a 96, and runs very well, and as I will explain a little later, it's a better vehicle for me now.
Aunt Merce Moving here: Ok, now that was also a bit of a process. First, she's visited and "lived" here (for a few months at a time) several times over the last 5 years or so, even working with me here at the bonding company, part time, on one of those occasions... but she had to quit and tend to her mom (my Abuela) until her death. My aunt has planned to move here all along, but never followed through for one reason or another. Now, however, she is HERE.
She came and moved into the office, working for the bonding company again part time, while looking for a place to buy and move into here... I think it was some time in June... around the 15th. We looked daily.... driving all over the northern part of Georgia, checking listings on the computer several times a day and in every site we could find, and even stopping to check for sale by owner houses. Finally, after seeing so many different neighborhoods she was convinced that the first one she'd fallen in love with was her favorite. However, that area is full of very expensive houses and there was NO WAY she could afford to buy there. Until... we came across a CONDO for sale in the middle of it all. She hadn't considered Condo's before, but this one was just at the top of the "affordability" scale for her, in her favorite area, and even better, completely (and I mean completely... new tile floors down and carpet up, new paint, new cabinets and countertops, NEW) re-modeled.
After a bit of negotiation, and almost giving up completely a couple of times, she now owns her own Condo, and is very happy. She moved into it around the first of October, and within a week my cousin Pio flew in from Puerto Rico to live with her while he looked for a job and a house for his mom (my Aunt), and his sister, (my cousin).
My Cousin Pio moving here: Well, after being here less than a week, Pio hated it. He said he was used to movement, lots of people and action, and it's just too quiet here. Now, we'd all been told by him that what he wanted was a "quiet country life with a small house on a little bit of land" for him and his girlfriend and son to live in... he was tired of all the hustle and bustle of the city, and all the legal problems he'd been having for years. However, I guess he just wasn't ready. So, he flew to Las Vegas and stayed with my dad while he found a temporary job to work at while he waited for another job he'd been "offered" by a friend of his to come through. It never did, and Pio grew disgusted with Vegas again, and flew out here once more to check it out.
Since then, my other aunt, Pio's mother, has flown out here and found the house of her dreams, with enough rooms in it for her son and his family, and her daughter to live with her. It has enough land around it so as to be semi-private and allow Pio to build a shop if he wants and her to have porches and decks expanded all over the place, yet is smack dab in the middle of lots of growth, and shopping and sub-divisions, which is exactly what they all wanted. So, now they're all here. Permanently... they say for the rest of their lives... we'll see. I think there's nomad in my family... we've all moved from one side of the country to the other... several times.
New Stuff with B and his job: Wow, this is a really BIG one. Job-wise, he's basically moved to the top... or, as high as he can go within the company he's working with. He's just under the owners, a father and son team that have been running this business for 26 years, and who have expressed that in all that time they've never had anyone they could trust to run it as well as they do themselves... until now, with B. They've raised him from $8/hr which he started at 2 years ago, to the over $12/hr he's making now. He also works between 50 and 60 hours a week, which gives him a nice amount of overtime, and he manages more often now, rather than getting his hands dirty doing the work. He's trained several people, and trained them WELL, so that they are more reliable for the company, and he's liked by all the workers because he's made it important to get those who deserve it raises and perks. The customers all love him because schedules are being kept and the work is being done correctly.
On a personal front, his dad is still alive, though now completely bed-ridden. He has good and bad days, continues to refuse to see a doctor because he believes that God has done more for him than any doctor could have, keeping him alive four years longer, so far, than the doctors said he had left with his colon cancer. He keeps B hopping with daily calls requesting one thing or another for dinner, or please bring me a pack of cigs or whatever else he can think of... mostly food because that's his only enjoyment left in life. B is happy to do it, though it's frustrating and interrupts something every day. He knows there's going to be a time, not too distant in the future, when he won't have his dad around any more. Plus, there were so many years... mostly all his life, when B was such an out of control alcoholic and druggie that he had no contact with his family... well, no pleasant contact anyway. I think he's making up for lost time/relationships.
Updates on Mom: Well, mom is still living in Seattle with my brother Chris and his wife and two kids. She's watching the kids while their parents are working, three days a week... ostensibly in exchange for room and board... though she uses her money to buy groceries all the time, and she does a LOT more than just watch the kids. It's her own choice... I don't think they've actually asked her to do these things, but she does laundry and dishes and picks up and vacuums... all but the bathrooms I think, and that's only because her knees and wrists can't take it with her osteoporosis.
She's been out there about a year and a half now, and my brother is finally getting done with the basement studio he promised her before she ever moved. She bought this special toilet that chews up all the matter because it's flushing and going up rather than down, with her own money... which bugs me because she makes around $600 per month to live on and my brother and his wife make VERY good money, and more than that, by her watching their kids they are saving about $10k a year in child care.
I think it was a bit difficult at first, especially for mom, adjusting to living in another woman's home, and wanting to be careful not to embarass or make my brother uncomfortable in any way, but they all seem to have adjusted. I know once mom has her own space... if it will EVER get done so she can move down there, that she will feel more like herself and be able to be more independant again. She's committed to spending another couple of years there... until Torin is in school, and the kids adore her, constantly asking when Gran'ma is coming back whenever she goes anywhere to visit her other kids.
I really miss her though, and now... well, there are things in my life now that make me want her around even more than before... I'll explain later. I thought that having my Aunt here would kindof make up for the hole left when mom left... I didn't have anyone to do things with anymore... B is limited in his interests and doesn't make the effort to do things I like to do... like mom used to. I thought I'd have my Aunt to do things with after she moved here, but it's a very strained situation with her because of the violence she witnessed with B and me a year and a half ago when she was visiting and had to "rescue" me from him. She hasn't forgotten or forgiven, and no matter what changes B has made, and continues to make, she can't seem to let it go. Anyway, that's another story.
The last promised update was on my friend from Columbus, GA. Her business is progressing along extremely well, and I believe they're going into production of the test models in the spring. She's continued losing weight and is looking and feeling extremely fabulous, and makes me ashamed of how little I do to be healthy, compared to her. She's moved out of the disfunctional home of her parents and has her own apartment now, which she loves... and I've yet to see, but I will... hopefully sometime in the spring... I can't do much travelling right now, but she comes and visits me occasionally, whenever she has business in Atlanta, and we go to dinner and catch up. She's about to be a grandmother again as her daughter is pregnant and due any time. She'll be spending the holidays in Colorado with her kids and other members of her family this year, and I think it's wonderful! She's in college, taking classes to get her psychology degree, and is loving that too. I can't begin to express how proud I am of her and how much her friendship and example, and her faith in God, has meant to me.
Ok, now, there is a LOT of new stuff too... things that are AMAZING and unbelievable (until you've lived them as I have), and just plain WONDERFUL that I have to share with you all.... but I have to wait on that because this blog is already too long. I probably won't get to do it until next week... or rather, over the weekend when I'm spending lots of time at work again, but I WILL get back here and update more.
I want to get around to a few spaces and see how everyone is doing. Take care, and know that even if I'm not actually writing, I am thinking of you all, and wondering how you are. I'll write again soon. God bless.
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