Month: November 2008

It’s 9:06 a.m. and I haven’t done a darn thing. Well, I’m up and awake, I suppose that’s an accomplishment. 🙂

The boys had a friend stay the night last night. I have no idea when they went to bed, late I’m sure, and they are still sleeping. I don’t look for them to wake up for another two hours or so.

Whenever the boys have a friend over, I have no choice but to sleep with my husband.

I’ll wait while you read that sentence over again. *grin*

I don’t normally sleep with him. I can’t. The man snores something terrible (and actually, I do too. I know this for a fact because I wake myself up sometimes) and considering I’m a really light sleeper, I simply DON’T sleep when we share a bed. So, when the boys have a friend over and I’m forced to sleep with the husband, I have to wear earplugs. And without fail, those earplugs work their way loose about 4:00 in the morning and thankfully, the boys are in bed by that time (though not always!) and I move to our fold-out bed in the living room, where I normally sleep every night.

We haven’t slept together for years now. We still, uh, visit each other (winkwinknudgenudge) but sleep? Newp. At first, it was weird and bothered us, but considering we both require sleep and we get along SO much better when we’ve had sleep, we have learned to adjust.

---

MK had his heart broken this week.

The school hosted a Harvest Moon dance last night and MK wanted to ask the girl he’s had a crush on for the past four years to the dance. He even took enough money that he could buy her ticket. I was on pins and needles the entire week, just waiting to see what she would say and Thursday, he finally worked up the courage to ask her.

Two forty-five couldn’t get here fast enough.

When I picked him up from school Thursday, he walked to my car very slowly. His shoulders were slumped and he looked dejected.

My heart broke a little for him that day.

He was very quiet for most of the ride to GD’s school and just before we arrived, he told me what happened.

He never had the chance to ask the girl because he overheard her talking to one of her friends that so-and-so was taking her and that they were a “couple.” (Which is a very big deal in 8th grade. Remember the whole “we’re going together” thing even though kids that age don’t go anywhere and they aren’t allowed to date?)

He was crushed. His heart was ripped from his chest and trampled on. He had liked her for so long that I think he had just assumed they would be together when they got older.

I wasn’t sure what to say. I think a broken heart ranks right up there with a death – which in some ways it is, I suppose it is. What do you say? Telling a person it will get better, that there are many more females out in the school pool isn’t really comforting. And of course, telling him that he will get over his first love and this will soon become just a memory isn’t very effective when you’re talking to a pubescent 13-year old.

So, I just said I was sorry it didn’t turn out the way he expected but at least he hadn’t actually asked her – there was some comfort in the fact that he had retained a little dignity.

He later told me that it wasn’t so much that she had a boyfriend that bothered him but the fact that it was all that wasted effort. As I mentioned, he had liked this girl for about four years – really put her on a pedestal, and now? His hopes were dashed. All of his nervous energy around her, the notes he wrote her, the expectations were gone. They simply vanished the moment she admitted to liking someone else.

He was very depressed the entire evening. And he had no desire to go to the dance. Quite frankly, I was a bit relieved. Though I don’t know this girl, have never talked to her, I’ve watched her enough over the years to watch her grow into a cheerleader and an overachiever. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this, but I’ve watched as her achievements have changed her. She’s your typical gossiping, snooty back-stabbing cheerleader type and MK finally admitted that, without any coaxing from me, the other day.

So, I think we’re moving past his first broken heart. I suspect there will be many broken hearts for MK as he tends to wear his heart on his sleeve and is quite emotional – especially when it comes to the opposite sex.

---

GD’s computer got a virus. He discovered it acting squirrelly Thursday night. It would simply lock up.

We like to affectionately refer to GD as the virus magnet in our house. That boy clicks on everything and always gets a virus, one way or another. We try to tell him to be more selective about the sites he visits and the links he clicks, but he INSISTS that the sites he goes to wouldn’t POSSIBLY give him a virus.

*smirk* He’s so naive.

Anyway, when he discovered his computer was infected, he went ballistic. He started cussing and throwing stuff, I was quite shocked by his reaction.

I just let him burn his anger out. And when he finally calmed down enough to form a coherent sentence and asked me how to reformat his computer and I told him to figure it out (because we’ve been down this road so many times and he knows how to do it he just wanted momma to take care of it for him), he went ballistic again.

Wow. You know, it’s times like these, when you react to something inconvenient like this, that your reaction tells you a lot about what’s in your heart.

GD has a lot of anger in his heart.

When he was FINALLY calm enough to approach, I told him this. He blushed. He knew he had overreacted (I can’t IMAGINE where he gets all that drama from *ahem*), but he said he acted that way because he was scared that this particular virus would steal all of his passwords and he wouldn’t be able to access files that he’s worked months on.

I could understand his reaction. I often react with anger when I’m scared/hurt/sad, but wow. We talked at length about his anger issues and I tried to steer his energy into something more positive.

“Look at the bright side,” I said. “Now, your computer will run like it’s brand new. You’ll have space for new stuff. This hacker slimeball actually did you a favor. So it’s inconvenient, big deal. Life is full of inconveniences, you just have to get over your anger and focus on the positive. Fix your problem and move on.”

And he did. His computer is running great now. He reformatted and set it up the way he liked it. I hope he takes a step back and runs his insane reaction back through his head because he really did act like a madman.

I need to teach that boy some deep breathing exercises.

---

My parents took me out to lunch for my birthday last Monday. We went to McAllister’s and ended up chatting for a few hours. I really enjoyed myself. The older I get, the more I seem to “get” my parents. It’s weird. It’s almost like we’re no longer mother/father/daughter but friendly adults. It’s an odd feeling, but very cool. I hope I have that sort of relationship with my boys when they get older.

---

The husband is wheeling wood into our garage so it will dry out and we can burn it in our fireplace. There is nothing like a cold weekend at home with a hot fire, delicious Krispy Kreme donuts and comfy sweats.

Ya’ll are free to join me if you want to. 🙂

---

And lastly …

I ended yesterday on a sad, depressing note, let’s end today on a happy, funny note.

A friend of mine emailed this to me the other day (Thanks Jenny!).

It’s entitled: Democrats on Escalator and you democrats out there might not find this too terribly funny – however I totally laughed not because it was making fun of democrats (though there’s that *wink*), but because honestly, this could apply to so many people, not just one group.

Have you ever known anyone like this? Who refuses to take the initiative, think on their feet and simply MOVE?

I totally do. *grin*

Vodpod videos no longer available.

I might be back later with another post, or I might not be. Either way, look for another potato head NaNoWriMo update later.

See ya!

I think I just witnessed someone dying.

I’m so upset by this that I can barely see the screen through my tears. And I’m trembling.

And my God, I’m completely freaked out by what I saw.

I had to call my husband because I had to talk to someone or I was going to implode.

Let me see if I can explain this coherently …

I had stopped at Starbuck’s to buy a decaf Peppermint Mocha Twist (have you had one of these yet?? Liquid heaven) and I was on my way to the library to get my daily word count in before I went grocery shopping (something I do every Friday and hate to do every Friday).

I’m going south on Campbell and I’m approaching the intersection of Republic Road and Campbell when I see this white S10 pickup truck go bouncing to the side about two car lengths in front of me, in my lane.

My first thought was, what in the world is that truck bouncing for, how odd, trucks don’t bounce.

And then I saw the smoke.

And then I saw a moving van/truck come to a halt.

And then I realized, the man in the S10 truck had just been t-boned. The driver side of the truck was hit, head on by the moving truck.

You know how small S10 trucks are, right? It was like watching a mama bear giving her baby bear a push and the baby bear nearly toppling over from the sheer size and weight of mama bear.

The light turned red.

And I sat there, horrified, my eyes glued to the white S10 truck. It was like watching a crash scene from a movie – it was just surreal.

The people in the car next to me had their hands clamped to their mouths in horror – even their little dog, who had his head out the window, even the dog’s eyes were wide as if he understood what just happened.

The man in the turn lane, the accident had occurred right in front of him and who was in a prime spot to get hit by the S10’s momentum, jumped out of his vehicle and ran over to the man in the S10 truck.

A woman ran toward the accident from the bank on the corner with her cell phone clamped to her ear and she was yelling into her phone.

I was numb. Absolutely no thought went through my head, I was simply too shocked to have seen the moment right after impact. The picture of that truck bouncing to the side and smoke pouring from the vehicle still burned into my retinas.

When the light turned green, I switched lanes to get past the accident. The very first coherent thought that went through my head was “Thank God the boys aren’t here to see this.” And the second thought was, “Dear God in heaven, I pray that man is all right.”

I slowly drove through the intersection and past the trucks. There was debris littering the pavement and I took a split second to maneuver around it. Then I passed the S10 white pickup truck.

And I made the mistake of looking.

Dear God in heaven, I will never, ever, forget the look on that poor man’s face as I drove past.

He was tilted to one side, but still upright. It was as if he would have fallen over to the side, but perhaps his seat belt prevented him from doing so.

He was utterly still.

And his eyes were open.

And he had the most gruesome expression frozen on his face that I’ve ever seen in real life. It was a mask of both astonishment and horror.

He never moved a muscle as I drove past. And I was driving pretty slowly, not because I wanted to look at him, but because I didn’t want to get myself into an accident trying to get past him … so it had to be a good two or three seconds before I was forced to look away from him and drive past.

The man never even blinked.

I drove to the library. And I parked my car, turned off my engine and started crying and praying the man would be alright. I’ve never witnessed something so horrific before and I was, am, quite shaken up about it. I called my husband to tell him what was going on.

It helped to talk about it.

And now, life goes on. I’m here at the library, writing about my experience to you. I’m sure 99% of the people at that intersection are most likely to their destinations, another second, minute and hour ticks by and the image of that accident will fade from most people’s minds.

But not mine. I will never forget the sheer horror of witnessing a traumatic turning point in someone’s life. That man in the truck, and who ever was driving the moving truck, their lives, will forever be changed.

And I witnessed it.

I can’t imagine what the person in the moving truck must be feeling right now. Can you imagine being a part of that accident? Of course, the moving truck was barely damaged so I’m quite sure the person driving it is unhurt. But can you imagine the nightmares that person will have at the thought that he/she possibly killed someone?

It just makes me sick to my stomach.

As far as I can, given the speed at which the S10 truck must have been going to be bounced like that and end up where he did, he must have been running a red light. And the moving truck had been accelerating because he had the green light.

I’m quite sure, given the angle and the number of cars at that intersection, the moving truck never saw the the S10 truck until it was too late.

That’s purely speculation on my part, but I don’t see how it could have happened any other way. The light was just turning red when I approached the intersection …

*takes a deep breath*

Wow, what a sobering thing to witness. I will be scouring our local newspaper for any news on the man. And I pray it only looked serious and that he is okay.