Write From Karen

(This picture doesn’t have to do with anything, I just thought it was cool. I put in “double exposure” in Flickr and this is one of the pics that came up. I like this because I consider these stream of consciousness posts like a blurring of real-life activities – none of them really deserve a whole post, but they’re worth mentioning, at least to me. 🙂 )

Kevin and I went to lunch yesterday (Whole Hog Cafe – YUM!!) and on the way back to his office (which he will no longer be going to soon – their lease is up at the end of March), we stopped by Starbucks so he could get a Mocha and I could get a Frappuccino (this was the first time we had been to Starbucks in months, by the way).

We were listening to Rush Limbaugh while we waited. I take Rush with a grain of salt, he’s part entertaining and part informative, which is really what any public personality is all about, if you think about it (*cough Jon Stewart cough*): move past the theatrics and get to the kernel of the message.

I pulled up to the window and gave the gal my card to pay for our order. She was very pleasant. High, sweet voice, welcoming smile.

Her attitude abruptly changed when she handed my card back. Hard, firm voice, no smile.

I can only assume she heard we were listening to Rush and she didn’t approve.

We must have appeared like your stereotypical yuppie, coffee drinker, independent thinking, liberty-loving, conservatives to her – how terrible.

Kevin and I laughed as we pulled away from the window.

(Of course I’m only assuming her abrupt change in attitude was caused by us listening to a conservative talk-show host, but maybe not. Maybe she was cranky because she had an eyelash stuck in her eye, or her bra strap kept slipping down, or she just realized how thirsty she was when she saw my delicious frappuccino – I mean, there are dozens of explanations. But I choose to believe this one, because it amuses me.

And I’m mean).

Dude is doing well. His grades are really good this semester and he’s been working hard – without me hounding him. Yay! Maybe, just maybe, he’s finally starting to grow up.

We are going to sit down after school today and register for the ACT test. The next test date is April 10th and the deadline to register for that test is tomorrow. His counselor suggests (to all the kids, not just him), to take the test for the first time when he’s a junior and then take it again when he’s a senior to try and get a better score. I personally think this is an excellent suggestion – I wish I had done something similar when I was in high school. I didn’t take the ACT test until I was well into my 20’s and by then … well, let’s just say I didn’t do very well (and there is no way in hell I’m telling you guys my score – it’s downright embarrassing!)

I bought Dude an ACT book that focuses on science and math (his two weak subjects, though I’ll be honest, the kid is better at math than I am). And though I will encourage him to look at it, I’m not going to hound him. He needs to learn to take his own initiative. I figure if he blows it off, he’ll pay for his laziness the day of the test, not to mention his test score.

Though it’s ultimately Dude’s decision to go to college, and we’ll “push” him to give it a shot, at least the first year, I think it’s part of our responsibility, as his parents, to make sure he has the tools necessary to take that option, if he so chooses at a later date. That includes making sure he takes the ACT before he graduates.

Jazz leaves for Pittsburgh Kansas tomorrow. His jazz band is performing at the festival there. He’s super excited about it. He went last year and really enjoyed himself. Not only do the kids perform, they get critiqued and then get to watch a big-time jazz band perform afterward.

Jazz’s band performed last weekend at Missouri State University and I only now found out that they won third place! Not bad! When I asked him what he liked more – marching band or jazz band, he said jazz band immediately.

He just digs the stuff.

He’ll miss school, which means he’ll have homework this weekend, but that’s the “price” you pay when you’re involved in extracurricular activities. He won’t get home until 11:30 tomorrow night, which means I’ll be rolling out of bed to go get him.

But I don’t mind. Running around town in the dead of night in just sweats and no makeup is all part of the “mom” job. 🙂

We haven’t had time to convert the video of Jazz’s performance from last weekend yet, but we’ll try and get that done this weekend so you guys can see it.

The lease on Kevin’s office is up this month. This means beginning April 1st, Kevin will be at home, with me, full time. Lord help me. It’s not that I’m not looking forward to having him home, I enjoy his company, but I can tell you right now, he’s going to exhaust me.

He’s like the Energizer Bunny during the day and I can’t keep up with him, quite frankly. His pace is GOGOGOGOGOGO … my pace is GO. Stop. Check email. Check Twitter. GO. Stop. Clean house. GO. Check snail mail. Run errands. GO. Take nap …

See my point?

I’m over the “OMG WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO” stage of this whole job liquidation delimma. We are in pretty good shape, financially, and I thank God for that. If we’re frugal (and really, when are we not), we can make our dollars stretch for quite a while. And Kevin can always apply for unemployment, if needed (we’re trying to avoid that route, if at all possible). But for now, he plans on taking about four months off before seriously looking for another job.

Unless something comes along in the interim.

We’ve both decided that unless something comes along, we’re not going to actively seek jobs until after our vacation in July. It’s one of Kevin’s biggest pet peeves to hire someone only for them to say, “OH! I need to take a week off next month for so-and-so reason.” He doesn’t want us to do that to our potential employer.

But again, we’re keeping our options open – we’ll see how it pans out.

In the meantime, I’ve acquired two more clients and will actively begin the process of obtaining more and my Amazon book store is doing surprisingly well (THANKS TO YOU GUYS!) and I will be actively building my book inventory for that, as well.

So, we’ll be okay. It’ll just be weird having him home. But if anyone deserves this break, he does. I’ve never known anyone work as hard as he does.

He’s exhausting to watch and be around, but the man gets stuff done.

I bought a new faucet for our new sink yesterday. It’s one of those faucets where you pull down on it for the sprayer.

The counter top guys FINALLY called and made an appointment to come out and measure for our template – they will be here Monday morning. Kevin will be here so we can both go over what we want. We will need to make sure let the counter top guys know that one end of will be off about one inch due to our crooked room.

After they measure, it’s supposed to take one to two weeks for it to come in.

I can’t wait to get this thing in. It’s a pain in the butt to hike half a mile to the bathroom for every little sink need. Not to mention, it’s a bit gross washing dishes in the bathroom.

Jazz’s birthday is coming up. He’ll be 15 on the 25th of this month.

My baby – 15.

Wow.

His birthday falls on spring break and we were thinking about going camping, but I don’t think any of us are up to the challenge, especially since we’ve felt like we’ve been camping in our own house for the past three weeks and the thought of MORE camping and MORE inconvenience just doesn’t sound like fun right now.

Jazz will probably have some buddies come over and we’ll call it a day.

Dude still doesn’t have his driver’s license. His permit expires on Jazz’s birthday.

I don’t know. I’m not in a hurry for him to get his license. That’s one more thing I’ll have to stress about – Dude, out on the roads with these wacko drivers.

Dude could care less about driving because as he puts it, “Where am I going to go?”

But Kevin is getting antsy for him to do the deed. I think he’s worried it’s a bit “weird” that he’s not driving yet. And though I tend to agree with him, I’m not SO worried about it that I’m pushing it. We still go out and drive now and again, just so he doesn’t get rusty, but honestly? We haven’t had a lot of time to GO and get it done. Dude has been really busy with school work and with this remodeling project and the fact that he doesn’t get out of school until 3:00 and I think they stop taking drivers at 4:00, we just haven’t had time.

But we’re making it a goal to get it done before his permit expires so … we’ll see what happens. If it doesn’t happen, then he’ll just renew (or retake the test – however that works out) and we’ll move on.

The kid is only 17. It’s not like he’s 30, right?

I am pretty sure I screwed myself on a project. I said yes to something that is going to end up being A LOT more work than the money I’m charging is worth. I’m hoping, by doing this, it will result in a full-fledged paying gig, but there’s no guarantee.

Kevin is annoyed with me. He doesn’t understand my willingness to volunteer, or do something for cheap.

He’s an accountant. It’s all about the bottom line with him.

Volunteering, or working for cheap, doesn’t have anything to do with the bottom line.

Believe it or not, I have a hard time saying no to people. (Unless it’s my sons, and then I have a hard time saying “yes.” Go figure).

I have a question for you, readers …

What in the WORLD do you do with your spices? How do you organize them?!

We just threw them haphazardly into our old cabinets before but now that we’re starting over, we’re starting with a clean slate, (or cabinets, if you want to split hairs), and I really want to try and find a place for everything; I want organization.

Only, I am NOT the most organized person, trust me. Kevin organizes me and though he’s currently working on the problem, this is the best we could come up with for our spice problem.

We went to Target last night and bought this spice rack. Which is great, and it’s nice, and it looks organized, but it only holds 16 spices.

Now please turn your attention to the plastic containers indicated in the photo – we have spices coming out our ying-yang!!

This seriously drives me nuts.

I’m trying to get away from just throwing our extras into the cabinet (which sort of negates the whole pretty spice rack thing, doesn’t it), but I don’t really see a way around it. The spices in the cabinet are the ones we use all the time. The spices in the containers are either extra spices or spices we don’t use as often.

I would never, in a million years lose sleep over this problem, but this really bugs me.

And then … AND THEN …

We have the medicine problem. We don’t have a medicine cabinet, we’ve always just stuck our medicine up in our kitchen cabinets. And we have room for them now, but again, how do I organize these suckers?? I have a whole duffel bag full of drugs (I’d take a picture but honestly, you get the idea). How in the world am I going to put them back into the cabinet in an organized fashion?

I’m having a serious brain fart here.

Kevin came home last night to find that I had NOT put the kitchen back together again like I said I was going to (he was very annoyed with me). And if you want the God’s honest truth – I was so stumped on what to do with the spices and the drugs, I simply couldn’t put anything else into the cabinets until I had figured it out.

I’m so pathetic!!

Anyway, nearly everything else is in place, I still need to store my “good” dishes, but other than that, we’ve moved back in. I have a whole box full of old/warped dishes that I was going to try and give to the Salvation Army (we’ve had some of these dishes since the 70’s!! Well, not “we”, but they were Kevin’s) and we’re on a mission to buy new pots and pans but WOW, those suckers are expensive. AND, to top it off, our stove top? Super sensitive to scratches.

Aargh!

So, we went to Target, Wal-Mart, JCPenney Home Store and Bed, Bath and Beyond looking for a skillet and a saucepan that had a smooth bottom so they wouldn’t scratch our new stove top. We found it in hard-anodized nonstick cookware. At least, we hope it won’t scratch – I’ll be cooking with it for the first time tonight.

We’ll just have to concentrate on lifting the pans straight up as opposed to scraping them along the burner when taking them off.

Oh yes. We’re being quite anal but you know, this is nice stuff, stuff that needs to last us, well, a lifetime, so we’re hell-bent on making sure it STAYS nice, you know?

In the meantime, I still have this stupid spice and medicine problem.

This domestic stuff is not as easy as it looks. lol