The "A" word

Appalling? Apocalyptic? Awesome? Words being used to describe the oil disaster include; heartbreaking, total destruction of the marine ecosystem, horrific, impossible, amazing, startling, shocking, arresting and upsetting. Mere words cannot begin to describe the shock and awe of this catastrophic disaster. The word that is being bandied about the most about the oil spill is accountability. Everyone agrees that BP should be held accountable for everything that has happened and take full responsibility for the billions that will be needed to clean this mess up, or at least make a full press effort to clean up THEIR mess.

The one word that seems to have escaped the war of words is...."AVOIDABLE"

It is my understanding that BP bypassed the safety concerns of its employees and took the cheap way out to get at the oil at the bottom of the ocean. We need to acknowledge the 500 pound purple gorilla in the middle of the room. Really?

A BED!

I now have a full sized adult bed. I had no clue that 15" could make a girl so happy to be alive! Apparently a full is about 15" wider then a twin and what a world of difference that 15" makes! Miss Kitty can now take her half from the middle and I still have room to remain in the bed. NO ONE will fall off and it feels good to be able to spread out again. I have purchased 1" risers for under the feet so all of my storage boxes are able to fit underneath to make more storage space in my tiny room. The other great thing about a full is that my queen sized comforters and bedspreads fit perfectly on the full. The only downside to this grand bed adventure is the fact that the mattress I purchased (used) is wayyyy too firm for my tastes. So, like the twin, this is a starter mattress and when I am back to work I will invest in the perfect mattress and platform and ditch the extra height from the box spring. Baby steps for reasonable goals!

Common Sense

Recently, a group of mothers traveled to Iran to visit their children who had been arrested hiking into Iran from a neighboring country. Iran, of course, arrested them as spies and they claim, of course, that they were just innocently hiking along and happened to stumble into Iran by mistake.

Ok, you are staying in a country that borders a hostile country that may or may not shoot you on sight and you made a mistake and stumbled across the border into this hostile country? REALLY? Common sense says that if you are staying in a country that borders a very hostile country, you would make damned sure you didn't hike TOWARDS the border, but rather AWAY from that border. But that is just me and it makes perfect sense.

A no brainer REALLY?!

I LOVE the fact that everyone in Washington is spending all this time, money, energy and effort to try and determine how much oil is spilling forth into the Gulf in order to figure out if the oil executives may have lied about the damage they were causing. REALLY???? We know for a fact they lied and misled the government and the public. Does it really matter if we know exactly how much they lied? We know it is bad, how bad it is makes no difference when it comes to playing the blame game. I would think that they would all realize that it is more important to expend more effort cleaning up what is spilling instead of wasting energy and time trying to figuring out how much is spilling at any given moment. I will tell you what to do. Give each an every politician and oil executive a mop, a scoop and a bucket and tell them to argue and point fingers WHILE THEY ARE CLEANING THE SHIT UP! It seemed like a no brainer to me, but maybe that is because I have a brain and a conscience and they have neither.

A bed

I need a new bed. The twin I was lent has been highly useful and fully functional, but dammit, noone over the age of 10 should have to sleep in a twin sized bed. The rub is that you cannot just swing by Target to pick up a new bed. Anyone who orders a bed by mail is on their own if it is not comfortable. So, a trip to Ikea sounds like a great idea, but most Igo cars are subcompact at best. Once you find a vehicle big enough to haul a full-size box spring and mattress and bed frame, you have to haul it all home and assemble it. Then you must remove the old mattress set, unless you were smart enough to take it out before you bring the new bed home. It makes me tired to just think of it, but every time I crawl into my 3.5' high twin sized bed, I think to myself, dammit, I need a new bed.

Prom is done!

OMG I forgot what a whirlwind event prom is. Ian came to town to take his gf to prom at Naperville Central. Between the tux and the dress and the flowers and the pics and the shoes.... it tires me to just think about it! We celebrated Ian's birthday yesterday at Olive Garden. Nothing says happy birthday like unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks and waiters singing happy birthday. It was good to see both Ian and the parents and Ian's gf is a cutie. I am glad to see he likes a girl with some meat on her bones and is not dating a stick figure. I am just glad it is all over and will start prepping for graduation in June.

Oh yeah, the smell thing.

As I went to bed last night, I smelled a cheap cheesy flowery smell and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Turns out it was my clothes. I ran out of fabric softener sheets while doing laundry so I got a pack of the cheapest ones they had at the neighborhood grocer across the street. You get what you pay for....LOL

OMG my body hates me, and what is that smell?

I finished moving all my stuff when I unpacked Nikka's car on Monday. I spent all day Saturday moving and 8 hours cleaning and finishing packing on Sunday. I spent most of the day Monday unpacking. Tuesday I spent 3.5 hours at the laundromat washing about 8 large loads of laundry. Bedding, clothes, towels, duvet cover, comforter, etc. I wound up "abandoning" two laundry baskets of stuff that I wouldn't use or didn't want. As I unpack my closet, I am weeding through my clothes, yet again. I am committed to downsizing my life and feel the weight of too much shit lifting off of me every day.

The ONE thing I need to increase is the size of my bed. The whole bed thing is now the stuff of Monty Pythonesque humour. The twin bed sits on a wood platform that allows me to store stuff under the bed. The bed is now 3 feet off the ground. Picture this little, tiny twin that is so tall I have to place my portable safe next to the bed to climb up each night. Yes, it is a total hoot and one of my roommates may or may not have taken pics to post online. I went to the Ikea website and it appears that a full sized bed is the same length as a twin but is 15" wider. I will be able to keep the queen sized comforters and quilts I love while giving Miss Kitty a little more room on the bed. Anyone with a pet will tell you that they take their half out of the middle.

Full steam ahead!

The move is on! A group of college boys rented my "3 bedroom" apartment, apparently for $1350 a month so I am paying a pro-rated rent amount and moving out on Saturday. Yes, the boys actually saw the place. I was here and they were told, by me, in no uncertain terms, this is not legally a 3 bedroom and that the dishwasher was coming with me. Because they needed the place on May 10, I was willing to accommodate them by moving out on Saturday the 8th. :-)

I still have that last bit of packing to go and Brown Elephant is coming on Friday with a truck for the big stuff that did not sell. Anyone need a dining room table and 6 chairs?

As much as I dread the physical move part, I am looking forward to a fresh start on life.

As a small aside to the fresh new start part, I have a funny (?) aside to mention. Apparently he who must not be named, brought the order for child support to Texas and then demanded that they enforce it because Illinois was taking too long to send the checks or something. Texas did not bother to check with Illinois and because I was paying directly through Illinois, as court ordered, Texas had me $4800 in arrears. I was recently denied a passport as a dead beat parent in Texas, even though Illinois agreed that not only was I current, but I was actually ahead of the game by $178. So, Texas may or may not enforce my order, but the funny part comes in now. IF Texas decides to "enforce" my Illinois order, I would continue to pay my support to Illinois, who then, in turn, would mail the check to Texas, who would then cut a check to him. This will actually slow down the payments by up to a week.