Family

... and be even more careful of things you casually mention to yourself.  **sigh**

On the way back from the conference in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago, I was commenting to myself that I like driving on country expressways because it gives me lots of thinking time. ...  But I didn't mean I wanted to drive to another damn funeral!!  Especially one of a 20-yo kid.  **bad words**

My cousin's kid was driving a company truck, crossed the center-line on a curve and smacked a semi full of sheet metal head-on.  Cousin's kid was the father of two kids of his own.

This isn't going to be a pleasant trip.  **sigh**  But necessary.

Toward the end of last week, my uncle died.  I wasn't ever close to him, because they never lived close to us and I really wasn't going to go, but my father asked if I'd bring his other sister down to the funeral.

Well, as sometimes happens, the universe intervened and by the end of a constant couple days of changing plans, it turned out the weather was too bad for my aunt to come.  Which left me with a decision to go on my own, or not.  I pondered it Monday evening and Tuesday morning, then decided that since I had everything I arranged, I might as well go.

The 9+ hour drive was uneventful.  I got sucked into a couple antique stores on the way down and only spent $12, which I think is a record.  :-)  But I did get a huge kick out of the dining room set with a listed price of $145,000.00.  And, no, I didn't misplace a decimal point... the dining room set (buffet, china cabinet, silver chest, table, 10 chairs) costs more than my house is worth.  :-)  I'll post pictures if I can figure out how to get the pictures off my phone.

I had a good time with my family.  It was very nice to see my parents, brothers and cousins.

And this morning a left for home... and got as far as Newton, IA before I called it quits.  I'm an experienced winter driver... enough to know when it's just damn stupid to be on the road.  So I'm now holed up in a hotel and Iowa is pulling plows off the roads.  I'm not counting on getting out of here before noon tomorrow, if then.

But I've got TV, internet, fast food within walking distance, and a book to read, so I'm set.

This morning I worked through the details of how the hero saved the day and the consequences thereof.  Which left me with all the tons of stuff that needs to be foreshadowed, which is what I've been waiting for.  Because how can I know what scenes I need to write before I know what scenes need to be foreshadowed.  So, tons of work, but now I have a direction.

Good news/bad news, this also led me to yet another book, as one of the side characters suddenly became much more interesting.  *sigh*  Just what I need.

Also good news/bad news, in the last week I've gotten direction on several other major projects... my "I hate computers" project has finally turned itself around, plus several others.  Which in a way is good, as I like having specific things to do and goals to work towards... except that I didn't need them to all come to fruition in the same week!!

On top of that, my father called yesterday and asked a huge favor, which he rarely does. So, since he's a great father, plus the fact that he's been my sole financial support for the last six months... I wasn't about to turn him down.  But it means that I'm gone from Tuesday of this week through Saturday.  So all my plans to get to work on all these projects this week, which I had free before my contract job starts back up, just got all shot to hell.

Oh well, if nothing else, life remains interesting.  And now I'm off to take #1-son back to school for his last semester of college before he graduates... scary thought.

There are not words enough to describe "Avatar", especially on a IMAX screen in 3D.  WOW!!!

My eldest who is learning this technology in school is so blown away he's wordless.

And I'm now mom of the millennia.  :-)  Especially since I promised I'd take them back and get there earlier to get better seats.  :-)

Christmas eve: alone in the house, christmas music playing, christmas tree glittering on the presents underneath, crab and scallops for dinner, and now curled up on the couch with a dog and two cats, bite-sized cream puffs, a bottle of bailey's, and a great book... life doesn't get any better than this.

Tomorrow kids will be back from Ex's house, and we'll do presents and huge dinner, afterwards they will play video games and do noisy kid-stuff, and that will be nice too, in a different way.

But tonight, I'm so alone-time-deprived that this really hits the spot.

I've been playing with Jara's plot, and this morning I finally pinned down the black moment.  I knew it on some level, but today I finally put it into words.  Which is going to help because now I know where I'm going... which is going to make it easier to get there.  :-)

But I'm mostly caught up with last minute Christmas stuff, so I may not have time to do much with this for a while.  We shall see.

Kids and I drove back yesterday from spending Thanksgiving in Texas with my family.  We celebrated my folks' 50th wedding anniversary, and they wanted all the kids there, so we sat 22 for T'giving dinner.

The trip down was uneventful.  Finally got all the kids out of school by Tuesday noon and the car packed and we left at 1:30pm... and arrived at 3:45am.  This was the first time we drove the trip straight through, usually we do it in two days.  But I couldn't get kids out early from school, so we had to do it in a day.  The pat on the back for me is that I let the three kids do all the driving, which is a huge concession for a control-freak like me.  They did a good job and we arrived safe and sound. (Read more)

Blessings upon my boss for being understanding.

So, starting off with that, I worked today, because I really needed the money, unfortunately having to work didn't negate everything else that had to be done today, so I actually didn't even start working until 4pm today.  But I put in four hours on not-critical-but-useful stuff for work, so that's good. 

And before 4pm, I actually got a fair number of things checked off my to-do list for today.  Make note, that was only today's to-do list, not the overall to-do list, but I guess every little bit helps.

It also helped that today I realized I've been wallowing in victim-mode for the last few days.  When I recognize what's going on, I can deal with it, and as soon as I realized what was up, I knew why I was thinking that way, so I'm now working on thinking a more productive way.  It's not an immediate fix, but it's a start. (Read more)

About 1/2 hour ago I kicked #1-son and #3-son out of the house... "Go someplace else!"  Since #2-son is in Texas, and #4-son is with friends, I now have the house to myself for the first time in... (checking calendar)... 7 weeks.

Literally, I've had at least one kid home every moment for the last seven(!) weeks.

No wonder I haven't gotten a damn thing accomplished!

For the last seven-plus years, at the very least, I've had at least one evening a week, plus every other weekend, kid-free.  And during the school year I have school-time kid-free.  Even after my kids blew up at their father, I had the school days kid-free.

But now it's summer, and they haven't talked to their father in weeks if not months (depending on kid)... and I haven't had a kid-free minute in seven weeks!

No wonder I can't edit. (Read more)

This last weekend marked the 7th anniversary of my move out of the marital house and into my own house.  We didn't officially get divorced until over a year later, but for most purposes, last weekend marked the 7th anniversary of my divorce... the end of my 7th year of raising four sons on my own.  It's very scary how fast time flies.

I look back on what I've accomplished in the last seven years, and groan because outwardly it sure isn't very much.  No book published.  The house still needs massive work. I'm in just as much debt now as I was then, if not more so. No outward professional success...  no outward much of anything... (Read more)