Saturday, June 30, 2007

it's like voodoo

I get all stressed out about my mom and my crazy sister and my stomach feels crappy. Like not hungry but still full. And my shoulders are tight. I called again today and my mom said things were up in the air, like Karen might rent a furnished one-bedroom on her own with some check she claims is coming from California. Like they forgot to forward her mail from her PO box. Then the check will be lost. Hum de dum. Heard this before.

On a much lighter note, we went to see Lyle Lovett and kd lang at Hill Auditorium Thursday. kd has a fabulous voice and Lyle's band is indeed Large. At one point there was Lyle, a drummer, a conga guy, a guy at a grand piano, a pedal steel player, a fiddler, a mandolin player, a guitarist, a cellos player, Francine Reed and three guy backup singers, one of which was Sweet Pea Atkinson who sang with the Boneshakers. It was a great show. We ate at Conor O'Neill's before.

Last night, I volunteered at rally by the river. Question Mark and the Mysterians played and they were great and then Ian McLagan and the Bump Band played and they sucked. But it was a lovely night to be outside and I was home in bed by 11.

Today, I washed the floor in the living room. Last weekend, I did the green room. Just a few more square feet and those floors will look like buttah.

I should probably recognize this turn of events with Karen as a sign to get out now. How far away is far enough, I asked my boss. He said, "Mexico."

Thursday, June 28, 2007

not really my problem

OMG I called my mom this morning who had left a message last night when I was outside and I talked to her and she said was I coming down Sunday to help pack up the storage closet because they're moving Monday and then she says Karen needs a bed, did I have one, which I do have a twin in the basement but how would I get that down there? and then Karen has the nerve to get on the phone and say how when they do the credit check for the apartment, since she doesn't have a job yet, she wondered if they could call ME and I told her absolutely not, I'm not being any part of any financial deal for her because I am still annoyed how I gave her all that money to move to California for 4 months and she blew that, so she screams JUST FORGET IT THEN, WE DON'T NEED SHIT FROM YOU and hung up.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

one week later

I have not talked to my mom since that phone call when she said she was moving in with my sister. Let sleeping dogs lie, I say.

Went to the Crosby Garden gala, bought a lovely necklace and bracelet. And some earmuffs. Went to Surly Bob's wedding party at Otsego Park Saturday. The Welders were chastised to play softly because of all the babies and children there. Mowed, did two radio shows, watered, had some burgers and potato salad with some wimmen. Bought some used CD's at Finders: reggae, Austin Lounge Lizards, Dr. John, Jimmy Vaughan, some blues compilation.

Amy's birthday is July 6 and we're going to Schedel Arboretum and then to the Jolly Roger in Port Clinton for perch. I'm working the Fourth to take that Friday off.

Didn't go see Jimmy Thackery at Mickey Finn's. Probably not going to see Jimmy Burns at Hines Farm this weekend.

Going to see kd lang and Lyle Lovett Thursday in Ann Arbor. Looking forward to a weekend without many commitments.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

more signs of the apocalypse

Tonight I called my mom and lo and behold my sister is getting back to Ohio on Saturday and then she and my mom are moving into some apartment THIS MONDAY in Delaware. So good luck to them. I hope this works out for them. My mom swears she will not pay more than she's paying now ($224 a month, no utilities) and she'll have Karen's 3 cats to hang around with and you know how THEY SAY it's so good for old people to have pets.

SO ANYWAY, it's just the beginning of what I see as a giant CLUSTER FUNK where I will have to pay some money. Sometime. I did tell my mom that I would move her furniture. OMG why do these people do this to me? I'm such a nice girl.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

OMFG

So I go to Delaware today, where BTW they have taken down the Marching To Victory Vacation Bible School sign so I didn't get a good picture. And my mom says my sister has called last night to say she's getting evicted from where she lives on Tuesday. Next Tuesday. The woman has been out there in CA all of 4 months and she can't pay the rent. So my mom says that maybe Karen will move back to Ohio and LIVE IN APARTMENT WITH MY MOM. And we discuss the financial arrangements of this, which I point out are VERY BAD.

Mind you, this woman has gone to California with a dog and 3 cats, saying she has a job LA TEE DA and now, four months later, she has thrown in the towel.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. Just 15 minutes ago Karen calls me TO APOLOGIZE for everything she's put me through (like about $3,000 not counting the $12,000 car I am paying off). And then she meanders on about not being able to FIND HER CENTER and that since Daddy died (in 1985), the family has just fallen apart and what do you have if you don't have family and that she guesses she will be living in her car for a while and that she LOVES ME because I'm her BIG SISTER (she said that part twice) and you know, you can call me a bitch, but I told her that your center is where you are and that for all you thinking someplace geographic is where you should be, THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. I did not offer financial assistance or any clue as to what she should do now.

PLUS she tells me that my mom doesn't want to move to BG but she feels bad about me coming down there every Sunday and plus she has no one around for emergencies. So instead of packing anything up today and loading prior to the planned-for June 30 move, I left her with a bunch of boxes that she may or may not be using to move in with my sister, assuming she can find enough money to drive across the USA with her menagerie in the vehicle I own.

BUT YOU KNOW, I am still the happiest girl in the world, thanks to all of you are reading this. Party on.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The usual too much of everything

So the latest is I'm moving my mom up here June 30. Got a moving company scheduled. The worst case scenario is that she can't get into the apartment up here right away and she has to stay here for a while with her belongings in storage. Really, how could this be any worse than March.

So here's what's coming up:

June

16-17 Jazz fest (not going)

22 Crosby gala

23 Bob and dottie's wedding reception

28 Kd and lyle at Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor

30 move mom/full moon

July

4 not off

6 off

7 lyle and judy pond party

12 dylan at the zoo

21 kim and jim pond party

28 tunafest

August

4 Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty

Band at the RibFest

17-18 Ribberfest in Madison, IN

September

Five weekends: labor day (Joe Bonnamassa in St. Mary's), swamp, NYC, home, PIB

Going to New York again for the big ABC meetings so I'll go on Saturday to hang with the child

Put in Bay party that last weekend and then

it's

Harvest Party, Halloween, the HOLIDAYS OMG


It's pretty much all I can do is laundry and dishes and food procurement. Because there is just continual hanging out with one friend or another. Not that I'm complaining.


Listening to Todd Snider "Viva Satellite" which Jenks bought off half.com because it's hard to get and it's the last Todd CD we didn't have.


We tried to buy a wedding present for Bob and Dottie at kohls.com but it wouldn't deliver on time so tomorrow night I will stop in there and see if they have the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer, which is what we planned to get them.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

June, OMG

Today I went to see my mom. Who has agreed to move up here, so I've been researching places she can be like Abundant Living in Perrysburg or Cedar Park here in BG. Today, we went to the Waldo cemetery where my mom's parents and her sister and her brother are buried. We put flowers on all those grave. I put this Stella d'Ora lily on my aunt's grave. Ada Ruth. Her sisters were named Marjorie Jean, Blanche Geraldine and Arlene Mae. The boys were William and Donald.



Listening to Raul Malo "I Love You for Sentimental Reasons." Drinking white wine and Perrier.

As I drive home every week from my mom's, the other drivers are hideous. Why does some guy think, because HE'S going 67, that he just HAS to pass that semi going 65? Can he not see that I am already in the passing lane going 78????? Plus that part of 75 from Findlay to BG is like the racetrack from Hell. I have to get off at Cygnet and onto 25. Stubbs will recall that I was on the phone with him during that section a few weeks ago and was privy to my bellowing "Get out of my WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY."

Today as I was leaving, Mrs. CL next door came out and I told her I was going to take my mom to some cemetery in Waldo to put flowers on various graves. She told me again about her trip to BG's Oak Grove on Memorial Day where her parents and her husband are buried. Then she says, "You know, we were only married for 10 or 11 years." I must have looked puzzled because she went on to say her first husband was an *ass* . She whispered *ass*. And that the second guy had adopted her daughter as his own. Then she started to segue into a familiar story about some inheritance from the *bitch* wife of her first husband.

Rain Rain Rain! Yay, I thought it never would. But this evening, it's been a deluge here in BG. Between Clay and Curtice Sts.

I've revised my retirement plan. I'll write a blockbuster novel in a few years! Gee, it seems so simple.

Memorial Day

So Doug had this slamming chair, that lounged back in a perfect position and had this excellent tray for, uh, stuff.

Here's Phil making an entrance with a fully folded out chair.


Hi, Chip!

The girls. What DO they talk about?


Donna's butt, which she claimed she had been working off. Looks like that's true.


No pictures please!!!!!!!


A coleus planter.

The lovely Christine. For some reason, I felt obligated to capture the entire Parsons clan.


And, of course, the chow. Meat, Amy's potatoes.


Connie's ensalada caprese, as Gus called and Annette said she thought he was mixing two foreign languages, as he was. So continental, that Gus. Martha's cucumbers, Deb Helmboldt's cole slaw, Chip's beans and rice.


The requested beans, and all those chips. TWO potato salads.


Here's what a plateful looked like.


Cards were played.


Donna thought it would be HIlarious if people all brought beans so here's hers.