So Many Drafts...So Little Time
Highlights and Lowlights.
The number of drafts I have started here is astronomical at this point…this is all I could screenshot at once - the list goes on…
Most of these will never see the light of day. I seriously don’t know what I was thinking when I started an essay on the eve of the final day of school and imagined that I would write the entire thing and publish it that night. Pffffftttt. It was an entire week of the craziest ass bullshit. Like every single day was an unimaginable shit-show that had me running nonstop and doing it all week, and each day is probably an entire essay of the events.
It’s a good thing that today is therapy day. I mean, therapy day last week was an entire thing as well. My therapist is moving to a new therapy group, and there was a huge miscommunication about which place I was supposed to meet her at. ——LMFAO - I started writing this before leaving for therapy on Tuesday (5/30). And didn’t finish it. That was now a week ago. The almost exact same fucking thing happened this Tuesday as last Tuesday. She’s moving locations - last week, we set up to meet at the new location. Just before my appointment time, as I pulled into the new location, she texted, saying that she was at the old location and could switch the time to noon (the original time was 11). So, fine, I went and got some snacks and fucked around down around there until it was time for the appointment, but I didn’t realize she wanted me to come to the old place… so, we had a short session once I got to the old place. This week… we had arranged to meet at the old location until she was done there (after next week, so the next two sessions were arranged at the old location), but I got to the old location, and she was at the new location expecting me… OMFG. And this is part of the reason why I need therapy. *Now it’s the next Tuesday (6/13)… and she did text me at 10:30 pm last night to be sure that we both know we are meeting at the old location today. But, I will also text her when I’m on the way to triple-check.
Highlights/Lowlights of the last week of school through now:
Kids that didn’t want to go to school and at least one home the first three days of the week (it was the last week for god sakes!) A pointless trip to the clinic. I have two hypochondriacs. One is a drama queen who knows so much more than I do about everything. (I remember thinking a lot like this when I was a teenager, but I really never said any of it out loud…because I would have gotten an ass whooping or my face slapped).
It was a huge effort for all of us to make it through that last week of school in general.
WE WERE ON TIME FOR THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!
I finally got my car back on Thursday afternoon (6/1), after having it in a shop for SEVEN WEEKS. The hailstorm that seriously damaged my car was on April 4th. And this is how the poor get fucked and keep getting fucked (or at least one of the many ways). I didn’t have the $500 deductible to get it fixed. I was considering trying to borrow $500 from someone, or do a loan from the big car dealer here who does loans for repairs, but then I got a flyer on my car from a place advertising that they waive the $500 deductible and give you a courtesy car (that they will charge your insurance for as a rental)… I did read reviews - and I never found any that were less than a 5-star review (until deep digging the week before I got my car back). Every review said they did a great job and had a quick turnaround… They initially told me it would take up to two weeks. Around four weeks, I was convinced it was a fly-by-night company that just up and stole my car. I finally called them, and they said they were waiting for the parts to arrive.
In the meantime, the courtesy/rental car was horrible, and I grew to hate the absolute fuck out of it. It was one of those that has a push button and you have to have the keyfob on you to start it. Some days I would have to sit there trying to start it, opening and shutting the doors, and locking and unlocking the car for it to finally recognize that it was the correct key. I was unable to connect my phone to the stereo. The car's owner has to set it up with the Nissan stereo app or whatever. So, I could not use navigation, phone calls, text messages, or play decent music from my phone… then the first time I needed to charge it, I realized that it had covers stating the types of connections; one was a USB, and one was an AC or whatever. The USB thing was completely gone - there was just an empty hole beneath the cover. The AC was hanging by a small piece of plastic, but I was able to use it for a few weeks (but also had to buy a new charger for it) before that piece of plastic broke completely, and the AC thing disappeared into the oblivion of the dash never to be seen again. I couldn’t dig it out with anything. I even tried needle nose pliers. With the car off, of course. I’m imagining that may have been what happened to the USB connector as well. But, it was impossible to fish either connector out.
The day I got the call that my car was finally ready - ten minutes earlier, I was driving towards TPC (a local restaurant supply store where I buy cups and lids for my kids) and imagining myself just driving to that place and demanding my car back… then I was in line to pay for the cups when I got the call that the car was done.
Picking up the car was kind of a shitshow. Just as I got to the place, I got a text from my oldest that he was out of school early because he had finals. He thought everyone had an early out. So, I was busy trying to figure that stuff out while checking out my car. I am just glad that they didn’t find anything to charge me for, and I didn’t have a surprise payment. The outside looked great! They washed it, so it looked all shiny! The second I opened the door, I was hit with the worst barn funk garbage stench I’ve ever smelled. It about knocked me over! I was like, “Damn. I guess you didn’t clean the inside!” Then I apologized and explained that I have four kids, and one or more must have left some food in the backseat. The car sat unopened, baking in the 96-98 degree weeks we’ve had.
I was offered a $25 Amazon Gift card for leaving a 5-star review. They were out of the cards, but I could call back next week to see if they had any more… Um… I’m sure this is exactly why 99% of their reviews are 5-star. Again, they are servicing poor people, or people who don’t want to fork over the $500 deductible. I was glad they were out of the cards because I didn’t want to explain that I was going to politely decline to leave a review.
I ran off to get my oldest, and realized that the microphone for my stereo was gone. That’s how I tell my phone/carplay to do things for me while I’m driving and how I talk on the phone while en route somewhere… I’m one of those people that don’t like to make a fuss about anything. Which means I usually get the shaft. So, I’m already googling what I can do as a replacement and how much that will cost vs. going back to the place that fixed my car… BUT, I was so incredibly pissed about the whole situation that I forced myself to go back there on the way home after picking up the other kids. The person in charge of my car wasn’t there, but two of the guys there helped me. They said the person probably forgot to fish it back out from between the roof and inside… sure enough, they had it out and back in its position by my visor within two minutes, and I was glad that I had gone back. I apologized for the smell, and one of the guys ran back to my car with 7 packs of air fresheners! Hahahaha!!
It was kids’ therapy night, so after therapy, I swung through a grocery store for something quick for dinner. The store closest to my house is a fancy one that has someone take the groceries to your car for you. When I opened the hatch —— there sat a bag of garbage. THE STENCH CULPRIT!! I put the groceries in the back seat. I take bags of pop cans/bottles from my mom’s. I'm not sure what happened - maybe I wasn’t paying attention and grabbed the wrong bag or something. There were pop cans and bottles in it, but garbage as well.
I got to tell the place what the smell was when I had to go back the following Monday to tell them they forgot to put the rain guard back on the driver’s side window. One of the kids pointed it out on Saturday. I thought something looked/felt different, but hadn’t figured it out yet. They weren’t happy, but they did order a set (they can’t order individual pieces, apparently).
And today, I need to go buy a replacement bulb for the taillight they replaced the cover for… Somehow I feel like this is something else they should have checked out/replaced, but I will let this one go.
Next time my car has hail damage, I will go with it.I feel like my life has been one infestation after another. I now have a pantry moth infestation from buying bulk bird seed. I’m so incredibly NOT HAPPY. We had mice over the winter. They finally all got unalived or moved on. I started bringing food up to the kitchen when I got home from the grocery store because of the mouse issue, but now… pantry moths upstairs in the kitchen and living room. Fucking kill me now. This shit is insane. Apparently, you need to freeze your bags of birdseed for 24 hours after you get them. I do NOT have room to put two 25 lb bags of birdseed in my deep freeze! These mofos multiply by the hour. The suck is that it is so much cheaper to buy the birdseed in bulk (especially when you have eleven birds!), but after this experience, I do not think I will ever buy seed in bulk again. It costs $70 for a 25-lb bag ($2.8/lb). And $15-18 for a 3 lb bag ($5-6/lb). Time is also a factor… The bulk bags last a couple of months, maybe even three? I have to drive all the way across town to the busiest area of town to buy birdseed locally (mostly because of the brand, sure, I could get the Walmart birdseed, but it’s also not the healthiest or even close to). And with the small bags, I will have to go buy birdseed like weekly.
I already know the summer will go way too quickly, and we will have spent it doing nothing. I’m already sad about it. They are doing what they love: staying up all night, playing video games or watching YouTube videos, and sleeping all day. But, I always have and will probably always regret not doing anything special.
I had a super emotional couple of weeks. The last week of school was a hard one. It was my youngest’s last year of elementary school. I teared up dropping him on that last day. Next year, I will have one in Junior High and THREE in High School. My oldest will be a senior. I went to two friends’ kid’s grad parties the weekend after school was out (after the kids went to their dad’s on Saturday). It was just all hitting me hard that weekend. The time goes by so fast.
The best part of the last week of school was that we had been doing kid exchanges on Fridays, but the kids’ dad was out of town for a funeral and wouldn’t be back until Saturday. So, I got to do something fun with them to celebrate the end of the school year. We went to see the new Spider-Man movie!! Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse. It was awesome! Then I took them to a family-friendly brewery to enjoy a food truck meal and yard games. It was a good night, and we had some fun. They got bored pretty quickly at the brewery, which worked out great since I didn’t want to drink more than one with them out. I grabbed some to go, and we snacked on leftover movie popcorn when we got home.
I’m going to leave it on a good note. And I’m going to try to pick up one of the drafts for next time. Maybe.