And in extra stupendous randomness

Okay the move and working are getting me back to feeling like a grown up.  The house closing is hopefully less than a week away so I will officially be a homeowner type person.  In October there's a piece of land next to the house we are buying coming up for sale that we want to purchase to build a one or two car garage on so I can quit parking on gravel and mom can quit freaking out about me stepping out into the empty yard.  She wants to enclose the front porch and have that connect to the new garage.  I truly don't care truth be told.  It would be nice to have a place to pull the car out of the snow but that's about it for my concerns about it.  There are some other minor things that we want to do that will basically be pick a project every few months or once a year kind of thing.  I kinda hate the wood laminate floors in the kitchen.  They look nice but really don't like them under my feet.

All of that is well and good and some things that I expected to be more expensive are actually cheaper.  Waiting to see what the utilities end up looking like, especially the gas bill in the winter but other than that so far I'm enjoying the move.  What I'm not enjoying is all this extra alone time with mom cause she's making me remember all the alcoholic beverages I love to enjoy.  Like for real I'm experimenting with new things and keep buying things that I just have to open and enjoy because she is seriously killing my desire to take things and mix them up.

Beyond the empty calories I have been enjoying a WHOLE lot of tennis.  I swear in a past life I must have been a tennis champion because I can really watch tennis for hours on end as long as it's not Nadal or Federer on my screen.  And I will even tolerate Fed depending on who is is playing (and hopefully it's beating Nadal and his ass mining shorts crap).  So in my final poll for the day I am asking you about sports and your consumption.

Have a great weekend all

Wash Day & Updates

So I didn't take any photos cause I was being lazy but let's start with the run down and I will share more if you ask.  I have been lazy prepooing since I don't have to be anywhere most days and that means I've been doing it MUCH longer than normal.  Remember before when I said my hair hates overnight prepoos?  Yeah apparently I forgot and while my hair soaked up the moisture like a sponge the back of my hair tangled like no body's business.  I know some of the hair loss was just natural shed hair since I wasn't manipulating my hair very much over the course of the week but there more knots than I like to see in my hair.  In what can only be counter intuitive for my hair I am going to have to keep my hair straighter and pin it up the further along in my stretch.  Either that or do what I saw on another blog recently and start investing in good wigs while my hair stays braided and protected underneath.  I've been thinking about that more with the impending move but I really have no idea how to pick a good wig so I'm going to have to ask for help and suggestions with that one the next time I see my stylist.  Anyhoo, after I detangled--made sure I sat down so I wouldn't just get impatient and tug until my hair fell out, I put some more conditioner on my ends and then just rolled it up on flexirods after I tied down my edges.  I think I can do a small or low bun for the next week or two but that means some youtube tutorials are in my future cause really I am totally not good at the styling part of taking care of my hair.  I can do simple things, and yes I know a bun is simple, but you're talking to someone whose hair hasn't been this long since like elementary school before the tragedy--don't ask, it wasn't that bad but my mother thinks it was.

This will probably be the shortest Mother's Day blurb EVER but have a great day to all the moms that stop by the blog, or moms in training or moms of the future.  Whenever I think of joining your ranks my own mother makes me go why on EARTH would you want to do that.  Today was no exception let's just be glad I bought all the gifts for her and my SIL earlier.

Thanks to the Blue Grumpster I'm going to make sure I update the pages that are along the top of the page.  Some things have happened that require updates to at least one of the pages--two or more I think but I can't be sure lol.  I'll also update the hair and weight loss sections too cause I've been slipping on those as well.  Have a good one everyone.  If you have any suggestions for tutorials or questions you want to ask, or wig stores I should check out just let me know.  Back to basketball and Shooter.

Ego is Bruised and Battered and there are no cute bartenders in my house

I'm tired ladies (and gents--if you visit I'm not sure you do).  I did a quick run to the grocery store so I could start on my hair and haven't touched it since I got home.  Been hanging out on the net and watching tv and arguing about things I'm passionate about which led to a snippy comment from someone I really don't know well but given everything else that has happened today it was just enough to go ahead and shut me down.

You all know, I think you do anyway, that my mother lives with me and has for almost a decade.  When I was on internship I got a frantic call from one of my aunts who said my mother was dying.  I was 28 years old and was confronted with the possibility that before I turned 29 both of my parents would be dead.  We lost my father in May of 2001 so in November of 2004 I was prepared to swear off all holidays and become a hermit.  I managed to make it home and find out that no she wasn't dying but she did have a pretty nasty brain tumor that had to be removed.  Surgery was fine, only one seizure--which is how we found out that she had the tumor in the first place--post surgery and possibility of full recovery.  Well physically she's mostly okay at this point.  She gets tired when she needs to walk too far and using the shopping cart to support her instead of a walker cause that would mean she was old.  Mentally and emotionally though totally different story.  She's my mother so while she drives me crazy I won't put her out but it has taken everything in me some days to not seriously consider her dropping her off at adult day care for a day or twelve.  She does inconsiderate things, flat out rude things and inconceivable things routinely and it has impacted our relationship of course but more than that it has strained her relationship with my brother and sister in law.  Mom doesn't work because of the memory issues she has had post surgery so they want her to visit the grandkids and mom is quite positive my sister in law is just this shy of satan so she refuses to go without me.  Granted I haven't been working lately but yeah kinda have to conserve funds for the move.  I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with what happened today.  I was just trying to give you appropriate back story.

Why Raising a 61 Year Old is Hard or I Wish I had money for shoes

I know I've mentioned that mom lives with me and I think I mentioned why.  Regardless, today after I got up early and reached out to the job site about what I would need in order to take the position I got a knock on my door.  My mother was sad and accusatory because my sister in law had reached out about her lack of visiting and was very upset.  They know my mother is difficult at times but I don't think they fully understand that her emotionally maturity level is probably around the same point as their kids.  If she can't get what she wants how she wants it then she doesn't want it and won't go to whatever it is.  I get why they are upset, I need a break from her and would be happy for her to spend more time with her grand kids.  I've said as much but every year post surgery she gets more and more obstinate about what she is willing to tolerate and how long she is willing to visit if I won't be there.  These moments make me miss dad all the more because he LOVED kids and would be all over the grandfather thing. Oh well.

I really want these shoes but either can't find them in my size or can't find them without paying 60 bucks on them--yeah can't do that for Oxfords I saw in Marshall's for 16 bucks.  So if you see a sale or the other pair in a size 9 please let me know.

I watched mom buy a honking big tv, what did you do today?

Today started out great and it's kinda wrapping up that way but let me just say the middle made me want to hit people.  I actually went to bed before midnight last night and I slept THROUGH the night.  I didn't wake up till about 7:30 and that was for a potty break.  I stayed up after 8 for some unknown reason but it felt good to not be going to sleep at six in the morning.

I knew I was going to take mom to the store because if I didn't I'd hear whining from here to eternity about how I NEVER (read not the minute she wants to go) take her anywhere (read everywhere under the freaking sun).  Her tantrum started with the trip to the neighborhood market instead of the big Wal-mart and I mean she seriously got out of the car muttering about how they never have what she wants (what she wants usually doesn't actually exist in reality by the way) and never price match anything (and that's never in that it's been so long since she went into neighborhood market she forgot they do it readily).  After that excursion was done it was off to another small chain grocery store--cause she didn't try to price match anything at the neighborhood market--for bacon.  She came out with bacon, fruit, muffins and other crap I couldn't easily detect.  I needed to see if I could find a purse box that I made for my linesisters previously because one went to a bad address and was either tossed or kept but it wasn't returned.  Hobby Lobby let me down so I was ready to pull out and head home before someone wanted fast food.  Before I could even get to the road though she saw a store that just advertised tvs for sale that she remembered as we passed the sign.  I should have said no but since I'm home so much right now I really don't like fighting.  Of course she beelined for the most ridiculously large one and after hemming and hawing and being lied to by the salesman about what smart tvs do and how cable is going to magically disappear in 5 years she purchased a tv that will occupy my living room.  That's not a pun it's freaking huge.  You could serve dinner for six on that thing.  She tried to offer me the 50 inch model--that isn't really 50 inches I don't think--for my room.  Yes we have a 50 inch tv and she wanted yet a bigger one. I said no like I had the previous 12 times it's been offered.  That will have to hang out in her room with her.  I moved the Wii back into my room and I doubt it's returning to the living room because now there's no room for it and I really don't want to support what I see as a ridiculous waste of money.

I'm sure I didn't mention it but I have a new phone interview on Monday.  I'm trying to decide if I want to dye my hair since technically it's on the computer not the phone.  I'm going to share some snaps of my gray, well as much as this camera will capture.  The roots are much more salt and pepper than the length of course but I'm mostly okay with it.  Mom thinks it makes me look older than 37 and that people don't want to hire old people.  I don't look old enough to fall into old people lol but I'll take your feedback.  I'm probably going to see my hairdresser before my next trip for a wash and set.  I'm going to keep on my relaxer schedule.  Despite the up and down part of the day I came home to another round of goodies from Ferrero Rocher and Influenster since I had been such a good blogger during that campaign last fall.  I super love these things when they are cold.  So the other sleeves--yeah I finished one decompressing so sue me lol--are going into the freezer.

Yeah Me!

This isn't a humble brag but just better management of my life and my emotions.  Mom was still in tantrum mode even though she was doing it on the low key tip lol.  She cooked at some point but by 9 I realized she hadn't knocked on the door, as is our routine, to say hey food is ready.  When I asked she didn't apologize for not saying a word and this is the point that I'd normally go off the rails cause she was just being rude as all get out lol.  Tonight, however, I said okay and hopped in the car to head to Zaxby's.  I let Christina and Blake serenade me the entire trip which was good.  I brought my food in and then booted up the Wii again.  30+ more minutes in tonight.  So far that's a little over an hour for the week and 2 of the 4 days of the month lol.  I did more yoga and strength exercises tonight to loosen up the muscle that got tight from working out yesterday.  But it felt good and I enjoyed it.  I ate later than I wanted to but ehh.  I'll probably stay up later than I want too.  Either way I felt much calmer by the time I was done and now I feel like I should squeeze in another workout tomorrow before I leave for the interview on Sunday.  Tomorrow will be wash day and I'm going to use the Fruit Smoothie face mask I got from Influenster.com.  I would do it tonight but I'm too lazy to take photos. 

Wash Day Interrupted

Ahh the joys of having a spry and slightly crazy mother living with you.  As I was prepping for my shower to wash out the prepoo I had frantic knocking on my door.  Since it wasn't stopping I went out to see what she wanted.  Kohl's was having a sale on towels.  They were 99 cents and stuff and we needed to go right now.  Except my hair is pseudo wet from the prepoo and I was not in the mood to have deep conditioner and Strong Roots on the inside of a winter cap so I said let's just do it later or tomorrow.  Wash went well.  I'm still using my huge rake from hotcombs.net along with my small comb from them for the final detangle.  The middle step is still being done with the oil infused thick seamless comb from Folica.com.  Very little hair came out during the three comb detangle and I got it set on flexi rods pretty quickly after I went to the Kohl's side to check on these fabulous sale towels.

Don't get me wrong I'm a sucker for a good sale on towels.  I LOVE the huge bath sheets when I can get them for under 15 bucks each and figured if it was a good sale we'd both benefit.  Yeah that's until I started reading the reviews.  Cheap is good, cheap and falling apart or shoddy is not.  When only about half of the people that have purchased the towels would recommend them that's a big red flag for me.  After showing that to her she declined to go out into the cold to go hunting for towels that kept getting reports of falling apart attached to them.  Back on the great towel hunt for us both.

I won't be able to wash next Sunday since I'll be traveling for the job interview on Monday but I guess Saturday will have to do unless I can sneak a co-wash in on Friday and just leave my hair set on Saturday until I leave on Sunday.  Who knows?  I'll try to take a picture of whatever my hair turns into tomorrow and post it along with my end of year/beginning of new year babbling.  Have a good one unless it's already New Year's eve for you and in that case drink heavily for me while I'm sleeping.

Accepting That My Mother is Crazy & Other Resolutions

This year has lead to a lot of surprising things.  I finally left a job that was stealing my joy and found a new one quickly thankfully which let me figure out my next moves.  I've started teaching again which while busy is so much more fun than working just the one job I had prior to now.  I've started making moves to get myself closer to my family and out in the job market in general.  I'm also trying to restart my research too which is necessary if I ever want to get a full time teaching position ever.

After lots of frustration and no major changes in sight, I ended another long-term relationship.  I thought about it a few weeks ago and over the last decade I've been in a relationship with nothing in the way of progression.  And in an ironic twist there's nothing to really accuse the other person of doing that made it crash and burn.  Circumstances and commitments can screw up the best laid plans.  So now I'm single, no munchkins and I still have a crazy old lady living with me (even though I doubt she'd ever hold up her end of the bargain about leaving for two years after I got married).  Speaking of McCrazy I have now realized that no matter what I do, say, think, or imagine my mother is going to continue to behave like a hormonal teenager.  She has made almost every conversation we've had in the last two months into an argument about some perceived slight that I inflict but not doing x.  The next conversation when I do x she's mad about y.  And I can avoid fictional thing, x, and y there is g to look out for.  Yes I know that's not z but there's nothing logical about these conversations at all.  It's very frustrating but if I want to remain mostly mentally healthy and out of jail I really am just going to have to ignore her.  It's not an ideal way to coexist but nothing else I've tried has worked.  My resolution for 2013 is to just let her tantrums go by the way side.  Ok moving on.  And this post may be long so you've been warned, just stop now if you're easily bored by lots of babbling.