My 13
I know this is going in early, but who knows if I am going to have time on the correct day. So here it is.

1. I moved from a three family house that we converted into a 2 family in a junky section of town to a junky house in a great section of town when I was 9. My parents did a ton of work to the house and recently sold it for a huge amount of money.

2. I met my best friend when we moved into that house. Her family life was kind of a mess, so my family treated her like she was one of us. She still calls my parents Mom and Dad. We have been friends for over 25 years.

3. My grandmother moved into the house with us. Her and my Grandfather lived with us at the old house too, they had the bottom floor apartment and I spent most of my time with them. My Grandfather died so Grammy came with us when we moved.

4. My grandfather was not actually my real grandfather. My father’s real father died when dad was 16. Al was the only grandfather I ever really knew,( My moms dad died when I was really young so I barely remember him). He treated my siblings and I like we were his. He was the best.

5. I was named after my grandmother. She passed away shortly before my second wedding. My daughter still insists she sees her once in a while

6. My grandmother eventually moved in with her two sisters. They use to have conversations about me in Lithuanian, thinking I couldn’t know what they were saying. I knew. You couldn’t be around them as much as I was and not pick up some of the language. I can’t speak it, but I know the key words.

7. My grandmother died of a brain tumor. She thought I was still married to my ex-husband and living on a second floor balcony when she died. I never corrected her. I never told her about my soon to be second husband either. She wouldn’t have understood, but I still feel guilty

8. I come from a long line of large families. My mom was one of nine. Her mom was one of 12. My dad only has one brother, but his mom had somewhere around 20 siblings, a lot of whom died at birth or shortly after.

9. My Dads parents were both immigrants. Him from France, her from Lithuania. My dad has a receipt of the bedroom set they bought when they got married. Two dressers, a bed with mattress, mirror and nightstands with matching chest…$7

10. My mom’s family owned and operated a large bakery. My grandfather invented diet bread, which was thinly sliced and later, became known as Hollywood bread. He also was the first in the United States to sell English muffins. He also invented a machine, which is still used in commercial bakeries, which slows the bacterial growth and mold in bakery products. There are rumors that he was a rum distiller during prohibition.

11. My Moms childhood home was bought by a man who turned the 18 room Victorian into condos. He invited the family over to see the transformation before he started selling it off. I refused to go. I was told he painted the mahogany staircase in the library/foyer white, along with most of the original woodwork. The stained glass accent windows were replaced with modern windows. He took out the private phone booth and dumbwaiter, as well as the single person, manual elevator. A person in a wheelchair could wheel into the elevator and haul himself or herself up to one of the other floor by pulling on the ropes. We were never allowed to use this lift, as my grandmother was afraid the ropes where so old, they would snap if we stood in there

12. When I was a child, my cousins and I were told that there was a hidden door along the fireplace in one of the 2 living rooms of the house. We spent hours looking for a loose brick or some other sign of an adventure to follow. I think we were told this only to give the adults some peace and quiet during our visits. I have 96 cousins on my moms side and between all of us, we couldn’t find a thing except for one loose brick with nothing secret behind it. We did find a secret staircase at the back of a closet, which went up to the third floor and attic. We also found a little door, which led to what use to be the “summer kitchen”. At that point, it was just an empty storage area. My mom had a housekeeper when she was child. Her name was Mame, but my mom doesn’t remember her using the summer kitchen either. She does remember being horribly bored on Mame’s days off. Mom and my aunts would follow Mame around and pretend they were domestic help too

13. There was one room on the third floor of the house that was shrouded in black velvet. That room was a mystery to all of us kids and no one dared to look into it. As it turned out, it belongs to my uncle Len, who had passed away. My grandmother put the black velvet over the door in one of those antiquated mourning rituals. We later heard that she has covered the mirror in the room also. I always wished I had found the nerve to look into that room. That house was a treasure trove for junior explorers

Saying No
I have a hard time saying no to animals. Not while training them, just in general. People have offered me ferrets, cats , dogs, a monkey and an alligator. I did manage to say no to the gator and the monkey, but most of the time I am just a big pushover. My kids have brought home squirrels, mice, bugs and other assorted creepy crawlies. My husband brought home rats from the pet store once. We had a pet crab we found at the beach. Last week, my hubby was cleaning up the yard and a young cat came to him and started rubbing on his leg. He patted her for a while, then ignored her. He build a fire in the pit, then sat in a chair. She jumped in his lap. She was skinny so he fed her. Then he came in the house. She meowed all night long. The next day, she was still hanging around the house so my son hooked her up with a cat carrier and a bunch of blankets. Being New England, it was warm during the day, but dropped at night. She was still here the next moring. After school, my daughter brought her around the neighborhood trying to find her owner. She found out the some people had moved out a week or so before and left the cat behind. By the time my daughter came back with the kitty, it was snowing. The cat came in the house. WE put her in our living room in the cat carrier, just for the night. Now this whole time, hubby is saying "we're not keeping her, find her a place to go". So after work I e-mailed everyone, looked around on line and called every shelter trying to find one with a "no kill" policy with no luck. I went into our living room and found hubby on the couch with his ponytail draped over the kitty, while she was pawing at his hair. I asked him what he named her. He insisted we are not keeping her. He went out for a little while and when he came back, he said he wanted to keep her. He named her Abigail. The other cat we have will adjust, but Abby is the sweetest little girl ever. She loves attention and gets along great with the dogs. Its nice to have a cat that you can pat and not fear for your hand. Our other cat Kiwi is a demon. The only reason we still have her is my son. They are very attached to each other. Kiwi is my sons cat and Abby is everyones cat. I think 2 cats and 2 dogs should hold us over for a while.

How I spent my day
I was in a first aid class from 8:00 this morning til 3:15 this afternoon. The good news is, if anyone has a heart attack when I am around, I would probably know what to do. I can even use the defib machine. The bad news is, now I have to go out and buy all the supplies I need on my own. I now have a moral obligation to help out. Thats fine though, I'm feeling pretty damned good about myself

My 13
I have no idea what the thirteen thing is about but since I am about to clean my house, I thought I would throw this is.
13 Least Favorite Chores

1. Going to the dump. Even though I love living in rural America, this is not a good part of the privledge.

2. Dusting. Woodstoves suck. Lets just get that out in the open

3.Cleaning out the dog kennel. 2 large dogs, no explaination needed.

4. Ironing. Such a 1950's thing to do, but I am my mothers child, so therefore I iron.

5. Cleaning the toilet. What I wouldn't give for a house full of girls!!

6. Laundry. I am not the only person in this house who wears clothes, but for some reason, I do the majority of the laundry.

7. Cleaning out the refrig. Science experiments in the making.

8.Grocery shopping. Does between $200 and $230 a week sound excessive to anyone else?

9.Washing the kitchen floor. The guy who owned the house before us put in smooth marble tiles....badly.

10. Fishtanks.....eeeek!

11. Paying bills. Reason enough to make you want to jump out a window.

12. Washing windows. I avoid this at all costs. We have 24 windows in the house. This is when having kids comes in handy.

13. Going upstairs to look for cups and dishes. This is the childrens zone. Most of the time, I have no reason to go up there. In fact, I try my hardest to stay away. But when I put all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and pack only 3 glasses and I know there are none in the cabinet, I have to go on a hunt. I know, I should make them get them, but we have a no eating upstairs rule and no one wants to get busted for it so they all say they don't have any. This is usually the start of a very bad mood for me.

I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I will be playing taxi again this week. My sons went out friday and bought all the stuff to fix the youngers car, now all I have to do is motivate my hubby to actually work on it. When he is done his part, I have to wait for my friend Troy to come and replace the busted tie rods. I'm not holding my breath because both guys that I am waiting on do things at their own pace. I'm trying to be cool about it though. My hubby had last week off and I was really hoping that some of the never-ending "honeydo" list would get done. He had other things on his agenda though and pretty much nothing got done. He did clean the garage and re-wire the painting I wanted to hang. Two things down, a million to go.
I worked for 6 and a half hours yesterday. I got home and took a nappy, then set myself on cleaning. The worst thing about having a woodstove is the monumental mess it makes of your house. I was going to wash walls, but I decided it would just be easier to re-paint them. I might be able to do that in between trips here and there and basic laundry and cleaning. When are they ever going to give human cloning the thumbs up? It would make my job a hell of a lot easier.
One of hubbys old friends has moved to the area. Hubby was working one day and this guy came in to rent a tool. Hubby saw him and they exchanged phone numbers. That was a few months ago. Somehow, the remembered to use the phone yesterday and they made plans to hook up. Then hubby called him back and invited him over last night. I had met the guy about 8 years ago. I don't know him all that well, but he is a really nice guy. He spent about 6 hours over here and offered to help us do some of the renovating our house desperately needs. It would be nice having some professional help around here,especially since he offered to work for beer. It was after 1am when I finally got to bed. I planned on sleeping in and catching up on some shut eye. My body had other plans . It is just so use to functioning on 5 hours of sleep that I woke up at 6 and couldn't get back to sleep. Oh well, maybe on my next day off. That should be in another couple of weeks.

I just got done reading my past posts. Boy, I sound like I am really negative. I think I am just using this blog to blow off steam. I am going to try to do better.
This past week, my oldest sons truck broke down. It breaks down a lot but we always fix it for him. IT really broke this time and it would cost us more to fix than the truck is worth, so we are down to 2 running cars and 4 drivers. What I should say is 1 and a half running cars, as my hubby's is only good for short distances. My mornings now go something like this. I get up at 3:15, get ready for work. Oldest gets up, gets ready and we leave the house no later than 4:40. We drive across Rochester to get my friend Ed, who doesn't have a license. We drive to Dover and drop oldest off at college, 2 hours early for his first class. Then Ed and I drive across Dover to pick up my friend Jeff, who's car broke down. We then proceed to work where we spend 9 fun-filled hours. We then leave, drop Jeff off, pick Oldest up, drop Ed off and come home to get oldests uniform for work. I drop him off at work, come back home to get second child. Take him to Somersworth for physical therepy. Go back home an hour later. If I am lucky and have no other chores or errands, I get to have a free 45 minutes. Then I go back out to get oldest at work. I am usually home by 8:15pm.
On the upside, I worked for 5 hours yesterday and then picked the kids up and drove them to Salem to the dickheads house. I had to go to my bank in Haverhill. While in Haverhill, I stopped by and visited my friend Kim. Kim is the most positive person I know. She is always smiling and happy. She is doing battle with MS right now and I worry about her. I felt terrible about moving so far away from her when it came time for us to run for the border of NH, but she has a great boyfriend who is always there for her. When we were back in Mass, she called me one day and we spent a good 15 minutes on the phone before she told me why she called. She had fallen and she needed me to come pick her up and help her home.She looks great and feels great and was so happy I stopped in to see her, but they had plans so I only hung out for an hour. I decided to stop by Wendi's house. Wendi and I met in 1976, when we moved across the street from her. She has been the most constant person in my life. We basically lived like sisters. I don't think two people ever could be as close as Wen and I are. She had a child at 15 and we pretty much both raised Steph. She married one of my school friends, a guy I have known just as long as I have known Wendi. The had two more kids together. Her boys and my boys were born within days of each other. She went from needed state assistance, to making quite a lot of herself. Her hubby can't work because of an accident. She lives in a half million dollar house, drives a great car, shops all the time and is living the life most only dream of, all of which she herself earned. But she has inner demons which are out of control. She has a terrible case of Bulimia. I always though I could save her, but no matter what I say or do for her,nothing will help. She has blown her throat out, been in a clinic, seen every doctor imaginable and nothing has helped her. I spent about 3 hours over there, just chatting, folding her size 5 clothes and hanging out...then she ordered pizza. I had lunch with her and I was amazed. Her 6 slices to my 2. Then she sent her hubby to the store for 2 half gallons of ice cream and some chocolate. I sat there and watched as she eat chocolate after chocolate while watching TV. When she went for the ice-cream, I knew it was time to leave. I knew what would be happening shortly. I couldn't stand by and watch that happen. I once had a talk with her hubby ( when he called to tell me she was in the hospital again) and asked him why he didn't stop her when she does that shit. He told me the more he fights with her, the more she does it. Not to mention that she becomes out of control. He is as frightened as I am, more even, but he is also as helpless. Its very hard on him to sit by while his wife slowly kills herself.
It made me realize something, for all my bitching about how my life is turning out, it could be a lot worse. I could look like I'm doing great on the ouside and be physically or mentally ill. Or I could be in perfect health and poor. I think I'll take poor. I can always work harder for wealth. MY 2 friends can't do much about their state

A Night in the Life....
We had plans to watch a movie last night. White Noise was on HBO and we were going to watch it together. I had come back from my weekly jaunt to get the kids in Lee and he told me that the neighbors kept calling, trying to get him to go play drums at their house. They have house parties about every weekend. Anyway, he had ordered subs and we fought about the kids having univited guests over while we ate. Nothing like a good old fashioned arguement while you're trying to digest. Anyone that has ever eaten with us knows it takes me roughly 4 times longer to eat my food than it does him. I swear, he can't possibly taste anything, it goes down so fast. So the fight ended and the phone started. It was them again. He finally agreed to go over "for 30 minutes". This was at 8:15. I watched the movie by myself and then watch "Behind the scenes of the Sopranos" by myself. I think it was around 10:30 when he got home. I hadn't heard music in at least an hour. I fell asleep on the couch shortly after, woke up to him taking on the phone and I went to bed. He woke me up again when he came to bed at about 4:30 this morning. We are suppose to grocery shopping early this morning because he is going to jam with his friends for the rest of today. I have the feeling I will be going by myself. By the time he rolls out of bed, the stores will be packed.
Michael Keaton was lucky in the movie. His wife might have been dead, but at least she communicated with him thru the TV. We live in the same house, sleep in the same bed, and we don't get that.

I can't be the only one who does this. I have plans for the way things are suppose to work. Sometimes, my plans pan out and other times they don't. Of the ones that don't, some of those bother me and others don't. What I can't figure out is whether or not that makes me uptight or laid back? I mean, I can be fine with the fact that something is not working right at work, but let someone call and I blow a head gasket. Its not like I take a hit in the paycheck for them not being there. I just hate being left with all the work. This morning, the computer system at work was so messed up, it will take the IT guy all day on monday to fix. That means, the 4 hours I put in today was pretty much wasted. I'm cool with that. The but the drunk girl I work with didn't show up, and that just put a cramp in the morning.

I have been driving around for weeks with a non working directional. My husband fixed it once, but its out again. We know its a short. I also need a brake job. I'm fine with that. I am going nuts over the fact that my sons car is off the road because its brakes are bad. I mean, its literally driving me up the wall. You would think that I would be more concerned with my own car.

Weird things to bitch about, I know. Maybe I just sweat the small stuff too much, but the bigger things are expected, so they don't bother me as much.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I co-hosting a huge bash for my parents 50th anniversary. It has taken an immence amount of planning from my siblings and I. I am the youngest of 6 children. I have 4 brothers and a sister. The oldest brother is a bigwig at a very well known computer company. He lives in North Carolina. The next brother owns a high end catering company in Ma., which comes in handy when planning a party of this caliber. The third oldest lives in Alaska and has, for the most part, since 1978. He recently retired from the service, but still works for the US government. The youngest of the boys lives in Haverhill and owns and operates a metal fab shop that specializes in historical restoration. My sister lives in Ohio and is a manager at home improvement corporation.
Now with the geographical locations of everyone, you might ask how we have planned this party. The oldest brother has his own conference line,as he spends little to no time in his office. He basically can work all day in his tighty whities if he wants. He conducts all his business via the phone. So once a month or so, we have a very organized conference call about the party. OK, maybe its not so organized all the time. We do tend to go offtrack quite a bit. It can get quite hilarious at times. It always amazes me that even though we are a bunch of grown and mostly mature adults, we still revert back to being just brothers and sisters. You can almost see us fighting over the toy in the bottom of the cereal box. Someone always brings up some stupid story about the past. I,being the youngest, am most oftenly targeted by such stories. This is my brother Dans favorite. He is the oldest and is 11 years my senior. We were watching the evening news with my parents. This back before the days of a million channels and a TV in every room. We had to share back then and if you wanted to stay up to watch The Hardy Boys, you had to put up with the news first. Anyway, it was 1972 and the anchorperson was informing the world that guerillas had taken hostage and later killed 11 Olympic athletes. I remember(vaguely) it got very quiet in our livingroom as the news sunk in. I snaked my hand into Danny's as he sat beside me on the floor, and with my eyes wide asked "Danny, how did they teach gorillas to shoot guns?" Granted I was only 4 or 5 at the time and had no idea of the difference between "gorilla" and "guerilla". I'm not sure if Dan would even remember that incident( although I'm almost positive he would) if it had not been for the movie Munich, which was about that event. Anyway, stuff like that always comes up during my family meetings with the sibs. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love revisiting my childhood thru my brothers and sisters eyes. It reminds me that no matter how in the past something is, its still a part of you,and there is always someone who can relive it with you.

Now Playing: Ghosts Along the Mississippi by Down
So I had the entire house to myself today, for the most part. I went to work this morning from 5 to 9, then drove the kids to meet the dickhead. I came home with the intention of cleaning the house really well. I have a slight touch of spring fever. I want to see everything fresh and clean. However, the chance to just sit around and do nothing was way more appealing to me today. I may be burnt out or something, I'm not sure. I cleaned for about an hour, til it came time to pick up the 3 season room. That couch was looking way to good. I had the fire roaring and it was warm and sunny in there. Ok so maybe if I sit down for just a few minutes, my motivation level will come back. Yeah, that didn't happen. I just got done watching "Say Anything". The part where he stands outside her house with the boombox over his head while In Your Eyes plays still gets me. I also watched a whole bunch of home improvement shows on HGTV. Those can be depressing at times. It cranks up all these ideas for my own house, then the reality of my bank account sets in and I understand my house is never going to be on one of those shows.

3 Things that piss me off....
Knowing I bust my ass and make next to nothing while others make ass busting amounts for doing next to nothing.

People who cannot or will not use grammer lessons I know everyone learned. There is a commercial on for some diet product and the actress says " It works so good". Its works so well you moron!!!

Companies that will not stand behind their products. I spent a good deal of time on the phone yetserday with GE, I have all top of the line Profile appliances in my kitchen, less that 4 years old. The circulating fan in the freezer seized up and appparently, its not covered under the warrenty. So now I have a really big and expensive paperweight in the middle of kitchen. NEVER BUY GE PROFILE APPLIANCES!!!! You will be dissappointed.

I think I am done ranting now. Thank you and goodnight!!!