Just one of those days...

My life is pretty good right now. I like my new job. I'm six days shy of proving my old boss wrong (she said I wouldn't last three months). I have actually been getting some attention from guys recently, (one asked for my # last weekend, and I got free drinks from the other last night...) which is very unusual for me. I have paid off all of my credit cards. I can probably buy a laptop soon. And yet right now, I am feeling kind of down. It has nothing to do with MY life. My life is pretty darn good right now. It has more to do with my family. Some things are not going well in my family right now. I am worried that my brother is unhappy, which makes me unhappy. My brother deserves to be happy.
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Also, I have a nephew who has gotten in some trouble recently and both he and his mother are trying to blame the trouble on everyone but themselves. This frustrates me because that's how it always is with them. EVERYTHING is always someone else's fault. I know it's not my place to judge, but I just wish they would step up and take responsibilty once in a while. They have a victim mentality in ALL situations. This is part of the reason I don't enjoy their company. My sister always has some tall tale about why an incident wasn't her fault or the fault of her child. It's not her daughter's fault that she snuck out and drove a car without a license--if it wasn't for her friend...
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My grandmother on my dad's side is now not speaking to my dad because of an incident at dinner on Tuesday night. My parents decided to take her out for mother's day/her birthday on Tuesday night. As usual, my mom invited my brother, his wife, and me to go along. Last time I didn't go because I had other plans, and so I felt obligated to go this time. We made it through most of dinner with no problems. We were at a buffet, so there was lots of time away from the table. Then when we went to get dessert. I almost never eat dessert, but always at a buffet. I got a tiny sliver of cake and a couple of chocolate mousse cups. As soon as I sat down with it, my grandmother looks at me and says, "You're not going to eat that, are you? That stuff makes you fat." I just said, "Um, okay," and went back to my conversation with Becca. Later in the evening, I told my mom about it and she was PISSED. I wasn't really upset by it or terribly mad because I expect this from her. After all, this is the woman who told me--at my college graduation party, no less-- that maybe I would find a boyfriend if I lost some weight. At any rate, my mom was pissed, told my dad that he needed to talk to his mother about this because it was just rude. My dad talked to her about it, she accused me of being too sensitive and somehow the conversation resulted in my father and my grandmother not speaking.
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At any rate, I suppose that my point is that my family, (excluding my parents, my younger brother, my aunt and three of my cousins) is a nightmare to be around. I really don't enjoy their company all that much. All of you fellow Hillsiders are much more family to me than most of my real family. You have shown me more love and acceptance than most of my real family as well. I don't think I could ever truly express how much I appreciate that. I am just glad to have such an awesome church family who accepts me for me whether I am fat or skinny, happy or sad. Thanks to all of you for always being there for me when I need someone and for showing me love like I haven't seen from most of my family. You guys are part of what makes my life so good right now, so seriously, thank you to all of you who have treated me like family.

SO demanding! : P

So I have this friend... Let's just call her Schmecky. Shmecky seems to be waiting for me to write a post about her and her great exodus to the horrible desert of Las Vegas.
Schmecky and I have been great friends for a very long time now. In fact, it almost makes me feel old when I think about how long we have been friends. And now Schmecky is not here and it is very depressing and we all miss her. But it doesn't really seem all that different yet. It's only been a week. I think it hasn't completely sunk in yet that Schmecky is now far far away, only to go far far far far far far far far far far far far far away in a few months. I think the far far away will be easy enough to handle because of the promise of at least a visit or two in sight. The really emotional time for me will be when the far far away becomes the far far far far far far far far far far far far far away. This is not to say that I haven't had a couple of emotional moments, but nothing quite like what I expected.
While we are on the subject of my emotional moments and Schmecky, let me share a rather amusing story about Schmecky. She told me that she'd be disappointed if I didn't cry. After all, as everybody knows, that is what I do best. If they had the job of "professional cryer" somewhere, that would be me. At any rate, she expected me to cry. So on the day of Schmecky's official send off at church, she intentionally did not sit by me because she knew that I would cry. I did, and then all was well. The following Sunday was Schmecky's final Sunday at our church before her exodus, and as we were preparing to leave, people were stopping Schmecky to wish her well on her voyage. After each person, she would try to herd me toward the door. I am convinced that she was trying to get out as quickly as possible so that all of these other goodbyes would not result in me crying. It was quite funny really. I suppose you probably had to be there, but I was VERY amused. In the end, we both escaped the church completely dry.
And that is the beginning of the story of Schmecky's exodus. Stay tuned for future installments of this tale.

I almost got mauled for parking in the bear's driveway!

This is hilarious. I love typos. I love grammar goofs. They make for some of the best laughs:

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070509/K050906AU.html