A Fabulous Mess » Family Matters

Wherein I realize that I am not my mother and that we are both getting old

Me: Hey, mom, are you watching the news?

Mom: Well, no, but your father is… hold on… HEY! ARE YOU WATCHING THE NEWS? JENNIFER’S ON THE PHONE, SHE WANTS TO KNOW!!!

Me: Mom, isn’t he in the next room?

Mom: Well, yes, but he’d got that darned tv turned up so loud…

Me: So loud that you can’t tell if he’s watching the news?

Mom: Hm. Well, I never thought of that. (Silence) Yes, yes, he’s watching the news.

Me: Good, can you ask him if there’s been a story about a car on fire on Bigelow?

Mom: What are you doing on Bigelow?

Me: Mom, what does it matter? Can you just ask him?

Mom: Well, no, I’m watching it… nothing about a car on fire. How about those storms today, though. Oh my… I was afraid to drive! It was terrible, just terrible…

Me: Mom. That’s great, I’m aware there were storms but right now there’s car on fire twenty feet in front of me, can you just see if it’s on the news?

Mom: Well, YOU’RE certainly crabby today…

The Fam

I have often mentioned that anytime my entire family gets together we usually end up laughing and making fun of each other and various dead relatives over dinner. I say “entire family” like there are more than just the five of us, but still, we’re a lot to handle.

The entire crew filed into church on Easter Sunday for the first time since Christmas Eve. I was glad to see that my church had wisely chosen to eliminate the choir since not one member of the congregation can actually carry a tune, but there’s still an organist and my dad. Yes, my father sits in the pulpit where the choir once rejoiced, playing his bass guitar to the hymns while probably thinking about how he’d rather be playing the bass line from ‘Papa was a Rolling Stone’.

At one point during the sermon, he dropped his bass and it made quite a noise in the middle of the sermon about Mary being at the tomb, but we’re always delightfully inappropriate in church. This moment came in second only to when he fell asleep with his mouth wide open while the congregation sang the Gloria Patri.

My first grade teacher is a member of our church and my mom made us all go over to her and say hello because she apparently asks about the three of us every week. So, my brothers and I filed in line like we were are still in elementary school and said hello. She got my brothers confused - which is understandable since the youngest is 6′4″ - but she told me that she wonders about me the most.

Not sure if that’s a good thing. I think not, I think it’s more like “I wonder if she finally got her shit together”. And the answer to that is pretty much a big fat NO. But at least now I have somewhat of a direction and no longer am using school as an excuse to a avoid the real world.

My parents are getting old. I don’t know if I just realized this because I don’t see them as much as I once did, but my dad is really starting to remind me of my grandfather, his hair is turning white and he’s starting to look almost frail compared to what he used to look like. He’s a smart man and knows a lot about everything, but lately all he does is rant about politics and his job and how much he hates Walmart while my mom is becoming one of those middle aged women who is fascinated by modern technology. She finally got her own laptop and keeps showing my brothers and I things she’s found on-line. She even used the term “the Google” when showing us, and then laughed and said “Ha! The Google! Get it! Man, I even know its not called ‘the’ Google.” Then she oohs and aahs when she realizes that she can look at pictures of the dogs in the pound that she wants to save.

I love my family. Really, I do, they’re my rock. I only wish we were all in one room together more often.

Moving sucks

Moving is the bane of my existence. Really.

I find its not so much the packing of the things I’m going to take with me as much as it is the throwing away of the shit I don’t want anymore.

Today alone, I got rid of five garbage bags full of crap. This crap includes, but is not limited to, the following:

A red purse from Aeropostale that I’ve had since 2002

Four scarves that I never once used this winter

Countless number of pens I stole from Presby

Every Pittsburgh Post Gazette from the weeks I was in orientation class with all crossword puzzles completed or mostly completed

Empty boxes and gift bags I’ve been saving from every birthday and Christmas for the past four years

Three pairs of Old Navy flip flops from three summers ago

Glasses that I wore in 2003

Four empty binders

One black Doc Martin-esque shoe

One black strappy sandal I wore to a wedding two summers ago

Three pairs of pantyhose that are not able to be worn

I have yet to actually pack anything worth moving. Everything that has gone into a bag today went directly to the curb to be picked up by the fabulous municipal waste truck tomorrow to be hauled to North Versailles.

Since I have chosen to camp out in the living room and therefore am no tusing my room for anything other than a place to do my hair and throw my dirty clothes on the ground, I piled everything I need to actually pack onto my bed. Mostly because I didn’t feel like sorting and wrapping and packaging everything today once I had five garbage bags full of crap to lug down two flights of stairs and throw out the front door.

It is going to be really difficult to squeeze everything from my attic bedroom into my closet sized bedroom at Fro’s place. Especially since I have been told I am not allowed to hang anything on the walls in my room there. BOO!

That’s ok, though, since I’m going to be paying him next to nothing to live there. My brother is saving my sanity if not my credit by allowing me to do this, and of all the members of my family, although I love him, I think I am the least close to him. So this should be a bonding experience as we get to know each other better outside of the confines of my mother’s advice and bouncing between us, relaying misinterpreted messages.

I found a debt calculator online today and figured out how long it will take me to get out of the debt I’ve gotten into and, let’s just say 2011 is looking like it’s going to be my year. Ha ha.

I’ve also changed my life plan for the moment and am going to focus on getting out of debt and studying for my PCCRN (pediatric critical care nurse) in the next three years instead of jumping right back into school. The pay will actually be a little bit more with a CCRN than a BSN. And even though I am planning on getting my Master’s, I don’t know what direction I want to go yet, so jumping into school right now is not the best idea financially. And, since I need 7500 hours at the bedside to take the exam, it will take me a good three years to get prepared. In that time, I’ll be working my ass off as much as I can and paying down my credit cards and loans.

This living with my brother thing may work out well, but ideally, it will only be for a year. Unless he moves to New York, in which case, I’ll be living there for a long time.

I guess it’ll all pan out in the end.

It always does.

Because someone needs to catch this fucker…

… if only because he threatened my baby brother, I’m posting this. The picture in the article? That’s my brother’s head and sideburn in the lower right corner.

Forgive me… I’m buzzed.

So I was off today and was pretty unproductive all day. I laid around and watched tv and ate tuna noodle stuff I bought at Target. I am becoming a HUGE fan of food that involves mixing water, powder, milk, and butter and letting it boil into oblivion and then scarfing it down like it’s my last meal.

Around five I decided I should be productive, and I cleaned my room. Overall, this has been a good house week as me and the roomie got the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms cleaner than they’ve been since we moved in here. Yay us.

Roomie texted me to come have a drink, and I stayed for four. I haven’t been to the Bird in so long since my life is pretty much nuts, and it was nice to sit there with everyone and drink cheap beer. Then I got the munchies and went to the GetGo to get a Diet Pepsi and some Combos. Mmmm. Delicious.

I haven’t posted in like a week, but I have news. I got a JOB! Officially. I start on 1/8 and make more than I anticipated, plus the bonus thing is in the works. Not that I’ll be rich by any means, but I’ll at least make enough to break even every month and maybe save a little bit. Go me.

Grey’s is on, and I am PUMPED.

Tomorrow I’m driving up to IUP with Flava and I am so excited because I haven’t seen her in weeks and I am going to see the Clarks. Woo hoo. Happy happy day.

I’m off on Saturday, and am going to spend some time at home with my family. Who I miss. Terribly. I don’t know what happened to me, but I’m looking back at my life and wanting to smack myself in the face for not realizing how amazing my brothers, dad, and especially my mom are. I love them more than I ever thought I could, and knowing that these are the people that will be there til the end… well. It means a lot to me. And it makes me happy.

Last night, I went out with Punkie and we had a moment when she told me I was the only person who accepts her for everything she is and has been. It made me feel a little fuzzy inside because friends like that don’t happen too often… She once told me that no matter what I do, even if I’m wrong, she’d defend me to the death and then tell me in private that I’m being an idiot. I love her. In a way that I don’t know if I’ve ever loved any of my friends, in a way that accepts all her faults and sees all the wonderful things inside her and knows that one day, she’ll see it to. Muah.

Combos are delicious. Yummy.

Grey’s is on, so I’m out for now.

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