Random Acts of Stupidity

SeanMichael and I were talking earlier about how hilarious all this really seems to us. I mean, let us recap.

In February I took the job with GLE because I really thought that the benefits would be good, the money would be reasonable and the location was excellent. In March I went and bought a car, and now have a car payment. The last week in April the man decides that I am NOT the person for this job, though would make an excellent "partner" if I had a law degree. LOL That, I find amusing. I do keep my hands and head wrapped around current state and federal laws, and generally know where I stand in this world, however it never really occurs to me that I'm going to have to use that knowledge against people I refer to as "friend".

Well I was right in the middle of writing that and Hayden came in here with his chest bright red and told me "dad wanted you to see my chest". Okay, dummy, get out from under the heated blanket it's 9,000 degrees in this house. He says "I wasn't UNDER the heated blanket." I said "um, then you were laying up against it" and he goes "well, yeah I was laying up against it". Oooh, who's playing the "sick kid" card? LOL

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, the job situation. So, all this time I never did quit working for the transcription company. This means I have something lovely to fall back on should things not work out at the law office. I have been working for this same company for like ten years on and off. Believe me when I say, it's been a lifesaver at times.

I had been working two weeks at the law firm when the job I had been wanting FOREVER came open - office manager for a prominent local physician. Oh yeah, really really wanted that job. Pay was great and hours were wonderful, location was good and the people are super nice. I knew the doctor when he was fresh out of med school, so yay. Well, I turned that down in lieu of working with GLE. I don't regret it, though. Everything happens for a reason, I just have to be real real quiet and wait for that reason to present itself.

Now, here I sit doing transcription and minding my own business and staying holed up here in the house like a hermit, waiting for the other shoe to drop. So, down comes a size 9 3/4 clear-heeled pump against the side of my head. BAM! Ever been bludgeoned to death with a strappy sandal? The company I've been working for has lost their biggest contract. I now do not have a "back up" job!!! Holy shit! The first time in ten years and I have to do what I hate the most - work for someone else from home. LOL! So, my second back-up plan kicks in and I have to log in and start working for the OTHER transcription company, the one that hired me back in 2005, and they pay twice as much! Shit I hate transcription.

Meanwhile, in the back of my mind, there are all these miniprojects that I need to get accomplished. There are photos that need to be mailed out, and DVD's that need to be sent off, I need to clean house and my bedroom is in dire need of a paint job. I want to finish decorating the living room and I want to get my junk in a yard sale (or on ebay like the junk Randy left here for me, thanks btw, I made a bunch of money off that stuff already). So, I had enough money from my last paycheck to pay my bills up to date and I decide to just chill for a day or two and get my projects done. No shit? Got 'em done. Everything but one and I'm finishing that up tonight (after I finish writing this blog). I will be free then! Believe that or not, I have no more obligations! I am so excited.

So then the phone rings.

Other shoe? Hell no! It's a job interview. Then the phone rings again, it's a recruiter for an investment firm! Then the phone rings again, office manager? Wow! All these job offers come pouring in now that I had decided to just chill for a bit. LOL

This weekend I'm going to just take some time for me. I have been worried over this Randy and Marie crap for so long that it has taken over my life practically. When I wake up in the morning the first thing I do is walk out the kitchen door and look outside to see if it was all a dream and that stupid trailer is still there. Every morning I am happy to discover that it is still gone and I can rest easy.

My neighbors are now reading my blogs, so at least we all are on the same page. Marie has blustered and blown for so long that it's just plain ridiculous, and the stories she's told are so outrageous that a body would have to be missing a few logical brain cells in order to buy into it. These last few days have been so quiet and peaceful. No yelling and banging around. No cars in and out of here. I haven't smelled the pungency of their cigarette smoke or heard those stupid motorcycles revving up in front of my house. Nope. It's just been me and my family, my quiet neighbors, the sweet sound of birds chirping and silence… Silence is indeed golden.

Hayden is feeling better, finally. The coughing has almost stopped and he is sleeping better. No more nausea and no more diarrhea. I just hope the worst is over. We have one more day of antibiotics and his breathing treatments will continue. I'm not 100% certain what brought all this on, possibly a contagion at school, but the little fella is never sick so it concerns me when he gets down like this.

On another note, my eldest and I are speaking again. It's moderate and usually via text, but we are speaking again. That's for those of you who are interested in knowing that much.

You know, as long as life stays simple and quiet around here, I'll have nothing much to say to anyone. I'm doing my part to pay my taxes and not burn illegal things and I'm trying to be a good girl. I'm trying to be a decent human being and not raise up any more demons than I can lay down. Fortunately, with those ungrateful Bowens, that was hard. They acted like normal, hard-working country folk. I was blind because I wanted to like them. There it is folks, there is my weakness, there is my kryptonite. I WANT to like people. I WANT to believe in people. Part of me WANTS to have faith in the human race. Well, that part of me was the one that the Bowens pulled the wool over.

They lived out in Magnet Cove, and he worked for some vinyl place in Little Rock and she was a "stay-at-home-mom" (or so they told me). When I met them she had just had a hysterectomy and was REALLY playing that shit up, how dramatic her surgery was and how miserable she was through it all. She was telling me that her sister came down and stayed with her for several weeks while she recovered and that during that time the sister tossed her teen-aged, mentally-challenged son out onto the street with a bag of clothes. Really? Nice. That's swell, Marie. Aren't you proud of yourself? Your child is tossed out and you think it's freaking cute? So it took her like weeks to recover. She couldn't poop. She had to tell me about her constipation problems and everything - and this was like the day I met her. Well, I figured maybe as a stay-at-home-mom she really didn't have much else to make conversation with other than potty humor, and her tales of abuse and woe, so I just went on with that and hoped that the future would bring better things.

Randy and Marie seemed pretty normal on the whole. I mean, he was into motorcycles and she was into decorating her house with Native American stuff (dreamcatchers, puzzles she'd put together and glued, things like that) and Family Dollar stuff. The house was full of greenery and knick knacks and though it wasn't foul-smelling, they did smoke in there where there were children.

Each parent has a right to raise their child as they see fit, but I don't think it's ever alright for your child to go to school smelling like they smoked a pack on the way there. I mean, call it weird, but I think children should smell clean at least for the first 30 minutes of the school day. I also think that since the little buggers don't have a choice where to live, that their environment ought not be full of carcinogens. That may be crazy, but that's just my opinion. Even when I did smoke, for over twenty years I smoked, I did not expose my children to it after I knew it was dangerous. I mean, I'm not retarded or anything but once Zack's doctor told me that cigarette smoking MIGHT cause ear infections, nobody smoked in my house again except when I had designated smoking areas (screened-in back porch or something). These folks would have smoker parties at their place and I couldn't even stand it in there when everyone lit up.

Still, everyone is entitled to live as they see fit. Just as they were entitled to smoke cigarettes in their house and expose four children to it, I am entitled to NOT paint my house and not finish hanging the sheetrock in the living room. We are entitled. However, I don't think my lack of construction abilities is harming my son. We're not making comparisons here, because that's apples and oranges.

I never took my horses over to their house and dropped them off and left them for weeks on end. Nope. Maybe for a day or two, but never for weeks on end. I never dropped my kid off at their house, along with his stuff, and left him there to live. I never moved in with them. I never spent the night at their house. I never borrowed anything that belonged to them. I never said anything derogatory about them behind their back - well, if agreeing with someone else that I wish Marie would stop harassing Kaylee was bad then yeah, but other than that really I didn't.

Where do they get off?

Nearly every friend I've ever had has lived with me at one point or another. How many friends have I lived with?

It didn't bother me when Lana and Randy were standing beside my house vociferously announcing my shortcomings, but I have to say when they said that we didn't have shit and would never have shit, it just really made me take a second to reevaluate my position in this world. Why would they say something so stupid? Well, why would I continue to let people who are obviously cretins move in with me? Why would I continue to associate with people out of sheer pity? Am I truly a sucker? Did they plan this all along?

We did not have an exit strategy. There was no plan when they moved the trailer in on how we were going to get it back out of here. I'm not sure where I thought the eight large was going to come from to get that damned thing out of here, but I guess I figured I loved them enough that they could stay here for the rest of their lives if they wanted to - made me no difference.

On one hand I'm glad it happened. At least now I don't have to wonder if I could trust them or not. At least now I am 100% sure that they were users and abusers and they have no place in my life. None of them. I would never have known if they hadn't moved in next to me and crapped in my yard the way they did.