In the past I've mused about the lack of recycling on my street. I'm not sure why I expected Christmas to be any different. It ended up being worse than I possibly imagined.
In addition to the extra holiday waste, due to Christmas our trash collection day was pushed back. So it was closer to a week and a half worth of garbage versus just one week. While I'm happy to say that I had three overflowing recycling bins, I also had an overflowing 121L garbage can. Had we planned things a bit better I don't think it would have been overflowing, but we had thrown out the two florescent light bulbs from our kitchen that had died and they are both about three, maybe even four feet long. And then we had the ridiculous amount of styrofoam that the baby's new toy box was surrounded by. But when I compare my garbage to others, I don't feel quite so bad.
My neighbours to the left are a five person family. I quite expected the usual amount of garbage to double but I was pleased to see that it had not. It was the people to the left of them that nearly had my eyes popping out of my head.
They are a double income, no kids family. Both of them look to be late thirties to early fourties. I am generally annoyed with the woman anyway because she seems to feel the need to blast the radio of her frigging Buick Rendezvous, tuned to a horrible station in my opinion, as loud as it can possibly go. And she works shift work so she is coming and going at all hours of the day and night. I know this because I once talked to her at the superbox. For those of you that don't know, a superbox is a mailbox that the mail for numerous houses goes into. Each home has a key to their individual mailbox. There are probably close to twenty or thirty boxes in each. But I digress. Anyway, just because she is coming home at, oh I don't know, 1 or 2am, she STILL has the radio blasting at max. Seeing as she is to my left she has to drive right past my house. My bedroom is in the back of the house, probably at least eighty feet from the street and I can still make out the words to her terrible music. Very annoying!
I digressed further, sorry. The point to all this? A household with two adults, they had one recycling bin.....and SIX garbage bags! SIX! It would take my family around two months to get to six garbage bags and that is with a small child in diapers and cats. Words don't quite adequately express my shock.
And we wonder why we are swimming in garbage.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Some More Confirmation
A few months back I talked about an interesting conversation that honey had with his grandfather's second ex wife. Honey's sister was getting a divorce and was with a new guy, his mother was with a new guy and was selling her house etc etc.We had some confirmation of the information she provided when I saw the for sale sign.
We discovered that his mother has had a house guest for the holidays. The vehicle matches what she said her new man drove and the plate is from where he is from. As such we assumed it was her boyfriend. Makes sense that they would spend Christmas together. On our way home from my aunt's house on Christmas Eve, we saw a new vehicle behind her garage. It was a truck, we couldn't tell the make, but one of her garage doors was open and we could see numerous people standing around. We assumed that it was his sister taking as much of the furniture as she wanted seeing as we declined it all. We were a bit surprised that his mother never called him over Christmas, even though he told her not to bother as he was "working overtime", she generally doesn't listen to him.
Yesterday I noticed that her boyfriend's car was still there. We had sort of thought that he would have gone home by now. Then honey went to visit his cousin but on his way they saw the truck behind his mother's garage again. This time he decided to play stalker/detective with his cousin. Sitting in his cousin's rather plain and inconspicuous car in the convenience store parking lot across the street from his mother's house, they watched as a group of people tried to load a fridge and a washer and dryer into this truck.
Again working on assumptions, he identified the men who he believed to be his mother and sisters' new boyfriends. Although I guess it's not that hard to do when there is only one older man and his sister was hanging off another. But there were two other younger people, one guy who left in the truck with his sister's new man, and a girl who hung around with her. From my Facebook stalking we are guessing that they were her boyfriend's younger brother and his sister.
What does all of this mean? Well, potentially that his mother lied to him. She told him that she wanted little to do with his sister as she didn't approve of how she ended her relationship because she cheated, particularly because she was still dating and living with the guy with whom she had been caught with. She also didn't approve of the fact that she had given up(as per usual) on her hair stylist dreams and had gone back to working at a car rental place. His mother had spent a ton of money on her school and it was pretty much pissed away. And then there was the fact that after all these years, his mother had finally realized that her daughter treats her like her own personal ATM and had made her over pay for TV's and other electronics and had basically paid twice for her car. But here they were, standing around, laughing and joking, very buddy buddy. Could she be faking? Sure. Do we think she was faking? No.
Second, we think that his mother's boyfriend is still around because the two of them are going back together. Between us driving by on Christmas Eve and what honey witnessed yesterday, his mother doesn't have much left in the way of furniture. Her house is now sold and apparently the possession date is in a few short weeks. If all the paperwork is signed and she has given all her stuff away, what is keeping her here?
The sooner she moves the better. The Christmas gifts really got under honey's skin. They are all out of our house now, but I know it bothers him that she did it. I really can't wait until she is out of our lives and can't bother us anymore.
We discovered that his mother has had a house guest for the holidays. The vehicle matches what she said her new man drove and the plate is from where he is from. As such we assumed it was her boyfriend. Makes sense that they would spend Christmas together. On our way home from my aunt's house on Christmas Eve, we saw a new vehicle behind her garage. It was a truck, we couldn't tell the make, but one of her garage doors was open and we could see numerous people standing around. We assumed that it was his sister taking as much of the furniture as she wanted seeing as we declined it all. We were a bit surprised that his mother never called him over Christmas, even though he told her not to bother as he was "working overtime", she generally doesn't listen to him.
Yesterday I noticed that her boyfriend's car was still there. We had sort of thought that he would have gone home by now. Then honey went to visit his cousin but on his way they saw the truck behind his mother's garage again. This time he decided to play stalker/detective with his cousin. Sitting in his cousin's rather plain and inconspicuous car in the convenience store parking lot across the street from his mother's house, they watched as a group of people tried to load a fridge and a washer and dryer into this truck.
Again working on assumptions, he identified the men who he believed to be his mother and sisters' new boyfriends. Although I guess it's not that hard to do when there is only one older man and his sister was hanging off another. But there were two other younger people, one guy who left in the truck with his sister's new man, and a girl who hung around with her. From my Facebook stalking we are guessing that they were her boyfriend's younger brother and his sister.
What does all of this mean? Well, potentially that his mother lied to him. She told him that she wanted little to do with his sister as she didn't approve of how she ended her relationship because she cheated, particularly because she was still dating and living with the guy with whom she had been caught with. She also didn't approve of the fact that she had given up(as per usual) on her hair stylist dreams and had gone back to working at a car rental place. His mother had spent a ton of money on her school and it was pretty much pissed away. And then there was the fact that after all these years, his mother had finally realized that her daughter treats her like her own personal ATM and had made her over pay for TV's and other electronics and had basically paid twice for her car. But here they were, standing around, laughing and joking, very buddy buddy. Could she be faking? Sure. Do we think she was faking? No.
Second, we think that his mother's boyfriend is still around because the two of them are going back together. Between us driving by on Christmas Eve and what honey witnessed yesterday, his mother doesn't have much left in the way of furniture. Her house is now sold and apparently the possession date is in a few short weeks. If all the paperwork is signed and she has given all her stuff away, what is keeping her here?
The sooner she moves the better. The Christmas gifts really got under honey's skin. They are all out of our house now, but I know it bothers him that she did it. I really can't wait until she is out of our lives and can't bother us anymore.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
It's Begun
My applying for jobs that is. I've been hitting the job websites every few days for some time now. I wanted to know what kinds of jobs were out there so that I could get a feel for the market in which I would soon be applying. And now, after being out of the workforce technically since the end of May 2010, but officially since mid September 2011, I am applying for these jobs.
I was working on my resume for one of my classes and ended up stumbling upon a position that would be great for me. I got some good feedback on my resume from both my instructor and a friend who works in HR and I ended up applying for it. Honestly, I didn't think much of it. I was shocked when I got a phone call asking me to come in for an interview!
I've applied for a few other jobs in the past week or so as well. I'm really optimistic about these jobs. I'm really excited about getting back into the workforce. Boxing Day sales were good to me and I was able to buy a bunch of new work clothes. And I'm excited to make my own money again. Not just to ease the current burden on honey. But being a dual income family again will allow us to purchase and move into our forever home. We can expand our family. We can do what we want.
I was working on my resume for one of my classes and ended up stumbling upon a position that would be great for me. I got some good feedback on my resume from both my instructor and a friend who works in HR and I ended up applying for it. Honestly, I didn't think much of it. I was shocked when I got a phone call asking me to come in for an interview!
I've applied for a few other jobs in the past week or so as well. I'm really optimistic about these jobs. I'm really excited about getting back into the workforce. Boxing Day sales were good to me and I was able to buy a bunch of new work clothes. And I'm excited to make my own money again. Not just to ease the current burden on honey. But being a dual income family again will allow us to purchase and move into our forever home. We can expand our family. We can do what we want.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Just Pathetic
Honey's mother felt that after three years she needed to buy stuff for him for Christmas and despite never having met our daughter that she needed gifts as well. A pathetic attempt to bribe him into going to her house for the holidays and see her one more time before she apparently leaves for her new home about nine hours away. Also an attempt to drive a wedge between honey and I. It worked, kinda, at first.
We were on the same page regarding the stuff she bought for the baby. We both agreed that someone who has never met our child, nor spell her name correctly does not deserve to purchase anything for her. We quickly donated the stuffed animal and book to a Christmas charity. A little girl will at least have a nice Christmas at her expense. The clothing we returned, as she was kind enough to include a gift receipt, to purchase something else.
But the gifts for him were a different story. For whatever reason, he felt that "she was trying" and "he should give her a chance" despite knowing full well that these were basically blood gifts. That we could be liable for repaying her full value plus some ungodly form of interest compounded by the minute or something because we've been there and done that. He finally realized that it was incredibly strange that she did give him stuff, five separate gifts in fact, all but one of which was from both her and her new boyfriend. He finally got that she dropped off these gifts at his cousin's workplace because he knew that she would never be able to give them to him herself. And he finally got that he got more presents in one Christmas(this one) than he had gotten from her in our entire relationship.
So we opened them. There was a jacket that was too small and some sweaters that he would never wear. Again she was kind enough to include a gift receipt. I returned them today and realized she spent a rather astonishing amount of money. Money that we then spent on the baby and new pillows with some left over. I'm thinking new towels!
We were on the same page regarding the stuff she bought for the baby. We both agreed that someone who has never met our child, nor spell her name correctly does not deserve to purchase anything for her. We quickly donated the stuffed animal and book to a Christmas charity. A little girl will at least have a nice Christmas at her expense. The clothing we returned, as she was kind enough to include a gift receipt, to purchase something else.
But the gifts for him were a different story. For whatever reason, he felt that "she was trying" and "he should give her a chance" despite knowing full well that these were basically blood gifts. That we could be liable for repaying her full value plus some ungodly form of interest compounded by the minute or something because we've been there and done that. He finally realized that it was incredibly strange that she did give him stuff, five separate gifts in fact, all but one of which was from both her and her new boyfriend. He finally got that she dropped off these gifts at his cousin's workplace because he knew that she would never be able to give them to him herself. And he finally got that he got more presents in one Christmas(this one) than he had gotten from her in our entire relationship.
So we opened them. There was a jacket that was too small and some sweaters that he would never wear. Again she was kind enough to include a gift receipt. I returned them today and realized she spent a rather astonishing amount of money. Money that we then spent on the baby and new pillows with some left over. I'm thinking new towels!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Wisdom Teeth Removal...Not So Bad
I couldn't put it off any longer, I needed my wisdom teeth to come out. It should have been done almost four years ago, but life got in the way. Life continued to get in the way so I procrastinated further. But with my migraines becoming more and more frequent and us finally having amazingly good dental coverage, I took the plunge.
I was referred to an oral surgeon again and we discussed how we could go about doing things. I had originally wanted to be put completely and totally out. But we decided on "twilight sedation" instead. Basically they would load me up with such fun drugs as propofal(yes the same drug that killed Micheal Jackson) and fentanyl. We got ridiculous lucky and we were able to book the surgery for a Monday when I would not be in school, but honey would not be at work, but the baby would be at daycare.
I was surprisingly not very nervous the night before and the morning of. Perhaps I was so incredibly annoyed about the fact that I was starving to death having not eaten anything that I didn't notice. Even walking into the room I was fairly calm. At this point I was more concerned about the fact that I have a severe allergy to acetaminophen and I am codeine resistant. I laid down on the table and I that was when it hit me. I then met the anesthetist who was kind enough to give me Ativan while we discussed the fact that I was one of two people he had ever met with such a rare allergy to acetaminophen. Due to a scheduling mixup, my surgeon was not in yet. I got bumped. Good thing for the Ativan ;) I asked for my iPhone and played Bejeweled while I waited. Nearly an hour went by and I started twitching again. I don't do lateness and my anxiety went back up. But the last thing I remember was putting my iPhone back into my purse and getting moved back into the other room.
Twilight sedation? It's awesome! I did panic a bit when I woke up as I had giant gauze in my mouth taking up all the space and seeing as I was just getting over a cold, I still couldn't breath very well through my nose. The recovery area nurse or whatever she was, was a rather unpleasant woman who grumbled about the fact that I requested my oxygen back for a bit until she could remove the large gauze. She was also annoyed with me that my biggest concern was when I could eat again. It was nearly 2pm and it had been almost 14 hours since I had anything to eat. She was also less than helpful in calling my husband. I had to text him because she refused to call him.
I walked out under my own power and we went to go get me something to eat. There was a Booster Juice nearby which was so good. We went to Costco to try to fill my prescriptions. They told me that it would be a two hour wait! We thought they were insane. So we went to a grocery store closer to home. A 20 minute wait there. So he brought me home and then went back to pick it up. This was probably the worst of it. The freezing had let go. While removing the top two had been a total breeze, the bottom one(I was only born with three wisdom teeth) was slightly impacted, so they needed to do an incision to pull it, was now really starting to hurt.
Honey got home with my pain killers, one of which I was quite skeptical about, seeing as I had only heard about it in passing and had never had it. Being allergic to acetaminophen, it severely limits your choices for pain killers. Most of your well known drugs, your Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, they are all derivatives of acetaminophen. And as I mentioned earlier, I am one of approximately 10% of the population that the enzyme to convert codeines, so I may as well take a sugar pill. This means that there are a small handful of pain killers that I can actually take. What they gave me worked almost instantly. Pain was gone, it was wonderful.
It's now been two days since my teeth were pulled and I'm doing quite well. The top two, if I didn't know any better, I would never have guessed that I just had teeth pulled. The bottom one, the pain comes and goes and there has been some minor bleeding. There is also a bit of swelling in the area but nothing super noticeable. I'm also very pleased with the fact that despite me being a very fair person, there is no bruising at all.
So as it turns out, I was pretty much worried and freaking out for nothing. I have a bachelorette to go to on Friday and of course Christmas dinners. I can go to these and enjoy them and not look like someone beat me up or like a chipmunk. Maybe this will learn me to panic less?
I was referred to an oral surgeon again and we discussed how we could go about doing things. I had originally wanted to be put completely and totally out. But we decided on "twilight sedation" instead. Basically they would load me up with such fun drugs as propofal(yes the same drug that killed Micheal Jackson) and fentanyl. We got ridiculous lucky and we were able to book the surgery for a Monday when I would not be in school, but honey would not be at work, but the baby would be at daycare.
I was surprisingly not very nervous the night before and the morning of. Perhaps I was so incredibly annoyed about the fact that I was starving to death having not eaten anything that I didn't notice. Even walking into the room I was fairly calm. At this point I was more concerned about the fact that I have a severe allergy to acetaminophen and I am codeine resistant. I laid down on the table and I that was when it hit me. I then met the anesthetist who was kind enough to give me Ativan while we discussed the fact that I was one of two people he had ever met with such a rare allergy to acetaminophen. Due to a scheduling mixup, my surgeon was not in yet. I got bumped. Good thing for the Ativan ;) I asked for my iPhone and played Bejeweled while I waited. Nearly an hour went by and I started twitching again. I don't do lateness and my anxiety went back up. But the last thing I remember was putting my iPhone back into my purse and getting moved back into the other room.
Twilight sedation? It's awesome! I did panic a bit when I woke up as I had giant gauze in my mouth taking up all the space and seeing as I was just getting over a cold, I still couldn't breath very well through my nose. The recovery area nurse or whatever she was, was a rather unpleasant woman who grumbled about the fact that I requested my oxygen back for a bit until she could remove the large gauze. She was also annoyed with me that my biggest concern was when I could eat again. It was nearly 2pm and it had been almost 14 hours since I had anything to eat. She was also less than helpful in calling my husband. I had to text him because she refused to call him.
I walked out under my own power and we went to go get me something to eat. There was a Booster Juice nearby which was so good. We went to Costco to try to fill my prescriptions. They told me that it would be a two hour wait! We thought they were insane. So we went to a grocery store closer to home. A 20 minute wait there. So he brought me home and then went back to pick it up. This was probably the worst of it. The freezing had let go. While removing the top two had been a total breeze, the bottom one(I was only born with three wisdom teeth) was slightly impacted, so they needed to do an incision to pull it, was now really starting to hurt.
Honey got home with my pain killers, one of which I was quite skeptical about, seeing as I had only heard about it in passing and had never had it. Being allergic to acetaminophen, it severely limits your choices for pain killers. Most of your well known drugs, your Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, they are all derivatives of acetaminophen. And as I mentioned earlier, I am one of approximately 10% of the population that the enzyme to convert codeines, so I may as well take a sugar pill. This means that there are a small handful of pain killers that I can actually take. What they gave me worked almost instantly. Pain was gone, it was wonderful.
It's now been two days since my teeth were pulled and I'm doing quite well. The top two, if I didn't know any better, I would never have guessed that I just had teeth pulled. The bottom one, the pain comes and goes and there has been some minor bleeding. There is also a bit of swelling in the area but nothing super noticeable. I'm also very pleased with the fact that despite me being a very fair person, there is no bruising at all.
So as it turns out, I was pretty much worried and freaking out for nothing. I have a bachelorette to go to on Friday and of course Christmas dinners. I can go to these and enjoy them and not look like someone beat me up or like a chipmunk. Maybe this will learn me to panic less?
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Trying to Do the Impossible
I've become I guess the resume expert according to my husband. I tweaked his some time ago and it got him his dream job. I've since had lectures in school about how to create a good resume. With this new knowledge I reworked my own and it's at least gotten me an interview for a job that I would be perfect for. And I really don't think that my previous resume incarnation would have done so.
But with my resume as well as my husband's, I had something to work with. There was experience and education. Hard and soft skills, both applicable and transferable. But what he wants from me now I think is beyond any capability that I have. Actually, I think it would be a difficult task for a HR professional to create something out of nothing. What my husband wants is me to create a resume for his cousin. My problem? Where to begin?
Honey's cousin is 30 years old and for the past ten years or so, he has been a professional pizza delivery boy. he has no drive, no initiative, just doesn't care. How can I make that sound good? I almost can't.
Ugh, this sucks. All we are trying to do is help his and his girlfriend have a better life, not for them, but for their newborn baby girl. I don't even think his cousin will follow through anyway. He never has in the past. I just don't think, even though he now has a baby, that this time will be any different.
But with my resume as well as my husband's, I had something to work with. There was experience and education. Hard and soft skills, both applicable and transferable. But what he wants from me now I think is beyond any capability that I have. Actually, I think it would be a difficult task for a HR professional to create something out of nothing. What my husband wants is me to create a resume for his cousin. My problem? Where to begin?
Honey's cousin is 30 years old and for the past ten years or so, he has been a professional pizza delivery boy. he has no drive, no initiative, just doesn't care. How can I make that sound good? I almost can't.
Ugh, this sucks. All we are trying to do is help his and his girlfriend have a better life, not for them, but for their newborn baby girl. I don't even think his cousin will follow through anyway. He never has in the past. I just don't think, even though he now has a baby, that this time will be any different.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Been So Long
And I'm very sorry about that. It's just with school and everything I don't have a ton of time to get online. The little time that I do get is generally done via iPhone. And iPhone blogging is less than fun.
Things have been crazy with school. I have had lots of assignments in the past couple of months and this is my second exam week. And it seems for the second time, I have a teething baby during exams. She just cut three molars and I get the feeling that the fourth is coming in as we speak. Her sleep is terrible. Like she is freaking out right now and has been for about an hour. Plus she has a cold...that she gave to me.
To top it off, we have my father with us. He's been here for nearly two weeks now and when he is in town he stays with us. It's been pretty difficult. It's been kind of annoying having someone always be here and I feel almost judged. Like his comments about how "the baby must have had a bad night" Do you really think I need someone else to tell me that? Cuz I really don't. I can only imagine what he is going to say tomorrow morning. Man can't hear his name being spoken from right next to him but he can hear the baby having a hissy fit. At least he is leaving in a few days. Because I'm not sure how much more I can take.
Things have been crazy with school. I have had lots of assignments in the past couple of months and this is my second exam week. And it seems for the second time, I have a teething baby during exams. She just cut three molars and I get the feeling that the fourth is coming in as we speak. Her sleep is terrible. Like she is freaking out right now and has been for about an hour. Plus she has a cold...that she gave to me.
To top it off, we have my father with us. He's been here for nearly two weeks now and when he is in town he stays with us. It's been pretty difficult. It's been kind of annoying having someone always be here and I feel almost judged. Like his comments about how "the baby must have had a bad night" Do you really think I need someone else to tell me that? Cuz I really don't. I can only imagine what he is going to say tomorrow morning. Man can't hear his name being spoken from right next to him but he can hear the baby having a hissy fit. At least he is leaving in a few days. Because I'm not sure how much more I can take.
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