Breaking the Girl

So this is week two of Joe working late. Out of his late days last week, two included midnight return homes, and he worked on Saturday. This week isn't as bad, but he works again this Saturday and "possibly some on Sunday." I guess he's supposed to get Monday off, but I won't believe it until he's home with me sipping coffee on the couch while we watch The View. This working late shit is starting to get old. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I could get in touch with him during the day when I want/need to. Like ten minutes on a lunch break is all I'm asking. Or so I can at least clarify what he discussed with the bug man. I'm fulling capable of making executive decisions, but DAMN. Instead I get nothing or a hurried two or three minutes. It's infuriating, and tonight I cried. I dunno...if you're gone like 15 hours a day, when you get home to your wife, be affectionate. Be overly affectionate. Maybe apologize too, even though it's not your fault. Blah blah blah. Thank God for Dexter. I might have started talking to the Christmas tree if it wasn't for him.

Speaking of, we do have our Christmas stuff out and up. Most of you have probably seen the pics either in an e-mail or facebook, or if you're Arielle, in both places. It's tempting to go out and buy an ass of Christmas stuff, but I'm pacing myself. We can slowly acquire things. I do wish we had our own stockings, though. *Cough. Mom. Cough.* Dexter would need one too. :-)

Anyway. We're having some whacky weather. It rained all day yesterday. Like, never stopped until night. Of course I had to go out Christmas shopping in it. As I was drenched and dropping bank all over town, I had the thought - why don't we just send out our bank acct and routing #s instead. Wouldn't that be easier? Or, tell everyone not to buy for us. Take the money they'd spend on us, and get themselves something fabulous. And we'll do the same. I guess that doesn't comply with the spirit of giving. But neither does all the crazy gift-buying. I'll tell you what does, though. Hold on. Let me put my halo on and angel wings. Alright. Got 'em. So when I walked up to the mall entrance yesterday, this tiny old lady came out. As I was closing my umbrella, she said something to the effect of "Oh my" and then something about the weather. I asked her if she had an umbrella, and she said no - instead, she had one of those old lady plastic caps. (Where do they even get those??) Anyhow. I offered to walk her to her car, and she accepted. I was almost a head taller than her (which says a lot about how short she is), so I was practically falling over her trying to keep my umbrella over her. At first she couldn't remember where she parked, and then we finally found it - her nice, big, newish Lincoln Town Car parked across two spaces. Ha. Since she was heading back in the mall, I waited for her to put her stuff in her car. As we headed back in, she asked my name, which I told her, and then I asked for hers. She said her name was (I think) Martha West, after which she cracked a joke about writing the dictionary. Um. Maybe I'm not up to speed on my dictionary trivia, but I didn't get it. I laughed along with her, though, and then changed the subject back to the weather. After we got inside she thanked me and called me by my name, shaking my hand. During the walk when she commented on me getting wet helping her, I'd told her that I would want someone to do it for me, but really, I was thinking more that I'd have wanted someone to do it for my oma. :-)

The shopping trip and on into the evening were fairly uneventful, for which I'm grateful. Joe of course didn't get home until around 8 last night. He left at 5am and returned at 8pm. In the early evening, I had a bug guy come out and spray. We have to have a contract with someone reputable, per our lease (hey, who wants to have their property infested with roaches because of gross tenants?). Plus, we're having an ant problem, which I found to be a city-wide issue currently. Anyhow. This morning there were more ants. I dunno if it takes a day or two to kill them or what, but I'm tired of it and have taken to spraying ant poison in the kitchen. I'm sure we'll all turn up sick.

Oh I forgot to write about our Christmas gift, although I think everyone already knows. I consented, and we got the TV. Shit, we even got a blu ray player, for which we managed to get a deal. I must say - the blu ray player is so freaking clear that it actually made me a bit dizzy. It's like you're there it's so clear. Now all we need next is a sound system. I want a good one so I can get revenge on all my bassy neighbors. One day I drove past a neighbor playing Metallica (good music and the right amount of bass) as he worked in his garage, and I wanted to get out and hug him. Ah well.

Today I need to pack a few boxes to send out, and perhaps look more intently for a job. My rooms here are more or less straightened out, but I do need to find the proper home for everything. Also, we have an appropriate guest bedroom now, as we finally got our king-sized bed into our room, thus freeing up our queen for guests. The king is NICE. Love love love it! Definitely no buyer's remorse there. Next furniture piece: some sort of curio/china/hutch cabinet. Yes, yes.

Anyhow. Joe isn't coming home until around nine tonight, so I have the next ten hours to myself. Before I start out on everything I have to do, I want to share three final thoughts:

1. If you care enough to recycle, care enough to put the different types of materials in the proper recyclying bins. I watched a chick on base the other day dump a ton of tin cans into the aluminum slot. I almost came out of my skin, and it continued to bother me on the way home.

2. When I see this on a license plate: IMSTNIC, I apparently have a more cynical view of it's meaning, as I shouted "Oh my god; it says 'I'm satanic'." To which Joe replied, "No, I think it says, 'I'm St. Nic'." Guess you could say the holiday spirit goes a bit over my head.

3. When I see this on a license plate: SK8NNGA, I laugh. And so should you!