Friday, June 30, 2006

And you thought I was scarce now

Well I'm going to be even more scarce next week.

I'm not as pooped as I was the last couple days from workin my butt off. Next week I'll be working at a warehouse I've temped at before. They want me to come in at 4AM.

Yes, you read that right. 4 freakin AM!!!!!

I'll be dead to the world by 8pm each night I'm sure.

I haven't worked on the I Do shrug much lately. Well I did get the right sleeve and back the right length across. One problem. I added repeats when I went to work it flat because I wanted more coverage. Well once I add the ruffle on, it would have probably gone down to my freakin knees practically.

Sooooooo, I'm going to rip back to where it starts going back and forth. I'm going to rework it without adding any more repeats to the width.

Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment. It should work up faster when I'm not adding on each row though.

Sure.

Faster...

Righttttttttttt

Monday, June 26, 2006

The sun shines again

Well the weekend job doesn't look like it will materialize. The chick in charge of temp jobs in that area tends not to give "guy" jobs to females. I don't care if I get hot or dirty. I just want a freakin job damn it.

The guy in charge of another place I used to work called and offered me one day of work. He couldn't promise any other hours. I told him to give me a call when he can provide more hours. I would really like to go back there. It's an ok place to work.

What was that?

You came for the sunshine?

Oh, yeah, that.

I did get another offer for at least four days of work. I'll be working 8 til 5. The lady that was watching Nick before, has agreed to watch him again. He isn't happy about it. He is insisting on bringing a picture of us together when he was a baby.

I would share, but it sucks. Well he looks cute. But me? Not so much

So, I'll be busy for the next couple of days. I don't think I'll be knitting much. I really don't want to take a bag along with me.

I'm getting closer to finishing the right side of the I Do shrug. A few more inches to go. I suppose if I hadn't of added some more repeats down the back, I would be working on the left side by now. Shit I have no clue if this is even gonna work out anyway. sigh

I started messing with a mitered scrap afghan out of worsted acrylic. I've got like 4 squares done. Then it hit me that it would probably be a good pattern for a baby blanket.

Sooo out came some pastel acrylic yarn. I haven't even gotten one square done. Hell I may end up just adding it to the scrap afghan. It all depends. I should just get out some big ass needles and whip up a couple blankets for the new lil ones in the family.

Nooooooo I'm not havin a kid!!!!!!

I've got one. That is enough for right now. You will hear talk of a wedding way the hell before you will hear about me havin another kid. Shit, I still have to find a man to even think of that stuff. hehehe

Ok, off to bed. At least I don't have to be up at 3am this time though. hehe

The one with the freaky movie

My folks have a membership at Blockbuster that allows them to rent as many movies as they want each month. Sometimes, my mom just doesn't look at what a movie is about before grabbing it.

Last night, we watched Hostel.

OMG that is just the most fucked up movie I've seen in a long time.

Ok so Quentin Tarantino has his name attached to the movie, so I shoulda known it was gonna be FUBAR.

Quentin = blood + boobs + lots of swearing

This movie didn't disappoint on those points.

There were parts that are quite gross. Some parts were kind of funny.

Am I gonna watch this one again? Ummmm I'll stick with From Dusk Til Dawn and it's offspring.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

To share the good

As y'all know, a week ago Friday I lost my assignment of 4 months. It really had me thrown for a loop because Nick's birthday was 2 days away and because I had really hoped to be hired there.

I belong to a couple charity knitting groups and I wrote to one of them asking for prayers. I just needed to 'hear' someone say it would be all right. They were wonderful about sending hugs of support. All of y'all were great too.

Well, last Sunday, I was gone all day and wasn't near my computer. Unbeknownst to me, the owner of the knitting group decided to ask the members to take up a collection for Nick's birthday. When I got home and checked my mail, there was a note from the owner confessing what she had done. I, of course, bawled.

Long story short. Monday night, the owner transferred nearly $150 to be spent on Nick. Waterworks ensued again.

I didn't get Nick the bike I had been fixated on. I know the lil booger won't ride it unless it has training wheels on it. I'll be damned if I give in on it though. I think my dad is gonna look for a used bike and do a Calvin on him.

I did get him an assortment of Bionnicles, a transformer, a Rugrats dvd, a Backyardigans book and a 1st grade learning program for the computer. He still hasn't put together all the Bionnicles. The parts are currently laid out in my parent's basement. My dad is helping him put them together cause Nick mixed the parts up. hehehe

We extended the birthday fun to Tuesday and I took Nick to see Cars. That movie is a hoot. We had a total blast.

I did want to smack the shit out of the woman who brought 6 kids with her and sat right in front of me. At one point her youngest kept whining about wanting to go potty. Well she took her once, came back and the kid wouldn't shut up about wanting to go again. Rather than taking her out of the theater, she moved to a seat behind us and kept mumbling to the kid to hush.

I firmly believe that if your child will not hush and behave in a movie, you need to remove the child from the theater until they agree to behave. Yes, you may miss a bit of the movie but that is better than making everyone else listen to your brat screeching.

Anyways, I have a line on a job where my dad works. I would work 6am til 6pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and be paid for a full 40 hours. It would leave the rest of the week free for me to sit on my ass. hehehe Plus, the job would pay $2 an hour more than I was making at my last job.

I was thinking that maybe I would help out at the sub shop during the day for some extra money too. Unfortunately, I know they would insist on having me agree to work one weekend a month. Not even close to happening. They pay minimum wage. Loved workin there but it just ain't worth it.

Oh well, I'm off to finish watching the match between England and Ecuador. Then off to watch the NASCAR race. Who the hell thought I would ever be interested in sports. HA HA HA

Thursday, June 22, 2006

The one in which my past bites me in the ass

I have good news and I have shitty news. The bad shit is what is most on my mind at the moment.

I got home last night to find the same number on my caller ID 4 times. I didn't recognize the name or the area code. At first I was just going to go online and figure out where the area code was from when I noticed that there was also a message on my voice mail. First message was a hang up. Second message brought back a name that I haven't heard anyone speak in over 6 years. The voice was one that I hadn't heard in over 7 years. Frankly I didn't recognize the voice, but I knew it was him.

Figured out who it was yet?

I'll save you the wondering seeing as I wasn't blogging back then. It was my son's father. He called no fewer than 8 times last night. This is a man that I haven't heard from since very early 1999 and he is repeatedly calling wondering if I'm that Rebecca but assuming that I was.

To say I was flabbergasted would be to put it mildly. I wasn't scared, just shocked as shit. I called my mom right away. She made me promise that I would call her back if he called again. Well, while I was on the phone with her, he called and left another message.

It took all my self control not to call up Sue and Ally or to just go online so that the phone would be busy when he called again. He finally got me on the phone at about 10:30.

Was I nice and calm? Yeah, not gonna happen. At one point he said that part of the reason he didn't call all these years was because he knew I would be pissed. Ya think? Makes much more sense to give me 7 years to think it over and plan all the things I wanted to say.

Turns out that child services sent him a letter saying that a child neglect file had been opened about Nick. Y'all may remember that on the last day of school the twit next door "forgot" she was supposed to watch Nick. Well about a week or two later a lady from child services came knocking to get the whole story and open a file against the neighbor. So, for some reason, the ex grew a conscience and called wanting to know what was going on. Seems there were no details in the letter. He kept saying it was an abuse report but later admitted that it did say neglect.

Between the ranting and swearing, I did explain what happened and that the neighbor has moved. He kept trying to keep me calm and asking that we not argue and that he was just concerned about "our" son. gggggaaaaaaaaahhhhhh

I could go on and on about how he has no freakin right after all these years to even ask what is going on on a good day. I made it plain to him that I was not even close to ready to be friendly. I am not wanting to kill him or do bodily harm to him. I stopped having those dreams about 4 years ago. hehehe I made it clear that I won't be moving or changing my phone number. He is the reason I have stayed put and not changed my number even though I have had plenty of reasons over the years to want to change my phone number. I just didn't want him to ever be able to say I was hiding from him. He did try to say that he didn't know where I was. Right after he left, I moved in with my folks and a year later I moved into this place. My number has always been in the book under my full name. Obviously I wasn't too hard to find.

Things were left halfway decent by the time I hung up. At the end I just wanted him to say goodbye because Nick was having trouble sleeping and kept coming in my room and talking. The last thing I wanted was for the ex to ask to speak to Nick. Not gonna happen at this point in the game. He claims he is going to try and keep in touch and keep up with the child support. He says it won't be another 7 years before he calls again. I just hope it isn't too soon. I'm not up for the stress right now.

I called Mom up afterwards. We commiserated on how most men are jackasses. She doesn't want him to have any visitation with Nick until at least she is dead and gone. I'm not going to promise that. It has always killed me that Nick doesn't know his father. He has only asked about him once though. I bawled like a baby the whole time I was trying to explain that I didn't know where he was or really why he left. I hope I made it clear that it wasn't his fault.

Anyways, we shall see what the future holds. Maybe he won't call again. Maybe he will make an actual effort to be involved. Who knows? Just cross your fingers that this won't turn into a ball of stress for Nick or for me.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Stunned

I'm sitting here stunned.

After working my ass off for the last 4 months and not a word from my supervisor, I got terminated over the phone by the temp agency. Well the temp agency hasn't fired me, but the job that I've been workin my ass off at for the last 4 months is gone.

I worked 50 freakin hours this week. My supervisor walked by me at least 4 times today and said nothing. I was supposed to be to work at 5am tomorrow to work another 8 hour shift.

When the lady at the temp agency pressed him, he said that I have an attitude problem and don't work hard enough or get along with others well. Yes, when someone antagonizes me, I push back.

At least I do know that the one woman that was driving me and everyone else crazy isn't going back either. She is Columbian and doesn't speak very good English. She won't listen when someone tells her what she needs to do but interrupts repeatedly. I did snap at her this morning because she wouldn't listen to me. She was 'helping' me, but causing me to work twice as hard.

I'm still just completely blown away. Monday is the kid's birthday and I had plans for what I wanted to get him and was planning a trip with him. He is going to miss out on it all now. I'm going to have to put his bike on my credit card and he will only be able to have one other present. He can forget about going to see Cars or going to the circus next weekend. Thankfully, I hadn't yet mentioned going out of town to the zoo or to the aquarium. It would have been our first real trip out of town and staying at a hotel and all.

I guess tomorrow I'll be going through all of my cross stitch and crochet stash and putting lots of it up on eBay. I've got loads of Barbie clothes patterns and afghan patterns that I won't be using. I've also got lots of crochet thread that I won't ever use. I've got too much hand pain to do thread crochet any more. I'll post links when I get the stuff up.

I'm off to have a beer.

Monday, June 12, 2006

drive-by

Working 50+ hours a week isn't good for knitting or sleeping. I'm one pooped chicky.

I've been workin on the I Do shrug again. I had ripped it out and started over again when I got the 16" Addis that I ordered. It is just looking way too wide at the cuff. Yeah, I know it is supposed to be a bell sleeve, but I'm not feelin it. I'm going to rip it yet again and see if it looks better with fewer repeats. If that doesn't solve the problem, I'll try switching to the cotton thread.

I had one hell of a day today. I got saw dust in my eye from a wooden pallet. I tried flushing it, but it didn't work. The medical guy at work had to take me to a clinic to have my eye flushed. The doc said there weren't any scratches. It feels like I spent a really long night in a smokey bar. Because I was taken to the clinic and my employer was footing the bill, I had to take a drug test. All this because I blinked at the wrong time. hehe Lost 2 1/2 hours of work time for it too.

Time to get my tired as to bed. Hopefully I'll stay asleep tonight. yeah right!!

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Life gets crazy

The chick next door that used to watch my son after school has moved out. I'm just waiting on her boyfriend to get out of jail and get his crap out too. Please pray that a nice quiet family moves in. I'm just sick of having loud music thumping throughout my apartment late into the night when I'm not the one partying.

Overtime season is gearing up at my job. I pretty much got told that I either start working some of the 5AM overtime or I'll be replaced on my machine. Dudes, it is one of the only sane areas in the building. There has been lots of griping about the overtime and managements inability to get their act together. All I know is that it is making some people very edging. I don't deal well with edgy people when I'm hormonal. There has been lots of bickering that has ended up with me turning into a total emotional mess.

I really haven't been working on the I Do shrug or the green headband. Who knew that working with alpaca/wool when it is hot out and your hands are all sweaty sucked ass so bad. While the pattern repeat for I Do is fairly easy to follow, it just doesn't make good work knitting. I keep forgetting where I am in the repeat. For some reason I haven't been doing much knitting at my folk's house either. Not sure why other than being tired as hell.

I have been working on a headband using the bright funky sock yarn I just used for my wave socks. I'm using a miniature version of the snake scarf pattern. I've got that part done and now I'm picking up stitches around the edges to add some ribbing and then some ties. It's just some mindless knitting that keeps my hands moving. Because it is so thin, I've been working on knitting backwards so I don't have to turn and purl. I think I've finally gotten the hang of that first stitch so it isn't all distorted. I'll get some pictures when it is finished.

Time to hit the sack. I'm pooped.