So this past week was interesting.  Had a friend from out of town go through a lot of crap suddenly.  Personally am glad that she got things worked out and it is going on an upswing...told her that in 3 yrs or so she has been the first person to help me kill 900 anytime minutes that I get per month.  She apologized but I told her it was okay.  I have like 4,000+ rollover minutes so I start using them now until I start the new month.  Not worried personally.  This is why I have the plan I do for my cell phone.  I have the roll over minutes banked up to this point now that even if I used up my 900 it wont hurt me for a while.  For now I am just nearby by phone if she needs to talk to me or not.  That seems to be all she needs from me which is fine.

Last night was interesting though.  I went to see my grandmother...and I get the strong impression she is getting lonely even though she lives in a retirement community and knows people.  I think not having that physical person with her in her home is the problem.  Not sure what to do about that.  I did laundry, visited with her and talked about nothing until she was ready to go out to eat.  We of course went to Sweet Tomatoes.  While there though it suddenly occurred to me a few things from my past.  I remember one of my great grandfathers, nicknamed George, loved to play in the pool with me in a game called Shark.  That game somehow started decades prior with my mom.  All I know is that I enjoyed it and loved getting into the pool with him to play it no matter who started it.  It brought up fond memories of being at the apartments that he and my great grandmother, BangBang, lived in near my grandparents.  We would drive over to visit and I raced down the landing to their open arms while vaguely seeing their smiling faces.  Somehow those memories are happy ones that I don't really think about often. 

Those memories were triggered though by thinking of my father.  Eleven years ago this Christmas will be the start of the decline of his life.  I remember it because it was Christmas time nearly ten years prior to that faithful Christmas that my family rushed from Jackson, MS to here.  My great grandfather George had passed away only years after his wife.  That was the Christmas that seemed to have no hope or joy.  The last Christmas with my dad was full of extravagant surprises.  Yet I could see something was wrong.  My memories are still of that time here, but also of when I was younger.  My father was always a big man during my life.  He also always had a big belly and had started to turn gray in his early twenties.  By the time I was born he was starting to show white.  So definitely by the early 90s he was looking more and more like Santa Claus.   Kids as young as a toddler would walk up to him at places.  1998 I remember we were on our way back from Batesville, AR when we stopped at a Cracker Barrel.  It was just my parents and me.  This little girl walks up to us at our table and stares at my dad.  Christmas is not even near at hand and she just stares at him.  All my dad did was make some silly faces at her and be nice.  Similar problem happened years prior at my sister's birthday party.  It was held at a skating rink and due to her being born on the 19th of Dec it was of course Christmas in the air.  This little toddler just walks right up to my dad as he is sitting on one of those benches, watching my sister and her friends skate around.  My sister happens to be near by when the little girl's mother walks up to apologize for her daughter staring at my dad.  She explained that her daughter thought he was Santa Claus.  My sister in extreme spitefulness crawled into our father's lap, wrapped her arms around his shoulders and stared that poor little girl right in the face to say "No...he is my daddy."  Crushed the poor thing to bits.  Angered my father to no end so much that he forced her out of his lap and had the mother bring the little girl back. 

These memories were great, even though some are sad.  I think the ones that made me the happiest were the ones about how my grandfather and father both enjoyed playing monster with me.  My grandfather just enjoyed being scary and making me laugh and play.  My dad seemed to enjoy making me giggle with doing Cookie Monster.  One of the first toys I ever had when I was a baby was a Cookie Monster.  Still have it somewhere at my mom's I know it.  For some reason things seem to be triggering memories of happier times and of the three men I loved the most in my family.  *sighs*  Kind of miss having them around this time of the year.  It seemed to be family compared to what I have now with the ones left. 

Sooo...lets see...anything worth noting?  Yea...highly confused about the manager of maintenance at my new apartment complex and how he basically made very unprofessional and unwarranted advances on me Saturday. Was working with the complex to get this resolved and since I don't know the maintenance staff that well...yea...they gave him my number to call me about it.  So I get a call this morning around 10:50 or from a number that is withheld.  For all I know it could be my sister being silly or something.  *Shakes head* He is all relieved I didn't say who it was and I am thinking "I don't know who you are well enough to figure it the hell out!"  So anyway...it pretty much is me telling him while I am a bit disturbed and not sure how to respond, that I just want him to keep it employee of company and I am the tenant.  Also that I want him to not do any work on my place.  He offered to look for a new job, but damn if I am not sure what I should have done.  I mean it was freaky when it happened...and still bothers me.  Starting to have to use the peephole more when somebody is at my door. 

Otherwise I am just eagerly awaiting for the 4th of July so I can have some time off.  Weekends are great, but I swear it takes me two days to recover from a week of work.  Though I must say that my grandparents' restuffed mattress is probably the most comfortable I have had in a long time.  I am going to get two lamps from my grandmother, probably on Friday, that nobody else in my family has a need for so they will go into my master bedroom.  Yea...got some major plans for my new place like putting up curtains to help block light, sound, and reduce energy used.  Even got pictures to hang up that are actually decent.  Though I have a freaking mirror I want to just toss somewhere. It is annoying and with the fact I have so many mirrors as it is, do I honestly need this one too?!  I mean it is a bamboo/reed housing for it with metal framing and fairly large.  Strongly want to hide it and let my grandmother forget about it again.  I am eventually going to go through my new place and work on changing all the lightbulbs I can to the compact flourescents and even I believe can get a cheap but good quality fan with lights on it for the guest bedroom.  I figure with all those additions it will hopefully help my new place with lighting, cooling, and just general my electric bill.  The heat has not been an issue like my last place though.  The a/c works really well and it is quiet.  Even with the families living around me...it is quiet.  The kids don't go running out like hellions and they don't blast their music.  Even nice to hear outside just car noises and not the sound of glass bottles hitting the concrete.  I mean it happens, but where I am it is nice and quiet. 

This weekend is one that I seriously need to work on getting things unpacked and put away.  I have got to get the second bed made and put away my linens so that they are finally done.  I am also hoping to see Public Enemies and Transformers 2.  I hear Transformers 2 is a great movie.  Yes I am rambling by this point. I am tired and just really craving home time.  Right before a holiday weekend and therefore things going slow and all the 3rd parties are winding up before they leave for the holidays.  UGH...I seriously hope tomorrow is a half day or something.  I got things to do this weekend.

Yep...been a long time since I posted anything here.  Facebook has eaten me up a bit and just work in general.   So at this point not much exciting news I don't think.  Well maybe some exciting news.  Lets see what I can come up with.

1) My grandmother moved earlier this month into her new place.  This is a good thing and a bad thing.  It is good since she is now living in under 2,000sqft plus not worrying about stairs,flooding, appliances not working, yard work, and etc.  This is right, my grandmother is now out of her house near Memorial City Mall.  It is a good thing since it gives her a smaller space to roam in, it is different, and she is near people her age and activity level.  I am pleased she has made friends and is liking it as well as she is.  She is a big social butterfly and needs that type of area to keep her active.  For those local she is at Eagles Trace and seems to be enjoying herself a lot.  The only thing now is to get her therapy again to help with her right leg.  She is kind of dragging it.  They were really good in helping her pack, getting movers to move her in, and then helping her unpack some.  My mom came for a little over a week recently to help with a few things and to put aside more for herself and my sister.  I have yet to scrounge through what is left in the house to see if there is more that I desire to have or not.  I think I am doing fine since I was given the lead free pewter goblets, sheets, another bedroom set, and comforters.  I am going to probably look around just as a precaution.  If I can I am going to put it in the POD that we have so that I don't have to fool with it in my own place. 

2) Well...as for me...I have finally gotten a new apartment lined up to move into at the end of May.  As of today I have put in my vacation request to get the end of May and June 1st off so that I can move and settle into my new place.  Hell, I have paid at least $300 on the silly thing and I have another $250 to go.  Okay...the reason it is so much is due to the security deposit and the pet fee/deposit.  I am rather pleased with what I will have too.  I will get around 900sqft.  This will give me 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.  Now...for the bathroom I will get happily two entrances.  One from the Master bedroom and then one from the hallway.  Joy for me since that makes my life that much easier too with company.  In the Master bedroom will be a little counter with a mirror (if I remember right) so that I can do makeup, hair, etc. while somebody else is in the bathroom.  So far I have no issues with any of this.  The kitchen is nice and a bit more spacious, a separate actual dining room area.  Okay, not truly separate but definitely obvious space for a dining room.  The ceilings are 10ft high and if on the second floor they are vaulted. I like that since it just seems more spacious and airy.  I will have a monitored security system for $25 a month and a patio with sliding glass door that is fenced in.  So for the price of $565 a month plus $10 pet rent per pet, and then $25 a month for a security system, I get a great deal.  I have it cleared so that I can move the last weekend of May since my current lease is up on May 31st and I would like to be out of the place by the time my lease runs out.  Moveforfree.com is a great website too.  I am getting movers to help me move for free.  I am sure they will enjoy the fact my new apartment will be on the ground floor so make it easier for them to move me without a hassle.  I am probably also going to ask for the POD to be delivered same day so that I can hopefully get the movers to help me unload the pieces I need out of it.  Yea it sounds like I am using them, but if they are moving me from one apartment to the other, I don't see how much harder it is to unload pieces that are arranged accordingly from a POD and into an apartment on the ground floor.  Should be simple, but I will know more after I confirm what I am hoping to do with the complex, PODS, and the movers.

3) Well I got one big project set up, though I feel like an idiot after doing it all the hard, long way.  Of course I didn't bother to step up and ask for what could possibly be done to make this task easier and faster on me.  Yep, I should have thought on it long and hard.  I know now of course.  Next week will be another show of this is how I do things.  I would love for this part and this part to go faster. Suggestions?  Why have I not asked this before? How about I honestly didn't think about it and wasn't busy enough for me to ponder it right now.  Okay, I wont say that.  *SIGHS* I will probably think it maybe. 

4) I got an email oddly enough from my "Uncle".  Okay...this guy knew my dad when they were stationed at the same Army base in Vietnam over thirty years ago.  I call him my "uncle" due to him being a good family friend.  He is a dork a lot of the time, but what can you do? The man dealt with things that most of us would not really understand.  Okay, he is strange simple as that.  I don't know of another person that wanted to go off a base and into the jungle for missions.  This guy decided to do that and paid for it repeatedly.  Well he is trying to do something nice for my dad ten years after my dad's death.  His problem was that he can't remember my mom's number and couldn't get through to her by email.  So  I have emailed him back the house number and gave my mom a call.  We shall see how this plays out. 

So for the most part my life seems pretty bland.  I have started hooking up with M on Sunday around 10am to let Dante and Bella play at the Dog Park.  Dante is getting better and seems to enjoy it, though he is also being a little attention slut.  He likes the dogs, but he still wants the humans to pet him and pick him up.  I am hoping that eventually he will get comfortable enough to forget the humans until time to go.  This is probably a good thing that I am doing this with him due to the fact my grandmother's house is no longer viable for us.  I have also finally after nearly two years achieved peace from loud noises below me.  It took me finally calling the cops on them to get it through their skulls that I am not joking about I want their music down.  Kind of surprised that nobody else has complained, but oh well.  It is taken care of now.  I am also hoping that after I move that I will be able to go to more things again.  Who knows what will happen in the future. I just know what I would like to happen.  A few of those are new pc, loose weight, go to more events and activities in the SCA, and a kitten for Dante to play with while I am at work.  Though he might corrupt the cat into being lazy like him and just sleeping in sunny spots while I am gone.  Well that is all from me for now.  More at another point.  As a quick thought...I am rereading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.  I really want to see the movie and see how it is, but dude...I am not reading hte book with the movie cover.  I promise you that.  I am also starting to see about reading some on my lunch break to get away from my desk and pc.  I might see about doing similar if I can go to the gym...just walk on a treadmill or ride a stationary bike and read to distract me while doing the activities.  Okay...laters.