Happy Birthday, Drew!

Despite having to work and all that blah, I do hope he's having a positively lovely one.

Mwah, sweetness!

For my Evan.

Feel better, love!

{{HUGS}}

Blah, blah, blah!

And what-the-fuck-ever!

I've had the SAME headache since Tuesday afternoon and it's really beginning to piss me off. Sigh. Life so totally blows right now and I'm seriously contemplating throwing myself one huge ass pity party. Wanna come?

First, let's talk money. I don't have any. I work, day after monotonous day, and when the weeks all done and it's time to begin anew, you can typically find me somewhere praying to the gods that I don't overdraw my account before I can get my check in the bank and begin the bloody cycle all over again.

Anyway, since my health insurance sucks balls (which, mind you, can be a rather pleasant thing under the right circumstances), next week is going to be a bitch. Each of us (Cameron, Drew and myself) have a two thousand dollar deductible to meet before the insurance company will bother to pay for anything and though I've been paying "in-full" for all of Cameron's psychologist visits, I still haven't met it. Which means that at next weeks appointment after I finish paying for that visit, I have to add the $530.00 my insurance company didn't pay for the ADHD testing. That brings us to $585.00 which, sadly, is more than I make in a week. Sigh.

Thankfully I only have nine car payments left but unfortunately, one of them is also due next week. It'll be interesting to see how in the hell I manage to pull that one off.

Then, of course, there's rent, electric, phone, water, yadda, yadda, yadda...

I've gained 15 pounds in the last 3 months and I can't even begin to tell you how fat and ugly I feel right now. I worked so hard to get the weight off and like an asshole I've sat here and let it all come back. I'm 5 pounds away from where I originally started and lately, I just want to lock myself up somewhere and hide.

Cameron is doing AWFUL! Every single bit of progress we made before he left is gone, and if I'm being honest, it's worse than before he started counseling. I don't know what Mara was trying to prove by the things she did and said while Cameron was with her but all she managed to do, aside from cementing our decision not to allow her to spend any time with him without Drew or myself present, is turn Cameron into a bitter, angry, over emotional child who's way out of control. I despise her for that but so much more for this helplessness I see in him again that he'd been working so hard to get beyond. It's sad and frustrating and tiring but we'll get past this bump in the road.

But, on a positive note, I have an appointment with Cameron's psychologist next Friday, just he and I, to discuss the results of his ADHD testing. And though the doctor wouldn't tell me much when we saw him on Tuesday, he did say that because he knew it was something I was struggling with, he wanted me to know that he's not recommending medication at this time. He said there are a great many things that DO need to be done and we'll discuss them during the appointment but, at this time, medication is not one of them. Thank the gods.

After his appointment Tuesday night, I took Cameron to see the "Simpsons Movie". He'd been driving me batty over wanting to see it and I wasn't sure whether it was a good idea but Drew went to see it the weekend it opened and he told me that while there were definitely parts that would be considered "strictly adult", he figured it'd be okay for Cameron to see it, so I took him. Drew certainly wasn't kidding about the "strictly adult" parts but they weren't really plentiful and Cameron enjoyed it. We (Mike, Nicole, Drew, Cameron and myself) also went to see "Hot Rod" on Sunday and it was hilarious. My mom and I are going to see "Bourne Ultimatum" the next Friday and I can't wait, we were supposed to see it on my birthday but the movie theater was packed that night so we passed.

Well, I figure I'll stop right here, oh, there's other things I could babble and bitch about but all it's doing is aggravating this annoying headache that plagues me. Blah. So, that's it, I'm out.

Happy Birthday to Me!

This Saturday I, quietly and definitely without fanfare, turned 32. It was a really nice day. I was treated to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays courtesy of my mom and dinner at the Cheesecake Factory courtesy of my mom and Drew. As for gifts, I got a haircut and blow dry from my mom, an I-Pod, an I-Tunes gift certificate, a stuffed goofy and a stuffed turtle from Drew, a Brighton purse from Kim, gift certificates to Barnes and Noble from Cathy and a pretty set of worry beads from Warren. I love it all. And thanks to all who remembered and took the time to wish me a happy one.

In other news, my Cameron is back--YAY--he arrived yesterday afternoon and I couldn't be happier.

Anyway, here's some pictures from my birthday. Enjoy.

Pure Randomness.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but the weather in Florida pretty much sucks. Big time. It’s so hot and muggy, it wreaks a bit of havoc with the whole breathing thing. And then there’s the thunderstorms, the suckers seem to pop up out of nowhere and they’re quite violent this year. Okay, enough of the weather talk for today.

So, what’s up? Not much my way really.

I finally finished and submitted my two stories for the next ST Anthology. I didn’t resend Sasha my original second submission (aptly titled “Mess”), the one I’d written in “Third Person”, because no matter how I tried, I just couldn’t get it to where I didn’t want to weep every time I read it. Sigh. So I went back to my odd form of “First Person” and I do believe she’s much happier with that.

Just as I was ready to suit up and go back into battle with my mother-in-law, she circumvented that by FINALLY having Cameron call me Friday evening. He sounded a bit sad but insisted he’s having fun. They’ve done some swimming in the springs, gone to this beautiful beach in North Florida and last week, he got to ride a horse named Romeo. Mara found out that school is starting two weeks later this year and made noises about keeping Cameron an extra week but that’s just not going to happen and I told her so. I don’t believe she was very happy with my decision but that’s not my problem. So, provided she doesn’t do anything ridiculous to piss me off, Cameron will be home on Monday.

“Girls Night” was fun. Christie’s having herself another girl so we had ourselves a spirited debate over names. Christie is stuck on “Elizabeth” but my mom and I aren’t crazy about it, so we suggested she use it as a middle name. When all was said and done, Baby Lacey was going to be christened with the name “Jade Elizabeth” but if I know Christie, that’ll end up being “Elizabeth Jade” or something else entirely. After the great name debate and some Chinese, we settled in to watch “Rush Hour” followed by “The Green Mile”.

Saturday I accompanied my mom on her trip to Okeechobee where I helped her clean the spare bedroom (otherwise known as the “Kiddie Room”) and clear out the attic to make some room for her move up there next month. And just as an FYI, being in an attic in Florida in July is akin to being in hell. After I got back, I picked up Drew and Mike and we hit Carrabba’s for dinner.

Sunday was a lazy day, Drew and I slept in, had lunch at Mango’s, went to the grocery store to do his shopping for the week then spent the rest of the day/evening lazing at his house. During our lazing, we watched “Stranger than Fiction” and it was much better than I thought it would be. I liked it.

This week has been alright so far. I’m tired and I’ve had the same headache for three days running but it could be worse.

And that's all.