lost acquaintances

I got an email from an acquaintance of mine yesterday. We became friendly when our children were in the same school. She's one of those blondes that look like a famous actress. Depending on the It Blonde of the moment, it could be Jodi Foster from Taxi Driver, to Scarlett Johansen from The Girl with the Pearl Earring. Luckily she doesn't look like Paris Hilton. Since Scarlett happens to be the It Blonde of the moment, that's what I'll call her.

Scarlett is a very nice woman, a bit of an Elitist like me. Very opinionated, with a sense of appreciation for the finer things in life. It's not all about money and materialism, but a good appreciation and sense of things. I do say shoes do not count. One can never have enough good shoes. Classic styling or latest fashions, shoes are exempt from any negative materialism comments.

She emailed me because we lost touch. I honestly have not kept in contact with her, when we moved. Lazy or busy excuse on both our parts. She's almost done with her MA, just needs to write her thesis. She's doing graduate teaching right now. I'm very happy for her. I'm also worried about her.

She admitted to me for the last two years her relationship with her boyfriend deteriorated very badly. He became more and more controlling, and demeaning. She put up with it, and sort of fought back, but stayed with him. She developed anxiety disorders and worse. As she was telling me her tale, I wanted to get up and smack her for not leaving sooner. She says he did not become abusive to her daughter until the end, which then caused her to leave.

Last year, she started plying internet RPGs. She met someone this way. Finally she met the man, and since her relationship with the boyfriend was really at this point detrimental to her physical and mental state, and fear of her daughter becoming a victim she moved out. I know from reading between the lines of her words, she was trapped because of money. Many women are. This new man, gave her money to find a place to live. She admitted that her teaching did not pay much, so she must have gotten help from him. Not that I blame her.

She is happier now, than when I first met her. I hope she remains this way, but at the same time cautious. She's engaged and planning on marrying this new guy. I'm going to call him Titus, she says he reminds her of the actor from the HBO show Rome. Titus moved across country to be with her. Obviously I haven't met him, but I hope for her sake he's genuine.

As she is telling me of all the things the boyfriend has done, and what Titus has meant to her since, I think rebound. But then again it's not rebound. She's finally managed to open up to a man. What I mean by that, is that she admitted she's never let a man get close to her, not in terms of talking, spending time together, small physical gestures like hand holding. This is a good thing for her. She admitted she's never truly opened herself to her ex husband, or the boyfriend. I guess I don't understand that part. If she couldn't stand to be so close to either men, why marry or live with them?

I can not do much on this side of the coast. I can only listen and wish her well. She is planning to send an invite to the wedding. It will be a cruise wedding with Royal Caribbean, the wedding would be in Bermuda, and the cruise would continue on to St Thomas. This will be a June wedding. I'm not sure if it would be feasible for us. I would like to use the excuse of going to the wedding and spending a week of vacation on the cruise with the family. We'll see how that goes.

School is back in session!

Oh joy, the fun of it all, the full backpacks containing fresh school supplies, the new school, and the friends to be made. Yea Stinky is nervous. Poor kid, his backpack might not be big enough. He chose it, but honestly I don't know if he can carry all he needs in that thing. On top of it all the students need two binders! A 2 inch for math, and a 3 inch for the rest of his subjects. It's a good thing he's got a locker now. We picked up locker shelves for him, but the poor kid didn't have room to bring all the supplies he needs to school today. It's going to be a few weeks as he moves all that he needs to his locker. I'm sure half the things the teachers put on his list he won't use. Hopefully he will use them next year too.

Oh I hate waking up early. Granted it's not as bad as last year. He does get to sleep in a little later, just 30 min, but that's something. Gotta be ready for him to come in telling me about his day. I'm making rice crispy treats as an after school snack.

Without traffic, it's a 10 min drive to the school, with traffic this morning it took about 18 min. Not much we can do about that. I could let him take the bus, but hell, that requires him to stand at the stop at 7:30 in the morning. Heck school doesn't start until 8:25. That's no fun at all. I'll see how long it takes him to get home today on the bus.

Also there is no way I'm gonna let him take the bus with Fred there. Just put the two near each other and trouble starts. Stinky is still pissed at Fred. Fred just eggs him on, in need to feel better, or jealous mind. Stinky hasn't had much contact with Eldest or Bug this summer either. I feel bad for him, but then again, it's best this way. We know realize these people just aren't interested or willing to invest in being good neighbors.

Goof has been driving a huge monster 350 heavy duty diesel truck from work these last few days. The heat has been unbearable, and that's the perks of being the boss, taking home the brand new truck. Our pettiness was showing as we joked about what Kiosk man and Baby Mama( yes, that's what I'm calling Eldest and Bug's mom. She ain't married, nor ever has been from what we know, and she's got 4 kids!) Eldest has told us in the spring that Kiosk man was gonna get a truck and transport vehicles across country during the summer. Well they did get a truck, since they felt the Jew boat wasn't big enough for their family. Ahem, none of the vehicles they have are big enough. These are VERY BIG adults, and the Tahoe they have only fit 5 also. Should have gotten a minivan that holds 7. Anyways I digress, so Kiosk man came home with an extended cab truck, and Baby mama has the Tahoe now. Obviously this summer has not sent Kiosk man traveling across the highways of America. So here comes Goof one day in the middle of the hottest week, with this monstrosity of a truck, rumbling down the street. I'm sure Baby mama now has a new complaint; "That truck wakes up the baby!" Yea, yea, at 7:30am the whole house should be up already. I'm sure Kiosk man is jealous seeing Goof come up in that 48K truck. Lately it seems they have been cleaning house. All kinds of miscellaneous junk and furniture have been stacked up in the truck I gather for disposal. Perhaps they are moving? Who knows it's the beginning of the school year, though.

This last weekend we had a sleep over. Stinky's friend Neville had a lot of fun for a while. Neville is a really nice boy, but he has some issues, and I think it's been many months since he's had a sleep over. Stinky being Stinky was a bit of a brat. He was lording over Neville about certain skills he had mastered on his video games, which didn't do much for Neville's mindset. The newness of Stinky's house, and amenities have worn off I think. We'll see. I do need to call Neville's mom, and see how he is doing. I like the kid, I just hope he does well at school. Neville had similar troubles with mean kids too. Harder for Neville since most of those kids are in the same middle school too. Stinky lucked out since we are just in the dividing line for the other middle school. We wanted this school, we just found the house we want very close to the line. Longer distance to school for us, but it seems to offer more for Stinky. I hope he blooms there.

Concert tonight!

Postman's child is picking me up at 4:30 for the show. I'm excited. Like I said,it's been a while since I've gone to one, and it will be fun to see my cousins too. I hope the ear plugs I use for travel work. Maybe to be on the safe side I'll stop at Long's and get a pair. Gotta eat a good sized meal before the concert too.

I think my plan tomorrow is to visit my old work chums, and then bring Stinky over to his old school and see the teachers. I hope I can get a hold of of Fruitart. She lives close by. I still need to get a hold of another high school friend. I should call her and see if we can meet up at the Englander.

A few more days and it's time to go. Funny thing, I felt bad for taking my mom's car and going places with it. I guess I really should feel that way, since Egg does it all the time.

Dad has been cursed. He got into an accident yesterday. Now his BMW is jacked up. No injuries, but it's gotta go in the shop. It's not gonna be cheap. His fault, he doesn't have full coverage on any of his vehicles.