She Ain't Nothin' But A Gold Digger...

Yesterday was my day to deal with stupid people. First I had to contend with the moron at the t-shirt store. Then I was lucky enough to speak with the slowest talker on the planet at QWest. I never thought that trying to cancel service would be so fricken difficult.

Today, I said good-bye to my man and my three dogs. Nothing like that to make a girl feel blue. Craig's taking the hounds down to California to stay with my brother for the next couple of weeks. That way we don't have to worry about them while we're packing the house and going on leave. Also, he's leaving our van and flying back so that when we make the trip down we'll be in one vehicle. He's a gem for going through all this trouble, especially after how crazy busy we've been. I pick him up Sunday evening at the airport. My eldest said he misses him already!

This will probably be my last post until I get settled. I have feeling I'll have a lot to report between the move, our trip to Idaho and my dad's 75th birthday. I'm really getting worried about the birthday shindig. My dad has this new girlfriend that he wants all of us to "just love". He doesn't understand that although we want him to be happy, we don't want or need to have a relationship with his girlfriend.

The corker is that he was married to our mother for 50 years. Mom was a classy lady, very classy. She was the backbone and rock of our big family. All of the important life lessons we learned from her. Dad was a pilot and gone all the time. He's also from the generation that was not very hands-on when it came to parenting. He doesn't know his kids very well, subsequently. Mom's loss was difficult on all of us. We've had to redefine our relationship with dad since mom's no longer around to be the buffer. Now that he has a girlfriend 20 years younger than he is (only 2 years older than my sister), and he's "happier than he's ever been", he doesn't understand why we're having a hard time.

I have been an advocate for him and I've tried to encourage my siblings to accept that he's been lonely and it's good that he's found a companion. That was until he went down to California for my niece’s graduation and had the girlfriend fly down. The idea was that she would "help him drive back to Montana". This kind of surprised me since he's driven down and back several times by himself. Then I just thought he wanted my sibs to meet her, but I thought that it was a little insensitive since they've told him that they're not comfortable with the idea of him so serious with someone.

Come to find out, she came down to pick up his other car. He has a Toyota Prius and a Chrysler Crossfire. Why does a 75 year old man need two cars? He doesn't. He wanted them both and can afford them, so why not? Whatever. Well, they picked up the car so SHE would have something to drive in Helena. Does this recent development make me think she's a gold-digger? YES!

They've known each other for maybe 2 years. He started dating her last fall, even called me to ask how I felt about it. Before I had a chance to answer him, he broke things off. Apparently they had some sort of miscommunication and they broke it off. When I asked about her he said, "Oh fuck her". This spring he came back to Montana after spending the winter in California. He was home for less than a month when he went away with her to a resort for the weekend. He's asked her to come to Idaho for my brothers Ironman and invited her to Hawaii. Now he's giving her a car.

They've been together for 2 months. What are his kids supposed to think? She's had a rough life and doesn't have a lot. She works as a house painter; scrapping and painting houses, businesses and decks. It's a bit suspicious to me to have a 54 year old woman with a 75 year old man. His only hobby is vodka, so I wonder what she sees in him. He's in pretty good shape and not bad looking, for 75, but come on! The only explanation I can come up with is that she's using him for what he can give her and it aint the tube steak boogie.

Am I being too cynical? I could give a rat’s ass about my inheritance, unlike some sibs, but I worry that she's taking advantage of his loneliness and vulnerable emotions to get stuff from him. The fact that he's so gung-ho on all of us liking and accepting her concerns me about his attachment to her. So what do you think? Is she a gold-digger? Should we be worried about our dad?

Tool of the gods!

Ask and you shall receive! On a whim I asked for a labeler while I was cleaning and organizing and my husband came home with one an hour later! Is it possible to fall in love with an electronic device? (WOW, that was a loaded question!)

Anyway, I absolutely love this damn thing! Does that make me anal retentive?

So I came upon a blog about doing 101 things in 1001 days. I think it's pretty exciting to make a list of things that you aim to do and give yourself a time limit in which to do them. I wouldn't want to put major life goals on my list, I'm pretty confident in that arena, but I'd put things like books I'd like to read, movies I'd like to see, places I'd like to travel, etc on my list. I can't get too lofty because sometimes I'm just trying to get through each day without putting myself or my kids in therapy.

Let's see here are some things I'd like to do in the next year:

1. Update my blog
2. Read five novels off of the Random House 100 best novels list
3. Get another tattoo
4. Lose 10 pounds
5. Go to a film festival
6. Learn a language (Italian or French)
7. Organize all of my photos
8. Try a new food/cuisine
9. Volunteer at a place other than my kids' school
10. Go on a trip with my sister(s)

Do you have any pressing items that would be on your "must do this year" list?

Halleluiah!

Hey people, June is here!!!! Guess what? School's out and we'll be moving in 20 more days!!!!! This is when you imagine Mary jumping around clicking her heals! :-)

The big, BIG news is that today is my love's birthday! Craig is 36 today and boy am I glad I found him! I mean God made him just for me, so it's a relief that I nabbed him. Seriously, I'm eternally grateful for Craig. He makes me a better person; he seems to always bring out the best in me. Behind his whacky sense of humor and smart ass demeanor, lies a genuinely good, good man! Not only that, but the man is phenomenal in the sack! So wish him a happy b-day, would ya!?

We celebrated with friends tonight. I can purchase meat trays like nobody's business! You can't believe how easy it is to throw a party when you don't have to do any of the cooking. I ordered everything and it was the best money I ever spent. First of all I didn't have to fire up the oven and heat up the house(it was a whopping 85 today!), and I didn't have to slave my life away in the kitchen. Fabulous!

I had a little Home Depot theme and used hard hats as a center piece. I also bought those orange Home Depot buckets and filled them with ice and beer. Clever huh! Anyway, we had a nice time. I got water guns and sidewalk chalk for all the kids and they had a ball! All in all, the night was a great success. I didn't embarrass myself or Craig even once.