I had such a good time. I took me shopping and bought organizer bins for the cubbies in my room, a storage ottoman for my room, 6 count them SIX books, a ball of ridiculous yarn suitable only for making That One a hat, a vanity box and some hair bobs. And ice cream for dinner!!!

I went places I don’t normally go, Target and Mayfaire. Those aren’t steel buildings behind me, as you can see, but the nice facade of some fancy pants store. Mayfaire is a neat, neat place. Lots of specialty shops, a huge theater and apartments above all the stores. If I were single and as young as I look in this picture, I could so see me living there. Oh yeah, and rich. Mayfaire is spendy, people.

So tell me, how have you been good to yourself lately?

June 23 Stuntman just because we were sitting and chatting.

June 24 Diva on her birthday

June 25 Lots of Books Somebody has a lot of reviews to write, and that someone is me. I pulled them all out to work on and stacked them ever so neatly on the bed. And then I didn’t get to them. When bedtime rolled around, I had to move them to the floor. Since that time, I have managed to review a couple of them, but I still have quite a stack. No, this is NOT the time for ya’ll to start sending subliminal “sell books” messages. Aint gonna happen.

June 26 New Hat That One picked this up for me on his travels this week. It makes a nice driving hat. On the way up to to Polkton, it kept my frizzed out hair out of my face, and on the way back, it preserved my small and curly hair from being blown about. I never realized a hat could actually protect your hair as well as hide it. Yay for hats!

June 27 Baby You’ve seen this one before, but it’s worth a repeat.

Go ahead! I DARE you to show me your worst hair.

June 10 Four feet of counter Yep, I found it. And then I lost it again, at least once per day. But I keep refinding it, so that’s progress of sorts, right?

June 11 Freedom Party On this day, I had a little party. My divorce had become final the week before this, and I wanted to have a party to celebrate, but I thought it would probably be wrong to do that while the children were home, so I waited. And also, there were bff birthdays in March that I never did anything about because I was waiting for the divorce to throw the party, and in the meantime, sections of my unfamily divested themselves of me in a very public way, and so, I truly was finally free.

Is it awful that my major emotional response was relief? I clearly wasn’t imagining things all my life, my feelings were validated and those involved can finally all quit pretending to be something we aren’t. Let me be perfectly clear here: I am only speaking of those who were specifically involved. Does anyone need a dictionary to understand that? And the weirdest part was that they were so concerned that I had talked about them in the first place, when I really only talked about me, and no one even knew we were related until they outed themselves all over my facebook page.

So, this picture is of my lop-sided but delicious Strawberry Tall Cake, which you should really go read about. But come right back, cause I’m not done!

We did indeed have a party. I almost said “bangin’ time”, but that would be too easily misconstrued. Here’s the deal: That One, Guitar Guy and I all share very similar senses of humor. We are all quick-witted, punny and ready to see the hilarity in any given situation. We have a great deal of fun just sitting around stone-cold sober, which is how you will usually find us when we are all together. On this particular night, That One stopped by the ABC store and bought so much liquor that he had to have a permit to bring it to the house, and oh my word!! He went home with most of it, but in the meantime, we found out that he is a *very* capable bar tender, and that when he drinks a bit, he’s even funnier than usual. Madea was in da house, and if you’ve never heard a big white man impersonate a big crazy black woman, you should come to my next party. And it went on for hours, people! Hours! We kicked off about 6pm, and I think I crashed around 4am.

On a more serious note, it was a very fitting closure for me to celebrate my personal freedom with those who have held my hand while I fought so hard for it. There was a great deal more to it than a facebook fight and a piece of paper. This little mouse of a girl has officially graduated to gerbil. I may not be standing very tall at 5 feet even, but damnitall, I’m standing! And, Ang., I really wish you could have been here with me, too. I missed you, even though I know you were here in spirit.

June 12 I want it! That One has a new hat, and I want it. He let me wear it while he was here, but alas, he left with it on his own head. Unfortunately, he found it in an ittybitty store in some town in PA. I’m hopeful that he will find another one, but not counting on it. Oh! Remember I said he was funny? So, we were talking about the hat and he looked at me and said, “yeah they had one in pink, too”. And then I said “Really!!” And he said “no”, and we both dissolved in giggles. Well, he didn’t giggle, he laughed, because boys don’t giggle.

June 13 Matches the Other Half of my Wardrobe See?

June 14 Really? I’d like to meet the person responsible for this piece of marketing “genius”, just so I could point and laugh!

June 6 New Black HatThis is my new black dress hat. On me. In church. Muhahahahaha! I felt very classy and very tall, since I was also wearing high heels. I musta been 5’8″, at least!

June 7 One to play in I liked this one, too, and it was on sale, so I bought it. Six bucks and matches half my wardrobe. The blue one like this that I bought a few days later was also six bucks and matches the other half. Yay me!

June 8 Graduation Day Drama graduated from Kindergarten!!

June 9 So proud Stuntman started and finished elementary school this year, capturing the highest award given at the school. He’s somethin’, ain’t he?

May 31 Migraine Medicine On this, the 3rd day of my unsister induced migraine, I attempted a cure. The headache did not go away, but the ice cream sure was good! And easier to swallow that prenate vitamins with dha.

June 1 Day FOUR Yeah, on this day, the headache was still there, only worse. My options were to call in or wear shades all day. I opted for shades, but I had to repeatedly prove that I wasn’t hungover. The day with shades did help with the headache, and talking to Mama did away with the rest of it. Of course, the 1,600 mg of naproxen sodium I took throughout the day probably helped, too. And made me sleep like a baby, to boot.

June 2 Diva Gets A Phone Which was supposed to be for her birthday, but she did all the things she had to do to earn it and That One is a sucker for a pretty face.

June 3 Nope I didn’t buy this one, even though I love purple. It just wasn’t my look.

June 4 That One and Micheal This is absolutely one of my favorite pictures. That One rode in on his white horse and fixed the water for us, and here he is shown in the closet, pausing to explain things to Micheal and I. By that time, we’d been without running water at all for a couple-three days because of the stupid glue issue. What makes this a favorite, besides the fact that I love the people in it, is the memory associated with it.

That One and I were bantering back and forth as we usually do when we are together, laughing and joking and playing off one another. We are somewhat like Abbott and Costello or Punch and Judy, or whatever. Maybe a barrel of monkeys??? Anyway, at one point Micheal was looking back and forth and back and forth as we were horsing around and he said, “You guys are different……you’re like…….younger.” And we looked at him and laughed and said “yeah.” Because, somehow, together, we are still about 16. This is my friend.

May 6 Restful I really like this picture. I was sitting on the retaining wall at the ballpark, leaning against the built in post, enjoying the feel of the evening sun, relaxing, thinking of everything and nothing, cat-like in my solitude, surrounded by people. It was just very pleasant, right up until my neck cramped from the angle, rofl! Sometimes when life gets hectic, the thing I miss the most is the quiet pleasure of my own company.

May 7 Ouch This part of the day was no fun. I was mending hoses at work, using the pruners as a screwdriver to tighten the clamps, when they slipped and gouged a hole in my thumb. I was not impressed.

May 8 CAMP!! No picture, because I am lame. We woke up early and hit the road for Jones Lake State Park. It was a quickie trip, but really fun. No ab workouts, but plenty of laughing and time in the water.

May 9 Breakfast That One did all the cooking while we camped. Fire is, apparently, man work. Although I am going to note that he did allow, nay, encourage, me to make coffee. Which I did. Let me ask you something. How long do you reckon it takes to fry 3 pounds of bacon and 2 dozen eggs on a 9×18 inch griddle surface over a gas grill? Yeah, a really long time. I’m thinking the meal lasted an hour and a half, from the time we served the babies until the two of us finished eating around 11:30. And then? Then, they had the nerve to ask about lunch! We bought them off with a trek to the lake, and had dinner around 5 instead.

New rule: camp means two meals a day, not three.
Bonus: I got to spend Mother’s Day hanging out in a stress free environment with my kids and that boy I like…somewhat.

May 10 Perpetual Flowers This is a gift from That One, I’m not real sure if he meant it for Mother’s Day or not, or if it was coincidental. When he gave it to me, he said that I always talked about people killing my plants at work, and here were some that wouldn’t die. Awwwwwwwww.

May 1 My other new hat I am totally buying this one, too. On Saturday, it shall be mine. And I will be wearing a hat and ridiculous shoes to church on Sunday. Period. Because I can rock a hat and the pictures prove it.

May 2 Do they make this in Hot Wheels? Cause, this truck, it is totally suh-weet, and I want one.

May 3 Oops Sometimes it happens.

May 4 Grandmother’s rose is blooming This is the rose bush in my yard. I planted it in honor of Grandmother the summer after she died. Interestingly enough, I woke up Christmas morning to find one perfect bloom at the very top of it. But this picture is actually from like, 3 weeks ago, just like the date says. I didn’t snap the other one. When I took this, there were actually 5 roses on the bush, all fully opened and stunning. Which I know doesn’t sound like a lot, but there are still only 2 real stems on my “bush”.

May 5 Butterfly Again, I shoot what I see, and on this day, I saw an orange butterfly on a very red car and it amused me.

April 26 Silly Me I just love this picture. I snapped it to make That One smile, because he was having a rough day. Those of you who are friends on facebook will recognize it. And by the way, I decided last night that I am totally buying this hat, if it’s still at the store. And also another one, which I haven’t shown you yet. Time to live some dreams, people!

April 27 Crafty Me I finished another hat. I was sure this one would be too small for him, but knitting stretches. Apparently, it stretches a lot.

April 28 Amish Cockscomb I think I spelled this right. Correct me if I am wrong, please. My Grandmother used to grow this in her flowerbeds, always red. This year, for the very first time, I saw it in other colors: this light pink, and also in cream. I wonder if the other colors have always existed, or if they have engineered them through selective breeding. Err, selective cross-pollination. Err, screwing with nature.

April 29 Working Me Yes, this is what I look like out in the garden shop. It’s not quite fashionable, I know. But so far, my crow’s feet aren’t any deeper, my face is still white, and my hair in undamaged. I’ll take it.

April 30 Leeeeezard! Yet another lizard. Hey, I shoot what I see, k? K.

And, yay, a post without drama!

April 21 Dead This, my friends is the pile of dead plants that I pulled out of the garden shop when I returned from my two weeks out of their. Clearly, someone needed to check into life insurance rates for them while I was gone. They expired from a lack of water. I continued to pull plants for about a week. At one point, I set up an intensive care nursery for the ones I thought I could save, but my manager said we didn’t have time for that, and the plants I was nurturing were thrown away. Her call, store’s loss.

April 22 DaBaby visits On the 22nd, Mama was in town and brought DaBaby by to visit me. It was lots of fun getting some midday hugs and kisses. I miss my kids a lot when I am at work.

April 23 Lizard! If you look closely in the middle of this picture, you will see a wee reptile. I see them quite often at work, but they rarely remain still long enough to take a good shot. Today, I won.

April 24 Fire the Third Hmm, they still didn’t believe me. This was the day I cleaned the living room. It still looks pretty good.

This was also the night of catharsis. I continued to cry up until this night, and most of the way through it. I cried for a lot of reasons this night. For loss and betrayal and the grown up me and the little girl me and for my children and it just went on and on and on. But when I woke up on Sunday I was a different woman. Actually, I was my old woman again. The depression that had plagued me for a very long time (years) had lifted somewhat, and that laughing, fun loving girl I used to be was clawing her way to the top. Somewhere in that night, I faced the ugly truth that a lot of really bad crap had happened to me in my life, and I grieved for it, and I tried to let it go. That’s not to say I’ve been completely perky since that point, but when I get down, it’s for a couple of hours, not….for the forseeable future. I can deal with that!

April 25 Hello Old Me You may not be able to see it in my face, but I sure can!