NoJoMo 30

11/30/2010

You know, on this last day of NoJoMo, I thought briefly of doing something classy for my entry like, "I Made It" or "The End" but that would be cheating myself, and anyone who reads me. It would be a big waste of everyone's time for so few words. Not that I have any pearls of wisdom or anything really important to say today, but I just can't see going out with a whimper instead of a bang.

My day home with Al yesterday was truly wonderful. It was one of the best days we've spent together for a long time. Despite the fact that he wasn't feeling well, and still isn't, we were very relaxed and we actually talked about more than just the bills or our family members whom we love but who drive us crazy at the same time. It seems like it's been forever since we've actually had conversations about things other than that. How sad is that?

He felt bad that he couldn't spend the day taking me out shopping, so I told him we could go shopping online. I've been pre-holiday shopping for a while now, trying to figure out what we're getting for people that would be reasonably priced and not put us into the poorhouse. The Lakeside Collection online (www.lakeside.com) is really good for buying nice, but inexpensive things. I had something picked out for everyone on the list except for Dad and Georgie.

Unbeknownst to me, Al has been squirreling some money away each payday to buy us a kitchen table. Yes, we don't have one. The middle of the floor in the kitchen is a stack of boxes of all sorts of crap, but we haven't had a kitchen table for well over a year now. The table we had, a hand-me-down, was falling apart, and finally got ruined when he left vegetables in a plastic bag on the table and when they got watery and moldy, the fake wood top puckered and the table was ruined so I made him get rid of it. He told me that since I've been cooking, or he does, or my sister does when she's here, it would be nice to have a table where we could all sit down to eat. Truly it would, I don't deny that, but it hasn't been a big priority. We have snack tables that work in the interim, when we bother to use them, which truthfully isn't often. But yes, it would be nice to sit down to a meal that isn't balanced on the lap or on the edge of my desk or in front of the television.

Anyway, I told Al that when his retirement check comes in on the first, I'd pay him back for whatever he spent on our online Christmas shopping. We only spent a little over $100 and we bought for everyone except Mom, because I have her gift already, Dad and Georgie. I even got a gift for my hairdresser, since I can't afford to tip her the price of a haircut, which is the standard gift for the hairdresser unless an actual gift is given. So now I have to pay Al back, which I don't mind doing, even if it cuts me short until my social security check comes on the third Wednesday of December.

We've kind of decided already what we're going to buy for Georgie. Dad is the difficult one. He doesn't NEED anything, or even WANT anything. It's hard to know what to buy for someone like that. But for Georgie, we're going to buy that "Your Baby Can Read" learning system, and hopefully Tahnika will use it with him. I told Al, "Grandma likes books and wants to instill a love of books and reading in the baby." Georgie may not be my flesh and blood grandchild, but he still is my grandson, nonetheless, and I'll feel like I can pass on part of myself with him.

Success is not defined by the house you own, the car you drive, how many toys you have or how much money is in the bank. True success comes from making a difference in the life of a child. I've tried to live by those words all of my adult life. I'm not going to stop living by them now.

The other thing we did was shop for tileboard at Home Depot, Menards, and Lowe's. I found a pattern I liked at Home Depot, and then I found another I liked better direct from the company who makes them, but they only supply merchants. And they're in Oregon. Menards had nothing, but I found one that we both loved at Lowe's. We also priced a new bathroom vanity, since we're going to be redoing the bathroom anyway. Of course, prices may change and things may go out of stock before we're able to purchase them, but it's a work in progress.

I reminded Al that we are not going to put a lot of money into this place. That was what we agreed upon. We're going to do what we have to in order to fix the place up and make it saleable, but that's it. Otherwise, we might as well stay here for another 12 years. We do have some big ticket items to purchase, like a new refrigerator and a new washer and dryer, but other than that, we need to just scrape by with the bare minimum.

The other thing I reminded Al about is that the reason the renovations have not progressed very far is because he tries to do too much at the same time. Instead of taking one room and fixing it up before moving on to the next, he jumps from room to room and the results are disastrous. Half-baked, half-completed work everywhere, and things look worse than they did to start. He appreciated my candor in telling him this, because frankly, it's true.

All around, I'd have to rate yesterday as a success in many ways. Not only did we accomplish a lot and have some really good conversations, not just about the house, but about us and our relationship, he was over the moon about the fact that he got morning sex AND sex when we went to bed. In fact, he told me I broke it. LOL He said, "It's been a long time since you've worn me out and broke it." LMAO He's right.

Today, I have a doctor appointment and he's going with me to that. I don't know whether or not he'll make it in to work today. We'll have to see how he feels.

As for me, we went to sleep around 1am-ish, so why I got up to pee at 3am and felt wide awake enough to stay up, play my Facebook games, and then come here to write is beyond me. He got up to pee just a bit ago and told me I have to come back to bed. Yeah, yeah. I'll get there. As long as I don't oversleep my appointment. I really should just stay up to make sure. I can always have a nap later in the day.

Well, that's it for now. That's it for NoJoMo.

I MADE IT!

Tomorrow is a new day and a new month. I hope to keep up the writing momentum I've started.

THE END.