My parents live behind us.

Sure, they're a younger version. But they're a version of my parents.


So, you remember the party invite and the apprehension about going to said party, right?


It wasn't so bad. Apparently, this is a group of people who do community theater. And as for the couple who live there, the husband builds sets, and has acted in a few shows.


And they had beer, not just wine.


And oh holy moly was I transported back about 20 years.


Oh, and then I noticed all the boats on the Christmas tree. He sails.

All in all the party wasn't so bad, and we did learn a lot about our neighbors, besides all the similarities between them and my parents - they do have some differences, he has a 30 year old son, they have 2 children in college, and they're planning on adopting from the state in the next couple months (age range 4-11.)

The music was kind of in the background, and not too weird - she pretty much sang Christmas style hymn like songs. The hard part of going to a party like that is only knowing the host and hostess, and not even really knowing them. Just like, kind of knowing them. Anyway, it was hard, but good. And I'm glad we went.

And bonus - we found out that they have Uverse from AT&T and well, we want Uverse from AT&T and they keep telling us we can't have it. But our neighbor's line comes from the same box and the same little outlet thingie - which is in our backyard. So we totally got on the ball and called AT&T and FINALLY, they're going to send someone out to see if we can have it. It took a year to get them to agree to do that. I guess I finally got the right guy on the phone - not only is he going to have the check done for us, he reviewed our account to see if we could get any more discounts and we got double our internet speed and $10 knocked off our bill. That guy ranks right up there with Belinda.

Fine

We secured babysitting. So, we'll be going. I listened to some of the musician's stuff on youtube. It's not my style, that's for sure, but I think I can handle it - it's very churchy sounding, if she's singing the Christmas stuff. Which means that either Clint has to really connect with someone at the party, or we won't last very long. I mean, in all honesty, the last time I was at a house concert it was kind of whiny. He was totally into his own music and wouldn't take requests and yelled at his audience in some kind of language that no one understood. Then he got mad because we didn't understand. And then I had to wrestle him into compliance when he pooed in his pants. So, any way you look at it, this one has got to be better than that.

I think it's an apologetic invite

Remember how our fence was not so much up as it was down a couple months ago?

Remember how we went around to all the neighbors and struck deals with them about fixing it, where they'd pay half for their section?

Well, one neighbor, the one we thought for sure would pay immediately. Didn't. And didn't. And didn't. And two weeks ago I went over to their house to bother them an managed to interupt what was either a baby shower or a bridal shower. And they said they'd get with me in the following week and pay. And then they didn't.

SO I had all but given up on that money, and was about to decide that they could just deal with my barking dog, when yesterday, the husband showed up on our doorstep. Check in hand.

They rounded up. Which was nice, considering we spent some extra money - more than we intended.

And they invited us to a party they're having next Sunday afternoon, early evening (4pm-8pm). It seems like a ... hoity toity kind of party. The kind where they have wine and everyone is a doctor (did I mention he's a hospital administrator and she's a nurse?). They have a musician coming to have a concert in their house.

It's not really our scene, but I don't want to be those crazy neighbors who won't show up when invited to stuff or that hold grudges for not giving us our money in a timely manner. Part of the issue is that Sunday afternoons are what we generally spend getting ready for the week. And while it would be inconvienent to take 4 hours out of our time for that, it wouldn't kill us and we could concievably work around it.

What would you do? Assuming you can find a babysitter, because it is clearly not a party intended for children.

(Oh and if you think this post is a little light on the picture front, that would be because on Saturday I left the charger and cord and carrying case to my camera at the Girl Scout event where they raised a TON of money to buy dog food for the SPCA, luckily I had stuffed the camera in my back pocket, so I at least had my camera for my work's Children's Christmas party, although it did die mid party. I do know who has it and I will get it back some time this week and be able to post some great pictures.)

LBSCBDO

Clinton felt the need to correct me on today’s post. (and after this one, he may never do it again.) He claims that I not only require waking up on my own, but I require food before I can be a morning person. The short version – he’s wrong.

The long version – his reasoning is that on weekends I lose my temper with him in the mornings prior to eating. What he leaves out is that when we get up on a weekend and I say I’m hungry, he moseys out of bed, takes a leisurely shower, hangs around the bedroom with out a shirt on, falls under the spell of the TV a few times, and even possibly starts doing something entirely different from getting ready, like sorting laundry because he has some NEED to be the very last person to be ready to go anywhere (unless it’s for him, which is another post for another time.)

So at this point, I’m tapping my foot and huffing and puffing and shaking keys and yelling, because when I said I was hungry I had envisioned him jumping out of bed, getting dressed fireman style and walking out to the car, right then, not taking a shower and lounging around for 45 minutes watching TV. And yes, I get mad because when I said I was hungry, I did not mean – I will be hungry in 45 minutes. I meant I’m hungry now! And if I make my own breakfast and not bother him with it? I’m mean because he wanted to have that too, and why didn’t I wait for him. I can’t win for losing.

That does not disqualify me from being a morning person. It has nothing to do with the time of day – it has everything to do with telling someone an immediate need of yours and then having them completely ignore it for 45 minutes. I think it should qualify me for a tax deduction.

The fact that I get so frustrated and angry, I attribute to LBSCBDO (Low Blood Sugar Cranky Butt DisOrder). As stolen from The Pioneer Woman.

He has it too, only his generally manifests itself at 2 or 3 pm after he “forgets” to eat lunch.

Landon will probably be inflicted as well. I’m almost positive it’s genetic.

Death Threats

Someone is trying to kill me in the restroom at work.

I go in there a lot. I drink a lot of water.

And every time I have walked in this week, I am assaulted at the door. Bludgeoned even. By the scent of I don’t know… something overly flowery.

Now look, it’s a bathroom, I assume from time to time people will create a smell in there. And from time to time, it won’t smell like roses. But we have one of those nifty little box things on the wall that’s supposed to be for odor control and as far as I’m concerned I’d rather smell the business than the flowers, if you know what I mean.

So I’ve had a headache all week. Which is making concentrating on stuff that much harder. I guess I should count my blessings, at least it’s not lilac flavored. And I have yet to encounter people on their cell phones in there like I did at Previous Employer.