Interesting thing I saw today...

Saw this fella at PetCo... I really, REALLY wanted him. But I did not want him $120.00 bad. 😕 Oh well. (For those who can't tell, he's a hairless guinea pig).

Isn't he adorable?! 😀

Chattanooga Field Trip

For those of you who do not know who Walter and Perry are, here's a little insight:

That is what we were stuck with all day. Ok that is a total exaggeration, but no shit the two kids not wearing Saks shirts severiously reminded us of Walter and Perry.

Anyway, we got to pet sting rays. They were pretty slimy, but awesome. I don't really know how those things think, but they seemed pretty social. They would come up and let you touch them (sometimes even poking up out of the water a little bit), and then they would usually splash you and swim away then come back and do it all over again. Shadow was scared of them, but he didn't say so - in fact he said that he wanted to pet them, too. So, thinking I was being helpful when one swam our way again I grabbed his arm and stuck it into the water. He was so stiff that I ended up nearly dunking him. He was not happy about that. I don't think it ruined his day, though.

All of these pretty creatures and flowers were in the butterfly room...

This is the wall on the way down to the water animals. I like it. 😀

And here are the only pictures I took that came out sort of ok...

I really like this picture of Shadow for some reason:

And this is me and Nick on a brick couch. I want one. 😂

Also, we had lunch on the Southern Belle. The weather was FANTASTIC and it was quite enjoyable. Then we went over the the IMAX theater and watched a movie about dinosaurs entitled "Sea Monsters." It was in 3D and stuff... all the kids were screaming and trying to touch the creatures. It was pretty funny. I found out that if I'm sleepy even an IMAX movie will not keep me awake... I only napped off and on, though - I didn't sleep through the whole thing. ALSO... Shadow said that he really liked going to the "climax" theater. Yeah. That was good for LULz. 😂😂😂

Anyhoo, for a souvenir we bought Shadow a white t-shirt with sharks on it. But it's GREAT because when you go out in the sun, colors appear and also more sharks. It's the shit. 😀 So all in all it was a pretty fun day.

R.I.P. Little Clyde

Dude, you was my leezard. 😭 I could never touch you for fear of stressing you out. Hell, I was always a little worried about lingering near you for too long lest you puff up and turn dark.

I liked watching you eat, though. You were a pretty neat fella. I always loved the pale shade you would turn after a good meal of crickets, which meant that you were satisfied.

And your toes! You had the cutest toes of any animal, EVER! I enjoyed watching you climb around all shaky like a leaf. The things you could do with your eyes was pretty awesome, too. It always tripped me out every time that you would have your back to me, but would turn your eyes around to look at me. You were just neat. All over. For real.

I’m sad, Clyde, because I’ll probably never have another chameleon... you kids are just hard to keep alive. I wasn’t really ready for you to leave me. I already miss turning your lights off and on every day. ... Bye, my little buddy.

I slept most of the day...

I slept most of the day because I was up barfing all night.

It truly sucked and my head has never hurt like that before in my life.

I’m so glad it’s over.

On the bright side I had the best care-taker I could have ever asked for:  Shadow. I’m telling you - that kid was awesome to me last night. He heated up a slice of pizza for himself for dinner and didn’t ask me for ANYTHING. Also, he brought me tissues and water and medication and even a bucket to puke in. He petted my head and said he was sorry that I felt bad and shooed the dogs away when they got all over me. For serious, he’s the BEST KID EVER.

When Nick got home from work he handled everything else - my guys totally have my back and for that - I am grateful.

I don’t work at PetSmart anymore.

I can’t say that I won’t miss the job I did because I will. I really enjoyed working with the animals and some of the owners were pretty cool, too. I even made a few good friends (you know who you are and you will be missed.) No worries, though... I’ll still be around with the animal shelter so it’s not like I’m going to vanish completely.

BUT (for the most part) I won’t miss any of my ex-coworkers or the high school-esque drama that never quit. No matter how you slice it that place employs mostly kids (or adults that couldn’t act like adults) and well - there was a lot of immature, he said / she said, "this-manager’s-my friend-so-I-can-do-what-I-want" type of behavior going on and I’m just not down with all of that.

Not to mention that retail will always be retail, which usually forces you to choose between any semblance of family life and work... I don’t know about you, but my choice will always be my family. I don’t want to work holidays rather than spend time with them - so I won’t. That is my choice and if it means losing a part-time, low-paying job (with as far as I’m concerned - no opportunities for advancement seeing as how I WILL NOT sign a 2 year contract) then so be it. No matter what the store manager says, I DO, in fact, call my own shots - and I DO, in fact, do what I want. That’s the joy of being an adult. Life is choices and I’ve made mine. I have no regrets.

Honestly, this couldn’t have come at a better time. With my mother’s recent behavior she’s no longer on the list of people who could watch Shadow while I work, and until I get my other car running I really don’t want to have 3 jobs to get myself to, plus have to try to get Nick to his, anyway. It’s just hard to juggle it all - so I’m thankful for the break. And also for having my weekends back. It’s nice. 😊

Oh, and by the way I’ll be volunteering at the Animal Shelter’s thrift store, Secondhand Tails, on every other Friday during the day. If you haven’t been by the new location you should stop by there. It’s huge, and really nice. All proceeds go towards taking care of the shelter pets so it’s for a good cause, too. 😊

Have a nice weekend, friends. 😊 I know I will. 😉

Despite...

the fact that I'm tired pretty often - I'm happy. Really, contentedly happy. For those who can't keep count I now have 3 jobs... they're all part-time so it's not like I'm working 24/7, but sometimes it sure feels that way. And mostly I'm tired because I'm a night owl and I just don't go to bed at a decent hour (even when I know that I have to get up early). It kind of sucks, but I tend to get more energetic in the evenings. 😕

Anyway, like I was saying - it's not as bad as it sounds. I work at SCM (thanks Shaun) Monday - Thursday in the daytime. Then I work at PetSmart 2-3 evenings a week and I do bookkeeping for CRIJO here and there (whenever they need me). I still volunteer with the Animal Shelter regularly and amazingly I have most of my evenings home with Shadow. It's actually pretty refreshing to be busy and not have to do the EXACT SAME THING day in and day out.

Another super-great thing is that I've met some really awesome people since I left the full-time grind. I feel like I can really get behind what CRIJO does because the owner of the company loves animals and his company helps shelters. I love washing dogs at PetSmart - all I can say is that it is just a fun job and being an employee there has it's perks. SCM... well. It doesn't even seem possible, but there's not a single employee there that I do not like. Sarah keeps me busy and the day is gone before I know it. It's crazy. 

Also... I'm not saying too much because it's not my accomplishment to brag about, but things are really looking up for The Nick at his place of employment. I'm SUPER proud of him and I hope things go as planned. Even though things were hard when we both left our full-time jobs I've gotta say that I think it has been worth it. We're both much happier than we've been in quite a while.

If anyone was curious why I'm not around much these days I hope that clears it up. Guess I'm about to go get a shower and hope that I can get myself to bed kind of early. I'm actually not all energized at the moment... to the contrary - I'm drained. I think it's catching up to me. Anywayz... miss you. 😊

Sometimes I just want to quit.

Today has been one of those days where I've just wanted to throw my hands up in the air and say "Fuck it! I'm done." See, what you don't know, lovely internet, is that I'm typing this on Notepad because you won't work for whatever reason. I come to you to vent about how crappy things are and you've forsaken me, too.

Today (which - by the time you see this, internet friends, will probably be yesterday...) was shitty. I had an appointment this morning; a kind of important one. I got up, got ready, and would have probably been on time. But no. That is not how things went.

Shadow wasn't feeling well when he woke up. He agreed to go to school anyway, but shortly after he arrived I was called to pick him up - you know - right as I was walking out to go to my appointment. Needless to say, I missed it. I really didn't mind because I felt bad that he was even trying to go to school. He looked like he didn't feel well. Anyway, he was nauseated. I have some over the counter stuff that I usually give him for his stomach and it normally works fine. Not today. He vomited 3 times and then fell asleep for a while. When he woke up he came to me begging me to save him. He said he felt like he was dying and that he didn't want to die. If you've never seen a child beg for his life - consider yourself lucky. It's heartbreaking to say the least.

I called the doctor (it was 11 am) and they couldn't see him until 2 this afternoon. I asked him if he could wait and he tried, but I found him rolling in the floor crying with his stomach. FUCK NO. So off to the ER we went - and there we stayed for the rest of the day. They ran tests on him - took blood (which he took well), urine, and x-rays; they couldn't find anything wrong with him. They gave me a prescription for Phenergan, told me to get some Motrin and fluids in him, and come back if he doesn't get better.

You would think spending all day in the ER would be bad enough, but wait - it gets worse. I went to the pharmacy hoping for it to be a quick trip. They told me that if I wanted to wait IN THE STORE that they could fill his prescription in 20 or 30 minutes. If I wanted to drop it off it would be after 6:30 that I could pick his medicine up. I asked if I could go ahead and give it to them and come right back - my car was on empty and this particular drug store was out of children's Motrin. I had a few things I needed to do and I could be back in 20 or 30 minutes.

Keep in mind that it is cold as fuck, Shadow's in pain, and we're just ready to get home - so I'm trying my hardest to get shit done. They said no - that if I left the store it would be after 6:30. I pointed to Shadow (who was moaning and rolling in the floor) and said "Look at my child. We've spent all day in the ER and we'd REALLY like to get home. Can you not just work with me??" The tech started to tell me no, but another lady cut her off and told her to just do it for us. I was relieved because I would've showed my ass.

We weren't home in time for me to take Nick to work, but Janet saved the day. She took him to work and stopped by to check on me and Shadow once we were home. When he puked again she helped me out with that, too. My mother sat at the ER with us; she also gave us a ride to the car in her warmed-up truck because we had to park a bajillion miles away. Hey, it's better than having to walk in the cold.

Now Shadow's medication has him knocked the fuck out which is probably the best thing for him right now. He was not resting well today before he took it and at least now he's not moaning and crying in pain. I'm telling you - that shit is HEARTBREAKING. When you are the momma and you can't fix your baby it's the worst feeling in the world.

So, is that the end to our bad day? Nope. Just a few minutes ago Nick found a puddle in the floor... we now have a broken pipe to contend with and NO extra money to repair it. And my internet's not working which just pisses me off even more.

It's days like this that make me feel like a crappy parent, a bad homeowner - and in general like I just can't get right and have things go my way.