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It's not every day that you turn 40. As a matter of fact, it's a once-in-a-lifetime event. But for me, it really wasn't a big deal. No party, no get-together with friends. It was just another day. And let's face it, when you have family like I do, that's all you need.
For starters, my Mommie Dearest continued our long tradition of bypassing the standard birthday cake routine. She made one of her incredible "birthday pies." It's an apple pie made with three different types of apples with slices of cheese melted in the middle. She even sprinkles a little sugar on the top crust so it gets crunchy. Damn. I think I just drooled on my keyboard thinking about it.
Not only that, but Mom also bought a silk iris plant for my office. I've always had an affinity for purple irises. A few years ago, mom quilted an iris wall-hanging which is hanging beside my desk. For mother's day recently, the girls bought a little silk iris which is on my desk beside my phone. Now, this full-size plant is perched in the corner. I need to get a stand for it.
Unfortunately, Beth made plans to spend the night with her friend, so she was gone. I was cool with it. I get 364 days a year with her, I can give up a night so she can have fun with her friend, right? Still, I hoped she'd at least least make me a card or something, right? Apparently not.
Since I knew I would be receiving a little bit of money from Dad and his girlfriend, I decided to use it to buy a new MP3 player. I decided to join the Mac Fanboys and got an iPod 80 GB. It's nice, but I sure do miss some of the features that I had on my Creative Zen (which Beth is going to be using now). The only reason I switched was simply because everything is "Made For Ipod." Hmmm, I wonder if I should buy a new car since a lot of them have iPod docks. :)
The one gift I really wanted was a drawing from Heather. I had asked her to draw a picture that was in Stephen King's "The Eyes of the Dragon." She said she would, but she got busy and kinda forgot about it. Oh well, that's okay.
Imagine my surprise when she came up around 10 o'clock at night and showed me what she had been locked away in her room working on. I love it.
After a wonderful, relaxing evening, I head off to bed.
Beth didn't forget, after all. This note was waiting for me. Man, she has a way with words.
Recently, my girls have become obsessed with wanting their hair to be dyed. We've been lightening Heather's dishwater-blond hair for a few years now, but suddenly, she wants to go burgundy, and her sister wants it, too.
Once they finally convinced me that it would be so cool to have burgundy "low lights" in their hair, I relented. Last night at midnight, I stuck a shower cap on each girl's head and started the slow process of pulling strands of hair through the cap with a crochet hook.
Over two hours later, we were finally ready for the dye. Yes, we really were dying hair at 2 o'clock in the morning. I'm just nuts that way.
After the final rinse, the girls ran to the bathroom to blow their locks dry and check out the new 'do.
Unfortunately, according to Heather, it was a "hair don't" rather than a "hair do." She was so upset because she couldn't see much of a difference at all. Well, yeah, it was supposed to be subtle. I thought it looked nice on both girls (forgot to take a picture of Beth), but admittedly, it should have had bigger streaks.
So, this morning, we did it all over again. Another 2 hours of crocheting my girls hair followed by more burgundy hair dye.
I could hear Heather's scream as she was drying her hair. This time, though, it was whoops of delight (at least in HER eyes). She thought it looked totally awesome. I thought it looked way, way too much. Beth's was just about right, but Heather's was just too goth. Heather, of course, was quick to point out that "nobody is goth, Mom. This is Emo." I stand corrected.
A few Emo pictures later, and here's what we've got.
Oh, and the underneath side of their hair is still natural, which is pretty funky when they bend over.
It's been a rough school year on my little Beth. As a sophomore, she's been working her little fingers to the bone trying to keep caught up on her classes this year and they've been pretty intense. She chose to bypass the easier classes and enrolled in Honors and Advanced Placement classes.
So, after being buried under mounds of books and research papers for the past 9 months, she's obviously planning on taking easier courses for her Junior year, right?
Umm, no. She's trying to take it up a notch.
She found out about a program that will allow a handful of high school juniors and seniors to attend classes at Kent State University while earning college credit and high school credit simultaneously. Yikes. She's been working her butt off trying to get in. Her grade point average is fine (3.888 - woo hoo!), but that's only one part of the selection process.
Unfortunately, she had to take the ACT test (similar to the SAT) while she had mono. The next week, she had to take the COMPASS test (another standardized college entrance exam). The mononucleosis bug still had her feeling like she was knocking on death's door, so obviously she was not on her best game.
But today, the postman brought the letter...she's been accepted!!
In the fall, my high school junior will also be a college freshman! Oh, and the very best part is that the program is 100% free. It's not based on income guidelines or student loans or anything. The state pays for the tuition and the books and everything. Woo hoo!
Now the problem is trying to figure out what she wants to do after graduation. I'm pushing for a broad nursing background because she can use that in a wide variety of careers, but she's not convinced. She's still trying to figure out her future. At 16, I guess that's pretty understandable.
No frickin' way.
It cannot possibly have been a month since I last posted. What the hell?
Yeah, yeah. I have the excuse of "too much work" and "I was busy" and "the house needed cleaned" and anything else I can think of, but none of the excuses are valid. Sometimes, I sit here and think "Oh, I wanna post a new entry" but as soon as I click onto Firefox so I can write the entry...well, some stupid article on my Google homepage will interest me and off I go into Cyber Land.
Then, of course, so much time has gone by that I feel ridiculous posting an entry talking about Heather's Winter Formal, especially since we're halfway through spring.
As if that weren't enough, I find myself avoiding my blogging friends. I see that my favorite little nutcase in Los Angeles has (gasp!) 7 blog entries which I haven't even read yet. Why? Because I feel guilty reading her stuff when I don't take the time to do mine.
Also, after posting my last entry, a long, lost friend from AOL Journals wrote to me to say hi. I was beyond thrilled to get her email. I couldn't wait to write back. Just let me finish typing this one document and then I'll respond. I've typed probably a thousand documents since then and still haven't written. And now I feel guilty for leaving her hanging.
So ya know what? Tomorrow I'm going to ignore the doctor and his big dic. I'm going to bypass Google News (all the news that is too mediocre to print). And I'm gong to let the laundry wrinkle in the dryer long after it has buzzed. (Umm, well, admittedly, I ALWAYS do that, so I can't use that as an excuse.) Tomorrow, I write an entry. And if it has to do with a Winter Formal, we'll just pretend that the white fluffy stuff blowing in the breeze outside my window is snow rather than the pretty petals dropping from my cherry tree.
