From the Lioness' Den...

Surfacing

Hello ladies!

I'm back! I've been very busy this week during my break from school...let's see...I've

spent one entire day watching tv, spent one day meandering around the country roads in my car, driving roads I've never been on just to see where they go and taking pictures with the new camera I bought for my upcoming digital photography class, gone to coffee with friends, gone to lunch with Leo, spent a couple days cleaning my house (ick), going to a job interview that lasted an hour and a half, and spending some quality time with Shelby of course.

PHEW!

Yeah, I'm enjoying being unemployed. For now. It's probably a good thing school starts up again Monday because I'm starting to get a little stir crazy. Since I got through the beaureaucratic bullshit that I had to go through in order to get funding from the displaced worker program and get unemployment coming in, I don't have an appointment 30 miles away a couple times a week, no phone calls telling me what hoops I need to go through next....it's nice.  Leo called me this morning telling me about how crazy his morning was.  After he was done, he asked what I was up to. I told him I had spent 2 hours at the college library catching up on email, getting my grades, catching up my checkbook, and reading a few blogs.  Then I told him I had gone home, made coffee, and sat at my desk with my feet up, watching blue jays, squirrels and cats out my picture window. He said I needed more stress in my life, I was way too relaxed for him.

It'll come. I'm sure of it. Probably right after the holidays, if I don't have a job yet, I will be going into panic mode and saying that I need a job NOW.  But that's down the road a few months. As of right now, my rent & car insurance are paid up til the end of the year, my car, credit card, personal loan, and medical bills are all completely paid off, and I have money put away for Christmas and then some.  That feels good.

The grades that I mentioned earlier---both classes are a's...Ethics was A+, and Legal Writing & Drafting was A.  The Ethics teacher said he was impressed because I maintained perfect attendance despite my broken kneecap and I wrote "skillful and powerful essays" for my final.  The Legal Writing teacher said he was impressed with my final project, it was very  professional.  Next term I have Personnel Law - bet your ass I'll be paying attention in that one - Legal Research, and Digital Photography. Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

I had parent-teacher conferences at Shelby's school last week, and she's doing well too.  All her classes are A's except Algebra, which was a B.  I told her I was very impressed.  She's kept that up along with being in volleyball, band & choir and being 13. Her volleyball season ended this week, and basketball starts a week from Monday.  She has a concert this weekend where the 8th grade & high school choirs are singing with a well-known area band for a classic rock 'n roll show.  It should be good.  In a couple weeks, the 8th graders are playing with the high school pep band at the football game, and then they are going to Lincoln for an all-night lock-in at Laser Quest. She's really excited about that. I'm NOT excited about the fact that I've got to be at the school to pick her up at 5:45 the next morning to pick her up.

Leo's been great, except that whole "you need more stress" thing.  He also thinks that I messed up my knee on purpose to avoid the birthday bashing he had planned.  He said that it was only postponed, not cancelled.  I told him not to worry about it - I would rather people just forget about that whole turning 40 thing. Since there was no party, I'm still 39. So there.

Did you see that I mentioned cats above?  Yeah, well....let me expand on THAT.  When we moved to the place, the landlord told me about one cat. Momma cat. That's the only one I ever saw consistently.  Every once in a while, I'd see a black tom with green eyes hanging around. I figured he was Momma cat's boyfriend.  But, as the weather has gotten colder, fields have started being harvested (have I mentioned that I live in the middle of 3 cornfields and a bean field?) I've been getting some very unwelcomed guests. Namely mice. Mickey, Minnie, Tom, Jerry, Mortimer, and Mighty just to name a few. I thought the big surrounding area might have been a little too much for Momma cat to handle, soooooo.....I got a couple cats from one of the nurses I worked with. I brought the intruders home on Wednesday, and let's just say, I've seen first hand how established cats handle new ones on their territory.  The new ones spent all afternoon Wednesday getting beat up by Momma cat (the boyfriend sat back and watched) and then they spent all day yesterday up in the trees and on the roof of the house. Finally today, they were down on the ground running around. And, I've also discovered that Momma cat & the boyfriend have a little one running around out there that I've never seen - an exact replica of the dad.  So  now, there are 5 cats running around that place. Let's hope they remember they're supposed to hunt mice.

There ya have it.  All the news that is news at The Den. OH! Forgot to mention something I saw on the interstate as I was headed to my interview yesterday.  A Tahoe went by me and it had a Nebraska Blackshirts license plate holder on the back.  This driver, apparently as disgusted with the Huskers' defense as the rest of the state, had cut out pink paper and written PINK on it.  Then they put it over the top of the word Black in Blackshirts so that the license plate holder now reads Nebraska PINKshirts! I thought it was pretty damn funny. I tried to get a picture w/my cellphone camera, but zinging down the interstate at 80+ mph isn't exactly the prime time to be doing that.  ON THAT NOTE, Go Doane Tigers! (the school that I'm going to)

Have a great weekend everybody!!!!!

Wow!

12:20 PM, Oct. 13, 2007 .. Posted by davey327

Sounds like life is treating you well right now. Hope it stays that way. I think it's great that you have everything paid until the end of the year so you don't need to worry about it. Congrats to you and Shelby on your fine school work.

Untitled Comment

12:56 PM, Oct. 15, 2007 .. Posted by Bruinsmama

good to see you Blogging and GREAT to hear you sound so happy!