I thought we could check in with Mal this morning (now night; all I got to this AM was adding the picture, then we had to go).
Mal recently turned 11! He would be in 5th grade (because his birthday is late in September).
Almost every day, he has video calls with a couple of homeschooling friends, Caleb and Kona, who have named their group The Cool Miners. They play Minecraft, "board" games (like Battleship and Azul) on buddyboardgames.com, share silly predictive text creations, look through each other's old files, and generally just have a fun time.
He is still meeting with his Sunday friend, Ryan, but since they're kind of outgrowing McDonald's (though Mal says he will NEVER outgrow McDonald's), they've started meeting every other week at a park. This weekend, Mal can try out his new-to-him scooter which a lovely neighbor gave us after the stand board split in two on his older scooter.
We have just started the FOURTH year of our weekly library/park homeschool meetup. We'd gone from 6 kids to 5 to 4 when one kind of aged out and another moved to the west coast (but he's in The Cool Miners, so he's still kind of around). But this summer, another kid joined us and he's fit right in! So we're back at 5, and these kids get along great. I love seeing how their friendships have grown and deepened over the past few years.
In fact, Mal wants to throw a Christmas party for the group at our house in a few weeks. He's been thinking of gifts to give, and will be selecting a menu soon. He also has ideas about what to do for his dad's birthday and Christmas, and it's so cool that he's thinking about ways to make other people happy.
Mal has decided that he's ready to take a break from the one-day-a-week school he's been going to for 2.5 years. I think there have been a lot more kids join, which is good for the school but stressful for Mal, who seems to like having a couple of close friends around rather than being in a big crowd.
I don't know whether I mentioned this or not, but the second time he tried to go to the kid's club on our last cruise, he had the counselor call us to get him because he was overwhelmed by the chaos. When James arrived, Mal dissolved into tears. Poor kid.
That said, I feel like early puberty is upon us. Mal has started having lots of big feelings about things, after having taken a break for a couple of years. I'm trying to talk to him about it; preparing him; telling him that big feelings are normal and that whatever he is thinking about, if he wants to talk to us, he can do that without worrying that we'll be angry or think he's a weird-o (I mean, he is a weird-o. We all are.)
Today (the morning after I started this) is school pictures, a mystery shop stop for lunch, then Urban Air. Good times!
I wrote a thing on Medium on October 30, and Hank Green posted a video two days later where he says a bunch of things I said in my thing. And since Medium looks like it's all premium (pay to read content), I'm going to paste it here. Hank Green and I might have the same brain? Although he didn't delve into the religious aspect of this.
Also, I didn't talk about the fact that most people on SNAP work because I don't think the people who don't like government safety nets really care at all. They just like to throw around sayings like "If a man will not work..." to justify cruelty.
+++++++
“If a man shall not work…” and SNAP
In 2 days, people who receive assistance from SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) will stop receiving benefits until the government reopens, if then.
I’ve seen a lot of alleged Christians gleefully marking the end of this social safety net, and one of the scriptures I hear bandied about in times like these is: “If a man shall not work, neither shall he eat.”
I believe that our current environment of mostly unbridled capitalism has skewed what we (and by “we,” I mean US citizens at large, and Christians specifically) consider “work” to mean only one thing: generating an income.
Before I get into that, let me break down a bit where that scripture comes from and to what it is actually referring:
Thessalonians is a Pauline letter to the church at Thessaloniki. In the bit where Paul warns the church about idleness, he says, “We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies.”
Do you know who had the luxury of not working? Rich people. Poor people had to work to have anything.
Furthermore, Paul, in talking about how he and his compatriots labored when he was with the Thessalonians, indicated that some people DO have an actual right to assistance. “We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.”
So he’s saying, “We paid for our food; we didn’t want to burden you. We certainly could have insisted, but we didn’t.”
The Old Testament has plenty of examples of “social safety nets,” one of which we see at work in the book of Ruth.
In the book of Leviticus, we find this command: “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God.’”
Then in the book of Ruth, we find the titular widow following after the laborers in Boaz’s field in order to feed herself and her widowed mother-in-law.
In her position in society, Ruth likely had zero options to “make a living” in the way we view that through the eyes of capitalism. She was reliant, not on the kindness of strangers (though Boaz certainly seems kind enough), but on wealthy people following the commands of their god to make sure that poor people did not starve.
There are hundreds of scriptures about caring for the poor, needy, traveling, and aliens. Here are just a couple:
“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” Deuteronomy 15:11
“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:17–18
There have always been richer people and people with fewer resources. In the same way, there have always been people who look down on and judge people in desperate circumstances, whether it’s that their situation is a condemnation from a god, or that it’s a product of their own sloth.
The fact is, the more money that is hoarded by the richest people, the less there is to go around for everyone else. There are 800 billionaires in the US, representing 0.0002% of the population, who have 1/2 of the country’s wealth. And the bottom 50% of all US citizens have only 2.5% of the wealth in our country.
This is a blatant injustice in a time where tax codes advantage corporations and billionaires. While small businesses struggle with high costs and taxes, some corporations have such favorable concessions from local, state, and federal governments that they often pay no taxes at all.
Case in point: Tesla paid $0 in federal taxes from 2018–2022. In fact, they received over $1M in “refunds.” During that same time, their executives received over $2.5B. When they moved into Austin in 2020, they received a 20-year package of tax rebates in an area that could use some economic stimulation rather than neighbors who light up the night sky like it’s Friday night in Texas.
(Side note: “ecological paradise,” he said. WHERE IS THE ECOLOGICAL PARADISE, ELON? Dumping waste into the Colorado River hardly counts.)
The same holds for wealthy people who both illegally evade paying taxes and can pay CPAs to use legal loopholes to avoid paying taxes that should rightfully be remitted to the government to fund our infrastructure and programs.
The richest of “us” are wealthy beyond most people’s imaginations (including higher class people like doctors and attorneys). And the poorest… honestly, the same.
There’s a perverted enmeshment between the Protestant work ethic and capitalism that threatens to ruin our economy and our country. (And I’m not even going to go down the rabbit hole of fascism, our government murdering people in other countries because reasons, threatening to occupy states and countries because reasons, etc.)
“Good that those people aren’t getting the money I worked for! They should make their own money!”
If you’re just self-centered prick who doesn’t claim any morality greater than “every man for himself,” then okay. Think this. It basically makes you a monster, but, hey, that’s what Halloween is for, right?
But if you’re someone who claims to believe in a God who repeatedly commanded followers to care for the poor, how can you celebrate the fact that people are in nutritional danger when these benefits are cut off?
“The government shouldn’t be doing that; the church should.”
Great. I’ll tell you: We have benefitted so much from Hill Country Ministries and their monthly fresh food giveaway here in town. We have also appreciated what used to be the Old Farm Community Center Food Pantry in Lago Vista. Now mostly just one woman who gets food from local food banks and donors, delivers it to people in need in the community, then gives what is left away every Friday at the post office.
These programs are outstanding, and people’s generosity is admirable.
However, these programs require that you’re able to be at a certain place at a certain time to access them. Many people can’t because they don’t have transportation, or because of their work schedule.
A preloaded card that allows you to select your own groceries is so much more accessible. Also, only about $7 per day, so it’s not like anyone is able to overspend or overuse the largesse of the US citizenry. Do you know that averaged out over the whole population, we each contribute less than $1 per day to SNAP? Lower earners contribute less, and higher earners more.
Don’t you think that’s the way it should be?
If you’re able to win capitalism and make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, congratulations! But don’t you need to pay back into that system? Where did the idea of noblesse oblige go? Why don’t wealthier people feel responsible for making poorer people’s lives better if they can?
And ESPECIALLY Christians: Where is the concern for fellow image-bearers? Why are you so obsessed with forcing every living being to “earn” what God seemed to consider a basic condition of existing: the ability to acquire sustenance.
As Americans, we have to stop equating the ability to generate an income as a mark of high morals and entitlement. White collar criminals make a lot of money by exploiting and cheating people. Do their riches indicate God’s favor?
If hard work means a god will bless you by directly providing everything you need, then nearly every single person I saw in Haiti should be more wealthy than most people I’ve seen in the US.
That’s not the way it works, though.
We all live under a transactional system where work -> dollars -> the ability to have the things you need to survive.
An artist might make a thing of beauty that stirs emotion deep within the soul of all who view it, but if they can’t charge a lot for their creation, does that necessarily mean that they’re not contributing to society?
A mom (like me) might keep the home’s schedule, clean, do car repairs, mow the yard, help neighbors when they need it, cook for everyone, mend clothes, find sales, steward resources wisely, homeschool, etc. But none of that brings dollars into our household. So is what I do sloth and taking advantage of someone else’s work?
What about retired people? I know a lot of people who worked very hard (including my parents) and who now live off of the money generated and saved during their careers. If you want to get technical, they’re not “working,” though I’d argue that they both still contribute to society through service to their friends and family.
Honestly, the closest thing we see to retirement in the Bible is the man who had built up so much wealth that he had to build bigger barns and only had to worry about what he was going to eat. In the Bible, God demanded his life of him when he thought about retirement! I am not down with that, of course, but I think there are a lot of retired Christians ironically angry that there are less wealthy people on government assistance.
Finally, without going too deep into the ablism inherent in our society, what about people who cannot work at jobs to earn an income at all? Is there not an inherent dignity in human existence that implies access to life-sustaining resources?
Where is the empathy and the awareness that most of us are closer to total financial collapse than we are becoming so rich we will never need to think about money again?
I feel like the God of the Bible knew that we’d be like this, and that’s why he mentioned over and over again that we need to make sure everyone’s taken care of. If you’re a Christian, can’t you view your tax dollars creating a safety net as part of your obeying what your God told you to do?
It does not make sense to me that those of us who are comfortable would ruffle that someone with fewer resources than we have would get a small break. That they would be able to buy their kid a birthday cake. That they would get to celebrate the weekend with a steak. That they might buy sodas to take to a cookout.
In conclusion: Our government’s social safety nets, such as they are or have ever been, are necessary and humane. If you are in a position where you genuinely feel like your tax burden is harming you financially to the point that your own household is at risk, then I hope you’ll join those of us banging the drum for billionaires and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.
Decades have taught us that “trickle down" does not work. While executives and businesses like Walmart and Amazon get richer and richer, WE pay for their exploitive employee practices with things like SNAP and WIC and other programs that their employees require as they are not paid adequately for their hard work.
Can we please stop cannibalizing each other and get mad at the real culprits here: oligarchs, billionaires, and everyone who enables them?
And can we stop hating poor people for being in the circumstances they’re in? It could very easily be any of us at any time. I learned this at Street Cafe in Las Vegas, and have been reminded of it as more time wears on wherein my husband is unemployed. It’s been 16 months, and do you think he does not want to work? Hundreds of applications, and maybe 3 sets of interviews going nowhere. If we lose it all, do we “deserve” it?
Where is our humanity, countrymen and alleged Christians? Where?
You randomly popped up in a dream last night (specifically, I was picking you up from jail after you'd completed your sentence??)... well, the you from more than 15 years ago. Would I recognize you now? Would you recognize me?
I can't even begin to detail how much I've changed in the years since I moved to Austin.
When I first got here, everything was mostly the same. I tried to build a life that was familiar, like the lives we had in north Texas. But pretty quickly, that manner of living started to crumble and without knowing it, I was building a totally different way of life.
Superficially... I have wavy hair now. Can you believe it? All of that time and effort I spent trying to curl my hair. I know you liked it better straight; I guess we always want what we can't have. Anyway, my morning routine was never cumbersome, but it's so much faster now: spray hair to reset waves. Get out. It's pretty great.
Also, I'm not trying to be skinny anymore. You'd probably "still love [me] in spite of it," but, with all due respect, eff that noise, friend-o. I'm happy with myself, and my body has never been healthier. I've seen the future and know what I need to do to maintain maximum ambulation for as long as I can, as far as it is in my power to maintain. I move more and with more joy than I ever have before. And I also unapologetically enjoy the food I've always loved. No shame. No one watching me or my body change. It's amazing.
I have more tattoos (with another in the planning stages), and got my nose pierced a couple of years ago. I believe you would have hated this. It's probably good that things ended up the way that they did.
In fact, there are bigger things that make me grateful that we're not still in each other's lives. Much bigger.
You'd likely hate me now. I don't think the same way or believe the same things that I did back then. You'd think I had back-slidden or been influenced by something dark... but, man, when I read my blogs from 15-24 years ago, I do not like that person. I was a closed-off, judgy, occasionally humorous know-it-all.
I no longer vote the way I voted before. I remember when I first moved, and a mutual friend called me a loyalist to a particular political party as an insult. It worked. I was upset that she would say that. Now? Guilty as charged. What changed? A lot. So much.
You know what has pushed me to change the absolute most? My kids. They have been a blessing, and they have been challenging... and even that has ultimately made me a better person, and hopefully a better parent. If they ask me a question today, I probably have an opinion, but I don't feel like I have to give a pat answer with absolute certainty that it is and I am right.
I will err every day on the side of throwing the doors wide open and embracing people, and life, and happiness. I wanted this before, but was so limited by unnecessarily strict boundaries that someone else convinced me needed to be in place.
I made so many mistakes, and I hurt so many people. Heck, I've even done that in the past 15 years, despite my best efforts not to. But at least when I do so now, it's because I'm messed up and not because I think I know the only right way and insist that other people do certain things because of what I believe.
All that time I spent trying everything I could think of to make us work, and you absolutely refused to budge. It was that realization -- that you cared more about your own self-preservation than you did trusting me enough to step out on a ledge and try to fly -- that made me leave. And now I see that you were correct. We were NOT right for each other. We would not have worked. We would have gotten to a point just a few years later where things would have come up that would have caused us to implode, anyway.
So I guess I'm saying thank you for making me so miserable that I couldn't stay in the same place for another day. Thank you for pushing me away so hard that I ended up never seeing you again for the rest of my life. It was a protection to me, and to my kids (one for obvious reasons as he wouldn't exist).
And try not to get arrested, because I can't come pick you up.
We cruised on Royal Caribbean out of Galveston, with the itinerary supposedly taking us to Coco Cay, Nassau, and Cozumel. We knew this was a gamble because it was hurricane season, which is why we got such a great deal.
Turns out, there were 2 storms hovering over the Bahamas, so instead we ported several familiar places: Costa Maya (home of the best excursion I've ever taken), Roatan (sigh), and Cozumel (thanks for the drugs!).
It was a great trip, we had good food that I didn't have to make and came back to our room that I didn't have to tidy so I have no notes (other than that everything was too loud, including the notes).
A few highlights:
D came with us! It's their first cruise in 15 years, and their first weeklong vacation in 10. It's also their first vacation since having a job, so it probably means more. Actually, D has 2 jobs now, so it was a double.
Nana and Pappy went, separately from us but we got to see them here and there throughout the day.
D, Mal, and I swam (waded?) in the pool at Puerta Costa Maya whilst James walked around. We saw wild tropical birds and a huge iguana just chilling out. We saw the Danza de Los Voladores. We caught a peep of the Star of the Seas, which made Mal super happy. We bought some local chocolate and were back on board by lunch. We didn't plan any excursions because we hadn't planned to go there, and I don't like to book with the cruise lines (plus the line on the ship was LONG after people realized our itinerary was changing).
Mal and I swam in the pool at the new (to us) Roatan port. When Mal and I were on Roatan in February 2024, it was at the Carnival dock on the east side of the island. This time, we ported where I've stopped every other time I've cruised there. We were last at Coxen Hole in 2019, and they were just about to expand the port. That included a pool area, which is smart and we enjoyed a great deal. We bought some semi-local chocolate (Honduran, but produced on the mainland), and were back on the ship by lunch time.
I'm the only one who went ashore at Cozumel. James's achilles tendonitis was acting up, and I was able to pop out of the port for steroids, which worked very quickly and for which James will worship me until the day he loses his mind or dies. Maybe longer. We did have a good time watching the storms that were rolling across Cozumel, back a ways from the ship.
Mal tied with another young boy at Flags of the World trivia. Mal and I both sang Weird Al songs ("Eat It" and "Amish Paradise" respectively) at karaoke. I did the zip line over the boardwalk. Mal and I did an all-ages silent disco, which James joined about a half hour in. That paired with taking the stairs might have been what aggravated his tendon.
We had a great house sitter who took care of the cats and who fully cleaned our house the day before we got home!
I remember whether I mentioned this or not, but the transmission in our HHR is jacked up. To fix or replace it would be more than I paid for it two years ago. So we're trying to limp along with it (it runs, but rough, but only sometimes??!) but we did NOT want to take it to Galveston. So we rented a car each way, and since we didn't have to pay for port parking, we broke even on that. AND we had a lot more trunk room! I think we were all more comfortable, as well.
We rented a 2 bedroom townhouse in Galveston for the price of one hotel room where we stayed a week in 2023 (and we needed 2 rooms). I actually washed clothes three times the night we were there, so was glad to have that option!
I realized something when I walked outside the first full morning of our cruise: Every other time I've cruised, it's been during the winter. It only makes a difference of a few degrees and a bit of humidity... but I think I'll probably stick to the winter if I'm doing anything near the equator in the future.
Theater show: cute and enjoyable, talented cast. Aqua show: unbelievable stunts and very cool and avant garde. Ice show: beautiful, incredible athletes, and the dude with the big hoop must be made of solid muscle.
Now we're home and Mal managed to bring some Influenza B with him, so we've spent the week hanging out whilst he convalesces. I think he'll be fine by the weekend, which is good because I think he's getting stir crazy. He wanted to go to open gym today, but we tested him again and there was still the faintest line.
And I'm on to planning our Mexico trip in the spring... then we're cutting off travel until we figure out what to do with our finances if James doesn't have a job by then.
He had a series of interviews and successful tests with a company right before they left, but they ended up going with someone else, I guess. Sigh. Onward and upward!
He did it! James walked into the VA clinic last week and pretty quickly managed to make an appointment for labs (which he did yesterday) and another one to establish care with a primary care physician next week.
When he went in for the labs yesterday, he was very brusquely asked to present his eligibility card, which he does not have and about which this is the first tine we are hearing. The sparkling gentleman who checked James in stated that he did not care whether or not James was aware of the card; he absolutely has to have it.
James asked what he needed to do, and the man told him that he'd have to go into Austin or up to Temple to request a card, but they did let him do his blood draw. Also, James verified that he could still see the doctor next week.
He mentioned that when he went back for the blood draw, it was done very quickly and with an absence of any kind of chit-chat. When I do lab work at Quest, they are super quick about it because they're good at it from doing it all day, but they do at least attempt to be pleasant.
Oh well! We don't need coddling; just healthcare, so James will soldier on. (Get it? It's the VA.)
I did a bit of internet sleuthing and it seemed like we could request a card online, and my only guess as to why James wasn't told that was maybe because many of the vets using the VA health system are old farts who'd rather drive an hour and a half and wait in a waiting room than put their passport online?
Turns out that was a bit of a whole deal, anyway.
First, James had to set up an account with ID.me, and it didn't like our driver's license capture. The same thing happened to my dad recently when we were trying to verify his identity for something with Social Security. I believe this to be because of how the Texas driver's licenses, which are now the Real ID version, print the pictures. They're pixelated black and white snaps, and both tines I've tried to do this to verify an identity, the system has complained that the picture is "blurry." I've retaken photos in full light, all 4 corners showing, text crisp as can be... and it's just that the pictures are grainy. *shrug*
So. We uploaded his driver's license AND his passport, and then had to do a quick video call, for which we waited in/online about 25 minutes. That "call" lasted approximately 4 seconds, and that was that.
Except THEN we had to take a picture for his VA medical eligibility card. This one is on me: I kept not reading the full instructions, so we had to keep taking new ones. They are pretty funny, honestly.
1) Great pic! Oh, but it needs to have a neutral background. 2) Cute! I see, neutral LIGHT background. And neutral expression, mouth closed. 3) Okay, But it's kind of dark in here. Let's try a flash. 4) NO NO NO NO NO. Worse than a mug shot.
We finally got that done and the website said it should be a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed, people!
I've had our trip to CDMX planned for some time, but I do check back in with our notes and my personalized Google Map from time to time.
Most recently, I had to go back in and find a new place to stay in the middle of our trip (we're staying in 3 different locations so we can see the most without wasting too much time traveling to sites we're interested in; also, we'll get to try different restaurants when we're anchored in different neighborhoods).
Last week, sitting at my desk (the dining table), I got a charge for over $800 on my Apple Card. I didn't recognize the name but went to look in my vacation emails because the name sounded vaguely Spanish. Still nothing matched, so I did a fraud notice with the card.
A few days later, I got this email: "Good afternoon, cordial greeting we currently receive a fraud alert with the payment for this accommodation. Our machine learning system provides a real-time transaction score at the time of payment, but in some cases, as is the case here, we obtain more information about the risk level of a payment, we will cancel this payment and we will send a new link where you can process the payment again in a more secure way." It was the middle place we're staying.
I thought about it, but before they sent me the email, I asked them to cancel the reservation. I had made the reservation on May 27. The trip isn't until next spring. Why would they try to charge me 3 months post-reservation and 7-months pre-stay? There was nothing about that when I booked the room. And why not reach out before you make that charge? I just didn't feel good about it.
I was a little worried because the places seemed to fall into three categories: 1) Too expensive for us, 2) Fine but lots of complaints about nighttime noise or thin walls, 3) Perfect but only allow double occupancy.
FINALLY, though, I found a place that will work for us! Yay!
So I was looking around, moving some site-seeing, when I came upon something that just filled my ice cold heart with warmth.
It is a 360 view of the park where el Fuente de los Coyotes is. I was looking around because I think it's near a pretty church I'd like to look at.
Google blurs faces a lot, but they couldn't blur these guys' good time.
I LOVE THIS SO MUCH.
We have three young guys, friends, just chilling and enjoying the park at dusk. They seem to be sharing a joke or are teasing each other. It makes me happy to see them being kids together. The capture is from 2019 and they're probably fully adults now. Wonder what they're up to. I hope they're still friends. Does middle guy still color the top of his hair?
Anyway, I don't know why they really captured my maternal feels, but they did.
There are tons of people on Street View, but I don't think I've ever seen such an emotional slice of life (never mind the naked guy climbing out of a window or whatever; it's hard to enjoy that drama).
Thanks, young men, for being cool and hanging out. I'll sit on this bench in your honor next time the jacaranda trees are in bloom!
It's been a year since we lost our insurance, and James hasn't had a physical in much longer than that.
The other day, I decided to do him a solid and apply to the Veteran's Administration for healthcare. It wasn't a difficult process, and we received a communication today that assured James that the VA was diligently trying to set up his initial appointment.
There was a phone number for him to call, which was listed as: 1-800-4231-2111.
So.
We were able to Google it and there was just an extra "1" in what should have been the three-digit middle number. James called using my phone because that's where the clickable Google phone number was.
An hour into the call, James came in to me panicked because someone had answered the phone but couldn't hear James. We fixed that, James left again, and then came back a few minutes later.
Apparently the guy had told James that his chart was empty and they needed to fill out some more information so we could make an appointment. Then he put James on a hold that seemed to be the same queue James had been in before.
I was doing something mindless and told James to just leave the phone by me. About 15 minutes later, someone finally answered. I explained what was happening, and they said they needed to transfer me to the person who could set the appointment.
James came back in as the person was answering (that was only a few seconds, so huzzah!) and said he needed to make an appointment. Guess what?
The local clinic had closed at 4:00 PM (it was 4:02 PM at this moment) so we'd need to call back tomorrow. WE HAD CALLED AT 2:41 PM.
I asked for a direct number, and she said that they don't have one; you have to call the main number. She said you can also just walk in and make an appointment on site, which might be easier? That seems bonkers to me.
James tried to explain about the wrongly-rendered phone number but she didn't seem to understand what he was trying to say, as she explained something about how recently the extensions had changed. She was fine. She was trying. But this process was ridiculous.
Wish us luck for tomorrow.
UPDATE: I got them on the phone the next day, and they told us that James has to walk into the clinic to make an appointment because they just don't answer the phone. We're off to a great start!
Back in the day when I was on social media and had a pretty expansive blog readership, I would post reviews of stuff: specific (usually limited-time-only) offerings from fast food restaurants, hair color, chocolate, energy drinks, recipes, etc.
That might seem like "duh, of course; that's what social media is for" but at the time, I had a lot of audacity to think that people would want to read my opinion about the steak bagel at McDonald's (still my most viewed blog post of all time; it continues to get hits even though it's more than 12 years old and no one reads blogs anymore).
That's not how I started out, and it's not what I do now... BUT I did want to weigh in on something:
Recently, I got a 3-month free trial of Apple+ TV. James got caught up on Foundation and is finishing The Expanse.
First, I binged the entire run of Ted Lasso, very late to the game. Everyone was right: It was a delight, start to finish. Built up my emotional investment and had a very enjoyable payoff at the end (no, I'm not going to try to watch the upcoming 4th season because why?).
After that, though, I noticed a little recommendation for Acapulco, another three-season (third season still in progress) show that looked cheerfully-colored and interesting.
I'm caught up and looking forward to the Wednesday releases of the rest of this season, and here's my take: This show is every bit as hopeful and surprisingly emotionally-engaging as Ted Lasso. It's set in the mid-1980s, so that's probably hitting right in my nostalgia. About 1/3 to 1/2 of each episode is in Spanish, so I'm learning a bunch of conversational touches I wouldn't have known otherwise (of course, it might just be 1980s slang and using it will make me sound dated, but I don't care; I like the sound of "que padre!" and I still say, "How cool!" to this day).
Speaking of nostalgia, one of my favorite touches is that every episode, they have the resort singers perform one (or two) 80s hits in Spanish with choreography. Delightful.
Anyhoo. It seems like this show has had high ratings, so maybe I'm the last one on board here but I just wanted to throw my two cents in and highly recommend it if you have Apple+ TV or if you were looking for something to round out your free trial!
I met with my endocrinologist today for the first time since my surgery. She told me that I needed to get a neck ultrasound ASAP, as I really should have gotten one pretty soon after the surgery. I wish I'd known because I had insurance until the end of August 2024! Now I'm applying for the Travis County Medical Access Program.
Also, the doctor mentioned that the medication I'm taking is actually lower than my weight would dictate I need, so she's wondering if that means part of my thyroid was left. I definitely hope not, because that would mean another surgery. I know there was a lot of inflammation, and I know guts look a lot alike so I suppose that anything is possible.
This wasn't a lot of fun when I had insurance, but I wasn't worried about the finances at all. If I have to do it again, it's going to suck, but it will suck a lot more than it did when I didn't have to stress over every penny (or tens of thousands of dollars).
To review, here's what I had done: Neck ultrasounds (one in an imaging place, two at my endocrinologist's office, and one in the surgeon's office), two sets of biopsies, a DEXA scan for bone loss, multiple labs measuring PTH and Vitamin D, a 24-hour urine test (the worst part of the experience by a wide margin), a nuclear scan (two+ hour procedure), a pre-op visit with the surgeon, the surgery and overnight in a surgical hospital, post-op with surgeon, more labs, and now prescription forever.
Also, my regular doctor wants me to see a gynecologist because of some menopause stuff that isn't like "I feel weird" but like "that shouldn't happen and you need to get it looked at." And actually, I feel fine. It's hard to worry much when you don't feel off, but that's how it was with my hyperparathyroidism and Hashimoto's, so I know my body likes to hide dysfunction from my feelers.
I'm hoping if we get approved for the MAP, then I can stop obsessing over find the cheapest care for each specialty.
I hate healthcare being tied to a job.
My friend Adrienne told me that she doesn't care if I have to go into medical debt to take care of myself, so if that happens I'm just putting all of my medical providers on notice that Adrienne in Las Vegas (kind of) assured me it would be JUST FINE. You'll get $200 a month for the rest of my life, so I guess you'd better do a good job to make sure that I'm going to be around to pay it for a long time.
When you see it visualized like this, it seems like it wouldn't be any big deal to get the thyroid out! But also... that she removed the thyroid but kept 3 of my parathyroid glands in there is pretty unbelievable.
School starts back up this week, and Mal's calendar is about to get busier again, as well.
I have a mystery shop today; we're going to a trampoline park! Yay! I did some shops this weekend, just taking pictures, and those were NOT worth it. But today's will be a great indoor activity to keep Mal entertained without dying.
One of my shops this weekend was here. Let me know if you know what it is!
Then this afternoon, we have a Zoom call with Mal's school to kind of set expectations for the year. It sounds like there was some student drama last year and I'm guessing they want to stop that before it starts. The school is so awesome; they love the kids, and they're so affirming and patient. It's been a real blessing for Mal, and that's why we keep sending him, even though we are DESTITUTE.
(Not really. It does feel like that sometimes. Anybody want to hire my husband?)
Wednesday, I have my one-year follow-up with the endocrinologist who referred me for surgery. I'm overmedicated, which is suppressing my thyroid-stimulating hormone (which you want to do at first if you've had cancer, just to make sure everything withers and dies), and has my cholesterol absolutely soaring. I am going to ask if after this appointment, I can switch medication management to my primary care office. They charge under $200 per visit, as opposed to my very competent and in-demand endo, who charges (and deserves) more than $450 per visit. Her office has worked with me and been extremely kind to keep pushing appointments back by 6 months while still adjusting and renewing my Levothyroxine prescription. I recognize that this professional bunch should be paid well for their amazing work... I just wish it were insurance and not me paying it! Feel me?
Also on Wednesday, we should be able to check in for our cruise! I know what you're thinking: "You just said you were destitute!" Well, yeah. We have planned a couple of trips expecting that James would have a job at some point, and so we're doing them... but after we visit Mexico in March, we'll put the kibosh on traveling for a bit. When it's been 2 years without a real income, we'll have to reevaluate some stuff.
BUT.
I'm very excited about the cruise because D is going with us! It's their first cruise in 15 years, and I know they're going to love it. It'll be nice to have the whole fam together (maybe not on the drive down or back, but, you know, in general) for a change.
My friend referred me to a sweet woman who's going to stay with our cats while we're away. She charges the same price for housesitting that we paid Rover to come feed the cats and empty the litter boxes for half an hour per day! Yay!
Then next week is the third anniversary of our "library" group! We started LGBT-friendly homeschool meetups because when I see stuff like this, I know they don't mean "us."
We'd had 6 regular members for a couple of years, but one kind of aged out (I wish we had more older kids, but that hasn't panned out yet) and one moved to Washington. It's cool, though, because Mal and Kona talk to him online and they play Minecraft or board games several times a week.
More recently, another kid has joined us, and he just fit right in! I'm really proud of our core group for not being cliquish; it probably helps that the group IS so small. I'm just excited to see what Year Four brings!
Also next week, Mal's classes soft-start with a couple of weeks of self-directed days to get back into the swing of things. And the open gym he attends is resuming sessions.
It will be his birthday before you know it! And actually, it will be MY birthday before that, so mark your calendar!
It was likely a self-preservation tactic my subconscious exercised on my behalf.
In preparing for an interview, I went back and for the first time read through the blog posts I made during 2010-2012.
I have a few thoughts, and they're all over the place. So in no particular order:
1) Holy cow, I cringed so hard so many times. The things I said as a youngster (pre-40s, but barely)! Your girl has changed A LOT in 15 years, and that's, to borrow a probably-copyrighted phrase from Martha Stewart, a good thing. If you read my blog back then, and you rolled your eyes or gasped at anything I said ("Thanks, Feminism," I'm looking at you), WE ARE IN AGREEMENT. And I'm so sorry. It's bad. It was very, very bad and re-exposing myself to... myself (not in a dirty way, perverts) created quite a rip in the time-space continuum of who I know myself to be.
2) It's easy to believe the people can't or won't change. Good gravy, have I ever changed in the past decade. I like to think it's for the better. I do probably cuss more than I used to. But getting off of social media was a huge improvement. I feel like I am much more accepting and less judgmental than I was back in the day. I definitely don't obsess over my body or my hair or anything the way that I did 14-15 years ago. I'm pretty sure I am NOT maturing, though, so don't worry about that.
3) It was a complete surprise to me to learn that I kept two concurrent blogs during 2011-2012??! I had "Trailer Trash and Proud" for fun stuff like reviews, things we did, stuff I baked, etc. and I kept my older one for all of my angst and preaching and Deep Thoughts™. That one is very barfy and I only read it to make sure that I was remembering timelines and events correctly. But it was a painful read. Bleh. The stuff about my cool pancakes and all of the chocolate I bought in Dallas was a lot more on-brand and enjoyable.
4) After all of the stuff happened in the early 2010s, it was like I was running out of a burning building and didn't have the energy or desire to look back. Now that I have, I feel a lot less... well, just a lot less about it. The feelings aren't a big deal. I'm over it. Things didn't go the way they would have if they'd happened the way I wanted, and apart from my self-esteem taking a huge hit (but refusing to stay down, which actually would have made it easier), it was all really fine. Better in the long run, in fact. Much better.
5) Things I should have done differently: a) Immediately left my church. b) Moved to Austin a year before I did. c) Been more proactive in helping D deal with the huge changes I, too, was finding difficult. It SUCKS as a parent to be barely treading water and therefore not fully notice that your kid is struggling probably worse than you are. A lot of the issues D has had are because I was not thinking properly and didn't notice or realize things I should have noticed and realized. We both have a lot more perspective on this as adults, but it doesn't change that I messed up. I missed a lot. And I can't redo any of it.
6) That said, reading about where I was back then really makes me more hopeful in this part of my life! I was worried about the same things: finding a job, having enough money to make it, where would I end up if I couldn't afford where I was living anymore? Etc. At the time, I had a friend who compared it to swinging on a trapeze and how, for the trapeze to work, sometimes you have to let go and fly and trust that the other trapeze will be there to meet you when you get there. Right now, I have a whole other adult in this with me, and we have more resources than I did at the time. So it helped kind of jolt me out of some doldrums and I appreciate that a lot!
In 12 years, none of us has aged, including the kid. Which is weird. ;)
... Back when I was married to someone else, that if my ex-husband ever died, I would get fat, and I'd get an RV. Over time, I added that I'd also get another tattoo.
Well, apparently, it didn't take a death. It only took a decoupling.
The first thing I did was to get an RV. And I LOVED it!
Me loving my RV so hard. (Thanks, Gabrielle, for the photoshoot... 14 years ago!)
As you can tell by that older photo above, I'm also bigger than I was back in that day. It took a long time for me to get comfortable with my body, but it has helped to have a partner who is very comfortable with it. I mean, if I'd remained single, I probably would have been fine with it, as well... it's just that being married to someone who views your body with suspicion and expects it to disappoint if you're not constantly managing it makes just living a normal life pretty impossible. In the words of Madeye Moody, "Constant vigilance" and all that. It's exhausting. (Also: JK Rowling, p-tooey.)
Then, not only did I get another tattoo; I've gotten three more, including 2 since I turned 50! And I got my nose pierced!
To my complementarian/"servant leader head of the family" ladies, I will say: Bodily autonomy is incredible, and you should really try it.
I've been thinking about this a lot as we consider our financial future in the days of massive layoffs across the country, and the seemingly decreasing likelihood of James finding a "career-level" job in tech (which he's honestly fine with; but it seems like the Leander Independent School District doesn't want a tech bro as a night janitor, either).
We're looking at selling the house and moving out of the country. We're looking at selling the house, getting an RV, and moving across the Rural Market road. Or out of Texas, as James thinks if we're going to get rid of the house, we should GO.
Mal loves the idea of living in an RV. James is okay with it, too. In other words, I don't have to wait for him to die before considering things I'd enjoy...
... Although, if James weren't around, I might consider cutting my hair a lot shorter. He has said that it's my hair and I can do whatever I want with it, of course; but I also know he likes longer hair (on everyone, not just me) so I'm keeping it. For now.
A couple of months ago, I mentioned that the drive train might be going out in one of our vehicles. Fortunately, that was not the case. It was just that the rotors were rusted so it kind of felt like driving with the brakes partially engaged.
We got that fixed to the tune of something like $1500, felt lucky about that, then three days after we got the car home, the "check engine" light came on. It went back out, we thought we were getting a reprieve, but then it came back on.
That tine, it was the emissions system. Everything physically was working okay, but we had to replace a sensor and get a firmware update, which was another $700ish.
NOW... when Mal and I were coming home yesterday, my car overheated. I pulled into QuikTrip to buy some coolant, then I called James to come follow me to the garage. I drove slowly, with the windows down and the heater way up, idling at stop lights, and made it to the garage without the car heating up again.
Apparently, I managed to keep it from damaging the radiator but a few things needed repair: the thermostat, the radiator cap neck (which melted a bit from the heat and prevents the cap from staying securely on), a cool flush, and an oil change... for just under $1000.
But, oops, when they were taking some bolts off, the bolts broke and fell into the housing, which has to be replaced. They're not charging us extra labor for that, but the housing is another $400.
Like, I'm buying stuff that's $.50 off the usual price trying to make our money last longer (which I do when James is working, but we also have money coming in, unlike now) but we just keep having to spend thousands of dollars... on repairs, on our auto insurance renewal (and, of course, the price went up because of a $700 claim), our city's water company started charging more (they should!).
James said he's averaged applying for about 10 jobs per week since he got laid off. That's well over 500 applications. I've applied for jobs and have been told I'll be invited in for an interview at one, but that was weeks ago so I'm not holding my breath.
I will say that I'm having some luck at cobbling together side gigs like mystery shopping, marketing research, and now I'm getting into pet-sitting (kind of).
What's kind of funny, though, is that I'm trying to get Mal to take some classes next semester to learn how to skate or swim or other stuff. And that would cost money. But I guess we're lucky because Mal says he teaches himself his own skills, so he declines.
Speaking of Mal... He had 2 teeth pulled the last time he went under anesthesia for dental work in April 2023 and we were told at the time that it might be years until he lost more teeth. It was! However, in the past 10 days, he's lost 3 molars! And another one is loose.
He still hasn't lost his canines, which feels wrong. But his mouth is a wonderland of weirdness, anyway.
They wanted to do braces pretty quickly, and he'll probably still need them eventually; but his teeth have moved on their own A LOT in the past 2 years!
UPDATE: After I posted this, Mal lost his second molar of the day!!
UPDATE 2: It ended up being just over $1800. Le sigh.
Well, friend-os, it's apparently finally happened: I am hormonally infertile.
Despite the fact that my test results say I'm "postmenopausal," as far as I know, "menopause" is defined as being a year after the start date of your last period. My last period actually started in December, but I've been dealing with 100-200-day gaps in my cycle since 2022. I'm only slightly older than the average onset of menopause, but it has felt like a long time coming.
By the way, the title of this blog post is a joke. I don't feel less like anything now that I'm not able to get pregnant (allegedly). I'm excited about a new phase of my life! And I'm determined to live long enough that I'll have had well over half of my life without having a period.
Although my body has been playing games with me for more than three years now, I am extremely fortunate in that I haven't really had terrible symptoms (so far). Even when I haven't had a period, I've still been aware of cyclical hormonal fluctuations, to the point that for the first time in my life, I'm able to tell myself and the people around me, "I can tell I'm going to be more easily irritated than usual for the next couple of days. Just making you aware." Of course, I do try not to be a menace during that time, as well.
I thought I was getting a kind of "morning sickness" for a few months earlier this year, but think I figured out and fixed that and it was digestive.
I haven't had any "hot flashes/flushes," although I do find myself getting uncomfortably warm after I've had a burst of activity and finally sit down. I've been taking care of that with a little hand-held fan that I sit on the table and blow into my fact for about 10 minutes, then I'm fine.
Here's something you might not know about me: I didn't really want to have kids at all.
However, I was married to two different men who very much wanted to have children.
I'm grateful that they did, and thankful for how my life turned out, even if it's nothing like what I thought it would be. Honestly, I'm not sure I ever did think about what my life would look like... a lot of times, it feels like life is living me, but that's just fine because so far, so good.
It is 12:12 AM and I'm sitting in the living room. I went to bed at about 7 last night because I suddenly felt extremely tired and bad.
By the time I got into bed and was ready to rest, I was FREEZING. We have a sheet, a blanket we use when it's a little chilly, and a quilt we usually turn down but will use it when it's truly cold out. I was wrapped up in all three, had on my sleep cap, and I was still shivering.
I slept four hours, restlessly. Every time I woke up, it was like I was fighting a battle that was a mixture between Ready Player One's egg hunt on the OASIS, paper.io 2, speaking Spanish, whatever is going on in Andor right now, and fighting whatever I was trying to fight off.
James came to bed around midnight, and I had stopped being chilly. I got up to use the restroom and could tell that my body was on fire. James took my temperature and it was only 101.4, so that's good.
I decided to get up for a while and sit on the couch until I'm sleepy again (I'm very tired, but not in the sleep zone).
This is one of those times that if I had insurance, I'd probably head off to the quick care clinic tomorrow. Instead, I have an appointment coming up later this week with my primary care physician for my annual physical and I'll just talk to her about it.
The biggest problem here is that I've never been a hypochondriac, but now that I've had cancer growing in my body once (and I got so so lucky with that; truly, I hesitate to tell anyone in the real world that I "had" cancer; it doesn't feel respectful enough of people who have the kinds of cancer that require protracted and devastating treatment), when I feel suddenly very bad, my brain does go there.
When we had insurance, I definitely realized how fortunate we were. I knew then and I'm really feeling it now that peace of mind is only for the moneyed and the rest of us have to hope for the best and try not to go bankrupt.
Having worked din property management, I understand that medical debt doesn't haunt people like consumer debt, but it's still not great to know that you have thousands of dollars outstanding, and so you have to made decisions about whether you can stay in your apartment for two more months, or whether you want the collection agency to stop bothering you.
For now, I'm going to enjoy my ginger ale, do some word puzzles, and then try to go back to sleep. Wish me luck!
In August, I'll have been using Duolingo for 3 years.
James will hit 4 years at the end of this month. He started studying Spanish in June 2021. I decided to go with French at first, just because that's what I studied in high school and college and I figured having some momentum from the get-go would keep me motivated.
We planned a trip to Montreal, which we took in spring 2023, and after we got home from that, I switched over to Spanish, too.
Living in Texas (and, really, anywhere in the US), this is a much more practical language. I wish I'd studied it in high school rather than French, but I think French seemed so much more romantic.
In terms of practicality, ASL would have been the most useful to me, but I shudder to think how it would have been taught, especially given how I was taught French in high school. I had to take remedial French for a semester in college, because I was functionally starting fresh. Sigh.
Now that I've been studying Spanish in Duolingo for a couple of years, I've attained a score that indicates I should be able to have basic conversations in Spanish.. but I don't feel like that's the case at all.
We're planning to visit Mexico next year, and I've started listening to an immersion Spanish podcast to see if I can gain some confidence in this regard.
What I think is happening is this: I am really good at taking tests. I can usually do pretty well in challenges and stuff, but that doesn't always translate to learning with me. I have surpassed James's "XP" within the game, and I'm further along than he is. But I'm 100% sure that he's better at actually speaking Spanish than I am.
This is a part of my personality that I wish I could turn off. I'm trying to stay focused and learn to learn, but sometimes the "gamification" here is counterproductive to why I'm actually on the app: to learn a language.
I avoid using AI, but for some reason there's now always an AI summary at the top of Google search results. If you want not to have that, you can add a curse word in your search, and AI will not deign to respond.
Although it wastes so much energy and water to process AI stuff, I did try something this morning that made me roll my eyes.
Someone posted a video of search queries that were nonsense, and how AI attempted to answer them. So I typed something and got this response:
Dude... just say, "I have literally no idea. I've never heard of this and I have access to all of the information in the world.
I'm not anti-AI. I think it's great in applications that help people have more access to things, like helping blind people figure out which can is peach slices and which can is cannellini beans; taking a first run at captions for Deaf and hard-of-hearing; looking at medical imaging in conjunction with an experienced radiologist, etc.
What it can't do is tell an original story, or make a true comment about the human condition. It steals from creators and produces a less good version of anything that a person could do.
Mal had a good time for a while giving prompts to an AI-generator for images... I hated that because I knew how wasteful it was. But he was able to work through the fun of that and stop after the novelty wore off. He learned how bad AI is at understand what people are actually saying, and how poorly it repackages the stuff it steals from.
I guess you could say that my feelings about AI are like screaming into an onion.
Mal and two of his homeschool friends have an online "club" called Cool Miners.
Cool Miners cerca 2023
Caleb moved to the Pacific Northwest last year, and Kona lives close enough that we can almost see her house from our house except for one hill and a bunch of trees.
Today, I had an errand to run and Mal was going to go with me, but he ended up being on a call with his fellow Cool Miners, so he elected to stay home.
He just got off of the call, which lasted about three hours.
It reminded me of when I was about Mal's age and my dad was the president (or some "cabinet" position) of the local Chamber of Commerce. This was before we could afford call waiting, so my sister and I had a 15 minute limit on phone calls, in case urgent business from the CoC needed to come through.
I'm glad Mal has made a few groups of close friends here in the homeschool community. We moved when D was about his age, and that middle school time is a difficult one to break into a whole new social scene.
I mentioned our "field trip" yesterday where Mal got to hang out with his one-day-a-week school friends, including a friend he made who no longer goes to the school on Wednesdays, so Mal rarely gets to see them anymore.
And Mal has his post-church friend who's been meeting him almost every Sunday for the past maybe 3 years.
It's fun to see my younger kid coming into his own, and figure out who he is outside of us.
Mal and I went to Zilker Botanical Gardens today to tour their annual Woodland Faerie Gardens.
While we were there, I took a picture of him among some of the blooming flowers. It was cute, but I didn't think it did justice to what my eyes were seeing. This is that picture.
It's fine. He's a cutie! But also, it didn't reflect how we were absolutely swallowed by greenery everywhere were walked.
Then I remembered a photo trick I read about last year and used quite a bit on our California trip: Move back and zoom in.
I stepped back about 7 paces and zoomed in. Mal didn't move. Nothing else changed. Just moving back and zooming in, which brings the background closer in the frame.
Remember how we had our dishwasher unclogged right before we went to Louisiana? It's clogged again and making the absolute worst metallic-sounding noise. The same guy is coming out to look at it this evening. Maybe. I'm getting "ghost" vibes from them, so we'll see.
Furthermore, one of our cars has been running rough... I guess; I don't drive it, but going by D's description, the mechanic said, "It sounds like it could be the drive train." Perfect. They have the car so I get to take D to work the next few mornings. I'm up, anyway, but I don't usually have to drive in morning traffic so that will be a fun time.
You know how they say that youth is wasted on the young? Well, I guess you could say that money is wasted on the old, but you won't have to worry about that with us! We're spending our retirement savings on near-constant break-downs.
As I mentioned in the last post, it's not officially been a year since James got laid off. (And now it's been a year since I had parathyroid and thyroid surgery!)
Actually, right this moment, everyone else in the house is working at least a little bit!
D's been working retail coming up on 2 years. They work D A LOT for a "part time" employee, and I have all sorts of opinions about that (like that D deserves full benefits, a raise, and hours lumped together instead of 4 hours every day of the week) but it's not my job or my business. I'm just proud of D for sticking it out at as long as they have! I don't think I ever stayed at a job for 2 years until I started working for Terra West as a divorced lady.
I've been doing mystery shops, some in-person research stuff, and online surveys. We couldn't live on it, but it's something to do for "fun" money every now and then.
Even Mal is chipping in! He did one online survey video call thing about a year ago, he did a mystery shop with me a few months ago, and he just got off of a call here he commented on some educational products that are under development.
I don't think I posted this before, but here's what I got out of the mystery shop he helped me do:
He got $20 and I got a free photo that people pay a minimum of $200 for! Win/win.
In the meantime, the money James earned and saved is getting us through this. I hope he feels a little of the pressure off of him from our input.
Now I have to go transfer some money into Mal's account to pay for the discussion he just completed!
The "school year" is almost over, which affects us as homeschoolers more than I would have thought before I started doing it.
Mal's one-day-a-week school and homeschool open gym both break for the summer. I'm looking into other things to keep him busy... but hopefully low-cost/free things because it's now been a whole freaking year since James got laid off, and he doesn't seem much closer to finding a job than he did a year ago. Difference now is we've obviously blown through the severance package, and his unemployment ran out quite some time ago.
I'm doing some mystery shopping again, and that's been kind of fun. This weekend, James got to go to this fancy barber shop and have a bunch of cool treatments.
If you're wondering, "Hey, is that paraffin wax on his hands?" Yes. Yes, it is.
Mal and I did a trampoline shop a couple of weeks ago, I ate at a nostalgic restaurant with D last weekend, and I've done some visits to places like day cares and dog kennels that have paid pretty well. It's not a lot of money, but it's more than nothing.
Today is Mal's annual well checkup, so we're getting ready to go see if he's still on the growth arc he's consistently followed since his first checkup. Allegedly, he's on course to be 6 feet tall!
Speaking of Mal growing up... He posted his first animated video the other day! I'm not embedding it here (you have to click this link) because if you see it, we want it to "count" as a view, and it only does that on YouTube. I think it's pretty great!
When I was younger, I LOVED The Pointer Sisters. Absolutely adored them and thought they were the best musical group on the planet.
Sophomore year, some friends and I performed one of their songs for our school's lip synch (and I blogged about the dark side of that almost 5 years ago!).
I had a couple of Pointer Sisters albums (on tape) and likely wore them out.
Yesterday morning, if you'd asked me to name some Pointer Sisters songs, I would likely have listed "Jump," "I'm So Excited," and my favorite, "Neutron Dance."
However, as Mal and I were sitting in the McDonald's Play Place waiting for his friend to arrive for their weekly meet-up, a very familiar song played on their "oldies" feed. It sounded familiar... was it The Pointer Sisters? Yes, it was!
The song is called "Dare Me."
When I got home, I decided to look it up. I couldn't have told you that this song existed when I woke up, but as I played the video, I knew every single word!
All of this to say, I'm glad we got there early because this is one throwback I very much needed. I think that The Pointer Sisters' music stands up, and this video is SO 1980s and perfect, I love it with all of my heart.
We took a circuitous road trip to New Orleans at the beginning of the month: Caddo Lake, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lake Charles, home.
We saw so much cool architecture, a good number of museums, one of the only public plantations dedicated to the lives of enslaved people, and we ate some really good food!
I was going to insert some cool pictures here, but Blogger is being a jerk this morning so here's the link to the album, if you're interested.
Yes, James is still unemployed.
We're trying to walk the line between being frugal to maintain our savings (a lot of which is supposed to be for retirement, so...) and in living our best life while James has time to do things. I'm not sure we're getting it 100%, but we're trying.
Mal has one week left in his classes before they break for the summer. They're having a few "campy" things and he's doing a couple of those, but otherwise I'll be looking for ways to fill Mal's summer downtime. He's not super busy in general, but when the structure of having at least one thing to do most days falls away, he tends to get restless.
I have a mystery shop today, so I need to get ready to go.
Not much to report, just wanted to throw something up for April!
