Off the Clock

Sauntering Soul has tagged me in a very flattering way. The "tag" is to list five "Thinking Blogs" that affect you, whether by making you think about things, or by touching your emotions, or just raising your curiosity about different things to try or places to go. Apparently there's no tag-backs so I can't tag Bev , but if I could I'd tell you how much I look forward to her posts. Bev is one of the bravest women I (cyber-)know, dealing with relationships, family, work (including jumping from a long-term job to a new one; that makes her my hero!) and life in Atlanta with her cat Bailey. She is charming and funny and I'd love to have coffee with her one day. So here's the rules: 1. If, and only if, you get tagged (but heck, even if you aren't, run with it anyway! lol) write a post with links to five blogs that make you think. 2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme. 3. Optional: Display your award prou

If you've read my last post you'll know that DH and I are ready to move to the next step of our relationship by moving in together. Ok, ok, so it won't be for a few years yet, you don't want to rush these things! So in the meantime I had another man move in with me yesterday. No, I'm not a woman-of-questionable-morals; my DS has come home! I haven't written much about DS. I love this guy to death, but there's no denying that he's been a major challenge all his life. To sum it up he is extremely impulsive and makes some very bad choices. Doesn't sound much different than any other teenage boy, except in DS's case if you were to take that and square it you might start to get the picture. Anyway he moved in with Ex during the Aweful Rebellious Summer of '06. Unfortunately he and Ex have always had an extremely volatile relationship, and now this living arrangement has all come to a nasty end. Fortunately I've always been able to main

I spent the weekend at DH's house last weekend and I've been sleeping like a baby ever since. We had lots and lots of discussions and I now have a game plan . DH and I agree; depending on what the company does it may be two years, or four years, or even seven years from now, (seven being the most since that's when I can retire with a full pension) but once I'm done working where I'm working I'm selling up and moving in with him. It was funny having the conversations because we probably turned over every possible scenario in the course of hashing it out. Let me say that DH is ecstatic about the concept of me moving in with him. I can't get over how much that man loves me! And while I am also very much in love with him, I'm also the more cautious one. I've already "walked down the aisle" ( cough TWICE cough ) and don't always trust my judgement anymore. I get paralyzed with "what if's"; what if he turns into a monster once

I'm feeling better today. Just writing about it yesterday helped me to start organizing my thoughts and get things into focus. I spent some time today with DD working on getting a summer job. By bringing her to the Worker's Adjustment Centre to have her resume looked at she's starting to see that it's not just her struggling to find work and not to take it personally that she's having a hard time. Being down there talking with friends who have already lost their jobs helped put everything into perspective for me. I've decided that I will get through this. I've had wonderful opportunities in life so far and it's no good getting upset because life decides it's not going to run smoothly along the well laid out plans I had made. Life doesn't work that way; it likes to keep us guessing. I've never dealt well with change, and it's time to get over that. Every single time in my life when something bad has happened, something good was wai

I'm numb. And sick. I'm sitting here trying so hard not to panic that I can't organize my thoughts. I couldn't even tell DD without crying. I've just been told that the company that I've worked for for most of my adult life has made it known that they are aiming to be pulling out of my city within the next four years or so. In fact the date they have stated will make me 5 months short of being able to go out with a pension. OMG. To give you some background this company has been around in my city for over 100 years. We had almost 6,500 hourly workers (plus I don't know how many salaried) just three or four short years ago. This is the main industry in my area. My Dad worked here. There was a time I thought my kids would work here. My DD was working on getting the same trade as me (tool & die) to carry on the tradition. I've known that things are bad but I never believed it would get this bad. I've always believed that I'll retire w

I have a confession to make. While I was in Brazil I managed to get addicted to something. I can't seem to shake it, even though I've been home for a month now. Shoes! Normally I wear three pairs of shoes. Tan leather basic shoes, black leather basic shoes or running shoes. That's it. That's my life. I do own other shoes, but for 95% of my life those are what I wear. Well. Let me just tell you that the women in Brazil wear GORGEOUS shoes! You sit at the airport or at the mall and watch them walk by. You don't see any scruffy runners or basic oxfords. High heels are the order of the day. Annie introduced me to a chain of shoe stores in Brazil called Datelli. They are known for carrying beautiful leather shoes including larger sizes. Annie's DD is 5'12" (in her words) and so whenever one of them is down there (the DD's boyfriend is from Brazil) a Datelli outing is in the plans. Are these shoes not beautiful? And the red/tan purse; it