It's My Birthday Month (and other assorted things)

Hey there!  It's been a very hectic, but VERY good couple of weeks in my household.  My son is getting settled in, we went camping a second time (which was miserable, more details to come), had Thanksgiving, celebrated my son's birthday, went back to the Ren Faire one last time before it was over and I just spent 4 days with my hetero life mate. 

Camping the second time around was quite different.  We got there Friday night, and had to set up our tent in the dark.  Meh, just parked the car in front of where we wanted the tent and used the headlights.  No big deal.  My friend got there shortly thereafter and we helped her set up her tent, then we all relaxed.  I changed into my zebra striped, rainbow fleece onesie and we went to bed.  Low temp that night was about 50 so it was chilly but TOTALLY bearable.  Between my blankets and my fleece onesie, I was totally fine and comfortable. 

The second night, not so much.  The temps suddenly dipped well below freezing over night (seriously, ice on the car and tent in the morning when we got up) AND to make matters worse, the ass holes across from us decided that the 10pm curfew on making noise at the quiet side of camp was really not meant for them.  They were up drinking, screaming, playing loud music and at least one woman there had a laugh like a braying donkey, until 2:30am.  We got up the next morning and decided that we just wanted to come home rather than spend another day at the Faire.  It was wet and cold that morning.  We broke down camp, packed up and got in the warm car.  :) 

Thanksgiving was a pretty low key affair.  Scott works in a grocery store.  Guess what is open on Thanksgiving Day during the morning?  Grocery stores.  He was at work until about noonish.  By that point, the people coming in to the store had completely died off so they cut him loose early.  Still didn't eat dinner until about 6.  I am so happy to report that very VERY true to form for me, by the time dinner was ready I was stuffed FULL from snacking all day as I cooked.  LOL 

I gave my boy $100 to spend on whatever he wanted, and then we took him to lunch (so that poor child, who has lived in the Midwest for the past 8 years, could get some REAL and DECENT Mexican food, because they don't have it up there - and if you say they do, it's because you've never been outside of your Midwest town, and just don't realize how much better it is here) and then went to go see Mockingjay Pt. 2.  We liked it.  They handled the death of Phillip Seymore Hoffman very well.  He was nearly done filming when he died and he really only had like one more pivotal scene to film, with Katniss.  The director and the author came up with a way to handle it very well.  After the movie, it was back home to sing happy birthday to The Boy as he blew out his candles.  19 years old and YES by God, I put candles in his cake.  LOL 

Back up the next morning, on the road up to the Ren Faire.  Last weekend of the festival and I still had tickets (I get mine at work for $5/each instead of paying $20 for a full price ticket.  #winning) so we decided to head up there one last time.  The Boy wanted to buy some stuff with his $100, so off we went.  We did not stay long.  It was miserably cold and raining.  Got what he wanted, then boogied on home.  :) 

Sunday afternoon, I got to go pick up my hetero life mate.  I have been best friends with R since we were teenagers.  If you are lucky enough to make a life long friend when you are that young HANG ON TO IT.  It's a rare thing.  We truly are sisters.  Every time we get together, there is usually a picture of us, sometimes a selfie, and ALWAYS with us flipping the camera off.  Don't believe me? 

Us, in a bar in NYC, 4th of July weekend,
2013.  I was in town to visit her.

This is us 2 nights ago, at the Muse
concert.  Nothing has changed, except I'm
no longer blonde.

 

Those are just two of them.  I have many more, but these were easily accessible.  :)  I love this woman beyond belief.  BFF's for more than 30 years, with a shared life history that is too twisted to be made up.  I think that is why we are so close.  She hung out, with my son quite a bit, because I had to work, she got her fill of Sonic (in NYC, there is no Sonic, so she gets some when she comes to visit) and we got to go see Muse.  Not enough words to express how much I love that band.  They are just so, so good.  **le sigh** 

Sadly, real life happens and stuff, so back on a plane to home she went yesterday afternoon.  :(  It's okay - it's my turn to go visit her next time.  It's always an adventure!  Woot!!!! 

So, my last few weeks have been hectic as hell.  These next few weeks aren't going to be any better at all.  I literally only have 2 1/2 weeks of work left for this year.  Too bad that I have about 8 weeks worth of work to get done in that 2 1/2 weeks!  Our Christmas shut down in an unbelievable blessing, but the race up to it is awful.  Everyone trying to get their stuff done before the end of the year, killing themselves and us (the support functions) to get stuff done under some misguided notion that things have to be done by end of the calendar year (we work on the government fiscal year, Oct 1 - Sept 30, so the end of December is really just another month in the accounting year).  Ah well.  2 1/2 weeks of crushing work loads, but it gets me 10 paid days off in the end.  #worthit

Other than that, my birthday is in two weeks.  Two weeks from today in fact.  I will be 46 proud years old.  At this point, I'm shocked to still be here, so I don't shy away from the number.  I own it.  It also doesn't matter what your physical age is, when your mental and maturity age is 12.  ;)