Kitty litter, prescriptions, and rented movies

"Kitty litter, prescriptions, and rented movies"-02/01/06

My lazy evening on this first day of the month has been really good for me. I think. I've actually spent the majority of it picking up things here and there, and cleaning off my desk. I could be studying, but my brain is in no mood to pull out the books for some hardcore reading.I've been thinking about my mom a lot lately. I realized a couple days after her birthday that I had forgotten it. It really hurt to think that I'm slowly forgetting dates like that, and really moving on. I cried myself to sleep that night and skipped classes the next day. I skipped classes because I felt sick, but I think that sickness was due in part to just simply missing my mom.

Recently I've been in one of those, "Look at all she's missing" moods. Valentine's Day is coming up. The majority of my single friends despise the day. I actually rather enjoy it. I don't really know why, but I do. My mom really loved all holidays, including Valentine's Day. I remember one of the last Valentines she shared with us was when I was 14. I came home from school pissed off about some "unbearable situation" at school. She told me to clean up the living room and kitchen. I told her, "no" and stomped up to my room. She yelled up the stairs to come back down. I stomped back downstairs. "If you clean up the rooms then you can have your Valentine's Day card. It's in the bathroom." I remember thinking to myself at that moment, Why the hell is my card in the bathroom? I didn't say anything though, I just started cleaning slowly. I wasn't in too much of a hurry. I appreciated her getting me a card though so I apologized for being a brat and continued cleaning. I remember my mom just sitting there, watching me clean the living room. She'd occasionally smile and then walk back into the kitchen.

Half-way through the cleaning of the first room she told me to go ahead and get my card. She told me I could wait and finish cleaning after. I told her it was okay and that I would finish cleaning before getting my card. Her smile widened and she said, "No no no. Get it now!" My mom followed me as I headed to the bathroom to pick up my card. I could feel her smiling behind me. I opened the door. There was no card. There was nothing. I turned around. By this point I had decided she had gone mad. I shot her a, "Uh..." look. She started laughing and her whole face brightened. "Look in the tub," she said. There, sitting in the bathtub were two jack-russell terrier puppies. Both had red bows tied around their little necks. They sat there looking up at me, like they had been waiting for hours. My mom came over and stood next to me. "You can pick which one you want to be yours," she told me. I'm sure my smile spread from ear to ear. I hugged her and then got to the floor to pick up the beautiful puppies.

The beauty of my mom was her giving spirit, and the true happiness she gained from seeing other people she loved happy. My mom was complicated and unpredictable, yet still, to this day, she is the most unique and intelligent person I've ever met. She had a great passion for being a mom. I miss her.

Time marches on. People grow up. Time never stops. People move on.

I don't remember a lot about the final years of her life, because of all the struggles we had during that time. Sometimes I think about the afternoons I'd come home from school when I was younger, and she'd be sitting there with an after-school snack, balancing her checkbook. Receipts would be scattered around the table. A to-do list would sit in the corner that always included at least 3 things, "Get kitty litter, re-fill prescriptions, take back movies." I'd sit down where she had cleared me a spot. She'd put down the checkbook and ask how my day was. I'd respond, she'd smile, and then begin to sift through more receipts.


That's the good stuff.

My life could be a sitcom

"My life could be a sitcom" 01/03/06

In our family sitcom, can I play the kid that has it all together? I wish.

The sitcom can be cleverly titled, "That's Your Family". We'll begin the characters with a paranoid, snotty little sister. We'll add on an unmotivated slightly older step-brother. My character will be the over-emotional, stubborn college freshman. Stir in a step-mom that is an obsessive compulsive cleaner. Add a dad that works too much, and plans too little. Occasionally we'll bring in the lawyer brother and his wife. Then we'll also throw in an older, unique sister to keep the sitcom sane. Then, just for kicks add a racist grandfather who yells from the other room, "HEY!" when he wants something.I can see the first storyline. College kid comes home around 2:00 p.m., after being gone a month. The house is decorated for Christmas and is perfectly spotless. It's so spotless that every time the college kid sets down a glass on the counter, it is immediately snatched up washed twice by hand, and then thrown in the dishwasher for decontamination.

The grandfather yells from his back bedroom, "Hey! Are you home?!" as if the college kid's "Hey Grandpa!" from the kitchen isn't enough for him to realize the college kid's arrival. The younger sister walks by, trying not to make eye contact with the college kid. The college kid directs at the younger sister, "Hey aren't you glad I'm home? I'm glad to see you." In turn the younger sister replies a short, "Eh.." And heads down the basement stairs. The college kid almost forgets to go to see the Grandpa, but is quickly reminded by another "Hey!" from the back bedroom.The college kid walks in to see the Grandpa where he again asks, "So are yah home?". The college kid really wants to say no just to be rude, but instead happily replies,"Yep! It's so exciting." The grandpa is not concerned with how the past month of school has been, but rather the peppered bacon and spicy cheese that is currently in the refrigerator. "That step-mom bought peppered bacon and spicy cheese," he says. The college student is becoming annoyed by the fact that the grandfather can not get over the fact that the step-mom and son are black. So the college student replies honestly, "Dad bought that cheese and bacon, Grandpa." The grandfather really doesn't know how to respond so he finishes with a simple, "Oh." It's not long after though that the grandfather is quick to jump to the next outrageous comment. "There's a black Santa in the living room," he says. The college kid acknowledges the existence of such a Santa. "I've never seen a black Santa," he continues, "In my day there weren't black santas. I'm not racist, I'm just from another time." The college kid tries to smile and politely tells the grandpa that ,"It's just something you're going to have to get over now."

Before the college kid leaves the grandfather's room, he asks the college kid, "When are you goin back to school?" It will only be the 1st of 23 times the college kid is asked that by the grandfather over break.The college kid heads back to the kitchen. The step-brother comes up from downstairs. It is now 3:00 p.m. "I just got up," he says. The college kids laughs a little, but secretly wonders why the dad is allowing this. The step-mom has already taken the second glass that the college kid placed on the counter, and stashed it away in the dishwasher.

The college kid heads to the fridge and grabs a soda. "That's grandpa's soda," the stepbrother explains. Apparently after the departure of the college kid to school the family decided people needed to have their own, separate food in the fridge. The younger sister from downstairs chimes in, "What did you say? Stop talking about me!" The stepbrother and college kid laugh. This makes the younger sister furious, so she stomps upstairs, throws papers around the hallway, and slams her bedroom door. The grandfather yells, "Hey! What's going on?!" from his bed. The college kid is not really in a state to reply, not that there's time before the younger sister storms out her bedroom, flings the grandfather's door open and yells at him ,"Stop talking about me! Mind your own business!."The college kid puts the grandfather's soda back and grabs another glass from the cabinet. The college kid settles for some water and carries around the glass for the rest of the night.

At about 7 the dad comes home. He kisses his wife, grabs some spicy cheese out of the fridge, and starts playing the recorded "Judge Judy" from earlier that day. After the show is over, the dad hugs the college kid, and the dad and the wife go upstairs. The same routine happens every night, so even though the college kid is home, the father and the kid barely see each other.

The next morning the college kid is awakened by pounding on the door. "Hey! Can you get the mail and newspaper?!", the grandfather says from outside the door. The college kid doesn't respond in attempts to continue sleeping, but it is not much later when the college kid receives a phone call from the grandfather asking the same question.This same day, let's say, the college kid only uses 5 glasses, gets called 3 times and yelled at 7 times by the grandfather, is threatened only twice by the younger sister, and sees the stepbrother get up before 2:00 p.m. The dad has a whole conversation with the college kid, and the older siblings come to visit. Things are looking up for the college kid.

My life could be a sitcom. I'd laugh.

Free Bibles

"Free Bibles" - 11/29/2005


Today was like every other day I have an 8 o'clock class. I roll out of bed at 7:30 and trudge to my 8 a.m. class from hell. After departing from my theatre class I started towards the dorms. At the corner a man was yelling, "Free Bibles!" Normally I would have smiled politely, accepted the bible, and thanked him fully. There wasn't much running through my head at all this morning, so instead I grabbed a bible out of his hand, stuck it in my pocket, and walked past him. I didn't make eye contact. I didn't say thank you. I just kept walking. It wasn't until I got to my dorm that I felt bad. He gave me a bible...a free bible and I didn't even say thank you. To make me feel worse, I read the inside. It turns out it is a memory bible. Those are the ones they pass out after someone dies if they so requested it.

Today I walked through the bitter cold one too many times and got the bad shower this evening. My wretched cold has returned from the depths, and I studied the wrong things for my math test today. I think God is punishing me

Public blog

I decided to go ahead and make a public blog. My first posts will just be some entries from the past year. There will be nothing too exciting, but I have trouble starting new blogs. So, I'll just post some old ones.