My spring break was last week, and it was very enjoyable. I visited my mom, sisters, and nephew, and we had a great time going to the botanical gardens at the zoo, riding the merry-go-round at the mall, and playing outside in my mom's backyard. My nephew will be 2 next week, and his speech has really picked up. He's talking more and saying stuff more clearly. He's so funny because he is currently obsessed with leaf blowers. His dad let him help blow leaves one day and that has become his thing. My mom got him a small toy leaf blower (that actually blows!) for Christmas, and it has been his favorite toy. It rides with him to daycare and goes to bed with him at night lol. He'll even blow leaves with my mom's full-size leaf blower, and you should see the despair he experiences when the battery dies. Full-on crying crocodile tears and inconsolable! Poor little guy lol.
My mom, who is 72 and has bad arthritis in her knees (bone-on-bone; her knee doctor says it's not "if," but "when" she will have knee replacement surgery), recently tripped over a box (containing my nephew's JJ training potty) and she completely fell in the floor and even hit her head! She was okay and was even able to put on an Easter dinner, but about a week later, her left knee (her worst knee) buckled and had intense pain. She pretty much hasn't been able to bend it very well/walk very much since then. Her knee doctor called in some pain meds for her, but she couldn't get in for an appointment as they were all booked up. Luckily, she already has an appointment on the books for 4/17, so she'll get in then for an assessment and cortisone shots. My mom was so bad off that she overnighted a walker to the house, and I put it together for her. Seeing my mom hobble around with a walker further makes me realize she's getting older. I can't remember if I already mentioned this, but Luca dying inspired her to go ahead and pay for a direct cremation policy so my sisters and I won't have to worry about what to do when she dies. She said her parents did it like that and that everything was already set when they croaked. Even though I don't even live in town with my mom or sisters, my mom put me in charge of the documents for the cremation policy. I only briefly looked through it, and it made me so sad to see my mom's name on documents talking about cremation. I hope very much we won't need this policy for a very long time, but I know that day will come one day. That will truly be the worst day of my life! Ehh, I can't think about it now.
We celebrated Nick's 36th birthday at the end of March, and for once, his family (mom, stepdad, younger brother C, and grandparents) all came up to visit us at our home. They hadn't visited us because we are always the ones visiting them (understandably, as we are 2 childless adults with an independent cat, and his family all has dependent dogs or elderly members). We all had a great time together. His mom gifted him an enlarged framed picture of the last picture of all 4 siblings together, which Nick hung in the living room. Nick is still struggling with the loss of Luca and has good and bad days, which is to be expected.
Nick and I celebrated 7 years of marriage on the 9th. We went to a trendy new-to-us restaurant that does small plates and stuff like that. It was good but expensive. We had a fun evening and laughed a lot, which was nice for a change.
I'm still plugging away and taking Zepbound, the weight loss medication. I'm down 7.2 lbs in a month, which is great. I'm not a super responder like some people, but I'll take any loss. The only thing is that I occasionally do have side effects like nausea, gas/bloating, and painful stomach cramping. I have had to take a few days off of work here and there, which sucks. I'm the type of person who rarely gets sick, so even feeling slightly off is terrible. I'm fortunate I don't have severe side effects like projective vomiting or explosive diarrhea, but I still don't like that general "unwell" feeling. The worst has been the painful stomach cramps/bloating and the nausea. However, the side effects are mild enough for me to keep going because losing weight and getting healthy is too important.
Work is going well, nothing new to report there. I'm actually not busy at all and everything is very low stress right now, which I'm very thankful for. Meanwhile, my younger sister, Amber, who does the same job, is insanely busy from morning to afternoon and I think the difference is that I work at a high school and she works at elementary schools. No thanks!
Oh yeah, my oldest male cousin, Ben (age 42), came for a visit, which was very unusual because we hadn't seen or heard from him since Amber's wedding in 2019. He's always been pretty weird, but I didn't mind him on this visit. He was even kind of funny at times. Maybe middle age is mellowing him out? He's a chaplain for the Air Force and stationed in Alaska, and he invited my sisters, our mom, and me to visit sometime. We are not close to this cousin at all, but I would kind of take him up on his offer to see Alaska. Alaska looks beautiful!
Let's see, what else...I got assigned jury duty next week. I've never done it before and I'm kind of interested and curious to see how it goes!
I haven't been able to meet up with my friend Brittany since our beach trip back in February, which sucks. We were supposed to meet this past weekend while I was in town, but her car was acting up. Let me just tell you a story about this car she has. Years ago, she dated this guy and they even lived together for like 3-4 years. Brittany is very smart, but she went through a period of depression where she charged lots of things to credit cards and simply did not ever pay the money back lol. She was sent to debt collectors and all kinds of things, and she just shrugged and didn't care. So, her credit was (and still is) shit. So, her then-boyfriend bought a used car, a 2009 Chevy Tahoe, in his name for her. She agreed to pay the payments, and he agreed to sign the title over to her when it was paid for. They broke up, but she kept the car, and he never asked for it back. They rekindled their relationship in the last year or two but officially broke up for good last summer. Just a week or so after their last fight, Brittany learned that her ex had DIED. He was only in his late 30s and he died! Of course, he just happened to die a few months before Brittany was scheduled to pay off the car. She hesitated to make the last payment because she knew the title would be mailed to him, but he was now deceased. She knew the title would go to his family, who are racists (she is black and her ex's dad has used the "n" word toward her before...boils my blood). She did end up hearing from her ex's dad, who said he would sign the title over to her for $50. She agreed, but then he got squirrely and kept giving her the run around on meeting up. He then tried to extort her and said he wanted $500 for the title, proof of insurance, etc. and Brittany does not have that kind of money. So what does the asshole do?? He calls the police! The police showed up to Brittany's place and took the car because legally, it isn't hers even though she paid for it for 6 years and paid it off. AND her ex, this asshole's dead son, WANTED her to have it! She told her ex's dad that this was going against his son's wishes and that he would NOT live a blessed life lol. So, I have no idea what Brittany will do now. She makes decent money, but her apartment and stuff are expensive, and her current boyfriend is not bringing in much money. He is 37 and does not have a driver's license or a car (he has some criminal history in his background...yeah...). That sucks so bad that a car she paid for for so long was taken from her. That can happen if stuff isn't in your name, though! Brittany said she might still file a lawsuit for ownership because she has proof she paid for the car, but I doubt she has any written agreement between her and her dead ex about their arrangement regarding the car. Plus, lawyers are expensive, and as I mentioned, she's not rolling in dough right now. Her only saving grace is that her job is work from home, but still, people need vehicles to get around in this country! Remember how I said the car was acting up recently? I hope that ass bag repossessed that car only for it to have some major, massive, expensive ass repair that makes the stupid thing not worth it. Ughhhh, I just feel for her so bad! It makes me very thankful that my car is paid off and it is in MY name and no one can take it from me.
11:33 a.m. - Thursday, Apr. 11, 2024