What's Up Wednesday?

Austin is working at the Goodwill. Good thing I dragged him to so many thrift stores when I was costuming for the theatre. He's comfortable in Goodwill.

He had a meltdown/freakout on me because they need his birth certificate, social security card and high school diploma. I have all three with me - which he sees as an insult to his maturity. My dad was going up there tomorrow ANYWAY for the inspection on the mountain house so he'll have it as soon as he would have had for his employer if he had them in his possession, probably much, much sooner (since my bet is that he would have lost one or all of them). We disagree (Austin and I) on how to get the documents to him since he has absolutely no idea where this Goodwill store is... and he will be working during the time that my dad will be up there... and we're a little uncomfortable leaving these documents with people that have shown less than stellar judgment in the past... but we'll figure it out.

He was way more chill asking me about paying his phone bill last night. I had fraudulent activity on my checking account over the weekend (and may I just sidebar here long enough to say, "I pity the fool who steals my identity... they're probably better off with their own!") and the bank deactivated my debit card so when his phone bill tried to process, it wouldn't. I tried to pay his phone bill via another method but it shows as being paid and wouldn't let me. He didn't like the idea of just letting me know when/if the service was discontinued but... I mean, seriously, if you don't like the way I pay for things, pay for it your own-durn-self, you know? I wouldn't have fooled with it all but the lady at the Vocational Rehab place said he really, really needs to have a phone during this process and I really, really don't want there to be anything that stands in the way of him being a productive, wage earning citizen. And I begged his dad to split the cost with me so it's not as if I was paying the entire cost but... it sure wasn't easy getting his dad to part with that money. Talk about an Olympic sport... try to get a guy who never wanted to pay child support in the first place to pony up a little extra past the court mandated time period. But, like I said, he (Austin) was nicer about this than he was about not having the documents he needs there with him.

Have I mentioned that he is receiving food stamps? (Austin, not his father, in case that wasn't clear). I'm semi-impressed that he knew how to generate that process and semi-embarrassed that he did that BEFORE trying to get a job. Again... it has to do with the current environment he's in, I'm sure.

Speaking of food stamps...I have another job possibility in the works, it's a work from home deal that is legitimate but I'm not sure how profitable it is... calling for donations for a charity. It's commission only which... yeah, I don't know how else they would do it... but ... is it wrong for me to want a job with an honest, reliable salary? The commission structure is fair and I can do it from anywhere so it eliminates that whole question of where to live and it would possibly be a good way to supplement another part-time job that might not be easy for me physically. Heck. Maybe I should sell Avon, do this telemarketing thing and then try to pick up another part-time something? (Notice how that sentence ended with a question mark?)

My mom brought me this thick stack of yellowed pages, typed and bound together... a book that my grandfather wrote. I started reading it and then realized that I was going to have to be careful with the pages... and then was tempted to start transcribing it... so great is the urge in me to preserve any family archives. He died when I was ten so I'm eager to observe his writing style and perspective. There is writing talent on both sides of the family, it's almost like I'd have to work to be inarticulate.

I didn't sleep well last night. Lily (the big dog) woke me up with a whisper bark last night because she needed to go out. I didn't realize that dogs could whisper bark but that's what she did. (Oscar the wiener dog should take lessons, he has one volume level and it could never be described as a whisper). She needed to go out. She had tried to wake my mom up and mom tried to wait her out, thinking that Lily would change her mind or wait until Pop got up. Lily, who is apparently a quick study, remembered that there was another human in the house and she came to find me. I was already sorta halfway awake... that was 2am. I got back to sleep around 5-ish but I didn't sleep well. I've been really draggy all day.

I went ahead and fixed supper at noon today because I figured by supper time I wouldn't want to cook. I made my *really awesome* chicken sausage, kale and orzo - I shaved in some sweet potato as well and it was really, really good. It's almost all gone just between the three of us and my mom doesn't eat much.

Tomorrow we're helping my sister-in-law's mom with her estate sale. You may (or may not) remember that Angie's dad passed away in late March. His motto was, "he who dies with the most toys wins". Well, he won, that's for sure! Their house is about twenty minutes south of my parents' house and they're having a huge estate sale tomorrow, Friday and Saturday. We're going to help. And then Friday I'm slated to help make paper dolls with my aunt, which I've been trying to do for the six weeks I've been here. So today, other than fixing a meal and watching the dogs while my mom went to a meeting, I've barely had a pulse. I did get dressed and ran a brush through my hair but that's about it.

Been watching any of the Olympics? I'm mostly watching soccer although I am fascinated with water polo (whenever they show the under water shots all I see are heavy women with wedgies) and I've watched a good bit of volleyball (not the beach volleyball, because all I see there is skinny women with wedgies). I'm super proud of the women's gymnastics team because they were awesome. I would have loved for NBC to have shown the competition live instead of sitting on it until prime time. I think NBC shoots itself in the foot by doing that... yes, there are fewer people home to watch it during the day but how many people didn't bother to watch since the results were scooped already? I fell asleep in prime time but I caught it in the repeat over night.

And... so that's the news from around here. Mid-week of week number 3,745 of my unintentional sabbatical. Good times. Have a good week, y'all.