Less than a week! (This & That)
July 28th, 2011 at 02:28 amHi all,
Sorry I haven't been posting lately (or keeping up with the blogs ...) I thought surely I'd have more than enough time - but most of my time seems to be taken up with searching for resources for teaching library/computer and getting the last minute stuff done before moving. 
This past Sunday afternoon my church threw me a goodbye party. It was *awesome*! The theme of it was card and board games. People came and went, but overall I think there were about 20 people who showed up. I played dominoes (where we kept score - never did that before), and Rook!! LOVED IT!!
Last Monday I went out with my good friend T. She treated me to a 30 minute chair massage (in the mall) and lunch at the Chessecake Factory. Then my landlady and I saw Larry Crowne (with Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks.) LOVED!!!! One of those rare (very rare) movies with no language, no sexual overtones, and an overall theme of personal empowerment and the importance of education. And it was funny (with Tom, how could it NOT be funny???)
I wasn't going to do any more tutoring this week, but one of my parents begged me to do one more session. She and her son had gone to Kenya for a few weeks, and I guess when they got back they found/found out that he had to read the whole Lightning Thief series and write an essay on one of the books discussing the hero/myth theme. This was very interesting considering how much I know about mythology/Greek gods. (You could fit it on the end of a pin.)
I've received a good number of emails/contacts from my fellow coworkers. Several of them sound like they are very interested in collaborating. 
I just hope I can pull off some good collaboration.
I received my health and dental insurance cards in the mail yesterday. No information yet about what the plans cover ... but I've got my cards!! Woohoo! First time I've been insured since March 1, 2009.
I've hired three unemployed men from my church to help me load my truck on Sunday. Then I'll be parking it in front of my ex stepdad's house until we leave. My brother will be flying in around midnight on Monday, and then we'll be heading off down the road on Tuesday morning. Wednesday we'll unload the truck (I've been promised that there'll be people to help), and then Thursday I'll take my brother to catch a flight back home. About that same time I'll pick my mom up from the airport, and we'll head off to a teacher store and to Costco, then to my home. She'll help me get my place settled, and then I'll take her to the airport on Sunday.
Then .... I'll have a house ALL TO MYSELF!!! This is something that hasn't happened since September, 2009 (other than short vacations my mom and stepdad went on - but it wasn't my house.)
I meant to write about this a long time ago, but kept forgetting. About the second week I was here in my current home, the toilet stopped flushing. After investigating, my landlady and I realized the (get ready for the technical language!) thingy that connects the flush handle to the thingy that controls the water flow had broken. In fact, the little thing that made a place to hook something on it, had come completely off. My landlady at first was thinking that we'd need to go to Wal-mart and get a new contraption. But I suggested that we could use rubber bands or twisty ties to connect (this was before we realized the connecty thing was completely off.) She agreed to try. In the process, she ended up getting her drill and drilling a hole on the top of the plugy thing. Then we used the twisty ties to connect everything back up. Still works like a charm, and didn't cost a penny.
I got some sad news Sunday night. The dad of a good friend of mine had a heart attack and died. He and his wife were in Loma Linda where he was getting Proton treatments for his prostate cancer. (Loma Linda University is pretty famous for this, as well as for being the place where the first heart transplant occurred - a chimp/baboon heart.) He was just about clear of the cancer, so his dying of a heart attack was pretty shocking. I'd forgotten until my friend called me Sunday night that they were in LL. So I called my dad right away - he was their pastor in the early 90's. He called the mom and arranged lunch with her on Monday (along with my grandma, twice widowed.) I'm not sure of what all went on, but when I called him Wed night for an update, he was in the middle of moving my friends mom out of the house where she and her late husband had been renting a room. Apparently the landlady had backed into my dad's car earlier and put up a real fuss about exchanging information?? Also, she had gone into their (friend's mom and late dad) room while he lay dying - with a pair of rubber gloves and carpet cleaner. She informed my friend's mom that she (meaning my friend's mom) needed to clean the carpet. Later she also told my friend's mom that the mattress had to be replaced (since the husband died in it.) Sounds like a real class act.
Anyway, my dad moved my friend's mom into the extra bedroom at his and grandma's house. Her oldest daughter will be getting in on Friday, and then they'll be driving together to Minnesota for the funeral.
I kind of think that my dad was put in that area partly just for this.