Black Oak's Daughter

Yesterday was a good day. I slept good the night before. I got up and did a few things, and then in the afternoon, I met up with a friend and we had a girls night.

Sandy and I met in a <gasp> chat room. Yes, I’m one of THOSE people.  I’ve made a lot of real life friends that way and I’m not ashamed of it so deal with it.  ok?  Ok. Right now I could travel to 9 or 10 different states and 3 countries and not have to pay hotel bills, so it ain’t all bad. Anyway….  Sandy and I have a few things in common.  When we met we were both in some stage of divorce, and we could bitch to each other about all the jackass crap our jackass ex’s were pulling. Looking back, some of those conversations were hilarious. I’m so glad we could vent to each other. It helped both of us through some nasty things. Then her divorce was final and she moved on to a new life.  About a year later the papers were signed on my divorce and we had a little chat room party. 

Sandy’s cool. She’s been through a lot. She’s got a lot of fight in her, but her ex is still putting her through the ringer and that REALLY sucks.  The two things that I am most thankful for through my own process were that I was not financially dependent on my ex, and we didn’t have children together.  That made it easier in a lot of ways to just cut ties and go separate ways.  She’s got a lot more to deal with than I do.

So, on Thursday, Sandy decided that she needed a change of scenery, to step out of her life, get away for a few hours, and just be herself.  Honestly, I needed to get out too. I’ve grown used to traveling a few times a year, and I’m tied to home until I have the other surgery that I need. So, I went out, and we had a blast. 

I picked her up at her hotel, and we went shopping a little bit. Neither of us are shoppers. I just never enjoyed walking around a store when there wasn’t a goal to buy a certain item. We didn’t really have anything other than supper planned though, and we had to do something, so we found an area with a bunch of stores and picked a few to visit.

I’ve never been in Nordstroms, and there happened to be one near where we were, so I thought I’d look and see what they had for purses.  OMG there’s not even price tags. If you have to ask its too much. The purses on the clearance table were all over $350, I don’t want to know what the non-clearance stuff was.  Even if I had that kind of money, I don’t think I’ll ever be the kind of person that needs to substantiate my existence by flaunting that kind of extravagance.  I’m kind of a blue jeans and t-shirt girl at heart, and I have a hard time paying more than $50 for jeans, so $400+ purses – out of the question ridiculous.  I grew up in a fairly wealthy area, but the people there didn’t flaunt it. There’s no need for that. I don’t understand why people pay that much. It’s just a sack to hold crap. My wallet and camera are just as happy in a $50 sack as they would be if I ever got one of those overpriced designer ones. Sheesh. Scratch Nordy’s off the list. I can say I’ve been there.

After Nordy’s we went to Crate & Barrel and I almost bought this cute little set of square white plates.  Roomie has a thing for coasters at the table (it’s a gorgeous Cherry wood table, I tease him about the coasters, but I like that he’s careful) and I’ve been hunting for something a little nicer than what we’ve been using. I found the perfect thing, but they come in sets of 12. Well, they’d have no other use, and I only need 2 really, because when we have company I use stemware that doesn’t condense and drip all over my table, so I walked away from that.   When the hell did I get so sensible? 5 years ago I would have got those plates, a cool little glass platter that I liked, and the $150 wall sconces that would go perfectly in my dining room… I may ask roomie to build replicas of the sconces. $10 worth of wood and paint would do it.  We went to some trendy furniture store that was next to C & B after that. I wasn’t impressed. There were some cool things, but they had ridiculous price tags, and it was all either too country or too modern for me.

After that, I had a gift certificate for Kohls from last Christmas.  We went there, and got a really cute, very simple, nearly perfect size, functional, did I mention cute? purse for about $2 after the 1/2 price sale and my $25 gift certificate. SCORE!!!!    I got a couple of those reed diffuser air freshener thingy’s too, just because I think they’re neat, they don’t need to be plugged in, and they were 1/2 price too.  They’re a little dangerous with 4 cats around, but I think I stashed them where the kitties will leave them alone. The kitchen smells of “Cranberry Bliss” and the cat box room has and “Ocean waves” (whatever that is) smell.  It reminds me of White Linen perfume that I used to wear.  I might get rid of that one though. I had to stop wearing White Linen because it started giving me headaches, and I’ve had one all day. That could be the hangonver/lack of sleep though.

After shopping we went to our favorite hang out.  One of the chat gang is part owner in the place and besides that, it’s just a really cule Irish pub with great atmosphere, outstanding food, and live entertainment. We went there the first time because it was his place. We keep going back because it’s damn fun.  So, we both got supper, and I even had a <gasp> drink. Dang that was yummy. Unfortunately I have a penchant for “old lady” drinks (I like sweet things that don’t taste too boozey), and the 21 year old waitress kind of looked at me funny when I ordered one of my favorites.  My kidney condition won’t take much alcohol, and I was driving, so I stopped after one.

So we ate, and laughed, mostly at the 75 year old guy at the table next to us that was ogling the 20 year old waitress in the school girl costume.  OMG dude, stop drooling!! EW.  Then we left and I took Sandy back to her hotel.  She invited me in for another drink at the bar, but the bar was packed, so we waited 15 minutes among the obnoxious wedding party to order her screwdriver and my 7up (I was about to drive 30 minutes home, I’m responsible that way) and we went up to her room for a quick drink. Well, it was about 9:15 when we got up there, and it was about 1:30 when I bowed out because I’m not a good driver when I’m asleep at the wheel, and I wasn’t going to last much longer.

We talked about everything. Our daughters are nearly the same age. Her’s is still in school, and mine is trying to figure out how to make a life for herself after graduation a few months ago.  We talked about our ex’s, and our dad’s, and our mutual friends, about living alone after divorce and how much there is to learn about that, and how we both survived our first year of being HomeOwnerWoman (I even have the blue cape) and how thankful I am that roomie is here now, and how she’ll find someone when the time is right.  It was nice, girl talk. We both needed that. 

Today, on about 4 hours of sleep, I’ve done 4 loads of laundry, vacuumed, dusted, litterboxed, dishwashered, and a bunch of other things that needed doing.  I’ll sleep well tonight.  

I also caught up with minime a little bit. 

Apparently I have a GrandPuppy.  That conversation went like this:

minime: do you want me home for thanksgiving?
Me: what are you stupid or something?
minime: lol, so that’s a yes
Me: duh
Minime: should I put my dog in boarding, or do you want to meet her?
Me: dog?

We haven’t talked a lot lately. I figure she’s rebelling now because she never got to when she was a teenager, so I leave her alone. She’ll talk to me when she wants to. She knows that I want her home for holidays because I’m like that. There’s nothing more important than family and there are a couple of family people that might not be here much longer, so every holiday with them is precious.  Thanksgiving is less important than Christmas for that, but still, it’s Thanksgiving.   Anyway.. 

She announced to me a while ago that if I want grandkids, I had the wrong kid for that, so the puppy is probably as close as I’ll get, for now.  She wants to bring the dog home for Thanksgiving (insert joke about any of the guys she dated in college here). We’ll see.

She’s an Australian Shepherd. Minime knows I have a weakness for all things four legged and fuzzy.  I don’t know though, I have 4 cats here, they’re really peaceful and comfy in the house and a dog inside might have unpredictable results. We’ll see.  If I get my bedroom done and moved back into it, I might let her bring the fuzzball  and it’s crate for a day or two.  Maybe.

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