Day 262 – Random Friday Pictures & Week Wrap-Up

I’ve been playing with Aperture on my camera the last couple of days. I like the effect it can create.

Like this:

I like how it makes everything in the background fuzzy. The raindrops – it is the clouds that get fuzzy – with my shoes, it’s the landscape behind. Love that effect.

Oh, and the moon rising was spectacular.


And this is what a picture looks like when you fuck up the camera, and you can’t figure out how you did it. There was this amazing picture window.  My plan was to focus on Garbanzo’s beer and let it be the fuzzy background.  Worked out totally wrong….and I accidentally hit a setting on my camera that I could not figure out how to undo.  I eventually fixed it…..but it took about 45 minutes to do it.  It was a learning experience….I guess.

And, while I’m being random, I had a pretty shitty Thursday night. After talking to a friend who called to see how my last day was, I talked to my mom who had called.  After telling me over a week ago that they would make the whole half-marathon thing work in terms of watching kids, etc – she called, not to ask how my last day went, but to say they couldn’t do it.  And give me the 20 million reasons why.  As you can imagine, I was not amused.

I think what added to my un-amuse-dness, was the fact that my brother called to fill me in the day before.  Fill me in on all of the stuff I stumbled upon a few weeks ago. While he started setting it all up to pat himself on the back for my dad being better, I interjected that I had talked to our parents the day after his great talk with Dad, forced Mom to get his ass into the doctor, then called to make sure it happened.  Oh, was his response.  He thought the great talk he had with Dad had been the turning point.  Whatever.  But, to get me back for ruining his story, he told me one of the major reasons he’s depressed is because he doesn’t get to see me or the girls.  So, I turned the fucking tables on him again by giving example after example of when they chose not to come see me or their grandkids.  My brother was floored. Instead of asking questions, he assumed it was all me. So, getting my mom’s rejection again coupled with my brother’s attempt at guilt, it just solidified several things.  My family is fucked up. My family cannot be counted on. And my family is going to try to lay all of their shit at my feet.  As I told Garbanzo, I’d rather the lived 2000 miles away from them again. At least the excuses were built in and believable.

Thankfully, by a twist of fate, Derek’s plans changed so he’s going to be around.  So, he’s offered to watch the kids so I can do the half-marathon. Proving once again that my friends are more dependable than my family. (Which is why my kids tend to refer to many of our friends as their brother – Derek – or their aunts and uncles and cousins.)

So, I ended my happy lay-off day with that bullshit.  Friday was a day of errands. The chiropractor made me get neck x-rays.  Some of the headaches that I have been attributing to allergies may actually be partially caused by a residual injury from when I as in a car accident 20 years ago. Whatever. Make them go away, if you can, was my feedback.  I’ll write more about the chiropractor later.  He is also into Chinese medicine which is a topic all its own.

After the x-rays, I made dinner for a family at the school who lost their dad due to a motorcycle accident.  I have a love-hate relationship with motorcycles. I’ll just leave it at that as I have way too many stories. The PTA organized a dinner schedule for the next six months, I think. And Garbanzo signed us up.  So I made our contribution. We laughed when we got the email – in big bold letters: NO LASAGNA!  They have lots of little kids, so the girls suggested my homemade mac and cheese.  Then I made them some chocolate chip zucchini bread.  Yeah, only used like 1/6th of that zucchini.

Then I ended my day with finding out unexpectedly that Indigo was testing for her purple belt in Taekwondo…. at 7:20pm.  Garbanzo felt bad, so took me to our favorite brewpub for dinner – and beer. The kids were all riled up during the class – my kids were being the worst (or so it always feels in those situations) – and I sat there calculating how much money was being wasted between me sitting there doing nothing, driving to and from the place, and the cost of lessons.  As I told the girls, if you want to do it, then do it.  If you don’t, then tell me.  We had this talk after Indigo failed her test horribly. Her constant screwing around bit her in the ass. 

But, in true Indigo form, she refused to put 2 and 2 together.  Instead, my little attorney-in-training gave me a barrage of excuses as to why it was not here fault. Complete with examples and claims she had witnesses.  Oh, and my favorite….”you wouldn’t know if I am paying attention because you are usually looking at your iPhones. Then when you look up, you only see me doing bad things.”  Yes, she said that. While Garbanzo looked dumbfounded and a bit guilty, I asked her if she really thought I was going to be able to believe that she just happens to be screwing around whenever I look up the few times I do from my iPhone. Her response, “uhm, maybe?” I’ve mentioned Indigo turns 7 in about 6 weeks, right?  Yeah, this is going to get worse.

I’m truly not a hard ass who pushes my kids to excel.  I just believe if you truly enjoy something, you will strive to learn more on your own. No parental pushing is needed.  DJ does that with TKD. She is obsessed with it. She lives and breathes it.  She has books, she practices it, she pays close attention in class. Indigo does not have the same passion. It’s social time for her at a place where socialization shows lack of self control and results in push-ups….lots of them. Like I told her, I would rather she find something for which she has enjoyed the way DJ enjoys TKD.  I guess we’ll see. 

And tomorrow, we are beginning the massive purge of shit in the basement and clean-up of projects from the summer. It’s easy to demolish things, but hard to go to the dump when you don’t have a pick-up truck. We’ll start that in the afternoon after the soccer games in the morning.  And, in true Oregon fashion, it’s supposed to rain!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

7 Comments Add yours

  1. I came, I read, I am shaking my head in agreement. My family – messed up but looking normal. In fact the mess up is so deep and ingrained it makes me wonder if I am the one messed up.

  2. Just me... says:

    Your kids and your families can make you crazier than any other ‘dis’organization on Earth!!
    Speaking of earth, that is a gorgeous moon-rising photo!!!
    Have a great weekend (even if you are clearing out a basement)!!! :):)

  3. A). Very nice photos.
    B). Family can suck. Count yourself lucky that you have good friends though (I see you do, just affirming it)
    C). Ouch! I dread the day my sweet young thing learns the art of the cutting remark.

  4. Vixen says:

    Yep. *shaking head* My daughter is the same way. We’re still looking for something that grabs her 😉

    Hope the basement cleaning wasn’t TOO bad.

  5. Vixen says:

    Crap. I totally forgot the main thing I was going to comment on. Those pictures!!! I would LOVE a camera setting that did that. It’s on my list of ‘things I want’…. a camera with more settings than mine. 🙂

  6. Dana says:

    Emmy, your photography has really moved to another level. Beautiful!

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