Back To School I Go

I came home on Thursday to find a very large pile of wood chips in my driveway. Much more than last time. This pile is almost as tall as I am, and left no room for any cars to park. Its got to be 5 cubic yards at least. I spent 6 hours on Saturday working in the pouring rain to weed the front yard and put chips down there. My mom and I spent another 3 hours working outside today in the sun and got a few more chips moved. Its gonna be a long process getting them all moved though, haha.

I also got a letter in the mail on Thursday. I was accepted into Evergreen State College, and will be attending in the Fall. I’m glad I’ll get to go and get my Bachelors degree in Environmental sciences, but I’m a little nervous to be actually going away to school. Its only 4 hours away, but I’ll have to live in a dorm. I guess the good news is that since I work at Starbucks I can transfer to one down there easily, so I’ll still have a job during school. Which I’m gonna need, cause tuition is something like $24,000 a year. I’m gonna try and apply for financial aid, but I would be surprised if I qualified for it since my parents make a decent amount of money between them, plus however much money i’ll make this year.

Oh, speaking of which, i got my first paycheck on Friday. Well, technically my second, since my first paycheck never came through. I checked my bank account and they had only paid me just over $200 and then I also had a “pre-notification” from Starbucks from when I should’ve gotten my first paycheck. So I have to call the bank on Monday and figure out what that means, and then deal with everything on tuesday when I go in for work. Working here has been SUCH a mess. I spent an hour and a half on Friday taking tests about the coffee, which I should’ve taken during my first week but couldn’t because I couldn’t get into the system. I genuinely only actually worked for 2 hours on friday because I was on the phone with the support desk trying to figure things out and taking tests for so long. And I failed ALL of the tests because I had genuinely only been taught half of the things I was supposed to know. It was ridiculous. My manager had to come out and take the tests with me because after you fail a test twice you’re required to tell your manager. She just sat down and did them with me because she was in trouble with her boss for not getting me to take the tests when I was supposed to, lol. This whole experience has been a meeeessss.

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and say I’m going to college again! The quarter starts on Sept 29. 

A Tiny Update While I Watch TV

The movie night went well. Trashed was an extremely eye opening film that was very depressing. I had been warned that it was going to be bad, but it was much worse than I expected. I would say if you’re interested in watching a film that is going to make you change your ways, you should watch Trashed. 

Last Friday I made a call to the local arborist and asked them for some wood chips, thanks to my garden coordinators advice, and they delivered about 3 yards worth of wood chips to my house on wednesday. I only just finished moving them all from the driveway to the back yard. It took me 4 hours to finish today. I’m sore everywhere, haha. I put down wood chips up on the pathway by the raised beds I redid last year, i did the pathways in the greenhouse, the space next to the raised bed on the left side of the stairs, the area under rhodi’s in the front yard, the space where the bees used to be, the area where the spices are next to the house, and the spot where the dogs lay by the neighbors. All of that and it was only half of the pile of wood chips that I had, haha. I had to just pile up the rest where the bees used to be. I could’ve put them on the other pathways, but they were full of weeds and it’s been below freezing the last few days so the ground was frozen solid and I couldn’t pull any weeds up. Today was really warm, it was slightly above freezing. It made working outside much easier.

I haven’t heard back about the job interview yet. I was supposed to hear from them on wednesday but they never called, so I take that to mean I didn’t get the job. I called them today just to ask what I could’ve done differently but the hiring manager had already gone home for the day. So I’ll call on Monday just to be a nuisance.

 

One Is Silver And The Other Gold

Apparently I have reached my teenager phase of consistently coming home after midnight.

My whole family decided to work at my aunts today because she needed help painting her house/ getting yard work done. We didn’t get home until 8:22 (I remember this specifically because my mom commented on the sun setting earlier [it used to set at 8:30, and yes, we do notice those 8 minutes of light at my house]), so I would say I worked for at least 6 hours today. Because it was a family day though I’m not charging my aunt at all. I also wasn’t working at top speed because of my hike yesterday, and took several long breaks. And now that I’ve told you all of this I’ve forgotten how it related to the premise of this post…

Anyway, J has been planning to come over and potentially spend the night at my house because my neighbor/her roommate has a guy over for the evening and J didn’t want to have to listen to THAT all night. It took a little bit of time to get us talking because of our different schedules, but we finally just agreed to go out to Shari’s, which is normally where M and I hang out. I ended up sitting on M’s side of the table even, and had to text her immediately because we’re such an old married couple that we each have our own side of the table. I texted her “I feel like I’m sleeping on the wrong side of the bed right now!”. J and I spent a good two hours talking I’d say, and then we came home and spent another 45 min talking in my car. We even fogged up the windows with how much we were talking and laughing, which my neighbor F would’ve loved to have seen.

It was just nice to go out and have fun and not care about anything and have lengthy discussions about our life dreams or even our ideal guy. It was all just random topics that really made for an excellent conversation on the whole. I think J has definitely become one of my favorite people/friends in the last few weeks. I hope she doesn’t move out too soon. She lost her nannying job which might keep her around for a bit longer, simply because she couldn’t afford to move anywhere else (and i know rent is CHEAP where she’s currently living. If that’s all rent cost elsewhere, I could easily move out. And I do really want to move out. I think M and J and I all living together in the city would be great fun. The trouble is we would all have such fun together that we wouldn’t hardly ever go out I don’t think. Except to say that we’re all at the point in our lives where we really want to be out doing exciting things and meeting new people. We should all just take a cooking class or something random but beneficial and interesting that would be lost of fun together. I’d love to take a cooking class, as i’m currently not the best chef.

Anyway, I need to be done now, because I’ve been typing the last two paragraphs while lying in bed with my head down and eyes shut. I’m really tired. M and J and I are all going hiking tomorrow. It’ll be a hot mess and a blast. I’m really looking forward to it. All this physical activity has been really beneficial.

A Break Please

Yesterday my mom and I went to the King Tut exhibit in Seattle. We wanted to get there early so we could get right in, but apparently a lot of people are interested in the exhibit because we got there at 9:45 when the science center opened and the earliest time to see the exhibit was 1:45. We spent the 4 hours waiting in the science center, looking at the various exhibits. They have an observation beehive, so I got to watch that for a while, and explain to all the kids that wandered past what was going on. I was surprised that there was a school group, because for most kids (myself included) school ended last week. My mom and I also walked through the butterfly house and butterflies landed on both of us.

The King Tut exhibit was fun, but I was surprised by the lack of King Tut stuff in it. Over half of it was random artifacts from other pharaohs. If I had been thinking better I would’ve taken some pictures for you all, but it slipped my mind. Unfortunately, after 4 hours on our feet at the other exhibits my mom and I were ready to be done for the day, so after looking at the first half of the King Tut exhibit we hurried through the rest. She was in her splint all day, which hurts her ankle, and I was in some older shoes that don’t have much in the way of padding/support.

My mom wanted to take this whole week off, so we could spend time together, but after a month of being at her beck and call I “asked” her to stay at work for the week, lol. She took yesterday off to go to the science center with me, as I’ve wanted to go for months and this was the only free moment I’ve had, but she’ll probably be at work for the rest of the week. I feel bad about telling her I’d rather not have her home during my time off from school, but I really just need a break from everyone. I’ve become meaner with this whole father/sister/family betrayal thing, and with the added responsibility of doing everything around the house (which in itself is really not bad at all) I’ve just been tired. My neighbors have been “helping” my mother by telling me to do things as well, which did nothing to help me. I actually had to stop talking to them for a day or two because they were ordering me to mow my lawn despite the fact that I was doing other housework. Having them bark orders at me because I was leaving the lawn long so the clover could feed the bees, while I was out weeding, was really frustrating, lol.

My sister has been coming over almost every weekend, though how she has the nerve amazes me. She comes up here and sits for hours to complain about how my dad treats her. I don’t understand how my mom is able to sit there and engage in the conversation, because I struggle with not telling her what a contradictory fool she is. I usually try and find something to do elsewhere to avoid even having to listen to her.

I haven’t been down to see anyone from my dad’s side of the family, although I did call my grandpa on fathers day to say hello. I’m planning to go see them next Tuesday.

Anyway, I should get going. I need to be ready to leave for my aunts in an hour. I’m planning on doing yard work at her house all week. I’m hoping the time over there will provide me with the opportunity to be productive but still collect my thoughts. I can do that over here, except my neighbor comes out to talk to me every hour or so and I have a hard time getting much done. I love her, but I need a break from her as well.

 

Mixing, Moulds and Mom

Yesterday my aunt came over at 10 to oversee the plumber. He said we didn’t need to fix the piping to the house and should just wait until there’s a leak. Two nights ago I crawled under the house to look for where the piping comes in, but couldn’t find it, and neither could the plumber when he looked yesterday. Even though he thinks we don’t need to replace the pipe he’s still going to give us an estimate, which is nice.
After he left my aunt took me to Lowes and we got two bags of concrete and a box of U nails (I think that’s what they’re called). She helped me set up the posts and to mix the concrete and all that stuff. Here’s what we got done.

Hopefully today I can hammer on the screen (though we have yet to buy it) and plant the honeysuckle. Which is blooming again. My aunt was only over for a couple hours, then she and my sister and my cousin spent the day looking for feathers in craft stores to put in their hair.

After my sister left I started pruning the rhodi’s out in front. Two days ago F and I started planning on making stepping stones for my mom for Christmas. Yesterday he called me over, since he’d just finished making the mould for it. He had some extra bags of concrete sitting around, so we used one of them to fill the mould. He had a few big rubber leaves to press into the cement, so we used one of those as decoration. F said it should only take 12 hours to dry, but since it rained last night the concretes still pretty wet. Once it’s dry I’ll take a picture.

I finished pruning the rhodi’s in front once the concrete was poured. I just pruned them up about a foot and a half so you can see under them from the street. S is worried that someone might decide to sleep under them, since there’s a bit of dry space right up next to the house. So I pruned them all up so you can see there now, which will also help the plumber when he comes back to look for the pipe/ to replace the pipe. And then I opened the bees and then my mom came home.

I don’t know why it’s so difficult for my mom and me to have a conversation together, but almost without fail every time we start to have one we get in a fight. We went to get teriyaki to get some for everyone and take it over to my aunts, and while we were waiting we were talking about what type of a pathway we wanted behind the screen in front of the bathroom. I was telling her about a mold I saw (which my aunt has) at Lowes, where you just pour a bag of concrete into it and it makes a bunch of rocks. I was talking excitedly about it, which for some reason freaked my mom out. She was just being weird. Ever time I get excited about something she gets mad and tries to cut me down. I talked over her a few times because I was excited about this new project, and that set her off. She was sure I was arguing with her and didn’t want to hear anything she had to say. And because I didn’t believe her when she said that the mold I saw at Lowes (which looks like it makes a bunch of smaller rocks) keeps all the rocks connected she got pissed.

It’s really annoying to talk to someone who puts you down every time you show genuine enthusiasm about something and try to be involved in a process involving them. So we spent the next hour not saying a word to each other, even when we went to my aunts to eat. Once we were done we came home and she went straight to her room and shut the door, which usually means she’s pretty depressed. And to be honest, I don’t feel responsible or at fault for that. I feel like she was being “shitty” with me, instead of the other way around (she said that to me while we were waiting for our food which ended our conversation). And this morning, I hadn’t been up for five minutes before she was being rude to me because I’d folded her laundry but I hadn’t put it away for her.

Last night my sister and I were talking and my sister commented on how my mom’s always “bitching” at me. No matter how much I do around the yard it’s never really enough. Sure, she’ll say thank you and smile at most of what I’ve done, but she’ll say how bad  different part of the yard looks right after. I’ve spent hours working in the yard this summer, and have filled dozens of yard waste bins collectively. It still doesn’t feel like it’s enough. So at this point I’m pretty much done with it all. I may have to go through my mom before I can do anything around here, but as long as it looks good to me then that’s all I’m going to care about. Because it’s never going to look good enough for her so I’m not going to bother to try. And it looks like I’m going to have to be very cold about it all because I wouldn’t want to upset her by looking like I care about anything. *sigh* I don’t understand her.

Oh and here’s a picture of a bird that flew into the house and somehow made it back to my mom’s room. My sister saw it and came running out of the house to tell me it was there.

My aunt was just about to leave when my sister saw it, so she and I went in to get it out. My aunt caught it and said it was still pretty young because it had some of its soft fluff feathers on it still. My mom said it was a sparrow. And yes, it is standing next to a Harry Potter lamp.

Yardwork At Grandpas

I didn’t mean to be away for so long again. Yesterday I hung out with R for a little bit, though really not that long at all. It still managed to take up my whole day somehow. We just went to the mall and walked around and did nothing. Neither of us had any money so the mall was about as far as we wanted to go.

Today it was in the 80s. And what was I doing? Doing 5 hours of yard work at my grandpas. I was waaaaay to hot. I stop working in my own yard after it gets to 70. I stop moving after it’s 75. and anything higher I go inside. Today killed me. I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into when I agreed to go. I don’t know why I thought it would be a quick thing. But no one told me it was going to take so long and that it was going to be in the 80s. I was dying. I’m not a person who enjoys the heat. Why do you think I live in Washington?!  It was not good. I’ll definitely never be doing that again.

We took the three little dogs with us today. It was definitely too warm to leave them at home and we were gone all day so even if it was colder it would’ve been too long for them. Sam spent the night at my aunts house. Her acre of land is completely fenced in but there are a few places where little dogs can get out easily. I know she misses having a dog around her house (she’s been saying we can keep him there until Tuesday or something) but it’s like, um, I kind of would’ve liked him back today. I hate being away from him for too long. Any of the dogs really. I feel like I’m abandoning them you know?

Uggh. I think the 4^th of July is one of the most annoying holidays. It’s so loud and obnoxious and just gives people an excuse to blow things up. And I don’t know that it really does anything to connect the country or anything like that. At least, I don’t feel a sense of connection to the rest of the country, or an understanding of our fight for independence. And I rather like England and Britain and all them. They’re pretty funny. And their television is wonderful, lol.

Anyway, I’m off to bed now. I’ll have to spend tomorrow working with my mom for the whole day. I don’t know if I can manage it. She and I have been getting along less and less recently. And I know it’s me that’s the problem, or rather, the person who’s been noticing it. And actually, I don’t think I’m the problem, I’m just finding a lot more things that I don’t like about my mom. She drives me nuts. She just says things and expects them to be done. And if she asks you for help with something, she expects it done that second, but needs you to start the process because she (for reasons unknown to me) can’t start things herself. And I can’t do anything the way she wants it to be done, so I’ve got to sit and wait for her to decide everything. It’s really rather annoying.

Ok, I’m done ranting now. I’m tired and going to bed. Night!