No News is No News

So my thinking behind the new template is that a fresh change of atmosphere will make me post more often. I can't quite figure out where the logic is in that, but it's around here somewhere. I actually got to the point that I was very much considering shutting down this blog and my weight-loss one, but I just never found the time to put up an "On Hiatus" post which would have eventually become a "Goodbye" post. Then I was digging around and found a couple of posts I did after my dad died and I was so relieved that I had this blog as an outlet, and that I could go back and read about the odd little goings-on in my life. I got too wrapped up in the fact that I never have anything EXCITING! to post about, and then I realized that I didn't start this to excite anyone in the first place. I don't really recall why I did start blogging, but I do like it, so for right now, I'll see if I can keep it up.

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To say that I've been ridiculously busy is a gross misuse of the words "ridiculously busy." I feel like someone set me on fire about a month ago and that I've been running around flailing my arms ever since - trying to do the "stop, drop and roll" thing, but never quite figuring out the "stop" part.

My stepmom has been in the hospital for over the past two weeks with complications from her MS, and I feel heartsick that I can't get up to Montana to see her. The only thing that makes me feel better is the fact that right now, they are keeping her in more for physical therapy reasons, so it is a little less serious than it could be, or has been in the past. I hate that she's all alone, and that my dad isn't there to be the Knight in Shining Armor anymore. It just sucks. At forty-five years of age, she is facing life without her true love, and the now very real prospect of having to enter a nursing home, temporarily if not permanently. I just wish there were more I could do. Anything I could do, actually.

Work has been nuts, which is rather hilarious when you consider that I answer phones for a living. The good part about it is that the "legal assistant" I'm supposed to be is starting to finally take shape a little more, and the "receptionist" part of me just has to tag along. I actually went to a litigation support class this week to "learn the ins and outs of litigation," which is, again, hilarious to me considering that I've been doing this job for almost five and a half years, and hey, why not - "Let's get this gal some skILLZ!!". True, I didn't even know where the power button was on a computer when I first started, but I also didn't know a dang thing about the majority of the most common word processing programs, and unfortunately, I don't see that as having changed much. If for some reason I ever had to change jobs, I would be screwed with a capital "SCREWED." I've been scrambling for a chance to make myself a lot more useful, and I think my firm is finally hearing me.

I've also been doing accounting work for my mom on the side (which is a LAUGH when I think of my mathematical career in school) and it takes up quite a bit of time. Keeping up with my own finances is hellish, so adding on my mom's (and her business) has been keeping me in straight-jacket style. But I really can't complain; she pays me and of course I feel like a chump for taking it, but she'd also be up the creek if she were having to take care of it all herself because she travels so much, so it works out for both of us. Scott and I went over to Mom's this past weekend so that I could work on QuickBooks for her. THAT is going to be interesting. Being responsible for someone else's finances is making me more than a tad nervous. BUT, not as nervous as my stepsister's new boyfriend when my mom pointedly belted out, "Now, I assume you've seen her naked?" at the dinner table upon meeting us all for the first time. This, after peppering dinner conversation with "tits", a word about which we have a running joke in my family that my mom will somehow work into conversation, some way or another; we don't know why - it just happens. Anyway, my husband nearly choked to death on his hamburger and had to get up and leave the table. After almost four years of marriage, he still can't get used to my mother's, um, "extreme bluntness." My stepdad hilariously said to The Boyfriend, "Yeah, you just keep sitting there, looking down at your plate and peeling those shrimp. That'll make it ALL go away." He was trying to make The Boyfriend feel better, when truthfully, I felt worse for my stepdad! This is his baby girl we are talking about and the last thing he needs, I'm sure, is to picture that some GUY has seen his daughter less-than-clothed. Thank goodness my nephew was in the middle of a crazy coughing fit to help detract a small amount of attention away from the situation, especially because that was one of the few times in my life I was flat out GUFFAWING. It just couldn't be helped! I later took my stepsister aside for a pep talk. "Don't worry, kiddo. The first time Mom met Scott, she came over to my apartment late at night and I was in my pajamas - some t-shirty type of nightgown - and I was walking across the living room and Mom exclaimed, 'Wow, you REALLY must like this guy because I know how self-conscious you are, and here you are walking around with your ass hanging out!' Just learn that there's a lot more where that came from, and roll with it, girl." I don't know if it helped, but The Boyfriend did manage to accompany all of us to breakfast the next morning, which I thought was impressive. Anyone who can handle our family is a keeper. Plus, he's a policeman, so I guess we have to be nice to him...

The really good news? My sister's boyfriend is going to Chicago next week to see her. COINCIDENTALLY, my mother will be there on business. And they will meet. And there will be mention of "tits". And possibly questions regarding nakedness. The best I can hope for my sister is that she won't be "walking around with [her] ass hanging out!"

INSERT EVIL OLDER SISTER LAUGH HERE.