Ah...Home Again!

For now I am back in the madness of my parents' house. I'll be here through Thanksgiving week, then I'm probably heading back to Baton Rouge. Right now I have a couple of things on the horizon -- there's my birthday, the biggest day of gluttony in the entire year, getting my Christmas shopping done while I have the time, and also preparing for a return trip to Louisiana. After a month and a half on the road, I have a better idea of which things I really need when living out of a motel room, so I am taking on the task of paring down what belongings I bring with me each trip, especially since I'm adding office supplies to the mix.

I have been really enjoying my job, although the man I was working under my co-workers and I have not-so-affectionately dubbed "Li'l Satan." He's got a bad case of short-man syndrome, and when he gets mad he jumps and shouts and looks just like an angry little leprechaun. I have been at his beck and call the past two weeks and have a bad feeling that I will be requested to return next week to help finish the paperwork for the job that I was just on. I was having nightmares that he would request that I work for him from now on...ugh! Perish the thought. Interrupted my sleep for a couple of nights, though. It would be tolerable, but not enjoyable, for sure. The last couple of days I think he realized he'd been pretty hard on us, because one day he brought us breakfast and another day he passed out goodies with the company logo on them (lanyards, portfolios, etc). He even made the comment, "I really have to stop being so mean or it's gonna come back to bite me in the butt." And the longer we worked for him, the more things improved. He kept saying, "Stick with me. Ms. Floyd, and you'll make it big in this company. Stick with me." And of course, my first thought was, "Do I have to?" Stick with him, I meant.

Life here at home is as chaotic as ever. I think, sometimes, that my sister just isn't happy unless there is drama in her life. That's the only conclusion I have been able to make sense of whenever I examine the things she says or does. So I've stopped examining...For now, anyway. But it is nice to see my Isa and Nattie even though they are intolreable heathens most days. I still love 'em. And for some reason, Natalie, obsessed with animals as she is, thinks she's a puppy. She crawls around, yipping, picking up things with her mouth and bringing them to you. Then she sits back on her legs and pants and wants you to pat her head and tell her she's a "good puppy." It's so sweet! Until she tries to give you puppy-dog kisses, at least.

Even with the kids to help take care of, I find myself heading to town with no real agenda or sitting around the house bored out of my mind. I'm not used to having time to twiddle my thumbs. When I'm working 12, 13, 14 hours a day, I basically eat, sleep, and go to work with very little else in between. Especially since there's no family or friends around. But here I have so much time on my hands every day that I go to town looking for something to buy to kill time. It's oh so nice having the money to do so, but it's not like there's much going on in Palestine, so I am still bored! Yesterday I wandered 3 stores, bought 7 DVDs (which I can't really watch because the girls aren't in daycare anymore and they're mostly movies for grown-ups), and picked up pizza to bring home for dinner, just because I wanted to get out of the house for a while. It's getting expensive, this boredom of mine. I'd say I need to find a hobby, but I think I have too many of those already, and they're not all kid friendly. The wire is sharp and the beads automatically go in little mouths when I'm trying to make jewelry. Scissors needed for scrapbooking are too easily snatched up by busy little hands. And so it goes, with every last thing.