Pointless Announcements

I'm quite the charmer in person. Most of the time at least.

Well, that's too bad, we already have a child together. And how could I forget you?

Awwww, thanks!

I think that child line is like an inside joke but I'm not remembering it what do I do now??

Also, someone recently told me that I have the mannerisms of a professional clown. But they did it in a real charming way so I was all like...

Nope, things just moved really fast between me and alternative you.

I wouldn't want an alternate Jess. There can only be one. She's cute and a dork so it's real hard not to hit on her.

And she has fabulous legs and hair!

Yes Jess, you are one of those people that are attractive enough you can't forget. Like Irina and FudgeCamel (that's how I pronounce it and I can't remember her real name because I am a dork).

LOLz i started a new blog yesterday that has to remain anonymous (sorry) and someone already told me to fuck off and die.

Well, I mean, I've kind of forgotten. Then again, I'm not sure I visit the picture threads often enough to have actually seen her.

But I do remember she had a great smile from that rear view mirror pic she recklessly took while driving down the freeway.

When I hit on her, it's because I wanna take her words to bed. Is that true love or what people?

You need to share that link.

I kinda miss Ritt. Can't remember where it was posted, but he had a great dream about sequel to Inception.

And, have to find a home (maybe near Raleigh) by the end of month. We are moving. Heck, I'm gonna go pack some stuff.

I can't share the link just yet, i want to be anonymous for a while. Keep an eye out though, it seems to be working.

Not you. Irina.

What link?

I was skimming and thought you found it. It was Hattie however.

I blame phoneculting.

Work is busy yet boring at the same time. Thus are the consequences of working in the technology field. Zoe is already standing on her own(well pulling herself up and leaning)and trying to walk... at 6 months old. I had 420 unread posts in PA today. Read like the last few.... And I'm taking the family to a tattoo convention this weekend.

Wow, 6 months and cruising! So clever, Zach!

I'm worried Lucy might have a mild case of this bug. She's done a couple of smelly spills this morning, no big puke or anything, but I'm keeping her home just in case. No break for me today.

I've downloaded (via Amazon) the kindle versions of a lot of the Neil Gaiman books I haven't read because I'm really hoping to find a way to write my thesis on him next year. Even if for some reason I can't transfer and can't write my thesis on him, I'll still have all the books, so I'll be happy to read them!!

Poor Lucy.

That is awesome about Zoe, Zack.

My youngest boy, Zacariah, walked just three days after he turned 9 months, when I took him to his check up a couple weeks later his doctor asked me if he was crawling around a lot yet and I laughed and told he he was running! Then she insisted we had to take him out in the hall so all the doctors and nurses could see how clever her nine month old patient was running all over the place. It was awesome.

Bought all of the wood for my bench project today. It's over 100 board feet!(that's a lot) Stack laminations are extremely wasteful. Costs a lot too. I'm using a cheaper wood and painting it, and it's still gonna cost nearly $300 in materials. If I had used walnut like I had planned it would have cost almost a grand to make.

I think poor lily has her first rockstar crush because of that napkin note the other day.

I was watching video's on youtube last night and she ran up and squealed "There he is!!" then grinned and blushed.

Do you have to buy all the materials out of your own money for your college degree? Do you get a special grant/loan or something? I wish I could make things. I'd love to be good at that stuff.

I bought all of my supplies myself. And boy did it get expensive. Hundreds of dollars every quarter.

It's different to doing any other degree, it's weird. Did you have to buy textbooks too? Mine has almost no costs. I buy the books we read but that doesn't compare to buying all materials. What if you can't afford the materials? Can you not do the degree?

Yes, we also had to buy books.

All of it is out of your own money. The wood is definitely the most expensive, since it needs to be bought every month or so, but on top of that you need all of your own hand tools and finishing materials and glue and whatnot, which adds up. Oh, I have to take a slew of drawing classes, so all of those materials as well. I have very few classes that need text, so that cost is lower, but not non-existent.

Disclaimer: This post got way longer than I meant it to. If you can't be bothered at least read the italicized part. It's the best part.

For those of you who don't know what my godfather was to me... I can't really explain it. We have always had a special, unique connection. He has been a part of my family since before I was born. My father died when I was twelve, that was over sixteen years ago. My godfather, Uncle Jim, has been the closest thing I've had to a father since then. He as been there for every Christmas and every birthday I have ever had.

The past six days have been filled with a lot of emotions. Saturday, when I found out what had happened, I was immediately rushed to my godfather's house. I had less than ten minutes to process what had happened before walking in his front door.

I broke down in the car when we pulled up in front of his house. But I pulled myself together quickly. For some reason I feel like that was what I was supposed to do. I walked in with my sisters, who had come to tell me and to fetch me. Inside were my mother, my sister's godfather and two of my godfather's best friends. I was still crying, but I wasn't screaming and sobbing uncontrollably. I gave hugs and immediately went into the den and sat by myself and cried. I was in there for... I don't know how long, thirty minutes? an hour? I eventually ended up in front of a shelf that was filled with pictures of he and I just shedding tears and staring. It was a good long cry, but it wasn't the earth shattering sobfest I needed. I stayed there while we figured some things out. Hid in the kitchen while they took the body. Eventually we all went home.

I didn't cry anymore that night. I spent Sunday distracting myself, I didn't cry then either. I knew it was the calm before the storm, I knew it was coming. Monday I was busy getting my mother's house ready for receiving guests, which was quite a task. Tuesday was just as busy. Just before he died he donated all of his suits to the theatre group he and his friend Patric founded. Luckily it came up when Patric was around and he was able to get a suit for us. But we didn't know where his dress shirts were, my mother and I went to buy one. Then we went to his house so I could pick out the tie in which he would be buried. I gave him a tie every Christmas. I imagine he donated a lot of ties as well, but most of the ones I had given him were still there. I chose one of the three ties I just gave him for Christmas.

Then we were told that the funeral home wanted socks and shoes. We didn't really see the need to bury him in shoes, we joked about sending his Birkenstocks. But we decided to send his Gucci's, he was so damn proud of those shoes. So we started looking, we couldn't find them. There was a pair of black shoes at the very top, out of place, I picked them up to see what they were. They were his tap shoes. All three of us immediately agreed that those would be perfect. The one thing I was able to say to people over the next few days, was, "by the way, we buried him in his tap shoes." Everyone enjoyed that.

I had to get the clothing to the funeral home and the rest of the day before the visitation was busy. The open casket was only for family. I chose to go in, it was something I needed to do, something I needed to see. Things still weren't real for me yet. I cried a good bit then. I stayed in there, by myself and also with others, for quite some time. I think actually the majority of the thirty minutes it was open. A lot of people at both the visitation and the funeral approached me and told me how often he talked about me, that I was all he talked about and how proud he was of me. It was really touching to hear that.

The services on Wednesday were beautiful. We had two people speak at the memorial portion. One was an ex mayor, he spoke about the civic side of my godfather. My godfather was very involved in the community here. He was a founding member of a small group that restored The Strand Theatre, which is the crown jewel of our city. He was the editor of two newspapers, he worked with the papers for over thirty years and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times. He was very active in the local theater, he was easily the most well known of the local actors. He was to be made Grand Marshal of his Mardi Gras Krewe this year. They were going to surprise him with the honor at the ball, but sadly, he died the morning of. There is a lot more, but I won't bore you. Suffice it to say that he was a very well known and respected member of this city. A woman named Judy spoke about his personal life. Both speeches were beautiful. They were touching and they were funny, the service was absolutely perfect.

The burial was more than two hours after the funeral because it was in his home town, which is an hour away. The gathering there was small, a local man who knew him well spoke. I don't remember what all he said. I was sitting in the front, there were only four of us asked to be seated. Part of the way through I heard my little sister start to cry and at that point I lost it a bit. I just sat there and sobbed. Luckily there were bagpipes to cover the worst of my sobbing. I heard later from several pal bearers that they were fine until they saw me. As the pal bearers walked past the casket to lay their flowers in it, my mother, who was an honorary bearer came last. She stopped in front of me and held up her flower to me. I gathered myself the best I could and set it down. I walked straight into the arms of my sister's godfather, where I sobbed and probably left tears and snot on his suit jacket.

The ride home was long. It was just my older sister (Lindsey) and I. She tried to make conversation now and then, but I didn't say much. I cried quietly a few times.

And that was it. It was over. Everyone would be leaving town that afternoon or the next morning. We went to my mom's house to eat some of the leftovers from the night before. Lindsey and I went for drinks with Guy, one of the pal bearers whom we hadn't seen in a number of years. And then we went home and went to bed.

Everything happened so quickly, I've never experienced a death where I had so much to do. I've always been left alone with my grief, but this time I was busy. There was the funeral to plan, the clothing, the reception, the people, all the people. So today I went back to distracting myself, waiting for it all to sink in. I've been profoundly sad over the last days, but I'm not sure how much it's really sunk in yet. I've had time to cry, but never alone, only with people watching. I was just waiting for the moment when it all came crashing down. That moment came about an hour ago in the form of a Facebook post. On of the pal bearers posted on my wall how much he loved the picture of my godfather and I and to always remember that love. I don't know why that did it, but it did. I finally got to cry and scream and sob and snot and scream some more. I've been crying mostly since. But it's good. This needs to happen. I need to feel this.

I read all of this, Mel, but I don't know what to say other than I'm sorry. I'm never good with condolences, maybe because the only real death I experienced and touched me was my English teacher. I still have not cried one tear for my grandpa, and it'll be one year in April.

Besides, I can't comprehend how terrible it must be to lose your dad so young. I would be a wreck for months if it happened even at this age.

I read it, Melody. Thank you so much for sharing that. I'm so sorry you've lost someone so special.

Hug to Melody.

PA - I better start listening to The XX, as I found out today they're the headliner for the festival in Trondheim we're gonna go to this summer.

I like The XX!

Some songs are kind of dull, I hope it's better live.

They do tend to sound the same.

Melody, hunny, I love you and I read all of that and, yes, the tap shoes part was absolutely beautiful but all the rest was important too. I won't tell you it is going to be okay, because saying things like that are meaningless and meant more for the sayer than the recipient, and because who wants to hear that at a time like this? I know it doesn't feel like that at all and it feels like, it feels like... death... where it feels like everything and anything and least of all like any of the tings anyone wants to say to you, and if there is anything that is okay about it at all it is only that part, that is it okay that it feels like everything all at once, it is okay for you to feel anything you need to feel.

Your godfather was an amazing man.

You've made me think of my grandpa.

Yes, the tap shoes thing was great. But I'm glad you let us read all that, Melody. I hope you're okay.

Melody I thought that was amazing. I haven't experienced a death as a grown up who would have to be involved in the decisions and arrangements. I still miss my grandmother, your post made me feel like that again and I hope you start to feel it less because it's just so awful. It's lovely you have what those people said, you should be proud because it sounds like he loved you like his own daughter. I love that he kept the ties you gave him as gifts. He sounds like a wonderful man.

Sorry for your loss Melody. It sounds like you had a great relationship with your godfather. I can't imagine what you're going through. Big hugs.

okay guys... am I a total idiot and completely missing something here, or is this equation impossible?

24=7n+5

n = 2.714285714

Since I doubt the answer is meant to be 2.7142857 I'm betting it's a typo.

no.

24=7n+5

24-5=7n

19=7n

19/7=7n/7

n is approximately 2.714357

It is Zachariah's pre-algebra, so I doubt there is meant to be decimals mixed in with it, that would be too complicated at this stage.

The past week his homework sheets have all had one to three impossible equations on them, that one was the one he pointed out this morning.

I wrote a brief note to his teacher about it because I don't know if he is supposed to answer that it is impossible or if she doesn't realise there are wonky equations in his work or what. The equations that were screwy on his last sheet were worse, they weren't bad equations actually, they had proper answers it is just that the answers in the answer key word game thing at the bottom were impossible.

Like,

158-n=28 .... the answer key said the answer should be 128.

5n=90 ..... answer key said the answer was 16.

and others too.

It's so shitty when teachers have the equation wrong. So much unnecessary stress. I hate numbers.

I'm finding it rather frustrating. At least I can help him with his work at this point still, Gabriel has moved on to Trig problems with no actual numbers in them at all, all letters and weird symbols, and it is completely beyond me. He does well though and doesn't ask for my help any way though with math.

I can't believe they took all of Thag's medals away for doping. Bummer.

Tell him to put the exact answer, "n=19/7". Explain to him that because it doesn't divide perfectly and he can't simplify it any more, he should leave it that way. When teachers screw up, it's up to the parents to teach. Plus, it's a tad impressive if they really haven't taught him that stuff yet.