Why Can't the World be More Like Me?

Oh God. Why can't everyone think like me? Life would be so much easier....at least for me. Just to prove my point, my post earlier said my oldest daughter was coming to get the boys and I wasn't going to see them. Well, she started on her way and decided that she would spend the night...whooohooooo I get to see the boys! I jump in the van to get some groceries. I offer to go pick up the boys from the ex so she doesn't have to drive further. I cook a huge meal. and at 10 P.M. she decides she is gonna go home cause she has so much to do. How can one person change her mind that much? She is so much like her father that it drives me nuts. So all people out there in the world, listen up! If you a contemplating divorce and have children with your spouse, don't think for one minute that you get rid of them after the divorce....O no, they morph into your children. So now I'm sitting here, with all this food, and no boys to snuggle with.

On another note, I had a talk with my friend. I told him about my discovery. I was waiting for him to" blow a gasket" cause I went through his phone, but he handled himself quite well....lol....for a man that is. He explained my discovery somewhat. We still have some things to discuss, but the hard part is over. He was honest. Didn't try to blame it on alcohol, drugs, his roommate was standing over him with a gun....so that was honable of him. Don't know how I feel about his explanation though. Gonna ponder on it. He made a few good points, but I've still got it in my head that it is really what he thinks. We suppose to go to NOLA tomorrow, so we will see how it goes I guess. O well, I guess I'ma go to sleep...after I pick up all this food.

Poo! Spring Break Almost Over :(

Ok, so like.......this Spring Break has sucked "big donkey balls" (well, except for my time in Biloxi with my aunt and buddy). My ex and his "lovely" wife decided to make getting the boys an issue, so I don't get to see them. My oldest daughter is coming down to get them, but she doesn't want to stop by with them because she doesn't feel like hearing them cry because they can't stay with Grammy. Her and I kinda had words about all of the commotion, but like I told her, it is never an issue when I have the kids and I have to deliver the boys to them. However, it is always a freaking issue when they have to deliver the boys to me. Then this issue with my friend is waying on my mind. He called yesterday wanting to know what he did to make me so mad. I couldn't say it cause I knew I would get upset and flunk my test I was trying to study for. I didn't do well on it anyway (74C). I still have a reflection paper to write. Hopefully I'll get a 100 on it...it is my only hope at this point of getting a B. I told him I would talk to him today sometime. I just wanna get it over with at this point. Then my youngest son called and said it will not be a good time for me and my youngest daughter to come at the end of May. He wants us to come at the end of summer. They are having issues with the new house they bought, my daughter in law just started a new job, and my son has no leave to be able to visit with us. My oldest did buy a vehicle. A Dodge Ram pickup. He needed money from me....of course....but it wasn't much, and now he has a vehicle to get him back and forth to work. So needless to say, this week has been physically and emotionally exhausting. I can't believe I'm say this, but I'm almost glad I go back to work in 2 days....HA!

Making Memories

I just spent 3 wonderful days with my aunt (but it feels like she is my mom) and my cousin (but she feels like my sis). We left on Tuesday and headed to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). We saw 2 really fascinating shows. The first was of Thorton Dial. He is a black man who expresses his feelings through art. The majority of his work deals with the injustices against blacks and women, but he also had pieces that dealt with 911, Princess Diana, etc. Most of his pieces are huge! He uses scraps and trash to create his art. It is like a sculpture and paintings in one. His descriptions are a must read. Only Mr. Dial could explain a huge paints with gold and silver Barbie dolls all over it! It truly was amazing. Over the years, Mr. Dial has been heavily criticized for his work, but to see it is definitely ....WOW. Another artist had a show, don't remember the name of the artist (HA), but I remember the subject of his work....Leah Chase. Mrs. Leah Chase is a self taught New Orleans chef who has transformed the Dooky Chase restaurant in the Treme in NOLA into some of the most sought after food in the USA. President Obama has eaten there on several occasions when he has come to NOLA. The artist did several paintings of her in the kitchen at the restaurant. They were stunning, but you couldn't help by Mrs. Chase. The had a video playing where she discusses her cooking, the restaurant, and life in NOLA. At 90, she still go to the restaurant and cooks. A true testament to her profession. After we toured both shows, we had lunch at NOMA's Brennan Cafe. I had some tomato soup, which is my favorite! After we ate, we left for the Palace Casino Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi. By the time we got there, we were exhausted, and all 3 of us took a nap. We woke up around 8, and went to eat at the Palace Buffet. It was ok, but I wouldn't eat there again. It took us quite a while to eat. We took dessert back to the room, so my buddy and aunt could bathe and relax, and I went play some Blackjack. On Wednesday, we slept late. Once I got up, I went down to get us breakfast to go, and brought it back to the room. We ate and lounged around the room, then we finally got dressed and went to the Ohr-O'Keeffe Museum of Art. This museum had some beautiful pottery by one of Mississippi's famous potter's...he was called "The Mad Potter." I love pottery. The museum is still under massive construction from it's demise during Katrina. Stunning building. We were also able to tour their African American Portrait Gallery, which also housed some of George Ohr's pieces of pottery. The Docent was quite informative and talked my head off. Afterwards, we went to the gift shop where I decided to buy a coffee cup handmade by a Mississippi Artist who graduated from Southern Miss. My buddy bought a rain stick....had to laugh, out of all things in that store, she wanted the thing that made noise! Afterwards, we went for a ride along Hwy 90, which is along the beach. We drove all the way into Gulfport, and the scenes were eerily familiar....wide open land with for sale signs. Thanks to Katrina, the Gulf Coast is still struggling to come back. Slowly, it will....as time moves along. It is sad. We stopped along our ride, and I took my buddy for a walk on the beach. We only walked  in water up to our ankles. It was really cold and the wind was definitely blowing cooler air. Afterwards, we went back to the Palace to clean up, eat, bathe, and while my aunt and my buddy rested, I went down to the casino to play some more Blackjack. This morning, we had to wake up early to check out. We ate breakfast and cancelled our trip to Lakeside Mall in NOLA. I think we all had had enough. When we got home, my buddy clicked her heals together and said, "There's no place like home." Ha, could you tell she watched the Wizard of Oz  several times on our trip there and back...HA! Now, I'm back home and I have homework galore, so I need to get off of here and get to work. Test tomorrow!

Friend or Foe?

Spring break is a time for me to recharge so that I can make it the rest of the school year, which after spring break, is only 3 weeks away. Spring is also a time for inner reflection. A time where we want to truly look deep within ourselves and throw out the old stuff and bring in the new stuff. I have really had to do some "soul searching" these last few days with regards to a friendship. A fairly new friendship. It is a man whom I was one of my gambling buddies for almost a year. In November, we started seeing each other outside of the casino. Our very limited friendship had moved into a sort of friends with benefits relationship. He was funny, intersting, from the middle east, had a different religion than mine, and incredibly nice. I don't know why, but I felt drawn to him for some reason. I usually do not question God when people come and go in my life. I know ultimately, God is in control. But I did have to say that I had been approached by many men in the casino, and I can say none of them even remotely interested me. With the expansion of this friendship, I found out some personal things about this friend. Without getting into details, I can definately say he came with a lot of "baggage." However, I figured God had brought him into my life for a reason. Maybe I could use this counseling degree I paid mega bucks for....Ha. Over the past 5 months, I have found myself quite confused with this friendship, but again, I do not question God. "Hot and Cold" best describes this friendship to say the least. Although I know this man has a lot going on in his life, I thought maybe.....way further down the road......after he had "gotten it together".....just maybe there could have been more to our relationship. However, due to all of his "baggage", at this point, I was not willing to even consider this option. I've kept my heart out of this relationship and have only used my head. When our friendship would go through those "cold" moments, I just figured he was dealing with his "baggage", plus he also had a lot of religous convictions with regards to some parts of our friendship. On several different occasions, I did get upset with him, but I had figured that is was a miscommunication issue (he is not completly fluent in English). Now to the point of this post....Ha......we had gone to the Treasure Chest Casino the other Saturday night. When he picked me up, I brought my car charger so that we could charge out phones. His was almost dead, so I let him charge his up on the way to NOLA. Mine was half charged. Well, mine finally died early Sunday morning. My youngest daughter was going through some tough stuff, so I asked him to use his phone. I texted my daughter and told her that if she needed me, to text me on his phone because mine was dead. I went to give him his phone back, and he told me to hold on to it. A few minutes later, my daughter texted me, and I asked him to punch in his code. He gave me the code to enter into his phone. Well, time went on. He continued playing. I went to the bathroom, and being a woman, picked up his phone and started texting my daughter. Once we finished talking, I decided to see what was all on his phone. Yes, I know....shame on me, but hell, I didn't think I would find anything, since he so freely gave it to me, told me to hang on to it, and gave me his code. Well, I was wrong. Maybe he wanted me to find out what he really thought of me, without him actually having to say it. In either case, I was shocked to say the least. I am assuming the woman he was talking to was his sister, but I don't really know that. However, now I know why there were "cold" areas in our friendship. The way he described me, made me question our relationship right from the beginning. I didn't tell him anything, but he knew something was wrong. I told him I was worried about my daughter, which I was, but it really was what I had found on his phone that showed all over my face. I kept it together, and didn't say anything. I even drove us home, brought him in my house, and tucked him safely in bed. There was no way I could let him drive home. He would have wrecked and killed himself, and although I was furious with him over what I found on his phone, I knew I would never be able to live with myself if anything happened to him and I could have prevented it. Even though he wasn't being my friend, I needed to treat him the way I had hoped he was treating me. I also needed time to sort though my feelings about what I had found. I didn't want to cause a scene at the casino, and I needed time to grieve the end of this friendship before I told him our friendship was over. I still haven't told him, although it has been 4 days since my discovery. I know pretty much what I will say, but I want to be able to say what I want to say and walk away. I do want to give him any opportunity to hurt me with his words anymore. What I read was enough. I'm just glad that I found this out before I had invested anymore into this friendship. Now I'm questioning God. Why would God bring this type of person into my life? What is it that God wants me to take from this experience? I don't know at this point. Time will only tell. Another time to say "que, sera, sera."

So Much for Plans..........

Well, the first weekend of my Spring Break started off as planned, but after my trip to the Treasure Chest Casino in Kenner with a friend, everthing has had to be adjusted. Long story short.....We left about 8 PM Saturday night and I did not get home until Sunday night at 10:30 PM. I found out some interesting stuff during our "casino trip," but I haven't had to time to really think about it that much....I was too freaking tired.....so I will just say that I'll save that for another post after I have had time to decifer how I feel. So after getting a few hours of sleep, I feel somewhat better. Had to cancel my mammogram and labwork, and I will have to push back my doctors appt. too. I'm about to get started on school work, which is seriously late. That is all I'm doing today until I'm done. Hopefully, that will be around noon. Then, I willl clean the van, bring Katie her clothes, take her to eat for her bday, come home, pack, sleep, and get up early to go to Biloxi with my Aunt and Jackie. Hopefully, the rest of the week will go as planned. Don't know yet if I'm getting the boys or not, so next weekened may need to be adjust too. O well, let me get to work.....grrrrrrrr!

Spring Break 2012 Fast Approaching

Well, our long awaited Spring Break begins in just 2 short days. I can't wait. I have a lot planned for that week, but it is all fun.....NO  WORK! These are my plans: Friday Night - don't really know, but I'm figuring I will go eat and maybe gamble a lil at the Belle, Saturday: sleep late, clean house, and shop for a car with Katie, Sunday: sleep late, wash the outside of the trailer, Monday: clean van,  more shopping for a car with Katie, packing to go to Biloxi, Tuesday: sleep late, NOMA, The Palace in Bilioxi, Wednesday: sleep late, Art Museum in Biloxi, beach, and more Palace Thursday: sleep late, Lakeside Mall in NOLA, pick up boys from ex, Friday:sleep late, haircut for boys, spend time with boys Saturday: sleep late, head to Leesville, spend night in Leesville (maybe Paragon) Sunday: sleep late, head home, get ready to go back to school. Hope everyone  saw the pattern ......sleep late everyday. Those are my plans, but who knows if it will work out that way. I can't wait!!!!

Holiday Weekend Ahead

One more day of school. Ahhhhhh. I'm ready. It is getting to that time of year where my nerves cannot take much more. Testing week is fast approaching. I will be so glad when that is over. My youngest daughter is a teacher in Terrebonne Parish and she is on Spring Break this week. She has come home for the week. Both her and I are going to Leesville tomorrow to visit my oldest daughter and my two sweet babies until Saturday. I bought my babies some Easter presents (clothes, flip flops, and each DS game). I cannot wait to see them. They just moved into a new apartment, so I am bringing them all of their toys! We have been having some really bad weather lately. Very typical for South LA, but aggravating all the same. Everything is going pretty good. Well, AC broke not once, but twice this week. Thank God for my neighbor. I have no idea what in the world I would do without him. That has been my only trouble this week. Okay, I'm sleepy for a change. Nite.