When I decided that I would have more adventures in life, I had no idea they would be so tiring!  I did have my first overall dud adventure recently and of course, I will tell you all about them.

It has been a busy summer.  Summer is short this year.  The kids got out of school on May 28th and they start again on August 9th.  I am officially out of elementary school world. 

My next adventure came on quickly.  A friend of mine had frequent flyer miles she was not going to use before they expired, so she used them to get a ticket for me to come to Ky for a few days.  As usual, it was a wonderful, emotional, spiritual event.  Sitting at the table with my family, the people who I consider to be my only beloved elders, was profound and they were able to fill in a lot of blanks for me and give me some good perspective on my parents.  I took photos of my schools and my parents’ graves, as well as a couple of churches that are very important to me.  It went by all too fast.

Photos are here:  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6375520&l=122eaa6ac2&id=726936258

When I got back, there was a mess waiting for me.  My computer had died the week before I left and the person I trusted to help me with the problem ended up completely screwing me over in grand style.  After losing $200, I finally managed to resolve the problem myself.  That involved a great deal of re-installing and re-creating and locating and transferring and all sorts of stuff, but I am finally up and running again.  (Thank you, Miss Delena) 

All of that managed to put me behind on all three jobs and resulted in some database loss that cannot be recreated.  I’ll rebound, but it’s a mess for now.  Eric’s work study contract for the summer semester of college still has not been processed.  It is in the works, but not yet in place.  He has still worked (he works for the Veteran’s Administration), but cannot apply for any pay for his time until the contract is resolved.  His college did not fax in a vital paper to the VA, which resulted in him being shorted $900 this month (this is an entirely separate issue).  All of these will be resolved in time and every necessary step has been taken to make it happen.  It’s just frustrating.

Fortunately, he received some Pell Grant funds from previous semesters and that has kept us afloat. 

My next adventure began on Sunday.  Eric had a medical evaluation for his Veteran’s Administration pension on Monday morning in Reno, so we  drove up a day early to spend some time together.  In our entire marriage (13 years almost), he and I have never spent a night alone together.  We’ve always been with the kids.  This was our first.  The drive was terrible.  It was extremely hot, triple digits, and we do not have air conditioning in the Jeep.  There was construction for a long stretch of the way that kept us at around 5 mph.  It took over 4 hours to get to Reno (normally 3 hours).  We checked into the Cal-Neva, which is a casino/hotel that Frank Sinatra used to own.  It’s a nice quality place; not fancy like the Atlantis, El Dorado or Silver Legacy, but clean and decent.  For $38, you get the room for two for the night, plus a very nice breakfast the next morning:  3 eggs, choice of sausage, ham or bacon, hash browns and toast.  We proceeded to get completely spanked out of what little money we’d brought to gamble.  It wasn’t that fun, tingly spanking, but more like that humiliating “Bad girl!  BAD!” spanking that really hurts.

With around $10 left at 9pm, I told Eric, who was playing at the tables, that I was going up to bed (nudge, nudge).  He said he’d be right up and that he was still very much in the positive in terms of winnings.  He came up a couple of hours later and declared he’d lost it all.  He got into bed and flopped around a good bit, declared the room to be “too hot” to sleep together and got in the other bed.  I’d checked the temp just before going to bed and it was 72.  So our first night alone together ever we slept in separate beds.

I got up around 8am the next morning and waited for Eric.  He got up around 9am or so, we had our nice breakfast and then he left for what was said to be a 15 minute appointment.  Of course, it took closer to 90 minutes.  It was like gambling aversion therapy to be stuck in a casino with no money, listening to endless replays of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” “Let’s Get Physical” and “Straight Up.”  I finally ended up waiting outside and he showed up.  He wanted to go to the Atlantis for the buffet for lunch, so off we went.  I took photos along the way, trying to find the interesting angles of what I was seeing.  I love Reno.  Truly I do.  It’s one of my favorite places to be.  This time, though, the trip just wasn’t working for me. 

We had a nice lunch, won back some of the money we lost and then headed home.  It was again, blistering hot and again, there was wicked construction.  It was great to get back home again.

Photos of that are here:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=232313&id=726936258&l=3f512235bd

Now, I plan to pretty much stay put until Delena and I go to the GH Fan Club Weekend on the 22nd.  Delena is currently having fun with her dad at the Anime Expo.  She’ll be back on Monday.  Josh is staying with us for a while until he can find a place to live.  His divorce is a rocky road.  My soon-to-be-ex-daughter-in-law has definitely impressed me with her determination to hurt him as much as possible, but he is rebounding well for the most part.  He mostly just misses his kids.

I spent yesterday power cleaning every part of the house except Delena’s room.  I am debating whether to gut it while she’s gone since she can never seem to get it clean.  I’m torn because I don’t really have a place to store her stuff and it’s going to be a ton of work.  Today, I was so unmotivated and worthless it’s not even funny.  I am also going to, I am quite sure, regret having this Diet Mountain Dew at 9pm. 

So that’s what has been going on in my life.  I finished up the 60 day challenge with little fanfare.  I accomplished what I set out to do and got the benefits I wanted.  The link is, I dunno, look around.  It’s here somewhere.

I’ll be hiding in my cave, enjoying this beautiful weather and trying to recover my chi once again, which seems to have crawled under a rock somewhere.

Blessings to you all; the most bountiful kind.