I promise--no maudlin self-pity this morning, or any other kind of self-pity, for that matter. My own fault for opening my home to troubled teens--I know perfectly well they don't fight fair.
LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE CALIFORNIA STATE SUPREME COURT! Gay marriage legalized in California, at least in thirty days. Or twenty-nine, since the ruling was yesterday. It's about time. Discrimination is not okay. Civil Rights for everyone. The heck with 'domestic partnerships.' If people love, they have the right to stand up in public and pledge to each other. YIPPEE! I think in twenty-nine days the kids and I will go down to the licensing office to hand out cookies to all applicants, gay and straight. Our way of celebrating the joy and rightness of love and commitment.
Today is going to be a difficult day. The building here is being renovated, specifically, the upstairs walkway is getting support posts installed. This entailed jackhammering up the walkway downstairs, where we live. The workmen were lovely to us--the manager had told them that KidThree was a wheelchair user living back in this corner, so they were prepared. They fixed up temporary ramps for us and the first time we used them, were standing by to carry KidThree to the car if the makeshift ramps were not adequate (they were). But, there isn't a whole lot they can do about wet concrete, which is what is on the schedule for today. We will be trapped in the apartment for a few hours while it dries. It is going to be 100 degrees again, so all in all a yucky day logistically. I've already called the pertinent school to say we were trapped inside and so KidThree would have to miss school today. I have to call KidFour's school, too, but will do that call later.
KidOne told me yesterday that she doesn't have her car payment, which was due yesterday. Damn damn damn. She is working to pay off bills because she got way over her head financially, and she sent all her money the past several weeks to another bill. Why the hell did she do that? She knew the car payment was due and she knew her grandfather's name was on the loan. Why prioritize the other bill? Oh well, too late now. I am going to make that payment for her and she will pay me back the sixth of next month. hahahaha.
On the plus side, I am going shopping. IKEA. I'm going to get the most important two things I need to make the living room look like a place people would want to leave their children. The set-up for the tv corner, which will cost $130 total, and the bed frame.
We have a bed in the living room that I thought would be the right height for easy transfers to and from the wheelchair, but the mattress I bought for it was thicker than expected and so the bed is about three to four inches higher than what is optimal. I can get another bedframe at IKEA for only $100 that should put the bed at the right level, leaving this frame free to go in my bedroom, where my futon is directly on the floor. This move gives the living room a bedframe that will match the rest of the furniture (white) and gets my futon off the bedroom floor, freeing up considerable storage space underneath it. That storage space will enable me to get the playpen put under there, and may help me clear some of the bookshelves my room that have junk other than books on them.
Getting the right table/storage set-up for the tv corner will give me space for our twenty or so boardgames, which for now are scattered hither and yon and contributing to the overall look of clutter and disorganization. It will give a table for the tv and dvd player, etc. (The tv will be on a table instead of in a cabinet or something because it is right where the air conditioner is, and we can't block that.) The table chosen will sit right over the air conditioner, leaving it freely open to the room and lifting the tv and its accessories out of the way of cool air. This set-up will also be white. The living room window is right over the air conditioner, behind the tv. That window will get a bright curtain of fabric striped in primary colors. That curtain will go a long way towards making the room look friendly and lively.
(Yes, I know white does not seem sensible for a room planned for children. It is only for the bedframe, bookshelves, and tv table. Not for anything carpet-ish or upholstered. Just a backdrop on those items that are washable, to provide a clean contrast with the primary colors I want everywhere else.)
These changes may also end up freeing enough floor space in my room for a recliner or my rocker. Right now there isn't a square foot of floor space unaccounted for, and certainly nowhere to put a chair. The room is good-sized but holds KidOne's queen-sized bed and my futon. Getting my futon off the floor may get most of the rest of the clutter a place to go (under my bed), freeing up a few square feet of floor space. That would be lovely. I would have a place to go that is kid-free and they could have the living room and tv without a mama who really, honestly, truly hates the trash they watch on that tv.
Right now, pizza sauce is underway on the stove and a tri-tip is in the crockpot. The pizza sauce is for the freezer so we can have homemade pizza whenever we like. The tri-tip is sort of an experiment. For several years, our most wonderful market here in town barbecued meat twice a week--Monday was pork and Thursday was tri-tip. Huge barbecues--the sort that look like they could cook an entire herd of cows. Well, one day one of the employees got burned doing something dumb with the hot barbecue, so the market's insurance company made them stop the barbecues. Woe was us. After that, the market started packaging tri-tips in their special marinade (pepper burgundy) for people to do the cooking themselves. We obviously can't barbecue today. Too hot, and our little smokey joe is over there by the tv because of the concrete work in progress. Hence, the crockpot. It won't be quite the same, but we can see if this is an acceptable substitute for those times we want the tri-tip but can't or don't want to barbecue. I bought the smallest one they had, so not too much money lost if we don't like the way it turns out.
I'll do the IKEA shopping later today, after the concrete is dry. Busy weekend ahead. Let's see if these changes can be finished this weekend. I will hope.
A
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