I spent a lot of time at the computer today, but still got almost nothing done in terms of my blog or making any money.
I keep Yahoo Messenger open on my computer all the time because that's the primary way I communicate with my son. Actually, its the only way. I want to be available to talk with him when he can get online. He doesn't always choose to talk to me, but I want to be available anyway. He has a little fraulein he chooses to talk to online more often than he chooses me. I talk with my daughter numerous times on the phone and on the computer during the day.
Earlier today I got online with the intention of blogging something. As soon as I logged on two Yahoo Messenger windows popped up, one from my son and one from my daughter. That's very unusual because they usually tag team me. With him in Iraq and her in Southern California they are on completely different times. It's uncanny how as soon as one of them logs off the other will log on. They've been tag teaming me like that since they were babies. Their entire baby years are a blur to me. When I would get one of them to sleep the other would wake up. When I would get that one to sleep the first one would wake up again. That went on for seemingly years and I rarely slept more than an hour at a time. I tease them now that they obviously have some sort of code to let each other know when its time to get on line so that I'm at the computer way too many hours.
Today was an exception, they were online at the same time. My son sending messages to me in German because he's learning German and my daughter sending messages to me in Spanish cause she just does that. So I'm flipping back and forth between their messages and Babel Fish. My Beloved Curmudgeon is flipping the television channels between World War II documentaries, some show about truck drivers driving across ice roads (a show I have seen before a couple of times. Sadly.) and some boxing match from years ago. I asked him if he knew the outcome of the boxing match. He said he did, but kept watching it.
My son likes for me to send him photos so he can see what's going on here. My daughter was sending me photos so I was forwarding them on to him. I think they were talking to each other as well. The photos she was sending me were of her and her boyfriends on the beach, at Disneyland, and where ever else they'd been in the last few days. I told my son that she told me she's in love with this guy. 'She's always in love with whoever she's dating', he replied. I could see that he was looking through the photos. I wrote, 'Well, she's acting different this time. Very different than her other boyfriends.' He immediately replied, 'I want to see how he acts.' Woah. I watched as my son continued to scrutinize the pictures of his sister with 'the guy'. This guy has no idea that he's not only up against Beloved Curmudgeon but my daughters brother as well. I hope the guy isn't easily intimidated. If he is, he won't make it in this family.
At some point I became aware that I had been unconsciously moving myself around to get out of the way of our animals. I kept moving my laptop around because one of our dogs insist on curling up right under my feet and no matter how I move he moves so that I have to move again. The other dog watched this from across the room silently laughing because she was passing gas so badly I kept threatening to take her downstairs. The more I threatened the worse it got. Our cat was laying kinda on the couch and kinda on my shoulder so that when I moved to accommodate dog #1 she was inconvenienced and finally pranced off in a huff to curl up on the window sill.
To top it off, our bird was talking a mile a minute. His talking is usually white noise. I'm so accustomed to him that I don't really hear him until someone comes over and is shocked at his talking ... and how loud he is.
As I became aware of all the activities around me and that I was actually uncomfortable because I was accommodating ANIMALS I realized why I was getting in a foul mood. 'Do you see this?' I asked my Beloved Curmudgeon pointing at the dog at my feet. He just chucked and told me to push him out of the way if he was bothering me. Well, he won't move if I push him. Beloved Curmudgeon has to move him because the animal has no respect for me whatsoever. Beloved Curmudgeon laughed and made no move to make HIS dog move.
Worse still, both dogs and the cat can open the door between the den and back porch if the door isn't shut tight enough, which it usually isn't. They don't know how to close it, but they open it often. So I'm up and down closing the door back. Its maddening.
We have 3500 square feet in this house and all I want is a little corner of the couch to sit on with my laptop. Yet we are all crammed into this one little area. The animals are laying all over me and one of them just stinks. If it weren't so hot outside I'd take my laptop out to the back porch and make sure the door was shut very tight. But then I'd be watching my naked neighbor on his back porch.
No wonder I'm crazy.
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