VD, Death, and Taxes

This week has been a little stressful. A couple of weeks ago, Clem went to a party held by a friend of a friend. The guy is from her hometown and they met there at her friend's house. Since they both go to school in the same towns (luckily different schools), she gave him a call and she and a friend went over. A couple of days later when we were IMing, I asked how it went and she replied that he was a jerk. "Not the he hurt my feelings jerk. Like, he's not a good person jerk." Apparently, he said something about "hooking up" and when she said no, he grabbed her wrist, wouldn't let go, and asked her what she thought she was there for. Pretty scary. Luckily, she made eye contact with the girlfriend who went with her and they left.

Well, on Monday around midnight, Clem Ims me to say that she recalled why he looked so familiar. His dad is one of her dad's good friends, they've played ulitmate frisbee together for about 15 years and she even remembers briefly seeing the kid at Christmas parties. So that freaked her out; wondering is she was going to see him in a social setting or what. She asked that we discuss it when I looged on. When I logged on at 10:00 that morning, we discussed it. She wasn't going to tell her mom because she didn't want to "stir things up", I told her that it would perhaps prevent something happening to someone else, but that it was ultimately her call. After about 15 minutes of discussion, her mom IM'd her and apparently had the same brainwave (spooky) as her daughter and asked if jerk C_ was C_T_. Clem asked me what to tell her and I told her to tell her the truth. That there was no reason for his actions to make her lie. And then her mom will be aware of the situation so that they aren't invited to the same parties. Although that might have been fun. Just not saying anything and making him sweat about what she could say...or...let's play Ro Sham Bo, I go first.

Anyway, it was quite a stressful day for her, so I did what any godmother worth her salt would do -- I sent her a pound of See's truffles.

Stressful day number two was yesterday. My sister called me at 10:30 to tell me that our cousin in Georgia died. She was diagnosed with advanced melonoma late last summer, but she died of a stroke. She had a stroke and they couldn't operate because of the blood thinners in her cancer treatment. As they were waiting for the meds to leave her system, she had a fatal stroke. She had mentioned to her daughter a few days before that she was ready to go, that the pain of the cancer and its treatments was too much so this was pretty much a blessing.

A few minutes later, my sister called again to ask if I could put the trip on my credit card since she didn't have one. Two hours of her on the phone and me on-line trying to find a suitable package of air, hotel, and car and we didn't book because, duh, she doesn't have a credit or debit card and therefore cannot rent a car.

"But I have to have a car."
"But you can't have one."
"But I have to."
"There are airport shuttles and cabs and busses."
"But I have to have a car."
"But you can't have one."

So then she talks about driving and I tell her, she'd be wasting 4-6 days driving, she'd need hotel and food for those days, not to mention gas. She would save $1000 if she flew and that is a lot of cab rides. She called our cousin (the woman's daughter) to tell her the dates -- and to see if she'd volunteer to put her up and pick her up. She did. So my sister called back and had me book just the flight. She said she'd mail me the money in cash, I mentioned that a money order would be better, but she didn't want to waste the money. Now I'm wondering why she didn't give the money to our mom and then our mom could write a check. I asked why our mom couldn't put it on her credit card, but she only has a $300 limit. Oh.My.God. I told a co-worker and she said, "Obviously a younger sister." Umm, no, she'll be 38 this year. Anyway...I go home and appreciate my home and credit card.

I went to the taxman a couple of weeks ago and I'm getting quite a bit of money back so I'm kind of thinking of things to do with it. Paint the shop, add a wall and a door to my master bathroom, get a new kitchen sink/disposal/faucet, re-wallpaper the kitchen...it gets me excited to think about it, but at the same time it's a little scary that all of those things add up, even doing most of the work myself. Go to Santa Barbara and San Diego this summer...

Back to VD.
Happy almost Valentine's Day. I will close with a poem that Clem wrote when she was 12 or so.

Chocolate is good, chocolate is yummy,
when I am down, I put it in my tummy.
I love chocolate, it is the best,
I think on [Feb fourteenth], there should be a chocolate fest.
You know what I mean, of course you all do!
And if you hate chocolate, that's more for me, less for you.
But there is a debate, between others and me,
over which is the best, to them I say "tee hee,
you silly willy dumb dumbs, it's obviously See's!!!!!!!"