Friday, August 22, 2008

Critters And My Sanity

Have I mentioned how much I heart my Ipod? Well, I do. All that music available at the touch of a button. Yesterday I was driving home from work, listening to my music. I was in my happy place. I was listening to New Kids On The Block ponder the age old question, "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time?" The abrupt ringing of my cell phone broke me out of my reverie. (I had to look that one up in the dictionary) It was Melissa. She felt the need to call and inform me that she thinks we have a critter in the attic.

Did I mention that I don't do critters? Period. First of all, I am driving home from work. What exactly does she expect me to do about the vermin while I am driving 75 mph down the freeway? I know, maybe I should pull over and make a frantic call to animal control. I can tell them that I have a critter of unknown origin lurking in my attic. I could ask them to please come over to my house at once and remove it. Maybe I could use mental telepathy to ask the vermin to please vacate my residence at once. I could send poor Keri up there to check it out. No? Maybe that's not such a good idea.

She tells me she can hear it scratching around up there. Great. There I was driving along, enjoying my special "me" time. Listening to the band of my youth, not thinking about much of anything. Why can't my children let me drive home from work in peace? It's not too much to ask. It's thirty minutes out of my whole day that doesn't revolve around work or them. It never fails. If there is some sort of problem, it will not wait until I get home. In their eyes, it must be dealt with posthaste and forthwith. Is that a word? Did I spell it correctly? NOTHING should ever wait until I get home. That's almost as bad as the phone calls I get at work demanding to know "what's for dinner".

It's bad enough that they suck every single dime that comes into this house. Now they have to steal my sanity, along with my hard earned money. Little do they realize how much I value my sanity. It took hard earned money, dedication, and therapy to get it. I have no intention of letting THEM steal it away from me. After all, it's all I left in this cold, cruel world.
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Did I mention I got the paperwork for my student loans this week? I thought I was going to pass out. I am still reeling over it. I think I owe about $25,000 in student loans. I didn't realize it would cost so much money to be able to say I'm a college graduate. Want to know how much my monthly payments will be? Good, I'll tell you. $300 A FREAKIN' MONTH!!!! I don't need a second job, I need a new identity. That is going to break the bank. I was expecting payments of about half that. I guess we will be cutting some corners around here. You know, food, clothing, shelter all the extras we don't need anyway.

11 comments:

Astarte said...

Oh, no - your girls are STILL doing the my-every-need-is-paramount thing? What hope does that give to me?!?! I must still have approximately FOREVER to put up with that crap! Damn!

YOUCH. Those are some hefty student loan payments. You can probably get them cut down, though. You can usually change the terms to extend the payments, which makes them less. That's what I did a million years ago, and although I have been paying the things off for a million years, and still have another million to go, at least we're not eating only govt issued peanut butter.

Unknown said...

I have to say that I can soooo relate to this and it completely cracked me up! this is the best quote ever!

Why can't my children let me drive home from work in peace? It's not too much to ask. It's thirty minutes out of my whole day that doesn't revolve around work or them. It never fails. If there is some sort of problem, it will not wait until I get home. In their eyes, it must be dealt with posthaste and forthwith. Is that a word? Did I spell it correctly? NOTHING should ever wait until I get home. That's almost as bad as the phone calls I get at work demanding to know "what's for dinner".

It's bad enough that they suck every single dime that comes into this house. Now they have to steal my sanity, along with my hard earned money. Little do they realize how much I value my sanity. It took hard earned money, dedication, and therapy to get it. I have no intention of letting THEM steal it away from me. After all, it's all I left in this cold, cruel world.

Merrie said...

I think I'm glad my kids don't use the phone yet. And so sorry about the school payments -- ouch. I, too, am not sure how we stay afloat. And I hate cutting corners, but we will, won't we?

Anonymous said...

This just reaffirms my decision to not allow my kids access to a phone!!

SHOCK about the student loan ;( that totally sucks!!!!!

Karen Deborah said...

That is so funny. Bet you got a possum up there. The animal shelter in CA will come catch them and then release them again right a your house. Never saw anything so stupid in my life. Could be rats. yikes! Get a trap. If you put out bait it may die up there and stink to high heaven. You can do it! Your tough, your amazing!

creative kerfuffle said...

dear lord--i share your pain. EVERY day when we pick the kids up from daycare the FIRST words out of their mouths are what's for dinner? like they've not eaten in 10 yrs. regardless of what it is we're having they groan. i cannot wait for them to have kids of their own. i bet you're also the only person in your house who knows where EVERYTHING is. mom? where are my shoes? like we're the last ones who wore them? oddly enough, i usually do know where everything is but it pisses me off that they ask.
and i'm w/ astarte--negotiate the terms or something cos that student loan thing sucks!

Jenni said...

Ooooh student loans payments are crap. :-/

I hope you got rid of the critter in the attic!

Farrell said...

i had mice in my attic. I called an exterminator and he set traps and that was that. Depending on how well insulated your attic is, you'll never smell them.

hmmm...i would do some research on your student loans...it seems like you should be able to work out a plan with them or someone else to get those payments down.

Karen Deborah said...

um, can you turn your phone off for the ride home? They'll text you, kids have triple jointed thumbs.

HW said...

Oh my gosh! I was planning a post for tomorrow about a snake in the basement - part of the Mommy loses her mind series.

Student loans? Um...yeah, they stink. I agree that you can try to get the payment reduced. We payed on ours for ten years. Let me encourage you, though, that it is the best investment you could ever make. That education will always be a blessing to you. Not much encouragement when you're looking at the payments, but please don't ever let it make you regret your choice to get that degree.

Kids calling for "emergencies"...we can't even watch a movie IN OUR OWN HOME without being hassled by our children calling from their various outings. One time while we were on a date our daughter called to tell us that her brother had drank the last Mountain Dew. We had a big discussion that night on what constituted an emergency.
It didn't work.

Mental P Mama said...

What was it???