always been crazy

I dislike change, and I'm an old fuddy duddy who doesn't want to learn new platfroms, lol. Tumblr, how do you even work? I mostly understand Dreamwidth, but apparently I need to build my reading list for the few friends who came here from LJ and actually post. I think I have like 3 on my reading page. I'm trying to keep up with everyone on Twitter and Facebook but that's hit-or-miss.

I started a new course of meds back in March, and have been seeing a LCSW for counseling on the regular, both of which seem to be helping. Other than worrying about copays, obviously. I'm racking up quite the bill for copays for the psychiatrist. My therapy copays are only $12.48 a visit though, and I get assistance for my prescriptions. I'm constantly worried about losing that assistance though. Ronnie getting a car and a job works against us.

Ronnie starts his junior year of high school next week, and Davey will be a sophomore. (Kelly Marie would be starting college; I'm old.) Ronnie has been working all summer at the car dealership where my brother works. He's in the wash bay washing cars, but hopefully that helps him after he gets his auto service certifications and is ready to work in the shop. He's taking auto service at school this year and also a full year welding class - he did a half-year intro to welding class last year and really enjoyed it. Davey is focused on wrestling conditioning and his youtube channel. And considering going to Bridgewater to be a Pastor or a Music Director. He taught a class at VBS this summer and then had some kind of experience at church camp (he called it a breakdown; I asked if he meant breakthrough and he said it was kinda both). Duke and Duchess turned 6 human years old yesterday. Margrave is about 15 months which is apparently the equivalent of being a teenager, so she goes from being a crazy wild thing to having an attitude. Normal cat behavior. All my other kids are growing up on me. I don't know who told them they could do that. (Larkin says that God told her she could grow up, and that if I want a baby I should go adopt one.)

I've been watching a lot of TV and Netflix. I've only read a dozen or so books this summer, though I have read plenty of novel-length fanfic.

So there's your Tuesday Tabby Update. Now I have to go deal with the potty-training toddler. Love you all! <3

LINKS:

What the actual WHAT? I mean... Brendon Urie, what? Idek, you guys.

Also, I ♥ Gabe Saporta. "Quack quack quack fuck you @petewentz"

Do yall follow Jim Beaver (jumblejim) on twitter? He was letting his daughter Maddie tweet on his account today and she was writing fanfic on twitter. It was kinda really adorable. And she said "You guys will never believe this, but I met Sam! And Dean! And Bobby! Wait, Bobby's my dad. Hee Hee. Maddie." So cute. :)

Yall see this necklace? I really like it. Someone should buy it for me. (I know, Hinton's in West Virginia, right?) But it is nice, and if yall haven't checked out the stuff that apiphile has up at her etsy shop, you really really should.

While I'm pimping Derek out, you should check out her RedBubble page (my personal favorites: the I heart Music tshirt and the Social Retard tshirt) and her LuLu account. I have a few of these, and I can vouch for the awesomeness of Tiny Fictions.

And my high school friend (friend from high school, not friend who is currently in high school) Elizabeth is starting up a line of natural body care products. She's just in the beginning stages right now, but if you're interested (or want to offer encouragement, lol), she has a blog up at wordpress and a facebook page. Feel free to tell her I sent you her way.

We celebrated Neville's first birthday today (he turns one on Thursday; can you believe it??) with only limited amounts of drama. I'm probably gonna do a RL picspam in the next few days. I'm sure that those of you NOT on my facebook are missing seeing pics of my kids, aren't you?

I HOPE YOU ALL HAD A GREAT WEEKEND, AND A GREAT WEEK AHEAD! LOVE YOU! <3

We went to a Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast fundraiser thing this morning, and I ran into one of my friends from UHG. She's a very very sweet older lady, and I'm glad I got to see her. She was telling me about how bad things have gotten there, which I already knew but still sucks. But she did say something else that really made my day. When I was working there, especially when I was doing floor support, I always went out of my way to be sure that good agents got some type of recognition. We had some really excellent customer service reps, ones who actually cared about our members and committed to actually helping them. The supervisors basically ignored agents except to fuss about stats, and our quality agents - well, our quality department was outsourced to India, which I have issues with anyway just because it's a federal government program, and most of the quality agents speak English as a second language. Our reps from India that were doing correspondence I actually loved, because even though there were only a handful of them, they were quick and efficient, but correspondence was a lot of copy and paste. The quality agents use copy and paste too, but as a way to leave comments on evaluations. If the agents don't follow word-for-word and in-order the script that Quality has been given, they get deducted points. (some of it is so stupid. the two areas I always got dinged on were acknowledgment statements and email addresses. we were supposed to answer with "how may I help you" and after the caller states their issue make a statement like "I'll be happy to help you with that." But if a member first thing gives me their member number, I'd verify hipaa and pull the account up before asking again, something like "okay, I do have your information, what can I do for you today?" Instead, what they want us to do is tell the member something like "I'll be happy to verify your information and assist you, but first can I ask why you're calling?" and then you have no acct info, or if you do have the acct up you can't release anything because hipaa hasn't been verified, and it's stupid. And asking people for their email address - if I'm talking to a 92 year old woman who has hearing and vision problems, I'm not going to ask for their email address. That's stupid, and to me inconsiderate.) Point is, there is very little to no positive recognition. So for people I caught providing excellent customer service, I'd give them big stars for their desk (like certificate stars with their name on it, saying they are a star at blahblahblah), and for people who were getting discouraged, I'd leave them notes or cards on their desk. Yeah, I know I say I hate everyone, but my actions don't hold to that sometimes.

anyway, Rayette said that there are some days where she gets so frustrated that she wants to walk out, and that the cards I gave her are hanging up on her desk and she reads them for encouragement. And she almost started crying telling me about how much it meant to her that I had done that for her, which almost made ME start crying. It's nice to know I have a positive influence like that on someone's life.

also? my baby brother introduced us to his new girlfriend today. she's a single mom with 3 kids. I kinda wasn't expecting that from him, but I guess I should have been. my brothers are awesome.

So, my daddy and I got storage areas of the basement cleaned out yesterday. There is actually a floor in the basement! And it's white-grey, not brown/black! :P Seriously, we hauled out so much trash and ruined things. But at least we have room now to move some of the things from the actual family room of the basement and from what will eventually be my bedroom. Last night I took the boys to watch Ice Racing, which was a bunch of guys and one girl (who was a quad racer and took the checkers in every heat she was in) just goofing off and having fun, lol. But now I'm excited for actual race season. First NASCAR race is Feb 20 (which reminds me, I need to check w/ Tim, because he was supposed to be getting tix for me & the boys for the spring races at Richmond and Martinsville) and Taylor's first race of the season at Motor Mile is in April. Yay for watching cars go really fast in circles? Lol.

I'm supposed to be doing more housework today, but me and the princess are just chilling instead. We actually have sunshine today! Illy likes to play in the sunshine, so we have all the curtains open. She keeps trying to bite me and take over the computer, so I set her in the floor and turned all the Kung Zhus on her (we have six of them now, and it's kinda funny to watch and her reaction to them). I've gotta meet Tim at 4 and we're gonna hit Home Depot and Sam's Club before we all meet up at Logan's for dinner. Yay for family times?

Here, have some happy making things:

So, that Brendon kid and hotass drummer Spencer? Yeah, apparently the full version of their new song leaked. Can they hurry up and announce their tour dates? I have serious fangirl plans for stalking them, dammit!

The theme for this year's Relay for Life is something related to cartoons, so we're appropriating that to make our team theme CareBears and CareBear Cousins (which is fitting, since our Team Name is Cousins for a Cure). I already called dibs on getting to be Grumpy Bear, lol. But we're starting to work on fundraising things, so I might ask yall for tips.

(related to that, and I'm sure this will be an actual post later, would anyone be interested in contributing to ideas for and/or purchasing a fundraising cookbook?)

wendy posted a link to big_heart_june's boy bits picspam. Wendy called it a Jensen and Jared crotch!spam, which is essentially what it is, but no matter what you call it, it's happy making.

I have no idea how I ended up following @IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America) and @MattGallagher83 (Matt Gallagher) on twitter, but I do follow them both. Either way, there was an essay that Matt wrote for the NYT's Home Fires this week that was linked in multiple places, and I wanted to share it. Pilgrim's Progess by Matt Gallagher.

Okay, last thing, before I run off to meet my baby brother: GK Fic parties! iwillrememberu's Main Ships Party and little_missmimi's Unsung Heroes fic party.

Wow, it's already 2 days into the new year and I'm already behind! Lol. I started this on NYE? It's my 2010 in review. I'm gonna try to make another post about what I'm looking forward to / anticipating / hoping for in 2011, but I have to work 12 hrs tomorrow (later today, w/e) so I need to go to sleep now. *smooches*

JANUARY 2010

* Mom turned 50 and we planned a big surprise party for her. We had her convinced that everyone forgot her birthday, but we had relatives coming in from out of town and all this stuff - then we got a foot of snow and everything was ruined.

FEBRUARY 2010

* Kidnapped Amy and went to Atlantic City for a weekend. It was her birthday weekend & Valentine's Day & Cliff was at boot camp, so we met up with thebunnyknows and went to see The Used and Drive A (and Atreyu). Amy kinda got a crash course in fandom that weekend, lol. At the concert, we met up with valerie_z and one of her friends and sinsense. After, me and Amy and thebunnyknows were gonna hang around and get Cliff a hoodie autographed, and some drunk chick gave sinsense her meet-the-band card, so she stayed with us. And the only thing she had with her to be autographed was a draft of her thesis, which led to an interesting discussion about hemaphroditism (between her and Quinn, who, despite all evidence to the contrary, can actually string words together to make sentences) and to Bert saying "I'd love to wake up one day with a vagina; I'd probably have to take a few days off tour." (Amy says "that happens to me every day!) Also, they were super nice about giving Amy messages to pass along to Cliff (generic "tell him thanks for serving our country"-type messages, but still!). The next day we found a Zoltar machine on the boardwalk, but no one transformed into a 12-year-old. Maybe because we are all already 12 at heart?

* As another show on that same tour, I took Davey to see The Used in Charlotte. He had his shoes autographed, had a discussion with Jepha about Perry the Platapus, and is now buddies forever with Bert McCracken. Also, the band autographed a onesie for Illiana and Quinn drew a little cloud picture on it.

MARCH 2010

* ILLIANA WAS BORN! March 25. Harley was texting me (and others) up til like 7am from the hospital, and I figured I had time to drop the boys off at school and get to the hospital before the baby was born, but I got a call just around 730 saying the baby was here. She is quite possibly my favorite thing about 2010.

APRIL 2010

* I sold my van to the farm. Really, she went to a good home with some Amish family that runs some orchards in Franklin County, but I still cried because I love my van!

* accidentally captained a March of Dimes team at work and raised $5700

MAY 2010

* The official Team Gregory picnic, which was proof that we were the best team in the call center and everyone else was jealous.

* Celebration with my friends and family for my 30th birthday and my brother's 28th birthday.

* Cliff got his assignment and Amy left me, lol. They're stationed in Norfolk, which is kinda good because they're only 5 hrs away, but for Amy is also kinda bad because it means her in-laws visit a lot.

JUNE 2010

* Harley was driving me to the airport and we were in an accident. I had my bag in the floorboard and my feet on top of it, tying my shoes and talking shit with Johnathan, and the next thing I know we're under a Suburban and Harley's climbing over me to get to the baby. I ended up with a concussion and knocking out one of my front teeth, and freaking the fuck out, but I still insisted on going to the airport. I was spending the weekend of my 30th birthday with my friends, dammit! I got wendy and phaballa for my actual birthday (and phaballa's peanut butter pie!), and we saw Shrek Forever After, and I got puppy!snuggles from Max & Val. The next day I got to spend time with snarkyrainbow and talked her into staying to see Cobra with me. As with most shows, we were amused by the fashion disasters and by the parents' reactions to some of the songs. I Fight Dragons was surprisingly entertaining, and Travie and Cobra were unsurprisingly awesome. I can't stand 3oh!3 and was really wtf'ed by the huge stuffed wolves with green laser eyes that were onstage during their set. Met up with irisgirl12000 and went home with her to Houston (and my favorite guest bedroom, lol). Next day went to Hard Rock for lunch and met up with some of the other TX girls (shutyourface! eckerlilas! And other girls I know but whose LJ names I can't remember!) for more Travie and Cobra. We didn't have to suffer through 3oh!3 this time, but there were extra acts in between sets that I really wasn't feeling. (I had a concussion! And by this time I had two black eyes! I wanted to put my head down on the barrier and sleep until there was Gabe in front of me!) Oh, and we ended up with Gabe!crotch in our faces, lol. One of the previous concerts we were at together, it was Pete!crotch. Oh, bandboys. Sunday, I laid on irisgirl12000's couch and cuddled with Dante (my favorite of irisgirl12000's two kitties) and watched the first couple episodes of Generation Kill and wished I didn't have to go to the airport.

* Had to get a CT scan done to make sure I didn't have a skull fracture or internal bleeding or whatnot. (Now, I actually have experience with concussions and head injuries because Ronnie has had 4 concussions and is also a klutz, so I know it's generally a good sign if you do have a knot after a blow to the head.) The drs seemed to think I wasn't any more brain damaged than I had been to begin with. (Although you can still feel the indentation in my forehead where I hit the edge of my shoe.)

* hit up wordsalone for download links for Generation Kill so I could get sucked into that fandom, lol

* participated in Relay for Life on a family team

JULY 2010

* got a new-to-me car! A 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander which I totally love! :)

* spent a couple weekends at the lake and took the boys cliff diving for the first time

* spent a long weekend camping at Steel Bridge with the family - my brother, 4 women, and 9 kids. Haha, he says he's never doing that again. But we had a fucking blast.

* succumbed to depression, due to the effects of the concussion on my crazy meds / my bipolar and also after effects of the concussion itself. Missed half a month of work feeling suicidal and stupid.

* went to Norfolk to spend some time with Amy and Cliff, made friends with another Navy wife named Sarah who is pretty awesome, and went to Warped Tour

AUGUST 2010

* spent EVERY weekend at the lake and seriously contemplated buying a camper at the marina when it came up for sale

* Mom took the kids to the beach for a week, so I got dwnload links for True Blood (which is the ultimate trainwreck of a show) and watched all the episodes there were at that time

* got to hang out with Jessie and Holly, who I miss tremendously, when we went to see my friend Anthony in a drag show

* had a boat party for Team Gregory that was a huge success and solidified our bond right before we all got split up

* Neville was born on August 25th! Pam had a lot of complications and scared me sooooo badly, but it all worked out.

* Andrew-at-work, whose Mom had been sick with cancer for a while, told us his mom passed away - but then we found out that everything he had said was a fucking lie and his mom was alive and well and happily on her honeymoon.

SEPTEMBER 2010

* Back to feeling depressed and suicidal. Had a major breakdown at work because I was going to be moved to a Collections team, but Robbie intervened and got me moved to Correspondence instead

* had our annual end-of-summer/Kelly Marie's birthday picnic, which turned out better than expected

* Taylor won his first race of the season, lol

* missed out on seeing Drive A in Norfolk with Amy & Cliff because I didn't trust myself to make the 5 hour drive alone

* walked in the JDRF walk for possibly the last time - Chrissy goes off to college next year so I don't think we'll have a team next year

* the boys participated in the Marine Mud Run to help raise money for Toys for Tots

OCTOBER 2010

* had a blast at Heritage Day at Camp Bethel

* finally figured out the right combo of meds to feel stable again (just couldn't necessarily afford to pay for them for a while)

* had a karaoke dance party at my brother's house with all the kids for Halloween

* Walked in the American Heart Walk with a team from work

NOVEMBER 2010

* walked in the Veterans' Day Parade with a group from the Soldiers' Angels Organization

* went to see Billy Currington and Carrie Underwood in concert

* got pulled over for speeding and found out the DMV never processed my medical review for the year so my license was technically suspended

* helped my cousin move into her new Habitat House

* moved into my grandparents' old house

* took the kids ice skating for the first time - Davey literally skated circles around me and Ronnie

* the boys got promoted to the Black Belt Club at AFK

* went Black Friday shopping with my brothers on Thanksgiving night and saw a bunch of people I hadn't seen in forever

DECEMBER 2010

* got my license back

* Ronnie turned TEN

* got myself in trouble at work for standing up for my team

* worked a ridiculous amount of overtime

* lots of firsts for Christmas - first one in the new house, first Christmas for Illy and Neville

* Ronnie and Davey earned their purple belts at karate

Last night I escaped to my room around 7ish b/c of miserableness (omg girl parts, wtf?) and heat (the a/c in my bedroom is a godsend). Didn't plan on going to sleep, and I even managed to play on my phone for a bit, but I dozed off & on ALL NIGHT. And I'm so nonfunctional when I get more than a couple hours of sleep.

Today is a weird, underwatery dreamy feeling day. Idek. Plus, people are ignorant today. So ready to go home.

Also, Mom & Harley & the kids just left for the beach. idk if I'm gonna go down & meet them on Saturday or not. The female thing is kinda a big deterrent on beachness. I'm thinking I might go put in some hours at the habitat house Sat morning & spend the rest of the weekend at home. Housecleaning when the boys are away means I can get rid of toys!

Thursdays used to be my favoritest day of the week. (It's Rex Manning Day!) Yall should leave me a comment with your favorite SPN quote ("I miss conversations that didn't start with "This Killer Truck" and "Sam wears women's underwear" are still high on my list) or a favorite SPN pic or something you love about SPN.

Melody (melmo_lovesyou) just smushed together "amused" and "entertained" and came out with "amentained". Idek. My teenagers are all dorkfaces. :)

I'm so ready for Illy to get here, lol. BABY!!! Harley was talking about prom dress shopping today. My sister. I repeat, my teenagers are all dorkfaces.

Remember me mentioning that I might switch shifts to one of those that includes a Sunday? My main reasons are so that our dept has some type of floor support on Sundays and so the boys can go to Pam & Jay's, which means that James won't have to let Holdon go with Jo b/c she won't take him away from his cousins. (did I tell you that shit, about her insisting that when Holdon is with her, his name is Alex, and how Pam is worried that Jo is gonna do something crazycakes like kidnap him? Grrrr.) Well, Leslie was going to work it out so that I switched schedules with one of the new hires, who was upset about having to work Sundays b/c his mom has cancer and he has to stay with her on the weekends b/c his brother stays with her during the week. BUT. His stats aren't that great, he missed half the day yesterday, and he's been warned multiple times about his cell phone use potentially getting him in trouble. This morning, I told him I wasn't going to switch with him just so he can get himself fired, and then I caught him with his cell phone out no less than five times. I mean, seriously? NO. I still don't mind changing my schedule, but I'm not switching with him.

I thought yesterday was Thursday, ALL DAY, and I even woke up at one point in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep, so I was thinking "Oh, I can totally go make a HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVIE post b/c it's officially her birthday." But it totally wasn't. *fail* Tomorrow is gonna be ridiculous. I'M SO READY FOR THE WEEKEND!

This morning, I was thinking about how much I hate txt msgs from certain people. Like, I love Matt, and I don't mind txtng with him at random times, but I always want to correct his spelling/punctuation/grammar. DRIVES ME CRAZY! Or crazier, whatever.

There was something else I was gonna tell yall, but I don't remember. I have barbecued pork chops in the oven, and I need to go figure out what I'm going to have with it. Apparently there is no Survivor tonight because of basketball? So mom got the original JAWS movie for us to watch, since the boys have never seen it but we watch all sorts of ridiculous SyFy shark movie. So I'll be back in a bit. :)

In a sign of how classy my dad is, he has his beer on the back porch in a cooler, and he has SNOW packed around the beer to keep it cold.

Also, he talked my 7yo into giving his (MY) number to the waitress - written in crayon on a napkin with a drawing of an alien and a heart. It's a good thing we know everyone that works in that place. (also, then Ronnie used my phone to txt melmo_lovesyou a msg that read Davey. is supercheating on you. B/c my kids are utterly ridiculous.)

I've been asking my sister for over a month now to make invitation for my mom's suprise party. My mom turns 50 at the end of this month. Tell me why I had to come home tonight and make the invitations and get them sent out myself. I'm not the only kid in this family!!!!

Okay, I'm going to go read the superawesomeness that is in my inbox, courtesy of harriet_vane, and then I think I'm gonna work on hs au. Maybe. snarkyrainbow and reallythateasy and ashlein seem to approve of it.

Happy New Year, yall!! <333333

If my crackberry decides to quit being fucktarded, I'll be able to post this.

1. You know those little fics, or even pieces of fic, that just stick with you? Sometime in the last week, I read this fic by battleofhydaspe and it has stuck. It's Empires fic (I'm pretty sure I associate her name with the other awesome Empires fics I've enjoyed) and you should definitely go read it.

2. Work!Heather bought me a Harry Potter wand for Christmas. It lights up & makes sounds & is motion activated!! Lol. Work!Amy got me a quotes calendar. <3

3. Got a txt message from my brother's wife today that they're pregnant. Actually, I got multiple txts. She's a little excited. I'm gonna have THREE new nieces/nephews in 2010! Isn't that awesome??

4. I wore my smores hoodie to work today & Robbie was like "is that a Clandestine hoodie?" And when I said yes he was like "does that mean you like Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship?" Um, duh. *g* Then he said he only knows Cobra Starship b/c his wife is obsessed with them, but then we got busy and I didn't get to talk non-work-stuff again with him. I kinda wanna facebook-stalk his wife now though.

5. I made a comment on twitter earlier about Crash being schmoopy (and yes, I did just totally name smush two of my bestest friends!) and then my phone stopped working. Twitter isn't updating, my emails aren't coming through, and txt msgs in/out are sporadic. :(

6. I know RMG is gonna wait til the last possible day to send out W2s. I need my tax refund!! LAPTOP!!

7. My back is less sore today, but my wrists hurt like mad.

8. I uploaded pics of Ronnie's bday party at the science museum & of the snow this weekend if anyone's interested. They're on my facebook - I'm tabbycat6380 on there if you need to find me & friend me. :)

9. I have santa gifts in my storage building & idk if I can get to my storage building b/c of the snow. They didn't plow their lots.

10. I have fics to post for the wip amnesty thingy but I have to be able to get on the actual computer to do so.

+ Am being super lazy today. Still in my pjs, playing on the internet. I intended to try and pull together one of the three fics I'm working on, but I played LJ catchup instead. Writing on the desktop is hard, even when I'm just typing up what was written in my notebook or compiling what I've emailed to myself. I miss my laptop.

+ Some of yall already knew this, but since my brothers found out yesterday, now I have permission to tell the internet. Harley's pregnant. She's due April 5th. I've known for a couple months now, so I'm over the biggest part of freaking out. I mean, she's sixteen. She was also on birth control and trying to be responsible. And this family was made for babies, so I'm mostly just excited now. She's at a doctor's appt right now having another sonogram, but when she had one done a few weeks ago, they were thinking she's having a girl. Also, I don't like the father, so I keep calling Johnathan the babydaddy.

+ I want to go to Ohio for a weekend in January and work is stupid and won't let us request time off in January yet.

+ I also want to go to visit notthequiettype and reallythateasy in the spring. So that's what my tax money is going to - a trip to CA and a new laptop.

+ I'm not getting gifts for ANYONE other than my kids for Christmas (b/c I'm horribly horribly broke) but if you'd like a Christmas card, we're working on those this weekend. here is the post where I was asking for addresses, if you missed it.

+ irisgirl12000 wrote me porn this week. Well, technically we cowrote. I need to add that to the list of things I'd like to get posted this weekend.

+ I was telling Tim that I need my BLS recert in a couple months and he suggested the EMT class instead. I had told him that I'd do the EMT class after I got a place of my own again (b/c I was hoping me and the boys would be living out that way, closer to him and the firehouse, by then) but since I don't think I'm moving out now... Anyway, I'm considering it.

+ There are several "all about me" memes going around my flist right now, and I think they're all awesome b/c I love learning things about yall. And I know some of yall are kinda new around my lj and probably want to know things like that about me, but instead of doing one of those actual memes, I'm gonna offer to answer any/all questions you leave in comments. :)