Garden of Thought

I am so makeup challenged, I swear - I kind of skipped the "girls get together and put makeup on each other" thing that is apparently out there, my friends were more about seeing if we could sing the entirety of Pirates of Penzance or fangirling over Alexander Dumas and Charles Dickens. One result is it took me until I was in my 50s to try putting on false eyelashes (easy but weird to wear because you can see them) and fake nails.

My nails are so darn brittle and I noticed how much their short, uneven little selves were showing up in my dance pics because so much of it is hand gesture related. I decided to bite the bullet and buy some fake nails (press on Kiss). I didn't even know they could be trimmed and filed like real nails, or how to stick them on but I can now say I now officially have long-pink-glitter fingernails. Feels weird to type with them. This is my experimental set to see how well they stay on and how long they last, if it works I can get coordinating nails for costumes when I have performances.

Live and learn!

My grown son is still living with me but thank heavens he's been working now, he got a job this fall wrangling grocery carts for a very busy Winco store and is now trying to make it to March for a solid six months of employment on his record so he can try to find something not so hard on his body (golly it's a hard job!) and maybe with a little better pay than minimum. He's adjusted to cooking his own food now that he got through the obligatory "Oh wow, I have money, I can buy ALL THE DOUGHNUTS AND SUGARED CEREAL that Mom wouldn't let me have growing up!" phase. There's still a lot of noodles and pizza involved, but it's a lot more like Real Food than it was.

I'm raising his rent every six months and he's gradually getting better at remembering to pay it on time. So grateful he's finding his feet a bit more, now if the darn rents around here wouldn't be shooting up so badly... hoping that maybe we can launch him into the world this year.

Just finished another round of our annual preschool fundraising dinner and basket raffle - as we were setting up the tables one of the grade school girls, the sort who has several small siblings and as a result speaks more like a wise mom than a kid, made the observation that "Oh yes, now all the little girls will come in and get their heart set on something in baskets, and then when they don't win they'll cry and cry." 

Watched as families mobbed the hallways, enthusiastically dropping tickets into the little buckets.  Plenty of little girls (and boys) who obviously had already decided whatever was in their chosen basket was theirs - especially the three beta fish artistically floating along among themed items in three different places.  Winning tickets were drawn and the halls filled with the sound of wailing as small children were given the "Sometimes these things happen, that's just the way it works" lesson.  One girl whom I would have thought old enough to already know that stood and just sobbed - she'd apparently fastened onto one of the betas and even given him a name.  In her heart, he was already in a fishbowl in her room and now a stranger was taking 'her' pet away from her.  So many small childhood hopes dashed amid the celebration.

I divvied up the decorative balloons and handed them to the kids who seemed to need to have something that they'd 'won' in their hands the most.

My daughter and her roomie were given a lead by a coworker that there was a one bedroom opening up in a good complex, so they gave it a whirl - the manager said they could have it if they signed the lease that day and were willing to move in that very night, and so they did!  They took sleeping bags and slept in their otherwise empty apartment just because they could - it even has a great view of the pond and fountain that decorates the little rec center.  The competition here for housing is fierce - when we went to start moving things in the next day a lady showed up at the door saying she thought *she* was supposed to be moving into it instead the next day, we just shrugged, let her know they already had the papers and the keys and to take it to the manager... didn't see her again.... I hope they just had the wrong apt for their sake, it's a big complex.

And to top it all off, both girls can even walk to work from that location which will save them a fair bit of money.  We moved her furniture today, wow what a whirlwind ride - when she woke up that morning who knew it would be the last time she ever slept in our house in her own bed, just like that?  Away she flies, and all is well.

Spent part of today helping my youngest with landing an apartment along with her potential roommate friend - it's so hard to find rentals right now, they had three other people all hoping to get it if her application doesn't go through and that was in the space of only two hours - they managed to be the first to apply that morning by happenstance, the manager had only received the notice it would be open this next month late last night.  0.o

Here's praying it goes through, it's in a great location for what they need - my fledgling is tottering on the edge of my nest and I'm really hoping she'll be able to fly.