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I’m going to try that post every day in November thing for Linda. Because we both have new jobs and we don’t get to talk nearly enough anymore and I miss and love her. I’ve had a really crap week, but the hugest highlight has been that Bear got his driving license and got a car. It’s a white 2010 Acura TL. It’s so pretty and it drives so nicely. I’m almost jealous, but Bear is really awesome about sharing his toys with me. It’s a little pricey, having a new driver on the insurance and a new car payment and a car that takes premium gas, but it’s such a HUGE HUGE improvement in terms of quality of life for Bear and myself that the cost is the tiniest blip. I’m usually the one that worries about finances in our family, but Bear is worrying more than me. Bear also drove on the freeway to his work this morning. He did a fantastic job and we were at his work in no time, obeying all traffic laws and safety precautions. I love Bear driving. He’s so serious and concentrated and the more I get used to having someone else drive me, the more I relax. Recently I think I’ve been annoying him just because I want to chit chat with him while he’s driving but he’s still new enough that he needs me to not distract him except for navigation stuff like “right turn coming up”. Today he’ll drive us to pick up his new car and we’ll eat dinner with our very awesome neighbors and tomorrow is Friday. I can’t wait. It’s getting pretty hard to talk about my heroes. They are so very personal. This week I’d like to talk about my mother-in-law. My husband is a little paranoid though, so this might be short. I admire her and consider her a hero for so many reasons, both large and small. She was educated in another country, but when she got her kids over to the US, she had to start all over. She’s graduating this December with her RN. She raised 2 kids without much help at all. At one point in her life, she had her kids and absolutely no funds and barely any place to live. She now owns her own home and has no debt except for her mortgage. She cooks like a fiend. I’m not even sure she LIKES cooking, but for years and years it was the only option and she’s just wicked efficient and quick now. The rare times she lets someone eat food that she didn’t cook, it’s Chinese takeout. If anyone knows Bear, this is where he gets it. She earned money cleaning homes for a while. She is not ashamed of this. Her home is always immaculate. She’s a fantastic mother. She’s human, and thus flawed like all of us, but she cares deeply for her kids and has proven how much she will do for them in both large ways and small. She calls Bear almost every night. If she didn’t get him the night before, she calls in the morning before we leave for work. She always always tells me hello or good night when she calls. She’s got a green thumb. She grows her own pineapples. She started the first pineapple by buying one, cutting off the top and then planting it. She grows a tree (ackee tree) that really shouldn’t grow as far north as she lives, but it bears her a ton of fruit. She’s grown her own yams. She came to visit Bear and I and she did more yardwork in one day than Bear and I have all year. She doesn’t talk about “exercise”. She talks about needing to “sweat”. It tickles me. She didn’t like me very much when she first met me. Not for any reason that anyone would guess, but because I was so young. She was terribly worried that I was too meek and too innocent. We get along MUCH better now, mostly because I let her see my backbone. Most strong, capable, ambitious women would have been easier with a meek daughter-in-law. I think it’s a mark of how very confident she is in herself that she’s happier and more comfortable when she’s around other confident people. It always bowls me over when I think of it. This is such a RARE trait in a person. It totally explains Bear too. She has a wicked sense of humor. I would share, but I have a feeling Bear would get embarrassed. Hey Bear, if you see this, give an example that doesn’t embarrass you, ok? If anyone reads this, what’s the best character trait that you’ve seen in someone you consider your hero? Bear and I have been busy bees. My Gilligan came to visit and then Bear and I went to my hometown for a family thing. Bear and I ended up having a kind of shitty trip. It started off ok, but the last straw was the plane flight home. To preface this story, Bear snores. When he’s in bed, he snores REALLY loud, but when he’s sitting up, it’s mostly pretty soft. Also, our flight was turbulent. A lot of shaking and upset. Last point of note, he’s got the aisle seat and I’m in the middle. So we get on the plane and Bear falls asleep while we are taxing down the runway. After he falls asleep I’m trying to get comfy and I notice the lady across the aisle from him is MAD. I’m not sure at what, but she’s glaring. After takeoff the kid in front of Bear leans his chair back. Bear wakes up when the chair jams into his knees and sticks one foot in the aisle and the other in front of me. I readjust myself and notice the woman is GLARING at Bear’s foot. I’m like great, she’s one of those that is pissed that he’s too big or that he’s not following the strict rules. To avoid her saying something, I wake Bear up when the flight attendants come by, especially when they have the cart. A few minutes after we’ve all settled back down with drinks, Bear gets jostled pretty bad when the lady gets up. She jabs her knee or foot into him. I couldn’t see exactly because at this point I wasn’t paying attention. Thankfully Bear goes back to sleep. Now, until this lady jabs him, NO ONE ELSE on the plane has had any trouble with Bear’s foot. I can see how it’s a little rude of him. If the kid in front of him hadn’t leaned back, he would have kept his knees in his space, but short of cutting off his legs, there just wasn’t a lot of options at this point. After the lady sits back down, I start kinda keeping an eye on her. Not seriously, but she’s starting to wig me out a bit with all her glaring and her deliberately(?) jabbing Bear. About 30 or so minutes pass and suddenly she reaches across the aisle and shoves Bear in the shoulder saying “Some of us would like to sleep too!” Bear and I were in complete shock. I started to get angry at this point. Bear put on his headphones and cranked up his ipod to try and keep himself awake. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be because a few minutes later I realized I desperately needed to pee. I was also still very very upset. When I was waiting in line for the bathroom, a flight attendant was hanging back there for a few minutes after she’d finished cleaning. I decided to explain the situation and ask her if she thought we should call them if something else happened. The FA asked if we’d said anything to the lady and upon discovering that we hadn’t, advised us to call them if ANYTHING happened. I eventually go back to my seat. Bear eventually falls asleep. The lady eventually wakes up. I then hear her muttering. Then I hear her saying “HOW CAN YOU BE SO INCONSIDERATE?!? THIS IS A FULL FLIGHT DO YOU NOT REALIZE?” I ignore it and scrunch down into my seat. I didn’t even think about the FA at this point. I just couldn’t believe she was going to be just that loud. The guy who was in the seat behind Bear was standing in the aisle. He heard her. I heard her. The people in front and behind her heard her. But Bear still had headphones on his head. I didn’t get how she thought he could hear her A few minutes later the FA comes by with water and because I’m hyper sensitive I see her take some. I think “Great. Drink some water and calm your ass down.” I should have known this wouldn’t work. I see her clenching her little cup to the point that it starts to crumple a bit. I start getting anxious. I really want her to hold her shit together. We have less than an hour left on the flight. Of course she stands up though before she’s even finished her water. The guy that was in the aisle moves into his seat to let her pass. She reaches for the back of Bear’s seat. There’s no turbulence at this point. She SHOVES hard and Bear’s seat slams back, waking him and startling me and the standing dude. My blood boils and I loudly call “M’am!”. In that second the standing guy moves back into the aisle preventing her from moving away. She ignores me and I continue to call “M’am!” at a woman standing less than 4 feet from me. After about 4 times she gives me this false innocent confused look and says “Yes?” I said “Could you please leave my husband alone?” She says, “I was just trying to get past this man here.” I said “This isn’t the first time you’ve woken my husband, could you please leave him alone?” She looks at me and says “Im going to get the flight attendant.” My hand shot up and pushed the call button. At this point Bear was trying desperately to get me to let it go and I tried to explain to him that I needed her to stop. She had been making me tense this whole flight almost. I then hear the flight attendant ask the lady “Did you touch her husband?” I assume the lady had told her that I was causing a commotion. The lady responds “I was just touching the back of his chair.” The flight attendant says “Did you touch her husband earlier?” The lady shifts back towards Bear’s chair and touches the back as if to demonstrate, “Right now, I just touched the back of it” The flight attendants voice gets kind of stringent. “Did you AT ANY TIME touch her husband?” The lady clearly has had enough as well “HE WAS SNORING.” At this point I’m pretty sure the crazy must have been obvious on her face too because the Flight Attendant shuffled the lady away. We were told they were going to see if she was agreeable to moving seats. Bear was told very kindly that he should not be touched or allowed to feel bad for snoring on an airplane. Apparently the lady didn’t want to move though because right before we all had to be seated for landing she pops back into her seat. She didn’t look at us or say anything for the rest of the flight. True story. Lets just say Bear and I gave her PLENTY of space when we were getting off the plane. I’ve been meaning to do this for a little while. I figure 2010 was a huge year, so it took me a whole month to review it. That seems fair to me. Remind me if I forgot anything. Linda, considering how much of November I remember (damn that rhymes), I might be persuaded to do the blogging thing again. January
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September
October
November
December
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