under the wire

I made it! It may be midnite elsewhere, but here in California, it’s just after nine pm. My 100 days of blogging is still intact :)

This morning I woke up and started reading Mockingjay. I mean literally, I woke up and reached over to my nitestand, put on my glasses and picked up my book and started reading, picking up where I left off the nite before. That book is really… that good.  The third and final book in a trilogy by Suzann Collins, the first being The Hunger Games, the second called Catching Fire. Yes, they’re for “young adults”, but don’t let that influence you! Absolutely some of the best books I have ever had the privilege of reading, I kid you not.

I had a lot to do today, so I had to read it off and on, or I would have finished it much earlier. As it stands, I finished it just a few hours ago, and because someone who reads my blog has yet to read the book, I won’t spill any of the pertinent details… I’ll just say this- OH MY GAWD!!! and CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??? and *sob sob sob*; yes, there were parts (read that, multiple) parts that brought me to tears. I CRIED. ACTUAL TEARS.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Only that it was a seriously excellent book. And now I’m done. Talking. About the book…

SO! Tonite is my eldest Bonus Son Stephen’s last nite at home. At least it should be. This is… take three, I think, of Operation Boot Stephen From the Nest. We’re cautiously optimistic that his time it will actually happen.

I’m totally making this sound like it’s his fault, and it’s really not. See, a few years ago Stephen exercised his adult privileges and became a reservist in the Marine Corp. He went to boot camp, went to his MOS school in Georgia, then came home with some notion of getting a job… going to college… only… it didn’t quite work out like that! Well, it did, buuuuut… see, he kinda screwed the pooch a little. I mean, he got a job, was working full time at WalNut, decided after several months that it wasn’t for him and before he made sure he had another job, quit. Enter Life Lesson here; never jump ship if you don’t have a place to land! So he moved up north with some friends and tried really, really hard to get a job. He registered for college but sat too long on the whole getting financial aid part, couldn’t find a job, and had to move back in with us since he couldn’t do that whole rent thing. Enter Another Life Lesson here; he who procrastinates gets financial aid not!

In all fairness, he was eighteen, nineteen when all of this went down; not exactly the most savvy, life experienced human being walking around. Super smart, but not real worldly, if you know what I mean.

He couch-crashed with us, then decided that he wanted to go active in the Marine Corp. Only, they said “NO! We like you just fine as a reservist.” So HE said, “Oh yeah? Well, screw that!” and went next door to the Army recruiter and said “Sign me up, please!” and they said “Oh hell to the yeah we will!”.

All he had to do was file some paperwork to have him transferred from Marine to Army… get some bigwig to approve it… do a little of this and a little of that… presto magico, you’re in the Army now!

Yeah…. didn’t exactly work out like that.

Long story short (too late, I know), one year later Stephen, after two false approvals, is still couch-crashing. However, THIS TIME they SWEARS they have the right forms filed, and signed by the right people, and all the i’s are crossed and the t’s are dotted and sometime in the morning, our bonny boy Stephen will be in the wind!

We’ll see. That’s what I say. We. Shall. See.

Anyway, this is the third “fare thee well” dinner we’ve had, and I have to say, it went off without a hitch. We had turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, peas, and a delicious cherry pie. We also had guests for dinner (we didn’t eat them; just fed them). Neya and Richard, both of whom I hold in high esteem. It was nice just hanging out and conversing, although there were moments when my spawn got a little louder than necessary, and needed a firm reminder to, you know, BEHAVE like HUMANS WITH HOME TRAINING.

Now I’m going to go to bed. I haz a tired. Later, doods :)

6 down, 94 to go!