MeMetwo

19 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

Believe me, despite what you hear and how I feel after some days, the kids are far and away the best part of my job. Only thing that ever really messes it up is the adults. Wouldn’t wanna do anything else, despite my jokes. 

I always felt the exact same way. Even though some can be a pain in the patooty sometimes, middle school kids are a real hoot!  And, yes, sometimes you laugh when you probably shouldn’t. 

13 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

🦬. Vera 🇷🇺. Lobby. Can’t believe I have a student on the ship. 
 

As a retired middle school teacher, I feel your pain. It happened to me once at a pro football game (with a beer in my hand). It turns out that family’s season tickets were three rows right behind ours. Rats!

I’m driving my third Hyundai Santa Fe and they have all been fantastic cars. Just the right size SUV for driving around town (in Atlanta traffic!!!) and also on road trips. Have not had a single problem with any of them. 

Have a wonderful cruise Sid.  Have fun, relax, and get some rest both physically and mentally. 

Can’t wait for all the shenanigans!  Have fun. 

@TxTeach79such good news this morning!  Thanks for letting us know of your dad’s improved condition. Now you plan your cruise and enjoy your summer!  

7 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Eagles and the Flyers are the worst. DO NOT go there and wear your teams jersey. NOT GOOD! 

Hi Jeff. How’s Patti feeling today?  I hope she had a restful, pain free night. 

Best wishes, Patti, for an easy surgery and recovery. You’ve got this!  You’re a trooper. 

19 minutes ago, pebbles1102 said:

I am. She graduated Magna Cum Laude. 

Wow!  Double congrats. That’s terrific. 

40 minutes ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Around midnight on Saturday night, I heard a loud crash coming from our bedroom. I was freaking out. It turned out that one of the brackets on the upper clothes rod in Brian's closet had broken. When that rod fell, it took down the two rods below it. So every bit of clothing Brian owns was lying on the closet floor in a giant pile. We could barely get the door open a crack to see what had happened.

 

We hauled all of his shirts and piled them in stacks by type (short sleeves, long sleeves, hoodies, etc) on the guest room bed. We stacked up his jeans & pants on the futon in the office.The next day, Brian texted our handyman about it, and he is coming on Wednesday to fix it. That concerns me since our friend is arriving from Canada on Thursday, and will need to sleep in the guest room that is currently covered in Brian's clothing. I wish he could have come to fix it sooner. Yikes.

 

Meanwhile, Brian has to go into three different rooms to get dressed in the mornings...

Been there, had that happen more than once. What PITA. I feel for you. Hang in there. 

St. Greg, thanks for these great pictures. I watched the show but, honestly, I don’t remember much about the story lines.  I do remember the house and that J.R. Ewing was one nasty human being. 

Happy anniversary, @MeganGC1983!  Have a great, fun day.  Kids' schedules allowing it, of course. 😍🎉🍾

Tribe member here.  Let the report of the shenanigans begin!

Happy Easter to the Tribe.  Quiet day here with just the two of us, but I am cooking a prime rib roast which should be delicious.  No Easter eggs or jelly beans, though.  Those are yuk!  I'll substitute margaritas and Pinot Noir.

38 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

I say this with all due respect, she looks like President Warren G. Harding

I laughed so hard at this that my dog stopped chewing on her toy to stare at me. Carry on!

I’m here for the party!  Happy Spring Break. Enjoy!

8 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

I'm doing good - in fact, maybe even slightly better than good! I promised I would come back here and fill you all in on the happenings, so here goes. I can't remember what I've told you all (and what was here as opposed to our other group) so apologies if I'm repeating myself. Grab a drink (or two) and settle in for a long ride...

 

I'm sure you all know that I'm a single mom to two kids and have raised them alone (including financially) for the 13 years. To do this, I've worked two jobs consistently (at times three) to make sure they never went without and hoped that maybe one day karma would come round and we would get some money from their dad. Their dad, by the way, left Canada and relocated, hopping between South America and Mexico to "get off the grid" (aka avoid paying child support). He had not worked in the past 15 years as he used my inheritance from my parents passing to invest in crypto before it got big (and then took off with the investments). To say I was bitter was an understatement...BUT karma did, indeed, rear its head and I received a call in October 2022 that came as both a shock and a relief (sorry to sound insensitive). My ex's body had been found in an apartment in Medelin, Colombia and his death was being treated as suspicious. Thus began a 6 month nightmare of having to deal with the US Government, the US consulate in Bogota, the Medelin police department, and the Canadian Government in Bogota. Of course, the majority of people only spoke Spanish, of which I know not a word. As the kids were his next of kin, it fell to me to make all the "arrangements" - they expected me to pay for him to be cremated (he was so decomposed that they couldn't send his body back), for his remains to either be interred or repatriated, for the rent on the apartment to be paid while they were carrying out the investigation, and for his belongings to be sent back. I refused all of this and began a back and forth battle of them demanding payment and me saying no. 

 

In the midst of this nonsense, I was issued a notice from my landlord telling me that my rent would be going up by an additional $1500 per month. On only one income, it was difficult enough to make ends meet with my current rent, so that additional was impossible. I researched, advocated, gathered documents, and fell into a very dark place! Everyone I spoke with assured me the landlord could not do that BUT if I failed to pay the rent, it would be grounds for eviction. I had everything needed to go to court and win BUT the waitlist was almost a year and, in the meantime I had to pay the increased rent. It seemed hopeless and I definitely thought I would be on the streets with two kids! At this point, I signed over all rights and power of attorney for the deadbeat ex to his parents and they did whatever they needed to do to get his ashes brought back to the US. They held a memorial ceremony in Boston at the VA cemetery, and sent money for airfare for the kids and I to attend. With my rent situation the way it was, I planned to leave the kids in Boston, come back alone, pack up and....(well, I won't mention what I planned). The five months dealing with all of this, along with the prospect of going to the ceremony and having to listen to everyone say how amazing this guy was (even though he abandoned his kids and never paid a penny toward them) was the lowest I have ever been in my life. Thankfully, lots of folks rallied around and supplied us with food, giftcards, and love. Then, two weeks before we were due to leave for Boston, I heard from the landlord (who had been served court papers) that he would like to "discuss" the rent situation - I had been asking for this for the past 3 months and was met with silence but suddenly it was up for discussion. I believe he knew that I wasn't going to just go quietly, so had a change of heart and pretty much put my rent to where it was originally and raised it by only the allowable 2%. One less thing to worry about.

 

The trip to Boston and the ceremony went much better than I had expected and I felt that I had done the right thing by taking the kids to pay their respects, have closure, and meet some of their family. Neither one of them really remember their dad, but he was still their dad. When I got back to Vancouver, I began the process of applying for survivor benefits for the kids. Since he had never worked in Canada, they got nothing from the Canadian side. However, he was in the US military and did work in the US before we moved to Canada. Both kids are US citizens, so it should have been an easy application. Wrong. The problem came because my older child never got a social security number (my son got his when we registered his birth but my daughter didn't). I had been trying to get it long before this happened, but each time I went to the US and applied, I was given different information about what I needed and was always refused. Before heading to Boston I called and asked (again) what was needed, took everything they said, got to the office and was turned away as they said she needed documentation from every year of her life to prove her identity. huh???? I called the office in Seattle, asked what I needed, went down, and was refused because the school report cards we had (which we had been told was what was needed) didn't have the address of the school (ours have school board address, rather than individual school). I called the office in Bellingham and finally got someone that knew what they were talking about - gave me verbal instructions AND emailed me and said if I was refused to show them the email with her info and they could contact her. The teen and I took the train to Bellingham, waited in the office for two hours, and finally got to hand in the application! I was now able to apply for survivor benefits as soon as the social security number was issued.

 

That brings me up to the present (so a year and a half later - that's how long this process has taken). The investigation was completed and his death was ruled "inconclusive" as the body was in such advanced decomposition that they weren't able to do any toxicology testing. I know what my suspicions are, but it really doesn't matter at this point. All the crypto (and we are talking millions) that he worked so hard to "hide" will never be found and any hopes of me ever recouping the almost $100,000 he owed in child support seemed to be dashed. BUT I no longer need to live in fear of him suddenly showing up and making my life difficult! Then, just two weeks ago, I get a notification from my bank (both kids have their own accounts that are linked to mine) that a large deposit had been made. No explanation, nothing. Just a significant amount of money in both of the kids' accounts. Turns out that the survivor benefits are retro to when he passed, so that big deposit was the "catch up". On top of that, each kid will get $900USD per month until they turn 18. Let me tell you how much pressure this takes off me financially - I do ok, but do hustle at two jobs and rarely have a day off. With inflation the way it is currently, it's literally paycheck to paycheck each month. This extra is security that will help with paying for school (yes, my eldest graduates high school next year) and just provide the little extras!!!

 

So, that's my story - bet you're sorry you asked now. I'm slowly getting back to a place where I feel like there is hope and a good future and I never want to go back to the dark time! Lol.

Thank you so much for catching us up with your story. You’ve been missed greatly. Congratulations on the financial turnaround for you and your kids. Good things often come to good people, and in This case it definitely applies. 

24 minutes ago, sid_9169 said:

Survived Monday at work, but only barely... Afternoon walk is out of the way, and I'm making a fancy dinner tonight. The meat from a leftover rotisserie chicken, broccoli, and bone broth. I guess you could call it "soup", who knows, I just made it up. Also bought some new tires for my piece of junk Honda online today, and getting them installed on Wednesday. Gotta keep that piece of junk on the road for at least a few more years, so may has well have some good rubber between me and the road.

 

Nothing going on here tonight but "soup" and laundry, and probably a few more episodes of Archer season six...

I hear ya Sid!  I just had to put new tires on my SUV. It’s ridiculous what they are charging for tires these days. But as you say, they are necessary to be safe on the road. I just hate to spend all that money on things that are not fun. If it was for a cruise….no problem!

2 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

This week was one helluva long month. It’s Friday. Let’s power through, y’all. 
 

Hang in there.  Spring Break is almost here!

40 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

 

Ain't it EVER.... I'll be boarding a ship two weeks from right now, it's the only fuel I have at the moment

When I was teaching I looked forward to Spring Break more than anything else. You are sooooo tired by this time of year, testing is coming up, and the middle schoolers are especially squirrelly. Enjoy every minute of your cruise!  You deserve it. 

Thank you Jeff and Patti for the awesome review and pictures as always. You seem  like wonderful people and I would love to have you as neighbors!  The only problem is that I don’t like cold weather so y’all would have to move south 😆. 

I thought the same thing, Sid. 😊

Heartfelt condolences @dmet0225.  Tommy sounds like an amazing person whom you will all miss. May he rest in peace and may your family have peace and comfort knowing he is not suffering. 

13 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

Back to the real world.  Cruise is over til next time.

Now to catch up on real life issues and reviews I missed.

It was a wonderful vacation.

Susan, I’m so glad you had such a wonderful cruise.  Hawaii is one of my favorite places on the planet.  I know I am late in telling you this, but we were on a cruise the same time as you and I had limited internet minutes.  Please do everything you can, and then some, to get your guy to the doctor ASAP.  About four years ago I started noticing that my DH was having memory and direction issues.  He had driven to places a jillion times but he couldn’t remember how to get there.  Questions and answers were repeated multiple times.  Our room number on a ship had to be written down and placed in his pocket, etc.  I tried everything to get him to see the doctor but he denied that anything was different. Finally  about two years ago I got our family doctor involved and he sent him straight to a neurologist. This doctor diagnosed memory loss dementia. He prescribed two medications that he said could not repair lost memory but may slow down the progression of the memory loss.  Now my DH of 54 years is nothing like his previous self.  He does not drive on his own, and very seldom with me in  the car. He becomes very anxious when he is away from home or when I am not with him.  We have probably taken our last cruise.

I didn’t mean to write a book here or to sound as if I am complaining about our situation.  But since reading your post about your guy’s issues that are beginning, my mind and heart have really been with you. I so hope that you will be able to get him to a doctor. Best wishes.

Loretta

31 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

USS Alabama. Depending on how I’m feeling debakation day I may head there before home.

 

 

It’s very interesting and well worth seeing if you have the time on your way home.