Family

Not a night goes by since bonking my head, that I don't have several vivid dreams. Usually one of them is a nightmare and the rest are just a big ol' crazy circus. I usually remember three to five of those dreams verbatim.

Is it any wonder I'm so tired?

Pipe in dreamy harp-like music, and enter RG's subconscious...

My ex-manager came to my house and told me that I was laid off. I told her that she had no authority to lay me off because A: she wasn't my manager anymore and B: she no longer worked for the company. It was then, that she told me that she really DID work for the company still and it was under wraps. She said that the department I'd left was told that they had to do budget cuts and she was retroactively laying me off.



She then took my company laptop and left my house.

In this dream/nightmare, it was a Sunday night and I didn't have my current manager's phone number, so I had to stew about it until the next morning. While stewing, I thought "hmmm.... I would get 8 months severance pay if I didn't fight this" (true story- I've worked for the company so long that I'd receive 8 months...).

But nooooooooooooooooooo..... I wanted to work. Who cares about an 8 month vacation? I was more worried about my reputation and how it would look to everyone in the company that I, the irreplaceable RG, was laid off.

I called my current manager the next day and just as she was about to tell me whether [x-manager] could really do this, a windstorm started up and made a lot of noise waking me up.

/end dreamy harp-like music and leaving RG's subconscious now.

I know exactly where this dream came from. Everyone say it with me- THANKS DAD!

I'm pretty sure that this nightmare was brought on by something my dad wrote to me yesterday:

Subject: Words of Wisdom 2
Hi Lori,

Here's comes a repeat of my once before words of wisdom.

You need to take time off and enjoy life. Enjoy your yard and birds and other critters. [name of my company] will go on without you. You have friends and family who love you and want you well and that is infinitely more important that any work assignment.

Love,
Dad

Of course he's right (well, in this case anyway- he's not right in his political leanings.. ha ha ha). I replied that I just wasn't sure how I could do that- take it easy- in this job market. I also told him that I am keeping my eye on the prize... retirement on 01/31/2015.

I think this dream/nightmare said a whole lot about my mind set. Rather than gracefully accept 8 months of full pay and say goodbye to the rat race for a while- I wanted to fight it so I could keep working.

This girl needs an attitude adjustment.

PS- I have a paid holiday today! woo hoo! Maybe this time I'll get caught up on all my pals' blogs.

::snort:: I'll bet that title got your attention. RG! How MEAN!!!!

Last night was wacky dream night (and, according to the bearded eye-roller a very active wacky dream night). I remember several of my dreams, mostly about my mom and dad, my sis and my youngest brother. Michael was nowhere in the picture- which is exactly how I'd imagined it when we were growing up.

Love you bro, mean it!

Anyway, my poor sis was going through the gawky teenage years in this dream. She had super bushy hair (with a hair cut that only accentuated said bushiness), one tooth up front that was still a baby tooth and looked REALLY odd. And, best of all? She was using coconut shells to fill her bra. Baby coconuts. It looked really bad, but she thought it looked great. Poor girl....

I think the coconuts came from a conversation Heidi and I had at lunch the other day about baby coconuts. That's the only thing I can come up with.

I remember in this dream, she was very self-conscious about the way she looked (understandably so, I might add!) and I kept telling her that she'd grow out of it and become a beauty.

Thankfully, she never had that ugly phase (although the braces weren't exactly yelling SUPERMODEL) but she really is a beauty. I'd give ANYTHING to have her hair- it has just the perfect curl to it. And her nose? Gah- talk about cute!

Really, I could go on and on about how cute my sis is (and maybe want to do so to make up for having such a wacky dream).

Sis, I'm glad you've given up the coconuts. You weren't fooling anyone.

Half of the kids- Cameron and Kathy- are coming over today.

Cameron called a couple of days ago asking if they could come spend time with us this weekend. This is always a welcome call from any of my kiddos. Well, as long as we don't have plans (and boy, do we have plans for the next few weekends- arrrgh!)

I called Casey shortly after that to let him know that we're getting together with the other half of our kids this weekend, but I wasn't going to invite he and his little family unit over.

Why, you wonder?

I just.can't. do it! Trying to split my time between the two sets of kids is completely impossible for me. It's way worse than it was when they were little. Hmmmm, could it be that my 'kids' just doubled in size?

The personality between the two sets is like night and day. Cameron and Kathy are not at all shy by any stretch of the imagination. They are funny and very random. Both of them are. You'd better be on your toes when you're around those two.

Casey and Jessica, on the other hand, are more quiet and reserved, and I enjoy that just as much! And when Riley is with them, I can't help myself- I just want to get on the floor and play with him and ignore everyone else in the room.

I am someone who likes to spend quality time with the people I'm with, and when it's just the four (or five) of them, it's difficult impossible to do that.

When we have large family gatherings such as holidays and birthdays when we invite lots of people, it's much easier because there's always someone for everybody to hang with.

Am I weird and over-thinking this too much? Probably.

I think that my first clue was that Casey calls his brother and sweetheart the "show stealers". It's a big joke between all of us, and even Cameron admits it's true.

So, this weekend we'll be with the 'show stealers' and then we'll schedule a weekend with the 'other' show stealers. Because really, when either set of 'kids' are around, I want to soak up every minute I can with them. All of them steal the show in my heart.

I thought this would get easier as my kids grew up, but I thought wrong. Annie or anyone else that reads my blog in this situation- how on earth do you do this?

I want to spend time with each one of them- all four of them. I just hope I don't get to the point where they have to come over individually for me to feel that I've had enough time with them. "OK, Jessica, leave Casey home and come spend time with me."

Hmmmm, now that I think about it- a day alone with the girls one-on-one would be a heck of a lot of fun.

I was thinking the other day (OK, I think about this a lot) that I couldn't have hand-picked anyone better for them than my 'boys' did. They've found their perfect match, as far as I'm concerned, and I love them and am as proud of them as if they were my own daughters.

How lucky I am that I adore every member of my family so much. I've heard way too many stories of people who don't get along with the people their kids chose to be their partners in life.

Me? I like them so much that I want to spend 100% of my time with each one of them.

I guess that's a good thing, huh? Impossible, but good.

I've booked the flight for the bearded eye-roller and I to go visit my grandmother next month. I wish the boys (::ahem:: the men that I birthed) could come with us, but it's a little pricey to do that every year- and this was rather last minute.

That's the yucky thing about such a long wait (umm, 45 years!) before finally meeting her- so much to catch up on and so little time. She's 94, for Pete's sake. Still kickin', though. I sure hope I inherited those genes.

I have her sweet picture up on my desk at work, along with pictures of the rest of my family. It's a nice to take a break, to look at this little corner of love and remind myself of how blessed I am. My boss came by the other day and asked me if she was my "Nana". It was awfully cool to say yes and then tell the story of how we met. Not many people have a story like that to tell, eh?

It's hard to believe that we only met for the first time two short years ago. I feel as if I've known her all my life now and our conversations always flow easily. We just talk about what's been going on since the last time we talked. I think we've pretty much caught up on each others' lives by now. The important stuff, anyway.

Boy does she have a few surprises coming her way. Lessee... I've gone from a size 14 to a size 8 since I've seen her and my hair is a WAY different color. Think she'll recognize me?

Wow, lots has happened in the last couple of days- and wouldn't you know it, I've been too busy to write about it.

I'm still too busy to write about it, but since when has that stopped me?

Cameron has enrolled in college (full time, no less!) and starts in less than two weeks! Yep, he's a little 'long in the tooth' to be a freshman in college, but it all worked out for the best. He really wasn't mentally ready to go to college back when he was 18, and I certainly couldn't afford to pay for it back then. So, in the end this all worked out perfectly. He sounds super excited about it, and that's music to his mommy's ears (at least the one that isn't messed up!)

Speaking of curricula.....