Mortgaging My Soul, Once Again

I did something today that I wasn’t proud of…

It wasn’t out of necessity, pleasure, or addiction.

I did it out of boredom.  And a great swell of shame is growing inside of my chest.

I cheated on Walmart today.  That glorious place that I publicly spit on and post multiple slanderous remarks about…I go there all the time.  Typically once or twice a week, at the very least.  I know, Jennifer, I’m sure you will launch a compaign to have me removed from my seat as Queen of the Anti-Walmart Federation and publicly shamed and flogged in the town square.  *sighs*.

But, moving on with my shame, I was in Saint Marys killing some time as I was waiting until 4pm so I could meet my mother and the rest of the clan at the hospital so we could all drive up to see Grandpa Sullivan while he’s still recovering from open heart surgery.  And I decided to venture into the relatively new Kroger store.  There isn’t a Kroger store around in this area at all so I’ve only been in a Kroger store once, maybe twice in my life.

I wasn’t super impressed with the store but I made my way through, looking for the Campbells Soup that comes in those microwavable cups.  Mike likes those for lunch.  So, I made my way through the store and purchased four of them and, on my way to the checkout line, there were some fruit snacky thingies which looked mighty tasty.  So I was checking out and, even with a dollar off coupon for my soups, it came to $14!!!!!  For four freaking cans of soup and a container of Fig Newtons?  FOR REAL?!

I double checked the receipt before heading out and, for the love of everything, that was the real price.  I mean, at Walmart (God Save Walmart From Its Evil Misdoings, Amen) the soups are $1.50 a piece.  At Kroger they are $2.69 a piece.  The Fig Newtons were $3.69 a box.

Fuck!

I’ve never really paid that close attention to prices because, well, I typically need the items that I’m purchasing.  There’s really no reason to bitch about the price.  But I thought $14 was outrageous for the amount of food I was getting!  Well, maybe you people in the big cities don’t think that’s too bad.  But we live in rural Ohio where we grow our own food, ride around in buggies, and have sex with our sisters.  Well, come on…only if they’re pretty.  We do have standards, Precious.

So, I’m taking a new stand:

Long Live The Walmart!

May it’s Stock Prices Soar and It’s Low Low Prices Plummit.

Amen. 

*Deactivates his email address so the hate mail will stop…peeaasseee, peeaassee stop!* 

I just got an email from my momma, saying that Grandpa is out of the ICU, he got out of it last night.  He’s now completely off of the Oxygen tubes and the chest tubes.  So he’s making progress, slowly but surely.

Travis, Jess, Mom, hopefully Mike if he can get off of work soon enough, and myself will be going over there after work tomorrow.  We decided that, since Grandpa will be over there during Christmas, we should go over there when we know that Grandma and Grandpa will be there so that we can give them their Christmas present.  I’ll also have to make an effort to go over there on Christmas as well to visit.  You know, to get into the will and all *winks*. 

I went to see Grandpa Sullivan in the hospital yesterday while I was in the projects of Lima (see previous post)

He’s doing a lot better, you can totally see that.  He was coughing a lot, but the doctors say that’s good as it’s getting rid of all of the mucus that’s in his lungs (I know, Jennifer, that you are licking your lips over that image *grins*)  But he seemed to be in high spirits, which is fantastic for an 80 year old man that is on his second open heart surgery.

Below is a copy and paste from my mother…she pretty much says the same thing, but in greater detail.

Yesterday (Saturday) wasn’t a very good day for Dad.  He was having so much trouble breathing, they put him on a respirator that forced air into his lungs and they called in a Pulmonary specialist to see him.  However, today he was MUCH improved.  They gave him some breathing treatments to help break up the mucus in his lungs & he was getting it out much better.  He was off the respirator and only had an O2 mask on, which he could lift up if he wanted to talk.  He was being ornery with the nurse, so he was feeling much better today.  They also got him off one of his blood pressure medications.  They have to get him off some of the medications & have some of the tubes out before he can be moved to a step-down room.  I don’t know if that will happen tomorrow, but it looks like if things keep going as they are, it should be soon.

Again, some of my cut and paste magic from my mother….

Mom & I went to see Dad again today.  He was noticeably better than yesterday.  He was fully aware and was talking more like himself (at one point he called me “bossy”).  He did not remember that we had been there the day before.  He said his chest hurt (big surprise) & was asking for more pain medication.  He said his legs didn’t hurt this time.  Last time his legs hurt him quite a bit.  He was still wearing an oxygen mask, but was getting some good coughing going & the nurse said he was doing real well.

So, not related to the title of my post, work was freaking crazy today. I was freaking swamped during most of the day, dealing with weird and bizarre things that were going on. However, in the midst of this craziness, Mike called me to let me know that he was coming up from the Carolinas and would probably be home around 6:30 or 7. So, I was like, bonus. I then asked him if he was bringing me any pretties. He laughed and told me no. So I then proceeded to tell him how much I like my pretties and, if he really loved me, he would buy me some. He laughed again and said bye to me. So, since I was in the middle of mayhem, I didn’t give it much thought, as I give him hell all of the time ’cause he doesn’t buy me enough sparkles and bling.

So, I got home, let the dog out, fed her, and then called Mike to see where he was at ’cause I needed to know what I was doing for supper (aka him cooking or me fending for myself [aka depending on the kindness of strangers]). He didn’t answer his phone.

Damn

So, I made myself a couple salami sandwiches, a few cold pieces of pizza, and a cold piece of pumpkin pie that Mike made a couple of days ago. Sure, not the healthiest thing I could have whipped up, but I was tired, mentally burnt out, and, well, anyone that knows a little bit about me knows that I’m inherently lazy. So, those were the things that my little eyes spied when I opened the refrigerator door.

So anyways, after stuffing my face with a pseudo-nutritious meal, Mike gets home and tells me that he has my Christmas present and if he should give it to me now or sit it under the Christmas tree. Now, let me first take you back to when we first bought our house and had our first “Christmas Tree.” You can ask my sister-in-law about it; use the link on the right hand side to her blog. Of course, you’ll have to wait for her to stop pounding her head against the desk and, of course, after the brain surgery that will surely have to follow. *grins*.

So, our Christmas Tree is one of those outside plastic white trees. You know the ones that you’ve seen outside. The ones that are suspended by wires and all of that jazz. It takes 5 seconds to setup and plug in, it’s great!

I know, I know. It’s just…the artificial trees always look so damned, well, fake, and the real ones I have an issue with. I don’t see the point in killing something just for decoration that’ll be used for a month at most. And then disposing of it would be more hassle then it’s worth. And the needles all of the place and Zoie trying to eat it. So, the fake white Christmas Tree is our tree and it’s beautiful.

So anyways, back to Mike, I of course said now…because, well, I don’t really have any patience and I do love my pretties. So, I opened up an bag and it had Burberry cologne, which I LOVE! (which, FYI, is a funny story to go along with Burberry, but I’ll tell it later) So, I was excited by this. And then he handed me this wrapped box. So, I unwrapped it and opened it up and, hot damn, was a necklace! I was pretty damned excited ’cause my necklace that I wear now is, well, around 10 years old and it’s almost falling apart. And this one’s this real cute white gold one, very dainty, like me

So, anyways, afterwards Mike asked me why I didn’t put on the necklace. I told him I would do it tomorrow before going into work. Which he then said that I should do it now ’cause he “wants to see how great it looks on me.” Which, I had to correct him, “I make my bling look good, not the other way around.”

Silly boys anyways.

So, anyways, *OHHHH*

I almost forgot my Burberry story! You guys would have led hopeless and empty lives if I would have never told this to you! So, Mike (prior to getting me the cologne and necklace) was shopping around at the mall today and was in *laughs* JCPenny’s and asked them if they sold Burberry. *falls over laughing*. And, the sales lady looked at him and asked him if he was really serious. He, of course, not knowing what he was doing, said yes. She said that, no, they didn’t sell Burberry and that he would probably have to go to Columbus if he wanted to find it. I mean…it’s just so damned funny that a gay guy doesn’t know that Burberry, wherever it is hiding, would not be hiding in JcPennys. Sure, it would have been funnier if he would have went to Sears (because the softer side of Sears includes Burberry) or some place like that. hehe. But, for real? So then he was looking around for a cashmere sweater for me and apparently this mall didn’t have any of those either. Which, to be fair, it has to be a fairly ritzy mall to find a cashmere sweater for men.

I mean, it’s not like you can find it at Walmart, right Jennifer?

So anyways, on to some serious news.

I got a call from dad today telling me that they were going to do angioplasties on my Grandpa Sullivan for his heart last night. However, when they got in there, there was a lot more damage to his heart valve then what they originally thought. So, they weren’t able to do that. So now the doctors have to run some test and also look at the back of his heart to see about possibly doing open heart surgery. He had it done several years ago; they are now accessing if it’s worth the risk to go and do it again or to leave him how he is. *sighs*. I just hope that the doctors have the right knowledge to make the right decision on this one. Which I’m sure that they will; the cardiologists probably see this all of the time. It just makes me freaking nervous is all. So, everyone think of Grandpa for us!

Tomorrow evening we’ll be going over to Grandpa and Grandma Sullivan’s apartment to see them and also have a pseudo-Thanksgiving with them, since we’ll be having a Thanksgiving/Christmas party with them in two weeks with the Sullivan family. But, since we’re their only family in the immediate area, mom thought it would be nice to go over and visit them tomorrow evening. So, we’re gonna bring KFC (I think…or eat out, I’m not super sure. I hope not KFC…especially after the dreaded KFC Incident of 2002) over to their apartment.

Now, I know you’re all wondering about the dreaded KFC Incident of 2002. So, before I tell you this, you have to promise me, ok? Actually, two things:

1) Stop stuffing your face. No, I really mean it. Stomp chomping like it’s your last meal.

2) After I tell you this, you have to do either one of two things. Either:

a) Swear off KFC forever or;

b) Go out and order a super large bucket of extra crispy and eat the whole thing by yourself.

So, this tale is brief but very disturbing. Mike got KFC for us when we were living in Van Wert, OH in our apartment and brought it back to me, as I had much TV watching to absorb and my ass wasn’t gonna sit on the couch ALL by itself! So, I had the chicken and was eating it and thought to myself, “This chicken tastes kinda weird. The texture is kind of off and slimy.” So, me being hungry and absorbed in my TV, I took another bite or two. Then I looked down at my plate and it’s *SOAKED* in blood. My eyes got really big and I just stared at my plate, horrified by what I just put in my mouth. As you can guess, the blood came from the chicken, not by the ceiling that happened to have the Virgin Mary crying tears of blood for mankind. So, much to my surprise, I haven’t eaten at KFC since. And, I don’t think that I can bring myself to eating there again to be very honest.

I may have to call mom and ask her to pick me up something different, ’cause I’m not really sure I can cope with that, at least quite yet.

But, at the very least, it’ll be nice to see Grandma and Grandpa again

So, I get my laptop today via Fedex, and I was very pleased.  So, I opened up the box and I read what was done with the laptop, and I swear to you, I almost had a mental breakdown.  It said that they replaced the keyboard.  I almost went into a dizzy, mind you.  But, I turned it on, and started running the anti-spyware programs that I have installed (which I haven’t been able to run for months ’cause running them would cause my system to overheat and shut down.  And, I ran three of them at the same time.  And, it went through just fine.  I got home from work, turned on my laptop, and watched tv.  Normally my laptop would be dead by now or, at the very least, screaming in agony and the fan all going and what not.  But, my laptop is completely silent.  I’m…so scared…so very scared…

But, at least it appears that it’s working.  Freaking sweet.

Ohhh, and Travis and I went to Saint Marys to visit grandma and grandpa.  Well, took them out to eat for lunch.  I figured that, since we haven’t seen them in the past couple of weeks, that we should make a point of taking them out for something and catch up.  So, that was a fun time held by all :).

And, of course, I voted today, which was lots of fun.  I got to the community center, where our town does the voting.  And, there was this *HUGE* ass line.  Like, almost to the door of the community center.  So, I went over to the tables to register and they gave me my card to vote and I asked them if I had to stand in line.  Well, that was for the people that lived outside of town.  Since I’m super sweet and live inside of town, I get to use the voting machines which, literally, had no one at them.  Super sweet.  Another point for us townies.