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2003-09-09 - 10:19 p.m. Amazing how much can happen in 5 days. The first thing my son said to me when I picked him up from the first day of daycare was, "I had a great day!" and after several days, it's official - both he and I really like the new school. Friday my ex-husband actually made it here to pick up the child for the weekend. Met him at the train station then went and grabbed dinner at a local burrito place. He even picked up the tab (of course he also had a brand new MP3 player and some other new toys ... and I still hadn't seen the child support money yet, so that was frustrating to see). Dropped the two of them back at the train station with plans to return the child to me on Sunday before 7pm. Went to a (marching band) party on Friday night {officially the "end-of-the-first-week-of-school party"} ... met a very cool chick: trumpet, sophomore *family* - young, but smart and cute with a hearty laugh and an outlook on life that I very much enjoyed. Saturday, I helped Jenny move lots of stuff into her new apartment. We got a later start than we had hoped, but managed to get a fair amount accomplished. The file cabinet is evil. Great-grandma's solid cedar blanket chest is HEAVY. The queen-sized White Lotus futon mattress is really a fabulous mattress, but it is very awkward to drag/pull/lift/carry/push up a flight and a quarter of stairs (victorian home - 14 steps, landing, turn the corner, then 4 more steps - ugh). And the 11 drawer units (think plastic bathroom furniture - black with clear drawers, each labeled with a P-Touch label, organized by size and shape,l sometimes color of the Lego(TM) bricks contained therein. This does not incluse the box of unsorted bricks or the already built creations, the baggies of people, aka "mini-figs" in Legospeak, the small plastic containers of tiny parts, the 4 big grey nuts-and-bolts organizers with 39 or 18 drawers - 2 of each, of course, or the 2 heavy tables specifically for brick-building and display) all I have to say is death of ten thousand paper cuts. If I never see another brick, it will be too soon. Unfotunately, she's encouraging my son's enthusiasm for them as well. He's going to tote them around himself dammit. Sunday we unloaded the second vanload at some ungodly hour of morning, including the evil evil evil 4 drawer filing cabinet full of papers - bungee corded to a modified utility hand truck ... I still have bruises on my forearm - and hers are worse. She pulled; I pushed. Then she had to return the Ford E-350 extended cargo van to her parents at 9am back at her old place, so I finished bringing up the damn Lego bricks, unpacked the non-perishable food, organized her pantry, and wrestled with the futon frame. Also spoke with the downstairs neighbor - he's *family* YAAAAAAAAAAY! Her parents came back with her (as I suspected they would) with a third load of stuff. I hadn't seen them in quite a while and as usual, they were doggedly working, lugging boxes up the stairs. They're great folks ... I only hope I have that much energy when I'm close to 60. Ex-husband returned the child safe and happy Sunday evening (yes, before 7pm). Monday: work was relatively uneventful (though there's someone I'm talking to about some fun extracurricular activities that made me smile more than once). After work however was a different story. My son said "Mama, can we go to McDonald's today please? I want to go inside and sit down and eat chicken nuggets and fries and soda and ketchup." So I took him. We did addition and subtraction to 6 with french fries. That was so cool - he totally gets it. When we got home, we found a note from Jenny. It said that she had put a small load of laundry in my washer and it filled then buzzed and stopped. Apparently it's broken - which might help to explain the 3" of water on my basement floor. Fortunately dhe had made a bridge with a random piece of wood that was lying around my basement, so I didn't have to wade through it ... much. Squeezed out the clothes, put them in a garbage bag, gathered laundry basket, detergent, and my pajama-clad child and set out for the laundromat. The first one was closed, but the second one was open - there are definite perks to living near a college. Washed there, then took clothes home - hey the dryer still works. Threw clothes in dryer, put child to bed (waaaaaay past his bedtime). Then proceded to panic about finding the child support paperwork that told me in (exactly) which building and at what time my child-support enforcement hearing was scheduled. After tossing my car with Jenny's help to no avail, the paperwork was found in my "junkk cabinet." Come to think of it, it was actually in my tool basket. Don't ask. Folded and hung laundry. Somehow convinced(?) Jenny to stay the night. Today: dropped my son at daycare and took off for southjerseyland. Made it to the courthouse on time - even found the correct room. Was in phone contact with my ex-husband who started out late and finally wound up having his 18 year-old girlfriend drive him in her minivan. They, of coourse, got stuck in traffic. I gave my testimony without him there and then waited for him to show up. When he did, we went back into the courtroom and sat down again - going into all of the setails of the recent payment which still hasn't been posted. Fine. Whatever. We walked out of the courthouse (judge rescinded the bench warrant because he actually appeared). Then I asked him where he sent the payment. Wouldn't you know the idiot sent the payment to the wrong address. *SIGH* I cried. I swore I wouldn't, but I did. I've been waiting 15 months for this and thinking that I'll be seeing it any day now. I called the caseworker to get her advice on this and the end result is that he is stopping payment on the first check and writing a new check. He will be sending this new check to the correct payment address certified mail: return receipt requested. This means that it will be at least another week before I see the money. Very frustrating. On my way back, I saw the ex-husband and his girlfriend stop somewhere for lunch. Couldn't help but think that the $9 I had to my name was going to have to go into the gas tank in order to get me home. At that point I realized that I really needed a hug. So I deciided to stop by and see mom at work. She's a (Catholic) schoolteacher and it was almost lunchtime. In addition to getting lots of hugs and well-wishes from mom's coworkers (who also happen to be my former teachers), mom made me feels lots better. She also loaned me some money on the condition that I get my front passenger tire replaced immediately (I've been riding on a donut for more than a week now). Tire place got me out of there in enough time to get back up to pick up my son from daycare on time. He wsnted to go out to Friendly's but I explained that we can't afford it. We had an interesting conversation about money ("big money" vs. "little money"). Anyway ... did some housecleaning today too - including taking out the recyclables. So the only thing left from the last posting's list is printing out resumes and references. Considering that I don't have a printer at home, I think I'm doing ok. Jenny's here. I have to go try to convince her to stay ;)
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