Land o'Lessa

This right here:

This is the reason I’m attempting Nano again, since not managing to finish since 2004. It’s her fault. And she’s currently beating me.

Harumph.

I got typin to do…. *dashes*

(And in the “write what you know” category, the complete and utter dreck I’m churning out is based on my job at Walmart. So, if ya wanna get a glimpse of my days… —> click the links over there on the sidebar. I’m posting the entire disgusting mess of words on a semi-daily basis at http://snippets.gonfalon.org. hee. Enjoy.)

ETA:
Peppermist: Where does the mysterious Aunt live?
Me: Houston.
Peppermist; then she’d have to go from AK to Texas..
Me: There’s a town in AK called Houston!
Peppermist: WHERE? GOOGLE IT!
Me: (does so) See? easily within driving distance for us.
Peppermist: …she doesn’t have a car.
Me: Maybe her boyfriend does.
Peppermist: …I CAN WRITE IN A BOYFRIEND! Thanks Mama! I LOVE YOU!

….and that, people, is how NaNoWriMo goes…

HI GROVER!

Peppermist: I LOVE SESAME STREET! Appeals to kids and… uh.. BIGGER KIDS!

hehehehe.

Hi! I know, I know, it’s been pretty silent around here, and I am totally 100% to blame. You see, after I pulled my hermit bit, I then did something silly, and got myself a day job. In doing so, I went from spending every waking moment sitting on my (considerable)ass in front of the Computer Screen like a NORMAL person, and instead spend 9 hours a day on my feet in the Digital Photo Lab at our brand new Walmart. It’s been quite the switch, as I’m sure you can imagine, and I’ve been missing my daily games, and doing the unthinkable and actually going to bed at decent hours. Sometimes even before the teenagers.

INORITE?!

But, today? I had to write, because I just got a few text messages from Peppermist that made me so INCREDIBLY PROUD of that girl of mine. She is AMAZING in every sense of the word, and some days, I wonder how she’s managed to grow up so perfectly. And then I take all the credit. Because I’m her mom. And I can. Even if I’m a bad blogger and should have known about this already.

You see, today is apparently a National Day of Silence, to protest against Gay Bashing in schools. Today, across the nation, hundreds of thousands of students took a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools.

And my daughter? was one of them.

If you only knew how that girl LOVES to talk, you’d know what strength she possesses to take such a vow! She and Micki wore signs all day today, and though she’s going to the movies after school with the Twins, who would like her to talk after school, she has decided to continue on because according to her text to me: “That’s not the point, to just do it during school. I’m not going to stop until tonight.”

Damn, but that girl makes me proud to be her mom! So tell me, what will YOU do to end the silence?

So, by all accounts the Band is having a SPLENDID time in Florida. Of course, I’ve only the OH SO GIDDY hundreds of text messages to go by, but I’m pretty sure it’s a safe bet that if Peppermist could somehow live in Miami and Alaska at the same time? She totally would.

Observe:

Peppermist: OH! HEY! I’m in FLORIDA! ooooooooh lookit the pretty lights… SHINY.

Peppermist: HAPPY ME! We walked in a THUNDERSTORM. Real rain, mama! Lightening and thunder! Next to a highway! Kept getting splashed! Three miles! I’m DRENCHED! I LOVE THE RAIN!

Peppermist: Two Words. COLLEGE BOYS.
Me: One word. DEAD.

Peppermist: College student walked by on phone – all we heard was “It’s fuckin’ DIAGONAL!” HAHAHHHAHAHA!
Me: O_o.

Peppermist: My hips hurt!
Me: Why?
Peppermist: IDK. I have the insides of an 80 year old man.
Me: Well give them back! I’m sure he NEEDS his insides!
Peppermist: HAHAHAHAHA! I love you.

Peppermist: I’m watching the OLYMPIX! FROM THE FUTURE!
Me: What’s it like in the future?!
Peppermist: Full of stupid teachers and homework. Just like always. WHERE’S MY FLYING CAR?
Me: Hey! THAT’S MY LINE!
Peppermist: I stole it. FUTURISTICLY.

Peppermist: You need sleep?
Me: ….usually. Why?
Peppermist: Cuz I’m SO COVERED IN SAND that I could be the SANDMAN!
Me: Happy Beach Day!

Peppermist: I TOUCHED AN ALLIGATOR!
Me: WASH YER HANDS!

Peppermist: Uh. Sunburn. Also? Hives from sunscreen.
Me: Benedryl.
Peppermist: ow.ow.ow.ow.ow.ow.ow.

Peppermist: LOTS of pictures of Gators! And? I CAPTURED ONE! I’m bringing him HOME! He’s FEISTY!
Me: O_o….he’s living in your room.
Peppermist: Nah, the dog will eat him. He can live in the crawl space!
Me: SCORE. Home security!
Peppermist: That’s what I thought! Cant get him through airport security though. Have to ship him home UPS.
Me: Feed him first. Don’t want him to eat the UPS guy.
Peppermist: Of course. We won’t need the chaperons anymore by then, right?
Me: O_o.

That’s mah girl. I can’t wait till she comes home. My life is EVER so boring without her.

DOOOOOOOOOOOM I say!

It started when Peppermist decided she wanted to go on the band trip in February. I knew then that I’d need to get her at least a State ID for the trip, and of course SHE was certain that meant I would let her take her Drivers Permit test. The boy, of course, said no way – since I hadn’t let HIM get HIS until just before his 16th birthday, because I just wasn’t ready and he was already mad that she got her cell phone a year before he did. (….inorite?)

ANYWAY, I quickly ran into a problem – I’d put the kids Social Security cards in a safe place so that I wouldn’t lose them. And…promptly forgot where the hell that place was. Whoops. No problem, I knew where their birth certificates were, so it’d be simple to get them the cards right?

Wrong.

You see, apparently, to get a replacement SS card, you need a picture ID. And, as stated, I couldn’t get her a picture ID without a SS card. And her School ID wouldn’t count, because it doesn’t have her birthday on it. OH ISN’T THIS FUN? FINALLY, after getting the runaround for months, they said they’d accept a copy of their shot records, as long as it was stamped by the Health Center making it semi-official.

So, papers in hand, I get them all signed up, I’m told it’ll take two weeks for them to get here, which is plenty of time to get a State ID, so everything’s cool, right? RIGHT! So they arrive in the mail…. The Boy’s, the Pup’s… and that’s it.

The one. card. i. needed. and it. didn’t. come!

NOW I started to panic, but I gave it another week just to be sure, and FINALLY Peppermist’s card showed up. Which brings us to today…

You see, she leaves on Tuesday, and because I’m all about procrastinating (tomorrow…) and she had no school today, I took her over to the DMV to get her State ID. On the way there, I told her “If you think you can pass, I’ll let you take the test to.” KNOWING that she’d only read the book twice, and not for some time. She assured me she could, and that she’d thumb through the book while we waited.

Fine.
(NONONONONONONONONO)
Whatever.

So our number is called, and it turns out that the lady who we were dealing with, not only was the one who passed The Boy when he took his driver’s test, but ALSO happens to be a chaperon on the upcoming band trip! SCORE! I HAVE A SPY! We joked around a bit, and she went to take the test, and 15 minutes later?

She passed. In fact, she only missed 2, which is better than the Boy did (much to her delight). Which means?

I now have ANOTHER teenage driver in my house.

Hold me.