I want a Bugatti Veyron.

I don’t get twitter. I do read Rainn Wilson’s twitters, religiously, because I’m madly in love with him. What does THAT tell you? But that’s not the point. We can now receive Twitter from space. Isn’t that wonderful?

I’m loving facebook, but not because it gives me a reason not to blog. I love it because when Facebook recently made some change, most profile Wall posts became public by default. I love reading the status posts of people I can’t stand (and would never, ever “friend”). There’s nothing like poor grammar and spelling to fuel my superiority complex. It’s an evil pleasure. Shoot me.

And finally - this weather! While the rest of the country is having wetter/colder/nastier than normal weather, we’re having a mild and pretty normal PNW winter. The kind where it rains, but you don’t care, because it isn’t freezing, and you get about the same number of dry vs. wet days. It’s about time. We had the crappy constant winter storms for three years in a row. It’s everyone else’s turn now.

Kids moving in an out? In retrospect, that will probably seem tame, a year from now, when I think back, or when I read over my old blog posts (as I am apt to do at the beginning of a new year).

About a month ago, I found out from my oldest son that I was going to be a grandmother. That was sort of shocking. Me? Am I old enough to be someone’s grandmother? I guess so.

It seems I’m going to be a grandmother times two. Let’s hope it’s just two.

One of my daughters is pregnant - about 7 weeks. Yes, it was a shock all around. She’s only been dating this particular young man a few months. But after a few days of talking, it seems all will be good. He has a good job, money in the bank, a house, and a good attitude. While they haven’t been dating long, they’ve known each other their whole lives. The young man is a good friend of my older son’s, in fact is his ex college roommate. I greatly admire how he’s reacting. Will they marry? I don’t know. I don’t care at this point, because they’re both stepping up and putting the welfare of their child first. They’ll figure it out as they go along. Plenty of good long term relationships have started exactly the same way. I can only be positive.

I’m going to have two grand children by next fall.

Oh, and if someone tells you their daughter is pregnant, and isn’t married, which, come on, isn’t really a big deal in this society, don’t say the following:

“Is she going to get rid of it?”

“Oh no, what is she going to do?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, that’s too bad..”

“Does she know who the father is?”

“She wasn’t on birth control?”

Not one person said any of the above when I announce my son’s gf was pregnant. No, then it was all “congratulations!”

People can be really fucked up.

I’m sorry kids, I’m not going to bail you out of your bad choices every time. If  you are truly in need, I won’t let you suffer, but you’re not suffering.

You don’t need what  you’re asking for. I’m not dumb, so please stop treating me as such. I was your age, a long time ago, yes, but I have pictures, so even though my memory sometimes fails me, I still have these physical reminders to show you. I lived in a crappy little house, in a crappy neighborhood, with crappy roommates, drove a 20 year old car, and ate a lot of top ramen. I chose to leave my parents nice comfy suburban house (and rules) because I wanted to “be an adult”. You made the same choice - live with it. You are chronologically an adult, and you choose not to take my advice. In other words - you made your bed, now get comfortable in it. You’re already living better than 90% of the world.

Yeah, life sucks sometimes. But just because you can’t afford satellite TV (along with a new flat screen), a new camera lens, or a “mac book”  - and I won’t buy it for you - doesn’t mean you’re going to “die”. Seriously. Trust me on this.

Study. Get a better job. Work. Save your cash. Buy your own stuff.

Now stop posting to your facebook at 3 AM and get some rest, so you don’t have to keep telling me how “tired” you are.

I wasn’t born yesterday. And you didn’t invent guilt. My parents didn’t fall for it either. I’m a better person for it. Someday, you’ll thank me. Just not today……

*To get blogging again. Join NaBloPoMo. I already did NaBloWriMo, so I don’t feel obligated. Anyway - I’ve been blogging, semi regularly since, without the whole “accountability” thing that a contest entails, because it makes me feel creepily motivated in a religious way. I’d rather be motivated in a creepily unreligious way, like because I need to mock people who don’t read my blog but have access to my facebook.

I don’t like the direction that online communication has taken. Facebook isn’t a substitute for blogging - there just isn’t the room to get righteously indignant, plus, there is the whole “friends of friends” thing and having to sort of censor what you say, because it DOES have your name on it.

Last night, in response to something one of my daughters posted on facebook, I found myself in a war-of-words with a local bitch. Luckily my cooler head prevailed and I backed away. This is a small town. Full of very small minds.

And sometimes, I get TMI from facebook. And girl drama. Lots and lots of girl drama WITHOUT the TMI. Girls of a certain age (17-21) LOVE to facebook about every little thing that happens to them, without really giving the adults in their lives the juicy facts. I can’t tell you how much I hate reading an entry like this “I just don’t understand how people can be so mean. I’m crying!” I mean, come on. If you’re going to vent, spill the good stuff. Was it a boy? Did you wreck your car? Did someone steal your favorite mascara? It’s all equally as dramatic.

I have longer conversations with my kids via facebook than I do in real life. Well, except they’ve pushed all their parental units into the 21st century and we “text” like crazy. My new phone, now that we’re friends, is a big help.

But see, I have the blog, and if I wanted, I can mock all the things and people that bug the crap out of me and get that out of my system. My kids don’t read my blog because “it’s stupid and for old people” and casual friends don’t ever get the address, because, you know, I may need to use them as blog fodder too.

Facebook is jolly and light, but people you have to deal with everyday can read it. Twitter I don’t even get. I read one twitter-person, but he’s a celebrity and I find him pretty funny. Granted, if I couldn’t rss his tweets to my reader, I probably wouldn’t log into his site and read it everyday. I’m a lazy social networker. I’m only liking facebook because I can forward my updates to my phone. Now I can forward my google reader too, and blog from the phone, so honestly, I can be in touch all the time - just not while driving, because Oregon has a new law and everything. But once I figure out my bluetooth (and the stupid voice activation).. well, look out world, Doc’s connected.

———-

I was just searching for something on my blog, and started going through posts from 2009. One thing about a blog is that you end up with a pretty good timeline of events for your year.

2009 dawned horrible for us, digging out of a record snowfall, no internet, and fighting daughters (over a stupid boy, ugh). In January I traveled to Texas, found it ugly, found the people (I met) kind of pretentious and ignorant, and rejoiced in the new President with everyone else (with an IQ above 75).

February found me contemplating dogs. I adopted a coonhound (I love that big dumb dog to death!), and found out that another of our dogs, Sammy, had bone cancer. Less than a week later, we would discover that yet another of our dogs, Shiloh, had liver cancer. We settled in making both dogs comfortable and counting down the days until they left us, one by the end of the month, the other a few weeks later.

March was in like lion and out like a lamb. I was offered and accepted a job. My first “real” job in two decades. What a ride that’s been - if for no other reason than it has caused me to wear nicer clothes and get a haircut now and then. March brought babies to the farm and improved my outlook. Homeschoolers freaked out over a judge’s decision, but in the long run - LOOK - it’s still legal. The economy was still nose-diving and idiots were blaming the wrong guy.

April saw Doc turn 50 - quietly, without fanfare, too tired from WORKING to care.

May - the return of nice weather after what had to be the worst winter in history - at least MY history. I worked, and worked some more, and finally took a much needed vacation - driving in a circular pattern around the state, meeting nice folk and seeing a lot of pretty places I didn’t even know existed.

June - The posting I did was a recap of my trip. Either I didn’t do anything in June (except work), or I was too busy to write about anything I did (except work). I can’t remember now.

July - See June. What I didn’t write about - both of my daughters broke up with their respective long time boyfriends. The drama was intense. Kids moved in and out, spoke to each other, fought, made up, and finally settled down.

August - I never posted! It was hot. I was working and/or remodeling my house.

September to the beginning of November was a blur of activity. Working two jobs that finally merged into a new one, with less “away” hours. Getting the farm ready for winter. A little drama here and there but handled nicely by the young adults in question. November I blogged EVERY DAY. December, I took most of the month off, reconnected, adopted a dachshund, rested, ate a lot of crap food, and felt pretty friggin’ content with life.

2010 (Twenty ten) is going to be great. I can feel it.

Kids moving in-out
A job and an alarm clock
Not enough travel