My first month in Anacortes

One month ago, I packed my little Kia Rio, with as much as it could possibly hold, and headed for Anacortes.

Believe it or not, I got a large parrot cage and stand, a clothes hamper, a small computer table, my laptop, a box of books, my sewing machine and large chest full of sewing supplies, along with all my clothes, coats, shoes, and my parrot Gracie, all in/on that little car.

So let me tell you about my new roommates. Sid has 2 cats, Scamp and Sarge, (Sergeant Pepper), and a 6 month old Australian Shepherd, named Bo, (Mr. Bojangles). Sarge is a grumpy ol’ fart that has terrible allergies and sneezes cat snot everywhere. Scamp is pretty cool, (for a cat), but is a stealthy hunter which is kinda sad. (He has caught everything from quail to humming birds!) Then you add my prema-donna parrot to that mix, and you have my new home.

With all these animals, there are toys everywhere. So the day I got here, I went into the bathroom to take a pee, and I’m sitting there on the toilet, and I look down and see this cute little toy beside my foot. At first I thought was a mouse, then I realized it was supposed to be a mole because he had those funny little feet and that weird nose that moles have. He was very cute. He looked so real and he had soft looking brown fur. So I reached over and picked him up. He was soft, and very real looking.  Well made and obviously still new, he hadn’t been chewed up and mangled yet. I walked past the mole about an hour later, and decide to see if he was a squeaky toy. I picked him up again and squeezed him, no squeak, but he DID feel like he was filled with some sort of ‘gel’ tho, which was creepy feeling, so I dropped him back on the floor and walked off.

Later that evening, Sid came out of the bathroom and said, “Hey, did you see Scamps latest catch?”

“What catch?”

“The mole,… Scamp caught a mole. How do you suppose he got that?”

- stunned silence from me -

“ A real mole? That was a REAL, dead mole???”

“Yea, so you saw it? And you just left it there on the floor?”

“AAaaahhhh!!!!!”    I ran to the sink and began washing my hands.

“EEeeewwwww!!! I thought it was a TOY! I even squeezed it to see if it squeaked!!!”

I scrubbed furiously....

I looked at Sid hoping to get concerned sympathy,... but he laughing so hard he almost blew beer out his nose.  BUTTHEAD!!!


(I'll do more on my first month later.  Gotta run to Costco, got company coming for a week.)

Well Hello Joy!

A child-hood friend found me on face book, Joy McBride. Yes, the one that drug me off to ‘camp’, where I got so DREADFULLY homesick. LOL!!!
(I swear she looks so much like her mother did.)

It's been fun emailing back and forth, and learning about each other.  

Her parents just celebrated their 60th Anniversary and they are both 81!  Wow. 

Joy lives in Nampa.  She has 2 sons and 1 daughter.  One son is a Marine over in Afganistan.  One is in college at - you guessed it - NNU, and her daughter is a senior in high school. 

Facebook is so cool.

Now, if I could only find Cindy Ward.  I have been thinking about her for years, and I even have dreams about her.

Sew What!?!

So I haven't found a job yet,... but I haven't been idle either! 

Shortly before I left Boise, I started making a shirt for Sid.  I've seen him wear hawaiian shirts, so I figured he might like one that was homemade. 

So I started this yellow and green one.  I had to finish it after I got here.  I put a tag in the collar that says "Specially hand made by Linda".  He loved it!  But we discovered that in my hurry to complete it, I put the buttons on the wrong side!

Now, 2 of my previous 'significant others' would have rolled their eyes and thought that I had royally screwed up, and they'd refuse to touch it because the buttons were on the 'womens' side.  But not Sid, he was so cute.  He gave me a big hug and made me feel like a little girl that had just brought him a lovely boquet of dandylions.  He said he loved it, and he actually wore it!  3 times over the next week.  And he showed everyone the tag in it with my name on it.  He never mentioned to anyone that the buttons were put on wrong.  And nobody noticed.

Well, since he like that one so much, I decided to make him another one.  I also wanted to give him a special 'thank you'  for taking me out to see the orcas.  (He knew how badly I wanted to see an orca in the wild, and he didn't give up until he found them for me.)   I actually found some wonderful, bright blue fabric with cetaceans on it - orcas and dolphins.  I knew the blue would really bring out his blue eyes. It was perfect! And I was determined to get the buttons on right on this one! I put another 'made by Linda' tag in the collar.  He did indeed love it.  He wore it when we went to dinner with his son Sean and girlfriend Diane.  He loved telling them I made it.   

He took it with him on his current 'charter'.  (He is out skippering a boat again for 5 days.)  As he was packing it, he said, "I'm gonna wear this on the day I take them out to the 'Straight'  looking for the whales."

Isn't he cute!???

OK, so I just started another one for him!  His birthday is on Sunday, so I want to have it done by then.  (Actually, he gets back from his 'charter' on Friday, so really, I need to have it done by Friday.)  This shirt is not the Hawaiian style.  This is more of a long sleeved dress shirt.  Since I've discovered that blue looks so pretty on him, I found pale blue fabric, with navy blue line drawings of the world map.   I'll put a "Linda" tag in this one too.  I hope he likes it!

WOW!

I got overwhelming response to my question about my hair.  And everyone basically said it looked better longer.  Well shit!  I wish I hadn't cut it.  It takes so fricken long to grow it all back out to one length again.  But, I'm starting today.  So in 3 years, I'll look gorgeous again!!!  LOL

New look

I got a new look.  Actually, it's an old look returned from the dead. 

Sid likes short hair, and I've always thought women over 45 or so shouldn't have long hair, so I cut it off.  It was supposed to make me look younger.  But I think it makes me look older.  I don't care for it, but Sid likes it.  I don't know if he's just saying that to be nice, or if he really does like it better short.  He doesn't strike me as the type to 'blow sunshine up my skirt', so I think he really likes it. 
But I SWEAR I look older.  Don't you think so???

That look of adoration...

Ok, seriously, have you EVER seen a sweeter face???

Koby gets this look every time she looks at her Momma.
Lisa starts talking to her, and Koby just becomes transfixed. She looks at Lisa like she is the most amazing thing in the world. Her little face just lights up, and it's like she's saying...
"Oh my goo'ness..., are you really mine? To keep forever?"

I will always be amazed at the strenght of the bond between a mother and her child.

Finally - an update!!! 8-09

Well, let’s see, it seems I have a little catching up to do. Gee,... where to start…?

Well, first of all, my darling little granddaughter Koby is 4 months old!!!

I love her sooooo much!!!

Ok, so in June, Lisa and I moved from our last apartment in Boise to a new one over by the mall. It was less expensive, except for the jerk we rented from last pulled a whole bunch of stunts that ended up costing me over $1500! Jackass! But I regress….

This nice young man named Chris helped us move to the new apartment. Cute guy, big and strong. A great help! And then,… he just really never left!

He and Lisa hit it off wonderfully. He seemed to love Koby, and hey, he was pretty nice to have around. I must say, we all adored him. So he’s a permanent fixture in the family now. :o)

Lisa got a great job doing website work for a company that is probably the biggest car dealership in Idaho. She worked there all summer and will continue, very part-time, through fall and winter while she’s in school. Lisa is getting very close to completing her degree. Her degree will be in Broadcast Communication. Her intent is to do sports broadcasting. I think she’ll be very good at it. Lisa will be the first one in the family, (except my father), to get a college degree. Go Lisa Go!!!

Lisa is an amazing young woman. So strong, so determined. Such a wonderful mother, daughter and sister. I admire her. And I am soooo proud of her!
Andrea continued to struggle with her depression and anxiety attacks. Her sleeping patterns have been very irregular for long time. She’s had a rough time.

Well it all came to a head in early July. She made an extreme cry for help when she OD’d herself on her medication. She ended up in the psych hospital – a ward of the state. NOT fun for anyone. When the State of Idaho is calling the shots on what happens to your daughter, it’s frightening. Because to them, she is just an inconvenience and an expense. They don’t CARE about getting her the help she needs. It was incredibly frustrating to find that Idaho simply doesn’t HAVE ANYTHING to help people like Andrea. There are NO programs in the entire state for someone like her. See, where Andrea is different is that she is not on drugs, she’s not alcoholic, and she doesn’t have a criminal record. Hell, she doesn’t even have anything tattooed or pierced. She’s just a good kid, with some emotional issues. Idaho doesn’t give a shit about people like that. If you’re not addicted to crack, they don’t have time for you. And I had medical professionals at St. Als, St. Lukes and other private practices ALL confirm that. They all said, “If you really want to help her, you HAVE to get her out of the state.”

The problem is that all the private hostpitals and programs are HIDEOUSLY expensive. $30K to $40K per month! PER MONTH! Geez! How can ANYONE afford that??? Well, now we know why there are so many mentally ill homeless people. Seriously.

With the help of my two wonderful sisters and my amazing mother, we found a place in southern California that we felt could help her, and that we could afford. It’s a great program that Andrea could actually enjoy too. Lots of art and creativity, meditation and yoga, and it’s located right on the beach and she could go down there anytime.

So, gee,… all we had to do was get the state of Idaho to release her from their cold little clutches so that we could get her some real help. You’d think it would be easy, but it took about a week of frustration, phone calls, pleading and coaching, but we managed to get them to let her go. What a ‘cluster’!

Finally, on August 5th, (almost a month later), they released Andrea to go directly to the airport, so that she and I could fly down to S. California and get her enrolled in a program that would give her a new lease on life. (Ken brought her bunny, Pearl, to the airport so that she could say goodbye. )

Things are going well for her down there. She’s been there two weeks, and is doing better. She's been participating in everything, and getting a lot out of the experience. It’s sooo nice to hear her sound upbeat and hopeful! I so proud of her for fighting so hard and being so strong through ALL of this,... because it sure hasn't been easy.

This has been a very shorten version of Andrea’s ‘story’,
but I’ve kept detailed notes of what she went through on the inside of the ‘system’, and what we went through on the ‘outside’. I hope to write an article or two about it, that might get published. If I can save even one parent from going this hell, then it would be worth it.


OK,…. So with Chris fully moved in and taking good care of Lisa and Koby, and Andrea safe and sound in S. California, and my job in Boise dwindling down to almost no hours at all, it seemed it was time for a change.
So on August 10th, I loaded my clothes, my sewing machine, and my little Gracie bird into my Kia Rio, and headed for new dreams in the Pacific Northwest.


Pisces IS the sign of water,… time to go sailing.

Cool video :o)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xslO6Qi_kGQ