Archives for 2007

I’m still a little dumbfounded over this need to have a second cell phone for text messaging. Megan seems to think she needs more than 5000 text messages a month. Good grief, no wonder her uncle was upset (he’s paying for the phone) – every text message over her account limit is 10 cents – do the math on what 5000 times 10 cents would be. More math for you, lets assume Megan sent half of those messages – that would be 2500 messages in one month or about 83 a day. Now lets say Megan sleeps 8 hours a night – doesn’t sound like she, but lets assume it. So that’s 16 hours a day she is awake. That would mean she’s sending 5 messages an hour, 7 days a week all month long. And I thought she had told me that she turns her phone off during class 🙁

I’m really worried when the school of hard knocks finally hits home. She’s in an apartment with rent that’s almost as much as my mortgage payment, she has utilities which she figures run about $200 a month. She’s been spending $150 a week at WalMart (which about what I spend to feed the 3 of us). Then there is gas money and she’ll have to be paying for her own medical care. Now she has a second cell phone. I’ve been telling her for quite a while that she needs to start cutting back and really paying attention to what she is spending. I guess she’s planning on continuing to live off her father in to her 30’s like her oldest sister.

When the walls come tumbling down I won’t be able to help her…

Some days I think I should rename my blog to “What was she thinking?” My husband tells me it’s the only way he can find out what’s on my mind. Hmmmm…..

But today’s episode is more about what was Megan thinking? The morning started off very stressful, she call me very upset because her uncle left a message around 1 in the morning telling her he needed to talk to her. He first reaction was that something had happened to her father (since he hadn’t transfered any money into her account yet). I reminded her that if something did happen to him, her uncle would come over there to tell her. So I call him, tell him she’s pretty upset and that he needs to call her to reassure her that every thing’s okay. He told me he had to talk to her about something using the same tone that he used when Megan was continually over drafting her account. So after talking to him, I go back to what I was doing and Megan calls back. She had talked to him.

Later in the morning Megan calls to tell me she done for the day – she’s taking finals and she just finished one. She was on her way to her uncle’s shop. Later on in the day, since I hadn’t heard from her, I call to check on her. She and her uncle were bowling, so I guess everything went okay – I was stressing over nothing.

So a while later I get a call from a number I didn’t know, but it was Megan’s area code. I thought maybe it was a job offer, so answered it. It was Megan, she had gotten a new cell phone. I’m thinking, like, geez, you just got a new phone. She tells me that she didn’t like the way her old phone “did her” with text messages. She didn’t realize that she got charged for incoming messages too. So no one explained this to her? Then she tells me not to worry, she put me in her “5”. I tried to explain to her that while her calls to me might free on her end – they will now eat my minutes. I don’t think Megan even realizes how much she calls me – I checked my bill for last month – I used over 500 “IN” minutes – with all most all of them being from Megan. On average, it looks like she uses about 300 minutes a month talking to me.

The whole point in her being on Verizon was so that she could call me or her father anytime and talk as much as she wanted to. To say the least, I don’t have 300 minutes a month she can talk to me on. But I’m not mad, just really hurt. I like Megan calling me and talking to me. I want her to be able to call me when ever she needs to – that’s why I had originally given her a prepaid phone and kept minutes loaded in it.

So now the late night message from her uncle makes sense. Megan must have gone way over her allotted monthly text messages. And since he is paying for the cell phone she had, something had to change. On the bright side, Megan is trying to pay some of her own bills. She has an intermittent part-time job. I’m proud of her for wanting to stick to it and not let her father know when her funds are tight. I do worry.

But anyway, now she has a phone, which she says she will be paying for, so she can text all her friends with…but it does beg the question, “What was she thinking?”

I had actually been thinking about Megan’s allergies and the sources of them, when I got off track a bit. I started thinking about all the animals she grew up with, particularly cats.

The history begins before she was born with Sam. Sam came from Okinawa, his sister Cindy stayed behind with another family. Sam was around briefly after Megan was born but died from a very serious urinary tract problem that some cats develop. He even had the surgery to try and correct it.

Next came VK, he was a Siamese cat with crossed-eyes and crooked tail. He was a very loving, gentle, laid back cat. He was technically D1 cat’s as the name implied “V’s” Kitten. We got VK when D1 was about 2 years old.

Then came Muffy, another Siamese cat that took on the personality of D2. Muffy came into the fold when D2 was around 2.

The third cat was Higgins aka Bubba. Bubba was a seal point Himalayan. He was brought into the fold when my mom passed away – we got him from a breeder in the Northern Virginia area while we were there for my mom’s funeral. He was to be Megan’s and a replacement for Sam. Megan was about 2. He had a wonderful personality, loved to reach up and pat you on the butt to get your attention.

A fourth cat, another Himalayan, this time a flame-point came from a breeder in Texas. By the time the little guy made it to me he had some health issues (very similar to the ones that were overlooked by the breeder we got Cody from). He was definitely the runt of the litter but was still a comfort during a rough period of time in our lives. His name was Kaboodles but we called him Kabby – he was “supposed” to be my cat but he loved us all. If I would have known then what I know now about caring for the sinus’s of smoosh-nosed cats, the little guy might still be alive today.

We also had a variety of strays – one that lived outside was named Bob for his bobbed tail. I referred to him as the dog’s cat. They would play and hang out together. The dog is another story. The worst memory I have of Bob is him getting into the house and getting my little parakeet – from the cage no less!

Other than Kaboodles & Sam, I have no idea what happened to any of the cats. I heard Higgins got loose and ran away. I doubt D2 took Muffy with her. VK would have been 14 the last time I saw him.

Sigh, guess I shouldn’t have drudged this up.

The world turned again while I was off in Atlanta taking a 2 day course in XML. Two days was definitely not enough time. It probably should have been a 3 day class – we didn’t get the course book finished. It has piqued my interest to learn more though.

While I was away, a new position was announced at the day job. Because it was web related, I naturally bristled at first. Okay, bristled is putting it mildly. I ran the whole gamut of emotions. After I had a better understanding of the whole situation, it was like my guardian angel had taken her wing and slapped me upside the head. I work for a company that instead of firing someone because they can’t work full-time while they go to school, they create a position that is related to what they are studying.

The wing slap had another effect on me – maybe it’s not so bad here. Time will tell. Much of what I used to work on has been moved to other departments. But I have more time to practice what I’ve been learning in the classes I get sent to. We will see.

Megan is getting moved into “her” apartment. Until she is paying the rent herself, it will never truly be hers. She called me the other day to tell me she finished inventorying her DVD collection. I almost fell over when she told me she had 700 (yes, seven HUNDRED) DVD’s. Jeff asked her to do the math on how much she had spent. He went low and asked her to multiple by $15 each. She used a figure a little higher. I wonder if she has realized she could have paid for her car with that money.

But I am very happy to hear that she has a part time job. Even though she is considered casual labor, she thinks she’ll be able to get enough hours to pay for cable, electric & water at her apartment. It’s a good start.

I do need to put more work in to the Idaho blog. Yeah, I’m dreaming thinking maybe some will see it and offer us jobs in Idaho. Kinda like the Mega Millions lottery ticket I bought while I was in Georgia?