Pebbles in the water

...my 16yo daughter may have discovered my LJ.

On the bright side, she already reads slashy porny fanfic, so there won't be many surprises in here.

On the not-so-bright side, it's probably a bit disturbing that I'm considering that a 'plus'.

We are off to a lovely hotel tomorrow for a Murder Mystery weekend, I have been emailing the organiser to check on the food as I'm on a strictly restricted exclusion diet for allergy/intolerance.  I sent her a looooong list of what I can't have, and the FABULOUS Chef has come back with a complete menu for me; I said I'd be taking soy milk and snacks with me but she said that Chef would take care of me!

I only hope it's as good as I hope!

Meanwhile... I'm looking at the 5-star menu and drooling.  Nom nom nom...

On Weds night I was wide awake, sat up faffing on the computer and watching crap on t.v. until around 3.30am then went to bed and listened to the dawn chorus.  I woke up just before 7am, wide awake.

Thurs evening I couldn't keep my eyes open.  Fell asleep on Steve's shoulder at 9.30pm.

Friday night, wide awake again.  Went to bed at 4am, it was already light out.  Fell asleep, I dunno, sometime after 4; woke up at 6.30 completely wide awake, no chance of getting back to sleep.

Last night, we were at a party but I was knackered by 11pm, went home and woke up at 10 this morning.

WTF is up with my sleep patterns?

...your daughter slaps a sticker on your forehead when you're waving her off to school, and an hour later you look in the mirror and wonder what the hell the square blue thing on your face is.

I have a Kindle!  I worked flat out for a month to get enough money to replace our boiler which is 17 years old and clunky and will not see the summer out.  And then I thought, fuck it, I am going to spend some of it on ME.

So I have a Kindle.  And many, many downloads, including some classics I have been meaning to read for years - Kim and Dorian Gray and Ulysses and lots of others which are FREE!

Aaand I have had it for four hours and may have already sullied it with porny fanfic interesting tidbits.

I win.

The sun is shining, it is a glorious May day, and I only have to work for one more week!  You know when you have that incredible lightness-of-being feeling?

That.  Just that.

I am taking my daughter out to a gorgeous National Trust house with a huge woodland walk, there may be some highly-frowned-upon paddling in the little stream, and I'm sure there will be an enormous unhealthy ice cream at some point. 

I have decided my self-imposed hiatus from all fannish and lj-based activities can be relaxed a bit, as it's been over a year since I pulled an all-nighter reading a fic that I just could not put down.  It has been a hell of a year, family-and-friends-wise, both good and bad but mainly bad.  But things are now back on track and apart from the usual too-many-bills-not-enough-money, everything is looking up.

And to celebrate being 'back', I have to rec Dies Irae by AlchemyAlice. This is the way the Apocalypse should have been. 

Took my daughter to my parents holiday home, we all had a fabulous time with far too much food and fun.  My husband even got to spend the last few days with us - almost the first time I've seen him in five weeks as he's been off working around the country (and staying in 5 star hotels but lets not go there, not jealous at all, nuh-huh...)

Anyway, we all came home on Thursday and planned to have a good friend (almost a sister; her mum died several years ago and she's my mum's 'second daughter') over to stay for the weekend along with her daughter, finishing with a huge family meal hosted by yours truly tomorrow.

Friend turned up last night with Big News.  She is filing for divorce. 

I can't say it's totally unexpected; her husband is a workaholic, hardly ever at home, and has worked abroad for the past 18 months - by choice.  He had an affair 3 years ago with my friend's Best Friend.  Well, ex-BF now of course.  He has now informed her that when he comes home next month, he will be staying for 3 years then is leaving to go back to America and wants her to give up her job, wants their daughter to leave her school (then aged 17), wants to sell their house, and all to drop everything and go there to be with him.  She has told him where to stick his nice idea.

After much wine and many tears, her and her daughter are both tucked up in bed in our house and I'm just - sick to my stomach.  I saw it coming, but it still feels like I've been kicked.  And tomorrow is our big family dinner.  Woo hoo. That will be just so cheery.  We still have to break the news to my parents.

I haven't had nearly enough Scotch yet to begin processing this.  There is half a bottle calling my name right now.

Huh.  With all the family stuff going on, I simply don't have the time to get online as much as I'd like.  And when I do, my computer is Not Working.  It's a beat-up old laptop, connects to the internet when it feels like it, freezes up in the middle of important things (like updating Facebook and reading porn important e-mails) and now the left-hand keys are sticking so Q A and Z need to be hit twice before they'll work.  Makes typing very, very interesting.

I'm going to give up for a bit.  I'm looking at a pretty shiny new laptop and I will buy it as soon as I can divert enough money from the household grocery budget afford it by saving diligently.  Until then, I'm only breaking out the laptop for banking and email.  It's too much hassle.

Oy.  Had a nasty asthma attack yesterday, I could NOT stop wheezing.  Phoned the doc after my usual meds didn't work, I'm now on oral steroids plus a horrible inhaler that gives me tremors.  Plus side: they worked.  Minus: I have to stay on them for five days.  Yay.

We did finally get my dad his birthday dinner, made him a fab cake and the whole restaurant sang happy birthday to him.  It was worth the wait.

It's half term, and I was planning on lots of nice things, taking my daughter out for lovely trips and the buying of shiny!pretties and maybe the seeing of the seals again because they are Of The Cute.  AND it was my dad's birthday last week and we had planned a lovely meal at his favourite restaurant.

All plans are buggered.  Cancelled or postponed.  Because ( my uncle is in hospital and I don't have a car for half-term week )

I need to find something fun to do.