An Interesting Year!

This has been an interesting year so far. Interesting... yeah, that's a word and a half. Apparently there is an old Chinese curse that says, "May you live in interesting times!" I'm a Pagan and my strongest curse for someone is to wish them an "interesting" life.

But this year has seen my little family go through a lot of change. I started the year hopeful of starting a line of clothing and showing them next year at the annual fashion show that the Fashion Design and Merchandising department does. I was going to do a line for the Plus-Size women. But then we had a family discussion about finances and trying to find ways to get more cash flow. That's when we decided that if my DF was not able to get a new job (he got laid off from his job with the state of Kansas thanks to our Dictator... urm.. I mean Governor, Sam Brownback) by the time his unemployment ran out, then we needed to move. Where to move, you ask??? Why, Upstate New York, of course!!

Add to this D's daughter was being stupid about school. Didn't help that the school was being stupid, too. Though to be fair, it wasn't really the school's fault, nor was it her daughter's fault. I put the fault firmly on that stupid piece of legislation that G.W. Bush pushed through called "No Child Left Behind." Because of that Kansas schools can now push a student out at the end of their senior year totally unprepared to deal with college or the realities of life. D's daughter was hospitalized over a year ago which put her behind for her 10th grade year. The school told D and her daughter's father that it didn't matter what they did, when the rest of her classmates graduated, she would have to, too.  After going around and around with the school, they withdrew her from school with the stipulation that she would go to a Virtual School connected with our school district. Fine, no problem. We did that and enrolled her in the 10th grade so she could repeat it. Then early this year we get informed that the Virtual School will be following the brick-and-mortar school districts and daughter was now no longer in 10th grade but 11th grade. After that she lost whatever interest she still had in school and we let her drop out. I suggested a plan where she gets herself healthy again, then gets a job and discovers what being in the real world was all about, and then goes back to get her GED. Right now, though, I'm not holding out much hope that the plan will be followed. She turns 18 in Oct and then life is a whole new ballgame. So, we'll have to wait and see.

So then comes March. That's when we discovered that my DF had only 4 weeks of unemployment left.  Okay, that pushed up the moving plans. So D decides tells her daughter and ex. Well, you'd have thought she just killed their sacred cow (or whatever it is they hold sacred). All of a sudden he saying she's a hypochondriac, she neglecting her familial duties, you can't go back to NY because "we came here to get away from your family because you hate them", you're abandoning your daughter, you promised you'd wait until she graduated, yada, yada, yada!! Wait?? What??? WTF???? It was like it we surprised them with our decision. NEWS FLASH: We have been telling them for 3 years that we were going to move. The date was just never set. We knew we were going to move, but we weren't sure of the timing. Now that we were closing in on a date they were acting like we never told them anything about a move. What they thought was a pipe dream was now becoming reality. And as for waiting for the daughter to graduate, well, she dropped out so that ain't gonna happen!

D & M left on Apr 4th by bus. D is so happy to be back in NY. She left about 20 years ago and has been yearning to go back to live ever since. And now it's up to DF and I to clean and make decisions as to what to keep/pack, what to sell, what to give away and what to toss. We also have to get out animals back with us. There is no way I'm leaving our Gracie, Greebo, RumTum, and Ahru! Well... Ahru is a little iffy, but if we don't have him with us D will skin us alive. We just have to make sure he gets snipped. He's 4 or 5 years old and still is not neutered. Yeah, he sprays. D had wanted to breed him, but we never could get a girl for him. Probably just as well because we're starting to think the breeder we got him from was breeding Mau's with wild breed cats. Not really a good combination.

So DF & I need to get cleaning. So far we've cleaned the front living room.... well, most of it. I needed to have my sewing area decluttered so I could finish my sewing projects. I still have 4 weeks of classes and I need to finish the skirt project I'm making and start the blouse project. I also need to start my dress for the Lawrence Civic Choir's Cabaret Concert in June. On top of that have 2 alteration projects, 2 repair projects, and 3 sewing projects all for clients. Will I get them done before July?? Gods, I hope so! That's money for the move!

Oh, the up side of all this, I might be able to go to my class reunion after all! Woot!!