The Chronicles of a Raving Lunatic

but I think this year's already worse for celebrity deaths than this time last year. Sure, June was bad last year, but in the past two weeks there have been four celebrity deaths that I know of. First it was Ronnie James Dio, then in the last week alone, Paul Gray (the bassist from Slipknot), Gary Coleman and now Dennis Hopper. I have a bad feeling about the rest of this summer. :(

Namely,my (soon-to-be-ex)S-I-L.

I guess I should start at the...beginning. I don't remember if I mentioned anything before, but Neal's wife Kim filed for divorce. They've been separated for a while now and both have dated others. Anyway, at the end of November she filed the papers. Neal has no problem with that. In fact, he was hoping she would so he wouldn't have to spend out the money. Her mom/mom's family hates him so much (for no real reason) they payed for it. Anyway, like I said, he has NO problem with that. But before she did that, or rather, before she told him about that, she went and got a restraining order against him. For her and their daughter. Right before Thanksgiving. She called the cops and told them that he had threatened to take Catilena and go to Michigan and never bring her back. Okay, he said that, once, in the heat of an argument, like a few weeks or months prior. She knows he says things he doesn't mean when he's mad. It's a condition of his brain damage. But she decided to get to him by keeping him from seeing his daughter. Not smart. Even though this old threat was an empty threat, her family backed her up. They had a court appearance on Dec. 1st about it. She tried to tell the judge that she had never meant for Catilena to be on the restraining order. Except she had specifically told him and our cousin (while I was there) that she did. Anyway, they wanted her to get full custody. The judge didn't go for it, since there was no reason and they're still married. But Neal said he didn't care if she had temporary custody as long as he had visitations. The judge agreed. Then they wanted to do the exchanges of her at the police station, trying to make him seem like some horrible monster. She just made herself look bad, since the police station has no parking lot and the only parking spots are on a busy street. The judge told her how stupid it was. Neal suggested the Kroger parking lot. The judge said that was fine. Kim and her family were not happy because nothing went their way. The judge gave him every Wednesday and every other weekend. Not that's actually legal, since they aren't divorced yet. But, whatever.

Anyway, now that you know the backstory... Neal is supposed the have Catilena from Christmas Day until Jan. 4th. Only he doesn't have anywhere to stay with her. He could stay at our house, but we have no heat. We're supposed to, but the heater kind of broke. OH, yeah. Our electric got turned on and we got a tank of propane, but the heater suddenly won't work. The flame and pilot light keep going out. Dad thinks there may be a little water in the tubing. He needs to look at it. So, hopefully soon I'll be able to go home... Back to the story. Neal is supposed to have her for 9 days, but has no where to sleep with her. He tried to be responsible and tell Kim that he can't care for her properly right now, can he keep her for a couple days until he figures out something. She refuses. She is making her daughter be homeless for a week and a half because she doesn't want the inconvenience. Also, apparently her new boyfriend is gone and she's sleeping with some other guy. And letting Catilena see her go into the bedroom with him. Luckily she's only three and confused him for the boyfriend, but still... She's so stupid. She keeps INSISTING that the visitation thing says he HAS to take/keep her when it's his time. She just doesn't get that what it says is that if it's his time, she has to let him see her. So even though her daughter has no place to stay, she's making him keep her. Just because she doesn't feel like taking care of her.

IDK, it's just irritating.

Went to see an disability Dr yesterday for a breathing test. How ridiculous is this. This Dr was about a 40 min drive from me. I had to ask my Grandma to take me because brother is on second shift again, as is dad. Anywho, it took about 40 min to get there, I filled out the one little paper I had to do. Then I told them the meds I'm currently on, waited a few minutes and got called back. Go to the back and the nurse asks me a couple things, puts a couple things in the little machine and tells me how to use it. Apparently I didn't do it right the first time, so she reset the machine and had me do it again, 3 times total. And that was it. Almost an hour and a half round trip for a 5 min appt.

But on the way back I did stop at the library and pick up my books that were on hold. I got the whole Dollanganger series by V.C. Andrews. I started Flowers In The Attic last night. As of this writing, I'm about halfway through it. By the time I go to sleep I should be at least 2/3 done. I've got all 5 books for a month, so I'm HOPING to average about 4-5 days each book. Probably less on the ones I read over weekends.

Oh. They got a call from the bank and the USDA inspection got done. The house appraised a little higher than what they're paying. Also, they did their inspection and the owner said he was leaving them the lawnmower and all the tools and all kinds of odds and ends their daughter left behind. So now they won't have to buy one. Their closing date, as of now, is September 18th.

Only problem is dad and I have to figure out how to get about $600 by then for a deposit on electricity. He's getting big chunks of money taken out by the Department of Education, so he's going to have to try to figure out some way to come up with it. Grr. I don't know how we're going to do this. AND, we'll be without TV, cable, internet, phone....for quite some time. I need a bit of money to get the internet turned back on in my name. We might be able to swing enough for a converter box or two, so we can at least watch broadcast TV... I guess I'm going to be reading a LOT come September.

Also, I. am. TIRED. I don't really know why, but I got no real sleep last night. I slept, just not well. I have been beat all day today. I almost took a nap early this afternoon, but then Corie said she was taking one. This was just as brother was getting ready to leave for work, so I had to keep an eye on kiddies. I don't think I'll read too long tonight so I can try to get to sleep before 2 or 3.

I wish this bruise on my arm from my B12 shot would go away. It's been a week since I got that thing and I still have a bruise and little lump. :(

So I went to donate plasma yesterday (Keith had a black eye and some bruises on his chin. *awww*) but my iron was too low. Okay, reschedule for today. No problem. Made sure I took an extra multi-vitamin and ate so much Malt-O-Meal (lots of iron) this morning I actually almost got nauseated. There was this horrible wait today. Lots of people that work the front were off. No Keith today *tear*. Anyway, they finally got to me and my iron was the same as yesterday. WTF? How does that even happen? Needless to say, that pretty much put me in a bad mood because I had to use the last of my money for gas. By the time I got home I was tired already. Couldn't find anything to eat. Everyone else got to go out. I should have taken a nap/went to bed early since everyone was gone for a while. BTW, did I forget to mention that we have 6 extra people staying here, half of whom are very small, very loud, quite hyper children 4 and under? Corie, my cousin (her 'bf'), their kids and their roommate Sidra. So, yeah, not much sleep for Dom lately. That's also why I haven't been online a lot lately. My stupid freaking cousin is on here, like, all day and night on his days off and the days he does work, I'm helping with the kids anyway. Not that if/when I do get on the comp I get any uninterrupted time anyway. Plus, Corie and Sidra and I spend so much time dealing with children who want their father's attention, and don't ever get it because he's a deadbeat, that the house really, REALLY needs cleaned and the dishes really, REALLY need done. I just know when they move into their new place (they're hoping this weekend) I will be the one stuck with all their left over trash and having to do dishes I didn't use. Well, me and Dad. He's been complaining to me an awful lot about it, though he doesn't say anything to Corie like he should. And that has put me in a worse mood.

I'm taking a wild guess that I won't be in a good mood tomorrow either. All I know is that the day after they're all moved out...I'm going to bed and not getting up unless I abso-bloody-lutely have to!

Don't you hate that feeling you get when you're made to remember things you don't necessarily want to remember? Not because they're bad memories, but because they remind you that things aren't that good anymore.

My little brother had me take him to his friends' house in town earlier. Well, they live right next door to where we used to live. I don't really ever go on that end of town anymore, because I have no reason to. Well, he told me some of the things that the people that bought the house from my mom did to the inside. It made me kind of...sad that it doesn't belong o us anymore. I told him, "Austo, lets win the lottery and buy back the house". He agreed that was a good idea.

Also on the way there I had to pass by the cemetery where a friend from school is buried.

I hate emotionally exhausting days.