Category: Friendship

If I remember correctly we chilled out at home most of the morning while Mario was out helping his Nino or someone do stuff. I’d been telling him about Roxanne’s little boy’s party at the new Chuck E. Cheese for a week so he wouldn’t say I’m telling him at the last minute. He gets home and he’s raving on and on about how sleepy he is. I’m getting all the kids ready and 10 minutes before it’s time to leave he conveniently falls asleep on his mom’s sofa in the living room. Grr! I was so pissed. He never goes with us anywhere. I was about to leave when Mom asks if she can go so she can help with the kids. I say fine, but she needed to promise she’d behave herself and not start fighting over centerpieces or anything embarrassing like that (yes, my mother’s one of THOSE ladies *hangs head*). She said she’d behave.

I stopped by Dollar General for a card because I didn’t have one, nor did I have time to make one so we’re already running late. It took forever to find a parking space and once I did I had to change Alaethia’s diaper. As we’re walking around the building to get to the front we’re shocked by the huge line trailing out of Chuck E. Cheese. I said aloud, “Please don’t tell me we have to get in line just to get into the party?” Everyone standing in line looked completely bewildered, but I had no patience so I walked to the beginning of the line and asked one of the hostesses if we had to wait like everyone else, or just go into the party? She said the line was for people who just wanted to eat dinner (WTF?) not for parties. We could go in and are stamped with a fluorescent stamp and I feel a little overwhelmed at how crowded the place is. I don’t know how it is at other Chuck E. Cheeses—obviously I’m a noob because this is the first Chuck E. Cheese in the Valley—but I did not expect it to be that insane. I quickly decided we would go ahead and just have Alaethia’s birthday party at Peter Piper.

We found the party and I tried to make my way into the narrow aisles with my big belly. There wasn’t anywhere to sit to begin with and especially not 5 seats together. I sat Aly with me and the boys shared a chair and Mom got her own of course. Poor Roxanne already looked frustrated. I don’t blame her. I took Jaylen and Alaethia to play while Eenan stayed with Mom at the table playing his DS. What was really cool about the games and rides at the place was that they were all only 1 token to play. We ran out of tokens so I went to the machine to find some and it was a 10 minute wait before they filled them up again. I was so frustrated and getting hot flashes while I waited. When the kids were done I went back to the tables and my heart sank when I saw that Eenan wasn’t sitting with Mom. I ask her what happened and she nonchalantly said, “Oh, he went to play.” I could have yelled at her. Did she not see how crowded it was? She did the same thing at Jaylen’s 4th birthday party at Mr. Gatti’s one time.

This time, she was too busy holding onto this plastic football-shaped gumball machine and making sure nobody “stole” it from her that she wasn’t watching my kid. I knew she’d do that. Jaylen offered to go out there and find him but I said no; all I needed was to be missing two kids in that ocean of bobbing heads. I was relieved when I finally saw a little boy in a red hoodie rising up towards the ceiling on a ride and it was Eenan. I waved at him and gestured for him to sit with us when he was done.

I was starving because I hadn’t had lunch and was so relieved when the pizza finally came. I missed the first pizza when I was out with the kiddos. Eenan had already eaten. A lot of my co-workers showed up so it was nice seeing everyone. The hostesses started to literally rush everyone out so that was my cue to get up and leave. As I was saying goodbye to everyone I was oblivious to Mom going around the tables and collecting knick-knacks and putting them in her pocket. I’d made her leave the gumball machine (which she was mad about) because, hello? She can’t even fill it with anything because she’s diabetic. She was annoyed when Mr. Salas told me to go ahead and take a popcorn tin. I didn’t want it, but she, of course, grabbed it for me.

I needed to go to Walmart and Target, but decided I’d just wait to go shopping till later. It took about 15 minutes to leave the darn place because they have to run your hand under a black light to check for the florescent light. The crowds and heat had helped Alaethia get into a horrible mood, so straight home it was.

We got home and I just glared at Mario the whole time. He was being really nice because he knew how angry I was. I told him that he was most definitely going with us to the next party we got invited to.

As I’m cleaning up the kitchen table and immediately transferring all the candy into ziplocs and hiding them in the cabinet, Mom pulls a Cowboys helmet out of her jacket and gives it to Jaylen. Then she pulls a metal football player out of her other pocket and gives it to Alaethia. I snatch it away because she could hurt herself with it and just shake my head at Mom. And she wonders why I don’t invite her to parties. I can’t ever take her anywhere.

I was all on my own that day and it went surprisingly well. Well, except for the internet already being excruciatingly slow on the actual first day back. I had to use my psuedo manual check out worksheet on Excel, which meant that later, before I could do anything else, I had to add them into the system manually. I shelved all the books that I’d checked in and started checking in the huge stacks of dictionaries and thesauruses they’d brought to me the day before. Mr. Murphy helped a bit, even though he left half the books I gave him to shelve because he likes to talk about world events (the depressing ones), but he did push the cart of dictionaries for me to the shelf so I could put up. He had to leave so I couldn’t get him to help with that.

We had a meeting in the library that lasted about an hour, so I had to enter some stuff manually again. One of the top things on my to-do list was getting another bulletin board up and ready. We I have a total of 4 that we’re I’m in charge of. During the meeting Robert, Juan and Rudy showed up. I put them to work after they got permission from their teacher. They helped me staple most of the star border, which I’m grateful for because everyone kept scolding me the day before when I’d been reaching up to staple the letters on the other board. I asked why, what would happen? And the response I got was that the baby would wrap her umbilical cord around her neck if I stretched. What? First time I’d ever heard of that one!

I couldn’t get my darn letter of resignation printed out because the version of Word I’d used to type it up was different from the one at work. All I had to do was install the compatibility patch but of course we don’t have authorization to install anything. I e-mailed and asked Mary if she could print it for me and she did one better: sent it as a .PDF file so I printed a few copies out right away.

I went to lunch and a sub was sent in right when I was coming back. She was a lot of help. I found it the perfect opportunity to turn in my resignation. I was so nervous. I had to control my shaking limbs before I got up to go to Vero’s office to borrow an envelope and turn it in. I spoke to Vero, who was sad that I’m actually going to leave and then I went in to talk to the principal.

He was walking out as I was walking in. I felt my face flushing as I handed him the letter. He looks down at me with a curious expression and asks, “What’s this?” I’m following him into his office as he’s unfolding the sheet and watch as his face turns from a smile into a look of shock. He said it was coming completely left field, which I found weird because I could have sworn I was present when Mrs. V. had mentioned it and I know she’d mentioned it other times. He shakes the letter and with a smile on his face says, “You don’t have to do this!”

He asked if she’d tried to convince me to stay and I said yes, she did since the beginning but eventually she conceded. I said something like, “I don’t want to, but I have to,” and he held the letter in both hands and said, “I can still tear this up!” I almost ran forward and said, “No, no! I’ve made my decision. And I thank you for allowing me to work with you and all the wonderful people here. It’s been a great experience.” That seemed to calm him down and we started walking out of the office. I shook his hand and he says, “You still have 10 days to change your mind.”

I was so proud of myself. I did it without crying!

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. And because I turned it in that day it was exactly a two-week notice. I picked the boys up and had them start working on their homework. I cuddled with Alaethia and as we were watching Noggin’ Sally called asking if Mario and I would like to join them for dinner to celebrate their anniversary since I was there for their very first date. How sweet of them to remember me :). I’m still so thrilled I got to be a part of the birth of their relationship. I quickly got ready, left the kiddos with Mom and the in-laws, who were already outside getting ready to bar-b-q, and picked Mario up (late-ish) from work. We were meeting Pete and Sally about an hour later so we went to Barnes and Noble to kill time. I wanted so many books, but I only walked away with the Lolcats one. Now I can look at it and feel happy instantly :P.

We had a great dinner. I ordered my usual spinach and artichoke dip and had the Shrimp Alfredo. Yum. As we were getting comfortable and had ordered our food, I told them, “You know what guys? It’s funny: I was pregnant exactly two years ago with Alaethia when you guys first got together and now on your 2nd anniversary I’m pregnant again!” Hilarious.

We had some laughs and I love our marriage talks LOL. We told them about Alaethia’s poop story and they couldn’t stop laughing. Sally says, “So that’s what we have to look forward to!”

I don’t remember what we were talking about—probably about how Mario’s out all night while I’m asleep—but Mario said he was thrilled when I called and asked if he wanted to go to Chili’s with Pete and Sally. He says that’s one thing he’s looking forward to when I stop working: spending more time together.

I can’t wait to get together with them again. I love our conversations!

I got up early and started making breakfast. I had a buffet of regular pancakes, banana pancakes, omelets and bacon available. Sally was coming over later, around 9:30am, so that gave me enough time to have everything ready. Mario ate breakfast and left to work. He was going to work a half-day only, so that was exciting :).

Sally got here and we ate and talked for a good while. She said we spent a lot of time eating but I would have felt horrible just getting straight to work and not even chatting. She’s such a doll, though. She gave me such great advice and even moved everything around in my closet to make more space. She even brought me two Rubbermaid storage boxes she’d bought at Target! She also foamed up the crack at the bottom of the closet floor, which I’d been asking Mario to do for the past year! I was so sad she had to leave so soon, but she also had things to do and it was her dad-in-law’s birthday.

Mario got home around 1pm. He wanted to take a nap, but asked if I wanted him to do anything around the house first. I said SURE! You don’t have to ask me twice! He began disassembling Alaethia’s crib to turn it into a daybed for her. He finished and John, who was in the living room, went to help him move it into Aly’s room. They couldn’t get it into the room at all! The hallway curves weirdly so they couldn’t make a complete turn to get the bed inside. So there’s poor Mario disassembling the crib again in the hallway, then dragging all the pieces into her room and reassembling them. He was not a happy camper after that so he wasn’t too thrilled when I asked him and John to help me (and by help me I mean they did it all since I can’t move anything heavy myself) rearrange the furniture in my bedroom. John went home and Mario went to sleep when they were done while I looked through old magazines. Mario and I had 11 magazine folders in total. Most are his. He needs to look through all of his and I still have a few folders to go through, plus a pile of junk to sort and put away.

I made up Alaethia’s daybed all pretty with her Amy Coe bedding and then I took a shower. Everyone started arriving a while later. Much to Mario’s protests he went with me to buy fireworks for the boys. While we were at the ATM we ran into Rolando and his family. Eenan was sad he missed him; I told him to go with me!

Mom spent the whole day making buñuelos and burritos for everyone. We all ate and then started taking chairs out to watch the fireworks. Just about everyone stayed under the Party Porch since it was drizzly and cold. The boys had a blast with their fireworks (under adult supervision of course—I was freaking out scolding everyone even like that LOL) and kept their hoodies and shoes on for once.

I felt so left out LOL. Everyone was having some sort of mixed drink. I’d never wanted a Margarita in my life so badly. How strange that my pregnancies with both girls have caused me to crave alcohol (not that I drink any while pregnant of course). Jose made me a virgin salty dog. It was alright.

Mario made the mistake of bringing out his shot glass that’s like 5-6 shots in one. A boy we didn’t know, Mario and Adan all took full shots of Vodka from it, instigated by Jose. I kept telling Mario not to do it, but he never listens. At least 5 people did walk away with incriminating photos and video LOL.

When midnight neared people started going crazy firing their guns into the air. I hate that about where we live. Yeah, it’s almost like the boonies, but it is a very-populated, residential area. Some of our own relatives brought out their shotguns and at first were shooting into the ground and then started shooting into the air. I herded all my kids inside and made them stay here while I helped Mary, Elda, Mom and Mona clean up. I gathered all the dishes, washed them and got in bed with Alaethia. I was a bit upset with Mario because he was out there with the gang, but I got over it. Not before lecturing him on gun safety and how dangerous it is to shoot into the air. Heck, I learned my lesson last March! The whole conversation was a bit pointless though seeing as how he was quite drunk. John had come over towards the end of the night and Mario was telling us all this story that he’d just told the night before to the exact same people that were at Adan’s. I even repeated word-for-word to John what Mario said about a second later. He didn’t believe me, which was funny.

As soon as Mario got into bed he was OUT. First time we’d ever gone to sleep “early” for New Years!