Incidents and accidents

John’s been on and off of the toilet all day with the runs. I called and asked Blix if it’s the precursor to the nasty stomach bug his family has been passing around this week. We went over on Saturday, but everyone had been over it for a while. Sure enough, the screaming shits are indeed what comes before you throw up for hours. Wonderful. John hasn’t thrown up yet, but he’s been carrying around a bucket (”Hey, honey. I has a bucket!”) all evening. I started with poo about an hour ago.
So, if you don’t hear from me for a bit, it’s because I’m busy throwing up my toenails. Here’s praying we only get the poo.

Bad: Woke up with a headache.
Bad: Sabina has taken a turn for the worse and cannot walk and talk very well anymore. This counts for lots of bad.
Bad: Didn’t find a tote bag for my books this weekend.

Good: First hummingbird today!
Good: Slept in late
Good: Got the yellow petticoat I ordered today.
Good: I have a goodbye tea-party session with Sabina and her best freind on Wednesday before she goes to St. Jude in Memphis.
Good: Sewed waistband into petticoat and blue ribbon onto white dress.
Good: Had biscuits for breakfast.
Good: As of today, I have reached the halfway point for my 5D. $1400 in the account, $1400 left to go.

Update: I just takled to the bee specialist. He says that this time of year they split and 30,000 bees go find a new place to live. They seem to have just mooved into our walls, rather than have giant homes up there already. He’s coming on Wednesday to take them out of the ceiling humanley and he’s a bee-keeper himself. I wonder if he can add them to his hives.

We’ll have to seal off that room that day, but the rest of the house will be pretty safe. The important part is that they won’t be killed. It takes a week for him to get here because he has to have insurance, or something about insurance that I’m too much of a layman to understand.

Thank goodness we have a back way out of our apartment. The bees suddenly got mad at somethting and all came out at once. They’re not out anymore, but there were 1000’s of them, COVERING our trees, cars and walls. Here’s the photos I snapped.

I woke up this morning to see an inordinate number of honeybees outside my window. They were all checking out the building where I live, so I strolled out to see what was up. They are apparently nesting in the roof or walls of the building. BEES IN MY WALLS!!!! The entire room that we call John’s mancave HUMS. OMG, panic. Larken and I were walking with Benji elsewhere in the apartment complex and we saw something similar. They had to call the bee specialist out and he pulled a honeycomb the size of a two-year old out of that roof. I’m thinking we have more of them, because the whole ceiling is noisy. Auhg, flip out! They called the bee specialist out here too, but I don’t know that i will be brave enough to get pictures once he’s here. They might have to cut up the rof or ceiling or floors to get at them. There may be BEEEEES in my apartment!!

Okay, here are the photos of John’s poor beaten truck. This has been reported to insurance, but since it was reported on a weekend before a holiday, we got the customary “Someone will get back to you in a few days.” response.

The last photo is the bumper damage from the guy rear-ending us a few weeks ago. John drove it home, but the front bumper is pressing on the tire. The tag office rated it at about $700, and bluebook rates it at about $1280. If the repairs to it cost more than it’s worth, insurance will just pay the total worth rather than the repair cost. It’s highly likely that the little green truck will be totaled out. That leaves us with two options. He can either take the money and repair the truck and continue to drive it, or we can look at getting a new one. John’s dad had offered to cosign on a loan for us so we can get a new car, but John loves that truck dearly. I’m pretty sure that it’ll come down to a new one because the truck has 240,000 miles on it. We’re looking at getting something small and reliable that will last us forever. I wanted a Mini Cooper. They are less expensive than you think, but John says they look rich and ar targets for theives. So we’ll probably end up with a Honda or a Toyota of some sort.

John just called me to tell me he’d just t-boned some idiot 18 year old girl who crossed two lanes as he was trying to merge. I’m PISSED, but he’s holding onto his temper stunningly well. I have no idea what the truck looks like (our only vehicle right now), if it’s drivable, if they called the police or who was at fault. He’s fine, she’s fine. This is the second wreck he’s had this month (someone rear-ended us 3 weeks ago). He also got his truck broken into 5 weeks ago! If God exsists, He’s trying to tell us something.

December 22: I’m thankful that my man is okay. I’m also very thankful that I’m not there, because I’d have my hands around that young idiot girl’s throat.

Will edit to add more as I hear it.

EDIT: John just called back. The police were called. They showed up and cited IdiotMerging2lanes Girl with “Failure to yeild to oncoming traffic” and gave him nothing, so she’s at fault. Yay for not having to pay her repair bill and higher premiums! John says the truck may not be drivable because the hood is squished and something pressing on the tire. His dad is on the way up there now to evaluate the damage and lend us his Cherokee.

EDIT 2: John drove the truck home. The wheel scrapes the smushed bumper if he turns right too far, and the hood has a nice ridge in it on the right side. The tag office just estimated the truck’s value at about $600 (it’s a ‘90 with 240,000 miles on it), chances are good that this will be more than that to repair. Not sure how insurance will rate it yet. If they total it out, it might just be cheaper to get a loan on a new Honda or something that we can both drive.

It’s 3am, and I’m awake. I can’t sleep. I’m so keyed up over nothing. No, it’s more the prospect of nothing. Yep, that’s right. I have no new shoots and I’m a whiner. Today’s issue: where to meet moms if you’re not a mom yourself. I’m starting to feel like a creep at th elocal playground. I go with my camera and no kids. I’m sure at least one person has thought that I am some pedophile just waiting t snatch a child and drive off with it. I can’t show up at the local mother’s clubs with no kid to bring. Same goes for mailing lists and other mother-only things. So… what can I do that puts me into contact with lots of moms but doesn’t require me being one? John suggested offering my services to the boy scouts. I need to replenish the local kids boutiques with cards. I’m even considering going to church out of sheer desperation. Not to meet God, mind you.. to meet moms. Arg.

John and I are going to see his family in Mississippi for Thanksgiving. We’ll be one from Wed to Friday night. I may or may not have net connection. Hopefully the family crazy will keep my mind off of the lack of business.

On the bright side, my first newborn was just born a few hours ago. That session will be a LOT of fun, and very interesting. I have a big basket and some fur, also some creative things like a huge stocking and some baby blocks. Have to bring trashbags to tote the peed-on things home in. Hah hah.

I found out a few days ago that I’m not the only photographer in this city doing what I’m doing. There’s another girl doing on-location stuff. She’s about my age and has two kids herself. This really is only relevant because she has acccess to a bunch of mothers stuff that I do not. I looked at her website and it’s a flash-based site. I looks nice and professional, but not neccesarily better than mine. She does, however, have a better camera than I do.
I’m feeling generally discouraged, because suddenly what I’m doing (or attempting to do) isn’t so unique anymore. I’m also down because all the moms I’ve talked to at the playground and stuff got really excited when they saw my work.. then nothing. All of them are like “Ohhh, I LOVE your stuff, I’m SOOO going to hire you!!!” and then I get nothing. This isn’t a one-time thing either, it’s happened at least 4 times! I mean, do I smell? Do I have a tattoo on my forehead that says ‘Lie to me!”? ::sigh:: I think that I will start saying “I can add you to my mailing list to keep you updated about any specials I’m running.” That way I can get contact info without being obnoxious about it.
I’m tired of not being able to hold up my end of the financial responsibilities here. I’m tired of not being able to do what I want to do because we’re either short of money or I’m short on clients to shoot. I’m taken waaaaayyy too many pictures of Larken’s kids. They must think I have the camera attatched to my face over there. I need to have people beating down my door. You hear that? People with kids: come beat down my door!

John and I just had another conversation about something we’ve had that conversation over before. Each time we have it, I get more and more angry with him. I get mad mostly because I know it hurts him. I hate hate talking to him about stuff I’m angry with him about, because he takes things so seriously. I say “You’ve done _______ again, and I hate to bring it up again, but it’s making me mad.” ::sigh:: He hears “You’re a fucking failure and I think I should go find myself someone who isn’t a sorry excuse for a human.” Each time we have this same discussion, I feel like I’m just giving him more reasons to hate me. Each time, it’s like hammering a wedge between us. Like in a few years, he’ll decide that I’m an abusive bitch and he needs to go find himself a woman who will be just fine with him the way he is and never ask anything of him ever again. But I know if I don’t say anything, it will never change.

Note: this is a rant. I don’t want advice or people trying to ‘fix’ my problems. I’m just whining.