Things have been good around these parts lately. I haven't heard back about grad school yet, but my tax return came in and I was not only able to pay back some debts and catch up on my bills, but buy fun things like car insurance! and running shoes! and a phone that actually turns off! My iphone 3 (not 3GS, just 3...) had been on its last legs for nearly a year, so I bought a new one, switched to Verizon and added myself to Joel's family plan, which saves me so much money every month that the phone basically paid for itself.
Which only makes the Siri-related tomfoolery that much more fun! I'm glad the poor gal doesn't have much of a long-term memory.
Lest you worry, I had already bought another kindle weeks ago, but that didn't stop the children from starting a cage match over who got my old phone to use as an ipod. I think Genoa may have won. Mostly because she wanted me to set up her e-mail account and Alex was too busy playing Minecrack.
Baby's first e-mail?
To Joel: "You smell like dirty socks and armpits!"I beg to differ with her, obviously. Oh! That reminds me; did I mention Joel and I are officially back together? Because that happened. It's not without complications, no doubt, but dude, you guys, we're like magnets, yada yada yada, nothing worth doing is easy. And no, we're not moving in together again.
We sealed the deal with Valentine's day tattoos.
He got his Alfred Hitchcock Geek logo on his arm and I had him write, "Be who you are." over my heart. Not sure I'm exactly sure who I WANT to be yet, but I seem to end up being me in spite of myself.
Since it was my BFF, Terry's, birthday, I also did the tattoo thing with her. Because she's the most generous person I know, I had her write "Share" on my shoulder. She's also a chemistry teacher, so not only is mine written in mathematical symbols, but the tattoo she promised her students was this rad atom:
It was fun to spread the badassery around my little family circle. Speaking of challenging badassedness, my boy is doing well. He might have a hard time paying attention in school, but at least he found a new reason to love going to church every Sunday.
What else?
Work has been delightfully busy, I've been running five miles at a go, I signed up for my first race, and this week Joel and I are making a last-ditch effort to see all nine Best Film Oscar nominees before heading to our friend Rachel's house on Sunday for a formal-wear pizza party in front of a live television.
Never a dull moment!
Even better? My next post will be about how I'm booking a trip to California so all five of us can attend a family reunion on Easter Sunday.
Hold me.
I got a call out in your blog. HOLLA! And so happy that you're doing well, Lady. :)
Posted by: Rachel R. | February 20, 2013 at 10:39 PM
Me likey you happy. Content? Yay!
Be who you are is simple and elegant.
Posted by: Alyce | February 20, 2013 at 11:58 PM
Sounds like you are seriously rockin' life lately!
Posted by: Rebecca | February 21, 2013 at 02:34 AM
A family reunion? A family reunion!
Go, Amanda, go! I'm rooting for you.
Of all the difficulties you've had in the last few years, I think the issues with your family have pulled at my heart the most.
I hope you are able to find peace with them, and that your trip is full of joy and healing.
Posted by: Laura | February 21, 2013 at 05:35 AM
So when are you going to pay it forward? Come on, you have some money now.
Posted by: Zee | February 21, 2013 at 06:03 AM
What Zee said.
For people who donated money to you when you were in a state of emergency (and there are SO many!) only to see money spent on these stupid tattoos you could have had drawn on with a sharpie, well, at best it hurts and at worst,it feels like one has been scammed. Take down your Donate button Amanda. You don't deserve any.
Posted by: Maggie | February 21, 2013 at 08:40 AM
5 = You, Joel & the 3 kids?
Just checking.
Posted by: Lisa | February 21, 2013 at 09:19 AM
Seriously people? I didn't know it was a rule that if you pay it forward you must rent a billboard and brag about it? Humble much? How the heck do you know that she did not pay it forward? Get over yourselves.
With that out of the way, love the tats, glad you and Joel are happy and working it out and your kids are cute as ever. Enjoy your good times!
Posted by: Lorinda | February 22, 2013 at 02:36 PM
Someone posted this about you on GOMI last month when you were once again whining about how broke you always are. I think it's a perfectly fitting comment for this post:
"This is why she is such a freak show. Less than a month ago she was explaining how it is that people don't get waxed close to Christmas and that was why she was broke and now that we are under a week into the new year, she's planning her third and fourth tattoos rather than remembering the humbling position she was in and making sure it doesn't happen again.
I don't like the Good Poor Person poverty narrative that so often plays out in discussions of the financially strapped. I think if times are tough and a coffee at Starbucks once a week or a new box-dye job for your hair perks you up, only an asshole would tell you that you suck because you should have hoarded every penny against cruel fate and you deserve to suffer indefinitely because you spent five bucks on a cocktail that one time.
But Amanda tests my liberalism in a way only Cecily comes close to. She's such a fucking idiot. She wastes money like she's getting paid to do it.
Yes, by all means Amanda, spend all your time working at very low wages so you can escape the hum drum because you are too special for a job that involves regular hours and (god help us all) a desk. Pretend that you won't waste all the money from the second job the way you waste the money from your current job. And if you manage to get that second job, keep drinking at a rapid clip and frying your hair into near baldness rather than leaving it alone and looking just fine. And when you end up in November 2013 as broke as you were in 2012, get Genoa to write "DUMBFUCK" across your forehead and go get your fifth tattoo! You'll have earned it!"
Posted by: Paige | February 23, 2013 at 02:54 PM
Lorinda, when someone says they are going to pay forward $10 for every $1 donated... and the original donation was enough to pay her rent and utilities for a month... I'm pretty sure we'd have heard about it. You know that Manda doesn't do a hell of a lot that she thinks is "altruistic" without telling us alllllll about it.
Posted by: Nell | February 25, 2013 at 02:27 AM