Talked to my lawyer

I gave her my dad's social security number and she's going to call and see if she can set up a phone appointment for us. The first lady I talked to there on the first said that as far as she could tell I have a pretty good case, but we'll see. I just hope my lawyer doesn't have a huge problem getting my medical records. God knows where they are.

I'll be posting more when I hear more...

Yay!

I can now blog from my phone so I won't have to post novels as Facebook status updates! lol Hm, I can do so much from here, I may not even need a laptop. This phone is wonderful!

A little bit upset right now...

I usually don't write much about my family (at least not the stuff that upsets me), but I'm going to break that rule this once.

I just found out from my aunt that my cousin (not her son) has been in the hospital for over four months with a very serious illness. I spoke to one of my brothers a few weeks ago, and he told me our cousin was in the hospital, but he didn't say how serious it was! He's on dialysis and has had some other operations. I also found out that all three of my brothers and sisters-in-law have been up to see him and I wasn't invited or even told! What, I don't have a right to visit him?! *Sigh* Reminds me of when my aunt died and I didn't find out until long after the fact. I've been estranged from my brothers for a number of years (due to some stuff that I did, I'll admit that). I'm only in semi-regular contact with one of them; the other two I only see/talk to at Christmas every few years (don't know if that'll change now that my younger brother, who hosts our get-togethers at his home is retiring from the Navy.

I'd love to be closer to them. They're the only immediate family I have left. (No offense to my aunt and cousins. :-)) Maybe when my roommate and I get our house, I can have them over for dinner. (If we're still in Texas, that is. I don't know how we'll work things if I move out of state.) It'll be hard, because while we're all in the same state for the first time in years, my youngest brother is in Richland Hills, my middle one is in San Antonio, and my oldest one (I believe) is in Keller. And of course I'm in Dallas. So I don't know. I don't know if they all want a relationship with me, or if they just want one at a distance. If that's the case, then I guess I'll have to accept that. I'd like to have them know that I've grown up and changed a little bit. I have no idea if they've seen any of my blog entries or anything. Maybe I'll send them a link to it. Yeah, some of what I write is pretty superficial (what I want to spend money on, and stuff like that.) But I also write about deeper stuff, and I want them to know that I have strong feelings and opinions about what's going on in the world.

Randomness

Wow, I've had this blog since October, and already I've posted 68 (including this one) entries! I wonder how many I'll post by this October (the one year anniversary, eight months from now)? I look forward to that. Hopefully I'll be posting from wherever my roommate and I are living at the time.

I'm hoping that I get my dad's check (for Feb.) on Monday or even tomorrow or Saturday. (I think it may have gone out Tuesday.) I'm planning to take it right to Chase Bank and opening a checking and a savings account with most of it, and keeping something like $50. I'm also expecting my check for March on the 28th or so, and I'll be doing the exact same thing (and using it to set up direct deposit so it won't  get lost in the mail again... the first time this has happened!

Hey, I just thought of something! It would be awesome if my roomie and I each got north of $1,000/month in disability. That way we could afford to pay more for a nicer house! I'd like to be able to get a really nice place. (Or at least a fixer-upper that doesn't need much fixing...) My roomie has been looking at 2, 3, and 4 bdrm houses, which would be good. (Possibly we could have guests if we got a 4 bdrm? We'd like one to use as an office. Keep our computers, files, etc. in there.)

I'm not sure how she'd feel about a two-story house. It would be fun for the dogs to be able to run up and down stairs, and I could also use the exercise, lol. I need to lose some of this gut! (BTW, I found some workout clothes on Amazon, along with a Total Gym. I already have a Total Gym, although I don't know if I'm going to take it with me. I may donate it to the building and see if anyone here would want to set it up and use it. If not, I can sell it.)

I also have to work on finding out how much land goes for in OK. I inherited about 5 acres (I think) from my grandmother, and since I don't plan on ever living up there again, I'd rather have the money than the property. My brother is willing to buy it from me if I can find out how much to ask for it. If I can get my cousin David's phone number, I could call him and find out.

............

Just messaged my aunt on Facebook and asked her if she knew how to get in touch with him. Hope she gets back in touch with me. I don't know if the property is in my name or not (probably not; I never signed any papers or anything that I remember... although I was so upset at the time, I may have forgotten. I don't even know what happened to all the stuff that was in the house... I do know that I've never gotten anything.) I don't know why I'm writing all this. It's been a little over six years since she passed, and while I think about her all the time (and it still makes me sad that I won't see her again for a long time (God willing), I'm talking about what I can get from her estate?!?! Does that make me sound like a greedy biotch? I hope not. I remember what my aunt said at her funeral, because it was the same thing I was thinking. Grandma had three children of her own, but she had ten kids. Me and my three brothers, her brother's four sons, plus her own. She was a remarkable woman with a huge heart, and I can't say enough about her. What I wouldn't give to be able to see and talk to her again. I'll miss her always.

Musings...

As I said in my Facebook status update yesterday morning, I called a disability attorney who is going to try to see if she can get me my DAC benefits. If she does, I'm going to start saving up money so I can get an apartment away from here. I really want out, and I can continue saving money for when my roommate and I are ready to buy our house (yes, we're going to do the "rent-to-own" thing). At this point, I really don't care where we live, whether we stay in Texas or move out of state. I just want to leave.

Some things I'd love to have for the new place: nice furniture (we both have bedroom stuff, but we need living, dining, and kitchen stuff); I want my bedroom and bath (if we have 2 bathrooms) to be decorated in shades of purple (plum, lilac, orchid, that type of thing). She prefers peach and burgandy... she'd like burgandy for the living room. I wonder if we could add some peach and purple accents? I guess we could go to some kind of furniture showroom and get some ideas. She suggested awhile back that maybe we could go to Lowe's or somewhere and get some stick-on borders (with her asthma, we can't do any painting). I wonder if there is any such thing as wallpaper you can just stick on? I mean stuff you don't need paste to put it up. That would also be a good thing. (Don't want her having an attack because of the fumes.)

Also, I want to save up to buy some new clothes (even if they're only new to me, i.e., from Goodwill). I have some nice things that I'll be taking with me, of course, but I want some new pants (as of now, I only have two or three pairs that fit). And if we end up moving up north (Seattle or Minneapolis), I'll need some good cold weather clothes (sweaters and coats and such. Don't forget the long johns, either! :-)) And I want some new sheet sets. I have a few sheets, but I want to be able to change my bed more than a couple of times a week. Maybe I'll sell my current bed and save up for a full size? That way Alaska and I will both have room. (Yes, she sleeps with me.)

I also need a dog carrier and a bed for her. I'd like to be able to take her to the dog park (there's one at White Rock Lake, I think, off of Mockingbird), and the only way my counselor (onsite) will take me is if she's in a carrier. Which is understandable. If we ever got into an accident, she could be hurt, and I'd be devastated.  George understands that she's my baby (he has dogs, too, and I bet he feels the same way about them), and how it would tear me up if anything happened to her, especially if I could have prevented it. So when I get my check next month, I'm going to Petsmart (there's one on Greenville, not too far from where I live) and price carriers and beds.

..............

Yay! I just went to Amazon, and they have a purple zebra stripe pet carrier for $39. I'm going to get it! (I hope shipping isn't too much...) So next month I can go to the dog park and let Alaska run around and play with the other dogs. I'm happy now! :-)

May be leaving Texas

I don't know if I've mentioned before that my roommate has asthma really bad, but she wants to move to an area that's good for asthma sufferers. The three cities in the running right now are Cape Coral, FL; Seattle (home of Starbucks! Yay, I love Starbucks, even though I don't have enough money to go there very often), and Minneapolis. Minneapolis, as we all know, is a large city with a high pollen count (and probably high pollution), it also has a number of asthma specialists, so that's a very good thing.

I'm a Southern girl through and through (never really thought about living further north than maybe VA or MD), so I don't know about living in Washington state or Minnesota (it would satisfy my love for snow in the winter, although I don't know how I'd feel with snow and ice up to my bum, lol). Also, Minneapolis isn't far from Chicago, is it? (Within a few hundred miles? I ask that because I would love to be able to see Styx in their hometown, and I don't know how many dates they play in or around Minneapolis. Also don't know if they play in FL.)

I'd also prefer FL because it's near the ocean. I don't know if Cape Coral is near the ocean, but it has lots of canals (water!). I don't swim, but I'd love to be able to lay out on the beach sometimes and get a tan during the summer. (Also can do that during the winter, too.) OMG, I just thought of something... living in FL means we may be in the path of hurricanes!!!! So maybe that's not such a good idea. My roommate and I will have to discuss it. At least in WA and MN we won't have to worry about wonky weather (I can't remember hearing about tornadoes or earthquakes or anything in those states.)

Another reason I'd love to live in FL is because I have an aunt there. I'd like to be in a place where I know someone. Oh, well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'm basically leaving it up to roomie where we move. As I told her, it's her health and comfort that's really important.

I have Kindle Cloud on my computer now!

I've also added some classic novels onto it (that I got free from Amazon! How cool is that?!) When I get some birthday money, I may buy some of the other books I want.

If there's anyone who has a Kindle/Kindle Fire, is there any way I can "synch" it to my Cloud and download all the books I have on my laptop to my Kindle (when I get one)? (Like you synch an iPod?)

A couple of the books I have are French/English dialogue and a French/English dictionary. (I think I have a Spanish phrase book too.) So I can practice my foreign language skills a little bit. I'm glad about that! (I'm going to try to get a Kindle for my birthday if I can. They're good to have. I can carry an entire library around with me, and read several books at the same time. Again, thank God for a good memory, lol!)

Added lots more stuff to my Amazon want list...

Among them are some Spanish and French language courses. There's a lady who comments on Jameson Parker's blog fairly frequently who's French, and I would love to learn her language. I've done pretty well in the past picking up various words and phrases in foreign languages (thank God for a good memory!), and now that I'm getting older, I think it would be a good idea for me to continue giving my brain a good workout by trying to learn new things. Yeah, it'll be hard since I won't have anyone to practice with (except for "talking" to Anita on JP's blog), but still... And since I do live in Texas, it will be good for me to learn some more Spanish, too. (My housekeeper speaks it, as do some of the residents in my building.) I think it'll be fun.

I've also put some of my other favorite books and CDs and DVDs on my want list. Hopefully I can order some of them for my birthday. I should have close to $1,000 by then, and even spending $250 of it on a new (used) computer, I'll have enough left to have a nice birthday.

I've been a little bit upset this past week. I haven't gotten my check from my dad's retirement from the airport yet, and I'm really hurting for money. I need to buy groceries soon, and I don't know what to do. I tried to call the lady in charge of the retirement accounts at the airport, but she hasn't been in the office and hasn't gotten back to me. I hope she does soon so I can find out where my check is. I'm hoping it will be here next week.  I'm also trying to get my dad's social security number so I'll have it when I go back to apply for my DAC benefits.

I'm hoping that we'll find a house soon, too. I'm being as patient as I can, but if you know me, you know that's not easy! lol