Thursday, December 28, 2006

Oh the drama

Think I'm getting sick.


It could be that GOING BACK TO WORK is looming rather closely in the future, or it might be that I've been drinking like it's going out of style.


Switched over to the new blogger today, and it took only, ah... let's see... 8 hours! It's not like I have a huge blog, nor do I post several pictures at a time, but for some special reason, no blog for me today.

But I'm back.

Hi.

Used up the $50 American Express gift card from my aunt today at Trader Joes. If you don't have one near you, poor you. God I love that store. It's like Marshalls or Ross for gourmet food. There is nothing there that tastes bad. Except fish. Don't like the fish. Too fishy. But then again, I don't like any fish. Especially Tuna.

See, I am a gay man in a straight woman's body.

I also got a surprise returning a gift from my mother yesterday. See, she got this idea that my brother, sister and I, would all love a great big, massive, Pannini maker for Christmas. Bought one for each of us. We were all a bit perplexed by this, since my mother has never made a Pannini for any of us herself, nor have we heard her speak of ever eating a Pannini.

In addition, I have the Keebler elf kitchen. No, really. I have a cupboard. One. I have a half-size fridge, and about a square foot of blue counter. That's it. I keep all my baking stuff in the oven, since there's no place else to put it, and my frying pans and pots and such, hang from a rack I installed in the ceiling crossbeam.

Small doesn't describe it.

My sister has room for something like that, but doesn't cook. Not really. Oh, she heats things up, and sometimes "creates" some awful food and calls that cooking, but with this machine, one might have to follow directions, seeing that it gets very hot. Sister doesn't like directions. She actually just left hers at my mother's house. Somewhat tactless, but she's got pregnancy brain right now.

And brother? Well, as we walked out to our cars I asked him what he was going to do with it.
"We don't have any room, we'll probably put it in storage for now."


I sound ungrateful, don't I? Well, I'm not. It's not so much that she bought us all something that none of us ever gave a small clue we wanted, it's how much she spent on each of the machines. I went to Costco, fully expecting the refund to be about twenty-five, maybe thirty-five dollars. Nope. Not close. Each one cost $89.99! Oh my goodness.

Mom does not have that kind of money to spend on gifts.

Brother and I have been trying for the last few years to get her to limit her spending. With not much success, obviously. I give her $100 a month, my two siblings paid for her $7000 dental work last year, and they've started a savings account for her (about which, my mother knows nothing). She works full-time, but is scraping by most months. Brother, Sister and I are all doing just fine at this point financially. Not I'm-about-to-buy-a-house fine, but fine nonetheless.

It was nice getting the cash back for something I know I wouldn't have used. Now I just have to figure out how to get the money back to Mumsy without her knowing.

Hmm?

All ideas are welcome.

6 comments:

GayProf said...

Hey -- Thanks for checking up on ol' GayProf.

Your kitchen sounds even smaller than mine. I have zero (o) built in counter space, but I do have three cupboards and a 3/4 fridge.

Sorry your mother's gift stressed you out. More and more I am wishing that the holiday obligations to buy items started to lessen (both for myself and others). We all reach a point where we simply don't need more things, but people still want to show their affection for us.

Doug said...

ROFLMAO!! Loved your tuna/gay-man-in-a-woman's-body remark. LOLOLOL

Ok..*giggle*..I'm ok..*chortle*..it totally caught me off guard. *deep breath* I'm ok. ;)

About mumsy's money: in the past, I've gotten ahold of my mom's credit card # and made a payment to it. She eventually found out, but at least the money got to her. And once she had it, it was easier to deny her the right to give it back to me than to fight to get it into her wallet in the first place.

Chunks said...

I'd go out and buy her 89 bucks worth of things she could use, toilet paper, coffee, canned goods etc. Make a hamper for her. Call it a New Years' Hamper. Put a card on it and write about how grateful you are that she is your mother, blah blah blah. Really play it up. Then blog about it. :o)

tornwordo said...

Take her to the casino! Just kidding.

I tried to switch the blog but it wouldn't let me. Now I don't want to try again.

Snooze said...

I love how you and your siblings look out for your mother. I would feel frustrated too by the amount she spent.

St. Dickeybird said...

I've had kitchens like that before. Thankfully I don't cook.

Give her a "bonus $100" on her birthday month?

Have a happy new year!