Well, no Obama for me...Blabs' in-laws planned to visit her & her hubby this evening, so she wasn't able to go, and while he was incredibly gracious to offer to go with me, Jay's been up since 3 or 3.30 this morning, and with the traffic that apparently surrounded the Sioux Falls Arena, I decided not to subject him or the bambino (who gets incredibly crabby if he's in his car seat for too long) to start-&-stop-for-who-knows-how-long traffic. I caught the last 20 minutes of his speech, which I desperately wanted to see in person...But in the end, I think it's best. We would more than likely still be on the road back to Brookings right now, and it would've thrown the bambino's sleep schedule out of whack. I have to work in the morning, and we've got yard work to do tomorrow, so I figured we'd just stay home. We haven't really done much or gone anywhere this week, but for some reason, it feels like this is the first evening we've been able to just relax.

At the moment, I'm trying to decide if I want to try and go grocery shopping before I go into work...I do like getting it out of the way first thing--Before everyone & their dog makes their weekly trek to the store. I don't even mind the crowd so much as it's the jackasses who like to stand in the middle of the aisles, just yakking away about Fido and So-and-so's daughter and blabbity blah blah blah, while all I want to do is grab a can of pumpkin or a box of granola bars! And it's not just the elderly, although they are among the worst offenders. We get these same folks at the bank, the other of the 2 places in town that virtually everyone patronizes.

If I do go shopping tomorrow, I should remind myself to pick up some glucosamine-chondroitin, as my right knee is throbbing like my lower leg is about to implode or explode. I stooped down to get my change from the vending machine at my morning break, felt a rather painful "Crack!" and since about 10.15, I've been having some difficulty navigating stairs, as well as getting up from seated positions. I'm hoping that a decent night's rest and a prescription-strength ibuprofen will at least get me through a few days, until I can get enough glucosamine-chondroitin stored in my system. I should be taking it anyway, because of the chronic back problems, but it's one of those things that gets put on the back-burner whenever I'm broke or the bambino needs things like diapers or formula!

It figures...When I am at pretty much my brokest since working back at McBastards, I find an extravagantly expensive handbag, courtesy of Kate Spade, that I desperately want. I hate doctor bills, I hate other random bills that I cannot pay, I hate the fact that I have to shell out money for someone else to watch the bambino, I hate that I'm back to buying generic-brand and less-than-healthy food, because eating healthy really is too damn expensive. I hate that all I want to do is sit here and wallow in self-pity and whine about the fact that I don't have $300 to spend on a purse. Which in and of itself is utterly ridiculous...When Jay bought me the KS messenger bag for Christmas a couple years ago, I said I'd use it until it fell apart. And I will...I much prefer messenger bags to "conventional" purses or handbags...But this one I now want is rather cute. Oh well. Maybe by the time it's out of style and goes on sale, I'll be able to afford it...If I still like it and all.

Barack Obama IS coming to SoDak on Friday, and I think I surprised my boss by telling him why I wanted to leave early Friday afternoon (I don't know if he's surprised by my being a Democrat, or just the fact that I'm even remotely politically aware of anything, since I don't generally discuss such things at work--Unless it's with people I know I can have a rational, non-screaming-death match with--Not like the arguments I get into with my dad), but he said as long as I could have my desk covered, which I can, he was fine with that, so Blabs and her hubby and I will be joining many others at the Sioux Falls Arena Friday night! Boy, Mrs. Stage, my 6th-grade English teacher would be horrified at that run-on sentence. I'm kind of ashamed of it myself, but too excited to really care.

Yet another of the joys of owning a home in a college town...We got TP'd last night. I probably shouldn't blame it solely on the college kids...It could've just as easily been high schoolers, but with graduations coming up, and the fact that I spent a couple years living downtown and had to listen to drunken morons every night...My bet is on college students. Naturally, it's raining all day, which means the TP is going to be a pain to get down (which it would be anyway)...Luckily, most of it seems to be centered in the hedges next to that tree, which I will be chopping up sometime tomorrow afternoon, and thereby taking care of most of the mess. I haven't gone out to look yet, but I hope to gods we didn't get egged on top of the TP. THAT would suck even more.

You'd think with it being May and all that it would seriously begin to warm up around here...But this being South Dakota, where any weather is possible at any time of the year, we're expected to get snow this evening. Granted, it's supposed to be less than an inch and it will melt tomorrow, but still. We had blizzard conditions this time last week, and we're getting snow this week. It's ridiculous. And I'm freakin' COLD.

We got our stimulus money this morning...The biggest chunk of it went to Jay's student loan, which is fine. I got a chunk to spend on myself, although about all I'm going to do so far is get some film developed. And buy more film. The bambino discovered his feet while Jay was helping him sit up, and I've been taking more pictures than really necessary of him doing it because it's so darn cute. We will be popping down to Sioux Falls on Sunday to hunt for some Indiana Jones figures...I need "Taters of the Lost Ark." However, it probably won't be available until the end of the month. No matter. I discovered the other day that my last payment on my gym membership was deducted last month, which means I'll have some extra money now. I probably shouldn't be buying "Taters..." but then again, it'll work so well with Darth Tater, and my Talking Tick Doll.

Jay's been teasing me lately about turning the bambino into a mama's boy...He'll be 4 months old on Saturday, and quite frankly, I think it's absolutely precious that while he loves his daddy, he really lights up whenever I'm around. I've been rather lazy about keeping the house cleaned up and whatnot, because it's just so much more fun to sit on the floor and play with my baby. He's entered that stage where whatever will stay in his hands for more than 5 seconds goes right into his mouth, and I like watching him develop and seeing how much more coordinated he gets day by day. It was fascinating when my nieces GE & DR were in this phase, too, although with DR, it was especially cute to watch her try her hardest to do everything GE was doing.

The bambino's only been waking up once a night on average these days, and I think my system's in shock with my getting some actual sleep. Even so, it's 9.30, which has been my "regular" bedtime for awhile now, and I'm struggling to stay awake long enough to finish this entry.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the f-ing hospital. I'm going to try and hold off on calling them again...If they want their damn money, they can get a hold of me--Although I'm going to be even more pissed if I get a phone call or letter from their collections department. And for all I know, that notice I got went out before they actually collected the payment. But since no one's called me back, I have no way of finding that out. I've already left one voicemail, and if they can't be bothered to return my call, I guess I can't be bothered to pay them!

Jay & I keep hoping that we'll be one of the lucky ones to get our tax stimulus money before Friday...Somehow, I don't see that happening, and not that it matters anyway. Jay's taking the lion's share of it to hopefully get us close to eliminating his student loan, and the bambino gets a chunk for his mutual fund. I get $100, and I have yet to decide if I want to blow it on frivolity or be responsible with it. I do have 4 rolls of film that need developed, so I will get that done, and I'd like to actually fill up the car for the first time in over a month (we've been getting by with just $20/gas each week, since we're broke and all). Whatever's left ought to go towards one of my other hospital bills or something. But we'll see. Next month marks the end of my gym membership, so that will give me an extra $42/month...Which will mean I probably can fill up the car a little more often, or at least with more than $20 worth of gas.

I just discovered another "best thing ever"...Bailey's Irish Cream Häagen-Dazs topped with warmed-up Nutella. Mmmm. I wasn't 100% it would work at first, but it does, and I love it. I'm going to want to start putting Nutella on everything, rather than savoring a spoonful from the jar here and there.

So I worked out a payment plan with the hospital to pay off the bambino's birth, right? Yeah, I get a statement in today's mail telling me that they haven't received the 1st payment, which is crap. I called and left a message wanting to know what the f*ck is going on, and I'm hoping that someone will call me back on Monday. Every time I've needed to get in touch with someone in that billing department, I've had to call at least 3 times before I get someone to call me back. It's BS, and after getting this notice, I'm really pissed. I'm trying to give these jackasses money, but they don't seem to want to take it. Okay, fine then. I can just not pay.

I think I'm a bit crabby because what started out as rain this morning has turned into the lovely winter wonderland you see above. The snow's wet and heavy, and as such, we got the car stuck in the driveway coming home tonight. No big deal. Hopefully I can shovel my way out tomorrow morning. I should do it tonight or make Jay do it, but I've already got a tension headache thanks to the hospital, and I know Jay's as tired as I am.

I had an Office Space moment at work the other day...One of the officers was trying to print a document on legal paper, and was manually feeding it into the machine. He tried twice to get it to work, but each time, the paper would get halfway through and just stop. He'd pull the paper out, but then the machine would light up with "Paper jam." So we'd go through the process of opening up all the trays and covers and whatever to clear it out. Both times it happened, I couldn't help but think "Why does it say 'paper jam' when there is no paper jam?!" and then laugh to myself.

It's not thumbing my nose at Barack Obama's "bitter" comments (which I happen to agree with him about, but that's beside the point)...I'm rather irked at Hillary Clinton's win in PA this evening. I know even Obama's folks were figuring he'd lose this one, but I was hopeful they were wrong. I was really hoping that this would be the moment Clinton would finally have to read the writing on the wall, pack up her toys, and just go home. I think what annoys me the most about this race between Obama and Clinton is the fact that the longer it goes on, the more fearful I become that once again, my vote, my voice in this country, will count for nothing. My folks instilled in me that voting and participating and being knowledgable about politics is important. It's one of the greatest privleges we as Americans have. But for 8 years already, I've cast my vote and believed I had a small chance to make a change in this country. And twice in those 8 years, my voice has been quashed. I don't want it to happen again. Hell, I cried during John Kerry's concession speech 4 years ago, and I only voted for the guy because he was the Democratic candidate! I'm still going to do as much as I can to help Barack Obama get the Democratic nomination and get elected President. But I've come to the decision that if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, I'm done. I'll sit this election out, and it's going to be a cold day in Hell before I get out and vote again.