Suburban Musings

Its an improvisational comedy troupe; your city probably has one. Comedy Sportz High schools often have them, and they compete against each other just like sports….only its comedy and they’re competing for laughs! It really is remarkable that these teenagers learn to think on their feet and be topical and quite amusing.
At last night’s end-of-year banquet, K2 was crowned Co-Captain for next year’s team. Go Jon! (adding pic later…)

Families, that is. You love them, but that doesn’t mean you have to always like them, too! Even though you’re grown up, pecking order still always reverts back to when you were about 8 years old, and your siblings still treat you that way, too.
Despite all that, it was a wonderful weekend in Chicago for Mom’s 75th birthday party. The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful and family, old and new friends, and all had a nice time together reminiscing, etc. We certainly are grateful for everyone’s good health and hope to have many more celebrations like these in the future!
Mom is healthy and acts 10 years younger than her real age; has plans to vacation in Russia later this summer. Go Mom! I want to be just like you when I grow up )
P.S. Here’s Mom and little bro…

As you can tell from my last post, things get pretty darned depressing around here. But, with the help of my friend, Zoloft, I try really hard to concentrate more on the positive.

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day here, spent outside doing yard work for hours. My dog, Charlie, reminded me to enjoy it all, as he lay in the grass, head to the wind and eyes tiny slits, his mouth slightly open in an unmistakable grin.

Last night was equally beautiful, so hubby and I took the two teenaged boys for a ride in the convertible. No, we had no place to hurry to, no game to catch. We just drove around, listening to some good music, sucking down various Dairy Queen treats. What a delight! And didn’t your parents used to take you for drives when you were a kid?

Nice, cheap thrills….but now I must really get back to this stack of unopened bills…..ick.

I know 4/16/07 will forever be remembered for the horrific Virginia Tech tragedy…what possibly makes a person that insane? As a parent of a college junior, my heart goes out to all the families and friends of those poor students and teachers who started their day as any other, and ended up like no other.

In our marriage, 4/16/07 holds more significance, however. It is the day that our dream home went to sheriff’s sale. 13 years and 15 days after we moved in….yes, that means we moved in on April Fools Day!  This is the beautiful home that we built on a cul de sac in a growing neighborhood in 1994, with great plans to sell it after all three kids graduated college, at a profit large enough to help with those college loans. Smart idea, huh? Well, we neglected to take into account bad luck….within a few years, we realized the house was settling rather irregularly, which in layman’s terms translates to….”the house is leaning 6″ to one side”. Countless realtors, foundation experts, attorneys, etc. have gone over all the information and all come to the same “you’re screwed” conclusion. Even our insurance wouldn’t cover it, since they deemed it “geological”, which is only covered by earthquake insurance….which very few people in Indiana opt for. Lots of details follow, but the bottom line is, we left the house, because the stress was beginning to create health problems, we built a new one with a builder who advertises that they buy your old house if it doesn’t sell by the time the new one is done. Well, they didn’t buy it, so we were stuck with 2 homes. We rented the old one out…after a year the renter left without telling the leasing company or us….leaving behind 2 months unpaid, plus huge damage to walls, flooring, etc. (he’d cut holes for various big TV’s and speakers).

<sigh> So here we are. I’ve lost my job 3 times in 3 years. We now have a foreclosure on our record. And I’m still unemployed. And we don’t know if the mortgage company is still going to come after us for the remainder of the loan. We’re feeling extremely unlucky right now. And very, very sad. It is a beautiful home. Many people are homeless and should be able to benefit from such a place. No, we really can’t sell our current home and move back….too complicated.

K2 is a junior in high school, pursuing the prestigious International Baccalaureate degree. Basically, it is a very rigorous program that is consistent internationally & graded internationally. There are a few extra courses that he must take, such as “Theory of Knowledge” and he also must write a 4000 word essay on a topic that he must thoroughly research.

The cool thing is, he “talks” with students like him throughout the world…just like any teenager, we can’t get him off the computer, but he isn’t just “I.M-ing” his friends from school…..he’s on a forum discussing academics with a Japanese student, one from the Netherlands, etc.

The forum is called “IBScrewed“…..just ’cause they’re smart kids doesn’t mean they don’t have a sense of humor! In fact, I think they send each other YouTube videos on a regular basis.

We continue to be amazed by these things that popped out of my belly years ago, like some Aliens…

P.S. click on those links to get to the sites… and in photo, he’s on bass guitar…