Last night we had a dinner for the basketball team. I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to attend because I didn’t have anything to wear.
I know! I have a new tracksuit! And a pretty stripped shirt. But, I also wear those two tracksuits to every game and I was not about to go to a dinner in one of those outfits.
I promised myself that I’d never miss out on another event because of the “I don’t have anything to wear” excuse, but I had completely justified “this one time” in my mind. “It’s just a dinner for the basketball team. It’s not like it’s a wedding, or an awards ceremony!”
The dinner was scheduled to start at 6:00. At 4:30, Tony came home from work. I informed him that I was going to attend the dinner. He wasn’t happy about it at all.
” I want you to be there.” He said. “Baby, you’ll have a great time without me. It can be a bonding time for you and your son.” He looked at me and said “But I want you there with me.” I paused for a minute. “You’ll be fine, Tony.”
I left to go to the grocery store to buy the stuff I needed to make a salad for the dinner. On the way there, I kept hearing my husband’s voice. “I want you there with me.” Over and over. I was, yet again, being a selfish jerk. I kept thinking about what I was missing out on all because of effing clothes.
I was overcome with guilt and I knew that if I didn’t go, I’d regret it.
And so, before I went to the grocery store, I made an impromptu trip to Kohls. (Ah, Kohls. I hate you and yet I can’t quit you.) I thought if I went there and couldn’t find anything to wear, at least I could say “I tried! Now, you all have fun without me!”
I made my way to The Wimmin’s Section. I felt sick to my stomach. It’s been months since I’ve shopped for real clothes (also known as: Clothes that are not tracksuits). I’ve avoided it like the plague because shopping for clothes in the wimmin’s section is painful for me. I started at the clearance rack, because well, I ALWAYS start at the clearance rack. I was ready to give up after about 3 minutes because DEAR GOD MAKE THE PAISLEY/FLORAL PRINTS GO AWAY when suddenly, I saw a light shine down from heaven and the FUGLY clothes parted and right there before my eyes, I saw pair of black. In my size. I grabbed the tag and that is when I heard the angels sing.

Yes, Jesus loves me, the price tag tells me so.
It was as if God was speaking to me, right there in the clearance section of Kohls and he was saying “Y. I don’t want you to miss out on a night with your family. Here are some pants, the shirts are 50% off. ENJOY THINE SPAGHETTI DINNER.”
When God speaks to you in the aisles of Kohls, you LISTEN and so, I rushed home, made the salad and got ready in less than 20 minutes (can you say “pit wash” and “spot shave?”) and went to the dinner.
And it was wonderful. I even made a new friend and she’s fabulous.

Oh, Self. How you’ve grown.
(And ha! ha! I wasn’t referring to “growing in size” but I can’t help but bring it up because WHEN IN THE HELL DID I GROW STRIPPER SIZED TITTAYS?)
Category Archives: This Thing Called Life
And the Flooding Don’t Stop ’til 4 in the Morning
It’s one o’clock in the morning and guess what I just finished doing?
I just finished frantically moved things all over the garage to make sure there wasn’t anything on the ground that could be destroyed by water because…
Church
Every Sunday, at some point in the day, I think about church. I think about how much I hated it as a child, I think about how much I loved it as an adult (for the brief period that I went). I think about how we’ve become “Those Parents.” You know, the ones who send their children to church with Grandma and Grandpa while the congregation prays for our souls.
My boys love church, because they have had a completely different experience with it than the experience that I had.
If my experience as a had been different, I think I would love church more than anything.
When I think back to my childhood, I have good memories. My mother stayed home with us while my father worked a good paying job for the post office.
I remember making mud pies, playing with neighborhood kids. I remember trips to Disneyland. I remember my mom making food for school parties. I remember my dad being firm, but loving when I’d misbehave. I remember going to church on Sundays and going out to eat after the service.
I was a happy kid with an ordinary, but happy life.
All of that changed the day that The “Apostle” came into our lives.
The Apostle was a little, elderly man from India. I am not quite sure how my parents met him, but I’m sure it was through a member of the church. (My dad was/is a pastor.) At first, he was a delightful man—soft spoken, loving and kind. I used to love to sit in the front row and listen to him preach the Word of God.
But then, he started to teach “his” version of what being a Christian meant.
And my parents (along with every one else in the church) began to accept his teaching as The Word of God.
One sermon, one “AMEN, brother!” at a time, my life as I knew it would be changed forever in a way that haunts me to this day.
The Apostle taught us that women needed to dress modestly. The definition of modest changed every time he spoke of it. And he spoke of it often. The definition became very specific. No makeup (JEZEBEL!). No pants. No arms or legs showing. “Wipe that makeup off of your face, Monkey lips!” He once said to a women sitting in the front row of church.
Suddenly, it became a “sin” for a woman to wear make up. So the women all began showing up to church free from the evil makeup that was made with “ground up bones from aborted babies.”
He also taught that a woman was to submit to her husband and her “place” was in the home, not out in the workplace.
Suddenly, it was a sin for a woman to work outside of the home, for The Apostle said it was her place to breed and cook dinner for her husband.
The church agreed.
The Apostle read a scripture from 1 Corinthians that said “but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved.” He told us that women needed to “cover” their head before they set foot in the church. “Cover your heads, women!” He said from the pulpit. And without question, women began wearing “coverings” on their head whenever they entered the church.
The women who didn’t wear coverings were scolded and gossiped about for not submitting to the Word of the Lord.
Church was no longer a place to learn the teachings of Jesus. It no longer was a place where we learned how to live a Godly life. It was no longer a place that brought comfort to my soul, but rather a place that I dreaded to be because I had no idea if the outfit I was wearing would be condemned from the pulpit (“Button those buttons up, little girl!”) or if I would get a beating when I got home because I disrespected the “apostle” by acting like the ten year old that I was.
Eventually, my father realized that things had gotten out of hand and that this man wasn’t teaching “the word of God” but rather his own interpretation of God’s word.
I’ll never forget the moment that my father stood up to him and it is one of the reasons why I forgive my father for all that happened (although, clearly, I’m having a really fucking hard time forgetting.)
The “apostle” (Asspostle?!) was, once again, preaching AT the wimmins. He was talking about head coverings. Apparently, it wasn’t good enough for “God” if you wore the covering on your head. Oh! No! God wanted the covering to be pulled down over your forehead, just above your eyes! No, seriously! God said that to him!
My dad was translating the message into Spanish (because there was a large part of the congregation who did not speak English.)
“Pull your coverings down!” Asspostle shouted. “Pull them down and cover your foreheads!”
He waited for my dad to translate.
My dad stayed silent.
“Pull your coverings down!” He shouted again.
My dad remained silent.
He looked over at my dad. I knew something was about to happen from the look on my dad’s face.
“Translate that, brother!” He said to my dad.
“No.” My father shot back. “I will not.”
The “apostle” was stunned, as was everyone else in the church.
“I will not translate what you have just said, because that is not coming from the word of God. Those are YOUR words coming from YOUR mouth and I will NOT take part in telling people YOUR version of the bible.”
It was in that moment that my father acknowledged what had been happening was wrong.
My father has apologized repeatedly for what happened in those years and I do forgive him.
However, I have never been able to rid myself of the pain that came with losing my childhood, with having the most formative years of my life stripped from me, leaving me riddled with shame, insecurities and “what if’s.”
When I think of the high profile cults of the past—the People’s Temple, The Branch Davidians—I think about how EASY it is for people to get caught up in such teachings. Because people are afraid to question these men, they’re afraid of speaking out. They want so badly to believe, to be a part of something so great and Holy. Even when everything in their heart, soul and mind is saying “This is wrong”, they continue to follow blindly, because who are they to question GOD?
I’m not sure what my point is in writing this. I suppose I just wanted to finally put in writing how my once normal, happy childhood was irreparably damaged by one’s man interpretation of the word of God and by my parents’ willingness to blindly follow those words.
I am grateful for the experience it taught me to never blindly follow the words of a man and in learning that, my children will never have to go through such an ordeal. However, I can’t help but wonder if not taking them to church because of MY experience has harmed them in a different way.
I just don’t know.
I want you to just TRY and imagine how popular I was in high school.
Sometimes when I think back on my teenage years, when I think of the things that I wasn’t allowed to do, the things I was forced to do, I get angry and bitter and I cry. Other times, I just have to laugh.

When I look at this picture, I choose to laugh. Because it IS funny. (Is that a Sprush in your pocket? Ha! Ha! Haaaa!)
But then, I remember how it felt to be me at that age and I want to cry. I was 15 years old. While my friends were out enjoying their youth, I was being forced to cover my head and to dress like a 35 year old apostolic woman. I wasn’t allowed to do ANYTHING that most 15 year olds do. I was taught my role as a woman was to find a good husband, submit to him, have his children and make it my life work to raise them.
I wasn’t taught that I had other options. In fact, the other “options” were ungodly and would condemn me to an eternity in hell.
I like to say that I’ve moved on from my past. When people tell me that I’m bitter and that I need to grow up and move on, I point to my beautiful family and say “I have moved on.”
But have I really?
Obviously, not.
I can say that these thoughts no longer consume me. But I can’t say that what happened to me has no affect on me to this day.
I’ve spent most of my adult life feeling out of place, unable to relate to the world I live in. I lived a sheltered life in which I was not allowed to discover who I was or what I wanted to do with my life.
So, I married young, had a child at the age of 22 and continued to live a life that I was told was the one God had planned for me.
I never imagined a life in which I wasn’t going to church and serving the Lord, but somewhere along the way, the bitterness and anger consumed me and I no longer wanted anything to do with church or the things of God.
I’ve been missing church lately. Missing the peace that I would feel in my soul as I sat in the presence of God. But then, I think of The People. The Christians who made my life a living a hell and I can’t bring myself to go back.
I may still be holding on to bitterness from my past, but I do believe that I’ve tried to make the best out of my life with my husband and my children.
Maybe it’s not the life I would have chosen given a different upbringing, but it IS the life that I choose now.
I kinda miss calling it The Weapon of Mass Fertilization.
I was going through old files on my computer tonight and I saw a Word document titled “VAS.” Unable to remember what the hell it was about, I opened it up and found this one little paragraph.
When I walked into the bathroom and saw the freshly cut pubes laying atop a piece of toilet paper in a perfect “mound” of curly goodness, I dry heaved for a minute or eight, and but then, I smiled. And that smile grew into a full blown laugh as I shouted “This is going to be the greatest thing to ever happen to us!”
Oh! “VAS” = Vasectomy!
Today was the one year anniversary of The Vasectomy!
I don’t know why I never went back and tried to write about the experience in detail because honestly? It was one of the most hilarious days of my entire life.
(And the days following it were pretty damn funny too. COOKAYS!)
I remember everything about that day, from the fresh mound of shaven pubes, to the look on his face as the nurse called his name. But the part that I remember the most– the absolute best part of that day– (and probably of my existence) is when my husband opened the door to the waiting room after having had his sac sliced open and stitched back up.
Every man in there looked up at him, waiting for some sort of signal that it wasn’t as bad as they were imagining it to be. I could see the fear in their eyes. It was as if they were aching to scream “HOW BAD DID IT HURT, DUDE?” but instead, they watched my freshly sterilized husband as he stood there attempting to walk without looking like a complete jackass.
He stood there for a minute, unsure of what to do with all of the eyeballs staring at his wounded (but clothed) balls. He finally began to walk towards us with a walk that conveyed much pain and suffering.
“DON’T DO IT!” he shouted to the men who were watching his every move. “SERIOUSLY, do not go in there!”
No one laughed.
And because that wasn’t embarrassing enough, he said “Just kidding. It wasn’t that bad, I always walk like this, I ride horses for a living.”
He was dead to me until we got to the parking lot because… dude that was awkward. But oh, how we laugh about it now.
In all seriousness, I am grateful that my husband was willing to go through the procedure so that we could resume a normal sex life after an unplanned pregnancy. I know he was scared and would have rather NOT had his balls sliced open, but he did.
Because he loves (to have sex with) me.
Awww.
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Where The “Magic” Will Happen.
“It’s about to get all stupid up in here.”
Back in May, my husband was involved in a car accident when a dumbass woman who wasn’t paying attention pulled out in front of him as he was going 45 down a main street.
What happened after that accident was kind of a nightmare.
The cops didn’t get her insurance information because she was taken away from the accident by ambulance.
A few days after the accident, my husband asked for a police officer to escort him to the woman’s house so he could exchange insurance information with her at that time. No one answered the door, so we assumed she was still in the hospital. He left a note at the door with our phone number.
In the mean time, we were paying for a car rental out of our pocket because we didn’t have car rental coverage on our insurance and we didn’t have her insurance information.
A week later, my husband stopped by her house again to try to exchange information with her. Yet again, no one answered the door. He left another note at the door.
He stopped by again the 3rd week and the housekeeper answered the door. She informed my husband that The Woman was not home—she was at a car dealership looking for a new car.
Our insurance eventually deemed our vehicle a total loss and gave us a settlement so that we could get on with our lives.
The police report came back after ALMOST AN ENTIRE MONTH and clearly stated that the other driver was responsible for failing to stop before pulling out into on coming traffic.
As soon as our insurance got that report, they began sending field agents to her house to try to get her insurance information.
Each and every one of their attempts were unsuccessful. They finally decided to file our claim under “uninsured motorist” when someone at her house told a field agent from our insurance company that she was going to be “out of the state indefinitely.”
By that time, we were out $800 in car rental bills. A bill that never would have occurred had that woman followed THE LAW and had her vehicle insured.
We were all set to take her to small claims court to recoup the cost of our rental bills when out of the blue I got a phone call that went a little something like this.
RING RING.
Me: Hello?
Some Dude: Hi, is Mr.Pig Hunter available?
Me: No he’s not. Who’s calling?
Some Dude: This is Some Dude calling from Some Insurance company and my client was involved in an automobile accident with Mr.PigHunter back in May and I would like to get a statement from Mr.PigHunter.
Me: Shut the fuck up.
Some Dude: Excuse me?
Me: You can’t be serious? That accident happened in May and it’s now the end of September. Why are you just calling us now? Do you know how much stress we have gone through because your client was avoiding us and would not provide her insurance information? Why is she JUST NOW REPORTING THIS?
Some Dude: Ma’am, I need to speak with Mr.Pig Hunter about this.
Me: Oh, you can talk to Mr. Pig Hunter’s lawyer about this. And you can also expect to get a bill for $800 in car rental bills.
CLICK.
Now, fast forward to Saturday when Tony gets our mail and finds a letter from the other drivers insurance company.
“We’re sorry to inform you that we can only reimburse you for 2 weeks of rental bills at $140 per week. Too bad, so sad.”
I felt my face get hot when I read that letter.
HELLO ASSHOLE, your client didn’t report the accident to you until FOUR MONTHS LATER. Our insurance was waiting for her information (and the police report) so we had no choice but to rent until our insurance decided to proceed with the claim as an “uninsured motorist” so what exactly were we supposed to do for those few weeks while we were waiting for some kind of a settlement?
How is this right? Or fair? And why are we being punished because THEIR client didn’t report the accident for four months?
This can’t be right and if they refuse to pay it, bitch is going to be GETTING SERVED very soon because I refuse to get stuck paying $500 for a rental car for something that was not our fault.
In completely unrelated news that does not make me want to knock peoples teeth out but does make me go “WTF?” and cry a little—why did my once very straight hair suddenly get all Ceraazy-curly?
I do not understand how this happened. Nor do I know how to fix it.

I’m thinking it’s time to chop it all off.
While you’re reading this, I think you should count all of the ways that I have frivolously spent money that could have been saved for a down payment on a house.
A couple of days ago I received the Best Text Message Ever from Jen
“Hey just learned that the ppl across the street are renters. How do you think we should approach them? my google search did not pull much up. Do we make eye contact?”
Ha. Ha. Haaaaaaa.
I’ve enjoyed the comments RENTER post. Even the ones where people were all “I don’t judge, but yet, here I am judging you and your “choices” even though I really have no idea what your choices have been.” Seriously, I love the stories people make up in their heads with regard to my life. But, do you know what I really love? I love that people are happy for me and my family. If you’re ever in Cali, email me and I’ll have you over for Bean Dip and ridiculously expensive coffee from Starbucks.
The moving is going well. I mean, sure, there have been problems (LIKE CAT PISS IN THE CARPET. YUM.) but when I look at my kitchen, or at the beautiful view, or when I hear the birds chirping (Did you know that birds actually “chirp?”) instead of cars honking and sirens, I just take a deep breath, light a candle and smile.
I’m not going to let a little cat urine ruin my life.
[small voice]I hate cats[small voice]
I did have a moment of wanting to give up on this whole moving thing and run into the hills to live among the wildlife because OH MY GOD…lining the bottom of the cabinets SUCKS
If you gave me a choice between pretty much ANYTHING and putting that sticky paper down in the cabinets, I promise you that I would choose ANYTHING ELSE.
“Eat your own face, or put down the sticky cabinet paper?”
EAT MY OWN FACE!
“Give birth vaginally to a child the size of Gary Colemen or line the cabinets with that sticky paper?”
GIVE BIRTH TO GIANT BABY!
“Watch The View or line the cabinets with sticky paper?”
WATCH THE VIEW!
(I know there’s a proper name for that stuff, but I can’t think of it at the moment, because I have RUINED BRAIN CELLS trying to line my cabinets with that sticky paper shit.)
I’ve spent the last 2 days trying to get my cabinets ready so that I can begin putting things in them and it is still not done because OH MY GOD THE STICKY PAPER IS OF SATAN.
PigHunter tried to offer me some “advice” on how to do it without frustrating myself.
That didn’t go over very well, because, well… I kind of hate him when we do anything “home improvement-ish”.
But don’t feel bad for him, because he hates me RIGHT BACK. And I don’t blame him. I mean, hello? Lining cabinets really isn’t THAT hard and yet, I had emotional meltdowns on the kitchen floor.
I’m happy to report that I was able to finally get each and every one of the cabinets lined with the sticky paper and ready to fill with all of our things. Which would be totally awesome if we actually had “things” to fill them with.
You see, we were both in a very “bad place” when we were asked to leave the house (because the landlord had sold the house NOT BECAUSE WE WERE EVICTED PEOPLE. I REPEAT, WE WERE NOT EVICTED. GOD.) and so as we were packing up, we made some bad decisions.
Decisions such as “let’s just throw all of our dishes and pots and pans and coffee mugs away, as we won’t have room in storage for all of this shit.”
Whoops.
Never pack while emotional.
Seriously.
We were due for new pots, pans and dishes anyway. We’ve had the same sets since we got married in 1990. I just never felt the need to spend money on things like “pots” because I save my money for frivolous things, like an internet connection! and meeting BLOGGERS! So, while it sucks at the moment, I’m actually looking forward to shopping for some new kitchenware for (not) my new kitchen.
But, before I even think about heading out to Target to go spend more money that could be used for a down payment on a home, I think I need to figure out what to do with all of the clothes until we get a new bedroom set.
(You think that’s bad? You should see the kitchen. “Organized and efficient” are definitely NOT one of the many qualities that I possess. )
Hide The Children! Here Comes The Renters!
On Friday we received the keys to our new house.
Our new rental house.
I only bring up that we’re renting again because a precious reader by the name of Alan had some Very Important Words that he felt called to share with me regarding the fact that I do not own a home.
But you will become the drunk woman with 5 kids, or the ex boyfriend, etc….because if its 90% as great as you are claiming that is it, you are still no more than a renter.
Doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc..OWN homes not rent them, and everyone in your neighborhood will be saying or thinking “there goes those damn renters”.
I could be wrong, but I think Alan wants me to feel bad because I am A Renter. I think Alan is a RENTER-IST! (Alan’s all “no I’m not! Some of my BEST FRIENDS are renters! I just don’t want them living in MY neighborhood, because they get drunk and have kids all damn day long!)
Actually, that’s not the first angry comment I’ve received regarding the fact that we rent. This really seems to piss the random men off who happen upon my site while searching for things like “Stuff My Enchilada, Big Boy.”
Of course, every single time that I get one of these emails/comments, the person holds ME responsible for the fact that we do not own a home.
Roland’s comment is a shining example.
Losers cry and eat/waste money on bean dip/gameshowtryouts etc. , If you love your kids so much, go do something about it.
Winners do the math , suck it up and think about what matters and take care of business.
If you polled the people that have replied to your post, probably 60% own thier home, they didnt do anything special (like win the lottery or win on some gameshow), they just put thier home/kids above the me, me.
$8a day on starbucks/beandip is $2920 a year x (times) how ever many years you have been wasting money on rent/beandip. Not to mention that it had to cost something out of pocket to travel around to meet people from the internet, and interview Elaine from Sienfield.
Egocentricity should be thy middle name , if you only got paid $10.00 an hourfor every hour you have spent BLOGGING or reading BLOGS or met other renters who BLOG, I am willing to wager you would have quite the down payment.
(Winners do the math!)
I’ve never responded to the assumptions and accusations because I enjoy letting people make up stories as to why we don’t own a home. I mean, what would random assholes on the internet have to say if I told them that my husband allowed his crook of an Uncle to use us to pay HIS taxes for years and that we racked up tens of thousands of dollars in IRS bills and had a lien against us until we payed HIS UNCLES taxes off and that my husband didn’t stand up to his uncle because he didn’t want to cause problems in his family and that I was the one who had to threaten to report his asshole Uncle to the IRS and deal with the anger and hatred of his family because ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and that when we finally paid the taxes off and had money for a down payment, home prices (which used to be in the 150,000’s) soared to the 400,000’s and we couldn’t afford that on one income.
See, that? Is boring. I much prefer the Bean Dip/Starbucks theory.
Blame The Bean Dip!
I have a lot that I want to write about The Move and The Joy that I feel in my heart to finally live in a home that I am not ashamed of, that does not suck the happiness from my soul, but SHIT! I am tired. The kind of tired that hurts, the kind of tired that makes you want to cry while you’re wondering aimlessly through the aisles of Target trying to remember what it is that you were there for in the first place.
So.
Instead of more words, I give you pictures.

The View from my living room window
Counting The Minutes
Every morning after I drop the kids off at school, I take a drive up to the new house. I love to drive up to the neighborhood. It’s beautiful. The streets are lined with trees. The homes are large and gorgeous. It’s peaceful and quite. People are out walking their dogs, or riding their horses.
It’s nothing at all like the ‘hood we lived in.
We’re so not going to fit in. Most of the people there are wealthy. They are dentists, they are doctors. They are attorneys. They drive Escalades and Hummers.
We are construction workers and Headline Rotaters**. We drive 95 Galants and Mini-vans.
It’s only a few minutes up the road from where we used to live, but it’s an entirely different world up there.
In my old neighborhood, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to see shirtless men with hairy beer belly’s walking across the street with a rifle resting on their shoulder. It wasn’t even the slightest bit weird to have drunk men knock on your door at 10pm to tell you “not to worry if you hear loud noises” coming from their backyard because they were going to be “playing with their potato launcher.” No one batted an eye when ex-boyfriend’s made the hill across the street their “home” because they got kicked out of the house and slapped with a restraining order. It wasn’t unusual to see 30 kids running crazy in the streets, most of them without socks or shoes and a couple of them in diapers.
I’ve been down the street of my new neighborhood at least 20 times and I have yet to see a kid playing outside. I have yet to see a shirtless man drinking a beer while yelling at His Woman. I have yet to see cops in front of a house while a young drunk mother shouts “IT WAS SELF DEFENSE” at them. I have yet to see a grown man come running out of the backyard with his shirt on fire. I have yet to see a mother of 5 kids having sex on the front lawn.
And while I’m pretty happy about that, I would be lying if I didn’t say a small part of me is crying on the inside because how boring.
Seriously, my old neighborhood was trashy in every way, but it was exciting and often times, hilarious. (Except for the time when me and my friends were out front at midnight, drinking smirnoffs and doing cartwheels and someone decided to pull out a shotgun and KILL A MAN across the street. That wasn’t hilarious at all.)
The silence in our new neighborhood is a little creepy because I’m not used to it. I’m not used to hearing crickets, I’m not used to hearing the leaves on the trees as the wind blows, but I’m looking forward to sleeping in peace and not getting woke up at 2 in the morning by my neighbor stabbing his dad while the mom throws furniture out onto the driveway.
I’m also looking forward to having The Jesus Approved Sex&trade without having my husband put his hand over my mouth to mute The Moans, because, you know, my Dad might hear us.
GROSS.
Two more days, people. Until Sex! And privacy! And MY OWN BED! And! And! ANNNNNDDD!

[Howard Dean Scream]YEeeeeaAAAAAAH[/Howard Dean Scream]

