New Orleans Trip And The New Pet Sitter

Mardi Gras mask

Last week was my husband's convention in New Orleans so I tagged along. I love New Orleans and thought it would be a great opportunity to spend some time with the boy who is in school only an hour away.  I didn't realize that it was already Mardi Gras in New Orleans which meant crowds and road closings due to all the parades. Our taxi driver actually had to put us out about three or four blocks from our hotel because of road closings. This wasn't too much of a problem since we didn't have our luggage because the airlines losing it somewhere between Houston and New Orleans. All we had to carry were the carry on bags we had with us and my bag rolls so no problems there.

Because of the rain and the road closings, I discouraged the boy from driving to New Orleans so I wasn't able to see him. That was a drag, but the trip was fun. I got included in the fun parties and while my husband worked I did long runs through the French Quarter and then pigged out on beignets and coffee. The hotel had an awesome gym so I didn't miss a work out. I needed as many workouts as possible due to all the food and alcohol I was consuming.

Me and the Murph

The hotel we stayed in - Hilton Riverside New Orleans

Fog over the Mississippi River - Hilton Riverside New Orleans

Outside Hilton Riverside New Orleans - fog over the Mississippi River

Lining up for a Mardi Gras parade

Outside convention center - New Orleans Mardi Gras

Me outside convention center New Orleans

The Murph

Cafe Du Monde - New Orleans

Outside Cafe Du Monde New Orleans

While we were gone I hired a pet sitter to sit for our three cats. Phantom has to have meds twice a day, fluids every other day and syringe feedings even though he's eating some on his own now. I was very worried about leaving him and within the first 4 hours after leaving I called and left at least three messages on the pet sitter phone. I finally figured out that that was not her cell number which was probably why I didn't hear from her. As soon as I called her cell phone, she answered with, "Well I see you found my cell number". I guess I'm a little overprotective with my cats, but after that somewhat bad start, the pet sitter texted me updates every time she went to the house and also sent me pictures of Phantom playing with cat nip toys she brought for them and chasing laser dots. Apparently, they were getting very spoiled!

Entrance to Jackson Square - New Orleans

Mississippi River - New Orleans

When the Murph and I got home around midnight Monday night, all three cats were, surprisingly, waiting anxiously at the front door, not hiding under the beds as they usually do when they suspect strangers are coming in. I was so happy to see them, but the minute they saw us their little faces dropped. They all looked past us to the front door as if the say, "But where is the other lady? The NICE one that plays with us and brings us toys?"

The nice pet lady had left me a very detailed four page letter of everything she did while she was there, including all meds she was able to get down Phantom (she managed to get down all of them) even though he got mad at her and ran under the bed when he saw her coming with it. He does that to me all the time, especially at bed time when he thinks I will fall to sleep and he can wait me out.  I just leave the meds next to my bed and get up an hour or two later, when he's least expecting it, to give him the meds.

Needless to say, I will definitely hire this lady again to pet sit if she's willing to put up with me. I will, however, suggest she back a little off on all the playing and spoiling she does with the cats because I don't want them to get use to it. I spent the past week with them looking at me, bringing toys to me, judging me. I couldn't live up to the pet sitter in their critical, judgy little eyes.

They seemed to love chasing the dot so much that I've actually considered purchasing a laser pointer...

What's a pet mom to do? I've been judged! Crafty little fur monkeys!

Looking For A Little Blog Post Direction

Hi blog readers! The ones of you who are still popping in from time to time. I was just checking my stats and there have been quite a few page views, surprisingly, since I haven't posted in a couple of weeks.

While I haven't been here, I have actually been thinking about and planning the future for my blog posts, where to take this blog from here, blog post ideas, etc. Since I began writing this blog two years ago, I've sort of let it go wherever it wants to go with no real planning, just whatever comes to mind and is a part of my day or life.

That's probably what will continue to take place, but at least I have good intentions on direction now or at least I'm trying to obtain some direction.  Anyway, here's kind of what I have in mind for future blog posts:

1. For all you Asperger/autism parents that follow my blog, you have probably all left by now  because I have been writing very little about autism or adventures with my Aspie son. Since he's away at college and I am several hundred miles away from him right now there is very little to write about lately that I feel wouldn't violate his privacy. You may remember the bed bug incident (Here) that happens to be the most popular post of all time I think because of those computer robot things. Go figure! When new issues arise, however, you may find a blog post here about it. Surviving bed bugs is important!
2. Triathlon training and races will continue to be a part of this blog since it's a huge part of my life. Fitness is actually going to be an even bigger part of my life because we just purchased a gym franchise and will open two gyms in the St. Petersburg area within the next 6 months that I will run. This should keep me pretty darn busy in the days ahead. Don't be surprised to see some blog posts on this. Hopefully, not stressed out, pulling out my hair kind of blog posts.
3. Fashion, especially shoes, will always be a small part of this blog. I love clothes, but hate shopping. If I loved shopping, there would be many more fashion posts, but one very unhappy husband. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my photographer got another job and quit on me (Read about it Here) and I'm terrible at selfies so this limits the fashion posts too.
4. What I eat, places I frequent, travel, etc. will always be a part of this blog. I have so many places already that I need to share but haven't had the time. We just moved to a new city that has much to offer and I like to share my discoveries here. Expect to see more of this soon. Doesn't everybody like pictures of food? Aren't you all just dying to see what I'm eating?
5. Cats. That's a given. Whether you like those posts or not, my cats are the coolest, most talented supreme cats ever so expect lots of blog posts about their awesomeness. You're welcome!
6. The Murph, my husband, who continually cracks me up and gives me lots of fodder to steal from. He hates it when I pick up on his little, sort of obnoxious sayings and idioms and overuse them. Why? Because they ARE obnoxious and funny to strange people like me who have a dry sense of humor and are full of sarcasm in general. Expect to see lots of it here and any other things he does that amuses me.

Well, I think that takes care of just about everything I write or plan to write about here. I promise to get back to regular postings. You've probably enjoyed the break from my crazy randomness, but then again, you keep coming back for more.

It must be the cat pictures. I hate to disappoint so here you go... One more Cadence, the photo bombing freak cat, picture. 

You're welcome!

I Confess - I Turned The Alarm Off And Went Back To Bed (And Other Important Things)

What a week! I don't even know where to begin. The Murph's job offer in St. Pete? The Boy's eviction notice from his college apartment? Phantom, the cat's, bad, good, trying to get him to eat, drink and take his pills and supplement days? My half ironman training (that's not) days?

The 15 hours of continuing education real estate license classes I have to take so I can activate my Alabama license, so I can then get a reciprocal Florida real estate license without having to take the 60 hour pre-license class again. Searching online for a place to live in the Tampa/St. Pete area before we head back down there in a couple of weeks so we can see them in person.

That doesn't include all that's coming up next week. We are going back to Birmingham to clean out and pack up the house and then turn it over to a Birmingham realtor to sell for us. Hopefully, she will sell it quicker than we were able too. Being there to show it is key. That's hard to do when you're 4 hours away like we are. We weren't all that concerned about it until we discovered we were moving several more hours away. Any way, that's all next week.

This past week the Boy, who has Asperger's, called me from college while we were still in St. Pete saying he got an eviction notice from his apartment. This is after the fact that the Boy had gone down to the office several times to get this vendor form filled out for Alabama Rehab. AL Rehab has to have the form before they can pay the apartment complex. The Boy is eligible for a part of his rent to be paid by Alabama Rehab. Without their help, the Boy can't afford to live there. There have been a series of phone calls, emails from the Boy, me and Alabama Rehab to the apartment complex, but nothing has been done. I even called the corporate office and the Boy has been to the apartment office several times. Despite all of this, since rent is past due because the form hasn't been filled out, the Boy got an eviction notice.

This has FINALLY been straightened out (I think) so the Boy's okay for now. His classes were dropped also, when his financial aid wasn't applied to his account because of me. That was back a few weeks ago when I didn't know the difference between an income tax return and a transcript. This was taken care of as well so he's okay there too. Finally!

The Murph accepted the job offer and we are still waiting for everything to be finalized. We should know something this week. We already have a realtor trying to help us find a place to rent in Tampa/St.  Pete and I've been looking online. What a headache!

Me and Miss Mary

Phantom is doing pretty well. We had dinner with Miss Mary, an energy healer, who has been helping Phantom, last night. She's been sending Phantom healing energy and giving me other suggestions for him. She thinks he might be dehydrated. He was drinking tons of water when we were in St. Pete and not so much now that we are back in Pensacola. If you want to keep up with how he's doing he has his own facebook page here and blog here.

The Murph and Miss Mary

I had to upgrade my computer system so I could take the online CE Real Estate classes. That was a pain since I thought I could do it myself and wasted several hours attempting it. Who knows what all I've downloaded on this thing now. I have a dinosaur of a computer! I've only gotten halfway through the first risk management class and have 5 classes (15 hours) total that I have to take. Boring!

Half Ironman training? Well, uh, yes, I'm sucking at it! I haven't swam in a couple of weeks or been on my tri bike. I've been indoor cycling, weights and lots of running, but shorter runs of between 3 - 9 miles. Okay, mostly just 3 miles.

Sunday was the Trigulfcoast's club members only practice triathlon for the Santa Rosa Island Sprint that is coming up in a couple of weeks. I was signed up to do the practice race which was going to be officially timed with a chip and everything. It would have been a great practice race and good overall brick workout. The night before I pumped up my bike tires, set my tri clothing out and packed all my gear into my transition bag. I set the alarm on my IPhone for 5:30 a.m and was all set to go!

My alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. just as scheduled. It was still dark outside at 5:30 a.m. That totally sucks because I terribly dislike getting up when it's still dark outside knowing that I have to swim. In the ocean!!

I got up, turned my alarm off, fed a snack to two of our curious, demanding cats, who were probably wondering what the crap I was doing, then I crawled back into my nice warm bed between my sexy husband (he has incredible body heat at 5:30 a.m) and our other four legged furry kitty, Ed, who likes sleeping on my side of the bed.

A few hours later, the Murph woke up, looked over at my sorry sleeping ass, laughed and asked me how I did on the race.

I told him it was an incredibly tough race! I had to stumble 10 feet to turn my alarm off, followed by a couple of hours of some marathon sleeping. It was grueling, just grueling! I even shortened my Sunday long run because of how exhausted It was from getting up at 5:30 a.m.

And did I feel guilty about being a no show?

Heck no!

The Boy And The Cats

Yesterday we drove the Boy back to school after he spent the weekend here with us. Saturday night I took the Boy out to dinner, but forgot the camera so I don't have pictures. I tried to take some pictures with my phone on Instagram. I posted some out on Instagram, so if you're following me on there (Click here to follow me) you may have seen some of them, but I don't know how many posted out because I was having some trouble with the app on my phone. One day I will figure it out and my pictures will come out straight and focused. Probably.

Anyway, we had barbecue and there were fireworks across the street as we were leaving the restaurant.  Then we stopped at a convenience store on the way home so I could get the Boy another Dr. Pepper (the real deal, not the Dr. Thunder Walmart stuff). As usual he wanted to stay in the car and as usual I hit door lock with the car key thingy, forgetting that every time I do that and he's in the car, he sets off the motion sensor in the car and the alarm goes off.

I was in the store and heard an alarm going off in the parking lot.  I soon realized it was my car when I saw a group of teens looking toward where I had parked. I could just imagine what the Boy was thinking at that moment. When I walked out of the store, he was smiling and shaking his head. "MOM!! You did it AGAIN!!"

Oh well, I couldn't help but laugh at him. Next time maybe he'll get out of the car with me and go inside the store. He knows how to grocery shop now. He told me he mostly eats Ramen noodles now because he can get a 12 pack for $2 and 1 individual thing makes a really big serving. He actually likes them. Who knew!

Phantom seemed much better all weekend. I think he liked having the Boy back.

Cadence and Ed, on the other hand, freaked out and ran and hid every time the Boy walked into the room. He did look pretty wild and in need of a hair cut. I tried to cut it before he left, but he wouldn't let me near him.

Cadence trapped in the kitchen looking up at the Boy

Cadence jumped up on the counter to find an alternate means of escape

Is the wild hair Boy still over there? I'll stay here until it's safe!

Tonight Cadence is much more relaxed even though he's been whacked on the head a couple of times today by Phantom.

Poor Phantom! Missing the Boy again.

The Boy's Visit

This morning I got up early to drive the three hour round trip to get the Boy from college and bring him back to stay with us for the weekend. These visits seem to keep getting more and more rare as he would rather stay at school most of the time. I figured he must be running out of food and/or money and he knows we will feed him when he's with us. He did make sure we were taking him out to eat before he decided to visit us and I got him breakfast this morning on the way back. It really wasn't that difficult getting on the road early since the last few weeks I've been up with the cats watching the sun rise.

On the way back I asked the Boy if he was out of any toiletries are anything and he said no. We stopped at Walmart Marketplace anyway because he wanted something to drink, meaning soft drinks because he knows we don't buy them and keep them in the house. He wanted Dr. Pepper and ended up getting Walmart's version, Dr. Thunder.

 Just kind of scary if you ask me. Why Dr. Thunder? How does Dr. Pepper translate into the Walmart Dr. Thunder version.

While I was there I thought of the Murph and got him another 12 pack of his drink of choice. At least that is one of them. 

Since the Boy is always complaining about being hungry, the Murph planned ahead of time and put a plate of pasta and chicken parm in the fridge with the Boy's name on it, complete with heating instructions.

On the hour and 1/2 drive back to the beach, the Boy and I got to catch up on things. We talked about several things like....

1. The possibility that Phantom might have cancer and what to do next

2.  How the Boy liked his student assistance job (He likes it)

3. If his room mate was still eating the Boy's food (Not anymore)

4. Phantom

5. The importance of the Boy keeping a clean and sanitary apartment, especially bathroom

   (He thinks it's clean, but when I saw his bath room it was pretty gross)

6. What we were going to do about Phantom

7. There's no way Phantom has cancer (says the Boy)

8. The fact that Phantom's bedroom is where the Boy sleeps and there's cat hair all over the bed, but I didn't think the Boy would mind since it's still a cleaner room than what he's been living in for the past several months because he refuses to do what I say and CLEAN his apartment! (He thought I was joking about that part (because he knows I usually clean everything for him) until he saw the cat hair)

9. The possibility that Phantom might have cancer and what to do next

As you can tell, we talked about Phantom ALOT. I did hear from the vet yesterday and had another call today and we are still unsure what is causing the high calcium levels in Phantom's blood. His thyroid is good. We've ruled out pretty much everything but cancer. The vet called some specialists at Auburn University and Michigan State to try to find out if they had blood test to detect cancer in cats. Michigan State has one and so now I just have to arrange for Phantom to get blood taken and shipped to them to be tested. He's also going to get another physical to check his mouth and glands in his neck since he keeps licking his lips and his breath smells really bad. 

Now I just have to decide if I should wait 2 weeks until we get back to Birmingham for the tests or take him to a new vet in Gulf Breeze next week. I'm thinking I should go ahead and take him next week and try to coordinate all the tests with my Birmingham vet and the new Gulf Breeze vet that a friend recommended.

Today Phantom's doing much better. He seems to love having the Boy back. Sometimes I wonder if he's just depressed when he seems to be feeling really bad. It's hard to tell with a cat! We know he's sick though because he does have heart disease and something causing this high calcium in his blood.

 It was a good day. I love having the Boy visit and we now have more options on what to do with Phantom instead of  "just wait and see." Phantom has been such a great pet for the Boy. I plan to do everything I can to help him get better if that is possible.

Another awesome sunset this evening!

Paddling And The Boy

Paddle boarding that is, not paddling the Boy although he could use a good paddling about now!

Everyday I see more and more people paddling around on paddle boards. Popularity seems to keep growing in this sport that originated in Hawaii, the Murph and my future retirement state. (If I can get him back on an airplane for the time it takes to fly there it will be a miracle!) Yesterday evening there was a lone paddler on the sound at sunset. Very peaceful! I haven't tried it yet, but it's on my "to do" list this year. I wonder how hard it is to balance on one of those things?

It's almost impossible to be stressed out here even though the Boy is continually working on it for me. His latest issue is not answering his phone when I call him or responding to text messages from me unless he needs something from me. Usually when he decides to call me he is in some sort of "crisis" situation. For example, the other day he called (after not responding to my calls or texts for 3 days) extremely, EXTREMELY upset because one of his roommates was eating his food. Instead of confronting the roommate, the Boy decided I need to bring him his own personal refrigerator for his bedroom.

When he realized that wasn't going to happen, he calmed down and hopefully either confronted his roommate with the problem or purchased food items that don't require refrigeration so he can store it in his room. At the time, those were the best solutions I could think of for him. I was a little upset myself that he didn't call or respond to me unless he needed something and then he demanded that I do something. Oh no! Not going to happen.

Tequila helps the de-stressing process too. With the awesome sunsets, bike rides, long runs and adult beverages, I can handle the Boy's "crisis" situations a little better than I use to.

One more thing - I don't think the Boy reads my blog (as a matter of fact, I know he doesn't), but if he happens to come across this post, I have one thing to say to him -

" If you want me to answer my phone when you call or text me, then I would suggest you do the same when I call. I know you are really, really busy, but I was a little busy myself all those years I had to set aside my own interests to change your diapers and attend all those IEP meetings. So.... answer your phone or at the least return my call at a time when it's more convenient for you, preferably on the same day I called you. That is all."

"Comprende?"

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow... Or Rather Gone Last Night Sometime Before Midnight

We didn't have candles so we used matches. The top two = 20 and the bottom one = 1 = 21!

The Boy spent a couple of days with us during the Memorial Day weekend partly because he was bored and out of food at his college apartment and partly because his birthday is this Wednesday and he needed to get around as many family members as possible to get his birthday loot aka MONEY!! Money to buy food since his meal plan for last semester is over.

Sunday I took him out to eat at his favorite Mexican restaurant, Margarita Grill. The same place I went with the Babysitter for Cinco de Mayo and had to leave sans my taco salad because of the wildness of the place. Sunday it was calmer and a very nice day for outdoor dining as well.

Below are some fuzzy pics taken with my new Iphone 5. I now have Instagram. Hope that works better...

Chicken Chimichanga

This time I got my chicken taco salad and ate almost every bit of it. The first time ever accomplishing that feat.  The Boy got a chicken chimichanga with rice and beans and of course we got chips, salsa and cheese dip.  Later we had birthday cake and the first thing the Boy said was, "Why blue roses?" I tell him it's because he's a boy and the other alternative was pink roses. He was cool with the pink roses he tells me. Oh well, too bad. Next year I'll get pink!

Chicken taco salad

On Monday, he and the friend that he was riding back to school with decide they are going to leave around 9 pm, after the Boy gets back from eating out at his other favorite place, The Cheesecake Factory, with his dad and grandparents. I tried to convince him to stay at least until this morning, but he said his friend really wanted to go back Monday night.  Then at 10 pm when the Boy still wasn't home or packed to go back to school, I text him telling him he needed to wait until Tuesday morning to leave since it was so late and he still wasn't home yet.

No response.

Around 10:30 pm the two show up at the house to get the Boy's stuff preparing to head back to school that night which meant they wouldn't get to school until 2:30 in the morning. When I tell him no, it's too late, he called me a jerk and said the PLAN was to go back that night. Staying would screw up the PLAN! He can't mess up the PLAN!!

Neither the Murph nor I could convince them to stay at least until morning even though I felt driving that late was dangerous and I didn't like it one bit.

After much name calling (apparently I'm a huge jerk), I finally tell him he's an adult (21 years old tomorrow!) and could do what he wanted, but I still didn't think it was a good idea. His friend said he wasn't tired one bit since he'd just woke up at 3 pm and would be okay to drive that late, he's driven it before at 4 am, he said.  I told them I was getting ready to go to bed so they needed to be out before I was finished so I could set the alarm.

When the Boy got all packed up he came upstairs to tell me good-bye and wanted to know if he should call me when he got to school. I told him at 2 in the morning I would be asleep, but to text me to let me know he had gotten there safely. He said okay.

In the morning, no text. No text until he finally woke up sometime after noon.

While I really want him to be independent and to do things for himself, I know that things can still happen. He has Asperger's and sometimes not the best judgement. The Murph still says I'm a helicopter parent, but I don't think that applies to me at all anymore. I've loosened the reigns and allowed the Boy to be more independent than I probably would have if I was still single and it was just the two of us. In a way, that's been a good thing for both of us.

The Boy still depends on me to get his financial aid in order for the upcoming school years. Since we just got our federal income tax return back, I had to go to UPS to fax a copy to the school. While we were there, the Murph was telling the owner of the store what a helicopter parent I was by doing all the work for the Boy. I defend myself by saying, "I have to be a little bit of a helicopter parent because my son has Asperger's, have you ever heard of it, it's on the autism spectrum?"

The owner nodded her head toward her daughter who was in the back working on a computer and said,  "She has Asperger's. I don't have to be a helicopter parent because she's right there with me all the time."

I started talking to the daughter who had helped us several times when we were in the store and she told me that she had been to a private college for about a year but had to quit because of severe depression and anxiety. So severe she couldn't even go to class. I told her that the Boy had experienced the same thing his first year and had to go on anti-depressants.

It also helped that he has a friend at the same college that he's known since 3rd grade. They now share an apartment with one other person, but have their own private bedroom and bathroom. It's almost like him having his own private dorm room, which he liked, but more homey and not so lonely because there are others to share a common area with whenever he feels like coming out of his room. (I don't know if any of them come out of their room that often except to go to class though).

I'm really glad the Boy is doing well and WANTS to get back to his own apartment and school. It could have so easily gone the other way and he could be back at home. Fortunately (I guess),  he doesn't even like it here anymore. It's tough sometimes knowing when to let go and when to pull in the reigns. As the Boy gets older it is REALLY tough! He still needs me when he needs me, yet he needs me to back away when he needs me to back away. It's usually up to me to figure it out.

I might not like it sometimes, but I think that this "helicopter parent" is doing her job helicopter or not!