the week started off well enough, really. my first class for the week was an a.p. class at one of the high schools and my experience with a.p., honors, and gifted classes have been that they tend to be very well behaved. this class was no exception. and the day was kind of short - the teacher had first period and 6th period planning. the 4th was spent in another middle school and the kids were pretty good - typical middle schoolers. my only problem child was checked out early, which meant the rest of the class could get on with it's work in peace. i didn't work wednesday, and i was given warnings about the kids for my thursday assignment, but they all behaved for me. all i had to deal with, really, was the migraine i've been fighting since this new tropical storm started dumping rain on us again. now i'm off until at least tuesday - today is an end of the quarter holiday and monday is a teacher planning day (i think we called them in service days in cali). i'm actually not scheduled for anything until wednesday.

yea, it's going to be a short check, especially after my new w-2 gets there. and there's not much i can do about it - the cut off date is the 19th. i'll just have to hope i get enough to cover my rent. if not, some of my son's ssi will go into it. that's all i can do, really.

anyway, tuesday i came home to an acceptance email. my short story "presence" will appear in dragons, knights, and angels this month - probably as soon as they receive the hard copies of the contract since i've already approved the proofs. it's a low paying acceptance, but it is an acceptance, so i was pretty jazzed for the rest of the evening. it could have been the worst day possible and that still would have made my day.

from there, though, things just kinda tanked. not everything, mind you, but it definitely was a weird mix of good and bad.

wednesday was my birthday and saxy "gave" me the day off. which actually means i wasn't already scheduled for some place and he needed to be at work early to get some things done, so i didn't take any calls that morning and stayed home. the first thing in my email? a rejection letter for "into stone." really, no big, i just thought the timing was interesting. anyway, i used the day to type up the changes i've made in chapter 18 of my novel . . . and to answer the phone. i swear, that thing rang at least once every hour for almost the whole day. most of it was stupid, ignorable crap - telemarketers and "important financial matter" calls (bill collectors). i did pick up a job from a new school that i have yet to sub at and i did have to turn down another school since they wanted me to come in right then. one car means no going anywhere once saxy's gone to work. the sad thing is it's the one school that keeps trying to get me to work there and always manages to call when i'm not available. i know the county is sub deficient, but this poor school is eventually going to stop calling just because they have really bad timing. some of the other calls were "keepers" as well - birthday calls from my oldest, linnorm, and a close online friend. the rest of the calls i really could have done without. really. i just wanted to get my chapter typed up and then go watch some witch hunter robin. by the time the chapter was done, though, whr was really out of the question.

maybe i'll make up for it today.

in another mix of good and bad, hubby bought me the traditional stuffed animal with the happy birthday balloon and candies he's managed to get me every year. i hadn't even realized how regular that's been till now, but it's true. they're always cute though! and he picked up the fixings for a great birthday dinner and something called turtle pie that was just heavenly. the down side? our gas payment bounced . . . again. i can see now that i'm going to have to take cash to a payment center to finally get that thing covered once and for all. yeesh. assuming they give me the chance to. the first bounce was stupid enough, the second is a beyond stupid - especially since i did say to leave the money in the account alone until the sucker was paid. not saxy's fault though, i did tell him to do some grocery shopping.

maybe i should have left my cd-rom alone for a bit longer.

and then there's these days off. both mornings i ended up awake at 5:00 a.m.! just what is that?

today is saxy's birthday and we were supposed to spend the day together. unfortunately, the gas payment bounced, another check won't arrive until this afternoon, and he has work he needs to finish from yesterday. hopefully he won't be gone for a full day, but he made arrangements to be off and now he can't use it.

but the final kicker is the $20,000.00 check from my mother. no letter. just a check. now i know that sounds good, and yes, my heart did stop for a minute, but there's no way it's legitimate. my brother had warned me earlier this week that mother is off her meds again, which i kinda figured when she called me telling me she had moved out of the halfway house for a few days. when she's in her paranoid state, she doesn't like being around too many other people. unfortunately, when she's in her paranoid state she's also got this whole child of god and man we're wealthy thing going on, not realizing the wealth god speaks of usually is of a spiritual nature. i called her to find out what the hell was going on, if the check was in any way, even remotely, legit. she swore it was. and then i asked her where she got the money. "from god." ummm, okay, time to tear up one $20k check (although saxy thinks we should go to the bank and tell them we want to deposit it but only if that kind of money actually exists in the account - not that the return check fee is all that bad ($5), it just would be wrong to deposit it when she doesn't have it in my mind - but i doubt they'd tell us that unless we actually try to cash it, and if it is legit i certainly don't want to be carrying around $20k in my pocket!). it was a nice thought, really.

actually, no it wasn't. it's one more piece of weirdness that made up the week. and one of those things that makes a person really wonder why they can't have a "normal" mother. :P

i'm going back to bed. and i'm going to do that whr marathon i had planned for my bday. and i'm not answering the phone. and i'm eating turtle pie. and ignoring the check. and forgetting the bounce on the gas payment. i'm going to try to celebrate until hubby comes home cranky from work. the only challenge? the kids are home. so i may end up having to play referee as well. and, of course, hoping the storm headache from yesterday doesn't raise its ugly presence again. (falling asleep around 10:30 pm last night actually makes sense when you take into account that i was fighting a storm headache all day yesterday.)

i'm telling ya, the week is determined to be a weird mix.

yea, definitely going back to bed now. maybe i'll just ignore the kids. (okay, can't quite do that with my son, but maybe i can ignore the girls? they're the ones always fighting anyway - and the ones who are getting a taste of prison.

god, even that's part of the week's weirdness.)