September Update

I realized this week that it has been forever (over a month) since I posted a blog.  So I thought I would update my loyal readers (LOL) with some things that have happened in my life.

A.  I went on a terrific trip to NYC with my long time friend AL.  It was a great trip and I got to see and do many new things.
     1.  On our first day we took a cab to Harlem to have lunch at a Soul Food restaurant.  We gave the address to the cab driver and he had a general idea of our destination but he didn't know the exact location.  So...he dropped us off at the entrance of Columbia University and said we should walk to our right.  OK??  But,  we did have a nice walk through campus and then through a little park before we found the restaurant.  It was a good thing my GPS was able to give us directions otherwise we would have never found the restaurant.
     2.  We also walked through the infamous Hells Kitchen and AL had terrible dinner of fried octopus while I drank Sangria.
     3.  We visited Bloomindales and I gawked at the very expensive clothing.  BTW...the plus size clothing section was awful. 
     4.  The great plague started while I was on this trip.  Ugg...the sickness slowly descended upon me over the four days I was there.  The first major indication of being sick was that I was never hungry.  AL would go into a bakery and I would wave my hand and say I didn't want a cupcake or Cookie.  SERIOUSLY....when do I ever turn down a sweet?  A few months ago I would have said NEVER but now I say only when I get the great plague.
     5.  The best part of the trip was the musicals.  Basically, seeing multiple shows was our main objective in NYC.  We planned them all in advance and purchased them online.  Neither of us was interested in waiting in Times Square to get the cheap half price tickets as we both do better with a specific plan.  I made a list of my favorite to least favorite shows...but honestly the were all great.

          A.  Memphis
          B.  Billy Elliot
          C.  How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying
          D.  Catch Me if You Can
          E.  Phantom of the Opera

B.  I caught the plague while I was in NYC.  Sigh...basically I was really sick.  I cannot recall ever being so sick for such a long period of time.  I was seriously sick for a week, moderately sick for the next week and and mildly sick for two more weeks.  However, I don't really think I am fully recovered yet and the sickness started over the Labor Day holiday.  When DM picked me up at the airport she was hesitant to let me in her car because I looked so awful.  She told me that she sprayed the entire car down with Lysol as soon as she got home.  In week three of the plague I was in a meeting at work with three of our executives and I had to excuse myself twice because I began to cough so hard it sounded and felt like my lungs were trying to exit my body via my mouth.  Not cool.  After the second time I didn't even try to go back to the meeting. 


C.  I learned that Unicorns suck.

D.  Biking season is slowly winding down with darkness coming earlier and earlier each day.  The BGI weekly rides have ended and we had a great group dinner to celebrate.  About 12 people showed up for the dinner and it made me so happy to look around the table and realize how many new friends I made over the summer.  Not just acquaintances but new friendships that have grown beyond biking.  It was a good summer.

E.  I did some cool events in September.  I visited the Propylaeum and painted a picture with a good friend.  I went on a chilly but fun bike ride in Carmel.  I helped my brother move.  BTW...two story homes suck!  I attended my first baby shower in at least five years.   I made a new tradition of biking and eating dinner with friends every Wednesday night.  We often stay out to late talking and drinking beer.  Good times.  Also, I got another root canal.

F.  It is now October my favorite and least favorite month of the year.

G.  I am going to Europe over Christmas.  Woo Hoo!!!!  AL and I just made our lodging reservations for Dusseldorf and Paris.

The Dentist is my Favorite Person (Sarcasm)

Today was my favorite day of the year. I got to visit Doctor C., she is my dentist. In January when I had the first of my bi-yearly cleanings I got this news from my dentist. Basically, I needed three or four new crowns in my mouth. She wanted me to do the work right away but I hesitated because I knew I didn't have the money for that amount of extensive work.

After some thought I decided to wait until May when I could renew my flexible spending benefits at work. I decided to flex $3700. This amount seamed astronomical for me because most people who flex this amount have families or medical problems or have to pay for child care. It is just me! I knew that I didn't want to charge this expense so it appeared to be the best long term solution.

I was originally going to go in today and get all four teeth worked on. But, I had some second thoughts. I was worried that in addition to the crowns I would also need some root canals. This always happens to me. The dentist says that I only need crowns and then BAM, I have tooth pain and they need to remove the nerves and root. When I arrived there this afternoon I changed my treatment plan and requested that they only work on the two worst teeth to ensure I had enough money to cover any unexpected root canals.

This was a good decision. The dentist decided to work on tooth #12 and #13 (I go so often that I have now picked up on the lingo). These are the two teeth on the top left side of my mouth in front of my molars. She starts by giving my the shot with the exceptionally long steel needle. I grimace but take the pain as I know if will wade quickly. Doctor C. then states that she thinks she needs to give me a shot in the roof of my mouth. She said that she knows that I don't like it, but I will probably need it as she will be drilling close to the gums. I blurt out "What if I start to cry?". I don't know why that came out of my mouth except that I have horrible memories of this particular mouth shot. I told her to do it because I knew that it was the smartest move, but I was scared.

She prepped the needle and it looked like small metal clamps the stick into my gums. It was horrible but not as horrible as my previous memory of it. I didn't actually cry but there were a couple tears that squeezed out of the corners of my eyes. It was over quickly and my mouth became numb.

The dentist began working on my teeth and I sat there trying to be relaxed, but clenching the arms of the chair with my hands. I often use self talk techniques during this process in order to relax. I was envisioning a relaxing bike ride with my friends. I am not sure if it really helps but it does let my mind focus on something else.

About fifteen minutes after she began drilling she stops and tells me that I need a root canal on both of these teeth. Wow, I must have had a premonition because I sure called that.

The end result today was that I had two root canals and crown preps. I was in the office for three hours and I was exhausted when I was done. I have been going to this particular dentist for the last four years and I feel that this is the best relationship with a dentist that I have ever had. Ok...I haven't had very many but still. I was impressed today that she remember my phobia of the roof mouth needle. I was also impressed that she remembered how much I don't like the plastic sheet they put in your mouth to isolate the tooth during the procedure. I often find it difficult to breathe and I get a bit claustrophobic during the process. I liked that she talked me through it and tried to make me as comfortable as possible. Could there be more stuff in my mouth at once? A plastic sheet, metal clamps, a rubber thing to hold my mouth open, a cotton thing in my cheek, a drill, and two hands. I don't think that my mouth is that big.

Your mouth starts out with 32 teeth. I now have 9 crowns and 6 root canals. So the percentage of crowns to actual teeth is 28.1% and the percentage of root canals are 18.7%. I wonder how close to 100% I will get. I guess that is called dentures.

My teeth…my teeth…my teeth

A couple weeks ago I had my semi-annual dental cleaning appointment at my favorite dentist. She was very nice and gently cleaned the six months worth of stuff that was accumulated. The hygienist also took a full set of dental x-rays for the dentist to review for any new tooth developments. YES…there were new developments.

After the dentist reviewed the x-rays and then my mouth she told me that I needed three new crowns with a potential for a fourth. Whatever! Four new crowns! The bottom line cost on that activity is around $3000 and that doesn’t take into account any potential root canals. Every time that I have had major work like this done, and the dentist had drilled out my teeth, I somehow end up needing root canals. Each root canal costs about $1000, so this could cost me upwards of $7000. I was not a happy camper when I left the dentist office. I am going to wait to do any of this work until May when I can renew my flexible spending account. This will help me budget to pay for these items while not charging any of them. Please have good thought that they will hold up until then.

Later that week I had a conversation with one of my friends about this topic and she gave me rave reviews of her electric toothbrush. Her visit for her teeth cleaning lasted only five minutes...I guess she is doing something right. I had been thinking about getting one for a while and I decided to go for it and spend the money. I went to BB&B to purchase it because I have one of their famous 20% off coupons. They had several different kinds with various attachments as well as price points. I found an employee who seamed knowledge about the topic and he gave me some very helpful and useful information. I chose the basic $40 sonic care version because I didn’t know if I was going to like it or it was going to be useful to me.

I used it for the first time the next day and it was wild. It was so weird having this moving object in my mouth. It felt nothing like the $5 throw away versions. It was very powerful and made an interesting vibrating noise as it touched my teeth. The literature that came with it said that the first twelve times that you used the toothbrush it would work on a slower level to let your teeth and mouth get used to the sensation. I am glad that they included that feature. The instructions also recommended brushing for two minutes and that the toothbrush would beep every thirty seconds it indicate a quadrant change. I have not heard a beep yet, perhaps it is a user error?

How did I get such rotten teeth? I guess I have bad luck!

New York City Visit

I went to NYC for the first time last weekend and had a blast. I went with my friend Andrea from Florida and we met at the hotel on Thursday afternoon. For the first time on a trip I decided to park at the airport rather than having someone drop me off. I though that this would be cheaper due to the cost of gas these days. As usual, I was running about 15 minutes later than scheduled and I left my house at 6:00am. My plane was due to depart at 7:30am. I arrived at the parking lot at 6:30am and found a place to park. I wondered around for a few minutes trying to figure out where I should go to be picked up. I saw a place that appeared to be a shelter so I went there and after about two minutes of anxious waiting I decided to start walking towards the entrance. As I was walking I saw the bus go by the bus stop where I was at, so I hurried to the next on and they left without me. By the time I arrived at the airport it was 7am. I was feeling very anxious and I didn’t want to miss my plane. I was able to convince people to let me in front of them due to the late hour…after I got up to the counter at 7:05 the agent wouldn’t let me check in. If I hadn’t needed to check a bag he would have let me on the plane, but I did so I officially missed my plane. I hate when I do stuff like this. Basically the problem was that I just didn’t plan enough time to get to the airport, drop off my car and check in. I assure you that I have learned my lesson and I will allocate enough time in the future. The agent put me on a direct flight that left three hours later and I arrived in NY at 12:30pm.

I was very excited to arrive and look at everything. I took a shared airport shuttle for $16 from LaGuardia airport to my hotel in Manhattan . I was very lucky and have a very colorful and talkative driver. He was a local, but he was listening to Caribbean music in the van and he had a slight accent. As we were driving through Brooklyn he was pointing out landmarks and driving through back streets, so I feel that I got a good view of Brooklyn . I loved the cute brownstone buildings. I had always imagined myself living in a similar building. We also saw the 21 apartment buildings that were the infamous projects. You couldn’t tell much from the outside except that they looked fairly cheap from the outside and there were no people about.




This is our hotel room and photos of the view from our window on the 38th floor.

The main activity of this trip was for Andrea and I to see many Broadway musicals. We both LOVE the theatre and musicals especially. We both arrived on Thursday afternoon and departed NY on Sunday afternoon and we were able to squeeze in 4 plays. This was the bulk of our budget for this trip. The following is the list of musicals in the order that I liked them. Andrea and I saw three of the same shows and on Saturday afternoon when I saw Wicked she saw Zanadoo.

Spring Awaking
South Pacific
Mary Poppins
Wicked

Spring Awaking was my absolutely favorite musical to date. This was a German play from the early 1900’s that was adapted in 2006 to become a rock musical. This was a dark show that confronted may issues facing teenagers then and today. It took on pre-marital sex, masturbation, abortion, incest and suicide. Even though this was a period piece it could still describe feelings to today’s youth. I liked that fact that the music was so different than traditional musicals. They had a rock band on stage and didn’t use the typical orchestra. They also had audience members sitting on the stage along with the actors. I did not sit there but was in the front row center. I love sitting so close that I can see the actor’s facial expressions. There was a rather unconformable simulated sex scene on stage just before intermission that included nudity. My friend said afterword that she was glad that she saw this with me and not either one of her parents. I purchased the soundtrack for $20 after the show and I have listened it at least 10 times since I have come home. BTW…I feel ripped off for the $20 CD because I could have purchased it on Amazon.com at home for $13 or on ITunes for $10. Prior to seeing this play I didn’t know anything about it and I am so glad that I took the chance to see it. This musical won the 2007 Tony for best musical and I would recommend it for anyone going to NYC. This is a link to the YouTube.com performance of one of the songs.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoWTtjr7TyU





There was a celebrity citing while we were at this musical. Since our seats were in the front row center we had to wait a bit to get out of the building. As we were standing there, Andrea elbowed me and said, "I know that guy!". I didn't know who she was talking about but I saw a very beautiful women walking towards the front of the theatre. As they walked to the stage Andrea Realized who it was, Bruce Springsteen. He was in the audience and we saw him walk to the stage to meet the cast. Isn't it funny how celebrity get special treatment and get to just walk to the stage and do what they want.



South Pacific was my second favorite musical of the trip. It did come in a close second but it didn’t win. We saw this on the first night we arrive in NY when we were so exhausted. But the musical performances perked us both up. I don’t think that I have ever seen this show on stage and I may have only seen bits and pieces of the movie. The cast was fantastic and had really terrific voices. The sets were OK and added to the show but it was the actors that really brought it to life. I especially liked the second song of the performance which had many of the men actors dancing around the stage. This inside the theatre. I did get into trouble for taking this photo. I guess there are rules.

Mary Poppins was my third favorite show. The special effects were great and the music was good, but I don’t feel that I got anything extra from this show over seeing the movie version. At the very end as Mary was leaving the Banks family they had attached the actress to wires and she flew across the entire auditorium up to the front of the second story balcony. I don’t think that I would ever pay to see this musical again.

Finally, Wicked was the most disappointing of the NYC shows. The scenery was very visually stimulating but the story and voices of the actors just ordinary. I was familiar with the story and I had read the Wicked book as well as it’s sequel, Son of a Witch, and the play version didn’t have the strong voice of the book. The book was very political in it’s views and had strong opinions and views of the world. I feel that the play version was very watered down and the ending was extremely disappointing. I feel that when I pay $125 to see a show it needs to be outstanding, fabulous and I want to listen and sing the music for many weeks following the show. I didn’t have this feeling after seeing Wicked or Mary Poppins. However, I am glad that I had the opportunity to see them after all of the hype.





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I would like to point out that Andrea tried to kill me on this trip. We had to walk everywhere we went and our hotel was several blocks from the theatre district. I did a mapquest when I came home to see how far away the first theatre was from our hotel, it was 2.6 miles each way. I would guess that the first day we walked in excess of six miles. I thought I was going to die when we got back to the hotel the first night. My legs were so sore for the rest of the trip. I tried not to complain but...I could hardly walk the next day. Everyday was like this...but I do think that we walked the furthest on the first day. On Friday we went to the MET museum and it was further away than the first play...so I decided to take the subway there. Andrea still wanted to walk so we met at the museum. I think that this compromise fit both of us. She LOVED walking each day and never seemed to get tired. I just couldn't understand this...it became very obvious to me how out of shape I am.





We tried to be very conservative on our spending on this trip because we had already spent so much money on the theatre tickets. It is very expensive in NY to eat in a restaurant, a moderately priced meal would be about $25 per person. As Andrea had been there several times prior to this trip she had good knowledge of cheap places to eat. There was a food court in Grand Central Station building that we went to multiple times. There were several vendors that you could choose from. I ate at this soup and salad place several times. They had some awesome homemade soups and salads that you could choose exactly what ingredients you wanted and they would add the salad dressing, mix it up and chop it for you prior to putting it in the container. I was able to find one of the infamous Black and White cookies from Seinfeld and try it. It was more the consistency of cake than a cookie but it was very tasty. I ate at a McDonald's one time on Saturday night. We had a very busy day and we were running out of time and it was quite an experience. It was located next to where we were seeing Mary Poppins. They had about 10 registers open with several people in each line. I had to wait at least 15 minutes to order and I was starving. I ordered Quarter Pounder with cheese meal and it was (gasp) $6.89 plus tax. The made my total bill $7.12 and I handed the cashier $10.12 which would give me change of $3. After I gave her the money she took it and shut her drawer. I looked at her and asked for my change. The following was our conversation.





Cashier: O...ya I owe you $1.01


Me: No...it is $3 even


Cashier: I will get the manager.....





After about 4 minutes she get a very harassed manager to open her drawer and she takes out $1.01, closes the drawer and hands me the money.





Me: Excuse me, but you owe me $2 more dollars.


Cashier: No, I don't...your bill was $9.13


Me: No it wasn't...the menu board says $6.89 and you added the tax which made my bill $7.12...I gave you $10.12 which makes my change $3


Cashier: OH (with a blank stare)


Me: Am I going to get my change?





She walks away to find the manager again. I don't think that she still understood and the only reason I was so instant on my change was that I already felt ripped of paying $7.12 for a $4 Quarter cheese meal. The 10 minutes it took me at the register to get my food the cashier had the same blank stare. I think that having such an overwhelming amount of customers she couldn't take any additional sensory input. It took me a total of 25 minutes to get my food, but it was good.





I feel like I wasn't overly impressed with NYC although I had a great time. It was very different than downtown Indy but I didn't feel uncomfortable. I never felt unsafe on our many long walks, even at 11:30 pm after the plays. It wasn't as crowded as I expected. I just imagined people everywhere and some places were like that but not all. I felt the most crowded was Saturday night on the way to the play and it was still very active on our way home.





You may have read my various tooth posts...well when I was eating breakfast on Saturday morning out pops my temporary crown for the second time. I didn't know what to to. I had to call my dentists emergency number and because it was the emergency number it only took her an hour to call me back. After speaking to her she determined that I would be fine without my crown until I could get to her office on Tuesday morning. I was fine and it was only a minor uncomfortableness.





As I was in the van going to the airport I met a women who's daughter just moved to the city. She just graduated from college and got a job in the fashion industry. She was helping her daughter get an apartment and settled in the city. The apartment that they finally found was $1695 for a tiny studio in Manhattan. Apparently, this is half of her monthly pay. I couldn't imagine paying that much for a studio apartment. I love the Midwest and our reasonable housing prices. When we drove past a parking garage it was $500 a month to park your car. This is more than my monthly car payment. Andrea told me while we were there that she would love to live in the city. I had the other thought after my visit. I LOVE my car and I like driving places. It is a fun place for visitation only.





My plane was to depart NYC at 7pm on Sunday night and my airport shuttle was scheduled to pick me up at the hotel at 2:30. I thought that this was a bit excessive but since I missed my first plane I decided to comply. I got to the airport at 4pm and as I was departing the van two people come up to the van and ask to take a ride back to the city. They stated that all of the flights out of LaGuarda were canceled for the remaining part of the day. I was hesitant to get off of the van but decided to go inside and investigate. I was happy to find out that my plane was the only scheduled departure for that night. I guess the delays were due to bad weather...I didn't detect any bad weather in NYC. It was a little cloudy and overcast but not bad. I arrive back in Indy only two hours late..this was much better than the tons of stranded people at the airport. I am glad I was able to go home.

Bad Day

These last two days have culminated in me wanting to just hide under the covers of my bed. Let me break it down for you.

Yesterday morning as I was driving to work I tried to make some calls on my cell phone. It didn’t appear to work properly. I could only talk on the speaker phone function. I thought maybe there was a problem with the Bluetooth connection in my car and when I got to work I turned it off and removed the battery. Yet, it would still only work while I am in the speaker phone mode. This is extremely annoying to me and the person I am talking to. So I went to the Sprint store after work yesterday and there were two people standing at the check in desk. I couldn’t understand why it took two people to check me in and then I had to wait 45 minutes to talk to an associate. I then had to have a discussion with the employee to make her understand that I have the insurance on my phone. I told her I was paying $4 a month for something on my bill, she looked it up and it was for roadside assistance. OK…why would I add roadside assistance onto my cell phone bill. It was ridiculous, I tried to explain to her that I already have roadside assistance with my auto insurance and the person who typed in my order made a mistake. She stated that I basically had no recourse for this, but my phone was under warranty and it would only cost $50 for the deductible. She said I would have to wait 30 minutes for the tech to do a diagnostic on the phone to determine what was wrong. I had a prior engagement so I left and said I would be back at 8:15 to get it back. I arrived back at 8:15 to discover that I had to wait in the long line again for my turn. By the time it was my turn I felt that any patience that I had started with was LONG gone. The bottom line is that according to the phone tech my phone was “broke” (I feel like I had already made that determination without all of the time spent in line) and they had to order me a new phone and it would be in on Monday 08/25. So if you are going to call me this week be prepared for this annoyance.

Last night after I got home and I was wore down from the cell phone experience I decided to go into the bathroom and floss my teeth. I admit that I don’t to this as regularly as I should, but I am trying to make an effort to take better care of my teeth. As I was working on the upper right portion of my mouth the dental floss got stuck and it felt like I made my tooth move. I was using one of the dental floss on a stick apparatuses; I walked through the house with it hanging out of my mouth to go to the kitchen to get a knife to cut it out of my mouth. I felt ridiculous in the bathroom with a knife cutting out the dental floss. I call the dentist the next morning at 8am and they tell me that their first appointment is 10am. I go to work for a useless hour and head back out to the dentist at 9:45. When I arrive I explain to the dental assistant that I felt the tooth move. She said I couldn’t have. There is no way I could move my tooth. I guess she was right and there was no way that I could move my tooth, I am not superwoman. She tells me that a piece of my filling came off and is now stuck between my teeth. She uses a piece of dental floss and tries to force it out. After about five minutes of this torture she pops it out. It is determined that I need a new filling in the tooth and the tooth next to it also needs a new filling. So now this new dental visit is going to cost me $359. I am extremely tired of giving all of my money to the dentist. I want to keep some of it for fun stuff or even bills. They perform the work and I regretfully give them their payment and head back to work starving and looking like a dork. The entire right portion of my face is not working and it looks as if I have bells palsy. When I smile I looked like the Joker from Batman. Upon leaving, the dentist told me that I will need a crown on tooth #5 and hopefully the filling will hold up until January when I receive my new insurance benefits. Are you kidding me…I have to plan for another crown next year.

The final count so far is….7 Crowns and 4 root canals to date!

The third problem in these two days perhaps wouldn’t be such a big deal if I wasn’t already mentally suffering. I am in charge of buying a $200 gift card from Travelocity for the weight loss challenge we are having at work. I purchased it yesterday before I left work. When I got home last night I balanced my check book and saw the pending charge on my bank account. About 10:15 I got a call from a company wanting to verify the details of this purchase to determine if this was a fraudulent charge. I was confused as to why I would be receiving this call so late at night. I asked him twice the name of his company and it wasn’t Travelocity. I wasn’t familiar with the company name. I told the guy that I was uncomfortable giving him the information over the phone and was there a way for me to verify this information. He gave me his phone number and told me that I could call him back. I decided not to call him back that night as I wanted to think about the situation. This morning I called the phone number and a guy answered. I hung up because I was expecting an answering service. When I got to work I looked at my bank account and the charge authorization had disappeared from my account. I thought that perhaps the guy from last night was legitimate. I tried to call Travelocity and I talked to them for 20 minutes while the customer service person was trying to figure out what to do. I had to leave for the dentist so I asked her if she could call me back on my cell phone, I gave her my number but she never called me back. About an hour after I came back to work I received a call on my cell phone (which I had to take on speakerphone) from Chase bank inquiring on possible fraudulent charges on my account. I confirmed with her that I did make the Travelocity and Speedway purchases. I have never had so many problems buying a gift card. I still haven’t resolved this problem and I am unsure of what to do next. Any suggestions?

Oral Torture person…AKA The Dreaded Dentist

I have gone to the dentist several times in the last 3 weeks and today I have come to the realization that I need to go again. Over the last three years I have been working with my dentist to do the extensive repair that my mouth needs. We have worked on it slowly to maximize my available insurance and flex spending accounts. This year I decided to get the final portion done. It entailed drilling out two of my left bottom teeth and prepping them for crowns and a bridge. The cost of this work was $2700. I planned very carefully for this expense. My insurance maxes out at $750, so I planned $2000 for my flex spending account in which the plan year that started in May. This should have covered my total expense as planned. However, nothing ever works out according to plan. After the prep work on my teeth I started to experience a large amount of pain. When I called the dentist she was out for two weeks due to a death in the family, but the assistant told me that it sounded like I was having problems with my bite and she sent me to the covering dentist. I went for my appointment and she adjusted my bite and I had some reduced pain but I was still experiencing pain in my back tooth. I went back to my regular dentist when she returned and she determined that I needed a root canal in my back tooth so she sent me to the oral surgeon. The oral surgeon gave me a root canal last Monday. When I was there he looked at both teeth and he thought my major problem was with the back tooth but to keep watch of the front tooth and to not get my permanent crown if I was still experiencing pain. Well, I still have pain and I came out of denial this morning and decided to make another appointment with the oral surgeon. The cost of each root canal is $1089…so not I am going to have an additional out of pocket expense of $2178. I tried to plan so carefully…why can’t things go as planned. I think that I am more upset about the money for the dentist than I am about the procedure.

Assistant Parent not Fun Aunt Candy

My 17 year old niece Heather came to visit me on Sunday night and she will be here through next weekend. Her mom and brothers will arrive on Wednesday evening for their yearly visit. I left her at my house on Monday while I was at work so she could sleep late and relax. I had a dentist appointment so I arrived home early about 3:30pm. When I opened my garage I noticed a strange bike inside and I wondered to myself, “Where did this come from?” I thought, did Heather find this bike somewhere and bring it home? As I got out of the car I was shocked speechless. Here comes Heather and some boy out of my house! I didn’t know him because I make it a point to keep to myself at home and I have no children that socialize with anyone. I asked “Who is this?” He said: “Hi, My name is Adam and I live down the street.” I just stood there and didn’t know what to say. I am not a parent of a teenager; I didn’t know how to handle this situation. They said that they were going to ride their bikes back to the pool for a while. So I went inside and got my book so I could sit in my hammock in the backyard and forget about the horrible dentist appointment. About fifteen minutes after I was outside I hear the TV, and I see Heather and the boy in the living room playing his XBOX that he brought over. I stayed outside for about and hour and then came in to cook dinner. The children were still in the living room playing their games so I decided to listen to some music and sing along….just to slightly embarrass Heather. When I was about done cooking I had noticed that the living room had become very quiet and I could no longer see the children on the floor, they were out of my sight range. I decided to turn up the music and sing a bit louder, just to remind them that I was still there. I told them it was time for the boy to go home because dinner was almost ready and Lou and his family were on their way over. Even though I said that….the still were talking and not moving very fast. He was still there when Lou arrived and everyone had to be greeted. Once we finally scooted him out of the house…Lou immediately told Heather that it was not appropriate to have boys over with no adult at home. Now…why couldn’t I do that? I am not used to doing any type of parenting. I just like to do fun things with the children. After dinner and after Lou and his family left Adam came back. They were playing Pokémon on some handheld video game system for several hours. I decided that I needed to do quiet activities so I could hear them. So I spent several hours on-line and then reading. About 9pm I had decided that Heather had enough visit time and I told them it was time for him to go home. I went to my room to watch TV for 30 minutes and Heather still didn’t come inside…so I had to do a second visit outside to request his departure. He even left his Xbox for her to play so she wouldn’t get bored.

I decided to arrange activities for Heather during the day on Tuesday to fill her time…but today she is home alone. Who knows what will happen.