Hello! My Name is Christine

Here I am. Christinely87 in pictures. I am writing this blog to give you a little background on the person who has been writing these blogs. I am a single, white female (LOL!). I’m not sure if I am more like a movie title or a song title. Some of you, oh hell, most of you are probably way to young to know either of those titles. I have one child, a daughter. She is all grown up now. Well at least in age. She is 20. I am 41 and live in a small town and not the same small town I grew up in. It seems as though I have a thing for small towns. I graduated high school in 1987. I signed up to attend Delta College that fall but instead I was offered a full-time job at $3.50 per hour. Wow! I was going to be rich. Needless to say I dropped all my classes at Delta and went to work. I worked at that job for about two years. My boss was the biggest chauvinistic I have ever met. I quit after almost two years. I job was too stressful. I found another job about two weeks later. I worked for that company for 12.5 years. They went out of business. I found another job about four weeks later. I worked there for five years until I was laid off. I was unemployed for exactly one year before I was offered a job with my current employer. I am not married. I am in a relationship that needed to end about 12 years ago. We have been together for almost 13 years. I know I sound like a real bitch but it is the truth. I don’t know why we both can’t agree it needs to end. Only one of us knows it needs to end. The other (not me) thinks there is hope yet. I hope one day I’ll find happiness with a man with whom I see myself being married to. I just want to be happy. I’m working on it. So this is me. This is who I am. I work full-time. I attend Delta full-time. I have one child. I’m in a relationship. I have one dog and four cats. I have two sister (one older and one younger) and one brother. This is it. This is me. It has been a pleasure to meet all of you via your blogs. I hope that everything works out for each and every one of you. It sounds as if most of us have struggles we are dealing with, then again who doesn’t. We are all different people who are striving to succeed in our own lives and in the world. Take care all of you and best of luck to you. Keep your heads up. Great things will come they just may be in small packages.

Detroit Red Wings

A couple of years ago I went to my first Detroit Red Wings game. I had never been to a hockey game nevermind a Red Wings game. I was stoked. I couldn’t believe it. My boyfriend’s mom had gotten the tickets through her work. She didn’t have to ask me twice. I couldn’t wait. I have always wanted to see the Red Wings play. I don’t know much about hockey but I like the way these men look in their uniforms. I am amazed at how they can skate on ice, wear all that gear, hit a puck, block a person, and the list continues. How about that goalie. Wow! First, I can not even stand on ice skates. I can’t even imagine standing on ice with all that gear stopping that little puck as it’s flying at you with excessive speed. This is sad to say but it’s kind of fun to watch the fights too. I still don’t know much about hockey but I would love to get back to the Joe to see another game. Let’s Go Red Wings! Let’s Go Red Wings!

My First Detroit Tigers Game

In July of this year I finally got to see my first Detroit Tigers game. I was so excited. I had never been to a game before. I used to follow the Tigers back in 1984. They won the World Series this year. The only disappointment about going to this game was that it wasn’t at Tiger Stadium. Don’t get me wrong Comerica Park is beautiful. I just have never had the opportunity to see Tiger Stadium. Back when I followed the Tigers the big players were Chet Lemon, Alan Trammell, “Sweet” Lou Whitaker, Lance Parrish and Kirk Gibson. Well at least these were my big players. I loved these men. But I never had the opportunity to see them play. I could not tell you much about the present Detroit Tigers team but the opportunity to see them play was just amazing. I went with my daughter, my boyfriend, his mom, and his sister. We had some pretty nice seats too. Well at least I thought they were nice. I was amazed by the whole picture. I thought to myself “I really need to come back and see another game so I can actually watch the game.” I spent most of my time watching everything else. Taking in the sites. Consuming the atmosphere. Believe it or not I think my daughter actually had a good time too. The only bad thing about my whole experience is that I have become addicted to the almonds that are toasted in cinnamon and sugar. This is not a good thing. I’m glad Comerica Park is as far way as it is. I hope I am able to see the Detroit Tigers play again next season. Go Tigers!

O Christmas Tree

Today I finally put up my Christmas tree. I have not put up a Christmas tree in, I believe, three years. The first year I didn’t put up a tree was because we were in the middle of a remodel project of the living room. We were living upstairs. Yes, we were living upstairs. Two bedrooms and a loft area served as our house. The loft is what we used as our living room. It is big enough to fit a love seat and an entertainment center that houses a 27″ television. So that was the reason for not putting up a tree one of the years. After that I just got tired of setting it up all by myself while everyone else sat around and watched or didn’t watch. It was as if they didn’t really care if a tree was up or not. So, I didn’t put the Christmas tree up. There were still gifts just no tree. It’s not like my daughter was a young child. She was a teenager. I asked her. I don’t remember her exact response. I’m sure it was a mumble, a shoulder shrug, or some other nonverbal communication of some sort. That typical teenage response parents get from their teenager. Everyone knew where the tree and decorations were stored. They could just as easily get the boxes out of storage, set up the tree, and decorate it. I don’t have to do everything, do I?

Snow Days

Ahh! Those were the days. Snow days. The days that all school aged children longed for. The days that all school aged parents dreaded. Today was a snow day for me. I don’t get many of these days. This semester I have Mondays off from work to attend classes. It so happens that classes were cancelled today because winter finally showed up. The roads are so icy. I needed something from the store so I drove three miles. The road was a solid sheet of ice. I’m glad that I didn’t have to drive any further. Remember when we were young and we would get a snow day? It was so exciting. It meant play time. Outside we’d go. All bundled up in our snow suits, boots, hats, gloves, and scarfs. The sleds were out and hopefully there was a huge snow pile near by. Sledding was the best. There was always a huge snow pile in my parents driveway. The village would plow the roads and bring the snow and dump it in the drive way. We didn’t use the driveway. No one (except us) knew there was actually a driveway there. We had our own snow hill. It was so much fun. There were a few years that our backyard would be a solid sheet of ice. This was our own personal ice skating rink too. Except there were many neighborhood kids who thought they could skate on it too. It wasn’t a public rink it was our backyard. There were several problems with a select few teenage boys putting an end to this “public” skating rink. The ice rink finally went away when the village fixed the drain and the water went where it was supposed to. I remember enjoyment of playing outside in the cold and snowy weather. Why don’t I enjoy it anymore? I could actually hibernate if I wasn’t required to earn a paycheck to pay my bills. Growing up sucks sometimes.

The Fixer Upper

In 2001 I made the decision to move out of my apartment that me and my daughter shared and into a house with my boyfriend. I didn’t want him to buy this house. This house needed so much work. He was (is) not the ambitious type. I begged and pleaded with him not to buy this house. He didn’t listen. He bought it. He purchased the house from an elderly couple. The house was purchased in February and they had until May to move out. It was the end of May and we had to move them out. They didn’t want to leave but they had no one to help them move. Once they were moved out Jason moved in. I moved into the house in July. I don’t remember exactly when we started the demolition but it has been an ongoing process. It is now 2010 almost 2011. We did landscaping this summer. It really spruced up the outside. Most of the remodeling is done. In fact the stuff that was remodeled first is to the point that I want to redo it again. It is amazing the things you learn. Some of them you learn the hard way. The house has turned out to be pretty nice looking even though I don’t give that impression. We just went through so much to get to this point. I think I have endured a lot of anger during the remodel and am bitter. I am pretty sure that the next house I live in will not need to be remodeled. I will not live through that again.

The $40,000 Question

I often think to myself “What the hell was I thinking?” I am referring to the “father” of my daughter. Lets just make this clear he is NO father to her. I guess just a sperm donor. I try not to think about it often but every now and again I ask myself why? But then I think if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have my daughter so I just stop thinking about it. What did I see in him? You know all “those” questions. I love my daughter and wouldn’t trade her for the world but my only regret is that I didn’t choose a better person to be her father. He is an IDIOT and I’m being nice. He was ordered to pay me $50.00 each week in child support. I received $50.00 each week for about a month. Then the payments stopped. Every now and again I’d receive several payments in a row. I’d get them just long enough to get used to them and then boom! no more. He was ordered to pay child support when my daughter was about six or seven. She is now 21 and he owes me just under $40,000.00. I often think about what I’d do with that money if I ever got it. I always hope for the big lump sum check. That would be absolutely amazing. Then the question is do I give it to my daughter to pay for her college or do I keep it for myself? Then I quickly stop myself because I know that I will never see this money during my lifetime. http://www.saginawfoc.com/

Christmas

As an adult I don’t remember ever being excited about Christmas. Maybe at some point I was. Probably when my daughter and nieces were younger. Just watching them open their gifts was exciting, I’m sure. I kind of remember getting a rush late at night when I was placing the gifts under the tree. Trying to be as quiet as possible so to not wake my daughter. Other than that I have never really been able to enjoy Christmas. It is just so busy. There is not time to enjoy the real meaning of Christmas. Why does the focus have to be on how many gifts are given? By the time Christmas is here I just want it to be over. I am exhausted. I haven’t even started Christmas shopping and there are only two weeks left. I have no idea what to buy my daughter. She is a college student. She is jobless. The only logical and practical thing to get her are gift cards. I won’t give her cash because she will spend it on clothes or “other” things that are unnecessary.  I am exhausted just thinking about what to buy and all the places we have to be on that day. Why can’t it be simple?

The Waiting Game

I had determined late in the summer that it was possible for me to graduate college one year earlier than anticipated. Now I am not so sure that is going to happen. I am on the waitlist for one class that is only offered during the winter semester. If I do not get into the class this winter semester then I will have to wait until 2012 to take the class. I am not liking this. I guess it is my fault for getting my own hopes up. I was determined to graduate one year ahead of schedule. I knew that it would require me to take 12 credit hours each semester but I wasn’t going to let that bother me. After all there are many college students who take 12 credit hours and work full-time. I am taking 11 credit hours this semester and I am exhausted, terrified I’m going to fail one if not all of my classes, and not quite sure how people do it. It is so stressful. Or, maybe it is my life that is too stressful for me. As it stands right now I will have to take one class in the spring or fall even if I get into this class I am wait listed for. I decided it is not worth me be this stressed just to finish school early. I can’t do it anymore. So what is one more semester right? I’ll find that out.

Career Choice

My career choice. I made a decision a while ago that I wanted to work in the medical field. I knew that I wasn’t smart enough to be a nurse but I wanted to do something relating to the medical field. I chose to work towards a medical secretary degree. I was excited. At that time I had 15-plus years working as a secretary/receptionist so I thought I’d mix it up a little bit. I was taking classes while I was working a secretarial job. I lost my job and decided it was time to attend Delta fulltime. Classes were full. There were only a few oddball classes left for me to take. I signed up for two. The next semester I signed up for a few more. I was excited. I’d finally have a career that I’d enjoy. I finally found a job after being out of work for exactly one year. It was in the medical field. I’d was going to be working at a hospital in the imaging department. How exciting. I have been there two years. I don’t like it. I don’t think that I want to work in the medical field anymore. People are angry. People are mean. People are miserable. I don’t want to be one of those people. I am becoming one of those people. I have four classes left to take after this semester. I am going to finish but I don’t know that I will continuing working in the medical field. I’m too old to not know what I want to be when I grow up.