Update -- What's been going on since 10/2003

My last post was 10/13/03. Wow. Long time ago. Lemme check out my life chronology that I started a while back to see what all has happened since then.

10/23/03
Divorce hearing. Husband looks at the 'new' Secretary and mouth waters, apparently.

Another thing that happened this night was that I took my sister out to dinner to celebrate, ostensibly, then suggested that Niece come to live with me, because she was screwing her child up.

Let me explain… A week or two prior to that, I came over to my parents' house and saw Niece with a sock tied around her ankles to keep her in her crib. A week after that, I came over and there was duct-tape residue around her calves and feet. When I asked my sister about it, she pointed to my mom and said, "Mom did it."

The underlying thought here -- but you let her. And you're supposed to be protecting this child from things like that. I knew something had to be done.

I'm not sure if God knew this was going to happen and so He led me to get a bigger apartment…but I got a bigger apartment. I moved upstairs and by November 1st, Niece was living with me.

Her first day of daycare was November 3, 2003.

February 2004 - Valentine's Day
During this whole time, from March 2003 to about August 2004, I was having this internet 'relationship' with some guy from Maryland named B. He broke his promises to come out here and meet me or for me to come out there and meet him more times than I actually remember. We were supposedly going to meet at this time, but it didn't happen…again. I started dating after this.

Internet relationships are nothing more than fantasy, honestly. Especially when the 'meet' date keeps moving. More on internet 'relationships' later.

March 2004
I started Mary Kay on 3/25/2004. Again. I love doing Mary Kay. It's a lot of fun…but it's work. During this time, I was doing so much Mary Kay, it would spin around my head at night. I could hardly sleep because I was so excited about my business. I had appointments every day of the week.

I had my sister babysit. She really did this very grudgingly. My mother actually accused me of playing 'dump and run' with Niece and her little friend every weekend. She was kind of right. I hungered for my old single life and felt cheated and used because I was being Niece's mom, but my sister was still receiving ADC, and I was receiving no help paying for daycare at all. Daycare at this time was about $85 per week. And it didn't help my emotional turmoil that my sister openly complained and whined about having to take care of her own child whenever I asked her to. This 'gentleman's agreement' was not working at all, really.

During this time, I was not losing any weight. I would get depressed during periods and gain and then lose. My band felt (and feels) like the enemy at times. Sister felt like she was taking care of Niece all the time. This, of course, is not true, as Niece went to daycare during the day and Sister only had to care for her a couple of hours each night and sometimes all day on the weekends so I could get some sanity. Man, you should have heard Sister whining about it. She even told me once that, "You volunteered to take Niece, but I'm still taking care of her all the time!" Well wah wah wah. I did not feel an ounce of sorrow for her.

But one thing I should have realized is that Sister was starting to feel that there was no need for Phrecklette to be with me since she felt she was taking care of the child 'all the time'. So no need to pay for daycare, right? More on that later too.

April 2004
My divorce was finalized on the 23rd of this month.

May 2004
B didn't show up again. Surprise surprise. Hmmm…can't remember if this was the time that I took a week off to spend with him or not…but after this, I started dating in earnest.