A new day

I've survived 25 hours since Alli left. I guess that's good? I'm working on getting my bathroom ready to paint. I hate the prep work. I want to just walk in and start painting. This room is requiring more prep than the others I've painted in the last week. I've actually put off painting it for years. When I moved in, it was wallpapered. Ugly wallpaper, but I left it. A few years back, I just started grabbing loose pieces of it and pulled it almost all the way off. So, for the last several years, it's been in that condition - mostly un-wallpapered but with a few stray pieces left here and there. So, to prep for painting, I'm having to scrape off the paper, sand to remove the leftover paste, and fill the holes and uneven parts of the walls. I worked on it quite a bit yesterday in short bursts. About noon, I had to stop because I was crying too hard to see. That was only true meltdown. I made it through the rest of the day, tearing up sometimes and truly crying some, but still able to continue with what I was working on. Today, I plan to finish the prep work and get it primed. The new bath also needs to be primed again because the alcoholic carpenter isn't good with sheet rock. He's had to re-mud and sand large parts of it. That means I get to prime it again before painting it again.

It was just Cori, Elvis, and me at the house most of yesterday. Beth was spending the night with a friend and left about noon. I haven't heard a word from her since then. I probably don't want to know what they were up to last night. I'm just glad the friend is going out of state to visit her dad Monday through Thursday and I don't have to worry about Beth then. Cori and I had a decent day. She was helpful with Elvis. However, due to a court order, her contact with anyone under 18 has to be supervised. Since I like being a teacher and foster parent, I take that supervision very seriously and was in the same room or the next room the whole time she was feeding or playing with him. We did get takeout for dinner. I'd not eaten all day and there was nothing in the house. We loaded up (I was in paint clothes. She was in pajamas. Elvis was the only one fully dressed in appropriate clothing.) and went through the Long John Silver's drive-thru. Big night out, huh? I can't remember the last time we went there. It's horribly bad for us and really expensive, but it was nice treat last night.

I did hear from Alli a couple of times yesterday. They'd been gone about 5 hours when I got a text thanking me for the condoms. Not having a clue of her tone in that (laughing, angry, annoyed?) I didn't respond. She texted Beth to tell her I hadn't responded but that they thought it was really funny. Evidently they'd blown a few of them up and left them at a rest area. I sure hope they know how to use them for their intended purpose and don't use them all to make balloon animals. She texted again a little before 8:00 PM and told me they'd gotten there safely. I thanked her and told her I loved her and missed her. She said she missed me, too. I replied "Yeah, right," and she again insisted she did and pointed out that she and I had never been away from each other this long. We had one more text exchange late last night. They'd gotten to the egg in the basket that contained a little cash and she was thanking me for it. I wonder if I'll hear from her today? I'm not planning to initiate any contact with her. They've gone to these drastic measures to get away from me/us. I don't want to intrude.

I am going to jack the Wii from Alli's room and hook it up in the den today. I still haven't tried the darn thing but it looks like fun. I have a friend whose 7 year old son is dying for a Wii. He's even saved enough money to buy one from a store but can't ever find one in stock. I thought I'd invite them over either Sunday or Monday to play. The little guy will love it and maybe I'll enjoy the company of his mom. I need a distraction.