"And the tides gonna turn and it's all gonna roll your way..."

A couple things in the weekly "pre-Lost" post, as I've come to call it, first and foremost one of the coolest and most surreal moments of my life. Yesterday, I received my first check for freelance writing. It was a whopping $68.00! It may not be enough to quit the day job or anything, but man what a rush. I've been writing my WHOLE life. I've got a library full of journals, diaries, short stories, poems, and songs, you name it. It's been my passion and the core of who I am my entire life.

So for the first time I actually start to take it seriously, and I get paid for it. Well it's pretty damn emotional. I feel proud in a way I've never felt before. As far as career and professionally, I've never felt complete. I've always had a big empty space where that piece of me should be. Doing daycare makes me happy, because it enables me to be home with my kids, where I want to be. That doesn't make it my passion. Not even close. The closest I ever came to that feeling was getting my first paycheck at Rock 95. That was pretty cool too. But this, this feels like destiny...

The other great thing that happened was today. The Cat Lady (AKA our tax lady) FINALLY got back to us after almost 2 weeks of being MIA. If you've been following the ongoing saga of " The Harvey Family Bankruptcy/Tax Debt 2008", you'll know that she disappeared after telling us we were going to owe over $4,000, but she couldn't get us the final numbers or the paperwork (which we needed for our old senile bankruptcy lawyer) because she was having computer problems. We never heard back from her, and most times when I'd call, I'd get a damn busy signal.

I'm not lying when I tell you what she told me. That her CATS kept messing with her and unplugging the phone in the back room where she couldn't see it. So we've been on this depressing slump for the last week and a half waiting for confirmation, because her cats were being "funny". How is it, if there is a freakin nutjob within a mile radius of us, we'll hire them for something?

On top of the endless venting about her VERY rude cats (her words), it finally came out that part of those "computer problems" is what gave her the total amount we were going to owe, the correct amount was actually 2. I said $2,000? Great!" She said "No, 2. Just 2 dollars". My heart leapt, "We only owe $2.00? You're kidding me!" I responded. "No," she said annoyed, "you're getting BACK $2.00". So not only are we NOT going to owe anything, as originally reported, but we're getting back $2.00!!!! HELLO MCDONALDS! Supersize me baby! YAYYYYY Woo HOO!!!!!

So Saturday we go BACK to the senile old bankruptcy lawyer with our taxes and get back on the bankruptcy train. If we ever make it to court at this point, God only knows. Here's hopin we get there before the collection people who keep calling drive me insane!

In all honesty, this week has been one of the best weeks we've had in a VERY long time (granted I still lost my keys on Wednesday, so Patrick missed school, but I guess dumb luck is just the story of my life). The title of the post is a quote from Dolly Parton's 9 to 5, because at the moment, I'm kinda feeling like maybe, just maybe, the tide is starting to change...

Killing Time Before Lost....

How much can I get in here before Lost begins? Let's see...

1) What's up with McCain? OMG! I'm a democrat and all, but have always thought pretty highly of McCain . As far as republicans go, he's up there with Governator! I'm a little tripped out by these freaky allegations. I was a big defender that Clinton should not have been treated the way he was for cheating on his wife. It sucked and he's a jerk, but did it really impact the country? Hell to the No my people! If what the NYT is saying is true about McCain , it's a whole different thing. This lady, Vicki Iseman, is a lobbyist. That's not just cheating on your wife, that's possibly exchanging political favors for sex... Yuk.

2) My babies are going to Stanford! Can you believe the new standard Stanford has set by allowing anyone whose parents make less than $100,000 to come TUITION FREE! I'm so amazed by this. College is one of the many things that keep me up nights. I regret so desperately not going, and it is CRUCIAL to me that my kids do. If Stanford ends up setting a trend with this new policy, it would be a miracle for me and thousands of other families...

3) Hey Berkeley! Yes you. I've been a big supporter of your endeavors my entire life, but I must draw the line here. Banning the army recruiters? Really? I mean I am against the war as much as the next guy, for sure. But banning the recruiting offices. Berkeley city council, to you I say this, shame shame I know your name. You should all take a time out and think about what it means to be good hippies.
BAD Berkeley hippies, BAD.

4) Are any of my GH fans out there? Can I just say after Jason's terribly mean accusation that Carly hit Sam with her car just mere seconds after Carly told him she was finally pregnant, was LAME. Why couldn't Michael's gun hit Jason instead of Kate? WHY???

5) I am TOTALLY addicted to this new website I'm doing freelance writing for. It's called Jamsbio and I will let you all know when it goes public. It's music & memories. Two things I am REALLY good writing about...

6) After dropping the bomb last Friday that we were going to owe over $4,000, our tax lady has dropped off the face of the earth. I've been calling her and leaving her messages (we need out taxes for the bankruptcy) and she is not calling me back. Then today all I got was a busy signal. ALL DAY. Does the drama ever end?

7) My interview with Scott Baio's wife is up, check it out
http://www.realityshack.com/modules/magazine/article.php?articleid=957
Renee was so awesome! truly the highlight of my week!!!

OK, well I've got 10 minutes to Lost, and popcorn to be popped beforehand, so TTFN.

The week in Meghan

We did our taxes last Saturday. Our bankruptcy lawyer has explained he needs our 2007 taxes before he can file the bankruptcy. This is very frustrating, because it's been a month since we paid him, and we should have filed by now. It's not really his fault, though he is kind of old, and a little senile, it's mainly because we are self employed, something that apparently makes filing bankruptcy an even bigger bitch. Great. We didn't really mind doing our taxes so soon, because as it turned out our senile lawyer might be able to save the return we were expecting. Yay! That's a good thing because we forgoed paying most of our bills last month in order to pay the stupid bankruptcy.

Uh-oh, our senile old tax lady underestimated how much we should have paid in our estimated payment last year, and now we owe. We owe in the ball park of $4,000.
We owe, we owe, so it's off to bankruptcy court we go, fa la la la, we owe, we owe.... Yea you get the picture.

On a much lighter note, the Strike Is Over! Praise the good lord of pop culture! The coolest part, not only will all of my favorite shows finish out the season, but the writers got what they wanted! Everybody wins. Especially the viewers.

I got to interview Renee Sloan, Scott Baio's wife, on Friday. That was a blast! She was a total sweetheart. Of course my stupid recorder wasn't working so ended having to take notes on everything she said. Heaven forbid anything actually go smoothly...You can see my interview along with my recaps of the Scott Baio show at The Shack. (realityshack.com)

We went to a birthday party today for one of Patrick's little buddies from school. It was so much fun. I can't believe my little guy has buddies, and birthday parties to go to. I can't believe he's going to be 5 next month! We have not decided what to do yet, but I really want to make it special, since it will be his first birthday party inviting classmates.

Surviving Adolescence with Stephen King

Growing up, most pre-teen girls turn to author Judy Blume. Her books on the trials & tribulations of adolescence is often attributed to the very survival of young adulthood. For me there was someone else though. Not to say Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing didn't heavily impact my young life at the time, because it did. There was another author who planted the very seed of a dream and a passion that I would carry with me entire life. That author, Stephen King. The seed, writing.

Stephen King? You ask. Not your first thought for relatable reading material for a 12 year old girl. Strangely enough I did relate. OK, so maybe I never set my pre-teen cheerleading tormenters on fire at the school dance, but there were times it did cross my mind... The appeal that Stephen King always held for me, and still does, was not what he writes, but how he writes.

Reading a Stephen King novel is like being taken into a quiet room, and being whispered a story. No one around but you and the storyteller. The whole world outside disappears, and you are sucked into another world. So far in, that you worry about being able to get out.

Every difficult time I had as a teenager, or as an adult, I found myself turning to Stephen King. Not for advice on "how" to survive these struggles, but simply to just survive them.

Things like getting teased in the locker room for not yet wearing a bra, or the strange confusion and stress of my first period. My first heartbreak, my parents separation, alcoholism, or my big brother in Iraq during the Gulf War. Sometimes I got sick and tired of thinking about these things. I didn't want to "talk" about them, I just wanted to run away from them. Stephen King was always on the shelf and with the simple opening of a book, I'd be a million miles away. Even as I got older.

When I suffered my first miscarriage, and I was home in bed for 2 days, I reread The Stand. When I finally was going to have a baby, and I neared the end of my pregnancy, I was SO scared. I'd never stayed in a hospital before and I had no idea what to expect from childbirth, except a lot of pain. So in my hospital bag, I packed the Shining. Strange choice, but hey, I was in labor for 30 hours, and did it WITHOUT an epidural. Stephen King to the rescue again (Please note that I was hooked up to an IV with pain medication, I'm not that crazy...).

Now as I begin my thirties (turned the big 30 in October), I find the same release from just the daily stuff that life throws at me. I also find myself reexamining that seed Stephen King planted so many years ago, the passion for writing. It's something I've always done, and always wanted to do. I feel like maybe this is the year to make that change. To take it seriously. Maybe. All I know is that now when I finish a Stephen King book the same thought runs through my head, "Damn! How the hell does he do that?"

By the way, I can't finish this post without mentioning my OTHER favorite author, Chuck Palahniuk. He's a newer author(compared to Stephen King) and is the only author I can honestly say that I have read EVERYTHING this man has written. Including most essays and articles. He is another author who truly leaves me feeling totally inspired and in awe everytime I finish one of his books. A master storyteller.

One big difference between him & Stephen King, is that Chuck, I have actually had the great honor of meeting. While he was on tour for his book, Choke, I went to meet him and hear him speak in Oakland. What a wonderful guy. Sometimes when you idolize a favorite author, the real thing doesn't quite live up to your imagination. Not Chuck. His wicked humor and easy style translates very well in reality. If you haven't ever read something by Chuck, DO SO NOW! It's a ride you'll never forget.

Thanks to both of these incredible men for inspiring me everyday to live my own dreams. Also to all my writer friends out there, be proud of every little piece of immortality you put out there into the world.

Red Eyes & A Dead Car (or as we call it around here, Wednesday)

1:00AM: I woke up with my left eye watering and itchy and very very red. Anyone who ever made the mistake of sharing eyeliner back in junior high, or anyone with kids knows what I'm talking about. Pink Eye! Of course I have pink eye. We can't go more than a day or two without SOMETHING going wrong.

5:30AM: After pretty much no sleep, thanks to the pink eye and the horrible gut wrenching cough (that still is hanging on from this cold that won't go away) I got up and took a hot shower, rinsed out my itchy red painful left eye, and remembered we had eye-drops in the medicine cabinet from the last time the kids had pink eye. Yay! I finally caught a break. Not so much. The expiration date on those stupid antibiotic eye-drops are last month. I don't know about you, but I'm not putting any expired eye-drops in my eyes. Great, that means I have to call Kaiser and order a prescription, which we don't have money for anyway.

6:30AM: Cheyanne woke up yelling "Mommy! I can't see!" Her eye was blurry and crusty and red. She has pink eye too. It's not even 7 yet! Happy Wednesday to me.

8:45AM Morning is progressing with it's normal chaos. Kids yelling, breakfast being served, and legos covering every square inch of the floor. It takes me about 15 minutes to get all 6 kids dressed and ready to take Patrick to school. I place everyone in front of Dora the Explorer, so I can run out and warm up the car. Running right on time. Perfect.

8:47AM: Use my little electronic beepy thingy to unlock the car, but it won;t work. Great the battery must be dead. So I have to actually use the key to unlock the car door! Oh the horror! I put the key into the ignition and nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Dead car, dead battery. Why is it not Friday yet?

8:50AM: Call Tanner's mom, Kari and she's still home! She says she can pick up Patrick on the way. Awesome. The rest of the kids start an all revolt when I start taking their jackets & shoes off. They still want to take Patrick to school. They begin trying to attack me with the previously mentioned legos. I should've cleaned them before breaking the news we weren't going anywhere. Damn.

9:00AM: I sure could use a cup of coffee about now. But the coffee maker is as dead as the car. I'm assured we will be getting a new one this weekend, that does nothing for me today. I settle for OJ.

9:01AM: Have decided to call all my daycare kids moms, and have them come get their kids so that I can go back to bed. OK, so that didn't really happen. A girl can dream, right?

9:02: Nap time is still 3 hours away. 3 very long hours away.....

Living History!

So The kids & I just came back from turning in my absentee voter ballot at our local polling place. The line was out the door, and the buzz was electric. I was raised to be pretty politically aware. Voting was considered not just a privilege, but a duty in my house. I definitely want to instill that in my little ones. Especially a race like today where the vote is going to be so close!

To think, women weren't even able to vote until 1920. Today Hilary is a front runner. In 1968 Robert Kennedy was killed, partially because of his views on racism. Today the other front runner is Obama. I've already gone over this in my blog, I just am really enjoying being a part of this moment in time. This is truly what it must have felt like when Robert Kennedy won the California primary that day.

The economic times has caused my very own household to fall into shambles. The gas prices are killing us every week, so many people have been laid off it's hard to find people in need of daycare, and our loss of income over the last months has caused us to file bankruptcy. If ever there was a time when I was personally in need of political change, it's now. I'm hoping a year from now the economy wil already be well on it's way to recovery, and this crisis will be long over.

Maybe 40 years from now my own daughter will be running for president, and I'll look back on this day and smile.