I'm hanging out with Leigh Monday. I'm off for Veteran's Day, and she's taking a day off for her birthday, which is Tuesday. We plan to go to the health food store so I can stock up on some vegetarian stuff, like alternate sources of protein and such. I want to experiment in preparation for my New Year's resolution.

Jeff and I are going to a bank Saturday to see about refinancing our house. The interest rates are much lower than in '97 when we closed. Hopefully we can lower our payments and maybe get some extra cash, too. We need to pay off 2 credit cards and lower the balance on another. With the holidays coming, the one we're keeping has no hope of being paid down. We're still reeling from the $1700 riding lawn mower (what were we thinking?), and Jeff having virtually no income for several months. Luckily, he has a job now where he's paid well, likes the people, and is kept very busy. He's a mechanic, by the way, and ASE certified. Excuse me, automotive technician.

Anyway, I'm a little nervous about going to the bank Saturday. I think it may be because buying the house was so stressful. I couldn't eat and lost weight, my hair was falling out, I couldn't sleep. Driving home after the closing, Jeff says, "It's over! You can chill out!" I said, "No, I can't! Now we have a mortgage!" Little did I know that in a matter of months, I'd have a nervous breakdown because of the house. But, that's another story. Let's just say parts of my house were virtually termites holding hands. Add to it the bank suits, lawyers, a spat with my brother (the contractor), the Department of Agriculture, my nervous breakdown, a shady termite inspection company, and lots of loopholes (none to our advantage). We thought about letting the bank foreclose at one point, and even stopped paying our mortgage for 2 months. After talking to people who had gone through bankruptcy, we decided not to. I'm hoping this bank will not hold that 2 months against us. It will be good to get away from the bad vibes associated with our current mortgage holder, if not the house itself.

So, for Leigh's birthday I bought us 2 tickets to see comedian Margaret Cho next Saturday. Besides the fact that she's very funny, we have another reason to like her. In one of her standup routines she talked about a group of three friends. She said there's always the sweet one, the smart one, and the ho'. Well, Leigh's the sweet one and I'm the smart one. Our friend, Jen used to be the ho' (only because she's slept with more men than Leigh or I ever thought about sleeping with - though she once said she cannot go without sex). Well, who's the ho' now? Kellie? She's juggling 3 or 4 men now after kicking her dead-beat live-in boyfriend to the curb (or his mom's house). That's not really ho' behavior. She just wants to keep her options open, especially after the last fiasco.

I'm hanging out with Jen this Saturday. We never told her about the ho' thing. No need to now, I guess. I don't want to hurt her feelings. I bet we can bridge the gap between us, since we're both married now. We had a huge tiff a couple of years ago, and have not been very close since then. Though her husband and mine are very different people, I'm sure she's going through the same adjustment I did when I first got married. It takes some time to get used to living with a man. Maybe now she can relate to me better (and vice versa), since for a long time I was the only married one of the group.