I guess nothing has really changed. Or has it?

The morning seems typical.  I am in my room getting ready to go and my Mom is in the living room doing  today's newspaper's crossword puzzle.  I've got music playing pretty loudly, maybe too loudly for her taste, but she has always allowed us to have our own stereos as long as the music was somewhat confined to our rooms.   Sometimes I even hear her humming along to my music. And as I am getting dressed it hits me pretty hard:  Some things truly don't change.  

Because I'm not living on Grosse Ile anymore and I am certainly not 17 any longer but I am indeed back living with my Mom and 28 years later, 23 years where we didn't live together nor within 500 miles of each other, we still have the same morning routine.  Instead of the Detroit Free Press crossword she is tackling the Washington Post crossword and on occasion she still asks me a tv, movie, music, history or sports question that she thinks I can answer.  And on a day like today when I am going to an interview I am constantly walking out into the living room and getting her opinion on my outfits/suits.  I swear she even licked her finger, like she did when we were young, and try to get a smudge off of my neck but 12 hours later she denies that happened this morning.  It DID.

We've already agreed, as discussed previously, that we live in a one-butt kitchen so we have moved on from that debate for the most part though she likes to come into the kitchen when I am cooking to "help", I just shoo her out and she goes.  We've even started splitting chores pretty evenly which is working out well.  She may tell you that I do things 80% and quit but honestly I love to do laundry, I just hate putting it away.  We can save this topic for another day.

However, we are spending a lot of time "debating" an issue that has arisen now that it is much hotter outside.  On one hand, this is her house and she is used to keeping the air conditioning on but barely and I am trying to be respectful.  On the other hand, it's so damn hot in there I can barely breathe.  Even Hobbes the Tabby Cat has asked for a summer brush cut so he doesn't sweat so much.    I've tried reasoning, I've tried changing the thermostat myself and I've tried begging but to no avail.   This debate has been going on for about a week and I guess my next step is to just start walking around the house naked all the time.  I welcome any other of your ideas.  

I know I have been absolutely awful about keeping up my Blog but I will continue to try and write more often.  Cheers, have a great holiday weekend, and be safe.  

Now I am 45 and I still live with my Mother!

Ok, so since I started my blog it's only been a few weeks but I did indeed turn 45 last week making the title of my blog already out of date.  Who cares!  Well, I suppose I kind of do but not enough to make a title change to my blog quite yet.  I've been told (by people who don't have a blog) that I have to blog more often than once every few weeks.  I googled it (no, not really) and I see no rules about how often I have to write but I shall try and do this a little more often.  After all, it's not like I don't have the time.

So Goggs and I have now lived together for about 6 weeks.  Here's what I have figured out thus far:

1)  We eat A LOT of spaghetti.  Like 2 or 3 times a week.

2)  She pretends to not like living with a cat but I've caught her napping with Hobbes not once but twice.  As in settling in for a nap and giving him his own blanket.

3)  Goggs watches mostly news shows.  She even watches Piers Morgan on CNN.  Yikes.  Sometimes she watches a few minutes of Fox News to get the other point of view.  Super Yikes.  I watch shows like The Real Housewives of Any City and Law and Order of any kind.  We are not TV compatible.  At all.

4)  Goggs can no longer go grocery shopping at my condo.  I thought this would be good for my grocery budget but I was wrong.  Instead of stopping by my house to see what she might steal, she actually can monitor my food supply by simply walking into the kitchen.  Not good for me at all.

5)  Goggs plans, on nights when we are not eating spaghetti, on what she will eat for dinner the moment she wakes up, if not the day before.  I choose a dinner item when I realize I am hungry and I wander into the kitchen to see what I have.  For me, planning is stopping by the grocery store in advance of cooking dinner.

6)  If Goggs finds a penny, whether it's in the parking lot, the store or in my jeans pockets, she rushes to 7-11 and buys a lottery ticket.  She just found out that sometimes the lottery has more than one winner and she is angry that she might have to share the 320 million dollars winnings with a complete stranger.  I am quite dubious she will ever win so sharing shouldn't make her so upset.

7)  Goggs is more excited about the cover for her new iPhone 4s that we bought her for Christmas than she is the new iPhone itself.   And now that she has FaceTime, she sometimes FaceTimes me from the living room when I am in my bedroom.  And unlike the rest of the world, Siri seems to annoy her.

Enjoy your day folks.  I made no New Years resolutions yet have found myself at the gym almost every day in the last two weeks.  Happy New Year to all.

Yup, I sure did...

...recently move in with my Mom.  I'm kind of like George on Seinfeld:   Hi, my name is George, I am unemployed and I live with my parents.

So why am I writing this blog?  Because a lot of you suggested it after reading my posts on Facebook about my relationship with my Mom.  For example, one day I posted that my Mom, who is 76, asked me to step outside so she could challenge me to a fist fight while we were arguing about how to hang blinds in my condo.  And one of my friends actually put $20 on my Mom to win.  

She's great.  My Mom that is.  She moved to the DC area in 1999. after spending her entire life in Michigan, because both of her kids at that point lived here.  Or, I should say, both of her grandkids lived here.  Soon you will read that I call her Goggs, not Mom.  My Mom and my sister-in-law's mom had settled on their grandmotherly names, Meme for Dory and Gram for my Mom.  But my nephew had something else in mind and started calling my mom Gaga when he was little.  Gaga turned in to Goggs.  She pleaded with her grandkids to try Gram to which they responded, "It is Goggs for life."  And now they are both teens and they still call her Goggs.  Sometimes they still say Gaga.  So do I.  So does everyone else in our family.  So do all of my friends.  I'm sorry Mom, but it's Goggs for life.

So I am going to write a blog about our adventure of living together starting, well I guess, right now.  The setting will be Arlington, Virginia.

Her condo is pretty small; we have 2 bedrooms, thank goodness, and 1 bathroom.  My brother and his family call this her "Gnome home" and now there are 2 of us living in close quarters.  I've upgraded her cable tv package, we are now all set with 800 sf condo-wide wifi (she had an iPhone but no computer before I moved in hence no previous internet) and so far we are getting along pretty well.  It's not perfect nor is what either of us would choose but it makes the most sense, and, frankly I am pretty darn lucky to get to live for the next 12 months with my Mom while she is still in great shape.   Goggs may be 76 but she takes no meds, drives confidently in DC traffic, and even with cat allergies, allowed my orange tabby cat, Hobbes, to live with her.

I haven't really lost anything moving here, not even my pride.  I still have my condo, but I am renting it out to someone who was willing to pay me boatloads of money for 632 sf.  I miss my neighbors but seem to be socializing with them, albeit in a more organized fashion, more than we did when we lived 20 feet apart.  A few times I've driven to my condo, see my neighbors' cars and realize I came home to the wrong home.

I have plenty of friends who are moving in with their families, friends, etc.  I'm not alone in this messy economic situation we are currently in and continue to face.  I lived in Michigan for 23 years and I know what it's like up there. And the world of trade associations and non-profits isn't great right now either and that's what I've done professionally since 1992.  Many people have it a heck of a lot worse than me and any of you.  Don't get me wrong, I wish things were better for me, but I don't feel sorry for myself.  I could but I don't, neither should any of you.  I have everything I need though, since you asked,  I could have used a trip to Hawaii.  On second thought,  George Clooney is done filming the recently released movie, Descendants, so I am good right here in Arlington.

But let's face it:  WE ARE GOING TO DRIVE EACH OTHER CRAZY.  Goggs has a "one-butt" kitchen.  The litter box is in the bathroom which annoys me but I guess it's better than being on my bed.  I don't get to park my car 10 feet from my condo.  I have no control of the thermostat.  I have to take my shoes off at the door.  My golf clubs are currently in the trunk of my Miata because my Mom doesn't think there's anywhere in here to put them.  Except my driver which doesn't fit my trunk but I don't think she realizes that it's hiding in my closet.

As I sign off for the night, I will tell you about our dinner this evening.  I made a big pot of veggie soup and baked a loaf of bread.  The house smelled yummy.  Goggs had her first bowl of soup before the bread was done.  She had her second bowl of soup as the bread was coming out of the oven and then continued to have a third bowl of soup with a piece of bread.  So I asked her how the soup was as I had yet to have any to which she responded, "Oh, it was ok".  I am pretty sure she thought it was better than just "ok".

Goggs for life.