Happy Saturday! A big thanks to Natalie of Natalie the Explorer for hosting WeekendCoffeeShare each weekend.

This is the third day of my four-day extended weekend. I decided to take Thursday and Friday off this week because I’m about to max out my PTO (paid-time-off) at work and once that’s maxed out, it will no longer accrue until I take time off. I decided to take Thursday off because I knew my mom would be heading to the office and I would be able to get away and be with myself for the day. Well, she didn’t want to go to the office on Thursday and she’s also close to maxing out her PTO as well, so she took Thursday off, too.

That morning, she and my aunt decided to get up early. When they’re up is when I can no longer sleep because of the ruckus they make downstairs. Both of them competed over who can play YouTube the loudest while my aunt made a bunch of banging noises with taking pots and pans out of storage. Even with my door closed, my head felt like it was going to split open.

She asked me why I took the day off. I told her, “I took the day off to be alone, not to have to be stuck at home, listening to you two!” She ignored me and changed the subject. …and that’s how much my honesty is worth around this parts.

We had to take my aunt to work that morning and afterwards, I had to refuel my car. Along the drive, my mom criticized, screamed, lectured, honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference. All of them made my brain hurt and made me mental curse and swear. At one time, she thought I was going to hit a woman and child when my car’s stopped on a speed bump and the woman and her child was nowhere near my car.

I refused to talk to her for the rest of the day because if I did, she would’ve contradicted me and make me think I’m the one at fault and the one who’s crazy. I ended up spending the afternoon watching two movies on Prime – Kiss the Ground and Common Ground – documentaries about soil and climate change. I listened to an interview with the film maker on Monday and it got me interested. After all, I am a gardener.

Thank goodness my mom didn’t ask what I was watching. She would not had approved of these movies as she doesn’t believe in climate change and she doesn’t like anything that has to do with gardening. She thinks those who believes in climate change has been brainwashed by leftist politician. I guess she’s blind to all the things that’s been happening.

That night, I decided to try to cool off my anger at the park but no can do. My anger is like this cast iron pot that’s been in the oven for far too long. I did manage to get some cool photos though. There were a couple of games in progress at the park. As far as I could tell, there was a flag football and two soccer games. I live in a State where soccer is just as popular as American football.

I returned home to capture a few more photos of whatever flower that’s not been fried by the sun. My favorite is the pink four o’clock flowers. The purple Korean mint has been a steady bloomer since around June while the red carnation is just starting blooming this week.

When I made it into the house that night, I was criticized again for spending so much time in the garden. I said I did not, that I spent 50 minutes walking in the park. My mom ignored me and went upstairs, refusing to admit she’s wrong. Right now as I’m writing this, I’m rolling my eyes. Of course, she tells me I must apologize to her but does she ever apologizes to me?

Anyway, I appreciate you sticking around. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.