I Want My Smooth Back

Before I can finish my San Diego story or tell about my injured knee I have to explain something else. 2007, all 16 days of it, has been kinda sucky. Initially I had a hard time trying to figure out exactly what was going on, then once I figured it out, I had a hard time trying to convert it from an abstract concept to something I could put into words. I'll try to explain it. The expression I came up with is "I've lost my smooth."

Although I have my fair share of goofy moments (which have been well chronicled here), I'm a pretty capable person. Most of my life I've been several steps ahead of the game, imagining every possible outcome of any action, and planning accordingly. Also, when confronted with the unexpected, I'm quick on my feet. Lately I've been WAY off kilter. And particularly unsmooth.

We woke up in our lovely room, on Sunday, the 7th looking forward to our ferry trip to Coronado Island. My right foot was bothering me, particularly my little toe. Being the self-diagnostic type regarding anything about my body, I decided the problem was that my toenail was too long. Obviously clipping it would solve everything. And being the person that I am, I of course had nail clippers. I clipped that silly nail and decided everything would be fine after that. Shortly after lunch, as we were walking south on 5th avenue, I realized my problem was not solved. Still we continued to walk around stopping only once or twice for me to quaff some beers. We knew the ferry left on the hour and kept slightly missing our window of opportunity to head to the Broadway pier. Finally the timing seemed about right and we caught a cab for the pier. I was so happy knowing I would be sitting for 15 minutes. The day was gorgeous. I loved sitting on the ferry and looking at the water. I even had my little binoculars. For 15 minutes I forgot about my achy little toe.

We disembarked at a cheesy little tourist trap place. I was not impressed with the place although I found a surf shop with decently priced t-shirts and we found a little cafe where we had drinks on the deck and split a steamed artichoke. At the indoor bar, we asked if there were cabs for the grabbing to go to the hotel Del. The bartender said he could call for one and one of the patrons suggested we rent bikes to go there as it was only about a mile. My toe was KILLING me so that was not an option. We should have taken the bartender up on his offer, but we headed out and walked out to the public streets. Nothing. We did finally notice a shuttle stand. A shuttle to the Hotel Del even. So we sat there for 20 minutes to wait. Once we were finally on the shuttle, as I pondered my screaming toe ache, I realized I could have bought some flip-flops at the touristy place. The NORMAL me would have thought of that AT THE TIME, but not the new unsmooth me. So then I not only had a sore toe but was frustrated with myself. I continued down my path of unsmoothness. We walked through the shops at the Hotel Del. No flip-flops, just $145 moccasins and tennis shoes. No thanks. THEN I walked right past a bathroom - and yes I noticed it at the time. Since when do I not stop at a bathroom? I drink beer all day for crying out loud! Unsmooth. We ended up at the cabana bar out by the beach. Everything was gorgeous, the bartender was very nice, but I had to pee. And there was no way I was going to walk all the way back to that bathroom. I took my shoe off and the bartender gave me some ice. I iced my toe and had 2 or 3 beers.

The way to look for the bunnies was in the opposite direction of the bathroom, but I wanted to find the bunnies so we headed off that way. They are no longer there. I found the place where they used to be, but no bunnies. I hate to think of what happened to them. I'm sure they didn't just LEAVE - I mean it's an island, where would they have gone? Let's not think about the bunnies anymore.

We made it back to the main part of the hotel, found the bathroom and My Sweetie said, "Okay, let's just get a cab back to our hotel." Best plan ever! When we got back to our room, I took those shoes off and may never wear them again. Now is a time to mention that since it was such a short trip, I only took the one pair of shoes, but I did have my L.L. Bean moccasin slippers. Yes, my house shoes, or in this case, my smoking shoes. Our hotel was non-smoking except on the roof, so I had brought those to wear up to the roof in the mornings and late at night. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I decided to wear my slippers for the rest of the trip. If you want to feel weird, sit in a fancy restaurant in the Gaslamp District of San Diego in your slippers. Wearing them to the airport the next day was awesome though, and I may fly in them from now on.

At the airport, we pretty much had the bar to ourselves. I made up a game where we did a pictionary type thing of movie titles. It was pretty funny. And the plane! I think there were maybe 15-20 people on the whole MD-80. I haven't been on an empty plane in years! That part was NICE. I forgot to mention that I was full-blown sick at this point so I pretty much slept the whole way home. I didn't even have a beer, just orange juice - and if you knew me you would know that meant I was really sick.

On Tuesday, I was so sick I forgot to call Meals on Wheels and tell them, so I had to buck up and go out on Wednesday. Friday night brought the beginning of our arctic blast. It was basically a stay-in-the-house weekend. On Sunday night, My Sweetie bundled up to "go out and check conditions." He said, "There's no ice on the road." I heard, "There's no ice on the ground." Our power had been going out for about 5 minutes at a time. When it came back on the air blower for our spa would come on. We don't use it and it's very shrill so he had turned it off. Well, after he went to bed, the power went out again for about 9 minutes. It came back and shrill air blower was screeching away. I decided to go out and push that little button by the spa. "No ice on the road" does NOT mean "No ice on the deck." I know that NOW. My left foot went up on the deck, I mean sheet of ice, and every part of my body flew left except my right foot from the knee down. It all happened pretty fast but it was bad. Then I went straight down on my butt and burst into tears from the knee pain. I hobbled back into the house blubbering away, woke up My Sweetie, freaking him out. He cut the power to the spa and helped me settle down with an ice pack and a small ice chest of beers. The next day he bought me an Ace knee brace, and it is doing better - my knee I mean. Slipping on ice - not smooth.

I want my smooth back.

Two Words at a Time

Icy Weekend

Nice Fires

Weird Movies

Power Outages

Icy Deck

Injured Knee

Enough Said

More Later

San Diego Started Out Well. . .

For all of you "airplane cold" conspiracy theorists out there (you know who you are, and if you don't, just read the comments from the last post) I did NOT get my cold from the plane. Both my daughter and my husband were sick the week before I left, but being the psychotic, oh wait, psychic doctors that we are, we decide ourselves whether we have colds or allergies. Of course, both Kate AND My Sweetie diagnosed themselves with allergies. Yeah, I'm gonna say no. I remember as Kate was driving me to the airport on Saturday morning I said, "I have the weirdest sinus ache. It's just on the right side in like a 3 point triangle between my two eye points and the bottom of my nose." I decided to ignore it because I'm good at that type of thing. I got to the airport and breezed right through check-in and security. I found a Friday's near my gate and parked myself. I was more concerned with their TV just above me because Duke would be playing their first conference game at 11:00 and I knew I had time to watch the whole first half. Sure enough, the TV was tuned to ESPN. It was all good at that point.

I ordered a giant beer and started watching the game. I doubt any of my readers watched this game, but take my word for it: if you were a Duke fan you would have HATED this game! At home I cuss a lot when I watch Duke play, but I was sitting in a public place so I had to be aware of my "reactions." And believe me, I was having A LOT of reactions. I kept consoling myself with my usual mantra of "we will fix all of this in the second half," but it was hard to leave at halftime. I was on the starboard side of the plane in an aisle seat next to two broads who seemed to know each other but weren't really friends. They were kind of amusing. Also we had the emergency exit and I knew they could handle the heavy lifting in case of emergency while I would direct people and tell them to shut up, I mean calm down. On the port side next to me (with just the two seats) was a guy with a laptop that he had placed on the window seat table. He watched every single part of one of the Zorro dvd's. I couldn't even hear it and I grew tired of the "behind the scenes" stuff.

I didn't stop in the San Diego airport for a beer because, quite frankly, I did not need another one at this point, plus I was far more interested in getting outside for a smoke. It was fun going down the escalator and seeing the handsome young man holding a card with my name on it. I told him I was going out to smoke and he came with me. I thought that was cute. We went back inside and I pointed out my bag and he grabbed it. He was very nice and pretty much kept up with my incessant chatter. He told me that after he dropped me off he would be going to get My Sweetie from Torrey Pines. I said, "Tell him I'll be sitting right there." I was pointing at the bar diagonal to my hotel.

I got to the hotel almost two hours before check-in and was going to check my bags, but the clerk said the room was ready. That was great! I got to redistribute my stuff so I'd only have my tiny purse, AND brush my teeth. Oh yeah, the room. First of all, he said it was on the 7th floor. I was kinda disappointed. Then I walked into the room and was confused. It was a good sized room, but there was no bed, just two small couches facing each other. I walked to the end of the room and there was A DOOR! We had a separate bedroom! It was awesome. AND it was a corner room so we had windows EVERYWHERE! And there was a giant window seat cushion in the bedroom window. It was really nice. NOW it was time for a beer. I went down to that bar - the Gaslamp Tavern - and people were cheering and yelling at (for?) the football playoffs. I immediately asked some sports savvy looking guys if they knew how the Duke game ended. Yeah, not good. I was sitting next to two sisters from L.A. and we chatted it up until My Sweetie showed up.

We eventually went back to the room, got the camera, jackets and whatnot and headed out for the night. We bar hopped, had a great dinner, bar hopped some more, sang and danced in the street (HE said I did) and then headed back to the room. We were going to watch "Buffy" but we both crashed on our couches. I woke up after midnight my time (yes only 10:00 in California!) brushed my teeth and went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up with terrible foot pain, but I was too tired to get up for Advil. That was a portent for the rest of the trip . . .


(And thank you all so very much for the "Get Well" wishes!)

Sick Sucks

I woke up in San Diego Sunday night with a horrible full-blown head cold. I made the mistake of doing my Meals on Wheels today, when I should have been home sleeping. I feel horrible. I will post the fun stuff when I am well.
:(

I'm Off!

I guess most people were getting back to their normal routines this week after the holidays, but not me. I guess I'll start next week. My Sweetie left for California Wednesday morning. After Meals on Wheels, I had lunch at Bennigan's, ran by Marshall's for some cute tops for my trip, hit the grocery store and came home. About 5 minutes later my daughter showed up and Wednesday night was one long party. We had a really good time at a new neighborhood bar. After we got home I showed her some youtube stuff and we started to watch my new "Buffy," but we both crashed. I woke up in my recliner at 6:00 a.m. and had to brush my teeth for about twenty minutes. Kate had Thursday off and stayed all day. We watched Phantom of the Opera around 2:00 and then spent the next two hours singing things like, "I'm going to get another beer now." and "What shall we order for dinner?" I did get a few chores done. Kate left late Thursday night. I spent today packing and organizing for my trip (like cleaning the humidifiers and watering the plants). Around 3:00 today, I was trying to print stuff for the trip and kept getting blank pages. I was getting very frustrated. I kept looking over every option for my printer, kept changing settings, yet kept getting blank pages. Finally I did the nozzle check thing and after the page printed out and I compared it to the screen I noticed 2 things: My nozzles are printing perfectly and I HAD NO BLACK INK. What happened was, when I replaced those cartridges recently, I put in one called "photo" and one called "color." I'm guessing one of them should have said "BLACK." So I ended up printing the scoring rules for gin rummy, Gaslamp District entertainment info, and MY PLANE TICKET in either red or green. It's all very festive. I'm not even sure which cartridge I should change to black, but I guess I'll just deal with that later. I have to leave for the airport in 8 hours, so I guess I should try to get some sleep. I hope I have fun. Fun is a good thing to have!

San Diego, I Hear Ya Calling

This is a picture of a room at the Gaslamp Plaza Suites - from their website - and I would swear it's the exact room we stayed in last year. Seriously, if I had leaned my butt on the minifridge, I could have taken that exact picture. I have a feeling we will be in the same room on Saturday. It's not a giant hotel and has several floor plans, but we've been guaranteed a top floor room facing south and I don't think there are that many up there -and some of them are privately owned. Anyway, I was looking at their floor plans here: http://www.gaslampplaza.com/floorplan.html and I sure hope we don't get a room with the bottom left floor plan because I won't be able to figure out how to get into the bathroom.

Last year we pretty much took it easy because of my healing broken foot. It's all here. This year I want to take the ferry to Coronado Island. The ferry dock (is that correct? ferry dock? It sounds like a character from Lord of The Rings) is only one mile from our hotel. I haven't been to the Hotel Del in over 12 years. I don't even remember what year I went. What I mostly remember was The Hotel Del Coronado had a bunny problem. There were bunnies everywhere. You had to "help" them out of the hotel sometimes. I love bunnies. I hope they are all still there.

So far, the long term weather predictions for San Diego are 66 - 70 degrees/day and 46 - 50 degrees/night. That sounds good to me. I'm looking forward to splashing through the bay on the ferry on a fine sunny 68* day on my way to see some bunnies. That's my plan for this Sunday. I would have added more but I was dizzy from stringing all those prepositional phrases together. And now I'm going to visit my own bathroom, because I know where the door is.

2007!

I've been planning to add a list of the blogs I read to that right-hand column. And I'm going to. I don't know a thing about HTML, but I think I've got it figured out. I'm dreading it because I remember it took me forever to do that "Stuff I Like" column. And that was a LONG time ago. I'm going to do it, though, and soon. Okay, that will be my New Year's resolution.

I hope everyone has a safe, fun and happy New Year!

Update: It looks like I got the blog list started. I'm sure I left out someone that I wish I hadn't. Also, I did not list some of the people that I read, for particular reasons, nor any celebrity bloggers, such as dooce that don't need any more advertisement, but I may add Wil Wheaton somewhere because he's so sweet. Worst run-on sentence EVER!

Christmas Report

I had a great Christmas! The party on the 23rd went pretty well. It was a multi-generational party with a small horde of wild children, but I think things went pretty smoothly. Everyone seemed to have a good time and most of the food was eaten. However, I did forget to put the cinnamon sticks in the mulled cider - and didn't realize it until an hour after everyone left!

~ ~ ~

Christmas eve was a day of rest and recovery. I mostly lounged on the couch and watched a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie I had recorded. I love those things. I even took a nap. That evening we went to our favorite restaurant, then came home and exchanged one gift. I got the most awesome gift ever - an autographed #4 jersey from J. J. Redick! My Sweetie is the best husband EVER! I gave him the 6th season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Our hotel in San Diego has a DVD player and when we went last year we took Buffy and ended each day by lounging on the couch and watching some "Buffy." I thought it would be fun to be able to do that again. Wow! That's less than two weeks away! I also opened one gift from my best friend Lolo. It was a Duke Christmas stocking. That was cool that my two Christmas eve presents were Duke things.

~ ~ ~

On Christmas day, I cooked sausage and eggs, and made the eggs the way my Dad always did. That was my way of remembering him on Christmas day. I got a Dianne Reeves CD (playing now, ahhhh), the John Legend CD, Pirates 2, some books and my crazy Robopet (pictured above). - That Robopet is freaky. There's a video here. I named him Sparky. The funniest thing about him so far is that Rufus is mesmerized by him and always tries to smell his butt. - Around 5:30, we left for my Mom's house. As usual, Mom served up a killer meal. My daughter made the deviled eggs and they were probably the best I've ever had. I taught her how to make them and my secret is to use several mustards, but hers were better. She said one of the mustards she used was a spicy horseradish mustard. I want some of that mustard!

~ ~ ~

I had been telling people that I wanted photo albums for Christmas. I'm finally going to tackle my photos next year and get them out of all the boxes. Lolo's gift that I opened on Christmas day was a really nice photo album. It holds 504 photos. I figured it would get me started. Then on Christmas night, between my Mom and daughter, I got FIVE MORE! Now if I can only finish that bathroom, I can tackle the photo problem. I also got some other really nice gifts from Mom and Kate.

~ ~ ~

People always complain about the Christmas season getting longer and longer, but it seemed really short to me this year. I loved all my gifts and I hope everyone liked the gifts I got them. Thursday I'm going to take down the tree. It is dry as a bone. I would do it tomorrow but that is Meals on Wheels Wednesday. Well if I get home early enough, I may go ahead and do it. It's hard to believe another year is almost over. Where does the time go?

Merry Christmas 2006

That's a picture taken in 1969. I was 8. I love that picture. We all look so happy. I think that's the year I got my brown faux fur coat. I really loved that thing. The first few weeks I wore it even if it was 60 degrees out.

I almost titled this post "Merry Christmas 2007." I always do that. I jump the gun on stuff. For the next 4 months I will probably tell people I am 46, although I will not be 46 until late April. Then when my birthday comes I will be confused for a few days. "Uhhh, so now I'm 47? Oh wait, no! 46!" I have no idea why, but I do that every year.

I've spent the week madly preparing for my "annual" Christmas party. I put that in quotations because I did not have it last year because of the broken foot. I feel much more relaxed about it this year and so THAT is freaking me out. I'm usually a giant barrel of nerves about now - yeah I know the expression is "bundle of nerves," but bundle just doesn't seem big enough. For some reason I feel pretty mellow about tomorrow's party (Saturday's, legally today's party, but it's not tomorrow to me until I go to sleep and wake up again) - and we'll even have extra people who are visiting from out of town. All I can think is that I have some sort of brain damage. WHY am I not freaking out? I have to admit it's a pleasant conundrum.

We'll have a a buffet with barbecued brisket, ribs, cheesy potatoes, green beans and salad, as well as my garlic artichoke dip and a crudite platter. The only things I will actually have to cook are the potatoes, green beans and dip. And throw the simple salad together. And make the Ranch dressing. PLUS my daughter is coming early to help so it will all be super easy. I set up a kids' table in the library and put all my Rudolph action figures on it. It's really cute!

It's 3:30 a.m. and I should head off to bed. I have a party to throw "tomorrow!"

I hope everyone has a great Christmas!

It's ALWAYS Something!*

*Or how Murphy's Law has been kicking my ass

Christmas Trees: My great idea of waiting to get a Christmas tree was A) stupid, B) stupid and C) yeah, stupid because my thinking was that if we waited, the tree would be fresher. Uhm. . . No. Apparently every tree place gets their trees in November, do not get new shipments, and if you WAIT to get your tree you will have VERY LITTLE to choose from. Friday night we went to the place down the street that we've gone to since we moved here and they had nothing we could use. Saturday night out of desperation we went to Lowe's and bought a much shorter tree than I would have liked, but because God is a kind God (or maybe he and Murphy were battling it out for me), the niceDouglas Fir was VERY CHEAP. We also bought our knobs, pulls and faucets there.

I love these faucets!

Knobs, Pulls and Faucets: I was SO HAPPY to get my new bathroom fixtures. Saturday night after My Sweetie went to bed, I took out the really ugly faucet (there are two in there but one of them was really gross). Murphy being what he is, the old faucet was made in such a manner that the water supply hoses (copper ones) were actually built into the faucet. Okay, so yes, I should have maybe checked that out beforehand. So I had no water supply hoses. I decided not to freak out. I figured I'd send MS out to take care of that the next day and meanwhile I would install the knobs (18) and pulls (3). Finally all was well. Wait! Is that Murphy hiding in the shower? Oh yes. The knobs went just fine. The pulls, not so much. My original holes for the old pulls were 3 inches apart. The new pulls' holes were 2 1/2 inches apart. Today after My Sweetie came back from Home Depot with my regular old 1/2 inch to 3/8 inch water supply hoses and filler putty, all seemed well. I figured I would fill the old drawer pull holes with putty and drill new ones later and just throw those faucets together in a snap. We installed the new faucet and I filled the holes and decided it was bathrrom break time. And by that, I mean we needed a break from working in the bathroom. At this point we decided to trim the tree. That was fun - and creatively hanging ornaments to make giant gaps in the tree (you waited too late to buy) look less noticeable was very entertaining. I had a long relax time after that. We watched the whole 3 hours of the "Survivor" finale and I made spaghetti and meatballs. After My Sweetie went to bed, I decided to replace the other faucet and get all the tools and stuff out of the bathroom. Did someone say Murphy's law? Well, if not, I was gonna. The holes drilled in my bathroom countertop (counter top? I'm not gonna look it up!) for that other faucet were WRONG. The new faucet did not fit in there. It was obvious visually that they had drilled the cold water hole closer to center than the hot hole (geez I hope no one finds this site by googling "hot hole"). So I got the file and filed and filed and filed and filed. After 12 eons and breathing probably deadly dust, I was finally able to fit the faucet in there. Tuesday night I will drill the 6 new holes in the three drawers and install the 3 pulls. Then that room will be finished for now. Tonight all I have left to do is my Christmas cards. About that...

Christmas Cards: Every Wednesday after I finish my Meals on Wheels route, I stop at a convenience store and buy a USA Today, a pack of Camel Lights and maybe some gum. I am a creature of habit (and the acronym for that is COH, not OCD). At lunch, I like to sit at a restaurant bar and read my USA Today. Unfortunately, this last Wednesday there was an article about funky family Christmas pictures. Being a graphic artist and Photoshop expert I thought, "Cool!" Well, Murphy's Law being what it is, our printer was out of ink. I figured I would make a funny picture and then get the ink. EVERYTHING went downhill from there. The computer kept freezing. I was getting VERY frustrated. My Sweetie even went out early Saturday to buy the ink, but he didn't replace it. And therein lies another Murphy's Law problem. My history of replacing ink cartridges is BAD - picture Frankenstein trying to sew a button on a shirt. Late Saturday night, after finally getting Photoshop to work again, I replaced the ink cartridges in the printer. It was all bad from there. Today MS told me he fixed the problem and I printed out the pictures for the Christmas cards, but the blue color is WAY off (for those of you reading that will be getting Christmas cards). Speaking of Meals on Wheels...

My "Training Day." I mentioned in my last post that I was nervous about having a stranger ride along with me for MOW. I couldn't have had a better person. Our route was "adopted" (usually by a church group or scout troop) for Christmas gifts. What was meant to be a large trash bag filled with smaller packed gift bags (marked "male," female," and "either") ended up being a large trash bag full of empty gift bags marked "male," female," and "either" and LOTS of random stuff. The lady I was training pretty much took it on herself to take care of the Christmas gifts. She was AWESOME. She kept apologizing about not looking in the bag earlier to see the mess. I kept telling her how helpful she was. I would have been doing ALL OF THAT by myself. At every stop, she made gift bags while I put the meals together. I gave her suggestions for some of the clients, but she pretty much did it on her own. After I took her back to her car, I went to lunch, did some Christmas shopping, then met my daughter at a restaurant bar. We had a blast. Where was Murphy on Wednesday? I know he doesn't take Wednesdays off.

And then some: Rufus wasn't TOO bad with the Christmas tree, although he attempted to climb it a few times. He has figured out now not to hang around the tree, The pork roast was excellent and my favorite re-run of it was making North Carolina style barbecue for lunch on Thursday. I also forgot to mention that my big annual family Christmas barbecue buffet event is this Saturday. Woof, it's a lot of work for a few hours of fun but I hope everything goes well (at least my bathroom will be great!). It's all about the lists and I've made most of them. Still, Murphy's Law has been kicking my ass lately and it's wearing me down. Hey Murphy! GO AWAY!!

The Day Has Come

I knew this day was coming. When I first started Meals on Wheels - a little over 6 years ago - after the initial office visit, you do a ride-along with another MOW volunteer. Today I got the call. On Wednesday I am to show a new volunteer the ropes. The MOW lady first said something like "She can follow you." I was confused because I actually rode with the person that "taught" me. Then I was thinking, "What if she doesn't smoke?" I've since decided I can go that long without a cigarette and I think we should ride together. I rarely need a sub so she won't be doing my route very often, but I can teach her a lot of the basics about what to do with shortfalls and extras and the protocol when no one answers the door. I just think it's funny that they picked crazy me to do this.

I finally decorated the outside for Christmas. My little scarecrow was still out there! That's awful! I did something new this year so it took me forever to figure it out, but I like it.

I actually gutted up and called my brother's house to figure out what to give my nephew for Christmas. I do not like to talk to my brother or his wife, but I called anyway. Mostly I asked him questions about the wall work I will have to do before I paint the master bathroom. I like that I can always find a safe subject when talking to weird people.

It looks like we will get our tree on Friday, so Saturday will be "trimming the tree" day. We are seriously concerned about Rufus. He has never experienced a Christmas tree and he's kinda crazy. I was actually thinking we should buy a video camera. I mean if he's gonna destroy our tree, we could at least win $10,000 for it from "America's Funniest Videos."

Several people have been doing posts about their idiosyncrasies. I think it's called something like "6 weird things about me." Oddly enough, most of them aren't that odd to me - although some of them WERE REALLY WEIRD. I've been thinking about it and I think my weirdest thing is this: I can not tolerate artificial light during the daytime. During those weird days when the clouds are really thick and it's dark during the day, I will actually walk around in the dark. When I stay at a hotel, I always request south or west facing rooms because I do not want to have to turn on a lamp during the daytime. I've actually decided I didn't like people just because they had their windows closed and their lights on during the day. Except my Meals on Wheels clients. They are old. They are excused from anything that bothers me.

I am SO close to finishing my wallpaper removal. I'm down to just bits and pieces - mostly around electrical outlets and light switches and the windows. I did 2 hours on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday. I didn't think I'd ever see the end of the WALLPAPER FROM HELL. But now I am close. Why on earth did people always wallpaper bathrooms?!? Okay, I was taking a wallpaper day off so I shouldn't even be typing this.

I did a marinade rub for a pork roast tonight and now I'm thinking my hands will smell like garlic until March.

And I wash my hands A LOT.

The Very Recent Past

Last Wednesday I thought someone had left their Meals on Wheels route sheet there in the church, but the guy was using the phone. Then I left MY route sheet. I didn't have anyone new, but not having my route sheet made my brain freeze and I drove by my first stop 3 times. I felt pretty stupid.

On Thursday (our snow day) I made lasagne for the first time in years. I remembered why, work-wise and mess-wise, but it was REALLY GOOD. I froze two more dinners worth and we've already had one. Also, this time I bought one of those foil disposable baking things so I had the exact shape and size I wanted and then just tossed it. I just may make lasagne again next year!

On Saturday, our anniversary, I had a WONDERFUL day. I made a lot of progress stripping wallpaper - I did two hours. (Yes the same wallpaper I started stripping in June. I quit for the summer because it was too hot.) I tried on a pair of jeans I had previously tried on when jeans season started. They were too tight then but on Saturday they slipped right on. That was very satisfying. We had a great dinner at our little Italian place. Just into the main course, the pianist played the song we were married to - ON HER OWN. We just looked at each other kinda shocked. After the song I went over to give her a nice tip and told her it was our anniversary and thanked her. The song is "Christmastime is here." We're both suckers for Vince Guaraldi. On the way home we stopped by a new bar near our house and our very first song, "I only want to be with you" by Hootie and the Blowfish came on. That was REALLY weird. It was a great day.

On Sunday I turned the TV to the music channel that plays traditional Christmas music. My Sweetie was in here on the computer and I needed a nap. I thought that would be great nap music. Not only was it an excellent choice for nap music, but I discovered an artist that I am now a HUGE fan of. Oddly enough she was singing "Christmastime is here." I opened my eyes to read the name of the artist and it was Dianne Reeves. I feel like an absolute idiot for not knowing about her. Now I want all of her CD's. Her voice is like silk or butter or silk butter or something. I ran in here and told MS to google her. We found that site and sat there and sampled song after song. If I ever get that question again about being stranded on a deserted island and you can take only one CD, it will be one of hers. I hope My Sweetie ordered one for me for Christmas.

On Monday afternoon, I was cleaning the kitchen when the doorbell rang. I was in gray sweats, a giant gray Duke T-shirt, hadn't brushed my hair, my teeth, or even looked in a mirror when the doorbell rang. I thought, "Who is this clown?" I figured I would say something quick to get rid of him until he introduced himself and I realized he was the guy from Empire Today THAT I HAD MADE AN APPOINTMENT WITH AND TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT. Man was I embarrassed! And my living room was a mess! He was very gracious and said it was quite common for people to forget the Monday appointments. A bit later he asked what I did for a living. I squeaked out "I'm a housewife," as my eyes darted nervously around the room. I finally relaxed and had fun picking out a tile for my bathroom. As part of the deal (to save some money) I told him I would pull out the carpet. Yeah the bathroom was half tile and half carpet, don't ask. So around midnight I was in there getting all those nail strips out and trying not to lose an eye. Also I had to get EVERYTHING out of the room because of the dust from the old tile removal. That was a fun night. Oh another thing happened on Monday. Around 7:30 pm or so I went out to the garage to smoke. Since it's been so chilly and I got tired of leaves sticking to my socks, I've been smoking by the side door in the garage instead of on the patio. The door faces east. I was watching the almost full moon rise and it was that pretty effect of seeing a full(ish) moon rise through oak branches with that wispy haze of clouds on top. Suddenly my brain went into alert mode and I realized a face was looking right at me. There on a tree branch, about 12 or 14 feet away was a young possum looking right at me. He was only about a foot above my eye level. I wish I had grabbed the camera. Instead I grabbed My Sweetie to come and see it. He wasn't our regular possum that we call Bob. Bob is a lot fatter and uglier. I named this one Fred. He was almost cute for a possum. So now every night when I go out there to smoke I look for Fred.

On Tuesday I had to get up at 7:30. I usually get up around noon or later. The flooring guys got here at 8:20. It was 3 guys that I'm guessing were Vietnamese but I was pretending they were from Myanmar because it's a funny word (although My Sweetie said it was a terrible country). I did 3 hours of wallpaper stripping that morning. They were working in the one bathroom and I was working in the other. Around 2:00 I was SO sleepy. The last thing I wanted to do was go to sleep with three strange men in my house, so I couldn't even sit down. I just kept pacing around and going into the garage to smoke. Finally around 3:00 they were completely finished. My new floor is GORGEOUS!! I had them lay the tile on the diagonal and it really makes a difference. Also they finshed it off with bullnose tile around the wall, so now I don't have crack nasty baseboards anymore. Woo and Hoo! Now I need new faucets, knobs and pulls. I can replace faucets myself. I did the one in the bar sink already. Maybe that's what I can get My Sweetie for Christmas: New faucets. And knobs. And pulls. Oh my!!

Meals on Wheels was pretty uneventful today, but I am really starting to fall in love with one of my new ladies. The day before Thanksgiving I had to also give out the "Holiday Meals," because MOW doesn't deliver on Thanksgiving. When I gave it to her she said, "Tomorrow's Thanksgiving? I didn't even know that." Last week when I delivered the "Inclement Weather Meal," I said, "This is in case of bad weather and we can't deliver. It is a shelf stable meal and can be kept in your pantry." She said, "So I need to put it in the deep freeze?" She's very friendly and always smiling. She has a staircase leading up from her entryway and she has a funky hat on the left side of each step. I think that's cute. I stopped by Garden Ridge to pick up a few Christmas things. I bought a very inexpensive tablecloth that I'm going to convert into a tree skirt. When? Great question. Well, tomorrow is another day.

December Already?

I can't believe it's December. I read several Canadian bloggers and they were all talking about their big snowstorms and I thought nothing of it because, well, because they're in CANADA for crying out loud. I imagine it snows there every day except in August. So I was rather surprised when the weather went crazy Wednesday night and the temperature started dropping like a celebrity's popularity rating after a racist tirade. When I woke up Thursday around 12:30 (p.m.) it was sleeting like mad. This continued on and off for most of the day. About an hour after THAT stopped it started snowing. Sometimes the snow was coming down so thick and the wind blowing so hard you'd get a "white-out" for a few seconds. It was fascinating because I think it snows here about once every two years and we get an ice storm about every 5 years. By the way those were totally random guesses because I'm too lazy to look up the facts. Also when we get "weather" in Texas the TV stations go nuts. I mean NUTS. They pre-empted my soap and I was irritated, but then they actually pre-empted "Oprah." Yes they chose to talk about the weather rather than show "Oprah." My Sweetie, who was born in Michigan got some laughs at work. He said, "You know what they call this in Michigan?" . . . "Thursday." Oh, and his work let everyone leave after lunch. In Texas, if it sleets for 15 minutes, everything shuts down. I'm not kidding.

Okay so the big freeze brought back terrible memories. Wednesday night we went out to get our plants. Just like last November. I was very paranoid and very careful and this time I DID NOT break my foot. Just reading last November's and December's posts about having the broken foot all during the holidays has brought it all back. It really sucked. I made the best of it, but I would not want to do it again.

And tomorrow is our 6th wedding anniversary. I can't believe I've been happily married for 6 years. The first marriage lasted 4 years and I guess 1 or 2 of them were "happy." The second marriage lasted 7 years and I'd say there were happy times interspersed through the first 4 years. I don't know if I was able to figure something out or if I was just with the wrong people before. I'm just glad this marriage has been so sweet and rewarding. I wake up happy and go to sleep happy. That's really all you can ask for.

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!!

Sense and Sensibility

I guess everyone has heard the story about the woman being fined by her homeowners' association for having a peace sign wreath. The story is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061127/ap_on_re_us/anti_peace_sign

I don't go overboard with my outdoor decorations but I have a few pieces and they are all candy canes. So will I be attacked by my neighbors in their valiant effort to combat childhood obesity? What about the ADA? I'm sure they would not approve.

I love how the logic of her neighborhood is basically "If we take away all freedoms, everyone will be happy." People seem to be losing every bit of the common sense they were born with.

Four Short Letters

The following are four short letters I would love to be able to send:

Dear Blogspot People,
It sucks that I switched to your "beta" and now have to sign in EVERY TIME even though I click the "remember me" box. You guys suck! What part of "remember me" do you NOT UNDERSTAND?
geewits

Dear Mr. President,
Please do not give press conferences during my soap or on Wednesday mornings.
geewits

Dear Collection Agency People,
I have told you 5000 times that the girl with my same first initial and last name is not here. I do not know her. I have never even met a person who owns a handbag store. Please stop calling.
geewits

Dear Spam Generator people,
How do you live with yourselves? I have to assume you are Catholic and receive absolution once a week.
geewits

And now for something completely different:

My latest SPOONERISM was so off the wall I'm not even sure if it qualifies. I was coming out of my closet (LOL not in THAT sense!) and I reached over to push the door closed and the edge of the door smacked into my right elbow on the intense spot. I said out loud, "Ow! I phoned my bunny!" I think I laughed about that off and on for 3 hours.

And I remembered an old one. The radio station I listen to late at night is currently running ads for "Warming Hut Ski Shop." The first time I drove by one of their stores (about 14 years ago) I thought it said "Warning! Hot Ski Shop."

Yeah I know, it's surprising I can even tie my own shoes.

Happy Thanksgiving

I Didn't Do My Homework

I didn't really have any preconceived notions about having a blog. I thought it would be fun to have a place to jot down random musings, maybe have an exchange of ideas with like-minded and not so much like-minded peoples. I didn't really put a lot of thought into it. Until I read BuddhaCab's "Mission Statement." Then I felt like the kid in school with no books that forgot the assignment. This is his mission statement:


Buddha Cab Mission Statement
This website is my entry into the interactive web publishing blogging phenomenon. The idea behind this blog is to present my experiences as a New York City cab driver, from my perspective as a yogi and Buddhist. (I have to say I’d been contemplating doing something like this when a passenger last week told me about Melissa P.’s blog “New York Hack.” Upon surfing over there and enjoying reading her posts, I decided to go ahead and set this blog up.)
WordPress recommends being clear on the mission for your blog. So this first post will set out my intentions for this site, at least as I see them now.


What am I going to do with this?
It’s an online journal of my experiences as a cab driver
It’ll journal my reflections on my life and the world as I see it


Who is going to read this?
Family, friends, who knows? Should be interesting to find out.
What kinds of information will I be posting?
Journal entries
Links to Buddhist and Yoga stuff
Links to similar cab blogs


Why am I doing this?
To have an outlet for my writing (being the world’s most blocked writer as of now)
Learn more web stuff (I know a little HTML and CSS, and hopefully I’ll know a little more and maybe some PHP before this is all said and done)
Participate in the web publishing, open-source revolution (why not, it’s pretty cool)


Who am I doing this for?
Myself, of course. Also family, friends, and like-minded people who might enjoy any of this.


How often am I going to be posting and adding information?
The plan is to post a couple of times a week

I once wrote a mission statement for an actual company. I had fun with it because I like to play with words. (I just checked their website and I'm pretty sure it's still what I wrote word-for-word.) The concept of having to have a mission statement for your blog seems a lot like work to me. I didn't come here to work. That's why I have a basic template. I'm actually a graphic artist. I know you are surprised! I think if I started personalizing my site with my own work I would end up spending HOURS AND HOURS on it. I decided right away not to do that. I may someday though, who knows?

So I was looking at the list of the questions BuddhaCab had and I figured my answers would go like this:

What am I going to do with this? I don't know


Who is going to read this? I don't know


What kinds of information will I be posting? I don't know


Why am I doing this? I don't know


Who am I doing this for? I don't know


How often am I going to be posting and adding information? I don't know


Now I know how Rudy Boesch from "Survivor 2" felt in that one challenge: he answered "I don't know" for every single question! We laughed and laughed. I love to laugh. And basically that's my goal in life, so I guess maybe that's my real "mission."

My Superpower

In lots of blogs and memes people are asked "What superpower would you choose?" Most people say things like:
The ability to fly
The ability to become invisible
The ability to read minds

A couple of weeks ago I realized which superpower I would choose: Impervious Teeth

Yes, I would be Impervious Teeth Girl. Maybe I could be called SuperTooth. Can you imagine what a lovely life one would have with impervious teeth? No dentists ever. And maybe you couldn't save the planet, but you could do a lot with impervious teeth. You would never need a knife. In a worst case scenario I suppose you could bite a bad guy's arm off. Actually with impervious teeth, you could grab their gun and chew it up. I'm unsure on the mechanics, though. Would chewing through a bullet with impervious teeth cause it to explode? That wouldn't be good for the rest of my head, although it wouldn't harm my teeth.

I don't understand why human teeth are so pathetically fragile. I love God as much as the next guy, but let's face it, when it comes to teeth, we were pretty much cheated. There's not another part of our body that we have to work so hard just to maintain. I mean if you ignored your left hand for 10 years, the worst outcome would be grotesque fingernails. Ignore your teeth for ten years? I'm not a dentist but I imagine the outcome would be VERY bad.

So that's my secret wish: To have impervious teeth. Maybe in 100 years someone will make that a possibility for everyone.

Decorating Mistakes

I'm an HGTV fanatic. Around Halloween they did a show called 25 Biggest Decorating Mistakes. I sat there engrossed, judging myself by their pronouncements. Here's how I did:

#25 - toilet rugs. And by this they meant the cut out ones. I passed. I haven't had one of those in probably 10 years.

#24 - too many photos. Okay. I am a LITTLE bit guilty of this one, so I have been pulling some.

#23 - ignoring the foyer. I call it the entryway and I love mine and it even has a theme. So, Not Guilty.

#22 - undressed cables. Guilty. It's the big TV. In a half-open corner. Yep.

#21 - out-of-place themes. Well, for this one they show a bedroom and what they mean is like a Miami style bedroom in Minnesota or a Southwestern themed house in Vermont. I DO have a beach themed bathroom here in North Texas. Because I can.

#20 - outdated accessories. According to their description I am good. (Old cabinet hardware and stuff like that.)

#19 - lopsided furniture arrangements. This one was funny because I HATE lopsided furniture arrangements. I usually rearrange the furniture in hotel rooms.

#18 - keeping something you hate. Do people really do this?!?

#17 - too formal. Okay that just made me laugh. Well, chuckle anyway.

#16 - uncomfortable dining chairs. Not guilty (probably has something to do with #17)

#15 - lack of traffic pattern. Also not a problem or the cats would run into things during their high-speed chases.

#14 - everything matches. Okay my bedroom was getting close to that so I fixed it a year or so ago.

#13 - following fads. Not guilty. At all.

#12 - furniture that doesn't fit. I think I'm okay here too.

#11 - too many colors or patterns. Aw hell no! I hate that! That would have been my #1!

#10 - floating rugs. After I fell 4 feet to the ground I threw out my floating rug. Okay, it means just sitting in the middle of a room with nothing on it. I don't have one of those.

#9 - improper lighting. Okay my kitchen could use some help here but I don't see how punching holes in the ceiling and doing electrical work falls under the category of DECORATING.

#8 - frames hung too high. This also made me laugh. I have actually harassed people to let me lower their pictures.

#7 - tacky couch covers. I've never used one. Get a new couch.

#6 - pushed back furniture. Not guilty, except in the bedroom, because that would just be weird.

#5 - ignoring windows. GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! I am allergic to dust and curtains are dust farms. It's very easy to vacuum the mini-blinds. But I don't IGNORE my windows. I use them every day.

#4 - fear of color. Not guilty, although I do not like homes that are TOO colorful. Anyway, except for the guest room, most of my stuff is green.

#3 - knickknack overload. Not guilty. I'm just not a knickknacky kinda person.

#2 - too many pillows. Again not guilty. I hate when they show a couch covered with pillows. What, like only Calista Flockhart and Nicole Richie can sit there?

#1 - fake flowers. I had a slight problem with this until they said dried flowers were good, because I have dried eucalyptus. Also I do have two large red silk flowers in my guest room. They are sitting by a black and white photo that I made. It is a nun crypt in New Orleans. I made the photo back and white and then colorized the flowers sitting in front a bright crimson. I think it looks cool. And anyway, I don't think this should have been #1 (#11 should have been #1!!).

What would be your #1 decorating mistake? LOL. I don't mean that YOU do, I mean that OTHERS do, because THEY are the ones who are wrong.

My Latest Spoonerisms

These are just the ones I remember (I'm sure there have been more):

As we were getting ready to watch the third game of the World Series, I said, "Oh! Now that they are playing in St. Louis, does the mean we get to see the pitter's batch?"

My Sweetie was thinking about going to Barnes & Noble. He asked if there were any particular book I wanted. I said, "You already asked me that last week, and I told you to get it for me for Christmas." Of course, he had no idea what I was talking about so I was a little irritated and I said, "I told you I wanted a book on North Mysology!" After I said that I wondered if mysology was actually a word. It's not but this is:

mi·sol·o·gy
Function: noun
Etymology: Greek misologia, from misein + -logia -logy: a hatred of argument, reasoning, or enlightenment

Yeah, I don't need a book about THAT. This last spoonerism happened tonight. It came out kind of gross. Rufus the crazy cat was going berserk over something but I couldn't see what he had. I asked My Sweetie, "What is he going so nuts over?" MS said, "It's a twist tie." I said, "Well I guess that's okay as long as he doesn't poke a tongue in his hole."

Oh and next time I am arguing (debating?) with someone who seems particularly dense, I'm going to sweetly say, "Wow! You're quite the misologist!"

No Gaydar

I was pretty surprised to read today that Neil Patrick Harris is gay. When I was young I had absolutely no Gaydar. I remember once, when I was back home, asking about various people. I said "How about B.B.?" My friends said, "You didn't know? He died of aids several years ago in San Francisco." I said, "Was he gay?" and they all laughed at me. In junior high school I had such a crush on this guy and he would not give me the time of day. Of course, I just thought I wasn't cute enough for him. The only guy I ever thought was gay in high school was at our 20 year reunion and I'm pretty sure I was right on that one. I had another instance when I was about 21 of relentlessly pursuing a guy and still didn't realize until years later that he was gay. It's funny how when you think back on things everything is so obvious. So for some reason, in my mid twenties, I guess I was trying to make up for all the ones I had missed and then thought EVERYONE was gay. When I first met my second husband, I thought HE was gay. Ironically, after all these years I'm pretty sure I was right. My Mom always thought he was and my daughter thinks he is. He DOES fit the profile of someone that would NEVER act on it. He'll probably wait until his parents die to come out. I think that's sad.

One person that I did know was gay for years and years before he came out was Richard Chamberlain. That was so obvious to me. I'm not sure how he escaped the media attention. Or maybe no one cared. My favorite last hold out is Jodie Foster. I adore her. Several years ago I made my own dishwasher clean/dirty magnet using one of those magnetic business card things. One half is Jodie Foster and the other half is Pamela Anderson. We just turn it heads up to show the status of the dishes.

I've never understood the vitriolic hatred that exists for gay people. I've read the old testament part about men not laying (lying?) together, but in the same section it also says not to eat pork and not to have sex with someone outside of marriage. I find it hard to believe that all of the people who hate gays also don't eat pork and never had sex outside of marriage. And even if they did, what about the "judge not..." part of the bible? (Am I supposed to capitalize bible?) Years ago when Dolly Parton said, "I think gay people should be able to get married. Why can't they have to suffer like the rest of us?" I laughed my ass off. You'd think with the divorce rate being what it is, lawyers would have a PAC for gay marriage. More money for them.

Speaking of gay people, I was watching "Ellen" today and it was the first time I have ever seen her starstruck/flustered over a guest. It was Sandra Bullock. If I were Portia De Rossi, I would have been a little bit jealous. It was cute though.

Well there's no point to this post whatsoever, except maybe to say that in my years of gaydar/no gaydar I guess after Doogie Howser, I'm back to NO gaydar.

Regarding Halloween

Just so you don't get the wrong idea right off the bat, I'm no Halloween Grinch. Just the opposite: every year I decorate my little porch and dress up to give out GOOD candy. A few years ago I even dressed as the Cat in The Hat and spoke in rhyme to the kids. One year I wore an eye patch and it nearly gave me brain damage. I hope I never lose an eye. No more fun and games after that. Oh, I seemed to wander off the subject, which is this:

MY THREE SIMPLE RULES OF TRICK-OR-TREATING:

1) If you are an adult DO NOT come to my door carrying a 4 month old baby dressed in a cute little costume to collect candy. The baby will not remember the experience and the baby does not need candy. This only applies to people with an only child. If you have an actual real child that is trick-or-treating, feel free to bring along your cute little baby, but do not ask for candy for the baby.

2) If you are a kid that is taller than me, do not come to my house. If you are 5' 5" or taller, you are too old to trick-or-treat.

3) Say "Thank you" and mean it or I will put a wicked curse on your ass.

I'm not doing the spider webs this year. That's a lot of work and after a rain (and we always get one) it is a bitch to get that stuff out of the bushes. This year I'm just going to create an eerie feel on the porch using black crepe paper. And I'm going to have my gargoyle out on a pedestal. I'll take pictures. Well, if it looks cool.

Rufus and His Toys

It's funny that I've spent so much time browsing through PetCo to find creative toys for my cats. They really aren't that picky. Rufus will spend hours with a beer box. He makes quite a racket and he'll push the thing all over the house, but you can tell he's having a really good time. He also likes my cloth ponytail holders (or bands or rings or whatever they're called - my daughter calls them "hair thingies"). And I believe that I mentioned before that he loves an old terry cloth bathrobe belt. He really goes to town with it. He can get some serious feet action going with that thing.

A couple of months ago the cat toys were EVERYWHERE and I needed to vacuum. I grabbed the closest thing which was an empty Hefty Bag box and went all over the house picking up toys and putting them in the box. I set it out of the way in the bar room. Now we call it "the toy box." There's nothing cuter than watching Rufus paw through the toy box to pick out a toy. And like a kid, he takes things out, but never puts them back. And it's nice to have a place to put the toys when I vacuum.

Finding My Feet in 1979

For some reason I was thinking of an event from my senior year in high school. I posted over a year ago about events leading up to this particular moment here. (And apparently I did not proofread that post before publishing it.) I realized just today that one little snap decision pretty much set the stage of who I was going to be in the future. It's interesting to think that just 5 months in Texas changed me so much. Oh and also I had the day wrong. I graduated on a Tuesday, not a Monday. Tuesday, June 5th in fact. I know this because I looked at my diploma. I wonder why I didn't do that before?

So I graduated on Tuesday, passed out at (before) the party, packed in a huge hurry on Wednesday morning and caught a plane back to North Carolina. It was going to be a tight race for my friends to greet me at the airport. I don't remember the exact times now but everyone's last exam was to start about 2 1/2 hours before my plane landed. I was pretty nervous about seeing everyone. I had changed A LOT. I had somehow turned into a girl that got whistled at and flirted with on a constant basis. And I had a new sense of self. On top of seeing all of my guy friends and my high school boyfriend (known hereafter as HSB) I was going to meet my Dad's live-in girlfriend. I don't remember if I had a beer on the plane (everything was 18 back then) but I imagine I did. I was very excited AND nervous. The pilot was happy to announce that we had had strong tailwinds and were going to arrive 15 minutes early. I knew that wasn't good. Sure enough, there was no one to greet me when I stepped off the plane. I was carrying a very large teddy bear and a tennis racket and made my way to the luggage carousel.

I pulled my trunk and suitcase off the carousel and tried to figure out what to do. I couldn't carry all my things. Finally I decided to leave all my stuff and walk around looking for somebody, anybody that I knew. The first person I saw was Gary. It's one of my very favorite life memories. Gary was a really hot guy. He was just flummoxed when he saw me. He stopped dead in his tracks and said, "Geewits!! Is that you!?! Oh my God, you look great!" Wow. Probably the best airport greeting I will ever get. I told him where my stuff was and he ran to tell everyone where I was. After that it was chaos. I don't remember how many people came. There were either two or three cars full of people. Then an argument broke out about which car I would ride in until my Dad settled that. I was going to ride in HIS car. Then there was argument about who would ride with me. It was all funny and crazy and GREAT for my ego. I know my HSB and some other person rode in the backseat with me. My poor future step-mom was in the passenger seat and trying to figure out what the big deal was.

When we got back to my Dad's aprtment there were even MORE people waiting. It was a giant welcome home party. Here's how hectic it was: I remember searching for some time to try to show someone my high school diploma and finally giving up. I had already shown it to some people but could not find it. I remember later someone saying, "So what do you think about the baby grand piano in here?" I said, "There's a piano in here?" AND IT WAS A VERY SMALL APARTMENT. Well sure enough, there was a baby grand piano and my diploma was sitting on the music stand. That Wednesday was a blur of partying and catching up.

On Thursday I went with my HSB to the graduation rehearsal. I joined my homeroom peeps to say hi and catch up - our homerooms were kids grouped in alphabetical order for purposes of counting attendance. My old homeroom teacher didn't even realize I'd been gone. She told me to move back 8 spaces to be alphabetically correct. That cracked me up. I just stepped out of line and let them finish their stuff. The next day, Friday, was graduation. It was weird watching from the stands. At one point I got paranoid and thought, "What if someone doesn't know me that well, but recognizes me in the stands and thinks I couldn't graduate?" Yeah that was silly. Now for the weirdest part. My Dad had the graduation party at our apartment complex pool!! How weird is that? There was a band and about 4 kegs. That was the last party at that apartment complex pool. It was one GIANT party. At one point me and the HSB got in a huge fight about something. I hated that. In my wonderful 5 months in Texas I never argued with anyone.

Well anyway, now I had to pack again for Myrtle Beach. I talked previously about the end-of-the-school-year Myrtle Beach ritual here. My HSB was the only person in my high school gang that didn't have a car. His mother made an ultimatum: If he wanted to drive the car to Myrtle Beach he had to take the long way and visit his grandmother in Charlotte. Yes, Charlotte is NOT between Durham, N.C. and Myrtle Beach, S.C. So HSB's great plan was to leave Durham in the middle of the night after partying all day, drive until he couldn't take it anymore, find a cheap motel, sleep, and then drive to Grandma's house. So that's what we did. I will admit I have absolutely no memory whatsoever of the Grandma visit, but I know we did it. Then we hit the road for Myrtle Beach.

When you rented a cottage at Myrtle Beach, the term was Sunday to Sunday. So we were going to be there late Saturday afternoon with no place to stay, but HSB had information that a certain wealthy BMOC had a giant suite in the main hotel and was going to let anyone crash there Saturday night. I wasn't crazy about the idea. Well, we got to Myrtle Beach, found a parking spot and made our way to the hotel. We left all of our stuff in the car. Sure enough, we quickly found the suite. It was full of people. Lots of bong-passing ensued and there were lots of ice chests full of beer. I finally reached my limit and told HSB I had to take a nap. I stretched out on a bed and BOOM. I was out.

I woke up to a very quiet room. I looked around and there were about 6 or 7 people I didn't really know sleeping like babies. I grabbed a beer and stepped out onto the stairwell/balconey. The sun was low and there was a beautiful golden hue over everything. I was sipping my beer and looking out at the ocean. I felt very relaxed and peaceful. A guy named Peter I have known since junior high came up the stairs. He said "Hey! I heard there's a party up here." I said, "Nope. Everyone in there is asleep. I just woke up. I don't know where the party went." I could tell he was disappointed. We slipped in and got two more beers. We leaned on the railing outside looking at the ocean making idle chatter. Finally Peter said, "We've got a pretty cool house on the beach but it's a little ways down." I could tell he didn't think I would go. Yeah that was the OLD me. I said, "Really? Let's go!"

I had so much fun that night. All kinds of people kept showing up. We sat around the long kitchen table all night talking, drinking and playing poker. It wasn't my regular high school group but lots and lots of people I knew a little bit. I remember some people coming in and acting really freaked out that I was there. "Where's HSB?" they demanded. I just said, "I don't know. I woke up in BMOC's suite and he was gone." I was totally in the "you move you lose" mode. I realized then that I was just going to have fun and not sit around and wait for someone. I woke up the next morning in a room with two double beds. I was in one and a guy I'd known since 7th or 8th grade was in the other bed. I sat up and looked around trying to get my bearings. I guess Tom woke up about the same time. I said, "Oh my God, Tom B.! How are you doing? I didn't expect to see you!" It was a pleasant surprise. Peter heard us and came in. I asked if he had some shorts and a T-shirt I could borrow. I went into the bathroom, put on fresh clothes and they made me lunch. Peter was a great host.

A little later Peter drove me down to our cottage. HSB was not there, but all hell broke loose when I walked in. Apparently when HSB left me asleep in a room full of guys, he went out partying and then went swimming. He sliced his big toe open in the ocean and spent 3 or 4 hours in an emergency room. It was all "Where were YOU?" And you know what? I had no apologies. I woke up alone and went out to make my own fun. And I did.

And that's still who I am today.

Grammar Rants and Eggs

I did a post back in May about pronunciations, and word misusage. I feel kinda bad (hypocritical?) because in the last couple of months I realized that I am very lazy with my itses and whosits. I've just started to make a conscious effort to use "it's," "its," "who's" and "whose" correctly. I don't think I actually use a lot of sentences where "whose" is necessary, but I'm pretty sure I am adding that apostrophe to "its" the majority of the time. I will try to amend my ways. Maybe they should add an "e" to the end of "its" to make "itse," sorta how they did with "whose." As in "That cat near bout bit itse own tail off."

The reason I don't use spell-check: I originally stopped using spell-check almost as soon as I started this blog. It was reformatting my writing by deleting the spaces between paragraphs. I like my spaces. Since then I've realized that NOT using spell-check has made me smarter. If I'm unsure of a word, I look it up here. Also I read over my posts about 5 times before I post them and that gives me lots of time to make sure I am saying what I really want to say. Plus, overreliance on spell-check can make you look stupid. There is a lady with a pretty popular blog who claims to be a professional writer. And when I say "claims to be" I mean just that. She says she is, but as her blog is anonymous, there's no way to know for sure. Therefore, I'm not going to say she IS a professional writer, because I do not know that for sure. I'm just saying that SHE says she is. Anyway, here are some things I found on her blog recently:

"She told me that (person's name) likes to runaway."

"...minus the odor of booze oozing from her pours."

These are things that spell-check will not catch as they are legitimate words. But "runaway" as one word is a noun. And "pours, " well, that is a verb and not tiny holes in your skin. And "runaway" reminds me of another pet peeve: The misuse of "everyday" and "every day." I once saw that misused in a fancy ad section for Lane Bryant in Oprah's magazine. I think it said something like "Look your best everyday." I couldn't believe it! My background is in advertising and pre-press. I can't imagine how much that ad cost! How on Earth did a mistake like that slide by so many people? Also the professional writer lady used "sugar coat" but "sugarcoat" is all one word. That's one most people wouldn't notice and spell-check would never catch. Maybe she really is a professional writer and is used to proofreaders and editors doing all the work for her.

Now I want to make up something stupid so that "...minus the odor of booze oozing from her pours." can actually make sense:

I sat there with my shattered nose plugged and bandaged. As I watched the barmaid refill our mugs from our pitcher, my surroundings seemed normal minus the odor of booze oozing from her pours.

Odd cooking tip of the day: If you have trouble peeling boiled eggs, I have discovered the secret to a perfectly smooth egg. Do not look at or think about the egg. Ignore it completely. I discovered this a few months ago while watching some particularly riveting television. We have one of those cut outs over the kitchen sink that looks into the living room. I don't even remember what I was watching. I just know that suddenly I looked down and had a plate of peeled eggs with not a divot between them. Now I always use this method. If the TV is not on, I will look away and force myself to think about something else. If I look at or think about the egg, I will fuck it up. DO NOT LOOK AT THE EGG! Seriously, it works.

This Week So Far

At the State Fair!

Monday: The whole purpose of having My Sweetie take a half day off work during a weekday to go to the Texas State Fair is to AVOID THE CROWDS. Apparently Columbus Day is a major holiday in Texas and by major holiday I mean the day EVERYONE GOES TO THE FAIR. It was bedlam and chaos. My Sweetie was VERY proud of me that I didn't have a panic attack right away and want to leave. Actually it became a game to me to find bathrooms with no lines which I did every time after the first time - and that was near the entrance so I had no choice. We still had a good time and did most of the stuff we usually do. The Marilyn Monroe exhibit was very good and THAT bathroom was empty. The best part was the "Guess Your Age" guy guessed me at 39. The worst part was we didn't get to see the sheep dog exhibit, although I'm pretty sure it would have been the same as last year. And the year before that. And all the other times we've seen it.

Tuesday: We had to do the yearly Community Watch meeting out in the cul-de-sac. That's the type of thing I dread more than almost anything except maybe sitting in a large flourescent-lit waiting room. The good news was it got dark pretty quickly after we went out there. I'm cool beans in the dark. It was over pretty quickly and we thanked the police officer for his talk, snatched up our chairs and practically ran up the yard. I was jealous of the people that didn't come, but we live RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the sweet old WWII vet that organizes it.

Wednesday: Meals on Wheels added ANOTHER person to my route. I had only around 6 people all summer and now I have 11. I don't mind, but if they keep going at this rate I'll have 20 people by next month. I've mentioned before that we have "regular" clients and "diet" clients. The "diet" in this case does not refer to calories or fat grams but is diabetes/sugar related. The way my route is now, my first eight clients are regular and my last 3 are diet. I didn't realize until I got to the first diet house that I had 3 regular cookies left or I would have given out the extras. So I brought them home. This morning I dreamed that Meals on Wheels called me and asked if I had had extra cookies on Wednesday. I said "Yes, I brought them home." They said, "Well we need those back. You'll have to bring them in." I have the weirdest dreams.

Thursday: (Daytime Talk Shows Edition) I used to watch Dr. Phil every day at 3:00. At the beginning of the season last year I just couldn't take it any more. I found it very depressing that The Dr. Phil show was able to find an endless assortment of mean ignorant callous bullies. If you think about it that's what most of his guests are. Or pathetic doormat "victims." Yuck. Has the U.S. produced THAT MANY of these people? Again, yuck. So I started watching The Ellen Degeneres Show (or "Ellen" as most people call it). I thought it was a great show. Good stand-up at the beginning and lots of interesting guests and goofy skits (only the dancing part was kinda creepy). I was happy to have something fun to have on while I did my chores. Well, I don't know what happened but this year is terrible. Ellen seemed so full of joy last year, like she was genuinely having a good time. This year she seems to have a hard edge. She doesn't seem to be having fun at all and it feels like she is just going through the motions (or phoning it in). I hope she doesn't win the emmy again because she seems to be making no effort whatsoever. Oprah, on the other hand, seems more relaxed than ever. I'm grooving on the Tuesday road-trip episodes. Unless a guest I really like is on, Tuesday is about the only day I actually sit down and watch the whole show. Or if the topic is interesting. Lastly, I used to be a Rachel Ray fan. Now I know why "30 Minutes Meals" and "$40 a Day" were shows with just Rachel and a camera. I saw ONE episode of her new show and it was terrible. Okay maybe not terrible. More like horrible. She was manic and rude. She talked over (shouted over) anyone she was speaking to and running around like the set was on fire. I actually watched the episode that Oprah was on. Oprah is practically the owner of the show and she seemed subdued and shocked. I felt like I could see her thinking, "What the hell was I thinking? This is worse than Beloved."

On the other hand, I dedicated 4 hours today to a wonderful, savory beef stew. My daughter dropped by and decided to stay for dinner. She picked a good day. I'm looking forward to my leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

No Particular Topic

Does Jay Leno think people are stupid? He made a joke the other night about NBC scheduling "Friday Night Lights" on Tuesdays instead of Fridays. "Friday Night Lights" is about small town high school football. People who are into small town high school football can watch it because it's on Tuesdays because THEY ARE NOT HOME ON FRIDAYS BECAUSE THEY ARE AT THE FOOTBALL GAME. His comment didn't make any sense to me. And for no reason at all I'd like to state that I'm not into that sort of thing and I wouldn't watch the show on any day.

I'm really disappointed that "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" has falling ratings. It really is the best show on television. I gave it 5 stars for a reason. The other new shows we've watched:
"Jericho" 4 stars
"Heroes" 4 1/2 stars
"Smith" 1 star (we quit after two episodes)
"The Nine" ("The 9?") 3 1/2 stars

The other day I was talking about spoonerisms (ex: saying "I could not snop steezing!") Now I wonder if there is a word for physical spoonerisms. An example of this would be when you throw your spring-loaded toilet paper spool thingie in the trash and try to thread the empty cardboard from the old toilet paper into the new toilet paper roll. I've also tried to change the channel on the TV with the phone several times, although I have never tried to call anyone with the remote control.

I also realized today that I have probably never gone one full day without sneezing ("I could not snop steezing!"). Maybe when I was in Hawaii, but I'm not sure. I'm terribly allergic to house dust which is a Catch-22. If I don't dust, dust will accumulate. If I dust, even with a dust mask, I will feel sick and miserable for two days and go through a whole box of kleenex. One of the main components of house dust is human skin cell flakes. I KNOW I'm allergic to THAT because I have sneezing fits when I file my nails. I vacuum/dust a lot and that is better than cloth dusting, but it still makes my nose and eyes run. I also use Nasonex but am too goofy to remember to use it every day. Plus I think it costs about $500 an ounce. Well maybe not that much, but close. I guess I should just buy stock in Kleenex.

We are going to the Texas State Fair tomorrow (today? Monday after I wake up, anyway.) I love the state fair! My favorite part is the Creative Arts building. People submit all sorts of arts and crafts to win ribbons. There is always great photography and lovely quilts and everything in between. I usually spend a good deal of time in there. There will also be a Marilyn Monroe exhibit in the Women's Museum. My Sweetie doesn't like to ride rides but he promised me one haunted house ride (they have about 10 different haunted houses). I also always throw darts at balloons - I'm great at that! And squirting the water into the clown's mouth - always pick the one with the freshest balloon! Don't forget the junk food and the sheep dog exhibition! Woo Hoo!! I guess the state fair is my third favorite once-a-year event after Christmas and my birthday. On that note I should go to bed because I plan to be at the fair in 12 hours.
Weeeeeeeeeee!!

No Deep Thoughts

The Earth at Night

I was studying this picture of the Earth at night (and you can look at a much larger picture here). I was getting a lot of deep thoughts about the Earth and all of its inhabitants. Then I switched right over to the very simple thought, "Man! The U.S. sure does burn a lot of electricity at night!" And then THAT reminded me of something that happened many years ago. My second husband had a best friend named Gary. They really liked to get together at Gary's and jam on guitars, bass and whatever. I got along great with Gary. He was 10 years older than me and had served in Vietnam and told some fascinating stories about his experience - unlike a lot of Vietnam vets. What I mean by that is I've met a lot of vets that would not discuss their service AT ALL. Gary had all sorts of stories to tell. Granted he did not have a terrible job title like "search and destroy." His outfit cleared jungle for helicopters to land. Gary and his wife Karen were VERY close. They fell madly in love with each other at the age of 14. Two years later they wanted to get married and their parents would not hear of it (and this was Arkansas) so they got pregnant ON PURPOSE so they could get married. They had a son and two years later they had another son. Gary went off to Vietnam for two tours while Karen raised the two boys. By the time I met Gary and Karen, their sons were both in their early twenties and still living at home. They were a VERY tight family. They were such a tight family that when several years later, Gary and Karen were transferred to Iowa after a big company shake-up, both boys went to live with them along with their Texas wives.

But I need to get back to what I was talking about. We would visit G&K often enough - mostly for the guys to jam and once or twice to watch a movie. Karen was very old school and was mostly interested in serving snacks and making sure everyone had whatever they needed. She never chatted or made small talk. She would be quite talkative with her boys when they came through the house, but never had much to say to me or my husband. One day I decided that this lack of communication was my fault and decided to really engage Karen in a deep conversation. I turned to her and said, "I've always wondered, as women, if the children we have shape our personalities. Do you think that you turn out differently if you just have girls, just have boys, or have some of each?" I thought for sure this would start a long and deep conversation. She sat thoughtfully for several minutes, then turned to me and said, "Well, just having boys, you sure learn a lot about football."