Post Oscar

The very first thing I read online after watching The Academy Awards was an article nitpicking at every little detail. Really? It's entertainment. And it's live. Live television is never going to be perfect. If you want to complain about the Oscars, you should complain that the memorial segment did not include Betty Garrett. Ms. Garrett, a beloved friend of one of my blog friends, Naomi aka The Old Lady of the Hills, died on February 12th. That seems like plenty of time to get footage of her in the classic film On The Town with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. I mean, really it's a live show. Whatever. Anyway, if you want to read some great stuff about Betty Garrett on Naomi's blog, just follow that link. Other than that, I thought the show was fun. If I didn't like that sort of thing I wouldn't watch it. I do and I did and I did.

Too Coo-wool for Skoo-wool

I heard someone on TV today pronounce "school" as "skoo-wool" with two syllables and of course that set my mind off on how everyone pronounces everything differently and somehow we all understand each other. I say "school" with one syllable (rhymes with "cool"). I have my own weird things. I pronounce "hanger" and "swinger" with a very hard N and G, and My Sweetie makes (ruthless!!) fun of me for it. One of the weirdest things I do is pronounce "your" and "you're" differently. I pronounce "your" like it rhymes with "yore" and I pronounce "you're" like it rhymes with "her." (I was going to say "like it rhymes with 'pure' " but then I realized that some people pronounce "pure" with two syllables like "pew-er.") I have no idea why I pronounce them differently. At least I always spell them right. Maybe that's because they are such different words to me. Yore momma told me yer going batshit crazy over there.
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I have no idea why I can't say "hanger" and "swinger" like a normal person. I can't even figure out how I'm supposed to say them. At least I don't add syllables to words. What's that all about? Most Texans add extra syllables to words. They make "Hey y'all" a four syllable sentence. In North Carolina that phrase is maybe one and a half syllables. Texans even make the word "up" a two syllable word when they ask, "What's up?" That's weird. Not wee-yerd. Just weird.
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So another informal poll here: How do you pronounce "school" and "pure" and "you're" and "your"? And isn't it cool that we still all understand each other?

Like My Arm Is A Guitar

Those are my x-rays - which are digital now. And they show much more than old x-rays. For instance you can see veins and muscle and the fat on the back of my arm, oh my! The good news it is is not arthritis. It's some sort of tendinitis. Sort of like tennis elbow. I really should cut back on all the tennis. The doctor wanted to give me one of those steroid dose packs but I said, "Yeah, no. The last two times I took that stuff I had gall bladder attacks." He seemed surprised by that. I wanted to tell him to google it. He wasn't my regular doctor. No surprise. My regular doctor is never ever available. I think I've seen every doctor in that building. If I wanted to see my actual doctor I guess I'd have to plan ahead. because that's how sickness works, right?
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Actually I like this other doctor just fine. I believe he was my doctor the first time I broke my foot and for one other thing that I can't remember. He brought out this strap thing for me to wear on my arm just below the elbow:

It has a bean bag type filler on one side (their website calls them "ergoBeads™") and a strap on the back. The bean bag presses down on the muscles, reducing the muscle action from reaching the elbow tendons. I imagine the inventor of this device was/is also a musician, because it reminds me of a capo. In case you don't know what a capo is, it's the clamp thing you put on a guitar to change the key or pitch. So I'm guessing the placement of my Imak cuff has retuned my arm to the key of A. Or something like that. I hope it works.

Paybacks Are Hell (And Swift)

I so should not have made any sort of joke about my husband being sick. When I went to bed Friday night suddenly my right elbow was in agony. I finally (and mercifully) drifted off but slept only about 4 hours before waking up and not being able to get back to sleep. After tossing, turning, sighing and moaning I gave up and got up thinking TV would distract my brain from the acute pain that was my elbow. Around 9:00 am I could not take it any longer and dug out some old Vicodin. I hate pain meds and usually only take them the first day after surgery or breaking a bone. It has to be that bad.
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And I'm going to see my doctor and I dont even do that for a gall bladder attack. We searched my blog for when I posted that sometimes it feels like my elbows are coming apart and that was December 4th. I think my right one finally came apart. So my arm is in a sling right now and I typed all this with my left hand. (Shifting is a bitch.) My Sweetie moved the mouse to the left side before he went to bed because I haven't been able to do any computer stuff since Friday night. It's been slow and tiresome doing everything with only my left hand and taking a shower is crazy town, but at least I did get some sleep Saturday night.
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Anyway, my right arm is unusable right now and I will never ever ever again make a joke about my husband being sick. This payback is hell.

A Different Virus on the Computer

My husband is sick as a dog, so I only got on the computer once today for a few minutes. The whole time I was thinking, "Don't touch your face! Don't touch your face!" Then I just gave up and used a bunch of hand sanitizer. I waited until he went to bed and sprayed the hell out of the whole house with Lysol. Especially the keyboard, mouse and chair. I really really love my husband but when he is sick I just seem him as big bag of virus and bacteria. I must have washed or sanitized my hands about 800 times today. He'll be home sick again today (Friday) but I will be out doing Meals on Wheels and I'm pretty sure I have many errands to run. I'm sure there are some errands to run.

Going Underground

Although I haven't been in a New York City subway car since 1978, I decided that as part of the NYC experience, that Lo should take a ride. Lo has never been to NYC. So although I went twice as a teen, and for about two days in 2007, I will be the guide and showing her around when we go for my birthday in April. Yeah, I am not a seasoned NY traveler. But I am a seasoned traveler. As someone once said about art, "I know what I like when I see it." I know how I like to travel.
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I've talked about Dad many times on this blog. He really had his awesome moments. The things I loved about him, I incorporated into myself, as I guess all children do with their parents. I really loved the way Dad traveled. He was adamant about not being a typical tourist nor doing touristy things. He introduced me to the concept of asking the cab driver or the bellman at the hotel where to go as opposed to asking the concierge.
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When our cruise ship docked in the Bahamas, Dad asked the cab driver to take us to his favorite bar. We were really off the beaten path. It was crazy. Not only that but the bar was named the same as my high school boyfriend who had an unusual name. Stuff like that is really funny to two drunk people. On our first trip to Las Vegas, it was December and there were horrid frigid straight line winds, but we ventured out that first day, grabbed a cab and asked the cabbie, "Where can we get a good Rueben sandwich?" The cab driver knew where to go. And our Lake Tahoe trip was awesome. Dad hired a limo to take us around the lake. And that guy was great. When Dad and I went to New Orleans for Halloween, he had broken his foot just before our trip and went anyway. My Halloween costume was as Tonya Harding, so Dad, on crutches, kept pointing at me and saying, "She did this!"
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But back to New York. I posted about my first trip and how I met Rodney Dangerfield. (That was one of my very early posts back in 2005, so it was a little strange to read it again.) We went the next year with my high school boyfriend, my brother, and his best friend and stayed through New Year's Eve on Times Square. That was crazy. Dad accidentally smoked pot laced with PCP and missed the whole basketball game and we only found him at the end of the game. That's a funny story. (Dad and I also took a trip to Puerto Vallarta as well as some beach vacations with other family.)
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Oh. So back to the subway in 1978. There I was in New York with my high school boyfriend. My high school boyfriend and I had a whole afternoon before the next basketball game to wander around and we went into the Empire State Building and saw the line for the elevator and I said, "I'm not waiting in line. We can still say we went to The Empire State Building." We did the same thing with The World Trade Center. Went in. Went out. We did take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty where we smoked a joint and took the walk up to look out the dirty crown windows. Then we decided to take the subway back. Except we didn't. Make it back I mean. We ended up in a deserted warehouse district with empty boxes blowing down the street. It reminded me of tumbleweeds in old western movies. And there was a guy either dead or passed out on the sidewalk and he was the only person around. We were freaked out. I think we had ended up in The Bronx, but I'm not positive. We walked and walked and walked and finally found civilization. And this was in New York. It was crazy that it was so deserted. We finally found a subway station and found a train back to Times Square and we were so happy.
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We shouldn't have that problem in April because I've been studying that map. I may have always loved improv traveling, but I really do like maps. Getting lost sucks. Besides, this time I will be the guide.

Wonderful Weekend

After our Twilight Zonish bout of freakishly frigid weather, the weekend dawned sunny and warm. After lunch I sat out in the sun for a little bit and actually got hot. Granted, I was still dressed in my dark thick winter thingies. The sun on the black cotton nearly baked my thighs. I took a shower and dressed and we left to run a few errands. Okay. I was going to leave it at that, but the truth is, we didn't "run errands." Since I see my blog as a journal of sorts, it's silly to lie, 'cause then it's like I'm lying to myself.

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On Friday, the Meals on Wheels pick up was easy peasy. The site coordinator had brought her husband along and they had a cart - like the one old Brooks wheels around in The Shawshank Redemption with the library books. So even though I had my nice big green bag and the extra bad weather meals fit in it perfectly, I didn't have to carry anything out to my car. The SC's husband wheeled the cart out, I unloaded and he wheeled it back in. One quick trip. And then I was finished with my route in about 35 minutes. I went to lunch and had a nice long sit at the bar, did my USA Today puzzles and went to get new tires for my truck. After I pulled into the tire place, I did the quick check around wondering if there was anything of value in my truck and as I looked behind the passenger seat, my brain asked, "Huh? What is this?' Well it was the green bag full of emergency meals. Yep. After I put them in my truck, out of sight, they were instantly forgotten. So My Sweetie drove me around Saturday afternoon to hand them out. Although I knew there would be no bad weather all week and therefore could have waited until Friday to hand them out (they are shelf stable), I didn't want a daily reminder in my house of what a dingbat I am.

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After we got the forgotten meals delivered, we hit a bar and made a plan for dinner out. We drove over to a popular area that has lots of shops and restaurants, not realizing that everyone in the universe was planning on celebrating Valentine's Day two days early. That place was packed. We finally gave up and headed back to our part of town and hit a nice restaurant that we had not been to in a while. We had a $75 gift card, so we both went crazy and ordered from the specials of the day. I had that awesome rock lobster tail in the picture above. Yum City!

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On Sunday I actually cooked breakfast. Afterwards we sat outside for a long time. I may have actually gotten too much sun on my knees I'll see how they look after I wake up, because I plan on sitting outside every day this week. After sunning, it was almost time for the Duke basketball game. The game was great! Then we ate lasagne with italian sausage and watched the Grammy Awards. It was really a nice weekend. I like those.

Latest MOW News

I was going to post a satellite picture to go with this post, but apparently the place is so new, none exist. My Meals on Wheels pick up site has changed. It actually changed almost two weeks ago, but because of our weather, last Friday's delivery was canceled. So I haven't picked up at the new site yet. I did drive over there a couple of Sundays ago, to get the lay of the land.
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I didn't like it. It's farther away from my house and farther away from my route and the distance from the door to parking is much farther. But I decided not to be a Grinch about it.
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It's funny that I haven't done many posts about Meals on Wheels in a while. I guess my last one was about the cute puppy. And that puppy is gone. That sucks. But anyway, if I had posted about MOW, it would have gone like this: My new MOW route is awesome and easy and I'm usually finished in 45 minutes!! Yeah, not much of a post.
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So in just under 11 hours I'll be going to the new site. When we drove over there that Sunday I said, "This sucks and will especially suck if I have to make two trips." Well I got an e-mail saying that because of all the bad weather we've had, we will be delivering emergency meals. That is usually two trips. And it will be cold. But I found a bag that may hold the emergency meals and if I load up just right I can make it in one trip. I'll let you know.

Early February Thought Snippets

We decided to go downtown to get some Super Bowl action on Saturday and I grossly underestimated every other single inhabitant of this area's similar intentions. After being stuck in traffic for EVER, we gave up the ghost and hit a sports bar near downtown. There wasn't much going on there so we headed back to the midcities to another sports bar and I did run across this lady:
Frankly, I'm just glad the whole thing is over. I'd feel sorry for the owner of the stadium, what with all the things that went wrong and all, but he's kind of a dick. And as for the lyrics to the national anthem and all that hoopla, so what? I say, "Get over it people! Let's see you do it."
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It's that time of year that I have to let my hair grow out so I can wear it up off my neck in the summer and it's just now reaching that wackydoodle phase where it's not heavy enough to just hang like long hair, but too long to look like a short style. It's not a hairstyle, it's just hair:

I'm one of those people that is happy to do telephone surveys. I don't know why. But the last two or three phone surveys dumped me when I told them my age. This last one actually said, "I'm sorry, we're looking for people aged 25 to 40. Thanks for your time." Really? So people between 25 and 40 get to decide everything? I'm going to lie from now on and say I'm 37. Or 32.
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I know I will get no sympathy here, because I am apparently the only blogger on the planet that smokes cigarettes, but I stopped in a bar today and found out they switched to non-smoking. I was sad because I wanted a cigarette, but happy to see that the normally packed place was deserted. Speaking of smoking, there was an article in the paper the other day about a push to ban smoking everywhere in Texas and it was backed by a poll. A poll taken by an anti-smoking coalition. I thought that sounded fishy. So not only will I lie about my age the next time I get a phone survey, but I will also say I am a non-smoker, but I support the right to smoke.
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Speaking of bars, I went to another bar after that so I could smoke. A man came in and sat on my left and told the bartender that he was just at another bar and they were serving "Jägeritas" and he wanted her to make one. He said it was just like a margarita except with Jägermeifter. He offered me a taste and I dipped in a straw, put my finger on top and had a taste. I liked it, but it was a little too Jägery. I think the next time I order a red-headed slut, I'll have them add a dash of margarita mix (sweet and sour). I did like the tanginess.
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I found the perfect light jacket for my New York City trip. I wanted a light jacket with lots of pockets so I wouldn't have to carry a purse. I googled "cargo jacket" and images, found a picture I liked and clicked on it. It took me to Victoria's Secret, of all places. It was only $60, so I ordered it. I was thinking that the UPS man will see "Victoria's Secret" on the package and will imagine all sorts of sexy underthings. And it's a green jacket. That amuses me for some reason.
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Speaking of amusing: one of the funny little things My Sweetie does is write goofy things on any grocery list that I have left out. Today when I grabbed my grocery list off the kitchen counter I saw that he had added "albatross" in the middle of the list (I make my list in order of the grocery store sections and leave spaces). I don't know why, but that really tickled my funny bone. I laughed for a good five minutes.
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It's drizzling now and is supposed to turn to snow and freezing temps in the next few hours. Exactly like last Tuesday night. We are supposed to get 2 to 3 inches of snow. Exactly like last Tuesday night. So I guess I will see this again:


Exactly like last Tuesday night.
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Oh well.
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Albatross

Just Being Honest

That's my daughter and the picture was taken at Easter, 1988 by Mom. My old friend from 7th grade sends me a Christmas newsletter every year with a picture of her three children, who are no longer "children" per se. I keep looking at my friend's picture and try to imagine having three children. And frankly I don't think I would have been good at it. People with more than one child always say they love their children equally but I don't believe it. Every person I've ever talked to with multiple siblings will say things like, "Dad liked me best and Mom preferred Sally." So if these parents are all equally loving, how is it that the kids are not feeling it? My second husband had 5 siblings and both he and one of his sisters agreed on the ranking that they felt both parents had for all six kids. And to be quite honest I thought it was perfectly obvious from being around the whole family as adults.
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I know that some of you never had children and some of you have more than one child and will profess, "I really do love my children equally!" But I really don't think I would have. Just being honest.

I've had my computer off all day because we had rolling blackouts. Apparently the delightful weather overloaded the power grid. My guess is all the Super Bowl visitors from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin brought their electric blankets.

Ouch!

This is a photo addendum for my post below:

No More Sugar

Dad used to use an expression: ...sugar to shit, as in "And then everything went from sugar to shit." It's a rather crude expression but very concise compared to, say, "You made your bed and now you have to lie in it" which I'm sure has to be explained to children and people learning English as a second language.

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Anyway, that's what our weather did. Not make a bed and tell fibs. ha ha! No, I know "lie" doesn't mean that in that expression! No, our weather went from sugar to shit.

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Friday I was walking from the place I dropped my car to get an oil change, to a bar, and I was wishing I had worn a lighter shirt. I had on a cotton shirt with elbow length sleeves and I was getting hot. That was nice. Now we are approaching single digit temperatures for the first time in 15 years. As Mom put it on my facebook page: Baby, it's cold outside! And it is. It really is. And just to be nice to my wonderful Canadian readers: It is supposed to be -12.8° Celsius in a few hours. That's 9° Farenheit. It's about 12° Farenheit right now (-11 C).

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I usually keep the heat set at 68°, but even my usual hot self had to turn it up to 69°. It was just too frikkin' cold in here. And I haven't even mentioned the ice. Late Monday night it started raining, then several hours later we were pelted with sleet accompanied by thunder and lightning. After a few hours of that it started snowing. All the while, the temperature was dropping and dropping and dropping. This led to extremely icy roads.

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Most everything was closed for the day including My Sweetie's work, and all the local TV stations did weather all day. They even pre-empted "Oprah" so we could see jackknifed trucks and watch cars slide around on the roads. And the poor Super Bowl! Oh no. The Village People didn't make it into town for something. What a loss.

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I miss last Friday's weather. The average high temp for now is usually 60° and it's not going to get above freezing until Saturday. I want my sugar back.

The Notice I Did Not Receive:

Dear Geewits:
This is to inform you, in case you have been in a coma or locked in a closet for the past month, that there will be A SUPERBOWL! YES! There will be a Superbowl in that giant stadium that is 8 miles from your house. Therefore all local news will be suspended for some time so we can spend all of our time talking about THE. SUPERBOWL. Because it's a SUPERBOWL! We are HAVING a SUPERBOWL. We will still have a few minutes of weather on every broadcast because weather is something that we can relate to the Superbowl, as in, "It's nice right now but some nasty weather is coming on Tuesday and lets talk about HOW THAT WILL AFFECT THE SUPERBOWL."
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You may also notice that all local advertising will be Superbowl Related. Car dealerships will have a SUPERBOWL SALE. Even pest control companies. Because we are having a SUPERBOWL! Yes we are.
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Local news will most likely resume two to four days after THE SUPERBOWL because we will have lots of stories after THE SUPERBOWL about things like:
-How many pounds of nachos were sold
-How many napkins were used
-What were the most popular souvenirs
We will also have touching stories of families that drove for four days from Wisconsin because they had car trouble SIX times! As well as many "exit interviews" of out-of-towners describing their WONDERFUL Dallas/Fort Worth SUPERBOWL EXPERIENCE. And don't miss the roving fun videos of TAILGATE PARTIES!!
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We know you understand that our "news" broadcasts will be fully SUPERBOWL related for some time. Because we are having A SUPERBOWL. YES WE ARE.

Maniacally yours,
All of your locals stations (YES! All of them!)

Should I Feel Bad?

I got up and turned on "The Today Show" and they were showing video of people digging out of the snow and meanwhile I have this:
I guess I should feel bad. But I don't.

Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates...

I had an easy day planned. I had an appointment to get my hair colored at 4:00. Then I was going to go to the grocery store. I did my normal Wednesday chore (the bed sheets) on Tuesday just to make things easier.
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My mother's second bladder cancer procedure went well and was easier than the first one. The doctors were all thumbs up. I couldn't reach my mother at home at first and was concerned that something bad had happened and they were held up at the hospital, so I called my step-dad's cell and they were at a restaurant! For lunch! No catheter this time. All was good.
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I got my hair colored and afterwards was sitting in the parking lot in my truck drinking my mocha and having a smoka. I was supposed to go to the grocery store next but had no list and no ideas. I called my best friend and we discussed some food ideas. I was in no big hurry because My Sweetie has class from 5:30 to 7:00 and it was just before 6:00. We hung up and I pulled out of the parking lot onto Harwood road. My phone rang. I generally don't do phone and driving but Harwood road is an exception. It's a simple road. No twists, no turns, no heavy traffic with a 40 mph speed limit.
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I answered the phone and it was My Sweetie. He asked "Where are you?" I answered, "On Harwood heading to the grocery store. Where are YOU?" He told me he was at the QT (a convenience store near our house) and he was waiting for a tow truck. He has had terrible luck with his car all month. First the battery died, then the cables weren't properly connected and it died again and then he got new tires and then one of the new tires went flat because "it wasn't properly seated." So here he was again.
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I got to the QT pretty quickly and he was one big frayed nerve. This new car bullfrack had happened on top of a bad day at work. I did the job I was born to do and got him calmed down and in a way better mood. As we followed the tow truck to the dealership, which was fortunately still open, we discussed all the positives: IF his day at work hadn't gone poorly he would have made it to class and come out at 7:00 with a dead car all the way down in Arlington. I would have had my house clothes on and would have food going on the stove. As it was, he was right by the house, close to the dealership, I was dressed and in my truck and on the road already, and on top of that, the weather was way milder than it has been in ages. (And the reason he stopped at the QT was to get me beer and I had a small ice chest in my truck because I always take beer to the hair salon, so I had cold beer for all of this.)
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So I didn't get to the grocery store but I had the stuff to make a pasta carbonara. We ate a little later than usual, but it ended up seeming like a regular night and everything was okay. He'll take my truck to work tomorrow and we'll find out what's going on with that stupid car. Then we'll go from there.... You never know what you're going to get.

I Got Greased!

You know what they say about the squeaky wheel, right? Remember all that bitchin' and moanin' I was doing with the cable company last month? Well, yesterday we got our latest bill and it was for:

$3.30

Yep. Three dollars and thirty cents. This squeaky wheel got the grease!

Murking My Brain

We saw Black Swan today and I wish I hadn't. And don't take that the wrong way. It's a good movie. It's just that it's a good movie I shouldn't have watched.

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I couldn't wait to see this movie because I had somehow gotten the notion that it was a ballet movie and I love ballet. I have taken many, many ballet classes. I went into college as a dance major. (Are you laughing too?) And I thought this was going to be a ballet movie.

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It's not a ballet movie.

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Black Swan is similar to Roman Polanski's 1965 film Repulsion. You get trapped inside the head of someone that is going insane and, well, trapped is a good word. When we left the theater we were both all heeby jeeby. I wanted to run home and watch Meet Me In St. Louis or something to clear my brain. But I had to run in the grocery store to grab three things on the way home, and just being in the grocery store helped.

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When we got home we watched "The Simpsons." And then some stand up comedy. Jim Gaffigan was hilarious. I'm okay now.

What Does My Ego Know?

My daughter brought the wedding video over for me to watch Thursday evening. To be quite honest, although I was looking forward to seeing it, I was alittle disappointed knowing I would not be in it much. See, this video was made by her dad - the man I left in 1988. But I was wrong about it all.
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After I finished watching it I realized that I was able to really enjoy it without being self-conscious about seeing myself. It made it more like being there as an observer. I mean I wasn't completely left out, but let's say I did not get a lot of screen time. I thought about that later and realized that if someone in my camp had made the video, I'd be all over the place. I'm glad I was not. Now I can watch the video and just enjoy it. I don't know why I thought I would miss myself. I mean really, I'm always here.

Mixed Signals

Yesterday I went out to the garage and stepped off the rugs to look at Barney. (We bought a little radiator for him and set up a little box with a towel in it so he can stay warm out there.) As I stepped onto the cold garage floor I thought I had stepped in water. I looked down at the floor and it wasn't wet so I checked the bottom of my sock to see if it was wet and saw that there was a hole in my sock. I thought it was funny that my brain registered "wet" instead of "hole in sock."
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That reminded me of something that happened years ago. In the early 90's I had a terrible ache in my upper left jaw and went to the dentist. The dentist examined my mouth and told me that my teeth were fine. He said that I probably had a sinus infection. He also told me that the same nerve is used for sinuses and upper back teeth. I did not know that. So I went to the doctor and yes I had a bad sinus infection and my doctor fixed me up with meds.
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About 3 or 4 years later I got the same thing and went to the doctor. The doctor examined me and told me my sinuses were fine and that I probably had a tooth problem. He told me that the teeth and sinuses use the same nerve. I knew that. So then I went to the dentist and he told me I had a bruised tooth nerve caused by biting onto a bone chip or something hard. I had never heard of that. Anyway I was thinking about all that and wondered what I would do if I ever had that pain again. Would I go to the doctor first or the dentist? I guess I'd just flip a coin.