Good morning friends! It's been brought to my attention that I should probably change the name of this blog from Unemployment 101 to anything else since after all, I'm not technically unemployed. I'm self employed. It makes sense to change the name. But it just seems like an unnecessary action to take. If you know me, and most of you do, I don't take unnecessary actions.... EVER! I barely take necessary actions. Nevertheless, let's kick around this name change idea.
It would be kind of fun to come up with a new name for the personal blog. But I'm not all that creative when it comes to titling things. I recently finished writing a book and need to distribute a couple of copies to a few friends to preview before I send it off to publishers but after spending a year and a half writing it and sitting on it for the last 2 months, I am totally unable to title the darn thing. Who would have thought that this would be the most difficult part of writing a book? I probably just place way too much importance on a title. But when I'm at Barnes & Noble browsing through the available romances, I look at two things, the title and the picture on the front. If the title isn't worthy, nothing about the picture will make me even pick up the book to read the jacket or back. Life is too short to read books with less than clever titles. I want there to be wit and substance in the books I read even if they are just cheesy romances and the title should reflect that.
It's the same with a blog. Granted, when I came up with Unemployment 101, it was pretty spur of the moment and apparently wasn't the most original title ever. I think there are several hundred blogs out there with the same title. (But the economy's fine, right Barack?) It expressed what I needed for it to say. This blog was originally created as a method of lighting a fire under myself. On the day I started this, which was day 7 of my unemployment, I had already sat on my couch and read 5 trashy romance novels and done little else. I needed something to make me accountable. So I created a blog and each day I posted a task list of the things I needed to accomplish. I was pretty good at it for a while. But I have to say that the task list hasn't been updated in months now. Even when I do post on this blog, I totally forget about it. Currently, I keep my to do list in a spiral notebook. The list du jours consists of 13 items that I must complete prior to my cruise night which is now less than 3 weeks away. As of this moment, two of the 13 items have been marked off of the list. One was marked off during the day yesterday and then added back on when Zazzle canceled my order because my artwork was incomplete. It has since been re-done and marked off again. Maybe a good new name for this blog should be Holy CRAP! Who Knew Running a Business Was So Much Work? A little wordy, right? But again, it says what I need for it to say....
Most of the items on my to do list really should have already been completed. But I only came up with the list yesterday. That was when I realized with the assistance of the receptionist at my vets office that my cruise night is only three weeks away and I still hadn't even completed the order for the snail mail invitations much less addressed them and gotten them in the mail! Yikes!!!! You might be relieved to know that this is one of the two things I was able to mark off the list yesterday. The invitations will be in my hot little hands in less than a week. Door prizes have also been ordered. That is the order that Zazzle kicked back. Beyond that, the venue was settled on a few weeks ago and I am on their calendar. And I've posted an invite on Facebook that I apparently need to re-post regularly so that people who don't live their lives on FB like a certain travel agent we all know and love does, will see it. Again, Who Knew It Was This Complicated??? Maybe a good working title would be Complications because really, isn't that what it's all about?
I've been kicking this one around for a few weeks.... tell me what you think.... A Day In The Life of A Stay At Home Cat Mom. I know! It's still wordy. But you have to admit it's clever. I mean other cat people would be all over that blog. But they would probably expect daily cat videos and photos.That's a pretty big commitment when you consider that I still have to do all of this travel agent stuff to make a living and someone's got to load cats into carriers and drive them to the vet on a pretty regular basis. This stuff doesn't do itself! Besides, that title would really lend itself to the unsubstantiated but spreading rumors that I have become one of those crazy cat ladies and I don't want that.
I think that regardless of the title that I eventually come up with, I'll always keep the day count as part of each individual post. I like that because it sort of represents the day that everything changed. I mean 535 days ago, I still worked at the employer who shall not be named and went to work everyday doing a job that I hated. But hey, they paid me pretty good money to do it so it wasn't like I was going to quit or anything. Then it all changed and I've been pretty darn happy for the last 534 days. Okay, I have to meet a friend in an hour so that we can attend a cooking show together, so we'll get back together soon to figure out this title thing. If you have suggestions, feel free to share. But don't get your feelings hurt if I say "uh, NO!"
Roatan
Pirate ship?
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Day Five-Fourteen - Cats Galore!
Good morning! It's been so long since I updated this blog! I'm not ignoring it. I just haven't had time to post on this one. I spend most weekday mornings with the other blog. The travel business is busy. After all, if you want to go anywhere during the holidays this year, now is the time to book those reservations. Call me....
Since the last time I posted on this blog I have gotten a new kitten. Her name is Mrs. Beasley. I was calling her a calico but the vet says that she is a tortie since she has very little to no white hair in her coat. Since he said that I have looked at pictures on the internet and I concur. I have a tortie. The first couple of days were pretty touch and go with her. My two older cats didn't seem too happy to have a new baby sister who plays a LOT. But things are finally beginning to settle down.
I think the biggest thing that happened to change things was that Shiner went to the vet for a teeth cleaning on Friday and ended up having 6 teeth extracted. It turns out that he was in a lot of pain that he was not showing. So, he had become a lot less tolerant of everything including hyper little kittens who love to play. Every time Mrs. Beasley got close to Shiner he hissed and ran away. This is very out of character for him. He is usually my very playful cat. Meanwhile Jingle was making progress everyday getting closer and closer to Mrs. Beasley and even actually chasing her on one occasion Thursday when he lost himself and forgot that he was supposed to resent her. Since then he has become almost completely comfortable with her and is playing with her this morning!
Shiner is currently heavily drugged but he has still given me reason to hope that things are getting better. His old personality is coming back and this morning Mrs. Beasley has gone up to him several times and they have touched noses. When that happens he lays calmly as he has been all morning. When she comes running up to him, he still gets up and moves but never hisses. As long as she is calm, he is tolerant.
Shiner will have to go back to the vet in 6 months since the doctor said he has other bad teeth but they aren't as bad as the ones that were extracted. Hopefully, we can get the next ones taken care of before they begin to cause him pain. Shiner got his most recent pain shot yesterday morning. The vet says it will begin to wear off tomorrow. So we'll see how he is feeling about Mrs. Beasley as that shot starts to wear off. When he came home from the vet Friday evening he was very loopy and was apparently hallucinating. He kept seeing things in the strangest places and was chasing them. That's what is going on in the photo to the left. He was certain there was something on that wall and was determined to catch it. Later in the evening he started acting as though there was something under the couch while I was sitting on it. He was so insistent that I eventually started thinking what if there really is something under this couch... and I had to get up and move it to inspect. Sure enough nothing was there.
Jingle and Mrs. Beasley have just spent the last thirty minutes chasing one another through the house. Mrs. Beasley was doing most of the chasing. But Jingle was a big participant. So I'm thinking pretty soon I'll have three cats scampering around keeping each other busy and exercised so that I can write blogs and work on trips. This is good news for you guys because I'm going to start digging for some pretty big fall and winter discounts on cruise ships and all inclusive resorts. You're going to love this. But while I look, here are a few more photos of Mrs. Beasley to keep you entertained.
Have a happy Labor Day and I'll talk to you all soon!
Since the last time I posted on this blog I have gotten a new kitten. Her name is Mrs. Beasley. I was calling her a calico but the vet says that she is a tortie since she has very little to no white hair in her coat. Since he said that I have looked at pictures on the internet and I concur. I have a tortie. The first couple of days were pretty touch and go with her. My two older cats didn't seem too happy to have a new baby sister who plays a LOT. But things are finally beginning to settle down.
I think the biggest thing that happened to change things was that Shiner went to the vet for a teeth cleaning on Friday and ended up having 6 teeth extracted. It turns out that he was in a lot of pain that he was not showing. So, he had become a lot less tolerant of everything including hyper little kittens who love to play. Every time Mrs. Beasley got close to Shiner he hissed and ran away. This is very out of character for him. He is usually my very playful cat. Meanwhile Jingle was making progress everyday getting closer and closer to Mrs. Beasley and even actually chasing her on one occasion Thursday when he lost himself and forgot that he was supposed to resent her. Since then he has become almost completely comfortable with her and is playing with her this morning!
Shiner is currently heavily drugged but he has still given me reason to hope that things are getting better. His old personality is coming back and this morning Mrs. Beasley has gone up to him several times and they have touched noses. When that happens he lays calmly as he has been all morning. When she comes running up to him, he still gets up and moves but never hisses. As long as she is calm, he is tolerant. Shiner will have to go back to the vet in 6 months since the doctor said he has other bad teeth but they aren't as bad as the ones that were extracted. Hopefully, we can get the next ones taken care of before they begin to cause him pain. Shiner got his most recent pain shot yesterday morning. The vet says it will begin to wear off tomorrow. So we'll see how he is feeling about Mrs. Beasley as that shot starts to wear off. When he came home from the vet Friday evening he was very loopy and was apparently hallucinating. He kept seeing things in the strangest places and was chasing them. That's what is going on in the photo to the left. He was certain there was something on that wall and was determined to catch it. Later in the evening he started acting as though there was something under the couch while I was sitting on it. He was so insistent that I eventually started thinking what if there really is something under this couch... and I had to get up and move it to inspect. Sure enough nothing was there.
Jingle and Mrs. Beasley have just spent the last thirty minutes chasing one another through the house. Mrs. Beasley was doing most of the chasing. But Jingle was a big participant. So I'm thinking pretty soon I'll have three cats scampering around keeping each other busy and exercised so that I can write blogs and work on trips. This is good news for you guys because I'm going to start digging for some pretty big fall and winter discounts on cruise ships and all inclusive resorts. You're going to love this. But while I look, here are a few more photos of Mrs. Beasley to keep you entertained.
Have a happy Labor Day and I'll talk to you all soon!
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Day Four-Ninety-Seven - Welcome to Texas
I love my neighborhood. One of the things I like best about it is the cultural diversity of the area. It is not unusual at all to see Hasidic Jews in all their ethnic garb walking down the bike/pedestrian trail. Many times as I walk or ride my bike on the trail, I'll see Indians and Pakistanis in their ethnic garb, as well as others also out enjoying the trail in our neighborhood. We all get along, it's culturally nice and I like it.
But here's the thing that drives me crazy. Every year at about this time the area has a new very large influx of Asian immigrants who don't plan to live in the USA for long. Just long enough to get their relatively cheap education at UT-Dallas. They're here on student visas. This past week, they were arriving in the apartments around the area in droves. Literally, droves! I saw 12 of them exiting a single Super Shuttle at the apartments down the street on Monday with tons of luggage. That's fine. I think it's great that they can come here and get an inexpensive education and then return to their home country to make it better. (Or perhaps to answer the phone anytime I call my credit card company....) The issue I have has to do with their total disregard for personal space and that they are under the misguided impression that the world revolves around them.
I get it. They are young "enlightened" people, who just like young Americans that travel abroad feel that what they are doing is worth having everyone around them stop and observe. Hey everybody!!!! Look at me! I'm away from home for the first time without my parents and I'm an idiot!!!! I totally get it. But it doesn't mean I like it. In fact I am fed up with it.
Since they are just arriving in the country they are stocking their homes and dorms. I went to Target yesterday afternoon for a very painful hour. Normally, I can get in and out of Target in no time at all, you know as long as there is enough money in the bank to cover it. I was slowed quite a bit yesterday by non-English speaking Asians who were trying to figure out complicated things like milk. I waited patiently for more than 3 minutes while two men speaking a foreign language I have never heard, debated milk blocking the entire milk case as they did so. I'm not sure about the nature of their debate. But they kept picking up different types of milk ranging from organic to domestic to even soy and then discussing them. Then once they finally decided on organic, they ran into the issue of whole, low fat or fat free! It was apparently a big deal for them. After 3 minutes, when a line began to form, I decided that I had been polite for long enough and interrupted there milk debate reaching between them to get my fat free organic milk. When that happened they seemed somewhat shocked by my presence and quickly moved aside and let others get their milk.
When it was time for me to check out. I went to the shortest line I could find. Another of the women who I remembered as being behind me at the milk case during the great milk debate was in the process of checking out. The checkout was nearly cleared and there was a young Asian woman behind her but nothing was on the the conveyor belt. She had a basket full of stuff but was just standing about watching what was going on around her. Perhaps at the Target in India, some little slumdog kid comes out and empties your cart onto the conveyor for you so that the young ladies don't have to touch the vulgar thing. But in Texas, you are responsible for putting it on the conveyor yourself. I guess no one told her about this. So, I put one of those bars down across the conveyor and started emptying my cart thinking she would get the message and begin to empty hers in front of the bar I had laid down. To her credit she did finally figure it out but not until after the boy working the checkout had turned the conveyor on moving all of my stuff up to the front so that she kept having to push it back so that she could get more of her stuff on.
It was really enough to make you feel sorry for her. She was clueless. I finally started holding onto the bar so that she could finish emptying her cart. (Little Jose working the checkout had no clue about the struggle taking place and was NOT going to turn that conveyor off to save his life. No, really, I'm not making this up. His name was Jose.) Then she was completely unprepared to pay using American money which she was probably dealing with for the first time. Someone else from her group of students finally took pity on her and came to help with that process. Of course, they seriously crowded my personal space when that took place. But at least they were moving the process along.
When I finally got out of Target, she along with a large group of other foreign students were making their way across the street toward UT-D pushing their shopping carts from Target. (By the way, it is unlawful to remove from the parking lot.) Just as I drove by a Richardson policeman was stopping behind them. I'm assuming he was politely letting them know that removing the carts from the premises is unlawful. God bless him. I'm sure he had his hands full.
The thing is that they come from horribly over crowded and miserable places. Because of that, they have little regard for personal space. They are okay with standing against me in line. This is Texas. We have wide open spaces here. We don't deal well with being nudged in the back by strangers. I particularly don't deal well with it. In fact, I get down right ugly when someone standing behind me continually rubs up against me. Ask anyone. They will tell you. I also don't care how cute or funny all of your friends think you are. When I am in a group of strangers, I prefer that we all remain strangers. I don't want to be entertained by you. I don't want to hear your overly loud conversation either in my language or in a some crazy-ass foreign language.
So my message is this. Welcome to Texas. Please keep your voice down and keep your hands to yourself unless you are handsome, rich and between the ages of 50 and 60 and plan to buy me dinner.
But here's the thing that drives me crazy. Every year at about this time the area has a new very large influx of Asian immigrants who don't plan to live in the USA for long. Just long enough to get their relatively cheap education at UT-Dallas. They're here on student visas. This past week, they were arriving in the apartments around the area in droves. Literally, droves! I saw 12 of them exiting a single Super Shuttle at the apartments down the street on Monday with tons of luggage. That's fine. I think it's great that they can come here and get an inexpensive education and then return to their home country to make it better. (Or perhaps to answer the phone anytime I call my credit card company....) The issue I have has to do with their total disregard for personal space and that they are under the misguided impression that the world revolves around them.
I get it. They are young "enlightened" people, who just like young Americans that travel abroad feel that what they are doing is worth having everyone around them stop and observe. Hey everybody!!!! Look at me! I'm away from home for the first time without my parents and I'm an idiot!!!! I totally get it. But it doesn't mean I like it. In fact I am fed up with it.
Since they are just arriving in the country they are stocking their homes and dorms. I went to Target yesterday afternoon for a very painful hour. Normally, I can get in and out of Target in no time at all, you know as long as there is enough money in the bank to cover it. I was slowed quite a bit yesterday by non-English speaking Asians who were trying to figure out complicated things like milk. I waited patiently for more than 3 minutes while two men speaking a foreign language I have never heard, debated milk blocking the entire milk case as they did so. I'm not sure about the nature of their debate. But they kept picking up different types of milk ranging from organic to domestic to even soy and then discussing them. Then once they finally decided on organic, they ran into the issue of whole, low fat or fat free! It was apparently a big deal for them. After 3 minutes, when a line began to form, I decided that I had been polite for long enough and interrupted there milk debate reaching between them to get my fat free organic milk. When that happened they seemed somewhat shocked by my presence and quickly moved aside and let others get their milk.
When it was time for me to check out. I went to the shortest line I could find. Another of the women who I remembered as being behind me at the milk case during the great milk debate was in the process of checking out. The checkout was nearly cleared and there was a young Asian woman behind her but nothing was on the the conveyor belt. She had a basket full of stuff but was just standing about watching what was going on around her. Perhaps at the Target in India, some little slumdog kid comes out and empties your cart onto the conveyor for you so that the young ladies don't have to touch the vulgar thing. But in Texas, you are responsible for putting it on the conveyor yourself. I guess no one told her about this. So, I put one of those bars down across the conveyor and started emptying my cart thinking she would get the message and begin to empty hers in front of the bar I had laid down. To her credit she did finally figure it out but not until after the boy working the checkout had turned the conveyor on moving all of my stuff up to the front so that she kept having to push it back so that she could get more of her stuff on.
It was really enough to make you feel sorry for her. She was clueless. I finally started holding onto the bar so that she could finish emptying her cart. (Little Jose working the checkout had no clue about the struggle taking place and was NOT going to turn that conveyor off to save his life. No, really, I'm not making this up. His name was Jose.) Then she was completely unprepared to pay using American money which she was probably dealing with for the first time. Someone else from her group of students finally took pity on her and came to help with that process. Of course, they seriously crowded my personal space when that took place. But at least they were moving the process along.
When I finally got out of Target, she along with a large group of other foreign students were making their way across the street toward UT-D pushing their shopping carts from Target. (By the way, it is unlawful to remove from the parking lot.) Just as I drove by a Richardson policeman was stopping behind them. I'm assuming he was politely letting them know that removing the carts from the premises is unlawful. God bless him. I'm sure he had his hands full.
The thing is that they come from horribly over crowded and miserable places. Because of that, they have little regard for personal space. They are okay with standing against me in line. This is Texas. We have wide open spaces here. We don't deal well with being nudged in the back by strangers. I particularly don't deal well with it. In fact, I get down right ugly when someone standing behind me continually rubs up against me. Ask anyone. They will tell you. I also don't care how cute or funny all of your friends think you are. When I am in a group of strangers, I prefer that we all remain strangers. I don't want to be entertained by you. I don't want to hear your overly loud conversation either in my language or in a some crazy-ass foreign language.
So my message is this. Welcome to Texas. Please keep your voice down and keep your hands to yourself unless you are handsome, rich and between the ages of 50 and 60 and plan to buy me dinner.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Day Four-Ninety-Three - Who's Crazy Now?
What the hell happened???? When did dogs take over the world and begin television programming? I went out with friends last night who are mostly dog owners and was informed that there is now a TV station specifically for dogs. Really! It's called DogTV. If you have DirecTV, it is channel 354. I can confirm this because it is currently airing on my television as I type.
Right now it consists of bubbles rushing to the surface of water and underwater bubble sounds. Before this, it was a close up of a lava lamp with classical music. I can't believe that some of you think cat people are crazy. Oh, now they are showing dogs dozing off on the furniture I'm assuming while you are away from home. Way to instill bad habits in your dogs!
The most frightening thing about this, though, is that on the Guide there is a banner that states that this is a free trial from 8/1 - 8/14. From that I assume that this is a premium channel and if your dog gets addicted to it, you'll have to pay extra for a TV channel for your dogs. People, my cats do NOT require premium TV channels. In fact they might be content if the TV was never even turned on. Now they are showing video of a quiet morning in some foreign land and people fishing. By the way, only 6 minutes has gone by since I changed channels to this DogTV and already I have described to you, what? four different doggie viewing experiences that they have aired? Should I draw from this that they must assume that your dogs have remarkably short attention spans???? Doesn't speak too highly of them.
My cats can watch a piece of prey for an hour waiting to see what moves it will make and determining how best to take it down. Of course, sometimes that "prey" is a little red dot from the laser pointer I use to get them moving. But still, they will follow it around as long as my finger can continue to press the "on" button.
I have a friend with whom I go out pretty often. When we leave her house, she leaves her TV on for the dog's entertainment so I'm sure she is loving this channel. In fact she is the one who told me about it yesterday. If I left the TV on in my house when I left, my cats would go to another room to get away from the constant noise.
I like dogs. There have been many times that I wished I could have one. The problem is that I have never really lived in a place suitable for dogs. I don't have a back yard and I don't have the time to devote to walking a dog a couple of times a day since I don't have a yard. Additionally, as it turns out, I am apparently a low maintenance kind of pet person. It didn't dawn on me until today. But an animal that must be taken outside every single time it needs to pee is a problem for me!
Sure, I'll admit that I have people come to feed my cats daily when I am away from home. But if it got down to it, I could leave for a week, set up an automated feeder and waterer and leave them alone and come home to two healthy cats. They'd be a little pissy, but they would still be healthy and all of their waste would be in their litter boxes.
On the other hand, I don't doubt for a minute that if I died in my apartment and it took more than a few hours for someone to find me that Shiner would begin feeding on my fingers by the end of the first day. He's a survivor, what can I say? But you've gotta respect that about him! He doesn't require entertainment or anything else from humans. He'll figure it all out on his own.
So call me a crazy cat lady all you want. At least I'm not paying for premium satellite service for a dog. Who's crazy now?
Right now it consists of bubbles rushing to the surface of water and underwater bubble sounds. Before this, it was a close up of a lava lamp with classical music. I can't believe that some of you think cat people are crazy. Oh, now they are showing dogs dozing off on the furniture I'm assuming while you are away from home. Way to instill bad habits in your dogs!
The most frightening thing about this, though, is that on the Guide there is a banner that states that this is a free trial from 8/1 - 8/14. From that I assume that this is a premium channel and if your dog gets addicted to it, you'll have to pay extra for a TV channel for your dogs. People, my cats do NOT require premium TV channels. In fact they might be content if the TV was never even turned on. Now they are showing video of a quiet morning in some foreign land and people fishing. By the way, only 6 minutes has gone by since I changed channels to this DogTV and already I have described to you, what? four different doggie viewing experiences that they have aired? Should I draw from this that they must assume that your dogs have remarkably short attention spans???? Doesn't speak too highly of them.
My cats can watch a piece of prey for an hour waiting to see what moves it will make and determining how best to take it down. Of course, sometimes that "prey" is a little red dot from the laser pointer I use to get them moving. But still, they will follow it around as long as my finger can continue to press the "on" button.
I have a friend with whom I go out pretty often. When we leave her house, she leaves her TV on for the dog's entertainment so I'm sure she is loving this channel. In fact she is the one who told me about it yesterday. If I left the TV on in my house when I left, my cats would go to another room to get away from the constant noise.
I like dogs. There have been many times that I wished I could have one. The problem is that I have never really lived in a place suitable for dogs. I don't have a back yard and I don't have the time to devote to walking a dog a couple of times a day since I don't have a yard. Additionally, as it turns out, I am apparently a low maintenance kind of pet person. It didn't dawn on me until today. But an animal that must be taken outside every single time it needs to pee is a problem for me!
Sure, I'll admit that I have people come to feed my cats daily when I am away from home. But if it got down to it, I could leave for a week, set up an automated feeder and waterer and leave them alone and come home to two healthy cats. They'd be a little pissy, but they would still be healthy and all of their waste would be in their litter boxes.
On the other hand, I don't doubt for a minute that if I died in my apartment and it took more than a few hours for someone to find me that Shiner would begin feeding on my fingers by the end of the first day. He's a survivor, what can I say? But you've gotta respect that about him! He doesn't require entertainment or anything else from humans. He'll figure it all out on his own.
So call me a crazy cat lady all you want. At least I'm not paying for premium satellite service for a dog. Who's crazy now?
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Day Four-Fifty - Barry Recap!
Wow! Last night was about 38 years in the making. You see since about 1975 I have been a BIG Barry Manilow fan.... or a Fanilow. There have been those that have made fun of me over the years when they found out that I was a once a 12 year old obsessed with Barry Manilow. But it never bothered me. I love Barry and if that makes me a geek, I'm OK with that. In fact, I like to think I OWN it. So last night Barry did a show at Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie and I went with two of my friends from the 1970's. Both of them had been to see Barry over the years. But for me it was my first Barry Manilow concert and it did not disappoint!
At 70 years old Barry is just as entertaining as he ever was. The show was fabulous! I couldn't wipe the smile off my face all night. Even when a man yelled out, "BARRY! I LOVE YOU!!!!" during a particularly quiet moment while Barry sang Weekend in New England cracking Barry up and resulting in him stopping the song while he recovered I was still thrilled and wouldn't have changed a thing. Say what you will about all the plastic surgery he has had, it hasn't effected his talent in anyway.
I don't know if it would have been as much fun if I hadn't been able to go with my friends Dana and Krista. We had a great time catching up. It was the first time that Dana and I had seen Krista since we each moved away from Nacogdoches. I moved in February of our freshman year of high school and Dana moved during the summer between our freshman and sophomore years. So last night was a nice reunion.
During the year leading up to our moving Dana and I, with the help of our mothers, started making an embroidered and painted workshirt that we planned to send to Barry. It was the 70's and those embroidered workshirts were very popular. We spent months working on the shirt. We would trade out who got to work on it. Right in the middle of the work, my family moved to Lumberton, Tx. which meant that we had to start mailing it back and forth to each other when it was the other ones turn to work on it. We took months to complete it. When it was done I got to go to Dana's house for a visit and we took pictures of us with the shirt before it was mailed to some address that Dana's Mom had gotten where we were pretty sure Barry would get it. I don't mind telling you, it was a master piece as far as folk art goes.
After it was mailed we waited months and months expecting to hear from Barry personally (or at least I was expecting it). I laid awake at night and imagined that Barry would come to see us personally to thank us for the amazing shirt we had made. But that didn't happen. When Dana and I went to each others house in the summer for week long visits we went to the mall and got on a pay phone with all the quarters we could come up with and tried calling Barry's agent or someone else that we thought could get us through to the man, himself. It never worked, but each time we would get a New York operator on the line as we called information my heart would race so much that I thought it would pop out of my chest. Finally Dana's Mom wrote a letter to someone on our behalf and a year or two after we mailed the shirt we got a letter back saying that Barry had gotten the shirt and it was "one his favorite around the house shirts". We were thrilled. I got a copy of the letter and for years it was framed and hanging on the wall in my bedroom. Unfortunately, the print is so faded now you can no longer read it.
Last night as we enjoyed the concert, on the video screens, various album covers were shown. It was so cool to see all those old album covers again. I still have my entire Barry Manilow LP collection in a box in the closet of my guest room. But I have no turn table. I think I am going to have to download those old albums so that I can start listening to them again in their entirety rather than just the greatest hits off of them. If you've never been to see Barry in concert, I highly recommend it. He is a truly great entertainer. If I can figure out how to download my video I'll post it.
Have a great weekend!
At 70 years old Barry is just as entertaining as he ever was. The show was fabulous! I couldn't wipe the smile off my face all night. Even when a man yelled out, "BARRY! I LOVE YOU!!!!" during a particularly quiet moment while Barry sang Weekend in New England cracking Barry up and resulting in him stopping the song while he recovered I was still thrilled and wouldn't have changed a thing. Say what you will about all the plastic surgery he has had, it hasn't effected his talent in anyway.
I don't know if it would have been as much fun if I hadn't been able to go with my friends Dana and Krista. We had a great time catching up. It was the first time that Dana and I had seen Krista since we each moved away from Nacogdoches. I moved in February of our freshman year of high school and Dana moved during the summer between our freshman and sophomore years. So last night was a nice reunion.
During the year leading up to our moving Dana and I, with the help of our mothers, started making an embroidered and painted workshirt that we planned to send to Barry. It was the 70's and those embroidered workshirts were very popular. We spent months working on the shirt. We would trade out who got to work on it. Right in the middle of the work, my family moved to Lumberton, Tx. which meant that we had to start mailing it back and forth to each other when it was the other ones turn to work on it. We took months to complete it. When it was done I got to go to Dana's house for a visit and we took pictures of us with the shirt before it was mailed to some address that Dana's Mom had gotten where we were pretty sure Barry would get it. I don't mind telling you, it was a master piece as far as folk art goes.
After it was mailed we waited months and months expecting to hear from Barry personally (or at least I was expecting it). I laid awake at night and imagined that Barry would come to see us personally to thank us for the amazing shirt we had made. But that didn't happen. When Dana and I went to each others house in the summer for week long visits we went to the mall and got on a pay phone with all the quarters we could come up with and tried calling Barry's agent or someone else that we thought could get us through to the man, himself. It never worked, but each time we would get a New York operator on the line as we called information my heart would race so much that I thought it would pop out of my chest. Finally Dana's Mom wrote a letter to someone on our behalf and a year or two after we mailed the shirt we got a letter back saying that Barry had gotten the shirt and it was "one his favorite around the house shirts". We were thrilled. I got a copy of the letter and for years it was framed and hanging on the wall in my bedroom. Unfortunately, the print is so faded now you can no longer read it.
Last night as we enjoyed the concert, on the video screens, various album covers were shown. It was so cool to see all those old album covers again. I still have my entire Barry Manilow LP collection in a box in the closet of my guest room. But I have no turn table. I think I am going to have to download those old albums so that I can start listening to them again in their entirety rather than just the greatest hits off of them. If you've never been to see Barry in concert, I highly recommend it. He is a truly great entertainer. If I can figure out how to download my video I'll post it.
Have a great weekend!
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Day Four-Forty-Four - Tales of Spiders!
Okay, so I've taken several weeks off from writing any blogs. My life has been busy lately! I won't bore you with those details. But I'll just say that the spare time has been minimal. The other issue is that I can't really think of much to write about. On my other blog, the work blog, I try to write about travel. I was in the middle of a mind trip to Tokyo and Hong Kong. Right in the middle of Hong Kong I lost all interest. I wasn't seeing a lot of people reading it and there were no Likes, Shares or Comments at all so I figured the readers were no more interested in it than I was. So, I stopped. Someone did mention to me last week that they were hopeful that I would finish that mind trip and post more about Tokyo. But I decided that if it was of so little interest to them that they couldn't even be bothered to at least click a simple "Like" then it must not be that big of a deal. It's hard to keep spending an hour or two everyday writing something and then publishing it and getting no indication whatsoever that anyone else even saw it much less had an interest in it.
So last week, I went to Toledo Bend with my Mom and Dad. We only stayed one night. I'm not much of a lake person. I like looking at a lake. But the issue I have with lakes is that they attract spiders and I am terrified of spiders. So, I got no sleep, it was hard to relax because each time I sat down, I imagined a spider crawling on me. I didn't actually see that many spiders, but there were a lot of spider webs which indicates to me that the spiders must be off somewhere doing spidery things.... like crawling up on me looking for a good place to bite.
I'm not sure where my fear of spiders comes from. There were never any incidents in my life in which I was attacked by a spider and I've never been bitten by any poisonous spider that I am aware of. Yet it is my greatest fear. If you hand me a snake and tell me to hold it, I will hold it. Want me to hold some creepy crawly lizard for you? No problem. But if a nearly microscopic spider walks across the floor, I become almost paralyzed with fear. My issue is that they are so small, quiet and they weigh practically nothing so you can't even tell if they have gotten on you. Then they can bite you and we've all seen those pictures on the internet of a person's arm rotting off following a spider bite that they didn't even feel!!!! FREAKY!!!!! They are silent, deadly killers!
Spiders are the one reason that I really regret never having gotten married. I can do without a husband in my life to talk to, to go out with and to even have a little bedroom fun with. But I NEED a spider killer. A number of years ago, while I lived in my last rental apartment in Dallas, I had a one car garage. I had Jingle then who was no different then than he is now. He liked spending time in my garage. The only difference then from now is that at the time, I would open the garage door while I grilled just outside of the garage and Jingle would walk around in the garage and even out to the grill without fear. Now if the garage door opens he runs back in the house.
On this day, the door to the house was open and the garage door was open as I prepared to cook on the grill. Jingle was in the garage and I was getting a steak ready to go on the grill. When I walked out of the house and through the garage to move the grill out to the parking lot, Jingle remained focused on a bag of potting soil which was in the corner of the garage and partially opened. When I walked back by, he was still staring intently at the bag of potting soil. I thought it was strange and called his name. He never looked up or acknowledged that I had attempted communication (much like the readers of my blogs).
I went back in the house for something and when I came back out, Jingle was still completely focused on the potting soil. So I decided to see why he was so interested in it. I picked him up and he began clawing at me to get back down to the potting soil. I put him down and moved the bag a little... and that's when I saw the TARANTULA! It was enormous! It was sort of on the lip of the open bag of potting soil. I would say that standing up, it was probably as big around as a softball if you counted the legs. I freaked! I thought about just grabbing Jingle and running in the house. But then there would still be a spider in my garage and something had to be done about that. My lease wasn't up for several more months. So I couldn't just move..... So, I took action.
First I decided that I needed to stun it. So I ran in the house and grabbed a can of Raid. I came back outside and soaked the spider with Raid. When I had emptied the can on the spider at point blank range, I threw the empty can at the spider like they do in Western movies when the six-shooter has been emptied on the bad guy. There was Raid pooling everywhere and the spider only seemed to be getting angrier. He barely staggered after being soaked in poison.
I knew I had to find something to strike the spider with that would not have me getting too close to said spider. My previous rental had been a duplex on Lake Ray Hubbard... again, a property near water and therefore near creepy crawly creatures. So I had shovels, hoes, rakes and so on. Okay, I admit the gardening tools were more for the yard at the house on Lake Ray Hubbard and not so much for the creepy crawly creatures. But they come in handy for that sort of thing. So, I got the hoe out and decided to use it to kill the spider. But it was still in my garage and the only thing that creeps me out as much as spiders is splattering a creature in an area that I will then have to clean up. It's one of the reasons I know I could never kill another human being. I would never be able to deal with the mess. So I began to sort of rake the spider out of the garage using the hoe. At the same time, I was looking around for any other humans - preferably big, masculine, strong men who were not easily frightened to help me. There were none. How can you live in an apartment complex in the middle of Plano, Tx. full of hundreds of other people and be in distress late in the afternoon after everyone is home from work, but before dark and not see a single suitable person to help? What are the odds?
So I had worked my way almost out of the garage with the spider using the hoe. It got away from me a few times and had just gotten away again when I saw a man carrying his trash to the dumpster which was just across the parking lot. So, I yelled for him to "pleeeeeeease come and help me". But somehow I had come across the most flamboyantly gay man in all of America at that exact moment when I needed a really manly man the most? Don't get me wrong. I love the gays. Some of my very good friends are gay men and they are the best guys in the world to have around in most instances. But this guy might have been more afraid of the spider than me. He did come over but he kept getting behind me as I was trying to give him the hoe and get him to kill the spider. REALLY??!?!?!? It finally took the spider walking toward the man to convince him that he had to kill it. He did. It splattered all over the parking lot. The sad thing is that by this time, I had almost convinced myself that this spider had probably escaped from a spider habitat in someone else's apartment within the complex. I mean after all, it never even tried to get away from me except when I was using the hoe on it. We probably killed someones escaped pet.
But this is what happens when you keep pets that God never meant to be pets. They get away and people kill them in a state of hysteria. I never found out if the spider was, in fact someones pet. It's just a feeling I had mostly because you don't see a lot of Tarantulas in North Texas. But I suppose anything is possible. The man who finally killed the spider for me did not become friends with me. You would think that the incident would have resulted in a long lasting friendship and years later we would still be laughing over the time he came to my rescue and killed the terrifying spider for me. But in reality, I think what happened is that he began using a different dumpster on the property to insure that he would never have to come near me again because I might bully him into killing something else for me. He probably still tells his friends about the crazy spider lady who freaked out on him and forced him to kill a Tarantula against his will. Sorry dude....
So last week, I went to Toledo Bend with my Mom and Dad. We only stayed one night. I'm not much of a lake person. I like looking at a lake. But the issue I have with lakes is that they attract spiders and I am terrified of spiders. So, I got no sleep, it was hard to relax because each time I sat down, I imagined a spider crawling on me. I didn't actually see that many spiders, but there were a lot of spider webs which indicates to me that the spiders must be off somewhere doing spidery things.... like crawling up on me looking for a good place to bite.
I'm not sure where my fear of spiders comes from. There were never any incidents in my life in which I was attacked by a spider and I've never been bitten by any poisonous spider that I am aware of. Yet it is my greatest fear. If you hand me a snake and tell me to hold it, I will hold it. Want me to hold some creepy crawly lizard for you? No problem. But if a nearly microscopic spider walks across the floor, I become almost paralyzed with fear. My issue is that they are so small, quiet and they weigh practically nothing so you can't even tell if they have gotten on you. Then they can bite you and we've all seen those pictures on the internet of a person's arm rotting off following a spider bite that they didn't even feel!!!! FREAKY!!!!! They are silent, deadly killers!
Spiders are the one reason that I really regret never having gotten married. I can do without a husband in my life to talk to, to go out with and to even have a little bedroom fun with. But I NEED a spider killer. A number of years ago, while I lived in my last rental apartment in Dallas, I had a one car garage. I had Jingle then who was no different then than he is now. He liked spending time in my garage. The only difference then from now is that at the time, I would open the garage door while I grilled just outside of the garage and Jingle would walk around in the garage and even out to the grill without fear. Now if the garage door opens he runs back in the house.
On this day, the door to the house was open and the garage door was open as I prepared to cook on the grill. Jingle was in the garage and I was getting a steak ready to go on the grill. When I walked out of the house and through the garage to move the grill out to the parking lot, Jingle remained focused on a bag of potting soil which was in the corner of the garage and partially opened. When I walked back by, he was still staring intently at the bag of potting soil. I thought it was strange and called his name. He never looked up or acknowledged that I had attempted communication (much like the readers of my blogs).
I went back in the house for something and when I came back out, Jingle was still completely focused on the potting soil. So I decided to see why he was so interested in it. I picked him up and he began clawing at me to get back down to the potting soil. I put him down and moved the bag a little... and that's when I saw the TARANTULA! It was enormous! It was sort of on the lip of the open bag of potting soil. I would say that standing up, it was probably as big around as a softball if you counted the legs. I freaked! I thought about just grabbing Jingle and running in the house. But then there would still be a spider in my garage and something had to be done about that. My lease wasn't up for several more months. So I couldn't just move..... So, I took action.
First I decided that I needed to stun it. So I ran in the house and grabbed a can of Raid. I came back outside and soaked the spider with Raid. When I had emptied the can on the spider at point blank range, I threw the empty can at the spider like they do in Western movies when the six-shooter has been emptied on the bad guy. There was Raid pooling everywhere and the spider only seemed to be getting angrier. He barely staggered after being soaked in poison.
I knew I had to find something to strike the spider with that would not have me getting too close to said spider. My previous rental had been a duplex on Lake Ray Hubbard... again, a property near water and therefore near creepy crawly creatures. So I had shovels, hoes, rakes and so on. Okay, I admit the gardening tools were more for the yard at the house on Lake Ray Hubbard and not so much for the creepy crawly creatures. But they come in handy for that sort of thing. So, I got the hoe out and decided to use it to kill the spider. But it was still in my garage and the only thing that creeps me out as much as spiders is splattering a creature in an area that I will then have to clean up. It's one of the reasons I know I could never kill another human being. I would never be able to deal with the mess. So I began to sort of rake the spider out of the garage using the hoe. At the same time, I was looking around for any other humans - preferably big, masculine, strong men who were not easily frightened to help me. There were none. How can you live in an apartment complex in the middle of Plano, Tx. full of hundreds of other people and be in distress late in the afternoon after everyone is home from work, but before dark and not see a single suitable person to help? What are the odds?
So I had worked my way almost out of the garage with the spider using the hoe. It got away from me a few times and had just gotten away again when I saw a man carrying his trash to the dumpster which was just across the parking lot. So, I yelled for him to "pleeeeeeease come and help me". But somehow I had come across the most flamboyantly gay man in all of America at that exact moment when I needed a really manly man the most? Don't get me wrong. I love the gays. Some of my very good friends are gay men and they are the best guys in the world to have around in most instances. But this guy might have been more afraid of the spider than me. He did come over but he kept getting behind me as I was trying to give him the hoe and get him to kill the spider. REALLY??!?!?!? It finally took the spider walking toward the man to convince him that he had to kill it. He did. It splattered all over the parking lot. The sad thing is that by this time, I had almost convinced myself that this spider had probably escaped from a spider habitat in someone else's apartment within the complex. I mean after all, it never even tried to get away from me except when I was using the hoe on it. We probably killed someones escaped pet.
But this is what happens when you keep pets that God never meant to be pets. They get away and people kill them in a state of hysteria. I never found out if the spider was, in fact someones pet. It's just a feeling I had mostly because you don't see a lot of Tarantulas in North Texas. But I suppose anything is possible. The man who finally killed the spider for me did not become friends with me. You would think that the incident would have resulted in a long lasting friendship and years later we would still be laughing over the time he came to my rescue and killed the terrifying spider for me. But in reality, I think what happened is that he began using a different dumpster on the property to insure that he would never have to come near me again because I might bully him into killing something else for me. He probably still tells his friends about the crazy spider lady who freaked out on him and forced him to kill a Tarantula against his will. Sorry dude....
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Day Four-Twenty-Three - Another Graduation
My niece graduated from high school on Friday night. She was one of 17 graduates at her school. Even though I am from east Texas, the small school thing is foreign even to me. I went to three high schools and graduated from Bay City with a couple of hundred other people. At any of the three high schools I went to there would have been at least 200 other graduates in my class. Nacogdoches was the biggest high school I went to. Lumberton was probably the smallest which means Bay City was right in the middle.
I didn't get to attend my graduation because I was sick. Very sick. So sick, I honestly believed although I never said it out loud, that I was dying. I survived and have since attended the high school graduations of many other people. I often sit in a graduation and wonder what my own would have been like. I'm a crier. So, I always wonder if I would have cried all the way through it or made it through without a tear simply because I would probably have been concentrating so hard on not falling down. That is where my attention is always focused when I have to walk in front of a group of people..... Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall, don't fall..... But the good news is that it keeps me from crying at events like that since it redirects my attention.
My oldest nephew graduated from the same high school that my niece did. So I already had an idea of what to expect. Their graduations are very personalized. The class historian actually talks about each kid and then there is a Power Point in which photos of each kid from birth to graduation are shown. In various high school graduations around the Metroplex, you hear about situations where the graduate is given a certain number of tickets for their family and friends to attend because the venues where the ceremonies are held won't hold all the people who might come otherwise. At Douglass, each graduate gets a row of 12 seats on the gymnasium floor with their last name on the row. Those 12 seats are for whoever you want to use them. Then the rest of the gym is available for whoever else would like to attend. There are no limits. It was actually pretty full Friday night for the 17 students graduating.
Rebecca had a pretty big crowd attending on her behalf. Aunts and uncle on her Dad's side of the family along with all her cousins except one were there. Additionally, some cousins on her Mom's side of the family were present. Plus her boyfriend and his family were there. When my brothers and I graduated from high school we never had anyone attend our graduations other than one aunt and uncle. My Uncle EC and his wife, Aunt Ida always attended graduations. In fact they showed up for my graduation even though I was too sick to be there. We always thought it was weird that Uncle EC and Aunt Ida always attended graduations. Now, as an adult who attends all the life events of my nephews and niece I wonder, was the rest of my family weird or were Uncle EC and Aunt Ida the weird ones? It's sort of hard to say.... you know because I might incriminate myself if I do.
Maybe it's because both of my parents came from such big families. But my aunts and uncles just weren't involved at all in our lives. Uncle EC and Aunt Ida were the only aunt and uncle without children of their own. So I suppose that's why they attended other people's kids events. We never got birthday or Christmas gifts from aunts and uncles and my parents didn't give gifts for birthdays or Christmas to my cousins. There were just too many. On Dad's side of the family I have 14 cousins. On Mom's side of the family I had 27 cousins. I'm only counting 1st cousins. Quite frankly I have no idea how many kids all of them have had on either side. There are many second cousins that I have never met and never will meet.
When I became an aunt I decided that my main responsibility was to spoil my nephews and niece. I'm not their parent. I'm no one's parent. So, I really know nothing about raising children. My expertise lies in making them want to spend time with me because they know it will be fun. That's not to say that I don't draw lines when they are around. When they stayed with me as children, there were always rules and lines that couldn't be crossed. But for the most part, they were with me to have fun and fun was had. Rebecca will be an aunt for the first time in September. I hope she carries on my tradition with her nephew. Since she only has one sibling she won't have many nephews and nieces. So, I really think she needs to take advantage of spoiling them and then sending them home to their parents every chance she gets. Even though she will probably have children of her own, you can't spoil your own children like that because as a parent you sort of have to play the part of the bad guy every once in a while. As an aunt you may have to be the bad guy 2 or 3 times in their life. Even grandparents have to be the bad guys more often than aunts. Aunts sort of have it made and I think most of them don't really take advantage of that.
Anybody who knows me knows that I take my nephews and niece on a trip when they graduate from high school. Jacob went to New York, Matt and Chris each went on cruises. Rebecca will also go on a cruise. I'm not sure what Tim will do (he's the youngest). A lot of people say nice things about me because I do this. But I'll tell you a secret. It's just as much for me as it is for them. You see, I love them all dearly and I know that once they have graduated from high school, they will go out in the world and start a life of their own, with their own families and I'll only get to see them at family gatherings and even those will become fewer and farther between as they have to spend time with in-laws. So, I consider it my last time to spend with them one on one with nobody else there to garner their attention. I get them to myself for a whole week. Plus we get to go some place together and create memories that neither of us will ever forget. I think about it like this, I could give them $500 and 20 years from now they might not even remember that I gave them anything for graduation. But if I take them on a trip, 20 years from now maybe they'll share a memory of that trip with one of their kids. Even if they don't share the memory with anyone else. It will always be there.
Have a good week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)