I like a joke as much as the next person. I don't take things very seriously and I hope you don't either. Hope you didn't come here to whine 'cause I don't wanna hear it!
A few months ago, I asked for your strength and you guys came through with gallons. I will need to go to the well once more.
My father-in -law has been in the hospital since before Father’s Day. There are so many medical issues going on with him that there is no way for me to get into it all. But I need to share this.
Dad has gotten to the point where medicine cannot help him, other than to keep him comfortable. The hospital has declared him stable and wants him released to a nursing home or to private in-home nursing care. Neither of these things will last long because his heart is also failing. This means that we’d have to call 911 repeatedly and have him returned to the hospital over and over.
Therefore, he is coming home today. He is stopping his dialysis. His doctors are giving him two weeks (that is optimistic) We are hoping that it will only be for a weekend. I can’t bear for it to take much longer than that.
I love him. As simple as that. I am crying as I type these words. I need to hold up my husband. I need to hold up my children.
A funny thing happens during a vacation, holiday, or long weekend. You know what it is because you have all felt it at one time or another.
It is the “Time Warp”.
I was able to hang out on the Fourth doing nothing in particular. I played on Facebook and played with Bandit. I visited my FIL in the hospital. Later on in the afternoon, my son gathered up his single friends who had no plans and held an impromptu barbecue. All in all, it was a great day.
After sleeping in a bit on Saturday, I got up, showered, and went out to breakfast with my girlfriend and my daughter. It was a good time. I napped in the afternoon and when I woke up, it had happened. Time shifted.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that there were things that I had to get done because “tomorrow is a work day.” I felt like I had to finish other things because the radio shows that I listen to were coming on soon. I thought my son had to go to work because it was Sunday night.
It was no such thing. It was only Saturday.
This particular ‘time warp’ is different from wishing that time would move faster.”It’s only Wednesday??” Doesn’t apply. It’s the warp where you realize that you have an extra day. You can sit down and relax or finish the job that you have been putting off.
It is kind of related to the feeling when you eat dinner early or finish a task way ahead of time. “Why, it’s still early! I still have time to ___!”
When the holiday happens to fall on a Monday, it makes the week whiz by. Thursday comes along and all of a sudden you realize that the weekend will begin tomorrow!
I don’t usually pay a whole lot of attention to the Fourth of July. Well, yes I do, but in the superficial way. You know, barbecues, fireworks, parades and such. But I don’t usually think about it.
This year, America is beating me over the head with it’s significance.
I watched Good Morning America yesterday and I saw Senator McCain spout alot of incomprehensible bullshit when asked a direct question by Robin Roberts. He rambled on and on about South America and the drug problems.He never addressed the question posed to him….”Why are you there at a time when the American public is in such financial straits?”
I’m not saying that I am for either him or Senator Obama, but I am glad that I have the right to choose.
I watch the news and see the horrors playing out in other countries. Women are unheard and unseen. There are no freedoms. And I am glad that I am living here.
A man is being arraigned in Philadelphia today on charges of aggravated assault, making terroristic threats and corruption of a minor for making a video for YouTube detailing the correct way to shoot a cop . He allegedly showed this to his son too. I was appalled by the hatred spewed by this man. I was disgusted that anyone could feel this way about our protectors. But he is using his freedom of speech. And as much as I disagree with him, I am glad that the right exists.
And every day, you and I make use of our freedom of expression by writing whatever we want on our blog. We choose whether or not we want to read the words put down by others. We choose the topics we wish to blog about. And I am glad that right exists.
So when you head off to your parades, your barbecues, and your fireworks, thank your forefathers for all that they did to ensure that we have a country like this.
Today was a super day. Bright sunshine, low humidity, decent temperature–a perfect day to be outdoors.
I took the kids to the library where we loaded up on stories for quiet time. Then we crossed the street to the “educational” toy store. They should call this the “Expensive-crap-no-kid-wants-to-play-with-more-than-once Store”. $13.00 for a game ofdominos?? Just because the pieces curve? A pot-holder weaver for fifteen dollars?? Gimme a break! Those things are only 4.00 at the local craft store!
Anyhoo…We got ROCKET BALLOONS!!* These things are the shit! We loved this toy. They are annoyingly loud and fly pretty damn high and far. We just have to be really careful to aim it away from the street (don’t wanna cause an accident!) and away from the house (I now have six trapped up on the roof) and away from the holly bushes (because they will immediately pop) and away from the trees (because now I have three hanging from the branches -unpopped, but unreachable )
We shot these things everywhere and laughed and had so much fun. I was the one who was disappointed when it was time for the mom to show up!
Will I ever grow up? Prolly not! This was a great day!
*This is not a paid endorsement-but it really should be!
‘Member I told you that work is being done on my street? Well, it’s still happening. In front of my house, we are getting our water lines replaced from the street to each house and then they will repave the street itself. They are currently working about half a block up the street.
On the side of the house, the lines are being run from pole to pole by Verizon for the VIOS lines. This has been going on for the past week and a half. I see their trucks one day and there are four or five men busy as hell pulling wires and going up in the cherry pickers. Today I saw a single truck.
This guy must be a union man. It must be against OSHA rules for anyone to work outdoors on a day as pretty as today.
First, he did this.
Then he did this.
By 2:30 pm, this was all that was happening out there.
Every year, beginning around March, I begin to spazz over the weight I haven’t been able to shed no matter how hard I try. I spazz because bathing suit weather is around the corner. Normally, there is a cushion involved because we don’t usually vacation until mid- to late August. This year we are going in late July.
AAAHHH!!!!
There is no time to do anything about my predicament. Oh well…..
We put a deposit on the place we are staying at and took a little spin around the area. What I saw made me forget about MY weight.
Did I actually see these particular women? No, but I might as well have. Oh dear God! What makes people think this is okay? Why should boobs spill out of your top? If you are NOT eighteen years old or perky, put that shit away!!!
Does anyone really want to see a woman (or man–you fellas are not immune to this behavior!) lift all of those rolls of fat to apply sunscreen? When you turn around, we DON’T want to see where the good Lord split you!
Hubs and I saw a woman with her four kids crossing the street, looking pretty close to this. We looked at each other and simultaneously said “Holy Shit!” I almost felt the bile rise in my throat.
I don’t think I will be worried about how I look in a swimsuit this year. Mine will cover my ass. I will not ‘accidently’ pop a titty out of the top. And I will look at these other women and say “Damn! I look pretty fuckin’ hot compared to her!”
Hubs and I took a ride on Saturday. This was our annual “Ride to the shore to find a place for our vacation” This is something that just the two of us do. We never share this with our kids. We have always gotten babysitters for them. Now that they are older, we just leave. Maybe we will stay overnight, or maybe we’ll come back that evening.
We drive along in companionable silence. We’ve been together for almost 28 years, so we don’t always need to talk. We can still look at roadkill and suddenly crack up laughing because we thought the same thing. “That’s a strange place for a raccoon to take a nap.”
We are trapped. If there is something major that needs discussion, this is the time to do it. No one can walk away. No one can slam a door. No one will walk into the room to disturb us.
We are trapped. After only 20 minutes of driving, we lose the major radio stations. It is either silence or CDs. Sometimes we choose CDs. Normally there is a heated debate about which CDs will join us for the ride. It is something that we both need to agree on or else we don’t bring it. Saturday, we left quickly, so there was no debate. I grabbed the CD case, added a few Hub’s newer CDs and we ran.
We were trapped. I listened to the oldies. We drove along with Roy Orbison, Del Shannon, and Percy Faith. We were serenaded by Little Eva, Martha and the Vandellas, and the Supremes. I didn’t get annoyed or want to tear out my hair.
We were trapped. Hubs listened to Rammstein, Megadeth and Violent Femmes. He didn’t complain. He didn’t tell me to turn it down. I noticed that his fingers tapped the steering wheel in time to the music.
It is interesting the things that you can learn about another person when you are trapped together. Even after nearly 28 years, we are learning about each other. It took this long for us to actually enjoy the other’s taste in music. We talked about what he enjoys about running the business. We talked about what I like about blogging. Yes, we talked about you. He asked what draws me to your writing. He was interested.
It is all about the itch. I read it and could not stop scratching. It was all the power of suggestion. A while back, when Joslyn’s sister got lice, I couldn’t listen to her mom tell me about it without getting the heebee jeebees (read: itchy)
Now it is summer. Tis the season for mosquitoes. I get itchy just imagining what the midwest is going through with all the standing water that is a breeding ground for those pests. My neighbor’s yard sinks in one part and since she empties the kid’s wading pool, it fills with the water and then just sits. I can’t take my kids outside into the back yard without the mosquitoes swarming to the little ones. They look like the poor refugees from those third world countries with the bugs gathering around their faces!
A mosquito bite-be it large or small-is enough to keep me uncomfortable all night long with the desire to scratch. I scratch until I bleed. If my fingernails are cut short, I will scratch until I bruise. But ahhh….the relief I feel when I ‘get’ that special spot. You know, the one that makes the itching stop.
Babygirl doesn’t mind the bites. I have said “Use the bug repellent” as she runs off to softball or to hang outside at a friend’s house. Does she ever listen? No. Why? Because she likes to scratch. She enjoys the sensation she gets when she ‘gets’ that spot.
I can tell her about West Nile Virus. She is 16. She doesn’t care.
This is part of one of her creative writing assignments:
Yeah, yeah, yeah….I know. You’ve seen this everywhere and we’ve all stolen it from Avitable. Why argue with genius? He took the top 100 movies of the last 25 years, as stated by Entertainment Weekly. Then he bold-faced the ones that he has seen and asterisked the ones he liked. I’m a copycat, so I did too.
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)**
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)**
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
5. Toy Story (1995)**
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)**
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) 8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)**
9. Die Hard (1988)**
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)**
12. The Matrix (1999)
13. GoodFellas (1990)****
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)**
16. Boogie Nights (1997) 17. Jerry Maguire (1996)**
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)** 19. Casino Royale (2006) 20. The Lion King (1994)**
21. Schindler’s List (1993)** 22. Rushmore (1998)
23. Memento (2001)
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)**
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire (1988)
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)**
30. When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
32. Fight Club (1999) 33. The Breakfast Club (1985)****
34. Fargo (1996)**
35. The Incredibles (2004)****
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)**
37. Pretty Woman (1990)**
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)****
40. Speed (1994)
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)****
42. Clueless (1995)**
43. Gladiator (2000)**
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)**
46. Children of Men (2006)
47. Men in Black (1997)**
48. Scarface (1983)
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)** 50. The Piano (1993)**
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
53. The Truman Show (1998)
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)**
55. Risky Business (1983)**
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There’s Something About Mary (1998)**
58. Ghostbusters (1984)**
59. L.A. Confidential (1997)
60. Scream (1996)**** 61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)** 63. Big (1988)**
64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)****
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)**
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985) 69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987) 71. Unforgiven (1992)** 72. Thelma and Louise (1991)**
73. Office Space (1999) 74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985) 76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)** 78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)****
82. Lost in Translation (2003) 83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987) 84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002)** 87. Swingers (1996) 88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)** 89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)**
91. Back to the Future (1985)**
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994) 94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)** 95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)**** 98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999) 100. South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut (1999)
Where is Braveheart? What about Stand By Me? Sin City? Shaun of the Dead? 21 Grams? No SuperBad??? ANY MOVIE MADE BEFORE 1980???
But I digress….
Just from this list, I’ve seen seventy-nine. With an average running time of two hours each……that’s one hundred fifty-eight hours. That is roughly six and a half days–almost a week watching just these movies. That is not even counting the time spent watching them over and over again! Add to that the time spent watching so many, many, many, many other movies…..
I’m getting old. We all are, and this is not news. It’s just that I really feel it today.
Yesterday, George Carlin’s death was all over the place, on the news, on my yahoo feeds, and in several blogs-even my own. I grew up with him as many of you did. Thinking of him brought up several great memories for me. I listened to his albums with my Dad as a kid. Yes….I said as a kid. Where did the time go?
Today, I received an invitation to a wedding shower. Son2’s friend is getting married soon and this is a shower for the bride-to-be. I remember this boy’s first grade class picture. I remember him skinning his knees playing with my son. Now he’s getting married. He already has a two year old daughter. Where did the time go?
This guy is not the first of either of my sons’ friends to have a child or to get married. But since my sons are friends with the same group of kids since childhood, many of those who married are twenty-five to thirty years old. This particular friend is one of the younger group. The group who is 23 years old…the age of Son2.
Twenty-three. When I was twenty-three, I had two little boys. When I was twenty-three, I still lived in an apartment. At twenty-three, it was a huge deal to go out without the kids.
Twenty-three was half my life ago. Where did the time go?
Someday soon, my own boys will be the ones getting married. Babygirl will be out of high school and moving on to college in two years. Maybe I’ll even be a grandmom. Where did the time go?
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