…twice in one night…
Yes, I’m watching it again! It’s either Princess Diaries, or Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, The Three Musketeers, or the news.
Granted, I can identify with Pippin in LOTR, so I could watch that… but I can’t really identify with Athos, Porthos, or Aramis in TTM. I really identify with the clumsy moments I’m witnessing in PD, so I’m watching that.
Oh, thank you Disney West!! Now it’s on again two times in a row…
I think I need to go to bed.
I was 3/4 of the way through sewing a shirt and I ran out of thread. Yes, that’s right, you read it here, folks. I RAN OUT OF THREAD. I stared at the machine and the nearly empty spool of thread in disbelief…(I was smart enough to leave some on so I could match the thread, then realized at the store there’s a color number on the bottom of the spool, but I digress). The other color of blue thread (close enough to be sisters, really) ran out on me about five minutes later.
So, what’s a girl to do? I mean, after all, I’m sitting there, covered in bits of thread… hair all mussed, but it’s 6:00 p.m. and if I wait, I will have to get the thread after church and I wanted to wear this shirt to church… ugh. I also realized at this point that it’s been nearly 6 hours since I ate anything, and we all know how dangerous and stupid it is for me not to eat (thank goodness I ate before I tried to sew on the sleeves! Sleeves and I are still enemies). At the very least, I could get to the fabric store and forget why I’m there, not buy the thread, and end up back at home very confused and mad. Hmm… I stupidly choose thread over food.
It’s still hot and muggy out at 6 p.m. in Houston, and no, I haven’t gotten a/c in the car since the last time I whined about not having a/c in the car. Since I know the drug store carries only white, black and navy thread, I know that I will have to go to a fabric store to get Cielo Blue thread or one of its sisters or cousins so that I can get back home, reset myself into the sewing mood, and finish my shirt. I know that Wally World might have at least a cousin of the color of blue thread I need, but Wally World on a Saturday is usually overrun with people, so I kept driving, straight into the sun, to get to the fabric store.
Finally, I get to JoAnn’s and buy thread… and since I haven’t eaten, I buy lots of thread, so now I can sew anything navy or black or red, or even pink for that matter and not have to buy thread. I never remember my mother ever running out of thread, even random colors like Cielo Blue. I’m stocked up now and I actually remembered not to buy white. I already have six spools of white thread. I’m not sure why. I never sew anything white.
On the way home, I stop by Kohl’s to look at the clearance rack for a new bathing suit. Didn’t find anything… and I start the “haven’t eaten wandering” thing and end up at a rack of t-shirts for five dollars. (Since I’ve eaten, I’ve looked and found that I bought a purple t-shirt with flip flops on it. It’s the right size, so that’s good).
I finally get back in the car and turn towards home. I fall spectacularly off the diet wagon and stop at McDonald’s on the way. Oh, come on now, it was an emergency. Otherwise, I’d still be driving around and stopping at places and Lord knows what I’d be wearing tomorrow.
“Hello? How may I direct your call? One moment please.” 
DENTAL RELIEF…
Hallelujah, I’m back from the dentist… one filling, one root canal and two crown fittings later. Thank God for insurance and interest free payments, otherwise, I would have had the equivalent of a car payment for a BMW for months.
I’m hungry, but still numb, so I’ll wait and then see what I’m hungry for… but the office manager made me promise that I wouldn’t eat anything sticky or chewy until my permanent crowns are on.
That leaves my choices for the evening as… SOUP… or SOUP. 🙂
Addendum: The Roomie let me eat some of her pancakes. What a pal!
MARRIAGE WISDOM FROM PRESCHOOLERS
Tonight my roomie was babysitting three darling little girls, the oldest is almost 5 and the twins are almost 3. I sometimes go with her to play. I always have fun and usually, I learn something I never knew before.
For example, tonight, one twin and the four year old decided to help me get ready to get married. The two year old put a scarf on my head and said, “Now you can get married.” At first, I thought she said, “You can be Mary,” thinking we were going to do a Bible story, but I finally realized (after a few repeats) she was saying, “Put this on. Now you can get married.”
While the 4 year old put barrettes and a flower wreath in my hair, I asked the little one, “So, what does the preacher say when you get married?” thinking she’d recently been to a wedding and that’s why all of a sudden she was talking about marriage. She looked at me and said, “he says, ‘put this on,’ and you’re married.” Then she put another scarf over my legs and said, “there. Now you won’t ever be cold again.”
Meanwhile the four year old said, as she tied a man’s necktie around my head, “the preacher says you have to be tied together or it just won’t work.”
“Really?” I ask. “What else does the preacher say?”
4 year old: “He tells you to take your clothes off. All of them. Then put on a bathing suit.”
2 year old: (He says) “Now, let’s have lunch!”
4 year old: “You really do have to take all your clothes off, but then you put on the bathing suit and it’s okay.”
2 year old (after the scarf falls off): “You can’t get married without this on!”
Who knew that if I would just put a scarf on I could get married? (ha ha)
I also learned something about the Great Wall of China. The 4 year old and I watched about 21 minutes of Mulan before she went to bed. In the very beginning there’s a scene that shows the Great Wall. She turns to me and says, “that’s the great big wall. A great wall. It goes up China and down China. It goes all over China.”
I wonder if this all means I should honeymoon in China after I put my scarf on and get married? Lots to ponder…
Ronald Reagan
GOODBYE, RONALD REAGAN
The death of former President Ronald Reagan has conjured up many memories for me. Some are of President Reagan, others are of my brother, my grandfather and others. Reagan was president while I was in junior high and high school, before I could vote. Politics, in my world, was mostly locally focused during my teenage years, but I remember the assassination attempt, the Berlin Wall speech, the speech after the Challenger tragedy and many more. I remember he was a popular president and I remember he was a classy one as well.
The first memory that popped into my head that wasn’t of Reagan personally was of my older brother. Scott absolutely loved Ronald Reagan. Remember the show Family Ties? The character played by Michael J. Fox — Alex P. Keaton, who idolized Ronald Reagan — had a picture of Reagan hanging on his wall, and so did my brother. He was a total devotee of Reagan and all he stood for. I know Reagan inspired him to be more than he was, and he often said that Reagan was classy and he wanted to be like that. Those memories of Scott still make me smile and miss him that much more.
The second memory was of my grandfather, who like Ronald Reagan, suffered from Alzheimer’s for years before he died in May of 1987. I remember one of the last times I saw him before he went to the nursing home. During a rare moment of clarity, he spoke my name. He rarely, if ever called me by name…he had a nickname for me or often went down the list of his daughters before he’d get to my nickname, but at that moment he called me by name and told me he loved me. At a time when Alzheimer’s was still largely misunderstood and everyone around me told me he really wasn’t “in there,” he looked me in the eye and let me know he was still in there. I grieved for him in that moment, because he was an intelligent, articulate man trapped by a disease that took away his mind, the ability to enjoy his life as well as the ability to let us all know how much he loved us.
I don’t know if Nancy Reagan or the Reagan children had any moments like that with President Reagan over the last ten years. Something in my gut says that though they said goodbye to the man they knew a long time ago, that there were some moments, some signs that he was still present with them in mind as well as body. I’m sure those private, wonderful and gut-wrenching moments will be cherished as much as the memory I have of those last shared moments with my grandfather.
I watched a good portion of the state funeral last night and will watch the funeral tomorrow. My heart is warmed by the outpouring of sympathy from all over the world. Though I knew Reagan was a popular president, I am still grasping the scope of what he meant, not only to this country, but to the world.
Some of my favorite Reagan Quotes:
“Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.”
“I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.”
“My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.”
— Said during a radio microphone test, 1984
“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them — this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved goodbye, and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.'”
— Speech about Challenger disaster, Jan. 28, 1986
“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.”
“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'”
Destined for Texas
Or, as Texas transplants like to say, “I wasn’t born here, but I got here as quickly as I could.”
LONG TIME, NO POST
How time flies when you’re working full time…
Well, I spent Memorial Day, my first paid day off in nearly five years…sick. Not incapacitated, just a little sinus infection. I did not want my day off to go to waste, so I spent the day sewing. I made my first pair of pants ever. With the help of my sewing consultant, Jene’, I now have a nice pair of brushed blue denim capris.
I am a very visual person, however, so there was a fair amount of comedy as I tried to follow the lame pattern pictures. (I mean, how many times can you rip off pockets, sew them on, rip them off, sew them on…) A great deal of the fun involved the inseam. At one point I was so confused about how the pants should look, we had to pull a pair of pants out of the dryer for visual reference.
They are finished, however, and they do look nice. One mental note to self… even if the seams are on the inside, when using dark fabric…white thread isn’t the best idea. I’ll know better next time. And the shirt I made looks great, but it’s a little too short and will need a ruffle or addition on the bottom so I can raise my arms without exposing anything important.
So, that was my adventure Monday. How was your long weekend?
A WEEK OF BLONDE MOMENTS
If you know me all, you know I embrace my blondeness. Some examples from this week:
Blonde moment #1 involved orange barrels (think construction nightmares). I will say no more about that.
Blonde moment #2 involved the washing machine. Apparently this random light switch outside the closet that the machine is in is directly connected to the outlet in the closet and if you turn it off, the washer won’t work. The maintenance people at our complex LOVE us. I’m sure we were a source of amusement for them.
Blonde moment #3 involved meeting the new pastor’s wife at the church where I work. She isn’t very tall and when she reached across the desk to shake my hand. I conked her elbow on the shelf. Brilliant.
Blonde moment #4 involved the speaker system in the office suite I work in. I used the remote at the desk I was using to turn up the stereo. I kept turning it up and up but there was no sound. So, I thought I had turned it down sufficiently. I went to the closet where the main console was and noticed the speaker buttons were off. I pushed the speaker button and NO I had not turned it down at all! It was at FULL volume!! You’ve heard the noise… the loudest sound burst imaginable without making you pass out. Imagine someone taking the heart paddles and shouting, “CLEAR!” and shocking you while you were still alert. That’s how the ladies felt out there. I think I nearly gave one a heart attack. Brilliant.
Friday, however, I was blonde moment free. I was grateful to take a blonde day off.
One other note… Memorial Day will be my first paid day off in almost 5 years! I will truly be able to relax and enjoy myself.
Good night and may the blonde not be near you when her blonde control gauge explodes.
Sassy Dreams Awake 