Shopping for dresses

For the first time in ages, we are going out with another couple for New Years Eve. We will be in the Sky Room Restaurant at the top of the Peachtree Plaza Hotel overlooking beautiful downtown Atlanta, GA. Today, I went shopping for a dress. The first 4 places did not have any dresses or none past size18. Lane Bryant retail stores do not carry dresses. MMMMMkay. Finally at the Avenue there was an awesome black sparkly dress!!! I ended up with that, a wrap, shoes, earrings, and a necklace. I used every gift card I got for Christmas!!! I am excited, but nervous. So out of my element. I'm more of a jeans and t-shirt person. For one night, I will be Cinderella..in a black sparkly dress.

Merry Christmas!

Moonshine Festival

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The last weekend in October Dawson County holds a Moonshine Festival in the Dawsonville town square. Almost 80% of the proceeds go to Dawson County Cares,which provides Christmas to low income families. There were kiddie rides, face painting, cotton candy and caramel apples. The usual county fair/festival offerings. There were tons of old cars, moonshine memoribillia, music and interesting stories to hear.

From point A to point B

These are difficult times. We all hurt. We all suffer. We battle our own demons and, far too often, the demons of others. Who of us hasn't experienced a time when we've felt abandoned and forsaken, adrift in a seemingly endless morass of uncertainly and self-doubt, questioning our values and our very worth?
The above quote was shamelessly stolen from another blog.
I'm 44. Seemingly too old to start a new career. I met with a lovely lady from the admissions office to a local technical college. "Why are you interested in returning to school?" "Would'nt you rather audit a class?" The questions kept coming, and they all had the vague thread of..."Aren't you just a little to old to think about starting over in a completely different career?" Too old? No, that is the least of the obstacles before me. 2 years from now I will probably have the exact same problems, but the difference will be, I will have a degree in Computer Science. Too old? Is 44 too old?
I've raised children, managed a household, worked steadily for 20+ years, faced challenges and somehow found time to learn new skills on a regular basis. It's called curiousity. I do admit some were more for neccessity than curiousity. I dated a raging alcoholic who would not go to a barbershop for a haircut. "You can't drink beer in a barbershop" was his explanation. Too handsome for a buzz cut, I went to the library and checked out a how to book on basic haircutting. I can cut hair, hang sheetrock, brew beer, play the piano, knit, quilt, change a tire, take photographs, understand computers all because there are books in the library covering these and many other subjects. I guess I didn't know I was too old.
Do I dread taking classes where the average entry age into this career is 24? You betcha! Do I dread physically going into a classroom where I will be the oldest, heaviest, most depressed person? Yes, more than you can imagine. Will it prevent me from opening that door? No, I just will have to reconcile the fact that I probably will not be voted Prom Queen. Too old? Maybe for an Olympic medal or a part in High School Musical, but 4 classes a week at the local community college....nah.

Murphy's Law

I have decided that in a previous life I must have been a) a serial killer b) an adulterous serial killer or c) Typhoid Mary and Caligula morphed into one.

Over the past 3 weeks my life has been a page out of Murphy's Law.
What could have gone wrong ..... did.

I had to fire a closer... for not wearing a shirt. He would wear his chef's coat, but no shirt underneath. If you've ever worked in a deli, you know that we HATE to fire a closer. No one wants to close, it's crappy hard work. You keep closers as long as possible... unless they don't wear their shirts.

I had a cook out on sick leave for an undetermined time.

I lost my strongest employee over the stupidest chain of events that fell perfectly into place right in front of my vice president.

My morning person was rushed to the emergency room with a possible kidney stone, only to find out it was a serious 10 day hospital stay. She is potentially out for 3-4 months.

My husband has literally lost his mind. His fasting blood sugar if 271. A litttttttttttttttle on the high side. His diabetes is not being controlled with diet and oral medicine. This could be also influenced by the fact that he drinks beer on the weekend, does not exercise, and does not even pretend to have a meal plan in place. Couldn't tell you how many carbs to protein ratios he should be eating or even what foods he should avoid.

My son had a seizure/blackout/ misfire/ unexplained episode Monday and was missing for 10 hours before he was found 60 miles away in a parking lot, unresponsive by the closing night clerk at a Quickie Mart. He had no idea how he got there. He has no idea what events occured in those 10 hours. He was taken to a hopital and two hours later finally remembered my phone number. No drugs or alcohol were in his system. The neurologist infomed us, "We may never know what caused this." Great. What comfort that will be.

On the othe hand... I got a really great haircut. And pretty soon, I will take drinking up again. (Probably not) I'm almost certain I had fewer problems when I did drink. Or maybe afte a few stiff shots of tequlia they just shut the hell up.

We may never know.

A Great Nelson Mandela Quote

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Countdown till 4

In 8 days you will be 4.

No more round baby face, chubby little arms and legs have been replaced by sharp knees and elbows.

No more Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, instead it's Spidermans theme song, and "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH who lives in a pineapple under the sea???"

We truly are blessed, he has a stubborn streak, but balances it out with sweetness. He's a good tempered child not prone to fits and temper tantrums. And....he still thinks I am the greatest thing since......Power Rangers and fruit roll ups.

We are enjoying this stage becuase in 10 years he will probably look like this:

and I will be far down on the list of greatest people.

But even then..... we'll remember Kyle at 4.

Politics- In 90 seconds

I read this years ago, each time it cracks me up, because it so simply defines each category.
Boy....do I need to get a hobby or what???????
FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.
BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.
FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.
PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.
RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.
CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.
DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.
PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.
BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.
PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.
LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.
(Original source unknown . . .

Mothers, Easters and Hallmark

It's close to Easter. A holiday which I love but have also grown to hate. 11 years ago, my mother passed away March 31st. Easter that year was on April 7th. The church was filled with Easter lillies for the holiday service. I hate Easter Lillies now, the sight and smell of them send me back to that horrible time.
My mom was pretty neat. Unusual in her own right, proud of who she was, honest, plain, simple, and loving. Taught every child at church "Jesus loves me." Babies and children somehow sensed her goodness and would seek her out. Church, grocery stores, parks, department stores, it did not matter, they flocked to her.
Alzheimers robbed her slowly of her life, her light and her spirit and finally her dignity. What a horrible disease, so insidious, so invasive and so relentless. We went from "I know you." to "I know you are one of my children" to "Who are you?"
So today, on the anniversary of her physical death, I mourn the loss of my mother. But in reality she left us 2 years earlier in spirit.
And yes, sadly enough sometimes the hardest lesson you learn is one learned too late. If you have had any semblance of a semi functional relationship with your parents, you will miss them terribly after they are gone. Some times with just passing regret of how they loved spring when the gardenias and azaleas bloom. Other times it's the crushing realization that they are gone..forever.
The Mothers Day after she passed away, I was standing in line with a card for my soon to be mother in law. The lady behind me struck up a conversation and was showing me the card she had picked out for her mother. As cards went, it was average. "Is that the card for your mother?" "No, my mother passed away in March, if I had just one more Mothers Day with her the card I would buy wouldn't even FIT in the store." She left the line and came back with the Cadillac of cards.
So.... for Easter, 4th of July, International Children's Book day, National Cheese Day, or any other day you wish...buy someone a card and write in it something that you want them to know....something that years from now you will have no regrets from things left unsaid.

Liberal Hollywood

One morning I happened to catch Rosie O'Donnell, bloviating (it's her only speech mode) on "The View". She was babbling on about how we are "torturing" people at Guantanamo (we aren't of course but why should facts get in the way of her agenda) and how the Patriot Act is violating the "civil rights" of so many Americans. She had no examples, of course, but again – why confuse her audience with facts!?I pondered the mindset of today's liberals throughout the week. My conclusion is that basically liberals are big, highly dangerous babies who do not want to accept the fact that bad things do happen. They truly believe that if they just stick their heads under their little baby bird wings and hum a few choruses of "Kumbaya", the bad stuff will go away. And of course, the very notion of risking their lives for ANYTHING is absolutely anathema to them.This attitude is particularly galling emanating from such as Rosie O'Donnell. This is a very VOCAL lesbian woman who considers herself married to another woman. I think it is safe to assume that her persona and lifestyle would be offensive beyond words to your average jihadist lunatic. In other words, whether she wants to believe it or not, should there be a victory for America's enemies in the war on terror, she will have a big fat target on her back! But again, why interject reality into her fantasy worldview – or the fantasy worldview of most liberals.Actually, most of those who spend a great deal of time agitating against the President and his efforts to protect America have lifestyles that would make them targets. Sarandon/Robbins – living together without benefit of marriage. Barbra Streisand – Jewish. Nancy Pelosi – a woman in a position of power. Sean Penn – he'd open his big fat yap and have it shut for him permanently. Jihadist scum won't give a damn about his Oscar.This completely self-absorbed group of people – liberals all – are a danger to our nation. For every intelligent, reasonable, ADULT person such as Joe Lieberman, there are 99 idiotic, prattling public liberals (in entertainment, the news media and public life) who just don't seem to understand that a loss for America will be the loss of their comfortable lives as they know them – even, in fact, for their very existence. There are days when I truly think we are doomed. But this nation and our way of life IS worth fighting for. And fortunately, I know that there are many Americans who are willing to do just that.