It-Depends Dance Day

As we usher in the 233rd year of America, recent polling from Pew and Gallop indicates that a small majority of its citizens are genuinely worried about its continued existence, and about theirs. They think the federal government is spending far too much money, money it doesn't have. Many of them voted for change, but not this kind.

I've become convinced that our citizenry has never been more politically partisan; not in my lifetime, anyway. I don't know if the media's partisanship is a cause of it or merely a symptom of it. But our precious free press is a willing hostage to this mess and in the process We the People lose the means by which we are given by our forefathers to keep our government in check and accountable.

For many of us, we are hard pressed to be positive and excited about our national future. We've lost our Hope amidst all of this Change that has set us adrift. To what end all the fuss?

The typical American wants to know he (she) is free to pursue reasonable goals and futures; he'll pay reasonable taxes if they are being spent wisely; and he expects reasonable costs of living which can be overcome with hard work and economy. And he expects society to kick in and chip in for those who aren't as fortunate, but not by changing the entire house decorating scheme.

Americans still operate by and large on a need-to-know basis and with a if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it attitude. Problems annoy him, especially needless ones. So much of the Obama constructs require many months to years of inflated prices for necessities, shortages, unforeseen retooling downtime, and results that don't quite pan out as intended or hoped for. Will Americans endure these without a grumble, or will they revolt and demand another revolution, another civil war?

Right now it's vox nix (six of one and half a dozen of the other), but it won't be long until we begin to know in our guts if these new paradigms take off and create that Brave New World, or sputter and crash to Earth. And, regardless of the outcome, will the hope have been worth all of the change?

Mother May I?

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. May is steamrolling through my life at about the same speed as the rest of this year - superfast. Mother's Day is this Sunday and then before I blink good it'll be Memorial Day.

It's also heated up even more down here on the Third Coast since my last entry. Slowly, surely, noticeably. One good thing that has come from it is that I have renewed my efforts to lose some more weight. About dang time, huh?

I should say, if I just make sure every day that I eat and drink everything I am supposed to, it's pretty much a weight loss program. Some days it's a real struggle just to drink the metamucil, the green tea (cuz I gotta have my coffee, too!), the water, the V8... eat the salad, the cheese, the fruit, and the Lean Cuisines or dinner-in-a-bag entree... and not the fast food.

I've been hanging in there, though, and been good for a few days now. Hopefully this will continue.

I want to make clear that I am not at all motivated to do this in order to wear a bathing suit. Lord, no, I can wear my bathing suit in my own pool in my own backyard just fine the way I am. I'm motivated to do this now because warmer weather makes me less hungry overall, and I sweat more. If you had my body, you would know that my fat folds get positively psychotic about sweat.

Ok, ok, I get that way. One summer a few years back, I ignored my fat folds and developed a bad skin infection. Not fun. I believe that's when I discovered Gold Bond medicated skin lotion and I use it religiously to this day, year round. If you are reading this and not in menopause yet, just suffice it to say that after menopause your skin crawls, itches, burns...for no reason at all. It's like your nerve endings are freaking out. Gold Bond helps immensely.

So, anyway, I'm thinking that the more weight I can lose, the better my fat folds will get. A girlfriend of mine scoffs at the idea, though. She has fat folds too, and she says that fat folds are better than skin folds, meaning when you lose the fat in your folds, you are left with skin folds and they droop more.

Great, just great. Deep down I refuse to believe that my skin has lost all of its elasticity, that if I lose the fat in my folds I won't also lose the folds. Say it ain't so, Joe.

I will say one thing, I'm losing those folds one way or another, even if I have to go under the knife. I'm thinking a full frontal slice-off would do just the trick, and take the boobs off, too.

Such is the madness that May brings.... ;-)

Is it really THAT good?

To be QUEEN, that is.

I know what was a little TOO good:



~all of the Valentine's sweets Hubs and I separately bought for each other (and ourselves).

Next year, only one of us is buying the candy. Maybe we'll have less of it that way.

I also know what's REAL good:



~the lovely card Missy sent, and the store bought cards Hubs and I picked out for each other. He prefers a store bought card. I've learned not to be insulted or hurt. It's some deeply ingrained childhood some such, and I get a break from having to make a card. Win-Win. :-)

The BESTest thing is:



My favorite shirt lately. So cherished that I'm actually beginning to worry about separation anxiety when it's threadbare, and the dang shirt's only a few months old. It's just the epitome of comfort, and it knows it, too, right?



Forget being Queen (although I love my newest coffee cup collectible, my Valentine to myself)...I just wanna be comfortable, especially after grazing on all that chocolate for days and days!

Life at Casa Miguel this week has been hectic as the turtle flies. In other words, hectic for my usual speed. The new mattress set I ordered was delivered Monday, requiring a furniture rearranging endeavor of massive proportions. Right on cue, my back went out, but I pushed on and Monday night we were taking turns trying out our first memory foam mattress, like two kids at a slumber party. I would recommend a Simmons Caresse. It's firm, yet forgiving. Very conforming and ... wait for it ... comfortable. ;-)

The weather's been, as we say down here, stanky damp. So damp that even in the garage, kitchen matches will not light and little puddle patches of humidity form on the concrete and make it look like it rained. And it's been doing some of that, too. As always in damp weather, my arthritii is flaring up. One good thing that has happened has been 3 recent unplanned sleeps of 13 hours each (during the week of Friday the 13th, no less), that has finally succeeded in helping me kick the vast majority of that awful cold crud I had. All that remains is my usual allergy mini-hacking. Back to normal in that dept.

Today is a dreary looking one, with rumbling thunder and strange sounds being carried on the wind. A cool front is coming from the north.

In the Bragging Corner, I can't forget to mention that Missy landed an internship with Cornerstone Media Group! And, she's only a junior. She doesn't graduate until May 2010, a year and 3 months from now. I just saw a news piece about how up north at the expensive schools, companies are charging kids up to $9K for an 8-week internship. That is obscene.

I'm so glad she's at little Podunk U, shining like a bright star, and surrounded by rules that are for the most part, like old school, like in my day. Every time I think of that $9K, it pizzes me off. My Gosh, people, go get some bailout money, quit trying to make a buck off these kids.

Anyway, Missy had to add it as a class and it only cost me $800 more dollars, which now that I know about the $9K, makes me thankful to pay $800 and to the college, not to a company, sheesh.That means she is taking a really full load, working 3 afternoons a week at Cornerstone and then working 3-4 nights at the restaurant. I do not even fathom how she does it, because she is also active in the student ad society, Ad Fed. She is happy, though, and so I try not to fret too much. I probably tell her too many times to get enough sleep and food. {blush} Like it does any good....

the day after the day before! it's here!

hehe...



this was after our christmas eve "just-us" family celebration last night. notice the time on the clock on the wall. hilarious, huh? both of them, out cold. missy slept 12 hours, straight thru. dang, i think she's been partying just a tad too heartily. (her excuse? she got her grades for this fall semester and all a's and one b, dean's list again, so we can't really blame her for celebrating a bit.)

here is my present from missy: a really soft chenille/velour robe, something she knew i would like but don't ever buy for myself.



and hubs surprised the crap out of me by giving me some fur-lined crocs:



i haven't had them off my feet since i opened the package, lol.

our lunch with the relatives turned out to be very nice. i was treated wonderfully and i even got something close to an apology for being manipulated! i'll gladly take it! plus, none of the family members i had issues with behaved in the ways i don't like. everyone played nice. i did begin my visit kind of aloof, but once i saw it was going to be a good visit, i chimed right in the convos. the only disapointment of the day was that my parents didn't really want their present i'd sent (a digital phone system that was too technical for them, but my dad is going to think about keeping it for a few days).

since i always love to look at snow photos, here is another one of our december 10th snowfall. this one is what the pasture behind our house looked like. it was just the most gorgeous thing...



i am hoping everyone i know out in cyberland had a wonderful day in at least some small way.

it's really the night before!

i promised to share some photos from our snowfall on dec. 10th. here are 5 that really show it. it even lasted overnight and part of the next day, too.

see the snow drift forming against our pumpkin-colored fence?

hubs looking out from the storm door

one side of the front yard

and the other side of the front yard

the back yard deck - check out the back fence (it's leaning cuz it got damaged during ike)...

tomorrow will be christmas day. amazing. where does all that time go, exactly? i could have sworn thanksgiving was just a few days ago.

as far as exchanging gifts with the relatives, we are having an austere christmas this year like most other people i know. just a few good things, and no excess fluff. hubs and i gave both our parents the same one thing, and every child is getting one gift card. this means it was a very manageable buying chore for me. i went to kroger one low-traffic afternoon and got all of the gift cards at once, and then i ordered everything else online.

i don't do well in the holiday shopping crowds at all. it's stressful and exhausting, but i don't rebound well and i usually get pain flares for all my trouble. i do miss the feel and atmosphere of it occasionally, but i really fell out of love with it around the same time i quit trying to get missy the "in" "hot" toy (the last one i moved mountains to get her was a life-size barbie...quite a long time ago, maybe 15 years ago).

as for gift-giving between hubs, missy and me, hubs and i usually don't buy stuff for each other unless we know the other one really wants it. and then half the time, we just buy it for ourselves. we probably wouldn't even buy anything during the holidays except to get a sales price.

it's been hard not to buy everything in sight this year because of the great prices. we've been good. but i confess it's because we both are betting that those sales prices are going to last and last. maybe even get better. just a hunch. anyway, hubs really wanted the sham-wow rags this year. he also wanted a new recliner and got that earlier this month. he had been wanting a sleep number bed, but then decided he did not. so i got him the sham-wows and a wall calendar.

because missy's been in college, she knows not to expect lots of little things like when she was younger. we have been giving her one big thing and some money for a while now. this year the one big thing was some expensive adobe software for her new imac (that she bought for herself). it's called in design and she uses it all the time for her advertising classes.

as for moi, hubs asked what i wanted and i said that i want him to take me to ikea in west houston next week while he is off. and i want to buy an expedit bookcase...not for my scrap room, but for books in the family room. and he's putting it together for me. that's my present.

when hubs picked up the other recliner this morning, he talked to the store owner about an adjustable bed for me (the kind where you can elevate the head and the knees and feet...like a hospital bed). so that looks promising. i may eventually get a full night's sleep in one place yet! lol

tomorrow's the big day - a very merry merry and happy happy, ya'll

the day before the day before...

a random photo of Reggie getting his occasional treat -- salisbury steak!:

he is such a sucker for anything with gravy, lol.

and, sometimes he does eat the carrots if i butter them.

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here is one of our new recliners:

i got down on the floor for the first shot, trying to make the photo more interesting. can i just say...not worth the pain that caused!
and, another "normal" shot, more close-up:


i could only fit one of them into my honda crv, so hubs is picking the other one up in the morning...because he is off work, yay! well, yay for now. he doesn't go back until jan. 5th and i will be climbing the walls having him under foot by next week, trust me. but anyway, back to the recliners. this is a champaigne gold color, i think that's what they called it. i arrived there this afternoon at 5:15 by the car clock, and i was back onto the highway at 5:27. yep, that's gotta be a record for choosing a piece of furniture AND getting it loaded into your car, huh? that's why i shop there, cuz if i can't choose and be done with it, i end up not being able to make a decision at all.

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and, a shot of our bare white christmas tree...nothing but lights this year:

basically, i first decided to go "bare" because with hubs working so much and me dependent upon him getting the decorations down from the attic, i didn't even ask him to do it. of course, this meant that i had to improvise a skirt (a leopard print throw) and live without a tree topper, so i decided to treat the tree as just another light source in the room. it has added an understated and unexpectedly elegant touch. we're enjoying it.

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ok, so i had a few rough moments today giving in to my real feelings about being with the relatives on christmas day. trepidation, mostly. i will be trying to hide some not-so-nice feelings, so i figured i needed some kind of gameplan with at least a few specifics. maybe reading an advice column could help, so I googled and got this:http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-12-23/how-to-uh-talk-to-people/2/
it was mainly advice on how to chit chat effectively at holiday parties, but would have been great help. except that when i read the comments to the article, i found myself agreeing to them more. and then i realized that i really don't much care about convincing anyone of my sincerity...i'm really looking for a way to sort of diss a few folks, but in a way that leaves them confused until 3 hours later after i'm long gone and they realize it.

hehe. no small order. guess i'm out of luck of making that happen, since the most i can come up with is to act disinterested yet pleasant. like, if one of them talks to me, act like i'm hard of hearing, make them repeat it, answer really ambiguously, that kind of thing. yeah, leave them wondering.

meh. i am not good at faking stuff. i would much rather address the issue head on and let the facts stand in my defense, maybe even resolve something, but manipulators don't play that game, so i would have to force the issue and create a scene in order to have that opportunity. and i am trying not to do that, as that just plays into the manipulator's hands, so Thursday should be interesting.
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finally uploaded my photos from the snowfall we had a couple weeks ago, and i will try to show those tomorrow. every time i look at them, it puts me in a wonderment mood.