Holidays... one down, one to go

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and so has a very stressful but wonderful week. We got back in town on Saturday and were both either sick or jet-lagged on Sunday… do you get jet-lagged going west to east? Mama was very glad to see us, as she always is, and has been quite the sweetie this past week, which has been hectic.

Monday, my best buds Marcia, Yvonne, Sandie and I went to the matinee premiere of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, which was wonderful. Yvonne had to leave after the flick, but Marcia, Sandie and I shared a late lunch of appetizers and onion soup at Applebee’s. Marcia then peeled off and Sandie and I ran a few errands and had a great time together, like we always do. Monday night the kids came over and we had a nice visit with two of our four granddaughters- Kendall and Haley were with their mama - so Delaney and Emily had to be twice as amusing, and were. Terrific day.

Tuesday I spent the day cleaning house and preparing for the GFWC Centennial Woman’s Club meeting, which was held at my house, and was our craft meeting. Low attendance- too close to Thanksgiving – but great fun and the craft, a Thanksgiving cornucopia, was a goodie.

Wednesday, Stephanie and I had a big mess to clean up so we got the house in shape, and then I started the cooking. Kelly came in and found the iPod her dad got her in exchange for access to her 600+ CDs. She took off with her long-time best friend Kenny Warwick.

Thursday was table setting, dinner cooking, kitchen slavey hell for me, and iPod heaven for Dave and Kel. They were both in headsets most of the day, so being with them was like being alone. Silent head-banging, two different tempos, a feast for the eyes. Taffy arrived at 4, Jake shortly thereafter, but Becca and the girls got held up in traffic and were about 20 minutes late, which made me a trifle nervy. But all went well. We feasted on turkey, herb stuffing (bread, onions, celery, walnuts, pecans, and lots of butter), green bean casserole made with Italian beans, corn pudding, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, with pumpkin pie and By Cracky Bars for dessert. The By Cracky Bars were a hit! I made them for my club meeting and the ladies raved about them, and the family seemed to really love them too.

Friday, Dave and I were exhausted but Saturday, we put up the tree, decorated the house, and decorated the porch. Sunday (today) we cleaned all the empty storage boxes out of the house and did some rudimentary house cleaning.

We head to California this weekend, and won’t be back for two weeks, so this week will be a flurry of activity, getting as much Christmas shopping and wrapping as possible done before we leave. After a three-month hiatus, I am back to the life two-week deadlines. Try it sometime. You’ll hate it.

This is normal?

Dave got back from Minneapolis safe, sound but exhausted, leaving eight inches of snow in Minnesota for the Santa Ana eighties here in San Diego.  We are already beginning to prepare for the trip home.  Looks like I may need to ship some stuff home, or buy a suitcase.  Think I will ship it, I hate dealing with luggage.  It’s mostly books and games and little things for the goonies, getting ready for Christmas.

I have been doing a lot of shopping online getting ready for the holiday, but sadly, my shipping timing has been a little off.  Normally, when a merchant says that shipping will take 5-10 business days, it really means 10-15 business days.  And when you order something really big that needs to be delivered as freight, the delivery company contacts you to arrange a time and place for drop-off.  Normally.

Nothing about my life is normal.  

You may remember my waxing poetic about my office here in California.  After much discussion, Dave and I decided to replace our beautiful, ornate, but not terribly functional desk in Tullahoma with one exactly like the one we have here.  I ordered the desk from Pottery Barn- I LOVE Pottery Barn, by the way- and was told to expect it in 5-10 business days.  Cool.  I’d be home before it showed up… normally.  Then I got an email telling me that the desk had shipped and I would get a call about delivery!  I called my housekeeper Stephanie ASAP to inform her so that she could tell them, when they called, to bring it next Monday.

She was so relieved to hear from me.  Seems UPS had just delivered three huge heavy boxes and left them in the driveway… yes, my dears, the desk had already arrived and there had been no call about delivery.  I ordered them on Monday and they arrived on Wednesday of the same week.  Now, that’s service, dammit.  

Steph is always on the ball.  She had already called Jake and he was coming after work to bring the boxes into the house.  Cool.  While she had me on the phone, she told me the latest Mamaism.  Friday Stephanie saw we were out of canned cat food and so bought a box of 24 cans.  When she returned on Monday, they were gone.  Apparently Mama fed all 24 cans to the cats over the week end.  They must have been thrilled; they usually only get one can a day each.  Maybe Mama thought she was supposed to feed them breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Why she would think that, since she has been feeding them one can a day since she moved in with us, no one can possibly fathom.  Patches ate herself sick… all over the house, of course.  Ah, well, at least Mama wasn’t trying to assassinate the big screen TV anymore.  Now she’s just trying to kill my cats.

Back to the boxes.  I asked Stephanie to make sure Mama knew Jake was coming to bring them in.  I didn’t want him to frighten her by showing up unannounced.  Steph said Mama already knew Jake was coming, but when I talked to Mama, I took it upon myself to tell her again.  We had a nice, short talk and just before she gave the phone back to Stephanie, I told her yet again to expect Jake.  I then went about the rest of my day, semi-secure that all would be well.

About 7 PM, I got a call from Jake wanting me to do a web search for him and in the course of our conversation, I asked him if he’d had any trouble with the boxes.  The answer was yes and no.  The boxes weren’t all that heavy, but Mama had locked all the doors and windows and wouldn’t let him into the house.  He banged on the door, rang the door bell, tapped on her bedroom window, all to no avail.  He finally just put all the boxes in the garage.

I just hope Mama doesn’t notice the boxes aren’t in the driveway, decide we’ve been robbed, and call the police.

In the meantime, I will be shipping boxes from here before we leave.  Hope we get home before they do.  

Getting lost and loving it!

It is a common misconception that because I travel with Dave, I actually spend all my time with him. The truth is I travel with Dave so that I can at least spend SOME time with him. He is leaving tomorrow for Minneapolis and will not be back until Wednesday night. I will spend three days and two nights without human contact save by phone or email in a city where I have no friends or family. I don’t really care for that. Especially since it comes hard on the heels of his spending three days in Washington last week.

At least I wasn’t lonely last week, because my dear friend Yvonne dropped by for a visit. She had to fly halfway across the country and then hop a bus to do it, but it was so sweet of her to stop by. No, she didn’t travel all the way from Tennessee just to see me. She was out here visiting her brother and his father, and hopped a Greyhound to spend a day or two with me. She must really love me. I have ridden on Greyhounds. And the buses are even worse.

We had a great time. We spent a day at the zoo, which is one of the most wonderful places in the entire world. Yvonne is a world-class walker, so we saw pretty much the entire zoo in one day. We took a round trip skylift to see the zoo by air, and Yvonne, who doesn’t hesitate to jump onto a roller coaster, was holding on for dear life. She cracks me up. I found out she speaks fluent animal, as she was able to get every animal we encountered to turn and let us see its better side. We had a delicious lunch of lobster quesadillas, and a terrific dinner at the Stuart Anderson Black Angus just down the road from the apartment. I introduced her to mocha frappuccinos, which she loved, and crème brulee, to which she was indifferent. [Philistine :) ]

Yvonne and I always have a great time together, even when we are completely lost, as we were for a good part of her visit. We got lost getting to the zoo… but we got there. We got lost coming home from the zoo… but we got there. We got lost on the way to the bus station… but we got there, and timely, too. I think it was unnecessarily cruel of Yvonne to declare that I could get lost in a desert. The fact that it is true is immaterial. I’m glad she doesn’t know I got lost TWICE on the way home from the bus station after dropping her off. Missed a turn-off, back- tracked, got back on the route, missed a second turn –off, back-tracked, got back on route… and landed smack in the middle of the morning rush hour, which didn’t make me nervous at all.

There is something you must know about me. I get lost. A lot. Even in Tullahoma, where I have lived for 25 years. It’s one of my skills. I cannot read a map, I have no sense of direction, and if I deviate from the route laid out for me, I have a devil of a time finding my way back. It used to really stress me. And my children. Jake refused to get in the car without his teddy bear Ted for comfort when he was little. Then he just started refusing to get in the car. Neither of my children seem to have much fear of getting lost, and I don’t as much as I did anymore. I think it’s because of all the years I used to get lost for a living.

It’s not that someone paid me to get lost, though I can think of a couple of people who would like to. I got paid for going places, and since I always got lost, I made my living by getting lost. I worked for the TVA Energy Sourcebook program, conducting seminars for primary school teachers on how to use of the lesson plans in the Sourcebook as part of their science curriculum. This meant I would get a call telling me to be somewhere in my service area at such and such a time on such and such a date with several demonstrations prepared for so and so many teachers. I was a very good at every aspect of this job but getting places. And getting home again. I always factored in an hour “getting lost” time at both ends of the trip, and I always needed it.

So here I am, alone in San Diego, about to spend the next three days going places by myself and completely sure that I will get lost several times. Sure wish Vonnie was going to be here to keep me company. However, I have discovered two very comforting things about driving in San Diego. All roads lead either to the zoo or to Friars Road, and I live at one of those two places. Chances are, I will find it.

Day (spa) tripping

I indulged myself with a trip to the Spa Reflection Day Spa today. When I made the appointment, I said I wanted someone who really knew her stuff. When I got there, I put myself in the hands of Nicole. I told her she was making all the decisions about my hair because I obviously kept repeating the same bad ones. She had two mandates- make it stylish and make it feminine. I think she succeeded on both counts. She took her time, getting to know my hair- it’s thin, fine and frizzy- and then gave me a phase one haircut on the way to the style she thinks will suit me best. In six weeks, we do the phase two cut and possibly perm my crown. After that, we may play with highlights, who knows?

I can’t wait for Kel to get back out here, I think she will love the place, too.
The Spa Reflection is wonderful, very user friendly, and a full-service spa. Want a massage? A bikini wax? A facial? The full range of hair services? How about a manicure? I had my acrylic nails “filled” today by Kim, a lovely Vietnamese woman with excellent English skills and superlative manicure skills. Like Nicole, she took her time. What an artist! My nails have never looked so good… or so red! She gave them a gel coat, and they look like the paint job on a brand new car. Vroom!

I looked so good I took myself out to lunch at Coco’s, where I had crab cakes, cole slaw and iced tea. Yum. Now I am back at the apartment doodling with my blog rather than cleaning house and doing laundry. I don’t want to get mussed. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to two of my dearest friends in the world, Taffy and Marcia.
Taffy has been my friend and advisor since the late 60’s. Dave and I went to high school with her son Lucian and became fast friends with Taffy and her late husband Casey. What a great couple. Taffy is 81, still drives, still works, and has a sister MayBeth who, at 91, still teaches full time at a private high school. Long may they both sail.
I met Marcia in 1983 when I finally went back to college. She was my biology lab instructor. (No, she’s not that much older than me… remember, I was a late bloomer). She and I are both transplanted Michiganians and kindred spirits. She’s one of the smartest, kindest, most feminine people I know with only one glaring flaw… she is a sports nut. Go figure.

News from the home front: Mother has “killed” the receiver so she can’t watch her Westerns until Jake gets over there and finds out what she did to make the audio go away. I was able to walk her caregiver through troubleshooting-long distance- two times since I got here, but the third was the charm. Sigh.

Mocha Frappuccinos, and the joys of travel

The more I travel, the more I find that I am like a fine red wine.

• I am full-bodied… which means that most airplane seats are a bad fit.


• I turn to vinegar if mishandled.


• I need to be aerated to be at my best.


• I do not travel well.

I am slogging through the obligatory two days of unwellness that seems to accompany every trip. I dropped a three-hole punch (heavy) on my foot before we left, and my foot swelled to uncomfortable proportions, which has made walking fun. As expected, the beloved right knee has gone on strike, as it always does after a flight, so I will be limping for the next few days. My right shoulder is in a semi-permanent cramp, making me decidedly lopsided; all I need is a popped eye and a lisp, and I could be Igor. “Tell me, Dr. Frankenstein, do you find me repulsive?”

It’s not all bad, of course. I got out of the apartment yesterday, and got myself a Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino- oh, how I LOVE my Mocha Frappucino, that little slice of Heaven in a cup. Six million calories, thirty thousand grams of fat… what’s not to like? I limit myself to one a week, and give up breakfast and lunch to have it, so you know it’s love. I can hear you all shouting “You moron, you’re a diabetic!!”… to which I say “What’s your point?” A person is entitled to a destructive vice or two. I gave up smoking six years ago, I’m not a drinker, I don’t gamble except with my health… CHEERS! (Excuse me while I wipe the whipped cream off my face.)

It’s been pretty here, lovely breezes, moderate temps and since I am here without my daughter, whom I miss… or Mother… it is very quiet. Well, not TOO quiet. The phone rings a lot. It’s mostly Stephanie, my housekeeper and Mama’s caregiver, asking me how to work the big screen TV for Mama. It really should be a no-brainer, because before I left, I set the TV to the Encore Western channel, Mama’s favorite. I put away the extraneous remotes, and left out the two that control the TV and the receiver. I placed these on a piece of labeled paper, half designated “Silver remote- TV” and the other half designated “Black remote- sound”. Under these designations were the instructions: Push the green button (TV). Push the red button (sound). I demonstrated these instructions twice before I left. I felt pretty good about making it possible for my technologically challenged mother-in-law to watch her favorite shows while I am away. After all, how hard can it be to push two buttons?

Apparently, it is very hard. Yesterday, Mama couldn’t get a signal. Stephanie called and I walked her through troubleshooting. We found the problem. Mama had pushed a button on the TV remote she shouldn’t have, and more than once. Sigh. She was on video one when she needed to be on video three. Twenty minutes on the phone solved that problem. I had Stephanie take her through the instructions once again, and thought all was well.

At 10:30 this morning, Steph called again. Apparently, Mother got frustrated when the TV didn’t come on instantaneously, opened the cabinet door and began turning knobs on all the electronic equipment inside. Mama told Stephanie that David had told her to do that if the TV didn’t work. Since David blanches when even I touch his sanctified system, it seems highly unlikely. All the knob turning made today’s troubleshooting a little more complicated but we got there. Stephanie told Mama just to leave the TV on all the time, which will solve the problem if Mama will do it. What are the odds?

I anticipate yet another call tomorrow. Mother is fully capable of pushing two buttons but where’s the fun in that? She’ll think of something to screw up, I am sure. In the meantime, I am going to do a load of dishes, a load of laundry, vacuum, dust and make the bed, which is what I pay Stephanie to do for me in Tullahoma… Does it seem to you that my life is a little screwy?