All Is Well

Wow. It's Christmas Eve.


I'm spending Christmas alone, but I am not lonely.
I'm actually enjoying the peace.
Not that my girls are high maintenance or troublesome.
I'm just truly enjoying having no deadlines, or obligations.
It's just plain peaceful.

I went on-line today to take a look at my grades from the
Fall Quarter at school.
I received all A's. I am thrilled.
I am looking forward to new classes in January, but
am thankful for this little hiatus.

I had surgery on the 21st which means I am now taking it easy,
sleeping a lot, laying on the couch watching Christmas specials
and seasons one, two and three of Ace of Cakes, putting together
a jigsaw puzzle, and contemplating baking some of my infamous
Sugar Cookies... the best recipe on the planet.

My girls are in England visiting their father and having
great adventures. I'm hoping they post lots of pictures for me to see.
I also want to hear about their visits to some of our favorite
haunts, like The Poacher Pub in Cambridgeshire.

I've just put water in the kettle for some Yorkshire Tea
which I will partake of in my Winter-themed Polish Pottery.
I will settle back into the quilt on my couch
and appreciate the fact that
All Is Well.

Christmas Break

Halleluiah it's Christmas Break!

         













Semesters are over
Finals have been graded
Grades will soon be posted
but best of all
We're on Christmas Break!

All the girls in our little family have been holding onto A's
throughout this quarter/semester.  I may be the one in the family
to bring down our average.  I think I did damage to myself on my
Engineering final.  Rats.

But, the girls are busy preparing for their trip to England.
Great plans have been made:

Eating at the Poacher Pub in Elsworth, Cambridgeshire,

Beef and Ale Pie from the Brampton Pie Company,

a trip to London to see an exhibit at the British Museum,

attending The Phantom of the Opera in the West Side before it closes,

stocking up on favorite Brisitsh candies,

all whilst wearing winter coats that rarely see the daylight

down here in mild Georgia.

Mulled wine, cozy hats and mittens,

Christmas lights in Cambridge,

It'll be a Christmas to remember!

Are You Ready For Some Christmas Cheer?

I'm done my Christmas shopping.

Presents are wrapped and under the tree.

 Our tree is so beautiful,
it could win a contest.

The mantle is dressed in gold and red.

We're drinking Eggnog and Sparkling Grape Juice

(not together)

I've got a wreath on my front door.

The nativity scene is on display.

(Thanks Beth for your hours of labor in making that.)

Christmas music is loaded on my ipod.

For the first time in many years, I'm excited about Christmas.

I've hung the exterior lights.

Are YOU ready for some Christmas cheer?

Joyful People

This year ranked in the top three Thanksgivings over the last twenty years. It was a small party of four, but I enjoyed it immensely. My daughter KC had her boyfriend join us which brought the number up to four. We all spent hours in the kitchen preparing favorite recipes, Zexi was in charge of ambience. We chose to move our kitchen table into the living room rather than eat in the dreary dining room. The living room was festive with the Christmas tree in addition to the Christmas music which played throughout the day. We drank sparkling grape juice and had two pies for dessert. It was lovely.

I mentioned that this year ranked in the top three. Well, last year, my sister and her husband rented a exquisite three story log cabin in north Georgia, complete with cathedral ceiling, stone fireplace, wrap- around porch with hot tub, the works. We brought our food and prepared it in the gorgeous kitchen while everyone played games in front of the roaring fire. There were eight of us together for the holiday and it was wonderful.

The other favorite Thanksgiving was back several years when we were living in England. We invited two other families to join us, one American, one British. The families that joined us are two of my favorite families on earth, so it was a joyful time. The food was fabulous and the bonus was that we a had musically gifted crowd.

So looking back on the three favorites,

the common thread, not suprisingly was,
 being surrounded by joyful people.

Today was . . .

Today was a crappy day.

I just thought I'd throw that out there.

I've been diligently working on my studies for the college classes I'm taking, and I got some disappointing grades back today. I'm taking an Engineering Graphics class which I love, but after working on a drawing today for over three hours, a lot of mistakes were discovered.

I hate that.

I'd really like to be very good at this

 because it's something I enjoy,

in addition to the fact that success

in this class impacts my GPA.

It gets kind of scary.

What if I invest all this time in this degree

 and discover I don't have the natural aptitude to succeed in it?

I have to bring home the bacon eventually,

I can't remain a student forever

(although I can see why people chose to do so).

I guess I'd really like to be great at something.

Engineering. . . Music. . . Writing. . . Singing. . . Hockey. . . whatever.

But I'm not and today was a big reminder of that.

Today was a crappy day.

Eeyore and The Clown Van

Back when I was still married to *Eeyore, and living in England, I slide off a country road with my eleven year-old, white Dodge Grand Caravan and totaled it. It was quite an adventure. The van rolled upside down, and looked quite similar to a potato when all was said and done. Despite insisting that it would still run and continue to serve our family, Eeyore had to finally relinquish the vehicle to the salvage yard.

 I figured we would now purchase a newer replacement vehicle since Eyore made good money and was collecting a retirement check from the military.

I was wrong.

What was I thinking?

 Eeyore was excited at the prospect of buying an odd blue-colored Dodge van for $500.00 from a guy at work. The transmission needed to be replaced, but Eyore was thrilled with the price tag. He brought me by the van to have a look and I told him flat out I hated it. The color was awful, it was rusty, short with no grocery space, didn't have captain's chairs or dual heat/air. I absolutely did not want anything to do with this van. Eeyore was disappointed I didn't share his enthusiasm for this bargain and we left with his spirit a bit deflated.

My girls and I flew back to the States for a five week vacation. 

Guess what Eeyore did.

You guessed.  He bought that &;*%$#@* van.

It was waiting for me when I returned from my vacation.

Now I was the one who was deflated.

You see Eeyore is a very frugal man. Did I say "frugal?"  I meant to say VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY frugal man. I therefore knew that whatever vehicle I was going to drive after my white Dodge Grand Caravan, I would be driving it for another ten years or so. This was NOT the vehicle I wanted to be driving for the next ten years.

But, I didn't get a vote on this or anything else, really.

The girls and I referred to our new mode of transportation as "The Clown Van." We spent a lot of time in The Clown Van to go grocery shopping, music lessons, horseback riding lessons, karate lessons, visiting friends, going to church, that sort of thing. Not long after the acquisition of The Clown Van, we received the sad news that the man who sold us The Clown Van died of a heart attack.

The next day, The Clown Van started behaving very strange. The interior lights starting turning themselves on and off and the powered locks would click themselves into lock/unlock position.

Is there such a thing as a haunted van? 

Did Stephen King have similar experiences? 

We'll never know now. 

I got out of the country without The Clown Van. 

Whew!

*Note:  name of ex to remain anonymous.

More car stories

Since we're on the subject of cars I have several car stories.
 As I mentioned, I just bought this 2008 Sentra in July. I love this car and am so happy to be driving something with a padded seat, cruise control, power windows and door locks and that really great feature of the lock/unlock do-hickey thing that allows you to lock/unlock the car without using a key.   I love that.

Well, I moved into a rental home recently, and although I am so thankful for this house and the reduced rate I pay, there are a few frustrating things about the place. One would happen to be the garage door opener. Yes , I am thankful to even have a garage and an electric garage door opener after living in England for six years where they don't even make their garages wide enough for cars, let alone power the door with an electronic opener. But, I digress. As I was saying, my garage door opener . . . sometimes it doesn't open all the way. Sometimes it starts to open and then decides to close. Sometimes it stops closing part way down.

Monday morning I was heading off to school, hit the garage door opener, and got in my car. I start backing out of the garage when I hear a terrible crunching sound from my car. Horrified, I immediately slam on my brakes. I check to see if I just ripped off the side mirror of my car since I have to park very close to side of the garage so we can fit two cars in the garage. Hmmmm, the mirror is still there. I get out of my car and realize that the garage door went up, but not entirely, and so the antennae, which sits on the top of my rear window, has caught the garage door and popped off. ( big sad face ) Oh, my "new" car!

Last weekend, my daughter had her boyfriend come for a visit. His Mustang was parked in the "T" portion of the driveway that you use to back out of your garage, you know, so you can pull out to the street in Drive rather than Reverse.

Well, I totally forgot he was parked there and swung my car out of the garage right into him. Once again, the whole horrified reaction set in, and got out of my car to see what damage I have done. Thankfully, his car didn't have a scratch. My bumper however, must have flexed in to receive the impact and although it popped back to its original shape, the paint crinkled. Is that the right terminology? (big sad face ) Oh, my new car!

Today I had to rent a U-Haul trailer to pick up
 an upright freezer from Sears.

 The entire pick-up/drop off circumference is about 2 miles.

I borrowed my daughter's car.

End of story.

Really, I'm O.K.

The last new car I purchased was back in 1989. It was a Ford Tempo. It was also the last time I had any input as to what vehicle I might drive, until this past July when I purchased a 2008 Nissan Sentra. It wasn't really "new," but the price was right, so who cares? Anyway, we've had a lot of rain these past couple months and I was growing very irritated with my windshield wipers because "on" was too fast and the intermittent setting was still too fast. So, I usually ended up driving with the wipers in the "off" position and tapping them on as I needed them.

So, I'm alone in my car, returning books to the library
when I had an epiphany!

It occurred to me
 that my intermittent wipers have adjustable settings!

Cool.

thanks for sharing, Darryl

I can't believe it's been an entire week since I've made an entry.

 Just goes to show you just how quiet my life can be at times. 

But fortunately, I got a great email from my sister today and

decided to share.   

Throw on the soundtrack to the Deliverance movie and start reading.

Did you know that if the heat inside of you car gets too hot
 it will cause the air bags to deploy?

And I'm not sure if it's the heat or the air bags
 that then causes the windshield to explode.

Do I know this from experience... no,
but Darryl does.

Did you know that if you are 1/2 way between
 Florence, SC and Kingsburg, SC

you are officially in the middle of
N O W H E R E ?!

And when flames are shooting out
 from under the dashboard,
 it is a good idea
 to get out of the car and call 911 . . .
and THEN the tow truck.

Somewhere along the line, call your spouse.

On the way home from nowhere,

do not ask for any lessons learned

 unless you really want to hear them.

I was doing really well just listening,
then I opened my big mouth~ but... he asked.
Does that count?

And I'm not sure if it's okay to laugh after
 he starts telling me his tramatic experience,

but I couldn't help it.

You'd laugh too if you heard the way Darryl told the story. . .

He was standing outside the car

 trying to shine the light from his cell phone

 towards what looked like a street sign.

He hears two loud explosions.

He thought he was being shot at.
(it was actually the airbags deploying)

Okay, that's when I started laughing.

Then... he said if he started hearing banjo music,

his fat, white self was gonna start running

 and die from a heart attack

 before any thing/anyone else

could get ahold of him.

Is this not a priceless story?

ah...yeah, I'm getting old

I've got this new chapter going on in my life; the one where I attend college. So, this will probably provide the occasional bit of blog fodder. Today was the perfect example.


Let me just preface this with the fact that although I am one of the oldest people in my class, I have a great rapport with the young students. I pretty much chit chat with them all and they treat me like one of the gang.


So, I'm in my Engineering Graphics class today, and after diligently working on homework for an hour, the instructor gave us a break.


The guy sitting next to me is a handsome black guy who wears sports clothing and dreads. During the break he went on-line on his computer and went to the IRS site. I asked him if he owed the IRS or something and we had a friendly banter about the IRS and getting things repossessed.


I returned to my studies and soon he exclaims, "There! Now I can sell some beats."


“Beets?” I ask. “The vegetable?” I’m looking at him with a quizzical face wondering how it could be possible that this non-farmer guy is going to be selling beets. I mean, there's no overalls or camoflagued hat or dirty fingernails, but. . . the sports clothes, the white sneakers, the dreadlocks etc.


“No!" “Beats!” he says holding up his ipod.


“Oh! Tunes!” I said, totally snorting while laughing on that one.


The other kids students laughed at WITH me.


so... ah...yeah, I'm getting old.

remember when

Remember when I told you about my initiation into on-line dating?  I had a problem rejecting matches.  Funny how I can be such an empathetic person to virtual relationships.

Here's the update:

I have now rejected 79 matches.  Yes, I just had to get realistic about the possibility of some of these matches ever happening.  Some matches were outside my geographical range, some had passions which I do not share, others had such a sparse bio that it was ridiculous to think they put any effort into the questions at all.

So, now I've been doing this for a whole, two weeks.  I must say that I am very disappointed by the fact that only 16 men have even looked at my introductory information.  A few of them have closed the match due to no chemistry.  I'm guessing they think I'm ugly, or perhaps they desire blonds with bouffant hairdos.  It's hard to say. 

There has been no enthusiastic conversation.  Haven't even got past the Must Have's/Can't Stand statements. 

I think I may need a life coach.

I'm taking applications at brainlikeasieve dot gmail dot com.

let them wait

I had an appointment to have my carpets professionally cleaned. Show time was for 10:00 - 10:30 a.m.  At 10:50 I got a call from the guy saying he was in a distant town and it'd be another half hour to an hour before he got to my house. 

I turned around and called the business office to say my time was valuable, and that I should receive a discount for the two hours they left me waiting. The 18 year old guy on the phone with no professional manner whatsoever, said that it wasn't possible to give a discount.  My guess is that they rely on repeat business?  Yeah, right.

The "professional" carpet cleaner showed up at 11:55 a.m..

Ass.

He dragged his sorry butt around setting things up (oh wow, laying down a piece of vacuum hose), when I told him I wanted him to run the water outside until it got hot enough to produce steam cause I didn't want my carpets soaked.

That's when this carpet-cleaner with an attitude told me he didn't need to do that because the truck instantaneously produces steam. I'm guessing he was making these calculatons based on the Masters in Science he received from Liquor Store Parking Lot University.  I told him I'd done this a time or two and I wanted the water run outside first.  PERIOD.

He stomped out of the house (actually displayed some energy) and called his office to whine to the boss in the hopes of proving me wrong.  It actually would have taken less time to just let the water run.  The boss must have told him to suck it up cause he went to the truck to get the water running.

At this point, I kinda wanted him to just drive away because I didn't trust him in my house now that his phone call to the boss didn't work out.  I envisioned him deliberately soaking my carpets.

So, the company sent a man to my house two hours late, didn't offer an apology or a discount to make up for disrespecting my time, then had me deal with a beligerant worker,
SO, when I paid;
I post dated my check by one week. 

Let them wait.

the little things in life

Hooray! There's an end to CRAPPY MONDAY-DAY !
I've had such a BLAH day. Too much paperwork and phonecalls and errands and borish challenges. But all that will end tonight at 9:30 p.m. EST because the boys are back! Hooray!

oh, there goes my hip. . .

O.K., so I've got a bone to pick with the on-line dating site.




Well, maybe several bones to pick, but for today, just one bone.



Today, I choose the hip bone. . .n e v e r m i n d.



So, as you know, I wanted to dip my toe into the on-line dating scene but ended up being tossed in the deep end while still wearing all my clothes, my shoes, my watch, and my cell phone was in my pocket . . .



But was that it?



Did they make it up to me with warm fuzzys? (fuzzies?)



NO!



They had to add insult to injury with their pop-up advertisement for . . .



A POWER CHAIR . . . seriously ?

I feel so much better about the whole on-line dating issue now.

*subtly: difficult to understand or perceive

So, I let my family members know that I've started this blog.

Since my parents, three siblings, and the 15 nieces and nephews live in New Hampshire, Vermont, Missouri, South Carolina,(and Georgia), we use the Internet for frequent discussions/banter/news.

I received the following email from an undisclosed relative today:

No offense, but I don't find anyone's blog interesting. I read through a few paragraphs, to be polite. I don't want to know every thought that goes through a person's mind. That's journaling and it used to be done as an introspective exercise to gain a deeper insight into one's self. Privately. Without editing or fear of having it resurface years later at a most inopportune moment. Blogs are just deadly boring to me.

I'm starting to get the feeling that this relative of mine just does not like blogs.

What is your impression?

It's hard to discern because of all the *subtly.

I've stared at it over and over searching for the true meaning and trying to read between the lines and figure out just where he/she stands on this issue because I'm feeling like this may be an important issue for him/her.

That's the thing about FAMILY. . .

They love ya so much that they guard their tongues at the risk of being misunderstood.

God Bless Family! Everyone!

the elephant in the room

aw geez. . . I've been lamenting about this all day. Do I mention it in my blog? Do I really want my friends and family to find out? BUT, how can I blog properly if I can't talk about the elephant in the room? This is tough. O.K. So, friends and family, you can tune out and be spared. . . go on.

Still here? Well, the fact is. . . I've dipped my proverbial toe into the on-line dating waters.

So, being a logophile (verbivore, verbiphage), I hemmed and hawed, and tweaked and edited my profile for two days. I was quite unaware that one can not really just dip one's toes into this particular website, oh no! Once questions are answered and choices are clicked, YOU ARE OUT THERE for all the world to see. You don't even have to pay for a membership. You are matched. I immediately had 14 matches, and when I signed into my email account this morning, I had messages from said website that I had two photo nudges and 8 more matches.

Three matches closed me out because I did not post a picture.
Geez. . . isn't there somewhere I could click a box for "Dipping one's toe in the water. I'll look for a photo once I decide what the hell I'm gonna do. The battery in my digital camera is dead and I don't know in what box the photo albums are located."
Obviously, some people have too many better options that to wait around for a photo from me.

Was I that uninteresting? Was my profile just too rough around the edges? Was it because when listing attributes my friends would use to describe me, I chose: overbearing, opinionated, lazy, selfish and fat?

Just kidding...I didn't put lazy!

I don't think I'm ready for this on-line dating thing. I think I would like to be a bystander and watch other people's account first. This is making me a bit crazy. I hate the whole rejection with the click of a button. Sure it beats telling someone to their face, but it's rejection nonetheless. Do you think it gets easier? This has been difficult for me and I haven't even opened any lines of communication yet.

Two guys have clicked my account saying they want to open communications, but they just don't seem to be what I'm looking for. Should I close them off now? Should I chat with them a bit even though I'm really not interested in talking with them at all? That sounds like drudgery.

I have rejected nine matches so far. (I'm practicing) Two I rejected because of the creep factor. Two I rejected because they just didn't put themselves out there with any real information. The rest were just not a good match for me. They spent their free time fishing and playing golf or something like that. Nothing wrong with fishing and golf, but they need to find a woman that wants to join them while they fish and golf and it's not me.

I found the AC adapter for my digital camera after figuring out that the USB cable to the computer doesn't charge a digital camera like an ipod. Gosh, when was the last time I charged this thing that I don't even remember an AC plug? Anyway, I took about 700 pictures of me in about four different outfits and posted three pictures. Yes, I'm so incredibly photogenic that it takes 700 pictures to find three remotely not gross ones.

I'm going to have to take Tylenol PM tonight so I can stop thinking about rejection.

No one ever said on-line dating was so painful!

now I have some explaining to do

A not-so-little side note here:

My daughters have LOTS of opinions about my blog. Zexi wanted me to change the background to black...said it looked better. Then, she said she thought my username BonnieGirl (cause I'm a girl and ride a Bonneville T100) was also LAME and to change it to Sweet But Deadly.

The history of Sweet But Deadly goes back to the Gulf War and a very talented artist named Warren Trask. I was serving in the USAF during the Gulf War and was deployed to the U.A.E. We spent a LOT of time there with nothing to do for many months before the war kicked off. I think I was wandering aimlessly through tent city one day when a couple guys hollered at me from their homemade second story patio (in tent city, mind you)and invited me up for a Ritz cracker or something equally impressive...it's been too many years to remember.

Anyway, Warren and I both had daughters back home and chatted about them and shared photos, that kind of thing. We must have both worked night shift (7pm to 7am) and ended up hanging out throughout the war.

Warren was given permission to paint nose art on the F-16s. He did an incredible job and his work is still displayed in the Smithsonion Museum in Washington D.C. One day he shared an idea he had about a new piece he wanted to paint:

The head of a woman with the body of a scorpion crawling out of what looked like a hole blown in the side of an aircraft. He hemmed and hawed about needing a "model" for the work. I told him I would be flattered if he used me for the art on one condition. I wanted a wedding ring to be prominent in the art, and to make sure it doesn't make my nose look big. (Okay, that's two conditions, but I digress)
Here's the result




This was a contributing factor in me purchasing a motorcycle helmet with the graphics of a scorpion.

I treasure this nose art. I think it's a very cool piece of history. When I was about 21 years old I made a list of things I wanted to do before I died; things that would make my life more interesting not just for me, but as an old, shriveled up great-grandma sharing stories with family. Being painted on the side of an F-16 during a war wasn't on it, but I think it'll make a great story for future generations just the same.