A Day in the Life of Me and Other Random Sh*t

So yesterday I was shopping, like half the world, for Christmas.  As I trudged my way through the stores, I listened to the Christmas music.  Festive right?  Well actually, I tried to hurry through each store because I was hoping and praying I would get out before one of the stores would play Jingle Bell Rock.  It was moms favorite.  She listened to it all year long.  I just didn't think I could handle hearing it.  Not this soon anyway.  So I went bustling around. When I arrived at Publix, I saw an old man getting out of his car................and BAM it was my dad!  well, not really my dad as he passed almost 21 years ago.  But you know how sometimes things just hit you.  So., this man was not fat, big and round and jolly like dad.  He wasn't bald (or crew cut, as dad called it, you cant have hair tickling your ears) and he didn't even have that signature handlebar moustache.  However, something just told me it was him....

We drove to port richey yesterday, which was about an hours drive.  why?  I woke up in the morning and just simply had to.  The drive at least gave me the opportunity to work on some crochet blankets as hubby drove............and talk.  Its a little easier this way as he is captive.  We had to stop on the way to buy some flowers for the graves.  Yes, port richey is where the cemetery is.  Visiting my dad, my mom and victors mom.  Victor always has to buy purple flowers as it was his moms favorite.  I used to get all different kinds for dad, but since mom only passed recently, I've only left flowers for her once.  We stopped at the store and Victor found his purple.  I looked for a while and decided on Christmas flowers, red poinsettia and gold sparkly poinsettia.  Even shopping for them was quiet and somber.  We drove the rest of the way to cemetery.  Its always been a bit hard for us, even before my mother pass...

So, tomorrow would have been my mother's 91st birthday.   Dec 5!  or as she would always say DECEMBER THE FIFTH.  Anytime someone asked her birthday, she always would reply, December the fifth!  She never "quoted" any other dates that way.  For instance, my birthday was always "March 28th", my husbands, "December 13th".  But when she talked about her birthday she meant business, DECEMBER THE FIFTH. After 50 years of celebrating December the fifth with her, tomorrow will be very somber for me, now that she has passed.  I think a million things at once, all because I have over a million memories.  Tomorrow would have been a day for my sister to bake her a cake or for me to bring her a pumpkin pie.  She would insist that she didn't really need anything, but bring some gifts for the girls (the cnas and the nurses).  I'd decorate her room and we would sing.  I would bring little gift bags for some of the staff.  Last ye...

Halloween is over and we should all be concentrating on and getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving.   Instead, what are we doing as we shop the stores and drive down the street?  We are listening to Christmas tunes, we are seeing poinsettia flowers everywhere and other Christmas décor. It seems to come earlier, or at least its advertised earlier, each and every year.  I remember mom saying, "santy clause comes at the end of the thanksgiving day parade".  He is THEN in town, so you better watch out, you better not cry.  Well, santa is already here!  He hit the malls in early novemeber. Yesterday, while walking around downtown Disney and looking at their Christmas tree and other decorations, walking thru the shops and listening to the Christmas music, and admiring ornaments and other Disney Christmas items, I started to think.   Why do we always do this earlier and earlier each year? The answer came to me.  Its simple.  We have...

.................well really just one cat.   For almost two years or more now, I think almost three, we have a grey cat that visits our house, begs for food and hangs around.  For some really strange reason, prob cause hes grey, he reminds me of my cat Rajah the Great, who we had to put down about 6 years ago.  So what do I do?  I feed him.  I set little pillows and blankets outside for him.  In the winter, my husband puts out his big spotlight for warmth. I have named him Bill.  Bill follows me around.  When I walk Dixie, we are walking along with her leash and Bill is either a ways behind us just trotting along, or sometimes only a few steps behind.  Sometimes he runs up ahead past Dixie, and then waits for us to catch up and  walks behind us again.  And he does this allllll the time.  I hear from some of the neighbors that its sort of a sight to see.  So, I say, I am the pied piper. And Dixie and bill even like ea...

Its always something new and exciting in our house.  As i'm trying to figure out how to get the pen marks (courtesy of colton) off of my couch, he has decided to invent a new game.  I was fresh home from the grocery store and as everyone knows, (who is 3 and under), playing with the groceries is much more fun than any toy.  Sort of like the story of the fun cardboard box.  In any case, he has three 2 litre bottles of 7up that he is standing up side by side, and moving over to another side, again side by side....quite fun. But that's not all!  This game morphs into a somewhat 7up rolling, and has now moved into my hallway.   They roll back.  They roll forth.  He steps over them.  He sits on one.  Now this is real fun!  I see the bubbles inside the bottles fizzing up and we think oh man, we cant open THESE for a while.  Roll, roll, twist, spin.  7up bottle rolling at its finest is going on here. Last step, Colton ha...

Can I come in?  No, he doesn't ask.  So I have a doggie door on our bedroom door so we can close the door at night and the cat ( who feels the need to come in and out and in and out and in and out all night long) can come in and leave all he wants, without bothering us.  Now that my daughter and her fiancé live here with my grandson and the dog, the dog goes in and out the doggie door as well. Sounds like a somewhat normal situation for all. doesn't it?  Well, Colton, my grandson ALSO feels the need to climb thru the doggie door.  Hes like a miniature soldier on maneuvers, squeezing thru, then dropping down, then standing up and taking off.................most usually for the bathroom if I am unlucky enough to have left the door open.  As hes getting older, it is getting to be a tighter and tighter squeeze for him . I am hoping one day I don't have to call out the "hot" firefighters to come and cut him out of the door.  But, it wouldn't surprise me...

Sometimes it just takes a little something to make you smile.  I saw this bag in publix today.  99cents.  had to have it.  Years ago, I bought my mother these as salt and pepper shakers.  I sent them to SC where she was visiting my sister for Thanksgiving.  I knew she LOVED the commercial with these little winking salt and pepper shaker pilgrims on the Thanksgiving day dinner table. When mom returned from my sisters house, I went to visit her and noticed the pilgrims in her china cabinet.  The woman pilgrim was fine.  The man pilgrim was half her size, and I thought, what the heck happened.  She told me the story about how the man arrived broken into several pieces.   My brother in law checked all over SC to try to find another set and could only find a small one.  All in all, it was just funny. I love how the memories flood back to you when you see or feel or smell something.  I'll happily carry the bag around this ...

Women and men, men and women.  Forever different in an amusing, almost laughable kind of way.  So, my daughter is browsing facebook and says "OH, find your body type"   I'm thinking, PROBLEM.   That is ALWAYS a problem.  I remember from way, way back with all the Cosmo quizzes I had to take and MAKE hubby take as well.  An argument in the making. In any case, she reads the facebook status on body type and Hmmmpfhh, it says mine is chubby.  Poor kevin.  He responds, "Let me see".  She hands him her phone.  OH NO, I think, here it comes.  Hmmm, he says, "I like curvy and also fit".   Chrissy's response?  of course you are, you're a pig. And oh how I wish I were still young.  The chase around the house ensued.  The playful fighting.  The "you think I"m fat.  You're a pig, you're a pig.  Poor pig.   "have you ever kissed a pig?"  I hear him ask.  Thankfully it w...

October 5th...the passing of my mother.  It was beyond difficult to handle for me....then the arrangements and the funeral.  The few weeks following that have been the hardest as shock starts turning into reality.  My stress and grief, not to mention, I'm sure, depression, began making me susceptible to everything. First a nice cough and cold.  I stayed in bed three days to prevent bronchitis which I always get and I was lucky to escape it.   Grieving and crying was miserable with a stuffy nose and cough. But with that finally conquered, on comes the stomach bug.  And anyone who has had it knows that at some points you kinda wish the Grimm reaper would show up at your bathroom door and put you out of your misery. I've learned a few things though the past few days.  A dog is a faithful and unconditional friend and will stay with you and protect you til the end.  A cat will come in and snuggle up to you nice and warm.  Then after nine...c...

Once upon a time there was a Mr Mr.  We all knew he was a Mr Mr even before he was born.  We thought about him, we bought things for him, we decorated for him, we loved him even.  Yes we loved him even before he was born. One day we saw him "in the tummy" on the special camera.  We saw an arm, and a leg, a foot and a hand.  We saw a little tuft of hair on the top of his head.  And we waited patiently for him to turn his head so we could see his face.  When he finally he did, he flashed us a quick little smile.  And love grew. The day Mr Mr was born, his grandma thought he was a bit of an angel with a head of beautiful black hair.  It even looked a little curly.  She called it grandma hair.  Hmppfhh, it didn't stay that way.  After a while it grew a bit longer, straighter and stuck up straight like porcupine quills.  Grandma called him porcupine head.  Grandma also called him walnut head cause his head was so small...

It seems like in this day and age everybody is in for what they can get for free simply for being inconvenienced.  So, if that were true, this is how my day went: First stop Walgreens.  I was returning some toothpaste and the girl couldn't get her computer to work right to do the return.  "please go to the other register and they will help you".  Ugh, now i'm inconvenienced.  I wait and wait, and the guy finally comes.  Beep, beep, swipe, scan, furrow brow, take my card, beep, swipe.  Ok, here we go.  Puts $8.49 on a gift card for me.  Now lets see, for my inconvenience, why don't you make that an even $10.  thank you. Off I go to the bank drive thru.  Tubeless banking, you know, its the wave of the future.   So, i'm making a deposit.  I insert my cash.  Two twenties go through and then the little door sticks shut, but not before spitting 3 twenties on to the ground.  I have to pull up, walk back, pick u...

I swear I live in the carnival Fun House.  The cat eats the dog food, the dog eats the cat food, the baby tries to eat ice cubes off of the floor.  There's a lot of noise noise noise noise and alot of clutter.  Sometimes though it's eerily quiet and you wonder what's coming at the next turn. There's alot of light.  Lights in all the rooms. Lit up like Luna Park.  But then around other corners when you least suspect it is darkness and sometimes screams. It's a rollercoaster ride running mostly at top speed.  It usually slows to take the turns but sometimes not and we all fall over.  There are alot of ups and just as many downs.  There is laughter but sometimes there are cries complete with tears. And there are those darn fat mirrors.  I don't remember who installed them but they arrived years ago and we have them in almost every room. It's mostly craziness and fun but the fat mirrors......they've got to go.

Its hard.  Its getting harder.  There are reminders of mom everywhere.  Even though I still haven't fully processed the entire thought that she is gone, I am still reminded of her at almost every turn.  Its tough that its Halloween season.  She loved decorating.  She loved Halloween decorations and as she got older she actually wanted to dress up with me.  She won first prize as a frog one year when she was a resident at Hudson Manor.  She carried on and on and got so mad thinking that I "fixed" the contest.  She said "oh, i'm only a frog for gods sake".   Then the next year we dressed as Halloween beauty queens, and last year we were cats complete with long claws.  I asked her several weeks ago what she wanted to be this year.  She wanted to be her doctor, Dr, Diasti and I could be his assistant Sherissa.  She was just so funny. I walk around the stores and look at all the Halloween decorations.  Its ok....

I lost my mother on Oct 5th.  I've been struggling, grieving and reflecting.  She had been a little over 2 years in long term nursing care, bed ridden.  She was not even able to sit up on the edge of the bed.  The CNA's would turn her and care for her each day, including feeding her.  Mom had many ailments but her dementia was the hardest to deal with.  Although she mostly had what I called a "happy confusion", there were times she would cry, get mad or shout out.  Her happy confusion would make her talk to "invisible people", always laughing with them and telling stories.  Sometimes she would be hosting parties and she would describe to me the beautiful gowns everyone was wearing.  Since she had macular degeneration and couldn't hardly see at all, this was touching to me.  She would tell me about the trips she'd take, mostly with her CNA Yanet (whom we affectionately called janet with a y).  They often rode on a train and she would...

There once was a girl.  A princess even!  A bitchy little princess.  She had fire and spit and was all kinds of crazy.  Mean as the day is long was she.  Her mother knew she was sugar and spice inside, but just a little rough around the edges.  She sometimes made bad decisions, she made wrong choices a time or two, and yes, she had her heart broken and squashed a few a times.   One day she met a man who was going to prove to her that "they are not all the same".  She said to him, "hello, who are you?".  He said, I am your superhero.  I'm going to rescue you, but only when you want rescued.  I'm going to take care of you, when you want and need to be taken care of.  And, i'm never going to leave you.  She thought for a minute and said, "oh really?".   He said, "Yes, and who are YOU?  you with that smile, that hair and ooooh, those eyes, who ARE you"".   She replied, "I am a superhero too, a...

Well, today I went to Walmart, mainly because I needed yarn (don't judge me) and I wanted a Halloween Tshirt that I saw there.  So, off I go to become a circus freak and shop with the other Walmart circus freaks for just a short time.  (no offense to circus freaks of course, well, most of them anyway). Driving around the parking lot was a chore.  Not an empty space anywhere.  Which only means one thing......................the freaks are out in full force today.  I pass a shopping cart corral and of course I see a piggy back set up of carts.  That's right, one cart, sideways inside and on top another cart and then yet another one inside and on top of that.  Of course I shake my head.  I finally find a spot and I walk to the front of the store................where surprisingly, people are walking IN the OUT door and OUT the IN door.  I walk inside the in door, only to have people stare at me like I'm a big nut.  Ok then.   Off...

ok, so I didn't want my first blog post to be a "rant", but as luck would have it, that's just the way it works out.  Will be one of many, I'm sure. So, RIGHTS!  Parental rights.  Yep, the mother has a lot of rights.  Yes, I understand the dad has rights.  Heres where the situation gets heated, sticky, and oh so very true. The person with the most rights is the "littlest one".  That IS correct that a persons a person no matter how small.  Here we have this little child who didn't ask to be conceived and born but he is.  Hes floating around all warm and comfy and minding his own business at being perfectly content, and then BAM hes out in the cold world. So, now that hes born, lets talk about his rights!  He has the right to be kept warm.  He has the right to have food, milk, water and even snacks.  He has the right to have diapers, lotion, cream, powder and needed medication.  He has the rights to vaccinations and health ca...