help!!!!!

yesterday i did a practice pack for our trip to instanbul. it did not go well.
i did my research. read 906 articles on how to pack lightly and efficiently for a trip abroad. it's a fairly even split on whether to roll your clothes or to fold them. i roll. then there is the stupid advice about underwear! almost every article told you to bring your oldest skeesiest panties and throw out each pair as you wear them.
underwear takes up almost zero room and the maids will not thank you for this. if i were the maid and someone left me a pair of dirty old panties everyday i would figure out some sort of subtle retaliation like oh i don't know, a carefully placed scorpion at the bottom of your bed or i would plant enough hashish in your luggage to get you in a mess of trouble. then call the local police. turkish prisons are not fun. remember midnight express?
they go on to say that it is perfectly acceptable to wear the same clothes for several days. NO IT'S NOT!!
or you can bring packets of laundry soap and wash your clothes in the bathtub every night. excuse me! i'm on vacation! hmmmmmmmm drink wine at a local cafe and savour the sights and sounds of an exotic land? or hand wash  my clothes in a bathtub?
i have pared down as much as possible. i'm bringing my e-reader so i do not need to take a mess of books with me. i am bringing only 2 pairs of shoes and will be wearing one pair on the plane. what's this you say only two pairs of shoes! there is a method to this madness. i am going with my brother and he will make me Walk hundreds of miles daily, at a very fast pace i might add. so i am wearing my ugly walking shoes and have packed one pair of open toed sandals with just a kitten heel for evenings. no stilettos! remember, my brother will make me walk. so take away the shoe and book factor and i am left just with clothes. because turkey is largely muslim, i have to cover up. no tank tops or shorts unless i want the locals to throw rocks at my head, so long skirts, long sleeved shirts  and pants are the order of the day. way more material so they take up way more room. you see my dilemma.




                                                             this was my fantasy suitcase!

                      i truly believed i could master the physics of packing. i failed miserably!

.                                                                    this is my reality!
i need to find a happy medium. any and all suggestions that do not included gifting the maid with my old dirty underwear would be greatly appreciated!

a girl can dream

   welcome to my fantasy home, take your shoes off and come in!

                               
   this would be my front entrance. cobbled and overgrown with vegetation.

             
   my living room. look at the carving on the bookshelves! and is fuchsia not the perfect colour?

                       
   my solarium. wouldn't this be a lovely place to read the afternoon away?

                       
   my breakfast nook. i don't eat breakfast but if i had this nook i just might.

                                             
  my bedroom! it fulfills all tactile and visual needs.

                                     
  with this kitchen people would actually think that i can cook!

never mind the impracticality of plants in your bath tub. i think i would just stand at the door and sigh everytime i went by it.

i would have to move somewhere where it is warm year round so that i could eat al fresco all the time.

                                                   
  wine underneath the moon and stars!

                                                                         
 my library!

                                             
   the guest room for when you come to visit!

                             
  and because the other bathroom is just for sighing, this one will do nicely.

 and of course, a treehouse for the grandchildren and anyone else who wants to play.

a girl can dream!                                                                                                                                                                                                  

istanbul here we come!

pinch me!!!!!!!! we are going to istanbul!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i am so excited i can barely stand it.7 weeks from today we shall be jetting off to the land of sultans and
the most amazing history imaginable.
whilst we are there we will also be visiting the cities of bursa and ephesus and perhaps troy. though rumour has it that troy is a disappointment. i am torn between going and being disappointed and not going and being disappointed because i was so close to seeing it and didn't. will have to ponder that one for a while.
this has been in the works for several months now and i have driven my brother and husband quite mad with my questions and my hurry up and do this and that. are we going? are we not going? do i book my end? do i wait? why is it taking so long? what's up with the turks, why can't they make a decision? etc. etc. etc. i can be a pain but my steamroller tendencies kicked into overdrive with this one.
i have been told that i simply cannot bring my usual 5 or 6 pieces of luggage. i must show restraint and if possible pack everything into a carry-on! this is going to be a challenge! when we went to the island a couple of weeks ago i decided to give it a dry run and see if indeed it was possible for me to travel with less than my entire wardrobe. i din't fail miserably but then we were at the ocean so i didn't need to bring a variety of outfits either. we were gone for 6 days and i managed but just barely. now i have to pack an extra 4 days worth of stuff into the same suitcase, plus i will need at least one dinner dress and some sort of a jacket as well. will carry the jacket on the plane and have decided that i will leave my computer at home and and bring my e-book instead of several paperbacks so that will help. but................ there is always the shoe problem.
and my camera equipment. am trying to decide if i need all my lenses or if i can get away with just one or two. but the photo opportunities! what if i don't have the right lens? worry worry, stress stress!no wonder i'm the pharamaceutical queen!

and just to make it just a little more perfect, we have to change planes in amsterdam so we are going to spend a day and a night there on the way home. the art museums the canals, again the history!
altogether, a whirlwind tour!

there will be no rest for the wicked and that's fine by me.

when the ocean calls my name.....................

.................... i answer.
we are off to the island tomorrow. a friend of a friend has kindly rented us their beach house. it sits approximately 20 yards from the shore. we shall go to sleep to the rhythm of the waves and wake to the crashing of the surf.
i have always been drawn to the ocean or any body of water for that matter. perhaps i was a mermaid in a past life or maybe it's just the majesty and omnipotence of it all that keeps me going back time and time again.
just taking the husband with me this time. no kids, no grandkids, no animals, just us. time to unwind, reflect, look for seashells and maybe catch sight of a whale or two. we will drink wine by the fire at night and explore the seaside by day.i will have (as always) my sketch book, camera and several novels. he will have his fishing rod. we will be zen.
at least in my fantasies this is how it plays out, reality will probably be a bit different. he is a restless soul and must be doing something, anything, so he will haul me off to the town and marinas and find goat trails to wander and i will be okay with that as long as at least part of each day i am able to gaze upon the sea and just be.
where is your zen place?

whoa moby!!!

so this is my first catch of the season. technically he was a keeper but with the mucking around with the camera, he managed to wiggle off the hook.
just as well, he really wasn't that big and i have a problem with the catch and release program. it's there for a good reason, so that the lakes are not fished out and the babies have a "sporting" chance to make it through the season,but still..................when you think about it it's kinda creepy, like a child molester luring young children. we dangle shiny bright objects and food in front of them, lure them into our trap and then hook em'.  

if they're not big enough we've pierced their lips, deprived them of oxygen and scared the be-jesus out of them, only to throw them back so it can happen again and again. (fish have about a 2 minute memory retention span).maybe i should hang a sign off my hook stating-only BIG fish need apply.

as you can tell by my ever-so-fashionable attire it was freezing up there in the mountains. side note to david suzuki- it is now july and it's still freezing in the mountains, perhaps your global warming scam does not apply to elevations higher than sea level.

you can call me nature girl!

so now that summer is finally here, the husband has begun his weekend jaunts up into the mountains and he usually drags me with him. he has a penchant for gut wrenching goat trail roads where one slip of the wheel and we will be careening down the mountainside to certain death. i white knuckle it up most of the time and refuse to look. thankfully, yesterdays little adventure had quite civilized roads. we even got behind a water truck that was spraying the roads to keep the dust down. (does this make sense? most years we are on water restrictions and can't water our lawns very much but they can water a road?) i'm confused!

we went up to myra canyon provincial park to hike the trestles. okay, hike is the wrong verb (adjective?) we strolled to the trestles. i even had on semi appropriate shoes for once, but i forgot to bring water. we went to the first trestle which is about a kilometer away and i was done. that's my exercise for this week. there was a little kiosk explaining about what kind of wildlife we might observe. cougars, coyotes and of course the very dangerous gophers and marmots. we didn't see any of these exciting creatures.

                                                     crikey!!! we saw a cow!!!
the views were incredible and the devastation from the fires of "03" were still very evident. the burnt out trees looked like a ghost forest. eerily sad and beautiful at the same time.

                                   

                                  standing on the trestle we had the most amazing views

usually my nature girl tales are much more eventful. but summer has just begun. maybe next time we will see
something a little wilder than a cow! tho' i do have to admit that cows do freak me out. they just stand there and stare at you. very creepy. don't you think?

ramblings...

went to the ball game last night. not the major leagues just the hometown team of college boys. but..... here's the ringer. not one of them is from here. in fact, almost the entire lineup was made up of american boys. not that there is anything wrong with american boys, just thought it might be nice to have some local representation. wow! that almost sounded patriotic! must be getting soft in my old age.

of course when your at a ball game you MUST eat at least one hot dog. (lots of ketchup and onions please) the sign said they were ALL beef hot dogs. and we all know what that means. it may be all beef but it's certainly not the sirloin parts. we're talking cow bums and other assorted parts all mashed up into an intestinal casing and presented to you on a steamy white bread bun. just read that last sentence, if that doesn't turn you into a vegetarian then nothing will. but if you close your eyes and silence your good sense then they go down quite nicely. however, as i was eating it i knew there would be a price to pay later as i have a rather delicate digestive system. yep. was in pain all night. so now that i have broken my dietary restriction rules, i'm good for the summer on this one. it's kinda like not touching a burning coal, you know it's going to hurt, but....... you just have to touch it anyways.
my garden is on steroids! everything is of gigantic proportions this year. even the weeds are humongous! haven't had quite enough sun for the flowers to bloom just yet, but they are getting ready and if the pods are any indication, they are going to be larger than normal as well. when i sit down in my garden, i feel positively lilliputian. which is not easy to achieve as i am rather on the tall side myself. entirely a different perspective. imagine how alice felt?

oh yes! looking at this picture reminded me that i have this huge rose bush that i DID NOT plant!. it just appeared. the husband did not plant it and to my knowledge, rose bushes do not self seed. so i don't think some bird dropped it off. a mystery! hmmmmmmmmm. it is of the particularly thorny breed. it may have to go if it doesn't quit reaching out and stabbing me.
we have our first dragon boat festival of the season this weekend. this will be the daughters first in which she is actually participating instead if just cheering me on. should be lots of fun. and i like that we can share this activity together. bonding and all that stuff.
just finished re-watching the lord of the rings trilogy for the 900th time. amazing how it never gets old and each time i watch it i find something new. does that mean i have the retention span of a two year old or that the complexity of the movies demands that they be watched several times in order to be fully appreciated. i'm voting for the latter but suspect that the first may be a contributing factor as well. oh look! shiny things!!

you can take houston........

i love this chair! i covet this chair! if anyone should have this chair it should be me. however it was not for sale nor would it fit in my suitcase. sigh!

so we are back from texas. and yes, everything IS bigger in texas. especially the food portions. oh my god! if i lived there i would be the size of a house! i was not able to finish anything that i ordered. and everything is artery clogging, fried and battered. i was tempted to try the twinkies but common sense prevailed.
i wasn't overly impressed with the city of houston. i like cities but it just didn't have a city vibe to it. although the art gallery was impressive.
loved galvaston!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! would like to go back and spend more time there. the architecture was historic and beautiful. full of tacky tourist shops, restaurants and interesting boutiques.
we were walking along the shore and i noticed something odd on the pier. it looked to me to be an abandoned wheel chair. as we got closer i noticed that a man was lying beside it. i thought the worst and headed over. when we got there i realized that he was just drunk and sleeping it off. sad. got to wondering if he was a war vet. he looked to be of an age for the vietnam war.

                                                   how sad is this?

                                                  and how glorious is this!

yee hah!

heading to texas! asked the daughter what she wanted me to bring her back. she asked for a cowboy
with nice abs and arms. think this guy will do?
never been to texas except for a stopover in the dallas airport. i don't think that counts. i have high expectations.
so many stereotypes to be on the lookout for. women with bigger than life hair, cowboys of course, 10,000 oil wells and of course armadillos!

wouldn't you just love to cuddle up with one of these little guys? so cute! however! there was a news report
not long ago that said that scientists have found armadillos to be carrying a certain strain of LEPROSY!!!!!!!!
so......... i don't think there will be any cuddling going on.
i have been advised that at this time of year houston is rather on the hot and humid side.
googled the weather and sure enough i'm going to look like a texan in no time. with this kind of heat and humidity my hair will puff out to gigantic proportions!

gonna being wearing alot of hats and scarves!
see ya when i get back.

and so.....................

people are always asking me what i do with myself since i've retired. hmmmmmmmmmmm!
wish i could say that i've started volunteering at the local soup kitchen or that i've joined the gym and
work out on a regular basis etc. sorry my life has not changed all that much. the exception being, is that i no longer go to the office. instead, i concentrate on what makes me happy. selfish? yea! do i care? no! (i'm selfish remember).
i have been spending alot of time in my garden. this makes me happy. a garden is like a painting or a sculpture. mixing your colours and your shapes and textures to create something that is pleasing to the eye. i long for a secret garden. (do you remember the book?) a place where you can go and be alone where no-one knows where you are, where flowers and shrubs and trees are allowed to run wild. i am working on such a garden but it will take me years to pull it off.    this makes me happy.
it's dragon boating season again so i'm on the water a couple of times a week and i love it! my team mates are  a great group of women and several have become good friends. this year, the daughter has joined up! she is at the moment dividing herself between the teen team and sparing for my team. paddling together is just one more thing that we can share.    this makes me happy.
i have more time to spend with my grandchildren. they are at an age that they grow so fast and every week there is a change so i am lucky to be able to see this happen right before my eyes. they make me laugh. i see my son become an amazing father.    this makes me happy.
i am able to spend more time with son #3. he is becoming a most interesting man.  this makes me happy.
i am traveling more. next week we are going to houston to visit my twin brother and his wife. we will celebrate our birthday together. a rare occurrence now as we have not lived in the same city or even the same part of the country for at least 25 or 30 years.   this makes me happy.
in august, the husband and i have rented a beach house on the island. a week of serenity waits for us there. the ocean has always called my name and i answer whenever i can.   this makes me happy.
some friends and i are going to the other side of the island in september. a girls weekend. to the place where i believe god lives. we will wander in the rainforests and walk the beaches, eat too much, drink too much and laugh alot. (you can't laugh too much)     this makes me happy.
i "do" lunch with my girlfriends.spending an hour catching each other up on our lives,spilling secrets and sharing bits and pieces of our lives. girlfriend time is important. i sit on front porches and drink coffee or wine depending on the time of day.   this makes me happy.
and so........... i am enjoying a selfish productive retirement and this makes me happy.

if a cow can ride a bicycle.........

so a few days ago, i announced on fb that i got a shiny new bicycle. some of you found this quite amusing.
the husband has decided that i need more exercise. we all know i hate exercise. (dragon boating does not count as you get to sit down while you are doing it.) so okay, i can ride a bike. fooled him!  you get to sit. this works.
so we decide to try out my new bike. on my old bike, i had these great saddle bags (no! not the ones attached to my thighs) i wanted him to attach them to my new bike. why do you need this? he asks. to carry my stuff! my camera, food in case i get hungry, my cigs and my water bottle. first of all he says, we're not going to be gone that long you don't need all that and your water bottle goes in the holder on the cross bar. ummm hello? that's for my coffee cup.
off we go. by the first block i think my head is going to explode cause either my helmet shrunk or my head grew a size or two. so we have to stop so i can adjust it, asked him if i had helmet head yet, he just gave me "the look". fine, helmet fits now, second block my thighs are starting to burn. change gears he says, okay which one is the non thigh burning gear? decide to jay walk(bike) across the street and this car comes out of nowhere burning down the road. dodged that one! by block three, i'm starting to get a bit wobbly. not sure if it was me, the bike or perhaps the couple of glasses of wine i'd had for fortification before we left. time to go home. i suppose we will be doing this again and perhaps i will make it 4 blocks next time!
on a side note- my cousin lorna, puts in several hundred kms every week. she is my new hero!

dreadfull?

i am seriously considering getting dreads.this has been a long time coming,this is not one of my random whims. last fall, the daughter and i were in downtown vancouver shopping. we stopped into a shoe store (surprise!) cause as usual, i had on totally inappropriate footwear and my feet were killing me. in the shoe store was this granny, somewhere in her middle 70's. she had long beautiful grey dreads and to make it even more perfect, she was buying multi-coloured high tops. instantly my hero!
so we got to talking. told the daughter that this may be the solution to my naturally messy hair. except for a few short hours after i leave the hairdresser i always look like i just got out of bed, and not the "just had the best sex of my life" look but rather the "don't you ever comb your hair?" look. it curls and it corkscrews and it frizzes with no thought process as to doing so in a pleasingly symmetrical way. if i had dreads, people would assume that i meant for my hair to look like this.

                                              Johnny Depp has dreads! have i ever mentioned that
                                        we share a birthday? yet another reason for dreads.

two things are stopping me at this point. #1. i would have to stop dying my hair cause i'm pretty sure it's impossible to dye dreads. not sure if i want to let my inner grey out just yet. #2. the husband. he's a tad on the conservative side. he's not on board with this just yet. but everyone knows that i eventually get him to come around to my way of thinking. i have a plan........................

                                                        i will tell him that i will look like this!

so the pros are.. i will not look like i just got out of bed. there's a good chance i will cause a riot at the country club. johnny depp and i will have yet another thing in common.
the cons are... i will have to let my hair go grey. if i don't like it or get bored of it i will have to shave my head.(which is really not a con cause i've been bald before and have a very nice shaped head AND i never had a bad hair day). so the cons are.. i will have to let my hair go grey.
hmmmmm................whaddaya think?

dear mr. policeman

dear mr.policeman;
i would like to take this opportunity to thank you for going out of your way to show me the errors of mine.
thank you for noticing that i had my blinker on and was trying to get out of the HOV lane, which i had no business being in because i drive a gas guzzling SUV all by myself. thank you for noticing that no-one would let me in and that the carpool in front of me was going about 30 km BELOW the speed limit. thank you for following me into the mall and turning on your shiny red light so i would notice you. thank you for understanding that applying lip balm to my cracked lips is not the same as re-applying lipstick while driving.
i just wanted to point out to you that while you were lecturing me, somewhere in the city, a drug deal was going down, some guy was beating up his wife and an old lady was being mugged. i feel bad that i kept you from going after the bad guys because you had to take the time to educate me on gas emissions and the importance of following the rules of the road.
oh! and thank you for not giving me the 2 tickets i so richly deserved.
i am duly chastised.

stand up and be counted

so yesterday i open the mail to find out that i have been selected to participate in the census. crap! i hate all things governmental that smak of big brother. the last time i was selected i had to answer about 400 things pertaining to my private life. i can't quite remember, but i'm pretty sure they asked how many times a week my husband i had sex. so i was ranting and raving and swearing that i wasn't going to do this. the husband calmy pointed out that it was against the law not to do it and i could get arrested. i then remembered that orange is not my colour, so fine, i'll answer their stupid questions.
okay they changed it. they no longer want to know about my sex life. yea! in fact they really don't want to know anything other than
1. how many people live with me
2. our ages
3. what language(s) we speak
4. what our first language was
and that was it! what was the point of this waste of money?
oh! there was one more question. would i consent to having my answers made available to my descendants in 92 years from now. just to be cantankerous i said no. i'm pretty sure my descendants can figure out for themselves that i spoke english.
senseless census!

and justice and freedom for all?

so bin laden is dead.
something is just not sitting right with me. i am not disputing the fact that he was an evil man and deserved to die. what i am disputing is the way that he died.
or did he die? a quick burial at sea? no pictures of the body? when they hung sadam they were pretty quick in publishing the pictures of him and his sons.
there is no substantive evidence that bin laden was responsible for 9/11. he never took credit for it and there is a theory that is was an inside job with out side help. bush liked his wars and was not above starting them (need i mention iraq?)
dancing in the streets! or dancing on a grave? vengeance is not justice.
they "may" have killed bin laden but they have not killed the ideology.
that he was responsible for the deaths of thousands again i do not dispute it but where is the justice in taking him out in a stealth attack? if they knew where he was, why didn't they at least try to take him alive and put him on trial? even sadam had his kangaroo court.
this little charade should guarantee that obama gets re-elected for sure. nothing makes the americans happier than a good old fashioned lynching.
just saying.

where have all the freaks gone?

i was driving through spokane last week and i saw a sign announcing that the carnival was back in town.
remember the carnival? cotton candy, riding the rides til you puked? the not-so-scarey house of horrors? or how about the greasy carni guys that your mother warned you stay away from?

carnival - carne vale - latin meaning farewell to the flesh. (don't you just love latin?)
they used to put on such a good show. now it's just everyday stuff.
300 pound woman - see that at walmart all the time
the tattooed man - everyone has tattoos these days
siamese twins - now we call them conjoined and there are documentaries about them on tv
the bearded lady- hello! cross dressers!!!
my point (if i have one) is that what used to be abnormal or freakish is now run-of-the-mill ordinary and mundane. there was a time when the aforementioned were oohed and ahhed over, where you had to pay money to see them and children's eyes were sometimes covered.
our tolerance levels have increased, which is a good thing, but still, wouldn't you like to be shocked or amazed, pay your penny and ooh and ahh? there are no more freaks, just people being people.
we need a good old fashioned carnival. maybe in a year or two when all the radiation that has leaked into the pacific ocean causes all the marine life to mutate, we will be able to display the 6 eyed fish and the double headed squids. then we will get our own chance to ooh and ahh .
until then, i'm still on the look-out for the invisible man.

sorry david, i'm not a fruit fly

according to david suzuki, we are all just fruit flies. excuse me?
fruit flies live for approximately 24 hours. they hatch, have sex, lay 10 billion eggs, eat your fruit and die. i fail to understand that analogy. okay i get it, but really, it is pushing it a bit to the extreme don't you think?
he takes extremism just a little bit too far. global warming?! hah! i don't think so. obviously he hasn't stepped outside lately. it's cold and wet and temperatures are well below normal for this year. doesn't seem like anything we need to be worrying about except for the fact that the lake isn't going to warm up anytime soon. okay so the arctic and antarctic oceans are warming up a tad and the ice floes are melting. this might be a problem for the penguins but i'm still in a coat and it's mid april!
took the carbon footprint test. you know the one. the one that measures how many earths we would need to sustain us if everyone lived like i do. i failed miserably. according to the test, it would take 10 1/2 earths to sustain us all if you all lived in my world.
1. drive an suv - fail
2. fly in an airplane lots - fail
3. do not grow my own organic fruits and veggies - fail
4. leave my computer plugged in - fail
5. have not installed solar panels on my house - fail
6. i use a blow dryer and aresol hairspray - fail
the list goes on, but you get the picture.
so what's a poor fruit fly to do?
i think i'll leave a few lights on so the burglars think i'm at home, pack up my blow dryer and fly south til global warming comes to my end of the world and i can put away my winter clothes.

my invitation must be lost in the mail

i confess-i am a closet monarchist.
communism, socialism, democracy, totalitarianism, none of them quite cut it like a good old fashioned royal rule. absolute power for one. every whim attended to, every wish granted, every need anticipated. really, what more could one ask for?
i try to live my life as queenly as possible.
1. my parade wave is impeccable.
2. i am the wearer of fabulous hats.
3. i own a lap dog.
4. i believe that your purse and shoes must match.
5. i have no aversion to living in a castle.
6. i like tea and crumpets
7. i prefer to be driven
8. i have brought my daughter up like a princess.
9. i'm always up for a good photo-op.
10. it wouldn't bother me not to wear the same dress twice.
11. i really really like large ostentatious pieces of jewelry.
12. i have a perfectly round head so my crown would never slide sideways.

and well i have never said "off with his head"! i have, on occasion, ordered other bodily parts to be either removed or at the very least, have harm done to them.

pardon my cynicism

i tried, i really tried.
at first i refused to read this book despite raves from friends and book reviewers. i assumed it was a book where every other sentence was "praise the lord" not that i have anything against the lord, just the phrase. then on a night of tv desperation i watched the movie.
so.........it's not what i thought! hmmmmmmmmm maybe i will read the book.
for probably the second time in my personal history, i liked the movie wayyyyyyyyy better than the book. the author should thank julia roberts for saving everyone from the drivel.
at first i thought, wow what a brave woman to take off to places unknown and live, really live the cultural lifestyle and do it alone! kudos elizabeth!
things fell into place about 1/3rd of the way through. i had my "ahah" moment.
this was not a personal journey! this was a book assignment! she had been given a rather large advance BEFORE she ever left the ground. when a person writes for themselves they rarely think of an audience they just write, but when there is an audience involved, phrases are coloured, feelings are altered to fit the scene, thoughts are abridged. in other words, this whole book is just one big editing job. it's not a memoir of the true sense, it's a sham. shame on you elizabeth!
on the other hand, maybe, because she knew there would be an audience, it added a quality to her writing that perhaps would not have been there had she just been scribbling in her personal journal. listen to this sentence.  "they in no way match this stinky, slow,sinking,mysterious, silent, weird city. venice seems like a wonderful city in which to die a slow and alcoholic death, or to lose a loved one, or to lose the murder weapon with which the loved one was lost in the first place."  cmonnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is not the stuff of personal diaries, that is the stuff of "i've got to earn my big fat advance for this pretend journal.
okay! i feel better now. got that off my chest.  rant is over, heart rate down to normal.

when we were young and beautiful

buried deep in a corner of my ex mother-in-laws basement lay a box of photos. they had been
sitting there for over 20 years. i knew they were there and from time to time i thought about having
her ship them out to me, but something always came up and i'd forget to do it. then i figured that they
had been thrown out after the divorce and i gave them up for lost. imagine my surprise when just yesterday
the ex himself handed them over to me. he had been back east visiting his mother, found them and gave them back to me!
these photos were largely of my early 20's, before we started dating.
a part of my wild and crazy youth. i look at them now and can't believe how young i was and yes, i was beautiful. we all were. we had the glow of youth, our faces weren't careworn with responsibility, our bodies weren't dragged down by gravity and babies. the only thing we had to worry about was what to wear to the next party. it was an exciting time of concerts and parties and talking long into the night, solving the worlds problems over a bottle of cheap chianti.
i look at some of the pictures and just laugh, the memory is still so sharp, not like it was yesterday, but certainly not like it was 30 years ago either.
would i go back if i could?
depends on what day you ask me :)

it's always a good day to feed the ducks

my 5 year old grand daughter and 3 year old grandson came to stay for a few days.
they reminded me of things i had forgotten.
  it's always a good day to feed the ducks.
  the world looks better when you are hanging upside down.
  the crust from your toast is yucky!
  bathtime is more fun with bubbles.
  fairies are real and rocks are beautiful.
  just use your magic wand.
  never walk when you can dance.
  never talk when you can sing.
 always eat your dessert first, cause you might be too full if you eat your dinner.
 jump in every puddle you see

and the most important thing.........
put on your cutest face, and grandma never says no.

a manifesto for everyone

found this browsing through the web. (yes i need a life).
this pretty much says it all. i'm going to adopt this as my own manifesto.