So When You’re Near Me, Darling Can’t You Hear Me? S.O.S.
The love you gave me, nothing else can save me, S.O.S.! When you’re gone, how can I, even try, to go on?
Oh the drama. September is over. My favorite month. I’m going to bookend this month with one last post. I think I hit the significant dates though: 2, 10, 30. Hmmm. Maybe I should play the lottery. That would be a nice October. Anyway, I really am bummed that September is over because now that means we have to get ready for the long, brisk, shuffle into winter and start praying for an early spring.
There is football though. And I was contemplating just making this site a homage to football players and their personal bodies, you know, muscles, hair, bootys, etc., and of course their teams and stats and all that, blah blah, along with a feature like, “Arms Of The Week” or something along those lines, where I could feature a player of the week. Body wise, it’s still Clay Matthews for me.
But for pure NFL power, no one beats Peyton Manning.
He is my all time favorite, and he’s practically a super hero this year. I think they fixed him up with bionic parts the year before and he needed last season to reboot, like a RoboCop, except for football, where he is throwing passes like bullets. He is a man on fire. And of course I have missed every single one of his games so far due to a little thing I like to call, work. It’s all work it seems like. Except that’s not really true either. I have done lots of stuff, and this month literally feels like it flew past on fast forward, and I did not type one word about it here. Too busy living I guess.
The truth is, I feel adrift in this bloggy world. And kind of in real life. No direction. I have potential work changes on the horizon, but I really can’t say anything yet. One, because it’s all confidential and nurse-type stuff. And two, I really don’t know anything beyond a couple of interviews and the occasional reference to the job at hand.
At any rate, I will find my way. I always do. And while I’m waiting, today in particular, since I was off, I made my daughters favorite “big-pot” meal: Jambalaya. It’s a mix of many recipes and my own spin, but I try to stay as true as I can to my oldest, and best-good friend Beverly’s, original recipe that she kind of gave me many many years ago. She said it’s not really a write-down kind of thing as it is made in her family the old fashioned way. One person knows how and just makes it. She’s true blood Creole and French from the swamps of Louisiana. And when I made it for her to judge my skills, she tasted it and said, and I quote, “Hmmp. Not bad.”
I will take it. Also, I have been drinking since 2. While cooking. And listening to really really loud music. It helps while you are cutting up the 50 ingredients that this meal requires in order to be, “not bad”. My drink of choice was Redd’s Apple Ale. Here’s a pic with the chicken, because everyone likes the chicken.
This is the apple beer with the really stupid commercials where they throw an apple at someone’s head. Terrible. But soooo tasty. Seriously. I wanted Bloody Mary’s but I forgot to buy the V8 when I was at the store. And we already had the beer. FYI, if you like apple juice, you will like this beer. It tastes like alcoholic apple juice with a bit of beer flavor. I have also tried Angry Orchard apple ale, or, I think it’s called hard cider. That’s even more apple juicy and less beery. I have no picture of that one though. You will have to take my word. Not bad. See how I wrapped that right up? The BF is home now and I am cooking up a little garlic bread to go with the Jambalaya, so I need to get off this.
Oh, one more thing. Thank you loyal readers, followers, or general browsers! Whoever you are. Even though I haven’t posted but 3 little blurbs all month, I still have 10-20 people checking in and hoping for something great every day. I really don’t know how that is possible, but one of these times I hope I can deliver on this optimistic, anonymous vote of confidence. The BF is opening wine so I really really have to go.
New kind we are trying tonight. I picked it because of the 2010 year. I looked it up. It was a good year for wine in general. I will let you know. However, I probably won’t be able to post anything later due to “intake” issues, but there is always tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow. Your only a day away….Cheesy Broadway ending. Later.
Let’s Take It Down A Notch With My Third Pic From The New Phone
Life is not all that serious. But you know, I get caught up in the typing and before you know it, a five paragraph essay on mortality appears. The above picture illustrates the life-shortening things we did on my last weekend off. First we went and saw Fast 6. It’s a good movie. If you like those kind of movies. And we do.
Spoiler Alert! Seriously. I will be typing info of the spoiler variety right now. If you have seen any of these movies, you know they tease you at the end. Well, guess what? There’s gonna be a Fast 7. I won’t say how they do it, but if you are like me, you might say to yourself, “You know who they should get for these movies? Jason Statham.” And you would tell all the people around you, right away, at the beginning of the movie, because it’s a British, military-type bad guy in this one, and be really annoying about it. But then you’d be totally validated at the end and all self-satisfied ’cause you’re so smart. You could totally be a movie producer person. Whatever.
After the movie we went and got my new phone. Yay! Not gonna lie again. It’s awesome! It’s a beautiful phone. Samsung Galaxy S4, in case you missed that bit of info in my last mush post. It’s all Otter Box’d up so I don’t ruin it at work or in life. Plus it’s not very recognizable in it’s case so bitches can’t steal it! Ha. I also have it functioning now the way I like it, except for a ringtone. I am still trying to figure out if I should go back to my previous one (PriceTag–Jessie J or Peace Of Mind–Boston) or pick a new one altogether. Life is sooo hard right?
Then we went to Sam’s Club for alcohol and hot peppers to bring over to the BF’s mom’s house, because she was making dinner, roast beef sammy’s, because the BF’s brother, was in town from Oregon where he lives now. Whew. Got all that? I could have summed that up better, but I have a little time here to spread my typing wings. So obviously we got wine. Apothic Red–the best mixed red, for the best price, hand’s down, in my opinion, of all the brands that I have tried, right now. I posted about it before. The other wine. Ehh. It was OK. I think we got a bad bottle. Smelled and tasted almost like it was spoiled. Compromised. The cork was really dry and it had that sharp vinegar whiff to it. We drank it though. No ill effects noted. And since we were at the big warehouse center for giant, low-cost items, and we needed more Jack, we bought the economy size bottle. I mean, come on, that’s just smart money. And the peppers. Which were tasty and pretty hot actually and pretty much the smallest jar you can buy there. And a pair of jeans for the boy. He can never find Levi’s in his size, because most stores only get, like, 2 pairs of his, per shipment. But there they were, on the giant table of Levi’s, just waiting for him to come along and riffle through the pile. If you have ever been to Sam’s, you know they check your receipt and your items before you walk out of the door. So we were all carrying something; the wines, the giant Jack, the giant pepper jar; and the lady that checked our stuff said, “Ok, you got, what…wine, bottle, peppers, OK, well yeah, it looks like you got everything you need right there, uh huh.” And off we went. Layed everything so nicely in the trunk and snapped the pic with my new toy. Then we went to the dinner (delicious) and drove the kids out to their dad’s for an overnight.
Sunday was kind of lazy but chore driven. Laundry. (Which honestly, got done, completely–folded and put away–but is now back with a vengeance. I HATE laundry so much.) Breakfast. Where I met the 102 year old lady and her younger sister, a sprightly 95. Then more laundry when we got back home. (This was a before and after session of laundry. There was a lot.) Then we had pizza for dinner and waited for the kids to get home. That was their first and last week of summer vacation. Athletic camps are now in session, starting today, and they will be busy for the duration. I believe school starts for them about August 11 or 19. Yet to be determined. I don’t have a schedule yet anyway. So it’s a mystery. Well, it’s not really a mystery. I could spoil the surprise for them by looking on the school website, but I will let them dream of long, lazy, summer days and nights for a few more weeks.
And that’s it for now. Exciting re-cap of a day-in-the-life, huh? Now do you see why I fear getting old? Boring. Laundry. Breakfast. Alcohol. Oh. Alcohol. That must be the key. Drink and you will forget that you are getting older. As I said yesterday, I really do have a doctor appointment to get to. So I need to end this. My hip still hurts, but I think alcohol could probably fix that little problem too. Hmm. I suppose exercise might achieve that same result. Build up some strength to stave off the decaying process. Maybe I’ll try both. Drinking would probably make the exercise easier and more enjoyable, with less pain. Or send me to the ER with a dislocated hip ASAP. Still, with less pain. Did I mention that I have to get weighed, along with the B/P check and whatnot? That’s what is really going to cause me pain. I will follow up. Expect a new series of exercise-healthy-losing-weight-live-forever-type posting to start appearing in this lazy space. Later.
Yuk! Sorry for that ugly picture of strawberry jelly in a bottle. I blame the booze. And speaking of booze…I sense ANOTHER new feature coming!
The booze to blame is that bottle of wine above, and the martini kicker I had earlier that evening.
I think I may have over done it yesterday because I was feeling tipsy overnight and into the morning. Now in my defense, I think I may have an allergy problem, but since I don’t like to go to the doc or take medicine I will never know for sure. I was thinking a summer-transitioning-into-fall cold, but I tried some Benedryl and timed myself for 30 minutes and lo and behold, my eyes stopped running, throat stopped itching, nose cleared up and I wasn’t sneezing anymore. I use Benedryl with extreme caution because it makes me very tired. Possibly more than most people. So I buy children’s Benedryl, in the liquid form, so I can take as little as possible while still getting the good effects without the sleeping thing. And when I woke up this morning to get the kids up and out, I must have sneezed 100 times, so I took the Benedryl again, and waited. It stopped the allergies, but knocked me right back out. I crawled back to bed after the kids left and slept until 11 am. I hate to waste the morning, but I could not get up! Thank goodness I have nowhere to go! And luckily, thanks to the dog that lives behind us, I didn’t have the chance to sleep too long. It’s a Basset Hound that HOWLS, for real, non-stop, every single moment that it is outdoors. It literally stands in one spot in their yard and bark-howls until someone comes out or lets that damn thing back in.
But I’m up now and in fact I need to get dressed here and do some actual life-stuff. The wine picture is because I had this other idea for a NEW FEATURE, called: CHEAP RED WINES!! So what the heck, let’s just launch it right now!
CHEAP RED WINES!!
The above bottle is from Target. Uh huh. When I write: cheap red wines, I actually mean, cheap red wine. The Targets (usually SuperTargets) that have alcohol sections have a pretty good variety. Lots of hard liquors, beers and wines. I will be focusing on only reds because that’s what I like. I’m not really a fan of white or pink wine. And I like to buy variety wines. Things that are mixed together. So I try whatever looks good. My system is very simple. I look at price, usually under 20 dollars (most are around 10 or lower) and what kind of label they have. Lame I know. But a good label might have a good wine. Advertising is everything. I also like to see what wines they threw together. I guess that can be my third rating point. Sometimes you can guess what it will taste like based on what types are in there.
This particular wine is vin Parfait. From California. I don’t know if it’s a reputable wine company or a Target brand. I know that I did have a coupon for it. Yes. A coupon for wine. Wine in a bottle, not even a box. I picked the wine though, BEFORE I knew I had the coupon. (The coupon had come in a mailer weeks ago and I forgot all about it until I went to pay and saw that I had it!)
This wine was $12.99, but with my $3 dollar coupon, it was $9.99. So 10 bucks or so. and it’s a mix of 5 types. Cabernet, Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Merlot.
It was smooth and easy to drink. No sharp flavors or a strong alcohol burn. It wasn’t overly dry or overly fruity or without flavor altogether. Some wines have an overwhelming flavor of one kind. They can taste peppery or spicy. I liked it. The BF did not. I ended up drinking most of it.
As you can tell by my descriptions I am a total professional wine connoisseur. I am not claiming any kind of extra knowledge and I am not going to look up terms and adjectives to describe these wines. In fact I will probably limit the next post to the name, price, content and drunk factor. This particular wine is a buzzy wine, not a drunk wine. I’ve had some where you can feel it after one glass. This is not that wine. But I think it would make a good wine to bring to someone’s house. It’s low ground but not gross tasting. And it’s good with food. We enjoyed it with some gourmet Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper. It’s a classy household over here.
Now don’t you feel like you may have learned something new today? If anything, you’ve learned that I am terrible at describing how wine tastes! That’s gotta be good enough for Friday! I’ll get to work on another wine to review right away! Cheerio!
Holy Heat Attack!
Day 3 and Day 4 of the race to the Warrior can just hold on one minute here. It is HOT. 95 degrees as I type this. It was pretty warm yesterday too. Needless to say, not a lot of outdoor running was accomplished. In fact I would even go so far as to say that NONE was accomplished. I am hoping for a nice walk in the Forest Preserve with the kids today at best. Trees, shade, wind, it’s not ideal, but it’s better than baking like raw chickens on the asphalt running trail. Plus, less chance of heat stroke. My son has already declared he is NOT going outside. He has volunteered himself for a day of sitting in his room playing xbox. My daughter initially said she would go with me, but is trying to get out of it by pretending to make dinner. For the next 6 hours. Except she is also in her room playing xbox. Looks like me and the BF, although he’s not home yet, and since he was outside already he may not want to go back there! It’s always me that wants to do such stupid things. I even said we could get something cool after! Like ice cream or whatever. Oooh! I bet I could get them with Slurpees! For some reason my kids love those nasty things! I am clearly in the minority of Slurpee love. I never really had the taste for them, but I don’t really like soda either so that could be a factor.
Anyway, who cares. I’m sick anyhow and I don’t even know why I want to go outside. Whatever my son started his week-long cold with, I get to finish. He ended up missing school for a week, going to the doctor with double ear and a sinus infection, a bunch of meds and some chest TX. But I have classes next week and no time or interest in going to the doc. I always get it in my head that fresh air will somehow make me feel better. I feel like heat and sweat somehow burn and leak the toxins out of you. I shall put my theory to the test and report back. I am not running though because I’m going for a slow heal not a fast, fainting, ambulance ride.
I also find it interesting that I had been slurping down the wine all week until a few days ago, and when I stopped, THEN I got sick. Coincidence? I don’t know. The heat was making it hard to drink. I bought Malibu and some tasty juices to try and counteract the wine effect but the sickness got me first. Probably should have muscled through and at least drank the juice. It has vitamins and stuff. At any rate, I have the wine bottles to post so you can share in the goodness if you’d like. I’ve been trying different kinds and I’ll give my totally unprofessional opinion on the various varieties.
And fyi—the air conditioning is on. It’s been on since yesterday afternoon. I’m not that crazy. This heat will do.
So, kids have a way of getting right to the heart of the thing
My lovely daughter just told me that she saw the, “younger, skinnier, more beautiful version of me” on the beach in Michigan. She was wearing a black bathing suit and had clear skin and the skinny body with the same kind of black hair that I had, when I used to get my hair colored black. My daughter said she saw this woman, and was so surprised because it looked so much like me, that she just stared at her until the woman started looking back at her like she might be crazy.
So I guess that’s nice. (?).
However…since I was eating at the time of this news flash, and I caught a completely unintentional glimpse into my fattiness, I proceeded to go ahead and finish all the crap in the house that I like (that would be White Castle’s, Kettle Cooked Potato Chips and Oreo’s–luckily there was only a little of each). And now I will finish the bottle of wine I opened 2 days ago. Because tomorrow, in addition to my RUN (National Running Day! Click it or check the next post and get in on the fun!), I have to re-boot my dietary intake. And by re-boot, I mean drink only water and starve myself for 3 weeks or so. I have 18 days to become the younger, skinnier, more beautiful version of myself!
That’s healthy right?
I’m not really going to starve myself. That would actually be impossible. I really like food. And I get really hungry and pretty crabby when I’m trying to be “good”. So I’ll just make better choices in the next 18 days. (I picked 18 because of the Warrior Dash. It’s in 18 days so I’m going to use that). It’s a short, attainable amount of time. And if I want to eat a bunch of crap I can do it after the race!
First side note: I also want to clarify, that even though I suggested that my daughter was calling me fat by using some kind of psychologic, mind-bend to passively indicate beauty is equated with thinness and youth, she DID NOT intentionally mean to make me feel bad. She was just telling a funny story and I added all the rest! She even said, “I guess that lady couldn’t have been more beautiful than you, because she looked just like you.” And that’s a direct quote.
Healthy. Unhealthy. Exercise. Sloth. Water. Alcohol. This site is all over the place. I can’t decide to be good or bad. Everything in moderation and add some activity! That’s probably good enough.
**On a second, side note: I had to have lost a few pounds today just from pure sweat and suffering. That rainstorm never did pan out for us and it’s been sweltering here all day. It’s good and hot in the house now. Everyone looks droopy, like water starved weeds. Still not turning it on though. That’s probably going to be a fight later when the BF gets home. Hopefully once he gets going on the topic, the heat will press down on him, crushing his urge to argue and squashing his ability to fight back. He will collapse in a heap of wilty protestation, and me and the kids can drag him to the bedroom and let him sleep it off. It’s always cooler at about 3 am so I don’t know what everyone is complaining about! All that whining about winter and how cold it is…blah blah blah…well, it’s HOT now!! Enjoy!
Alright I better go. I have to call in a take out order for dinner. So healthy!
I blame the booze
And messed up cosmic bowling. And a million people all driving towards the mall. And a long line at the liquor store. And that first, delicious, vodka martini with garlic stuffed olives (pretty good, not as over powering or breath killing as you might think). And the movie Elf. And the bottle of wine that I bought the other day. And the other bottle of wine that I bought today. And the sore muscles that prevented me from getting up and moving in a timely fashion. And the Wizard of Oz, with commercials, so that I could struggle to my feet and exercise my way to the kitchen for more drinks in between.
But not actually exercise. Or not eat. The moment I said I would just drink and not eat, all I could think about was food. So we ate pretty much all the leftovers in the house. And then some other stuff too. Sorry Mason, we ate the cheese sticks. I’ll buy more this week.
And then it was so late. I could stand and walk enough but I was not doing, like, a workout. And now it’s morning. For the record I slept like crap. And I had a headache all night long. And I was really thirsty. And I had strange, weird dreams about working in a hospital. A giant, multi-level, spread out hospital that doesn’t exist in real life. I had to put eye drops in a long list of patients scattered everywhere, and measure their pupil dilation. But I couldn’t find the rooms. And the patients were listed categorically by disorder and it seemed most were psychiatric. It took me 15 minutes just to get near the hospital rooms. There was a huge, 2 level, narrow, oddly stepped staircase I had to go down (and back up) and my kids were following me and I was wearing my school uniform. AND I was drinking in my dream too! IN the hospital. All the other nurses and doctors were too. I don’t know what that means but it’s probably not good. In the end I could only find one person on the list and he refused.
Thank god I woke up. I’m drinking coffee now without anything in it, although I bought something for that yesterday too. I’m going to wait until later. During football, to start drinking again. And I must try to exercise even though just trying to cough hurts at this point. That’s the problem with irregular exercise. Those muscles hate stretching out after you let them sit for awhile. Then they punish you big time by not letting you move faster than sitting and not lifting more than a fork or a glass. Thank goodness I can type, right Amanda??
I suppose I better get up now and do something. In celebration of school being over I got myself some fake nails. But I am not skilled on managing alot of personal hygiene things yet. Takes practice and some different moves. Like, for instance, it took me half an hour to put in my contact lenses. It’s stupid. I don’t know how the fancy girls do it 24/7. But in a week or so, I’ll have naturalized myself to the whole concept and I’ll be fine. I let my daughter get some too, but her’s are probably all broken and chipped by now. 2 days would be a record. She likes to tap them on everything and pull at them all the time. Anyway…my point was that it takes longer to do less.
And I have a crazy fish to deal with. My son’s Oscar has taken to swimming around the tank in circles. Not like around the outer edges, literally swimming in fast circles like he’s a dog chasing his tail. We can’t figure out what the problem is. One site said water issues, one says nutrition, one said maybe he broke the heater and he’s getting electrocuted continuously. Well, there’s another fish in the tank and he seems fine so I doubt it’s that, but we unplugged the heater anyway. Still spinning. He also likes to attack the surface and throw water out. He just did it again. The other things are not easily fixable so I say just move him out. I think he’s too large for where he’s at and needs to be moved to the big tank. There are a variety of fish in it already and one giant Oscar. He used to be really aggressive, but he seems to be tamer now. I think it might be ok. It’s a pity though, because Mason’s fish is nice and smooth with no scars or damage and he’s probably going to get beat up a little bit if we switch him.
Anyway, these are the problems of a Sunday morning stall. Type long enough and something else will come up to do other than exercise. Like your mom calling you and asking when you planned on coming over. Hi mom! Thanks! Did you read all this? It’s funny huh?? So, since I didn’t make it clear when I called her earlier, and she won’t drive her scroungy butt to me, I guess I better really go get dressed and haul it out there! See? No exercise! Yay fat me!
I am posting a picture of the big Oscar that Mason took as companion to this fine piece of writing, except that its at the top, so you’ve already seen it. And I still have lots of Christmas pics I took from around my house when I was goofing around with the camera. And hopefully, I’ll have really old pics to post from when my dad was alive later too. Pretty exciting stuff. You do want to see those, I promise. In the meantime though, here’s a picture of Mason’s crazy fish:
He’s not as clear as he could be, but you get the idea. He’s about 8 inches long and 5 inches top fin to bottom. In a 36 gallon bow tank and looking mean, but we’ll see.
just shy of pretty 