Nostalgia

I’m having one of those days where I wonder where the time has gone.  Guess you could say that I’m taking a trip down memory lane.

 

First stop on memory lane. . . . getting rid of the old TV.  It was the first big purchase Hubby and I made when I got my first "real" job after I graduated from college.  I had finished half of my associate’s degree program when Hubby and I got married.  I took a year off to save money to finish the second half of the program and get adjusted to being married.  By the time I finished the program, Hubby and I had been married a year.  To celebrate our first year of marriage and me getting my degree, we bought a 25 inch floor model TV.  Oh, yea, and we got cable.  I was 22 years old and I  thought we were hot stuff.

 

Second stop . . . . I watched a documentary about The Royal Wedding over the weekend.  Saturday was the 25th anniversary of the Royal Wedding of Princess Di and Prince Charles.  I remember getting up early in the morning and spending the entire day watching the ceremony and all the other TV coverage of the event.  I had just turned 18.  How in the world is it possible that the wedding was 25 years ago?

 

Third stop . . . .watching "Roll Bounce" on HBO Sunday afternoon after we finally got the TV set hooked up.  In case you haven’t seen it, "Roll Bounce" is a movie about some kids that hang out at the local roller rink.  When their rink is closed, they have to go to a new rink and find out that they aren’t as hot as they thought they were.  The thing that got me – and had me watching every single minute – was the roller skating.  When I was in jr. high/high school, the roller skating thing was very popular.  We went every Saturday during the school year and a couple times a week during the summer.  The clothes in the movie were exactly like I remembered.  The moves that the skaters did were exactly like I remembered.  Not moves that I could do – heck I was lucky if I could stay upright on skates – but moves I remember watching the cool kids doing.  Oh, man, did that bring back a lot of memories. 

 

Now for the final stop on this trip down memory lane. . . . Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of one of the biggest events of my teen years.  Can you guess what I’m talking about?  Anyone? Anyone?  The launch of MTV!  At 12 midnight on August 1, 1981, MTV came on the air for the first time.  Hubby told me that starting at 12 midnight tonight, VH1 is going to air MTV’s 1st day coverage.  Now I might not be up at midnight to see the beginning, but I’m definately going to check it out a couple of times tomorrow.  I can’t tell you how many hours I wasted sitting in front of the TV watching MTV – back in the day when MTV actually aired videos.  We had just gotten cable a year before, so cable was still a novelty to me, Little Sister, and Baby Brother.  We drove Mom crazy because we would spend most of our time in front of the TV just watching whatever we could find.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time watching TV that summer . . . I had to get a job and get ready for college. 

 

It’s completely amazing to me that these wonderful memories all happened about 20 to 25 years ago.  As cliche as it sounds, it seems like it was just yesterday.  After the yucky start to the weekend, I think that this trip down memory lane was just what I needed.  

That’s Better

Things are a back to normal . . . and I’m feeling much better.  Hubby and I put the new entertainment center together and set up the new TV.  Would you believe that it took 4 hours.  Most of the time was spent on putting the entertainment center together, but the TV presented challenges of it’s very own.  It took us about an hour to figure out the right way to hook up the VCR and the DVD player.  I am very happy that we have a TV in the living room again.  

 

Now I just need to remember which remote operates which device.  Anybody got any suggestions on a good universal remote?   

 

 

The Worst Movie Ever

Hubby is out fishing tonight and I’m home alone with the doggies.  That means that I have the remote all to myself and I get to watch whatever I want.  No, we haven’t hooked the TV up in the living room yet, so I’m hanging out with the doggies in the kitchen.  I’m flipping through the channels and I come across my idea of the worst movie ever.  “Stepmom” is playing on TBS tonight. 

 

When I first heard about this movie in 1998, I was so excited.  It has Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, and Ed Harris in it.  I thought there’s no way this movie could suck.  I thought I was going to see an honest depiction of what it’s like to be a stepmom.  Man was I disappointed.  The first half of the movie was exactly what I expected it to be.  The ex-wife didn’t like the new woman in her ex-husband’s life.  The kids didn’t like the new woman.  The new woman didn’t like kids and didn’t have a clue what to do with them.  The poor ex-husband/dad didn’t have a clue how to help the girlfriend and tried his best to get his ex-wife and the kids to give the poor girlfriend a break.  It was very realistic.  I could seriously relate to everything that was going on.  It was like they had watched my life and put it on the big screen.  It was a GREAT movie.   

 

Then they did the unthinkable.  The only way that they could get the girlfriend and the ex-wife to get along was to have the ex-wife die of cancer.  Oh, please!  This wonderful, true-to-life movie suddenly became a Lifetime Movie of The Week.  I wanted to throw up.  Luckily, I was watching the movie at home on HBO and I could scream at the screen and throw stuffed animals at the TV.  I finished watching the stupid movie only because I had to see how it ended.  It ended exactly like you would expect a Lifetime movie to end.  The girlfriend and the ex-wife called a truce just before the ex-wife died and the kids finally learned to accept the girlfriend as part of dad’s life.  They all lived happily ever after in the family home.  Bleeaacckkkkk. 

 

I’m insulted that the movie had a typical Hollywood ending.  Why not have the ending be more realistic and less melodramatic?  I became a stepmom at the tender age of 19.  The stepkids were 10 and 8.  They hated me.  The ex-wife hated me.  But then she was going to hate anybody that was involved with Hubby, I was just the lucky target.  Over the years, I’ve tried EVERYTHING to get along with this woman.  And nothing worked.  I always thought that if I just tried harder, then things would get better.  Things never got better.  They’re still crappy.  But I’ve learned to accept that.  Sometimes it’s just that way.  Only took me about 20 years to accept that fact.  Why not show that as the ending?  Why did it have to be tied up with a cookie cutter Hollywood tear-jerker ending?  In the movie, everybody looked like the good guy in the end.  In real life, sometimes you’re the good guy and sometimes you’re the bad guy. 

 

To this day, I’ve not been able to watch that movie.  I scream obscenities at the screen every time I see it on TV and I flip the channel as fast as I can. 

 

Add this to my list of reasons why I want to call a do-over for this weekend. 

Not So Perfect

Today is my last Friday off.  I’ve really enjoyed having Friday’s off and have been looking forward to this all week.  Today has not gone as nicely as my other Fridays off and I’m disappointed.  

 

First, the weather.  I realize that it’s July in Ohio and it’s going to be hot.  Typically the last week of July is one of the hottest weeks in Ohio.  Part of the price you pay for the hot weather are isolated pop-up showers/thunderstorms.  This week has certainly had it’s share of hot weather and pop-up showers.  Today it’s only about 75 degrees, but the humidity makes it closer to 80-something.  It’s just yucky outside.  And we’re having all sorts of pop-up showers.  I just came in from taking out the trash.  I walked all of 30 feet.  It was sprinkling when I stepped out the back door.  It was a downpour by the time I got to the trash can.  Luci and I ran back into the house and by the time I got Luci’s feet dried off and both of us in the house, the rain had stopped.  It’s been doing this all day.  And each time it stops raining, the humidity increases.  I can’t sit on the deck because it’s too wet.  I can’t get out the pool and the sprinkler because it’s either raining or going to rain.  

 

Second, the TV in the living room died today.  That means that I can’t take advantage of the rainy weather and sit on the couch and watch girley movies or trash TV with the doggies.  I had to go out this morning and buy a new TV.  The TV that just died is a 25 inch Magnavox floor model.  Yes, you read that right – a floor model TV.  It’s 21 years old.  I bought it in 1985.  It was the first big purchase I made when I graduated from college.  It’s in a beautiful wood cabinet.  Looks as new as the day I bought it.  So I spent part of my day off looking for a new TV.  I bought the TV and brought it home, but it’s too heavy for me to unload by myself.  I have to wait for Hubby to get home with the 2 wheel dolly so we can get it in the house.  And since they don’t make floor model TVs anymore, I also had to buy an entertainment center to put the TV on.  I picked it out but I didn’t buy it because it’s very heavy and I need Hubby’s help to load it into the car and then lug it into the house.  We’re going to pick it up tonight.  Hopefully, we will have the entertainment center and the TV hooked up very soon. 

 

We’re not totally without a TV.  We have  the 13 inch TV in the kitchen.  But it’s not the same curling up at the kitchen table to watch trash TV.  I can’t watch my girley movie DVDs because we don’t have a DVD player in the kitchen.  Since it’s storming, Blacky wants to be where I am (and Luci follows Blacky everywhere), so there’s me and my two big dogs in my kitchen. 

 

So this last weekend in July isn’t off to the greatest start.  If I have any luck at all, today will be the "bad" day of the weekend.  Keep your fingers crossed. 

 

 

 

 

No Free Lunch

About a month ago, a nice looking young man came to my front door to talk to me about how I could get a "free" home security system.  I had to step out on the front porch to talk to the nice young man because the dogs were at the front door and Blacky was barking very loudly at this strange person on his porch.  I listened to the young man’s sales pitch.  All I had to do was put a sign in my yard and the alarm company would "compensate" me for having this sign in my yard by installing a state-of-the-art security system.  I explained that I didn’t need a state-of-the-art alarm system because I already had a security system.  Their names are Blacky and Luci.  The young man laughed and said that he understood but that his system was better, blah, blah, blah. 

 

I honestly didn’t listen to the rest of the sales pitch because this is the point where I told the guy that my dad had worked for 38 years with their competitor and that he would kill me if I even thought about accepting his offer.  The young man said that it was a free system, how could I turn that down?  I asked if it’s really free and he said yes.  No monthly monitoring fee?  No installation fee?  The kid went all pale on me.  Ah-ha!  An informed consumer.  Something he wasn’t expecting.  He stuttered and stammered a bit and said there was a $99 installation fee and I had to sign a 3 year contract and agree to have the monitoring fee automatically charged to my credit card.  I told him that’s what I thought and that I wasn’t interested.  I went back into the house with the barking dogs. 

 

Hubby wasn’t home during that particular conversation and I didn’t mention it to him.  Imagine my surprise when I came home from work the other night and saw Hubby talking to a different young guy from the same alarm company.  As I came onto the porch, I heard Hubby ask if the system is free and the guy said yes.  This raised my eyebrows and Hubby said "I think it’s okay." and I could just tell he was about to agree to accept the "free" alarm system offer.  I gave Hubby one of my "Don’t you dare" looks and he said, "But I’m gonna let you talk to her because I can see that she has other ideas."  With that, Hubby went into the house to leave me alone with young sales guy.  I explained to the young guy that I had already had this conversation with his co-worker about a month ago and that I wasn’t interested in the alarm system.  The young guy again tried to talk me into it and I said I wasn’t interested and went back into the house.  

 

Now, let me say that I love my Hubby very much and he’s a very smart man.  There isn’t anything that he can’t fix and I value his opinion more than anybody else on this Earth.  But there are times when he’s extremely gullible.  Especially when the word "free" is involved.  He’s been mad at me all week because I turned down the free alarm system.  I’ve tried many, many times to tell him that there is no such thing as a free lunch.  After paying a $99 installation fee and sign up for a 3 year contract, this free alarm system would end up costing us $1,500.  I can think of a lot better ways to spend that kind of money. 

 

Like treats and toys for my "real" alarm system.

I’d Like To Thank The Academy . . . .

My hit count is 1,015!  I finally broke the 1,000 hit mark.  For some reason that I can’t really explain, 1,000 hits to my little blog is very exciting.  When I first started this space back in February, I never dreamed that anyone was going to want to read about my life.  My goal was to record some of the every day happenings at my house.  Record Luci’s puppy hood.  Keep a journal of Blacky’s life.  Get a written record of some of the stuff that happens in my life.  When I was much younger, I wanted to be a writer . . . but as I got older, reality set in and that dream got pushed to the side.   Except for some creative writing classes in college, this space is the most writing I’ve done in, oh, 30 years.  

 

I could get all mushy and sentimental (like I’m prone to do at times like this) but I can hear the music and I can see that they are waving at me to wrap this up.  Thank you to everyone that visits my space.  I couldn’t have done this without you.

When Did That Happen?

I’m sitting here at work today, typing along like normal, and I notice that my left index finger hurts a little.  I check the keyboard to see if there is something on the keys that might be causing the problem.  Nope, it’s just fine.  (I thought it might be some residue from the Cheez-it’s the other day.)  Next I look at my finger and notice a bruise on the end of my finger.  I’m right handed, so I’m wondering what in the world I did to hurt my left index finger?  I don’t remember slamming it in a door or pinching it anywhere.  Hmmm, I wonder what did I do this time?    

 

I will admit that I’m a klutz.  It’s not unusual for me to have a bruise somewhere on my body and most of the time I have no idea what I did to get the bruise.  But normally the bruises are on my leg, or my shin, or on my arm.  Depending on where the bruise is, I can figure out what happened.  Usually I run into the chest of drawers in the bedroom (upper arm bruise), the corner of my desk at work (hip bruise), or the coffee table in the living room at home (shin bruise).  Then there was the bruise on my knee about a month ago when Luci and I were playing fetch and she didn’t stop in time and ran head first into my knee.  But for the life of me, I can’t remember how I would have gotten a bruise on the end of my finger.      

 

Then it dawned on me what must have happened.  When I’m home, I have a choker collar on Luci so that I can her attention when she’s misbehaving.  I usually latch my finger through the collar and give it a light tug.  That usually gets her attention and she stops whatever she’s doing.  The other night, though, she just wouldn’t listen or settle down for anything.  Even after I grabbed the collar, she was bucking and trying to get away from me.  All of this drama because she had a rock in her mouth and she knew I was going to take it away from her.  She must have twisted the collar around my finger and pinched my fingertip.  

 

It’s either that or Hubby bit the end of my finger during the night to get me to stop snoring.  I’m betting that it was Luci’s fault.  I’m telling you, that dog is going to be the death of me yet. 

My Biggest Fear

. . . is going to the dentist.  It’s not my dentist’s fault.  I love my dentist.  He’s a great guy.  He works very hard to keep me from having panic attacks whenever I have to have something done.  He gives me laughing gas when I get fillings.  Dr. T is wonderful and I recommend him to everyone. 

 

I just really, really dislike having work done on my teeth.  I hate the sound of the tools scraping against my teeth.  I hate the feel of the hygenist’s fingers in my mouth.  It’s just yucky and I don’t like it.  Yes, I’m a big baby about it and I will be the first to admit it.  But I manage to keep my composure and get through the twice yearly cleanings. 

 

The problem all stems from the fact that we didn’t go to the dentist much when we were kids.  That was back in the day before dental insurance and since there were six of us kids, Mom and Dad’s philosophy was "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."  We usually only went to the dentist if there was something wrong with our teeth.  So that would explain why I associate a trip to the dentist with pain.  When I got my first job out of college, it came with dental insurance.  Hubby talked me into going to a dentist for a routine cleaning.  The dentist I went to is NOT the dentist I see now.  I swear that guy saw dollar signs the minute I walked in the door.  I have a slight overbite and the scary dentist wanted to do all kinds of corrective work on the overbite.  Stuff like break my jaw, move it forward, and wire it shut so the jaw would align properly.  Then he wanted to put braces on me to make sure all the teeth were straight and pretty.  I was 22 years at the time.  There was no way I was going to let some sick man do that to me.  I left that office and never went back. 

 

After hearing what the scary dentist wanted to do, Hubby found another dentist.  The dentist he found was Dr. T.  Hubby has some inherited dental problems and Dr. T worked very hard to get Hubby’s problems under control and help Hubby keep the majority of his natural teeth.  Hubby always came home from a visit with Dr. T telling me that I should go and that Dr. T was different and wouldn’t want to hurt me.  I was always impressed with the fact that Dr. T would call the house to check on Hubby whenever Hubby had a serious dental procedure done.  So, I finally decided to go see for myself if Dr. T was really that wonderful.  I told him upfront that I was a big baby and I was scared to death to be sitting in that chair.  Dr. T explained that he felt the same way as a kid and that’s why he became a dentist, so that he could keep other kids (and adults!) from avoiding dental care because of fear.  

 

He did the exam, told me that my teeth were okay, but I was going to need some fillings and at some point we would have to remove my wisdom teeth.  I asked about fixing the overbite.  Dr. T said that he didn’t see a reason to fix the overbite unless I wanted it fixed.  When I told him what the scary dentist had said, he laughed and said that there’s no reason to put me through that.  The overbite wasn’t affecting my bite and there was no problem in leaving it alone.  I could have hugged and kissed Dr. T right there . . . and I told him that.  He promised me that we’d never do anything that I didn’t want to do.  He just makes recommendations, it’s up to me to make the decision about the work that gets done.  

 

Dr. T is wonderful.  His staff is wonderful.  He’s been my dentist now for 15 years.  I never think twice about following his suggestions.  Over the years, I’ve had my wisdom teeth pulled and had two root canals done, and never thought twice about the people that Dr. T recommended I see to have this work done.  Like I said, I recommend Dr. T to EVERYONE!  

 

But I still don’t like going for my twice yearly exams.  I went today for my summer cleaning.  They told me that I have to have two fillings and two crowns.  The office manager at Dr. T’s office is doing the research to find out what my dental insurance will pay.  I know that she’ll work with me on a payment plan if the insurance only pays part of the bill – she’s done it before.  Dr. T is willing to wait for me to decide when I want to have the work done.  I know the crowns are going to be expensive, but that’s not what’s got me dragging my feet.  It’s the fact that they’re going to be working on my teeth.  The only bright spot to the whole thing is that I’ll get laughing gas and lots of it.  

 

They’re all so wonderful and I feel bad that I can’t get over my fear of the dentist.  I wonder if it would be different if I had found Dr. T first and had never visited scary dentist.

Perfect

I gotta tell ya, I’m really enjoying my three day weekends.  Now I know why my baby sister negotiated for a 4 day work week.  Man, this is just awesome.  To be honest, though, Baby Sister has a good reason for the 4 day week.  She has two kids and the 4 day work week lets her do a lot of the mom things.  I must admit, though, that I’ve tried to convince Hubby that Blacky and Luci need me to be a stay-at-home mom, but he’s not buying it.  Can’t blame a girl for trying. 

 

Anyway, it was a perfect weekend.  Nothing to do and all weekend to do it.  Spent some quality time with the dogs.  Sat on the deck reading a book and drinking iced tea.  (I highly recommend the book, "The Devil Wears Prada")  Had to do some housework, but wasn’t in any real hurry to get it done.  Helped the Hubby work on his 1936 truck.  (All I did was hold some engine thing while he took it apart.  Oh, and brought him a sandwich.)   And there was the family birthday party for my Dad.  Today is his 77th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Dad!

 

The weather was perfect.  Friday was a little on the warm side, but not unbearably so.  Saturday was a little cooler and we had a few rain showers.  At least the heat wave is over for now.  Sunday was started out on the cool side, but ended up being pretty warm. 

 

Now, I’m back at work.  Boss is back from vacation so it’s not as "uneventful" as last week.  (I never say "quiet" because that’s when all heck breaks loose.)  But I can’t complain too much because I’m spending the afternoon drinking Coke, eating Cheeze-It’s and reading . . . okay, it’s work related trade journals and I’m not on my back deck, but it’s still reading magazines.  

 

Okay, it’s back to my grueling job (ha, ha, ha!)

Double Take

The most interesting thing of the week happened on my drive home last night.  It was so unusual that I did a double take and then a triple take because I wasn’t sure of what I was seeing.  Part of my commute is on an interstate highway.  There were a lot of semi-trucks in the right hand lane and everyone was getting in the middle lane to pass them.  The guy in front of me was moving along at a fairly quick pace and then all of a sudden started slowing down.  Didn’t put on the brakes – just was slowing down.  I thought he might be having car trouble and I got out of his way.  When I went around him I noticed that he was on his cell phone and using his PDA at the same time.  Neither one of his hands were on the steering wheel.  Let me repeat that – NEITHER ONE OF HIS HANDS WERE ON THE STEERING WHEEL.   I have no idea how he was steering the car and I wasn’t about to stick around and find out.  I zipped past him and got as far away from him as I could.  With the flow of traffic, he passed me a little way up the road and he was still on the phone and using his PDA and still didn’t have his hands on the steering wheel.  Oh my heavens.  A little while later, I passed him and this time he was shuffling papers in his briefcase and STILL didn’t have his hands on the steering wheel.  Luckily, I was close to my exit and didn’t have to watch out for him anymore. I didn’t see anything on the late local news about any accidents on that part of the interstate.  I can’t imagine anything so important that would cause someone to do such a thing.  My mom always says that God watches out for fools and small children, and I think that guy was certainly in one of those categories.