Tell Me It "Ain't" So!

“Ain’t” ain’t in the dictionary, so “ain’t” ain’t a word.” How many times did we hear that growing up? Well I found out today that apparently that saying just “ain’t so”. What’s up with that?

You see, I had no idea! It seems, much to my surprise, that “ain’t” IS in the dictionary and "ain't" IS a word and nobody sent me notification. When did this happen? When did they change the rules of engagement with regard to the snappy comebacks used on us in our childhood... comebacks we can no longer legitimately use on our kids. I feel ripped off. Stripped of some superpower that once belonged to me. I am just glad I found out in the privacy of my own home. What if I had gone and used that little saying in public with some young whippersnapper and then watched as he pushed his glasses further up onto his nose, whipped out his pocket dictionary then and there, and proceeded to set me straight. How humiliating would that have been. They (whoever "they" are) should let parents know when they change the basis of standard-issue sayings. This just ain't right. And what 60’s warp have I been in? I guess I haven’t read the dictionary lately. Shame on me, right? I mean I know I live in a 60’s warp as far as certain modern conveniences go; like we have no disposal, no dishwasher, no automatic ice-maker and no water or ice in the fridge door, and we still have laminate countertops and a room air conditioner and a manual-open garage door, but why do I have to find out in shock horror from my 12 year old, on what began as a regular Thursday afternoon, that “ain’t” IS in the dictionary, after all these years. I feel so disenchanted with the world. Can they just do these things without a vote? You know why I found out about this travesty today? It was “Little Women”, I tell ya. Seems the kids had to give their own dictionary definitions of words from the book, words they didn’t know the meaning of. Casey didn’t exactly know what to say “ain’t” meant, so she looked it up (a habit we applaud). I suppose the fact that she thought it would be in the dictionary means I must not have preached the little “ain’t” thing often enough, which is yet another blow to my parental standing. I guess I ain't even been using my rightful arsenal like I should. Of course, maybe Casey's just always had an exceptional grasp of the English language and holds to higher standards with regard to her vocabulary. That would make me feel better. Perhaps though, it suggests (ugh) that possibly (I know this will be a stretch for you all to take this in), but just possibly... I don’t know everything. Ooooh, that’s just too much to fathom, ain't it? But it’s out of the bag now; you all finally know the truth... I don’t know it all. (Gasp!) Of course after today’s lesson from my young teacher, I now do. However, up until this afternoon, I was at least one fact shy of it all. This is my confession of the day. Please tell me that you too were clueless that our sing-song “ain’t” saying was archaic. I do know that “they” are rewriting the dictionary all the time and removing and adding words, but I did not know they had bumped this one up to "real word" status and apparently it happened quite some time ago. Please tell me you would have still used the old saying in good faith if I had not enlightened you. Please tell me I am not alone. Pretty please.


Addendum: Upon spell checking my post,I found that while "ain't" may be in the dictionary now, the Imac spell check dictionary still refuses to recognize “ain’t” as a word. Bravo Apple! Bravo. When it comes down to it, we can still use the little ditty if we add in fine print a disclaimer about the apple spell check dictionary.
"Ain't" ain't in the dictionary (Apple spell check volume 2003 for iMac G3 Appleworks software)(sorry, I couldn't get the font to go small, so it loses the disclaimer effect) so "ain't" ain't a word. Yeah, that'll do it.

Quirky Home Show

Here are the still images from video I took of the living and dining rooms. You may not notice a drastic change looking at the pictures. But do you notice the difference in my mantle area? I still don't like the bricks painted brown. I think it needs to be stuccoed over and then painted. The bricks still look like fake chocolate to me. Kind of odd. But you know how these things are... once they've been there a while, you sort of quit noticing them anymore. That's why it would be in my best interest to get on with it before too long. After all, that old wallpaper and chair rail that Casey and I took down are a prime example of that. Do you even remember what it used to look like? Shoot! I should find some old "before" pictures so you can see the difference. Okay, that'll be next on the list, that and posting some images from Cally's surprise 17th birthday party. It was great! We had about 45 people, mostly high school seniors and college age kids with a little variation here and there. Lots of eating and playing volleyball, football and ultimate frisbee! And a lot of jumping in the pool to cool off. The temperature was seriously hard on everyone.


Here's the living room. Oh, I guess you can't even see the wall that we took the wallpaper and chair rail off of. What a lame videographer! Wait, no... the whole mantle wall had wallpaper and chair rail going across it. What am I thinking? I guess, even I have forgotten what it looked like.



The dining room looking into the living room.



Here are the shelves. I painted them the same color as the walls. They used to be all white.

The Reveal

Seeing as it's Friday, and Friday is a great home show night on TV, I think it fitting to finally post the reveal of Casey's room. I still feel we need to paint the walls, but since Cael and I just painted it a year ago and I just painted much of the rest of the house within the last month or so, and the color is sort of neutral, we are foregoing the final touch of painting for a while. We did well to get the room this far, this fast if I do say so myself.

So, Here it is. Please note the beach towel curtains and the day bed with adjustable arms that go up for a couch-like, daytime sitting area, or lie flat for sleeping.



Quite cool! The rug has a match to it in the bathroom where there is also a shower curtain that coordinates with the flower pattern on the towels and pillow. Yeah, we are quite happy with it. We also have a large picture to hang on the wall, but the wall is concrete block, and it's not that simple to drill anything into concrete block, so that is yet another project on hold. One of these days we'll do a room and complete it all at the same time. I'm hoping anyway.



Another view:



There is also a green lava lamp there on one of the cubes that looks really nice with everything. Very 60's groovy. Pretty cool the way it turned out, seeing as it's all of about 6 x 10 feet downstairs below the loft. Feels amazingly spacious for a room the size of walk-in closet.

And here is the occupant. She is demonstrating the official facial expression for her teenage years.



But that was just a ruse. She's always got a smile in there somewhere. She's such a good sport.


But we probably haven't seen the last of that look.

So there you have it. Now it's almost time for more home shows to inspire me to new decorating heights. You know, maybe I will film the other room we recently worked on and make you some still frames of that too. I know... you can hardly wait. Woo hoo!

The Proverbs of Carrot Top

I am to be dubbed with a new nickname now, thanks to this evening’s hair color misfire. Carrot top. It’s my new name and it suits me. Oh, it suits me. It is a frighteningly accurate new description, and yet in a bizarre twist I am extremely calm about it at the moment. But it's dark outside and darkness hides a multitude of hair color sins. I'm sure the glow of the morning light and the continuous brightening of the harsh afternoon spotlight will change my calm demeanor. It's permanent color, you know. I didn't pick something that would wash out. I wasn't thinking. I WASN’T THINKING! WHY WASN’T I THINKING?!!! This is my hair we're talking about.

At first, when I applied the color I was feeling good. I was sort of looking forward to being darker, much darker even. I had a little hint of "Mary hair" going there for a bit, with a darkish, hinting-at-the-thought-of-a-semi-reddish quality. All was well. The excitement of new hair and a new me was building. Step two, apply highlights. The little photo shows tender strokes and few of them. I am a direction follower, so I tried that, but I have a creative streak too, and opting for a natural look and a broader stroke, I took liberties. One must be cautious with their liberties. Liberties are not to be slathered around willy nilly. No. These things I know... now. The color lightened ever so quickly and the strands seemed to bleed into the entire top of my head somehow. They promised on the box that this wouldn't happen. I didn't really do THAT many, but I guess the excessive, stubborn gray was playing it's evil tricks and plus I was trying to highlight Casey’s hair in the midst of doing mine (not recommended for best results) before I had finished the back of my own, and I stopped timing, getting all confused about how to time it starting at the end of the application if one is also applicating another’s hair at the same time which adds exponential minutes to the process. And besides, you know how I am with numbers. Enough said. Next thing you know, catching a glimpse of the sudden process acceleration in the mirror, I'm rushing in a panic to the tub to rinse, realizing that much more time has elapsed than my directions indicated would be beneficial. No denying, they were clear on the 15 minute limit. Feeling much like a handful of old Santa Fe in the-summertime-straw now, my hair received a rinse and a continued rinsing and I slathered it overabundantly with gooey conditioner. I was hoping to reinfuse life where the highlighter had sucked it out with a cruel vengeance. I was trying to undo the effects of leaving highlighter on too long as it bleached holes in my hair like a black shirt in a clorox spill. I had visions of looking somewhat in the neighborhood of what’s-her-name who does the Jenny Craig commercials now. The pretty one who got hefty... I can't think of her name and I didn't aspire to look like her size-wise mind you, and esp. not with one of those bulky other-era dresses on; it was her hair, her hair I was after. I was so close, really I think I was within only a few mistakes of really nailing it.

Sort of darkish warm butterscotch golden blond with lighter streaks... It all seemed so simple really. Cough up $18.00 at K-mart and rush home clutching my box of new hair life, a little smile escaping ever-so-quietly from my lips at the thought of how cute my hair would be in just a few short hours. And yet an hour and a half after opening pandora's precious hair box, I have decided to cast myself into seclusion. The escaping smile has been replaced with a wrinkly lipped look and squinty eyes staring hard at the mirror, trying by sheer force of will to see what I had so hoped to see there shining back at me at about this time. But my eyes aren't lying to me like my little box of "black (orange) magic" did from the K-Mart shelf. So it has come to this. I will be banned from human contact for an appointed time, isolated, shunned to live a solitary life until all my hair grows out or falls out. It matters not which. In a bold stroke of "luck?" it happens to be falling out in large wads as of late anyway, perhaps in preparation for this very event. Perhaps I'll grow new hair like that little doll who's arm you used to wind or crank while you pulled the pony tail. It would grow magically. Magic would be welcome.

So what could be worse than being dubbed Carrot Top at the plastic-gloved hand of one’s own ineptitude? Well, I just went to look at the coif now that it is pretty well dried by the fan blowing on me. The ends where I was careful not to apply too much color, they look sort of ashy and bland like the old hair. The orange didn't make it beyond the crown. Woe is me. Now I'm elevated to Carrot Top Supreme, a title reserved for only the worst offenders. It wasn’t quite so bad when I thought my whole head was a carrot, but now I am a freak carrot on top of it all. At this rate I will have to add insult to injury and put my hair in a pony tail to avoid small children's innocent but nevertheless rude comments. And I know Elyse will sigh and shake her head at the sight of me. I can't take the color in a box lecture. I was gonna so rise above that. I have always been a good girl, I have. It was my first offense. I don’t think I can handle the disappointment.

So becoming a hermit for a few months is the only answer. How long can I go without working or seeing people, I wonder. I have to water the yard, but this can be done under the cover of darkness. You know, this follicle fiasco is a testament to why hairdressers say not to color out of a box. But certainly then, they beget the mishap by always pretending to worry about getting color on the ends when they do it, citing a mysterious need to make sure the hair doesn't get too dark there. Hah! That's just to trip us up so we'll fail when we do it ourselves. And then we will be enslaved to their professional touch for life. I'm thinking maybe just for the heck of it I’ll throw Carrot Tops to the wind and try it again. I’ll try it again one day and prove that I can learn, I can master the art, that I too can live nickname free.

The worse thing is that in my haste to clean up and get that colored goo out of here before we stained something with it, I rinsed the bottle out. I could’ve ransacked the trash and done a semi-fix up to make the ends match the top. There was a ton left. But I didn't just throw it away, I was my thorough self and rinsed it down the drain. Gone. The highlighter mixture is as dry as dust now or I'd go back and just bleach the heck out of my head with a bunch more streaks to tone down the orange. Big dummy. All the way around. Just a big dummy. I should have been happy with solid colored hair, flat and plain looking. But no, I was wooed by the “simple two-step color application process.”

Now what? Cruel fate. I just wanted a nice head of hair for heaven's sake. Is that too much to ask in this life? It must be. That's it, it must be just too much. So I ask you, now what? Please advise on solutions for permanent hair color fixes. Someone must have volumes written on what to do when seduced by thebox. I guess I need a tone-down application. I just wish I hadn't thrown my bottle of color away. Boo hoo. I don't even have anyone to go out in my place and buy something to remedy my hair color woes tomorrow. I don't want people gawking at me as I carry yet another box of color through the store with my head glowing copper colored like a duracell battery. Cally will be at work, I'm supposed to be at work, and casey doesn't drive yet. I lament that. When children are really young, the thought of running errands in a car is equated with a road trip to Disney. Once the license takes up residence in their wallet, errands are relegated to a place likened to having to go to work every day at McDonalds wearing a hair net. Worse yet, at Burger King. Time and perspective change things. I am hoping that tomorrow I will awaken with miraculously darker, less "hot" and more evenly colored hair. It was supposed to be warm, not hot, and I assure you it wasn't anything remotely red on the picture on the box. Nothing whatsoever. Nada. I am going to send the company a photo of MY hair to use on the cover of the next batch of this color/highlight two-step combo. If they choose to use it as the "don't photo" with a black bar across my eyes, so be it. I feel that if I can serve humanity in some way, no matter how humbling, I should do my part. And let that be a lesson to us all. Somewhere in here there is a lesson. A turning point. A brilliant orange moment of sheer insight. I'll let you know if one comes to me. Perhaps it would be something like, “The inept should never be left alone with a box of hair color and a dream.” The Proverb of Carrot Top.

As Promised

Despite my misfortune with the $8.99 before tax skirt during laundering, I did manage to get a photo before I annihilated it.





Feast your eyes on this baby...






Please scroll down...









Just a bit more...









Come on, it's worth the effort...









I look so HOT!...











Ta da....













It's my Florida Summer Outfit... in silouette form. Just look at those lines. The form is exquisite, don't you think? Isn't it just gorgeous after all? And really this photo is nothing without the accent of the new brown wall. The brown isn't exactly coming across as it really looks, but what do you expect with a throw away camera? In real life it is a rich brown, and with the textured walls, it looks like leather. I think it's tres chic.



Okay, here's the real thing, but please... this photo can be described as nothing less than dorky. But I said I'd show you and at least it's not as bad as the other one we took. See what I mean that it's not really all that summery? I guess I was confused by all the excitement of having a new skirt, $8.99 before tax.




Cheap shoppers mustn't be too choosey.

Rationalization vs Breakthrough

Word to the wise. Brilliant purchases that make you feel a little high and mighty about your shopping savvy are nothing more than tools meant to catapult you headlong into humility.

Remember my new summer skirt, $8.99 before tax. I washed it (isn’t that what you’re supposed to do after wearing something all day in the summer heat?) It came out of the dryer looking like it cost $8.99 before tax. Unfair! The black background has now been reduced to a mere tonal fraction of its original intensity. It looks like I’ve had it since junior high.

Other than that I don’t have a lot to say about this life of mine. Well, other than the fact that I did have a breakthrough today during church. I realized that there are people who go on vacation for a month+ during the summer. Lots of people. I get bent out of shape with myself if I lay on the couch and read for a while on a Saturday or sunday afternoon. What am I thinking? There are people jet skiing, hiking, boating, lounging, shopping, dining out every day for weeks, reading and doing whatever they please. Of course the month-long vacation set have regular and hefty incomes to support a life of summertime leisure, but heck, I think I deserve some summertime leisure on the grounds that I DON’T have hefty and/or regular income. How about that?

You know, you can pretty much find an excuse for anything if you give yourself the time to think it through. Due to today’s breakthrough (rationalization) you can find me on the couch this afternoon, avoiding discount stores that lure stupid shoppers with $8.99 skirts, and I’ll be enjoying my day of rest. Hope you do too.

My Florida Summer Outfit

and 10 reasons I’m sick of summer:

Okay, I really only have two hardcore reasons. No, make it three... the heat, the thick humid air and those colorful little plastic cups and bowls and stuff they sell at all the discount stores. I can’t explain it, but quietly as I walked through the drug store this evening, with Casey a few aisles over surveying the Almay Eye enhancing makeup again, without warning and for no apparant reason, my eyes unintentionally landed upon the colorful plastic seasonal summer accessories and I became sick of them, sick of summer. Like fingers snapped, and so did I. In a bizarre twist, I recognized it all for what it was, a cheap ploy that had one run too many. I was transformed, there in CVS, into a summer Scrooge. And the thing is, I’ve always loved that stuff, enjoyed it with a fervor like Scrooge’s dog Max would work up over Christmas. They were so festive and sparked thoughts of parties and friends and a fun start to the upcoming months of eternal heat, a reason to think happy thoughts about air so thick it hugs the insides of your nostrils when you try to suck it in, and it all made me forget that soon I’d be driving in an oven on wheels bonded to leather seats by my own sweat. I mean I really do buy in when I walk through Target in say, May or so, and I see all the really cute stuff with fresh retro polka dots, better yet, stripes of pink and green and purple and yellow. But now, just like that, I’ve been jaded. It is as if I blinked a couple of times, opened my eyes and accidentally stumbled into a harsh reality there in the seasonal aisle of the drug store. Like I grew up and lost my youthful innocence with one wrong turn down aisle 12. Oh that I had never walked that aisle. What have I done. Never again will I pour over the bright prints and imagine barbecues and patio furniture decked out with summer trimmings. Why I ever believed, now I’m not sure, as I have never once seen anyone actually deck out their patio with that stuff in summer; come on, it’s too hot to go out there. But I believed... somehow I always believed. It’s like Santa rolled up his sleeve revealing a tattoo on his arm. I just need a minute, really, I’ll be fine.


Maybe I’m just tired of the heat. After all, summer in Florida is like watching the movie, Groundhog Day over and over and over. It’s redundantly redundant. I think I loathe summer. The only thing I am happy about with this summer is the new skirt I have from Ross that I got for $8.99, 10.50 if you count tax, but I don’t count it technically because then it doesn’t sound like as great a deal. Unfortunately I have compulsive tendencies which behoove me to tell you the final price like I’m making up stories if I don’t. So even if I want to tell you it was $8.99, I have to tack on the tax for honesty’s sake. It’s hard being me. But it was a great deal and the fact that I can wear it outside and all over town, even in the car and feel all breezy and cute and summery, oblivious to the usual cares about the sweat greasing up my hair, is a special tribute to it’s allure. But only once a week. I’m limiting myself to once a week... wearing it, I mean. So I’m really only able to enjoy summer on that one day out of each 7. I am really trying to make the most of that day too, going lots of places in my cool “Florida Summery Outfit.” The fact that I in any way feel cute is even more of a tribute to it since the fact that it is summery lends to the idea that I am wearing something that shows legs, arms and back, and none of these body parts has seen the sun in over a year or so. This is equal to, if not more amazing than the fact that I have boldly nixed hairspray from my bathroom countertop. Have I mentioned that my skin isn’t all that perky and summer friendly either? So the whole thing is this huge paradox. I look like crap, like a snowbird in Hawaiian print, but it makes me feel as oblivious and chipper as Elle on “Legally Blonde.” (At this point my girls will be absolutely gagging, mortified that I would in anyway liken myself to Elle from Legally Blonde, saying very matter of factly in that authoritaive tone they use with me, “Mom. No.”) and all of this only testifies to the divine nature and the paradox of “a Florida Summer Outfit”. The halter top I have been wearing with the skirt is another countermeasure to the evils of summer. I got it two years ago for a class reunion, never really wore it again after that. Now I’m wearing it all over the place with the black and white hawaiian print skirt ($8.99 before tax) blending it into what is my “Florida summer look”, what with wearing my flip flops with it and all. That’s one of the very few blessings of Florida and the heat, you can wear flip flops with everything at just about anytime and Stacey and Clinton can’t touch you on that one. Yeah, this is my only “Florida summer look”, so I have to enjoy it. And now I find myself wanting to wear it every where I go. That’s another sign that summer has done a number on someone. They wear the same thing all the time because it’s the only thing they have that matches the weather, their one small attempt at happiness in an oppressively hot and humid world.

But summer has its perks. In case you didn’t know, today was national slurpee day, 7-11, 2005, or at least that’s what I’m calling it. All these years I missed out not knowing this entitled me to a free slurpee, just like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. How have I missed that all these years?! Once again the public school system failed to teach yet something else about practical daily life. But maybe this is a relatively new trend. Cael called to tell us this news today. Bless him, high school graduates know a thing or two these days, and he knows what really matters to me. Casey and I took off to 7-11 and she was kind enough to go in and ask about it before going off whole hog for a super jumbo slurpee gulp. We made sure we scrounged up enough change just in case our “source” had steered us wrong or this was national-make-a-fool-of-your-mother-and-tell-her-slurpees-are-free day. Well, while she was in there, I should have had her find out the history, the details and whether we can hit them up next year. If so, we have a day-long plan for acquiring free slurpees all over town. We will by then, of course, have mapped out the precise locale of each and every 7-11 within a 25 mile radius and the most direct routes to each. It will be our mission to slurp all over Palm Beach County. Count on it. Okay, they were only giving a sample sized cup, but plenty big enough, like 6, maybe 8 oz. This is a great country! I love 7-11. Well, I love slurpees. I find 7-11 to be an icky place where I don’t want to touch anything, a grungy oasis for small unsupervised children turning slurpee handles at will and sweaty men leaving used napkins on the counter, a place where your flip flops stick to the floor and psychos hang out and try to hitch rides, and the gas pumps either don’t take your card and you have to end up going inside of all things when you only came because of the fast pay gas pump and the cheap price, or else the automatic shut off on the pump decides to go manual on you and 2 or 3 dollars of gas pours out all over your leg, the car and the concrete...but the slurpees, man, you can’t beat em, especially the oranage flavor they had last summer that tasted like those baby asprin we used to sneak and eat like candy when we were kids. Oh thank heaven!

Summer? I’m still over it in general, and in principle. And unfortunately we have about 4 more months to go. If a hurricane hits, you won’t hear from me about it because there will be no power, so I won’t be able to blog. I won’t be able to breathe for that matter. But be assured I will be making noise. I may even hit the highway if I am clever enough to get to the 7-11 pumps and gas up the car in time to get out of our “summerville” and find a cool and happy place to ride out the storm. It’s all theory, sort of like a dream. But dreams do come true, I mean today, while I was wearing my “Florida Summer Oufit”, we got free slurpees didn’t we?

PS: I may have a photo of my florida summer outfit sometime soon. Stay tuned.

Out of The Club

The car a/c isn’t working again. I am not saying this as a complaint, though I am certainly not above complaining about it, as I often do that. However, today I mention this because the non-working a/c was a catalyst to other thoughts as I sat at every red light on my 20 minute drive home sweltering and trying not to sweat profusely and trying to tame my freewheeling hair as it blew every-which-way in the suffocating breeze, poking me in the eye, going up my nose, sticking to my neck and getting in my mouth. You see, due to the a/c situation I have to drive with the windows down. It’s a wild ride when I do that, especially if I have both front windows open and have to cross a busy intersection. At that point, the thick and humid, 90-some degree wind cuts across and past me to get out the other side and completely whips my hair all across my face and around my head in crazy knots, like a cartoon character, making it difficult to maneuver the busy traffic and avoid certain death. I’m steering and brushing hair out of my face and trying to get it behind my ears while I also try to find a free spot in which to merge into traffic, and hair behind the ears is not a particularly attractive look for me either which distracts me yet a bit more. It ranks right up there with having it up in a pony tail. I’m not about pony tails. And for those concerned not only for good hair but also for safety, I’ll tell you it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous for beauty and for safety to drive with the windows down. And really, what’s left after that?

And here’s a news flash... I don’t wear hairspray anymore. It may take a while for this to sink in; the sheer gravity of it is enormous. I have reached the end of my hair care days, I’m pretty sure of it. In a bold and calculated move, I took the hairspray bottle off of the bathroom counter the other day and put it away, out of sight, in the cabinet, in some sort of gesture of closure. No more coiffure couture if there was such a thing. Just like that, one day I was done with it. I’m not sure when it happened, but the shift began some time ago, months ago, yeah, right after the hurricanes last year. Hurricane hair dispels many a hang-up, though I have to say, it’s not all that glamourous to dispel hang-ups. My children and my friends probably wish I’d pull the hairspray bottle back out. (I can tell you this much, Casey told me to do the family a favor and buy some new clothes, but that’s for another blog post) But anyway, one day in a wild hare of a moment, I was liberated from my Jhermack Super Hold Unscented Spritz, maybe never to return. So, now with my standards lowered dramatically, I’m driving and sweating and my hair is everywhere it shouldn’t be and it’s certainly not paying homage to the time I spent on it this morning. So I start thinking about how “devil-may-care” people look driving with the windows down. Guys for sure, and young girls in jeeps mostly, but then, when I thought about it, I realized, that’s probably about it. Young girls in jeeps with long hair can can do whatever they want and they just look cool, in that youthful, “I’ve just been to the beach and I’m salty and sweaty and wind-whipped” way, even if they are on their way to work. I wanted to feel like one of the freewheeling, liberated-hair crowd. I had the windows down in above 90 degree heat for heavens sake. I should get something for that And then I realized that while there was a time that having the windows down was cool for me, those days are over. Just like that I was out of the club. After a certain age, women who drive with the windows down, they aren’t cool, no one believes they are on their way home from the beach. And they are covered, not with salt spray but road construction dust, accented with the scent of diesel fuel and exhaust Their a/c just doesn’t work and frankly, that’s not attractive. All I could do was sit at each red light, and I mean each and every red light on my drive home and scan the traffic for other drivers who’s a/c wasn’t working and mentally bond with them, one in our suffering. I wanted to stick my fist out of the window and yell something profound about our plight, but then it occurred to me that maybe their air works fine and they’re still just trying to be cool, part of the freewheeling club. I wasn't sure, so I suffered in silence.

So what’s to come of this? I can’t even be cool now that I’ve finally given up hair product and have given myself over to the casual and carefree. It’s so not fair. Next thing you know I’ll be going to the grocery store in slippers and curlers. These things have a way of degenerating. Casey tried to describe my hair today after I arrived home from my a/c-less drive home. While gingerly holding a few lifeless strands in her hand, it was as if she was trying to conjure up just the right words for a sorely pathetic situation. All she could finally get out was, in her words, “It just looks... (pause) it just looks... well... bad. (Can you tell Casey is hitting the teen years?) Enough said. Too old to ride with the windows down, too poor to fix the A/C, and hair that no longer plays with the wild wind and comes out laughing. They say that age has its privilege. So when do they send me my senior discount card?

Livin' Free in America

So far within the past week we really feel like we have been living free in America. We’ve gotten free food twice at chick-fil-a with coupons that came in the mail, been to the free movies and we just got a bunch of stuff for free at the new CVS pharmacy on Congress and Northlake today. Casey and I went and browsed the aisles with our hot little hands clutching our free coupons like treasure. I considered it a double whammy because it was like going on a free outing for the afternoon too. Casey was looking for something to do that didn’t involve one of her summer book reports that I keep making her work on, or anything involving cleaning supplies or garbage or recycling chores... or yard work (kid’s these days, go figure), and I wanted her to give the TV a break. So she received the coupon for one free candy item up to $1.00. (Yeah, we know how to live!). I had given Cally the free $5.00 worth of make-up coupon which we took with us on her behalf and got the revolutionary new eye shadow she’s been talking about for over a week. I had given Cael the coupon for a CVS brand item up to $3.00 for free so he could get something he needs for his new apartment. Since he hadn’t used it yet, I took it along with us and got him some laundry detergent. We also had a free greeting card up to $2.00. It was like we were poor people from a third world country walking into a brightly lit store with all it’s glitter and glam, seeing something like that for the first time, seeing all the goodies displayed in their opulence, and us with our free coupons in our hands had our heads in the clouds. It was a regular shopping spree. The free coupons just seem to keep coming in the mailbox...and I’m using ‘em. So we got $11 worth of stuff. It was fun. Yes, free is fun. Now, I’m not saying everything we’ve done lately was free. Oh no. Yesterday, I took Cael to Bed Bath and Beyond to continue our college apartment purchases. Little by little, I’m knocking things off the list to trick myself into not really grasping the enormity of the associated costs, although, like all my lists, this college purchase list is rather long. But, I can say we used either a $5.00 off or a 20% off coupon on each and every item we bought. It was quite a joy. We saved enough to feel good about it despite the fact that we still spent plenty. We’re buying the generic things at Target and such but certain things that we liked at Bed Bath and Beyond were still good deals and then the coupon helped too. You know, if I went through all the neighbors’ recycle boxes, I could probably find a ton of those free CVS coupons and have free summer fun all over again. I guess there are times when being gutless is a good thing. Otherwise there might be a scene.

Of rats and termites

I’m trying to refocus. OK, “focus” would be a better word. I probably shouldn’t get ahead of myself and think I am farther along than I am. One must first focus before they attempt to refocus shouldn’t they? I am at the business of ticking things of my always daunting list, but I have hopes and dreams brewing in the background. Does anyone else find it hard to hope and dream with a list always nagging at them. Usually I feel the need to finish everything chore-like before I get my heart set on something dreamy. But I have decided to take a stab at allowing dreams to simmer while going about the mundane, yet necessary, business of getting life done. It’s a new approach. Now, if dreams simmering are anything like foods simmering while I go off and do other things at dinner time, I may be in trouble. I am not known for an ability to keep things cooking in the background while distracted with chores. But I will take a stab at it.

That’s all, I thought I would be surprisingly brief just so that I am up-to-date with my blog. Nothing worse than a stale blog site when one comes to read hoping for info or entertainment or correspondence or just for something to occupy the moment. I have failed miserably at keeping up, I know. But there are others too (whom I won’t mention by name) who are not all that on top of their own blogs lately either. So off I go to pursue dreams in my mind as I work on the lawn, go to the store, finish the Peru album, make dinner, and on goes the list... the stupid, ever-present list.

Oh and for the record, the number of severed termite wings and bodies that have been present in my kitchen each morning for the past few months seems to be dwindling. I'm thinking that either this means they are dying out (I like to think things like this will just go away if I ignore them) or they have quit coming out because they are too busy feasting on the parts of my house they’ve found to consume. These termites are one of the curses of the ages that I have grown quite tired of. I have dealt with the problem so many times, I really have lost my edge about it. Probably because there are other situations to confront. Like yesterday I noticed a large population of slow moving flies on the screens of my front windows. A perilous sight, since the last time this happened many years ago, it meant dead rats in the attic. Now that I think about it, I did hear some scurrying sounds above me and out my window the other night as I was trying to fall asleep. It was an odd sound I couldn't place, but yup, rat scurrying is just what it sounded like. Anyway, I have as of yet not smelled dead rat in the house (a profoundly distinct smell), although outside the windows where the flies were swarming, there was an icky dead animal smell that was only noticeable when I was in a certain place and tried real hard to find it... and I didn’t want to find it if you know what I mean. But I did look around somewhat hoping something might be laying in the yard nearby that might account for the smell. But no. If it’s anywhere, it’s in the attic. I guess time will tell. I am just not sure how to handle this episode. Dead animals in the yard are almost too much to take, but I have dealt with them so many times I have some sort of experience and ability there (sure chalk that up on my list of talents), but dead things in the attic, forget it. I will, no doubt, pay someone to remedy this evil if a brave masked man in a cape doesn't just happen to show up at my door to rescue me from this grievous peril. Since we know how like that is, I guess I’d best be off to check my bank balance.
So much for my short blog entry.

Learning Something New Everyday, X 2

Yesterday’s chick-fil-a cup, now filled with ice water, is still attached to my hand. It has been there for about an hour now. I had just filled it with ice and water and set it inside by the front door because I was mowing the lawn and knew I would be getting hot and thirsty. But the rain seemed to be getting harder so I decided to pack it in and rake up all the grass laying in thick lengths over the two strips of yard I had finished mowing (it’s been raining every day for almost two weeks and the grass is growing like weeds). I wanted to get the mower into the garage out of the rain, but the only space to fit it in requires that it go in backwards. I was in a hurry as my hair was turning to something sadly pining of hurricane hair and the rain was gaining strength. The mower wheel always catches on the ladder propped up next to where I store it when I try to get it in, and it is expected that I will have to work it around to get it back far enough to close the garage door. Usually I climb over and pull the mower to jostle it in place, but this time I was in a rush so I leaned over and I pushed instead. I wasn’t getting good leverage pushing from on top, so I reached under the motor housing a bit and grabbed good and solid and gave it a sound push when, “aghhhhhh!” I screamed a fantastic scream and quickly separated my forefinger from the fiery metal part of the mower that the directions warn you in large red letters never to touch or you will surely face severe injury or death. Well NOW I was reminded of those directions and without any conscious thought, I shot off running to the front door and submerged my hand in my icy chick fil a cup where my hand has remained ever since, even while i raked up the rest of the grass (yes, I am talented, thank you for noticing). I even managed to keep my hand in the cup during almost my entire shower. I was particularly impressed by this myself. Typing is tricky with only a left hand to hunt and peck with, but I’m a trooper, even while having flashbacks of that day 11 years ago on fourth of july when I learned another lesson about hands and heat and things you should never do. I panicked a bit for a second when I took off running for the ice water, thinking back and hoping I wasn’t gonna relive that part of my life back when I learned my lesson in sparkler physics. Once was enough. But I decided this was a much smaller burn area, so I was gonna treat myself this time no matter how charred my skin. Good to know I am still learning new things every day. In fact I am such an astute student of life that I learned two things today, the other being this morning when I learned that if after flushing the toilet very early in the morning, you go back in later and find the water in the toilet is very low, so low that a sense of foreboding falls upon you like a thick dark cloud, don’t flush it again. Just don’t. No matter how tempting, because even though you may be certain that any clog would surely have dissolved by now, don’t fall for that. Don’t tempt toilet fate. Go for the plunger. Just go. I don’t care if it is all the way at the other end of the house and you don’t think you feel like walking that far and you think you can take your chances rather than make an extra trip for nothing. Plunge first. Flush later. You will be glad you did. Because you probably don’t feel like cleaning the bathroom floor that early in the morning. I can almost guarantee it.

Did I? What? Did I plunge first? Well, no, or what would I have learned. I would have learned nothing. I would have been just another regular unenlightened bozo. I chose instead the path of wisdom, the path of practical knowledge, the path of pee water all over the floor and being late to work, and enjoying the early morning smell of Dow Scrubbing Bubbles and all the exercise I got when after flushing and standing there with my mouth hanging open as the water rose, I suddenly decided to run like a madwoman screaming, “Crap!” “Crap!” “Crap!” hoping to somehow make it all the way around 6 corners at top speed to get the plunger before the water flow spilled like a graceful fountain highlighted by streamers of disintegrating toilet paper, ebbing like a bubbling brook throughout the bathroom. I learned, baby. And I am richer for it. And not only am I a notch smarter now, my bathroom floor is clean too, and so is the toilet. Because you can’t leave pee residue laying around all day. As it was I spent most of the morning after my lesson in learning washing my hands compulsively. Hey, when I learn, I like to make the most of it. How else does anyone ever get these chores done anyway if not for such life lessons. It is beyond me.

So now I find myself flashing back to my time in the emergency room all those years ago, the feeling of the freezing solution they had my hand in as I lay there with a blanket of fear over my heart, imagining the pain I would be going through in the days and weeks to come. I had watched enough TV, and I had read the “It could happen to you” stories in the magazines. I knew the horrors burn victims go through. I also remember the lady in the emergency room on the other side of the curtain with a bug in her ear, shrieking relentlessly for over a half an hour at the top of her lungs and hardly pausing for breath, pleading with them, in a demanding manical way, to get the bug out of her ear now! An unnerving experience in and of itself, even if you aren’t laying there with the fear of imminent torturous pain clawing at your mind. Then all those weeks of holding my hand up to avoid the throbbing, as friends and family mimicked me and my adopted hand posture in jest. Today when I took my hand out of the cup in the shower for a few minutes, there I was, hand up, palm turned inward. It all came back to me, just like riding a bike. I think this time I will just walk around with the cup on my hand for a while instead and try something new. People enjoy having a wide variety of things to make fun of. I think they get bored if you can’t give them something new to work with. Our culture sort of frowns on those who exhibit behavior like walking around with a chick fil a cup attached to their hand, but I don’t know, I don’t have any of that silvadine cream (or whatever it was) or those plastic gloves they had me wear last time for stupid effect. It really hurts like heck still if I take my hand out of the water and now it’s been two hours since my fateful choice to push the burning mower from underneath. So my styrofoam chick fil a cup has become my security cup. It’s gonna be hard to sleep with it full of ice water, but I’ll manage it somehow. When I glom onto a solution, I gotta go with it. It’s like my many rigging scenarios. I make it work, no matter how impractical or how seemingly odd.

So there you have it. I learned two new things today and I didn’t even have to spend a dime at the emergency room. I’m feeling pretty proud. And now I have another story that will go with my other often-told, story-laden warnings to my children. They just “love” it when I tell stories of my mishaps in life every time I warn them about safety of some kind. Oh yeah, they just love it. The well of life lessons is just getting fuller and richer. My wisdom never ceases to amaze them... Well, Cally said she’s surprised I didn’t stick my hand all the way under the mower while it was running and chop my arm off. I suppose one’s life lesson could be construed as another’s stupidity. To each his own. I see only the wisdom grasshopper. I feel the pain of stupidity, yes, but I see the wisdom. (wimper, wimper)

Shrinking Vistas

They have finished, finally! The anxiety of the past few months during which our main sewer line was being repaired is at the place where it is supposed to be a memory. In many ways it is... the roaring backhoe, the workers leaving their trash and destroying my yard and the constant fear over what will be torn up next are in the past and happily so. I had only so many “anxiety years” worth of leeway there. I think I used them all up.

I came home last Friday and happened a glance out the kitchen window on my way by as has become my habit and did a double take. The fence was back and seemed imposingly out of place after months of open devastation and that orange see-through barrier. All the sudden I felt claustrophobic, like my world had shrunk. I didn't remember the fence ever seeming so imposing, so on top of us before but we'd had time to adjust to a fence-free back yard more or less during the course of the work. As we stopped to look we began to get the feeling the fence was indeed closer than it had been. It looked as if one were to take a swing on the ever popular tree swing, they might now hit the fence. Something was not right. Upon further inspection it was confirmed; the fence was replaced about 2 and half feet further into our yard than it had been before. In one day I lost valuable real estate and what feels like an acre of green. It's all the usual blessings and curses of my life. The sewer runs clean and the fence is far superior to the chain link all the neighbors down the line had put back up. It's a wood fence exactly like its predecessor, rustic and pleasing to look at, however, being that it is wood and creates a barrier, now that the barrier is creeping so much closer to the house, the feeling of open green vistas has diminished. The surveyors came and decided where to put the fence all the way down the line in the middle of the easement. My neighbor hadn't wanted the fence so far into the easement originally but said they never asked before replacing it last week. So he has now gained some valuable real-estate and an even more open feeling and unfortunately I feel like the world is closing in. I'll get used to it I'm sure, and we don't actually hit the fence while swinging, but all during the torturous process of the work I calmed myself with the thought that all would be back to normal when they were through. It would all be over one day. It's over all right, and while the sewer runs free, my backyard view will never feel the same.

Ok, time to get over that, I have a video to keep after. I did actually quit going through old tapes and have begun editing. Despite the fact that I haven't got all the music I need, I am working with what I have for now in hopes that I will find a way to get it soon. I did a chunk of editing last night, but a chunk really is a spit in the bucket with all there is to work with. I have over 1200 items of video and photos to work with on this project. Most of the time if I remember a clip to use in a spot it is almost impossible to remember what I named it and find it in the overstocked bin. Luckily I love this stuff and when it comes together I am completely satisfied.

I also have a new photo album job - a trip to Peru. I just want to work on my video though, and yet the checkbook is starving for deposits. I must get to work. Lifelong personal projects feed the soul but drain the wallet. If only it were the other way around.

God is bigger than that

Me and my grad

As Tommy said this morning in his message, "God is bigger than that!" At the beginning of this school year we faced a "mission impossible" in many ways.
After a lot of work and the kind of prayer than only comes from heartache and during tough times, we are able to celebrate a graduation and a whole school year full of incredible things I could have only dreamed of and prayed for at the start. So congratulations Cael and thanks to everyone who encouraged him and prayed for us along the way!

Home in his own bed

They're safely back and exhausted, and only the stories remain to be told. We heard some on the way home, but I had way too many questions, and Cael was so tired and says he never wants to ride in a car or bus again for a long time after all the long bus rides they took in their travels. They had a turbulent flight on the way home and from Cael's telling, everyone screamed when the plane dropped 1000 feet. He didn't journal (he forgot he says), he took only two rolls of film (says he didn't realize he had four disposable cameras) but he says they saw the most beautiful sights (he loved Italy), he spent some time on an incredible mountaintop past the clouds, in the snow (and apparently it began snowing really hard while up they were up there) with very impractical clothing and we got to hear stories of some of the guys late night pranks and how the money situtation went. So if I can catch him for long enough to hear the stories before he forgets amid all that is going on today through graduation and the parties of the weekend, I will pass on all that I am permitted to along with some photos. The guys all grew little scraggly chin beards like shaggy but they will have to shave this morning for their awards ceremony and for graduation. Ah, what an experience.

And They're Off

The adventure begins at Palm Beach International Airport this morning at 10:00.

It looks like Cael is about to board a Spirit plane. Ha! They really flew delta, but upon our arrival and seeing the names of all the airlines on the signs in the drive up to the terminal, Cael remarked something to the effect of how glad he was that he didn't have fly on an airline with a name like Spirit. Funny that he appears here to be doing just that.


Cael gets ticketed and through the line early.






It was a hub of activity at the terminal this morning. Almost 90 students packed and ready for the time of their life in Europe for 10 days.



Lots of friends and fun.

The plane should have taken off by now. The kids are on their way to their first European stop in Germany via New York. Quite a layover there in New York and then a very long flight again after that until they reach Frankfurt. All the hard work of prepping for the journey is over. I can't believe they are finally on their way. What an adenture lies ahead. Makes me want to get on a plane and go somewhere.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

The Junior/Senior Banquet has come and gone. Here is a little recap of our photo shoot beforehand. There's much more, but we'll keep it to this for now.


I wanted more moment shots like this, but it didn't happen. I was really lucky to get this one.


The work of the one, the only, the talented...Elyse. You have no idea what a hit this hair was!


Don't see this everyday!


The ladies of the group.


The gentlemen.

And that's all I have time for at the moment, as now that the banquet is over with, we have moved on to getting Cael ready for the trip to Europe. There's always something to occupy our time. And one of these days I will get started on those graduation videos. Really.

Time to change the logo

Here’s a tip: If you wash the grungy film of dirt and build up off of your windows, the whole world becomes bright and green surprisingly, even on a late, gray, rainy afternoon like today. The grass outside has that electric look that comes in the evening. (I love my grass.) With the blinds open and pulled up, and with the windows wiped to perfection, I can see all the wonders of the great outdoors incredibly clearly, but unfortunately the extra light shines a spotlight on the dust collecting like a light snow build up on my furniture. And the spots on the carpet, why they seem more numerous than ever. Hmmm... maybe clean windows have something to teach me.

The window repair man just left a bit ago. Otherwise, why would I be cleaning my windows, right? Once I was able to close the window, I was thrilled to be able to wipe the thick grime off and see again. Oh and I just wanted to let you all know I have decided to take up a new vocation... I am going to repair window cranks on old Florida windows for a living from this day forth. That’s right, I just decided. Can you picture me with my drill in hand, my can of alumi-whateveritwas and maybe a tool belt for effect, oh and maybe some work boots just in case. Now remember when I repaired my own windows before, how it was with much struggle and short-lived results, well, come to find out from my repair guy, the people at the hardware store had supplied me with the wrong crank. No wonder the windows wouldn’t close and the job was nearly impossible! Well, now that I know I was wonder woman and the job could have been a piece of cake with my skills and the right parts, I’m gonna be rich.

So the repair man removed the old (wrong crank) and replaced it with a correct new one. I watched the process, taking sharp mental notes so I could make sure my technique is on target for the other one that has the wrong crank and can’t be opened without breaking. His visit lasted a mere half an hour and I am now $99.82 lighter in the checkbook. I don’t intend to pay another $99.82 for the other window. I will do it myself now that I know the name of the correct part: It’s the Miami somethingorother. Ok, I don’t exactly remember the name of the part because mental notes, even sharp ones, aren’t written in indelible ink. But I remember that it was two words and the first was Miami. It’ll come to me. I am sure of it. The part, which he told me I could purchase for about $12, cost me $28 today, and his time cost me something like $71. Add tax, and waalaaa, a huge bill for a little work, which is exactly why I had cellophane covering my windows for about 5 months. Yes, it was five months, OK?! (At least five months.) Well, now that I know that I was doing everything right but with the wrong part, I too can begin raking in $140 an hour instead of the pittance I bring in right now slaving over videos for hours on end, stressing and obsessing for little cash. Forget that, from this day on I present myself, Liz, window repair chick. Let some sucker pay me $99.82 for a half an hour. Ah, but, only call with broken window cranks exactly like mine. Otherwise, we might have a little problem and projected profit margins may decrease slightly. But if all goes well, I may need to change my logo from my imageremix flower to something new to reflect my new calling. Perhaps something reminiscent of a female Barney Fife with a tool belt instead of a holster.

Now if I could just figure out the physics of washing machine drainage. See, what good is a new washer if the drain tube overflows at the beginning of every rinse cycle. I never had that problem before. It only happens at the beginning of the first spin and is the very worst at the beginning of the second spin. The water can’t drain fast enough to avoid running over and under the washer and across the floor til I stop and start the washer a zillion times till the force recedes. Someone with physics sense please respond and give me a clue. I have tried holding the hose higher, crimping it, pushing it in farther, all to no avail. Is there any hope? I can’t stand at the washer forever waiting for two rinse cycles per load. I was up until 12:15 doing that the other night. Heaven knows I want to be rid of my rig queen title and have things that just work for a change. Somebody? Anybody? Is there hope, can you help?

As my world turns

You’ve been sensing the sewer work drama, eh? Well, here’s an update if you’re one to follow the soaps. After I freaked about the yard the other day when the sewer workers had driven the bobcat way into my yard back and forth and after watching them place all their stuff and huge pipes as far into my yard as the orange tree, I couldn’t take it for one more second. I had to go out and ask them not to do it anymore or I was going to combust. I approached the guy with the shovel and asked if he spoke English. He shook his head and pointed me to the “English speaker”, who after I voiced my grass concerns to him in a very kind but lengthy speech, looked at me with a blank stare and said, “I speak little english only.” Agh! I asked if there might possibly be an english speaking worker out there somewhere and he told me the guy was coming, that he was down the block a ways. I waited and waited and he finally came after stopping to talk to the guys and talk on his phone, and wash his shoes off. I told the guy about how the junk was creeping further and further into my yard and that they were driving the bobcat around my yard and I told him about the special palmetto sod I had just recently had laid, and he assured me they would replace my yard with whatever kind of sod I wanted. I explained to him that I didn’t want to replace my sod because of the difficulty starting new sod, all the water and time required. So he yelled over to the spanish speaking bob cat driver nicely asking him to stay off the grass. Since then, they trashed my phone line and I was without phone for about a day and a half. I have removed their belongings and pipes from my grass three times now after they’ve left. Right now a guy is out there raking up the grass all the way up to the grapefruit tree that they trashed. They seem to be onto the smoothing-out-dirt-process right now. I don’t look forward to reliving the new sod experience. I just did that. I was so hoping to be done with such effort for a while. This experience has taken a toll on me.

Judy, feel my pain. Here is a before picture...


And here is some of what has been going on during this “ode to hypertension.” These were taken from video I shot this morning, so the quality isn’t too great. I had removed all the junk from across the yard the night before so that isn’t available for view. But right now I can see by looking out the kitchen window, I have two more 15 foot pipes to roll into the dirt again tonight after they leave.



These roots are from the back side of my tree. I have a feeling it won't last very much longer without all those. It's leaning heavily already. And it's suddenly dropping leaves like mad.

Serenity now!

Mayday!

I know this is my second post in one day but... Mayday! Mayday! Loud cracking sound as back hoe flings its arm around to dump the dirt out next to my avocado tree. Limb down! I repeat, limb down! My swing branch is in jeopardy. I’m not sure which is worse, watching the men sit and talk in the trench for an hour at a time every half hour, or the panic I feel when I see the heavy equipment operator get up and make motions to head back to the back hoe. I can’t take much more. I’m in a sweat and there’s so much dirt out there piled so close to the house I can’t open the windows or it’ll all blow in. Their pipes and equipment are scattered further and further up into my back yard, the dirt piles are about 10 feet into my grass and if you don’t hear from me for a while, have someone check to make sure I’m not laying in heap by the kitchen window collapsed from the stress and bearing screen marks on my cheeks from trying to get a good look at the turmoil. Can’t take much more. And who the heck do these guys think they are swinging their big butts on my sweet little swing. They better not make me come out there! That thing can barely hold a kid’s weight without the rope part pulling through the holes in the wood and these guys are swinging with glee like kids on a swingset seeing who can get the highest, and having a hey ole time at it. And I can’t get over the fact that they are ruining all my grass in the shade. The grass I have is a special kind of St. Augustine intended for the shade and when they replace it I can guarantee they will put regular sod there and I will begin my fight to keep the grass alive all over again. Gotta run, I hear them taking another short break from their swing and tea time to do some more destruction of my yard and my soul. (never mind, they are still sitting in the shade relaxing, must be union rules or something). Gotta keep my eyes out so if need be I can call Seacoast and vent to someone who understands English. Very frustrating this whole process. Yes, I love having a sewage system that runs freely, but I value my sanity and the regular and steady beat of my heart as well. I say it’s time to get this job done and put me out of my misery. I’m begging, here.

Sunday Afternoon Vacation

There are a few things in life I find myself amazed by time and again through the years and yet somehow I don’t learn the lesson of that amazement in a “for keeps” kind of way. One such amazement would be the beauty that is the beach and why I don’t go more often. Once in a while when I finally find myself there, I swear it will be my new hangout. Then about a year later I find myself saying the same thing once again when I happen there out of some oddity again. What is that?

Today I stumbled upon another such place.

After church and lunch at the new church property, Lynette and Lynn and I went to the convention center in West Palm for a “women’s something or other.” It had a title but I can’t remember for the life of me what it was called. Cally met us there and we wandered the booths and watched a fashion show and sampled a few things. Cally got asked if she was interested in being a model (she wasn’t).We kept leaving Lynette behind because she shopped the jewelry and purse counters for way too long at a time; we were really just there for the free stuff. It wasn’t all we’d hoped it would be, (we’d hoped for free facials, pedicures, manicures, etc) but we got our tickets for nothing so who’s complaining. However, we were ready to leave within about an hour of wandering and signing up to win things. Upon our departure we saw some interesting looking homes rising above a wall that stood as a barrier between the Convention Center parking lot and the neighborhood to the south. It was obvious they were renovated homes as that neighborhood used to be pretty slummy. The neighborhood had the somewhat upscale look of old homes transformed. We decided to drive around and see how cute and charming they were and all the cool details you only find on the older homes in south Florida. We started seeing “For Sale” signs here and there and wondered what the asking prices were getting to be in this area. We rounded a corner and came upon an open house in progress. Lynette said we had to go in. So we did deeming her our official spokesperson. On the outside, the house was maintained although not at all that charming or attractive in color or style. The house we had seen a few blocks over oozed charm and this one looked ordinary. But upon entering it, we were amazed at the decorating and all they had done to transform it. It was really interesting inside. It was only a 2/1, somewhere around 1150 sq. ft. and they were asking $449,000. I couldn’t believe it. It was a corner lot and the only yard it had was in the front, and a huge park was situated across the street to the side of it. But it wasn’t a particularly pretty park. There were about 30 guys playing soccer when we were there. Not exactly private feeling as a fairly good sized window looked out on it. $449,000! I couldn’t believe it. Judy, it had nothing on your house except some lavish decorating. There was plenty of not-so-nice ambiance nearby and yet somehow they are commanding (or at least trying to command) those prices in that area.

Geez, my neighborhood is way more private and has huge yards, why can’t Lake Park get on the updo track and become a Flamingo Park or a whatever the other names of those areas were? It has so much more potential for revitalization. I would seriously like to revitalize my house. I have so many good ideas. My neighbor in the big house across the street and over is planning to refab his house. Maybe we could get the trend going here. One day this area will be like an Old Northwood or Flamingo Park, you wait and see, and then the prices will really hike. I couldn’t believe how those homes in West Palm had no land and I was just amazed at prices that reflect what you would pay in PGA National with a pool and all the land and upscale style. Really wierd how this market goes.

Anyway, from there we took Cally to her car and decided to get out at City Place, walk around and get a drink and then sit and enjoy the day. And it was such a day! The sky was Santa Fe blue like you wouldn’t have believed and made an intense backdrop for the palm trees when I looked up. The air was low 70’s, felt like high 60’s because yesterday it was as hot as summer here rendering anything under 85 as quite cool. The breeze was blowing, the fountains were splashing and they did that thing every half an hour where the fountains shoot up in time with the music. It was a gorgeous Florida Sunday and City Place is really beautiful with all the steps and the old Harriet Himmel building and the stones and the fountains and the colors and the people everywhere to watch. I don’t know why I don’t go more often and buy a coke, sit at a wrought iron table and enjoy the view. It was really like an afternoon vacation with the mood music playing at Bellagios. Didn’t cost me a thing because Lynn bought the coke since I drove. Wasn’t that nice? Lynette bought Cally a cd she had been talking about all afternoon before she left. Lynette went in Starbucks for iced coffee and there was the CD for sale, so she got it for Cally. What a nice surprise that will be. It was like a rich day in paradise and it was free. That’s beauty in and of itself. Maybe next week I’ll land myself on the sand at the beach and take another Sunday afternoon vacation. Life is short and who knows how long before someone starts charging for a day at the beach. I’m not taking any chances ever since I heard they plan to start making you pay to park at City Place. As of today, though, I happily report that parking is still free. Free, I love that word.