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Saturday, June 30, 2007

Quirks


Do you have any quirks? I don't think there's anyone who doesn't have any.
I know I have a few.
For instance, I like to have my clocks set 5 - 7 minutes ahead of the real time.
I don't know why. For some reason when my alarm goes off in the morning I like knowing
that it's really not as late as my clock says and I can close my eyes for a few more minutes.
Same thing in my vehicle. I like the clock set fast so when I have to be somewhere it looks like I'm going to be a few minutes late but get there on time.
I know, very strange. My husband doesn't get it. Just keep the clock at the correct time he says, what's the difference? Well, it must be some psychological thing for me. I don't know why but he's right, it is all in my head and I like it that way. He set the clock in our new car to the correct time. Next time I'm driving alone I'm moving it forward a few minutes.


Another quirk, maybe not so much a quirk as a ritual. I have to put my stockings or socks on starting with my left leg. If I don't for some reason, I have to start over. It just doesn't feel right if I go right side first. Same with putting my shoes on, left first then right.



One thing you might consider a quirk but I think goes back to the womb is that when my hands are at rest or especially when I'm sleeping, the thumb is always tucked into my hand with my fingers curled around it. My dad used to tell me if I ever need to defend myself, don't make a fist like that, keep your thumb on the outside. I think of little babies when they sleep with their butt up in the air, they must have been comfortable in the womb. For me, I must have liked my thumb curled in my hand.

Where do quirks come from? I think many quirks or certain things you like start in early childhood maybe even infancy. If I'm in bed and Sean rubs my butt, I'm asleep. My mother must have done that when I was a baby to calm me down and get me to sleep. I know that's how I got my babies to sleep. Forget the back rub, I'm all about the ass!




We are enjoying beautiful weather here in the northeast. For a while we were in the high 80's low 90's and humid. It has gotten cooler now, low 80's mid 70's. Perfect weather for me. I love to sit out in the garden, listen to the birds, read or do crossword puzzles. It was a long school year this year and I'm just chilling. Lucky me :)

I hope your summer is going just as well.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Can goldfish be mentally challenged? I think so. We've had a goldfish for about a year now. His name is Abe (named after the character Abe Vigoda played on Barney Miller, "Fish") Many times I walk into the kitchen where he lives in his bowl on the table and he's floating upside down. When I get near the bowl he rights himself and looks at me for food. Sometimes he swims around upside down. Maybe one of the times his bowl got cloudy his brain was oxygen deprived.

Cleaning up some financial stuff in our life and it feels good. Just refinanced our home, traded in my 2004 Explorer on a Honda CR-V. It gets about 23 miles per gallon up from 14 although I do miss the V6 in the Ford. We sold our Coleman pop up camper so we no longer needed a big vehicle to tow it. I will miss the camper. I've been camping for about 40 years. But now both kids have jobs so it's hard to fit everyone's schedule into a camping vacation. Last year Sean and I went by ourselves for a week and it was very nice but... I'm at the point where I only want to camp at a Hilton.

Speaking of a Hilton, is anyone else overdosed on that girl. If I have to hear her name one more time on TV I'm turning it off for good. I don't understand how a girl who does absolutely nothing with her life except party and forget to wear panties in public gets this much face time in the media. Her parents must be so pround.

It has been so hot here, in the 90's and we've already had half the amount of days over 90 that we average for an entire summer. I won't complain because I wished for this during the past winter. My perfect temperature is 75 degrees but as long as I have air conditioning I'll survive.

Some sad news in our town, 5 newly minted high school graduates were killed in a firey car crash last night. The girls were on their way to a cottage when they slammed head on into a tractor trailer. Another car behind them was travelling with them. When number one son and his friends started driving several years ago our rule was that he couldn't ride with anyone until they had their license for 6 months and he couldn't drive any friends for 6 months. Number two wondered why I would let him ride with his brother though. They think I'm overprotective and maybe I am but when they're parents themselves one day they will understand.

Monday, June 25, 2007

I was married previously many, many years ago. It wasn't a good marriage and I knew when I did it that I was making a mistake. We were very young. I can tell you that on our honeymoon he threw one of our suitcases at me. We had our problems and one of them being that we were both strong willed and stubborn. Soon our disagreements escalated into physical fights. I'm the type that will go down swinging. I hit back when I could. He was 6'4" 225 lbs. I am 5'4"and if you think I'm telling you my weight, forget it. I had many bruises and fat lips but never any broken bones. There were times when I thought we would kill each other. I realized that he would get any weapon away from me and use it himself as well as just the feeling that I could even think about doing that. It scared me terribly. We decided that this marriage had to end and it did after just three years. Funny thing was, once that decision was made, we got along fine. We had no children and at the time I thought if I did get pregnant it would be the worse thing ever. Another huge signal that this was not right. I refer this time period as my past life. Today I'm in my 25th year of marriage to Sean.

Where I'm going with this is here. In light of the man who was arrested for shooting and killing his wife and three children in their SUV in Illinois and the man in Ohio that allegedly killed his mistress and full term unborn baby; if the problems in your life are that bad and you can't walk away; kill yourself, not your wife, lover or children for God's sake. I was shocked to find out that the leading cause of death among pregnant women is homicide.

I don't really get along with computers and don't know how to link to something with one word so I have to type out the whole address. If someone can drop me a note and tell me how that would be wonderful. Read the above stories here:
www.examiner.com/a-796887~police_Charge_Husband_in_Family_s-Death.html and here
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070624/ap_on_re_us/missing_woman_123

On another note, in a post dated May 5 I wrote about snitching. A 38 year old woman in Arizona was branded on her face with the word snitch. This brand (yes, what they do to cattle) is 4-6 inches long on her left cheek from lip to earlobe. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070623/ap_on_re_us/woman_branded

As I read back on today's post I see that it's very depressing. The violence in the world against women and humanity in general is appalling. I'm going to have to stop reading the news.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007




I haven't posted in a while and I miss it. I have another blog that I have taken a break from since some jerk has been leaving death threats in the comments. I have a pretty thick skin about things but that is just over the top. I am leaving that blog alone for a while. In the mean time life just continues on.

My number one son got his first car, a 1999 Honda Civic. I worry slightly more when he's out now that he's not driving my Explorer or dad's Honda CR-V. He has two jobs this summer. One is at Ben & Jerry's (an ice cream shop) and he works with his brother who happens to be his boss. His summer nursing job in the cardiac care unit is going well although he hasn't had to deal with any death yet.

Son number two finished his junior year in high school. He is working more hours for Ben & Jerry's this summer as the shift leader and they just gave him his own key to the store so he can open and close for the owners.

We finally closed on the refinance of our house after a big mess with Countrywide Home Loans. DO NOT ever use them. We may take legal action against them. I'm sure going against this giant company will not be worth it so who knows.


Today was my last day of school with students. My fifth graders are now offically out of my hair and into someone else's in middle school! It was a tough year but in about 3 weeks I will start to miss them.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

It is so relaxing to sit in the garden. These are coral bells.
A larger shot of the garden.

This is called black and blue salvia.

This little chipmunk and his two friends are enjoying the
buffet that is our bird feeder. They're funny when you get close
to them. They freeze like a statue thinking that if they
don't move you won't see them. We stood there for
10 minutes staring at each other. I finally moved first.

Purple columbine, I also have a maroon specimen.


Gazanias (above) close up in the evening or when it's very overcast outside. When my nephew was little (he is just finishing 3rd grade now so he thinks he's no longer "little") he called them sleeping flowers. He would call me to ask if my flowers were awake or sleeping.

I don't know what these are called. I bought them for the beautiful multi colors. My garden has no color theme. Just what ever looks good to me. As long as it's colorful.

I have spent some time thinking in the garden today. First some background. I have always been outspoken and opinionated. I used to think that if someone didn't do something or handle a situation the way I would, it must not be the right way. I wanted things my way. I worked long and hard to turn some of these traits around. If you believe all of the astrological stuff, I am a true Leo in almost every way. I can be demanding but I hate to disappoint people, hurt their feelings or make them feel bad about themselves.

I did that yesterday to two important people. First, yesterday was an "anniversary" of a life altering event in my life. I was devastated by it. Without going into detail, this event brings me a few days of stress and sadness every year. I have decided once and for all, I will get over it, focus on the positive and stop letting it control me. I had an idea, tried it and it backfired. Big time. All it did was make someone else unhappy and down more so then they may have already been. That was not my intention. My intention was to turn this day around. Focus on what good came out of it. It didn't work, in the end we both ended up feeling crappy.

Later that evening while chatting with a friend, my thoughts, opinions and mouth got me in trouble again. Everyone handles situations in their lives differently and just because it's not how I would handle it, that's the way they need to handle it. My intention was not to make my friend feel inadequate or overwhelmed. Things were said that made me feel bad too.

Life is complicated. I guess I'll keep my opinions to myself.