It’s Wednesday. I’m Random

• This morning I followed a man into the hospital. A man with itty bitty cornrows. A man with itty bitty cornrows that had light blue beads on them. I tried so hard not to look that I was probably staring.
• So my current coworker is married to a doc in another department. Do you know that doc’s supervisor (my old boss) has started emailing me about whether or not he (my coworker) is at work?!?  What in the world?  And if you’re confused by that, no worries – so am I.
• A lot of fashion bloggers are ridiculous.  I’m all for free expression and wearing what you like, but 99.9% of that stuff they pose in – by railroad tracks or hugging the side of an abandoned building – would probably get me written up at work, ridiculed by my family, or both.
• I’ve not bought any nail polish at all this year.  My “fast” has been easier than I thought, though I will admit the warmer weather has me craving some bright colors instead of the vampy ones I seem to have accumulated so many of.  I’ve convinced my niece to let me borrow a bottle of aqua polish she has – too cute!
• I want to go back and fix the first sentence of the previous bullet so it doesn’t end in a preposition.  But I won’t.  The sentence would sound more pretentious than I can bear.
• I’ve been using coconut oil on my skin – my usually irritated skin has calmed down a lot.  This is part of a concerted effort to watch what I put on my body as well as what I put into it.  Of course, that didn’t stop me from scarfing down 4 Oreos yesterday…
• I’m almost back at the point where I enjoy exercising again.  Which means I’ll do it more.  Which means I will soon be able to kiss my flabby arms goodbye
• I made baked beans for Memorial Day. Yuck. I don’t see the appeal of sweet beans with meat in them. My family loved them.
• Anybody reading anything good?
• I totally forgot – until this very moment – that I was supposed to be doing something with the med students.  Oops.  Can be easily remedied though.  Thank goodness.
• I saw the Avengers on Saturday. I was not impressed.
• And now I’m off to spend the rest of the day searching for hairstyles on YouTube. I’m wearing my locs straight this week and I don’t like the way it looks at all.
• What’s shaking in your part of the world?

 

13

Can’t Stop Loving You – Joan Armatrading

Might as well ask me to drown in the Dead Sea
You might as well ask me to walk a high wire

You might as well say the sky is falling
You can say stop but I know I can’t

I’ve been loving you far too long, I can’t stop it
I’ve been loving you far too long, I can’t stop it now

Coast to coast, I have seen the world
Seen the rest, and you are the best

Can’t stop it, baby
Can’t stop this love for you

All my moods, you always win me ’round
Don’t leave me darling
Don’t wanna learn a brand new dance

Might as well ask me to steal the Taj Mahal
Spend a night alone in a haunted house

You can say stop, but I know I can’t
Can’t stop it baby
Can’t stop this love for you

Can’t stop loving you
Can’t stop loving you

Continuing to thank and bless God for our marriage.  Happy 13th anniversary to us!

A Week & A Day

As most of y’all know blogger, attorney, mom, and friend extraordinaire Psonya is packing up and heading for greener pastures.  After much struggle and sacrifice she and her family – Thug Thizzle, N, and A – will all be living under one roof.  In Memphis. And while I’m happy for P and her family, for me? This really sucks.

I’m totally going to miss P.  We don’t see each other as much as we did when our children were enrolled in the best little Christian preschool ever.  Their schools, interests, and friends have changed but we still manage to get together for dinner ever so often and her phone number is one of the few I can almost dial from memory.

Over the last four years I’ve picked A up from school when she wasn’t going to be able to make it to after-care in time.  She’s picked LG up for me and let me get in study time when I was working on my last degree.  She’s encouraged me to buy tshirts in colors other than black (who knew???) and I’ve been able to counsel her on red beans and rice and watermelon.  We’ve shared meals at the Waffle House (because we’re fancy like that) and at each others’ kitchen tables.  We’ve sweated, laughed, and cursed (that was mostly me) through the Insanity workout, a few bootcamps, and Zumba.  We’ve met other people from blog-land together and I’ve witnessed at least a few of her encounters with crazy people colorful characters.  I was blessed to see she and T exchange wedding vows.  Our husbands have met, received stamps of approval and somehow adopted complimentary nicknames….The kiddos still see each other on occasion and every time I turn right toward A’s school instead of left toward home I can hear LG in the back exhaling “thank you God for answering my prayer! I get to see A!”

In a week and a day, she’ll be gone.  Settling happily in to the life she has dreamed about.  And while 99.9% of me will be totally happy for her, that last little .1% will wish she were still just a 3 minute car ride away.

I mean look at her here after our legendary garage sale.  How I could I not miss her?!?!?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t tell her ’cause she’s so not a touchy-feely type girl, but I totally plan on hugging her before she leaves!

They see me rolling, they hatin’

…okay, so that’s pretty much a lie.  No one is hating on me for my ride – a 10 year old Dodge Durango.  But they do see me rolling.  At least when my car is working.

I’ve mentioned on here and on the Twitter that my car?  Is tripping.  Every few weeks the joker just runs hot and shuts down on your girl.  We’ve replaced hoses, the water pump, the thermostat and as of this past week, the radiator.

Yesterday I’m rolling on in to work and I notice that my temperature gauge is steadily inching toward “hot as hell.”  Well, okay, it’s really moving toward “H,” but I figured I’d be dramatic for story’s sake.  Anyhoo, by the time I pull into the parking lot, there is steam pouring out from under the hood of the car.  I throw that joker in park, snap a picture and start making my way toward the building.  Some genius felt it necessary to run up, tap me on my shoulder and tell me my car was smoking.  Thank you Captain Obvious.  So I call Smoochy and tell him the ride is tripping again.  He gets frustrated because he’s out of town and can’t figure out what else to do.  He calls his cousin who comes and picks it up.  And buys a new radiator cap for it.  Problem solved.  Cousin drives it around all day to make sure all is well (for now anyhow) and brings it back at the end of my work day.  So, a $7 radiator cap and a 1/2 tank of gas later I’m back rolling.

Of course while I’m waiting on news about my car I’m trying to figure out what’s next.  New car?  Costly repair?  What’s a Nerd Girl to do?  So I start looking around on the internets and call a few car dealerships.  I told them I was looking for:  a late model car 2008/2009 no more than 45, maybe 55K miles, four doors, not white.  And I wanted a note around $250.  Everybody laughed at me.  Told me it couldn’t me done.  A lie.  Those were the same specs I had when I bought my last car – the Durango – in 2004.  Guess what…yeah, I got what I wanted then and I have no doubt I’ll get what I want when I decide to make that plunge again.  Right now, the repairs to the car haven’t been all that costly, and while having to call for assistance is a pain in my hindquarters, neither of these justify (in my mind) a new ride just yet.

This brings me to the Q&A portion of this entry…what are you driving?  Did you buy it new or used?  Are you happy with it?  What do you have your sights set on for your next ride?  Are there any features you absolutely must have in a car?

And just in case you, like Smoochy, require pictorial evidence of a smoking car?  Here ya go:

 

 

Life Lesson #77239

If you buy a $10 bottle of shampoo and a $10 tub of conditioner in an effort to impart moisture into you and your daughter’s hair, it is very likely that your follicularly challenged (bald) husband will use them both and tell you how wonderfully supple they made his scalp. Sir…

Weekend Shenanigans

Y’all!  I had so much fun camping.  I’d only been camping a few times prior to this weekend’s trip and they were both “real” camping trips complete with tents and all that jazz.  This trip – not so much.

We were in the cutest little cabin complete with air conditioning.  The cabin had three bedrooms, one bath and a little kitchenette.  Very nice.  The lake was right at our backdoor and even though we were only about 25 minutes from home I really felt like we were in a whole ‘nother world.  I felt very relaxed and peaceful.  I guess there really is something to be said for getting back to nature – the works that God’s hands have made are indeed magnificent.

Anyhoo, we cooked out, watched an outdoor movie, explored our surroundings and found a baby turtle – this was all Friday evening.

Saturday morning we woke up and after breakfast we spent the rest of our time there at the little water park and the pool.  Needless to say LG and I are both a few shades darker and I – as usual – have a heckuva heat rash that I’ll be dealing with for the next few days.  Joy.  We headed home at about 2:30.  One of the moms rented a cabin for her family and they were going to stay another night.  Smart lady.  LG wanted to stay another night and while I almost rented a cabin and told Smoochy to join us, I’m glad I didn’t.

On the way home? My car ran hot. Do what?!? We just fixed this problem a couple of months ago. Or maybe we didn’t. Anyhoo, I was able to almost make it home and then there LG and I sat waiting for Smoochy to come to our rescue. We’re going to replace the radiator and hopefully that will fix the problem. Smoochy is ready for me to get another car. I am enjoying not having a car note and the money we’ve put into fixing this heating problem has not been significant enough for me to change my mind on that. Especially since this overheating is the first bit of trouble my car has given me in 8 years. But I am about to seriously buckle down and start putting away for a down payment. Just in case.

The rest of the weekend was rather chill. I am ruthlessly going through the house and expect to have 4 or 5 bags to take to Goodwill by the end of the week and just as many sitting on the curb for the garbage men on Friday.  One of my former coworkers is coming to pick up LG’s old outdoor playhouse and picnic bench – so we’re working on the outside as well.

How great Thou art!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chillaxing at the outdoor movie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She loves the water! Hoping this is the summer she actually learns to swim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The door panel on my rental car. A KIA something or other. I’m not fancy by any means, but seriously? Manual window cranks?!? LG is fascinated!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Club – My Name Is Butterfly

So…we haven’t book clubbed in a while (thanks Irendi for the nudge!) and since I just bought a book for the low-low of .99 + tax via Amazon/Kindle I figured why not make it our next book?

I don’t even know what this book is about, no one has recommended it, etc., etc. it was just a spur-of-the-moment purchase.

So grab yourself a copy and get to reading.  I believe this book is only available as an e-book, but no worries – if you don’t have a tablet/reader/gadget you can always download the Kindle app onto your desk/laptop and read it from there.  I’ve heard reading on a desktop can help the work day fly by…

The book is:  My Name is Butterfly

The author is:  Bernice McFadden

The price (as I type this) is:  99 cents

The discussion date is:  Monday, June 11

Happy Reading!  Happy Weekend!

 

 

 

Determined to Write Something

• I had an oatmeal pie for breakfast this morning. I’m pretty sure this has a lot to do with the fact that my thighs are staging their own third world coup.
• LG and I are going camping with the Girl Scouts. We leave Friday night and will be back late Saturday afternoon. We’re both pretty excited. We should probably get out more…
• Smoochy and I will celebrate 13 years of marriage in a few weeks. I haven’t the foggiest idea what to buy him. I’m going to suggest we just go to dinner and call it a day. It never works, but I always suggest it.
• I just ate a bunch of carrots. I’m thinking they’ll erase the damage done by the oatmeal pie.
• I understand that folks think other folks shouldn’t say anything to them about how they raise their children. I disagree. While I don’t want, need, or take advice from just anybody, I am glad that I have people in my life who can and will provide pointers on raising LG. Whether they’re sharing successes or parenting fails, there’s usually a nugget of wisdom in there somewhere. I feel sorry for people who think they know everything. They don’t.
• LG pointed at her chest the other day and told me her breasts were growing and that she doesn’t want them. I wanted to tell her “no worries – with your family history, they’re not going to get much bigger and when you’re about 15 you’ll be plenty pissed about it.” But I didn’t.
• Did you know today is a national day of prayer? It is. Go ahead – say a little prayer. “Thank You” counts.
• Is there a particular song that always gets you on the dance floor? I’m making a playlist for this imaginary party I’m throwing one day. Need suggestions.
• Did I tell y’all that LG was “Little Pig #1″ in the 1st grade production “A Three Piggy Opera?” Well, she was. And yes I’m biased, but I’ve got to say – she was awesome!!  The whole little musical was quite cute and the kids did a really good job. And this from someone who um, doesn’t like kiddie productions.
• What’s going on with y’all?

This is her in her house of straw. She’s getting ready to sing her part. This picture blows. As do all the pictures I took. Thankfully the school sells DVDs of the performance. There’s a sucker born every minute ’cause I surely bought one!

She was pretty pleased with her performance. Not sure what this pose is all about though.