Saturday, July 31, 2010

i thought freestyle was just for olympic skiing . . .

so today . . . we ate lunch at hometown buffet.

i like hometown buffet. i am the only one in my family who does. diandra refuses to eat there--she will go across the parking lot and eat all by herself at panda express rather than come into hometown buffet with us. rollie's reactions are mixed. he can usually find something he likes, but it is definitely not his favorite place to eat--it is probably not even in his top five.

that is, until today . . .

we went to hometown buffet today, because we were avoiding carbs, and there are a lot of carb-less choices there. (well, if you stay away from the dessert area and the cinnamon rolls--which they inexplicably put on the salad bar!!!) i came back from the salad bar with a plate full of yummy stuff. rollie came back with a plate full of tiny tomatoes and cucumber slices. and three sodas.apparently our hometown buffet has upgraded their soda fountain. they now have the new "freestyle" coke machine. we now have more beverage choices than anyone needs. there are soda choices in this machine that are not even available anywhere else! rollie's first three choices were grape coke, vanilla coke, and peach fanta. yes, he is somewhat partial to fruit flavors . . .

i had a diet coke. with a lemon slice from the taco bar. i am so adventurous . . .

rollie was pretty excited about his drink choices. i was not so sure. i'm not adverse to a vanilla coke now and then, but grape coke?!?!? raspberry coke?!?!? i'm sorry, but that is just WRONG!!! rollie, however, seemed to think it was delcious! i think he made more trips to the freestyle coke machine than he did to get food!!and i had a diet coke. with a real lemon slice in it.

i did take a sip of his grape coke (it was gross!) the vanilla coke was pretty good. i declined his offer of a taste of the peach fanta. but the point is, there were drinks of just about every flavor in this machine. rollie continued to drink, and i went back to get some meat.

i could tell rollie was enjoying his beverages. even as he sat drinking one of them, i could see the wheels turning inside his head, already thinking about what he was going to have next . . . that is the thing about this machine--there are over 100 choices!

rollie had a big smile on his face the whole time we were there. he said it was the best meal ever from hometown buffet. but he didn't really mean meal--he meant he liked the beverage choices.

i don't think i am a fan. the machine was cool, the technology of it is interesting, (because they are not keeping a supply of 100 different drinks in there--think about it,) and it is nice to have all of the choices. but only one person can use it at a time! and because of all those choices it can take that one person a looooong time to decide what to fill their glass with, so the wait to quench your thirst can be daunting . . .

in the end, i still got the same drink i always get--diet coke with lemon. because that is what i like. and this new machine? i'm glad it is there, because now rollie will jump at the chance to eat at hometown buffet. but for me, it just adds one more layer to my own personal hell--a place where i have to make more decisions . . .

Friday, July 30, 2010

500!

so today . . . i am posting my 500th blog! FIVE HUNDRED!! just stop for a minute and think about that . . . i am pretty impressed with myself!

i think i spend waaaay more time writing my blog than anyone else does. i say this because i am never happy with my first attempt. i write, rewrite, and edit every blog to within an inch of it's life. and this takes time! but i do it, because i want it to be good--really good. i want to feel proud of the end result, and so i write for as long as it takes . . .

but how long does it take? since i rarely sit down, start a new blog, write it, edit it, and post it all in one sitting without any breaks, it is kind of hard to estimate the time spent. (especially since facebook is usually occupying another tab on my computer, and maybe home shopping network and hotmail too--all clamoring for a little of my attention . . . ) i usually start my blog between 7:00 and 8:00 at night, and don't post it until after 11:00. of course, i am not blogging all of that time--i am also shopping, playing fb games, reading other blogs, and checking my email! but i think a conservative estimate would be an hour of work for each blog post. that is a lot of time--especially if you add it all up!

so here is a top ten list of THINGS I COULD HAVE DONE WITH 500 HOURS--IF I HADN'T BLOGGED.

10. i could have worked four more months. why i would do this, i have no idea. but since i work about 32 hours a week teaching small children, 500 hours translates into 15.5 weeks of work. i think it is safe to say i would choose blogging over more work!
9. i could have watched 333 more movies, if the movies averaged an hour and a half long. this does not include travel time. or standing in line to pay $4.75 for a soda. or walking half a mile to find the car in the long beach town center parking lot--if i drove. (if rollie drove, we got a parking space right by the door, because he has this uncanny ability to get the best parking spaces!)
8. i could have scanned in 6000 strips of old negatives, because it takes me about five minutes per strip. of course, that is just the beginning . . . once i get them scanned in, then i have to delete the bad ones, name and date the rest, sort them, and put them into folders. and then, put them into photoshop and fix them up so they look like new! really, in 500 hours, i'll probably actually only complete the process with two strips. two.
7. i could have taken 1500 power naps, which i will need after dealing with all those negatives. i don't know who decided 20 minutes constituted a nap, but i find that it takes me almost that much time to find the alarm app on my phone, set an alarm, and close my eyes. then i lay there and worry that the alarm won't go off, because sometimes i forget to turn the alarm on once it is set, and the rest of the time i forget to unmute the volume. and then before i know it, my 20 minutes is up.
6. i could have said, "are you making a good choice?" 72,000 times. it only takes me five seconds to say that, but i say it over and over and over again, day after day after day. of course, i work with five year olds . . .
5. i could have attended 143 angels games, if i was in charge of the schedule. this is because i don't feel the need to get to a baseball game two hours before the first pitch is thrown (unlike some people in my family!) rollie would only get to go to 111 games . . .
4. i could have made 29 non-stop drives to portland. we are road warriors! if necessary, we can drive that trip in 17 hours. of course, to do that, we have to employ the three-in-one stop. for those of you who only fly, the three-in-one stop means gas, restrooms, and food (to go) all in one stop, and then we hit the freeway for four more hours. this means that sometimes lunch consists of corn nuts, cherry nibs, and soda, but we make good time :)
3. i could have watched 625 episodes of mythbusters on netflix. however, there are currently only 166 episodes recorded, so i would have to watch each one three times. that's ok though, because does one ever get tired of ballistics gel? or watching things blow up?!?
2. i could have ridden california screamin' 7500 times! this is the. best. rollercoaster. EVER!! there are some pretty good roller coasters at magic mountain, but if i could only ride one roller coaster for the rest of my life, i think this would be the one. it is that good!

and the number one thing i could have done with an extra 500 hours?

1. i could have written a book. although a book would have required a beginning and an end. and while my blog had a beginning, i don't know when it will end. and as for character development? i seem to have plenty of characters in my life . . .

in hindsight, i am glad i have blogged. i started out with the intent just to give you a giggle every day, but i have ended up sharing my life. it has turned out to be totally worth the time i have invested in it.

here's to 500 more!

*as i go to post this blog, i realize that it is blog #501! i do not know how this has happened!! now my ocd is kicking into overdrive, and i am trying to figure out how i can rearrange the last couple of blogs so that this one will actually BE my 500th blog. i guess i could change the date on the kindle blog that i wrote a few days ago. really, it isn't particularly specific to the day i wrote it. and since i haven't actually read a book on my kindle yet, i could sort of pretend i wrote it after this one . . . don't you think? but if i do that, then this whole paragraph won't make any sense when future blog readers come across it.

sheesh!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

it is time . . .

so today . . . i am thinking it might be time to take my relationship with my kindle to the next level.

i have had my kindle for exactly one month. i have purchased a cool purple cover for it. i have downloaded about 30 books. i have started a wish list on amazon with 56 more books on it. i have read the newest user's guide as well as another guide that i bought. i tried (sadly, unsuccessfully) to use my own pictures for the screensaver. i surfed the web (very slowly) a little bit. i checked out blogs i could subscribe to. i have done just about everything with my kindle that it is capable of doing . . .

. . . except to read an actual book.

i first heard the word "kindle" a year and a half ago when doug, our associate pastor (and favorite electronics junkie) got one for christmas. rollie was telling me about it, but i didn't really understand why a person would need one or want one. i should have known better, because doug is sort of like our drug dealer of electronics--he gets the latest electronic device, rollie watches him use it, he tells rollie how cool it is, rollie starts thinking about getting one, doug gushes about how he doesn't know how he ever got along without his, rollie searches the web, and soon a box from ebay or amazon shows up on our doorstep . . . and you know, when rollie gets a cool electronics device, he feels the need to describe it's coolness to me in excruciating detail. which, of course, leads to my burning desire to have one as well! so it was only a matter of time . . .

yes, we are somewhat co-dependent.

i thought i might get a good deal on doug's kindle when he got an ipad. (guess what sleek apple product is now trying to push it's way into our must-have category . . . but we are strong! we are resisting!) but he seemed to want to hang onto his. so i sort of gave up on it--i thought maybe one would show up under the christmas tree or in time for my birthday next year.

and then the price dropped. and rollie determined that i should spend my summer getting fully recuperated from all the sickness i battled last year. and he thought the best way to do that was for me to rest-and read! so he introduced me to my very own kindle.

and i love it! i carry it in my handbag. i play with it. i bought a reading light so i could read it in bed. but i haven't actually read a book on it yet . . .

i was thinking about this today and realized that for me, it is like having meat in the freezer. i never actually eat the meat in our freezer, but i need to know the meat is in there. it gives me security knowing that we have food--even freezer-burned, inedible food--just in case there is ever an emergency. in the same way, i like knowing i have books to read on my kindle, whether or not i actually read them. because if i actually start reading those books, then someday i might run out . . . and then what if we lose our electricity or i lose my job or i get really sick, and i need books to read?!?!?!

you see my dilemma.

but today is our one month anniversary, and i think it is time to get serious. it is time to stop shopping for accessories and books. it is time to stop playing around with user's guides. it is time to take our relationship to the next level, and put my kindle to the use for which it was created. yes, it is time to read a real book . . .

so this weekend, i will be hanging out in my backyard, on the lounger, with my kindle--as soon as i decide which book to read . . .

Monday, July 26, 2010

my body rebels

so today . . . i am a big, fat failure.

well, to be more accurate, i am a small, skinny unsuccessful colon cleanser.

yes, i know, that is way more information than you ever wanted to have about me, but i've had a crummy weekend. and if you continue to read, you are going to find out why . . .

i have a digestive disease that now requires me to undergo yearly colonoscopies. am i lucky or what?! i have a wonderful g.i. doctor, whom i love, and i don't even mind the actual procedure. but preparation for the procedure is a nightmare! at least it is for me.

my colon hates me. it refuses to cooperate with normal methods of cleansing for this procedure. so my prep consists of at least two days on clear liquids, followed by drinking a gallon of a specially designed drink. (i will spare you the details of what it is specially designed to do . . . that's how much i love you all.)

i have endured several of these procedures over the last 25 years. and while the prep has been difficult for me, i have always been able to ingest enough of it so that my doctor could use her scope for the purpose for which it was intended--again, i will spare you the details.

but this weekend i was unsuccessful. i didn't eat one bite of anything for two whole days! i felt pretty bad. and when i tried to drink the vile concoction? i could not keep it in my body long enough for it to do it's thing! i tried. really, i did. and then i cut the dosage in half and tried again. i tried for five hours!! i finally realized it was just not going to happen . . . and i had to call and cancel my appointment at the last minute.

i feel like a failure. i hate that my doctor and her team had to get up early this morning for nothing (yes, i was their first appointment.) i miss the warm blanket and lovely sedative that accompany this procedure. and i really hate knowing that i am going to have to go through all of this again, because, you know, it is important that we find out just how much my colon hates me . . .

i wrote my doctor a despairing email last night, explaining the situation. she replied that we would try something else next time. i soon got an email from her nurse with a new plan of attack AND a new appointment. i think the new plan has a much better chance of success--it relies more on pills (which are also an issue for me, but that is a subject for another day,) and less on copious amounts of disgusting fluids. so i live to dread having a colonoscopy another day . . .

Saturday, July 24, 2010

the things i do for my daughter . . .

so today . . . diandra, my precious darling daughter, threw me under the bus . . .

we were in forever 21, looking for clothes for an upcoming photo shoot. forever 21 is a good place to look, because they have LOTS of clothes and most are reasonably priced. we had a very specific goal--find a vest for javi.

vests are kind of back in style, so you might not think this would be too hard. but you would be wrong. we had already looked in several other stores with no luck, and then we struck gold in forever 21! when we walked into the men's department, there it was--the perfect vest, displayed on a mannequin. we immediately began scouring the racks to find one. we looked and looked and looked, but couldn't seem to find any. diandra asked a sales person where they were. he said they were sold out. diandra asked if we could have the one off the mannequin (which was just the size we needed,) and he said no, they weren't allowed to sell the clothes off the mannequins.

this made no sense to me at all. the vest was part of their inventory, we wanted to buy it, i didn't see the problem. soooo, i wandered over and scoped out the mannequin. i noticed that the vest only had the top button fastened. i mentally figured out how to get the vest off (i felt like that younger brother in prison break--i had a plan!) i glanced around, nonchalantly, and unfastened the button . . . no one came. so i quickly slipped the vest off the shoulders of the mannequin and prepared to make my get away . . .

. . . and then it got stuck on the stupid hands!!! being nonchalant was no longer an option, because the vest was hanging off the hands, and i needed to get it off FAST without knocking the whole thing over AND without being seen. because, you know, we had already been told we couldn't have it.

(i think it is worth noting here that diandra was no where in sight. i found out later she was watching all this go down from a distance, but did she jump in and help me? no, she did not. she just left me to deal with the situation on my own. in her defense, she said that since technically she was the one who was told we couldn't have the mannequin's vest, she thought we had a better chance if she stayed out of it. i'm not sure i believe her . . .)

anyway, i had the vest in my hands. i turned to go find diandra and head to a cash register in another part of the store (where they wouldn't recognize us,) when i was confronted by the sales person. he had a fearful look in his eyes. "you can't take that," he said. "but you don't understand," i said. "we NEED this vest." "but you can't have it," he replied. "if you take that, i will get in a lot of trouble!" i thought he might cry.

it was a stand-off. i didn't want the poor kid to get in trouble. he didn't want to have to tackle me and wrest the vest from my grip. but i wanted the vest. and he was not going to let me have it.

there was no escape. i could have made a run for it, but the desperation on the sales associate's face convinced me that it wouldn't be a clean getaway. so instead of making a dash for it, i decided to try to trick him with reason. "listen," i said, "i really, really need this vest, but i don't want you to get into trouble. maybe i could talk to a manager?" he loved this idea! anything to pass this crazy woman (that would be me) off to someone else. "yes," he said, "that is a good idea. wait RIGHT HERE!" i am pretty sure that one part of his brain thought i was going to make a run for it. actually, part of my brain was thinking about it. but luckily for him, he found a manager close enough that he didn't have to lose sight of me.

he had, of course, filled the manager in on just what they were dealing with. which really wasn't fair--she was shaking her head no, before i even got to make my case. "we can't sell the merchandise off the mannequins," she said. "we just can't. it is company policy." i wanted to say it was a stupid policy, but i didn't think that would help me walk out with the vest. so i tried a little desperation of my own. "but we NEED this vest for a photo shoot. it is just perfect! and the mannequin still looks nice . . ." i mean really, it isn't like i left the mannequin with any naked parts--it was still wearing two shirts! "i'm sorry," she said, "but our mannequins are styled and we are required to keep that look." by now i was starting to feel less nice and a lot more frustrated. all i wanted was to buy a piece of their merchandise which had a price tag on it. so i said, "that doesn't make any sense! you are trying to sell a look that we want but can't achieve, because there aren't any vests left on the rack!"

she opened her mouth to reply, but what was there to say? i was right--her policy was stupid, but she still had to abide by it. as we stood there looking at each other, with me still gripping the vest, i suddenly saw a loophole. "ok," i said, "how about this--how about if we leave you our name and phone number and you can call us when you change the mannequins?" i was thinking they would have to change them soon, since the vests were sold out! i'm pretty sure that by now she was wracking her brain trying to figure out how to get me out of the store without a scene and with the vest back on the blasted mannequin. so she said, "let me check with someone from visuals to see if i can get permission to sell it to you." i wasn't totally sure she wasn't going to get security . . .

in the mean time, diandra was lurking around the edges of things acting like she didn't know me. i had every confidence that if security was called, i would be the only one who was going to be hauled away . . .

finally the manager came back and said they had found a vest in inventory that i could purchase. it just happened to be the right size. i am still not convinced that it wasn't the one from the mannequin, but i wasn't going to push the point. i had what i wanted.

i held onto that vest like it was solid gold while we continued to shop. we moved on to where there were some jeans that diandra liked--but they were on a mannequin. again we asked the sales person where the jeans were. again we were told that they were sold out. we just looked at each other. as we walked away, i said, "do you think we could get those jeans off the mannequin without anyone noticing?" diandra replied, "no, i'm pretty sure security has been alerted about us . . . "

and i think she was right. because it seemed as though no matter where we went in the store, someone was looking at us. usually when this happens, i just chalk it up to diandra's beautifulness.

but now, i am wondering how often it is security . . .

Friday, July 23, 2010

if only we were in oregon . . .

so today . . . i had to put gas in my car.

this may not sound like a big deal, but remember--we are not in oregon--we have to pump our own gas here in california . . .

i hate to pump my own gas. i do it, because otherwise my car refuses to take me where i want to go. rollie likes me to fill my tank when it gets down to about 3/8 full. i usually fill it when the "get gas before you end up stalled on the side of the road and have to call AAA" light comes on. rollie's thinking is that i will never have to call AAA (or him) if i fill it at 3/8 of a tank. my thinking is that if i wait until it is almost empty, i won't have to fill it as often. rollie just shakes his head. i keep my AAA card right behind my driver's license . . .

i filled the gas tank a few days ago, right before we left for san diego. i wasn't sure that one tank of gas would get us there and back--in fact i was kind of hoping it wouldn't, because rollie would be with me. and if rollie is with me, he pumps the gas! but apparently my car gets pretty good gas mileage, because on the way home today when i asked him if we needed gas, he said, "no, we still have a quarter of a tank . . . "

this remark came, however, as we were sitting in the parking lot they call the 91 freeway at 3:00 on a friday afternoon. helicopters were circling ahead of us, so we knew there was a problem. we were in the car pool lane, but it wasn't doing us any good. traffic was not moving! we inched our way forward, looking for an exit out of the car pool lane so we could get off the freeway and onto surface streets. i was starting to worry that AAA might have to bring us gas in the car pool lane! finally we maneuvered our way across the four lanes of traffic standing between us and the relatively open road . . .

you would think i had spent enough time in the car for one day, but when we got home diandra had some errands to do and asked if i wanted to go along. of course i said yes, and so we headed to the long beach town center. two hours later we were on our way home. in the dark. and the gas light was shining brightly right at me! shoot! my evil plan for rollie to realize we needed gas and fill the tank before we got home had been thwarted by good gas mileage and all the traffic issues . . . so now i was going to have to do it. we went east to the gas station with the cheapest gas, but when we got there, it was too crowded for me. which worked out well, because diandra said she had heard that particular brand of gas wasn't very good anyway. ok, i thought, we will go to my other favorite (and by favorite, i mean cheap) gas station. so we turned around, backtracked, and kept driving--only to find that the left turn lane into the station was blocked off with traffic cones! i got out of the left turn lane, drove through the intersection and into a parking lot where i could turn around--because there was a police car sitting on the cross street with his headlights flashing. which seemed odd to me, but i was on a quest for gas . . . we pulled into the station, only to see that it was the same kind we had already passed up! but we were there, so whether it was good gas or not, it was going into my car. while i was pumping gas, another police car careened around the corner and screeched to a stop. and there i was, pumping gas, wondering what was going to happen next . . .

when we got home, we turned on the news to see what all the fuss had been about, and learned that earlier in the afternoon there had been an armed robbery of a jewelry store near us. they had caught one of the robbers, but were trying to catch the others. there was a short car chase, before the suspects escaped on foot--which is why the freeway was closed. by the time we saw the story on the news, they had all of the suspects in custody.

so, my neighborhood is once again safe, and my car is once again cooperative, and i am once again home.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

san diego=fun!

so today . . . was our bonus day in san diego--a whole day to do whatever we wanted to do.

"what do you want to do?" rollie asked me. "i don't know," i said, "what do you want to do?"

you see, this is how our conversations go. it doesn't matter if we are discussing where to have dinner or what movie to see. it isn't that we don't have preferences, it is just that we are both so nice that we will agree to whatever the other of us wants. but knowing that, neither of us wants to impose our preferences on the other one . . .

"well," rollie said, "we don't have to go do anything if you don't want to. i would be happy just hanging around here and reading." reading is probably our favorite thing to do, so normally that would be a great suggestion. but we can read at home! we are in san diego today, and i thought we should go do something, i just didn't know what. it was not a lovely sunny, warm day--it was cloudy and damp--not the best weather for going out and doing anything! but after a little more discussion, we decided to brave the weather and go visit the u.s.s. midway. i put on as many layers of clothing as i could get on under my sweatshirt, and off we went.

i was driving, rollie was navigating. except he couldn't get the gps in his phone to find us. he turned it off and then back on again. he had me pull over and wait for it to catch up. he rolled down the window and stuck his phone out into the open air . . . meanwhile, i pulled out my old magellan and found the directions :) and off we went. again.

i am fascinated by aircraft carriers. i am amazed by their sheer size, by the fact that they are like small cities, and that airplanes can actually take off and land on a ship! so i was pretty excited. they gave us headphones and digital players with explanations of all the different parts of the ship and it's airplanes. for free! (of course, we did have to pay to get in. and to park. so maybe 'free' is overstating it a bit.) it made a huge difference in enjoying what we were seeing, to be able to listen to all that history.

i took a few pictures, and then my camera batteries died. that was it for me. i was pretty sure i was done having fun if i couldn't take any more pictures. we started through the labyrinth of passageways, and then i saw it--a store! "look," i said to rollie, "i will be able to buy batteries. what luck!" but when i reached the front of the store, i saw that i was still going to be batteryless for a while longer . . .
there were mannequins all over this ship! and it isn't that they looked so lifelike up close, but seeing them out of the corner of my eye, they kept tricking me. it happened again when we entered the mess hall. i saw the food line and thought, "yay! i was just thinking i would like something to eat . . . "(of course, my brain quickly corrected itself, but those pesky mannequins creeped me out all afternoon!)

soon we found the cafe (because what tourist attraction would be complete without serving seriously overpriced food?) and ate delicious mushroom cheeseburgers for lunch. actually, we ordered mushroom cheeseburgers for lunch, but they refused to make any modifications! so when we got them, we performed surgery--i gave rollie my mushrooms, tomatoes, and extra sauce, and then i added ranch dressing to mine, cut it in half, eliminated half of the bun, and stacked the burgers together. the result was sort of messy, but delicious!

after lunch we walked through the gift shop--because they put the cafe on the opposite side of the gift shop, so we had to walk through it to get to the food! and i seriously looked at souveniers, because you know how anything touristy and overpriced draws me . . . thankfully they had penny-munching machines, so i pressed a few pennies to satisfy my need to buy something, and then we moved on to the flight deck and all the airplanes!

this is where i lost rollie. i was going from plane to plane, in an orderly fashion, and obediently listening to the information about each one from my headphones. rollie was darting about, in seemingly random order, and he was TOUCHING THE PLANES!!! (we were sooo channelling each other--usually rollie is the methodical one and i am the totally random one.) when i tracked him down, he said he was only interested in the fighting planes, so that is what he was looking at. i kept waiting for one of the docents to smack him across the knuckles for playing with the aircraft, but apparently it was ok, because they completely ignored him.

my favorite part of the day was meeting tom casenza. he is a world war II veteran, and he was there talking with people today. and when i say talking, i mean TALKING! but he didn't talk much about his military service. he talked about his construction business, and about where to get the best italian food in san diego, and about dancing--that is when his eyes really lit up--when he was talking about dancing . . .before we left, rollie wanted to ride in the fighter plane simulator. it was a two person ride, so he said to me, "do you want to drive or shoot?" i wasn't sure i wanted to do either, after watching these things in action. it was a little pod on a swivelling arm, and it would roll and move according to what the driver did. i was watching the one ahead of us twirl and toss and go upside down and all around, and i was pretty sure driving was not what i wanted to do. but i was also pretty sure rollie was going to want to shoot something down. we decided he should drive, and i should shoot. and it was a wild and crazy ride! we flew upside down, we flew sideways, we did a nosedive, we flew straight up--and this was with rollie driving. can you imagine what would have happened if it had been me driving?!?!?! fortunately we survived, but it was a good thing they had us empty our pockets before we got in . . .

the museum closed at 5:00. by the time we left, the sun was shining. we put the top down on the car and headed back to our dorm room. it was just as we had left it :)yeah, i'll bet you can guess who sleeps where . . .

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

ah, college life . . .

so today . . . it occurred to me that perhaps i should blog . . .

i haven't blogged since sunday night. i meant to, but i have been kind of busy . . . sleeping. i didn't realize how tired i was until i ended up in a dorm room with no tv and nothing i had to do . . .

i brought plenty of stuff to keep me busy. i thought rollie would be tied up in meetings most of the time we were here, so i brought music to evaluate, photos to organize and sort, books to read, photoshop to learn, snacks to eat. i was ready!

after packing the trunk like a jigsaw puzzle, we drove to san diego with the top down on the car. the weather was beautiful--for about half an hour. then there were clouds. lots and lots of clouds. so we just turned the heat on and the music up and kept driving. actually the plan was for me to drive first (because it was fun!) stop for lunch, and then rollie would drive the rest of the way in. but i kept missing the exits with food--probably because i was driving in the far left lane. by the time we reached our destination, i was starving! we still didn't stop for food though, because we needed to get through registration for the conference. and when we registered, we found out that dinner was going to be served about an hour later. i wasn't sure i could survive another hour without food--i hadn't eaten since breakfast! but thankfully i found the campus snack store and snagged a bag of chips. i was so hungry, i noticed later that i had ripped open the bag from the bottom. luckily i scarfed them all down so quickly that the bag never left my hands . . .

we finally found our room, after sidetracking a couple of runners and blocking traffic while they gave us directions. we hauled all our stuff into our room (which has an ocean view--once you look past the parking lot and the dumpsters,) and went to dinner.

i LOVE eating college food. i loved it when i was in college (even though everyone else complained,) and i love it here. there are so many choices, and you can eat as much as you want. there are sandwiches and salad and cheeseburgers and pizza and ice cream at every meal! and also a variety of pastas and ethnic foods and a vegetarian dish too. and it all tastes good! of course, i eat a lot of fast food, so maybe my taste buds are somewhat torqued.

when we had eaten our fill of cheeseburgers and ice cream, we came back to our room. i logged onto the internet, caught up on facebook and thought about blogging, but my eyes were resistant to anything that required them to be open.

i was in bed by 9:00. and sleep was not far behind. i slept late the next morning, and was asleep last night by 10:00!

(i know my mother is probably the only one who cares about how much sleep i get--for the rest of you, that information was just a bonus :) )

as it turns out, rollie hasn't been quite as tied up as i thought he would be. and we have been spending some time with friends that we rarely get to see. so i haven't read one sentence in a book, looked at one file of photos, organized any music, or opened photoshop. it seems all i do is sleep and eat and hang out with my friends . . .

. . . just like being in college :)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

pre-vacation craziness

so today . . . i am getting ready to leave town again.

yes, i just got back from visiting my parents in oregon, and now i am leaving again. but tomorrow, rollie and i head to san diego for a pastors' conference. it will be work for rollie, but fun for me. we are going to point loma nazarene university's campus--which just happens to be right on the pacific ocean!

i had heard about how beautiful the campus was, but until i actually saw it a few years ago when diandra began her freshman year of college, i really couldn't imagine it. diandra spent her first year there in a HUGE room with three other roommates. one whole wall of their room was made of glass, with a spectacular view of the pacific ocean. i wanted to stay there myself and send her home with rollie! honestly, i don't know how any of the students ever pass a class . . .

but i digress . . .

there is always a mad frenzy of house cleaning to be done before i can go anywhere overnight. i'm not sure why i am like this, but i have learned that i am not the only one. oddly, though, i have yet to meet a man who feels the need to do this. usually the man is packed and in bed at a reasonable time before leaving on vacation--at least rollie always is.

but not me. technically all my vacations begin the same way, with me working into the wee hours of the morning before i leave--dusting, mopping, vacuuming, and generally trying to make my house neat and clean for my return. (and also, in case my vacation kills me, i won't be embarrassed for people to have to come into my house after the memorial service.) so i am always up until well past midnight the night before i go anywhere.

thankfully, since i was just on vacation, and since my husband is the neatest person i know, there wasn't much to be done. but, of course, i managed to find things that suddenly had to be completed before i could go. like learning how to use photo shop . . .

at 10:00 tonight, with my packing still undone, laundry still going, and picking up to be done, i sat on the couch while diandra showed me how to use photo shop. (if by some chance, any of you reading this are photographers or clients of diandra ann photography, don't panic! i am not going to be editing your photos!! diandra is just helping me learn the program so i can work on some other projects . . . ) there she sat, clicking through different steps, and downloading photos, and layering, and tweaking . . . and i am thinking, "i will never remember all of this. in fact, who am i kidding?!? i will probably not remember any of this!!!" but i tried, because she is going to be at camp this week and i am going to be in san diego. we will be far, far apart.

yes, i am going to be in san diego, staying on the beautiful campus of pt. loma nazarene university. probably in a dorm room, which i am guessing is not going to have a tv. or a microwave. or a refrigerator. so i will have lots and lots of time to try to learn photo shop. when i am not reading or napping. or playing games on my phone. or organizing my computer files (i defragged it today, so now it is nice and neat--really, i'm not insane.)

or enjoying the beach :)

blogging may be sparse this week, because i can already hear the ocean calling my name . . .

but first, i need to get that last load of laundry out, and mop the tile floors, and scrub the bathrooms again, and maybe vacuum.

i know i said i wasn't insane, but the day before my vacations, i think i might be knocking on that door.

Friday, July 16, 2010

vacation: day 10

so today . . . was the end of our oregon vacation.

my dad bravely hoisted our luggage ("what is in these bags?!?! why do you bring so much stuff?!?!" clearly my dad does not understand the shoe and wardrobe needs of a certain girl . . . or the electronic needs of the other one,) into his trunk, and we headed for the airport. the drive was uneventful--ok, well there were a few close calls, but no bumpers bumped, and no wrong exits were taken, so i call that good. when we arrived, we headed for the parking structure.

to enter the parking structure, you are forced to drive up a circular ramp. my view from the back seat did not include the guard rail positioned for safety along the outer edge. so when my dad suddenly straightened out the car, i saw my life flash before my eyes, because it looked to me like we were headed over the edge!

thankfully we were just headed onto the third level to park.

we went in, checked our bags (yes, that cost us $20 each!) ate lunch, and made it through security, all without incident. we sat down to put ourselves back together after the ordeal the TSA likes to call 'reasonable' security measures, and diandra asked me if i had any lotion. i said i did, and handed her the bottle i had in my purse. i found this lotion when i was cleaning out some bathroom cabinets last week. it was in a small, cute bottle and smelled delicious, so i thought it would be good to take on our trip. now we were on our way home, and i hadn't used it yet. she put a little on her leg, and said, "mom, what is this? i can't rub it in!" i said, "it is just some lotion i found in the cabinet." i picked up the bottle and looked at it again. yep, made by nivea. they make hand lotion. she continued trying to rub it in. "mom, it isn't working. look. it is turning white and spreading around." hmmm. i didn't know what to tell her. i looked at the bottle for a third time. and then i saw it. uh oh.

"what?" diandra said. she reads me too well. because i was busy stuffing the offending "lotion" back into my purse and hoping the goo on her legs would soon magically disappear. "what, mom! what it is? it isn't lotion, is it?!?!" no, it wasn't lotion. it was body wash.

i have got to get those new glasses!

diandra just looked at me. i was laughing. she was laughing too, although hers had a little edge to it, like "ok, this might be funny if it was someone else, but my legs are covered in sticky, white goop!" i started rooting around in my purse. "do you want a tissue? would that help?" i asked. again, the look! in hindsight, offering a tissue probably wasn't the best idea. it would have probably just stuck to the body wash, and then her legs would have been covered in white goo and fuzzy pieces of tissue.

did i mention she was wearing shorts?

she finally made most of it disappear, and turned to me and said, "i am going into that store over there and buy some LOTION!" ok . . . of course, i followed her into the store . . .

there is something about stores in airports that is irresistible to me. i don't know what it is, but i have this compelling need to buy souveniers. or something! so while diandra was trying to find lotion, i was looking at t-shirts. yes, t-shirts that said 'portland' on them.

this is wrong for so many reasons. first of all, i grew up in portland. when i go there, i am going home. having a t-shirt that says 'portland' on it, would imply that it was some exotic destination for me. but the truth is, i don't go there to see the sights--i go there to see my mom and dad! secondly, i don't wear souvenier t-shirts. ever. because if my shirt has words and pictures on it, can i accessorize it with jewels? no. that would just be wrong. so i should probably buy a souvenier bracelet or earrings rather than a t-shirt. and thirdly, there was no place to try them on, so how would i know if they would even fit properly. but they were on sale for $8.88! how could i not buy one?!?

i managed to resist the siren song of oregon souveniers, diandra made her purchases, and we moved on. after a stop at the restrooms, where diandra tried somewhat unsuccessfully to remove the body wash (apparently it was not as easy as one might think it would be,) we got to our gate just in time to board the plane. "are we going to be on another small plane?" diandra asked (with a bit of a wary look in her eye--for some reason she was convinced the whole lotion/body wash thing was not an accident.) "yes," i said. "it is a bombardier--the same type of plane we were on before." "well, that sounds kind of mean," she said. i had no idea what she meant, but it was time to board . . .

alaska/horizon airplanes do not all look alike. we flew from long beach to seattle on the oregon state university plane. and we saw the university of oregon plane on the ground in seattle. they seem to like to decorate their aircraft in different and unique ways. as we walked toward our plane, on the nose it said 'bombardier' and had a number and a person's name. i'm sure there was some significance to it, but i didn't know what. and then diandra said, "oooohhh, bombardier!" "yes, that is what i said," i said. diandra replied, "i thought you said bomb-a-deer!"

ok, before you think that is a totally unreasonable thought, there is a lot of forest area in the pacific northwest, and a lot of deer. however, bombing them from passenger planes is still not an accepted way to bag one and put it in your freezer. at least, as far as i know . . .

as our plane took off from portland, headed for seattle (i know that is not the most direct way home, but alaska/horizon thinks everyone should spend some time in the seattle airport,) i heard the young woman sitting behind me ask a flight attendant for a blanket for her bird--yes, there was a bird in a box in the seat behind me. and apparently it was cold.

some days, my blog almost writes itself . . .

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

vacation: day 8

so today . . . is not my dad's birthday. his birthday was yesterday.

i was going to write a birthday blog for him, but diandra beat me to it! and she wrote a great tribute to my dad, her gramps, so i am not even going to try to improve on it. i'm just glad we got to celebrate with him...

when diandra was five years old, my dad had open heart surgery. he had been in the mojave desert playing in his silver mine for a couple of weeks, and had driven all the way back to southern oregon in time for my birthday. my mom and grandma drove down from portland, and we had a nice weekend together celebrating our birthdays. then my dad drove five more hours to get home. he hadn't been feeling good since he left california, so when he got back to portland, he went to the doctor. his doctor did some tests and immediately sent him to the hospital for
emergency heart surgery. IN AN AMBULANCE! because the doctor was afraid that he might have a heart attack before he could drive himself to the hospital--the test results were that bad.

yes, after driving 1000 miles by himself, he had to go the last few miles to the hospital
in an ambulance.

my mom called to tell me, and diandra and i got in the car and zoomed up the freeway. i admit i was scared. i felt fortunate that my dad had made it safely to the hospital, but the surgery he was going to have was not a slam-dunk! i did not even want to think about what might happen--but i did, and it scared me. i didn't want to lose him. i wanted diandra to have experiences with my dad. i wanted my dad to have time to teach her about all the cool things he taught me. i wanted him to watch her grow up and have a part in affecting who she would be. and i was afraid that might not happen.

we waited, and we worried. he survived the surgery, but the recovery was difficult. thankfully my dad is strong, and he made it.

that was twenty years ago. if you met my dad today, you would never guess that he had undergone open heart surgery. because he has spent the last twenty years looking for rocks, golfing, hunting,
painting our houses, fixing things, fishing (in rivers, lakes, and the ocean--if it is wet, and there are fish in it, he is there!) dredging for gold, skiing, and tromping around the mojave desert. sometimes he takes a break from all those high energy activities by reading or farming on facebook.

yes, my dad has a facebook page.

his newest endeavor is helping my brother with his business by attending sports shows.

when i mention that my dad is turning 80 this year, people always ask how he is. it is a reasonable question--many people his age are feeling the effects of being alive for just over three quarters of a century and are slowing down. but not my dad. he still gets up early, works all day, and goes to bed early. some days he is happy to sit in a chair and read,
but most days you will find him fixing something for someone (because my dad can fix anything! really!) or fishing. or planning to go fishing. or calling my brother to see if he wants to go fishing.

there are days when i feel my age--days when my body won't do things the way it used to, or days when it takes me a little longer to get up from sitting on the floor, or days when i have an ache or a pain. i'm sure this is probably true for my dad too. he has some health issues, just as most of us over the age of 30 do. but on those days when his body is giving him grief, i hope he will either take some sort of pill, or sit down and rest for a while, and just remember how much we love him.

because we expect him to be around for a lot more years . . .
. . . to continue teaching diandra all the cool stuff he taught us, and have a part in affecting who we are!

i love you, dad! and don't worry--i have plenty of material to write birthday blogs for a long, long time. just keep those birthdays coming . . . :)

Monday, July 12, 2010

vacation: day 6

so today . . . i am freezing! like a popsicle!!

yes, it is the middle of summer. yes, i live in southern california. but today i am in oregon, and it is cold. even in the middle of summer.

when we come to oregon at christmas, we know it is going to be cold and probably wet. we pack all the sweaters we own. we look for the elusive snow boots. we hope our pathetic california coats will be adequate. we dig in boxes in the garage for stocking hats and mittens.

in other words, we plan for it.

but in the summer we are thinking shorts and tank tops and sandals. which is foolishness, i know, because the last two summers we have arrived with our warm weather apparel only to have to make a mad dash to old navy for jeans and a sweatshirt! (not that we mind, of course, it's just that i don't like being forced to shop.) so you would think i would learn...

apparently i don't.

this summer when i got ready to pack for our trip, i went online and checked the weather, again--even the extended forecast! i was ready! i was prepared!! the forecast said hot, hot, hot, followed by pretty warm--maybe a few clouds, but still warm. so i packed sundresses, tank tops, shorts, and sandals. as a concession to possibly cool nights, i threw in a light, thermal, long sleeved hoodie. when diandra asked what i was going to pack and i told her, she said, "you are only taking one pair of jeans?"

i'm pretty sure we have had this conversation before.

"yes," i said, "i am wearing my jeans on the plane, because the airports will probably be cool. but it is supposed to be sunny and warm the whole time we are there!"

"well, i'm taking two pairs of jeans," she replied, "just in case..."

it turned out to be a wise decision. the first two days we were here were almost unbearably hot. then there was a fairly pleasant day. and then oregon realized i was here and turned her chilly face toward me...

in self defense, i put my warm bathrobe (which i leave here for just such occasions) on at 4:00 this afternoon! i got out my polar fleece blanket, which i almost didn't bring (since it was supposed to be hot, hot, hot!) and i managed to weather the cold.

according to the news, it is supposed to get hot again. in a couple of days. about the time we leave.

next year i am bring three pairs of jeans and two sweatshirts!

of course, that is probably oregon's evil plan. next year every day will probably be in the 90's...

Saturday, July 10, 2010

vacation: day 4

so today . . . we went to the antique show.

the antique show and i have a long history together. i've spent more days than i can remember out there trolling the aisles for hidden treasure, and today was no different.

well, actually, that isn't true. today was different. today i went looking for cheap treasures--and by cheap, i mean less than $5. today my dad didn't go with us. he is the negotiating king, but today we had to do our own negotiating. today i apparently wasn't the only one out there with a small wrist shopping for bracelets, because the tiny, sparkly bracelet i went back to get was gone . . . which is probably ok, because it cost more than $5. and today, instead of just shopping and enjoying being with my mom and my daughter, i spent some time listening to what was being said around me. the result is my TOP TEN LIST OF THINGS OVERHEARD AT THE ANTIQUE SHOW.

10-"it's not real old, but it's solid--there's no breaks or cracks in it."
9-"i know my daughter, and i know what she thinks!!"
8-"we are going to go up every stinkin' aisle and look at what i want and not what i don't!"
7-"i know you are bored with all of this..."
6-"what do you know about this picture?" and the reply, "it's old. it's very old!"
5-"i'm so proud of you! you bought something!" (aren't these words we would all love to hear...)
4-"i wish we had something old in our family..." and the response, "we do--we have grandma!"
3-"that's because i'm #4 on speed dial!"
2-"i just think you should know, if you buy that, i'm not going to keep it when you die!"

and the number one thing overheard at the antique show...
1-"i'm not going to buy this! it's been used!"

seriously? at the antique show? it's been used?!?! isn't that kind of the nature of antiques?? you know, old stuff? and yet, maybe the definition of old is somewhat relative...

diandra was looking for old cameras to display in her office. again. "ooo mom, what do you think about this one?" she asked. i turned around to see what she was holding."that's not an old camera," i said, "i had one of those when i was a kid!"

she just looked at me, raised her eyebrows, and smiled.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

vacation: day 2

so today . . . i slept LATE! but that's ok, because i am on vacation!

i don't know where the day went. all i know is that it is 11:50 p.m. and my mom, diandra, and i are sitting at the dining room table playing clue. we are so tired. my eyes are puffy and dry. and yet, here we sit, playing clue.

clue is diandra's favorite game. but the problem with clue is that you cannot play it with just two people. so even though all i want to do is let my body fall into bed, i play clue. playing this game at this time of night is not working out too well. we can't remember whose turn it is. we haven't played in so long, that we have all forgotten our "system" for keeping track of who has which cards. we are not very good at cheating--which we will all do if given the opportunity. (except maybe for diandra, who had the perfect opportunity to cheat, and yet resisted. yes, she is the good child!) wrong answers were erroneously given. wrong assumptions were made. it was a hot mess! and when i say "hot," i mean hot, as it was over 100 degrees here today--and oregon houses typically do not have air conditioning . . .

still, there was a lot of laughing going on. confusion was labeled as cheating. cheating was disguised as confusion. certain words popped out of more than one mouth. diandra won both games, and my mom and i had ice cream, so everyone went to bed happy.

but we made a new rule--no more clue after 11:00 p.m. we need to try to have our fun earlier in the day so we can get some sleep!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

vacation: day 1

so today . . . my vacation began, and i am soooo tired! too tired to blog, actually. but the computer was on, and i heard these words in my head, in this sort of low pitched, echo-y voice: "VACATION--DAY 1." so i guess i am going to be writing about my vacation . . .

but not tonight. i started to do it, but my eyes will not stay open another minute . . .

Monday, July 5, 2010

even when i TRY to do the right thing . . .

so today . . . it became clear to me that i should always play before i work. rollie, the work before play guy, is now fighting the urge to scream, "NNOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

and his eye is twitching ;)

i've been cleaning for about a week now. i am not just cleaning--i am CLEANING! i am vacuuming nooks and crannies, i am scrubbing walls, i am checking for pesky cobwebs. i washed the filter in the vacuum cleaner, i used a toothbrush to clean the top edge of the baseboard, i used a pumice stone to eradicate hard water stains on porcelain surfaces. i've filled several bags with clothing we no longer need, for charity. this is how i know it is summer--i go into "i must clean everything!" mode.

it is good that i do this, because during the school year i am mostly in "i think i will just sit here and hope that the house cleaning fairies come while i am not looking" mode. but they never come . . .

i make lists. i make schedules. this is important to the cleaning process, because i feel successful every time i mark something off my list. when i started channeling mr. clean ten days ago, i even scheduled in a couple of days where i didn't have to do much--sort of like rest days. only since i never get everything done, they turned out to be catch up days.

and then saturday night, i realized that everything was not going to get done on my time table. so, what to do, what to do . . . i know! make new lists! so that is what i did--a list for sunday, a list for monday, and a list for tuesday. some things from the old list did not make it onto the new list. the drapes will not get shaken. the windows will not get washed. (ok, those things weren't on the first list either--i'm not insane!!) but my plane leaves on wednesday, so some tasks had to go.

yesterday was pretty much taken over by church in the morning and then the fireworks stand until midnight, so today i needed to spend some serious time with my lists. this was not going to be a day to read or watch tv or even turn on my computer (because that is where my trouble begins . . . ) i went to look at my monday list to see what to do first, but my lists had gone a.w.o.l. yep, they were nowhere to be found.

now what to do? i can't work without my lists!! rollie said, "can you make new lists?" no, i cannot! the whole reason i make lists is so that i don't have to think about what to do! once i write something on the list, it is out of my head. i tried to work, but couldn't finish anything. what was the point? i couldn't mark it off my list, because i couldn't find my lists! i finally gave up, started the laundry, and sat down with my computer.

and there they were. under my computer.

you see?!?!? if i had just been my usual lackadaisical self, i would have found my lists much earlier, and maybe been more productive! or maybe not, since i would have had my computer in my lap. because now, my computer is on. and facebook is only a click away from blogger . . .

maybe i should have put 'taking care of my facebook games' on one of my lists. because now that the lists are back in my possession, i feel this obligation to at least mark something off today . . .

Sunday, July 4, 2010

independence day? or thanksgiving...

so today . . . i answered my phone and heard these words--"mom, i had an accident and i'm on the freeway..."

i immediately envsioned mangled metal, broken glass, and ambulances with stretchers.

"are you ok?" i tried very calmly to ask, thinking well at least she is able to dial her phone and speak.

"i think so, but i'm on the freeway and i spun around and i need you to call james and tell him i'll be late."

what?!?!?!?

ok, first of all "i had an accident, and i am on the freeway" are not words any mother wants to hear. ever. but when you live in a metropolitan area as we do, freeways are part of our everyday life. thousands of people drive on them every day, probably too fast, probably too close, and still make it safely to and from their destinations. but sometimes they don't. sometimes somebody cuts you off, forcing you into the lane next to you, where you apparently hit another car which results in your car spinning across four lanes of traffic, and then getting hit by another car before you slam nose first into the center divider. that's what happened to my precious daughter today. and yes, she was calling me from the car, sitting across the freeway, waiting for the police to arrive.

she was not calm. she was not driving her car. she was sitting in a puddle of spilled soda pop, surrounded by dust from the airbags, and unable to hear. she was scared. she started to get out of the car, only to have the driver from the car who hit her angrily come after her. she got back in her car and called me. because they were expecting her at the fireworks stand, and she didn't want everyone to worry when she didn't show up. that's why she called--so i could call james and tell him she might be a little late getting back . . .

thankfully she seems to be ok. and amazingly the car she was driving was not totaled. it should have been. she said, "i could just imagine angels all around the car, with their feet sticking out to take the impact of the car slamming into that divider." it's probably true. i was sitting at home, not driving, so my angels were probably hanging out with her angels today. thank goodness.

i was talking to a friend this morning about a situation with her daughter. and i said to her, "there comes a point where you can't protect her anymore. she has to make her own decisions and live with those consequences. it may be hard for you, but that's part of growing up. don't you trust that God with her?" i'm sure they were hard words to hear--they weren't particularly easy words to say, but they are true and i meant them.

as i was in my car on my way to the fireworks stand to deliver diandra's message, those words came back to me. i'll admit i was worried about my daughter. i was worried if she was going to be ok physically. i was worried if she was going to be ok emotionally. i was worried about the reaction of the car's owner. i was worried about the whole insurance issue. i was worried about how everything was going to get taken care of, when we are on our way out of town in two days. i was worried about how i was going to get everything done i needed to get done now that i was going to be spending the rest of the day at the fireworks stand. i was worried about if she would get a citation (she didn't.) and then i heard these words--"ok, so all that stuff you said this morning doesn't apply to you? you don't trust that God is in control here? you don't think He is looking out for diandra?"

shoot! i hate it when that happens . . .

because i do believe God is in control. i know that he can protect diandra when i cannot. so without any real information about the accident or how diandra was, i had to just let go and realize again that i can't always be with her. i can't always protect her. we live in a world where stuff happens, and it isn't always good. but it is ok, because God is watching out for us. He didn't protect diandra from the accident, but He did protect her. she walked away instead of having to be carried out on a stretcher.

i'm thankful every day for my daughter. i'm thankful there will be many more days ahead for us. i'm thankful for kind police officers who helped her at the accident site, and i am thankful for caring friends who stayed at the fireworks stand way past when they had planned. i'm thankful she was not driving her jeep. i'm thankful she has good insurance. and i'm thankful that we don't have to deal with emergencies alone, because God is always there.

this year july 4th is also thanksgiving :)

Friday, July 2, 2010

so, who decides what is funny?

so today . . . was fun--even though there were spiders.

it started before i even got out of bed. it just felt like a play day. rollie was immediately on board--today was his day off and he had already completed his "to do" list before my eyes were even open. diandra was home trying to prepare for our trip next week, because she is going to be working at the fireworks stand for the next 64+ hours, and then we leave for portland. and of course, i have my list to complete before i head out of town as well. but we all felt like doing nothing, and the dogs were doing their very best to distract us from our work, so we finally decided to work until 12:30 and then break for lunch.

rollie headed off to the man room, because his work was done. diandra was cleaning her room, and i was working downstairs. and then i heard some of my favorite words--"mom, do you want this?" i looked upstairs, and there she was, holding the orange dress with the turquoise beads on it that i wore when she was in texas. "YES!" i said, "that is one of my favorite dresses." "well," she said, "it is brand new--i've never even worn it. in fact, you have worn it more than i have...and here is that top you said you liked. do you want that too?"

i knew her clothes would come home to me . . .

i was pretty excited about these new additions to my wardrobe, so of course i updated my fb status--Diandra is cleaning out her closet. My favorite part? "mom, do you want this?" It's like Christmas in July for me! :) which would have been fine if i hadn't felt compelled to reply to a response by one of my friends with these words--that is the beauty of having a daughter who takes me shopping with her. i SAY "oh get this diandra--it would look really cute on you!" but i am THINKING "oh get this diandra--it would look really cute on ME!" hehehe. sometimes i forget that everyone (including diandra) can read what i write to someone else . . .

i knew she had read it when i saw her face at lunch. we had traveled in separate cars to rubio's and she and rollie got there first. when i walked up to their table, i could tell by the look on her face that she had read what i had written. i tried to convince her that i was just being funny, but she wasn't buying it.

we finished lunch and went to old navy. old navy is not her store of choice, but it was close, she needed shorts, and we had stuff to do today. we walked in and immediately saw cute tops. i went right on by, because i had all those new clothes from diandra waiting for me at home. she, however, noticed the tops. "what do you think about this?" she asked me. "i think it is very cute. you should get it," i said. she looked at me, her eyes narrowed, and then she said, "you just want me to get it, because i don't need tops and you think one day i will give it to you."

and that is how our afternoon went. she was so suspicious! i was afraid i was going to have to resort to telling her that everything looked awful, just so she would start believing what i said! i think we have never shopped so long and purchased so little.

but that is ok, because it really wasn't about shopping today. diandra could have just gone to american eagle by herself, bought shorts, and come home. but where is the fun in that?!? today it was about having some fun. and we had fun when rollie was teasing her about spiders (well, rollie had fun then--diandra, not so much,) she had fun teasing me about coveting her clothes, i had fun when she gave me her clothes, we all had fun eating lunch together, and i am pretty sure she had fun taunting me all afternoon about my shopping motives.

one day i was in the car with diandra and i was laughing at something she had said. i said, "you are so funny!" "i'm not sure it is a good thing that you think i am so funny," she replied, "because when you say that so often, i start to believe it. so now i think i am funny. . . but i'm not sure that everyone else agrees."

i find that hard to believe. i think all three of us are hysterical! maybe it is just that we know how to tell a story to make it funny. maybe it is just that we know how to push each other's funny buttons. or maybe we are not really funny at all and are just deluded . . .

i don't know, but it doesn't really matter. because the important thing is that we can make each other laugh!