Tag Archives: life

Sep 09 2019
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life, social media, write

60 Social Media-free Hours!

My family has had quite a couple weeks. I had lithotripsy and stent placement to obliterate two remaining stones in my left kidney on August 26th and that same night my daughter fell down the stairs at her apartment and broke her wrist in two places. It happened to be the week she was to pack and move to a new place. Her dad, grandmother, brothers and a few of her brother’s friends accomplished that for her while we were both laid up, healing. With one arm unusable, she stayed with us for a week until she got her cast. About two days after settling in at her new apartment, a man ran a red light and hit her oldest brother as he was driving to work. He thankfully escaped with a bump on the head and a stiff neck. (Thank God for seatbelts and defensive driving!) It’s given me somewhat of a new perspective on life, to say the least. And a deep gratitude for people who have helped, stepped up as witnesses, run errands, answered texts on weekends when they’re off work, etc. We are fortunate to have an army of good people in our lives.

The night of the accident I was scrolling on my phone, one of my usual escapes from all of the domestic chores I should be tackling, and I was stunned to find that a woman I had not seen comment on my facebook profile in YEARS had let her feelings out, telling me my post (a Seth Meyers clip) where I referred to Trump supporters as pathetic, was itself pathetic and I was awful to call people names, etc. Now, I fully expect these type of responses from his supporters but I have so few of them left in my friend list that it took me by surprise. I can take it as well as I dish it out, but something about this one bothered me, in that it was totally unexpected from her. It is what it is and I’ve learned life goes on. We were only acquaintances. I really like her but we have never even shared a meal or any confidences so I didn’t agonize over it, but I did notice how my mental self reacted and how it affected me physically. I thought about how, had I not been on social media, or not posted the clip, I would have had one less stressor that day. At that moment, I decided to do a weekend social media fast that would last from 5 PM Friday evening until 8 AM Monday morning.  No Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter allowed. I was allowed to text, read internet articles, Google and use other apps, but no social media. I kept a few notes and there were some surprises. I actually really enjoyed it & intend to repeat it with extended time frames and tighter limitations.

When 5:00 rolled around last Friday, I took my phone to my room and placed it on the charger. I came back to the living room, picked up the book I was reading and felt SUCH a feeling of relief wash over me. I hadn’t expected such an intense reaction so early in the game, but it was like a weight had been lifted and my ability to focus most definitely was improved without that tiny computer at arm’s reach. Later that evening, when I received a call, which was allowed, I immediately reached for the Instagram button after hanging up. It was a definite reflexive movement, not at all intentional. My fingers just go to those apps like automatic reflexes. Habit or addiction? I’m willing to admit that in the initial hours of my social media fast, it felt much more like an addiction. The sense of relief had gone by the wayside when I was back in the room with that little 4×6 device and I needed to know what was going on in the lives of the few thousand people (yes, you read that right) I follow on Instagram. Proudly, I sat the phone down and returned to reading & cleaning.

I busied myself doing the laundry I had let pile up, read a bit more, took some things to my daughter’s new place and helped her unpack & unfurl a new rug. I went to the bookstore with my son and later we drove over to a malt shop that I love but had never introduced him to. One-on-one time with my kids is my favorite and I made time for it, much more focused and attentive than I am if I’m constantly checking my phone. I was already feeling much more connected to my people and it had only been 24 hours.

There were a few moments when I failed and I would have been shocked had there not been. I kept wanting to check the Razorback score on Twitter & I am not even a big Razorback fan. I had put out a plea on Facebook for people to share some information so that I might locate a witness that I failed to get the name of on the day of my son’s accident. I occasionally looked at my notifications on FB to see if I had received a response in reference to that. Unfortunately I had not. A couple times I reflexively hit Instagram but immediately closed it. Old habits die hard. Addictions are even harder. By Sunday I didn’t think I was missing anything integral to my existence. I had virtually no FOMO. This was working. I started feeling like I had time I didn’t know how to use because I wasn’t sitting and SCROLLING. I even tried to think of what, if anything, I have gotten personally out of scrolling. Here is a partial list:

  • A feeling of inadequacy in my home, work & travel
  • A more critical eye toward others
  • Inspiration as an artist, which is always my excuse for scrolling, but that inspiration is rarely acted upon
  • Inspiration for my home, again, rarely acted upon
  • A messy, cluttered home because I’m not doing the projects I buy supplies for or reading the books I buy. I’m not taking time to clear clutter when normally I’d be on top of that.
  • A feeling that I’m past a point in life where I can make some of these things happen (I’m not, actually. I mean I won’t be having more kids or figure skating but I’m no means too old to accomplish many of these things that inspire me.)
  • Complacency. Having a ton of ideas but not making any of them happen. Being satisfied with less than I should be.

Don’t get me wrong. Social media has its place and it is an amazing business tool. It’s a wonderful way to keep up with friends & family. I have reconnected with friends I would never have found without it. I still love social media. It isn’t good for anything in your life (alcohol, sex, video games, gambling, etc.) to become such a habit or addiction that it keeps you from realizing important goals you’ve set or causes you to be depressed over what you aren’t accomplishing in your home, family and work.

The biggest surprise came on Sunday afternoon when my husband, son and I went to TJ Maxx, ironically, for phone charging cords. We chose the cords and browsed a bit and then headed to the checkout to pay. I noticed my purse was somewhat lighter and saw that my phone wasn’t in the back pocket, where I usually keep it while shopping. I checked my husband’s “Find My Friends” and it showed that my phone was still at home. I had ridden a few miles to the store in the car, shopped for a bit and not even once reached for my phone or noticed that it wasn’t near me. I considered that a huge win.

Charging my phone in another room at night improved my sleep ten-fold. If I happen to wake at night and the phone isn’t right next to me, I just do some deep breathing and generally go right back to sleep.  With the phone by my bed, I scroll. When this Monday morning rolled around I thought I would be diving for the Instagram button and posting like crazy but I’ve barely been on social media today. Progress.

I saw an article this morning that said Madonna has put a rule in place that phones are not allowed at her concerts  & at first I thought, “That’s crazy!” I then remembered attending a Don Henley concert that had the same rule & thought back to how it was one of the most enjoyable concerts I’ve ever attended because I was focused on his music & not having to look around people trying to video and photograph. I would challenge you to give a social media break a try. Baby steps are fine. Go without social media for a workday. For one night. Or go for a weekend. If you use social media at work, try going without it at home. Next time I may try a week. Or I may make weekends social-media free. There are options for everyone. I know for sure I have a much more productive, less stressful life when I put it aside for a bit.

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Mar 01 2018
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humor, life, politics, write

The High Cost of Living. And Hurting.

The other day I dropped by my pharmacy to pick up my migraine medication (Zomig).  My doctor switched me to a nasal spray near the end of 2017 in order to try to stop the rebound headaches my other medication (Maxalt)* caused.  Zomig worked surprisingly well & I felt like not only did the rebound headaches stop, the migraines themselves became less frequent.  So imagine my surprise when the pharmacy tech calmly said, “Oh, you’re not gonna like this, but your total is $975.42.

Me:  Uh, did you say $175.00 or NINE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS?

Her: $975.42

Me:  NINE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS?  FOR SIX DOSES? SIX?

Her:  Yeah, you must not have met your deductible.  Have you?

I resisted saying, “Of course I haven’t met my damn deductible because it’s January 19th and I haven’t had my appendix removed or a limb replaced in the last two weeks!”  So I just said, “Not having met my deductible isn’t really the point, here.  That they can charge NINE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS for six pills to get rid of headaches is just ridiculous.”

Her: So you don’t want it?

Me:  I’m going to have to pass.  I’ll either have to hurt or DIE when I tell my husband I paid that much money for six pills.

I’m still stunned, weeks later, that medication can cost this much.  YES, I WANT IT, ACTUALLY.  It makes life much more bearable, but do you offer financing?  Have a loan department?  I mean can you hold it until I set up a Go Fund Me?  For $975 I can buy some street drugs & take the dealer out for a steak dinner with money to spare!  For $975, it should give me the ability to teleport and blow rainbows out my ass!

So I left. I called a locally-owned pharmacy & the nice pharmacist said she thought it definitely should not cost that much but can’t tell me what they charge (bullshit alert) because they don’t carry it & would have to order it.  (HELLO, no one can afford it so you never need it!)  But she encouraged me to call my pharmacy back because they probably made a mistake and priced a 6-month supply.  Because $975 for 36 pills is SO MUCH MORE REASONABLE, right?

I call the first pharmacy back. This time I get a different guy who has worked there a long time. He was nice but no, it’s correct at $975. They are not wrong. The expense probably comes from the “mechanism of delivery” (since it’s a nasal spray). WTF?  It’s in a little plastic rocket-shaped thing that probably cost the Chinese 3 cents to manufacture & in one shot the meds are up your nose and gone. I mean it’s basically a tiny water gun so just sell me the liquid, I’ll go get a water gun at the dollar store and shoot it up there myself!  If I am paying $975 for the “mechanism of delivery” then that mechanism needs to be Tom Brady putting it on my pillow at night & shooting it up my nasal cavity himself, shirtless & in Uggs.  Or Oprah in my front yard yelling, “You get 6 Zomig doses! And you get 6 Zomig doses!  Everyone gets 6 Zomig doses!”

Just for shits and grins, let’s name other things we could buy for $975:

*A new iPhone X with a case!

*A new lens for my camera!

*230 pumpkin spice lattes!

*28 bottles of Grey Goose vodka!

*4 new tires! With road hazard protection!

*985 medium Sonic Cokes if you go during Happy Hour!

*88 Large Domino’s pizzas!

*A nice TV!

*A Caribbean cruise!

*39 Hardcover Bestsellers!

*A lot of weed, which, at this point, I might be open to if drugs are this expensive!

In all seriousness, though, this is ridiculous.  I don’t want to hear about how the cost of research and production dictates the cost because it’s a headache medicine.  It’s not a cure for cancer. At it’s highest, I only paid $134 for Maxalt, which compared to $975 seems like a great deal. The average American cannot afford a medicine that is $975 for SIX doses. The conclusion of this tale is that I got the generic version in pill form for $44.  It doesn’t work as well & I’m only able to have 6/month when I could have 9/month with Maxalt. (A very, very good chiropractor/physical therapist – yes, he’s both – has also helped tremendously.)  Since I’ve told this story I have heard tales of MUCH higher prices for other medications. We have to do something about this problem. And someone who shits in a golden toilet in his golden penthouse has no clue what it’s like to need medicine you can’t afford.  It’s time for change. I tried to use humor to illustrate my point but it’s truly not funny.  Especially if you can’t afford to buy meds needed to keep your kid or self or spouse alive.  I’m lucky that there were options & my life didn’t depend on it.  Not everyone is.

*In no way do I mean to diss Maxalt.  It’s a wonderful drug for many including my son, and I wish it didn’t cause the rebound pain in me because it was otherwise perfect.

 

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Sep 16 2013
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life, write

This Too Shall Pass…

About a week ago, I was telling someone my current situation and they said, “Wow, you’ve had quite the crappy year!”  It kind of stunned me because when I think of this past year, I think that we got to go skiing for a week, my daughter and I went to Charleston, S.C., we had wonderful trips to FL for Spring Break and summer vacation, Ryder got accepted to TCU and became a Kappa there, we had a great trip to St. Louis, Chuck and I celebrated 20 years of marriage, etc.  I could seriously go on and on with the good things in our life.  What my friend was referring to, however, was my knee injury I sustained in Colorado on our ski trip, my mother’s house fire & my latest problem — I was recently diagnosed with SI (sacroiliac) Joint Syndrome.  Here’s the scoop if you want to read up on it.  But this is what’s been going on with me for, well,  a month this past week.

During the process of moving Ryder into her dorm at Texas Christian, I somehow injured, or re-injured, my back.  I am lucky to have a wonderful orthopedic doctor who saw me right away (Dr. Kenneth Rosenzweig) and even luckier that his years of experience led him to diagnose me with SI joint problems immediately.  It’s a condition that is often overlooked or misdiagnosed, sometimes for YEARS.  I cannot imagine.  It’s painful. Terribly.  For me, sitting upright is just downright agonizing.  Standing hurts too, but sometimes it’s a great alternative to sitting.  My doctor did my first round of steroid injections two weeks ago and the pain block worked for a few days, which in the case of this disorder, tells us that the source of the pain IS indeed the SI joints.  However, with this condition, the pain is not usually eradicated until after the second round of injections and sometimes the third.  My doctor has only had to resort to surgery for this once in the last 30 years.  We are on the right track.  Unfortunately he says this is one of the more severe cases he has seen.  Of course.  I excel at everything 🙂

I have had to stop training temporarily, have cancelled things that were going to require me to ride in a car more than across town, have become what I feel like is a huge burden to Chuck, & have had to ask people for help, which is WAY outside my comfort zone.  But it’s going to get better and thankfully one aspect of my job (photography, for those of you who don’t know me personally!) can be done flat on my back with my laptop.  I’m not someone who just enjoys doing nothing so thankfully I can still do needlework.

Saturday, I decided to get out and run to Michael’s and Wal-Mart.  Not a good idea.  I came home and collapsed on the couch for the remainder of the day.  Sunday was a bad day.  I went to the ER for the second time since this began.  The pain gets really bad, to the point that I’m nauseous.  Electrical-like pains shoot down my legs and up my back sometimes, I have hot and cold sensations that are just freaky for lack of a better word.  Sometimes the pain medicine affects every other part of my body EXCEPT the part of my back that is hurting.  That’s always fun.  Other times, like last night, it works so well I’m actually able to move around & accomplish things.  Having been down for six weeks already in early 2013 when I tore my MCL skiing, the mental frustration with having my activity limited again is high.  I have a giant list of things to do to our house and of course, they have been put on the back burner AGAIN.

So wish me luck with Thursday’s injections.  Pray I plug along until Chuck gets home on Thursday night.  Did I mention he is out of town until then?  Fun times.  There are so many people dealing with much worse than this so I will get through.  But I’m living for the day that I am able to work out, drive where I want and sit without agony!

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May 10 2013
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A Word on Abercrombie. And Probably Not What You’re Expecting….

The world of social media has been rife this week with criticism of Abercrombie CEO Mark Jeffries and his brash, controversial business plan to market only to the “beautiful people” — those who are thin and “cool” & good-looking.  At first, I thought, “how awful” and I completely agree that he’s a little off his rocker when he has quirks like this and himself could be described as less than attractive.  Might want to sweep off your own front porch there, double-bagger.  But then I got to thinking……..WHY is it socially unacceptable to exclude overweight people and not question how they got that way or why they got that way, yet completely acceptable to consistently demean and make blind assumptions about people, teens included, who are naturally thin?  Overweight people have every excuse in the book: She’s big-boned, her mother was built like that–it’s GENETIC, it’s a thyroid issue, she has a disability & can’t be active, she’s impoverished and uneducated and doesn’t know how to eat healthy, she has a sedentary job, NEED I GO ON?

Yet the underweight set?  They get: Well, she has to have an eating disorder.  She has poor self-image, she starves herself, bless her heart she must not eat, she’s DYING to be thin, I wonder if she’s anorexic or bulimic or BOTH, she’s EMO, do you think her parents are in denial?  Seriously. You have to see the double-standard in this.

I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you that had it not been for Abercrombie in the middle school years of my daughter’s life, she might well have run around naked.  Abercrombie was literally the only place that carried jeans small enough, yet long enough for her tiny frame.  Slim, long, XS, and even God forbid XXS (you’re cringing, admit it)!  There is a tiny part of me that is thankful that this asshole had his obnoxious business philosophy to aid my cool, beautiful daughter.  The loud music and horrid scents, I could have done without.

You might guess that I take this issue rather personally and you’d be right.  I’ve spent a good part of my child’s high school years defending the fact that she is “off-the-charts-skinny”.  I spent many years of my own life doing the same in reference to my own ultra-skinny frame. In fact, right up until I gave birth to the very child I ended up defending.  I remember being at Chuck’s family Christmas dinner three months into my first pregnancy.  I weighed 118 at the start of my pregnancy.  I was 25.  At this point I was probably around 130 lbs & I had eaten a large Christmas dinner at my own family celebration. Not wanting to be rude, I took a few small helpings of what his family had to offer.  His grandmother was the first to speak up and said, “Ain’t you gonna eat?”  I said, with a wan smile, “I am eating – I just had a meal with my own family so I’m not super hungry but this all looks so good.”  Always trying to please, that USED to be me.  She said, hand to God, “You never eat.  You’re gonna kill that baby.”  I was young.  I hadn’t had as many years of being demeaned as I have in me now so I looked to his aunt for support.  She and her husband looked at me and said, “You’re too thin. We never see you eat. It’s not healthy.” (Please keep in mind, they never saw me eat because I lived in Colorado and they lived in Missouri.)  I was crushed.  I felt at that moment like I had never felt before in my life.  I wanted to run, so I did.  Right out the sliding glass doors on the back of the house, into my Ford Explorer and back to my own grandma’s home where there was no judgment.  Just good food and acceptance of who I was and what I looked like.  Another of Chuck’s aunts and my mother-in-law came over to my home apologizing and making excuses for what was just blatant, mean-spirited cruelty and uneducated judgment of someone who, in all honesty, his grandma & aunt barely knew and had NEVER attempted to get to know.  It was, as Dr. Phil calls these little snippets of our life, a defining moment.  I tell this story for a reason………..Can you IMAGINE if I had walked up to his family’s dinner table and said to his grandmother, “You’ve got a lot of food on your plate there, fat ass!  If you keep eating like that you’ll have high blood pressure, heart disease, maybe even keel over from a stroke! Hell, I’m surprised you’re still with us.”  And then she could look to Chuck for support and Chuck could say, “No, really!  I bet you’re about to bust the scales.  Better cut back or you’ll be diabetic!  We see you stuff your face all the time!”  No one would have made excuses for us and they would still be talking about how rude we were today.

There is no difference.  I repeat, there is no difference.

As I said earlier in this post, I have spent 4 years defending my child’s weight. My child that I starved & had a birth weight of almost 7 1/2 pounds!  Never mind the fact that she had a negative weight percentile from about 4 weeks of age.  I joke that she would hold the record for longest-living, healthiest anorexic.  At her school, it’s ok to question the skinny ones, pull them in to social workers’ offices for interviews and accuse the parents of being in denial.  It’s ok to give little condescending looks to parents who have offered medical documentation from experts that their daughter is healthy.  It’s ok to give a pissy, half-hearted, “I’m certainly glad you are staying on top of things” response when you report, with great relief,  that your child doesn’t in fact have a life-threatening genetic disorder that makes her thin and could kill her and the medical experts have declared her “genetically thin”.  I’m so glad you are still able to hold out hope that you might be right & we’re in denial.  EIGHTEEN long years of denial, mind you.

What I want to know is this:  Where is the LONG line of parents whose children attend this school and weigh three times what they should with bellies and breasts pouring out of their tight-knit shirts and pants?  Where do they form a line to be interviewed and grilled and told, “We’re just trying to save your child’s life.”?  I can assure you many of them are closer to heaven’s door than mine is.  WHY is it not socially acceptable to question their parents and conclude that they have poor self-image and stuff their faces with junk food?  WHY is that not politically correct but harassing my child, myself and the Abercrombie CEO is noble?

There is no difference.

I agree that Mr. Jeffries business philosophies are crass, elitist and far from admirable.  He’s more than a little off the beam.  I’ll give you that.  But the fact that you are judging the consumers who frequent his brand & then patting yourselves on the back for being so right-minded is cause for concern in and of itself.  We might better serve ourselves as a nation if we just minded our own business.  Swept off our own doorsteps as I advised Mr. Jeffries to do.  We must realize that judging each other & our children for being thin is as horribly off-base as calling someone fat and lazy. “Beanpole” is as demeaning as “fatso”.  Both imply gross inadequacy.  I know.

If you remember anything after reading this, let it be this:

There is no difference.

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Apr 26 2013
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Grandparenting 101 – Observations From The Other Side

DISCLAIMER:  This is not entirely based on my own experience but on many poolside & patio conversations with friends and fellow parents. Some of it is, however, personal.  

I’ll probably pay for this one.  I’ll be written out of wills.  And I hate that because I was so looking forward to being able to slather on the leftover cold cream that is probably bequeathed to me by my in-laws.  But Grandparent’s Day……can we just cut to the heart of what this is all about, o ye school districts, both public and private?  Grandparent’s Day is a day set aside to honor the grandparents of children in said school districts by sucking up to them with such sweetness and adoration that they will feel the urge to get out their checkbooks and donate thousands of dollars or buy a stack of books at the “not-coincidentally-simultaneously-held” book fair that is so heavy they have to make two trips to their Cadillac sedan just to get them home with the child.  This is just a sneaky way of getting grandparents to spend thousands, with the annoying added benefit of cluttering up the kid’s home & pissing off his parents.

My child?  My sweet little boy who DOES love his grandparents very, very much & even enjoys a good stack of books?  BOYCOTTED GRANDPARENT’S DAY. And I let him.  He’s no dummy.  When teachers tell the children, “After your performance & lunch with Granny, your grandparents have the option of taking you home”, my kid hears, “There is absolutely no point in going to school today.”  He’s probably right & so he is home.  My mom took it quite well, I’ll give her that. I’m sure she was disappointed because she loves my kids and loves being there for them.  Lately though, I’ve been wanting to bitch about grandparenting and the image versus the reality, so today Grandparent’s Day is providing me with that jumping off point.

Sometimes I get frustrated with my kids and I complain to Chuck, “This shit would have never happened on the Brady Bunch.  Those Brady kids would never pull a stunt like this.”  Or, “Carol & Mike would sooo know how to handle this situation.  What are we doing wrong???”  Chuck then pulls out the “You do know the Brady Bunch wasn’t realistic, right?”  I come back with “Of course it was realistic.  The Brady grandparents made ONE appearance on the wedding episode & after that did you EVER see them come get those kids so Mike & Carol could have a weekend of hot, uninterrupted sex?  No. Never. They got dressed up, were there for the big event & then they were gone.  THAT shit is real.”  (It’s also quite possible they knew Mike Brady was gay.)

Perhaps I’m jaded, because as a child I lived in the same house with my grandma and great-grandma.  I lived behind my best friend who had older siblings with children and those kids were over at grandma’s constantly.  The grandparents embraced it and wanted it that way.  I see a HUGE difference in what grandparenting used to be and what it is now.  The problem is that many (& I repeat MANY, not all) of the grandparents still want to do what I call “walk the grandparenting runway” —- grandkids in tow, dressed to the nines, waving the wave to their fellow lunch lady grandmas so they can then gloat that  “these are our grandkids…..aren’t they beautiful…….they make such high grades…….they are so good at sports…….”  YET, when it’s time to do the dirty work and take over for a weekend so the parents can escape, they suddenly have work to do, parties to attend, etc.

My dad gets a pass on this one because he is generously keeping the children Labor Day weekend so we can escape for our 20th anniversary.  He didn’t even have to be coaxed!  BUT, herein lies the difference in my dad keeping the kids and many of today’s grandparents:  While we are gone, unless it’s a serious emergency, we will not hear from him.  He will handle what comes his way and should he have a legitimate question like, “Where in the hell do y’all hide the extra toilet paper?”, he will send us a text.  Unless he’s already sitting on the toilet and then we may get a call.  If the kids fight, he doesn’t call us. He handles it.  Every little thing is not an emergency.  Never during the trip or after we return does he feel the need to tell us every little transgression that transpired in our absence.  He doesn’t greet us with 100 concerns over how the kids dress, talk, text, play video games, treat one another, treat him, treat the dog, bathe improperly, eat too little, eat too much, are rude, are lazy, etc.  We get NONE of that, because he understands his role is to be their grandparent and friend, not their parent and prison warden.  And most importantly, he does NOT shower them with gifts to win their love and approval.  He just treats them like kids he could not be prouder of and they can tell he just loves being part of their lives. He will reprimand them if necessary, like a good grandparent should, but he is not constantly preaching to them & criticizing all that they do.  So…….that said, I feel the urge to come to the aid of other grandparents or grandparents-to-be & list some advice for you.  Trust me when I say this will not only help your relationship with the grandkids, but your kids too!  And trust me when I say that I’m glad I won’t need to depend on an inheritance in my elder years, because I’m screwed.  But seriously, some tips:

1) If you have grandkids, I can logically assume you had children.  You got to choose their names.  Your kids get to choose their kid’s names.  Do not offer suggestions or assistance. Do not take it personally if your kid doesn’t name one of his after you.  It doesn’t mean they hate you.  They just hate your name, Gertrude.  And for God’s sake, do not tell your kids how much you dislike their choice of names.  Even if they picked something like Nakkole, Zephyr, or Stump.  As PAINFUL as it will be to watch them write a ridiculous spelling such as Gynniphyr on that birth certificate, it’s really none of your business.  (I fully realize I will have trouble with this one day should it happen to me. Yes,  I realize that. I’m saving these to refer to in my own grandparenting years.)

2) Do not attempt to influence how your children dress their kids.  I was never a frills and bows sort of girl and I didn’t really want my kids to be that way. Yes, even my daughter. As a child, it was, at times, forced upon me and I hated it with a passion.  I also never wanted a bow on my daughter’s head that would be visible on Google Street View.  Easter bonnets were terribly humiliating to me and I did not want one on my own child unless she wanted one.  Do not try to buy your grandkids clothing that reflects YOUR taste and then get mad when the parent doesn’t make the kid wear it.  As a side note, on one side of our family there seems to be a notion that if your children are given something to wear and you don’t put them in it and line them up for a portrait, you are being disrespectful.  This is not true.  Disrespect is doing something you know your child or “child-in-law” doesn’t like and then pouting because you didn’t get your way.

3) Honor the wishes of your children in how they raise your grandkids unless they go totally freaking bonkers with Scientology or become Wiccan.  What I’m referring to here is simple stuff.  If they don’t want their kids to have sugar, respect that.  If they insist in making their kids sit in car seats and wear seat belts, respect that even if your own children “BY GOD,  SURVIVED STANDING IN THE FRONT SEAT & TAKING NAPS IN THE BACK OF THE STATION WAGON!”  Also, I might point out, it’s the law.

4) This may be the most important one yet.  Respect who your grandchildren are.  Do not try to make them what you want them to be.  My daughter is one of the most independent, spirited kids I know.  She was never a girly-girl, never wanted to learn traditional girl things like sewing and cooking, enjoyed being alone & had her own tastes.  Respect and in fact, EMBRACE THAT, even if it’s not what you envisioned your grandchild being.  Can I shout this one from the rooftops?

5) Do not say things about your grandkids based on speculation, not fact.  This has been a huge issue in our marriage/parenting.  I could write a whole book on how the townspeople where I grew up thought I was spoiled.  As a result, we have relatives who immediately thought that my child would be overly indulged and turn out to be a spoiled brat.  It has been assumed that because my daughter gets to go to Italy on a senior trip that she is spoiled.  No one seems to take into account that she works her little butt off babysitting during the school year, works at the pool in the summer and has earned it by being a wonderful kid who made us proud all 18 years of her life.  We have never once told her she has to work; she just chooses to. It bothers me that she doesn’t get respected for that.  Those same relatives assume that my kids are crazy about my dad because he “buys them stuff”.  This has never been further from the truth.  I can’t remember the last thing my dad bought my kids that wasn’t for a birthday or Christmas. He does slip them a $5 or $10 bill now and then because, “A feller oughta have a little money in his pocket.”  So the gist of this one is really, “Mind your own business, don’t make assumptions and keep your mouth shut.”

6)  Realize that times have changed and circumstances are different than when you raised your kids. ( i.e. This ain’t the 70’s!) We get constantly criticized because we do not force all the kids to attend family gatherings.  Hell, we get criticized if WE don’t attend all the family gatherings.  Things have changed, people.  Schools are not as lax about kids being absent. OR, we may choose to put baseball first that weekend because our child made an obligation to his team and coach when he agreed to be part of that team & it’s not fair for him to not be there for them.  Our kids grew up in the city with friends all around and things to do & they may not want to go spend 4 days in a town of 1,800 that, and I quote, “DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A McDONALD’S!”  There is no need to take it personally, but if you constantly criticize a child, chances of them wanting to spend time with you decrease greatly.

7) Understand that once your children are married that they have AT LEAST two families to consider now & sometimes with re-marriage, 3 or 4.  Sometimes you are the one that there isn’t time for on a holiday and PLEASE consider the stress it puts on your kids when you make them feel guilty about choosing.  This one is basically a “Put your big girl – or boy – panties on & realize you don’t always get your way.”

8) If you take your grandkid to the movie, buy him popcorn.  If you take him to the County Fair, let him play games.  If you take him to the town festival, buy him a snowcone.  It’s the little things.  Chances are, if you could afford admission, you can get him a treat.  This is not spoiling your grandchild.  This is avoiding looking like an asshat in his eyes.  Otherwise, just don’t go.  Would you rather them remember that you bought them a grape snowcone or would you rather them remember that you were to cheap to buy one?

9) Don’t go the guilt trip route, ever.  With kids or grandkids.

10)  FINALLY, just enjoy them.  Stop worrying about perfecting them and just enjoy them.

You’re welcome.  Or not.  Your choice 🙂

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Apr 14 2013
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Woke Up Sunday Morning……..

My day started perfectly.  Snuggling with the one I love (Chuck, not Tom Brady), with the bathroom window SECURELY locked so that we weren’t invaded by wayward children.  Peace….calm….birds singing….and of course, I had to roll over to check my iPhone. (Don’t effing lie. You do it too.) I scrolled through my newsfeed and saw a post by an artist whose work Chuck and I have admired since we started our married life together in Kansas City in 1993, Mike Savage.  He had a booth at the Plaza Art Fair & I swooned over his work.  He used to display it in Minsky’s Pizza, which we frequented and one of the paintings of a chef at the Minsky’s location in Overland Park, where we lived, looked JUST like Chuck’s uncle, Lowell.  Anyway, we admired his work and I always said one day I would own an original.  (That day is coming, Mike, I promise!)  This morning he posted another of his beautiful works on Facebook and I “liked” it and commented that he was immensely talented.  At some point, I rolled back over to sleep a bit more and when I woke I had a notification that he had posted on my timeline.  I expected a “Thanks for your sweet comment. Does anyone ever tell you that you look like Sofia Vergara?” or something similar.  What I found was this, with the caption, “Morning, mommy!”:

Is this not awesome?

Is this not awesome?

It’s one of the sweetest things that anyone has ever done for me! (And MUCH sweeter than lying and telling me I look like Sofia, though we DO both have dark hair.)  I had posted an Instagram pic of Apollo the night before and with a few strokes of a pen, Mike took that & created a work of art immediately recognizable to me as Apollo, right down to THE LOOK IN HIS EYES.  I’m humbled.

So, after having a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs and realizing that the temperature was perfect and the sun was out, I deemed my day awesome & did what all asshats do when their life is going nicely.  I posted it on Facebook! “The sun is shining!  Birds are singing! Chuck has his teeth in!  Happy unicorns just flew out of my ass!”  Later today,  I planned to stair climb with my trainer, take Brooks to practice, finish another book, organize my den, go eat fried pickles with my mother…..WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Well,  THIS IS WHAT.  My dog could go running into the neighbor’s yard and ROLL AROUND IN FECAL MATTER & come inside to present himself to me while I’m chomping on bacon & loading the dishwasher.  My dog that I paid thirty-six freaking dollars, this past Monday, to have bathed by people trained in that skill,  is now covered in the smelly excrement of one of his canine buddies.  He couldn’t be happier:  “Hey mom!  Wanna scratch my ears?  Where’s my treat?  Am I not adorable?  Odor?  What odor?  That’s just those boys you smell!  Really, can I have some bacon?  No, a whole piece, bitch!  Nice try though!”  I had to drop what I was doing and bathe his stinky ass so he didn’t rub shit anywhere in my house.  Read that as ON MY NEW COUCH, if you will.

So…… I now have a beautiful sketched portrait of my dog, who is once again fragrant and beautiful and sporting his new preppy bowtie that his best dog buddy, Senna Bartlett, picked out for him.  AND I have proof that the internet is a powerful thing & that random acts of kindness are awesome.  If someone will just beat Tiger for the Master’s title, I can move past having to deal with a dog flinging shit everywhere.  (Kidding, I’m over it.)  And if you would like to pass on the love of Mike Savage, go perform a random act of kindness.  You will feel SO good.  I promise.

The "dapper" version of Apollo

The “dapper” version of Apollo

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Mar 04 2013
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Facebook Break….

photo-4So, I took 4 days off Facebook.  I have to say, I missed the interaction with friends I wouldn’t normally be able to interact with.  BUT, I wasn’t back too long (like 45 seconds) before it was getting on my nerves again.  If I created a “Holy Facebook” would some of you who do nothing but preach the Bible go over there? And perhaps a “Political Facebook” for those of you who like to argue to the point of futility?  I digress.

This is what I did while I was gone.  And these are some things I would have said, had I been on Facebook (in italics):

*I enjoyed some uninterrupted, silent stitching time.  I made progress on my vintage winter crewel kit that reminds me of Keystone, CO, where we spent Christmas this year.

*I got a great new bench for my entryway and assembled what little there was to assemble MYSELF, thank you.

*I had the carpet cleaned.  Guy didn’t do as great of a job as my regular guy so, screw you, Groupon.  Wait, it looks like Groupon IS screwed.

*“Barnes & Noble sales fell this quarter.  No one can blame me for that one.”

*Overheard at our house.  Brooks:  “Moooooom!  Ryder ordered a fake squirrel head on the internet!”

*I ordered a swimsuit but the one I REALLY wanted was out of stock.  Damn you, Garnet Hill shoppers.

*“Know what is more annoying than a reformed smoker?  Someone who doesn’t do Facebook.  That’s right.  Chuck.”

*I watched “The Help” again with Chuck because he had not seen it.  He liked it too.  I love that movie.

*I locked myself out of the house so I went to Chuck’s office to get the key.  By the time I got back, Ryder was home from school and had locked me out again by locking the deadbolt, which I don’t have a key to.  Needless to say, I WOKE her.

*“Let there be peace on Earth.  And let it begin with my kids getting their asses in bed and going to sleep.”

*I had a date night with Chuck at YaYa’s Eurobistro.  I freaking love date nights with my husband.  And he bought me shoes while we waited!

*“Would all the transvaginal mesh victims please come forward so the commercials will freaking end?”

*Commercial: “Do you or a loved one use an IUD for birth control?”  What else would I use it for – a slingshot?

*Overheard at our house:  “Chuck:  You know….the parting of the Red Sea.  Wyatt:  Party at the Red Sea?”    Yes, we go to the Christian school.

*Spent two and a half hours in a dental chair starting the process of getting two veneers replaced with crowns.  Fun.

*“Donning my bullet proof vest to go to the mall and purchase a bra.”

*Cooked two great meals.  Pioneer Woman’s pan-fried pork chops and Rigatoni Bake.  Someday I’ll share the rigatoni recipe.  It’s painfully easy and far from gourmet!  Chuck gave the pork chops very high marks 🙂

*I ordered a new slipcovered loveseat for our tiny den.  It hasn’t shipped but when it arrives I’ll be in heaven because I can watch Investigation Discovery while the rest of my family flips between the Razorbacks and something like Worst Cooks in America or Dual Survival.  And before you start in on it being snow white, TALK TO THE HAND.  My friend highly recommends it because it can be washed and bleached.  So, no, I don’t think white is a bad choice.  Hush.

See, YOU DIDN”T MISS MUCH.

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Feb 27 2013
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I try….oh, God, I try….

Simply because this picture makes me very happy....

Simply because this picture makes me very happy….

It’s a hard, freaking world to stay positive in.  I don’t watch the news, I don’t watch debates, I generally attempt to avoid things in my life that cause undue stress from negativity. (Sarcasm, folks is not negativity.  Or it’s at least a very acceptable, entertaining form of it, so don’t go there.)  Just today, in fact, I walked out of a convenience store when the skinny, white clerk and the obese, white clerk got into a tiff over a drawer being short $41.00, while the nice, African-American manager was trying to diffuse the situation with humor and basically make the point that it’s no big deal.  His attitude was that the problem would be found and we could all go our separate ways and not leave any ripped-out strands of hair, nose rings or torn flesh on the counter for me to accidentally pick up with my 2 giant King Size Kit Kat bars and Evian water. (Maybe I made that last part up, except for the candy bars & Evian, they were real.)  I just don’t want to endure such as that.  You want to know what I want to endure?  THIS:

I want to wake up happy, which I usually do.  Joyous, in fact, if Chuck is willing at 6 a.m.  I want my kids to get up without my hounding and remember their lunches and homework as they exit the building.  I don’t want them to call me from school unless they are sick.  And by sick I mean near death to the point that they cannot pick themselves up off the floor and have gone to the nurse’s office.  WTF with letting kids just call parents to come and get them?  Did not happen in my day.  Have some balls, school administrators.  Unless truly ill, they’re yours from 8-3.  Next, I do not want to have to call the effing attendance office because my daughter “needs” to check out early.  Next year, I’m going to prank call them sometimes just for shits and grins.  Because I’ll miss being talked down to like an I’m an idiot when my eldest goes off to college. Someone will have to fill in for her.  The attendance office is great at that so I figure I’ll just pretend to have a kid there or randomly check out your children when I feel like it. And they will talk down to me and it will make me miss Ryder so much I’ll send her a care package.

I don’t want to wonder if people are mad at me because I send them specific questions and lunch invites via text and they just ignore them.  No one is too busy to answer a text.  Maybe you can’t answer immediately but eventually during the day we all have time to answer texts.  Even if just to say, “Hey thanks, I’d love to, but I’m busy blowing a congressman.”  I mean, if you go to the toilet AT ALL in the course of a day, you have time to answer texts. Not doing so is the height of rudeness.  (Answering texts, that is.  Not going to the toilet is your own business.) If I even take the time to text you, I consider you one of my closest friends, so be nice to me and don’t play games. SIDE NOTES:  I cut people slack on texts that are just informative, funny or a statement of declaration. No need to answer, though it’s sometimes nice.  Question texts are my topic here.  It’s like ignoring someone standing next to you.

I also don’t want to have to spend an inordinate amount of time on homework with the kids.  Actually I don’t want to spend any time on it at all because no one ever helped me with the little homework I ever had.  I want them to come home and play and have fun and be kids and maybe study for their spelling words or a test but constructing some food item to look like alveoli or pancreatic juices is not a project for kids.  It’s a project for kids and parents to do together.  And I guarantee you they will never use anything that they learn in the process of doing that project again unless they leave the oven on and then Chuck will NEVER let them forget that you ALWAYS TURN OFF THE OVEN.  I also don’t want “partner projects” where I have to organize a “study date” that I ordinarily wouldn’t have to organize, with a kid I barely know, who probably picks his nose , has lice, or hates my dog.   What educational scholar started this craze? More on this in a later blog entry.

If I get on Facebook, I just want to make people smile or let them know that my meal is better than theirs 🙂  I don’t care what they think about politics (& no one is changing their mind on the issues near to their heart so why go there?), I don’t care who’s puking and who’s got all A’s.  I just like to be entertained. I like to see vacation pictures and I love to see a goat singing along with Taylor Swift.  But lately I just see bickering so freaking much.  So I’m thinking Facebook might not be the place for me.  At least not as often.  I’m taking a full 5-day fast to see if I survive.  After, I’ll get back on, hopefully not as much, and let you know.  Blog entries are set to automatically link so it’s possible those will come through on FB anyway, even in my absence.  Enjoy.

I want to come home after carpool to a rather peaceful home, where I can prepare dinner for a family who all eats the same thing and sits down with a dad who is home on time.  I don’t want to go to yet another season of baseball practices where I’m faced with a whole new set of people who I have to hope judge me for who I am and not what people have said I am.  I  want to be able to agree on television shows to watch in the evenings, be able to sit and read or stitch quietly while the kids play and then everyone go to bed without having to be cajoled or pulled by a mule or threatened with a potato masher (hey, sometimes it’s all that’s near).  I want my kids to brush their dang teeth, reapply deodorant, not get up 7 times, not decide they need another meal at 9 p.m. (which I will NOT cook), I want them to say a little prayer that their mom acquires patience & prescription refills and not have their friggin’ phone on speaker when they talk to their friends at 11 p.m.

I ask a lot, I know.  I always have.  Chuck says I expect a lot from people, and I do.  Why? Because I give a lot in return, damn it. But when it comes down to it in the end, all I ask is that people be respectful and nice.  And laugh.  I’m a good friend.  I’m just having a rather depressing time dealing with parenting and friendship lately and wanting things to be easier than I’m finding them to be.  I don’t think I have ever been around more adults in my life who let little things come between friendship and love.  I don’t ever mean to anger people on purpose.   Bear with me on this and hopefully  a short break and a vacation will have me in a better frame of mind soon.  Until then,  hug each other,  love each other and remember why you were friends with people in the first place.

And stop friggin’ debating politics on social media.

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Feb 02 2013
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44 in my 44th Year…

I have so many things I want to do in life.  So many.  I have a HUGE bucket list.  I may start sharing some of it on my blog but this year I wanted to have a plan for accomplishing some minor goals in my life.  You know….. those little projects you *say* you’re going to do but probably won’t get around to doing unless you write them down and approach the act of accomplishing them with some sense of purpose and sincere intent.  The following list was born from my desire to have a plan & I chose my 44th birthday as my target date to complete it!  photo-1

1. Try 10 new recipes.

2. Complete 6 needlework projects.  (Finished one today!)

3. Be a more engaged parent.  Sometimes I feel like I’m in the room but not tuned in.  I need to improve this.

4. Have a professional massage.  Or 2!

5. Volunteer at least 60 hours.

6. Paint 2 things at the Painted Pig.

7. Buy a pair of cowboy boots.

8. Visit my daughter at college!

9. YOLO board in Watercolor, FL on Hwy. 30-A.

10. Learn to make a great chocolate cake.

11. Successfully make “Cupcake Cafe” buttercream.

12. Design a crewel stocking pattern.

13. Save $1000 using coupons and rebates.

14. Blog photo tips on a regular basis.

15. Paint entire kitchen white and then go from there with kitchen decor….

16. Buy rainchains for the corners of our house.

17. Re-do/paint our front porch.

18. Make peace, or attempt to, with someone I don’t get along with.  (I did this.  It’s overrated.)  – CHECK

19. Learn to use Netflix via the PS3 without the assistance of someone 13 or under.  Or Chuck.

20. Climb Pinnacle Mountain again.  The hard side.

21. Take a vacation with just Chuck.

22. Visit Eric & Stephanie in St. Louis!

23. Weigh 135.

24. Rewatch all Seinfeld episodes.

25. Read 10 books.

26. Paint the living room.

27. Buy a desk for myself. – CHECK

28. Compile dad’s Vietnam pictures into a book for him.  (I guess after posting this it won’t be a surprise.)

29. Open an ETSY shop.

30. Camp with Tcheanina and all our boys.

31. Start my “other” blog.

32. Photograph 10 dogs.

33. Draw & paint for fun.  On a regular basis.

34. Launch a black & white division of Buttry Photography.

35. Organize my home completely.  Room by room. Closet by closet.

36. Keep a “good things” jar. – CHECK, or in progress, anyway!

37. Visit Albert Pike Recreation Area for the first time since the flood.

38. Frame my needlework projects.

39. Walk the dog more.

40. Have another trip with just my mom.

41. See 5 movies at the theater with Chuck.

42. Learn to make really good & pretty sugar cookies.

43. Keep an art journal. – CHECK, in progress

44. Practice random acts of kindness.  26 at least.  For Newtown, CT.

Think I can do it?  To help me stay organized & motivated, I devised a checklist of sorts for this adventure. It’s mainly to help me keep track of the ones that have multiple items, like “10 books”, “5 theater movies”, etc.photo-2

I plan to keep myself accountable on my blog too & on or near my 44th birthday (December 14), I’ll let you know how I did!

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Jan 26 2013
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What price, beauty?

Disclaimer:  This will be a post without a photo.  Why?  Because I’m not a big self-portrait kinda gal.  I never take those dressing room photos or bathroom mirror photos because I WILL forget and be shirtless or pantless OR Chuck will walk by in his skivvies, completely unnoticed until one of my children brings my blog up at the Christian school to show their teacher what kind of camera I recommend or how to make a Valentine wreath.  So there.

ANYWAY.  Since I tore my MCL (medial collateral ligament) in my left knee while snow skiing over Christmas, my days go much like this:

Get up.

Go out for breakfast.

Run a short errand.

Rest & stitch until carpool time.

Pick the boys up.

Rest & stitch until bedtime where I then continue to rest until it’s time for breakfast.

(Coincidentally, this is very, very close to how my days went PRE-injury but as the Bible says,  “judge ye not others, lest ye be judged or called a judgmental asshole by Noelle” — Book of Matthew, verse 7, slightly paraphrased.)

I digress.  Today, after a lovely breakfast with a girlfriend, I decided my short errand would be to get my eyebrows waxed.  Now, my grandma always drilled into me that you get what you pay for.  I knew better…. I have the absolute, most talented eyebrow waxer named Danielle, who is NOT expensive and who hand to GOD & placed on Barack’s grandma’s Bible, I will NEVER stray from again. But one day, when I got a pedicure, I noticed the lovely Asian people at the nail place also wax body parts as well.  I looked like Tom Selleck at the time so I thought, “Why not?”  A young, Asian man did my eyes and upper lip and I left very happy & slightly smug that the sixty-something man getting a pedicure (yes, you read that right) proclaimed “You didn’t even FLINCH!”  I don’t get many opportunities to feel like a badass, so you know, cherish the moments as they come.

Today, I decided, rather than use my BRAIN and call Danielle, to just run in there and get a “quickie” wax job, so to speak.  At first, I thought things were progressing nicely.  Nice Wax Lady did both eyebrows & started on the lip.  She seemed a little sloppy with the wax but hey, as long as my eyes are shut, no biggie, right?  It did cross my mind that perhaps my upper lip covered more acreage in her opinion than it did in mine but it would be over soon.  At one point a drop landed on my earlobe and another on my neck and she just ripped them off with fabric like it was part of the plan.  Someone was repeatedly sending me texts during all of  this and Nice Wax Lady would say, “You get phone?”  And I would say, “No.” And she would say, “Yes.”  This dialogue was repeated every single time the person who sent me 6 photos in a row, sent a text.  I still have no idea what it meant but finally she just sticks my phone in my face and I say, “No answering phone,” because as we all know, when a foreign person begins talking to you, you have to respond to them as if you too suddenly have no grasp of the English language!  C’mon, just ADMIT that you have answered, “Si, large chis dip!” when ordering at Senor Tequila.  Do not lie to me.  The waiter asks, “Rice & beans with that?” And you say, “Jes.”  ADMIT IT.

After finishing my lip, she bends down & I know the inevitable is coming……….  “Chin too?  Hair on you chin?”  I say, “Yes, I have a couple, you can get them too.”  She says, “LOT of hair on chin!”  I mean, for the love of God, perhaps I should just let them grow & guest star on Duck Dynasty! Damn! But of course I say, “Yes. Hair on chin.”  I swear she took that little wax-covered stick and began slathering on the hot wax like Pollock painting a canvas and every time she would put the fabric on and rip it off she put it right up in my eyes and said, “See?  See all that? LOTS of hair!”  When she finishes the chin, I start to sit up & HOLY HELL, if at that moment she doesn’t stroke both sides of my face and say, “I get all this too or you be all uneven, you know!” She gestured to her own cheeks as though I might have two large tufts of hair protruding that would cause small children to run and hide.  At this point, I honestly thought, “My God, what am I, THUMPER?”  But, of course, I said, “Just take it all. Please. Make even.”  I almost cried because I’m sure that my friend who is completely bald, has more hair on his head than I do at this moment and I’m wondering if Al Gore has to endure this torture when the little Asian people “take care of” him. She starts putting the wax on my face and the best way I can describe what she did next is to liken it to taking a piece of packing tape and jabbing it at a skirt to get the lint off.  Only she’s doing it with wax strips on my face.  OVER & OVER.  You liberals bitched about waterboarding?  Have I got some torture for you?!?!  Once my face is as smooth as a baby’s ass, she reaches for a mirror and I seriously feared I would look into it and know how Quasimodo felt when forced to look at his deformed countenance.  It wasn’t bad.  I am hair-free.  If you see me out, feel free to rub my cheeks.  I think it might bring you some sort of good, Asian luck.   Thank GOD, I crossed my legs, had on jeans and put my purse over my bikini area or I might still be there.

Also, Danielle, have no fear!  Next time, I come see YOU!

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