Things I miss...

I'm not being all sappy & such - just have been having some random things/people come to my mind these past days. As random as they are, they all, at one time, were special in their own ways.

I miss my Grandma. My mom's mom - she was exactly what a grandma should be. I loved her dearly & she loved me best, too. (don't tell my brothers that). Some day I'll write more on my "Garma", I promise.

I miss XM radio. (I told you these were random). I liked having a kazillion stations to choose from on my way in to work & back. But of course, I only listened to about 5 stations - but miss having the choice of playing them in the Jeep with the top off & enjoying new, cool music.

I miss the smell of chlorine. Actually, I think I miss the "smell" of a pool. Let's just say nothing beats a pool to me - so smelling like chlorine after swimming is one of the best smells ever. Note to self: write on Garma AND cool smells some day.

I miss roller coasters. I absolutely love them - not the spinny, crap ones - but anything that goes high & fast & brings me back in 2 minutes. Woodys are cool, but nothing beats a steel coaster like Cedar Point's Top Thrill Dragster. I've had to split from coasters with my bad back & vertigo. Both suck and both are not cool on coasters.

I miss Sea World in Aurora, Ohio. Nothing cooler than Shamu - just sayin'.

I miss playing "catch". Mostly because I'm actually missing my first baseman's mitt. Note to self: look for mitt in basement - it MUST be there SOMEWHERE. I love throwing a softball. One of my all time favorites with my Dad. My said missing mitt used to be his, but I mostly remember his glove that was so big it looked like a cage on his hand.

I miss Alex, my lab. It has been over a decade since I had to let him go in my arms. He was & always will be the dog of my life. I could write about him for days, but won't today. Maybe another time.

I miss my dark brown hair. WTF happened when I turned 30? Geez, I figured out the expression "blondes have more fun"... it is because their grays mingle nicely with blonde hair. Bitches.

I miss my nephew & niece thinking I'm the cat's ass. They're now in their 20's and barely know I'm alive. If they only knew they're recipients of a third of my worth. Note to self: maybe it is time to change will?

Speaking of family again - I miss my younger brother. He is only about 25 miles away, but I only see him on Christmas Eve for 2 hours at the Pomeroy House, every other Thanksgiving, on his kids' birthdays and a maybe 2 more times a year. I miss being his friend.

And speaking of friends - I miss being around lots of people at work. Maybe they really weren't my friends, but friend-like, instead. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess. And I'm both right now.

I miss being mascot. For one year I was the class clown & got away with just about everything fun. I had to forfeit playing sports my senior year & traded it to wear a lion outfit. Everyone knew me & I was on display for the whole school. "look at me, but you can't see me" is still a motto I have today.

I miss playing Barbies. I simply L.O.V.E. Barbies. I'm a girl, what can I say? I have 3 nieces 10 years old & younger - so that is my story & I'm sticking to it. I find myself checking out the Barbie aisle in Target & Toys R Us mostly just to see what is available, not really for their gifts. Although it gives me great pleasure getting to buy a very cool Barbie for one of the girls. If only they'd invite me over to play. I rock the Barbie playing, if only given the chance.

And lastly tonight, while eating dinner on our screened in porch, I thought of my "Garma" again.

I miss sitting on HER screened in porch in Wisconsin. It was summertime, so we could stay up late. We would be in our jammies and my Garma had a very cool chaise lounge. My older brother & I'd fight over it - as it had yellow vinyl cushions that felt really cool on a hot, Summer night. Garma would also have Bugles and squirt cheese (in the can) for us. She'd squirt the cheese to look just like a mini ice-cream cone – only better.

Heading down in the basement to hunt down that mitt - now if only I could find someone to play catch, Barbies and eat some Bugles with...

Ruts & snakes, oh my!

NEOhio has had craptactular weather this spring. By now, our yard is totally "done" for the season... meaning the shrubs are trimmed, the beds are cleaned & the edges dug. The grass is edged and mulch is spread & lastly, flowers in pots are planted. (phew)

But here it is, almost 3 weeks into May and I've done all the beds & edging. But because of the rain we've had, it has been either too wet or cold for the mulch. I rushed out and cut the beds with really nice edges and gave all the shrubs nice haircuts. But it seems that in the last month, everything has grown back like a forest. And the grass has never been more green & lush (minus the bald spot where the jerk neighbors let their dogs pee).

We have exactly 48 hours of decent weather in between weeks of rain. So I mowed the lawn today, hoping to trim the shrubs tomorrow. Our sweet peat (mulch) has already been postponed once, and is scheduled for next week. The shrubs need another major haircut - so that will be on the agenda tomorrow.

While mowing the lawn, I made some ruts in the wet areas. Crap. Might as well mowed a bog. So now I have two areas with muddy ruts. dammit.

And in the front of the house, I noticed a really big worm in the grass. So I kinda touched it with my shoe to get it to go away. Not a worm, dummy. It was an effing snake. (my number 1 icky thing, ever). It didn't move, so I thought it was playing dead. (do they do that?). This one was doing it really well, so well that it was really dead - I think. I pushed it away so I could mow that area & afterwards noticed it was still there. The mere thought of it laying upside down in my lawn just gave me the heebee jeebies. So I had to "dispose" of it, somehow.

I had to use the blower to get rid of the humongous amount of grass in the street/sidewalk, so ingenious me used the blower to "encourage" it over to the neighbor's lawn. Don't tell them, ok?

Birthdays

The day you're born is a really big deal. Well, to everyone else, that is. On your birth day, we go through all sorts of stress. Everything's all cool, then BAM, either labor hits or you're being annoyed & grabbed by the doctor. (I was the later).

Growing up, birthdays are pretty cool. On our first birthday, we get what they now call a "smash cake". In the 60's we just had our own cake on our high chair & we dug into it. I guess kids now are more special & get their own cake to destroy. We all have those awesome pics of us with a cake in front of us - all smiling & adorable. Then there is a picture of the devastation with 78% of the cake all over our face. I'm sure it was awesome.

My birthday is in January, near Martin Luther King day. So it sometimes hit that we got off from school to observe the holiday. Normally, most kids would think that is cool - but not me. I was one of those kids that enjoyed being at school on MY special day. And to this day, I liked working on my birthday. Notice how uneventful your birthday is when it falls on a Sunday? See what I mean?

There are some definite cons to having a January birthday(I didn't get to pick).
1. everyone is coming off the holiday high from the presents, food & time off.
2. everyone is on a diet
3. everyone is clueless what to get you
4. you have another 11 months for any more presents
5. if you live any where north of the Mason-Dixon line, you will NEVER get to wear flip-flops or your swimsuit on your special day - not to mention have a cool swimming party with water balloons.

When we were kids, my Mom would make us our special cake. My brothers picked brownies & dutch apple pie. Not me - angel cake rules. (I learned early it is a plus for those dieters, too).

We also had our own birthday party. None of that sharing crap (my older brother's birthday is 9 days before mine). So my parents were really cool by letting us have our own friends over, a party or even a movie with friends.

There are some milestone birthdays I've already had. Of course, 16 is great. Then 18 and 21. After that, 30 is about as cool as it gets. Then I turned 40. I think they're all kind of down hill from here on.

Since my thirties, birthdays have always been centered around food. I don't always get my angel food cake - so we like to celebrate with foods. My favorite is stone crabs - so I forfeit my birthday dinner in NE Ohio in January for a stone crab dinner in Florida weeks later. Well worth the wait.

We have a sort of family rule about birthdays now that all of us kids are grown. We don't buy each other gifts - we send each other cards & we call. My parents still get their cards AND their phone call - AND they get gifts, AND they usually get to pick a nice meal at a restaurant. Pay back for sure.

So you'd think it would be pretty easy to just send a card & make a phone call, right? NOPE. While some family members send cards with hand drawn pictures from nephews & nieces early, others don't send one at all. Or when they do, they send it AFTER your birthday & they date the inside your birthday. As if the post mark on the envelope lies. And as if you don't know your own birthday. geez.

At our age, you act as if your birthday isn't a big deal - but they are. You don't want people to make a huge ordeal out of it, but when they don't, it is a disappointment. And all you have to do is send a card or call to make someone feel special. With email, Facebook, texting, cell phones AND snail mail, I guess that is too hard for some people.