Home is wherever my sweetie is. At the moment it’s here, in our 1926 bungalow, full of all the modern conveniences…
In a little while, hopefully within a year, it will be in a brand new house. Well, maybe not *brand* new, but brand new to us. Then that will be home.
Home is a relationship, home is a state of mind.
I spent a good portion of my lunchbreak today observing a lizard. Actually, I think he was not a lizard, but rather a chameleon, because he was able to change color to match the leaves of the tree or the brown of the bench. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a chameleon before(in real life), so mark it down as a first.
Also, since coming to Alabama, I have seen real live chipmunks. Not often, but once or twice (another first). And the other day I saw a rainbow, unbroken from one end of the sky to the other. So life is full of wonderful things to see.
In other news, I hope to be getting a promotion soon, which hopefully will mean some extra money. This past weekend I worked a sampling job (like Mary does) but it was overall not a good experience. Setting up and closing down were not bad, but everything in between was dead boring. And my feet started hurting about two hours into it. So I’m not sure if I’ll be doing this again. It’s not like I NEED the money, just that it would be nice to have some extra money. But if I get the promotion, there should also be opportunity to work overtime at time-and-a-half, and that would probably end up being a lot more profitable and less stressful than standing in a store all day trying to get people to try a product that (in this particular case, anyway) was not really good.
In more “other news,” I have become captivated by the book Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, which I just finished, and I hope to get the second book in the series later this week. I’m kind of annoyed at myself for enjoying this book, because it’s really so hokey and so predictable, and so corny and cheesy…yet, as I said, I’m captivated. Have you ever sat down in front of the TV where some really dopey sitcom was on, and you KNOW it’s a dopey sitcom, and so beneath you…and yet you can’t stop laughing? That’s kind of what this is like. Only without the laughter.
Well, anyway, this catches me up a little in this LJ, doesn’t it?
I haven’t been keeping up here too well lately, on account of it being very, very busy at both work and home, but I couldn’t resist this question. So here goes:
I’m not really sure if it is TRULY my earliest memory, but it is my first VIVID memory. We were driving in the car, my mom, my sister and me, and we were coming back from this little mall in Great Neck. We had bought candy corn. And I really like candy corn. I don’t remember if I asked, or if my mom simply started explaining it to me, but turns out we were going to have a party, I think it was a birthday party, and I think it was for me, and candy corn was going to be part of the celebration.
I remember how excited I felt, knowing this was going to be a special day. And the specialness included candy corn. So to this day, candy corn is one of my favorite candies.
Mary introduced me to LJ. It was several years ago, back when I was still very new to the internet, and I found it just fascinating that there might be a place where I could keep a journal of my thoughts that other people could actually see and comment on. Of course, as far as this journal goes, for a very long time Mary was the only one who ever really read it or commented on it. It was kind of funny, actually, because we both lived in the same house, so there was no reason in the world why we couldn’t just TALK to each other, and of course we did that too, lots—but since we are both writers, we also enjoyed the experience of reading and commenting in someone else’s journal.
Even now, as much as I love it when I get comments from other people, even if I don’t get any comments, I still like to put down my thoughts in an organized manner. I often wish I had more time for LiveJournal. On occassion, writing here has really helped me to sort things out. And sometimes, it’s just simply been a lot of fun.
So here are some family photos, just for the heck of it. Enjoy.
First…Mary and Joey, during my recent trip to Florida.
Here’s Mom and Dad from the same trip.
The two grandmothers with little John-John and Gabriela
Later that day, they have a lot less energy…
And just in case you forgot, they used to be smaller!
Here’s Dad at home. Notice the bird, Buster, on his shoulder.
And here are the other birds in the house, Chi-Chi and Virgil.
Okay, the kids again….Now…
And then….
With Samantha: Now, outside Samantha’s Gainesville dorm room…
And here’s what they used to look like….then…
Oh, and here’s me….
And here’s my sweetie, Russ. Love that smile!
And here we are at our wedding, last September
Going back a bit further, here’s the gang from a few years ago.
Also, Dad with all us kids
The two grandsons together. Little John-John has some growing to do to catch up with Joey!
At my house in Alabama, we had some lovely roses this Spring, right outside the kitchen window.
And no posting of photos would be complete without Boogie and Squeeeeee!
Well, hope you enjoyed that! It was fun!
When I go into my local Target, this poster is hanging on the wall in the Snack Bar. It always reminds me of Joey and Sarah.
Someday, I’m going to get Joey and Sarah to pose for a picture like this with an icee.
The last several weeks I’ve been feeling not so well. My stomach was bothering me, and I just felt very tired. I took a look at how I have been eating and I realized I’ve been drinking a lot of sugary drinks lately. So for the last day or two I’ve been laying off the sugar, eating more salads, drinking more water, etc. Already I’m starting to feel better. I still need to get back to the gym.
Well, that’s the update for now.
Russ and I went to visit his parents at their home, for several of reasons.
1. We were in the neighborhood and wanted to say hi.
2. His mom had just gotten out of the hospital, and we wanted to bring her a gift.
3. We wanted to let them know how our house-hunting was going.
We spent a few hours this Sunday afternoon going to “Open Houses” and it was very exciting. We found a couple of neighborhoods we hadn’t known about before that would be EXCELLENT places to live. We also marked off a neighborhood or two from our list, as someplace where we would not at all care to live. So, it’s been educational.
Before visiting the in-laws, we were in a brand new and completely empty house in Englewood Gardens, south of the city, in a very up-and-coming area of town. The neighborhood was good, and the house was beautiful! I was shocked to see SHAG carpeting in a brand new house. The 60’s are alive and well in modern housing development!!! Also, this house was the perfect size for us (1300 sq. ft.), with an open floorplan on the kitchen and living area, three bedrooms down a long hallway, and an interior guest bathroom where you could easily hang out in case of a tornado. The cat box would probably fit well in the separate laundry room (ie—laundry room, not laundry closet.) Oh, and did I mention a fenced yard, 2-car garage and price tag of only $139,900?
We left our name and phone number with one of the realtors, so we expect to be getting calls from them. Supposedly we are in the “just looking” stage at this point, but that’s an assumption we’re making based on what we THINK we know about how real estate works. It may be that we are actually further along than we think, closer to buying than we now hope. Time will tell. In the meantime, it’s a blast going around to look at all these different neighborhoods and houses. When we finally do make a decision, no one will be able to accuse us of being uninformed.
In one of Lori’s recent comments, she said:
It’s funny how certain sentences just stick in your head from so many years ago.
I thought about that, and boy is it true! I know there are several that I remember very well, and I’m thinking about sharing some of them here.
One from my childhood:
One hot summer day, Wendy, our dog, was sitting in the shade. I attempted to commend her for her wise choice, and chose to do so with an accent. What kind of accent, and why, I don’t know, but it started out like this:
“Schmart dog!” (Instead of “Smart dog.”)
I went on to say “You sit in the shade.” But after you’ve added a “sch” to “smart” and at the same time you’re getting ready to say the word “shade”…well, “sit” just kind of gets all caught up in all those “sh” and “sch” sounds, and even though I had no intention of saying this, this is what came out of my mouth:
“Schmart dog! You shit in the shade!”
Now, to a nine or ten year old kid who has just accidentally cursed, this is no end of embarrassment…or humor. And I have never forgotten it.
One from Mary’s childhood:
When Mary was about three or four, it was amazing how nothing that happened was ever her fault. The epitome of this was best expressed when one day she clumsily walked into a wall, began to cry, and proclaimed:
“The wall made a lump and bumped me!”
Honestly.
And most recently:
When I visited Barbara and John last month, they reminded me of how, about ten years ago, when asked how I felt about turning forty, I said, “I don’t mind being forty, I just don’t want to be FAT and forty.” They have always thought this was hysterical.
When they asked me recently how I felt about turning fifty, my reply was the same (with the word “fifty” replacing the word “forty.”) This is not one that I particularly remember, but they get such a kick out of it, every ten years or so, that I thought it was worth mentioning. (Hey, do you think there’s any chance I might reach sixty and be NOT FAT?) 🙂
Now, one more that came up while visiting Barbara and John. They asked me what kind of guy Russ is. I said, “He’s not the perfect guy…but he’s the perfect guy for ME.” Barbara thought this was so profound. And actually, I guess it is. And also, so true.
Well, that’s all I can think of at the moment. If anyone has any sentences that have been stuck in their head all these years (like Lori’s memory of my brother John using karate on my brother James!) please feel free to share them. I would love to know.
I recently had a reply from Lori, one of my cousins, who I remember from way back when I was a kid. In honor of her, and all my cousins, I post this picture. Thanks, Lori, for making me remember what it was like to be a kid.
I could probably write a lengthy disertation on what it was like to have so many cousins, but since I’m short on time, I’ll review only one memory, and ask anyone else who would like to to share some of theirs.
THE MISSING SHOES
One thing all us cousins always liked to do, when we would have summer family picnics, would be to play kickball out in the middle of the street. One time, we were playing in front of Aunt Bertha’s house, and for some reason we decided it would be best if we took off our shoes. So we all took off our shoes and lined them up on the front porch while we went out to the street for kickball.
The front porch was hidden by high bushes, and when we came back after the game, we discovered that ONE SHOE out of every pair was missing! It was funny, and disturbing. It was a mystery.
I think we eventually discovered that our older cousins, Aunt Bertha’s sons, who were teenagers and too old to play kickball with us in the street, had played a practical joke on us and hidden half our shoes. I guess we eventually got our shoes back. I don’t remember. I just remember how surprised we were when we came back up to the porch and found only one of our shoes each!
I also remember how much fun it was to play kickball in the middle of the street.
