What sign are you?

I was born on my parents' 8th wedding anniversary...third child...following my two brothers ... 11:02 AM on a Tuesday morning. Birth order: the baby of the family...later to be established as the 'lefty' of the family.
I used to call my mom on the phone at 11:02 every year and sing 'Happy Birthday' to her since she birthed me and she was happy about it.
I'll be singing at 11:02 tomorrow just because...that's my thing.
Twenty-nine years later, my son was born three days before my birthday. So really I was three days shy of thirty!! I remember it well.
Where does the time go?
Even though the years add up..somehow we do not feel the age we are. At least...I don't.
If I were to pick one defining characteristic that defines me, it would be my ability/compulsion to burst into song depending on whatever 'word' has been spoken. There was no surplus of money in our house and Catholic school had no music in their program. I often tell Mom that if she had cultivated my musical talents, we'd be living in a house on some beautiful body of water!!
What would be your signature defining trait? Don't think too long...it should pop right into your mind.

A Bit of a Bumpy Ride

Life can be challenging as each day has its ups and downs...hills and valleys...good days and difficult ones. After three and a half years, it seems as if Flo is noticibly a bit more confused. The worst part is that she has it in her head that she hasn't seen her daughter, Mare, in more than a week. And it has her very upset. I can be sitting directly opposite her in a chair, and the conversation is... "Do you know where Mare is? I haven't talked with her in quite a while. Could you give me her phone number so I can call her?"
"Mom, I am Mare, and I'm sitting right here."
"No, I mean my daughter, Mare. You are Mare, but not my daughter Mare."

Five minutes later, she will pick up the phone and want to make a call [to her daughter], and is unsuccessful and frustrated. And this conversation has been going on for days. It's like my personal version of 'Where's Waldo'? and the movie 'Groundhog Day'!!

I have become the master of distraction and pretty adept at changing the subject.

Good times have also been happening. My son and his girlfriend came into town, and did yardwork and surprise purchasing of flowers for my deck planters, and landscaped a raised bed that was empty. It was wonderful! And my grandpup, Hank, managed to stand up on the kitchen counter and do a taste test of the coconut bundt cake that they had brought!! Kind of funny when you are an observer and not the enforcer!

I am back on my meds for two weeks now, and hopefully will continue to be functioning better as each day goes by.

But the whole 'confused Mom' thing stays the main focus and is both frustrating and sad. Thank God for St Nic [ caregiver extraordinaire] because she is very good for both of us.

It would be a tremendous blessing if tomorrow when Mom wakes up...her first words are not,

"Does anybody know where Mare is?"

I've got my fingers crossed. Well, not literally...

Backgammon

I would love to get into a backgammon tournament. I participated in two tournaments back in the 70's. I taught the kids in my school [grades 4-6 ] how to play, and when there were enough who really knew how to play, I organized a tournament in the hour before school started. Kids would ride the early buses,and it was a grand sight to see the combination of thought and luck that went into each game. And then there is the added element of the doubling cube. Quite a game it is, and the fact that it has been around for thousands of years also makes it kind of intriguing. Any players out there?

She Who Laughs...Lasts.

It has been mentioned that I can be entertaining....sometimes on purpose in the form of a practical joke but quite often without any prior planning or assistance... and the joke is on me.

For the past two Saturdays, I had scheduled another two session Safe Driving Class. They were a week apart so that people who work Monday through Friday can sign up to 'think safety' as well as 'save money'. I know that the true motivation is to save money, but that's okay with me.

On the first Saturday, it was evident that my arthritis was in a flare. I explained that my right knee was pretty annoyed because of the lack of arthritis meds, along with my failed attempt in auditioning for The Rockettes.[kidding.] The people that I meet in these classes are always so kind and helpful, and this group of drivers was no different. They love telling scary driving stories.

By the time that the next Saturday rolled around, I had resumed all of those wonderful medicines that help me function better. Everyone was genuinely glad to see that I was doing better, and I did a couple of Rockette kicks to show them how flexible my right knee had become.[ for real] One man even 'brought the teacher' a chocolate donut as a kind gesture.

We had just come back from a quick break, and I had directed them to the next page when from the back table, I heard...

"Mare, you have a green sticker on your face!"
"What? I do? Where?"
"Right under your chin."

I reached under my chin, and there was a round 'fluorescent green' sale sticker that had 40 on it. I immediately recognized it from a salesman's sale that I had gone to on Thursday, and then I had removed that sticker off of the box that I purchased. That was done in my dining room. How it became affixed to my chin...is a mystery.

When I aked how long it had been there, she said it was on my shirt and she thought maybe it was a part of the design. When it appeared under my chin, she knew it wasn't supposed to be there.

There I was...on sale for a mere 40...what a bargain!!

We all got a good laugh at that. It was quite the unscripted break and I thanked the woman for telling me that it was there. It is similar to a good friend who will tell you if you have broccoli in your teeth or maybe need to use a tissue. It is good to know.
There are always a laugh or two in these classes. This one was right up there with the time I told the people that there were some Ritz Crappers on the back table for anyone who would like some.

Thank goodness that I am able to laugh along with the people even when it is at my expense. A whole room full of people laughing...fun, fun, fun!

Yikes!

Quite the series of events happened this week in my little corner of the world!! Nothing life threatening or comparable to real problems...inconveniences that were annoyingly timely. First of all, at the onset of the 95 degree weather...the air conditioning in my car quit. For many people, this would not be a huge problem. I contemplated calling 911 in anticipation of my passing out because I feel the heat more than anyone else that I know. So to answer the question,
"How hot did it get last week?"

Try NOT turning on the air in your car even for just one errand, and you will get a better appreciation.

Today, Saturday, my cable TV box decided to quit. Yes, it is on a weekend, of course! After about 3 attempts of trying to reboot it, along with a new signal sent magically through the air waves by cablevision....a house call is now scheduled to fix the problem.
And my mom who never allowed us as kids to use the "B" word [that would be 'bored'] said,

"Is there anything to do besides sit here and look out the window?"
I immediately thought...Holy mackeral...this could be a long and bumpy night!!

"Are you saying that you are kind of ...bored...Mom?"

"I think so...Yes, I am!"

I was immediately trying to spin a solution to that problem.

I know better than to ask the question, 'What else could happen?'

Because...there was the dog directly in front of me with her huge brown 'laser beam' eyes staring at me and saying,

"I hear thunder in the distance. You know that I will be in altered states before you can say..."
Lord have mercy!!

Well, 'the old and the restless' are now both fast asleep no longer bored and/or scared. What a good idea...I think I will join them....ZZZZZZZ~

Bananas...both people and fruit!

Sarah Palin ...who is paying for her 'loose canon' road trip?? Is it the sale of her books that fuels that bus? I can't believe enough people would purchase it. Maybe the next book can be Sarah rewriting American history starting with Paul Revere's real agenda. Oh, and a family pizza lunch with Donald Trump? Maybe she will be on his next reality show...wait a minute...reality and Sarah Palin I believe may be an oxymoron in the true sense of the word.
Snookie...what an embarrassment first to NJ and now to the country. When we were in the ER on Saturday, we got chatting with the lab tech who was drawing Flo's blood for testing. When my brother mentioned that he lives at the Jersey shore, that stupid TV show came up as a topic for discussion. I have watched about 11 minutes on four occasions of channel surfing past it. It is unwatchable. And now the cast has gone on a road trip to Italy, and Snookie has crashed into a police car...I mentioned the unbelievable travesty of injustice that Snookie is paid $30,000 an episode, and the medical lab tech said,

I don't make that much money in a year. And I work."

There is something very wrong about this...

And how about the close encounters with the ordinary folks in life...

People walking behind you, and yet they are in your personal space because they need to go faster than you are. You can feel their presence getting closer and closer like the grocery cart behind you that you just know is going to 'crash' into your ankles. I have learned to take a step to the right or left and say,

" Go ahead and pass me. I am not in as much of a hurry".

It works out better for both of us.

I stopped in front of the banana display, and found it amusing that I found myself surveying the entire 162 bananas before I selected the ones I wanted. Crazy! So then, in a bit of people watching, I found the banana picking process to be very entertaining. I watched men and women, both old and young pick them up, and put them down. Tear off two, and then decide on a totally different bunch. Bruises...colors...shapes and sizes...organic.... You would think they were selecting candidates for adoption.

And now...an assignment for you. Next time at the grocery store...observe this banana pickin' behavior! It is amusing.

And there you have it.