To Cruise Or Not To Cruise

The Ho & I had our monthly therapy session today and over lunch she described the cruise to Mexico she & her DH took last week. It was her first ever ocean cruise. I was fascinated, never having cruised myself. Fear of sea and air travel plus the claustrophobia & nausea involved, makes me a "rubber meets the road" kind of girl.


The Ho & her DH went on a Carnival cruise to Mexico with a group from our local VFW. She has been all over the world with the military but can't swim and has never cruised. I had offered her my barf bracelets, but she demurred, preferring to tough it out. Turns out the girl has sea legs & never had more than a slight queasiness even in rough weather. I couldn't wait to hear every detail. Aren't we all fascinated by the things we're most afraid of?


Being a newbie cruisewise, her ho'ness wasn't totally up on the dress "code" & one evening her clothing choice was subjected to a rude remark by a cruise mate, female of course. I would have decked the b***h, but The Ho having more class than I do, totally ignored the remark and went on to have a terrific evening.


All in all, she felt is was a fun experience, but would make different choices next time. We talked about taking a cruise together sometime in the future. I also have a group of high school friends who cruise together frequently. I envy the fun to be had and have resolved to do more research on cruising and reexamine my feelings and fears.

A Crapper In The House??

My friend and neighbor had a septic tank pump problem today resulting in the smell of human waste wafting through my home for an hour or two. I found DH outside watching the work crew & questioned his standing over the hole when sitting in our kitchen would have provided him with the same olefactory ambience.

Those of you who have city sewage service can never even imagine what those of us with septic tanks deal with.

In the early to mid 20th century in rural areas as well as many American cities, outhouses were the norm. Now, I'm a hugh fan of indoor plumbing, but I have read that many folks fought what we today regard as progress. "I don't want a crapper in the house," was heard by many who felt one would bring germs and unwanted critters into the house as well as create privacy issues.

Personally, I'll put up with the septic tank issues rather than have my "crapper" outside. Besides, there isn't even a Sears catalog anymore.

A Keeper

I just devoured this book in less than a day. Jeanette Walls wrote this novel based on the family stories of her grandmother Lily Casey Smith.

Ms. Walls says she has to call it a novel because she wanted to tell the story in the first person. According to the author, "Lily Casey Smith was a very real woman, and to say that I created her or the events of her life is giving me more credit than I'm due. However, since I don't have the words from Lily herself, and since I have also drawn on my imagination to fill in details that are hazy or missing-and I've changed a few names to protect people's privacy- the only honest thing to do is call the book a novel."

To me Lily Casey Smith joins my heroine, Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings as the kind of woman I wish I was. She was assertive, smart, gutsy, adventurous, resourceful, had the courage of her convictions, had vision, lived outside the expected parameters of her day, and savored or survived the moment while taking control of her own future. I know there were and are many more women like her out there & I wish more people wrote their stories for me to savor.

In the meantime, this book joins my copy of Cross Creek to be read over and over again. The major difference between the two books is that Cross Creek is a memoir, and because of that more personal and introspective, where Half Broke Horses is a whirlwind of adventure. I kept thinking what a great movie it would make, but there's just too much good stuff to fit into a 90 minute film.

Read it instead. Family photos help give the book a visual a movie might distort. My grandaughters can count on getting their own copies of this book from me. They may not agree with Lily on every issue, but this was a woman to learn from and admire and in many ways aspire to. Definitely a keeper.

New Do

After being sick for so long, I needed a complete overhaul. Today, I went to Rose, my local magician & now have a new do. Went a tad darker and with the new cut, just let it dry naturally.

I've been so overdoing the pony tail. It's time to give it a rest. I'll probably make it until the weather turns hot again, then I'll need to get the hair off my face & neck again.

Golden Globes

More about these two later.

I'll admit it, I'm a fan of awards shows & the Golden Globes is one of my favorites because it's more informal in nature than most and there's booze involved. I think Julia Roberts got an early start.

Most of the winners were actors I admire even if I hadn't seen the nominated roles. Love Sandra Bullock (but then again, who doesn't,) Kevin Bacon, John Lithgow, Meryl of course and one of my favorite hotties, Jeff Bridges. I was rooting for Jane Lynch from Glee even though I've never seen the show. She plays Charlie Harper's shrink on "Two and A Half Men" and cracks me up every time.

Best movie winner Avatar just should never have happened. There should be a separate category for computer generated movies. It's not quite fully animated, but neither does it rely on straight story line, direction and acting like the other 4 nominees. It was a clear case of apples and oranges.

The only one of the five films I've see is "Up in the Air." It was good. Not outstanding, good. The female actresses almost stole the show. I was curious about Vera Farmiga. She's not a young girl & I wondered why I had never seen her work before this. So I googled her & came up with a movie about the Boston irish mafia called "The Departed." I wanted to see her in something else, so I rented it.

Dan & I watched it together, just so you know it isn't just me. We were both very confused during the first half hour because we couldn't figure out how a cop could work both undercover and overtly at the same time. Duh......it was two different guys. Are we the only ones who didn't notice this. That's their photos up top. And I like Leo DiCaprio! Anyway, it was a damn good movie and I enjoyed watching a younger Vera Farmiga.

Here's my two cents on the fashions. Sofia Vergara and Julie Bowen from Modern Family were perfectly glam followed closely by Toni Collette and Olivia Wilde. On the other hand, Drew Barrymore was being crawled on by giant caterpillers, Tina Fey slummed in a consignment shop frock and my BFF Cher was channeling Morticia.

A Pea Soup Kind Of Day

It's warmer here, but raining. I'm reading "Snow Falling On Cedars," an award winning book I should have gotten to years ago, but thoroughly enjoying now. The locale in the book is the pacific northwest and during a heavy snowstorm, one of the characters goes to take some supplies to his mother and when he arrives she's making a pot of bean soup.

Well right away, I remembered my meaty ham bone left over from Christmas dinner. The lady in the book added a couple of small turnips to her soup, so I said "what the hell," & threw in a couple of turnips with the other veggies. I chose split pea instead of bean because it's DH's favorite. I'm nice to him every now & then. Not too often. I need to keep him on his toes.

In all modesty, it's a thing of beauty. Especially percolating away in my new Christmas present Rachal Ray stock pot.

Incommunicado

It's been 9 days since I took to my bed with fever & most of all chills. Under the covers in a sweatsuit & still couldn't get warm.

It started slowly. For a few days prior I was tired and achy, then, wham, I felt like I was hit by one of those log hauling trucks that barrel down my road every day.

By the 4th day, I managed to call my local Doc. I just asked if I could send in a urine sample for testing to see if I had an infection. No, no, of course not. Unless I could drag myself down to his office, how the hell was he going to bill Medicare. Gotta rack up those billable hours you know.

I was smelling like 3 day old road kill, so had to shower, dress & drive myself to his office. Once there, guess what? I was told to pee in a cup. Surprise. This Doc is a know-it-all control freak with a lack of respect for women in general so he yelled at me for waiting so long and threatened me with hospitalization for what he termed a "massive" infection. When I showed proper contrition, he admitted that I could be treated with oral antibiotics and sent me home with a prescription and an appointment for 3 days hence.

After another 3 days shivering under the covers dressed in my hoodie and sweats, back to the office I drive, pee in a cup again, find out that the infection is not responding. Let's bill medicare for another visit and go home with a new prescription.

Today is day 9 and I've been up for a couple of hours twice now. I'm still not feeling a good as I should by now. But at least my brain's working enough for me to let everyone know why I've been so quiet for the last couple of weeks.