Good Friends

I had dinner last night with Glinda and Cribs.

It was a BLAST! And just what I needed.

Cribs recently got engaged and we had to get together to see the ring and get all of the details of the proposal. If I didn't like that girl so much I would have thrown up on the table. She's so adorably happy!

At some point the conversation was shifted to me, and the girls told me exactly what I needed to hear.

I am very lucky to have them in my life!

Knee Braces and Photo Shoots

The summer before my junior year of high school I had surgery to repair the meniscus cartilage in my left knee. It  was minorly tragic for some random reasons.

One of those reasons was that when I got home and was obviously still under the influence of some pretty heavy sedation, I walked past Bunner and he said, "Chipper died." (Chipper was my dog at the time and I loved him dearly.) I started crying. I couldn't even function properly.

Another reason was that Match.mom only gave me prescription pain killers the day of the surgery. The next day, she made me switch to Advil. Oh yeah, I'm serious - I had a hip-to-ankle brace on my leg that couldn't be removed, I had to shower sitting on a lawn chair with my left leg stuck out of the tub, and I was on crutches; but Match.mom didn't think the pain warranted prescription medication. (I think secretly she wanted it for herself...)

At the time of the surgery, the house that we lived in was a strange shape and my bedroom was not near the kitchen. Match.mom pretty much set me up in my bedroom for recovery, but when people would come to visit, the kitchen was where they wanted to hang out. So my friends would be in the kitchen hanging out with my family and I would be laying in my bed with a dull pain pulsing through my leg. When I would have enough of that, I would get up and hobble my way to the kitchen and Match.mom would yell at me for not resting.

After a week (maybe two) of the hip-to-ankle brace, I went back to the doctor to get a new adjustable hinge brace that would limit my range of motion as set by the doc.

During this particular time in my life I spent A LOT of time with two of my cousins, Rejuba* and Freckles*. When I say "a lot," I mean it. We were together nearly every minute that we weren't working or in school. And we had some good times!

So, it wasn't odd that when I went to the doctor to get my brace switched, these girls drove me. The surgery took place not long before school started so our plan was to go to the doctor and then to the mall to do a little back-to-school shopping. When we mentioned this to the doc, he recommended that I use a wheelchair to get around the mall. He didn't think that my leg would be ready for walking around, and it was hard to get used to walking with the limited range of motion.

Of course we thought that this was hilarious - and when we got to the mall, the first thing we did was get a wheelchair (or maybe we brought one with us, but I don't know where we would have gotten it.)

Picture this: I'm sitting in a wheelchair, in a dress (because it was hard to get pants/shorts over the previous brace), with my left leg sticking straight out; and Rejuba and Freckles are taking turns pushing me around the mall.

Now, if you know the three of us, or spent any time with us together during this time of our lives, you know that we laughed a lot and didn't always pay attention. This was the case all the way through the mall. We already couldn't stop laughing because we had a wheelchair, and then the two of them would start looking in stores and run my bad leg into things. It was a gong show!

So, the other day I was cleaning out my closet and I found an old picture frame and one of the pictures was of Freckles. She was all done up with lots of makeup and hair spray, wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey. I immediately started laughing.

As a show of moral support during the time that I had my brace on my knee and couldn't partake in all activities, the three of us spent one night at Rejuba's house, putting makeup on, doing our hair all crazy, and dressing up in really strange clothes - and then holding our own photo shoot.

I am going to have to go through some old pictures and see if I can find more of those...

Hilarious!

Kiss Me! I'm Irish!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

I gave up alcohol for Lent, which really puts a damper on St. Patty's Day festivities. Oh well. Diddy, O'Connor, Dirty, and I have a softball game tonight as well. We'll (read they will drink, I will drive) most likely be getting some drinks before the game, so I will celebrate.

As you may or may not know, my Popie was Irish. Granny B has some pretty choice words about Irish folks, and I suspect it is because Popie drove her a little crazy sometimes. But I'm sure the feeling was mutual.

Either way, I thought of Popie this morning as I was getting ready for work. I thought about the time I made him green clover-shaped cookies when he was in the rehab facility.

Yes, the cookies were actually green - not the frosting. I didn't frost them.

I'm trying to remember if they were sugar or shortbread cookies though. Because he really liked shortbread, but I don't recall ever making shortbread in my life.

And if they were sugar, why wouldn't I have frosted them?

Who knows.

Then I was talking to Diddy on the way in and we got on the subject of muffins and him eating all of the muffins that Dirty made and I called him a fatso.

Then I smiled and told him, "You're gonna be a fatso like Popie."

Something That Makes Me Happy

Today, for work, I was doing some photography with one of my candidates. 

She is a wonderful lady and I enjoy the time that I spend with her working on her campaign. 

One of the couples that she scheduled us to talk to during her photos was an older couple that she works with on community projects. She has talked to me about them numerous times so I was excited to meet them.

As I stood in their living room, watching them interact with each other and my client, I got a little emotional. 

I don't know how long they have been married, but I can guess it's a long time. And they were adorable, talking about their routine and history and whatever came to their minds. 

It makes me hope that someday I'll be there. With a man that I have loved for years through good times and bad. Enjoying just being next to him.

Random Musings

I think I've had too much coffee today.

I'm having a hard time focusing.

And I hate nylons - whoever invented them should be poked in the temples with hot nails.

My head hurts - I think I need more water.

My doctor thinks I have an allergy/sensitivity to wheat/gluten.

I'll be doing a test/challenge to determine that for the next three weeks.

Please don't offer me anything with those ingredients.

And forgive me if we go out to eat and I am a crazy annoying orderer.

Is orderer a word?

Does anyone have good gluten-free recipes?

Does peanut butter have gluten?

In good news my blood pressure was normal, which isn't normal at all.

Which is really strange considering that most days I feel like it is rising exponentially in response to my work environment.

I guess something I'm doing is right.

I think I need a nap.

Aviation Adventures

The turbulence was so bad that everyone was screaming! I thought we were going to fall right out of the sky and into the ocean!!! The entire plane was filling their barf bags up! Luggage was falling out of the overhead bins - one lady was knocked out, but still throwing up. And then...Sasquatch came out of the bathroom!!


Ok, maybe that is a small exaggeration, but Diddy's and my airport/flight adventure to SLO on Saturday, was definitely an....well, adventure!

Match.mom took us to the airport and since we were only carrying our luggage on, we went straight to security and through to the gate. Both in need of caffeine, we made a stop at Starbucks first. We got to our gate and sat down just in time to hear them announce a gate change.

With plenty of time to make it to the new gate, we moseyed on over and took our seats in this blocked off area. Diddy remarked that he didn't like it - he felt like he was in a cage.

As we drank our coffee and people-watched we caught part of the conversation happening at the counter. The attendant was explaining to some lady that they had downgraded the plane and there were now only 14 rows. Having booked our seats in row 19, we decided that I needed to go see what was going on.

I headed up to the counter and stood in line for a while. Then the announcement was made that they had officially put us on a smaller plane due to rain in San Luis and they needed 13 people to volunteer to give up their seats.

Things were about to go downhill!

Apparently the same thing had happened the night before and there were a number of passengers who were supposed to be on that flight, that were then booked on our flight. And they were now getting bumped. Chaos ensued!

Announcer then comes on and says, "the following people do not have seats on this flight. Swenson, Swanson, Samsonite...(ok, maybe those weren't the names, but am I supposed to remember them all?) If I didn't call your name, you can stop panicking, you are safe."

Of course, everyone in the gate area is on edge - except Diddy and I. We are cracking jokes and laughing out loud and having a generally good time. People really didn't like us.

After a while, they announce that the people who need new seat assignments should come to the desk to get their boarding passes. That included us, so I went up to get them.

I got up there just as he was announcing Diddy's last name and I said, "That's us."

Counter Agent: You probably aren't sitting together, but at least you have seats.
Me: (trying to lighten the mood) That's ok, I don't like him that much anyway.
Counter Agent: (apparently not amused with me) Ok


Once on the plane we tried to get the lady sitting next to Diddy to switch seats with me, but she was rude and wouldn't do it.

Luckily, the woman who was supposed to sit next to me was willing to trade and Diddy came back to sit with me.

Right next to the bathroom.

Upon take-off, the bathroom door flew open. And Diddy and I began laughing.

It is safe to say that we didn't stop until we landed.

And really, not even then.

Once we leveled out, Diddy shut the bathroom door.

About 20 minutes into the flight, a girl came back to use the facilities and she couldn't get the door to shut and lock properly. Not wanting it to open while she was taking care of business I forced Diddy to put his hand on the door as an insurance policy.

Then another guy came back to use the bathroom.

Let me back up for a minute.

Before we took off, I told Diddy that when anyone came back to use the restroom he should ask them, "Number 1 or Number 2?" and if the answer was Number 2 he should direct them back to their seat to hold it for the less than two hour flight.

Back to real-time.

Diddy should have asked the guy, because his intentions in the bathroom were not good.

After being in there for about 10 minutes, we started to get concerned.

A good 10 minutes later, he opened the door and it was bad.

Then the door shut and we were ok again.

About this time, Diddy's bloody mary arrived and so did the turbulence. He almost lost the BM, but his cat-like reflexes kicked in and he saved the vodka just in time.

For the remainder of the flight we made inappropriate comments, Diddy said the F word, and the couple sitting in front of us gave us dirty looks.

It was brilliant!