Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Haul out the holly

I know I said Halloween was my favorite holiday but I do like Christmas. I like decorating (I prefer snowmen to Santa) and wrapping presents (little known fact I did a speech/demonstration on how to wrap presents in 9th grade) and seeing Christmas lights at night, Christmas songs and carols (there is a difference) and the smells of the season.

Since our last visit we've skimmed over Thanksgiving. It was anticlimactic. I was dreading spending it with my extended family and then when we didn't I sort of felt a tiny (very tiny) loss. Not necessarily that I missed them or anything it was just a little off.

We went to a family wedding prior to Thanksgiving. It was interesting. I know I'm a procrastinator but this bride put ME to shame. Two weeks before the wedding we got the invitation. While they were supposed to be getting their pre-wedding pictures made she had to go to the bridal shop to pick up her veil and shoes. The ceremony was very lovely but it took awhile for the reception to get underway and the kids got pretty antsy. It all turned out alright though.

It's funny because as much as we like getting out of town and visiting family we always enjoy coming home. Is that a sign of old age?

I'm getting excited because we're having a grown up Christmas party in a few weeks. We don't have many grown up parties so it should be fun. I guess grown up is rather an oxymoron because basically I get trashed and act like a fool--not very grown up. You always wonder about these things too because of the mix of people you invite. When we first started having our "house" parties when we moved into the house it was a core group of friends and my brother/sister-in-law. I've added a few people here and there and this year invited a few new faces. I hope they'll come and have fun. I'm not really a very good party planner so I hope people don't expect too much! ; )

I'm in a good spot right now. Do you ever have those cycles? It's not that any one wonderful thing has happened, it's just that as I look around I realize I have a lot of good things going on in my life and not many things that are pissing me off at the moment.

I think what started it was being at the wedding and looking around at all the other married couples. For all of our ups and downs I really think the Hubs and I are overall the happiest married couple I know. He's my best friend and though we (like everyone else) get on each other nerves from time to time I really like him. Sometimes you look at couples and it seems like they're just together out of habit or necessity and that's sad.

I also realized, after seeing and being around other kids for that event, that my hellions aren't THAT bad. They're sassy but they're really smart and affectionate and they have spunk.

Warm fuzzy feelings all around ; )

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

The week in review

Did ya miss me? Of course you did--where else would you get such wit and wisdom? : ) Don't answer that!

I’ve been out for awhile. Lots going on. Leah and Keely escaped from the backyard last Tuesday and our lives have been on hold. We’ve come home every evening to drive around and look for them and just when we’d give up hope we’d get a call (we put up fliers) that someone had seen them.

They left our neighborhood and went cavorting around in a big ass cookie cutter neighborhood across the street. You know the ones, where all the houses pretty much look the same and they your neighbor is right up your butt? I’m sure they’re all starting to think we’re casing the neighborhood.

The Hubs was getting ready to go out looking for them this morning and put up more fliers when he looked out the back door and they there were. We’d left the gate open in the hopes they’d find their way home and they did. Leah was in her dog house and Keely was lying beside it—she’s either too stubborn or too retarded to get in her own dog house so she sleeps beside Leah.

Crisis averted and they’re home.

As if that weren’t enough to deal with the tooth that I was supposed to have a root canal on last year but didn’t because I’m a total wuss when it comes to going to the dentist, flared up and I thought I was going to die. I tried Tylenol and though it made me sleepy it did not help the pain. I was then turned on to large amounts of ibuprofen. Let me tell you, if you ever have severe pain, take four of those bad boys and it will knock it right out. I self medicated for about a week, my appointment was yesterday. I was lethargic and not very productive during that time, but pain free.

The appointment was the best experience I’ve ever had at a dentist. They gave me nitrous. That is like a miracle gas or something. I get nervous, like I’m going to cry and throw up, just walking into a dentist office.

I sat in the chair, clutching it until my knuckles turned white and then he popped that gas mask on me. Sweet relief. Thanks to a topical numbing agent I didn’t even feel the three shots of Novocain he gave me, which lasted until after 5pm yesterday. It’s hard to smoke a cigarette (or drink anything) when half of your face is numb—but trust me, I persevered.

While I was in the chair floating high on nitrous I had several thoughts. First, the dentist must be cool because his Muzac was classic rock—-I even heard a Rod song while under the gas; at least I think I did.

Second, if you have a business where you either charge a buttload for your services or your product, the people who work in your business should use proper grammar. I hate me some red neck talkin’ office people.

Third, if anyone ever invents noiseless dental equipment they'll make millions. Half the battle for me is the noise--it freaks me out. That and the pain of course.

The dogs are home and my tooth is ok. Now if I can just get the Hubs to take his medicine and not kick the bucket on me in the near future life will indeed be good.

Friday, November 3, 2006

Simply preposterous

My friend Donut just told me she read an article that said Katharine Hepburn was bisexual.

I of course Googled Kate and it turns out that there was a book written about her this year that tries to claim that not only was she bi or lesbian but that Spencer Tracy was also bi and their whole romance was a facade.

I'm speechless. Truly I am. I do not give a flip one way or another if people are bi or gay or whatever but I do have a problem with a writer writing such things based on speculation.

Because she wore pants when it just wasn't done and because she had long-time female friends does not mean she was gay. Because she and Spencer never married and she never had kids does not mean she was gay. Why, why does it even matter? The woman has been dead for three years, why come out with a book like that at this point? Now, when anyone who could really support or refute any of this guy's so-called facts are dead?

I've read pretty much every book there is to read about Kate and have seen most of her movies and interviews. I am by no means an expert on her but I admire her, bi or not. I think perhaps something people who write about her forget is that she was an incredibly private person, granted few interviews and at least initially in her career she hated the limelight, fans and the media. She didn't act for the fame or money, she did it because she enjoyed it and couldn't not do it.

She was notorious for telling the press lies or saying tongue-in-cheek things to throw them off. She was married once and at that time a reporter asked if they had any kids, she said yes, three white and two black ones.

I don't even know what my point is. I'm not saying it's not possible for her whole life to be a lie, I'm just saying if it is I don't want to know it is.

To this day I think one of the most romantic scenes in any movie is in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner when Spencer Tracy finally comes around to the fact that his daughter is going to marry Sidney Poitier and he talks about the love he has for Katharine Hepburn--well, for her character in the movie.

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is perhaps one of my favorite holidays. Ok, it pretty much is my favorite. Most of the other holidays are anticlimactic for me, but that's another blog entry altogether.

Halloween. It's fun to say, say it--hal o ween...hollow een...hall o weeeeeeeen.

Halloween. It's one of those sacred rare occassions when you can be something else or someone else and it is perfectly acceptable.

Halloween. The expectation of the day is that you will not be normal; you will dress up and act a little silly or crazy or psycho, thus letting one of your inner selves emerge at least briefly.

Halloween. It's a day to let out all those creative ideas and decorate and express your inner child.

Halloween. It's a holiday where there aren't a lot of expectations regarding family and you don't have to spend money on gifts people could really give a shit less about.

Halloween. It's really a holiday for creative people.

Halloween. It's about roasted pumpkin seeds, carving the coolest jack-o-lantern, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown," trick or treating and of course candy.

Halloween. It's better with a homemade costume rather than a store bought costume, even though when you were a kid you always wanted the store bought costume instead of the homemade costume.