Bellerose Place

For the past few days I've spent hours (it's embarrassing to say how many) cruising through youtube for videos of The Grateful Dead.  Yes, long ago and far away I was a 'Dead Head.'  I never thought to check youtube for videos until the other day and boy did I have fun!  I found another site online that had lyrics to all the Grateful Dead songs listed alphabetically.  Now I was truly in heaven.  If there's a word or a line in a song that I don't know it drives me crazy, so finding this list of lyrics was a score. 

I was what you would call a 'young hippie' since I was only nine at the time of Woodstock.  But my brother, Jimmy, who was 3 years older than me, turned me on to Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead.  My first real boyfriend was also a big Dead Head -as soon as I started listening to them I was hooked!  

Most of the videos had poor picture and sound quality because of the lack of technology in the early days of the Dead, and I assume most of them were bootlegs.  But boy did it bring me back in time!  I had to confess to my husband that I've now rekindled the crush I'd had on Bob Weir -OMG he was so good looking! 

I really enjoyed strolling down memory lane.  It's amazing how certain music can transport you back in time.  The Grateful Dead were more than just a band, they were a legend in their own time.  R.I.P Jerry.

Peace

Today on Oprah she had as her guest the world's first pregnant man.  Yep, a pregnant man.  Okay, if you want to be technical he was originally a woman but all that changed when she had the sex change operation that turned her into a man.  But he decided to keep his reproductive organs intact in case one day he wanted to have a child.  What the ----?  What kind of craziness is this?  I really hate to be judgemental because its not my place to judge anyone but come on people, this is so not normal!!!  Here's a link to see for yourself:  http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml

And what's with the group of third graders who plotted to kill their teacher?  See, this is why I don't read the newspaper and hardly ever watch the television news.  There's too much insanity going on in the world.  I much prefer remaining oblivious to it all. 

Things I loathe:

1. pain
2. dog hair on my pillow & blanket
3. being kept waiting
4. mean people
5. the tv show Taboo
6. dogs that are not housebroken
7. feeling or looking frumpy
8. ending a good book
9. my ob/gyn of over 25 years retiring :(
10. having bills and having to pay them

Things I love:

1. Jesus
2. my husband
3. my children
4. my faith
5. my dogs (oh, if only they didn't shed so much!)
6. a new haircut
7. a hot shower
8. new clothes
9. being loved
10. giving gifts
11. a clean house (can someone come and clean for me?)
12. singing in my car
13. small acts of kindness
14. good friends

Do you spread out your errands throughout the week or do you do a whole bunch of them in one day?  I do a little bit of both I suppose.  Today I had several things to do out of the house.  First was a trip to the bank.  I had some checks to deposit and one to cash because I needed some money in my pocket.  I also had to put our newly acquired passports and some other important papers in our safety deposit box.  Have you noticed that these days money doesn't seem to stretch as long as it used to?  The check I was cashing was for $50.  Not a lot of money, but enough to get me through the day knowing what was to come.  The first thing I noticed was that the teller was new.  It seems like there's always new people at my bank.  I think they are a training branch which would explain all the new faces that come and go.  Well today my teller was a young girl who I'd never seen before.  I wouldn't be surprised if today was her first day on the job because she gave me $75 cash for my $50 check!  It took me all of about 3 seconds (as I stepped away from the window and two steps towards the door) for the old me to vanish and the new me to take over.  I turned on my heels and called out to the teller saying that I think she made a mistake, that she had given me too much money.  There was an older couple who had stepped up to the window just as I was walking away and they had to step aside while I gave the extra money back to the teller and she rectified her mistake.  The other customer was so sweet -she said how nice I was to have returned the money instead of walking off with it.  All I could think of was this poor young girl at the end of the day being $25 short - and how could I live with myself if I hadn't been honest?  And just where did this person come from anyway?  The message I got when I was growing up is to take whatever you can get from life.  But somewhere along the way I learned a few valuable lessons, not least of which is that the truth will set you free.  And set me free it did.  I walked out of that bank feeling like my feet didn't touch the ground!  It was a great feeling and I am at ease with who I am today. 

So, what else did I do today?  Well, I went and got a haircut.  I decided that although I like the guy who cuts my hair I don't like the owner of the shop.  I'm not sure if I want to continue going there but until I get a recommendation to another place I'll just have to wait and see what happens.  My ultimate hair salon dream would be to find a place that didn't rip me off, gave good haircuts and was staffed with Christian hair stylists.  The language on some of them would make a truck driver blush.  Not that I don't have a potty mouth myself, but I usually know when to keep it under wraps.

Next stop was the post office.  Then the pharmacy to pick up meds for my psychotic dog, and then the card store.  And since we're being truthful here I stopped at the bagel shop and bought a plain bagel with cinnamon raisin walnut cream cheese for lunch. 

I came back home, walked the dog we're sitting for, made a cup of tea and had my lunch.  Then I checked the laundry that my hubby started and ran out to pick up my son, Kevin from school.  Kevin had a doctors appointment today and we had to ride like the wind to get there in time.  He got his first dose of the hepatitis A vaccine.  The second dose is in six months.  He also needed another booster but they wouldn't give him both on the same day; the doctor said they weren't as effective *sigh* so we have to go back in one month for that.  What fun!

Home again (this time in traffic), checked laundry again, read some email, opened mail, returned a phone call and then ran out to pick up dinner from MacDonald's.  Yes, I know...this is not exactly how Weight Watchers works.

Updated my blog, jumped in the shower and got ready for an RCIA class at church. All in all I guess you could say it was a good, productive day.   

So, what have I been up to the last two months?  Let me see if I can catch you up to speed. With my memory this will probably be a very short post -either that or I'll leave out a bunch of stuff.  Here's what I remember:

• Joined Weight Watchers (again)
• I helped run a day retreat that was very successful.
• My sister, Florence got sick and was in the ICU.  (She's better now, thank God.)
• Visited our friends Jane & Al in their new home in Connecticut (with Charlie)
• I've been trying to do my Spring Cleaning.
• My laptop crashed and I lost a whole lot of stuff.  I was without it for nearly two weeks!  (Not sure how I survived.)
• My husband and my son & I laid down a new floor in our kitchen/dining room.
• EASTER!!!!!!! 

Not a very exciting life, huh?

God only knows where I've been and what I've been doing because I certainly have not been blogging, that's for sure!  I just logged into Vox and discovered it's been 2 months since I've written a blog entry!  Good grief -how embarrassing!  Okay, I'm going to try to get back to it.  I'll start here with the last entry that I was working on that never got published.  I'm not even going to bother editing it -I'm just going to post it as is and move on.  This is what I wrote on February 4th:

Yesterday our church had it's annual volunteer thank you party.  The party is given to show appreciation to parishioners that volunteer in the various ministries of our parish.

My husband and I are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and we both serve on the Stewardship Committee.  Larry is also a Lector and is a regular on the schedule for Thursday's at the 12:00 noon Mass. 

Three EMHC's are needed for weekday Masses and it seems there is always someone missing, so I usually fill in.  The other day I spoke with our Director of Religious Education and she officially put me on the schedule for Thursday afternoons. 

Our church also has a Human Concerns Center and through that and the needs of the community I have been bringing Holy Communion to the homebound for a few years now.  For close to a year now I have been visiting a lovely elderly woman named Carol.  Carol has been blessed because her daughter and son-in-law have been staying with her for quite some time now, so she is not alone.  My husband usually joins me on these weekly visits to Carol and together we make a good team; we keep Carol smiling as well as spiritually fulfilled.  It's a great feeling!

Our son, Kevin is a Minister of Hospitality and all through High School he has worked part time in the Parish Office and as a Sacristan on alternating Saturdays.  He gets paid for both of those jobs, however, he loves volunteering as a Minister of Hospitality and has done so for a few years now (I think since he was 15).

Our daughter, Jessica was very involved too until she left to join the USCG.

God is so good!  My sister's gastric-bypass surgery went very well.  She is experiencing no pain from the surgery, just a backache from lying on the table for so long.  She decided 8 months ago that she was going to have this done and it took her that long to get all the medical clearance, paperwork, etc. that was necessary in order to get the approval from her insurance company.  Once she got the approval the date was set and now it's all behind her. 

From the moment that she told me she was going to have this surgery I was afraid for her.  I love my sister very much and I couldn't help but worry that something might go wrong.  Elective surgery...who would want to get cut unless it was absolutely necessary?  Unfortunately, my sister's health was suffering because of her weight and so to her it was a no-brainer. 

I'm so proud of her for doing this.  I think this was the boldest, most bravest thing she has ever done, and she did not go into this blindly.  She has really done her homework and couldn't have been more prepared. 

So here's to my sister, Dorothy.  May God bless her with a speedy, uncomplicated recovery, and the continued drive and determination to better her health! 

Have you ever been so nervous that you could feel your stomach shaking?  That's what I'm feeling now.  My sister, Dorothy is having gastric-bypass surgery right now and I'm waiting to hear from her surgeon.  It's way past the time that he should have called, which makes me even more nervous, thinking that somehow something went wrong.  I realize that they got started a little later than expected (the doctor was stuck in traffic) but they took her at 7:40 and it's now 11:35 -that's nearly 4 hours!  The surgery was supposed to be 2-2 1/2 hours.  What could be the hold up?

We left here at 5:00am and got there in just a few minutes.  She got into a hospital gown and we sat and waited.  Finally a nurse took her vitals and some blood and then the anesthesiologist came to see her.  Sophia, her surgeon's assistant came and that made my sister feel at ease and when she told her she would be in the operating room my sister cried -happy tears.  The surgery was scheduled for 7:30 and at 7:25 Dr. Buchen arrived.  Apparently there was a big accident on the expressway.

I left my card with my telephone number & hubby's cell phone with Sophia and explained to both her and to the doctor that since I lived only a few minutes away from the hospital my sister insisted that I go home instead of waiting there.  They both agreed to call me as soon as she was out of surgery.  I'm still waiting...

Give a kid a gift card without letting them spend it and it's as if it burns a hole in their wallet!  My son was the lucky recipient of several gift cards to Best Buy this Christmas.  He got one from his uncle, one from each of his two aunts, one from his best friend's family and one from his Secret Santa at school.  I'd say he was pretty fortunate, wouldn't you? 

This afternoon he bugged me to drive him to Best Buy so that he could go shopping because it was killing him that he had these cards to use.  I really wasn't in the mood to go all the way over there but I guess I should be happy that he didn't want to go out and spend them on December 26th!  Besides, I thought it would be so much better if he waited until next month when school was out for mid-winter recess because then he would have over a week to play new video games or watch new DVD's.  But nooooo.  He had to go today.  So naturally I thought, if he's going to go shopping at Best Buy then I'm going to go shopping in the fabric department at Wal-Mart, which just so happens to be in the next parking lot over.  All's well that ends well, right?  I mean, just mention fabric and I'm there.  Of course it helped that we made a pitstop at the bank on the way and he paid me back some money he owed his dad and I.  You mean I could go shopping and not have to use a credit card?  I was so there.

I dropped him off in front of the store and raced over to Wally World.  I zoomed right to the fabric department without stopping to even look at anything else.  I browsed the $1/yard table, then the $2/yard table but they didn't have anything good so I moved on to the rest.  I found a nice double-sided pre-quilted fabric that I thought would make a nice tote bag for either myself or someone else.  I bought some white netting that is nice to have on hand to wrap things with (you know, like you would do with celophane.)  And then I decided on 2 different homespun cottons that looked good together.  I'm going to try my hand at making my first rag quilt with these -for that sweet son of mine.  I also bought some white fleece that was with the Warm and Natural batting (but half the price) so I think I'll use that.  I'm washing and drying my new fabrics now.  I'm so excited...I can't wait to get started on this.  I have not decided what size I'll make...I think I'll just start sewing squares together, then making them into rows and see how it goes.  I don't know how to calculate how much yardage I'd need for one of these so I'm just going to wing it.  I will post photos as soon as possible, but don't hold your breath, this isn't going to happen overnight.

Oh, and what did Kevin buy?  Ten DVD's!  I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 

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Shopping Anyone? (continued) 

Imagine Kevin's surprise when he went to open one of the DVD's and found it empty!  Yes, that's right, there was NO disc inside the sealed packaging.

What the...?

I guess that means another trip out East.  Maybe this time I'll go without him -I'll return the DVD and then run off to JoAnn's to see what fabric jumps out at me there.  Hey, do ya think that this was part of God's plan too?  I'll buy that.  Yep, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!