Crazy Uncle Steve

My sister, Byjo, and her two children showed up for a visit yesterday. They are going to be spending a few days with us and we're very excited.

Byjo has two children, Payton who is seven and Sam who is five. Sam is actually only three weeks older than Will.

Jody, Byjo's husband, gets along well with Steve and we use to really enjoy seeing the entire family on a more regular biases.

An hour or so after Steve got home last night, Sam walks up to him and asks him a question. To be honest, I never found out what the question was because the very calm way he addresses Steve (and what he called him) was so funny.

"Hu, Crazy Uncle Steve, can . . . "

Hum, wonder where he got the idea that was Steve's official name? Gotta watch how you refer to people in your children's hearing or they will tell on you every time.

When Steve Dies

My best friend, Charlene, and I have had many conversations about what we'll do when our husbands die. Usually it revolves around things are husbands don't enjoy now: crowds, travel, certain type of arts. We've talked about having small houses next to each other in a cooler climate. We've talked about taking cruises together. About never having to 'plan' another meal. And yes, about never having to do someone else's laundry again. LOL

It's not that we don't love our husbands, it's just human nature. Our jest on living without them in our lives. Which, is a very good possibility.

I was recently telling a male friend of mine about our plans. But I shared the fact that it finally dawned on me that we, Charlene and I, would be pretty frigging old when our spouses would die. Sort of takes all the fun out of making plans.

Bill's response was that we'd just sit around and complain about the stuff we 'would' have done if they'd just died off sooner. I laughed until my side hurt . . . he's right.

Tonight, I told Steve about mine and Charlene's plans to live next to each other after his and Christian's death. He surprised, and delighted, me by telling me he already had plans for after my death. LOL

Him and his best bud, Vicky, are retiring to her 700 aches and putting up homes at opposite sides of the land. They'll meet for Sunday brunch each week. Sort of wimpy plans if you ask me, but he'll go before I do, so I'll let him dream his wimpy plans.

Velcro Rollers

As any women with terminally straight hair can tell you, there is little more dear to us than an easy, cheap, and non-harmful way to curl our hair.

Most curling methods involve heat in some form or another and tend to dry out your hair over time. My stylest, last week, recommended I try the Velcro rollers that are so popular now. One reason is that they come in very large sizes; great for adding body to long locks. Another reason was the curl tends to hold longer than a heat generated curl. Living in a place as hot and humid as Texas, most heat generated curls melt away before lunch.

I did question her about the length of time it might take to dry, as my hair takes hours to dry after a shower. She assured me that she uses the curlers and has no problems with them.

I purchased several sets of curlers. While my hair is baby fine and therefore doesn't look overly thick, there is a shit load of it. (Yeah, I did go there.) It always takes twice as many curlers as anyone expects.

I took a shower about 7:30 this evening and immediately put my hair up, using a total of 18 curlers. Three hours later I took them out so my hair can dry before I go to bed, which is still two hours away. My hair is less than 1/2 way through it's drying process.

One more item to add to my freecycle pile in the corner.

Too bad, it sounded like a great idea.

The Price of "K"

I have an old cell phone that I purchase minutes for on a need-to biases. I've had the phone for three or four years, but not many people know I have it, or the number.

I purchased it as a tool to keep in touch with my girls after they left home. Both of them had cell phones and would text, or answer texts, even when you couldn't locate them near a land-line.

Being in a generation of people unaccustomed to texting, there was a giant learning curve, on my end, to even understand half of the messages I received. But over the years I've come to understand, and/or developed the ability to at least guess, what different acronyms stand for. But there is one abbreviation that just kills me: 'k'.

I remember the first time Tori responded to a text with 'k'. I felt jipped.

"What," I responded,
"I'm not even important enough to deserve an 'o'?"

"k".

What the hell kind of text is that to send?

It bothered me when I would receive a text that contained that one letter. I'm not even sure why. The feeling of negligence, as though someone was walking away and flipping their hand at you as they did so? The impatience displayed by lacking the time or energy to type in a 'k'? The cost of receiving a text that was no longer split into words . . . but contained only a single letter?

Who the hell knows. It just bothered me.

And like most things, over time, it ceased to bother me. In fact, I send at least two to three emails a week that contain only 'k'.

I just hope I'm not irritating someone else.

A Resume?

I had the most beautiful resume you can imagine . . . six years ago. Working at a publishing firm, I had access to free editorial staff to help tweak it. I also reviewed hundreds of resumes each year so if I ever saw something that impressed me, I'd add it to mine. It really was a work of art. And now it's gone.

A few weeks back I decided to apply for a job I came across and initiated a search for my resume. We've changed computers at least twice since I was laid off, so I was not to surprised it wasn't located on our current desktop. I pulled every CD and diskette we've stored over the last fourteen years out and went through every one of them looking for my resume with no luck.

Knowing I had to at least have a paper copy of it somewhere, I took the search to an entire new level. Every drawer, file, stack of papers in the house was sorted through. Then I went into the attic and spent days going through every box a single page at a time. Still no luck.

Then I got creative and contacted the last place I worked to see if they had a copy on file. A new company bought them out and they have no employee files dating back that far. Ba Hum Bug!

I contacted the Workforce Commission to see if they had a copy of it - I was on unemployment insurance for six months after getting laid off. No luck there either.

All out of options, I have to start from scratch. And truthfully, that might be a good thing. Publishing positions are rare and I don't expect to be applying for any, so a more generic resume might be better.

In working on my new resume, the biggest obstacle has been how to present the skills I've used the last few years while building and maintaining my small business. How do you break down the hundreds of small choirs into generic words that apply to the masses? (I've never noticed before, but the majority of the masses is 'asses'? LOL)

Here is what I have so far, let me know what you think.

• Designed and maintained small commercial website.
  
• Generated graphic products and cover art utilizing Corel Draw, Adobe Acrobat, and Adobe Photoshop.
  
• Laid out detailed instructions with four-color photos in Office 07.
  
• Process orders and shipped electronic and print products.
  
• Ensure customer satisfaction.
  
• Perform full accounting cycle.
  

Coffee With a Stranger

After deciding, a few weeks back, that much of my unhappiness in life stemmed from loneliness, I've made an attempt to find new friends. I'm more direct and likely to start conversations with people I don't know. I'm trying really hard to be more cheerful and outgoing all the time; to see the positives in life.

But the big thing I've done is post several ads on local networking sites looking for a coffee drinking partner, or two. I posted only in the platonic section and asked for only female responses. The responses have been few and not very encouraging.

My first responder came across very strong; maybe a little strong. But we talked on the phone for over twenty minutes and set up a date (a few days later) to meet. The evening of the date, we had a storm that took down electricity in our area and she called to say she might still be able to make it, but she'd call me right back. I waited an hour before calling her. She didn't sound like she meant to contact me. We agreed to try again later, she never called/emailed me. Didn't respond to my emails.

The second woman and I exchanged at least ten emails and once again made plans to meet a few days later. As the time approached I tried to verify it with her, she never returned my emails. Never heard from her again.

Today, I got an email from Leticia, stating she too was a stay-at-home mom and could use a break. We agreed to meet up tonight. And we did.

It was a little awkward at first, after all, we are strangers. But she was smart, funny, and fun to hang out with. She has two girls, age four and seven. She is a civil engineer and finds being a full time stay-at-home mom stifling, as I do.

We exchanged basic information. Enjoyed our drinks. All and all, I don't think it could have gone better.

I'll keep you updated.

Mosquito Ambush

After my walk this evening, I went out to water the garden before taking a shower. Bad move. I've noticed that the hotter I am from working out the more attractive mosquitoes find me.

I was outside less than half an hour and come in with close to 50 mosquito bites on my legs alone. And that was with me constantly slapping at them and washing them off with the hose. I also got two ant bites. Throw in the sweltering heat and I have to say gardening is loosing its appeal quickly.

I have a new batch of garlic oil that has been aging for two or three weeks. Looks like tomorrow I will have to mow the grass down and spray the back yard heavily. I hope they enjoyed their Misty Du Jour, tomorrow they'll be dining on the neighbors.