A/C CPR

Does anyone know how to perform CPR on a air conditioning unit? All I know how to do is turn it off and on and that's not working. ;)

The only room that still has a ceiling fan is 20s. Guess where I'm sleeping? I borrowed a couple of desk top fans from a friend and now the 3 of us each have one to take around the house and use as we like.

I'm waiting for the repairman to come this afternoon. I hope it's something simple. Actually, more than that I hope its something cheap because I need my air conditioning. This is NOT a luxury.

Spring Cleaning sort of

I cleaned out my closet this weekend. Well, that's not entirely true. I took out all the clothes, sorted through it, separated a few things for donation because even if it fit me I just didn't want to wear it anymore. I sorted the remaining items and out it all back in.

I sorted it first by size. I have clothes in 4 different sizes. Then within the size I sorted summer and winter which a very subtle distinction for most of my clothes here in Miami.

Any other year this project is undertaken I would have gotten rid of anything that didn't fit. But its different now. I am actually loosing weight. Three weeks ago I started taking a prescribed appetite suppressant and its working. So, theoretically, all of the doesn't fit clothes should fit eventually. And since its sorted by size it will be easy to find something to wear as I loose weight and presumably get rid of the larger size items. At least that's the plan right now but life's a moving target so I tend to write these things in sand not concrete.

Now, I said that I have 4 sizes which is technically true but the smallest size item is kept merely for sentimental reasons and truly I never expect to fit into again. So, I really only have wardrobe in 3 sizes. Now, we need to understand that wearing most of these items will depend on loosing the weight evenly top and bottom. LOL! And I have as of yet to start doing any exercising that would help in any way. I am toying with some local classes of Tai Chi and Zoomba. I am still looking into it and haven't committed to anything. We'll see how this goes.

This week the family is getting a cantina (pre-ordered food from a local cuban restaurant) so that I don't have to cook. I will tell you its not that its hard to cook for them and not eat it because the pills are doing their job and I'm not hungry but its ticking me off. I make all this food and then I can't enjoy it because I take a couple of bites and I'm full. I acknowledge that in that state of mind I am not the most pleasant person to be around. And so this week we are going to try to minimize that by pre-ordering the food for family-sanity sake.

TIME; where does it go?

Am I the only one who was oblivious to the fact that we are springing forward this weekend? i just read about it over at Second Effort. Why!? oh why? I hate the time changes. Hate. Hate. Hate. I always need more time never less time. Even when they give us the extra hour in the fall its really not enough is it?

I have some appointments tomorrow and so I decided to take the day off and see if I could squeeze in an errand to get it off the weekend list of things to do. I have no idea how necessary that was going to be in order to accomplish what I want. Now, I have to really organize my day tomorrow to try and get things done.

I'm feeling a little Mad Hatterish right now like I'm late for a very important date...and they haven't even taken the hour yet....

Hairy issues

I went and did something crazy. I got my hair cut. I know this is a normal regularly scheduled event for most people but I really avoid them because I am clueless when it comes to hairstyles and hair styling.

My hair style has always been 'wash and wear'. Don't get me wrong, I know how to blow dry my hair and I know how to put all those big stiff rollers and even those soft foamy rollers on and I even know how to use a curling iron. I just don't like spending all that time on my hair which is why most of my adult life post children anyway has been lived with either a barrette or a hair clip on because the other thing I don't like is my hair in my face. I can sit have someone else do it but I haven't found anyone willing to donate their time and come to my house every morning to style my hair before I go out into the world. My poor mother is turning over in her grave, I just know it.

She tried. She really did. I just think I was a hopeless case. I think it all started with the extraordinary amount of time taken to get the knots out of my long straight hair as a kid. Remember, that spray No More Tears? If we would have bought stock I'd probably be rich right now but my mother would sit there and comb it out and it took forever! At one point in my life my hair reached the bottom of my back. We only used to trim the tips 'to keep it healthy and help it grow strong'. My hair was straight as a board. Then came the big hair. Oh, for the love of Pete, my mother would wrap the rollers so tight my skull hurt and I would sit under that dryer forever! Boy was I happy when we invested in the portable one and I could at least walk around with it. I will give credit where credit is due and say that my mom could style hair! I was a brunette Farrah when she was done. The problem was and this is no lie within 20 minutes 30 if you were lucky my hair would be straight as a board again. She tried EVERYTHING. We went to umpteen salons, there was more product purchased to try to un-straighten my hair than you can imagine. I was even given a wave treatment that was supposed to last months and only lasted a few weeks. She would do all the same things to her hair and it would work perfectly but not me. Obviously, I didn't get her hair just her hips.

Then I had children. Now my hair has all kinds of movement and motion. I would need to iron it or undergo that ionic straightening treatment to flatten it out but that seems like it would be all wrong. Like maybe my mother would come haunt me for straightening it or something.
So anyway, I don't know how to handle this hair. I am clueless in managing it. So, I usually just let it grow out and pin or clip it back away from my face. Every so often I get the urge to chop it off and I do. I go with the best intentions. I look through all the books at all the cuts and styles and I don't find any that speak to me so invariably I tell the stylist to do what ever they want just not too short and not too funky. Obviously, I get something different every time. Imagine. Plus I am never really happy with it. Go figure. But whatever. It's just hair. It will grow out and I will pin it back again and have it chopped off again too. C'est la vie. Sorry mom.

The Bad, the ugly, and the good.

The Bad news: 19s football team lost on Saturday and so they will not be going to the playoffs. They do have one more bowl game this Saturday but its really a non-event. :(

The Ugly: In my project this weekend making the pañales I am using clear thread. Do you know what color clear is? Its the color of whatever it is on; its clear! Do you know how hard it is to thread a frickin' frackin' needle with clear thread? Let me tell you it is really really hard. Do you know how hard it is to untangle clear thread? Let me tell you it is practically undoable. I gave up and just started over. Do you know how hard it is to stitch and know where you are with clear thread? Let me tell you it is really really hard. So, aside from being one of the hardest projects I have EVER done and testing my patience, it is coming out great. I completed one and have one more to go. I don't think I have enough patience in me for the third one. We shall see....

The Good news: 19 will be home for the holidays, including Thanksgiving. 17 has completed all of his college applications and already met with his counselor at school and had him send all the transcripts etc. He is already working on scholarship applications and completed a couple over the weekend. Comfort and Joy!

Note: Yes, I know that undoable is not a word but that's part of the point. It is taking to parts unknown! Gimme Patience.

Bus Stops & Crosswalks

I wonder if the county school department of transportation even knows what the definition of words like bus stop and crosswalk. On my way to work I occasionally get to witness a pet peeve of mine that well starts my day with my panties all in a bunch.

I realize that I grew up in a different era, that things change yadda yadda but pretty much safety measures only get more stringent over time not more lax. I also know the driving rules and know that not everyone follows them. I know that when a bus stops ALL the cars around it are supposed to stop too. Both the traffic next to and oncoming. Fine. I'm also going to acknowledge that children can cross the street to get on a bus. Fine. But, and here's the rub, they should be crossing at a valid intersection, a crosswalk, you know a place were it is correct, legal and safe to be crossing the road because the bus should be stopped at a corner or at a bus stop waiting for them not in the middle of the street right before the train tracks making them cross 3 lanes of traffic, two of them oncoming including crossing a median on a main traffic street! HELLO! Can you say JAYWALKING!?I don't care how old the kids are it's wrong.

I realize that jaywalking is not a stringently prosecuted but should the county school board really be encouraging it by designing bus routes that require it? Give me a break. I tried to search on the Internet the bus routes and any rules and guidelines but it was taking too long and I wasn't finding what I wanted so I came here to complain about it.

Let's see what is the definition of jaywalking? Well, according to wikipedia, its: an informal term used to refer to illegal or reckless pedestrian crossing of a roadway. Examples include a pedestrian crossing between intersections (outside a crosswalk, marked or unmarked) without yielding to drivers and starting to cross a crosswalk at a signalized intersection without waiting for a permissive indication to be displayed. In the Unites States, state statutes generally reflect the Uniform Vehicle Code in requiring drivers to yield the right of way to a pedestrians at crosswalks; at other locations, crossing pedestrians are either required to yield to drivers or, under some conditions, are prohibited from crossing.

OK. Fine. Technically the kids aren't jaywalking because they are standing there, yielding to the traffic until everyone decides to stop for them and then they cross in between intersections across 3 lanes over a median to get to their bus. Still, it's wrong. It shouldn't be that way. Go to the corner, cross at the intersection, the bus could always turn into their complex (oh, the horror) and simply have them cross the street in there.

OK. Enough venting for one morning. Can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine. Hubby gets to hear it every time we see it happen. This is one time where he actually agrees with me. I'm taking a deep breath now and going to get my morning coffee. Gimme patience.

A New Year

Hubby and I have been having some ups and downs or I guess it would be better described as down and ups with the ups never quite coming back up to speed. Anyway, I am exhausted mentally and emotionally this morning because yesterday we had one of those talks. You know the ones, the ones where you talk/rant/cry for hours. I'm so drained. I hope some good comes out of it. We've basically agreed to give it (read:us) one more try. He even set a deadline. One Year. So a year from now we will either be happy/content enough to be forever or we will separate and move on.
I realize that we have said this type of thing before. We have said that we are going to try certain things and it never lasts very long. But this time the difference is that there's a finite end, a finish line if you will at which time progress will be measured. See, hubby is a numbers guy and it may help if he has those concrete things, tangible goals, dates etc. Let's see how this experiment in us goes. You may hear about it, you may not. It depends on my mood.
I don't expect everything to be peaches and cream all the time. Honest, that's not my expectation of a marriage. I know that nothing can maintain a perpetual high. And I am not blaming hubby for the way things are. I acknowledge my part in this dance and so I am going to do what he asks and give it this year of reconnecting -- it takes two to tango.
Maybe I'll start this afternoon by letting him in on my words for the year: comfort & joy. Today I wish I had a few more hours of sleep to recharge from last night.

In the pits

Did you ever read "if life is a bowl of cherries, what am i doing in the pits" by Erma Bombeck? Crap. I just dated myself big time. Oh well, par for the course. When I was a kid I loved that title. I mean really loved it. I thought it was perfect. It thought it was a perfect way of explaining if may be all wonderful on the outside or in the big picture but I'm not happy right now. It also made me feel like it was OK to be not happy when essentially you have every reason to be happy just don't be unhappy all the time.

Not every day is peaches and cream. Take today for instance.... Big picture: We're alive, we're free, we both have jobs, all in good health, many blessings yadda yadda. So why do I want a do-over or better yet a skip-ahead to tomorrow. Here's why. I've got my monthly headache ergo monthly visitor about to arrive, got up late and didn't have time for coffee at home, back hurts maybe because I spent half the night crouched under the kitchen sink cleaning it out from the leaking and the backed up disposal, I forgot to mail my son's Valentine's Day card (yes, I snail mail cards. It's fun to get things in the mail!) so now it will be late, I didn't bring lunch which means I have to drag this head and back achy body someplace to eat something at some point.

So you see no earth shattering problems here. I have friends going through worse crap. So add to the above some guilt for feeling crappy when I really shouldn't. But I feel like I'm in the pits today. Erma would understand. Gimme patience...no comfort and joy at the moment.

Cheers and tears

Happy New Year! The party was a blast. We missed some friends who were out of town but a good time was had by all.

19 who was sick last year and missed out on the fun had a great time. Everyone thought he had been body snatched because he danced. And not just with his girlfriend. With his cousin, his aunt and his grandmother and to salsa music. He even sang along with the song shocking his grandmother. It was lots of fun. I again tried to get everyone to dance and was only partially successful this year. My nephew, age 6, was the life of the party. He danced with EVERYONE and anyone. He was adorable. At one point he was dancing with one of 19s friends girlfriend and I told him that she had a boy friend. He made a scary face, like he might be in trouble. The girl (and I) laughed and she told him that it was OK, he could dance with her and I wish you could have seen the smug look he gave me. It was priceless!

16 danced some too but spent most of the night hanging with his friends and helping with the managing of the music selections. A friend of his was the DJ.

After all the cheers the next day we slept and sat around recapping the party, we think there were 57 revelers this year. Some friends came over to watch Bowl games, eat leftovers and I made breakfast for dinner. They opted for Crepes with (leftover) strawberries and chocolate and bacon. Gratefully, Friday I had the day off and more dragging around the house was done as well as lots of laundry. Loads and loads were done so that 19 could take everything back clean. I also made for the first time Frijoles Colorados. They came out awesome! Saturday I packed for 19 and we went to friends' house for more football watching. It was 19s last night. A large group of kids met up where we were to go out on his last night and bid him farewell (as if they needed an excuse to go out).

I had been struggling with the thought of him leaving for days already and here it was. We were up at 5am to take him to the airport. He got home at 4:30, slept (I use the word loosely) in his clothes and when I woke him simply brushed his teeth and went back to sleep in the back seat of the car. At the airport all 3 of us were pretty quiet. As we waited in line to check his bags I was seeing armed forces personnel around us with their families. My heart swelled for them. I wanted to say something. But what do I say. Thanks.? Good luck.? Every time I thought about it I couldn't open my mouth to form the words because I was so emotional already I know I would have broken down right then and there. None of us wanted this parting. As we gave our last hugs all of us got teary eyed and swallowed hard to hold back the tears. We stayed until he passed through the security check just cuz. And slowly walked away once he was out of sight, now the tears could flow freely. We weren't the only ones crying. Tears were everywhere.

And now he's there. I'm here. He called when he landed to let us know that those people up there don't know what the hell the sun looks like. All he kept hearing was that it was a great day the sun was out. When he walked outside it was cold and grey. We laughed as I reminded him that he can't compare it to The Sunshine State. To make the best of it. Different isn't bad, it's just different.

I have already looked at airfare for him to return on Spring Break and plan on booking it soon. Please gimme patience.