OMG, I’ve survived another year of Christmas shopping!!!!!

OMG, why do people think that they are the only ones that need to purchase gifts for the holidays?  Before I head out to shop I put on Christmas music, plaster a fake smile on my face and pretend that I’m just out for a day of fun.  I hum Christmas carols and greet everyone with a “Merry Christmas”.  By doing this I’m able to cope with the crazy people out shopping.  This year I have been ran over by shopping carts, pushed out of the way so that someone could get an item (even though there was a whole display of them) and had an item taken right out of my hands; but I have also had people open doors for me, given me coupons for my items, smiled at me, helped me pick out gifts for my nephews, help me figure out what a 12 year old girl would like and just been friendly. 

Since I usually finish up my shopping early I like to go to the mall and people watch.  It is amazing what you see.  I love to grab a Starbucks coffee, find a place to sit and just watch people.  It’s amazing to see the different types of people that are out shopping.  They are as follows:

There’s the husband that is walking around looking confused and usually caring a bottle of perfume or a kitchen item (that usually depends on how long they have been married – the newlywed has the perfume while the guy that has been married for many years has the kitchen item). 

Then there’s the stressed out mom, she is usually walking at a fast pace but with a confused look on her face.  She’s the one that you run into that is talking to herself and going through her basket naming off family members, she is also the one that gets in line only to leave part way through the wait because she just remembered that she forgot that all important gift. 

Then there is the organized person, they have a detailed list of everything they need.  They are usually carrying several packages because they are only going to the mall one time and one time only.  They are also the ones on a mission and you better not be in their way because they have no problem with mowing you over to get what they want.

There’s the dad out shopping for the mom with all the kids in tow.  He has that confused look on his face and usually at least one child is crying.  He is the one that is circling the store as though a gift is going to just fall from the sky and land in his arms.  The more children he has with him the more confused he looks with each one having their own idea of what mom would like.

There’s the group of teenage girls out gathering more information for their Christmas wish list and just being teenage girls at the mall.  Then there are the teenage boys out trying to pick up on the teenage girls.  Of course this is not a seasonal activity, this happens year round.

Then there’s the shopper who is just happy to be out shopping.  They are the ones singing along to the Christmas music being played and just enjoying themselves.  They are the ones that are just winging it.  They figure that whatever they come up with is going to be spectacular, after all it is Christmas and the spirit of giving is much more important than anything else.

I like to think that I’m in the last group of people.  I just love going out to the mall and spending time enjoying the holiday.  I love the decorations, Christmas music, seeing all the kids dressed up to see Santa Clause, smelling the cookies that are being baked at Mrs. Fields Cookies and everything else going on at the mall.  I’m also thankful when I’m all done and everything is wrapped and under the tree.  Since I have completed all my shopping now it’s time to just sit back and enjoy the rest of the holiday.  I think I will open a bottle of wine, turn on a Christmas movie, light up the tree and sit back and relax until it’s time to return all the gifts I bought that just weren’t right. 

 

 

Yes, 29 Again

I just celebrated another birthday or as I like to call it, the anniversary of my 29^th birthday.  I say that I’m 29 so often that when I have to actually but down my real age I have to do the math first. I started saying that I was only 29 was because I couldn’t deal with getting older.  Now I love the idea of getting older because it beats the alternative.  I’m really enjoying this time in my life; I’m healthy, happy and love spending time doing what I want to do with no real obligations to anyone but my husband.  I’m a few anniversaries away from celebrating a mile stone anniversary and when I reach that mile stone I plan on celebrating.  I want to either have a great big party or take my family on a great vacation; of course I could possibly do both.

Every anniversary gets me thinking about past anniversaries.  Growing up I didn’t have many parties.  I can actually only remember two, one when I was five and the other when I turned 17.  Being born in the summer didn’t help with having parties.  Most of my friends didn’t live close by and once school was out for the year I didn’t see them again until school started again.  Not that I’m going to age myself but growing up I didn’t have a cell phone nor did any of my friends and since we lived far away from each other our parents were not going to drive us over to each other’s house.  After I was married my husband for some reason thought that I didn’t like to celebrate so I never had any parties until my first anniversary of my 29^th birthday.  He gave me a great party, all my friends were here, he ordered stripper and we all had way too much to drink.  

As my sister and I got older we would make birthday cakes for each other.  My mom rarely remembered that it was our birthday, I know that she knew we existed after all she was there when we were born but if she actually remembered that it was our birthday on our birthday was so rare.  As I got older my mom would send my birthday and Christmas gift together, I guess it was her way of not forgetting.  What’s really odd is that now that we are all adults my mom actually remembers on our day, maybe that’s what happens when you get older you start to remember important dates such as when your children were born.

This anniversary I spent a quiet day at home with my husband.  We spent the day hanging around the pool and then went to dinner.  I received several phone calls wishing me a happy birthday or anniversary depending on who was calling.  The following weekend my daughter was in town so we had a nice family dinner and red velvet cheese cake for dessert.  It was great and I’m so thankful that I was able to celebrate with my family.  I’m looking forward to many more anniversaries; of course I may change it up to celebrating the anniversary of my 39^th birthday.  You never know…..

Thunderstorms and Me Don’t Mix

I hate thunderstorms.  I actually am very terrified of them.  Each time I hear the roar of thunder I want to jump out of my skin.  I’m so terrified of them that I don’t know how to explain how it makes me feel.  On a really bad storm I can have such a panic attach that I swear my heart has stopped.  I dread monsoon season every year because I never know when a thunderstorm is going to hit. 

I don’t know how people that live in areas where weather is very unpredictable live. A few months ago we were at our daughter’s house in North Carolina.  We were outside enjoying a nice evening when the clouds started rolling in.  I kept saying that the clouds just didn’t look normal.  There was something about them that seemed to have my hair standing up.  I can’t explain it but I was slowing starting to get scared.  I finally said that I had to go in because I couldn’t take it anymore.

So I go in the house with their dog, Jax.  I open a bottle of wine hoping that having a drink will help calm my nerves.  Next thing I know I hear the thunder and my heart stops.  I start to panic, Jax starts to pace and my husband tries to calm me down. 

Just as I was starting to calm down the weather radio went off.  I thought that I was going to climb out of my skin.  My daughter picks it up and says that there is nothing to worry about it was just announcing that there was a severe thunderstorm.  I refilled my glass of wine and tried to relax.  Then the radio went off again.  This time the Jax is pacing even more which is really starting to freak me out.  Once again my daughter says that it is just a severe thunderstorm and I refilled my glass of wine.

While trying to relax the radio went off for the third time.  I really started to panic, Jax was pacing even more and the clouds outside were looking pretty scary.  My daughter picks up the radio and says “Oh”, I knew at this point that it wasn’t just a severe thunderstorm that there was something else going on.  She tried to play it off as though nothing was happening but I knew things weren’t right.  Jax was pacing even more and I should have just put a straw in the wine bottle and drank it that way.  I looked at my daughter at asked what was going on.  She finally admitted that we were under a tornado warning.  I have never been in a tornado warning, watch or anything having to do with a tornado.  I really started to panic.  Since my daughter doesn’t have a basement I didn’t know what to do which really made me very nervous.  My son-in-law said that if it goes to tornado watch we needed to get into the pantry or the bathroom.  I refilled my glass and prayed for the best. 

A tornado never did hit but it was a moment in time that I would never forget.  People that live with this kind of stress on a regular basis amaze me.  I don’t know how they do it but I’m glad it’s them and not me.  I don’t ever want to go through that again. 

The Friendly Sky’s

About a month ago my husband and I went to see our daughter.  When I made our flight reservations I was so excited knowing that we were going to visit that I didn’t pay that much attention to little details such as what time we had to be at the airport and how long our layover in Atlanta would be.  We ended up having to be at the airport at 4:00 am and our layover was 30 minutes long.

So we get to the airport at 4:00 am and since we got our boarding passes the day before we were able to check our bags at the curb.  We head straight for security.  We were commenting on how fortunate we were that the line wasn’t very long.  We do the usual strip down and got into line to go through the metal detector.    They were having everyone go through what I like to refer to as the “naked x-ray machine”.  There are about 30 of us in line waiting patiently to enjoy this experience.  I get pulled out of line and told to go through the metal detector, what a relief.  My stuff goes through x-ray with no problems, I’m now thinking “if the rest of the trip goes this smooth it’s going to be amazing and the first for me”.  Shortly after this we get to our gate with plenty of time to spare. 

Finally we start being boarded on to the plane.  We sit down and I look in the pocket in front of me to ensure that the barf bag is there, I don’t have one and neither does my husband, but I figure everything else is going so smooth I’m not going to need it.  I get air sick real easy and I like to know that it is there is I need it.  I set the screen in front of me to watch the flight across the United States and pull out the Air Mall magazine and start looking through it to see what they have that I can’t live without.  We bring to taxi to the run way for takeoff.  The takeoff was so smooth I was amazed.  I didn’t feel sick or anything. 

The pilot announces that we can now turn on our electronic devises so I turn on my Kindle so that I can read a book and my husband gets out his iPod so that he can listen to music.  Everything is going so smooth what could possibly go wrong?  All of a sudden we hit the worst turbulence that I have ever felt.  I begin trying to focus on the person in front of me while taking deep breaths because I have no barf bag.  I look at my husband who is busy playing his air guitar along with his air drums and I’m thinking “thanks for comforting me”.  While I’m trying to keep breakfast down I hear a woman a few rows behind me scream our “sweet Jesus we are all going to die”, my anxiety level went through the roof.  I have never seen flight attendants move so fast.  They were at this woman’s side in seconds trying to calm her down, but of course at this point she is now praying loud and getting louder by the second.  My husband finally looks at me and realizes that I’m about to bring breakfast up and I really need his help.  He puts down his air drums along and holds my hand and reassures me that we will be ok that it’s just pot holes in the sky, which always works for me.  The turbulence lasted for about 45 minutes. 

We then hit a strong head wind and we were due to land after our connecting flight was scheduled for takeoff.  We discover that a large group of us, there were nine of us, were headed for the same location on the same flight.  The flight attendant was able to find out what gate we needed to go to and since we were such a large group they actually held the plane for us.  At first I was impressed until I discovered that the plane was so small that our group took up half the plane.

Once we landed we had to run from the A gates to the D gates, the prayers worked and we had a smooth landing.  The group took off on a mad dash with the understanding that whoever got to the gate first was to tell them that the rest were close behind.  We had to take the train to get to our destination gate.  We get on this train just as the door was closing.  The train takes off and I fall back on my husband who pushes me forward which pushes me into the arms of a complete stranger who attempts to help me to stand up.  We get to the B gates and people get off and on and once again we take off.  I promptly fell back and once again my husband pushes me forward where I land on the same stranger.  At this point I’m so embarrassed and not sure what to say so I just look at him and say “we have got to stop meeting like this people are going to start talking” he busts up laughing and agrees with me.  What a relief that he got my sense of humor.  At the next stop I held on to the pole so hard that I thought that I was going to rip my arms off when the train took off, but I managed to stay upright.  We finally get to the D gates and the mad rush begins.

We run to our gate knocking over several people in the process.  We get on the plane and find our seats.  I get all situated, look to see if there is a barf bag and sit back to relax.  Just as I got comfortable the man in front of us turns around and starts talking to us.  As I looked up to talk to him I realized that he was the man that I had fallen into on the train.  I was embarrassed but tried to play it off as though that kind of stuff happens all the time to me.  I hope he believed me.

Just getting to my daughters was quite an adventure and I look forward to doing it all over again, of course I would like to spend a little more time in the Atlanta airport. 

My Friend the French Fry

The first of the year my husband was told by his doctor that he needed to lose weight.  We decided that we would do this together and so our journey begins.  The first thing that we did was sit down with every diet book and magazine that we had in the house (we could not believe how many we had in the house) and came up with a plan.  We wrote everything down so there would be no guessing as to what we could or could not have.  This plan included making changes in the things that we were consuming.  This was first off an eye opener but also very difficult because we decided to give up some foods that I really love such as French Fries.

French fries go with everything.  You can enjoy them by themselves or with a side dish such as a hamburger, steak, fish, or even shrimp.  You can enjoy with an ice cold glass of wine, a cold beer or even champagne, whatever you like.  You can dip it in ketchup, cheese, or even fry sauce.  You can put chili or cheese on top, or even use them as a nice crunchy bed for ribs.  What other type of food is so versatile?

OMG, has this been the hardest thing for me to do.  I had no problem giving up cookies, chips, pretzels, cake, chocolate, bread and even alcohol but giving up French fries has been almost impossible.  I find myself dreaming about them.  I think about the texture, the slight taste of salt and yes even the grease that glistens on it.  I miss how four shoe string French fries (yes four is the correct number) dipped in a vanilla milk shake taste.  I can envision the crunchy salty taste of the fry mixed with the sweet taste of the milk shake, oh how my mouth is now watering.  I can hardly wait until the day that I can treat myself to this delicious combination.

Until that special day I will be content sipping on my virgin rum and diet Pepsi munching on carrot sticks dreaming about the perfect food, the French fry.

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

It seems that every year goes by faster than the year before and this year was no exception.  This last year feels as though it flew by.  I hope that 2012 slows down a little so that I can really enjoy every moment of it. 

Every year many people, me included, make resolutions.  I often wonder why we bother after all who keeps these resolutions.  I can’t think of one person that has ever kept a resolution.  So this year I have decided that I’m not making any resolutions or goals.  I have decided that I’m just going to continue . . .

I’m going to continue to enjoy life as much as possible.  I’m going to continue smiling at people even when they don’t smile back.  I’m going to continue to cheer my grandkids on at their activities.  I’m going to continue to enjoy spending time with my family and friends.  I’m going to continue to do silly things with my friends such as sitting on the floor with a bottle of wine and lay’s potato chips singing karaoke as loud and off key as we can.  I’m going to continue to laugh out loud when my husband does something silly like bursting out singing “I’m sexy and you know it”; after all he is the sexiest man I know.  I’m going to continue to kick butt in Wii bowling.  I’m also going to continue watching old sitcoms and enjoy every minute of it.  I’m going to continue taking naps on Sundays; I may even start taking naps on Saturday’s as well.  But most of all I’m going to continue to just be me.

As the New Year begins my wish for my family and friends is that you also continue to be you, after all that is what makes you so special and why I like you so much.  So no matter if you decide to make resolutions or not I hope that you have a great New Year and that all your dreams come true.