What our husbands do when we are away: Boo's Shoes and Ron's Salmon

Because my nickname for Brian is Boo, I call this photo "Boo's Shoes".

Ron's Salmon dinner (with some bones) and not one, but TWO vegetables! He took this photo and emailed it to Sarah. I also love the placemat. 

Brian emailed this  photo to me to prove how he sleeps "so contained" when i am not there. This is the bed after three days of not making it.

louie/Sarah and I went away for four days last week.

This trip was made possible because we're both retired and could take advantage of a last minute cancellation at one of our favorite places to vacation.

I retired April 4th, and louie/Sarah retired June 30th this year. She and I started our education careers the same year - 1979, in the same school. Sarah/louie was the Home Ec teacher.  I was the Student Accounts Secretary. We became good friends when we started running together. When we started running together we realized that neither one of us was happily married. And a few years after our running counsel we both filed for divorce (my first one) around the same time. Like retirement, i got out of my marriage first before she got out of hers.

(Sarah/louie is smarter, but i do things more quickly. lol!)

Since 1979 we have gone through:

• three divorces - (two of mine, one of hers); 
• the loss of three homes (two of mine, one of hers); 
• a fight for child custody (hers); 
• seven different jobs as we moved up the ladder (4 for her, 3 for me); 
• quite a few 10K running races; 
• a couple of sort of 'bad boys'; 
• many bottles of really crappy wine back in the 1980's, including one expensive French wine that cost $50 bottle, which we accidentally drank that was intended for my lawyer for doing my first divorce for free. 

We don't normally go places for four days without our 'now' (and might i add, 'final') husbands.

And i think our husbands missed us, which is pretty cool.

Brian was quite happy to see me when he got home from work and then he said,  "This is why i need you here.... look at my shoes!" ....And that is the photo above.

Oh yes, he went to work wearing two different shoes and didn't notice it until he got a hitch in his side because one shoe has a slightly higher heel. Thankfully he didn't have any administrative meetings!

I have blogged before about how my husband is not a fashion plate. Often he will come to me in the morning after he has dressed for work to ask me if his clothes look all right. Many times he mixes and matches seasonal clothes, i.e. wearing white linen in the dead of winter or a heavy sport coat in the heat of summer. I am no fashion plate myself, but at least i know not to do this!  But i never had to tell him his shoes didn't match.

Sarah's husband Ron decided he was going to make himself a Major Dinner, which is not usual for him! Sarah does the cooking in her home,  she's good at it, and she likes doing it. And though she left him one meal, there were still three more dinners.... So he went shopping.

What i liked most about Ron's dinner for himself was the two vegetables. Ron's loves sweets and desserts and i assumed that would be his dinner while Sarah was away! But he didn't follow Sarah's instructions about the bones and i guess he's lucky he didn't choke on one.

I loved that they sent us photos while we were away. Our husbands were bachelors for a long time and had never been married when they married us. So it shouldn't be surprising in this day that they did fend for themselves without us.

.... if you don't count Boo's shoes .


Notes to self: 
Sunrise: 6:21 am
Sunset: 8:01 pm
High/low temp: 89/54
Longest run: Yay! 43 minutes without too much pain. Ran in new shoes.
What I'm looking forward to: first Seahawks game - Sept. 4th
What I'm procrastinating about: Starting back up at the YMCA

No Specials, Just a Menu of the Day

 Menu of the Day....

My new project: my favorite old jean jacket ripped in the wash. I almost threw it out. 

My Bohemian Jacket: Work in progress

What I'm looking forward to: Port Townsend with louielouie/Sarah for four days! Sun, pool time, sewing projects, puzzles, reading, cooking, wines, movies! (hahaha... we know how to party don't we?)

Books: I am reading three at the same time: Seabiscuit; The Orphan Train; and Looking for Alaska. (Favorite summer read: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.)

Project: I am embroidering a favorite old jean jacket that fell apart the last time i washed it. Something i loved doing in high school.  Sewing for hours on my patio, listening to music is very cathartic to me.

In the News: Isis and Ferguson. I don't know what to think so i won't say anything. I'll just put it here for history. I might be more frightened by what's happening in Ferguson. What do y'all think?

What I'm procrastinating about: Working on my Italy photos.

Product Endorsement: Pandora One radio. For less than $5 a month you can stream music you love with no commercials!

What's bugging me: Insomnia bites! Retirement hasn't helped me sleep better. I thought when i stopped working it would. Last night i couldn't shut my brain off for hours and didn't fall asleep until after 3:00 am and this was after taking an Ibuprofen PM, eating early, drinking nothing but seltzer water, and sewing before bed.

Good thing about that: I don't care so much anymore if i don't sleep, i can wake up anytime that i want to! (Don't call me before 9:00 am!)

Observation: Today i felt autumn in the air for the first time. We've had a glorious summer with many hot days, but there was a change today. And i liked it. Partly because i'm excited about the Seahawks.

What's occurred to me: Since i have not been working i feel myself feeling more content! (Union work is draining and negative and is soul sucking after awhile.) But I also worry that i've lost a bit of my mojo and enthusiasm for political work and my phone is ringing a lot right now from the Democrats.  I think i am the kind of person who is driven only by being against something. I wonder how i used to do so much when i worked full-time. Now i have all the time in the world, but no motivation. (I think i need another George W. Bush to get me going again.)

Notes to Self: 
Running: Bought new Brooks Adrenaline from Fleet Feet shoes two weeks ago. (Also Super Feet inserts.) My plantar fasciitis is still bad, not sure they will work. I'm running only every two days and it hurts bad the next day. Ran 37 minutes tonight.
Sunset: 8:16 pm yesterday
Sunrise: 6:11 am
Temp: 85/56
Weight: Since i've had trouble running I'm over my 'magic weight' by two pounds. I haven't had to worry about that for years. That's how good running is!
Word Count: 394

Old Fashioned Random Homemade Fresca Musings

Homemade Fresca: pureed cantaloupe, fresh squeeze limes, a dash of sugar and salt; seltzer water

Like the Gumbo YaYa message board days, only i'm not drinking chardonnay. I am drinking a homemade recipe that is supposed to be like Fresca.

1. It isn't. But it's good.

2. Damn it, first Phillip Seymour Hoffman and now Robin Williams. I don't think i will ever understand depression. It runs in my family, even outside my immediate family with first cousins...(all on my mother's side). I don't know why it missed me but i'm so thankful and feel blessed that it did. I think my favorite movie of Robin Williams is Good Will Hunting. I always liked it when he played a serious role. Even that One Hour Photo one too, which was creepy. Sometimes he was too manic for me to enjoy during talk shows or late night TV. (Jim Carrey feels the same way to me.)

3. I welcomed the rain today. I bitch about it all winter when it rains for 10 days in a row. But i have to admit after about 10 days of sunshine i am ready for rain. I like the coziness of it.

4. I bought new running shoes with the idea that it might be my cure for plantar fasciitis issue. My doctor gave me some physical therapy exercises too which i will do. Already i am three pounds over my normal weight from not running. That bums me out a lot.

5. Here is how i diet: It has always worked for me. (Maybe i have mentioned this here before, i can't remember.) I have what i call a "magic weight" where i feel very comfortable in my jeans and clothes. When i get over that "magic weight" i adjust. I either go for a longer run, cook a healthier dinner. And i don't pour any wine. Today i can't go for a run still but I did cook a healthy dinner with no carbs, and while i really wanted a glass of wine while cooking (since it's been a few days of being good) i didn't because i am over my magic weight. I thought for sure i would be under!

6. I am going for a run tomorrow no matter what!

7. I am also trying to not drink so much Fresca so i made my own using a recipe i found online. It called for a whole canteloup pureed and then strained. Limes and seltzer water. I only used a tiny bit of sugar. It was pretty good. But it didn't make a lot and it took a long while.

8. If this were a cocktail i might be more inclined to make it more often and spend the money.

9. Damn, blogging on this iPad is very difficult. But Brian is doing work stuff on the iMac desktop. So i'll stop for now and come back and edit this. As i type right now i can't see it because the page doesn't scroll until i hit return and then i only see part of it.

Stuff i Write in My Book Journal

My Book Journal. I liked this quote so much i didn't know i had written it out twice.

I like reading books more than drinking wine. (Which is saying a lot. )

I could probably give up coffee.
...running
...TV
...french fries and potato chips

BEFORE i could ever give up books!

This summer i have already read 23 books, a record amount of books for me in one season -due in part to insomnia and the fact that i am retired and no longer stress out if i can't sleep. SO i happily read  often for one or two hours at 2 or 3 in the morning.

And often when i am reading i write out pieces that speak to me. I've been doing this since 1996, when louie/Sarah gave me a journal for my birthday that year.  Here is a sampling of what i have thought was notable in previous books I have read:

1. Animal Dreams is written by Barbara Kingsolver,  a real favorite author of mine in the 90's.  This is what i wrote from that novel - (it's the character Cosima reading part of her sister Hallie's letter at Hallie's funeral):

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. What i want is so simple. I almost can't say it: 

*elementary kindness
*enough to eat
*enought to go around
*the possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers or the destroyed. "

(That last one slays me.) I also do not need too much. I don't need a big house, a big salary, lots of clothes and shoes. I just want enough so that i am not wanting. 

2. "I need this rush. This feeling of exhilaration. I run because it makes me feel in control of my life. Like there is no finish line." 

(from the book How Stella Got Her Groove Back). This describes perfectly to me about why I run, even as i do not love running. 

3. "It was then I knew that often the greatest of sins are not the things we do, but the things we fail to do. "  

Chasing Grace by Martha Manning, (read in 1996), is a memoir about growing up Catholic which i also related to. 

4. "Survivors are people who move purposefully toward either resolution or acceptance."

This i actually read in Runners World magazine in 1997. I think it might be the best advice anyone can give to someone who seems to be constantly struggling.

(If i can paraphrase it in jocucina terms: "Fix it or Get the Fuck Out".)   

I can no longer be a friend to anyone who will not subscribe to this. 

5. #4 above goes along with this other entry i made in 1999:

"Eggs Should Not Dance With Stones". 

It's a quote by Charlie Chan that i got out of the Trivia Column in the News Tribune and for years and years i had it on my white board in my office at my union job. 

6. I loved the book Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Here is what i wrote out in 1999 from that book: 

"Watching my father, I've seen how you can't learn all there is to know. Watching my father, I've seen how you can't learn anything when you're trying to look like the smartest person in the room." 

7. I must have liked this quote below so much because i  i wrote it out twice over different years because i forgot i had written it out before, (first in 2009 and again in 2010). It's a quote by Herbie Cohen, who was a music producer - for artists like Linda Rondstand and Frank Zappa.  The only reason i know this is because i wikipedia-ed him before i put this quote up on Facebook (just in case Herb turned out to be some kind of Nazi or something.)

"Friends are chosen people. You stay friends with someone over a long period of time because they make you feel better than you are."

I have lost some friends along the way for different reasons, but i think the ones i let go most easily is probably because of the stone vs. egg quote above.



Do y'all keep a journal of stuff like this? If so, what is in it? It could even be a great bumper sticker quote.

Five Ways I Could Be Driven Crazy. What are yours?

This is just a random list and actually as i type i have no idea, except for one, what i will choose for the other four ways. I only know that i could actually come up with about 100 if i really tried....it does not take much to make me intolerant.

So let's start with the one i know for sure:

1. Being in demand too many days in a row.  I have what might be an unnatural need for unencumbered time with myself. It might come from growing up as the oldest child of four, a non-working mom, living in small military base housing, all mostly 1200 square feet or less, constantly sharing a small room and closet space with my sister. Or maybe it comes from my other life where i was probably a harried mother of about 10 kids. Whatever reason, i like my alone time. If i have too many obligations (especially family ones) i start getting cranky.

2. Telling me you don't vote in primaries. Today is our primary deadline. I have never NOT voted in a primary. It might also be the reason i get so many political calls if i don't mail in my absentee ballot right away. But dammit, sometimes i don't have the patience to try and rip open that sucker without tearing it all to pieces so i put it off. (Seriously, you should see me try to open cereal boxes. It's a hoot and kind of drives my husband crazy, even as he is slightly endeared by my inability to open packages smoothly.)

3. Not playing music at a party. I can't believe how many people are guilty of this! (In my family it is a mortal sin.) In Brian's family it hardly ever happens, though his sister really likes music. But i have been to dinner parties at folks homes where there is no music playing at all. It is so foreign to me. When i have people over i always try and match the music to the people coming. I like doing that. Gatherings need music!

4. Y'all already know this one: Not giving appropriate thank yous. ...especially with some younger folks who just feel entitled. I almost should not even put this one up since i mention it so often on my blog. But i'm doing it, because it is likely the single most thing that drives me most crazy because it happens far too often.

5. OK, i have to admit since this is the last one i am thinking about this one harder..... OOOh, i got it! How could i miss this one?...  People who are cheap. The ones who make that half assed effort of pulling out their wallet like they are going to help pay only they hope you beat them to the punch. Or they don't tip their wait person well, even with good service, because they don't plan on going back to that restaurant anyway. People who are cheap or un-generous think they are getting away with it, but i have news for them. I notice it. All the time. And i adjust for it too.


Notes to Self:                                      
Word Count: I tried to get it down, but i could only get it to 528. I'm leaving it at that.
Sunrise: yesterday: 5:53
Sunset: 8:39 pm
Run: ran 37 minutes after taking a week off. Walked one hour 1 minute at Chambers today. Foot still not right.
Book: I am reading two: Boys in the Boat and Big Little Lies. 
What I'm looking forward to: Going to Lake Quinault this week for two nights at my friends' cabin!
What makes me so happy: If i were not retired i would be at work this week!
iTunes purchase: Eric Clapton's new tribute to JJ Cale.