Blonde Joke Friday....

As told to me by one of my co-workers (they all pick on my blondeness continually):

A man and a blonde woman got into an elevator at the same time. The blonde said to the man, "T.G.I.F.!"

The man responded, "S.H.I.T.!"

Undaunted, the blonde said again, "T.G.I.F!!"

And the man responded once again, "S.H.I.T.!!"

This went on, back and forth a couple of more times, until the elevator came to a stop at the blonde's floor. She stepped off and looked back at the man and said, "I SAID T.G.I.F.! That means 'Thank God its Friday', you dumb ass!"

The man answered, "And I SAID S.H.I.T.! That means 'Sorry Honey it's Thursday'!"


Haha...Oh wait...I sincerely hope I'm not being blonde by thinking today really IS Friday. I am soooo ready for the week-end. Hope you all have a fantastic one.

Priceless

We are having a new AC unit put in tomorrow. Yay! I'm excited. Especially if you read my last post....because seriously, I can NOT live without air-conditioning. Like, at ALL. Anyway, the one unit that controls the bedroom side of our house has been acting up for over 2 years now. We dealt with it all last summer. Had it checked out multiple times. And we still had to resort to going outside and periodically cutting it off at the breaker switches to make it reset. Yeah, that was the sage advice that the repairman gave us. How inconvenient is that? Especially since it would tend to go out during the day while we were gone and then we would come back home to a house that was hotter than hell.

Anyway, we had our first really warm day last week. I think it was Friday...maybe? But it got warm enough that we turned on the AC for a while. The unit that had given us so much trouble completely gave up and died. Actually, its not all that old. But it has never really worked just right. And of course, its plenty old enough to be out of warranty. But I don't care. I just want reliable AC that comes on when its supposed to. Its kind of like the Mastercard commercial:

New central air unit: $4,000

Being comfortable during the heat of summer: PRICELESS

HOT

Anybody who has been around me for more than, oh, let's say about 30 seconds over the past year or so would know that I have been having these wonderful hot flashes on a continual basis.
Its been persistent since the hysterectomy, but honestly? I was having them to some degree even before that. Its really inconvenient and uncomfortable. At the bridal shower on Saturday, Hannia's Mom, Ruth was wearing a long-sleeved sweater. And the other women in there were complaining about how cold it was. One lady contemplated running out to her car to get a jacket.
And me? I was hot. Not just a hot flash hot, but apparently my internal thermostat is so screwed up that I stay overly warm continually. The actual flashes are just a little added bonus that makes me feel like I am about to spontaneously combust. I was wearing a nylon slip with my dress, and I was so sweaty that it was clinging to me in all the wrong places. I came home and ordered myself a cotton slip. Apparently I am going to have to pick and choose what fabrics I wear very carefully. And cotton slips....well, they are really hard to find. I finally found one at the Vermont Country Store. I can't wait for it to get here.

My husband has been really good about all of this. Very accomodating. My house has the cold chill of a tomb, but its the only way I can be comfortable right now. I have no idea how long this "change of life" thing is supposed to go on, but I hope its over soon. And just for the record, I AM taking hormone replacement therapy. As high a dose as my Dr. will allow. And if its helping then I do not even want to know what it would be like without it. I guess I would be walking around with fire shooting out of my skin like a flame-thrower.

Anyway, I have done some checking around and reading up on the problem. Especially since summer is right around the corner. I can't tell you how bad I am dreading summer....ugh. I am finding that there are some new fabrics out there to help minimize the discomfort. Fabrics that wick moisture, and help cool off the body. I ordered a nightgown (again, from Vermont Country Store) that promises to keep me cool overnight. It was kind of pricey, so I intend to try it out before I order more. But you know....if it works, its worth every single penny. So far most of the stuff I have found are either athletic type clothing for working out, or sleepwear for those nightsweats. Somebody, somewhere ought to design some decent every day apparel for women who have broken thermostats. Seriously, one of the articles that I read said that the skin temperature during a hot flash can go up as much as 10 degrees. That high of a fever could cook you alive from the inside out. And thats what I feel like....like I am roasting in a microwave oven.
I am not having fun, but hopefully it will resolve itself in the near future...???? Please????

Anyway, as I was researching clothing that might help save my sanity, I ran across a t-shirt that made me laugh. It said, and I quote:

" I'm still HOT!
It just comes in flashes now...."

HAHAHAHA.

Bridal Shower

I went to Hannia's bridal shower yesterday afternoon. This picture is of Hannia modeling one of our tissue wedding dress creations. We divided into 3 teams and each team had 2 minutes to design and dress her for the wedding. This particular dress was not the one that my team did, but its the one that I got the best shot of, so its the one I am sharing. The funny part of this dress, although you can't see it in this pic, is that her posterior area is exposed. Like a hospital gown. But you know...we had 2 minutes, so what do you expect? It was a lot of fun though. A real frenzy of tape and tissue and a whole lot of laughter. Also? The tiara that she is wearing had pink blinking lights in it! I'm totally jealous, because I want one too! hahahaha

I also got to meet the other 2 bridesmaids. I said in an earlier post that the 3rd "bridesmaid" is Hannia's younger brother Miguel. That brings me much joy to call him a bridesmaid for some reason. He's a fun guy. He came over and had Christmas dinner with us this past year.

And then we spent Christmas evening playing Cranium. Its a board game that you have to act out charades, hum a song, model a figure out of clay....all kinds of things to get your partner to guess what your word is. Anyway, Miguel had to act out the action word "Vibrate". Let me tell you I thought we would all die laughing that night. I can't remember if any of us guessed the correct word or not. Somehow I am thinking that we didn't. But he does have a sense of humor.

That part I do recall with great clarity.

Oh, I got off track remembering Miguel vibrating like that...haha. I meant to share the picture of Hannia and the other bridesmaids:

I THINK that the girl in pink is Dara, and the one in black is April. I hope I am getting this right.

There was a lot going on and you know...I get confused easily...but they were both really sweet girls even if I got their names mixed up. I will have to get Hannia to clarify it for me, so I don't call someone the wrong name at the wedding. Gasp. I enjoyed having the chance to meet them though.

Anyway, now all the fun is over and the week is getting ready to begin all over again. Why can't the work week be 2 days, and the weekends go on for 5?? Wouldn't that make a whole lot more sense?

Wondering...

There is this house that I drive by almost every day. And on most of those days there is a woman who sits in a rocking chair on the front porch. The odd thing is that she sits there facing the house, her back to the road. I have no idea of how old she is, as I have never actually seen her face. Her hair is medium/short in length, and looks to be fairly gray. My guess is that she is an older woman, but then again, some people go gray really young. Some days it looks like she is doing something with her hands. I've seen her with a bowl on her lap and got the impression that she was shelling peas, or something like that. Maybe she is doing some kind of needlework sometimes, too...? I don't know. But every time that I see her out there, facing the house with her back to the road, I have to take a moment to wonder. Whats her story?

Handbags and Weddings

So this weekend in Danville, Erica and I ran out to shop briefly. Mainly because she wanted to pick up some of that yummy chicken salad from the Mid-town Market to take home for lunch this week (um, we got really lost and had a most excellent adventure through out the streets of Danville. And she had like NO sense of humor about it, but I thought it was hilarious good fun...).

But we ran into a few other places along the way. I have been shopping around a little bit for a handbag to go with my dress for THE wedding. The only evening bag that I own is black. And my dress is brown/copper and my shoes are gold. Black wasn't going to cut it. But I didn't find anything acceptable. So when we finally got back to the house (after seeing a whole lot of the town on our crazy roadtrip) Dad and Barb mentioned that there were several evening bags packed away somewhere in the house. And I got this one pictured above. It belonged (if I am remembering correctly, which I may NOT be, so feel free to correct me) to my hubby's Dad's mother, and might actually have been used in the 1920's...? Anyway, whether that information is right or not, I happen to think that its really pretty. The metal work at the top of the bag is pretty enough to feel like jewelry instead of a purse frame. And the body of the purse, the part that looks like gold sequins, is actually tiny little gold-colored metal disks. All of them intact. And worked together so finely that it feels almost silky. Its hard to describe. You would have to feel it. Anyway, its vintage and unusual and it makes me happy. So, thanks Dad and Barb. I can't wait to use it. The weird looking orbs at the top are really just a candle holder that I used to prop the purse up so I could take a picture. They aren't actually attached to the bag...haha.

So, the wedding grows closer. Hannia stopped by this afternoon to drop off Erica's dress. Its really pretty, and the length of it (more knee-length) will make this a dress she could probably wear again to some other special occasion, so that makes it even better. But one of the things that I have been meaning to say about the wedding is the fact that my daughter is going to be The Best Man!!! How cool is that? And Hannia's brother is going to be a bridesmaid....haha. I LOVE how they are breaking convention like that. It makes me smile. Everything seems to be coming together nicely, so.....we have a lot to look forward to this spring!!!

I'm Alive!!!

Really, seriously, I am alive. I haven't written much mainly because things have been insanely busy. We had Greg, Lori and the girls up for a visit the weekend before last. This past weekend we were visiting Dad and Barb in Danville. Besides all the visitation, work has kept me hopping like a one-legged Easter Bunny. Whew...I am tired. Last night, for instance, I went to bed at 7 pm. I totally meant to take a quick nap and get up in an hour. Well, the REAL story is that I said something kind of snarky that got on my husband's nerves (I honestly can NOT remember what I said, but I am pretty sure it wasn't altogether sweet and loving). So he started to blatantly IGNORE me. He was refusing to answer me, or acknowledge my existence. Not like a serious fight or argument. I think we were both just tired and feeling a little snippy. But since he was artfully ignoring me, I decided that I would just go ahead and deprive him of my glorious presence all together, and I went to bed. Hahahaha. Like I said, I meant to get up again in a little while, but I slept through until the alarm went off this morning. Yikes! I must have needed the sleep. I don't know if the deprivation of my presence taught hubby a lesson or not, but he seems to be behaving a bit better today, so maybe? I got some good sleep either way.

Anyway, nothing else is new. We have had days on end of cloudy, misty, rainy days. It feels like forever since I saw any sunlight. That in and of itself is somewhat depressing. It makes me sleepy. And it appears as though there is no real sunshine in the forecast around here for the rest of this week. Blah. Oh well, we needed the rain, I guess. I read somewhere that we are finally back up into the "normal" rainfall range again after the serious drought of last summer.
I keep wondering about Atlanta. We heard lots of urgent news reports that Atlanta was running out of water, with only a month or so supply left. Have they gotten back up to normal levels yet? Has anyone heard? Apparently only the bad stuff gets reported. Noone tells you when things are going well......Why is that?