I may survive

These girls are trying to kill me. But I'm a survivor.

The fun started when the phone rang. A trip to the airport and Adrienne was in my car. We stopped on the way home at a restaurant I wanted to try for their $2.25 breakfast special. Adrienne laughed at me when I brought home the extra toast we hadn't eaten. A couple of shopping stops and we got home about 11:00 AM.

We left to get the Casino Windsor bus at noon. As soon as we got to the casino, Adrienne was looking for her next meal. She's a three meal a day girl. Who knew. We had a very nice lunch and proceeded to the machines. I listened intently but none of them knew my name. I had enough canadian cash for each of us to start out with $40.00. about 6 o'clock heading back to the bus pick up area we stopped at a wheel of fortune machine and I took out $66.00 and change. We stopped at a machine that cashes out tickets and it spit out $61.00. My first thought was, "the machine is broken" my next thought (after I looked at and counted the money a couple of times) was, this is american money. The small print on each machine tells you whether it will dispense american or canadian currency. I complained to the cashier and she traded me the proper amount of canadian, taking my word for how much the ticket was for.

Once off the bus, we needed a stop at Long John Silver, (3rd meal). Thursday morning we had some shopping and copying errands and I sent Adrienne on her own. Dinner at the Texas Roadhouse with erika, steph, jeannette and gretchen was a lot of fun but I was really tired. We had plans to get up at 4 or 5 to go to Greektown. I slept a couple of spurts and at about 1:00 AM we were all awake and decided to go then. We left the casino and looked for a breakfast place on the way home. We were confident that restaurants and coney islands would open at 6. Not so. When we got to the one closest to home it was 10 to 7 and we just waited for it to open at 7.

I fell into bed when we hit the house and didn't even hear Gretchen get up for work. We didn't take her with us to Greektown, her having a job and all.

So here we sit. All of our luggage got packed into Jeannette's trunk last night so we can't change our minds about what to bring. We are all showered and shaved and half asleep as we wait for our ride.

Any Minute Now

The phone is going to ring any minute now. And Adrienne will be here. I will jump in the car and drive to the airport and she will be there. That means the cruise starts now. Actually it started the minute Adrienne left her house to go to her airport, but I slept through that part.

Its ringing, she's here.

Who Won

I am watching the French Open a little earlier in the day today since ESPN2 is running the women's semi-finals live. All week I've been watching those scrolls at the bottom showing team match-ups and what time the game is going to start. I was surprised when I saw the Tigers-Indians come up and they actually had last night's scores posted. Wow, Tigers 10, Indians 0.

BTW does Micky Mouse winning the Stanley Cut diminish it in any way?

Respect or Lack of

this is a story about three people who earned no respect this morning.

The first was the greeter at Meijers whose sigh and eye roll earned no respect when I asked her for an electric cart.

I used my list but succumbed to a few impulse buys along the way. Half pound Hershey bars were on clearance. Probably because they are planning to decrease the volume and increase the price. So I bought some of those. The milk (priced at 3.09) was free if you bought two packages of oreo cookies (on sale 2 for 5.00) so I bought some of those. Natural Wheat bread, that was packaged just like my favorite Brownberry brand was buy one get one free. So I bought some of those. My cart was over flowing.

Now comes the cashier. I can't do it myself any more and it doesn't matter how far down the store the first working cashier is because I'm using the electric cart and travel is easy. The cashiers have those bag carousel things at the end of the counters and I can usually, from my sitting position, take each bag and put it in the cart as she fills it. So now I have the bread, some lunch meat and both packages of cookies in the first bag. As I try to lift it into the cart I say "You're kidding, right?" And as I am re-packing that, she is rapidly filling bags.

I am putting them into my cart, leaving a corner space for the milk. I stop to take care of the payment part of the dance and as soon as she thrusts the paperwork into my hands she comes around the counter and I am thinking "Oh good, I'm going to get help". She piles the rest of the bags into the cart and her parting words are "Don't forget your milk, I don't know where you want to put that."

Where indeed. Short of unloading and re-packing the cart there is no place for the milk. So I put it on the floorboard at my feet and proceed to the parking lot. Usually I will transfer my groceries to a regular cart and wheel that out to my car. The thought of lifting that milk is what made me ride the electric cart all the way to my car. That cashier earned no respect from me.

Now I wheel up to the back of my car and there appears beside me a cart-collector guy. I'm thinking I will not have to lift that milk into the car. Silly me. He was standing so close to the cart, I had to say "Excuse me" to be able to stand up. He moved far enough away to let me open the trunk and that's where he stood till I was all done packing the bags into the trunk. When I was near the end of the bags I almost said "Would you get that milk for me?" but I was fuming a little by then and was going to show him I didn't need no stinkin help.

When I closed the trunk he said "I'll take the cart back." and I said "Thank you." How does that thank you fall out so easily. The sentence I had in mind did end with you but it didn't start with thank.

Meijers is still my favorite place to shop. Most of the employees are courteous and helpful and I don't know why I had to encounter all 3 of the rude ones today.

The Visit

Mama came to visit me this morning. I was standing at the stove when I heard movement in the other room. I assumed it was Gretchen getting ready for work so I continued what I was doing with my back turned. When I turned and looked up there was Mama sitting in my chair in the living room. I was so glad to see her. I rushed in and leaned over to hug her and said how sorry I was to be living in a place where she had never been, and how did she find me. She said that she hadn't come alone. I heard noise in the bathroom and realized that Pa had come with her.

Before he could reveal himself, I was well and truly awake. I should have realized it was a dream because there is no way I can bend over like that. But the warm, fuzzy feeling of having seen her stays with me.

It occurs to me that my children might feel the same way about me. Happy to see me and be in the same room. I'm a little high maintenance right now but I want them to know that I will be visiting them forever even when its just in a dream.

Lazy Days

My mother went on Retreat. Retreat is something Catholics used to do (and quite possibly still do) for a day or a weekend to help kick start their spirituality. With the added bonus of a couple that I have been on, of getting away from the kids for a day or a weekend.

During her Retreat, a lecturer asked the women to write down on a piece of paper one negative attribute about themselves. My mother wrote "lazy". Then all these pieces of paper were gathered and dumped into a makeshift fire pit and the lecturer said he was going to set fire to them and the women would feel cleansed of these attributes.

My mother did not wish to be "cleansed" of her laziness. It was all she could do not to jump up and say "Wait, I want mine back." But, of course burning the papers did not make the attributes disappear, and my mother continued to enjoy being lazy till the end of her days.

In fact, her laziness is alive and well and living in her favorite daughter. My days of actually having to get dressed and do something outside the house are getting fewer and farther between. Its not that I don't like doing things outside the house (well, I kind of don't) but I love the lazy days.

That's OK Grandma

Usually Jackson stories belong to Erika but these two are mine.

While eating lunch at my kitchen table yesterday one of my front teeth broke. The one right next to the one that they fixed last time. When he saw my mouth with a tooth missing Jackson said, "That's OK Grandma, another one will grow in there."

Later he had reluctantly agreed that we could go shopping. He wanted to do something more fun than that but I told him we needed to go to the bathing suit store because I needed a bathing suit. There was someone moving out in my parking lot and their truck was blocking my car so he knew we had to wait till the truck left. While he was watching out the front door for the truck to leave he turned around and said, "Actually, Grandma already has a bathing suit."

Who expects a 3 year old to begin a sentence with actually?

I convinced him that since my bathing suit was black, I needed one with flowers on it. He likes flowers. I did find 2 bathing suits, both with flowers and Erika got one with Polka Dots. It turned out he loved polka dots on Erika.

And Then There Were Two

One little, two little, three little sisters. Papa could sing that song all the way up to 10. And now there are two. Last Friday, Alfreda succumbed to Leukemia that had been diagnosed in January. That leaves Monique, who recently suffered a stroke and is recuperating with her daughter Merrielle, and Julia who had surgery this year for a cyst removal from her breast that was benign.

I could spit

The Fed Ex truck stopped at my house yesterday. They left a mail packet from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Many years ago I participated in a National Institute of Health Diet and Health Study. I remember thinking as I answered their questions "Hah, compute this."

Another time I volunteered to participate in a study of Post Menopausal Women who had never taken hormones. But when push came to shove, I was not willing to take the pills they provided without knowing whether they were placebos or hormones. So I bowed out.

It seems this Institute is now doing a study called Parkinson's, Genes and Environment Study (PAGE). I have been selected as a participant who does not have Parkinson's. The packet included 1) consent forms, 2) PAGE Study brochure 3) 2 Saliva collection kits 4) a Logo Pen and 5) a one dollar bill oh and a prepaid return envelope.

Although Adrienne had some misgivings about giving away your DNA, I have decided, in the interest of science to participate. The saliva collection kits consist of an inner vial with a screw top cap; an outer container (like a large pill bottle)with a snap on lid, a snug plastic bag with a sticky top closure that you put the outer container in. Then there is a Manila bio hazard bubble envelope that the two plastic bags go into. This envelope is stamped "Exempt Human Specimen" There are sticky-back labels for me to affix to each specimen with control numbers etc.

They want two specimens collected within 24 hours. So this morning I did my first one. The inner vial, although it is pretty small has a fill line on it. They ask that you collect the specimen within 15 minutes. Seriously, how much can you spit in 15 minutes.

So the first one is in the bag. Now I have all day to be conscious of my saliva glands and worry about how much I am wasting every time I swallow.

On The Payroll

Last Sunday, Easter, I merged my "in-town" family (Stephanie and Arn) with Rita's and we all went to dinner together and then back to her house for desert.

At her house we were treated to many old photographs and scrapbooks that Kelly had unearthed while cleaning his basement. The trunk that held these treasures had suffered water damage along the years and the items were musty and bordering on moldy. Rita is slowly going through all of it. She had to discard scrapbooks that she had compiled of all her school work and report cards. One from grade school and another from high school. The high school one had souvenirs from dances etc. But at least she got a chance to look through them first.

She has had to work intermittently, because the residue of musty makes her feel ill.

There were things in that trunk from many branches of the family and she is saving what she can for each of us.

Today she brought me something I thought I would never see again. It is a payroll record of mine dated October 18, 1952 from Johnnie's Sweet Shoppe. I worked 3 hours after school on Monday and Wednesday, 3 1/2 hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 6 hours each on Saturday and Sunday. My net pay, was $12.35. I was rich.

Guest Post -- Erika's Day From Hell

Today is Friday the 13th. I am not the least bit superstitious, but more than 10 people have said that to me today. Every year, as the research administrator on our campus, I put together a reception honoring those faculty that have published throughout the past year. I lovingly gather all of the publications together and put out a Publication Listing , then the publications themselves are all sent over to the library where they are lovingly displayed at the reception and then archived. This year I had the list ready in record time and on Tuesday the box full of publications was ready to go to the library. So I closed up the box and I wrote my contact person's name on it and her campus address and shipped it out by campus mail. Big mistake!! When the box had not arrived accross campus by Thursday we started to get a little worried. But when we called the mailroom they assured us that the box either was already delivered or would be very shortly. So we waited until this morning and still no box. After I left to gather supplies for the reception I got the call that someone in the mail room fessed up to having opened the box and redistributing all of the publications back to the authors. WHY? I have no idea. A quick call to Lyle, who was working in his office, confirmed that he had indeed just received his own publication back through campus mail to him. Aaaaargh. Now we were having a publication reception with no publications. Bad enough.

Now, given our quick change to nice weather I had to wait until just before the reception to pick up the fruit and cheese platters. Two large fruit and cheese platters were ordered more than a week ago. Guess how many were ready when I got there an hour before the reception? None! That's right now we had no publications and no food. I am ready to call it a day and go home. But they quickly threw one platter together and I grabbed boxes of cookies to supplement. When I got off of the elevator at the reception site in the library I had exactly 6 minutes to put everything together.

Luckily, my contact at the library had called all of the department secretaries and gathered about 1/4 of the publications to display at the reception. So it looked pathetic but at least there was something to look at. And the good thing about not getting all of the food that I ordered was that I had absolutely no leftovers to cart home. I am so glad this day is over.

Hello Xavier

I just caught the end of The Price is Right and the kid that won the showcase showdown did a shout out to all the musketeers from Xavier, Cincinnati.

No Game Show for Me

My cable bill went up. It was only $3.00 and even though it made me mad that they could just brazenly tack on $3.00 without any notification or anything, I just paid it and decided it wasn't worth the time and effort to spend half a day on hold just to complain.

Two days later, last Wednesday, I was working through my regular TV routine and Channel 15 didn't come in. That was the Game Show Channel. The was my refuge channel when all there was available on regular channels were talk shows and soap operas.

This was important enough to call. The girl didn't know why I was having trouble put me on hold several times and finally said someone would be out that same day.

Of course, they weren't. So when it still didn't come in the next day, I called back. This girl put me on hold several times and finally told me that the channel number had changed. Channel 15 was now channel 112. No longer available to me on my plan but if I would like to upgrade..... I was very angry.

I am a "go to sleep with the TV on" person and my late-night refuge is ESPN Classic. They play reruns of the World Series of Poker late into the night. That night as I turned on channel 35, all I got was fuzz..... I am very angry.

No Diet for Me

I can no longer stand the stress of being on a diet. When I decided a couple of weeks ago to be on a diet I forgot how weak-willed I was. Luckily I caught that mistake after gaining only 3 pounds. I got off the diet and the scale is back where it was.

Here's how it goes. I bought a couple bags of easter kisses when they were on sale, just to have around the house. Not on a diet - I would eat 3 or 4 or 10 every once in a while. On a diet - I ate the whole bag in one day because tomorrow I would have to start dieting for real. Of course, I wasn't any better the next day and the cycle started all over again with a little extra comfort food to make myself feel better about the discomfort that was about to start the next day (for real).

Since I'm not on a diet, there is no necessity of eating something right now, I can always have it later or tomorrow or the next day. I am at an age and a stage where I get along just fine letting my eating habits be governed more by indigestion than weight loss.

I've Been Tested

CBC my local Canadian TV station did a show called Test The Nation tonight. I took the test with them. It was a basic IQ test and any of you can take it by going to CBC.ca/testthenation. I think they said it would still be available on line.

Anyways, I am terrible at visual perception. Which shape goes next in a series. There were 12 of those and I got 7 of them wrong.

Another one I got wrong was: If this is Thursday, what is the third day after tomorrow? I would like to know who I can talk to to dispute their answer.

And still another I got wrong was which simple math problem had the highest answer and I picked 8 times 22. Well when it came time to see the answer it turned out it was 8 plus 22 and of course, was the wrong answer.

By their scoring system, which made allowances for age, my IQ is 124.

My Best Feature

Lungs. No I don't mean the outside curvey kind. I happen to have deep, well functioning lungs. Whenever I start to bemoan arthritic pains I take a deep breath and say "Man, that's living."

So, I'm in the dentist's chair. Nitrous Oxide attached to my nose and wondering, should I breathe deep or breathe shallow. Small shallow breaths get more nitrous more quickly, but deep breaths would hold some in reserve.

I'm telling you, my life is just one dilemma after another.

No Virus for Me

42:31 Those were the numbers on my phone's clock when I was finally connected to the next available service representative while trying to renew my Norton Antivirus subscription.

The background music was awful. After the first 17 minutes I stayed on for the sheer martyrdom of it. My hand fell asleep. Then my arm fell asleep. Then I fell asleep. The girl woke me up thanking me for my patience and letting me know that my call would be answered by the next available service representative. That message came on every 2 1/2 minutes so I couldn't get much sleep. Past the 30:14 mark I was getting pretty upset when the background music broke into "Cry Me A River".

That same message advised me to go to service.symantic.com for faster easier service. It never gave me a chance to say "Ha, I've been there, I can't do it."

But at 42:31 Asif, my next available representative came on and was very helpful. At least if I understood him correctly, he was helpful. He did my renewal (I think) and he charged $42.39 to my credit card (I think).

The only part of which I am really sure is that by 52:58 I was out of there.

And the Winner Is

What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. At the Movies. Well, we got there at about 10:00 AM and didn't get home till midnight so I guess it was more than an afternoon.

AMC Theaters were offering for $30.00 a whole day of movies as they ran all of the pictures that had been nominated as "best picture". This included all the popcorn and soda you could handle.

So, I am fresh from seeing all the nominated movies and by far the only one deserving of the title is Babel.

SDRAWKCAB

In my young single days there were among my circle of friends a group who spoke sdrawkcab. It seemed cute at the time and for a little while I tried to keep up, but it was just too much trouble.

And now the world is moving in that direction. Evidence??

For most of my life I have endured severe leg and foot cramps. In my sdrawkcab days I thought it was due to wearing high heels all day, every day. But somewhere in my late 30s high heels disappeared and cramps continued. The remedies were as many and varried as those for hiccups. They included, putting weight on it, walking around, jumping up and down, rolling like a log...All while trying to relax the offending muscle.

It wasn't until Papa died and we were going through his house and I came across some pills called Legatrin and I took them home and tried them. And, oh my God, they worked like a charm. The active ingredient was Quinine. Within a few months the product "Legatrin" became "New and Improved". Its new active ingredients were Acetaminophen and Diphenhydramine (Tylenol and Sleeping Pills). And no, it did not work.

I asked the pharmacist and he told me that Quinine had become a controlled substance and could only be obtained by prescription. No problem. My doctor wrote me a prescription and I was back in cramp free land. Somewhere in the middle 90s the FDA took it off the market completely (for my protection) and I was back to walking the streets at night. (My house was too small to walk very far very effectively) In 1997 the FDA had backed down and quinine was available again and I don't go anywhere without it.

Since my prescription is for enough pills for me to take one every night and I only take them when I actually get a cramp or feel one coming on, I have a backlog. I have recommended it to all my friends and have even given some away.

Now, comes a letter from my new prescription provider saying that the FDA has taken Quinine Sulfate off the market again and they will soon discontinue distribution of same. I didn't know how soon "soon" was so I quickly tried to refill my prescription. But, alas, too late. "Soon" had come. I called a couple of pharmacies and they are all out also. Believe me, I am hoarding my backlog.

Yesterday I got a letter from my old prescription provider with a little more information. It seems the FDA has recently approved a new manufacturer for quinine sulfate. They are the only approved manufacturer and have given it the brand name Qualaquin. There is no longer any generic quinine sulfate available on the market. A Brand name co-payment may be charged for all Qualaquin prescriptions. Qualaquin may, or may not be a covered drug on my pharmacy benefit plan.

Isn't that a little backwards?

Family visit

Mary's memorial provided us an opportunity for another family visit. As we gathered at her house we treated the occasion almost as though she were still there, commenting on the parts she would have liked and approved of, and the parts she would have disliked or been angry about. Including we, the family, there were upwards of 75 people that came to remember her, show each other their pictures and look at hers; or in some cases just to look around her house to which they had never previously been invited.

Then we had the side trip to Las Vegas. We excel at gambling side trips. I'm so glad we had Stephanie with us so that she could experience just how wacky her aunts and grandmother really are. I didn't want that part to come as a shock to her when she is caring for all of us in a nursing home. Yes, I said all of us. I have decided to wait until my daughters are old enough to enter a nursing home with me before I do it. I don't want to do that by myself. What fun would that be?