11/11/10 My Birthday Part Two

Wow, Mr. Blog,
I am having a serious nap attack.
After I saw you yesterday, I had an e-mail
from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
that my application had been PROCESSED.
Being processed is so much better than being
REJECTED!
Woo hoo for being processed.
I heard a commotion outside and the department of
corrections was weed-eating in front of our house.
I went out and offered them coffee or Kool-Aid but
they didn't want any.
They didn't know our house was there and they were supposed to be
working in front of the park but you know what?
They worked for another hour in front of our house
hedge trimming and raking!
Our house looks so spiffy now!
It was hot and sunny of all things and when Patty called
she said she had time to go for lunch and coffee.
Brenny had sent me $25.00 for my birthday and
so Patty and I could go to Toshi's for lunch.
I had the beef shish-ka-bobs and they were so good.
Then Kim, the owner, came over and gave me a bouquet of
the long stem Korean candies.
She said, "I think it is your birthday soon."
I told it was today and she gave me a big hug and smile.
Then Patty and I went and sat on the patio of the
Kenmore Starbucks and had huge fancy drinks.
I love the gingerbread one and Angela had given me
a Starbucks card for my birthday.
We basked in the sun and drank coffee for hours
and it was so pleasant.
When I got home I dug right in calling retirees for
JoAnn's union presidency run.
I got 36 confirmed votes before the kids came home
and it got too loud to make calls.
Pam and Al came over and they brought two
pumpkin pies and sang me happy birthday with Terry.
I let the kids go visit friends 'cause I like
the peace and quiet sometimes.
We had a lovely pie and hot tea party and when I blew out
my candle I did wish for a cruise ship job.
Brenny says I get special birthday powers this month
and I hope she is right!
I got great presents: my fav pink Dove soap from Pam
and an apron to die for from Suzanne and handkerchiefs
and a cool box from JoAnn.
I am such a freak Mr. Blog.
I put my Dove soap and new hankies
in my closet with my cruise ship supplies.
I have a huge stash of gum and other things
that are brand new to take along.
After Pam and Al left I made Terry watch,
'Fried Green Tomatoes' with me and I had forgotten
how sad and traumatic parts of the story were.
I went through three hankies!
The kids came home and I asked them to watch TV in the
basement so Terry and I could have a nice date.
Now this morning the weather was back to gray and cold!
I made the Ts all waffles and eggs and then started getting stuff
ready for the Saint Brendan's Arts and Crafts Fair this weekend.
At noon, Terry and I drove to Lynnwood to use the IXTAPA
Mexican restaurant gift card Angela had given me
and that was lovely.
Fun to have a date with my darling husband once in awhile.
We zipped down to Aurora Village and Terry let me pick out
some sneakers for my birthday gift.
I had never seen Dr. Scholl's brand shoes but they
were so comfortable and all leather in white.
You'll never guess where I put them Mr. Blog?
In my closet of cruise ship job goodies!
I won't even take them out of the box until
it is time for my first shift.
I know, I know.
How do I know if I'll get hired?
I don't.
But thinking about just the possibility
gets me out of bed in the morning.
I swear to God it looks like it is going to snow Mr. Blog!
I looked all over the internet trying to find out when
the earliest snow in Seattle happened
but I couldn't find out and gave up.
The earliest I can remember was the Thanksgiving
of 1963. I was seven years old and we had dinner with
all my aunts and uncles and cousins at my Auntie Ann's big
house in Laurelhurst.
A few flakes started down and I was going with cousin Care
and little Boo and baby Danny back to Cougar Mountain
and when we got out to Cougar Mountain the snow
got deeper and deeper and my cousins fell asleep
but I was watching out the front window between Uncle Frank
and Auntie Jean and as we started up the big hill
it got icier and icier and steeper and steeper
and it was so dangerous and thriller.
Then near the top, someone had made a snowball and it
started down the hill and got bigger and bigger until
it was the size of a garbage can and
I thought it was going to hit us!
Funny that I don't remember what Uncle Frank did,
but we all lived and got up to their house way
up near the top of Cougar Mountain.
So, Mr. Blog, do you know when the earliest snow in
lower Seattle has ever fallen?
I really, really need to know!
Ciao!

November 10, 2010 My 54th Birthday

Ahhhhh, Mr. Blog!
It's my birthday!
I haven't been home for my birthday in five years.
Brenny would buy me a ticket to visit her in Hawaii
and I'd pay her back later with my sub money
or Terry would buy me a ticket to get me out of his hair.
My kids think I'm 49!
But you know what Mr. Blog?
I feel twenty-nine!
Now that I'm sleeping for the first time in seven years
I feel fantastic.
Those stupid hot flashes all night nearly killed me
because I'm a big sleepaholic.
I've always slept ten hours a night.
Now that I'm older I only sleep eight
but feel good. No.
I FEEL GREAT!!!
So Brenny called and I was telling her how Terry and I
watched 'Second Hand Lions' a few nights ago
and that the story starts when the old men die
and goes to flashbacks of their youth.
I told Brenny that we needed a batch of better
adventures if we were going to have some really
good memories when we are ninety-two.
She reminded me of some of our adventures that
I had forgotten about
and I decided to write them down.
Turns out I love to write.
When I finally get hired by Holland America
to be a librarian, I'll get a few sets of good books
for my reading club.
I cut out the reviews of books I want to buy
and save them in a binder.
There are some I really, really, really want
badly but can't afford them.
That one about the London Tower
and the dust bowl and the history of salt.
I just got so spoiled working at the Post Office
and the airlines.
I could buy all the books I wanted
and I did!
When I was flying I switched to used paperbacks
so if I forgot them on a plane or at the hotel
I wouldn't care.
I read all the Louis L'Amores and
tons of little romance novels.
So it is a blazing sunny day!
I am so happy.
I'm going to finish calling people for
JoAnn's election,
go out to lunch to Toshi's
and Patty is coming over later to go to Starbucks!
Sissy is bringing over a pumpkin pie later
for a family singing
and you know what my wish will be when I blow out
those candles!
A TEACHING JOB.
I don't care where.
I just want to use my degree Mr. Blog.
I feel guilty wishing for something for myself.
I really want all the people in the world to have good health
and happiness and prosperity the most
and that should be my first wish.
But I love my husband and
our kids are eating us out of house and home!
So tonight I'm making Terry watch
'Fried Green Tomatoes' with me!
He HATES chick flicks
but it is my birthday
and as long as I tickle his feet
he'll be able to stomach it.
I'm just so happy Mr. Blog.
We have perfect health
and a great house
and loads of fun together.
YOU have a great day too!
Ciao!

11/8/2010 Trying to Stay Calm

Oh Mr. Blog,
The sweet torture of it all.
I was surfing the internet a few hours ago
of all the cruise lines and what should I find?
Several are HIRING Christmas cruise extra staff!
I nearly died!
When I think of Christmas hiring,
I think of the post office or Bon Marche
or other retail stores catering to shoppers,
not cruise ships.
I just counted over two dozen extra holiday cruises
on the Holland America website!
I need to calm down because I just got
requested to sub tomorrow and I need to sleep.
This morning right before I woke up,
I dreamed I was on a Holland America ship in
the Club Hal and I and I was leaning over some kids
at an arts and crafts table
watching them make bracelets out of old buttons.
Funny thing is, I have never seen a bracelet
made from buttons.
So I call Brenny and she said she just saw one
Sunday morning at the Mu'ku'u market!
Isn't that wild?
So, thanks for letting me talk about it.
Get it out of my system.
I did drop off an updated resume at Holland America
week before last on my way back from
my Norwegian cruise line interview.
I just want to teach Mr. Blog.
I don't care where.

11/8/2010 I Want to be a Church Lady

Hi Mr. Blog,
I am so sore from bowling yesterday.
Someone told me after the tournament last
year they had, "Bowling Butt."
Hahaha. That is so cute.
So I had a message on the phone machine last night from
Lynn Pearson at the church and called her back.
She asked if I was interested in a volunteer job
next fall on the nominating committee.
I told her I wasn't but I really am.
But you know what Mr. Blog?
As much as I miss being a scout leader
and PTA volunteer,
I have promised myself that I will not do
ANY volunteer work until I have a full time
paid job teaching.
Whether on land or on sea,
I want to work.
Work for cash.
I WANT to pay taxes!
I love our roads and parks and
everything single thing about America.
I love how I can be a church lady soon
without someone wanting to shoot at me for not
following the popular religion.
I love my freedom.
Brenda says we are both freedom freaks
and I suspect she is right.
SO, the minute I get a job
I'm calling Lynn Pearson
and I'm saying, "What can I do?"
Do you remember when Dana Carvey used to do that
Church Lady skit on Saturday Night Live?
That's how I want to be.
The Church Lady.

11/7/2010 Bowling for Muscular Dystrophy with Branch 79 Union

Whew Mr. Blog,
that was some tournament!
I am a beat dog from bowling and helping Marta
move stuff for six hours yesterday.
Ugh.
At least JoAnn asked Jodie if I could be on her team.
Thank God!
She and I are possibly the worst bowlers in the history of
Kenmore Fifty Lanes.
She started working at the Bothell Post Office in 1987 right
after I quit.
She is really good friends with JoAnn and carries mail with her up in
Mill Creek.
I got to see some of my old pals that I carried mail with in Bothell
from 1980 to 1987. Mary Constanza and Fernando and of course
Brooks and JoAnn.
I told Jodi I was very worried about JoAnn's run for Branch 79
Letter Carrier Union presidency over Rick Horner
and she said not to worry
that JoAnn the election in the bag.
That's what we thought last time and she lost by four votes
and had to go back to carrying mail after running the union for fourteen
years. She was so good at that job and when she gets a paper cut
she bleeds union blood.
I volunteered to call the 500 retirees but it is slow going
without the phone numbers. I have to go on the internet and
look up each name individually to get the numbers from
the reverse directory from the address.
So there weren't as many teams bowling this year and that made me sad.
Muscular Dystrophy is a terrible illness and usually people are
born with it and they don't ever get to walk.
The young gal the union sponsors was there in her wheelchair.
She is only about twenty and is in a wheelchair.
I hate that.
It is so unfair.
I just can't understand people having wasteful things like...
I don't know what.
But wasteful things of some sort
when there are awful things like muscular dystrophy and
cerebral palsy and ALS.
I'm not sure what ALS is but my pal Jenny Dwyer talks about it
and Jennifer Donahue works to cure pancreatic cancer.
That is terrible too.
Oh, sorry. I get sidetracked when I think about suffering
and don't know what to do.
I didn't even have money to pay my entry fee
but Jodi covered me. I told her I could
write her a post-dated check for my paycheck but she
didn't want me to.
Well, I am more inspired to get a job now than ever so
I can pay for Jodi's entry fee next year!
She is such a little pussycat.
The kind of person that if you got shipwrecked with
would say something like, "Wow, look at all the coconuts,
this will be so fun!"
I'm not even kidding Mr. Blog.
Jodi Olsen in one nice cookie.
And that little Mary Constanza!
She is such a firecracker.
She was having such a tough time raising those two kids
alone when I met her. Little Tony and Julie.
But what a marvelous job she did!
I think a lot about all the mail carriers.
They are out there year round in that brutal weather
with those awful supervisors needling them.
They are my heroes.
Every last one of them.
I couldn't do it.
The managers were so mean that I nearly had a
nervous breakdown working there.
Now the sisters that were on our team
were a hoot and a half.!
Donna D'Ambrosia was a shop steward with Terry
for awhile and then transferred to Mill Creek
and she and her sister Susie were so cute I couldn't
stand it.
How I longed to have a fun sister that
wanted to do things with me.
But I just pretended they were my sisters!
Jodi and I had really good games too!
I bowled 68 these first two and then 106!
I was so thrilled.
Plus, JoAnn's little sister Val was there.
She is probably one of the best people God made.
Val Pyle is just one of those people that after you
talk to them, you wish you could be half as quality of a person yourself.
She is a fancy-pants bowler too when she does this fancy foot
up in the air thing.
Mary has a wild fancy style too!
Very exciting to watch!
Oh, and Carlos' dad Gene came too!
He is really really good.
He has played on leagues for years and years.
Coby Jones showed up and I had met him last year
bowling. He is so funny and cheerful.
It got really fun as time progressed when people started shoving
cash in the neck collars every time anyone got a strike or a spare.
Mary did a really cute booty shake dance and had about
twenty dollars hanging off her back jeans' pockets!
We laughed and laughed and cheer each other on until we were hoarse
AND made another $50.00 for muscular dystrophy.
So that was fun.
I had dreaded it so much because I am a terrible bowler.
But you know what Mr. Blog?
I had one of the best times of my life.

11/3/2010 I Love Basketball!

*Walks in jauntily*
Good morning Mr. Blog.
I am thinking about basketball this morning.
I got e-mails from the kids' coaches that practices
are starting this week
so of course I'm excited thinking about the most
EXCITING SPORT IN THE WORLD.
I wanted to go see a Seattle Storm game so bad
in person but couldn't afford a ticket.
That made me so sad.
Must be nice to have a job and get to go to see
sports and concerts and stuff.
When I carried mail and was a flight attendant,
I went to stuff all the time.
It was awesome.
I wonder why I am being so stubborn about getting a job
related to my teaching degree anyway?
It's really not like me.
So back to basketball.
It is the perfect game.
I think I'll write a poem about it:

Watching Basketball

Running, shooting, feet of thunder
cheering crowds
go down under
finding joy and screaming loud
basketball
feel so proud.
Sons that run and shoot and pass
not like home
where I hear sass.
basketball

Well, time to dash off to Brookside
and earn some Christmas money!
Ciao!

11/2/2010 That Deformed Twix Bar Was the Best Thing I Ever Ate!

*Bounces in merrily and plops on couch.
Oh my goodness Mr. Blog!
My day kept getting better and better and better.
I'm surprised Holland America didn't call and hire me to
work the librarian position on the 14 day Hawaii loop that leaves Sunday!
After I left here I dashed down to rotate the wash and when
I looked in the machine I could see a mangled candy wrapper.
I fished it out and it was a slightly deformed mini TWIX!!!
This was the first time in FIFTY years that a piece of candy didn't
cross my lips on Halloween and I was feeling darn smug.
I had just finished my lasagna at noon and that
DEFORMED TWIX BAR WAS THE BEST THING I EVER ATE!
I ate it standing right there in my cold,
ugly but clean, utility room.
I ate it SO SLOWLY!
I used to think they were disgusting
like the candy plant was cheaping out
adding a wafer inside.
But not anymore!
The chocolate was of a high-tasting quality
and the wafer was delightful.
And it tasted really, really good!
You know, I think there might be a dash of caramel inside.
Patty called just then and wanted to go to Starbucks
and I told her two o'clock
and then ran like a madwoman upstairs
to do my Jane Fonda tape,
get my shopping list made
and then race to shower and dress.
I was so happy I didn't even care
that it was the ugliest day I ever saw!
I dropped off my prescription at my beloved Rite Aid
and dashed over to the Kenmore UPS store.
They have the cutest cards in the world right there!
Right in downtown next to my beloved Toshi's Teriyaki.
Did you know that the owner Kim was also born in 1956?
Her birthday is in July so that makes her three months older than me.
Little rascal.
And I mean little too!
I guess Korean people are pretty short.
She is so cute!
I had seen the great Halloween cards last week when I was in making
color copies of cub scout and carnival games
I had made for cruise ship applications.
I wanted super-cute special thank you cards for the ladies
that interviewed me for Norwegian Cruise line last week.
They aren't thank you cards but I wish I could show you one.
It's a picture of a ten year old witch girl from the back with
her hands on her hips in that sassy style girls get sometimes
and she is looking at a wall with eight different styled brooms and
inside it says, "Sometimes you just have to accessorize."
Man, if I had a job I would have so bought every single on of those
to mail to all my home girls.
Broke my heart that I could only buy two!
So after that I dashed in the rain to Kookmore Safeway
but only saw three kooks on the way.
That was disappointing
but, Safeway had everything I needed and
GUESS WHAT?!
My favorite checker Michelle said her brother works for
Holland America! AND...
HE IS WORKING THE WORLD CRUISE I WANTED TO WORK ON!
I couldn't believe it!
I cried and cried September 25th
when that ship left without me.
I had practiced Russian, Japanese and Chinese greetings too.
Her brother is a guitarist so that is what he gets to do.
Man, playing guitar on a cruise ship.
I'm so jealous I could just spit!
I'm writing him a letter with my phone number so when
he gets home I can buy him coffee and hear all about it!
I can't wait!
When I got home Patty pulled up and we went straight to Starbucks
and frolicked over our coffee for hours and hours.
We got armchairs next to the fireplace!
I know.
I told you it was my lucky day.
She has a JOB INTERVIEW tomorrow and I am so jealous.
I will put her on my prayer list when I get
down on my prayer bones in a few hours.
Her interview is at one tomorrow down at the Bellevue Macy's
so I'll pray then too.
You know I have seen a few miracles
and I really believe in divine intervention.
Well, I need to get back to mending Terry's favorite shirt.
You would not believe this nasty green rag of a tee-shirt in a million
years Mr. Blog!
And the smell!
Even after washing it makes my eyes water to work on it.
Thank God I have chronic sinusitis.
Besides the headaches behind my eyeballs
that make it feel like someone is stabbing me with an ice pick,
it is a really good thing!
Bye bye.