You want a little music?

Well, I had a very interesting day today.
I love my new car. I put the top down all the time and it is fun to drive.
But the CD player has been giving me fits.
While I was out today, I decided to mess with the buttons and it suddenly quit.
At least the sound quit.
I knew the CD was playing but there was no sound.
It drove me crazy all day.
I fussed with it. I fiddled with it.
No sound, no way.
Then I went to the feed store to get some Calf Manna for Persimmon.
To get there, I had to drive up their bumpy gravel drive.
And guess what??
I suddenly had SOUND.
(There must be a short somewhere....)

You want a little music?
Pardon me while I take this bumpy road!

So...what exactly does it mean to "suck the life"out of something?

Yeah, yeah I know this is a favorite expression that men use to describe their vindictive ex-wives or ex-girlfriends who refuse to be fun, adventurous or understanding. It's a guy thing.
But I am pretty sure I have a good understanding of the definition and if the phrase were in the dictionary, CrazyFriend's picture would be next to it.

She has been working overtime for the last few days at "sucking the life" out of everything and it is making me very stressed out and unhappy. I can understand what guys are talking about. Apparently, sucking the life" out of things is one of the few things she does well. Very well.

Usually, I would be very excited about an upcoming trip. I am very good at planning the logistics of a trip and I enjoy the planning almost as much the actual event. So I figured my trip to Florida next week to visit my golf buddy would be fun. I've never been to Florida and I've been looking forward to going there, as well as seeing my golf buddy. But apparently, I have made a few mistakes along the way and right now, I don't even want to go. I think that CrazyFriend has "sucked the life" out of this little 4 day adventure.

I asked her to go with me for two reasons. One was to have some company on the 6 hour drive, and the second was to get her to share expenses with me and basically, cut the cost of the trip in half. Fairly good reasons, right? Okay.

Everything went to hell in a hand basket. CrazyFriend invited Cousin Sally to come along (with out my knowledge_) Now don't get me wrong. I LIKE Cousin Sally... I like her alot (I like her better than CrazyFriend, actually..she is fun and smart and SANE). But the problem was having 3 people going totally changed the logistics of the trip. Totally. We would have to take a different vehicle, we would have to change how we split the finances and we would have to change the accommodations.

Everything changed. But CrazyFriend decided (on her own) that this would be a good opportunity for Cousin Sally to "get away for a little while because it would do her good". Okay. And Cousin Sally called me saying she would be glad to come along and it would be a nice trip.....what was I supposed to say???? (No..I really wanted you to go to Las Vegas with me in December but whatever...." I explained to her the purpose of the trip so there wouldn't be any surprises. "No we are NOT going to the beach or to DisneyWorld or the Kennedy Space Center. We are going to cheer up a very sad and lonely 70 year old lady...)

Then we started looking at hotels in the area, that's when the "life-sucking" really started. I have trouble sleeping. I am up at 2 or 3 in the morning, I watch TV, I will read a little, I will have a snack and I am pretty much up most of the night. CrazyFriend KNOWS this and I have traveled with her so she is well aware of my nocturnal habits. Well, she chose yesterday to start whining about it in her )nails-on-a-blackboard" tone and I was ready to call off the whole trip. She wanted me to get a suite for the three of us. Two beds and a sleeper sofa.That might have been okay for one night. Three nights? No way. And she started with her self=righteous whining. "You are just going to have to figure out a way to sleep. You don't have to turn on the 'idiot-box' (that's her favorite expression when she hates the TV). you can play on your computer (I HATE when she says "play on the computer......" You're the one with the problem. We are fine with it. You're the only one with a problem sharing a room......"

Well, dammit, yes I AM the one with the problem sharing a room and I am NOT going to listen to you bitch when I want to turn on the TV or read my book or take a shower.. Damn I was angry and exhausted and ready to just give up on the whole thing. I think the life had been sucked out of it. SO after an exhausting search on Priceline and every hotel web site and calling locally, I just said. "Look we are getting TWO rooms. Period." She was mad that I wanted to do that. Too bad CrazyFriend. And I booked two rooms at a cheap place rather that the one at a really nice place on the beach that I would have had if the two of us had gone. It is a cheap place but it kept the cost down and I just don't think I want to spend a whole lot of money of this trip. It was getting stupider and stupider.

By the time CrazyFriend left here yesterday (and I had to railroad her out of here, she didn't want to leave and go home to her freeloading boy friend) I was exhausted, unhappy and I had a migraine that I still had this morning when I woke up. I do not feel good about this trip. Usually when I plan a trip, I have the logistics down perfectly. I know where I am going and when and I even know what I am going to wear and where I am going to eat. I feel like I have lost control of this whole thing and I wish I hadn't even asked CrazyFriend to go or have any part in it in the first place.

But I have learned the meaning of "She sucks the life out of everything she touches.."
Look it up in the dictionary.
CrazyFriend's picture will be right there.

If you say "You guys..." one more time.

Well, I had been looking forward to yesterday for a while and it turned out to be a bit of a bust.

I had planned on taking my friend who also broke her ankle out for a nice drive and lunch somewhere in town but the day started out badly and finished up on a negative note too so it was a no-win situation the entire way around.

The tone for the day was set when my friend had been abandoned at the doctor's office by her step-daughter who known for her lack of judgement on occasion. It was a bit of an unfortunate mix-up and the tension between them was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The day did NOT start on a good note.

And my stomach was still soooo upset from my chicken salad escapades the day before I could hardly stand it. I had gone through Alka-Seltzer and it was so bad I even resorted to Pepto-Bismol (ugh you KNOW it was bad if I went that far...)

We ran a few simple errands and then headed for what I thought was going to be a lovely lunch at a high-end place called Miyo's/ Fancy asian food and it is usually very good and a nice treat.

Unfortunately, with my broken stomach and our useless moron of a waiter and the food being only fair (which is most unusual) lunch was a disaster.

NOTE TO ANYONE WHO IS WAITSTAFF:

If you are in a high-end restaurant and your customers are two women who are both old enough to be your mother DO NOT>>>I repeat DO NOT address them at anytime during the meal as "You guys..." ("Can I get you guys anything else?")
If at anytime you do that to me YOU CAN FORGET ANY KIND OF A TIP. Period.
If you disappear for long periods of time and do not check on me....even worse.
If you give me ice tea WITH NO ICE IN THE GLASS...Forget it.
If my food is not prepared the way I asked for it....it may not be your fault but too bad. I'm blaming you anyway.

That's exactly what went on yesterday.

If I am at a college bar in the university district having a hamburger and french fries, I don't mind (You guys"_). If I am at a nice place paying $12 for lunch, I expect "Ladies" or Ma'am" at the least.



So anyway.......Yesterday was a bit of a disaster all the way around. Plus my friend in Florida called and she is so anxious for me to come and visit her. I am going to try and go on either the 11th or the 18th of this month and visit with her for a couple of days. That's another unfortunate situation all the way around. Jeeeezzz Sometimes life just sucks.



Okay enough ranting and pointless rambling.

Yesterday sucked.

Hopefully today will be a better day.

The Quest for Chicken Salad

Okay,,,,

Here's the deal. It's been an interesting week. Our broadband modem died and the computers have been down for about 4 days. Hubby was having withdrawl symptoms. I didn't really care that much. I figured it'd be back up when it came back up.

I was supposed to go to the Dog Agility Trials held here last Friday. I completely lost interest in going and I begged off so I wound up going to a funeral instead.
And the funeral wasn't really all that bad.
Going gave me the chance to take my new car on a little road trip, which I have been wanting to do before I go to Florida in a couple of weeks. It was a very easy, pleasant 80 mile drive on a lovely flat, straight interstate. Once we got there, the funeral service was thankfully short and sweet and we (I went with Crazyfriend) got out. We chose not to go to the graveside service (I don't mind the church service but I draw the line at the graveside stuff). And we went to a really neat place. I loved it (although I won't tell Crazyfriend that). It was a funky little place called "Bac-In-Time";. It's an old house that has been made into a Christian coffee house, local art gallery and restaurant. The place is just lovely, beautifully furnished. The owner was a little too talkative (I really didn't want to know her life story) .And I could have done without all the local renditions of "Laughing Jesus" It was really funky and fun. They had absolutely yummy chicken salad which led to my chicken salad quest today.

I got to thinking about it and I could only think of one place around here where you can get a really good chicken salad sandwich. We used to go there a lot (it too is a funky, artsy local place) but they raised their prices so much that it's not worth going there anymore.
So I set off to find chicken salad.
One place I knew I could get good chicken salad was a local college bar called Salty's.
That's where I went to lunch. They have a very tasty chicken salad plate (I know, it's technically not a chicken salad sandwich but it was chicken salad....). And it's only $4.79. That was what I had and I enjoyed it very much.
But then I got to wondering if I could find better chicken salad.

I went to a place called The Fresh Market. High end, expensive gourmet market. They have a variety of chicken salads. I chose the rotisserie chicken salad. I brought it home and made myself a chicken salad sandwich with white bread, a very fresh tomato and Miracle Whip. I even bought the same gourmet chips that they served at the "Bac-In_Time" place. I had it for "dinner" which kinda broke my stomach because I don't usually eat dinner. But was it better than the "Bac-In_Time" or Salty's??? Not really. If I want to drive 80 miles, I would have to go back to "Bac-In_Time". If I want to stay here I would have to go to Salty's

So now, my stomach is broken, I need an Alka-Seltzer and I'm just not sure if we have any really good chicken salad around here.

This lottery ticket is defective, I want my $5 back.

Okay...yesterday I did something I rarely do anymore. I spent $5 on a single lottery ticket. I found a new game on our state's lottery website and I thought okay, what the heck. I have an extra $5 and the odds seemed pretty good. You get 18 numbers and out of those 18 you only have to hit 4 to get back $7. The odds of that were 1:11. So I thought okay. for $5, I will give it a try. Once.
Well, much to my great disappointment, when I checked the numbers this morning, not only did I not win anything....I did not hit a single number out of the 18. And to make matters even worse....there was a string of 4 numbers that were all exactly ONE NUMBER OFF from the ones I had.
That seems rather unfair. What I think is that there should be some kind of a default win....if you hit zero numbers out of all those possibilities, you should get $3 back.

Maybe then I would be willing to try again.

Do not mess with my driver's license.

For a long time, I couldn't understand why "older" people got so twitchy about their driver's licenses.
I know all the explanations....it's your freedom, your independence. And you don't want to lose that.
But it really hit home these past two weeks when I suddenly realized that I was one of those "older" people and I was the one getting twitchy about my driver's license.
Next month is my birthday and I didn't even realize that my license would be expiring until I got a notice from the DMV telling me that I had to renew. At first, I was greatly relieved when I thought I could just fill out a form and send in a check and get a new license. I didn't even have to fill out the side of the form that required an eye doctor's report because I am not 62 years of age.
So after putting it off for a week or so, I filled out the form, sent in the check and waited.
And waited. And waited some more.
No sign of my new driver's license and I was getting twitchy. Worried. Concerned.
Then I finally got a letter from the DMV. I said to my husband "Oh good this must be my new license". But when I opened the letter, I only found my check and application had been returned with a very official letter from the friendly folks at the DMV telling me that I had to come in to renew my license.
Arrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh!!! Panic. Worry. Hand-wringing. Twitchy. Concern.
What was I going to do??? Would I pass the eye test? Would I get my new license??
I had to show up in person at the dreaded DMV.
So yesterday, I mustered up my courage, took the Jeep and headed for our little local DMV. I went there because it is a very small office, as opposed to the big ones downtown.
It is usually not very busy.
I got there in the Jeep (i love the Jeep) and I went inside.
And I asked the lady at the help desk what I needed to do.
And what a remarkable surprise.
The place was not at all busy. And the help lady was so polite and kind.
I only had to give her money ($25 to be exact) and I didn't even have to fill out any more forms. She just used the form they had returned to me.
She then proceeded to give me the eye "test" which took about 15 seconds and consisted of me reading one line of numbers that were about the size of a billboard (3 5 9 4 5 2 3 8 7 5 1).
After she was finished she gave me a little paper number (E402) and told me to sit down and wait until my number was called.
Well, since there was only one young woman sitting in the waiting area I figured that probably wouldn't be too long. And I was right. I just had a second to sit down before they called 'Now serving E402." and I went right up to the nice lady at the driver's license exam window,
She too was sweet and kind and very helpful. It took about five minutes to sign all the papers and get my receipts. She took a new picture for my new license. Now instead of looking like a surly biker chick, I look like I just got out of bed and my hair is standing straight up.
And after waiting just a couple if minutes more, the nice examiner lady presented me with my shiny new driver's license. All official and all renewed. I was in and out of the DMV in about 15 minutes and everyone I spoke to was kind, polite and helpful.
And my new license good for 10 years!
That's right. 10 years for coming in as opposed to 5 years for renewing it online.
That means I won't have to do this until I am 70 years old and I will probably be dead by then so I won't have to worry about it.
10 years. Woooo hooooo!
And y'know what's funny?
My motorcycle designation transferred right along with my renewal so I can legally drive a motorcycle in the state of South Carolina until I am 70 years old.
I was so relieved.
I got my new license and I am not feeling at all twitchy anymore.
Yay.

Keepin' The Jeep......

Okay...here's the deal.
This has been a VERY difficult few days.
I know I don't deserve any of this and I probably have the most generous and patient husband on the planet (PLEASE don't tell him I said that.)
Since I broke my ankle I have been going stir crazy,
I can't stand being at home and I NEED to be mobile.
Well, after sitting here on the computer for 6 weeks with my leg in a cast, I convinced myself that I needed a new, comfortable car with air conditioning and an automatic transmission that I could drive NOW.
I thought I was over the Jeep.
So I surfed and I surfed and I found a beautiful 2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible.
And to make a long story short, hubby bought it for me last Thursday.
It is a gorgeous car.
It drives so smooth and it's so quiet and comfortable.
It's grey with a black top and black interior.
So hubby bought it for me with the understanding that we would do some minor repairs on the Jeep (which I dearly love) and then start trying to sell it.
Surprise surprise.
I had NO idea how much I loved that stupid Jeep and I just could not bear the idea of parting with it,
It has so much character and it is so much fun.
And it is MINE.
All Jeeps are very individual.
There are no two alike,
And to be honest, I cried when I thought of have to sell it.
I couldn't sleep.
I couldn't think of anything else but that Jeep.
It is 17 years old, I've had it for 7 tears, it has 170,000 miles on it and it is still running strong.
It is basically irreplaceable.

Well, after two days of crying (I am NOT a person who cries about anything, even when the dog dies...) and not being able to sleep of think of anything else, last night at 11:30 when hubby kept saying to me 'Are you alright? You look exhausted? What is wrong?" I finally broke down and told him. I didn't have any choice.

I LOVE the new car. It is absolutely beautiful.
But I cannot sell the Jeep.
So we came to an agreement.
I would take over responsibility for the Jeep (gas, oil changes, tags, insurance) and I could keep it.
We'd put the minimal liability insurance on it and I could drive it once a week or so,
And I would have the gorgeous convertible for my primary vehicle.
That is MORE that fair and more than I deserve.
But I love my Jeep and now it doesn't have to go away to a stranger.
I won't have to take down my Xena pictures my Xena quotes and the cryptic bumper stickers won't have to be scraped off. I won't have to clean it out.
The Jeep is staying home with me.