The Thoughts and Sarcastic Observations of a Starbucks Addict

Love it!!!!

2011-09-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday Morning

2010-10-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

French Tips, Drainage Bags and Testicles

2010-07-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve never had a good experience when getting my nails done. The first time I got my nails done I was a complete novice to the process and just my luck I ended up with the Nail Nazi taking care of me. He berated me for chewing my own natural nails down to nubs because he had hardly anything to work with and he also got frustrated with me when he was telling me something and I replied with “what?” or didn’t do what he commanded immediately. How was I supposed to know “You go wah han na” meant “You go wash hands now”? On top of the fact that he was speaking so fast and obviously mad at me it was a very frustrating experience. I then trained myself to listen very carefully and after learning the general process I could usually decipher what they were saying during future appointments. I had not had my nails done in several years when I passed by a nail salon on Saturday that was offering a full set of acrylics for $15. I’m a sucker for a bargain and decided I should devote a little time to myself and at that price I deserved to. I walked in to what I expected to be a full salon and found much to my surprise no one was there. This should have been my first clue. A short guy comes out of the back, introduces himself as Ping, and motions to a seat. After we get through the basic chat detailing what I want he gets to work. He starts talking to me through the mask that they wear. I think this muffling makes an already hard to understand dialect even harder to understand. I really just wanted to relax and not talk. Americans can pick up on the subtle cues that I don’t want to talk to them which I try to project 24/7. The Vietnamese apparently do not. He goes through asking me a million questions I can barely understand in between talking to his brother who is sitting next to him in his native tongue about me and giggling. Ping is done with my first hand and is getting starting on the second when another customer comes in. She is apparently well known to the establishment since they call her by name. Linda (at least I think that was her name, the pronunciation I heard was Lina or Wina, I couldn’t be sure) sat down beside me and Ping’s brother promptly started working on her. I noticed a smell coming from this woman but being she was extremely overweight I assumed it was weird body odor. I then began to drift off in my mind and try to tune everything out (Ping was now carrying on a conversation with his brother and Linda) when I was promptly pulled out of my attempt at a day dream by the brother. He was asking Linda what the tubing was hanging from her shirt. I had not noticed this when she walked in. She then lifted her shirt and showed him that she had a drain coming out of her stomach from a surgery that she recently had where the incision got a massive infection and she now had to have this drain for a few days to get the pus out. I kid you not, a drain bag complete with a bit of orange tinged liquid at the bottom. At least the origin of the weird smell was no longer a mystery. After she explained all of this Ping asked her why she wasn’t home in bed since she had the drain and she responded that she needed to get her nails done for her date. Now exactly what kind of date do you have that is so important you have to show up with a drainage bag connected to your stomach? The act of getting perfect French tips for the date in the first place seems kind of trivial when you have A FREAKING DRAIN ATTACHED TO YOUR BELLY! Although acrylic nails can be quite beautiful I don’t think their beauty is quite enough to make someone not notice a drainage bag hanging from you. Imagine that conversation. “Why what interesting perfume you have on Linda. What is it called?” “Oh honey that’s not my perfume that’s the puss from my drainage bag. Are you ready to order our food yet?” Apparently Ping and his brother did not seem to notice the socially unacceptable practice of showing up for a date with a drainage bag attached. They kept talking and laughing. I must have tuned out while pondering Linda’s date rationale because I was pulled back into the conversation by Ping snapping his fingers at me. He wanted to know if I knew the English word for that thing that hangs down between a man’s legs. I stared at him for a few seconds and then said “testicles”. Then he was all excited that I had given him the right word. He then said “testicles, that what I meant, dog testicles” to Linda and his brother. In Ping’s home county they castrate their dogs by placing a rubber band around their testicles and waiting for them to fall off. How they got on this particular subject I do not know. I began to think that perhaps I was in a really bad dream or I’d been killed in a car accident earlier in the day and I was on the first level of Dante’s Inferno. Ping finally finished with me, I paid and wished Linda good luck on her date, got in my Jeep and left skid marks in the parking lot. As I was peeling out of there I noticed letters on the roof that said Bargain Nail. Not plural, just one nail. Maybe they had an “S” before but a rival nail salon placed a rubber band around it.

Flooding at Gaylord

2010-05-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend Nashville had devastating floods that ripped through and destroyed many landmarks and tourist attraction in addition to taking lives. These are some pictures of the flood damage to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and mall.

2010-04-01T03:20:00.000-07:00

Weekend is almost over :-(

2010-03-07T15:07:00.001-08:00

Why?

2010-03-04T05:53:00.000-08:00

Elin Nordegren is planning to return home. Sources say that this is strictly going to be a platonic partnership, she is doing it for their children and for his sponsors. Apparently they are more likely to take him back if the family unit appears to be intact because that's what the American people like to see. Personally, I think the guy is a jerk for having as many, many, many, many, less than desirable partners that he had as side dishes for the past few years, but I liked him because of his skills on the green, not his devotion to his wife. Yeah it sucks that the guy is an ass but he is one hell of a golfer. I don't understand why his handlers think it would be better for him to put on a farce to satisfy everybody. Sure the image of them staying intact may provide comfort and solace to those who are really heartbroken by his family man image being tarnished but I think I would take more comfort in a strong woman walking away. Irregardless of what happens, I will still watch Tiger play.

............

2010-02-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

I’ve been noticeably absent from my blogging over the past few months as you have probably noticed. I don’t really have a valid excuse for this, other than being busy with life. I have worked on becoming more domesticated and have even volunteered to become my son’s room mother at his school. My first official all totally planned by me party will be next Friday for their Valentine’s party. This was a task I kind of stumbled into, since no one else volunteered to be the room mother I offered to do so. This probably isn’t the best thing for me or the students since I am so neurotic and I want everything to be absolutely perfect and the potential to have everything perfect in a room full of partying children is unlikely. It was a challenge for me just to even ask the other mothers to bring supplies because I wanted everything to color coordinate and be from the same brand. However, I remembered my son’s teacher specifically requested a room mother, not a room Nazi, so total domination of the first grade fiesta is not mine to be had. My political observations have been miniscule as I haven’t been keeping up with anything over the past few months but I have renewed my subscription to Time so it should only be a matter of weeks before I am back in my element with that. Last week we had the blizzard from hell and I had a case of pneumonia from hell so it was not fun. We had so much snow that I had to drive my Jeep around in the yard to make tracks in the snow that would be deep enough to allow my small dog to walk out and pee. That was one benefit to having an illness during the blizzard, my high fever made me feel warm and insulated in the arctic tundra of my front yard.

More Old Louisville

2009-10-04T04:32:00.000-07:00

Old Louisville

2009-10-04T04:16:00.000-07:00

I went to the St. James Art Festival this weekend in Louisville, KY. I am so glad that I did because I got to see some absolutely breathtaking architecture. I love restored old buildings!

Pondering the existence of a "soul mate"

2009-09-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

I wonder if people really do have a soul mate. That one person that will compliment your life in ways you never anticipated it being complimented. I’ve never felt like I have met someone who could fit that bill for me and I don’t think I’m the only person who hasn’t. Sure I’ve been in love before but the whole time I knew that they were not who I considered to be my Prince Charming. Never a love so strong I felt as if I would take a bullet for them, that if they were gone from my life I would stop breathing. Some people never meet that one person they completely mesh with. They may marry and grow old with someone and they may in fact love them but they essentially just settled, holding true to the engrained belief that truly meeting the love of your life and having them captivate your heart is the stuff of fairy tales. Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn’t. Personally I’ve never met anyone that took my breath away the instant I first saw them, knowing from the moment that I locked eyes with them from across a crowded room that this was it. I have never felt like I was missing anything because of this and I’ve never felt particularly envious of those that had experienced those feelings. Honestly I have only crossed paths with a few people who have experienced this. The majority met their spouses in high school or college then went through the motions expected of marriage and children, watching them grow and leave the nest and then diligently watching their 401k until retirement. My older friends are currently at the retirement phase, my young friends are at the beginning of the journey but it’s essentially going to be the same resolution at the end. This doesn’t seem like living life to the fullest. I think that I would rather have just one day with someone that gave me the feelings described above; realizing that they were the one and no one would ever touch my life in that way again. Even if it was just for that one day, it would be better than spending a lifetime going through the motions expected by society with someone that may love me more than anything but they just aren’t that magic piece of the puzzle that is my life.

And along came a spider......

2009-09-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

An unfriendly looking cloud

2009-09-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

View from my favorite park

2009-08-25T03:17:00.000-07:00

Saturday August 22, 2009

2009-08-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

The weather was absolutely perfect yesterday! The temperature was in the seventies and the breeze was blowing just right. I stayed outside for five hours taking pictures around my house and reading my book, which I've almost finished now and I love it!

More of downtown Nashville

2009-08-22T02:09:00.000-07:00

Starting out with Roland

2009-08-21T00:14:00.000-07:00

I am a huge Stephen King fan. Huge doesn’t even begin to describe it. I would go so far as to say that I’m his number one fan if I didn’t think it would conjure up the vision of me as an overweight nurse who collects ceramics and the occasional injured writer in the minds those of you who actually read my blog. I have read most all of his books. I could even tell you the differences in his writing before his accident and his writing after if you were so inclined to listen. Some of his books I’ve even reread. I have an original The Shining hardcover first edition from that I can easily say is one of my most treasured collector’s items. He is really the only fiction reader I enjoy reading, any other books I read are usually non fiction since I’m a major knowledge junkie. There has only been one thing he’s written that I never even bothered trying to read, The Dark Tower series. It just never appealed to me. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t bring myself to start it, perhaps knowing it was an epic and realizing I’d have to wait for the next one to come out which with my patience level is not a good thing. I’m so bad about not wanting to wait for the conclusion to anything, books or television shows that since the days of TiVo I simply record the season finale of my favorite shows and wait to watch it until the next season’s first episode is released so I get to see the resolution to any plot mysteries that crept up in the prior episode. On top of hearing that the story was told against a mystic, western background I just didn’t really want to even try to read it. However, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a story that was in a collection of short stories, one of the better collections of his short stories in my opinion, Everything’s Eventual, called the Little Sisters of Eluria. I read the foreword to it that it was part of the Dark Tower series. I read it simply because it was just another story in the book, after finishing it though I was thoroughly impressed and couldn’t believe what I had been avoiding all of these years. I was rather embarrassed that I had the audacity to say that I was a huge Stephen King fan when I hadn’t even bothered a glance at his epic saga. Perhaps it was meant to be that I wouldn’t stumble across it until this late date, because he did not finish the series until after his accident and I would have worked my self into an aneurysm or stroke waiting for the saga to conclude. I shall start the saga today and I have purchased all of the books from beginning to end so I won’t have to make an interruption between books to drive to the bookstore. I don't think I will be disappointed.

Downtown Nashville

2009-08-18T12:46:00.000-07:00

View from pedestrian bridge

It's just around the corner......

2009-08-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

I can’t wait for the season to change. Fall will not get here soon enough. My absolute favorite time of year is from mid Sept through early November. If I could pick any month to stay in forever it would be October, and not just because my birthday is on Halloween. The weather is perfect, the leaves are changing, and there is nothing I love better than sitting on my deck, reading a book while an autumn breeze blows against my skin.

The little things

2009-08-17T03:06:00.000-07:00

Everybody has different preferences, and many are so engrained in our senses we won’t have it any other way. There are cat people or dog people; those who either prefer a White Castle burger or a Krystal, coffee with cream or no cream. I don’t really think these things are major issues, they can just pose a minor annoyance, especially when you are in a relationship with someone who has preferences opposite to what you do. They say opposites attract, which is true, but little annoyances such as these can eat away at the fabric of a relationship after several years go by if the foundation is not very secure in the first place. My ex was a White Castle eating dog lover who drank his coffee black, I am a Krystal eating cat lover who prefers my coffee with so much creamer in it that it looks like milk. At first these things weren’t a big deal, but as the relationship deteriorated they became big annoyances, just contributing to the underlying current of hatred that was brewing, just more lava building up under the surface for when the volcano finally erupted. I have a friend whose marriage is now ending, and the little differences such as these have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Arguments over where to eat, fighting over a pet, etc. have been impossible to overlook for them although at one time they were. Even though the relationship started to turn bitter long before, these things have just contributed to the demise of it that much sooner. The little things really do factor in to the big picture.

Fluorescent, not sparkling....

2009-08-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

It’s been quite awhile since I last blogged. I don’t really have a good reason why. I’m still following politics and the news just as intently as ever, just haven’t been much up to putting my two cents in about it all. Sarah Palin walked away from her post, not really walking away from a life of politics but instead to focus all of her energy on attaining a much higher political position a few years from now. I don’t think she’s going to be a shrinking violet fading back into a life of domesticity. Michael Jackson died. To say that was a big event would be an understatement. I can’t even think of a word to describe it. From his mock marriage to Debbie Rowe to the scary dermatologist that I wouldn’t even let close enough to me to remove a skin tag the whole situation is so crazy that it seems like it can’t be reality, yet it is. I’ve had a lot of projects that I’ve been working on this summer, some I’ve grown quite accustomed to (gardening) and some that are new (making jewelry and sewing). This has kept my attention pretty focused. I’ve also spent as much time as possible outdoors, in the hopes of becoming perhaps a darker shade, one resembling the tint of an actual human instead of a corpse, which just resulted in going from a shade of white to off white and developing a spitz nevus on my shoulder that I have to get surgically removed. I don’t know why I’ve been stuck with such pale skin. When Twilight came out and the actors in it were so pale I thought maybe the pasty white look would be trendy but I soon came to the realization that if sparkling in sunlight doesn’t accompany it then it isn’t that impressive. Sigh.

Greetings from Jurassic Park

2009-05-05T03:23:00.000-07:00

2009-04-08T00:09:00.000-07:00

On the way to Louisville, KY 4/7/09

Twitter me

2009-04-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

I’ve always thought of myself as a “cool” parent. I’ve always been into the latest cutting edge gizmos and gadgets, a member of every well known social networking site there is. I blog, I post pics, I comment, these things I considered to bring myself into the official description of a “cool” parent. Then along came Twitter, which promptly burst my bubble. At first I didn’t get it, and then when I finally did get it I saw no point to it. All Twitter has done for me is point out how old I’ve become when I was perfectly content thinking I hadn’t reached the point in my life where I am now if that makes any sense. My moods go from either melancholy or manic euphoria that will quickly dissipate within a few minutes so this really wouldn’t make for lively status updates via Twitter, my dating days are over, when I’m out doing something mildly entertaining I have a kid’s hand in one hand and sani wipes in the other which makes for difficult texting to update my Twitter and who would want to follow that anyway? My only options at followers would be either really young or really old and rich with time on their hands because the people in my age group that I would be mildly interested in keeping up with also have their hands full with child rearing or careers. Twitter brought me to the self realization that I have reached the point that I insisted I would never get to in my life, the point where I was officially internally to old for something “cool”, although my daughter has been trying to convince me for years.

Big Gasp!

2009-03-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

Alfie is not the father. I didn't see that one coming. Of course the identity of the baby's father is unknown now. Buses will be provided to transport all of her male classmates, any vagrants or travelers that were passing through her area at the time of conception, and any other male that may have entered Chantelle during this period to a clinic for DNA testing.