Life's a Beach

I sure don’t like it when the air is dry. I miss having soft feet all year ’round. Now I need to do more than just exfoliate. Sometimes I use a razor blade to get the thick skin off. It’s disgusting. Thankfully they’re not like that all the time. But more than I’d like them to be.

This is the first year that my daughter has been using more lotion than ever. She loves lotion anyway and uses it all year, but this winter she’s been itching a lot on her arms and legs. I think it could be the cheap body wash I got at a discount store. Or maybe it’s the laundry soap. I told her this, but she just bought some lotion for extra dry skin and I haven’t seen her itching nor has she been complaining about it.

Last week I called maintenance the morning to have someone come over to light the pilot light in my furnace. By 3:00 I began to wonder if he was going to make it over. My intuition told me that mine wasn’t the only furnace that he was fixing that day. He confirmed it when he told me that his boss had called him about mine while he was busy working on the other furnaces. He was upset because he said his boss wasn’t doing anything at the time and could have come over himself. It was almost quitting time when he got here, but at least he got the pilot light lit.

There was somethng wrong with the motor, too, but he told me he’d have to come back the next day. He came back with a filter for the furnace and said that he had been told to not worry about the motor unless it stopped working. I was hoping it could be fixed, that it would stop trying to start and stop (loudly) two or three times. But I didn’t let that bother me. It was warm in the house again. That’s what mattered.

Because of how dry my daughter’s skin has been and how dry mine can get some years (cracking and bleeding hands and fingers), I sometines wish they had a humidfier installed and that they would supply a humidifier filter like they do the furnace filter. But again, I’m grateful for the heat. It can get pretty dang cold in the house in the winter.

I’m also grateful for having a roof over my head. Not everyone is that fortunate. Wanna help? JustGive, a nonprofit organization which is registered in California, hey, just where I want to go, lists 35 ways to help the homeless.

I would never want to be a body builder. No offense meant to women body builders. I mean, if that’s what you want to do, go for it. But for me, I wouldn’t want a lot of muscles on a woman. I do miss what I had when I was in the army.

I don’t want to have a bunch of veins popping out of my arms and legs. I don’t really like the few spider veins on my legs, but, what can I do? I don’t my face looking like I’m a man. I’m all woman, thank you very much. This includes having breasts that are not smaller than my muscles.

Do you think these strange species have been dosing up on the best muscle building supplement in town?

I’m sure this guy was once a cute little puppy. I wouldn’t want to go near him now. I sure hope it’s a male.

Get more Funny Pictures and MySpace 2.0 Layouts

The dog scares me more this beast.

Photo by Hussain Khorsheed

I sure would like to be where he is at Christmas time.

Photo by albany_tim

I was going through my archives and came upon this blog post from July 23, 2008. You know what? Time can really seem to get away with you if you let it. It doesn’t seem like it was 2008 when I had sinusitis. It really does feel like it was last year. And more like three months rather than six months since February.

My daughter is always saying how she doesn’t remember a few days ago or even just the day before. She says it’s because she doesn’t do anything. That may be true. I don’t know. I’d think that a person would remember what happened the day before when it’s pretty much the same thing every day. I guess she doesn’t have any recent memories that are memorable to her. And most the ones she has makes her sad.

I don’t know what to do for her right now. I’m here, too. Not making memories that are memorble for myself. But I’m OK with it because I know it’s not always going to be like this. If I knew of a way, we would be on our way to California right now. Even with the weather the way it is. I would make sure to go somewhere that is void of mudslides, though. What a mess, huh?

I’ve asked her about Orlando vacations, but she has never been interested in going. So, if I ever decide to go, I don’t think we will be making that trip together. She could change her mind, of course. And I hope she would.

I used to see this really gross flash game on different web sites. You know the one. Where you help this guy with extremely bad acne pop his zits? I’ll admit I’ve played it. But only to get a laugh out of myself and then my daughter. I didn’t do it for long, though because it was so disgusting. Funny though.

I only knew of one game but I just googled “zit game” and there’s over 4,400,000 results. I wonder if the people who creating them were cracking up as they did.

For many it’s no laughing matter. They need severe acne treatment, although…

I’ve read vegetarian and vegan blogs that talk about how the people have seen a difference in their skin since they stopped eating certain foods like sugar, meat, and dairy products. Specifically it’s clearer and it glows. So now I wonder. Here’s someone else’s take on it.

I don’t know. I also heard that stress can be another cause of acne. Maybe if people would, along with eating healthfully, exercise, which reduces stress and laugh at themselves more and not get stressed out, it would help their complexion. After all, laughter is the best medicine. It’s also another stress reducer.

If you don’t want puffy eyes, make sure to get enough sleep. I won’t say don’t cry too much because I think crying is very cleansing to the soul. And holding back tears can cause stress which can also cause puffy eyes. At least that has happened to me those few times when I was told not to get too emotional and so I didn’t cry until me and that person weren’t together.

I’ve heard from as long as I can remember that one remedy for getting rid of puffy eyes is using hemorrhoid cream. When I haven’t gotten enough sleep and when I have cried so much that the puffiness shows up, I’ve thought about trying that method, but what stopped me was I didn’t have any and I wasn’t going to buy some just for that reason.

I won’t say there has never been a time when I didn’t need hemorrhoid relief, but it hasn’t been bad enough for me to go out and spend the money on something that would sit in the linen closet where I also keep some of my medicine.

Hoping to find a photo with the appropriate expression on someone’s face, I googled “hemorrhoid face”. Oh well, I didn’t find one, but I just read an answer to a question about this subject on The Straight Dope that gives a good enough reason for me to not want to put hemorrhoid cream anywhee near my face.

The first time I saw STOMP perform on television, I first thought that it was weird for people to be banging on garbage cans and using the lids as symbols and I think they had a stainless steel drum or, two, didn’t they? Well, whatever they use, it’s working because after all these years, they are still performing.

You know how little kids like to bang on pots and pans. Maybe that’s where they got some of their inspiration. I think rather than just guessing, I’m going to read up on these creative beings who are also helping to stomp out litter in New York City.

This just reminded me of a couple stories about the walks me and my daughter took this past spring and summer that I’m going to share.

I would like to believe that I will be able to live in this house for at least five more years so that I can save more money. But, my daughter is going to be 18 this October, which she seems to have mixed feelings about. On one hand she doesn’t want to grow up because it means more responsibility which, like many of us, weren’t ready. Some of us still aren’t.

Knowing from the beginning that I wouldn’t be living here for a long time and since I never had much money, I decided not to buy anything that I knew I could do without. There were already shades on the windows, for instance. I liked the window blinds that were in one of the foster homes that I lived in. And at one time I thought about getting some. But I never did. I don’t have any regrets about it, though. I’ve been happy with the shades. I have never put much emphasis on decorating.

That reminds me. I haven’t yet visualized what I want my new home in California to look like. Right now I’ve got myself sitting on the sand listening to the ocean and writing about it on my laptop. Heh. I certainly can’t live out there all the time, now, can I? That’s my outside sanctuary. I want one for inside, too, So I can slip under the covers in my cozy bed.

I did a lot of web surfing today, looking for inspiration for blog posts and just some play ‘ol inspiration to try to wake up my sleeping muse. Not this muse. My inner muse. The one who is supposed to be with me all the time.

What I wasn’t looking for was anything that had to do with guerilla art. And yet there it was. Nor was I looking for anything about guerilla marketing. And yet, I did anyway. Synchronistically, of course. I went from reading about creativity and inspiration to guerilla marketing which is often crazy and extreme advertising. And very creative. It makes life at work more fun, doesn’ it?

But I don’t think I’d feel very comfortable going through a tunnel like this.

Although I know it’s only a picture and it’s for advertsing purposes, still…I’d get a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. Now, if it were a picture of a guy, on the other hand…maybe…just maybe I’d get a different feeling…

It’s fun to be on a road trip and to see funny signs along the way. I don’t remember the last time I did this, but I remember laughing at the few that I did see. I know I would have cracked up if I would have seen any exit signs like this one.

Photo by comedy_nose

I’ve never been much into fashion. Never one to feel the need to buy what’s “in style”. Fads don’t phase me. Until Christmas this past year, had one pair of pants for about three or four years. Before that I had two pairs of black jeans that got ripped because of my big thighs.

My daughter bought me two pairs of pants for Christmas. She didn’t have to buy me anything, but it felt good for her to do it. We went to the store together because she wanted me to pick out what I wanted. I made sure that they didn”t cost much. $5-6 dollars. A pair of sweats and the pair are like seats only thinner. Sometimes they’re pajama bottoms. Both are nice and comfy.

When I see models on the runway on television, most of the time I don’t see anything that I’d care to wear. Just not my style.  I’d love a pair of blue jeans. It’s been over five years since I’ve worn a pair. But I’m happy with what I have right now. That’ll change when it’s hot outside, I’m sure.

This is not an endorsement, it’s just an observation and my honest opinion that when I see clothing from designers like Free People, I think of the beach, summer nights, soft, light fabrics, colors, patterns, femininity, sassiness, sexiness, and cozy nights by the fire with a cup of hot cocoa. The sleeves and the bottoms of many of the tops remind me of butterfly wings. This all brings to mind butterflies. Even the hot cocoa because when I think of chocolate I think of inspiration. When I think of inspiration, I think of butterflies. Or visa versa.

It’s been a long time since I was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A year after I graduated from high school is when I joined the Army. That day our platoon was told we would be going to the beach was the best time I had in Boot Camp. And that’s saying a lot because I loved all the running we did.

This is what I’m visualing these days.

Photo by LollyKnit

I wonder how close the Outer Banks vacation rentals are from here. One of these days maybe I’ll be at this beach with my laptop and a cool beverage writing about how the ocean sounds and what it smells like. And I’ll walk barefoot along the shore feeling the coolness of the water enveloping my legs and the sand beneath my feet and between my toes.

I’d enjoy just lying there watching the surfers until I got the urge to once again feel the water caressing my skin.