I Nearly Forgot...

The meet-up last Sunday evening was good. Met some really nice people, both male and female. I was hoping to meet this one member who recently moved to this area. We'd e-mailed, and this was to be his first meet-up event, too. There had to be 40 or 50 people there -- it was jammed. And dark. Didn't see him. He later e-mailed that he didn't see me, either. But we're continuing to e-mail and are probably going to meet in person soon. I look forward to future gatherings, especially when the weather warms up.

Monday, Monday

It was another very cold day today--ugh. At least the sun shone brightly. I started out with the intention of slogging through all the laundry I needed to do, only to discover I had enough quarters to wash and dry ONE load. And it's a federal holiday, so all banks were closed. Crap. I'd planned a trip to the grocery store and car wash, but was intending to go AFTER laundry. Switch-'em, change-'em. Threw a baseball cap on my head, grabbed my warmest coat and off I went on my errands.

HGTV was doing a marathon of their "international house hunters" show, so that droned on in the background while I dumped, switched over, took out, hung/folded what turned out to be 4 loads of laundry. Ick. I should never have fired that maid (ha ha). At least I could visually "escape" to tropical climes courtesy of the TV. All the shows were taking place in areas like Santa Domingo, Honduras, and Cabo San Lucas. Hey! Maybe I'll become an ex-pat one day...

Meanwhile, there was more drudgery to get through here in freezing friggin' Virginia.

BRRRRRR! When's Summer Coming?

As I write this, it is about 20 degrees with a wind chill of 8 outside. This is NUTS! Yeah, I know it's January and not June. But I just really don't enjoy frigid temperatures. Inside of me beats the heart of a beach bum. Give me a balmy breeze off the ocean and sand between my toes. Shoot, add an umbrella drink and it's nirvana for sure!

I'm not a *complete* party-pooper when it comes to certain aspects of winter, though. For example, two days ago we had a very pretty snowfall with a lot of flakes the size of 50 cent pieces. It just coated the trees, grass and shrubs like a mantle and it was postcard perfect. I can appreciate the beauty in that--even more if I'm inside my home, dry and warm and sipping hot chocolate!

By and large, though, a day this cold makes me think of Jimmy Buffett's music. Lines like "I gotta fly to St. Somewhere" and "I gotta go where it's WARM!" come to mind.

I recently found out that one of my "Florida cousins" wants to spend her 50th birthday celebrating at a beach house. Now, there's woman after my own heart. Her birthday is on March 4 and I very much plan to be there with bells on. I can hardly wait!

Meanwhile, I'd best get into the rain locker and then wrap myself in nice, warm layers to brave these awful temps outside. I've got a manicure and pedicure on my agenda today--woo hoo!

Life is Richer With Friends

This weekend was off to a great start! I discovered a "care package" in my mailbox on Friday when I got home from work. It was from my best friend, Beth, who relocated back to Alabama last year. She is too funny! She well knows my penchant for dark chocolate and had sent 4 small bags of M&Ms (both the plain and the peanut kind). Also included were a couple of sticky note pads in the shapes of flip-flops and she put this little stuffed frog in there. What a hoot: you squeeze it's little "hand," and it plays "I like to move it, move it." I had quite a good laugh out loud over this. Beth, you're too good to me! She knows I'd been feeling kind of low over Chris' passing, and so decided I could use "a little happy," as she wrote in the card she included.


On Friday evening, I met 3 of my girlfriends for dinner at the Firehouse Grill. It really did used to be a firehouse back in the day. It's just a little place -- there are maybe 6 or 8 tables in the "dining room." I think the place survives on bar business. The food is inexpensive and adequate -- nothing to write home about, for sure. Now, the girls and I try to get together for dinner 1 night a month. I hadn't been able to make it when they got together last time, and what with the holidays and all, it had been quite a while since we'd had a chance to get all caught up with each other. So, I'd really looked forward to Friday. It was fun! We had cocktails, dinner, then moved to the bar (they were setting up for live music in that li'l ole dining room) for more cocktails. It was great to relax and talk and laugh the way that we always do when we get together. I have known Karen and Shelley since the early 80's, and Debbie I've known since the 90's, so we go back a ways, the 4 of us. Karen, bless her heart, is working to get her master's degree -- I say "you, go, girl!" Unfortunately, once she's done with that, she and her husband and 2 kids will be moving to Pennsylvania (in 2009). I'll be sad to see her leave the area, but I'm happy that they'll have a house they've had built and in an area that's probably much better for the kids to grow up in. God knows I won't miss this area when I finally move away!

On Saturday evening, my friend Marie made me a fabulous meal at her place and we had a really fun visit. I got to meet Tiffany (her Yorkie) and Gabriella (her cat) and fell in love with both on the spot!

Life is richer with friends like I've got. I wouldn't trade them for the world, and may God bless each and every one of them!

Go Figure

I'm gonna rant a little bit here. Today, a male acquaintance at work took me to lunch. During said lunch, I had to disabuse him of the notion that our friendship was going to progress to a "friends with benefits" level. The guy is married, firstly. He's out of my dating age range, secondly. He's not my type, thirdly. The first point renders the other two points moot in my book.
I find it just about impossible to have respect for men who stray in their marriage. It's a sore spot for me, as it is with most of the females I know.
I must say that I was proud of the way that I handled the situation. I didn't yell at him, I didn't sit there and chastise him, either. I simply pointed out the very important fact that he's married. And that our friendship was not at THAT level! He told me that he appreciated my being direct and honest with him. I hope he means that. I seriously doubt there will be future lunches. I don't want to send mixed signals!

Christmas in Greensboro, NC 2007

 

I spent this past Christmas with my sister, Marsi in Greensboro,NC.

You can read her blog at http://marsimumbles.blogspot.com/.

She'd mentioned to me quite a few times the neighborhood near her that decorates with "light balls." Now, these are not the store-bought version you might think of. These are homemade out of chicken wire, mostly in a ball shape but some in square or rectangular shape, around which one wraps strings of lights. These are then attached to phenomenally long extension cords and hoisted (God only knows how) into trees. These trees, mind you, are sometimes as high as 2 stories! When you have the participation of every single house on the same street, it's quite an impressive sight! I actually gasped out loud when we drove onto the street and saw what appeared to be hundreds of colored light balls/shapes seemingly suspended in mid-air (obviously you get this effect only when it's dark out). These pictures don't really do justice, but at least in the close-up you can tell what they do to get the effect.

If you go to Marsi' blog, you will read her recounting of Christmas day. It was quite funny. I had a great visit with her and it was the first Christmas we'd spent together in years. She's blessed with 2 sons and a daughter (all young adults) and it was a treat to get to see them also.

Got the photos up--good!

Well, I see that the Chris-related photos posted okay -- that's good. I'm brand new to this whole blog thing.

I ancitipate more upbeat future postings, rest assured.

Starting the New Year With A Loss

Well, here it is the start of a new year...and I lost a friend. Chris passed away on January 5th from cancer. We'd just begun our friendship around the beginning of last year. I'd met her at work. She was an intelligent, talented and witty lady and I enjoyed her company a lot.

I have lost plenty of family over the years, which is rough, but this is the first friend whom I'd met on my own that I've lost. Obviously it's having quite an impact on me.

I find myself reflecting on what a talented artist she was, and wishing that she had continued with it. Her specialty was the "stippling" method. One of the things she and I had in common was a love of the beach and all things "beachy," especially seashells. You should see the incredible renderings of all kinds of seashells she stippled. Some of this work was actually sold, but that was quite a few years ago and not here in this area.

I'll attempt to post a few images that relate to this installment.