Monday, April 25, 2011

Happy Easter

It's the day after Easter.  I have been sick since last Tuesday, late afternoon.  o I really haven't done much besides lay in bed, cough, get up, cough, watch TV, cough, blow my nose, take meds, cough, pet Pumpkin, cough, and bemoan my fate.  I hate bronchitis.

However, I didn't want my not feeling well to interfere with Easter, so I tried to muster up the energy to enjoy the day.  I did go to church and the service was wonderful.  I then went home and watched the History Channel, which had on a couple of great shows on Jesus; and also what he did during the 40 days after He arose from the dead.  Awesome!!!

Then I made something for dinner.  I was supposed to have people over, but with being sick that wasn't going to happen.  That made me very sad because I love to entertain for the holidays.  But guests get mad if they come over to your house and you cough and then afterwards they get sick; so it was for the best.

Actually, I did have 2 guests.  My mother felt sorry for me so she came over and brought some chicken, stuffing and a sweet potato pie for the girls.  They were ecstatic, as was Pumpkin who loves chicken.  Then later Schmoop-dog showed up after his evening church service. He came probably to see if Kitty had cut the homemade cheesecake she had made; but since she hadn't: he didn't get any.  So he took some of my lasagna home instead.

And since Easter signifies the end of the Lenten season I can now have ice cream and cake!  But with the bronchitis and congestion: guess who got no ice cream?  And didn't have the energy to bake a cake?  So: maybe next week.

And finally: I had sent Skye a text to wish him a Happy Easter but did not receive a text from him.  Bummer...sigh...

So that was Easter in a nutshell.  I loved the church service; and loved the music I heard on the religious station.  But I ate next to nothing and LaToya Jackson got booted from Celebrity Apprentice.  I'll write more about that show later!

I hope you had a Happy Easter and got to spend it with the people you wanted to; instead of the people you had to.  I'll sign off since I can feel the coughing gearing up again.  Double bummer...

Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Lesser of Two Evils

I’ve always prided myself on being healthy, but my left leg started bothering me.  Nothing major: just some tingling and numbness in the thigh to knee area.  So I made an appointment with my GP to see what the problem was.
“Maxx,” Dr. Bob began seriously, “you have marelgia paresthetica.”
Oh no!  Not marelgia paresthetica!  I’m too young!  What about my children?  Oh, the humanity!  This is what immediately came to mind.  Then I said, “Um, what exactly is marelgia paresthetica?”
“It’s a condition whereby something presses on the nerve located at the top of the thigh, thereby causing numbing of the nerve which traverses down the leg to the knee area.”
I nodded solemnly.  At least it didn’t sound life threatening!  “What is pressing down on that nerve?”
“Your stomach.”
Well how rude was that?  I guess marelgia paresthetica is Greek for “gut overhang”!  I gave Dr. Bob a dirty look.  “Okay, what do you suggest I do to alleviate this condition?”
“Your two choices are diet or exercise.”
Since I try not to do anything with the word “die” in it, I thought the lesser of the two evils would be exercise.  That’s how I ended up at a place called Motivations to take a spin class.
For those of you lucky enough to not know, spinning is a stationary bicycling class where you can change the bike’s tension to simulate outdoor hill riding, jumps, you stand up on the bike, sit down, speed up, slow down – it all depends on the whims of the taskmaster…I mean instructor.  It’s supposed to be a great workout, and I was sure it would take care of my “gut overhang”.  Besides, everyone bicycles.  How hard could it be?
Ah, famous last words!  “Hard” was just the beginning and only described the tiny seat on the spin bike!  By the time we had been working out for about…three minutes, it felt like an additional bone was growing out of my…tender area.  I was sweating, my legs were shaking, and it was just the warm-up!  How was I going to do an entire hour?
By sheer force of will, that’s how!  My sister was also in the class and had been taking it for about 4 months, but I couldn’t let her show me up.  I’m too competitive!  So I gritted my teeth, sucked down my water and pedaled like my evil ex-husband was after me! 
To be honest, I wasn’t able to stay standing for the entire time we were supposed to, but to my credit I never stopped pedaling.  It might have been slow, but the wheels never stopped.
I took the spinning class from July 2003 until February 2004.  And sure enough: my stomach tightened up and the marelgia paresthetica went away.
I continued with spin periodically for the next few years; but unfortunately now I haven't been back for about 2 years.  And although the "gut overhang" hasn't exactly come back, it's friend "muffin top" is trying to rear its ugly head.  So whether I like it or not: it looks like I'll be heading back to Motivations.  After all: Americade is in about 6 weeks and I've got to be in prime form for whatever that weekend might bring!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

POWER OUTAGE

I had kind of hemmed and hawed about whether I would blog about this; but humor won out over common sense or shame.  So here’s what happened on Tuesday:
First off, I had met my “dealer” Lynne for a little dinner on Monday night, so she could feed my “addiction” to Avon products while we caught up on each other’s lives.  I won’t say where we went, or what I had, but let me tell you that it gave me a mild case of food poisoning that hit around 2 in the morning.
I’ll leave out the more colorful details of the ensuing episodes, but suffice it to say that by the time I should have been leaving for work Tuesday morning, I was still in bed. I called my supervisor to say that I would be in late as I wasn’t feeling well, and went back to bed.  I was still sweating a bit so I had my little fan pointing directly towards my face and was listening to the classical radio station to soothe my nerves.  This worked for maybe 2 minutes, because suddenly the fan and the radio went off.  Huh, that was strange.  I sat up and looked at the TV and noticed the DVR box was off too.  So that left only one conclusion I could draw.  I looked out my bedroom window, and there was a National Grid truck in the parking area.  My power had been shut off!
My head was spinning.  How could this be?  I had paid them off down to what I figured to be $20!  I had to stop the guy before he left, so I jumped out of bed, and without bothering to put on my pants I raced down the stairs.  I had on a long tee shirt, so I figured I would crack open the front door, get his attention, and then put on some pants when I was sure he wouldn’t leave.
Sounded like a good plan, huh?  And it was.  I cracked open the door to see if he was in the truck; and the next thing I knew Pumpkin snuck out the door and into the parking area! I knew Kitty would kill me if anything happened to Punky, so I pulled down the hem of my tee shirt and went out the door after her, flip flops, sleep bonnet and all.  “Pumpkin, you come back to Grammy!”  Yeah, that’s all she needed to hear.  She wasn’t even running fast: she was just frolicking and kicking up her little puppy heels as she went by my car, and by hunky next-door neighbor Scott’s car, and all around our area.  So now I’m trying to stay close to the garage in case any neighbors were still home, and I was hissing Pumpkin’s name trying to get her to come to me but she was having too much fun; and now had a mouthful of leaves that she knew she wasn’t supposed to have.  What a fun game she was playing with half-naked Grammy!
Just as I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I hear Kitty behind me.  “Mom, what’s going on?  Pumpkin!”  I turned around and there she stood in the doorway, in the shirt she was going to wear to program and no pants.  At least my tee shirt covered my backside, but hers didn’t!  Out the door she comes, and to add to the visual, she stoops down, pats her knees and calls Pumpkin.  And like the brat she is, Pumpkin dropped the leaves and came trotting over to her mama.  Kitty scooped her up, gave me a withering look, and marched back into the house in her pastel panties.
Seriously???   There was no time for her to be upset with me because the dog got out.  I had noticed that there wasn’t anyone in the National Grid truck, so I ran upstairs, put on some pants, threw off my bonnet and ran back outside.  No, there was no time to comb my hair!  I caught up with the guy as he was getting in his truck.
“Excuse me, but why did you turn off my power?”  “Because the bill wasn’t paid.”  “Yes it was!  The last payment was made at the end of March.”  “Sorry, we don’t have a record of it.”  “Well it’s there!  How am I supposed to get the power back on?”  “Pay the bill.”
As you could see, I was getting nowhere with this guy.  Maybe I shouldn’t have put on any pants!  But he sure as heck wasn’t leaving me without power at 8:40 in the morning!   “Fine.  How much is the bill?”  “$580.60.”  “Are you kidding me????  I paid the bill!”  “Well if you want the power back on, you’re going to have to pay me.”
Okay, two can play that game.  “Okay,” I said.  “I’ll write you a check.”  He blinked.  “You’re going to give me a check for that amount?”  “I sure am.  You wait right here.”  “Okay, you get the check and I’ll turn your power back on.”
I knew that the bill had been paid, but I also knew I needed to buy some time until the office opened and I could get the mess straightened out.  So as he turned the power back on I wrote him the check, handed it to him and bid him a good day.  Then I went back to my room (with a detour to the bathroom, of course!) to wait for the office to open at 9.
I know for a fact that I was their first call; and after I had explained the situation they were very apologetic.  You see: the bill HAD been paid, it had posted but the person had neglected to move the payment over.  So by the time the call was over the only thing I owe now is $4.00.  And yes: I made sure to stop payment on my check!
I never thought I’d ever say this but thank goodness I had food poisoning.  Otherwise who knows how long it would have taken for them to restore my power???
As for that frolicking wench Pumpkin:  I hope the next time she sneaks out everyone has their pants on!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

A Perfect Afternoon

I know that people have different definitions as to what perfect means to them.  Well this week I experienced what counts for me as the perfect afternoon.

It was Thursday and it started out with me leaving work early.  I had to have a dexascan, which didn't factor into the perfection, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day, so when I started up my car I opened the moon roof as soon as I hit the Northway.  Cranking up the radio, I enjoyed the breeze as I headed for the doctor's office.

Once there, I discovered that not only was the test going to be a walk in the park, but I also didn't have to pay for it.  Now that was perfect!

Since it was such a warm sunny day, the first of the year, I thought that it would be nice to wash my car since it hadn't been washed all winter.  So I went to the neighborhood carwash, flirted with the owner and got my car all nice and clean.  Perfect!

But now the inside definitely didn't match the outside!  So when I got home I decided that I would clean out the inside of my car.  I went inside (no one else was home), got a big plastic bag and commenced with the cleaning.  You'd be amazed at what had accumulated in my car during the past season (most of which was courtesy of Brie); and even Kitty's tackle box from when we went fishing in September was still in there!  So I got all that stuff out, including the little side compartments.  Perfection!

Then I noticed Mark cleaning off his front stoop and I looked at mine.  All kinds of dried leaves and stuff were there.  So since there was still room left in the garbage bag, I decided to clean off my stoop too.  So I used the old broom that had mysteriously appeared by my door one day, got my dust pan, and swept and collected up the leaves; even moving the little chair and table that were there.  It looked fabulous!

Going back inside, Pumpkin was whining because I hadn't been paying any attention to her.  So I picked her up and took her outside to get some fresh air.  Hunky Scott from next door saw us and came over because he just loves Pumpkin!  So I was talking to him as he was petting and cooing at the dog.  Man: Scott is perfection!

Presently I had to go back inside and so did he.  I went in, sat in my favorite living room chair and decided to watch a show I had DVR'd.  Pumpkin got in my lap so she could watch it too; and then we both promptly fell asleep.  It wasn't even 5:00 yet!

Hey, maybe not to you, but to me: it was a perfect afternoon. :o)