Still Saying the Darnedest Things Part 3

My darling Kitty has one of the sweetest dispositions of anyone I know. She's generally cheerful and everyone loves her.

But what most people don't know is that she has a bit of a macabre side. She collects Living Dead Dolls, which are dolls that come in a casket complete with a death certificate. They are eerily beautiful, but can be a bit frightening. Just ask Brie's friend Jennifer, who is terrified of them. Especially since there is one that looked just like her named Tenebrae!

When Jennifer spent the night once: in the morning she heard something scratching at the door and swore it was one of Kitty's dolls. We told her it was just Victoria the cat wanting to get in, but to this day she doesn't believe that. 😂

Kitty doesn't have the dolls to scare people: she finds them intriguing and uses them to make stop-motion videos that she puts on YouTube on her kaiennasunshine5000 channel. Please check it out! She does music video covers (Addicted to Love is one of my favorites!) and she also does mini movies. She is so talented! Here's a shot of some of the "backup dancers" from one of her videos.

Frozen Charlotte doesn't get to be in videos much because she has on ice skates.

Anyhoo, so sweet Kitty loves these dolls and uses them in very creative ways. They are on a stand in her room and now there are 50 of them...so we tread lightly when we have to go in there!

Here is a picture of Sadie, she's the one on the right, and she's the ringleader. This was actually a shot I had planned to use as the cover for one of my books. Then I thought better of it!

With all this being said, and in case you don't believe how dark Kitty can be: let me tell you what she said to her sister 2 days ago. Unfortunately Brie had a growth removed from her leg. The biopsy results came back that there are abnormal cells and they need to go in again. Of course this just devastated us. But God is on the throne and we know it will turn out all right.

She and Kitty had some sister errands to run. On the way home, Kitty says to her, "Your leg will be okay." Brie thanked her for the sentiment. Then Kitty followed that up with, "But just in case they have to amputate it: will you see if  you can bring it home for me?" Brie was not amused; but when she recounted this to me I laughed out loud. I'm sorry: funny is just funny and at least it lightened the mood!

So that's our Kitty 😄 You gotta love her!

Harder Than I Thought

This isn't anything I've broadcast, but Marie has been declining health-wise this year. I took care of her for over three years. I'm not going to go into detail, bur her diabetes has gotten harder to manage, she has some dementia, diabetic neuropathy and was having trouble walking. She knew that if it got to the point where she couldn't walk: I wouldn't be able to take care of her.

Sadly, we hit that point last Monday at 3 in the morning.  She didn't want to go to the hospital but I knew she needed to go. There wasn't much I could do for her because my left shoulder and lower back are jacked from years of getting her or my father up if they fell; or helping them up from a chair. Bone spurs, a torn tendon, calcium deposits and bursitis: I hope somehow I can avoid surgery. But I digress...

I was able to go to the ER with her. No good news there: I was told that I could no longer care for her at home and she needs 24/7 care now.

It's weird: in the back of my mind I had wondered if I would "get my life back", so to speak. But now that it's imminent: it isn't what I thought it would be. I've become so used to seeing her in my house that it's hard not seeing her there, and knowing she won't be back. I have been sleeping on the couch for a year so I could hear her if she needed anything in the night. I'm still on the couch when I can finally be in my room. I still wake up at 1:30 a.m. and don't fall back to sleep until 3 or 4 a.m. Every night. Her chair is empty. Her sparkling waters are still in the grocery bag. And her snacks from Schmoop-Dog are still by her chair.

Last Thursday she was transported to a facility up north for rehab. But the doctor has already said the dementia will be a big detriment to rehab. So I will have a conference call this Thursday to discuss a plan going forward.

And what does "getting my life back" consist of? Me, like Bella from Twilight, sitting and staring at her empty chair. Yeah: not having Marie here is harder than I thought...

Fashion During the Pandemic

Goodness, I could barely type the title with a straight face! What fashion? Yes I started out with the best of intentions, but you know what they say about that.

All the experts said that just because you're home: do the same things you would do as if you were going to the office. So up early, shower, get dressed and head for my workspace and working at 8.

This worked for about a week, and then my will got less and less. Up not as early, bird bath, leggings and sweatshirt and working at 8.

Then, as the shelter in place dragged on, some mornings became roll off of couch, stumble into the work area and hope there were no Zoom meetings scheduled. If there was a virtual meeting, 15 minutes before I would go into the bathroom to make myself presentable from the waist up and be camera ready by the time I logged into Zoom. I was doing...okay.

But as the pandemic wore on, the hardest hit for me was hair salons being closed. This was not good news for my hair. After a while it looked like Victoria was curled up on my head, which was not the look I was going for. I continued to moisturize and brush and what not but my hair waved the white flag and said 'good luck'! Thank goodness my salon finally reopened and I was able to tame my mane.

However, when the weather turned sub-Saharan and stayed that way: I knew wardrobe was going to be an issue. Even though my normal body temperature runs low, I run warm. So when the heat index is over 100, humidity is high and it's in the 90s finding something to wear is problematic. After all: if you're cold you can put on more clothes but if you're hot there's only so much you can take off in public before you're arrested.

Thankfully I have a lot of tank dresses and sleeveless dresses. But some of them are knit and no one wants to wear that fabric when it's 94 degrees. The ones that are cotton should be cooler, but that material sticks to you and heaven forbid you forget to un-tuck whatever got molded to a crevice! I have no idea why I have summer maxi dresses, when that's like wrapping your whole body in a sheet. Not refreshing! And then I was looking for a certain black and white print dress and thought I saw it through the side of a tubby. Yay! I lifted the lid a crack and pulled it out.

What I actually pulled out was a dress I had never seen before. It was a blue dress with white stripes. It looked like a beach cover up but I don't go to the beach. There was no price tag on it; and without my glasses I couldn't even read the label. So I asked Brie, "Is this yours? Have you seen it before?" She answered, "Nope! When did you buy it?" "I don't think I did!" But you know what? I threw that mystery dress on and kept it moving!

Even though the college is closed right now, I am able to work there a couple of days a week. The first day I was there I saw the Business Manager and she was wearing jean shorts. Eureka!! If that woman can wear shorts on campus, so can Rita! Until we reopen, that is. Dilemma solved!

Now I just need to hope that the weather cools before we actually reopen to the public. Otherwise I'll have to take scissors to those maxi dresses!