Category: deep thoughts

I’m sitting here naked at kitchen table typing away.
Well… not really.
[Rather, I’m wearing my favorite black t-shirt & jeans, and licking the BBQ sauce off of my fingers from the very fine riblet sandwich I just ate for lunch–YUM]

On my first-ever blog (at enivri.com), my first post was about being naked, about revealing the ‘inner me’ to anyone who wanted to read. But honestly, that first blog wasn’t very interesting and didn’t get read very often so I stopped paying for the domain name after a few months.

Though I don’t pretend that this blog is all that much better than my first one, I’ve had lots more ‘hits’ and have recently discovered that several old friends read my blog. In a way it’s flattering to have a bevy of readers. But I’m also nervous to have all my wierd moles and warts showing. And all of those scars that you can’t see when I’m wearing clothes–those are showing, too.

A few weeks ago the kids and spent some time at my Mom’s house. One of the highlights of visiting Mom is swiming in her pool. The kids leap right in, get out all of the ‘noodles’ and have a blast swimming around.

Swimming in Mom’s pool brings back lots of memories. Back in my high school days I spent a lot of time swimming: either I was relieving stress, working on my tan, or conditioning for the swim team. Back then, my favorite way to get in the pool was to dive head-first into the deep end.

But now I just can’t bring myself to leap in. I slowly immerse my body, inch-by-inch. It’s not unusual for it to take me 30 minutes to get my whole body under. I just hate the way the cold water feels and I can’t force myself in any faster.

As I was slowly getting wet on the last day at Mom’s house it dawned on me that this must be part of getting old. No longer do I leap into the unknown headfirst, ready for the thrill and shock of the cold water. Instead, I am cautious and slow–I’m only willing to tolerate the littlest bit of discomfort and to take small risks.

I’ve spent most of today emptying the contents of my nose into kleenexes. Now, after a whole day of this my nose is so raw that even the lotion-y kleenexes hurt. And now the cough is starting–that ubiquitous throat tickle that keeps me feeling as if a small rodent is sitting in the back of my throat and preventing me from swallowing. I think that some rodent is storing acorns in my glands because they are so swollen and sore.

Today I wanted to lie in bed and drink broth. Instead I cleaned house, ran errands, and ferried the kids around. Here’s hoping that tomorrow is a better, rodent-free, day.

PS: Today the kids wrote their due-the-first-day-of-school essays. They are priceless. C’s is called “Portland” and discusses the colorful details of our summer trip (including voodoo donuts and the various odors of our hotel rooms). E’s is called “Adventures with Aunt Susan” [can I just say one more time that every kid needs an Aunt Susan who has a trampoline and a dog named Pete and a boy named Chris and lots of time for adventures]. I will post the essays soon.

Last week my checking account was “compromised.” This basically means that someone stole my debit card number and stared buying all kinds of things via the internet. They spent money in Arizona, in Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, etc.

Fortunately my bank caught on pretty quickly since I rarely make large internet transactions. They called me and we put a ‘stop’ on my card. But this morning I’ve got to start the tedious process of disputing the charges that this thief made. I’ve got to sort out my transactions from his so we can put my balance back in the black. What a pain.

The first day that it happened I racked my brain to figure out who or how could have done this to me. Was it the gas station attendant who had to run my card through two times and in the process copied down the number? Was it an internet hacker? Has someone infiltrated my home computer? Did I forgot to shred some bank statements? I was going crazy running different scenarios through my mind.

Now I’m feeling rather matter-of-fact about it. I’ve talked with the bank, worked through the various ‘procedures,’ and I’m resigned to the inconvenience of the theft. But a part of me is also frustrated because I don’t want this to happen again and yet I have no idea how to prevent it.

Here are two links that’ll give you a boost:
iloveegg
ringtonedancer
[warning: they are both loud]

This guy has a pretty unique way of furnishing his apartment. His furniture is truly a work of genius, IMO. Congrats to him for “thinking outside of the box.”