Pondering and Planning and Whatnot

I've had a lot on my mind lately because I'm making plans for a big change. I know, I know... being very vague here....

I still have some final arrangements to make, and need The Queen back in around to finalize, but those who know already are pretty happy that I'm making this change. Well, not all of them, actually 50% and happy and 50% aren't so happy. 

In the meantime, I'm making plans to go to a Renaissance Faire next weekend up in South Lake Tahoe with my friend Angie and her husband and son. I've actually broken down and purchased a costume all of my own. I went for a slightly less expensive one and I'm now sorta wishing that I would have invested in the more expensive bodice/corset thing, but for my first costume, it'll do. It is amazing how addictive this whole costuming thing can get. 

I also found out that one of my friends back in San Antonio has also gotten involved in Renaissance Faires so this weekend when I saw her we talked about costumes and characters and how really fun it is to just let go and be somebody else for a period. 

Anyway, I'll make sure that I get some pictures of me being a fun Pirate Wench Person and get them out here for you all. 

Turkey Buzzard

The first weekend in May my whole family (well, my Dad's side of the family) gathered in rural Missouri for my grandmother's 90th birthday. It was really great to be able to get together with my cousins and visit with aunts, uncles, and sundry other relatives. And, of course, seeing my grandma, who by the way is still doing great for her age.

Reconnecting with family is always great and it is fun to look back on how we were when we were little kids compared to how we are as adults and to reminisce about "the good old days". While we didn't do a whole lot of "remember whens..." on this visit we have done plenty of that in the past. Growing up my folks always made it a point to get out to visit Grandma and Granddad at least twice a year. My cousins, Cathy, Christy, and Jeremy, lived a couple of miles away so they got to see the grandparents all the time. My sister and I were always a little lost when we were visiting, and speaking for myself, a little jealous of the cousins because they knew where everything was in the kitchen and where all the toys were kept, etc. It wasn't until I reached adulthood and was visiting with Christy one time that she told me that they were always jealous of Marti and I when we would come to visit. It turns out that when we came to visit, Granddad was around more (rather than going out and working in the barn and/or fields like he normally would) and Grandma cooked special meals because we were there. I guess it is all a perspective thing, but it was enlightening having that talk with Christy.

Anyway, on to present day. While we were all sitting around at Grandma's party, it turns out that most of us are on Facebook and after we got back to our respective homes we "friended" one another. Then the pictures of the various meals that we had there (understand that we were there for 2 nights and ate the entire time) and other stuff started popping up in albums. Now, here is what I find to be humorous, and it is probably just my sad, sick sense of humor that made me find this funny. My cousin Cathy, who is one of the nicest people in the world...one of those genuinely good people, puts a series of pictures up from the weekend of not only the party festivities but also of the time that she spent on my uncle's farm with her girls. She titled the album "Grandma's 90th Birthday" and the very first picture that is in the album is that of a couple of turkey buzzards on top of a silo.

Does anybody else see the humor in that, or am I truly a sick, sick individual?

Self Tanning

This year I've decided to try and get a little color on my scary white flesh. I noticed that my sister had a nice glow going when I saw her last weekend and she informed that it was a bottled tan. These have come A LONG way from when they first came out and everybody looked orange, so I decided that I would give this a try as well. I have to think that it is better than laying out and baking in the sun using baby oil to "enhance" the burning and scarring.

Mind you, in the past when I lived in complexes with pools I would set Memorial Day weekend aside and spend all Saturday and Sunday out by the pool slathering on the baby oil (or Tropicana Coconut Oil - SPF negative 20) reading and drinking and slipping in the pool to cool off. Memorial Day Monday was always spent slathering on Aloe Vera and praying that the blisters would go away before I had to go back to the office on Tuesday.

Well, back to present time....I went to Target (one of the best stores in the world) and purchased some Nivea Sunkissed Lotion for legs, which is also supposed to slow down the need to shave, and some Jergins sun lotion stuff. I've now been using these for 2 days. I have to say that I think the color is coming in. I don't look quite like death and according to the bottle it will only be enhanced.

My only concerns are for some reason my skin has a strange odor to it. It smells sorta like it would when I would go to tanning booths. I don't know if anybody else can smell it, and I'm sure as heck not going to go up to people and ask them if I smell, so it might just be in my head (plus I admit that I am VERY sensitive to smells). My other concern is whether we really know that this stuff isn't going to cause some sort of health problems 30 years down the road (not that it'll matter for me because 30 years from now I'll one foot in the grave anyway). I mean, they used to think laying out in the sun wouldn't cause damage.

Oh well, I guess I can't worry too much about this. Lord knows I'm damaging my body in so many other ways that adding a little color to it can't be that harmful....

Flight Home

Normally, I wouldn't have much to say about my flights when I travel. You get on the plane, you settle in, you hope for the plane to take off and land and not have any real issues. If you are some people you break the rules and never turn your phone off, or if you are lucky enough, you get on a plane that has WiFi and you can update your Facebook Status the whole trip.

Today, however, I actually have something to write about regarding my flight.

I flew Frontier Airlines, and had to stop at Denver both directions (I was flying between San Francisco and Kansas City). The stop over is all of 30 minutes, or it was supposed to be that, but more on that later. In the future I recommend that you ALWAYS check in 24 hours in advance, if possible. I didn't do that on this trip and I paid for it. On both legs of the trip I ended up in row 23...the last row on the plane....the seats don't recline and I was right next to the toilets. My other concern was that I would be the last person off the plane and since I had to get to a whole other gate in a very short period of time.

When we landed in Denver, I realized that the attitudes of the folks the flight from Kansas City to Denver are very different than any other flight that I've been on in a long time. Normally, when a flight lands everybody is immediately out of their seats, getting their luggage out of the overheads and jockey-ing for who will get off the plane first. On this flight, I swear, everybody stayed in their seats the entire length of the plane until the row in front of them had emptied out. I sort of reminded me of church when the ushers would guide the rows down to Communion. Of course, I was still getting antsy due to the time to make my connection, but there was nothing I could do about it since I was in the last row, in the window seat.

Luckily, the plane that I was transferring to was late, so I actually had time to sit and people watch for a while in Denver. When they started calling for boarding, I was in the next to first group to board, since they boarded the people that needed assistance (including the Greek Orthodox Priest and the odd guy that was wheeling around on a tricycle) and their Gold club members. So, I get on the plane, make my way to the back of the plane and waited for my row mates to show up. This leg of the journey, I have the aisle seat, so I opt to stand in the back instead of having to keep getting up and down as they arrive...of course they would get there and then decided that they wanted to use the toilet, so I just kept standing around. AND it turns out that the lanky, hippy, guy that was in the middle seat hasn't been introduced to the magic of using soap in the shower OR deodorant...so that was QUITE pleasant to sit next to that for 2+ hours.

Then, about 30 - 45 minutes out of San Francisco, the older woman gets up and uses the toilet. As she is leaving the toilet and walking back up the aisle and she seems pretty unsteady on her feet. A couple of rows up from me, she really starts to lose it and this one guy gets up and tries to steady her and then the next thing you know he is guiding her to the ground and everybody starts hitting the call buttons. Luckily the guy that helped lay her down was a physician as were his two traveling companions. She ended up having a seizure and passing out. It turns out that she was diabetic and her blood sugar was totally out of whack. Everybody jumped in to give a hand, and truly pulled together to give this lady assistance. Eventually, she was able to get up and sit in one of the seats. The guys that were helping her sat on either side and kept an eye on her and when we landed everybody stayed in their seats so that the paramedics could come on board and help her off.

So, I've sat next to people with body odor before, but I've never been on a plane that had a medical emergency....all sorts of excitement!