The Curious Life of a Divorcee and Other Adventures

Christmas at My House

2009-11-30T09:16:00.007-05:00

I really, really love Christmas. I love decorating, parties, making candy and ornaments, taking my kids special places, visiting relatives, shopping for the perfect gift...I love it all. In this post, I thought I would share some pictures of the decorating I've done to my house so far. You can click the pictures to enlarge them.

Below 2 pictures: I bought some garland and laced it with colored lights and tied them to the railings on the first and second story. See the Japanese maple in the picture? I absolutely love that tree. I hate to see it lose its leaves!

Below: Here is our Christmas tree downstairs. It's 9 feet tall, so I couldn't get it all in the picture. You would not believe how heavy that monster is! I went to the "after-Christmas" sales last year and picked up lots of decorations. I bought this tree at Wal-Mart last January. It was originally priced $230, but I paid only $70. Not bad, huh?
Below: Here is the 7 foot tree in my bedroom. It is just a cute little country-looking tree, but I love it. My kids also have smaller trees in their bedrooms. Didn't want to leave them out!
Below: Here is my fireplace mantel. It looks very cozy when I light the candles. I just wish it would get cold enough to light a fire in the fireplace! About 3 weeks ago, can you believe it was 80 degrees here?!!! Now, it averages a high of about 62 degrees, so we're getting there!

Below 2 pictures: My wreath. I didn't really like the wreaths in the stores, so I made my own. It cost less than $12.

My 5 Year Old is a Gymnast

2009-11-18T00:23:00.012-05:00

Image: Gymnastics block pit

When my 5 year old daughter (let's call her Betty since that's the silly nickname I have for her) was 18 months old, I went to the local gymnastics center and signed us up for a "mommy and me" gymnastics class. I wanted a fun activity we could do together. She enjoyed walking the tiny balance beam, and rolling, flipping, and bouncing and I loved helping her. It was fantastic. She looked so cute with her pudgy little baby legs sticking out of her leotard. At this stage, she wasn't really learning any major gymnastics skills. She was just being immersed in the equipment and movements while having a good time.

We went to her class for a year and a half until she was 3 years old. At that time, she decided she wanted to take a break, so we stopped going. Well, a few months ago, she started asking if she could go back to gymnastics, so I signed her up for the 5 year old class. At this point, parents are not allowed to go beyond a glass viewing area, so I can't help her any more. A 1 hour class once a week costs $53 a month, which is not too bad. The gym is really huge and nice and the instructors are fabulous. They try to make everything fun.

So far since joining the 5 year old class, she has been to four classes. The classes consist of 10-15 minutes of warm-up and stretches and then 10-15 minutes at each of 3 different activities that vary week to week. Finally the kids get to play for 10 minutes in a large pit of foam blocks. There is a long rope suspended over the pit that my daughter likes to swing across. The activities so far include:
1) Tumble Tracks (basically long trampolines) Here's a picture. Notice the foam block pit located at the end so you can flip into it:
2) Horizontal Bar

3) Balance Beam
4) Tumbling on the Floor (handstands, cartwheels, etc)
5) Jumping up and landing using the springboard

"Betty" adores gymnastics. She usually loves school but she tells me she doesn't like school on the day that her gym class is on because she can't wait for the day to be over so she can go to gym.

I was really surprised with how well "Betty" did at gym today. She learned how to gracefully mount the balance beams like a pro, which is not so easy since the beams range in height up to 4 feet, which is taller than she. She is already at ease on the beam and can even walk backwards on the high beam. I was nervous when I saw the coaches having her walk backwards, but both of them were keeping a close eyes on the girls.

The coaches have been working with "Betty" on doing a handstand and cartwheel. I showed her how to do a handstand on our home trampoline, so she is able to do one. She is always begging us to come in her room so she can show us handstands on the bed. Today in gym she very nearly did a cartwheel! I was so proud! There are six girls in her class and 4 can do cartwheels, but "Betty" hasn't been in the class as long as they.

"Betty" learned to do a bridge when she was 3. She can even walk around in this position like a spider. Here's what a bridge looks like.
"Betty" is so graceful in everything she does. I think she could learn lots of cool gymnastics skills if that's what she decides to do. I really enjoy watching her, and I'm glad she enjoys gym. If she ever decides she doesn't want to do it any more, we'll never go again, but at this point, she adores it.

Own Your Own Hospital for $30,000!!!

2009-11-16T00:03:00.007-05:00

I toured an old hospital for sale today. It should be the setting for a horror movie! Here is my story:

I often scan real estate listings looking for a great deal. In this economy, great deals are everywhere. My husband and I recently bought a 14,000 square foot building that used to be a hosiery mill for only $45,000! Its tax value is $140,000. We will be using it as a warehouse for our business.

A few days ago, I came across an extremely interesting listing. It was for an old hospital built in 1907. It has a newer addition as well, and total square footage is 50,000 sq. feet. It also comes with 5 acres of land and 2 houses. Of course I wondered what the catch is. Here are some pictures:

Today we called the realtor to ask if we could see the place. She said they had received calls about the place from all over the USA and several offers had been made. The most interesting offer came from a church. Their offer was that if they would donate the property to the church, they would be guaranteed a spot in heaven.

The realtor told us it was not locked, so we could just bring a flashlight and walk right in. My husband, his business partner, and I decided to take a tour. We brought a flashlight as directed and, after finding an open door, we began our tour.

So, why is this gigantic building and 5 acres only $30,000? Number 1 is that it is listed on the national register of historic places and there are restrictions on how you can use the property. You can develop it as apartments or you can live in the houses. Our interest would be in renovating the property into apartments. We soon found out the number 2 reason the property is so cheap.

When we walked in, we needed our flashlights because everything on the first floor was dark. The first thing we noticed was a huge old institutional freezer/cooler that had the words "Help Me!" inscribed in permanent marker on the inside of the door. Further vandalism included crude language written all over the walls, gang symbols everywhere (apparently it was a favorite hangout place of the Bloods gang at some point), and vandalism to everything imaginable. The ceiling tiles had been torn down and all the electrical wiring pulled out. There were holes in all the walls. If you can name it, it had been destroyed.

We walked all around the hospital in the dark. It was EXTREMELY CREEPY! As I said earlier, it would be a wonderful place for a horror movie to take place. We walked by an open elevator with an abandoned gurney with no matress on it. I kept expecting zombies or at the very least a drug-crazed hobo to jump out at us at any minute.

It was very sad to see this once thriving place fall into disrepair. People had their babies at this hospital. They had their broken arms patched up here and now it was nothing more than a playground for gangs and satanic vagrants. Apparently someone thought it would be fun to write creepy messages everywhere. There was one that said "if you enter, you will not leave." There were satanic pentagrams and other symbols everywhere as well.

Adding to the suspense of visiting this hospital was the fact that there were some leaks everywhere, and when you visit an old building you never know how safe it is. You could fall through the floor or anything.

I was thankful that the 2'nd story had light filtering in the windows. Going up the stairs, I noticed the stairs were coated with 1/2 inch of sand. Why the sand was there, I have no clue. At the top of the stairs on the 2'nd floor, I saw a very strange sight. Bright green grass was growing in the shallow sand on the floor!

Finally, we exited the hospital and went into an adjoining building that was obviously much newer. The newer building had been a nursing home or assisted living facility 15 or 20 years ago. I saw things left behind that had obviously belonged to older people: a skein of knitting yarn, some hair curlers, etc.

So, did we buy the place?

When we saw the newer addition, we still considered buying the property and gradually renovating it and renting it out, but we decided there were too many unknowns and decided not to buy it.

It would have been interesting to buy the property. We joked about some possible uses for it. I jokingly said to my husband, "Honey, maybe we should live in it and one day, we would call our daughter to dinner, but not be able to find her, and you'd say, Oh, she's in the operating room."

Wedding/honeymoon Pics

2009-11-12T01:23:00.006-05:00

I was married in the Bahamas in September '09. My husband Jack and I visited the Bahamas, Grand Turk, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas. Although I have many lovely pictures of other people, including my husband, I have a general policy of not posting pictures of people besides myself for their privacy.

Well, I thought I would go with a very casual wedding look, maybe something with an island vibe, but I saw the dress above and immediately knew it was the one. We were married in a lovely little chapel on a private island in the Bahamas. It was at least 95 degrees that day, so you can imagine how I felt in the dress, but everything was more perfect than I could have ever imagined. There were only a handful of people there, which is exactly the way I wanted it.
Here are a few additional pictures of the thousands we took.

Above: One of our guests, a nonpoisonous snake. Our wedding facilitator absolutely FREAKED and ran.

Above: A breathtaking view in St. Thomas

Above: Apparently iguanas, like this one that we saw, are quite common in St. Thomas.

Can you believe there is a Hooters in St. Thomas?
Above: One of the lovely beaches in San Juan Puerto Rico, my very favorite place we visited. I speak Spanish at a moderate level, but I was really surprised at how widely English is understood. We explored the city all on our own and felt very safe. I really loved the food and people as well. I would love to go and stay a while!
Above: At the famous El Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Thank God I was there to hold it up! Do you see the tiny people at the top? Amazon woman saves famous monument!!!
Above: Me again at El Morro

Above: Police car in San Juan
Above: A beach on the tiny island of Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos. This is an island that was nearly demolished by a hurricane a few years ago and is barely built back at all. There are still STOP signs on the ground that haven't been put back in place. Although the natural scenery was breath-taking, it was very disappointing because it is a total wreck. I hope they're able to rebuild soon.
There are donkeys and horses that roam the island freely that escaped in the catastrophic hurricane. We saw these feral donkeys randomly sitting on someone's porch. It brings new meaning to "get your ass off my porch!"

Well, here are a few of my memories. If I had tell every interesting thing on the trip, I would be writing non-stop for days. It was really special.

Review of The Easy Bake Oven

2009-11-12T00:50:00.012-05:00

Ah, the Easy Bake Oven. A staple of Christmases and birthdays since 1963. As a child, I always wanted one but never got one. Now I have a 5 year old daughter who is the most amazing helper I have ever seen. She can crack eggs without leaving egg shells, do dishes, scrub toilets, you name it. I never have to ask her to help, she just always volunteers. So, last Christmas, for my little kitchen assistant, I decided to buy an Easy Bake Oven.

The oven was pretty cheap, about $18. It came with 2 mixes-sugar cookies and a cake. I soon realized the oven is a nightmare for parents unless your kid is about 9, and therefore almost old enough to use a real oven.

You see, first you have to plug in the oven and let it preheat for 15 minutes. Then you have to mix up the mixes with water. The sugar cookie mix supposedly makes 4 cookies. Here's the kicker. You can only bake ONE COOKIE AT A TIME! Each cookie takes 10 minutes to cook. Here's another kicker. I paid $5.77 at Wal-Mart for a sugar cookie mix that only makes 4 cookies. considering that 4 of these cookies are only slightly larger than 2 Chips Ahoy cookies, that is about $3.00 per regular size cookie!!! How ridiculous! Is that stuff sugar or cocaine???

Granted, you can find recipes online for making your own mixes, but people who tried the recipes mostly rated them as horrible, so I don't know how they would turn out.

I have to admit, though that the treats made with the Easy Bake can be pretty tasty if you don't spread the dough out too thin. For instance, instead of making 4 tiny cookies for a total baking time of 40 minutes, I baked 2 larger cookies for a total time of 40 minutes.

My kids really love the oven, so as much as I hate it and think it is ridiculous, I do drag it out occasionally and spend half the night baking a few bites of treats.

TravBuddy

2009-08-04T00:20:00.003-04:00

I found an interesting application called TravBuddy that lists the places you have visited. I haven't visited all that many places as you can see from the map. Just a few states, Jamaica, Ireland, and I went ahead and put the 4 places I will be visiting at the end of this month as well: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and Turks. I really want to add lots of places to this map in the future.

I'm Getting Married

2009-07-13T07:19:00.002-04:00

About 2 weeks ago, my boyfriend Jack told me to pick a place to visit for the weekend. I picked Virginia Beach, Virginia since I have never been there. It was a great place to visit, except when I was in the ocean, I saw a jellyfish about 2 feet away from me, so I high-tailed it out of the ocean that day. I also wanted to see the Great Dismal Swamp, but it was closed. WTF? How can you close a swamp? I digress...

The first night we were there, we took a walk on the beach. We watched crabs scurry all over the place and we saw the neatest glow-in-the dark creatures (plankton?) wash up in the ocean. I kind of suspected the purpose of this weekend might be to propose to me, and I was right. Jack got down on one knee and proposed and I said yes.

I am insanely excited. I will be moving to his house, which is about 30 minutes from where I currently live. On Aug. 29 (next month) we are taking a cruise to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas. We will be married on a private island in the Bahamas on Aug. 30. We are hosting somewhat of a family engagement dinner this weekend so our families can meet and see where I'll be living.

My children are also really excited about the wedding. They love Jack. We are in the process of decorating the children's bedrooms. We are also trying to decide what to do with the basement. He has about 1300 square feet of finished basement that actually looks very nice and the only thing that is down there at the moment is a pool table and foosball table. We want to make it an all-out entertainment heaven.

I am trying to decide what I want to wear for the wedding. I don't think I want a white dress. I'm thinking something flowy and fitting with the island vibe and definitely bare feet. I can't wait.

Beautiful Pictures of Biltmore House

2009-06-23T14:46:00.009-04:00

I went to Biltmore House, the largest private house in the country, in Asheville, NC last weekend. I just thought I'd share my pictures with you.

My weekend at the beach

2009-06-23T14:08:00.002-04:00

I traveled to South Carolina with my boyfriend Jack and his friends in April 2009. We did the usual sunbathing, swimming routine, but we also chartered a small fishing boat and went deep sea fishing. Our boat went really, really fast. I have never been out on the ocean in a smallish boat, so I was pretty much terrified the whole time.

Most of the time while we were fishing, the captain kept the boat moving at a slow speed. He would help us with our fish when we caught one and while he was away from the wheel, the boat kept moving. There were quite a few boats pretty close to us, so I kept praying we wouldn't run into one of them. I was really surprised to see several boats far smaller than ours out in the ocean. They almost looked too small to cruise a lake in, much less the ocean! The picture above shows our catch-all Spanish mackerel. Fish is my favorite food, yum!

My Travel Plans

2009-05-17T01:37:00.002-04:00

I stated in a previous post, that I may be visiting Croatia or Italy very soon. That may not be happening. Due to my boyfriend's change of job assignment, we may be visiting Hawaii or Aruba instead. Also, there is a very good chance I will be going on a Carribbean cruise with him later in the year. He owns a small business that sponsors a company cruise every year for the owners, their families, and their few employees. I don't know any details yet as the cruise has not yet been booked, but my guess is it will be in Aug. I am really excited. I have never been on a cruise, but have heard they are really fun.

Polish Cooking, Yum!

2009-05-17T01:17:00.004-04:00

Ever since my boyfriend returned from Poland, we have been doing a lot of Polish cooking. I think I should have been born Polish, because I love it! Tonight we tried to make perogies, which we were told were hard to make. If you've never had them, they're similar to ravioli (the fresh kind, not the Chef Boyardee canned crap) except with often different toppings and fillings than ravioli, and they're often fried or baked.
Here is an example of perogies, but not an actual picture of the ones we made:

When we started cooking, I was convinced that the recipe would be a flop, but it wasn't.

They really weren't hard to make, just time consuming, To make the outside, we combined flour, sour cream, butter, and water. Then we let the dough sit for 30 minutes. Then, we combined the ingredients for the filling (which involved mashed potatoes, sour kraut, Italian sausage, etc). We rolled the dough out into medium size circles. Then we put some filling on top and folded them over. Then we pressed a fork into the seams to seal them. Finally, we boiled them in salted water for about 3 minutes. Then we removed them from the water and fried them in butter (you can also bake them) until brown and slightly crispy. We served them with some sour cream. They were delicious, and my BF said they tasted just like the ones in Poland.

If I can make them, anyone can make them. Yup! I'm a disaster in the kitchen.

My boyfriend told his co workers in Poland that if they ever visit the US, he will cook them a Polish dinner. One of his co workers is actually going to take him up on his offer next month, and we are going to cook him perogies! How cool!

My Trip to the Beach

2009-05-17T00:52:00.003-04:00

Ever since my boyfriend returned from his one year job in Poland, we have been tearing up the town and a couple of states, so to speak. We spent a week at a beach in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago. It was an absolute blast! We did lots of exploring, sun soaking, swimming, and I took a TERRIFYING ride on a speed boat and did some deep sea fishing. Now I have been deep sea fishing once before, but this time we chartered our own boat, and it was a really hot looking speed boat. Call me an amateur, but I have never been out on the ocean in a fast boat.

I was holding on so tightly to my boyfriend, he will probably have white marks on his arm forever, heh heh. We had to be going at least 60 mph over waves, maybe more, who knows. When we finally got to a stopping place, the skipper of the boat constantly kept the boat moving, but he often left the wheel to help us. So we are pretty close to several other boats and the skipper is not even at the wheel of the boat while it is still moving forward. He is helping us with our gear. Luckily, we didn't run into other boats. Whew! We did manage to catch about 30 Spanish Mackerel, which we took home. The whole time we were out on the boat, I was dreading the (death defying) ride back to the marina.

One thing that REALLY surprised me about the experience was all of the tiny boats out in the huge ocean. Many people were in boats so small and close to the water, that I would have almost been afraid to take them out on a lake. Our boat was not huge, but luckily it was not that small. I was also surprised how our skipper and other captains were walking the sides of their boats. It was making me nervous, to be honest. With my luck, our captain would fall off the boat and hit his head and we would have to find our own way back to shore, lol. Yes, I'm a pansy, I know, but I prefer my feet to be planted on the ground. Actually our captain almost lost his balance once, but luckily he never fell overboard.

I have to say, I did not have fun on the fishing trip, but the whole beach experience was a lot of fun.

My Favorite Trail Run + Frozen Lake Pics

2009-04-06T19:09:00.012-04:00

My favorite trail run is at Moses Cone Manor. Unfortunately, it is a 45 minute drive, so I don't get to go as often as I would like. I visited the local ski slopes in February to go snow tubing. As soon as my friends and I arrived, it began to snow heavily, so we visited a few local areas and went home. Here is Bass Lake below Moses Cone Manor:
If you look very carefully, you can see a white house in the top middle of the picture. I run from the lake in the picture all the way to the white house and back (5 miles). This is not a trail you want to run if there is even one cloud in the sky, because storms can pop up all of a sudden when you're miles from your car. It's happened to me and it's scary as hell.
Above Image: Bass Lake in Fall

Those mountain trails up to the manor frigging kick my ass! Along the way, the scenery is just breath taking, and you pass a lot of pastures and centuries old structures. Then when you finally make it to Cone Manor, you can use their restroom, which used to be the carriage house when the Cones lived there. You can also tour the manor. The bottom floor sells high quality local arts and crafts. My ex-boyfriend is a potter, and every time I go in there, I take a look at his pottery, which is sold in the gallery there. In the summer, the manor offers a night time grave yard walk to the Cone cemetery.Above Image: Flat Top (aka Cone) Manor

Moses Cone was in the textile business early last century and any land you can see in and around the lake and manor used to belong to him (3500 acres). His family donated it to the state some time ago. There is also another lake, called Trout Lake that belonged to him. I cannot imagine looking outside my house and knowing that I own everything I see.

A lot of the trails around the property allow horse riding, so you sometimes have to be careful where you step, if you know what I mean.

I also took some frozen lake pictures at Price Lake, which is close by. The last 2 pictures are the view 0f Bass Lake from Cone Manor. Notice the snow in some of them. Click to enlarge.

My new hobby

2009-04-06T12:48:00.005-04:00

It seems I have a habit of collecting hobbies like a normal person collects stamps (and yes one of my hobbies used to be collecting stamps). Last year I picked up 3 new hobbies-belly dancing, running, and kayaking. I no longer belly dance, but I intend to start classes again within the next year. I still love to run and kayak and intend to run some races this year and get in lots of kayaking as well.

I have been trying to get in shape again since I have been in hibernation all winter. I have been doing lots of running, but you can only run every other day unless you have a penchant for pain, so I have had to pick up a cross training activity for the days I can't run. Today I decided on a whim to get out my dusty bike and go for a ride. Besides a few isolated excursions, I haven't ridden a bike since I was a kid.

Now North Carolina has it's downsides, namely copious amounts of rednecks, but one thing that can be said for NC is they believe in parks and recreation. I've been to some other states and noticed a huge lack of parks and recreation areas. I was reading an interesting article in Newsweek recently that stated that the state you live in to a large extent influences whether you are overweight. States that don't spend much money on parks and recreation have much higher rates of obesity, duh. I am really lucky to be within quick driving distance of many parks and recreation areas.

I am beyond thrilled because there has been a movement in North Carolina in the past few years to build “greenways.” In case you don't know what a greenway is, it is simply a paved network of paths where people can walk, run, bike, and skate. There are greenways in a lot of local towns, but my favorite is in a town that is a 15 minute drive from my house. It is absolutely unbelievable (to me anyway). There are around 10 miles of paved trails, with more being worked on as I write this. There are also 15 miles of unpaved trails. Before this greenway was built, I had to drive 45 minutes to find a trail in the woods to run. I think that running on a track or down the street is sooooo boring.

Anyway, back to my story. I got out my bike and went for a ride at the greenway. The paths are through the woods or around green grassy fields and flowing creeks. The smell of cut grass is everywhere, which I love. One of the things I like best is there are enough people there to where I'm not afraid of being mugged, but not so many I can't move. I went by myself and loved it so much that I rode 40 miles! I know that because I have a mini computer attached to my bike that shows speed and distance. It is pretty cool. There is a magnet on the wheel and this little gadget gauges stats by counting how many times the magnet comes in contact with the device.

When I go to the greenway again (probably today), I am going to bring my camera and take some pics and maybe post them here.

Here is a picture of me in my cycling gear. Looking at it now, with my soccer jersey and gang-like bandana (I'm not in a gang-it's just a cleverly disguised sweat rag, heh heh), I had a completely random thought. What gang would I start if I were to start a gang?

We would be called the White Chicks. This would be our gang sign:

Notice the W and backwards C, lol! We wouldn't be involved in selling drugs like other gangs. Our business would be selling counterfeit designer high fashion handbags. Now that is some hardcore shit there! And we wouldn't drive krunk mobiles with hydraulics either. We would roll up in our badass Cooper Minis, because that's how we roll.

But I digress...whoa do I ever digress. How the hell did I start out talking about a bike ride and end up talking about gangs? Ok, where was I? I have no idea. I think it's best I stop writing now...

Gasp! I'm related to the Hatfields!

2009-03-31T14:03:00.006-04:00

Image: "Devil Anse" Hatfield

I recently learned more about my family tree. Apparently some members of my family have done extensive research on our family tree. My aunt Shirley lent me a large binder full of family info and pictures.

The first of my family to come to the United States was John Blackburn from Scotland in the early 1700's. However the most interesting detail about my history is the fact that I am related to Jeremiah Hatfield, a player in the infamous Hatfield/McCoy feud.

Some people are vaguely aware of some feud involving a bunch of hillbillies killing each other, but may not realize it is a true story. The Hatfields were a wealthy family from Kentucky who became involved in a bloody feud with the McCoy family. In the end, over a dozen family members from both families died. One of the deaths was over a hog that both families claimed belonged to them.

In the year 2000, a Hatfield and McCoy family reunion was held in Kentucky as a sign of good will between the families. As I was doing a little family research myself, I noticed that there had been a family reunion in North Carolina for descendants of Jeremiah Hatfield 12 years ago.

Although being related to the Hatfield's is nothing to be proud of, I still think it is pretty cool to be related to someone famous. At least I'm not related to Adolf Hitler (that I know of), heh heh.

What I've Been Up to Lately

2009-02-20T11:27:00.007-05:00

As I have stated before, I lost my job about 2 months ago. I have enough severance pay to last me maybe a year. I have been sending out resumes, with no results thus far. My 2 children are in school, and I don't work, so how am I supposed to spend my day? Staying home watching talk shows is not my style, so what's a girl to do? Here is how I have been spending my blissful work-free days:

1. Yoga class, my nirvana.

2. Running/Walking: I meet my sister most week days for some exercise and copious amounts of blabbing.

3. Making quilts for the needy: I discovered a community group that meets one day a week for 3 hours to make quilts for desperately poor Appalachian Mountains families. Parts of the Appalachians are more like 3'rd world countries than the US. When I showed up for this group, I was surprised to find that I was the only person in the group under 65 years old. My grandparents died when I was young, so I love talking to these older ladies. You would be surprised how feisty some of them are. Here is a pic of the quilt I'm working on:
4. Volunteering-I know a woman who is an administrator for the local United Way. I told her about my problem of not knowing what to do with myself while being unemployed. Now I volunteer about 2 days a week. She sets me up with a different organization just about every time. Here are some of the things I've done:

Feed animals and help build a bridge at a local farm/camp for handicapped kids
Tutor math with at-risk middle school kids
Read with homeless kids.
Help with chores at a women's shelter
Serve lunch at a soup kitchen
Help with an art project at my son's school

5. Meet friends for lunch
6. Be a lazy S.O.B. Some days, I'll have to admit, I DO sleep till noon and do nothing. It's great.

Croatia and Sicily Pics

2009-02-18T14:18:00.006-05:00

As I have stated before, if schedules pan out,

I will be visiting Europe in the next couple of months. At this point, it looks as if I will be visiting Croatia and possibly Sicily, Italy.

I watched a Travel Channel special about Croatia a few years ago. I knew immediately that I had to visit. Previously, the first thing that sprang to mind about Croatia was genocide. Apparently, Croatia is a very safe, beautiful Mediterranean country that includes 1000 islands. Believe it or not, Sicily, Italy is just over the water from Croatia. 3 people I know who have traveled extensively recommended Croatia as their # 1 choice-independently of each other and without my even mentioning Croatia!

Below are a few stunning pictures I found of Croatia, and the last picture is of Sicily.

The first 2 pictures are of one of the most famous sites in Croatia-A series of beautiful, bright blue lakes.

Below: Dubrovnik, the best preserved historical city in Europe with the Adriatic Sea in the background.

Below: Dubrovnik

Below: Sicily, Italy with the volcano Mt. Etna in the background.

Excuse me-Does This Penis Belong To You?

2009-02-18T13:46:00.004-05:00

I went out to my car this morning and saw a pink colored something covering the antenna of my Mitsubishi Lancer. I walked over and discovered this object:

It is a rubber penis/testicles antenna cover. I got a good laugh when I saw it. I'm not sure who put it there. It was surely a friend or my ex-husband, most likely my ex.

I am glad I discovered it before I took my daughter to preschool this morning. This would be a great prank to play on a pastor or teacher! Now I get to utter a phrase to my friends and ex that I thought I would never get the chance to say-"Are you missing a penis?"

25 Things About Me

2009-02-09T10:51:00.001-05:00

I was tagged on Facebook recently to write 25 random things about me. It took me quite a while to write this crazy thing, so I thought I would at least share it on my blog, so here goes.

25 Things About Me
1. I failed my first driving test. I backed my parents' minivan into a guard rail, with an embarrassing crrrrruuuunch during the test.

2. When my sister was around 10 years old (I was 19), she was always using the family video camera to make epic movies. She would beg me and our cousins to act in her movies. I kid you not, I star in “House Party Blob 4”, and yes, there were 3 other “House Party Blob” movies.

3. My first kisses (ok, they were only pecks on the cheek) were at the age of 13. I went to a large sleepover event with a friend's church youth group. We stayed up all night playing games. One was a kissing game. The chaperones asked for volunteers. I was one of the first people to raise my hand to volunteer. Volunteer girls were blind-folded, and one boy at a time would come and kiss each girl on the cheek. Then the girls had to guess who kissed them. The last boy who kissed us put on lipstick, so we all walked away with lipstick imprints, lol! a very strange game to play at a church event, I think.

4. I have always been fascinated by languages. I have taken classes in Spanish, French, Arabic, and modern Greek. The only one of those I have a high level of knowledge in is Spanish, but I know quite a bit of French. I've been making my boyfriend teach me all of the Polish and Romanian he knows as well. I know it's mostly useless and nerdy, but I like it. My original career plan was to be a Spanish translator.

5. My favorite animal is the cat.

6. My cat recently started coming home covered in red dirt. When she does this, she reminds me of the cat who came back from the grave covered in dirt in the book Pet Sematary.

7. My 4 year old can do a cartwheel, but I can't.

8. Most people cannot bend the top joint of their fingers backwards at all. I can bend the top joint of my pinkie fingers back at a 90 degree angle. One of my pinky fingers will not lie flat. It is always bent a little in the shape of a tent.

9. I am 5'8” and weigh 135 lbs.

10. When I was growing up, my mentally retarded cousin lived with my family for about 8 years, so he is kind of like a bonus brother.

11. When I was about 8, my best friend Samantha and I would have sleep-overs all the time. We had heard that if you wrote Bloody Mary's name on a mirror in red lipstick at midnight, she would visit you, so we tried it a few times, and shockingly, it never worked.

12. My aunt was killed in 1988 in a wreck involving a tractor trailer. She was pregnant.

13. The places I would most like to visit are Croatia and Cyprus.

14. I think fake fingernails are trashy. I think short, with no polish or clear polish looks the best on fingernails. I do like to keep my toenails painted Barbie pink though!

15. One of my favorite possessions is my sounds of nature alarm clock. I fall asleep to the sound of rain falling. My other favorite possession is my hair straightening iron. It is an absolute miracle. I used to hate my hair. Now I am very happy with it. There is no such thing as a bad hair day with those things. If I could marry my hair iron, I would.

16. I HATE when people tell jokes. I enjoy stand-up comedy, but I hate hearing regular people tell jokes. They are not the slightest bit funny, and they follow the stupid routine of a certain event happening 3 times.

17. I used to have a pet cockatiel named Caesar who would sit on my shoulder and could say several words.

18. My favorite food is French and Italian. I am a huge fan of fish as well, such as salmon. I love to absolutely drench fish in lemon juice. I love really good crusty bread and think low-carb diets are heresy.

19. I am always learning new things. The last 2 things I learned are playing the piano and belly dancing (not at the same time!) The next thing I want to learn is to play the guitar.

20. I was held back in kindergarten. I always felt that being held back gave me a significant advantage all the way through elementary school. I will never understand why a parent would want their child to skip a grade, but I suspect it often has to do with bragging rights.

21. Something I will never understand is why people still discuss whether or not the groundhog saw its shadow on groundhog day. No one actually believes that bs, so why waste your breath discussing whether the little charlatan saw his shadow or not?

22. A common age for children to say their first word is at 10 months. My son's grandmother taught him to identify all of the letters and numbers by 12 months old.

23. My daughter is 4. If you ask her math problems such as 8+9. She will give you the correct answer within 2 seconds. Sorry, I had to brag on my little ones just a bit :)

24.When I was 8, my family's home was robbed. The robber was the son of a family friend. He was convicted a few years later of murder for hire as well as animal cruelty for burning animals on a Satanic altar. He has since died in prison from brain cancer.

25. I am left-handed.

My Musical Hallucination

2009-01-19T00:21:00.007-05:00

Overview: I want to share my experience of having an audible hallucination. First, I will explain a little of what a musical hallucination is, followed by my personal experience.

Musical hallucination: A form of auditory hallucination in which music is heard, often the same piece of music. In most cases the music is familiar to the person.

Musical hallucinations are most common in older people, especially women, with hearing loss. Beethoven had musical hallucinations after he became deaf. Musical hallucinations may also result from specific lesions in the dorsal pons, a part of the brain stem; these lesions are most often from a stroke and less often from a brain tumor, encephalitis, or a brain abscess. Also known as musical hallucinosis.

My personal experience: I have had one musical hallucination about 2 years ago. It was the most bizarre (albeit pleasant) experience I have ever had. I was absolutely fascinated by it and afterward read up on it via the internet.

Musical hallucinations are a little studied topic. The purpose of this post is to add my experience to the small amount known about this topic. For some reason, when I tell people about my experience, they start talking about paranormal subjects such as ghosts. This was simply a malfunctioning of some sort in my brain. Here are the facts with absolutely no embellishment:

First and foremost, I was not lying down or sleepy at all
The hallucination lasted approximately 30-45 minutes
I have no history of mental illness
I do NOT have hearing loss
I was not taking any drugs/meds of any sort
I heard a full orchestra. There was a long, complex melody; not just a few notes. There was also a flute solo at times (I used to play the flute about 10 years ago).
The music was NOT faint at all. It was at about the same decibel level as people talk.
I was alone in my house for most of the hallucination
I was aware that the music was not real, even though it sounded no different from real music.
At one point, my son walked in the house and I asked him if he heard music. He said "no" as I had expected.
It was an enjoyable experience. I was absolutely fascinated for the duration of the hallucination.

My Musings about the Cause of the Hallucination: I do not know the cause for my hallucination, but my guess is it had to do with some odd occurrences going on at that time.

This hallucination occurred during a time in my life when I was having unexplained bouts of mental fogginess. During these bouts I would sometimes forget everything stored in my short term memory. For instance, I worked for a short time as a preschool teacher. I knew all of my students' names like the back of my hand. During one of these spells, I could not remember any of their names, but I knew the names of my own children.

Sometimes I would stutter very badly during these spells. Once I took my daughter to the doctor, and one of these spells came on suddenly. I could not access the part of my brain that told me why I had brought her to the doctor.

Another time, I was at a play date with other moms. Someone asked me how old my 3 month old was. I had no earthly idea, because my brain refused to access that part of my memory. I did not want the other moms to think I was on drugs or anything, so I made a wild guess at her age. I said "she's 19 months." I'm sure they thought I was REALLY odd when they looked at this 3 month old baby that I was claiming was 19 months! These bouts were fairly rare, thank goodness, but scary nonetheless. I did see the doctor a few times, but the cause could not be determined. The most likely culprit seemed to be low blood sugar (I was tested at the doctor a few times, with normal results.). Although brain seizures (the kind you don't even know you're having) were also determined to be a possibility, the doctors said this was unlikely. Eating seemed to help these bouts, so my money is on low blood sugar. I have not had one of these bouts in at least a year and no more hallucinations. I am very thankful to be back to normal again.

In the last 50 years or less, music has become ever more accessible and common in the everyday lives of people. Scientists have hypothesized that with the advent of the Ipod especially, the prevalence of musical hallucinations should dramatically increase. Then, perhaps more research will be devoted to this fascinating topic.

What Can I Say? I was Bored.

2009-01-11T23:57:00.009-05:00

Tonight I discovered that the built in webcam on my laptop is good for something. I was really bored this evening, so I used the webcam to take the pics you see below. I sent them and others to my boyfriend who is in Romania at the moment. I'm just praying that the gypsies and/or vampires don't get him (Romania is the birthplace of Dracula) and that he returns home safely. (Note: the previous comment is in no way intended as an insult to any gypsies and/or vampires who may be reading this post.)

Today I went walking with my big sister who is really depressed and trying to leave her abusive husband. She is a very beautiful woman and has always been skinnier than I am. In the last 6 months, as a result of being depressed about her husband, she has put on about 50 pounds. We have made a pact to go walking together every day. If we do that, I have no doubt that she will shed the weight quickly. Also, maybe I will be a good influence on her and she will finally have the strength to leave her husband. We have such big mouths that we talked, talked, talked the whole time and were shocked to find we had walked for almost 2 hours. I have been running a lot lately as well to get ready for some races coming up in Spring.

Yes, I'm Still Alive

2008-12-11T11:39:00.002-05:00

I have not even visited this blog for at least a month, so I would like to update it with what's going on currently.

Last night, I stayed up until 4:00 am with my daughter while the poor little thing vomited all night. Then this morning, I had to relucantly take her to her Nana while I went to work.
Then at work...

I was permanently laid off of my job today because of corporate downsizing, so I am currently working on my resume/CV...fun, fun stuff here, people. I have been expecting this event for a while since my company's business has gone down the toilet in the last couple of years. When I was called into a conference room to be told the news, my bosses were very surprised how nonchalantly I took it. I am not the type of person who worries about anything; that's just who I am. Everyone in the office gave me hugs and a few were teary-eyed, so that made me feel really good.

I have been looking over job listings, and I expected there to be practically zero jobs listed in my profession, but I have surprisingly seen quite a few, so maybe things are a little better than I thought.

Thank goodness my boyfriend is coming home from Poland tomorrow for 3 days. Then he'll be leaving for 4 days and will back for 2 weeks. If it doesn't snow tomorrow, we're going to the mountains Saturday to go snow tubing, which is insanely fun. My boyfriend asked me if he could book a Carribbean cruise for us for Aug. but unfortunately I had to tell him that with my current job situation, I can't plan that far in advance yet, but hopefully we will still get to go anyway. Also, we have plans to go country-hopping in Europe next year. So far, he has visited France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and of course Poland while on his work project. He has been scoping out the best places for us to visit when we visit Europe. How exciting!

Oh, one other good thing that has happened...I wrote on this blog a few months ago about an injury to my knees and ankles that I sustained while carrying my 65 lb son. The injury heart-breakingly kept me from running for about 3 months. Now I am completely better and have been running some and am planning on running a race soon.

Well, that is my little update. I have really missed blogging. Hopefully, I will be picking it up more soon.

Muah!
Robin

I'm a Man, Baby

2008-10-22T12:46:00.007-04:00

These are MORPHED pics of me. I did not get a sex change. I think I scared some of my friends with these pics. I sent these to my boyfriend for a laugh. Now the next time he sees me in person, instead of seeing my face, he will see my morph man face. Oh, no! What have I done!
Here's what he said today: "You are one very special woman (especially, if you look at those distorted pictures you posted earlier...hehehhe!)."

The Real Me

Man. Oooh...I look like a serial killer.
Man
Asian
Child-WTF!!!
Afro-Caribbean

I tried out the face transforming capablities at:

http://www.faceofthefuture.org.uk/
Thanks to Bobby at Revellian.com for the tip on this site.

Freaky Doll

2008-10-16T12:59:00.003-04:00

A Fisher Price doll is being yanked off the shelves of US stores because it is apparently saying "Islam is the Light." The baby coos and then in a monotone says "Islam is the Light." I remember several years ago when parents claimed a Lion King toy was saying "smashed bananas up his ass." Disney replied that it was saying "asante sana smashed banana" which is totally believable. However, I believe this doll is actually saying "Islam is the Light." It's nothing I'm concerned about, just an interesting oddity.

Listen to the clip. What do you think? Is it really saying this?

Winners of My Best Blog Post of the Week Contest

2008-10-10T10:39:00.015-04:00

I ran a contest this week where bloggers nominated one of their blog posts to be selected for my contest. The posts could be on any topic. I received close to 35 submissions. To view some of the submissions, go to Blog Catalog.

I truly enjoyed reading every post. I think I may run more of these contests in the future. I cannot believe how much I learned by reading everyone's post.

My criteria were simple. Which posts made me laugh, think, feel, or learn the most? There were some excellent posts that I did NOT choose that were well researched and well written that could have easily won a writing contest. Basically, I chose the ones that personally "tickled" my fancy.

The Envelope Please...
The Winners Are...

1'st Place "Janey's Got a Gun" by Shirley at the blog My Thoughts by Shirley
Synopsis: A very honest account of the the death of her father, a domestic abuser. She advocates ending the culture of keeping abuse shameful and hush-hush, thereby taking power away from abusers.

2'nd Place "Hawkeye Pop and The Merchandise of Mystery" by Jennifer at the blog Of Cabbages and Kings.

Synopsis: A humorous look at her father's strange hobby of collecting odd objects of indiscernible purpose. She notes with chagrin that his collection will be all hers someday.

3'rd Place: "Portraits-My Work of Art" by Achyut at the blog Straight Drives.

Synopsis: A look at some examples of this talented, self-taught artist's drawings of celebritites. Also, a look at the creative process with which he creates his portraits. I was struck by his passion and love for art and the people he draws.

Honorable Mention: "Tiggy's Cryptic Reminders List" by Tiggy at tiggyblog.com.

Synopsis: Ever write yourself a reminder, find it days, weeks, or months later and cannot remember what the heck you were thinking when you wrote it? This post is a humorous look at some of her mystery messages.

In Closing...thanks to everyone for submitting posts. All of them were so good that I had a very hard time deciding the winners. Congrats to the winners.