Saturday, April 30, 2016

END OF LIFE
Glo hasn't been able to get up on her own - well, she has a couple times in the middle of the night but has just fallen in the end. They found her the other night, freezing, up against the air conditioner.  She doesn't usually remember me.  Sometimes she recognizes me and smiles. Sometimes she thinks I'm my mother. She pretty much does nothing but sit in the wheelchair and fuss and fumble with her shirt. Sometimes raising it above her head - sometimes just twisting it around her fingers. She was so prim and proper and now this. Chrissy and I still continue to say that our mother's deaths were way better than watching someone deteriorate over a long period of time. Anyway, they recommended she go on hospice - in house - they come to the facility and just provide extra care.  She failed the last couple interviews - she ended up, at the time, being able to put a string of words together to form a 6 word sentence. I think the last one was on the order of - "they are a bunch of idiots."   It wasn't really in that order but it was enough to give her a failing grade. Just recently - she passed. I've been doing some research and trying to make a decision. It's like choosing a good pre-school for my kid -  but not. 

Friday, April 29, 2016

KEEP CALM AND GO JUNKING
I had to go get a blood test and had some running around to do so I was running late, of course. Luckily, Chrissy had a doctor appointment and she was running late as well. Cindy, on the other hand, was waiting in line at the church sale we were all going to. Early bird gets the worm.  Cindy scoped it out and was pretty much done when Chrissy and Cara got there and then I showed up and everyone went around again.

It's a really nice sale. We went last year and had it on the calendar for this year… The prices are ridiculous. Everything goes to their mission trip so we're always giving them way more than they ask. I'm talking 5 and 10 cents for things.
 
I found this wooden nut tray on Ebay listed at $24.00. This one was 40 cents.

Got some work craft ideas for next year…

We decided to stop at Tri County Kitchens on our way to lunch… Chrissy was fascinated by the play food.

…a little stop off at the HUB.

… I think I want that bench.

Look at these creepy girls!!

… and then we went to the movies to see The Boss.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

FOR DIXON HOUSE
Have you seen this commercial/short film from Lowes? OMG - the heart smoke coming out of the chimney!

You know,  I can choose to not drive by the house when I go to the vet and sometimes I do. It's bittersweet, though, when I don't. As soon as I hit the cobblestone and hear that sound my heart sinks. I was thinking about all the walks with The Bud with the doors unlocked and being so far away from home and the time when DCD had to throw RB in the back of a parked truck because that big pit bull show dog (or whatever it was) up the street came after her - to play. And all of Merry's decorations and the kids in the tree and KoKo banging on the screen door…  I still keep in touch with some of the neighbors. I feel bad for them. It was such a nice street and now all the blinds are disheveled and the house just looks sad. I can't wait for somebody to fix it up.

We were in need of some improvements and were brainstorming - building an addition and having my dad move in... just selling and moving to florida… this was up until the very, very end. That's one of the reasons why everything was a little surprising. It wasn't the best house on the block but it was home and I would walk in the rooms and stop and look with love. And the light - the light in the living room and dining room. I miss the light.

I watched it go from what it was to what it became. Every time I would go back I would kiss the walls and take pics of each of the rooms like a google map vehicle. I have jump drives of all the photos. I wouldn't notice some things until I would download the pics. I saw the framed photos get all turned around - the weekend when JMR was due to visit… and saw the bottles of SEs favorite wine on the counter, and the drum kit MA had to sleep in the room with etc… etc… I saw and documented everything.  Until the last days when it looked like the inside of Journeys of Life - all that was missing was the cash register. Even giant rose quartz couldn't bring it back to life.  Or maybe it was the sage smudging I did just before I left.

It doesn't really matter.

There was love and thought put into everything in there - the paint colors in all the rooms and the flowers outside… and everything in between.  The clouds on the ceiling and the knobs on the laundry room closet doors...

Maybe one day, Dixon House, your rooms will be filled with love again.

I hope so.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

I THOUGHT I'D BE HAPPIER
So, these dishes. They have been sitting in storage for how long now?  Maybe I should have just left them there!

I have thought long and hard about the additional colors. I don't take this shit lightly. ;-)

I came up with the best combination for me and decided on 6 new colors. Honestly, I wanted to do this a long time ago. Hence the one purple dish we had with the original colors...

Kohl's had them on sale and you could use the 30% off coupon… got a free gift with each set.  I ordered and then they had different free gifts the next day so I ordered them all again.

Half of these are going back.

I took them out of the boxes and checked them and wiped them off and stacked them up.

I stepped back and looked at them.

I smiled and was like look at me and my new dishes!

About 10 seconds later… I was like  - so what?

I talked to Chrissy that night and said I didn't even need these dishes. Why did I even buy them?

I can't even use them until I get a dishwasher because The Dad will break every one in the sink.

She tried to console me and said you'll use them on Fridays, blah, blah blah

I just stood there on the phone looking at them and said - I know. I just thought I'd be happier.

Isn't that just the saddest thing?

Lesson learned... Money can't buy you happiness. It just buys you dishes.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

REST IN PURPLE
I played the violin for many, many years. I would always go to the shows here with my cousin/godmother, Loretta, and watch the cast come out of the door with their instruments. Some times I wish I would have pursued that. Live theater is still the best and I'm sure is hard work and exhausting and magical.  The cast of The Color Purple and The cast of Hamilton made tributes to Prince. You can view both in this post.

I'm not a fan of this guy but he did Purple Rain justice -  Adam Levine and Train at Howard Stern's 60th Birthday.

And, speaking of violins - this guy - Damien Escobar. Y'all know I don't say awesome very much. I think I have to say it here. He'll be in Pittsburgh in June.

But what may be the best thing ever is Prince's post Super Bowl performance on New Girl. On Demand it if you can or I heard it will be airing again on Tuesday.

I was just talking about his wax figure and wondering what the heck I was looking at here. Rest in peace, Prince.  Nothing will ever compare to you.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

TEST RUN
Well it's almost a year since we put the fire pit in and we never lit it up! Tonight was just a TR - test run  - with an impromptu hot dog cooking and s'more making. We weren't exactly prepared… I ended up using dead Harry Lauder as kindling!  Thank you HL. May you rest in peace and I hope you don't emit poisonous gas.

This guy got it going… Wahoo!

…and we got some dogs on the barbie…

…finally.

I still don't trust the pup around the fire. She can't see and she doesn't pay attention and I totally believe she would just jump right in it.

The Dad and the dogs...

Side note - remember the years of the guys eating 5+ hot dogs on a Friday night…  and Aunt Joyce's potatoes with the Old Bay seasoning because of Oprah's chef?!

Anyway, turned out nice. Just have to find some sort of doggy protective suit so she's safe if she jumps in the fire! LOL  I actually found a coat from Japan! It's a real disaster cape for earthquake and fire protection...

I was thinking more like this - that cape doesn't have enough head and tail protection!

She thinks she'll look like a freak and the other animals will tease her for being a pussy so, for now, I'll keep her on a leash.

Is she the cutest lovey dovey or what?

Love The Bud.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

WE'RE TOTALLY DATING
Chrissy will be out of town for a bridal shower this weekend so we met for dinner last night since we won't see each other on Friday. We were laughing saying we're totally dating. ;-)  We went to Olive and Peppers - huge wait… it was good but it took forever since they were so busy - on a random wednesday night. Till we meet again...

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

MORE FUN THAN A BARREL OF MONKEYS
We took some residents to the History Center for the Toy exhibit.

Everyone had a good time…

They had living room mock ups with televisions showing videos of the different toys from the era...

They watched them all and reminisced about their toys and their kid's toys and their grandkid's toys…

This looks like my basement!

So much to see… We took a stroll to some of the other floors.

So many good things… We talked about first rides on the Turnpike...

Bocce with the boys...

We got on the street car which they loved!

They loved the baseball and sports stuff - we have two ladies (in their eighties) that know EVERYTHING about baseball and were thrilled to touch the bats and see all the exhibits.

They liked the Heinz displays…
 
I, of course, love my trucks!

XOXO

I didn't know there were all these other Mr Potato (Veg) heads!  Katie the Carrot,  Cooky the Cucumber, etc… I want them all.

Did you know there was a Lady Lionel Train set? Circa 1957. Retailed for around $50 and is worth $7000 - $9000. I need to find one of them at a house sale!!

We could have stayed hours longer… Everyone had such a good time!

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Sunday, April 17, 2016

YESTERDAY
Yesterday was Glo's birthday. 88 years old! Cara and I stopped in the afternoon and brought cupcakes to the nurses. Glo had no idea what was going on. No idea at all. I can't even bring myself to post a photo or a video of it. You wouldn't even recognize her if you saw her. She's in a Geri Chair - can't even hold herself up and hardly responds to anyone or anything. I feel guilty because there's nothing I can do and I'm exhausted from work and how I feel and I feel like I'm not doing enough for her even though there's not much I can do. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing that I work where she is.  It's all becoming too much. Yesterday was also 8 years since RoseBud died… and, in my opinion, was the start of the eventual end of my marriage.  So much - all rolled into so many yesterdays.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GLO!

Saturday, April 16, 2016

AND NOW MY BITTER HANDS CRADLE BROKEN GLASS OF WHAT WAS EVERYTHING
So, I mentioned that we were going to go to storage before we took a road trip to the Fiesta outlet. The plan was to see what I had. Honestly, I couldn't remember. Well, that never happened.  We decided to stop on our way back. I wanted to grab the boxes and put them in the car to eventually sort through back at the house. We were undecided as to where to go get dinner so we were using that as a stop off to get our thoughts together.

Then all hell broke loose.

We opened one storage door and then the other… I had put stuff from my car into Chrissy's car before we left on our adventure that was going to storage anyway but I didn't want to drive around with it.  They were unloading chrissy's car and I was getting the boxes off the shelves in Dave's unit to put in my car

Then I realized something…

He had most of the dishes.

I really didn't remember that but as I was taking the boxes down - which were all marked, I kept reading serving dishes and tea cups, etc… I'm like, wait a minute, where are all the dishes?

And then I started throwing things.

It was difficult to even get to the shelf and I was trapped on all sides and I couldn't catch my breath and just went on a rampage.  They were (mostly) empty boxes - I think - but I went a little Hulk on everyone.

I loaded the car with what I had  kind of frazzled by the whole experience and was like, jesus christ, we had such a fun day and now, after this, and all these years later and it's like it just happened..

My whole life in storage is a big fucking chaotic mess.

We decided to stay close and go to Burgatory. I think they though I was just hangry and once I ate I would calm down but I pretty much pouted the whole time trying to come up with a color plan to add to the dishes.Three of the four original colors of ours are retired so what's a girl to do?

I was driving back and this Pearl Jam song came on and I seriously had visions of me throwing all the dishes I had in the car out the window as I was riding down the parkway.  I was stopped at the light and was like I'm just going to grab a box and start breaking shit...

I didn't do it - maybe I should have. It's such a good breaking shit song.

Friday, April 15, 2016

TGIF (PA-WV-OH Edition)

It was my pick today.  We went big - as Jeannine always does.

Chrissy met me at Cara's house with Iced Tea in hand…

They jumped in my car and we got ready for our adventure.

I sent this out to the girls last night…

Tudor's Biscuit World, Bitches!

I've only been to the one near Beckley I guess??  I can't remember where we were. We were coming back from a TriLine wedding… anyway, the closest one is in Weirton so that's where we went.

We carried on a little way down the road to here...

The goal was to get to storage before we ventured out there. We never made it but decided to go anyway. Chrissy had called in the morning to see if there were openings on the tour and they said no.  They were calling out names while we were shopping and we looked at each other and, telepathically, I told her to go find out if we could join the tour. She went running and asked if there were any spots. They only had 2 slots but they took all 3 of us! Wahoo!  What a nice tour - we went all through the factory and saw every part.   We got a souvenir plate too!

There's a small museum there with all kinds of stuff…you start and finish the tour there.

And, of course, the store…

Don't they just make you happy?

Even the seconds in their little crates are adorable.

We went a ittle crazy with the $2.00 grab bags.

I got 5, Chrissy got 6 and Cara got 3.

It was all hotel/commercial stuff. LOVE. I was happy with my picks.

I totally forgot about this! I feel like it was somewhere else though. I don't remember it being in the middle of the interchange. I need to research that.

After Fiesta we went to East Liverpool, Ohio. I had gone there with Cindy but wanted to take them to the antique mall.

We stopped at the little cafeteria for chicken and mashed potatoes.

This was on our way back somewhere - Doesn't this remind you of the Fisher Price barn??

I want to live in it!

Obligatory pelo pic.

We stopped in Cranberry on the way back to go to HomeGoods. The whole time we kept saying this was such a fun day.

Until…