There are a few things I've learned in life that you don't hear too much about. These things need to be brought to the attention of everyone who has any dealings with any other human beings. So read on. You are about to be educated.
1. One of the "conveniences" of living in this day & age is the telephone. No one calls it a telephone anymore. It is simply a phone. Like no one refers to a television as anything but a tv. We have shortened everything. In the past 15-20 years words that were 2 words are now 1 word with 2 upper case letters & no space. PowerPoint. PayPal. WorldCom. I suppose hitting that space bar to separate the words became inconvenient. Extra work.
We have simplified & we have over-convenienced ourselves to the point of inconvenience. The word "convenient" itself no longer seems to mean what it set out to mean. Case in point: That call holding feature most people have on their phones. Beep. (It should really be "bleep" instead of "beep" as it is so often associated with frustration, cussing & more cussing.) You are on the phone with your mother when she gets the beep. Oops. You're gone. "Hold on. I have another call. It could be (insert here someone - anyone more important than you)". You protest: "No. Wait. I have to talk to you. This is important." Too late. She's gone. Gone to the other side. The beep. You are left terribly frustrated because you now know that you are not as important as whoever it is who beeped in on you. Instead of that other caller getting a busy signal & having to call back, he/she gets through, & you get put on hold. And that's not fair because you were there first. Being tired of this after years & years of phone abuse, you finally have learned to hang up when you get put on hold. She calls back when the "important" call is finished, curious, & a little put out, as to why you would hang up on her. Don't you have all the time in the world to hold a phone to your ear, just waiting & waiting ? So you learn a new tactic. You hang up once you are put on hold. You wait a few seconds then you dial your mother again, knowing she will put that other call on hold because whoever is beeping in is ALWAYS more important than the one she is currently speaking with. And there is your convenience. Now you are the important one. If you hear your mom's phone beep again, this time you just hang up, consider yourself an orphan, & never call her again.
2. I am not lover of fast food. I don't even know what a Whopper contains. I don't know what a Big Mac is or what any of those new wrap things are that all of the fast food restaurants seem to be introducing lately. But I do know a little about value & service. The only fast food I eat every once in a while is an Egg McMuffin. Only I don't like to have any meat on it (ham), so I have ordered an Egg McMuffin without the ham. They give it to me & charge me the full price for the Egg McMuffin. No discount for not having the meat. What do you expect? It's fast food. But if you order a Sausage McMuffin which is on the dollar menu, you pay a dollar. If you order a Sausage McMuffin without the sausage, it is still a dollar. A lot cheaper than the Egg McMuffin without the ham because the Egg McMuffin is not on the dollar menu. And the interesting part is - - the cashier won't tell you about the difference. Don't they do this every day? One time the manager took my order. When I ordered the Egg McMuffin without the meat he said, "My wife likes it that way too." But he still charged me the Egg McMuffin price. That was when I was still naive about the McAnything world. Isn't this something a cashier/order taker would know about? The price difference between the Egg McMuffin & the Sausage McMuffin. They are both the same with the meat. But the price is different. I know not to expect a lot from fast food places, so when I do step foot inside one, I figure I get what I deserve. But at least I've learned the secret of the Sausage McMuffin. And this, my dear friends, I am passing along to you.
3. It is indeed hard times when your husband has to race around from store to store to find & stock up on - - rice. Yes rice. We are now experiencing the Great Rice Shortage of 2008. I was advised of this shortage by my husband as we sat at McDonald's yesterday gloating in our "way around the system" with regard to the Sausage McMuffin without the sausage. We had taken 2 of our cars to Discount Tire to have the tires rotated & decided to go to McDonald's just across the parking lot to wait the 45 minutes. After a sip of coffee, apropos of nothing, my husband announced, "There's a rice shortage, you know." I did not know that. I didn't even realize we were talking about rice. I couldn't help but laugh. He did not. He was serious about the rice shortage & worried, as only Lewis can be, about what we could do. He likes to buy the bags of frozen rice from Trader Joe's. Then I hear, almost to himself, "That's probably why I couldn't find the rice I usually get at Trader Joe's the last time I was there." A worried look crossed his face. I knew he had crossed a threshold then & there. The wheels were in motion. We went back to Discount Tire to retrieve our cars. He said he would meet me at home in a while. "In a while" usually means he's not coming right home. I knew he was on his way to Trader Joe's again. The Kowal Rice Hunt had begun.
Once I was home he called from Trader Joe's to ask me if I would eat brown rice. I don't like brown rice & he knows that. He asked if I would eat it if he put a sauce on it. I said I would, but I probably wouldn't be too hungry that night. Thankfully, he didn't buy brown rice. I get another call later from Costco, still on the rice hunt. It goes on & on. I'm sure this is not the last of it. Lewis likes grocery stores. He likes to shop. This is not over. Just to warn you, if you like rice, go now. Stock up. Your dinners depend on it. Oh, & the best part - - He had to buy a rice cooker. I told him we could cook rice in a regular pan like we had always done. But there's no reasoning with him now. At least not until the rice shortage is over & he moves on to something else to worry about.
4. Our sweet little Sparky had a birthday on Friday (4/25). She is 8 years old now. I should say 8 years young because you would think she is still a 1 year old puppy - - the way she runs & plays & prances & teases. She even jumps & catches a ball in the air. She's the sweetest little thing. So Happy Birthday, Sparky !
5. My necklace is tangled. I bought it about a yr ago & put it in my jewelry box. When I opened the jewelry box to take it out to wear shortly afterwards, I noticed it had somehow gotten connected to another necklace that I love. (Exactly what happens in there when you close the lid to the jewelry box?) They both have lots of little links. I can't get them apart. It's been close to a yr now that I've been working on them. I have it about 50% of the way untangled. But the remainder seems harder than the first part. Both necklaces are made of various strands, so we're not just talking about 2 connected chains. It's more like 8 connected chains. Very frustrating. (But not as frustrating as being on a call & having someone beep in on you). I used to always take my tangled jewelry to my mom to untangle, but she's so busy these days that I don't have the heart to bother her with it. Besides, she's getting ready for her Thelma & Louise road trip now. But my mom is undoubtedly the queen of untangling. Always has been. I'm sure it has something to do with her patience too. Oh, I'm sure it will still be in need of her when she returns from her trip. Maybe I'll impose on her then.
6. It's Sunday. I was awakened around 10:30 a.m. by noise in the bathroom. Lewis had pulled everything out of the linen closets & was throwing away all of the old, expired medicines & organizing the other stuff that was up there. I didn't realize we have about 10 boxes of Band-Aids. Big, small, medium. And Alka-Seltzer. We ended up with 3 large garbage bags of expired stuff. It's almost empty in there now. We have to re-stock. All of the sunscreens are expired & Lewis uses that every Sunday when he plays tennis. I even found Alex's first toothbrush. (Mickey Mouse). Have to save that. So it's really clean in there now. Lewis even cleaned out under his sink. I have been motivated by that to work on the area under my sink today. Who knows - - This house just might be clean (& organized) enough to put on the market eventually.
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We dropped Alex off at a friend's 14th birthday party last night on our way to dinner at the Grand Luxe Cafe in Scottsdale Fashion Square. I had the best salad I've ever had in my life. Yes, a salad actually can be exciting as long as it isn't made of those weeds they call "field greens". For dessert we had a chocolate cake & ice cream with hot fudge which was way too big for the 2 of us to eat. We ended up bringing half of it home for Alex.
I just made a pitcher of lemonade for my boys. They are in the family room screaming & yelling at the tv as a Phoenix Suns basketball game is presently their world. Alex just woke up around noon, then they put the game on. Why is there always a game on? At least it gives me time to write a little, check my email accounts, play Boggle, & today, work on cleaning my part of the bathroom. But before I do any cleaning, I see 2 large stacks of CDs on my desk that have not been downloaded to my iPod library yet. I think that will happen first. But the iPod still isn't cooperating. The library on the hard drive & in the external hard drive are both fine. The iPod itself won't connect & sync. I'm so tired of this thing. I went to the iTunes help site, did everything it told me to do. Still nothing. But I can't give up. I'm not going to forget all the music that means so much to me. Just wish me luck on this. It's driving me crazy. I think this is how Lewis feels about the Great Rice Shortage of 2008. Very frustrating. What can ya do? !
Phoenix Suns basketball game half-time & Alex is now outside in the driveway playing basketball. A 1-track mind!
I'm also planning on putting a bunch of authentic basketball jerseys on eBay today. They all still have tags on them & they are HUGE. Never worn. What else am I going to do with them? I have the text written for each of them. Just have to take the pictures today. And if all of that gets finished before I go to bed tonight, I just may work on my novel. It's almost finished & ready for the printer. Just have to do a little more editing.
My second lesson in remote controls was postponed because there was another basketball game on the night I was scheduled to have it. It had better happen before June !
Later.
Hugs,
Candace
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