Musings

Red Hat Society

Driving past Coldstone (Ice cream parlor) in the Geneva Commons mall I saw a group of about 20 of these women sitting at umbrellad tables on the sidewalk out front. They seemed to be enjoying huge sundaes and having a great time. All of them in full 'Society' regalia, that being red hats and purple outfits.

I had heard tales of these women, I'd never actually had a sighting of them in a herd like that, and was happy to see that they do exist. According to the website these groups have sprung up all over the country after the founder was inspired by this poem by Jenny Joseph:

Warning When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells And run my stick along the public railings And make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain And pick the flowers in other peoples' gardens And learn to spit. You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat And eat three pounds of sausages at a go Or only bread and pickle for a week And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes. But now we must have clothes that keep us dry And pay our rent and not swear in the street And set a good example for the children. We must have friends to dinner and read the papers. But maybe I ought to practice a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

I admire these women, they have spunk. My mother-in-law has often spoken of this group and I think she even belongs to a chapter. Well, while shopping in San Diego I ran across the most beautiful red hat and with this group and my mother-in-law in mind I bought it. Now, technically I bought the hat for her to wear to her society meetings, but whether she actually receives the hat or not is yet to be seen as I have fallen in love with the lovely crimson topper. I'm thinking that I’ll go ahead and give it to her and make her swear an oath that she will return the hat to me when she tires of wearing it. Mind, I’m not a hat person so I don’t actually intend to wear it, I just want to be able to look at it from time to time, crowning my hat stand.

Bloody Gifts

Those of you who own cats will understand, the rest of you should perhaps avert your eyes.

Having been away from my Snickers for almost a year, I had managed to forget some of the sweet yet grisly benefits of cat ownership. You see cats, unlike dogs, are scrupulous about earning their keep around the house. What you might ask could a cat possibly do to earn its keep. Well, cats are extraordinarily good hunters and in a show of loyalty (yes, they are just as loyal as dogs, if not more) they like to share their nightly kill with their masters.

When Snickers was young she began earning her keep by leaving her freshly killed mouse or baby bunny or ground squirrel (well the bloody, furry mass that was left over after she’d eaten her share.) on the front steps where I would be sure to nearly step on it on my way out to work.

At first I didn’t understand these road blocks and would kick the grisly prize into the nearby shrubs and curse the damn cat loudly. Then I began to understand the significance of these bloody fur balls and would kick the grisly prize into the nearby shrubs and thank the cat and then get into my car and curse her loudly.

Over the years Snickers’ prizes became smaller and less frequent. In the years preceding our move her prizes had dwindled to large dragonflies on the doorstep a few times during the summer.

I of course attributed this to the fact that the fat cat was aging and not as spry as she used to be and also that she had become complacent and confident as to her place in our hearts and home.

However, in the two weeks since I have arrived back at Illinois house, Snickers has left me, no less than 4 dead baby bunnies (identified mostly by their color and their ears). Of course she also seems to know that I’m not going to go out the front door in the morning and has left these grisly baubles in the driveway behind my truck where I am sure to run them over and grind them into the pavement where they will be forever immortalized as macabre stains.

Apparently my suppositions were wrong about the dwindling size and frequency of her gifts. Apparently the issue was lack of game. You see, S (and sometimes I) would dispose of nests full of these rodents when we’d run across them in our gardening. We’re not the cruel tear-the-wings-of-off-flies types, we are gardeners and grown rabbits can eat an astonishing amount of vegetation. Well, it seems that in the year that we’ve been gone the rabbit population has known some really happy times. They are everywhere you look and apparently still breeding, even this late in the season. Poor Snickers is doing her very best, but there are just too many of them. On the bright side, I have three more weeks of lovely surprises to look forward to.

Books

The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy – Book 1) by Jonathan Stroud - A fantasy novel for young readers told from the point of view of the djinni, Bartimaeus, about a young magician in training named Nathanial. I loved Bartimaeus’ sarcasm (me? Sarcasm?) and his self promoting style in telling the story of this unfortunate boy. I can’t wait for the sequel, The Golem's Eye (Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2) to come out in September.

Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, Book 6) - I have read all of the books in this series, that has been over twenty years in the making/completing. I know that Mr. King meant for this to be his opus, but this installment is a bit disappointing. It’s not up to his usual high standards of story telling. To make things worse he writes himself into this story. I read it because I’ve read all the others and will read the final installment The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, Book 7) when it comes out in September, because I really want to see what all the sacrifice of this band of friends has been for. I like the story and it’s been wildly imaginative, but this last installment was thrown together too fast and he seems to reach hard to incorporate a lot of stuff from his other writings.

That is all.

Tonight

It’s a beautiful night. There is just a sliver of a moon showing through a bit of haze in the sky. The air is thick and heavy and full of the scent of my stargazer lilies in the garden. I’d like to sit next to an open window and read one of the shiny new stories I just bought at Borders tonight. Because I’ve just come home from some heavy duty book shopping. (Yes, more books…you can never have too much reading material you know.) Yes, it would be nice to sit next to an open window and read and listen to the night sounds and smell the flowers.

Of course the window would have to have a screen to safeguard against nasty, buggy creatures, and well…I’d have to have a fan to move some of this heavy, soggy air around. Ok….well maybe the window would have to be closed so I could run the air conditioning…And well, reading by moonlight would be hard so I’d need a lamp….

You know what, forget it, it’s a HOT and STICKY night that’s hard to breathe in because every breath feels like a drink of water. And the bugs are icky and numerous and the smell of the lilies is too sickening sweet to be tolerated for too long.

I’m going to get into my bed and read and just pretend I’m outside in the picture perfect night. Yup, that’s the ticket.

Three posts in one day? I must be bored.

DMV

The day having started out so fine and me being in such a good mood I decided, after my cruising in the rain storm, to go and get a new Illinois Driver’s License. I prepared my paperwork and proofs of ID. I gathered my birth certificate, voter’s registration card, utility bill, passport, canceled check and blood sample and drove to the DMV.

Upon my arrival I was greeted by NO line and a very friendly young man named Mario. I told Mario I needed a replacement driver’s license because mine had been lost. (Yes, lost…that is what you call it when the French confiscate your license and refuse to give you one of theirs in trade for 2 or 4 months!) I began to hand over all of my identifying paperwork and after looking at the first two, he held up a hand to stop me and said “This is all I need.”

I mentioned to Mario that my license was due to expire in December and could I go ahead and extended it. I expected to hear that I would have to take a test, but Mario just said “Ok.”

A little keyboard clicking, a 2 second pretend eye exam and a quick photo and presto chango, I have an Illinois driver’s license that is good until 2008! It took me 10 minutes.

Words cannot express….I mean 10 minutes…damn French!

Storm

It’s storming outside this morning. The sounds of heavy rain mix with the thunder to shake the house. I can’t help myself, I feel an irresistible urge to go out and drive in it. I’ve opened all the windows in the house to let in the sounds but it’s not enough. Gotta go for a drive.

More later.

The word for the day is...

The state of Illinois seems to have a soporific effect on me. I seem to be incapable of getting enough sleep. At 9 I’m still in bed and could sleep for a few more hours and then at noonish I need a nap. Of course this could be because I don’t get to sleep until after 1 a.m., but in SD I did the same thing and managed to get through the day without a nap. I hate napping too, it makes me groggy in the afternoon. But here in IL I feel like I could go right to sleep at any point of the day. I blame the corn pollen. Yep, that’s what it is.

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Went to ‘Dulce Vita’ to get my hair done today. My friend Anne owns this great new salon and I have been made an official gold card member; that means big discounts for me on all of their salon and spa services. It’s good to have the right friends. Well, it pays to be supportive of your friends when they first start out on a new career. Will be going in for a massage soon.

After the hair appointment, J and I spent the rest of the day together. First we went to the hardware store for softener salt, a dehumidifier for the basement and some replacement light switches for several that have stopped working in the house. (I need a course in electrical, and I need it soon!) (Will attempt replacing switches myself tomorrow.) Then we went to CPK for lunch, it was very yummy. Then we wandered around Geneva Commons and tried stuff on at Banana Republic and Anthropology. Browsing and trying didn’t actually lead to buying but it was fun. Then we went and got pedicures to pamper our tired dogs and make them pretty and soft. Then we went to a movie. Well we tried to go to a movie but the projector was broken. They refunded our money and kicked us out. Overall though we had fun and we had some good mom/daughter talk.

Sorry to all of you who have phoned me and not gotten a response. I have a habit of setting my phone to vibrate when I go to movies and then forgetting to turn the ringer back on.

Dinner and a movie with the Ya-ya’s was great fun last night. We went to Vick’s afterward and had some fabulous pie and coffee.

That’s all for today. Nothing funny or spectacular happened today but it was a good day.

Off to bed…at 7:00 p.m.!?

Nap Time

The young vampire at the endocrinologist's took enough blood to make herself a nice cocktail, I hope she enjoyed it.  I, for one choose to look on the bright side and consider it a weight loss plan.

The mammography tech was much nicer, though no amount of solicitude could detract from the discomfort of what her chattiness was trying to mask.

The only dark spot in my otherwise ‘cheery’ week is having to deal with insurance issues.  Every time health insurance issues come up I hate MCo. more and more, but let’s not get into it I already hate them with the intensity of several white hot burning suns and this latest screw up, though adding fuel to the fire, cannot make any noticeable difference in my feelings for them.

So on to happy news…  I spent last evening with J and her friends.  We went to see ‘The Stepford Wives’.  We spent the pre-movie time talking about old times and reminiscing about injuries they inflicted on each other in jr. high.  As a mom it's funny to hear stuff now, years down the road, which they hid from me then.

The movie itself was not as entertaining but it was funny, also 'different' and a bit odd.  When the movie was over though we had many questions that had to go unanswered.  Perhaps I’ll write to Mr. Broderick or Ms. Kidman and see if they can shed light on some of the many holes in the plot.  Oh…what…it was only meant to be entertaining you say….not meant to be feasible?  Well, of course I know that, but there were still a few holes in the plot anyway.

No I’m not in a crabby mood…Ok, yes, I’m a little cranky, but how would you be feeling if parts of your body had recently been pressed in a vice?

Going to have dinner with the Ya-ya’s tonight and then we’ll go to a movie, I’ll try to cheer up by then.

Maybe I need a nap.

Yes, that’s it…a nap will be just the thing.

Ooh, wait, thunder and lighting outside!  Now that will cheer me up!  Ta for now.

Courage

On July 11th (My last night in San Diego) I was privileged to attend a charity concert at San Diego's Symphony hall. My brand new sister-in-law, who has a beautiful singing voice, is a member of the San Diego Master Chorale which was joined by the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra in an event to raise money for the St. Madeleine Sophie's Center Gallery. Sophie's Gallery is a working art studio and gallery that helps adult artists with developmental disabilities.

The concert was opened by the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. The singer was a student from Sophie's Center named Diane Jones. This young woman, though unable to fully annunciate many of the words of the anthem, sang one of the most moving interpretation of our national anthem that I have ever heard. I was moved by her sweet voice, her courage and her willingness to explore her talents despite her disabilities.

The second half of the concert featured selections from 'My Fair Lady'. I loved that part. Ardo and I tried to keep our voices down as we sang along.

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Arrived in hot and sticky Illinois at 6 p.m. last night and was so glad to see J. J had set up my room for me with fresh linens (on the blasted air mattress!) and flowers and a present. Of course the welcoming effect of all of these things was offset by the MOUNTAIN of mail on the desk waiting for my attention. I ignored the mail and climbed into J's bed with her and we watched a movie and ate junk food. It was very relaxing.

Today started sifting through the mountain on the desk which promptly avalanched onto the floor. The good news is that 98% of it was junk mail, the bad news is that there was a bill in there that needed attention in April! Really must come up with a better system I think.