Happy Anniversary

Today is my sixth anniversary.

Happy Anniversary Rob and thank you.

Thank you for the times you held me as I cried. We have been through a lot together in our six years. Losing your Dad and later your baby sister, my heart surgery and struggling to pay bills on one salary for several years afterwards. Difficulties with friends, a move from one home to another and so much more. Through it all there was never one moment of doubt that you loved me. Although I shared my life with someone else for over twenty years I never felt the way you make me feel, secure and loved. I can never thank you enough for that or for restoring my faith that there are good people, trustworthy people in the world. While we give cards and sometimes gifts and mark the day by a nice dinner out in my heart I am grateful every day for the gift of your love.

You're the best.

In the words of the Stylistics

" You are everything and everything is you."

The best is yet to come baby.

More Changes

This week I went over to see my neighbor Shirley, who is organizing a surprise brunch this morning for her parents' 50th anniversary. When I saw her I was in awe of her beautifu new haircut. She informed me that it was a special day first haircut half price with a new operator. I have not had my hair that short in so many years but it was so pretty I decided to give it a whirl.
I had gone to this particular salon many years ago but stopped going because their prices were high. What I discovered was some things are worth it. My hair has not had a good cut or color since I have changed and to be honest, the cheaper salons start out cheap but raise their prices to the point I am now paying the same as I was. Difference is the quality of the hair color and cut I have been receiving. I went and met Michelle who was a real sweetheart and she spent no less than an entire hour cutting my hair. After covering the gray I hope to get a good picture of it to post. I have never received so many compliments on a hair cut. Even men have stopped me to remark how good it looks, which is rare for me.

I have been feeling so much better lately and enjoying that immensely. Not only did I get my work hours changed to the best shift 9-5:30 but the past few weeks call volume has been slow and I had the opportunity to take one day each week off. Of course this is "volunteer" and I do not get paid and my check was down significantly BUT that extra time combined with my new shift has me feeling ever so much better. I think that the extra time off will end this week but it has done me a world of good. The attrition rate where I work is so high. This week I said goodbye to another two coworkers. Still I am with some people who started the same day that I did. On October 22 less than two months away I will have been here a year. My job is not an easy one but this is the best pay I have ever received, the medical benefits are great, the workplace is nice and the cafeteria is "world class". I am hoping to be there for a time longer. Especially while making my car payments.

Did everyone see Obama's speech? It has been YEARS since I watched a political speech with such interest. I enjoyed it and across the screen they were saying it was the anniversary of Martin Luther King's speech. How appropriate. I kept thinking "Dr. King, if only you could see this tonight. You dreamt where a person would not be judged by the color of their skin and tonight this man is being judged on the content of his character. Your dream, at least in part, has come true." An African American being nominated for President. Wow. I really love Michelle Obama, what a classy, intelligent and attractive lady. We got into a discussion at work. A young black man said he would not vote for Obama because he was "pro abortion". I told him he was pro choice NOT pro abortion, there is a distinction to be made. I told him that most people are ignorant about abortion. Look what happened during prohibition. You can outlaw it but there will be people who will have illegal abortions and perahaps die as a result. People try to simplify the issues. Although I could personally never have an abortion, I cannot make that choice for someone else. Until I am ready to raise the child for the person who feels they cannot, I don't feel it's my choice to make. Having said that, I find it morally reprehensible to use abortion as a form of birth control. I'm sorry but I don't think anyone who has the wealth of McCain or Bush can understand what it is like for me, struggling to pay bills. They cannot imagine what it's like to make a decision to fill a necessary prescription or put gas in their car. I have had to make those decisions in the last few years. I refuse to vote on ONE issue. I want the government to have people who truly care about it's citizens. I want our country to have nationalized health care. I understand that there are issues with it but everyone deserves medical attention when they need it. With my job I spend about $170 most months for medical. I then spend hundreds more on doctor visit copays, prescription copays or emergency room copays. At least 30% of my salary is going for medical costs. The rest is going for ever rising utilites, food and gas. In the past year my costs for those things have gone up so much my raise couldn't come near keeping pace.
In the meantime the executives of those companies received outrageous bonuses. Even my wealthier friends are saying how much things have gone up. Right now I have two friends who will no doubt lose their homes in the next six months unless they find someone to bail them out.
I think we need a big change in this country and I am going to do my small part to effect it.

Kicking Back a Bit

This week I was fortunate to get Friday off work. When workload is light some of us are allowed to take the day off, unpaid of course. I jumped at the chance. (Dismissing thoughts of new couch which had been ordered but not yet paid for, or car repairs being done on Monday). My friend and her husband came about four p.m. on Friday. They said they were staying for the whole weekend but ended up leaving on Saturday. My friend is usually able to drink and hold her liquor. Not sure why but Friday night after a few margaritas she was not feeling well. She tossed her cookies several times and once there was a mess to clean up in my guest room. Her husband was now glued to the tv watching the olympics so that job fell to me. Ugh. She did come with dinner in hand, chicken breasts for the grill, tomatoes from her garden which were delicious and even cheesecake for dessert. Did I mention Patron tequilla? Whew.
On Saturday she woke up at 6:30 and went downstairs for a snack. That of course set my dog wanting to be investigate and we were woken up. My house is a difficult house to entertain in.
There is no family room or den, just a small living room with the tv in it. When a guest takes the remote and puts on what they want there is no other place for others to have quiet unless they go outside. The kitchen has a partial wall and is completely open to the living room so you cannot really have a conversation there when the tv is loud. I am not a fan of sports on tv and I found myself doing things like laundry to avoid that room. Later we did go out for a nice lunch and popped into a few stores. Got some nice soaps for sale. I also splurged on some "hotel quality"....make that 5 star hotel quality sheets. Over the past few years I have had the worst sheets. I have a thick mattress and some don't accomodate that. These have deep pockets and I just put them on the bed. Tonight I shall luxuriate on cotton sateen sheets with a very high thread count. On yes, life is good. I am enjoying a quiet Sunday at home and tonight the luxury of cotton sateen. Does it get better than this? :)

Just another brick in the wall

Somedays are so repetitious that I want to scream. Then come the weekends and I fantasize about what will happen and it is very far from the reality of what does happen. The dog wakes us up by 7 a.m. For the life of me I don't know how anyone else is able to sleep late who has a pet but Duffy breathes heavy and whines. By the time I get up and go downstairs to let him outside I am now fully awake. I never can get a nap because later in the day the neighborhood kids are out there making a ton of noise. This neighborhood has the most kids I have ever seen. Note to self never buy another house in the winter months when you can't judge this. I am more and more thinking my next purchase will be in an adult community. Not that I dislike children but at my stage of life when I don't have little ones the noise is distracting from my senior activities such as reading books or gardening. Neighbors drop by which causes Duffy the Lunatic to swing into action. He barks and growls and then said neighbors rarely want to come inside. This defeats the purpose of them coming I think.

I received a disturbing email this week from a family member (sort of). In it they accused me of not appreciating my husband followed by another offensive remark. I appreciate my husband immensely. People are so quick to judge others. They have no idea what it's like to work a stressful job and rush home and then deal with dinner on the table, greeting the pets, having someone at the door and their phone call. I need a bit of downtime and sometimes my darling who has been home two hours already loses sight of that. He tries to make my arrival a welcoming time but sometimes one just needs to slither into the comfy chair and regroup.
(Author of email frequently refers to hubby's childhood home as his home. His home (by his choice) has been here in NJ with me the last eight years and he has emphasized this many times with this being ignored.)

I have ordered a sofa which is not beautiful as my last new sofa I ordered was. This was chosen for comfort and quality. I am hoping we will really enjoy it. We picked a fabric and it will be another two months before we can take delivery. It is hard when you are also working around other items in the room colorwise. My chair and a half is gold, eggplant and a brownish/green and the sofa will be a brownish gold quality fabric. I would rather buy something once of quality than replace several inexpensive items over and over.

I am tired and heading to the shower. Trying to get my mind ready to return to work after a three day weekend this week. Next weekend we are having houseguests, my friend and her husband. They are bringing plants and going to do some gardening work for me that I have not been able to do. Looking forward to that. There are just not enough visits with friends these days.