A few random thoughts.

1.  I really like the Marsha Sharp Freeway but why oh why would they build a brand new freeway with only 2 lanes each way?  If you are going to inconvenience an entire city for 5 years, build 3 lanes.

2. Speaking of that freeway, I wish the drivers who aren't getting off at whatever exit would get in the other lane so those of us that need off at whatever exit can get off there.

3.  I've tried to eat yogurt over the years but have decided I just don't like it much.

4.  I love my new job but loved my old schedule better.  Don't like working til 5pm.  And liked being at work at 730 to avoid traffic.  See thought 1 & 2.

5.  Kliff Kingsbury is adorably cute.  I am excited about Texas Tech football again.

6.  Why does a girl bring her chocolate lab to college with her, then make him live in a 700 sq ft and a 8x8 patio?  She takes him out to do his business and right back up the stairs.  She leave him and another dog on the patio all day...in the heat, in the rain.  She doesn't exercise him.  The other dog barks all the time when he's out.  Her dog just looks sad.

7.  I know tv is big business but afternoon games at the first of September in the south are cruel.  They showed the thermometer today at the Baylor game...it was about 2 pm and it was 117 degrees on the field.
No one should have to play in that heat.

8.  I love the school colors of Stephen F Austin University.  Purple and white.

9.  No one has a prettier symbol of a university than the horse at Texas Tech.

Fast Food~~Not sure what it hurts most: Butt or Blood Pressure

I am not really a big fast food person.  My standby place to eat when I'm too tired to make a decision is a west Texas place called Taco Villa.  I think they started in Odessa and they have a few stores between Odessa and Lubbock and they are familiar and comforting.  And I eat at Scholtzkys some because I walk out the back door and cross the alley from my office and I'm there. And I love Chic Fil A and there is one in my neighborhood that I've been to one time since I've lived here.    I have always, for some reason, liked Egg McMuffins so occasionally I will stop at McDonalds in the morning but actually find the rest of their food disgusting.  Which brings me to my rant, which is not about food but fast food employees.

One morning last week, while on my way to work, I went through the drive thru and I heard the employee say "it's not wrapped in the right paper" but he handed me sack anyway.  So I pulled over in the lot and sure enough, it was the wrong thing.  I pulled back around where I had to wait in line again for them to replace it. It actually annoyed me enough that I put a complaint in on their website when I got to work.  4 calls form corporate, offering me a free meal which I declined.  I was not needing a free meal.  I just wanted someone to know that my valuable morning time was wasted.  They all assured me they would discuss with manager. Normally, I would have just not gone back.  But last Sunday morning, there was one person in line and I figured they could handle handing me a Diet Coke out the window.  But I was wrong.  I got to the window and paid and then had to pull up behind the only other car in the lot where I sat for 12 full minutes.  By the time I'd been there a couple I was boxed in or I would have left.  So at 12 minutes, I called the number I still had in my call log in my cell phone from the manager calling me last week and they were surprised there was someone else in line.  I saw a little head come out the window to look to find not just me 2nd but several cars behind me.  When I finally got to the window they said they did not realize someone else was in line.  I asked them to make me  fresh drink so I could see that no one spit in it.  I should have filed another complaint but whatever.  That particular store cannot be making a ton of $$ because I rarely see anyone there.  Someone needs to Undercover Boss that place.

And then on the way home earlier this week I stopped at Chicken Express and watched as people behind me went to the newly opened lane 2 and got their food before I did.  And again, I was boxed in.  Being trapped in a line is an annoying trend among fast food joints these days.

My bigger problem is the employees at these places.  No doubt they are uneducated.   They can't take an order, they can't count change.  In my experience they are also don't care about doing a quality job, they are rude to each other and their customers and they need constant supervision from some who has a stake in the store.  Sadly, they are probably graduates of our public school system where...well, I'm not sure what is stressed but it's not math, reading or problem solving.  And I guess in some of their minds minimum wage deserves minimum effort.  No pride in a job.  I know I'm generalizing but these are my experiences and they happen every time I eat fast food.   So I guess I need to stop...for my butt and my blood pressure.

House Pros and Cons

At the end of May, I was in a funk.  I knew I was not going back to school.  I'd had enough of cafeteria duty.  The principal, secretary and nurse was leaving and they weren't leaving me there alone.  I was making diddly money.  I was ready for a change.  I had thought maybe I'd move out of town.  Then the house sold.  I got an apartment.  And I thought I could live here for awhile.  I was wrong.

So now it's house time again.  And I don't know exactly what I want but I don't want much yard.  I want as little yard as possible.  So I've been looking at garden homes.  I've decided that a garden home is a smaller house than normal but $50,000 more.  Today I saw 2.  The first is in a great neighborhood and beautiful on the outside.  And butt ugly on the inside.  I don't know where they got the pictures but this house did not look like the pictures.  The second one was much better.  I really liked it.  But why?  Do I love it because I love it or because I hated the first one so much.  Because the apartment is such a poof fit?  There are definite pros and cons on the 2nd one.  

Pros:

Very well kept up house.  

Great pantry.

Very little yard.

Plantation shutters.

Huge bedrrooms

Huge master bath with separate shower

Good carpet

2 car, rear entry garage

$2500 less than ugly first one. 

Realtor thinks we can offer $5500 less than asking price. 

Pretty neighborhood

Gas logs. 

Great laundry room.

Cons:\

Across from Frenship football field.  Loud Friday nights.

Corner lot, side backs up to commercial property  for sale.  Potential dumpsters next door.  If sells to restaurant, potentially even smellier.

All inside needs paint.

Only 2 bedrooms.

All kitchen appliances need to be replaced.  Horrible dishwasher,  Stove with coils.  ICK!!

Gas in house but not sure if in kitchen.   Is in fireplace so may get lucky.

For now.

Bathing Suits

No, folks, it's not a pretty site but I don't care!!   I own one bathing suit and on some days, when I get home from work, I put it on and I go spend some time in my apartment pool.  Yesterday, I was anxious to jump in and it was closed for cleaning and chemical-ing.  Bummer!!   And it was cooler today so I did not go but I will go again and often!!  Here is my pool:

And today, I ordered 2 new bathing suits and less than 1/2 price!!   And they are pretty.  And I'm going to wear them!!  Ok, not on the weekend when all of the hard bodies are out but on the days after work.  And when I go on vacation, they are going with me.

First one, with black skirt bottom

2nd one, navy blue w/white

I found the pics on Google images and the other one said it was "fat chic'.  I've never been chic before.

I have suffered from poor body image all of my life and if you've seen me you'd know why.  Weight is now and always has been a problem.  I've fought it all of my life and I've had some victories (50lbs gone) but it is probably not a fight I'll ever win fully.  But yesterday I turned 56 years old and I have figured out in the last few years that what other people think is not something I can control.  But it is still hard with out with 20 year olds in bikinis at the pool. 

And I found this on Pinterest and it's true:

Blogging is dead. But I'm not going anywhere.

My posts have been sporadic at best lately with much going on but I am still here.  And according to Jenny the Bloggess (One of the best on the internet), Time Magazine  has declared blogging dead.  Apparently there are too many other medias that take attention and I can kind of agree with that.  I Facebook some.  I tweet, mostly about the Rangers or Real Housewives.  But guess what?  I cannot even think about or care about anything that anyone in NY or whatever big city Time is in  has to say even if they get paid a lot to say it.  Basically, no one really reads this blog anyway but I enjoy writing it and if I get really brilliant I can use FB or Twitter to direct someone this way.

So Good, Bad or Ugly, I'm still here.

Reta's Broccoli Salad

Reta's Broccoli Salad

4-6 Cups Broccoli Florets (Fresh)

1 Cup Miracle Whip

1/4 Cup sugar

1/4 Cup Onion

1 TBS White Vinegar

5 Slices of bacon, fried and made into bits

2 oz sunflower seeds

4-8 oz cheddar cheese, finely shredded

Prepare salad dressing by mixing Miracle Whip, sugar, onion & vinegar.  Mix well with broccoli and refrigerate overnight.  Add bacon bits 2-4 hours before serving.  Then right before serving, add cheese and sunflower seeds and mix thoroughly.   

This is my favorite salad ever and it's really easy.  Cutting the broccoli takes the most time.

My dear friend Reta used to bring this to work functions by the big Thanksgiving roaster-full.   It always goes fast!!

What would robin do?

robin is a friend I used to work with.  I start her name and this sentence with a small "R" because that/s what she does.  I've never seen it any other way.  She is, hands down, the coolest person I know.  She is a couple of years older than I am.  She is also, hands down, the smartest person I know.  She has an easy, common sense intelligence that amazes me.  She married the love of her life--Pat--in her 20's and by about age 29 she was a widow with 2 kids.  I don't know the details but I think Pat had a heart problem and I know he died on a ski slope.  Jack was about 3 and Maggie was about 1 at the time.

robin was a manager but never got the manager attitude.  It was just a natural place for her to be.  She has a degree in Spanish.  And a couple of my fondest memories were of Friday afternoons in the office as she read the lonely hearts ads from the newspaper or she was cleaning out the refrigerator, trying to figure out what she was throwing out once was.  She always made me laugh.

After Pat, she dated some but always ended up with guys who turned very needy, very quickly.  Mostly, their neediness amounted to their need to sit on their butts while she went to work every day and brought home the paycheck.  She married 1 more time to a fireman but it did not last long.  And she left the company once to follow a guy who actually sold doors for a living to a podunk town in New Mexico to live in an unfinished cabin.  I remember when she left I tried to talk her into taking a leave of absence instead of quitting but she thought that would indicate she thought that someday the relationship might fail.  Sadly, a little over a year later, when doorman had quit his job and was counting on her almost minimum wage job in a bank to support them, she was back at the company.  She paid her dues and was eventually made management again a couple of years later only to be laid off when her department closed.  In the meantime, she suffered through some really ugly breast cancer and a double mastectomy. She is now a consultant for the company and living in Austin.  Today, she posted a great picture of herself on Facebook and she looks wonderful.

I will always think of robin as a person who never gave up on love.  I don't know about her love life now because neither of us are great communicators but I can tell you she always followed her heart.  No fear.  Not in anything.    My friend Leslee is like that too.  I sometimes think of them as blow up clowns that get knocked down and just bounce back up, ready for another round.  And I think of this because my friend Kim just moved from her house into a house with her husband of about a year.    Both had houses when they got married and wanted a house that is theirs.   Makes sense, sorta.  And it makes me think of my friend Deb who told me the night she left town to move to New York with her husband "You are the only person I know who would understand when I say I quit my job and sold my house to move all the away across the country with a man I have only been married to for 10 years".  And she's right.

Unlike robin and Leslee and Kim and Deb, I'm not sure if I am capable of "all in".  I'm not sure I could take the chance of losing everything I have worked for in a marriage that has a 50% chance of failure.  And that percentage  would be even worse if you don't have the ability to trust, like I do.  We all can guess that opportunity is never going to come up because I am closed off.  I wish I could find a way--and a good man--to open my heart.  Not to sound pathetic (though it will) I live with a loneliness that cripples me sometimes.  And I am about to make move (probably) to a town where I basically know no one.  But the truth is, even though i have friends here, we don't hang out that much, so I cannot even think there will be that big of difference in my life.    We still have the phone!!

I guess my answer is that robin would go for it.  A new adventure.  She'd certainly go out with a more open heart, ready for her next love, but at least I'm going for the change.    I pray everyday for the ability and the man to love in my life and maybe it will happen and maybe it won't but I'm going to give it a try.