Ohhh the wedding

Well, Teresa and Allen got married on Saturday. His sister and brother-in-law have a gorgeous house on Lake Tapps in South Central Washington State, and they hosted the wedding at their house. Picture if you will (at least until I can get pictures on here) the 3 story home built into the hillside overlooking the lake, you walk down to their boat dock on the lake.

We got there about noon so the bride and groom and family members could be there for the photographer. The bride wore a "Scarlett O'Hara" kind of dress, it was cream colored and had a long train and a corsett to enhance her bustline amazingly. The groom wore a very nice tux and both just shined for the day. After 2 hours of pictures and all that jazz, the bride was secreted away by car and was delivered to the ceremony in the hosts yellow jet boat. Her dad met her on the boat dock and escorted her to the minister and her husband-to-be. The entire ceremony took less than 10 minutes, and they were married by 4:30pm, then the party started. The families hosted the bar, catered the food, hired a band... the 200+ guests enjoyed freely until very late into the evening. Chris and I finally got out of there around 10PM and I was asleep on the couch by 10:30. Woke up with a terrible dry mouth, very dehydrated from the heat and lack of water... no, I don't drink. The bride and groom, however, showed up Sunday morning and they were both hungover!! They had a bridal suite for the night, and both drank a LOT at the party, and were drunk and hung over.. just made me laugh!!! We both tried to talk them into drinking a bunch of water and taking some sea salt, and hopefully they enjoyed our gifts: A Britta Water pitcher and filters, a container of sea salt, and a book about dehydration.. oh and some essential oils - lavender, myhrr, frankinsence, peppermint, and spearmint (plus information about the uses of those oils).

I was just so impressed with Allen's daughters - Elizabeth and Shelby, they ushered and did such an excellent job. They walked the mom's and grandmothers to their seats and handled the rings and flowers. Shelby did a toast, but she was so nervous by the crowd and the emotions that she flubbed it a bit, but considering she's only 12, I thought she did great.

One fun note, Christopher is a very accomplished guitar player and singer, and the family know this... and they tried very hard to get him to get up and play a song or two. Well, finally, the band leader invited Chris and said go ahead man, play... So, ok, Chris got up and played "Purple Haze" a Jimmy Hendrix icon song, and he did a pretty excellent rendition. Well, the guitar player for the band was heard saying that it never fails, you invite someone to play from the audience, and they outplay the band every time!!! I'm personally hoping that the band will contact Chris and invite him to play with them sometime soon, he's talented enough and needs the exposure to get his desired career off the ground. His cousin took pictures of Chris playing with the band and soon I'll have a CD of the same, to share around and put some on here to share too, hopefully!!

I was unhappy to not get to dance with Chris, this was to be our first opportunity to dance together. He did dance with the bride and with a drunken cousin of his, and I wasn't jealous, though he felt bad and tried to talk me into a dance, but with this cast on, it just wasn't going to happen.

There were lots of dancers and lots of fun to be had. I'm glad we went to the wedding, though I still think they should have eloped and saved all that hoo-haw. Thankfully, the bride wasn't a bridezilla... she smiled a lot and seemed to be soaking up all that attention. I wish them well and lots and lots of anniversaries.

Peter Pan lives at my house!!!

Ok, today is man-bashing day. Apologeez in advance to those that will be offended.

Chris is mad at me for breaking my ankle. And he's mad because he didn't get his vacation.
Well, lets back up. He's mad because I was married before I knew him, had a child, promised him I'd support us both in my accounting business so he could quit his job and start a music career(my accounting career never materialized thanks to Enron). He's also mad because I'm 8 years older than him, in a daily fight with my over-weightedness, in a daily fight with my ghosts of life with alcoholic family members, and fighting the childhood illnesses brought on by living with smokers that caused me to be a couch potato for so many years, and thus have no sense of competition and a weight problem. But this isn't a pity party for me. I'm dealing with my issues, and feel like I have made some strong advances in all fronts. Every day I try to do better, and every day I do better is a celebration. He, on the other hand, has always been athletic, in good health, had a strong religious family upbringing, and was born a genious. He doesn't understand people with less intelligence than him, in fact I think all us stupid people all just piss him off. Sad to spend your life being pissed off huh?

Now, WHY does he feel like everything is some sort of competition? WHY does he have to be better, faster, smarter, than every other person in the world, especially his woman? I don't feel the need to compete. I'm happy knowing the dishes are done, the bills are paid, dinner is cooked, the cupboards aren't bare, the cats are safe, the granddaughter is thriving, the daughter is working (part time), the son-in-law is actually getting off his butt to look for a job (that's another story).

WHY can't we have a conversation that doesn't have to be about what you know? We watched a movie (The Interpreter) wherein the main character's hair was an issue for me, it was in her face the entire movie(Nichole Kidman), and really put me off. Well, Mr. Know's-every-damn-thing-in-the-world said that is the correct hair style for a rich white South African woman. I said, really? Do you know a lot of rich white South African women who wear their hair in their faces like that? He said of course, it's all over the web and he can prove it. So today I find laying on the computer table a stack of papers he's downloaded that show black South African women and discuss their political fight to have their hair in their own way, not shaven as was the law from white rich South African statesman. I called BS on that one, and he's walking around with his lip out. Not proven right, and no way to prove himself right. Anyone out there with answers on this one?

I grew up in a household with a man who won his fights with his angry words or his fists, depending on how drunk he was at the time. He could intimidate a dragon if he was loaded up enough. From that, I learned to shrink away from intimiation and anger. Chris works himself up and gets that look on his face which any woman can recognize if she has angry, intimidating people in her life. That face says you can't win and I'll yell as loud as it takes to back you down. So, we spend a lot of time in opposite ends of the house, and have spent this week's vacation pretty much unhappy and not speaking much past yes or no. He's slept on the sofa most nights, and if he comes to bed he stays as far on his own side as he can get, which is ok with me, because I don't really want to be touched. It's very hard to be intimate with someone that thinks of you as beneath them, fat slow and unmotivated -- yes, he has used those words. He stays I think because he's committed. Unhappy and sorry he's committed, but feels he has to stay because he said he would. I'm staying because the house is in my name, and I don't throw him out because I can't afford to be on my own. One day I'll be financially able to toss him out, and I'm going to.

One more thing. WHY won't men tell their mothers NO? Chris whined to me because his mother said she wanted him to bring his camera and take pictures during his sister's wedding this weekend. He said he's on vacation and why should he have to work? Well, when mamma called up and asked him, he said sure no problem, he'd even buy extra film and make sure he got all those special shots for the happy couple. John (my son-in-law) answered this question by saying that his mother has done so much for him over his lifetime that he just wouldn't tell her no. My dad showed his mother how much he loved her by getting married on HER birthday. None of these men will stand up to their mothers for any reason, period. I don't understand that at all.

Why also, when I ask him to do something do I get crap? Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to take a couple hours today and ride up to the lake with my son-in-law and pick up his toolbox from his now defunct job. Chris said no, he didn't want to, he's on vacation and didn't want to work. Then got into why did I want him to spend time with John? Why didn't my daughter help him get his toolbox, why can't he find someone else? Is he looking for work or just sitting on his ass till his unemployment runs out? Anything that requires Chris to put forth time, effort, or money gets me an argument and beligerance.

Oh, and I got corrected for the ten thousandth time in our relationship. If I had asked him if he WOULD do this, that would have been different, but since I asked if he WANTED to, that's different. Semantics, always about semantics. He drives me crazy, and there was one time I told him if he was a woman, I would understand why a man would beat his ass. I could beat his ass, I outweigh him, and I'm a pissed off woman in a cast!!

When we were first together, I thought his constant talking was kindof cute and amusing, it was amazing to me how many things he could talk about, and how much he seemed to know about. Understand, this guy was 4.0 through all years of school, and went to Whitman College here in Washington State (that's a big deal). So he's smart. He's also beligerant, moody and tends to be downright cruel. Boy this has really gotten away from the subject, and I'm sorry dear readers. I'm feeling kinda put upon since I didn't get my vacation either. I get to sit around the house doing nothing with my foot in a cast, while he has the freedom to do whatever he cares to and has spent the majority of his vacation pouting because he can't go hiking or camping or to the ocean. In my opinion (and I have said out loud to him) he should go do whatever he wants to do, with or without me. If it were ME whole and HIM in a cast, I'd go to the ocean without him, and enjoy the peace and quiet. He won't however, because he doesn't like doing things alone, but doesn't like to go hiking with me because he can go faster and further without me. Maybe this broken ankle is really a gift from God to tell me I'm in the wrong relationship and it's time to hobble out. He's never happy about anything, period. The world is run by the Masons and the feds are out to get him, and all holidays are commericalized ways to steal our money (which I believe too).

I was completely single for 7 years before I met Chris. We met over AOL, a match made in cyber space. We talked online for about 3 months before we met in person, then we dated in person for a few more months before anything physical happened between us. After we stated our intention to commit and stay together, we moved on to that next step. So, neither of us jumped in with our eyes closed. We maintained separate homes for two years before he moved into my house out here in the country. I realized from the beginning that there were going to be problems, and 5 years in, I'm certain that my dad was right, he said people don't change, only their circumstances change. He wasn't always a good man, but dad was pretty smart about people.

So now, it's Thursday, and Chris is getting geared up to be bummed about the end of his vacation. I could see it on his face today when he got out of bed at 2pm. His lower lip is out and he's not talking. I realize this means that he knows that the week is nearly over and he got to do absolutely nothing all week, and it's all my fault. He hasn't gone shopping for wedding clothes either and I'm not bringing that up. He'll probably stop somewhere on the way and buy something, hope he remembers to take off the tags before we go to the ceremony. He's 35 by the way, in case anyone wonders about his child-like behaviour. He's only immature, not a child. I have been told by a client that has celebrated her 72nd wedding anniversary that men never grow up, her 95 year old husband is just as immature today as he was when they met, oh that helps me feel a LOT better!!!

Thanks for letting me air dirty laundry in public! Sometimes a girl just needs to vent a little. I hope those that I sent the invitation to the photo's got to see my sweet baby granddaughter Fay, this darn dialup takes so long to download pictures, its just quicker to copy the e-mail addresses and offer the pictures from the albums, hopefully nobody minded too much. Talk to you all again after we get back from the wedding!!

Updated ankle report...

In case you were concerned... =-)

It's broken. The doctor on Wednesday took a couple of x-ray's and announced that yep, the tibia (that stickey out ankle bone) was snapped clean in half, thankfully wasn't displaced, and all I have to do is wear a cast and use crutches for a short 6-week period and all will be well again soon. They were all admirably impressed with the story of the 5 mile hike out on that ankle, but I didn't know it was broken, and still had to get down off the mountain, broken or not. Chris told me a story (while we were hiking out) of some guy that broke his leg and crawled out 10 miles then had to wait 2 days in someone's tent for them to hike out and get help. Ok, maybe someone in that group should have had a cell phone!! The nurse favored me with his horror story of a badly ended bicycle ride down Devils Gulch that ended at the bottom with him falling off the bike and breaking his knee against a rock. He had to ride out 6 miles. Gosh there are some idiots out here huh?

But DOCTOR, how will I shower.... shave my legs... WORK??? She said those aren't the important issues, the healing of the bone is. Well, having had a broken ankle in high school (yes, same one), I remember vividly the hairy, smelly, skinny leg that was cut free from that cast after 6 long weeks. I was 16 then and didn't seem to take long to get that muscle tone back, well I'm not 16 anymore, and 6 weeks in a cast at my age would do a lot more harm than good.

My bigger argument is how I'm supposed to work. In case you didn't get it from my signon, I'm a cleaning lady, most of my clientelle are senior citizens that need help, and as much as they like me, if I can't do the job, then someone else is going to get called. Loyalty only lasts as long as the person is there and doing the job right. So, we settled on this sexy black strap-on unit that I can take off to shower, shave and sleep. I am hobbling pretty successfully and I can work. It's not pretty, no doubt but I can drive the stick shift and get to work.

So, the ankle break was last Saturday, and guess what? We started our vacation this weekend. Friday when we both finished work we are off for 10 days!! Well, I'm sitting on the fanny working on the computer, our 3 day hike is cancelled and the plan-B trip to Lincoln City is postponed, I don't want to sit in the motel room while Chris has all the fun down on the beach without me. Oh well, 6 weeks isn't all that long...

Stealing a game from another blog that stole it too

Thank you D and Vinnie, and the first blog it came from too.
What’s in a Name?

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name)

Little Boy Jefferson
(Small person with a high voice, expects to get paid well anyway.)

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy)

Lenore Snickers
(Seriously, that’s what it is. Bad name for a porn star)

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your middle name)

J Cha
(Sounds like a sneeze.)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)

Blue Cat
(Doesn't do much business with that name.)

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)

Charlene Ely
(She lirks in dark corners and steals chewing gum.)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 2 letters of mom's maiden name and first 3 letters of the town you grew up in.)

Howjahoren.
(Sounds like another sneeze.)

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (your favorite color, favorite drink)

Blue Water
(Oh no... sounds like a poets name rather than a super hero!!!)

Open letter to the hikers who helped us walk out

Dear young men from Federal Way and Oklahoma University (respectively), I am writing here publicly to thank you both as well as your family for your kind and generous help in getting me and Chris down off of Twin Lakes Trail above Lake Wenatchee on this past Saturday.
You passed us as about 1PM, right after I twisted me right ankle and was in a crying heap on the trail. We waived off your offer of help at that time, after all, you were heading up and we were effectively stopped, and were turning back. About an hour later your group caught back up with us and again you offered help. The older man with you was very concerned about leaving us alone as we were the last ones left coming down the trail. So, you two younger men stayed with Chris and me, and walked very slowly behind us, making sure I got over rocks and logs safely, and often I felt hands keeping me safe from falling, and you both kept up the banter and laughter to pass the time so very quickly. I was shocked to discover it took us 5 hours to get 5 miles, because although it felt like I walked a LONG ways, it didn't feel like it really took that long.
After we were standing next to our pickup, I hugged all of you and thanked you as much as you would let me, and Chris shook hands. You were all so very kind to strangers in a strange place, and without your help, though we would have gotten down off the mountain, it likely would have meant we'd have had to stay up there alone overnight due to exhaustion and the difficulty of the trail.
For those of you who don't know Twin Lakes trail, it is 6 miles uphill of some of the most difficult steep and rugged trail you will encounter. The entire way is a trail filled with rock slides, switchbacks, biting flies and mosquitos, a couple of miles of razberry bushes, a wide creek to cross over on a log, trees to climb over and under. When you finally get to the first lake, sadly it's disappointing, its pretty boggy and bug-infested. I didn't get to the second lake, but was told it wasn't all that great either, but the group did take a swim because the water was cleaner.

Most of the time in hiking, the going isn't the good part, it's the getting there. Finally you're done and you can take off your backpack and relax and have fun after all the work! This particular trip wasn't that way, it was the getting DOWN that was the greatest part for me, and I was thanking Jesus and our helpers the whole way down.

As for my purple swollen and disfigured ankle, I'll live, I spent a couple days with ice packs and today I'm going to get it x-rayed just to be sure there's no broken bones in there because there's still some pretty bad discoloring and swelling. The boots are going back to REI, paid $125 for some boots that could have cost me my life if I'd been on a cliff instead of only a steep part of a wide trail. They are indeed light weight, but have no ankle support at all.

Thanks again you guys for being our helpers, we wouldn't have made it safely or as quickly without you.

Hatred of Cell Phones has basis in fact!

It's not that I HATE cell phones for NO reason, there IS a reason. March of 2004, while sitting at a stoplight MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS. I was hit from behind by some self-important twit on a cell phone, driving her car 15 miles and hour over the speed limit. My car was totalled, I was hurt, my work suffered, and this woman looked at me aghast and said she couldn't understand why I was being so darn snotty!! This was after she backed her car off the rear bumper of my car!

N.R.A.'ers say that it's not the cell phone that caused the accident, it's the distracted users with their minds on "what's for dinner", or ''what's on TV" as the cause... and you're totally right. So therefore, outlaw cell phone usage in cars, same as outlawing loaded weapons in cars. After all--in a driveby shooting, it was the driver/passenger, not the gun that caused the killing. (Well, what if they were all holding banana's instead of weapons/cell phones?)

Ok, so everyone HANG UP THE PHONE, concentrate on what you're doing!! Remember there are kids and old people(like me) out there with no IDEA that you are NOT concentrating on the 10,000 pound killing machine you are maneuvering with ONE HAND(or less)!! Am I the only person that took Driver's Ed? We were taught 10 and 2!! Both hands on the wheel, don't look around, don't talk, no drinking, eating, or READING while driving. There weren't cell phones at that time to be warned against using while driving, but I bet if there were we would have been. Nowadays I see the driving school instructors on cell phones while students are in the car driving, and using their cell phones. Wonder if they're talking to eachother?

The truth is, I HAD a cell phone. My mom was very ill and I kept the cell phone for about 2 years so she could call me in the event of an emergency. After she passed away in 2002 there wasn't any reason to be reachable anymore, and I got rid of the phone. Too many times I would hear the damn thing ringing in my book bag while driving to class at the local community college. Being a blond and left handed and driving a stick shift car, it was imperative that I pull over and stop the car to dig in the bag, find the phone, and answer it. Usually it was my boyfriend, my daughter, or my mother, all with some form of the same question: Where are you and what are you doing, and when will you be here? I see people pulled over on their phones, and I applaud them for using safe handling practices. THANK YOU...

Darn computers anyway...

Well, I'm trying to get a photo downloaded to my profile, but as I'm slow when it comes to computers and programs and whatnots, I'm not having any luck. Yes, I did get that picture of me and the Columbia River downloaded, lucky me!! Today all attempts were answered by a "failure to download" screen... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
But what I'm after is one photo permanently there when I comment to other blogs or someone actually comes onto my blog and wants to know what my face looks like!!!
Though for the most part I'm stuck in the 70's when it comes to techology, I can (and do) use a computer, ATM, CD player, DVD player. I don't; however, try to program anything on the computer, I leave that to Chris. See, he's 8 years younger than me and much more versed in computers, plus he's way more brave than I am, I'm always afraid of breaking something, or having the screen blip and then go blank (yes, that's happened).
SOOOO... I'm hoping someone who might actually read my blog will take pity on me and speak ENGLISH and give me directions to download a photo to my profile. In the days to come my 13 month old granddaughter Fay will be the programmer. It is my sincere belief that these new kids will not be taught to write, only to use a keyboard. Probably won't be long before those keyboards will be obsolete and we'll simply speak to the computer (like on the Jetsons) and IT will happen.
Doubtful that's what God had in mind when He said "Let there be light and It was so..."

The bike ride today

This photo is of the Columbia River, a few miles from our home, that's me over there.
Well, Chris and I dragged out the bicycles today for a run around the neighborhood. We live out in the countryside and enjoy the quiet of the country roads - you can hear birds and see some actual wildlife out there among the houses. Anyway, we stopped down at the pond to see the baby trout and bass - when some YAHOO in his SUV pulls in, jumps out (yes he's on a FREAKIN cell phone), gets out the fishing pole and the tackle box and the little daughter he brought to go fishing with. He continues talking on the phone while he's rigging up the pole for his daughter.
Does he get OFF the phone so he can enjoy some quiet fishing with his child? NOOOO !!! He does the elephant trunk(put your arm up along your face to hold your cell phone to your ear) to the watercasts the line out, and puts the pole in a holder all the time telling someone on the phone where they are and what they're doing. No, it wasn't the little woman, she was in the SUV with a small baby, eventually she got out and wandered up to the edge of the water.
Well, I finally dragged Chris away, snorting lets go somewhere where we can get away from the phone!! OH MY FREAKING GOD! Can't even go to a fishing pond without someone on the cell phone!
Those of us that were teens in the 70's (1980 high school graduate here), remember the corded phones, corded TV remotes, days even before pagers!! Yes, I listened to Journey, in fact still have an old vinyl or two of theirs and one of Michael Jackson with dark skin and a nose!!! I miss those byegone days when life was simple and phones were at home where they belong!

WHY are you (and you know who you are) so freaking important that you have to be constantly in touch? Don't you miss being anonymous? Alone? Out of reach?

The war and its effect on cell phone usage

Well, there are lots of bloggers going on about the war, the loss of lives, the innocent children hurt, killed, and orphaned. Still more are going on about the 9/11 conspiracies (yes, I have some strong opinions about that, but another day). I want to have some intelligent conversation about these horrific subjects, but sadly, I'm not going to be able to.
Why? you wonder? well, I don't take a paper, we don't have cable, and I only listen to CD's in my car. WHY! you wonder? well, because I'm not willing to take the paper in our little-bitty crap town, and the cable got to be so expensive (and it was 100 channels of channel-surfing most the time anyway), and the radio stations only seem to play the weather and who needs your money or donations on a local basis. AM I AN ostrich with my head in a hole? NO WAY!! I read a couple of educated person's blogs, and hear from a republican buddy of mine for news and information, I read the web news too. (educated blog #1 - Under the News)
DO I CARE that innocents are killed? Absolutely I care, and I cry for the orphans and the childless mothers. I feel bad for the parents of US soldiers killed over there, but lets face it, they are going over there of their own volition, there's no draft, and no conscripting going on. It is my belief that it's all about oil in the end. Some day it will all come out, and you can say you read it on Get Off The Phone!!
Meanwhile, in this itty bitty spitty town I live in, nearly every car on the road has a driver with a cell phone in his/her ear. The driver is so wrapped in his/her phone call that he/she is unaware of the road underneath them or the 10,000 pound death machine they are winging around one-handed (or less if they are also smoking, drinking coffee, reading or applying makeup-- YES in a moving vehicle).
IIIII don't own a cell phone. I usually have both hands on the wheel, unless I'm one finger saluting one of you one(or less) handed drivers out there. I grew up in the days when drinking and driving was less common than it is today, but way less costly in lives and damage than these damn phones. Remember Princess Dianna and that beautiful model Elle (although Elle didn't die, she darn near did). Check with your insurance companies and find out how much money their company is making on higher rates due to the dangers of cell phone use and driving. You know what's my new biggest pet peeve (aka pisses me OFF!) seeing police driving city/state vehicles while using a cell phone - and driving one-handed. Shouldn't they have headsets?!!!???????