Hats for the Homeless

I discovered a pattern for crocheting hats, and it's just something to do while I watch TV or whatever. But I can crank one out in a couple of nights. Next thing I knew, I was accumulating too many hats!

So I had the idea, what if every time I see a homeless person asking for money, I gave them a hat? "I don't have any spare money," I'd say, "but here, have a hat!" I had a vision of homeless people all over LA wearing my little hats.

But then I got to thinking that if I DID give someone a hat when they were asking for money, they might get angry instead! "What do I need a hat for, lady? It's summertime!"

And one time, when I actually had a hat in the car, I drove by a homeless person asking for money, but he already HAD a hat on. And it was a much nicer hat than mine! (I think it was Nike) Plus he had some really spiffy glasses on, too.

So I don't know. I like the name, I like the idea. But I think it needs a little work.

Birthday at Disneyland

For her birthday, the Girl asked if she could take one friend to Disneyland. She chose a friend who goes to another school, which I thought was a good choice because no one at her school would be jealous about it.

We picked her friend up around 9 or 9:30, and were on our way. We'd brought along a sweater and a change of clothes in case we got as wet as we did at Sea World. The girls put sun block on during the ride up there, and I played a new CD I'd made for them, with Pocket Full of Sunshine and other new songs. We'd gotten a good deal on park-hoppers thru Cal Tech, which seemed like a good deal. I was afraid Dland alone wouldn't be a full day, but I didn't want to get the Vons 2fer ticket, as you could only come to the second park on a different day, but within one month. That just seemed too hard, as it's a long way to drive.

Well, I was wrong in that Dland alone really can be a full day! I was glad to have the ability to go to the other park, tho, because we also had fun there.

I was surprised how crowded the park was, but I guess Spring Break is a different week for lots and lots of schools! It was a nice warm day, and when we first walked in I kept smelling the faint scent of pee as the sidewalk heated up. I kept thinking, "Who would be peeing out here on main street? And when?" Also, every now and then a whiff from the sewers would waft up for a nice P U. It just reminds me not to EVER try to go there during the heat of summer when the park is running anywhere near capacity! Whew!

I'm just saying.

Anyway, we went on 11 attractions in about 12 hours, and were exhausted by the end. We ate at our favorite restaurants - Pizza Port in Tomorrowland, and the soup-in-a-bread-bowl place in DCA's pier restaurants. At all times we were either on a ride, standing in line, walking to the next place, or eating. I don't think we could have fit in one more thing!

We got lucky at Space Mountain. I'd forgotten that a guy was telling everyone on the way in that this ride was down, and I was looking for the place to get a Fastpass to it. As I looked around, suddenly the ride opened up, and everyone started rushing inside! That was one of our fastest lines all day! Also, at DCA there were not as many people, so lines were shorter there for many things. Not California Soarin'. That line was as long as ever.

We got much wetter than we thought we'd really get, but luckily all of us (except K) had brought something to change into. I changed my pants, but since my hear was soaked, it kept my shirt wet in the back for most of the day.

For the first time I started to feel sick on Space Mountain. Space Mountain! My favorite ride! The easiest of roller coasters. The visuals in the beginning got to my stomach, and it took awhile for me to recover from that. K too! He says we're officially too old for roller coasters now. Sad.

He stood in line with the girls nearly 2 hours for their second ride on Space Mountain. This was their last ride, and I was exhausted, so I sat near the exit and waited for them. I could see into the arcade, and was watching an elderly woman kick everyone's butt at "Dance, Dance Revolution."

That was funny.

On the way out, the fireworks show had started, and the ushers were routing the walkers into certain pathways, then shouting at us to "keep moving!" That struck me as being not very nice, and I hate it when Disney is not very nice. I also hate it that they encourage people to waste!

I have mixed feelings about Disney, but all in all we had a fun day.

Now The Girl is 11 years old. On her actual birthday, she got her ears pierced to celebrate. We ate at Olive Garden (her favorite) and I made chocolate cupcakes.

Fear of crocodiles

Last night (or this morning) I had an interesting dream. I was probably on vacation, staying at a hotel (a place with rooms). I was having a discussion or possibly date with one guy, but he said he had to do something else that night.

Then I must have been at the beach with my friends because I had on a swimming suit, and they wanted to go to a bar. I wrapped a towel around my top, and that seemed to be fine, because it never came up again.

Next I was in the bar with my friends, and in the dream there were a couple of other guys who liked me, but they weren't there. Then I saw the guy who was supposed to be busy that night. I backed up around the corner where he couldn't see me, and just waited there with my drink talking to my friend. After awhile everyone moved out of that area, and he came walking by.

I said, "Why, what are you doing here?", smiling really nice, like I hadn't just busted him in a lie. He sat down by me and I sat down too, and then he said that there were about 40 people in this group. What group, I asked. The group therapy that he had to take over that night for someone else, which is why he was busy that night. He said it was a group for people with a fear of crocodiles.

Then someone walked by and said "bye, Joe B." and I asked, "Joe B,?"

He said, "Joey!" Like I was busted for not even knowing his name.

Then he said, "I'm still in the running, right?"

And I said, "For America's Next Top Model?"

Well, at least most of it made pretty good sense.

Funny.

Atho, really.

Can there be THAT many people with a fear of crocodiles?

Mini Vacation

I guess I haven't updated in awhile. A few weeks ago, we went to Las Vegas for a short little vacation. It was partly to celebrate all our birthdays, partly planned a few months ago when K was working so hard that I almost never saw him! A little family together time, minus our teenager.

We decided to take Monday off instead of Friday, so on Sat we went to the Girl's soccer game, then off to Vegas. I was collecting money for the team, and joked with the Coach that I was taking the cash to Vegas to try to double it!

It was somewhat overcast, but we had a nice drive out there. There were some pretty pink trees flowering (apple or cherry blossoms?). It's strange how a desert can still be so pretty.

We stopped in Victorville, as we always like to stop at Long John Silver's. It's like a family tradition. Last time we tried to stop there, it looked like it had burned down! We tried again this time, thinking that maybe they'd rebuilt it. Nope. Now it's a very nice Starbucks. Next door, Taco Bell was having major construction. Did they let this stop them from selling at the drive-thru window? No, they did not! The building looked very bad, but the food tasted much the same as always.

We decided to stay at Excalibur. This was The Girl's choice, but also it had a heated pool (we checked.) They didn't have any view rooms available (extra charge? No way!), but they said it was a nice room. We found it completely remodeled - granite countertops in the room and bathroom, and a big-screen TV! Yay vacation!

We headed Downtown that first night, for a cheap buffet (Lucky 777) and the ABC Store (the Girl loves it!) We enjoyed the light show and I even liked the food this time. A nearby store advertised 10 postcards for $1. What a deal! So I went over and picked out around 5, but they insisted I pick out 10. I offered to pay the same price for the 5 cards, but they said no. If I wanted to buy fewer cards, they were $.25 each. Huh? Ok. Same with the 2 for $1 bottled water. So we stocked up on water and souvenirs, and headed back to the room. K wanted to drive the Strip, but I quickly became impatient with our lack of progress back to the room.

Sunday the Girl indulged her addiction to "America's Top Dance Crew" to the point where K and I actually became interested. We hit the Paris buffet again, barely making the cheaper "breakfast" price changeover at 11am, barely escaping the "brunch" astronomical pricing! But being the right time, we got mimosas and crab claws and many other wonderful treats. K was getting the Girl to taste crab, and I dipped a piece in a container of what I thought was butter, but turned out to be orange juice. Later, draining the remains of my mimosa, I was rewarded with a small piece of crab at the bottom.

Next we went shopping at Caeser's Forum, which the Girl also loves because of the huge FAO Schwartz store there. We don't usually buy that much, but we love looking at the huge stuffed animals and other cool toys (rug skateboard?) The main thing was that we did a LOT of walking and tried to walk off our huge breakfast. Then we went back to the hotel and found the pool. They had a cool coach near the pool, so I stretched out to read. It was a little cold for swimming, but I love reading by the pool.

Later, when we got hungry again, we went in search of more food. K wanted to eat at Planet Hollywood, and wanted to try the new Planet Hollywood hotel we'd seen. Surely they had a restaurant there. Well, they had restaurants, but no Planet Hollywood restaurant. They had a PF Chang's, but the wait was 45 min. We were hungry, but took the pager just in case, and went walking around. Around the corner we found a mall we'd never seen before - The Miracle Mile I think it was called.

The stores there were much more reasonable than those at the Forum, and we found a few shirts and gifts to buy. Soon we were paged, and were off to eat at PF Chang's. Another wonderful meal, the place was great, and we had a great booth seat upstairs.

Afterwards, we waddled off to the car, and went back to our room. More reading and TV and drinks in the room.

The next day we kept the room even tho we weren't spending the night. K has done this before, and likes having the room all day. We hung out at the pool and read. When it was around 5, we packed up and headed out to our last buffet before leaving Las Vegas.

It was nice to get home.

Love

Love to you.

Lucky

Last week started on a down note, as I still wasn't feeling well. I think my hormones are all over the place right now, and Tuesday I was up all night and feeling weak in the morning, so I called in sick to the school.

Later that morning, my Tax boss called and said they had an emergency in the office closest to me, and could I please come in and help out. I said I'd get ready and see how I felt. Well, I felt like the worst was over, so I called and told her I'd come in.

The office WAS busy. The second return I did was for an older couple who were SO nice. The wife kept asking me questions about my heritage, my family, everything. She asked what I did besides taxes, and I gave her my other card. Next thing I knew they were saying they'd like my help with that, too!

Suddenly, everything was looking up. But now that I have reason to think I might have enough sales to stay in my office, I know that I don't want to anymore.

I went to vote and picked up the Girl.

After I went home, my problem started back up again. I called my Mom for sympathy, and next thing I knew she was demanding that I go to the doctor NOW and demand that they find out what is causing this problem and fix it immediately!

So I called Kaiser who put me through to an Advice Nurse, who advised me to go to Urgent Care after 5:30. So I went to The Boy's game (they won) and afterward went to Kaiser while S stayed with the Girl. I waited 3 hours, and in the end never got to see anyone. The election results were coming in and a nice girl from I think Lithawania was talking with me about politics, etc. She was asking me what they meant by "the evangelical vote." She was really nice.

So at 10 pm they cleared everyone out, and I was sent home to hopefully live another day. Stupid problem.

Wednesday morning I threw up at 3:30am, and ended up calling in sick again. I remember times when I felt my family had forgotten about me, or didn't really care. For instance, I couldn't get anyone interested when I had to do an Amniocentisis 11 years ago .

Well, they made up for it in spades by bugging me now to resolve this health problem with Kaiser NOW! It's been a long time since I've lied to my parents to get them off my back, but I found myself just wanting it to end! I love it that they care about me, but sometimes they come on a little strong.

Thurs - I missed the Boy's game to take the Girl to practice. Went to Trader Joes, the library, and then took The Girl home. The Boy's team won - now they're going to playoffs.

Fri - Not too eventful. Finished taxes - printed out to take home.
Took The Girl to basketball practice.

Sat - 11am game in Camarillo - continued from rained out Sunday last week. Beat a Blue team 2-0. The Girl took a great shot on goal, but the goalie hit it away with one hand and The Girl looked amazed. She saved the day 2x on defense. Had Chinese food near home for late lunch. Started cleaning house for company on Sunday.

Basketball game that night - won 22-6, The Girl scored 8.

Sun - 8am game in Moorpark - a little closer than Camarillo. Beat another Blue team 2-0. First half going into sun, couldn't score. Second half The Girl passed to Mary who scored. Then Mary passed to The Girl who scored. Yay!

Two things happened in that game I'd never seen before. First, the ref gave The Girl a card - I thought it was a yellow card. Turned out it was a WHITE card - a warning before you get a yellow card! After the game was over, after the girls slapped hands and everything, one of our best players ran off saying "I've got to get to Mass!" Then the other team started complaining about the time, and the ref made us all come back onto the field and play 8 more minutes! Too bad one of our best players had already left! We still won anyway.

So next week we get to go to San Diego! Came home and finished cleaning house. I also finished the book, "Harm Done" by Ruth Rendell, which was pretty good.

The Boy came home and let us know he'd pierced both his ears the night before. A great way to get ready for playoffs, eh?

Our friends came for dinner, The Boy was at work, The Girl sleeping over a friend's. Clam chowder with wild rice, loaf of bread, 3 bottles of wine!

Yum.

So right now we're feeling so lucky. Both our kids are doing well, both their teams are going into playoffs. We have nice friends. My parents are giving me lots of attention.

How did I get so lucky?

Weekend update

It was an unusual weekend for me because I got sick. I don't think I get sick that often, so that must be why it bothered me so much.

Friday started out nicely enough. I found a mistake on a prior year tax return for a client, and got him a nice refund this year. Then I had a meeting with my new sales boss. I told him I already had a few transactions lined up for this year, which I thought would be good news. Instead, he told me that since they are a "professional" company, they could only keep salespeople that have 4 transactions minimum per year. So I should think about that.

Surprised, blurted out that this new "rule" would leave out nearly all the salespeople in the office, but he didn't care about that. He said something about having people who you know what they're going to do rather than people who you're not sure. It seems to me that they're working toward shutting down that office. So even tho moving away from this company has been on my mind for over a year now, it was an unwelcome conversation. It means I have to get my butt into gear in yet another direction.

Friday was also "Senior Recognition Night" for the basketball team. Before the game, they called each of the seniors up, and their families. We lined up under a large balloon arch, and they gave the mothers some flowers and the fathers a gift, spoke a little about the senior, and then we walked across the court.

It was a tough game, but the Boy played a lot and played well. Our team was down by 17 points, came back to nearly win, but ended up losing by 2 points. The Boy never looked more aggressive, blocking shots and getting lots of rebounds. I think that's the highest I've ever seen him jump!

Most of the parents were going out after the game, and I had planned to go too. But I'd started getting sick on Friday, and I just didn't feel up to it. Mostly I was just coughing, but it was a bad cough that had me worried and wiped me out. Plus, it was already almost 10pm, and the Girl had to get to bed as her soccer team had a game the next day. So I stayed home with her, and K represented me at the restaurant, where they all had a nice time. He got home pretty late.

I had really wanted to go, as we've known these other senior parents about 7 years now and it's all coming to a close. So you know how bad I was feeling to miss it.

I took a Mucinex to help my cough, but I think that's what kept me up all night. Although I MUST have slept some, I felt like I wasn't sleeping all night, and I looked at the clock almost every hour. So if you have a stuffy head in the daytime, take Mucinex. If you have a cough or need to sleep, maybe take something else.

Saturday was The Girl Show. We had to leave at 7:15 to be in Camarillo by 8:30 am for the State Cup playoffs. It was a really nice day, but a little chilly. Camarillo seems like a nice agricultural town by the ocean, and I wouldn't mind living there.

And I never say that! It's hard to beat where I already live, at least weatherwise.

The first game was at 9:30, and the girls won 1-0 against a blue/white team.

Between games, we all went to Carrows to eat. Then, K and I napped in the car. I spread out in the back seat, and K put down the back of his seat. I even heard him snoring! We've never done that before. I was really quite a baby about being sick.

The second game was against one of the teams that beat our team in the League Cup. I think because of this loss, people were writing in some local forum that our team just wasn't that good! This other team started out strong and spent too much time down by our goal, so I was worried. But our team played tougher, I guess, because after awhile most of the time was spent near THEIR goal, and we ended up winning 3-0. The Girl even got put forward for a few minutes and got an assist!

Ahh, sweet revenge.

Later that evening, the Girl had a basketball game. She played 3 games in one day! Her team won easily, 30-14. In fact, they've got 4 good shooters on her team, and the most any other team has is 2. So I'm a little afraid that they're going to cream the other teams in this little league, except that at this age everyone's shooting is very inconsistent. The Girl scored 6 points, down from 10 the previous 2 weekends.

Sunday morning we woke up and it was raining again. I checked our email, and sure enough, the day's soccer was canceled. I was feeling a bit better, but still a bit sluggish. We let the Girl sleep late, K went to church, and I started laundry. Around lunchtime, the Girl and I ran out to get a few things at Target. Then home to watch the Superbowl. We relaxed in front of the TV, and I made yet another hat. The game turned out to be very exciting, and a lot of the commercials were pretty funny.

I finished reading Julia Child's "My Life in France." It was a fun and interesting book, but the end was sad. It was a nice, relaxing day, and a really good game. A nice way to end the week.