Woolly Mutts

Good things in a bad week. (And it's only Wednesday.)

*Warning.  Hereby be notified that some whining is going to commence.  Feel free to walk on by.

I am having a bad week.  My neck is out of whack causing my back and neck pain to be crazy.  My IBS has also been freakish as are my allergies.  What is up with this?  Wasn't the flu, which has left both Tom and I with lingering coughs, enough?  Also, Samten is having some real pain in his hips which is scaring me senseless. He was a puppy mill puppy and has a heart condition that makes any sort of anethesia a tricky prospect.  I have so much love for this dog I can't even tell you. You're dog lovers.  You know.  The vet is coming on Friday to have a look and see what we might do to help him with the pain. 

So, since I am having a bad week, I am going to tell you some of the things that I am loving right now to counteract the blahness that is my mood. (Did I mention it was 94 degrees here yesterday?  94!  It's May! ACK!)

*Pandora.  In a world with so many online radio options I am still staying true to Pandora.  (Ok, I have Songza on my phone and I have had a look around Rdio, but mostly, I love Pandora.)  My favorite channel right now is Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.  LOVING this channel.  If you are an aging hippie like myself, CSNY channel is gonna make you really happy.  Honest.

*Oribe shampoo and conditioner.

Ever heard of Birchbox?  It's a monthly beauty product sample service which I enjoy very much.  Last month they sent me a sample of the above shampoo which was a good and very bad thing.  This shampoo smells fan-freaking-tastic and I absolutely love my hair after using it.  LOVE.  Yesterday I had lunch with a friend and right away she commented on how shiny my hair looked.  Here's the thing (isn't there always a thing?) it's crazy expensive.  I got mine through Amazon and it was $37 a bottle and it isn't a huge bottle. Conditioner is priced the same.  Still, in my opinion this stuff is shampoo/conditioner gold and maybe worth the splurge once in awhile.

*Josie Maran Argon Oil

While I was in Florida and bored I did a little online shopping.  I had been hearing some really good things about the Josie Maran argon oil, so I ordered this little kit of a sampling of products.  There isn't a single one that I don't love.  The oil itself is amazing.  I use it on my cuticles, in my hair, on my face at night, elbows, heels, you name it.  It soaks right in and works like a charm.  AND, it's not crazy expensive.  I think it was $35 for all the products shown and they aren't tiny.  All organic, too.

*Jamberry nail sheilds

Ok, I'm gonna confess that I haven't actually tried these yet, but I love the concept and the selection.  I'll let you know how they hold up after I've worn them a while.  Kysa's sister-in-law Kim sells these and I picked up a few different colors at a party that Kysa had.  They are appear to be really easy to put on and take off.  A fun new idea for happy fingernails!

*The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley

I came upon this book really randomly, hopping around Amazon and let me tell you that I cannot put it down.  It's over 500 pages and I'm maybe halfway through it.  Really good book if you like historicals. Very intelligently written.

That's it for now......a few happy things in a not so happy week.  It is only Wednesday, though, and things could get better!  The bright side is where I have my sights set. 

A day for mothers.

I have been a mother for 38 years.  I have mothered a special needs child

an introvert, an extrovert

various stray neighbor kids, a few dogs

lots of cats, fish (bad news for the fish), assorted rodents, and a bird.  I have even mothered my own mother during her last years of life.

Results have varied with each experience, but overall I think I have been a good mother.  In fact, mothering is one of the few things that I can admit I have excelled at. My beautiful children are testament of that.

I think I had it easier than mothers do now. TV was limited as were video games and computers.  My kids had neighbor kids (all hail the Johnsons!!) and they played outside all the time and in most weather.  There were forts and tree houses and battles of Bunker Hill.  Kick the cone and bike rides and being home when the street lights came on. Mr. Stranger Danger was a reality, but one not often considered.  They might be the last generation who interacted face to face more than via electronics. With each generation comes it's own set of challenges and I have every confidence that today's mothers have what they need to succeed.

Being a mother is the hardest job on earth.  Anyone who tries to tell you different is woefully ignorant.  Committing 20 years of your life to the nurture of another human being is no small thing for we do not raise children, we raise people.  Citizens of the planet to carry on when we are gone. We must steer their little ships in the best direction we can while letting them navigate when able.  We have to let them fall to learn how to get up, fail to learn to succeed, cry to learn to be brave, all the while wanting nothing more than to wrap them in a blanket of our love and never let the world touch them.  A mother's heart breaks so often that after a few years we hardly notice.

The world is a scarier place today than when I had my children and I have often wondered to myself if I could, in all good conscience, bring another child into this sad place?  Then I see these faces

and oh how full of promise they are!  How the world has longed for these sweet souls and millions more like them.  Indeed, how could we have lived without them?  Locked inside those hearts and minds could be the secret of peace or the cure for cancer.  The end of poverty and hunger. Kindess, inspiration, devotion, liberation.  Such dreams! Such possibility! My small legacy realized.

Or perhaps one of these sweet faces will hold my hand while I lay dying and remind me of how I have been loved and that will be more than enough. 

Biddy biddy bum bum bum bum bum biddy biddy bum bum bum

This morning the phone rang and a little voice on the other end asked if I wanted to to go music class.  Of course I wanted to go to music class!!!  Every Friday morning at 9:30 a little storefront church in Poplar Grove offers a free preschool age music class and is it ever a good time!

The teacher could not be more perfect for the job of making music fun for this age group and all the kids adore her.

Kysa and I switch off kids so both of us get to enjoy the interaction .  Emerson is pretty little to participate, but he tries to copy what Cam is doing and is fascinated by all the activity.

There are instruments and noise makers, things to shake and everyone's favorite, scarves to swirl around. 

Emerson takes a selfie!

Next year Cam will be in preschool so this was our last music class and I'm so happy that I got to go along.  I am so lucky to be able to share in these moments with Kysa and the kids. 

Birthday

Happy Birthday to my Mother who never wavered in her love of the simple dandelion and showed me how to see beauty in everything.  I miss you. ♥

Florida closure

The other day some one asked me what I liked best about our trip to Florida and I really had to think.  It's it hard to see the bright side while still feeling decidedly unwell (we are both much better now)but there were a few bright sides.  For me, it was wildlife that I was unfamiliar with, or at least had not had the opportunity to view so closely. For instance:

these little guys, the brown anole.  They run all over the place.  One of Tom's fellow conference goers was a runner and he said there were so many of them on the paths he was afraid he was going to step on one. I enjoy a lizard so it was fun to watch them.

The water near the hotel had lots of feathered visitors; coots, moorhes, cormorants, etc.  One day we stood waiting for the water taxi watching an osprey dive for his lunch.

(thanks to the internet for this picture)  She would sit on the top of a tall, tall pine tree watching the surface of the pond and then dive right down into the water and come up with a fish. 

My very favorite, though, was this beautiful egret.

Cool picture, huh? Shadow on one side and reflection on the other.  She stood so close that we could almost touch her and seemed completed unaffected by our presence. They are so white and fragile looking with wispy back feathers that trail into the water.  We see egrets here in Illinois, but I've never observed one so close up.  Quite a treat.

Also enjoyed shopping at a cool store at City Walk called PIQ and fell in love with a Buddha statue covered in disco ball glass.  Would not fit in the suitcase or it would have come home with me. The whole incongruity of Disco Buddha really made me smile.

Lastly, though most certainly not least, strawberry margaritas at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.  Stands to reason that ritas at a place called Margaritaville would be good, but they were especially wonderful. I really need a frozen concoction maker of my very own.  (Or maybe not.)

With that I close the door on the trip south.  We went, experienced, got sick, and came home and it is a fine thing to be home.  Better luck next time.

My Parents went to Florida and all they brought me back was the flu.

I really, REALLY hope that the above statement is completely untrue, but it might be.  Each day I mentally cross off a calendar and as we get farther and farther from last Saturday when I returned from Florida, loved up some dear ones and the next day fell ill, I breathe a little easier.  Please don't let them get the flu because of me.

So, yeah, Tom (who shall from this point hence be called his real name. His Amazing factor has grown well past the word itself and Tom is a good name) and I came home from a less than thrilling trip with the flu.  Type A, probably visited upon us during the flight out. The coughing started on Sunday and if those who must extract information from bad guys ever get tired of water boarding I'd suggest using the flu.  I would have given up all manner of state secrets (like I have any) for them to stop the cough.  It was a spasmodic, retching, non-stop thing that was ruining.  Thank goodness Tom's was less severe. By Tuesday I was so sick that I called the doctor and wonder of wonders, I got in! 

Tom took me. Overall, he has had a less severe experience which has been a mercy.  I did manage to dress myself, but I can imagine that the image I presented to the registration folks was a little white trash, a little drunken sailor, a lot walking contagion.  As soon as I started talking the cough began anew and I was quickly given a mask.

I had no idea they came in so many colors.  Mine was yellow.  I don't care for yellow.

Doc, who I really adore, ushered me back to the lab for a flu swab where I once again coughed up a lung and was offered water by a kind lab tech. Isn't it interesting how circumstances alter reality?  That bottle of water was the most beautiful thing in the world at that moment.  Anything to stop the cough.  The flu swab is just a q-tip thingy that they send up your nasal passages, WAY up your nasal passages (Tom said it looked like she was mining for brain tissue) and then swish it around a bit.  Fun.....I know how to have it. 20 minutes later....viola....live growing influenza.  Hoorah.

Tamiflu was prescribed as well as a cough syrup with coedine that I am supposed to share with Tom, but I have become like Gollem with his "Precious", clutching that elixir of relief in one hand the the spoon in the other.  If loving cough syrup is wrong I don't want to be right.

Every day I see improvement, but the process is slow.  Today I have managed to only sleep for 4 hours in the afternoon and stay semi-upright for the rest of the day.  The coughing is much improved.  The fatigue and body aches are still a problem, but one day at a time, right?  And, please, oh please, don't let any of these delicious people get the flu because of me.

Josh, too.  He was taking the picture.

Moral of the story?  Get your flu shot.  I didn't.  

Home away from home

Thursday and our last full day here in Orlando. Sun is still with us and it is forecasted to be much warmer today...high 80s.  AH only has a half day of conference and we haven't yet talked about how we will spend the afternoon. 

So our hotel, the Loews Portofino Bay.

Situated on a waterway that runs between it and the Universal complex it is decorated to be a taste of Italy.  Never having been, I have nothing to compare it with, but I think they've done well.  The place is a city in itself.  HUGE and spread out in wings.  This picture give a better view.

Our room is at the bottom of the picture in the west wing facing the sand pool.  There are 3 pools, 4 restaurants, a couple of bars, several shops (mostly pointless.  I need a bookstore!), a spa/fitness center, business center and countless conference/ball rooms.  The grounds are beautiful with lots of pathways to walk and enjoy.

Pros: It smells fantastic here.  I know that sounds a little crazy, but everywhere you go there is a lingering fragrance that is very pleasant.  Even the elevators, which btw, open immediately when you push the button no matter what floor you are on.  I can't figure out how they do that.  The doors leading to the room wings open automatically so if you have food or suitcases you don't have to struggle with the door.

Already talked about the water taxi and park perks.  I've used the taxi many times and it's a lovely ride.  Our room is very nice.  The bathroom is gigantic and it has speakers for the tv so you can tune it to music and enjoy it while bathrooming.  The TV has a good selection of channels, even HBO so we didn't miss Game of Thrones Sunday night.

Cons: They kill you with upcharges. Internet is $10 a day. I needed a fridge for my meds and it too is $10 a day.  Use of the fitness center is $10 a day.  Food is insanely expensive and since we don't have a car my choices are limited.  We've traveled to CityWalk for several meals, but even there it's expensive.  Room service is completely prohibitive.  I've been eating mostly at Sal's which is an upscale deli and my morning croissant and oj is $8.50.  A bottle of coke is $3.

Noise. Being this close to the pool there is music playing from 9am to 9 pm every day.  It's not bad music, and if I close the door it does block out most of it. Also, they are working on a lengthy remodel and there is the sound of construction most of the time. I've grown accustomed to it, but the first day or two was annoying.

Overall it is a beautiful, luxurious place, but I don't feel happy here.  The Gaylord in Nashville and even the Oyster Point in New Jersey had a vibe that made me feel comfortable there.  I don't feel that here.  I am just dying to go home. I knew going in to it that this trip would be different from others I've taken with AH.  He has had frequent evening obligations and with no car I feel a little imprisoned here.  I wish I could tap my heels together and end this trip.  There is truly no place like home.

An Aloner

It's another beautiful day here in Florida.  I had a pedicure this morning.  She did a good job, but not as good as Sarah back home.  Grabbed a really good turkey sandwich with mustard mayo for lunch and then spent a long time sitting out on the balcony alternating reading my book ( Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg.  SO good.) and watching the people in the pool.  At one point it occurred to me how peacefully content I was to be just outside my room and not there in the pool.  Much happier watching than participating.

  I had a friend once who called me an 'Aloner'.  Sort of her clever take on being a loner, which I am.  I am very content with alone.  Maybe it's a symptom of being an introvert or the fact that I spent so much time alone as a child, I don't know.  I just know that I don't have any fear of being alone. (To be completely clear, the idea of being without Amazing Husband scares me to the depth of my soul, but that is another thing altogether.)

At one point in my life I thought I was anti social, or rather anti people, but now I know that to be far from the truth.  In fact, I'm a little in love with people.  I find them fascinatingly beautiful and airports and theme parks are perfect places to witness the wide range of humanity in all it's glory. People watching and listening reveals all kind of the fine and the folly.

I was sitting on a bench at the CityWalk yesterday waiting for my water taxi and watching other people waiting in line.  In front of me stood the sweetest couple ever.  He was 60ish and as round as he was tall. He had on khaki shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and his hair was a feathery fringe around his head.  She looked a little younger in her yellow shorts, black tshirt with matching black socks peaking out of her neon tennis shoes. (Did you know neon was back?  What's up with that?) He was gently rubbing her back like AH frequently does for me when we stand together.  Her hair looked like it had been permed one to many times and it make a blond halo around her head.  As I watched she turned around and put her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly on the mouth.  "Thank you so much for this trip," she said. "I'm having such a good time."  He took his hand and brushed it against her cheek and I admit that I teared up a little bit.  They were just lovely, these two, having a sweet moment while waiting for a water taxi.  Couldn't be farther from what our society labels "beautiful" and yet they were exactly that.  I counted myself lucky to have witnessed it. It completely made up for the conversation I overheard at the airport where a woman had to tell her 38 year old son that his father wasn't really his father. "He was ok with it" she said.  I can almost guarantee that he was anything but "ok" at that point.  The fine and the folly.....we are a magnificent race.

Still, as ok with alone as I am, I will be more than eager to board an airplane on Friday and return home to these little faces.

Kysa texted them to me this morning with the message, "We miss you!" So much love in such little packages!  Oh I miss their little faces!

Tonight Amazing Husband is being bussed to Disney for a corporate night at House of Blues and I will hang here with room service and American Idol. Good thing I am an Aloner! :-)

To Wizard or not to Wizard?

It's a beautiful Tuesday morning here is sunny Florida and I'm not being sarcastic.  The sun has returned and the temps are blessedly in the low 70s. I have the door of the room open to the pool and there is a lovely breeze blowing.  Birds are singing and I can almost make my head think the sounds of the pool water might be ocean.  Ok, not really, but it's nice just the same.

Yesterday we went over to Universal with the express purpose of seeing The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.   If your purpose in visiting this part of Florida is to spend any amount of time at Universal, staying at one of their three hotels offers some perks that make your experience much more enjoyable.  First of all there is a water taxi that runs continuously between the park and the hotel.  I think the longest we have waited for a taxi is maybe 15 minutes.  It picks you up at a convenient location at the hotel and drops you off right in front of the City Walk. 

No parking headaches at all.  Next you get an express pass that allows you to go the short line for all rides at the park.  We didn't use this, but I think it would be a very useful thing.  Lastly, and I think the most important, you are allowed into the park an hour before it opens to the public. We did this yesterday and went immediately to the Wizarding World, as did pretty much everyone else and we had no waiting at all for anything.  We did stand in line for maybe 10 minutes waiting to get into Olivanders Wand shop, but they only let 20 people in at a time. 

This sign greets you as you enter.  "Please Respect the Spell Limits".  Your first look is pretty impressive with snow covered buildings.

I snagged this one off the internet.  None of mine came out very well.

The "main" attraction is the Hogwarts ride and I have to say it was awesome.  If you have a bag or purse you must lock it in lockers that use your fingerprint to open and close, which was sort of cool.  The line itself is crazy long (CRAZY LONG) and I imagine on an average day you would wait for well over an hour, probably more.  Once inside the castle they offer lots to look at to kill the time, but it's really dark inside and some times hard to see.  Lots of talking pictures and a nice look at Dumbledore's office where he speaks to you.  I know it was a projection, but it looked super real! The ride is fast and has you flying on the quittich field and over Hogwarts school.  Like I said, I thought it was awesome.  The space where you enter the ride has multitudes of candles hanging over it and is a moving walkway which makes getting to the seats, which are also still moving, a little bit tricky. There is another more kid friendly ride that we didn't go on, but that one apparently takes you past Hagrid's Hut.

We wandered through Honeydukes and stopped into the bathroom where Moaning Myrtle was, well, moaning. We got there at 8 and were leaving the Wizarding World by 9 and let me tell you it was like someone had opened the floodgates and people came flooding in. Walking back toward the front of the park was like swimming up stream.

This probably goes without saying since it is a theme park, but the walking is extreme.  It is at least a mile from the front gate to the Wizarding World exhibit and we were trashed from our travel day but Monday was the only day AH had free.  We are also not fans of crowds so we did what we came for and left.  We were back to the hotel room by 11.  If you are a major fan, it is a do-not-miss attraction.  AH and I both loved the books and the movies and I'm glad we went, but I would not have made a trip just to see it.  Even if you manage a discount ticket, it's crazy expensive to get into the park, which I think is single handed-ly supporting a province in China because everything I picked up was made there. Wizarding World was cool and certainly gives you a personal immersion into Harry Potter, but I wasn't wowed.  I'm glad we went, but I'm not sure I'm as glad as the $$ we spent to do it.

This morning I'm heading back to the CityWalk to do some shopping and maybe an afternoon pedicure.  Ah the life of leisure. :-)

Welcome to Sunny Florida where it rains every 5 minutes.

We are in Florida, Orlando to be specific where Amazing Husband is attending a work conference and I am along for the ride.  We are staying at the Loews Portofino Hotel where everything is Italian including how the staff greet you.

I'll give a better review of the hotel at the end of the week when I've come to know her better, but as you can see, our room is lovely.  We have a tiny little balcony with a view of one of the pools, which is nice. Internet connection is abysmal and you pay through the nose for it, but being alone for a week without internet access wasn't an option.

I came along on this trip because being together is always preferable to being apart, but Florida would not have been my destination of choice.  To it's credit, the air here is constantly fragrant.  No matter where we go there seems to be some tropical wonder blooming and scenting the area all around it.  We've learned about Cypress knees, watched several native water fowl and discovered that there is such a thing as a Fish Crow who sits around saying "unt-uh".  The down side is that is rains and rains and rains and then the sun comes out and it is so freaking humid that my hair is completely out of control.  I have been wet more often than dry.  They do a pretty good job of creating ways to experience the area and stay sort of dry....lots of covered areas and rain ponchos available pretty much everywhere, but pool lounging is sort of out of the question.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

We did not rent a car this trip so we took a shuttle from the airport to the hotel where we met a nice couple from Fargo, ND who still have 2 feet (yes FEET) of snow on the ground.  As we made out way to our hotel I looked out the window and saw this:

Zombie Survival Supplies!  Gotta love a city that takes an apocalypse, however mythical, seriously.

We have also discovered that there is a theme park here called 'The Holyland Experience'.  Honestly, when I heard a group of women at the airport talking about it I thought it was a joke, but I googled it and there is was.  Holyland, where the face of Jesus watches over you wherever you go.  There's a little something for everyone in Orlando, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

Tomorrow I will give you the real skinny on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.