I had a brief burst of energy tonight and I decided to leave the laundry, the dirty dishes, the soiled puppy pads, unmade bed, unmowed yard and unfinished dolls to check up on my blog.
The eldest of my three fabulous daughters has been filling in for me in past weeks, until that happy HAPPY day when I would be completely caught up with my job, home, pets and miscellaneous obligations (never gonna happen). It was kind of weird, once I logged in, I could barely remember how to do anything! Wouldn’t it be great if you could purchase physical energy and brainpower as easily as you can laptop memory?
Anyhoo, I rather doubt anyone has even missed me, the blogging world, like any fleeting fame, is a fickle food.
At any rate, I just popped in to say, hey…
We live in a small rural town in southern Illinois, definitely truck country. Trucks with huge wheels, dual tires and wide hips, trucks so high off the ground you need a stepladder to climb into the cab, trucks with bull bars, cow catchers and even testicles are not uncommon sights around these parts. Even the ladies drive trucks, I’ve seen pastel trucks, trucks with cutesy detail paint jobs, hot pink plush seats and PMS bumper stickers…but so far, thankfully, no ovaries dangling from the ball hitch…
We drive a mini van and have for years. We are so out of the loop,
but for a change, I don’t mind…
Well I’m still amongst the living, if you call this living. My husband is trying to talk me into getting out today…I haven’t been out since Tuesday, haven’t worn makeup, done my hair, barely got dressed. I’ve been slowly getting ready this morning, but I got so dizzy I had to sit down a couple of times while I was doing my hair. I’m still coughing like a TB patient and I’m not entirely sure the fever is gone. I may need a skin graft around my nose and yesterday I woke up with a cold in my right eye, it’s all red and puffy and I look like a cat with distemper…I’m really alluring right now, I must say.
We talked about looking at some cars today. Our van is coughing and wheezing, it sounds a bit like me. I just hate the idea of another monthly payment and more auto insurance! The van at least is paid off…
Did anyone miss me? I’ve been flat on my back sick since Tuesday night. We went to vote right after work Tuesday and then ran to the store for a few provisions…that’s when I first noticed all the little sparkles dancing in front of my eyes and the sound of hissing coming from my ears. I got so dizzy I had to sit down several times.
By nightfall I was feverish, chilling and breaking with goosebumps and I thought my head was gonna split wide open. My hips, arms, legs, neck ached so bad I couldn’t begin to get comfortable and my lungs and head immediately filled to bursting with mucus. Even the roof of my mouth hurt! Then I began bleeding from my eyes, ears and pores…(actually I just made that last part up to see if you were paying attention, though as lousy as I felt, those symptoms wouldn’t have surprised me)
I’ve been up and around a bit today, but I still feel tired and woozy. This morning Chuck found the thermometer, it was in the kitchen junk drawer, mixed in with hundreds of emery boards, balls of twine and promotional pens. I guess I’m not quite over the bug, as my temp is 101 and two tenths. I really hope I didn’t make anyone else sick…wouldn’t wish this flu on my worst enemy.
I had a strange dream last night.
I dreamed my husband and I just jumped in our mini van and took off! We didn’t tell anyone where we were going, just took off like we didn’t have a care in the world! I kept asking him where we were going and he’d say, “I don’t know, lets just head in a direction and drive till we run out of gas.”
“And then what?” I asked.
“We’ll bed down in the back of the van and go again tomorrow!” He said.
For some reason the dream had a really powerful effect on me. It’s been on my mind all day and has colored my thoughts. Even though taking off that way is completely out of character for us. We NEVER do anything without at least some planning. We have our kids and our pets to consider and my mom and sister freak out if they don’t know where we are, and his job demands that he be accessible in case of emergency. And I really can’t see us “bedding down” in the back of the van, either. We aren’t good campers, we both have bad backs and allergies, in fact, I sold our camping gear at our last yard sale.
Still, that dream keeps popping into my head.
Every winter I ask myself, why do I live in Illinois? Why do we put up with the worrisome tornado-prone springs, the sticky, sweltering summers and the miserable frigid winters. Autumn is generally the only decent season in Illinois. From November to April landscape is bleak and gray and depressing.This time of year the temperature ranges from low to below teens, with wind-chill below zero. We’ve scraped ice off the car windows every single morning, my Weenie dog has worn both her sweater and her little red coat with the fur trim, to work everyday. I’m sick to death of winter already and it’s still January…we have at least two months of miserable weather left to endure.
Every winter I ask myself, why do we live in Illinois? Why not look into some Florida or Georgia land for sale?
I guess it’s because my entire family lives in Illinois. For me, family trumps crummy weather.
I don’t know about you, but most days I have a hard time coming up with new and interesting meals and we end up eating the same old things day after day. Recently I’ve begun checking out various cooking blogs and I’ve found a great one! It’s called “My Wooden Spoon“. The title of this tasty blog is a little scary for me because when I was growing up wooden spoons were used to whack naughty children on the head! Lori, however, uses her wooden spoons for wonderful things! I’ve already jotted down several recipes I can’t wait to try, I’m thinking the first one will be the Baked Rigatoni, since hubby’s a huge fan of Italian!
My husband and I are planning a trip to New Orleans this summer. I’ve always wanted to go there, in fact, we’d planned to stop through on the way back from Florida on our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, but at the last moment we decided we would need more time than just one day and so we went to Asheville North Carolina to see the Biltmore estate instead…also a really cool place to visit.
I’m dying to see the above ground cemeteries and the French Quarter, and I plan to do lots of eating. The only bad thing is, we’re going in July and I never handle heat very well. On the other hand, I get sick with one thing or another every time we go on vacation. I’m surprised my husband doesn’t leave me at home. When we went to Hannibal Missouri, I had an allergic reaction to a spider bite and we had to leave a day early. I got a horrible sinus infection on our honeymoon, more sinus misery in Texas, the flu at Disney World, food poisoning at Hermann. Hmnn, maybe we should look into travel health insurance…
I ordered a book last week and it came in the mail today, it’s all about building your own cabin. I’ve always wanted to build my own cabin in the woods. Not a big cabin, mind you, maybe just one room with a loft for sleeping and a set of bunk beds for guests. Maybe a small bathroom off in a corner. But most importantly, my cabin would have a big stone fireplace and a screened porch so the mosquitoes didn’t carry us away. I haven’t a clue where I’d build my cabin, since I don’t own any land. I don’t even have a clue how to build a cabin (hence the book). I’m not even sure I could build a decent birdhouse.
Stranger still, I don’t even like to camp. We haven’t camped since our honeymoon, when we pitched a canvas tent in a campground in Florida and I woke up in the middle of the night terrified because there were Peacocks outside screaming like a woman being murdered.
Anyway, I’m going to read up on building cabins, that way I’ll be prepared. Just in case.
This weekend my husband and I went to Springfield to get in a bit of last minute Christmas shopping and to try and track down some doll repair supplies. It’s always an ordeal finding the things I need. I’ve never even seen a store just for doll repair supplies, so I end up visiting all sorts of strange businesses, hardware stores, antique and craft shops, even body shop supplies.
And as customary, while we were in Springfield we visited the Dana Thomas House. I’ll admit, I’m obsessed with the house…in my humble opinion, it’s simply the most beautiful home ever built. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1904 and is a shining example of his “Prairie style” home. I plan to keep visiting the Dana Thomas house until I’m old and gray, then hopefully I’ll drop dead during one of the tours and I can stay on and haunt the place…
While I always enjoy the tours, this time they had something new and special in the gift shop…Teco! Well, not the old Teco, which is pretty much untouchable price wise, but new Teco, made from the old designs! And it’s gorgeous! I nearly swooned over the Dana Sumac vase…I had to keep telling myself that it would be Christmas in three days and I was supposed to be buying gifts for other people, not myself. But then my husband reminded me that our 28th anniversary is coming right up…
Soooo, long story short, here is my new anniversary vase! The best anniversary gift ever!
