So Much to Tell, so Little Time

I could never write a book. Sitting still long enough to fill one page is all I can handle. Hit and run blogging is all I can manage. I might have a touch of ADD.

My birthday morning consisted of the husband dancing down the hall in a pink tu tu whistling "Happy Birthday to YOU"....
That is a total lie but I assume you knew that immediately. I just liked the visual I got from typing that. He was heading for the coffee pot wearing a pair of sweat pants while singing out his birthday greeting. Later the daughter, Carrie and Ted called and wished me a group greeting. Lesie and Kristen called from Applebee's and had the whole place singing the birthday song and ending it by quickly whispering "Gotta go Nana before we all get fired!"

Dinner was at a local steakhouse in the late afternoon. I had a very pleasant day.

It was the next day that was more interesting. The daughter called and extended a birthday lunch and pedicure. I passed on the pedicure for now but we decided to have lunch and do it at 1400 hrs so we could be eating while the Arias trial is on their lunch break.

It was a deluge. Rain, rain and more rain. So much rain that not even a huge market umbrella could keep us dry. She drove to my house and we jumped into my car and headed out. A few miles into the drive, I glanced into my rear view mirror to check the traffic behind me. We had just pulled onto a 4 lane highway and were moving along at a fast clip.

What is that on my mirror....and as soon as I thought that, I knew what I was seeing. I don't just have a spider fear but I have a nice fat phobia. It is super inflated and seeing a spider in my car, I slammed on my brakes while heading for the 'turnout', a concrete apron for cars making a U turn coming from the opposite direction. The daughter has the same phobia..go figure huh? Good parental training.

She takes one look at my face and knows. The car is till rolling to fast for her to leap out but she grabs the door handle anyway. I'm screaming at her not to jump and she is screaming back "Where is it??"

As I roll to a stop, she is climbing throught the opening between the two front seats and plops her self into the back seat still screaming. We both wanted to get out of the car and had it not been for the downpour we were in the middle of we might have.

Grabbing the roll of paper towels and ripping off half of it, we looked behind that rear view mirror for the spider. Both of us are now quieted down to a whimper. Every time we think we see something move, we wind back up to screaming. I took my paper towel wipe the mirror and Carrie's hair tie that was wrapped around the mirror went flying across the car. That's when I tried to get into the back seat with April.

 

Having a phobia is more then just being horrible. It's debilitating. We couldn't sit in that 'turnout' without risk being hit by someone making a u=turn and finding us parked there. We drove on holding our paper towels ready to squash it should it reappear. April had, by now, climbed back into the front seat and she was on patrol watching for it.

 

It reappeared. Maybe it felt safe creeping back. April got it with the paper towels she was holding. We screamed the whole time she rolled down the window and pitched the towel and the monster out. This is one exception I make to my stance on "no littering".

The remaining portion of our trip was uneventful. Soup and salad and bread sticks unlimited at the Olive Garden was enjoyed!

After lunch we both headed back to the house to watch the Arias trial again. After watching it while waiting to leave for lunch yesterday, April is now watching it.

And to end my day, I signed on to Facebook to find someone had decided to "follow" me. This means they don't have to friend you or send a friend request but can merely follow your status updates but comments are not allowed.

A few hours later, I received a request to "friend" this same person. This "person" is a nephew that I haven't been around in 35 years. I missed the years of his youth and adulthood. I have lived at least 1500 miles from this fellow his entire life. Never a phone call nor a visit passed between us. You can imagine my surprise and chagrin when I received a very nasty missile from this nephew. Apparently he had been fed a lot of information from a spiteful relative who apparently was on a mission to defame. Too many people believe because, much like watching the news channels with horrific news, bad stuff is much more titillating then listening to praise and accolades of a person. Just maybe spreading evil about others  elevates the status of their own unhappy existence.Unhappy people do not spread cheer and happiness. I'm also a believer in we all get to choose our own paths. If the path you have chosen is a miserable one, change it. Make it your goal to change it. Degrading someone else will not make your own life any better then what you are living. In the long run, you must live with the poison you contain.

Needless to say, I took note of the request, promptly declined and then blocked   this person out of my life. I have no time for such negative forces. I have an aversion to confrontations of this sort. A waste of time I could be investing in learning something new. The  most devastating thing you can do to this sort of person is to ignore. I don't do it to devastate. I find it the best way to deal with unwanted drama.

....moving on...