Fresh Prince style..

Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down, and I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there I’ll tell you how I got stuck in a town called….

San Luis Obispo.

It died at the end, didn’t it? Friends, Friday.. my life got a little flipped upside down. After having a great time the night before (recap later), and spending the entire day with my Uncle and later with some sweet friends, I made my way from Morro Bay to San Luis Obispo when all of a sudden my car felt like it was dying.

I was low on gas, but I’ve had this car for 5 years, I know how long I can drive on E, and I had a long way to go. Naturally, I was in the fast lane, so I quickly got over, prepared to get on the shoulder, when it lurched and started accelerating again. Now I was confused.

This is a fantastic car. A Toyota Highlander. A car that has zero problems EVER.

I’ve owned my far share of lemons in my day.
- 74 Chevy Malibu where I had to carry around a jug of water because the radiator would leak, and would have to fill it almost daily.
- 86 Ford Mustang that had the clutch drop out at a stop light, and the exhaust pipe fall out of the muffler where I could hear it dragging and would have to pull over and slip it back in constantly.
- 98 Grand Cherokee Laredo that on the 91st day of owning it, I discovered the A/C in fact did not work like the dealer claimed. 91st, only because it was the day after the warranty expired. Owning that jeep for 10 years was the worst 10 years ever. Nothing but the worst problems with that car and I will ward off ANYONE who ever says they want to buy a Grand Cherokee. Worst. make. ever.

But my highlander.. G-man bought it for himself 5 years ago. I loved it so much, that I sold my brand new car that I hadn’t even had for 9 months, just so I could buy it from him. I’ve loved it ever since. It’s a custom interior for people who backed out of the deal after it was made. Fully loaded but with cloth seats…almost unheard of. Lexus built, Tundra engine…people, this car is the best! Anyone who’s in it agrees.

So when Friday occurred, it made no sense to me. I made it into the dealership in town, only to be turned away because they were too busy. And this is where I will tell you that persistence pays off. I was told to come back Monday, even though he knew I lived 2 hours away. After I asked what I was supposed to do for the entire weekend, he said “drive it” with no sympathy toward knowing that it most likely would completely die on me when I did.

I got angry.

I got in my car to think about what I should do and I knew it was all under warranty and started wondering if they covered a rental car. I marched back in and asked the same guy about a rental car. He scoffed saying Toyota wouldn’t pay for it without having the car looked at it and that wouldn’t happen until Monday. So I called the warranty company who said to tell him to give me a rental and told me the exact words to use on the guy.

Once I went in for the third time, with my heels dug in, he got the manager and we worked out the rental car so I could drive home while my car stayed there for the weekend. I was informed by the rental company that I was in a “warranty battle” w/the rental and I told him that I had no doubt I would win and Toyota would pay for it. He laughed, but I was dead serious.

Saturday, they called to say they test drove it and had no problems with it. Not the news you want to hear. They called again to say they filed a claim with headquarters due to the rare problem it was having and I had to wait until Monday to hear again.

Finally Monday afternoon, the same guy called to say they’re completely baffled at what’s wrong. After all their testing, they found not one thing visibly wrong with the car. No lights, no warnings, nothing loose and no leaks. AND they said that headquarters stated that this generation Highlander has zero reports of ANYTHING wrong with the transmission. So throughout the entire country, I am the very first person to EVER have a problem with their Highlander’s transmission.

I feel like I should sit on that…. and also receive some sort of medal. I mean really!

So, after driving it more, the mechanics had the same problem I had, and headquarters ordered them to replace the entire transmission, fully covered under warranty.

Praise God! and thank you G-man for buying the extended warranty all those years ago…

I’m highly suspicious of this though. Hanford Toyota (and I will call them out) messed with my transmission in May and I fully believe that they are responsible for this. That this was not a Toyota issue, but a Hanford dealership issue, and I think they absolutely are to blame.

But I digress..

I won the warranty battle with the rental. They’ll pay for the 5 days I’ve had it and if it wasn’t for the persistence I gave, I’d hate to think how much money I would be out of right now. My PSA for today is fight! When you know you need help and have the right to something, don’t let them bully you away just because “they can”. Stand your ground.

remember when it got the flat tire in the ghetto? good memories… I can’t wait to have my car back!

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The night I almost died

Have you ever had those moments where you’re doing something normal, something routine and in the blink of an eye your normal and routine almost change for the rest of your life? Where you narrowly escape an accident?

That was me on my way to Los Angeles last Friday. Every event leading up was completely normal. I left home a little later then I intended. Stopped at the outlet mall to exchange a handbag, went to a Subway for dinner but their toaster was broken, so I drove to another Subway a mile down the road and got my sub. {it has to be toasted}

Got back on the freeway, its completely dark at this point, and eat my sub. Drop a piece of lettuce in my lap.. completely normal. Fish it out, ball up my wrapper and toss it on the floor on the passenger side. I called my mom up (don’t worry, I have a bluetooth) and we chatted for a few minutes about nothing.

And then I just drove. I didn’t feel like messing with music, I didn’t know the stations in the area I was driving through any way, so I left it off and stared straight ahead in silence as I drove 75mph in the fast lane.

I see something odd in the median way up ahead. I can’t quite make it out, its so dark, but I see what looks like the outline of a person. I couldn’t quite understand if what I was seeing was right, but as I got closer and closer, I saw a movement and realized it was in fact a person, dressed in all black.

Not just one person but 4. And they were starting to move very fast.

Reaction time is funny. I’m sure it was a fraction of a second from the time I gasped, realizing what they were doing, to the time I slammed on my brakes and laid on my horn, but it happened as if it were a movie, in slow motion.

The first 3 run as fast as their legs could take them across my lane and into the other two as they sprint across the freeway. But the 4th. The 4th didn’t clear the wall as fast as they did, and as I’m still slamming on my brakes to keep from killing the first 3, the 4th realizes he won’t make it, and jumps back behind the yellow line just in time coming within inches of my front bumper as I fly past him.

I can still see him jumping back from my SUV. Just as if the camera was on his feet, jumping behind the yellow line, its that clear to me just how close he came to getting killed… to killing me. After I passed, he took off running across the freeway to catch up with the other 3. I’m sure they thought it was the thrill of a lifetime. Running in dark clothes, on a dark night, in front of a bunch of speeding cars who are none the wiser.

But they put my life at risk. For a stupid thrill. My life!

What if I hadn’t given up texting while driving, and decided to text at that moment?
What if I was still eating my sub and that lettuce dropped in my lap and I went looking for it at that moment?
What if I was still talking to my mom distracted, or decided to search for a radio station at that moment?

The first 3 would have been dead instantly. I wouldn’t have slammed on my brakes and I wouldn’t have given them enough time to get out of the way of my speeding car, and most likely I would be dead because of the impact and no doubt losing control of the car after that.

I know I can play the ‘what if’ game all day long, but I’ve never in my wildest imagination (and its pretty wild the things I conjure up), think 4 stupid teenage boys would dare run in front of me at night, going 75mph.

I’m so eternally grateful, I had 100% of my attention on my driving and nothing else. God certainly, without a doubt, had His hand in that night and for my safety. It took about a mile before I began thinking normally and called the cops to report the boys. I doubted they’d hover where they did it, but I called any way in case they dared to do it again to other cars.

That night could have ended so differently for me.

If you’re driving, really think hard about those distractions. The text, phone call, food, music, and think if they’re really worth the risk. I hope no one else is stupid enough to risk running in front of you, but before Friday, I never thought it was a possibility.

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Clear the fog away

It’s that time of year. The time that I absolutely hate and one of the main reasons I don’t like living here. Fog season.

Its not your average fog, it becomes so thick its dubbed “treacherous” on the news and radio, advising people to stay off the roads and incur “foggy day schedule” at schools. A few years back it was so horrible, it caused a 200 car pileup on the freeway.

I get to drive in this every single day lately to work. I take back roads with dairy farms that make the fog even thicker and more dense. Its exhausting and trying driving every morning in fog that only gets thicker each day. If you follow me on twitter and instagram, you’ve seen the pictures and know what I’ve been dealing with!

The past week or so, I’ve really been thinking on the do’s and don’ts of driving in fog. There’s so many that are so crucial, yet even people here don’t follow them. It amazes me…then annoys me.

Monday morning on my way to work..{a 25 minutes drive}. Pretty bad to say the least. It took every ounce of energy I had to focus that morning to get to work. It left me wanting to take a nap all day long.

Tuesday morning. Normally when I get to this point in town, it’s a breeze, but a train unexpectedly came through and we all had to wait while it went 10mph. I couldn’t even see the train for the full 10 minutes it went by and I was only 5 cars from the tracks. It was so much thicker than the day before

Its important to know the DO’S when driving in the fog but even more important to know the DON’TS

DO
~ turn your headlights on (you’d be amazed at how many people don’t do this)
DON’T
~ turn your brights on
~ turn your hazard lights on
~ turn your parking lights on

DO
~ turn your radio down or off
DON’T
~ play with your radio
~ have your radio up loud

DO
~ drive the speed limit or just under
~ set your cruise control so you won’t have to use extra energy focusing on your gas petal
~ pull to the side when someone comes up behind you who’s going faster than you
DON’T
~ go 35 in a 55 (this will only serve getting you and someone else killed who comes up on you)

DO
~ fix your eyes straight ahead while keeping the lines in sight
~ rely on your GPS when you can’t see road signs to tell you when your turn is coming

DON’T
~ look to the left or right
~ look down at your speedometer (why I recommend using cruise control)
~ talk or text on the phone
~ look at the on coming traffic that came out of no where
~ look at what appears to be headlights in the far distance (at night) as a marker. They’ll turn out to be house lights that could steer you off the road
~ think about anything. Getting lost in thought is not an option
~ think about passing a slow driver (even though you really want to)
~ do anything that would in any way distract from your driving

If you don’t know where you are or aren’t familiar with your surroundings then, I would say drive a little slower, but I can’t stress how driving way under the speed limit is a serious danger to all other drivers around. And more so, if you have to pull over for whatever reason; turn off all lights to your car! Keep hazard lights and headlights off. Any glint of light people see, will have them think they need to be over to the right and will slam right into your parked car.

My co worker (who also drives bus) sent me this picture. At first I thought it was her, but thankfully it wasn’t. A van came quickly on a stop sign she didn’t know was there, slammed on her brakes, which had the truck who didn’t know she was there slamming on her brakes, coming too fast behind her, slam into her, shoving her mini van into the other lane and stopping on the other side of the road. Thankfully no cars were coming the other direction.

You can see how thick the fog is (at 10am) behind them.

People drive stupid. Driving too fast… I’m sure people would call me stupid because I will drive the speed limit (55mph) the whole way. I’m very aware the whole time, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t get in a crash still, but I’m not going to risk it and unnecessarily go slow.

The fog is disorienting enough as it is, I don’t need to be staring at it twice as long, going slow.

I’m sure I missed some do’s and don’t, so what are some that you feel are important to follow?

How are you driving in the fog?
- in town and residential areas, I do drive very slowly. I can’t risk hitting a person I don’t see crossing the street. But on a highway, I will go ‘fast’.

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Why you should memorize your license plate

Because if you don’t, while driving through a very bad part of town at 11pm on a Friday night, looking for a gas station {as you’re about to be out of gas}, you’ll hear a “pop” and notice you have a warning light on on your dash.

Which will cause you to drive even deeper into the very bad part of town praying to find a gas station soon, though you notice its only serving to keep you in the housing development.

You’ll be forced to pull over in front of dimly lit apartments and houses because your car is wobbling too much from the blown tire and you’re unwilling to risk driving anymore on it. And while you’re on the phone with AAA, they’ll ask you what your license plate number is and no matter how many times you’ve attempted to learn it, its never stuck and you’re forced to get out of your car to walk to the back to read it to them.

Which will lead to the questionable seedy black man, who’s walking down the other side of the 4 lane road {at 11pm} to see you on your phone, at the back of your car, to cross the 4 lane street in order to “get a better look”. This will prompt you to get back in your car, locking the doors {but darn if the dome light still stays on}, while explaining to AAA that you are in fact in a very bad part of town and that the man is now hovering by your passenger door “waiting” for you to get off the phone.

As you continue to talk to AAA, he’ll back up to watch you through your windshield as he leans against the wall, lighting his cigarette, showing he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. The AAA agent will then ask you to give your exact location, which you can’t give because you don’t know where you are, and you don’t want to turn your GPS on as it will illuminate the inside of your car, making everything that’s in it, visible to the guy smoking his cigarette, watching you. This will naturally prompt you to declare to the AAA agent that you don’t care what it will do to your car, you’ll be driving down the road in order to get away from him.

Once your car is started, the guy will start waving for you to stop, which will make you give a “do I have stupid written on my forehead??” wave right back as you slowly drive away. A measly 2 1/2 blocks later, you pull over near a stop light, in a mildly more visible area, and give your exact location.

5 minutes later, they’ll ask if you want them to call the police to come sit with you since it’ll be up to a 45 minutes wait and you causally mention that you ‘wouldn’t mind that one bit.’ And you will sit there…and sit there..for 15 minutes before the cop arrives. He’ll confirm that you are indeed in a very bad part of town and points out that 2 blocks straight is a prostitution house. And he’ll also point out that there’s not a gas station that he would advise you to go to anywhere near your current location.

As you joke around with the cop, AAA will finally show up to fix your tire, and you thank God that your boyfriend bought a 5th tire as a spare 2 years ago instead of an actual spare.


The cop will escort you to a safe gas station, wait while you pump, point you in the direction to get back home, shake your hand and drive away..

And you drive home.. but not without thinking that all the extra drama could have been avoided had you just memorized your license plate!

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Changing the direction

No, I’m not changing the direction of my blog. Like it ever had a direction to begin with.  I’m talking about changing up your direction to and from work. Or to and from home.

Yes, this will be a paranoid post by yours truly.

Remember, I’m an expert in these things… Almost from the beginning I was told it was important to never establish a routine in prison. Never walk the tier in the same direction twice, never leave the office at the same time, never go the bathroom, make a phone call, open a cell door, eat your lunch, pop inmates out at the same time every day… doing things like “clock work” was or could very well be your death sentence (or someone else’s)

Same can be applied to your day to day life.

I have to drive through the ghetto in order to get to work. You can change the name to lessen the blow; ‘less than desirable part of town’ but either way, it’s a druggie filled area that I get to work in… I get to watch the same druggies walk by the office and in so doing see whether they’re drug free (at that moment in time) or doped up as they walk by. Not to mention the gang members, homeless, scam artists and families who love them, smoking in their baby’s face while they walk by my lovely floor to ceiling window.

I started to develop the same route to and from work. Driving the same road where they’d all be hanging out at the liquor store and in their front yards watching cars go by. Where the girl would be spraying her husband’s face with the water hose while he had to do pushups in their front walk way and him not being able to breathe…you know, the normal things couples do for all to witness.

It wasn’t until one Friday morning, I was driving down the road and there were cars and people everywhere, lined up over a block long at the Salvation Army, that this one beat up mini van was going under 5mph for reasons I do not know. I couldn’t take it any longer and blared my horn nice and long and when I finally had that inch I needed, sped past him. It wasn’t until that moment I realized I may have rocked the boat on my route a bit.

There were a lot of people out that morning who heard the horn, saw the car and no doubt, saw me. I’m sure they’re used to noise and drama but I would prefer to stay out of it, so I realized it was time I took a break from that route. For the next 3 weeks, I went a different direction to and from work. Alternating between 2 routes. It was longer and more painful since there was more traffic, but I wanted to break the routine I had created.

Now I change it up between 4 different routes. Never taking the same street twice in one day. You can call me paranoid, obsessive, crazy or whatever else you want to think of, but there’s one thing I will always be. And that’s cautious.
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They watch you. They see the direction you drive and they see the time you drive it. They know when you get home, when you arrive at work and the minute you pass by their place.

My advice to you is: Change it up. Find a different route to work, to home, to school. Make if more difficult for those who are looking to track your schedule. Oh, and of course…take those stupid decal stickers off…cause you know, that’s an obvious bullseye.

Do you take the same route every day or do you make the effort to change it up?

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Realizing it can wait

Remember the day when we all sat in the car and talked and played car games? Relied on big huge bulky maps of the entire country, separated by states, where you had to connect A5 to D2 to find your destination? When you called to let the person know you were just about to leave and wouldn’t talk to them until you pulled up in their driveway?

Since June, when I went to Milwaukee and didn’t take my laptop, I’ve felt a shift of sorts in my use of all my gadgets. I have a lot of them. The iPhone, iPad, iPod, Kindle, and my laptop. Overwhelming at times, not to mention confusing when I’m reaching for one and do a jerky arm move over everything because I can’t figure out which I’m going for.

Up until a few weeks ago, I was a master texter while driving. I can text without looking and drive with my knee like no one you’ve ever seen…until I looked down to proof read and see I was one letter over to the left and all my words were misspelled. So of course, I would then survey the road, ensuring no cars were coming toward me (because I made it a “rule” to not text when a car was about to pass me) and proceed to look down to fix all the mistakes.

I always told myself I should cut back on texting and driving. I should. But it was always too easy to grab it when someone texted. I’ve mentioned it before; I generally text a person immediately upon receiving their text. If I read it and don’t, I’ll forget to respond, so I don’t wait. I’m just about always available. Even phone. I have this thing where its hard letting a call go to voicemail.

Well, I have noticed that no matter how quickly I’ll write back, they can take up to 5, 10, sometimes 30 minutes to get back to me. Odd seeing how they just texted but its slowly sunk in these past couple weeks that its okay to wait. Its okay to let that call from that client go to voicemail at 8:30pm. It’s okay to read a text and not respond until the morning. And most importantly, its okay to not touch my phone when I’m driving.

Why? I honestly have to remind myself that the person who is texting me, or calling me took 15 minutes to write back. Or 3 days to return my call, and if they feel its ok for me to wait, then I know its ok for them to wait that 20 minute drive home to respond. Its not an emergency, its not life or death. It’s a silly text about a piece of paper, or a workout, or someone wanting to say hi.

They can wait.

For the past 5-6 weeks, I’ve made huge efforts to stop texting while driving. There have been a couple times I’ve done it but 98% of the time I wait. And you want to know something crazy? The people on the receiving end of my texts, haven’t complained one bit. Heck, I bet they didn’t even notice I took longer than normal.

Everything is at our fingertips now. GPS, video games, communication. There’s no need to wait anymore when all a person needs is to grab their smart phone and look it up while sitting in the car driving down the road. And there’s no need to map it out to such great extent as before. We can call the person on our way and say we’re coming and call them 10 minutes before we get there. And we can all zone out to our little video games, keeping us separate from our riding companions. Things are not the same as when we grew up.

I love my iPhone, but I miss those days of less. So I’m working on less. Less texting, less computer time, less zoning out just to zone out..and I have to say, its been pretty nice.

Have a safe weekend and remember, it really can wait.

via

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Bring you up to “speed”

I can’t say what it is, but something about eluding a cop makes me all sorts of happy.

On my way to work the other day, I went to pass a car on a back road 2 lane highway, and as I’m gunning it, getting right along side her, I see faaaaaar off on the horizon a black car with a white top coming toward us.

It can only mean 1 thing: CHP. I slam on my brakes, get back behind her and go the slow slow speed, waiting for him to drive past.via lolsotrue

As he does, I have this huge smile on my face as he stares me down. I started to laugh right then. He can’t get me, I’m going the speed limit… I was doing the whole, ‘he ain’t got nothin’ on me!’ thing, when he flips a U behind me. At this point I’m talking to myself. ‘I don’t know what he’s doing…he can’t pull me over…I did nothing wrong…let’s see him try…’ and after 2 minutes of this, he turns down a road. But the whole rest of the way, I was convinced! he was tracking me.

Which he wasn’t…

I love eluding cops! Its such a victorious feeling.

Moving on – over a week ago, a co worker of mine, who’s in no way a friend, acquaintance or will ever be for that matter; called me “Em”. I did a double take when she said this, thinking who does she think she is calling me a nickname?? It was odd and in truth, made me a little uncomfortable. I barely have my friends call me Em, let alone a virtual stranger who didn’t seek my permission.

If you ever get an email from me, you’ll see I sign it “Em” but that’s only because I’m too lazy to type the full Emily over and over again…

Any way, fast forward to last Thursday, walking through the office, another co worker calls me Em. I stopped and asked her why she was calling me that and she said a co worker who has authority in the office, told EVERYONE in their sales meeting that I want to be called Em…or “M” as they’re saying.

I never said this!! Now everyone is calling me Em and I can’t even tell you how annoying it is. Its so bizarre!

In other news – My wonderful mom brought to my attention, after my forgetful post, that I was in a head on collision. Head vs windshield and the windshield won, which could very well explain why I can’t remember my childhood, not to mention my 19-20 year since it happened when I was 18.

But after she pointed that out, I remembered all my head injuries I’ve had. I’ve had 2 medically confirmed concussions, but I’ve probably had a total of 3..maybe 4. This makes complete sense why a lot of my memory has faded. My head is all screwed up!

Is it weird I’m a little relieved we figured it out?

Thus concludes a random post by yours truly.

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I’d be happy to drive hours to see you

I went on a road trip. One of those whirlwind road trips.

I drove 3 1/2 hours for a 5 minute doctor’s visit only to then jump back in the car and drive 3 1/2 hours along the CA coast (which, I’ll never complain driving the coastline) to a friend’s house so that I can see my hair stylist in that area to get my hair finally cut and colored! I got to stay the night and jump back into my car to drive 2 1/2 hours home.

I’m exhausted.

Am I a weirdo that my closest hairstylist is 2 1/2 hours away? And that I’ll drive there just to get my haircut? It helps having friends there that let me stay the night to break it up, but I’ve done it all in one day before.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I’ve moved a lot. And everywhere I moved, I found a new stylist. Well, since I’ve lived here I haven’t bothered to look for one since..well for many reasons and still go to my guy 2 1/2 hours away or when I’m in HI, to my girl there, who (don’t tell my guy…) does a better job than him. ssssshh

Let me ask you a question. How do you find a new stylist? What’s your method to find one you’ll trust??

Whenever I move to a new area, I look at women in the malls or wherever I am and if I really like their cut or color I’ll go up and ask who does their hair. When I moved to San Luis Obispo years ago, I did just that. Her hair was so cute, so I went to the guy. My first guy cutting my hair. To say I was nervous was an understatement.

Let me give everyone a lesson when going to a new stylist for the 1st time. Never ever ever change the style of your hair. Only get a trim so if they do horrible, it shouldn’t make a big difference.

Clue #1 that it was going to be bad cut: I said I wanted a change and everything was coming out uneven and chunky.
Clue #2 that it was going to be a bad cut: He begins to cut me bangs (because I wanted that “change”) while I’m facing the mirror and he’s sitting next to me on the side.

Are you picturing that? He’s sitting sideways next to me cutting my bangs while I face away from him.

I was screaming inside. Needless to say, it was the worst haircut I’ve ever had in my life. I even documented it, as I do with every new cut. I go home and take a picture (but I can’t find it anywhere!) So after being forced to walk around for a week with the haircut I found a great one who fixed it as best as she could. That I have a picture of!


But unfortunately, this girl turned sour after a year, butchered my hair and I had to find another. Ever encounter that? Best stylist ever, recommended several friends to her, but out of the blue, turns horrible and gives us the worst haircuts!!

I found another, but something happened and ended up w/my current guy. Boy was I nervous going to another guy, especially when I found out he was the boyfriend of the 3rd stylist!! I felt like I betrayed her, but he did such a better job.

Any way that brings me to now, fresh cut and color! I can’t wait to show it to you all. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been wanting to color my hair. Its been 1 1/2 years since I’ve colored it. – guess I just told you.

But I’ve been wondering if I want bangs again. My stylist wants to cut them really bad, but I’m just not sold on having to deal with them again, especially since I can’t run in 2 weeks later for a bang trim since I’m not close. So, I need your opinion. Which do you prefer??
Bangs??


Or, no bangs??

aaaand, go!

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It’s a camera and it just flashed

There’s one slight thing that I didn’t mention from the trip to San Francisco with G-man over the weekend.

Thankfully the moment we got to the car, he immediately took the keys and offered to drive. I’m not one to object, especially since he’s been living in Hawaii, his driving has slowed way down. The speed limit there is 55 mph so whenever he comes to the mainland he barely goes 65 and feels like he’s speeding while everyone’s flying by him. It’s actually quite hilarious when I have to remind him he needs to go faster.

As we’re driving through the city after breakfast, he goes his meager speed when we come up on a left turn light that’s green. He and the car next to us speed up to catch it and the closer we get; it turns yellow. As G-man begins to accelerate the car next to us brakes suddenly and stops as we barrel through.

At that moment, the light turns red. I scan all around on the chance a cop may be sitting at the intersection simultaneously looking for one of those traffic cameras. We’re clear!!

Then, flash.

Sitting tall on the corner where we’re turning into, is the camera. I’m pretty sure it caught me pointing at it when it took the picture saying, ‘there it is!!’
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So now I wait. Wait to see if I get something in the mail with the pretty picture of us in the car. Wait to see if there’s a way to get out of the ticket since I wasn’t the one driving after all. Wait to see if I’m going to rat out G-man as the driver….ooooh, I can’t wait to see what happens! muahahaha – evil laugh there…

We can’t figure out what got into him at that moment and both agreed we noticed the car braking and wondered why he stopped so abruptly. Clearly he knew what we didn’t and I can only imagine him laughing at us as he saw the flash, himself.

Oh silly traffic cameras, why do you mess with us, so!?

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Butterflies affluttering

The big day is tomorrow. I go under the knife. duh duh duuuuuuh!

I’m feeling like making it dramatic today.

I told a woman last week that I was getting a boob job. She believed me and then said she thought about one too. At that point I had to come clean at which point she didn’t believe me. And then it took me and 3 others to convince her it was my feet I was having surgery on.

I’m a good liar. It’s a fine quality thing of mine.

I actually started to get butterflies at the beginning of the week thinking about the recovery. I don’t care too much about the procedure, I’m out for that. It’s the recovery I’m not looking forward to and because of me thinking about my past recoveries I started getting trepidatious (there’s no proper spelling for that word, uh weird).

The last surgery, the bandages were so tight my feet throbbed for 6 days straight. 6 days of barely able to sleep because of the pain. I pray they aren’t tight this time. But I don’t think they will be because it doesn’t sound like it’ll be anything like the last surgery.

He’s giving me dissolvable stitches. I think that’s insane!!!! I won’t have to go back to him after 10 days to remove them because..they’ll have vanished in thin air. poof  that’s crazy! Everything he’s telling me, I’m just blown away by and in awe of all the possibilities he’s claiming.

So, Mom and I are heading to Los Angeles today a little early since my sweet friend's birthday is today! And because we have a very nasty early morning ahead of us. I chose not to change the surgery time so thanks to me, I have to be at the surgical center by 6:15 AM! bleh! What was I thinking?!

Until TOMORROW!

I’m wanting to fixate on pretty, sooo

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I drive I bake I eat

These are the 3 things I’ve done most recently. Driving more than anything.

It’s getting old. Like real old.

I’m coming back from L.A today and here’s something trippy…I haven’t even left home yet…Is it a faux pas that I’m telling you I wrote this yesterday to have it ready to go?

Forgive me if it is, but I have to leave in 1 1/2 hours for L.A and my hair is still in a towel, I still have to finish shopping for a bridal shower I’m attending today and drop it off at someone’s house and wash the dishes…UGH!

I have a lot to do.

Let me correct something from yesterday…I love that many of you believed that I’m capable of growing all those tomatoes…however they are my mom’s. She is the grower of all things, NOT me. That’s her garden. She’s a growing fool! (no, I am not calling my mom a fool…)

So I baked. After 6 days straight of claiming I was going to bake banana bread. I finally did it on the last day at my parents. A heavy guilt trip may or may not have been applied, forcing my hand. In their defense, I did claim to them for 2 days that I would make them..I even brought my over over ripe bananas. Then my sister got involved on the guilting…

In short (because all of this was supposed to be short) it was awesome! Like world class awesome…


This past weekend, my mom made her famous (famous for the family any way) salsa. We live for this salsa, we breathe for this salsa. It. was. good.

She gave me some to take home in a jar. I was so excited. 1. because I got some for my very own. and 2. because it was in this jar. Don’t ask me why I was so excited for that, but I was.


Now I must continue my productivity and get on the road. Pray for me. My driving around idiots morons people who don’t know how to drive, is really testing my patience, resolve, sanity and sweet and kind demeanor.

Ooh ooh, real quick. When I was driving home from my parents Sunday night, I was miserable and angry with everyone around me and I wouldn’t talk to God about it to help. So, over an hour into it, the peeps around me were better so I was relaxing and thought of the funniest (maybe just to me) joke!

God is with you/me all the time. Everywhere you go He’s there. So I was thinking of Him in the passenger seat next to me, when I was refusing to talk to Him. When I thought about the carpool lane. If God is with me in the car right now, why shouldn’t I be able to use the carpool lane when I’m in L.A??? It’s 2 or more!! Which would make a total 4!

You know, Father, Son and Holy Spirit…

I think if I get pulled over, I may just use this. or not..

Was that a bad joke? Did you chuckle just a little bit? Shake your head at me, in a ‘wow, that’s pretty pathetic’ kind of way??

It made me chuckle and relax even more, so it helped me a bit at the time. *sigh*
Ok NOW I’m leaving.

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A fruit who muses

Thanks to someone I’ll leave unmentioned but who’s name starts with a T and ends in a –atiana- inadvertently calling me a “fruit” after my post Monday, I will no longer be using the highly intellectual sentence, ‘how do you do.’ I have officially retired it and have chosen to go with the obviously normal sentence, ‘how are you.’
I hope you’re happy.

Although… I’ve noticed a word that’s getting said frequently out the mouth that is mine, and that is “boo.” Not…BOO, I scared you! but boo as in:

Boo, I bought a gallon of skim milk instead of my 2%….or

Boo, I missed G-man’s call.

Do you get the point? What? You want another example? Okay…or

Boo, 10 bees just splattered on my freshly washed windshield. (I live around a bunch of orchards that harvest with bees.)

Ok, so, you get the point, right? So onto my musings. There’s been a lot lately and I feel like I should impart my muses…musI…musings??? onto you.

KIDS! We all love them, but we don’t love them when they don’t look both ways to cross the street to chase after their ball that got away from them. It was like out of a movie…yesterday, driving along when I see the ball roll out into the street. I stop waiting, knowing a kid will soon follow and 2 kids (around 6 and 4) run after it. Don’t even look both ways, just takes off. They never saw me sitting there. Darn kids!

Speaking of driving. Where’d all the nice drivers go? No one acknowledges each other anymore. No, “thanks for letting me in” wave or “thanks for pulling over so I could squeeze by” way or “sorry, I didn’t see you there” wave. Nothing. Just ‘grrr leave me alone, get out of my way’ mentalities. I want the nice drivers back!

I’ve realized when most women ask for my ‘honest’ opinion they really don’t want it. Because when I give it, they get all mad, offended and huffy at me for speaking the truth, and it’s even given gently. Don’t ask for my honest opinion if you don’t want to hear it. know what I’m sayin’? And that goes for when you ask your man. Be prepared for his answer, HE. WILL. GIVE. IT and stop being so offended. sheesh.

Ladies, it’s OKAY to be vulnerable with your man. Really! He actually likes it when you are. It’s ok to cry to him. It’s ok to share what’s troubling you. It’s ok to reveal what’s been taking root in you and beginning to fester. If he’s anything like the man you believed he was when you got with him, he’ll take care of you, treat you kindly and respect what you have to say. And ladies…when he asks you, “what’s wrong” because he really doesn’t know (because you kept it to yourself all this time and are starting to snap at the kids, him and anything that moves)…don’t say, “nothing, I’m fine.” Tell him. How can he help lighten your burden if you never tell him your burden is overwhelmingly heavy?!?

Which brings me to my final musing…communication. You hear the word all the time and know it’s important in a relationship, but how many actually communicates with their partner? We all hate confrontation…but don’t you hate the stress of holding something in because you think it’s better to hold it in until you “let it go”?? Which by the way, you never ‘let it go.’ It sits there and you think about it constantly. Letting it make you angry all over again as you replay it in your mind. Creating imaginary fights over it and getting angrier.

Communication is SO SO important to have a happy and healthy relationship. If he does something that bugs you, tell him and move on. If you aren’t good at it, write it in an email. Take your time getting the right words out and send it to him so he knows what’s bothering you.

A girl did a post about how she hates confrontation inside and outside her marriage and I truly felt compelled to email her my story. About 3% of you actually know my story, so maybe I’ll share the email I sent one day, but know I hated confrontation. It terrified me. And because of it…I suffered.

Now if you want to say (as some have said to me) I don’t know what it means to communicate with a husband because I’m not married, so therefore my advice means nothing to you…I will respond with, “Do you see a male OBGYN? He doesn’t know what it’s like to pass a kid. Why do you take your dog to the vet, when he isn’t an animal?” It’s stupid. Just because I’m not married doesn’t mean I can’t give sound communication advice to a married person.

The communication musing has been lingering in my mind for awhile. I’ve offered help with a couple bloggers out there who have a hard time with it and I’ve gotten a good response from them. If I can help one take the step to get over their fear of communicating then that makes me very happy.

I’ll leave you with a pretty picture I took in L.A.

Happy June by the way!!

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