My husband enjoyed the weekend getaway at his brother’s new vacation home more than anyone else who came.  He was happy to see all the suggestions and input he had put to good use.  He has become quite enthusiastic about redecorating at our house since all this has been going on with his brother building his vacation home.  He and the boys did a great job on remodeling our garage, and I can definitely breathe easier knowing that he has had input on designing and finishing of the vacation home.  I am still having trouble figuring out all the information he is throwing at me about wireless alarm benefits for our home, since he is now talking about redesigning our basement, and is evening talking about creating a walkout basement.  He has been talking to the same people who designed and built his brother’s vacation home.  When I think about it though, I do feel a lot more comfortable letting him have his way.  I see that he does a lot of research on whatever he proposes to do, and he makes sure he understands the process we will be going through. I guess I’m getting comfortable with it all.

I have many hobbies, but probably my biggest one would have to be street racing. My greatest passion is working on and upgrading my car, and then, racing it against other cars on the streets. I usually manage to avoid the law, but the police busted a large street racing gathering a few weeks ago and now, I have a hefty fine to pay and a six month license suspension. I live in Orange County and I do not know if there is a place to get Lasik in Orange County. I was going to get Lasik surgery in order to avoid the hassle of glasses and contacts and in order to better my reaction time for racing. Now that I do not have my license for six months, I do not know where I am going to find a place to get Lasik in Orange County. Maybe I could get one of my friends to drive me to the doctor’s office where I was originally going to get the Lasik done, but then they would have to wait nearly six hours for my surgery to be completed and for me to be able to leave. I don’t know if anybody would be willing to sacrifice their day for that

Natural scalp treatment saved my life.  I am not kidding.  I’ve been shaving my head for fifteen years ever since I was a part of my high school boys’ volleyball team.  If you remember, the USA Men’s Volleyball team for the Olympics all shaved their heads that year and we saw no reason not to support them by doing the same thing.  I liked the look and since I never had to bother combing my hair or getting it cut I kept it.  And that’s why I noticed my head getting red and itchy and why I went to the doctor.  He proscribed me a natural scalp treatment, which is what cleared up the infection, though I never found out how I got it.  But if it had continued unabated, according to my doctor, I would never have been able to grow my hair back at all.  And that’s exactly what I’m trying to do here.  I just met this girl and what she likes more than anything is a full head of long, silky blond hair.  Right now, she just likes me a lot.  Once I grow all my hair back, she’s going to love me.  I never thought I’d find a soul mate.  And all I really needed to do was stop shaving my head all the time. 

What a gorgeous day it was to climb up Stone Mountain for an afternoon picnic.  Unfortunately, I tripped on a rock and busted my leg on the way back to the parking area.  Ouch.  My boyfriend carries a first-aid kit in his van, and he made a compress to stop the bleeding.  We stopped at my clinic on the way back to Marietta, where we live, to see Dr. Ellis.  He gave me a pain pill and treated my bruise.  Then he added, as if he had just thought of it, that maybe I should consult with a personal injury attorney in Atlanta.  I wondered why.  He said, you could probably sue the park.  They’re supposed to be in control of those falling rocks.  You tripped over a big one, didn’t you, and fell against it.  Well?  I didn’t know what to say.  I felt like it was just an accident, you know, things just happen and you have to take the good with the bad and all that.  Dr. Ellis said it was entirely up to me—but that’s what he would do.  My boyfriend agreed with him.  He said we should definitely sue them for as much as we can get.  I think he just said that because he’s not making too much money at his auto shop.  He’s trying to put together a rock band—he attended the University down in Athens for two years before he dropped out and was really into the B-52s and R.E.M.  So now he wants to sound like Mike Stipe or like Fred Schneider.  Fine, so long as he doesn’t sound like Zell Miller.  Oh, these Georgia peach dudes, what will we do with them!

I have an artist friend, we’ll call her Kim, who is making a small but intense furniture collection for recreation.  Her furniture isn’t just colorful or eccentric.  You could call it vibrant or psychedelic or splashy…even kaleidoscopic but no matter what description you use, it’s downright weird.  In fact, she calls the collection Awkward and Garish.

The collection mostly consists of a few old chairs, which she wanders back alleys to find, and then she fixes ‘em up like only she can.  My favorite piece, and that which I think is most elegant, is her grandmother’s old rocking chair.  Kim covered up the gold design on the back of the chair and glued on paper with a myriad of bright colored circles on it and now it’s a happy accompaniment to her living room.  Nestled in the corner is a painted bright yellow chair with a red and purple plaid design streaking across it.  Then there’s the cloud chair, the frame of which is painted like a cloudy blue sky and stretched across the seat is brown fabric decorated with a circular pattern and glued to the back are two random pages from a book.

Some of Kim’s other small projects include a purse with a photo on it.  The purse is no longer with us due to Kim dumping an entire glass of whiskey and coke into it but it’s worth mentioning just for that tidbit.

Kim just completed a chandelier made from glass drinking bottles and a whole helluva lot of glue.  I think she’s actually been studying up on types of glue and their different strengths and have seen her scratching her head in the glue aisle in confused bewilderment on more than one occasion.  When you break the chandelier down piece by piece, it consists of a giant pickle jar, a few glass Crush bottles, a couple Pom Wonderful bottles and several bulbous Martinelli’s apple juice bottles that I like to refer to as “apple grenades.”  And in the middle is a wooden horse head painted bright red. 

One day I was supposed to meet Kim outside of her work after her shift was over.  I found her on the corner in front of Starbucks, standing next to an old wooden highchair.  We greeted each other and talked for a second before we started walking in the direction of her apartment.  I guess I thought someone had left the highchair there, for whatever reason I don’t know, but I didn’t expect my friend to pick it up and bring it with us.  But she did.  Knowing Kim, I wasn’t so surprised and knew she had some sort of magic fate in for the damned thing.  Later I heard about her trip up and down Milwaukee Avenue, ambling in and out of thrift stores, looking for items to enrich her electric highchair of death.  She was inspecting kitchen utensils and colanders in a shop and asked, “Do you carry anything more…sinister looking?”

 
Afterwards I was telling my boyfriend about how “Kim wanted to make a piñata-“but before I could complete the sentence my boyfriend said, “Chair?”  Yep.  A piñata chair.  So there you have it.  Awkward and Garish.

Now, I poke fun at Kim’s furniture a lot.  Sometimes I just really don’t know what to say to her when she shows me something with wooden legs on it and excitedly tells me her motley plan for the object.  But I really admire Kim and not just for her spirit or her drive.  I admire her for her bold creativity and within her apartment walls she has all the colorful inspiration she needs.

One of my coworkers has diabetes, and for him it is a daily struggle.  When he was first diagnosed, he had a hard time maintaining sugar levels, and it took some getting used to for him.  It first he just thought he would be alright if he watched his diet and exercised regularly, but he soon found out there was a lot more to it than that.  He had to eat at specific times, and not just be cautious of what he consumed.  He also had to get into the habit of carrying candies around with him at all times, just in case his sugar levels dropped.  There were other subtle changes in his life that also helped him.  Instead of taking the elevator up to our fourth floor office he began taking the stairs, and he also started walking more places and riding his bicycle.  To tell you the truth, I think those are things that everybody should do.  The general population would be much more healthy if they made simple changes such as walking the stairs in favor of the elevator and walking and riding bicycles from place to place.  Perhaps if more people made these changes, the number of people diagnosed with diabetes would drop.     

Yesterday I did nothing but work around the house.  First I finished painting the kids bedroom, then I did a few things outdoors, like cutting that huge hedge.  Then I thought it's time to get busy and take care of my closet.  I pulled out the material and looked at the directions: install kids closet organizer.  There were at least twenty pages in the instructions and thousands of pieces.  At least it seemed like thousands of pieces.  I decided to eat lunch first.  Then Terry called. He wanted to know if I wanted to play golf.  It was a beautiful day here, so I was thinking that golf sounded like a great idea.  So off we went.  I did okay.  We actually walked the course, which felt good for a change, but has left me kind of sore this morning.  I guess I'm getting old.  Terry was teasing me this morning.  I am a year older than him, but I'm out of shape.  This is a warning that I must get back in shape for summer.  I will.  I did join a fitness club, the one downtown.  It's pricier but worth it as they have more machines there.  I'm not so much on weights, but I'm thinking I might start.

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