Ok so the calendar says it is the middle of June. However the weather outside would argue otherwise. Its wet! Yup rain for the past two days. I would not mind the rain so much if it was marginaly warm. It is not warm. We did not make it out of the fourties today. So stay inside you say. Well yeah that works when you don't have a toddler to contend with.
A three year old denined the outlet of running amuck through the yard will then take that out on you. They will whine. They will pout. They will make demands of you for everything. They hate that they can't get out as much as you.
For my little one there is the added joy of mosquito bites. When they bite her she looks like she has been stung by a bee. And we are in the need for a bandaid for every boo boo. Two boxes of Dora bandaids later, and I hope that they are all covered.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Summer what summer?
Saturday, May 26, 2012
What to do with kids in the summer?
You know summer vacation should come with instructions for what to do with children during those months. Cause otherwise moms tend to go a little insane. Let me tell you it doesn't really matter what age the child is be they three years old or twenty three its still the same.
"I AM BORED" How those words can come out of their mouths at ten in the morning is beyond me. Seriously do they think that I live to entertain them every minute during the day.
Granted my adult son has the glory and power of the Xbox to keep him entertained for hours even days on end. Its my lovely little three year old, she has know decided that by ten in the morning she is bored.
She wants to play outside in the backyard, yeah says I but noooooo she doesn't want to play by herself she wants company. She doesn't actually want to play with you she wants you to sit and just be there. Telling her that mommy needs to do the dishes doesn't work cause them she just goes after the Boy.
The Boy by the way has taken to hiding just to have a moment, a nano second to himself before she finds him again. She will happily bang on his door to get his attention.
Lest you think I don't give her things to play with she has a room full of toys, I set up paints for her to use outside on the deck, she has balls and other toys scattered all over the backyard and more. She enjoys walking over to you while you read the morning paper and pulling it down pushes a cup in your face and screeches "milk" in that high pitched little girl squeal. I thought my brain was going to short circuit the other morning when she did that ten times in a row.
Some days she is content to watch some tv and play quietly but the summer in Alaska, read the sun is up at 4:30 am and sets at 11:30 pm, seems to get into their system and its go go go. I just want to watch the Today show and have some coffee, really that's all I ask in the morning.
I cannot wait until she is old enough to get into dance lessons or swimming or anything that will keep her very very active mind engaged. I love her to pieces but honestly if my first child had been like her I don't think there would have been anymore.
"I AM BORED" How those words can come out of their mouths at ten in the morning is beyond me. Seriously do they think that I live to entertain them every minute during the day.
Granted my adult son has the glory and power of the Xbox to keep him entertained for hours even days on end. Its my lovely little three year old, she has know decided that by ten in the morning she is bored.
She wants to play outside in the backyard, yeah says I but noooooo she doesn't want to play by herself she wants company. She doesn't actually want to play with you she wants you to sit and just be there. Telling her that mommy needs to do the dishes doesn't work cause them she just goes after the Boy.
The Boy by the way has taken to hiding just to have a moment, a nano second to himself before she finds him again. She will happily bang on his door to get his attention.
Lest you think I don't give her things to play with she has a room full of toys, I set up paints for her to use outside on the deck, she has balls and other toys scattered all over the backyard and more. She enjoys walking over to you while you read the morning paper and pulling it down pushes a cup in your face and screeches "milk" in that high pitched little girl squeal. I thought my brain was going to short circuit the other morning when she did that ten times in a row.
Some days she is content to watch some tv and play quietly but the summer in Alaska, read the sun is up at 4:30 am and sets at 11:30 pm, seems to get into their system and its go go go. I just want to watch the Today show and have some coffee, really that's all I ask in the morning.
I cannot wait until she is old enough to get into dance lessons or swimming or anything that will keep her very very active mind engaged. I love her to pieces but honestly if my first child had been like her I don't think there would have been anymore.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Not so much fun under the midnight sun
So summer, or what passes for summer, has arrived up here in the great last frontier. The sun is doing its sunny thing of not really ever setting. As of today sunrise was about 5 in the morning and sunset is about eleven pm. So there is ample daylight to get things done during the daylight.
Now my house backs up to a wooded park and in the middle of that park in a basketball court. Don't get me wrong here I have nothing against basketball. I have a thing against basketball being played at two am in the morning when most respectable people are asleep. See even when the sun sets it never really gets totally dark around here. Sort of like a twilight for those few hours before the sun comes back up over the horizon. So its really light enough to do things. And it appears that playing basketball at two am is the highlight of someones life.
Now there is a sign that hangs directly under the hoop that says that the parks hours are from six am till 11 pm, after that people is quiet hours. Anchorage does have a supposed curfew for the under eighteen crowd but are not to gung ho on enforcement. So there we are trying to sleep and what do we hear; the sound of a ball being dribbled and then shot at a metal backboard and the resounding sound it makes when it hits the board instead of just getting net. It will wake you out of a dead sleep and make you crankier then anything. Just ask the person I let sleep next to me.
Personally I would love to have some way that I could target just that ball and make it deflate and then the said insomniac would go home and watch tv. i am sure that this person has insomnia as they are there almost every night during the summer.
Ordinarily I would not mind musicians playing in the park but the two new ones are trying my patience and my ear drums. One musician is learning the bagpipes; which when first being played sounds like cats being strangled in a bag full of water. The other is learning to play middle eastern drums. So why they are practicing together I don't know, but let me tell you at seven in the morning that is not what you want to hear. It was discordant at best and the perfect instrument for torture at its worse. I thought my ears were going to bleed this morning from the sound. I closed the windows and doors but alas to no avail that dreaded sound permeated through the walls.
The two players were sitting together just doing their thing while dogs all over the place were howling in pain. They sat there for four hours playing. I kept waiting for them to get better, they didn't.
In two more weeks the hellions that live in Anchorage will be released from the schools for their summer break and that means that we will be besieged by yelling and screeching teenagers in the park at all hours. Trust me we have called the cops on particularly bad groups but my questions is; parents why don't you know that your teen isn't at home? I am not talking about eighteen year olds running rampant they generally have much cooler things to do then yell and play tag at one in the morning. Theses are the thirteen to seventeen range. And man are they loud, and obnoxious and freaking huge litterbugs. Parents please teach them better manners, though I am sure that when they are home they have the manners. Maybe its the midnight sun that drives them insane cause I hate having to go on trash patrol behind my fence, because I am pretty sure its not the moose that are drinking Monster energy drinks or bears eating Pringles ( well actually the bear would but he wouldn't leave the can behind, he would eat everything).
The only thing that makes it more bearable is the fact that the mosquitoes are thick and heavy in that park and all those bodies are just the smorgasbord of food that they have been waiting for. And of course there are bears that live in the area. I am sure that the first time they meet the bear they won't be coming back to the park for awhile. I am not terribly excited when he wanders in my front yard.
While it is the land of the midnight sun, just remember some of us do attempt to sleep, you can tell these houses from either the heavy drapes or the tinfoil on the windows. When you happen upon them be polite and let them sleep. They probably need it.
Atypical life in AK.
Now my house backs up to a wooded park and in the middle of that park in a basketball court. Don't get me wrong here I have nothing against basketball. I have a thing against basketball being played at two am in the morning when most respectable people are asleep. See even when the sun sets it never really gets totally dark around here. Sort of like a twilight for those few hours before the sun comes back up over the horizon. So its really light enough to do things. And it appears that playing basketball at two am is the highlight of someones life.
Now there is a sign that hangs directly under the hoop that says that the parks hours are from six am till 11 pm, after that people is quiet hours. Anchorage does have a supposed curfew for the under eighteen crowd but are not to gung ho on enforcement. So there we are trying to sleep and what do we hear; the sound of a ball being dribbled and then shot at a metal backboard and the resounding sound it makes when it hits the board instead of just getting net. It will wake you out of a dead sleep and make you crankier then anything. Just ask the person I let sleep next to me.
Personally I would love to have some way that I could target just that ball and make it deflate and then the said insomniac would go home and watch tv. i am sure that this person has insomnia as they are there almost every night during the summer.
Ordinarily I would not mind musicians playing in the park but the two new ones are trying my patience and my ear drums. One musician is learning the bagpipes; which when first being played sounds like cats being strangled in a bag full of water. The other is learning to play middle eastern drums. So why they are practicing together I don't know, but let me tell you at seven in the morning that is not what you want to hear. It was discordant at best and the perfect instrument for torture at its worse. I thought my ears were going to bleed this morning from the sound. I closed the windows and doors but alas to no avail that dreaded sound permeated through the walls.
The two players were sitting together just doing their thing while dogs all over the place were howling in pain. They sat there for four hours playing. I kept waiting for them to get better, they didn't.
In two more weeks the hellions that live in Anchorage will be released from the schools for their summer break and that means that we will be besieged by yelling and screeching teenagers in the park at all hours. Trust me we have called the cops on particularly bad groups but my questions is; parents why don't you know that your teen isn't at home? I am not talking about eighteen year olds running rampant they generally have much cooler things to do then yell and play tag at one in the morning. Theses are the thirteen to seventeen range. And man are they loud, and obnoxious and freaking huge litterbugs. Parents please teach them better manners, though I am sure that when they are home they have the manners. Maybe its the midnight sun that drives them insane cause I hate having to go on trash patrol behind my fence, because I am pretty sure its not the moose that are drinking Monster energy drinks or bears eating Pringles ( well actually the bear would but he wouldn't leave the can behind, he would eat everything).
The only thing that makes it more bearable is the fact that the mosquitoes are thick and heavy in that park and all those bodies are just the smorgasbord of food that they have been waiting for. And of course there are bears that live in the area. I am sure that the first time they meet the bear they won't be coming back to the park for awhile. I am not terribly excited when he wanders in my front yard.
While it is the land of the midnight sun, just remember some of us do attempt to sleep, you can tell these houses from either the heavy drapes or the tinfoil on the windows. When you happen upon them be polite and let them sleep. They probably need it.
Atypical life in AK.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Why eating omelets on a trip is bad.
I love to travel. That is a simple statement but I do, I love traveling and seeing other parts of the world. I like visiting new places but there is something that lurks in every single trip that I have ever taken. Something that is such a potent omen that I have been forbidden from ordering it ever again when I travel.
Omelets are the eggy omen of doom on many of my trips. Lets get this straight before the egg industry comes after me, I love eggs particularly when they are scrambled up into a concoction known in the US as a Denver omelet; think cheese, ham, onions, peppers, with salt, pepper, and garlic as the seasonings. I swoon when I get to eat a truly well cooked version of theses. But I digress. Omelets can, depending upon how they come to my table give clues to how that days adventure will turn out.
Yes I know that you think that I have gone off the deep end but really its true, no really this has happened multiple times.
The first time that it became noticed was when we were driving from Anchorage Alaska to San Antonio Texas, the Air Force having a sense of humor and all, it was August and the hottest time of the year to do this. In the Jeep Grand Wagoneer that looked like it had seen better days(cause it had) was me, my hubby, and our 6 month old twins plus the dog and the cat. Yeah that already had the earmarks of a trip to hell written all over it.
We had made it to Destruction Bay in Canada and stopped for the night. In the morning I ordered an omelet for breakfast. No problem the food was hot and served quickly, great wait staff. However the inside of my omelet was runny. I don't like runny eggs in anyway shape or form. Nope. So I ate the omelet cause one, I am polite and don't send food back unless a cook really screws it up and two, I was very hungry. Then no more than two hours out on the road we hit this lovely little stretch of road. The government of Canada had thoughtfully put up a sign stating they were doing road construction for the next 50 miles on the road leading to Haines Alaska (no seriously to get to parts of Alaska you have to first drive through a part of Canada). What the sign should have said is there is no road and you need to follow the orange markers that we have left for you to find like a treasure hunt. The so called road was filled with not just rocks but rocks the size of small boulders, there were holes that could have swallowed smaller cars. It was the type of road that you can only go ten mile per hour on; and there were fifty miles of this. So suffice to say that the day didn't get off to a great start.
When we finally made it into Haines we discovered that the rocks which had been dancing around in the engine doing the watusy had created a teeny tiny hole in the battery and allowed all the battery fluid to drain away leaving us with no power in car. So my hubby is running around Haines to get a battery, and yes running around as in physically running, its not that big of a town. We managed to get the last hotel room in town as it seems that the ferry that was supposed to leave ahead of ours had struck a rock in the water and well, was taking on water. Holy Titanic Batman, I was supposed to be taking a ferry the next day all the way to Seattle.
So hotel room was really tiny, and we have two very grouchy twins and the dog and cat are a bit uppity as well about being kenneled and held in the car. All the rooms on the floor in this hotel share two bathrooms so taking a long bath to relax was out of the question. Sleep seemed the optional thing to do.
Fast forwarding to the next morning and getting breakfast what do I order, you got it; an omelet. Was it runny you ask? Partially which explains the weirdness of the next part. We got on our ferry, no holes in this one. Got to our cabin and got the kids settled down. The captain comes on to announce that the stops at the ports would be exceedingly brief as the staff was on the verge of striking and he was afraid that if they stayed to long in any port then the crew might sneak off start striking and leave everyone stranded. Well lets just say that is not what anyone wants to hear. So we ate our own food that we had brought for the journey as the food prices on the ferry were, lets just say this side of highway robbery. We finally got relaxed enough to go to sleep when another announcement came overhead. The chief porter was asking for the owner of the jeep wagoneer with Alaska plates that matched ours to please come to the porters desk. Turns out our springer spaniel was more intelligent then we thought. We had let him out of his kennel as he had to stay in the car for the trip. However the dog apparently got sea sick. He pawed the window down, jumped out, barfed, and then sat nicely by the car waiting for someone to let him back in. Poor dog. Well at least he did not run off through the decks.
Well in the course of the trip down to Seattle my husband had began to notice that every time I ordered an omelet and it was runny bad things happened. He asked me very nicely if I would consent to ordering pancakes or waffles or anything else for a little while. Well I did and then I didn't and that is another story for another day.
Atypical Life in AL
Omelets are the eggy omen of doom on many of my trips. Lets get this straight before the egg industry comes after me, I love eggs particularly when they are scrambled up into a concoction known in the US as a Denver omelet; think cheese, ham, onions, peppers, with salt, pepper, and garlic as the seasonings. I swoon when I get to eat a truly well cooked version of theses. But I digress. Omelets can, depending upon how they come to my table give clues to how that days adventure will turn out.
Yes I know that you think that I have gone off the deep end but really its true, no really this has happened multiple times.
The first time that it became noticed was when we were driving from Anchorage Alaska to San Antonio Texas, the Air Force having a sense of humor and all, it was August and the hottest time of the year to do this. In the Jeep Grand Wagoneer that looked like it had seen better days(cause it had) was me, my hubby, and our 6 month old twins plus the dog and the cat. Yeah that already had the earmarks of a trip to hell written all over it.
We had made it to Destruction Bay in Canada and stopped for the night. In the morning I ordered an omelet for breakfast. No problem the food was hot and served quickly, great wait staff. However the inside of my omelet was runny. I don't like runny eggs in anyway shape or form. Nope. So I ate the omelet cause one, I am polite and don't send food back unless a cook really screws it up and two, I was very hungry. Then no more than two hours out on the road we hit this lovely little stretch of road. The government of Canada had thoughtfully put up a sign stating they were doing road construction for the next 50 miles on the road leading to Haines Alaska (no seriously to get to parts of Alaska you have to first drive through a part of Canada). What the sign should have said is there is no road and you need to follow the orange markers that we have left for you to find like a treasure hunt. The so called road was filled with not just rocks but rocks the size of small boulders, there were holes that could have swallowed smaller cars. It was the type of road that you can only go ten mile per hour on; and there were fifty miles of this. So suffice to say that the day didn't get off to a great start.
When we finally made it into Haines we discovered that the rocks which had been dancing around in the engine doing the watusy had created a teeny tiny hole in the battery and allowed all the battery fluid to drain away leaving us with no power in car. So my hubby is running around Haines to get a battery, and yes running around as in physically running, its not that big of a town. We managed to get the last hotel room in town as it seems that the ferry that was supposed to leave ahead of ours had struck a rock in the water and well, was taking on water. Holy Titanic Batman, I was supposed to be taking a ferry the next day all the way to Seattle.
So hotel room was really tiny, and we have two very grouchy twins and the dog and cat are a bit uppity as well about being kenneled and held in the car. All the rooms on the floor in this hotel share two bathrooms so taking a long bath to relax was out of the question. Sleep seemed the optional thing to do.
Fast forwarding to the next morning and getting breakfast what do I order, you got it; an omelet. Was it runny you ask? Partially which explains the weirdness of the next part. We got on our ferry, no holes in this one. Got to our cabin and got the kids settled down. The captain comes on to announce that the stops at the ports would be exceedingly brief as the staff was on the verge of striking and he was afraid that if they stayed to long in any port then the crew might sneak off start striking and leave everyone stranded. Well lets just say that is not what anyone wants to hear. So we ate our own food that we had brought for the journey as the food prices on the ferry were, lets just say this side of highway robbery. We finally got relaxed enough to go to sleep when another announcement came overhead. The chief porter was asking for the owner of the jeep wagoneer with Alaska plates that matched ours to please come to the porters desk. Turns out our springer spaniel was more intelligent then we thought. We had let him out of his kennel as he had to stay in the car for the trip. However the dog apparently got sea sick. He pawed the window down, jumped out, barfed, and then sat nicely by the car waiting for someone to let him back in. Poor dog. Well at least he did not run off through the decks.
Well in the course of the trip down to Seattle my husband had began to notice that every time I ordered an omelet and it was runny bad things happened. He asked me very nicely if I would consent to ordering pancakes or waffles or anything else for a little while. Well I did and then I didn't and that is another story for another day.
Atypical Life in AL
Monday, April 23, 2012
Eight legged reasons why I don't like bugs.
Ok so a few years ago; well actually a number of years ago the USAF decided to show me that it had a perverted sense of humor and shipped us off to Texas. So you might say, hey San Antonio isn't too bad. I am here to beg to differ with you.
Just so you understand something I have lived most of my life in a state that is well frozen for a goodly portion of the year and anything over 75 degrees is hot to me. But more importantly it does not have large pugilistic insects.
I am not a fan of things that crawl around outside and are not furry little animals; I hate snakes, bugs of almost any kind and if a spider is present I will make it known that it is there by announcing so at the top of my lungs with a most unladylike like screech.
Texas showed me that bugs can and will fight you for dominance in your own home. I remember when the Spaz was just a little baby and I was taking a bath with her and a totally huge and gross something or other crawled out of the overflow drain on the tub and decided it was its turn for the bath. I screamed like I was in a cheaply made horror film and the hubs comes running up the stairs thinking I have dropped the baby. Nope I am standing literally in the corner of the tub with her in my arms trying to levitate myself out of that tub. Any bug that; one can come up through the drain and two swim around and leave a wake behind it in the water is a big bug.
What does the hubs do? He laughs at me and grabs a cup to scoop up the bug. He asks me what to do with it and I told him to flush it down the toilet as then it might think it was at a water park going for a ride. I had nightmares about this thing it was about two inches long and little antennae and dude it wanted the tub.
I was also introduced to scorpions during our little stint in Texas. It does not give you any piece of mind to see the guys walking across the ceiling of your house. Nope no way no how, I was turned into a mushy squeaky bowl of frightened jelly. I am very deadly allergic to bees and the docs could not say if I would have any reactions to those guys so they were left alone by me. A friend in Texas use to use the ones on his ceiling to practice throwing darts at. I am pretty sure Raid was not going to kill these things.
Ants were another reason and all I have to say is fire ants. If you have ever been bitten by these things you know what I mean. Short of setting fire to their mounds or drowning them out the best you could do was watch where you walked.
Granted I liked the sound of crickets at night but man cicadas were loud, like jet engine roaring loud. Those things could wake the dead if they really tried.
And then there were spiders. I. DON'T. DO. SPIDERS. Ever I mean I would rather annihilate the little things before they can get to me. And Texas had super sized one. These guys would waltz in to your house and say hi to you as they passed. They were quite fond of walking around in the dark and loved to crawl over people and elicit screams of terror out of me. Not to mention some of the buggers were poisonous. Yeah, not. I don't want to share my house with things that can bite me and do evil things to me. Yes I know spiders eat other bugs at least some do but really I don't want them around me.
Finally we got moved back to Anchorage. YEAH Happy dance time. Really we don't have many bugs up here. Yes the mosquitoes can probably carry off small animals but you can wear enough deep woods off to quell the little buggers. However; there are still spiders and I still won't share my house with them. The other day I was in my garage and was getting food out of the freezer. You know a nice routine type of task in a routine type of place. There are no bugs in my garage because it is the end of winter and things haven't thawed out enough. As I was standing there a large spider merrily did the waltz across my bare feet. Well needless to say there was a very loud scream that shook the rafters. When a spider is large enough that you can tell that it was hairy, its big enough. I slammed the door shut and ran into the house. Now little miss who is almost three was looking at me like I was insane. I perched on the couch with my feet underneath me and called the Boy. Why I called him I don't know. He is in Fairbanks; its not like he was going to be able to do anything for me.
So as he is talking me down out of hysteria he casually mentions what did I think the spider was living off of. Now bear with me and you will see why my mind is, well, a little different from most people. Normally spiders build webs and catch bugs to eat. Well there were no other bugs in that garage. So that meant one of two things to me. One, either the spider was building a web to catch larger prey like shrews or the dog or two, it was eating other spiders. AUGGGGHHH It's a cannibal spider. Seriously think about it that is what it was most likely eating. EW EW EW I don't do cannibal spiders in my house. Problem is that spider trotted off so fast that I was unable to stomp on him.
However I am armed with hairspray to deal with him. Yup hairspray; it clogs up their little exoskeletons and then they suffocate. I told you, I don't do spiders. So now I am waiting for that guy to show up, and unless he is wearing a little gas mask he is going to be toast.
Atypical Life in AK
Just so you understand something I have lived most of my life in a state that is well frozen for a goodly portion of the year and anything over 75 degrees is hot to me. But more importantly it does not have large pugilistic insects.
I am not a fan of things that crawl around outside and are not furry little animals; I hate snakes, bugs of almost any kind and if a spider is present I will make it known that it is there by announcing so at the top of my lungs with a most unladylike like screech.
Texas showed me that bugs can and will fight you for dominance in your own home. I remember when the Spaz was just a little baby and I was taking a bath with her and a totally huge and gross something or other crawled out of the overflow drain on the tub and decided it was its turn for the bath. I screamed like I was in a cheaply made horror film and the hubs comes running up the stairs thinking I have dropped the baby. Nope I am standing literally in the corner of the tub with her in my arms trying to levitate myself out of that tub. Any bug that; one can come up through the drain and two swim around and leave a wake behind it in the water is a big bug.
What does the hubs do? He laughs at me and grabs a cup to scoop up the bug. He asks me what to do with it and I told him to flush it down the toilet as then it might think it was at a water park going for a ride. I had nightmares about this thing it was about two inches long and little antennae and dude it wanted the tub.
I was also introduced to scorpions during our little stint in Texas. It does not give you any piece of mind to see the guys walking across the ceiling of your house. Nope no way no how, I was turned into a mushy squeaky bowl of frightened jelly. I am very deadly allergic to bees and the docs could not say if I would have any reactions to those guys so they were left alone by me. A friend in Texas use to use the ones on his ceiling to practice throwing darts at. I am pretty sure Raid was not going to kill these things.
Ants were another reason and all I have to say is fire ants. If you have ever been bitten by these things you know what I mean. Short of setting fire to their mounds or drowning them out the best you could do was watch where you walked.
Granted I liked the sound of crickets at night but man cicadas were loud, like jet engine roaring loud. Those things could wake the dead if they really tried.
And then there were spiders. I. DON'T. DO. SPIDERS. Ever I mean I would rather annihilate the little things before they can get to me. And Texas had super sized one. These guys would waltz in to your house and say hi to you as they passed. They were quite fond of walking around in the dark and loved to crawl over people and elicit screams of terror out of me. Not to mention some of the buggers were poisonous. Yeah, not. I don't want to share my house with things that can bite me and do evil things to me. Yes I know spiders eat other bugs at least some do but really I don't want them around me.
Finally we got moved back to Anchorage. YEAH Happy dance time. Really we don't have many bugs up here. Yes the mosquitoes can probably carry off small animals but you can wear enough deep woods off to quell the little buggers. However; there are still spiders and I still won't share my house with them. The other day I was in my garage and was getting food out of the freezer. You know a nice routine type of task in a routine type of place. There are no bugs in my garage because it is the end of winter and things haven't thawed out enough. As I was standing there a large spider merrily did the waltz across my bare feet. Well needless to say there was a very loud scream that shook the rafters. When a spider is large enough that you can tell that it was hairy, its big enough. I slammed the door shut and ran into the house. Now little miss who is almost three was looking at me like I was insane. I perched on the couch with my feet underneath me and called the Boy. Why I called him I don't know. He is in Fairbanks; its not like he was going to be able to do anything for me.
So as he is talking me down out of hysteria he casually mentions what did I think the spider was living off of. Now bear with me and you will see why my mind is, well, a little different from most people. Normally spiders build webs and catch bugs to eat. Well there were no other bugs in that garage. So that meant one of two things to me. One, either the spider was building a web to catch larger prey like shrews or the dog or two, it was eating other spiders. AUGGGGHHH It's a cannibal spider. Seriously think about it that is what it was most likely eating. EW EW EW I don't do cannibal spiders in my house. Problem is that spider trotted off so fast that I was unable to stomp on him.
However I am armed with hairspray to deal with him. Yup hairspray; it clogs up their little exoskeletons and then they suffocate. I told you, I don't do spiders. So now I am waiting for that guy to show up, and unless he is wearing a little gas mask he is going to be toast.
Atypical Life in AK
Monday, April 16, 2012
Just a little lace and some color please.
Ok for those of you who actually know me this doesn't come as a shock but to everyone else lets just say that nature has granted me a bountiful chest. I wish it was otherwise and my daughters curse genetics but there it is. The problem with this is that well fashion has not caught up with those of us with ample bosoms.
Why this train of thought? Well yesterday I was minding my own business when my bra had other ideas. It decided that the under wire needed to creep out of its casing and stab me in the soft flesh underparts of the arm area. Let me tell you this hurts!! Ladies you know what I am talking about and guys trust me; ladies deserve a medal for putting up with this happening. Of course this had to be the most comfy of the supportive undergarments required by basic human kindness to keep the girls up where they belong. Seriously if I went with out supportive undergarments a small child might think an avalanche was happening on my chest.
Well this meant I had to go and change and wouldn't you know none of the bras were comfy. I mean really can't the fashion world come up with a supportive comfy nice looking bra? Is that really to much to ask. As I went through the collection and decided to toss the uncomfy ones aside I realized that left me with a grand total of three that fit the bill sort of. They were comfy and they were supportive but looks uhmmm no. Nada no nyet nien. They were beige, black and beige.
My hubs said well I guess its time to go shop for new ones. No really, Sherlock, I hadn't figured that out. Problem is I hate shopping for them because here in Anchorage the choices for comfy, supportive, pretty bras that won't make me take a second mortgage out on the house are pretty slim to find. One we don't even have a Victoria's Secret up here but that's ok cause well that store makes me weep. They do not stock my size in their stores. I love all the colors, the styles, the lace, and there are times that I would be willing to wager my soul for a smaller chest, just so I could shop there. JCP has some in my size that are affordable but well that comfy and supportive feature is missing. Fred Myers has the basics of black or beige that somewhat fit the criteria but really they are like industrial matron style; extra severe ( and that just doesn't help in the romance department). Target is hopeless for my size period end of story. Well then the last place is Nordstrom's which has beautiful, comfy, supportive bras but I woulds need to take out a small loan in order to afford them. Some people can afford 97 dollars for one bras but me I am not in that category.
So my question to all those designers out there is why can't people of my size have cute bras. We like lace, animal prints, colors that aren't seen in nature. Why do they assume that only the smaller sizes like that stuff. So they assume that if you have a larger chest size then you must be dull? Seriously I am not a dull person. I think a bra should help make your day brighter by being comfy, supportive and pretty. Yes pretty, you heard me say it I like frilly lacy things too. If I have just shocked you, terribly sorry but well you will survive I am sure.
So if you see me wandering Anchorage this weekend muttering under my breath or swearing at a store you know that it is cause I am out shopping.
Have a good fun week and smile it improves your own moral.
Atypical life in AK
Why this train of thought? Well yesterday I was minding my own business when my bra had other ideas. It decided that the under wire needed to creep out of its casing and stab me in the soft flesh underparts of the arm area. Let me tell you this hurts!! Ladies you know what I am talking about and guys trust me; ladies deserve a medal for putting up with this happening. Of course this had to be the most comfy of the supportive undergarments required by basic human kindness to keep the girls up where they belong. Seriously if I went with out supportive undergarments a small child might think an avalanche was happening on my chest.
Well this meant I had to go and change and wouldn't you know none of the bras were comfy. I mean really can't the fashion world come up with a supportive comfy nice looking bra? Is that really to much to ask. As I went through the collection and decided to toss the uncomfy ones aside I realized that left me with a grand total of three that fit the bill sort of. They were comfy and they were supportive but looks uhmmm no. Nada no nyet nien. They were beige, black and beige.
My hubs said well I guess its time to go shop for new ones. No really, Sherlock, I hadn't figured that out. Problem is I hate shopping for them because here in Anchorage the choices for comfy, supportive, pretty bras that won't make me take a second mortgage out on the house are pretty slim to find. One we don't even have a Victoria's Secret up here but that's ok cause well that store makes me weep. They do not stock my size in their stores. I love all the colors, the styles, the lace, and there are times that I would be willing to wager my soul for a smaller chest, just so I could shop there. JCP has some in my size that are affordable but well that comfy and supportive feature is missing. Fred Myers has the basics of black or beige that somewhat fit the criteria but really they are like industrial matron style; extra severe ( and that just doesn't help in the romance department). Target is hopeless for my size period end of story. Well then the last place is Nordstrom's which has beautiful, comfy, supportive bras but I woulds need to take out a small loan in order to afford them. Some people can afford 97 dollars for one bras but me I am not in that category.
So my question to all those designers out there is why can't people of my size have cute bras. We like lace, animal prints, colors that aren't seen in nature. Why do they assume that only the smaller sizes like that stuff. So they assume that if you have a larger chest size then you must be dull? Seriously I am not a dull person. I think a bra should help make your day brighter by being comfy, supportive and pretty. Yes pretty, you heard me say it I like frilly lacy things too. If I have just shocked you, terribly sorry but well you will survive I am sure.
So if you see me wandering Anchorage this weekend muttering under my breath or swearing at a store you know that it is cause I am out shopping.
Have a good fun week and smile it improves your own moral.
Atypical life in AK
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Ok so Easter has come and gone and it was another season of unbridled consumerism out there. The amount of chocolate and other candies, the eggs, the toys, the baskets, the well everything. How much is too much for kids. Do they really need to have 5 baskets filled with 180 plastic eggs that were filled with various candies and other goodies. Do we really need to instill into them that what they get and how much they get define how much we love them?
What happened to the days when children played with toys that weren't being pitched at them from every angle. Look I have a two year old toddler and she is not allowed to watch TV channels with commercials. I don't want her to define herself by what mass media tells her she should be.
I wonder when we became such an entitled society, that parents will spend thousands of dollars on birthday parties for the child just so they will have had the biggest party in their circle of friends. What happened to the days of pin the tail on the donkey, blind mans bluff and other games that have been erased and replaced with dj's and bounce houses and pony rides and other silly things. Why are we doing this to our kids? What is wrong with a similar life? Where families would go for walks on warm evenings and the parents would share their knowledge of the stars or of the things they passed by on the walk. Now its hurry hurry to cram as much into their heads so that when they start kindergarten they are ahead of the class. Where did this showmanship creep up in society.
I want my little one to be a child; to enjoy the things around her in the way only a child can. While I am teaching her the alphabet, numbers, colors and such its in a fun way. When we go to the store we might decide that its the day to find yellow things and then we point out yellow foods. Or we count how many steps is it to the swing. This summer we are going to just play in the garden and hope that she will see how much fun working with nature is. We plan to go camping, in a tent mind you as that is more fun. I want her to be able to grow up and have a sense of self worth that was not dictated to her by others. Right now she likes dresses and if tomorrow she wanted camo pants that would be OK. I don't want her to be a pretty little princess cause shes not. She is a little girl who should grow up at a pace not dictated by societal pressures.
Are we doing our kids any favors with all the pressures that we put on them. In school the peer pressure alone is enough, but at least in my state there are tons of tests that they have to take to make sure that the school is doing its job. Tell that isn't pressure on kids. Why have we stripped them of their innocence. Have you seen the clothes that are coming out for kids these days. I have seen clothes for little girls that I wouldn't let a teenager wear let alone a four or two year old wear. Why do we stand around and let cosmetic companies pressure our daughters into wearing make up at earlier and earlier ages. Seriously Hello Kitty lip gloss is pretty much aimed at younger girls.
What I want and what I am working for with my little one is a less materialistic existence. Her life will not end if she does not have her own ipad or iPhone( again what child really needs those). She does not need to have a TV in her room. Heck its a battle enough with the main TV why would I want to invite that into her room. I want her to be surrounded by books and creative things that stimulate her to explore the world not take some shows word for it. I want her to live; to go out into nature and the world and be able to stand on her own feet. I want for her to define herself to herself and be proud of who she is. That is what I want for her.
What happened to the days when children played with toys that weren't being pitched at them from every angle. Look I have a two year old toddler and she is not allowed to watch TV channels with commercials. I don't want her to define herself by what mass media tells her she should be.
I wonder when we became such an entitled society, that parents will spend thousands of dollars on birthday parties for the child just so they will have had the biggest party in their circle of friends. What happened to the days of pin the tail on the donkey, blind mans bluff and other games that have been erased and replaced with dj's and bounce houses and pony rides and other silly things. Why are we doing this to our kids? What is wrong with a similar life? Where families would go for walks on warm evenings and the parents would share their knowledge of the stars or of the things they passed by on the walk. Now its hurry hurry to cram as much into their heads so that when they start kindergarten they are ahead of the class. Where did this showmanship creep up in society.
I want my little one to be a child; to enjoy the things around her in the way only a child can. While I am teaching her the alphabet, numbers, colors and such its in a fun way. When we go to the store we might decide that its the day to find yellow things and then we point out yellow foods. Or we count how many steps is it to the swing. This summer we are going to just play in the garden and hope that she will see how much fun working with nature is. We plan to go camping, in a tent mind you as that is more fun. I want her to be able to grow up and have a sense of self worth that was not dictated to her by others. Right now she likes dresses and if tomorrow she wanted camo pants that would be OK. I don't want her to be a pretty little princess cause shes not. She is a little girl who should grow up at a pace not dictated by societal pressures.
Are we doing our kids any favors with all the pressures that we put on them. In school the peer pressure alone is enough, but at least in my state there are tons of tests that they have to take to make sure that the school is doing its job. Tell that isn't pressure on kids. Why have we stripped them of their innocence. Have you seen the clothes that are coming out for kids these days. I have seen clothes for little girls that I wouldn't let a teenager wear let alone a four or two year old wear. Why do we stand around and let cosmetic companies pressure our daughters into wearing make up at earlier and earlier ages. Seriously Hello Kitty lip gloss is pretty much aimed at younger girls.
What I want and what I am working for with my little one is a less materialistic existence. Her life will not end if she does not have her own ipad or iPhone( again what child really needs those). She does not need to have a TV in her room. Heck its a battle enough with the main TV why would I want to invite that into her room. I want her to be surrounded by books and creative things that stimulate her to explore the world not take some shows word for it. I want her to live; to go out into nature and the world and be able to stand on her own feet. I want for her to define herself to herself and be proud of who she is. That is what I want for her.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Drug indunduced geekness
So the thirty nine spinal taps and two neuro surgeries that I have had, have yet again conspired to make my life and back torture. I wander off to the docs after putting up with it for a couple of months(cause I hate going to docs) and he pulls out the muscle relaxants. Now the Flexeral he tells me will knock me on my butt, but he promises the other stuff won't and I can take it during the day and it will be just fine. Just fine my large padded posterior!! I am like a zombie on this stuff and weird things just stick in my mind.
As I am laying on the couch possibly even drooling out the corner of my mouth an ad comes on fro a station re-running Battlestar Galactica. Whooooo Hoooo goes my little geek brain, yeah Apollo and Starbuck hubba bubba. Then some essence of reality hits and I realize its the recent show. Man that show and I didn't get along.
See in my little world Starbuck is a guy, end of story, more importantly it is a young Dirk Benedict.
Back in the early 80's I wasn't into anything, didn't read books wasn't aware of pop culture or anything. Then I saw that show, Battlestar Galactica and my world changed forever. Some where hiding in my DNA was the geek gene and this just happened to be the thing that turned it on. Whole new worlds opened up to me, I started demanding to see any film that was remotely Sci-Fi. I drug my parent to Star Wars, Conan, saw Excalibur, saw anything that was other worldly. Then my world got opened further.
A co-worker of my mother must have taken pity on me and handed me a book. He told me to read it and that if I liked it he had a lot more that I could borrow. He handed me a book entitled "The Riddle Master of Hed". Again doors blown off my existence, books and lots of books had these mysterious worlds that I enjoyed. After that book he put the single most important series into my hands against my moms wishes. He handed me Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". For years whenever we had traveled to Denver to see my mom's family there was this underpass that was scrawled with the phrase Frodo lives. I never understood it until I read the book.
Soon I was reading everything, Frank Herbert, Piers Anthony, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Howards, all the main writers; my mother on the other had was having a small fit as she didn't understand any of this. I had posters of dragons, of wizards, of star ships hanging on my walls. I didn't follow the normal teenager mode of ways. I got interested in science but not math(in my world numbers and letters don't combine) and was a whiz in any English class that I was put in. In 10th grade we had to either read Shakespeare's, "Julius Ceaser" or read about King Arthur. My teacher decided to keep opening my mind and gave me a copy of "Mists of Avalon" to read instead, he thought I might like a alternate view of that historical time period. And at the same time my history teacher gave me Umberto Eco's book "The Name of the Rose" to read for history and was I hooked. History was now the thing for me.
I loved to read the books of any author and think about how the history of that world might have been, what drove those characters to do that, how the political shape of said world was created. I practiced being a historian in my mind as I read and read and read.
Then the next level of geekiness appeared in my life in the form a of a medieval re-creation group who came to my school to do a demo for the 9th graders. Well I was sucked in faster than you can say bob. I went to lunch with them and by the end of the week I was attending dance practice and bardics with this group. And what was fabulous about this group of people they accepted me with all my inherent geekiness and other personality quirks and made me feel like I had a home. I joined them in 1984 and am still a member. The group's name? Why its the Society for Creative Anachronism and they are still the people that even today twenty five years or so later that I want to hang with. .
As I am laying on the couch possibly even drooling out the corner of my mouth an ad comes on fro a station re-running Battlestar Galactica. Whooooo Hoooo goes my little geek brain, yeah Apollo and Starbuck hubba bubba. Then some essence of reality hits and I realize its the recent show. Man that show and I didn't get along.
See in my little world Starbuck is a guy, end of story, more importantly it is a young Dirk Benedict.
Back in the early 80's I wasn't into anything, didn't read books wasn't aware of pop culture or anything. Then I saw that show, Battlestar Galactica and my world changed forever. Some where hiding in my DNA was the geek gene and this just happened to be the thing that turned it on. Whole new worlds opened up to me, I started demanding to see any film that was remotely Sci-Fi. I drug my parent to Star Wars, Conan, saw Excalibur, saw anything that was other worldly. Then my world got opened further.
A co-worker of my mother must have taken pity on me and handed me a book. He told me to read it and that if I liked it he had a lot more that I could borrow. He handed me a book entitled "The Riddle Master of Hed". Again doors blown off my existence, books and lots of books had these mysterious worlds that I enjoyed. After that book he put the single most important series into my hands against my moms wishes. He handed me Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". For years whenever we had traveled to Denver to see my mom's family there was this underpass that was scrawled with the phrase Frodo lives. I never understood it until I read the book.
Soon I was reading everything, Frank Herbert, Piers Anthony, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Howards, all the main writers; my mother on the other had was having a small fit as she didn't understand any of this. I had posters of dragons, of wizards, of star ships hanging on my walls. I didn't follow the normal teenager mode of ways. I got interested in science but not math(in my world numbers and letters don't combine) and was a whiz in any English class that I was put in. In 10th grade we had to either read Shakespeare's, "Julius Ceaser" or read about King Arthur. My teacher decided to keep opening my mind and gave me a copy of "Mists of Avalon" to read instead, he thought I might like a alternate view of that historical time period. And at the same time my history teacher gave me Umberto Eco's book "The Name of the Rose" to read for history and was I hooked. History was now the thing for me.
I loved to read the books of any author and think about how the history of that world might have been, what drove those characters to do that, how the political shape of said world was created. I practiced being a historian in my mind as I read and read and read.
Then the next level of geekiness appeared in my life in the form a of a medieval re-creation group who came to my school to do a demo for the 9th graders. Well I was sucked in faster than you can say bob. I went to lunch with them and by the end of the week I was attending dance practice and bardics with this group. And what was fabulous about this group of people they accepted me with all my inherent geekiness and other personality quirks and made me feel like I had a home. I joined them in 1984 and am still a member. The group's name? Why its the Society for Creative Anachronism and they are still the people that even today twenty five years or so later that I want to hang with. .
Monday, March 19, 2012
Sibling worship?
So as many of you know almost three years ago my life was blessed and given a rare little gift. I thought that at age 41 I was about to be done with parenting as all my children were now over the age of 18 and the hubby and I would have the second have of our lives to ourselves; but that is not what happened. We were given another round of parenting in the form of our first granddaughter. Neither of her biological parents really wanted to raise her. The sperm donor seems to have the idea that fatherhood doesn't mean providing for your child and my daughter(we call her Sar) doesn't want to give up her life of fun and partying either. Little miss could have been adopted but sperm donor refused to give up rights(again a strange concept about fatherhood is residing in his head), so my hubby and I took her in.
Now this wasn't easy as we had just retired after 25 years of service in the Air Force and the economy tanked out at the same time. So while hubs went to college to get the degree that he needed in the civilian world to do what he had been doing in the AF, we struggled financially. Sperm donor never supported his daughter at all, in fact he has seen her 8 times since she was born. Sar doesn't even live with us anymore and never comes to visit little miss. She told me once that she doesn't love her or want her at all. So up we step to be parents again.
Now when my kids were born I was in my twenties, had energy and could go with out sleep. Not so much now, those midnight wakies were pure torture. But we pushed on and worked through a lot of things and have mostly made it out ok. Little miss has totally bonded with me and the hubs but more amazing is that she has decided to worship the Boy.
The Boy is my oldest child, my only son and he is not a outgoing type of personality. He likes little kids ok as long as he doesn't have to deal with diapers, bottles and crying fits. But the funny thing is, is that Little Miss adores him. She will follow him around the house like a puppy. She wants to talk to him on the phone or through the Xbox when we are playing games online. She will eat something simply because the Boy was eating it.
Now, we find this highly amusing as she will knock on his door in the morning to see if he is awake, yell "Hi" to him as soon as his door opens and let him touch the all important blanket. But last night we had to send him back up to Fairbanks for the last two months of college. She was not happy at all.
My normally equable little miss had turned into a full on angry badger of a child. Nothing made her happy. She kept crying and being angry and we tried to talk with her but she couldn't articulate what was wrong. This morning however she told me, I went into the Boy's room to make the bed and open the drapes and she sat on the floor and told me that she wanted him back. She pointed at his bed and told me he wasn't there. I told her that no he wasn't but that he had to go back to school. He would be home in 2 months. She pouted at me and told me to turn on the Xbox. I think she was hoping that he would be online and she would hear him.
I have never encountered this type of sibling relationship before, my kids were close in age and were contemporaries of each other, not a twenty year difference in age. I am not trying to minimize this either as I think its important that Little Miss have a sibling bond of some sort. We have started a countdown where she can cross off the days until he comes home and we are talking with her about how sometimes people come in and out of our lives. I hope that she will understand but its hard to put in to terms for a 3 year old to comprehend.
The Boy is looking at finishing college back here in Anchorage as it will be cheaper then in Fairbanks and I for one am thrilled about that. The Boy and I are very similar in our personalities and I still miss him when he is gone. I am sure that Little Miss will be absolutely enthusiastic about him being home. I know that the Boy has even talked with me about how to get her to go hiking and other things he can teach her. He may be her uncle in reality but really he is her big brother and it has been amazing to see this bond grow.
Atypical Life in AK
Now this wasn't easy as we had just retired after 25 years of service in the Air Force and the economy tanked out at the same time. So while hubs went to college to get the degree that he needed in the civilian world to do what he had been doing in the AF, we struggled financially. Sperm donor never supported his daughter at all, in fact he has seen her 8 times since she was born. Sar doesn't even live with us anymore and never comes to visit little miss. She told me once that she doesn't love her or want her at all. So up we step to be parents again.
Now when my kids were born I was in my twenties, had energy and could go with out sleep. Not so much now, those midnight wakies were pure torture. But we pushed on and worked through a lot of things and have mostly made it out ok. Little miss has totally bonded with me and the hubs but more amazing is that she has decided to worship the Boy.
The Boy is my oldest child, my only son and he is not a outgoing type of personality. He likes little kids ok as long as he doesn't have to deal with diapers, bottles and crying fits. But the funny thing is, is that Little Miss adores him. She will follow him around the house like a puppy. She wants to talk to him on the phone or through the Xbox when we are playing games online. She will eat something simply because the Boy was eating it.
Now, we find this highly amusing as she will knock on his door in the morning to see if he is awake, yell "Hi" to him as soon as his door opens and let him touch the all important blanket. But last night we had to send him back up to Fairbanks for the last two months of college. She was not happy at all.
My normally equable little miss had turned into a full on angry badger of a child. Nothing made her happy. She kept crying and being angry and we tried to talk with her but she couldn't articulate what was wrong. This morning however she told me, I went into the Boy's room to make the bed and open the drapes and she sat on the floor and told me that she wanted him back. She pointed at his bed and told me he wasn't there. I told her that no he wasn't but that he had to go back to school. He would be home in 2 months. She pouted at me and told me to turn on the Xbox. I think she was hoping that he would be online and she would hear him.
I have never encountered this type of sibling relationship before, my kids were close in age and were contemporaries of each other, not a twenty year difference in age. I am not trying to minimize this either as I think its important that Little Miss have a sibling bond of some sort. We have started a countdown where she can cross off the days until he comes home and we are talking with her about how sometimes people come in and out of our lives. I hope that she will understand but its hard to put in to terms for a 3 year old to comprehend.
The Boy is looking at finishing college back here in Anchorage as it will be cheaper then in Fairbanks and I for one am thrilled about that. The Boy and I are very similar in our personalities and I still miss him when he is gone. I am sure that Little Miss will be absolutely enthusiastic about him being home. I know that the Boy has even talked with me about how to get her to go hiking and other things he can teach her. He may be her uncle in reality but really he is her big brother and it has been amazing to see this bond grow.
Atypical Life in AK
Monday, March 12, 2012
No Pizza and No Beer Ever Again
So three years ago I was woeful sick and in pain and the doctors were kind of mystified at what was going on. Anemia, digestion issues, vitamin deficiencies, weird problems with my skin, fatigue etc... Well one doctor started looking at all of it together and said to me one day I need you to have an endoscopy done. Excuse me is what I was thinking, get a tube shoved down my throat for pictures. I really wanted to argue the point but she trumped my arguments with the simple words, "I think I know whats wrong" Ok you win.
So after that test to which I might say they sedated me into a blissful state of non-awareness, I was approached by the docs. My gastro doc sat down next to me and said this.
"Well I am sorry to say that you can never have pizza and beer again, however you can have all the run and tequila to drink that you want. You have Celiac Sprue."
Me, being still rather groggy was like ok, no beer no pizza what does that mean. What it meant was no gluten ever again, period ever, end of sentence.
Now I was 41 years old at this point and I so remembered what bread and pizza and bagels and cookies and all the other good foods tasted like. But as I was told I could no longer eat anything made with wheat, rye, barely, and malt. Even oatmeal might give me issues. I was not a happy camper thinking that my diet was now going to be really dull.
So fast forwards one week from there and suddenly my hair had stopped falling out, the pain was gone, the digestion issues gone. I felt rather human for once. It was wonderful; seriously I could move again, I was no longer tied to my bed and the bathroom, I could get and do things. It was taking my legs a little longer to heal than we thought as the anemia had been so advanced that my nerves in my legs were not cooperating, so I has to use a cane for awhile (I had a cane that looked like House's cane). After one month I was almost completely back to health.
Now whats hard about this besides the diet is the fact that I have people who still want ,even now, to try and foist wheat products on me. They are like, oh one bite won't hurt you, or come on its only a little bit. I succumbed around Halloween that first year to half of a Twizzler (second ingredient is wheat) and two days later I was hospitalized cause the wheat had caused issues with the skin, shorthand its called DH, (I can never remember the full name) and it promptly had become infected with staph aureus. Yeah not. I spent two miserable months on high strength antibiotics to make sure the staph didn't set up shop in my lungs or heart. I got a reaming from my doctors and they promptly sent me to a dietician in order to help me with the diet.
So three years later I have been completely gluten free except for a few incidents of cross-contamination that have been painful, and please don't ask me try another cookie. My family, mom and sister, have not been helpful too much. My mom complains that I make it difficult for her to cook for family holidays. My sister who shows the same symptoms doesn't seem to grasp that if you give up the wheat permanently it helps, not just giving it up for a month or two.
MY husband and kids however deserve medals for what they have done. They have adopted the same diet so that I don't feel alone. We have researched and tried together various GF (gluten free) foods. Some have been very good and others have just hit the trash. We have learned not to eat out much as even if they offer GF it can be cross contamination issues, Outback Steak House has been my go to restaurant. I haven't been to a fast food place in ages now.
The best thing is what the diet has done for my blood tests. As a result of having to eat healthy I have dropped my cholesterol into normal ranges, my inflammation level has dropped to normal, the anemia is resolving and generally my body has been thanking me. So yeah I can't eat pizza as you know it but my hubby makes a killer GF grilled chicken pizza that is better than what we used to eat before and well there are some GF beers out there that taste like beer.
Yes the diet is hard and today is one of those days when I really crave and item that is not GF and they haven't made a substitute for it. I wanted a croissant so bad this morning. Seriously craved it, but there is no GF equivalent for puff pastry as yet. So some days are a breeze and others are still hard but to anyone who has just been diagnosed with Celiac or another gluten sensitivity trust me when I say you will make it. It takes some will power and personal strength to adjust to it all but your body will thank you. Just remember that even pizza and beer isn't out after all
So after that test to which I might say they sedated me into a blissful state of non-awareness, I was approached by the docs. My gastro doc sat down next to me and said this.
"Well I am sorry to say that you can never have pizza and beer again, however you can have all the run and tequila to drink that you want. You have Celiac Sprue."
Me, being still rather groggy was like ok, no beer no pizza what does that mean. What it meant was no gluten ever again, period ever, end of sentence.
Now I was 41 years old at this point and I so remembered what bread and pizza and bagels and cookies and all the other good foods tasted like. But as I was told I could no longer eat anything made with wheat, rye, barely, and malt. Even oatmeal might give me issues. I was not a happy camper thinking that my diet was now going to be really dull.
So fast forwards one week from there and suddenly my hair had stopped falling out, the pain was gone, the digestion issues gone. I felt rather human for once. It was wonderful; seriously I could move again, I was no longer tied to my bed and the bathroom, I could get and do things. It was taking my legs a little longer to heal than we thought as the anemia had been so advanced that my nerves in my legs were not cooperating, so I has to use a cane for awhile (I had a cane that looked like House's cane). After one month I was almost completely back to health.
Now whats hard about this besides the diet is the fact that I have people who still want ,even now, to try and foist wheat products on me. They are like, oh one bite won't hurt you, or come on its only a little bit. I succumbed around Halloween that first year to half of a Twizzler (second ingredient is wheat) and two days later I was hospitalized cause the wheat had caused issues with the skin, shorthand its called DH, (I can never remember the full name) and it promptly had become infected with staph aureus. Yeah not. I spent two miserable months on high strength antibiotics to make sure the staph didn't set up shop in my lungs or heart. I got a reaming from my doctors and they promptly sent me to a dietician in order to help me with the diet.
So three years later I have been completely gluten free except for a few incidents of cross-contamination that have been painful, and please don't ask me try another cookie. My family, mom and sister, have not been helpful too much. My mom complains that I make it difficult for her to cook for family holidays. My sister who shows the same symptoms doesn't seem to grasp that if you give up the wheat permanently it helps, not just giving it up for a month or two.
MY husband and kids however deserve medals for what they have done. They have adopted the same diet so that I don't feel alone. We have researched and tried together various GF (gluten free) foods. Some have been very good and others have just hit the trash. We have learned not to eat out much as even if they offer GF it can be cross contamination issues, Outback Steak House has been my go to restaurant. I haven't been to a fast food place in ages now.
The best thing is what the diet has done for my blood tests. As a result of having to eat healthy I have dropped my cholesterol into normal ranges, my inflammation level has dropped to normal, the anemia is resolving and generally my body has been thanking me. So yeah I can't eat pizza as you know it but my hubby makes a killer GF grilled chicken pizza that is better than what we used to eat before and well there are some GF beers out there that taste like beer.
Yes the diet is hard and today is one of those days when I really crave and item that is not GF and they haven't made a substitute for it. I wanted a croissant so bad this morning. Seriously craved it, but there is no GF equivalent for puff pastry as yet. So some days are a breeze and others are still hard but to anyone who has just been diagnosed with Celiac or another gluten sensitivity trust me when I say you will make it. It takes some will power and personal strength to adjust to it all but your body will thank you. Just remember that even pizza and beer isn't out after all
Friday, March 9, 2012
Why I Live in Alaska
Why would anyone want to live in Alaska? Good question, do I have a good answer, probably not. Do I have an answer, oh yes do I have an answer for you.
See I grew up all over the American mid-west. North Dakota, Montana, and Colorado for the most part. I hated everywhere that I lived. North Dakota was way way to flat for me. Now for those of you that love seeing for miles in every direction its a great place for that. There weren't enough trees or mountains for me. Colorado had the mountains but they aren't right there in your face. They hang off to the west of Denver taunting you about hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities. Eastern Montana was a repeat of North Dakota. Then my mother and step-father #2 had a great idea, let's move to Alaska. See that's where he was from, and he decided we would be better off there.
So packed up everything and stuffed it into an old school bus that we had to paint blue, apparently privately owned school buses can't stay yellow so we had to change its color, and then stuffed us into the Suburban and headed north. Let me tell you that trip was not exactly fun at points but I did learn something, I am not high maintenance. I was fine with the roughing it part. Sleeping in the car, cooking over a itty bitty hibachi grill and just enjoying the scenery. Mom wasn't to happy, she wanted a restaurant and hotel. Grilled steaks and the occasional mosquito was not bad really. Step-father #2 told me he thought I would fit in well in Alaska, I had the right mentality for it.
Now as we progressed to the state I was swept away by the mountains, and the forests, and all the wildlife. I saw my first bald eagle, Dall sheep, moose, bears, wolves and so many more on that trip. I remember walking on the very first glacier that I had ever seen. It was the Matanuska glacier and it was spectacular. There was this wildness to Alaska that I had never experienced before.
I also discovered that Alaska had oceans!!! Seriously I had never really seen the ocean before. The sound of waves breaking over that shale covered beach was something that has stayed with me always. So the trifecta of things I had to have near me in my environment to make me happy consisted of this: oceans, mountains, and forests. I am an unhappy camper when those things are not present.
I met my hubby when he was in the Air Force and I knew that we would eventually have to move, they were cruel. The Air Force moved us to San Antonio Texas. Those were the longest eight years of my life. Then we were moved to Utah, ok so it had mountains and kind of, sort of, forests (they are really sparse). After four years there the Air Force said how about going back to Alaska. YEAH!!! was the answer. My kids were even excited. So I got to come home and move back to Anchorage, my house is up against a huge wooded park and moose visit often, so do the bears but I can really do without their visits. Two blocks away is the trail head to a long trail that takes you right up into the mountains. We are not talking about some large trail that is paved or anything, this is bring water and gear type of trail, with streams to ford and moose to dodge and tons of birds and just once a wolverine skittered across the trail in front of us. I can drive less than twenty minutes and be in the wild.
I may be the only person you meet that is blase about seeing moose and bald eagles. Seriously, they are everywhere. I know that tourists go nuts to see them but after awhile up here they are somewhat common. I am more excited to see rarer animals. I have seen herds of caribou crossing the highway as I drive to Fairbanks, seen wolves, bears, but oddly enough the one animal I haven't seen, alive that is, is the porcupine. I see them tragically on the roads during the summer but just once I want to see one doing porcupiney things in the wild.
This morning though when our 2 year old decide five thirty was a great time to get up, I let the dog out and high above my house was a spectacular display of northern lights. They were green, pale pink, and a shimmering white. They darted across the sky, pulsing, creating elongated curtains of light that changed between one breath and the next. I was entranced, didn't have a coat on, didn't notice the snow that got into my slippers. I just stood there and watched in silence as nature gave me a celestial rock show. I told myself this is why I life here, this beauty in nature and the emotions it creates. Alaska has wormed its way into my soul.
Now mind you this is not to say we don't have weirdness up here but that is another story.
Atypical Life in AK
See I grew up all over the American mid-west. North Dakota, Montana, and Colorado for the most part. I hated everywhere that I lived. North Dakota was way way to flat for me. Now for those of you that love seeing for miles in every direction its a great place for that. There weren't enough trees or mountains for me. Colorado had the mountains but they aren't right there in your face. They hang off to the west of Denver taunting you about hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities. Eastern Montana was a repeat of North Dakota. Then my mother and step-father #2 had a great idea, let's move to Alaska. See that's where he was from, and he decided we would be better off there.
So packed up everything and stuffed it into an old school bus that we had to paint blue, apparently privately owned school buses can't stay yellow so we had to change its color, and then stuffed us into the Suburban and headed north. Let me tell you that trip was not exactly fun at points but I did learn something, I am not high maintenance. I was fine with the roughing it part. Sleeping in the car, cooking over a itty bitty hibachi grill and just enjoying the scenery. Mom wasn't to happy, she wanted a restaurant and hotel. Grilled steaks and the occasional mosquito was not bad really. Step-father #2 told me he thought I would fit in well in Alaska, I had the right mentality for it.
Now as we progressed to the state I was swept away by the mountains, and the forests, and all the wildlife. I saw my first bald eagle, Dall sheep, moose, bears, wolves and so many more on that trip. I remember walking on the very first glacier that I had ever seen. It was the Matanuska glacier and it was spectacular. There was this wildness to Alaska that I had never experienced before.
I also discovered that Alaska had oceans!!! Seriously I had never really seen the ocean before. The sound of waves breaking over that shale covered beach was something that has stayed with me always. So the trifecta of things I had to have near me in my environment to make me happy consisted of this: oceans, mountains, and forests. I am an unhappy camper when those things are not present.
I met my hubby when he was in the Air Force and I knew that we would eventually have to move, they were cruel. The Air Force moved us to San Antonio Texas. Those were the longest eight years of my life. Then we were moved to Utah, ok so it had mountains and kind of, sort of, forests (they are really sparse). After four years there the Air Force said how about going back to Alaska. YEAH!!! was the answer. My kids were even excited. So I got to come home and move back to Anchorage, my house is up against a huge wooded park and moose visit often, so do the bears but I can really do without their visits. Two blocks away is the trail head to a long trail that takes you right up into the mountains. We are not talking about some large trail that is paved or anything, this is bring water and gear type of trail, with streams to ford and moose to dodge and tons of birds and just once a wolverine skittered across the trail in front of us. I can drive less than twenty minutes and be in the wild.
I may be the only person you meet that is blase about seeing moose and bald eagles. Seriously, they are everywhere. I know that tourists go nuts to see them but after awhile up here they are somewhat common. I am more excited to see rarer animals. I have seen herds of caribou crossing the highway as I drive to Fairbanks, seen wolves, bears, but oddly enough the one animal I haven't seen, alive that is, is the porcupine. I see them tragically on the roads during the summer but just once I want to see one doing porcupiney things in the wild.
This morning though when our 2 year old decide five thirty was a great time to get up, I let the dog out and high above my house was a spectacular display of northern lights. They were green, pale pink, and a shimmering white. They darted across the sky, pulsing, creating elongated curtains of light that changed between one breath and the next. I was entranced, didn't have a coat on, didn't notice the snow that got into my slippers. I just stood there and watched in silence as nature gave me a celestial rock show. I told myself this is why I life here, this beauty in nature and the emotions it creates. Alaska has wormed its way into my soul.
Now mind you this is not to say we don't have weirdness up here but that is another story.
Atypical Life in AK
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Flying my gamer geek flag proudly!
Ok who said women my age can't be gamers? Yesterday was the release of Mass Effect 3!! Whoo hooo to those who game, time to take back Earth. I realize that those of you who don't game are scratching your head and going huh? Bear with me for a bit and you will understand the anger I felt yesterday.
Headed off to my Game Stop store to pick up my collectors edition of the game, I did mention I am a geek right? Well. I walk in and I am the only and I mean only woman in the store. There are about 50 guys in there. Some fit the stereotype of the "typical" gamer guy geek thingy but others didn't. Heck there was even a guy in a suit getting his copy. So there I am standing in line being polite while two of male clerks keep taking guys who are behind me in line before I explain to them that I was next.
This little man about 18 or 19 looks at me and tells me he thought that I was with one of them cause well I'm a girl. The other clerk asks me what can help me with, I hand over my ID and game stop card and tell them I am here to pick up my game. While he is looking up my stuff and getting it, the little punk looks at me and says, "You're picking this up for your son right?"
"No," I replied. "My son is getting his own copy this is mine."
"Can't be yours, women your age don't game."
Excuse my brain wanted to say, what do you mean women don't game! I gave that boy a withering look, you moms know it the one you give your teenage children when they have just done something stupid and there are no words stronger than that look. I calmly looked at this young man who has just earned my ire and told him that I have been playing video games for over ten years and that there are plenty of women my age who play video games. You would think that he would have just figured out to drop it but nooooo he had to press.
"No, I don't know any women or girls who game, they just say they do."
I am drawing myself up to unleash hell on this boy and the other clerk has gone into the back to retrieve the manager. The manager comes out and tells the young clerk that it is time for him to take a break from the counter and go stock. He turns to me, actually he knows me (I have been a regular customer at this store for ages). He apologizes and says he will talk to him. I tell him that the young man needs to apologize to me. Stereotypes are not ok, Yes there are reasons why stereotypes exist but that doesn't mean they are correct.
I am a gamer geek, seriously I own an N7 hoodie and several t shirts from Bioware that pertain to favorite games. I have a statue of Noble Team from Halo Reach in my bedroom. But if you were to see me on the street you would think, hmm slightly overweight stay home mommy. But there is more than that to me.
Everyone has different aspect to them and some are not what you expect of that person but that is what makes them unique and beautiful. I for one enjoy being around people that are rich and complex, with a mind that is capable of entertaining many thoughts all at once. I don't really care what they look like either, as long as they are true to themselves that's fine.
So here's to my friends who are geeks, gamers, steampunk aficionados, SCA people, English lit fiends like me, or what ever else they love. I love them all.
Headed off to my Game Stop store to pick up my collectors edition of the game, I did mention I am a geek right? Well. I walk in and I am the only and I mean only woman in the store. There are about 50 guys in there. Some fit the stereotype of the "typical" gamer guy geek thingy but others didn't. Heck there was even a guy in a suit getting his copy. So there I am standing in line being polite while two of male clerks keep taking guys who are behind me in line before I explain to them that I was next.
This little man about 18 or 19 looks at me and tells me he thought that I was with one of them cause well I'm a girl. The other clerk asks me what can help me with, I hand over my ID and game stop card and tell them I am here to pick up my game. While he is looking up my stuff and getting it, the little punk looks at me and says, "You're picking this up for your son right?"
"No," I replied. "My son is getting his own copy this is mine."
"Can't be yours, women your age don't game."
Excuse my brain wanted to say, what do you mean women don't game! I gave that boy a withering look, you moms know it the one you give your teenage children when they have just done something stupid and there are no words stronger than that look. I calmly looked at this young man who has just earned my ire and told him that I have been playing video games for over ten years and that there are plenty of women my age who play video games. You would think that he would have just figured out to drop it but nooooo he had to press.
"No, I don't know any women or girls who game, they just say they do."
I am drawing myself up to unleash hell on this boy and the other clerk has gone into the back to retrieve the manager. The manager comes out and tells the young clerk that it is time for him to take a break from the counter and go stock. He turns to me, actually he knows me (I have been a regular customer at this store for ages). He apologizes and says he will talk to him. I tell him that the young man needs to apologize to me. Stereotypes are not ok, Yes there are reasons why stereotypes exist but that doesn't mean they are correct.
I am a gamer geek, seriously I own an N7 hoodie and several t shirts from Bioware that pertain to favorite games. I have a statue of Noble Team from Halo Reach in my bedroom. But if you were to see me on the street you would think, hmm slightly overweight stay home mommy. But there is more than that to me.
Everyone has different aspect to them and some are not what you expect of that person but that is what makes them unique and beautiful. I for one enjoy being around people that are rich and complex, with a mind that is capable of entertaining many thoughts all at once. I don't really care what they look like either, as long as they are true to themselves that's fine.
So here's to my friends who are geeks, gamers, steampunk aficionados, SCA people, English lit fiends like me, or what ever else they love. I love them all.
Friday, March 2, 2012
If its March, must be start of disaster season.
So its now March and here in my little slice of Alaska we have 119 inches of snow (which is a dirty word this winter) lying about on the ground. We only need 13 more inches before we hit the record. I am so good with not hitting that record, really I am. As I look out the window what do I see that its doing again.... snowing.... really seriously do I look like I want anymore snow this year.
Up here in Alaska we are anxiously looking towards this strange little seasons called break up. Its not spring and its not winter its this messy thing in between. Sometimes its short and sweet, melts inside a week and then ta da spring. Other times its a slow lingering mess of thaw and freeze that causes small lakes to appear where only the day before you swore there was a road. And to make it oh so much more fun there are potholes, some the size of small cars (or so it seems like) and they love to lurk at the bottom of these temporary lakes just to make the alignment of your car go out of whack.
I feel for the poor pedestrians at this time of year as well some drivers just delight in driving through those lakes when they see someone walking and send that water gushing up and out over the sidewalk rendering the walker into a sodden frozen mess. I think that the pedestrians should be allowed to shoot the tires of those idiots and make them walk.
See I think that we are going to have an awful break up this year cause the city has been, well, lax about moving some of the snow in the city. For instance there is a snow pile that is a story and half tall and takes up so much of the circle that there is only a half a car lane left. Now in the summer and fall if you park your car there for more than 24 hours you get ticketed for blocking the ability of emergency personnel from reaching the houses. But its ok for the snow to block it. Heck you should have heard the garbage men on Monday morning, they were not happy and wow did not know that their range of swear words was that incredible. The mailman has threatened to not deliver mail anymore cause the boxes keep getting buried by city plows. We have those mailboxes where all the blocks mail is in one giant complex thingy and its on city land, yet the mailman is yelling at everyone that if it isn't cleared no mail. So what to do, call the city of course. What do they say, they say that the city is not responsible for it and its the mail services job (remember the boxes are on city property) and no they have no plans to remove the snow regardless if the garbage people can't get through. Singularly the most unhelpful phone call ever. They were polite but exasperated like they have gotten this call a million or more times.
So all this snow is hanging about in the street. There are huge piles everywhere and the storm drains are buried under several feet of snow. When the melting comes you will be able to take a canoe for a trip down the street I expect. I am sure that there will be over flowing creeks, backed up sewers, and flooded houses when that snow goes, cause sure as snow falls, we will have the worst possible break up that mother nature can think of. Its been that kind of a year.
I have visited my greenhouse to find out my waders to make sure that they are in good form, thinking seriously about getting a pair of extra tuffs this year. I might just need them. Then I think I might need to find a flotation device for the dog when she goes into the backyard during all of this. I am sure that there will be puddles of epic proportions taking up most of the yard. And yet some how by the end of May it should all be gone and dried up just in time for fire season.
Atypical Life in AK
Up here in Alaska we are anxiously looking towards this strange little seasons called break up. Its not spring and its not winter its this messy thing in between. Sometimes its short and sweet, melts inside a week and then ta da spring. Other times its a slow lingering mess of thaw and freeze that causes small lakes to appear where only the day before you swore there was a road. And to make it oh so much more fun there are potholes, some the size of small cars (or so it seems like) and they love to lurk at the bottom of these temporary lakes just to make the alignment of your car go out of whack.
I feel for the poor pedestrians at this time of year as well some drivers just delight in driving through those lakes when they see someone walking and send that water gushing up and out over the sidewalk rendering the walker into a sodden frozen mess. I think that the pedestrians should be allowed to shoot the tires of those idiots and make them walk.
See I think that we are going to have an awful break up this year cause the city has been, well, lax about moving some of the snow in the city. For instance there is a snow pile that is a story and half tall and takes up so much of the circle that there is only a half a car lane left. Now in the summer and fall if you park your car there for more than 24 hours you get ticketed for blocking the ability of emergency personnel from reaching the houses. But its ok for the snow to block it. Heck you should have heard the garbage men on Monday morning, they were not happy and wow did not know that their range of swear words was that incredible. The mailman has threatened to not deliver mail anymore cause the boxes keep getting buried by city plows. We have those mailboxes where all the blocks mail is in one giant complex thingy and its on city land, yet the mailman is yelling at everyone that if it isn't cleared no mail. So what to do, call the city of course. What do they say, they say that the city is not responsible for it and its the mail services job (remember the boxes are on city property) and no they have no plans to remove the snow regardless if the garbage people can't get through. Singularly the most unhelpful phone call ever. They were polite but exasperated like they have gotten this call a million or more times.
So all this snow is hanging about in the street. There are huge piles everywhere and the storm drains are buried under several feet of snow. When the melting comes you will be able to take a canoe for a trip down the street I expect. I am sure that there will be over flowing creeks, backed up sewers, and flooded houses when that snow goes, cause sure as snow falls, we will have the worst possible break up that mother nature can think of. Its been that kind of a year.
I have visited my greenhouse to find out my waders to make sure that they are in good form, thinking seriously about getting a pair of extra tuffs this year. I might just need them. Then I think I might need to find a flotation device for the dog when she goes into the backyard during all of this. I am sure that there will be puddles of epic proportions taking up most of the yard. And yet some how by the end of May it should all be gone and dried up just in time for fire season.
Atypical Life in AK
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Technological Foo
So today thought I would write another entry, but noooooooo my internet provider decided to have a crisis right in the middle of me trying to post it, and all my writing went down into the black hole of Ethernet nothingness. Seriously, I hate tech foo. I am not the greatest at computers; after all they weren't a household thing until after I graduated high school. All the tech stuff that has come out in the past few years makes my little head swim and try to explode.
Think about this, when I was a young girl I first heard music either live or on reel to reel (look it up if you have to) and then there was eight tracks. Yeah the new car was styling cause it had a built in eight track player, whoo hoo that's nothing now. Then of course there were albums, you know those large vinyl things that played music had two sides also came in the small 45 size. You listened to a whole album at a time. Cassettes came along and then there was the Sony Walkman, you were cool if you had your Sony Walkman and a London Fog jacket (black with the little epaulets on the shoulder). In high school a long comes a techno break thru... the CD, oh holy cow! The CD was going to and did revolutionize the music. And then there was CD players and at first were those things expensive; only the cool rich kids had those. Slowly they became affordable for everyone. Just as I was getting comfortable with that and out comes this thing called an MP3 player. Welcome to the digital age of music. Now you can get just the songs you want with out ever going into an actual music store. Places like Sam Goody and FYI slowly lost ground to iTunes and even the giant Amazon (where you can get anything), and you only got the songs that you wanted. Books came out about how to create the ultimate play lists and what you should be listening too. I ended up owning two iPods, don't as to why I need two, I just do.
Well I thought I was getting comfortable with that and then my children introduced me to social media; MySpace, Facebook, and others, what the heck were those. So under the pressure of geeky linked in children I made my peace and packed away my stationary and became a member of the digital age with access points here and there and in-between it seemed like. I learned what browsers were the best to use, me I am a Firefox person. What social media I liked, turned out to be Facebook and discovered that there were others like me out there struggling in this new stuff.
Still I have issues when the internet connection goes wonky and for no apparent reason, I really think I need my own personal IT guy. I swear at the computer or the Xbox 360 when they don't do what I want. My conversations with the Kinect are always hilarious. I think I have a handle on this and now the questions of smart phones and tablets are jogging up to me to say hi. I am not sure that I have the strength to go through that battle yet. Do I really need a phone that does all that a smartphone does? How is a tablet better than a laptop and what if I don't ever want to get an e reader. I like books. Its all just technical foo to me today.
Atypical Life in AK
Think about this, when I was a young girl I first heard music either live or on reel to reel (look it up if you have to) and then there was eight tracks. Yeah the new car was styling cause it had a built in eight track player, whoo hoo that's nothing now. Then of course there were albums, you know those large vinyl things that played music had two sides also came in the small 45 size. You listened to a whole album at a time. Cassettes came along and then there was the Sony Walkman, you were cool if you had your Sony Walkman and a London Fog jacket (black with the little epaulets on the shoulder). In high school a long comes a techno break thru... the CD, oh holy cow! The CD was going to and did revolutionize the music. And then there was CD players and at first were those things expensive; only the cool rich kids had those. Slowly they became affordable for everyone. Just as I was getting comfortable with that and out comes this thing called an MP3 player. Welcome to the digital age of music. Now you can get just the songs you want with out ever going into an actual music store. Places like Sam Goody and FYI slowly lost ground to iTunes and even the giant Amazon (where you can get anything), and you only got the songs that you wanted. Books came out about how to create the ultimate play lists and what you should be listening too. I ended up owning two iPods, don't as to why I need two, I just do.
Well I thought I was getting comfortable with that and then my children introduced me to social media; MySpace, Facebook, and others, what the heck were those. So under the pressure of geeky linked in children I made my peace and packed away my stationary and became a member of the digital age with access points here and there and in-between it seemed like. I learned what browsers were the best to use, me I am a Firefox person. What social media I liked, turned out to be Facebook and discovered that there were others like me out there struggling in this new stuff.
Still I have issues when the internet connection goes wonky and for no apparent reason, I really think I need my own personal IT guy. I swear at the computer or the Xbox 360 when they don't do what I want. My conversations with the Kinect are always hilarious. I think I have a handle on this and now the questions of smart phones and tablets are jogging up to me to say hi. I am not sure that I have the strength to go through that battle yet. Do I really need a phone that does all that a smartphone does? How is a tablet better than a laptop and what if I don't ever want to get an e reader. I like books. Its all just technical foo to me today.
Atypical Life in AK
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Intro part two...
So you might say, are you going to just tell us your past or will there be anything relevant in this blog. I say hang on give me a bit of time to give you some insight into who I am; really it will help you understand some of my points of view.
When we last spoke I was a six year old in the dreary state of North Dakota. Now don't go all postal on me if you live there, parts of the state are nice, where I was living was dreary, flat, and nothing stopped the wind coming down from the north pole. So there I am in a place that I hate, with a mom who was absentee parent for the most part and a sister who I am pretty sure wanted to be an only child. At this time we are living with mom's second husband who, well not to put to nice of a term on it, turned out to be a monster. I know that my mom and my sister don't want to deal with it but the guy molested me and my sister. I ended up going through therapy in my later life but mom and sister are still in denial. Its kind of a game changer in the way that you look at adults. I didn't have anyone I could turn to as hell my mom sure wasn't going to listen to me. She would have whacked me for lying. I didn't have any trusted aunts or uncles or anything to turn to. And my mom wonders why the teachers reported my grades going down the drain and that I often told others that I wished I would die of cancer or something. The abuse ended when I was about 10 after mom had had two affairs and decided that another guy was a better bet as he had more money. I figured out that my mom gravitates towards guys with money. So she divorces creep and then moves us back to Denver and guess what! The freaking creep follows us. This guy for twelve years had been my father, in fact he made my biological dad sign away his rights so he could adopt us, and the shit he did will never leave my soul. I have forgotten so much of that time in my life, I think my brain is just trying to keep me sane. So there we are in Denver with my mom's family and she takes up with the creep again?!?! What! I was so unhappy I really wanted to die at that time in my life. So a year of violent arguments that were so bad that my sister and I locked ourselves into my room to hide. I had insisted that I have a lock on my door. Then one day mom's last boyfriend showed up and the next thing I knew we were being whisked off to Glendive Montana. We stayed there for a year before going back to North Dakota and then after a few years we moved to Alaska.
I have always wondered if you are truly born where you enter the universe or where it is that you come into your own self. For me that was Anchorage Alaska. All the way of that move, imagine if you can driving through Canada for 3 weeks with all of the household goods, the dogs, the smuggled cat and no sister (she decided she would rather live with the creep); the mountains and forests sang to me. Seriously I had never felt such peace seep into my soul. There wasn't a thing I didn't like about the state. I was reading Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series at the time and could see Middle Earth as we moved.
Now to most of you reading books isn't a remarkable thing but you have to understand no one in my house read. Nope there were no books or music or art around the house while I was growing up. And to make matter worse when in third grade I was taken out of regular schools and put into gifted programs for a highly advanced IQ it put even more strain into my relationships with family. My mom couldn't understand why I would want to read. I wanted to read everything, and I mean whatever I could get my hands on. I wanted to know. This was not a sentiment shared in the house. I loved music, I loved art, I loved nature. I think in my mom and sisters eyes I was abnormal. I wasn't what they considered typical. Not reading would be like not breathing to me. Later in life when my hubby was with the military I swear you could hear the movers just cringe when they saw the amount of books they would have to move. I would rather give up furniture than my books.
Ok now that I have gotten off course I guess I will end it here for the moment, I feel the need to go pick up a book and actually feel the pages between my fingers. I think I hear Alexander Dumas calling from upstairs.
Byee for now,
Atypical Life in AK
So you might say, are you going to just tell us your past or will there be anything relevant in this blog. I say hang on give me a bit of time to give you some insight into who I am; really it will help you understand some of my points of view.
When we last spoke I was a six year old in the dreary state of North Dakota. Now don't go all postal on me if you live there, parts of the state are nice, where I was living was dreary, flat, and nothing stopped the wind coming down from the north pole. So there I am in a place that I hate, with a mom who was absentee parent for the most part and a sister who I am pretty sure wanted to be an only child. At this time we are living with mom's second husband who, well not to put to nice of a term on it, turned out to be a monster. I know that my mom and my sister don't want to deal with it but the guy molested me and my sister. I ended up going through therapy in my later life but mom and sister are still in denial. Its kind of a game changer in the way that you look at adults. I didn't have anyone I could turn to as hell my mom sure wasn't going to listen to me. She would have whacked me for lying. I didn't have any trusted aunts or uncles or anything to turn to. And my mom wonders why the teachers reported my grades going down the drain and that I often told others that I wished I would die of cancer or something. The abuse ended when I was about 10 after mom had had two affairs and decided that another guy was a better bet as he had more money. I figured out that my mom gravitates towards guys with money. So she divorces creep and then moves us back to Denver and guess what! The freaking creep follows us. This guy for twelve years had been my father, in fact he made my biological dad sign away his rights so he could adopt us, and the shit he did will never leave my soul. I have forgotten so much of that time in my life, I think my brain is just trying to keep me sane. So there we are in Denver with my mom's family and she takes up with the creep again?!?! What! I was so unhappy I really wanted to die at that time in my life. So a year of violent arguments that were so bad that my sister and I locked ourselves into my room to hide. I had insisted that I have a lock on my door. Then one day mom's last boyfriend showed up and the next thing I knew we were being whisked off to Glendive Montana. We stayed there for a year before going back to North Dakota and then after a few years we moved to Alaska.
I have always wondered if you are truly born where you enter the universe or where it is that you come into your own self. For me that was Anchorage Alaska. All the way of that move, imagine if you can driving through Canada for 3 weeks with all of the household goods, the dogs, the smuggled cat and no sister (she decided she would rather live with the creep); the mountains and forests sang to me. Seriously I had never felt such peace seep into my soul. There wasn't a thing I didn't like about the state. I was reading Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series at the time and could see Middle Earth as we moved.
Now to most of you reading books isn't a remarkable thing but you have to understand no one in my house read. Nope there were no books or music or art around the house while I was growing up. And to make matter worse when in third grade I was taken out of regular schools and put into gifted programs for a highly advanced IQ it put even more strain into my relationships with family. My mom couldn't understand why I would want to read. I wanted to read everything, and I mean whatever I could get my hands on. I wanted to know. This was not a sentiment shared in the house. I loved music, I loved art, I loved nature. I think in my mom and sisters eyes I was abnormal. I wasn't what they considered typical. Not reading would be like not breathing to me. Later in life when my hubby was with the military I swear you could hear the movers just cringe when they saw the amount of books they would have to move. I would rather give up furniture than my books.
Ok now that I have gotten off course I guess I will end it here for the moment, I feel the need to go pick up a book and actually feel the pages between my fingers. I think I hear Alexander Dumas calling from upstairs.
Byee for now,
Atypical Life in AK
Monday, February 27, 2012
Atypical Life an intro part one....
So what is a typical life? I really want to know, cause I think mine has left typical somewhere in the past. I used to think it was normal, you know wife, mom of three, pretty normal stuff. But then..... suddenly it hit me is what I do and go through normal?
Lets start by introducing myself, me= Meg, a slightly distressed and over stressed 43 year old how still doesn't know what she wants to be when and if she grows up. I come from a home where my mom was trying to rival Elizabeth Taylor in marriages and affairs and a sister who, well I still don't know how we survived to adulthood. I married early like at age 18 and I am still married to my saint of a husband who has had to put up with me. I have 3 or 4 children depending on how you look at it. I am the mom of 23 year old twins, my son has hemophilia and his twin sister has bi-polar. My youngest daughter has ADHD. And now to child number 4, see she is not mine biologically she is my granddaughter and has been with us since the day she was born. So to me she is my daughter. See what I mean somewhere life went all pear shaped on me. I am never quite sure how or when that happened.
I try to think about when it occurred that change or was it more than one change that swept my world from complacent to anything but (yeah I know not the word to end a sentence in but hey its a blog and writing in the colloquial language). I don't know if it was always atypical or if my life is what the typical American life is like. I know that TV and the Movie's would like to tell me that my life is atypical, no happy family talking over dinner at a perfectly set table, no long thoughtful talks with ones parents about the anguish of teenage years. Man if my mom even knew half of the crap I did when I was a teen she would just keel over now. So where do I even start?
One thing that still cracks me up about growing up and boy did I live all over the place, was that I was a latch-key kid before the term even existed. My mom was not the most stable of people. She drank, a lot, and the notion of fidelity in marriage was not something that she practiced most devotedly. We moved around alot; one year I went to 5 different schools. Mom had her own demons I suspect but in our family growing up no one and I mean no one ever talked about anything like that. Illnesses were never discussed, no one mentioned any kind of strange behaviors it was always somewhat surreal.
Mom moved us from Denver Colorado to a little podunk town called Williston North Dakota and there in first grade I was responsible for getting myself off to school; my sister was with me. We walked ourselves to school, we came home after school to an empty house. No parents, no supervision but the knowing that if we didn't get the assigned chores done to mom's satisfaction it was most likely going to end up with someone getting hit. My sister is only two and half years older than me and well we were responsible for taking care of the house. Maybe that should have been my first hint that life was not going to be like that of other friends. My other friends either came home to a parent or went to an after school activity. But, nope we were alone when we came home. I learned to pick locks after we had forgotten the house key more than once. I was really good at that. What six year old needs to learn how to pick locks?
North Dakota would turn out to be its own from of hell for me and that would lead to some highly destructive issues.
Nice to meet you all,
Atypical Life in AK
So what is a typical life? I really want to know, cause I think mine has left typical somewhere in the past. I used to think it was normal, you know wife, mom of three, pretty normal stuff. But then..... suddenly it hit me is what I do and go through normal?
Lets start by introducing myself, me= Meg, a slightly distressed and over stressed 43 year old how still doesn't know what she wants to be when and if she grows up. I come from a home where my mom was trying to rival Elizabeth Taylor in marriages and affairs and a sister who, well I still don't know how we survived to adulthood. I married early like at age 18 and I am still married to my saint of a husband who has had to put up with me. I have 3 or 4 children depending on how you look at it. I am the mom of 23 year old twins, my son has hemophilia and his twin sister has bi-polar. My youngest daughter has ADHD. And now to child number 4, see she is not mine biologically she is my granddaughter and has been with us since the day she was born. So to me she is my daughter. See what I mean somewhere life went all pear shaped on me. I am never quite sure how or when that happened.
I try to think about when it occurred that change or was it more than one change that swept my world from complacent to anything but (yeah I know not the word to end a sentence in but hey its a blog and writing in the colloquial language). I don't know if it was always atypical or if my life is what the typical American life is like. I know that TV and the Movie's would like to tell me that my life is atypical, no happy family talking over dinner at a perfectly set table, no long thoughtful talks with ones parents about the anguish of teenage years. Man if my mom even knew half of the crap I did when I was a teen she would just keel over now. So where do I even start?
One thing that still cracks me up about growing up and boy did I live all over the place, was that I was a latch-key kid before the term even existed. My mom was not the most stable of people. She drank, a lot, and the notion of fidelity in marriage was not something that she practiced most devotedly. We moved around alot; one year I went to 5 different schools. Mom had her own demons I suspect but in our family growing up no one and I mean no one ever talked about anything like that. Illnesses were never discussed, no one mentioned any kind of strange behaviors it was always somewhat surreal.
Mom moved us from Denver Colorado to a little podunk town called Williston North Dakota and there in first grade I was responsible for getting myself off to school; my sister was with me. We walked ourselves to school, we came home after school to an empty house. No parents, no supervision but the knowing that if we didn't get the assigned chores done to mom's satisfaction it was most likely going to end up with someone getting hit. My sister is only two and half years older than me and well we were responsible for taking care of the house. Maybe that should have been my first hint that life was not going to be like that of other friends. My other friends either came home to a parent or went to an after school activity. But, nope we were alone when we came home. I learned to pick locks after we had forgotten the house key more than once. I was really good at that. What six year old needs to learn how to pick locks?
North Dakota would turn out to be its own from of hell for me and that would lead to some highly destructive issues.
Nice to meet you all,
Atypical Life in AK
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