I wonder if I should even be telling this...

As a woman, I feel the need to present a "put together" image when I leave the house to be seen in public. If you see me out, just know that I have made a little effort (usually) to fix my hair, match my clothes and be generally well-groomed. If you were to stop by my house on a random day, you may not be as lucky. This morning for example, I sat on the front deck with my laptop and my coffee, perusing Facebook updates and reading my e-mail, in my nightgown, until a little after 10 a.m. Not a good look for receiving visitors.

I don't have expensive tastes when it comes to clothes or accessories. To be honest, I have gotten the most compliments on things I have bought second hand at yard sales, or from friends getting rid of things they no longer wanted. (Thanks for the purses, Kim! Everyone loves the striped one!) I like to find unusual items that you can't find in stores any longer. Sometimes they are BACK in style, or VINTAGE, if you prefer. Sometimes they remind me of favorite things I used to have or wear. Sometimes they just feed one of my random moods for variety.

I love yard sale or clearance rack finds! I suppose I am just a cheapskate in a lot of ways. But I do understand when it is necessary to pay a little more for quality. I can shell out good money for shoes or for jeans that fit just right. But for the most part, my money is not spent on name-brand clothes, accessories, or the various other things that are necessary for a woman to make herself presentable. I use inexpensive hair-care and make-up items. I have costume jewelry and watches that I wear because I like them, or they match a certain outfit. (And I LOVE LOVE LOVE watches! BF, (read-before the fire) I could wear a different watch almost every day of the month. I had all colors of straps: tan, chocolate, white, black, silver, gold, two-tone, and all colors of faces, some Mickey, Minnie, Pooh, Angels, Santa, etc.) And most of them were just the inexpensive type from Wal-Mart or where ever, that I bought because they "jumped out at me" or looked neat. I probably spent more buying watch batteries and replacing bands than I ever did on a particular watch!

But, back to my original thought-looking presentable in public...I have to admit to a particularly worrisome recent purchase for my personal hygiene care. I recently purchase the Smooth Away Personal Hair Removal System. GLORIFIED SAND PAPER for your body! And even more worrisome, I have USED it...TWICE!!! I scraped a sanding sheet across my body for the sake of ...well, not BEAUTY probably, but VANITY definitely! SAND PAPER!!! I kid you not! It's a little black section of rough material that wouldn't look out of place on Rob's wood-shop workbench!

In my defense, let me tell you that I have an aunt who literally has almost a moustache, sideburns and goatee of dark hair on her face and I do not want to look like the bearded lady at the fair as I age! (I love her, but heredity is not a kind beautician on that side of the fam!) So, yeah, I have sand-papered my face for the sake of my vanity. And I'm only a little ashamed to admit it!

And it WORKS! My face is as smooth as a baby's bottom, as they say. And I get to smile a bit at THAT thought any time I get a kiss on the cheek!!! :-)

dw

I Wonder What They're Like...

I watch entirely too much T.V. I have admitted it before and stand by my conviction.
*stands up* "My name is Dawn and I'm an entertainment junkie."

But even more concerning to me than the VOLUME (and I don't mean how loud it is while I'm watching...) I mean sheer time periods that I spend watching or at least peripherally watching...even more troublesome, is the emotion I expend on the shows I follow. I laugh, I cry, I squirm, I slap my forehead in exasperation. I get entangled in the lives of people I don't know and will never meet.

And I know that I won't meet them, or talk to them about what has me so captivated about their situations. MAINLY BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT REAL!!! THEY ARE CHARACTERS WRITTEN BY A WRITER; MADE UP IN EVERY DETAIL. I get it, really I do! So why then, do I let them get to me so emotionally?

When ER ended this past Spring, I bawled like a newborn spanked by the doctor! I loved those people...I mean CHARACTERS!!! I was invested in what happened to them and wanted to know that they were going to be okay. I spent as much time with that hospital as I did in real life hospitals and I find myself now really missing it. I found out over the summer that another fave, The Unit, will not be returning this fall....AAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!! So, since they aren't coming back, and I will have no closure to my relationship with them, I am forced to worry about them! Is Molly REALLY leaving Jonas? Will Tiffie and Mack be okay? Hector just got married...how's that working out? And Bob and Kim and the kids....and on and on and on!!! The network just didn't seem to notice that I CARED what these people were going through!!!

I am ferociously loyal!!! Both in my personal life and my TV-mania. I DVR about 10 different shows! And I feel just as personally connected to the people...yeah, yeah, I mean "characters"...in each of these shows. I want to be friends with Pamela, Denise, Roland, Claudia Joy and Roxie on Army Wives. They seem like a great bunch of friends to have around! And I want to learn how to kick butt with Mary on In Plain Sight. And I want to investigate crimes with the gangs on NCIS, Criminal Minds and SVU. I could help them! I figure it out before they do a LOT of the time already!!!

Am I deranged? I prefer to think of myself as an extremely avid fanatic viewer of series programming! But even if you agree with me, don't tell me about it...you could get me hooked on your favorite shows next, and I already have enough people !!!!CHARACTERS YES!!! THEY'RE CHARACTERS!!!!! to keep up with.

I Wonder Where I Go From Here?

So, now I have a blog...What am I gonna do with it? I can't always be PROFOUND...although the occaisional inspiration does happen. So, what do I want to say today?

Maybe the question is best stated, what do I want to allow you ACCESS TO in my head? There are a few dark corners that don't bear peering into too closely. Instead, let me introduce you to my sons.

My sons are the lights of my life. They are both terrific boys and I am hoping they become terrific men eventually. They are so close in age, that naturally, they are alike in alot of ways. But sometimes their differences are so stark and glaring, you don't even know they are related.

One has my father's eyes, is very introverted, but has shades of my wacky sense of humor developing (slowly but surely.) He is very intelligent, but sometimes I get the sense that he tries to hide that. I feel like he slacks off to avoid offending (for lack of a better word) his classmates. I don't mean to say he's a brainiac or anything...sometimes the boy has absolutely no commen sense!!

He doesn't like to be put on the spot. Doesn't like the spotlight. Sometimes I wonder if he can carry on a conversation with others, because I've seen it at times and it's like pulling teeth to get a sentence out of him. Hopefully he will grow in self confidence and maturity into the man I know he has waiting inside him.

My other son is the social character. He loves social situations, quotes movie lines and jokes to entertain everyone around, and laughs easily. He is assuredly the extrovert. He is the classic youngest child in that he doesn't tend to pay enough attention in school, except to wonder if he'll be voted class clown. He has struggled in the past with school-work, but as he is maturing, I see him opening his mind to absorb what he learns and he is experiencing first-hand how education is building on what you learned previously to master each new thing.

Both my son's have very soft hearts, but this child has an unusual depth of empathy. He cries at sad movies and songs a little like his mother does. He notices hurt feelings and injustice like a much older soul. I wonder, for him, if maturity won't dampen these kind traits into dust. I'd like to think not.

If you know them now or meet them later, you will be able to tell who is who. But for plausible deniability of invading their personal privacy, I have purposely not used names here. To protect the innocent. And, really, isn't that supposed to be every mother's job?

RE-BLOGGING (or, I Wonder What's in Your Fire Safe?)

Having gone through a house fire this year, I know from whence (*and wince*) I speak. To coin a phrase, been there, done that, no longer have the t-shirt because it burned up! Suffice it to say, this topic has been on my mind recently.

One of our first purchases, after clothing to wear (we left the house in sleeping pants, t-shirts and shoes/no socks), and personal hygeine items (didn't even have a brush or comb), was a fire proof box. We bought a file folder size box with a lock in order to keep our important documents safe in the (please, Lord!) unlikely event of another tragedy.

Now—as a procrastinator of the first order, I haven't put EVERYTHING in there that needs to be. But, even so, it's getting fuller. There are things inside that need to find their true home in the regular file cabinet with everyday papers. And, there are things we salvaged from the house after the fire, that need to be secured in the fire safe now that we have one.

I'd like to put all sorts of things I want to protect inside and keep them out of harm's way. I still think of things I lost (IF you know me, you know I am talking about my extensive collection of books!) that I wish we had be able to save. I now know more than ever how precious photographs and momentos are. And I can think of other material things I miss that I wish could have been saved -- a favorite pair of jeans, or my most comfie shoes, CDs, video tapes…I could go on, but you get the idea. Many/most of these material things are eventually replacable.

Sometimes I'd like to put my sons inside to protect them from the world in general. But the box we bought is just not large enough. Plus I'm not sure it would be considered "fireproof" once I added the air holes!

So, now to the real point of my message…What do we deem important enough to save and protect? What material posessions do you place in high regard? Include them in your fire safe. -- But, don't forget that your REAL treasures can't be stored on Earth.

dw