thursday two questions

1) What would you most probably be wearing if I caught you in the malls?
A frown.  I am not a happy mall shopper.

2) What type of clothing do you mostly wear: jeans, dress, sweats, dress pants, etc?  I am so with you on this one, Self Sagacity!  Comfort is key.  In fact, I've been known to take that a little too far at times (see the post just before this one where I forgot I wasn't wearing my bra).  Oh - the answer is sweats!

Oh, duh - I'm supposed to ask my own two questions - it helps to read things thoroughly sometimes...

1.  I just saw X Men: First Class today.  Yes, I know that's a statement.  The question is, did you know this fact about James McAvoy (Professor X)?  "While filming The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Georgie Henley never saw McAvoy in his Mr. Tumnus costume before filming their scenes together.  Henley's scared reaction upon seeing McAvoy is genuine surprise."  It's a fact because I read it on the internet here.

2.  Could we please have more Michael Fassbender (Magneto) on screen soon?  Pretty please??

stream of consciousness while looking at potential places to rent

Yikes.  I don't know about this one.  Well, what do you expect in your price range?  At least this is in a separate building, not part of someone's house...Hello, are you the landlord?  Oh, he's over there?  I wonder if that's him walking to his car - which looks pretty nice, by the way...yep, that's him...oh how nice, he'll show me the place now, he's going to get the key...my hair's all greasy under this bandanna, hopefully he won't notice or care...oh good lord, Kerri, you're not even wearing a bra!...oh, this unit is actually nice inside, definitely a possibility...thank you for the unexpected showing (and you're welcome, ha ha)...now to this apt. nearby - hey, I found it, a miracle...peace back at ya', dude...those places look pretty nice...and peace dude and this lady with the baby stroller make it look like a nice neighborhood, but is it quiet?... I want to be as far away from multi-unit apartment living as possible, too; I'll have to think about it...where's this other place?...I see 1202 but where's 1203?!  It goes from 1202 to 1218 and they're shops, not residences!  I'll turn around here and check...yep, no 1203, where is- oh, duh, it's on the other side of the street - oh, whoops, sorry about that, guy behind me, no parking here, huh?  I'll just turn around...oh look, this place has handy shopping carts sitting on the grass out front...maybe I'll skip this place...yep, that overgrown alley confirms it, not looking further here...too bad, it's so close to my favorite bookstore....oh my word, I'm also wearing capri sweats with bleach spots and a hole in them, and below the hems I obviously need to shave!  If that 1st guy still rents to me is that a good thing?...heading back home...yes, I'm going the right way because this street heads east one-way...and I wanted to go east...no, dang it, I live WEST of here!  Grr...

lunch with grandpa 6/27/11

Lunchtime used to be noon (that's why Grandpa called it "the noon meal"), then he decided that it should be four hours after he had breakfast, then it somehow became four hours after he got out of bed, which usually makes it 11:00 a.m.  Now, at 10:45 or thereabouts, Grandpa calls out, "I'm getting faint!" which means "feed me, quick!"  Today:

Grandpa:  "I'm getting faint!"
me:  typing on the computer, "Okay," didn't move
Grandpa:  "Ohhhhhh..."  (fake faint)
me:  no time to respond, because less than a second later,
Grandpa:  "OHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"  (louder fake faint accompanied by drooping head and arms)

Sometimes the man has the patience of a saint, and sometimes he has the patience of a toddler.

After lunch, Grandpa banged his empty soup cup on the tray.  I rolled my eyes, beleaguered soul that I am, and asked him what kind of pudding he wanted for dessert.  "Lemon."  As I fixed his pudding I thought about writing this post.  When I handed him his pudding, I realized I'd given him chocolate instead of lemon.  He accepted the mistake graciously.  That'll teach him.

friday four fill-in

I enjoy Feeling Beachie's fill-ins; the questions are interesting and go beyond the "What is your favorite ---?" rut.  This week's statements:

1. If you would have ever told me years ago that I now would be renting one room in a relative's home instead of living on my own I would never have believed you.  And that's soon to change...

2. Coke! is my beverage of choice.

3. The last time I got a tattoo was... 3 years ago?  It's the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, which represent God to me - the first and the last, my source and goal.  I wanted the letters smaller and closer to the inside of my wrist, just as a message to myself about what I live for, but the tattoo guy had a problem with jackhammering it right over my vein....  Now I feel a bit like a Wonder Twin - activate!

4. Travel the world is one of the items on my bucket list.  Right after "marry rich."

more "old" favorites

For today's "Tuesdays Gone" hop I thought I'd resurrect some stories of me and Grandpa and our hearing prob- I mean, opportunities...

Prologue:  Fun with my private student N:
Today I received outside confirmation that my trouble understanding Grandpa's speech is not entirely due to him. After my lesson with N. ended, he and his younger brother L. told me they were taking out a tree. What? Why? I wondered. And why do I care? But instead I used my great linguistic ability and said a more concise, "What?" "We're taking out a tree!" both boys said. "We're shooting!" L. added. I'm thinking, WHY are you cutting down a tree...it's too early for Christmas, isn't it?.....yes.....and HOW on earth are you going to get it down by shooting it? With an Uzi? What is wrong with you people?! Rather than confuse them with all my questions I modeled excellent verbal expression and scrunched up my face and said, "Huh?" Then L. lifted up his bow and N. said slowly, as if speaking to a....well, to me, "We're taking AR-CHER-Y!"


Fun with Grandpa:
My dad's dad is a 92-year-old, charming, sweetheart of a man whose picture is in the dictionary under "ornery". He's currently living with my parents, and on Sunday mornings I hang out with him, which has turned out to be a great time for both of us (or so he says). A few weeks ago, he had trouble reading the soap-opera-type comic he likes to keep up with, so he asked me to read it to him. Grandpa is a bit hard of hearing, although there is suspicion among some family members that his hearing problem is selective or he is just plain faking it. Anyway, I made the mistake of not pre-reading the comic, in which two guys were talking. So what came out of my mouth at full volume was something like this:

"HEY, JOE. HOW'S MIKE? I HEARD HE'S IN JAIL AGAIN."
"YEAH. I HAVEN'T GONE TO SEE HIM YET."
"I HEARD VALERIE WENT TO VISIT HIM."
"YEAH. SHE STAYED 45 MINUTES, AND WHEN SHE LEFT MIKE HAD A BIG SMILE ON HIS FACE."

(Silence.) (Crickets chirping.) If you've never hollered at a grandparent about conjugal visits, I highly recommend it.

Today when I went into Grandpa's room/space at Mom & Dad's house, I was a bit groggy from a fitful night's sleep. Grandpa was extra perky. "That," he said, pointing to his book of word search puzzles, "almost fell out of bed." Grandpa likes to tell silly jokes, so I thought this was one of them. "It did?" I said. "How?"
"Huh?" Grandpa said.
I put the book on his tv tray. "Are you still working on #10?"
"Yeah. Can you count that high?" (giggles)
"Ha ha." I shove Grandpa and open the book to puzzle #10 and point to it, "So how did this almost fall out of bed?"
"Huh?...No, this," he said, holding up his mechanical pencil, "is almost out of lead!" My brain's so big it clogs up my ears. It's fun to make a non-senile elderly person wonder if he's becoming senile (eye roll).


The other day as I walked into Grandpa's I heard Dad say to him, "Kerri will get your pills." Dad left and a few minutes later Grandpa told me, "I need my pills." I was a bit confused, because he usually has his pills with breakfast.
"You need your pills?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
"Have you had your breakfast?"
"Huh?" (confused look on Grandpa's face now, too)
"You usually have your pills with breakfast. Have you had your breakfast?"
"Yeah, I had my breakfast," he said, still confused.
"Well, did you have your pills with it like usual? I don't understand what pills Dad was talking about."
"I need my PIL-LOWS," Grandpa said. Poor man.

Today he needed a paper clip. "Do you have some in your desk?" I asked, walking over to his desk/secretary - like a roll-top desk but not rounded.
"Yes, on the right side."
I looked around and eventually found them in a small jar on the left side. I took out a paper clip (but Grandpa didn't see that), held the jar up, and said, "Do you want me to put them back where I found them or where you thought they were?" (We can be very Type-A.)
"Huh? No, I need a clip."
"Yes, but do you want me to put the rest of them back here, or here?" I said, pointing.
"No! I want to clip these two papers together." (an article onto a piece of white paper)
"Yes, but what about the rest of the paper clips?"
Chuckling, but also trying very hard to remain patient with me, Grandpa said slowly and clearly, "PICK. UP. THE. JAR. AND. WALK. OVER. HERE. AND. PUT. THE. JAR. DOWN. HERE. PLEASE," as he pointed to a tray by his chair.
I laughed and said in the same way, "I. KNOW. I. GOT. THE. CLIP." I showed it to him and put it on his tray. "I'M. TALKING. ABOUT. THE. JAR," I said, holding it up.
By then we were both laughing, and I don't know where they ended up.

He clipped the papers together, then he asked me to cut off the extra white paper around the margins. (See? Type A.) He said, half-serious/half-teasing, "DON'T. CUT. THE. ARTICLE. IN. HALF. CUT HERE," he said, pointing, "AROUND. THE. ARTICLE."
"I'm going to go get the scissors and bring them here so you can watch me cut it."
Grandpa smiled, sighed with relief, and said, "Yes."
I returned with the scissors, picked up the article, and pretended I was about to cut it in half.
"No!!!!!!!!!!!"

We keep each other mentally fit.

a flash...

Even in the midst of these dark days that seem to roll on endlessly, regardless of how bright a future day might be, it is good to have a shock to the system that can call forth a blurt of unexpected, unfamiliar laughter.  A shock, say, such as logging onto hubworld.com to play Scrabble Flash and having the letters you are to arrange into words be "P E N I S."

oh bother...

Ugh. It's another Eeyore day.  Actually, it's gloomier than that.  I hate feeling this way.  The corners of my mouth sag.  My eyes are dull.  I don't want to do anything.  And when I do something anyway, I am only half-focused and completely apathetic.  I can't concentrate, I can't remember, I can't enjoy the things I know are good, such as this morning's sunrise, Grandpa, or having enough food and shelter.   
I pray.  I take medicine and hope it works.  I wait for the black cloud to lift.  I wait. 

If you got out of bed today, give thanks.
If you took a shower without a second thought, give thanks.
If you can write a sentence in under 20 minutes, give thanks.
If you have a desire for anything, give thanks.

And if you don't...give thanks. Often.  If you're having an Eeyore day too, let's ride this out together.  Even though we don't feel hope, let's not give up on it.  We are still blessed.