Fabulous Miss S.

multi-pet-love

Peace-inducing pet-love.

Two years later.

Dear Grandma,

Two years have passed since you died.   A lot has happened but we are all doing well. I lived in the apartment for a year and a half.  I have used and moved your dishes, your cups and spoons and even a few pieces of furniture. 

I guess the big news is that I’m getting married. In May. To a nice Jewish boy.  His name is Marc. He loves me, he puts up with me, he likes my father and adores the cats, what else could I want?  A May wedding is planned and although Joanne tells me you wouldn’t care much because weddings were not really “your thing” … I still think you would have enjoyed it.  Of all the people in the whole world if I could choose for one to be there it would have been you.  Even though you were not a mushy kissey person, you cared and you always made people around you feel happy and relaxed. Oh, and also, Marc and I bought a house. It’s nice. A townhouse, only moderately over-priced, in a nice neighborhood with nice neighbors and we got a dog!  His name is Hines and he is a small, ten pound miniature pinscher with buldging eyes and no skin on his stomach except for a frightenly large amount of canine-pubic hair.   

It was sad to move out of your apartment, but it was deinitenely the right time for me.  Marc and I want to grow a family together and we needed the space.  It was altogether fitting and proper that we lived in your apartment for a year.  I know that in some cosmic-karmic way, you had something to do with me meeting him when I did.  I don’t expect to understand it or for anyone to believe me, but it is just something that I feel.

We miss your smart-ass comments, your giggles and your ability to talk for an hour straight about any Jewish family history, famous artist or why it is important to smile at people-especially-those-who-you-don’t-actually-have-to-be-nice to. 

Sophie died in June. We never thought she would live so long.  She actually kind of thrived for awhile with my kitties – it was just enough aggravation to keep her going, know what I mean?  But, she slowed down and lost some weight, got a urinary tract infection and I managed to give her a pill twice a day for two weeks ( holy hell, do I deserve a reward or what?), but the infection came back and the poor thing was squatting all over.  I rushed her to the vet and she rode the whole way, sitting in my lap, talking to me.  We had her cremated so you could be buried with her with Sonny Boy #1 finally finishes your boxes.

I have a nice job that pays me money and I’m even doing some writing on the side. Which, in fact, I think, is actually my calling – it’s what I am supposed to be doing.  I also started writing a book and some stories about our time together.  Hopefully one day I can publish it and it will help other people in our situation know what to do when grannie pukes, or when grannie isn’t having a good day, or even good ideas like, getting plastic cups with loose lids for pills and writing on them in sharpie marker.

OH MY GOD, you won’t believe this! Corey is living in Holland. Going to graduate school! The same obnoxious kid you used to smack with an umbrella when he pinched me.  Yeah? That’s the one.  He’s studying all kinds of ancient history things and it is really impressive. He’s traveling all over Europe and really has turned into a good kid and he’s smart too!

We all miss you very much but we are able to think about you without being too sad anymore.  We wish you were here but we couldn’t stand to see you in any more pain than we knew you were in, so I guess it was time to say goodbye.  I am returning the good faith we received from the Jewish Social Service Hospice by becoming a volunteer with them.  I also visit with an old lady at the Hebrew Home once a week too.  I know I have a skill of being able to tolerate old kvetching ladies, so I like to give back where I can.  I know you would think it was a good thing to do and as much of a pain in the ass it is to drive and see her in the middle of a Sunday afternoon when all I really want to do is sit on the sofa and knit and read and be with my kitties …. I know that I bring a smile to her face.  Even thought she moves slower than molasses through an electric sieve, I know it puts a little bit of good out there in a world that has far too much bad. 

I guess the point is that life goes on.  We miss you. Your art work hangs in our homes.  Your furniture made my parents home look mildly hospitable, but the cats sort of clawed the sofa just a little. 

I will always make my kids prove to me that they washed their hands by licking them!  That was a good one that we started. 

I will always remember the way your apartment smelled because on the last day I was there, with nothing left but a frightenly large amount of dust bunnies, I smelled that smell of your home, some mixture of fresh coffee, geraniums, garlic and pool water. 

Well, I think that is about it for now. We're all headed off to the zoo today so I guess in some way, we'll be closer to you for a while today.

Love,

Stacy

Edited to add:

It's 10:30pm and I've been asleep for 2 hours on the sofa; really only intended to sit down for one Tivo'd FRIENDS and maybe a GOLDEN GIRLS. But, dog crawled on top of me, then cat on top of dog and I fell asleep under the glory of all of that pet-love.

I will write more tomorrow when my mind is clear. Today is the anniversary of Grandma's death. My family got together and went to the zoo, then came back here for dinner.  We were all together, happily eating at 6:22pm, the moment she passed, two years ago. Although no one said anything at the moment, we were all busily chewing and talking. 

Somehow that is really just as it should be.

Above said "pet love" is a nice topper as well. 

Slow news day?

Five things you may not know about me:

Inspired by Darren and Zoot.

1. I rode horses from the age of birth (yeah, my Mom was REALLY into it) to 9 years. We moved to Virginia from Arkansas in 1989 and I stopped riding then. For no particular reason either. I have a gallon zip-lock bag full of first and second place ribbons.  I really did like riding.  I sort of stopped doing it because my Mom stopped telling me to do, I suppose that is because she went back to work and it just sort of wasn't a priority anymore.

2. I believe we are capable of super-psychic connections with people whom with we are extremely close.

3. I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't want to me a Mom and have babies. I'm 26 years old and sometimes it really surprises me that I made it this far without that aspect of myself.  Hines, my miniature pinscher was acquired mainly to abate that particular need because I knew I'd be able to put clothes on him.

4. On of my favorite creative activities is tye-dying t-shirt. Or, anything really, if it hides a stain.

5. It surprises me how I find myself loving Marc more and more each day as we grow closer and closer.  I find that I share things with him that I never even share with myself. Even though I said in an earlier post that I wish I could run away and not have a wedding, I sort of DO want a wedding, just something so simple that I can spend more time thinking about BEING married then GETTING married.   

Winter Bleeews.

Well I've been a little busy over at the-blog-on-which-i-do-not-cuss ... www.weddingtactics.com.

I'm attempting to learn a massive amount of HTML stuff and buff up and beef up my actual writing, all while managing a little bit of depression and stress-induced anxiety. 

Ya'll!  It isn't working!  Once again this morning, I collapsed into a blubbering heap on the floor in my car after I missed the last train that I decided to take because I slept too late to make the get-to-work-on-time train and I missed it because I stopped to pick a fight with Marc over something I can't even remember, all this caused a torrential make-up flood off my face in the shape of big 'ole round tears. 

I'm so tired.

I am tired of planning a wedding. I'd run away if I could.

I am tired of going to work. I'd quit if I could afford it.

I am tired of not being able to find the fucking Pepco bill I opened last week and put in a too-safe-for-me-to-find-it place.

I am tired of being nice.

I am tired of smiling.

I just want to go to sleep and sleep for a long time and wake up when I am good and ready to return to the world.

I don't want to be earmarked a depression blog and I'm not. But I have nothing to chronicle right now. I'm sorry. I'm spending all my energy just managing the day.

I'll post some cute puppy pictures later to cheer ya'll up, M'kay?

The manicure from hell and it included scenes from The Bold and the Beautiful

Ya’ll know how I like to write unsolicited reviews of businesses that give me extraordinarily outstanding service and extraordinarily poor service, here’s another one for the record.

I am writing today about a horrendously sorry-ass manicure I just received from Tina at BK Nails in Silver Spring at the Blair Shopping Center.

Important Reader Warning:  If you are a straight man who is not related to me, stop reading this.  If you are female, related to me, regardless of your “orientation”, or a gay man, read on, you will understand the horrible plight of a bad manicure story told from the view of a manicure/blog whore. 

I took a walk at lunch and decided to get a simple basic no-fuss manicure.  I’ve had my hands buried in dish soap all weekend and after two weeks of using them to viciously rip tape off of boxes when I can’t find the goddamn scissors because I already put them away in a drawer (GOD!), I figured that I deserved a little sprucing up of the paws. 

I’ve been going to BK Nails since it opened in 2003.  In the beginning, I always had very good service. Today… NOT SO GOOD.  I have told the manager Brian King, previously on one occasion that I received a not-too-good pedicure.  It was just before a holiday weekend and he sad they were busy.  So, I gave them another chance.  Ahah! Second chances are for naught Miss USA!!! You are doomed to repeat your vices.

I will never go back there.  And please, if you ever hear me speaking of considering going back there, oh, the convenience! STOP ME. I’m telling you now, stop me and slap me a little, or just make me read my own damn postings.

I read once that a true manicure is required to include a few service, nail shaping or trimming, cuticle work, a hand massage and polish with base coat, two layers of polish and a top coat.

I should say first and foremost, I went there today seeking relaxation. I was hoping for some a hand massage and some nice treatment.  I got neither.  Yes, there is polish on my nails and yes it looks fine.  I just wasn’t treated well by the staff.

One hand “massage” consisted of her slapping some lotion on the top of my hand.  The other hand got about ten seconds of rubbing.  I personally find this to be the best part of the manicure.  So, she totally lost points there. 

A true shame it was that I brought her my business during a soap opera that she needed to see because I hope it was worth losing my business forever.  She took me to the drying station and didn’t help me untangle the heap of chairs, so I had to do it myself, thus, of course, messing my polish.  When I asked her to fix it, she used her own damn fingernail to push it back into place.  Now, there was no one else waiting.  They had no reason to be in a hurry.  She was lazy and she screwed over the wrong person. 

When my nails dried I went to get my coat, all the while, glaring at her and her little posse that was huddled around a sheet that they were ripping into wax strips.  It is a real shame she had to take a break from sitting and talking with her friends to do her damn job. 

Please don’t be afraid of me dear manicurists of the MD/VA/DC area … just in case you ever see me coming … I tip very well for good service.  Really, I do.

*I think it was Tina. When I stopped at the counter on the way out to ask the name of my technician, the lady whom I believe is the owner's wife, wouldn't stop talking on the phone long enough to actually listen to and answer her customer, me.