Unhappy Bride

I remember the first time I saw my parent's wedding pictures. I can't remember how old I was, maybe 7? I do recall feeling let down that my mother looked so unhappy in the pictures. Well, that, and she wasn't wearing a traditional white wedding dress. She was dressed in a blue dress with layers of ruffles on the skirt. Dad was smiling, and the wedding was just one of those little country style weddings that they could afford at the time. They were married July 10, 1948 when they were both just 20 years old, and my mother was most likely a virgin.

Six out of eight of Dad's sisters had shot gun weddings - married just months before giving birth to their first children. When my mother gave birth to my older brother after 8 months and 8 days of marriage, everyone counted on their fingers, but my mother insisted Larry was a premie. I don't doubt that he was a little early, and I don't think my parents fooled around before they got married. If they did, hey, it really won't matter much to me. Sex was one of the only things they enjoyed about each other.

I remember asking my mother why she looked so unhappy, but I don't think I got a definitive answer. After I recently thought about this, I realized that she doesn't take a good picture. I don't think she really knows how to pose well, and she's not too camera friendly. She has also been know to tear up pictures that she thinks look bad of her, which is almost all of them.

I did come across a picture that she happened to like recently, and it's not one that I like - it's really rather creepy, as a matter of fact. She is wearing a stupid black wig that is not sitting on her head right and too much makeup.

I think one of the main things is that she is not happy most of the time, so how can she take a good picture?

Well, I had the flu after taking a flu shot at the doctor's office. Next year, there is no way I am taking a flu shot. I just don't want to get that sick again. I'll take my chances on getting the flu, which almost never happens to me. That is, unless there is a new threat with something like the bird flu.

Happy New Year!

I think 2005 was a decent year for me. We have reached some of our goals, which mostly involve updating this house. We've made quite a few new purchases this year, and I hope we can continue to fix things up as we go along. We have a beautiful new dining room set. It's oak with yellow accents, a nice china cabinet that's 5 feet wide with glass shelves, mirror back, and a drawer for silverware. I am finally using the set of silverplate my MIL gave me when we first got married, and I'll be inheriting the sterling silver she now has in her apartment in Utah. It's really nice to have the silverplate. Some of it was not used so much, like the soup spoons and the ice tea spoons. DH likes ice tea spoons for milkshakes. We also bought a new washer and dryer, and spent a lot of money fixing up the old 1995 Plymouth Voyager, hoping to keep it for a few more years. We had to spend a lot of money on the A/C. We bought some cabinets for the family room and a counter top for below the cabinets because that is where my computer and DD's computer will be after it's installed. DH is working on it as I am typing this, so hopefully, next week all will be done.

The one thing lacking this year was a nice family trip. We bought the Aliner camper in 2004, but still have not used it. The registration held us up a bit because DH had to 1. install the trailer hitch to our minivan, 2. install the brake light kit and 3. Have the trailer inspected. There was always a holdup with each of these steps, but we finally have a trailer we can pull behind our 95 Voyager. We plan on a trip in March, because all 3 of our birthdays are then.

DD is looking forward to her 16th birthday and I promised she could have a sleepover party. I'm thinking she could even have a regular birthday party with some boys invited, then after that party is over, the boys can go home and the girls commence with the slumber party. She has a good set up downstairs, with her bedroom being downstairs, her very own bathroom and the family room. We have to clear some things out of the family room, but I pretty much know where I am going to store the boxes once they are sorted out.

Tonight we are having a friend over for dinner because she has family out of town, she had to work, and she had no where to go on New Year's Eve. We are having steamed shrimp, corn on the cob, salad, and DH wants to buy some cream of crab from a restaurant, but I think I will look for a recipe to make at home. Shrimp and corn are easy to make, so it shouldn't be too much trouble to make the crab soup.

We found the cream of crab at this new branch of a restaurant in the Fredericktowne Mall. It's called Jug Bridge West, and we had the soup, plus the Maryland Crab soup, some crab cakes, french fries, and some cole slaw. It was all pretty good. The crab cakes were decent for $5.95 - that included the fries and slaw. It did have some filler, but it was pretty tasty.

I was trying to think of three bad things that happened this year, and three good things, but I decided the exercise was not very productive. I think sometimes I can more easily recount the bad things, and I really don't want to be so morose about life. I have a nice life, really, if not a more traditional boring one (to some people.) Lately I have been watching "Sex in the City" in syndication and I am more clothes conscious than ever. I have a lot of nice skirt patterns, cut one out of a beautiful brown velour material given to me by my MIL, and haven't started the sewing yet. I have plans for a green cordoroy blouse to go with it, and I've just been on the lookout for newer clothes in general. I will be glad when I can get something else done besides the usual holiday decorations, parties, and cooking.

I bought a new brown velour jogging suit from Boscov's, but I am taking it back Monday. For one thing, I have to hem the pants a lot, and even though it was a good buy at $16 for a $66 designer jogging outfit, I could have saved at least 20 percent more if I'd had a store coupon. Well, back it goes, and maybe I'll consider buying the black version because it has the rhinestone zipper front and pockets, and I love the bling. I also found a cut green faux suede jacket with sweater sleeves at Good Will of all places. It was only $5, and it looks nice on me. I wouldn't normally buy anything from there, but we were dropping off a donation, and we went shopping in the Bargain part of the store. They had some nice things, including 6 books I wanted, one for DH, a set of 8 cobalt blue drinking glasses, a shirt from LLBean for DH, a glass that matches my set of Corelle dishes (Chutney), and a Taebo video. We spent $24, and I think we got quite a bargain. I plan on shopping there again by myself, because DH hates to wait for me to shop.

I also found a pair of bronze colored pumps for church or otherwise dressy wear that I really like. I have a new shoe rack in my bedroom, so I have room for more shoes now.

Well, hi to everyone at SBOT and Happy New Year!!!! *smooches*

Happy Sunday!

Well, it's the weekend again. I would be feeling fine if it weren't for the stupid cold I've picked up somewhere along the line. I am coughing a lot and it's uncomfortable. Other than that, I am in great spirits.

It's time for us to buy a new dryer, so I'll be researching them online. We bought a new washer in the spring. It's a Fisher Paykel, which is a great line of appliances. The only thing that can break on this machine is an easy $50 fix it yourself job, which sold my DH on buying it. It cost us over $600, though. We will most likely buy the matching dryer, which I think costs over $300, but I will check on other machines, as I don't think the two have to match. We will take them with us when we sell the house, in about 10 or so years, when we retire.

I had fun on Friday, even though I could have stayed home just as easily, but it was a chance for my DD to enjoy spending time with her friends. We went to the Frederick County Fair with our new friends. DH's new friend is Shoshona, and my new friend is Shosho's mother, Chainah. Then there was Josiah, who wishes we had a son for him to hang with. We had fun, but got a sunburn on our faces. I met a few church members at the fair, and the kids enjoyed the rides. The food and drinks were outlandishly high priced, but we did find a Minimart trailer that sold cold cans of soda and bottled water for $1. That sure made things easier, because I did not want to pay $2 for a small drink.

I suggested we stop at Sam's Club for lunch, because they sell hot dogs with sodas for $1.50. DD wanted an icee with a hot pretzel, and I ordered a polish hot dog with soda. After paying for it, the girl told me the icee machine was not working. I wanted my money back and to pay for a soda, instead, but that seemed like too much trouble for her, so I asked for a float. I didn't really want one, but I thought, oh, the heck with it. Chainah didn't eat, because she said she had to be careful. She told me she got sick from something in Burger King's bread. I don't know what could be different from McD's because that is where they wanted to go originally. I hate McD's. I go to Wendy's, Taco Bell or Burger King. Shosho and Josiah had hot dogs and sodas. The three kids occupied the time over at the computer section, playing games, while we shopped in the Sam's Club. Josiah is jonesing for a laptop computer. I asked Chainah to adopt me and buy me one. We don't ever spend that kind of money on our kid at Christmas and DH has already told me that Christmas is cancelled this year. I am looking for a part time job, but since I'm sick, I'll have to delay for about a week or so until I stop this hacking cough.

I received my paycheck from the city of Frederick for the Election Judge job - $145. That should help a little, but we weren't expecting to be buying a new dryer so soon. It will be nice to have one that doesn't wrinkle my clothing, though.

Well, it's been 10 days since I've written, but I've had some posts in mind. One of them is about a situation that I am now able to laugh at, because people can be so bizarre sometimes.

Backstory: I am in charge of a calendar at church that has members signing up to feed the missionaries. The families invite them over to share a meal with them. We are just trying to help them save a little time and money, and have some home cooked meals while they are so far away from home. They are young men between the ages of 19 and 21, mostly.

Anyway, in August, I was looking at my calendar in our church's library, when a member named Susan came up to me, and asked which Sunday in September she had signed up to have the missionaries over for dinner. She freaked out when she saw that her name was written on the last Sunday in August. She insisted that someone else had signed her name, and hysterically gave me a host of reasons why she would not have chosen that particular day. I very calmly took out a bottle of white out and covered over her name on that calendar block. She had written it herself, though, and I dismissed it easily because she just started taking a new medication for depression. I knew that she could have been confused because of the meds, and I wasn't about to argue with someone who could even imagine that someone else signed her name (complete match with her handwriting). There were several people in the library who saw this.

Fast forward to this past week. I sent out an email to everyone in our Ward who I had an email address for, telling them about some of the dates that were still available for September. This past week was kind of busy because we had our Stake Conference, which meant there was no opportunity to pass around the missionary meal calendar.

I got online early Monday morning and found this email, from one of the people who had witnessed the scene from the library.

Dear Sylvia,

I noticed that someone signed us up to feed the Elders on September 21. After checking with my family I found that none of us had done it, and we will not be able to have them that evening. I will sign up again in the near future. We look forward to having these special young men in our home.

Thanks,

Jeanne Cross

Now, mind you, the sign up is in the same exact handwriting this woman always uses. Either she is crazy or she's a liar.

Also, she emailed me, instead of calling me, which is the important point here to consider. I did not have time to check my email all weekend, and this puts me in the position of having to find someone else to feed the missionaries. That someone will be me, but since my husband is not going to be home for dinner, I have to drop dinner off for them.

Oh, well! People are weird.

I had fun working at the Primary Election, and the Cheif Judge wants us all to work together again on November 1st for the General Election. My friend Paul did well at the polls, having the most votes of any of the Republican Alderman.

Election Judge

Yep, I'm going to be an Election Judge on Tuesday, for the first time in my life. I found myself training this morning at Winchester Hall here in Frederick at 10 AM. Well, I was 10 minutes late, but I still made it. I had to find parking, which was a new venture for me. It turns out the garage across the street from Winchester Hall only charges $1 for parking on Saturday. This would be a $10 rate if this was downtown Baltimore. Frederick is so quaint.

So I'm heading for the front door when some City worker who is headed to her office in the same building starts to question why I am here. Then she finds the door is open, and she sees the Election Judge training room full of mostly grey haired peeps who are listening to another grey haired peep tell them how to set up the Diabold voting machines. I get questioned by the woman in charge of handing out materials and stuff. She asks me if I'm a book or a unit Judge. I tell her I emailed someone at the last minute and they called me this morning to say I could be on standby status. She asks for verification from a man nearby, finds out I'm legit, and hands me my blue book and other papers. I sit and listen.

We get up to stand in front of the voting machines and get all kinds of special instruction concerning the voting machines, which are easy peasy to operate, really. The instructions are in the blue books, anyway. After at least an hour of voting machine training, I learn that they've found a spot for me, although it's not at my neighborhood polling location. I'll be at Monocacy Middle School, doing the Book Judge job. I'll be one of the ladies at the tables with the books and forms to ask your name. I find out later that Book Judges make $120, Unit Judges make $135, and Cheif Judges make $150. I could do the Unit Judge job with one hand tied behind my back, but we will be there for 14 plus hours, so I guess it's just as well to have a sit down job.

We are not allowed by law to ask for ID or even for the voting card. We do need to verify by looking up their records, though. Since this is a Primary Election, we have to make sure they are either Republican or Democrat, so we can tell the Unit Judge, who will program the voting card for the correct ballot.

One of my friends told me her father registered as a Dem, even though he was a Repub, so he could vote for the worst Dem candidates in the Primary. How awful! He's not the only Repub I have heard about doing that, and I don't think Dem's ever think along those lines. Sneaky Republicans!

Anyway, I have to take food for the entire day, and one woman told me to bring a comfortable chair if I don't want to sit on the hard metal folding chairs. I met my Chief Judge, and he is a short white haired gentleman. I hope we all work well together.

I saw a friend from church there, and she asked me if I'd ever done this before. I said, no, and she told me that she hadn't either. She has long salt and pepper hair, and looks like a hippy. She is the mother of 10 children.

We won't receive our pay for 7 weeks, but I guess that's okay. We also get paid $25 for being there today.

I applied for a job at the mall today, along with my friend Chainah. We are looking for Christmas work. The woman would not let us take the applications home, so we had to fill them out there. I thought maybe it was because the store, the Bonton, was kind of stuffy, but the less stuffy Boscov's also wanted us to fill them out there. We said we'd come back on Monday for the Boscov application. I have an application form to fill out for Burlington Coat Factory, too. It is much longer and asks for a resume and references.

I just want to find a Christmas job, so I think out of 3 stores, I should find something. If all 3 call me, then I can choose the best fit for my needs. I don't want to work weekends, or at the very least, not on Sunday. We'll see how it all pans out. Chainah thinks she'll spend all her money on clothes.

Chainah was in a fashion show at Fashion Bug today, but she told me it was at 3 PM. I took my time, and got there as they were taking down the chairs. Darn! It was at 2 PM. I looked in the store for C, but didn't see her right away. Maybe I'll sign up for the fashion show next time, because the participants get 50 percent off. I saw two things I'll like from there.

I also saw a Mudd purse at Boscov's that I really like. Man, I do so need a job.

Ouch!

It hurts to see the dead bodies and devastation in the areas hit by hurricane Katrina. I felt in my bones it would be bad, and there was plenty of warning ahead of time, I think.

I don't think Bush and his cronies really get it. This is America, not your local country club where lower income people are there to serve your drinks. They aren't real to you. They don't really count, except when you are shaking hundreds of hands or taking time for a photo op by hugging them. Make sure they are black children, so no one will say you are prejudiced and, of course, the younger ones are prettier and more complacent. They are just thrilled at the attention they are receiving, not realizing they are being used as props in your campaign to win back the respect of the American people. No, you don't want to have such a sour note in your Presidency. It would be a shame if the writers of history books were unkind to you. (sarcasm)

Blah, I'm not going to get over this for a long time. I don't know any of the dead, but just thinking about them and the aftermath, with so many firefighters and other personnel having to recover the dead bodies of the victims in water not fit to touch, let alone wade in. I don't even want to imagine having to find body after body. After a while, it must make them numb.

No, I don't blame Bush for the hurricane. I just hatethe cavalier attitude he seemed to have towards getting on the stick to help these people.

Right now the outpouring of help is heartening, but I will continue to be on my knees praying for everyone's safety and well being. The people doing the clean up probably need it the most.

I think we all do what we can during times like these.

Pierce's Place

Back in the 70's some of the folks I worked with sometimes mentioned Pierce's Plantation with a sense of awe. It was an expensive, very nice restaurant in an uppercrust neighborhood of Towson, MD. I have wanted to go there, but never had the kind of money or date with money to eat there.

My co-worker, a woman named Liz, and I were really excited when we saw the new restaurant that was about to open, so we made reservations. It turns out we were their first ever customers. The wait staff was very sharp looking in black pants and fancy white tuxedo shirts. It was all very formal, but very nice. Back then I smoked cigarettes and the minute I put an ash in the ashtray, one of the waiters would come over with a fresh ashtray and take away the dirty one. It was so funny, and Liz and I got a big kick out of it. We were having a ball watching these new waiters set the table for us. We had scads of silverware, and along the way, they kept changing it, because they didn't quite know what they were doing.

I wish I could say I remembered what I ate for lunch that day, but I know it was delicious. Too bad I didn't blog or keep a good journal back then. I will always remember being waited on hand and foot, though. It was a nice way to spend a lunch hour, with all those good looking, well dressed young men helping a poor working girl feel special. It was surprisingly affordable.

One lunch I do remember well is the time Jim Woodcock took me and Liz to The Black Pearl, an Italian restaurant at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Wow, what a great place, and Jim only spent $27 for our lunch there, but that was back in the mid 70's. The food was great. I had a veal dish with vegetables that was excellent, followed by a huge piece of rum cake. I couldn't have asked for a better meal. Later, when I was leaving Comical Credit to work for Control Data Institute (Seedy Eye), Jim offered to take me out again, even though we had not worked together for some time. We went for dinner this time, and found ourselves at the Black Pearl, alone in a fancy dining room with a much higher priced menu. Both of us were stunned with sticker shock at the prices, so we left to go someplace more reasonable. The Black Pearl closed soon after that. I don't think they did enough business to stay open.