It’s curious what makes people do the things they do.  After my grandma helped raise him and took care of him, he basically decided one day to cut her out.  His wife comes to things and sends cards, but he makes no effort with my grandma’s family.  I know she will be hurt when the day of the party arrives and he is not there. 

He is not ill, so that is not it; he just doesn’t want anything to do with her.  His daughter is very close to my grandma.  She is so angry with him.  The sad thing is at their age, they don’t have a lot of chances to make up for lost time.  If he had showed to this party, it would have made the other times he has snubbed her vanish from her mind.

I keep telling her that in 2 weeks, she’ll be old.  My grandma and I have a close relationship and we tease each other all the time.  In fact, because her birthday is April Fool’s Day, I tell her she was a joke.  She has such a great sense of humor. 

The funniest thing, though, is that she doesn’t think she is old.  She says, “when I get old,” which is why I tell her she will be old in 2 weeks.

So far, we have 57 people coming to the party and still have about half to hear from. 

My grandma is the oldest of 5 and all of her siblings are living.  The youngest is 80.  It would be so nice if they could all make it, but we have not heard from her brother yet.  Her youngest sibling is playing it by ear because she has had a virus.  The middle sibling, hasn’t gave a definite answer, but we think she will come of the youngest comes.  The second oldest has Alzheimer’s, but her daughter is making arrangements for the nursing home to bring her (it’s a 5 hour drive for them).

When my cousin took the invitation to show her mother, she said it was like a switch flipped on and she was suddenly her mom again.  She looked at the photos on the invitation and began talking about her siblings and old times.  She is hoping being around her sisters and brother would help her.

Everything is done for the party for the most part.  I have to finish the album I am making with labels on the photos.  Otherwise, I know I will be flagged down with “who is this?” ever 5 minutes.  I was going to do the timelines of the US and Chicago, but since my laptop is down for the count, I can’t get to them.  Unless I get that fixed in the next week, it’s not happening.

Everything is going smoothly.  I just can’t wait to see her face when all these people show up! 

It’s too bad the parade isn’t today, though it was nice over the weekend too.

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day Sunday, but we will be having corned beef again today.  We only get it a couple of times a year, so it’s a treat.  Now, if you are making corned beef, can I suggest baking it?  Boiling it is the way most people do it, but really, baking it is so much better.  Try it.  Bake it on 350 for a couple of hours.  Uncover it about 20 minutes before you take it out so it can brown.  So much better.

The shampoo lady where I get my hair cut is from Ireland and she is there right now.  She said what was once a religious day has become a party day and they took it all from Chicago.  They dye the river green and they make corned beef!  Who would have thought the Chicagoans would influence the way the Irish celebrate their own holiday!

What do you do for St. Patty’s Day?  Anything?  Do you at least wear green?   I admit I don’t always wear a green shirt because I don’t have many, but I wear my green daily.  I have green eyes and I have 3 shamrocks tattooed on myself.  I’m not a witch, but I have studied about various religions and I know that 3 is a powerful number.  There are 3 “hearts” on a shamrock, which makes my tattoo 3 x 3 which is even more powerful.  Plus in Christianity, 3 is a powerful number, i.e. the holy trinity.  I think I have my bases covered. 

photo credit: straightdope.com

Now, I won’t pretend that women don’t get hair in places they would prefer not to as they age as well.  We all know about the dreaded mustache, chin hair and other random hairs that can grow out of other areas of the face.

I have a while before that happens to me.  Maybe by then they will have a magic pill that stops strange hair growth (other than estrogen, that is).

I have noticed, though, that men get really long and random hairs grow from their ears and nose.  You expect the hair growing from the inside of the nose and ears for men, but what about the outside?

Yep.  They get it growing from the earlobes and the tip of their nose.

In fact, my step-dad gets one hair from the tip of his nose.  Just one.  When I see it, I pluck it. 

He doesn’t like that, but I am sorry, you are not going to a big meeting or presentation with the president of some company and politicians, etc with a big, black hair growing from the tip of your nose!

He also gets one long, dark hair growing from each eyebrow.  Just one.  It gets to be an inch long before I notice it, and of course, then I pluck it too!

He acts like he is annoyed when I do this.  I see it and I say, “stay right there.”  He doesn’t realize why until I come running back with the tweezers.  You’d think by now, he would know what I was going to do.

Every time, however, he cringes and acts annoyed, but I think he likes that I take care of him.

He says he likes the crazy eyebrow.  I tell him he looks menacing.

If any of you are products of the 80’s, you might remember Strawberry Shortcake and the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak.  Well, that is what he looks like, that menacing Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak. 

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The reason for that is because my laptop has died.  If you read here regularly, you probably know that I have had a lot of problems with my laptop and have tried various things to get it up and running.  This time, I am working on getting a docking station to fix the problem, but haven’t found one that is compatible yet.

Because of this, I have not been online much.

I’ve also been very busy finishing up my Paralegal classes.  Only one week left!

Being without my laptop has made that difficult too because I have to use my ancient and extremely slow desktop, which has decided to misbehave as well.

The desktop is not only really slow and won’t allow me to open many windows at once, but it has decided to close the web browser suddenly after a couple of searches and won’t let me open it again without shutting it down and restarting.  That in itself takes 10 minutes.

Fortunately, my step-dad has been out of town until this afternoon, so I have been able to get some stuff done, but won’t be back online until he goes out of town again Monday.

I miss my laptop!  I miss writing my blog, dropping EC and I really miss visiting many of you.

Good news is that not having my laptop has allowed me to get the photo hunt done for my grandma’s birthday party.  I have to go pick up the copies I made today.  Only 3 weeks to go!

I don’t mean what are your methods of losing weight, I mean, where do you lose it first?

I know most women carry their weight in their stomach, hips, rear and thighs. 

For me, any extra weight I might gain goes to my belly and my face, but those are the last places I lose it.

photo credit: weightlossamp.com

Let me first say that I really only need to lose 5 to 10 lbs, but on me, a pound or two shows quickly and in my face the most.

Because we are having this party for my grandma and it is going to be more of a family reunion bringing together people I haven’t seen in over a decade or have never met, I want to look my best.

I would like to lose at least 5 lbs in the next 5 weeks. 

I have lost 2 or 3 lbs in the last several weeks. 

Yet did I lose it in my face or my belly?

Nope. 

I always lose it in the one place I don’t have much to spare….my chest.

A few weeks ago, I bought some new bras because I haven’t bought any in years.  I had a gift card from Christmas and I got 4 bras for $30 after sales and store coupons. 

I put one on last week that I had remembered fitting really well when I tried it on in the store but I kept having to adjust the straps and put it on the tightest hook because it was loose.

Then I realized why.

I lost those couple of pounds since I bought them and I always lose it in the bust first!

Bah!

Where do you lose weight first?

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I recently joined the Facebook revolution.

I had been on Myspace for a few years, but I have neglected it. I admit to having had a Myspace addiction when I first signed up. It was a lot of fun to find old friends and get reacquainted.

Over time, about a year, my interest (and time) dwindled. I only go on Myspace now if I get a message. Otherwise, months go by.

photo credit: adblogarabia.com

A few weeks ago, my sister joined Facebook and found tons of old friends from grade school and high school. I decided to go on and see what Facebook looked like because I had no idea.

I signed up so I could see my sister’s profile and then I found other people.

I am in no way addicted to it. I go days without signing on. I also cannot stand the throwing of things. Once in a while I don’t mind getting things thrown at me or throwing things back, but there are days where I am inundated with beads, drinks, pillows, etc being thrown at me.

photo credit: facebook gifts

I really don’t get it. I don’t understand “poke”…what is it and why do people do this?

I also am bored with being tagged in notes. I have one person who has tagged me multiple times, but I just don’t have time.

If I weren’t busy with school, maybe I’d play along with some of it, but I am busy with school and really don’t have the time for that.

I do like that I have found some old friends I haven’t talked to in years. There seem to be a lot more people on Facebook than on Myspace. Otherwise, I honestly don’t care a whole lot about Facebook.

What about you? Have you joined Facebook? Are you addicted to it?

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I made the invitations and included a photo of my grandma when she was 19 and from 2 years ago.  A few people have commented that they have never seen my grandma look like she did in the young photo.  My grandma has looked the same for over 40 years.

We mailed the invites out over a week ago and have gotten a few responses so far.

I am a bit nervous because we have 106 people on the list (including our immediate family) and the room only holds 80.  Generally, I would be certain less than half would show, but this is for my grandma and everyone adores her.

A week after the invites were mailed, we have near 40 people confirmed and have heard from less than half those invited!   We will figure it out if they all come.

The party is in about 5 weeks, so we are getting things done.  We found a dress to buy for my grandma.  My mom is going to have her try on her dresses to see how they look, but in case they don’t look good, we will buy this one.

I have found some decorations online, but I want to go look in the party store first.

I have the Chicago Timeline from 1919 to 2009 done and am almost done with the U.S. Timeline.  It’s amazing how much has happened.  I need to format them better, but the text is there.  The rest is just details.

I still have to hunt down the box of photos in the attic, but I have time for that.

I would like to paint the kitchen and one hallway because I know a lot of the out of town guests will be here the next day.  The rest of the house looks pretty good, but the kitchen needs painting and the one hallway is a project my step-dad has been planning to do, but it at least needs a coat of primer.

I know the next 5 weeks are going to fly, especially since I have a lot of work for school the next 3 weeks.  Hopefully, I can get a lot done during the 2 weeks I won’t have class.

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photo credit: ehow.com

I signed up years ago on the Do Not Call Registry, but certain telemarketers are exempt.

That includes fundraising for charities and political parties.

Normally, I don’t mind that.  We don’t get many calls from charities other than those we have donated to in the past.  It generally increases around the holidays, but that is to be expected.

Political calls are rare. 

Even during the 2008 campaign and election, we didn’t have many calls.

The last two weeks, however, have turned into a circus.

Every day we get 4 to 8 calls from Telefund, which is a company that raises money on behalf of charitable organizations.  They call anywhere from 8 am to after 9 pm 7 days a week.  It is obnoxious. 

They called yesterday, Sunday, a day that should be free from any solicitation as far as I am concerned.  It rang twice; I picked up the phone and hung it up.  Leave me alone!

The political calls have gotten ridiculous the last 2 weeks as well.

We have a special primary election Tuesday here for the open seat in Congress Rahm Emanuel left.

Nearly every day we have calls from candidates.  Not only do we have the prerecorded calls from each candidate, we have calls from their volunteers, which show up on Caller ID simply as Cellular Call and the number.

Since we are getting responses for my grandma’s birthday party and do not know all the numbers people would call from, we end up answering these calls.

My feeling with any kind of solicitation, or anything really, is the more you bother me about something, the less likely I am to do what you want.

Therefore, if you call me daily, I am certainly not going to vote for you or donate to your charity, no matter how worthy you or it might be.

There are two candidates for whom I definitely would not vote. 

Why?  Well, I will tell you. 

They EMAILED me! 

It might just be me, but I feel like that is so much more of an invasive technique than the phone call.  To get my email address, you had to have purchased it from someone with the sole intent of soliciting me. 

Phone numbers are public.  Phone numbers are usually written down with your voter registration.  As annoying as it is, I know I have given them my number.  I did not give them my email address.

And then to stop them from emailing me further, I have to UNSUBSCRIBE.

I NEVER SUBSCRIBED TO BEGIN WITH!

The only politicians that have ever emailed me are those that I provided my address with on THEIR websites. 

I know that email is the new, cool, hip way of keeping in touch with your constituents, but I am not your constituent yet. 

And frankly, if ALL the candidates had emailed me I might think they were given the email address from Rahm Emanuel’s listing, but only 2 emailed me. 

Perhaps it is the build up of all these calls from both the charities and the politicians that have irked me so much.  Either way, I want all those telemarketers to know that I am beyond annoyed and you are fighting a losing battle by contacting me!

Go away!  All of you, just leave me alone and GO AWAY!

Okay, rant over.

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A special thank you to you all!

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