I found out 2 days ago that we lost a friend in a motorcycle accident. He was 24 years old, one of the more funny people I knew. Underneath his jokes, his tough guy attitude, there was a soft heart. I met JJ at the job I had before working for the school district. His carefree attitude and love of jokes and laughter drew many people to him. His life was cut way too short. He had a lot left to do in this world. He was very good at computers, very smart underneath, such a loss.
Dion and I found ourselves talking about things that we remembered about JJ that were so typical of him. Although we hadn't seen him in a while, he has left a hole in our hearts. Here are some of the things we remembered about this guy.
The boss at work had asked to have a flower bed planted at the end of the drive at Gemini, and one was planted. It was beautiful, lots of bright colors, pretty landscape bricks and bark chips. It grew, and as it grew and grew, slowly corn stalks popped up and began to hide the beautiful flowers. You couldn't help but laugh at the sight, but what made me laugh more was the thought of JJ sneaking in and planting the corn. The boss really had a love/hate relationship with JJ. He saw his potential, but cringed at the things JJ did, such as planting corn in the flowerbed.
It was New Years, the start of the year 2001. We had a little party at our house. JJ found Dion's weights and took two of the bigger barbells in both hands and picked them up and held them straight out. As time passed his whole body started to shake from trying to hold them up. His facial expression were enough to make a person pee their pants. Later that night he found our popesan chair and crawled into it and slept. We had a fun night.
JJ lived his life having fun, laughing, making friends, and just being a good guy. I told Dion the day we found out that I had just been thinking about JJ, wondering how he was doing. I wish I would have reacted to that thought. As I said before, it had been a while since we had seen him. We will see him tonight physically for the last time at the wake, we will see him often in the little things, like corn stalks. I have a fortune cookie fortune taped to our computer. It says, "Life is a gift, don't waste it." JJ never wasted it. May he rest in peace.
Friday, July 29, 2005
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Not to make excuses, but....
Below you will see a few of the things that have kept me so busy this summer, not including the garage sale we had, working, daycare issues, going to Mayo each week, laundry, cleaning, cooking, cutting the grass, and even a little time to actually get a babysitter and go to a movie or two.....
Fight! Fight! Fight!
That's what I wanted to chant at the Twin's baseball game we went to last weekend. I seriously made Dion stop so I could watch these two guys because it was way too funny. Ok, here's the senerio...picture two guys, one is kind of hefty, maybe in his 30's, he's got on the muscle shirt for all to see how powerful he is, and I am pretty sure he's had a few drinks. Then there's the guy in his 40's with the white polo, sandblasted jean shorts, and of course the loafers made the outfit complete. Pretty. SO they are in each other's face, yelling things I could not quite understand, but it was apparent they were a little angry at each other. SO the big guy yells, "Do you wanna fight?" I almost fell over! Were we on the playground or at a baseball game? I had to laugh out loud when the other guy says the same thing back to muscle man. Holy crap! They were going to duke it out right there! So, of course being the gentlemen that they were, they were going to head outside. The problem at hand as far as I was concerened was, how does one look tough and intimidating going through a revolving door? I was hoping they would share a stall, but muscle man went so fast there was no time for sharing. It you can hardly believe it, loafer guy quickly walks away and into the nearest bathroom, leaving muscle man outside to fight no one. Darn. I really wanted to chant "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Odd Things Continued....
There are a few more things worth mentioning...well, maybe not really "worth" mentioning, but, alas, I will tell you anyway.
In the booming metropolis of Red Wing we have 2 Kwik Trip gas stations. I went into one the other day and decided that I was a little hungry. I had gotten burned once before when I bought something called a Tornado, which is kind of like a Taco Bell burrito. I thought I was buying a beef one, when in fact I bought a Southwest Chicken. I cannot handle any type of spicy foods, but since it did taste good, I ate the hot thing with lots of soda. I was not going to go down that road again, so I looked around a little more. Soups. Interesting. But wait! One of the containers was marked Macaroni and Cheese. Odd. I had never seen Mac and Cheese sold at a gas station. Any normal person would keep walking, because who buys Mac and Cheese at a gas station? Now you know someone who does. I must say it was SO good! And very hot.
I love working with kids. They are always saying things that are so funny and unique. I was playing Uno with one boy (yes I do get paid to play games sometimes, leave me alone!) and he put down a "Skip" card. With that he said "Skip-a-dee-doo-dah". I don't know why I found that so funny, but I couldn't stop laughing. Another girl announced when she got to the room that she had gotten a shot on her "Booty cheek" and that it had hurt. I tried not to laugh at that one because she was so serious about it. The kids really aren't odd, but they are funny so I had to include them.
Claire has learned the alphabet. She won't pee in the potty to save her life, but she knows her alphabet song. Well, mostly, until she gets to L M N O P. She says, "L N N O P" She also says at the end of the song "Next time don't you sing with me". But I do anyway, at everyone's dismay.
And the all time most odd thing you will read about for a long time......drum roll....Dion and I are actually starting to think about taking some sort of small vacation (the crowd gasps!). That's right. A vacation. And it will have nothing to do with hospital beds, procedures, pain, worry, fear, cancer. Can you imagine? I can't.
In the booming metropolis of Red Wing we have 2 Kwik Trip gas stations. I went into one the other day and decided that I was a little hungry. I had gotten burned once before when I bought something called a Tornado, which is kind of like a Taco Bell burrito. I thought I was buying a beef one, when in fact I bought a Southwest Chicken. I cannot handle any type of spicy foods, but since it did taste good, I ate the hot thing with lots of soda. I was not going to go down that road again, so I looked around a little more. Soups. Interesting. But wait! One of the containers was marked Macaroni and Cheese. Odd. I had never seen Mac and Cheese sold at a gas station. Any normal person would keep walking, because who buys Mac and Cheese at a gas station? Now you know someone who does. I must say it was SO good! And very hot.
I love working with kids. They are always saying things that are so funny and unique. I was playing Uno with one boy (yes I do get paid to play games sometimes, leave me alone!) and he put down a "Skip" card. With that he said "Skip-a-dee-doo-dah". I don't know why I found that so funny, but I couldn't stop laughing. Another girl announced when she got to the room that she had gotten a shot on her "Booty cheek" and that it had hurt. I tried not to laugh at that one because she was so serious about it. The kids really aren't odd, but they are funny so I had to include them.
Claire has learned the alphabet. She won't pee in the potty to save her life, but she knows her alphabet song. Well, mostly, until she gets to L M N O P. She says, "L N N O P" She also says at the end of the song "Next time don't you sing with me". But I do anyway, at everyone's dismay.
And the all time most odd thing you will read about for a long time......drum roll....Dion and I are actually starting to think about taking some sort of small vacation (the crowd gasps!). That's right. A vacation. And it will have nothing to do with hospital beds, procedures, pain, worry, fear, cancer. Can you imagine? I can't.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Odd Things I Have Seen in the Past Few Days
I don't know what has inspired me to write about this, but we'll just go with it. Today, on the way to drop the girls off at daycare, I saw a woman riding her bike. That's not odd in itself, but what was in her hair was a little odd. She had gift ribbon, purple in color, tied into her hair. I'm not really sure what the fashion statement was, I can only guess she was at a party this past weekend, and that is leftover from it.
I tend to be a little pale in skin color. Ok, VERY pale. Ghost-like, if you will. But I am sporting a nice little sunburn from this past weekend. We had a garage sale, and I am still not very sure how I got burned sitting in the garage for most of the weekend. Odd.
At the above mentioned garage sale, a different sort of fella showed up to look at the push mower we were selling. He asked the lowest price I would take, and I said $10. He paused and said, "I'll give you five." Hmm...I could have sworn I just said ten, but what do I know? I turned him down. He walked away. He walked back. Without warning he started the mower up, startling everyone at the sale. He said since it started on the first pull, he'd pay the $10 for it. Now, one would think that he is the odd thing I was talking about, which, yeah, he was a little odd, but the REALLY odd think was the blasted mower starting on the first pull. I swear it would take me about 5 pulls to get that thing going.
We are looking into getting siding put on our house. We had a Sears guy come out. He looked like Wilfred Brimley, and I waited for him to whip up a bowl of oatmeal. He didn't. He didn't talk about diabetes either. He did however choose to walk on our railroad ties after it had rained and fell on his butt after proclaiming "ohhhhhhhh!" I think in the end that is why he wanted to charge us $20,000-30,000 for siding. Now that is odd!
Today I saw a cat jump from it's cage into a woman's arms. I felt like I was at a Vegas show, waiting to see the cat jump through a ring of fire or something. Enough said.
I'm sure there is more that I am missing since for some reason odd things seem to fall into my lap. But, I will stop for now and try to get some stuff done around the house....that's a whole different odd story to tell!
I tend to be a little pale in skin color. Ok, VERY pale. Ghost-like, if you will. But I am sporting a nice little sunburn from this past weekend. We had a garage sale, and I am still not very sure how I got burned sitting in the garage for most of the weekend. Odd.
At the above mentioned garage sale, a different sort of fella showed up to look at the push mower we were selling. He asked the lowest price I would take, and I said $10. He paused and said, "I'll give you five." Hmm...I could have sworn I just said ten, but what do I know? I turned him down. He walked away. He walked back. Without warning he started the mower up, startling everyone at the sale. He said since it started on the first pull, he'd pay the $10 for it. Now, one would think that he is the odd thing I was talking about, which, yeah, he was a little odd, but the REALLY odd think was the blasted mower starting on the first pull. I swear it would take me about 5 pulls to get that thing going.
We are looking into getting siding put on our house. We had a Sears guy come out. He looked like Wilfred Brimley, and I waited for him to whip up a bowl of oatmeal. He didn't. He didn't talk about diabetes either. He did however choose to walk on our railroad ties after it had rained and fell on his butt after proclaiming "ohhhhhhhh!" I think in the end that is why he wanted to charge us $20,000-30,000 for siding. Now that is odd!
Today I saw a cat jump from it's cage into a woman's arms. I felt like I was at a Vegas show, waiting to see the cat jump through a ring of fire or something. Enough said.
I'm sure there is more that I am missing since for some reason odd things seem to fall into my lap. But, I will stop for now and try to get some stuff done around the house....that's a whole different odd story to tell!
Monday, June 13, 2005
The Magic of Veet
I am sure by now you have seen all of the nifty commercials for Veet. They show a woman's leg with what looks like shaving cream on her leg, and she is making a zig zag pattern with what looks like a razor, but really isn't. Fancy. Painless. No cuts from razors, no ripping off of the skin with wax, total hair removal unlike what the electric razors do. But I will put in a plug here for an electric razor. It came in VERY handy when I was humungously pregnant and could not reach to shave myself. I really would not trust anyone to shave my legs with a razor, I have a hard enough time, so the solution was electric and Dion could shave my legs for me. What a guy!
Anyway, so I take the plunge and buy myself some Veet. "Refreshing" is the scent, if you are interested. In reality, it's not so much refreshing, as it is potent, with a dash of scent. That should have been my first clue, but I am not one to easily receive clues. So I read the directions, twice, since they make such a huge deal about open wounds, getting Veet in your eyes, the time frame to leave it on, and such. Another clue that escaped me was when they said to wash your hands IMMEDIATELY after applying the cream. Hmm. I did think for a moment why does one have to wash it off their hands so fast, but it can remain on your legs for up to 6 minutes? Ah, whatever. It did say to test a small area of your skin in case you had a reaction to it, but there's no time for testing! I need hair-free legs within the next few minutes. So I applied the cream and waited the directed amount of time. Pee-ewe! It stunk! I did feel some minor burning on the back of my, ahem, upper thighs. Have you seen the episode of Raymond where the bull is charging Robert and he gets stuck? He says it's in his upper thigh, everyone else says it's his butt. Dion called me Robert tonight. I used to think that episode was funny. Not so much anymore.
I take the fake razor and start "shaving". I was getting a little nervous about the burning, so I didn't even get to do the whole zig zag move like in the commercial. All I knew was that I needed that satan cream off of my legs, and I needed it off fast. Shave shave shave....burn burn burn....Ow ow ow! Holy crap! I had to get into the shower very fast to try and soothe the burning. My legs felt ok, but my upper thighs were still on fire. Crap. I had to go pick the girls up from daycare in five minutes. So I got dressed and ran up the stairs to locate the Dermaplast, which after having my kids worked wonders. It sort of numbs the area, which is what I desperately wanted. Spray spray spray. YEEEE-OWWWW! Why the hell was it burning?!? It was supposed to numb it! I had to grab toilet paper and try to blot off the Dermaplast. Now I was down to about 2 minutes before I had to get the girls. So I did just that, and tried not to whimper with every step I took.
When Dion got home, he had a job. I had saved some of my radiation gauze strips, and I needed them oh so bad. He had the fun job of putting them on my butt, whoops, I meant upper thighs. Ahhhh.......
So here I sit with less, but some pain, cursing the Veet company, and dreading tomorrow when I have to pull the medical tape off of myself. Which is lesser of two evils? I'm not sure at this point. I do know that I will retire my can of Veet, and there has to be something I can do with the fake razor thing. Squeegee some small windows, or something. So it's back to the good old razor and soft soap, until they come up with some other new product that I HAVE to try.
Anyway, so I take the plunge and buy myself some Veet. "Refreshing" is the scent, if you are interested. In reality, it's not so much refreshing, as it is potent, with a dash of scent. That should have been my first clue, but I am not one to easily receive clues. So I read the directions, twice, since they make such a huge deal about open wounds, getting Veet in your eyes, the time frame to leave it on, and such. Another clue that escaped me was when they said to wash your hands IMMEDIATELY after applying the cream. Hmm. I did think for a moment why does one have to wash it off their hands so fast, but it can remain on your legs for up to 6 minutes? Ah, whatever. It did say to test a small area of your skin in case you had a reaction to it, but there's no time for testing! I need hair-free legs within the next few minutes. So I applied the cream and waited the directed amount of time. Pee-ewe! It stunk! I did feel some minor burning on the back of my, ahem, upper thighs. Have you seen the episode of Raymond where the bull is charging Robert and he gets stuck? He says it's in his upper thigh, everyone else says it's his butt. Dion called me Robert tonight. I used to think that episode was funny. Not so much anymore.
I take the fake razor and start "shaving". I was getting a little nervous about the burning, so I didn't even get to do the whole zig zag move like in the commercial. All I knew was that I needed that satan cream off of my legs, and I needed it off fast. Shave shave shave....burn burn burn....Ow ow ow! Holy crap! I had to get into the shower very fast to try and soothe the burning. My legs felt ok, but my upper thighs were still on fire. Crap. I had to go pick the girls up from daycare in five minutes. So I got dressed and ran up the stairs to locate the Dermaplast, which after having my kids worked wonders. It sort of numbs the area, which is what I desperately wanted. Spray spray spray. YEEEE-OWWWW! Why the hell was it burning?!? It was supposed to numb it! I had to grab toilet paper and try to blot off the Dermaplast. Now I was down to about 2 minutes before I had to get the girls. So I did just that, and tried not to whimper with every step I took.
When Dion got home, he had a job. I had saved some of my radiation gauze strips, and I needed them oh so bad. He had the fun job of putting them on my butt, whoops, I meant upper thighs. Ahhhh.......
So here I sit with less, but some pain, cursing the Veet company, and dreading tomorrow when I have to pull the medical tape off of myself. Which is lesser of two evils? I'm not sure at this point. I do know that I will retire my can of Veet, and there has to be something I can do with the fake razor thing. Squeegee some small windows, or something. So it's back to the good old razor and soft soap, until they come up with some other new product that I HAVE to try.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
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