The Land of OZ

I have only been home a few days in the last 6 weeks and I am so homesick. I was sitting here thinking to myself, "I wonna go home Toto." I feel like I'm in the land of OZ here in Pittsburgh. You'd think the laws of the land would be the same in every state but you'd be wrong. Here in PA. you can't buy alcohol at any store or gas station like we do at home. You can only buy it at a distributor or a bar. They put french fries on their salads....how healthy is that?! If I'm gonna eat fries then I want a burger with it. Don't dump fries on my salad! The ENTER and EXIT's are backwards here. At home we enter on the left and exit on the right (at stores and restaurants)...they do it the opposite. Buzztime Trivia is huge at home...not here. We had to go 15 miles to play Sunday. Wing places don't seem to have caught on here either. But they sure like karoke which has fizzled out at home.

I feel like Dorothy today. I miss my family terribly. There's other things too. Like the familiarity of places you frequent, knowing the roads and where the best places to eat and shop are. Or how about being hungry and getting up during a commercial to get a snack? Getting a cup of coffee whenever you want one. Doing laundry in the comfort of your own home....in your pj's even! Going to your favorite stomping ground where everyone knows your name. Watching your programs whenever you want to because you have TIVO! Hotels don't have tivo. Hotels need to get tivo! I miss sleeping in my own bed. I miss the "routine" of my home life.

I only have 12 more days to go and then I'm home for awhile!!! Yippee!!!

The tin man wanted a heart. The lion wanted courage. The scarecrow wanted a brain. And Dorothy just wanted to go home.

Baby Bear

Yesterday we had only been in PA about 15 minutes when I saw something along side the road, coming out of the woods. "What is that?" I asked. "A dog," Darryl said. I kept thinking to myself what a strange looking dog it was. Apparently Darryl thought the same thing because as we got closer he said, "A bear! A baby bear!"

It was about the size of a large dog. I'm sure the Momma was close by which was why we didn't stop for pictures.

The last time we saw a bear was in the Smokey Mountains where you'd expect to see one. I guess it was so cool because it was so unexpected.

Fried Chicken & Sweet Tea

Remember back in the day when you'd go to Sunday dinner at Grandma's house? I do! My Grandma could cook down home, southern-style food like nobody's business. We'd have fried chicken (fried in lard or bacon grease), mashed potatoes (slathered in butter), green beans (once again, cooked in bacon grease). In fact, my Grandma had bacon grease she kept in a tin can and cooked with it everyday. And we always had dessert. Always. Our drink of the day was sweet tea. My Grandma is 90 and still going strong!

Back then, we ate like that and America had very few fat people. Now most of us are overweight. How many people had diabetes back then? Cancer? Unheard of! Fat, sugar, whole milk, eggs, coffee...I mean you name it, it's bad for us. Even chocolate has been attacked. Yep, now we have good chocolate and bad chocolate. It's true! Dark chocolate (which is the bitter tasting one) is the one that has antioxidants, and therefore, good for us. Sure seemed like we were all healthier and a lot leaner before we were told we were eating unhealthy.

It seems like the healthier I try to eat, the more weight I gain. I can't help but think of Paula Dean (I love her! She's so funny! ) and how she cooks all that southern-style food, and yes, she's a little overweight, but does she care? I think not. She enjoys her food. I'm thinking about that. I'm thinking about throwing caution to the wind and try to enjoy real food again.

When did society decide healthy is to look like Twiggy?

Biossphere 2

I've been in Tucson, AZ for almost a week now. Yesterday we went to the Biosphere2. It was a tour well worth taking. If you've never heard of the biosphere it is basically a glass bubble. Built to be an entirely self-contained system the facility is sealed from the earth below by a steel liner between layers of concrete. Precipitation filters from the outside world through soil where it is collected into big tanks in the basement, then recycled through sprinklers as faux showers inside the dome. Inside the arching glass and frame enclosure dwell a rainforest, marsh, tropical savannah, million-gallon ocean, and coastal fog desert.

Mission 1 consisted of 4 men and 4 women. They were to be in there for 3 years. Fighting and unforeseen problems, such as insects and food shortages, undermined the projects success.

It was the year of EL Nino and they hadn't anticipated the problems of bees not being able to pollenate. They all died and the biospherians had to hand pollenate. They were working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day and were starving. They began fighting bitterly. They lived off of mostly beets and sweet potatoes which caused their skin to glow orange.

You can't get a suntan inside the Biosphere 2 because the glass panels won't let in UV light (it would've been too expensive to engineer). Turns out bees need UV light to breed and navigate, which is why they died. You'd think scientists would know this already!

Remember the movie Bio-Dome with Pauly Shore? That's the Biosphere 2. Learn more and see pictures at www.b2science.org.

My First Car

This is one of the stories I had to write for my writing aptitude test to get accepted into LongRidge Writers Group.


The year was 1974 and I wanted a 1967 candy-apple red mustang convertible. My dad told me to come outside and see what was sitting in the driveway for his baby girl. Oh my goodness, I can still remember the butterflies in my stomach because I knew I was going to see a mustang convertible. Sitting in the driveway was not a mustang. There was my dad, with keys dangling from his index finger, with a big grin spread across his face barely able to contain his excitement for his proud purchase he’d made from a co-worker. There before my eyes was what was to be my first car, Henry the tank. Henry was a white 1960 Bonneville with red leather interior and the biggest steering wheel ever! As I looked over at my dad I thought, how am I going to drive this tank to school and be able to show my face?

I heard my dad telling my mother and sister to get in and we’ll go for a ride. I slipped behind the huge steering wheel, played with the motorized seat until I had it set for my height, backed out of the driveway and headed away from town. But good ole dad wanted everyone to see what he’d gotten his baby girl, so I headed into our tiny town of 2500 people, praying all the way that none of my friends would see me driving this boat. “Oh, who wants ice cream?” Of course they all wanted ice cream! My mother, who hadn’t said a word at this point said, “Oh that sounds good. Let’s go to the Dairy Queen!” Ugh! Now people will surely see me because the DQ was the only place in town to eat. I stayed in the car, slumped down in the great big bench seat of my “new” car while my family went inside the DQ to enjoy an ice cream.

The next day I picked up my best friend, Pam, on the way to school. Bless her heart, she tried to tell me it was okay and no one was going to make fun of me for driving Henry. I nervously pulled into the school lot and all the popular guys were outside. As I was searching for a parking place Pam said, “Look all the guys are staring at your car.” I parked the tank and wanted to pound my head on the huge steering wheel, but before I could get out of the car I was surrounded by about twelve guys all wanting to know where I got the cool wheels!

I Think I Had a Senior Moment!

My mom and I were on the way to the grocery today when Mom said, "I'm hungry. Are we going to stop and get some lunch before we go to the store?" "Sure, " I replied. After discussing where we going to eat we decided on Arby's. After we finished with lunch, I wanted to stop at Save-A-Lot (which is right next to Arby's) before going on to Kroger. Mom had never been in Save-A-Lot so she didn't mind my stopping there so she could see what it was like. Save-A-Lot is one of those stores where you bag your own groceries, like Aldis or Cubs.

It's a small store so we weren't in there very long. As I was putting my purchase items on the checkout belt the cashier was putting them into another cart as she ran them across the scanner. She then told me the amount. I scanned my debit card, took my receipt, put my purse in the front of the cart and was on my way to the Exit. As I turned to ask my mom what she thought of the store I heard someone yell, "Hey! You want your groceries?!" I was almost to the Exit. I turned and saw my mom standing at the register with a cart of groceries and a confused look on her face. I was pushing the cart I started with! All it contained was my purse! Wouldn't you know, I had to go to the farthest checkout to retrieve my mom and my groceries. One woman said, "I'll take 'em if you don't want "em."

"Mom, why didn't you say something to me when you saw me leaving?" I asked. She said, "I thought maybe you were going after boxes around that corner. I didn't know it was the Exit."

Whatever.

I'm pretty sure I had a senior moment! I don't know if I'll be able to go to the grocery by myself ever again.

Another Exercise Gadget

I swear I should have the buffest body in the world, given all the exercise equipment and DVDs I own. I have every video from A-Z. I have 3 sets of dumbbells, 2 balance balls, a stepper, a mini trampoline, a treadmill, and just a few months ago I ordered THE BEAN. I used to use the trampoline regularly until it broke, but I do hop on my treadmill from time to time, but the rest of this stuff just collects dust. Okay, so mostly the treadmill collects dust and I've never used THE BEAN. My grandkids played on it though.

As for my exercise DVDs, I have everything from aerobics, pilates, tai-chi, and yoga. For Christmas Darryl got me a Billy Blanks kickboxing set. I haven't used it yet, but I'm going to. I have to build up to it, you know.

Right now I'm eye balling another gadget. About 5 minutes ago I saw a commercial for something called the BENDERBALL. I'm thinking about ordering one. I'm sure I would be more likely to use it because it's small. It's a mini version of the balance ball. It comes with 2 videos too! Yeah, I'm sure I'd use it regularly.....gotta go... I've got an order to place!