Bad travel dreams have started

Last night I dreamt that I missed the plane and also that I forgot my suitcase.  Just went to visit a supremely organized friend of mine.  She loaned me some Euros and told me about a few things to do in Paris off the beaten path.  She has many travel purses and a list of what she has done every year in Paris and an ongoing list of THINGS TO DO there.  I am feeling overwhelmed.

It is National Stroke awareness month.  See if the person can SMILE and raise both arms over their head.

I seem to have been catapulted into a position today.  Mostly a figurehead at this point.  Just by hanging around.  Possibility of a part-time temporary job.

Went out for a walk down the street in Greenwich today.  Appreciating the quiet and the lack of traffic.  Soon, the seasons of BUGS will start and I will no longer want to stroll outside.  But, today, great smells and not too hot or cold.

Where I live at, you can't trust NOBODY

Overheard, at Wawa.  I don't really WANT to trust anybody in my neighborhood.  Feel sort of bad about my glee thinking that the dog next door may have run away yesterday.  I saw her out the window with NO leash and NO people.  That night I walked around the outside of my house picking up trash since it was trash night and noticed a LOT of trash on the one side of my house.  Never have I had so much trash before those people moved in next door.  Also saw two big piles of dog shit in their yard.  They don't pick up after their dog.  Must remember to add that to the letter I probably won't have the nerve to send to their landlord, who is a LAWYER.

Not much on my calendar today.  After I get done using the computer, I am going to go home and STAY there.  I need to do that more, but I don't really want to.  Am much more comfortable running around the county doing errands of one sort or another.

A feel good story today about Charles Ramsey liberating the girls from their captivity in Cleveland.  A black man freeing white and hispanic girls being held by a Puerto Rican guy and his two brothers.  Charles said, "I knew sumpthin' was wrong, when a pretty little white girl ran straight into the arms of a black man!" (him)  Americans are so desparate for good news that they stand out in the street and CHEER when they hear some.  The three girls had been missing for ten years or more.

Neighbors from hell

  Looking forward to a trip to PARIS.  Trying to get all of my ducks in a row.
Not sure how I am going to handle all of that WALKING.  I am used to car to house to car to library to car to store to house.  Also I have to resort to WHEELS to lug all of my crap around.  It will have to be a new and lighter me to get around Paris.

Not so light today though.  Gained weight overnight.  Probably cause I ate hors d'oeuvres all day.  Need a new approach for that.  Can't eat everything in sight just cause it is going to be my "meal".  Next time I should try one of everything and only have seconds if it is something HEALTHY.  We had Cinco de Mayo snacks after church and more delicious food offerings after an author lecture.

Boy, do I need a change of scene.  The scene directly around my house is really getting on my nerves.  I have a letter I wish I could send to the landlord of my neighbors.  I haven't written it yet but it details about 10 things they have done to annoy me in the month that they have been there.  Now, I know they are not doing it specifically to annoy ME, but how can people like or not notice trash all over the place and loud dog barking?  I was only home for two hours on Saturday and that d*&^ pitbull was barking for at least one of those hours.

In a windowless room at the beach

My plan for the day was to lie on the beach and then take a walk.  Also spend a few hours in the computer lab at the Ocean City library. And maybe visit a friend in an aging place.   Well, the beach was wild and windy.  I should have been happy as it was beautiful and I was allowed to access it and there was NO ONE THERE!  But I was freezing as I swore never to wear a coat any more a few weeks ago.  I will have to find somewhere inland to get my walk in.

So I came over to the library.  I love this library.  You sit in the computer lab with comfortable chairs and very few people.  They are all well behaved.  Only problem is, there is not enough room for all of my STUFF.  But, hopefully, they still allow you THREE hours on the computer if no one is waiting.  Now, that is more like it! I am always struggling to get all my computer chores done.  It is a never-ending battle.

Actually, this is an "excursion" day.  I need to plan one a week.  Haven't even been able to get THAT in as every day seems to have an event.  Sometimes only one event, but an event nonetheless.  But now I am thinking that I need to schedule TWO excursion days....one for the beach and one for all the other places I would like to go.  Why not?  I AM retired, after all!  I could visit oh-so-many beach towns and get back to my idea of exploring every exit of the Garden State Parkway.  And suddenly, miraculously, my Sprint navigator started working again!  I do have some slight fear that the saleslady at the Sprint store might have signed me up by pushing a button that I never push.  She was trying to show me how to load a picture onto Facebook from the phone.  That, BTW, was NOT successful.  Only a small portion of the picture appeared on Facebook.  It looked good, but was incomplete.  Back to the drawing board on that one.

Vaguely Jesus-y bon-vivant

I love this phrase.  A woman told a story on NPR last night about a plane ride and people who may have thought she was a "vaguely Jesus-y bon-vivant".  That's me!

Stopped by a group of people in front of the municipal building in Millville, New Jersey.  I heard singing.  They were singing a patriotic song.  How nice, I thought.  Then I got a creepy feeling that they were gun rights supporters or something I wasn't in favor of.  Guess I will have to read about it in the paper.

Went to Jim's lunch for lunch today.  It is a very colorful little restaurant that closes down for the whole summer every year.  They have three sizes of rice pudding, WITH or without raisins.  Now, where else can you find that?!

MY most beautiful women

Gwyneth Paltrow was just voted the world's most beautiful woman.  So I thought I would add MY most beautiful women:
- Fergie
- Beyonce
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Queen Latifah

Can't really think of my choices for most beautiful man.  What does that say about me?  Alright....

- Legalos
- Sawyer in Lost
- Brad Pitt in the olden days
- George Clooney

Gorgeous day today.  Weather is fine, plants are blooming, all sorts of purple things confusing me.
I took two walks already today.  I learned at the recent lecture that I should be doing 30 minutes of CARDIO 5 days a week.  So will have a new statistic at the end of each day.  Minutes of cardio over total minutes of exercise for the WEEK.  Yoga and arthritis exercise don't really count for CARDIO.

Lilac or wisteria?

I get them confused.  Not only that, but I had to search on the Internet to remember the names of either or both of them.  At least, I know how to do THAT.  I love them both and they both smell great.  We had a wisteria bush/tree growing up in what we called the "park".  Not many lilac trees around in domestication...they mostly seem to be in the wild. 

Book review:  Have to return this book today as I got it on Interlibrary loan from the Franklin Township Public Library (F WOLITZER) .  An available man, by Hilma Wolitzer.  I like a book about a "modest and bookish" man who becomes single at age 62 after his second wife dies.  His children put an ad in The New York review of books hoping he will meet someone new.  I can relate, except for the DATING parts.  So, it is about his life, his relatives, his dog, an old girlfriend and various other women who pass through his sphere.

I am trying to become a better library patron.  This is hard for a librarian who is used to "professional courtesy" as far as fines go.  I seem to have finagled a deal at my OWN library, but I notice one of the other libraries in the system is charging me fines!  And a local library I frequent went off and joined a different group so I am just another lousy patron in their book.  So, I am returning a book due today on ILL and also another book I couldn't get into.  Feeling kind of bad about that since the back cover was filled with GLOWING words about it.  I wanted to get a book called Life after life by Jill McCorkle, who went to my college (Hollins University).  There is ANOTHER book of the same name so I got that one, too.  That is the one that I couldn't get into.  Also feel bad because the author, Kate Atkinson, wrote another book that I enjoyed....Started early, took my dog. Isn't that a great title!?   Maybe I will try it another time, but I brought it back because I noticed that someone else had put it on hold and I hadn't gotten very far into it.