Halloween

After yesterday's post I saw this.
I had to post it here. 



In other news - 
My niece grew up in Erie PA as I did where it is cold or cold and snowy far more than it is warm. My niece sent me this below.
When I lived in Erie I used to go outside in blizzards wearing leggings and a hoodie and now it's 60 degrees and I need 4 jackets and boots to function.  
The south makes you weak and that is why they lost the civil war.

Oh my God how I enjoyed her text. She made fun of me one time when I went north in winter and I was dying. She laughed at me. HA - not so funny now is it southern girl?
______
I spend a good majority of my day going in circles lately.
A woman begged me, I mean begged me for this date. 
I did not have the date open. I gave her alternatives. She didn't like them. Then she says she will think about it. That usually means they will call the competition. Not much I can do.

Then she calls me back 2 days later asking if the date is available. WHAT?
So again I explain it is full. 
She then asks if someone would move for her to have this spot. 
All I can do is ask them I tell her.

I then call everyone on that day. I wait for them to call me back. 
The first person answered the phone and said no. 
That is fine I understand. I explain that someone would like that date and if they don't mind switching with him etc. I always tell them they do not have to say yes if they don't want to, but I am asking for the customer.
The other 2 don't answer so I leave messages. 

I call this woman back to tell her I am waiting on them to return calls. 
She is not happy but what can she do? Then I get a person who will switch with the begging woman. I move them, I offer the man willing to move something for free for the inconvenience. Then I call the original pain in the ass who begged for this date. I tell her it is available and at this time. She tells me she changed her mind - I'm not doing this at all.
My head exploded.

I called the man who I was switching and told him that the woman changed her mind. 
I apologized for the inconvenience and he said, "Aren't people a pain in the ass?"  
That made me laugh, but I couldn't answer honestly, I just said there are days aren't there? He asked if he was still going to get his freebie and I said yes. 
I mean how could I say no after all this?

I spent way too many hours on this begging woman.
Lesson learned. No good deed goes unpunished. 
Never again!

 

 

Gossip

Christie Brinkley's 3rd or 4th ex-husband (the last one) is engaged to 21 year old who is still in college. 
Can you believe it?
Christie's ex, Peter, is 60 years old.
Aside from sex, what the hell do these 2 have in common?
Yes, they are both from the NY area
Yes, his daughter is 21 as well as his new fiancé and they can have play dates.
Yes, he will be able to help her with her homework.

Honestly the fact that Rick and I were around at the same time in the world together gives us so much. 
We aren't the same exact age but close enough. 
We both lived through Vietnam and the fear of the draft. We both can tell you where we were when Pres. Kennedy was shot. 

I loved it when I mentioned the song on the VW commercial and he knew the group. Since she is 21 I don't think that could ever happen. She has never even lived in a time when singers actually sang and didn't have vocal help from the studio and when musicians actually played instruments. 

She doesn't know a life without streaming, cable/satellite tv, shopping only in a physical store, no amazon, books were from the library or Barnes and Nobles, there were no deadly STD's only annoying ones, dating was not an app, there were only phones with a cord attached to the wall or desk, no cell phones if you weren't home you missed a call, no voicemail or answering machines, there were no mandatory seat belt laws or for that matter seat belts in all cars and the list goes on.

This young thing has never even really lived. 
She is still in college for Pete's sake.
She goes to spring break while he is filling out forms for medicare.
Go live your life and if you wish to marry this 65-year-old when you reach 26, then, by all means, go back and find him. 
He can't move all that fast, your 21-year-old self will find him with no problem.

But at 21 you don't know squat even though you think you do. 
Trust me I was 21 once. I thought I knew everything and I didn't have a damn clue. I think she'll be bored when the novelty wears off.
Wait until she must nurse him due to his age/health.

I have a friend who is married to a man 22 years her senior. 
They split for a while due to this exact reason. 
She felt like his nurse, not his wife. He wasn't able to perform shall we say during this time of illness so she wandered.
He had a real bout of illness and issues for several years. She was miserable for many of those years and finally left. 
They are back because she does love him but the age thing most certainly affects their relationship. They own a company together so sometimes I think she is just there to ride it out I'm sad to say. 

This young girl of 21 will want babies and while he can do that, he won't be able to pick up the babies. 
She will want to go out and do things, eat dinner at 9p and not early bird specials.
He will be asleep by 10p/11p, just at the time she wants to meet friends at the club.
She will want to go out dancing.
His new knee replacement is still giving him grief so he will watch on the sidelines.
When he says he would like to meet her parents and they are a decade or more younger than him that will be awkward.
And if she doesn't think she cares about these things now, she will.
I've seen it with friends who date way out of their generation. In time the novelty wears off, they feel like they are missing so many things and it's divorce time because this guy is not getting any younger.

I know men have been doing this for centuries. But I just don't get it.
I don't get it when women want to either. 
If it is just sex, just have sex but leave out the marriage part because it will just be another divorce. 
Or as Rick always says, "there has to be something after the O."  
That used to make me laugh but I do understand what he is saying now.

Maybe she's a gold digger. 
Maybe she really loves him. 
I just find it so hard to believe she just thinks this old man is something. 
'Ah, honey you should have seen me before my balls dropped to my knees.'

I love my ole geyser. I love that we have the same references. 
I love that he is falling apart as quickly as me. I love that we have lived the same things in life. I don't have to explain to him that when I went to school we had home economics and that we had a typing class. 
If my hubby was 41 years younger than me he wouldn't know what either of those were (or is it 'was'?)  unless his grandmother told him. 

The only thing I think I'd want from a 21-year-old is help with technology.
Otherwise, I'll take my good old worn man any day.  He makes me laugh as well as the enjoyment of laughing at him.

This & That

I haven't even purchased Halloween candy yet.
I don't usually wait so late. I am going to Costco tonight after work.
Hopefully, there are still some good candies left. Did you buy yours yet?

This Halloween is supposed to be 73 degrees and rainy all day.
I hope it stops by dusk so the kids can go trick or treating.
Growing up I always lived in the tundra and by the time we got to Halloween, it was snowing and blowing and just your typical northern great lakes weather. 
At the very least it was bone-chilling cold so I had to have a big snowsuit or a big coat and mittens etc. 
Because of always having to cover my costume which did not make me happy, I always want nice weather for the kids on Halloween.  
No princess, monster or marvel character wants to cover up their costume! 
__________
My ex- mom in law Betty, has been moved to a rehab facility.
She is talking and making some progress, not major, but progress.
Gina said it is hard to see her like this and think she will come home.
Doesn't sound great, does it? If she can get better, great. 
If she can't, then I hope she isn't in limbo or pain for a long time. 
__________
I read where Eddie Van Halen is losing his battle with throat cancer.
Then I saw a report that said he's is just fine and no cancer. 
I hope the latter is true.
I recall when he got tongue cancer he said it was from the type of pick he used for his guitar that he held in his mouth for years. 
Nothing to do with his many packs of cigarettes a day, but a guitar pick made from some metal gave him cancer.
So if he has cancer again like David Lee Roth said to a reporter the other day then I feel so bad for the man.
He has to know his guitar pick didn't give him cancer of his tongue or his throat.  It breaks my heart to think someone is that much in denial or does he really think that this metal pick could do that? Maybe I am the one who is wrong and it can. Either way, he just seems so young to me. For some reason I thought he was far younger than me but Rick just told me the other day that he is older than me.  That is what all old people say don't they? Ooh, he's just a whippersnapper.

_________
Some of the memes I enjoyed this past week.

Yes, I LOVE Candy Corn and Rick sent this to me because he finds it just disgusting. It did make me laugh, but tease me all you want, more for me. 😀

Remember when American Airlines had sundaes? Oh, the good ole days.

In First, they would make them at your seat. Now you're lucky if you get a full glass of pop like shown below. Normally only 1/2 a glass.

I want to say this to my grocery store as well.

This is what Mike Rowe says! 

Cranky!

Did you hear about the woman that died while attending a gender reveal party?

I find gender reveal parties dumb and so unnecessary anyway but I realize that my friends and I are the minority.  
I don't get them. Why are they necessary? It's either a boy or a girl. 
Why must this be filmed and every damn moment of one's life be filmed and videotaped? 
Why must we think of another way to do the reveal and blow up our family to be clever?

How my parents survived is beyond me. They didn't even know the sex of their babies until they were born. Oh, the horrors! 
No one videotaped the birth. 
No one took a selfie with their baby immediately after pushing that baby out. How rude! Not on Instagram in the first 10 minutes of their life? 
Hurry to get the kid an Instagram and Twitter account!

Some 20 something said to me, well how else do you know how to paint the baby's room if you don't have a gender reveal party? Seriously? 
The baby doesn't care if it's in a box let alone what color his or her walls are. That is all about the mom and dad. I get you wish to decorate but make it gender-neutral and why does a girl have to be pink anyway? Or a boy blue? It's all so narcissistic and unnecessary to me. But that is our world today and I don't fit in it.

I know someone who just had a reveal party. 
My thinking is perhaps this is all about another reason for gifts is what this trend really is all about. 
Gifts for the gender reveal party then gifts for the baby shower and gifts when born. Geez. 
Anyhoo, there was an explosion and the woman died from flying debris. 
So the poor woman died and never found out if it was a boy or a girl as if that was even worth her life.

In other cranky news.
My neighbors have their windows open because it's fall and beautiful outside.
So that means my windows and doors are open as well.
But the awfulness is their dog's non-stop barking. 
Today so far it started at 7:50a and stopped at 1:20p. 
I imagine right now they are napping until something blows by, like a leaf. 
Then it will begin all over again. I can't sit on my patio because they just bark and bark and bark out the bedroom window. So I must close my doors and windows and have my house be stuffy because the dogs bark on a loop. 
We tried to go out on the patio this weekend and we couldn't because of the constant barking. We couldn't even talk to one another because their dogs were barking right over us. I know we need to say something but it's a fine line and I want to be careful. I also dread having to do this. But this nonstop shit is so annoying. This only happens when the homeowners aren't home. Which is the majority of the time.

Cranky News II
My across the street neighbor, Karen, went to the ball game last night to watch her beloved Washington Nationals. 
She asked if we'd look in on her dog and feed him and walk him etc.
Of course, we said yes.  
We brought the dog over to our house and he was so excited to be here.
I played with him on the floor and Izzy was not a happy girl. 
She came over to me and was licking me and climbing on me. 
She never does that. She did not like me giving this other dog any attention. 
She was so jealous it was funny.

Karen text me when the stadium was going crazy with thunderous boos and chants of 'lock him up, lock him up'. She asked if we were seeing this on TV. I told her none of that was being shown, don't forget the game is on Fox. 

She said the boos were so loud and the place was shaking like an earthquake after the president was introduced. Then the chanting began of locking him up.
I would love to hear how he spins this...biggest applause ever in mankind...tee hee. I'm sure that is what he will say.
Then the big blue and white sign unfurled that said, Veterens for Impeachment.

Then in right field a red and white (or was it orange?) Impeach trump sign went up. 

Needless to say, the security people were scurrying to take them down. 
The Vets were holding theirs and I wondered if they were asked to leave.
That would be a damn shame if they would kick out Vets for that fat Cheeto who has never served his country. And he's not doing it now either.

And Speaking of Pizza

Today is tales out of school day.

My best friend was Sue while growing up. From grade 5 through 12 we were besties.
Then we lived together as we got older. Best roommate ever hands down!
We did the best friends in your wedding thing and just the other day she wrote me to get caught up on her kids. She is a friend who's life went onto another track than mine and while our lives couldn't have ended up more different we have always been there for one another. We can not talk for a year and then it's like no time has ever passed. She is the best.

But in high school she did things I could never do. She got away with things I never could.
She was the youngest and her parents I think were tired. Sue and I say that all the time.
I was the oldest and heaven knows my father was not tired yet.
She had a car. She had a later curfew. She could date long before me.
Her mom put her on birth control whem she began dating this one boy for a very long time.
I was shocked. My father would kill me first. Then I found out her mom didn't tell her father.
Gee, I wish I had a step mom like that was my thoughts.
I was the oldest living virgin at 16. HA

Susan's parents own our towns pizza shop.
Yes, only 1 pizza shop in the 'burb we grew up in at that time.
Her father was the town barber too. The store fronts were next to one another.

We were in 11th grade and her parents went out of town.
They asked Susan to run the pizza shop while they were gone for the weekend.
She had done this a few times before and nothing bad happened so they asked her to do it again.
Sue did not want to do this alone and told her parents she'd like me to stay over night and help at the shop. Her parents were okay with it. I told my parents I was spending the night at Sue's house but did not mention they were out of town. Oops.

My parents knew Mr and Mrs. Weaver and liked them and they felt comfortable to let me go. The good thing about having a new mom at this time was she was overwhelmed with all these kids and her new baby and she never called Mrs. Weaver. I lucked out.

The first night was such fun because the kids hung out at the pizza shop after the football game. I had to run the cash register, take orders and help Sue wherever she needed me.
It was fun to me and it was fun to see all our friends after the football game since we couldn't go.

The next day we were to make sauce in this huge vat.
Sue had the recipe and she had made it before so this wasn't a big deal.
The place is not open in the day time so we had time.
This was the end of 1972.  It was a Saturday afternoon.
Our friend Colleen drove over to hang out with us.
Before you know it Greg stopped by. (Sue dated him off and on) Greg brought pot.
So we 4 smoked pot and then Greg left.

As Sue, Colleen and I began to divvy up chores that were on the list we decided we needed to eat first.  Of course we did, we just smoked pot.
After finishing our free meatball and cheese hoagies we began to tackle the list.
(anytime I worked at the pizza shop to help sue I got to eat for free, I did not get paid)

Sue's mom listed all of the things that had to be done before we could open that night. Colleen and I did all those things. Cleaning, getting the delivery of breads and shells and putting them where they go and little things like that.
Sue was to make the sauce. She did and that was that. Or so we thought.

That night Sue made the food while I took orders in person and on the phone and waited on the customers.
The following day someone called the pizza shop and told us that the sauce tasted different.
It was sweeter they said. OMG we were in a panic. Sue offered them a new pizza but they said, No we liked it and wondered if you did something different deliberately or this is going to be the new sauce."

Sue was in a panic.
She was high when she made this and she feared her father would find out.
Looking back we now laugh because how could he know? We were just paranoid and 16.
In the mean time I suggested she make more. But her parents were on their way home and we didn't have time. Besides her parents would be mad if she threw this away before talking to them. She said maybe no one else will notice.

Her parents were back and life went on. Her mom was back to taking orders at the counter and helping in the kitchen.  But customers came in for their weekly pizza and would say to Mrs. Weaver, the sauce was a bit sweeter last week we liked it.
Mrs. Weaver heard this a few times. Remarks of it being different.
She went to Sue and asked what she did.
Sue just told her she followed the instructions so she wasn't sure what she could have done differently.  Colleen and Peggy were here but there were cleaning the machines and the kitchen and taking care of the deliveries while I made the sauce. Her mom just said, okay and went to taste it.
She said, "it's not THAT different. well we have to use it" and she walked away.

Sue called me later to tell me and Colleen what was going on.
We were in a panic. Now we laugh about this. Why did we think she'd know we smoked pot before it was made? She would have no way of knowing that. But for some dumb reason our 16 year old brains were in a sheer panic over this.

Life went on, no one knew anything more than Sue made it sweeter than her mom but everyone was fine with it. Whew we were never found out.

When Sue and I had our first apartment together we never had food.
We were 21/22. I was still going to school during the day and working 3rd shift.
We had enough money for gas in our cars, albums and rent. That was our life.
Food was never a priority until we were hungry.
I would go visit my parents and bring home left overs.
My boyfriend would bring food. But Sue's parents were the best!  
Her parents made us pizzas and subs and brought them to our tiny little apartment.
We would have 4 large pizzas made but uncooked in the box & ready to just put in the oven.
Oh how we loved this. You'd open our fridge and see nothing but boxes of uncooked pizzas.
And God love her parents, they knew their daughter loved mushrooms and I did not.
So they made them half mushroom for me.

It was also fun when her boyfriend and mine came over and we knew we had a pizza and they brought the wine and beer.
We were all so broke at this time.  But boy we had fun!
As opposed to today....being broke is no damn fun!

Yeah, I can do that!

In 2016 my girl Simone Biles threw out the first pitch in style.
Damn, I want that girl's leg's! (only longer)



Last night she did it again.
I, of course, noticed that she got it to the plate. 
Yay! I was hoping she would.
But what I said to my husband was, I want to rock a pair of jeans like this woman does! My God, she looks good. 
She did well and she is the most celebrated gymnast in history. Not bad. 
Rick rewound it to notice what I was talking about in her jeans, he had missed that part. 
He agreed. 😀



I had a Washington Nationals baseball cap on this morning with my walk with Izzy.  I was wearing a Yankees Sweatshirt as well.
The man who lives behind me pointed at my hat and said, "Hey are you confused this morning?"
I laughed.
He went on about me wearing both teams. 
To him, it was a major faux pax.

I pointed to my sweatshirt and said this is where my heart is.
My hat is where I live and since my heart isn't in the Series I am rooting them on.
He just shook his head. He's a Yankee fan.
Besides I am having a bad hair day and just grabbed a hat and didn't think about what was on it. But I didn't share any of that with him. 
He wouldn't have understood a bad hair day being bald.

Now I'm craving Pizza

Joe over here - wrote about Pizza and not having it until he was 18 years of age.
I was shocked at how many people said they never ate pizza in their life.

How is that even possible? What about the school cafeteria? 
Wasn't pizza day your favorite day? 
I also liked fudgy no bakes at school but that is a whole other blog post.

There are so many types of Pizza here in the U.S.
Thin crust like NYorkers like to fold, walk and eat.
Thick crust
Pan Pizza is popular in Chicago.
Pineapple pizza
White Pizza
Veggie Pizza...to name a few.

But the pizza I enjoy is the crust like you'll get in Italy.
It's a bit well done on the edges and not too thick and certainly not limp so it needs to be folded. 
This pic is from an Italian site looking for the best pizza in Naples. 
See how it isn't thick but not thin either. 
Those crusty edges are my favorite part.
This below would be perfection for me.



I recall going to Chicago for the first time and everyone said I had to get pan pizza. 
Yes, it was good. But pizza? No, it was like a lasagna or a pie. 
It was layers of dough and toppings and inches high. 
That is not real pizza to me even if it has all the real ingredients of a pizza. 
But yes, that pan pizza was very good. 
That's just it about pizza even bad pizza is good. 

I am not a fan of pineapple on pizza. I've had it 2x because people insisted that I had to try it. Of course, I could eat it. 
I like pineapple and I like pizza but for me, it is not anything I'd ever eat again if not forced.  But bad pizza is still good.

When I worked in Manhattan I was told by a client to stop at this place to get a slice on my way back to my hotel. I did. It was okay. 
I don't like limp pizza. To me, the crust is an important part of the pizza and should be hearty to hold all of the meat and cheese, not soaked and must be folded. But it wasn't bad either. Flavors good, just not my favorite. See the point? Bad pizza is still good.

I love white pizza. I have not found it in many places.  
The sauce being EVOO with garlic sauteed in the oil. 
Then the olives, tomatoes and onions and cheese over a perfectly tossed homemade dough. Mmmm.....mouth watering when I think of Tony Marucci's pizza. That was my favorite place for pizza. 
Sadly that place is gone now, well at least Tony is and when we went back when visiting that town the new owners had replaced hand-tossed dough to pre-made store-bought par-baked pizza dough from an Italian store.
 The flavor is just not there anymore but I remember it well. 
This wasn't bad, because bad pizza is still good.

I like it cold, hot or warm. I like it the following morning for breakfast.
I used to love it in the morning after having too many cocktails the night before.
(soak up all that alcohol was my theory when I was 21)
I like it for a snack or a meal. 
I miss pizza more than anyone will ever know. 
Trust me when I say even bad pizza is still good. 
That may be a stretch here for GF pizza but when you can't have any even GF bad pizza will hit the spot and be good.

Have you or anyone you know not ever eaten pizza?
If so why is that?
I always thought of it as one of America's favorite foods.
Apparently, I was very wrong. 
_____________________
P.S. This was to be a post for Thursday, Oct 24th. Oops. Sorry giving you two in a row.

My "Peggy" face

When my mom died I wasn't allowed to cry.
"Peggy you crying makes everyone uncomfortable, so just stop it"
No, it made my father uncomfortable.
I was told this two times by Dad and the 2nd time I was told he would not have to tell me again, did I understand? Yep, I did.

So my Peggy face was born at that moment in time. 
I acted happily and I did as I was told.
I had to take over all the things mom did except sleep with Daddy. 
C'mon, we weren't hillbillies. 😃
At all times do things with a smile, greet people with a smile, if you pretend long enough you'll feel that way he'd say. But I wanted to talk about mom, why are we ignoring the fact that she is dead? I began to stuff it all down. Cake helped or so I thought. 

I recall a few times that I even wrote about here when I was told to put on the coffee and put some food out because relatives were coming over. 
My sister (10) could cry and get hugs while I served everyone and dare not cry. 
Heaven forbid I make my father and other adults uncomfortable. 
I was 13 years old.

Over time I had to learn to use my Peggy face for all things.
We weren't to discuss our mom. It made "adults" uncomfortable.
It was like she just vanished from the earth. Nary a word.
So I buried all that shit for years. It was so far down I forgot a lot of it.

Then my father died in April. Boy, the memories came flooding back.
Too many of the memories. 
Add to the fact that I was so sick at his funeral and I was a mess inside.
I cried but only when alone, just like he taught me. 
I heard the snide remarks from step and half-sisters how I wasn't even crying.
I did not respond or let them know I heard them. Besides would they even understand? Their mom didn't die. Dad wasn't the same with them. 

Since his passing so many things that I had buried are rearing their heads.
I recall reading somewhere that if you bury shit it will eventually come up like an explosion. I think that is happening to me now. I have anger, pain and just all-around shittiness on this topic.  

Is shittiness a symptom Doctor?  
Oh I have just the right Rx for shittiness right here Peg, coming your way.

I may need to go vent to someone other than my blog. 
They cost money and you guys are free but I have to do what I have to do.  😔

Friends

I know I have spoken of Betty Ann here in this blog.
She is my former mother in law who I love to pieces.
I went to Vermont to visit last year after her son passed away (my ex-husband)

We meet when I was just turning 17. My mom had been gone from my life for less than 3.5 yrs at this point. I got a new mom but she was nothing like my mom. I liked her, but she wasn't the same as what I was used to. It took me many years to adjust.
(But my family thinks it was instant because my Peggy face was on.)
In the meantime, I met this lovely woman who became like my mom.

I'd go over to her house after school and she'd make us snacks. My ex would be doing things around the house, maybe chores or horsing around with his brothers and I would sit and talk to his mom. It was just like how I did it with my mom you know? It was so easy and it filled a void I didn't even know I had at that time. She loved having what she called a daughter and I loved having someone so much like my mom in my life who I missed so desperately.

Over the years we just grew closer and closer. We did all kinds of things together including sitting and shooting the shit as she'd say over a bottle of red. God, I loved this woman. I was a barber then so I would cut her hair and perm her hair and we'd laugh and talk. 
One time we got to gossiping and of course, having our favorite red wine and I forgot a step in the perm process because I was fooling around instead of focusing. When the timer went off and I took off her rollers there was no curl. WHAT? After looking around I see that I did not put bottle A into bottle B which is the part to curl the hair. We laughed and laughed. Thank God she wasn't mad at me. I was so concerned. She asked if we could order a pizza or subs and have her son pick them up and try this again. Which is exactly what we did. I put down my wine and concentrated.

My ex would ask when we were young "why do you hang with my mother? You two are friends and don't you think that is weird?"  
Nope, I don't. He didn't mind it, but he thought it was strange. 
I saw his mother as a friend, not just his mother. So I understood his comments and he tried to understand mine. Over time and now in our 20's he got it. But as a teen, it was just weird to him. I wanted to scream, but she's like my mom don't you see? But I didn't tell that to many. I was always afraid of hurting my step mom's feelings. I never even told Betty until recently. She always knew anyway. 

Then when we were divorcing I was just as devastated to think I'd lose her too. But I didn't. We keep in touch via phone calls and when I moved letters. Which of course, turned into emails and phone calls.

I spoke to her last week. 
I had heard from her son that her husband was in the hospital.
Now I am not Ron's biggest fan. I find the way he treats people to be horrible. Just horrible. Oh, he has never been my biggest fan either. 
I was never pretty enough, thin enough, good enough for his son. 
No one was.
He never knew I heard him tell his son that I wasn't pretty enough or I didn't come from a family that had anything. Who says that shit? 
Yes, my father was a plumber but we weren't poor. We too, lived in this same tony part of town so what makes him think we are nothing? And so what if we did have nothing. 
That should never matter about my character.
Okay the pretty part is subjective. 
But he always made me feel like shit as a kid.

He calls her stupid from time to time and berates her as he does us all.
Somehow she took it. I never understood it. Different era I suppose.
I called her to see how she was doing with Ron in the hospital.  
She made me laugh when she said, "Peg, I know you'll understand, I'm kind of enjoying the quiet around the house. No one telling me to do this or that or that I have done it the wrong way."  She chuckled. I said, "Oh I hear you, Betty Ann, you want him back home soon, but another day for you to relax and read a book is a nice break"
We both laughed and went on to discuss everything as we normally do.

Then out of nowhere, she told me how much I mean to her. She still gets mad when she thinks about losing me as a daughter in law. I said you never lost me, Betty, you know I'm here for you.
She went on to tell me I was her favorite daughter in law, shh, don't tell the other two.
Then before she hung up she told me again how much she loved me, how me continuing our relationship means the world to her and always has.

She was making it sound like she was dying or something.
It was a nice long conversation about the world, her strong dislike of the orange bully, the big fat beautiful house she feels she needs to leave to downsize and her kids and grandkids. Of course, she asked about my family and what she calls, My Rick. (my ex is named Rick too so it can get confusing)

I got a call from my former sister in law who I adore, Gina, on Friday.
Gina wanted me to know that Betty had a fall last Thursday. 
She suffered a head injury as well as breaking off a couple of teeth. 
She has bleeding on the brain, suffered a stroke and lost the use of her left arm and leg. Oh boy!

Today I was told she is much better. She is able to speak a little bit. 
She has some movement on her left side and they feel that the swelling of her brain that is slowly going down is what is helping her.
If she does recover I think it will be a long time in coming. 
She is in her 80's after all.

She is in a hospital in Albany NY about 1.5 - 2 hrs from their home in Vermont. Because they were unable to help her where she lived they airlifted her to Albany. So her husband is staying up there with her by her side. I understand he is a wreck. If she goes home I hope he is good to her and nary a negative comment from his mouth.

This is one of the worst parts of the whole aging shit. Losing all the loved ones. I hope she'll get home but at her age one never knows.

I am thankful we had such a great conversation a week and a half ago.
I am thankful she was in my life.

Podcast

As I have mentioned right here before, I listen to a lot of podcasts and/or music during my day at my desk. 
Today I was listening to a podcast from last week.
It is Katie Couric's podcast called, Next Question.

This was an interview with Ronan Farrow and his latest book.
I find it interesting that she worked with Matt Lauer for many, many years and not one question to her regarding Lauer. Hmm...
Did she talk to him off the air? How was she not interviewed during her tenure at NBC with that pond scum Lauer?

I recall when Lauer had left Lifetime TV and went to NBC. Everyone thought he was so cute. I had a girlfriend that made me turn the channel to Lifetime when he was on to see him. Isn't he cute? 
Not really was my answer, cute-ish I guess but not my type I'd say. 
I never saw what others saw in him.

As the years went on they weren't as kind to him as they are to most men and he looked far worse being bald with his Freddie Mercury teeth. But for some reason women loved him. 

Then when he got Ann Curry fired I really didn't like him. And I didn't even know any of the awful things he was doing behind the scenes. I saw and heard Al Roker say something snide to him one morning on-air about Ann leaving and knowing full well Al thought it was Lauer's fault but I didn't get why because I just adored her and couldn't figure out how anyone could dislike her. But every pot has a lid was my thought and let it go. 
Now I see the why, when and where much more clearly. 

Don't you find it interesting that Katie would not even mention that she worked with Lauer? How do you have a conversation with Katie Couric and you just wrote a book about Lauer and not ask her anything or her ask him anything about him? Did they arrange that before the interview? Perhaps Katie is in the book quoted and that was enough for her? I don't know but it all felt very off to me. 

Broad

Broad.
I like that term.
I am an old broad.
I am a feisty ole broad as my husband likes to say.

I said that word recently around others and they were offended by the word.
I didn't know these people well so I just chalked it up to another bunch of young snowflakes.

A broad reminds me of Katherine Hepburn, Bette Midler, and Pink.
Those are a few tough broads that won't let others step on them or take away their light or power. I love broads.

Do you find the word offensive?

There are a lot of things you could call me that could offend me,  but being called a broad is a badge of honor to me.
If called a broad would it bother you? If so why?