Skin Flu

We've all had the stomach flu. You're sitting around. Everything is fine. Then suddenly this weird wave comes over you. Your mouth feels, for lack of a better word, sweaty. You swallow a lot, your head feels like it's floating off your neck then suddenly your body is rejecting anything you have in your belly. After 2 minutes of bodily chaos you feel fine. Then...exactly an hour later the process repeats, and does so every hour on the hour through the night. At least that's how it is for me. It always seems to begin in the evening and last through the night. Why is that?!!

Now that I'm in the throws of menopause, I'm suffering from the dreaded hot flashes.  I know, billions of women have and will suffer from them. I'm not so special. Aside from the obvious inconvenience of them, I actually find them fascinating. Tonight as I lay in bed trying to nod off, I felt the wave coming and I suddenly realized something. Hot flashes are 'skin flu'.  I feel perfectly fine when a wave comes over me. The top of my head tingles. Then my chest. Next thing I know I'm I'm a mad rush to take off whatever garments I can appropriately remove and my face and neck are suddenly drenched in sweat.  My skin just vomited.  Half hour to 45 minutes later the process repeats, and does so for eternity~~~

"I'll have the dinner salad"......

In a Buffalo NY suburb there is an iconic joint where people flock to enjoy renowned chicken wings.  No, not the Anchor Bar (which I spent more hours at than Bryant & Stratton Business Institute across the street).  It's called 'Duff's' and they also have yummy wings.  I can't stress this enough....YOU GO TO DUFF'S FOR CHICKEN WINGS.

Beefcake (pet name for my fella Paulie) & I beat the dinner rush and were promptly seated at a cozy spot between two occupied tables.  As the minutes passed I noticed the waiting area become more & more congested. As even more minutes passed it was apparent that the wait time was becoming substantial. 

A couple of young ladies seated next to us soon vacated their spot with bellies blissfully digesting chicken wing meats & beers.  Moments later the cheerful waitress seated the new occupants of the romantic corner table.  As much as I enjoy the company of BC (Beefcake), I can't help but study the social dynamics of nearby patrons.  It wasn't long before I felt like I had front row seats at the taping of a sitcom made just for me!

Enter: Dude with thumbs firmly fixed in text mode....girl with a sour puss from having to wait for an open table.  Approximately 3 minutes pass and the girl growls, "That waitress hasn't come over yet...I'm STARVING!...I'm SO hungry I feel SICK...This is ridiculous!"  Meanwhile the dude has not lifted his thumbs from the cell phone & in the time it took the waitress to return to them, they had ample opportunity to browse the menu and have all components of their meal ready to recite.  Enter:  The waitress.  She addresses the young lady first, "What can I get you?"  (Note - Technically she could have simply asked, "How do you want 'em - hot, medium or mild?" since everyone goes to Duff's for CHICKEN WINGS).  The lady patron asks, "Do you have a fish fry?"  The cheerful face of waitress goes flat as she replies, "No...I'm sorry, we don't".  Lady patron (with look of disgust) responds, "Then I'll just have a dinner salad".  Her companion diverts his eyes from the cell phone long enough to order, you guessed it...CHICKEN WINGS.  The once cheerful waitress walks away with eyes rolling.

Moral of the story - If you want Chicken Parm, don't go to Taco Bell - If you want Spanikopita, don't go to Peking Kitchen & if you want Fish Fry....DON'T GO TO DUFF'S!

Pet Peeves Prevail!

Originally this blog was intended to document the elaborate dreams I continually have.  Sure I'll sprinkle some of those in occasionally, however I find it more necessary to vent about the day to day annoyances I encounter.

Peeve of The Day - Sidewalks

Why bother?!  I bust my rump in the winter to clear the front walk of snow for the safety of pedestrians.  More likely than not, they choose to walk in the street anyway.  OK - I can accept that since my neighbors may not be as diligent with snow clean up as me. But here we are in the thick of Summer and they STILL insist on walking in the middle of the road. 

Some may think this behavior is more prevalent in urban areas. Nope.  I witnessed the same act in an upper middle class neighborhood.  A couple was walking their dog IN THE STREET.  Perfectly ample sidewalks on either side of the road but they insisted on being obstacles for passers by in motor vehicles. 

We have become a society of no boundaries.  Children are left to run amok in office and retail settings,  sidewalks simply take up prime real estate, stop signs are optional, children have no set bed time, children are allowed to impede adult leisure activities, ie; they are included in poker or eukre games simply be cause they beg to play too.

Boundaries are good.  I highly recommend them. Everyone should have some!

Are You Kidding Me?!

I swear it's the ultimate goal of my neighbor to drive me insane.  You see, we share a driveway of which 99.9% of it is on the property of my residence.  Of course he rents (more than likely on our dime) the home next to me and he INSISTS on parking his SUV very close to the entrance.  In order for me to get past the vehicle, I need to make maneuvers that the most skilled motor vehicle operator would find laborious.

Here is yet another example of the "I'm the ONLY one in the world" mentality.  How many times must I honk my horn, knock on his door or window, scrape the underside of my car for all the neighborhood to hear before he gets a clue?!  Today is no different than the last.  I managed to get past his SUV to access the parking spot directly behind my house.  As if that wasn't difficult enough, he has since moved the vehicle further up to a narrower part of the driveway, making my exit IMPOSSIBLE without having to beg him to "pretty please move the SUV so I may leave".  I am a prisoner of my own home until he is good and ready to move it.    

Common sense and common courtesy are a thing of the past.  Sad, isn't it?

Take two ~~~

Two days after the aforementioned scenario I came home to yet another driveway obstacle.  Halfway up the drive was a barricade, yes...BARRICADE of children toys preventing me from accessing my parking spot behind my house.  I was forced to park halfway on my front lawn.  GHAAAAAAAH!!!! 

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

Oh boy...I have a lot of catching up to do here.  Ask anyone who has known me at least 15 years.  I have dreams...LOTS of dreams, and many of them could have been drafted into screen plays or novels.  Obviously I haven't had the where-with-all to make those happen but now that blogging has entered my life, who knows what the future will bring?

I actually kept a library of dream deciphering books at my place of work.  Coworkers would consult with me if they needed a dream analyzed.  Dreams (especially mine) mystified me and I always thought there was some cosmic or psychic meaning behind them.  I have since come to realize that most of my dreams are typically derived from an obscure word, object or sight that I encountered earlier in the day.

I'll be using this blog to compile some of them.  I will start with one that did in fact have a psychic element to it.  It still gives me shivers when I recall it...

I was strolling through St. Joseph Cemetery in Niagara Falls NY when I came upon the mausoleum.    I entered the building to find a family gathered at the far end, obviously mourning over someone.  I sat quietly in a pew and waited until they were somewhat composed.  As I walked up to the group I saw that is was my friend Lisa and her family visiting the resting place of her step father.  I greeted them all and offered my condolences.

The morning that I woke up from that dream I started to go about my usual routine.  I retrieved the newspaper from the porch and brought it to the 'reading room'.  I glanced through the usual points of interest; front page headlines, police blotter and editorials.  When I arrived at the obituary page my jaw dropped.  There in print was a memoriam tribute to my friends step father...it was the first anniversary of his passing!  I hadn't spoken to her nor would I have reason to remember the exact date of his death.  I was blown away~~~~~

Much To My Dismay

Here's a riddle...What makes humans the most social AND antisocial creatures simultaneously?   Answer: Blue Tooth phones.  I continually marvel at the technical advances that are made in communication.  At the same time they are worsening an already obnoxious human race.

If memory serves, there was a time when talking on the phone was a chore.  Women were stereotyped as being the gabby gossip mongers who tied up the lines with their silly banter.  These days men are equally guilty of said behavior.

Take for instance the simple task of walking through a parking lot toward your shopping destination.  While walking past a fellow shopper, they suddenly start speaking.  In your peripheral you don't see any other pedestrians so you assume they must be addressing you. As soon as you say, "Pardon me?" you realize they weren't speaking to you at all.  They were speaking to a chunk of equipment stuck in their ear.  You immediately feel like an idiot because you foolishly assumed they were addressing you.  In fact, I recently saw a commercial that depicted this very scenario.

It's now commonplace to see people apparently talking to themselves while driving, walking down the street, in the grocery isles, in a public rest room,...when in fact, they are talking on the phone.  This behavior has opened the door to a previously taboo habit of talking to myself.  YAY!  I can now carry on a conversation with me, myself & I and not feel one bit awkward about it.  I used to rehearse dialogues I planned on having while in the shower or ironing my clothes. Not anymore...the world is my podium!!!  

And She's Off!

Blog?...What's this 'Blog' business?  Why do people blog?  This has been my quandary for the past couple years.  I thought a blog was simply a diary.  I suppose it can be but I suddenly realized it's potentially much more than that.

Yesterday I read the blog of a work associate (thanks Adrienne).  It was like a lightning bolt hit me...THIS IS THE MEDIUM FOR ME!!!   Since my adolescent years I've enjoyed writing short stories.  I majored in English (for one semester) in college but oddly enough I didn't have the mental stamina to do all the mandatory reading and writing that went with it.  I love the English language and the use of colorful words but for some reason I only thought of lofty projects, like writing a novel or actually working for a publication.  But those seemed too much like work.  I wanted to have fun.

Now I can Blog!  It's an outlet for getting my thoughts out and if anyone should stumble on it and enjoy it, then that's a bonus!

Anyway...enough of the preliminaries.  I wanna write some stuff!