Small Town Life

I was rushing off to work today.... always running late because I am definitely not a early AM person.  I am a 9 to 5 person trapped in a 7 to 3 world!  (sigh)  Anyway,  I navigated thru the side roads and made it to a main street, and after waiting a lifetime at the Big Intersection (the one with the traffic light, TWO gas stations and the diner!) I made it about 3 blocks, and then... wirrrr  wirrrr  wirrr eeee ahhhh  eeeee  ahhh  (imitate siren noises here)  I saw flashing lights and an ambulance heading towards me.  Everyone on the road, about 6 cars, immediately pulled to the right and stopped.  I'm not sure why, but I was so touched by the immediate response gene that kicked in with my townies....  we'll (hopefully) never know who was in the ambulance, or what happened to them, but everyone wanted to do the right thing, and give them a fighting chance to get to the local hospital quickly and in one piece. 

I hated living in a small town growing up,  I wanted out in the worst way  (and LOL that's how I got out).  I came back to a town one town over from where I grew up, settled in, and have been very happy here.  I do the usual stuff, attend an occasional town meeting, join a night school class or two,  run into people at the gym, etc.  It's not really a small town, just a not big town, and definitely NOT a city.  I have neighbors I wave to, and friends I go out with, and a library that can get me any book from anywhere.  Now.....  if only they had more guys my age looking for ME!!! 

Back to the drive this morning.  It left me with a really good feeling about the people here.  They try to be good neighbors, good citizens, and so on.  YAY TOWNIES!!!!      

OK, Now I'm hungry!

It's been a long time since I've been to France, (1989) and like the sterotypical 'ugly American', I hated Paris.  I loved the museums, the scenic train ride through the country sides, and seeing, in person, the things I had only seen in movies and on TV.  The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the like.  However, finances at the time had me staying in a cheap hotel in a bad area, (sharing a bathing area with transvestite hookers) eating bread and Coke-cola for three days because I couldn't figure out how to order anything else, and getting licked in a train station trying to get back to the 'safety' of London.   Yep, travel adventures are definitely for the young!  BUT............  so many people go and love it, I always thought it may have just been the wrong place for me at the wrong time. I haven't gone back, but I'm considering it ....  and now,  I'm hungry!

     I just finished reading Julia Child's autobiography, My Life in France.  She is so enamored of the country, so open to the new experiences she found, and Oh My God, so into learning about food and cooking.  The book takes her from a novice to expert, and us, the readers, right along with her.  French cuisine isn't the totally fussy, over saucy nonsense I had always envisioned it to be.  She writes about learning to plainly roast a chicken with some herbs, and it being a hallmark of a great chef.  She keeps attending classes, meeting chefs and asking questions, and I was hooked.
     I'm thinking that my liking to read biographies, and especially autobiographies have a lot to do with blogging.  Published (book) authors have the benefit of time.  They get to wait and reflect on the outcomes of the actions they are taking.  Blog authors don't have that.  What we read on others blogs is 'real time' for the most part.  We have to follow and keep reading, and keep track.  Maybe we'll see them grow and develop,  maybe we'll see them crash and burn.  Maybe they'll just stop blogging, and we'll never know what happened to them after that point in their lives....  Kinda interesting, don't you think????
    What do you like to read?  and is that taste reflected in what blogs you follow?  (My life long love of sci-fi is not, but my interest in biographies and cookbooks are!).  What do you think of Paris, and the rest of France?  Let me know!  MC

Plus Size Models! Are you kidding me?

Look at the following group photo. Then look again. Then again.

These are PLUS size models. Granted, they are not the waif like, coat hanger, stick thin, heroin chic models of most magazines, but I scarcely think they are PLUS sized. Do you think anyone of them are more than a size 12? Isn't that the average size of a woman in the USA today? PLUS size to me, means what I looked like. It means obese. It means very very large. These are woman I would be tickled to look like. Smooth skin, no droops, or sags, or age spots in weird places. (Yes, I looked closely).  I think Glamour magazine broke the ice by using models real women can relate to.  I'm glad they did.  I just take exception to the label Plus Sized Models.  What planet do they live on?  (OK, apparently Planet Model).  Anyway, just in case anyone hadn't seen this,  I wanted you to.  I think it's groundbreaking.  The response to the magaize has supposedly been very positive.  Now, I'll have to buy one next month too, just to read the reactions!

Gadget Magic

Sometimes, as I wander through a store, I'll find something (usually inexpensive) that makes me say  I wish I'd thought of that!!!!  So, when it happens, I'll post my finds under the title Gadget Magic and share them with you all!  Today, I found this

What is it, you may ask?  It's Socket Splitter...  costs about $3.50 in Walmart, made by a company called Bell Automotive.  You plug the plug on the left into the cigarette lighter/utility socket in your car, and voila! Now you have two sockets to use.  I NEVER remember to charge my GPS until I'm lost and I dig it out from under the front seat where I hide it from valet parkers and car robbers.  Like, they would NEVER think of looking there... but, I digress....  As always, when I'm lost, I need the GPS AND my phone to call whomever I'm supposed to meet to tell them I'm late and lost.  This frequently involves plugging in my phone, also.  Which, until I found this, meant plugging in one and unplugging the other, back and forth!  So, for less than 4 dollars, I can have an extra thing to stick in my glove compartment for emergencies....which, may (ahem) actually be a need for GPS and an IPOD on a road trip.  C'mon, 'fess up.  Did you know such a thing exists?  AND you never told me?????   What odd little thing have you found shopping that made your life easier, simpler, or just more fun?  How much was it, and Where can I get one?

I love my New Shoes!

One of the best things about losing a lot of weight is that you have an excuse to shop.  Seriously,  to shop!  Nothing fits except whats new.  During the rapid weight loss phase, I shopped Goodwill, other people's closets,  the clearance racks at Wallmart and KMart and any other Mart I could find.  I wore things too big, too long, too tight, anything , as long as it covered me and didn't let body parts hang out.  I've been the same size for almost 5 months now, so this may be where I am settling in.  I could lose a few more pounds, and I might, but size wise, it will probably be here in this size.  I wrote the other day about going shoe shopping with a friend from work, one of the women I eat lunch with.  Here are the shoes I got:

They are Dansko clogs, with a back!  The pattern makes them go with so many outfits, and they are so comfortable!  I had to facilitate a dinner for 50 after work on Tuesday, so I needed to wear a suit and shoes that would carry me from dawn to midnight and be comfortable.  I can't speak in public if I'm fidgeting wtih my clothes or wearing cruel shoes.  OK, I can, but I really hate it. 

I, however, have always loved shoes.  I've had to give up heels a long time ago, due to knee troubles, but I can appreciate a lovely pair a Jimmy Choo's as well as the next girl!  My shoes are almost always flats, but I have heel envy.  I think pumps look soooo professional peeking out from a really sharp pair of trousers.  Spiky heels elongate a leg, and who doesn't want long legs????  (I'm 5'3" (and a half))  I miss heels, but not the pain.  So, I've adjusted to flats, and low heels.

As far as the changes go, the friends I went shopping with told me she always wanted to see Italy, but had no one to go with...  and she knew I traveled a lot, and would I want to go next year...  wow...  something to think about!  I've also visited a dating site, checked it out.  I'm not ready to plunk down some cash and fill out all the surveys, but I'm getting there!  My skin's looking better with all the makeup and moisturizer and such, and the new haircut got a ton of compliments at the dinner.  Changes are happening! 

Do you/did you have a favorite pair of shoes?  Why did you love them?

Faux Families

     I have a friend I met in high school, K, when I started hanging out with her sister, P.  I borrowed a brother M for my Senior Prom, and even lent a nephew J to a little sister C for another formal.  (They had 9 kids in their family)  I was maid of honor at her sisters P wedding, and we spent a lot of time planning showers, doing wedding dress fittings, etc.  It turned out we hung out at a lot of the same places in 'the city', and wound up being close friends.  That was (ahem) a few years back.  OK, more like 30 years ago.  We've been each others support for funerals, and weddings, financial crisis and mall shopping trips.  We travel well together, and treat each others nieces and nephews like they were our own.  Our families always include each other in celebrations, and the name 'friend' doesn't seem to quite describe the depths of connection.
     I love my 'original' family, and all it's extensions, in-laws, nieces, nephews and their spouses, and like the boyfriends/girlfriends/roommates of the twentysomethings that are always around.  We generally get along, no drama, no grudges and non-talkers, etc that you hear about in some families.  I like spending time with them, and truely miss them when they're away.  Family, the word, does (at least for me) describe the affection, connection, committment and deep feelings associated with them.  I just wish there was a better word than Friend for the others.  I have people I barely know on Facebook ask to be my friend.  I'm glad to share a moment with them, but it diminishes the word when I have to use it to describe the people I consider my 'almost family'.  People I would have picked to have blood ties with if I could add that.  (Well, blood ties is a bad example, because the folks adopted into our family are as much family as those born into it). 
     I have decided that Faux Family will work for me.  It's not my original family, but the one I have developed and nutured for almost as long.  Friend doesn't cut it, and , although Faux is usually not a good thing, in this instance it is!  Do you have a connection like this, and what words do you use?