My Saturday and Sunday morning routine consists of getting up around five or six a.m. (not because I want to) tending to the cat (because he wants me to) having cereal and dinking around on the internet. These mornings are ususally the only time I have at home to write and post to my blog, check out my favorite's and do some blog surfing. Unfortunately, our laptop is in the shop for the next two weeks. What will I do now? Not sure yet, but it looks like I'll be doing a lot of reading instead. Look out library, here I come!

My parents bought a ’70 Chevy El Camino in the fall of 1969. This was the only car they ever owned and it was the car that I grew up in. It was beautiful. The color was Desert Sand; it had bucket seats and a white vinyl roof with a manual transmission. Sweet car. A few years later my dad had white racing stripes put on the hood which made it look hot. It was fast too. Eventually it became my mom’s car because my dad had his motorcycles and an El Camino isn’t exactly a “family” car. When we went on trips, I would sit between the bucket seats and sometimes I would sit behind the driver’s seat, which my mom called the cubby-hole. I was small enough at the time to fit very comfortably in that space and often fell asleep there on long trips.

My mom loved driving that car and named it Nelly. The engine had a very distinctive sound to it like a purring cat and you could hear it coming from blocks away. When I was older, my mom and I spent a lot of time together in that car and we received a lot of attention. We would turn heads wherever we went, and people often mistook us for sisters being that my mom looked so young, and I acted older than I was. She was a pretty cool mom to hang out with and we always had a lot of fun.

I think growing up in that car and having all of those experiences really gave me an appreciation for cars. I love the classic Chevy’s: the El Camino, Nova, Chevelle and the Malibu. These cars are beautiful and I love them. I never got to drive our El Camino even though I had always looked forward to it becoming my car. My mom had to sell it to a friend because my parents were divorced and money was more important than keeping the car around which had fallen into disrepair and needed a lot of work. A few years later I heard that the friend had an accident and the car was totaled. Still, I dream of one day owning a 1970 Chevy El Camino.

Last night my husband asked me a lot of questions about my blog. He wanted to know if I was ever going to blog again, what was wrong with me, why wasn't I writing, didn't I know that I might lose my readers if I didn't post something soon etc. I told him yes, I will blog again, there is nothing wrong with me, that I didn't have anything to write about and I hope I don't lose any readers.

I thought it was nice that he showed concern for my sudden lack of interest in my blog. I guess that maybe something is wrong, I'm just not sure what. I did mention to him that I want a new template for my blog. I'm sick of the green and I want a change. He thinks I'm not blogging because of that. Maybe he's right. I never used to be this impulsive. Change may be coming soon.

For years I've been wanting to take dancing lessons, but never wanted to go by myself. I get the community parks and recreation schedules in the mail and I always look to see what is being offered that I might be interested in. They offer ballroom dancing, line dancing, salsa and belly dancing. All these years I've asked my husband if he wanted to take a class with me and he has always said no until last week. Finally, he has decided that he would like to take a dance class with me.

My husband knows I can't dance. I have no sense of rhythm and I'm very uncoordinated, but I am thrilled that he at least wants to try something. The class he said he wanted to sign up for is the Salsa class. I'm not sure what kind of dancing that really is but I think it will be fun. I'm hoping and praying that it will be fun because I don't want to be disappointed.

I had mentioned to my husband that I thought it would be fun to go into the class pretending that we didn't know each other and see how that goes. I've seen that scenario played out in the movies before and it seems to add a bit of romance to the relationship. I think it will also open us up to meet some new people and maybe find some couples to hang out with. The class starts in a couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll have plenty of things to write about once we start learning how to Salsa.

We went to the movies and saw The 40 Year Old Virgin. What a hoot that movie is. My husband and I laughed so much during this movie and there were many scenes where you couldn't even hear the dialog because everyone in the theater was laughing too loud. This is definitely a "guy" movie but I enjoyed watching it too. The very end of the movie is quite a surprise and had my husband and I going "WTF?". We were still laughing as we walked out of the theater. Not many movies have had that effect on either of us.

I read my husband's post this morning 8 Years Ago Friday about his brother Albert. It made me cry. We were so sure he was going to pull through and be just fine. He was in a good hospital, with good doctors and we were all praying for him. He had too much to leave behind and it just didn't seem like any of this should be happening. It was such an odd thing, the way that his injury happened. You just don't hear about things like that. I remember my husband waking me up late at night and telling me that his brother had been declared brain dead and that his parents wanted us to go to the hospital to say good-bye to him. It was the stragest thing to walk into that hospital room, see Albert lying in the bed with tubes all over him, to hold his warm hand and see him breathing, and be told that he was dead. It's one thing to see someone after they have passed and you know that they are gone but he was still alive when we left him that night. I was never able to really get over that fact.

He died at the age of 24, leaving behind his wife and 2 year old daughter. Things for our family went downhill from that point on. None of us knew how to cope with his loss. For years afterwards, family gatherings were few and awkward. I remember that I cried everyday for over a year after his death, at all times of the day. It just hurt so bad. I know my husband misses him, but he doesn't talk about his pain. We can talk about Albert now, and not feel bad about it, we can laugh at the things he used to say that were so funny. He had so much potential, he was a lot like his father and had such a charming way about him. I miss him too and I wonder what things would be like today if he was still with us.

I had to stop by the store on my way home from work last night to pick up a couple of things. I was in my car getting ready to leave when another car pulled in to the spot next to me. I felt my car move as this other car hit me while pulling in. I immediately turned off my car and jumped out to see what kind of damage had been done. I went to the rear end of the passenger side but didn’t see anything. I know I felt something so I kept looking. Finally, I saw where the other car had made contact with mine. There was a long white streak on the bottom side panel at the rear of my car. All this time I’m looking I’m waiting for the driver to get out of the car but he hadn’t yet.

I finally went up to his window and told him that he hit my car. He gets out and I show him where the rub mark is. He doesn’t say anything. Then I go to the front of his car and show him the fresh mark on the corner of his bumper, still he doesn’t say anything. Finally, I realize that I need to get this guy’s info. Unfortunately, today was the one day that I didn’t have my camera phone with me and I couldn’t find a pen anywhere in my purse or my car. I go back to the guy and ask him if he has a pen. He doesn’t have one. So I ask for a business card. He gives me one and says it’s his personal business. I give him my card and tell him that I would get an estimate and call him with the amount. He just nods his head.

I get back into my car to leave and the guy goes into the store. I sit and think about it some more and realize that I should get his vehicle license number and description of the car. I go into the store and borrow a pen from the clerk and go back out and write the info down, go back in and give the pen back to the clerk. I get in my car to leave, and another thought dawns on me. I need to get his driver’s license number too. I don’t even know if the name on the card he gave me belongs to him. Back into the store I go. At this point he’s in line, so I ask the clerk for her pen again and tell the guy that I want to see his driver’s license. He fumbles around with his wallet for a long time and I’m beginning to think that he doesn’t have one when finally he produces his license for me. I write all his info down, tell him I’ll be calling him, give the pen back to the clerk and leave. I am thoroughly pissed off by this time but I kept my calm and still managed to be civil to the guy even though he was less then concerned about what he did.

When my husband came home that night I told him what happened, how the guy was not very responsive to me and how he never even apologized about hitting my car. He asked for the guy’s card and called him. My hubby very politely introduced himself to the guy and told him that we would be contacting him very soon with the estimate amount which I guess the guy agreed too. Then my hubby says “my wife tells me that you didn’t even apologize for hitting her car. I’m looking at your card and I see the fish symbol on it and I’m thinking that it would have been decent of you to at least apologize”. After a few more words with the guy my husband hangs up the phone. What was the guy’s response to hubby’s question about an apology? The guy feels that since it was an accident, not done intentionally or on purpose, he didn’t feel an apology was necessary. OMG! Are you kidding me? I was pissed. This guy had “Christian” stuff all over his car, a Bible in the front seat and an Ichthus (fish symbol) on his business card, and yet he didn’t feel that an apology was necessary. Gee, I wonder “What would Jesus do”? I’m pretty sure He would apologize.

My husband likes to catch me unawares and has snuck up on me on several occasions. He has caught me when I was busy doing laundry or in the bathroom and I don't hear that he has come home. He will stand there somewhere in the house watching me, maybe even following me until I turn around and there he is. I usually jump, scream, nearly pass out and then just stand there looking at him with my heart pounding and my hands shaking. It takes me a moment to realize that 1. he is not an intruder 2. he is my husband and I shouldn't kill him 3. what was I doing that maybe I wouldn't want him to see? I get so mad at him and he just stands there laughing. He gets a big kick out of it. I can't stay mad though, because he is so damn cute but still, it's just not right. The other thing he likes to do is shout my name at me when I least expect it just to watch me jump, then he laughs. He is such a kid and I like that about him but there is a lot to put up with sometimes. Does anyone else go through this with their spouse?

I found this funny public service pamphlet at the link below on blog depression which is something I have to admit I've experienced before. Maybe you have to.
The Nonist

I told my husband last night that I was bored with my blog. He was surprised by that comment, and asked me if it was because I didn't get enough comments. I thought about it and realized that for me boredom is more likely frustration. If I say I'm bored with something then I can give up on it and not feel guilty. If I tell the truth and say I'm frustrated then I feel that I have to work harder at it to make it a success. Being bored is the easy way out. That was a revelation for me and I never realized it until last night.

My frustration comes from feeling that my blog isn't as interesting as I would like it to be. Some of the blogs that I have linked to are incredible and I admire their ability to post great thoughts and stories almost every day. I want to write like that. I wouldn't mind getting 15 to 20 comments on each blog like some do.

My husband says he could care less if he gets any comments. He posts what he wants and isn't concerned about how much traffic he gets. I don't believe him. I know better. Still, I think he has a healthier attitude about his blog than I do. I just want to be able to write well and have people enjoy what they read. Seems like there is a deeper issue here that I need to deal with.

Like many people today, I am somewhat desensitized when it comes to viewing violence and human suffering, either in the movies, television or real life events. I’ve seen pictures from crime scenes, car and train accidents and conflicts where people have lost their lives under brutal conditions. Fortunately I’ve never witnessed any of these things in person, and if I did, I’m sure I would feel differently about what I had seen.

On the other side of things, I find that I cannot bear to witness harm come to an animal. I don’t like to hear about abuse, neglect or torture being done to animals for medical purposes or harvesting of body parts for human consumption. I’m not a vegetarian and I know that if I knew what the animals went through I would probably never eat meat again, but when I think about where my food comes from it does make me sad that we have to use animals in this way.

It upsets me when I hear about bears in China that are kept so they can drain their gall bladders for some Chinese medicinal use. The process is done on the bears without any painkillers and the poor creatures are left to live in pain and misery. Pregnant horses are kept in stalls without exercise and are not allowed to drink too much water so that their urine is very concentrated. This is done so that the menopause medicine called Premarin can be made. Premarin stands for pregnant mare urine. PETA does a lot of things for the benefit of animals and I know that they tend to get out of hand, but some of the things they show that happen to animals just make me ill. I don't know why I feel this way towards animals and not so much towards people and I often wonder about it. Maybe it's because people can do something about their situation but animals are helpless.

I'm not immune to human suffering and it does affect me, especially when it comes to children. My mother-in-law is a foster parent and she takes in newborn babies that are addicted to drugs. She also has toddlers that are abused, neglected and unwanted by their birth parents. It's a good thing that she does and others like her because it is a sad world we live in.

I had mentioned in The Things I Do that I was concerned about making the right impression at my family reunion and that being from California people may have expected me to look a certain way. Well, I wasn’t wrong about that. I met several family members at the reunion that I had never met before and they all knew I was coming from California to attend the reunion.

One of the cousins I met said “Oh, you’re the one from California” and I’m like “Yeah” and he says “You don’t look like you’re from California”. What I was thinking was “What the hell am I supposed to look like you big dufus”??? I was nice though and said something about not liking the sun and how I don’t tan, I only burn and blah, blah, blah. I don’t want to make it sound like I had a bad experience, because it was in no way bad. This is just something I had anticipated happening and was actually surprised that it came true.

I'm back from my trip to Michigan and everything went well. I was able to spend some quality time with aunts, cousins, my favorite uncle and grandparents. I was going to post some pictures, but for some reason I get an error message. I'll have to spend some time getting that to work.

Michigan was absolutely beautiful this time of year. Everything was so green and spectacular. The weather was great too. Just a day or two before I arrived the weather had been in the hundreds with very high humidity. The entire time I was there, the temperature was moderate with low humidity. It couldn't have been better.

Three things I noticed about Michigan that were different from California:

1. tailgating on the freeway is common

2. there are no toilet seat covers in public restrooms
3. when going to a restaurant they still ask you if you want “smoking or non-smoking”

The posted freeway speed there is 70 mph, but most of the people were driving 80 mph or higher. That is not much different than California really, except we don’t have signs showing that deer may be crossing the highways whenever they doggone feel like it.

No toilet seat covers??? What’s that all about? All I could think is ewwww!

Smoking or non-smoking? Have they figured out how to tell the smoke from the smoking section to stay out of the non-smoking section? I don’t know, here in California, you can’t even smoke on the beach. I’m not complaining about that, I think it’s great.

All said, I am looking forward to my next trip to Michigan sometime next year. My husband and I will go together this time because my family wants to get to know him too. I think he would have a good time.