Wednesday, March 31, 2010

It's Gonna Take an Ocean....of Calamine Lotion....

The lyrics to a 1970's song..."Poison Ivy." If I had known then what I know NOW...well, suffice it to say that I would NEVER have sang that song! Yes'm...I still have poison ivy. I went in last Saturday for a decadron shot. Decadron is a steroid. For some reason I can take that shot without any adverse affects whereas the prednisone pills turn me into the Incredible Hulk...a VERY ANGRY Incredible Hulk. I define 'roid rage when I am on prednisone. In addition to the uncontrollable anger, my blood pressure shoots off the scale and I no longer need the lowly human condition of sleep. My heart rate sets new staccato beats and I am literally beside myself.

Anywho...I went in for the shot and immediately began to feel better. Saturday and Sunday I was itch-free and my arms cleared up. My legs didn't itch and the pills for itching were doing their thing! Yea!! Then Sunday afternoon reared an ugly head and the itching began again...on the legs. By Monday, it was worse. By Tuesday I had a full blown re-emergence of PI on the legs. They itch like crazy. They burn. The pills no longer work and I claw like a crab trying to get back to the water. My stomach hurts from the pills I am taking and I have pretty much had a constant high, or at least dizziness, since the shot on Saturday morning. I called my doctor's office today and at this point...five hours later....I am waiting for a return call. Call me crazy if you will, but I am ready to take the stinkin' prednisone even with all the crazy side effects!

Consider this a warning. I may take those pills. You might want to steer clear of me for a while. I can already feel myself morphing into Ziva David...trained Moussad assassin! Don't know what it's gonna take, but I am going to eradicate and eliminate this Poison Ivy...even if it kills me..or you. Pray for us all.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Before and After...

You know you're a grown up when you get more joy spending your money on home decor than on things for yourself personally. Rather than new clothes, or jewelry, or fragrances or whatever...I am thrilled to change out my bedroom. I get such a sense of joy just walking through the room and taking in the changes. Really, it's mostly just a change in color scheme...but it's soothing and I am joyful!

Witness for yourself the transformation...

Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Random after shots:





From burgandy and tan to chocolate and teal. Who knew what a difference it could make?

Group Therapy

Nothing like a little "Group Therapy" to make things right in your world. "Group Therapy" is the name that my girlfriends and I have dubbed our group. We came together in crisis and formed a friendship that supersedes time, distance and events. We met in Lancaster as we all worked for the school district there. Three of us became new principals at the same time and we stumbled our way through our first year with many phone calls, emails and after hours dinners and drinks. One member was our special programs director and we would not have made it without her constant vigilance and help. The fifth member of our party joined us a bit later in the role of public relations director or some such nonsense that didn't even begin to explain her duties or her importance to us. If the musketeers could have five instead of three...that would be us.

When I say that our relationship stretches beyond the boundaries that would eradicate normal relationships I am not exaggerating. We have, through the years, supported each other through the deaths of parents and siblings, the diagnoses of cancer for two of our children, the marriages and divorces and remarriages of some of our children, the births of our grandchildren, the changes of jobs and relocation for some of our members, the retirements of two of us and the marriage of one of us. We have shared such times of joy and heartache, in equal doses it seems, that we are forged together. When one has joy we all celebrate. When one hurts, we all cry and pray. That is who we are. That is why we dubbed our group...Group Therapy.

The hectic pace of our individual lives caused us to allow time to slip away and before we knew it, we had not gotten together as a group for almost three years. During that time various ones of us would see each other and we continued to email but we didn't MAKE TIME for each other or for ourselves. No more!! We have decided as a group that we WILL get together quarterly and we will wallow in our time together and relish each precious moment. Four of us were able to get together in February and at that time we rather ambitiously decided that we would get together monthly. We have rethought that. We will, however, get together quarterly with each person in turn playing hostess and planning the therapy session.

I took my turn this weekend! What fun we had!! To begin with, I made reservations for the five of us at the Hyatt Garland on George Bush. We come from all different cities (Rockwall, Odessa, Lancaster, Ennis and Frisco)so this seemed like a good location and central to the activities I had planned. The hotel was very nice and the personnel were very accommodating. Since we had a full afternoon and evening planned we arrived at the hotel at noon, three hours before check-in, and the staff didn't bat an eyelash at securing our luggage and finding a refrigerator for our snacks! After dropping of our belongs we headed out for lunch...Pei Wei at Firewheel Center. Yummy!



Carol, JoDell, Jeanne, Prissy and Delia


After our delicious lunch we headed to D'Vine Wine so that I could purchase my favorite cranberry shiraz to share with the girls later. We also wanted to look at their painted wine glasses because that was the project for the evening once we returned to the hotel.


Next we headed out to stroll through the Dallas Arboretum. Dallas Blooms was going on and even though we had a recent incident with snow in late March, the dogwoods, the forsythia, the tulips...it was all incredibly beautiful. While there we had our picture made together for a future therapy session. We are going to a winery to make our own wine with our personalized label!

The Girls at the Arboretum







After the Arboretum we made our way to Mockingbird Station and had dinner at Margarita Ranch. This is, without a doubt, my FAVORITE Mexican food place. It has a kitchy little bar feel and their spinach and mushroom enchiladas with green sauce are to die for! When you put your "favorite" out there for people you can lead to some pretty high expectations and possible disappointment. I wanted my friends to love MR as much as I do. I'm pretty sure they did. We were there for three and a half hours. Appetizers, dinner and margaritas by the pitcher! Maybe the three pitchers of margaritas influenced their decision, but I don't think so.


After MR, as if we hadn't stuffed ourselves enough, we went to Stone Cold Creamery for some delicious ice cream. While there some young man in a convertible kept driving by, honking and yelling to us. I'm sure that he had never seen such a bevy of beauties and just didn't know how to contain himself. Probably thought, "Let me give the old broads a thrill to talk about for months!" Little did he know we are tech savvy and he would merit a place in a blog!!

Ice cream finished we headed back to the hotel where we took up our project and painted glasses. Two painted wine glasses, two painted martini glasses and one painted a water glass/vase. We giggled, made fun of our own efforts, one of us (okay, me) splattered painted all over her new jammies and face. Don't ask how. We had a great time. About midnight we headed off to bed.

You know you are true friends when you don't complain about your sleeping mates ridiculous snoring and fidgeting (okay, me again). We slept the night away and awoke to a beautiful, if somewhat brisk, Sunday morning.

Breakfast at IHOP and our therapy session was done...until June. I can hardly wait to see what Jeanne has in store for us.


Prissy, I love you. What can I say. Thanks for putting up with my fidgeting and snoring. Thanks for sleeping with me...in a good way. Thanks for always being there for me when I can't manage to pull it together. You are my sister at heart.

Jo, I always come away from our get-togethers amazed by your strength of character and how you are so involved in your own health and don't just rock along with whatever the doctor says. You are an amazing woman and I am certain that someone of the male persuasion is going to recognize that in you. They have no idea what they are missing!

Jeanne, I am so impressed with your dedication to making education beneficial for all the stakeholders...even though you "retired." You are still in there trying to help administrators help their teachers and their students. Bless you, my friend.

Delia, I can't go three years between get-togethers with you. I miss you, my sister. You are such a skilled and beautiful person that my prayer is that towards the end of Tommy's working career you will both find yourselves back in this area where we can have our "De time," too.

Friday, March 19, 2010

A Rose by Any Other Name.....

Or, should I say, "A vine by any other name...is still poison ivy." Read my last post about yard work. Suffice it to say, I am now reaping the rewards of my energetic attack on the hackberry trees. Yesterday the little bubbly blisters surfaced on my arms. Today, they are on my legs and tummy. I swear that I didn't see ANYTHING that even vaguely resembled poison ivy. I didn't SEE it, but apparently I TOUCHED it! My last battle with P.I. was ugly!!! I missed 11 days of work and the doctor threatened to put me in the hospital on a steroid drip. Yep, I took prednisone and every time they tried to lower the dose I freaked out. My blood pressure skyrocketed, my heart rate went to over 200 beats per minute and my poison ivy would resurface somewhere. I had a massive case of "roid rage" and slept for something like 7 minutes a night and was NEVER tired.

In an effort to head off this attack, I took a Zyrtek tablet last night. My allergist gave me this for an unspecific rash that sometimes breaks out on my neck..looks like a burn and itches like crazy. But I digress. Took the Zyrtek last night and it royally kicked my butt. I slept 13 hours last night, got up at 10 this morning to run some errands. Back home by noon. Lunch and then was soooo exhausted I lay down for a "short" nap. Slept another four hours!! Got up groggy and foggy headed. Oh, and the poison ivy is still spreading. Can't even take my weekly allergy shot because poison ivy is already an allergic reaction so to add another allergen to the mix is apparently not a smart thing to do. Only option is to make an appointment with Dr. Sandknop and get a decadron shot...or tough it out. Right now I am going for the "tough" route but by Monday I may be singing a totally different song!

Monday, March 15, 2010

What Was I Thinking?

In my last post did I really say, "Woohoo for Spring Break?" I must seriously reconsider my position on that. Today...Monday...the first day of Spring Break! Went to the dentist and left with squeaky clean teeth that look shades lighter just from cleaning!! So far...so good. Then I got the brilliant idea that it was a beautiful day so we should do some yard work. Operative word being "some." Ronnie had trimmed all the trees around the house on Sunday and just left the branches where they fell. So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided that we needed to drag all that down to the burn pile. Not ridiculously difficult, but no, I couldn't stop there. We have had some trees down at the back of our property line that I have always been scared of. They are seriously overgrown and once they start blooming you can't see what is in there. I am certain it is a haven for snakes. Ronnie has actually seen a snake about 5 feet long down there. But until they start blooming, they are just a bunch a scraggly branches with giant thorns on them (Hackberry trees). I took the pole lopper and began work thinning them out. When I got tired, I got the reciprocal saw and continued. I got almost 1/3 of the area cleared out. Ronnie came to help after he couldn't get the burn pile to light. We worked until the battery ran out on the reciprocal saw. It felt really good to get that much accomplished...until I sat down to rest. I immediately fell asleep on the sofa for over two hours and woke up to pains in my shoulders, my elbows and my hips. After a hot bath, I am still soooo tired and ready for bed. Not sure that I can pull that off at 7:30 though.

Tomorrow and Wednesday should be easier. Tomorrow I'm going with Kristin and the boys to take pictures at the Arboretum. Wednesday we are taking a day trip to Shreveport to play a little on the slot machines. Then Thursday and Friday...I know I'm just begging for punishment, but I will probably go back down there and tackle those trees again. I am so encouraged by how good the area I got done looks. But there is still sooooooo much more to do! What the heck, I can rest after Spring Break!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Yea for Spring Break...

Spring Break is here!! Woohoo!! It's not that I have anything special planned, it's that I don't have to work! While I am forced to admit that I do enjoy my job, it's nice to be able to step away from that for a few days. To be able to sleep in, eat when I want, take a nap, read a book....it's leisure to me. My "big" plans for the week include a trip to the dentist for cleaning and x-rays, a trip to Plano to help corral the kids while Kristin takes their spring pictures, and a day trip to Shreveport to play the slots. Not earth shattering plans by any stretch of the imagination but just the kind of low-keyed break that I need. So, no wild Padre parties, no green beer down on lower Greenville, no wild and crazy "stuff." Just hanging and chillin'. What more could I ask for?

A War of Words

I have literally spent the last four days in an online, email war with my brother-in-law. I hate fighting, with anyone, but it's worse with family. You expect them to respect you and your opinion instead of treating you like some street-corner idiot who doesn't know their left hand from their right.

Last Thursday we went out for our ritual family dinner. The cast included me, my husband, my son and his partner, my dad and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Everyone except me, Ronnie and Daddy was drinking and according to ALL of them, it only took one margarita to make them drunk. Maybe that's where the trouble began...

Someone (Ryan) brought up something about politics and the fight was on. I stayed out of it...at the time. My in-laws are staunch liberal democrats as is my son and his partner. My husband is firmly conservative Republican and I am an entrenched conservative independent. My dad...all I know is that he liked Obama and now he doesn't. Ronnie, Ryan and Glen got into a "discussion" regarding whether things have improved since Obama took office. You can see the many red flags developing here. In an effort to bring things to an end I put my wallet away, pushed my chair back and said, "The only politician I would give a dime for is Ralph Hall." My brother-in-law immediately asked, "Why?" I said, "Because I believe him to be a man of integrity." He shot back, "Why?" I saw red. He continued on berating Hall for switching from the democratic party to the republican party and all the reasons why he thought it was wrong. I said, "Then we will agree to disagree on this matter because you are not changing my mind about a man I have worked side by side with and have personal knowledge of." The end. Right?

The following evening, Friday, I got an email from said BIL with a wikipedia definition of integrity and an excerpt from a news clipping quoting Hall on his change of parties. My head spun around, my eyes bugged out, my tongue shot out of my mouth...split into two and did battle with itself, steam poured out of my ears and my face turned purple. Don't treat me as if I am a moron. I damn well know what integrity is, thank you. I sent back a very restrained email in which I said, "Don't send me anymore of this. I disagree with your position and my opinion is every bit as valid as yours." The end again, right?

The following day I got an email saying, "This is fact, not opinion. Opinion should be based on fact." I responded immediately with, "No...this is political bullying and that is a fact! Respect my wishes and stop sending this crap." Finally the end, right?

Today I got another email which said, "You are being way too sensitive...." It went on to tell me that integrity is an issue with him and if I had said Hall was a personal friend or something else that would have been different. Blah, blah, blah. He included a cartoon about online bullying. I sent another email which said, basically, "No. I am not being way too sensitive. I assumed it was over at the restaurant when I said we will agree to disagree. YOU continued it when you sent an email basically telling me that I am too stupid to know what integrity is so you will not only define it for me but you will give me an example of why I am wrong." I said some other stuff, too, about my opinions being as valid as anyone else's and that bullying is an issue with me. I ended it with another statement about agreeing to disagree. Well, actually I ended it with a smartass comment..."Thanks for the lecture on political bullying. I was too ignorant to know what that is so thanks for setting the record straight. Then I indicated that I was joking...which I kinda was...but not completely. Please tell me that is the end of it. It is...right?

So much bullshit and for what purpose?