Sweet and Sour Life

Sharon's Driveway or Breakup Is Here at Last


While I was in Illinois getting ready to see Cats Musical with no shoes to wear other than my UGGS, my dear friend Laurie said to me, "You can not tell me that there is never a time in Homer Alaska that you do not need a nice pair of black pumps?!" I scanned my internal database and said, "No, there is really never a time one would need a pair of nice black pumps. Black Stilettos yes... and you'd change into them at the door of the bar."

This proves my point.

It was a sweet day with the news of Maya finally coming home from Vietnam, and Falcom doing well during his special education time with Amy, and Marina being taken to Sharon's for a play date at the same time. I had a delicious cup of coffee with Sharon and she told me the funniest story about a massage and a hot tub at the Homer Day Spa. Not a very 'Family Friendly' story. A real classic. I left there so happy. Trudged back down the mud path to my car with sweet feet.

And then I heard from Suzanne that her brother died this weekend. It had been coming on for some time. A brain tumor. There was gobs of time to prepare and finish and heal. But when the event finally plays out, it is a sad anxious time. The sour bite in life.

In light of this, I decided to drive us to Weight Watchers!

It could have been a big night for me. The reaching of my 10% goal! That means that they will give me a key chain and I will get to stand in front of the group with my hands held high in a Hallelujah pose while my friends applaud! I couldn't let Suzanne miss that.

Um, no it did not happen this week. How could it when I eat like a professional boxer? I did loose 1/2 a pound, so maybe next week.

Then I drug Suzanne to the Youth Summer Activity Fair at Paul Banks School. I was wondering why I would put her through something like that, with all those throngs of people, and especially when my ADD is bad and I didn't bring a calendar or anything, but... She found Karen who had just the right thing to say about her grief and so it was worth it. It was also worth it because Joslyn told me the gossip she heard from her son about how great Falcom was at the Jubilee. Totally worth it.



And to finish up the night we went to see this:



since we read the book for the book group and we had to see how it was going to condense into 2 hours. Yes, a slight disappointment. But still lovely. Especially when you watch it while eating this:
It might be a few more weeks until I reach that 10% goal.

On the way home, Suzanne asked me about the Retina A that we got from Dr. C. during our dermatology day. "How is that going for you?" she asked.

I flashed in my mind about how he gave me samples and how they were still sitting in my purse, even though I had asked him for a prescription, and even though Irene said to me when I told her I got that, 'What's the point? You won't use it.' and I swore that I would use it and become the hot babe the doctor promised I would be. "Um, I haven't gotten around to trying it yet."

Suzanne looked at me, probably remembering how she asked the Dr for some when he went on about how it was going to help get rid of wrinkles and everything else and since I was getting some she wanted to be a hot babe too, and said, "Me neither!" We started both laughing so hard. We laughed all the way past that hot spot of sweets; the Fritz Creek Store.

When we parted ways Suzanne said the evening was good medicine. I left her feeling that life was getting back to a little bit of sweet.

A Trip to the Dermatologist!

While I was in Illinois I had a thought, "Maybe it's time to go to a dermatologist." Then I had a conversation with my Dad's wife Kathy, "Maybe you should see a dermatologist." When I got home from Illinois, Suzanne called me and said, "I'm going to the dermatologist in Soldotna next week, wanna ride along?" I got the message and so yesterday I went in for my very first Mole Check.

Irene and I were kibitzing about how, if you must take a shirt off for a doctor, it is nice if the doctor is super hot just so that you can get the added bonus of a type of old lady thrill. We agreed that we both heard that this doc was not too hot and so she told me that I needed to pretend to have hepatitis so that I could go see this guy in Anchorage that is super hot and is also said to be gay and that would just make the whole thing even better... Ah, it was quite a laugh.

I thought of posting a picture of my moles, but my bandaide will have to do...

After a delightful drive with Suzanne to Soldotna we went into Dr. C's very tranquil peaceful office. We chit chatted in the office until Suzanne got called in and then she invited me in to her appointment with her. Yea, it was a hoot. I am so used to being in the office with my kids, being in the office with a girlfriend is so much more fun! She got biopsied for these things called 'fur-uncles' and then it was my turn for the mole check.

Now, I must mention here that Dr. C was not a bad looking guy at all and in fact kind of reminded me of a more serious Matt Wise (husband of Irene). After the appointment I had to call Irene and tell her that she could refer patients in the confidence of knowing that they would get to see a pretty good looking man. I thought that was hilarious, but Irene wanted to know more about my moles. Darn practitioners! I had to fess up that I will be having yearly mole checks from now on.

Yes, I have some suspicious looking moles. He took a picture of them. Then he looked at my face spot and told me it was nothing and then whacked it out. Then he looked at my feet and told me that I did not have fungus on my totally cracked feet. Now here is where it is so nice to have a girlfriend in the clinic with you.

Me: "So, what did he look like when I told him that I have a serious sock aversion."
S: "No change in affect."
Me: "What did he look like when I told him about the Balinese manicurists with the cheese grater."
S: "No change in affect."
Me: "What did he look like when I mentioned to you that we could go by the Agrium plant and get a haul of Uriah for these feet."
S: "Small smile."

A girlfriend will monitor the nuances.

We left the office giggling and happy with new band aids (mine right on my face. See Picture) and confidence that going up to Soldotna was the right decision. (By the Way: Priscilla decided not to ride to Soldotna with us to pick up her car because she had the chance to ride with J.H. We were dissed for a man! I'm kidding you Priscilla!)

Then we went to the gun shop for John



Then we went to Trustworthy Hardware for Vince.













Then we went to Gottschaks where I got a scolding from this lady.
It has been quite some years since I've had a scolding from a sales clerk, however, she was attempting to give me some perfect match foundation and informed me that she would not be able to apply this make-up on such dry uncared for skin! I was a travesty! Unless I begin nurturing my skin she would not be able to assist me in my beauty needs! Ouch!

Then sadly, even though we were not very starving Suzanne and I totally broke with Weight Watchers and ate this.

Afterwords, we could hardly move. All the blood rushed from our heads and into our stomachs and we moped around Fred Meyer's in a daze. We drove home hung over from food but giggling and happy that we went to the dermatologist together. Since I will now be an annual patient, we will make it an annual affair.

Day One of Not Driving to Town

It was a day of tidying up loose ends. JP came over this morning so that I could do her taxes for her. No, I don't have a secret math/accounting ability that no one ever knew about. I just have a computer that works and a link to turbo tax. It was fun to hang out with JP again.


After Falcom's tutoring Suzanne came and picked me up for Weight Watchers. I've lost 18 pounds! Suzanne even lost weight, even though she is a total cheese addict and our next book for book group will HAVE to be 'God Bless the Cheese Makers'! What is so great about Weight Watchers is that because we are tracking our weight we can see that we've only gained tiny amounts of weight only twice during this first quarter and that actually we are making a steady progression downward. We left the meeting motivated. Now lets see what happens in Soldotna on Wednsday... I fear a cheeseburger might be on the horizon! Yikee!



When I got home I chatted with Vince and after a while I asked, "Where is Marina?" He said, "She is chipping out the portal to Candy Land. It collapsed under the ice." Yes, she really said that. When she finally came in she said that the Princess came out and invited her to come down for the royal birthday.

Now Falcom and Marina and Vince are pillow fighting. Ah the life!

Back... in Homer AK

Home.

This crazy wonderful Hamlet by the Sea. Friends, Mess, Rotting Snow, Purple Couch.

DeeJay aged while I was gone. Marina can't leave him alone. Falcom is rocking out.

I spent the afternoon drinking coffee with Priscilla and having a wonderful catch up about all the things that she's been feeling and experiencing over the past two weeks.

Had big laughs at Weight Watchers, and lost 1.8 pounds! (Which if you will remember is 1.2 pounds more than I gained at the meeting I went to in Canton, Illinois.)

I love this place. Glad to be home.

Party at Suzanne's!

Another night, another party. Tonight was the Lia Sophia Jewelery party for J.G. at Suzanne's house with her friends from the Russian Village. The Russian Community here in Homer is a somewhat closed society and I have never had the opportunity to really hang with anyone from there before. It was so fun to find out about their way of life and the similarities and differences between our two cultures. Its funny to think about how different things are and we are only 15 miles apart. It felt a lot like being on Saipan; hanging with islanders and then going to an expat party. Or going to a Thai celebration and then going back to our regular white guy life.

Suzanne said this was the time for the party because the Lent for Old Believers starts this weekend. I said I would make enchiladas, she said yea cool since its not Lent. I think I must have missed something because I made chicken enchiladas and when I told Suzanne she said, "You said cheese! They aren't eating meat this week!" So there I was with gobs of chicken enchiladas and I couldn't feed anyone. My grandmother who is still inside of me was rolling in her Midwestern socks. Oh well, you can't feed all the people all the time. I especially felt this when they were all starting to get drunk and needed food.

The girls all stayed until 10:30, with the help of Suzanne who passed out one last round. I didn't get home until 11:30 and today I'm tired.