I wonder, do all couples have couple speak?  Things that you have given a new name?  Barrie and I have alot of this.  From pet names for the cats to ordinary boring day to day things.  We give FC” stickin’ sticks” instead of giving him his insulin.  the bottom of the recliner where the cats jump up and lie down is called the “flicky out thing”.  It’s funny really.  Barrie is definitely the leader in this.  He comes up with these silly things all the time.  His latest, Sleepy Brown Time is the time in the afternoon when the cats and I all take a nap.  It is amazingly annoying, and I have to admit a little funny.  I was just wondering anyone else has this kind of couple speak or family speak?

While driving to Home Depot this morning I heard a toe tapping song on the radio.  Only when it was over did I think, “I like that song.”  My next thought was “Damn, I wish I had used my Shazam to get the name of it..” (ipod/phone app that lets you record a bit of a song and then it goes out and finds the name and artist for you-Awesome right?  No more sitting in front of the radio with a tape recorder trying to catch the DJ saying the name or playing the song.  Kids today have it so easy…)  and right behind that one I thought “That will make a good summer song.”  So then my brain went off to summer songs.  Why are there some songs that just scream summer? I am sure you must be thinking of one or two right now.  “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince.  “Who let the dogs out?”  Baja Men.  Last summer it was Michael Franti and “Say Hey (I love you)”, the summer before that I think I sang that stupid Kid Rock take off  “All Summer Long” until I wanted to vomit.  What songs are you thinking of as you read this?  Let me know.  I want to make a summer song playlist.

I know the economy sucks right now.  When I tell people I am moving to a new, bigger house, people look at me like I am crazy and I understand.  I have been lucky, very lucky to stumble across this deal.  Not only are we buying a house,  we are buying a brand new house.  I have been able to pick out everything and tailor this house to my person taste.  Like the outdoors but hate being in it?  Add a sun room.  Husband need a bigger space for all his toys?  Add a bonus room.  Love taking baths?  Add a whirlpool tub.  From the flooring to light fixtures, I have had input  on just about everything.  And I am lucky.  I know this.  Just taking a minute and realizing  how fortunate I have been.  Brand new house, husband I love recovering nicely, family and friends all ok.  Lucky Lucky me.

I am not catholic.  I am not particularly religious.  But there are things that I do that I don’t necessarily think you have to be religious to practice.  One of those things is Saint Anthony’s Pray for lost things.  I listen to Bob and Sheri, and have been for years.  I have heard them talking about Saint Anthony on several occasions.  I listened with interest and filed away the many testimonials from callers about how it works and the fact that you do not have to be catholic.  It helped that the prayer is a rhyme, easy for my poor old brain to remember.  I filed it away because most of the time if I lose something I can find it pretty quick.  This weekend, I lost my Barrie’s house and car key and fob for my car.  How did I lose them?  We had been out and just arrived back home.  I needed to use the bathroom and instead of digging out my keys, I just told him to give me his keys since he had them out from driving.  He went to the mailbox; I went into the house, put his keys and my purse on the kitchen counter and went straight to the bathroom.  I remember this because I remember thinking he was going to come in and ask me for my keys and I would be able to tell him to look on the counter. There was a bit of a mess in the bathroom from the cats and by the time I cleaned it up and scooped their box, then used the bathroom, he came in and asked me where his keys were (psychic).  I told him the kitchen counter, he looked and they were gone.  So the search began.  We looked everywhere.  I had 2 purses downstairs on the table, we both looked several times.  We methodically looked the entire downstairs of the house over twice!  I even put on gloves and checked the cat poo to make sure I hadn’t accidentally put the keys in the bag.  I mean we looked everywhere.  The only 2 things we came up with were they accidentally got dropped in the toilet and I flushed them, or someone snuck in the house and stole them off the counter.  So, I said the Saint Anthony Prayer Sunday night.  Tuesday afternoon Barrie was cleaning out the garage and found something that had been lost since he was in the hospital.  A small bag I use during school instead of my purse to tote my keys, cell phone and iPod in when I go into the schools.  The last time I had seen it was when Anna was here to and he was in the hospital.  That was the last time I remember seeing it.  So I ask Saint Anthony for and he brings my little bag- which to be fair was the item that had been lost the longest.  I was happy to see the purse but confused as all heck how it got in the garage, under some boxes.  So I put it in my drawer and last night Before going to bed, I said the prayer and asked again.  This morning was a slow unorganized morning getting out the door.  I realized while driving that I was not wearing my headset so I started digging around in my purse to find it.  The first thing I put my hands on in my purse?  Those damn keys.  I pulled them out and started laughing in amazement.  When I called Barrie he was as bewildered as I.  We had both checked this purse on separate occasions, and I had changed from purse A to this purse, Purse B Sunday night.  This was not even the purse I had been carrying Saturday!  Yesterday at school I spent about 5 minutes routing around in this purse to find change for the coke machine and did not see the keys then.  HOW FRICKING WEIRD IS THAT?  2 lost items recovered in 2 days in weird places that had already been searched?  I guess the thing is, if they weren’t in weird places, they wouldn’t be lost.  Barrie and I have this weird vision of  Saint Anthony  tiptoeing around with your lost item in his hand  with a  joyous look dropping your stuff in weird locations.  Still, I have to say if you have lost something and are just tired of looking, give Saint Anthony a try. Barrie told me to ask him about the million dollars he lost……to me that seems like pushing it.

Thank goodness I saved my password in this login or I KNOW I would not have remembered it.  It has been a long time since I written in this blog.  I know at least 50 days, probably more.  My husband got sick in January and ended up in the hospital for over 6 weeks.  I was beside myself with grief and worry, and towards the end I was really crazy.  During the whole time I thought about doing blog entries but I just could not make myself do it.  I actually do have a few private entries I did when the stress and worry had me about to drive my car off a bridge.  Blogging is really a wonderful way for me to relieve stress.  I doubt I show those to anyone, and trust me, you wouldn’t want to read them.  But what I do what to do for my first trip back to blog town is talk about being prepared.

If you live with someone, husband, boy friend, girl friend, significant other whoever, take the time in the next week to investigate a few things. I learned all this the hard way, I want to save others from having this experience.

If you  or your partner got suddenly sick- do you know where their insurance information is?  Do you know their medical history? if your partner has to be out of work for an extended time, do you have enough money to survive that saved up?  Does your partner have any insurance or disability  that will pay them money while they can not work?  If they do have something- make sure that the policy covers accidents and illness. And make sure that you are listed on this account( and all others) as someone who can access, make changes and get information about this policy.

What about your job?  If your partner is out what are your rights?  Will they pay you if you are out for a few days or weeks?  Do you have any kind of saving or plan for this?  Trust me, talk to your sig other this week and get this straightened out.

My husband was in the hospital for 38 days.  He has been home for 14 days and we both have only gotten one paycheck  apiece this entire time.  We were your average healthy 40 somethings and really had not given much thought to something this catastrophic happening to either of us.  He had supplemental  insurance that we thought would pay him while he was out, turns out it was only for accidents, not illness.  So let me be a lesson for you you all.  Investigate this while you have the leisure….not when it is an emergency.

Have you every had something that is just making you crazy…something that you really need to say, but you would consider it the height of rudeness to actually say it?  I have something bumping around in my head right now, and I want so badly to call out the person/people who are doing it.  As a matter of fact, this is not the first time these people have been really rude and thoughtless, but once again it is rubbing me the wrong way.  I know, I know, they are my buttons and I am letting someone else push them, letting them push them over and over, but I have a hard time believing that people can be so rude and self-obsessed and did I say rude?  I find it funny that Americans have a reputation of being the rudest people as a whole, but I have been exposed to a lot of different cultures in my short 43 years on this planet and I can tell you for a fact, there are countries out there that are way more opinionated and don’t have a problem saying how horrible Americans are.  I am just so tired of  it and I am about to remove these people from my life.  So if in a few days you find yourself unfriended or wonder “Why isn’t she taking my calls?”  well you’ll know you were one of the ones I just have had enough of.  Because I can’t change your self-absorbed, self-destructive , self-pitying behavior, I can control whither or not I chose to be around you.

The start of a new year is the time most people go full tilt on making changes.  I gave up a long time ago making new years resolutions.  I realized that  when you are ready; you will change.  The 1st of January whatever the year is not some magical time that will enable you to withstand the pressure that is associated with any change.  You have to be ready and accepting for change to make it  really happen.  Unless you are the one initiating the change you fuss and fight against it.  Think about it, when was the last time someone or something changed and you were happy about it?  It can be full blown hate or merely a chaffing.  It can be work change, a change in your personal status, a change in a person you know.  Unless you brought it about, change is hard to live with.

I came to this realization thinking about Doctor Who. My favorite TV show that is on the air right now.  As Doctor Who is want to do, we just had a change in Doctors.  Since I have been a serious Who watcher, this is my 4th Doctor I have had.  This is the 4th actor that I have had to watch and wait and see how he would not be my beloved Doctor from before.  I would sit with my arms tightly crossed, back stiff,  frown on my face and watch the shows with my head turned slightly away from the TV to display my displeasure and to show this new guy that this change was not what I wanted.  And gradually every time, I found my posture relaxing, I found my frown gradually transforming to a smile, and soon I would be watching and waiting eagerly for the next episode, the next story.

I have been change resistant for this one.  I had him for 4 years, and every single quirk he has I love and adore.  It’s more than the actor though.  I also lose his universe.  I lose his companions and their families.  I lose his villains and  aliens that he associates with.  I lose  his humor and his costume….I lose it all.  I spend a lot if time in that universe.  I day dream there.  I find myself laughing during the day at something that reminds me of Doctor Who.  Barrie and I quote Doctor Who quotes all the time.  I’m losing all that too.  It feels like losing a friend, not one you knew in high school that  you never talk to anymore, but a true friend, a proper friend that you talk to on Facebook every day and think about just as often.  This is not just losing an actor on a some TV show.  This is me losing my Doctor.  My Doctor and my friend who has been all over my life for the last 4 years.  Sad to see him go.  Which brings me back to my original though; change sucks.

Well, it has started. Last night I started my holiday viewing. Rankin and Basses “Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer”. It was just as great as I remembered it. I love watching it. I enjoy it so much that Barrie bought it for me a few years ago. It is not Christmas time until you see Herbie the elf pull the Bumbles’ teeth. I also caught “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” I was surprised to see that I don’t actually own it, so I put it on my list. ABC Family has a feature called “DVD on TV” where they play part of the DVD specials inter-cut with the show. It was awesome to see the kids grown up and hear the cute little stories about the filming. I am realizing that for me, for it to feel like Christmas I must have lots of stuff around me from my childhood. Music, TV shows…..doesn’t matter. It’s funny, I don’t really remember things very well, I can’t tell you a memory of watching Rudolph or recall a particular time scene when I hear the Jackson Five sing “Christmas Won’t be the same this year” but it gives me a certain felling. Maybe that feeling is Christmas.

So yesterday the popo’s paid a visit to my house.  Barrie and I had actually gone out and met some friends for breakfast.  We had finished maybe 30 minutes earlier and were browsing in Sear’s looking  for a new coffee maker since the one here at the house had died.  My cell phone went off.  I looked at the number and I didn’t recognize it so I just let it go to VM.  I commented about how weird it was because it was a SC number and we had just left our only SC friends in Bob Evans.  We didn’t find what we were looking for so we came out and Barrie felt his phone vibrate and he looked at his.  He had a missed call and a voicemail from an SC number too.  So he checked the message.  It was from our alarm company; the alarm at our house was going off and they were calling to let us know that the police had been sent out.   That has to be one of the worst calls you can get right up there with a family or friend being seriously  sick or being in a bad accident.  Anyone who has ever had a home invasion or someone steal something from you, you know what I mean.  On the short drive home I called back to let Comporium know we were on our way and we talked about what could be going on.  In your mind, all you can think about is what could be being stolen.  “My laptop, my itouch, Barrie’s ipod, all the system equipment, the keys to the 2 cars still at home, the flat screen TV’s.  When we turned on our street, we could see 2 cop cars parked outside, and when we pulled on the drive we could see the door was open and  we could hear the alarm was going.  We went up and pushed open the door Barrie called out “Hello?” and around the corner came 2 policemen with guns out.   Barrie was like  “Oh…” and the police were like “Hold it right there Sir.”   We shut the door and turned off the alarm.  And after explaining talking to the police we started a walking inventory.  Laptop-check.  Itouch-check, iphone-check.  As far as we can tell there was not a break in.  Everything was fine and dandy.   As a matter of fact, the front door while ajar when the police got there was still locked.  No marks on the door jam, no signs of forced entry.  No broken windows.  Not sure how the door managed to blow open and set the alarm off.  We had been out to breakfast over and hour so it is not like we didn’t shut it after setting the alarm.  It’s a mystery really, but it was such a relief to get home and see that whatever it was, it was not a case of use being robbed 5 days before Christmas.

This is the 3rd weekend in a row that they have predicted snow in my area.  For 2 weekends now  I have changed my plans because of the weather.  This time I refuse to believe that there is going to be any weather at all.  I am going ahead with my plans.Weather has fooled me twice, and I refuse to let it get me a 3rd time.  (Of course this time  it will snow and here I will be without bread and beer!)