A Little South of Sanity

Yesterday we took JJ to the beach. It was a beautiful day- not a cloud in the sky. Yes, it was a little on the cold side, but with no wind and the sunshine on our faces it was actually perfect. A few hours later the wind started picking up, so the temps started dropping pretty quickly and we headed home. It was dinner time anyway, so it didn’t matter. Everyone had the same idea, since there were many people and puppies everywhere the eye could see.

This morning, when I looked outside, there was a blanket of white covering everything. I couldn’t believe it. In fact, I thought I was dreaming, but I wasn’t. Thankfully the temps aren’t below the freezing point, so it didn’t last for long, but I am seriously hoping this is the last of the snow for this winter season. I’m ready for spring. Since the crocus and daffodils are starting to bloom, I don’t think that Father Winter got the memo that spring was on it’s way.

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I’m going to try to get out of the house for a little while. Sitting in here is not helping and I know that I need to try to work through some of the grief that I’m feeling. I know it won’t be easy, and I know that it will take time, but I need to do something. If I can just get through today. If I can just get through today.

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The past few days I’ve been remembering so many little things about Carol. Things that I haven’t thought about since the time that they happened, such as the time she took a bunch of loose diamonds from earrings and a necklace that Denny had given her, along with her engagement diamond and they had it made into a beautiful ring for her. Carol always wore white gold, and that ring was one of the most beautiful I’d ever seen.

Funny how those tiny little memories mean so much to me now.

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There is so much spinning in this head of mine right now. Today is my Aunt Carol’s funeral. She was my best friend for many years, and one of the most loving, caring, generous people I ever knew. Those who knew her loved her.

I wanted to go home, but in the end, I didn’t. My heart is there with them, and at the moment I feel a little lost. This morning I had an email from a friend asking if I could help her with a finance job search because she was planning on leaving the company she currently works for, but I told her that at the present moment, I just didn’t think I could. I think she was trying to help keep my mind occupied, but right now, I just can’t. I’ll try next week.

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For some of you who read my other blogs, you may have read that my aunt/friend passed away on the 3rd. It was a sudden thing, and I have struggled with whether to go home or stay here. It has been a difficult decision to make, but in the end, I decided to stay here.

Tonight is the visitation, or wake as we call it in the Deep South and tomorrow morning the funeral. It’s heartbreaking to lose such a wonderful person, but heaven gained an angel. I think about all the times we sat under the ceiling fans and ate crawfish, or when we would have late night Canasta games while eating M&M’s and drinking Diet Coke. It has been a long time since those days, but I remember them so fondly, and I miss Carol so much.

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After seeing this, all I can say is that I hope that the person who wrote this article AND the person who is the editor of this newspaper lost their job. I mean come on… seriously? Since I didn’t see the article, I can’t say if this was meant as a joke, but if it wasn’t, then I have to say that someone should hide under a table or something.

Talk about making Mississippi (Yes, I spelled it correctly) look bad.

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I was just watching a video on Fox News that was talking about Joran van der Sloot, who has yet again admitted to someone that he was responsible for getting rid of Natalie Holloway’s body when she was in Aruba. Apparently Joran, who is obviously a few fries short of a happy meal openly admitted to a German news show that he was involved with getting rid of her body.

A few weeks ago Joran’s dad died suddenly and some have said that they should have got life insurance quotes long before he passed away. One thing is certain, I feel that Joran is very mentally disturbed and I personally believe that he either killed Natalie Holloway or at least disposed of her body. I just wish he would lead the police to some evidence, so the poor Holloway family can find some peace and closure in this nightmare. It’s hard to believe it has been five years since that horrible tragedy.

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Well, I noticed a few days ago that I had Spring Fever, and I guess with that came the urge to do some cleaning. I was going through some boxes yesterday and found literally hundreds of old books that I’ve read and really am not doing anything with. I was going to give them to the local thrift store, but instead I thought maybe I could sell books and see if it would maybe bring in some extra cash. After all, you know what they say- One man’s trash is another mans treasure.. although I can never really say that I consider books trash. I will probably have a difficult time parting with them, but they are just sitting there, so why not free the space and make a lil money in the process? Has anyone else ever done this?

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I was reading the Fox News website a little while ago, which is what I do when I want to find out what’s going on in the world without having to hear all the negativity. This way, all I do is see the negative and sometimes more often than not, crazy titles that are making up today’s headlines.

Now one article that did catch my eye is that they is a group of physicians who are trying to get companies to come up with a safer hot dog. I decided to read the aritcle, since I definitely ate my share of them when I was younger and don’t ever recall choking on them.

The article talks about how in almost half of the choking deaths in the United States are related to food. Now, I don’t want to sound insensitive, because I know it’s horrible to lose a child regardless of the circumstances, but I am interested to know what the statistics were when I was a child compared to what they are today. There were no warning labels, but these days it seems everything comes with a warning label. Truth is, I don’t think it’s so much to really warn the people, but more as a disclaimer for the companies to avoid lawsuits.

What do you think?

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Last night at around one in the morning the phone rang. Marcel had been in bed for about 45 minutes and I’d fallen asleep on the sofa watching Cold Case. After being jolted out of a sound sleep by the sound of the phone, my first thought was to grab it before it woke Marcel. My second thought was that it was the ringtone I have set for my mother and sister-in-law so I knew it was one of them. Third thought was that something was wrong.

Probably about the time I actually said hello was when the third thought kicked in. My heart was racing 100 miles an hour and all I could think about was how I was about to have to tell Marcel (who had just had a really bad day) that something was wrong with the family. Turns out that wouldn’t be the case.

His sister was calling to offer him an opportunity to go this morning to see a sporting event with one of his favorite teams. Seriously? Not only that, she wanted me to wake him up and ask him if he wanted to go. I told her that I didn’t think that was a good idea because 1- he doesn’t like to be awakened when he’s sleeping, and 2- he’d had a really bad day. She assured me that he wasn’t going to get mad at me, but insisted that I wake him up and get him to come to the phone.

Against my better judgement, I went in and gently woke him up. I explained what his sister wanted and he said tell her he didn’t want to go. That was that. She did apologize for calling, but it took me about an hour and a half before I could fall asleep again. Middle of the night calls being awakened from a dead sleep shake me up that bad.

This morning he called and asked if she’d lost her mind. Even though her intentions were good, he told her that she’d better never call here after 11 iin the evening anymore unless it was an emergency. Rather than apologizing, both she and Marcel’s mom tried to justify it. If it happens again, I’ll turn the ringer to the phone off, and if any emergencies occur most people know I have my cell phone on all the time. I’m not sure they have the number, and I think I’ll keep it that way.

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