When Did I Get To Be So Old?

Ok, if you've been around my blog lately, you know my birthday was last month. My 48th. Lin over at Duck And Wheel With String did this post about a guy ahead of her in traffic doing a "Stevie Wonder" and clapping and thoroughly enjoying the music he was listening to, whilst still driving like a bat out of hell even though his hands were busy clapping and not at 10 and 2 on the wheel as they should be. I had just read the post shortly before I left the house to meet Lin at a Starbucks to commiserate about our kids' back to school experiences and to talk about you all. (Oops! I didn't type that, did I? Your ears weren't ringing were they? I was just kidding.)

As I hop on the interstate for what should be a 10-15 minute ride (ok, 20 if I would have went to the correct Starbucks!) I pull into a parking lot, I mean the interstate. It was bumper to bumper. I was getting increasingly more frustrated because I hate to be late. I was driving Anastasia's car because mine is out of commission at the moment. I wanted to reach for the CD player and play my road trip CD that I blast in heavy traffic to rock out to and basically calm myself the hell down. The first song is Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and I always crank it and sing along.) But her CD player is broken. Argghh. I couldn't take the Mix station anymore so I started hitting buttons and came on a new favorite, 104.1 The Jack. What the hell kind of name is that for a radio station, and why haven't I heard of it before? I Know Jack.Com or Be Jacks Friend.Com. This is soooo "my" music. (Yes, it's your music too Harriet!) Steve Miller Band, Scorpion's "Rock You Like A Hurricane" and then just as I hit my exit ramp...ahhhhhh...there it was...Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"! It was like a message from above that was sent to help me chill the hell out. I cranked it! And I was singing and rockin' out! As I got to the stop light at the end of the off ramp there was a homeless man panhandling. I don't do it often, but I thought, yes, I'm struggling, but I can give him a dollar. If he spends it on booze, it was the charitable thought that counts right? I mean, I can't control that. I rolled down the window, he walked over and I gave him the buck. He said God Bless and I said God Bless and he asked the time. I told him the time, the light changed and I closed the window and continued to rock out. Then it dawned on me that I hadn't lowered the radio when I gave him the money. And oh yes, the show! I hope he enjoyed the show as my car pulled up to the light. Lol!

After much needed laughs with Lin, I got in the car to drive home and Journey's "Any Way You Want It" came on and I thought, this is "my" station. It brought me back to back in the day, listening to this music. No responsibilities, no cares in the world. And then it hit me. Sometimes I have way to much responsibility and I have way too many cares in the world. It does get very overwhelming at times. But one of the themes that came up at the end of our blog pally Starbucks trip was, there are so many people that are less fortunate. I hold onto that, sometimes it's all I have. I also hold onto my sense of humor. (Sick and twisted as it may be at times.) And now I can escape a little with "my" music from back in the day. You know how sometimes a song you haven't heard in ages sparks a memory? Like that. Not that all my younger years were completely carefree, I mean I lost both my parents in my twenties, but some of those songs do bring back those little bits, that nostalgia.

(And how cool is this? I won the Rock Of Ages 80's Giveaway at Sassy Irish Lassie! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!)

Remember how back in the day music was so important to us? At what age did it stop being important? You know, at what age did the music become 'that horrible young people's music' and we became old?

What are some of your favorites, from back in your day, that you love to rock out to?

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

TGIF VGNO!

Time For A Party Game! - From Ann

"The Name Game"

Use the first letter of your name to answer the questions. Your answers need to be real places, names and things. Nothing made up :-> (You cannot use your name for #3 boy/girl "name" question.)

1. What is your name: Lola
2. A 4 Letter Word: Link
3. A Boys Name: Lance
4. A Girls Name: Louise
5. An Occupation: Lawyer
6. A Color: Lavender
7. Something you wear: Leggings
8. A Beverage: Lemonade
9. A Food: Lemon Meringue Pie
10. Something found in the bathroom: Lineament
11. A place: Lima, Peru
12. A Reason for being late: Log jam
13. Something you shout: Let's Go!

OK. It's your turn! I can't wait to see what you come up with.

This week's theme is Vacation and since Ann already posted one of my fav's by the Go-Go's, I'm going a little old school...Woodstock style. Enjoy!


Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Loyal Friend And Visitor Award - Thank You!

Stacey at All Stace, All The Time gave me this award last Friday. I apologize for the delay in posting.

This is the "Loyal Friend and Visitor Award." Way cool and totally awesome! Okay, so here are the rules:
1. Copy the loyal picture
2. Pass it to who you think is/are deserving.
3. Leave a message to them
4. Pass as many as you want.
5. Message back or leave a comment to the owner.

I am passing this onto: (in no particular order...)
1. Harriet @ I Am Harriet.
2. Auntie E @ At Home With Auntie E.
3. Kelley @ Kelley's Casa DeChaos.
4. Lin @ Duck And Wheel With String.
5. Patricia @ Communication Exchange.

Thank you to Stacey and thank you to all my wonderful bloggy pallies.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays - Back To School

Come join me for a very special edition of If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays! We'll be taking time out to share some memories. We'll Blog Back Time with possible ways to right past wrongs or about how times have changed. We'll share childhood memories, school/work memories, family and friend memories.

This Thursday's topic is: Back To School -

What are your School stories?

The Road Runner - my first lunchbox when I was a kid. I never really needed a lunchbox because my Grade School was around the corner from my house, but I insisted on having one nonetheless. (Mheep, Mheep!) I ran home for lunch, unless it was an Election Day, then I had to bring my lunch because my Mom was a Judge. If you timed me, I probably made it home, ate lunch, and ran back to the playground in 4 minutes flat. In the winter my Mom always made Mrs. Grass Chicken Noodle Soup and a lunchmeat sandwich and it was already on the table when I ran in. My Mom was Italian and taught us to sprinke Parmesean Cheese on our soup. Just a little, to make it taste delicious. (Do they still sell Mrs. Grass Soup?) Funny, I don't recall her ever asking what my hurry was. I always had to be the first on the playground to commandeer the tetherball. I got there first to practice and then I usually played the whole recess because few could beat me. I was the Tetherball Queen. Other than being the Tetherball Queen I was pretty much invisible. I had one gym class where I never was picked for the team. I wrote about it here.

Junior High pretty much sucked. Remember dissecting worms and frogs in Biology? I got out of it! I didn't want to dissect anything, it grossed me out, but I kept quiet about it. My lab partner made an enormous scene (yes, I will admit, I surreptitiously egged her on and teased her) and the teacher made an example of her and made her do all of the dissecting! I didn't even pick up a tweezer.

High School sucked worse. Freshman year I lost my best friend Joey because she was a Sophomore and it was so uncool for her to be friends with a Freshman. I wrote about that here. I flunked one quarter of Gym because I refused to do some segment that fat girls just could never do anyway. I figure why suffer the embarrassment of attempting to vault the horses, do the balance beam and climb the ropes. (That reminds me of my Tom Hanks Gym Class Dream.) Anyway, because I flunked it, the next quarter I had to take Gym twice a day. I swear all I did all day was change my clothes! Speaking of that, I despised Gym just because of the locker room experience. Although I didn't realize it at the time that I was a lesbian, I was terribly uncomfortable in the locker room and afraid I was going to get caught looking, even though I tried my hardest not to look above the feet. Consequently, I often walked into the cement block walls or tripped on the benches. I hated it when the skinny betches would stand there naked in front of their locker, struggling to pinch even an inch and commenting on how they were so fat. (No doubt to draw attention to excess weight, an area that I definitely overachieved in.) Later in my Freshman year the Gym Teacher asked me to be on the tennis team. I repeatedly declined. No way was this fat girl going to embarrass herself on the court with all the sportos. Yes, I played quite well at the time, but I don't think well enough to compete and I just couldn't imagine wearing the girl's tennis outfit. Hell, I didn't even think they had my size! Back then it was a horror just trying to buy my Gym Uniform. I managed to stay completely invisible Sophomore and Junior year. Senior year I hung out and smoked cigarettes by my car and walk to the library with one of the class clowns. I don't recall how we managed to do it, since we had a closed campus, but we managed. I think it was because we conned the adult hall monitors to let us go to the library on lunch. (Because we looked like geeks not freaks, they let us past the locked doors.) My favorite classes were Art and Accounting.

I went to 1 school dance in Junior High. I wrote about it here and I think I went to maybe 2 football games in High School. I was pretty much invisible in Junior High and High School. I was a loner and I pretty much let the world go on around me while I lurked.

Unless you came from another planet you've got some school stories, even if you were home schooled, so please join in! Please post your "Back To School" post on your blog. Then come back to Lola's Diner and leave the actual post link here. Please grab the html code for If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays! Badge HERE.

Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

IF YOU SEE THAT MckLinky APPEARS TO NOT BE WORKING, PLEASE POST A LINK TO YOUR "BACK TO SCHOOL" IN THE COMMENTS TO MAKE SURE WE ARE AWARE OF YOUR PARTICIPATION. THANK YOU!



PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MckLinky IS STRICTLY FOR 'IF I COULD BLOG BACK TIME THURSDAYS' PARTICIPANTS ONLY.
ANY OTHER LINKS WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT PREJUDICE!

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Overwhelmed? What Do You Do?

I'm thinking many of you may be as overwhelmed as I am over back to school activities, because I'm not seeing much comment activity on my blogs and not a lot on the ones I've managed to visit over the last week and a half.

We've had multiple doctor visits (for everyone in our house); multiple dental visits, sports try-outs, practices and school registrations, and back to school shopping for both teens and let's not forget the ER visit and hospital visits.

I've been run ragged 24/7 for the last almost 2 weeks.

I'm exhausted and overwhelmed. I would imagine that I'm not alone.

How do you deal with it? How do you cope?

What's your secret? (Shhhh! I won't tell! Please! I'm desparate!)

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

One down, one to go!

Part 1 - Our 14 year old son starts school today as a high school Freshman. My baby is a Freshman! Time flies, doesn't it? (Our daughter doesn't return to school until Monday.)

Well this weekend sure flew by. I managed to power shop Sunday for a little over an hour at the Aurora Outlet mall. If you were there and saw this crazy fat lady with 2 teens in tow, you know I meant business! We were shopping for shoes, socks, unmentionables, jeans and the teen staple, graphic tees. We hit Nike, Aeropostale, Puma, Pac Sun, Zumiez, Eddie Bauer and the Hanes store. We managed only graphic tees, unmentionables for the boy and that was about it.

Today I took our resident clothes horse to Targhay for more shopping. No, I'm not talking about our daughter, I'm talking about our son, GQ. We power shopped while his sister was at golf practice. We managed to just about finish his shopping and we could not leave without a pair of those plaid shorts that all the preps were wearing at golf try-outs. And yes, I have to admit, he touched a white belt. It was on clearance, so I guess I can't chastise him too much, but I will say that it did not go in our cart. (I do have my standards!) The shopping was easy, the boy knows what he likes, what's in and he's fairly easy to fit. That 2 hour power shop was a breeze!

Then back to pick up our daughter from practice and off to Famous Footwear. Otherwise known as parental hell! It was a zoo as everyone was last minute shopping for tomorrow. We even ran into one of our son's bff's. Can I say how much I hate shoe shopping for teens? Nothing that is in their size and that they wouldn't be caught dead in is priced under $60 bucks and thats on sale. WTH? And it's not just the argument about the price, it's the argument about the size. Our son is technically a 13.5, but even though I found a couple of pairs that size, he insists he must have the size 14. (Remember people, size is everything!) Then when I suggested to our son that he probably didn't have to get sneakers, he could get casual shoes because he doesn't have gym this semester it was a whole nother set of sighs and grunts about the 2 pairs of casual shoes I found in size 14. And can I say there should be a special place in hell for the employees trolling the store asking if they can help the patrons find anything? I'm looking for size 14, if I don't see it on the shelves, do you have some special glasses that help you detect them on the shelves, because we all know that you have nothing in the back, all the shoes are out on the floor.

GQ won't admit it, but he is nervous. He complained nonstop when I showed him his bus stop. He claims it's too far to walk. I actually kind of thought so to and was going to call to complain, but when I discussed it with Anastasia she told me I needed to loosen the apron strings. GQ is planning on wearing the outfit he wore for his school id photo. He really wants to wear the hat he bought and it looks like I'm going to have to have him relinquish it before he leaves. Hats aren't allowed at school, no matter how cool you think they are. Lol! I told him he can wear it all he wants outside of school.

Later this week I will be jeans shopping for our daughter. She has manage to somehow wreck all but 1 pair of jeans she owns. When I say wrecked, I don't mean fashionably distressed, I mean damaged broken zippers, split seams, etc. Oy!

Serentity now.

Serentity now.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Sick Room Update

Anastasia had tests on Monday. A scope down her throat and up her...well, I think you know where. All they found were 2 polyps in the large intestine. The doc took samples for testing and zapped them. Since the doc found nothing else, he is calling it an infection in the small intestine.

Anastasia said she got some good drugs and slept through the show. Dang! I've had 3 colonoscopies and I always manage to watch the show, I guess I need to ask for more drugs next time. She was in much better spirits when I talked to her after she awoke from the procedures. When I called I asked her what the word was, she replied "The Bird Is The Word" and starting singing the song. If you saw Sunday night's Family Guy, you know Peter Griffin was obsessed with that song. It was on while we were visiting her. If you haven't seen it, enjoy:

Her docs put her on real food and said they would see how she reacted to it, and then do a white cell count Tuesday morning and probably spring her sometime Tuesday. No word on any further treatment plan.

Thank you to everyone who sent positive thoughts and prayers our way. We really do appreciate it very much. I can't tell you how terribly worried I've been these past few days and I really do appreciate everyone's support.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009