My dad always wore a hat.  Always.  Winter or summer, rain or shine, when he went out he had a hat on his head.  Every single time. SInce he died last year, mum has steadily given away his things, either to us kids or to charity shops.  There are, however, a few things that she's hung onto; that she simply wasn't ready to get rid of just yet. One day last week she and I were chatting about things in general, and she mentioned that she was going to have to get rid of dad...

I grew up in a little village in rural Oxfordshire, about 15 miles from the city.  It was a small enough village that everyone knew each other; each person had a role to play and each child was literally raised by the whole village.  We had an attorney living down the street, an accountant next door to him, a retired district nurse (who happened to be my mum's best friend and who played a large part in my childhood), a farmer, a policeman, a baker and a butcher - but no candlestick mak...

My arms are aching from the HepB and tetanus shots I got this morning, and when I came home I found Grace had chewed Dave's new ball cap, the checkbook and a ball of my yarn. But I'm still smiling.  I'm still happy.  Wanna know why? SHE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My doc said there wasn't any reason for me to NOT go into nursing and signed off on my physical exam.  As long as my background check comes back clear, I'll be graduating in December. I was awake most of...

In order to progress to the clinical part of the class I'm taking, I have to get a physical. I had an appointment for last Thursday.  I'd never seen that particular doctor before, which worried my slightly. My worries were founded.  She came in, took my medical history and as soon as she heard about my back surgery she told me that she wasn't going to continue with the exam because she wouldn't clear me.  I told her that I've been working for 9 months, doing even more physic...

My yarn stash is almost out of control. There's a knitting terminology called 'critical mass'.  That means that you have more yarn than you can knit in your lifetime.  My stash isn't at critical mass yet, but it's getting there.  I've got yarn EVERYWHERE.  It's in baskets, in cedar boxes, trunks, tubs, in closets, shirt sleeves, bags....in the vanity under the bathoom sink, under my bed, behind the couch, in the laundry room....it's every frikkin' where. So why is it...

I've recently been introduced to the concept of 'Freeganism'.  Freeganism is a way of life where.....well, the rules (guidelines) explain it far better than I ever could: *My thoughts about each of the guidelines are in itialics* 1.    I will not buy anything except for food, medical needs or in case of emergency. That seems pretty easy.  However, 'emergency' is pretty subjective.  2.    I will be a vegan. Not so easy.  I'v...

This time last week I was getting my patient cleaned up and comfortable in her bed.  I knew that she was on her way out of this life, but I thought that she had a few days (if not weeks) left. If you had told me that I'd be starting college classes today, I'd have laughed at you and told you to check your temperature because you must be delirious.   My life has changed a lot in the past 7 days.  First, my patient passed away.  I knew that she was terminally ill, but ...

Tomorrow is the first day of school for me.  I haven't been a college student....well, in quite some time.  Years.....and that's what scares me. I'm scared.  I can't pinpoint exactly what I'm scared of; it's more of a generalized scared.  I'm a little scared of getting lost, of being late, of not fitting in, of.....of a whole bunch of things.  The one thing that I'm NOT worried or scared about, though, is the class work.  I KNOW I can do that. I guess that I'm...

It’s hot around here.   Very hot.   Almost 100 degrees hot.   Miserably hot, in other words.  The kind of heat that becomes the sole topic of conversation on the news and in stores and over telephone lines. Growing up the in UK, I was never exposed to much heat.   Bikini weather for us was 70 degrees, and   anything over 85 was described as a heatwave.   I got my first real taste of heat when I lived in North Carolina.   My first summer t...

I finally got my dream appliance today.  I've been hankering after a Dyson for a couple of years, so when the opportunity for me to get one presented itself, I took it. My hands were literally rembling when I got it home and started taking it out of the box.  It's a pretty spendy machine, retailing at $369, and I was worried that it wouldn't perform to my expectations (or to my husband's expectations; he wasn't very happy about my dropping nearly $400 on a hoover. I had nothing t...

I quit my so-called knitting instructor job yesterday. When I was hired at the start of June, I was asked to provide them with a short bio and a photo.  My supervisor - we'll call her 'Betty' - said that she needed that as soon as I could get it to her, along with some samples not only of my work in general, but of the items we'd be making in class.  She said that she'd put the bio and the samples up on the classroom wall so that people could see them and perhaps be enticed into com...

Recently, thre's been a trend towards 'mineral' cosmetics versus the traditional liquid foundations.  I've tried a couple of them - Cover Girl and Physicians Formula - and I haven't been too pleased with the results.  Each one claimed that it's leave me with an 'airbrused complexion', free of age spots and imperfections, but all it did was settle into my crows feet and fine lines and make me look 10 years older.  So, I tossed them away and went back to using my old standby, l...