Today I took my daughter to the mall to buy her a bathing suit and a pair of shorts for when we go camping. My bikini wearing days are long gone, so I live vicariously through Alicia now. Hot bods are wasted on the young. Why is it that women like me have to worry about fat, zits, hormones, car repairs, house work, bills, rent, and much more, while kids only have to worry about grades, boys, and how to get mom to spring for a new bathing suit? With all our worries, it's women my age who should have the perk of a nice bod. If you think I'm feeling sorry for myself, you are sharp as a tack! As it is, this is my bathing suit...





And this is Alicia's...


Sigh...I might as well face it. I traded my little bikinis for a little wisdom...I think I got ripped off.

It is such a beautiful day in sunny BC! I worked until about 2:00, and then ran a few errands. I still have to go get one of my tires fixed before I go camping due to the big nail that's stuck in it, but other than that, things are just humming along. I came home and lounged on my new patio furniture, played a little guitar while singing softly in the sunshine, and now I'm just trying to work up the energy to make some kind of dinner. It's too hot to cook. I just noticed that my daughter has spilled diet coke down her bedroom wall. It's good and sticky now that it's had time to cement itself to the paint. I looked behind her curtain to find three coke cans and a fast food soda cup. Sigh. She's not even allowed to have drinks in her room anymore, for reasons such as this. Hmmm, there's another pop can behind her TV...and three glasses from my kitchen! And is that an empty two liter Mountain dew bottle? Clearly, I don't beat this child nearly often enough.

It's that time of year again. Camping time. Alicia and I will be going camping at a nearby lake from the 3rd of July to the 7th. I've started digging out all my camping gear, I've bought a new pump for my air mattress and blow up boat. This sucker blows up a queen size mattress in under a minute. Go baby, go! Not only that, but it sucks air just as fast. Usually we just roll all over the deflating mattress until it's flat enough to fold, but now we can suck so much air out, it's half the size folded. The last pump I had was to be plugged into the lighter in my truck, but this one is rechargeable. AND, if it's not charged, it has adaptors for a household outlet, AND the car lighter. I also got a new cooler, way bigger than my old one, and it claims to keep the ice unmelted for up to 5 days. That beats the 5 hours my old one keeps the ice for. We'll be going camping with a big group of people. One of my best buds invited us to go with her family and a group of their close friends. They seem like real keeners. They are planning a golf tournie at the course next to the campsite, a potluck dinner, an appetizer night, and all kinds of fun things for the kids. Usually we only go camping for 2 nights, but I find it to be a lot of work planning, packing and unpacking. You only really get one day where you can relax and enjoy. This time, there will be plenty of opportunity to kick back, have some drinks, play some games and just chill.

When I was growing up, high school was not grades 8 to 12 like it is for my daughter. We had junior high, grades 8 to 10, and then high school was grades 11 and 12. Therefore, it was very important to not only have grade 10 grad, but to have a pregrad dance. For this dance, which was held at a downtown club, we bought new outfits, and took great care doing our hair and applying our make-up just right. When I was in grade 10, my best friend Kiki and I did everything together. She was so beautiful with her long curly main of brown hair which she plastered with hair spray between every class. She was so passionate about everything, that it was sometimes hard to take her seriously. I used to tease her about the romance novels she would hide inside her English text book and get lost in during class. Once, she got our smartest friend to write her book-review for her and after presenting it to the class, she asked if there were any questions. Of course my hand went up, and I proceeded to torture her by asking her the definition of several of the multi-syllable words that were used in her presentation. Some might say that was mean, I say there's a fine line between mean and freaking hilarious! One day, in that same English class, she looked at me with big eyes and said that she had a doctor's appointment after school, due to a heart problem she was having. She described sharp shooting pain in her heart. I asked her if the pain occurred when she inhaled, and she excitedly said "yes, how did you know?" After explaining to her that it sounded suspiciously like gas to me, she indignantly denied that there was any possibility of that diagnosis. It was like gas wouldn't dare enter her body, and it had to be something much more dramatic. The next day, when I inquired about her visit with the good doctor, she solemnly reported that it wasn't her heart after all, but it was a "stomach related problem." ahem...gas. My Dad drove us to our pregrad dance, and Kiki's dad was to pick us up when it was over. Shortly after we made our grand entrance, Kiki began to complain of stomach pain. Naturally, I was like, "Shake it off, lets dance! The movement will do you good!" So I dragged my dear friend onto the dance floor, where we danced the night away. Her tummy was only getting worse throughout the evening, and I just thought, "somebody get the girl some alka seltzer before her gas problem puts a damper on the dance!" despite her tummy ache, we had a wonderful time with our friends, but when her father arrived to take us home, Kiki was relieved. She really wasn't feeling well. The next morning, Kiki called me from Richmond General Hospital, where she had her appendix removed after her dad dropped me off. I felt so bad for dismissing her complaints the night before, but she wasn't mad at me. I went to see her that day, and we spent the afternoon giggling so hard, she had to hold her stitches.

Last day of school. I love this time of year. I don't start work until ten in the morning, so I get to sleep in for the next two months!!!
Today I start at ten and finish at about seven thirty. I should be good and pooped by then. I don't have time to write any more. A hairdresser's work is never done...

By the way, to my Aunt Ellen and Curtis: Have a great weekend getaway! Lots of love to you both.

OOOOH, sweet success! I have been struggling to get a link list on my side bar for weeks! I've spent hours agonizing over advice given to me from other bloggers. I received explicit point by point instructions from fellow blogger, Herman (all the way from Holland!) I cut and pasted the entire link list section of my template in an email to my brother. I've studied every character to make sure it was right, and finally...success. Sigh. I feel so cleansed.
What you must understand, is that I am computer illiterate. That's right, I've said it and I'm not ashamed. So what if my 15 year old daughter knows more about it than I do! The point is, it's done. Now I only have to add to it, all the gems that make a link list the glorious thing that it is.
Right now, I'm off to the ball field. TTFN!

Ooooooh, my brother Dennis just reminded me of a funny/very scary incident that happened in Mexico. It must have been about seven years ago now that I was in a relationship with a guy I'll call "Coach." We had been seeing each other for only four months, when we decided to go to Cancun for a week. It was on this trip that I learned that a slight sniffle can turn into major sinus congestion once you reach certain altitudes, but that's another story.

It was the middle of the night and we were walking down a Mexican street, waiting for a bus that we could flag down to take us back to our hotel. Semi stumbling from a mixture of "vacation giddiness," and trying to get our money's worth of the "all you can drink" deal , Coach said, "Ohhh, I wish I had used the washroom before we left the restaurant."
So I, being the problem solver that I am, replied, "Well, just go into those trees and go against a tree. No one will see you."
Coach, being a rather introverted person, was unsure, but after some gentle coaxing, he glanced over each shoulder and retreated into the trees.
I think he was in there for about a tenth of a second when a police car pulled up and two Mexican cops emerged. The next thing I knew, Coach was being dragged into the car, struggling to refasten the button on his shorts. Now my Mexican isn't very strong, but I'm sure the two gentlemen were saying, "No pee-pee in the lagoon!" Over and over again.
Right before they closed the car door, I jumped into the car so as not to be left on some random street in the middle of the night. I was so freaked out, I was hugging the giant souvenir drink glass that the restaurant "gave" me.
Arriving at the Police station was intense. We walked into this small stone room, where there stood a rickety old desk with a giant prehistoric type writer and a big sweaty man sitting in a straining chair. After some interrogation, the man decided that for a small "fine" he would let us go. Apparently the alternative was to stay there as their guests for the next 48 hours. Since we were flying out the next morning, that wouldn't work with our itinerary. Unlucky for us, we hadn't any money on us but a little over bus fare. We explained that our traveler's cheques were in our hotel room and pleaded for our freedom.
It was tense while he deliberated, but in the end he let us go with this strict reminder:

"No pee-pee in the lagoon!"

THE GREEN SIDEWALK

When I was about 8 years old, we moved to Richmond, BC just outside Vancouver. At that time there were ditches of varying sizes that ran down each side of the roads, where the sidewalks would have been. Because we are below sea level, they served as resevoirs when the water levels rose. Each house would then have a bridge of some sort that allowed a car access to the driveway. Some bridges were solid and paved, others were rickety and made of old, rotting, waterlogged wood.

Before moving here, I'd never seen a ditch before. The ditch in front of our house at the time, had a solid, soft green blanket of moss that lay carefully on top of the water. In fact, unless you knew what you were looking at, you couldn't even tell that there was water under that moss covering.

One day, I was kicking a soccer ball in the front yard with my brother, Mike, when the ball went over my head and landed gently upon the mossy "green sidewalk." It didn't break the surface, it didn't bob in reaction to the impact with the water, it certainly didn't make a splash. So without giving any thought to what might be lurking under the green sidewalk, I yelled playfully, "I'll get it" as I leapt from the edge of the yard down to the moss. Imagine my surprise when I splashed through the soft green fuzz and was up to my arm pits in ditch water. We're talkin sewage, bacteria, and lots of creatures. Rats, frogs, and Lord only knows what else. To say I was shocked is an understatement, and as I began to climb out of the ditch, my brother caringly reminded me to get the ball while I was in there.

The funny thing about it was that my biggest worry at the time, was that I got my new socks dirty. My parents did not care about such things, and yet I thought I would be in trouble for staining my new socks. When they arrived home, I was standing in the shower with all my clothes on, crying my little eyes out trying to rinse some of the sludge off before I disrobed. My sister and two brothers told my mom and dad what had happened, and they both came into the bathroom laughing.

To this day my dad refers to the green sidewalk and my I always think of myself unknowingly leaping with glee into a ditch full of sewage. It's a little humbling.

Well it's Saturday, and I have only one more hair cut to do. After that I'm off to Safeway to get the ingredients for the appitizer I'm bringing to my friend's Birthday party. I also have to stop at the booze store, and the dog park to give frisky a run. The sun looks like it wants to burn through the streaky white sky. It sure would be nice if it came out. Anyway, I really have nothing to write about today, so I will sign off.