Friday, June 26, 2009

Goodbye, Michael

I am truly saddened by the death of Michael Jackson. I wasn't a rabid fan, but he and his music have been in my life for what seems like forever. My teeny-bopper friends and I danced to Jackson 5 records in my best friends basement, "Thriller" remains one of my favorite albums, I applauded his humanitarian effort with "We Are the World", and I thought Neverland would be a cool place to live. And, in my opinion, the "Thriller" video is the best ever made. Yes, he became reclusive and strange. Yes, he altered his appearance in bizarre ways. Yes, he was accused of terrible things. But in spite of all that, I always thought he seemed just....sad. Sad and alone. It seemed that the older he got, the younger he acted. He lived most of his life in the public eye and who knows what that does to a person. I myself continue to battle demons from my childhood, so I am certainly not going to sit in judgement on someone who obviously had his own childhood issues to deal with. Or maybe it was because he never actually had a childhood, just a job. Granted, it was a great job - performing, making tons of money, that whole star thing, but it surely wasn't a traditional childhood. He could sing, he could dance, he could write beautiful music and he gave all of that to us and for that I'm grateful.

Rest in peace, Michael. You've earned it.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Alive and (almost) well

I'm back!!!! The vacation was wonderful and relaxing and everything I wanted it to be right up to the last two days when I broke out with some form of the herpes virus and the entire right side of my face swelled up and blistered. When I started running a fever, Janie decided I should see a doctor and the resort was kind enough to have one come to me. The doctor was very nice, and between her English and my Spanish (both somewhat limited, I must admit) I learned that either this virus has been dormant since I had chicken pox and for some reason decided to visit me now or someone I came in contact with had an outbreak and passed it on to me. Either way, it pretty well sucked. She gave me shots, antiviral meds, antibiotics, and pain meds. During her first visit, the pain wasn't really an issue so I wondered about those pain pills but a few hours later I was glad to have them. She came back the next day and repeated the whole shots/meds thing before I had to come home. I made the trip home looking like a victim of bad plastic surgery - especially my upper lip. It looked like those movie stars you see who get too much of that stuff injected into their lips. Janie said I looked like a poster child for Botox gone bad. Friends - what would we do without them? At least I made it home before all the blisters got way bigger and started exploding. Since these icky blisters were also in my mouth, I couldn't eat solid food. I'm craving meat - an entire week of milkshakes, sherbet, and the occasional scrambled egg just sucks. I took some chicken out of the freezer this morning to cook for dinner and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll actually be able to eat it. Today is better - there's still some puffiness around my eye, but most of the blisters are gone and now I'm just scab-covered. Plus, between the virus and no food I've had zero energy so I haven't done much since I got back. Frustrating! I have summer projects to do!! Hey, if I consider watching Grey's Anatomy and X Files DVDs as one of those projects then I'm accomplishing something.
One final word today about this: apparently I had an outbreak of shingles, but I've always heard that's something old people get, so I refuse to call it that. I'm old, but I'm not that old.
I'll talk more about the vacation next time.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Next stop...

Mexico!

I don't know if I'll get to post while I'm on vacation, but I'll try.

This time tomorrow we'll be at the hotel near Denver International Airport, ready to leave at 6 am Thursday for Mazatlan (via Phoenix). The weather here was so cold (not quite 60 degrees in June -oh, please) and cloudy today I'm definitely ready for that tropical weather!

My pile for my suitcase has grown, but it's not excessive (so far). Tomorrow I'll sort through my sandals and flip-flops - two pairs of each should be enough. Plus my Tevas, of course, for beach walking and seashell hunting. I am taking some knitting stuff - nothing large, just some sock yarn to make strips for the sock-yarn blanket.

Today I did some more laundry and have one more load of Hubby's stuff in the morning and then I'm done with that for awhile. I had my friend Lori trim my hair - I wasn't in desperate need of a cut, but in another two weeks it would probably be a little out of control. And if it's one thing I don't need on vacation, it's out of control hair. Don't need a color treatment right now - the sun is going to take care of that!

Pick up times for my cohorts have been coordinated, reservations have been checked (and rechecked!) so I think we're good to go.

So - hasta la vista!