Waiting!

Boy, sometimes it seems I spend most of my time waiting. Not necessarily waiting for anything big or really exciting - sometimes I'm just "waiting" for an idea to pop into my mind of something to do - like should I read a book, knit some more, read blogs, peruse some cookbooks in search of a nifty recipe to use for a supper or dessert surprise - or just waiting for my eyes to say, time to close 'em, head to bed and get some sleep.

Right now, I'm waiting for my son to come down -sometime this afternoon he said (which could be anytime between 11 a.m. -when I spoke to him - and early this evening. I have a fresh (second pot of the day) pot of coffee made now and just polished off a cup of hot beverage from it to try to give me a little thoughtful type of energy now.

Yesterday, I made it to the eye doctor, got the exam over and done with and ordered new glasses and frames. And, thanks to having enrolled in a supplemental insurance to my medicare, the whole procedure only set me back $75, total - $15 for the co-pay for the eye exam and $60 for my share towards the lenses and frames. Not bad, not bad at all considering it cost my daughter over $225 for her last pair of glasses about 2-3 years ago! I should be out of this "blind" phase of my life now in about 5-10 days according to the lady who processed my order yesterday!

Last evening, my daughter Mandy and her husband Bill decided they wanted to go to some kind of "food" auction at a nearby town and as they were readying to leave, she figured she'd best try to give Miss Maya something to appease her so she wouldn't go ballistic on me once her mother and dad left the house. Maya was already starting to show signs of the coming hissy fit. So, to lessen the blow, Mandy tried to give her something as a distraction. She hit on showing her a box of "junior mints" she had and which had a few mini-peppermint patties left in it. Maya loves chocolate, so she figured this would do the trick.

She showed her the box, gave her a mint and then handing her the box, told her to take it in to Gram cause maybe Gram might like a mint too! (Sure, not a problem in my mind there.) So, Maya brought the box to me and as she gave it to me, she let her wishes be known that she would like another chocolate or "chawlot" as she calls it. I gave her another little mint and she headed over to watch a dvd Mandy had put in for her but in doing that, she happened to glance out the window just in time to see her parents backing out of our parking area and pulling away.

Oh boy! Here came the "meltdown!" She started saying "Go bye bye" and when she is getting upset, she repeats a word or phrase pertaining to what has her upset and with each repetition, her voice rises, more anxiety comes into the picture and in no time, she will dissolve into rants of tears and loud, loud crying. From the "go bye bye" she moved to stand in front of the tv where the dvd was playing and proceeded to say "Turn tv off" several times before I got her attention by asking if she would like another chocolate.

She came running over to me and I had poured the few pieces of candy - all five mini-mints - on to my desk and she stood there, pointing to one and saying to me "Wan' chawlot?" So, I handed her one and she stood there, holding it in her little hand and proceeded to point to another mint, jumping about a little and said "Wan't two chawlot?" (I don't know that she was posing these as questions exactly but it was the tone of her voice there that made it sound like a question.) And, I handed her a second one. She held it too and then pointed again - "Wan' free (which is "three") chawlot." - so Gram obliged her with a third one. Keep in mind, she still was holding the other two tightly in her clenched fist by now. Then, quick as can be, she reached across in front of me, grabbed another mint and looks at me and says "Wan' four chawlot!" I picked up the last remaining candy and asked her "Can Gram have a chocolate, Share?" And she reached up, grabbed it out of my hand saying "Five chawlot! Thank you!" and away she went! But in the process of all this she did forget that she had been on the verge of having one major hissy fit because her parents had left her behind for a while!

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here kind of bewildered at first over how quickly she had managed to wheedle ALL five of those mini-mints away from me and laughing too over how she had done it. So I decide to call my son and share the humor of the situation with him. When he answered, I could tell he was around other people as I could hear them in the background so I asked where he was and learned he was up at the local pub, enjoying a brew or two there. I related the little story to him, he enjoyed hearing his niece's antics and the conversation ended then.

A bit later, my older daughter called and I told her what happened plus that I had called and told her brother about this. In doing so, I mentioned to her that he was up at the bar, thinking nothing of that. However, she misunderstood and thought I meant that since he didn't get a work call this week, he was filling in up there, tending bar for the night. So, she decided to call there and "prank" him - something she loves to try to do.

She called and a guy answered the phone but she wasn't paying strong attention apparently to the voice and didn't realize it wasn't her brother on the other end. But she told the person that she wanted to order "Ten Blooming Idiots" to go. His response to her was that he was sorry but they didn't carry that there. And she said "What do you mean you don't have "Blooming Idiots?" You most certainly do - you have a whole barful of them there!" To which the barkeep hung up on her! Then it dawned on her that maybe that wasn't her brother who had answered the phone after all, so she called back and asked if her brother was there and the bartender told her flatly, no he wasn't there and hung up on her.

So, this morning when I spoke to my son and told him what she had done, he was laughing and decided he was going to try to return the favor to her and pull a phone prank on her. He was going to call her and pretend he was trying to reach an auto dealership's parts department near to where she lives and tell them he wanted to order an "FM". (Now, and FM to both my daughters is their abbreviation they use when they are referring to someone who is, in their opinion, acting like a "freaking moron" - i.e. "FM." Since I haven't yet had a phone call from the elder daughter as yet, I don't know if he made the call or maybe she does like he does too and doesn't pay any attention to messages left on the voice mail of her cell phone! (Another family trait coming out I guess!)

In case you haven't noticed, I added two things this week to my blog. First there's the "Recent Readers" thing where, if you belong to the MyBlogLog thing, and whether you have a photo posted on your membership site or not, when you read another member's blog, it will post your photo there or your silhouette if you don't have a photo available. And today, although I have had my blog posted on the Fuel My Blog site for sometime now, I managed to add the little thingy there that you can click into and it will register then a vote for my blog on Fuel My Blog! Nifty little blogging gadgets! Doesn't make me a "big time blogger" or one even the least bit knowledgeable about how to do lots of stuff I see others do with their blogs, but I found it exciting that I was able to get these two things placed on my site now anyway! Baby steps in the blogger's learning process ya know!

And now, as I venture off to see what I can get into here, I leave you with the weekend Bushism for the days!

For March 10th and 11th:
"If affirmative action means what I just described, what I'm for, then I'm for it." - St. Louis, Missouri; October 18, 2000.

So am I, DUBYA!