Kim's Thoughts

Well, all I can say is “Hhhmmm”!  Today’s thoughts and activities have been all over the place  – some border on “strange” and some just plain left me speechless!  But…..a blogger never has a problem turning “speechless” into the written word!  hehehe  I’ll start with today and maybe I might even add in some other odd things or thoughts that have plagued me lately!  I’m going to bounce around and go out-of-order, because the first one – although it happened last, so far – was the one that beat it all….the perverbial “nail” in the coffin, so to speak!

My finger nails have been growing nicely, lately.  I tend to go in waves where they will be nice and long and strong for a while and grow like weeds…………then, they start to snap off and soon they are all stubbles, look like crap, and I can’t get them to grow back out for love nor money!  Anyway, my right hand nails have gotten pretty long (I’m not sure why, but that hand always seems to grow faster/better than the left hand) and I was concerned they would start to crack or break because I was starting to catch them on things, so I made an appt to get a manicure this morning.  I got there and asked Aprille to cut them back a little so they are the same length as the nails on the other hand, which were all a nice workable length  – look good, but don’t get in the way (except the index finger, which I broke over the holidays and was still little more than a stubble)!  She did and I left with nice, well manicured nails!  Happily, I went on to run a quick errand and then go to Cracker Barrel for lunch.  The chairs at the tables there are heavy and don’t slide well, so I reached down to pull the chair forward so I could sit closer to the table…………just as I pulled the seat forward, the chair decided it didn’t want to do that and my hand slipped off the seat………..and bent THREE nails on my right hand backwards – the three that were long and getting in the way a couple hours earlier, but were now the perfect working length and polished to perfection!  My heart sank as I pulled my hand up to assess the damage!  It looked like they survived!!!  I didn’t see any cracks or missing/hanging nails!!  And then, I saw it – the nail on the index finger had a crack that started on the side and went across to the center of the nail!  I pulled it back and sure enough, the nail was broke and had to be cut off!!!  To keep from catching and tearing it, I carefully pulled it off and went on with my lunch!  So, now I have BOTH index fingers snapped off to nothing!  Way to ruin a beautiful manicure!  But – the good news is that if that had happened BEFORE the manicure, I probably would have lost all three nails and I would have been even more upset!!!

My lips are a little chapped this morning – it started to be noticable yesterday.  I get chapped lips a lot in the winter and have to be careful what I put on them to avoid or repair chapped lips.  Chapstick and anything with menthol or other medicinal type ingredients all make my lips break out!  Not sure how Chapstick falls into that category, but it does.  So, I typically use Burt’s Bees in the little round tins or Vaseline Lip Therapy – they are about the only ones that work, yet don’t make my lips break out!  The reason I’m bringing this up isn’t to let you know I have chapped lips or to warn potential kissers……it is to tell you where my thoughts went when I sat here this morning wondering if I had any of either of the above mentioned products or if I had to run out and get some!  As I sat here, I remembered and started thinking about when I a kid.  I always had problems with chapped lips – worse than I do now!  But, I used to try to keep them moist in a different way — I would lick my lips way beyond the lip part and get them good and moist – then, I would put the palm of my hand over my mouth to hold in the moisture!!!!  My lips would get all red and chapped way up and down around and beyond my lips, so I would do it more to try to moisten them more!!!  It took me years to realize that what I was doing was CAUSING the problem, not solving it!!!  By getting the skin good and wet and holding it on there so it couldn’t dry, it was chapping it even worse and beyond the normal area!!! 

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.  I woke up several times, but rolled over and convinced the girls to let me go back to sleep for “just a little while longer”!  In one of those short snooze times, I had a dream that I had a hair appt this morning and that I went in saying that I needed more than just a trim and asking that it be cut shorter cause it was starting to stick out around my ears, stick out over my collar, look too thick on top, and look like a shaggy dog!!!  I woke up and realized my appt today was for a manicure, not a hair cut, but when I looked in the mirror, I realized my subconscious was right — I DO need a good shape up!!!  Luckily, I have an appt the week after next — I just hope I can hold off that long without starting to whack at it myself!!!

I was in a store the other day (not in Sanford – don’t worry) and said something to the clerk (I don’t even remember what) and she looked at me and said, “Yur from somewar up thar in the North, arn, ya?” – in a very slow, drawn out way – kid you not!  It wasn’t just a southern accent, it was just like something you hear on those shows that overly exaggerate the uneducated way some talk way back in the mountain woods!  So, I just smiled and said, “yes, I’m from Upstate New York originally, but I’ve lived here about 24 years now.”  She looked at me with wide open eyes and said in a shocked voice, “New York?  Really?  You don sound at all like dem New York people talk!  I kin understand you, I cain’t understand dem from New York at all!  WOW, I jus don know how ya’ll kin stand to live in dem big cities, like dat!”  I thought about explaining that I was from way upstate in Western NY and that we don’t typically have the same accent as those in NYC and that there is a whole big beautiful state outside “the city”, like I often do, but I decided to just smile, nod, take my change, and go on my merry way!  But, this, too, caused the thoughts to run rampant!  I thought for quite a while after that as I drove back home from the store…….I thought about how I lived the first 28 1/2 years of my life in NY and the second 24 1/2 years of my life in NC and that, although I don’t hear it, I apparently have developed a subtle mixture of accents.  Around here, I often get told that they can tell the minute I open my mouth that I am a Yankee.  But, when I go home, I often get told that I’ve been in the South too long cause I’ve picked up a little Southern Twang!  I think I’ll be fine, so long as I don’t start ending sentences with the word “AT” — such as, “Where you at?” (instead of “Where are you?”), “Where do you stay at?” (instead of “Where do you live?”) or “Where’d I leave my keys at?” (instead of “Where did I leave my keys” or “Where are my keys?”)!

The good thoughts of the day, though, came after the errand I ran between my manicure and lunch at Cracker Barrel!  I ran by The Painted Pedal to pick up a form and drop off a check for the deposit for the group cruise my Mom and I are going on in the spring!  A friend of Mom’s is going to go with us, now, too – so I had to get the information sheet we need to fill out for her.  Up until now, I’ve thought quite often about the cruise and how nice it will be to do one with Mom!  This will be my third cruise, but her first!  So, I want it to be a really special experience for her AND I want it to be a special memory that we can share!!  We had such a great time going to Vegas together and I want this to be right up there with it or exceed it in terms of amazing memories!!!  But, as of today, we have real money invested and it just seems more real — like it’s gonna happen, instead of just something we’re planning to do!!!  So, I sat through lunch thinking about being in Key West and pictured us in a tropical setting in Nassau — listening to calypso music and sipping drinks out of fruit shells with straws and umbrellas in them!  I could suddenly feel the warm sun on my face and hear the waves crashing on the shoreline!  DANG — I wanna go NOW!!!! 

OK — now it is time for a nap!!  The girls are already in on the bed, snoring — think I’ll go join them!!!