Letting Go

I had a best friend in California and we lost touch after I was married. I found her again through her parents. She told me she lost my address because she threw all my letters away when she moved. We wrote some more, and then I lost her again. I'm still at the same darn address I was when I got married the first time (gads how pathetic is that!) So....today I threw her letters away, just like she did mine so many years ago. But she will always remain dear to me, even though I may never find her to see how she is doing.

We had fun times. Her name is Margaret. I'm sure her last name has changed. She lived in Long Beach. We met in Hollywood. She and her girlfriend Chris were at a teen fair thing I don't remember the exact name. We hooked up and became friends. We spent our free time in Hollywood, hoping to bump into celebrities. We found out we could get free tickets to teen TV shows, and we did, and saw many celebs perform, met a few. We snuck backstage a few times at concerts. We never drank or did drugs or any of the free love crap, but I figured out how to stamp my own hand in ink so I could get into the Hullabaloo Club (it was 21 and over and I was underage). We saw the Animals perform! Margaret worked at the Century Plaza Hotel and met the Young Rascals. She dated the drummer, Dino, for awhile. Yeah, there were lots of stories in those letters. My past is my past. I met Mark Lindsey outside a radio station. He was tall. He bent over and planted a kiss right on my lips. And then he was gone. Margaret, Chris and I were groupies for the Seeds, a local L.A. band. We went to so many of their gigs they actually looked for us and waved when they saw us. Once Sky Saxon (of the Seeds) pulled me up on stage. I was mortified. And my shin was bleeding. Backstage Sky took his handkerchief and cleaned my leg. Then he autographed the hanky and gave it to me. I still have it.

April 30

My hubby is flying home to me on April 30!



I will write more later. I just came home from the Conference in Little Rock and I am so very tired!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Type 1

I know I posted a combo picture before, but I wanted to show you this cute scarf I found. It looks great with the sherbet orange blouse I bought a few days ago.

In case you were wondering, Type 1 is part of Carol Tuttle's Beauty Profiling. It's fun, and it gave me permission to stop wearing drab grays. Honestly, I used to wear only drab colors even though I already knew I only looked good in spring colors.

Beautiful weather FINALLY

72 degrees!!! It's cloudy now but we have rain coming. We need it so bad. It's as dry as a popcorn fart here. Woke up early to my hubby's sexy voice on the phone. His second trip to the embassy is in 5 days. I am busy sorting through old papers I should have sorted through years ago (they were stuffed in boxes....egads I'm disorganized). Soon I will have a place for everything and everything in its place. I've always wanted that. It's been a long learning process. My parents always lived in teeny tiny houses and had lots of arts and craft projects stacked up in neat piles everywhere, so I just never learned how to really do it right. Living with my husband for 6 weeks in 2011 was my first chance to live my dream.

When I came home I looked around and realized....holy crap I have too much stuff and I don't need it all. The first order of business was to box up all of my younger daughter's belongings that she left here when she moved to Australia. Then in the spring of 2012 my older daughter and I drove it all plus the pets to her new home in California. I have to admit I have not cleaned non-stop. I burn out easily, simply not knowing how to organize. Several books and lessons from the FlyLady later I have a better grip on things. Two good habits I learned from the FlyLady is a clean sink and a made bed. I am happy to say unless I am sick, I never go to bed without finishing the dishes and never have my morning coffee until the bed is made. I have actually shifted to doing the dishes after dinner instead of right before bed.

My Goal --- a company-ready house at ALL Times. How cool is that! My Albanian family lives like that. Why can't I? I have seen houses like that here in the USA. I mean, not EVERYONE needs to run around frantically stuffing stuff in closets and dishes in the dishwasher (or oven if you don't have a dishwasher) and frantically washing the bathroom sink and brushing pet hair off of everything just because you got a phone call that someone is coming over. I mean, as much as I loved my mother she never taught me anything about keeping a house. Very soon I will be living the uncluttered life. The pets? Oh....they all belonged to my daughter. I just fostered them while she lived in Australia all those years. I am enjoying a pet-free house. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE cats. But my house is cleaner without them.

Culture Shock...it's coming

"Culture shock is the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, or to a move between social environments, also a simple travel to another type of life."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock

I know it will happen to my hubby but I don't know to what degree. Thankfully he has an Albanian friend here in Indiana who is going to help him find a job. Having someone to talk to in his native language who has been here long enough to know the ropes will help him tremendously.

And there is a Balkan store here in town that has many foods that looked familiar to me after shopping in Kosovo. I can buy the salty wrinkled black olives and more than one variety of feta-type cheeses that all taste the same to me lol lol. We need that for making burek. It's so yummy!

My hubby knows how to cook and he will teach me to make burek, or as he calls it, pita. It can be made with 2 different fillings, meat or spinach and cheese, which is my favorite. I told him, "I'm sorry but feta cheese is very expensive here." And he said, "That's ok we will use normal cheese." Normal cheese in Kosovo is some other type of feta, to me anyway. So I was trying to explain to him about cheese here in America being more like what they have in northern Europe. And by the way....Albanian burek is very good and it NEVER gives me a stomach ache or heartburn like spanakopita.

I also want to learn to make Baklava the way his mom does. It is so very good and it's not overpoweringly sweet like the Greek kind with the honey in it. And speaking of Greek, what the heck is it with the Greek yogurt everywhere? My daughter and I tried it and it was awful. The Albanians obviously have much better food than the Greeks.

His large and very close family.....I know he will miss them.

Shopping

I haven't done it in awhile, but it was time to add some new things.

Colorful tops, scarves and a purse. I love the pale gold color, but it looks silver in the picture.