Water in My Soul

I was born and raised in the city of Chicago. I grew up a city kid with privileges - my parents owned a summer home in Lake Geneva. My grandpa was the carpenter who built our Lake Geneva house. It was knotty pine inside with wood floors throughout. I spent every summer of my life, till age 15, in Lake Geneva. On the last day of each school year we packed up our car and drove up to Wisconsin. I returned to Chicago on the day before school resumed. During those carefree days of summer I swam, skied, sailed, and went boating. I think I had permanent prune skin from all the time I spent in Lake Geneva. I swam, dove, played in water literally all day long...until I got to be too cool and worried more about my hair than having fun. A charmed life for sure...but like most dopey teens I didn't realize what a good thing I had, complaining that I was bored - bored with a charmed life? I remain ashamed to this day. My parents sold the house several years ago when none of us kids (and our kids) went up there. We were all too busy with our sports and then our kids' sports. Sad.

I was born under a Water sign. I have been a "water baby" since I could walk. In fact I actually DID walk off the pier into the water when I was not yet two years old! And oh, my friends chide me for this fact, but I was a synchronized swimmer in high school. No stupid faces and nose clips back then. No excessive makeup and lipstick either. In fact, our teacher sponsor made us re-do our routines if we spit out any water when we came up from underwater. She would screech at the top of her lungs and embarrass us to death. My love of water left me smelling like chlorine most days in my senior year of high school. My eyes were permanently reddened from the chemicals and my hair never looked too great, as I remember it. This was before blow dryers, and I have the world's thickest hair that never dried! Artie didn't seem to mind...

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting with a dear friend in Hayward, WI. Her and her husband's beautiful home is on Callahan Lake and the views are spectacular! Deer in the feeder, finches and woodpeckers in the bird feeders. My camera was so busy! I felt so at home and at peace with the world. I realized right then and there that I was meant to be near water. I have been thinking of nothing else since my visit. Water, trees, and wildlife is what brings me the most peace. Getting to photograph all of these things fed my passions. I have even been online looking for potential property. Yeah, right. This is just not gonna happen any time soon. I'll be OK. Our swim spa is ready for use now and our pine trees look great. It isn't lake property, but it will have to do. The robins. doves, and sparrows will have to satisfy my nature fix for now.

Did You Ever Wonder...

Why there are so many single shoes in the road? Who throws single shoes out their car windows and more importantly WHY?

Why "Plus Size" clothing is POLYESTER? Cruel joke. Larger people tend to sweat as it is and poly is not a "fat friendly" or menopausal fabric!

Why there are always sales on mattresses?

Why weight loss is called DIEt?

Where WGN dug up their Illinois Lottery "spokesmodels"?

Why Linda Kollmeyer is still one of the "spokesmodels" for the Illinois Lottery? She annoys the daylights out of me. Anyone else know what I am talking about? Linda thinks she is a sex symbol and literally struts, wears clothing that only young women should wear (hooker boots, black nylons, short skirts), and says the stupidest stuff, pontificating instead of simply doing her job! The move she makes at the end of her segment makes me want to jump into my TV and strangle her! I always say, "...and POSE!" when she does this. Grrrr! Just unleash the balls, Kollmeyer. No pun intended!

Why bras aren't more summer friendly? Who needs sweaty boobs in the summer? Can you say "cotton"??

Why certain dog breeds smell so bad? Not Yorkies, of course.

Why I am still a Cubs fan??

Why retired teachers write blogs? Teehee!

Garage Sales

It is the beginning of Spring, and what does that mean? It's the unofficial start to Garage Sale season! Whooohooo! In the past few weeks I have been "shopping" at my niece's garage sale. She was kind enough to let me come "preview" before the masses converge on her beautiful home in unincorporated Elgin. I didn't only shop once, or twice, but instead three times! There is some crazy allure to garage sales, isn't there? Buying someone else's "junque" to add to your "junk"! You know, "someone else's trash is your treasure"? Over the years I have picked up some cool and interesting things at garage sales, and certainly have added to my own junk.

I have been to countless garage sales with my mom - quite an experience, believe me! My mom is the biggest wheeler dealer on the planet - the true Garage Sale Queen. She will not pay full price for any item at a garage sale, even if it's a quarter! No, she wants it for a dime and will bargain with the seller until she gets her way, or she will walk. I cannot tell you how many times I have actually left her in the garage and slithered back to our vehicle, embarrassed beyond belief!! I love how we analyze the items in the sale when we return to our car - the setup/display of the items, the condition of the garage, the quality of the junk we are seeing. What is up with that? It's a flipping garage sale!

Artie and I moved into this home three years ago. I was very proud of myself while purging unwanted/unneeded items from our home in Bartlett before we moved into this house. It felt good to let go of things we didn't use, need, or want any more. Well, that was to be a short lived accomplishment. Moving into a brand new home is a chance to get brand new "stuff". Apparently I have been really good at getting new stuff, because my husband now refers to our basement as "The Store"! He invites guests to shop in our store any time they mention they are looking for some item. Our basement is the holding grounds for the leftover furniture that just doesn't fit in our much smaller house - we lost one bedroom for goodness sakes! While living in our exquisite 15 room Victorian in Janesville, WI we accumulated some amazing pieces of furniture. Well, those amazing pieces just don't seem to have a home here in Elgin, IL...but I just can't part with them! This includes two pieces we purchased from Schuler's Furniture in Janesville - a dry sink and a pie safe - fashioned out of old barn wood. They have a history for goodness sakes! So does the old bench we bought that came out of an old Masonic Lodge in Milton, WI!

Living less than a mile away from a Hobby Lobby store is not good for me...

So, what does this have to do with garage sales you ask? I have decided it is time to purge once again. While searching for something last week in our basement I began to feel a bit anxious, frustrated, nervous, and even claustrophobic. I had to get out of there because my mind was moving in so many places and I didn't know where to begin to search for said item! There is just way tooooo much down there! It is time to let go! If I haven't used most of this stuff in three years, it is time to part with it. It is time to have a garage sale! Ironically, I just got an email from a neighbor who is trying to organize a subdivision sale. The email was my epiphany! I am on board with this. It is time. On June 4 & 5 we will be hosting a Mega Garage Event. I am already pondering its setup - what color tablecloths will I use? I already have the tent my sister in law loaned me in my car, ready to store until the BIG DAY(S).

My friends, mark your calendars for this event. The sale to end all sales! Hobby Lobby/Home Goods/Tuesday Morning/World Market/ and beyond await you. Come buy MY tchotchkes and add it to yours. Empty my basement and fill yours! Artie will be forever indebted to you...and I will be using the proceeds to buy MORE treasures for the next garage sale!

Waiting for the Shoe to Drop

My sister in law Sue inspired me to write this blog with a post on Facebook. So, Sue, here it is...

What a glorious week in terms of weather! I can't believe we had a string of nice days in a row. Being a Midwesterner I cannot help but wait for the proverbial other shoe to drop. As a lifelong Chicagoan/suburbanite, I am "trained" to expect the unexpected with our weather. As I am sitting here writing I see dark rainy looking clouds and I'm OK with it because I expected it! We all know the adage for weather in these parts - if you don't like the weather in Chicago, wait five minutes and it will change. Typically it rains on Good Friday - as a Catholic I always believed (or was told?) it was tears from heaven because Jesus died on the cross. It didn't rain yesterday and it threw me for a loop. But why should it? Expect the unexpected with our weather.

I am a superstitious individual by nature (thanks to my grandmother, who told me soooo many things that encouraged this flaw in me). I try to fight it, but it usually gets the best of me. For example, each time I change out my closet for the impending season, I gulp a little, thinking I have just "jinxed" it. So, beware everyone, because I took out all of my sweaters, corduroy slacks, and sweatshirts...but I didn't yet replace them with my short sleeve tops and capris. Why? Because I just didn't want this beautiful weather to end. But I should know better. It will end. It's April in Chicagoland and that alone does not mean we have Spring weather. I sat through enough frigid soccer and Little League games to know that we are not out of the woods yet.

Yesterday I was at Caribou and the manager and I were talking about how beautiful the weather had been. Yes, it was warm and sunny indeed, but it was also super windy! So many times our beautiful weather has a caveat - humidity, or WIND, as was the case the last few days. We just can't seem to have enough of those "perfect" days that we so deserve - just as compensation for living here! There always seems to be a catch. I think this is why we Chicagoans/suburbanites get so excited when we do have a "perfect" day! It is like winning the lottery - the odds are so not in our favor.

Happy Easter everyone. I hope we have a "perfect" day for egg hunts and baskets. My grandchildren deserve it!