Everyone is posting about how to cut costs

I'll admit I'm not the best at it. Some of these are pretty much common knowledge but in a community like mine where people have not/will likely not ever feel any kind of economic slow down, what I do might sound a little radical.

1. I buy store brand products. Dish soap, laundry detergent, paper towels,lotion, even shampoo and soap. Target brand oatmeal soap costs 2 dollars less than Aveeno and my hypersensitive skin doesn't know the difference. Walmart Claratin works for me too. I've never been obsessed with name brands anyway. And that includes clothes and shoes.

2. I do my own nails and toes. People where I live assume that everyone just has loads and loads of money on their hands. I sometimes get asked where a good place is to get a manicure. I always get a surprised look of disbelief when my reply is," I can't really say because I do mine myself." The response is always,"Well I just don't have the time to do them myself." Yes you do! You have the time to get dressed, get in your car, sit in the salon for at least a half hour and then 15 to dry so don't tell me you don't have the time. I can do my nails and toes in less than 20 minutes and if I do them at night while I'm already winding down, I can let them dry while I watch tv without worrying about messing it up. So the best place for a mani-pedi? My house for free.

3. When I buy meat, I'll buy the family size even though I only cook for 2. I cook what I need and take the time to portion the rest out for the freezer. It takes just a few seconds.

4. Library Library Library! There's a GREAT library a five minutes walk from my house. They have a take-leave magazine shelf where I leave all my old magazines(old meaning from last month) and there's always a few National Geographic Mags I can bring home. There's hundreds of DVDs and I might have to wait a couple weeks before I can read the newest books if I don't get there before everyone else but I don't really care. I see a lot of smart moms/dads with kids when they have story reading(I do better voices than the lady they have but she does ok) and what a great place to bring a kid . My favorite part-it's FREE! I used to spend so much money on books I'll never even read again. They also have a used book store where I can get great art books for 5 dollars.

5. I am not snobby about going to the matinee movie on a rainy day. It's raining anyway! I have friend who won't step foot in any theatre before dark for fear of looking like a senior citizen at 32. The whole idea of spending more to please other nameless faceless people who care more about themselves than 'you' is a whole blog post for another day. I will stay mum on whether or not I sneak in my own drink.....

6. I commented about this on another blog and I'm sure I've posted about this before. I hang dry most of my own clothes. That goes for the husband's clothing too. I have pieces that I bought years and years ago that still look new because of this. This is not practical for everyone but, I live in a condo so I use my shower curtain thingy(I can't think of the right word) as my clothesline. I only use my dryer for towels and blankets. Well socks too. So imagine this saves a little on the electricity but I can't really say because I live in hot Fla and it costs a fortune to keep our 3rd floor place bearable in the summer. But my clothes last a long time and I don't always need to run out and get something new for this or that. Obviously the shopping part is more fun but I stay away from trendy clothing so I can wear anything in my closet when in a pinch. I'm moving to a better place in the near future so hopefully our elcetric bill will go down. For real this time. I take really good care of my shoes too.

7. I got asked this question last night(by someone like me whose husband works and they don't have kids) so I feel like I need to tell everyone about it: "who walks your dog?" I DO. Um yeah.

Kindergarten, church, and new friends

Today was my read-aloud-to-a-really-squirmy-kindergarten-class day. I mentioned last spring that I started covering for a person who for whatever reason couldn't do it anymore. It's only twice a month so I said yes when I was asked to do it again. The person in charge of coordinating the whole thing told me they always have a hard time finding people who are willing to read to the younger classes. I sort of expect kids to act squirmy so it's not a big deal for me to read for 20 minutes if it helps out the always thankful looking teacher and librarian. They call me Miss Angel, which I've told you guys, makes me blush. There's usually some one's shoes to retie, a lot of hands raised to use the bathroom, giggling, poking, pinching, and every once in while someone will yell back at one of the voices I'm using for the book characters.(Yes, I told you guys, I do the voices. They like it and it keeps their attention! I had to do mean pirate voices this time.) Today there was a lot of shushing but not on my part. Two boys had to be separated because they are BFF and get into trouble whenever they sit together. By the middle of the second book I noticed them inching towards each other and giggling. I know I'm supposed discourage them when they don't listen to the librarian, but I can't help it. They make me laugh. One girl in blond pigtails asked to use the bathroom. Suddenly the whole class had to use the bathroom. The librarian said no so I had to say no too. I felt a little bad about that. By the end of my last book one of my kids interrupted to ask me if I knew how to make puke noises. I said,"Of course." I did refuse to make fart noises.(I mean I have to draw the line somewhere.)This caused a huge ruckus of giggling and the librarian told them all we had to hurry up so that they would have time to check out their own books before their teacher came back. I really should be more strict with my kids because I can tell the librarian thinks we're too rambunctious but I like them that way. I want them to enjoy their time with me. I love reading and when I was kid I loved having books read to me. I hope that my being there, making it fun and not so structured for them will somehow teach them that books can be just as entertaining as video games and silly cartoons.


I got to be in a parade at my church. Well it wasn't really a parade, it was more of a procession. There were about 70 of us and we each had to to hold a sign of a particular ministry we were representing as we walked down the aisle to music for 2 different services. My sign was "weekend renewal." I'm glad no one asked me about it because I wouldn't have known a thing to say since I didn't know anything nor have I ever participated in the "weekend renewal" . Up until five minutes before I was assigned that particular sign I didn't even know we had a "weekend renewal". I only said yes I would do it because a new friend of mine was holding a sign too and we wanted to be in the parade together. And yes I did enjoy the attention. I tried to hold it "Price is Right" style. I'm expecting any day now to be told how my involvement was so impressive that thousands of people signed up for "weekend renewal" and that it was the largest fundraising in history. Yup.

Speaking of my new friend, don't you just love meeting a kindred spirit? I met a really funny woman who totally gets my silliness. I knew we would be friends when I saw her at my book club with her leg propped up on another chair because she had an ankle brace on. Over the ankle brace were some really cute high heels. She knows what's up. That is totally something I would do and you guys know how I feel about shoes. I said to myself, my kind of woman, we are totally going to be BFF.

Kindergarten

My kindergarten teacher's name was Mrs. Fukumitzu. She was mean. Most people have fond memories of kindergarden. Holding hands in line, finger painting, singing abc's and I have a few too. Only a few though. Because I also have memories of Mrs. Fukumitzu screaming at us that if we didn't quiet down, she was going to turn herself into a wicked witch and boil us in her witch pot. Now call me dumb if you want to, but at five years old, I believed her. In fact I really did think she was a witch. The woman should not have ever gone into any career involving children because she obviously hated children. We were all too scared to even ask her if we could use the bathroom because she would roll her eyes and I had heard from my brother, who scared me with stories of The Exorcist movie, about how eye rolling is one of "the signs". I once got in trouble for jumping up onto a sink to hide from one of my little friends after lunch. When Mrs. Fukumitzu came into the bathroom and caught me, my punishment was to climb onto the wooden chest we kept our dress up clothes in over and over again because according to her,"Since [I] was so good at jumping and climbing, let's see [me] do it until [I got] tired of it and maybe then [I] would stop being such a bad girl whose parents are probably ashamed of." I'm not joking. That's what she said. Of course at first it was fun but then I got tired. After what seemed like an eternity I was so tired and I began to cry and beg Mrs. Fukumitzu if I could sit in my seat with promises to be good for the rest of my life. NO. She made me keep climbing up and down on that wooden chest until I said I felt like throwing up, which was not a lie because as I had mentioned, this happened right after lunch. This was not my only incident but you get the point. I used to always fake a stomach ache, hoping I would have temperature so the school would be forced to call my mom and I could go home. We lived on a military base and my dad was at sea for most of that year so I had no one to yell at Mrs. Fukumitzu for being so mean to me. My mom was always shy around my teachers.

But it wasn't just me. People in my extended family always seem to think that we were all raised spoiled but it's not true, we were raised in extreme strictness and that's putting it mildly. So I was a pretty good kid. And I wasn't the only one who feared that woman. Remember how I just told you we were all too scared to ask if we could use the bathroom? I overheard the teacher, who's class was next door to ours and shared our bathroom, comment one day that it seemed like an awful lot of children from our class got sent home for peeing in their pants. Yup.

Which brings me to one reason why I've been gone this week. I have a little volunteer thing going on at a local elementary school. I read books in the school library to kindergardners for about 20 minutes and then hang around to help them check out books for another 20. They are as squirmy as I imagine I was and there's a lot of giggling and poking and pinching and teasing and talking out going on. But at no point do I feel like scaring the bejeezuz out of any of them by threatening to turn into a witch and boiling them all in a pot. Of course I only spend about 45 minutes with them but thier teachers for the most part seem sane and thankful to me since my being there gives them a break. I get a lot of hugs and smiles and chubby fingered hand holding which, to me, is the key to all hapiness. I also get to be addressed as "Miss Angel" which for some reason makes me blush. And since everyone who knows about it has been asking me: yes, I do the voices when I read and no I'm not embarrassed to admit it. I would've made an awesome kindergarten teacher. Way better than Mrs. Fukumitzu.

Put your ear here

Hear anything?

I found this big whelk shell the other day and it was like Christmas for me. Not so much because of how huge it was but because I happened upon it whilst thinking of a drawing I've been working on but hadn't quite been persistent enough to finish. There it was rolling in the waves when I saw it and ran towards it before someone else saw. The barnacles are dead by the way, otherwise I would have given it a good throw back into the ocean so as not to commit "barnacide." And lucky for me. It's now gracing the tile floor next to our fire place.

My drawing was based on this photo I took back in September when I found this whelk shell in very much the same way I found BigMama up there.

I was so inspired, I finally finished it last night.

As you can see I took some licence in aligning the horizon because I felt like if I drew it as it is in the photo it would look, well, badly aligned. I couldn't fill in the rest of my hand because I'm not good enough at doing hands thus that triangle of empty space but it's my drawing so I don't really care. I also need to get a frame that covers up my thumb because I was told that it would look too much like a male naughty part to those with dirty minds....do you like?

Here's the rest of my find from that day in case anyone was full of suspense. That diamond shaped thing is actually a bone from the head of a Sheep's Head fish-I think. I'll have to look it up. And as you can see I found a Great White tooth so double happiness for that day.

I couldn't end this post without showing you peeps the dead jellyfish which is, by now, the tradition over here so here you are.

I promised you some oranges, but have some jelly too.

Because I'm just so nice like that. Sharing is caring, ya'll know that.

So here is my finished drawing in it's new frame. It's kind of lopsided as you can probably notice because when I was cutting the paper I wanted to use to make a matte frame with, I used the wrong measurements...oh you should have seen the temper tantrum that ensued. But I'm not about to spend the time to make a new one to frame it in so here you go. I'm the only one who needs to be bothered by it anyway since it's new home is in my kitchen. I also never intended to get a green frame but, hey it was $7.99!

And I know you're just dying for some jelly so here you go, peeps. Dead jellyfish seems to be a recurring theme over here so I didn't want to break with the tradition last week when I came upon this one. I thought to myself, where are the tentacles? Does this one not have any? ooh I gotta take a picture for my blog!

A few feet away I found the "Medusa". Enjoy the jelly, my friends. I don't know when the next time will be. Oh ok, I'm sure it won't be that long.

Today was not so sunny. But foggy again in just the scary way I like. I couldn't stay longer than an hour though. It was windy and my sweater wasn't thick enough.

Just think about all the shark teeth there in that orange patch I probably missed out on because I was just too cold to really get a good look.....sigh.

Friday Round Up

I haven't been feeling well lately. I haven't been sleeping enough that's for sure. I'm sure that's why. But, even so, it's that time of year again. Well actually that time of year has past because for the millionth time, my doctor's office screwed up with my schedule and again my appointments are later than they were supposed to be. I'm not going to get into it because, it will put me in a bad mood so let's just stay on a positive note and I'll tell you guys that I was not a door mat about it this time. I was a squeaky wheel! So be proud of me, peeps. On the first week of February all my routine follow up cancer 'stuff' starts. I have to get these weird thyrogen injections to get me ready for a low dose radioactive iodine pill that will get me ready for a full body scan(sounds pretty sexy don't it?....it's not). The body scan day is a day of starvation again. It'll suck and I'll probably complain a lot so if you need to check out for that week, it won't hurt my feelings. I always do this stuff in the winter because I'm miserable in the winter anyway, so if I'm sick too then for some reason it's easier for me. I'd rather be sick and miserable in the winter than sick and stuck in the house in the spring and summer. Plus it makes the the winter time go faster for some reason because I have a goal. Are you laughing? I thought so. Welcome to my logic!

Last year's scan showed that there was still some bad tissues left over from the first time I had radiation so, as some of you may be loathe to remember(as I am), I ended up having to have radio-iodine treatment in the hospital again so I'm hoping this time will be a clean scan. My doctor says I should wait for two years of clean scans before I try to have a baby so I was hoping this year would count as year one.....But I won't cry this time around. What can I do, you know? Life isn't so bad for me as it is without a mini-me so I shouldn't get all depressed about it. It's not like being sad would speed up the process anyway. There was so much cancer the first time, I wouldn't be surprised if there was any left over. Or scared. Well maybe a little scared but not like before. And again, there's nothing to be afraid of, this is not the kind of cancer that is incurable, it's just a matter of not wanting to turn into a nuclear bomb because they can only give me so much radiation at a time and then wait for the tissues to disappear before checking to see if they got it all. I may be small but I've always been a scrappy little smurf. I'm not saying I don't complain like a pansy the whole time, but the gloves are always off when it comes to this stuff....

So that's that. On a more random note, ya'll, get this. I met a girl named Nefertiti yesterday. She was as beautiful as her name beholds. I said,"wow, is your mom into Egyptian history?" Her: "I don't know, do you know my mom?" I said," Well, because your name, you know." Her:"No, what about my name?" I said," You didn't know that you have the same name of an Egyptian queen? Are you joking with me?" Her,"I am? For real? How do you know this?" I said,"Doesn't everyone?" Her,"No, honestly I don't know what you're talking about, my grandma has the same name, we both call ourselves Neffie." I told her to look it up. She wasn't kidding, she didn't know and got really excited about it. I wasn't sure if I should be pissed off at how bad the schools are or surprised that i was the first one who noticed and said something. How in the world can you go 22 years with a name like that without *A*anyone telling you or *B* not learning that in basic highschool history?




AND! Check out one of my drawings I did with my new colored pencil that my MrPea gave me for Christmas. Not bad for not having used them in 15 years. I have to admit, I sort of cheated and used an art book to help me, but I didn't outline it and it wasn't a colored drawing, I just used the design as a guide. I bought the book to help me reaquaint myself with simple drawing because I've been painting and doing pottery but not so much drawing for so long and I missed the sign up deadline for classes. I took this with my cell phone so it's bad quality photo. Anyway, this is a little cutesy in comparison with what I like to do but it's not bad for a start. It's not finished here, obviously but I'll show you how it looks in it's frame when I get to it.

I was there

I don't need to tell anyone who doesn't live under a rock what day today is. I have been canvassing my behind off and you don't need to guess for whom. Yesterday I got maybe 3 hours of sleep and didn't think I was going to be able to do it one more day. I thought maybe if I'm so exhausted, I'll just phone bank for an hour until I'm tired. But after attending a rally with thousands of people giving positive vibes to each other, praying together, dancing together, and singing our National Anthem together, then hearing one of the best pep talks I could have ever been given, I was on a high energy for the rest of the day and was able to muster the power to keep the wheels turning. You can see from this picture what a great view I got to have and how close my position was from the podium.

As he worked the stage when it was over I yelled out as loud as I could, "Senator show me your handsome face!" Whether or not he heard, I don't know but everyone around started laughing and all hands went in the air holding cameras. So this was the only photo I got with him smiling and of course as ya'll can see the person in front of me was definitely taller than 4'11".

I'm going out again to canvass right now and make sure everyone who hasn't voted yet gets to the polls today. To the very last minute I'll be walking.

Everyone who hasn't voted yet please get out to the polls and vote. Whoever you support. It is such a privilege to be able to make our voices heard in this country that we shouldn't take for granted. Stand in line, bring a chair and some snacks, make friends with your fellow voters, do whatever you need to do. Just get there and VOTE!!!


My favorite lines from his stump rally speech has always been this one.

Vlog the vote. Makin' History :O)

I voted today!
I felt all "historical" so I had to make a video. I ended up having to do another take when I realized I was holding my camera the wrong way. Typical....

Here is my message(s) to the world:


Oops. Take two:










And here is my ballot. I encourage everyone to do the same whoever you vote for.

Blue Canvassing in Red Territory(or so I thought)

Saturday I went canvassing for the very first time. I had shied away from volunteering to canvass because I live in the darkest, blood Red section of Florida. In fact I was actually a little scared of my safety when I saw how nasty, and ok I'll just say it right out, RACIST supporters seem to be comfortable enough to get lately.(It's actually worse than what's been shown on CNN-don't believe me, just look on youtube) When I heard that someone had yelled,"Kill him," at a rally in Florida, I wanted to apologize on behalf of the state of Florida. I had visions of some crazy person chasing me down with a pitch fork because I was campaigning for "that one." Mind you, I have nothing against republicans, in fact, my whole family and one of my closest friend have Rs on their voter registration card. And I'm in NO way saying that republicans are racist, of course they aren't. Racists are racist, it's a simple as that. (I never heard anyone yell death threats at the Obama rally that I went to a few weeks ago. ) But I grew up in the South. Biracial, in the South. And I love the South and I love Southerners but as a woman, who's half Asian, I can tell you guys some stories about some of the stuff I had/still have to put up with. So it would be safe to assume that an Asian girl canvassing on behalf of "that(black) one" whatever the political affiliation, might be a little nervous. At any rate any Democrat would not be very enthusiastic about canvassing in Republican territory. I did it anyway. Actually my team leader told me that we outnumber Republicans in my county but we've just not been as vocal until recently. Whatever the outcome, I'd like for all of us in my community to just accept the fact that we don't all agree on everything, and there's nothing wrong with that.

So you guys would be happy to know that my experience was a really good one. Just about every door we knocked on was happy to see us and those who were not, didn't chase us away with pitchforks. And the people who were happy to see us acted as if they had been in hiding and were happy to be discovered. It was as if they were being intimidated by their neighbors to just shut up and take it because they were outnumbered, actually no it wasn't as if, it was. So they were all so excited to see friendly faces. Most of our house calls were senior citizens(it is Florida) and wanted to talk issues with us but spoke in hushed voices. When they did this I told them loudly,"No. Let your voice be heard, this is your community too. You're not a second class citizen just because you're blue in the red zone. You would be surprised how many of us there are, I have 7 pages here full of people to visit, almost all Democrats. There's no reason we should all remain quiet. " One lady wanted to make copies so that she could make some new friends but of course I can't disturb anyone's privacy. One old guy raised his fist when we told him who we were and said,"Yeah!!Yeah!! Go young people!" Some couples offered us cookies and told us they were proud of us. Another was worried about us and said,"Don't let anyone see what you're doing, you guys are gonna get yelled at or something. We had our signs run over." I said,"Let them see us. I want them to know we're here. And I will smile at them and flirt and win them over too." They liked that. One lady expressed concern over his middle name being Hussein because she really liked his ideas before that. I told her my middle name was Marie but that didn't make me the Virgin Mary, she laughed at that and asked for a ride to the polls. Another couple was still in their bathrobes and was embarrassed about the fact that they slept so late(it was only 10:30) but they had just started taking a dance class the night before. How cute is that? I thought about my Grandparents a lot. I don't even know what their party affiliation was, I know my Grandma was a huge fan of Reagan. Huge. I wonder if they would approve of my volunteering and if they would be proud of me.

The next day, I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. On my way in, some guy made a smartass comment about my Obama teeshirt. Honestly I can't even tell you what he said, I wasn't even paying attention because I was thinking about all those people whose homes I visited and again understood why they felt the way they did. As I was standing in line, an old lady, who had heard, whispered to me,"I see you're wearing the right shirt." I said, "Say it louder ma'am, don't be shy. You're among friends here even if you didn't know it. I'm one of 90 volunteers." So she did and her husband did too. And they told me they already voted by absentee ballot. I told them I would be waving signs near the library and all over the beach next week so if they see me, to beep.

Phone banking, I'll still do, especially since the people I called yesterday didn't even know and never heard of early voting. But the human connection was better. It's nicer to see a smiling face knocking on your door than to hear your phone ring during dinner time, I think. And like I said, whatever happens in this election, I hope I have contributed in some small way to opening a dialogue or at least gave a feeling of belonging to the people I met who felt like outsiders in their own neighborhood. Needless to say, that night I called my team leader and told her to count me in to canvass at every date we have left.

Yesterday's find-Quality not Quantity! :o)

I didn't get as many as Monday.

But I got a few bigger ones. I'm not sure what that big piece on the top is but it's definitely something. Someone told me it was fossil horse bone but I'll have to look it up. I'm particularly happy about the crooked-looking ones. They are from tiger sharks and I have only ever found a few. I don't know if they are rare for these parts but they are rare enough for me to get really excited about finding. I've always liked looking for shark teeth but it's that gigantic one I found last year that sort of started it all.

I was watching the sky all day for storm clouds. (I don't mind rain but I'm scared of lightning.)

I waited 4 hours for the storm to come so I would have an excuse to go home otherwise I have to force myself. Nothing came but these pretty clouds. I decided to give my skin and my eyes a break today and stay indoors.

I'm probably ruining my eyes.

Since I haven't posted about shark teeth in a long time

It's safe to assume I had a really good day at the beach today. Mother Nature was so generous to me with her shark teeth.

Oh does that look like a big handful?

Well actually I got a bigger handful, my peeps. Not including the ones that kept slipping onto the towel.

I just took this to show how diverse the shapes are. That spiky stick thing in the middle is actually a stingray barb and that thing that's shaped like an upside down cup cake on the upper right is actually a puffer fish mouth bone.

I wanted to show off how I can even find the teeny itsy bitsy baby teeth.




Someone asked me how. It truly is like finding a needle in a haystack. Just look at this picture. This is what I'm looking at when I find them.

But once you get used to putting your mind in neutral, your eyes just sort of work on their own.

Before you know it it's been 4 hours and you didn't even notice the time.


*I didn't put that tooth there, honestly. I was actually getting ready to leave when I saw that one and thought I would snap a photo so I could show you guys how hard it is and why I'm so obsessed with "the find". Weather permitting, I will be there all week. YES!

Psychoman better watch out!

I finally got some pepper spray. I've been needing to get it for a long time now. I have to admit, and I've mentioned this before, I'm pretty paranoid. I always think everyone is a psychoman in disguise just waiting to kidnap me circa Silence of the Lambs and try to make an 'Angel suit.' I saw that movie when I was 15 and it ruined any sense of security I ever had. If Peanut and I are walking and I see someone walking towards me, I usually cross the road and walk on the other side, just in case it's psychoman. But one can never be too careful because, you know, psychoman can be hiding in the bushes. One morining when I was 19, I was out walking my pup in a beautiful and quiet neighborhood. There was a psychoman waiting for me crouched over on someone's driveway rubbing, um, himself on the asphalt. I called the police but they never found him. Doesn't matter though, psychoman is everywhere waiting for the right opportunity. Another time I was at a book store when I noticed a psychoman standing behind me trying to take a picture of my underwear with his cell phone. I screamed some serious profanities at him loud enough to make him run out of the store and into his psychovan. Then there was that psychoman incident at the pool. Not to mention another psychoman incident at Big Lots a couple months ago. I never told ya'll about that did I? Well I was checking out some picture frames when I noticed a man who, actually at first, I thought was my dad. I was just about to say hello but realized it wasn't my dad, it was a total stranger. He must have thought I was checking him out or something because he started talking to me. He asked me where I was from. I was polite but not friendly. I answered but then said I didn't have time to talk to anyone. He started making really creepy comments about how nice he thought my legs were. Again, polite, I said,"oh. ok. Have a good day." Then he kept following me and asked if my tan was natural and did I have tan lines and what kind of bathing suit do I have and do I have my bathing suit on underneath my clothes. I said, "ok, I'm sorry, this is creeping me out now. I really don't want to talk to you." He said,"ok nice talking to you." I thought that encounter was over. I was wrong. He kept passing by whatever aisle I was in. I got irritated and just decided to pay for my things and leave. Couldn't leave. Guess why. Yep, psychoman was standing near the exit watching. I pretended to look at vacuums just to see if I was correct for starting to get freaked out. I was. He started looking at vacuums too. So I just quickly walked out and got to my car as fast as I could. As I'm backing out, psychoman was standing in the middle of the damn parking lot watching me leave. When I told my friend Dee about it, she told me I should've called the police or at least told a store employee. She's right, but honestly I just wanted to leave, I was more irritated than scared. Every woman I know has a story like that and more than one so it's not like I think I'm special or that Psychoman just always picks me. This happens so frequently and it seems like we've all just accepted that it's a part of life. This makes me furious.

Don't think I'm sexist, psychoman doesn't nessesarily have to be man. A few months ago there were reports of some women going up to people asking what time it was and then hitting them in the face to snatch their purses at the grocery store where I shop.

Now I'm not saying that pepper spray is needed just because someone is bothering me at Big Lots, but I would have felt better knowing I had pepper spray in case psychoman tried to take it to the really scary level, like try to grab me. A close friend of mine got grabbed in a public bathroom at a department store. Luckily, she was strong and fought him off. Of course the police were called but he was long gone by the time they arrived.
SO now that I have my pepper spray I feel a little safer going on walks or jogging because if psychoman is hiding in the bushes I got something for him. Don't try it Psychoman. ok? Cuz Little Pea don't play.

I don't need to get on a soap box and tell ya'll to always protect yourself. I mean you guys out there too. Always trust your instincts and let's put that, "oh I don't want to be impolite" way of thinking behind us. Psychoman never attacked anyone because they were impolite. ( I got that tip from watching Oprah)

Got a creepy psychoman story? Leave me a comment so we can commiserate.....

Me and my Shadow(box)

Check it out ! I did stuff again...scientific stuff. Yessss! This isn't ALL of my shark teeth, I have thousands more. These are some of the bigger and nicely shaped ones. It was MrPea's idea, sort of. I haven't decided if I'm going to hang it up or keep it on the coffee table. I need to be able to geek out over them when the mood strikes so it has to be easily accessible.

I'm dying to get to the beach to look for some more. It's sunny and warm enough but the ocean wind is still so cold, I'm afraid I'll get sick so I'm waiting til next week maybe. I can't even describe how badly I need to get out there. Maybe that's how addicts feel. Oh but soon. Soon.


BTW If anyone thinks I got the Latin names wrong, let me know.

Oh and I forgot to mention that MrPea found a few himself(but I found all the big ones)

Necesity is the mother of invention

I feel like burning incense. Problem: I have incense but no incense holder. Solution: go to the store? $19.99 for a fancy pants one, my foot! What else could I do but poke a hole in one of my favorite shells and use this dish for friggin' free. Kiss my behind Pier One!

I'm not Martha dammit, but I did stuff

Been feeling pretty blah blah(blahg) lately, as I usually do when it's cold outside. But not in the bad way, I've just been hibernating by the fire place. I did get a little creative and finally did my shell frame that, in my mind, I finished a long time ago. Like? The coral and I think the sea glass I found in Hawaii(at a secret beach, yessss, we had a secret beach there too!). One of the snail shells I found 11 years ago in the Filipines. And the rest are from around here. Well except for the peach one, I think I found that in Tampa a long time ago. I don't remember....

I used regular school glue because I'm too lazy to go the craft store and get the proper glue, in case anyone wants to borrow this idea for a project. I would suggest using craft glue or hot glue, but since I had neither, I didn't. Hopefully I won't regret this. Another good idea would be to mix glue and clear glitter and brush it on the sides and in between the shells to make it look like sand but like I said, I'm too lazy to go to the store so it stays like this. I'm sure Martha would pee in her pants but less is more I think. Plus if I gave a crap what Martha would do, I would have just went to the store and bought a new damn frame.