C is for Coffee

My son asked as I poured the cup that I am drinking..."how can you drink that? It stinks......" Gulg glug glug.... Easily but, I can remember a young me thinking....yuck that reeks like mud pies. Creamy dirt was how my daughter described it or Burnt cupcakes said my other food critic. I started because I wanted to be more adult (I didn't go the cigarette route I was a bit of a chicken and wanted to live if my parents found out.) Now I am just addicted. Hi, my name is Deb and it has been 3 hours since my last cup of Dixie Donuts coffee. One professional with whom I had sought advice, told me it was my drug of choice. She also told me that for at least nine months I would have to do without if I wanted decaf offspring. Visions of trembling uncoordinated fetus's kicking for the next cup of joe was more than I can bear. It was a long dry....gestation period.
I work nights. All night, 4 nights a week, all dark, all the time. I know my coffee. I can drink any sludge that comes my way. Truck stop coffee at 3:00 am? Yes, please. So when I come across something sublime It should be shouted about. This isn't a "runs on" coffee or the chain that is selling lifestyles and blues music. Don't get me wrong I like those other coffees but......I am voting with my dollars. I go to Dixie Donuts. I had heard from a friend (thanks Dawn) that I should try Dixie for their donuts. Dawn is knowledgeable in all things tasty and if she says try it I do. (I should add a disclaimer.....I only buy coffee occasionally because I am saving my pennies for a rainy day.) The first time I stopped at Dixie Donuts I didn't understand. I had no concept of how they could stay in business with so much competition and keep the hours they do. They are not open on Sundays so plan accordingly. Those Dixie people are crafty. They keep several containers of doughnut hole samples right next to the register. I thought that was evil of them until I took one. They are just trying to help me. Yeah liberate my thinking towards doughnut stereotypes. But I digress, we are talking of coffee. Go to Dixie's try the coffee you wont be disappointed. If you dont like your coffee unflavored try the pumpkin spice cappuccino. Although, my brother teases me that I dont need flavoring in my coffee because it is well....coffee flavored. Then when you see how wonderful they are tell your friends. Join the facebook fan site. But mostly spend your pennies there because they deserve it.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Norwich-CT/Dixie-Donuts-LLC/207925767852?ref=ts

The Heeling

It is funny how winter clothing covers a variety of sins that in the summer I would never allow to happen to my body. Not to sound like a skin lotion commercial but I realized last week while laughing with friends that the skin on my heels was roughly the consistency of a cheese greater and perhaps that was why there was a hole in the heal of my favorite pair of socks.......my tired and weary feet were in need of a coat of polish and a pedi-egg (also useful for grating parmigiana cheese) I confessed my shame to another friend (I am dry/and cracked and not just my humor)and she had a solution. She sold Mary Kay at one time and handed me a cute little purse with magic lotion in it. I didn't have a cow to exchange for these beans but i know magic when I see it. The only thing missing from the package exchange was the voice of the Big G vibrating around us saying "USE THIS AND YOU WILL BE HEALED.....In you HEELS......Oh ME! just start the car....she is a weirdo....No this was your idea I wanted to take a trip to the Red Sea"
I rushed home and locked the doors. This reeked of something clandestine and mildly well.....Ah Dirty........
Lobster Hot water (check)
portable DVD player and episodes of LOST (Check)
Lotions from at least 25 different hotels (check)
Girly Soap (check)
fruity shampoo (check)
loofah (check)
Heel scraper (check)
fluids to keep hydrated (check) hey this was major reconstruction work.
Razor (check)
finger nail clippers (check)
cotton gloves or old socks (check)
an hour with no interruptions (check)
A few restful minutes later I emerge scrubbed, shaved, squeaky pruned and caught up with Disk 3 season 5.
Now for the magic. This stuff is simply called MARY KAY EXTRA EMOLLIENT NIGHT CREAM put on your feet or hands at night or for me before my mid-afternoon sleep with a pair of cotton gloves and or cotton socks and the results is startling. I suddenly see what could be tantalizing about all those beauty serums. I am not saying I agree with the girl who uses botox to keep those little wrinkles at bay when she is 24. But Damn as a printmaker I can't remember the last time I didn't look like my hands were put through a meat grinder then rubbed with black grease. So thank you Big G and Mary Kay.

Music and "the way we are tied in"

My husband has been working on a Ipod for my daughter. It was at one point mine so we needed to dump all of the music we deemed inappropriate. A musical house cleaning starting with all the toilet lyrics and bathroom humor. To keep with the house analogy we were pondering to put in all new drapes when I started to really look at the titles and think about what the music really meant to me. How a title can evoke so much. I had carried the past with me in my pocket and now I was passing the Harry Potter (torch) and adding the much requested Taylor Swift. Somewhere in there The songs that were with me when I painted my best or cried when I was afraid. The Cure Disintegration, Music that will cause physical response with just thinking the first beat. Marc Cohen True Companion should have been played at my wedding but Elvis's Blue Hawaii was played instead and forever makes me laugh when I hear it. I have been wasted tired and cranked Dave Matthews 7 and got the job done. Listened to the city of Angels sound track and heard Paula Cole sing Feelin' Love and felt powerful and sexy......driven to fast to Foo Fighters One Down and Another One to Go, but not something I want to pass to my eight year old. Looking over at the discarded music I felt nostalgic and grateful that I am able to censer my own messy and rather "Adult" skewed music. My first born has plenty of time to grow her own life sound track without help from me and I am sure it will be as richly textured as she is. But, I think there should be a few classic's on there besides Yellow Submarine. Just a nudge I swear........

Why I LOVE New Years Day

Not including the 5 lbs. I gained during my holiday induced eating fest. I love sitting back on New Years Day and looking over the past week and even past years and thinking that today is the start of a fresh clean slate. The gifts have been opened and the chips have fell where they may. The feeling doesn't last long so I try to savor it like a good chocolate rolling it around in my brain and hoping that the ball created from all that rolling collects only the good things I want to keep with me for the next year. The mess that is left after last years mistakes and self induced stupidity can be swept up in little brain baggies and dropped by the side of the road. I am clean and the room of my brain is ready to start again. The year can then again unfold in front of me in endless possibilities. Flipped open with a swift, floomp like a table cloth, clean snow white and ready to form into whatever I want to create. Now if I could just get this feeling of power and creativity to last longer than the span of a cup of coffee I could bottle it and keep it with me when I need it. Coffee, That's the ticket.

Laryngitis and a trip to the store

Hearing me speak right now brings to mind a 6 pack a day smoker or stoma patient. Whispering for my dogs to "SHUT UP" because they are barking at 6:50 in the morning. I know dogs have great hearing mine can hear a squirrel fart at 50 yards and run barking after them. Can they hear me? no. Yesterday, as I was feeling about ready to drop I had to go to the store. Of course that is when I run into a "girl" I knew in high school. She stopped to say hello and then upon hearing my voice and seeing my dark circles for eyes she shuddered in her step and kept right on walking leaving me talking to her back. (I had just brushed my teeth and had not had garlic or poppy seed bagels in days) Why did I not just nod imperiously and walk on myself?
I think I know why. It was novel to sound like froggy from "Our Gang" but now the novelty has worn off and I am ready to sound like myself again. Phone calls are impossible and when my friends stop laughing they tell me that it is hard to hear me and that I should rest my voice. Which translated means "That rasping noise coming from your mouth is making the hair in my ears hurt. Stop talking"
So I guess blogging is the way to go. Aren't you lucky, I could have called but instead I caught you up with a blog. I just figured out why the dogs haven't been coming when I call. My voice is on a frequency that even they cant hear.

Dear Santa

Dearest Santa,

I realize it has been a while since we have spoken and I really am the one to blame for that. There are a few things this year though that I think you should know I would like I just wish more of them were found in stores. That is why I thought it would be wise to just talk to you and then maybe you could discuss things with your boss (God, cause I know that you two are close.) So dear Santa these are the things I would like for Christmas.
1. I really would like a Red Ryder BB Gun or a major award Lamp Leg I am not picky.
2. I would like a bike, actually my old bike in working condition with a big bow on near the tree....It wont matter that I can't ride it until spring.
3. I would like new flooring in my bathrooms and kitchen and the cupboards finished (you have elves could I borrow them I could feed them and send them back they might like a little change of venue)
4. Could you help me find the perfect gift for My husband you have seen his wish list I know you two talk please just a hint.....(please) perhaps I should have put this at the top of the list.
5. A puppy in a big box that I could enjoy and then give back.
6. The keys to a new car that is sitting in the driveway for me in a little box with a big bow.(red please)
7.The chance to go a couple of more Christmas's with the kids still feeling the wonder of Christmas morning.
8. Two Zu Zu pets. (well yes I would share them with the kids but hey I think they are cute too)
9. the perfect gifts for my two children.(again I know that you have seen their lists.)
10. There are several people this year Santa who I know are suffering and I would love to be able to help them in some way but I am not sure how to do that you can't buy a cure for Cancer at the store. If you could I would put every dime of my allowance away for that and even work an extra job. So maybe you could just leave a note to let me know how I could help them as well, I would appreciate that.
11. A winning Lottery ticket. (I know that is a big one but, It could help with some of the things that pop up during the year when you aren't here.)
The rest I will talk directly to your boss about. We need to spend more time talking he/she and I. I know that Christmas is also His Sons birthday and there is quite a party so I think we should start talking more throughout the year when perhaps he isn't so busy. In fact that should be on my list as well.
Thank you Santa I know you will do your best.
It has been nice talking to you. Is there any special cookie I could leave out on the 25th? Let me know.
Thanks again,
Deb

Voodoo Camera Scavanger Hunt Begins

Hello All.....This is a slightly different sort of rant. This is more of a call to arms, a bell tolling for you to dust off your Camera phone/camera/web cam or even hammer and chisel, Anything you would use to capture a moment.
Over lunch at my favorite place a friend said she wanted to do a scavenger hunt. The image that came to mind was driving in my beat up old Datsun 210 looking for road signs or lawn art that would complete the list my friend Cheryl gave me. (Of course everything was returned) Do you know how hard it was to find a gnome. Really, they are everywhere when you don't want them but need one quick and you might have a problem. So in the effort to stay law abiding I think that we should just photograph what we need to find. We will be hunting for pictures and our prey is totally up to you. Now All the rules will be posted on the facebook group page that I set up for this but for those who are standing firm against facebook (and you know who you are) you can send me a email with web sized pics and I will put them on for you....Alley.....
The first set of 15 "prey" will be put up November 2nd and at that time you will be given a date to have them complete. The winner will be given the Drum roll please.......Golden Bragging Right as well as input on 5 of the next months scavenger clues. All photos (but one) each month must be taken fresh. Each month you are allowed one photo from your stockpiles. NO Cheating on this........(That really is directed at myself) Quality doesn't matter just content.
The only other request and again these rules will all be posted is that lets try and keep this a "clean" game. No nasty bits, if you know what I mean. Any truly offensive photos will be taken off and the poster will be banned from the group.

The link is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=227103242616
On your mark.....Get set......GO!