Bach's turn to Blog

My dog Bach has been bothering me all morning to blog about him. I can see it in his eyes. "You've blogged about the cat," he says. "When will it be my turn?"

Well, of course, I cannot deny my super best friend his time to shine. So I'll be showing off a couple items that I know Bach would deplete my PayPal account for, if only he had opposable thumbs to click the mouse.

I've found this great store on Etsy called Karriit82! She has all sorts of delightful, delicious looking dog treats! I'm pretty sure Bach would be all over those Lucky Pugs Peanut Butter Pastries!I also found another great shop called the Sandy Dog Bakery! They carry a great variety of all-natural dog goodies, from Pumpkin Dog Cookies to Spinach Cheese Balls! But I think Bach would be going wild for their Bark-B-Q Bones! Now if you'll excuse me, someone needs to go outside.....

Kicked Out!

I was actually sent home from work this morning. Granted, I'm probably still contagious and I had an allergic reaction to my antibiotics so I had to stop taking them, (and let's not forget the ever-present cough...) but still, why couldn't they have sent me home one of those days when I was pouring mucus from my eyeballs and couldn't breathe? Huh.

SO anyways, I'm trying to decide whether or not I should chance going back later tonight for a short shift. I really do need the money, but I also need to heal. Decisions, decisions.....

In the meantime, I've decided to give you another glance into my favorites on Etsy:
my aunt Dorothy!!
She has her own Etsy shop, OldGrandma, which hasn't picked up much wind lately. She's so far listed her handmade ornaments (I have a few of these for our tree). They're very beautiful and lightweight ornaments with a classic victorian feel.She makes these pretty little creations in her beautiful and scenic town of Mackinaw City, Michigan. Which reminds me.... I want some fudge.

Florida Weather

You know how in all the movies, the happy couple will finally get some time away for the vacation of their dreams in tropical Florida..... just to have it rain the second they step off the plane.

Well, it's all true.

Now, don't get me wrong, it doesn't rain ALL the time, but sunshowers and random storms are frequent. You could be at the beach enjoying the sun and sand when... a big black cloud comes out of nowhere and it rains for twenty minutes. But then the sky clears, the sun comes back, and the weather is beautiful once again.
And if you're planning a trip down here during the summer, just remember: it rains every afternoon around 4pm. Not for that long, but it does and it will and it will probably continue to do so.
But, it just wouldn't be home to me if it did anything else.
Still a disbeliever? I took this picture of our crazy weather last week from the back of our store.It was gone after 20 minutes.

Unrelated Crashes

I have had such a hard time with this flu. I tried to maintain a positive state of mind and continually affirming to myself that I was indeed healthy on Monday. I managed to stagger into my night job just to realize that my cough was not going to go away and my body was completely weak from my lack of appetite. They sent me home after two and half hours (I tried to make it through our rush) and I resolved myself to making the dreaded doctors appointment the next day. It's not that I have any sort of fear of doctors. I fear their bills. I don't have insurance and the last time I had to make an appointment out of the blue for some illness it cost me near $200, not including any prescriptions.

So, Tuesday afternoon rolls around, and my mother is kind enough to drive me to my appointment. At this point I still haven't been able to eat and my stomach feels like someone is punching their way out. The doctor was very nice, very quick, gave me two prescriptions and sends us on our way. I'm just relieved to have antibiotics and my only thoughts are of being at home in bed and sleeping properly.

My mother and I walk out the office door and towards our car when we hear this loud BANG directly behind us. We turn around and see a silver sedan flipping around twice and stopping when it smashes into the old stone wall in front of the doctor's building. I take a few steps towards the accident when I see the older man in the car isn't moving and blood was coming from he mouth. I start running and trying to turn my phone back on (I had to turn it off inside for my appointment). The white truck who hit the sedan skidded to a halt about 50 feet down the road and the driver came running over. A woman who was behind the silver sedan was trying to get the older gentleman to respond to no avail. At this point the nurses had run outside and the doctor (my doctor) was trying to get a pulse and pull his smashed up driver's side door open. I heard him say he wasn't breathing. I'm kicking myself for not knowing how to turn my phone back on; luckily the nurses had all called 911. It seemed like forever before the ambulance arrived.

I didn't actually witness the accident. Based on what the driver of the white truck said when he ran over ("did I run the light or did he?") I think they may both have been at fault. The white truck was racing to get through a yellow light (too fast) and the man in the silver sedan was trying to make a right turn on red without noticing that there was no way the white truck would have been able to slow down in time.

We finally left and I was able to get my prescriptions and go home. I checked the news later that night, since channel 5 news was at the scene within ten seconds, but there was no news about it. I haven't read the paper today but I checked out the stories online and there was still no news.

I hope the man in the silver sedan is alright.

Sickness thoughts

Why, oh, why can't I get past this coughing / choking / full of mucus stage of the flu? I've done little more than cough for three days now and it feels as though someone's been punching me in the stomach repeatedly. I have been getting better, and the coughing has gotten less frequent, but it still hits violently when it comes.

Which is exactly why I can't go into my night job. It's a restaurant. "Welcome to ____! Would you like a fever with your meal?"
Plus, when I'm sick, I get pissy. So things I could easily laugh off or give the "customer service white lies" turn into bitter exchanges. Example: customer asks "how are you today?" Non-sick me would have responded, "very good, thank you." despite my actual mood. Sick me responds, "I'm very miserable, how are you?"
And, as an interesting side note, (I love playing with the human condition) I've noticed there are two responses I get here. The first would be complete ignorance. The person asking me how my day wasn't genuinely interested and doesn't even listen to my response. The second is the person who is TOO interested, and begins to interrogate me on my condition, why I am unhappy and what can be done to fix such things.
If there's a middle ground I haven't seen it yet.Well, back to the grindstone. I need to get something accomplished today, the first of which will be to try and get some food into my stomach. I think an ice cream sandwich is in order...

Holy awesome rings, Batman!

Last night Allen and I logged onto Etsy and there, on the front page, in the recently listed items, were these beautiful rings:

Aren't they gorgeous? I've seen anything like these before! They're made by an Etsy shop called ZulaSurfing! The colors of the natural gems and stone are so eye-catching and mesmerizing! I can't wait to own one of these!

Also, since I've still had the last bits of flu, I decided to make a Myspace for Etrelle's. And I did. It's right here. I'm really impressed with the layout; I was just hoping the colors came out right. Now we're just trying to build up the friends. Please feel free to add us!

The Outside

There's nothing that can make you appreciate the outdoors more than being cooped up inside. It's been wonderful being able to enjoy the morning air instead of just coughing and staring through glazed, unfocused eyes.

So I took some pictures.

My yard is a beautiful sight in the morning. Maybe it's the way the light shines through our remaining trees, or maybe it's the light wind blowing each vine and branch around as if they were animated. We used to have so many more trees. So many more plants. I loved the natural look of the landscape. But our yard was being suffocated by pepper trees, and unfortunately a lot of trees were already doomed from pine beetles. It'll grow back, though. It'll grow back.

Time to heal

Oh, this past week has been horrible. Well, really just Wednesday through Saturday. This flu has been a rough trip. Too weak to even blog! Fever, chills, aches, coughing, sinus trouble, upset stomach.... what more could you ask for? And it's the worst when everyone in your house has the same flu, so there's no one around to pamper you.
But all this time spent at home has allowed me to find some new Etsy favorites!
Here's an awesome change purse by zomb!
He's adorable! And he'll eat your stuff!
Just looking at this little guy makes me feel better. Hopefully I'll scrape myself off the computer, go into the store to gather packages (and make something, if I'm lucky), head to the Post Office, and then into a short shift at my night job.
All in all, a productive day. Compared to the lousy past few days, anyway.

The Simpsons

After 18 years I am still in love with this show. Actually, it's been longer since I remember seeing them on the Tracy Ullman show way back when. I remember being Bart's age and watching the episode where he was going to fail his test and have to repeat the fourth grade - but at the last moment he wowed Ms. Krabappel with a tiny bit of trivia about George Washington and passed with a D-.
How can this show keep me mesmerized and watching, from elementary school through adulthood? Maybe it's all those jokes.

Ralph Wiggum: " Your toys are fun to touch. Mine are all sticky."
Also Ralph: "Hi, Super Nintendo Chalmers!"
Also Ralph (to old people): "You're wrinkling. Somebody should iron you!"

Last night for movie night we watched the movie (which I had seen before with Allen) but even repeats can make me smile. Matt Groening, you have done a fine job, sir.
And I miss Futurama. That show was fabulous and if you don't think it's funny you should remove the wadded up balls of dirty socks from your head and replace them with a brain that understands satire...Spider Pig, Spider Pig..... Does whatever a spider pig does!

More Buddy Love

I love making these little Buddy bags! They're incredibly cute and durable!
Right now I have these 5 plus two brown ones and a genuine ostrich that aren't shown. I really need to get some other work done (for real) but I can't stop making these bags. Help me, please. Buy one now to validate my obsession!