Still Alice

Here is why I don't want to read the book Still Alice about a woman who develops Altzheimers:

Yesterday on my way to tennis I realized that I had forgotten my water--no real biggie; we all do that. I knew I could buy water in the machine at the tennis center, but, since I had only a $20 bill, I started rooting through my purse for the $1.25 I would need for the machine. Although I was successful in finding enough change I also found (GASP) my paycheck from last week! Now I'm really concerned about the lack of money in my account--but I don't remember to make a deposit on the way to work today! It does occur to me as I pull into my office parking lot so I decide to go to the bank during lunch. As I wait in the drive-thru line I prepare my depoit ticket & endorse my check. Then I check my email & voicemail. (I'm beginning to realize I do not multi-task well!) Next I pay for my apples & yogurt & head for the bank. When I was sitting in the bank drive thru, I glanced at the passenger seat & realized that I had driven off without my food!

Woman vs Mailbox

My neighborhood is quiet & has a very low volume of traffic. I always drive through slowly ever vigilant for pets, kids, &, of course, deer. So it's rather amazing that I managed to have a minor traffic accident less than a block from my house. As I was driving down my street my purse slid off the seat & turned upside down. I reached down to retrive it & accidently hit a mailbox. Yikes!

The mailbox survived, however, it knocked off my side mirror & put a rather unsightly dent in my car. I will take this as a reminder to keep focused on the driving & not be distracted by extraneous things. Message received!

Easter 2009

At family gatherings I sometimes (okay, often) become the target of  jokes. Unfortunately for me the more I put myself out there with blogging & twittering, the more material I provide my sons & nephews to bust me. My Iphone, which is such a source of entertainment & information for me, does get me into trouble from time to time. It seems that I am not always able to manage the phone, & once I make a blunder it's out there for all to see & ridicule. Yes, I did send a photo from my phone 16 times, send an email to all my contacts including people I don't know socially, tweet at Ryan Seacrest about my car . . . all inadvertent, but once I put it out there & then realize my mistake, it's too late! I'm learning that an attempt to tweet quickly from my phone is not such a great idea as it can lead to sending a direct message to someone whom I'm sure could care less. I find it ironic that those who are so quick to harass me for twittering are either following me or lurking (yes, Jan, I mean you!) So they seem to also find something pretty entertaining about twitter. At least I have the ability to laugh at myself for it seems I can always find a way to do something lame. My impulsiveness & the ability to put out a quick tweet are not a good match. To further complicate things for me, I now have TweetDeck to master--yikes! 

It's amazing how well I respond to a list. Last Thursday night I made a list of the things I needed to do over the three day weekend. By mid-afternoon on Saturday I had completed everything on the list. Inexplicably the act of crossing items of the list provides me with motivation. Too bad I don't make a list more often!

Drew had his first Carpenter family money egg hunt this Easter although he seemed to be less interested in finding eggs than in finding eight year old Kerry! When I asked Drew if he wanted to find more eggs, he responded, "let's find Kerry!" He might have been more excited if the eggs had contained jelly beans since he managed to stuff quite a few of those into his mouth all at once. I put aside my aggressive egg hunting to walk with Drew & help him look. It was actually lots more fun! Tyler, still too young to look for eggs, was captivated by watching the dogs run around in the yard. By the way, I do know that Cyrus is not the Colorado egg hunting champion--seriously, I think he found fewer eggs than Drew & I did! How weird is this . . . Jenny found an egg from a prior year!

On a serious note as I sat in church with Rach, Trent, Adam, Kelly, Tyler & Drew yesterday I felt truly blessed!

Milestones

I was in Ohio this past weekend visiting Ryan, Renea, Owen & Lucie. I arrived in time to watch Owen's private swim lesson & was blown away by how much he's improved since last summer! His freestyle looked like an actual freestyle, & he has a nearly flawless breast stroke. We went to the movies & went to church & all the while I was mindful of just how much Owen has matured. He has little problem sitting quietly when necessary. After I left yesterday he was going to try to ride his bike without training wheels . . . he promised to call & tell me how it went. About a hour so later while I was still driving home, he called. Yes, in a matter of minutes he had mastered the two wheel bike! So for Owen spring will be more bike riding & swimming along with t-ball. This five year old seems like he's ready to take on the world!

Just crazy!

Who knew that Ryan & I would be leading the pack of the family blogs? Ryan has been blogging daily so I have attempted to step up my game as well. Trent & Adam . . . not so much! Blogging often about one topic is easier than trying to blog occasionally when there are numerous things I want to say & don't have the time or energy to type it all out. In addition I try to stay on pace with my kids' blogs, podcasts & tweets. Keeping up with my family & friends via the social media could be a second job! 

Too cute!

Yesterday we heard on the radio that former WVU quarterback (& future NFL star), Pat White would be at the Waterfront Hotel signing autographs. In an instant I called to see if I could take Drew to meet him & was told he could go. I picked him up & made a bad decision to try to go through town instead of getting back on the interstate. This little jaunt did lead to some lively conversation though. As I commented about the traffic, Drew wanted to know if everyone was going to see Pat White. In addition I was explaining to him why it was necessary to always stop for a school bus. A few moments later he yelled "STOP" from the back seat. I asked him what was wrong, & he told me a school bus was coming. So I then needed to further explain that we only needed to stop when the bus was stopped to load or unload kids. He told me we were taking the same road that they took to go to church & added that they didn't go to church last week because they had too many things to do. Of course he asked several times if we were almost there. Well, it was cute to see hundreds of preschool kids in various Pat White attire at the event. Drew did not miss a thing as he had on his WVU sweat suit, Pat White jersey, & WVU baseball cap. As we stood in line he was so friendly that all the security people kept stopping to chat with him. He was talking about all the things he planned to say to Pat. Eventually, we got to Pat, & after saying "hi" & giving Pat a fist bump, Drew became rather star struck. Pat was great though & started asking Drew questions like "do you like the Mountaineers?" So Drew answered Pat's questions, then wished him good luck like we had talked about. Drew was rather disappointed that Pat wasn't wearing his uniform though. All in all it was really fun! (Yes, I was excited to meet Pat too!)

April Fool

I have not been into April Fool's pranks since graduating from grade school. In fact, for me it is pretty much like any other day. So when I checked my twitter account at work & discovered that Ricky Braddy, a friend of my nephew's who appeared on American Idol, stated that he would be back on AI & would appear on Ellen the following day, I immediately was excited. I called my sister to see what she knew about it, but she didn't answer. I then sent a text to my nephew asking him what was up. He didn't know anything about it but told me he would find out & let me know. A few minutes later I got a text telling me Ricky was playing an April Fool's joke. Haha! Well, of course, I had already started to spread the word that Ricky was back on AI. How dumb did I feel. 

Apparently this planted a seed with my nephew. He lives in Nashville & has had the good fortune to become well acquainted with some celebrities there. So Wednesday night as I am driving home from tennis I get a call from him. He tells me he has some good news. My friends who are riding with me suddenly stop talking since I am shrieking excitedly as he tells me an elaborate story. He begins by telling me that one of his connections had set him up with an interview/audition. Making it very believable he describes his nervousness & his concern that his voice wasn't 100% due to a recent cold. All the details of this meeting were meticulously narrated including the names of everyone present for the group Rascal Flatts. He proceeded to tell me that their keyboard player was taking some time off since he & his wife were expecting a baby & that they seemed to like his audition. He went on to say they called him back & offered him a job going on tour for 6 months beginning in a couple of weeks. To further the story he said he went right out & bought a new car which he also described. I suggested that he email me a picture of the car; he agreed & asked me to check it out & call him back. After we hang up my friends & I are excitedly talking about getting tickets to see him on tour. I was so pumped about it that I forgot to check my phone for the picture. When I finally did, I saw a text message instead from my dear nephew stating "April Fool." Well, yes this year I am the April Fool!