Recommendations & Gossip

For those who care about their hands & feet as much as I do, a product I just found at the local Big Lots might be of interest. The website is http://www.frillsbeauty.com. I picked up 1 of their sample packs and have loved every single 1 of the products. The foot baths smell wonderful & have done a lot to make my hands & feet a lot less stiff & sore. That & a lot of the incredible rough edges that have been developing since I took this job at the garden nursery have started to wear away.

Another website / show I can recommend is http://www.globetrekkertv.com. I started watching it a few weeks ago on ETV & was rather impressed. Then you throw in the shopping and I was hooked. The show is just what the title says it is. There are about 4 travel guides who go to various locations around the world and show you what the sights are and give you a rough idea of what to expect from the places you stay and the best ways to get to the sights. The web site also offers the taped shows, music, and various other odds & ends. The music will be something for my ever growing wish list, but what I have listened to on-line is pretty good. At least, by my standards.

Now for the gossip. Yesterday at work I learned something rather bizarre by my standards. Since moving to Beaufort, SC I have been constantly surprised by the price differences from Statesboro, GA. I just had a massive difference pointed out yesterday. Keep in mind that Beaufort, SC is a small Southern town that is a MAJOR tourist spot. As in, we are less than 1/2 an hour from Hilton Head Island & there is LOADS of cash floating around this area. The "quieter" source of community funding is based on the Marine training depot, Paris Island, and the Marine Air Station for its income.

Now, given the 2 extremes of income, you would think there would be a varied supply of housing in this area. Well, I would. Unfortunately, I am wrong, horribly wrong. Examples include this - there is a block of 2-story townhouse's that all have 2 bedrooms, 1 & 1/2 baths, living room & kitchen, on 1/4 acre, approx. That is all that they are. They face the back of a strip mall that consists of a kitchen store, Talbots, & a few similar stores. On the 1 side is a boat outfitter, & I mean the LARGE boats. You know, yachts? And on the other side is a marsh view. Behind them is more housing of similar size. Guess how much they average?

Well, if you guessed over $200,000 each, you would be right!

I would not pay that, but that is just me.

Another example is the house I am living in now. My mom paid around $125,000 for this, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, kitchen, living room, dining room, enclosed garage on 1/2 an acre (approx.). That is not too bad. More than I'd want to pay, but since there are 3 adults & 1 child, plus 5 animals, it is working. The location is on a small pseudo-penisula along the coast line, so though we are on the "inside" of this mini-subdivision, we still can see the marsh on both sides. We can also definitely hear the Paris Island gun fire & sometimes even the drill sergeants. Thanks to a realtor who has come sniffing around, we now know that these houses, which are all at least 30 years old & need new everything, can sell from any where from $$200,000 to $400,000 depending on how extensive the renovation have been.

This is a small town. There is little to do here beyond attend the local festivals, go boating, and generally be wealthy. The shopping is non-existent. So why on earth is this place so expensive? Oh wit, that's right! Most of the people here are wealthy to the point that spending over $200,000 for a small house is nothing to them. So what if they only use it 4 months out of the year? Sheez!

I really want to get out of this town. I know that I am here and doing multiple good things helping my family. I know my mother & I have had more heart to hearts over the past few months & worked out more issues than we have over the past few years. I know that this is only temporary & when it is the right time, life will fall in to place & I will move. But I really want it to be no later than January 2007. I want a life again where I can take a freaking bath & have candles burning & a glass of wine. I want to go back to my salads & tofu. All things that I can not do while living with others.

Not because they are family, which does play a role, but because this is not my home & most of the bills are paid by someone else. So I have not the right to indulge in my pleasures when I know they can not be shared by my family, nor are they encouraged because they all involve items that are frowned upon. Especially the candles, which blows my mind. Alcohol, though bad, is not as dangerous as candles apparently. Once I figure out why that is true, I'll let you know.

Something Of Interest

Something of interest - SFAG posted a tribute to 9/11 that I was rather surprised by. The opening line of his post is a latin phrase I've seen, but never knew exactly what the translation was. So, a few keystrokes later, I found this, and found myself rather emotional afterwards.

"frater, ave atque vale"

Latin phrase meaning "hail, brother, farewell." It appears at the end of a poem by Catullus:

Through many countries and over many seas
I have come, Brother, to these melancholy rites,
to show this final honour to the dead,
and speak (to what purpose?) to your silent ashes,
since now fate takes you, even you, from me.
Oh, Brother, ripped away from me so cruelly,
now at least take these last offerings,
blessedby the tradition of our parents, gifts to the dead.
Accept, by custom, what a brother's tears drown,
and, for eternity, Brother, 'Hail and Farewell'.

The poem and phrase were further immortalized 1,900 years later by Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Frater, Ave Atque Vale:

Row us out from Desenzano, to your Sirmione row!
So they row'd, and there we landed, 'O venusta Sirmio!'
There to me thro' all the groves of olive in the summer glow,
There beneath the Roman ruin where the purple flowers grow,
Came that 'Ave atque Vale' of the Poet's hopeless woe,
Tenderest of Roman poets nineteen-hundred years ago,
'Frater Ave atque Vale' as we wander'd to and fro
Gazing at the Lydian laughter of the Garda Lake below
Sweet Catullus's all-but-island, olive-silvery Sirmio!

The web site I found this at is http://www.answers.com

Grumps

This has been an interesting weekend. The most bizarre part has been the absolute relief I felt when I had to go to work. That's just weird. Not to mention what it says about my home life that I prefer to be at work rather than at home.

Anyway, I'm ready for the week to start. I am ready to fall on my face because I am so physically exhausted, but it is good to be so exhausted. Tuesday, I helped rearrange the existing stock of flower pots at work. On Wednesday, we received 4 pallets worth of heavy ceramic flower pots. Since unloading those, I feel like a wet noodle on a hot stove. Then I helped merchandise everything.

I spent Friday cleaning & running errands, Saturday at work, then today working in the yard. I'm ready to run away to the nearest spa, ya know?

What makes everything so really exhausting isn't the physical work though. It is how my nephew's soccer is eating in to our lives. How a close friends' almost boyfriend really screwed up to the point I am more than pissed for her. How my sister has been talking to her ex-husband for the 1st time in over 4 years. While there is a certain smugness is knowing that he is on his second divorce & she is acting towards him like he did towards my sister, it does not change the fact that my sister is something of an idiot where the man is concerned. Not that I have much room to talk given my choices, but I guess all I can do is be there & keep asking about how much he has changed/ matured over the past few years. Questions like, has he grown up any at all? pop to my mind where he is concerned.

Oh well, it's dinner time & if I am going to get up tomorrow, I need to go to eat dinner & go to bed. Joyousness. I can not wait until I can move out. I want my own home again. But that is just me.

A Goodbye & A Random Thought

I am horribly unhappy about 2 deaths. The crocodile Hunter, Steve Erwin, was supposed to live forever. I was expecting to watch him & his kids on TV, playing with crocs & snakes & other such dangerous critters with my nephew's kids in 40 years, you know? Now, well, he is gone. And in such a bizarre way, too. I mean, a sting ray barb through the heart? What the fuck is that? It is just wrong! I liked him & I hate knowing that 1 of the few decent people on TV is gone.

The 2nd death is a bit closer to home for me. A local Stateboro, GA hero, Erk Russell, died at 80 years of a heart attack. He was a college football coach & 1 of the best. He will be missed.

I liked him the few times I met him. I used to work at the campus catering & he was one of the few who would make life nice for us as we served dinner. He was polite, and believe me, that is a miracle in & of itself. An icon has passed.

Now for the complete random thoughts -
(Snickering madly now)

I had a revelation the other day while running errands. I finally figured out the fascination with stars & their sex lives. Why romance novels like the Steele sister's sell so well. It's because we can not talk about our neighbors & family members! Just because we know that our sister is sleeping with so & so, who's married with kids, and that the neighbors husband has a male lover, and several other pieces on the side of a different racial background, makes no difference. You can't bring it up and gossip about your neighbors & family with your co-workers & buddies. Why? They do not know these people. But everyone knows Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Oprah, The Twins, Paris Hilton, and so on & so forth. So we can gossip about them!

Blindingly obvious, I know, but since I never thought about it before yesterday, give me credit, OK?

Alcohol

OK, what is the deal? I have had over the past 3 weeks several conversations with numerous women about men & their drinking. At work, with the neighbors, with friends, and several others, I have listened to rants about men & their drinking. I am confused by what the attraction to alcohol is. Why is drinking such a must by so many? I will be the 1st to admit I enjoy a good drink every now & again. In fact, several drinks sounds appealing lately. But it is not that big of a deal. can anyone explain?