Tuesday, May 17, 2011

New Dentist Digs


Today I went to the dentist, and sometime in the past two years, they moved to some impressive new digs!  Exciting, I know.  Just look at the waiting room reception area...that is indeed a handy iced tea dispenser for waiting patients.  Probably unsweetened, but in this neck of the woods (my mother excluded), I believe that's just fine.

I was in a bit of a rush this afternoon, so I didn't have time to get home and brush my teeth after my yummy lunch of peppercorn steak over rice with the grandparents (their treat!).  Ever the problem solver, I made a hasty visit to the CVS across the street from the dentist for a cheap toothbrush and toothpaste, and managed to walk in exactly on time!  I was feeling pretty good about my quick thinking until I walked into their equally lovely restroom to brush my teeth.  They had a basket full of colorful, good quality toothbrushes, travel sized toothpaste tubes, and floss there for the taking!

So I took one of each and stuffed them in my purse.  After the ordeal that followed, I don't feel guilty at all.

Monday, May 16, 2011

I once suspected that I had bipolar disorder

Circa 2008

The suspicion was short-lived, however, and I have since come to the conclusion that I'm just bad at making tough decisions...and sticking to them!

Luckily, these days I'm not suspecting bipolar disorder, but maybe just a dash of schizophrenia.  A tad?  Since I've been home, I can't seem to get a handle on the girl I was before I left.  I'm finding it difficult to understand her and some of her decisions completely, and in addition to being mildly baffling, this is also a bit scary.  What if, 3 years from now, I'm in the same position, and I can't understand why I felt so strongly about following a path I'm about to choose?  Whew...  I usually end this train of thought right here, so...

That brings me to a funny little paragraph I found today while I was looking through one of the many boxes of stuff I stashed at mom's house while I was away.

On the first page of an old blue Peter Rabbit journal, I found this gem:

This is a storybook I wrote in my spare time.  I wrote all these storys from the insporation of all my animals.  My sister Robyn was writing about her cat sugar.  So I am grateful.


Come again?  Seriously, who was that?  I have no idea... but I suspect that whoever it was would probably be mortified that her future self would post it on a blog.  Sorry lil Jennifer.

Monday, May 9, 2011

The Ness Melodeon Band World Tour!

So I mentioned a few trips taken during my "blank blog" period in the month before I made it home to Kansas, and the Ness Melodeon Band World Tour was the first of the trips.

South Africa & America!
Technically it was the Ness Melodeon Band Highland tour (2 nights in 2 venues), but Fios, the weekly paper in Ness, publicized it as the World Tour and the title stuck!  However, in the end, the trip lived up to our expectations.  As you see above...

The band rented a big van...


And the two stops were Poolewe and Beauly, two very picturesque highland towns.  We had an awesome time!  I was a groupie, and mostly just hung out with the band, danced at the ceilidhs and took pictures.  Our accommodation at Poolewe was definitely an adventure though, and I will never forget my night's stay in the Poolewe hotel.  And thanks to me, neither will you.

Apparently the hotel went bankrupt after our reservations were made, but decided to honor them anyway...which was lovely.  The room however was a little less than lovely.  It was FREEZING because the heat wasn't turned on, and the hot water was really really temperamental.  So temperamental that we had no idea that we even had hot water until 20 minutes after we turned on the hot water tap!  Nothing (no, not even freezing cold water) came out of the faucet for the first 20 minutes.  Luckily we forgot to turn it off, so we were surprised with torrents of hot water when it eventually did work.  When I say "we," I mean my roommate Lesli.  Lesli was the lucky girl to get sprayed with uncontrollable, boiling hot water.

Anyway, even though the room was freezing, the hot water was temperamental, and the shower was in the main bedroom...with a glass door, everything paled in comparison with the roll top bath.  I will never forget you lovely roll top bath.  I mean it.