Hiya sexy...

Hello Stephen,

I hope you're doing well today.  It was raining here most of today, but the sun is starting to peek out now.  I am feeling MUCH better, and MUCH less stressed out today, than in my previous post to you.  I do apologize for all that negative venting, and I am going to blame it on the fact that my period started, so it was partially PMS.  Fun fun.  I'm kinda hoping menopause starts soon, I'm sick of this thing.  Anyway, so today I decided to skip my chiropractor appointment---just blatantly played "hooky"---but I rescheduled for Monday.  I decided, instead, to go shopping---all by myself, no mom's allowed.  It was SHEER BLISS I tell you!!  I enjoyed it very much.  I didn't buy a LOT of stuff, but a few very cool things to decorate our master bedroom and bathroom with, and a couple things for the mom's bathrooms.  I also got a stunning gorgeous dress to wear to Pete's class reunion next weekend.

There is a store I love, that I shopped at today, (several stores I love actually), so I will list some of them here....(of course, the Goodwill, Red White and Blue thrift store, and Salvation Army thrift stores are my favorites when it comes to buying home decor stuff, but I also love these....

Z Gallerie (though they do not have these stores in PA)
Home Goods (again, there are none in PA)
Ross Dress For Less (that is where I shopped today)
Kirklands (yes, there are some here, haleluyah)
Illuminations (they used to have a store in VA but now they have only one in CA)---all CANDLES!!

The main reason I love these stores is because they have interior design and home decor items.  I'm a sucker for that stuff.   The Z Gallerie is one that I nearly had a part-time job for in VA when I lived there, but I had just been diagnosed with diabetes, and it limited me on how long I could go without eating and how long I would have to stand on my feet, so they decided it might not work out very well.  Sigh.  But that store is awesome!

The one I've been to most often is at Tysons Corner Mall, in VA, which I used to live very close to at the time.  There were 2 or 3 other home decor places, but Z was the less expensive one, so I liked going there the best.  I never bought much, since all I had at the time was a basement to live in, but I loved loved loved going there, and dreaming about decorating other people's houses with all that cool stuff.

Illuminations is a store that primarily sells candles and stuff like that, with all sorts of cool extra's.  I love candles, I've got a BUNCH of them strewn about the whole house, in nearly every room.  In fact, I have a black wrought-iron "church-window-style" see-through 3 screen room divider that holds 39 votives in it.  I got it for free, as a Christmas gift, with a gift card one year.  Then I found a matching one JUST LIKE IT at a thrift store years later, that is smaller, and sits on a table.  COOLNESS.  I love it when stuff matches!  It makes me go all gooey inside for some crazy reason.  I'm such a girl sometimes!!

Pete and I are also members of Direct Buy, which has VERY nice, and high-end (expensive) stuff, but so far we haven't bought anything from them.  If and when it comes time to re-do our upstairs bathroom, however, we might be able to use them at that point, but not right now.

I sat down last night and brainstormed about how I'd like to decorate our master bedroom.  Part of me was all excited to just chuck everything we had before and start all over with some other style.  But, nope, I'm just too damned practical for my own good sometimes.  I had put some curtains on lay-away at Kmart (I know you probably never shop there and have NO CLUE what a layaway is, because you're stinkin' rotten filthy rich, but please bear with me)...so as I walked through the store, I stopped in the curtain section, to look for something that grabbed hold of me in a huge way for our bedroom.  I found some really cool silver and teal curtains that I liked, but then I thought, "every damned store has teal and brown stuff now, it's annoying, I don't want to be like everybody else...and that color combo seems rather cold feeling," so I decided to skip it for now, and figure out what I want to do with the room first.

So then I walked to the bedding department, and I found 2 comforters that I already HAVE at home, and it jolted me, like an epiphany....why not just decorate our bedroom like a beach---which we did before at the old house---and even though the guest room will have a beach theme also, I've got SO MUCH of that beachy stuff, I can divide it up between the two rooms.  At our old house, I painted the walls blue. However, I'm not doing that this time.  Instead, I sat down and looked through a decorating magazine, and jotted down things I liked and put together a whole NEW beach-style design instead!

We're going to have BEAD BOARD all the way around the room, with a crown molding narrow shelf on the top, so that we can put little knick knacks and stuff to look at....see, our room has slanted walls on top, and they are straight on the bottom, so HALF of the bottom straight wall will have the bead board, and the top part of the straight wall and the slanted part will be painted a very warm "homey cream," which is a mix of yellow and beige, very light but also deeper than just plain yellow.  Then, I'll use the striped blue, beige, and cream comforter set on the bed, like we did before, and I'll put the 2 dark brown bamboo room screen dividers on each side of the room to break it up---it's a very long room----and I'll bring in one of my white wicker chairs from our back porch (I love wicker), I think I may paint it dark brown as well, and add a couple cushions and a matching wicker side table, to make a little sitting space.

So today at Ross, I found striped ceramic STUFF that matches my comforter set EXACTLY!  I got a tall tealight candle holder, a flat, round shaped vase, and a tall narrow shaped vase, that I will sit on the floor in the corner, and put a bunch of dried flowers that also have seashells hanging from them, inside it.   Then, while at Kmart, I found 2 matching decorative pillows that have the stripes from the comforter on one side, and a darker brown on the other side...so that is going to look SWEET...but it's not TOO feminine, and it's not TOO masculine, and with all the other STUFF I've already GOT, I think the room will look pretty cool when I'm done with it.  I'll be sure to take pictures for ya.

Right now, it looks like a tornado went through it.  I've got piles of clean clothes all over the floor...yeah, I know, what a slob...our bed is not made, it's a mess, and the floor needs vacuuming.  So I've got my work cut out for me.  I just HATE putting my clothes away, and I HATE hanging things up too.  I can wash the clothes, no problem.  I can dry the clothes, no problem.  I can even FOLD the clothes, no problem.  It's the putting them AWAY part that I have some kind of stupid mental block about, and I don't know WHY that is.  I just cannot do it.  It is very annoying, even to ME.  I decided to blame it on the job I once had as an assistant manager at Fashion Bug, where I had to take clothes out of boxes, hang them on hangers, and steam them free of wrinkles.  I did that all day LONG, and when I got home, I didn't want to hang up another goddamned thing.  Ya know?  So that has apparently warped me for life.

Ah well.  The man will be home soon from work and will want to get busy doing stuff, so I'd better get off this computer and start getting busy.  I'd much rather lay down though, and take a friggin' NAP.  Oh well, I just haven't been sleeping very well lately, and I'm not sure why.

Oh, the dress I bought today is SO PRETTY!! I figured I would wear a dress that I already own, but the one I found actually SCREAMED at me from the rack, and so I had no choice but to buy it.  You know how you find something in a store that simply SCREAMS at you??  It's one of those BUY ME NOW moments, that I am powerless to resist.  In fact, it's a similar dress to the one I loved last year at Dress Barn (another favorite store), when I was looking for Pete's girls to wear a black and white fancy dress. I had found it, took a photo of it and the tag with all the codes and price on it, and they called every other store in the area but none of them had the sizes I needed for the girls.  But, this time, I found one almost exactly like it that WAS in my size...and it's gorgeous....in fact, I'll wear it for New Year's Eve too...so, when I saw it, I heard it scream, and it jumped OFF the rack, and into my cart.  Nothing I could do.  It was a mutiny, and I was the bystander victim of circumstance.

I'll take a picture of it for ya, and I also took another one that I think you'll smile at.  I just have to go find my stupid phone---I swear I sit that thing down a million times every day and forget where the hell it is at least a HALF million times.  Sometimes I have to use the land line telephone to CALL MYSELF just to hear it ring so that I can run through the house looking for it.  Sheesh.  Steve Jobs is evil, even though he pays the bills for us.  I think the next big thing he'll add to the phones is a swiss army knife-style thing that has a bottle opener on one side, a corkscrew on the other, and a small knife sticking out of the bottom.  But don't quote me on that, I could be wrong.  I just wish he'd figure out a way that we can actually keep it with us wherever we go, rather than just sitting it down somewhere all the time.  Sure, they have things that attach to belt loops, or arm bands that you can put it in while you go jogging, (but I don't jog).  What I'm talking about is a portable pocket or something that you wear around your neck, like a lanyard or something, that you just carry your phone on like a necklace or something.  He should invent that type of thing, it would make my life much easier.  (I had my mom crochet a pocket on a long shoulder strap for me, but then it gets hot around my neck and I take it off and sit IT down too).  Sigh.

Anyway, I'm just rambling on about nothing in particular today really, I think the caffeine is finally starting to kick in, so I'd better go use this energy somewhere productive rather than sitting here much longer...though I do love to talk to you, even if it is a one-way conversation. I had another weird phone call last week, from a total strange phone number in Los Altos, CA.  I don't know anybody in CA. But, rather than be a pest and call the number back, I sent a text instead, asking if it was a goof, explaining I live in Pittsburgh and did I know who they were because I didn't think I knew anybody there at all.  The person never answered my text though, so I have no idea.  If that was YOU, then dammit, call me back!
Or at LEAST get some etiquette and return a text message for cripes' sake, that was just plain rude.

Well my fine-feathered friend, I'm off to the wild blue yonder of decorating.  I don't know what the HELL I am going to do around here when all the rooms are finally done.  I'll be bored to death I think.  But, until then, I am having fun doing it, and hopefully by the time the 90th birthday party rolls around, it'll all come together and look excellent.

Now I gotta figure out what to do for my first anniversary.  Pete says you give the spouse PAPER on the first year anniversary, but what the HELL??  I said, "So, you're giving me CASH?!"  hehehehehehe  I think I have a pretty cool idea, but I gotta figure out how to do it.  And I gotta do it quick.  The 18th is coming fast, and I haven't even started making it yet.  I won't tell you what it is yet, I don't want to ruin the surprise in case Pete reads this stupid blog.  (I think he does, but he never mentions it).

Well, bye for now, and I hope you have a great weekend. Get that album done already!! I'm growing impatient with anxious lust over here...(but that's nothing new, I've missed hearing your voice for a very long, long time).  Come to Pittsburgh and let me give you a wet, sloppy kiss right on your willy, ok??
You KNOW you want it.   *wink*

Love, Rebecca