Some of my quirks...

           

 Hello Stephen,

It's a little blurry, but this is the necklace I've had for many years, that reminds me of the one you received from your mom and wore all the time.  It's the closest replica I could find, that wasn't super expensive.  I still have it, though I don't wear it as much as I used to.  I still love it though.  I happened to find a photo of it this morning, while cleaning out my old dusty filing cabinet full of pen-pal letters from the 80's, (yessss, I have kept them all, I'm a sentimental sap and a pack rat. I figure I'll need something to read when I'm in the nursing home).  So I took a picture of the picture, which is why it's a little bit blurry.

So anyway, I just want you to know that every word I write to you is true. I mentioned the necklace once before, so here it is.  No big whoop.

I had an idea yesterday, so I figured this time, I would entertain you with some "quirky" facts about me.

For instance, I like to eat grapes, but I do NOT like grape-flavored stuff. Weird, huh? Can't stand grape flavored kool-aid or gum, or candy of any kind, etc.  I don't even like to drink real grape JUICE.  I do, however, like to partake of a glass of wine from time to time, though I like white wine better than red.  I think my favorites are Sangria and Zinfandel.  Pete and I toured a winery in SF while we were there, it was actually in a town about an hour north of there, can't remember the name.

Anyway...another quirk of mine...well, I don't know if it's a "quirk" really, it's more of a LAW when you're from Michigan: I wear my socks to bed at night.  GASP!! Yes, I know, it's ghastly, but when you're born and raised in a mound of snow 8 months out of the year, you kinda have cold feet all the time.  Now, as a slight redemption for my quirk, I do remove them sometime during the night after my feet have warmed up. So, there might be stray socks laying around on the bed in the morning. Hideous, yes, but what can ya do?  I also own about 5 pair of slippers, each for different reasons.  Some keep my feet warmer than others, some are just for bumming around the house, and others are just for "pretty."

I'm also a major shoe-aholic.  GAWD I love shoes.  The quirkier, the better.  I love unique looking shoes, with curved chunky heels, or various mixed colors, or just different styles that are out of the ordinary.  I once wrote a children's story about a young girl who loved weird looking shoes, because it was a parable really, of being unique in a world of conformity.  I never had it published though.  I think I must own about, ohhhhh....60 pairs of shoes....maybe 70.  I'm not sure.  I actually got RID of about 20 pair last fall, though, and I've only bought about 5 new pair since then (which is great for a shoe-aholic)! I am NOT as bad as Imelda Marcos was, but to most men, more than 3 pairs of shoes is too much. HA! Can you imagine, going through life with only THREE pairs of shoes?!  Ain't no way honey.  Sorry.

Now, you should also know one of my other major quirks....I am a bargain shopping DIVA.  Yes indeed.  Most of those shoes that I own, for instance, are from thrift stores...they are brand new shoes, sure, because most thrift store items are actually filled with new stuff from department stores who clear out their clearance items that didn't sell or that they had too many of.  They might have flip flops in December, but what the heck, they were $20 at Kohl's, now they're $2.99 and I just wait a few months to wear 'em.  No problem!!  So, overall, I spent less than $10 on each pair of shoes.  I don't buy clothing as much at thrift stores unless it's brand new with tags still on it, but I do like home decor items or functional kitchen items that I might use, or photo frames, or furniture, etc., if it's in decent shape, or new.  I'd rather spend $75 on a jewelry armoire in a torn box that needs assembly, for instance, at a thrift store, than $300 for a perfectly new box--or even already assembled--in a department store.  Hell, most of my jewelry isn't even WORTH $300 total, so why would I waste that on a thing to hold it all in?  Silly.  I'm not hung up on brand names, I'm not the type of chick who HAS to have a COACH purse for instance---what the HELL is THAT all about??  You buy a purse for $200, to carry around $50 worth of junk...seems rather dumb to me. (I love purses too, but I'm not gonna spend THAT much on one).

But don't misunderstand...I AM female, after all....so another quirk of mine, (which might actually be quite "normal" for most women really), is that I have a champagne taste on a beer budget.  I do like to go to the mall and see the expensive clothing, and the expensive furniture, and especially the shoes... BUT...many many years of conditioning to a life of being poor has made me just look at the pretty brand new expensive stuff, then STUDY that stuff, and OBSERVE the prices of it all, so that, when I find that particular item in a thrift store for $5 bucks, six months later, then I KNOW that it's worth $50, and that's when I grab it.  I've got this hobby down to a science actually. It's kinda like fishing!

I'll go to the expensive stores, look around, take photos of the stuff I like, and if I find that treasure at a Goodwill store a few months later, holy CRAP what an awesome purchase that is!  I CAUGHT THE BIG ONE!!  Then I'm geeked for days after that.  It's like a shopping "high" of sorts.  Whenever I save major bucks on something I saw elsewhere for more money, man oh man, I dance a jig!!  (I joke around and say that's just part of my "pseudo-Jewishness.") hehehehe

I also do this on the internet from time to time.  Like recently, I've been looking for furniture because if and when we get the new house, we'll be able to upgrade and buy new stuff.  So if I find a couch on one web site for $500, and then find it on another web site for $350, you BETCHA that's the one I'm going after.  Why waste $150 on something when it's on sale elsewhere??  That kind of thing is like catching Moby Dick!! You want to hoist that big fish up in the air and stand under it, and take your picture with it!  It's like this huge "hunting" kind of game, you look through the not-so-great items to find that ONE treasure that you KNOW is in that thrift store, and you hunt for it. When you capture it, you WIN!!

The reason this bargain shopping DIVA quirk is so quirky, is because you'd THINK by now, after all these years of saving money on this stuff at thrift stores, I'd be RICH.  But, for some reason, I am not. SIGH.  Pete keeps telling me we ARE considered "among the rich" in society, though I don't really FEEL that way at all.  He makes about the same amount of money per year as the President of the United States.  But, like everybody else, your bills and debt grow at the same rate as your income.  So, we're not RICH by any stretch of the imagination.  But if and when we do buy that new house, we've already saved up HALF of the amount of what the house is being sold for, as a down payment.

Anyway, I'll come back later or tomorrow with more quirks that I think of.  Right now, I have to take Florence to the assisted living home down the street for her exercise appointment with the physical therapist.  For 89, she's still walking around on her own, no wheelchair, no cane, no walker, nothing. That's pretty damned cool if you ask me.  She's still sharp as a tack most of the time too, though with Alzheimers, she does get confused a lot, and she asks the same questions over and over and over.  It's hard to watch someone who was once very exuberant and independent, and intelligent, lose those things slowly.  I really don't want to get old.

Bye for now.

Love, Rebecca