A stomp down Memory Lane

I've been dashing madly through three states in the past couple of weeks, gathering sewing patterns everywhere I go. Dan, of course, thinks it's really weird, especially given the fact that he doesn't like car travel, but I'm in my element.

The patterns I got today contained tons of wonderful styles, including 50s party dresses, 40s sundresses, and everything from playsuits to swimsuits and wedding dresses. But what I found interesting was the kids' patterns.

I don't usually get a lot of kids stuff, because it's not a huge market of mine, but these were some seriously cute ones. The one that caught my eye is shown at left. You may wonder why this one? Well, it's because it reminds me of my two sisters and me.

The dark haired one on the right reminds me of my "big" sister Linda. I say "big" because she's a few years older than me (ahem: eight) but she is quite a bit shorter than me. She does, however, have the dark hair shown here. The lighter haired one on the left reminds me of my "big" sister Amy, who is as vertically challenged as Linda. Being the youngest, I always looked at them as so cool, and such fashion plates -- especially because they wore cool 70s high school stuff, and I not only had no fashion sense, but also was too big to fit into their petite hand me downs, once I got to be about ten years old.

Tiny, petite cool hipster sisters. How cool is that? But look on that pattern envelope at the little tyke in front. That little one looks like she has some serious attitude, so she MUST be me! She looks like the sisters have probably told her not to do whatever she wanted to do, and in her little head she is saying "oh yeah, man, I'm GONNA," while she stomps off with her Barbie.

That'd be me, and I dare my sisters to say I'm wrong. They won't.

So.............

Well, it's been almost two weeks "jobless" now, and boy am I having fun. I hadn't realized how much I was missing by drowning in the cesspool of corporate America, but I'm starting to get a little bit caught up.

Our dining room table, however, does not reflect this. It's a modgepodge of folded pattern repros, awaiting their envelopes and labels, original patterns waiting to be filed, a pair of boxer shorts that need a quick repair (I'm not asking questions there, folks, so don't you do it either), fish supplies (more on that later), and a potpourri of other stuff. Yes, that table is my project for tomorrow (which is now today, so technically, I'm already behind).

I have, however, had plenty of time to list fun patterns on the website, including some of the 682 I bought during an overnight trip to Chicago last week. Yes, I drove 3 1/2 hours one way to buy 682 patterns. And yes, they were REALLY good ones. These are the things you can do when you are sans job.

Thomas' bff came and spent part of spring break with us, so I put him to work. Mell is 6'3", and was quite comfy on my couch, so I had him bring in the printer, tossed some pattern boxes at him, and he scanned roughly 400 patterns while watching one of the weirdest mixes of movies I've ever seen -- I wish I could remember what they were, but I've slept since then. I know that one involved vampires, and one was Next Friday, but other than that.......just take my word, it was a weird mix. But hey, he saved me tons of time on the scanning.

Best thing that happened that week was that my buddy Jen, of momspatterns came to visit. We spent enough time working on patterns that I ended up on major asthma meds the next week, but the pattern rescue is richer for it. Not to mention the fine Estevez (seen above) that she found whilst we were trolling around. Sorry folks, it's already sold, but take a gander of it at Dorothea's Closet. It really is a sight to behold. And yeah, there's a whole shopping story behind it. Not to mention Jen's experience with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Oh yeah, we don't do anything small, folks.

So this week is dedicated to organization, now that the fish have been freed and the Modes Royale are listed. More about Jen and hostage fish later.

All Good Things..........

I'm a firm believer that God places signs in our lives, to help us figure out where the heck we're supposed to be going. I believe, also, that we don't always pay attention to those signs a good portion of the time. That's how it is that fortune cookies helped me figure out a new path.

We order Chinese food at work, not too often, but once in a while. I'm always amused by the fortune cookies, with their sayings like "you are going to put shoes on today" and the like. Of course, on the back, there is always a word in Chinese which, for me, usually ends up being something like "paint" or something like that. And of course there are always the obligatory lucky numbers, which I always swear I'm going to play in the lottery, and never do.

We ordered Chinese a couple of weeks ago, and I had to laugh at my fortune, because it said "opportunities surround you if you know where to look." Well, looking around my cubicle, I saw another fortune, taped to the front of my monitor, which said "a fascinating project is in your future." Hmmm.....what could that be? Maybe it could be the lady who called, saying that her kid had swallowed a Lego pirate's telescope, and after he passed it, could he have it back, after they sterilized it? Uh.........no. How gross is that? Gross, but not fascinating.

Then I got an email from my boss, with ground rules to our leadership meetings, gleaned from some book that she read on how to be a better leader. I laughed when I read that we would now be coming out of meetings with decisions made on the issues, because in six years, I don't think we've EVER decided anything in a leadership meeting. Reading on, I read that we would be going from the presumption that everyone actually wants to be here, in these meetings. That got me thinking.

I don't want to be here. Then I remembered the fortune cookies, and the fascinating project that supposedly awaits me. I've never gotten a fortune like that at home, yet I had two from when we ordered Chinese at work. Could God be talking to me through a carton of takeout? Crazy.

After much thought, I realized that I was getting ready to go on vacation, and why come back? I've been ready to leave for about a year now, but couldn't decide what to do, so it was time to take a leap of faith. I emailed the boss my resignation, and emailed a few friends who 1) would want to hear it from me, not the grapevine and 2) would spread the word. Well, the word spread like a bush fire in Australia, and when I arrived at work the next day, some people were sad, and some could barely refrain from showing their glee. I, however, felt more gleeful than all of them, because now I'm a free bird. I have no idea where my path will take me from here -- probably to my websites for a while -- but it's taking me out of my cubicle and into a life full of possibilities.

We ordered Chinese again that afternoon, and what did my fortune cookie say? "It takes guts to get out of the ruts." No lie. And you say fortune cookies are not real? Bah. And for the interview I have on Friday, I'd wear this fabulous Dior dress, from Damn Good Vintage, but damn, it won't fit me! Click on the image to shop.

Status Update

You can learn a lot about people, from their Facebook status. Mine, at the moment, says "Lisa is heading for the nation's capital this afternoon, with three teenagers. Pray for us!" Yeah, we're doin' it, and you'd better pray. My status before that said "Edit
Lisa LOVES LOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!" because man, last night's show was GOOD, and I was beyond sad to see it end. I can't wait till next week.

Some of my friends' statuses are as follows. (Insert random name before the status, cause these people gotta be anonymous:

has no water because somebody(initials are MT) left the garage door up after taking out the trash!

would appreciate some prayer: my dad may have had a stroke and is current in icu.

forgot my speakers were turned up and I almost karate chopped my PC because it spoke to me.

is wondering..."Am I the only person in the world that hasn't ever watched LOST?" {mental note from editor: enlighten her}

is feeling virtuous after doing the laundry.

Like I said, you can learn a lot from people's status. So imagine how sad I was today to see that one of our "adopted" sons is now single, after being madly in love for the last year and a half. Jill came in and informed me, and promptly started singing Air Supply's "All Out of Love." When I pointed out how wrong that was, she switched to "All By Myself," and was promptly interrupted by Dan's hardcore version of "Love Stinks." Yeah, my family + empathy. Not happening.

So now my status is that I'm loading up soon to go, and Dan? He's packing for cold weather, wearing Thomas' shirt and jacket, and probably my socks, cause that's how he rolls. But that's a story for another day. Meantime, don'cha just love this red lace confection, from Couture Allure Vintage Fashion? I love it seriously, and am so sad it's sold. But, as Dan would sing, "Love Stinks." I'm outta here till Monday, folks, so that's it.

Things learned about the husband during inventory

Dan hates winter, not because of the cold, but because people don't do as much painting in the winter, so he's not crazy busy. I like winter, in part because of the snow, but also because when he's not busy, he does laundry, cooks (a little), and cleans the house. Since my primary job is usually busy in the colder season, I like having the help. It's the whining that makes me want to put nail through someone's head.

So I took two weeks of vacation from work, to go home and do what? Work, of course. On the websites. Meaning it's time to do inventory. We did it last year for the first time, and Dan bailed on me halfway through. That was when I had one website, and now I have two. I kept reminding him of his promise, just so he couldn't pull that "you didn't tell me" stuff that men tend to do. I got started on one website the night before last, after he was done for the day. We've also been moving everything around, and the poor boy was tired. But now I have an actual workspace, complete with shelves and table, and all the shipping in one place. And we've discovered that our sunroom has a floor. Go figure.

We finally got going on inventory in the afternoon, much to Dan's chagrine. He had finally run out of reasons to NOT help me with it, so we settled in to get the books straight. I've always said that if you want to really test the strength of your marriage, wallpaper with your spouse -- which, I might add, is something that we will never do together again. He is not even allowed to mention the word wallpaper to me again, but that's another story for another day. What I did discover yesterday is that another way to test the strength of your marriage is to do inventory together.

Things I discovered about my husband during inventory (which is still in progress -- we got one site done, and are now working on the other, which will be much more difficult to do):
1. The man has ADD. He cannot stay on task for more than maybe, if I'm lucky, ten minutes, before he's off on a tangent, asking what the boxes way on the other side of the room are for, why can't we label the boxes yet, do people really buy these things, and oh, I need a drink. Or something to eat. Or anything to get him away from the inventory.
2. The man is completely obsessed with painting. I asked him to put up the shelves for me, and when I went down to ask him something, he said, in a not too patient tone, to be careful on the steps, because he had just painted the edges of the risers. Who, I ask, paints the edges of the risers? The answer: a man evading doing inventory.
3. He has an almost sick relationship with his shop vac. The man will shop vac anything. He bought me a wonderful Dyson for mother's day a couple of years ago, and what does he use? His little shop vac.
4. He missed the listening skills part of kindergarten, but he's great with organization. I may have to tell him something three times, but once he gets it, he gets it, and it's all fabulously sorted out.
5. He's got a thing for labels. I mean, he LOVES labels. Constantly wants things labelled, even after I've pointed out that we can't label until we know what is going into the boxes.

That said, he's a great help, and I am well on the way to organization in my workspace. Of course, the kids are nowhere to be found, because they hate everything to do with sewing patterns, because that means I might ask them to do something tedious and boring. Not to me, mind you, but to them. Even the dogs stay away, which is no small feat. But I will say, Jill made some Oreo snow ice cream, which was a big hit with the help. She and Dan have ditched me for now, and are at the Y, whilst I take a little break to rest my back.

Why rest the back, you ask? Because as they were going out the door, Jill said "hey, do you have some tennis shoes?" "Yes, they're on my feet. I think they used to be yours, and you gave them to me." "Well give them back to me. I don't have any laces in mine." So the girl not only distracted the help with food, she took him completely away, and left me barefoot in the kitchen. Oye and vay. On the good side of inventory, I found this cool nightgown pattern that I thought was listed on the site, and wasn't. Well, it is now, so click the image to go there.

Viva Las Vegas: The Paper Trail

Communications with kids are always interesting. It used to be that we communicated by a letter in the mail, then telephone calls. Nowadays, it's cell phones and texting. Jill says "who emails? That's so outdated." Well, it wasn't, back a couple of years ago when we went to Vegas.

I had told the kids to only call if the house was burning down - an admonition I quickly withdrew after meeting a couple on the way to the casino who told their kids the same thing. I guess they shouldn't have been surprised when their kids called and told them to sit down. They'd truly burned the house down. Oye and vay.

Well, I had also told the kids to email and let me know how things were going. Email helps to keep the parents out of the immediacy of the fights, but still keeps us in touch. Guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I got my daily missives. Below is an unauthorized, abridged version of the discussions:

From Jill, dated 6/12/06:
SUBJECT: WHEN ARE YOU COMING HOME?
I'm pretty sure the subject speaks for itself...

Yeah, you know that star-fish that was hanging in the kitchen? Timmy ate it. I hope you weren't to attached to it...

Hurry up and get home,

Jill.

From Thomas, dated 6/13/06:
SUBJECT: What up
Missed your call today, so I figured I'd just email you.

Day one went fine, had a little bit of a problem breaking a boredom spell in the afternoon, but we just went to the park and hung out, hit a few balls, and played catch for a couple hours. Came back, took Jill to work (she was going to hand her two weeks notice in or something likek that - but I guess she said that whoever she needed to talk to wasn't there), got dinner dinner with Seth, rented a game, came home, watched a couple movies, and now I'm here.

....I've been trying to keep things simple in terms of necessities that we need that you guys usually supplied... I asked Jill to cook dinner (becuase Lord knows Seth and I would probably blow the entire fucking block up), and Seth and I would set, do dishes, etc. But apparently this is too much to ask, and we got into this huge argument about it. I honestly have no idea how this is not far, and she couldn't tell me either. She even called me a sexist, rofl. I guess she thinks she has the pants on right now, and she will just have to disillusion herself. I have the car. :D [Thomas was the only driver in the house at this point. Jill only had a permit.] So I kind of resolved that by telling her she loses either way, since if she's going to be like that about things then Seth and I will just go have a decent dinner elsewhere and leave her to cook for herself, and I kind of won her over with that. I might be coming off as mean, but oh well, just trying to mediate things.

Speaking of the car, it's driving quite fine...but I don't think you probably expected anything different.

I guess they don't realize that I am quite fine with driving just about anywhere they want to go (within the realms of safety and yadda yadda), but they don't want to seem to want to go anywhere fun or out of the ordinary. I'm actually the one trying to think up of something - ANYTHING - to do. Hopefully they'll chill out and become more imaginitive than I...but if not, this week is going to be a long one. I am jobbed with paying for everything so far. Oh well, if she hasn't gotten to me yet, I don't think it will throughout the week.

At least there are always hundreds of movies to keep me entertained..until my hard drive gets here. [His computer had ::gasp:: melted down right before we left.]

This e-mail is probably ridiculous incoherent since I'm rather tired, but oh well.

Win million in Vegas and such,

tsutter

From Jill, dated 6/14/06.
No Subject.
Mom,

please call your eldest son, Thomas, and tell him to put the gosh darn toilet seat down when he's done using the restroom. He absolutle refuses no matter how hard I try. When I asked him to put the toilet seat down he told me I was being lazy and that I should put it down. He also called me a control freak (just because I asked him to put the toilet seat down). Every time I ask him to do ONE thing he spazzes out and tells me to do it (Which is why the house is a mess right now).

Help me? Come home? Tell daddy I miss him and I hope he feels better.

Jill.

From Thomas, dated ten minutes later. He is obviously unaware of his sister's edict:
SUBJECT: re: What up
Will do.

Also, Seths RAM and my hard drive came today, but..

the hard drive is SATA. I needed ATA133. :/

I ordered another one, but I had to sacrifice a ton of stuff I would have wanted (though it was also cheaper, obviously), but beggars can't be choosers. I got the first one refunded, and I'm gonna try and ship it back today..just need access to a printer. So I'll probably head over to your double and use the one there and check out your mail situation.

[Translation: his computer should be repaired, but they sent something incompatible with what he has, so he has to return it.]

From Thomas, a mere twenty minutes later. I must've been around to respond to Jill's email.
SUBJECT: Re: What up
toilet seat more like lol get outta here i already destroyed her with MASSIVE LOGIC in that debate

[At which point, I noted that he had lost all punctuation and capitalization skills, and reminded him that men have been trying logic on the toilet seat issue for decades, and they will never win. Because they are wrong. And to just put the seat down, and we will have peace in the world, because putting the seat down should not be underestimated, in its importance to the universe. But I digress.]

Thomas' last proclamation, three days later. I guess he'd stopped caring, but he sure wasn't happy later that day, when he found out we'd gotten bumped from our flight and were spending the night in Phoenix, arriving home a day later than originally planned. I don't remember what I had sent him, but I think it was some version of the above note:
SUBJECT: re: What up
forget that

PS Jill's mega ultra super emo today holy crap

next time you guys do this you are taking her or I am going with you

I can't stand this. oh my god I snapped at her today 8)

The only thing we heard from Seth the entire time we were gone was this:
1. Get off plane.
2. Call home to tell kids we have arrived.
3. Seth answers.
4. "Hi Seth, we're here."
5. "Oh, I guess that means your plane didn't crash? Cool. Want to talk to Thomas or Jill?"

And that was it. Viva Las Vegas: The Paper Trail. And we haven't gone away without them since, other than a quick trip to Michigan last fall, when no one called or emailed. I guess they just don't care anymore, since two of them can drive now. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, and all that. Click on the image to buy the cool paper dress, available on ebay from Hide N Seek Treasures.

Viva Las Vegas: Ground Zero

Sorry to have ditched you for a few days, or did you notice? Had to watch the inaugaration, the Lost came back, then I had to go to Chicago to bond with the sister (who claims that she has somehow missed out on life because she's the middle child. Whatever.)

When last I blogged, my car had been painted, but on the wrong side. I told the car people that I'd bring it back to get painted on the RIGHT side when we went out of town the next time. Turned out that that took almost a year. Hubby and I decided to go to Ebay Live, to get a tax deduction, and a trip to Vegas, where we'd never been before.

Tickets bought and all, when we suddenly have a rainstorm that looks like Pete Rose has finally had his vengeance, because baseballs are raining outta the sky. I was on the fifth floor, at work downtown, and watched the whole debacle, thinking the whole time that yep, my van was out in it. Ended up looking like a huge golfball with all these little dents all over it.

So yeah. Now it not only had to go in and get the repainting done correctly, but also get the hail damage fixed. I called and made an appointment, reminding the shop of what had happened the year before. I was a little surprised that they didn't remember, but hey, these people didn't paint the right side of the van to begin with, so what else could I expect, I guess.

The morning we were to leave, we drove out to the car place with both vans. I get into Dan's van and he informed me that he needed me to call and order him a phone, because he had dropped his phone in his cup of Starbucks when he left the house, and now it was dead. This is the man who has run over his phone, dropped MY phone in the toilet, lost one to a can of paint, and on and on, so I don't know why I was surprised. He needs his phone for business though, so I figured if I got on the horn right away, he'd have a new one by the time we got home from Vegas.

Called T-mobile, and finally got through to a real person -- ever navigated their menu? It's a nightmare. So there I am, explaining the perils of Starbucks to the customer service rep, whilst Dan drives us all back to the house to get our luggage. Right about the time we got up to the Pizza Hut on the corner where we were, a lady pulls out in front of the van and WHAM! Hits it. Everyone screams in the back seat, Dan starts yelling about it all, and I'm still on the phone with the guy from T-mobile, who asked what happened. "Oh, we just got hit by another car," I said. "Oh my gosh," TmG (T-mobile guy) said, "do you need to go?" "Heck no," I said, "you stay right there. I don't want to have to navigate that menu again. Everyone ok? Yep. Keep going."

So there I am on the side of the road, ordering a cell phone, with the kids remarking how mad their dad is gonna be, waiting for the police, whilst Dan talks to the lady and her husband. Cause yeah, that's how we roll. It all worked in the long run, because the new phone was there when we got home.

Downside? The fact that the idiot insurance agent never could get the time difference in his head, so he called EVERY morning that we were in Vegas, promptly at 6am. We couldn't get away from it either, because I had to leave the phone on for the kids, in case the house burned down or bones were sticking out, but yeah, that guy never had a particularly warm conversation with me.

And so yeah, if you want to know how the kids survived that trip, hang on. Tomorrow: the paper trail. And if you just flat out want to look at something pretty, dig this gorgeous red taffeta dress, from Fast Eddie's Retro Rags.