Coming to my senses

The Bullocks with Gpa and Gma Morehead on the occasion of their 50th anniversary. I think my socks were adorable - with mary janes (the shoe not the smoke).

After writing about my sense of smell (lack of), I decided I'd cover the rest of my senses. Today - touch. Fitting as I'm scheduled for a massage. Can't wait for Chris's fine strong hands working deep into my flesh. Moan.

I love to be tickled. We were a tickling family. Dad would tickle us and make noises like he was a cold wind until goosebumps popped out. Mom loved us to rub her feet and legs - now that I'm middle aged, I know why.

My sisters and I played "Going on a Treasure Hunt" - a tickling game. I know - sounds kinky as I say it now. I think it was Cindo that showed us how to do it.
The tickling was on our backs, okay - so it wasn't kinky.
Going on a Treasure Hunt - lightly pound fist in a clockwise motion
X Marks the Spot - draw X with finger
With a Dot and a Dot - poke with finger twice
and a Dash and a Dash - draw two lines
and a Big Question Mark - draw question mark
Pinches and Squeezes, pinches and squeezes - use this opportunity to torture them
Knife Stab - bury fist into their back (not too hard)
Bullet Holes - simulate bullet holes with finger ends.
now comes the good part:
Upsies and Downsies - tickle with all fingers tickling up the back and down
Downsies and Upsies - reverse
*Note - here is where I would tell younger sis Betso that she did it incorrectly and would need to do it over.
Egg crack, the yoke runs down - here's where you can make their scalp crawl - clap above their head and drag fingers lightly down their hair like an egg yoke.
Cool summer breeze - blow on their back, and say it don't spray it making it into a summer shower.

I still love to have my back (and pretty much all my dry skin) scratched. And I love to be tickled. I won't go into details on this, as I do say in my blog description that this is a clean, low sex blog.

My skin is really showing signs of aging. Fair skin and sun don't work, but we didn't know about sun screen back in the day. So I've had a few age spots appear (they used to be called freckles, but now they've joined together to become age spots). But my skin still holds me together and I appreciate the stuff. It can be tickled!

*Bets and I shared a room - twin beds against opposite walls - when we couldn't sleep, sometimes we'd get in bed together and tickle each others backs.

Lost my senses

My sense of smell has never been very good. I suppose it stems way back to my early childhood when I was diagnosed with allergies. Mom and Dad took me to Iowa City to see Dr. Seabome (not sure of spelling). You may recall my parents (and Grandparents) are U of I grads, so the U of I hospital was in their stomping grounds.

So they dragged me off across the state to get lots of holes poked into me with stuff that made me itch. Then I got to take allergy shots from an early age through age 18. During a few bad episodes I took steroids to reduce symptoms. Nose sprays have also played into my lack of olfactory nerves.

Sometimes I'm glad I'm nasally challenged. When I worked at the landfill my lack of sense of smell served me very well! And I'm sure my family of men have snuck a few of their own silent smells by me when I wasn't looking.

But I miss out too. Oh I can smell some good stuff - bread at Subway for example. And grilling meat while tailgating. I don't catch a lot of smells though.

I enjoy reading descriptions of people smelling things. I know, it's funny - sniffing vicariously through others. I'm listening to a book right now where the author has the main character identifying subtle smells in a room - lotion, perfume, hairspray. I rarely smell those things long past the time that they were first applied.

I listened to the book describing these things while driving by a hog confinement. Oh yes, I could smell that! (my gramps used call it the smell of money).

Memory

or lack thereof. Mine is pretty bad these days. I just read an article in the NYT (New York Times) about middle (old?) learning and memory by Barbara Strauch. It was pretty interesting. I just hope I remember it in a couple weeks.

The author talked about what I call my book Alzheimer's. I can read a book a couple years after reading it the first time, and most times I can't remember what happens. Barbara says aging brains (even middle aged like mine) fall into what's called the default mode and the mind wanders off and begins daydreaming.

The author states what I thought is true. (Yep, I'm really a genius under the guise of a mild mannered trash lady) I still know a lot of shit - it's just buried under all the other shit I know. The article goes on to give a name for that phenomenon that happens to all of us - tots - something on the tip of the tongue. I can't remember a name, but it starts with a T. It pops into my head when I'm not straining so hard to poop it out.

Another cool thing the article points out is that as the brain gets older, it gets better at picking out the central idea, the big picture. The older brain allows for great complexity and deeper understanding. Just call me Dali Lama.

I found it very interesting that even though we oldsters have "well connected pathways" in our brains, we need to give 'em a nudge and jiggle our synapses by confronting views that are not like ours. So Bets - you're good for me! LOL

And that says to me that folks like Glen Beck need to hang out with me and challenge their beliefs (which they often pass of as facts...). When we learn things a new way, we scrambled our eggy brains, establishing new neuron connections - which is a good thing.

I hope to keep learning all my life. Recently a TV station did an article of an older woman who finally graduated from ISU after leaving to get married after a couple years of school. She hadn't been at school for 60 or so years, but she and her hubby moved back to Ames from Portland for a year and a half so she could finish up. Maybe I'll get my masters after all!

Pure as the driven

I'm getting my fill of driving in snow this winter. We've had a lot, and I even missed some while on my whirlwind tour of
Kansas
Colorado
Utah
Arizona
New Mexico
Texas
Oklahoma
and back to Kansas to home sweet home.

But before I left, I drove in lots of the fluffy white stuff. I know, I waxed poetic and nostolgic about the stuff - sledding, hours spent playing in it. Yeah, yeah. I'm over it.

What happened to the winters where we barely got any? Jeepers I long for those days.

You know how some people were simply born to drive? I'm not really one, but my daddy was. He drove 50,000 miles a year and was at home behind the wheel. In all those years, he only got in a couple accidents - not his fault. One time some chick hit him - I think it was a hit and run.

Don McKim is born to drive. I think it's cuz he's a control freak, but he IS a great driver. My Pablo is a good driver too, but he gets a bit nervous as I do in traffic or bad weather. Donnie is just calm about it. Moose is a somewhat (a lot) agressive but is a great driver too. And he lives for traffic.

Other people shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel. Ever. They aren't good at it. Or they try to multitask. Dangerous, uh huh. Scary.

My friend Jeff (I'll call him McFee) is a decent driver but he wanders, because he gazes around, checking out the crops, livestock and other various scenery items. So he edges out onto the shoulder and drifts over the center line, causing anxiety on my part.

My baby boy Judson is a good driver, but is not confident. This could stem from riding with me - I admit I make noises when I don't think a car is going to stop at a stop sign, or someone attempts to merge wrongly. And Paul gets him so worked up about driving in bad weather that he stays home when one flake flies. (Okay I'm a little like that too). Amy is a very good driver. (she has banned me from making any noises unless we're going to die.

I bite my tongue.

Special Christmas

For the first time in many years, I got to be with 2 of my sisters - Suso bean and Cindo bean. Between that and getting to be with most precious baby girl Amy, it was great Christmas. And don't discount having Juddy and Pablo my fave Pool Boy there too along with Jim, Boldie, Jordie and Colby.

Lefebvres have lived in Vail for over 30 years. Each year since they've been married, Bolder has gotten a real Colorado pine for their Christmas tree. I think this year was the best evah! He doesn't rip them off - he and Colby get the proper tag that allows them to harvest a tree. They have a 2 story family room - good thing!

We got to Cindo's Christmas a.m. around 9:30 a.m. , allowing them to recover a bit from the big Xmas Eve bash. The place looked pretty good considering the bad ass kids had tried to wreck the joint. There was a huge stack o gifts under the tree, due to the three families an all. While we didn't drag most of our gifts along to Vail, we did have Amy's, plus a few others. I had Lefebvres this year - and got them a yard poker birdhouse at the Farmer's Market in DM, made from recycled materials of course. As a bonus I picked up a couple ornaments - a lil case o Bud for Boldie and an outhouse for camping fanatic Colbs.

Alvillars gave us a fantastic Colorado gift basket containing various 'Rado footstuffs. I also received a lovely soft scarf - now I need a nice coat to go with it. Betso Bean sent a basket (surprise!) to Cindo who must have had her. Amy got lots of little things - some she had put on her list (sweaters from AE and some, not as expected - a hat I thought just looked like her). J&A got Paul a lovely wallet - leather like butta. Amy got Marczyk's shirts all around - Jordie got one like mine - it says "Extra Virgin" on the back, while Jim's says "Meat, Yum".

Jud purchased an extra special ISU cap for Bolder who loves the Cyclone just cuz we do. I thought it was touching that Jud shopped for the specific type of cap that he knows Boldie likes.

I love watching people open gifts! And I loved being with people I love on a very special day.

Groshees

I hate to shop for groceries (groshees). It's a never ending job, and I get it a big rut, purchasing the same shit over and over. You see good shopping requires research (recipes, ingredients), and must involve some type of list making. I'm not good about doing either.

And when I do have a list, I often disregard it. At least until I'm all the way in line to pay. And then I look at the list and realize I've forgotten a key ingredient. Crap! Do I have time to run and get it while the checker checks? Prolly not, oh well - we'll just eat soup again..

When we went through Denver on our way to Vail and the Insight Bowl in Tempe, AZ we got to see Marczyks Fine Food - the store where Amy works. It's a fancy schmancy store compared to any I've been in. It would be fun to shop in! http://www.marczykfinefoods.com/

They carry lots of gourmet, imported and organic products. They have a deli and a wine store. They have $$ expensive free range no antibiotic meats. The store is colorful and ritzy looking.

Amy makes all the signage and pitches in wherever else she's needed. If you read back when I was walking down employment memory lane you'll see that my first job out of college was in grocery wholesaling. Fun that Amos is following in my footsteps. Okay - she's not really, but I can pretend, can't I??

Back online

Finally - back to WiFi hookup. I've been out of touch since Christmas Day! I was Jonesing. Not really - I was too busy to worry about Internet access. Good busy.

When I last blogged, we had just experienced our Beano's evening. The rest of our Vail portion of the trip was mahvelous as well. Paul, Amy and Jud skied on the 24th. Not ideal conditions - cold and I think we have more snow here in Ioway, especially after the big storm we missed. We went to Wal-Mart (it's the size of a small town) in Avon that day to purchase some stuff I forgot.

We got to Cindo and Bolder's early, to beat the crowd. It was fun to have the cousins hanging out - Amy, Jud with Colby Lefebvre and Jordan Alvillar. We snapped photos and snarfed the Moe's wings and pulled pork Chef Colby provided from his work. Friends began to drift in - many I'd met in past years.

We stayed for the first set of Bolder's Christmas caroles. As I was singing in the kitchen, I was a member of what Bolder calls the Kitchenettes - he calls out names like that ala Lawrence Welk. A good time was had by all! Sounds like it got a bit outa control later, when parents failed to keep track of their kids causing sis Cindy to melt down. Glad I missed that part!