Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Look out Seattle here I come!


After one week of having Invisalign braces I am ready for this nonsense to be over with...and I have 7 1/2 months to go!  I can't eat with them in so I have to take them out, eat, brush everything and put them back in. It is making me very choosy of what I eat and when. I don't weigh myself but I feel  a little lighter this week.

I am heading to Seattle Saturday and praying my planes all run on time. We  have plans to go here - http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/  The Chihuly Garden. The flowers in this post are all glass.  The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas has a Chihuly installation in their main lobby and it is exquisite. I think this one looks amazing and I can't wait to see it.

I am heading to my cousin Jill's for her annual Halloween party tonight. My neighborhood doesn't have kids so I like to go some place that does.  I feel sorry for the poor little critters. They may have to trick or treat in snow suits tonight!  Have a safe Halloween and stay warm!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Snap on braces

Today I got Invisalign braces. They are pretty much snap-on braces. The orthodontist gave me two sets. I wear one set for 2 weeks and then change them to the next set. When I go back to the orthodontist next month I will get three sets and start going back every 6 weeks. All the sets are  pre-made and just sitting in the box waiting for me. I will get new ones through June..only 8 months.

I wear them all the time except when I eat. I think this may be the weight loss solution I have been looking for since the damn things hurt to take off. They are very tight and my teeth ache when I put them on and take them off so I guess there goes the snacking at the desk all day!

OUCH!



Friday, October 19, 2012

Undecided

Bet you thought this was going to be a political post!  Nope.  For the past year I have been thinking of getting a tattoo to honor my hubby.   I talked with the tattoo artist (who did a great tattoo for my brother and who re-colored mine) and we came up with a design I really like.  This is a very rough draft. It will look like a green champagne bottle (champagne, get it?) and not a fat beer bottle.



The problem is I want it on my forearm and to get any kind of nice detail Jeff would need make this about 4 inches. My arms are skinny. The tattoo takes up a lot of room. ARGH! I hate being indecisive!

Not much else is happening in ColleenWorld. I have to go to not one but two baby showers this weekend. One for my lovely niece, Becky and the other for my good friend Wilhelmine who is adopting and just got THE CALL!  Both very fun and exciting!

Oh in other news. I am getting Invisalign braces Monday but I am sure that will be another post.


Monday, October 8, 2012

It's been one hellava year!



It has been one year this week since Bob passed away and I can honestly say I am doing fine. I am moving on and all that but I thought this would be the perfect time to share our story.  I think this is probably going to be the last of the Bob posts. 

Bob and I met in 1976. I was working days at a department store and 3 nights a week as a cocktail waitress in a popular club. Bob’s friends were in a band and they played a few times at the club. He asked me out numerous times but I always turned him down. I was a pretty young 19 and he was a much older, in more ways than one, 29. I worked until 2:00 am and Bob started hanging around to walk me to my car. I still wouldn’t go out with him. Finally one of my friends who knew him told me he was a nice guy and would I please just go out on a date with the guy. Bob and I dated for 2 very intense years and then broke up. He thought I was too young to know what I wanted and he was right. We stayed in touch and stayed friends (most of the time) for the next 6 years. During that time he met a girl he was very much in love with and I met a boy I was very much in love with. There was some off and on drama over these years including Bob asking me to marry him twice and me asking him to marry me once.


In January of 1984 Bob was living in Dallas after just moving from Houston for work. I was living in Detroit after just moving from Ft. Lauderdale and breaking up with my boyfriend. Bob travelled to Detroit to visit his parents, we met up for dinner and Bob asked me to visit him in Dallas. So off I went to Dallas where after 8 years Bob decided I had grown up enough and I decided he had settled down enough and we decided to get married! I was 27 and he was 37. We were finally the same age!

The first 3 years after we got married we lived in Dallas. Bob was transferred to San Francisco for 6 years and then on to San Diego for about 2 before he was laid off and we moved back to Michigan and that, as they say, is  "a whole nother story".

A few things you may or may not know about Bob:

He was extremely sentimental. He played baseball in high school and was scouted by the majors. He played softball until he was in his 60’s. He was very popular in high school. His dad owned a gas station and Bob worked there when he was young. He could fix pretty much anything and knew more about cars than anyone I know. He loved Pink Floyd. He was in Vietnam. He joined the Army with his best friend before they got drafted so they could have a better selection of what kind of job they would get (he drove heavy trucks). He was stationed in Washington DC on riot duty after he came back from Vietnam (still shaking my head at that one). The night before we got married he had to talk me into going through with it. He gave up smoking to marry me and then used to sneak cigarettes (with my mother!) until I caught him and he gave them up for good. When he was young he wore glasses but he never knew why and then one day he just quit wearing them…and he didn’t need them! He was married for 4 years in his early 20’s. When he was in his late teens and early 20’s he and his buddies used to race cars all over the metro Detroit area, mostly on Woodward and Gratiot, and Bob used to make money doing it. He was shot in a bar fight.  Did I mention he loved baseball?

The hole in my heart will always ache but over this past year it has subsided some and I can look back on all of this with a smile instead of tears.  Thank you all for your love and support.