Sales people at the kiosks in the mall...

So I am fairly annoyed at these little kiosks in the mall. Particularly the ones with that oily hand scrub stuff. They demo it and show you all the shit that is coming off the hands that you considered "clean".

Shirley and I got suckered into this demo a few years ago while on our Sweet 16 NYC trip for Shannon. Our hands were gross but not really surprising considering we trekked through NYC all day. Anyhoo they were nice and soft and smooth and then they told us it was like $40 for a pot of this stuff. We thanked the gentleman nicely and went on our way. Just in case you are interested I found a similar product at Wal-Mart a few weeks later in a much larger pot for I think $7. Can you take a wild guess what Shirley got for Christmas that year?

So now these same kiosks have turned up in our local malls. In the past I never really felt threatened by these kiosk dwellers. Most of them seemed like they were happy just to sit there all day and wait for you to come and see them. Happy to sit there and read a National Enquirer and collect their $8 hourly wage (or whatever minimum wage is these days). Not these hand people.

I got caught a few weeks ago. I avoided eye contact and as I hurried by said a quick "No thank you!". Yesterday was different. The guy kind of jumped out at me and was waving his little towel and a brochure. I was on company business (I swear I am not lying) and I was in a rush. I think he could see I was annoyed and he got out of my way. Sadly I head to back that way. So his little friend got me again on the other side. Another jump - I told him I had no time. Then he says to me. "Hey lady, I just want to ask you a question". Sorry! Gotta run! Then not 10 feet away is another kiosk. This one is for some nail decorations or manicure products. No jumping involved this time but still quite aggressive in her approach. I avoided eye contact yet again and she says to me as I passed by " Hey lady I just want to ask you a question."

I get these people have to sell - I bet they don't even make minimum wage - it is probably all about commissions for them but if I say no thanks or I am not making any eye contact with you whatsoever, you would THINK that would be a hint that you are not going to be getting any interest from me. Oh and the next time..jumping in front of me might just get ya a knee to the groin.

I felt like I was back at the Mexican flea market or on the corner of a busy NYC street being hunted by bus tour companies.

Wow a week..

without writing. So much for being all consistent and shit. Oh well. It has been a busy week with a fairly busy weekend as well.

The pain seems to be back a little again. I have no clue what it is but it is fairly annoying.

My washing machine is fixed.

Oh lord this is boring. Enough.

Amazingly, I did not die

I really thought I was. Really. I had weird pains in my abdomen that radiated into my back and into my chest all day. To perhaps put in perspective - although I have a high threshold for pain this was worse than contractions. I thought for sure it was going to be a kidney stone but I took some Advil Extra Strength Liquigels. (Those are da bomb!) and laid in bed all night folding laundry and it seems to have disappeared. I guess it could come back but for now I will enjoy not having it.

I am in a funk today. Gloomy might be the word I am looking for.

I hate Thursdays..I think I am dying

So I dislike Thursdays. I cannot tell you why because if I did then I would have to kill you. Those that know me know why I dislike Thursdays.

I also feel like I am dying today. I am having weird cramps..if I was pregnant I would think I was having contractions. But I am not pregnant. If I was ovulating I might think I had a cyst but AF was just here so too early for that. The only other possibilities is gastro or kidney stones. Crap.

I just took Tylenol so let's see what happens.

Happy Belated Birthday to Meeeeeeee!!

It was a nice weekend. Unfortunately one of Shirley's Uncles passed away the week before so his funeral was on the Saturday. The funeral was very simple and nice, well except for the gang that was there trying to sing the hymns. The only one we managed to get somewhat right was Amazing Grace.

We ended up at the Rockburn Pub for some drinks and then to the restaurant where my little seester works for supper.

Sunday was quiet. Cliff let me sleep in and made me breakfast. When I told my Dad he asked if it was breakfast in bed. Hmmm no. It was more like him storming to the door of the bedroom and screaming (it was about 9:00am) "You want breakfast?!!" I was so excited so I asked what he was making. "Well I cooked bacon but we only have 3 eggs left.". So he made me a bacon and egg sandwich. It was divine. It always is when you are not cooking it yourself.

While we were at Liam's hockey practice, my IP's called and wished me a Happy Birthday. They don't normally remember so it was a nice call. Then they mentioned coming down for supper - wow!! We had not seen them since Cliff's 40th Birthday in February. It is always a fly by night visit when they come but they get an A for effort! We got to see them for a few hours and they spoil us rotten. Lolo is getting so big! She is going to be 5 soon - can you believe it?

That was about it. 36 is not very exciting. AF showed up to for my birthday. Stupid wench. That made me feel like I was turning 86 instead.

Hair Intervention

I have been growing my hair out for what seems like forever. Usually come summer and the heat and humidity that come with the seasonal love of my life, I give up. My hair dresser (is there a new word for hair dresser? You know how like flight attendants are now called that instead of stewardess?? Oh well.) is quite used to me walking after not seeing her for about 6-8 months and telling her to cut it off. Cut. It. All. Off.

Nancy rocks and always gets quites excited when I walk in and tell her this. Sadly Nancy is quite popular and if you want an appointment with her, be prepared to book your time with her a year in advance and give over your first born. OK she is not THAT bad but needless to say - I cannot even book with her 4 weeks in advance. I am a spur of the moment kinda gal ya know? I have not seen Nancy in quite some time. Often I run into little places when I have 10 minutes of free time and get it cut, usually this involves some begging and pleading. I don't even remember when the last time I saw Nancy was but I miss her. She knows what I like and what I don't like, she gets me, she completes me.

Anyways, I got a little off track there. I am growing my hair out. Everytime I am about to give up and lop it all off someone will comment about how they like my hair this length or a miraculous day will occur and I will have a good hair day (they are few and far between). The chick I saw last time (at the same salon as Nancy works) was young. I was skeered. I lacked confidence. She did not speak much English and did not understand much either and thought for sure I was going to be walking out of there with a bowl cut. However she did a not bad job - she understood that I wanted to keep the length but I needed some kind of style. It gets heavy my hair (might as well fit with the rest of the body!) and it gets thick and bushy in the back and I do not have time to be straightening every day!

I also have some weird cowlicks, why they are called that I will never know. It makes having normal bangs pretty well impossible.

So I am on the elevator today at work and am staring in disgust in those mirrors in the elevator. Can someone please explain to me why there has to me mirrors in an elevator? My hair looks like someone's hair who had put in a ponytail wet and then took it out when it dried and just left it. Like there is permanent dent in my hair. So the elevator stops and this woman walks in with the cutest pageboy style. Really short. Really cute.

I need an intervention ASAP.

Dashing dreams

Emma has decided that she is not entirely sure that Santa exists. Oh C' mon! I was 9 or 10 before my sister Natalie crushed my dreams by taking me into my Mom's closet and showing me a wrapped gift (that was later discovered to be my lovely Cabbage Patch Kid whose name was Rene or something equally as cheesey and I changed it to Andrew) with a tag that said "To: Karen From: Santa" I was crushed.

Liam still believes despite hearing the reality from several of his friends. Last Christmas he told me kids were bugging him because he was saying that Santa was real. So I told him at the time that there was no point in fighting with them just let them believe what they believe and you believe what you believe. I am pretty sure he doesn't believe but he still wants the presents.

Last year the kids totally screwed me. I was hiding all their presents (Santa presents included) in the basement at my Dad's. The kids decided to play hide and seek and they found them. I was pretty well done so they had found EVERYTHING. I tried drilling them about what they actually did see and at first they said they had only seen their guitars (Santa item) but Emma was still acting sneaky so I finally managed to get it out of her that they had seen everything! She did not want to tell me because she thought I would take all the stuff back to the store. I had to go back out and re-do the Santa stuff. So I think Emma must have noticed my frustration with that and coupled with the gossip at school believes that I am indeed Santa.

I asked Emma about it last night as we were out shopping and she said that she does not believe he is real because she does not hear him come in and if he did the dogs would bark. True...

We have always made a big deal at Christmas. Not on super expensive items but I try and find things that they have mentioned in passing or admired somewhere else but was not on their Christmas lists and I make those things from "Santa" and make a big deal about him knowing what they like whether it is on their list or not. Liam got a telescope a few years ago and a set of binoculars - totally not on his list amongst Bakugans, WWE wrestlers and hockey stuff.

So the question is - what do I do? Do I be all mysterious once again this year or just let them know the truth?? What do you do?