Life's a Beach...For a Change

Just finished our second full day at the beach. I'm loving it. We wake up, Capn' Tim cooks us breakfast and Massey and I load up the car and head to the beach by ten. We could walk there in less than five minutes but between all the crap we take and the heat...I would have been dead halfway there the first trip down. The condo we rented provided us with a free parking sticker for the car (it costs $7 a day to park on the beach) so we pack up everything we need and in less than a minute are spreading out our blanket and plopping down in our chairs.

The condo is very nice. Very small but very nice. I can stand in the middle of the kitchen and cook, load the dishwasher, get things out of the fridge or pantry without moving one foot. If the entire family had come it would be a tight fit and most probably started quite a few family fights but with just Tim, Massey and me it's perfect. My niece comes to spend the night sometimes but Massey's room has twin beds. My Maw in law comes over at night when we come home from the beach to visit and Tim's two brothers have dropped by to visit but as they all have alternate schedules it has been just fine.

We were also provided free passes to the beach club ideally located right next to our condo. You'd have to hold a gun to my head to make me use the gym or pick up a tennis racket but the pool is very nice and quiet...lots of old farts. They even have a separate covered outdoor pool with a special chair on a hoist like contraption to lower you into the pool. This pool is always filled with old peeps slowly bobbing around in the water or simply staring off into space in their bathing caps and goggles.

The first day Tim came over to the pool to join me he sat on the chaise lounge next to me and asked me what the covered pool was about? I told him best as I could tell it was the pool where they filmed the movie Cocoon.

When we left I told Tim I felt like telling granny in the daisy covered bathing cap "Don't worry you'll feel like you're twenty by tomorrow." Tim actually laughed (he seldom laughs at my witty self) and quietly said to me "Her husband will be doing cannonballs in the deep end."

The weather has been perfect...hot but perfect. Since my Maw in law lives here and we have visited often enough that we have done all the tourist sights we are perfectly content. We have three pools in our condo (loaded with screaming kids) but since we are located right next door to the Cocoon Club  we swim there. We beach all day... eat dinner in our tiny kitchen and relax all night.

I didn't realize how very much I needed this trip until I woke up the first morning and didn't have to rush off to work. Putting sunscreen on has been the most strenuous thing I have done in three days.

To think I have four more days of this delights me to no end. Massey has thoroughly enjoyed herself and it's nice to see her completely happy. That makes me happy!

Tomorrow's blog will be about my Maw in law. You think I am a hoot? Wait until I tell you about her!

Til next time...Tanning Cotton

One More Shift

So it seems we're going day after tomorrow. Tim is excited and I am  apprehensive...he hates that about me.

I'm more worried about leaving Zach and three pups behind, me not making money for an entire week while spending it and wondering if we'll have enough of it to get by? Tim got really irritated with me this morning and I can't blame him, but over the past few years I have learned my forte' is "Worrying" and have become quite proficient. I want to take everything I can from the house but Zach will still be here so suppose I will have to choose wisely.

 Should I leave him the aluminum foil and take the saran wrap or will he really need either? How many rolls of toilet paper and paper towels will we need ?

Then I stop and think...I'm leaving Zach here not Martha Stewart or Oprah. He's twenty and gets paid on Tuesday. I'm packing it all up!

I worked the day shift today and of course it was slow since I am desperate for money. I work tomorrow night...my last shift before leaving and have prayed for it to be balls to the wall busy. I have just decided to quit worrying about it and go!

We have been to St. Augustine several times since my mother in law lives there and have done all the tourist things, toured the Fort and drank from the fountain of youth (I need a rebate on  THAT one) even climbed the lighthouse.

This trip is to simply get away and we will simply do just that.

I'm taking my book, packing up everything I can to cut down on what we have to buy and driving away for a week, riding in the back seat and taking a seven hour nap to get things started out on the right foot.

I  thought this trip was all for Tim, God knows he deserves it...especially being married to me. Now I realize he is doing this for ALL of us and ALL of us need it.

Come what may, it will all work out.

God has gotten us through a lot worse...how bad can a week on the beach be? I have decided to throw caution to the wind and go with  the flow. I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a week off. I know it was with my family and my brother and sister in Destin but the year escapes me.

I am too hard on Tim but even harder on myself. It is time to let go and relax...and relax is exactly what I plan to do.

Going in for one more shift tomorrow night, making all the money I can and skimpily slinking out of  town. Making sure Massey takes her lap top and will keep you posted from what hopefully is a bit of paradise.

Til next  time...COTTON

"Redunkalous" Weather

Took a picture of the sun setting  tonight. (NOT)

Don't get me wrong, I love hot weather but this is getting a bit ridiculous. I was at work last night around 5:30 and the thermostat on  the wall in  the kitchen read 95 degrees in the service aisle. (the coolest place in  the kitchen) That only meant that it was at LEAST 125 degrees behind the cook's line. All fours ovens blasting away at 400 degrees and the huge char grill going full blast. Add in  the twenty four eyes on the gas range top all lit and the deep fryers, it may have been 130 degrees. No wonder all chefs are bastards.

I honestly don't know how they do it. When the thermostat went up to 95 I told the owner "Hey, Len! It's only 94 degrees outside, prop open  the back door and cool the cook's off."

I just had my A/C unit serviced last week knowing this hot spell was coming. Our unit is tiny, sixteen years old and attempting to cool a three story house. I keep the thermostat (which is on the  bottom floor of the house) on 77. That means it is probably 80 up in  the living room and at least 82 on the third floor where every one but Massey sleeps. (Princess has the bedroom on the ground floor)

I have a huge ceiling fan in  the living room that keeps it so cool you almost need a light blanket to watch TV. On the third floor we have ceiling fans in all three bedrooms and it stays pleasantly cool if we keep the blinds shut.

With this latest heat wave my house only cools down to 80 on the ground floor during the afternoons. I'll take 80 over 95 any day of any week.

I cut the dust in my backyard yesterday. The weeds were the only thing growing but they bothered me so I gave it a trim. Around the outer edge of our privacy fence the dogs have worn a dirt path  but the dirt path is beginning to slowly creep inwards.

I love my "Lil' Beemer" and always, always ride with  the top down unless it is actually raining. If it just looks like rain...top down. If it is 94 degrees...top down. In my thinking,  that is why you own a car that is a convertible. The only  time I get hot is when stuck at an exceptionally long traffic light...but on  the upside have a killer tan and dress like Mary Anne on Gilligan's Island when I am tooling around in my "Lil' Beem."

The storms are all around us every night. The lightning flashes we see. The wind kicks up and we hear the thunder...end of story.

It's supposed to be getting cooler later  this week and I hope it does. My hot flashes have been the only thing cooling me down lately.

This heat is crazy. Add in I have three pups again that only two have a bladder bigger than the size of a pee. (Pun intended)

Still making huge strides here. We're going on a Va-Cay this Saturday. Still don't know how but I am determined  to enjoy it. Had a good night at work and have begun to stash away a little cash every day. If the tipping gods continue to smile on me I think we will be okay. Even if they don't, we have a paid for place in St. Augustine for a week and can survive on crackers and peanut butter...  and Tim and I neither one have to clock in for a week.

Seems like a plan to me...actually a really good plan.

If it's gonna be a million degrees every day anyway...I'd rather do it at the beach and not have to work.

Til next  time...Hotting COTTON

Five More Days...

Five more days and we're off for a real vacation. The first one in over four years. Tim rented the condo...no wonder he bums gas money off me every day.

My ultra crazy mother in-law lives in St. Augustine and  the Clampetts are loading up some bologna, bread and water bottles and going. At least I know we will eat good ONE night. My Maw-in-law makes a mean Bouillabaisse.

I wasn't really down with whole "Va-Cay" but as the time approaches, maybe I am! It will be on a shoe string budget but still be a week in a place I don't have to clean...not that I have cleaned my own house really well lately. My dogs and grime even make the Jehovah's witnesses only ring the door bell once. I  think I saw one of them running back to his bicycle.

I took a slack schedule at work last week  because it was the slowest week in the restaurant world. The thing is, the less I work the less I want to work. Got lucky on a few shifts and made it through the week and caught up on two years worth of sleep.

I cooked more in one week than I have in over two years. The family was fat and happy and  I think we only used the microwave to warm up left overs...another first in two years.

Tim just walked in the door from work and said he could cover gas money. Guess the bologna's on me.

You know what? After the past few years...I'd drive down to  St. Augustine (if Tim pays for gas) and stay in a homeless shelter.

I won't have to clock in for a week. Give me a towel and a book and I will feel like I am in paradise.  Zach is staying home (county mandate) and I am  yet entrusting him to another one of my vehicles. I feel better about it this time but wish he were going with us.

My brother may be coming down for a day or two if he can summon the nerve or  time. We've invited my sis and her hubby too. It sleeps five but to us that means we can squeeze in at least ten, fourteen if they don't mind sleeping on the floor.

Going in  for a double shift on Monday. Dread it but if I can muscle through this week...it will be awesome. Seven days where I have nothing to do but boss around my husband and tell him once again what he does wrong...all the time.

God bless Tim Cotton.  At least he is married to a woman that will never kill him (knowingly) and would lay down her life for him.

Oops...after midnight now...FOUR MORE DAYS!

Getting pumped...COTTON

My Current Destin"y"

OMG...I am headed for the beach for the first time in years.

A great friend of mine that I have known since I was 14 has invited Massey and me to come stay with her in Destin for three days.

I don't think I have ever been more excited about a get away weekend. It will be Massey's and my first "girls trip" and it is WAY OVERDUE.

My friend was lucky enough to retire... move to Destin and has graciously invited us to stay with her for a weekend.

Massey has been packed for two days. I have been working but will throw some crap in a bag at the last minute and off we will go!

The last year of my life has been a blur. It has all worked out for the best and I can breathe again without constant heart palpitations. Massey has been caught in the cross hairs...old enough now to know that we hit rock bottom but smart enough to know she can rely on us as parents to make it through the storm.

This weekend is going to be amazing. No boys...no husbands just two chicks off for a ride in a car and winding up on the sandy shores of Destin.

The owner's of my restaurant were gracious enough to give me three days off and Massey and I are "Fleeing the scene of the crime."

I don't care if I end up digging my toes into a tar ball. I don't care if it rains. I don't care if a hurricane blows through (well maybe I care about THAT one) but at least we'll still be at the beach with good friends and will have a relaxing wonderful time.

Massey needs this trip almost more than me. I have been high strung for over a year. My weight has dropped and my blood pressure has shot up. Until I got my new job I was a literal basket case and think the kids were googling assisted living homes for me.

I am back!

I am at a new job I love, my husband has a great future with a great company and tomorrow I get new tires on my car! The steel belts have been showing on my tires for over two months and I hunch my shoulders up every time I go over a speed bump or hit a curb (which Massey says I do a LOT.)

The money Gods have smiled on me at work, the GREAT God in the Heavens has blessed me beyond belief and once again I am feeling normal.(okay, NORMAL for me.)

I am so excited about this trip. It is only a weekend get away but for me and Massey to have three days together with one of my oldest and dearest friends is something I thought would never happen again after the last twelve months.

You sink into a depression and you think that life will never get better. Then you realize that so many people love you so many people care about you and that THESE people will take you from the darkness of depression and deliver you into the light of Hope.

I have been a lucky person all of my life.

I have taken some hits...losing my Mom unexpectedly when I was seventeen and losing my Dad to West Nile suddenly when I was 42.

But you know what? Through every tragedy, through every travesty I have always been backed by God and supported by family that still remain and friends that still cared.

WOO HOO..We are headed off Friday for 3 days that I have needed for a LONG LONG time.

I can almost smell the salt water now. I can almost feel that constant humid breeze blowing through my two inch hair. I can feel the love of a dear friend calling me to relax for 3 days and regroup.

This trip is going to be the best therapy I have had since that lobotomy Tim gave me as a wedding present...or was that a 'bottle in front of me?'

Til next time...COTTON

I Am Back , And My "Back" is Well...

After a week, I feel refreshed and ready to face the world again. It is amazing what a week at the beach can do for you, not to mention how it can make you realize that thirteen relatives can only be together for one week at a time...once a year. "We're OK with that"!
For the other 51 weeks..we try to stay away from each other as much as possible. It makes our family much more "Loving".

Once a year, we tell our brother how much we love him...and "BAM"...he forks out bucks to us lowly sisters...and subjects himself to a week with his siblings and our "CLING ALONG" kids...not to mention their girlfriends, once they reach the "likeable" stage.


It was an amazingly pleasant week...not ONE family fight...(We are famous for THAT one).

I only have a brother and a sister left in my "OLE" family tree. They are my "safe" place , my refuge and my saving salvation. They grew up with me, saw the same things that I did, and remember more things about my early youth than I do....although I can kick their butt in the memory department once I hit about 1970....both of them had a life then...my only life was to watch, admire and fantasize about what it would be like to be in their teenage shoes.I remember every detail of their high school years, and remember how excited I was to have them as an older brother and sister.

They have not let me down yet, and I am pushing fifty!!

We are all three from the same Mom and Dad...yet all different in our own way. I feel that we are pleasing blend of "tough", "mothering" "fumbling"...me being the obvious "latter".

It was week filled with kids, kids, kids...sun, sun, sun...and cocktails,cocktails,cocktails.

We all survived and feel better than we did when we left for the beach.

It can only be done ONCE a year...but ONCE a year we do the unthinkable...cram 13 or so people into a house for a week, and still come out loving each other, knowing each other a little better...and still feeling like a family. Actually, a pretty good stinkin family...if I may say so myself.

I will wait while the next 51 weeks go by until I go back to spend a cluttered, crazy and wonderful week with my family. It will probably take that long just to laugh at all the things that happened THIS trip and to save up for the next one.

Let's just hope my brother keeps his "PHAT" job....maybe next year, he can afford to fund the WHOLE SheBang!! (Hope he doesn't read this) !!!

Till next time..."SUNKIST" COTTON