Be Careful What You Ask For

For the second time this weekend someone has asked for my opinion and then likely not been pleased when they got it.

Are you one of those people who, when asked how you like someone's new outfit or hairstyle, tell them it looks great while internally you are cringing and wondering what on earth they were thinking when they spent that money?  Well, I'm not.  I assume that if you ask me such a question you really want to know.  Why would you go fishing for compliments? Getting them that way would always leave you wondering if you were getting a truthful answer.  After all you've just put someone on the spot and some people would feel it was impolite the tell the truth and possibly hurt your feelings. I, on the other hand figure you wouldn't ask if you didn't want to know. I'm doing you a service by giving you an honest answer.  You do have to keep in mind that it's just my opinion, and opinions vary from one person to another.  Mine is in no way special other than that you specifically asked for it.

I do a lot of surveys and reviews for new products. This not only makes me a bit of spending money but is also a safe, healthy way for me to express my opinions.  I even have it listed on one of those sites that if you ask for my opinion, you will get it.

Please, do be careful not to ask me how old I think you are, as someone did this weekend.  Before answering, I did say that it was a rather embarrassing question since I might get the answer wrong. I qualified my answer by first stating my own age, and then saying that I figured she was maybe just a couple of years older.  "Older?" she shrieked, as her hands flew to her face in shock.  I knew immediately that she was probably at least 5 years younger to be as upset as that.  But hey, I was faced with a lady selling skin care products that were supposedly anti-aging, and she thought they worked miracles. I thought she looked good for the age I gave her. On the other hand, if she's younger than I am, I have no use for those products as she had a lot more wrinkles than I do. Let's just say it's a good thing I'm not writing a review on that product line.  I was treading carefully by the time she asked if I'd be interested in purchasing any of them. I just told her I had a large supply of creams and gels at home and quickly wandered off.  I do hope she has at least learned not to ask that age question ever again......or any of the other ones she might not be happy with answers to.

De-cluttering Week 18 - A Birthday Wake Up Call

For my birthday, I had my first ambulance ride. 

Thursday we started moving my son from one apartment to the other. True, I had the easy job of sitting all day waiting for the COGECO guy to show up to connect the tv, internet, and phone,  but I did move a lot of boxes and things around during that time.  The next day I didn't feel so good.  I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, so I know better than to over do it.  And that was, of course, the reason I got elected to do the waiting in the first place.  But hey, that's a long day to sit and do nothing when so much obviously needs to be put away.  I figure I had overdone it, and just took it easy all day on Friday. 

Saturday I woke up at 3:30 AM, very dizzy.  Moving anything just made it worse, so I tried to lay very still, flat out on my back for a while.  Then I rolled over.  Not a good idea.  Sitting on the side of the bed was just silly, but that's when my hubby woke up and asked if I was alright.  I admitted that I was not, and it didn't take him long to decide to call 911.  They asked some questions and then sent the ambulance to fetch me. 

The ambulance guys were really nice.  By the time they had arrived, I had put on some clothes, and had landed on the couch in the livingroom.  I had a bucket beside me as the dizziness had gotten bad enough by then to make me nauseous.  The guys asked some questions, and did some tests and apparently didn't like something they were seeing because they decided to take me to the emergency room at one of the local hospitals.  At my age, one doesn't mess around with dizziness, I gather.

The doctor tried to get me to describe the word dizzy.  Have you ever done that?  I remember, in the past, trying to get a doctor to understand that I was having periods of light headedness, and she couldn't seem to understand that I wasn't full out dizzy.  This hospital doctor, though, said there are several kinds of dizziness and he wanted to know which one I was experiencing. So I tried my best to describe what it made me feel like, even though it wasn't happening at that moment.  It had begun to come in waves.  So he had me do a little something, that made me say, "Here it comes again." 

I was totally amazed when he said, "Yes, I see that."  He said that my eye was jumping.  I couldn't feel that.  Then he had me turn the other way and repeat the experiment.  Immediately I saw the chair across the room roll up the wall, over and over again.  Think of a movie with a broken bit of film and how that last frame just keep repeating itself, over and over, rolling up the screen.  That's about what I was seeing. 

"Oh, that's so weird," I said.

 He responded, "No, it's what I expected." 

I told him it was certainly weird from my point of view. 

He was then able to diagnose an inner ear problem and gave me some pills that definitely seem to help.  I should be fine by the time the week is out.

All this is bad timing, or maybe good timing, depending on how you want to look at it.  It meant that I could not go back to help finish off the move today.... my birthday

The thing is, I'm getting older, and a whole new thought pattern has developed when things like this happen.  Dizziness could be sign of a stroke. It dawned on me that nobody else really knows where I keep such things as wills and insurance policies, or other important papers.  When I mentioned this to my hubby later, he just assumed I had such things in the safety deposit box.  They aren't.  I had been told years ago that it was hard to get into a safety deposit box if someone passes on, until it has been established who the executor is. That information, of course, is in the will. So if the will is locked away where nobody can get it, then that delays things considerably.

I obviously didn't get any of my de-cluttering done this week, at least not at home .....other than to take another box of books to the Merrickville United Church for their big sale later this month.  But I certainly have come up with next week's project.  I have to search out all those important papers from their current locations, and put them all together, where they can easily be found.  Next time I have an emergency, it might be too late to do that.

An InLinkz Link-up

Forever Young

Over the years I was told many stories about the village and the folks that lived here even before I arrived.  On many occasions I caught myself holding back giggles as the story teller referred to this or that "young lad" during the telling of his tales.  I was well married and had nearly grown children, and these "young lads" were almost always old enough to have been my father.  Sometimes they were not all that much younger than the story teller.  It seemed funny to hear them described that way at the time.

This week I was setting up an outing and asked if I could invite "the girl next door" to come along.  "The girl next door" is a grown woman with a son in his twenties.  She was living in that house next door when I first moved here, and was still in high school at the time.  I've been here 36 years now but  no matter how grown up, or old she ever lives to be, if I'm still around, she will always be "the girl next door"  to me. 

I guess, as they say, age is all relative.  It's good to know that many of us will always be young in the hearts and minds of those who knew us when we were.