Mermaids And The Bermuda Triangle

 

It's a rare day that I indulge in purchasing a piece of costume jewelry.   It has to be sterling, white gold or platinum so I don't break out.  Allergies are the bane of my existence.  I have found that I can get away with yellow or rose gold for short periods, and even occasionally what my Grandma used to refer to as "pot metal." 

It's even rarer that I buy a big gaudy necklace.  Combined with allergies, making bears for three decades has left me with chronic neck issues and some days I can barely tolerate a simple chain with a charm.  Plus I am not that fond of most big gaudy necklaces.

There is an exception to every rule however.  Today when I was out shopping I ran across this piece.  Now in all fairness my photo does not do it justice.  I love ocean inspired pieces of jewelry for some reason.  I don't know why, because even though I have been boating and swimming many times, and snorkeling in Barbados, the ocean still scares the bejeebies out of me!  I have even been 180 feet under the ocean surface in a sub.  Anyway, the colors on this piece are incredible.  But the blues and greens are slightly iridescent so it reflected the camera flash a lot.  The shells that look black are actually a beautiful indigo blue and the large shell in the center is a lovely teal green, and not nearly as dark as it appears.  Each shell has either white or light amber rhinestones on it.  I just had to have it.  I have a girl day coming up Wednesday with my friend Carol and I intend to wear it...allergies and neck pain be darned!

After I got it home, I got to thinking about a comment I received last week after I got brave enough to post a picture on Facebook.  One of my friends said her daughter thought I looked like a mermaid.  It's the hair of course...but with this necklace I am sure I will really look like one now!  XD

I am proud to tell you that my diet program I was on technically ended today.  I ran out of drops and I lost 20 pounds!  I still intend to keep dieting, but I am not going to stay on just 500 calories a day.  I will be going up to 900, which for my height, weight and age is the recommended amount to lose weight.  It won't be quite as fast, but I am feeling confident.  Six weeks on this program really has changed how I eat as well as how fast I eat.  Now that might sound like a small thing, but for me it was HUGE.  I had severe issues with eating slowly going back to my childhood.  But I don't want to tell you that sad story...so suffice it to say that I have overcome a really intense mental obstacle, and I no longer feel the need to inhale my food or clean my plate.   It's truly amazing how what happens to you as a kid can carry on through life with you that you don't even fully realize it.  The impact these things have can be devastating and you aren't even aware of it.  So as hard as it was, I consider the program to have been a success.  I feel confident that I can go forward and eat the way I should and still lose weight.  Time will tell.

Now if you have been reading my Facebook page, you know that I have also been tackling R's little junk pile in the corner of the backyard and getting rid of it since the snakes love to breed there....plus I just don't like the junk pile.  Once I started, he picked up the reigns and hauled away the four tires that had been sitting there for 3 years.  There was also an old patio table. 

When I get a new piece of furniture, I found that I was at a loss as to what to do with the old thing.  Goodwill doesn't take as much stuff as they used to.  Most of it isn't worth the effort or expense of a newspaper ad to sell, and honestly I don't trust people who use Craig's List.  You hear too many horror stories and since I am home alone a lot...well just no.

At any rate one day I had something I was going to have R haul away the next weekend.  I had no place to put it so I set it in the drive way in front of the garage door.  I can't stand doing that because I am always convinced it makes the house look like we are poor white trash to have things sitting in the driveway.  Three days later I went to the store and when I returned the thing I had set out there had vanished!  I thought this was awesome because that meant we didn't have to haul it away.

The next thing I had was an old BBQ.  R had gotten a new one for his birthday...so I got this idea...this time I would put a sign on it that said "Free."  I kid you not...3 hours later...gone!  Since then that section of the drive way has been dubbed The Bermuda Triangle.  I have learned that you can put literally anything in your driveway with a sign on it that says "Free" and it will vanish within hours!

Late last night I put the patio table out there with a sign on it, and at 6:21 this morning...I was just about asleep when I heard a tailgate slam shut.  I peeked out...GONE!  The Bermuda Triangle never lets me down!

Stress And Stereotypes

 I guess even the toughest among us has a breaking point.  I am by no means the toughest, but I am pretty strong for the most part.  Now R might disagree with that because he always sees the softer, wimpier side of me.  But what he doesn't understand is that I don't have to be tough when he is around.  That's about the only time, and the rest of world seems to view me much differently than he does.

Today however, the world got a little different view.  I went to Dr. Ivy League's office for my weekly check in on this diet thing.  I stepped on the scale and thought it was the same as last week.  At that point I just started crying uncontrollably.  I had hit my breaking point.  The poor girl couldn't quite figure out what was wrong.  I was babbling pretty much incoherently about all the things going on in my life.  Lucky for me, she speaks fluent sobbing female and figured it out.  As a result, they are taking me off the program for about a month...two weeks at least. 

My Step Dad is going in for a quadruple bypass Wednesday.  I have also been worried about my brother who is going in for a defibrillator soon.  My Mother has been seriously stressed over my Step Dad and I have been trying to hold it together for her.  (My brother is a half brother and had a different Mother, but she is still concerned for him too.)  R is gone to Utah most of every week now for the job he is doing.  On top of that, I have been trying to deal with small pesky things like finding Ridley a new home, the post office who refuses to acknowledge the fact that the mistake in losing the package is their fault and won't do anything about.  (Thank you Andrea for taking that little point of stress away today...you're still a rock star!)  And dealing with all of these things on 500 calories a day. Not to mention the memory issues, extreme fatigue and muscle cramps that go with it.  Plus the fact that I started the diet after being sick for ten days.  So all the stress I had been holding back just bubbled to the surface and rushed out like a water fall.  I am talking Angel Falls in Venezuela, and I just couldn't stop crying.  I was so embarrassed.  As it turned out I was wrong, and I actually lost five pounds.  But that goes back to the memory thing.  Luckily they give me a print out from the scale every week or I wouldn't have known  for sure.

I am going to still try to eat healthy for the time I am not doing the diet and watch what I eat carefully, but I am not going to be in starvation mode right now.  It's just too much.  Tomorrow I am also going for a massage...God knows I need it.

On the other topic I was going to talk about, I read an interesting article today about tattoos.  You can see one of my two in the pic shown above. (Ignore my cracked heel!)  I also have a small man in the moon with a star on the back of my neck.  I got it when I was 21, before tattoos on the neck were really a thing, and I had short hair. I got my ankle one 21 years later, and I thought for several years about what I wanted to get and even if I wanted to get it.

I learned something interesting about how people view tattoos these days.  While the old stereotype used to be that if you had one you were probably a biker and someone not to be messed with, that has changed.  Personally I thought it wasn't a big deal anymore.  But now there is a new stereotype; if you have one you either feel a need to belong to a group, you are greatly dissatisfied with yourself in some way, or you are craving attention.  Who knew?

I am not here to try to change how you feel about having one on yourself...that's a very personal choice.  But honestly, despite this diet thing, I have never really been dissatisfied with my body image since I was 14 and convinced I needed a nose job.  I couldn't care less about belonging to a group.  When it comes to craving attention...again not really a problem.  I tend to get way more attention than I usually want.

The thought process that went into getting it went something like this:  I love winged hearts, they have always been my logo...and it would look cute on my ankle.  Do I want that forever?  *Insert a couple years deliberation*  Answer; yes!

We live in a world that is supposed to be so enlightened, understanding and accepting...so why is this even a big deal?   By the way, the article I read was written by someone who is gay.  While that isn't something I have ever had a problem with since so many of my friends have been gay...and both of my tattoos were gotten with gay best friends, we are all expected to be understanding and accepting of that...so who are they to judge this?  I find that interestingly ironic. 

Personally I think life is hard...especially lately.  Do what makes you happy.  I feel that it's up to you what you want to do with your life and your body, and as long as you aren't hurting anyone else in the process, I am ok with that and it's not my place to judge.  Vive la difference!

~*~ Torbert ~*~

 

As promised I have a brand new animal for you!  Please meet Torbert.  I have been wanting to do an upright elephant for ages.  Years and years ago I did some four standing ones.  I was about to design a new upright one a few years ago when all of a sudden everyone was doing elephants and it put me off a bit.  But I decided it was time to give in!  So here he is in all of his adorable lilac colored glory!

I hope you like him as much as I do!  He is available on my website at www.blondheart.com

I will also have more of a diet update for you a little later in the week.  I am proud to say that I have lost 4 pounds already though!  

Have a lovely weekend, Hugs, K. <3