What would the neighbor do?

I am far more of a night owl than your average late-night neighbor, therefore I wonder about those who might be out and about between, say, 1:00 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. on a weekday night.

I was walking the doggies before bed on Tuesday night when a car came to an abrupt halt at a stoplight at a major intersection by my house. The emergency flashers were engaged and I could see that children were in the car.

The driver got out of the car, opened and closed the rear left door and then proceeded to rummage around in the trunk for a solid 3+ minutes, all the while occupying both the straight-forward and right-turn lanes of a busy road.

After allowing Zoe to finish her business, I gathered her up and started across the street – hands waving hello while repeating, "Are you okay?" the entire time.

Although I could clearly see a child in the front seat waving at me, the driver instantly sped away – emergency lights flashing until the vehicle was completely out of sight.

I’m 5’6” and I weigh about 125 pounds fully clothed (I mean with a heavy coat and shoes included). I hate to think I spooked the driver with 7-pound Zoe in tow. I also hope all who personally know me can laugh at that visual.

Perhaps Zoe and I could go by "Z beast and the Glavinator." (or Glavenora, depending on the security guard on duty).

Puppy take two

Stray number two, now crashing with my brother's family.

When Todd first sent me this photo on August 17th, he said the puppy was about 10 weeks old and approximately 5 pounds. I wouldn't be surprised if he's gained at least a couple of pounds since then!

Vet visit #1 took place yesterday, so now they start the hunt for the little guy's forever home. Cute huh?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Has anyone read this?

I'm barely into it, and while the first 15-20 pages made me want to run for my migraine pills the following 20 pages began to rope me in, but I'm still harboring a bit of resistance.

Amongst the many magazines I sifted through in early August, there was a review of "Dragon Tattoo's" follow-up, "The Girl Who Played with FIre". The review of that book was amazing, but failed to offer promise for the nearly 500-page book that I'm going to have to suffer through in order to get to it.

Basically, according to many reviewers, "Dragon Tattoo" is an easily forgettable yarn while the follow up is a sincere prize.

With a library deadline over my head - apparently there are many many others out there who are dying to suffer through "Dragon Tattoo," I am going to have to make the completion of the novel a priority. T-minus 13 days and counting.

Currently not even to page 40 - we'll see...

Best Friends Forever

Despite the cheesy title, I can confidently give this book an enthusiastic two thumbs up. I laughed out loud often and found the story engaging and heartbreakingly honest.

The plot of the story can be summarized as that of two best friends who find, sadly, that their lives beyond the age of 14 are completely irreconcilable.

Most of the novel, told in the first-person narrative by the central character, Addie Downs, takes place in the present day (likely around 2005 for these characters).

But the history began with nine-year-old Addie, who thought she'd never find a true friend, yet was blessed when Val and her mom moved into the house across the street. The two girls became inseparable - meaning that Val became a surrogate fixture at the Downs' dining room table; Val became a stow-away guest at the neighborhood pool; and to Addie's sheer delight, Addie became a guest in the seemingly carefree existence of Val and her mother.

The present-day story involves a crime scene at the girls' high school reunion, which strangely brings the girls together, rocketing back to days they'd rather forget with loads of secretive history to boot. The "crime" isn't one to be easily solved, nor is the damage done to Addie and Val's long-since broken friendship.

I loved Good in Bed by the same author. Great stuff. For info on Best Friends Forever at Amazon, see here.

This book reminded me how lucky I am to have one of the most genuine souls in the world as my dearest friend - Kerry. You are so loved and appreciated! XOXO

Cloudy visions

I snapped the photo below while we were waiting for a table at Provisions on Holden Beach a few weeks ago. My dad is the one I remember being the most taken with the sight of the cloud pictured.

But something about it bothered me. All I could definitively come up with was the fact that it brought on visions of mushroom clouds.

I'm willing to bet that others my age could maybe see the same similarities in the image. Or maybe I'm just crazy or morbid. Let's hope not, but the photo lead my mind to images of war. That's all I can say - sad but true.

I hope every one else sees a cloud tinged by the pinkish hues of a lovely North Carolina coast sunset.

Puppy Posting

Here's an update on the puppy for which I posted a snippet on July 29th. My brother sent me the Forsyth Humane Society adoption link, which can be found here. You'll see that the humane society named him "Boomer."

I, like Todd, found the description of the dog to be mundane and weak. To quote Todd, "I really think they could have come up with a better description especially compared to the other dogs. I get it, he needs some training, but he is a puppy who has had no stable home situation."

This coming from a man (and his family) who cared for this dog as if he were his own for about two weeks or more. Todd knew they couldn't keep "puppy," but he followed through with his best intentions to find the dog a home. It's sad that the humane society felt that such a vague and unflattering description was appropriate.

Of course, "puppy" could be adopted tomorrow. Who knows. I just hope that if a willing owner doesn't come forth soon, the agency will make a bit more of an effort to draw in potential dog-seekers!

The perils of Rx-by-mail

Like millions of other medicated individuals, I receive a prescription every three months from Medco. While this saves me approximately $1000 annually, the savings do not come without a few headaches. Make that migraines.

First of all, Medco requires a signature upon delivery, so I can’t use my home address as I work away from home during the day. When I first started using Medco, I would wait for them to attempt a delivery and then go pick it up at the local UPS center (which is close to 30 miles round-trip from my house, hence my treatment of the word "local"), but then I started having the meds delivered to my doctor’s office.

You may wonder why I don’t have the Rx delivered to my work address. Oh I’ve tried that. UPS completely screwed up the address and delivered my medication (yes medication, something that to many might be attached to an adjective like important or necessary or yeah, private) to some strange woman in some strange office building and it took me almost three days to hunt it/her down. No more work addresses where absolutely anyone who can hold a pen can sign for my medication. It amazes me how easily people will sign for a package for anyone – stranger or not.

So, here’s a synopsis of this month’s fiasco: Prescription was mailed from my doctor’s office on July 27th. The package of meds left Medco on August 3rd and reached the general vicinity of my doctor’s office on August 4th. Since Medco left off the suite number for the office, UPS claimed they could not deliver the package. In an attempt to obtain the suite number, UPS mailed a postcard to the incomplete address, hoping for a response. When questioned about this tactic the UPS employee responded with, “Sometimes the post office has addresses we don’t. We don’t really expect an answer.”

OH-KAY.

Before speaking with the UPS employee who delivered the preceding nugget of wisdom, I was told by a different UPS employee that my package had lingered too long in limbo and had therefore been returned to the shipper. Oh Joy. Four days worth of meds on hand and my ability to function is up to the now proven inept organizational skills of UPS and the oh-so-ever-alert staff at my doctor’s office.

After discovering that the most damning mistake in this cluster-EFFF was committed by Medco (their label is the one that left off the suite number) and having spoken with a sincerely helpful Medco representative, I was somewhat at ease. Miss Medco told me she’d follow up with UPS, but the whole postcard-mailing-scenario was really bugging me so I called UPS myself to get a first-hand explanation of their hair-brained, address-finding process.

Up until the last two minutes of my third phone conversation with UPS, I was severely regretting my decision to follow-up with them. The brain-splittingly retarded 15-20 minutes preceding those two minutes made me want to kill myself.

Mr. UPS did not understand that I could not confirm the failure of arrival or the successful arrival of the idiotic post card sent to a half address. He kept telling me to contact the shipper – even though I repeatedly told him that the shipper was a moot point in this scenario. What finally reached him was this:

“The package was shipped to Durham. The address was incomplete. Someone told me it was returned to the sender (Medco). You’re telling me the return shipment hasn’t yet been initiated, despite what I was told not one hour ago. WHERE IS THE PACKAGE? It’s medication, I NEED it. I will pick it up. I just need to know where it is!”

Mr. UPS then said, “I am going to make an arrangement for you. One of our centers will call you within one hour and relay the details of where you can pick up your package.”

Really? You don’t know where it is. You can tell me nothing, but you promise someone is going to call me within an hour with detailed instructions on where to locally find my pills. Skepticism was dripping from my voice when I said, “Allrighty.”

Well, to prove me a butthead, I was indeed telephoned approximately 30 minutes later and told that my package could be retrieved at my convenience. Since the facility in question is opened until 8 pm, I picked it up last night.

My “luck” seemed pretty odd since Mr. UPS 2, who called me from the package-hostage facility, said to me, “Ummm. I don’t know how I even found this. It should SO not still be here.”

When I walked into the customer doorway (at final UPS destination) with only my license in hand, the man at the counter asked for the address of delivery. When I sputtered it out half-assed (it's not my personal address) he obviously recalled the conversation from less than an hour before and said, "Oh yeah. For the lucky one."

Nice to know the freight of a schedule II drug is being handled so carefully.

As an end note, the automated voice menus for both Medco and UPS are infuriating. At try three with UPS, I was screaming a seemingly interminable string of random numbers into my phone and I still got, "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't quite get that." I'm surprised I have a single strand of hair left on my head.

Awesome gum

I bought my huge 60-piece pack of Orbit White Bubblemint gum on a whim several weeks ago. I'm not a big gum-chewer, but said gum was on sale and in my face. In fact, it was the only flavor available in the 60-piece container. Now I know why the "non-candy" aisles are advertised in grocery stores.

Last Friday the Bubblemint revolution unintentionally began.

I'd just popped a few pieces in my mouth when my friend Mike came over to my desk and said, "are you eating candy over here or something? I can smell it!"

After partaking of said yummy gum, Mike then passed around the deliciousness by visiting other co-workers who were instantly curious about the lovely scent emanating from his bubblemint-flavored mouth.

That Bubblemint is some damn good gum. Four stars - superior breath-freshening!

The adoption of Zoe

Sometime in 2005 I was looking for a dog - a small dog - to adopt as both a friend for my beloved Bailey and a buffer for my inevitable dealings with Bailey's old age.

I found Zoe online. The photo (NOT the one pictured here) was horrible, but the description was ideal. I emailed the shelter to tell them I was interested and they told me "Candy" would be at a Pet Smart event later that week.

I drove to Greensboro to meet "Candy," and when I got there a woman quickly accosted me to ask, "Are you here to see Candy?"

When I said yes she basically tossed the dog at me - mind you a terrified, disgustingly dirty dog - and walked away. I held "Candy" who didn't fight my holding her, but had no desire to look at me. She remained completely occupied with her sister, who was also available for adoption the entire time.

After first viewing the dog in such an incomprehensibly gross state, I had no desire to take on any responsibility for the animal, but poor Candy was pathetically horrid and smelly. I knew then and there that I HAD to adopt her. Otherwise, who would really care for her?!

She's been my hearbeat under my feet ever since.

Shared (Great) reads

Have you ever read a book and loved it so much that you wanted to pass it on to your friends in the hopes that they would love it just as much as you did?

During last week's vacation I watched my family open their hearts to some amazing characters:

• Enzo, the faithful and elderly lab mix from The Art of Racing in the Rain

• Augusten Burroughs, the quick-witted alcoholic from Dry

• Randy Pausch, father of three young children who fought and lost the battle against pancreatic cancer. He left a remarkable legacy via The Last Lecture.

I don't think of myself as one who needs positive reinforcement for the books I choose to read, but I admit feeling very pleased that Lisa, my friend's wife, loved The Art of Racing in the Rain.

Then at the beach, my brother held up the same book and asked me if I'd read it. I said, "YES!" and I was so excited for him to read it.

He loved it and passed it on to my mother who couldn't put it down. She adored Enzo - as we all should! Maria will follow shortly.

My mother, my brother and my sister all read The Last Lecture.

There are so many quotes from the The Last Lecture that touched my heart, but one of my favorites follows:

When you're frustrated with people, when they've made you angry, it just may be because you haven't given them enough time. But in the end, people will show you their good side. Almost everybody has a good side. Just keep waiting. It will come out."

I had a hard time taking this to heart last night when on my way home - through a sea of non-functioning traffic lights - I had to cut in front of a car on 751 (mind you, I used my turn signal and ample room was available for my merge). The driver behind me made an extravagant display of her middle finger for at least a full 3 minutes. I'm not afraid to say that I stared her down in my rearview mirror (left door mirror) and waved my heart out. I gave the driver just ahead of me a hearty giggle, but all I could think was, Really?! Seriously life is too short for that kind of white trash, redneck immature gesturing. All I could do was shake my head and hope said driver finds herself in a somewhat similar situation someday soon so that her idiocy is blatantly and brightly pointed out to her. Gee-freakin-whiz.

One of my brother's favorite quotes from Dry:

"Ad people don't care where you came from, who your parents were. It doesn't matter. You could have a crawl space under your kitchen floor filled with little girls' bones and as long as you can dream up a better Chuck Wagon commercial, you're in."

When I asked Maria about Todd's impression of Dry, she said, "He thought the beginning of the book was much funnier."

Of course it was - Augusten was still a belligerently drunk idiot. But I truly believe that the perseverance, subsequent failing, and rebound are what truly make Mr. Burroughs a hero to be admired.

Oh. And he's DAMN funny.

While my family was enjoying my earlier reads, I struggled through Angela's Ashes.

It wasn't that I didn't like the book, but the Irish dialect required a bit more concentration than what I hoped for in a beach read. Depressing? YES. But I still recommend the book.

Seriously, The Last Lecture and The Art of Racing in the Rain should not be missed.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog

When I was a little girl my mom said, "Home again, home again, jiggety-jog" upon each return home. I always loved hearing her say that.

My sister Maria said it the other night when we returned from shopping at the Tanger outlets and it brought back a lot of memories so I had to mention it.

Indeed I am home again, and quite sad that our annual beach week is over. In Abby's words, "it was our best beach week yet!"

Fuzzpa's new "instant ice cream maker" was a hit. Todd was the blender-king, whipping up exotic smoothies daily. Watermelon, cantaloupe, blueberries, strawberries, bananas and even carrots made it into the mix. My favorite was the peanut butter ice cream - good thing there was a recipe for that since somehow more than 72 ounces of fresh peanut butter made its way with us to Holden Beach.

Abby and Todd did a fair bit of body boarding. They're a great team and Abby has an absolute blast riding the waves.



In true shell-obsessed fashion, Maria and I ventured out early Monday evening (August 3rd) hoping to find some prize shells. We found none, but the rest of the Glazeners found their way down to the beach to check on our progress.

Below: Todd, Maria and Abby by the pier. I am certain Todd is taller than he claims to be. 6'1" isn't short, but by golly I swear he teeters above that, and teetering is the most accurate description of him at this point.



The photos below were taken at Provisions - our favorite local Holden Beach eatery. We usually dine there at least twice during our week in town.

I managed to avoid using the facilities at Provisions until this year. The sign above the lavatory door might suggest my avoidance.


Facilities were far more pleasant than I anticipated, but I still plan to do my best in the future to avoid the necessity of "4U2PN."

Moving on - Grammy, me, Abby:



Grammy and Abby:



Abby and Daddy (a.k.a. brother Todd). I love this photo:



Todd and Maria (I love this photo, too!):



Abby and Fuzzpa:



I'm proud to say I gave Abby that little green hat that reads, "Let it Ripple." She was adorable in that cap.

Abby noticed on Saturday that I was wearing a shirt just like one she owns. Below we're pictured wearing our twin t-shirts.


I'm already looking forward to beach week 2010!