Red, White and Blue

Most likely the only fireworks we'll see this year are the decorative type because of the drought. 

Will met me at a store today to get some shorts.  He had to try them on, I had to pay....it took both of us.

While he was looking through the clothes....

Me:  Do you have something red, white and blue for the 4th of July?

With a look that could kill, he responded...

Will:  Nobody wears red, white and blue for the 4th of July.  That's tacky.

Me:  Really.

So you all may want to rethink your wardrobe for the 4th.





I also heard the following as I was holding up suggestions:  "NO"  "too short"  "too long"  "too fratty"  "no plaid"  "NO"  "NO"  "I don't like cargo shorts"  "those flare out"  "NO"  "that looks like I'm going fishing."

Uncritical Canine

We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. 

Heaven has accorded this to us

in the uncritical canine attachment. 

~George Eliot

Just a scrape...

Of course, Saturday ending up being Will's best day ever.  His words.  After the concert, he and his friend Shannon met us at a nearby restaurant for dinner.  We hung on every word as they replayed the day for us.  It was a fun day for them and a great conversation for the wait for our meal.

Right before our food was brought out, Will said, "Oh, one more thing."

While backing out of that Galleria Parking Garage....the one he had lived in for almost 9 hours last Wednesday night, he barely scraped the car next to him.

And .....wait for it......









The Mall Cop saw it.  I now know they really do work. What are the odds that he would see that in that ocean of cars? I'm not saying for one second Will would have driven off because he's certainly been taught better....just commenting on the fact that the Mall Cop saw it happen.

Will, you wouldn't drive off would you?  I didn't think so.

So all information was exchanged and then left with Mall Cop.  Who I now know got it to the driver...who was not in the parked car when it happened.

Will showed us the picture he took with his cell phone and it did appear to be just a scrape ....not even a dent, just some paint scraped off.

Today the insurance agent called. 

The car that was scraped?

A PORSCHE.  Of corsche.

So for a couple of hours there was some sweating going on over here.  We have a $1000 deductible.  And it was a Porsche.  And the cell phone picture was fuzzy...maybe there was more than just a scrape. 



Luckily, the sweet owner just called, the estimate looks reasonable and she couldn't have been nicer.  She had already taken her car to the Porsche dealer and it looks like just a "buff out" job and a lot less than our deductible.   It will all be handled between us. 

So those free concert tickets?  Not so free.

Will Meets Kelly

Kelly Clarkson held a concert in the Galleria on Saturday for the Grand Opening of the Microsoft Store.  The tickets were free but the first 100 people received a special glittery wrist band which allowed them to attend a Meet and Greet with Kelly after the concert. 

Will, my son and a Kelly Clarkson freak,  and his friend Henry camped out last Wednesday in the Galleria Parking Garage....let me say that again....the Galleria Parking Garage...from 11:00 p.m. until 7:30 a.m. at which point the crowd was allowed inside the Galleria....where there is air conditioning....until the store opened at 10:00 a.m.  He was #52. 

Ask me how I slept that night.  I slept just fine.  He called to tell me they made it there and that he was #49...apparently that number changed but it was still safely inside 0 to 100.  I heard the happy in his voice, turned him over to God and went back to sleep. 

So Saturday gets here and I ask him if he wants me to go to the Galleria and take pictures.  He says yes.  It's not like I needed his permission but after raising 3 kids....I know there are times that I am not welcomed, needed, or wanted.  But I was welcomed, needed and wanted. At least my camera was.

I was told not to blog about this yet....whatever. He's not my boss, I ain't his puppet (a favorite saying at this house).  And I have a little time this morning so I'm doing this.  As I have posted on here earlier, my good friend is very ill...she is still and I have that cloud of sadness hanging over me.  Saturday was a very, very happy day....and it was much needed. 

So lots of pictures later....Kelly Clarkson and her fans.

Will and his friends were in the front of the stage to the left....from Kelly's left.

The professional photographer on the right was taking a crowd shot....

Will leaned his head way over...do you see him?

This is the shot taken above and is now on www.facebook.com/MicrosoftStore page.

Crazed fan makes creepy face.

Look at that little girl's face! 

The center of the stage was under the "bridge" of the balcony so there was no way I could get a good picture...but I knew Will would take whatever I got. 

That's Henry's hand she grabbed!

Lots of elders in the crowd.  Everyone loves Kelly. 

This is the skylight above the ice rink...which was ice-less because of the set-up for the concert. 

It was very, very warm up on that balcony. 

Will asked the stage hand for a guitar pick...and he threw him one.

I'm thinking that getting a job on the event team would be way easier than camping in a hot, humid, urine smelling parking garage for almost 9 hours.

Now the pictures from the Meet and Greet. 

Will said he had about a minute or so of talking and then Kelly asked him what kind of pose he wanted to do.  He said a silly pose.

She's a real doll. 

Will's friend Henry...the kind of friend who will camp out with him in a parking garage. 

Henry appears to be as big a fan of Kelly as Will. 

This is Will's friend Shannon.  Along with Will's wristband to attend the Meet and Greet, he received 2 wristbands to enter the secured area for the concert.  He invited Shannon.  Then while waiting in the line for the Meet and Greet, a kind stranger gave Shannon a wrist band to meet Kelly. 

After the concert we went out to eat with Will and Shannon and they replayed the conversations with Kelly for us.  I'm still laughing about Shannon's because she was laughing so hard while telling us.

Kelly: Hi, what's your name?

Shannon:  Shannon.

Kelly:  Hi Shannon!  Cute top..... cute glasses.

Shannon:  YOU'RE cute! (giggle, giggle)

Then Shannon said she immediately felt AWKWARD.....giggle, giggle.  Like why did I say that?  Uh, hope she didn't take that the wrong way.  giggle, giggle.

That one minute of fame.  A lifetime of happy memory.

Laugh To Keep From Crying

My friend is still very ill.  Some numbers go up, some go down.  This will be how it is for a very long time. 

I keep hearing her say, "I can't believe you let everyone look at me like that."  For this friend is very vain. 

My heart is breaking for her.  My guard is up.  I am braced for the worst, yet really do want the best.  The outcome is, of course, not in any of our control.  So we are all spending the days speculating just what that outcome will be.  She is spending the days trying to heal.

As thy day, so shall thy strength be.

Jordan sent the following youtube to me and it made me laugh out loud.  I was thankful for that laughter.  I needed it.

This Friend

I met this friend in second grade. We have accomplished something that very few people have. We've managed to keep in touch through the years. Through the moves, the marriages, the children. Our friendship has mostly been nurtured and kept alive on the phone. Hours and hours and hours of phone conversations. 

She is the keeper of my secrets and I know most of hers. When I was a single girl living in my own apartment, she was married with 2 children. We lived vicariously through each other's lives. I would call her and tell her about my dates and she would tell me about what she cooked for dinner and tell me stories about her babies.

She had 3 children before I was even married.  Then I married and had 3 children.  She went on to have 2 more for a total of 5. I knew about each and every one of hers...and she knew about mine.  I knew what she cooked for dinner, she knew what we had eaten.  I knew her husband's faults.  She knew my husband's. We certainly knew each other's faults.  I could hear the PMS in her voice, she could hear it in mine.



There were years when our phone calls were few.  There were years when our phone calls were daily......even hourly. 

We could not have been more different.  Yet we were bound by our history together. We were bound by our knowledge of each other's souls.  There were times, I just needed one of those phone calls.  It was so easy to pick up where we left off.  No explanations needed.

She went back to school, I went back to work.  She divorced.  I stayed married.  She moved to a different city.  I moved to a different suburb. Her kids all grew up.  My kids grew up. But still we kept in touch.  Our friendship has never really been about visiting each other face to face.  It was about that phone.  Those long, long conversations.  Sometimes deep.  Sometimes funny.  Always comfortable.

And then facebook.  When we didn't speak, we kept up on facebook. 

Recently we had our 35th high school reunion.  Many phone calls to each other about what we would wear, what time we would get there, how fun it would be.  She would wear a bustier....I would wear something that covered my derriere.  Her hair would be longer, mine would  be shorter.  She would be very tan, I would be very fair.  I would be taller, she would be shorter.

It was a fun evening.

And then last Thursday morning, she messaged me on facebook.  "Juju, I'm scared.  I can't breathe. I can't walk.  Call me."

Apparently she has been short of breath for awhile...but she never told me. 

Out of respect for her privacy, I will not go in to detail about what is wrong with her.  But her heart is damaged.  And her liver is damaged.

She is in the hospital, in CCU, fighting for her life.  She has a lot wrong with her....and a long road ahead of her if she is to recover. 

And she has all of my secrets.

She cannot be replaced.

I am the 3rd girl from the left on the front row. 

 She is in the fifth girl from the left.  With the yarn bow in her hair.

The rich girl with pantyhose on.

She is on the left, I am on the right.  In the middle was our friend who moved away from Bryan to San Antonio the summer after 7th grade.  Our parents let us take the Greyhound bus from Houston to San Antonio to visit her the summer after she moved.   If that doesn't say "long ago," I don't know what does.  No one would put their 7th grade daughter on a Greyhound bus now. Long hair and strawberries must have been all the rage.

This photo was taken on August 11, 1985, in the waiting room of the hospital where Jordan was born.  She came up there and waited with my parents while I had a C-section.  She was always, always tan.  Even in December.

Taken at our 35th reunion.  Just 2 weeks ago. 

She's a fighter.  But she's never been in this big of a battle before.