Today I had an uplifting experience, I had a bra-fitting. [Yes, fellas, I am indoctrinating you into a female ritual… enter if you dare]

It’s the latest rage, you need to know what size you should be wearing to keep the girls where they belong, not necessarily up by your chin, but definitely higher than your belly button, which is something I tend to see as women get older. There are so many different places you can go for a fitting, there are upscale stores where they actually measure and then make the bra by hand, you can go to a store like Intimacy “Bra Fit Stylists”, make an appointment first of course, then get fitted and they may have what works for you or they may need to order or even alter what they might have in house. You can go to someplace like Victoria’s Secret and get fitted, the experience is not the same, but they will tell you what size you should be wearing and buy something off their racks or online.

You don’t do like I used to do and just go to Wal-mart to buy one because it’s cheap, it’s ok, I am still wearing my purchased at Wal-Mart bra, I can only afford one “real” bra at a time! And us girls know that you should have at least 3 bras in your collection, one for wearing, one for washing and I keep wanting to say, one for sharing, but I know that’s not it! There was a sign in the fitting room that said “Like good religion, wash your bras on Sunday so you will be good for the week”.

There are bra-fitting parties, I have been to one. The consultant shows you how a bra should be worn, how to measure and then you get to try different ones on until you find the one that works for you. You also learn about maintenance of your bra, how to care for it, so it cares for you for a long time. That was a lot of fun, we cracked up over and over, it was definitely an experience!

A good bra is not an inexpensive purchase, but when you do purchase one, it does so much for you. It lifts you up, makes you stand a little taller and even smooths you out a little in the back, you know what I’m talking about…

So… EW and I were driving, and he knows how much I have always wanted to have a bra fitting, so we stop at a place, no, not on the side of the road, and we go in, he takes the customary seat, no he didn’t have to hold my purse, I don’t carry one, lucky guy and I went into the dressing room. dun dun dun…

I was told to disrobe on top down to my underthings, so I did and put on a robe while I waited for my person to come into the fitting room. She came in, I removed the robe, she looked at me and estimated, 36 – I said really? I didn’t think I was ready for 36 yet, but what they hey. Then I asked about the cup size, F, huh? Sure, whatever you say… Then I posed the challenge, I never wear an under-wire, hmmm… She came back with three bras she thought would fit, um… nope, then she comes back with some 40’s, now that was a real morality booster… and we talked about wearing under-wire bras and why I don’t and why she thinks I should reconsider. Yeah, the 40’s didn’t fit either, that was a whew moment! So, she brought under-wire bras. I posed a quandary, this one was too big, this one didn’t fit, this one had too much space in certain places, I love being a challenge!

We finally, 15 bras later, found one that worked for me, and her. I am in the exact size I am supposed to be and was in when I walked into the shop, and that’s ok, I’ve always worn the right size, just not the right style and that’s where we found a happy medium. So, now I am wearing my new, perfect for me, fit bra and I must admit, I think the girls are happy, they seem to be a wee bit perkier and talking to people, “Hey, look at me!”,  but you can be the judge!

Let’s see if they notice at work…

Last night, I had a great time! I went to downtown Lawrenceville and took the Lawrenceville Ghost Tour, http://www.scarytours.com.

It was led by Cynthia Rintye, who I had worked with at the Georgia Renaissance Festival about a thousand years ago! It was fantastic to see her again and watch her work! She is really good at what she does! The stories were great, she kept the crowd engaged and intrigued and gave me the heebie geebies a few times!

I took the tour with EW, BG, CA, SM, TS, SF and SM’s date M. We really did have a good time walking around Lawrenceville, after having dinner at the Oyster Bar on the square. The ghost tour took about 90 minutes and we were on all four corners of the square, in an old jailhouse and through a pub, I think we covered all the bases.

The stories gave us a good history of Lawrenceville, it being one of the oldest cities in Georgia and actually known for it’s paranormal activity. I am not a believer in ghosts, but I do enjoy a good story, one that will not scare the you-know-what out of me, but there are times when a story is told, as was the one in the jail, and then I walked into one of the cells and brrrr,  i got the chills, that one got to me! Could have been the reaction to the sad story or it could have really been a spirit, who knows, definitely made it worth going!

There was another story, which might not be over…  check out on IMDB.com: 83 hours ’til dawn. A made for tv movie about an heiress who was kidnapped in 1968 and buried alive for 83 hours. She was eventually rescued and her kidnappers were found and sent to jail. The mastermind got out eventually and was busted again for a different crime, he is actually due to be released next month, oooooo!

All in all, a great night, perfect weather, a fantastic hostess and a great group of friends to top it all off!  I give the Aurora 5 spooks for their fantastic performance! Go check it out!

Boo!

Today was a very busy day and it’s not over! Started out when I woke up on the couch about 6:30 this morning, I sort of remember falling asleep there, do you ever do that?

I had a great time Friday night, TS came over and we played dress up! She tried on almost all of my costumes and then bought them and a few other things too! It was a lot of fun to see someone else enjoying the things that I had loved so dearly!

So, after waking on the couch, there was no going back to sleep, so I turned on the DVD player and pulled out the cross stitch. I watched Moonstruck, one of my ALL time favorite movies, worked on the blanket for my new niece that I have to finish SOON and just spent some quality time with my furry babies.

Ok, I know you’re sitting there asking yourself, since you can’t call me and ask me directly “this was busy?” no… this was just the start of my day.

I finally got up, well the alarm went off, and I got ready to head out the door for my VERY busy day. I was meeting EW at the Brookhaven Arts Festival where CM is the co-chair with GR and it was great fun! We ran into TH and JB who are both volunteers, along with A & E [ha ha] JB’s family. There were some artists I knew and said hello to and just enjoyed walking around looking at all the fantastic art work and drooling over what I would love to have purchased if I just had the funds.

We walked around and then it was time for some lunch, can you believe it… they had veggie corn dogs! I was in heaven! Of course, it wouldn’t be a festival without funnel cake, YUM! and I always have to share with CM, it’s the rules. We had lunch while listening to some great music by the Kristen Tinsely Band, what a voice!

It was a great festival, CM & GR did a FANTASTIC job! Kudos to them, I can’t wait to see next year’s festival!

Next, it was off to Stone Mountain for the Scottish Highland Festival, another great event. The day was certainly warming up! There were Kilts EVERYWHERE! where were my mirrored sneakers? Forgotten again! I saw a great t-shirt that said “If I wore something under it, it would be a skirt!”

There were marching bands, bagpipers, drummers, pipers, clans, fanfare, throwing contests, you name it, if it’s Scottish, it was there! And as you know “If it ain’t Scottish, it’s crap!”.

The food line was forever! But they had haggis, no thank you and scottish eggs, we settled for fish and chips, much safer. For dessert, we had a Bakewell Tart, yum! We walked around to look at the different “shops” with all sorts of fun things to look at and buy and the people who were selling were even better! it’s great to be in Georgia and hear a Scottish accent! We saw some bands go by and then some throwing competition, all done in kilts, impressive!

Then… yes, there is more! it was off to Lawrenceville to go on a ghost tour, check out my next posting for that one!

EW got an e-mail about something he thought I might enjoy and he was right! The “Ghastly Deadfuls – Demi-Omnibus”. It was dreadfully funny, a ghoulishly good time was had by all!

It was actually their preview night, the show opens on Thursday, October 14th and runs through Sunday, October 31st, it is recommended for children 16 and up. I am done advertising. Now I’m going to tell you about the show!

I am not sure how many years they have been putting this show on, but there were people in the audience I am positive have seen the show year after year. It was a combination of songs and puppetry, all of the puppetry being ghostly related with spooks, legends, murder and blood. All the performers were crossing over from the great beyond: A demure cello player, Daftly Dreadful, a southern gentleman violin player who also dazzled on acoustic, Dudley Dreadful, the dead dog on electric guitar, aptly named Doggedly Dreadful, the gruesome piano player, Deadly Dreadful, Darkly Dreadful, who sang, danced and played bongos, Simply Dreadful who was an MC of sorts and played guitar and Lady Dreadful who sang and danced.

There were different types of puppet vignettes within the show, there would be a musical number in between to set up for the next vignette. Some of the puppet stories had singing and dancing, some had no words at all, just spoken through music. After most of the puppet segments, I understand why this show is not for children under 14, some of them were downright creepy!

During intermission, EW said ‘You want to be a puppeteer, don’t you?’ I was amazed and not amazed all at the same time, yes I always have. Who knows, maybe it’s something I will look in to.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and I would most definitely do it again.  Looking forward to next year’s ghastly good time!

Ok, those of you who know me know I am one goofy girl! I love to laugh, I love to laugh to the point of snorting, it makes me laugh more! I love to make people laugh and I seem to do that so very easily! I’ve been told my laugh is infectious, which works just fine for me. I saw a plaque at a card store that said “If you can’t laugh until you snort, what’s the point?”

So… here is my goof for the day. I needed a new bra, so I went to the store the other day and bought one. I thought it was pretty, steel grey cotton with soft creme cotton lace trim. I tried it on when I got home and it seemed to fit, a little tight on the sides because it had some boning for support on the sides, luckily, a cute bra with no under-wire, I thought I hit the motherload!

I put it on after I went to the gym this morning and made it through the day, then on to dinner with a great friend, SDL. We’re sitting there and I have an itch, it feels like there is a hair on my chest, one from my head that may have fallen into my shirt, no I do not have a hairy chest! Well, I look down inside my shirt and notice that the bra had what seems like a strap on the inside of the cup. I am bewildered… SDL is looking at me, thinking I had a bug in my shirt and I said, no, it felt weird so I was just adjusting myself and I said to look at my bra, what’s the deal?

She took one look and started laughing and finally through guffaws, told me it was a nursing bra! What? I had no idea! How did she know? She has enough friends who are nursing and who do it front of her that she knows what one looks like! Oh brother! I was wearing a nursing bra. I thought, well, I could put this up for another day when I might need it, of course we came up with a few other ideas, but my blog appears to be PG, so I’ll leave it up to your imagination. I could not stop laughing, I was wearing a nursing bra! I was a little disappointed, I wanted to use it before it got put away.

Just goes to show you… no matter how smart you are, you can be a complete goof!

I am new to e-bay stuff, I think I am catching up with the rest of the world. I have never really spent much time on it, unless someone says, check this out! So… it’s time to buy a car to replace my most cherished beetle-bug and someone suggested e-bay. Do I trust it?

E-bay has a new method of selling: Classifieds; I imagine this is to compete with Craig’s List. It was interesting, just put in what you’re looking for and boom! You do have to be careful, when they want you to pay a certain way, it’s posted all over E-bay, don’t use Western Union, go through E-bay, they use Pay Pal, I believe we are all familiar with Pay Pal.

I found a car I wanted, not anything I would ever think about getting, but it seemed too good to be true and it was…  Even E-bay said it sounded like a scam when I e-mailed them, so I dropped that PDQ. So, I moved on to looking for another car and eventually I found just what I was looking for, a red convertible with a black top, very low mileage for the age of the car and a great price. I took a test drive and voila, I have a new car! It only took two weeks, but I did it! Thanks to E for all his help and also to C for getting excited for me and doing some searching. The woman I bought the car from was very nice and it was a first for her selling anything on E-bay.

My next E-bay transaction, and you thought we were done… was a new phone. If you will remember from my sad car burning story, I lost my precious baby Droid… Well, I have been using an older phone, which I LOVED when I got it, it was top of the line and I am such a techno-geek, it’s a good thing I don’t have a lot of money or I would be buying everything I saw! And… as a side note, I saw THE phone I want. It’s the Motorola R2D2 Droid! http://www.droiddoes.com/r2d2/ I am SUCH a GEEK! If I hit the lottery, you never know.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming… I went onto E-bay Monday morning and started looking for phones and low and behold, I found a Droid that someone had gotten a few months ago and just didn’t want all the bells and whistles that came with it and I found that I live for those bells and whistles. It was listed for one price, with the posting, “no reasonable offers will be refused”. I called her and I was the first call, it had just been listed the day before, I made a reasonable offer and she accepted. I met her that evening after work and now I am the proud owner of another Droid! Yay!

I would not claim to be an E-bay expert by any means, as evident as I still don’t get the reserve bid business when it comes to the E-bay auction side of things, but I have to say it has been a pleasant experience so far and I look forward to trying my hand again when it’s time. Of course, I have a whole mess ‘o things I want to sell on E-bay…

Wish me luck!

A few weeks ago, in the morning, I was on my way to work, RR Pkwy for those of you in the know and the person in front of me stopped, I did not stop in time, engaged the brakes, but still rear-ended him. The airbags deployed and then there were flames.

I got out of the car in plenty of time, grabbed my laptop bag, but my phone, my poor wonderful Droid, was not so lucky. I exited the car and watched the flames get higher and higher and higher and eventually… a big ball of orange with black flames that climbed high into the sky.

Captain C or H, my apologies to the traffic dude… announced there was a Car-B-Q on RR Pkwy that morning [and I thought I had coined a phrase of my own] and to take an alternate route.

I watched the fire fighters put out the fire and the tow truck operator load what was left of my be-be onto his flatbed and shovel the charred remnants onto the truck, then drive away.

I was able to call someone by searching my work e-mails for auto-signatures with cell phone numbers, realizing just how dependent we are on our cell phones!

I got to work eventually and heard about a lot of people who were late to work because of me, I was famous. When they found out it was me, I think they took back the things they grumbled about having to detour. I publicly apologize to anyone who I knew I’d made late, I felt really bad!

So…I have MILD whiplash, which is getting better every day, I only took a muscle relaxer the first night, was not fully functional the next day, so no more of those.

The next day, while speaking with the adjuster, he asked me if she, the car, had heated seats, I said “well, yesterday she did”. I get to make jokes.

So, in closing, I am 100% fine, my car, sadly is not. Annie was such a great car, many happy memories, I still remember the day I brought her home, August 18, 2003, they opened the J E show room doors and we drove out. She had just passed 116,000 miles and had had a service completed. Those who know me, know how particular I am about where I park, even one of the firefighters said she looked brand new, as she was going up in flames. I got at least two complements on her condition every month, a very proud momma!

Goodbye Annie. I will treasure you forever.