Where is my watch?

I admit that I spend more time than I should thinking about how I look.  I don't know about you, but I was indoctrinated at a very early age.  Like many newborns, I had blonde hair at birth.  That blonde hair usually doesn't last.  It didn't last on me.  I don't know exactly when it happened, but I remember that my mother poured peroxide over my hair when it started getting dark.  Now, my mother was an educated woman; she received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Illinois in 1943.  But, even an educated woman apparently wanted her first child to remain a blonde.  For years, she went to the drug store to get some Miss Clairol Blonde formula with which to keep me bright and beautiful (in her eyes, anyway).  I don't know how she found the time, but it must have been quite the priority for her.  This was a woman with a medical practice in our home who was very often called away to deliver babies.  Looking back, I am ...

I love cruise vacations.  What's not to love? There's lots of good food and drinks, beautiful scenery, and you go from one destination to another without packing and unpacking.  When my husband and I took our first cruise, we were on our honeymoon.  We didn't have a lot of money to spend, so we got a cabin in the bowels of the ship.  It was very small and dark with a porthole that didn't offer much light.  We were very happy, though.  We didn't know any better, and we didn't care.  Forty plus years later, I need my balcony, thank you.  Yes, I am a spoiled brat now.  I admit it. We wanted to celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary with a cruise.  Due to the pandemic, our trip had been canceled and rescheduled multiple times.  Finally we got our cruise a few weeks ago!!!  Hooray!!! The ship was less than 50 percent occupancy, which was actually nice. On the first night, I had some intestinal issues (use your imagination; I'm n...

  Marriage isn't always easy, and it can be particularly challenging when opposites attract and commit to one another.  My husband and I are about as different as two people can be.  These differences were never more evident than during the pandemic and the Presidential campaign season.  There were many times when I had to leave the room, and sometimes the house, just to avoid saying or throwing things I would regret.   As I wrote in a previous blog, I am not a calm person.  Things get to me.  Sometimes I get so upset or nervous or worried that I become physically and mentally incapacitated.  Really. There have been a few times (not many, but enough to haunt me) when I became so overwhelmed that I lost my ability to speak.  Looking back, one of those times was when my husband had moved to Maryland for a new job and I was home in New Jersey with my three- year old daughter and my newborn son.  My husband called to check in and I was ...

  When I retired, I thought I would try lots of new adventures.  Nope, not so much.  But, I did try something new today, thanks to a good friend (I'll call her Merry, because that's her name).  Merry owns a kayak and belongs to a kayak club!  Who knew kayak clubs were a thing?  I know now. Our adventure started with me meeting Merry at a rather hinky parking lot.  I was parked in front of the Consuming Fire Ministries.  Merry told me to be careful that they didn't "scoop me up."  Yes, I am probably a candidate for the ministries, but they didn't notice me, so I wasn't set on fire.  Whew.  I followed Merry to her kayak club which was REALLY locked up tight, but, as a member, Merry had a key.  Hooray!  We made it.  That was the easy part.   Next, we had to get Merry's kayak out of her car, and my loaner kayak out of the club's kayak garage (storage area? locked place where they keep the kayaks?).  Some he...

Oh, Facebook, how I have missed you. My account was hacked a few weeks ago; I am grateful to my Facebook (FB) friends who were quick to let me know that they had received friend requests from me/not me.   I don't understand why anyone would want to hack my account.  Part of me doesn't want to know why...nothing good can come of this.   So, I posted on FB that my account had been hacked, and warned my FB friends not to accept friend requests from the imposter Victoria.  I realized that the chances of all of my FB friends seeing that one post were slim and none, but I wasn't sure what else to do.  I also used FB Messenger to alert some folks and asked them to spread the word to our mutual friends.  Then, I shut down my FB account.  I shut it down.  Yep.  All of this happened while I was out of the country celebrating my 40th (I KNOW!!!!  WOW!!!) wedding anniversary with my husband.  I was happily involved in an adventure, le...

How did I get myself in that situation?   It all began about ten years ago when my son decided to move to Fairbanks.  Of course we miss him so much, but he is happy there.  It's a very different lifestyle; people who live there take care of each other.   My husband and I have visited a couple of times.  The first time was during the summer a few years ago.  It was beautiful!  The place and the people could not have been more welcoming.  One of our son's friends had a barbeque in our honor just so we could meet some folks.  His  friends immediately became our friends; we worried less about him knowing that he was surrounded by good people. A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I visited Alaska in the winter.  Our primary goal was to spend time with our son, but we hoped to see the Aurora Borealis (also known as the Northern Lights).  March is peak season for this sighting, so we had high hopes.  Also, we planned t...

Last week I wrote about my journey to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.  In Jacksonville we were well on our way to getting folks vaccinated...until yesterday when our mayor announced that, due to a "national logistics issue," local vaccination sites may run out of vaccines by the end of day tomorrow.  My husband tried to get his first vaccination dose last Thursday, but all of the approximately 500 daily doses had been claimed by folks arriving earlier in the day.  He plans to get to the vaccination site early tomorrow morning and wait in line with hundreds of others.  Fingers crossed. So, to continue my vaccination story... When I arrived at the site, there were a lot of cars and a shortage of parking spots.  Police were directing the slow-moving traffic.  I rolled down my car window and asked them where to park (of course I did; it's what I do).  "Anywhere you can find a space," one answered.  Cars were in the grass on the side of...