AnneLyze

The heat wave is supposed to be over today and life will return to normal. Productivity will return and I will be whistling while I work. Best of all, my mind will be working again. I hate being hot. Once my internal temperature gets high, I’m in my own special version of hell, and I cannot get cool. Even with air conditioning, I’m overheated. My usual perky, pleasant self is reduced to being a cranky pants. My fast paced mind and walk is becomes s l o w and laborious. I struggle to find words to speak or write and the words I want to use, I’ve promised not to use on this BLOG. I actually feel ill when the thermometer reads over 90. My son told me over the weekend that when I get hot, I become impatient, cranky and he doesn’t like to be around me. He is right; I become everything I dislike in a person; grumpy, slow, disagreeable, impatient, and just plain miserable. This is me, at my best, when I’m hot. Don’t touch me. No, I don’t want a hug. I love you, but do not touch me, ...

My house is full of half naked men. Some women might be thrilled, but not me. I just wanted a red door. After many years of neglect and praying the problems would just go away, I’m having work done to my home. Home improvement has been my goal since early spring. I’ve been single for many years and I got the house in my divorce. Looking back I’m still not sure who got the better deal, but I don’t think it was me. For many years, it was a place of mourning. I had wallowed in the failure of my marriage for far too long until it became clear to me that I needed to move on emotionally and either fix the house, sell it or continue to let it fall apart while apathetically doing nothing. I decided to do the repairs and finally make it my own. Instead of a pit of sadness and despair, it has now become a money pit. But it’s my money pit and with each repair, swipe of paint and nail hammered, I feel a little less burdened. I started rehabbing my tiny, inner city backyard, first. Several tre...

I volunteered for this, I thought as my beeper went off in the middle of the night, and again when I answered the questions of an anxious, scattered caregiver, and then again when I tossed and turned trying to go back to sleep. I said “Cha Ching, Cha Ching” when my boss warned me that I would be very busy. Already counting the money, I didn’t mind. By the middle of the second day, I was happy about the amount of money that I could put in my savings account. The second night I had started calculating about how much I was earning. At the end of the three day holiday weekend, I was contemplating what gift I would buy myself for working my ass off. The first smelly, stinky apartment I had to climb up three flights with equipment was okay, but by the third one, I was done with it. Cha Ching, Cha Ching wasn’t cutting it when my friends called me from their pool and asked me to join them. All work and no play, was making me cranky. A deflating air mattress problem was briefly interesti...

Whether you are on the beach, by a lake or in your own backyard, apparently it’s that time of year to kick back, relax and read a good book. Everyone has their summer reading lists out, Oprah, Time magazine and the Albany Public School District, to name a few. Emma Donoghue was quoted in the July 11, 2011 edition of Time as saying, "Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons". I totally agree. Why do you need a reading list in the summer, but don't need one when trying to find a great book to read while relaxing in a comfy chair in front of a roaring fire during a snow storm, or under the covers during cold rainy days in November? I always keep mental and written lists of what I want to read. From browsing through bookstores, the library, the NY Times Book Review and my NOOK shopping browser, I can always find something I’m interested in. As soon as I’m done with one book, I start the next. Reading two books at a time, I manage to finish at least 50 b...