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I started this blog because I missed my best friend who died a fews back. I stopped posting when I realized that my posts had taken a turn. I am back because AOL is no longer hosting journals/blogs--I did not want to lose memories. So here I am again. Just over a year with no new posts.

This is what I said on my AOL Journal. Keeping up with Vannie in this big world. What is she writing, reading, thinking, doing? The thoughts and day-to-day ramblings of a ocean worshiping health sciences office admin dropout, free thinker and recent retiree. I am a freelance writer. I write about work and family issues, hot and spicy foods, and I write movie reviews based on my very personal opinion. I have dedicated this journal to my dear friend Wanda----Wanda my dear, I do miss your ear. That has not changed.

Happy Labor Day

   Be safe, be happy on this gorgeous day.

Remembering the reason for Labor Day. It's more than beach, BBQ, and a day off from work http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm 

I had forgotten it was Labor Day, that's what happens when you have no real no plans for the day. When I remembered I thought, "Oh cool", I will stay comfortable in my bath robe today. Well that lasted until 10a this morning. I find it difficult to be a pajama/bath robe girl. I feel better now that I have real clothes on. I found a couple of invites in my e-mail this morning. :-(  I guess I should have opened my e-mail yesterday afternoon. My fault because everyone assumes that I will see the message since I spend so much online.

August Doldrums and Mind-clutter

    Doldrums. Is that spelled right? This is has felt like a very long month to me. I am not knocking it because once September arrives, daylight saving time really goes out the door.

I have been making teeny-tiny changes here and there all across the board. Who ever said that you will be stress-free when you retire? Maybe no one. While I don't have the same 9 to 5 stress, I have allowed myself to become so busy that I have no real breathing space. What's that Mr. Bloggie? Do I hear you screaming in the background, "What about the AC getaways?"--well they don't count because long ago Jewels explained how  important  getting away for long weekends. I started following her advice years ago and so happy that I did. Nevermind Bloggie, you do not need to know who Jewels is. :-) 

I think stress is not the word I am looking for, it is cluttered. That's it. My life has become cluttered. However, I am on the correcting that even as I type. Of course, it will become cluttered again, because that's who I am.

Remembering Elvis

     August is "Elvis time" because it is the anniversary of his death. I don't think I have ever watched the past tributes, etcs. However, this morning I watched Diane Sawyer interview Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie and found it to be very moving. She looks just like him, I wonder if she knows how much. I found it a difficult to look at her and her sad eyes as she talked about her memories of her dad.

Lisa Marie, said even as a child she knew something was wrong with her daddy, that he was not happy, that she sometimes had to catch him before he stumbled, that she said to him, "Don't die." Oh my, these revelations are almost too personal for an outsider. At one point during the interview, she answered a question, but asked if they move on to another question. Very sad--it is her eyes and mouth that get to you. There is even a saved note, "4 things that I wish", written in her childish hand. The fourth wish is "I wish my mommy and my daddy don't die." Sawyer will continue the interview tomorrow.

Good Morning America's focus remains on Elvis, right now there is a gospel choir paying tribute to Elvis by singing one of his favorite songs. It makes me wonder, when did Elvis Presley become ELVIS? Perhaps he was always ELVIS and I simply did not pay attention.  

Telemarketing Run Amok/Amuck

However you spell it, it means the same--unruly behavior.

There is a reason telemarketers have a bad name, even the legitimate ones. They can be annoying and sooo persistent. I can't believe that they believe that if I annoy the person enough he or she will donate, buy my product, etc.

I get a telephone call from 973-821-4911 just about everyday, sometimes twice a day. When I am working on my laptop, the call does not go through because I use a telemarking block. However, it does show that the call is coming from South Orange, and of course no message can be left because the person does not identify him/herself. When that happens the caller is disconnected (I think)

As always I check telephone numbers before I refuse to pick up the telephone. When the calls started coming in without an ID I checked it online and found that others had been receiving these calls. They seem to be from a teleservice company, Meyers Associates or something like that.  Every once in a while I check the number online again. This time I saw that some folks are getting calls from 201-373-8371. I am sure that it was not funny to the woman who answered their call, but I did laugh out loud.

"201-373-8371 calls all day but no ones there. Finally today they were on the line and when I told them to stop calling. They asked me what size my breast were."

Since I sell a product I should probably be making a few cold calls myself, but there is no way I can do that. First it is not my nature, and second I would not want to lumped in this group.

Saved Messages Gone Bye Bye

  I have just started writing an article about clearing (or cleaning) out your biz mail. As I was typing my laptop froze. There was no way to get going again, so I turned it off, of course, I lost the few lines I had typed. That's not so bad because I was not that far along. Much to my regret I lost all of my CallWave voice mails. I am sick about that. Some I really needed and some I saved for fun.  I am going to try to get help from their customer care folks, but my gut feeling is that there will be no recovery. I have lost my old voicemails. Oh deep sigh!

A Smuggled Monkey and Neglected Seafood Moment

      I just read a story about seafood from China that the FDA was supposed to hold at U.S. ports and apparently did not do so, and another one about a monkey that was smuggled into the U.S aboard not one, but two planes under a guys hat. :-(

 

NEW YORK - A man smuggled a monkey onto an airplane Tuesday, stashing the furry fist-size primate under his hat until passengers spotted it perched on his ponytail, an airline official said.

The monkey escapade began in Lima, Peru, late Monday, when the man boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell. After landing Tuesday morning, the man waited several hours before catching a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport.

During the flight, people around the man noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat, Russell said. "Other passengers asked the man if he knew he had a monkey on him," she said...."  

So why did the monkey under hat story catch my eye? This summer I had to enter the Federal building in Newark and was requested to lift my open-weave straw hat from my head even though I was being escorted into the building by a U.S. federal agent.  I was not happy with this directive because it was a bad hair day for me, but of course, raised my hat as told. I was then allowed to enter the building. I wonder why they would not require the same at airports?  

Story from Associated Press: Seafood from China wasn't screened http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070808/ap_on_he_me/seafood_safety_failures

 

Man smuggles monkey into NYC airport

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070808/ap_on_fe_st/odd_monkey_on_a_plane