The Problem With Sophistication

...is that it costs so much more than not. Trying to be a stylish person on a budget is difficult to pull off unless you are able to dress in younger styles.

But if you want the conservative, sophisticated styles it takes to really show yourself well...

Well...

I am not in that income bracket yet.

I used to be but not for awhile now and anything that might have been suitable for the affair I need it for has long worn its welcome out in my closet.

I stopped subscribing to Vogue and Elle just before I went back to school. Why torture myself with the beautiful things I can not have at the moment.

Anyhoo...

discount shopping 101 tomorrow...ugh!!!

Just once I would like to put layers of designer bags, dresses, and shoes in a giant pile of fabulousness and roll around in it for a bit.

The Blonde needs a black dress!

Hummin' Along

While old black betty-aka. the jag-is in the shop, I had my BFs Hummer to commute back to Austin today. I knew it would be fun because driving a a new and cool vehicle would break up the monotony of driving, once again, to Austin.

What I did not know is how wonderful a feel I got from driving it. It felt like I was in a love lock hug with my boyfriend the whole ride through.

For the past several commutes, I was in fear of wiping out in my car because of the steering rack. It was so ingrained in me that every time I took the Hummer around a curve, I clinched my neck waiting for the steering to slip. It took me a few curves before I could relax my muscles and drive in utter bliss, and my mind farthest away from any fear.

Once I relaxed and realized this Hummer had my back, it occurred to me how much my boyfriend has given me. The most important being the luxury to be able to sigh relief of my

woes under his care.

I promised not to write about him so I am only going to plug him just a little...

HE IS FAB, SUPER FAB!!!

but that is all I am going to say

out of respect for his privacy!!

The hummer got between 9 to 16 miles per gallon on this ride but the joy of it was worth the Franklin I have to put in her at the pump. It is as big and fabulous a personality as my BF ( a little more bragging won;t hurt).

For the first time in a long time, I feel safe and cared for and that is a huge thing to miss out on for so long.

And I don't mean the Hummer.

The Blonde is humming a fabulous new beau!!

Hoarse of Course

My sister's voice has gone hoarse screaming at our parents who are on holiday at her house.

I can only chuckle in glee that now my sister gets a bird's eye view of the cookoo's nest that fills my life on a monthly basis.

I am just so happy that my sisters are sharing in the suffering, I don't know what to say.

Accept maybe...

Hahhh HAHAHAH HA

Hah hah Uh HAh

Uh Hah Uhaaa

The Blonde has no words for the joy she feels!!

Immortality

... is bestowed to those that had friends and family that loved them, and will remember them, and will continue to tell their future generations about them.

Immortality is not physical but it is tangible and it is real.

As I read about the history that made Texas what it is, I am immersed in the reality of immortality. The lives I read about have long been dead but when I read about them and I see the photos; they haven't ceased to exist at all.

My Aunt died several years ago.

I watched her go. I even opened up the hospital window so her soul could leave.

I was afraid she would be trapped.

How silly a thought but I needed to believe that that when I opened that window, her soul flew out just as quickly as her body died.

And I believe that her soul has dispersed into the millions of pieces of energy that will submerse itself back into this world and spread the beauty and joy she was so filled with.

Again, to many this may seem silly, but I need to believe.

As so did Beethoven and everyone else in this world that a loved one leaves behind.

He wrote, "Immortal my beloved"

And no truer words remain.

When your loved...

immortal you shall be.

Fur Sie miene Tante Ullie.

und alle jene Unsterblicher

die Blondine!

70 MPH to Wall

I was driving from Austin to Dallas yesterday. It is a commute that I have not minded to drive because two great things are at each end- my family on one end and my boyfriend on the other.

But lately my car has been a bit scary to drive since the steering rack has been worn down to the point, that when you go around curves, missing grooves in the rack cause the car to free fly for a few seconds before finding the grooves that keeps the car from flying head on into something.

I know that when a curve comes I take it easy, I make sure no cars are around, and I glide on through with a little prayer to the almighty.

But this last time, that prayer was cashed in.

Coming to Dallas on 35E from Austin, a mammoth curve got me. I was helpless to do anything but pray that the car went into the wall instead of the big rig wheels along the other side of my death machine.

The teeth took the last second to catch but not before I scraped into the wall by an inch.

I was literally an inch from my life.

But by sheer grace the car scraped only that inch and the steering grabbed.

I was shaken.

My heart pounding I knew one more curve was coming and I would have to navigate it. It slipped again but caught again in time.

All I remember in my head was praying that it just hold until I get to my BF's house.

Seeing as that is all I prayed for and it was answered, I do not dare ask for much more regarding the steering.

Its in the shop.

God can only answer so many times before bringing his hand down on me and smacking me for being a tight wad and idiot for not getting it repaired. And he would be right to think that way.

I think that way.

Thank God for the man in charge-my BF has initiated the blue law and dealing with the car for me.

Car maintenance is a blue job. Leaving it to a Blonde will just end up in disaster.

I have made it this far on a wing and prayer and a grand man of a beau who is taking care of the car of me.

The Blonde is no longer on a crash course!!

From the Wisdom that is Aretha Franklin

My Lord
I have read this book so many times
But nowhere can i find the page
that change what I experience today


Now I Know that life is meant to be hard
thats how I learn to appreciate my God
Though my courage made me try
I can tell you i won't hide
Because the footprints show you are by my side.


You can lie to a child with a smilin' face
Tell me that color aint about race
You can cast the first stones you can break my bones
But your never gonna break Your never gonna break my Faith

Faith and Hope aint yours to give
Truth and Liberty are mine to Live
You can steal a crown from a king
Break an angels wings
But your never gonna break Your never gonna break my Faith


My Lord
Won't you help them to understand
that when someone takes the life of an innocent man
Well they never really Won because all they've really done
is set the Soul Free where it's supposed to be


For those we lose before their time
I pray their souls will find the light
I know that the day will surely come
When his will, His will, will be done

The Blonde hopes these crazy times don't kill your faith!!

No Good Flea Bag

I have been battling fleas at my parents house. They come from the deer my Mother has been feeding. They hop onto the grass and hit the cats. Even though the cats have been treated for fleas, some still hop on and ride into the house without an invitation.

Rude little fluckers they are!!

And like all uninvited guests, I want to get rid of them as fast as I can.

I went postal on flea kill for the yard, for the house, and for me.

My ankles have been hewed upon for the last time.

I hate to kill the slightest of bugs but when it comes to fleas, I take exception in a big way.

I can whole heartedly say I hate them with true fervor.

No good can come from these pests. Even a cockroach adds to the grand scheme of Mother nature by breaking down dying trees.

But fleas...they are as worthless and inhumane as terrorists!!

I say kill them all!

The Blonde shows no mercy toward petulance!!

If You have Only Nice Things

to blog about than don't bother blogging at all!!

I am stuck in a peculiar place. My love life is actually going completely and utterly sublimely.

I have no complaints.

Nothing to gripe about.

No disparaging thoughts on men.

Ughhh!!!

Its a terrible predicament to be in as a writer.

Happy writers don't blog.

They write romance novels for chrissy's sake.



The Blonde needs a new gripe!!

Blame the Fortune Cookie

Everything was going great at the beach until that one fateful night that we stumbled upon a vietnamese restaurant called 'Hu Dat' and received an almost seemingly mean spirited fortune cookie.

It read:

The greatest danger could be your stupidity.

This was Boo's misfortune and the demise of our surf side vacation.

For the day after he cracked that cookie and read its fortune, he missed the exit road off the beach and drove the car off course until the car was buried nose deep in a sandy abyss.

Before the warm fuzzy feeling of a helping hand, we took upon the task of digging out the car from its beach bed, all the while forgetting to maintain our SPF 85 that had previously saved us from severe burn during surfing. We torched our backs into a hot fuscia frenzy that would test the softness of thread count on our hotel beds. I must say they failed miserably on the count.

The sheets, while soft and cool during the beginning of the trip, had turned against us and turned prickly and rough on our sun raped skin.

Aloe vera after sun care gel became our bed buddy as we woke up several times a night to the sting of our broiled backs and arms.

Our burnt backs limited the comfort zone to a belly only snooze and a very careful application of clothing.

Bras, leather car seats, showers, backs of chairs, sunlight, and sand were avoided with the fiercest of conviction.

The beach was now our enemy.

The ferry rides that were once fun and inviting became an open coffin. Like vampires, we huddled near the middle dark of the vehicle, trying to keep from spontaneously bursting into flames while the engine was shut off during the 5 minute crossing.

Then slowly, the pain subsides, the blisters form, and the willpower to save skin from peel marks quickly succumbs to the morbid satisfaction that we got from the little squirt of fluid we felt under our fingernails as we scraped the tiny skin bubbles.

The endless re-application of lotions, oils, creams, and cocoa butter was and is futile.

The skin has no choice but to peel.

While waiting for our karma to turn, our skin to heal, and our auto to be repaired, we pondered the irony of booking a room, on our last days of holiday, in a hotel located above a vietnamese restaurant.

The Blonde is over asian food!

Dominos on the Beach

The thing I think I love the most about the beach is the sound of the ocean. Its such a large sound that you can rarely fix your thoughts on anything else, even when your world falls a bit.

The second thing I love most about the beach is how the kindness of strangers is beyond anything you will ever get the pleasure of experiencing outside the realm of the surf side communities.

When our car hit soft sand, you can drive on the beaches here in Texland, and lodged itself firmly in place and begged for a rope and a 4X4... we hardly had to look far before a helping hand was reached out to us.

A man unhooked his boat from his truck and pulled us out. We were so grateful and sooo remorseful when he lodged himself in the sand after bailing us out. But yet again, another stranger of kindness came about in a jeep with giant nubby all-terrain tires to pull his truck out. After all that, no one wanted anything more than the feel good that came from 'paying it forward'.

Everyone on the beach has at least once got stuck and had to be pulled out by someone and they seemed more than satisfied just to pay it forward. Exception would be the tow trucks that vulture in on a sand stranded car and offers services in the G range ($1000). But they don't see much action due to the folks with a truck and a kind heart.

The kindness did not stop on the beach.

After we got out of the sand, we drove back to the hotel. On the way, the car burst the coolant hose just as we pulled in for gas. At the gas station, several people offered aid and one of the kind strangers drove us to and from to retrieve a new hose from an auto part store 10 miles up the road. I tried to offer him some small thank you but he refused to take it.

He was just glad to help.

Once we had the hose in place, we were back on the road when only a few miles drive beat our car into submission with a broken belt. We pulled over to let the hell hot engine cool down. Again, several people stopped to offer aid.

We declined thinking we could make it even though majority of opinion was against the odds.

A few minutes later we revved up and tried to engine crawl back to the hotel. The gamble did not pay off and we were teetering on burning out the engine. We spotted a diner and began to pull in when, lo and behold, we spotted a mechanics shop on the next corner. Our car made it the last leg of turmoil road and puttered into the shop just as they were about to close.

The mechanic, who just locked up, re-opened his shop, looked at our car and put us at the front of the line of cars, in the a.m., to have it complete before our noon check out time at our hotel and had a friend pick us up from the shop to drive us back to the hotel 15 miles away.

The car was not ready by noon but that is a story for another day.

All in all, I have to say God was looking out for us. And when I say God, I mean the universe and its energy and how, in some weird way, we are all connected.

We look so often to the sky and a heaven for answers and miracles, when we should just be grateful for the simple gesture of an act of kindness from another human being.

The Blonde likes to connect!

Pics By the Sea

People Have Been Super Nice

to me lately. It makes me wonder what is up.

While I ponder why so many are nice to me this week, I do not have any pondering needed to understand why so many BP execs are receiving mass amounts of environmental fanatics hate mail at this moment.

Because they deserve it!!

I have been twittering some hater tweets myself.

My panties are more than in a ruffled bunch over this disaster that could have been spared had someone not been stingy with safety.

Now, I see they are floating a full page ad in the Statesman to persuade me off my hate.

Not going to happen you douche bags!!

Let's pick the little puppy ad apart and shoot some rebuttal:

I didn't have the stomach to choke down the bull and copy it to my blog so the following is just my take on the BP ad:

We will get it Done. We will make it right.

HA!!

You will get it done but you will never make it right.

You were never prepared.

Contain and collect the leak but no mention of stopping it. Hmmm....

You brag that you have organized the largest environmental response but you fail to mention the obvious. You created the need for it.

When oil reaches the shore it will be too late.

If wildlife is affected. I hate to tell you but 450 brown pelicans have already died you douches.

Your dedicating $500 million to watch over the environment long-term. Your the last assholes anyone wants watching our marine life and shoreline.

You say efforts wont cost taxpayers but fisherman that are taxpayers will brunt the cost of dead marine life.

And no worries on not letting this happen again. Our criminal justice system has your back on that promise!!

Douche!!

The Blonde is hating!!