purple room vents: STRANGER KISSES

I can't believe how unkind I have always been all my life. I have been a bully. I have been judgemental. I have made fun of people, good people I might add. I can be a cruel teaser. All my life I have had to force the 'kind' filter in place first, before the bad one snapped into place.

I also believe in karma. Not the payback kind but the balancing, its your turn, kind. With that in mind I must tell you that Kathy and I will be ringing that Sally Ann bell outside Costco on the 12th. And I have always found those people and those BELLS completely and totally annoying. And I always thought the people doing it were either religious do gooders or maybe a brick short of a load. So now its my turn and possibly there will be some people judging us the same way. Learning time.

That is my mission this new year coming up. Not resolution per say but I am going to try to pick situations where I have been way less than kind and put myself there...experiencing from the inside so to speak. My goal is to be more charitable...in thought, action and experience. And please, if you are reading this, I invite you to hold my feet to the fire anytime you think I am avoiding!!!

It is totally glorious out today. I took off at ten and whipped up to Costco to get all the stuff I need for the appy I am making for the Xmas thingy tonight (Kiwanis). I want to make my seafood layer dip and Costco has the best prawns. As I was leaving the store I was behind a couple that clearly were either related to or knew intimately the older lady checking receipts at the door. As they moved on the lady gave a big kiss on the cheek to the younger one pushing the buggy. Joking, I sang out as I pulled up, "Hey! are you giving those out for free?" And she, being really short, reached up, grabbed my shoulders, pulled me down and smooched me right on my cheek!!! "You bet!!!" she said. Hahahaha...it was awesome and everyone behind started hollering they wanted one too! I don't think this would happen down on the mainland would it Cookie?

Then I whipped into the Fat Lady store for a scarf. And I totally offended the clerk. The sales staff in there are big, I mean huge big. I think they hire really big women to make us feel comfortable and not judged. This beautiful sales lady came over to help me and we got talking about this and that. And somewhere in there I accidentally referred to the store, not as Penningtons, but as Fat Lady Store. And she got totally offended and really snippy. She lectured me about sensitivity and just because I am jiggy with being body challenged doesn't mean everyone is and I should maybe be more careful about how I label the store in future blah blah blah.

Well it made me mad. I got pretty scathing and told her to lighten up and stop being so touchy. Fat is fat, get over it or lose it...I then picked up the scarf she had so kindly found for me, marched up to the counter shaking my head and purchased it and stomped out. I sat in my jeep for a few minutes and thought and thought. Sigh....I finally got out, went back in and found the girl. And guess what? She was at the back of the store quietly getting shit from her manager for going after a customer. Obviously we had been overheard. I felt terrible. Really terrible.

So I went over and interrupted them and totally apologized. I think she had a right to object on personal grounds and really sincerely apologized for my insensitivity. The manager was pretty adamant that the sales girl was in the wrong and maybe she was from that point of view but I was really sorry. But I am still going to call it Fat lady store...just not in there. That was disrespectful and I won't make that mistake again.

Now, the tree. Oh lordy. This is the part I don't like. Putting it in the stand. Straightening it. Putting on the lights. After that its lovely but.....

So Monte and I brought in the monstrous thing. Its a good thing we have a sunken living room. I am used to scrawny little 25 dollar trees from Superstore. Not this time. Massive thing with a nice thick trunk. So we manage to get the thing into the big plastic tree stand and Monte got down on the floor to screw the three screws. And....one of the holes for the bolt was too big. Shit!!! I just bought the damned thing at Canadian Tire and it wont work, you have to have three working bolts. Monte went back up there and bought a beautiful skookum sixty dollar beauty. It even has a pedal on it to straighten and turn it. He put it together, tested the pedal and it all worked.

We get the tree all lined up and ready to put into this awesome tree stand and....the stump is TOO FREAKING BIG!!!! Jesus Murphy!!!! It needs to be cut off about six inches up from the bottom. Damn damn damn. I went out to the garage and got a saw. Keep in mind now this trunk is BIG! Monte has started to saw it through but its going to take FOREVER!!! Sigh. I am taking pics as we go.

Well I had better go get at it. TTYL