2004-07-16 - 8:42 p.m.

Thursday, July 8

A few weeks back, while we were in Montana, I think, Poindexter surprised me by suggesting, out of the blue, that we get an RV and go for an extended trip around the country.

At the time, I looked at him in shock, struck with fear, because our plate is already quite full this year. We've got Florida with the FIL/MIL/SIL/nieces at the end of July, our AZ friends and P's folks in Sept, a possible road trip to NC (Justin) and GA (Dad & Stepmom) in October, my parents' birthdays plus Thanksgiving in November, plus an early Christmas in Florida...GAH!). Plus we just paid off our equity loan and are now financially prepared for a new kitchen or a roof deck, so this was quite an unexpected idea.

Anyway, he reassured me that he didn't mean we had to do it this year, just that we might want to do it sometime. Take a couple months off and go visit people, do some dirt biking, and enjoy the scenery. And I realized that if I can get internet access somehow, I could even work while we do this..

So yesterday I started looking at RVs and, well, they look kinda nifty. You can RENT them for a month, or longer, which would be way better than buying one and selling it. We're especially excited about the FunMover, which has a garage in the back for our dirt bikes.

So we've been IMing back and forth with links, and talking about the TRAILERLIFE, as Poindexter keeps calling it, and whether we'd enjoy it. My biggest concern at the moment is how I'm going to shave my legs in that tiny shower with a six-gallon water heater, although some RVs actually have small tub/shower combinations in them.

But actually, I think we might really enjoy this. I love seeing new places, but hate leaving home, and if we had an RV we could stock it with all the comforts of home. We already know we can live in a 15'x17' room for six months, and on a boat for a week. We have friends and family all over the country and it would be lovely to be able to visit them all at once.

And then there's the fact that socially speaking, I like to either be with people I'm already comfortable with, or I like the "what's your name/where you from/where you goin'/where you been" type of conversation. I bet I would freakin' LOVE chatting with people from all over the country in the RV parks every night. This is definitely worth looking into.

In other news, look what I saw on the way to work this morning:

Generally I dislike trying to pack political ideas into a 10-word bumper sticker, because often they just turn out sounding really stupid, but as far as that goes, this is a pretty good selection of stickers.

I almost missed the little tiny yellow one in the second picture. That one particularly cracked me up, because the sticker is designed to look a lot like other types of permits in Pennsylvania.

Tuesday, July 13

I'm extremely lazy and am getting tired of watering my pots, so I've been wishing for a full day of rain for a while. I got it yesterday -- it POURED all day.

Poindexter had a doctor's appointment at the end of the workday. Because of the rain and because he couldn't IM me when he was done, I drove the truck downtown shortly before his appointment and went to Starbucks to wait for him. I sat in a cozy chair and did some work on the laptop.

----

I was fascinated by the couple sitting across from me. There was a girl with beautiful wavy red hair down to her waist. She was wearing a gray suit with a skirt. She looked to be in her mid-twenties. She was sitting with a man in a business suit who was around 45, and who looked utterly captivated with her. I couldn't see her face most of the time, but her demeanor struck me as more casual -- she did not appear to be equally captivated. It was more as though she was just accepting the attention. There was also a certain sense of "newness", like they had not known each other very long. And yet at times he held her hands between his ("covered her hands with his", I'd say). The guy looked quite successful, though.

After admiring her hair for a while, I started to think, "Wow, that is like stripper hair." Then I began to wonder if she was a dancer and he was a regular customer. I knew a guy who used to spend time with his favorite stripper during the day when she wasn't working -- they'd meet for a drink or coffee, I think. As I understand it, it was a form of customer service, designed to make him feel like a valued customer and keep his business. He knew this, but he didn't care 'cause she was really nice and she was hot.

Maybe she was an coworker he'd asked out on a date. It's more fun to think she was a dancer though. Her hair was really fantastic.

----

Poindexter stopped in at the Starbucks to give me a kiss on his way over. When I saw him, my tummy fluttered -- even though I'd been expecting to see him -- and after he kissed me, I was smiling like a total goofball and couldn't focus on work for a minute or so. I am so smitten.

Friday, July 16

Sigh.

I'm really out of the LJ loop these days. The last couple weeks involved a health scare for someone I care about, including a few nail-biter type days waiting for test results, but everything turned out fine. *WHEW*.

I'm not writing partly because of that, and partly because what's going on in my head lately is too hard to write about. I'm confused. Not about anything important or related directly to me -- I understand ME, if nothing else -- just about things in general, including political issues. It applies to a bunch of different topics, but the general theme is the same: I'm trying to dig out "truth" or "what works" about some things from a wildly differing bunch of perspectives. Complicating things is the fact that rational people can disagree, and I find it very easy to see both (or all N) sides of the argument. I'm amazed that so many people are able to pick a side and stick with it. In some cases, I suppose they're not really thinking things through. But sometimes people really do consider all the angles and still remain convinced that the one they've chosen is the correct one.

Anyway.

I've been musing a bit lately about the physical changes involved in getting older.

For one thing, my body is starting to fuss about everything. Most notably, I've been feeling stiff and sore when I get up in the morning. After moving around a bit I'm fine, but the first few minutes are not so fun. Poindexter's got the same problem ("I'm old," he keeps saying). And sometimes I wake up after sleeping in the same position for a long time and my entire side is PAINED. I hear that this is why elderly people don't sleep as much -- it becomes uncomfortable to sleep. I believe it.

Anyway, in my case, some of this is probably a muscle tone issue, and I need to look into exercise or stretching that strengthens my entire body, not just my legs and cardiovascular system (recommendations welcome!). Meantime, last weekend I got us one of those memory foam mattress topper thingies at Bed, Bath & Beyond for a hundred bucks. It's an inch and a half thick.

Oh. MY. It is lovely. It does seem to be helping with the morning aches, but aside from that, it feels wonderful just to lie down on.

Aches aside, I'm also interested in how my looks are going to change as I get older. I'm past the "blush of youth", as they call it. I like how I look now better than I like my looks of a dozen years ago, but I'm also fascinated by the changes age is making in my face -- laugh lines, for one, and I'm no longer have that smooth plump-cheeked look I had when I was younger. My face is more angular. I wonder what I'll look like in my 40s and 50s. My paternal grandmother, whom I resemble a fair amount, was a hottie well into her 60s. At the moment I'm completely squicked by plastic surgery, so I'm going to have to just age as gracefully as I can.

This train of thought was brought on partly by watching "Swimming Pool", starring Charlotte Rampling whom I remembered from her brief but very sexy role in "Spy Game". Here is a woman in her 50s who exudes sensuality. She has a nice figure, but a lot of it is just sheer attitude. She doesn't try to wear youthful clothes -- she's usually dressed fairly conservatively and simple -- and yet she's a very sexy woman. And I wondered, why is that such a rare thing? Why does sexiness seem to disappear after a certain age? Are women less focused on their sexuality? I mean, after a woman has kids it gets more difficult to maintain her youthful figure, but a great rack, for example, never really changes, so why don't more women play up their best features and revel in their womanliness?

Maybe they do, but it happens more at home, not in public. I don't know. Right now I enjoy dressing in sexy, fitted clothes -- lord knows I wasted my youth in baggy jeans and flannel shirts! -- and having a flirtatious relationship with my husband. I don't want to stop doing that just because I'm 50.

Stay tuned, I guess, and we'll see what happens. ;)

Meanwhile, check out my new sneakers. :) :) :) They are PINK!! WOOHOO!! I've been wanting a pair of sneakers that I could wear with shorts on some of my longer walks, and the all-black Chucks just looked goofy. The last thing I expected to end up with was another pair of Converse sneakers, and certainly not in PINK. I love 'em though. And they feel fantastic.

Which reminds me, I've been saving this IM conversation from before the walk in East Falls that I went to with Peter awhile back. I wanted to wear my chucks, for comfort, and last time I wore them with shorts, the thing was to wear your white socks pushed down. It struck me that this wasn't the right way to wear sneakers anymore, which indeed it isn't:

Evelynne: How are the cool kids wearing their socks with their sneakers and shorts these days?
Evelynne: I don't know what to do. I'm wearing my chucks.
Poindexter: LOL!
Poindexter: I don't know.
Poindexter: What's the cool store these days?
Poindexter: Go to the gap website.
Poindexter: Or Nike.
Poindexter: You could wear my [ankle] socks.
Poindexter: then you look real cool.
Poindexter: Like you got no socks.
Poindexter: And stinky feet.
Evelynne: I have socks like that.
Evelynne: Have you seen the Nike commercial with the Italian woman saying "I'll marry you if you can catch me?"
Poindexter: No.
Evelynne: Invisible socks are apparently the way to go.

(To see the commercial, which I found amusing, go here and click "More go, girl" on the bottom left. Sorry about the Flash.)

And to think, my new pink sneakers are a "re-issue" -- when they first came out, it was COOL to wear your tube socks pulled all the way up to the knee!!

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