Confessions: I collect things

I used to think only crazy old ladies and nerds collected things. (I am a nerd so now this post makes sense) I collect things. Two kinds of things actually.

I collect vintage Pyrex. First, you have to know that I read the internet a lot. Enough that I would randomly read something about how buying vintage kitchen items like Pyrex rather than buying new is making a comeback. So I read that and a few weeks later I was at my mom's; she had rearranged some items in her kitchen. Where the mixer used to be were two vintage pieces of Pyrex and one Fire King that I had never seen. I asked where they came from and she said that they were my great grandmothers. She then casually said, oh do you want them? YES! Of course I wanted them.
And so it began. This is a fun hobby because I go to flea markets and look for pieces priced far less than what I think they are worth. There is one booth at our local flea market who prices them high, and has the best pieces. I like to think of that booth owner as my nemesis.
Through my pursuits I have even accidentally bought a rare piece. It is my treasure.
You can see all the patterns here. I have pieces in 7 different patterns. Most in good condition, I only buy good condition ones unless the pattern is rare then I will buy just okay condition ones.

I also collect Maneki Neko. It should be obvious why.

Because I own a real life one!

100 mostly lame things about me

Since you are reading my blog (really? what is wrong with you?) maybe you should know me better. I have wanted to do this since I saw Auny Becky's over a year ago but I am too lazy.

1. My middle name is Lynn which is the masculine spelling.
2. My mom doesn't know that some gender neutral names have a masculine a feminine spelling.
3. I will not eat cauliflower or octopus
4. I prefer not to eat bleu cheese, hot cooked fruit or anything raspberry flavored
5. My favorite food is birthday cake
6. Sometimes people don't like that birthday cake is my favorite food so then I say that it is chicken
7. My favorite drink is Big Red
8. Red is a flavor
9. I met my best friend after I ate a pan of jello shots that I was meant to distribute
10. Never ask a drunk 18 yr old to distribute your jello shots
11. Because high school was easy I wasn't prepared to study in college, my grades reflected this
12. Since I only did average in college, I wish that I had spent more time partying
13. I made up for it in graduate school
14. No one can drink more than adults that decide to get a masters degree and find themselves students again
15. Despite my loud volume, my dentist informs me that I have a rather small mouth
16. I have had 5 surgeries, all above my neck
17. My teeth were rather jacked up
18. but I have never had a cavity
19. I have perfect vision and hearing
20. I think this would make me be a good spy
21. I don't mean to listen to your conversation, I just can't help it
22. I always know what is going on so you might as well tell me and get my opinion
23. My teeth are fixed now, other people still can't see or here
24. Every emotion makes me cry
25. It is hard to yell at someone when you are mad if you are crying
26. When I am mad my accent decides to mimic the cast of Steel Magnolias
27. I am also a sympathetic cryer so if you cry, I will cry
28. Once a week, someone tells me I look like their best friend's sister
29. I look like your best friend's sister
30. Ironically, I do look like one of my best friend's sisters
31. I am afraid of spiders, needles and the ocean
32. The ocean is filled with sharks, jellyfish and ghosts of people who are not smart enough to be afraid of the ocean
33. I have felt my whole life like I have something to prove, I don't know what
34. I know just enough to be dangerous in several areas
35. Every year I change what I want to be when I grow up
36. I keep coming back to pastry chef
37. I will be a small business executive in my family business for ever
38. My favorite job ever was working in retail
39. I started bellydancing in 2004
40. The same year I met my husband
41. These two things are unrelated
42. Bellydancing is the first hobby that I have ever been good at
43. And the first one I have stuck with
44. It is my first love
45. My husband is my second
46. He is okay with this
47. We got married in a bar, on a cruise ship
48. I am clumsy
49. I spent 1 whole day of my honeymoon in a wheelchair
50. Because of this, I have never been to St. Thomas
51. I have never broken a bone
52. I have 3 major scars
53. The one on my chest is from chicken pox
54. The one on my hand is from an accident on a golf cart
55. The one on my head is from an accident on a golf cart
56. You would think that I would avoid golf carts
57. I have been in a couple of bad whitewater rafting flips
58. One of them gave me nightmares for a week
59. Rafting is still one of my favorite things
60. I didn't get chicken pox until I was 11
61. Chicken Pox is a virus related to herpes
62. My first major was microbiology
63. I remember a lot about the chapter on herpes
64. I think I am a really good cook
65. My husband says only if I don't count people who went to culinary school which I don't
66. I pretend to sew but it is much more like MacGuyver than Martha Stewart
67. My mom is named Martha Stewart
68. I wish someone had told me that you need to learn to sew before you can become a bellydancer, I would have tried harder
69. I have been to 5 of the seven continents
70. Technically, I have not been to Antarctica but I have been to the Antarctica welcome center so I count it
71. I have really big feet
72. Which most tall people have
73. I am 5'3" and 1/2
74. When you are shorter than 5'5" you count the 1/2
75. My favorite animal is a llama
76. In my dream home, I have 2 cats, a Welsh Corgie, a donkey and a llama
77. I just have one cat
78. We have a cat that lives in our office
79. When I am typing there is about a 40% chance that a cat is in my lap
80. There is a 100% chance that I have cat hair on me
81. My favorite ingredient to cook with is cat hair
82. I make myself laugh every day
83. Most of the time no one is around to hear me
84. I think I am a scaredy cat but occasionally I do something really brave
85. I walked on the edge on Auckland's Sky Tower, 192 meters above ground
86. This impresses me to no end
87. I am speed reader
88. If I really love a book, I read it a second time without speed reading
89. It is really hard to make yourself not speed read
90. I am also good at reading upside but only if I have to
91. In school I got in trouble a lot for not knowing where we were in the book
92. I was usually 20 something pages ahead
93. Every Sunday night at 11pm someone tried to fax my first apartment
94. I have an real appreciation for good wine
95. My favorite is New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
96. There is always at least one piece of glitter on my body
97. I noticed a random piece of glitter stuck to the wall in my living room.
98. That's how I know it is home
99. When I started this I thought it would only take a few minutes.
100. It took me 8 months to complete this list to my own satisfaction.

Holy Basil, Batman!

Have I mentioned previously that I have a touch of the crazy? (My mom gets SO mad when I say things like that) I do. I have anxiety and mild panic disorder (read: freak out disease).

I have been on and off the prescriptions meds. I prefer not to take any more meds than I have to so when I feel okay I go off them (under Dr's supervision, I am not that crazy).

Most recently I went on Lexapro in 2007 (the year of the suck*) and have been off of it since early this year. With all the stress of moving my anxiety has been running high. I saw a magazine blurb about Holy Basil which is good for anxiety. The next time Chris and I went to the health food store to buy cat food - did you doubt that Fat Boogas eats better than us? - I got a bottle.

I took it on Monday and my friends had a good giggle about my hippy tendencies. We went to lunch and the waiter over filled someones tea, giggled about it and left. Then I got the giggles. All week all we can do is talk about how over giddy people must be on the Holy Basil.
Also, the bottle says to take it with warm water. My friend says this is because you take it with bong water which is already warm.

I can't really say that I feel better but I did stand in line for 3 hours for a midnight showing of New Moon and didn't mace a single 15 year old. That should be proof enough.

*My husband always makes mention when I call 2007 the year of the suck that we got engaged that year. I remind him that he pushed back his proposal plans two times because people in my family kept dying.

I found out that November is like blog everyday month. It was half over when I found out. I thought about boycotting and not blogging at all but then I had something to talk about. I give up.

How I almost didn't get to Mexico

So, Chris and I just got back from Mexico. Which is a miracle since we almost didn't get there multiple times. We were scheduled to leave on Sunday. Everything was packed and I was cleaning the coffee pot before we started dinner on Saturday night. Out of no where Chris looked at me and said, " where are the passports?" I panicked and ran for mine and then looked at Chris and I knew the answer but I asked him, "Where is yours?" I am not sure if he had realized until I asked, the whole thing is a blur. "Did you get it from the bank?"

See we usually keep them both in the safe deposit box but I had only recently had mine renewed with my new last name and since our trip was in less than 2 months, I never took it bad. The really bad part is that 3 days before Chris had been to the bank to return our marriage certificate to the box. I immediately burst into tears and called our travel agent (as I told my mother, if I can cry during a Disney Channel Original Movie, I can cry for this). There was nothing she could do to get our trip moved but luckily we took out insurance so we cancelled the first trip and rebooked for Tuesday. I made Chris call our friends who were going with us to tell them we wouldn't be joining them for two days. I couldn't deal. Since we were rebooked I got my act together and felt okay.

When the bank opened Monday morning, Chris was there. Tuesday we boarded our plan promptly at 7:15 am. The pilot announced we were cleared to take off at 8:30! (I wish there was such a thing as capital numbers). Our flight for Cancun was leaving at 9:41 and by my calculations we weren't going to make it. When the plane landed we ran. I mean I RAN! and I don't run. Chris confessed that I made it a lot farther than he thought I would. And........we didn't make it. Barely. By minutes.

We got rerouted through Dallas to Cancun (yes, that is one more plane that we had planned). We would also be arriving at 4pm rather than 12 with another tight connection. I was on that sort of verge of tears the whole rest of the way because my nerves were so fried. We arrived and NO LUGGAGE.

Once we finally got to the hotel and met with our friends, all I could keep saying was, "We'll

decide what we are doing once we get our luggage. I had a swimsuit in the bag but only jeans and it was 90+ degrees so I wouldn't be going anywhere besides the pool.

Chris and I had taken a shower and were wearing our complimentary bathrobes and the bellboy called to say he had our luggage. He got a good laugh when we saw how badly we needed it (they were very short robes)!

From then on everything was perfect.

I am so the crazy American Tourist

Look at those rockin' tan lines.

And on a side note, even though I drank my weigh in Pina Coladas and had churros for breakfast, I only gained 2 pounds. Pretty awesome. Now back to the grind.

The Bus

I ride the bus to work. I first started this when gas prices were really high then not long after I was in an accident that totalled my husbands car. We only had one car for a few weeks and then ended up with my Pathfinder, Helga, who drinks a lot. So I have been on the bus since March of 2008. I am spoiled by it. I get to drink my coffee, reader my blogs and then get dropped off and picked up directly in front of my building. BUT there is a stigma attached with the bus.

Yesterday I was in Target with a friend. We were looking at the new trend in finger tip less gloves. I said, "Would I look crazy if I got these to wear on the bus?" (so I can iPhone and have warm hands) My friend said, "Yes" I made a sad face and she followed up, "Only if you wear them on the bus. If you wore them other places, you wouldn't look crazy. People could see you had a purse and stuff and aren't homeless." That made me laugh. I like that the qualification for not being homeless is having a purse.

This morning a lady coughed on the bus and I thought to myself OMG Typhus (I am not sure what this is), I bet if she had coughed in a restaurant I would not have panicked. On the bus it is a different story.

And 2 other things. If you want awesome glove or arm warmers check out www.etsy.com and you should try to ride the bus where you live. You mind end up like me and love it. Last week I had to drive to work and was very upset about it.