In Which Groovy Needs Some Therapy!

We-e-e-e-ell, this is goiing to be quite a ramble because right now my brain is going 170 mph and I can't keep up with it!

First off, for my Maine readers. If you go Marden's Discount DON'T let Rachel be your cashier. She's got a 'tude and she wouldn't want to break a nail by actually bagging anything you might buy. And don't even THINK of asking her to wrap up any fragile items because all she's got is, like, another bag - if you REALLY want it.

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They played my all time favorite love song in the whole wide world at the grocery store today and I sang it out loud with verve from beginning to end -and no one told me to shut up.

It. was. wonderful.


You Make Me Feel Brand New
The Stylistics

My love,
I'll never find the words my love, to tell you how I feel my love.
Mere words, could not explain.

Precious love,
You held my life within your hands, created everything I am,
taught me how to live again.

Only you,
came when I needed a friend, believed in me through thick and thin,
this song is for you, filled with gratitude and love...

(Chorus) God bless you, you make me feel brand new,
for God bless me with you, you make me feel brand new,
I sing this song 'cause you make me feel brand new.

My love,
Whenever I was insecure, you built me up and made me sure,
you gave my pride back to me.

Precious friend,
with you I'll always have a friend, you're someone who I can depend,
to walk a path that sometimes bends.

Without you,
Life has no meaning or rhyme, like notes to a song out of time,
how can I repay you for having faith in me...

(Chorus) God bless you, you make me feel brand new,
for God bless me with you, you make me feel brand new,
I sing this song 'cause you make me feel brand new.

(Naturally I just had to sing through the entire song again and I found several boo-boos, mispellings and typos in these lyrics...Don't worry. I fixed 'em all!)

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The battle with the lice continues. Silly-Head and I both have them. At first I thought maybe we'd picked them up at the Big E, but now I'm thinking that she got them at a birthday party last week. It was a "Beauty Pageant" party and the Mom doing hair used the same comb/brush for all the girls. I probably got them from Silly-Head on the bus coming back from the Big E 'cause we did alot of snuggling.

Ya know, I am 43 years-old and I've raised two children to adulthood and this is my first encounter ever with lice.

Silly-Head has been wonderful about the whole ordeal - not one complaint. I, on the other hand, have done alot of whining. I seem to be much more sensitive to them and I'm itching like naked woman in a mosquito swamp. (Dang, I bet I just lost the "G" rating for my blog!)

At any rate, I have declared war on the little buggers. We used the OTC shampoo and we have combed, combed, COMBED for nits. We've plastered our heads with olive oil, combed again and washed, then rinsed with vinegar AND COMBED AGAIN! Next we shall try Ms. Karen's mayonaise suggestion (see the comments on my last entry). It will certainly smell better than the vinegar!

I determined to have them completely irradicated before next Thursday. That's when I leave for my mom's.

Which brings up the moving/flying/driving insanity.

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Ok, here's the deal. My mom is moving up from South Carolina to Maine. She's retired, she's plain tired and she has some health issues that really concern us. She needs to be close to her family. Since I'm her only child (more or less - but that's another story...), "family" would be me. So we all talked and we prayed and we started a-formulatin' a plan.

Mulletman and I would fly one way next Thursday to North Carolina and Mom would pick us up at the airport. She'd drive us back to her place and we'd all have a peaceful, restful, calm night's sleep (I can dream, can't I?). The next morning we'd pick up the moving truck and start loading her up. Mom has sold most of her furniture, so it shouldn't be too huge of a job.

She and I would then "scrub and sanitize" (my mom scrubs and sanitaizes EVERYTHING!) her apartment and the following morning she and I and her kitties would drive off in the van following Mulletman as he drove the big, huge truck. We'd follow him wherever he went and we'd all get back to Maine safely 2 days later because Mulletman has a fabulous mastery of all things directional and we would not get lost even once, ever. (He's amazing that way!)


Yes, those WERE the plans until about an hour ago. See, we made all these plans without considering the Scout factor. (Please insert ominous music here)


See, Scout is here right now on leave from the Army. He has to be to his new post in Ft. Hood, Texas by October 15. He has a van and has spent innumerable nano-seconds hours trying to decide whether to sell the van and fly to Texas and then have to bum rides from people he doesn't know until he can locate another vehicle OR whether to drive his van to Texas. A drive from Central Maine to Austin, Texas is approximately 47,000,000 miles. That's a long way for a lonely 21 year-old to drive all alone.

It would be infintely better if someone could drive with him to Texas and then fly back, preferably someone responsible, level-headed, frugal, and directionally gifted.

That would not be me.

Yep, and here's the new plan. Mulletman is going to drop me off at the airport next Thursday. I will fly to Mom's, enlist the aid of her wonderful neighbors (Groovy smiles hopefully), load the truck, clean the apartment, and drive Grandma to Maine.

In the meantime, the guys will hit the road to Texas and split all the expenses. On the evening of the 15th, Mm will hop aboard a one-way flight to Charlotte...

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Aaaaaack - my head itches! Excuse me a minute while I go douse my head with mayo!

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OK. I'm back. I look ridiculous and I smell like an old potato salad, but Lice are suffocating and that makes me happy.

Anyway, as I was saying, Mm will hop aboard a one-way flight to Charlotte where he will hunt down Mom's strategically placed van, secure the well-hidden key and drive to Walmart to sleep in the parking lot.

Unfortunately, the only ticket change we could afford puts him into Charlotte at midnight!

The next morning he will fuel up on Krispy Kremes during rush hour and head for Maine.

And that's the plan. Only, my mom doesn't know ANYTHING about the changes yet.

I'm dreading telling her because she already is stressed about me just helping to load the truck. She keeps mentioning and rementioning that things are heavy and she doesn't want me to get hurt...yadda, yadda, yadda. And it gets even better because we get to unload without Mulletman and carry everything up a flight of stairs. I've put out some quick feelers for some muscular help, but no one has responded yet.

Then there's the cat issue. She was going to pen them in the back of the van with some freedom to move around. Now they'll have to ride in the truck. For. two. days.

I can't wait.

Personally, I'm not worried about the loading and the cleaning. I am concerned about the driving. I've never driven more than 5 hours on my own and that was to a camp I'd been to several times before. Also, I AM directionally challenged. Mm remembers routes in detail years after we've driven them. He even remembers how much the tolls were.

We've been to Mom's several times and all I can recall is that the route with fewer yucky cities takes us through the Shennendoah Valley and it's really pretty. I also remember that people don't seem to speed in Pennsylvania.

That's about it.

Then he said something about having to recheck the routes because some of the roads DON'T ALLOW TRUCKS! Which of course sends me into a panic. What if I accidentally head for a road where trucks are banned? What if they arrest us for being ignorant and we have to sell all of Mom's stuff to pay for our bail? What if it takes me 5 days to find a happy-truck road? What if we can't find a bathroom??!!!

This isn't going to be pretty. Please pray for both of us - I'll be telling her tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

And did I mention that I have lice?

I WANT MY MOMMY!!!!! Oh, wait...No. I WANT MY FUNSOCKSGIRL!

Now I'm going to eat some chocolate and try to relax a little.

Anybody got any Valium?