Brrrrr

It's cold. I don't mean just cold. It's really, really cold. If the predictions are correct, the temperature is going to get down to zero tonight and not rise very far above it tomorrow. Now I like winter, but I will admit that even I am getting a little bit tired of this bone-chilling arctic blast.

It  hasn't helped that I have been sick. While it seemed like everyone around me was struggling with sickness over the past couple months, I felt fine as a fiddle with not even a hint of illness except for the normal headache now and again. However, last Tuesday I began to feel a tickle in my throat and it went downhill pretty quickly from there. I ended up spending most of the rest of the week in bed with a cough and fever. Lois and I had planned for round 2 of dress shopping last Thursday but I had to cancel that. (What a pity.)

 

Thankfully, I am pretty well recovered except for a slight cough that refuses to go away. I know I need to reschedule the dress shopping but honestly, when it is this cold, I can't even think about it. I told Lois we will wait until warmer weather to venture out again. (I should add that since my Blog about my dress search I have been receiving many helpful hints of stores to try and styles to wear. Even my son Jay is looking for a dress for me and sent me a link to one he thought might be suitable!)

I decided on this cold night, I needed something to make me smile, so I dug out a couple pictures of my grandchildren. Most of them are from a few weeks ago, when we kept Jay's children at their house (except for Hannah) and had Awstin along with us as well. As I was looking through the pictures, I realized that I need to get an updated one of Hannah. Hopefully I can post one of her soon.

Alexis and her build-a-bear, Sparkle.

 The three children found my phone very entertaining....

 ...but Awstin was happy to play with their kitchen set while they were occupied with my phone.

 Seriously, who thinks up what to write on little boys' shirts?

The two boys were playing together so nicely, but by the time I got my phone out to video them, Awstin was tired of it.

 

I'm glad I have pictures to look back on and make me smile on these cold, winter evenings. I am fortunate to have a warm house and all that I need inside while the wind howls outside. There's still plenty of time to shop for a dress, right?

Measles Memory

Measles has been making headlines in the news lately. Several cases have been cropping up in the U.S. and even Lancaster County is reporting the diagnosis of at least one person with the disease. Unfortunately, some parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children, thereby creating a risk for others--especially infants and the elderly. There is concern of a possible large outbreak of this serious disease that should have been completely eradicated by vaccination.

Most people in my generation (which was way before the vaccination was available) had the disease as a child, but I progressed into my teenage years without being exposed to it, or if I was, I didn't contract it. When I was finally stricken with the illness, along with the misery that it inflicted, it left me forever with a warm memory of my mother.

I had less than two weeks remaining in my freshman year of high school when I came down with the measles. Several classmates had already fallen ill with the disease so it was not a shock when I woke up one morning not feeling well. What was actually my biggest concern was the fact that I was facing a mountain of finals and year-end projects and I was worried that my grades would plummet because I couldn't complete the necessary studies or assignments that needed to be finished before the school year ended.

 

Of course the school was understanding and I was allowed to do my work at home. However, one of the discomforts of measles is watery eyes which makes it difficult to read. Also, it was thought that if you didn't protect your eyes from the light while having the measles you could end up with serious eye issues and even ultimately blindness. (I think this is a myth. My Google research hints at that.) Anyway, like everyone else did in that era, I laid in bed in a darkened room so as to protect my eyes from any horrible lingering effects of the disease. Of course, this didn't bode well for doing schoolwork.

 

I was taking an Advanced Reading class and I still had a book to read before the end of the year. This is when my mother entered the picture. The book I needed to read was "To Kill a Mockingbird." She picked up the book and sat by my bed and read the entire book out loud to me while I lay with a cloth over my eyes to protect them from any light. I actually think she read by flashlight instead of turning the ceiling light on, but my memory is a little fuzzy on that. Mother was a great reader and made the story come alive and we both became absorbed in the exploits of Scout and Atticus.

 

When I went back to school there was just a few days left and I honestly don't remember how I did in any of my other classes, but on the test for "To Kill a Mockingbird," I got 100%.  I returned home that day and said to Mother, "We did it. We aced the test!"

 

So although to most people, the word measles strikes fear in their hearts, to me, it brings to mind the picture of a 15-year-old girl lying ill in bed, and her mother sitting beside her, reading a book out loud. It is a memory I will always treasure.

Strike One

The other week, my sister accompanied me on my search for a dress to wear to the upcoming wedding. I definitely did not approach this with a lot of enthusiasm, but Lois seemed certain that this would be an easy and fun task, so I hoped for the best.

We decided on Park City and began at Penney's. We found the dress section and she and I began to look over the selection. I never wear anything that has large designs (such as big flowers) and I am not a fan of the current style of lines. Well, pretty much everything had some kind of large design on it or was covered with zig-zagging lines. What happened to just a one-colored plain dress? After trying on a few just to see what they look like, I remembered why I so seldom wear a dress. I do not look good in dresses! My figure definitely doesn't wear one well. Lois, however, was non-deterred and assured me that we would find the perfect dress. We just had to keep looking.

We proceeded to Kohl's where we found out that they don't even carry dresses. We then walked through the rest of Park City, stopping to check out smaller shops along with the bigger stores like Boscov's and the Bon-Ton. Honestly, there was not that much selection. I tried on a few outfits but in the end we decided our best choices had actually been at Penney's. We went back to Penney's and tried to be a little more creative by putting together a jacket and a skirt. It was somewhat more promising but still neither of us were satisfied.

By this time I was tired (have I mentioned that I don't shop well?), and I'm sure Lois was tired of me complaining.  She suggested that we call it a day and try again in a few weeks. This time we will head out to Rockvale and some of the surrounding stores and see if we have any better luck. Hopefully by that time, the spring and summer clothes will be on the racks and there will be a few more dresses to choose from.

I can hardly wait.