Just Some Stuff, Okay?

Catchy title, don't you think? And it only took me 10 minutes to come up with that one. Kinda lame, I know, but it's late and it's the best I could come up with for this scintillating review of my day.

By the way, the daffodils have absolutely nothing to do with my day. I took this picture back in February but it never made to the blog so I thought I'd share it for those of my readers who are still in the icy grip of winter, like my friend GreenEyes up in Newfoundland, Canada. I'll sprinkle a few flowers here and there so this won't look so plain.

Lamar and I rode the Senior Citizen's van to Jonesboro this morning to do a bit of shopping, but mainly to get out of the house for a while.

By the way, I haven't mentioned this in a while, but the reason we're able to ride the Sr. Citizen's van is because Lamar has cerebral palsy and is permanently disabled. We're both only (*only!!*) 43 so normally we wouldn't qualify to ride the van. It really comes in handy when we just want to get away from the apartment for a little while or we need a few things from town.

Now back to the subject at hand, which isn't all that exciting but it's all I've got right now.

Remember the gift the Easter Bunny sent me? It was a Walmart shopping card and I went to Walmart this morning with all intentions of buying a new purse. I think I looked at every purse in the store. Would you believe I didn't find a purse I would bring home with me? I have very high standards concerning purses and not just any old thing will do. I'm not rich by any means, but price has nothing to do with whether or not I like a purse.

For example, several years ago my sister Cecil's husband Brian bought her a Dooney and Burke purse for Christmas. New, the purse cost well over $100 and Brian sacrificed to buy it for Cecil. A few years later when Cecil decided she didn't really care for it, she was going to sell it in a rummage sale, but I talked her into selling it to me for $40. At that time I was doing laundry and a little housework for them so no cash actually changed hands, I just did $40 worth of laundry and housework in exchange for the purse.

Let me just say, I have NEVER, before or since, ever paid that much for a purse, but I really thought I wanted that purse. And it wasn't the name I was buying, because I couldn't care less about designer clothes or accessories. If I like it, I like it, and if I don't, I don't, no matter the price.

But, that $40 purse...after I got it and used it for about a week...I hated it. For one thing, it was fullgrain leather, it was big, and it weighed 5 lbs. before I ever put a thing in it. By the time I got my stuff in it, it weighed more like 10 lbs.

The zipper had, shall we say, issues. For one thing, it didn't want to zip. Or unzip. That's kind of crucial if you want to keep your stuff IN the purse and, you know, get it out of the purse.

And there was only one big compartment and a small side zipper pocket, just big enough for a tube of lipstick and a small package of Kleenex. Everything in the big open area just stewed around in one big mess, and inevitably anything you happened to be looking for was always on the bottom, requiring you to empty out the contents of your purse in search of whatever. Not good. Not good at all.

So, the $40 purse that I thought I absolutely had to have? Ironically, I sold it in the last rummage sale I ever had for $5.

(No more rummage sales for me. EVER. If I'm getting rid of it, it's obviously junk. Who wants to pay good money for junk? It's too much trouble to gather it, price it, set it all up, then have to decide what to do with it after everyone else decides they have better junk at their house.)

Back to the purses. I know what I want in a purse and I haven't found it at Walmart. I've been looking for a purse for a couple of years. I have about 4 *okay* purses that I rotate using every few months. None of them are quite right, but I use one of them until I get tired of it, then swap to another of the 4 for a while.

I want a black purse, preferably leather, but good quality vinyl (is there such a thing??) is acceptable if the rest of the features are right. It should have a shoulder strap(s) and several compartments; at least 2 big compartments and 2 or more (more is better!) smaller zipper pockets. A cell phone pocket is a plus. It should have wide zippered openings so I can easily retrieve my wallet from its depths or dig around without needing a flashlight to find those items that always end up in the bottom of any purse.

Now is that too much to ask for? Does it sound like it would be difficult to locate such a purse? I tell you, YES! Apparently it IS too much to ask for.

And so I continue my quest in search of that perfect purse. Five will get you ten, when I do find the perfect purse I'll be flat broke, and when I do get some money, they'll be sold out.Moving on...

Jessica and Jason invited Lamar and me to their apartment for supper tonight. Jessica served fried cabbage, baked chicken, mixed vegetables, au gratin potatoes, green beans, crescent rolls and corn. And for dessert, she made homemade brownies to go with store bought vanilla ice cream. I got fresh strawberries for $1.33 a quart at Walmart and I took a package of those to go with her ice cream and brownies. Everything was really good, but those strawberries will really give you pucker power! Their flavor is delicious, but they are really tart.

I bought a fresh bouquet of flowers for the hostess, then added some iris from my yard to the bouquet and it was pretty, if I do say so myself.

Jessica and Jason have Emmy's room decorated with Winnie the Pooh and it is adorable! I could kick myself because I had my camera with me and I still forgot to take pictures. We were so busy talking and visiting that I never even thought about taking pictures at all.

Jessica is still doing okay, healthwise. She's still having spells with headaches and dizziness occasionally when her blood pressure gets a little too high, but overall, she's doing pretty good. She's having the odd contraction here and there, but nothing to be alarmed about and none of them are regular when timed. I wanted to get another belly pic because she's gotten noticeably bigger since the last one I took, but as I said, I forgot. Maybe next time I see her I'll remember to take some pictures.Now that I've rambled aimlessly about purses and pictures, I'm going to wrap this up and publish this.

Have a great Friday!

Love and blessings,