Dateless in Burbank

I spent this last week much as I did the week before. Nothing really new and the dating scene is pretty nonexistent. I did have a really strange experience. I have been emailing a gentleman from Georgia who said he was from Ireland and new to this country. His emails were a bit odd as he seemed to rattle on rather like he was copying from a relationship book. I even commented on it. It was like he didn't even read my emails. He told me a couple of weeks ago that he had to go back to the UK because he won a bid on building some sort of project. He continued to send rather strange emails and yesterday I got the clincher. He said there had been a piece of equipment stolen and could I loan him $5000 dollars to replace it. I didn't answer and then reported him to the dating web site as a scammer. They immediately pulled his ad. I got a little curious and spent Saturday night (because I have no dates and a lot of time on my hands)looking on some other dating web sites and found him on another under a different user name. He was ignorant enough to put a picture. I reported him and sent a copy of the email and they pulled his ad. I actually don't think it was an actual person. I think it was something like the Nigerian scam that occasionally turn up in your email. I find it hard to believe that anyone falls for that but I read about the women in Sweet Home that lost everything to a Nigerian scam. I decided that reporting him to the web sites wasn't enough so I emailed yahoo so they could monitor his email or something. They are investigating. I am sure there are a lot of guys out there like that but it is hard to imagine anyone being gullible enough to send anyone money or anything else for that matter.

I still feel meeting someone on line is safe if you use common sense. I email a couple of guys and have developed quite a friendship with one. Since he is across the US I will never meet him but it is fun to get acquainted that way.

I spent the day with Brooklyn, Mikey and Michelle. She is so much fun and so adorable. She is so advanced for her age. One of the new things is she gives kisses. Jaclyn called Saturday and told me she was student of the month and tried to sound so blase about it. Abyah turned 8 Saturday with a pizza party with friends. I have been asking her what she wants for her birthday since we will celebrate it when we go up for Thanksgiving and she finally decided she wants a game for the WII called WII Cheer. I looked it up and seems to be a great game, more exercise then game.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends,
Love to you and yours,
NanaCarol

SMOKIN!

Fortunately we are far enough from the fires that we are in no danger but the air quality is horrible. I have not been able to walk for two days now. I learned after the last fire that was at the studio where old film was burned that you have to stay inside and run the air conditioner to avoid smoke inhalation. If you all remember I ended out in the hospital over night getting inhalation therapy for my asthma.



Yesterday I was driving to my dentist and could see the smoke billowing over the hills. So many people have lost their home and apartments. Of course most people who had homes had insurance but most people don't have renters insurance and will out of luck. Landlords only replace the building not the renter's personal contents. If only California could get some good old Oregon rain.



We did have a week of cloudy rainy days and if you can believe it or not I missed the sunshine. Pray that I am not turning into a Californian. I guess I better get my Birkenstocks out and wear them for a few days to remind myself that I AM AN OREGONIAN!



I haven't done much for the past few weeks. I have spent quite a bit of time at Mike and Michelle's playing with Brooklyn who now LOVES her Nana. In fact I am going over for lunch in a bit. Brooklyn is just so adorable. Her latest is watching Maddie and giggling at her. It is the cutest. Because she is using her hands so much when Maddie reaches down Brooklyn pokes her in the eyes and pulls on the skin on her face and Maddie just licks her.



Mike, Michelle, Brooklyn and I are driving up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to spend the day with Isaac and family. I hope that Andy is flying in too. We will have to drive back Thanksgiving evening but at least we will be together for Thanksgiving. Christmas Mike, Michelle and Brooklyn are flying home to Minnesota to spend a week with the her family and I know her family can hardly wait to see Brooklyn. I will have to work the day after Christmas so I will spend Christmas here with Diane's family. It will be a big Italian Christmas which will include singing around the piano. I think it will be a lot of fun.



Halloween at Aramark was an event. Most people dressed up and they put so much pressure on me to dress up the night before Halloween I scrambled to get a costume. I stopped at Rite-Aid and wandered around looking for inspiration when I spotted a package of the small individual packs of cereal and got inspired. I took the boxes and used tape and stuck them on a shirt with plastic knives sticking out of them and dripped red on a the shirt and said I was a cereal killer. I didn't win any prizes but got a lot of laughs. Of course being so close to Hollywood there were amazing costumes but hey anyone can dress as Moses. It was great fun and I have put on my think cap for next year. Any suggestions?

I am still trying to figure out Senior Dating. Last night I was IM one fellow, emailing another and texting yet another all at the same time. It was hilarious and I realized I didn't care if I met any of them. It was just great fun flirting with them. More on this subject later.

Have to run to rescue Brooklyn from her parents so we can have some fun.

Love to you and yours,
NanaCarol

Internet Dating

There has been absolutely nothing exciting happening in Burbank for the last couple of weeks. I house sat for Mike and Michelle and little Brooklyn when they went up to Oregon to visit their friends and introduce Brooklyn to her Uncle Andy. Who by the way has lost 100 pounds. Isn't that amazing. He looks great. So while they were gone I took care of their house and Maddie. Maddie went with me on my early morning walks and I tried to teach her to heel. I read up on it on the Internet and I think I would have been successful if her leash hadn't broken. I had to buy one from Rite-Aid so I could take her out at lunch and it was way too short. It worked in an emergency. She is such a smart dog. On one of the mornings I met this older gentleman on the bike path and I rained Maddie in so she wouldn't jump on him and lick him to death. He was carrying a golf club and raised it and said keep her away from him. I was so startled I didn't respond. She couldn't have reached him but I knew he was deathly afraid of dogs. I should have called the police but I told my roommate instead and she and all the dog people who are out when walks confronted him and told him the next time he walked with a weapon they would call the police. In fact she did call the police and they told her if he was out again with the golf club to immediately call 911. Well I guess he knows not to screw with Maddie and I again. All the dog people of Burbank are watching for him.



I am considering starting another blog. This one about the world of dating when you are a senior citizen. I haven't done much dating since my divorce in 1983. And for some odd reason I decided I want to date again. I must be a glutton for punishment or mentally deranged. So I actually had my first date. We had emailed and spoken on the phone for two or three weeks until I felt comfortable meeting him. It turned out he was so nice and we had the best time. We both acknowledged we felt very comfortable with each other like we had been friends for a long time. After our first date I heard from him a couple of times and then nothing. I have no idea what happened but apparently he didn't have as much fun as I thought. I was a bit disappointed but as the saying goes "one monkey doesn't stop the show".



Not to be discouraged I registered on a dating web site and that has been hilarious. You would think that men in their sixties would be different from boys in their teens. But they are not any different at 66 then they are at 16. They still bring up sex in their first emails. One guy from the Midwest wrote this long email without one single period and every other word was misspelled. And he was willing to re-locate. Lucky me.

Another fellow went so far as to leave me pathetically,what he considered to be erotic emails. I emailed him back that I thought that there might be 800 numbers he could call for that sort of thing.

Of course you have to be careful about this Internet dating but since I am basically untraceable and I use precautions I don't have serious concerns. You control how much they know about you. So we shall see where this takes me. Of course my first priority is taking care of myself so it will have to be a prince charming for me to give up my independence.


I will keep you all informed about my lovelife or lack there of.

Love to your and yours,
NanaCarol

SPEED RACER

Here are two of my little girls. Abyah is on the track team at her grade school and had her first competition. I wish I could have been there. She is so long and leggy and is a great runner. She reminds me of Sara Hill with her blond hair flipping as she runs like a gazelle. And Jaclyn is the encouraging big sister who met her at the finish line. I am so proud of both of them.

I have started walking this week. Since I don't seem to be able to sleep past 2:30 or 3:30 I decided rather then toss and turn I would get up, put on my walking shoes and hit the bike path that runs in front of our house. So there I am at 4 in the morning huffing and puffing but I am up to two miles and am quite proud of myself. I have lost 5 pounds doing it this week. Too bad I only have 95 more to go. My goal is to be able to walk to and from work. It is about 3 miles and during the winter weather once I have built up my stamina it should get me in shape. I had forgotten how good you feel when you exercise. And it shows. Everyone at work has noticed a change in me. They say I am glowing. Personally I think I have been exposed to some random chemical here in California, maybe radiation.

I went to the bank yesterday and the teller told me I looked so good in my beige blouse, that it was my color. Then I went to the bus stop and this old guy had his eye on me. I hugged my purse tighter but then he sat next to me on the bus and tried to strike up a conversation. I wasn't too worried because I knew I could "take him" as he was just a "spindly dude" as the boys used to say. To bad he was speaking Armenian and I didn't understand a word he was saying. I kept smiling and nodding and wondering if I was selling my first born for a goat. He didn't follow me off the bus but I had my eye on him. After years of experience of riding the buses in Peru and having to defend my body against groping hands I know how to deflect unwanted fingers!

This weekend is cloudy and it is suppose to rain, an Oregon day and I love it although I wanted to go to Griffin Observatory to star gaze on Saturday night. Maybe next weekend. My friend Stevie who grew up in LA but lives in Oregon told me about it and I goggled it and it looks really nice. So it is on my list of must see. In Oregon we seldom have clear days so star gazing hasn't been on my list.

Diane's son Danny came up from San Francisco for the week-end and spent the night here. Diane cooked lamb with prunes and apple sauce and spinach on a bed of pasta and it was divine. I went to bed and fell asleep to their laughing and talking and actually slept until 7:30 this morning. It is a wonderful thing when our children become adults and we can have grown up conversations with them.

I am hoping to go to Mike and Michelle's today to see little Brooklyn and watch the duck's game. I saw her once this week and wish I could see her every day. Babies change so quickly at this age. Mike and Michelle are so good with her. And boy does she love her Mom and Dad. She just watches them when I am holding her. She wants to make sure she doesn't get left with her evil Nana. I am totally going to enjoy teasing her about this when she is older. For those of you who don't have their web site here it is. Michelle keeps it updated with new pictures of "little Brooklyn like the Bridge".

http://fieldsfamilywebsite.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Love to you and yours,

NanaCarol

TOURING LA

Yesterday I had a most pleasurable day. A friend took me down to Olivera Street in LA. It is reminiscent of the open markets in Central and South America. We went into an older Spanish Mission style church which was beautiful. We also toured the oldest adobe home where the furniture, linen and pottery was amazing. They had a couple of hand tooled saddles and I know Mary Etta would have been impressed with them. One of them was quite unusual and I asked my friend how you would ride it and the answer was very carefully. And that was the truth. It looked like it would have been quite awkward. The home took you to a past time of Los Angeles where the Spanish influence was very strong. We also went to the train station which was absolutely gorgeous. The architecture, tiling and wood was unbelievable. It had an open courtyard where you could sit and visit. After leaving the train station, where I might add I wasn't thrown in front of a train, we walked around China town and enjoyed all the sights.

I babysat little Brooklyn a couple of times this week and she still cried but not as much. I took a reinforcement this time. One of my co-workers is a Grandma and I wanted to see how Brooklyn reacted to her and of course she coo'd and smiled her little heart out. I have it figured out that she is playing me. I think little Brooklyn knows if all else fails I will try to buy her love with Barbie dolls. I think she has been talking to Jac and Bubba in that secret grandchild language and the two older girls have told her that all grandparents are big suckers. Right little Brooklyn?

She is absolutely the cutest little baby. I have been so lucky that all my grandchildren have been exceptionally cute. But I think all grandparents think the same thing about their g'children. Aren't we lucky?

Jenny called me Friday night from Jac's school carnival moaning about the fact that Jac didn't want her hanging around with her. She wanted to be with her friends. So it has started. I told Jenny to hang tough the bumpy ride of adolescents was starting. Part of me felt sorry for Isaac and Jenny but then having gone on that ride four times I almost felt a little glee. It is part of the payback Grandparents enjoy. The girls had fun as you can see from the pictures I am enclosing.

Mike and Michelle are going to Oregon next weekend and I will be house sitting and taking care of my granddog Maddie. I tried to get them to take Maddie and let me keep Brooklyn but they just looked at me like I was loco.... They want to show the baby off to their friends and to Uncle Andy who will be able to meet his new niece for the first time. So little Brooklyn will get her first airplane ride. Hopes she likes flying more then her Nana.

Well I am leaving to pick Diane up as she comes home from her Caribbean vacation today. She said she enjoyed it and is as brown as a baked potato. I envy her the ability to tan. Unlike my ability to burn.

Love to you and yours,
NanaCarol

TOOTHLESS IN BURBANK

I think my Granddaughter Brooklyn hates her Nana. I went over to watch her and as soon as I picked her up she cried. She cried for about an hour. She cried so much Maddie was getting frantic running to the front door to check if Mike and Michelle were back. I think she figured Brooklyn would stop crying if they came back. Finally I rocked her in a dark room and sang the turalura song that worked for Jac and Bubba. After about a half an hour she finally went to sleep. Shortly after that Mike and Michelle came back with their friends and Mike woke her up so they could see her. And that little girl just coo'd and smiled all over the place. I want Jac and Bubba to call her to talk about being nice to Nana because of the "spoiling factor".

As if having a grandbaby that hates me isn't enough when I got home I had a piece of cold fried chicken and one of the teeth on my lower bridge broke and I ate it. Way to go! So I am going to have to go to work tomorrow and look like someone out of the Lil Abner cartoon. Does life get any better? Oh and I forgot to mention the cold sore on my nose. All in all not a pretty picture.

And all of this while my roommate is in St. Martins sunning herself. What do I get? I'm toothless in Burbank with a cold sore on my nose and babysitting three old dogs. I love my life!

I am sure you all heard about the terrible train accident a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately one of Aramark's employees was on the first train and died. It was such a shock. Shortly after the wreck Aramark personnel starting calling all the employees that purchase train tickets for that route through them and found unfortunately a young man with two children was on the train. Miraculously several people that normally take that train didn't. I received a call about 7 from a co-worker wondering if the "emergency man" rode that train. She is a transplant like I am so she is as geographically challenged as I am. I called another co-worker and found he rides another train. As much as I have poked fun at him it would have been devastating if he had been on that train.

I guess Aramark is not new to tragedy. The food service division lost employees who worked at the Top of the World Restaurant in the World Trade Center on 9/11. But when you think about it Aramark has about 240,000 thousand employees worldwide so I guess the odds are higher.

Hey how about those Ducks? To get beaten by Boise hurts. The game wasn't televised but I monitored it on CNN. Does anybody know a good quarterback? Especially one that doesn't get injured. Well it is a young team and they have a great coach.

Well I think I will go eat some ice cream. It has nuts so maybe I will break another tooth.

Love to you and yours,
NanaCarol

GO DUCKS!!!

I had the best birthday if one can have a "best 62nd birthday". The first thing Mikey asked me was I going to start collecting social security. Way to bring the birthday spirit down. I knew I was eligible but I certainly didn't feel like collecting social security. That makes me seem way to old. I'm still working so no Mikey I am too "young" to collect social security.

I spent the day with Brooklyn, Michelle and Mikey. Mikey fixed a great breakfast and lunch and Michelle grilled great steaks. And I got to spend the day playing with "Kooky". She is just hilarious. Of course we watched the opening day of college football and she was engrossed in watching the TV all day. Mikey thinks she was into football. That's right, Mikey, a 10 week old football "phenom". They have a wide screen TV and with all the vivid colors and sounds she seemed engrossed in the game. She did get fussy during the commercial breaks and then calmed right down when the game was on. But I don't think she is a football phenom....or is she? Her Mom was holding her and her Dad walked by and I swear it sounded like she said Dada. I think it was gas. It was a great day and some great college ball. Go Ducks!

The other Fields Family in Sacramento got into the Duck Spirit as well. Abyah even had her face painted. Their house was totally Duck crazy as well as their car. Some poor child from Jaclyn's school asked Isaac why he wasn't rooting for a California team. Jenny said Isaac's eyes rolled back in his head and there was a slight tremor. At least the child apologized later.

I went over and babysat Brooklyn last night while Mike and Michelle went to a neighbor's BBQ and their little three year old Gabby came and visited with me a while. She is adorable with red hair and the personality to match. At one point she told me Mike Fields said "Don't touch my cell phone and I'm serious". She always says Mike Fields when she talks about him. She is just as cute as a button. And dearly loves Baby Brooklyn. And it is a reminder how kids love to repeat things. I am sure we have all been embarrassed at things our kids have repeated. I remember Mary Etta telling her first grade classmates during show and tell about an argument her Mom and Dad had the previous night. Her teacher thought it was funny and called me about it.

Well I am off to lunch with M&M and B.

Love to you and yours,

NanaCarol