August 20, 2015- Friends

 We didn’t get to see Cindy and Jessica that much because they lived in PA so it was more of a pen-pal and holiday/summer vacation friendship. We did have a lot of fun though. Our dads took us to Sandy Hook once. My brother sometimes jokes around with me that their Dad looks a little like James Garner.

   Maybe some people would think that we were weird for enjoying playing school. I was Jessica’s teacher and Cindy was Mike's.

   Cindy had a Rick Springfield album, Working Class Dog. We were listening to it in her grandparent’s basement one day.

   We would sometimes play a game that she called Crack the 8 ball on her grandfather’s pool table down there. I don’t really remember the rules that we made up for this. We also played croquet in their grandparent’s yard.

   I have this vague memory of us doing something called Slam Books. I forget exactly what this was so I looked it up on the computer. One site said that it was questions written like what’s your favorite color and you passed them around but another said that mean things about people were written in it; I know darn well it was not the latter.

   I still have my 2 friendship pins and the pair of 1928 earrings from Cindy; she started my love of that jewelry brand. We loved watching the” Pink Panther” cartoon with them. Jessica started calling him the Pink Piddler which we all thought was so funny back then.

   We only visited them in PA twice, or maybe it was 3 times. I wish that it had been more; we always had such good times together. Dad didn’t really like doing much of anything outside of his own family though and he seemed to want us to be the same way. We didn’t get to see mom’s side of the family much either.

   I loved trading stickers with them; I still have my sticker books. I did this with Carolyn, another friend that I had for only a couple of years in the late 90s and now do so with my friend/little sister Sharon. This may seem a bit childish but we don’t care

   Once Cindy went to college our friendship was coming towards the end. The same thing happened with Kathy who always seemed very disappointed that Mike and I did not go to college. Well, we’ve done classes at the community college but never finished this. He had more credits than I do.

   Our parents were good friends with Kathy’s parents; our Dads even went to the Indy 500 race in the 1960s- mid? We had fun going down the shore with them, esp. Wildwood. One time we played miniature golf on the roof top of a hotel on the boardwalk and Mike hit the ball off of it.

   We went to a jewelry store where you could pick oysters out of a tank. I got double pearls twice there and also once in AC. I had two rings and a pair of earring made out of them. Unfortunately, I lost the earrings in the early 90s.

   We always stayed at the Pulaski Motel which was a couple of blocks away from the boardwalk. Sometimes they’d come we us on day trips to other Jersey shore destinations- Seaside, Keansburg and Long Branch.

   4^th of Julys were always celebrated at their house- pool/barbeque party and fireworks in a nearby park. Sometimes we would celebrate New Year’s Eve at either their house or ours. Of course,” Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve” would be on but I’d only watch the countdown part.

   Sometimes we’d hang out with her friends Dana and Ginny- they all went to Elizabeth High School. They came over to our house a few times; once we watched a movie that we had rented- Evil Dead. We played card games often, like a very long one called Shanghai that another family friend taught us. The rules are long so we have them written on index cards.

  She was good at that game and others like she was at everything else – video games, cake decorating, cooking, piano, drawing and sports like tennis and bowling. She tried teaching me how to do the latter 2 but I suck at everything.

   These happy memories are making me sad which is ridiculous. I have many more but I better come back to the present and face the fact that over the past 20 years I’ve done a shitty job in the relationships department.

   Boyfriends were mainly my friends except for Lynn. Am I even capable of overcoming the social anxiety and somehow finding friends and activities that will bring joy to my life? Yes, I have my Sharon but I do need to interact with people outside of the computer world too.

   I feel like I belong on the Island of Misfit Toys like in” Rudolph”; where could a freak like me ever possibly fit in?

 

1928 earrings

 

Friendship pins

                                                

Book used when playing school

 

The Pink Panther keychain

 
                                       
 

 

 

Croquet set

                                          
                                          
 

 

 

 

Indianapolis 500- 1960s

 

 

                                        
 

 

 

Shanghai card game

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rudolph stickers

 

 

Shopping As Therapy In Excess - Not Good

My favourite brand of sneakers and shoes - Skechers. Got this pair and one
other as a part of the buy 1 get one half price sale at their store in Woodbridge
Mall last month.

I've been on a flannel shirt kick the past couple of months. I bought about 8 of them at a few different stores - Target, Old Navy and JC Penney on sale or clearance price of 12.00 or under. This one was more money though - 25.00 at Garage at Woodbridge Mall. I shouldn't have paid that much

These adorable doggie p.j.'s are from Kohl's. I actually ordered them onlinebecause the store didn't have my size. I did not know that you can order items at the store that you don't have to pay shipping costs. They were about 20.00 and I did save around 24.00 on them.

This cute cardigan if from Macy's. I had a 10.00 coupon from the paper so it cost only 15.00 after this and the sales price. I got mom the small Aflac duck which was their holiday stuffed animal for this year. I have the Scooby from about 6 years ago.

Sears seems to be the only store that still sells my favorite brand of jewelry - 1928. It is now sold as 2028 in other stores like Macy's. I got a good deal on it this time - 40% off. The Charter Club and 2028 earrings were on clearance at Macy's. I am totally addicted to fashion jewelry and have spent way too much money on it over the past 10 years.

The past couple of months I've been going bonkers with the spending which is not a good thing especially because I have been hitting other important funds like the computer savings one to pay for these shopping sprees. I have been guilty of using shopping as therapy to relieve my anxiety and depression throughout certain periods in the past decade. I was doing really well for about a year and a half but then starting last September I was at it again. The high of this is only temporary though. You would think that by now I would have learned my lesson but I keep turning to taking trips to the mall, Kohl's, Target and various other places to try to cheer me up. I really need to try and choose better ways of coping, like reading a book, connecting with my friends and watching DVDs from the library. I had some computer time last week which I should have been devoting to my friends here but instead I was looking at the Sears and Skechers sites for sneakers. I wound up buying 2 more pairs yesterday and they didn't even still have the special sale going on at the Skechers store. I'm always one for getting a good bargain so this impulse buy is even worse than my usual spending sprees. As if I don't have enough Skecher's to begin with - it's up to 12 pairs and I am now semi obsessing about one other that I want. This is pretty bad.

My Jewelry Addiction

I have way too much jewelry - alot of it was bought within a 5 year period in the 2000s. I would go to Kohl's, JC Penney's, Macy's, Target and also order from Avon many times when I was feeling depressed and use shopping for jewelry as my therapy but then usually not long afterwards I was feeling upset about not being able to control myself and spending so much money on mostly fashion but also some sterling silver jewelry. I have been a good girl the past few years though. I have fallen back into my old bad habits these last 2 days and have been getting some necklaces off of ebay and one from the Kohl's site. There are a few more that I want but should try to stop myself from getting especially because I am trying to save for US Open tickets.

The set on the left in the picture is actually from my junior prom - 1986. The one on the right is 1928 which is my favourite brand. My friend Suzy got me the earrings in the mid 80's and about 20 years later I found this necklace that goes nicely with them. Other brands that I like are Trifari, Napier, Liz Clairborne, Crazy Horse, Axcess, Avon, Monet, Nine West and a few others that I can't remember at the moment. Now 1928 is 2028 at some stores like Macy's which is odd because it is retro type jewelry and that name doesn't go with that. I took alot of pictures of my jewelry and will be sharing them here in the future.