Tag: Las Palmas Grand

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Sweets Or Swim

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

Well, after me saying I would never join an old ladies water aerobics swim class, I am now searching for a new swim suit. Over the last few months of driving by the pool in our community on the way to the donut shop in the mornings and me making fun of those sweet old ladies swishing their arms in the water as their hips swung side to side, I could not think of any excuse not to go with a friend of mine to the class. The only excuse I could think of was, “I don’t ever go anywhere without earrings or makeup” when Randy spoke up to remind me that it was just last Friday that I rode with him to the donut shop with no makeup and no earrings. He was quickly rebuked with, “yes, but I didn’t get out of the car, I let you go in for my donuts”. It was then that he also reminded me that some of the ladies he has seen in the pool were younger than me. Things began to get a little tense at this point so I gave in and went with Judy to swim class. It was better than sitting at home and listening to Mr. Smart Mouth.

Well, it has been 8 hours since surviving the first class and I can barely move. Lucky for me, my fingers don’t ache so I can search on-line for a new bathing suit. The positive outcome of this exercise stuff has given me new opportunities for getting new clothes. A few months ago, because I decided to try, after 15 years, to take another stab at golf, Randy finally gave in and took me shopping for some cute little golf outfits. It took me awhile to talk him into the idea of, “if I’m still not good at golf, I have to at least look cute while chasing the ball out of the rough” and another great line: “you wouldn’t want my rear to look big when I bend over to retrieve the ball would you?” That one worked. He agreed to take me shopping for some cute little golf shorts that have enough spandex in them to keep me standing tall and letting my golf partner be the ball retriever. So after this morning, I came home and told him that since I haven’t exercised in a little over 25-30 years, I needed to look like the other ladies in the class and have a cute little bathing suit, with matching hat and cover-up and a new beach towel. It was embarrassing using the hand me down Barbie beach towel that Jodi left here. Apparently she didn’t appreciate that Mother’s day gift from 5 years ago. When I get up 1 hour early this morning to prepare for the swim class, it was hard to decide which suit to wear; One that is 2 sizes smaller than I am now (I almost had to wear that one, as it took several attempts to get it off after seeing the fat that hung out of the top (when did all that back fat come from?) or one that has a skirt, which seems to hide more of me than I care to expose to the general public. The one with the skirt won. After 30 minutes in the pool, I discovered that those “cute little skirts” always float up to the surface and…well, ended up making me look like a fat floating little ballerina. Even a cute hat and earrings wouldn’t help that look. So here I am, headed out to the local store, Ok, I admit, I’m going to Walmart to look for a bathing suit to wear to class in the morning. That was the only place I felt might have larger women than me, trying to find the “perfect” suit.
This has given me a new lease on life. The exercise wasn’t what was fun, but all the socializing going on in the water. We laughed and talked about all the lazy ladies who were probably still in bed while we were out there, swishing our arms and hips to the movement of the water.
Tomorrow, my reward after class is going to the donut shop. I gave up wearing earrings in pubic for an hour, but I’m not giving up my donut run. I’ll just do some extra swishing at class on Thursday.

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Mesa Musings

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

We have been living here now for 2 months and have had much to learn and think about. This is not Texas, nor is it California. Arizona has a personality all it’s own. Somedays, when we get CBS alerts every hour, declaring that someone has been shot or stabbed, we feel that we are living in the Wild Wild West.
Other days, when we are out, and people constantly strike up a conversation with us just waiting in line or sitting waiting for our car’s to be cleaned, we feel that we live in the South, the home of hospitality. Then there are times, when our neighbors come over and just walk in and hug us and are excited that a Christian has moved in next door, we feel that we are living in the Bible Belt.
Yes, we have found that folks out here ask us if we are Christians. It is certainly a place which has such a diversity of people, all of which combine to make this a place that has already warmed our hearts (except for the shootings, which so far, has kept to a different part of Phoenix)
This past Tuesday, we attended the Bible Study here at the clubhouse where we live and then went to a potluck dinner, which is held the first Tues of the month here at Las Palmas Grand. I felt like I was in the fellowship hall at First Bapt church again. It has been so many years since I have been to a potluck dinner. After a opening prayer blessing, we all got up to feast on all the food that had been brought. There was meatloaf, Jello Salads, Pasta salads, ribs, roast, you name it, we had it. I took Randy’s request, my cream cheese pound cake with strawberry sauce. We met new people and even signed up to bowl on Thurs evenings and I signed up for art class. Randy’s arm is still keeping him from doing to much, so he said he would go and watch me make a fool of myself…I mean bowl! We also discovered that in order for us to fit in with this Pot Luck group, we should have brought our own divided trays, you know the kind; like the kind that we use to use in school. They are plastic and have a place for your utensils, a place for your cup and then a couple of places for different foods. Not me, missy, we brought the biggest plates we had in order to fit more food. We are Southern Baptist and grew up on Pot luck dinners, we know that some little divided tray that fits maybe two different kinds of food was not going to cut it with his couple. Our plates allowed us to get more foods at one time, thus avoiding so many trips back to the tables, which in all honesty, is always so embarrassing as I think people must think, “how much food can that girl eat, hasn’t she been up there 3 or 4 times already. Our plates only require a couple of trips. Personally the others should learn from us and bring undivided large plates. Less trips; more food! One of the first things you learn at church dinners.
We sat at a table that had two of the sweetest couples. This is the part of the story that I’m not sure I should share, but it just is such a part of what we are having to get use to. One of the couples who sat with us was a little older than we are. How do I know this, well…a couple of reasons. For starters, when we began to talk and share that we were new, they began to tell us about the Mesa Senior Citizen Center. I glanced at Randy and he just smiled at me, like “don’t be rude, you will be there in a few years.” But it was when they invited us to go to lunch with them that I just felt like I was 80 years old. They raved about how good the lunches were at this Senior Center and they went every day and ate for $3.50 which included their milk, coffee & water. Now, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with going to the Senior Center, but for lunch ever day? Do they not know that there is a Sonic down the street where you can get a hamburger with fries and a cherry coke for almost the same price? It was at this point that I told Randy, that until we were to old to drive or our stomachs couldn’t take grease anymore, he had to promise me that we would not do that. Even if the food there is the greatest since sliced bread, we would still drive through In & Out, Whataburger or Sonic. I’m just not ready to hit the Senior Centers quite yet.
Hopefully for a few years, do not go looking for us at any Senior Center, unless of course they are serving Tex-Mex or Hamburgers & Fries!
Seniors We Might Be, But Sonic is the Perfect Place for ME!

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Dumpster Diva

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

We have quite a few things to learn about living in an over 55 community. This morning was one for the history books. We woke up feeling so “at home” in our new place, even though we do not get our furniture until the 24th. But we have grown accustomed to our borrowed lawn chairs and our air mattress which is, truth be told, not so bad. We keep telling ourselves as long as we are able to actually get up off the air mattress, it means that we are still spry young things that are still up for adventure. We haven’t once had to bounce up to get off, or even rock back and forth to get a jump on standing up from the mattress.
Last evening we went out for our first social. Four couples and ourselves had dinner at one of the couples homes and then went to listen to a band play oldies, following by standing outside during intermission at the Moustache Pretzzel food truck in 108 degrees to get a hot pretzel. Nothing is better in 108 degree weather than a eating a hot pretzel. But, like Randy says, the tickets were a gift so he told me I cannot complain. It was fun seeing old timers and young timers (such as ourselves) trying to shake, rattle and roll, while watching parts of your body take longer to stop shaking and rattling or rolling than other parts. But, we saw a couple who we had met at Starbucks a couple of weeks ago, out on the dance floor. Felt good to see some people that we already knew. We ended up exchanging numbers so we could get in touch when we got settled.

That takes us to this morning. We hurriedly woke up at 5:45 to shower and get dressed as workers were coming over at 7 to take a soaking tub out of the master bath. So I showered, used the curling iron, put my makeup on, so the men would not get freaked out by my “natural beauty”. Since we were ready in plenty of time, Mr. I Have A Great Idea, says, “let’s take the golf cart and load up some of this bulky trash the previous owners left in the storage shed and haul it back to the bulk trash area”. Well, you don’t have to ask me twice to go riding on the golf cart, (in case you missed the announcement, the cart’s name is Wally). So feeling so prim and proper with my earrings on and my makeup freshly applied, (after all, you do not want to get caught out without earrings, what would my little southern Junior Leaguers say) we load up the back of the cart not and head over to the bulk trash area. For some reason, I turned around before walking out the door (actually I do know the reason; I never, never leave home without my phone because yes, my name is Trudy and I am a phone addict). when we get there the sliding door to the trash area is open as a gentleman is just leaving so we figure that maybe the door is open during the day. So we pull Wally into the trash area and proceed to unload boxes of trash. As we are climbing up the inclined walkway up to the top to drop over the last of the boxes, we hear a sound and look over. The gate door has closed and we are now closed in the bulk trash area behind walls that are about 10′ tall. We just look at each other and I said, “well, at least when we are rescued, I will have earrings on.” We see a security pad over to the side and realize that there must be a code to open the big doors. But, we neither knew what code it might be. Randy said, I don’t have my phone to call anyone, I guess we just sit here and wait until someone comes and opens it so we can get out. In my mind, I have already begun to plan an escape. I was already thinking that if he could help me get on top of the golf cart, I could possibly hoist myself up on top of the 10′ wall and yell at a passerby who has lived here longer than 3 days, who would know the code to let us out. Before I began my ascent to the top of the golf cart, with makeup already melting and running in my eyes, I looked over and saw that I had indeed brought my phone. We called our security guard and told him that we were stuck in the bulk trash area and couldn’t get out. After he quit his snickering, he quickly told me the code to push and we drove ourselves out. By the time we drove back up to our house, I had no make up on to speak of, my hair looked like I had slept in it and we both, well, let’s just say that we have smelled better.
Lesson learned: I might leave home without my American Express card, but I will never, no never,leave home without my phone or my earrings. One never knows when I might need to be rescued and if I am ever on TV I want to have my earrings on.