Leigh's Views

Ever have one of those days, weeks, years? We all seem to have those moments – they come, they go. Last week was a doozy for me. From the not so bad to the absurd. Walking out of the coffeeshop with my drink in hand I got bumped into by someone texting and walking. It was all good – most of the drink ended up on him not me. Both my packages which were supposed to be there in 2 days never did arrive. My bad haircut still hasn’t grown out even though it’s been 3 month and now I’ve got wings on the side of my head. Do not ask how many people are teasing me about that. As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, I get a bill in the mail from my annual woman’s exam. My insurance was refusing to pay for it. So I call the insurance up and ask why. I get told that as a man the exam wasn’t covered. No joke – somehow a button got push and poof, I’m now a man. Yikes. Fine, I was so looking forward to a new week starting. Things can’t get any worse, right? These are the times when you have to force yo...

The other day I was visiting with a friend I hadn’t seen in several years. We were looking at my photos from all of the places I’ve traveled to since we’ve had a chance to catch up. As she was looking at them, she kept asking me things like “Whoa, how’d you find that place?” “Looks like you’re the only one there, how is that possible?” Then she found a picture taken less than 250 miles from where she currently lives. Turns out it was something she didn’t even know was there - even though she’s lived in the area off and on most of her life. Finally, I decided to let her in on my little travel secret. Don’t plan 90% of the trip. Sure, there are must sees every time you travel. Madrid – the Prado Museum, the Palace. Rome – the Colosseum, the Vatican. Yukon – the Canadian Rockies. I could go on, but you get the idea. However, the best things seldom are on anyone’s bucket list. Nope, each morning I wake up, eat a quick breakfast, pack my backpack with the essentials and then spend the d...

Last week I was at the grocery store. It was supposed to be a quick dash in and out kind of a trip. I only was needing a few last minute items to make paella and yes, I wasn’t planning on eating it alone. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about see my earlier post – ‘Come to my house for paella’ 1/5/19) So I head over to grab a head of garlic and encounter a problem. There’s a young women – maybe 19 to 20 years old -blocking my way. She’s standing there with a perplexed look on her face, in one hand a head of large garlic and in the other one of those boxes with two smaller heads. Pausing for a moment, I’m debating what to do. Grab the garlic and run? Politely ask her if she needs help? And then she asks me what’s the difference between the two garlics besides price. Uhm, okay, now I’m sucked into her world for a moment unless I want to be really rude. Fine, I give her some vague answer about how I think the larger one has a better flavor but that may be because I grate or chop it ...

I got a flyer with a coupon from one of my favorite stores the other day. I was excited because this is where I go for the shower gel and lotion I love so much. However, it’s rather on the pricey side so I try to wait for a sale or a good coupon. And as an added bonus, usually when they send out the flyer, they have new scents. Thus, off I go to the store yesterday. Unfortunately, in the area with the new products there was a group of 5 or 6 kids spraying each other with the testers and non-testers alike. And in addition, they were squirting lotion from every bottle they seemed to be able to get their hands on. I said ‘excuse me’ a couple of times but was unable to get anywhere near the display. I gave up and went over to see if I could find my old staple product. No luck there either – it was nowhere to be found. Ugh. I made the mistake of trying to go over to the display of new scents again – the kids were still there. This time when I said ‘excuse me’, I got sprayed with I don’t...