Author: Jen Rios

HI-C Orange Lavaburst

So today, I decided to try another flavor of my chapstick:

I think the name was a bit misleading. Reading it, I thought that it would taste like orange wedges from halftime at my soccer games in grade school. It does not!

It’s not waxy or anything like the watermelon one but it tastes like the orange drink that used come in those large drink coolers from McDonald’s. (Talk about showing my age?!) i’ve learned that it is called HI-C Orange Lavaburst so the chapstick was not unpleasant with each replication, I am reminded of summer parties at Hemlock Park having to do with the Dearborn Barracudas Swim Club, Which is NOT a bad thing!

NOT a ‘Ta-Da’ Moment

I wanted to try another flavor of my new chapstick today. I liked the strawberry I had yesterday and was a bit excited for the next flavor. It was watermelon and I thought of this vintage commercial:

So here was the second flavor of my new chapstick:

Watermelon is my favorite blow pop flavor so I was excited to try out the chapstick. I have to say that it is NOT a ‘Ta-Da’ like in the commercial. I reapplied it multiple times but it still was not good.

It smelled really waxy even though my Mom said it smells like watermelon. I told myself that I would give it the benefit of the day trail before I changed it but after dinner today, I had to go back to my Strawberry Fields from yesterday!:

And just in case you forgot, I want to be able to hear this song again:

Strawberry Fields

My hair is shaggy and overgrown and I only have one eyebrow now but, I still HAVE to have my chapstick! I noticed a little while ago that my pink grapefruit chapstick had almost come to its end. I only use Burt’s Bees So, I ordered a nice, summer-y 4 pack of chapstick. I like the flavors in that four pack but it was missing one. I ordered that one separately. It was strawberry! When my brother, Jimmy, brought me gum, it came in a nice plastic container and my chapstick fits perfectly in there so:

These new chapstick‘s arrived yesterday but I couldn’t try it out because I had already been wearing pink grapefruit for most of the day. I opened them up today:

The chapstick had to be placed in color order so I started with the first one. It was strawberry:

Once I opened it, it was a pleasant smell and one that reminded me of being young. It did not remind me of Strawberry Shortcake the cartoon which I still have a plate that I do still use often
It reminded me of the St. Alphonsus festivals when I was very young. I have reapplied this chapstick often today and I dig it. I’m reminded of this song because I chose the strawberry one:

33 Years?

I searched for this cartoon awhile back because I remembered watching it fondly with my cousinTs:

And I thought of this one probably about a week ago:

So yesterday, this cartoon popped up in my YouTube feed:

I kind of got excited when this cartoon showed up and I vaguely remember it watching it when I was a kid. I laid on the green carpet in my Parents’ house back when there was still carpet there and my Dad was still alive. I’m excited for other cartoons to show up in my YouTube feed as well! Has it really been about 33 years? I’m so old!!!

My 6th and 7th Covid-19 Tears OR Uncertainty

I received an email yesterday. It was regarding Sean‘s commencements. When I started to read that email, that was my sixth Covid-19 tears.

The email detailed procedures for the baccalaureate mass and commencements. Only the students are allowed in the church for the baccalaureate mask and it will be live streamed. I had to stop reading because I was crying too much. Sean’s prom and senior lock-in have been canceled.

This morning, my Mom read me the email and it’s entirety and my seventh COVID-19 tears started. I cried today be cause I wanted to be at commencements because this would be the combination of 12 years of hard work and it was supposed to be wonderful. At the end of the email, there was a caveat saying that maybe it will be canceled completely as everything is changing so rapidly.

I cried because there is so much uncertainty right now. I also cried because I die in the heat now but I have to be there for my only son’s graduation! Don’t I?!

“Like a Champ!”

Today was the day for Leia’s Frontline tick medicine. I did not get to have her lay across my lap and put my cheek in her head; but my girl is so chill that she was napping and my Mom was able to apply it while Leia laid in her bed.

She did pick her head up once but she did not move. Once my Mom was finished applying the medicine, I told her that she was, “Like a champ!” Leia lazily lifted her hand and I looked at her and told her, “Both of you!”

I missed having her on my lap but she has gotten a little bit bigger and I liked how easy this was for both of them! Now, both of them are sleeping:

#MyGirlL: “So Fresh and So Clean”

A while back, we had a TeleTails appointment with the vet that Leia was going to go to but her appointment wasn’t scheduled for a while. We called because Leia was losing hair in patches and we didn’t know what to do. I swore she had mange! The vet didn’t think so and she prescribed two tablets of Benadryl daily and two baths with oatmeal shampoo a week for Leia.

Now, I’m still pretty new at this whole, “Dog person” thing and Leia’s smell was difficult to get used to, for sure! But with her having so many baths, that’s not a problem anymore! This was her this morning, right after her bath:

She doesn’t really like her baths and they take a lot out of her! I think it’s funny that it always makes me think of this song:

That’s funny to me because I always would sing that song to Sean when he was dressed up for a formal at school. We also changed her food yesterday but I was too tired to write about it but this is what she eats now and she digs it:

Random Tune #54 in my YouTube Feed

I’ve been searching for two days in vain to find a picture of a poster I hung in all of my classrooms. That poster is somewhere in my basement now. It’s based on this song:

It wasn’t until this version of the song showed up in my YouTube feed today when I realized why I had that poster!

The poster I had was just an handmade poster in large font writing. It hung over all of my desks with my computer. It said:

“There is no failure here – just when you quit.”

I chose to just put a dash in because I did not know what I would call my kids and I didn’t really dig the, “Sweetheart” part and didn’t know that I would be comfortable having that posted on my wall. As it turns out, I ended up calling my kids, “Honey.” The video that showed up in my YouTube feed was the live version of the song and I have decided that I really do LOVE Bono!!!