Saturday Trip to the Vineyard in Pictures

A has been anxious to get me away from the house for a little relaxation and time together. She planned a trip to a local winery and then a tour of their vineyard. It was a beautiful day but cooler than normal for this time of year. I didn't care since it was nice to just be out spending time with my love and soaking up the sunshine.

I loved this shelter and think it would be a great spot for a wedding.

There are 2 resident vineyard dogs. They are definitely NOT guard dogs and I made fast friends with this girl. Later I shared my lunch with her and the other lab.

These grapes are the variety used in our favorite wine produced by this winery.

During the tour we could pick and eat as many grapes as we wanted.

I took advantage of that.

Hiding in the vineyard.

Wine produced from the very grapes grown here.

We stopped at the deli in town to pick up fried chicken and other goodies for a picnic.

We found a quiet spot on the hillside and poured our wine in the fancy glasses the winery gave us.

After lunch we purchased baskets and went out to pick grapes. For $3 you could fit as many grapes as possible in one of those containers to take home.

 Our haul...the extra full one on the left is mine of course. I LOVED these Blue Bells and they are the most vibrant color. The picture really doesn't do them justice.

Now I'm Really Frustrated

Over two weeks and my sweetie and I have not been able to "connect". She's been working long hours, I was away, add the additional stress and exhaustion...we just haven't been in sync. Today I was able to sneak out of work early so I hurried home for a little action. Basically I attacked her when I came through the door.

We were having a fabulous time and both reaching the point of orgasm when I feel a muscle cramp starting in my left leg. Damn it, I'll just work through it; I'm not stopping now. I shifted just a bit hoping the change in position will help and a full blown "charlie horse" hit right in the back of my thigh.  I was screaming and writhing and A thought she was doing something right, even though she admitted later that it didn't sound like my "normal" screaming. I was finally able to yell leg cramp as I rolled out of bed and nearly fell on the floor. She's sitting there shocked and dazed; telling me to walk it out.

I'm thinking what a mood-killer but maybe we can pick up where we left off. No, as soon as I got back in bed it started cramping again and A was trying to rub my leg and laughing at me as I apologized for ruining her orgasm. Finally she looks at me laughing and tells me she doesn't think she can get the groove back. I have to agree since the dogs are now barking and my leg feels like it could spasm at anytime. So now I'm sexually frustrated as well as having a sore leg. I need to start yoga and maybe next time warm-up stretching would be a good idea. Can we incorporate that into foreplay?

Update and More Straight People Weirdness

Around here things have greatly improved...along with my state of mind. Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers. It means more to me than I can express.

I'm happy to report that dad has greatly improved. Just a little over a week after having a stroke and given 2-3 days to live, he has now been transferred into the rehabilitation center and is improving daily. I talked to him on the phone this weekend and although his speech is still slurred, we can still carry on a decent conversation. He's bitching about the hospital food and staff so he's definitely on the mend. My brother and I moved his stuff out of his apartment Saturday in record time. My brother brought his son, step-son and a friend. Man those young guys sure can move! I didn't lift one heavy box or piece of furniture and we were finished in 3 hours.

A missed me like crazy while I was away (and the feeling was mutual) so she's been extra sweet and following me around with "google" eyes. This weekend I finally asked her why she was looking at me so goofy. She asked if I would rather have her leering at me. Well not really but then she laughed and said when she looks at me with those goofy eyes, she's looking at the woman she loves. When she looks at me with that leering look (which only happened one time when I was wearing a naughty Ms. Santa outfit) she looking at me like the naughty girl she wants me to be. UGH!!! She knows saying something like that could make me jump from a moving car and loves to get me embarrassed.

I wanted share another experience had while visiting my dad. I have been in some contact mostly via text with the old school friend who contacted me this spring. For the most part, the conversation is all about her (nothing new about that) but she knew I was in town and insisted we meet for dinner and drinks before I left to return home. Monday night I finally agreed. We had not seen each other in over 12 years but the night went okay and mostly I just sat there sipping my drink and listening to her babble on about her new boyfriend, not yet ex-husband and kids. I loved the fact her mom came to see me too since I practically lived at their home when I was a kid and she was like my second mom.

After her mom left, she started telling me how her new boyfriend wants to bring another man or woman into their bed. She's interested but nervous and he wants her to be the one to go out and find another woman to bring in. Earlier she had sent him a picture of the two of us and then he sends a message back asking if I wanted to "join them". Seriously, is there something tattooed on my forehead that says "hey, ask me and I'll do anything"! I politely declined and told them that I'm in a committed, monogamous relationship and have no desire to change that. I was too tired to say much more but when I returned home and shared the story with  A and other friends, I can't help but find myself more and more annoyed. Is this really what people think? Do they really believe we are all bed-hoppers, up for anyone, anyway, anyhow?

Silence Broken

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted. Time has been flying and I'm running to keep up. Every time I've attempted to write, I just can't find the words. There has been so much drama lately and I have not known where to start. So this will likely be just a long post about what I'm dealing with right now---You are warned.

I know I've written about my father being diagnosed with rectal cancer last September. He went through a lot of testing and finally started 5 weeks of chemotherapy and radiation around Thanksgiving. He did very well through his treatments and then had surgery at the beginning of March. For the most part, he came through that pretty well too. Then in May he started another 4 months of chemotherapy. He was feeling great and even went back to work part-time while he was finishing his treatments. Two weeks ago he returned to Ohio to visit his brother and sister like he does every year around this time. After a couple days, he started having trouble breathing and was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with congestive heart failure. His heart was only working at 15% and they had to remove fluid from inside and outside his lungs as well as around his heart. The doctors believe the chemo has damaged his heart and it's very weak. I have to agree since he had multiple tests on his heart prior to starting his first chemotherapy and again before he had surgery in March and all tests came back okay.

Last Thursday he was released from the hospital and my older brother was planning to fly down over the weekend and drive him home. I went to bed at 11:30pm Thursday night and at 12:30am my older brother called to tell me dad had a stroke and was airlifted to Ohio State University hospital. I immediately got up and started packing to leave but by 2am I had been up nearly 24 hours and A insisted I try to get some sleep before making the drive.

Friday while I was on the road, I got a call from the doctor telling me that there was nothing they could do to treat dad. His heart was only working at 10% and he was forming blood clots and had one near his heart. They couldn't give him blood thinners for the clots because of the hemorrhage in his brain. In the doctor's opinion, dad only had 2-3 days to live. My older brother was flying out in the morning and my younger brother was on the road from South Dakota. I got into Columbus early Saturday morning and the outlook was not very good.

It was a long weekend but somehow by Monday morning dad had improved and was actually joking around with the doctor when he came in during rounds. The doctor told us he was amazed to see dad still alive and apologized for his call on Friday. Monday they started treating him with blood thinners for the clots. On Tuesday they moved dad out of ICU and today they moved him to the rehab part of the hospital. He is not really in the clear though. His heart is still very weak and there's a real possibility of another clot causing a stroke or heart attack or his heart just failing completely. At this point it's still one day at a time. Tuesday I had to make the decision about when I had to leave and come home. Tuesday night I was back on the road to Minnesota. My brother left Tuesday too. Even though the reality is that I need to return to work and I can't just sit there indefinitely, I can't help but feel guilty like I'm dumping the situation on my aunt and uncle. Dad refuses to return to MN; he wants to stay in OH for rehab and make it a permanent move.  Now I'm so far away and have to handle things. This weekend  my brother and I are moving everything out of his apartment and putting it in storage. There's just a lot to figure out and I'm trying to avoid some other people's drama (mainly my mother's). Mom drama is the topic of a whole other post. It's too exhausting to think about...or write about.

So that's what's happening in my life right now. It didn't help me to be away from A for so long. We were in constant contact but I just felt lost without her. She was at home with the dogs and feeling guilty for not being with me. When she came home from work Wednesday, we just curled up and I slept the best sleep I had in days. You can't pay for therapy that works any better than that.

I've been a bad blogger...very bad indeed.

Yes, I'm still alive but have been out of the loop. The wonderful SB poked at me last week and still I didn't come out of hiding until today.  I haven't been reading or writing and I'm working to get caught up. My only excuse is that I've been busy. That's no real excuse but it seems recently every minute of everyday has been involved with something. I've been spreading myself too thin again. When will I learn?! It doesn't help that I'm hitting my mid-summer crash. Every summer were change our office hours to start and finish one hour earlier. The thing is that I don't go to bed any earlier so I end up being sleep deprived all summer. Right this minute I should be in bed. Instead my brain is on auto-pilot and I'm having difficulty putting a sentence together. When I come up with something interesting to say, I'll be back around.

Someone is playing basketball...

December 2004
Just after Christmas A and I flew to Miami and drove down to the Keys. We rented a condo about 20 miles north of Key West. We had stayed there before; a gated senior citizen community with a security guard at the gate and another patrolling on a golf cart. The seniors got together every evening for an activity like bingo, line dancing or karaoke; white haired grandmas in metallic gold crooning to Patsy Cline and suave grandpas in bermuda shorts, socks and sandals swaying with their lady to Hank Williams. Several days a week at 6am, they cruised around on the golf cart with a megaphone inviting everyone to join the pancake breakfast; only $2, all you could eat. Quiet time at 10pm was strictly enforced as well as pool and hot tub time. See what a wild partying couple we are. We actually didn't care-we were only at the condo to sleep. We spent the most of our time on the beach or Duval Street.

New Year's Eve we spent in Key West and what a wild party that was. Duval Street was so packed we could hardly move through the crowd and we welcomed 2005 with the dropping of the drag queen and a big kiss.

I'm sure the party continued all night but after making out in the car for awhile, we wanted to get back to our condo for our own New Years celebration and hitting the beach early in the morning is always a priority.  Somewhere around 3am I was just drifting off into that hazy dreamy sleep. I could hear a pounding-like the sound of a basketball being dribbled in a gymnasium; that resonating echo.

A nudges me; "Hey, do you hear that?"
I'm bothered by her and mutter; "What?! That's just someone playing basketball." I pull the covers over my head.
A throws the covers back and sits up in bed; "That's not someone playing basketball. That's fucking! I know what fucking sounds like and that's fucking!"

I think we were both up in a flash and to the window, opening it and peering out trying to figure out where the noise is coming from. It sounded like it could have been in the same room with us. By now I had realized beyond a doubt it was indeed fucking and VERY loud fucking at that. A points at the house behind us; "It can't possibly be them. I didn't think that old man had it in him." (The morning before we had watched him tooling around with his walker when the medical supply truck had come to deliver his oxygen tanks.)
I'm pointing next door; "No, no it's over there."

By this time the banging is increasing, the woman is screaming and he is grunting with everything he has. The sound echos through the entire area and I was sure the bed was going to come out through the side of the building. A yells out the window; "Give it to her!!" I doubt they could have heard us with all the ruckus they were making. The banging, screaming and grunting crescendos to the finale and then there was silence. A calls out the window; "Good job buddy! I couldn't have done it better myself!" Then slammed the window shut and crawled back into bed. The next morning we were up early to try to catch a glimpse of the lovebirds but they had already left. I didn't hear or see anything, but I kind of wonder if the grandpa on the golf cart with the megaphone threw them out for violating the 10pm quiet time. We've always wondered.

Just Crusin' By

Somehow I managed to cruise right through my 100th post milestone without blinking. I didn't even realize it until I was several posts past. Now I can't help but stop and think about what I could have posted here over a hundred times and if any of it was worth a damn to read. So I say thank you to those of you who stop by. I always enjoy your comments and if you prefer not to comment, that's fine too. I also have to thank all the bloggers I stop by and read too. I enjoy reading about your lives; different ideas and opinions. Getting a peek into the lives of other lesbian couples has made us feel not so isolated and we are living our lives more openly then we have ever before.

I'm on day 3 of my lovely 4 day weekend and finally some time alone. I love my sweetie dearly, but sometimes we all just need a day at home alone--to do nothing special. It's not terribly hot but the humidity is oppressive and makes it miserable to spend much time outdoors.

My holiday celebration was sedate. We met up with friends on July 3rd for a small town celebration. One of my friends is an Elvis impersonator and he was performing outside in the 90 degree temps and humidity. He joined in the salute to the flag with the American Legion. Too bad they chose to salute the flag with a toliet in the background.

Afterward, we found a quiet corner at a local restaurant to cool off and chat. As we sat around eating, laughing and gossiping, I looked around at these friends who have become more like family. It's more like they have adopted A and I into their family. Blood family can be stressful, needy and sometimes just a pain in the ass, but adopted family is sooooo much better.  We're planning a weekend at the lake in August, maybe Mexico this winter and New York City in the spring. Good times with the fun family.

On July 4th, A's dad drove down to visit and have lunch. Instead of hanging out with them, I drove 90 miles to pick up my newest foster. We met at a rescue friend's house and spent a good deal of the afternoon chatting. I consider that a great way to spend the holiday, especially since I was surrounded by so many lovely little Japanese Chins.