And the good news is I'm getting better!

Yesterday, Sunday, I actually went back to work. I still sound a little ragged, I tire easily, my cough sounds pretty nasty--but I'm definitely on the mend.
And that's wonderful news because I'm tired of being sick.

Have you read Dean Koontz's newest book, Life Expectancy? I'm a big fan of his, have been for years. I just finished the book and it was good, but not as good as most of his.

Guess who's coming to The Ark in Ann Arbor on February 10th? Holly Near! I have a link to her site on my website. www.hollynear.com She is my favorite singer in the whole wide world. I'd raelly like to see her on the 10th, but I don't know. I'd hate to miss any more work after having all last week off.

Tawny
tawnyford@webtv.net

Day Four (if anyone's counting) and I'm still sick.

For what it's worth, I think I'm getting better.

I've got this this 5 Day Plan. If I'm not showing measurable improvement in 5 days then it's time to see the doctor.

You see, the last time I was really sick was in 1998/1999. In December '98 it started. I thought it was just a cold, something I could handle on my own with non-aspirins and fruit juice. By the end of the month, getting sicker by the minute, I was caught because of the holiday and couldn't get a doctor appointment until after the 1st. By the time I saw the doctor I was a month into a bad one.

By the time I got a clean bill of health it was mid-February. Turns out I'd had some sort of upper respiratory infection. I had to see a specialist, take ten tons of antibiotics of varying strengths, went deaf in both ears, and was throwing up mucus for hours every night. Truth is, I thought I was going to die.

On the plus side, I got over all of it. And it seemed to give me some sort of an immunity against illness because I wasn't sick again until four days ago.

The 5 Day Plan was born of that sickness. If I'd gone to the doctor right away I could have saved mysef a lot of misery, heartache, money, etc.

If you get sick, if you don't show signs of improvement in 5 days, call the doctor. Better safe than sorry.


Tawny
tawnyford@webtv.net
tawnyford.com

Okay, so yesterday and today, if you called me, you heard the answerring machine tell you that I'm sick. And I am, too. I mean, I work all of the time, so if I'm too sick to work then you know something is up.

Whatever it is that I have, and I'm self-diagnosing it as a cold, I think I caught it last Friday at Cosco's. Yeah, I know it's wierd to try and pin point where you picked up a germ, but I'm positive it was there. When I got home I had this sinking feeling and I just knew, however it is that you just know something, I just knew I'd picked up a bug.

So I've got a cough, and I sneeze, and my nose runs, and I even throw-up every now and then. This is not a pretty experience.

My friends, when they're off sick from work, they lie around and watch tv, they read, they nap, they surf the internet. Me, those are all things I do every day inbetween phone calls. The only thing diferent for me when I'm too sick to work is that I'm sick.

Okay, so God willing, tomorrow I will be all better and back on the phone.

I miss talking with you.

Tawny
tawnyford@webtv.net

In case you're wonderring, and I'm sure you've been sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to find out (smile), I my truck is fixed! It got worked on again last night, same problem, sticking emergency brake. It seems to be fine now, knock on wood, and I am never-ever-never going to use the emergency brake again so hopefully all should be well. See, I have always put the emergency brake on everytime I've parked it for the last 4 years. Why? Because. But I'm not doing it any more, I'm just going to leave it in gear.

I figure on Thursday, when Bush gets inaugurated, the phones are going to be slower than slow. People always watch this kind of stuff on tv. So I'm going to take advantage of the situation and get out of the house and have some fun!
I'll catch up with you after 6-7 pm when you're burnt out from the tube.

I rented "I, Robot" (starring Will Smith) yesterday and really enjoyed it. Have you seen it yet?

Do you watch "Carnivale" on HBO? I do, but I don't know if I like it or not. It's so different......

I'm lookng forward to "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under" coming back on HBO. Sopranos is my very favorite, Six Feet is second. And "Deadwood", I like that too. I just had a little bit of trouble getting through the first couple of episodes with all of that darn cussing....

I guess that's it for today. Talk to you tomorrow.

hugs, Tawny
248-615-1300

Okay, so someone said I was little short, as in temper, when I posted yesterday. Upon rereading it I suppose I agree with them. But when that other person emailed me and asked me about my racial/ethnic composition, well, all I could think was 'duh...'. I just took for granted that in 2005 in the USA the majority of families were blended. My error, apparently.

So this is how it works, short version, in my family.

My Uncle Ray, who is white, married Alice, who is from Spain. My Uncle Bob, who is white, married Frances, who is from Mexico. My Aunt Jean, who is white, married Faraj, who is Palestinian. My Aunt Sharon, who is white, married David, who is Black. My cousin Gloria Jean, who is Black, married Bob, who is white. And so on
and on and on.

I have cousins who are part-Spanish, part-Mexican, part-Palestinian, part Black, part-white, etc. They are all my family.

Did I explain it nicely enough this time?

I just can't imagine a family that isn't like this.

In an effort to close on a pleasant note, and what is more pleasant than food (smile)? here's my recipe for macaroni and cheese. If you dig through the older posts you'll find my recipe for cooking collard greens. Before you know it I'll have taught you how to cook a whole meal! And people look down on phone sex (smile).....



Macaroni and Cheese

4 cups cooked macaroni noodles
2 cups grated cheddar cheesn
3 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour ceam

1. Drain the cooked macaroni, and return it to the pot you cooked it in. (Not on the hot burner. We're all done with the burner.)
2. Add butter and cheese to the macaroni. Stir until it all melts.
3. Add the eggs, salt, milk and sour cream. Mix it well.
4. Butter an ovenproof pan. Pour the macaroni mxture into it.
5. Bake uncoverred at 350 for 30 to 45 minutes.

This is wonderful macaroni and cheese!


hugs, Tawny
tawnyford@webtv.net

I received an email after I wrote about my Uncle David being stopped by the police. In it, the writer, who shall remain nameless, asked me how it was that I have a Black uncle when I keep telling anyone who asks me that I'm of Irish and German heritage. And, if pushed and pressed, like some folks have done on the phone line, will say that odds are I am whiter than they are.


Okay, it's like this. Doesn't everyone have relatives of different ethnic and racial heritage?


Tawny

Do you like ice cream? Silly question, I know. My favorite ice cream brand, at least right now, is Godiva. Yes, Godiva,the same folks who make that wonderful (but horribly expensive) candy. Their ice cream is every bit as lovely as their candy. And right now, this week, they're on sale for 3 containers for $5 at Farmer Jack, a grocery chain in the metro Detriot area! I bought 6 containers yesterday and would have bought more but, alas, my freezer is jammed with crazy stuff like chickens and hamburger (smile).


It's on the verge of bitter cold here. The door locks on my old truck, 1985 Dodge, were froze solid when I went out yesterday morning to start it up. Naturally, I didn't have any of that stuff that unfreezes them so there I was doing the hot water trick........


Then I went to drive the newer truck to town to pick up the mail and there's something wrong with the emergency brake. When I take the brake off, the dashboard light stays on, and it feels, as I'm driving, like the brake isn't fully disengaged. My best friend's husband is stopping by this evening when he gets off work to take a look at it. He thinks maybe it's just that the cable has rusted and needs some oil. He says it's a common problem with Ford trucks. I hope he's right.


Someone emailed and asked why I hadn't mentioned anything about the tsunami in my posts. I've purposely not spoken on it because I can't wrap my brain around that kind of earthly devastation and death. What keeps running through my mind is how could so very many people die at the same exact moment? and did we hear their last breathes? That probably doesn't make much sense but I've been wrestling with that thought since it happened.


The ice festival, okay, the actual name is Plymouth Ice Spectacular starts on Monday the 17th and runs through the 23rd. www.PlymouthIce.com I try to go every year. It's alot of fun. They'll have over 150 ice carvings on display, both in the town square and throughout their downtown area. If you go during the day and early evening you'll be able to see ice sculptors at work. But if you go at night, like around 11pm to 3am, Friday or Saturday, it's the best because the carvings are lit up real pretty and there are no crowds. You just have to dress really really really warm because it's always freezing cold during ice festival week.


I guess that's it for today.

hugs--
Tawny

tawnyford@webtv.net

My plan had been to tell you about the 80-something birthday party that my cousins Tricia and Gloria Jean are planning for my Aunt Shug this month. It's being talked about all through the family, from here to Kentucky to Indiana to Mississippi to California. Everybody is making their plans to come to Detroit for the party.


But the other night, Wednesday, my Uncle David had an unfortunate run-in with the police in a suburb right outside of Detroit. And what happened to him, I think, is more important to talk about right now than Aunt Shug's birthday party.


Here's what happened. Uncle David and a buddy of his were on their way over to Uncle David's daughter's house to drop something off. It was a rainy foggy night. In fact, visibility, according to the folks on tv, was at about 0. A few hours earlier there had been a 200 car pile-up on the interstate because drivers said it was like a white envelope fell across the road and they couldn't see anything in front of them. Two people died and a bunch more were injured.


So Uncle David turned into his daughter's driveway. A police car pulled up behind him. He got out of his truck, with his hands up so the police could see he had nothing--no weapon. He asked the officer what was wrong? what had he done? The officer pushed Uncle David up against the side of his truck and shook him down.

Uncle David's daughter was on the front porch waiting for him when he pulled up. He had called her on his cell phone to let her know that he was on his way, and she had walked out to meet him. She saw the police swoop in and slam him into his truck.


She started hollering at the policeman as she remained on her porch. She told him that was her father, what was he doing, etc. The policeman told her to go into her house. She refused, and screamed for her husband and son to come outside.


They continued to ask the police, from their front porch, what was wrong, why was he manhandling her father.


The policeman asked Uncle David what was wrong with those people on the porch? Uncle David told them that was his daughter and they were concerned for his well-being and safety.


The policeman looked at Uncle David kind of crazy. You see, Uncle David is Black. His daughter looks white. Her husband and their children are blonde.


Uncle David told the policeman that his daughter would believe the whole incident was racial. The policeman said he hoped she didn't think that.


According to the policeman, Uncle David made a right turn on red, which is legal here, just not at that corner because there's a sign prohibiting it. Then he said that he flashed his lights at Uncle David but he didn't stop.


Uncle David says he didn't make the right turn on red because he's come that way a gazillion times and knows it's illegal at that corner. He also says he never saw the policeman flashing his lights at him to pull over.



By now there were two additional police cars at the house. No one is sure if the initial policeman called for back-up or if neighbors called police because of the noise.


One of the policemen was a sargeant. He asked the officer 'what are you doing here?'.



His daughter says what kind of people take a middleaged man (51) who's quiet and peaceful and slam him up against his vehicle for a minor traffic violation?


And she wonders what the policeman would have done to Uncle David if his loved ones hadn't been watching?


If the policeman is a hater and he thought he had an opportunity to harass, possibly injure a Black man, or, worse--turn Uncle David into a statistic--in what he thought was an all white neighborhood and face no repercussions, obviously he got the shock of his life when those white people on the porch turned out to be family who refused to be intimidated into turning a blind eye.


This isn't exactly a situation where you can alert the media, or hire a lawyer, but it's sad. Uncle David's daughter says it leaves a taint on how her family feels about living in that community now.


It's only a couple of days until Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. It's 2005 in Michigan, not 1963 in Selma, Alabama.


It all just makes me kind of sad.

I like to stay busy, always have, and am continually trying to find something new to do while I work the phones. I told you about my little cookie business yesterday, remember?

Well, the next business venture on my mind is starting up a magazine catering to the foot lovers among us. It's still in the thinking stages, nothing definite to report yet, but I'm leaning heavily towards it.

Ever since InStep disappeared a few years back, there's been an empty spot in that area. Okay, I know there's Leg Tease and Leg Show, etc. on the market, and they're great, people buy them and love them.

I'm not thinking about producing a slick glossy paged magazine. My phone service, as exquisitely erotic, widely popular and incredibly successful as it is, isn't slick and glossy. You've seen my website http://www.tawnyford.com I'm as down to earth and real as I can be. That's my idea of a foot magazine, too. Real.

I'm already shooting and selling foot photos to some of my phone customers, as well as writing erotic stories to go along with the photos. The next logical step, as far as I'm concerned, is a magazine.

Let me know what you think.

hugs,
Tawny
tawnyford@webtv.net

It's been going on six monthes since the last time I posted. I know that's not a good thing. I'm full of good intentions, as are most folks, it's just the following through that gets tough sometimes.

Lots of things have happened since the last time I posted.


For one, Northern Exposure has come out with it's second season on dvd and that's a good thing. I love that show!

Secondly, Detroit public radio took my favorite show off the air, Folks Like Us, and that's a bad thing. It had run for almost forever on Saturday mornings and it was the best, if not only place on Detroit radio where you could hear a couple of hours of folk music.


I started another business---a cookie business! So for all of you who heard that wierd creaking noise while we were talking and who were too polite to ask--yes, it was the oven door. I've been baking tons of cookies, chocolate chip is the best seller, and marketing them at a place in Detroit. I'm making 50 cents a cookie. Mrs. Fields had better watch out (smile).

I'll write more tomorrow, promise.


hugs,
Tawny