More Random Thoughts And Things About Me

**Back in college I was as skinny as a fourth grader! Ridonkulous!!
See:


**I can't stand to let my feet hang off the bed...I guess I've just seen too many horror movies over the years.

**I will gag on a banana if I put too much of the mushy stuff in my mouth...as with other non-crunchy foods. I think this started in fifth grade when two of my best friends and I were playing around at lunchtime and stuffed as much banana (way too much) in our mouths as possible, then went to spit it all out in the lunchroom bathroom...so stupid! That's not the only crazy food related thing that happened in fifth grade...we had the meanest math teacher ever--I wanted to like her like I wanted to like everyone, but she was just so mean and boring. Well one day at lunch she happened to be sitting about two tables away--across from mine and we were joking around with those weird little potatoes we used to get at lunch that are in the potato gravy stuff and I put one on my spoon and was pretending to flick it at my friend across from me. Well, it FLEW two tables away and landed RIGHT BESIDE the dreaded math teacher. In my best class clown speech ever, I say to her "I'm not even sure what just happened Mrs. C. the potato somehow just FLEW right off my spoon. I'm terribly sorry, this of course will never happen again." It was most excellent. :)

**The first and only time I've ever flown was with James, my boyfriend at the time, in college. I was AND STILL AM terrified of flying. James had just gotten his pilot's license and gone through all the practices and tests and wanted me to be the first non-instructor that flew with him. Of course I couldn't say no to a quasi-new boyfriend I was trying to impress. UGH. It was NOT that fun. For starters I took too much dramamine...you know how most people can get away with half and feel fine? I didn't know this. I took two because I wanted to be EXTRA EXTRA motion-sickness-less! Instead I felt like a crazy ass-hyped up on crack cocaine where's my cocoa puffs just got sent to rehab patient. My nervous energy mixed with the dramamine was so not a good mix. But I pulled it together, I mean this guy was CUTE and worked in the paint department at Home Depot---could repair things really well--AND had a flippin' sailboat. I hadn't known him long enough to know what was wrong with him, obviously there had to be something right?! So anyway...back to flying. Once inside the plane, I sunk down as low as I could so that I could NOT see out the window---I do have a healthy enough fear of heights and of course flying was the one thing in the world I was terrified of most. That little plane dipped down every single time we hit pockets of air that were various differences in temperature. I looked out the window ONCE and was so stoked to be back on non-moving land when we landed. All in all, it was a neat experience. I was also SUPER proud that I held my shiznick together without throwing up or wimping out...I was on cloud nine. I have not flown on any airplane since----even though I'm told over and over again that the big ones are better---I think the fear is being crowded up on all those people and trapped with them in the air or something---that and thinking that the one time I get on one will be the time it crashes. :0 Sorry the pics are tiny---they're on a scanned scrapbook page. Bigger if you click on it though.

(oh and since I know you're dying to know, James...turned out his faults were deal breakers---too materialistic, with an attitude of being better than most people and not sensitive or caring in the least when things weren't all about him.)

**I once was told by a now ex-friend that I put people on pedestals and expect too much out of them--then when they inevitably fall, it upsets me.
This statement really gets to me, and I have dissected it way too many times over the years. I still stand firm in my belief that what is so wrong with expecting a lot from people?! I don't mean material things...I don't even mean their time and energy so much. What I mean is their ability to act like a decent human, a good friend...to be the one who makes some efforts every now and then too. I think people should be held accountable some. I guess the statement bothered me because it is partially true, with some incorrect feelings behind it. Yes, I do expect a lot out of people, I guess because I expect a lot out of myself...so it seems logical. I think that over the years too and after being disappointed by enough people, I've started putting less effort in, when I used to put all the effort in. I've lost the energy and gotten tired over the years, I've wanted someone else to take over and do a little more of the work. I think I felt like if it wasn't working back then when I did enough to be labeled 'friend of the year' then what's the point now?! That's sad to me too, that I've let people eat away pieces of me like that, like a slow burning acid. Now I invest myself in a much smaller few and it seems to get smaller and smaller as the years go on. I've been told this is a natural process, but to me it always feels so unnatural. Julie says this is why she trusts and invests in a very select few...but me being the eternal optimist or just plain stupid, I still put my trust in people that technically it is probably best to not.
Life is always a lesson.

Just some thoughts and photos....

I took a nap and woke up in a very ill mood from it...so I decided to post some bright, fun photos of mine that I don't think I've ever posted on here. The yellow circle one is of one of our day lilies in the summer and an 'amazing circle' technique I learned from someone on flickr. Now I have no idea how I did it, good thing I kept the instructions (somewhere). The other two are some ones I played around with of the light display from my only visit to the aquarium. Speaking of that...those of you who've gone to the Georgia Aquarium, did you feel like you saw more people than varieties of aquarium life? I did. I also get a little sad at aquariums and zoos because I feel badly for the animals being stuck in a 'fish bowl' so to speak...I know it's better for some because of endangerment and also that some don't know what the 'outside' is like anyway, I'm just sayin'.

By the way, I'm thinking the ill mood is 100% due to the fact that as of tonight my Spring Break is over and back to work. As a teacher, I'm fortunate to even have a Spring Break...but I so love being at home. I don't hate my job, I just like being home that much more. People get bored at home?! There's so many things to do! I can see getting stir crazy and needing something new to look at, but definitely NOT boredom.

I read a neat quote about that...now to see if I can find it again! :)

Woman's Best Friend

Lennye has a very sweet post about her new grand-dog which immediately got me thinking about the precious stories in a new book I'm reading called Woman's Best Friend: women writers on the dogs in their lives. I LOVE it so far! Every short story I've read in it has brought tears to my house, some happy and some sad. The book is not full of cutesy little stories about how everything is sunshine and roses when loving and caring for a dog...it's "real" stories about how though you have to clean up a lot of messes at times, mop up muddy footprints right after mopping, etc...they have this way of showing you how to love even when they might be a scraggly little dog that you never even really wanted to love in the first place. They somehow sneak into your hearts. My three babies all have their own little snuggly places in my heart and all have their different ways of getting on my nerves and their ways of doing something that makes me melt. I've recently branched out in my blog lurking to find blogs that I'm surprised I didn't look for sooner which include people who love their dogs like children, people who blog mainly about their pets. I've left numerous comments on the "crafty" people's blogs and the "designer" people's blogs because I like looking at their pictures and their pretty things they make and the pretty houses they live in (some with the kind of furniture that obviously barely has people sitting on it, much less DOGS), but I don't really fit into those categories. It's like trying to be in a group in high school that you just don't seem to fit in and no matter how much you like what they have going on, it's just not going to work and you just need to get your butt back over to "your" group's table. Sometimes in life people try too hard to see the differences of your lifestyles, and not how you are similar. You go from having many things in common to all of a sudden not. As I've gotten older, it happens more and more with the circle of friends getting smaller and smaller because of this reason or that reason. It's an occurrence that saddens me. But in the blog world, that's not something you really have to put up with because you can just CLICK and be someplace else! A lot of people won't even visit your blog after you've commented and after a couple of times of that, I might look at your blog, but am not going to bother with giving you compliments or acknowledge you exist anymore...because if you can't reciprocate, the only child in me kicks in after a little while and tries to go find some love and acceptance somewhere else. :) The one thing I've noticed about some of the dog people blogs is that some of them write their blogs as though their dogs are talking in a constant, not completely English, cutesy baby voice and that's just not something I can get into even if the stories are cute. And Lennye thinks MY dogs are spoiled! So...to make this long story which I did not intend to become long, short...I'm trying to say that I'm trying to find my niche, the place to be while the crafters are making things and talking to crafters, the designers are designing and the mommies are mommying...I'm searching for those bloggy buddies that have dog children but don't write in baby talk (talking to your pets in a cutesy voice is one thing, writing in baby talk is another--for me anyway), who maybe even have some of the same things in common like loving home improvement projects, and just might enjoy a random photo of a cupcake or paint peeling off a wall every now and then too! :)
Casey did this to himself at bedtime when I was going around giving nightly kisses...I know, I know...but it was adorable and I had to get some pictures. Poor Nikki doesn't resemble a schnauzer, hair cut for her coming up too!

Unoriginal? What?!

Sarah, you're not even going to believe this one! Apparently "redonkulous" is not original! Can you even believe that someone else made up such a crazy word and more insane people use it than just me?! While surfing the net I found it on someone's website then decided to google it this morning...and it's more commonly used than just out of the mouths of monkeys. It says that it originated on the t.v. show "The O.C." which I've never watched. Julie and I were both floored...I seriously thought that was some stupid something I had come up with! So now I don't know if I saw it at some point and time and it was just hanging out in my brain, or if it was something I just happened to say one day. Weird. Like we always say, there's pretty much no original ideas left in the world, which I'll have to be honest and admit that sometimes I think way too much about how I'd like to come up with ONE single thing that has never been thought, said or done.

Cupcakes

Thought for the day (actually not just today but several days):
We want to own a cupcake shop...how fun would that be?! Think about it...if the downtown building had an upstairs, someone could do their photography studio up there...and someone could have a bookstore included along with a coffee shop...all my friends and the things they love included in one awesome shop...that would be too radical! NATURALLY we'd have to have free wi-fi running throughout the joint! Wouldn't want any of us having DT's. ;)

Huh?!

Noteworthy conversations from last week:

This conversation took place while teaching a class of 2nd graders about warm and cool colors...

"Ok guys, when you are trying to remember which colors are in the warm color group, think of things that are warm or hot...like fire, lava, the sun...you will then be able to come up with all three of the main warm colors. O.K.? Someone name me one warm color."

"Me, pick me Ms. G.!"

"Ok, what is one warm color?"

"HOT SAUCE!"

This is part of a conversation Julie and I overheard in Macon at the Barnes and Noble while looking at books in the Art section:(It was two guys that looked like they were in their early-20's)

"Oh wow, there's an Andy Warhol book, I've always wanted a Warhol book!"

"Who?! Who is Warhol?"

"You don't know who Warhol is? Here, look--he did portraits of people like this."

"Oh ok." So...I walked away and then came back to hear the end of another one of their conversations and this is what I heard...I ABSOLUTELY could not believe it was for real...but it was!

"Oh look, an Aftermath book."

"Huh?!"

"You didn't know about the two planes that crashed into the buildings and killed all those people?"

"No, I didn't know about that." Then he proceeds to walk off and fidget with his cell phone.

I can almost forgive the guy for not knowing about Warhol...maybe if he never took an Art class EVER or NEVER watches anything on t.v. that doesn't involve naked bodies...maybe he could go his entire life never seeing a Warhol painting. I took all those lengthy Art History courses and don't remember everything I saw and who painted what and when...so I guess I could see how possibly he just never encountered two of the most widely seen Pop Art paintings of all time: the Campbell's Soup Cans and the Marilyn Monroe paintings...but how in the hell did this kid MISS 9/11??!! Where was he? I remember exactly where I was...I was in what I considered a miserable place to be at the time (which was actually safe, etc..so wasn't bad at all) but was having to be awake before 8am to draw a skanky nude man who had a Playboy bunny tattoo on his chest and came to our figure drawing class with a freshly showered mullet. We were drawing him with charcoals (thankfully I can't remember which region of the body we were on during that particular week) and listening to the instrumental "Somewhere over the rainbow" by Guns N Roses on a cd I had burnt (when you could still find amazingly obscure, awesome stuff on Napster and not get thrown in jail).

I don't know as much about History and the news as most people probably do, so when someone doesn't know something that you could at one time see on every channel, every newspaper, EVERY EVERYTHING...it is quite shocking and absurd to me. I'm still wondering where this kid was. Even if he was in Middle School, people still talk!

What Was I Thinking?!

Here are some random thoughts that have gone in and out of my mind this evening...

See this pink Christmas tree? I came THIS close to ordering it off ebay tonight. I don't NEED a pink Christmas tree! What possessed me to almost purchase this?! I'm still thinking about it...somebody stop me please. If you are a friend, tell me NOT to purchase this Christmas tree! Julie's at class and there's nobody to knock some sense into me...we have a really nice FAKE--Doesn't need watering/won't catch on fire (usually)/won't put needles on the floor for dogs to choke on/green tree...I do not need a pink tree...It is pretty though, isn't it?!


See this salad? This is the salad I made tonight with a packet of Honey Mustard dressing leftover from a Zaxby's salad. You know you've made your salad too large when it won't fit into one of your regular DEEP salad/soup bowls and you have to move it to a Pyrex bowl to stir it. (ps. that Pyrex bowl was an Ebay purchase when I used to collect them...I only need an orange one now--my luck, it probably once held human remains--hopefully that thorough cleaning I gave it did the trick. You just never can tell with these things really). Good Lord!

Which brings to mind two other thoughts...I can't stand to not have my salad properly stirred (I almost said "tossed" HAHAHA!) Seriously, if the dressing and all of the GOOD stuff is not mixed in well enough with the lettuce, I will think about it the entire time I'm trying to enjoy my salad. FREAK! Hence, having to pour it into a bigger bowl tonight. Hey, I have no qualms admitting that I'm a freak and I'll wave my freak flag along with the rest of 'em. You know who you are. ;)


Thought two about this salad is how it has left me in pain and I wish that I would have left one key ingredient out of it...that would be cucumbers. I enjoy eating cucumbers in salads, but afterwards I have the most painful indigestion or heartburn, I really don't know the difference. Whatever it is, it's bad and causes me to eat Tums which taste nasty and we're almost out of them.
Oh yeah, that brings me to another thought I had...when people call cucumbers "cukes." Well anything that rhymes with "pukes" is a no-no in my book anyway...but putting a "K" in a word that does not typically have a "K" just makes me have that icky feeling like I just saw a clown that looks like the one from the "It" movie driving down the road in what looks like a "child abductor van" (gotta click on each one of those words for the full effect)with the "ice cream truck" music playing, wearing a stained "wife beater" shirt with blood on his face. Well maybe not THAT bad, but the whole situation just isn't right really. Don't put a "k" where a "C" goes just to make yourself seem cool. "Kustom Kreations?" Get a life...IF your stuff IS cheap crap, it isn't any cooler and more worthy of purchase just because you were fancy and COOL enough to change the letter "C" to a "K." Geez. Go back to grade SKOOL, moron.

One last thought, can you tell it's about time for the monthly visitor to arrive?! Gotta be coming shortly, seriously. Oh, and I don't like when people call that "Aunt Flo." Gross. Let's associate our aunts with good things people...even if they do wear their curlers to the Piggly Wiggly to buy a pack of Menthol lights after just waking up at 3pm.

I'm thinking this is the time of the month when I write my most humorous stuff...loving my dogs, photographing yummy french toast...that stuff doesn't sell. ;)

Hey lady, whatcha got in that pouch?!

Every Thursday night when Julie goes to her programming class, her teacher is there wearing a little bag/pouch like you would a messenger bag. Because she wears it religiously, Julie began to speculate if the pouch carried something of great importance. Each Thursday evening when she'd get home from class, we'd talk about what could possibly be in the pouch. For example, maybe she's a diabetic and instead of wearing the little Gameboy looking box on her hip, she keeps it in the pouch or perhaps she's allergic to something and carries an Epipen. Since this wondering was potentially going to cause damage to Julie's grade because of the deep concentration it was taking to figure out what was in the pouch and lack of concentration on her programming skills, I decided we needed an intervention. I proposed that we send an email to the teacher and this is what it should say:

"Hello, I'm writing in regards to your tiny pouch that you wear every evening. I have some ideas as to what might be inside it and wanted to share them with you...

Are you a crazy cat lady and have had over 100 cats and when one dies you like to keep a tooth from it inside your pouch?

Perhaps your parents died in a tragic accident and you were never quite the same, to remember them you keep their remains inside your pouch.

Or maybe you and your brother were playing outside in a tree house when something fell and severed his finger...this had a major impact on your life, so now you keep it in your pouch.

Were you fortunate enough to catch a rainbow or fallen star and hold it there for protection?

Is your husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/partner super tiny, therefore you wear him/her around your neck so as to not lose them?

Maybe you hate public restroom toilet paper because it hurts your hiney, so in your pouch you keep your Charmin or Quilted Northern even.

Maybe you like to eat little bites of cheese throughout the day and you keep them in your pouch for quick removal.

These are just a few of the ideas I had about the items located inside your mysterious pouch. Thank you for your time."

Turns out, pouch wearer revealed the contents of her pouch the very next class day when she had misplaced it. She told the class that she had misplaced her "neck safe" which held her keys, credit cards and money. I was a tiny bit sad that the mystery was solved before we sent out the email...and how depressing that it only holds credit cards. What a waste. ;)

Big Toe reveals the contents of his pouch. A monkey and some Quilted Northern (not for himself, but for the monkey's sensitive hiney.) Of course!