Overheard in...

Standing in line at Sizzlers, a 50-ish couple and a man in his late 20's.

1st person- "I'm going to get the Senior Special."
2nd and 3rd persons nod without judgement.
1st Person to 2nd person - "You should get the Senior Special, too."
Person #2 mildly grimaces and shakes her head.
Person #1- "The Senior Special comes with a free drink!"
2nd Person- "oh, I usually just get water anyway."
1st Person- "Yeah, but if you get the Senior Special, you can ask for water and then you can give your drink to 3rd person!" This said with a slight nod as he intently looks at 2nd person.
2nd Person aggravated now- "I'm not getting the Senior Special!
I... am... not...a  Senior!....and I don't look  like a Senior!"
1st Person has no reply, but you can tell he's miffed.

The waitress asks them, as they stand in line, for their order. 

1st Person- holding his hand half-way over his mouth as he "scratches" his nose, quickly and furtively, without making eye contact, says in a low voice - "I'll have the Senior Special."

omg!! It reminded me of something you'd see George Costanza do on Seinfeld! hehehe

 By the way,  drinks were not included, but were $1.99.

All Lanes Open!

I have always felt that the real "New Year" starts with each new school year but, that aside, here we are in 2012! Although I feel like my own granny when I say it, the times passes faster every year! 2011 went by in a flash!

This year, I'd like to see some changes. I want to look at the coming year with this attitude.

 ALL LANES OPEN

2011 held many joys, comforts, trials and conundrums, comings and goings, beginnings and endings.
I'm sure 2012 will be much the same. Life goes on, same ol' same ol', unless we want to do something different to make it change. The hard part is doing something different or I guess, doing the same things differently. I'm like most people, in that, I do the same things, the same way, over and over and am disappointed when I don't see different results.

But I can change anything I want, using all lanes to "get there", the scenic way, the fast lane, the carpool lane, maybe using some lanes I've never taken before and maybe returning to others that I had almost forgotten.

The scenic routes, the ways that make me happy, feeling like "myself",  I hope to take more often, probably in the carpool lane, sharing good times with friends and loved ones.

Most of the time, I'm going to try and avoid rush hour, although now and then, making it through rush hour gets your blood flowing!

I know I don't want to continue on the same rutted road, trying and often failing to avoid the same old potholes, over and over, ending up in exactly the same uncomfortable, but familiar place.
 Maya Angelou said: "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude".  Sometimes, that is all you are able to change and it is enough, but it definitely takes a lane change.

ALL LANES OPEN

This year, I'll work on making changes that will be revelatory, healthy and comforting.

ALL LANES OPEN

Robert Downey Jr, Chest hair and CGI

Since this is movie going season for many, let me tell you about the new Sherlock Holmes movie.

 I think Robert D. is a cute guy. I like his dark looks, his big, brown eyes . Remember back in the 80's when he was in the "brat pack", that group of young actors in all the John Hughes-type movies? Then he got into drugs, disappeared for a long time, and suddenly seemingly out of nowhere, came back as an action hero, (Robert Downey...an action hero?) in Iron Man and was again a wildly popular, a big star...how does that happen? I sometimes wonder if stars like him, with miraculous come-backs, sell their souls to the devil. Anyway...

Robert Downey Jr, a heavily bearded guy with thick, dark eyebrows, appears shirtless in his new movie, Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows, and has nary ONE hair on his chest! I found it very disconcerting and thought he was "creepily" smooth, kind of  "Edward, white, sparkly, smooth-skinned". Don't be fooled be the images on google, those "lightly-haired chest shots" were from the last movie, Sherlock Holmes. No, in the latest S.H. he is hairless.

And the movie was boring  I probably dozed through half of it, only waking when the next rattling,  explosion rang through the theater. 

So many movies now, with all their cgi (computer generated imaging) abilities rely, I think, too much on the shock and awe of the close-up shot of a bullet flying slo-mo through 7 different trees in a snowy forest, filled with realistic unicorns racing toward a realistic, yet fantastically other-wordly castle sat high on a craggy peak with, again, realistic yet fantastical see-through dragons gliding overhead as far off off planets rotate in a starry sky. Whew!  And the death defying feats, hanging from a speeding train by one pinky as it speeds around a hairpin curve next to a ravine filled with ravenous crocodiles...come on! While I realize you have to suspend belief, those scenes can't carry a whole movie. At least not to hold my interest. Acton films just do not hold my interest for long.

But if you like action films, CGI, Robert Downey Jr, or you just need a nap, go see it!

I'm done!

 It was a sunny day today!! After two weeks of smoggy, freezing, overcast skies it was a beautiful sight!

Shopping done!
Wrapping done!
Stocking stuffers bought!

Neighbor gifts, Cranberry/blue cheese- cheese balls, prepared to be delivered!
I've never, in many years, been so ahead of the Christmas game!

Groceries bought!
This humble little trio, a mom on piano and her sweet little children on their violin and cello, provided Christmas music to shop by. I was teary eyed as I pushed my cart through the aisles as their innocent, slightly squeeky but beautifully honest notes wafted down the aisles. It was just so sweet and true! It touched my heart with a grateful spirit.


All I need are some Bingo gifts and a unisex "big" gift. And tomatoes. And peppermint ice-cream. And something to take around to the young, single women from church that I visit. And flowers from Costco... Gee, I guess I spoke too soon.

Oh well, I still feel pret-ty, prett-y good about my preparations! That's what Larry David always says "Pret-ty, pret-ty good" Anybody out there watch Curb Your Enthusiasm?   Funny show, but get the edited version, otherwise you'll hear a lot of the "bomb". On another T.V. note, I watched Downton Abbey for the first time! Loved it! I must dvr the new season starting in January!

Excuses, Excuses....

I know I haven't posted in a long time.

I haven't died.
I haven't lost my fingers in a horrible industrial accident.
I haven't run off to join the circus. (although I've been tempted)
I haven't been placed into the Witness Protection Program.
I haven't started working on a PHD. (I'd have to get a Masters first)

So, what's my excuse?

I'm just kind of losing interest, that, and I'm lazy.
I'm not a blogger that likes to check in often, just kind of sharing my day to day antics. NOT that there's anything wrong with that! (I sound like Seinfeld!) Really, I love reading the blogs of those gals who do share their day-to-day, it's just not me. I usually have to have some topic that I need to blab about. And often, when I think of the effort it's going to take to organize my thoughts and TYPE it up, I just think, "ugh, do I really want to share it that bad?"

I'm a horrible typist. I can't sit down and ra ta tat some entertaining or thoughtful piece in a quarter of an hour! I know that if I practiced, practiced, practiced I'd would become faster, but I don't wanna! I practiced, practiced, practiced when I was thinking of a job change last Spring and I got up to a swift 37 wpm. I know, I know, stop laughing!

So, I'm really thinking of
a. giving it up
b. trying to write a small day-to-day antic every week...I guess that would actually be a week-to-week antic.
c. practicing typing WHILE writing the blog more often.
d. hiring a personal scribe.

We'll see. In the meantime, check back from time to time. Just don't worry if I disappear now and then like an old tom cat.





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Mother and Child

Amanda, of Baseball and Cocoapuffs, posted this pic, along with the story of her son's birth.

I have to tell you how much I appreciate this picture!

I am so tired of "fashion photo-shoot" birth pictures. I've noticed recently that many brand-new moms present a picture of dewy freshness immediately after giving birth, lying artfully arranged in a peignoir on the hospital bed, with perfectly styled hair and make-up, looking dewy fresh.
Whatever happened to a beautiful, wrung-out, happy, emotional, newly delivered mom?

Now let me also say, that if your thing is to look like a newly delivered Angelina Jolie on the cover of People Magazine, more power to you. It's just not my taste.

Maybe, because I always looked like a bloated refugee from a horrible natural disaster, holding a baby close while dressed in the standard hospital gown that came in light blue boxer underwear pattern or gray boxer underwear pattern, I am jealous.
That may be, but there is something so emotionally honest in the beautifully haggard new mom pics that touches my heart and sets my tears to start, that I don't find in the staged pictures.

So kudos to you Amanda, and your lovely, honest "Madonna and Child"!

Unfaithful

I'm sorry blog.
I have been unfaithful.
I have neglected you because I have found something that doesn't require as much thought to express myself.
Facebook.
Every day when I get home from school I check out the latest entries and I let the comments flow.
Oh believe me, I always have something to say!
In 20 words or less I can given my opinion, be a smart-ass or an inspiration, crack people up or at least cause a chuckle and in doing so I don't even  have to think of a title!
No one has to "leave a comment", something that proves difficult for some readers, simply hit LIKE and I know "you love me, you really love me".
It's so easy and shallow and now that school is back in session and I am working with 40 kids per day, I desire to play in the shallow end of the writing pool. I'm tired and brain dead when I finally have a minute to write.

So forgive me my infrequent posts, my 6 faithful readers... and watch for comments and likes on your F-book posts.