No I'm not dead...

I just "re-found" my blog. It's kinda been in the back of my mind, but I didn't realize how loooooong it had been since I'd written in it. It's almost laughable everything that's changed and happened since I last wrote, in 2007! I suppose I will get to that eventually. Just wanted to post SOMETHING. We're now on the brink of 2011! It's December 12, 2010, so it's been more than three years since I've posted here. I am almost a different person! ha ha. So much has changed! Even my appearance! I started walking - mostly out of frustration and pent-up anger issues - in early 2008, and since then I've dropped a remarkable 46 pounds. I didn't even notice at first - Since that wasn't the "goal", I just felt better. Then people started noticing. So I figured I'd lost maybe 10 pounds or so. Imagine my surprise when I got on the scale and had lost almost 25 pounds! I have some sort of dimorphic body image, I guess. I didn't even notice much until my clothes started falling off. I've dropped about 4.5 sizes since then. Leave it to Miss Opposite here - I've been overweight most of my life, and when I turned 38 - THAT'S when my body decided to give me a metabolism! Go figure! Hey, no complaints here! Anyway, that's probably the least of it. In short, I left the building company, worked at the Boys and Girls club as the Art Director for about a year, sold my house, moved back to the island, got back into F&B after a four year hiatus, had my 20 year (!) high school reunion two years ago - good stories 'bout that one! - met the love of my life, lost two of my beloved pets, had a complete nervous breakdown (I'm now proudly the new poster child for Prozac! Yea!), well...you get the idea. So, just so you know I'm not dead now, I will post more later. Yes, hilarity will again ensue...

Nicest compliment EVER!

Wow! I've had a "not-the-best-day-in-the-world" kind of day. It's no big deal, but I've been a bit mopey all day. I think as the day wore on, I was just plain mopey because i was mopey, which is very uncharactaristic of me! I'm Goofy! I'm Tigger! I'm never Eeyore (although I know a couple Eeyores...). So it's like, almost midnight, officially the end of the day, and I'm sure I'll be back to my normal, bouncy, giggly, juvenile self tomorrow. So I was reading my emails before going to bed, and that wonderful, super cool, way groovy dude who suggested I do a blog in the first place dropped me a line in reply to a "hi, what's up?" note I had emailed to him yesterday. And I gotta tell ya - didn't he just say the right thing at the right time! It's the best compliment I've gotten in a while, and certainly the most original! And he only knows me via cyber space! He said,

"Your energy's like the opposite of a cold. Bottle it and I'll buy the pills!"

What a cool thing to say! That just made my day. I feel much better now!
G'nite!!

My Introduction to Harry Potter

Yes, I know - late bloomer, behind the times, yada yada yada...Reading the Harry Potter books and seeing the movies really are on my agenda!
Our local library hosted their annual 'Harry Potter's Hogwarts Acadamy' event this past Saturday. They've done it several years in a row now (a fact I learned, among many, since I'm finally 'getting out there in the community'), and this year the number of kids doubled from the past three years, making it around 60! (Again - picture it: Me, voluntarily, around 60 kids!). The children ranged in age from 8 to 12, and my reason for being there was to cover this event and take photos of the kids for our local paper's website.
I was quickly surprised at how cute and charming the kids were. This one kid, Pedro, was 15 and in high school and he "escorted" me out to the field where a group was playing Quidditch ( a Harry Potter game, for those of you not familiar). One of the volunteers asked him to walk me out there, so he smiled and promptly took my arm. Of course, I had to say to him, "No, silly! Do it this way" and proceeded to show him the proper way to hold out his arm for a girl. Hopefully that little tidbit of experienced wisdom will come in handy for him someday. But he really was charming, and some of the volunteers and library staff, all dressed up in robes and with names from Harry Potter, like 'Professor Von Viper' and 'Professor Von Skeet', were like, "Isn't Pedro precious? We just love him! What a great kid!".

So Pedro asked me first if I was a reporter, and when he was asked about school starting up, he started talking about studying! And in such a way that he felt studying was important! And that he was looking forward to it!! Then he asked me if I liked my job, and I said, "I never do anything unless it's fun and I enjoy it." He said, "Well that's good, because I know a lot of grown-ups who don't like their jobs and aren't happy at all, sitting in an office, etc. and I definitely don't want to do something I won't enjoy!" Wow - blew me away what this kid was saying. Part of me wished I had thought that way when I was his age.
My assignment for that day was to observe some of the events and take photos for the website, at least 60 to 100. I had such a good time watching, learning, and interacting with the children (I know, right!?), that I stayed for most of the day. It was a lot of fun!
The kids were all so talented, as I was able to observe them making their own ties, hats, and robes, and there were so many creative ones!
The whole day was a fun, new, and really interesting experience for me, especially because I generally don't like to be around kids, and that's putting it very gently. I generally, out of habit, run frantically and quickly in the other direction, in fact...But I even learned a few things about 'ol Harry Potter, and I was so impressed to see how all the kids knew so much about the books/movies, and at times, it was as if they were all speaking their own magical little language! They had been divided into four groups, representing the four houses in the stories. There were two different 'classrooms', Academic Dungeon 1 and Academic Dungeon 2, set aside for the game of "20 Questions", in which a Professor would ask questions pertaining to the series, and each team would compete to win with the correct answer, and I might add, all questions were answered by raised hands (!), waiting until they were called upon to speak (!!), and each team gathering in a sort of "huddle" to come up with the right answer. It was really neat to watch!
One of the most unexpected and surprising aspects of the day, was realizing that every kid there, again around 60 of them, was really well behaved. They were so "team-oriented", working, laughing, and playing together, having a great time, and - oh Golly!! - they were all so sweet and polite! Aside from obviously good parenting, I couldn't help but think that a tiny bit of this good behavior from a large pack of kids could have been just the tiniest sprinkle of the Magic that is the Harry Potter Phenomenon. If there's anything bigger than Harry Potter right now, I sure don't know what it is!
And staying there the whole day gave me the opportunity not only to talk to the kids and take their pictures, while learning a good bit about all things Harry Potter, but it also allowed me to meet the people who run the Library system and some pretty cool volunteers!

So who can guess which movies are at the top of my Netflix queue now?
And who'da thunk it? Me!? Spending the whole day around those kids and having that experience was one of the funnest, most interesting days I've had in a while! Or, to paraphrase that in "Bunnyspeak", Just another trip to BIZARRO WORLD!!

Barber shop with an interesting name...

Another one that's been dying to come out of my head and into cyberspace, or onto paper, or something like that, this one for years! I was driving through this small town a while back, and I noticed a barber shop that was named "Delilah's Barber Shop". And I'm thinking, "What? Why would any guy go to Delilah's to have his hair cut? How funny is that?!" Because, you know, Sampson and Delilah - Delilah cut off Sampson's hair, which made him weak. Hmmm...

Actually seen in an office supply store

A couple months ago, my friend Carolyn and I were in one of the large, chain office supply stores. You know the type - everything from computers and printing to calendars, art supplies, and office furniture. It was a rainy afternoon, like really coming down hard, so we were in there quite a while, waiting out the storm. She went to go find the bathroom, since they have one way in the back for the public to use. When she returned I went ahead and went. Now what I observed in the bathroom (one of those things that makes me smile and tilt my head) was a sign, that you could only see over the sink from the angle of exiting, not entering the bathroom. Right above the sink there was a sign, a printed sign, that actually said, "EMPLOYEES MUST WASH HANDS BEFORE HANDLING FOOD". I automatically chuckled to myself, because it's a sign you'd expect to see in a restaurant bathroom - not in a place like this. I went back out laughing to my self and looked at Carolyn, head still cocked, and said, "um, I don't suppose you saw that sign over the sink, did you?" She busted out laughing. Carolyn's one of those people who pretty much sees things the same way I do, and can see the "oddly funny" in most things. tee hee - that's all for now, folks!

the Infamous Storks and Corks Tale

This comes to you from about a year ago, but I thought it was definitely worthy of repeating in written form here.
One day last August, Mom called and told me that she and Dad would be out for the evening, then something about 'bird watching' and 'wine'. I was like, "What? Are you kidding? You and Daddy are going bird watching? Doesnt' that entail something like sitting still and keeping quiet for a while? What are you thinking?" Well, she explained to me that it's an event in their town that's for some kind of charity, and that afterwards there's an auction, wine, something else...
She calls me the next day and I asked how their fun-filled evening went. While she was relaying the evening's events, I was laughing so hard, which made her laugh, so I said, "Mom, I'll call you back. This is so good I have to go write this down right now!"
Following is my writing of this event from 8-14-06, and I might add that I was writing this as if I were talking to my Dad, because I knew I'd have to read it to him later, and that he'd appreciate the interpretation through my eyes:

8-14-06
Here is my interpretation of your evening:

You went to see the storks, which may or may not have actually been there, since no one told you to bring binoculars. You were apparently underdressed, a little chilly, and probably began to wonder exactly what your motivation to go there in the first place had originally been. You waited it out, since you were already there, until THANKFULLY, some kind samaritan near you offered to let you use his binoculars. At that point, perhaps you saw some birds, but were probably, by that time, a little beyond caring too much, so you probably used the binoculars out of politeness. After all, you wouldn't want the avid bird watcher with the binoculars to think you were nuts, right? So you let out a couple of "oohs" and "ahhs" for the benefit of the excitable bird watcher next to you, just long enough to feign interest. You could sense he was getting antsy to get those binoculars back, for fear opf missing some of the excitement.
Eventually you wandered in to the silent auction, and apparently only bid on the basket of liquor. I can imagine after all that excitement you could have used some right about then, making a mental note that next time, if God forbid there was a next time, you must remember to bring your own flask. I hear you were intently bidding on the liquor, and ended up winning! Then you saw, much to your dismay, that the bottles were smaller than you'd initially thought they were. Who'd have guessed you'd have needed your binoculars for that too? They obviously looked larger from a distance, much like those storks who, again, may or may not have actually been there... But hey - a little liquor is better than no liquor at all, I always say!
You take your lovely wife, your extravagant purchase of "mini bottles", and you head home to your cat. And on the drive home, you meticulously plan for the next exciting family outing.

Traffic on a Rainy Afternoon

Another one of my observations that makes me tilt my head, chuckle, and say, "Huh?!" to myself.

So I'm out today, running some errands, and it was raining. Where I live, when it rains, you really don't want to be on the road too much if you can help it. You know there's always going to be an accident, and you just pray it doesn't involve you. I'm heading home, bad time of day and week to begin with, but let's just multiply that by 10 since we've added the rain factor. Well, traffic is pretty much at a stand-still for a while, and I can see flashing lights ahead; way up ahead. But that's all I can see b/c of all the SUVs and trucks in front of me, and I have a relatively "low ridin'" car. Obviously there is an accident. I'm getting close to the left-hand turn lane that will allow me to go the back way, and again, I can't see much in front of me b/c of all the large vehicles. So I'm just at the clearing, when I see that the turning lane is blocked. No up ahead, at the intersection, is where I can see the emergency vehicles, but that's the only way you could tell something happened. I'm thinking, "damn - I don't want to stay on the main road - the back way is so much better." But what are ya gonna do, right? So i finally get up to the intersection, where there are half a dozen police cars, an ambulance, and a firetruck that has just pulled away. There are maybe three wrecked cars, and I say "maybe" b/c I do pride myself on not being one of those people who has to see what's going on. I just keep my eyes focused ahead of me on the road. So I get right to the light at the intersection, and there are two policemen waving the traffic on, and then I see the sign, that they've put in the middle of the road, that says - ready for this one? - "Accident Scene Ahead". And I'm thinking, "Really?! An accident scene? Ya don't say!" I mean, they could have at least put the sign down the road at the point you'd get in the left-hand turning lane, so you'd know you couldn't go that way, right? And I swear, at the point where you are told in no uncertain terms, "Accident Scene Ahead", well you've already passed the scene. There's nothing happening beyond that sign, save for finally flowing traffic.
Sigh... (but a sigh with much laughter).