2008 March | chatting at the sky

more quirks as promised

March 16, 2008

In the spirit of focusing on things that are meaningless but still important, here are some more questions that I’ve just been dying to ask.

1. Do you have certain words that you just can’t use?
Most of the words on my hate list happen to begin with the letter “p”: particle, puss, pimple, putrid, pasty. I can’t believe I just wrote those words in my personal space. Maybe it isn’t normal to have a list…?

2. Do you easily buy and replace things for just you?
Like makeup, sunglasses, new underwear? I’ve had a Wal-Mart pair of sunglasses for over 2 years now. They are falling apart. But until I lose them, I just. can’t. get new ones. And my blush is a pink, powdery mess in it’s compact. But it still works, right? And the underwear….well, you know. Don’t you? Do you know? Or am I crazy?

3. Are you ok using a spoon at birthday parties?
When there is ice cream and cake involved, everyone seems to think it is SO necessary to eat it with a spoon. I hate using spoons. Unless it is for cereal or soup. I will use a spoon for ice cream alone…but when there is cake involved, I just can’t take it.

Don’t you love the way I disguise my freaky quirks as questions?

Filed Under a freak 19 Comments

a note from our old house

March 15, 2008

Don’t I look cozy and inviting in the winter time with my pretty wood door and my cute dormer windows?
And check me out in the summer…with my crepe myrtle and my sassy rocking chair front porch.
And that tree in the front yard…she’s such a show off. But don’t you want to live here? I’m a great house. And the tree isn’t so snobby once you get to know her.

So…buy me. I’m totally for sale.

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the real story

March 14, 2008

You know how sometimes you laugh so much you cry or you cry so much you laugh? And how sometimes when you’re really nervous or happy or worried, all those emotions come at once and it’s hard to separate them?

I know I’ve been talking about Sting and freaky quirks and 1993. That is classic me: pouring a lot of energy into stupid and meaningless things while big things are happening around me. Like, for example, we bought a house. Two days ago. It’s a nice house. A home of a house. It needs some work, which is why we still live in our house. That we love. But are growing out of.

So we bought a house. There is a story that goes with the buying of this house. It is a great story. Maybe I’ll tell it sometime.

Now we have two houses. We are homes owners.

And it is stressful. Exciting, too.

So that’s what I’ve been doing.

Photos to come.

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1993 unplugged

March 11, 2008

I’m going to risk blast-from-the-past overkill and publish this post. That’s me at cheerleading camp the summer of 1992…just to help paint the whole picture, you know. Check out how high we wore our socks.

Thanks to those of you who suggested I post a list of the songs on one of the tapes I found. I have actually listened to a lot of them and have been rockin’ out to Violent Femmes and the Gin Blossoms all day as a result. So here it is: the following is a list of the songs on my 1993 tape in its entirety. Nothing has been added or deleted from this list. Key words: recorded from the radio.

Side A
1. Sting Fields of Gold – 2nd verse only
2. Spin Doctors Two Princes
3. Phil Collins Billy Don’t You Lose My Number - Dance Remix version. Yes. I know.
4. Phil Collins One More Night
5. Peter Gabriel In Your Eyes
6. Whitney Houston I’m Every Woman – 30 seconds only
7. Spin Doctors Two Princes – for the 2nd time. I really liked this one.
8. Crowded House Don’t Dream it’s Over – 2nd half only
9. Kenny G – I have no idea what or why.
10. The Ronettes Be My Baby – I went through an Oldies phase.
11. Gloria Estefan I See Your Smile
12. YWCA personal fitness commercial

Side B
1. Whitney Houston Where do Broken Hearts Go
2. Simply Red If You Don’t Know Me by Now – because it always reminded me of Alex P. Keaton and his girlfriend on Family Ties who ended up being his wife in real life.
3. Extreme More Than Words
4. 4 Non Blondes What’s Up? - the song where they don’t ever actually say “What’s Up?” It’s more like “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. I said Hey. What’s goin’ on?”
5. Sting Fields of Gold – Again, 2nd verse only.
6. Boys II Men In the Still of the Night
7. Whoomp! There it is - Does it really matter who “sings” this one? Couldn’t get all of Fields of Gold despite my two tries, but this one I have. In its entirety.
8. Lots and lots of blank space.

Somehow this tape missed my UB40 Can’t Help Falling in Love obsession. Not sure how that happened.

And here I am with the Nester in 1993. I’m the one on the left with the teeth. She’s got teeth, too. But mine were more important cuz I had just gotten the braces off. And it was prom night. Good times. Except for the fact that my dress was long sleeves. Covered in sequence. And it may or may not have had shoulder pads.

Ok. That is all. Overkill complete.

Filed Under a girl, a sister 26 Comments

those were the days

March 11, 2008

Remember when you actually had to listen to the radio to hear your favorite song? And remember when you would stub your toe tripping over your Jansport so you could record the song onto the blank tape you had waiting for such a time as this? And remember how you really hoped the deejay guy wouldn’t talk over the first part of the song so you could get a genuine, mix tape worthy recording?

And remember when you and your best friend would sit on her bed for hours, mentally grouping every 3 songs that came on together to play “past, present, future”? Remember how you always hoped that your future song would be Save the Best For Last by Vanessa Williams because that meant the best was yet to come? Remember that?

I found these in my attic today.

One is simply labeled 1993.

All I can say is, thank God for iTunes.

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carolina

March 6, 2008

I’ve lived in North and South Carolina. I love them both.

In one direction, there are these. We call them mountains. I know you Colorado people may refer to these as rolling hills. But aren’t they calming and beautiful and sweet?

We also have an entire coastline of this. I didn’t see the ocean until I was 12. It was breathtaking. I’m so glad my kids will never remember a time when they didn’t know the blue on blue horizon of those vast waters.

I especially like North Carolina because we have more pronounced seasons. Fall begins in October and there are plenty of these.

Then winter comes right around Christmas, and at least a few times a year, we get this…and a deep blue Carolina sky to go with it.

And just when all begins to seem only cold and gray, these sweet ladies bloom in late January, spinning their lovely red skirts as a gracious reminder that new life is waiting to burst forth in spring.

By the time April arrives, the sun has once again turned all things warm. I love the palmetto trees found mostly in South Carolina. When we first moved there, I was in the 6th grade and I remember thinking it was so exotic to have trees like this lining streets and in landscaped grocery store parking lots.

I don’t have photos of all the other things I love about the Carolinas: the Spanish moss on Hilton Head Island, the skyline of Charlotte, the colorful row houses in Charleston, the baseball park here in my own hometown. I love that we say y’all and that we have great college basketball teams and that barbecue is a noun and not a verb.

I know I kind of cheated by lumping these 2 states together…but I’d love to hear what you love about where you live. Especially because this girl has never traveled farther west than Austin, Texas so I simply have no idea.

Filed Under a girl 38 Comments

that was so awesome

March 5, 2008

If you haven’t had a chance to read the comments from the last post, you are missing out. I have loved it…and man, does this freak feel normal! Here are a few highlights:

Most of you have a killer plan. Tonja even puts something in front of the door! And I hadn’t even thought of military wives. Laura and Mary are alone at night all the time. You are very brave women (for many more reasons than this, actually). Then there is Cath. Her husband is the firefighter chief so her plan (along with various booby traps around the house) is to call 911 and say she smells smoke so her firefighter fellas will come a runnin’…Brilliant!

It’s an interesting discovery to me that so many women have a plan because we will most likely never have to use it. In fact, we probably deep down don’t even seriously believe we will need to use it…if we did, would we really stay alone in the first place? I guess it comes back to what Tracey said: “If Jesus wants to take me via a murderer in our house, I’d rather be with Him anyway, and hopefully he will take my whole family at once.” Amen, girl…uhhh, I think.

Then there’s the feet. Angie’s baby girl is 45 pounds. She wears a 10.5 shoe and is only 2 years old. That is so awesome. Just goes to show the wide range of normal. Enough said.

Most surprising discovery: so many other people time themselves in the grocery store. I really thought that was just me. Nan even rewards herself with a donut if she makes her time. My kind of girl. Rosie times herself doing everything…this is hilarious to me, mainly because she thinks that is normal! What a freak! At least she doesn’t pee in the pool. Speaking of…

There sure are a bunch of pool pee-ers who read this blog.

I can’t tell you how fun this is for me. Your honesty is touching, really. So stay tuned…I have lots more freaky quirks to ask you about. I am determined to find one in common with Chickadee, who so far is way too normal. It is her birth-week, however and she wants to give you gifts so head on over there!

Filed Under a freak 6 Comments