Sparks Flew

As a kid I never passed up a dare.

Maybe it was because I was the ‘little sister’ and was always trying to keep up. Or maybe I was trying to prove myself.

Oh, who are we kidding, I did it because I was a jerk and as Bill Cosby says about kids, they’re all brain dead!

I was in seventh grade math class, being bored to death by the teacher. 

The ‘rowdy’ boys decided to fool around. They made a ‘device’ (for lack of a better word) out of a plastic pen and a brass brad. They bent the brad into a shape like a plug and pushed it into the end of the plastic pen and dared me to plug it into the outlet.

I grabbed it and plugged it in.

The sparks were AWESOME! They spewed out of the outlet like a beautiful fireworks display! I mean they SPEWED! Really far!

Admittedly, I might not have thought it through. 

After a moment of total shock and disbelief I thought perhaps I might have misjudged my decision and wanted to unplug the damn thing, so I grabbed the plastic pen and yanked. 

The pen came off leaving the brad in the outlet.

Now, before you worry about me reaching to pull the brad out I’m glad to say I wasn’t THAT brain dead! I knew better than to touch the METAL part.

Besides, after a few more seconds the thing blew the fuse and blacked out the school.

Problem solved.

Or so I thought.

The teacher was so angry with me he actually put me in an empty classroom ‘for my own safety’ until he could calm down enough to deal with me.

I honestly don’t remember what my punishment was but it must have been a doozie!

Killer Tomatoes

Not only is my hearing failing me, now my brain is too!

I was reading the news and came upon this headline: 

“Killer Tornadoes Cause Massive Damage”.

But what my brain read was: 

“Killer Tomatoes Cause Massive Damage”!

And I thought, wait, that can’t be right.

Or can it? LOL

Pink Tools

Men are funny aren’t they?

I worked as a technician at one point in my career. Mostly with men.

I wore a tool belt and had tools.

When I would take a break, I would leave my tool belt on the table.

Every once in a while some of my tools would grow legs and walk away.

It was frustrating because you really did use these tools all day long. And if you ‘lost’ one you had to keep borrowing from someone else until the boss could get you another. (Kind of difficult when you’re twenty feet up a ladder to say, “Hey, can I borrow that?”)

 Husband solved my problem.

One day he came home with a can of neon pink spray paint and painted all my tools pink.

Not one single pink tool ever disappeared!

Not even when they needed to borrow a tool did they ask to use my pink tools!

They worked exactly the same as the non-pink ones but they wouldn’t touch them!

Like I said, men are funny! LOL

I am Goal Oriented

I am very much goal oriented. I once made 13 stops on my lunch hour and still got back to work on time. (I broke a motor mount in the car doing it, but still.)

I used to be able to write out my grocery list at work, go to the store, shop, pay, drive home, put the stuff away and still have time to make a sandwich before heading back to work, on time.

What I’m saying is, I’m goal oriented.

Left to my own devices with no to-do list or specific goal in mind I wander aimlessly around. Much like the ball in a pin ball machine, bouncing from one place to another.

This is how my day went today:

Got up

Booted up computer

Logged on, checked e-mail

Surfed blogs

Wandered into the kitchen, ate breakfast

Thought about what to make for dinner

Looked into the studio, thought about what I might want to work on….

Wandered back to the computer, wasted more time

Wondered if the mail came

Realized I never took anything out of the freezer for dinner

Re-thought about what to have for dinner

Remembered I never got the mail

Fed the cat

Wandered to my painting table…..stared at paints…walked away

Turned on the TV…..wasted more time

The next thing I know, Husband is home asking “What’s for dinner?”

Ordered pizza

Ate pizza

Watched more TV with Husband

Went to bed

Goals achieved today:  GOT OUT OF BED! LOL

Gratitude

Why is it that some blogs catch our attention and compel us to keep reading and others we just stop on for a second or two and continue on our way?

What is it that makes us stick with a blogger, even when sometimes the posts aren’t really about anything?

I find it quite amazing that even though we can’t see one another here, we still make that human connection. Something touches us in each other’s words and we come back time and again.

Thank you for coming back.

Here’s to our continued friendship. I am grateful and honored to call you my friends.

Our ‘Wedding Portrait’

No formal wedding pictures for us! Oh no!

The perfect way to top off your wedding day.

Run into a caricaturist.

When we told him we had just gotten married he drew this and presented it to us as a gift! We had it framed and it hangs in the living room. (People think we're strange! I wonder why? LOL)

The Motel Chronicles, part one

Husband and I lived together for several years before I finally came to the conclusion that it might actually work out. (I didn’t have the best track record when it came to relationships!)

One spring day I said to him, 

“Hey, we don’t have any more vacation time this year but if we get married we get three days off. And with our regular days off it will add up to a whole week! Wanna get married?” 

(Romantic aren’t I!? LOL)

There were other mitigating circumstances too. 

Husband had been married before. I had planned a wedding, seen myself in a gown and veil, and lost an insane amount of money (without actually getting married.)

Also, by that time, my father was in a wheelchair and as lousy as this sounds, I didn’t really feel like being wheeled down the aisle. (Plus I don’t like being the center of attention very much.)

So, off we toddled to Maryland.

We had always been ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ kind of travelers. Never making reservations, just jump in the car and go. 

We arrived at the motel.

No vacancy.

What?

How can a whole Holiday Inn in Towson, Maryland be full in May?

I’ll tell you how….

Preakness week, that’s how!

For those of you who don’t know, Preakness is the second horse race in the Triple Crown. And it's an EVENT! There’s the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont. (How I could have forgotten that I'll never know!) 

There wasn’t a hotel/motel room available for miles around. The desk clerk said he could try the motel across the road.

I used to live in Towson. And EVERYONE knew that motel was the welfare motel. 

Where the prostitutes and drug dealers lived.

No thank you, I’ll find something myself!

Several hours later we were checking into the ‘welfare motel’.

Other than the mushrooms growing in the corner of the shower,  the stale smell of cigarettes from all the previous residents and the mattress that sagged in the middle so we ‘rolled’ into each other all night it wasn’t so bad!

How many people can say they stayed at the 'ROACH MOTEL' on their honeymoon!?

(We still laugh about it and actually wouldn't have wanted it to be any other way. Where's the fun in a perfect honeymoon! LOL)

My Favorite YouTube Video

The Moment I ‘Knew’

We were standing in the living room, having a fight.

Yelling and screaming at each other. Okay, maybe not yelling and screaming. That’s not our style.

But it was definitely a big argument.

Right in the middle, Husband (this was before he became Husband) walks over to me, wraps his arms around me and very quietly says, “I love you. I’m mad as hell at you right now, but I love you very much.”

It stopped me in my tracks!

Took the wind out of my sails, and any other cliché you can think of.

I was dumbfounded!

Other than my parents nobody had ever said anything like that to me before.

It certainly was a great way to end and argument!

I don’t remember what we were fighting about, what was said in the heat of the argument, but I remember those words like it was yesterday.

And THAT was when I realized he was a keeper!

And Then The Mailbox Held This!

Is this not the NICEST thing EVER?

From Jo at Gathering Wild 

Thank you so much Jo! You TOTALLY made my day!

I grin from ear to ear every time I look at it. I love your collages!

(I have trouble expressing how much you guys mean to me without sounding all mushy!)