When you call a business, do you sometimes continue to carry on side conversations after dialing the business?
If so, did you know that the person at the other end of the line can hear you clearly…and sometimes hear the others too? Especially when you are shouting?
This week at work, I answered a call with my usual professional greeting, and immediately the caller shouted, “Grab your underwear and put some lotion on!”
Then she began speaking to me as if nothing had happened.
Sometimes you just need to laugh.
This gallery of absurdly bad “glam” photos show made my day!
(Click on the link below)
It has recently come to my attention that I am not the most spontaneous person in the world.
I thought I was spontaneous, but then my husband suggested an activity in the afternoon and I had to ask questions before considering the activity. He gave up fairly quickly.
I felt guilty when I saw how easily he gave up. Obviously he had been down that road before and knew it wouldn’t lead anywhere.
I thought to myself, ‘I want to be spontaneous…I just need advance notice first — you know, so I can plan ahead.’
I noticed the contradiction. Plan ahead to be spontaneous?
I know I used to be more spontaneous when I was younger. When I was eighteen, a guy told me he liked the fact that he could call me up and invite me out and I would be ready in ten minutes. Now I need to know what is going on, how long it is going to take, and what the weather will be like.
Is it maturity? Is it anxiety? Am I just no fun any more?
I blame children. I see the results of their spontaneity. Chaos, everywhere I look.
Once, a neighbor boy pulled the fire alarm in my apartment building. I think it was the loudest thing I have ever heard in my life, aside from monster trucks driven indoors. We all milled around outside at sundown, children without coats, a woman with a towel wrapped around her hair, waiting for someone to end the horrifying noise.
Another time, a different boy in our apartment complex found a large sheet of glass and broke it. I don’t know where the glass came from, but I know where it ended up: everywhere. In the parking lot where all the kids play Nerf gun wars. In the grassy area where people walk their dogs. Endless shards and shards and shards of glass.
I called out to the boy, ” Don’t you know any better than to play with broken glass?” and he dropped what was left and ran off. I spent the next hour or so sweeping up, filling half a bucket with glass fragments, abandoning the unfinished load of laundry and the boneless chicken breasts baking in the oven. My husband had to come out and ask me what all the timers were for.
Hey, maybe I am spontaneous after all.
Just not in a fun way.
I’ll have work on it.
1. Weather
I hear that snow, also referred to as “winter” in this region, may occur soon. How soon? Who knows?
2. Appropriate Footwear
Clothing is on my mind each time the weather changes — especially now that I live in a different climate. In California, I wore open shoes unless it was raining. Sandals, thong toed footwear (my toes being the only place thongs are allowed), clogs, and a variety of other open-backed shoes — these are what I wore in my daily life. I own one pair of athletic shoes (seldom worn before I moved) and one pair of rubber rain boots. I also own a nice pair of wooden-heeled leather boots which I acquired shortly before the move and which would almost certainly be ruined by inclement weather.
My current plan is to wear my sneakers every day, but I expect this will cause shoe odor rather quickly.
3. Ability to Drive Safely in Snow for Sustained Periods of Time
I am proud to report that my first real snow driving experience, which occurred in a nasty snowstorm in Wyoming during the trek to Nebraska at the tail end of last winter, was a success.
The snowfall was such that I was unable to see the road. I drive a white car, which also happens to be low to the ground. On the plus side, I (accompanied by a child) was driving behind a very tall rental truck driven by my husband (accompanied by another child), and I was — fortunately — able to see the top two feet of the back of the truck’s cargo area. I followed the roof of the truck until the rest of the world eventually reappeared and my sanity was restored.
I exaggerate. I was sane while driving. In fact, remaining calm in stressful driving situations is one of my specialties. I will, however, admit to a case of nervousness in the above situation. If I had been unable to see the truck roof, I would have been altogether uncertain whether to continue, or to simply stop in the middle of the white oblivion and hope that people (wearing appropriate footwear) would say nice things about my son and me at our funerals.
Again, I exaggerate. I think I would have continued to drive very slowly into the white oblivion, hoping to stay on the road I couldn’t see. I shouldn’t joke about snowy burials because my husband reads my blog and he won’t think it is funny. He worries, you know.
4. What People With Appropriate Footwear Will Say at Our Funerals
Just kidding, Honey.
5. The Location of My Camera Cord
I’m sure it will turn up somewhere, and then I can post digital photos again. In blog posts, for example.
6. Many Other Aspects of My Life
Life is always “to be determined”.
My life has been full of surprises this year.
I didn’t expect to move to another state.
I didn’t expect to find a beautiful 100% cashmere, beaded, Oscar de la Renta sweater at The Salvation Army store for $1.99, in my size. Sure, there is a tiny chip on one of the beads. Beads can be replaced, people! Would you give away a classic Mustang because it had a flat tire? I don’t think so.
I didn’t expect to see horizontal lightning while driving home from work. I’m pretty sure they don’t have that kind of lightning back in California.
I didn’t expect to get a bowl of soup with my meal when we went to lunch that day, but there it was…soft yellow, creamy looking, in a little white rimmed bowl, on a little white plate, served with a rounded spoon and two traditional cracker packets. Perfect.
“What kind is it?” my husband asked.
“Cold!” I exclaimed in surprise, “and lemony…or just sour.”
Confusion set in before I realized, with embarrassing clarity, that what I had tasted was not soup at all. This was the Italian dressing for the salad I had ordered.
My life has undergone significant changes this year. So has my body. Most of my clothes are two sizes too big.
I can’t afford a new wardrobe. I was smaller and then I got bigger. I thought I would never be smaller again, so I got rid of my smaller clothes. Now I am smaller but I can’t get rid of my bigger clothes. This is a problem.
Who wants to hear someone complain about losing weight? Not very many people. Of this I am certain.
I am happy to have a more active lifestyle, which is cheaper than a gym membership and more effective.
I have stairs in my life. I have a job where I can’t sit down or stay in one place. I have laundry facilities outside the home. I don’t know where various things are at home, so I spend a fair amount of time walking in circles, looking around and inside and through and under and behind. I am using all of the prepositions I can think of.
Months after moving, we still have Mystery Boxes. If you have ever moved, you probably know exactly what Mystery Boxes are.
We also have a shortage of furniture. We left things behind. Big things. Things that held smaller things. Where do the smaller things go when they are no longer held by the bigger things? They go on the floor. I can’t afford to get new bigger things to hold the smaller things. This is a problem.
These problems are not big problems.
I have loose clothing. I need to step over things on the floor.
These problems are small.
I had one of those days today.
You know…those days when something very simple is expected to happen, only it doesn’t happen, and the simple thing not-happening means that those grand things that would have made your life so much brighter are also NOT happening.
And still the sun shines, and the flowers bloom, and the children laugh, and a guy named Mike publishes a blog post called Welcome to Blue Sky, Rhode Island. Population: One Totally Plibbed-Out Sixth Grade Girl Who Goes by The Name of None-of-Your-Beeswax-if-That’s-Okay-With-You-Mister-Flibbertijeepers and it surprises the heck out of me with its creativity, widening my eyes and possibly my horizons. (When you read Mike’s post — because you must read it — be sure to notice the tags at the bottom.)
Life is beautiful, even if you are hiding in the closet and feeling plibbed-out.
~ACS
The month of January has come around again and people want to be perfect. It happens every year.
No point in trying to overhaul your life all at once. Relax.
Just pick one specific problem to solve. When that is done, think of another problem.
CAUTION: Be sure not to think of all of the problems at once! That is a rookie mistake. You might end up catatonic.
Recently, I thought about my pants and felt annoyed. I realized that I had a pants problem. Some pants were too big, some were too small, some were too long, and most of the pants were not where they were supposed to be. (I was going to say that some of the pants were “too old”, but let’s be realistic — too old means too small.)
I have the pant situation under control now, thanks to some hemming, some hanging, and some handing off to charity. I have nine pairs of pants, and that is plenty.
Pants can be symbolic of life. I have watched What Not to Wear enough times to know that I am supposed to dress for the life I want, and the body I have. Those shiny, stretchy, hot pink pants I used to wear would not work for me now. I am a decade older, I am a size larger, and I go out less frequently. This sounds bad, but it isn’t. I would not trade the last decade for a trim waistline and a pair of pink pants.
There is a happy middle ground between pink pants and mom jeans, however, and that is where I am staying.
“Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it.”—Unknown
Could some of your clothes make you happy by leaving your closet? Would the disappearance of that pile of papers put a spring in your step?
If the glass hummingbird figurine your grandmother gave you when you were in grade school suddenly took flight through an open window, would you breathe a sigh of relief?
Imagine that your clutter wants what is best for you.
If only the expired coupons had hands, they would toss themselves right into the waste basket. If the shoes that hurt your feet could walk on their own, they would have shuffled off to the thrift store ages ago.
Those old VHS tapes regret taking up your shelf space. They don’t want to stand in your way. They want you to be fulfilled, to live the life you have always dreamed of.
Make it an amicable parting of ways.
Sign #1: You found your hairbrush in the microwave.
Sign #2: The spiders have constructed a town hall and drafted a constitutional charter.
Sign #3: The coat stand tipped over and crushed your favorite end table.
Sign #4: To get to the spare room, you need to climb out the window, dangle from the eaves and crawl through a ventilation shaft. (Be sure to bring a flashlight and a grappling hook.)
Sign #5: Poor Aunt Delores hasn’t been seen since she opened up the pantry door to find the dog food. What day was that? Where is the dog? Well, maybe they went for a really long walk…
A Clean Surface. 