It's the Thought That Moves You Upwards

The Guy and I giving Bry some birthday love.

So, Blogger was an asshole and wouldn't let me post for a couple of days. Which means, this will be as brief a post as I can write, with as much stuff as I have to fill it with...

Okay. Another whirlwind weekend. Friday I worked a half day. I ran when I got off and then it rained and rained. The girls and I went and bought garden stuff, but didn't have time to plant it all. The Guy and I made dinner and went out for a couple of drinks for our friend Bry's birthday, but were home and in bed by 10:30.

We got up and got ready on Saturday morning and headed to a small town called Farrar for a bike race. It was a cold, rainy day, but it was an interesting race. Then we had to tear home.

We got home in time for The Guy to get some stuff from the store and me to clean and us both to cook, before Bry, his girlfriend and our friend Timmer came over for a birthday BBQ. Bry's girlfriend brought steak and pasta salad and this strawberry shortcake thing with homemade whipped cream that was amazing. We grilled salmon and made salad and friend potatoes.

After that, we stopped down at George's to have exactly one beer and say happy birthday to our friend, D. I was super exhausted, so I had to go home.

I went running, early on Sunday morning. Then The Guy went out and bought bagels. It was Coadster's 19th birthday, so her boyfriend was here all weekend. We gave her her birthday gifts and then The Guy and I headed to Des Moines for a criterium at the state fairgrounds, I had never seen him race a crit before, and it was pretty damn cool. When he was done, we headed back home again and got ready for Coadster's birthday dinner.

Coadster loves Red Lobster, so that's where we went. We all ate a ridiculous amount of food, then Stinky went to her youth group, Coadster spent time with her boyfriend before he went back home, The Guy went to play pool with Bry and I rode my bike for a quick hour. I went down a hilly route and tried to work on getting faster uphills. I think I'll need to keep working....

Hey, kids. Blogger is finally letting me post now. Jaysus! I'll write a longer post tonight. I just can't do it at work and Blogger was down last night and most of today.

I Love My Sunny Day, Dream of Far Away

Damn! I’m sick again. I don’t know what’s causing my weakened immune system these last six months. It could be that I’m not running as much as I’m used to, and my toxins aren’t getting released, or it could also be all the leftover stress from the tornado and my inflated water bill and the fact that Blogger acts up on me almost every other night. Mostly, I think I’m spending too much time worrying about the possibility of finding out that Zha Zha (Zhazha, Zha-Zha?) Gabor’s husband did, in fact, sire Anna Nicole Smith’s child.

Whatever’s causing it, I had the flu two weeks ago, a bad cold right now, and I’m tired of being sick. I’m sure at this point, you’re all smart enough to see what I’m leading up to. That’s right – a big lame excuse to do a random thoughts post. Now, it’s at least thirty percent lamer, because Blogger’s out of whack again tonight, so I’m writing this all out on Word and I’ll be cutting and pasting tomorrow morning if Blogger’s working then. So, let’s start embracing the randomness, shall we?

1. February 14th was my mom’s birthday. Had she lived, she would have turned 75. I can’t imagine how she would look at that age. I do know that my daughters would have loved her. My mom would have introduced Coadster to as many cheesy Broadway musicals as she could handle. My mom would also have let Stinky draw and paint all over her walls and probably even do it with her.

2. Today is Dex’s birthday from Degrees of Grey in Iowa City. Feel free to stop by and show him some birthday love.

3. At work, we answer all the e-mails for our particular business, which means, we see a lot of Spam. Today, the ex-nun called out from her cubicle, “Hey, I got an offer for Viagra at $1.59 a pill. Can anyone beat that?” Sadly, the lowest offer on my Spam was $1.79, so the ex-nun won again. It’s got to be rigged, she has Jesus on her side.

4. The girls had a snow day on Tuesday. Of course, I still had to work. I don’t even think the threat of nuclear war would close our offices down. When I got home, I asked the girls what they did, and they said they watched two movies and had a dorked-out dance party in the living room. I was so incredibly jealous.

Now, I must go and open Blogger so I can flip it the bird.

Well it's 1969 Okay, All Across the USA

Once again, Blogger won't let me download photos. I thought the new blogger was supposed to be so much better. I never had this many problems with the old Blogger. Ugh.

Okay, I'm just going to post this fiction-y-er-ish thing. Most of the events happened, but I was too young to remember them, so I made myself and my brother older in this and sometimes used accounts of what other people told me, and sometimes remembered bits and then just made shit up. Hopefully, you won't find it too long to read during lunch and your breaks at work.

1969

Tonight is a big deal. My dad keeps telling us, “Kids, remember this. This is a very big deal.” My brother rolls his eyes and walks into his room. I stay in the living room so I can be where everyone else is. I’m afraid to miss it. It is a very big deal.

My mom has set up the card table so she can put all the food she made on it. My grandma and my Uncle Jack and my Aunt Lynn are coming over. My Aunt Lynn is divorced and everyone says it in a whisper like it’s secret and we can’t say it around her because it might make her feel bad. Her daughter is a year older than my brother. She will never play with me. After they get here, my cousin goes off with my brother and they shoot things with their slingshots. I don’t even try to tag along because I know they will start shooting at me.

My mom touches or winks at me every time she comes out of the kitchen with potato salad, or Jell-o or bread or devilled eggs. My dad likes very dark bread and brown mustard, so we always have to have it, but my mom doesn’t make me eat it or I’ll throw up. He also eats peanuts in the shell and all of our ashtrays are full of empty shells. There’s almost no room for cigarettes or ashes.

Once the whole family arrives, my dad and my Uncle Jack talk about politics and everyone tries to get them to change the subject because they don’t agree. There is so much cigarette smoke everywhere that my eyes burn.

Nobody is walking on the moon yet. They are all just watching the news, which I’m not allowed to watch because when they have the war on the news, I get scared. I once heard a ticking clock and thought it was a bomb and ran out of my parent’s room screaming. So, I’m not allowed to watch the news.

I finally get so bored, that I go into my bedroom and play with my wedding paper dolls. There is a bride and a groom and you can change their outfits for the wedding and later for the honeymoon. I hear a thunk. I know that my brother and my cousin have hit my window with a rock. I think I might tell on them, but the grown-ups are loud and drinking beer and I don’t like the way they act.

My mother comes in my room to wake me up. I fell asleep and now the groom’s tuxedo wedding outfit is stuck to my face. She picks me up and carries me into the living room. I sit on her lap to watch the man walk on the moon. Everyone is quiet and serious, but I watch my dad instead of the guy on the screen because I’ve never seen him like that before. He is staring like he usually does, but this time he seems happy – like he’s far away from our cramped and smoky living room.

Let Me Tell You How it Will Be

Okay. I was going to write this nice, long post, but Blogger is being a total asshole and won't let me upload a photo. You all know I'm nothing without my visual aids. (even if they don't match the text in my posts)

It's probably better this way. I'm super tired and I'm all expectant (not that way, thank god) for the snow that is supposed to fall tonight. I think I'll call it a night and read some sweet, relaxing Cormac McCarthy to send me off to sleep in the right frame of mind. Who knows? I may have really interesting dreams to blog about next week too.

p.s. - My hibernation phase is in full swing now, so if you don't see me out and about at all, please feel free to call Meals on Wheels for me.

p.p.s.s. - I just watched one of the saddest movies ever. Those Japanese directors sure do depression right.

p.p.p.s.s.s. - I'm thinking about doing my taxes myself, because I don't want to have to take vacation time to get it to the white trash tax place that does them for almost nothing but it also takes forever for the white trash people to get around to them and they're located out by the airport. Does anyone do their own taxes? Is it more trouble than it's worth?