Sunday, June 6, 2010

Sunday Shorts

"Shortsss" as in 'snippets'.
This post will be comprised of snippety thoughts.

Coincidently, I AM wearing shorts, but that's neither here nor there.

1. First of all, two things:

I loved this post on Boo Mama's blog: it's about packing for a trip. And the beauty of a well-crafted list. Hers are inspirational;

One night last week I made our initial grocery list, and then I typed it all into a Word document because THIS, THIS IS WHO I AM: A PERSON WHO ENJOYS TYPING GROCERY LISTS, IT’S VERY NICE TO MEET YOU. After I typed the list, I emailed it to Mel so she could take a look at it (THIS IS WHO I AM, TAKE TWO: A PERSON WHO ASKS FRIENDS TO DOUBLE CHECK GROCERY LISTS), and once I made some final changes, I moved everything around so that the list would follow the order of the aisles at the grocery store (THIS IS WHO I AM, TAKE THREE: THE PERSON WHO MAKES HER GROCERY LISTS BY AISLE, JUST AS THE GOOD LORD INTENDED).


I think her and I could be very, very good friends.
Or maybe not.
Maybe a good friendship is one where there is: a listmaker. And the other one is a: non-listmaker. A good partnership doesn't really need to be made up of two clones, does it? That would be boring. One person would be redundant as there would be one list-maker too many. 


Anyways, I admire her. 


Regarding my upcoming trip to England, I have not (yet) started itemizing my lists to alphabetized Word documents. I am keeping myself organized like this:
                                                        



















It's a big-a** post-it note, stuck on my wall, at eye level, with a handy pencil close by ...
Everytime I think of, or am recommended to, see something in England, I make a note of it here. And any day now, I'm going to finalize our plans for each minute of every day for the entire month of August because spontaneity is fine and good but being organized is better. Do I hear an AMEN?













Plus, PLUS! I found this last night at Walmart. And it was only, like two cents or something. And it's perfect for keeping notes in, no?
                                                            



















A note book! Lined and coiled! And it's pocket-sized:















And I can hardly wait to write something in it.


And because it has a hard, tastefully designed cover, it is lined, and coil bound, it is a perfect (PERFECT) travel journal and CHEAP LIKE BORSCHT - (Hello? I was at Walmart) I picked this up too:



















It is also waiting for it's first entry. I can hardly wait.















I firmly believe that a person cannot have too many notebooks in her purse, hairs on her head, children in her home or cookies in her cupboard. Clearly.

Moving on to the second thing I want to say regarding Boo Mama's post. READ THE COMMENTS. It is the most complete listing of great chick flicks to watch with your friends on a weekend away at the beach that I have seen; ever. So helpful, those Boo Mama readers are. 

2. The second Sunday short (yeah. I know. Define "short") is about my birthday (Is she STILL yacking on about that?) and this gift I received:























It cost her an afternoon of cupcake baking:                  

















Whilst the one sister was baking the other was painting.
For me.
And yes, I feel very special. 

Another gift I received was this:














A big, bright, shiny, red purse, from my purse-giving friend. 
So fun.
And totally not like me. 
It enters rooms before I do, calling attention to itself. I haven't talked about a purse in my life as much as I have these past 10 days. 
"Nice purse."
"Wow. Great purse."
"New purse? Awesome..."
And so on. 

3. Another Sunday short.

Do you remember at Christmas, I printed off a buncha questions from the "if" book as conversation starters around the dinner table and how much I was mocked for doing so? Do you? OK Fine, I'll look through my archives to see if I can find the post. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Looking, looking...

Here it is.
So a sample question would be something like this : If you were to spend the rest of your life in the company of a single type of animal, which would you choose?

Clint was at an impromptu engagement party last night, and when he got home at around after-midnight-ish, he mentioned that he loved the book he was reading. (Which he decided to buy, based on Rachel's review.) And that he was reading it at the party. (And I'm all like, "I'll NEVER get a daughter-in-law outta him if he keeps this up.) And, then, as if reading my mind, he clarified that he was READING IT OUT LOUD. Or, more specifically, he was reading the questions from the middle of the book out loud and people were talking about them and I totally got that because, hey, I love "if" questions AND bookclub questions. 

Then he read a few of the questions to me. And I really wonder about this next generation.: 

"Let us assume a fully grown, completely healthy Clydesdale horse has his hooves shackled to the ground while his head is held in place with a thick rope. He is conscious and standing upright but completely immobile. And let us assume that - for some reason - every political prisoner on earth (as cited by Amnesty International) will be released from captivity if you can kick this horse to death in less than twenty minutes. You are allowed to wear steel-toed boots. 
Would you attempt to do this?"

I know, I know. So while my oldest son and I are kinda alike (reading questions at social gatherings) we are also so very much not alike as well.

And thus concludes The Shorts. Which took forever to post and really? Weren't all that short. But fun. They were fun. 

Three things I'm thankful for:
1. Rainy Sunday afternoons with Clint and Drew home. Each of us doing our own thing, ignoring the grass and weeds thrive in this wet environment.
2. BBC productions
3. Dinner tonight with the fam to celebrate (yes, again) my birthday as well as my brother's. 

Shalom.,

2 comments:

valerie said...

Thanks for inviting me to celebrate with all of you. I loved the evening and I LOVE my LONDON book as well. Enjoy the raspberry creams.

Anonymous said...

The answer is absolutely not, even if I knew for certain that I could kill the horse and not just wound it terribly. I'm pretty sure I'd never sleep soundly again after that.
Here's another question though. If polled, what percentage of political prisoners would exchange their freedom for the brutal killing of a horse? Would all of them even leave their jail cells?
If 20% of them wouldn't leave jail, would it still be worth doing?
I'll stick with economic sanctions and covert military missions to undermine those governments who choose not to play nicely, thank you very much. Nice little horsey.


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