{Round robin}

Second exerpt from journal at the Bucks today…

…Guess who took the place of previously dubbed “vile Oriental woman” in the squishy black chair to my right? Mister NFL Ring, himself! Straight off, let me tell you about what you most want to know-the ring. Its on his right hand, and therefore too far away for observation. Yeah, what it comes down to is that all I can see is the same side as Monday and that each time I try to peak at it, he looks straight at me. He probably thinks I’m a nut. Oh, but I do have some bit of revelation. Thanks to one of the ladies who work here, I now know his name: Fred. Fred, the NFL Cowboys Ring Wearer.
Funny little note. He downed what might be a cappucino or expresso – whatever comes in a tiny cup? – and proceeded to lean his head back, TUCK HIS HANDS IN HIS POCKETS (of course!), and go to sleep! Just like Monday. Curious. Curious.
When Fred sat down next to me, I said hi. He seemed surprised or put off. It appears he comes here often, so I will just keep saying hello to him, LOL. Eventually, I WILL figure this ring situation out…right?
You know what? As I sit here staring at him while he sleeps, he kinda reminds me -facially only!- of the little person who stalks Liss. Very curious, indeed. Or I could just be imagining things…
I found an image of the ring on the web from The Danbury Mint, which makes me think he’s a fan…apparently it says NFL on both sides in stead of a year on one side. Who knew where Monday’s curiosity would lead me?

{Vile woman}

I made it to the Bucks again today while Michael was at school. A good time was had by all until…well, just read this from my journal entry at the time…

Okay, I have spent all this time on my, and while I wanted to continue to do so, the Oriental woman sitting in the squishy black chair to my right is forcing herself onto my pages. Sweet Mary, Mother of God, is she out of control. Some things just can’t be ignored in life-such as this woman’s ABSOLUTE inability to chew with her mouth closed. It isn’t even the whole “see-food” issue here-its the SOUND. For God’s sake, close your damn mouth and save us all from this hell of smacking lips and smooshy wet donuts that you have imprisoned us in! Oh, yeah, there you go-dunk the donut in the coffee and let ‘er rip! My random bout of morning sickness this morning must have been in anticipation of this vile woman (who I am sure is a lovely person-or could be if she learned some basic manners).

{The mystery at Starbucks}

An exerpt from my journal written on 2.20 in the Bucks…

A man who sits in the chair next to me has a class ring on. The ring is squared with a dark jewel (onyx? sapphire?) in the middle. The ring looks pewter/silver and has a silver outline of a star in the jewel. The reason I write is that I alwasy wonder about people who wear class rings after age 25. The man is clearly past age 45. It makes me wonder what is the connection that keeps people wearing their class rings after all this time? (Regardless of whether it is a high school ring or college ring-its irrelevant.) Is it actual feeling or habit of wearing it? Is it nostalgia? Is it a desire to keep that person who they were then alive and part of the now? Is it the fact that the ring was expensive and therefor must be worn? Or perhaps the person wants to give it to their child and wants that child to remember them actually wearing it? Or on a less positive note, is it taking the place of another ring? It would be interesting to me to see ages and genders of who still wears their class ring (or not) and why (or why not)…
My first thought on seeing [this man’s] ring was that the star looked like the Dallas Cowboys star. And while I was throwing other ideas on the page, I thought of fraternity/sorority/group and championship rings and how people wear those. Well, sure as shittin’ when I peeked again while he sleeps in his chair, the side I could see said NFL on it. I wish he would put it up again so I could see the other side to see the year. The new question for him is-Is this HIS ring from experience or is it a commemorative “fan ring” (and do those exist?)? Is it rude to ask? Haha, we ll know I don’t have the cahones to do that.
New story/concept from my thoughts: Is this related in my mind to someone sitting alone in the cafeteria? Eating alone at a restaurant? Is he “famous” but lost? No one recognizes him? Was he a benchwarmer? My heart is curious. And I may never know the answer…if I could see that ring again, I could google it, heehee.
Damn! His ring is in full view, but it is twisted so that all I can stinking see if NFL! Will this remain a mystery to me?? Its 11:10 and NOOOOOO!!!!! He just got up and left!

“And like that, he was gone.” – The Usual Suspects

I suppose the joke’s on me and I won’t ever know the real truth. A mystery that could have been solved by asking a few questions. Gone, just like Kaiser Sose.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Papers and elements are from Eclectic Scraps (YOU ROCK, JESSICA!!).

I love the news…

Ok, too freakin’ funny that CNN.com has resorted to slang in their headlines.

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, I think Anderson Cooper is right up there with Anakin Skywalker…

Crazy few days

I’ve wanted to update this blog for a few days but haven’t had the chance to. It’s been a crazy few days over here, and the next few are still going to be a little wild. I’m not complaining, though.
Michael went back to school on Monday for the first time in TWO WEEKS! The first week he was sick with a low grade fever off and on. I couldn’t send him, knowing that he would potentially get the other kids sick with whatever he had. He had a runny nose and mild cough, but it didn’t slow him down one bit. He was as happy and as feisty as ever. He actually missed his first non-family birthday party that he was invited to because of the fever. What a bummer! The second week, he was in Latrobe with my parents while Steve and I were in Boca Raton, Florida for a business meeting…and then he had to stay an extra night because we went to the Bon Jovi concert. 😉 What a hoot! But that’s another story. When I took Michael to school on Monday, I expected him to cry and cling like no other. Wouldn’t you know it, the kiddo showed me tons of toys and then smiled and said, “Bye, Mommy! Pick me up after lunch!” and then went on his way. Wednesday, he stayed for rest time and I picked him up around 2:30ish. I needed to get a lot of stuff done (and actually managed to do so!) while he was there. We got to school a little earlier than usual and he had to go in another classroom to wait for his regular teacher to be there, so I thought he would throw a fit, but he just asked if he could stand at the door and wait for Miss Gina to show up. Man, that kid watched me walk to whole way out of the school. I felt so bad-but he wasn’t sad, he was just waiting for his teacher. I’m really proud of him for adapting back into the routine so well after being gone for so long.
This weekend I am going to a crop in Virginia (Ali Edwards will be there, too-yeah, me! I’m psyched to have her energy around again!) and I’ve had to seriously try to get things ready for it. Because the crop space is in a different building than the hotel, I’m not sure if I’ll be leaving my stuff for the night when I go to bed. Thus, I had to pack so that I can carry EVERYTHING back and forth as needed. Normally, this would be no issue, but the whole being pregnant thing is keeping me from carrying really heavy stuff. I’ve got a sh*t-ton of stuff packed, but I really think I’ll use a lot of it…I hope! LOL
That’s what I did most of Wednesday while Michael was at school.
Now if I could only get caught up on this laundry before I go…

Some people’s (peoples’?) kids…

This is a common phrase in my house. It usually refers to someone being a little wacky. Sometimes it even refers to the person we are talking to at the moment. Anyway, that being said…
First off, let me tell you about mine. Michael is at Nannie and Papa’s until tomorrow. Steve and I had a business meeting in Florida and we are going to the Bon Jovi concert tonight, so my Peanut is loving it up there in Pittsburgh soaking in all the pre-Super Bowl “fumes”, LOL. Peanut-in-the-belly seems to be doing well. We had the second ultrasound and everything looks good! The blood test doesn’t show a predisposition to any problems, so we will go back at the end of February to check one more time for any signs of spina bifida and/or other issues. But we’ve been assured by the doctors and genetic counselors that they are not worried about seeing anything other than a healthy baby then. Its nice to be happy and have a little less worry about this pregnancy. Steve and I have been talking about names, and we haven’t even discussed boy names, but we’ve come up with a few girl names that we like. Ironically, when I was pregnant with Michael, we never had a girl name that we really loved. Wonder if that means this one will be a girl? Or, are we really up a creek without a paddle in terms of trying to find a boy name? LOL, its really nice to enjoy this all now.
Now, lets talk about other people’s/peoples’ (not sure how to spell that correctly, I’m sorry!) kids…

• Lori’s kids both have strep throat. What fun, eh?
• Liss is planning on going to Lost Wages, Nevada in about a week or so. I think she’s getting me back from leaving her for a few days for Florida.
• In Berlin, another stupid criminal go caught for pretending that he USED to have a glass eye. You can read it here.
• William Shatner apparently sold his kidney stone for $25K. Um, ew. Although, I will give him mad props for donating the money to Habitat for Humanity.
• Mr. Torben Vegener Hansen, you go, man! Apparently in 2001, Denmark ruled that institutionalized citizens have the right to have sex (as opposed to restricting it??). Because prostitution is legal in Denmark, this means that caregivers must take them to visit prostitutes, if they so desire. Well, from what I hear, Torben V.H. (age 59) feels the government needs to pay for ‘house calls’ from prostitutes… “claiming that he is unable to have sex manually because of his illness and must be accorded this “human right” by a service similar to the government’s meals-on-wheels program. [The Observer (London), 1-1-06]” Source of quote is News of the Weird.

Some peoples’ kids…

Who couldn’t stop laughing?

Its a wonder that Lori is still friends with me. Truly. Catholic school with those nuns, oi. We would sit in fourth grade science class side by side (desks touching, no less) and laugh our stinkin’ asses off. The minute that Sister Clarice would glare at us, I could wipe the smile off my face, but poor Lori could never stop laughing. Sister Clarice would fly from the front of the room with this look of sheer evil on her face straight to Lori. She would grab the back of her shirt and shake her and tell her who knows what. Who knew a nun could be so violent? This happened so often that it truly was a regular occurence (several times a week?).

Eventually, Sister Clarice thought she got smart and separated our desks…So we started passing notes.

You may wonder what we as fourth graders found so funny. Well, it was Lori’s science book. On one of the pictures of the bulls in the back, someone before our time had taken an eraser to it and made it look like the bull was peeing. It may not seem very funny to you, but we as ten year olds thought that was the funniest thing to find–and in LORI’s book, no less!

Lori still has that science book to this day.

Did I mention that since we didn’t sit near each other, the notes usually contained drawings? Yeah, she didn’t want me to miss the bull too much while I was so far away. 😉