Friday, November 30, 2007

Livin' in a Small Town

(You are supposed to be hearing strains of John Mellencamp in your head.....)

Tonight is the 'Living Windows' display in our community. What a fabulous thing to be able to walk throughout the downtown area and see the storefronts and store windows come alive with dancers, singers and actors. There apparently will be carriage rides and hot cider. And of course, Santa will be there. The high school choir will perform, and the Christmas lights will be on.

It sort of stinks living in a smaller community when you need a good girls night out spot, or someplace exclusive to pick up that one of a kind item--we are full of Wal mart, Kmart, Target and Kohls..........we don't have many restaurants except the chains--applebees, bandanas, etc.......but there is something special about being able to spend the evening mingling with the community as your nose gets cold....Kids are excited, and even teenagers go strolling with their circle of friends or hand in hand with their girl/boyfriend............

Our state capitol is accessible by car, and there is parking within a few hundred feet of it. There is little snarled traffic, and although tonight, parking will be difficult, it will be NOTHING compared to the celebrations in large cities.

So, think about my town tonight while you may be fighting shopping or traffic.........there will be lots of strolling about and visiting in MY town..........and it is a very quaint way to spend an evening.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Stalkers and Pirates, Oh MY!!

I'm the 'stalker'. Oh, and we'll get to the pirate later...


I am one of those people who just doesn't UNDERSTAND how anyone can IGNORE their cell phone ringing.......I love the phone. I love talking and keeping in TOUCH with people. I've somehow chosen a circle of friends who don't ADORE the phone as I do. They sometimes don't even carry their cell phone with them......wow. I tend to keep calling people at various numbers I have for them when I want to REACH them. I was trying to reach Teenie last night for plans, and she doesn't like to answer her phones......so I always feel like such a STALKER when I want people to TALK TO ME. But this was trying to co-ordinate times and places, and she wasn't answering....so I left her umpteen messages trying to fill her in on plans........sorry, Teenie....I'm aware it can be really obnoxious.


Last night, my family and Teenie were trying to make impromptu dinner plans. Yes that all sounds very 'hoity-toity', but in my community, we have very little choice of eating establishments that everyone enjoys. We have things like Applebees and pizza, but Perfectly's dad refuses to eat at most 'chain' places. UMMMMM...that doesn't leave much to choose from around here. Teenie had a tough week and no lunch yesterday, and she requested something heavy and satisfying to eat, as well as being able to have a BEVERAGE. I wanted inexpensive......Teenie suggested chinese food, but there's only one Chinese place that serves alcohol that Perfectly's dad will eat at--so we went there.


It was an enjoyable dinner, with lots of laughter and talking--Mr. Perfectly, son #2, me, Perfectly's dad, niecey, great niecey and Teenie all went.

Afterwards, Teenie and I decided to 'hit the town' for a while. We went to Kohl's first--we are such party girls!


I bought blankets at Kohls. I don't know what the problem is in our family, but we LOVE blankets. And CHEAP blankets, well.......it's nearly irresistable!!


After Kohl's we decided to go have another drink---but my community has no bars. Oh, I mean there are bars---mostly where people get shot, or beat up by people in pointy cowboy boots (no, we don't live in an inner city---think rural surrounding areas meet small....very small city). So we went in search of an appropriate place for two girls to have a drink. We were just going to go to Applebees, but their drinks are watery at times....so we hit a 'new' spot in town....it's about the size of a closet.....and it looked like there were 5 or 6 people already in there, so we decided to go the the 'Library'. A local bar in a hotel that's been here FOREVER. It was loud and smoky and apppeared to cater to the upper middle age group, so we left THERE....we went to another hotel, that is supposed to be sort of Trendy (ha...), and needless to say it was empty but for the two really rough looking dudes.


Lastly we set our sights on Dominico's. It's one of the 3 nicer places to eat in town. Mr. Perfectly's dad knows the owner, and we like the food, so it's a frequent standby since our family all likes the place. They have a small bar area, so at 10 o'clock--we head over--Now, I realize that most of the world that lives in places with CULTURE, evenings don't even start til 10, but it looked like this place was winding down for the night. WE asked the host if there was time to order a drink and he said "SURE"--so we went on in and ordered our 'usual' there--a Cosmo--they make a good one (comparatively--like to Applebees). I look around and lo and behold.....who do I see? It's Ph.Ds boyfriend from High School--Stevie. Stevie was three sheets to the wind--I went over to say hello, and he asks with his hang dog look...."how IS Ph.D?" I told him she was fabulous--as a matter of fact I'd just spoken with her earlier in the evening (at Kohl's). I knew I was egging it on, but I couldn't resist. I told Stevie that she would be here on Sunday for a visit---he said he'd emailed her recently--I explained that Ph.D doesn't have TIME to respond to emails---even mine, and I'm her oldest, closest friend......so he asked me for her phone number----oh lord....I just told him 'NO' , I wasn't giving him a random number for someone without their permission......

I went back to Teenie and we were laughing and talking.....no we hadn't had too much to drink, but Teenie and I ALWAYS have a blast, no matter what we do.......pretty soon drunk Stevie pipes up that Perfectly's mom 'got him into college'. Well I've heard this story many times over the years---Stevie likes to re-tell it every time I see him, and ususally it changes in some form, so we got to hear from across the bar how my mom saw 'talent' in him and got him into school (She was a clerk or secretary or analyst or something in the Financial aid office, so I"m pretty sure she didn't have a say to whether or not he was admitted). He said that she took his letter kicking him out of another University for bad grades and 'turned it into a YES'. BLAH, BLAH BLAH....He said "she was a good woman". I responded 'yes' that she's lovely and doing quite well these days......Stevie" she was a good woman--God bless her soul"...so Teenie, who doesn't know this guy pipes up and says "YES...she IS a great woman...I love her"....Stevie kept talking as if she was long gone......so I need to call mom today to make sure she's still alive and kicking....


Soon Stevie an his buddies were being obnoxious, and talking like pirates--now, kids, we aren't talking about just out of college boys or something......we are in our 40's!! They were getting a little loud, but, Stevie put our cosmo's on his tab, so we decided listening to Pirates was a small price to pay for free drinks......Teenie said she didn't even have to show cleavage.....hahahahahah.


I called Ph.D as soon as my rear hit the seat in the car, and we had a good laugh over poor Stevie's apparent inability to get over her.......the hang dog, woe is me look has been going on since they broke up 20 some yrs ago. He's married w/ kids, but somehow can't quite let her go.


Teenie and I decided we may go back to hear the Pirates in the near future......I mean hey......free drinks and a few laughs.......On Stevie.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Bathroom Antics

So, upon entering a stall in a public restroom do you back in, and close/lock the door, or do you walk in normally, then turn and close/lock?

I realized today that I am a 'backer-upper'....how weird...I don't back up into other spaces, but I suppose there aren't many places as small as a toilet stall.

What do YOU do?

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Scroogaween

Yes, I'm a Halloween scrooge.

In reading my 'inspire-to-be-blog', Mamalogues, she brought up a very interesting topic of Halloween, and the neighbors who chose to keep their homes dark and not participate.

Although, in a different town ALTOGETHER, I chose and have for many years to NOT do the Halloween thing. I don't feel like I ripped off my neighbors--I don't feel like I deprived anyone of a fabulous time. Instead, I feel like I saved my own sanity.

My dogs, for one thing, would not have dealt well with Halloween. It wouldn' t help to crate them, they'd still bark and try to kill themselves to escape. But mostly, it's a matter of principal. I think it's a horrifying tradition to take vans of kids to neighborhoods, and let them 'have at it'. They are unsupervised, as the parents drop them off at one end of a street and just drive to the end of the block to pick them up. It's a free for all and everyone just wants CANDY. It's not a tradition, or a neighborhood fun time......It's 'let's see how much candy we can gather in a couple of hours' and go home and devour it, then sue someone if I get sick!!! Oh, the fun.

If my family and friends want to come by, I do keep candy on hand, and would welcome them to show off their kids......I certainly did my own, but I don't want to participate in what seems like glorified looting---It's a disgusting display of excess, and poor manners.

I'd LOVE to hear your stories.............agree or not----what do YOU think?