21 is Impossible

I came to the realization the other day that number 21 on my list of 43 Things will never be achieved.

Of course, the same can be said for many of the items on my list; but number 21 is to "get all the books on my Amazon wish list." I've gotten a lot of the books since I started the list of 43 Things...but everytime I get some of the books on my wish list, I add even more new ones! It's a never-ending quest.

I guess that's okay. Some quests shouldn't have endings. And I hope I never run out of books to wish for.

Another Good Question

So they showed last night on Mythbusters - not conclusively, but very persuasively - that elephants are indeed afraid of mice.

Why??

I can't figure out what there could be about a mouse that would make an elephant skittish around it. If someone out there knows about elephants and/or mice, please fill me in. Meanwhile, I'll be doing my own research - this just fascinates me, for some reason.

Xander was on Criminal Minds!

Yay...I've missed Xander.

Course, his name wasn't Xander, but he was still a geek. And they set him up as a "friend" for Penelope Garcia - who is, without question, the coolest female character on TV.

If I ever get to be a super-hero, I want to be Garcia.

Making Changes

I know, I know, this site dosn't seem to look the same from one week to the next. I'm working on it...

I just got the new Adobe CS3 software (yay!), but I don't really know how to use it just yet. I'm working on that too, taking a class, got a lot of good tutorials, but not a lot of time just now to sit down and work my way through it. What I want to do is re-vamp this site with my own artwork and designs. I know it can be done, but until I figure out how to do it, I'll be using Typepad's designs, and continuing to try to find one I really like.

Bear with me...when I learn how to do what I want to do, it'll be REALLY cool!

Got to go to work now.

4 a.m. (again)

"Ah, you are using Bonetti's Defense against me!"

"I thought it fitting, considering the rocky terrain."

"Naturally, you would expect me to counter with a Cappa-ferra?"

"Naturally. But I find a Tybalt cancels out a Cappa-ferra. Don't you?"

"Unless the enemy has studied his Agrippa...which I have."

Plastic and Pom-Poms

We were watching football, as we usually do on Sunday afternoons, and I got to wondering about the cheerleaders.

Who are these women?? In High School, it's cool to be a cheerleader; in college, it's an extra-curricular activity that only a few people continue to pursue - and one that seems to get dropped in the third or fourth year, when classes start to get intense and graduation becomes a looming reality. But who takes it further than that? Surely there's a point, and an age, where being a cheerleader just isn't that cool anymore.

I wonder if they even know anything about football? They must know a little - else how would they know when to cheer? If it was me, standing there watching game after home game, I would pick up at least the rudiments of the game, even if it didn't interest me all that much...but of course if it was me, I wouldn't be there in the first place.

And I wonder what the players think of the cheerleaders? In High School, the captain of the football team was always supposed to date the head cheerleader, right? But I don't see any of the big famous NFL quarterbacks hanging out much with the eye candy. Even they have moved on, and most, it seems, are either married or dating women of substance.

Do NFL cheerleaders get paid? Is this like an actual job for them? Do they make enough to pay their bills - do they even have bills? Or is it just a side-gig that picks up a few extra bucks? Do they have other, real jobs? What do they do in the off-season? Modelling, I suppose...if you consider that a real job...

Women like that - cheerleaders and beauty queens - have always fascinated me. As a waitress, the way I look does have an impact on my job; but for me, that's always been an obstacle to be overcome. And I have overcome it, I think, by being very, very good at my job. But my life is about going to work to pay the bills and buy groceries and put gas in my car, then figuring out what to fix for dinner.

These Barbie-dolls with their pretend lives...what must that be like? I don't think I would want to find out. I like being real. Even if the reality isn't always pretty.

Relapse

I didn't want to do it.

I've been so good for so long...

I swear I didn't want to do it, but I just didn't seem to have any choice.

It was the weekend, I was away from home...

You know, I didn't even have to say anything about it; no one would've known, except the people who were with me - my husband and my daughter (and in my own defense, I didn't give her any.)

If it helps, I didn't enjoy it. I hated myself the whole time. I even thought I was going to be sick.

Lord, please give me the strength not to do it again.

.

It happened like this:
We were in Muleshoe, coming back from taking his sister and her kids home to Clovis, and we were hungry, and didn't have a lot of money to spend. So...

(I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry)

...we went to McDonald's.

We looked for a Dairy Queen - we did! But the only one in town was closed down. Our other choices were Sonic (too expensive), Pizza Hut (takes too long), or Leal's (too expensive and takes too long).

It was horrible; I almost gagged on every bite - even the soda didn't taste good to me. The whole experience reminded me of when I quit smoking: all of a sudden every time I took a drag off a cigarette, I could just feel all that junk going into my body, and it was disgusting. It didn't take me long to quit, and before long after that I couldn't even stand the smell of cigarette smoke - and I stll can't. Same thing with the Big Mac I found myself choking down. The taste, the smell, even the texture of it, plus the knowledge of what I'd just given my money to - it was sickening, and I devoutly hope that I never have to go into one of those red-and-yellow buildings again.

Greens and Blues

"What the hell does that mean?"

We're listening to that song, "(I'm The One Who Wants) To Be With You" - great song - reminds me of high school, but in a good way. We used to listen to it on band trips, the whole bus would sing along, etc. It's very sing-along-able, except that I've never understood what that third line of the chorus said.

So tonight, after however many years of not knowing what the hell that line was, we finally looked it up, and it goes like this:

I'm the one who wants to be with you
Deep inside I hope you feel it too
Waited on a line of greens and blues
Just to be the next to be with you

So now I know what the line is.
But I have no ideal what the hell it means.

"Waited on a line of greens and blues...?"

I'm always a bit bothered by songs like that - great tune, great beat, great whatever, but the words don't make any sense. Common Rotation, one of my favorite little-known indie bands, is a big offender in that category. Jewel does it a lot too, but hers is "poetry". (Right.) They Might Be Giants does it, but that's one of their gimmicks - nonsense songs. It's the serious ones - the "poetry" songs - that bug me: the songs whose lyrics sound like they must be full of deep metaphoric meaningfullness, but really just don't make any sense at all. I always feel silly singing along with songs like that...

Non Sequitur

I have a specific picture stuck in my mind - an image from a memory: the coffee-shop at the Barnes & Noble in Orland Park, IL. I don't know why this specific image is in my head all of a sudden; I don't know what could've occurred to put it there. I've back-tracked my train of thought, and I don't remember thinking about anything that would have brought that to mind. The memory predates both the song I'm currently listening to and the painting I'm working on (more on that later.) I don't know...but the memory is a pleasant one - it's a pleasant place, full of light - so I guess I'll just shrug my shoulders and enjoy the mental revisit to a place I haven't seen in years.

Project: Part 2