Normal conversation in our house...UPDATE...Wooo!

Boy-How hungry are you? We're cooking for you tonight-when do you want to eat?

Mom-It's not so much the eating...but I AM planning on doing some drinkin'.

Boy- Well, you can drink any time, so....

Mom-But I want to stay awake until after eight o'clock.

Boy- Huh.

Mom-Maybe I'll nap first.

Boy-You are such an old lady.



At Costco (MY happiest place on earth)--looking at Disney movies (whose $6 rebate expired the day before but whatever, it's Costco and I LOVE it there)

Mom- Well, you could get it if you want to.....you can dance if you want to.

Girl- Yes, and you can leave your friends behind. We've had this discussion before.

Lady near us- (odd look....not quite a glare yet not really humored. Probably trying to decide whether or not to be amused by us....maybe wondering why that sounded familiar...who knows?)

And yes, I'm aware that this particular conversation did not take place in our house. You know what I meant. (eye roll)
*Girl* To be fair, we have had it in our house before as well. Several times.


Mom- It's 9-Oh shit!

Girl- 9 o'shit? I don't think that's a real time, Mom.


Girl- What are you even like drunk? Have I ever seen you drunk?

Mom- I dunno. I got pretty hammered the last time I had this *gestures to wine in front of her*.

Girl- What, you mean like, three days ago?

Mom- I guess...Not really hammered. I don't really get hammered. Just tipsy. Goofy.

Girl- But you're goofy a lot of the time.

Mom- I drink more than you know.

Girl- ...

Mom- That was funny. Add that to the blog.

Girl- Okay. *gets on blog*

Mom- wait...what did we say?

Girl- *facepalm*

Mom- I have Ellie Pooh Paper!




*Ellie Pooh paper is paper made from Sri Lankan elephant poop. It is sterilized and not gross and you should immediately go to their website and buy some. Added bonus--you can write notes to people you don't like and secretly snicker that you are giving them elephant crap WHILE AT THE SAME TIME helping the environment and the people of Sri Lanka!!! AAAAhahahahaha!!!!

Website....not so visible on the card.... www.mrelliepooh.com
Get yours today!!!

Sriracha peas

The second ingredient is sugar.





Questions? Go here.

Absurdly Specific Nerdgasm

I've been told by many people that I'm a bit of a master of quoting. Not necessarily well-known quotes, but the ones I know, man, I know them. And I'll say them without thinking, "hey, maybe this is too obscure for other people who have lives and normal-person brains and whatever," but no. No, I'll come right out with a, "He killed me with a sword. How weird is that?" (Mr. Universe, Serenity) or, "I'm not the monster here, you are!" (Belle, Beauty and the Beast) and the most random of them all, "Stop lying! You killed my father and comrades, you coveted the stupid jewel, you're responsible for everything!" (Sango, InuYasha)

It's amazing how often those three actually come up in conversation with me.

You'd think they wouldn't apply, but damn it, I make them apply. It's annoying, I know. Especially to me, but I just can't stop myself, and it's becoming a bit of a problem now that I'm in college and around all these new people who have even less idea of what I'm talking about.

Usually the quotes resonate with me for some weird reason or another. Like the rhythm, or whatever it is. Regardless, it sticks with me forever, often without my knowledge. It'll just sit there in the back of my mind, waiting for the right moment to emerge. Like, for someone to call me a bitch, then I can bust out my Easy A chops with ease. "You know, you call me bitch a lot..." and so forth.

*Mom* Veronica-Why are you such a megabitch? Heather Duke-Because I can be. (Heathers)

Did you eat a brain tumor for breakfast?

I do the same with other references. I'll have a run of like, three or five things that all remind me of each other, but have absolutely nothing to do with any of the others. Right now it's Tales of Symphonia, Full Metal Alchemist (and Brotherhood), Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Game of Thrones.

If you know these well, you know what I'm talking about, possibly, and it's actually pretty cool to make the connections. It isn't as cool, however, to make them out loud while watching Brotherhood on my computer and sitting in the room of a guy who isn't as far as me in either Brotherhood or Tales, and hasn't read Game of Thrones. I haven't given out anything but hints so far, but I still feel sorta bad.

And stupid. I feel really stupid every time this happens. I always wish I knew someone who had my tastes exactly, as well as my amount of free time (which I really don't have, but I pretend I do, and then pull all-nighters writing short stories and rhetoric papers). So far, a couple of people come close, but there's always one key that they're missing. Usually it's Tales or any of the animes, so I guess I can understand that.

Ooh! I just realized that Harry Potter fits into Fullmetal Alchemist, too! I swear, Brotherhood is like a crossroads for all of my loves in this world.

Oh, and so does InuYasha. This is just getting weird.

And Star Wars. And Lord of the Rings, but mostly only in a musical part in Brotherhood.
I suppose I should stop now, while I have seven things. So many things.

Hey! Having seven things fits in with both FMAs and Harry Potter. Perfect stopping point.

In case you possibly care, here's a flow chart I made to illustrate the various connections in my brain between the shows. No spoilers, just lines.

Is that a flow chart? Probably not, but it's a thing, so roll with it.

And all these connections? Not exclusive to shows and books and movies and video games. No, whenever I go into obsessive-mode, I'll hear a song that I've known for years and I'll realize, "holy crap, this fits _________ so well, it's like it was written by the author for the character!" and then I want to tell someone, but they either wouldn't get it, or just don't care.

If you actually do care though, right now it's All You Wanted by Michelle Branch, and it fits Riza Hawkeye's perspective of Roy Mustang in the manga and in Brotherhood. Or at least, an interpretation of it. Check it out or not. You know, if that's your thing.

Also, I'm a nerd and I do usually keep these things to myself. But, this is a blog and what else are they for?

The ol' hometown(s)

So, I've been a bit lax in posting. I spent most of last week at my parents' house in rural Iowa. My brother was there too--hanging out betwixt living in Idaho* and St. Thomas (moving from Idaho to St. Thomas.....a logical next step, if you ask me. But you didn't.) So, while I wasn't exactly off-grid, I didn't really have time to write anything-but I did have time to photograph stuff! And now I can work on figuring out how to get them from my phone to here. Yay for learning!

I grew up on a farm in Iowa near a very small town. I went to high school in a slightly less small town about ten miles from aforementioned small town. So I kind of have two hometowns.

You have no way of knowing this but I just paused to go in the house and wash sticky off my hands from eating sriracha peas. They have sriracha and garlic on them and they are spicy and delicious and generally awesome but what I want to know is, why the sticky? Maybe I should read the ingredients.

Anyway, I can't say that I learned anything on my trip, you know, gained great insights into life and whatnot but there were things that I had forgotten. And reminders are nice once in a while.

I don't know why I was surprised to see that my hometown (not H.S. hometown) has street signs. Of course there are street signs. There are streets, aren't there? Ergo.....street signs. Duh. The thing is (and I know this from both trick-or-treating AND from marching in parades in this town) there is no way there are more than ten intersections........(this just in...Google Earth confirms that this town has nine intersections....nine. That is all.) Here's one....

and another.....



....still don't believe me? Suck on this!.....




...but really, why wouldn't you believe me? Why would I lie? And may I say right here? that marching in a small town 4th of July parade is BRUTAL, because they don't want to leave anyone out and that damn parade somehow manages to go down EVERY street in the town so by the end of it all, you've marched about three miles in a town that's only five blocks long and it started at noon and that was back when high school marching bands didn't have nice summer uniforms of polo shirts and khaki shorts, noooooo we donned the sweaty stench of wool uniforms and were hallucinating about Shaun Cassidy in our dehydrated delirium and dropping like flies and just wishing for the angel of death to just come and TAKE US ALREADY!

There was usually a free soda at the end, though.


This is a very Irish community. Folks just fly that Irish flag all over the place....like this......




Notice that the Irish flag appears to be flying higher than the Iowa flag. Hmmmm. I don't know if that is a thing or what. But it is sending a very clear message to me. I think it's okay in this area to fly the green, white and orange no matter what the extent of Irish blood coursing through your veins. I, for example, have an Irish maiden name, the result of a long line of Irish men marrying German women. There is almost no Irish in me whatsoever, and I am certain that there are many, many others similarly afflicted. But in that area, if you've any Irish, you're Irish enough. I can't say that I've ever noticed a German flag there...or anywhere really. I see the German sticker on cars. Never on flags. Weird.

A visit to the local cemetery cemented the notion of the area's heritage. Yes, I know it's a very Irish community. Did I not mention that earlier? But, the cemetery, wow.

It needs to be mentioned right here and now that I am one of those weirdos who loves cemeteries, as long as I'm not there to visit someone specific. When my Dad jumped to accompany me, I knew where I got it. More background.....my Dad and some other guys from the church worked their everlovin' asses off fixing up the cemetery a few years ago. It had become a bit of a mess (apparently) but now it's really beautiful. Many of the stones date back to the 1800's and they all tell where the person was born. Counties Kerry, Cork and Clare are the big winners here.























The last names are a who's who of my first communion class....yes the families are mostly still here. Noonan. Curoe. Mahoney. Molony.

Wow.


And the oddest thing....I know the life expectancy was significantly lower in those days, but there were a LOT of people who lived into their 80's. Actually a pattern evolved (maybe it was my imagination) but it looked to me like people died when they were under five, or around 20, 40, 60 or 80. So once you got past, oh, 23...you could relax for about twelve years. Then be careful for say....six years or so, then relax.....etc.


Seriously...it's interesting and so heartbreaking in the old part of a cemetery. So many children....

(reflective and respectful pause)

(deep sigh)


Okay, here's where I went to high school.



I graduated in 1982. In 1992 I went to my ten year reunion. The bartender described it as "100 people talking and nobody listening." Guilty.




In 2008, I skipped my 25th reunion.The reason I didn't go had nothing to do with math. I kind of went to high school with a whole bunch of assholes. But I think a lot of them only seemed like assholes at the time because well, you know, they were just trying to figure stuff out. So it turns out that I was probably an asshole to some people and some others probably thought I was but I was also just trying to figure stuff out. But there doesn't seem to be much point in sorting out who was and was not an asshole....so I didn't go.



(this is a sunset at my parent's house...it was more beautiful than the picture shows....trust me)


Go forward...... Move ahead.**

* For those of you who do not live in the midwest and/or did not pay attention in school ever, Iowa and Idaho are NOT the same place. They are also not Ohio. Thank you.

**Apologies to Devo.