sense

A double pitted tire ridden mud puddle filled with watery splashes from two little boys jumping eagerly in their crocodile mud boots caught my attention from across the yard.  Of course it made me smile at their excitement but as I watched their little legs grow darker in shade as the water consumed their clothing in a muddy layering I couldn't help but wonder what was the sense in this?  They should make mud pants for little boys as well!   What a brilliant idea, well at least for little boys who watch their uncles jump snowmobiles in ditches filled with water as his friends kayak in the glorious wake behind.  I suppose taller mud boots would do the trick also :)

From lunch

"NOoooo!" he screamed, kneeling across the table reaching for his cup.  "I want it . . ."
"You can have some more when you eat some chicken nuggets buddy, mmmmmm ketchup, see?" I encouraged as Austin pouted and put his head on the table; two and a half is a tough age to be.
"I need it Aunty," he said with a pushed out lower lip.  I reached for his chicken nuggets to take a bite and he reached over and grabbed my hand and started to giggle as he leaned in and stole the chicken from my fork.
"Mine," he said through a food filled smile, his snaggle tooth protruding from the chicken breading.
"Eat some green beans too, they make you strong like grampa," I said as I took a big bite of gren beans.
"NOooooo, like Daddy!" he yelled as he stirred them on his plate.
"Ok, like daddy." I agreed.
"Like Aunty," he said almost instinctively.  He is very smart to be messing with me like that.  Good thing reverse psychology always works.
"I need this green bean," I said as I poked one from the edge of his plate inciting his fury about the possession of his green beans.
"NOoooo, mine!!" comes out barely audible through a mouth full of green beans.  He should comment before he shoves his mouth.  He is like a little gopher stuffing his cheeks, almost as if he liked to let it marinate in his mouth for a certain amount of time before swallowing, like a test before the intestines.
"Who made it snow outside last night and took summer away?" I asked his curiously.
"Mommy did." he says in a grumpy tone.
All I could do was giggle and give him a drink of his strawberry milk.  At least I am the strong one and mommy makes it snow :)

200 playboy magazine . . .will trade for guns

Upon reading this ad from a classified that I found online, I imagine an old rustic mountain man with a long beard and pot belly who recently inherited an unknown box of treasure from a relative he barely knew.  Upon opening this box of unknown treasure he becomes elated, knowing that many men his age hold these images precious.  After browsing through the pages he quickly loses interest in the images and decided to try to trade them for something useful and enjoying to him.  He tried to haggle his friends first but they scoffed and giggled at his perplexing offer, and disinterest in the 200 magazines of wealth.  After his rejection of the locals he knew, he sunk to putting an ad in the paper with the motto his head, "my crap is someone else's treasure . . .and I'd like to have more guns"

premature lake time

I was babysitting my nephews the other day and right around lunch time they always like to stand on the chairs by the windows in the kitchen and look outside.  With all the snow melting lately we have accumulated a lake in our ditch and gardens.  My nephews are 2 and 4 and wanted nothing besides the opportunity to go swimming.  They just couldn't understand that the water was too cold.  The snow surrounding the water was no indication for them, their little eyes were deceived by the shining sun on the glistening water.  The last ditch effort by my oldest nephew was to use his sled as a boat, he figured he could pack the tiny holes in the sled with snow, and paddle with his hands all around the "lake". It is moments like this that open my eyes to the simple yearnings of a little kid who just doesn't understand :)

all kinds of feet

I am a delivery driver for Domino's and I experience many kinds of feet.  The subject matter of this blog was to be itchy feet . . .that is how it all started.  After I got off work from my overnight I drove back home and changed into my uniform and back into town for a day's shift of bringing people their guilty pleasure.  we received a fresh pallet of snow overnight and so I decided it was time again to break out the boots, which are brand new this winter.  The problem with these boots is they suck.  Right where behind my ankle is the height where the plastic supposedly waterproof bottom of the boot ends, and the fake leather hide begins (some fur at the top; and I never would have had boots with the fur if there would have been any other boots that fit left at fleet during the first snow storm this year). My boots had been drying next to the heater in the mud-room near the back door of the house for some time, they get pretty wet trying to keep up with my work schedule.  I put them on and they were overly dried to the point where they were hard and a little crackly.  The lining was very itchy, the material had been weathered by too much time on my feet running around.  This itchiness in the lining lasted for the first hour of work.

People are really great about ordering pizza and neglecting to shovel a pathway which provides plenty of snow for me to trudge through to subsequently be stiffed for my smiling service.  So at the beginning of my shift my feet  hurt, the cheap insoles from Walmart felt good for the first week I had the in, now they are squished and a little out of place permanently from excessive wear.  This leads primarily to uncomfortable circumstances, and the lack of shoveling and presence of fresh snow slowly getting sloppy sets up the perfect environment for a day of soaked socks and boots in which I can galosh in all day long.  The worst though is when they get too wet and start splashing with the sloshing sound, just a little inside the boot.

Needless to say I was very happy to get off work and come home to write this blog, after taking a long shower.  Off to my overnight and then my spring break officially starts with the arrival of my bandmate Jess tomorrow early afternoon :)

hundreds

Things I love

1.      Sunsets

2.      Sunrises

3.      Star-blanketed northern skies

4.      Upper Red Lake

5.      The secret beach

6.      My guitars

7.      My family

8.      More specifically my nephews Dylan and Austin

9.      My friends

10.  My clients (past and present)

11.  The first snowfall

12.  Freshly zambonied ice

13.  Hockey

14.  Soccer

15.  Poetry

16.  Singing in the shower

17.  Singing in the car

18.  Long road trips

19.  Long awaited reunions

20.  The feeling of performing

21.  Teaching

22.  Sleeping

23.  Pretzel m&m’s

24.  Brisk air through the window

25.  Shoop by salt n pepa

26.  Marilyn Monroe

27.  Daddy time (I’m a big daddy’s girl)

28.  The twin cities

29.  The Narnia trails (located outside of Bemidji)

30.  Laughing

31.  Giggling (totally different from laughing)

32.  Days off . . . okay so any time off

33.  Writing music/lyrics

34.  The ring my dad gave me

35.  Inside jokes

36.  The history channel

37.  Crime shows

38.  Experiencing live music (in multiple faucets, from different perspectives)

39.  Innocence of small children

40.  Second chances

41.  The color green

42.  Individuality

43.  Creative freedom

44.  Non-induced inspiration

45.  Dreaming

46.  Slow moving floating clouds

47.  Bud light (on ice, especially in the summer, from a bottle)

48.  Metaphors

49.  Oxymorons

50.  Excuse Me Sir (my band)

51.  Witty t-shirts

52.  Clever well placed cartoons

53.  Thought provoking radio (MPR)

54.  Her – even though I’m making a conscious effort to kick that habit

55.  Adam Sandler movies

56.  The last day of the monthly visit, when there is the most time until the next visit . . .

57.  Hats, caps, beanies, head warmers, hair hiders

58.  CHLB

59.  Finding money in my winter jacket, from the previous winter

60.  Bulldogs (the beverage)

61.  Maggie (family pup)

62.  Having RARE instances of traffic in comparison to living in the heart of Minneapolis

63.  Adventures, however small or grand

64.  New experiences

65.  Skating with my nephews

66.  Family dinners (especially when everyone is there)

67.  Brand new babies!!!

68.  The idea of my sister having a niece for me to turn into a little spoiled princess

69.  Mini-vacations and day trips

70.  Phone calls with my siblings

71.  Art (in various forums)

72.  Reading the paper

73.  Coffee, in the morning, middle of day and of course when attempting to be productive at night (songwriting or homework)

74.  The marshmallows from hot chocolate, and the hot chocolate that follows

75.  My father’s sense of humor

76.  Swimming in the lake at night

77.  Fireworks

78.  Bonfires

79.  The barn

80.  Candles

81.  Momentos

82.  Mind-f*ck movies, psychologically twisting, intellectually captivating thrillers

83.  Driving a stick shift

84.  Traveling down memory lane with a good friend

85.  Steak and potatoes

86.  The white sauce from red pepper

87.  Making people smile

88.  Corny jokes

89.  Pulling off the perfect projection of the romantic ideas that float around in my head

90.  Beautiful sceneries of nature undisturbed

91.  Being able to hear the birds sing through the window while it’s still dark out

92.  Fresh eggs from real chickens (like from Aunt Kathy)

93.  Bacon

94.  Watching good karma unfold

95.  New socks

96.  Hooded sweatshirts

97.  Rollerblading downtown at night, in a ghost town (which is what it feels like rollerblading in the middle of downtown with no cars or people to speak of)

98.  Big buck deer hunter

99.  Long hot showers/baths

100.          Surprises

Things I hate (strongly dislike)

                           If I hated 100 things

                                  there wouldn’t be room to love 100 things

                                            there would be too much wasted energy

1.      Homophobia

2.      Windy days

3.      Rude/ignorant people

4.      Warm/flat beer/soda

5.      When the tp is out before you realize it

6.      Waking up sweaty

7.      Raining when I deliver pizza

8.      Sushi

9.      When I have car problems

10.  Any part of my body receiving that tingle of falling asleep, when I’m awake

11.  Breaking a string on my guitar

12.  Being sick/injured

13.  The feeling of failure

14.  Cold water in the middle of a shower

15.  Liars

16.  People who cheat (the system, on each other, on an assignment or test, to get through life)

17.  “hello from camp letter”

18.  When the ice melts and whatever beverage becomes too watered-down

19.  Wet socks/shoes/boots

20.  Feeling helpless

21.  Being called sir or him or he or mr or any male surname

22.  All the joys of the monthly ritual of being a woman

23.  When I have to discipline my nephews, I hate when they cry cuz of a two minute time out haha

24.  Burning food when I’m really hungry

25.  Bad sportsmanship of parents at sporting events

26.  Drunk drivers

27.  Assumptions

28.  Bad drivers (no signals, erratic driving or driving tooooooooo slow)

29.  Being stuck behind a tractor with a combine coming the other direction . . .on a two lane highway

30.  Being late

31.  The rising price of gas

32.  When people have a full cart and go to the 10 items or less line when I have just some notecards!

33.  When people use the wrong tense of words (our/are, there/their, here/hear, know/no etc . ..)

34.  I hate overly abbreviated text messages that depreciate language

35.  Screamo music

36.  People that live for gossip

37.  Nosy nagging

38.  Dry itchy eyes

39.  Having a runny nose, that is plugged

40.  The day before laundry day

41.  Injustice in general

42.  President Bush

43.  Bacon grease on my new sweatshirt

44.   Flat tires because of cold weather

45.  Scraping off my windshield from the layers of  ice

46.  Super sharp or ultra dull blades on my skates

47.  Having to “hold it”

48.  The turn the tub around commercial and it’s damn catchiness

49.  Barney

50.  Too many dark gray days in a row with no sunshine

51.  Messy room (organized chaos is different)

52.  Feeling prematurely judged

53.  When I lose my favorite pen

54.  People coming to the door at work, trying to conform me into “insert cult/religion here”

55.   Telemarketers

56.  Trying to communicate with someone through a language barrier

57.  Being the experiment

58.  Stale chips

59.  Having a bad roommate (who screws you for thousands of dollars and leaves you high and dry)

60.  Writer’s block

61.  Ruining my appetite with candy

62.  When my cd player rejects a BRAND NEW CD

63.  Being locked out (of my car, house, anything really)

64.  Losing my keys

65.  Reaching the point of exhaustion and fatigue where I’m so tired that I can’t sleep

66.  Losing reception on my cell phone

67.  Feeling rushed

68.  Migraines

69.  Selfish people

70.   Being ignored

71.  Nightmares

72.  Inconsideration

73.  Not having healthcare

74.  Losing myself

75.  Breaking my hockey stick in the middle of an important shift

76.  Hitting the pipe a couple shots in a row

77.  Cocky people

78.  Stubbing my toe

79.  Cranking my funny bone

80.  Puking

81.  Crying in public

82.  Feeling vulnerable

83.  Losing the remote

84.  Being kicked when I’m down

85.  Being involved in drama

86.  Fighting, unaddressed tension, public confrontation, people who enjoy arguing just for the sake of getting a rise out of someone

87.  Racism or discrimination on any level really

88.  Bad covers of good songs

89.  Cutting myself shaving

90.  Water in my ears

91.  The feeling of disappointment

92.  Being second guessed/judged/ridiculed when entering a public women’s restroom

93.  Sunburns

94.  When oncoming traffic doesn’t switch off their brights

95.  Finding out the milk is bad

96.  Swarms of mosquitos

97.  Not being able to see

98.  Arthritic pain/discomfort

99.  That I ever started smoking

100.          Being pulled over