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Jimmy tagged me for this meme, in which I am to ‘mark’ certain spots in Texas. Jimmy knows that I am am a closet Texan. I’ve actually visited that most excellent state only twice, spending just a couple of days within its borders on each occasion. This means there are relatively few places I’ve been in Texas and a whole ranchload a places I ain’t been ta yet. (That there is an easterner’s way of typing in a Texas accent).
So here goes.
Been there…
1. Cowtown Pattie‘s house in Fort Worth. Seriously! She and the K-man are two of the finest hosts a fella could ever hope to meet. Their house is gorgeous, artsy (in the best possible way), and comfortable. Plus their backyard alone merits inclusion as an item on the list.
2. I forget the name of the restaurant in Midland, but I’m sure the guys I’d like to meet there would remember. Great Italian food (in Texas no less, whodathunk?) and an even greater group of friends: Jimmy, Jeff, and Eric.
3. Browsing the shelves at Booked Up. Larry McMurtry’s book store to end all book stores in his hometown of Archer City. Worth a multi-day visit all by itself.
4. Hangin’ out with Pastor Randy Frazee and the folks from the student ministry at Pantego Bible Church in Fort Worth.
5. Giving Abbye a behind the ear scratch, if she’d let me.
6. Uh…. little help?
Not yet…
1. Big Bend National Park. Jimmy and Cowtown Pattie just about threatened my life if I didn’t go there last year. Okay, not threatened really but strongly encouraged. And from what they told me and the pictures they’ve both posted, I probably shoulda made time for it.
2. The River Walk in San Antonio.
3. Galveston Island. Because, why not?
4. Padre Island. Because I like Islands.
5. Guadalupe Peak. The highest point in Texas at 8,749 feet. Because I also like mountains. And Jimmy picked it too, so it’s probably cool.
6. On a scissor lift in the parking lot of the Midland HEB. I hear it’s the new thing.
You Are Paper |
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A scissor person can sneak up and cut you to pieces. When you fight: No one can anticipate your next move If someone makes you mad: You’ll attack them mercilessly when they’re unprepared |
My friends the Waters throw a huge 4th of July party every year. This year’s happened yesterday. I enjoy them very much because the Waters are ‘no pressure’ people. This fact is important because I am on off-the-scale introvert. I love parties, as long as I’m not forced to interact with a whole bunch of people, especially at once.
I had a great time at yesterday’s bash. Here’s what I did…
- I went by myself (my family went too but since I had church stuff to finish, they left without me).
- I got some food and sat at the only empty table. The table wasn’t actually empty, there were three people sitting at one end of it but they didn’t acknowledge my existence, which is fine by me. My wife sat with me.
- While chatting with my wife and enjoying the food (standard barbecue fare, but lots of it), I watched whole messes of people (there were probably 60 or 70 people in the Waters’ back yard) playing volleyball, playing UNO… the drinking game version, and riding around in the trailer on the back of a riding mower.
- My family left because my daughters were bored. After that, I sat for another hour and a half watching people do pretty much what they had been doing before and saying not a word to anyone.
- Eventually the hostess sat down to talk with me and a couple other people joined us and asked the usual questions about how things were going, was I still delivering mail, do I like that, etc. This conversation, which lasted about 30 minutes, filled my quote of social interaction for the day, and probably the week.
- I left. I drove to WaWa and got some coffee, then I went home.
A perfect evening.**
*When I say classic, I mean ‘classic’ only as it applies to me and perhaps to others who are similarly introverted. In other words, I’m not talking about normal people here.
**Except for the fact that Pottstown doesn’t have a Starbucks.
Like I don’t have enough stuff to do without Gwynne giving me homework. Oy!
Alright, alright…
2. I really do not like cats.
3. I need a shower. Trust me.*
4. My shoe size is 12.
5. My hands tingle all the time. It started about 10 years ago on my birthday. The tingling is caused by a “spot” on my c-spine. The neurologist thought it might be MS. Whatever it was/is, it has never progressed beyond those early symptoms. I don’t really even notice the tingling anymore.
6. Grape Nuts!
7. When I was in high school I learned French well enough that when we visited France, my fellow students were always sticking me in front of French speakers so I could translate. I don’t think I can speak a single sentence of French anymore.
*UPDATE (7:35pm serotonintime): This item is no longer relevant.
The tagging thing really doesn’t work for me, so I’m going to pass on that. But please, feel free to include yourself in this exercise.
Julie tagged me for this meme.
No, actually, I can’t back that up.
Julie never tags anyone. It’s one of her rules.
But she did do this meme and offered us all the chance to follow in her footsteps.
So here’s my attempt at the seven things meme. First, the guidelines-more-than-rules
People who are tagged start by thinking about 7 random facts/habits about themselves. Each player then must write about those seven things on their blog, as well as include these rules. Players then need to choose 7 people to tag and list their names. Don’t forget to leave each person a comment telling them they’ve been tagged.
1. Most nights, I eat some ice cream before I go to bed. I just now enjoyed some Starbucks Java Chip. It was special. It’s probably unhealthy in some major way. Like I care.
2. I’m always thinking statistics and probable outcomes in various situations throughout my day. Right now I’m thinking that these observations I’m coming up with aren’t random at all by the sheer fact that I’m thinking about stuff to write down.
3. Julie said something about movies and talking to inanimate objects, thereby ruining any chance that my own attempt at this meme will be random because I have to find a way to combine those two things from her meme into one item of mine… which I think I have just done. So there. By the way, I cannot remember the last time I saw a movie in a theatre.
4. When I was a kid I loved to tease my brother and sister until they got royally pissed off and tried to hit me at which point I had an excuse to beat the living crap out of them. One of my daughters is now the same way with her sister (except for the beating part) and it drives me absolutely nuts.
5. Cheez-its. Not Cheese Nips.
6. Right now the song California by Semisonic is running through my head. Especially the section that goes, “Tore my heart out from my chest/Mixed it up in my mind with the best freshest pieces of my soul/Chose the ones I loved the most/Drove ’em all down to the coast/Threw ’em in a big black hole,” because my pal Erica the Barista and I were singing it to each other today at Churchill where she had the CD I loaned to her playing for all the customers to hear.
7. I have absolutely no idea what I will be doing with my life as little as one year from now. I mean, I can’t even guess.
Tag seven people? Right.
is the Money Ethics meme… er, suvey. Coming to you from that paragon of ethical journalism and such, CNN.
You can take the money ethics quiz here. You can read the money ethics article here. And there are additional ethics questions over here, provided you haven’t had enough by the time you’re done with the quiz.
You can tell us all how you did in the comments.
My score was in the “you won’t be surprised at others’ ethics” category.
Have, um, fun.
Now, you probably thought this was going to be some sort of political rant. Hah! Click away if that’s what you looking for. This here is much more important than politics.
Did you know that emoticon interpretation varies from culture to culture?
For instance, this… -^_^-
might indicate to a Japanese person that you’re happy. To an American it means you’re a cat.
And this… 🙂
to a Japanese person might mean that you’re neither happy nor sad, while this 8-| might more readily signify happiness.
You see, it’s all in the eyes… at least that’s what these guys say (if you want a full text of their report, there is a PDF available).
Ars Technica has an article about their findings.
Japanese students consistently rated those pictures in which the eyes were happier than the mouth as being more happy overall than their American counterparts. In contrast, when the mouth had a happy expression, US students rated the overall expression as happier, regardless of what the eyes are up to.
The researchers noted research suggesting that this eye/mouth bias extends to the online world by citing research which suggested that the Japanese tend to use emoticons with expressive eyes and a neutral mouth —^_^— while Americans did the opposite 🙂
No word on whether or not this emoticon barrier exists for Singaporeans. But I’ll bet, regardless of what her eyes might have done, that mis_nomer smiled when she saw this.
I’m sitting at a brand new coffeehouse in Limerick called Java’s Brewin’ which just opened last Friday (free wi-fi!). Across Ridge Pike is the Waltz Golf farm, which is the closest we get to plains grassland in this part of the country. The sky is blue and expansive.
Years ago, this would have been the day that really got me jonesing for a road trip. A road trip that would include fifteen or twenty high school students and four or five other adults. Every year, a day like this comes along when my eternally westering heart wakes up from its hibernation.
Things change. I don’t do mission trips anymore and am unsure when I will go west again, though I’m always ready to go that way at the slightest opportunity. But today, right now, though I’m sitting in Limerick, my mind’s eye is seeing the horizon to horizon views of central South Dakota, perhaps at the Missouri River where it flows past Chamberlain, or the tumbleweeds rolling down the road charm of Murdo. So what if Wall Drug is kitschy? The ice water is still free after all these years, what more do you want.
Or how about worship on the grass at The YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park with the sun setting over Long’s Peak?
Over all the earth
You reign on high
Every mountain stream
Every sunset sky
A couple of you have been down those roads with me. Remember?
Got this one from Beth.
| The Movie Of Your Life Is A Black Comedy |
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In your life, things are so twisted that you just have to laugh. |
There was a moment of silence for the Virginia Tech fallen today. It occurred at noon EDT. I missed it because I was delivering the mail, and because I didn’t know anything about it.
Today was the twentieth consecutive delivery day that I worked. Tomorrow will be twenty-one. On half of those days I have delivered R5. For many of the others I worked R7. Somewhere in there I trained on a new route: R1. These are the routes I’ve worked: R1, R4 (casing only), R5, R7, R8, R9. R2 is absent only because I’m not trained on it. Frankly, I’m not sure how I missed R3 and 6.* **
This morning one of the regular carriers came up to me and said, “Jim, what route are you doing today?”
I said, “R5.”
“And where did you park?”
“Oh my gosh,” I said and ran outside to move my car out of the spot for R7 before that carrier showed up and wondered why I took it. It was the second time this happened, only the first time, I parked in R5’s spot when I was working R7.
Back inside, Bill said, “When you’ve been on as many routes as you have in the past couple of weeks, it’s a wonder you ever know where you’re supposed to park.”
“How, ’bout it!” I said.
At dinner I mostly just stare straight ahead. I haven’t had the energy to read much. Even clicking around on different blogs tires me out.
My daughter mentioned the church bells today. I was within earshot of a couple of churches at noon and I’m sure their bells rang out, but I didn’t notice.
I don’t even have the mental resources for conversation now.
There are people who work this hard all the time, every day, for years. If you are one, I bow in your general direction.
*Since I also direct the band and lead worship for one of my church’s services, I’ve really been working seven day weeks for almost a month. Plus I had an article to write. The deadline was about a week ago and I did manage to get it in on time.
**I should also mention that I received my pay today via direct deposit for the first two of those marathon weeks. Suh-weet!
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