June Ramblin’


My goodness, I have been EXHAUSTED lately, ever since I got back from visiting family in Charlotte, NC last week. Not just a little tired, but wiped out. I HAD to mow the lawn when I got back – nine days and lots of rain since the last time, but it felt as though the mower was holding me up.

Part of it is the constant use of the automobile. In the course of a week at home, I’ll bike or play racquetball or at least walk to the supermarket or the pharmacy. I took one walk with Lydia in Charlotte, and I was uncomfortable with that. No sidewalks and people drive way too fast, especially on the curve near my mom’s house.

I was so tired that a call I got on Friday it took me until Monday to call back. Calls from the weekend I STILL haven’t returned. Lydia too had been sick three or four days.

Eating at 8:30 pm is contraindicated for my five-year old. Indeed, some of my frustration wasn’t about me being stuck for 3.5 hours at Wal-Mart(!). It was that, on Sunday, we went to church, then a cake thing for the niece and another girl graduating from high school, then ANOTHER church service, then ANOTHER cake thing. we went to eat at Mickey Ds, then to the Wal-Mart. we were supposed to get photos at 4 pm, but when the photographer hadn’t acknowledged us at 4:45, we left.

We were out from 8:40 a.m. to 5:20 p.m, and Lydia without her new glasses, which she reminded me of at 9:30 a.m. I had no idea that we’d be out ALL DAY.

It went on like that with increasing frustration, about which you’ll undoubtedly hear more. That said, I was glad my niece and my daughter got along so well. And a highlight of the week was when my 30-year-old niece called and shared with her mother her love of The Wonder Pets; my sister was momentarily slackjawed, but ended up appreciating it herself when she watched with Lydia.
***

Running stop light = $100.00
DUI = $5,000.00
Not wearing a seat belt = $50.00
Putting you AND your girlfriend on your fake driver’s license = PRICELESS
(Allegedly, an actual driver’s license from a traffic stop.)
***
Beautifully stated insults
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Tapping your cell phone
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Covertube: Toto’s “Africa” performed by Perpetuum Jazzile. Even if you don’t like the song, at least watch the percussive first 90 seconds.
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Weird Al channels Jim Morrison
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Han Solo, P.I.; the side-by-side comparison is astonishing.
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When Scottish Sheep Herders get bored
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Getting your child to sleep. This is of particular interest to me because it’s being offered by an apparently local pediatric sleep expert named Dr. Roger Green.
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The Joy of Less
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Budget Travel hosting a contest to vote for “America’s Coolest Small Town”, and Owego, the only town in NYS nominated, won. It’s the county seat of the county next to my home county of Broome. My grandma owned property there years ago.
***
This spam pleased me:
The Fondation De France(FDF) would like to notify you that you have been chosen by
the board of trustees as one of the final recipients of a cash Grant/Donation of
$1,350,000.00.This is a yearly program, which is a measure of universal development
strategy.
To file for claims…
Please endeavor to quote your Qualification numbers (FDF-444-6647-9163) and always
check you inbox, spam or junk for our emails and updates.
***
I’m not older than dirt…yet.
ROG


A Senior Moment

This is a meme I saw at Johnny B’s.

Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school!

1. Did you date someone from your school senior year? Yes, but we broke up shortly after; her choice, not mine.

2. Did you marry someone from your high school? No.

3. Did you car pool to school? No, I walked.

4. What kind of car did you drive? Didn’t.

5. What kind of car do you have now? We have an Avalon.

6. It’s Friday night…where were you (in high school)? At a party – it as more hanging out, i suppose.

7. It is Friday night…where are you(now)? Home, unless we get a babysitter.

8. What kind of job did you have in high school? Page at the Binghamton Public Library

9. What kind of job do you do now? Librarian for the NYS Small Business Development Center

10. Were you a party animal? We had a group who hung out together.

11. Were you considered a flirt? By some

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir

13. Were you a nerd? Possibly

14. Did you get suspended or expelled? No, but I did get reprimanded.

15. Can you sing the fight song? I know the alma mater; did we HAVE a fight song?

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? There was a young English teacher, but for the life of me, I’ve forgotten her name.

17. Where did you sit during lunch? Cafeteria

18. What was your school’s full name? Binghamton Central HS

19. When did you graduate? 1971

20. What was your school mascot? Bulldog.

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Knowing what I know now, my initial reaction was that I would. But upon further reflection, instead of being a “good” kid, I probably WOULD have been suspended. Or expelled.

22. Did you have fun at Prom? It was OK. The them was “All Things Must Pass”, based on the George Harrison song. But I remember better going to see Midnight Cowboy afterwards.

23. Do you still talk to your prom date? We’re friends, but we’ve been out of touch. I did go to her wedding a few years back.

24. Who was your best friend? Karen Durkot or Carol Bakic. The reasons I went to my 35th anniversary reunion in 2006.

25. What did you want to be when you grew up? A lawyer.

26. Any regrets? Yes and no. Wish I were braver, but the way it turned out had value.

27. Biggest fashion mistake? I was oblivious to fashion – still am, actually – so if I had any, I didn’t know. Now I seriously don’t remember.

28. Favorite fashion trend? Ditto. I have no idea. Though I do recall girls wearing culottes. In my sophomore year, they were banned; by senior year, they were standard.

29. Are you going to your next reunion? Perhaps.

30. Who did you have a secret crush on? By senior year, I was happy in my relationship, which would come to a crashing halt four months later.

31. Did you go on spring break? Not that I recall.

***IF YOU WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH THE PERSON THIS IS ABOUT, LEAVE YOUR FAVORITE HIGH SCHOOL MEMORY THAT INVOLVED THAT PERSON!***
ROG

25 Random Things

I was reading The random beauty of “25 Random Things” in Salon. I’m not that great a Facebook participant, I guess, since I have not been “tagged” to do this. Yet the article made it so appealing, I thought I’d do it here and crosspost in Facebook. I’m trying not to repeat myself, but I make no guarantees.

1. I lived in the Binghamton, NY house I grew up in for 18 years. I’ve spent nearly the last nine years in my current home. In the intervening 28 or 29 years, I moved at least 20 times.

2. I couldn’t tie my shoes until I was nine; I wore penny loafers, with real pennies in them.

3. I received, for one marking period, an F in handwriting in third grade.

4. Conversely, I received a 100 in the fifth grade spelling final.

5. In elementary school, some kids were playing keep away with my hat. I got annoyed, hopped a Crowley’s milk truck and went home.

6. The first girl I ever kissed, when I was 13, is in one of the same social network things as I am, but I’ve had no contact.

7. I was reading the op/ed pages of the local newspaper when I was 10. I was much older before I realized that not every 10-year-old read the op/ed pages.

8. My paternal grandmother taught me to play canasta when I was about seven; I then taught it to my great aunt.

9. I took apart the door lock to my home to see how it worked, but couldn’t get it back together; my father was annoyed but not particularly angry, and I think my curiosity pleased him more than the need to get a new lock bothered him.

10. There was this novelization of an I Spy TV episode that I used to read all of the time as a kid. It’s where I learned the term “hoist by his own petard”; in the case of the story, this was literally true.

11. My father used to come to my classroom every semester and sing to the class. One of the songs was “Goodnight, Irene”, and everyone thought I had put my father up to this, assuming I had a crush on the girl named Irene in my class; to both parts, I did not.

12. My fifth grade teacher taught us to count to 10 in Russian; I can still do so.

13. I used to read the Encyclopedia Americana and the World Almanac from the time I was 9 or 10, including those EA annuals.

14. There was this girl in 7th grade who had a major thing for me. Her friend was always passing me notes and everyone assumed the friend was the one with the crush on me. About four years later, the young woman with the crush moved next door to us, with two babies in tow. Yikes.

15. My father, sister and I used to sing in the Binghamton area. The best-paid gig was also the worst one, at a VFW hall in front of a bunch of drunken guys. Someone requested The Battle Hymn of the Republic, not generally in our repertoire, which my sister and I sang, and my father sang as a counter-melody, “what a hell of a way to go.”

16. I was student government president in high school. The principal was throwing people into detention for walking on the school lawn. So I held a meeting on the sidealk, and the body voted to have its meeting on the lawn. Later, I walked passed the principal’s office, and he growled, “I hope you’re satisfied.” Actually, I was.

17. I had a button that read, “Kiss me – I’m germ free”. I lent it to a friend of mine and it was confiscated. He wore it on the seat of his pants; I never did get the button back.

18. I used to go to parties in high school. Sometimes when I was not having a particularly good time, I’d hide in the attic or basement or a closet to see if anyone would miss me. It wasn’t intended as attention-getting, it was insecurity; I had my doubts that they actually WOULD miss me.

19. I applied to only one college, which is where my high school girlfriend was going. But by the time I got to college, she had broken up with me.

20. The husband of a friend of mine had committed suicide and she had asked not to tell the means of his demise because she had young children. I concocted an elaborate story which I told so often to our mutual friends that I was convinced it was true, until the point she released me from my bond of secrecy. Then I had to remember who I had told the lie to so that I could tell them the truth.

21. I went to a number of antiwar demonstrations, mostly in DC and NYC, in the early 1970s. One NYC rally my friends I I lleft after a number of hours, turned on the radio miles away, but still within the city limits, and discoverded that John Lennon was speaking at the rally we had only recently left. Bummer.

22. I went to grad school in public administration at UAlbany in 1979-80. I was immediately disadvantaged because for the whole first week, I was bedridden with an infection that was running from my toenail up my leg, which might have killed me. So I was always behind, it was extremely competitive (cf the cooperative vibe of library school a decade later). It was a disaster and I dropped out, ending up working at a comic book store for 8.5 years instead.

23. On at least three occasions, I quit jobs with no new job lined up.

24. I’m terrible remembering names, and it’s not just at parties. I might see a teller at a bank for three years, then she’d leave and I’d see her six months later. More often than not, her name is gone. SHE’S not gone; details about her life I’d recall, but her name: gone. Worse, the other person almost always remembers MY name.

25. About the only thing I truly covet right now is one of those turntable combos that would turn my vinyl into CDs.

ROG

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