It sounds so Nancy Drew: "The Mystery of the Refrigerator Art"

A few weeks ago I was fussing around on my blog and was going to write a post. I got interrupted so I wrote myself the words "refrigerator art" in the blog body and thought that would tip me off when I had time to go back and write the post. I saved it as a draft and went on my merry way. Now I have time. I'm back. And I have NO idea what I was going to write about at all.

Right now the words "refrigerator art" have no meaning to me whatsoever. I've read my blog posts a few days before and after the date I saved it to see if there was something that triggered that thought process. I hit a few of my fav blogs and re-read their posts around that same time. Nothing. I have no idea what my intent was. I can't even find anything about "art" or "refrigerators" to see if I was using some fun, little play on words.

I thought I could challenge myself and come up with something anyway, about refrigerators or art. Ummmmmmm, well..... okay. Let's just say I've kicked it around for a few days and if I was a student and this was my writing prompt I would be in big, frickin' trouble.

I even went to look at Daddy-O's refrigerator to see if there was something there. We have a collection of weird magnets advertising businesses or places people have gone on vacation and brought back a magnet, like a guitar stamped with Graceland. There's also a magnet of Marilyn Monroe. Apart from the magnet art, there's an assortment of take-out menus, Mac's school calendar for the rest of the school year, some expired coupons, a couple of note pads, and a bag that held veggies but is there as a reminder to me to get that same kind next time I go. There's a beer bottle opener, too. And there's a couple of photographs of family friends. Nothing that looks like art. No pictures drawn and hung up. No all A report cards. Just a bunch of junk that does NOT resemble art. Unless you would consider it modern art. I don't.

Because I'm anal retentive like that I looked at ITSam's fridge, hunting for inspiration and all that's there is a strip of pictures he and I had taken at a photo booth in the mall. Nothing else.

Wonder if Van Gogh or Picasso's moms put their artwork on the fridge?

I have three pictures that Princess made for me in her advanced art class and those are hanging up in my library, not on a fridge but on a file cabinet. She also has work on display in a local art show here in town. But I don't think either of these is the idea I had.

Anyway, so the mystery of "refrigerator art" remains. I still have no idea what I was going to write about, even after all the investigation.

Some mysteries are never solved.

Maggie

All you with penises stick together

I'm not mad or angry and it's really just a big joke between us but I really want some opinions here! This is not something that has caused relationship stress, I swear!

I had two DVDs in my hand. I held up the first one- Grosse Pointe Blank, starring John Cusak and Minnie Driver. The conversation followed:

Me: Have you seen this?
ITSam: Oh yeah. I love that movie. It's a great movie.
Me: cool. Let's watch it tonight?
Sam: Okay, sounds great.

I hold up the second movie- Beautiful Girls starring Timothy Hutton and a bunch of other people (Natalie Portman, Rosie O'Donnell, Mira Sorvino, Matt Dillion, Lauren Holl, Uma Thurmon)- and I said:
Me: And this one?
Sam: Oh, I don't like that movie.
Me: Oh really? Why?
Sam: sits there and make icky faces
Me: Oh com'on it's not that bad. it's got a great cast. Do you not like it because of Rosie?
Sam: uh, no. I just don't like it.
Me: The story is good, funny, a guy bonding thing and Natalie Portman's in it; you like here!
Sam: squirms in his seat
Me: wait, have you even WATCHED this movie?
Sam: Well, no but it doesn't look good.
Me: you said you saw it!!
Sam: Technically, I said I didn't like it, not I haven't seen it.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Okay, yes that's what he said. Yes, that's what I said. But I contend that he lied and implied he saw the movie, sort of lying by omission. He says he didn't; he says he just didn't answer the question I asked and I assumed.

Yes, technically he didn't answer my question but he knew his answer would make me THINK he saw the movie. Stuff like that drives me batty, mostly because it's such a high school student conversation!

I asked two other males their opinions and they side with ITSam. Men...!

Mags

By the way, is the plural of penis "penises" or "peni"?

Random ramblings of the addle- brained

This morning Mac and I went out for breakfast in an attempt of mother and son bonding. I discovered if we talked about nothing serious, made fun of the other diners, and we ate platters of homemade biscuits and gravy bigger than our heads we could have fun. The bonding continued to Wal-Mart where we looked at games and movies and played with toys. We bought shampoo and a Bruce Lee subtitled movie. It was a good day, so far. Yes, I said so far. I never look a gift horse in the mouth with a teenage song; things could go drastically wrong at any time. No, I'm not being a pessimist- I'm being a realist.

In other news, I'm doing laundry. I did grocery shop. I got fuel in the car. I worked yesterday, driving a transport, which was really an exercise in futility. I'm still having a good spring break in-spite of the housekeeping stuff but I can't believe it's over in 3.5 days. It seemed so short.

I think I need a nap. I forgot to turn my alarm off last night so it went off at 7:20am this morning and I couldn't fall back asleep. I'm still tired.

We got cool coupons in the mail today. Rent one movie or game and get one free of equal or lesser value and present the coupon and get all late fees wiped off. We have late fees because mac's ex-girlfriend kept his movies and then returned them late. So, today we got the fine cleared off for the price of a rental. Bonus! Mac wanted a game to play anyway, so it's totally a win- win situation.

And said game, when playing, has the character end a level in a bakery full of giant cakes and cookies. I like that game. I wish I was in a land of giant cookies and cakes.

Okay I sound like I'm on crack with the weird ramblings of this post.

Pardon the tired me...............................

Maggie

A Wild West summer of long ago

Thinking about a Wild West summer...

I would feel like I was going to melt into summer warmth. Magically, the sun is shining and the snow dissolves, leaving brown hues in its wake. The wind turns warm and humid, and is sparse. I question whether I really feel a breeze or it's so hot, I imagine a cooling presence. The cold air that had so frozen my lungs just that previous winter not so long ago, becomes hot and sticky, leaving me parched. Sweat immediately forms on my brow and I look over the brown fields, feeling the heat of the sun on my shoulders and the heat radiating up from the cooked cracked earth. Summer was having an intensity matched by nothing other than the fires of Hell.

The plains are still rolling and the shades of brown are many. The fields are dirty dark brown, and as the hills raise and lower, the hues become darker and lighter. The round bales of hay dot the landscape, giving it a polka dotted look. And the pattern of bales at first appears random, but upon closer examination the rows of bales are symmetrical and aligned, making a quilt like pattern across the otherwise unadorned fields, in a covering of summer.

The humidity and summer sun has done its job and cooked the earth until it cracked, leaving gouges running through the hardened, dried mud. Tractors and long ago rains worked together to leave the huge ruts, like craters, making the terrain uneven and broken, almost scarred. Not even the brilliant blue sky, like a tall drink of water, can ease the hotness, the lines of heat reverberating from the ground. The scrub brushes wilt in the mid day sun and not a tumbleweed blows across my path. The sage brush is limp, tired from the beating it received from the summer's intensity. Land as far as the eye can see, miles of brown with golden dots of hay, lasting forever, until it joins hands with the blue sky at the horizon.

Maggie

Ghost?

First, funny thing about the apartment house that ITSam lives in- he lives in the same building I used to, about 15 years ago. He's in a different apartment than I was but he's in the same building. It's a big old house that was converted into a mortuary- it was a funeral home when I lived above it. (If you click here you can read about that experience!) Now it's a hair salon on the ground floor and apartments above it.

Yes, you read that right. I lived in an apartment that had a funeral home on the ground floor and my apartment was over it. And it was an actual, working funeral home then.

I spent last night at Sam's last night. He was long gone to work when I finally got out of bed. I took a shower and got dressed. I was blow drying my hair when I swore I saw a reflection of a man in the mirror behind me. I whipped around, brandishing my hairbrush and dryer. No one there. My heart was beating in my throat. I turned off the blower and called out Sam's name- no answer. Of course.

I walk through the apartment, opening doors and looking under furniture and in closets. No one there, of course. The front door was locked. The back door was locked. I went back to resume the hair blowing and in the mirror over my shoulder, I saw that Sam had a dress shirt hanging on the open door of his closet, on a hanger. I leaned around at different angles and realized all I probably saw was his shirt and when I flipped my hair it looked like a person move.
Whew.

But I felt sort of silly.

However, I thought about when I lived there, in that building, 15 years ago. I would tell people I lived in a apartment over "Body & Sons" (not their real names!) funeral home and took private glee in their shock and horror and in some cases, revulsion. I was brave. I was sassy. I thought it was cool. Ha, I was never scared. I never really dwelt on it.

But today I had the complete creeps. What if some spirit was hanging around? I know that no one died there- they were long gone before arriving- but today the creeps settled in and freaked me out. I called Mac to pick me up asap and sat at the window with the doors open, just in case.

It's the second time I thought I saw a person in that same mirror in the same apartment.

I freaked myself out and I'm sure it's nothing but lighting and tricks and clothes on hangers on open closet doors and the like.

But today I was unsettled.

I've lost my nerve.

Maggie

Spring Break so far

I've been a complete and utter bum since spring break started. Well, sorta. I did work a 15 hour day on Friday.

Saturday I slept late and hung out with XRay Girl for a little while. I ran some errands. i read a book. I made a card with Daddy-O. I just chilled.

Sunday XRay Girl and her hubby, and ITSam and I all went to see a movie (Source Code, which was pretty good) and then to Northern Civilization to hang out. We went to the bakery and used book store. The guys went to a hobby store. We had dinner and coffee. We just chilled out and had a good time and lots of laughs. Then we did ITSam's furniture and rent a movie we never finished because it got to be so late.

I was supposed to have a birthday lunch with my Sis-In-Law today but she's sick! (I hope you feel better soon!) I was supposed to have a day with Lilith tomorrow but she's going to visit with her mom who's battling cancer (so I completely understand that change of plans). I was invited to go shopping with Daddy-O and Curley today but since I didn't have any money I thought it was would be better to just stay home.

I slept in until noon and have just lazed around on the computer and made a pot of coffee. I'm going to read.

My big plan for the week ahead is to drive a return transport on Wednesday. I plan on reading and hanging out with ITSam in his newly furnished place. I want to watch movies and maybe scrapbook and maybe quilt. But my brain needs a rest so that comes first.

I love spring break.

Maggie

Open your heart to me, baby you hold the lock and I have the key

So ITSam had very little furniture in his house and what he did have is really uncomfortable. Because of that I rarely liked to hang out there. We usually go somewhere or end up at my place, which is Daddy-O's house.

So I made an executive decision this week. I was going to get some of my furniture out of storage at my brother's place and stick it in ITSam's house. I weighed this carefully because we don't live together and we're not married; heck, we're technically not even engaged. I was worried that if I put my furniture in his apartment and we broke up I wouldn't get it back. I said that to him and he gave me a key to his place and signed an agreement similar to a pre-nup that I would get my stuff back.

Well, that took care of that.

My other fear was that he would eat on it. I hate it when furniture gets food and drink stains and since living with Daddy-O where we are NOT allowed to eat on the furniture, I've grown accustom to it. He said he wouldn't eat on it and wouldn't let his son either. Guess I just have to trust him on that.

So with the help of my brother and his access to a pick up truck, we moved some furniture last night. And holy cow, that an amazing change over!!!

There's no longer boxes as end tables and lawn furniture. The TV is no longer on the floor. There are other lamp options than the ceiling fixture. There's now a real love seat and a rocking chair recliner (thank you bro and SisIL for that bonus!!!). The TV is on a table. There are lamps on end tables. There's a lovely desk with a desk chair. The whole places looks awesome.

While Sam didn't have much in the way of "stuff" he's a clean freak so the place is always spotless and smells good, like cleaning products and there's always vacuum tracks. I never worried about things not being taken care of like that. So now with "real" furniture and his clean habits, the place is comfy. I think I'll be spending more time there.

After all, I have my own key.............

Maggie