That Hobbit Lady

It would be very difficult to live in Tuscaloosa and not be aware of how strongly college football influences everything about this town. Even if you weren’t a fan of the Crimson Tide, you would at least have to admit what a driving force Alabama football is in almost every aspect of the community.

“Roll, Tide!” is an often-repeated battlecry, even during the off-season. Some people even answer their phone that way. When you go to the store, every fourth or fifth person is wearing a crimson hat or shirt or some other indication of their support for the team. I would guess that most people could sooner pick Coach Saban out of a line-up than they could recognize any elected official, other than the President.

Someday I’m going to do a scientific study of how far you have to get from the center of the University before you find a fast food restaurant that doesn’t have at least SOME reference to Alabama football. My guess is that it would be five miles at least.

Above I’ve included a picture from today’s issue of the college newspaper, the Crimson White, showing how many days until kickoff. It’s 51 days, and already we’re counting down! The local weatherman is counting down as well. Every weekend we watch “Crimson Classics” on a local TV station, where highlights from past football games are re-run, and last night we saw a panel of local experts (sports writers and broadcasters, radio commentators, former quarterbacks, etc.) discussing what’s likely in store for the coming season.

Which begins in 51 days.

If you don’t live here, you may not get it. If you DO live here, you can’t NOT get it.

Well, here are just a few words about Mary’s recent visit:

We ate out.
We shopped.
We watched some good TV.

We ate out.
We shopped.
We went to the movies. (Night at the Museum…very funny!)

We ate out.
We shopped.
And then we ate out and shopped some more.

Basically, we did just normal stuff, and I enjoyed it immensely. No visits to theme parks, no concerts, no huge family get-togethers. We just hung out and talked and caught up and had a good time. It was sad to put her back on the plane, but the plan, God willing, is to fly both Mary and Joey back up for Christmas. I’m also hoping to get to the point where every three months or so I’m either visiting family down in Florida, or having someone from down there come up for a visit here.

And then of course the topper to all this was that on the way back from the airport Russ and I stopped to buy our dining room set which was delivered this afternoon, and here’s what it looks like in our house:’

Our next move (after getting a little more money into our emergency fund) will be to start saving up for some new bedroom furniture, including a new bed, a kind-size, so we can put the queen-size into the guest room, so it will be easier to accomodate visitors. The house is really shaping up. It feels good. We are blessed, in so many ways.

Mary has just been here for a four day visit, which was quite enjoyable. I’ll write about it later, right now I’m just a bit worn out from all the eating out and staying up late! But I did want to report this much: on the way back from the airport, Russ and I stopped at our favorite furniture store in Birmingham and bought our new dining room set! Here’s a pic from their website:

As you can see, this is a very traditional set, which we think will look great in our dining room with hardwood floors and arched doorways. It’s being delivered this coming Friday. In the meantime, I’ll be doing some shopping for placemats and possibly a nice centerpiece (and some little felt pads for the chair and table legs so they won’t scratch the hardwood floor!).

So all in all, it’s been a very fun and productive week! And, as I say, later I’ll write a little more about our visit with Mary.

I have decided never to get old.

I think the mere act of making that decision means the battle is half won. I think if you’re not aware and committed to this goal, “oldness” can creep up on you, and one day you wake up and say, “Hey! I’m old! When did this happen? How did this happen?”

You know what? Before I go any further, perhaps I ought to offer up my definition of “old,” because it might not necessarily be the standard definition, and I wouldn’t want anybody to misunderstand me before I even get started.

To me, “old” has nothing to do with chronological age, and first and foremost everything to do with ATTITUDE. Old is having a “stale” attitude, a lack of enthusiasm. Old is when you are stuck in a rut for such a long time that you no longer even *know* you’re in a rut! And even if you did know, you wouldn’t care.

Old is also a lack of health and vibrancy. I’m talking about physical health, but I’m also talking about so much more. Of course I know that as our bodies age, deterioration is inevitable. That’s not what I’m trying to avoid. This is not about Botox and mega-vitamin treatments. Though of course part of staying young is treating your body kindly so that you do everything you can *within reason* to stave off that deterioration.

So I believe that a little exercise, fresh veggies, whole grains, no smoking/drinking/drugs/etc. can do as much for keeping your mind young as it does for keeping your body young. And visa versa. Because body and mind work together, they are two sides of the same coin. The longer I’m alive, the more aware I become of this fact.

And it’s because I am aware of this fact that I feel I have the ability to consciously keep myself from getting old. I stay young by delighting myself in the things I choose to fill my life with—lively music, funny TV shows, cats, books, conversations with my cerebral husband about the origin of words, proper uses of grammar, and the literary devices in the TV shows we’re watching. Yeah, nerdy, I know. But I love language and literature. I love music. I love nature. I love life. And I think that as long as I go on loving life and all there is in it for me, I will not get “old.”

“Old” happens when you sleepwalk through your days. Every day that you coast by, not bothering to be aware of all the positive forces around you is a day when the enthusiasm and vibrancy of youth slips away, bringing you one step closer to “old.” So, with this in mind, I have made a decision not to “sleepwalk” through my days. I’m making a commitment right now to do the following:

Each day, I will look for the opportunity to do at least one thing that I have never done before. It doesn’t have to be momentous, but it does have to be NEW. I thought this up yesterday, when I was on the bus. For some reason, I went to the back of the bus and sat in one of the “backwards” seats. I realized I had never sat there before. It gave me a whole new perspective on the bus ride. And that was when I realized that doing something new and different keeps us awake and alive and keeps us from getting “old.”

Maybe you could say it was an epiphany. It didn’t feel QUITE that momentous to me, but it was definitely some kind of turning point. It was a point when I realized anew that I can actively be involved in keeping myself (my mind, my body, my spirit) awake and fresh.

Never stop learning. That’s what it’s all about. Last summer I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula. At the time, I ran across so many new words I had never known before, and I wrote them down, meaning to look them up later. Well, here it is, a year later, and I have just now run across that vocabulary list. But you know what? Better late than never! Today, I’m going to look up those words, and learn something new. That will be my “new thing” for today.

And then I may REALLY have something to talk about with my cerebral husband when next we start up our conversation about language, semantics, myth and literature.

I look forward to it!

I’ve just been looking at some of the poems that I wrote a long, long time ago, way back when I was in high school. I just felt like sharing some of these. Most of these were written 1974-1975 so I guess I was maybe a senior in high school? I apologize upfront if these poems might be a bit sappy, but I think you at least have to admire the optomist I was.

YOU IN THE MORNING

If you hate to get up in the morning
dreading to meet a flower or face
then the days…go..slow…
but the years passfast
Sorrowful and Empty.

But if you greet the morning
as your oldest and truest friend
(which the morning is)
they you are ALIVE
and Happiness overflows your cup of Time.

CLOUDS

If there were no clouds,
could we love the sky for being blue?
If there were no lies
could we love the Truth for being true?

PLACES AND FACES

Places
and faces and
traces of times I know
become what I am and live as
I grow

LOVE

Love isn’t love
unless you make it show.
Love doesn’t say
“You come to me.”
Love goes.

FLEETING FEELINGS

All my earthly joys
are very worthless joys
if I don’t believe that God
will take me when I die.

Happiness will pass
Only Memories last
How glad I’ll be to take them
to the Spirit in the sky.

There is no happiness small
unless there is happiness all
and good feelings about Forever
can quiet the moment’s sigh.

Well, this might be somewhat of a personal subject, but I feel compelled to say something about it, because it’s got me so freakin’ annoyed! Bra shopping. What a pain! Here’s my issue: as anyone who knows me can testify, I need more than a little support up there. So when I see the words “Full Figure” in the newspaper ads, or on the rack, that is where I gravitate. But when I get there, what do I find? The “Full Figure” support is only available…if you don’t *actually* have a full figure! Normally, bra sizes go up to about 42D. Well, I need something a bit “fuller” than that. But on the “Full Figure” rack at the local Penney’s, that’s as high as it goes! If you need 44 or 46, you are just plum out of luck searching through the “Full Figure” racks at Penneys.

I’m only talking about Penney’s right now. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try Sears and see if I have any more luck. Wal Mart? Fuggedaboutit!

There are Big and Tall Men’s clothing shops. I guess I’ve got to find a “Full Figured” women’s clothing shop and hope I can find something there. Or, I could lose a little weight, thus becoming less full figured, since as I recall when I was 20 pounds lighter back in 2005-2006, I was back in “normal” sized clothes.

Yeah, I think that’s what I’d most like to do. But in the meantime (as losing weight does tend to take time, does it not?) where exactly am I supposed to shop for new bras?

Every now and then I visit Target during my lunchbreak for a cheap hot dog and soda lunch. (I love hot dogs, but because they’re not really good for you, I don’t like buy whole packages to eat at home, so the occasional snack bar hot dog is a real treat.)

When I visit Target, there is very often a particular guy behind the snack bar counter who rings up my meal. He has a long, long dark ponytail. I mean long, long, practically down to his waist.

Have I ever mentioned that I really dig it when a guy has a ponytail?

Today, I went into Target, and there was a young man behind the counter….with very, very short dark hair. Military short. I looked at him and couldn’t figure out if ponytail guy had gotten sick of all the knots and trouble and decided to cut it all off. All that hair was such a part of his appearance that I honestly could not tell if this was him or not.

But if it was him, I was prepared to mourn. There was just something so cool about that ponytail.

Happily, as I passed by the snack bar on my way out a few minutes later (after buying cat food and yogurt), I saw ponytail guy! He was back behind the counter, ponytail still firmly in place. The other guy with the short hair I had seen was someone else, not him!

Now why do I mention all this? Only to say, I really dig it when a guy has a ponytail. Except for height, I think hair is probably the number one feature of a guy’s appearance that I will notice and decide whether or not I think he’s attractive.

And all this comes on the heels of another recent observation:

Last year Alabama did really, really well in football. But our quarterback, John Parker Wilson, (who was not a *great* quarterback, but he improved with time, and he was definitely adequate) has graduated, and now we are ready to break in a new starting quarterback, somebody-McElroy.

I can’t remember McElroy’s first name. And I can’t remember the way he looks either. I know I’ve seen pictures of him once or twice, but if I had to pick him out of a line-up, I just couldn’t do it. Why? Because he has short hair! And an unremarkable face. (My apologies to his girlfriend and his mother! I’m just telling you how I see it.)

But JP Wilson…well, anybody could have picked him out of a lineup. He had the HAIR. He has this sort of blondish hair that…well, never mind. Here are some pics:

And he has lips too, you’ll notice. The hair! The lips! Not that any of that has anything to do with how far or how accurately a guy can throw a football, but I’m just saying, there was no mistaking JP.

Okay, I think I’ve gone on long enough. The moral of this story is: Guys! Celebrate your hair!

A sad day. My mom called this morning to tell me that my Aunt Jeanette died. She was 89, and apparently she died in her sleep, after not feeling well for several weeks. She was still living at home, with her daughter and grandson, and to the best of my knowledge she was not incapacitated in any way. When it’s my time to go, I would like something similar.

Aunt Jeannette is the first of my aunts to die. I have five biological aunts on my mom’s side, all between 70 and 90. We have long life in my family. And, I also hope, good life.

When I remember my Aunt Jeanette, the first thing I think of is her laugh. One of the main *sounds* I remember from my childhood, back in the day when I was a child running around with all my cousins, was Aunt Jeanette’s long, loud laugh, whenever we had a family get-together. Her laugh was unmistakable, and could be heard from clear around the other side of the block. (The other sound I remember, of course, was the traditional singing of “Sto-Lot” at every birthday, the Polish version of “For he’s a jolly good fellow,” or “How old are you now?” that was always sung after “Happy Birthday.”)

I also remember that Aunt Jeanette had a keen interest in the supernatural. I think she was the one that noted that if the pictures on your wall were crooked, it was a sign that “the spirits are telling you to leave the house.” I also remember her once saying that she saw Jesus (I believe she saw Him outside, leaning against a car), and “He was SO TALL!!”

Uncle Eddie has been gone several years now. I hope that he and Aunt Jeanette are now together again in Heaven, along with Babcie and Dzydzyie. My world just got a little smaller, and another piece of my childhood has slipped away. But not really, because there are always the memories.

“Sto-Lot,” that Polish birthday song, translates out to “A hundred years, a hundred years, may you live a hundred years!” Aunt Jeanette didn’t quite make a hundred, but it seems to me she had a pretty good run. I hope she’s seeing Jesus now, and I hope He’s even taller than she remembers.

Has anyone seen the commerial from the US Post Office about their new flat box shipping rate (or some such thing.) The slogan is:

If it fits, it ships.

ahem…

Say that again? Ten times fast? I dare ya.

Have you been in McDonald’s lately? Have you seen the cute little pictures on the bags? I went in for breakfast recently, and as I was eating my sausage burrito, I stopped to look at this bag, and at first I thought, “OH! How cute! Look at the cute little piggy bank. I guess they’re saying how you can have breakfast at McDonald’s with only the spare change from your piggy bank.”

But then I took a closer look. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what those square things at the bottom were (Russ later told me he thought they must be slices of cheese…what do you think?) but there is definitely no doubt that that is a GRATER standing up next to the piggy. And when I realized that, the whole thing took on a completely new meaning. And it was not very pleasant.

So, McDonald’s…you show me this cute little piggy…then you show me a GRATER…all while I’m eating a SAUSAGE burrito. Ugh. Suddenly I was losing my appetite.

Did McDonald’s know what they were doing when they put together these images? And if they did know…then why did they do it? It just doesn’t seem to make any sense. I, for one, was kind of turned off sausage burritos after seeing this.

Which is probably just as well, cos I’m sure they’re not very good for you, anyway. And *definitely* not good for cute little piggies like this one.