Saturday, March 19, 2011

Random Thoughts That Are Pretty Much Worthless

In yesterday's post about the Casting of Characters around here,  I completely forgot Piggy Gin, our Guinea pig. Well, she's mine, actually.  She started out as a pet for Dr. Lampshade.  He held her once, fed her once, and then got bored and moved on to drugs, which he seemed to have found more interesting than guinea pigs.  Piggy Gin was first named Sapphire by Lamp, and she was brought home from the pet store with another smaller guinea pig, named Sophie.  We got Piggy Gin for free, because someone had brought her back to the store to return her, and they didn't know her age or much about her.  The brown one, Sophie, died relatively quickly, but Piggy Gin keeps going.  I will miss her when she does die, because I'm so used to her "REEK! REEK!  REEK!" When she hears a plastic bag rustle.  (Her lettuce comes in plastic bags, so she seems to think all plastic bags must hold her food.  Oh, and she's always hungry, it seems.)  She doesn't like to be held, but once you catch her, she curls up and relaxes.  Or, she'll eat the buttons off the remote if you aren't paying attention.  Trust me on that one.

We don't have fish or birds, though Saige did have a parakeet named Tony Soprano she got for her birthday.  (Not from me)  Tony would sit on your finger and he was so gentle, and then he up and died, 3 weeks after she got him.  Of course, the guarantee that the pet will live was only good for 2 weeks.

Anyway, Saige and I are experts at self-diagnosing ourselves.  We figure we are both a little OCD combined with some ADHD or ADD, or both, issues, too.  I was laughing about it until I went into the bathroom.  You see, on the shelf surrounding the tub, I have these candles, and I am very particular about them being arranged in order of size and color.  The spaces between them must be correct, too.  Yet, when I turned to look at the toilet, there were cat paw prints all over it!  I figure I probably got distracted by something shiny before my need to clean and arrange things kicked in.  When I was little, I would start to arrange my books in alphabetical order or in order of the authors, and then one book would distract me, I would stop working to read it, and then I had a bigger mess than I started with, plus, my plan to arrange things neatly was dismissed completely.

When I have cookies, they must be eaten evenly from package.  Two from the left, two from the right.  This gives me the advantage of having four cookies when I might have only had two.  Ah ha!  Actually, I get kind of nervous if cookies are taken out of the package all willy nilly, with no order, but then I eat some cookies and forget about my nerves.

A week or so ago, Saige and I were at the local drugstore, and we were perusing the aisles.  There was a Sham Wow there, for sale, for three bucks.  Three bucks!  There were, in reality, two of the large Sham Wows for the price.  They were being pulled from the shelves, and this was the last box left.  Now, I swore I'd never buy one of these things.  I hated the commercials, I thought the product was stupid and too expensive, but you know, for three bucks, I couldn't resist.  Plus, I can always use more towels, etc., because I can't do laundry daily.    I cut one of the Sham Wows into smaller towels, and used one to clean the bathroom.  You know, to get rid of those cat paw prints, of course.  It works. I'm not saying "WOW!" as I clean, but it works.  I think the purchase was worth it for 3 bucks.

I was feeding the cats earlier today, and I noticed Lil Nocka was not with the others.  "Wait a second, " I thought.  "I don't remember seeing her for a few days, actually."  She doesn't go outside, so I didn't think she was out.  I started calling to her, and I could hear her faint meowing from upstairs.  Somehow she ended up stuck in Saige's bedroom, with the door closed!  Poor cat!!  Saige is off seeing her big brother right now, so no one had opened the door, and Lil Nocka was trapped.  I quickly made my way upstairs and opened the door to let her out, and she immediately ran for the food.  She was there for 2 days!  (not at the food, mind you, but in that bedroom) I felt so badly for her.  You know, usually I do a head count to make sure all the cats are present and accounted for, and I just didn't do it when Nocka was missing.  She still loves me though, as she demonstrated her love by climbing on me and rubbing her butt in my face.   Well, either she loves me or she was showing me her displeasure with my behavior.

Saige, I didn't smell anything bad up there, but uh, you might check to see if she did some cat toilet business in your room when you come home.

Last night I decided to go do a load of laundry.  I needed some clean towels (what else is new) and some t-shirts and pajamas washed.  I figured one load would be fine for now.  When I got there, no one else was there, and I was enjoying the quiet as I played Solitaire on my Zune and listened to the washer fill up.   Right after I put the clothes in the dryer, though, this creepy dude came in.  He was bearded, wearing a jacket, and was carrying a Burger King cup that was filled with beer.  I could smell the alcohol oozing out of his pores.  He had no laundry with him.  He sat down right at the table I was at, and said, "Hi!!"  I answered, "Hello."  Then I turned back to my Zune, trying to indicate I wasn't interested.  Then he said, "It sure was kind of cool outside today."  I said, "Yes, it was."  Then I rather rudely put in my headphones to show I didn't want to talk to him.  I know, I know.  But he was creeping me out, and I had to wait for my laundry to finish.  He stopped talking to me after that, because he fell asleep.

You see, I have this history of creepy guys asking me out, and I didn't want this dude to think I was at all interested in him, even if he wasn't interested in me.  He did have that certain twinkle, though, that his eyes had as he said "hi" to me.  For example, this guy asked me out once:

Joseph Hoffman

These people were friends of ours.  The kids were around the same age as my kids.  The oldest boy was Jethro's best friend for a long time.  My kids went swimming there, spent the night there, and I'd go over to visit occasionally.  I never had a clue anything was so wrong, but then again, I hadn't been over there in the few years since we'd moved back.  Right before the murder, Lamp and Saige had gone over to see the kids, but no one was home.  They said that the house was really messy, from what they could see, and that junk was piled up everywhere.  That kind of surprised me, because though the house always looked like there were 4 kids and some dogs and cats living there, it was never all that horrible.  Things just fell apart, and Dawn's life was stolen from her.  So, so sad.

I know I said yesterday that I was going to write about our family history, and I will, very soon.  I think it's so sad that some of my nephews will never hear some of Grandma's stories from her mouth, and that a lot of these stories I've found have been lost, until I went searching.  Well, lost to us.  Another branch of the family might have kept these tales alive.  My dad occasionally writes down some of his memories from being a kid, or jobs he's worked, and I love it, because I think that kind of thing is what makes a person rather immortal.  Remembered.  I find genealogy very fascinating.  Again, history is made up of people, and some of those people were my ancestors.

Go in peace, be warm and filled.

1 comment:

  1. I bought a generic version of the Sham-Wow at the Dollar Tree and used it under our strainer so I didn't have to waste a precious towel, lol!

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