The One Where Mr. Swirl Gives it a Whirl...

Today you have to click here and go over to The Scattered Mind of Tatooed Mini Van Mom's joint. It's Significant Other day over there. The day we hear from the other side of the coin , or in my case, the better half ; the peanut butter to my jelly. Yes- folks, Hubby answered the challenge in about two seconds flat. I read what he wrote and thought long and hard about 'snarking' it up a little. But, then I thought about it some more and decided (with the help of a few 'daily affirmations' that I am smart enough, and gosh darn it : People like me) to leave it well enough alone.

So here it is - Hubby was asked how he felt about me blogging so much. Nary the remark about household chores going the wayside. Nothing about how blogging has actually saved us money because I no longer go shopping in my 'free' time. No commentary about how this blogging outlet spares him from having to hear me bitch, moan, rant and rave. Just 100% support and adoration. Truthfully , I would have expected nothing else but that. He's always been my biggest fan.

Okay- so here goes: unedited save for a typo or two....



Oh, that Marvelous Mind!

So this is where I get to have my say…Wow so much room to write and so little time. I have always been fascinated by Swirl Girl’s mind. Through the years I always wondered how she kept all that stuff inside her pretty head: answers to the Times Crossword Puzzle (Sunday, Magazine edition of course), every TV show ever made between 1968 and 1988, every single word I have ever uttered, every single line she ever heard in a bar, every single word to every song from 1968 to 1998, every single memory of our children from the moment they were conceived and lastly and most importantly every precious moment spent with the sweetest and dearest man to grace this planet – her Dad.

For those of you that have been readers, fans or casual visitors to this Blog you know that this all started with D.A.C – Swirl Girls’ and her Dad’s , who unfortunately lost his battle with D.A. C! I bring this up because you see all of the aforementioned mental gymnastics and memory minutiae was inside her pretty little cranium until the DAC sprung it forth into cyber space 12 short months ago. As you can tell from the over 100 posts in 300 days, my girl has a lot to say. I have been enthralled as the words, pictures and video have flown from her to all of you.

So what has all this done to Swirl Girl’s mental acuity? What has happened to the knowledge base that rivaled Funk and Wagnal’s? Absolutely nothing, except to provide an amazing outlet for all of the questions / answers that have been Swirling around in her grey matter for years. With each post Swirl Girl has not only shared her insight into the world we live in but has opened her mind to ask and answer questions that have taken her years to develop. This has been, to date, an amazing public version of a psychiatrists couch.

So to my Swirl Girl I say, keep on keepin’ on. You have only just begun to share what you know, explore what fascinates you and question what puzzles you. I love all of you more than you know but I especially love your mind – open, closed or on view for all to see!

Some folks have said that blogging is a community but to this bystander it is much more. It is a safe outlet with which to share one’s emotions; be they comical, satirical, angry or intellectual. I have seen the healing and restorative power of this medium work wonders on Swirl Girl. So to all of you that visit regularly thanks for sharing and for peeking into the marvelous mind of the Girl I like to Swirl!

Hubby

#33#

Just Spreadin' the Love

I got this for Spreadin' the Love from Susan at Life's too Short Not to Share

a fairly new bloggy friend. Thanks - I need this today.

January 10the sucks. This day marks the one year anniversary of my wonderful dad's passing. So I don't have much to say except that I miss him dearly and think of him daily. They say it gets easier...oh yeah? Prove it.

Now Wait Just A Minutiae

So we're back to school ...hang on while I do the happy dance for a minute, okay? I am back now. That was fun.

Rather uneventful winter break for us. We seemed to have passed that flu bug around the house. First the little one. Then the big one. Then Hubby and I.

On New Year's Eve we played some games (our new favorite is Pictureka) and had lobster and caviar ((an annual tradition for me). I didn't even have a drink 'cuz I felt like crap. The best thing about living on the left coast is we can celebrate NYEve at 9pm and not have to wait until 12am! So- we watched the 'ball drop' in New York .

The following is the real conversation between the 4 11/12ths year old and her Nyquil -ed up mommy:

Rachel: "Where's the ball? I don't see a ball."
Me: "It's not really a ball, it's more like a big crystal light up on top of that building"
Rachel: "Where do they drop it?"
Me: "Well, they don't really drop it - they sort of lower it as they count down to 2009."
Rachel: "You mean they drop a crystal ball on the street on top of all those people?"
Me: "Not really, Dolly -- it's sort of a symbolic representation of the new year - aaah fuck it. Ready for some chocolate?"

After a little strawberry and bananas dipped in chocolate (nuthin' fancy, just melted some chox chips ) - and a tuck in...they were in bed by 10:00, and I was in bed by 10:30. I think I slept until Sunday. It was truly the best nap I've had in a long time.

So - maybe it's because I am trying to do this on my own , without benefit of cold and flu meds..but since the weekend , I have a slight bout of insomnia. I roll around for hours on end and just can't fall asleep. I keep thinking the same things over and over again. You wanna know what these things are? I am not contemplating world peace or the state of our economy, for crap's sake...but I seem to fixate on minutiae (and I googled that word to make sure I spelled it right BTW)

1) Is it New Year's Eve or New Years Eve? I believe it is grammatically proper to use the apostrophe s. The Eve belonging to the New Year making it a possessive. Pet Peeve #2564938....when people say "What did you do for New Years?" They should say, "what did you do for New Year's Eve? or "Have you made any resolutions for the New Year?" not " Have you made any resolutions for the New Years?"

What the fuck does that mean anyway? More importantly, why does it bother me so much and why am I rolling around at 2:00am for two nights in a row in a self-debate about this?

2) Remember the song "Same Auld Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg (R.I.P., Dan writer of one of my all time favorite songs "Part of the Plan")?. Aside from that being an annoying song, and arguably one of the sappiest songs in the history of song-dom...I confuse it with another annoying Fogelberg song called "The Leader of the Band" . And for some reason, the past few nights have afforded me the time to 'sing' the words to myself over and over and over again. Well, I couldn't remember the words to "The Leader of the Band" and it was really bothering me.

"The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old. But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul. My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man ...I'm just a living (insert the word I can't remember here) to the leader of the band. "

So my mind starts to wonder and insert all kinds of words there..and in the process, I start 'singing' the other song and now I just have to get up and out of bed and Google the frickin' songbook so I can get the stupid words to two songs I don't really like in the first place.

By the way - the word I couldn't remember is "legacy". "I'm just a living legacy to the leader blah, blah, blah.."

3) How come whenever I have tried the old stick toothpicks in an avocado seed and put in water trick , it never worked for me? I have a green thumb and I love avocado. (I actually prefer sliced avocado to guacomole which, if blended too smooth, is rather like baby throw-up, no?) I even have a Chia Pet Donkey and can make that grow and grow - but no avocado. Woe is me.

4) I am almost 45 years old and I have seen more shooting stars in the past few weeks than I have seen in 40 years. Seriously, I have seen about 10 in the past month. Where do they go when they fall? Is this some cosmic event or another effect of global warming?

5) Can you get addicted to tylenol PM? I'm willing to try it out and I'll let you know.

6) What I want to know is where that frickin' owl is living in my neighborhood. We have an owl. An honest to goodness hooting owl. I don't live in the woods or anything, There are not tons of trees or prey for that matter. But we're hear Hooty just about every night. Our Planned Urban Development is just a hop, skip and a jump from the Santa Monica Mountains. Don't you think Hooty would find better eats over there than the occasional mouse that he might find in our 'hood?

7) How can I turn all this rumination into an interesting blog post? (abject failure on this one, I guess)


Okay- so that's the rundown. Lather, Rinse and repeat. Over and over and over again.

Last night I finally did get to sleep by midnight or so...and let me tell you - it's a good thing I did.

Now that I have tackled the minutiae - I'll see what I can do about that world peace thingy.

PS- Hubby has agreed to join this major Bloggy event ...oy.