Diner dinner

I caught a ride to town with the landlord today.  My tire had a flat a coupla weeks ago, so I had driven about 150 miles on the donut/spare which is much smaller than my other tires.  I parked it in my yard and there it's sat for the past week as I did not want to temp fate moreso.

So we go to town, to the tire place, all that.  Then she went off to work her part time shift and I went to the library (Elmore Leonard is my pick this time out), to the pharmacy (where the majority of the women who work there are pregnant), and then I met a friend for lunch at the local diner.

Now, I am closest to Pheba (pronounced "feeeeeebeeeeee") but when we say we going to town, we mean Starkville.  Starkville is home to Mississippi State University.  Those of us who are extremely found of the big ole city call it The Starkpatch and those of us who are a bit more cynical refer to it as Starkvegas.

It's a nice little place, big enough to have some good restaurants and stores and such, but small enough that you can cozy into town with the intimacy of knowing that rumors and gossip fly faster than camel crickets hop and become much more colorful with each retelling.  I feel at home here.  Well, as much as I feel at home anywhere.  Been living here longest I've lived any one place at any one time...going on 3 full years now!

So, our diner is about what you'd expect for a small town that's growing gradually.  We have the big rush at lunch-time.  Most every one orders the special of the day (catfish, meatloaf, hamburger steak, etc. and veggies like greens and beans) and washes it all down with sweet tea.  In and back out in less than half an hour, for most folks it works well.  Just as fast as tables empty, they fill with new customers, who push stacked plates to the edge and grab some napkins to wipe sticky circles left behind from the tall red or amber tinged plastic cups of bottomless tea.

There is a side room that is huge and actually can seat more than the front room.  But if you want to keep your finger on the pulse of the town, be seen and see who's to see...you sit in the front room, overlooking Main Street.  So, I don't rush, I know there is room.  I take my time, I am not worried about 1/2 hour lunch breaks and such.  I tip well if the waitstaff deserve it.  I don't demand service, I am in no big hurry, I can wait for my food.  Just get to me when you can.

So while I was waiting for my friend, I watched the good ole boys greet one another with handshakes, nods, and the two-finger salute/wave.  I listened to college students and tables of retired men alike debate our local sports, mostly focusing on college (foot)ball.  I read some.  But mostly, I observed the older couples shuffling in, the men holding the door for their ladies.  The women stepping to the side, letting him hone in on a table or booth.  There were no children today, no babies (ever, that I can recall), and a booth of four young women with loud gasps, breathless exclamations of astonishment, and faces that were in expressions of perpetual surprise.

There is a waitress (Joyce Palmer) there whom I thought was the owner, or at the very least the manager.  She definitely has seniority and carries some authority over the others.  She's a fixture while others come and go.  Most of the others defer to her, some seek her approval.  She's a nice woman to her customers, knows most of them well and serves with efficiency.

But, perhaps she takes her love for the place a bit too far...hey, if it works for her though, who am I to say?  There was a big write up in the local paper, featuring Palmer.  The framed article hangs on the back wall, heading towards the restrooms.

Basically, the story of Joyce and the Liar's Club goes like this...one of her customers proposed.  She accepted.  They got married at the diner, the next Saturday right after she worked the early shift.  THAT'S dedication.

I suspect she has a cot in the back...I see her every time I have ever been there.  And I have been there at various times, early, midday, late into the night...over the years.  It's open 24 hrs.  She is there always, watching over things as she moves about, taking orders and ringing up tickets.

Sometimes the truth makes a better story than fiction.

My friend and I had a wonderful lunch, catching up with each other.  I shared some stories of the past that kept her in laughter.  She made me feel glad to be able to celebrate my birthday with her.  It was great.

Let them eat cake...or krunchee kibbles

   Look!!  A birthday-cake hat!!  Thanks for all the well wishes from all of you to me for my birthday...I plan to go sight-seeing through some other journals this evening, so if you left a comment recently, expect to see me come calling.  Most likely, I'll be borrowing a few eggs here and a cuppa sugar from there, to assemble my cake  , in the literary sense of course...

Sometimes, my journal entries stem from ideas sparked by others' jottings.  In that way, I feel journals can be conversational in tone.  Other times, I just share my own experiences and thoughts.  Like below...

Now, I don't know if y'all know what I mean when I say I have camel crickets, so lemme splain...Camel crickets are sometimes called cave crickets or water crickets or other rather hideously accurate descriptive names.  They are rather gruesome with big ole juicy bodies and well-developed thighs.  These are crickets but they sort of resemble spiders because their lower legs and antennae are spindlee and they move really fast.  BUT they don't crawl, they hop.  Their feet have little dagger-like grips that cling tight to my shirt when I startle one and it jumps only to land on the very beast it was fleeing.

I've lived here for years and have not encountered camel crickets before, but each year and season brings its own abundance of some new critter.  One spring brought lady bugs that bite.  Another summer brought red-ants that boldly marched in formation a la army ants (but with red bodies) that bite and sting.  One fall brought an amazing amount of mud wasps and other hornet looking flying stinging things.

Right now it's the camel cricket. 

I get mice too, but then whatja spect?  I live in the midst of a 200+ acre field, ya know?  It's getting colder, the mice are coming in for the winter...that's a routine thing, the landlord brush-hogs, bales the hay, destroying the mouse homes and they say, "hey!  must be time to move to the winter quarters" and they stake their mice-family spaces...in my ceiling, walls, and such until they get tired of my killing them off.  Then they say, "hey, she's the Hit-beast that gran-pappy told us about" before moving back out and finding safer abodes (probably under my home, which I can deal with alot better than them scurrying about overhead).

Anyway, this morning, there was a camel cricket doing the lazy, one legged stroke in Shaddow's water bowl.  My hypothesis (I donned my thinking cap) was that the critter jumped in there, smelling the water, and could not jump out (cuz its feet with them daggers break the surface of the water instead of allowing it to skate on the surface, using it for a spring (ahem) board).  As you can see, I put alotta thought into this.

So I reach down for the bowl to dump it out, wash it, etc.  The water bowl is one of those slick plastic wider base models that supposed to be stable, can't move it nor tip it over, neither Shaddow nor I.  The manufactors left little raised edges to act as handles so I could move it (Shaddow hasn't figured that out yet, or maybe it's just that she does not really care to move the bowl.  Come to think of it, she is rather smart, I mean why would she want to knock over her water bowl?).

Ok, so I am moving slow and sluggish, cuz it was this morning, and I had just stumbled into the kitchen, eyed Shaddow's dish, which was now a swimming pool for the camel cricket.  All these things are important, because when I curled my fingers under the edges, a furry little field rodent sprinted out from under the dish.

My heart lunged, my brain lurched, the adrenaline dumped, and I flung the dish into the sink (thus freeing the cricket and enabling it to find purchase on the enamalled surface, it sprung outta the sink, clung to me for a moment and then hopped off) .  Now you know how time can stretch and you notice all them little details that would normally be not remarkable because of the fact that mere seconds have elapsed?  My brain was sending out the anti-adrenaline, soothing, "thank god it couldn't bite me" message.

Why, you ask, COULDN'T the mouse bite me?  Gosh, I am SOooooooooo glad you asked.  Cuz clutched in its little sharp buck teeth, stretching its jaws as full as they probably could go, was one nugget of Shaddow's food from the next bowl over.  Wonder the kibble tastes like chicken?

Good thing I did not have a birthday cake to leave sitting out on the counter...lord knows, the mice woulda had a field (snicker) day with that!!

WAHOO!!

Thanks to Judi, I am having a chance to see some other folks' journals as they stop by to say, happy birthday, to me.  THANKS JUDI!!!

My guy, such the guy he is  sigh, has scored with an A on one of his tests.  Looks like his first semester as a PhD student is going great and although he is still sweating, there are only about 3 more weeks, 3 more tests, and then he is done with this semester.  THAT is one of the best birthday presents a girl could want, for a loved one to be happy and satisfied!! 

birthday wishes

I loooooooove books.  But I don't often BUY them.  I usually borrow them from the library.  There are a few favorites that I keep on hand and reread from time to time.  I don't usually lend my books, because I own only those I really love...and somehow I never seem to get them back.

So, one wish would be to own "FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE" by Fannie Flagg in trade paper.  I have owned it, loaned it, never got it back.  Love the format of this, the story, and well, the characters are a hoot!!  an' doncha know, secret's in the sauce...
I do own VHS tapes, as I usually buy them when they are in the five buck bin.  I just can't see renting them when I can find them for that or cheaper.  But there are a few I haven't seen in the cheapo-beepo bin (nor do I suspect that I will any time soon).

My second wish would be MOULIN ROUGE on tape or DVD (I can play DVDs in my computer, and I absolutely love all the extra stuff that most DVDs offer).  This is such a kicking musical medley.   Music!!  Remember a few months ago when I asked for music suggestions?  Well, I started then and for 2 weeks, I would jot down any artist that struck my fancy.  Somehow I ended up with 13 typed pages before I realized I was madly obsessed.   I have folks from Oleta Adams to ZOEgirl listed.  I absolutely adore the movie "Chicago" (Richard Gere, Renee Zelwegger, Cathrine Zeta-Jones (Douglas), Queen Latifah, and many others).  Soooooo...  
Chicago:  The Movie Soundtrack is my third wish.


  Happiest of all birthdays to Judi...Jadzia's wife...Sedona (wink)...and all the other birthday babies out there!!

Sing!! Sing out LOUD

For those of us who journal with John, we all know the weekend writing assignment routine.  Weekend Assignment #33: You can have any person, past or present, sing any song for you that you want. What is the song, and who is singing it for you?

Extra credit: Name a singer you wish you could sing like, but can't. So that means even those of you with excellent voices have to pick someone you can't sing like.

Don't be shy, c'mon!  Step up to the imaginary mic.  It's time to put all that harmonizing in the steamy shower to use.  I personally choose to wail and croon in my car.  Sometimes without the radio, depends if it is working or not.  And it doesn't always matter if I know the correct words...I think we all have stories about THAT.

I would rather hear vocals from the soul than lyrics with perfect pitch.  So, Janis Joplin came to mind.  Quickly followed by Nina Simone, Erykah Badu, Etta James, Billie Holliday, Mary J. Blige, Tracy Chapman, Bjork, and scores of other women.

But, Eva Cassidy has my heart.  She is no longer with us, but I have only recently discovered her music and she is truly wonderful.  Born in '63, she succumbed to cancer in November '96 at the age of 33.

Her flavor is mostly folk, with some jazz thrown in to spice things up.  Her renditions of "Imagine", "What a Wonderful World", and many others are truly inspiring.  She has smooth vocals, but heartfelt soul kicks it powerfully.

  Although I usually prefer the original artist over a remake.  I think I would have like to have heard Eva sing live.  So,  if I could choose only one song to hear her sing to me...well, it would be Jonathon Harel's "Just the Way You Are", made popular by Billy Joel.

Don't go changing, to try and please me
You never let me down before
Don't imagine you're too familiar
And I don't see you anymore
I wouldn't leave you in times of trouble
We never could have come this far
I took the good times; I'll take the bad times
I'll take you just the way you are
Don't go trying some new fashion
Don't change the color of your hair
You always have my unspoken passion
Although I might not seem to care
I don't want clever conversation
I never want to work that hard
I just want someone that I can talk to
I want you just the way you are.
I need to know that you will always be
The same old someone that I knew
What will it take til you believe in me
The way that I believe in you.
I said I love you and that's forever
And this I promise from the heart
I could not love you any better
I love you just the way you are
   Who do I wish I could sing like?  Last night, I was listening to Natalie Merchant.  She has great style, good range, and smokiness or clarity, depending on what she wants.  The subject matter of her lyrics are usually solid, too.  I wish I could sing like her.

Veteran's Day

THANKS!!

To all the veterans of all our military, especially those who have contributed to our abilities to retain what freedoms, rights, and priveleges we have.  My dad is a vietnam vet.  He has my heartfelt thanks, especially for all he has done to see that he and other viet-vets receive at least a portion of their due.  I am so sorry that our government does not take better care of our people, especially those who have suffered atrocities in the name of America.

To learn more about what our government would like you to know about Veteran's Day:  http://www1.va.gov/vetsday/

Weekend Writing Assignment #32

John M. Scalzi’s Weekend Writing Assignment #32: Congratulations! The American People have elected you President -- for one day. You are allowed to make one Executive Order. What is it?

 Sites focused on Executive Orders:  http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/direct.htm

http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/executive_orders/executive_orders.html

At first my mind drew blanks, which is hardto do (       ) ß-me drawing a blank.  Then, once the ideas started flowing, I couldn’t stop the flood.  So many areas need addressing that I was easily overwhelmed with debates of “I wanna do this, but this is more important, and what about this, that there affects more folks, and don’t forget about this whole thing here…”  But my mind kept coming back to one area.

I think we can better budget our money, as a nation.  We do not need to spend so much on defense and correction systems.  Our other social institutions are suffering as a consequence.  Namely, health/medicine and education are becoming increasingly poor in quality.  Perhaps if we spent more wisely on education, we might not feel we need to spend so foolishly on prisons.

So my executive order would be to fund research and development to all; for quality implementation of good methods and programs, more rigorous standards and criteria for teachers, and an array of programs to address the various learning styles and needs of our children.  This is also heavily tied into health and nutrition, preventative measures to ensure the optimum performance of our students.  I would beef up our physical education programs, without sacrificing our academics. Obesity has become a weighty issue, a pressing concern, as more of our children are afflicted with more health problems related to poor dietary habits and lack of exercise.  All these things would most benefit our children if combined so that no essential area is neglected.

Dream on, right?

Extra Credit: The Presidential Medal of Freedom is America's highest civilian honor. Give it to someone.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom (http://www.medaloffreedom.com/)

“The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, recognizes exceptional meritorious service. The medal was established by President Truman in 1945 to recognize notable service in the war. In 1963, President Kennedy reintroduced it as an honor for distinguished civilian service in peacetime.”

In keeping with the above theme, I want to honor founders of public institutions of higher education.  “AAHRPP® is the creation of seven nonprofit founding member organizations representing the leadership of universities, medical schools and teaching hospitals; biomedical, behavioral and social scientists; and patient and disease advocacy organizations.”  This not only allows me to address education, but also those researching and developing, contributing to our major social institutions, in particular focusing on health and medicine.  (http://www.aahrpp.org/founders.htm)

One current member of the board is Susan L. Weiner, Ph.D., president of The Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy (formerly called The Children's Cause, Inc.).  “…give voice to the concerns of childhood cancer patients, survivors and their families and empower them to take on leadership roles in pediatric cancer advocacy. Dr. Weiner, whose child was a 13-year cancer survivor, has been key to bringing childhood cancer to the forefront of the national cancer policy agenda”  (http://www.childrenscause.org/about/mission_susan_weiner.shtml)

In addition, Dr. Weiner is the founder of Mary McDowell Center for Learning, an independent school in New York City for children with learning disabilities.  “The Center's approach is grounded in the Quaker values of respect for individuals, personal, and social responsibility, peaceful resolution of conflict, the importance of diversity and the value of service. Challenging and building on the strengths of each child, the Center cherishes the uniqueness of every student.”   http://www.marymcdowell.org/

Susan L. Weiner, Ph.D., serves on many boards and works to improve the well-being of our children in various ways.  In my opinion, she takes the cake, candles and all.  I would award her the medal and a portion of funds to further the causes she advocates.

He scores again!!

My guy did EXCELLENT on his stats exam:  102%

But wait, you say, how is more than 100% possible?  Honey, it's statistics.  In the statistical world, we use curves, gradiations, estimations of population parameters, and all sorts of standardization scores...remember, raw scores transformed become standardized scores!

Great job, babe, I am SOOOO proud of you!! 

sad, so sad...

Some things just make me sad.  Not surprised, just disappointed.  And sad.

I dally with urban legends.  I try not to retell and spread them, without a disclaiming stating that this is a hoax.  We have enough real threats out there without the scare tactics, catastrophic rhetoric, and dire warnings of what may possibly happen to someone some where....

One of the most common ways urban myths are spread are through emails.  You know, when you get one of those forwareded urgent horrible messages about what happened to a friend's friend's friend's friend.  (now I got the lyrics, heard it from a friend who, heard it from a friend who, heard it from a friend)  Usually those messages say something like, THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

Do not believe everything you read.  Chances are that the person who forwarded this plea, warning, etc. was very well-intentioned and wanted to pass the message on because they care, either for you or the cause or both.  These seem to target women and children more often than not, and are related to safety issues.

One example is the myriad of missing child pleas that make it into your post.  First off, let me clearly say that CODE ADAM and AMBER ALERTS are very real.  However not all missing child pleas are authentic.  Those that are fake detract from the real cases, the real searches, the real horrors.

If you receive something you think might not be entirely legitimate, my advice is, research it.  You are already online, if you are checking email.  Do a general searching using any of the search engines you prefer.  AOL allows you to perform a search right in the address line.  Just type in whatever the subject or gist of the email message is, then poke around and see what shows up.

In the case of AMBER ALERTS, you can go directly to the official site to verify the actual identity of the missing child.  http://codeamber.org/alerts.html  In fact, some of the hoaxes are so well-developed that they seem to have taken on a life of their own, complete with variations to the story.  The folks at CODEAMBER research these so they can concentrate on the real cases and warn you from those that aren't fact, so you do not waste time, energy, effort, and worry about those detracting from the actual missing child cases.

So if a forwarded email tugs at your heartstrings, makes your eyes tear, or your heart leap into your throat....before passing the post on in frantic fear and a desire to do your part in warning your loved ones, check to see if the message contains sensational stories or if it is indeed verifiable fact.

 

Very briefly, on a different note...the samo samo state of the nation is sad, sad, sad.  Not surprisingly, just disappointingly, a margin of the voting population eeked Bush into office for yet another term.  If some crisis occurs that he can be hero in, please don't be alarmed.  It isn't so much that we are safe from his ineptitude.  Rather that the hype of his tactics reminds me of some of the rhetoric I spoke of earlier.

I spoke with several international friends last night, from various regions of the world.  I felt like the American embassador as I fielded questions about just how stupid and foolish we are.  Here's to the blind hope that Bush might stop the insanity of so many of his injurous moves, clean up his act a bit, and perhaps improve a few needed areas...OR am I just being another foolish American?

ooooooooooh, krazy writing wrabbit...

As some of you know, today marks the kick-off for NaNoWriMo.  Wahooooo!!  I am done writing for the day, for the novel.  It's working title is:  Rice Puddin' Summer.  Today's total word-count for me:  3,735.  I don't know yet what the collective word-count is for all 33,000 registered writers.

According to my schedule, ahem, consulting my lil book...I have allowed my self to consider Mondays as an off-day.  I have other obligations on Mondays and they can be quite draining.  BUT, I figured if I could get ahead of the game in the beginning, then I can give myself some leeway at the end...or middle...or whenever the big B hits.  (that's the dreaded writer's Block, the big B is)

There's some holes in the plot, but I got plenty of time to spackle them babies up.  I am not sure how some things are going to fit, so I'll end up making adjustments and such as I go.  That's more than fine.  And right now, this is fun, fun, fun.

Anyone wanna join me?  anyone?  you?