Sunday Stealing: The Seriously Random Question Meme (Part I)

This week's Sunday Stealing offering is sold as the "seriously random question" meme. It seems to be seriously random in the direction of food, in my humble opinion, but maybe that's just me ;-)

1.Your ex's car is on the side of the road, on fire. What do you do?
I would pull over, call 911, see if anyone was trapped inside, and do whatever I could to help. No matter how bad a situation with an ex might be, nobody deserves to be trapped in a car on fire. Ignoring it, taking a picture and posting it on Facebook, screaming about karma being a bitch … those might be tempting, but as far as I’m concerned, life’s too short to sink down that low.

2. Your best friend tells you she is pregnant. What is your reaction?
“If you’re happy, I’m happy. If you’re not, I’m here to help you process. If you need anything, let me know.”

3. When is the last time you wanted to punch someone in the face?
I’m non-violent, so face-punching isn’t really a viable option for me. I’ve gotten really annoyed with some people at work lately over turning my workplace into a soap opera (it’s sad when adults start spreading gossip around worse than the middle schoolers do), and we’re currently driving home from my nephew’s birthday party (a three-hour drive), and Addie keeps announcing updates on her Sims characters which is for some reason getting on my nerves like you cannot imagine. Hotspotting my Droid is indeed a mixed blessing ;-)

4. What is the last thing you spent money on?
I bought pretzels for the girls, my mothers, and I during a rest stop on the drive down to Connecticut.

5. Do you think you gained or lost weight this past month?
Gained, sadly. A combination of increased Millky Way consumption and not really being able to exercise for medical reasons has not been a good thing.

6. Crunchy or Puffy Cheetos?
Crunchy. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I’m a huge fan of Cheetos, orange fingers and all.

7. The first person on your friends list just called you a bitch. What do you do?
Laugh? I don’t know, it’s all about the context … and I can’t imagine a context that I wouldn’t find at least mildly entertaining. Anyway, I am not a bitch … I am many things, not all of them good, but I would not take a bitch accusation seriously since it is so far off the mark. Furthermore, I don’t think I have any sort of “friends list” … wasn’t that a MySpace thing?

8. Congratulations! You just had a son. What’s his name?
Atticus, Holden, or Rhett.

9. Congratulations! You just had a daughter. What’s her name?
Tess, Elphaba, or Eilonwy.

10. What are you craving right now?
A margarita. Will this car ride never end?

11. What was the last thing you cried about?
My back hurting … I’m becoming a real wimp about pain.

12. When you buy something and your change is 2 cents, do you keep it or tell the cashier to keep it?
I put it in the little “have a penny, leave one, need a penny, take one” box.

13. What color is your tissue box?
I don’t have a clue. Do people actually pay attention to stuff like that?

14. Do you have a ceiling fan in your bedroom, and if so, is there dust on that fan?
Hahahahahahahahaha. I live in the attic of a barn. It is freezing cold in the winter and sweltering hot in the summer. There is no ceiling fan. There’s plenty of dust, though …

15. What was the last voicemail you received about?
An old friend calling to say hi. I have a boring life ;-)

16. Have you ever blocked someone on Facebook?
Nope, nor have I ever unfriended anyone. I’ve turned down people asking to be friends on Facebook (mostly students … they do not seem to listen when I tell them that I cannot be Facebook friends with them), but I’ve never blocked anybody.

17. Scariest thing you’ve experienced in the last year?
Since Addie got her license, I make her text me right before she leaves and as soon as she reaches her destination. Overprotective, I know, but I am a worrier. Addie had a concert at school, and she left an hour before my mother, Belle, and I did. I didn’t receive a “Made it” text from her, and I was absolutely hysterical. I tried to call her, but she wasn’t answering her cell, and I didn’t hear back from her when I texted her frantically.

The period of time when I didn’t know where she was … it was horrible. Addie is in general a really responsible kid, and she was (and still is) religious about texting. I was utterly convinced that something unspeakable had happened to her because it was so unlike her not to text.

When we got to the concert, she was sitting in front of the stage with the rest of the band, and I went charging down there and went totally nuclear on her—demanding her car keys and so forth. She was mortified, and the worst part was, she had texted me … she showed me on her phone. It just happened to catch that little cell hiccup that happens occasionally, so it didn’t get delivered to my phone for several hours.

I felt like the biggest jerk in the world.

18. Do you wear a name tag at work?
Nope :-) I’ve worked at schools that required staff photo badges, and it’s such a relief to have gotten away from that. It’d be silly, actually … there are fewer than 300 students in my school, so trust me, everyone knows everyone else without a name tag.

19. What kind of car do you want?
A Jeep Wrangler.

20. What do you order when you go to Burger King?
A Whopper with cheese. I am usually pre-menstrual to the extreme when I get the BK urge, so I figure why mess around?

Rambles on a June Evening

1.  "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest man."
My school has something called Advisory--it's sort of like homeroom, but it's in the middle of the day and is basically around half an hour of time for small groups of students to interact with an adult in the building, forming bonds that transcend the classroom.


I love my Advisory.  They make me laugh.  A lot.

To wit, we had a birthday party for one of my students last week that was celebrated with brownie sundaes.  The birthday girl wanted to know what I'd do if she sprayed me with whipped cream.

I don't think she expected me to say, "Bring it on."  I also don't think she expected the whipped cream to drip all over my face so that it looked like a ... well, like a seminal incident.  I don't think the kids saw it that way, of course, but they insisted on taking a picture and it was all I could think of, and it made us all laugh so much ... and laughter is sometimes hard to come by.

Enjoy ;-)

2.  There is a direct correlation between Milky Ways and the proverbial "spare tire".

I am a Milky Way addict.  There is no better way to explain it.

However, between the pinched nerve and another medical debacle which I will probably get into at some point, I have become rather sedentary.  The Milky Ways are catching up to me.  

I am not thrilled with the way I look.  That is not a good way to feel.  That's all I have to say about that.

Except that I'm "quitting" Milky Ways ... so please hold me to that!

3.  Sixteen-year-olds are spaceshots.
Well, at least mine is.

Addie was inducted into the French Honor Society tonight, and my mother took her because Belle was up late last night since I had a late meeting, and I wanted to make sure she got to bed at a decent hour.  As I was getting ready to put on my pajamas, I get a text from Addie asking me if I'll go to the store when she gets back to buy her Nutella since they're having a crepe party in French class tomorrow.

As soon as they walk in the door, my mother sees me with  my keys and asks where I'm going.  I explain the Nutella request, and my mother says to Addie, "We drove past two grocery stores on our way home.  Why didn't you say something?"

Furthermore, and I know I've said this here before, but Addie has got to be the only kid in the world who gets her license, is given her own car, and who refuses to do errands.  I can remember bugging my mother all the time right after I got my license.  "You need some milk, don't you, Mom?  Can I go to the store for you?  Want me to put gas in your car?"

Nope, Addie sends her 34-year-old mother out to get Nutella.  Which I couldn't find, by the way (it's next to the Twinkies, in case this ever comes up for you).

4.  I'm not sure how I feel about kids and technology.
Belle had her digital portfolio presentation today.  A selection of her work was scanned into a computer file, complete with audio "reflections". 

That kid might just know how to operate a computer better than I do.  It kind of frightens me.  Furthermore, her school uses Macs and we have PCs at home, so she's got experience with multiple operating systems.  

5.  Please consider this my annual "complaining about the weather" post.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I HATE HOT WEATHER.  When it's cold outside, you can always put on another sweater or throw a blanket over yourself.  When it's sweltering ... well, there's only so much you can take off, and even then you're miserable and sweaty and yucky and ...

Here's the thing that really bugs me, though--people that complain all winter about being cold, then complain all summer about it being hot.

At least I am consistent ;-)