Sunday Stealing on Monday--Sabotage

I suck at this blogging thing.  I am so out of spoons from the pandemic, that it defies description.  I am in negative spoons for the next 1000 years, it feels like.  If you don't get the spoons reference, I highly suggest you read about it here.  It's such a great way to describe the mental/emotional/physical way we feel when things are just.....too much.  Here's the short version:

Image Credit

Anyhow, to the blogging.  I'm a day late and a dollar short on this one, but I need a break from studying finance, so I'm blogging and reading blogs this morning.  Huzzah!

Play here.

1. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?  Well, yeah, since it was hubs.

2. What’s the closest thing to you that’s red?   The pajama pants I’m wearing are a red plaid.  That’s pretttty close.

3. Did you meet someone new today?  Nope.  The only way I’m meeting new people these days is at work, which is the only place I really GO to where I have to talk to people, and even then it’s mostly webexes and emails.  I am none too happy about getting hauled back into the hospital from working at home, but it feels so petty to complain, considering I hardly ever leave my office, and don’t have to work at the bedside anymore.  But, it’s my reality, and I keep telling myself it’s OK to be freaked out walking around a 300 bed petri dish.  The whole “come back to the office” is basically a “group punishment” due to a few members of the team who couldn’t keep on task at home.  Their production was shite, and we all got to pay for that.  Am I pissed?  Yeah.  Boss lady tells me that I’ll be going back home in 60 days, but I’m really having a hard time believing that.   I worked at home for 5 years prior to this job, and actually get MORE done at home that at work with all the distractions.  Anyhow…enough about THAT.

4. What are you craving right now?  Sitting down in my favorite New Mexican joint, Hot Tamales--having chips and the best home-made salsa, a carne adovada stuffed sopaipilla smothered in red chile, topped with an over-easy egg and extra garnish.  I want to say hi to our favorite waitress, and drink a tall glass of iced tea, and just enjoy being OUT again, instead of feeling the waves of anxiety I get these days.

5. What comes to mind when I say “cabbage.”  Coleslaw.  Preferably the hubs version, which he makes with mirin, rice vinegar, a dash of gojuchang, and a touch of mayo.  Yum.

6. What does your last text say?  "Randall hiding" and this picture of our boy kitty.

7. Do you bite into your ice cream, or just lick it?  I rarely eat ice cream, I am horribly sugar and lactose intolerant.  When I do, it’s usually this amazing stuff, and I have 1 or 2 spoons, and neither lick nor bite.  It’s more like little delicate nibbles, lol.  BTW, I found this at Target, but I've also seen it at Albertson's and our Kroger store, Smith's.  Good stuff.

8. Do you like your hair?  Right now, hell to the NO.  I need a hair cut so.very.bad. and I’m not letting hubs anywhere near my head.  So I guess I’m growing it out again?  I even bought the requisite headbands, which I will now wear for the next year or so (ugghh).  I need to invest in a wind proof, bomb proof hair spray for work.

9. Do you like yourself?   Sometimes.  More now than in the past. 

10. Do you like cottage cheese?  I do.  With salt and pepper, and tomato slices or halved cherry tomatoes.  Good stuff.

11. What are you listening to right now?  The purring of Ellie, and the occasional snore from Maddie.  I’m typing this in bed, early in the am.  But, if I were listening to something, here's a new favorite.  This really sticks in my head, especially the line "rock of ages, cleave for me".  Why?  I have no idea.  Enjoy.

12. Is there anything sparkly in the room where you are?  This cute little gold cat/pig (could never decide which) change purse my Mom bought me on a whim a few visits ago.  I love it.

13. How many countries have you visited?  Not many.  Sadly.  Canada, Puerto Rico, here.  That’s it.  I’ve hit most of the states though….

14. Are you sarcastic?  I can be, although hubs is better at it than I.  My need to be polite and have manners gets in the way of really good sarscasm.

15. Have you ever crawled through a window?  When I was a wayward teenager, my best friend Tammy Lee and I would sneak out of the house in the middle of the night, through her window, so yep, I have.

Sunday Stealing--Black Feathers

Play here.

1. Do you prefer writing with black or blue pen?

Blue.  Funny (and weird) story.  For the first 10 years of my career I was a critical care RN.  Back then, in the glory days before electronic medical records, we hand-charted.  I was very superstitious, and have a mild case of OCD, and developed this compulsion around blue pens vs black.  I was CONVINCED that if I wrote with a black pen, that my patients would crump.  I literally had to have a whole box of blue pens in my bag, so I would never run out.  Fortunately, the hospitals I worked in were fine with blue.  I still write in blue.  My favorite is the Pilot G2 07 in blue. 

2. Do you prefer living in the country or the city?

I have the best of both worlds, I halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, in a rural suburban area.  Meaning, I have to drive to get anywhere, but it’s a neighborhood, with parks etc.  I love it.  I’ve lived in the boonies, and it’s a royal PIA.  At least I’m only 20 minutes from a store, rather than an hour. 

3. How do you drink your tea or coffee?

Coffee, cold-brewed with this.  On ice, with a splash of cream.  No sugar, ever.  I’d rather drink it black than have it taste sweet.

4. Do you prefer bath or shower? 

Baths, definitely.  I hate water on my head.  And I don’t find it relaxing, at all (a shower, I mean).  I love my giant garden tub.  It’s like having a little swimming pool in my bathroom!

5. Do you prefer reading paper or electronic books?

I have both.  I confess, the kindle is just easier.  I tend to re-read stuff, and I’ve gone through many copies of my favorite, just reading them to death.  I am in the process of getting all those “old faves” on my kindle.

6. Would you ever want to be famous?

Hellllll NO.  I can barely stand to have people in my life as it is, much less be on display for everyone. 

7. Are you a restless sleeper?

Well, I didn’t USED to be, but menopause has changed all that.  Uggg.  I never have a single hot flash during the day, but I get them at night.  Nothing like waking up soaked in sweat and feeling like someone rolled you through an oven…not fun.

8. What is the strangest thing you have ever eaten?

Morcilla.  It’s a Puerto Rican blood sausage, with rice and spices.  I was mildly grossed out by the idea, but really wanted to try something out of my comfort zone.  It was super tasty, but not something I could eat a lot of.

9. Do you like cereal crunchy or soggy? 

Crunchy.  I used to love Grape Nuts as a kid.

10. Do you like ice in your drink?

Depends on the drink.  I prefer water out of the tap, but iced tea and coffee with ice. 

11. Do you prefer swimming in pools or the ocean?

DEFINITELY pools.  I don’t do oceans anymore, all that stuff swimming around waiting to pounce.  I’m terrified of jelly fish and stepping on things.  Funny, since I grew up on the ocean.  Shit happens, I guess.

12. What can you hear right now?

A plane in the sky.  Neighbor dog barking.  Lots and lots of birds.

13. Where do you feel the safest? 

In my bed.

14. What would you like your legacy to be?

I have no idea.  Just for people to remember me as a kind person.

15. Do you like spicy food?

I live in New Mexico, lol, chile is life.  I’m not crazy about the stunt hot stuff though—Carolina Reapers and all that.  Just give something that’s got a kick without threatening to take the skin off my tongue, and I’m good.

Sunday Stealing--Conversation Starters

1. What is your favorite song lyric? Why?

Favorite right now.  It's not very positive, but I'm not feeling hella-positive these days.  This is from the song Wildfire, written by Andrew Marlin, and performed by Mandolin Orange.

Civil war came, civil war went

Brother fought brother, the south was spent

But its true demise was hatred, passed down through the years

It should have been different, it could have been easy

But pride has a way of holding too firm to history

And it burns like wildfire

I’m a Southerner.  My parents were from New England, but when I was 5, we moved to Mississippi, and I lived in the South for most of the rest of my childhood.  I love the South, I love things about the culture, about the placed, but there are also lots of thing that really make me furious…and sad.  

These lyrics pretty much say it all about what I hate about the place I grew up.  I know it’s painting with a broad brush, and a stereotype, and all that, but MY experience is that it’s more “holding to firm to history” than not.  Here’s the tune.

2. Who was the worst teacher you ever had?

Mrs. B. in 2^nd grade at Pecan Park Elementary.  I have a pretty significant anxiety disorder, and have had, all my life.  I chewed my nails and sucked my fingers as a little kid.  She beat my hands with a ruler when she caught me.  I finally told my Mom and that was the end of that, but what an EVIL person.  EVIL.

3. What were 3 things that scared you as a child?

My parents fighting.  The aforementioned Mrs. B.  My parents fighting.

4. What are 3 things that scare you now?

• Fox News.  Seriously, I have seen that shite brainwash my entire family.  And swaths of the American people.  No Bueno. 
• COVID19.  People are not taking this seriously enough.
• The morons currently running the country.  Scariest thing of all.

5. Would you rather have the power of time travel or the power to see the future?

I’d prefer time travel.  Just seeing it, and not being able to change it, would make me nuts.

6. Money, power, or good looks – which would you rather have an unlimited supply of?

Money.  I don’t give a crap about power, and looks, lol, well that ship has sailed. 

7. Are you jealous of anything?

People who have the means to travel.  A lot.  I would love that.
  

8. What makes you feel most loved?

Being given space to be me.

9. Do you believe in soulmates?

Nope.  I believe in fate and karma and that, but soulmates not so much.

10. What is something that made you laugh the most?

Goofy shit.  Hubs and I are driving down the road, talking about making something with chickpeas.  But when I said it, it came out “pickcheas”.  We literally laughed till we cried for about the next 5 miles.  You say “pickcheas” to me and I will crack up every time.

11. What were 3 of the happiest days of your life?

I can’t quantify my whole life like that…into the three BEST.  These were good…

• The day I got the job offer to come back to NM after being away 10 years.
• Graduating Nursing School.
• My daughter’s first word (dog’n—while looking at our Alaskan Malamute, Atu)

12. What is your biggest flaw.

The inability to LET.SHIT.GO.  Not in a grudge holding way (well, that too), but in a "I'm so focused on this one tiny thing that I can't even look up to acknowledge anything.  The compulsion to stay on task or whatever is real, people.  It's selfish, but in a "this is the way my brain is wired" kind of way.

13. Who would play you in a movie about your life?  

Have no clue.

14. What is something you experienced that you have no explanation for.

Everything has an explanation.

15. What is the saddest book you ever read?

Where the Red Fern Grows, in high school.  I don’t read sad books anymore.

16. What is your dream home like?

This one, but with better flooring (tile!!!), new cabinets/countertops, and fresh interior paint.  We got an amazing deal on this house, truly.  Our house payment is less than it cost us to rent this place.  However, it has ALWAYS been a rental (10+ years) and it’s a bit worn.  It would also be nice to have an inground pool, and a catio for the kids.  Someday….

17. What creature/insect would most creep you out if you found it crawling on you?

Spiders.  Can’t stand them.  I would rather have a LEECH on me than a spider.

18. What’s your preferred Monopoly piece?

The dog, definitely

19. What was your most embarrassing moment?

Ohhhh, there have been many.
 

20. Could the earth be flat?

Bahahahahahaha.  Those people absolutely crack me up.  I am an educated woman.  Flat earth.  Bahahahahahahahaha.

Saturday 9--Little Things

Little Things (1964).  Unfamiliar with this weeks tune?  Hear it here.

1) In this song, Bobby Goldsboro celebrates the "little things" that delight him, like seeing his girl smile. What are some little every day things that reliably lighten your mood?

My animals.  But these two in particular.  Maddie the dog and Ellie the cat sleep with me every night.

My patio.  A couple of years ago, this was nothing but dirt and weeds, now it’s basically an extension of our living room.  We’re out here every day.  Huge shout out to our local landscaper guy, because he did a beautiful job.

The kids jumping on the trampoline across the street.  Our neighbors across the way have 2 children, and those kids are outside literally every day, and were, even before the pandemic.  I don’t know the neighbors beyond waving and a quick “hi!”, but I love that their kids aren’t inside in front of the TV.  They’re riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline, walking to the park, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, playing basketball.   Makes me think of when I was a kid, we never hung around inside, and if you tried, Mom would shoo us out and tell us not to come back until dinner, lol.

2) Bobby is a lifelong sports fan. While in high school, he came to terms with physical limitations -- slender build, slow speed -- that would prevent him from having a career as a professional athlete. That's when he turned his attention to music. Given your choice, would you rather make your living in music or sports? Explain your decision.

Well, I suck at both.  But, given a perfect world, I’d prefer music.  I’d love to be able to play multiple stringed instruments, and sing.  Definitely would love to learn the mandolin--and cello.

3) Shortly before "Little Things" was released, Bobby toured England for two weeks, backing up Roy Orbison. They opened for The Beatles. Bobby fondly recalls spending time with Paul McCartney, teaching him how to imitate the croak of an Alabama tree frog. Are you good at imitations (human or otherwise)?

Good at?  Not so much.  I do a mean “Ellie meow” though.  She sounds like a kitten “eeeh, eeeh, eeeh” instead of the usual meow.  It’s weird and cute.  

4) Back in the States, Goldsboro (again with Orbison) opened for the Rolling Stones in New York. Which band did you listen to more recently, the Stones or the Beatles?

Hubs and I have recently been watching Pennyworth on Epix.  It’s a very cool backstory series about Alfred Pennyworth, Batman’s eventual butler and jack-of-all-trades.  It’s a great series, has a cool vibe, very John Wick-ian.  The guy who plays Alfie is like a young Michael Caine, with a dash of David Tennant.  Anyway, the opening music is Paint it Black.  Always have liked that song.  Here's a nifty edit from YouTube.  Some out-of-context spoilers here, but nothing major.  

  

5) Bobby worked on projects with Burt Reynolds, doing the music for the movie Gator and the TV show Evening Shade. Burt said it was not only Bobby's musical ability but also his wit that made him fun to work with. What qualities do you value in a coworker?

Restraint.  My job requires a lot of focus, and people who want to chit-chat and socialize throughout the day irritate the hell out of me.  I prefer working by myself, but that’s not to be at the moment, since we got pulled back into the hospital.  We’re at least social distancing, so there’s only two of us in the office, instead of three.  My officemate is like me, in that we like to get our work done with our headphones on and save our talking for lunch.

6) These days, Bobby spends more time painting than performing music. He regularly donates his artwork to be auctioned off for charity. Have you ever tried your hand at painting?

Back in the day.  I am just not creative though.  Making things from scratch confounds me.  I don’t even cook off the top of my head—I like recipes.  I especially like words, and reading, and am much more verbal than I am visual.  My superpower is a hunger to know everything.  Hubs calls me “Hermione”, as in Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books/movies.  I take it as a compliment, lol, but I think he means I am annoying.  Here are some great moments...

7) In 1964, when this song was on the radio, women spent more on styling gels and sprays than they do today. Are you having a good hair day? Or has the pandemic made dealing with your hair something of an adventure?

I wear my hair VERY short, and it’s gotten pretty long.  It’s irritating me on a daily basis now, getting caught in the hinge of my glasses, sticking out around my ears, and generally looking messy.   I’m seriously thinking of growing it out again, just so I can pull it back and not mess with it.  If I were a man, I would be like hubs and wear it buzzed, lol, just to not have to mess with it.

8) Nationally and internationally, one of 1964's biggest news stories was the marriage of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The bride wore a yellow dress and white and yellow flowers in her hair. The groom was decked out in a sedate dark suit with a red tie and a yellow boutonniere. What did you wear the last time you got really dressed up?

This is really dressed up for me, 36 pounds heavier, last summer.  We did a little mini-cay and stayed at a fancy hotel in downtown Albuquerque overnight and had a wonderful tapas dinner.  I don’t do dressed up, and I certainly don’t do dresses at all.  

9) Random question: Imagine you're stranded on a desert island with a complete stranger. Would you prefer your one and only companion be a man or a woman?

Either is fine, but I would prefer a stranger.  That way we’d have lots and lots of stories to tell each other.