Category Archives: personal

Wrist to Sweaty Forehead

Kitty was always my favorite character on “That 70’s Show.”

I did mention yesterday that today would be Wrist to Forehead Sunday, didn’t I?  Well it is, and I don’t have much else to write a blog post about anyways.  For one reason, I’m too hot to think. I am sitting on my couch letting the sweat run down my face, because I let Steven take one of the fans out to the kitchen.  He is doing the dishes and making my lunch for tomorrow, so I think I have the better end of the deal.

There.  I just moved to the floor and rearranged  the other fan so I am getting a little breeze on my back.  I have been suffering a lot from face sweat lately.  Sweat all over, of course, but on my face is where it really seems to get to me.   I keep flashing on certain Facebook memes I saw all winter saying things like, “It’s so cold my face hurts!”  I didn’t care for face-hurting cold, either, but I sure could use a happy medium.

So, yeah, I guess this is going to be a blog post where all I do is whine.  You’ll have that, especially with me involved.  I just have this sneaking feeling that my upcoming week is going to be terrible.  Some will say there is only one person who can change that and her blogging initials are MVG.  I must admit, however grudgingly, that they have a point.  I will also say, in my defense, that I am not the only person on the planet.  I could have the best attitude in the world (which I obviously do not), and somebody could do something to make my life miserable. Please, let’s not argue that they will only make my life miserable if I LET them.  For one reason, if you try to dispute with me in this heat, I will begin to suspect that you are one of those people who are trying to make my life miserable.

Here’s a funny thing:  the act of typing in this silliness has cheered me up.  Monday?  Bring it.  Want to make my life miserable?  I’ll write a blog post about it.

I naturally flashed on this little bit of inspiration.

Interrupted Scattered Saturday

I’m watching a Dateline on my DVR, but in a rather desultory fashion, because I think Steven might want to watch it with me later, and I thought it would be a good time to make my Scattered Saturday post.  For another reason, I want to stay on the computer in case a couple of friends message me about returning to the Diamond Days festivities downtown.  The vendors are leaving at six, but music continues till midnight.  And I would imagine I could get another Gem Juice at the End Zone Pub and Grub (see yesterday’s post).

That was as much as I had typed in earlier when my friend Wayne messaged me that he was down there already.  OF COURSE we wanted to join him!  We met at the End Zone.  I had another Gem Juice.  We sat and drank and visited.  Eventually we got a table outside.  A long time later our friend Kim joined us.  I only had one Gem Juice, but then I had two gin and tonics.

I am home now.  I am still feeling tipsy.  We had a delightful time in downtown Herkimer.  I am in no condition to make a good blog post about it. I am only happy I can type in this much. Happy Saturday, everyone.  I hope to see you all on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

Diamond Daze on Lame Post Friday

So Herkimer Diamond Days kicked off this evening.  I noticed folks setting up for a chicken barbecue and food trucks while I was running this afternoon (short, muggy run, not worthy of a Runny Commentary post). I got home and told Steven what I had seen.

“I wanted to get a beer and sit in front of the End Zone Pub,” I told him.

To my surprise, he said, “Let’s do it.”

We did.  Our friend Kim joined us.  What a fun time!

The End Zone’s kitchen was closed, but Kim and I got beers and we sat down at a table on the sidewalk.  Steven checked out that food trucks and one that offered hot dogs (I foolishly did not get its name).  He has been craving a hot dog.  He got a hot dog and french fries.  It looked so good that I went and got a hot dog for myself.  Yes, I ate some of Steven’s fries, don’t judge me! We settled down and watched the crowd.

Steven got a drink after he got his food.  After Kim and I finished our beers, we wanted to try something called Gem Juice.  For one reason, you got to keep the cup.  In fact, the cup was only a plastic one with a beer logo on it.  I was hoping for something about the Diamond Days or at least the End Zone.  However, the drink was damn tasty.  It was gin, run, vodka and clear fruit juice.  They told me the exact proportions, in case I wanted to make it myself at home, but I do not remember what they were.

“I can just add more to taste,” I suggested.  I am more fond of gin than of vodka.  On the other hand, I am not at all sure I will be trying this recipe at home any time soon.

Full disclosure:  the Gem Juice gave me a bit of a buzz.  I don’t drink much of the hard stuff lately, I guess it goes right to my head.  The point is, we had fun.  And it is Lame Post Friday.  I hope your Friday is equally as fun.

 

Non-Sequitur Steve

It is that moment on a weeknight when you know you need to get to bed (YES, I go to bed EARLY, you would too if you got up at 3 stupid a.m., and if you wouldn’t you ought to), but you want to make your blog post because, once again, you cannot bear for today to be the day you do not post.  Regular readers may like to point out that some days I have not made a post and made two the next day.  However, on those days I have made one of those posts EARLY in the morning.  I will be at work early in the morning tomorrow. I can’t be making a blog post then.

I can feel my brain becoming muddled.  I know,what makes today any different?  Never mind that, I have a blog post to make.  How about a Throw Back Thursday?  I’ve done that before.  A Throwback Non-Sequitur Thursday, then it doesn’t have to make sense. I know, when do I ever?  Just never mind disparaging my brain and blogging abilities, let’s get on with the post.

Talk about your kid in a candy store!

Here is a sweet throwback:  my husband Steven and childhood friend Margaret in Margaret’s So Sweet Candy Cafe in Utica, NY.  What a great place to be! I wish I was there now!

Isn’t he handsome?

I continue with Steven, but now he is at the Ommengang Brewery in Cooperstown, NY.  I do like beer.

Three handsome dudes!

And this is Steven, our friend Jim, and our new best friend bartender Larry at Gerber’s 1933 Tavern in Utica.  There’s a place I need to go again!

And now I am over 250 words, so I call this a respectable blog post.  I might hope for a better blog post tomorrow, but it will be Lame Post Friday.  I hope to see you all then.

 

Good-Buy to Books

This afternoon instead of having a Mohawk Valley adventure I could blog about, I spent some time routing around in the extremely messy room we call our library looking for books to donate.  As a result, in lieu of my expected (by me anyways) Wuss-out Wednesday post, I will give a brief plug to a community event I hope to go to on Saturday, a book sale hosted by the Herkimer County Historical Society.

The sale will also include history books from the society’s gift shop — I KNOW there are one or two of those I want but have not purchased yet — and post cards — regular readers may recall that I love to send people post cards.  The society has been on Facebook asking for donations.  Of course I love my books.  I like to own books and re-read many of them multiple times.  On the other hand, I have a lot of books.  I seek out book sales, used and new book stores, rummage sales, thrift stores, anywhere you can buy books. And sometimes people give me books they’ve finished with that they think I might like (or that they just want to get rid of).  I LOVE BOOKS, there, I’ve said it.

So I gathered a few books to donate.  Some thrillers, some romance novels, a couple of true crime stories… Steven will bring them to the society tomorrow, I think.  The sale will be Saturday, Aug. 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Eckler Building, 406 N. Main St., Herkimer, NY.

My only worry now is that I will return from the sale with more books than I donated.  These things happen.  In the meantime, I may try to do something about that extremely messy room, because, you know, removing those books to donate did not help much.

 

It’s Only Tuesday, But I Ran

I thought I should run yesterday in the low humidity, but I felt SO TIRED after work, I thought running Monday in the low humidity would be as onerous as running Tuesday in the high humidity.  The weather report this morning told me the dew point was at “humid” today and would be at “oppressive” tomorrow.  I told everybody at work to enjoy today, tomorrow will be worse.  You see how optimistic I can be.

Be that as it may, I felt after work today that I had to do SOMETHING.   I felt tired and coated with sweat. I felt down.  I felt sad.  I knew sitting on the couch and vegging out in front of Facebook was not the way to go.  I did not want to, but I decided to run.  It might not be a good run.  It might not be a long run.  But I would run.

What can I say?  It was not a good run.  It was not a long run.  I waited in vain for the endorphins to kick in.  Well, you’ll have these runs, especially in the middle of summer (please do NOT take out your calendar and show me precisely where the middle of summer is, I KNOW it is probably not today, stop being so didactic) (you know who you are).  I made up my mind I would continue for at least 20 minutes and I made it for 24.  I walked my full 10 minute cool-down.  We’ll see if it makes me feel better tomorrow.

In the meantime, it is not much of a blog post, is it?  I narrated in my head and tried to notice things as I ran.  I appreciated the grey skies, although I neither expected nor got rain.  The only noteworthy thing I remember was an Amish buggy on Caroline Street.  I said, “A horsey! Hi, horsey!”  The horse nodded his head at me (or perhaps I read into it).

The saddest thing is, I keep thinking, “Well, it is Wuss-out Wednesday,” and have to keep telling myself, “It’s TUESDAY, dammit!  TUESDAY!”  I will get over my disappointment, of course.  Probably tomorrow, when it is Wednesday.  Unless I think it is Thursday.  Damn.

At least I didn’t think it was Friday!

Even Used Monsters Can Help

I so need a Monstrous Monday today.  I’m having the damnedest time writing anything, I’m feeling down and out of it, a few pictures of monsters and some silly remarks will hook me up.  Only I can’t find any new (to me) monster pics.  I was just on Facebook, looking at all my monster pages — oh, wait, I think I missed a couple.

No, it’s no use.  I’ll have to resort to my Media Library and hope I don’t repeat anything too recently used, but no promises.

You can’t really see the monster for the words. There’s a metaphor for writing in there somewhere.

The Blob (1958), how appropriate, because that is just about what I feel like today.  Just a blob. Not even a capitalized one.  In fact, here’s how blobby I am today: I’m writing in sentence fragments, an affectation I rarely use.

THIS is the picture I was looking for on Severed Head Sunday!

I guess these two fellows are more ghouls than monsters, but Peter Lorre and Vincent Price — there could be no possible objection.

With the obligatory sexy, frightened female.

I have never seen this movie but I must look for it.  How I miss video stores!  Perhaps I could find the DVD on interlibrary loan. I don’t have one of them there streaming services.

I gotta get me a nightgown like that.

I close with some zombies.  When I am done sitting on my couch like the Blob, I will lumber to bed like a zombie.  An old fashioned zombie. I’ve never seen any of the more recent zombie flick with the fast moving flesh eaters.

I was right; the monsters did make me feel better.  Happy Monday, everyone.

 

True Crime on Wrist to Forehead Sunday

Well, my wrist is really on my forehead today.   In a dramatic pose as I swoon on the sofa, of course.

This was me in a melodrama. I was quite dramatic.

The true wrist-to-forehead pose is leaned back, eyes skyward if they’re even open, as I said, about to swoon, backwards.  I read somewhere that people always faint forward, that is one way you can tell if they are faking it.  However, I think if you are already leaning back you would continue to do so.  I have not had occasion to test the theory.

So far this post seems not to be about the title.

Even the re-runs are pretty good.

We are watching Snapped, one of my favorites.  Unfortunately, or perhaps I should say fortunately, we are talking and talking and not watching so much.  Fortunately, because it is fun to chat with people.  Unfortunately, because I am not making a very good blog post.

Well, what are Sundays for, anyways?  To sit around dreading Monday? What a waste of time! To prepare for the upcoming week?  As if I ever did anything that together!  To enjoy what’s left of the weekend?  There’s a goal I can get behind!

So I am going to get off WordPress and get back to enjoying my conversation, true crime show, and Sunday evening.  Perhaps I can find a picture to leave you with.  Something wrist-to-forehead-ish?  Something true-crime-ish?  Something conversation-with-friends-ish?  Or maybe just a monster for laughs?

“I still don’t know why they asked me to be in this blog post.”

 

 

Not Enough Actors? Say It Ain’t So!

I went to the second night of auditions for Shattered Angel on Friday.  Once again, that is a play about a local historical murder being presented by the Herkimer County Historical Society in cooperation with Ilion Little Theatre (or is it “in conjunction” or “under the auspices of”?  I don’t know the details).   As it turns out, we have a slight problem.  Not enough actors showed up.

The background was from a different play.

There were enough folks there to read a couple of scenes.  Unfortunately, even with doubling parts, I don’t think we got enough to cast the play.

These guys read several time.

One fellow read but thought he could not do the show, because of his work hours.  Three weekends is a kind of a large commitment.

Another scene.

I read this scene on Wednesday.  I was just filling in, though, because there was nobody present who really qualified for the part I read, that of the young murderer (I didn’t need a spoiler alert for that; this is a murder play but not a murder mystery).

Another angle.

I wanted to include one shot with the director, Stephen Wagner.  He’s pretty cool.

So, local readers, are any of you actors?  Would you like to be in a play?  Go to the Ilion Little Theatre Club Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ilionlittletheatre/.   Send a message, write a post, call the theatre.  Older male actors are primarily needed.  Can anybody help us out?