Silver Linings

It was a dark and stormy night…

OK, maybe it was just raining… but it was an hour and a half drive from home, on roads I didn’t know, in a teeny town where I knew not a soul, and it was getting dark.  And the back tire was falling off my car.

Interestingly enough, this was probably the highlight of my last 48 hours.

Yes, it’s been a very bad couple of days for me.  But at this particular moment, in these particular circumstances, some wonderful things happened… a family stopped and tried to flag me down some assistance (eventually driving Rainbow and I back home), Twitter contacts (some of which I have never met in person) tried to find me some help or talk me through my situation, friends offered to text contacts for me.  None of it worked, mind you… and my car is still dead in its tracks at a funeral home (the irony of which was also good for my soul)… but good-hearted people had my back.  And it fills my insides just thinking how not alone I was right at that moment when I could have been very stranded.

I needed that reminder.  I needed to refocus on the great things this life offers up, even when the direction life is taking you is not what you’re envisioning.  I needed the reminder that everything is going to be okay.

And now I need a car with four working tires.

A Post for New Readers

There are several search terms that bring people to my blog on a somewhat regular basis….

Things that are related to socks, particularly blue ones, can bring visitors here…
Dairy Queen Moolattes is also a popular search term (which apparently I wrote about at some point)…
But for the past 30 days, the most frequent thing people find this blog for is….

Fake Nose and Glasses.  Seriously.  In the last 30 days, 74 people have come here for that very purpose.  (Note: I am aware that 74 may not sound like a lot to people who get loads of blog traffic, but over here in the house of Sock, that’s huge!)

Now, those who know me know I have a soft spot for this Halloween staple.  To me, kept in plain view, those glasses are a wonderful symbol to remind me to never take myself too seriously.  But, given the recent interest in these fun specs, I have decided to contemplate some practical uses for them, in an effort to better serve my new blog visitors.

The most obvious use, I think, would be as an instant disguise.  Like when magazines black out the face so that you won’t be able to guess who the best or worst dressed is… they could use a fake nose and glasses instead.  See…

Instant disguise.  How practical would that be in real life?  Do something wrong at work, pop on the glasses and… nope, Sockie’s not here right now, sorry.

Alternately… having a bad skin day?  Big old blemish on your nose?  Maybe you just have a red-sniffly look going on?  No problem.  Fake nose and glasses and presto… instant concealer.  Cheaper than high end cosmetics and reusable too.  You will be both blemish free and saving the world at the same time.  It doesn’t get better than that.

Or, in view of the recent Christmas season… you know that ugly sweater your granny gave you that you need to wear to be polite, but your kind of embarrassed to be seen in?   A fake nose and glasses can give your friends and co-workers something else to focus on instead of that reindeer jumper… instant distraction.

Your welcome. I hope that was helpful.
🙂

Apparently I’m a Good Liar

1. There is a squirrel in my attic.  And my kids want to keep it.

This is a lie. While I have no doubt that my kids would want to keep pretty much any critter that wanted to occupy our household, I don’t even know if I have an attic.

2. Pot holes on my side-street were fixed within days of asking the city to fix them.

True. And it’s a good thing they got fixed because I could have lost a kid in those things.

3. I recently got an email from the chief of police.

True. Our city’s finest responded via email regarding certain local parking issue I have.  They haven’t yet done what they said they would do, but baby steps people. Baby steps.

4. I was the last person to leave a bar last weekend, and the evening ended with my mother getting a black eye.

True. I waited for my father to lock up his business (a bar).  Later my mother fell and got a black eye.

5. I went out for a special coffee today and one of my companions wore no shoes to the café.  She was not served.

True. And the adorable stockinged feet belonged to beautiful Bon’s baby.

6. I practiced writing my name with my toes today.  Just because.

True. What can I say… seemed like a good idea at the time.

It’s 2009

Last night the new year was rung in in a typical lackluster way.  I crawled into bed at about midnight and said to Husband, “Happy New Year.  I hope 2009 doesn’t suck.”  And that was it.  Wheee.

This year will not revisit anything in 2008.  Not resolutions unattained, not wishes unfulfilled.  Nothing.  Farewell 2008.  Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Step one of the new year in the daunting task of getting my life in order is, of course, to find a new job.  A fabulous one prefered, thank you very much, but I will settle for just plain ok, to be quite honest. 

I guess,  as this new year begins, I feel a little like I’m redefining myself.  It is amazing how, even though one may not like one’s employment, so much of one’s self perception is wrapped up in what one does, or the fact that one even works.  I am a what?  I do what?  What indeed… I have no answers, and it scares the crap out of me.  What is it I even want beyond just a paycheck?  Or is it just a paycheck from which one can create the what they identify with?

Then, of course, I need to work on creativity… write more, create more, and learn how to sew stuff.  I got a sewing machine for Christmas and, quite frankly, either pattern makers are really bad at explaining things well, or I need to brush up on my instruction following skills, because in the end I just kind of winged it on both projects (doll clothes and a tote bag).  I don’t think we’ll be starting any major quilts any time soon.  Placemats maybe… but quilts are somewhere down the road, I think.  Baby steps all around I guess.

And increasing my writing needs to include blogging.  2008 was not my greatest blog effort, admittedly.  But it is a new year ripe with opportunities to do better, so we’ll include that in my list of efforts…. however rambling and incoherent they may sometimes be.

To all my readers, however few and far between, I hope 2009 brings you peace and fulfilment, good health, and joy.  Happy New Year.

Stormy Day

Like everywhere else, it seems, it is storming here today.  Howling winds, blowing snow.  Nasty, nasty, nasty.

So, the four of us are all cozy inside.  The laundry is on the go, a roast is in the crock pot, fresh cookies are out of the oven.  We’ve played dominos (both the match the dots kind and the knock ’em down kind), and listened to holiday music.  I’ve also sent off a couple of resumes today.  All this without ever changing out of my jammies. 

And it’s only just after lunch.  I foresee some Christmas movies in our very near future (providing we continue to have power). 

Is it storming where you are?  How are you spending the day?

Rude Can Be Good

I went to the mall on Sunday at about 1:30pm to pick up something that the girls wanted and that I had seen for a good price earlier in the week.  (Sunday shopping is actually legal here from the May long weekend to Christmas, but not January-April).   As I was entering the mall, I noticed a teenager, slim, taller than me, leaning on a cart, and she had a mohawk.  I did notice that the mohawk had highlights, and that she looked unusual because of the hair, but I did not want to appear rude and openly watch her.  Mohawks on teen girls is not very common here, and I did not want to seem like I was gawking, so I kept strolling along, diverting my eyes to other shoppers, other things.

Then much later in the evening (probably around 8:00pm) I opened the newspaper and start reading.  Police are looking for the public’s assistance in locating a 16 year old girl, missing since November 21st.  They gave her physical description… height, hair colour, eye colour…. mohawk.  It could have been her.  Given where I live, it probably was her.  And in my effort to not appear rude, I did not notice details I might have otherwise…  what she was doing… who she was with.  The most I can say, is a female teen with a mohaw was at the mall.  And I wish I had been ruder.

September Countdown

0 Days until Family Taekwondo class starts again.

4 School Days = Apparent life expectancy of a new backpack.

5 Days until Angel would have been 10.

10 Days until Brisingr.

12 Days until someone wins the lottery house.

20 Days left in my current employment contract.

51 Days until Nablopomo and Nanowrimo.

106 Days until Christmas.

Catching up quickly

We are on the last full week of summer vacation this week. The girls head back to school on September 4th, easing into the new school year with a two day week.

This week they are in Taekwondo camp, so their days are full and they are getting loads of exercise. There is a rumour around the House of Sock that today they will do their first board breaks. I expect there will be many stories when I pick them up today.

I still have a bit of back to school shopping to do, most notably in the shoe department. Why do I always leave the shoes to the end when selection is less than optimal? It’s not like I don’t know it’s coming. Yet every year it is the last to be done. Children cannot wear flip flops until the snow flies. Yet our avoidance continues.

In addition to the summer hum of activity with the kids, things have been so very hectic at work. My office has moved locations, and a co-worker was out sick for most of the summer, so my plate has been very full there. I continue to attempt to find other positions and also continue with my less than stellar success in that department. I will spare you a list of the positions I did not get, as the list would be far too long.

I am not sure whether my mood is related to fatigue, changing seasons, or the fact that September is looking at us in the face. I feel like I need a really big nap.

2 Years of Socks

Yesterday was my second Blogiversary!!! 332 posts in two years and lots of blog friends later, here I am.

So I was thinking about my first blog post two years ago, and I realized that I do not, in fact, ever actually talk about point #3 in a literal sense… ie, I never actually discuss socks and laundry (though domestic life does come up). So here it is… I really do marvel at how socks disappear. I have an honest to goodness issue with it. And here is the proof…

I do laundry nearly every freaking day (presuming my machines work and they don’t always). And nearly every single time a load comes out of the dryer, at least one pair of socks will have become a single sock. So, I put the single sock in my “single sock” bag, intended to be the holding place until the other sock appears… ya’ just never know if it never made it out of the hamper or got into a different load. But it doesn’t always work that way:

Behold! My “collection” of single socks where the mate never ever materialized. How crazy is that? Care to give theories on what happens to them?

– Is that what my alien neighbours have buried under their “headstone” lawn ornaments (don’t ask);

– Is there a sock party going on somewhere behind the dryer?

– Did they just disintegrate from over use or stinky feet?

Got any other ideas?

Delurking week

This is apparently “delurking week” in the blogosphere. It is a time when those who read without commenting are asked to post a wee “howdy” of introduction. I don’t actually think I get many lurkers…. more like drive-by visits… folks looking for information on “older boobs” (I kid you not – that seems to be a hot topic in the last week or two), “hamster comas,” and pretty much anything related to socks, and then they disappear into the night. But if you happen to pause for a moment and read on occasion, please delurk this week and say hi!

Unless of course you’re nasty, in which case you may carry on with your lurking.