Lolly's Lolly's get your adverbs here...

A voice from my past sang to me the other day.

In reminiscence we laughed over the things we had done as children. The games we played, the crushes we had. Then, she brought up the ever educational School House Rock that used to air between Saturday morning cartoons. Sleepovers would end the following day with us planted in front of the TV watching Penelope Pittstop, the Laff Olympics....and creations of Sid and Marty Kroft as well.

Believe me when I say :Uh Oh CHONGO!

Conjunction Junction...what's your function?

I am getting old! I guess it is my turn. 30 somethings unite! You remember these things, don't you!?

Admit it.

I won't tell.

Working with computers

He said: I like to make 2 dimensional objects become 3 dimensional. I will pick it up and add velocity!

I giggled.


Physics jokes can be amusing!


Happy Friday.

An Easter Tale

My father is the king of bull. His sarcasm is a trait my whole family is infected by. Meaning, when the four of us (my mother, sister, myself and he) are in the same room, there is a lot of gut aching laughter that occurs! Family gatherings are fun, simply because of this.

Being my father's daughter, I am prone to fits of it myself. No really! But, I managed to pull one over on my father this last weekend as I was visiting in celebration of Easter and my birthday.
He was seated next to me on the couch and I made quick mention on the fact that I was appreciative that I had some semblance of a brain. He retorted that I may need to prove that. I challenged him..."Ask me any question, and I will answer it correctly!"
He immediately responded with "How tall is Mt Everest?"
I said: "Correctly."
From the loud cackle in the other room, I received sign my mother had heard the exchange. My father regarded me closely for a moment, then snickered.

It doesn't happen often when 'he who is the king of Bullshit' doesn't have a return quip. I admit, I was slightly proud of myself!

You like me...you really, really like me!

It's official. I grow older (technically at 4:54pm) today!

My co-workers surprised me by decorating my cubicle with balloons and confetti that announced the day being a birthday. They also procured an ice cream cake (which I think may rank up there with number one choices! Ice cream and cake in one package! BRILLIANT!) And, I have had numerous well wishers call and sing Happy Birthday to me, making me very grateful for the invention of the speaker phone too! heh heh

Tonight, my stand in 'boy-friend' is taking me to dinner at a new restaurant he has been raving about. Last night he convinced me by making the statement: "I refinanced my house and paid off my bills, I have $400 dollars left and would like nothing more than to take you to dinner!" At that moment my cell phone dropped it's signal a bit and we got disconnected. He called back and said if I didn't want to go, all I had to do was say no! Ha ha. Needless to say, I explained the reasoning behind the hang up and reworked the dinner invitation without too much groveling. Friday I will celebrate with the rest of my lovely friends and Sunday my family gets their turn.

Not too bad for a girl who was lamenting over this date a few days prior. I feel better.

My friends are fantastic. Thank you to all the well wishers! You are greatly appreciated.

The day draws closer

Yikes! My birthday is coming. Every year this day rolls around and I anticipate it with a mixture of dread and excitement. Dread because I never really know what I can do to celebrate it that will appeal to me and the friends involved, and excitement at the prospect of possibly doing something that will appeal to me and the friends involved.

I let myself down most years I admit.

I think what I most want, I have no control over whether or not I get. Supposedly that is. I hate admitting what I want because it makes me feel like a whiny little girl. That is not something I prefer to associate with myself as a person! Strong minded and capable woman, or how about Amazon/Goddess? Okay, I will settle for capable if the Goddess thing is a stretch! Hey, a gal can dream can't she?

The last few days, the lines of a song from a band I absolutely adore have been floating around my head. Mainly because the disc hasn't left the CD player in my car for quite some time, but also because I am identifying with a particular statement they are making. The song is entitled Halcyon Days (which is a period of time at the end of Winter when a certain bird comes back and nests...basically a time for life to start again after being dormant!)

I am going to share the first verse with you and you can draw your own conclusions:

Alone, left here in dust
amidst my fears and doubts.
Life's shattered dreams, I could have done without.
Now chthonic life has set its sights on making me a slave to its ways
I wait for return
till then my soul it burns
and it burns... only for you


I'm going to be 33 in less than a week and the person I would like to share this time with is not going to be around. But, he is sending me presents! He stated he was sending me a Birthday Box and he needed an idea of what I have been denying myself. "Give me a list of 20 things!" he said.

How about just one? Am I sappy or what!

My surrogate cravings are threatening to get the better of me. This disturbs me a little bit.
Hang in there, not much longer now!

More freaking poetry...yeah yeah yeah

If I were to tell you about the silence that surrounds me,
I fear you would misplace my thoughts.
How often I have hungered for a release that constantly tempts beyond my reach,
yet I am afraid to let you in.
If my soul would grant me immunity,
perhaps I would be more lenient,
until then I will only offer my smile
and allow the mystery of me to envelope you.


*don't ask, I have just been in an odd mood!

Well chock that one up to luck!

Picture this: Thanksgiving day, November 2005. It was cloudy and threatening rain. I was in the car, en route to my parents home for the feasting. I was bringing with me, one room mate (IE: surrogate sister) and she was holding one freshly baked pumpkin pie. Let me just say, I can work it in a kitchen, and I am a pretty damn good cook, but SHE is the baking queen. So, what she was holding was precious cargo.

As I was exiting the freeway, I noticed the woman in the left lane next me, driving an early model POS with a car seat and forty stuffed animals in the back window, suddenly slam on her brakes. Seeing nothing in front of either of us, I glanced in the rear view and spotted the police car behind her. I think he shocked us both when he pulled into my lane and turned on his lights.
I got that feeling of 'my stomach has climbed up into my throat and is playing a staccato rhythm on my tongue' and pulled to the side of the road. Oh boy!

"Did you know your tabs are expired?" He asked.
"You are kidding me??!?!" I started emphatically gesturing to Jamie to open my glove compartment to prove that statement wrong. She placed the pie on the dash board and dug into the compartment in vain. The only document that was found was the previous year. Okay - I remembered getting the renewal notice in the mail, and also remembered setting it aside to send in a check, but I don't think I recall ever actually doing it! That was supposed to have been done in June. Six months and no one noticed until now. Um, OOPS!

Oh wait, it gets better!

He asks for my driver's license. Apparently, my car wasn't the only thing I had forgotten to license! This one had expired in April, 8 months prior to the pulling over. Oh my god. As I removed it from my wallet and handed it out the window I stated:
"Oh, that's expired too!" He contemplated me closely for a moment then responded,
"You are not having a very good day are you?"
"Well, I was..." I admitted.
"You have insurance don't you?"
"YES! I do!!" (that card was expired too, but at this point it was fairly moot!)
He took my offending information and walked back to his car. I contemplated my suicide, or chances of succeeding in a high speed pursuit. But the only real word that was floating through my mind was a swear word I save for special occasions. It was being repeated incessantly.

As he walked back over to me I readied myself for the hauling to jail, the forty million dollar ticket, the towing of my car, the ruination of my day to it's fullest extent! Nothing prepared me for the next thing out of his mouth.
"Tara, I am not giving you a ticket, but you need to get this taken care of right away. You are breaking the law!" I nodded dutifully, when in reality I was ready to leap through the open window to kiss him. "I am letting you go, but I can't let you drive this car or I will impound it. You and your passenger need to switch out." Jamie piped up.
"I haven't driven a stick in 15 years!" I besought the officer sheepishly and he looked at me with something that resembled sympathy.
"Why don't you drive up to one of those parking lots and park it, is there someone you can call?"
Is there??!! He left me in the parking lot. I called my parents to advise we were going to be late. While my mother and I were working out the details of who was going to come and drive my car the remaining 2 miles to their house, Jamie stated she would be willing to try it if I would coach her. We switched seats.
I have never been in the passenger seat of my car. It was odd to say the least.
The next few minutes were filled with statements of "Little more gas....good...clutch...clutch....more gas...good!" I have to give Jamie props she did well, killing the engine only a few times. (mostly due to the pressure of other vehicles behind her at stop lights!) But all in all, she did good! No destroying of the transmission or burning out the clutch. My mother was waiting in the driveway and applauded when we pulled up.

I got out of the car (handed her the pie) and went inside. My father was sitting at the kitchen table, I sat down across from him and announced that his youngest daughter was a felon. His response:

"It's about time!"

Needless to say - I spent that weekend getting legal and thanking my lucky stars! I still don't know how I got out of that one. Maybe it's hard for people to think I could ever willingly, knowingly do something wrong? Jamie says it's the lips. I can't tell, but I will take it!