MORE RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Well, I'm a genius.  This morning I decided that I was going to be efficient.  I knew I was going to make myself go to the gym and I knew I had to go to the bank.  Since I wasn't going to have to get out of the car at the bank, it only made sense to drive over there after the gym and go to one of the drive in tellers!  Two birds with one stone, don't 'cha know.  I was so proud of myself for thinking ahead and not wasting a trip and all of that, and when I got to the bank I was even prouder of myself for getting there bright and early to avoid the long lines!

Then I remembered that today is a holiday and the banks are closed.  So much for efficiency.

Curses.

2) The Sunday before last, it was very cold outside.  Probably colder than it had been all winter up to that point.  While I was getting ready for church, I looked in my closet and realized that I couldn't stand the thought of putting on a dress while it was that cold outside and opted to wear slacks and a sweater instead.

Unfortunately, I was also having one of those "I hate all my clothes and nothing fits" days (some of you know what I mean) and couldn't find a sweater that fit or that didn't look ratty.  It hasn't been cold enough to really justify buying any new ones this year, so I was stuck with last year's models.  Well, except for one sweater that was brand new and I'd never worn it before, but I was hesitant.

See, last November, we went to the Mall of Georgia and visited a store called Museum Replicas.  This place sells replica movie and television props and costumes, and for reasons I still don't understand, I got a replica Hogwarts uniform sweater/tie combo- Griffindor house colors, in case you're curious.  It was a licensed replica, so it didn't have any patches or words on it that said it was connected to Harry Potter in any way, it was simply a nice gray sweater that looks like this:

Ten points to Griffindor!

I know I don't usually wear ties, but it isn't unheard of, and I thought that since there were no words stitched on the sweater, or a big Hogwarts shield on it anywhere that I could possibly get away with wearing it without any problems.  A lot of our church members are old, so I didn't think they'd recognize it, and since I sit in the sound booth during services, I knew I'd be in the back out of sight anyway.  

Believe it or not, I was told by a couple of our older church members that I looked really nice and they didn't mention anything about movies, so I thought I was home free.  However, it didn't take long before someone recognized it for what it was. Then way more people than I expected to know what it was figured it out.  If they asked, I was honest, but I still felt kind of silly.  I think I probably would have still been OK, if one of the men who noticed what I was wearing hadn't stopped me in front of the youth group and start asking me if the stairs changed around while I was going to class, and then start talking to the picture of King David in the window like it was one of the sentient paintings. 

So yes, I wore a Hogwarts uniform to church.  I wasn't trying to be weird or trying to get attention, I was just trying to stay warm.  I promise.  * Facepalm. *

3) I was checking my page tracker to see what people had been searching for when they came across my blog.  Someone had typed in "What are tapioca balls made of?"  Sigh.  In case anyone else comes across this while asking the same question, the answer is narwhal horn dust.  It isn't suitable for vegetarians unless they aren't that strict. Oy.

4) Last Friday, Mr. Lee took Steve and I out to dinner to celebrate my birthday!  We had a lot of fun, and thankfully we managed to get out of the restaurant before anyone sang to me.  *shudder* He also mentioned wanting to see a movie, and his only stipulation was that he wanted to see a 3D movie since that's his thing.  I think he goes to see all of the 3D movies that come out, just to see how competent the film makers are.  :)  Since there were only 3 of those kind of movies playing, and I for darn sure wasn't going to see Ghost Rider 2 (Sorry, Nic Cage) and I didn't want to see the one with Dewane Johnson in it about a mysterious mountain or island or whatever, we decided to go and see "The Phantom Menace."  Shut up.

It has been a long time since I've actually watched that particular movie, so time had faded my memories of it a bit.  I know that I like Star Wars just fine, and I didn't even remember hating Jar Jar Binks all that much, so I figured it wouldn't be too bad.  

I was wrong.  So very wrong.  The movie was terrible.  Not only was the 3D conversion terrible and unnecessary, the movie itself was just awful.  The acting, save for Liam Neeson and the guy who played Obi Wan, was dreadful.  The dialog, the cartoony-ness of the special effects...just...bleh.  Obviously I'm not the target audience for this, but I can always appreciate good movies, no matter who they are directed at and this was not good.  No offense to Mr. Lucas -mainly because I'm sure his company could figure out a way to track me down and do something else to me - kill my dogs or something since I don't have a job to get fired from this time. (You still aren't forgiven you web crawling bastards!) - but you need to just walk away.  Please.  Leave the movies the way they are and retire or make other movies or something.  This re-release was nothing short of a money grab, and I hate to say that we added our own funds into that pot.

Honestly, and I'm speaking directly to you now George Lucas, I say this with full conviction:  When it comes to movies, you are one of the most brilliant and creative minds on this planet.  You have done things and continue to do things to almost literally create magic.  Without the things you and ILM have developed, I'm sure movies wouldn't be as fantastical as they have become.  You created a wonderful thing with Star Wars, a thing that probably blew up way bigger than you ever thought it could, and that is honestly fantastic, but I'm begging you to just. Leave. Them. Alone. No more tweaking, no more conversions, no more Greedos shooting first...just leave them be. You are bad touching a lot of childhoods, and that is not cool.  I don't care if you made these movies, they no longer belong to you. They belong to everyone who love them and the majority of them don't want you messing with them anymore.

5) Anyway..so I just ranted about Star Wars. This must mean my blood sugar is low and I'm not being rational anymore.  I going to go eat breakfast before I start talking politics. 

1) I had a lovely birthday, thank you for asking!  This year I had a body guard, which really cut down on the bodily harm and fires. :)  Steve took the day off to spend it with me, and we had a nice, low key day.  We went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel (shut up, their bacon is amazing) and then we just wandered around town doing different stuff.  He took me to pick out my gift, because he knows I'm super picky about jewelry (he told me what he wanted to get me and I picked which one), and then he allowed me to drag him into a couple of girl stores.  I feel really tacky about one, though.  I went to Sephora because I am a member of some kind of points program and one of the perks is that I am entitled to a free gift on my birthday.  Before we had a store, if I wanted the free gift I'd have to order something online and have it included, but the email I got said no purchase was necessary if I went to the actual store.  I walked in and said "It's my birthday and I'd like my free thing, please."  I don't normally do that, and I wasn't comfortable doing it then, but I did it anyway.  I still feel really tacky, but I got my free thing.  Hey...it was a really nice free thing!  We also went to Toys R Us and then got groceries, so it was a wild, wild birthday.  I'm just glad no one called the cops.  :) It even ended on a nice note because I got a special birthday song emailed to me from a friend.  I hope to return the favor one day!

As for the annual bad juju, I felt it, but apparently now I'm just passing it along to strangers.  We were walking out of one store behind a woman and she ran her cart straight into one of those concrete barriers that they put in front of the entrance so you can't drive your car into the building, I guess.  If it had only been that, I wouldn't have thought anything about it, but on our way out of the grocery store we passed someone in a blue car was was trying to back out of a parking space, and the car jumped forward and ended up on the sidewalk!  Maybe it wasn't my fault, per se, but we went home after that just in case.

Of course, now that my birthday has passed without mayhem, I'm just waiting for it to catch up with me.  If any of you die, get maimed, lose your job, pet, spouse, or home in some kind of bizarre disaster, I apologize in advance. 

I need therapy.

2) I just heard something fall over and spill things.  I have gone into every room in this house and can't find what it was.  It was loud, and honestly I expected to go into the kitchen and find a mess or see my bead boxes overturned, but I can't find what it was.  Weirdness.  Ghost sounds, y'all!  Even the spirits in my house are messy. 

3) I saw the sweetest thing last night!  I had to pick Steve up from the airport kind of late last night.  Let me just say, I love watching people at the airport.  I love seeing happy people greet each other!  I saw a soldier come home and his mom and dad were so happy to see him, and I saw two people just light up when they picked each other out of the crowd.  However, the best and sweetest thing I think I've ever seen was while I was waiting for Steve to get his luggage.  There was an elderly man, clearly in his 80s, waiting by one of the dividers.  His face lit up and I saw an elderly woman come towards him and he wrapped his arms around her and they just stood there holding each other. I couldn't see her face since her back was to me, but the man reached down and kissed her on the cheek and they just stood there hugging while everyone milled around them.  They didn't let go for as long as I stood there.  It was so sweet that it made me cry.  Crying in an airport makes you look like a lunatic, so I tried not show it.  At least it wasn't ugly crying, but I had to take deep breaths and look up towards the ceiling so no one could see my eyes. Literally, it still makes me cry and I don't understand why because it was so, so, so sweet.  I didn't mean to watch them, and I kept trying to look away, but they were standing right in front of me.  I hope when I'm that old, someone will still be that happy to see me! 

4) Did you know that you can drop a bottle of carbonated juice from just around 3 to 5 inches off the ground and it will explode?  Yep! You know that fizzy grape juice that as in a wine bottle?  Well, I grabbed one off of the bottom shelf and the cap got caught on the shelf above it which caused it to slip out of my hand and the thing just went kablooey all over the aisle.  I stood there in a fizzing puddle of juice wondering what happened, because it took me a second to understand that the bottle could possibly break from that tiny distance from my hand to the floor.  Luckily a "clean up on aisle 4" guy came over pretty quickly and took care of things.  I was so embarrassed.  I had to ask for a paper towel to wipe off the bottom of my shoes so I wouldn't track it all over the store.  I spent the rest of that trip to the grocery store with my socks filled with juice.  Yuck.

5) I made one more round of the house to see if I could find what made that sound and I found it!  It wasn't ghosts.  It was forks.  Our box of plastic utensils fell over in the cupboard.  I have no idea how that happened, but I'd rather it be forks than ghosts in my house, thankyouverymuch.

A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

This will be quick, but I feel it needs to be said. 

If you are going to wear a pair of pantyhose or tights that are even just a teeny-tiny bit too short for you, DO NOT wear slippery, silky underpants.  It will not end well.

I feel that this is all that needs to be said on the matter.

Good day.

A QUICKY

Would you like to know something I hate?

What am I saying?  Of course you do!  That's why your here!  :)

But really, I don't like this saying:

Pure, unadulterated evil.

I know that this is supposed to be sweet.  I get that.  I know that it's supposed to show someone how much you love them and that living without them would be unbearable.  Intellectually I know that.

However, this is how I interpret it: Someone who loves you wants to die the day before you do so that they never know the pain of living without you.  However, they don't give a damn that you will spend an agonizing 24 hours of soul numbing pain and heart rending agony because the person you love is dead.

Selfish bastard bear.

; )