Thank You For Lettin' Me...

The world gets crazy.  Our brains get full of worry and what-ifs (ironically except for "what if I stopped worrying about what-ifs?").

Our blood pressure rises and before we know it we are starting our heavily caps locked social media posts with words like: 'RANT' or 'WARNING'.  Seems more like anti-social media at times...

What I'm trying to say is, we get caught up and we forget to say thank you.  I don't mean thank you as in 'please and'.  I mean we straight up forget or downright overlook the good stuff, which is just down wrong.  Am I right?

So, I'm going to say some thanks and hopefully you'll  see some of mine that apply to you too.

 Image courtesy of Felixco, Inc. at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thank you for allowing a reasonable distance between your car and mine.
Thank you for letting me in front of you in line.
Thank you for picking up the phone.
Thank you for laughing at my awkward jokes.
Thank you for commenting on my post.
Thank you for the likes, shares, and pokes?
Thank you for accepting my pizza coupon that expired.
Thank you for the concern when I look tired.
Thank you for the extra napkins.  It's as if you knew what could happen!
Thank you for bringing chocolate candy.
Thank you for reading my rambling.
See how full of thanks we could be, 
Just by me seeing you and you seeing me?
Strange or familiar we're much the same
When we remove the busy and the pain.
Thanks for giving ourselves the chance
To see beyond our circumstance.


Happy New Year!!

Why Can't I Buy What I Want?

Sorry guys, this one's for the ladies...  I have fashion problems.  These problems aren't that I can't dress myself in a fashionable way or that I'm stylistically impaired.  I do know how to make me feel brand new.  The problem lies with the makers of women's panties and tennis shoes.

Like any reasonable lady getting dressed, I'll start with the panties.  Why oh why can't I buy a package of solid black underwear?! I can buy a package of solid white underwear.  I can buy a package with one black pair in it, but inevitably that one lonely pair of black undies will share the package with at least one god-awful looking pair that has some juvenile pattern like polka dots or stars that I won't even wear on laundry day because no they're not 'fun to wear'. Seriously, why am I forced to buy my underwear individually simply because I prefer solid dark colors over silly designs or white granny panties?  I object!  I loudly, emphatically, enthusiastically object!  Who's with me?

"No trunks please" by Gerbil - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 
via Wikimedia Commons 
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:No_trunks_please.JPG#/media/
File:No_trunks_please.JPG

While we're on the subject of what really chaps my hide (pun intended), what's up with women's sneakers?  Why are they always covered in (or at least accented with) pink or purple or teal or coral?  Why is coral even allowed to be a color? Blech!  It's as if athletic shoe designers feel the need to emphasize the delicate gender of tennis shoes; as if women will go without gym shoes entirely if they aren't feminine enough.  Gross.  Have they forgotten our beloved Keds or our simple Reeboks of days gone by?  Did we not buy enough of them?  Have we not revived them at least once or twice? Now when I go sneaker shopping, it feels like a clown school costuming session.

Image Courtesy of Gratisography/Ryan McGuire

Dear shoemakers, I don't feel the need to draw attention to my running shoes.  I don't need flattering compliments on my kicks.  Nor do I want my feet to look like I ran through a puddle of toxic radiation.  I simply want solid colored tennis shoes dammit - and not Velcro strapped nursing shoes either.  And NO I don't want to buy them online.  I want to walk out of the shoe store with them under my arm while wearing my solid black comfy underwear that I buy in bulk.  Is that too much to ask?!  I'm asking anyway...

Is popcorn better than an Oscar?

Oscar night, 2015:  I haven't seen the movies, am not much for couture, and like so many of us, I'm savvy enough to find the right highlights before heading to the proverbial water cooler.  So why bother to watch?  Simple. Popcorn.  Oscars celebrate cinema and cinema, to me, means popcorn.  I personally would rather have popcorn than an Academy Award.  

"Popcornmaker" by en:User:ElinorD - Uploaded to en: January 24 2007. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons 

Popcorn is the chameleon of snack foods.  Traditional popcorn is my favorite flavor.  But Oscar night requires extra butter.  In fact you can add just about any flavor to popcorn.  Butter, pepper, Thai spices (seriously I had some at a restaurant and it was legit!), caramel, you name it, you add it, you get more awesome.  To my knowledge, Oscars aren't tasty.

Musical foods are rare, and popcorn is one of them.  The rhythmic percussion of those edible fireworks is enough to make anyone smile, if not with their face, definitely with their tummy.  Your snack is a drum line.  Your Academy Award remains silent.

Popcorn is cheap!  I can pretty much always afford popcorn.   Even at the corporate multiplex, popcorn remains the economical choice of cinema snackage.  Paying $10 for several handfuls of popcorn is much more satisfying than paying that same ten bucks for 7 measly Raisinets.  Priced by volume, popcorn is pennies per kernel kids; pennies from heaven.

I am not a chef, but I'm pretty sure I can make popcorn 17 different ways.  Pop those kernels on the stove, in the kettle, in the air popper - vintage style, or the modern way in the microwave.  So, many, options.  An Oscar comes in one outfit, shiny nude.  

Popcorn is timeless.  Your parents ate it.  Your grand pappy did too.  Christopher frigging Columbus ate popcorn. For real!  Even the cool kids these days are still eating popcorn, and liking it.  Future generations may never enjoy a Twinkie, but popcorn is going nowhere.  Much like my love for it.  Cue exit music.




I own no rights to the Academy Awards, the franchise, it's merchandise, subsidiaries, synonyms or anyone or thing that has to do with it/them.  The text written here is my own original thought, work, and opinion, shared with love. Photos in this post belong to their original owners (not me) and are captioned with appropriate credit and used with permission.  No copyright infringement intended.  I only offer my humble rambling opinion.  Thank you.