The Thankful List

Happy Thanksgiving!

I assigned a writing prompt to my eighth grade students on Tuesday where they had to list at least twenty blessings they were thankful for. Their answers made me smile! A few favorites:

* "Pop Rocks foaming with Pepsi in my mouth"
* "My annoying sister leaving her diary out so I can blackmail"
* "My hair straightener so my hair doesn't look like crap"

I like that they included the huge blessings (God, family, friends) with the small ones, too ("scoring a goal", "Twilight", "the Saw movies are awesome!", "Birthday Cake Re-mix ice cream from Coldstone's").

Here are a few of my smaller ones:

* My husband's happy dance (lots of fist pumping and whooping noises)
* My sister's biting sense of humor
* Greasy pad thai while cracking up at The Office
* painting my house
* When students reach for a high five after receiving an "A"
* Tina Fey
* sweater weather and changing leaves
* hardwood floors in our home
* Pizza Fusion's organic three cheese pizza
* My mom's hugs
* A new lipstick
* Watching The Wizard of Oz when I need cheering up
* A long jog with new songs on iPod
* fresh flowers on table
* Junior Mints
* design websites (this young house)
* Coldplay
* My dad's guffaw when he thinks my jokes are funny
* And yes...my hair straightener so my hair doesn't look like crap (Got to agree with that student!)

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

My accusation is... Dwight by the water cooler with the Dundee

How's this for art imitating life?

Five days after my murder mystery party, this past Thursday's episode of The Office featured a murder mystery, too!

My friend Mali (alias: "Scoop" at my party) immediately called to tease me mercilessly about the perfect timing of this storyline. So maybe my party might have also involved costumes and listening to a c.d. with cheesy accents, but that doesn't make me as lame as Michael Scott!

Or does it?

Check out this footage from last week's episode and decide for yourself.

Clue game visual from here.

Careless

I'm kicking it old school at the beginning of this post by flashing back to eleventh grade English class.

There's a scene in The Great Gatsby where Nick admonishes Jordan for being such a shitty driver. It goes like this...

"You're a rotten driver," I protested. "Either you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn't to drive at all."

"I am careful."

"No, you're not."

"Well, other people are," Jordan said lightly.

"What's that got to do with it?"

"They'll keep out of the way," she insisted. "It takes two to make an accident."

"Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself."

"I hope I never will," she answered. "I hate careless people..."

I'm not a fan of careless drivers either. My sister often rolls her eyes during road trips and deems me "a grandma", but, honestly, I probably make Betty White look like Dale Earnhardt. I always signal when pulling into parking spaces. I don't generally speed more than five miles over the limit. My hands don't leave the "ten" and "two" position. Ever.

Three days ago, I was in a five car pile-up, and somehow I ended up driving away without a scratch on myself or even my car. I almost felt like it hadn't even happened when I called my mom later that night; there was no dented fender or broken glass, no bruises on me, no scratched paint... even my license plate was still perfectly intact.

Lucky doesn't even begin to describe how I made out.

It was an eerie feeling knowing that I was about to be hit, though. There I was, at a stoplight on Broad Street in pouring rain, when I heard squealing tires and the sickening sounds of the first crash. This was quickly followed by another... and another... and another. When I finally realized that the sound was coming behind me, it was too late. I was the proverbial "sitting duck", trapped at the light. The SUV behind me slammed into my bumper, my body wrenched forward, and the force caused my car to skid about two feet.

Two hours later, I went from "sitting duck" to remarkably "lucky duck". After all the serious stuff (police reports, fire-fighters, frantic call to Dan), I was home safe and saying an extra prayer for the first two drivers who both went to the hospital with whiplash injuries. I was so grateful, so relieved to be safe... and kinda scared about driving.

Ever since then, I can't seem to relax when getting to work. I keep looking over my shoulder, trying to be vigilant about spotting the next careless driver who might collide into me.

I should have been more freaked out by the serious accident I was in last year. A teenager ran a red light and slammed into the driver's side, which caused me to propel into oncoming traffic. Again, I was lucky. All the approaching cars managed to skid to a stop, and I climbed out unscathed.

My mangled car did not make out nearly as well...

Here's the weird part. Even though my car was totaled and I was certainly more banged up, I never felt that scared to drive after accident #1. I had no prior warning that I was about to be hit by the teenager, whereas in the most recent (much less serious) encounter, I heard that domino effect coming several seconds before I was hit.

I think I'm more anxious now because I feel like I should have been able to do something to avoid the accident in those few seconds (move up, veer over, anything!) Irrational, I know. I'm just chalking it up to me being a hopelessly careful person.

Better than careless, I suppose.

Just do it #7: Throw a theme party!

This past Saturday was just an ordinary night, supposed to be filled with laying low and watching SNL. Halloween was last week, and everyone had officially packed up their costumes back in their attics.

So one might ask after perusing this post's pictures: "How did you end up having eight adults dressed up as 1920's characters in your living room?" At least I think that's what my neighbor is still pondering after he saw me through my kitchen window putting my chicken Parmesan into the oven while wearing my red feather boa and black gloves. Does he think that Dan had requested that I do a kinky dress-up thing while serving him dinner? Is that why he couldn't return my hello when I took the garbage out this morning? When our guests arrived, did my other unbelievably snoopy neighbors assume Dan and I had many friends with theater degrees who wouldn't resist a good costume? I'm thinking that survey says "yes".

So why did we all dress up this past Saturday? Lest you make one of the same assumptions as my neighbors, I'll clarify. I finally threw my murder mystery dinner party! It was an item on my whimsical "to do" list for a while now, and once I had shelled out the money for the murder mystery kit (yes, people do buy these), nothing was going to stop me, not even when my original Halloween date fell through.

Considering that my Just do it #6 (participate in a creative writing class) was a big flop after I skipped two out of the six classes, I thought you all might enjoy reading about this equally lame (but oh-so-fun!) challenge. Here's how it went down...

The story:

It is November 7, 1928 in Chicago. Notorious gangster Harold "Hal" Coppone's return was expected to trigger a wave of violence. Instead, Coppone has disappeared, mystifying police and the criminal underworld. To the small group gathered in a speakeasy near Coppone's headquarters, the crime lord's whereabouts become only part of the mystery when murder is discovered. Eight people, who all want to learn the secret of “Hal” Coppone’s murder, meet in the back room on a club to figure out the crime.

The characters:

Slinky M. Adame and Eddie G. Ambler

Bethany (AKA Slinky) couldn't resist mercilessly teaching her boyfriend Joe (Eddie) about the fact that he had originally bought this white, pin-striped suit to wear to work. After he received one too many "you look like a pimp!" comments, he decided to put it in the back of his closet... that is until he had the chance to pull it out again to play a stylish gambler.

She's one to talk! Bethy sported her homecoming dress from tenth grade.

Billy (the Kid) Thrower and Molly M. Awbsterr
Yes, the names are super cheesy. Say them fast and you realize they are puns.
Just call me Molly "Mobster".

Eddie R. Gyle and Scoop, the hard-working reporter
LOVED these costumes. Tyler even propped his golf bag against the wall to complete his rich-boy golfer look.

Torchy, the sultry lounge singer, (her dress was perfect for the part) and S. Treigthon Harrow, the district attorney. Also, you get a better shot of Tyler's massive golf prop.


The food:
"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." - The Godfather

We cooked (ahem... and also bought) mostly Italian food to fit the mafia theme. I know this is way more information than anyone needs, but in case you are interested, here's what Dan and I served...

* Appetizers: olives, cheeses, crackers, shrimp cocktail, bread sticks
* Dinner: cranberry-spinach salad, garlic bread, homemade Parmesan chicken (yay! I didn't burn it!!), Maggiano's four-cheese ravioli
* Dessert: Cannolis from local deli and homemade ice cream sandwiches

Isn't my murder mystery set-up pretty? :)

Fast-forward five hours of playing the game, drinking, and just regular conversation later, I think my "just do it #7" was a success!

Just a few other pictures you might like:

Me trying to force my gloves back on after one too many raspberry champagne cocktails. Dan thought it was hilarious to document my valiant efforts.

Trying again to get photo ready!

The guys weren't as into taking photos as the girls were...

Here's our winner! Bethy was the only one to figure out this very-convoluted plot.

So, I think for my next "Just do it" challenge, I'm going to try something a little more strenuous. After all those cannolis and Halloween candy, it's time to get back in shape. I'm going to try something athletic, perhaps Bikram yoga. What do you all think of me + twenty-seven yoga positions + 105 degree heat?

Well, that or something else equally challenging. Stay tuned!

Wishful Wednesday

Yes, it used to be "Wordless Wednesday", but then I got lazy and stopped doing it. I was reading Seattle Smith (a favorite blog) and saw that people were writing posts to her prompt "I wish I could re-live..." and I thought it would be fun to answer her "Wishful Wednesday" prompt by linking to an older post.

I wish I could re-live my wedding day "first-kiss-as-husband-and-wife" again. While the entire day was beautiful, that moment was really special to me.

Read the story about the below photo in my post, "Not porno tongue! Church tongue."

The costume list

Here's the breakdown of our costumes:
* $10.00 discounted wings and halo
* $3.00 pack of band-aids
* $1.50 pack of balloons
* $2.00 pack of blow-horns,
* $0- streamers we already had in present-wrapping stash, permanent markers I borrowed from school, and white shirts we had lying around

Done!

Now, can you guess which "pick-up-lines" Dan and I dressed as for Halloween?

Here are a few photo clues...

Here's my best injured face as a last hint for mine...
Did you guess?

Dan was "There's a party in my pants (and you're invited!)" while I was "Did it hurt? When you fell from heaven?"



What did we do on Halloween night? We trudged through the rain, periodically self-congratulating ourselves for using permanent marker for Dan's shirt and thus avoiding one giant water-color project, and braved the bump-bumping Richmond club scene!

Cue rave music: mmm... ssss... mmmm...ssss. bump bump

There weren't as many clever costumes as we have seen in past years when we went to D.C. bashes because most people were dressed to be single and mingle. In fact, our "pick-up-line" theme fit in well with the overly-aggressive, "wanna-get-laid?" atmosphere. Many of the guys dressed as famous football players, outfits that allowed them to go shirtless (the Hulk, a Trojan warrior, a Greek god) to show off the hours they've slaved at the gym, or sexual innuendos. A gynocologist named Seymore Bush? Really?! I think I just threw-up in my mouth.

Then, there were the girl costumes. Mean Girls had it right with its quote, "Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it..." We saw many girls sporting bras and underwear, despite the pouring rain outside. In fact, there was no end to the barrage of barely-there costumes, which ranged from skanky librarian to slutty Hermione. I miss the original cute, fluffy haired wizard character in her over-sized robe...

Folks, I think this boring married couple may be finding a quieter place to party next Halloween!

I've got to say that while I had a blast making fun of the whole meat-market club scene with Dan, I've got no room to judge. I'm chagrined to admit that I'm almost always a girly-girl on Halloween, from when I dressed as a princess four times as a kid to even this year's costume. I might not have been pouring out of a skin-tight mini dress out for the world to see, but it was decidedly a cutesy look. In fact, when I was first brainstorming my costume, I said to Dan, "I want to look really busted in my angel costume!" I mentioned blackening one of my teeth, wearing a sling, putting pieces of grass in tangled hair, and slathering blood all over my shirt.

Dan's response? "Yeah right, hon! Like you're really going to mess up your hair!"

I hate it when he's right...

Hope everyone had a good Halloween!