13 Thursday: Say What?
1. The Grief Bond: The last time I played Scrabble with Mara (shown in the photo) we were setting up the board when she pulled out an old scorecard out of the box from a game I had won and handed it to me, thinking I would want to save it. “What, do you want me to frame it?” I asked, and then added, “No, better yet, let’s put it in my coffin when I die.” Few people besides me and Mara talk to each other like that. HERE is why.
2. I write an inch worth of poetry to Mara’s prolific yardstick.
3. My friend Virginia recently started a Scrabble game we were playing with a 7 letter Bingo play, spelling out TOILE_S. The three of us playing all saw TOILERS, but when Virginia’s husband stopped by, coming from a construction site project, he thought the word was TOILETS.
4. Recently I found an old journal from 1987, when Joe and I first got together. On one page I wrote a note to Joe that said: I love you cats and dogs.
5. Since I started blogging, all those pretty blank journals I’ve collected over the years really are blank.
6. Filthy rich? For a recent Sunday Scribblings prompt about money, Under the Microscope posted an entry about how filthy money really is. She wrote: When we were in college we did an experiment in microbiology class where we cultured the surface of coins in each of our own pockets. The results showed us emphatically that money was indeed filthy; covered with a multitude of germs and even included some germs we call pathogens.
7. I left a comment, saying: I must be poor because I hardly ever get colds. The truth is — people worry so much about using public restrooms when they’re really more likely to catch something in a hospital.
8. Flu Shot? None of my friends get them. At least that’s what I figure since THIS was emailed to me by more than a few.
9. Recently said by Colleen while watching the news: Who needs bombs and guns when you can do what China is doing to us: Killing us with products.
10. Scribbled this week on a scrap of paper: Are you up-beat or beat-up?
11. THIS (thanks to Smiler) is more fun than the paint by numbers we used to do when we were kids. It brings out the inner finger painting child in me. I actually thought it was a blank space until my cursor fell on it. Click it to change color.
12. I call Floyd’s own Tom Ryan a satirist, but he refers to himself as a porch monkey. He’s been up to more Tom Foolery with the November issue of the Floyd Enquirer. Check it out HERE. His review of Floyd Bloggers, using the Cute Puppy Rating System is HERE.
13. Tom is currently a bartender at Floyd’s Pine Tavern. One of his latest Enquirer headlines reads “The Buddhism of Bartending: How May I Serve You?” He invites readers to the Tavern to hear the “live broadcast” and suggests they subscribe to The Floyd Inquirer because he has eyebrows better than Garrison Keillor.
Post Notes: The Spoken Word Open Mic is this Saturday at the Café Del Sol from 7-9. Read about past Open Mic’s HERE. Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13’s are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here.
November 15th, 2007 12:04 am
I’ve noticed the “blank journals” problem myself.
I agree with you about restrooms and hospitals. I think of them as “building up my resistance!
November 15th, 2007 1:37 am
Thank you for coming by my blog.
I enjoyed reading and meeting you here.
I think we have the blank journal problem in common. I was at Borders tonight working on my NaNoWriMo novel and almost bought another blank book. I pulled myself away just in time.
November 15th, 2007 5:42 am
I love the links you share, the painting one is no exception (although very addictive!). I wouldn’t mind being filthy…rich! I once read there is more bacteria in our own kitchen as in a public bathroom. Go figure!
Happy thirteening 🙂
November 15th, 2007 7:56 am
I couldn’t get the flu shot link to work. We don’t do the flu shot. You should have seen the dr’s face last year when all of my kids got the flu..they tested for it and it came back positive. He had scolded me before for not getting the shot..when he said, “Just as I thought, it’s positive for the flu.” I said, “Oh, good!” Then he tried to get me to give my son a prescription to shorten the duration of the flu..but, then he went on to say the side effects. They even included seizures! Happy Thirteen Thursday! Turns out to be my 35th birthday!
November 15th, 2007 8:48 am
I first thought Mara had a witches hat on her head! Is the bar at the Tavern back to like it was or is it still a family type restaurant. Martin and I used to come up all the time before it changed.
November 15th, 2007 8:52 am
I have blank journals for years of time and then some where I write so much I wouldn’t want to read it myself. Of course that only lasts for maybe a month. I went through phase writing or something.
Your friendship with Mara sounds beautiful!
Terrific Thursday Thirteen!
My TT is posted.
Have a wonderful day!
Happy TT’ing!
*^_^
(=’:’=)
(“)_ (“)Š
Raggedy
November 15th, 2007 8:54 am
As always, Colleen, a wonderful and lively Thursday Thirteen.
Add me to the list of people with a collection of blank blank journals. The problem for me, I think, is that the journals are so lovely and I feel like whatever I write in them could never be worthy of their pristine prettiness! I gave a couple of mine to my daughter, but she doesn’t write in them either. 🙂
November 15th, 2007 9:05 am
Mara does look witchy in that picture. It’s from a writers collage, some of which is hanging in the Hotel Floyd Writers Room.
The Pine Tavern is still family style dining. I’ve not eaten there so can’t comment on that. Tom hosted a party (a dysfunctional family picnic) out back under the pavilion with Sonic Safari playing this summer and that was a blast. The Tavern used to be a community center/home away from home. I’m glad Tom is drawing some folks back in.
Tammy, I fixed the flu link. It’s a good one.
November 15th, 2007 9:34 am
Hi Colleen, great 13 as usual, sorry, gotta go do more painting thanks to your #11! Have a great day.
November 15th, 2007 10:26 am
My friends Eileen and Pat talk to me like that…they’ve both lost their Dads, me my Mom.
I was at the doctor’s on Monday and she asked me if I wanted a flu shot. Um…NO! Why? I’m not elderly and my health isn’t compromised. WTH!!?
November 15th, 2007 10:28 am
I love your lists!! Thanks for sharing them:)
November 15th, 2007 11:47 am
Love the quote about killing us with products. Cause of death: consumerism.
November 15th, 2007 11:55 am
I love your randomness….it’s a lot more fun than my life! btw…your guilty pleasures really cracked my up too. Can I claim reading your blog as one of my guilty pleasures?
November 15th, 2007 3:08 pm
I love the paint thing. Can’t show my girls or I’ll lose the use of my computer!
November 15th, 2007 3:28 pm
Thanks Colleen….oh…the people who own the Pine Tavern live on my street! Small world!
November 15th, 2007 7:00 pm
we don’t do the flu shot, either. somehow i survived childhood without it. i’m afraid that eventually they’ll make it mandatory for public school children, just like they did with the HPV ones for girls and all the other vaccinations they have to have before they start school.
November 15th, 2007 7:49 pm
Always an interesting 13.
November 15th, 2007 8:53 pm
GREAT TT, as always…! The article on Flu Shots is just icredible. Much of it I had heard before…but the things in addition to those I knew well…All I can say is OY VEY! No way. Not in my body.
November 15th, 2007 9:15 pm
I have several blank journals. I think most of us do these days!
I shall be getting a flu shot. If a hate-filled piece of drivel like the book of Leviticus advises against it, then it must be worth doing!
November 15th, 2007 9:47 pm
#4 and 9 are my absolute favorites, even though I love some of the others too 🙂
You really have your own writing style. I like that.
November 15th, 2007 10:14 pm
Great list, Colleen!
No. 9 – oh, how horribly true that is!
No. 6 – I read in the newspaper that (almost) all paper money in the UK have traces of cocaine!
If you feel like another list, I’ve tagged for Seven Random Things. 🙂
November 16th, 2007 8:37 am
Mara appears to be wearing a leafy type witch hat, which seems somehow entirely appropriate. Her head also appears to be squished, which at the moment is even more appropriate.
I just wanted to point out–Colleen writes a yardstick’s worth of prose to my inch. And who knows–perhaps we’ll shift back the other way someday. In the meantime, poetry, prose…at least we’re both writing a lot!
Next week is my Thanksgiving break, Colleen. I think it’s time for some SCRABBLE.
November 16th, 2007 9:11 am
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMMY!!!!!!!!! another fellow scorpo.
Oh and Colleen your TT are always full of fun games and I like it, but on #11 it sure can become a mess if you do too much of it. xo
November 16th, 2007 3:13 pm
I decided to get a flu shot again this year and haven’t felt too bad…my arm only hurt slightly.
My husband doesn’t believe they’re that effective but that people like me should get them.
(I had an MRI that showed many white spots and a large one on the brain stem…usually indicates MS but also can be found in people with Fibro and diabetes. I didn’t have much clinical symptoms of MS thank goodness. Going for a cat scan to find out further though.)
November 16th, 2007 3:20 pm
My sister has those white spots, seen via an MRI. She doesn’t have MS but has had nerve damage that caused her to lose a significant degree of hearing.
November 17th, 2007 8:39 pm
Mra is my only grandaughter’s name Does she pronounce it Mer a or MAR a . ours is Mer a like the French for sea. Blank journals by the tons behind me on the desk. My friend copies my blog pages for my son into a booklet form. I got my book from Steve Slack today excellent thoughts of optimism