The 13 Thursday Reality Check
1. The 2009 Sweetheart Valentine theme is a “Menu of Love” with a new series of candy conversation hearts that say, Honey Bun, Stir my Heart, Top Chef, and Yum Yum.
2. My friends Jayn and Emily and I put the February Museletter (our community newsletter) together on Monday. In honor of Valentine’s Day we decorated it with conversation heart stamps and used this quote by Dr. Seuss: “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
3. I also found a quote by Dr. Seuss giving some good advice to writers: “So the writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads.”
4. Here in NASCAR territory, people will sometimes ask, ‘who’s your driver?’ I call the picture below of my grandson Bryce “MY DRIVER.”
5. Joe and I were told about the Ripley’s Believe it or Not upside down house in Orlando. While on vacation there we found the Ripley’s Believe it or Not crooked house building and thought that must be it. Later, back at home, I discovered Ripley’s has both a crooked house and an upside down house on the same street. HERE’S the one we missed seeing in person.
6. Apparently Dr. Seuss (“the subversive fantasist who liberated children’s books from the conformist blahs of Dick and Jane”) was scolded by his art teacher for looking at his artwork upside down. I like to look at mine through squinted eyes.
7. You know how sometimes you look at a certain common word and it suddenly feels foreign or unreal? Sometimes when I read over something I wrote that’s been published a whole line can feel that way, and for a few seconds I feel a sense of disorientated panic.
8. These words are currently not taken: Monnize, Waffliest, Clundown, Cheris, Epleo, Unseepia, Agona, and Fugckabl. They are blogger verification near-words that just seem to be lacking descriptions and dictionary verification.
9. My car is being worked on, the drippy plumbing in my house is being fixed, and my dishwasher just bit the dust. I’m trying not to take it personally.
10. The Sun Magazine is my favorite magazine that I hardly ever read.
11. I like when you come back home from being away and for a brief few minutes you can look at your house with new eyes and see what you like and what you don’t like, a perspective that’s hard to get when you live in it day to day.
12. We perceive appearances and we begin to label them. Then we begin to take the label as reality. We fixate on the label and it becomes very real to us, but the appearances themselves have no label and no fixation. ~ excerpted from a Buddhist magazine I was reading when Joe and I were in Florida.
13. Remember the old bumper sticker that said “Question Authority.” I had one on my car that said “Question Reality.”
More 13 Thursdays are HERE.
January 29th, 2009 12:20 am
I forget about The Sun, until you mention it. I used to read it all the time, back in the 80’s.
January 29th, 2009 4:19 am
fun list. I am with Dr. Seuss on the quote you put in #2. Happy TT.
tm
January 29th, 2009 5:46 am
I love Dr. S’s advice. I will take it.
January 29th, 2009 6:21 am
Dr Seuss is one of my favorites…glad to have a dose of him this AM. Perhaps there’s an appliance revolt afoot. Our washing machine started leaking big time and I’m starting to suspect that the dishwasher is about to join ranks.
January 29th, 2009 7:14 am
I like the perspective entries. The older I get the broader my perspective on things and places.
January 29th, 2009 9:48 am
I love Dr. S. Great list. Happy T13!
January 29th, 2009 10:08 am
Hm, sounds like I might have to check out Dr. Seuss one of these days in my quest to read all the children’s lit I missed out on when I was a child.
I like the Buddhist quote. Not big on Buddhism myself, but some of their teachings do actually have a point.
January 29th, 2009 11:17 am
Dr Seuss rocks! 🙂
Thanks for visiting my meme TT!
January 29th, 2009 11:32 am
I can only dream of #2 :-), love #12 and 11…well, I looked at my hometown quite differently when I came back from Japan 🙂
January 29th, 2009 12:03 pm
Doesn’t it seem like when one mechanical thing goes, they all do? I’m just really glad my car started a day later, though I still don’t know why I wouldn’t originally start.
January 29th, 2009 12:08 pm
#7, I know how you feel. Sometimes when I go to revise something I wrote a long time ago, it doesn’t feel like I wrote it at all.
January 29th, 2009 12:10 pm
Gosh, I can believe how fast Bryce is growing up! Wow. I do love you on random… and Dr. Suess too!
January 29th, 2009 12:29 pm
I love you list, your site, and Dr. Seuss!
Happy TT!
January 29th, 2009 12:55 pm
Oh my goodness….what a cutie that Bryce is! Can he get any more adorable? Love your randomness. Who knew conversation hearts had a theme? I adore Dr. Seuss and you!
January 29th, 2009 12:56 pm
Ha! Awesome! I’m in NASCAR country myself by Lowe’s Motor Speedway, I can totally relate!
January 29th, 2009 2:29 pm
Your grandson is adorable!
January 29th, 2009 7:07 pm
Another interesting TT!
I absolutely love #2…..I had that feeling before and I want it back!!!!
#7 happens to me all the time, when I am writing nurses notes. xo
January 29th, 2009 7:33 pm
3. Did you find the Dr. Seuss quote here?
http://wordsfromawordsmith.blogspot.com/2008/09/guess-who-wrote-this-little-ditty.html
I posted it last fall, and I think it’s absolutely perfect.
10. I used to read The Sun regularly, but not anymore. I think it had too few articles that I really loved.
January 30th, 2009 12:20 am
Lots of good stuff here, Colleen—As Always…By the way, that link to the Upside Down House doesn’t work….! DRAT! I was so looking forward to seeing it, too…..I will Google…lol!
LOVE the Dr. S’s quotes…..!
January 30th, 2009 12:32 am
I fixed it. It was working this morning when I tried it. http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r264/RixtersPhotos/Invasion3/10-12-08/P1020951.jpg
January 30th, 2009 1:06 am
Wow!! I am so glad that I am not alone in your #7! I love bloggers new near words. It is so much easier to remember than the previous random letters. But I think someone was having a bit of fun with “fugckbl”, don’t you? *wink. I’m up with WoW in Thornesworld Happy TT!
January 30th, 2009 10:24 pm
I like to look at art (and other things) through squinted eyes, too! I’ve done that since I was very small.
January 31st, 2009 12:45 am
I may switch to your driver this season – I always root for #2 and he didn’t do so hot last year.
February 3rd, 2009 10:38 pm
oh that little bolessing is so big now and cutie cutie cutie