Musings of a Loquacious Mind

Some more quiz results, because I'm crazy

You paid attention during 97% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

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I think that the question I missed was actually about Catholic faith, which maybe I would have learned if I went to a parochial high school, but not so much a "freedom from religion" high school in a largely Protestant area. Actually, I know it, because I thought I had heard something about that, what with my husband being from a largely-Catholic area. So I checked it out on Wikipedia. Immaculate Conception - it was Mary, not Jesus.

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

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Me fail English? That's unpossible.

Your Christmas lights are glowing 87%.

Awesome! Your Christmas tree lights up the whole room! You are a true lover of all things Christmas, and a joy for those around you!

Christmas Trivia
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Ho ho ho

Which wife of Henry the Eighth are you? Your Result: Anne Boleyn 42% You are Anne Boleyn, second, and most famous, wife of Henry. You are firey, smart, confident, and witty. Though not notorious for your beauty, you have a presence that sticks out in people's minds. You will stop at nothing to get what you want. Keep in mind, though, when you get it, you have to know how to keep it.
Katherine of Aragon	36%
Catherine Parr	17%
Anne of Cleves	12%
Kathrine Howard	7%
Jane Seymour
Which wife of Henry the Eighth are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Interesting that of all of his "K/Catherine" wives, I'm "most like" (in whatever ways they measure) one of the Annes.

Labels: quiz

What American Accent Do You Have?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland 100% "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South	73%
Philadelphia	73%
The Inland North	70%
The Northeast	53%
The West	49%
Boston	31%
North Central	29%
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

This is fascinating. I don't have an accent. Wow. I mean, I've got a different "accent" depending on where I go. I'm a doppelganger of sorts. But to be told I don't really have an accent? I thought I was a shoe-in for Southern.

Labels: quiz

One of those dreams

You know those dreams that you have over and over and over?

I didn't have one of those last night (that I remember).

But you know those dreams that you know you've had before, that are
ridiculously detailed?

I had one of those.

And it's one of those dreams that leave you feeling agitated. It's
not a nightmare, just something that makes your night of sleep leaving
you less than fully rested.

Here's the gist of the dream:

Keith and I (and Kris) had rented a condo townhouse from a beach
management company that included semi-private use of a sparkling pool
and hot tub (The three townhouse condos opened out onto the deck of
the pool, with clear flow-through dividers that split the large pool
in thirds - only the two end units had hot tubs, which were directly
next to and slightly elevated from the pool). We hadn't really even
had a chance to use the pool, when the pool area was overtaken with
families and teenage punks that filled the pool and hot tubs and the
general area with loud, boisterous play.

One part of us didn't want to be jerks, and definitely didn't want to
have to get confrontational on our vacation, but we had paid good
money for this (two notes here: first, clearly this is a dream. Keith
never would have paid $954 (I'm not sure if that was our total, or per
night, that's just a price prominent in the dream) for lodging;
second, the other two townhouse condo units were vacant - while we
would be sticking to our end of the pool, the area was to be,
effectively, all ours). So we got the property manager to come and
get everyone out. That's what we pay for, right?

I'm stripping a lot of details off here, just because I don't feel
like typing out basically a screenplay. Yes, it was that detailed.
Yes, it all followed rules of time and space. No, it's not all
important.

Anyway, the first thing that started getting me riled up was that when
the property manager came to boot everyone from the pool, she told
everyone that we were the ones making them leave because we had rented
the condo (darn right, I was thinking, and there's nothing wrong with
that!). Everyone was very grousy (is that a word? I know you can
grouse about something, but can you be grousy? I have decided you
can. If it's not a word, it should be), and took their sweet time
getting out of the pool (I won't go in to why the property manager
said they could all use the pool on our last day there).

After most people had finally gotten out of the pool, I went ahead and
got in, because I needed a mental margarita. One woman in particular
was taking her sweet time, and letting us know why we were the scum of
the earth for making them leave.

(Another note: the people in the pool were people staying in the
management properties other units. Like a hotel that was kind of set
apart from the condo townhouse set. The hotel had several pools and
areas - it really was a good bit like Kingston Plantation in South
Carolina, if you've ever been there, only not quite so nice. The
condo itself was quite nice, as was our really wonderful semi-private
pool area. We weren't condemning these people to a pool-less
existence (although, you know what? so what if we were, it was OUR
POOL. but we weren't); they just couldn't use ours.)

"My son wasn't even making that much noise or taking up that much
room. All he had was the basketball goal and he's very quiet. I
don't understand why we have to leave. You don't need the whole pool.
I'm sorry I don't make enough to pay for a room that comes with its
own pool for my son. Why should he have to use the Holiday Deck
(that's the name of the main pool complex for the area), though? I
hope you can live with yourselves for forcing poor people out of your
pool."

This diatribe actually went on for quite a while, and I was trying to
just ignore her, but I really wanted to jump up and say:

"You know what? It doesn't matter. What entitles you to use what
we've paid for? And maybe we just budget our money different so that
we could afford this. And I hope you can live with yourself for
trying to ruin our hard-earned vacation. Get out, you fat cow!"

But I didn't.

But the whole dream experience (let's just end it there) just left me
drained, so that I woke up feeling like I'd actually had to go through
all of this crap.

A few things that might have fueled into this dream: frustration with
certain colleagues regarding personal responsibility; watching part of
Cocoon right before bed, watching part of a
whatever-news-channel-it-was show where they talked about immigration;
being frustrated with my dad for still smoking (the part of the dream
that relates to this was cut); and I don't know what else.

So Much...

I hate being sick.

I hate coughing.  I hate straining my chest by coughing too hard.  I hate getting bronchitis every single year no matter what.  I hate spending more money than I care to admit on drugs that I wish to avoid.

I hate giving medicine to my daughter.  I hate being hated.  I fatigue of having syrup spit up on me, and am frustrated at the feeling of wanting to be angry, and being incapable of doing so since I know it must be so scary for her.  I hate pinning her down - arms and body with my knees, head with my left hand, and squeezing eye drops in with my right.  I ache at her cries, and am saddened when she won't come to me for hugs afterward as I'm now "the enemy".

I hate that men won't go to the doctor.  I hate that they see it as a source of pride - look at how much money I'm saving on co-pays and actually getting better and leading a healthy life!  Isn't it better to just save it all up and go to the hospital or urgent care and pay once?

What logic!  Let's do it!  Let's give up on regular oil changes - eventually the engine will just freeze, and we can buy a new one or get a new car.  Why was our clothes regularly?  Eventually they will rot off our bodies.  Or we can just wait and wash them, say, once every six years.  Why eat everyday?  If we wait until we pass out from hunger, and then eat a really big meal, we'll actually save calories - especially when our body rejects most of the food.

Have you really ever heard anything so stupid?

I hate being so mad at people I love that I don't want to be mad at and can't change anything.

Five Things

Five things in my freezer:

1. corn dogs
2. a spiral ham we didn't get to have for Thanksgiving but will have for Christmas dinner
3. ice (which to those of you who really know me will be truly shocking)
4. some really old sugar-free Popsicles that I pull out when I get sick
5. half of an ice-cream cake for Kaitlyn's birthday

Five things in my closet: which closet?  by proximity, I'm going with the one under the stairs:

1. Cranium
2. a tennis dress
3. White Pages
4. folding card table and chairs
5. carved chess set
   

Five things in my car:

1. jumper cables
2. Jezmerelda von Helgaschmidt
3. diaper bag
4. the Virginia Review Directory of State & Local Government Officials
5. a 12-pack of Diet Pepsis
   

Five things in my purse:

1. wallet
2. 2 pens (does that count as two things?)
3. office keys
4. a mini-Hershey's bar I'm saving for a chocolate emergency
5. some stickers for bribing/rewarding my daughter when out and about
   

Five things in my wallet:

1. old receipts
2. check card
3. driver's licence
4. calling card
5. old business cards that need to be thrown away

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:

1. "Ice, Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice
2. "American Pie " by Don McLean
3. "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
4. " Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid (ok, to be fair, any song from The Little Mermaid - ask Mandy.  Or Meredith.  Or the lady who had to sit behind me and Meredith when they rereleased TLM in the late 90s)
   
5. "I Want You to Want Me" by Cheap Trick

Five Bad Habits:

1. Biting my fingernails to the bed
2. speeding
3. leaving dry goods out on the cabinet instead of putting them up as soon as I buy them/use them
4. plucking white hairs when I find them
5. procrastinating (by, say, meaningless blog entries?)

Five Books I've Read (or Reread) Recently:

1. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
2. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
3. The Last Battle by C S Lewis
4. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
5. About a Boy by Nick Hornby

Five Things I Should Have Been Doing (rather than composing this post):

1. Finishing my brother-in-law's afghan
2. Logging some time for work
3. Washing dishes
4. Figuring out what to get everyone except my brother-in-law for Christmas
5. Sewing our Christmas stockings