Thursday, July 20, 2006


I see bird silhouettes everywhere these days. Thought I'd get in on the action.

I've had weird dreams the last couple of nights. Last night I had a dream where I couldn't find Sam. I hate those dreams.

The night before I had a dream that I was on Project Runway (but it didn't look like the show - it was just in a house or something). Anyway, I won a challenge that involved making 4 dresses in 2 hours. And in the dream, I had just recently taught myself how to sew, so I was really proud of myself. I was going to the finals!

I also had a dream about buying an iPod Shuffle. I don't remember much about it, but I was really excited and I was trying to decide what music to put on it.

I'm sure you've seen the video of George Bush trying to give the German Chancellor a back rub. It's just bizarre. Why would he do such a thing? I can't picture him walking up behind Tony Blair and giving him a back rub. "Yo, Tony!" What is wrong with him?

I like this comparison.

I'm a little worried about the weather on the east coast. There's a tropical storm headed for Cape Cod. I have paintings there! I hope the gallery and everyone in it stays safe.

It reminds me of a hurricane that threatened New England when I lived in Rhode Island. I lived there when I was in 3rd and 4th grade. I'm going to have to do some research and see if I can find out the name and when it was...

OK, I think it was Belle in 1976. As I recall, we were worried that it might hit us, so we taped up our windows and headed to Canada. I remember that my parents had talked about taking a trip to Canada, so I guess they just decided it was a good time to get out of town...

I don't remember a whole lot about the trip. We spent the night in Vermont (I think) on the way up. My parents had talked about spending the night in Montreal and I was SO excited about that for some reason. When we got to the border, the guard asked if we were going to be spending the night and my dad said, "No." I cried and cried.

What I remember about Montreal - we drove past the stadium that they had built for the Olympics (they had just ended a couple of weeks before we got there - I was bummed that I had missed Nadia Comaneci), I thought it was funny that they had Kentucky Fried Chicken, and then we went to the mall (malls weren't as ubiquitous then as they are now). I bought a little yarn rabbit (I think I still have it somewhere).

The highlight was what happened in the bathroom. My mom and I were each in a stall. One of us needed toilet paper. All of a sudden, some guy walks in, speaking French, handing us toilet paper. I don't know. It was weird and that's all I remember...

My all time favorite bad literature contest is still around - The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Edward George Bulwer-Lytton penned the opening line, "It was a dark and stormy night." The contest rewards bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. There are some really good (bad) ones. It's hard to pick my favorite.

This was one of them:
"She looked at her hands and saw the desiccated skin hanging in Shar-Pei wrinkles, confetti-like freckles, and those dry, dry cuticles--even her "Fatale Crimson" nail color had faded in the relentless sun to the color of old sirloin--and she vowed if she ever got out of the Sahara alive, she'd never buy polish on sale at Walgreen's again."

And this:
"Sex with Rachel after she turned fifty was like driving the last-place team on the last day of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race, the point no longer the ride but the finish, the difficulty not the speed but keeping all the parts moving in the right direction, not to mention all that irritating barking."

Great stuff! Don't you wish they weren't imaginary novels?

Oh, you have to watch this video of a human-powered recreation of a video game. Space Invaders . Too fun.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

here's a good one for you. I often have dreams of being in a mall or some other crowded place when a tornado strikes. I can see the tornado swirling right toward me but I can't find my boys.

Deanna said...

I've had a couple of tornado dreams where I got separated from Sam. Scary.