A Wanderer's Wares

Bloggy Mad Libs Tuesday ~ Word Verification Style

2009-04-10T11:37:00.016-04:00

Ok so I've eaten my tuna sub and, dare I confess, three cookies too, and had a little soda.

~let's be honest, who doesn't just FEEL better when they walk in and smell some Subway?

So now I won't kill anyone anymore. At least for the next 4 hours, I mean lets be realistic, that's about the time it will take for me to get hungry, or for the universe to show me someone doing something truly stupid. I mean, I'm a dreamer, but I'm no body's fool.

So I've decided that everyone has their Secret Sundays (coughs up a furry Muppet) and their Perfect Moment Mondays (ahem I'm lookin atchu Weebles who begat Martha) so I'm going to instate:

BLOGGY MAD LIBS TUESDAY ~ Word Verification Style

We are all familiar with the back-seat, road-trip-lovin' game. If' you're not, do yourself a favor and stop at a gas station, a Cracker Barrel (sorry Cali fans, seems your closest is AZ or Boise) or anywhere else that happy verbal mayhem could ensue... and ensue it.

So you know when we post comments on each other's blogs and we have a word verification to type in? I must give some FABULOUS props to those wot generated the words we use here in blogger. They. Are. Wondrous. At other sites, like concert venues or banks, there will be numbers and weird strains of consonants or vowels. But HERE... oh here my children - here we live in the virtual verbal equivalent of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Splendiferously plentiful are the words here in our world. I know they aren't really in the Webster Dictionary YET. But I believe a few of them have a shot.

~I adore Johnny Depp but I LURV Gene Wilder~
Look at those eyes. So childlike, so Wonkalicious.

~He is a ... GENEious~

Oh yeah, I went there.

So I've decided to collect word verifications throughout the week and then on Tuesdays write out a story, Mad Libs style - with them. I encourage you all to venture into this world. It. Is. Delightful.

~Aheee. I'm a' excited~

Bloggy Mad Libs Tuesday - Part One

Once upon a time there lived a juidable young woman. Her hair was that of sunlight and moonlight woven together, her eyes, sparkled and hazzled like polished gemstones and her smile, well, her smile was resplendent and redipt - and all the townsfolk knew it.

But one morning she walked down to the untergl like most mornings, to buy her nuchr and the townspeople were aghast and began to icitzz. This beautiful woman, who shone brightly like gems in a babbling brook, was sad and forlorn. "Oh me" the townsfolk said "Oh my" they whispered. "Whatever could have happened to this child that would put her in such a phomp?"

But she wouldn't tell. She merely wandered to the ousjifi and sat under the great aliesser. It's trunk was strong and comforting against her back. And there she stayed, for an entire recho.

Well needless to say, it was the longest anyone had ever sat against the great aliesser.

And it was so long that most of the townsfolk began to go about their lives again, forgetting that the pretty girl was troubled, or even there.

Except for one young man. Only one was chadium enough to care. And here, we shall say, that perhaps he always did- care. But it was this day, when finally he found the brean at the bottom of his morsupe and mustered up the courage to go and speak with her.

"Hello" he muttered. She had barely heard his words but from the corner of her eye had seen his shabby taviter kicking at a pebble. She turned and looked up "Hullo" she spoke.

For a moment his breath caught in his chest and he forgot why he was standing in front of her, for although her sadness was palpable, her beauty and mingary of spirit was impossible to ignore.

"I.. I wonder why you are so sad." he was finally able to bring to his lips. She blinked and then a crease ruffiled her brow and she realized that she was sad. And perhaps, this saddened her even more.

"Well my Groma came to me and told me that it was time for me to be a lady." She all but whispered. The boy looked perplexed and boundirc. "But why should that sadden you? I hope very much to be a man, very shortly, in fact I think" -and here he bolstered himself and held his head high, looking very miketi in the noon-day sun "I think that I already have become a man. So why wouldn't you want to become a lady?"

... To be explagated next tuesday

Have Home... so will volunteer with those that do not.

2009-04-07T16:20:00.007-04:00

Over the past few years of my life I've thought that mayhaps the children I one day hope to be blessed with, by bearing, may not be the only children I care for.

Did that make sense? Basically I think I'd really like to adopt. Now not having had this conversation with my husband, and being the type of person that loves coming up with plans or "pipe dreams" as some have tagged them - this idea is merely in the beginning stages of thought proccess ... still.

There are certain things I've always been... "certain" of in my life. I don't claim extra-sensory powers (though I am a big believer in intuition and I feel much more than just pure emotion some days) but there are a few things, such as:

1) I knew that whomever I married it would be someone

I've known since we were kids.

*My husband and I have known each other since grade school.

2) I knew that when I went away to college I would find a best girlfriend

(having had about 5 in my entire life up to that point)

*I met my darling Emma there, 3 weeks in, and we knew instantly that it was a bond that would last a lifetime and even after 5 years of living with me, and currently, most of a continent between us, it still is.

3) I knew that whomever I married we would have a huge,

life altering, challanging ... issue to deal with.

*That's a whole other post, several infact, needless for me to say - check.

And for the past few years it's like I know he or she is out there - but not a baby. I know a lot of people think about adopting children and babies but I want to adopt a teenager, crazy past and all. They're the hardest to place, of course, some because people want babies and some because people don't know how to deal with their past baggage.

I'm not saying I know how to deal with all types of baggage, but I am saying I think I'd (or we'd) be better than a group home. And we'd be cool.

This is my crazy grown up fantasy.

So I was perusing the March 23rd People Magazine and read about http://www.do1thing.org/ and I went and there are many things I could do now - today, to help kids in the system, especially those about to age out of the program, which is the big emphasize of Do1Thing.org. So many kids, hundreds of thousands, age out of foster care every year and have really no where and no one to turn to.

So I went to the site and one of the national organizations (all states are listed so you can go directly to yours and see how you can help in your backyard) and on the Orphan Foundation of America site, under How You Can Help (which that link goes directly to) there's this thing called a vMentor. A Virtual Mentor. Basically you (anyone who passes a background check, does some over the phone counseling concerning what the kids might bring to the table and is over 25) gets hooked up to an online portal and can be a mentor through the web for them. A cheerleader, listening ear, shoulder to lean on etc - over the web. They say it turns into about 1 hour of your time a week.

I think this is brilliant. Because how often have EACH of us -I'm eyeing everyone of you and myself, (tricky but I pull it off)- found solace over the net in this fiber-optic age? Everyone vents more, shares more, gives more - over the web-waves than they sometimes would in person.

SO. What do you think? I think I'm going to research it more and then see about becoming one of those mentors. Give me a teeny bit of practice for the real thing one day.

I just think it's a really cool idea.

At anyrate - the http://www.do1thing.org/ site lays every state and their mission out for you and I highly recommend giving it a look-see.

Peace-
Cass

Kit Cloud Kicker

2009-04-04T12:32:00.008-04:00

Okay, maybe that was false advertising... I do not intend this to be a post about Tale Spin, albeit a fantastic animated Disney treat - and I do confess, if there were ever a cartoon character I had a crush on... aside from Mighty Max - it would be Kit Cloud Kicker. But I digress.

I love clouds. And thanks to A Cup of Jo I found this site on clouds And so now I will put some of my fav pics up here.

Lake Chiemsee, Bavaria.
© Thomas Dossle

Ok this one's just cool...

Washingborough, Lincoln. U.K.
© Nathan Fairweather

Over Paranaque City, Philippines
© Larry P. Concepcion

This reminds me of the Luck Dragon in The Never Ending Story... Atreyu

Over Madrid, Spain.
© Adolfo Garcia-Marin.

This reminds me of one of my favorite places in Scotland called Pease Bay...

Sunset on Gold Coast of Australia....south of the City of Brisbane.
© Norberto Budnikas.

Tell me you wouldn't think, even for a split second, that some sort of alien life was about to deconstruct their cloaking device and reveal themselves to the world... if you looked up and saw this?...

Spotted over the skyline of Bangkok, Thailand.
© Sitthivet Santikarn.

-Yeahhhh you would.

Now that's my Scotland...

Over Schiehallion, Perthshire, Scotland.
© Ken Prior

Aaaaaand perfection:

this is my favorite part of flying - besides a tv 5 inches from my face. The clouds.

Above the clouds in the vicinity of Utah/Nevada. U.S.(And lots of faces)
© Andrea Schuetz.

I'll have to post my clouds from my last trip over France. That was a good day.

The Shoulds and the Should Not's

2009-04-03T14:58:00.009-04:00

I used to live my life with a lot of shoulds but then I met my husband and he pointed out to me all the shoulds in my life. Like actually shining a light on them to show me I had them in that category to begin with... and also the Should Not's.

Have you ever noticed that you may also have some of these ideaologies in your life? And perhaps you don't even know they are there. But they are. And some may be beneficial... like "I should wear a seat belt when I get in the car." or "I should not drink milke two weeks past it's date."

But others... huhmph

For instance:

-Proper people should not get tattoos.
And a side-sub-set of that is proper young ladies never get tattoos on their arms.

-If you make a certain amount of money (enough to pay all your bills and eat and then some) you should spend and live to the (and beyond the) limit of that amount... big screens, leather couches, REALLY expensive cars.

-One should be successfull... which amounts to the above. Outwardly successful.

-You should get married, have kids, and before all that happens, jump on a corporate ladder and climb it.

-You should become successfull by working 9-5 / m-f.

-I should not have posters on my wall because I'm over the age of 21.

-I should act like a grown up... most of the time.

-My life should be on track with everyone elses... which basically amounts to the accumulation of the above.

--------------------------------------

Excitingly enough... most of my shoulds are falling away.

I don't work a m-f / 9-5 everyday, dying in a tiny gray cube of gloom... minute by minute, moment by moment.

I don't believe that the size of my tv screen is equal to the amount of my worth on this planet.

Or the year, make and model of my car.

I do believe in being HaPpY, and not taking my TIME for granted. Not just free time. Now (post-corporate box dying gloom) ALL of my time is free time, because I've actually CHOSEN all of it. All of my side jobs, all of my acting, writing etc... I choose it so it all feels like free time now.

On the subject of possessing and successing and making the moola to be all the BE you gotta be:

There are two ways not to suffer from poverty.

The first is to acquire more wealth. The second is to limit your requirements. The first is not always in our power. The second is.

It is not the place we occupy that is important,

but the direction in which we move.

Leo Tolstoy

So I'm grateful to my Darling for turning the light on in the SHOULD/SHOULD NOT room, inside my head. It was silly and dark and non-sensical inside.

Not that much that I do IS sensical. And I like it that way.

So to recap - I SHOULD be happy. Aaaand that's about it.

Are there any SHOULDS out there that don't make sense to you - now that you realize they're only YOUR shoulds? And therefore not really a should at all?

And The Pretty People Wore Hats & Gloves

2009-04-02T16:30:00.015-04:00

In March's issue of Martha Stewart's Living, there is an ad for Vanity Fair, the clothing line. And on one side is a full page is ad, from 1957 (above left), with a woman in a luxurious poze, clothed in a slip that "from shoulder to hem. (is a) beautiful way to look under all the new body conscious fashions.

And on the opposite full page is a modern advert (above right) with a woman, strikingly similiar, in the same pose, but just a matching set of undergarments. With the tagline - Elegance Evolves.

My observations, and queries that this ad conjured are as follows:

Well first I thought on how silly that audition must have been, to just be told to stand in a particular position and how the possibility of you getting the job relied soley on looking and standing exactly like someone from over 50 years ago. But that would be the nature of this business; artistic absurdity for the sake of a dime.

Then I thought about the comparisons, of the two bodies. And visions of Mad Men interviews danced through my head, concerning how the actresses from the show are on a specific work out regime because they have to look fit, but not too fit, because today's fit is something that didn't exist in 1957's definition of beauty. Like arm definition. Or muscle definition of any sort on a woman's body. And you can see it in this ad - The girl on the left is striking, elegant, beautiful - but the closer you look the more you think "Huh."

Beauty is a weird thing.

Because YES - I find the "fully clothed" 1957 model more... seductive, sexy and just vintage fab (from today's hindsight of course). But then you think, huh, it's not as if everyone was jogging and doing pushups and situps and cardio. They were thin from dieting and outdated excersises and ideas on fitness... under that full slip was a flat stomach, possibly, but just thin, not toned.

And today, I don't know if that stands up. If that's attractive by today's standards.

And this made me think of how the girl on the right, today's girl, looks like our idea of a Greecian Goddess. Toned, firm, subtle curves, thin, but strong and tanned from a full day in the sun (of course the classic up-do helps this imagery suggestion).

And how beauty has evolved. Sorry... "beauty"

What will it be in 50 more years? Even more form fitting or some sort of balance finally found - between starve yourself thin and too much fast food fat.

Is there another step in the fashion footprint that will change us? Or all we all doomed to both love and loathe Audrey for her sticklike austere elegance that helped create a fashion fast forward?

"...all the new body conscious fashions."

It's an interesting idea to think that it just happened one day. That somewhere in the 40's people were wearing sacks and then BOOM - form fitting became the new black.

Fashion is weird.

-And the final thought from all of this is -

"Cool ad."

Followed ever so shortly by

"Wow that is beauty."

So perhaps I'm the weird one.

But I doubt it.