IF YOU LIKE THUNDERBOOMS-LISTEN TO THIS CHOIR IMITATE ONE USING THEIR BODIES & VOICES!

THE BOY IS HOME...

The boy is home. The boy is home.

I'm listening to sweet piano music as I type these words....

The boy is home. The boy is home.

THIS IS AN AMAZING COLLABORATION! ;)

TWITTERING TREND

There is a very funny trend right now on Twitter called, "1st draft movie lines", which is exactly what it sounds like. People are "twittering" what they think the first line of a famous movie line would be before it got tweeked by the writers. I'm enjoying them. I'm going to list some of my favorites and their "twitterers"....(writers)

You have to have a pretty good knowledge of movies (pop=culture) to get some of these, so test yourself. You don't win a single thing, but if you know the original, it makes these that much funnier.

From Tim Carvell (one of the writers for The Dailey Show)

"I wish we could chat longer, but I'm eating an old friend for dinner.

"Bond. James Bond, D.D.S."

"Play it for me, Sam. Play 'Pop Goes the Weasel'."

"I have one word for you. Just one word. Adultery. Possibly with Mr. Robinson's wife. She seems like the type."

and now, Rainn Wilson (Dwight Shrute from The Office)

"The first rule of Fight Club is: everyone *has* to bring something for pot-luck Mondays."

"Rosebutt, Rosebutt!"

A friend of Mindy Kaling (who plays Kelly on the The Office)

@DougBenson"You had me when you burst in here and said 'Hello.'

someone I follow named Jordan Rubin:

"I'm not surprised that it wasn't anyone else, Fredo.

"I'm Tarzan-- Jane, right?

"Go ahead, plan my day."

And now, Rob Corddry: (comedy actor/writer)

I'm Bruce Wayne! I mean... crap" (I cleaned that up...sorry)

"Shirley, you can't be serious" "I AM Shirley, & don't call me serious!"

"Toga Party tonight at the Delta House! Toga Party tonight at the Delta House! 456 Fraternity Row! Around tenish?!"

"Attica State Correctional Facility! Attica State Correctional Facility!"

"Adrian! Excuse me! Adrian!

"Surely you can't be serious!" "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley" "No, 'surely', s-u-r-e-l-y" "Oh, my bad.

TAKING INVENTORY....

As I look around here at the place where I'm soon leaving, I suppose I should be taking stock of things. What I will miss when I leave here. I've been a tad emotional for the last couple of months so I'm trying to avoid stepping into piles of emotion as I navigate my way through the next few weeks, but there are moments of reflection that one can't help when one is moving away from a location.... you know?

I've been in the desert since 2001. That's fairly respectable. Eight years is long enough to get a sense or a feel of a place. I really want to do this post justice, but I know when I finish, I'll have wished I would have written more....or possibly less.

I came to this desert with one husband and I'm leaving with another. I arrived with four children and I'm leaving with seven! I arrived with two grandchildren and leaving with 10...and I'm counting my Sammy-kins. I arrived with a high-school diploma and am leaving pursuing two graduate degrees. Came PC, leaving Mac.

The winters here are paradise. Ask any snowbird. And good luck finding a parking space at Costco. The summers are hell. Ask any snowbird. July and August-Costco is your oyster, sorta. But I will admit to loving the summer nights. I have posted this before and I will say it again; the human body is made for desert summer nights. The temperature outside is the same as the temperature of the surface of the skin. If you can lay still and quiet while outside on a summer night, you can lose your boundaries and if you can lie in a swimming pool, well...you're just gone.....that's a recipe for a mystical experience if I've ever known one....and I've known one...or two or three...

I will not miss the dust. I will not miss the dirt. I will not miss the brown. I will not miss the dry.
I will not miss the irresponsible misuse of water and over-arching need to make this arid, desert region look like a tropical paradise when in fact, it is a desert. Stop over-watering! Stop with the fountains, stop with the gardening, stop with the un-naturalness of it. If you want Hawaii, go there. This is a desert with cacti and succulents, which are beautiful in their own right. Save the water. Enjoy the rocks.

I still have a couple of weeks. I'll say good-bye then.

WHAT MAKES US HAPPY...

I just read a review of one of the longest (perhaps "the") longest study on what constitutes happiness. It's a 72-year, longitudinal study performed at Harvard University. One of the researchers has devoted 40 years of his life to this study. 40 YEARS!!! The study followed "...268 men who had started college in the 1930s. The study followed the men through their educational years, careers, war experiences, marriages and families, illness, and old age." (Peterson 2009)

What "it" boiled down to, what the big secret was, what all the brou-ha-ha turned out to be was this: " "That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people."

Conversely, what they discovered the biggest detriment to happiness was in this particular population of men, in this subculture, in this generation was....ready?...alcohol addiction. The key researcher, Vaillant said that, "alcoholism was the single most negative factor in these men's lives."

This explains the cliche, "There ain't no luggage racks on the hearse". All we take are our relationships. That's it. Love, the ultimate carry-on.

Happiness appears to be a consequence of our choices. A consequence. Like any other consequence, good or bad. Isn't that interesting? This isn't earth-shattering news to those who have been taught to live within dietary constraints, to sacrifice for others and then to look for the joy that is inherent in that service, and always, always, always believe with every fiber of your being that the big payoff is coming, which leads to hope and optimism....talk about your recipe for happiness....home made yet!

IF I WAS FRIENDS WITH....

I follow this guy on Twitter named, "jordanrubin". He's random and funny. He just tweeted, "If I was friends with a Centaur, I'd pick a fight with him just so I could say, "Let's settle this Mano a Mano-Horso." He tweets silly stuff a few times a week. But I thought about it, because I'm avoiding homework again, but that's beside the point, but I thought about different things I could be friends with....because my brain is a big cartoon....and in this cartoon, everything talks and walks and sings and dances....no, I'm not medicated, but probably should be....and in this cartoon, if things aren't my actual friends, then they're at least friendly...so I imagined....

If I was friends with a dung beetle, you know, those bugs that shoot out nasty smelling fumes, I would let him win every single argument....
me: The sky sure looks blue, eh?
beetle: The sky is orange!
me: You betcha.

If I was friends with a tree, I would never climb it because I would feel bad about putting my dirty shoes all over my friend's skin and possibly hurting him. Plus, my friend could possibly see up my dress.
If I was friends with my old kindergarten teacher, I would ask her if anyone else ever told her she resembled a giraffe or did my weirdness, indeed, begin at age four.

If I was friends with my right knee, I would take it to lunch and ask it, "Hey partner, what needs to happen to make you straighten out again, huh? What can I do just for you?" And then I would pick up the tab, which shouldn't be too much because I'm telling you, this knee?....it never eats a thing!!!

If I was friends with all of my unborn grand children, I would tell them, "Hey, you're all much smarter than me, but I'll be wicked fun when your parents are out of town, so be nice"

If I was friends with a rock, I would ask it how it came to be so incredibly patient....