Sometimes it's okay to hurry up and wait...

My dad loved trains. LOVED them. For as long as I can remember back, if there was one crossing somewhere or getting ready to cross, he'd say, "Look! A train! Cool!" I had gone to a train show with him once or twice and usually was excited for him when he was happy about his train hobby. After he died, it was a long time before I could enjoy seeing a train again. When I changed jobs last year, my route to work sometimes puts me in the path for a potential train crossing and usually as I'm driving, if I hear the whistle in the distance, I punch it down the street so I can get over the tracks before the lights start flashing. You never know how long it's going to take once the arms go down...sometimes not too long and sometimes it seems like it's never going to end. One morning, I was already running late and sure enough, about the time I get to the tracks, the lights are flashing and the arms are moving down. I was so annoyed and frustrated as the train went by. Then I had this epiphany that my dad would have LOVED it. He wouldn't have cared about the time...well, usually. So even though I sometimes get frustrated about the timing, I've learned to embrace the train stops, because I'm sharing a moment with my dad all over again. I just wish the moment would still include the caboose, since the best part of waiting for the train when I was growing up, was trying to guess what color the caboose was going to be! Now when everyone else is frantically changing routes to avoid the train crossing, I just slow down and wait. There's too many other things for me to get upset about...and I do...like when the train has passed and then the arms don't go up for ever and ever. Then I can get mad at the city....but not the train...it's already passed...TOOT TOOT.

My dog...the con artist

First thing, right off the bat...my dog is very spoiled. She's not Paris Hilton pet-spoiled...but she's more cared for than a lot of CHILDREN in this world, sadly. From time to time, my dog will get a tummy-ache because I am a bad mom and feed her what I'm eating. Not in large quantities, mind you...but a french fry here...a chip there...etc. Sometimes if I've given her more than I realize I should have...later on in the day or the next day - but usually in the wee hours of the morning when I should be ASLEEP, her tummy will gurgle very loudly...more of a squeal, actually...and she spends a lot of time going in and out of her doggy door. Since I'm the bad mom that made her feel that way, I will get up at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and scramble her eggs. This is what I've been told in the past to do for her when she has an upset stomach, because it is bland and apparently soothing. Or I'll make her minute rice...but she appreciates the eggs more and I kind of do as well - because then I'm not picking day old rice out of her curly ears or my bed. For whatever reason...the other day, I came home from work and she was SO happy to see her mommy - as usual...did the routine...up on the couch...gets her kisses and hugs and proceeded to be still very excited about me being home. When I went to go change my clothes, I heard her go outside - no big deal. She was out there for quite some time, so I went to check on her like the over-protective mom that I am...and she's chowing on grass out by the fence. I did notice that she hadn't eaten her dog food all day, as well. So I go through the routine...get out the skillet, the eggs, the bowl, etc. I check on her again...still eating grass...but is she 'watching' me watch her eat grass? Is she chewing, but yet, looking over her shoulder to see if the sympathy card is being well-played? It's hard to tell. A few minutes later, as I continue to scramble away, she comes trotting in and the tail begins to wag as she realizes that I'm cooking...more than likely for her...since I rarely cook for myself. I begin to question her..."are you feeling okay?" "what's up with you eating grass?" "you seemed fine when i came home - what's the matter?" "are you just trying to get me to scramble you eggs so you don't have to eat your regular food?" Her tail is really wagging at this point. I then let the eggs cool and dump them in the bowl with her food - and she about shoves me aside with her nose to get to her food - that interestingly enough...she didn't want to eat before now...and then proceeds to eat all of the eggs and her REGULAR food. So now I'm convinced that she thinks I'm the stupidest mother EVER and was probably pretend-moving her head near the fence to SIMULATE that she was eating grass...just to throw me into a panic that she might barf on my carpet, knowing I would immediately scramble her some eggs. I should have made her rice...then her ploy wouldn't have been nearly as tasty.

Please Recycle...and break your neck

I've decided that recycling can be hazardous to your health. I had just taken my blue bin of cans and newspapers out to the curb and walked back into my garage, only to trip over a package of tile grout....you know for all the tiling I do myself...not. Luckily my car was still in the garage so I didn't have all this open area for me to free-fall, I just stumbled around a bit and kinda fell...yeah...kinda fell. So there ya go...I recycle for the earth and that's what happens. Earth day is this month. I think it needs to be renamed Jamie Hurt Herself Trying to Recycle Day.
p.s. This is the story that I had completely forgotten about due to Shlong Man. I finally remembered it when I stopped focusing so much on that traumatic event...or maybe I repressed it.

Family Park aka Public Restroom

There's nothing like walking through the park that you walk at almost everyday, only to realize that some icky man is PEEING in front of the public restroom. I was completely disgusted by this and think the City of Bethany deserves a shout-out to their great parks and recreation department for not having it patrolled more. Why didn't he just go INSIDE the public restroom you ask? Well, they have them padlocked for obvious reasons, since more than just pottying goes on in there these days. They do have porta-potties out there, but since the Oklahoma wind shear was up yesterday - it was laying on it's side...which is rather amusing in itself. Hopefully nobody was in there at the time it tipped over. So as I'm walking, I had already thought up my blog entry for today before seeing this episode take place and it was a good entry too! Well, in my opinion. That was completely forgotten after my trauma and I kept walking trying to remember what I thought was funny enough to put on here...but no...shlong man trumped my other story. Way to go shlong man. (Sorry mom - I know you're reading this...hopefully you know what a shlong is...or maybe that's bad if you do know - ew).