A Fate With Pinking Sheers

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

For many reasons but one is my love for comic strips.  I :heart: them.  I have said more than once on my blog that a good comic strip can make you feel like you're looking in the mirror.  The ones that I can identify with, I cut out and save.

And my mom does too.  I somehow got and kept a strip that she cut out in 1991.

Because once upon a time, the illustrator for the strip Nancy must have been sitting in my house when I was growing up.  Watching the whole ugly event unfold and thinking the entire time that they wanted...no needed...to get back to their drawling board and do the Sunday strip.

The whole ugly incident is so clear to me.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was sitting at my parents kitchen at dinner one night.  We were all in our usual seats.  Dad was on the far side of the oval across from me.  Susan was beside me and mom was across from her.

Well.  Hold up.  Let me back up for about an hour prior to that.

My sister was mad at my mom because mom wouldn't take her to get her hair cut.  She was so mad and in a fit of anger, she said "screw her.  I'm going to cut my own hair."

So she did.

With pinking sheers.

In case you don't know what those are, here's a visual image to help you out.

That's right.  Jagged edges and all.  And mom's scissors looked EXACTLY like this pair.

So Susan commenced to cutting her bangs.  But she cut them too short.  They were probably a 1/2 long. And they were all jagged.

Because she used pinking sheers to cut her hair.

So after she cut...ie maimed...her hair, she was obviously upset and in tears.

AND THEN MOM CAME HOME.

/cue dark music

And that's when the real fun began.  We all sat down to eat dinner.  Mom was yelling.  Susan was crying.  The harder she cried, the harder I laughed.

And dad sat there with a stupid "what the hell happened here" look on his face.

And I couldn't stop laughing.  And she couldn't stop crying.  And my mom couldn't stop yelling.  And dad couldn't stop the look on his face.

And then my mom turned on me.  Because I was laughing so hard that I fell out of my chair.  So she nicely suggested to me that I either collect myself or go to my room.

So I went to my room.  Because that was some funny shit and I couldn't stop laughing.  (I'm still laughing thinking about it.)

And it took months for Susan's hair to grow out.

And years for my mom to get over it.  I guess that she was over it by the time that this strip came out 6 years after "the incident" because she cut it out.

And I saved it.

Because it's FUNNY.

Oh.  Did I mention my sister was 13 years old at the time?

Or that her best friend did the same exact thing a few weeks later to her hair?  With the same type of pinking sheers if I remember correctly.

Dumb teenagers.  I guess she showed my mom.  LOL.

A Blast From The Past

Owen had a birthday party to go to last weekend.  I drew the short end of the stick and took him.  It was at a roller rink so I decided to stay and help him.

It was like taking a step back into time.  I'm pretty sure that the rink hadn't been updated since the 1970's.  Except for the "baby rink" where you would learn to skate (ie - fall on your a double snakes) was now gone.  In it's place was a spot for the birthday parties. 

Pretty sure that they sell the same nasty "roller rink pizza" and suicide sodas that we drank too.  They did the hokey pokey (well, they not Owen because he could barely stand on his skates) and some other games that put me into a time warp. 

At least they weren't playing Disco Duck, YMCA or Freeze Frame.  LOL

So I figured out that by the time I was Owen's age, I was a roller rink rat.  Susan and I had been skating since we were four.  We were on the speed skating team in kindergarten and by the time I was his age, my folks were dropping us off at the rink on the weekends so we could hang out with our friends.  (And they could hang out with theirs.  LOL)

So anyway, I walked him --- more like carried him --- around the rink trying to keep him upright.  All the while he was goofing and trying to fall.  Ugh.  So then I decided that I would get a pair of skates and give it a try myself.

Instead of the cool speed skates with BAPP (BIG A$$ POM POMS) that I use to have, I had to rent a pair.

Haha.  I'm pretty sure that they've had these skates since the 1970's too.

So, I decided I better take a spin or two around the rink before I went back to Owen because he would surely pull me down with skates on.  It took me a few times around to get my legs under me but once I did, I was fine.

Well.  *I* was fine.  It was all of the landmines around me that were trying to bring me down.  You know, kids dropping like flies right in front of me.  Or the parent who thought that it was a good idea to skate carrying their child...when they couldn't barely skate themselves.

The best were the people that would hold hands and form a chain across the lane.  If you were lucky, they didn't all go down.  Because once one went down, they all went down.

And it was always right in front of me.  LOL

Or the kids who skates completely out of control.  In the wrong direction.  Coming straight at you with limbs flailing.  

But I didn't fall.  Oh.  I was skating in defensive mode with my hands up.  Looking like an NFL wide receiver waiting for a ball.  But I didn't fall.

We did have fun.  (Probably because I didn't fall.  It was so much more fun to fall back then.)  It was a total blast from the past.  Definitely going to have to take the kids back.

Origami: An Obsession of an 11 Year Old Boy

Shane has been obsessed with origami since he was 8.

Obsessed.

I never really got his fascination with it until I watched Between the Folds, a documentary about the art and science of origami and how it interrelates particularly with regards to math.

Ah.  Now it makes sense.  It combines his love of math and science and figuring things out with his desire to create things.

So he searches youtube for ideas and will scour google for hours looking for things to make.  He's made everything from boxes to bunnies to rabbits and everything in between.

He loves to make things while we're at restaurants and leave them for the waiters and waitresses.  If he can con me out of money, he'll make their tip into origami.

Here's part of the waiter's tip last night.

I love this little outfit. <3

And I love his obsession.  Well, not the trail of papers he leaves strewn about but I do love his creativity.  And especially his thinking outside the box!

An Unusual Sighting

I live in a state where it's illegal to smoke in a restaurant or bar unless that establishment has an area separated by a door and a different ventilation system (I believe.)  So in effect, an establishment has to have two separate areas entirely for it's smokers and non-smokers.

And I like it.  I've gotten use to being able to eat in a restaurant where the table next to you isn't smoking while you're eating.  And I can choose whether to come home from a bar smelling like an ashtray.  Or not.

So it's weird for me now when I go back to SC to go into a smokey restaurant or bar (gag). 

And even weirder when you round a corner and run right into one of these archaic things.  A rather unusual sighting for me these days.  How very 1970's.

 

Really.  These are the only ciggys that someone should be "smoking."  This was obviously a goof that my friends and I did when were were out and about in SC. 

And I totally remember "smoking" these when I was a kid.  It was cool.  But really.  Is that even cool anymore?  Or right on any level?

Either the real ones or the candy ciggys?

Um.  No.

Wow.  File this under things that make you go "hum."

The Beverly Hillbillies

My children are trying to make my yard look like we are the Beverly Hillbillies.  They think that the outdoors is just an extension of the house and they can just drop whatever it is that they're playing with in the middle of the yard and leave it there.

Or the cul-de-sac.

Or the neighbor's yard.

Or the trees.  Yes.  The trees.  I found a soda can nicely propped up in the little bush outside of my garage a few days ago.

Which, by the way, they're not allowed to have.

But apparently my kids aren't the only ones trying their best to make our yard be "that yard".

Because I found the next door neighbor's kid's sweatband in the front yard.  And I gave it back to him.

Then I found it again the next day.  In my front yard.  :-|

And then I found his football glove in my driveway this morning.  :rolleyes:

So yeah.  If you drive by my house, please don't judge me by the crap strewn about the yard.  I'm trying my best.

They just make messes faster than I can pick them up.  And yeah, yeah, mom.  I get it.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.