Friday's Feast the Tenth

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how polite are you?
I would say 9. Of course if you count the chin hair plucking in public thing, that might knock me down to a 7. But I would say that all in all, I am very polite. I am, after all, Southern!

Soup
What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
I watched a rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond where Ray and Deborah are in a standoff on how long the other one can go without sex. Deborah comes in in a black teddy and does one of those sexy crawls across the bed. Ray, who is in silk shorts, tries to do the same sexy crawl. Also, he has oiled himself up and when Deborah asks him if he did so, he says, "No those are my natural juices..."

Salad
Who is your favorite cartoon character?
Spongebob SquarePants. He and Patrick are hilarious.

Main Course
Tell about the funniest teacher you ever had.
Dr. Mark Hellstern, my American Humanities professor. He has this really dry kind of humor that makes you think. Also he gave everyone a short lesson in ballroom dancing and the expression on his face when people stepped on his foot was classic.

Dessert
Complete this sentence: I strongly believe that the bridges in the United States need attention. NOW.

Something you might not know about me...

I pray everytime I go over a big bridge. Out loud. My family and friends laugh at me, but I have been doing so for years, ever since this happened:


Bridge: Interstate 40 span in Webbers Falls, Okla. | Disaster: A barge rammed the bridge, and vehicles fell into the Arkansas River | Fatalities: 14 | Date: May 26, 2002

And now, this has happened in Michigan:



To me, there is no excuse for this last one. People pay taxes to ensure their roads are safe. There was no earthquake or even a barge to cause this tragedy. This resulted from plain and simple carelessness.

Wake up, state and federal governments! How many people have to die before you get a clue? I shall continue to pray when I go over bridges, but you know what?

I should not have to.

The Five Things Meme

I've been tagged by my buddy, Rebecca for The Five Things Meme.

List five things in your refrigerator:

American Cheese slices
Deli sliced turkey
Milk
eggs
Pepsi

Five things in your closet:

All of Mr. Jackson's clothes; mine are in an antique wardrobe
Suitcases
Antique books
Shoes
Wrapping paper for all occasions

Five things in your purse or backpack:

Wallet
lottery tickets
Betty Boop calendar
About twenty keys,and I only know what a quarter of them unlock
My badge for work

Five things in your car:

Lottery tickets (are you sensing a theme here?)
My old date book
CD's
Magnifying mirror and tweezers. My kids just love it when I pluck my eyebrows or chin at a stop light. But where else will I get such good sunlight?
Mail I forgot to take inside

Five things in the world you want to see before you die:

The castle in Cong, Ireland, where the Quiet Man was filmed
The Tuscan countryside in Italy
Ancient Greek and Roman Ruins
The Swiss Alps
The Redwood Forest in California

I think just about everyone has already been tagged, but if you are reading this and would like to participate, this tag is for you!

Friday's Feast the Ninth

Are you as terrified as I am???

Appetizer
Describe a toy you remember from your childhood.
When I was about five, my grandmother bought my Aunt Jill (her youngest child of nine, who was six months younger than I), my sister Trish, and I each a Baby Chrissy Doll for Christmas. Baby Chrissy was a big chubby baby doll whose "hair can be long, or short as can be") because she had a hole in the head where you could pull the long hair out and a string in the back to pull the hair back in. I hated Baby Chrissy from the first time I saw her. I loved tiny baby dolls I could hold like a newborn and Chrissy's head was as big as mine. Somehow I didn't feel like a real mother when my kid weighed as much as I did. But I had to act grateful, which I tried to do without much success. There is a photo lurking around somewhere (wish I could find it!) of me with this huge doll and a sulky look on my face.
Needless to say, my mother wanted to skin my hide by the time we got home!

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how observant are you?
It depends. When it comes to objects, I am not naturally observant. But I am very observant of people and am really sensitive to the moods of others.

Salad
Where would you rather be at this very moment?
In heaven.
No, just kidding, I would love to be sitting in my someday dreamhouse, looking over my someday large estate from my someday nicely built deck while I sip a morning cup of coffee and blog on my laptop.

Main Course
When was the last time you learned something new?
At the postal training, believe it or not. I learned that donuts were actually created for a member of the Pony Express by his wife so that he could easily carry bread with him and eat it without stopping.

Dessert
Fill in the blank: I have RIDDEN A ROLLER COASTER ONCE but I haven’t GOTTEN ON ONE SINCE. Few things terrify me as much as that plunge down the hill. Except maybe Baby Chrissy...

Have a happy weekend everyone!!

Thursday's Thirteen

Though I really love the new mail route I'm working on, I had forgotten a lot of the hazards of delivering mail in a rural area. So for those who might be interested, here goes...

1. Snakes: Yes folks, we have a bunch of snakes in Oklahoma and many are poisonous. We've got to deal with copperheads, rattlesnakes, and water moccasins. With the recent flooding on my route, I've seen several moccasins slithering across the road this week. I also saw a big black snake up on a customer's porch. Needless to say, I did not get out and go to the door!

2. Wasps and bees: I've fought off several wasp attacks this week. They're nesting right now and they love nothing better than to set up housekeeping in mailboxes! (Picture Mz. Jackson using your copy of Woman's World or Family Circle to fend off a red wasp attack) I had a hornet fly in the truck with me this week and managed to get the window down to let him out. I had a red wasp fly in with me today and I couldn't get him out, so we battled and I won. In other words, he died. I felt bad, but it was me or him...

3. Other bugs that bite instead of sting: Some boxes get filled with black or red ants who really resent my opening their new home. I also have to watch for biting flies, horse flies, and mosquitos, all of whom would love nothing better than to feast on Mz. Jackson.

4. Deer: These sweet creatures love to come leaping out of nowhere and into the path of oncoming traffic. I do not want to hurt a deer, nor do I want to have an accident. So I'm always on the lookout.

5. Protective dogs: I almost jumped out of my skin today when a cocker spaniel (who badly needed a trim) came lunging at my arm today as I reached to put mail in a box. I still haven't calmed my heartbeat.

6. The occasional perverted client: I haven't had this happen on my new route yet, but in the past I've had dirty old men come out and make suggestive comments at the box. A fellow female carrier had one customer who would come stand buck naked in his glass doorway when she drove up to the box.

7. Farm machinery: When you're on a narrow country road and you cross paths with a huge hay bailer, you'd best find a place to pull over. That's all I can say.

8. Speed demon cowboys: Cowboys and farm boys are great to have around when you have a flat tire or need your truck pulled out of a ditch. But they like to take those country roads fast in their pickups, so look out! Yee hah!

9. Children: My heart is in my throat when children come running to the box to get their mail. I live in terror of accidentally running over a child, so I'm especially careful.

10. Jewelry on my right hand: You know that little latch on the top of your typical mailbox? Get your ring caught on it as you are pulling away and you could break your arm or rip it out of the socket. So I move my ring to my left hand til I'm done working.

11. Sunburn on my right arm: Mz. Jackson is part Cherokee and so tans easily, but even she needs to remember to wear sunscreen on that right arm. Not only is one tan arm a bit unattractive, but after a while that arm starts to burn, and if I'm not careful I'll end up looking like a dried up piece of leather.

12. Trains: I cross a major train track five times during the course of my route. It would be really easy to forget to look for trains. But I don't want to get smashed, so I do.

13. My own stupid driving mistakes: Needless to say, I am like most drivers in that my own mistakes cause me the most problems. So I try to stay off the cell phone (it's not illegal to talk and drive here~yet...) and to not look at the mail while I'm driving.

Be safe out there everybody!

Scroll Down for Wordless Wednesday...

Well, the Prodigal Daughter has finally returned to the fold. My training for my new job is finally complete. I am working as a part-time rural carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. What is funny is that I worked as a carrier for over ten years and then quit for a while, but they still made me go through all that training again. That's a government job for you.

Last time I worked as a rural carrier, the area I carried in was anything but rural. It was mostly suburban. This time, I am carrying in a farm community with some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. Some of my customer's houses even sit on the lake. I will be working there a couple of days a week and I know I'm going to enjoy it. Eventually I will get some pictures to show you all just how lovely it really is.

I've missed you all and can't wait to catch up on what's been going on around our blogosphere!

Wordless Wednesday

Check first post for explanation of this slice of Americana...