One of the funniest things from my childhood was when a bird pooped on my step-sister’s head at the zoo.

It doesn’t seem so funny now.

I hate pelicans.

Sandi challenged me to write “Seven Random Things” about myself. I tried to think of seven things that everyone who knows me might not know.

1. My friend Amy was so stunned and dismayed to learn that my ears weren’t pierced that she took me to the mall and had it done. That was last summer, and it’s one of the many reasons I love Amy. She’s a problem solver.
2. I couldn’t begin to describe how much time I’ve spent in libraries. I used to spend hours upon hours there. I still love going to the library, even though these days I just dash in, pick up whatever I’ve put on reserve, stop by the aquarium for a quick look at the “fishies” and dash back out again. The library in Columbia is my very favorite. It’s a beautiful design. But I think it’s ruined me for other libraries. The one here just doesn’t measure up.
3. I had our first child’s name picked out for years before we decided to have kids. I had the girl name chosen even before we were married. But we had a miscarriage with my first pregnancy, and now I can’t fathom using either of those names. (Sorry to throw the downer in there.)
4. The Sizzling Rice Soup at Forbidden City is the most perfect soup in the world. I’ve tried to re-create it at home, but I can’t get the rice to sizzle sufficiently.
5. The first time I saw Rockford, I was certain that I would marry him. I didn’t actually meet him until the following year. Fortunately, he was as nice and funny as he was cute. 🙂
6. I was once a Mary Kay lady. I don’t know what possessed me to do such a thing. I wore makeup less frequently then (never) than I do now (sometimes). It lasted about a year. I did break even, though, so that was nice.
7. I named my first cat “Rainbow” in homage to Rainbow Brite. I also had a pair of Punky Brewster sneakers. I was a very hip 5-year-old.

I’m tagging Chloe, Cynthia, Becky, Taylor, Rachel and anyone else who’d like to play!

There were two little boys, probably 5 or 6 years old, playing Lord of the Slide at the park this afternoon. They had perched themselves at the top of the slide, and they wouldn’t budge, thus rendering the slide inoperable. But that’s not the point.

When Poppy and I walked by the slide on our way in, one of the boys shouted, “Hey! I seen you before! You was here yesterday!” He was wrong, and not just grammatically, so I said, “That must have been someone else. We weren’t here yesterday.”

Later, when Poppy was waiting patiently for a turn at the slide, another, smaller boy wandered over. The Lord of the Slide looked at the boy, then looked at me and asked, “Does they has a name?”

And so I handed him a copy of “The Elements of Style” and the schedule for the nearest Toastmasters meeting, and we left.

Not really.

I told him I was sure the little boy had a name, and that he should ask the little boy. Then I asked him to move so Poppy could slide. He did, but only after his mother yelled at him from the trail outside the playground, where she had taken the boy’s sister to pee behind a tree.

Really.