Just thinking

I remember wathcing "The Andy Griffith Show" when I was a kid and thinking when they talked about the nearby big city they were saying "Rolly" or "Rollie." I think I was in my teens before I realized it was "Raleigh."

I think I was also in my teens when I realized the card game is "pinochle," not "peaknuckle."

Also, I remember taking notes for a high school history class and, having heard the word but never seen it that I knew of, wrote "endightment." As my mother was helping me study for a test, she came across that word and cracked up. And yes, she did tell me it was "indictment." That's kind of funny now, considering I write books about lawyers.

I also remember thinking that we were going to the gym for our "fisette" class. Again, my mother set me straight and told me I was actually going to "phys. ed."

What's up with this?

Remember in the movie "Dave" when he was trying to find some extra money in the budget to save the homeless shelter? One of the things he found was that the government was spending millions of dollars to "make people feel better about a car they already bought." This thing NBC and MSNBC are doing reminds me of that.

What thing am I talking about? Telling people who are already watching The Today Show how great it is. And, during the first break during the Abrams Report they always have this ad "You're getting the whole truth and nothing but on The Abrams Report." They do this for other shows, too, but I think you get the idea.

It's dumb. I mean, NBC owns like 50 other channels. Advertise on USA and Bravo and all the other ones. I already feel good about watching The Abrams Report. They need to find new viewers.

Crossword Puzzles

I like the crossword puzzle in People magazine because I can do it pen, not have to cross out any mistakes and finish it. It makes me feel smart. It's kind of like watching the teen tournament on Jeopardy when I know all of the answers. There's nothing like beating a 13-year-old's butt on a quiz show.

Countdown vs. "The Factor"

When Keith Olbermann was on The Tonight Show Monday he briefly talked about his dislike for Bill O'Reilly. He mentioned that he has never met O'Reilly and there's not a ratings war or anything because O'Reilly has "10 times more viewers" than he does.

Sadly, that's true. However, I believe Countdown's viewers are smarter, have senses of humor and are not lemmings who actually believe they're in a "no spin zone" when watching O'Reilly. I mean, c'mon people. No spin? What the tag line should be is "Nobody spins it like O'Reilly."

Fireflies

Every now and then something will happen that brings on good memories of my Dad. A couple of nights ago I was standing on the back porch and saw some fireflies, or lightning bugs, as we used to call them. I remembered back to when I was a little kid and my Dad would take us to the back porch and we'd sit and watch the fireflies. We wouldn't really talk or anything. But just sitting and watching them was cool.

Connected and the Vast Wasteland of Daytime TV

I don't know why I keep watching Connected. Maybe I'm waiting for them to get a clue as to what the "blogosphere" really is.

Anyway, as I was flipping channels because I couldn't stand yet another John Bolton discussion on Connected, I realized how bad daytime tv really is. Sure, I like Law & Order and Roseanne as much as the next person but they get boring after a while. I tried watching Crafters Coast to Coast to see if I could get any ideas. Well, while their stuff is interesting, I'm not about to buy glass blowers and torches and kilns. Doesn't anyone use glue and construction paper anymore? And yeah, I like the Food Network, too, but how many times can you watch Emeril and Iron Chef in one day? And why doesn't TCM show good movies during the day?

As I was flipping channels and not being able to decide on anything to watch, I remembered a simpler time when I didn't have 70 channels to choose from. I remembered back when I was in school and only had 12 channels. When I was home sick I was perfectly content watching The Price is Right and All My Children.

Ah, the good old days.

Another installment of Weird Dreams

I was standing on Main Street watching a "parade" of zombie-like creatures. When the zombies stopped parading, I knew my friend and I were supposed to meet up with another friend. We thought we saw her go into a bar, so we went there, too. She wasn't there but we sat at the bar anyway and each ordered a glass of Busch. Why it wasn't Bud Lite or Mich Ultra, I don't know. Anyway, at one point, Keith Olbermann came out of the back room and asked all the customers if everything was ok. When we all said we were fine, he disappeared. Then my friend and I decided to leave. When she stood up, I noticed that she left a $15 tip (3 $5 bills) on the bar. I thought I should do the same, so I reached into my pocket but only had one $5. I was really embarrassed, so I thought I would try to sneak out before anyone noticed. But on my way out, I ran into a guy I knew. He was wearing a Fransican Friar's robe. I asked him why he was dressed that way and he told me he was in rehearsals for "Nunsense."

That's it.

May-December Romances

For the last few weeks I couldn't understand why the Tom/Katie relationship bothers me so much but the Ashton/Demi relationship doesn't. Last night while watching the AFI tribute to George Lucas I figured it out. Although neither Tom, Katie, Ashton nor Demi were there, I figured it out by watching Harrison Ford/Calista Flockhart and Warren Beatty/Annette Benning.

When the camera went to Annette/Warren during a joke or poignant moment, they looked at each other as if they were sharing something. When the camera went to Harrison/Calista, she looked as if she didn't "get it" and he looked at her as if he was saying "Don't worry, honey, I'll explain it to you later."

While you would think the same would hold true for Ashton and Demi, it doesn't. They look as if they have a real relationship. With Tom and Katie, however, it's as if he's saying "Hey, look, I got me a hot, younger chick." She's saying "Oh wow! I'm with Tom Cruise just like I daydreamed when I was 12."

A Little Post-Surgery Humor

Semi-private hospital room: $1,500
Anesthesiologist: $1,693
Surgeon: $2,000
No periods for the rest of your life: PRICELESS!

borrowed from Hyster Sisters.

Just a thought

Shouldn't that new ABC show be called "Dancing with the B-List Stars?"

International Webloggers Day

I almost forgot about this! Yikes! But here it goes.

I started blogging in 2001, pre-911, on a site I still have. It's now called Out of the Mainstream, but it was originally called My Views on the News. The name is self-explanatory. But then I decided I wanted to blog about more personal stuff so I started A Waste is a Terrible Thing to Mind, which eventually morphed into Excited Utterances. For me, blogging is way to remember what I'm thinking about current events or just events in my own life. I've kept journals off and on for my whole life. This is just an extension of that.

Now for a little bit of a rant. I get really annoyed when I hear people on MSNBC, CNN and other news channels talk about "The Bloggers" and "The Blogs" as if Glen Reynolds and Andrew Sullivan and the like are the only people out there. These news people should actually surf the net and find out how many different kinds of blogs are out there.

Anyway, I don't care what anyone thinks about my blog. I've been doing it this way for four years and I'm going to continue to do it this way. People who don't like it don't have to read it. And if I'm never mentioned on Connected, so be it. My blog makes me happy and that's all that matters.

Happy International Webloggers Day!

Michael Jackson

Have I ever mentioned that I saw him in concert in the early 80s? Awesome!

And that's all I have to say about that.

I kind of understand ...

... how people get addicted to Vicodin. I have a prescription for Lortab, which is basically the same thing. I stopped taking it on May 19 but then started again last week (just one a day) because Advil wasn't working for this new pain I was having. I stopped again yesterday, though, so I'm not in any danger of being addicted. I definitely don't need it or crave it or anything. However, I can see how some people would get addicted. It's an awesome pain reliever and it helps me get to sleep. And there's one more thing. I've been writing about my weird dreams and, although, they freak me out sometimes, I kind of like them because they're so vivid. (Yeah, I'm a freak sometimes.) Well, that's another side effect of Vicodin/Lortab. Before I got the prescription for that, I would take my Mom's Darvocet every now & then. I found out that also causes vivid dreams. So, at least now I have an explanation for them.

The Best Friend

He was here the week of May 23 & we had planned on going out to dinner but, I just wasn't up to it. That really depressed me because we only get to see each other in person once or twice a year. Also, I slept so much that week and the week after that I only talked to him on the phone once, although he called almost everyday. But everytime he called I was asleep. (The surgery and getting over the anemia really did me in.) I was really, really afraid he was going to think I was mad at him and that he'd give up on me. But, he didn't. He called yesterday and everything was fine. I guess that's why best friends are best friends.

Another installment of Weird Dreams

Did y'all know that anesthetic and pain meds cause vivid nightmares? Well, that would have been a nice thing to know before my surgery!

Here are the two weirdest ones:

#1 I was in bed in my bedroom. I couldn't move my arms and legs, and couldn't speak. My brother opened the door and asked if I was ok. I tried to tell him I wasn't but, because I couldn't speak, I couldn't tell him. He closed the door and I could hear him telling my mother I was fine. I was in a panic because I knew something was wrong but had no way of telling anyone.

#2 After a shower, I looked in the mirror and noticed that my back was swollen and it looked like I had one of those old-lady-with-osteoperosis humps. Then I noticed that my breasts were swollen to twice their normal size. (In my case, that's not very big, but it was the idea that they were huge in comparison to normal.) I went downstairs to tell my mother (a nurse) about it so she could look and see if everything was ok. Just as she was about to look, my right breast started getting bigger and bigger and I felt as if it was going to burst. I kept thinking that it was going to burst open and I was going to die.

See? Told ya they were weird.

I was so happy

Little things tend to make me happy. For example, last night Dan Abrams was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. My two favorite MSNBC guys together. That was nice.

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