For my family, the only upside of the protests in Madison is the living classroom it provides for my kids. Jana went up to the Capitol to document the event and this is one of my favorite shots.
When teachers are the protestors the slogans are surely one notch up on the clever scale.
Filed under carry a camera, communities, Jana, politics
Oh yeh… go bananas from this one. I simply love the idea of custom promotional condoms. But I love the name and the tagline even more.
So much for subtlety.
Now I just have to figure out which client I can convince to do these.
A big thanks to Cathy S. for sending this one in.
Filed under absurdities, products
Sometimes tough things happen to little people. Things that make them ask, ‘Why me?’ Things they feel they will never be able to overcome.
And then there is ‘The Reason.’
I have had the pleasure of mentoring a charming young blogger who has been dealt the difficult hand of living with Celiac. If you are unfamiliar, those who suffer from this illness need to live a Gluten-Free life.
According to Celiac.com Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, is a genetic disorder that affects at least 1 in 133 Americans. There are a host of complications that I will leave you to explore if you wish.
But what I am here to tell you about is not how sad it is that she has this illness, but how she has learned to LIVE with it – and to take it one step further. How she found her voice, took the hardest thing in her life and committed to helping other teens feel a little less alone in their struggle.
The daily complications of navigating adolescence is hard enough, trying to do so with such strict dietary restrictions takes it to a whole new level. When her mom came to me I totally related as I had suffered from severe food allergies as a teen and could not eat wheat or chocolate. This was back in the day where specialty foods where unheard of (you know, because I am old). I remember the way it felt when everyone was eating pizza and soft pretzels, chocolate shakes and pasta and I was sitting with my little plastic cup of sliced turkey and carrot sticks. Yeh, I was really pretty cool at the cafeteria table. But I dealt.
And so is she. After surfing the blogosphere with her mom, they found that there were no blogs written by teens living a gluten-free life. She thought that it would be a great idea to connect with the teen Celiac community, and maybe even help them cope with tips, recipes and basically a place to go where other people understood.
Take a jump over to her blog, myceliac, a teenager’s gluten-free life. I guarantee you will be inspired.
Glass half full, at its finest.
Filed under Time to Cry Tuesdays
I love this sign. Hey, our grammar sucks but we can hook up a car for $95 bucks and take it where ever your little heart desires.
I am just wondering, is anyone else amused by these things when they see them? I mean, you don’t have to whip out your phone and take a picture or anything. You don’t even have to point it out to anyone. I just want to know if you do come across something like this, do you laugh? Or smile?
Or is it just me?
Filed under absurdities, carry a camera
It seems a day does not go by lately that I do not receive some sort of email notifying me of some fortune that I stand to inherit. I must be on some sort of sucker list. If I did not find them so entertaining it would probably bother me. If my calculations are correct, over the past 6 months I could have received somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 million bucks – that would surely take the edge off!
Today I received the best one yet. How’s this for an opening line:
“We are writing you to know if it’s true that you are DEAD?”
I have to admit, I was intrigued by that one. They had me at ‘are you dead?’ I like their strategic use of caps. If you scan it quickly you see DEAD 3 times with a nice sign off of MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN PEACE. Because, you know, my soul will certainly be receiving emails wherever it may go. I mean, don’t think a little detail like being DEAD will stop me from being well connected.
How about this for a line: “All we need to confirm now is your been DEAD or still Alive. Because the MAN’S message brought shock to our minds.” Quite touching if you ask me, grammar not withstanding.
“May the peace of the Lord be with you wherever you may be now.” (and may that place have Gmail access – Amen.)
Filed under absurdities, humor, magnet for the absurd
A big thank you to Susan M for this great shot from the bathroom at Madison Square Garden. I do so love bathroom messages. Here is one from a stall in the mall and another from The Nitty Gritty in Madison, WI.
Filed under absurdities, carry a camera, signage
It is beginning to occur to me that perhaps we do not live in the most normal of neighborhoods. I mean, it looks normal. We have neat houses with classic slate roofs and pretty landscaping. Everyone takes pride in their homes and for the most part keeps everything in good repair.
But when I start to think about the condom wrapping of snowmen, the bizarre garbage and the curb side art galleries, it would appear that we are a bit of an eclectic group. Those are all sort of charming, but THIS? The picture at the top of this post was taken at a house with the most bizarre residents. These ‘decorations’ were put up for Christmas but hung around for quite a while. The whole yard was filled with these wacky angels.
Honestly, I am sort of afraid to go past this place at night.
So? Do all neighborhoods have this sort of stuff or is it just us?
Filed under absurdities, carry a camera, humor
Sometimes that is all you need to knock out what ails you. Seriously, 10 days of antibiotics, countless cups of tea and honey, more bowls of chicken soup than I care to think about and I still was not feeling like myself.
It would appear that all I really needed was one night with my 3 girls – the ones who have known me since 6th grade. The same ones who can say one word and set off the kind of laughter that makes my face ache and my sides feel as if they will explode… in a really good way.
Add a few glasses of wine and a crisp morning walk the next day to chase away the time-release hangover. Halfway home from that walk one of them said to me, “you are SO not sick anymore”. And she was right.
Life is hard. Shit happens. Things don’t always go as planned. Illness lingers and stress is ever-present.
So what!
A little fun on the rocks is all any of us truly needs to counter the demons.
Thank you to my O’side girls; who know everything there is to know about me and love me anyway. Who let me lie in their beds and facebook stalk with me on the iPad, laughing until we cry. Who share their clothes, let me eat off their plates, play practical jokes with me and even ‘break’ a guest or two. (hey, every once in a while someone has to be sacrificed for the good of the joke – it’s harmless).
Feeling very fortunate indeed.
Filed under friendship, Time to Cry Tuesdays
A few weeks back this household was struck with a series of annoying bad luck. Nothing all that serious, just a chain of really annoying events (ok and a few that were sort of serious but I won’t share, and thank goodness those have been resolved).
First, Gary got rear-ended on the LIE… in my car, of course. The insurance company was wonderful, we got a rental car and decided to spring for the $16/day upgrade to an SUV since it was in the midst of Snowmageddon ’11. All is well and good, it snows on top of snow and we get in the groove of shoveling every week; bitching and moaning like the rest of the world. Until…
We have completed the big dig out and Gary asks me for the keys to the rental car so he can move it into the street to brush off the snow.
I look everywhere… pockets, bags, bathrooms, nooks and crannies.
No key.
It becomes quite obvious that we have no choice but to call the rental company and get the second set.
News Flash: rental cars companies do NOT keep a second set. They call a locksmith for you. But of course on this day after a blizzard I am informed that the locksmith is snowed in. “With all due respect”, I told the woman at the rental place, “I am a 50-something Jewish woman on the North Shore of Long Island and I was able to dig out, what kind of wussy is this locksmith that he is… ahem… ‘snowed in’.”
He showed up at 4.
And $300 later we had a new key.
Fast forward to today. After a few days of record high temps the snow is melting almost as fast as it came down. And while I was out on the lawn (affectionately named ‘doody lane’ for the path we shoveled for the dog) picking up said doody, I spotted a glint out to the corner of my eye.
Yes folks, the original rental car key. As I suspected, it must have fallen out my pocket, was snowed upon and shoveled onto the mountain on the side of the driveway. Yes, other people have told me I have a Lucy and Ethel sort of life.
I thought about giving it back but decided that a shadow box frame was worth a $300 laugh in the whole of life.
Filed under absurdities, homeowner, humor
My neighbors are known for exceptionally interesting garbage. I might be the only one in the neighborhood to take notice, but the quality is not lost on me. If you are not a regular reader, click the links to see the Kandinsky garbage, the headless garbage, a prehistoric sentry and the funniest directions ever.
I know, I told you! Our garbage kicks ass!
Today I came across the scene above. I might be wrong about this being garbage. It might actually be a front yard gallery of sorts. Note the decided placement of the twig in front of the little painting. I found the whole scene simply delightful.
Ok, maybe I need to get out more.
Filed under art, carry a camera, garbage
i could cry but i don't have time 
