Happy 40th Anniversary, Sesame Street, I still love you, Grover !!

There's very few programs that have stuck with me from my childhood that mean more to me than Sesame Street. I was 4 years old when the first show came on and I was instantly in love with Grover. He made me laugh the most and although this clip is from 1975, (I was still enjoying Sesame St when I was 10 and I'm proud to say that) this is my most favorite clip of him teaching the lesson about "Near and Far".

Heck, I still enjoy it. Kermit as a reporter, Mr. Hooper and his store, Ernie and his rubber ducky, Oscar and his completely over the top grouchiness making kids laugh, and they're still laughing and learning today. I shared the love with my kids, and I can't wait to share this magic with theirs....

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SESAME STREET!!

In an instant it can all be gone.......

I went to bed at 4 am with the story of the massacre at Fort Hood on my mind. The news story I read, the pictures of the families awaiting word about their loved ones, my heart was breaking and my stomach was sick. It was a very long time before I could get my mind to stop racing and just settle down.......

Last night at work around 8 pm, I was talking to my co-worker that sits right behind me in our little pod of desks. We had been joking around that I hadn't brought in my US Weekly magazine that I always let her have after I was finished reading it. I pulled 2 of the mags out of my purse and handed them to her with a grin and promised that I wouldn't leave her deprived of her weekly dose of celeb gossip again.....30 minutes later, she was being led out of the building, completely shattered because she'd received word that her beloved Grandma had passed away...

If there's someone you love-tell them.

If there's someone you've been fighting with--forgive them.

If you don't like who you are--change.

It's a bubble, people......

I'll never show my face in Krogers again..or..the day we dug up Daddy..

I'm pretty sure once I tell this story of what happened in a little town near Athens, Ohio I'll be banned from every public toilet from here to Poughkeepsie.

I plead complete innocence. I plead that it was an honest mistake made in the frenzy of a moment. I swear on a stack of Charmin that I was as mortified as I'm sure the caretaker of the bathroom was when they found "WHAT WAS LEFT BEHIND"  *cue horror movie music*

Let me just tell you what happened and you can judge for yourself. See if you'd have done it any differently....

My brother, Vic and I were on our way to Athens to dig up dad. This past weekend being Halloween and all, it seemed rather appropriate, don't you think? I'd only had about 2-3 hours of sleep tops, I'd gotten home around 3:30am,not gotten to bed until 4:30-ish, and knowing that my brother would be at our house around 9am, I just couldn't get myself to go to sleep. So I woke up grouchy and not a little nauseated. So what's a grouchy, nauseated girl do to wake up? Well, she drinks a huge mug of black coffee and eats a sausage and cheese omelet, duh!!

We get about 30 minutes from where dad is buried on a family member's property and I start to feel as if my coffee needs to make an exit. All the little gas stations and corner restaurants look...well, dirty. (just hang on for the irony here..) So, we find a little Krogers store and bro lets me out to find some relief. I rush in, ask where the ladies room is and as I'm making my way back, I'm praying to all that is holy that it has more than one nasty hole of a toilet. And please God, let there be LOTS of toilet paper.....I open the door and to my wonder and complete delight its a well lit, very clean little bathroom with 2 stalls! I picked the larger one because I saw it had a place to put my purse so it didn't have to be on the floor and I notice in my rush that the toilet tank lid is on the floor. No biggie, right? I get down to business and start reflecting on how cool it will be to go get dad's ashes and bring him back home and then I'm done.

I wipe, pull up my jeans and turn around to flush what no one should ever have to witness, when to my utter dismay, I see the flusher handle just swinging. Well shit. I start a minor "what the hell am I gonna do now?" panic and then I realize that I know that you can flush the toilet by pulling up the plunger thingie in the tank, so now I'm feeling mighty fine and I go to reach inside the tank and realize with a gasp of pure, unadulterated horror that there is NO. FRIGGIN. WATER. in the tank!!!!! Bone dry.

I see spots in front of my eyes. I can't flush what I have just deposited into the Bank of Public Toilet. I can't even think at this point, my only objective is to wash my hands (hygiene is paramount these days!) and get the mother loving hell out of Dodge. I walk out of the bathroom, calm as I can be, and I keep thinking "get to the door!! you'll be arrested for vandalism if anyone walks in there and sees what you've done!!" and I hit the door running. Jump into my brother's truck, hit my head really hard and between tears of pain and tears of laughter I try to relate to my brother and Vic what has just transpired...and I can't breathe....and I scream,  "HURRY UP!!!"

There's no way you did anything cooler than what I did on Halloween weekend!!!!