Same Road, Different Spot

Remember this?

One year later, almost to the day...

    on the same road, coming back from the same farmers market,

          I see this:

Screw Halloween - I’m starting to think that mid-August is when the spirits are truly restless!

Well, it IS Sunday...

I don't know how I missed these but I'm glad I finally found them!

Do take a look. 

There's some brilliant stuff there.

(I'm particularly fond of the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait spoof)

"Because I Like It" Wednesday

Can't.

Stop.

Laughing.

Worry #18,472

Mind melds and coming out of anaesthesia...

Both make me nervous.

Popularity Contested

Amy challenged the long-term bloggers to find our most popular post and re-publish it.

I ran into a bit of trouble with that, because I use two different stat counters… and their results don’t match up. Of course, only one of them holds the history back to the beginning of bitchery but still, I know which one I think is closer to the truth.

So, I’m simply going to link to the one that officially wins (except I don't really believe that for a moment,) and republish the one that I have seen show up the most often in the rolling stats.

The Spurious Winner is here.

The one that I know is still getting hits even after 7 years is this:

Milton vs. Marvel

I don't know about you but I loved to play action heroes when I was a kid. As Green Lightning and Tiger Girl, we would rescue the deserving, foil evil-doers, and kick bad-guy butt (with frequent pauses to strike heroic poses.) I didn't even mind being the side-kick. Hey, I was benefitting mankind - while wearing a cool costume. What could be better?

Fast foward to adulthood. 

In a somewhat unanticipated turn of events, I have become a submissive. Yes, Tiger Girl is now a card-carrying member of a group whose motto is popularly thought to be, "They also serve who only stand and wait."

That is facetious and exaggerated - but you really do read a lot of advice out there about submission and service and most of it is couched in terms that strike me as very zen and passive. Admirable, soothing qualities and I do NOT belittle them. But Tiger Girl is all about action! Submission is simply not passive to me. Instead, I see it as an active process, one that I am continually reviewing, redirecting, and refining. So, as you can probably guess, I am constantly being tripped up by the word "service". 

I don't disagree with the concept, mind you, but to reconcile the discrepancies within my head, I have to frame it differently. I can't picture myself as the graceful lily, sitting with head bowed, waiting for directions. Rather, I am the tiger, crouching in the veldt, poised to spring into action when needed. 

     You need a bolt-hole? -- I can do that.

     A pressure-release valve? -- Send me in, coach!

     Whipping post? -- Where do I sign?

The end result is still the same. My Dom knows I am there for what he needs, when he needs it.

It just might arrive by a different means than he was expecting...

New cohort, new name.

I'm thinking of putting it on a T-shirt. Whaddya think...?

Face Off

I can’t say that I’m a big social media person. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest... none of them really talk to me. In fact, I pretty much find the overall content of all of them to be roughly on a par with reality TV. (i.e., Just Plain Stoopid.) 

(Oh, I’m sorry… Is my judgement showing?)

OK then, let’s just say that Facebook is really not my thing.

(There - isn’t that politely neutral?)

I seem to be the odd man out, however..., which I suppose I can understand. 

When Facebook powers are used for good, there is a lot of fun to be had there.

Or so I’m told.

I can’t really say that watching Thelma's friends spend four hours posting pictures of their feet instead of talking to the person (me!) sitting next to them really convinced me of that fact…

But I’m probably just being snooty.

Yeah.

That’s probably it…

         …

            … …

               … … …

    *cough!*

Sorry. Something caught in my throat…

In Which A Friend Is Named

The plan is to tell you a story about being with my friend, so I’ve been struggling to come up with a nickname for her. (To use here, I mean. She’s already got one in real life. ;-p) 

I suppose it shouldn’t be such a big deal - I mean, the whole point of the nickname is so that a person will be anonymous here, right? Why does it matter what I call them? But names do matter, even the made up ones. Perhaps especially the made up ones… so I always strive to get it right. -- But this one’s tough.

She’s not obviously associated with her profession the way Scholarly Professor (SP) and BookMan are. Unlike Tiny Woman, her physical being fits well within normal parameters, so I can’t call her “BigFoot” or something along those lines. (Which would actually have to be Tiny Woman’s alternate name, anyhow.) 

No, what is most striking about this friend is her personality. It’s HUGE. She’s warm, funny, bossy, acerbic, sharp, open-minded, and a smart aleck - with a laugh like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. (And… she gives me crowns.)

How on earth do you find a single nickname to encompass all of that?

After days of mulling this over, I was going to settle for Sassy. It’s pretty close, tho’ there was still a niggle of discontent… but I thought it was about as satisfactory as I was likely to get. 

OK, name found, now I can tell the story…

Except that I went googling for some images and fell down a rabbit hole. I was looking for something about two women taking selfies and came across this:

And I remembered... 

my friend had named herself.

 We had gone to see this movie together when it came out - and on the way home, she’d said, 

“That is US… I’m Thelma and you’re Louise.”

The names fit like a glove 27 years ago and they still fit today.

So now that my friend is named and you’ve all been introduced, I can get down to writing up our adventures…

(But while we're on the subject of names and buddy films, may I just pause to confess that I'm slightly more fond of being Louise to her Thelma than I am of my Lucy & Ethel pairing with another old friend... especially since, in that combination, we take turns being Lucy! All characterizations may apply - but I definitely prefer to think I rock the Louise vibe better.) ;-D

That Kinda Week

When even the Friday lunch order goes wrong...

Things I Wouldn't Have Thought Needed Spelling Out, #18

I popped into the bathroom at my doctor’s office and saw this above the little “drop off” table:

Jaw dropped, I stared in disbelief…

Like, who would leave a sample without it being requested?

What on earth could have prompted that?

              Practical jokers?

              Rogue pee fetishists?

I had a sudden vision of some unsuspecting member of the office staff walking in and finding the little table groaning under the weight of a jumble of unauthorized samples, stacked like votive offerings at a shrine… Oh, the horror!

(like this)

OK, it's probably just an insurance company rule...

     ... but I like my version better!  ;-p