Random: A Post of Things

I wanted to write a few random things, so I just collected them and put them in this one post…. maybe it would be better to separate the topics, but they kinda flow, ya know? Anyhow, enjoy!

What do you think of this Cuppa Cocoa? I am planning on adding it to my blog theme. There are a few good ‘Desktop’ themes and I do enjoy them for a quick change and post, but I am not completely satisfied. I decided to do my own objects and then make my own desktop, at the very least to skin an already made theme. This was my first project. I wanted to make it coffee, but someone said it looked more like chocolate, so I added marshmallows. It tuened out really fun. You can see details at the deviantArt page.

Recently Google BUZZ is buzzing. A friend of mine, actually you might know her, Enna Stein. Recently self-published an hilarious book called “The Shallow Girl’s Guide to Reheating Leftovers” and continually promises to do a guest post on my blog (Hi Enna!). Anyhow, Enna is following me on HER buzz and she notices my most recent Flickr upload: Balloon Flower Corsage. She immediately IMs me that she totally wants one. Of course, I tell her to remind me next time I see her when she bursts out, “Dude Dude Dude! The Wedding!” Nice idea, Enna! “Here comes the bride all dressed in white… and decked out with a balloon corsage????” I can hear the record screeching to a halt as all heads turn toward the singer and then focus on the bride’s bouquet… just as a man dressed in full medieval Spanish regalia jump down from the rafters and yells into the buzzing silence “NO ONE expects the Spanish Inquisition!”…. Hey, Enna, can I plan your wedding?

Talking about weddings and people not expecting things. I had a teacher in high school who was one of the coolest people ever. He was awesome and pleasant to look at. His personality was akin to Robin Williams and to top it off nicely, his name was Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers taught us World Geography and had a quirky way of doing things. I can’t remember all the details, but I do remember the fun we had learning. When he gave us exams, he would give throwaway options to make sure everyone got a decent grade. For example: Name the country that is considered the ‘Cradle of Civilization’: a) Sumaria b) Messinwitchawife c) Mesopotamia d) Mess ‘o potatoes (disclaimer: I couldn’t think of a fourth one, so messingwitchawife is all mine) It was an effort to not choose the goofy answers.

During his exams, we had to put our books and notes away, out of reach. Under chairs, on the floor, in the desk whatever, but we were allowed one Good Luck charm (mine was a stuffed animal) and one book to read if we beat the time limit. He would randomly walk around and look things, making sure no one was cheating by hiding answers in our items. One particular class, I only had a book. I was reading Lord of the Rings. When he got to my desk, he stopped to ask if I was reading it for a class or for pleasure. He was happy to hear it was for pleasure. Later, he comes by again and shows me the inside of his wedding band. “One Ring to Bind Them” was etched neatly into it. He told me he and his wife were fans of the series. Until then, I had no idea there were such dedicated followers of this weird adventure series. (I had just discovered reading real books for pleasure, give me a break, ok?) After that, I caught on to a few of his quirks and it gave me a giggle.

One day, a student teacher was teaching a class while he was out once. When he returned, she had left the word ‘habit’ written on his board. Without so much as a hesitation, he walked over to the board, put a diagonal slash carefully through it and wrote ‘hobbit’ above and to the right, like a trademark. He left it there for days, it was a giggle to see every day… and only a few people caught the joke.

Tags: art, balloons, high school story