No posts until August 18...

Rest, solitude, hiking, stars, swimming, reading, day-dreaming, good food, and good company. Vacation.

See you later peeps!

Dear Days of Wonder,

* This isn't my picture...I have to give credit to the good folks at google for exemplifying redneck in picture format.

I am pleased to announce that Jeff sold his car in 11 minutes flat after the for sale sign was stuck on the windshield. Someone from BANGOR, MI bought that mess of a 1991 Honda Accord.

First, let me tell you that folks bred and raised in the Bangor/ Covert area are nothing like the rest of West Michigan or South West Michigan. (I do know of one great family and a few other individuals that are fairly normal...so some good stock comes out of that hole.) The famous pick-up line there is "Hey, nice tooth!" Seriously.

So anyway, Jeff and I are outside unloading our van from a camping trip and up pulls this old pick-up with two men and a boy....and out steps this very scary looking, walleyed, donning a wife-beater shirt, bald (I have nothing against bald...just description here), missing all his front teeth man.

Ma'am, how much you ask'n for that there car? (He clearly must have not seen my husband.)

Um, just a minute....Jeff?!

Oh, Hi! Can I help you?

Yeah, tell about that car, and how much you ask'n?

Jeff delivers his spiel...telling him the mileage, good things, bad thing, and everything in between about his bucket of junk. Jeff tells him $500.

Oh, well I have $300 on me right now. Will ya take that? Looks like a nice car. It just need a little bondo in a few places.

(A little bondo?!)

Long story short, Jeff ends up taking $350 cash for his piece of skeet car.

It's finally gone...now WE don't look like rednecks over here...no more oil stains on the driveway, and no more jumper cables at the ready. Whew.

Until...

I pulled into my driveway off of my bicycle last night....two men in a car with a Wal-mart employee badge hanging on the rear-view mirror....sitting in my driveway.

The very scary looking, walleyed, wife-beater shirted, bald, no teethed man gets out of his car....with his Wal-Mart kid or friend(?) Oooh, I'm scared. (Maya, Zomer...are you hungry?)

Wal-Mart kid speaks. Ma'am, Sam here left his wallet. Do you have it?

Um, No, no I don't. If I find it I'll be sure to get a-hold of you. Said shaking while looking in in the grass of our front yard.

Are you sure? 'Cause Sam here doesn't even have his drivers license now to drive that car.

No. I do not. Good-bye.

For real? Was he accusing me of taking his wallet and hiding it?

(My neighbor noticed something a little strange happening in my driveway...not quite normal for these parts....he stood quietly with a watchful eye....thanks Rick, you are my hero.)

And thanks Jeff for selling your car to someone in Bangor.

Dear Day of Thinking Blank,

I'm doing this survey because I was pressured into it, and because I've got nothing brewing around in my brain at this particular moment. Absolutely nothing at all. Do you ever just think "blank?" I try to think blank a lot. Love that blank thinkin'.

Stay-tuned for something better (Goodness gracious, I sure hope so.)

Until then....(are you happy, Melissa? :) )

Oh, and Chris, I'm obviously just posting here instead of e-mail...I've gotten this survey from about 4 different people lists in the last week...so here it is the easy way.

1. What time did you get up this morning? I'd like to say 7 or 8, but unfortunately it was about 9. I am a lazy arse in the summer.

2. Diamonds or pearls? I don't much care...how 'bout silver.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Juno.

4. What is your favorite TV show? LOST, of course.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Cereal....Oh, oh she is live'n in a cereal world, and I am a cereal girl. Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries is what makes the world go round.

6. What is your middle name? Lee

7. What food do you dislike? ASS-peragus.

8. What is your favorite CD at moment? Love'n The New Frontiers.

9. What kind of car do you drive? 1999 Honda Odyssey, and a 1999 GMC Savanah nicknamed "The D.O.G."

10. Favorite sandwich? Subway's Spicy Italian with lettuce, onion, banana peppers, pickles, green peppers...one line of mayo and mustard (because two "lines" are just too much!) and lots of vinegar. Yum-o.

11. What characteristic do you despise? Ignorance.

12. Favorite item of clothing? Any clothes that still fit.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? New Zeeland....Hobbits.

14. Favorite brand of clothing? Gap and Silver jeans.

15. Where would you retire to? Somewhere on the Little Manistee River.

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Birthday? I turned another year older, and that's about it. Birthdays suck toilets.

17. Favorite sport to watch? Football....College Football.

18. Furthest place you are sending this? All over the intro-net.

19. Person you expect to send it back first? No-one.

20. When is your birthday? The day the Berlin Wall came down.

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night.

22. What is your shoe size? 8 1/2

23. Pets? One chicken killin' German Shepherd named Maya, and one metro-sexual German Shepherd named Zomer.

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Naw.

25. What did you want to be when you were little? A wife and a mommy and a fisherwoman.

26. How are you today? Slightly bored.

27. What is your favorite candy? York Peppermint Patties

28. What is your favorite flower? Lilacs to smell, and Painted Trilliums to look at.

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? August 3...sitting in the woods.

30. What is your full name? I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you.

31. What are you listening to right now? Abbi yelling at Lydia "Shut the curtain!" (She's taking a shower.)

32. What was the last thing you ate? Some little green bugs that crawled out of my salad. Seriously. I guess I needed a little more protein in my diet.

33. Do you wish on stars? No, but they keep falling off the ceiling of Hannah's bedroom....and I vacuum over them.

34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Tickle Me Pink

35. How is the weather right now? A tad bit hot.

36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Jeff-fur-rey

37. Favorite soft drink? Mountain Dew

38. Favorite restaurant? Chipotle or Tres Lobos (any good Mexican food!)

39. Real hair color? Dark brown...I just hi-lite the heck out of it.

40. What was your favorite toy as a child? GI-Joe's with Barbie hair glued to their heads and other places.

41. Summer or winter? Fall....football games.

42. Hugs or kisses? Hugs and Beard free kisses (hint, HINT.)

43. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate

44. Coffee or tea? Coffee tastes like puke, just like beer tastes like sweat. AND Tea is scrumptious.

45. Do you want your friends to email you back? Sure?

46. When was the last time you cried? This morning thinking about Emily.

47. What is under your bed? nothing

48. What did you do last night? Went to Grand Haven to see Geoff Moore who was AMAZING as always, and the Musical Fountain. (THAT was way cooler when I was a kid.)

49. What are you afraid of? An alien invasion.

50. Salty or sweet? Can we say Kettle Corn?!

51. How many keys on your key ring? 4

52. How many years at your current job? Mom for almost twelve years.

53. Favorite day of the week? Saturdays

54. How many towns have you lived in? Um, I think about 7 or so?

55. Do you make friends easily? It depends.

56. How many people will you send this to? As I said before, now it's all over the intro-net.

57. How many will respond? Who the hockey sticks knows?!

Dear Thirty Something,

Experience II--So, what's the point with hanging out in a parking lot?!

Is it fun? Is it cool? Do boys feel macho in a grocery store parking lot? Do they really have nothing better to do or a better place to go?

I was driving through the Family Fare parking lot in the booming metropolis of Zeeland, when I saw four large pick-ups (I'd tell you what kind they were, but I am not a truck kind of gal...didn't look, don't care), 6 teenage girls, and 8 teenage boys all milling around in a mob. The trucks weren't parked in the neat little parking spaces; they were just pulled in however teenage driving happens. The girls were giggling, and the boys were leaning...leaning with their white wife-beater shirts on their dirty trucks.

It was quite the interesting site to behold. Watching the girls flip their blond Zeeland hair behind their shoulder as the boys looked at tires, under hoods, and yes, leaned.

What is the appeal of hanging out in a parking lot? I seriously do not get it.

I do however see a few good points to this all:

1. With all the clean parking lot cement, it's a good place to get off all the Turkey poop ingrained in the tires.
2. As long as you have some money in your pocket, you won't go hungry.
3. You can't get into a whole lot of trouble in a parking lot in Zeeland. Or can you?

These native Zeelanders are a different breed of folk - I love this town and all it's quirks.
BUT when I was a kid, I NEVER hung out in a grocery store parking lot.

(You'd find me in the theater eating cereal....Now, that was a hang out for cool kids. Um, hum sure. ;) )

Kids these days.

Where was your high-school hang out?

I'm off to the grocery store to park and shop.