Curiosities: Tracie

Good morning blogland! I'm over at my parents today helping get ready for my little brother's (high school) graduation party, which is tomorrow. Never fear...I have Tracie here to blog about the truly curious subject of child leashes. Enjoy and have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend!

Do You Leash?

Cee asked me to write about something that I find curious, or random, or strange. I have something that is all three. Leashes. I'm sure there are reasons for pulling out that leash. Safety is one. I can imagine lots of people pointing out that they use leashes for safety reasons. It keeps the little ones from running away. That is all good and fine, but what happens when they turn the leashes on you?

When my husband, Thomas, and I were first married we flew from Florida to Arizona to have our second wedding with my mom's family. We had a layover in the Houston Airport. While we were there we saw this woman. She was traveling with her four kids and it didn't seem to be going very well. The first time we noticed her she was walking through the airport with all four kids attached to her by leashes. She had a suitcase and although three of the kids were walking (none of them were babies) one of them was definitely closer to being dragged.

The three kids who were walking weren't much improvement on the "dragged" kid, because the three "walkers" were all trying to walk in different directions! It made me think of those old western movies when the townsfolk would get really angry at a guy and threaten that he might be drawn and quartered. I could just see this poor woman being pulled in three different directions!

She finally corralled all four kids into the bathroom (these western words are really working for me today) and we didn't see them for a long time.

Finally, after a long wait, it was time for our plane to board. We got in line and Thomas started tapping me and said, "Look! It is the lady with the leashes!"

What I saw when I turned my head........I have wished ever since that I had had a camera with me that day. It needs photographic explanation. It was just so crazy! So crazy in fact, that I decided that since I don't have a photograph I would just have to draw you a picture. Nothing short of that will do.

There she was. One kid trying to escape while simultaneously having wrapped his leash around another one's neck. Two of the kids had run around her in circles and the mom was unable to move due to being tied up. The last kid......this was the one who was being dragged earlier......had climbed on top of a telephone booth that was mounted to the wall! To this day Thomas and I are unsure how he managed to get up there. We had to catch our flight, so I never have known what happened to that mother with all the leashes. I imagine that she might still be there at the airport all these years later tied up and stuck under that phone booth, but hopefully she was able to make it to her airplane.

I had never given leashes much though before this incident. On that day, Thomas and I decided that we were not leash parents. It is just too dangerous. You might be able to use that leash to keep your kid attached to you.....but you never know when they might turn on you and tie you up with it!

Thanks Tracie! I have a vague memory of my mom having me on a leash when I was about 3 or so...but I'm pretty sure she would deny it now!

Curiosities: The Non-Student

Today's guest poster is The Non-Student from (Ex)Grad-Student Girlfriend...or is it back to Grad-Student Girlfriend? I've really enjoyed reading her blog over the past few months, not because she blogs about an enjoyable situation...but because she is so relatable! Definitely check out her blog...after you read this post of course.

Relationship Curiosities

I started my blog Grad-Student Girlfriend about a year ago when SCL (my now sort of former ex-beau with whom I have an ambiguous “relationship”, nicknamed Summa Cum Laude) and I were about to move to Washington, D.C. and start our new life together as PhD student (him) and non-profit do-gooder (me). I was completely naïve about the adventure lying ahead of me, not only with my job (which I totally hated and ended up leaving six months later) but also with my now live-in partner. Little did I know that within the course of the year, I’d go from expecting an engagement ring (round-cut with halo and pave band) to getting dumped out of nowhere with no explanation and then a month later, be approached by SCL wanting to try again…but living at different addresses.

Our most intimate relationships are curiosity-invoking things to me because of what they tell us about ourselves, oftentimes things we don’t want to see. The difficulty, at least for me, is admitting that whatever is going on, good or bad, isn’t just about the other person. It’s also about me. Apparently I am capable of being annoyingly needy one minute and completely independent the next. One moment I am planning to ruin SCL’s life and the next I am willing to drop everything in my own life to make him happy. I’m shocked at the intensity and breadth of my emotions. Sometimes it makes me feel like a total psycho. When SCL and I were broken up, I went on a mini-rampage in our apartment, tearing up little things of his, pouring out his expensive bottle of cognac down the kitchen sink, and contemplating much, much worse.

And I’m constantly surprised by SCL’s behavior, which I find totally bizarre. Example A: if boyfriend breaks up with girlfriend, then gets back together with her, then wants to move out but stay together, should boyfriend then ask girlfriend to repay him for couch that boyfriend and girlfriend paid together for? Answer: HELLS NO! I’m amazed by his lack of emotional sensitivity, that unlike me he doesn’t consider my feelings and desires in every single thing he says and does. Sometimes he just does what’s best for him.

Why is this so impossible for me, doing what’s best for me? I think it’s a product of my upbringing, of having an altruistic mother with a martyr complex who would give of herself completely and then resent it. And whether I like it or not, she’s the model I grew up with. I’ve learned that loving another means giving into the other, even if it’s not good for me. I’m trying to change this though. Lately I’ve been thinking in terms of what I need (mostly because I have a therapist who figuratively beats this into my head) and what will make me satisfied. And now that SCL and I won’t be living together, I am a lot less responsible for him, which means more freedom for me. Oh, and I won’t be giving him a damn cent for that couch.

Thanks to TNS for the post! And for the record...I am totally in favor of not paying him for the couch!

Curiosities: Surferwife

I'm back with more Curiosities guest posts. Today we have the hilarious Surferwife from A Day in the Life of a Surferwife. If you are not reading her blog...you should be.

My name is SurferWife. *hi Surferwife* And I am a blogoholic.

*crickets*

Oh. Whoopsies. Am I not at my Blogs Anonymous meeting?

Right. I am hosting Cee's place, sorry about the confusion. When Cee asked if I wanted to guest blog and talk about something 'curious' I hopped on that like Pam Anderson to pasties.

Some of you know me and my blog already and have read my Friday feature: Happy Hour and a Celebrity Encounter. This is when I dish on an encounter I have had with a celebrity and at the end I rank them on my Marg-O-Meter. Very classy gig I got going on over there.

So, there is this one encounter I have been itching to tell my readers, but haven't, due to the fact that I have a reader or two that is friendly with this particular celebrity. What better place to do it than on Cee's Curiosity blog?!

Back around the millennium, I worked in a restaurant in Santa Barbara. The owner, and still a good friend of mine, was buddy buddy with Alan Thicke. Remember him? He was the dad/psychiatrist on Growing Pains. When the owner told me that his friend Alan Thicke was coming in and to take care of whatever he wanted, I was excited. I mean, I had Kirk Cameron plastered on my walls as a kid so this was like one degree away from my childhood dream come true.

Then I waited on Alan Thicke. And his small child who ran amok in the restaurant. Alan ran me around, had his bill comped and then proceeded to not tip me.

Not impressed.

A few months later, I was downtown in a popular bar with some friends. In walks my boss (D'oh!), his girlfriend, and Alan Thicke. Owner man spots us and beelines over to the bar where we are standing. He does a quick introduction and lucky me gets to stand next to a sweaty, red faced Alan Thicke. I play it cool until A.T. decides he needs a cocktail napkin at that very second. The napkins are to my right and A.T. is to my left.

Instead of asking me to hand him one, or reaching in front of me to get one, Mr. Seiver reaches around behind me to get it. This means his entire body is pressed up against mine and all gross and breathy whispers, 'Excuse Me' in my ear.

I had to do everything in my power to avoid throwing up in my mouth a little bit.

The next day I told my boss his friend freaked me the eff out and I would rather eat a worm than stand next to him again. Boss man laughed, but sure enough, I never saw Alan Thicke again.

I award Mr. Invasion of Personal Space Non Tipper Guy one margarita.

This encounter couldn't get any more curious, Cee. I hope you and your readers enjoyed it, and I will be back to my normal celebrity encounters this Friday.

Ewww...shame on you Alan Thicke. I'm sure Kirk Cameron would have left an excellent tip and would never invade anyone's personal space. Thanks Surferwife!

Curiosities: Ashley from Kiwis and Cocktails

Hey there blogland! Right now I am in the car with my parents on the way to Massachusetts for little sister's graduation. What better time for the next "Curiosities" guest blogger?

So without further ago I give you the fabulous Ashley from Kiwis and Cocktails. Enjoy!

"Curiosity Didn’t almost Kill the cat, but It did make her Hallucinate."

First, I am honored and happy that Cee asked me to be a guest poster. This is MY VERY FIRST Guest post! I picked my brain apart trying to think of a story from my life that illustrated the theme of "Curiosity". I am a curious person by nature, but this particular episode in my life taught me a lesson: Listen to people when they suggest you should not eat something.

I studied abroad in New Zealand during my college years. I lived in dorm style flat. I had 5 other flatmates: A boy from Germany (VERY VERY CUTE), Boy from Kenya, Girl from America (Grew up in Philly, but went to college in VT), Boy from America (Colorado I think), Kiwi girl (from NZ) who had a shaved head. The Kenyan and the Kiwi had already lived in this same flat for a year before the rest of us arrived for that semester. They had just said goodbye to 4 other international students. There was also an RA for the whole dorm flat building. His name was Ragu. Yes, like the spaghetti sauce. I don’t think NZ has Ragu sauce, so this was only funny to us Americans.

Now, Ragu was a bit of the “supplier” around campus if you know what I mean. Well, in case you don’t know what I mean- He sold the herbs. Something to note, some of the students at this University were 17 and some were in their mid to late twenties, depending on their programs and studies. I had a few “older” students in my flat. Regu was not only the “dealer”, but he was also “OLD” in comparison. Looking back, he was probably like 26. My Kiwi flatmate was a huge stoner. All the time. I kind of assumed it was legal or decriminalized there, since she did it so much. I mean, the drinking age is 18, so this sounded plausible?

After I met my Kiwi boyfriend, I stayed at his house sometimes. In the beginning, he would drop me off at my flat at 7:30 AM on his way to work. My first class was not until 10:30 on most mornings, so I would go back to bed when he dropped me off! Sometimes I would watch my American shows on my laptop while lying in my dorm twin size bed (some smart American kids networked the shows-t his was before the day when you could go to abc.com or hulu.)

After dating my kiwi boyfriend for a while, he taught me how to drive his “spare car”. They drive on the other side of the road over there and the steering wheel is on the other side too. Learning this is feat within itself. I would go to turn on the blinker, and the windshield wipers would start going! But, this car was the same YEAR as me. Ya, no wonder my boyfriend let me use it! It was worth $200.00 tops! (In my opinion) Oh, did I mention it was not only a standard, but it HAD A CHOKE to start it! Like, from the olden days. I grew up learning to drive a stick shift, but it was hard getting used to the stick on the left of me instead of the right. Also, I had to put fluids in it every day after driving it. On the mornings I drove myself to school in the car he called “The Great White” because it was white, I would get up slowly and make my breakfast. I loved going through all his food cabinets and eating lots of food. Sometimes , I would get up, get a bowl of ice cream (NZ ice cream is VERY creamy and different) and go back to bed for a bit. It was still that stage where you don’t want to be Miss Piggy around your new boyfriend? You know? So, I Just decided to be a closet eater and eat all the food that I had seen in the cabinets since I started going to his house. And, I always woke up starving because I didn’t eat a lot of dinner around him. You know- trying to impress? I was young and dumb, what can I say?

One night , the boyfriend and I were going through one of his cabinets looking for some papers. Well, he was looking, I was being nosy. I saw this beautiful tin on the shelf. I asked him what was in the tin. He looked at me and told me the tin was his flatmates’. Boyfriend rented out a room in his house to his workmate who needed a place to stay. He opened up the tin, and I saw cookies!! Then, boyfriend put them back on the shelf and told me they were NOT cookies I wanted to eat.

Hm. Weird.

A week or so goes by, and I was looking in the cabinet for food before going to school. I opened up that tin and took 2 cookies. I wrapped them in a napkin and tossed them in the front of my book bag.

A couple weeks pass. Boyfriend dropped me off at school early in the morning. I was going back to bed before my class. First, I dumped out my book bag looking for my cell phone. OH, damn it! I forgot about those cookies! They were broken! I stuffed a few pieces in my mouth…just to get rid of the mess. I know- who does that? I was so sanitary.

I went to bed.

I dreamed very weird things.

I woke up and attempted to go to the bathroom. I could barely walk. I had to walk down the flat hall with my hands on the walls. My other flatmates were up getting ready for school. They knew I had come home that morning and asked if I was drunk. I had NO idea what was going on. I thought my shaved head roommate was trying to make out with me. She was not. I thought my Kenyan roommate was speaking a different language to me. He was not. The rooms were spinning. I was seeing birds- I was ducking. I was hallucinating.

I went back to bed and skipped my first class. There was no way I could go like this!I got up for my next class. I met 2 of my fellow American classmates for the walk over to our NZ Politics class. I told the two boys about the cookies and how it was a mistake. And, I was scared. Not that this part of the story is entirely relevant, but one of my classmates I confessed to is the nephew of a previous American President. (Speaking of, I think he unfriended me from Facebook!) No one at school really knew "who" he was, but if any dummy looked at his full name, it was pretty damn obvious. Well, I did. I figured it out after meeting him for 2 days, but I am just smart like that and I know my stuff! And, we were in TWO politics classes together in a country that hated American politics at the time! Oh, that part was fun…especially when high on cookies!

It was a rough morning/day for me, and everyone knew it from taking a two second look at me!

The best part, or maybe worse, is when I convinced the RA, Ragu, that America sent me over to investigate him, and I worked for the American DEA. Yes, I did. I accused him of his antics in front of A LOT of people, and discussed my DEA agenda for a good 30 minutes.

I didn’t show my face in that flat complex for weeks. I hid at boyfriend’s house and only went to campus for classes, then immediately left.

On the very last day of school , I apologized to good ole Regu. I told him I would send any future American stoners his way when they arrived on campus.

That was the end of my herbal cookie days, and my curiosity of crusty old baked goods in pretty tins. I ended up telling my boyfriend what happened a long time after. His response, "I told you, you didn't want to eat THOSE cookies. haha. How were they?"

I love this story because it is so college...one of my friends actually ate a brownie she thought was "special" once but turns out it was just an overpriced brownie a frat was selling as a fundraiser. Thanks Ashley!

Curiosities: Caroline from Simply Smithwick

Good morning! It's my first day not working so I am trying to be productive this morning and I'm babysitting this afternoon...a friend of my mom's called me yesterday and asked if I could watch her baby for a couple hours. I'm hoping this will turn into a regular thing while I am in school so why not get started asap?

Today is also my first "Curiosities" guest blogger, Caroline from Simply Smithwick. In case you missed this post, over the next couple weeks some of my favorite bloggers will be sharing their funny, weird and interesting stories to go with the theme of Curiosity...I'm excited to see what they do! Caroline's story is super weird...honestly I have no clue what I would do if I came across someone like this! So now I'll shut up...here is Caroline!

Hey, everyone!! I am Caroline from Simply Smithwick. I am so excited to be doing my very first guest blogger post for Cee. I've always enjoyed reading her blog and I feel honored to be able to contribute.

So, let me start off by first saying everything I am about to tell you is 100% true. Trust me, I couldn't make this stuff up.

Ever since I was a small child, my parents have been taking me on family vacations. We've been to some pretty amazing places and we've had some pretty wild experiences, but nothing can top the people we've encountered along the way....

When I was in middle school, my family and I traveled out west to visit Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada. One of our stops along the way was in Estes Park, Colorado. We decided to take a tram ride up to the top of a mountain (another tourist trap).

While we were waiting for the tram, we noticed a 50-something-year-old gentleman holding what at first glace looked like an actual baby, but later turned out to be a baby doll. We assumed he was holding it for his daughter or granddaughter who was already on the top of the mountain, but that wasn't the case.

We board the tram and it's just my family, this man, the doll, the tram guide and myself on board. On our tram ride up the mountain, the man starts talking, but he wasn't talking to us. He was talking to the doll. I remember his words, "Look here, Jimmy, you're the one who wanted to come on this trip. Now, look out the window."

We were all so shocked. The guide looked at us and we looked at her. Her voice was immediately replaced by a tape of the tour.

He kept having this argument with the doll. We feared he was going to go nuts and kill us all. When we finally reached the top of the mountain, we let him get off of the tram first and we kept a close eye on him.

We let him go back down the mountain first. On our way down, we noticed the man putting Jimmy in a car seat. To make matters worse, he was from Maine. Yes, this crazy man had driven all the way from Maine to Colorado with this doll.

We were just in shock for the remainder of the day. I don't think any of us remembered anything about the mountain or the views. We just had our eyes on Jimmy.

So later that day, we were driving through the town and we we saw the man pushing Jimmy in the stroller. Jimmy even had a hat on. We couldn't contain ourselves. We thought the morning was bad, but this was the icing on the cake.

After that, there were no more Jimmy sightings and we don't know what happened to Jimmy or the man, but we'll always have their memories.

To this day, we still talk about Jimmy and our experience. It's something that you just can't believe until it happens to you.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! And thank you to Cee again for allowing me to contribute!

At least he was concerned about Jimmy being safe on that long car ride? Thanks Caroline!