Tremendous Blondette

Life is about association. I heard The Dixie Chicks on the radio earlier this week and it made me think of their song  “Wide Open Spaces.”

Then I thought about listening to the Dixie Chicks on repeat in my dorm room while reading “The Deep End of the Ocean.”

One itty bitty thing triggered a physical, mental, and emotional response. Three things for three things.

It costs $6, but you get to keep the cup.

On Wednesday, I attended the Royals game with a group of coworkers. Our agency acquired tickets and decided that each manager and director would take 3 staff members to a game. I totally picked the right day. The weather was amazing, though windy.

Every step we took made me think “boy, this place has changed!” When I was in the early elementary school years I got to tour the stadium with my school group.

I remember years of plastic souvenir cups at my aunt Jean’s house. I just kept thinking about the dishwasher worn cups and how many there were! They really must have gone to a lot of games. At that point, they were somewhere near my current age. To be fair, my aunt Jean is an extrovert and much more social than I am so I shouldn’t be that surprised that she had a lot more “life” than I do. In fact, she still has more life and extracurricular activities.

It’s not that I don’t like to do things, but it takes more mental effort for me. I have to force myself to say “yes.” I’m usually dandy once I get to an event. Sometimes, I’m not and I think about what I’m going to do when I get home…and hope it won’t be too late to enjoy my reclusiveness.

I’m just a homebody. I like activities that involve my home.

Anyway, the cups reminded me of a different time of life. Childhood. The house on McGee. Our first home in Kansas City – a strange mixture of emotions. I wrote something not so nice on the wall with wax. I played Uno on the wooden floors and watched Days of Our Lives with my cousins in the sunroom (which became the playroom when my cousin Stephanie was born.)

I remember going to a game with my mom, my aunt, and my aunt’s friends and feeling really cool becuase I was out with the women. We cleaned up after the game and went a Mediterranean restaurant for dinner (this was before I developed a love for hummus and feta cheese, but not before my love of black olives.)

All from one damn cup.

Earlier this year I wrote that I was going to post as I was thought about it. This hasn’t happened. I have several drafts for things I’ve wanted to share, but haven’t. I haven’t felt like I had the right words. I’ve questioned how people will react. I’ve wondered about making people uncomfortable.

Recently, I read a post by on Copyblogger.com called “How to Stop Making Yourself Crazy with Self-Editing” by Sean D’Souza. The main idea I took away was that we need to stop editing so much and just write. Isn’t that how they say we get better? Isn’t that one of the main themes in any creative writing class? Write.

You work on exercises to stretch your brain. You open up your imagination, heart, and you have no time to edit.

They call this stream of consciousness. I’ve been watching the Emmy’s and tweeting my opinions. I’m a little upset that Neil Patrick Harris lost to Jon Cryer and that Jim Parsons lost to Alec Baldwin. In fact, Jim Parsons became (and still is) a trending topic on Twitter but most of the comments are junk. NPH is hosting with some crap material but he’s still good. Jimmy Fallon is hilarious.

9pm and it feels like 10pm Sunday night.

Let me go back to the beginning of today. I awoke and shortly after a heard my phone ding- yes, I keep it by my bed (it’s my alarm! and what if I wake up and can’t sleep and feel like getting on Facebook or Twitter? or texting? or checking my email? and well, it’s my clock so I know how much sleep I’m not getting) Boys don’t like this about me. (it was before 7am so I figured it was Tammi because no one else is awake and texting me that early- usually.) It turns out the text was from my dad. Suffice it to say (trite!) I was surprised, but in a nice way. The highlights of our text conversation where his joke when I told him I had exciting news (me: I’m buying a house. Him: that’s better than being pregnant – indeed Dad, indeed!) and when I told him I’d just email him since his phone was dying and he LOLed at me.

Lately I’ve been telling people and myself to “step back.” Pull yourself out of the moment and really look at the whole situation. Imagine, my dad texting me and us having a fun conversation. My mom has been trying to text lately as have Tammi’s parents. Anyhow, I followed up with a cup of coffee and getting to the coffee shop on time and securing our table! Coffee was exceptionally fun today with upbeat banter and adult humor and friends.

You know what, if this is growing up, then I say, thank God.

5,7,5. Nope, not a clothing store for skinny people. (that was 5,7,9)

As an English major I was expected to be well versed in meter,measure and the art of the syllable. It is with wholehearted something that I tell you how much I sucked at that portion of my studies. I’ve always been able to read and phrase well, but there was something about the counting and diagramming that just didn’t click for me. Maybe it was ambivalence.

My story begins at the Caddy Shack, a local lovable dive bar less than half a mile from my office. On this particular evening, I believe it was a going away party or an outing, or just a Friday night that had many folks out …after most went home, the core remained. We drank, we laughed, we texted. Oh my. Have you seen “texts from last night?” Well, I don’t know if our haiku laden texts would rate, but we were pretty creative.

Here’s where things are a little fuzzy: I believe the haiku started with a request from The Todd to Tammi. After that, all messages and a lot of the convsation was in haiku. We had teamwork! Bonding! Comraderie!

It stuck with us and we continued to email in haiku the next day. It still makes me warm and laughy which is why this is a favorite memory. Not everyone would sit around and enjoy creating haiku with a group!