They Call Him Spooky

I love living in a small town. It's the little things, man.

B was over visiting yesterday. C and M came over with her. Light of my life and M were playing quietly in her room. I hadn't gotten home yet but B was visiting with mom. It was a nice surprise to see them there. I was surprised because I didn't see their car but they had walked over (it was cold yesterday).

Anyway, I was supposed to have gone over to their house last night to help C with her social studies homework. She has to learn the placement of the states on a map as well as their postal abbreviations. Not to brag or anything, but I'm good at that kind of stuff. I always prided myself on knowing where states are on a map and the abbreviations. Of course, during the course of my previous occupation, I needed to know the abbreviations because I had to mail things out to states all over the country. I actually got pretty good at knowing area codes as well. You could give me a telephone number with an out of state area code and about 8 out of 10 times I could tell you the state they were calling from. Yes, I know, I'm a total dork and know a lot of completely useless information. You should see the inside of my head. It's filled with nothing but useless information and trivia. Especially if it has anything to do with movies. Just think, if I could clear my mind of all that information..........well, I would probably just fill it up with other completely useless information!! LOL!!!

Whoa, I got way off track with that.

Anyway, B came over to tell me that the state thingie got postponed until Monday so instead, she invited me to the Methodist church in a nearby city to go shopping.

I guess I should back up and start over.

B's friend P has a son that's a senior at the local high school. Next Thursday, they are having a beauty pageant for boys. It's where the boys get to dress up like women and parade around and have a pageant. I'm not sure what all it entails as I'm new here and have never gone to it before. At my high school, we had one of these as well. It was a trip seeing all these big beefy guys from the football team all dressed up in fishnets, bustiers and heels. Some of them really got in to it, too. Some of them really seemed to like it.....wonder what they're up to these days? Hmmmm....note to self.....Google some guys from high school to see what they're up to.

Anyway, P needed to get a dress and some heels for her son. The pageant is next Thursday. There's a Methodist church in a neighboring city that has a rummage sale every other Saturday. The church is no longer a working church so the items for the sale just stay in there. It's kind of like a permanent rummage store. It's only opened every other Saturday. P knows the woman that runs it and she said that P could come and check out the dresses they had. B has been cleaning out the toy room like crazy for the past few days and had a bunch of stuff to donate to the store. I had a few things as well. B invited me to come with her and P to the store and to drop off my donations as well. I was game. Survivor doesn't start for a little while, so my Thursday night was free. Light of my life was just happy to go over to M's to play.

First of all, shout out to B. She makes the best rice. It was so good. So was the sweet and sour chicken. Thanks again for dinner, B!

After we ate, we watched a couple of videos on ebaum's world (http://www.ebaumsworld.com/). You guys need to check it out. It's like You Tube but B's husband, L, had found all these funny videos. If you go check out the site, look for one called "Atomic Sit-Up". It was hysterical.

P came and picked us up. We went to the church and dropped off the donations and shopped a bit. I got 4 books for myself (one on Catherine the Great and 3 others....I love reading about Catherine the Great, she was a phenomenal woman) and about 5-6 for light of my life as well as a curio shelf and another wooden shelf. B got some pants for C and some books for both girls. P found a black and white dress and some shoes for her son. He's gonna look so hot! LOL!

While we were there, the lady who runs the shop had her mother with her. Her mother is an older lady but very spry. She was wandering around the shop and noticed some pillows. She said, "I like these pillows" and her daughter spoke up and said "You should, they came from our house!". It was so funny. It sounds like something I would say.

I loved being able to shop before the store opened. I feel like a celebrity who gets stores to open up after hours so they can shop in private. I bet Paris Hilton never got a Methodist church rummage store to open up 2 days before the official opening. Eat your heart out Paris. I roll with the crew that has pull in this town, b*tch.

This post has no point whatsoever, other than to tell you what I did with my Thursday night.

Oh, and the title to this post?

When B was over and visiting with mom, mom asked her who lived in a house right down the highway from us.

B, in all seriousness, said, "Well, they call him Spooky". It took me about 5 minutes to stop laughing.

That sums up living in a small town better than anything else out there.

I think I need to rename my blog "They Call Him Spooky".

Have a good weekend all!

Later,

Mama Dawg

City Girl Gets Spooked

I had a weird night last night. We drove back home last night from my wild and crazy New Year’s (see prior post to see just how wild and crazy it was!). Got in about 10:30 or so but because we had gotten so used to staying up all hours of the night, none of us were really sleepy. So, we unpacked the car. Got the sick kitty out of the car (he had to go w/us because of his medications). The other kitty that stayed at home was all pissed off at us and acted accordingly.

It was supposed to be a cold night and we knew we would have to run the water during the night to keep the pipes from freezing. About 45 minutes after we arrived, we decided to turn the water on. Barely anything came out. It hadn’t been cold enough the night before to freeze the pipes and the really, really cold weather hadn’t set in yet. Ended up calling the landlord at 11:30 at night to tell them of the problem. I had to take a shower in the morning and needed the water. What was coming out of the hot water faucet wasn’t even getting warm but the electricity was going, so I wasn’t sure what that problem was.

Anyway, the landlord said they’d be down in the morning to check on it. That sucked for me on the shower part, but it wasn’t really necessary for survival and it was pitch dark outside.

About 10 minutes later, he called back and said he’d go ahead and go check on it for me. A few minutes later, the water started coming out in big gushes and the hot water was actually hot. I thought he had already discovered and taken care of the problem (he lives right up the hill from us) and called to tell his wife that it was fine. She said that that was impossible since he had just literally closed the door to leave. She called him back and that was that.

I guess the water was just running so slow because we hadn’t been home to use it. Go figure.

We live out in the country and we don’t have our own water line. We are connected to my landlord’s water line via a large and long hose. Their connection is in the middle of the woods and is exposed to the elements. Over the weekend he had covered and insulated the connection. Thank goodness. He’s supposed to work on our own water line but it’s expensive to do so it might be a while.

That was weird enough in it’s own right but then it got weirder.

See, we have a hamster. He’s a good hamster. Doesn’t make a lot of noise and is not a biter and is real friendly.

He was awake when we arrived home and we paid the little guy the attention he was due. I checked on his food and water and found both sufficient. I end up going to bed around 1 am or so. Light of my life was in bed with me and had been playing her new Nintendo DS that she got for Christmas. I finally made her turn it off to go to sleep. I always have a cup of hot tea before I go to bed (it actually makes me fall asleep) and read for a little bit. I turned off the light and went to sleep. Around 5 am, my subconscious must of heard a noise because I started to wake up. Before I even opened my eyes, I could hear the hamster “chattering” away. Since he never does this, I was a little concerned. I then heard my non-sick kitty softly meowing at him in the same “voice” he uses to warn the big bad birds outside that if there wasn’t a window and door and walls between him and them, he would be all over them like white on rice. I’m paraphrasing of course, but you get my drift. Anyway, I sat up and got out of bed. I went to check on the cats and found both of them asleep in the living room on their pillow in front of the heater. Now I’m getting kind of freaked out.

I then went over to the hamster’s cage (it’s in my room for now) and he was sitting on top of his little house just staring straight ahead (not at me but towards the bathroom door). He didn’t even turn to look at me when I tapped on his cage bars. About a minute later, he finally looked at me. I got him out of the cage and held him for a while and then put him back.

Little spooky, right? Gets just a smidge more spooky.

Since light of my life is out of school for the holidays, she can sleep in and my mom sleeps in every morning as well. It was trash day today so I had to gather up all the trash and take it to the end of the driveway. I gathered up the trash and put on my robe. I went to the front door and found it unlocked!!!! Both my mom and I had checked on the door last night before bed with my mom being the last one to check it. I have no clue what that was about. We don’t have a deadbolt or a chain because it’s pretty safe where we live, but I may just go ahead and plunk down the few dollars for a chain and install it tonight.

I know that story was anti-climactic and not terribly exciting or frightening, but it was weird nevertheless.

Later,

Mama Dawg