THE SILENT TREATMENT

My husband and I went to San Francisco last weekend. Flying out and back I decided to try an experiment. The "tag-blogs" about the 5 kindness things started me thinking. Most people, in their kindness to strangers said they talked to people in line or in waiting rooms, etc. I wondered if I never said anything, would strangers talk to me first? My husband booked me a seat in first class and he was in coach. (His company paid for his ticket and I flew on his frequent flyer miles. He said he booked my seat in first class so I could have more leg room, although I told him I would rather sit by him than have leg room. :0} ) So other than pointing to my seat and saying that was my seat by the window, I said nothing to my seat-mates. Having to change planes in Phoenix going out and coming back, I ended up sitting by 3 men, and 1 woman. No one said a word to me. In Phoenix, I went to get a sandwich and there was nowhere to sit. I saw a woman sitting by herself at a 4-top so I went up to her and asked if anyone was sitting with her and when she said no, asked if I could sit with her. I thought, "This will be the real test - I spoke to her first, now let's see if she speaks to me if I don't say anything more." She didn't. I thought this experiment was quite interesting. Do people just want to be left alone? Are people just not interested in making small talk? Do they not care enough to make the effort to make conversation? Do men only talk to "hot" looking women? Do women only talk to "hot" looking men?

IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY, SHOUT HOORAY!

Today is my 5th child's birthday! Happy Birthday, Bullet for Babs! I thought I'd blog a little bit about him today. When I decided I wanted just one more baby, I had to talk my husband into it. I "promised" him it would be a boy. I told him that I knew that it would be a boy. I don't know how I knew, but I did. Bullet for Babs brother also knew he would be a boy. My husband used to tell me that I should prepare Survival Knife, just in case it wasn't a boy, but Survival Knife never waivered. He would tell me, "No! He's a boy!"

When Bullet for Babs was little, I used to call him my "Sweet Baboo". We also called him "Boogie Down Baby" because he always liked a song with a good beat. When ever a rock song would come on, he would rock back and forth in his crib, high chair, car seat, play pen, or whatever in tempo with the music. In fact by the time he was 2 he had rocked his crib so much that I couldn't tighten the screws anymore and we had to take it down and junk it.

When he was only a year old he could throw a ball straight to you. He could also catch it if you threw it back. We couldn't believe how good he could throw. His favorite things were balls. "Ball" was even one of his first words.

Bullet for Babs loved to wear his Superman cape whenever he was at home, and would wear it all the time. It was actually a Superman/Batman cape, because it was reversible. Whenever we left to go out, I would make him take it off and then he would always wear a baseball cap whenever he went anywhere. He continued this until he was well into his teens and then he quit wearing a baseball cap because it messed up his hair.

Here's a story Bullet for Babs wrote when he was in school. Unfortunately, I don't know how old he was because it didn't have a date on it. I have typed it exactly like he wrote it, with no corrections:

"I like creamy peanut butter. I like it because it is a lot better than crunchy peanut butter. It tastes good. I think people should like creamy peanut butter because if you're eating crunchy peanut butter and you see a movie with a bug it will feel like you're eating the bug. I like creamy peanut butter because you can use it to make creamy peanut butter cookies.
"I like creamy peanut because it is more like butter and butter is not crunchy. I like creamy peanut butter because I like it to go through my teeth. I think people should like creamy peanut butter instead of crunchy is that creamy slides down your throat and crunchy you have to chew it and sometimes the nuts in crunchy peanut butter gets stuck in your teeth and you have to take forever to pick it out."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BULLET FOR BABS!

PEOPLE ARE STRANGE

My husband and I just got back from a weekend trip to San Francisco. We had a great time. I'll blog more later about that, but I have a couple of stories.

STORY #1 - After we returned from a tour, we decided since we were already down by the wharves, that we would go to Pier 39 to do some shopping. We had parked up by the Ferry Building so we could catch the tour, but decided to just leave our car where it had been in the parking lot all day and just catch the streetcar down to Pier 39. After we had dinner and did some shopping we went to wait for the streetcar to take us back to our car. The signboard showing the minutes of how long it would be until the next car kept counting down, then all of a sudden it added several minutes back on. It counted down again and then did the same thing. When the streetcar finally arrived it was jam-packed. (I forgot to mention that the St. Patrick Day's Parade had been that day and there were mobs of people there.) The driver motioned for everyone to move back, and as we got on - standing room only - I joked to the people sitting below me that we were going to "have to get real friendly". This caused a laugh and so we started talking. One guy asked me if I had heard why the streetcar was late, and I said no. He said some drunk had gotten into an argument with the streetcar driver and the drunk actually punched the driver. Still arguing, the drunk decided to call the police. He obviously thought the streetcar driver was the one who would get arrested. WRONG! The driver had a streetcar full of witnesses that saw the drunk being obnoxious, and throw the first punch. The drunk was arrested.
STORY #2 - This happened the morning I was leaving San Francisco. At the airport some guy was waiting in a wheelchair at one of those places where the shuttle buss picks you up and takes you either to the rent car place or a hotel (can't remember which one it was). When the shuttle bus driver got off to help the guy, the guy jumped out of the wheel chair, jumped onto the bus and shut the door and drove off with all the people in the bus. As it turned out he only drove around and let the rest of the people off at their terminal and then he got off. Since the other people left (or didn't realize that he wasn't the bus driver) there were no witnesses to help the cops find the guy.
People are strange, when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly, when you're alone
People seem wicked, when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven, when you're down
When you're strange - faces come out of the rain
When you're strange - no one remembers your name
When you're strange, when you're strange, when you're strange.

5 THINGS

Inside Stories tagged me for this blog:

5 THINGS I DO FOR MYSELF:
1. Read
2. Listen to books on cd
3. Blog
4. Watch movies every once in a while that I know my husband won't watch
5. Teach Seminary (I have to say I've held on for 4 years teaching, more for myself than for the kids, I want the knowledge that I get from it)

5 THINGS I DO FOR MY HUSBAND / CLOSE FRIENDS / CHILDREN:
1. I am my husband's personal secretary - I buy his clothes, run his errands, help with his projects, am his gopher, etc.
2. Go out to lunch every Friday with my friends.
3. Listen to my children's problems and try to help them
4. Pray for them
5. Babysit my grandkids

5 THINGS I DO FOR STRANGERS:
1. Give money to the poor via church offerings, charities, and once in a while to the person on the street.
2. Smile
3. Talk to the person in line, in the elevator, in a waiting room, etc.
4. Drive curteously
5. Help someone I see that might need it, if I am able to do so - pick up something dropped, hold the door, give directions, get something off a high shelf, etc

I tag Native Minnow, Bullet for Babs, and Twist

A BIBLE, A BIBLE! WE HAVE NO NEED OF A BIBLE!

I was reading Delirious' blog about being asked to speak at a women's meeting. I thought I would tell you about the experience I had last week of speaking at a board meeting for RS teachers. I was asked to speak for 15 minutes on using the scriptures in your lessons. I had no qualms about this, because this is a subject I feel strongly about and I feel like, at least in my ward, the only time I open my scriptures is during Sunday School. I wanted these ladies to understand that they needed to USE their scriptures more and not just print the scripture on a piece of paper for someone to read. Also because I have had training on this, I felt I could pass some great tips along to these women.

I wish I could tell you how great it went. It didn't. I wanted to talk a short time about footnotes, chapter headings, the Bible dictionary and the JST translation (which no one knew where it was located by the way). I was going to get these women to use their scriptures as we discussed all this...however NO ONE brought their scriptures! The education counselor appologized for no one having their scriptures because she didn't tell them to bring them. Now ask yourself this question: If you asked someone to speak about using the scriptures, wouldn't you tell all your teachers (on the invitation you sent out) to make sure they brought their scriptures? Or wouldn't you have at least gone and retrieved scriptures from the library - one for each woman? I felt like saying, "This is the point I wanted to make - women don't take the scriptures seriously enough" and just sit down. AAUUUGGGHHH! As it was, I gave my speech and sat down, thinking I had spoken waaayy over their heads.

PARCHED

It's amazing to me to realize how much bodily fluid must go to making (to put it nicely) "nasal fluid". Having had "the crud" for several days, my body feels like it is dehydrated no mater how much H2O I drink.

OUT-OF-DATE

My co-teacher and I were talking about out-of-date words and phrases. This was instigated in our conversation about flip flops (See blog "HOW COOL ARE YOU?"). I mentioned that I had finally got in the habit of calling them flip flops instead of "thongs". When I was growing up we called them "thongs". We can't call them that now for obvious reasons. Here are some other out-of-date things, words and phrases: albums, dial that number, transistor radio, 8 track tape, portable typewriter, full-service gas station, hi-fi, beta tape, black-and-white tv, console tv, tape deck...Can you think of any more?