Does anyone else...

-Actually keep the small plastic bag of extra buttons that come with new clothes? (other than my mother)

-Worry about the waitress when you have a large group of people at your table? Is anyone else paying attention to her?! Pay attention people!

-Utilize cruise control a majority of the time you are driving?

-Drink milk straight from the container?

-Drink chocolate syrup straight from the bottle?

-Remember watching Hang Time on Saturday mornings? AWESOME.

-Find cottage cheese to be disgusting? I call it bird food because it looks like a mama bird chewed it up and then spit it back out on my plate.

-Know that there are only 122 days until the movie event of the summer?

-Find reading non-fiction to be a chore?

-Wish that you too could have had an animated conscience like McGee as a child?

-Dream about meeting Jim Gaffigan?

-Only wash on two settings? Colors on cold, lights on warm. I don't have time to make 12 piles.

-Groan when King of Queens comes on?

-Find existential Facebook status updates to be ridiculous? Ginger is basking in the sun of thoughts and the dreams of clouds. OR Ginger is tap shoes and rhythm.

-Wish they could still catch WINGS reruns on t.v.?

-Recall wishing to live like The Boxcar children? I read the section about swimming in the little pool and setting up house in the car over and over. Things went downhill for me when they actually moved into a real house.

-Wish that they still had their curly elastic shoe laces?

-Cry so hard through Extreme Home Makeover that sometimes they don't think they actually have the emotional energy to watch it?

-Recognize the quote: There's something nasty in the woodshed.

-Think of the state of Texas as if it's your best friend?

-Wonder why Claudia Kishi was supposedly so fashionable when her choices were clearly unstable?

-Remember reading and loving and being obsessed with A Bride for Donnigan or The Stars for A Light - Dr. Cheney Duvall, M.D.?

-Have all the dialoge and songs memorized from at least six Psalty tapes?

-Recall spending their Saturday nights expectantly watching Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman?

....Just thought I would check.

Little Drummer Boy

I'm listening to the Christmas Music station via my T.V. and the current selection happens to be Burl Ives singing "The Little Drummer Boy." I'm not the biggest Burl fan, and I've also inherited my Father's "love" for this particular Christmas Carol. Maybe it's the rum-pa-pum-pum that drives me crazy. Yes, as I listen to Burl, that's it. He's asking if he should play for me, pa-rum-pa-pum. No. Please do not play for me Burl.

I promise I'm not a Scrooge. Aaah. The rum-pa-pum is getting louder. I need to move to try and turn down the volume. This is going to be harder than I thought, seeing as I have not moved from my spot on the couch for the past hour or so. It's been one of those evenings. It's rainy and 45 degrees outside. It's just the perfect "no moving unless the rum-pa-pum-pum song is on" kind of night.

I thought about going to the gym. I thought long and hard about it. I even watched part of "The Biggest Loser" and felt very inspired and guilty all at the same time. I have a love-hate relationship with shows that make you feel like you too should be able to lose 5% of your body weight in one week. So I counter-acted those thoughts by watching "Chocolat" (http://videodetective.com/photos/065/002770_19.jpg)- again. Watching that movie usually requires me to eat some form of chocolate. Go figure. So I've decided to compromise between the chocolate and the gym. I'm not eating anything else, but I'm also not moving. I suppose I will have to move to brush my teeth before going to bed, but that's it. The really funny part is that I've somehow convinced myself that somehow I will be going to the gym at 6:00 in the morning. That's hysterical. I have like a 10% likelihood of that actually happening, if my track record is any indication. My alarm will ring at 5:30 and I will proceed to hit the alarm until 6:30 when I will be forced to chide myself for not going to the gym and then go and turn the coffee on. It's going to be swell....pa-rum-pa-pum-pum.

Little Orphan Annie

Confession: I just squeezed chocolate syrup straight into my mouth. Good thing no one else eats any of my food. I'm listening to the soundtrack of "Oklahoma" in my one-bedroom apartment having just swallowed a mouthful of chocolate syrup. I'm listening to "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" debating whether to wash my hair and chiding myself for digesting chocolate right after a trip to the gym.

So the real confession isn't actually the previous paragraph, it includes the entire day. I have the oddest days. Today included a lunch meeting with 7 other employees, all who are married. 15 minutes of the conversation was confined to whether or not they had gotten to eat at their wedding receptions. I didn't mind it at all. What I did mind was the looks and smiles and "we're boring Ginger!" (I think that exact sentence was spoken.) Granted it wasn't a thrilling topic, but I wasn't mourning my own lack of contribution to the discussion. Suddenly all faces were turned my way and nods were shared around. At that moment I was willing to bring up my views on the '08 Campaign just to get rid of the mood at the table.

So of course I had to do my very best to jump into the conversation and push through. I felt like an orphan. Not because I don't have a wedding story, but because of the looks. Those "Dearest, give the poor girl a farthing" looks. I'm not sure if you know the look, but I do. And I have a feeling I've given that look before too, obviously just not regarding my Wedding Reception. Sometimes I like to throw in the look with a "You've never been to Europe?" I love getting the look from others when I haven't seen someone's favorite movie. "YOU'VE NEVER SEEN Die Hard? Are you even an American?! Who are you?!!" Appalling isn't it? How about this one: "You've never eaten Cottage Cheese?" (I try never to put something in my mouth that looks like a Mama Bird has chewed, swallowed, and then spit back up for her little ones.)

So no - I don't have any wedding stories for my married co-workers, but I do have all of the songs from "Oklahoma" memorized. Oh...you don't have them memorized?