Day 3: Favourite Quote

Click on the picture for a full image.

(Crummy template settings, anyway!!!)

Toastless

Where is TOASTBA?

(The Original And Still The Best Anonymous)

This question has come up several times in the last few months from other faithful readers and commenters of the Chronicles. Well, how in the world should I know?  That's the whole fun of the anonymous comment!  

I DO have theories, however.

Theory #1

     TOASTBA was apprehended and taken into custody for impersonating a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer. (This actually happened, if you can imagine!  One of the guys who read The Farmer's blog is serving time for this exact crime.  He doesn't leave comments any more, either.)

Theory #2

     TOASTBA won the BIG lottery and is now living on a yacht in the South Pacific, where there are much more entertaining things to do rather than read the Cohagen Chronicles.  Things like diving, fishing, drinking fruity rum drinks at 2 p.m....

Theory #3

     TOASTBA smarted off to the wrong WWF wrestler on the way through an airport and is still in a full body cast, unable to type, eating pureed meals through a straw.  (WWF is World Wrestling Federation, not Weight Watchers Flunkie, although they might be interchangeable sometimes.  Just thought I should clear that little acronym question up.)

Theory #4

     TOASTBA was abducted by aliens, an example cementing their long standing theory that there's no intelligent life on the planet Earth. 

Or...
And this is a thought...
TOASTBA grew bored with the Chronicles and moved on to Kim Kardashian's blog.
*sniffle*

What do YOU think?

Day 2: 20 Facts About Me

1.  My REAL middle name is Margaret.
2. I was named after both of my grandmothers: Inda MARY and MARGARET Francis.
3. My real name earned me the nickname "Sister Mary Margaret" in college.
4. I am not Catholic.
5. One of my favorite songs when I was 12 years old was Billy Joel's "Only The Good Die Young" about a Catholic girl.
6. I graduated in 1989 from Garfield County High School.
7. Because Garfield County is HU-MON-GOUS (4,848 square miles; 4 Rhode Islands could fit in that) and there was no bus route toward our house, I lived in a dormitory for all four years of high school.
8. I once shoveled beer cans with Cody Witt for Wayne Hunter to make some money one day after school.
9. I went to my first prom with Victor Ady, who told the English teacher Mr. White that he was going to prom with a girl named Dary Mutton who Mr. White thought was a girl from Circle, MT.
10. My first prom dress was yellow and I rented it.
11. The Murray boys taught some of us girls how to jitterbug in the basement of the dorm to George Strait's song "Unwound".
12. My major was Elementary/Special Education at Eastern Montana College.
13. I did my sophomore practicum with Sharon Reynolds (who had been a classmate of Torey Hayden, my literary and teaching hero at the time) at Beartooth Elementary in a classroom of severely handicapped students.
14. I took History of Rock and Roll to fulfill one of my art credits.  Yes, it's a glowing A on my transcript!
15. I was a Girl Scout and can still recite "I will do my best to serve God, my country, mankind and to live by the Girl Scout law."
16. I am addicted to coffee.
17. I bake without a timer...just go by smell, which is why I can't bake when I have a cold, no matter how desperately I need those medicinal gingersnaps!
18. I am still an alto and sing harmony always, which REALLY sounds horrible when I have my headphones on.
19. My shoe size is 8....and I ADORE shoes/boots/flip flops.
20. I don't have any tattoos. (This is sort of a big, un-cool confession from a child of the 80's!)

Couldn't find the Freshman prom yellow dress picture, so you get....

SHOES!!!

(If ONLY they grew on trees...*sigh*)

Introducing, Blog Challenge July 2013!

Weirdly, last year's blog challenge was held in July, too.  Thank goodness!  Can you imagine how boring a January blog challenge would be, the world through my lens at THAT point of the year??

*shudder*


Here's the official list:

Today is "Introduction and recent photo".

I was sort of fretting about this, since I seem to have contracted a butt kicking cold from those precious little Vacation Bible School/swimming lesson kids of the last two weeks.  

I can guarantee, no one wants to see a photo of me today.

My family is averting their gaze, for goodness sake, as they walk past to get their cup of dry breakfast cereal.

But then, I realized...it just says "recent photo".

NOTHING says it has to be a photo of ME.  

And "recent" is a rah-ther vague time frame, don't you think?

So, here you go....

A recent photo!

(I'm certain if you wanted to macro-magnify the photo, you could find my image in the wine glass.  Please don't waste your time.)

I'm doing this challenge with my friends Kim and Patricia, along with 10-12 other people Patricia has gathered up.  I know the Chronicles have been less than exciting, lately, so hopefully this will inject some energy into my writing and photography.  I've been feeling guilty about writing, thinking, always, that there's something more productive I could be doing with my time.  But here's the thing, my friends...

It's my journal and it's therapy.

(My readers like it because they figure out that they're actually quite sane and normal in comparison, so it's kind of "group therapy" although we don't really get together.)

I'll be gone for a few days on an Independence Day adventure with my family and friends, so I'm going to try to do some of those timed posts, where Blogger hangs on to the drafts until EXACTLY noon on each day, then publishes. We'll see if it works.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. 

If any of my blogger friends want to join us in this challenge, let me know and we'll tag you somehow in the group! (Honestly, I don't know who all is doing this....just that I need to.)

Stay tuned, folks...

Tomorrow is "20 Facts About You"

Me, not you. 

(The cold medicine helps me breathe, but does nothing for my cognitive functions that were diminished ANYWAY.)

Maggie

Last night at the wedding dance, my daughter made friends with a Chinese lady who speaks very little English, but shares the common language of smiles and hugs.

I watched her visit with the band, one by one, before the music started...and watched her tell them each goodbye and thank you before we left.  Do you know how hard it is to get to a drummer to give him a hug?

She danced with a guy with Down's Syndrome and complimented him on his style.  On the way home in the car, when we were trying to explain how his body got older but his mind really wouldn't, she said, "That's so cool."  and meant it.  It really WOULD be cool, when you think about it...to always enjoy life as a third grader might.  

When her dad was finally convinced to dance, she came over and patted him on the arm and said, "See, Dad!  You DO have rhythm!  It's just deep, deep, deep...deep inside."  

She found a little girl who was not from around here and who was feeling rather out of place, practiced swirly dance moves and they had a great time on the dance floor, just celebrating the music.  

This is the baby who almost wasn't...

the one who was a 20% chance of viability if both parents were young and healthy, which I wasn't...

the one whose heartbeat the doctor couldn't find at 12 weeks...but he didn't give up, because this one was a miracle that so many in that office were supporting and holding their breath over...

the one who had more ultra-sounds than the average bear, who I gave pints of blood tests for over the course of the pregnancy because the doctor didn't want to take chances; this one was special....

we had no idea.

She woke up just now and came wandering out, looking like a frazzled little daisy...

Needs chai tea and perhaps some cinnamon toast.

Maybe a big snuggle.

Every day is a gift with this child, 

every day an adventure in wonder, 

every day a lesson in outrageous love and hope.