Mystery Unsolved

I know this is random but, it has me flummoxed so, I am going to mention it. My hubby and I went out to lunch yesterday. We were gone for maybe a bit over an hour. When we got back home, we walked in to see one of our oven mitts on the kitchen floor, in front of the sink. When I picked it up, it was more than damp but less than soaked. I felt the throw rug it was on and that was dry as a bone. There wasn't any water in the kitchen sink, and no water, or anything spilled, anywhere else. There wasn't any odor on the oven mitt. We don't even really know how it got on the floor. It hangs on the knob of one of my cupboards. One of my cats could have pulled it off of the knob but, it is on there pretty secure. But, let's say that one of them did pull it off, I don't know why they ever would have as they never have in the past. And, even if they did...which I really believe they did, it still doesn't explain why it was wet. Needless to say, given that I use it to move hot food about, it was tossed because, I don't know what was on it and, even if I washed it, I would always worry about what was on it and if any of that was still on it.

So, the mystery still stands. Scooby-Doo, where are you?

Feeling A Little Good

I just realized tonight that I have 3 paid projects in the works. I make greeting cards, gift boxes and other fabulous crafts and, I have 3 projects in the works as of today. I am thrilled. I have struggled for a long time to find my niche in life. I love a lot of things in life. I love fashion. I have been told I have great decorative sense. I like photography. And, obviously, I like to write. But, I have really had a hard time figuring out where my lot in life is. And, I still may not have found it but, at least for right now, I feel a sense of purpose and, it is with something that I have fun doing and that gives me a great sense of pride.

The first project is for Birth Announcements for a friend. I still need to finalize some things with her but, it seems to be a forgone conclusion that I will be making her Birth Announcements once her baby boy is born.

The next two projects are for one friend. She wants me to host a crafting party for some of her daughter's friends. I'll teach them how to make a little purse box that I made recently. She came over today so that I could teach her how to make a duplicate of another person's handmade card. We had a blast and her card came out so beautiful! She brought her daughter and I helped her make some invitations for a Valentine's Day card making party she will be throwing in a few weeks. And, while they were here, I showed them a few other things that I have made and that is when she asked me to host and demonstrate at a party for her daughter's friends. And, she also asked me to make one of my Cupcake Gift Card holders for one of her daughter's friends for her birthday. I am so thrilled! I may actually be on the brink of my own business here. I also have some ideas about local businesses that may help me sell my crafts.

Admittedly, the very thought of my own business scares the daylights out of me. But, it also thrills me. I don't have a mind for business so, I don't know how far this will go. But, I do feel pretty great about my clout as a crafter today!

Please and Thank You

I hate how people talk to each other these days. I grew up on Please and Thank you, would you mind, could you please... But, these days people tell other people what they "need to" do. It bugs the snot out of me. I have been guilty of it in the past. Everyone is subject to pick up bad habits from other people if they are exposed to it for too long. So, I make a conscious effort to ask rather than tell people what to do. If I would like a favor from someone I ask them if they will do me a favor. "Can you please pick up some onions for dinner tomorrow" rather than, "You need to pick up some onions for dinner tomorrow". No one wants to be told what to do unless they are getting paid to do it. Furthermore, not even your boss should tell you what "you need to" do. I was taught that you catch more bees with honey. When I am told what I "need to" do, I feel resentful while doing whatever favor I am doing. If I am asked politely, I happily perform the task and feel truly appreciated for having been helpful because I was properly asked.

Since when did "you need to" become the standard for asking for help? You know who says "you need to"? Someone who is robbing you at gunpoint. You know who asks you to "please get me a soda?" People who love you, respect you, and truly appreciate the time you took to help them out.

Say please and thank you and you will have more favors done for you in response.

Weird Instincts

Call me crazy...that's OK! I am fine with that. But, I have a crazy sense of instinct. I always get a little tingly feeling in the pit of my stomach when something good or bad is about to happen. I don't always follow the path my instincts are screaming at me. And, I often find myself figuratively kicking myself in my own butt afterward.

One such instance where my instincts were screaming at me was back in 1992 when a guy I was interested in was killed in a car accident. I was working at McDonald's. It was how we met because he was working at the DIY (a Do It Yourself home improvement store like Home Depot or Lowes) across the parking lot from me. He would come in for his lunch break and, no matter how crowded my line was, he would jump into the end of my line and wait for me to help him. I was seeing someone else when we first met one another but, that relationship was at the end of its rope. In fact, it took me a while before I realized that the guy liked me. Either he wasn't very obvious or I was kind of oblivious. I ended things with my then boyfriend and one of my co-workers came clean with how the guy felt about me. Of course I always noticed him a little. He was sweet and adorable and he always made me laugh when he would come in. We exchanged phone numbers and were really only starting to get to know one another. We never went out and he was gearing up to ask me to his school's formal dance. He was a senior in high school and I was a freshmen in college.

So, I was working when I could have sworn that he came in the door. I felt it. I can't really explain it other than to say that my entire body tingled a little and, I remember looking toward the door expecting him to come walking toward my line. But, he wasn't there. While I don't remember the time of day this happened now, I did notice the time back then because it would have been getting close to his lunch break. So, I still sort of waited throughout the rest of the day, hoping to see him. But, he never showed. It was towards the end of my shift and I was working in the drive-thru when a couple of our mutual friends came to my window. They asked me if I had heard about what happened to him. They told me that he was in an accident and, they weren't sure how he was. They only knew that he was in an accident. So, a few minutes later, I got off my shift and headed home. I went to the phone and dialed his number. His Dad answered and when I asked for him, his Dad asked me who was calling. After I told him who I was, he apologized to me and told me that he was no longer with us. I broke down. My family did all they could to comfort me. And, when his obituary and the story of his accident made it into the paper, I saw the time the accident had happened and it was the same time that I had the tingly feeling throughout my body and had expected him to walk through the door.

To this day, I don't know if it was his spirit touching me and saying good-bye or if it was just my own connection to him that gave me that feeling. All I know is that I definitely felt something and, that was not the first, nor the last time, that my "Spidey Senses" have given me a little kick when I should know something. And, my "Spidey Sense" is never wrong. There are times when I know exactly what I am tingling about. Other times, it is just a tingle for an event to be seen. A lot of times, it is for something good that is going to happen. Sometimes it will be attached to a person that I think about and then I hear from them either that day or a few days later. I frequently have it happen for something that I am about to do wrong. I've felt it days, or even minutes before I get busted for speeding down the highway. I've felt it when a family member gets injured. I've even felt it when my hubby is mad at me for some reason yet to be discovered.

So, call it "Women's Intuition". Call me a psychic. Call me crazy. I only know that I often know things that I have yet to figure out I know. And my instincts never fail me. I just need to stop failing them.

Update: From Zero To 3

I just found out that my friend, who was injured in Afghanistan, was actually hit by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). He and his men were hit and, I still don't know all of the specifics but, he fractured a bone in his spine but, he will heal and be fine. I have a hard time calling him lucky. Yes, he got out of the situation with his life and, he gets to come home to the states and retire from the military. But, how close was he to being one of the unlucky? I think that I don't even want to know because I swear that I can feel my heart break a little if I dare to think about it too hard. Maybe it is selfish to try to just remove myself from too much thought about it. But, I can actually feel my heart skip a beat, which I can only equate to it breaking, when I let my mind comprehend the very danger of it. And, I still know two other men in Afghanistan whose lives I worry about.

I heard from one of them the other day. He's doing well...as well as he can given where in this world he is right now. And, I was so thrilled to hear from him. It meant so much to me because I've been so worried about him. I only hope that I conveyed how thrilled I was to hear from him and that he knows how much it meant to me. And, I hope to continue to hear from him on a fairly regular basis because, worried doesn't even begin to describe it.

So, I just wanted to reach out and remind everyone to keep those in service in your thoughts. Whether you know someone who is deployed in a danger zone or not, they could still use all the positivity you can send their way.

Modern Technology Can Be Hurtful

I have said that I am a huge fan of modern technology. I love the way that it makes our lives easier. From less painful mammography machines, to ways that make an eye exam less impactful on the rest of your day. One of my favorite rewards of modern technology is the ability to stay in touch with everyone. I've blogged about it before. But, with the ability to stay in touch with people comes the ability to rid yourself of those whom you have decided you don't want to be in touch with anymore as well. Modern Technology has also given us the DELETE button. It is great for getting rid of mistakes you make when typing something. But, it has also been incorporated into the world of social networking sites and it is really hurtful. I have been deleted a few times. Most recently, by a family member who completely misunderstood one of my status updates in Facebook. I saw a t-shirt on a teenager that cracked me up. The t-shirt read, "I am a Waffle House Kid". For those who aren't familiar, Waffle House is a 24 hour restaurant franchise most often found in the Southern states of the U.S. The food is greasy and completely unhealthy. And, because the restaurant is open 24 hours a day, it is often frequented by people who are just leaving the bar in the middle of the night after having had a lot of adult beverages. People often go there to get to know the man or woman they just met on the dance floor. It is often the stop they make before or after hooking up with their new companion. And, when you see someone leaving Waffle House in the early morning hours, they are probably wearing what they wore the night before to the bar. For that reason it is also referred to as "The Walk of Shame". So, upon seeing the t-shirt, I laughed myself to tears and promptly went home and posted the following status update on my Facebook profile: "saw a hilarious t-shirt on a teenager today. "I'm a Waffle House Kid". LMFAO! He might as well have had a t-shirt that said "I'm a Walk of Shame Kid". LOL!" My friends got a kick out of it and we all joked around in the resulting thread. That was until my niece-in-law took offense to it and told me I was being judgmental and that she was disappointed in me. I repeatedly told her that I was just joking about the shirt. I told her that I didn't have anything against the kid in the shirt. It wasn't about him. I saw the humor in the shirt and that was what my status was about. But, she refused to see that I was only clowning around about the t-shirt and insisted on believing that I was judging the kid in the shirt. I, in fact, said absolutely nothing about the kid in the shirt. Upon being pushed to say something about him, I told her what I really thought about the teenager. My impression of him was that he was a cutie. He seemed clean cut and well taken care of. He seemed happy and kind of like "every kid U.S.A." But, I truly gave no more thought about him. My laughter was about his t-shirt. So, after a few more pissed off comments from her and more apologetic comments from me trying desperately to smooth things over with her, she deleted me. That hurt. If I had done something deserving of being deleted, it still would have hurt but, I could and would have done my best to be understanding. Being deleted sucks! I have only ever deleted a few teenagers (perfect strangers) from my Myspace page because I would just prefer not to temp problems in the future with parents wondering why a 37 year old woman would be friends with their teenage son or daughter on Myspace. I am forever mindful of what I do and say online because I really don't want to get myself into trouble. But, you never know when someone will take something the wrong way and when trouble will thrust itself upon you.

So, modern technology is like a double edged sword. So fantastic in the way that it makes our lives easier. So potentially hurtful by re purposing the careless act of the "delete" button into a way to makes us something similar to a typo in someone else's life. And, that is how it has always made me feel. I am nothing more than a typo.