Wednesday, May 21, 2008

My First Love Letter

Ok... Unless you were following me on MySpace back in 05 this story is new to you.

I went to a catholic grade school and my very first crush was a boy in my first-grade class named Joey. Joey was a troublemaker. He was always being sent home with a note pinned to his chest for his Mom, and this made me love him even more! He rolled his sleeves up and slouched in his seat. He ate paste on a dare and would always say “Yeah” during roll call instead of “Present.”

One day, someone stole my crayons from my desk. I immediately started crying because my mother had so meticulously printed my initials on EVERY crayon to prevent such a misfortune. Joey, taking pity on me, offered to share his crayons with me. I was so thrilled, I pretended not to notice the tiny “NM” printed on the paper wrapper of the Cornflower Blue Crayola.

Finally, I just couldn’t take it any more. I HAD to profess my love to Joey even if it meant that he might punch me in the stomach as I’d seen him do to other girls. I decided the best way to avoid physical harm was to launch a covert operation. I would write him a love letter!

“A Love letter! Perfect,” I thought to myself, “I can drop it on his desk near the end of the day!” I figured that the end-of-the-day confusion would allow me to place my missive of love on his desk and have plenty of time to get out of the way of any stomach punching.

That night, I spent agonizing hours hunched over the dining room table carefully constructing what was to be my opus of love. To this day, I have no idea what I wrote on that spiral-bound piece of notebook paper with my #2 pencil but I’m pretty sure it went something like this:

Dear Joey,

I love you.

If you love me, check this box.

After slaving over this soul-bearing note, I realized my mistake... I had written it on plain notebook paper! Love notes of this magnitude aren’t supposed to be written on plain notebook paper! What could I do? Re-writing it on stationery was out of the question. I was a lefty and a horrible printer. I was actually supposed to skip first grade but only if I learned to print legibly. Lucky for me, I refused to practice that summer or I never would have met my Joey.

The only viable solution was to make the note look better somehow. It needed a decoration of some kind to convey exactly how much Joey meant to me.

Seeing that my crayons were gone, I decided to remove several of the jagged strips of paper from the spiral in my notebook and tie them around my note, wrapping it up like a present... a small... crumpled up... wad-of-paper-like present.

The next day at school was a blur. I spent the entire day checking the pocket of my cardigan to make sure I hadn’t lost the note. I didn’t even participate in singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes” for fear that it would fall from my pocket.

Finally, my moment came. As everyone in my class was getting ready to leave for the day, I executed my plan. I stood up with my trusty #2 pencil and went to the sharpener. This way I could survey Joey for the perfect opportunity (when he wasn’t punching people in the stomach) to make my move. Just as I ground my pencil to a stub, my moment arrived. Our teacher, Mrs. Smock, reprimanded Joey for horsing around and he was now sulking by himself with his head resting on his Evel Knievel backpack.

It was now or never... My palms were sweating profusely as I casually tried to stride past Joey’s desk. I reached in my pocket and deftly palmed my precious note. You couldn’t quite tell that the strips of paper had been tied into neat bows anymore because I had been squeezing the note all day, but I was sure that Joey would understand the painstaking amount of time that I had put into this note all for him.

With all the skill of a superior note-passer, I flipped the note out of my pocket and on to Joey’s desk where it gracefully slid and came to a stop just underneath Joey’s sulking eyes.

I did it!! With the delivery complete, I ran back to my desk so I could watch Joey’s reaction to my very first love letter from a safe distance. My mind’s eye was filled with endless afternoons of building Lego mansions together where our combined families of Fisher Price Little People would live happily ever after.

My reverie was suddenly broken with a shout.

“Hey!” Joey yelled as he stood up from his desk, my note grasped in his hand.

The entire room was suddenly silent. Joey’s outburst commanded everyone’s attention. All eyes were on him as turned, red-faced and angry from the teacher’s scolding, and pointed his finger right at me!!!
“Don’t you throw your trash on my desk... EVER AGAIN!”
With that, Joey took my heartfelt confession of primary school love, wadded it up (as if it could ~be~ any more wadded) and threw it in the waste basket.

I just stood there and looked at my love-letter resting on the top of the wastebasket... looking for all the world like a crumpled up piece of spiral book notepaper and not like a note at all.

The next day, I told Mrs. Smock that Joey had stolen my crayons and that I could prove it because my initials were written on every one. Joey was sent to the Principal's office and had to eat lunch alone for the rest of that week.

Heh, heh... Hell hath no fury like a first grader spurned. ;D

Thursday, May 15, 2008

I want to be a Game Show Hostess...

I want to be a Game Show Hostess.
Oh, the contestants I will inspire!
I'll point to prizes all day long.
My arms will never tire.

Now, "Wheel of Fortune" and "Price is Right"
have "Barker's Beauties" and Vanna White;
but, I know the difference 'tween a vacuum and a "canner"
and I'll always point to prizes in a calm and pleasing manner:

A Water Bed!
A new Wet Bar!
Ten thousand bucks!!
A BRAAAAND NEW CAR!!!!!

If the clock runs out
and you haven't a clue...
I'll pout and stomp and say,
"Oh poo!"

...but if you win that fabulous prize,
you'll see a glimmer in my eyes.
You'll see a smile upon my face
and not a hair will be out of place.

Oh God! I want to be a Game Show Hostess!!!!
(((takes a bow)))


Thenk yew

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Thrilling Head Gear...

Yes... It's true. I have a secret passion for Tin Foil Hats...





Luckily, so do some of my friends:





Hahaha! Thrilling headgear rules!! What better way to contact the Mother Ship?

Plus, we are sooo blocking those alien x-rays! ;D

Feel free to put your best thrilling headgear (read: Tin foil hat) pic in the comment section! =)

Friday, May 9, 2008

Wow... I've been a Marketer my whole life.

First off, so much for "Blog every week day month." Meh...

So, my Mom sends me this letter in the mail the other day.
Inside the letter is a note I wrote her when I was a little girl...

See, my brother and I were joined at the hip when we were little...





But we also could fight like cats and dogs and I guess that's where this note comes from...
Apparently, we must have pushed her to the brink one day and I'm guessing she went off on us so, in an effort to make amends, I wrote the following, in pencil on one o' those cheap paper pulp "Fun Books." The note (barely legible after 30 some-odd years) reads:

From my heart.
Mom + Dad, this is from my heart.
John and I haven't been the best of help and so we will dedicate July 2, to you.
We will help with chores and earns (SIC "errands" maybe?) and best of all... John and I will try not to fight for the rest of the week!!!!!!!!
We hope you enjoy this.
After I picked myself up off the floor from laughing hysterically, I took a good look at this note and realized that I've pretty much been a Marketer my whole life!

  • Take note: I did not tell her that we'd change our act or do more chores around the house for general purposes... Naw! I gave her one whole day instead!

  • Note how I build up the value of my offer with the words "best of all..." a statement that I use in certain points of copy to this day!

  • I also follow up my "best of all" statement with something that the customer (ie: Mom) would have gotten anyway - a blissful reprieve. However, note that the caveat is defined in realistic terms. I didn't tell her we'd never fight again. Even I knew that stating that would be an unrealistic claim that I could never deliver. This lends an air of truth to my entire claim.

  • But the crown jewel of the entire missive is, "We hope you enjoy this." Bwahahaha! Basically, I'm saying to her, "It's not gonna get any better so I hope you accept this."


Yup... a true marketer through and through! ;D

... I hope you enjoyed this.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

'bout time... nuff said.

I planned an insightful blog post today about the unrealized potential behind the concept of Telecommuting but after posing the question on Linked In, I realized that I need to gather more feedback first.

So instead, today I will say this...

I FINALLY read the Watchmen by Alan Moore. I worked at a comic book store for seven years... I've been a "Fan Grrl" all my life... and yet, I've never read the Watchmen til just now.

Wow... What the hell took me so damn long?!?!

Monday, May 5, 2008

Well, that didn't last long!

Hahaha! So much for "Blog every day" month! I guess that's hard to do when you implement a self-imposed exile from your computer for the weekend!

ok... I guess I'm modifying my challenge to "Blog every weekday month!"

nuts.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Things...

186525455
THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE WHEN I WAS YOUNGER BUT I LIKE NOW:


  • Classical and Jazz music
  • Mushrooms
  • SLEEPING! I distinctly remember a time when I ~hated~ to go to bed... can't even fathom that now.
  • Constructive criticism - Not only did I finally learn how to not take it personally, I've learned that true constructive criticism is never personal. So basically, I've learned the difference between a leaders/peers and asshats!
  • Being alone
  • Watching the news or reading the paper
  • Books w/no pictures hee hee! ;)
  • Foreign films or anything w/subtitles

THINGS I LIKED WHEN I WAS YOUNGER BUT I FREAKING LOVE NOW:

  • Reading
  • Quiet contemplation
  • Newport RI.
  • Non-conformity.
  • Really weird toys (ie: Happy Fun Robot!!! I actally own this! lol!)
  • Camping
  • Smaller venue concerts
  • Writing - Which is a good thing considering my profession.

THINGS I LIKED WHEN I WAS YOUNGER BUT I DON'T LIKE NOW:

  • Talking on the phone (except if it's business related)
  • Candy (except when I'm PMS'ed) =)
  • Soap Operas... Bleeech! .
  • Mosh pits (I went from "Oi! Oi!" to, "Owie! Ow!!")
  • Hard core punk rock... but I will ~always~ love the old school stuff!!!
  • Talk shows - Meh... That's about all the energy I can muster on this topic.
  • The Sunday "Funnies" ... they mostly suck now
  • Picking up bugs. Never bothered me before... bothers me now
  • Christmas ... well, the commercial crap. I still like to give gifts and gather w/friends and family
  • Organized religion (that's not really new though... but there was a time, over 22 years ago, when I bought it all hook, line & sinker)
  • Great big Concerts - Let's face it. Some people are just waaaaay to fucked up at these things. Ex: The younglings who party too hard beforehand and pass out before the gates even open. I tell ya what buddy, why don't you just give me the $$ you would waste on that Dave Matthews ticket and I'll kiss you upside the head with a bat and tell you what an awesome show you missed... same thing, eh?

...That's two.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Here come the turds!

Ok... Technically, this is ~not~ a post about Twitter but a few of my friends there have deemed the month of May as "Blog Every Day" month.

It sounded like an interesting challenge so I thought, "Why the hell not?"

.... that's one.
;)