Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Five Things Make a Post

CE Murphy is always saying that on her blog, and I keep thinking of little things to post, and that sounded more interesting to put in the subject line than something generically random.

1. I have a vacation story I forgot to tell. It's not that unique, but still amazing. We were down in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountains, right on the edge of the national park, and nearly 600 miles from home.

So on Wednesday night of last week, I was walking back to our cabin from the pool. There's a couple sitting on the porch of the cabin next to ours, and the guy calls out to me. A few questions about our hot tub, our grill, etc. I, cold and wet and anti-social, kept trying to escape into the cabin, but he kept calling out to me. Finally, he asked where we're from.

Me: "Pennsylvania."

Him: "Us, too!" Before I can ask, he adds, "Harrisburg area!"

Okay, that's freaky, so I stop and actually give him my attention. "So are we!"

Together: "Mechanicsburg!"

Turns out, they live literally about a block away from us. Their street is behind our house, on the other side of the parallel street. He had his granddaughters with him, and Number One had come outside when she heard me yelling across, so he asked how old my girls were. Turns out...his younger granddaughter and Number One hang out in the mornings before school.

I apologized to him for being so rude. I told him if I was never going to see him again I wouldn't care, but since I could run into him at the grocery store... He didn't really listen, so I don't think he even noticed my rudeness.

2. I'm going to say something I never thought I'd say. In fact, some of you may think this isn't me, that my blog's been hijacked.

Scratch that. Very few of you will have any idea what I'm talking about. Where's Kim W. when I need her?! Oh, well, I'll say it anyway.

Terrell Owens has earned my respect.

I know. Totally O.o and :o and whatever the emoticon is for "are you out of your freakin' mind?"

You may know I really, REALLY don't like reality TV. I don't watch any, and never have. But on vacation, the kids wanted to watch Super Stars, and I was reading in the same room (family togetherness, 24/7) and got...well, hooked. It's going to be a regular Tuesday-night family date now.

The premise of the show is that a celebrity gets paired with an athlete. The kids wanted to watch because their favorite dancer from DWTS, Maks, is one of the celebrities. And it's a really fun show, with fun personalities. All except one. And no, that one is not Terrell Owens.

T.O. is the most loudmouthed, obnoxious member of the NFL. He is arrogant, disruptive to every team he is on...and, unfortunately, talented enough to make them tolerate it. But on Super Stars, he's met his match.

His partner is some supermodel I've never heard of. She spends all her time pooching her lips and smoothing her hair off her face. She wore goggles in one of the events--the only person who did--so she wouldn't mess up her eye makeup. And she continuously harangued her partner.

EVERY other team was supportive of each other, no matter how poorly they did, and even of other teams. By last night's show, the second round of competition, there was true camaraderie among everyone--except her. She is so friggin' SNOTTY. They got eliminated in the first round, but due to injury were brought back. No matter how poorly she does, everything is T.O.'s fault. She drops non-stop F-bombs, says "you call yourself an athlete?" and "you're not worth the millions they pay you" and so on. She's HATEFUL.

And here's why I respect T.O. He's totally the kind of guy who can give as good as he gets. But it wasn't that kind of environment, and he NEVER said anything back to her. He tried, very hard, to be a good sport, to cheer her on, to be a team player. He took her crap and refrained from whacking her upside the head, which I, a non-violent person most of the time, felt was completely justified. The worst he did was say, "I feel sorry for your boyfriend" as they walked away and he probably thought they were off camera.

Good for you, T.O. Impressive stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, well, 5 things can't make a post when you're this long-winded. Plus, I can't remember what else I was going to post about. Hope I wasn't too boring--I promise, tomorrow I'll be shorter and more interesting. I think.

2 comments:

Cindy Procter-King said...

I met the daughter of my now F-I-L's best friend (at the time) in Scotland of all places. "Where are you from?" "Canada." "Me, too! Where in Canada?" "B.C. About X hours north of City Name." "What??? Me, too!! What's your name?" (my now-dh is talking to her at this point. "Blippety Blap." "No kidding. My dad knows a Flippety Blap." "That's MY dad!"

Much chuckling ensued.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

It's absolutely amazing how often that happens, and yet totally surprising every time.

But SCOTLAND! Wow!