The Reluctant Grownup

Baby Free Bullet Points

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  • I saw an ad today for an HR software system, and behind the text for the ad was a closeup shot of the pointy sharpened tips of a handful of colored pencils.  They were earth tones, smudgy, I could practically smell the wood shavings from their fresh sharpening.  Now I want to go home, open up our old card table, spread out piles of drafting paper, and draw and color all afternoon.  Alas, to my everlasting regret, I am completely talent-less in the visual arts.  Today, if I had the free time, I wouldn’t let that stop me.
  • I once thought I wanted one of the new VW bugs as my first car.  I was so impressed by (grit your teeth, men) the built-in bud vase on the dash.  I really wanted a flower vase in my car.  Now, as a pragmatic adult, I know that I would never have flowers in that bud vase.  More like garbage, or a pen, or possibly the dead husk of a flower that I put in there weeks before, but never a fresh, beautiful Gerbera daisy, or purple lily, or fragrant gardenia.  The thing is, every time I see someone driving one of these things, I see a flower in their bud vase, and it makes me want the car all over again.  I wonder if they could be fake?  Or is it possible that the type of person who buys a new VW bug is the type of person who has his/her head together enough to keep the car’s flowers freshly replaced?  If so, then I made the right choice with my pickup truck purchase.  Them things ‘er s’posed ta be dirty and battered and full of old trash, am I right?
  • I’m making chili tonight.  In the South (or at least here in rural North Carolina), they call it “chili beans,” and they seem to eat it with lots of Tabasco and with tortilla chips.  They like it sort of watery, like soup.  In the Midwest, chili was a little more substantial, less saucy, and served on top of spaghetti noodles.  It had nutmeg in it, I think, and was a little sweeter.  When I was in Australia, everybody put huge hunks of carrots and onions in their chili, and we served it with corn chips and cheese on top.  I like my chili spicy, a little bit of ground beef, with lots of beans and vegetables, on the saucy side, and with cheese and corn chips on the top.  How do you like yours?
  • I’m also playing video games online with some South Carolina girlfriends tonight.  Our husbands all play this shoot ‘em up game together once in a while, cursing at each other over the headphones in loud and colorful ways.  We decided that, heck, we were going to try it, too, and though none of us is particularly skilled at it, we are well-matched and really enjoy ourselves.  Sometimes the husbands will sit and watch over our shoulders, giving us pointers on what each gun does, and how to climb a ladder, or jump over a wall.  Sometimes they don’t, but we stumble through anyhow.
  • I have about six pots of broccoli growing around the outside of the house.  I wanted to buy a bit, since it grows well here, but could only get a flat with half a dozen plants in it, so I stuck one in every empty pot I could find.  So here’s where I admit that I don’t even know – – – does the broccoli part we eat grow above ground, or below it?  I have never seen a mature broccoli plant.  I wouldn’t know one if it bit me on the hindparts.
  • My book list over on the left has clearly been neglected, as have my scintillating (I know you loved them) book reviews.  My reading hasn’t suffered, however (just ask my husband, who returned from Brazil to a wife with reinforced loner bookworm habits that are having to be re-configured to allow him back into my world.)  Well, I just recently finished a book I MUST tell you about.  Ann Patchett.  (Is it Patchett or Pratchett?  I think Patchett).  Bel Canto.  Oh, what a story.  I think I’m about to start an Ann Patchett spree.  I’ve read all of Margaret Atwood, most of Terry Pratchett, and nearly every Anne Tyler and Paul Auster I’m interested in reading.  Time for a new flame.  So.  Read Bel Canto.  Because you should love it.  And if you don’t, don’t tell me.  Pretend for my sake.
  • There is no way to wrap this up, except to say:  well, that about wraps it up.

7 thoughts on “Baby Free Bullet Points”

  1. well i have all the time in the world and really if you had it you wouldn\’t want it…i mean it\’s nice to have the free time but there is such thing as having too much…♥~♥ :oD the shortest distance between two people is a smile… :oD ♥~♥ 

  2. I like my chili not at all. The only way I\’ll eat it in the first place is either 1) if my mom made it and I have a ton of cheese and saltines to add to it, or 2) to be polite and I have a ton of cheese and maybe Fritos to add to it.
     
    Ooh, or if it\’s Hormel Chili No Beans from a can and is about to smother my hot dog.
     
    I know that makes me anti-American not to like chili, but it also makes me anti-Canadian b/c they will offer you chili w/your bagel in the Tim Horton\’s drive-thru at BREAKFAST. Gak.

  3. PS: The fact that you titled today\’s post the way you did negated the baby-freedom of it. Sneaky and I like it.

  4. So much to comment on. Chili, lots of red chile puree, beans, meat and cumin.  Not on spaghetti, possibly fritos with cheese.  Broccoli grows above ground it will eventually look like the stuff you eat folded up in leaves.  The leaves are edible too called Rabe I believe.I look forward to more book reviews, but know that is asking a lot….

  5. I love chili un-soup-like, smothered in shredded cheese and in a bread bowl. At least that\’s the way I had it many years ago when I took a week long ski trip to Sugarloaf in ME with an ex, and every afternoon we\’d leave the slopes for lunch and I would sing Chili in a Breadbowl…Chili in a Breadbowl!! God it was good. Probably had a lot to do with the surrounding snow, much like a burger at Skinny Legs will always taste good after a long day snorkeling and beaching 🙂
     
    I\’m currently reading my 2nd book of the year… Split Second by David Baldacci. I let all my magazine subscriptions die out in an effort to spend more time on novels. Baby steps.
     
    My friend has a VW bug, she lives in San Fran – and I\’m not positive what she keeps in the vase. Like you mine would probably hold pens, or dusty licorice…
     
    I have no idea what broccoli looks like in the ground.
     
    http://www.stthomasblog.com

  6. Oh I forgot to beg you to come by my space because I picked up a job application yesterday that you won\’t believe.

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