Friday, September 19, 2008, by Sherra
Only because the girls got free tickets from the local radio station and not because we didn’t see enough drunk people last week to last a lifetime…
We actually headed back to the same venue for another country music concert.
Call me crazy.
Go ahead.
Most of my family does. I’m getting used to it.
This concert featured Brad Paisley, Jewel and Chuck Wicks.
Wizzy got to bring a friend this time and they had special neon t-shirts from the radio station that made a real fashion statement.
Note the bag on the right edge of the photo.
Everything went well and we all had a great time. Except for the moment when a very, very intoxicated girl fell on top of my bag and on our blanket.
The girls were stunned and held back their laughter because of the disgusted look on my face and until the drunk girl’s friend dragged her a few feet away where she fell again.
Oh yeah, alcohol looks like a lot of fun.
Another one of those teaching moments for us.
One other thing I could have done without…
Jewel yodeling.
I can’t make this stuff up.
I don’t ever want to hear that again.
Side note: Wizzy invited this particular girlfriend as her dad just left for Iraq on Sunday and she thought going to the concert might cheer her up.
Please send up a prayer for her family and all the other soldiers’ families.
You know how I feel about them.
*******************
On a totally unrelated note, we took the girls to a College Fair on Wednesday night and the next day this book was carelessly left on the kitchen island.
Did they really listen to something I suggested?
Be still my heart.
It was a proud moment.
I’m sure they’re planning to study all weekend and in every spare moment until the test date so they can take the SAT again and raise their scores.
I’m planning to wear an apron and serve them healthy snacks while they study.
If any of the aforementioned actually happens, I’ll be sure to have PhilBillPaul snap a picture or two as proof.
Have a great weekend!
Popularity: 19%
Categories: Finding the Funny, Moments, Rants, Raves, Teens
Wednesday, September 17, 2008, by Sherra
You would think I would have this discipline thing down by the 4th child.
But I don’t.
You might think I learned a few things even though I was both unprepared and unqualified with the first three, and I would be prepared and qualified to parent our totally planned LAST child.
But I didn’t.
Scary Baby’s claim to fame may well be that she made PhilBillPaul and I surrender.
I hope that is not her legacy.
Because I really do believe kids need and want boundaries even though their brains don’t know how to show and articulate this to the world.
This kid would force several child-rearing *experts* to re-write their books on strong-willed, stubborn children if they ever met her.
Unfortunately they won’t be able to meet her anytime soon.
Because she’s grounded again.
The sign went up on the front porch two weeks ago when she was grounded the first time of this school year.
The sign went up because she is very social and when the phone and door bell ring it is almost always for her. I have tried to scare the neighbor kids away but they just keep coming back. Either I’m not scary enough or Scary Baby is so much fun and totally worth facing the Scary Mom.
One week of freedom later and she’s grounded again.
Emotions run high in our house. I accepted that long ago. I am emotional. Prone to emotional outbursts both before and after the coma. I’ve always believed home is where you should feel safe enough to throw a fit if you need to. Sometimes you just have to let that all out. It’s hard to always be good and obedient and proper. Or is it just hard for me?
She has some real issues about staying up too late in her room after she has been tucked in and then falling apart in the morning in fits of hysterical crying and screaming about how tired she is and how she can’t go to school.
It makes for some really stressful mornings and some really grouchy parents.
I recognize that every child is different. I know this because every one of mine is remarkably different even though they’ve been reared by the same parents in the same house since birth. I just did not encounter this problem with the older kids. Only one is a morning person who wakes up singing - that darn Wizzy is Little Miss Merry Sunshine and she learned early not to talk to the rest of us in the morning.
In case the neighbors are reading, we’re sorry about the screaming and we’re working on some diet changes…less sugar, more protein and talking about self-control and making better choices.
BIG SIGH…
Little Lesson (LL): Putting your kids to bed earlier and earlier doesn’t necessarily guarantee that they will actually go to sleep.
Share a Little Lesson (SALL): Any tips on how to actually make them go to sleep? Using Benadryl, Nyquil, etc., does not count as a helpful tip especially if they’re not sick!
Popularity: 15%
Categories: Little Lessons, Rants, Tweens
Monday, September 15, 2008, by Sherra
I have spent a decade plus a few more years raising my kids in a bubble.
I chose the bubble.
I owned the bubble.
I embraced the bubble.
PhilBillPaul and I discussed the bubble and we decided when we would let the bubble get a little bigger. Or if we invited others into our bubble.
I never really cared what others thought of our bubble. I was more concerned with keeping my kids in the bubble for as long as possible.
My bubble. My rules.
Get your own bubble. Don’t mess with ours.
The bubble got pretty thin in high school. For us, especially thin because it was our teen kids first experience in public school which was a shift in size (huge school) and environment in general.
The last two years I have tried to let more people in the bubble and let the kids experience more things because I want them to make decisions and make mistakes on their own. But while they’re still in our house I hope they will feel like there is a safety net to catch them.
I have shared before that we have diverse music interests at our house. PhilBillPaul grew up loving hard rock. I prefer soft rock and country. We were both glad we missed the rap and hip hop genre. When the kids were born we compromised and listened to contemporary Christian and I would sneak in a little country as they got older.
When I heard that Toby Keith would be in Atlanta performing with Montgomery Gentry on September 11th, I knew that was a concert I didn’t want to miss. PhilBillPaul even likes his music. Country rock with very little banjo has potential for a nice date night.
At the last minute we got two more tickets and Roger Leroy and her friend Sharté came with us.
It was a patriotic celebration and several tributes and songs moved me to tears.
What I didn’t expect was another kind of celebration.
A drinking celebration. Loads and loads of drinking.
Such an opportunity to expand the bubble for Roger Leroy.
Side note: I’m not responsible for Sharté’s bubble.
Here is a big clue that you are really old. And have been living in a bubble for a long time.
PhilBillPaul spent the first 30 minutes of the concert flipping his around in every direction and pointing on drunk people in various stages of drunken inappropriate behavior.
It’s not that I was immune to it. I guess I wasn’t as shocked because I’ve been to Nashville for 3 years now. He pointed out that the last concert he had been to was a Christian music festival we all went as a family.
Once he calmed down enough to try to enjoy the music, his 17 year-old daughter starting pointing out people.
We used this opportunity in between songs and during the band set-up to have lively discussion about important little lessons the girls could take from this concert including:
- If you think the soft drinks are expensive at a concert, check out the price of alcohol.
-
If you are an idiot before drinking, you are an even bigger idiot when you drink.
-
Parents and their children are watching you be a drunk idiot.
- “Get Drunk and Be Somebody” is a song title and should not be taken literally.
- Grown men peeing on a wall in the parking lot is just bad manners.
-
Your mother would not be proud of you if she could see you like we saw you.
As we left the concert, we talked about how it would change the world if they made everyone take a breathalyzer test before they got in their cars at events like concerts and sporting events that sell alcohol.
But it appears this little company has taken matters into their own hands.
We’re not sure if Jethro in the overalls with his underwear showing was the driver - welcome to Georgia. Roger Leroy made this astute observation concerning career choice…
“I don’t think it would be a very fun job to drive drunk people around.”
I know I won’t always be with them. I know they’ll be exposed to far worse as they go out into the world.
Since the bubble has popped, I hope I let them see enough idiots so they won’t choose to become idiots themselves.
But I also know this parenting gig is a crap shoot and we all just do the best we can and pray they stay safe and know how much we love them.
Life Lesson (LL): You can make the conscious choice to have tons of fun in life without ever taking a drink - I really do know this because that’s a decision I made when I was a teenager.
Share a Life Lesson (SALL): Any good stories you can share to help teach our kids how to not turn into drunk idiots?
Popularity: 21%
Categories: Finding the Funny, Life Lessons, Little Lessons, Rants, Teens
Friday, September 12, 2008, by Sherra
You may remember that this summer I took my lovely daughters to the
CMA Music Festival in Nashville with their friend Sharté and her mother.
Side Note: You also know that Sharté is her code name, right? Because I don’t know anyone who would name their daughter Sharté much like I wouldn’t name my daughter Roger Leroy.
They taped parts of the festival and ABC aired it on television this week.
I’ll be darned if that Sharté didn’t end up with a full head shot on the TV special during the taping of the Taylor Swift video.
I took at least 5 pictures to get this high quality shot frozen on Tivo to preserve the posterity of the moment.
It was almost like the girls were all together again!
We all were squealing and yelling at our house and they were squealing and yelling into their cell phones with each other.
I hear Sharté actually made an announcement in the middle of Cross Country practice to tell everyone about her TV debut.
I’m sure this is just the beginning of her fame and we will be able to say we knew her back in the day.
I hope she will remember our family kindly.
Monday I’ll share more fun we had at another country music concert we attended.
Because if you didn’t know this already, here is what I can promise you will learn on Monday…country music concerts are filled with both little lessons and even bigger life lessons for one and all.
Especially teenagers.
Have you learned any important lessons at any music concerts, country or otherwise? Leave a comment or email me. I will be glad to compile a list so that all the teenagers in our lives can benefit from our many collective years of wisdom!
Popularity: 20%
Categories: Finding the Funny, Friends, Moments, Raves, Teens
Wednesday, September 10, 2008, by Sherra
I promised you that I would share something really, really good that came from the crash and the coma…
The good was the beginning of our family that we started just six months after I woke up.
Nine months later, one month and one day before our 2nd anniversary…
In spite of the fact that it was a BIG surprise and I was not and am still not qualified to be a mother…
Our son was born on September 9, 1989.
He turned 19 yesterday.
He was an absolutely delightful baby.
He was a sweet big brother when I brought home twin sisters just shy of his 2nd birthday.
And another darn sister when he was almost ten years old.
He was a babe magnet from his early days.
I won’t reveal the identity of the girls he was surrounded by but hopefully they will enjoy seeing themselves on the internet.
Neighborhood girls were everywhere. Across the street, next door on both sides…
Things were a little too easy in those early years. I knew it wouldn’t last.
He was a popular kid and this got him in a bit of “hot water”…
We told him this better be the first, last and only time we find him in our bathtub with five naked girls.
He outgrew the delightful baby stage too soon and things became more difficult.
PhilBillPaul handled some cross-dressing issues well.
Um, yes, that is a swimsuit top. And his sister’s hair bow. It was hard being surrounded by females all day.
I knew he would grow out of it eventually so I didn’t make a big deal about it.
Until he and Roger Leroy started sharing clothes.
But you just have to pick your battles so I let it go.
Side note: She still won’t wear dresses but I’m glad to report he no longer wears them either.
He’s actually very well-rounded, artistic and played different sports through the years.
Then we had eating issues.
Maybe you remember The Cocoa Krispie Nightmare?
And hair issues.
This is what happens when the Humphreys children get a hold of hair gel.
And please don’t forget, pot issues.
Oh yes–he used pot right in front of us.
From Barney to Batman, we have loved our Boy through all the great times and the challenging times.
He graduated from high school in May and completed his first year of college during his senior year. We are so very proud of the man he is becoming.
Though most days, he is still The Grunter here at home.
We were very excited to see his new haircut last week.
We haven’t seen his eyebrows in at least 5 years!
In honor of his birthday and with his permission, he said I can reveal his real name on the blog.
But I’m going to let Grandma’s card (and Hallmark) do that for me. Because we all share a warped sense of humor and this card is now in my Top Ten of our family card competition…
Come on, that’s funny.
Good one Grandma! Grandad James Everett is looking down and laughing!
Everett James Humphreys…
Grandad Jimbo would be proud of you too.
Happy Birthday Pumpkin!
I love you to the moon.
xoxo
Mom
Popularity: 23%
Categories: Finding the Funny, Love Languages, Milestones, Teens, Toddlers (& babies)
Monday, September 8, 2008, by Sherra
Back in May, I offered to answer any coma questions.
Because I know if I knew someone who had been in a coma and I had never been in a coma myself, I would be very nosey interested and ask lots of questions.
For your reading pleasure, here are some coma questions I’ve been asked. I remember very little so most of my answers are what PhilBillPaul or my mom has told me…
Could you see, or are your eyes even open, but were not able to respond?
My eyes were closed. PhilBillPaul was very concerned that they had restraints on me to keep me still. He knew that I am claustrophobic and hate to be pinned down.
I might be known to freak out if I get tangled in the sheets at night.
Did you experience pain, or did your body go into shock and make you numb?
At the scene of the accident I had a grand mal seizure and I stopped breathing on the helicopter en route to the hospital. PhilBillPaul says I never appeared to be in pain.
I thought maybe they would have been poking the soles of my feet or my limbs but PhilBillPaul says they didn’t (or he wasn’t paying attention which is more likely).
Or I watch too much TV.
Could you hear people talking to each other and to you?
I do not remember hearing anyone even though someone was always with me, talking to me and/or playing music.
I do know that they made a tape of my friend talking to me and played it in my room. She was the other passenger and she was taken by ambulance to the another hospital. My mom was worried that I might think she died since she wasn’t able to come to the hospital and talk to me because she was being treated for her own injuries.
I still have that tape locked away in a trunk.
Could you smell certain foods, etc.?
I have a nose like a bloodhound and maybe the coma heightened my sense of smell? Oh wait, I’m suppose to be answering questions, not asking them.
I can literally tell you where and what PhilBillPaul had for lunch by the smell of his clothes and skin. Most perfume and floral or musk scents are migraine triggers.
But I don’t remember smelling anything in particular at the hospital.
Were you told to squeeze someone’s hand, and were you able to do it, or did you want to and couldn’t?
I did not respond to anything or anyone while in the coma. I woke up in the night or very early morning and the hospital called PhilBillPaul and told him I was awake and trying to talk.
His biggest fear was that I would not remember him or that we were married because we had only been married for seven months.
Lucky him, I remembered.
Did you have a “near-death experience”?
Did you see anything like what is referred to as an afterlife?
Did you see Christ/God?
All variations of above question are what I refer to as “the white light” question. Again, probably too much TV on my part.
I didn’t see or hear anything. I don’t remember feeling like I was going to die. Nor do I remember fighting to stay alive.
There is just a big blank space in my life in that entire month of June. And a lot of memory loss both before and after the accident that friends and family tirelessly help me remember when I ask a million questions.
Did you feel emotions?
Only after I woke up.
I still remember the utter frustration of not being able to say the word my brain was thinking. Several months of speech therapy helped with this.
I have a notebook I wrote in for months after the crash that is still hard to believe is my handwriting. My mom saved an envelope I insisting on addressing to my dad for Father’s Day.
Those things are also locked away the trunk.
Do you remember the accident crash?
I’ve always made a conscious effort to call it “the crash” instead of accident. Because accident infers that it was unintentional or caused by chance or luck. The slogan M.A.D.D. used shortly after our crash, “Don’t Call Me Lucky” really stuck with me. It’s not that I’m not thankful that I survived. I am. I promise. I am grateful beyond words. But drinking and driving is intentional and hurts innocent people every single day. Okay, off my soapbox and back to the question.
I barely even remember going to the movie with PhilBillPaul that night. I have very foggy memories of being at a house and playing a computer game at the house we had driven to let two dogs out.
Do you have flashbacks?
When I am on a two-lane road at night, I sometimes have serious anxiety when an oncoming car approaches. I believe this is some sort of residual memory from that moment when those blinding headlights came out of nowhere and I threw my hands up and let out a blood-curdling scream. That is the memory that has been described to me by my friend and PhilBillPaul in the split second before the drunk driver hit us.
I have learned to breathe and focus on the car I’m driving and not fix my eyes on the oncoming headlights.
Alrighty then, how’s that for some fascinating Q & A? If you’ve felt shy up until now and wanted to ask something that I didn’t answer, jump right in and ask. Just use the comment box to leave a question or contact me via email!
Or if you’ve been in a coma and want to share your experience, please do. I’d love to hear because I really am nosey interested!
On Wednesday I will share something really, really good that came from the crash and the coma…
Popularity: 14%
Categories: Milestones, Random Thoughts
Friday, September 5, 2008, by Sherra
It’s Flexible Friday and I decided to provide you with flexible choices for your reading pleasure.
Because as I like to remind my friends…
I am the most flexible one in the group!
If you like choices, be sure to read all the way to the end. If not, skim and move on.
For those of you who really don’t care about my basement renovation, flood, fire, when the locusts are coming or why I take Xanax, I totally understand.
So I provide you with this little funny instead…
Even though Georgia started school in August, I realize for many parts of the country, this was the first week of school. Kind of old-fashioned. After Labor Day. The way I remember it…
Close To Home© John McPherson
Anybody think their kid has been traded like this?
I’m pretty sure Scary Baby was on the trading table this year. She thinks a neighbor teacher traded her. No hard feelings…I really can’t blame her…in case she ever reads the blog. 
If you are one of the very few gluttons who still want to read about the fire and subsequent medicated moment, you have a choice and can click either or both of the links below:
Flood, Fire & Locusts, Part Three
Flood, Fire & Locusts, Part Four
These will not show up as regular posts so this is the private and kind of secret entrance to read “the rest of the story.”
Have a wonderful weekend!
THE END.
Popularity: 13%
Categories: Finding the Funny, Moments
Wednesday, September 3, 2008, by Sherra
Get a soda, a snack, dessert, a pillow for a short nap…you may find you need all those items to get through Part Two.
I did.
It was time consuming to get the pictures together but the flood and fire story just isn’t complete without them.
Or maybe this just serves as the unfinished scrapbook pages for our family album that I never got around to and the kids can print this post. Oh good, I’m feeling productive now.
We had several basement water companies come out and give estimates on systems that would require them to break the concrete floor around the foundation of the house and install pipes to funnel the water outside.
This stressed PhilBillPaul as his logical mind insisted that letting the water come into the house and then draining it back out was not an acceptable solution.
I try hard not to participate in these home project decisions. I’m not qualified. Mostly because it doesn’t matter what I say, PhilBillPaul always does the opposite.
I moved on and pretended the water would never come back if it never rained hard in Georgia again. Because sometimes living in the Land of Denial is the safest place to live.
We re-painted the pink and purple basement that flooded twice and turned it into a workshop space for my homebased business.
We always enlist the manual labor force who live at our house.
FYI - six and seven year-old children can paint the lower walls.
As long as you’re not too picky about the quality of their work.
Luckily, I’m not. Because I hate to paint.
The workshop area was very functional and I used it two days a month and then it reverted back to a play room for the kids.
Then it rained really hard again in Georgia on two more separate occasions. Which meant two more “episodes” with wet carpet, shop vac water removal and carpet cleaning. I stayed upstairs.
We had a few dry years. Very exciting times.
But in 2006, a huge storm blew through and I smelled the wet carpet and mold from upstairs. I was not happy. I took matters into my own hands. I think I had been very patient for approximately 12 years with a basement flood occurring every 3 years or so.
A wonderful “good ‘ole boy” from a basement water company came and did an inspection and invited me outside to show me why the basement kept flooding. He said he could sell me a basement drainage system for several thousand dollars but he’d rather show me the real cause which had nothing to do with our foundation.
Excellent. I love an honest business man. So he pointed up to the chimney and said he could guarantee that the flashing around the chimney had never been installed properly and the water was running straight down the house and seeping into the basement.
Improper gutter installation and drainage were the culprits all these years and now we could add rotted siding to our list of home repairs.
But at least it felt like we were making progress! Let’s get this fixed. I hired people for the high ladder work because even though Mr. Handy loves to fix everything himself, he is afraid of heights which worked to my advantage. While others are envious of PhilBillPaul’s handyman skills, I actually would prefer to hire someone for many household jobs It causes a little ton of marital strife.
Somewhere in the midst of all this, we decided to go crazy and update the basement one last time to create an inviting environment for our teenagers. We want to be the house that we welcome their friends to and they will hang out here because we’re fun parents like that.
Okay, that ’s not true–we just want to keep an eye on everyone and know what they’re doing and make unannounced visits to the basement at random times.
So we researched and planned a new look for the basement with our number one priority to get that disgusting carpet out of our house and replace it with some other kind of flooring.
If you don’t already know this, options in floor covering with concrete are limited. And I couldn’t help but think, “What if it floods again?” I refused to put carpet anywhere in my house ever.
As the work began, PhilBillPaul uncovered a moldy wall in the guest bedroom that had been hidden by a piece of furniture.
I FREAKED OUT.
I ranted. I screamed. I cried. I just knew it. Our house was full of mold. It’s why I have migraines. It’s why anybody ever got a cold. It’s why I can’t sleep. The mold was going to send me to The Black Hole before I even knew I was going there.
WE MUST GET THE MOLD OUT OF OUR HOUSE.
So the Basement Renovation of the summer of 2006 began…
Thankfully, the manual labor force was older and stronger so I became the General Contractor and supervised the work crew. Because I am an excellent supervisor.
Unfortunately, Mr. Handy discovered that the mold extended all the way across the entire concrete block wall and was not contained in a small area in the guest room.
Did I mention that PhilBillPaul HATES to do drywall work? Oh yeah, this was going to be a long, hot summer…
As you can see it’s hard to summarize 15 years of flood and subsequent fire into a short post.
Friday I promise I’ll finish the fire story and show you what our basement looks like now. And finally answer why I took Xanax two weeks ago on Thursday.
For goodness sake, it has taken me way too long to get to the point but I hope you understand why…
To be continued…
Popularity: 16%
Categories: Moments, Rants, Teens
Monday, September 1, 2008, by Sherra
They’re coming. The Locusts.
They should be here any time and I’ve told PhilBillPaul we should start running now and maybe we can get a head start.
For any of you reading my blog and thinking everything in my life is hunkey dorey and I have “my personal thing” together, let me remind you of this or this or this or this.
Just want to keep the perspective. Especially for any new readers out there.
The only thing is - my tribulations and woes seem to make everyone laugh and I’m thankful for that, really I am. If I couldn’t laugh, I think I would have really checked out of life a long time ago!
You know that Apartment Guide I found in my car that the darling twin daughters have taken over and think is their car? They might be on to something.
Apartment living really does have its perks. As in, “Hello, maintenance? Can you come over to #123 and fix my…”
Home ownership is not all what it is cracked up to be.
We’ve had our share of house mishaps that sometimes make me want to find an apartment. I’ve had my share of marital strife that has also made me want to find a crappy little apartment.
I know many of you have been patiently waiting for the Xanax story and I like to keep my promises.
Here is the beginning of the story of just ONE part of our house that continues to depress, stress and has actually almost killed us.
Our Basement
It started out as an exciting thing to have. Living in basement-free Florida for six years but growing up in the Midwest made PhilBillPaul and I long for a basement which gives you more storage and the potential for more living space.
Our basement started out as many people’s basements do…unfinished.
Mr. Handy a.k.a. PhilBillPaul and his father finished our basement the summer the girls turned one. I had determined I would need a safe place for them to be if I needed to do anything um, like go to the bathroom, while I was at home taking care of them all day. Some of you may have experienced using the bathroom with the door open and three toddlers being with you at your feet. It’s one of those “this cannot be my life” moments.
I knew I would have to tackle this if I took them all out in public. And I did.
We all crammed into the handicapped stall and believe me, if there was ever a time in my life that I qualified for rights to the handicapped stall it was from 1991-1994 and you saw me at the mall with my darling toddlers.
But I dreamed of a safe place I could put them so that I could use the bathroom or take a shower with a little bit of privacy and without having to do it at 5:00 a.m. before they all started waking up.
The finished basement of 1992 was a thing of beauty.
Note the plugs are high on the wall safe from toddler fingers and the temptation to stick metal objects in them. I am all about safety.
Tell me you’re not digging those purple and pink walls with a splash of teal? Hard to believe but I actually found matching toy boxes after we painted!
Many fond memories were made in the basement where those cute little twins were able to sweetly play with baby dolls and bugles…
She has always been tender-hearted and loving.
This one has always been musical even though we have stifled her development by never enrolling her in any music lessons.
She is also a climber which started early and led to much trouble. This is clear evidence as to why we’ve always called her our circus baby.
Every once in a while Wizzy would get the upper hand on that bully twin, Roger Leroy.
Excellent takedown Wizzy!
Basement play was absolutely exhausting.
Or mom and The Grunter just forgot about us and we finally fell asleep…lonely and neglected.
You decide.
All in all, our basement was a lovely, much-used gathering place for our kids, their friends, many birthday parties and loads of fun.
Until it flooded.
Once you experience the smell of wet carpet pad, ruined furniture and mold, you start thinking about apartments.
Please also know that I realize that a little water damage in my basement is so trivial in comparison to what the hurricane and flood victims must suffer through.
I really do try to keep my insignificant basement flood in perspective.
Even when it happened FOUR times over five years.
I’ll tell you how we finally fixed the water problem and about the fire on Wednesday…
To be continued…
Popularity: 16%
Categories: Finding the Funny, Moments, Toddlers (& babies)
Friday, August 29, 2008, by Sherra
If you are a regular reader then you already know I have issues…
My issue of the day is…
CHAIN RESTAURANTS.
Friends who know me well know that I prefer to go to locally owned restaurants whenever I travel. It’s a standing joke when we get together as a group and then they gang up on me when we’re deciding on where we’re going “Oh, Sherra won’t go to a chain.”
That’s simply not true. We have chain restaurants coming out of our ears in the Atlanta area. I just get so tired of them that when I am visiting other cities I love to go to local establishments or at the very least, go to a chain that we don’t have in Georgia.
Did I mention that PhilBillPaul took me to Steak ‘n Shake in Tampa on our first date? Trying to impress me and it obviously worked.
We are fan-cee diners. Very cultured. And yes, it’s still true we don’t eat vegetables. We don’t make a big deal about this but other people love to.
So last week we went out to grab a quick bite which we try to do at least once a week sans children. It’s our time to complete full sentences in between tattling cell phone calls that I refuse to answer.
I don’t want to bash the restaurant but I will say we had very poor service. (Another BIG issue for me.) Very unusual waiter who seemed to be in a hurry and was in motion before we finished ordering.
My two favorite food choices are traditional American cuisine or Italian. On this night I chose Italian.
There was a pasta on the menu that I had not heard of so I asked about it. The waiter said the best way to describe the pasta shape was “it is like a small folded ear.”
I said “Excuse me?”
Is it just me or does that not sound very appealing?
I chose penne and PhilBillPaul went with his standard spaghetti choice. He never deviates from his noodle shape and size. Spaghetti only please. He’s wild like that.
After the waiter left, we laughed out loud about pasta being described as a “folded ear.”
Maybe it was unappealing and a little stressful for me because I have been known to wake up after sleeping with my ear folded. It is painful.
Some of you don’t have ears that fold. Consider yourself lucky.
My ears fold. It’s hereditary. I bet my cousin Sally’s ears fold but I’ve never asked her. I know poor Wizzy’s ears fold. Sorry, I know it hurts.
And I had never, ever thought that would be a great shape for pasta.
Being the researcher that I am, I learned that while our waiter was very abrupt, he knew his pasta, darn it!
Because I was so curious, it seems the pasta I ordered on round two of my “endless pasta bowl” actually means “little ear.”
For the fancy few who are reading (actually the fancy few probably stopped reading when they realized I’m so uneducated about pasta) the “folded ear” pasta is called…
Orecchiette
I had to take a picture of the leftovers and educate my kids about this fascinating Folded Ear Pasta. See that one near the top? Looks just like my ear after a bad night.
In spite of the fact that I would have called it Tiny Bowls Pasta or Little Cups Pasta, it was excellent.
If you really want to try the restaurant and since I’m not being paid to write this review, here’s a hint in case you have this chain where you live:
Popeye’s girlfriend + rhymes with pardon
And I also highly recommend the Lemon Cream Cake for dessert. YUM!
Let me know if you already know and love the orecchiette pasta or you figure out that tricky riddle and visit the unnamed chain.
Have a fabulous three day weekend with your family and friends!
P.S. I’m still gathering pictures about one of the reasons I was popping Xanax last week. Stay tuned…
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Categories: Finding the Funny, Food, Raves
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