Nony Mitchell - Plinky Answers

The Oldest Thing I Own

2011-04-08T21:00:38-05:00

The first time I looked at this question, I found my self reading it completely and totally different. I had actually sat here staring at it thinking. Ok... I know 40 is to some considered to be old... but why are they asking me about being old.

I think that's one of the first signs of it, it being "oldness" (yes I know it's not a word, but this is my answer and if I so choose to make up words than I can and do reserve the right to do so). Anyway, I think one of the first signs of "oldness" is when you read things and see your age implied in them.

Today I read an article about them reintroducing the Commodore 64. The person who wrote the article talked about being 6 when the Commodore came out. I kind of grumbled, as I was 12. Well, actually, I more growled than grumbled, as grumbled indicates whiniassyness. Where growling is more of a pissedoffiness. I don't remember agreeing to this whole growing older thing. In fact, for years I had stayed steadily at the age of 30. Quite content with that number as it readily seemed to fit me. Old enough not to be a dumbass in my 20's and young enough to still get into certain aspects of trouble without being deemed too old. Grins, well you get the picture.

But here I stand at 40 and I have decided that I am not much in admiration of the number. It is rather an odd looking duck on the screen. It does not accurately reflect how I feel. So I think I shall abandon it. I am told every day that I do not look 40, that I carry myself much younger and that there is no way that I can be such an age. Personally, I think it was all those years drinking diet soda like water. I have preserved the body. Laughs...

So from this day forward, I shall be... fiddles with a variety of acronyms before landing upon one... I shall simply state that I am me. I am a FANN of who I am...Fantabulous Age of Nondescript Nature. That shall be my reply. I am not my age. I am the person who stands or in this case writes before you. I am crazy. I am loving. I am insecure. I am ferocious. I am laughable... I am frightening. I am amazing. I am creative. I am broadly spectacular in a rather understated way. Chuckles... when you figure that one out... then perhaps you will explain it to me... as it so readily fits me.

But I do digress. What is it the oldest thing I own? My wit, my creativity, and my sheer stubborn nature. My love for those who matter. My love for those who don't. My ire for things that are ever so wrong. My passion for things that are ever so right. Me... this broadly spectacular woman.

Bad Habits that Need to Go

2011-03-31T20:16:10-05:00

Biting nails

Bad habits... me... nah... never... I am positive perfection. Chuckles, alright, let's get serious. When is the last time you ever met someone who doesn't have bad habits?

But then again, habits, good or bad are in the eye of the beholder. If I do something that I personally feel is good for me, but that you deem to be a bad habit, should I replace your view for my own? It would depend on who YOU are I guess. Although, unless you are someone majorly important in my life, I am the person I have to live with, so if I don't have a problem with my habit, who gives a damn if you do?

I know, that sounds utterly hostile, but I have learned that way too often people are ready to step up and say, that's a bad habit. You should change... yet they really aren't willing to look at themselves.

You know, I have some habits that I personally would like to change, but no one else told me to change them. Will I change them? Who knows, only time will tell. What are they? Yeah right I am going to broadcast to the world things that I don't like about myself... talk about exposing one self to a load of wonderful yet completely unsolicited advice.

So I shall take my little silly habits and find my little corner of the world. Remember, unless you don't like them... or your spouse doesn't like them... it is really nobodies business if you change them.

The Night Sky

2011-03-27T18:35:30-05:00

Sword of Orion -- H-alpha

The coolest thing I have ever seen in the night sky is there all the time... but I remember with fondness when I first learned how to identify the constellations. I learned them as part of teaching at an outdoor summer school and they have stuck with me ever since. Something about the first time you know that you actually know the names and where they are located makes it one of those moments that will forever stick with me.

My Recurring Dream

2011-03-27T10:17:08-05:00

Who hasn't had a recurring dream? I have had many over the years that seem to stick around for longer than they should. Others that I wish would stick around are fleeting, never to return in the same form again. I know they have said that controlling one's dreams is completely possible and my youngest brother always claimed he could do it, but I think sometimes you just have to let your mind go and experience the moment.

We as a society are too wrapped up in the idea of controlling everything.

As to my recurring dream... describe it... laughs... I don't think so... some things are best left to me... my pillow... and that loverly delicious man who unknowing shared those moments with me.

My Favorite Museum

2011-03-20T10:00:25-05:00

When I was a kid I remember going to the Science and Industry museum and just being totally fascinated by all the displays. I miss civilization.

My Most Quotable Movies

2011-03-20T09:03:12-05:00

What are my favorite movies to quote? I don't really have favorite movies to quote, what I tend to do is hear something in a movie and it sticks with me. There haven been things from seemingly simple movies, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" to name one, that stick with me and a situation comes up and out comes the quote.

I think at one point or another you are going to hear something from some movie and it is going to speak to you. It will speak to you because of your own personal needs and the events going on in your life. I still remember sitting in the movie "Runaway Bride" and listening to the conversation she has at the end of the movie with Richard Gere and thinking wow this movie has got some messages. Why? Because at the time, those words spoke to me, they struck a chord with what was going on in my life.

I do have one movie quote that I aspire to... "Make them laugh." When I reach that one on a regular basis...

Saint Patrick's Day 2011

2011-03-17T18:16:16-05:00

Do I celebrate it... not really... the kids always come to school decked out in the green. All of them looking around for the child who didn't wear green, hoping that we forget to tell them.. "no pinching at school." I have to admit I saw it all today when a child showed up with a clothespin ready and waiting to pinch someone. She was rather put off when I told her to put it in her backpack and that I didn't want to see it out again.

Anyway, laughs... I had forgotten what day it was until I arrived at school to see a teacher walking down the hall with green hair. That's dedication to the holiday...

One Year Ago Today

2011-03-16T22:27:40-05:00

What was I doing on this day exactly one year ago... five years ago... um are you kidding me. I couldn't tell you exactly. There are some days where I am just lucky to remember what I did yesterday, let alone last week... last month... or last year.

Sometimes we have these amazing memories and we remember stupid shit that we wonder why they hell we are remembering it. Then we have the official woman memory... the one where we seem to recall every thing that the loves in our lives ever do wrong. You know the one... the one that can tell you that you forgot to take out the garbage 4 Tuesdays ago when it was a full moon.

Anyway... I digress... what was I doing... well more than likely I was teaching... more than likely I spent the evening with my beautiful daughter and with my most treasured friends... and more than likely ... I will be doing the same thing next year... all the stars and forces of the universe willing.

How I Got My Name

2011-03-15T09:41:03-05:00

My name was actually a bit of an error. My dad had a crush on Geraldine Chaplin. So he named me after her character in Dr. Zhivago, although he completely misunderstood her name and my mom liked this name and chose not to correct him.

Plinky Answers - No Book

2011-01-01T22:16:47-05:00

What book could I read over and over? Well to be honest, there isn't one. I can't think of a single book out there that I would want to read repeatedly. I used to be different. When I was a teen, I did the whole romance novel addiction, I read the Velvet series time and time again. I guess I hoped somehow and somewhere. Typical teen stupidity...

My Favorite Mistake

2010-12-10T23:12:23-05:00

I spend so much time trying to teach my kids that mistakes are good things. Everyone makes them and they are these massive learning opportunities IF you utilize them. The biggest problem is that too many people don't own their mistakes. They spend so much time trying to dodge their mistakes, that they have no clue in hell how to correct them.

I can't say I have a favorite mistake, as nothing stands out as this massive thing that jumped up and bit me all in the bum with its unexpected goodness. But I can say that with each mistake I do try to learn and I do try to improve. Even if it does take me a few thousand attempts.

If I Had Unlimited Resources, I Would...

2010-07-24T16:12:19-05:00

Unlimited resources… Now I am betting that many people will go into what I call “the normals.” They will buy a house, secure their family, instill world peace, end world hunger, and so forth. None of which is wrong, it’s just ‘normal.’ Now, don’t get me wrong, if I had unlimited money, there are many of the ‘normals’ that I would do. Not having piles of debt that breathes down my neck would be a nice break. And there is this man I love to bits that I would ensure wouldn’t have to worry another day in his life about filling out millions of job applications.
Who says I have to look at the term “unlimited resources” from the money stand point? Yes that is where most people would go with it; but what if I told you that on some level, we all have some form of unlimited resource. There is something that each and every person is born with that is in its own form is unlimited. It’s the passion of the person. It’s what speaks out from your very core. It’s that voice that some try desperately to quiet but will never quite silence.
For me, it’s my artsy fartsy nature, as my Mom calls it. I tend to think of it as being more of an eclectic soul. If it’s odd and out of the ordinary, I tend to get interested in it. It also is why I write, sing, act, paint, create things in Blender, and sculpt the odd bit of brick a brack. Not many people know that I have actually sculpted a number of little elven figurines in the past. My hands aren’t as conducive to them as they used to be, but I have done the little bit here and there.
I guess some could call me an artistic dabbler. If it strikes my fancy, I try it out. Sometimes I rock at it, sometimes I suck at it, but I never seem to lose my drive to fiddle about with the artistic.
I think that every person is born with some sort of unlimited resource. In the end it all just depends on what we do with it. Some do nothing with it. They push it down and do what they feel everyone else would want them to do. They bury their resource in order to conform to fit. Figuring it is for the best that they follow the norm. That they leave whatever it is behind.
But you know, I have to ask myself, is that why we have those things? Are we supposed to bury our gifts? Tuck them away and feel the ever present nagging of something that is there but fought hard to ignore. I can’t say that I have done all there is to do with my unlimited resources. I haven’t been writing like I should…spouting my opinions off to whomever cares to read them. I haven’t been pushing it as hard as I should. Perhaps out of fear that others won’t appreciate… perhaps out of the instilled mantra, “what’s the point?” I have made it to forty and I have yet to completely and totally tap into my unlimited resources. I will change that. People may very well not like what comes of it. But it’s there for a reason…I am me.

I Never Believed This Was Possible - But Now I Do

2010-07-15T14:38:36-05:00

There are lots of things parents would never believe

Wizards of Waverly Place: Season 3

Ok... so I looked at this prompt and started thinking about all the things I never believed until I experienced them. Being almost 40 there is, of course, this massive list of things that I can look back on and say..."I never would have believed."

There are the traditional answers..love, loss, ghost stories, idiocy, or the failing of the American public to realize that Fox News is a joke and should be forced to replace the word News in their name with something more appropriate, like "idiot propaganda." But, I wouldn't be me if I went with the traditional answers, now would I. Let's face it...I am anything but traditional. But don't worry, I am not going to go into the realms of the wild either... no whips, chains, clothespins or....grins... pauses....continues... those things will stay tucked securely within my dresser drawer.

So now I sit here and stare at the screen, no traditional... no kinkified... hmmmm where oh where shall we go... ohhhhhh I know... the first time I was sucked in. It seemed such a complete improbability. There would be absolutely no way that I would willingly sit down and do this. After all there is no adult in their right mind that would. To do such a thing, I thought, was a sign of the loss of my faculties. I, of course, would be different. I would never succumb like I had heard so many had before me. Those people were apparently lost and simply ripe for the pickun'... not me... there was no way.

And yet, I sit here... having just pulled myself away from the impossible. Hanging my head...I have no choice but to admit that I often find myself getting sucked into the likes of "Wizards of Waverly Place," "Hannah Montana," and oh the shame of it all... "The Suite Life on Deck." I can't help myself...with a 9 year old in the house they are on all the time. I go into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee and something happens... I turn and watch... next thing I know...I am sucked in..watching the entire episode and wondering how the hell it happened.

I know I am not the only parent in the world that finds themselves sitting through the escapades of Alex, Zach, Cody or Jackson. Gawd I hope I am not. If I am... please tell me how you do it. How do you resist the urge to sit there and watch? Are they using subliminal messages? Has my IQ really dropped THAT much since I had a child?

Seriously, I never would have believed that at nearly forty I would stop as I fill my coffee to see whether or not Alex catches the runaway trophy or fixes the talking zit. How the hell do I know that the guy who owns the stand on the beach is named RRRRRRRRRRRRiiiiiiiccccooooo.

Perhaps it is temporary insanity... the same insanity that is needed to try and raise a child in today's world. Who knows? Oh well time to fill my coffee... peers down the hall... it's safe the TV is off... if I move quick I can get in and out without being drawn in again. Cover me....I am going in.

No way, I couldn't live without a car for a year

2010-05-16T23:16:53-05:00

So I have to admit that I flipped through a few of the prompts available before I settled on this one. I don't know, they just didn't strike my fancy... or perhaps I was too chicken to take them on... but being that I like to think of myself as a great thinker, I am going to of course settle on the first option... no strikey the fancy... because the second option... well...we just won't go there now will we... grins.

Alright, could I live without a car for a year? Where I live currently... no way in hell. Everything has spread out so much that not having a car just isn't an option. Let's forget the fact that I live exactly 35 miles from my place of work... actually let's not forget it. I could have moved to be near where I work, but that would have put me miles away from stores. And well... last time I checked 8 year olds actually like to eat.

You know they keep talking about needing to cut back on waste and find better alternatives to the pollution spewing gasoline engine. The thing is, we would be much better off both pollution wise and health wise if we would just stop spreading shit out all over the place.

Slaps my bum... yes... it does... in fact...have too much junk in the trunk. It could do with a bit more walking. However, we as a society have forgotten the virtues of actually building stores and neighborhoods in a neighborhood fashion. Instead we seem to ask ourselves... how can I build this city in such a way as to encourage fatassitis and smogiliciousness? We no longer build houses and apartments near a store with the idea that it will reduce emissions and reduce our waistlines.

Instead... I believe the gasoline companies and the textile mills (work with me here) have come into cahoots... paying off city planners everywhere to plot out cities in such a way that increases the need for both gasoline and fabric to cover our ever expanding asses. Oh I am sure if I thought about it long enough, I could come up with a long list of products and services that are probably contributing to the whole concept.

You know, I would love to be able to say that I could live without my car, but at this point in time, nope. There may come a time when things start pulling back into more of a neighborhood set up and we find that our cars become less necessary again... but for now... it sits outside my door... waiting to cart me to work in the morning, as 35 miles... well that just ain't happening.

The end of an era, and the beginning of another

2010-05-15T19:37:33-05:00

You know, there actually was a time when I wrote on a blog on almost a daily basis. I actually had followers and people who sent me comment and email after email wondering where the hell I went when I stopped writing. I don't know, I stepped away from it because I was afraid how some of the things I wrote might be perceived if they were tied to me in my daily life.

But you know, at that time, I forgot, that's what pseudonyms are for... although to be fair, that wasn't the only reason I stopped writing. I stopped writing for reasons that aren't exactly clear. Some might toss if off as I ran out of things to say... nah... that isn't it, hell let's face it, I am actually over the top opinionated... grins... I have opinions on opinions and if that's not enough, I have opinions for your opinions too.

That doesn't mean that my opinions are always right. It just means that they are mine and that they... like their owner ... are often flawed.

Ok...I am straying from the topic here. A time when something came to an end and something else began. So that blog came to an end and other things, people, happenings came to fill the place of the blog. Were they better, some were and some weren't.

It's kind of like an ex-husband or ex-relationship of any sort... there are some really great things that come in their absence. No farting in the bed next to you... oh wait... my 8 year old often climbs in there... so scratch that one. Anyway, you often find that you are better off without the legally removed appendage, but at the same time, there are those things that you do miss... jars that need opened... scratches that need itched (wiggles eyebrows)... and trash that needs taking out.

I, fortunately, (and I use the word fortunately only because I REALLY mean it) have to EX-husbands. I am fortunate that they are ex's as I am sure that had I still been married to either of them, I would have A) been in stepford like denial, B) been in a mental institution, or C) been in prison. Although C would actually have only happened had I been a widow and therefore wouldn't still be married to them. Hmmmm... ok...don't you just love the way my mind works. Those relationships closed and I can honestly say that today, while completely unconventional in oh so many ways... today with who and what I have... I am completely blessed and completely heart invested.

So I guess, I am better off when one door closed and another opened. Now all I have to do is make this blog work... oh hell... this is going to be fun....