I had the funniest dream last night, although when I woke up from it, I was glad that it wasn't for real. I was back in high school, and it was homecoming, except we were having the homecoming court and the selection of the queen indoors. A huge elevated structure had been built so that each homecoming maid had her own "step" to perch herself on. It was decorated with tiny white flowers, kind of like a float for a parade. Well, they had the 3 princesses sitting in metal chairs down on the floor. Kinda cheap...the maids get the pedastool, and the princesses get metal chairs. Well, *I*...yes, nerdy, band nerd, geek child that I was in high school, I somehow got enough nominations or whatever to be one of the princesses, which meant I was in the running to be chosen as Homecoming Queen. I was wearing a flowing, poofy, white lacy gown, and a long veil...it was more like a wedding dress, well, it WAS a wedding dress. So then it came time to announce the Homecoming Queen, and it wasn't me. But then the person at the microphone asked me to come up and make a speech, too. Well I got all nervous, I got up to the microphone, and it was as my lips were frozen in a pooched out shape, like I was about to give someone a funny smooch. Then I was uncontrollably drooling, so I reached down and found a cheap napkin that was from a fast food restaurant, and wiped my mouth off. I started talking into the microphone, which I was holding in my hand, and I said "Well it's a good thing I didn't win," and everyone in the audience chuckled, and then I looked down and there was a mouse underneath the podium, and I screamed into the microphone, the microphone squealed, and then I got myself back together, and then I began to sing a song...a song that I would normally sing in CHURCH, and then all of the sudden my Pastor's wife was there beside me, and she was pulling the microphone down so that I wouldn't be holding it so close to my mouth. Then she finally pulled it out of my hand and began singing something herself, quietly, so I began my speech. I don't remember what all I was saying, but then some older man walked passed me and said "Just tell them congratulations and good luck next year and be done with it", so I did, and then I added "You are all beautiful!" and then I stepped down. After that, I sat down in my metal chair again and started bawling from embarassment. Afterwards there was a reception in the gym, long white tables set up all over the place, and different people came up to me and they were like "Girl? What happened up there?" and I was kind of laughing it off like "There was a mouse, and I lost it..." Then there was some other part after that about a phone conversation with Dorothy, but that part is really fuzzy and vague, and then I woke up. So I supposed that dream makes up for me not having any really weird ones in a while, huh?

I haven't written anything in several days, and just now I sit down to blog, and Blogger is down for maintenance until 10 p.m. PST, which is midnight my time. Go figure. Just as I sit down and actually have the time to take the time to blog, and Blogger is down. So I'm typing it in an e-mail, e-mailing it to myself, and will copy and paste it tomorrow. I outsmarted Blogger.

Crash. Boom. Bang. Those were the sounds heard in my neighborhood last night after dinner when a rack full of drying dishes I had just washed went plummeting to the floor. I had made fried chicken, and whenever I make fried chicken, I have excessive amounts of dirty dishes afterwards, and there was not enough room for all the dishes in the dishwasher, and I can't STAND leaving a pile of dirty dishes in the sink overnight, so I was doing the "right thing", washing the dishes, stacking them on my dish rack until I could dry them, and CRASH! Jacob started screaming bloody murder, the cat made a mad dash to hide under something, Michael said "Oh my G**!" and Travis, who was outside playing, came rushing to the window to see what in the world had happened. Me? I started bawling my eyes out. 3 of my good bowls, and 1 of my good plates, all of which were my "wedding china" broke, and what's funny is that the cheap Correlle plates given to me when my Grandmother died 2 years ago were not even harmed...not a scratch, a chip, a crack, nothing. Of course, after 4 years of marriage, and my good plates JUST NOW getting broken, not too shabby. And the really funny part is that no one is to blame for the damage. Usually it's the husband or one of the kids that breaks one of mama's good dishes, but this time, no one was responsible. The rack just mysteriously, magically sprouted legs and sprung from the kitchen counter top. So I picked up the pieces, swept the kitchen floor about 3 times to make sure I got up all the tiny shards of glass, and then wore my flip flops the rest of the night just in case.

Do you know what one thing can cause you to lose your religion? Walmart! I hate that store, which is why I only go in there when I have to. Is everyone just having a bad day in that store or what? No one in that store has any concept that there are others walking behind them, trying to get through the store or trying to look at something on the shelves. If it's not the other store patrons keeping you from having a pleasant experience, it's the setup of the store...especially the baby department. You simply cannot maneuver a shopping cart between the clothes racks. Not only THAT, but many items throughout the store do not have price tags. OR you may think the item is ONE price according to the price marked on the shelf, but then you get up to the register to discover it's priced something else. OH, and the check-out people? NO personality whatsoever! They don't say "How are you doing today ma'am?" or "Have a nice day" as you are leaving. And NOW they don't even place your bags into your cart anymore. So I've made the point of trying to start a conversation with THEM. The cashier I dealt with tonight even said "Okay, ma'am, thank you" in a stearn voice, because I wouldn't stop talking to her. I'll be danged if I'm going to regularly shop in a store where the cashier refuses to acknowledge me. If they hate their job so much, they need to find another profession...like try being a rude Taco Bell employee at the drive-thru or SOMETHING...now THAT would be more suitable for those people. And one final thought about those Walmart cashiers, they have an uncanny habit of forgetting to desensitize the theft-deterrant thingies on things you pick up in the electronics department. This evening I bought computer ink (Yes, finally, I bought some ink), and on my way out the door, the burglar alarm goes off and the little old man waiting by the exit door with his fat yellow highlighter flagged me down and made me show him my receipt. Do I LOOK like someone who would carry two printer cartridges, INSIDE a blue Walmart bag, out of the store without paying for it? I mean, it's EMBARRASSING! You know, I had that happen at Target once and they gave me a discount coupon to use my next visit for the inconvenience. Walmart, NOTHING. I hate Walmart.