A Face In The Crowd: Peace... And Smiles... On Earth

"Peace Begins With A Smile"

~Mother Teresa

If my memory serves me, this is the only post of "A Face In The Crowd" which contained an autumn face. The last post in this series was done over the summer, while we were in the hotel. Thankfully, this post has a happy, if maybe a little flirtatious, smile, rather than the one from last summer. The summer post was a bit sad, and so was I when I spotted it in a discarded pizza box. Sometimes I wonder if I see faces with the same emotion I am feeling at the time. When I was feeling artistic, I spotted one that reminded me of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, so I suppose it could be my sub-conscience directing me to things in the universe that fit my mood. It's funny, when you think about it, a lot of things play off our general mood. Pets certainly do. Joey always seems to know when I need just a little extra cuddle time with him. He keeps my moods from being too dark. Spending just a little extra time with him, I always tend to see things in a more positive mood!

:)

A Face In The Crowd: Sad

A Face In The Crowd: Artistic

A Face In The Crowd: Silly

Seeing faces in inanimate objects is called pareidolia, and according to New York Magazine, people who tend to see faces are neurotic, and those who don't see faces... aren't! To me, that's a little too easy. I mean it's pretty common to see patterns, right? But then again, I can admit, I am somewhat neurotic. I always have been. You couldn't grow up in the family I did and not turn out at least a little neurotic. I would say that I am about 45% neurotic. 47% at the most. Give or take. How about you? Do you see faces in inanimate things? Of course answering that question would be like telling the whole world that you are neurotic. 

 Not there is anything wrong with that.

Leaf Of The Day

December 11th 2015

Mood: Curious

~Me :)

The Nightmare After Christmas

"Nothing is more frightening than a fear you cannot name."

~Cornelia Funke, Inkheart

I am a little under the weather today, so I thought I would share a brief blog post about this tag I found on some throw rugs I purchased at the 99 Cents Store. I was needing some rugs for the bottom of Joey's sleepy box, and this type of rug fit nicely, so I purchased about 20 of them. He will be able to use them in his sleepy box and then in his temporary room, the bathroom, until we fully transition him to the rest of the house next spring. He needs some time to integrate with his brothers, and then he will have to be fixed, so it's just better to take these steps a few at a time so it all goes as smoothly. He really seems to like the rugs, he picks at them with his tiny toenails and all seems fine, but I have to tell you, the information I read on the tag, which I hadn't bother to read until I got ready to wash them, kind of gives me the wiggins...

Care Instructions:
Machine wash in mild water.
Tumble dry low heat.
Size: 17.3 inches x 27.6 inches.
44 centimeters x 70 centimeters.
Contents: 
Made completely from miscellaneous pieces of undetermined finer content

What? " Made completely from miscellaneous pieces of undetermined finer content?" What?

What does that mean? Does that mean it could be made from, like jellyfish fibers? Old tires? Maybe even... gulp... spider fibers? Or does that mean they used some odd fiber... gulp... not of this world? Like the fiber they found on that shiny stuff left behind from the Roswell UFO crash of 1947? Or maybe it just means that the rugs are made up of harmless, but useless recycled crap. You never know about these things! It's what makes them so affordable at .99 Cents each. And that's all fine and dandy, but I do wish I had just a little more information. Even 1 fiber identified would be good!

Mood: Curious

Me :)

Happy December 10th Eve!

"Christmas is a time when everybody wants their pasts forgotten and their present remembered. What I don't like about Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day."

Phyllis Diller

Good grief! It's the Eve Of December 10th! What is December 10th? Well, that's our cursed day! Yes, Alan and I have our very own cursed day, and it's tomorrow, December 10th! Why is it cursed? Well, you see, it has been an annual occurrence since the year of our marriage, in 1990, that on December 10th something odd, usually something to do with finances, takes place on or very near the actual day of December 10th! If you are new to my blog, and this is all a new revelation about me, let me give you some examples of December 10th oddness, in random order...

Our storage unit was burglarized.

Someone claiming to be me, rented a car, on December 10th, had an accident, and I didn't find out until the following March when the claims adjuster called to ask additional details. That was the year we thought we had beat the curse! How this person got my name and phone number, I will never know.

One of my favorite December 10th hilariousness, happened when Alan was nearly arrested for stalking a neighbor! What he was actually doing was checking the roof at my mother's house for lost shingles, due to a wind storm the previous night! LOL. Thank GOD mom was home to identify him! I was there, trust me, he was looking at the roof's shingles!

In 2011, I decided to just completely ignore the day altogether, that DID NOT WORK OUT! I got a call at 3:30 in the morning, of December 10th, from the fraud division of my bank. It seems someone in Illonois was trying to purchase $1,000 worth of assorted items from a dollar store, using a copy of my ATM/Debit card! They had been approved for $100.00 worth earlier in the day! Thankfully, I wasn't held responsible!

Last year, on December 10th, someone did the exact same thing to Alan! Exactly one year apart mind you! They made a copy of his ATM/Debit card and tried to purchase first $100.00 worth of merchandise, then $1,000.00 worth, only this time, they were in Georgia!

Another personal favorite was the year Alan tried to order a garden hose, on December 10th, using a gift certificate he won at an office party, on December 10th the previous year! He ordered the hose, which was free, but when it came it wasn't one hose, it was 2 hoses! No problem, right? Yes... PROBLEM! Two weeks later, another 3 came! It was difficult to deal with, but they understood we didn't need 4 garden hoses! They told us to choose the one we wanted, and send the 3 remaining back. Alan hadn't opened them, so NO problem. It was however, when he opened the hose he decided to keep, the following spring, only to find it was damaged! 

And there are other assorted incidents. I won't share all of them. My friend Paul, of the blog, Aurora Walking Vacation, a kind and rational thinker if ever there was one, has challenged me at times to consider that December 10th isn't really cursed, but rather I am noticing a pattern where there isn't one. Like if I suddenly noticed that on October 22nd, leaves tend to fall from trees, or more in the abstract, every year during our vacation, Alan and I will spontaneously encounter a celebrity. It's happened a lot, and I used to think of it as magical, but in truth I live in the Bay Area, and we do get the ocassional celebrity in our midst. No magic, more just the way things work! If you leave the house, and even if you don't, random things happen! And I believed that for many years, but how many police reports does one have to fill out before you come to the realization, The Curse Of December 10th is a thing? But does it deserve the respect I give it?

I wish I knew. But good, bad or otherwise, 24 hours from now Alan and I are going to watch old movies, pop popcorn, make some cinnamon frosted pecans, play with our new kitten Joey, watch as many Woody Allen movies as we can fit into 24 hours, dance to disco music, play scrabble, play, Quiddler, and NOT ANSWER THE DOOR! USE OUR CREDIT CARDS OR DEBIT CARDS! WE WILL ACCEPT NO CODS! AND THERE WILL BE NO CYBER SHOPPING! Or for that mater, engage in any transaction of commercialism what-so-ever! There... I said it! I am not afraid to admit to this probably unfounded fear! In fact, I am a bigger person for it! And Paul, if you are visiting my blog this week, I will say it right now... YOU ARE PROBABLY RIGHT!

But Happy December 10th Day Anyway! Watch your wallet and bank accounts my friend! LOL!

:)

Mood: Uncertain :)

~Me :)

Dear friends, I will update you later this week if anything happens, so stay tuned!