Life Through the Eyes of my Scattered Brian

I figure if anyone is following and reading my blog they probably figure I am one big flake! I once had a man I worked for tell me that people would not know the crazy things I do if I did not come in work and tell it. I proceeded to tell him that I get such a laugh out of things that happen to me that I want to share to make others laugh. Things like forgetting where you park, taking the bus when your car is downtown, going the wrong way on a one way street…..things like that. But usually they result in something funny, so I share. Friday was one of those days for me. First off, I forgot my keyed badge that gets me into the building. It gets me in t he front door and then again through two more doors before I get to my office. I stopped off at the guard’s desk and got a visitor badge to show I was suppose to be in the bldg., but they are keyed. So of course I had to borrow someone else’s badge every time I had to go to the restroom or to lunch. The day seemed to go more down hill afte...

Last night my niece and I attended her school's play of Hello Dolly. Once again, I was amazed an so entertained. The drama school at DCA is packed full of some of the most talented kids I have ever seen. The teachers are so fantastic and it is a given that they are so well liked by the students. They do an awesome job. The night started with the two teachers thanking the crowd for being there and for introducing the up coming play. The painted background was so nicely done. I believe it was painted by students and parents of the students. There were several scene changes. The park like backgroud, the store, the restaurant, hat store and others. The crew that worked at doing that were on their toes, fast, and did a great job. The actors and actresses were fantastic. Not a word was forgotten and these kids breezed right through the 2.5 hour show. It was a really nice night out with Holly, who by the way is in the 8th grade ( I earlier said she was in the 7th). Some of her friends sat...

On April 25th, 2009, I will have my first showing for my art work. My paintings will be displayed for viewing and sale that night. I am very excited for this chance to show my oil paintings. The Gallery of a Mad House Wife in Watertown TN. is where I will be showing. Check it out at www.galleryofthemadhousewife.com . They feature two local artist on one night a month. I have recently been in contact via email with the young gentleman that I will be sharing that night with. He is in the service, has been for five years. He has served two tours so far with another one on horizon. He is 24 years of age with a wife and a baby less then a year old. Bless this young man and his family for loaning him to us. Trevor will be doing a patriotic theme, showing photo’s that he took in Iraq . Check out his site at www.elliottgallery.net . I am excited over my first showing and I am so honored to be sharing it with this young man. Please keep him and all of our service men and women in your prayers...

In my office we have lots of laughs in passing on daily basis. There are always one liner’s that probably would not mean a thing to any of you but they fit a moment or time there in the office and they become a motto, or ism. Just last week we had one that became a joke for the day. While answering our 1-800 line, I heard Cindy tell someone on the other end, that she did not speak English! Now, Cindy speaks it just fine. But she was having an off day and he person on the other end of the line was speaking Spanish to her, in that off moment she slipped in what she was going to say (English) and said the wrong thing. What got me so tickled was that after answering the phone, announcing the business name, I heard that remark, but she never faltered or said that she meant Spanish…she just kept right on talking. I heard her hang up the phone and I asked her if I had heard what I heard and she busted out laughing. That became the joke for the day. So when asked a question you did not care to...

On a serious note, do you realize just how important sleep is to your body. I have found this out, might I add, the hard way. I suffer from sleep apnea. It was discovered that I had this sleep issue in Oct. of 2005. It was a blow to me because not only was I told this, I was told that I had to sleep on a machine that would pump air into my nose at night to keep me breathing. For those of you who know nothing about sleep apnea let me enlighten you a bit. There are 3 kinds of sleep apnea. Obstructive, Central, or a combo of both. Mine is obstructive sleep apnea and that is the most common type. With obstructive sleep apnea it most often means that the airway has collapsed or is blocked during sleep. The blockage may cause shallow breathing or breathing pauses. Here is my history. I had headaches, daily. They ranged on a scale of 1-10, most times on the lower end of that scale, dull, nagging, but none the same, still there. Then on other days, they would fall in the center of the scale. O...

Every so often, maybe once or twice a year my niece, Holly, and I do a girls night out. We have done movies, Hauntings at The Hermitage for Halloween but our favorite thing to do is to attend a play put on by the drama class where Holly goes to school. The first year I was to attend I was sick but it was one I really wanted to see, my fav, "The Wizard of Oz". My Mom went with Holly then. The next year, Holly and I attended the performance of "The Beauty and the Beast" and last year we saw, "Thoroughly Modern Millie". Holly goes to a private school with an excellent drama teacher. The kids that put on these shows are awesome. The acting is great, they are on top of it, never forgettting their words and they have a great cast for scene changes. The show last about 3 hours. It's time for Holly and my Girls Night Out again. This year the drama class is putting on " Hello Dolly". I am so excited about this show, it should be a really great and it ...

Ever wonder who invented them? The rubber band was patented in Australia on March 17, 1845 by Stephen Perry Bobstein. They have been used for so many things from making rubber band balls to shooting at each other, from holding papers to being used as a fastener for a garment. The largest rubber band ball was created by Office Max, it came in at 4594 pounds, circumference of 19 feet and took 175, 000 rubber bands. Not a ball your child could bounce around or roll back and forth! I can see that one bouncing down the hill now. My favorite has been the use of them as a gun. Now it is not something I do all the time but I have been known to shoot a few. About 15 days before leaving my last job, a new young guy came to work there. He was a quite sort, but he could shoot out one liners really well. An easy guy to like and for some reason him and I hit it off with the rubber band fights. It was a daily thing for the two of us to shoot a few at each other in passing, or…..to seek each other out...

It’s spring and I love to listen to the birds singing outside. Alas, I am not feeding them anymore for fear of bringing the squirrels back to the yard but I figure they will not starve to death. I have never wanted a bird for a pet but I have had friends that have had them. My sister in law, Lori has one and so does my brother. Lori got hers first, actually my brother Ray got it as a gift for her. I can’t remember how long she has had Lola but I want to say about five or six years now. Lola is a pretty little colorful bird. She is a one woman bird! When Lori first got her she would not let anyone else handle her. I love animals, esp. if they belong to someone else and I don’t have to care for them. So I was drawn to Ms. Lola only she loved to take plugs out of my hands and fingers. I used to house and animal sit for Ray and Lori a lot and I was so determined that Ms. Lola was going to like me. So we started with me telling her that if I took her out of the cage and she bite, pecked or ...

I was reading a friends blog today, http://www.lifebythecreek.blogspot.com/ and she was talking about another blog she follows and how this blogger was trying to get from other bloggers a list of 200 things that we all love. What an awesome way to get everyone involved. So that is what my blog will be about today, what I love. I love my kids, Amber who is 28 and Cory who is 21. I love my two grandson’s, Caleb-8 years old and DJ, AKA Peanut who is 4 months old. This is a given to love your kids I would think. I love my brothers Ray and Mark. Both have been there for me many times. Both so different in many ways from each other and totally different then I am. I love their families, their wives and their kids. Which gives me three nephews and 3 nieces. I love my Mom, who also has been there many, many times for me. She is also the reason I am an artist today. Almost nine years ago she saw some of my sketches and felt I needed to get into painting. She located a my teacher and to this day...

What is it with Mother Nature? Just yesterday it was 80 degrees here in the Nashville area. Pretty, sunny and just down right nice! Today however, its 43 right, cloudy and down right COLD. Mother Nature is messing with us, giving us a taste of spring only to rip it away and tell us that it looks like winter is not over yet. I see where parts of North Dakota got slammed with snow blizzards yesterday and I guess I could be thankful that we don’t have that here…oh wait, maybe not blizzards but on the radio just a few minutes ago they are calling for sleet, snow and rain tonight. Yippee, what happen to the warmth of yesterday? The weather sure has changed over the years. I can remember living here in Nashville where as a child it was nothing to get 3 to 6 inches of snow a couple times a winter. Now, we get what they call a dusting. I love snow, I love to watch it fall, to look at it covering the ground (of course that is before anyone gets out to mess it up)…but I love it like this if I do...

Squirrels Yesterday on my drive home, windows down, wind blowing in my hair a squirrel ran out in front of me and before I knew it my car took on a mind of its own and started to veer off towards him. The car did not hit him, those critters are so fast……but oh how I aimed….I mean how my car aimed at him! Why would I aim (yes, I will own up to it now) at a small little critter like a squirrel? I use to think they were cute and fun to watch as I sat on the deck. But, I did have issues with them eating all the seed I put out for the birds. Little did I know that over the years of feeding the birds, I was probably drawing more of those cute, fun, no good, pest to my yard! This winter I found out just how not so cute they can be when I started to hear a noise in my attic above my bed one morning. I did not think a lot of it since the squirrels usually ran across the roof from time to time. A f...

Spring is here, everything is in bloom. Fall is normally my favorite time of the year. I love the cool evening breeze and the reds, oranges, and yellows of the beautiful trees as the leaves change. Spring comes and brings its own bright colors, so full of life and hope. Enjoy the beautiful colors, God's painting. Pam

What an interesting question. Don’t you think? I took a quiz on the internet called, “What Girl Scout Cookie Are You?” Upon taking that quiz and finding out what kind of “cookie” I am, I sent it out to some friends of mine so that they could also see what kind they were. Mine seemed to be right about me, plus it said I was a Peanut Butter Tagalong! My FAV Girl Scout cookie! Interesting…and the descript that went with it was: You are creative and artistic. When you think, you tend to think big. You go for the drama. You love excitement and passion…even if it gets you in trouble. You are intense and a little self centered. You can be quite full of yourself (but not without reason). You tend to be very indulgent. If you feel like having something, you go ahead and treat yourself. Well, after I sent that quiz out, my friend Nancy, sent me one titled “What Aphrodisiac Are You?”….of course I was going to take that one also. I am not sure how much the description covers me but the aphrodisiac...

While at work Tuesday, having a rough day, lack of sleep the night before then finding out about my friends passing, I get a call from my Mother. The call went something like this: Mom: Pam, you will never guess who I got a call from today? Me: No Mom, I have no clue. Mom: Someone you know. Me: Mom, I still have no clue, I know a lot of people. After that little bit of interesting conversation, she told me it was a guy by the name of Sal. Yep, that one is from the past. He had called her looking for numbers for me. Now the story: In 1978 I took my little brother (he is now 46, so to say little brother seems strange these days) to Orlando Fla. for a bike (BMX) race. He was really into that and we traveled around some to different states for some races. Mom, Mark and I loaded up in my Horizon and headed out one winter day with about 6 inches of snow on the ground here in Nashville (that was where we got snow). Got to Fla. and it was a beautiful 70 something degees. I loved it. Well, for ...

The loss of a friend is not easy. Yesterday I learned that a friend of mine, which happens to also be one of my best friend's aunt past on. Aunt Jane turned 89 years old last October. She was a spitfire. Always laughing and joking, yet always the lady. I met Aunt Jane years and years ago, not actually sure at what point since Debbie and I have been friends for 28 years. But this woman was always so super nice to me, invited me to visit and always wanted to see me when she was in town. Jane began to slow down about a year ago. But a few months back she had what they think was a small stroke. From there the memory started to go and within the last few weeks she went down hill really fast. Although her home was in Memphis TN. she had been spending the last 8 or so months with her son and his wife in SC. It became clear that after falling and not being so sure on her feet that she needed to just stay with them. I remember once when she was here and I drove a big pick up truck, we were ...

More on the 1st cruise…. Lori, Jessy, and Sean and I were in line to board the ship. Two guys, both from another country, took their tickets. They went to take mine and I thanked them. Must have been the Southern accent, cause they asked where I was from. After telling them right outside of Nashville, they asked me “where beer for my horse and whiskey for my men are from”! We got a good laugh from that, headed on up to the room. About an hour later we went to an indoor restaurant to wait until our bags made it to the room. Their was this young waiter dancing around as he worked. He walked past our table a couple of times and I proceeded to dance in my seat. Well, nothing doing, he had to get me up and dance me around. More laughs, when my sister in law, Lori looked at me and said “what is it with you, I can’t take you anywhere… they are not paying attention to me like that”! I figure they could tell the kids were her’s and she was sporting that wedding ring. The next day we were laying...

In October 2003, my sweet sister in law, Lori and my niece and nephew went on our first cruise. I was so excited when Lori asked me to go along with her and the kids. Our trip started out with us flying first into Maimi and boarding our ship there. We were to go to Nassau Bahama, Coco Cay and then to Key West, Fla. I know I was so excited that I must have called Lori two and three times a day for weeks. First off, I had not seen the ocean since I was two years old and here I was going to be floating on it for four days! Plus, I had not flown since I was 18 years old, 25 years. This was a couple years after 9/11 so you would have thought that maybe there would have been some fear there. No there was not, I was just to excited about my cruising vacation. We traveled via Royal Caribbean on the Majesty of the Sea's ship. Beautiful. I was so impressed with Royal Caribbean. Our stewart for our room met us in the hall, introduced himself and he never forgot our name. Pass him in the hall ...