I am LATE - and I hate it since one of my biggest quirks in terms of manners is all about timeliness. The worst thing about being late is that it seems to imply that the other person's time is not as important as yours, and it drives me crazy to be late....but I've been lazy, and hope this 4-fer will catch me up and put me back in
Jen's good graces :-)
Over the last one month +, Jen's
Spin Cycle has had some great topics:
quirks,
time,
celebrity,
manners, and most recently,
mistakes (you can check out the great spins for each of these by clicking the links)
I have been thinking about them all and sort of formulating my own spins on the topics, just haven't made it to the writing phase on any one - today's the day. I'm going to put four together into one, and maybe even try to sneak celebrity into it ;-)
As far as
quirks go, I can hang right in there with the quirkiest! I'm partial to letters and numbers and have a few organizing things that I try to subdue so as not to be too far out there ;-) Of course, I already mentioned the time/manners/quirk vortex of timeliness....if you look in my dishwasher, you'll see my pitiful attempts at streamlining the unloading efforts...any time I can add numbers to 13, I consider it serendipitous (tho I guess if I'm looking for them, it may not count)...as an only child, I made up all sorts of
word games and loved palindromes - I even found a website that is for people like me, so it must not be too quirky, right? Many an hour was whiled away trying to make words 'equal'...by assigning number values to letters (a=1, b=2, etc), I would work to make entire sentences have equal value between the words. Ummmm :blush:
My favorite quirky musician is
Lyle Lovett - She's Hot To Go (I always wanted that Ugly From The Front shirt, but was never brave enough), Here I Am, etc. etc. etc.
Time is a funny thing - I never seem to have enough these days, but still try to cherish every minute. Some of the best time I've spent lately may appear to be wasted to others, is not very productive, but is full of love and memories. Schedules have consumed my life the last few years, and it's a real pleasure to let time pass at a more natural pace these days. The truest truism of parenting has been that 'time flies'
Some favorite time songs: Brad Paisley's Time Well Wasted, Lyle Lovett's Closing Time, Clint Black's Killin' Time, Lindsey Buckinghams' Time Precious Time, Rolling Stones' Time Is On My Side, Vaughan Brothers' Tick Tock, Jim Croce's Time In A Bottle, Dr. Hook's Years From Now
Manners have consumed a lot of our parenting efforts these last years, and they seem to be sticking so far....I've upped the ante since Jen posted about manners, and we've been working on transitioning requests to 'may I....' They're getting it. Jack's favorite manners have to do with people (ladies first is a constant for him) while Harry's tend to focus on the wording (precisely phrasing things) and the rules ('you have to say...') are constants for him. My own worst manner blunder is interrupting...again with the seeming like your agenda is more important, which is truly not the case for me - the thoughts are just so fleeting and I have trouble controlling the impulse. So to all of you whom I've interrupted, please know that I'm making an effort :blush:
I don't really know any songs about manners, but did find Third World's
Manners and ran across Bad Manners' Lip Up, Fatty, which reminded me of my old bosses' forays into cool slang...
We all make
mistakes and hopefully learn from them. Before I met my Prince Charming, I made the mistake of marrying someone who was not right for me...luckily, we figured it out quickly, but not before a plant almost died. I'd received it as a college graduation gift and it slowly began to lose leaves, getting down to one remaining leaf the week that my ex and I parted ways. After he left, the air seemed cleared and the plant began to rebound. Just before marrying Dean, I had to divide it because it had gotten so abundant. This is one of the THREE planters that have grown from that single leaf....
...I take it as a good sign ;-)
Some favorite mistake songs: Lyle's
Her First Mistake, Brad Paisley's
Make A Mistake, Sheryl Crow's
My Favorite Mistake, and another I can't remember at the moment (Queen, maybe?)
I have looked for the picture I have of Barry Gibb with a good friend circa 1978, but alas I can't find it - that's as close as I get to celebrity....it was a REALLY big deal back then!
Some favoriate celebrity songs: Brad Paisley's Celebrity, 3 Dog Night's Celebrate and my all-time favorite 'celebrity' quote: Billy Joel - 'a star is just a ball of gas'
Hope you're able to stop by some of the spins, and maybe even give it a whirl yourself some week :-)
Lyle Lovett's Good Intentions
he's a marketer's dream - he had the same reaction to a Star Wars shirt
Harry couldn't step away from the Leapster....
Jack, however, hasn't put his down in the last 45 minutes
...and is practicing his best mean bakugan face
Despite the above grouse, we'd like to thank our friend Zach for keeping us on the cutting edge of cool! It was a lot of fun yesterday, despite the loss of my keys.....hopefully I won't lose the keychains for Asher and Grayson before tomorrow ;-) 
he's a marketer's dream - he had the same reaction to a Star Wars shirt
Harry couldn't step away from the Leapster....
...and is practicing his best mean bakugan face
Despite the above grouse, we'd like to thank our friend Zach for keeping us on the cutting edge of cool! It was a lot of fun yesterday, despite the loss of my keys.....hopefully I won't lose the keychains for Asher and Grayson before tomorrow ;-) 
By the end of the morning, a bunch of friends from preschool got a chance for a photo op:
The Ramones' Spiderman
